TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Signs an Executive Order on Military Spouses, 8.3.26
[Video]
President Trump: Thank you for all being here as we take a major new step to support our incredible military family, something that we've been working on for a long time. I guess you could say for decades. There's never been anything like this. Today, I'm signing an executive order to establish the first ever Presidential Military Spouse Commission.
It will be chaired by Jennifer Hegseth, the wife of -- and highly respected wife, I may add, of Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, both here. I also want to congratulate the new executive director of the commission, Desiree. So where's Desiree? Where are you, Desiree? You do such a good job, Desiree Thompson Sayle.
Along with new commission member, Christie Mullin, wife of Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary Markwayne Mullin. These are outstanding people, everyone. Male and female, outstanding. The commission will also include the spouses of our wonderful service secretaries, the spouses of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the spouses of their senior enlisted leaders.
And we have some incredible talent. And I will tell you, these spouses, I've looked at educationally and every other way, they're amazing.
We're also pleased to be joined by Secretary Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine. Thank you very much, Dan. America cannot have the strongest military in the world without the love and devotion of our remarkable military spouses who make the extraordinary sacrifices for our country.
And they really are extraordinary. Many military spouses spend months separated from their loved ones, while our heroes are deployed overseas. Military families also endure frequent moves and other unique challenges, and the challenges are legendary. They write books about them. This commission will provide recommendations for improving the quality of life for military spouses, so that we can better support both our military families and the entire United States Armed Forces.
The Commission will develop suggestions to address particular challenges in housing, employment, health care, education, child -- child care and just about everything else you can think of. It's never -- we've never had this opportunity. We're doing it now because we've done a lot for our military. We love our military.
Every day, our administration is fighting to give our military families the support they dearly need and they deserve. As part of the Great Big, Beautiful Bill, we provided hundreds of millions of dollars for military child care and improved housing on military bases. It's being built -- much of it is being built right now.
Last Christmas, every service member received a warrior dividend of $1,776. Think of that. I wonder where we got that number? It was actually $1,775. The number worked out to be 17 -- I said, if you add $1, we have 17 -- that was one of my genius ideas. We have $1,776. But that's -- that was a great thing and we've given it, every member of our military hard earned pay raise.
We've also given the pay raise. The commission will help ensure we continue to give military spouses the very best, so our military can continue to be the strongest military anywhere in the world, and we're proving that. As you know, we had a conflict with Venezuela, worked out very well. And we have a conflict with Iran, and that's working out very well, very, very well.
So now I'd like to ask Jennifer Hegseth to say a few words, followed by Pete, General Caine, and then I will sign the executive order, putting this into play. And it's an order that's long overdue, as far as I'm concerned, like by decades. And we're going to do a real job with it. And Jennifer, if you will, please.
Jennifer Hegseth: Well, Mr. President, you have been a champion for the military, and we are so grateful for that, and that continues today. And like you said, these are generational issues that are long overdue to address and we have the most amazing women here who have decades of experience as military spouses themselves, uh, to take a look at it. There's really nothing we're going to find that they haven't experienced.
And so between what they've experienced and what they know, we're going to really tackle these things. And I've spent the last year traveling around meeting with military spouses and families around the world and around the country. And it's the same, from Kentucky to Singapore, it's housing, it's healthcare, it's employment, it's childcare, it's education and so we're going to take a look at all of those things.
Even one of the women up here, I won't say who, but was a paramedic. And as they moved from state to state, she could not get the license switched to that state in time before you move again, before you PCS, and it makes it really difficult for these families to survive, let alone all the other sacrifices we're asking for them.
So this is a big deal today. We're super grateful. Every time Pete travels around, Secretary Hegseth travels around to the troops, he tells them, the president has your back and now the families know that you have their back too, and we are grateful. Thank you.
Trump: Thank you, Jennifer. Great job. Thank you. Uh, how about you say something first and then we'll go back into the general.
Pete Hegseth: I can't top that.
Trump: You're not going to top that.
Hegseth: I can't top that, Mr. President.
Trump: Give it a shot. You're not going to. Good job.
Hegseth: It's true. Um, strong families, equal strong formations. I mean, when you look at it from a military perspective, as a secretary, our job is to make sure our troops are prepared and ready on behalf of the nation, and if your family's not taken care of, then it causes hesitations and complications for the warfighters out front.
And so we say often, and we mean it, no soldier, no marine, no member of the joint force serves alone. And so if we can address the issues of housing and make sure it's quality housing, make sure employment opportunities are maxed out, make sure child care is taken care of, make sure DODEA or DOEA schools are the best in the world, so that our military kids are being educated.
The trade skills they might want to take the next chapter in life, if that war fighter knows that their family is good to go, uh, they will go the extra mile, which is what our nation asks. So we're in -- we're in for -- this is not one of those window dressing efforts. Jen's right, this entire group has mountains of experience and they're raring to go to put it to use on behalf of the great
Americans who serve our nation.
Uh, and this is going to be full speed ahead to address every quality of life issue we can, which, Mr. President, you -- you invested in the One Big, Beautiful Bill. People don't know how much went into housing and into barracks and into pay. That's a down payment. And now with the $1.5 trillion, which we're working to get every dollar of, it's going to be a generational investment in barracks, in housing, in health care, in pay, in ways no commander in chief has ever done before.
So, Mr. President, thank you for leading on this and this commission is ready to go.
Trump: Well, thank you very much. You're doing a fantastic job. Uh, General, please.
