TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Speaks to Reporters Before Marine One Departure - 7.25.25

 

[Video]

 

President Trump: Those young people, they just said, too much winning, too much winning, sir. They know it, and it is a lot of winning. We had the best six months ever. We're now heading to Scotland. I'm meeting with the prime minister of UK. Some of you are going, I guess, and a lot of you aren't. Are you going, Huh? Well, you got to get moving. That's a good one. That's going to be a good one. So we have great numbers we just announced. I don't have to go over it because you've seen them, but we have great economic numbers. The deal with Japan is amazing. They give us $550 billion and we have totally open access into Japan. Those numbers are great. I mean, the kids actually just said, very, very cute actually, I walked up and they said, sir, there's too much winning. They picked up on a little routine. You know? Go ahead.

 

Question: Mr. President, can I ask you about the DOJ lawsuit that you just filed yesterday against New York City and Mayor Adams? In the lawsuit saying name the CBP officer that was off-duty who was shot, and your thoughts on that?

 

Trump: Yeah. Yeah, that's DOJ going against New York, but we're going against a lot of other places too. We want to bring safety to our cities, but that's a pretty -- that's going to be a pretty routine filing with other cities too. As you know, we've started numerous lawsuits with other cities. We want to bring safety. We've got to get the criminals out and we're doing it in record numbers.

 

Note: [Crosstalk]

 

Question: -- on Gaza and negotiations?

 

Trump: Yeah, Gaza, they pulled out of Gaza. They pulled out in terms of negotiating. It was too bad. Hamas, Hamas didn't really want to make a deal. I think they want to die. And it's very, very bad. And it got to be to a point where you're going to have to finish the job. They really -- they asked for things -- don't forget, we got a lot of hostages out. So now we're down to the final hostages and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically, because of that, they really didn't want to make a deal. I saw that. So they pulled out and they're going to have to fight and they're going to have to clean it up. You're going to have to get rid of it.

 

Note: [Crosstalk]

 

Question: -- meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell? What are you hoping Todd Blanche gets out of his meetings with Ghislaine Maxwell?

 

Trump: Well, I don't know about the meeting. I know it's taking place and he's a fantastic man. He's a great attorney and people should really focus on how well the country is doing, or they should focus on the fact that Barack Hussein Obama led a coup, or they should focus on the fact that Larry Summers from Harvard, that Bill Clinton, who you know very well and lots of other friends, really close friends of Jeffrey Summers, should be spoken about because you know, Jeffrey Epstein should be spoken about and they should speak about them because they don't talk about them. They talk about me. I have nothing to do with the guy.

 

Question: Are you considering clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell?

 

Trump: Easy. Easy.

 

Question: Will you do any business deals with the UK?

 

Trump: Yeah. I'm going to meet with the prime minister right now. We're going to be over there in about six hours. We're meeting with the prime minister tonight. We're going to be talk about the trade deal that we made and maybe even improve it.

 

Question: Are you considering clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell, sir?

 

Question: I walked to the White House today. I saw homeless people sleeping right outside the gates of the White House. Are you concerned about that, sir?

 

Trump: I think it's terrible and we'll have them removed immediately. We did remove it. We've got to get the mayor to run this city properly. This city has to be run. I have the right to take it over and I think it's terrible. Where are they? Where did you see them?

 

Question: Right -- right outside on Pennsylvania Avenue.

 

Trump: By the -- near the Treasury?

 

Question: Right across the street from Lafayette Park. Mr. President, have you heard about Todd Blanche's interview with Ghislaine Maxwell?

 

Trump: I have.

 

Question: And would you consider a pardon or clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell?

 

Trump: Well, I don't want to talk about that. What I do want to say is that Todd is a great attorney, but you ought to be speaking about Larry Summers. You ought to be speaking about some of his friends that are hedge fund guys. They're all over the place. You ought to be speaking about Bill Clinton, who went to the island 28 times. I never went to the island.

 

Question: Do you maintain you did not write a letter for Jeffrey Epstein's birthday?

 

Trump: I don't even know what they're talking about. Now, somebody could have written a letter and used my name, but that's happened a lot. All you have to do is take a look at the dossier, the fake dossier. Everything's fake with that administration. Everything's fake with the Democrat. Take a look at what they just found about the dossier, everything is fake. There are a bunch of sick people. Where did you see the people laying outside, again?

 

Question: Right across the street from Lafayette Park, sir.

 

Trump: We'll take care of it.

 

Note: [Crosstalk]

 

Question: What are the plans for bringing hostages home? What are the alternative methods to bring hostages home from Gaza?

