Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2025
President Trump. Well, thank you very much. It's a beautiful Sunday in Scotland, and we thought we could cut things short by—and certainly travel distance, right?—by having our meeting here. So we discussed options, and I just—it's an honor to have the President of the European Union with us.
Ursula has been—really done a terrific job—for them, not for us. But she's done a great job for them. [Laughter] And she's highly respected by us also.
And we look forward to talking to see if we can do something. We've had a very good relationship over the years, but it's been a very one-sided transaction, very unfair to the United States. And I think both sides want to see fairness, but it's been a very, very one-sided deal, and it shouldn't be.
And so we're here with her very brilliant staff, and hopefully, we'll resolve a few issues.
But it's a great honor. You know, we just built this ballroom, and we're building a great ballroom at the White House. The White House has wanted a ballroom for 150 years, but they never had a real estate person. You know, nobody—no President knew how to build a ballroom.
But this just opened, you know, a relatively short time ago, and it's been quite the success. And I think—I was just saying I could take this one, drop it right down there, and it would be beautiful. This is exactly what they've wanted.
But it's an honor to have you at the new ballroom at Turnberry. And thank you very much.
President von der Leyen. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
President Trump. Thank you. Please.
President von der Leyen. Thank you very much for inviting me here. Indeed, it is, today, about trade between the European Union and the United States. We are, together, the two largest economies worldwide.
President Trump. Right.
President von der Leyen. If you look at the trade volume, it's the biggest trade volume globally, with $1.7 trillion among us. And if you look at our markets, it's a huge market: 800 million people, if you take the United States and the European Union.
So I'm very much looking forward to the discussions we will have now. Our staff have done some of the heavy lifting, but now it's on us.
President Trump. Yes.
President von der Leyen. And you are known as a tough negotiator and deal maker. What is in front——
President Trump. But fair. [Laughter]
President von der Leyen. And fair. And what is in front of us——
President Trump. That's less important. [Laughter]
President von der Leyen. ——if we are successful, I think it would be the biggest deal each of us has ever struck.
President Trump. It's true.
President von der Leyen. So I'm very much looking forward to it.
President Trump. Ever struck by anybody. That's true.
President von der Leyen. Yes. Yes.
President Trump. That's true.
Right now we have that—that honor goes to Japan. We just struck a deal with Japan, as you know. And we're very close to a deal with China. We really sort of made a deal with China, but we'll see how that goes. And we have numerous other deals, and mostly I'm just going to—I charge tariffs and, you know, there's not a deal, per se, but people are going to pay tariffs. And we're doing them at the low end, not the high end, because we don't want to hurt anybody. And pretty well.
But you and I both figure this is really the biggest trading partnership in the world, so we should give it a shot, right?
President von der Leyen. Yes. We are much looking forward to that.
President Trump. Yes. Thank you very much.
President von der Leyen. Thank you.
President Trump. I do too. Any questions, please?
European Union/Trade With U.S.
Q. On Friday, you put the chances of a deal at 50 percent, maybe less. It seems like you're in quite a good mood. How would you rate those chances now?
President Trump. I'm actually not in a good mood, but I will tell you—[laughter]—I think the chances are—yes, I think Ursula would say probably 50/50 of making a deal. I hope—you know, I'd like to make a deal. I think it's good for both.
But yes, I'd say 50/50.
Q. What would you say the main sticking points are at this moment?
President Trump. We have three or four sticking points. I'd rather not get in. We'll be discussing them, but I think the main sticking point is fairness.
[At this point, several reporters began asking questions at once.] Please.
Golf/European Union
Q. Can I ask why you're in a bad mood? Was it a bad morning of golf, or why you're not in a good mood?
President Trump. No, the golf was beautiful. It's—golf can never be bad. Even if you play badly, it's still good. If you had a bad day on the golf course, it's okay. It's better than other days.
But no, I think—I look forward to this meeting. You know, we've had a hard time with trade with Europe. Very hard time. And I'd like to see it resolved, but if it isn't, we'll, you know, have tariffs, and they'll do what they have to do.
