TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Speaks to Reporters Before Air Force One Departure, 5.25.25
[VIDEO]
President Trump: Thank you very much. I think we've, uh, done a lot of good work over the last couple of days. Being at West Point yesterday was incredible. What incredible people they are. And I think it was a very big success and it was an honor to be there. Very importantly, we had some very good talks with Iran yesterday and today and let's see what happens. But I think we could have some good news on the Iran front. Likewise with Hamas on the, uh, on Gaza, we wanna see if we can stop that. And Israel, we've been talking to them and we wanna see if we can stop that whole situation as quickly as possible. But, um, having to do with nuclear, we've had some very, very good talks with Iran, and I don't know if I'll be telling you anything good or bad over the next two days, but I have a feeling I might be telling you something good. We've had, uh, some real progress, serious progress. Uh, on any other front, I dunno, do you have any questions?
Question: Uh, do you have a message for the Senate? Uh, a -- a lot of Republicans have said they're gonna be significant changes to the Budget Bill.
Trump: Well, I want the Senate and the Senators to change -- you know, to make the changes they want. And we'll go back to the House and we'll see if we can get them. In some cases, those changes maybe are something I'd agree with, to be honest. You know, it happens. Uh, but we've had a very good response from the Senate and I don't know how Democrats can't vote for it. If they don't vote for it, they're talking about a 68% tax increase. Remember that. If the Democrats don't vote, it's a 68% tax increase, which is ridiculous. And one of the things that's, uh, being covered, uh, indirectly, is the fact that we'll be lowering the cost of drugs from 50% to 85% under Trump. And it's gonna have indirectly something to do, not directly, but indirectly something to do with the -- uh, with the bill, the One Big, Beautiful Bill. And it's a Big, Beautiful Bill. And, uh, so I think the Senate is gonna get there. I hope they're gonna get there. I think they're gonna have changes. Some will be minor and some will be, you know, fairly significant. But we've been working with the House all the way up. They've been working together and uh, the Speaker has been working with the Leader of the Senate and, you know, they've done a great job. John Thune and Mike Johnson have done a fantastic job. They've been working together all the way up, so hopefully that'll be fine.
Question: President Trump. President Trump, Andrew Cuomo, he's under a federal investigation. Uh, do you have a comment on that and how that should impact the mayoral election coming up?
Trump: No, I was surprised. I didn't know exactly, I just read about it just like you did, having to do with Andrew. I've known Andrew and we've had an on-off relationship. He was saying the greatest things about me. I'm the greatest President, et cetera. And then the next day, it hit us. But I did a lot for them. I brought in the ship during the COVID crisis. I brought in the, uh, the Mercy ship and I built about 3,000 units in the Javits Convention Center. And he didn't use them. I don't understand it. He wanted them, but he didn't use them. But I hope it's gonna be okay. I hope it's not gonna be, uh, serious for him. Let's see what happens.
Question: You spoke -- you spoke to European Commission President von der Leyen. Did you discuss the 50% tariffs and did you agree to [Inaudible]?
Trump: She just called me, as you know, and she asked for an extension on the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation because I -- I've told you specifically, but I told anybody that would listen, they have to do that. And uh, we had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe June 9th would be -- July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. Could we move it from June 1st to July 9th? And I agreed to do that and that she said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out.
Question: Another question. You announced on Friday about U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: What will the ownership structure look like? What made you satisfied about that?
Trump: It'll be controlled by the United States. Otherwise, I wouldn't make the deal. I went to the unions, to the -- all of the local unions. They all wanted it. And I'm doing it because all of the Congressmen came in, about five of them, and the others I understand are in conference, and they asked that I do it. Everybody seems to want it. And we'll see. I mean, you know, we'll see what the final is. But they're gonna invest billions of dollars in steel and it's a good company. Nissan is very good company. We'll see. But it would be -- it's an investment and it's a partial ownership, but it'll be controlled by the USA.
Question: President Trump, on Saudi Arabia, you [Inaudible] investment. Uh, there's an American who's stuck there facing a trial for Tweets. His family wants you to intervene and ask the Crown Prince to let him go.
Trump: Oh.
Question: What do you think about that?
Trump: I haven't heard about it at all. If you gimme the information, on the plane, are you on the plane? Gimme the information. I'll see what I can. Do you think he's okay?
Question: I'm a Question. I can't [Inaudible].
Trump: I know, but are you giving a recommendation?
Question: No, I'm not.
Trump: Okay, well then, maybe I won't do it. I dunno. You tell me. The way you -- the way you posed the question, I thought you assumed it was -- he was okay. What did he do supposedly?
Question: Sent some political tweets about Saudi Arabian politics.
Trump: Were they bad?
Question: Uh, he said he approved of naming a street -- renaming a street in D.C. It was fairly, uh, innocent stuff by American standards.
