TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Speaks to Reporters After Air Force One Arrival, 7.13.25
Question: Did ya have fun?
President Trump: Hi, everybody. We had a great time at the big soccer match today at the Meadowlands. It was phenomenal. There was a little bit of an upset, I guess they would say, but it was a great, great match, very well played, tremendous crowd. And that's sort of a, uh, pre-World Cup. We have World Cup coming, we have Olympics coming, and we have, uh, 250 years coming. That's, uh, gonna be a big one, maybe the biggest one of all. So that was great. Uh, we had, uh, some tremendous financial numbers released on Friday, as you've probably heard, that our country made $25 billion last month. 25 billion. It hasn't done that in a long time and a lot of that's done because of good management and, number one, and maybe even more importantly, the tariffs that are pouring in. We have tariffs pouring in at levels that we have never seen before and they've only just started. That's really a small portion. It's mostly from cars, and aluminum and steel, a little bit of lumber. Uh, but they really start, uh, in about another week, and then in about a month they'll come in at levels that are extremely strong. And our country is making a lot of money. Lot of money. Uh, we're dealing with other countries and certain countries that would rather have, uh, a deal than a regular tariff, and we're -- we're willing, if they're willing to open up. These are countries that have been shut to us, but we've been open to them. In other words, they wouldn't let us do business there, but they would do business in our country. It's not a fair deal. So the European Union is talking to us, they wanna open up their country. Uh, I would say Japan, to a much lesser extent in terms of opening up their country. Japan, as you know -- and, and we're very close to Japan, but they sell us millions and millions of cars a year. We sell them no cars because they won't accept our cars and they won't accept much of our agriculture either, so. Uh, but they're all changing their ways very, very rapidly. Uh, South Korea wants to make a deal other than tariffs. Right now, as you know, they're paying a substantial tariff, but they wanna make it different. So some of these deals, maybe I'll change them and maybe I won't. But our country is, uh, making a lot of money, a lot of money for the first time in a w- -- long time, in decades. And that's the way it should be. We have a country that, uh, and I said it the other day to you people, we have a country that was dead. It was dead. It was a goner one year ago, and now we have the hottest country in the world. Okay, questions?
Question: [Inaudible] about $40 billion that would go to illegal benefit. What does that mean to the bottom line that we're taking away a lot of the [Inaudible] to illegals?
Trump: Getting rid, uh, a lot of waste, fraud and abuse. Uh, one of the reasons I think you'll see the numbers very good for the country. But I think more than anything else, we have tariffs coming in, in the, uh, will be hundreds of billions of dollars.
Question: What's the [Inaudible] guidance on Gaza, Mr. President?
Trump: Uh-
Question: Ye-
Trump: -- Gaza, we are talking and hopefully we're gonna get that straightened out over the next week. Let's see what happens.
Question: And so Gavin Newsom [Inaudible] Gavin Newsom is fighting. Gavin Newsom's fighting to keep men and women sports, he's fighting with Bondi, McMahon. As a father, as a husband, does he hate women? Why does he want men and women sports so bad?
Trump: Now, I don't know if he hates women. But n- -- look, he thinks it's good politically, I guess. He's just saying Gavin Newsom wants to keep men and women's sports. Uh, nobody understands it. Very few. I'd say, it's a 3% issue. You know, they say it's 80/20. It's not 80/20, I think it's 97/3. Yeah.
Question: One follow up. So, Rosie O'Donnell, she went on Chris Cuomo recently. She blames you for the fact that she's overweight, depressed, and drunk. What do you say to that? Do you think CVS is gonna ever [Inaudible] diagnosis?
Trump: I don't know about Rosie. [Laughs] I watch Rosie. Rosie's a mess. [Laughs] She's a mess. But, uh, she left our country, which is a good thing [Laughs] not a bad thing.
Question: Yeah. Mr. President of NA--[inaudible] NATO deal [inaudible] that he’s now the [inaudible].
Trump: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm gonna have a meeting with the Secretary General who's coming in tomorrow. But we basically are going to send them, uh, various pieces of very sophisticated military, and they're gonna pay us 100% for them. And, uh, that's the way we want it. And we've been trying to get that and get ag- -- Bi- -- I don't think Biden ever asked for it. We're in for about $350 billion. Europe is in for a 100 billion. That's a lot of money, 100, but they should be in actually for more than us. So as we send equipment, they're gonna reimburse us for that equipment. Doesn't that sound good?