 

Trump: Well, we got a lot of them out and it's always -- I've always said those last 10 or 20 are going to be the toughest because Hamas knows what happens when they don't have any bargaining chip and they really broke a deal. They broke a deal and you're going to have to do what you have to do right now. It's a terrible thing. And I always knew that. I said, when we get down to the last one, they're not going to be able to make a deal.

 

Question: Would you consider a pardon or commutation for Ghislaine Maxwell if --

 

Trump: It's something I haven't thought about. It's really something --

 

Question: If someone recommended it to you --

 

Trump: It's something -- I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about.

 

Question: But you wouldn't rule it out, sir? Mr. President, why has the dollar, why has the dollar fallen so much and are you concerned about that?

 

Trump: Well, you know, I'm a person that likes a strong dollar, but a weak dollar makes you a hell of a lot more money. I hate to tell you. I don't know if you study it, but I study it and if you look at the Yen --

 

Question: I went to Penn and Wharton, so I know this.

 

Trump: You understand.

 

Question: Absolutely.

 

Trump: Oh, you did go?

 

Question: I went to Wharton. Yes, sir.

 

Trump: Well, that means you're a smarter guy than I even thought, and I know you're smart. So when we have a strong dollar, one thing happened. It sounds good, but you don't do any tourism. You can't sell tractors. You can't sell trucks. You can't sell anything. It is good for inflation. That's about it. And we have no inflation. We've wiped out inflation. But it's an interesting question. So I will never say I like a low currency, but you remember the battles I had with the yuan, with China and with Japan. Japan being the yen. They always wanted a weak currency. They're trying to get a weak currency now. Now, it doesn't sound good, but you make a hell of a lot more money with a weaker dollar, not a weak dollar, but a weaker dollar than you do with a strong dollar. And the first people that are going to notice it are the manufacturers of trucks and various other things. Like, look at Caterpillar, how well they're doing now. When you have a strong dollar, you can't sell anything. It's only good for inflation and it's good psychologically. It makes you feel good. But with that being said, I love a strong dollar, but you make your money with a currency -- and I had so many different fights with President Xi with -- I mean, with -- between Japan and China, all they want to do is have a weak currency. They're always fighting for a weak currency and that's how they really dominated over the years. So when I see it down there, I don't lose sleep over it. Let's put it that way. In fact, sometimes I go to sleep very happy. You understand.

 

Question: I do.

 

Trump: Do you agree with me?

 

Question: I agree with a lot of what you said, Mr. President. Do you think it makes any easier to impose your tariff with that lower dollar? Because the –

 

Trump: I think it makes it easier even for tariffs, yeah. And it makes the tariffs worth much more. And it's easier to pay off debt and it's easier to get a low Interest rate, too. There are a lot of good things. It's hard to explain to people the headline will read, oh, Trump wants a weak dollar, not a weak dollar. You take a look at the history of China over the last 20 years, all they do is fight for a weak currency. Look at Japan when they were really doing well. They had a very weak currency. So to me, I just say thank you very much. It is what it is.

 

Question: Mr. President, what's your comment on -- Have you given up on a Gaza ceasefire?

 

Trump: Yeah. Well, the Gaza situation, and I said this was going to happen when you get down to your last 10 or 20. We got a lot of hostages out. We took them out in numbers that nobody believed a lot of them. And I said when you get down to 10 or 20, I don't think Hamas is going to make a deal because that means they have no protection. And basically, that's what happened. Hamas didn't want to make a deal.

 

Question: Have you seen the photos --

 

Trump: I think what's going to happen is they're going to be hunted down.

 

Question: Have you considered secondary sanctions sooner on Russia? Are you closer today to secondary sanctions?

 

Trump: We're looking at that whole situation. It could be that we'll have to put secondary sanctions on them.

 

Question: Sooner than 50 days?

 

Trump: Maybe, yeah.

 

Question: Do you think it's counterproductive -- do you think it's counterproductive --

 

Trump: Who are you with? Who are you with?

 

Question: Scripps News.

 

Trump: Oh, good.

 

Question: Do you think it's counterproductive for France to say that they would recognize the Palestinian state? Macron said that yesterday.

 

Trump: Look, he's a different kind of a guy. He's OK. He's a team player pretty much. But here's the good news, what he says doesn't matter. You know? It's not going to change anything.

 

Question: Are you going to meet with President Putin in Turkey?

 

Trump: Well, he made a statement, France, Macron. His statement doesn't carry any weight. He's a very good guy, I like him, but that statement doesn't carry weight.

