Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2025
October 24, 2025
The President. Hello, everybody. Have a good trip. It's going to be a long one. It's going to be a very long trip, right?
Okay. What's up?
President Xi Jinping of China/China-U.S. Trade
Q. What are you expecting from your meeting with President Xi, and what is your message to him?
The President. Well, we have a lot of things to discuss, including our farmers. Right? We have a lot of things to discuss—the various trade deals that have been made in the past—and some broken, some not broken. But we've got a—many, many things. I think it's going to turn out to be a very good meeting.
Q. Do they need to make concessions to get a deal? Are you willing to pause tariffs?
The President. Yes, sure. They have to make concessions. I guess we would too. We're at 157-percent tariff for them. I don't think that's sustainable for them, and they want to get that down. And we want certain things from them. And it will be—I think it will be very good.
Q. What do you think the odds are you go ahead?
Q. [Inaudible]
Tariffs/China-U.S. Trade
Q. Sorry, just—what do you think the odds are you go ahead with that 100-percent tariff on November 1st?
The President. I don't know. I have no odds. I don't want to predict odds. I just—I don't think they would want that. That would not be good for them. And I wouldn't like to see it.
Canada-U.S. Relations/Ontario Province Advertisement Critical of U.S. Tarriff Policy
Q. Sir, what's your view on what Canada needs to do to get things back on track?
The President. Canada lied. I mean, what they did was terrible. They made up a fake statement by President Reagan. Reagan was a big supporter of tariffs when needed, and we need tariffs for national security. And they totally turned it around, because they're getting hurt by tariffs, and we're gaining by tariffs. They've used tariffs on us, but we had different Presidents very successfully, and they've taken a lot of money out of our country, and now we're taking it all back.
And so they went out, and they made a fake commercial. The Reagan Foundation went crazy when they saw it because it was, you know, the opposite. It was the opposite of what Ronald Reagan—Ronald Reagan liked tariffs, and when necessary, he would use tariffs. And it's made us a very rich country. It's also made us—when they were used against us, it was not good for us, but we've used them very successfully.
We have the highest stock market we've ever had. We have great national security. I've settled wars because of tariffs. And a President has the right to use tariffs, especially when it
comes to national security, and we need it for national security, even including our own wealth and paying down debt and all of the other things.
So, you know, we're in very good shape on that. But they took a commercial saying the exact opposite—Canada. So I'm very disappointed in Canada. They lied. I mean, it was a fraud, what they did.
Canada-U.S. Trade
Q. What can they do to get it back on track though?
The President. I don't know. I mean, I'm satisfied with the deal we have. We have a deal right now that's very good for us, and any deal that would have been made would have been better for them than the one they have right now. That's why I was surprised they did this.
They did this to try and influence the Supreme Court. And many foreign countries aren't particularly happy, but they took advantage of us for years. For years and years, they took advantage. And Presidents shouldn't have allowed that to happen, but they did.
So, really, I don't think there's much they can do. I'd just as soon leave it the way it is.
Q. Will you meet with Prime Minister Carney——
The President. You know, if you leave it the way it is, it's very good for us.
Canada-U.S. Relations
Q. Will you meet with Prime Minister Carney during this trip?
The President. I don't have any intention of it, no.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan/Japan-U.S. Relations
Q. What do you expect of your meeting with the new Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi?
The President. I hear great things about her. I think she's going to be great. She's—she was a great friend of Mr. Abe and—who was a great man—Prime Minister Abe—and a great friend of mine, as you know. And he was just a fantastic person. And he liked her a lot. She liked him a lot. So that's a good sign. But I look forward to meeting her.
Q. She's reportedly planning to bring plans to buy Ford F–150 pickup trucks.
The President. Oh, good. Well, that's good. They're great trucks. Are you saying I have that plan or she has that plan?
Q. She has that plan.
The President. Oh, that's great. She has good taste.
Q. Are you concerned——
The President. That's a hot—that's a hot truck.
