Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2025
October 25, 2025
The President. I only came back to tell you that you were so well behaved. I couldn't believe it. You were so respectful and well behaved. I appreciate it. Okay?
He's a great guy, actually. He's a great leader. They helped us a lot. And it was really nice that he came. We were just refueling, and he came and said hello. It was very, very nice. Great—great man, actually. Great gentleman too.
The President's Meeting With Amir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar
Q. How did it go?
The President. Great. I mean, we talked about peace. We have peace in the Middle East. That's what we have. Great peace in the Middle East. He thinks it's enduring. He's never seen anything like it. And he's very happy that I got involved. And he helped, and we had a lot of help. We have 59 countries. We have a lot of countries that are signed on. It's just—this should be an enduring peace.
U.S. Cease-Fire Agreement Between Hamas and Israel
Q. What makes it different?
The President. That everybody agrees. A year ago, it would have been very tough. I think the big thing was when we took out the nuclear power of Iran. When we took out that nuclear capability, which would have happened over the next month to 2 months, that made a whole big difference in the Middle East. It made it possible to do the deal.
Qatar-U.S. Security Cooperation
Q. Did you talk with them about how the new security arrangement between the U.S. and Qatar will work?
The President. Yes. Yes, I talked to them about it. We actually covered a lot of territory. It's working very well. It's all smooth. U.S. doesn't have to get much involved. They're able to take care of—very substantial nations. And you know, you have Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Qatar. You have the three. And then you have many behind them, and even with them.
Q. When will the——
The President. I mean, if you look, Turkey is involved. Indonesia is involved. Jordan, Egypt. I mean, it's an amazing group of—and many more. Many others aside that are a little further away or not as close to the situation. Everybody is on board. It's pretty amazing.
Q. When will the——
U.S. Cease-Fire Agreement Between Hamas and Israel
Q. Did they express confidence that the cease-fire in Gaza would hold?
The President. I think it will hold, yes. Oh, it's going to hold.
Q. So they believe it will hold?
The President. Well, if it doesn't hold—I mean, if it does hold, that would be Hamas, and Hamas will be not hard to take care of. It will be very quickly. But I hope it holds for Hamas too, because, you know, they gave us their word on something, and they said they took out gang members. Well, I hope that's right. But they gave us their word on something, so I think it's going to. And if it doesn't, then they'll have a very big problem.
Peacekeeping Efforts in Gaza
Q. When will the stabilization force be in place, or when do you need it in place?
The President. Pretty soon. Pretty quickly.
Q. Weeks? Months?
The President. So far, it's just—yes, a period of time. You know, I don't want to give you—we're doing it right now. They're actually picking leaders right now.
You're going to have peace in the Middle East. This is real peace. It's never happened before. Three thousand years, it's never happened. And great respect, when he came to the airport, came onto the plane. That's never happened either. And he's a highly respected man.
Okay, any other questions?
Multilateral Support for the Gaza Peace Plan
Q. [Inaudible]—send peacekeeping troops into Gaza?
The President. Yes, they'll do it at the time they need them. And by the way, Israel will go in there very easily. You know that, right? So right there you have a country. But you have the Arab countries or—everybody. Muslim, Arab, Israeli, everybody's on board. It's been, really, an amazing thing. It's a great success. And it's a—it's going to be a long-lasting—hopefully, everlasting, but long-lasting.
President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia/The President's Diplomatic Efforts
Q. What will Russia have to do for you to reschedule your meeting with Putin?
The President. I'm going to have to know that we're going to make a deal. I'm not going to be wasting my time.
I've always had a great relationship with Vladimir Putin, but this has been very disappointing. I thought this would have gotten long before peace in the Middle East. I mean, we have Azerbaijan and Armenia. That was very tough. In fact, Putin told me on the phone, he said, "Boy, that was amazing," because everybody tried to get that done, and they couldn't. I got it done.
You had others that—if you look at India and Pakistan, I could say almost any one of the deals that I've already done, I thought would have been more difficult than Russia and Ukraine, but it didn't work out that way.
There's a lot of hatred between the two. Between Zelenskyy and Putin, there's tremendous hatred.
China
Q. Will you discuss purchases of Russian oil with Xi Jinping? Are you worried about the Chinese——
The President. I may be.
Q. ——buying Russian oil?
The President. I may be discussing it. But you know, China is——
Q. What do need?
The President. I don't know, you probably saw today, China is cutting back very substantially on the purchase of Russia oil, and India is cutting back completely, and we've done sanctions.
Thank you very much, everybody.
By the way, very, very respectful. I appreciate it. That was——
China-U.S. Trade/Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain
Q. Mr. President, can you talk about what you hope to walk away from with the meeting with President Xi?
The President. China?
Q. Yes. What are you hoping to walk away with?
The President. I think a complete deal. I want our farmers to be taken care of. And he wants things also. We're going to be talking about fentanyl, of course.
You know, fentanyl is killing a lot of people. A lot of people. It comes from China. And we'll be talking about that. We'll be talking about a lot of things.
I think we have—I think we have a really good chance of making a very comprehensive
deal.
National Basketball Association Gambling Scandal
Q. Have you seen this NBA gambling investigation?
The President. Yes, terrible.
Q. What do you think about it?
The President. What do I think? I think it's very bad. I think it's terrible. Thank you.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan
Q. How was your call with the Japanese Prime Minister?
The President. Very good. She was—she's great, beautiful. We're going to be seeing her very soon. She's very friendly. She was very friendly with Abe, as you know—Prime Minister Abe.
Q. What did you guys talk about on the call?
The President. Just "look forward to seeing you." I'm going to see her couple of days. But she was a very, very close ally and friend of Prime Minister Abe. And you know he was one of my favorites. He was a great man.
Thank you very much, everybody.
Q. Thank you.
NOTE: The President spoke at 9:18 p.m. aboard Air Force One prior to departure for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In his remarks, he referred to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine.
Categories: Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, Al Rayyan, Qatar.
Locations: Al Rayyan, Qatar.
Names: Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich; Takaichi, Sanae; Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir; Xi Jinping; Zelenskyy, Volodymyr.
Subjects: China, President; China, synthetic opioid supply chain; Gaza, conflict with Israel; Hamas political-paramilitary organization; Iran, U.S. airstrikes on nuclear facilities; Israel, military operations in Gaza; Japan, Prime Minister; Middle East, regional integration and security; National Basketball Association, gambling investigation; News media, Presidential interviews; Opioid epidemic, efforts to combat; Qatar, Al Udeid Air Base in Al Rayyan; Qatar, Amir; Qatar, President Trump's visit; Russia, conflict in Ukraine; Russia, oil supply and refining; Russia, President; Russia, U.S. sanctions; U.S. diplomatic efforts, expansion; Ukraine, President; Ukraine, Russian invasion and airstrikes.
DCPD Number: DCPD202501046.