TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Speaks to Reporters Before Marine One Departure, 8.01.25

 

 

[Video]

 

Question: Hi, Mr. President. Are you gonna go and you -- talk with Putin before your [Inaudible] come and I understand they were in the --

 

President Trump: Well, we'll see what happens. We're gonna have some meetings and we'll see what happens. [Inaudible] you.

 

Question: [Inaudible] shouldn't that be, Mr. President, You said the jobs report today were rigged. What [Inaudible] do you have though?

 

Trump: Oh yeah, I think so. So -- and if you look at before the election, the same kind of thing happened. And I think you'll see some very interesting information come out. But we got rid, you have to have honest reports. And uh, when you look at those numbers or when you look at just before the election, and then after the election they corrected it by eight or 900,000, uh, jobs, yeah, I would say so.

 

Note: [Crosstalk]

 

Question: And thank you, you said that, due to, due to [Inaudible] South Korea, South Korea, South Korea and the United States [Inaudible] --

 

Trump: We have a great relationship.

 

Question: -- [Inaudible] called sir, and when do you have --

 

Trump: Yeah, we have a great relationship with South Korea. Great.

 

Note: [Crosstalk]

 

Question: And are you ready, are you open to negotiate with Brazil? The Brazilian president, Lula, said he'd like to call you, he requests a conversation. Would you talk to him now? Are you open to the conversation?

 

Trump: He can talk to me anytime he wants.

 

Question: So are you open to tariffs? Are you [Inaudible] --

 

Trump: Yeah, he can talk to me anytime he wants.

 

Question: What is, what is on the table for Brazil?

 

Trump: Well, we'll see what happens, but I love the people of Brazil.

 

Note: [Crosstalk]

 

Question: What, what evidence do have [Inaudible] it was rigged?

 

Trump: I love the people of Brazil.

 

Note: [Crosstalk]

 

Question: So why did you [Inaudible] tariffs?

 

Trump: Because the people running Brazil did the wrong thing.

 

Note: [Crosstalk]

 

Question: [Inaudible] seven years. Seven years from the time that you learned the people were being stolen from Mar-a-Lago, to the time that you picked up [Inaudible] Jeffery Epstein. Some [Inaudible] --

 

Trump: Gee, I don't, I don't understand your question.

 

Question: Where the submarines being deployed, the nuclear sub --

 

Trump: Say it?

 

Question: Where are being deployed, the nuclear submarines.

 

Trump: Oh, yeah. Well we had to do that.

 

Question: Can you start having --

 

Trump: We just have to be careful. And a threat was made and we didn't think it was appropriate, so I have to be very careful. So I do that, uh, on the basis of safety for our people.

 

Question: Has it –

 

Trump: A threat was made by a former president of Russia and we're gonna protect our people.

 

Note: [Crosstalk]

 

Question: Will Hillary Clinton finally be investigated for election fraud? Hillary Clinton.

 

Trump: I hope so. I hope so. I don't know whether or not that'll happen, but I hope so.

 

Question: Mr. president, why did you fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics?

 

Trump: 'cause I think her numbers were wrong. Just like I thought her numbers were wrong before the election. Days before the election, she came out with these beautiful numbers for Kamala, I guess Biden/Kamala. And she came out with these beautiful numbers trying to get somebody else elected. Then right after the election, I think on the 15th, November 15th, she had an eight or $900,000 massive reduction. Said she made a mistake. Uh, no. Uh, that woman, that woman's not numbers are [Inaudible].

 

Question: [Inaudible] Fed governor Kugler [Inaudible] resign.

 

Trump: Say it?

 

Question: Fed governor Kugler.

 

Trump: Yeah, the, uh, one of the governors, as you know, of the Federal Reserve has just announced she is resigning. I understand it was over the fact that she disagreed with somebody from her party. She disagreed with Too Late. You know who Too Late is?

 

Question: Yeah.

 

Trump: She disagreed with Too Late on the, uh, interest rate. So we'll see what happens. But, uh, we just found out that I have a, uh, open spot on the Federal Reserve Board. I'm very happy about that, John.

 

Question: And what did Medvedev say to you that made you really mad?

 

Trump: Well, you just have to read what he said. He was, uh, talking about nuclear. When you talk about nuclear, we have to be prepared, and we're totally prepared.

 

Question: Mr. President, on the monthly draft report, going forward, why should anyone trust the numbers? And if you're –

 

Trump: Well, that's the big thing. You're right. No, you're right. Why should anybody trust numbers? You go back to election, election day. Look what happened two or three days before with massive wonderful job numbers, trying to get him elected or her elected, trying to get whoever the hell was running. Because you go back and they came out with numbers that were very favorable to Kamala, okay? To trying to get him elec- -- to trying to get her elected. And then on the 15th of November or there abouts, they had an eight or 900,000 --

 

Question: Right.

 

Trump: -- overstatement, reduction. Right after the election. It didn't work, because you know who won, John? I won.