Q. ——that she might eventually try to renegotiate the more than——
The President. She might. I mean, she might. Look, I'm open to whatever they—we have a great relationship with Japan, and we're going to have a fantastic relationship with her. So we'll see what happens.
Cambodia/Thailand/Malaysia
Q. Mr. President, do you believe that China played a role at all in establishing peace between Cambodia and Thailand in their recent conflict? Did China help in that process?
The President. Oh, they weren't involved, no. They weren't involved.
Q. Will you still sign over—preside over this——
The President. Malaysia—Malaysia was involved, actually.
So Malaysia helped us. One of the reasons I'm going to Malaysia is they were very, very much involved in that, the whole thing with Thailand and all. And I told the leader of Malaysia, who's a very good man—I said, "I think I owe you a trip," and that's why we're stopping in Malaysia, for that reason. Malaysia was very much involved.
State Affairs Commission President Kim Jong Un of North Korea
Q. Sir, on South Korea. Do you have any plans to meet with Kim Jong Un at the DMZ?
The President. Well, I would if he would contact—I mean, I was—the last time I met—you know, I put it out over the internet that I'm coming to South Korea. If he'd like to meet, I'm open to it, certainly.
The President's Schedule
Q. On this current trip?
The President. We had a very—yes, I do it. I mean, if you—if you want to put out the word, I'm open to it.
You know, they don't have a lot of telephone service. They have a lot of nuclear weapons, but not a lot of telephone service.
So I'm open to it. I had a great relationship with him, and he probably knows I'm coming, right? But you want to put out the word, I'm open to it.
State Affairs Commission President Kim Jong Un of North Korea
Q. Have you been in touch at all before this trip?
The President. I mean, really, there's not a lot of ways, other than the internet. You know, they have very little telephonic service. And—but he knows I'm coming, and he would—yes, I'd be open to it, 100 percent.
Q. Do you expect——
The President. I got along very well with him, Kim Jong Un.
South Korea
Q. Do you expect to finalize your trade deal with—or your tariff deal with South Korea on this trip? It hasn't been signed yet.
The President. It's pretty close to being finalized, I think. And so it could be. If they have it ready, I'm ready.
Q. Okay.
Malaysia/Cambodia
Q. What about the Malaysia and Cambodia—those trade deals? Are you ready?
The President. Yes, sure. If they're—if the deals are—if their papers are ready. We have deals with a lot of people, and they're—they're very good deals. I hope they're very good for everybody.
Q. Do you know if the—if the signing ceremony——
The President. Who are you with?
Q. I'm with Politico.
The President. Politico? Wow. That's great.
Thailand/Cambodia
Q. Do you know if the signing ceremony——
The President. They're stepping up their game. That's good.
Q. ——is still going forward? There's a report just as we were——
The President. About what? Which one?
Q. That the Thailand Prime Minister may not attend due to a death in Thailand or——
The President. Well, there was a change. Yes, there was a death. So I don't know. I really don't know.
Q. You don't know if this——
The President. No, I don't know that.
Lapse in Federal Government Appropriations/Payroll Support for U.S. Servicemembers
Q. How did you manage to find somebody to pay for our troops during the shutdown?
The President. He's a great gentleman. He's a great patriot. He's obviously a very substantial man. And he contributed $130 million toward the military in order to make up any difference. So he wanted to see the military get paid. So did I. And he's a wonderful man, and he doesn't want publicity. He doesn't—you know, he'd prefer, I think, that his name not be mentioned, which is pretty unusual. In the world I come from and in the world of politics, you want your name mentioned. He doesn't.
He's a great patriot. He really is. He put up $130 million in order to make sure the—that's a lot of money—in order to make sure that the military got paid.
Q. So he reached out to you?
And he's a big—and he's a big supporter of mine.
