Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2025
October 31, 2025
The President. Okay. Happy Halloween and all of that.
So we had an amazing trip. We had incredible meetings with President Xi of China; as you know, with the brilliant new Prime Minister of Japan. We just had a great time. And with the President of South Korea. We had an amazing journey.
We also saw a lot of other countries. We brought back home with us trillions of dollars.
Trillions. Many trillions of dollars. And our country is doing well.
The shutdown proceeds because the Democrats just don't know what they're doing. I don't know what's wrong with them. They've never done a thing like this. They've become crazed lunatics. All they have to do is say: "Let's go. Let's open up our country." And everything snaps back into shape. So there's something wrong with them.
Lapse in Federal Government Appropriations/Health Care Insurance Premium Subsidies
Q. Mr. President, are you going to meet with Democratic leadership?
The President. I'm always willing to meet. All they have to do is open up the country.
Q. So you will not meet with them before?
The President. Let them open up country, and we'll meet. We'll meet very quickly. But they have to open up the country.
It's their fault. Everything is their fault. It's so easily solved. You know, we have a number of Democrats that have already voted for this.
But the Republicans are very unified, they're very strong, and they want to do what's right for the country. They don't want to see trillions of dollars wasted on people that came into our country illegally, many from prisons and many from areas that you don't want to even know about.
So we'd like to see this taken care of rapidly. You have a lot of—we have tremendous support. But it's not even support; it's common sense.
Open up the country. Obamacare has turned out to be a disaster, as I've been saying for years. It can be fixed or redone. People don't get good health care, and their premiums go up every single year. So we should change it. It's a disaster. Obamacare is bad health care at a very high price
So——
[At this point, several reporters began asking questions at once.]
So tonight we have a big celebration of Halloween, and I'll see you later. Thank you very much.
NOTE: The President spoke at 1:56 p.m. on the tarmac at Palm Beach International Airport after exiting Air Force One. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan; and President Lee Jae-myung of South Korea. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on November 3.
Categories: Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, West Palm Beach, FL. Locations: West Palm Beach, FL.
Names: Lee Jae-myung; Takaichi, Sanae; Xi Jinping.
Subjects: China, President; Federal Government appropriations, lapse; Florida, President's visit; Halloween; Illegal immigration; Japan, Prime Minister; News media, Presidential interviews; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; South Korea, President.
DCPD Number: DCPD202501082.