Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2025
December 3, 2025
The President. Well, we're talking about CAFE standards, a very big deal. Very important. Today, my administration is taking historic action to lower costs for American consumers,
protect American auto jobs, and make buying a car much more affordable for countless American families and also safer.
We're officially terminating Joe Biden's ridiculously burdensome—horrible, actually—CAFE standards that impose expensive restrictions and all sorts of problems—gave all sorts of problems to automakers. And we're not only talking about it here, we're talking about outside of our country, because nobody could do it. Nobody wanted to do it, and it was ridiculous. Very expensive.
It put tremendous upward pressure on car prices. Combined with the insane electric vehicle mandate, Biden's burdensome regulations helped cause the price of cars to soar more than 25 percent, and in one case, they went up 18 percent in 1 year.
Today we're taking one more step to kill the "green new scam." It's part of the greatest scam, probably—well, other than Russia, Russia, Russia and a few others I could name—[laughter]—the greatest scam in American history—the "green new scam," and it's a quest to end the
gasoline-powered car. This is what they wanted to do, even though we have more gasoline than any other country by far, and people want the gasoline car.
They want everything. They want electric. They want any—they want to have lots of alternatives, but they do want the gasoline car. Right now it's leading away by a lot. The car business is a very interesting business, but we want to keep it that way.
I want to thank Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Deputy Transportation Secretary Steven Bradbury, as well as CEO of Ford, Jim Farley. Jim, where is Jim? Let's see.
Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer James D. Farley, Jr. Right here.
The President. Hi, Jim.
Mr. Farley. Hi, Mr. President.
The President. Congratulations. You're doing a great job.
CEO of Stellantis, Antonio Filosa. Thank you very much, Antonio.
Stellantis Chief Executive Officer Antonio Filosa. Thank you very much.
The President. Chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, Tom Castriota.
National Automobile Dealers Association Chairman Tom Castriota. Yes, sir.
The President. Thank you very much, Tom.
Mr. Castriota. Yes, sir. [Inaudible]
The President. Great to have you.
And manager of General Motors Orion Plant, John Urbanic.
General Motors Corp. Executive Orion Plant Director John Urbanic. Yes, sir. Thank you,
sir.
The President. Great to have you guys here, and you're going to say a few words in a minute about how ridiculous this was. But we're—we've just freed you up, so you're going to have a good day, going to have a good number of years.
Thanks as well to Senators Shelley Moore Capito, Ted Cruz, Kevin Cramer, Marsha Blackburn, Eric Schmitt, and Bernie Moreno, as well as Representatives Sam Graves, Vern Buchanan, Mike Kelly, Roger Williams, Lisa McClain, and Troy Balderson.
All great people. These are great people, and I know there's a lot of support long beyond the people that are here. You had tremendous support on this.
From day one, I've been taking action to make buying a car more affordable. I signed an Executive order to end the unfair, expensive electric vehicle mandate. As you know, we had to have an electric car within a very short period of time, even though you were—there was no way of charging them and lots of other things. It would have cost $5 trillion to build the charging plants.
And, as you know, in certain parts of the Midwest, they spent—to build nine chargers, they spent $8 billion So that wasn't working out too well. That was done before me, by the way. I wouldn't have let it go forward.
We're canceling the EPA's observed tailpipe emission standards. One of the most important things that—I've never had a group of people come to me more—more powerfully and really just devastated that they had to do it; it was killing them—than the automobile manufacturers. The tailpipe emission standards.
And I can tell you, your people at Ford were coming to me all the time——
Mr. Farley. Yes.
The President. ——and they were saying, like, "Please, it doesn't do anything, and it's killing us, and it's driving the cost through the roof."
And we revoked Biden's emissions waiver for California, so that California Communists—[laughter]—could not regulate the automobile industry and ruin the entire nation of automobiles. And they were doing that too, but we have that now under control, also, with your Governor, who's got much more than he can control.
Now, under the new rules being issued today by Secretary Duffy, the Department of Transportation will rescind the Biden fuel economy prices. And I hate to say that, because they were really not economy. They were really—they were anti-economy. They were—they were horrible—what they were doing to the costs and actually making the car much worse.
But these policies forced automakers to build cars using expensive technologies that drove up costs, drove up prices, and made the car much worse. The action is expected to save the typical consumer at least $1,000 off the price of a new car and, we think, substantially more than that.
Under the Trump administration, $70 billion are now being invested in the American auto industry. Ford has announced it will invest $5 billion across its Kentucky and Michigan plants.