But we have a good chance of getting it resolved. We'll probably know in about an hour. It shouldn't take that long. It's——
Q. What about the August——
President Trump. You know, it's complicated, but not really complicated, when you get right down to it. Right?
Tariffs/Trade Negotiations/Domestic Manufacturing Investment
Q. What about the August 1 deadline? Is there any chance that that gets moved?
President Trump. No. No. The August 1 is—there for everyone. The deals all start on August 1. Most of the deals—other than steel and aluminum, which we've been getting 50-percent tariffs from, I guess, just about everybody. And those have come in, and we've taken in, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars just on steel and aluminum. You've seen the numbers.
We had a tremendous amount of money come in over the last month. And it's coming in, you know, very rapidly, which is fair.
We have a lot of steel mills and plants—aluminum mills and plants being built. We have a lot of AI being built. And we have a lot of auto plants being built or going to be built because they don't want to pay tariffs. So, you know, if they don't want to pay tariffs, the best way to do it is just build your plant in the United States.
Yes, please.
European Union Market/Semiconductor Manufacturing/U.S. Agricultural Products/Automobile Industry/Japan-U.S. Trade
Q. Sir, what do you expect from the Europeans in terms of opening their markets to American products?
President Trump. Well, they have to open up to American products. You know, we're open to European products, and we have been for forever. I don't think we have—we just about don't have any—I don't think we have any product that we say you can't sell. I guess you could get a little bit cute with chips, but that's, you know, a little bit different category too.
No, I—you know, Europe is very closed. We don't sell cars into Europe. We don't sell, essentially, agriculture of any great degree. They want to have their farmers do it, and they want to have their car companies do it. Every—I'm just—I'm not saying anything that nobody knows. We have a rough situation. If we want to sell cars in Europe, we're not allowed to. And, as you know, they sell millions and millions of cars—Mercedes, BMW, so many different—Volkswagen, so many different cars and so many millions of cars.
I would imagine, number one—I didn't look at that, but I would imagine number one, by far—more so than even Japan. Japan sells a lot of cars too. But the Japan deal worked out very favorable—you know, very good. I think—I hope for them too. And that's what we want to do: Make everybody happy.
Yes, please.
Gaza, Palestinian Territories/Humanitarian Assistance/Hostages Held in Gaza, Palestinian Territories
Q. Mr. President, should Israel be doing more to allow food into Gaza?
President Trump. Say it?
Q. Should Israel be doing more to allow food into Gaza?
President Trump. What did she say?
U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Warren Stephens. If Israel—should Israel be doing more to allow food into Gaza.
President Trump. Well, you know, we gave $60 million 2 weeks ago—and nobody even acknowledged it—for food. And it's terrible. You know, you really at least want to have somebody say thank you. No other country gave anything.
We gave $60 million 2 weeks ago for food for Gaza. And nobody acknowledged it. Nobody talks about it. And it makes you feel a little bad when you do that and, you know, you have other countries not giving anything. None of the European countries, by the way, gave—I mean, nobody gave but us and nobody said, "Gee, thank you very much." And it would be nice to have at least a thank you.
And I took a lot of heat. You know, when I do that, a lot of people aren't happy about that because they say, "Well, why are we doing it and nobody else?" But I think we had a humanitarian reason for doing it.
What's going to happen, I don't know. I can tell you that Hamas—as I said would happen at the end—you know, we've gotten back a lot of hostages—a tremendous number of hostages, most of them. Now we have dead hostages, and the mothers want them back. And we have 20 people, approximately, but—that are living, but we have a lot of bodies. And the parents want those bodies as much as they would want their child if that child were alive.
I was—I met with parents that were—it was so sad. "Sir, please get my son back." "How is your son doing?" "Well, he's dead, but they have his body." And it's so important. It's important
—more important—it's almost like more, but it's as important as if the child were living. These people were—I mean, they're devastated.
And I said, "When you get it down to a certain number, you're not going to be able to make a deal with Hamas," because once they give them up, then they feel that that's going to be the end of them. And what I said is exactly true. You know, they had a routine discussion the other day, and all of a sudden, they hardened up. They don't want to give them back. And so Israel is going to have to make a decision.