Dan Caine: Mr. President, Mrs. Hegseth, Secretary Hegseth, it's an honor for me to be here today at the launch of this commission. As we stand here now, around the world, military service members are out doing our nation's business and ready to do what is asked of them. The foundation of American military readiness is the families and the backstopping of all of that is the military spouses that serve behind them.
Inevitably, every time somebody deploys, that refrigerator will break down, the car will break down. You think we're strong? American military spouses are 10 times stronger, and the lift that they carry is significant every single day. I want to thank this commission for the work that they're going to do to help improve military families lives and military spouses' lives.
It is a critical enabler for American warfighting capabilities. So to all of you here and all the work that went into putting this commission together, thank you. And, Mr. President, we're honored to be here today.
Trump: Where will they be meeting, when you have meetings? Because you're going to be having a lot of meetings.
J. Hegseth: Here at the White House.
Trump: You know where you're going to be meeting, Jennifer?
J. Hegseth: Every month here at the White House. Yes.
Trump: Oh that's great. Well, can't do better than that.
J. Hegseth: Can't do better than that.
Trump: Well, use the Oval Office. [Inaudible] would anybody like to say anything? Maybe Desiree, you could start, and then if you want to say anything, great time to say it. Please,
Desiree, go ahead.
Desiree Thompson Sayle: Absolutely. Well, I'll just be really short. It's a pleasure for me to serve as the executive director of this commission. I think it's a long time coming. Um, it's a little bit of a pet project out of my office, uh, simply because we have the chief of staff of the Air Force's wife that has been inspirational for this.
Um, she's 41 years spouse. Um, but collectively, this group has over 400 years of experience as an active duty military spouse, 400. And they've probably moved about 300 times. So if you can imagine that level of experience coming to this commission and solving real problems for the future of our military spouses and families, it's just an incredible thing that you're doing,
President Trump, actually asking them to solve these problems and give you good recommendations, and we're happy to help them do that.
Trump: So, you know, we have -- Desiree's been with us for a long time, and she's directly and indirectly done what she's doing for a long, long time, covered numerous presidents. And she basically responds to the public, when the public, they send things. Sometimes they send gifts they actually it amounts to millions of dollars in small money.
And I said, well, what happens to that money? They send it back or they do charitable work, but it's literally millions. They send it to me. I should be able to get it. She won't give it to me. I should be entitled to it. No, but they send it to me as a -- just a gesture, but they write thousands and hundreds of thousands of letters, and she's got a staff that's all volunteer.
And I have one question, how did I -- how do I compare in terms of response with other presidents of the past?
Sayle: No comparison, sir.
Trump: Is that good or bad?
Sayle: No, it's good. Actually, it's very good.
Trump: It's very good. We do okay?
Sayle: Yeah, 100 percent. You do great.
Trump: A little more than Sleepy Joe?
Sayle: 100 percent faster.
Trump: A little bit more?
Sayle: Yes.
Trump: I think so. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, does anybody have anything to say or a question or a statement? Would you like to make a statement? Yes, please.
Unidentified: Can I just say, I'm so excited. I've we've served with the Wolfbox now for a number of years, and I've seen them champion the enlisted corps. Um, as a -- as the spouse of a senior enlisted leader, it's pretty easy for something amazing like this to happen and not include the enlisted corps -- the senior enlisted leaders from the enlisted corps.
It means the world to me that this started with them in mind. And, um, I don't know if you remember, but a few years ago, my husband was serving in Alaska, and before you got on the plane, he asked your detail if he could ask you a question, and he asked if you would FaceTime me and you did. And -- I do that -- I do that for --
It meant the world to me.
Trump: #NAME?
Unidentified: You're getting ready to get on the plane and this E9, this enlisted, uh, command chief, asked you to FaceTime me, and you put your arm around him you said, he's doing a good job, take good care of him. And that picture hangs -- has hung in his office since, and it just means the world to me that you highlight the enlisted corps every chance you get.
And I love to tell people that story, that you took the time for us.
Trump: That's so nice. Thank you very much. Say, hello, OK? I remember. Please, anybody else?
Caine: Mr. President, this is Cindy Wilsbach, who is humble to her core, and has had a significant role in putting this commission together. So I just want to highlight Cindy's work.
Cindy Wilsbach: Thank you. I would just like to say, this is a red letter day for me, just the honor that I feel to be surrounded by these spouses who, what I like to say is, we serve by oath or by vow. We didn't all raise our right hand to take an oath, but we began serving this great nation when we extended our left hand and said a vow to the person that we love that serves this country, and we represent people that are at the end of their careers.
We've served decades, 20, 30, 40 years of service. This is about the legacy that we leave for the people that come after us.
Trump: That's great.
Wilsbach: For these people who have children who are serving now, or for families that we say, we love you, we care about you, and we are the greatest military in the world. And part of that is taking care of our families and that's what this commission will be doing.
Trump: And your husband is highly respected, I have to tell you that.
Wilsbach: Thank you.
Trump: By -- by everybody, by everybody. Anybody over here? Yes, please.
Unidentified: Mr. President, on behalf of the Coast Guard, we cannot thank you enough for the amount of money that you have put into our organization. We are beyond excited about the new potentials that we have. Um, we can just feel it, the whole -- the whole Coast Guard, every time we go to visit, um, our different units and our families, people are super excited.
Trump: [Inaudible] 11 ice cutters, right?
Unidentified: Uh, absolutely, I'll be talking -- yes.
Trump: [Inaudible] going to be beautiful.
Unidentified: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Trump: They had one. Russia has 48. They had one and it was 50 years old, and you're going to soon be getting 11 brand new ones at the top of the line, so that's [Inaudible]
Unidentified: Our people are very thrilled and super excited and very thankful to you. Thank you, sir.
