TRANSCRIPT: Remarks: Donald Trump Meets with Foreign Ministers from DRC and Rwanda - June 27, 2025
[Video]
President Trump: Well, thank you very much. And I'd like to ask Karoline, who's become very famous, big star, and she has a person who's a colleague of hers, a friend of hers and that she has a lot of respect for, who comes from the area and knows exactly what's happening. Karoline, could I ask you to say a few words?
Karoline Leavitt: Yes, sir. Here we have Arianna, who is from the continent of Africa. She's been a reporter here in the United States for many years. And she has a story to share with the press, with the media, and with these two fantastic leaders who have joined you today. So, Arianna, please.
Trump: Why don't you come up here and talk so they can see?
Arianna Poindexter: Sure. [Laughter]
Trump: That'd be great. Thank you very much.
Poindexter: Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: It's a great honor.
Poindexter: Thank you, Mr. President. So, as Karoline has mentioned, President, first of all, I want to let you know that I'm the only African reporter accredited here at the White House --
Trump: Wow.
Poindexter: Cover for the entire continent. So, I just arrived from Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo --
Trump: Right
Poindexter: Yesterday. I went to see firsthand how the peoples is feeling and the president's message, President Felix Tshisekedi, about this upcoming peace deal. And let me tell you firsthand what I witnessed myself. I spoke with the people on the street. I spoke with youth. They know your name. They know that a president named President Trump is working hard to finally bring peace to the country. I saw hope. They have hope now for a better day in Congo. They see what you're doing as a future, better future for Congo. And I had opportunity to sit down with President Felix Tshisekedi for an interview because I want to understand his mind, what he's thinking, he's feeling about everything that your administration is doing.
Poindexter: And he told me firsthand that, for many years, many American presidents overlooked this conflict. They didn't do nothing. Even myself, I covered President Biden's administration, I pressed many times about this conflict. People are dying in Congo. This country has so much potential, but they need help because this war is destroying the country.
Trump: That's right.
Poindexter: They never gave me any answer. And he told me, President Tshisekedi, that he's very -- you have no idea. He's very thankful for what you're doing, for what your administration is doing. Not only him, the entire Congolese people, they see that finally they will have hope. And President Tshisekedi also mentioned at the end of my interview that, when peace finally come to Democratic Republic of the Congo, he's thinking to nominate you as a Nobel Prize Peace, because he said you deserve. You have been working to bring peace in the -- in the world, not only at the Congo. And he's very hopeful to meet you in the future.
Trump: That's so nice. Boy, what -- and that's so beautifully stated. And Karoline said, number one, she did say -- and I shouldn't say this because it's politically incorrect. She said she's beautiful, and you are beautiful. [Laughter] I'm not allowed to say that. You know, that could be the end of my political career, but I'll say it anyway. But you are beautiful, and you're beautiful inside. That's a -- so, I wish I had more reporters like you -- [Laughter] But you covered Africa for a long time?
Poindexter: Yes, for over 10 years.
Trump: Wow.
Poindexter: I follow -- I cover even your first administration.
Trump: Yes, I know that. That's great. Well, thank you. That's so nice that you said that.
Poindexter: Thank you.
Trump: Appreciate it.
Poindexter: Can I have one more question --
Trump: Yes.
Poindexter: Mr. President? Since we know in July or in the future, both president of Rwanda and the Congo will be coming to --
Trump: Yes.
Poindexter: United States. In Africa, President Joao Lourenco, the president of Angola, he is also the leader of African Union.
Trump: Good. Yes, I know.
Poindexter: He worked very hard to bring peace, but unfortunately --
Trump: Let's get him here.
Poindexter: Yes. That's what --
Trump: Ok? Would you invite him for me?
Poindexter: Of course.
Trump: Ok. [Laughter] No, we'll have -- I know that he works very hard. And he's the head of essentially the union, so the union all over Africa, not the kind of union that we have. This is the union all over Africa. And I'd love to have him, so you'll let him know, ok?
Poindexter: Of course, Mr. President.
Trump: Thank you very much. Good. Now you'll go back to where you belong, right?
Poindexter: Sure. [Laughter]
Trump: That's great. That was a great job. That's real knowledge, and a real heart too. Congratulations. Ok. So, we're here today to celebrate a glorious triumph, and that's what it is, for the cause of peace. And this is a long time waiting, the signing of a historic peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda. The conflict has continued, and it's been going on for many, many years. It's been going from -- I guess they say 30 years, the Great Lakes region of Africa for a long time, and maybe even a time before that. How is the Great Lakes region? It must be beautiful, right?
Unidentified: It is.