Q. Did you speak——
President Trump. I know what I'd do, but I don't think it's appropriate that I say. But Israel is going to have to make a decision.
Gaza, Palestinian Territories/Reports of Starvation/Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel/Venezuela/U.S. Economy
Q. Mr. President, when you were in the Middle East, you talked about the images coming out of Gaza and the starving kids. Those images are still going. Many of them are much worse—thinner children starving. What do you see or feel when you look at those images today?
President Trump. Well, it's terrible. You know, when I see the children and when I see—especially over the last couple of weeks—and people are stealing the food. They're stealing the money. They're stealing the money for the food. They're stealing weapons. They're stealing everything. It's a mess. That whole place is a mess.
The Gaza Strip—you know, it was given many years ago so that they could have peace. That didn't work out too well. When Israel gave that up, whoever was the Prime Minister at the time—who I know who it was—but it was not exactly a very clever thing to do, because that was given so that they finally have peace, and it's actually made the situation worse. But we'll see what happens.
I think Iran is acting up. I think that we have a lot of people acting—we have Venezuela acting up in a different way. They're sending—they continue to send people that we rebuff to our border. They continue to send drugs into our country—Venezuela. They've been very nasty, and we can't let that happen. But we—and we have other countries too.
We do have—and this is just getting a little off subject, but we have now the safest border we've ever had. And I think, in many respects, we probably have the most successful. I—and I say it all the time. Every leader—when I went to NATO the other day, every leader said, "You have the hottest country in the world." We are—we have the hottest country in the world now. We're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. We have the highest stock market we've ever had. We have the best numbers we've ever had, but we have hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into our country. And I think it's the hottest.
And by the way, 1 year ago, our country was dead. We had a dead country because of an incompetent President and incompetent Democrats. All they know how to do is talk and think about conspiracy theories and nonsense. If they'd waste their time talking about America being great again, it would be so much nicer, so much easier. It'd be very successful.
But we were a dead country, and now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Yes. Any other question?
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
European Union/Tariffs/Pharmaceutical Industry
Q. President Trump, on this particular deal, if you manage to do a deal today, will that be the end of the matter, or could there be more tariffs coming, particularly on pharmaceuticals——
President Trump. No, if we do a deal today with—
Q. ——and on semiconductors?
President Trump. ——the European Union, that will be the end of it. Yes. We're not—won't—we'll go, I guess, a number of years, at least, before we have to even discuss it again. No, that would be the end of it for——
Q. Including pharmaceuticals?
President Trump. And this is the biggest deal. People don't realize, this is bigger than any other deal. We have great countries—great countries that—I'm familiar with many of them. So are you. And this is really the biggest deal. This is the—I guess we're the biggest out there, and they're the second. And when we come together, this will be the biggest deal, if we—if that happens, and it could happen. It should happen. Okay?
Thank you.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Q. Mr. President, will pharmaceuticals—will pharmaceuticals be part of today's deal?
President Trump. No, it won't. Pharmaceuticals will be—I mean, could be we'll do something. But basically, pharmaceuticals won't be part of it because we have to have them built—made in the United States, and we want them made in the United States.
And I think it's easy to say and I think it's important to say pharmaceuticals are very special.
We can't be in a position where we don't have—where we're relying on other countries.
Now, Europe is going to make pharmaceuticals, drugs, and everything else for us too—a lot.
But we're going to have also our own.
Q. A question for President von der Leyen, please.
President Trump. Yes.
Q. Can you give your assessment of what you feel the chances are a deal of? The President just talked about a fifty-fifty chance and the biggest obstacle being fairness. What would you say are those things for you?
President von der Leyen. I think the President is right. We have a 50-to-50 percent chance to strike a deal. And indeed, it is about rebalancing. So, you can call it fairness.
President Trump. Yes.
President von der Leyen. You can call it rebalancing. We have a surplus, the United States has a deficit, and we have to rebalance it. We have an excellent trade relation. It's a huge volume of trade that we have together. So we will make it more sustainable.