Trump: Thank you very much. Good. Anybody else like to say? Last chance. That's it? So I'm going to sign this, and it's a real honor. And then, if you like, you could ask questions of the people, and -- or me, if you want. OK. That's a good one. So I wouldn't want a bad one on this topic. Some are good -- you know, we rate them from six to 10. Six is usually when I'm standing up, holding it. You can't do a very good one, but, uh, that's a 10. So, uh, you deserve a 10, too.
I think you should hold that. OK? Questions, please? Please.
Question: Um, on behalf of the press corps, thank you, ladies, for what you do for our service members and this country.
Trump: Great.
Question: Mr. President, are the talks with Iran now off and are airstrikes --
Trump: No, they're on. They're going on right now. It's an amazing thing; we have a little problem with Iran because we have many talks and we'll say we have or we don't have. You know, we're straight about it, but they deny it, but they're not denying it now. They just put out a statement not denying it. But for some reason, they -- uh, when they're talking, they don't like saying that they're talking.
So I say, we're in talks, big deal, we're in talks. And they'll sometimes deny it, even though they spend hours and hours together talking. No, the talks are going along. We're going to hit them very hard yesterday, very, very hard, harder than any attack, I think I can say, General, from a point of knowledge, any attack since World War II. That's pretty big.
And we were set to go and they called and in addition, Saudi Arabia called and, uh, UAE called. Qatar called, got calls from numerous people, not -- I don't want to use the word begging, but some -- some were. In particular, Iran did not want to be hit. And they said, we want to talk; we want to talk about the strait.
But more importantly, from my standpoint, we want to talk about the denuclearization of Iran, because that's what it's all about. This is why I'm doing this. And it should have been done -- it's now 50 years. We keep saying 47 years, but three years have gone by. But it's for 50 years that other presidents should have been doing what I -- or other countries.
Didn't have to be us, but other countries, and nobody did it, and it was time. And we hit them hard with the B2s more than a year ago now, and that knocked out their capability, their potential capability. Uh, and, uh, we've done a great job. But when we talk, we say we're talking. If we're not talking, when you ask me, no, we're not talking, I'll say it, but we are talking.
Right now, we're talking and we're talking at the request of Iran, backed by Saudi Arabia, backed by UAE and backed by Qatar, in particular, but others also. Many -- many countries called, many -- the leaders of -- I'm friendly with a lot of them, almost all of them, one way or the other, and they all wanted to give this a last chance.
This is a last chance. This is not something that if it doesn't happen -- this is a last chance for them to sign a good document. Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, uh, New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani is requiring an ID to access his government-run grocery stores. Um, what then is your message to Democrats who do not want to pass the SAVE America Act and ensure, uh, you know, ID at the ballot box?
Trump: When was this announced? This was just announced?
Question: Yeah.
Trump: I heard about it, yeah. Well, I wish they'd have an ID to access the voting booth. You know? They don't want to access the voting booth with any identification. We want voter ID, and we want proof of citizenship. Uh, well, he also had a thing where you had to have two different IDs to shovel snow during the winter, right?
So that's a very friendly question. I like her. Who are you with?
Question: One America News, sir.
Trump: Very good. All right. Well, good question. Very good -- a good group, too.
Question: There are almost 20 GOP Senators who have pledged to stay in DC to pass SAVE America Act, so what's your message to the rest of the Senators who are still on their summer recess?
Trump: I think there's nothing more important than the SAVE America Act. I think they should stay. They do what they want, but I think they should stay until [Inaudible] I think it's so important to get it passed. Yeah.
Question: Mr. President, where are the Iran talks and what are your requirements --
Trump: Well, you'll find out today or tomorrow. I mean, they're going to go quickly, one way or the other. It's not very complex. We're talking about the strait, the opening of the strait, having it open literally by tomorrow, completely open, and that's phase one. And phase two is we then will talk about the nuclear capacity, the nuclear what -- you know, as we've been mentioning, that basically, it's I think most -- the denuclearization of Iran, has to happen, has to happen.
And that'll be the second phase. But the first phase is the opening of the straits. The second phase will be the denuclearization and that'll take a little while. But we, uh, we're very strong on it, they cannot have a nuclear weapon. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and I have never changed in that. Yeah, please, in the back.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. You said that, uh, if Democrats get back into power, what is happening in Spain awaits America. Uh, what should voters in other countries, with elections coming up soon take away from what's going on in Spain?
Trump: Well, you have to be very careful with the whole socialist thing. I think in many cases, it's much more than socialist. They skipped socialism, they went directly to communism. But when I saw what happened in Spain, I said, you know, we had a version of that. You could say,
much worse. We -- we allowed 25 million people under Joe Biden, the Democrats.
We had open borders and countries all over the world, almost all of them sent people that they don't want into our country. And we've gotten a lot of them out and we're getting more, including murderers. And I always say, 11,888. That was the number of murderers. Many of them committed, more than one murder.
And, uh, we're going to be just like that if you put these lunatics in that I see running for office. Uh, they had -- we had an open border a year and a half ago. We had the worst border in the history of our country now we have the best border. We haven't had one person come in, and this is done by the Democrats, not -- by left leaning people.
They do charts and they have, in 15 months, not one person has come in through our southern border illegally. Now, that's pretty amazing. I'd say maybe 10, maybe 15. They say none. And believe me, if they did, they'd love to report it. But you could go outside in those vast plazas where hundreds of thousands of people gathered when they stormed our country, just like they did, in my opinion, worse, just like they did to Spain.