Trump: Beautiful, beautiful region, but they had a lot of war, right, a lot of fighting, a lot of death. It's displaced countless people and claimed the lives of thousands and thousands. But today, the violence and destruction comes to an end, and the entire region begins a new chapter of hope and opportunity, harmony, prosperity and peace. That's -- that's been a long time waiting. I said, how long has the war been going? And a friend of mine, who is very much involved, said 30 years, and at least six -- six million people were killed during that period of time. It's incredible. And somebody said that was actually -- it's the biggest war on the planet since World War II. So, it's -- it's a shame, but we're going to bring it to an end. I want to express my gratitude and congratulations to the representatives of the Democrat Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda who signed this pivotal agreement a short time ago. They just signed right in front. And let me also thank Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has worked very hard on this subject, and we've worked on it together, for his outstanding leadership, as well as Senior Advisor for African and Africa Affairs, Massad Boulos, who's -- as you know, spends a lot of his time in Africa, and he's very comfortable there.
I said, were you at all uncomfortable with all of the turmoil and all of the killing? And he said, no, I wasn't uncomfortable. And that's what you need. You need somebody that's going to be able to get -- so, Massad, I want to thank you very much for the job you've done. Amazing guy, actually. I also want to thank African Union, Qatar, Togo for working closely with the United States. And I know Qatar was really working hard. And African Union, we just spoke about that. It -- I look forward to having them -- representatives here when we do the official meeting. And that'll be sometime in July, and we look forward to it. And you better be here covering it, ok? You better -- we're not going to stand anybody else covering it but you. But this is a tremendous breakthrough. In a few short months, we've now achieved peace between India and Pakistan, Israel and Iran, and the DRC and Rwanda, and a couple of others also. Serbia, you know, was -- they were getting ready to go to war with a group I won't even mention because it didn't happen. We were able to stop it. But I have a friend in Serbia, and they said we're going to go to war again. And I won't -- I won't mention that it's Kosovo, but it's Kosovo. But they were going to have a -- a big time war and we stopped it. We stopped it because of trade. They want to trade with the United States.
I said we don't trade with people that go to war. And we said that also with -- if you take a look at Pakistan and India, it was great. They have two great leaders, two great leaders, and they were able to stop. They were in the midst of a big -- a big fight I guess everybody saw, and it was going to get very bad. And they are nuclear nations, very powerful nuclear nations. In the months and years ahead, my administration will continue to work closely with all of the parties in this deal, and ensure the agreements are fully taken care of and you're going to do what's in the agreement. We'll say, you better do what's in that agreement, right? Because if somebody fails to do that, bad things happen. But I have a feeling that after 30 years, I think after 30 years, you're all set.
Therese Kayikwamba Wagner: We are.
Trump: I think both of you have said, that's enough, right?
Olivier Nduhungirehe: That's enough.
Trump: That's enough. You've seen it all. So this is a wonderful day. It's a great day. We've had some tremendous success. It's been a great week between just coming back from a very successful trip, NATO. NATO has really pulled together. They're going to spend over $1 trillion a year. Nobody expected a thing like that to happen. And we had the war, as you know, that was -- we call it the 12 Day War. It was exactly a 12-day war and we ended up with no nuclear weapons. That's what we wanted. They were just absolutely blown to pieces, those three sites and there's no nuclear weapons and hopefully there can be a lot of healing. And the healing is starting.
And just, it's been really pretty amazing week. And this is one that I really look forward to. This was set up a few weeks ago, and it was something that I really look forward to, if we can do this and we do that, because we have a certain competence that's good, we're able to get people to be peaceful. I think we can do war better than anybody, but we don't want to. And we have the greatest military in the world. They showed that in Iran, those pilots. They flew for 36 hours. And think of that, and they hit their target, the size of this desk, half the size of this desk from about 52,000 feet in the dark of night with no moon, zero moon. They wanted it that way. Can you believe it? And they hit -- every missile hit exactly half the size of this beautiful resolute desk. We don't want to talk about it when it comes to rockets hitting it, but half the size of this and they hit dead center from tremendous heights, going at tremendous speeds. It's amazing. Nobody could do a thing like that because nobody has that weaponry and nobody could do a thing like that. So we had a very busy and successful week.
In addition to that, our economy is doing great, setting records with the economy and a lot of other good things happening. But this is about Congo and Rwanda. And I'd like to ask if I might, would you say a few words before we introduce our guests, please?
Massad Boulos: Sure. Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: Yes.
Boulos: So under your leadership, Mr. President, and the full support of Secretary Rubio and the entire team at the State Department, we engaged with the two parties in early April. And within three weeks they signed the Declaration of Principles. And now, within about two months from that, we have signed today the final -- This is actually the final peace agreement. You know, many people were wondering if this is preliminary. No, this is the actual final peace agreement that they've signed today. You've also expressed interest in inviting the heads of states to the White House for a signing ceremony. So there will be some other additional agreements that will be signed in addition to this, which will become known as the Washington Accord, with regards to the Great Lakes region.
Trump: That's great.