Question: Yeah. Mr. President, y-
Trump: That's the way it should have been a long time ago.
Question: Just a follow-up. Are you still gonna send 10 Patriot missiles to Ukraine?
Trump: Uh, I haven't agreed on the numbers yet, but they'll gonna have some because they do need protection. But the European Union is paying for it. We're not paying anything for it, but we will send it. It'll be business for us, and we will send them Patriots, which they desperately need because Putin really surprised a lot of people. Uh, he talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evenings. That is a little bit of a problem there, and I don't like it.
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: Oh, I think so. I did, I spoke to him today. Dan Bongino, a very good guy, I've known him a long time. I've done his show many, many time, and he's sounded terrific, actually.
Question: I was gonna ask you, on this one year anniversary of Butler, what was going through your mind this morning, Mr. President?
Trump: Will you repeat that question?
Question: On this one year anniversary of Butler, what was going through your mind this morning when you woke up? I know that you're praising God, and you're alive, but a lot of people wanna know how you're taking this day on this one year anniversary.
Trump: God was protecting me. Maybe because God wanted to see our country do better, or do really well, make America great again. But God was protecting me, Brian, I'll tell you, it's, uh, the more you think about it, the more you see it. But uh, no, I just, I don't like to think about it much. You know, I have a job to do, so I don't like to think about it much. It's a little bit of a dangerous profession being president.
Question: I’d say that.
Trump: But I really don't like to think about it too much.
Question: You were able to accomplish--
Trump: I think you're better off not thinking about it.
Question: Yeah. And you were able to accomplish 20 promises so far.
Trump: Yeah, no, I think we've, we've more than delivered. Thank you for saying that. But, you know, we made a lot of promises and we've actually given a lot more promises than we even made.
Question: Yeah
Trump: And, uh, you add on that a tremendous success with the strike that we had getting rid of nuclear weapons in Iran. That was a big, big strike. And, you know, when the pilots came to my office, they were there like, you know, with some of the other people having to do with that strike. And they said something very interesting. They said, "You know, we've been practicing this for 22 years, but no president had the guts to tell us to do it." But this has been on our minds for many, many years and many years and we did it. And I would say from zero to 10, with 10 being the best, that attack was a 15.
Question: What do you think about this new bill that's going to basically eliminate no capital gains tax on home sales to be able to free up the money, people who've owned a house.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: For a long time, can't afford to pay the capital gains.
Trump: Yeah, well, we're looking at that and it's gonna be, it could be a very big positive for, I don't think for you because you make so much money.
Question: Right?
Trump: It doesn't matter. But I think, I think it's gonna be a great, you know, a great incentive for a lot of people that, that really need money.
Question: So between that and Jerome Powell stepping down, that could really boost home sales.
Trump: Well, I think if Jerome Powell stepped down, it would be a great thing. I don't know that he's going to, but, uh, he should. Jerome Powell's been very bad for our country. We should have the lowest interest rate on Earth, and we don't, uh, he just refuses to do it and yet he's spending two and a half billion dollars rebuilding the Fed, the Federal Reserve building. And I don't know what he knows about building, but uh, you talk about cost overrun. So he got this approved and he started the work during the Biden administration, and he doesn't look like the kind of a guy, frankly that wants to spend two and half billion dollars. And it's very interesting, because out of 71 economists, one person, me, and then one other person I think from Wharton got it right. And the others were all wrong in terms of the success of our country this quickly, we have no inflation. We have cash pouring in.It was me, and somebody else. And I can tell you I don't need 5,000 people working for me behind the scenes like Jerome Powell to tell him what he should say once a month, because they got it wrong. The Fed got it wrong. I call him too late. He's always too late. Every point costs us $360 billion. Think of that. And we should be three points. That's almost a trillion dollars, approximately a trillion dollars less we should be just with the signing of a piece of paper. So, we'll see what happens. I mean, you're telling me he's going to quit. I hope he quits. I don't know that he's going to quit, but he should quit, because he's been very bad for the country.
Question: On Russia, are you going to be announcing sanctions on Russia tomorrow?
Trump: We're going to see what we will see tomorrow, okay? And we have the, uh, Secretary General, as you know, Europe has announced sanctions. Uh, but I am very disappointed with President Putin, and I thought he was, uh, somebody that meant what he said, and he'll talk so beautifully and then he'll bomb people at night. We don't like that. Thank you everybody.
Question: We're glad you're alive, Mr. President.