They stormed our country. And those borders are -- those big plazas that were built, they put concrete down, and now you look at them and there's grass growing in the cracks. Nobody comes up, because they know they're not going to get through. And if they do get through, they're going to be taken out, brought back to their country.
So we've done a fantastic job. You know, somebody, you said you did it too fast. I did it in 30 days, my first 30 days. Biden couldn't do it. He couldn't get it done. He tried. At the end, he tried to do something because it was so overwhelming, it was so bad politically. But we did it in 30 days. Somebody said you should have taken a year and a half or two years to complete it because everyone forgets.
Even my speechwriters, they say, sir, nobody wants to hear about the border anymore. You've done it. It's an incredible job you've done, but nobody wants to hear about it. And I should have taken a couple of years to do it because -- and actually, the public has about a two year -- people do, they have a two year memory.
For certain things, they have a two week memory. I may have gotten elected, certainly partially, on the border. And because we did such a great job, it was a long time ago. I did it twice. I did it in 2016 when it was bad. But I did it this last time when it was really bad. It was, Steve, I would say many, many times worse than it was in 2016. 2016 was bad.
But what we just had a year and a half ago, that was the worst border maybe in world history.
There's not a third world country that would have allowed that to happen, where -- people coming in from prisons and people coming in from mental institutions and people forced in by government. Because these are the people that those governments, those countries, I know them all, they didn't want, and they walked into our country totally unvetted, totally unchecked.
Not anymore. Nobody comes in except if they come in legally. Yeah, please.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Yesterday you were --
Trump: Who are you with, please?
Question: I'm with the Washington Examiner, sir.
Trump: Good. They're doing good. They've been very nice to me.
Question: We -- you were asked yesterday whether Representative Max Miller should resign from Congress over the allegations, and you said that you'd have a look at it. Have you thought about that? And also, do you think that he should --
Trump: Well, it's a very sad thing? I know Max. He's a good person. I mean, I always thought he was a very good person. And I'm going to let the families figure that out. You know, those families, I know they're working on it. It's a very sad thing, especially when you know somebody so well, to be going through that.
But it's accusations, and I'm going to let them figure that out. Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, did you sign off on Todd Blanche rescinding the anti-weaponization fund? And also, there are Democrats right now who say there're essentially two tax codes. There's the Trump family tax code and a normal people tax code. Why do you think that your family deserves some level of special exemption when it comes to the auditing of taxes?
Trump: Well, I'll go into that. First of all, I had a ten year case that was settled until I announced I was running for office. It was a settled deal like I've been doing all my life. I've been audited every year for my entire life, which I have a lot of wealthy friends that were never audited. To this day, they were never audited.
I was audited, and my deal was settled. In writing it was settled, subject to final approval. Then I announced I was running for president, and all they did was haunt me with it. They ended the settlement and they went after it. And they went after me illegally. And they did a lot of bad things to me, like they did to other people.
And I was treated very unfairly by the IRS. I was -- it was weaponized against me. Think of it. I had a case from -- this is a ten year old case and it was settled. It was done. The case was over. I announced I'm running for president, and they terminated the settlement in Washington and they went after me. And what they did here was very -- frankly, if you talk about reparations or if you talk about payment, what they did to me, I had a very good case against them.
So, this was a case that was settled, that when I decided to run for president, right at the beginning -- this was a long time, it's been going on for a long time -- they terminated the settlement, which is something that never happened before. We have letters from the biggest law firms in Washington saying that this case is nonsense, just like the Russia, Russia, Russia was nonsense.
They weaponized government. And so, that's that. And most people understand that. On the other -- on the fund, these were people that were treated unbelievable. 22 suicides, more than that, I think. Look at Ashli. Look at -- look at so many other things that happened. These people were treated horribly, and this fund could have given them some solace.
But, you know, it happens to be very popular among many quarters. And I don't participate in that fund. I was certainly treated badly. I don't participate. But I thought it would be very fair for people that spent years in prison, people that were treated so badly for -- in many cases, people that did absolutely nothing wrong.
So, I view that fund as a positive. And a lot of Republicans do too, not so many Democrats. And it's not only for that. It's for other things too, people that have been treated unfairly, that have been weaponized by a corrupt government that we had with Obama and that we had with Biden.
You had a corrupt government with both of them.
Question: Mr. President, did you sign off on Todd Blanche rescinding that?
Trump: I didn't look at it. All I know is that Todd Blanche is great. He's going to do a great job. Everybody knows it. And I understand there's been a sign off, but I didn't -- I don't know what they agreed. I think Todd Blanche had agreed to reconfirm things that he's already said, and what he said was okay. Please go ahead.
Question: Can I ask about other avenues that you'd have -- are there other avenues you'd have supporters get paid potentially? If it's not the anti-weaponization fund, is there another way you would ensure --
Trump: Who are you with?
Question: I'm with MS NOW, sir.
Trump: You're who?
Question: MS NOW.
Trump: MS NOW?
Question: Yes, sir.
Trump: What a terrible show. They have the worst people on that show.
Question: Are there other avenues that you'd --
Trump: Ok.
Question: Want to see people paid?
Trump: No, there's no other avenues that I know about. Go ahead.
Question: Mr. President, on the Iran talks --
Trump: MS NOW. That's the failed MS DNC, right? The failed -- they failed. They gave it a
new name. You know why? Cause nobody watched it. Go ahead. And they -- and fewer people are watching it now.
Question: On the Iran talks, is there discussions -- is Iran willing to return to a fully free navigation of the strait? Is that on the table?
Trump: Say it again differently.
Question: Would -- would Iran be willing to return to fully free navigation of the strait.
Trump: It has to be. I'm not going to let them charge.