Boulos: There are some --
Trump: Why not the Trump accord? I'm only kidding. [Inaudible] No, I think that's a great name, Washington Accord, beautiful.
Boulos: And there's an economic aspect as well that is extremely important for both countries. They have also worked -- last week, we finalized the regional economic integration framework, which both countries will be signing at the White House here during that ceremony.
Trump: That's going to be a great ceremony.
Boulos: Absolutely.
Trump: Right? We're going to make that a great ceremony and bring other people that were involved, some other people, besides the gentleman we talked about who we know has worked so hard. If you think there are other people that are deserving, let us know. OK?
Poindexter: Sure.
Boulos: And there will be some bilateral agreements. We're negotiating a minerals deal with the DRC for critical minerals. Many American companies have shown interest in investing in the DRC, and these, we're talking about long term investments. Same thing with Rwanda, many American companies have shown interest and not only in mining, but also in the midstream and downstream, which would be the processing of minerals. We're also working and supporting the Lobito corridor, which will help building the infrastructure. Just two days ago, the United States signed -- well, and supported a project of $1.5 billion for electric transmission from Angola to the DRC. And there are many other projects of that nature lined up. So we will be under your leadership, Mr. President, we'll be working with the two countries very closely and with the support of Qatar to make sure that this agreement is implemented.
Trump: And a lot of our companies are in both of these countries now, especially since we've been getting along so well. It's probably the way we were brought together and we have a lot of our big companies are there between Rare Earth and all of the other things that they do in Africa, which is very greatly expanding, especially in these two countries. You have Earth, they consider it to be about the best in the world actually, I've heard. So we're doing a lot of different things and it's all going to bring everybody together. That's how this all began, I guess. But the big thing is -- the big thing for me is there's really only one thing and that's getting a peace treaty with two countries that have been fighting for 30 years. And I want to thank you all. Will, if you could, you could bring the letters over.
Will Scharf: Yes, sir. Of course, sir. So in front of you, as you said, sir, these are the actual agreements that were signed respectively by the foreign ministers of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda earlier today, witnessed by Secretary Rubio. We've also prepared for you two letters. This is to President Paul Kagame of Rwanda expressing your appreciation and congratulations for everything that's happened already and of course, inviting him to Washington, for as Dr. Boulos said, what we hope will be the Washington Accords, finally setting the terms for peace and prosperity in this region, hopefully for a very long time.
Trump: That's great. That's beautiful, very important. We're going to put a picture in there, right? As soon as this is over, they're going to put -- we have a fast-moving photographer, Dan, who's going to put a nice picture of us right here. OK. That's for you.
Scharf: And this is a letter to President Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, again, congratulating him on settling this long, running war and inviting him to Washington, DC for the final conclusion of the agreement, hopefully soon.
Trump: That's great. Nice, right? Take that pen and you take that pen.
Unidentified: Thank you very much.
Trump: So, I'd like to ask JD to say a few words, our great vice president. and then Marco, and go ahead.
JD Vance: Great. Well, first, let me welcome the foreign ministers of Rwanda and Congo. It's great to have you in the Oval Office. And second, let me say congratulations to the president, Secretary Rubio, the entire team. I think for the people of these two countries, they should know that the United States is committed to the pathway of peace. But to my fellow Americans, this is really a celebratory moment. This is a big moment for our country, because under the president's leadership we've taken what was 30 years of killing and war, the worst war in terms of death count since World War II, and now we're on a pathway to peace. And so if I think about what I know about these two countries for 30 years, pretty much the entire time that I can remember, these two countries being in the news, much of the story has been about them fighting one another, about them killing one another. And now we can look forward to a future where my children will look at this moment as the beginning of a new story, a story of prosperity and of peace. So thanks to the president. Congratulations to the entire team. And to my fellow Americans, we should all be really proud because it's amazing what active presidential leadership can accomplish when it's geared towards peace and prosperity, and that's what we have in the Oval Office right now. So great job, sir.
Trump: Thank you very much, JD. And Marco and then we're going to ask the two principals to speak.
Marco Rubio: Yes, sir. Mr. President, first of all, thank you. When I first came on this job a few months ago, you made it very clear what the priority of this administration under your leadership is going to be the pursuit of peace. And from day one, whether it's been in Ukraine and Russia, whether it's been Pakistan, India, whether it's been Iran and Israel, and in the continent of Africa, your priority has been on peace and today we see this come to fruition. It's sad wars get a lot more attention than peace, but peace is harder than war, a lot harder. And I want to congratulate both of the leaders here and their respective presidents for choosing the harder path, which is often peace, than the easier path, which sometimes is war, as costly and as bloody as it may be. And I echo the vice president's statements and that is that Americans should be very proud that the number one voice for peace in the world today is our president, your president. And so thank you, President Trump. And I want to again recognize Dr. Boulos and the work he's put into this from day one. He's really put a lot of time and effort and as our friends from the respective countries can share with us. And last point, I do want to thank -- you've done this already, but the African Union, Togo and Qatar who have been extraordinary partners and whose help we're going to need to continue to receive in order to bring all this to fruition. So congratulations to both of you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.
