TRANSCRIPT: Press Gaggle: Donald Trump Speaks to Reporters Before Marine One Departure - July 1, 2025
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President Trump: Good morning. We're going out to Alligator Alcatraz. It's an East Coast version and it should be very exciting, very good, worked very hard on it with Ron and everybody and I think it's going to be great. And then I'll be back here fighting for the bill, and I hear it's going OK; we'll move it along. But we'll be back here pretty early.
Question: You've been warning some Republicans not to go too crazy with the cuts. Are there parts of the bill or amendments that you think cut too much?
Trump: We're gonna have to see the final version. I don't want to get too crazy with cuts. I don't like cuts. There are certain things that have been cut, which is good. I think we're doing well. We're going to have to see. It's very complicated stuff. Great enthusiasm, as you know. And I think in the end we're going to have it. What do you think, Karoline? Yeah I think we’ll have it.
Question: What do you think about Zohran Mamdani having such a hard time condemning the phrase, globalize the intifada.
Trump: I think he's terrible. He's a communist. The last thing we need is a communist. I said there will never be socialism in the United States. Now we have a communist, so I think he's bad news and I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with him, watching him, because he has to come right to this building to get his money. And don't worry, he's not going to run away with anything. I think he's -- frankly, I've heard he's a total nut job. I think the people of New York are crazy. If they go this route, I think they're crazy. We will have a communist in the -- for the first time really, a pure, true communist. He wants to operate the grocery stores, the department stores, what about the people that are there? I think it's crazy.
Question: What happened to Elon Musk?
Trump: Who?
Question: What happened to Elon Musk?
Trump: Nothing. Now he's upset that he's losing his EV mandate, and he's upset. You know, he's very upset about things, but you know he could lose a lot more than that, I can tell you right now. Hey, Elon Elon can lose a lot more than that.
Question: Do you expect the ceasefire in Gaza to be agreed to before Prime Minister Netanyahu comes next week?
Trump: We hope it's going to happen and we're looking for it to happen sometime next week.
Question: So, that's after [Inaudible] all the hostages?
Trump: We want to get our hostages back. We want to get the hostages back.
Question: Why if the Big, Beautiful Bill doesn't pass? Do you have to go through item by item by item and pass this up one at a time or you just need to try again?
Trump: I think we're going to get there. It's tough. We're trying to bring it down, break it down so it's really good for the country, trying to get a lot for everybody. And it's a big bill and smaller bills would have been easier, but they wouldn't have been as good. I think it's going to do OK.
Question: And with the Alligator Alcatraz, is the idea that if some illegal immigrants escape, they just get eaten by an alligator or a snake or something?
Trump: I guess that's the concept. This is not a nice business. I guess that's the concept. If you -- you know, snakes are fast, but alligators are -- we're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator, OK, if they escape prison, how to run away. Don't run in a straight line, run like this. And you know what? Your chances go up about 1 percent, OK. Not a good thing.
Question: What are you going to talk to Netanyahu about next Monday?
Trump: So, he's coming here, we're going to talk about a lot of things. We're going to talk about the great success we had. I mean, we had an incredible -- in Iran, we had an incredible success like really nobody's had in many, many years. That was a precision war strike, and the word obliteration can now be used because the Atomic Energy Commission said you can't even get into the place. It was demolished; it was really demolished. It was a great, brilliant strike and -- how to go forward. We're also going to talk about Gaza. We want to get -- the rest. We got a lot of hostages back, but we're going to talk about Gaza.
Question: Per Elon Musk, are you going to deport Elon Musk?
Trump: I don't know, I think we'll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon, wouldn't that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies, Peter. But Elon's very upset that the EV mandate is going to be terminated. And you know what, when you look at it, who wants -- not everybody wants an electric car, I don't want an electric car.I want to have maybe, gasoline, maybe electric, maybe a hybrid, maybe someday a hydrogen. If you have a hydrogen car, it has one problem --it blows up, you know. So, I'm going to give that one to Peter, going to let Peter test it out. The hydrogen cars, and when they blow up, it's serious. They find you five blocks away, it's not good.
Question: How are the [ inaudible] going? Are there any countries we can expect to see before the July 9th deadline?
Trump: Everything's going well. Honestly, everything. This is very complicated because it's very big, a lot of different areas. Look, the Republicans have their heart in it. The Democrats want to -- they just want to destroy our country. A Democrat wants to destroy the country. They won't vote on it. They don't vote on anything. This is the biggest tax cut in history. The biggest everything, everything -- it's the biggest in history. It's the best bill we've ever had. We can't get one Democrat vote.
Question: When do you think you'll get final – When
Trump: He's a nice guy, Peter. What do you think? He's a nice guy, Peter. What do you think?
Question: When do you’ll get the final passage of the bill?
Trump: Hopefully soon. Hopefully today if we can, final passage. When I say final, final is let's take Senate at a time, OK. But I think Senate could be today and we go over to the House.
Question: What about Senator Murkowski? Is there any way to placate her?
Trump: Who knows? You tell me, you tell me, is there? Alaska has done so well with me. There's never been a president better to Alaska than me, but it doesn't mean people appreciate it. Have a good time.
Question: [Inaudible] tax dollars on funding abortion, they really support that, but the catholic bishops are worried that will hurt immigrant families and children who strong ties to American communities. What do you tell the catholic bishops, sir?
Trump: I think we’re gonna have a good relationship with the catholic bishops, as you know, I won the catholic vote by a lot, not by a little, by a lot, and we have very good relationships and we’ll see what happens. We deal with them. And we deal with them well. But, I won the catholic population by a lot.
Question: [Inaudible] What’s your message to Republicans who are not yet on board?
Trump: I think it would be very wise for them to get on board. I really do. I think- It’s a great bill and nothing’s easy because we made a great big, we added everything in there for everybody. And it’s also a beautiful economic development bill, great for the border, great for low taxes. And I would say they have to do it, really, I would would say that. And if they don’t do it, well, they’ll suffer the consequences.
Question: And on the timeline are you willing to move down the timeline, Mr. President?
Trump: Yeah.
Question: [Inaudible] What would make of that, that Republicans should bang their heads in shame [Inaudible].
Trump: Look Elon is not getting his mandate as you know. He wanted an electric mandate and he should've known I wouldn’t do that, I couldn’t do that I campaigned on this thing for two years. I never understand why he did what he did. But, he’s not gonna get his mandate and he better be careful because he might not get anything else.