Question: Would you be pushing for --
Trump: Anybody's going to charge, we'll charge. We're the one that has total -- we have total control. You know, we have a thing called a blockade with his Navy, and that Navy is on -- it's -- they call it a wall of steel, the United States wall of steel. And no, no, there's not going to be charging. We're not talking about charging at all.
There won't be charging. Yeah, please. In the back.
Question: Mr. President, you said last week that --
Trump: Who are you with?
Question: GBH News. You said that illegal immigration is killing the UK. Nigel Farage today has proposed the use of the Royal Navy to combat small boats crossing the channel. Do you think that European nations, including the UK, should be using their militaries to stop illegal immigration?
Trump: Look, you have to stop illegal immigration in Europe. I know Europe better than anybody, better than the people that run it, and have great relationships here. Two things are killing Europe. Number one is immigration. Number two is energy. Like the UK, when you look at the UK, they have one of the best energy fields in the world, North Sea oil.
Now, I think your new prime minister is going to actually open up the -- from what I hear. I spoke to him and he sounded terrific on this subject. But you open it up, you'll be a wealthy country. You keep it closed, you're going to be a bankrupt country, which is what you are now.
Essentially, you're a bankrupt country.
You have one of the greatest energy -- the North Sea oil, one of the greatest fields in the world.
You know, the UK buys its energy from Norway, who gets the energy from the North Sea, from not as vibrant a part of the North Sea oil-wise. You're sitting on top of gold, better than gold, and you don't do anything with it. It's -- it doesn't -- it doesn't work.
You don't allow the oil companies in, and it doesn't work. And I spoke with your new prime minister. I was very impressed. And he sort of indicated to me -- I said, look, you can be a wealthy country or a bankrupt country. You have your choice. Not every country has that choice.
Almost no country has that choice.
But in the case of the UK, Scotland -- I'm talking about Scotland, right off the shore in Aberdeen, Scotland. That was -- Aberdeen -- Aberdeen was the oil capital of Europe for years. And then one day the Liberals got in and they closed it, and your energy rates have quadrupled. You have among the highest energy prices in the world.
You could cut them in half. You could give away free energy if you'd open up the North Sea.
And it's good for another 500 years, maybe more, probably a thousand years.
Question: Has our new prime minister restored your faith in the leadership of Britain? Has our new prime minister restored your faith in the leadership of Britain, or do you think it's too late?
Trump: Look, I think we're going to have a very good relationship. We'll see. I'm not going to tell him how to run his country. But I can tell you immigration is an incredible problem for Europe. You're allowing people in that in many cases are not going to help you. I'm going to be nice. They're not going to help you.
And the people that are there, people from your country, people from other countries that have been there for a long time and did a great job, beautiful place -- look, I love it. You know, my parents both came from Europe indirectly, so a German, Scot. And, you know, it's like one of those things. It's very sad.
When I see what's happening to Europe, it's very sad to me. But they have a problem with immigration. They have a problem with energy. You have windmills all over the place. Windmills, you lose your shirt. Any country with windmills is a loser, ok? You just have to look.
If they have windmills, they're a loser, because you lose -- you lose money with windmills.
Yeah, please, go ahead.
Question: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: Who are you with?
Question: John Fredericks Media.
Trump: Yeah, that's right.
Question: Original name.
Trump: What was your name before?
Question: John Fredericks.
Trump: Go ahead, John.
Question: Where -- Mark. Uh, two domestic questions, sir. The first one is, Exxon and Chevron, Integrated Oil US just announced record profits second quarter, unbelievable. For Exxon, for instance, $14 billion, highest they had in over a decade. For Chevron for the quarter, highest in history. On the backs --
Trump: 12 times. You saw that?
Question: Yes. I mean, it's unbelievable. On the backs --
Trump: I don't like it.
Question: -- of workers paying higher gas.
Trump: Yeah. They're making too much money, OK? Based on a shortage, they're making too much money I don't like it and I'm -- I should be the last one to say it because I'm a big free enterprise guy, nobody bigger. And, you know, you're going to see oil, when we're finished with Iran, you're going to see the prices drop through the floor.
But they made too much money, too much money. Chevron, too much money. Uh, ExxonMobil, too much, too much money. When you look at one company where they made 12 times what they made the year before, they ought to give some of that back to the public and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price.
Too much money. You're surprised I'm saying it? I'll say it loud and clear, I'm not happy about it.
Go ahead. Go ahead.
Question: Just one. For those of us here that live in Washington, DC with our families, like I do, the renaissance of the city that you've been able to do in 18 months is incredible. Before --
Trump: Did you hear that, everybody? The renaissance of Washington, DC in 15, 16 months is incredible, and it is. It's clean, it's safe and you haven't seen anything yet. We're replacing all of the grass that hasn't been replaced in the fields, all the beautiful fields where the grass is -- you know, grass is like humans.
Uh, it has a life. This grass hasn't been changed in a hundred years. Uh, we're doing all the fields, we're doing all the -- most of the graffiti is removed, but the most important thing is it's been beautified. We did 78 monuments and fountains and waterfalls, and they went from being horrible, mostly graffiti.
And most of them, for 25 years, never worked, they haven't worked. And it's a renaissance, like you use the word renaissance, but it's a renaissance. But the biggest thing is we have very little crime now. This was the crime capital, frankly, of the world. It was the most unsafe capital of any country in the world.
Now it's one of the safest, and it's one of the safest places in the United States. And people are coming down. You see it, the tourism in Washington -- everyone's safe now. Nobody's getting mugged, shot. We used to lose three people a week, death. That's the least -- I mean, it's three people in terms of death.