Trump: Thank you. Great job you've done. Do you want to start? By the way, would you like to start?
Nduhungirehe: Ladies first?
Trump: Ok.
Kayikwamba Wagner: Thank you so much again.
Trump: Thank you very much.
Kayikwamba Wagner: Thank you so much, Mr. President, for having us here. I think I can summarize my contribution in three main points. First of all, thank you and congratulations indeed for this remarkable milestone, which is putting an end to 30 years of conflict and of suffering, and which is redefining the perspectives that millions of Congolese and of citizens of the greater Great Lakes region will have. The second point is stay committed. Stay on board. We need the United States to make sure that this agreement holds and that you hold us accountable. And the third point is, if you stay on board, I think there are so many perspectives that we can transform our partnerships through and that can usher in an era of prosperity, of growth and of shared bilateral relationships that go well beyond the challenges that we've shared together, and that can at least -- or finally focus on the potential and of the wealth that we can share. So, again, our heartfelt gratitude to you on my behalf, but more importantly, on behalf of the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thank you so much.
Trump: Ok. Beautifully spoken, and I look forward to seeing your leader. They will -- highly respected person, as you know --
Kayikwamba Wagner: Indeed.
Trump: Highly respected all over the world, but in Africa in particular. So, sometime in July, we'll do something, big ceremony.
Kayikwamba Wagner: We look forward to it.
Trump: Thank you very much. Please.
Nduhungirehe: Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. President. This is indeed a historic day, because it's the signing of a peace agreement between the Congo and Rwanda to end a conflict that has been going on for 30 years. And there has been many mediation facilitation in the past, but none of them succeeded. And we believe that it's because of your leadership and your steadfast -- steadfast commitment to this process with also a new approach of economic integration, regional economic integration, which is important to allow Rwanda and DRC working together, because this is a very rich region with cross-border trade, with minerals, with natural wealth. So, with the US standing side by side with Rwanda and DRC, we believe that we will -- we will achieve long time peace. And we also believe that, as my colleague from DRC stated, it's important for the United States to stay committed, because today we signed, but now there is -- we need to implement what we have signed in order to open this new era you were talking about of -- of prosperity so that we can reap the economic dividend of peace. So, for this economic integration framework to -- to be implemented, it's important for the US to accompany the parties to implement what we have signed. Because in the past, we have signed so many agreements that were not implemented. And we are ready -- we believe that, with your leadership, with the involvement of the United States administration, we will reach that goal. So, thank you very much, Mr. President.
Trump: Well, this will happen, definitely. I can reach over. Do you want to just press them over to me? Let me have them. And I just wanted to give you each -- these are you signed agreements. And we'll make sure that you follow through. We'll make sure you follow through. We'll make sure that you follow through. Ok. That's for you. And we have one other thing that we're going to give that we give to special people only. It's a coin.
Nduhungirehe: Thank you.
Trump: And I hope you do that. And we'll give you a second one for your leader.
Nduhungirehe: Oh, thank you very much.
Trump: Likewise for you. These are serious coins. You don't want to -- you don't want to lose them. You'll be very -- I think that your reporter from Africa should get one. What do you think? [Laughter] I think yes. Are the reporters ok with it? Brian, yes? Darling, that's for you, ok? You did a fantastic job.
Poindexter: Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: And I heard you do a great job in covering everything. Thank you.
Scharf: And Mr. President, we actually have the pictures that you took earlier --
Trump: Oh, let me see that.
Scharf: With the foreign ministers here already.
Kayikwamba Wagner: Thank you so much, Mr. President. Thank you.
Trump: Let me see that.
Scharf: They're in this folder right here, sir.
Trump: Ok. This one?
Scharf: Yes, sir.
Trump: Oh, they look better than me. I don't like it. [Laughter] That's beautiful. That's very good. We have a good photographer. Beautiful. That's great. You better -- I'll tell you, you better do the job here or we're going to come down. [Laughter] It's beautiful. Thank you very much. So, we'll put them in. That's for you.
Nduhungirehe: I can do that, sir, no problem.
Trump: That's for you. What is it?
Boulos: This is for the Congo.
Trump: What is it?
Boulos: For the Congo.
Trump: Yes. Ok. Let's see. We have two of them? I think so. You wouldn't give us one. You would have made a big mistake. No, that's nice. That's for you. That's for you.
Kayikwamba Wagner: Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: Thank you very much. And you're all set, and this is for you. You're going to get this. Good. Might as well hold it.
Kayikwamba Wagner: Thank you so much.