European Union/Trade With U.S.
Q. Mr. Trump, can you do better than 15—a 15-percent tariff rate for the EU?
President Trump. "Better" meaning lower?
Q. Yes.
President Trump. No.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
United Kingdom/Trade With U.S./Israel
Q. Mr. President, returning to Gaza. You're going to meet the British Prime Minister tomorrow. He's going to ask you to consider again peace talks between Israel and Hamas. Are you now saying there is no point in trying to restart those talks?
President Trump. Well, we're meeting about a lot of things. We have our trade deal, and it's been a great deal. It's going to—it's good for them and good for us, I think. You know, the U.K. is very happy. They've been trying for 12 years to get it, and they got it. And it's—it's a great trade deal for both. It works out very well.
But we are discussing—we'll be discussing that. I think we're going to be discussing a lot about Israel. They're very much involved, in terms of wanting something to happen.
He's doing a very good job, by the way.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel/Iran/Nuclear Weapons Development
Q. Also on Gaza, sir. Did you speak with Prime Minister Netanyahu this weekend about getting more aid into Gaza?
President Trump. I talked to him, yes. I did. I talked to him about a lot of things. I talked to him about Iran. I think Iran has been very nasty with their words, with their mouth. I think they've been very nasty.
They got the hell knocked out of them, and they—I don't think they know it. You know, I actually don't think they know. They really do the—it's a con—the whole thing is a con job. We
have a lot of con jobs going on. But Iran was beaten up very badly, for good reason. We cannot have them have a nuclear weapon.
But they still talk about enrichment. I mean, who would do that? You just come out of something that's so bad, and they talk about, "We want to continue enrichment." Who would say that? How stupid can you be to say that? So we're not going to allow that to happen. We're not allowing that to happen.
Gaza, Palestinian Territories/Humanitarian Assistance/Hamas
Q. Did you talk about more aid into Gaza?
President Trump. Will I do more aid? Yes. The U.S.——
Q. Did you talk to Netanyahu about——
President Trump. The U.S. is going——
Q. ——getting more aid?
President Trump. ——to do more aid for Gaza, but we'd like to have other countries participate. We're going to mention that to the European Union today. You know, it's—that's an international problem. It's not a U.S. problem. It's an international problem. And we're giving a lot of money and a lot of food and a lot of everything.
If we weren't there, I think people would have starved, frankly. It—they would have starved, and it's not like they're eating well. But a lot of that food is getting stole by Hamas. You know, they're stealing the food. They're stealing a lot of things. You ship it in, and they steal it. Then they sell it.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Europe/Migration Issues/Wind Energy
Q. Mr. President, on Friday you said that Europe is being crushed by mass migration, and I wonder whether your friends on the other side of the room agree with you on that.
President Trump. Well, I'd let you respond to that, if you'd like.
President von der Leyen. So we have been working intensively on the topic of irregular migration. And we have, from the very beginning, said that migration is a European challenge that needs a European answer.
As Europeans, we will fulfill our international obligations, as we've done in the past, also in the future. But we, as Europeans, are the ones who decide who comes to the European Union and under what circumstances, and not the smugglers and traffickers. That's the principle in which we are working.
President Trump. That's right.
Q. Doonbeg, Mr.——
President Trump. I will say this. You know, they did ask me when I got off the plane.
Immigration—Europe has a tremendous problem, and we do too. But we've sealed our borders up. We have nobody coming in, and we have hundreds of thousands of people being taken out—and the bad ones first. And I think we're doing a very good job of that.
But we had—I mean, it literally registered zero people last month. You probably saw that.
Nobody. And Europe has a very similar problem. I think they're going to end up in the same place. You might as well go there quicker.
And the other thing I say to Europe: We've—we will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States. They're killing us. They're killing the beauty of our scenery, our valleys, our beautiful plains. And I'm not talking about airplanes. I'm talking about beautiful plains, the beautiful areas in the United States. And you look up, and you see windmills all over the place. It's a horrible thing.