150 people a year were killed. They come down from Iowa, they come from Indiana, mom, I'm looking at the Washington Monument, I'm looking at, and they end up getting killed. You call their parents, I'm sorry. It doesn't happen anymore. We don't have that anymore. We play -- we're rough, but we don't have that anymore.
Our military has been unbelievable, and they work very well with the DC police. But our
military came in, the general , people that we know so well, General, right, they don't play games. And we, uh, we got the gangs out. We removed almost 5,000 people who were career criminals, who came in with Biden, with the open borders, a lot of them.
And they're no longer here. We sent them back to their countries. You've got to -- have you ever
seen such a transformation?
Question: It's unbelievable if you live here. It's just, you don't want to go back.
Trump: And now you can walk to work, you can walk to the White House. The people in the White House, they walk to work. They tell me, sir, thank you. They're thanking me all the time.
They used to have to take Uber, and the Uber would be robbed, OK? They weren't even safe.
They'd go to a restaurant and they'd feel safe at a restaurant and then the restaurant would be robbed.
Do you know the restaurants were all closing? And now you can't -- if you're a restauranteur, you can't get a restaurant. You -- I mean, you literally can't. The restaurants are booming. Crime is down 92 percent, maybe more. I want to get it down 100 percent. You know, the greatest statistic, though, that you have is that two percent of the people create 91 percent of the crime.
You could really handle that. And we've moved almost 5,000 people out. They were criminals, career criminals. We moved or, in some cases, they're in jail. In some cases, they were so bad -- they came in through Biden. They're so bad, we don't want to move them out. We want to put them in jails because we're afraid they're going to come back in somehow.
So I appreciate you saying that.
Question: Would you consider going to Congress if they come in and try to roll it back to do
[Inaudible] mayor --
Trump: And you had a mayor who's, I guess she's a communist. I mean, she says she's a socialist, but I guess she's a communist based on what she says. But I have not met her yet. I look forward to meeting her. Uh, would I federalize -- basically, you're saying federalize DC? Yeah, well, I'm allowed to do that. Would I do it? If they want to -- we took something that was in deep
trouble.
It was a graffiti-filled, crime-filled mess. We turned it into Shangri-La. We turned it into a great place. Look outside, look what's happening. Look at the beautiful ballroom and military center.
It's a military center much more than -- we have a drone port on top. We -- look at the grass in front of the White House.
It's being all replaced with the top stuff. The parks are all being replaced. It starts very soon, actually. We'll do one at a time. It's about 700 acres of parks. They're all going to have brand new, the best grass you can get, Scotts. You know Scotts, Scotts Miracle-Gro. They're doing it.
They do great grass, what can I tell you?
I got to give them a plug because they did the White House for free. Sir -- a friend of mine, a guy that is terrific, we'd like to give you new grass at the White House. I said, I'll take it, how much?
He said, free. I'll take it. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Question: Mr. President this is at least the fifth time you turned off airstrikes against Iran since April --
Trump: Yeah.
Question: #NAME?
Trump: Well, you don't know, I don't know. I think we're going to maybe get something, but I want to give them every last chance before decapitation. It's very tough to do what I -- what we have planned, still planned. We'll see what happens, but it's very, very tough thing to do. I think, uh, I'm very proud of the fact that I will give people -- I'll give people a chance.
This is a big move. To do an attack that big on a country, I'd rather not do it. Now, we've already, through lots of large attacks, but they were normal large. Uh, hopefully they'll come to their senses, because what happened, cannot have a nuclear weapon, but hopefully they'll come to their senses. So they called me and they said, please don't attack, we'll make a deal.
That's the real truth and everyone knows it. And who wouldn't call? And they found out, through leaks and sleazebags, you know, a lot of sleazebags leak, leakers. Leakers should be put in jail.
They should -- they have to strengthen up the laws for leakers. But in this case, leakers helped because they said the severity of the attack and Iran knew it. They knew what was coming.
It was going to come last night, and it would have gone on for a long time, and there'd be essentially very little left. There'd be nothing left. And if I'm given a chance to let a lot of people live, I want to give that chance, so I'm under no time constraint. You know, I don't happen to be running, but a lot of very good Republicans are running.
And you have a sick ideology taking place right now, that, you know, hopefully they'll be defeated because they'll destroy the country if they ever take over. But this desk is like a blocking desk no matter who gets in. If it's bad, I block and I'm good at blocking. If it's bad, if it's stupid things like the things they want to do, we want to get rid of the US Senate.
I don't like a lot of Senators, to be honest with you. I don't want to get rid of the Senate. We want to get rid of the Supreme Court. They want to put now 21 or 23 people, that's the real -- on the Supreme Court or get rid of it. Uh, they want to get rid of the presidency. They want to have an appointed executive running.
That's a communist thing, you know? That's a communist thing. Uh, these are sick people. And, you know, I said it the other day and it maybe doesn't sound that important, but when a country goes bad, like, look at the blue cities. What do they have in common, aside from massive crime?
Much more crime. The Republicans have very little crime.
But what do the blue cities have in common? And also, you can say this with nations, when they go bad, the blue cities have something in common crime, high crime, vicious, violent crime but what do they have in common? They're all dirty. They're filthy, dirty. Their streets are dirty, their streets smell, their storefronts are broken.
Their trees are all gross. Everything about the place is dirty, and I don't want to mention any specific city. It's really all of them. But you go into these cities that are blue, they're crime ridden and they're filthy, dirty. They're like Washington, DC was a year and a half ago, with graffiti all over the place, with crime all over the place, with people afraid to be here.