 

Question: How close are you to a trade deal with the EU?

 

Trump: I would say that we have a 50/50 chance, maybe less than that, but a 50/50 chance of making a deal with the EU. And it'll be a deal where they have to buy down their tariff. Because they're, right now, at 30 percent and they'll have to buy them down, maybe, or they could leave them the way they are. But they want to make a deal very badly. I would have said we have a 25 percent chance with Japan and they kept coming back and we made a deal and the deal is -- don't forget, Japan is putting up $550 billion. That's a lot of money and also paying tariffs. The biggest part of the Japan deal, and maybe we get this with EU, maybe we don't, is that we have the right to go in and trade. We have the right. They've totally opened Japan to the -- just to the US. That's, to me, the biggest part of the deal.

 

Question: On nuclear disarmament -- you said repeatedly you would like to see further nuclear arms reductions between the United States and Russia.

 

Trump: I would like to see that.

 

Question: But the New Start Treaty is expiring in about six months and it cannot be legally extended.

 

Trump: That's a problem -- that's a problem for the world.

 

Question: [Inaudible] a new one?

 

Trump: It's a problem for the world. You know, we have restrictions and they have restrictions, as you know, on nuclear. That's not an agreement you want expiring. We're starting to work on that. But that is a -- that is a big problem for the world. When you take off nuclear restrictions, that's a big problem for the world.

 

Question: Mr. President? [Inaudible] Jerome Powell [Inaudible]

 

Trump: I think that Jerome Powell, I think we had a very good meeting. Forgetting about the building, that's out of control and all that. But I think we had a very good meeting on interest rates and he said to me -- now, I don't know if he's going to say this on Thursday or whenever he speaks, but he said to me very strongly, the country is doing well. He said, congratulations, the country is doing really well. And I got that to mean that I think he's going to start recommending lower rates.

 

Question: Because of that conversation? How you think that the Supreme Court --

 

Trump: The country really is doing well too.

 

Question: Mr. President, how do you think --

 

Trump: Record business. Wait one second. Let --

 

Question: Thank you. Mr. President. How do you think that the Supreme Court's ruling that benefited you on presidential immunity would apply to former President Barack Obama and what you're accusing him of doing?

 

Trump: It probably helped him a lot, probably helped him a lot, the immunity ruling, but it doesn't help the people around him at all. But it probably helped him a lot. He's done criminal acts, there's no question about it. But he has immunity and it probably helped him a lot.

 

Question: [Inaudible]

 

Trump: He owes me big. Obama owes me big.

 

Question: What are the details in the UK trade agreement you're hoping to fine tune with the prime minister this week?

 

Trump: We want to talk about certain aspects, which is going to be good for both countries, more fine tuning. And also, we're going to do a little celebrating together because you know, we got along very well. UK's been trying to make a deal with us for like 12 years and haven't been able to do it. We got it done. He's doing a very good job, good prime minister, good guy. We really get along very well. So we're going to see -- we're going to meet at Turnberry and we're going to meet at Aberdeen. So two beautiful places.

 

Question: Is there wiggle room and steel and aluminum if they were to budge on digital services tax?

 

Trump: Say it.

 

Question: Is there wiggle room and steel and aluminum if they were to budge on digital services tax?

 

Trump: Not a lot, because if I do it for one, I have to do it for all. So on that, steel and aluminum, not a lot.

 

Question: Mr. President, did you speak to Netanyahu about aid drops?

 

Trump: Yeah, I speak to him, but I can't tell you what I spoke to him about. But it was sort of disappointing. Although I told you, I mean, I told you, I told you, when you get down to those last 20 hostages you get down to that last 10 or 20, it's going to be very hard for Hamas to make a deal because they lose their shield, they lose their cover. We got a lot of them out, a lot of them. We took a lot of bodies out too. You know, so many of the parents said please get my son's body back and we're able to do that. We got a lot of people out, live and people that are not alive, but it was very important to the parents to get their son back even though they knew their son was dead.

 

Question: Are you going to be able to get the Open Championship back to Turnberry?

 

Trump: I think they will do that, yeah. They want -- Turnberry is rated the number one course in the world. I think they'll do that. Yeah.

 

Question: And are you going to talk to anybody about that?

 

Trump: No, I'm not going to -- it's not about that. I'm going to see it for the first time in years. You were there the last time we went. It's pretty good, right. No, it's the best resort in the world, I think, that Turnberry and it's one of the greatest courses in the world. We're going to see it. We're going to have, I believe, dinner at Turnberry with the prime minister. Then we're going to go to the oil capital of Europe, which is Aberdeen and we're going to have lunches there. And we're going to have a good time. I think the prime minister and I get along very well.

