Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2025
November 2, 2025
The President. Hello, everybody.
Q. Hi, Mr. President.
The President. How are you? I hope you had a nice weekend.
Q. We did. Thank you.
The President. Everyone good?
Q. How are you?
Q. How was your weekend?
Q. Did you get an extra hour of sleep?
The President. I'm good. I guess we're doing "60 Minutes" tonight, but I'm not sure. We're going to be on the plane. We may be midstream. We'll see. But I think they did a good job. Well, we'll let you know. We'll see how they cut it.
So do you have any questions?
Nigeria
Q. Mr. President, on Nigeria, I just wanted to ask you: Do you envisage U.S. boots on the ground or air strikes?
The President. It could be. I mean, a lot of things—I envisage a lot of things. They're killing record numbers of Christians in Nigeria. And they have other countries—very bad also. You know that. That part of the world, very bad. They're killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We're not going to allow that to happen.
Russia
Q. Mr. President, what's going on with Russian assets, would you say? Are you going to use those as a negotiating tool? What's Europe saying?
The President. Russian assets? What——
Q. On the frozen—on the frozen Russian assets. So, what did you—are you planning to use them——
The President. This is a totally different question than Nigeria, I assume, right?
Q. Yes, different. Different.
The President. That was quite a turn. [Laughter]
Q. A turn.
The President. I'm not doing that. What happens is, I guess, Europe and Russia are having discussions. I'm not involved in those discussions.
Ukraine/U.S. Security Assistance
Q. Will your administration provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles? Is that something that——
The President. No. No.
Q. You're not considering that?
The President. No, not really.
Q. Mr. President, on Friday——
Q. Mr. President, what would be the final——
The President. It could happen. I could change. But at this moment, I'm not.
Russia/Ukraine/Hostages Held in Gaza, Palestinian Territories
Q. What would be the final straw for you that proves that Putin is really not ready to end the
war?
The President. What?
Q. What would be the final straw for you that proves that Putin is really not ready to end this
war with Ukraine?
The President. There's no final straw. Sometimes you have to let it fight out. And they're fighting, and they're fighting it out. And it's been a tough war for Putin. He's lost a lot of soldiers—maybe a million. That's a lot of soldiers. And it's been tough for Ukraine. It's been tough on both. Sometimes you have to let it, you know, just get fought out.
You know, we have—I've settled eight wars. I thought that that one would be easier than some of the ones we settled.
And by the way, we got three hostages back. The—you know, the hostages were—it's so sad. We're talking about dead bodies, which people call hostages, but I don't know what you'd call them. I spoke to the parents. We got Neutra, you know, from New York and from the United States, and I spoke to his parents and—and they're thrilled, in one sense, but in another sense, obviously, it's not too great. But we're very happy to have done it.
We have three—we got three bodies back today that they found, and we're looking for the remainder of the bodies.
Tariffs/China
Q. Are you going to the Supreme Court on Wednesday?
The President. What?
Q. Are you going to go to the Supreme Court for the tariffs oral argument?
The President. No. I think it's the most important decision—one of the most important decisions in the history of our country, because without tariffs—without our being able to use tariffs freely, openly, and in every way, we are—really, we'd suffer tremendously, from a national security standpoint. The national security of our country is at stake.
It's the biggest—I think it's one of the biggest decisions in the history of the Supreme Court.
Other countries use tariffs against us. If we weren't able to openly and freely use tariffs against them—I'll give you an example: China. That was going to be a disaster for the world, and I was able to settle it very quickly, very easily, because I was able to use tariffs. It's total national security.
And economic health is also part of national security, by the way. But without tariffs, we—our country would be in great jeopardy.
U.S. Tariff Policy
Q. So will you attend the oral arguments at the Supreme Court?
The President. No, I don't think so, because I don't want to call a lot of attention to me. It's not about me. It's about our country.
I'll be going to Miami. I'm going to make a speech in front of a large group of people in Miami instead. I wanted to go so badly. I just don't want to do anything to deflect the importance of that decision.
If we don't have tariffs, we don't have national security. And the rest of the world would laugh at us, because they've used tariffs against us for years and took advantage of us.
And you see what's happened: We've become wealthy. Our stock market hit a record high on Friday—a record high. It's hit 48 record highs during my term, and a large part of that is because of tariffs and our good trade deals. Without that, you couldn't make a good trade deal.
And you know, we were subject to being abused by a lot of other countries, including China, for years. Not anymore. Tariffs have brought us tremendous national security.
Venezuela/Drug Trafficking/Illegal Immigration
Q. On Venezuela. Is there a deadline for Venezuela to act against these alleged drug gangs before they face—[inaudible]?
The President. I don't ever set deadlines. I do what I do, but I don't set—whether it's Venezuela or anything else, I don't set deadlines.
Venezuela/Possible U.S. Military Action/Illegal Immigration
Q. You said that it's not true that you've made a decision on striking inland in Venezuela. But are there actual plans for those strikes in the near future?
The President. Well, how could I answer a question like that? "Are there plans for a strike on Venezuela?" Who would say that? Supposing there were, would I say that to you, honestly? "Yes, we have plans. We have—we have very secret plans." Who would say that? You know, what kind of a question is it?