Trump: Thank you very much. Good luck.
Kayikwamba Wagner: Thank you.
Trump: Do you have any questions on this?
[Crosstalk]
Trump: No, not Canada. This isn't about Canada.
Question: Why not? Why not Canada, by the way?
Trump: Why?
Question: I mean –
Trump: Because this is about a different subject right now.
Question: But you're ending all the –
Trump: This is right now actually a much more important subject. We just ended a war that was going on for 30 years where six million people died. So, don't ask me a trade question on Canada.
Question: Mr. President, Kara from -- Kara Castonuova from LindellTV. Now that your administration, and congratulations, has secured peace in Africa to a bloody horrific war that's gone on for decades and no other president could do it, do you think the mainstream media will finally –
Trump: I love her, I'm telling you. [Laughter] I love her. But you're right, no other president could do it. They tried and they -- well, they didn't even try, I don't think -- I don't think. I actually don't think they tried. Do you think Biden tried? He didn't know he was alive.
Question: Do you think the mainstream media will finally give you credit where credit is due?
Trump: No. No, the media will never give me credit. But the people give me credit. That's why I'm here. The people didn't give me -- that's why we're here in a landslide. We got all seven states. We won the popular vote. We -- so, the media won't give me credit, but the people give me credit. That's more important to me.
Question: Mr. President, you're -- you're going to go down as a peacemaker. You're also going to go down with the president who has zero border crossings in May. You secured the border more -- most than anybody has ever done. But I don't know if you know this. You're on track right now to have the lowest murder rate in history in this country. And I think a large -- largely go to the fact you closed down the border. But you want to comment on that? You might go down as the -- the murder -- lowest murder rate in US history, President Trump.
Trump: I saw that the other day, and it's an honor, I mean. And that's really even better because, you know, we've taken a lot of illegals in -- into the country through Biden -- through the Biden administration that are murderers, 11,888 to be exact. And many of them are now gone. We got rid of them. They're back where they belong. But-- so, it's a great honor. You know, it's a -- if you took that out, it would be -- the numbers would be even better. They've created a lot of problems.
Question: One more question. You Truth Social'ed earlier about getting money to the air traffic controllers in the Big, Beautiful Bill, which hopefully, praise God, we get this thing signed. What does that mean to that industry that have been suffering the last couple years -- or couple years, probably a decade of being -- underfunding, you know, how that changed the safety of air travel?
Trump: Well, they've underfunded the airports for years. And I started the process of getting it completed in terms of the equipment necessary to land the planes, where the planes -- like the helicopter accident with the plane would have never happened if they had the right modern equipment. It would have -- been bells and whistles would have been going on all over the place. And I had that all set. But when I wasn't here, they totally dropped it. You had a terrible head of transportation. We have a very good one now, Sean Duffy. But you had Buttigieg, and he didn't know a damn thing. He'd ride to work on his bicycle. He didn't know what the hell was going on. He was terrible, so he totally dropped that. It was a project that should have happened, and I was all set. But we had a very sad experience with the voting. And so, we didn't get to do that, but now I'm doing it. And we're going to have a great system, and it's funded partially by the bill. It's -- the initial funding is by the bill and then it gets to be funded.
The rest of it comes a little bit later as we build it out. But we're going to build out the best in the world. We have the best companies in the world. A couple of countries have very good systems. In fact, I noticed when I was landing, my pilot often would use the system of another country. And I said, what are you doing that for? He said the United States system is so bad. So, we have the best companies that do that in the world bidding. You have Raytheon, you have IBM. You have a lot of different companies bidding. And we'll get the best one, the best system for the best price. And they're going to go to town and give us a system that will be better than any other system in the world. And you won't have planes bunking into each other at 35,000 feet.
Question: Mr. President?
[Crosstalk]
Question: On the subject of peace deals –
Trump: Yeah.
Question: How close is -- are you and your administration to a deal in terms of Gaza, a ceasefire right now?
Trump: Often asked, and I think it's close. I just spoke with some of the people involved. It's a terrible situation that's going -- Gaza he's -- he's asking about. And we think within the next week we're going to get a ceasefire. And we're supplying, as you know, a lot of money and a lot of food to that area because we have to and we have to. We're, in theory not involved in it, but we're involved because people are dying. And I look at those crowds of people that have no food, no anything and we're the ones that are getting it there. Some of it's being taken by some bad people. If you give it and you give it out and it's supposed to be taken care of the people and they end up stealing the food and selling it, but we have a pretty good system now. So we're helping with that. You see the lines of people that just get one meal, essentially. But it's too bad. Other countries aren't helping out. Nobody's helping out. We're doing that because I think we have to on a humanitarian basis. Like this, we didn't have to get involved in Africa, but we did because we thought it was -- I mean, I've been reading -- like JD said, he's, for much of his life, he's been just seeing this about this brutal war and it actually got a lot of publicity because of the level of brutality, right? Nobody's ever seen anything like it. And to be involved in that, I mean, I consider this the most important of my conferences today. We just had a great Supreme Court victory today and everybody would say that was big, but we're talking about saving thousands and probably millions of lives here. This is more important than anything. So it's great, but we're working on Gaza, trying to get it taken care of. And again, a lot of lot of food has been sent there. And other countries throughout the world should be helping also.
