TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Speaks to Reporters Before Air Force One Departure, 4.25.26
[Video]
President Trump: [Begins in progress] -- that was not good enough. And, uh, so we'll deal by telephone and they can call us anytime they want. Again, we have all the cards. They have no military left practically. They have no leaders left. We don't know who the leaders are. Nobody knows who the leader, I don't think they know who the leaders are, very importantly. So, uh, you saw that and, uh, any other questions?
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: What, what have you heard from Pakistan? The Iran foreign minister would be in Pakistan yesterday night?
Trump: I think Pakistan is terrific. I think the field marshal is fantastic. I think the prime minister of Pakistan's great. And, you know, they'd like to see something happen, but we're not gonna be traveling 15, 16 hours to, to have a meeting with people that nobody ever heard of before.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: What changed, what changed to make you make that decision?
Trump: Too much travel. And when they say, "The meeting's scheduled for Tuesday." I said, "Tuesday? That's a long time from now." But when you get right down to it, it's a lot of traveling. No, we don't want to do that.
Question: At what point do you send Witkoff and Kushner and send Vice President Vance in? At what point are you gonna be ready?
Trump: Well, we would. They're all very competent, all three. Those are three good. But they weren't, uh, meeting with the leader of the country. They were meeting with other people. And I said, "We're just not gonna do too much traveling, takes too long, too expensive." I'm a very cost conscious person.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Mr. President, Mr. President, you said this week that you're not a fan of prediction markets and that they're turning the country into a casino. But at the same time, you're -
Trump: I'm not? Did you say I'm not?
Question: That you're not a fan of prediction markets --
Trump: Well, I don't know. I know some people that are very smart, they like it, they disagree, but they like it. Uh, but what would you like to know? Are you, who are you with?
Question: Uh, we're, I'm with Decrypt, a crypto focused --
Trump: Good.
Question: -- uh, publication --
Trump: Good. Good.
Question: -- and we also have a prediction market.
Trump: Good.
Question: And, um, your administration is aggressively pushing to legalize these markets, and I was wondering if you potentially wanted to reconsider that policy?
Trump: Well, a lot of, a lot of other countries are doing it, and when the other countries do it, we get left out in the cold if we don't do it. So, but I know people that are in the prediction market business and they're pretty --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: And also on the subject of crypto, what made you decide to go and attend this Mean Point Conference today?
Trump: It's a big industry, and we want to beat China at the industry. We're leading with crypto, we're leading with AI, and I really feel I have an obligation from the sa- -- as a president, I have to be able to make sure that all of our industries do well. Crypto's a big industry. It's become, actually become somewhat mainstream. The banks have it, people have it. And I think as the leader of the country, we want to lead in AI, we want, and we're leading China by a lot in AI, and we're also leading in crypto. Yeah.
Question: Do you agree with the, do you agree with the decision by Jeanine Pirro to drop the investigation into Jerome Powell?
Trump: Well, I want to find out. You know, it's not dropped. They're looking into the whole thing about the --
Question: Refer to the OAG.
Trump: What I want to look, what I want to look at, yeah, with the AG. What I want to look at is how can a building that I could have done for $25 million cost $4 billion? That's a big thing, and he was in charge. So we'll get to the bottom of it. Yeah, I think, uh, Janine is fantastic. Uh --
Question: Doesn't she --
Trump: -- and she worked with other people on that. I tell you, I want to find out, I have an obligation to find out. This was done during Biden, but I have an obligation to find out. How does it, I would have done that building for $25 million, had money left over, and it would, would have been open a long time ago.
Question: If you or her peop- -- your people asked her to drop it?
Trump: I wanna find out, because for the country, look, we have a railroad under construction in California that's the worst thing I've ever seen under Gavin Newsom, and I want to find out why that one is costing 20 times what it was projected, because likewise, the Fed building is a small, I built a hotel in Washington, the Waldorf Astoria, I built it for $201 million, and it, I believe it's bigger than, than the Fed building.
And your bathrooms, you have a lot of, you know, it's much tougher, much more expensive to build a hotel than an office. Uh, I wanna find out how can a building of that size cost for whatever it's gonna be. Nobody knows, by the way, what it's gonna be. Kevin is going to be fantastic, Kevin Warsh. He may never get to be in that building.
Question: Is it moot failing for him now? Will, will Caleb drop his walk?
Trump: I, I would, I would imagine it's smooth, but whether it is or not, somebody has to find out why that building that should have cost 25 million is costing billions of dollars.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Trump: And you know why they have to find it out, for other buildings because that's not the only one. I think that's the most egregious example.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: On Iran, as they're figuring out who is in charge, if the hardliners or IRGC-aligned leaders have greater power in Iran, can the US make a deal with those factors?
Trump: I'll deal with whoever's running the show.
Question: Are we, are we communicating with that factor?
Trump: I'll deal with whoever runs the show. They don't know. They're in, they are fighting with each other. There's tremendous infighting. They're probably fighting for leadership. In many cases, I think they're fighting not to be the leader, because we knocked out two levels of leaders, but, uh, I'll deal with whoever we have to, but there's no reason to wait two days, have people traveling for 16, 17 hours, uh, and we're not doing it that way, we'll do it, when they want, they can call me. We have all the cards. We won everything. We have all the cards.
Question: Yesterday, you said to Reuters that we're dealing with who is in charge now. What changed from yesterday to today?
Trump: Nothing. It's just that they gave us a paper that should have been better. And interestingly, immediately, when I canceled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better for it.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Can you tell us?
Trump: Uh, we talked about, we talked about they will not have a nuclear weapon. Very simple. Look, that whole deal is not complicated. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Is the ceasefire remaining? Will you continue the ceasefire?
Trump: Uh, haven't even thought about it yet.
Question: Uh, did they offer anything in return to 20 years of suspending enriched uranium?
Trump: They offered a lot.
Question: What do they offer?
Trump: They offered a lot, but not enough. Thank you.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Will Kevin Warsh be bench chair in May, do you think?
Question: Thank you, Mr. President.