You ought to be ashamed of your capital, some of the most beautiful buildings built in the real time. Like you look at the Supreme Court building and they put graffiti on it. The most beautiful columns I've ever seen. In fact, our columns are going to be nicer at the ballroom. I said, I want the Supreme Court, but better.
But you look at those columns [Inaudible] and then you see graffiti on the side of the building, no artistry, just bad people. But the one thing they all have in common, crime. There are two things, crime, but they're disgusting. They're filthy, dirty. The streets are dirty. They have people lying all over the street doing you know what.
They're all the same. And this is what we're going to put in -- not going to happen in our country.
Go ahead, please. Yeah, in the back.
Question: When someone -- me, sir, or [Inaudible]
Trump: Go ahead.
Question: Sir, when a group loses Ð
Trump: [Inaudible] he was very rude to you, right? Go ahead. Who are you with?
Question: I'm with Real America's voice, sir. Sir, when a group such as the Haitians lose their temporary protected status, how soon should they be bused and flown out?
Trump: Well, we had a big victory in court on temporary, you know, that protected status. Uh, and I largely leave it up to my people. But we've had people here for many years that they were here temporarily. You know, we had people coming in and they've been here for many, many years and they had a tragedy in their country.
They had, sometimes it was storms or it was, you know, it was hurricanes. And they come in and, you know, they're here for 12 years, 14 years, so something's got to be done. Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, on the oil company -- Have you spoken to Jeanine Pirro about her decision to drop --
Trump: Jeanine Pirro made a mistake. There was vandalism. I just told you, we did, I think 78.
One of the things was the reflecting pool. Hasn't worked since 1922 because it always leaked. It always leaked, from 1922. You know, it's the largest, longest pool ever, all that. The concept is beautiful, but it always leaked because of the size, because of maintenance, whatever.
But it was built in 1922. And from the day it was built, it leaked. Biden spent $58 million. Uh,
Barack Hussein Obama spent much more than that. He said, I have an idea, let's take the river from -- let's take the water from the Potomac, so they took the water from the Potomac, and it was putrid. It was putrid.
It was a disaster. Biden was a disaster. I said, I'm going to get that fixed, along with Doug Burgum and Department of Interior and we worked hard on that. Now, we worked hard on all 70 -- it's actually, I think, 81 now. You saw the new horses that just opened by the bridge with the gold? That was the way they were many years ago.
Now they look better than they did many years ago. But these monuments look better than they did when they were originally built, not just a little fix up. We made them the way they were, plus, and everyone's so proud. The biggest -- one of the bigger jobs was not really the biggest, believe it or not, but one of the biggest was the reflecting pool and we did a great job.
We sandblasted the stone outside. It was granite, so it has a long life. We did a great job. We got very expensive material to put on top of the surface that always leaked because it was stone. It was a stone surface, always leaked and we put it on. And it was beautiful. Now, we have photographs or tapes, like moving cameras, right?
We have them where people are on the side, cutting it with a box knife. So -- now, I'm not saying I was 100 percent thrilled with, uh, the contractor, but the contractor was rushing. We wanted to get it open for July 4th and we got it done. But in addition, there was vandalism. Number one, look at the grass, where the grass was, uh, all knocked out with a very, very powerful, uh, ingredient that we know very well what it is. I'm not going to say the name because people get ideas, but -- and they put a terrible phrase, I won't say that either, but a terrible phrase on a massive piece of grass that we had just replaced.
Killed the grass. We had to replace the grass, a lot of grass. In addition, they took knives or cutters and they cut the material. It's material. And they put their hands and they pulled it. And there was also some maintenance things that we would have routinely fixed, but we had that up and it was perfect.
And then you had the bubblers, which get rid of the, you know, the -- what forms in the water.
And that works great but they turned it off because of the fight, because it competed a little bit of noise during the fight. They turned it off, and it grows very rapidly in the water. But that actually works very well and that's all.
So now we're just about set to reopen it and we had to -- we had to replace cut areas, where they cut it and ripped it. But there's a tape. And Jesse Waters, by the way, did a whole big thing on it.
There's a tape that's out there that I posted on Truth, where you have people leaning over the side, the weakest part because of the flexibility.
You know, it moves. It's very complicated; it moves. And the softest part has to be flexible and that's the stuff you can cut. And these guys knew what they were doing. And they cut all the way along the base cut, cut, cut. Now, when Jeanine looked at it, it was the day after the 4th of July, with the largest fireworks display in the world, and the stuff was laying all over the pool, the fireworks, because they -- they used the pool as one of the -- And it was all over the pool.
It was the day after, very shortly thereafter. But that was working beautifully and it was vandalized. And if you look at the tape, now, the tape isn't a great tape in the sense that you -- it's a little hard to say who it exactly was, but it was people cutting this very expensive material, waterproofing material.
Anyway, it looked beautiful and then they cut it and they vandalized and we weren't necessarily thrilled with the contractor, but they did a job and they were fixing any problems, but then it got carried away because the judge was extremely unfriendly to Jeanine and frankly, I think she choked because the judge was really vicious.
Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department and I guess she choked I don't know what the hell happened.
Question: Are you reconsidering her role [Inaudible]
Trump: I don't know what -- you don't -- you're fake news. Don't ever talk again. You're fake news, one of the -- one of the worst in the business. Fortunately, nobody watches you. But something happened. There was vandalism there, and there was some things from the contractor, which you -- which we would fix, but it's almost complete and when it opens, it's incredible.
It's really incredible. But remember this, it leaked from 1922. It opened in 1922. They never solved the leak problem because it was stone. And the cracks with the stone, it's not a -- stone is really not a waterproofing material. We essentially use a very high grade swimming pool-type material, which was my idea.