Question: And [Inaudible] conflict that I know you've been working on, sir, is it true that you have reached out with a letter to North Korea's Kim Jong Un?
Trump: Well, if there is a conflict, I get along with him very, very well and we'll get the conflict solved with North Korea. I've had a good relationship with Kim Jong Un and I've gotten along with him really great. So we'll see what happens. But somebody's saying there's a potential conflict. I think we'll work it out. If there is, it wouldn't involve us. But again, we're very far away from a lot of these places that we're solving problems with. But I enjoy doing it. I like doing it and it's the right thing to do and we have an ability to get it done. So we're solving things that we didn't have a lot to do. Serbia Kosovo, I told you we solved a potential disaster. I can tell you that some of the countries that you're not going to hear about, but some countries that were ready to go to war with their neighbor are not going to go to war with their neighbor, and that's a great thing. We have a number of them, but I'm very happy about India and Pakistan because they actually have nuclear weapons. When you talk about Iran, they were trying to get it. But India has nuclear weapons. Pakistan has nuclear weapons, high level nuclear weapons, both. And getting that solved was really great. We did it through trade. So it was a great thing.
Question: When it comes to nuclear weapons, Mr. President, are you concerned that the Iranians may have some enriched uranium at Pickax Mountain?
Trump: No, no. The last thing they're thinking about right now is enriched uranium. They're not thinking about -- what they want to do is they want to get back to life and they do want to meet me and we'll do that quickly. We're going to do it quickly. We'll have a meeting soon.
Question: They said this morning that they don't want to meet with the US? Were they telling you something different in private?
Trump: They may say that to you. Don't you think they want to meet me? Don't you think -- we have sanctions on there that they can't do anything. Wouldn't you think that they want to meet me? I mean, they're not stupid people, but they went through a lot and they suffered. And so did Israel. Israel suffered greatly. It was a nasty 12 days. And yeah, we'll see what happens.
Question: Mr. President, are you considering sending Patriot missiles to Ukraine? Have you made up your mind about that yet?
Trump: I may. Go ahead.
Question: Mr. President, there are a few unanswered questions that remain in this deal. For example –
Trump: This deal?
Question: On this deal, on this conflict. For example, will Rwandan troops pull back from parts of DR Congo and also will the M23 rebel group be allowed to Remain in parts of eastern DR Congo? Do you have any answers to those questions?
Trump: Well, let me ask you that question. Do you want to answer that one? It sounds like an interesting question for you. Go ahead, please.
Kayikwamba Wagner: Thank you very much. In the agreement we signed, we have taken the concept of operation for the neutralization of the FDLR, which is a vicious genocidal movement and the lifting of Rwandan defensive measures. So this was already signed last year in November. So we will implement it, this concept of operation to do both things, to neutralize this movement, which has been destabilizing Rwanda for many years and to lift our defensive measures. As for the M23, in the agreement, also, we have decided to rely on the Doha talks because they are currently talks between the AFC/M23 and the DRC government to have a peace deal also that will complement the Washington peace agreement. So both things are taken care of.
Question: Thank you. And Mr. President, will the United States be enforcing this agreement or taking a role in it?
Trump: I will be working with them to get it enforced. They can enforce their own agreement, but we'll be putting a lot of pressure on to make sure it gets enforced. The two people in this room are very, very capable people and they'll get it done. I think they'll get it done. They love their -- one thing I learned very quickly is how much you love your country and you want to get it done and they know it has to get done. Otherwise, bad things happen. But I think we're well beyond that. Other presidents should have done what I'm doing right now. They never did it. I don't think they ever tried. I don't think it's like they couldn't do it. I don't think they ever tried. And if they did, they wouldn't be able to do it anyway.
Question: Thank you. Mr. President, can you share with us what can happen if one of the parts violate this peace agreement, because we don't want war to come back to DRC?
Trump: Well, I'd rather not say. I will just say that there are big penalties if they violate and they're not going to -- I don't think they will violate. I think they mean it, but we have very severe penalties, financial and otherwise. OK?
Question: Mr. President, [Inaudible] circle back to your Truth Social post on Canada specifically? Why are you deciding to end trade talks with Canada and what rate are you looking to set?