It's the most expensive form of energy. It's no good. They're made in China, almost all of them. When they start to rust and rot in 8 years, you can't really turn them off. You can't bury them. They won't let you bury the propellers—you know, the—props, because they're a certain type of fiber that doesn't go well with the land. That's what they say. The environmentalists say you can't bury them because the fiber doesn't go well with the land. In other words, if you bury it, it will harm our soil.
The whole thing is a con job. It's very expensive. And, in all fairness, Germany tried it. And wind doesn't work. It's—you need subsidy for wind, and energy should not need subsidy. You—with energy, you make money. You don't lose money.
But more important than that is, it ruins the landscape. It kills the birds. They're noisy. You know, you have a certain place in the Massachusetts area that, over the last 20 years, had one or two whales wash ashore. And over the last short period of time, they had 18. Okay? Because it's driving them loco. It's driving them crazy.
No, windmills will not come. The—it's not going to happen in the United States. And it's a very expensive—and I would love to see—I mean, today I'm playing the best course, I think, in the world—Turnberry. Even though I own it, it's probably the best course in the world, right? And I look over the horizon, and I see nine windmills. It's, like, right at the end of the 18. I said: "Isn't that a shame? What a shame."
You have the same thing all over—all over Europe, in particular. You have windmills all over the place. Some of the countries prohibit it, but people ought to know it. It—these windmills are very destructive. They are environmentally unsound. Just the exact opposite. Because the environmentalists—they're not really environmentalists. They're political hacks. They're—these are people that—they almost want to harm the country.
But you look at these beautiful landscapes all over the—you know, the world. Many countries have gotten smart. They will not allow it. They will not. It's the worst form of energy, the most expensive form of energy. But windmills should not be allowed.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Cambodia/Thailand/President Trump's Foreign Policy
Q. [Inaudible]—on Cambodia and Thailand. You spoke to leaders of those countries.
President Trump. I did.
Q. Are they doing enough to stop the fighting?
President Trump. I hope so. You're talking about Cambodia and Thailand?
Q. Yes.
President Trump. So I had an interesting time. We're dealing with Thailand, and we do a lot of trade with Thailand and with Cambodia. And yet I'm reading that they're killing each other.
You know, they're fighting. They're in a war. And I say, "This should be an easy one for me," because I've settled with Indian and Pakistan, and Serbia and Kosovo was going at it. You know, but they have for a long time, in all fairness. You know about that. And others.
The Congo. And you know, what's gone on there? That's been a horrible thing with Rwanda. That's been a horrible thing. Thirty-one years, 7 million, 8 million people killed. Machetes—it's machetes all over the place. It's a terrible thing. We got that one solved. We did five of them.
And I was saying, you know, we have a trade deal.
We were working on another—we finalized another trade deal yesterday. And I asked my people. I said: "How are we doing with Cambodia? And how are we doing with Thailand?" And they said, "They're going to be coming in at some point to talk." I said, "Well, let's call them right now." So I called the Prime Ministers of each, and I said, "We're not going to make a trade deal unless you settle the war." A lot of people are killed, you know that, in a short period of time—the border. They're fighting pretty, like, wild.
And I spoke to both of the Prime Ministers, and I think—by the time I got off, I think they want to settle. Now, I know they're meeting today or tomorrow, and we're going to work with them. Marco Rubio is working with them also, his people and him.
I think we're going to get that. That will be a great thing. But that's going to—that would have turned out to be a bad one. And I will tell you, India and Pakistan, they were really getting ready to go at it.
So getting those things settled, if I can do it—and if I can use trade to do that, it's—you know, it's my honor. But I had great talks with two very good people that I—they both really would like to make a deal. So we'll see what happens.
Okay. How about one more, two more.
Q. Doonbeg, Mr. Trump. Doonbeg.
European Defense Spending Levels/North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Q. Mr. President, Europe is now spending a lot more on defense, thanks to you. Does that mean they should——
President Trump. They are.
Q. Should they get a fairer deal on trade in exchange?
President Trump. Well, they're spending a lot of —on defense, but we're spending a lot more on—you know, and we've been very generous to NATO for many, many years. And—no, but we had a terrific meeting with NATO. I'd love to do as well.