Individual Donor Toward Payroll Support for U.S. Servicemembers
Q. Is it an American citizen?
The President. It is, yes. Great American citizen.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits
Q. Do you want Congress to pass a bill to allow 42 million Americans to continue to get food stamps during the shutdown?
The President. I'm going to let some other people talk. I'll have a comment on that later. But the Democrats are stopping it. All they have to do is agree to—let's go, and we're ready. But—and we voted for it many times.
All we need is five Democrats. The Republicans vote for it. But we'll see what happens. But really, this is purely Democrat. They're doing some really bad things. I think they're—they're a lost—they're lost souls. You know what that is? Soul—they are lost souls.
Lapse in Federal Government Appropriations
Q. After this trip, do you think you'll sit down with Hakeem Jeffries and——
The President. I would. I'd be willing to. I would have now too. You know, I left. I said: "Come on over. Just put the Government back." All they have to do is say yes and—and it's over and we start, and then we go into a negotiation.
Look, Obamacare has been terrible. We can make it better. I'm all for that, but they're not. And they want to allow many, many illegal—people that came into our country illegally from prisons, from mental institutions, from all over the world, they want them to get paid, and that's going to hurt the citizens of our country, and I just can't do it.
Russia/Ukraine/President Xi Jinping of China
Q. Sir, what influence do you want China to exert on Russia to stop the——
The President. Well, I'd love China to help us out with Russia. We put very big sanctions on Russia. I think those sanctions are going to be—you know, they're very biting, they're very strong. But I'd like to see China help us out.
I have a good relationship with, as you know, President Xi. Very good. We're going to be meeting. We'll have a good meeting. I'm pretty sure we're going to have a great meeting. Maybe a great meeting. But I think we're going to do some good business.
One of the things we'll talk about is the Russia-Ukraine. They're killing 7,000 people a week—soldiers, mostly soldiers—and we'll certainly be talking about that. He'd like to see that end too.
President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia
Q. And do you worry that the sanctions are so biting that you might push Putin too far?
The President. I don't think so. No, I don't think so. He's saying, "Well, they won't have that much of an effect." So I don't know. That's what he says. I don't think he's right about that, but we'll see. We'll see what happens. I think he'd like to see it over with.
Taiwan/China/U.S. Agricultural Sector
Q. Earlier this week, you said that you don't think that China would make any moves on Taiwan. What gives you that idea?
The President. That China would what?
Q. Would make any moves on Taiwan. Do you—what makes you——
The President. I would hope—I hope they won't. We'll have to see it. Maybe they will.
Maybe they won't. I hope they won't. It would be very dangerous for them to do.
Taiwan's Political Status/China-U.S. Trade Relations
Q. Are you open to changing U.S. policy on Taiwan?
The President. Well, I don't want to talk about that now. I don't want to create any complexity. The trip is already complex enough. [Laughter]
But you know, I think China wants to have 10 great years, and they can. You know, they can. Or they can have some bad years. And they don't want that. And we're going to have a very good meeting.
Q. If you don't get a deal, what will you do for U.S. farmers that are being impacted by the soybean——
The President. Well, we're going to subsidize them. We'll give them some money, because it's not their fault. They've been doing very well. They did very well under me. Even if you look at the ranchers—the ranchers, for the first time in years, have made some money, but the beef prices are up a little bit, so we'll have to make a determination.
But the ranchers are very happy, because—you know, for many years, they suffered. Now they're making a little money. They're making some money, and that's a good thing. You know, I'm happy about that.
So we'll see. But we'll see. Beyond that point, we'll see.
North Korea
Q. Back on North Korea. They say that in order to have talks with the U.S., they have to be recognized as a nuclear power. Do you—is that something you're open to?
The President. Well, I think they are sort of a nuclear power. I mean, I know how many weapons they have. I know everything about them. And I've had a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.
When you say they have to be recognized as a nuclear power—well, they've got a lot of nuclear weapons, I'll say that.
Okay. Go ahead, please.