 

Question: And you're going to see the Scottish leader too, right, Swinney? John Swinney?

 

Trump: I am.

 

Question: What's that about?

 

Trump: Well, we have a lot of things in Scotland. I have a lot of love. My mother was born in Scotland, and he's a good man. The Scottish leader's a good man, so I look forward to meeting him. That's all set up, right?

 

Karoline Leavitt: Yes, sir.

 

Question: Mr. President, tariff day is exactly one week from today, August the 1st. What do you expect between now and next Friday as it relates to your deadline?

 

Trump: When you say -- you say tariff, not Paris?

 

Question: Tariff.

 

Trump: Tariff. I thought you said Paris Day.

 

Question: No, tariff day.

 

Trump: Well, most of the deals are finished right now. They're finished because we're just going to charge a certain tariff, a lower tariff that I could get. I don't want to hurt country, but we're going to send a letter out sometime during the week. And it's basically going to say you're going to pay 10 percent, you're going to pay 15 percent, you're going to pay maybe less, I don't know. But Australia was great. They opened up beef yesterday for the first time ever, and they did it -- we didn't know about it. We asked them to do it. And all of a sudden, we got a word that they wanted -- so obviously, they're looking to do something, but Australia. So August 1st is going to come and we will have most of our deals finished, if not all. We haven't really had a lot of luck with Canada. I think Canada could be one where they'll just pay tariff, not really a negotiation. We're working very diligently with Europe, the EU, which covers a lot of territory -- a lot of territory, a lot of countries and that's the big one right now. We have the confines of a deal with China. But we haven't really -- we don't have a deal with Canada. We haven't been focused on it.

 

Question: Mr. President, when you send out those letters, do you believe that will bring some certainty to the financial markets, because then they will know --

 

Trump: When those letters go out, there's a page and a half, that means they have a deal, it's done, they pay that tariff and that is a contract, essentially. And they can come into the country, they're going to pay a tariff. I'm going to keep it minimal. I'm going to keep it -- I'm not looking to hurt countries. I could do that too, but I'm not looking to do that. But when that letter goes out, that's the deal. And we'll be sending maybe close to 200 of those letters out. Don't forget, we have a lot of countries, so we're going to be sending out almost 200 of those letters. But once those letters go out there, we have a deal. Now, we sent some to -- we sent one to Japan, we sent one to EU and they came back and negotiated a deal. I think EU has got a pretty good chance of making a deal.

 

Question: With all of that revenue coming in, Mr. President --

 

Trump: Yeah, a lot of money.

 

Question: A lot of money.

 

Trump: Our country was a dead country. It was a dead country one year ago. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world and don't you feel it?

 

Question: Mr. President, with all of that revenue coming in, tens and tens of billions of dollars, do you think there is the possibility of a rebate to the American public in terms of all of that money?

 

Trump: We're thinking about that, actually? We have so much money coming in, we're thinking about a little rebate, but the big thing we want to do is pay down debt, but we're thinking about a rebate. That's a very good question. You just made a lot of news. We're thinking about a rebate because we have so much money coming in from tariff, that -- tariffs, that a little rebate for people of a certain income level might be very nice.

 

Question: Are you considering a meeting with Putin?

 

Question: Is Israel allowing enough humanitarian aid in Gaza? Do you think Israel is allowing enough humanitarian aid into Gaza?

 

Trump: Well, they have -- they're being blocked by Hamas. They're being blocked by a lot of people. People don't know this and we didn't certainly get any acknowledgment or thank you. But we contributed $60 million to food and supplies and everything else. We hope the money gets there because, you know, that money gets taken, the food gets taken. We're going to do more, but we gave a lot of money. We gave a majority of the money and the sad part is that no other country other than us gives anything.

 

Question: Have you spoken to Michael Whatley about running for that North Carolina - -

 

Trump: I have. Yeah.

 

Question: And will he run, do you think?

 

Trump: I think he will.

 

Question: Teacher shortages, sir, what can be done - -

 

Trump: Are you from North Carolina?

 

Question: My father lives there.

 

Trump: He’ll be a good candidate.

 

Question: What can be done to bring more teachers, more educators into the classroom to alleviate the teacher shortage across the country?

 

Trump: We're doing that and we're doing it strongly. What we're doing is moving education back to the states. The states will run education. When they do it, you're going to have the best education in the world. We'll have 35 or 40 states where it will be as good as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, you know, the top five or six countries.