I was very proud of that idea. By the way, I didn't know the contractor. Everyone said the contractor -- I didn't know the contractor. But when it was completed, it was perfect. But then somebody went in and cut it, just like they did the grass. You know, nobody talks about the grass.
The grass -- they have helicopter pictures of what they did.
Wasn't it 87 -- right, do you know what they did, right? Did you see what they did? Did you see what they wrote? What did they write?
Question: 87 -- or sorry, 86 47.
Trump: That's right, 86 47. They 86 them. So it's 86 47. They didn't do 45. At least they left 45 out. But they -- in massive letters on the grass, 86 47. And nobody talked about that. That was vandalism too. We had to replace all that grass. It was a tremendous amount of grass. Because when you hit it with this poison, it's acid, it kills the grass.
No matter how -- You can't even clean it, even if you got there right after. It's very powerful stuff. I know it well. So, uh, people did great damage to this thing because they're sick people. You know who's representing the man is a man from CREW, a sleazebag who's been suing me for my whole political -- hasn't won.
He's lost all the time. But CREW. You know what CREW is? It's a third rate operation. That's supposed to be a charity, but it's not. They use it for political reasons. So, um, we should be proud of our monuments, and we should be proud of our city. And, you know, that was open.
Before they did the damage, it was open.
It never looked more beautiful. It looked like a mirror, and that's what it was supposed to be. It was a very dark color because otherwise you don't see it as a reflecting pool and it looked beautiful. Well, it'll look just as beautiful it'll be fixed and open over the next week and a half, two weeks.
Question: Mr. President?
Trump: OK. One more. Yeah.
Question: Who are you rooting for in Michigan tomorrow, Mr. President?
Trump: Well, you have a very interesting group. Who I really voted for is Mike Rogers, because I think he's going to be a great Senator, but you have a -- a communist versus a socialist. That's the way I look at it. You have a communist versus a socialist. It looks like the communist is leading. We're talking about for the Democrat primary.
But for the Republican you have a very good man. And he should be able to -- he should be able to win. Yeah. OK. One more. Go -- in the back. Yeah, go ahead.
Question: [Inaudible] Lafayette Park.
Trump: Lafayette Park is great. Did we do a good job on Lafayette Park?
Question: It's phenomenal.
Trump: So Lafayette Park is right across from the other side of the street and I made a donation of $10 million. That was me personally, and it's unbelievable. It was so dirty and so disgusting, like everything liberal, becomes dirty and disgusting. Social, socialism, liberalism, progressivism -- you know, the word progressive is such a nice word.
They love using it. But the radical left isn't letting them use that word anymore. But Lafayette
Park is a large park. It was known as the gateway to the White House, and it was disgusting. The monument is beautiful. Graffiti all over it. Uh, I won't say what was on the sidewalk, but horrible, horrible, horrible, disgusting stuff.
And not only did we fix it, we have military standing there watching it and if anybody touches it, we -- that was the one mistake with the reflecting pond, they hadn't put up the cameras yet. They had enough up because you see what's happening. But if they would have had them up, uh, we would have had a lot of -- it would have been a lot easier.
But -- and I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro, really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. She, uh, she folded like an umbrella and people get away with things and it's a disgrace. But we're very proud of Lafayette Park. Now we have a big decision to make, do we take the pavers that are red, you know, the red brick pavers?
And do we change them into a granite? It's a gray granite. They're beautiful, but they're not the original. So we're going to have to make that decision. You have a good sense of taste. What would you do?
Question: Yes.
Trump: Huh?
Question: Yes, change it.
Trump: You would change the red brick into the granite?
Question: Yes, heartbeat.
Trump: The granite is much stronger, holds up much better. Different color.
Question: Legacy.
Trump: Change it. OK.
Question: Are you considering firing Pirro, Mr. President?
Trump: Go ahead, please.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Today's the MLB trade deadline, and there's been talk
lately about a potential lockout next year. Um, I think over salary cap concerns, the proposed salary cap, do you support a salary cap in the MLB? And what are your thoughts on --
Trump: Well, we're going to talk about that in a different time. You know, it's a complex situation but not too complex for me. Yeah, please, in the back.
Question: What did you think of the nationals trading Luis Garcia to the Yankees? And you think --
Trump: Which one?
Question: Uh, Louis Garcia from the Washington Nationals to the New York Yankees -- your New York Yankees.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: And what do you think of the job Brian Cashman's doing?
Trump: Well, I've known Brian Cashman for a long time. Look, he's done a good job. I think Randy Levine is great. He's a great executive. And by the way, the NIL or whatever it is, uh, is very close to getting solved, college sports. And Randy Levine and Nick Saban and a whole group of people have done an unbelievable job.
That was a case that should have been appealed by the NCAA, and they never appealed it.
Whoever ran the NCAA, they never appealed it. The original case was thrown out by a judge that knew nothing about sports, nothing about sports or college sports. And that case should have been appealed. They didn't appeal it. They didn't know.
I think they forgot. Something happened. And college sports was and is in turmoil right now, turmoil. And Randy Levine from the Yankees, he's the president of the Yankees, got together with a lot of people. We had it right here, 60 people, 60 people that were in that world, including legal people and from football.
It was Nick Saban, who won six or seven championships, fantastic coach and very respected, and many other people, very, very respected. And we have a bipartisan deal as of right now, so we'll see what happens. We have to -- they'll be voting on it soon. I hope they get it. I hope they get it done. Thank you all very much.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that question. I loved his question. Have a good time.
Thank you, everybody. Good luck. Thank you.