 

Note: [Crosstalk]

 

Question: -- your supporters have had issues with these numbers. Now that you f --

 

Trump: I've had issues with the numbers for a long time.

 

Question: Have you guys got, a -- now that urr --

 

Trump: But today's, we're doing so well. I believe the numbers were phony just like they were before the election. And there were other times. So, you know what I did? I fired her.

 

Question: Right. And --

 

Trump: And you know what? I did the right thing.

 

Question: Any government official -- If any government official going forward is presenting data or information you don't like, should they fear for their job?

 

Trump: I've always had a problem with these numbers. You know, I was thinking about it this morning. Before the numbers that came out, I said, "Who is the person that does these numbers?" And then they gave me stats about before the election, I had a similar problem. I mean, she gave out numbers that were so good for the Democrats, it was like, unbelievable. And then right after the election, she corrected those numbers with, I think almost 900,000 corrections. I think nobody had ever seen anything like it. Well, today she did the same thing with the 253,000, whatever the number was. Uh, no, no. We need people that we can trust. I mean, your question -- your question is a very good one. We need people we can trust.

 

Question: Why would you like from Switzerland? You know who you planned on [Inaudible]

 

Trump: I've got about three very good -- I have a lot of good candidates. I will say everybody wants it. I've had more phone calls, but I have, uh, three people that are --

 

Question: Do they have a background in labor statistics?

 

Trump: You know, I could do a long term thing or I could do a temporary. It's a 14-year term.

 

Question: Right. But you put someone in who actually has labor statistics experience?

 

Trump: I put somebody in -- I put somebody in who's gonna be honest. That's all we want. Uh, I have a choice. I can have four months. I could do a short term or I can do a 14-year, uh, deal. So, we'll -- we'll see. We have a lot of people that -- We got a lot of good people around.

 

Question: Can I ask you a construction question?

 

Question: -- [Inaudible] that was a stock, the Paris rate in Switzerland. It was pretty higher than other European.

 

Trump: Well, the problem with Switzerland, we have a, we have a 40, we have a $40 billion deficit with Switzerland. And I spoke yesterday to Switzerland, but we have a $40 billion deficit with Switzerland. That's a big deficit.

 

Question: Question on the construction. Can I ask you a question on the construction, you say you're raising $200 million, you're donating a bunch other as well.

 

Trump: Yeah.

 

Question: Are you blocking foreigners from donating money to build this addition?

 

Trump: Honestly, I never even thought of it, but it doesn't matter. I'm putting up my money, but it doesn't even matter. They've wanted a ballroom at the White House.

 

Question: Right.

 

Trump: And it's been very popular. So, you know, when we put it out yesterday --

 

Question: You're not ruling out that a Crown Prince or some European or Asian would want that?

 

Trump: I'm not looking for that. Uh, you know, you have very strong restrictions as to who can donate and we go by the restrictions.

 

Question: Will you give us-?

 

Trump: You give, not a lot of, I mean, it's not that much money. It's money but --

 

Question: Will you release the names of the donors?

 

Trump: Yeah, I'll do that. I didn't, I didn't even start yet, by the way. But when I do, I'll release the names.

 

Question: How many donors do you think it's gonna take to get the 200 million?

 

Trump: Maybe one Me. But --

 

Question: You would cut that check yourself?

 

Trump: Yeah, I would. Yeah, I would.

 

Question: Did you talk to Steve Witkoff today from his journey to Gaza? Did you talk to Steve Witkoff?

 

Trump: I did. I spoke to Steve Witkoff. He had a great meeting with a lot of people and the primary meeting was on food. And he had, he also had some other conversations that I'll tell you about later. But he had a, a meeting on getting the people fed. And that's what we want. And I'll see you later on.

 

Question: On India, what numbers are you looking at and are gonna be having [Inaudible]

 

Trump: Well, I understand India no longer is going to be buying oil from Russia. That's what I heard. I don't know if that's right or not, but that's a good step. We'll see what happens. Okay?

 

Note: [Crosstalk]

 

Question: On Paris, obviously the Treasury is taking in so much money right now. Some Republicans have been pushing for tariff checks to go out. The basically idea is move the money back. Any, any [Inaudible] about it?

 

Trump: No. There are a lot of, uh, people that would like to see us do sort of a dividend to the people of our country. It's something I'd consider.

 

Question: How much would people --

 

Trump: I'd also want, I wanna pay off debt. But there's a possibility I do it differently.

 

Question: Sorry. On trade, tariffs, obviously there's still a few days here for some of these tariffs to possibly be reset. You're a betting man. How many of these tariff rates could change again now and next --

 

Trump: Not a lot. I mean, for the most part we're set a little bit, maybe. If somebody could convince us that, you know, they have a case like Switzerland was complaining, but we lose $40 billion a year with Switzerland. Uh, we had to do that. Thank you very much.

 

Transcript courtesy of CQ Factbase.