Trump: So Canada put a charge on some of our companies and Canada has been a very difficult country to deal with over the years. We hear Canada. We have a great relationship with the people of Canada, but it's been very difficult and they put a charge and they were a little bit early. We found out about it, and we have all the cards. We have every single one. We don't want to do anything bad, but economically, we have such power over Canada. I'd rather not use it, but they did something with our tech companies today, trying to copy Europe. They copied Europe. It's not going to work out well for Europe either and it's not going to work out well for Canada. They were foolish to do it. So I said, we're going to stop all negotiations with Canada right now until they straighten out their act. OK?
Question: Is there anything Canada can do to change your mind about this situation?
Trump: Well, no, they put a tax on companies that were American companies that they shouldn't have, a very severe tax. And yeah, I guess they could remove it. They will, but I don't really -- I mean, it doesn't matter to me. We have all the cards. We have all the cards. We do a lot of business with Canada, but relatively little. They do most of their businesses with us and when you have that circumstance, you treat people better. They've had farmers that are getting like 300, 400, 200 percent in tariffs. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. We have cases, you don't read this and the people don't report, but they charge us 400 percent on some dairy products, 400 percent. Nobody writes that. It's not fair to our farmers and we've got to protect our farmers.
Question: Mr. President, you mentioned how much of a rate cut it would do to the interest on the debt. Earlier today, Director Polti was on CNBC talking about how he suggested Powell should resign. Any comments on whether or not Powell should step down? I know you've been pretty critical.
Trump: Well, I don't have a comment. I'd love him to resign if he wanted to. He's done a lousy job. Look, if you were there, you'd say, well, you know, the United States is doing well. They have no inflation. And if they do get inflation in a year or two, we'll start raising the rates, we'll get rid of the inflation, and do other things. Biden had the worst inflation in the history of our country, 19 percent, but I think it was much higher than that, frankly. They say 19 percent. I say. I think it's a lot higher than that. And we have almost no inflation now. We've done a great job in a short period of time. Energy prices are way down. Gasoline now is down to close to $2 in a lot of places. A couple of places I see it even broke, it's like $1.98 a gallon. We've done a great job on inflation and honestly pretty much everything else. I think it's very sad the way people act. You have a guy in there that with the stroke of a pen could lower interest rates and save us hundreds of billions of dollars a year, but he's a stupid person. It's very interesting. I'm not sure if he doesn't understand it because he should be able to understand it. It's sort of 1-0-1 economics, but I'm not sure of that. But think of it, with the stroke of a pen, he talks about costs, we can save $600 billion. Maybe even not -- these are nice numbers for you, right. 900 billion, $950 billion by lowering interest rates. And it's really just more of a paper movement. It's not like -- you're not cutting anything. You're not cutting jobs.
It's just interest rates. And we're number 40 or 44 -- number 45. Some places that you wouldn't believe that -- you know, I don't want to be disparaging, but they pay a lower interest rate than the United States of America. And without us, everything blows up. You know, we -- we sort of control the world in that sense. But we have a guy that's just a stubborn mule and a stupid person that is making a big mistake. He's making a mistake. And it lasts for years because when you do the debt -- now, I've instructed my people not to do any debt beyond nine months or so. Get this guy out and whoever is in there will lower rates if I don't -- if I think somebody's going to keep the rates where they are or whatever, I'm not going to put them in. I'm going to put somebody that wants to cut rates. There are a lot of them out there. And I said this morning a lot of the business shows today were saying, you know, Trump is right. He should be cutting rates. Think of it. We have a great country. We're making a lot of money. We're taking in billions of dollars in tariffs. We have one -- we have $15 trillion of money that wants to be invested here, which is a record in two months.
It breaks any record that we've ever had for a whole year, and not even close, 15 trillion. And it's going to be much higher than that. That's after essentially two months because, you know, we've been doing it for about two months, two and a half months. $15 trillion breaks every record in the book. There's never been anything like this. We have factories moving in. We have car plants moving in. We have -- everyone wants to be part of the United States. And as I told you, and I say it to everybody, when I was in the Middle East, the king of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, UAE, all great leaders, they have all great leaders, all three of them said you got the hottest country in the world, and you did it in -- at that time, I was there for four months because we got back a little while ago. But everybody says it, not only them, that we have the hottest country in the world right now. The only thing is we have a Fed chairman that is -- he doesn't get it. And you could have substantially lower -- like, if we cut them two points, we'd save more than 600 -- think of it, more than $600 billion just because you cut. But you can't go out to the market and say, well, we have a guy that's got us at 4 percent or 4.5 percent and we want to pay 2 percent or 1 percent. I think we should be paying 1 percent right now, and we're paying more because we have a guy who's -- you know, suffers from I think Trump Derangement Syndrome, if you want to know the truth. But he's not good for our country.
Question: Mr. President, did you push for –
[Crosstalk]
Question: Mr. President, the president of UVA, did you push for the –
Trump: No, no, not you, not you, not you.