Venezuela/U.S. Counternarcotics Efforts/Illegal Immigration
Q. What kind of land targets in Venezuela do you want to strike? And how do you decide which ones to strike?
The President. Well, we're going to see with Venezuela. I can tell you one thing: We stopped all drugs virtually from coming in by sea, and we'll stop all drugs from coming in by land very shortly. You'll see that starting. They're not going to want to do that. They're not going to want to do that. But you're going to see—you're going to see drugs stopping coming into our country, just like we stopped prisoners and drug dealers, drug addicts, drug every—we have stopped virtually everybody from coming in, other than people that want to come in legally.
You know, we have a lot of people coming in legally, passing tests, going through a process, but we don't have people coming in from prisons and from mental institutions and the drug dealers. We don't have them coming in. We have almost nobody. We really have nobody.
If you notice—for 5 months in a row, they had zero people come in, and we used to have a million and 2 million and 3 million people coming in.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil
Q. Will you meet with Brazil's President on this trip? He's going to the ASEAN——
The President. I think we're meeting, yes. I believe. We met at the United Nations briefly, just before I went on and there was no teleprompter. They didn't allow my teleprompter to work. How about that one? But I gave a good speech anyway.
Have a good trip, everybody.
Brazil-U.S. Trade
Q. Are you open to reducing the tariffs on Brazil?
The President. Yes, under the right circumstance. Sure.
Artificial Intelligence/China
Q. Do you want to talk about AI with President Xi?
The President. We'll, we're leading AI. We're leading China in AI. We're leading everybody in AI. We're doing very well. We have plants being built all over the country. We're going to have maybe $20-, $21 trillion by the time my first year is up. Nobody has ever had numbers—we've already hit $17 trillion.
Nobody has ever—no country has ever hit numbers like that. That's investment into our country.
We have auto factories open. You saw General Motors yesterday, and Ford. They took a big leap forward because of tariffs. But they took a big leap. They went way up. We're respected again, and it's really respected as a country, and a lot of that has to do with the tariffs.
The tariffs are giving us national security and strength. Thank you very much.
Q. Thank you, Mr. President.
The President. Have a good time. Go to sleep, everybody. Right? You've got a lot——
Q. Are you going to sleep?
The President. [Laughter] Oh, I don't know. I'd love to. I don't know. I don't know that I'm capable of it, if you want to know the truth, but I'm going to try. This is a long trip. The answer is: I would imagine so.
Have fun. Have fun.
Q. All right. Thank you, Mr. President.
NOTE: The President spoke at 11:42 p.m. in the press cabin. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia; and Sirikit, mother of King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, who died on October 24. Reporters referred to Prime Minister Anuthin Chanwirakun of Thailand; and House Minority Leader Hakeem S. Jeffries. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on October 25.
Categories: Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, Air Force One. Locations: Air Force One.
Names: Anwar Ibrahim; Carney, Mark; Jeffries, Hakeem S.; Kim Jong Un; Lula da Silva, Luiz Inácio; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich; Sirikit; Takaichi, Sanae; Xi Jinping.
Subjects: Agricultural production, strengthening efforts; Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies; Automobile industry, strengthening efforts; Border security; Brazil, President; Cambodia, relations with Thailand; Canada, Prime Minister; Canada, trade with U.S.; China, President; China, relations with Russia; China, trade with U.S.; Federal Government appropriations, lapse; House minority leader; Illegal drugs, interdiction efforts; Illegal immigration; Japan, Prime Minister; Japan, trade with U.S.; Malaysia, diplomatic efforts; Malaysia, Prime Minister; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; News media, Presidential interviews; North Korea, nuclear weapons development; North Korea, President of the State Affairs Commission; Nutrition assistance programs; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Russia, conflict in Ukraine; Russia, President; Russia, relations with China; Russia,
U.S. sanctions; South Korea, trade with U.S.; Suspected drug-trafficking vessels, U.S. airstrikes in Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific; Taiwan, political status with respect to China; Tariffs; Thailand, relations with Cambodia; Ukraine, Russian invasion and airstrikes.
DCPD Number: DCPD202501043.