 

Question: How do you attract the top talent, the top talent, the top teachers, to get them in the classroom?

 

Trump: We're going to get them. We already have them. When we bring -- when we go back to the States with education, you're going to see a big difference.

 

Question: Mr. President would you consider clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell, is that on the table?

 

Trump: What is that?

 

Question: Would you consider clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell? Is that on the table?

 

Trump: I can't talk about that now because it's a very sensitive interview going on. Todd Blanche is a great gentleman. He's a great man, who is a great lawyer. He's got a great heart, but he's over there now. I don't know exactly what's happening, but I certainly can't talk about pardons now.

 

Question: Can you trust what she's telling him? She's a convicted trafficker who's eager to get out of prison.

 

Trump: Well, you know, he's a professional lawyer, I think he -- he's been through things like this before, but you know, you should focus on Clinton. You should focus on the president of Harvard, the former president of Harvard. You should focus on some of the hedge fund guys. I'll give you a list. These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein. I sure as hell didn't. Thank you very much.

 

Question: [Inaudible] do you think Mr. Powell [Inaudible]

 

Trump: All I want him to do is lower interest rates. We have the hottest country in the world. We had a dead country one year ago. Now we have the hottest country in the world. All I want him to do is to do is lower interest rates because that'll take care of the houses. The housing is a little bit slower than everything else. Everything we're 100 percent on, but the housing, because his rate is too high. If he lowers it, you're going to see a housing boom on top of everything. We've got the hottest country in the world. Thank you.

 

Question: Mr. President [Inaudible]

 

Trump: We'll see what happens.

 

Question: Mr. President, have you seen the new South Park episode making fun of you?

 

Trump: What?

 

Question: The new South Park episode making fun of you?

 

Trump: I haven't. I've never watched South Park. I don't know anything about South Park. I never watched South Park.

 

Note: [audio gap]

 

Trump: And he was very proud. He told me, I wish I came out stronger, but I didn't want to [Inaudible] He was a great guy. He was an unbelievable gentleman. I'll tell you what he really -- he was a physical specimen. Because you could be a good showman but if you're not a physical specimen, it's not going to work. You've got to go into another line. But I've watched him lift 350-pound men over his head and throw him out of the ring.

 

Question: Andre the Giant.

 

Trump: No, he was the real deal. He was MAGA all the way he said. I wish I got these -- I've always loved you. You know, we've always been friends, but he wasn't a political guy. And in the last three years, I'd say, he became really political. And he said, I'm so angry at myself for not doing it earlier. He was happy. But you know, he took a beating. When you look at the life that they lived, he would wrestle sometimes 200 times a year. Think of that. I say, what do you wrestle every weekend? No, he said, sometimes we wrestle every night and it's hard to believe. But being a friend, I got to see his life a little bit and his knees were in trouble. His back was in trouble. He was -- he was in such trouble, but he was great. He was a great man. He was an incredible showman and he was really a great friend and he was a great friend to MAGA, MAGA.

 

Question: Mr. President, you signed an executive order to help clean up the streets of America yesterday and help get the homeless people into treatment. Can you talk about why this is a commonsense approach to help make everybody pay for it?

 

Trump: Well, it is and right outside, we have some tents. I'm getting rid of them right now. You can't do that, especially in Washington. D.C. I talk to the mayor about it all the time. I said, you got to get rid of the tents. You can't have it. When leaders come to see me to make a trade deal for billions and billions and even trillions of dollars and they come in and there's tents outside of the White House, we can't have that. It doesn't sound nice, but --

 

Question: Mr. President, you want to see peace in Ukraine -- sir, you want to see peace in Ukraine, would it take to force Zelenskyy and Putin to sit down together, maybe with you?

 

Trump: It's going to happen, but it should have happened three months ago. It's going to happen.

 

Question: Mr. President, should Obama be -- What is your message to Harvard now that Colombia has agreed to pay $200 million?

 

Trump: Well, Harvard wants to settle, but I think Colombia handled it better. Harvard wants to settle, but you know, they have a very good judge. They have a judge who will almost absolutely rule in their favor, even though it's our case all the way. But they have a very good Obama-appointed judge, and so they'll get a little kick out of that. But ultimately, we win their case. And the bottom line is we're not going to give any more money to Harvard. We're not giving any more money. They were getting $5 billion and $6 billion, $7.2 billion. We want to spread the wealth to other schools.

 

Question: Mr. President, Obama and the people around him --

 

Transcript courtesy of Roll Call