Question: A related question on banking. There have been reports, Mr. President, that your administration is considering issuing an executive order about debanking, which is the practice of banks denying services based on people's political beliefs or industries such as crypto, people involved in that. Would you be open or interested to sign such an executive order targeting debanking, and -- and what might that look like?
Trump: Well, I think the de-bankers -- I think that banks -- I can tell you because I've been a victim myself because of my politics, that big banks were very nasty to us. And I actually think it was Biden's people that told them to be, because the one group of people the banks are afraid of are the regulators. They are petrified of the regulators. And I've seen the biggest banker -- I can tell you you see him on television all the time -- if a regulator walked into the room, he gets all nervous and crazy. They're afraid of regulators. And if the Biden people order the banks to be virtually closed, they could do anything they want. The regulators control the banks. It's not the president of the bank. The president of the bank is far less important to a bank than a regulator. And a regulator can put that bank out of business just like bad prosecutors are very dangerous. You know, we had a couple. I had deranged Jack Smith and some others, and we kicked their ass. But it was -- you know, it's a tough kind of a situation. Prosecutors are very dangerous. A great prosecutor is an amazing asset for a country, but a corrupt prosecutor, a bad prosecutor's very bad. Well, the regulators are the same thing. And when they tell the regulator to go and make it -- make life impossible for big banks or little banks, they really control it. So, there is a lot of debanking. And they say -- yeah, call it debanking, call it lot of different names, but essentially they make it impossible to do business. And those people are very bad and very dangerous, and they shouldn't be doing it.
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Question: You told us that -- Mr. President, could you please explain how taxes would go up by 68 percent if the bill isn't passed? Where does that number come from?
Trump: Well, it comes from the fact that you have automatically the Trump cuts, which were the biggest cuts that we've ever had. Now, these cuts are even bigger. But from the last administration we had the Trump cuts. It was a five year deal and it comes due. When you add that to the cuts that you already have and other things, it amounts, according to what they tell me, about 68 percent. That would mean you'd have a tax so that -- you know that the tax cuts that they got, the biggest tax cuts in our history, would immediately go up to that level. And that alone is a big chunk of the 68 percent. And then you have the other taxes that would accumulate. And they say that you'd have about a 68 percent tax increase.
Question: Sir, you said a moment ago that it won't work out very well for Europe on trade. Does that mean you want to cut off those negotiations as well and just tell them what they should be paying?
Trump: No. Well, they've been very tough. Europe -- the European Union was formed in order to take advantage of the United States on trade. That was why they were formed. And they're nasty. They're very nasty. We have a good relationship. I'm dealing with Ursula right now and the group, but it's a very -- it's a very tough situation. They have been unbelievably bad to us. If you look at past precedents, they've treated them very badly. They're being very nice to me because I get it. I know the system. And we have the cards. We have the cards far more than they do. And they have not treated us well. And they're coming to us right now. You know, I said I was going to put on a 50 percent tariff. As soon as I said that -- I put it out on Truth. As soon as I said that, they came to the table. They didn't want to come to the table, my people were telling me. Scott was telling me and the whole group was telling me that -- not a good situation. They -- they want to tap it down the line. They don't want to really deal. So, I said we're going to put a 50 percent tariff on you. And Howard, as you know, was very much involved, Lutnick, Commerce, and he said they don't want to talk. As soon as I put that on, I was getting calls from them, like can we meet tomorrow? And the problem is they have a lot of very unfair taxes. They have a lot of taxes that you wouldn't put on, and they -- they sue all our companies. They're constantly suing Apple and Google and all of these companies and getting, you know, in front of judges that essentially almost work for them. I guess they do work for them. They're European Union judges, and they're getting these crazy rewards. Apple was fined $17 billion, and others are being fined tremendous numbers of dollars. They've -- they're nasty people, and I don't want them affecting US companies. I don't want that. If anybody's going to affect a US company, I want it to be us. And if they're going to have to pay a penalty or a fine, let it be to us. So, they've done this for a long time, for years. But they're very nasty. The European Union is very nasty, there's no question, but they'll learn not to be so nasty very soon. They know that. They know it's coming.
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Question: [Inaudible] Vladimir Putin reached out to you to help you with your Iran crisis.
Trump: Well, he made some nice statements today. Did you see the statement?
Question: I saw the statement.
Trump: Very nice. Vladimir Putin made some very nice statements today. Look, he respects our country again. He didn't respect it a year ago, I can tell you right now. But Putin respects our country and President Xi of China respects our country. Kim Jong Un respects -- they respect our country again. We were not a country that was respected just a year ago. We had a president that was incompetent. We had bad people circulating around this desk, this beautiful Resolute Desk. They had, I guess, evil intentions. They would -- you couldn't be that stupid. I mean, they had evil intentions. But the world respects our country again. Thank you very much, everybody.