Look, we'll see what happens with Venezuela. Venezuela sent us thousands and thousands—hundreds of thousands of people from prisons, from mental institutions, drug addicts. And so did other countries. That's the bad—I mean, other countries did it too, because we were run by very stupid people. Very, very stupid people.
Biden was the worst President in the history of our country by far. We had open borders.
And many countries—the Congo—many countries, they sent their prisoners. They sent prisoners. They sent drug dealers. They sent drug addicts. They sent anybody. Anybody that they didn't want, they sent them through our country. And Venezuela was one of the worst abusers, no question about it.
Lapse in Federal Government Appropriations
Q. Some Democrats say that the way that this shutdown ends is if you directly engage and negotiate a deal on extending these ACA subsidies. Is that something you're interested in?
The President. Well, all they have to do is open up the country. You know, we voted 14 times to open the country. We have voted 14 times to open the country, and they vote to keep it closed. All they have to do is vote to open the country.
And we only need five Democrats. They have a lot of Democrats. We only need five. But the Republicans have voted 14 times to open the country.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Benefits
Q. You directed your lawyers on SNAP——
Q. Mr. President, are you planning to speak with——
Q. You directed your lawyers on SNAP—on SNAP benefits. You put out that Truth Social post on Friday directing your lawyers to look into whether or not you can move around funds. What did—did they get back to you to find out if you can pay those——
The President. Well, it's—it's a much easier situation than that. If they vote to open the country, it's opened up immediately. We don't even have to think about that.
United Kingdom Royal Family
Q. Mr. President, I wanted to ask about—oh, I forgot what I wanted to ask about. That's right. If I might, Prince Andrew, in the U.K., has had his royal title stripped away because of the Epstein scandal. I know you're close to the royal family there. Do you have any thoughts on what's happening there?
The President. I feel very badly. I mean, it's a terrible thing that's happened to the family.
That's been a tragic situation. And it's too bad. I mean, I feel badly for the family.
NVIDIA Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang
Q. Mr. President, are you still planning to meet with Jensen Huang? Have you spoken with him after your talk?
The President. Who?
Q. Jensen Huang of Nvidia. The CEO of Nvidia.
The President. Yes, I've spoken to him. What about it?
Q. So are you planning to meet with him? You said, when you were——
The President. I meet with—look, he's one of the great geniuses of our time. His chips are 10 year—years ahead of anybody else's. And you know, I meet with him all the time. He's a great—it's a great American company. It's now the biggest company in the world.
So what would you like to know? I mean——
Q. So what does the——
The President. ——Nvidia is a—is really just a brilliant company. The chips are 10 years—the new Blackwell that just came out, it's 10 years ahead of every other chip. But there's nothing to meet with, other than saying, "Congratulations."
But no, we don't give that chip to other people.
Q. Are you meeting with the Syrian President?
The President. We don't give that chip to other people.
President Ahmad Husayn al-Shara' of Syria
Q. Are you meeting with the Syrian President at the White House? Or did you invite him?
The President. With who?
Q. The Syrian President. The Syrian President.
The President. He may be coming. I don't know. I mean, he's working very hard. We took sanctions off of Syria to give them a chance at survival, and I hear he's doing a very good job.
Thank you very much, everybody.
I'm going to try and watch "60 Minutes," but I may be delayed. Let's see if they treat me better than they treat other people. Although, I do say this: They treated Kamala very well. In fact, they changed her answers.
The President's Interview With CBS News for the "60 Minutes" Program
Q. Are you going to watch it here, Mr. President?
The President. I will try, but we may land just as it starts. Right? It's a very split second—but thank goodness for TiVo. [Laughter] Or something thereof, right? TiVo.
Q. You're a big fan?
The President. We love TiVo. We love TiVo. One of my favorite—one of the greatest inventions in history.
Have a good time. Thank you.
Q. Thank you, Mr. President.
NOTE: The President spoke at 6:13 p.m. in the press cabin. In his remarks, he referred to President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Ukraine; Ronen and Orna Neutra, parents of Omer Neutra, an Israeli soldier from Plainview, NY, who was killed during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel; and Vice President Kamala D. Harris, in her capacity as the 2024 Democratic Presidential nominee. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on November 13.
Categories: Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, Air Force One. Locations: Air Force One.
Names: Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Harris, Kamala D.; Huang, Jensen; Neutra, Orna; Neutra, Ronen; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich; Shara', Ahmad Husayn al-.
Subjects: CBS News; China, trade with U.S.; Economic improvement; Federal Government appropriations, lapse; Gaza, hostages held by Hamas; Illegal immigration; News media, Presidential interviews; Nigeria, reported persecution of Christians; Nutrition assistance programs; Russia, conflict in Ukraine; Russia, President; Russia, U.S. and international sanctions; Semiconductor manufacturing; Syria, President; Tariffs; U.S. diplomatic efforts, expansion; Ukraine, Russian invasion and airstrikes; Ukraine, U.S. assistance; United Kingdom, Prince Andrew, loss of royal title; Venezuela, relations with U.S.
DCPD Number: DCPD202501084.