We had a meeting where they put up 5 percent instead of 2 percent, and they're going to pay it instead of not paying, because, as you know, many people didn't pay the 2 percent or anywhere near it. And the 2 percent was too low.
And we're going to be sending now military equipment and other equipment to NATO, and they'll be doing what they want. But I guess it's, for the most part, working with Ukraine.
But we had a fantastic meeting. I guess it's now almost 4 weeks ago. One of the best meetings they've ever had at NATO. And the spirit and the coming together was incredible. And I stood and I listened to almost 30 speeches. That was a lot. And I was really late, and I had to leave. But I—didn't want to leave before those last 10 spoke, because they'd go home, and they'd tell their wife, "Trump left." [Laughter]
And they were so nice to the United States. They were all mentioning the United States and me, but they were mentioning the United States to be here, it's such an honor, you know, et cetera. And I thought it would've been inappropriate.
But I did stay. It was very hard because I was extremely late for something else that was, you know, pretty important. And we had a tremendous NATO meeting. I'm sure you heard that too.
President von der Leyen. Yes.
President Trump. It was great. They have some great people that you deal with on two fronts, right? But you deal with on primarily the trade front.
But I will tell you, they came together, and the relationship is really good. That was a great—an interesting question, because you probably have reported it that way. It—really—we came together, and they went from 2 percent to 5 percent, which nobody would've thought that was even—who would even think that? Because they didn't want to be at 2 percent. All of a sudden, they're at 5 percent. And that's a—that's the right number.
And so it was a great honor. I got to know the heads of those countries really very well at that meeting almost a month ago. Okay?
Thank you very much, everybody. We'll let you know what's happening. Thank you.
Trump Doonbeg Resort in Doonbeg, Ireland
Q. Doonbeg, Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump, will you visit Doonbeg in—will you be visiting your Irish golf course anytime soon—Doonbeg?
President Trump. I will. I love Doonbeg. I'll go at—not in this trip, but I'll go soon. Okay? Thank you very much. Thank you.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Q. [Inaudible]—by the DOJ on the Ghislaine Maxwell interviews?
President Trump. I don't hear your question. Get out.
NOTE: The President spoke at 4:54 a.m. at the Trump Turnberry Hotel and Resort. In his remarks, he referred to former President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.; Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom; Prime Minister Hun Manet of Cambodian; and Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai of Thailand. A reporter referred to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on July 28.
Categories: Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, South Ayrshire, United Kingdom; Meetings With Foreign Leaders and International Officials : European Commission, President von der Leyen.
Locations: South Ayrshire, United Kingdom.
Names: Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Hun Manet; Netanyahu, Benjamin; Phumtham Wechayachai; Rubio, Marco A.; Starmer, Keir; Stephens, Warren; von der Leyen, Ursula.
Subjects: Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies; Automobile industry, strengthening efforts; Border security; Cambodia, Prime Minister; Cambodia, trade with U.S.; China, trade with U.S.; Europe, defense spending levels; Europe, migration issues; European Commission President; European Union, trade with U.S.; Gaza, hostages held by Hamas; Gaza, humanitarian situation; Gaza, international assistance; Hamas political-paramilitary organization; Iran, nuclear weapons development; Iran, U.S. airstrikes on nuclear facilities; Ireland, Trump Doonbeg Resort in Doonbeg; Israel, military operations in Gaza; Israel, Prime Minister; Japan, trade with U.S.; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Pharmaceutical supply chains, improvement efforts; Prime Minister, Acting Prime
Minister; Secretary of State; Solar and wind energy; Steel and aluminum, U.S. tariffs on foreign imports; Tariffs; Thailand, trade with U.S.; U.S. diplomatic efforts, expansion; Undocumented immigrants, deportation of criminals; United Kingdom, President Trump's visit; United Kingdom, Prime Minister; United Kingdom, trade with U.S.; United Kingdom, U.S. Ambassador; Venezuela, drug trafficking.
DCPD Number: DCPD202500800.