Trump: Lemme take a look.
Question: Mr. President, can you provide us with an update on Russia and Ukraine as well?
Trump: See, I'll give you an update. I'm not happy with what Putin's doing. He's killing a lot of people and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people and I don't like it at all. Okay? We're in the middle of talking and he's shooting rockets into Kiev and other cities. I don't like it at all.
Question: Mr. President, what do you want to do about that?
Trump: I'm surprised. I'm very surprised. We'll see what we're gonna do.
Question: Um --
Trump: What, am I gonna tell you?
Question: No.
Trump: You're the fake news, aren't you?
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: You're totally fake. All right, any other questions?
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: I don't like what Putin is doing, not even a little bit. He's killing people. And something happened to this guy and I don't like it.
Question: [Inaudible] -- no one talked about -- And can I follow up on that? A Russian commander reportedly said that, um, Putin was almost caught in the middle of a drone attack from Ukraine. So do you have any [Inaudible]?
Trump: I haven't heard that, but uh, maybe that would be a reason. I don't know, but I have not heard that.
Question: President Trump, uh, Secretary Hegseth's acting chief of staff, uh, is a Biden administration holdover who has said some very critical things about you and Vice President Vance. Uh, did you have thoughts on that?
Trump: Who is the chief of staff?
Question: Um, Ricky Buria.
Trump: I -- I have no idea who he is, but if he did say that I would recommend that we don't take him. I mean, if he did say something like that, uh, I would recommend we don't take him. But let's see; I'll take a look. Buria? I'll check it out. Yeah.
Question: On, on Harvard, do you think you'll come for their endowment in any way, or go after financial aid?
Trump: I'll --
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: Look, part of the problem with Harvard is that they're about 31%, almost 31% of foreigners coming to Harvard. We give them billions of dollars, which is ridiculous. We do grants, which we're probably not gonna be doing much grants anymore to Harvard. But they're 31%, but they refuse to tell us who the people are. We want to know who the people. Now, a lot of the foreign students, we wouldn't have a problem with. I'm not gonna have a problem with foreign students, but it shouldn't be 31%. It's too much, because we have Americans that want to go there, and to other places, and they can't go there 'cause you have 31% foreign. Now, no foreign government contributes money to Harvard. We do. So why are they doing so many, number one. Number two, we want a list of those foreign students and we'll find out whether or not they're okay. Many will be okay, I assume. And I assume with Harvard, many will be bad. And then the other thing is, they're very antisemitic. Everybody knows they're antisemitic, and that's gotta stop immediately.
Question: Uh, President Trump, uh, Secretary--
Trump: Who are you with?
Question: Uh, New York Post.
Trump: Oh. Oh, I like the New York Post. I like Keith Poole. That's about it.
Question: Um, so uh, Secretary--
Trump: Okay. [Inaudible] was gonna be nicer to him, but I didn't know he was with the -- go ahead.
Question: Secretary Bessent has said that we don't need to return textile manufacturings to the United States.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: How do you see, like, a lot of your reciprocal tariffs, they're pretty big on those low-income countries. [Inaudible]
Trump: I know, I -- I tend to agree. We're not looking to make sneakers and t-shirts, and -- we want to make military equipment, we want to make big things, we want to make -- do the AI thing with the computers, and the -- um -- many, many, many, many elements, but uh, the textile? You know, I'm not looking to make t-shirts, to be honest. I'm not looking to make socks. We can do that very well in other locations. We are looking to do chips and computers and lots of other things. And tanks, and ships, meaning ships, you know.
Question: You mentioned you are happy with the talks with Iran. Will there be another round of talks soon?
Trump: Uh, very soon. Iran, the Ir -- the Iran talks. I can't tell you what's gonna happen tomorrow. I can tell you the Iran talks have been going very well.
Question: And you said you're [Inaudible]
Trump: And I'd love that to happen, because I'd love to see no bombs dropped and a lot of people dead. I really would like to see that happen, and I think there's a good chance that it could happen.
Question: You mentioned you're unhappy with President Putin. You've talked before about putting more sanctions on Russia. Is that something you're considering more through?
Trump: Absolutely. He's killing a lot of people. I don't know what's wrong with him. What the hell happened to him, right? He's killing a lot of people. I'm not happy about that. Go ahead, what else? Anything else?
Question: [Inaudible] you have a person arrested for, um, attempting to, a plot in Israel to throw a Molotov cocktail, um, at a U.S. embassy office in Tel Aviv.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: The person also reportedly is a dual German-U.S. citizen, um, issued threats against your life. If you -- [Inaudible]
Trump: Against my life?
Question: Against your life, yes sir.
Trump: We've got a lot of them around, got a lot of sick people around. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.