Is that a correct statement?
Mr. Farley. That's right.
The President. That's a lot, $5 billion. You could do more. [Laughter] Creating at least 4,000 new jobs.
Senator Marsha W. Blackburn. Tennessee.
Stellantis announced that it will invest $13 billion to expand its U.S.-based manufacturing by more than 50 percent and open new manufacturing facilities across the country.
And I think a big part of that is also the tariffs. Because of tariffs, they're coming in—not only the automobile industry. AI—we're leading China in AI. We're leading everybody in AI. We're leading everybody in everything.
We have the hottest country right now. I will tell you—a lot of political people behind me—great political people, very successful political people. We have the hottest country anywhere in the world.
One year ago, we had a dead country, and now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. And it started from November 5, but it also started when we did the tariffs, and we've had tremendous support on the tariffs. It's bringing in trillions of dollars of wealth. It's bringing in national security.
And I've stopped eight wars. And of the eight wars, five of them have been because of tariffs and trade. So they're very important.
And General Motors plans to invest $4 billion as it brings its manufacturing back to the United States from Mexico.
After falling by 5 percent under Biden, U.S. auto production has surged by 10 percent so far this year.
You know, I won the autoworkers' vote, but now even the head of the autoworkers said "Trump is the greatest President we've ever seen," and he happens to be right about that. [Laughter] But we're protecting our autoworkers, and we're making it easier for every family to afford high-quality cars.
In other words, we're bringing automobiles back and the manufacturing of automobiles back into this country.
We lost 52 percent over the years—52 percent of our automobile manufacturing—you see it: closed factories all over the place. Now they're all opening up. They're being—in most cases, they're being knocked down, and new ones are being built in their place.
And a big beneficiary is the State of Michigan, but South Carolina—even States that didn't really do too much with the automobiles, they're opening up plants. It's been amazing.
So, between automobile plants, AI plants, and plants of every other nation—really, every other type, including chips. We're going to have a big percentage of the chip market very soon, not because of the CHIPS Act, which was horrible and ridiculous—where we just gave these companies billions and billions of dollars; they just kept the money—but because of what we did with tariffs. They have to build here, otherwise they going to have to pay tariffs, they won't be able to do business in the United States. And we are bringing—we're going to have a big percentage of the chip industry.
As of about a year ago, 2 years ago, we had none, and now we're going to have a very big percentage when it all finishes out.
So I'd like to ask Secretary Duffy to speak, and then Mr. Farley, and then Filosa and Urbanic and Castriota.
Mr. Castriota. Yes, sir.
The President. And also, we're going to ask some of our political leaders to speak, because, let me tell you, they went out of their way. This was not easy, and people were brainwashed. This is a "green new scam," and people were paying too much for a car that didn't work as well. And
now they're going to have a great car that's going to be environmentally friendly, but it's going to cost you a lot less, and it's going to work great. All of the nonsense is being taken out of the cars.
So, Secretary Duffy, could you say a few words, please?
Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy. Thank you, Mr. President.
So, yesterday at the Cabinet meeting, the President was talking about affordability, and the way that Democrats talk about affordability is a lie. Today is a perfect example of that.
So these CAFE standards used what was contrary to the law. The Congress set a rule that says you have to look at combustion engines. Biden and Buttigieg actually did an analysis using——
The President. "Boot-edge-edge." [Laughter]
Secretary Duffy. "Edge-edge." I'm sorry. "Boot-edge-edge" used EVs and hybrids to come up with a 62-mile-an-hour-per-gallon standard, which, the car companies will tell you, is completely unattainable. So they spent a lot of money on technology trying to meet the unattainable standard, driving up the cost of a car, number one.
And then, number two, if they couldn't meet the unattainable standard, they had to trade for carbon, costing billions of dollars and again driving up the price of the car.
So, Mr. President, what Democrats were doing were not making cars more affordable. They were making them less affordable.
The consequence of that is going to be that more Americans can afford to buy a new car, which means they're going to be safer on the roads because of all the great new technology we have that save lives, so we'll have less death on American roads.
These rules are going to allow the automakers to make vehicles that Americans want to purchase, not vehicles that Joe Biden and Buttigieg—"edge-edge" wants them to build—[laughter]——
The President. That's right.
Secretary Duffy. ——which is important.
But also, this is important for American jobs. The more cars we sell, the more jobs we have in this country. And so this is jobs, this is freedom, and this is common sense, Mr. President.
So thank you for your leadership, and I appreciate what the Senate did with the "Big Beautiful Bill" and what we've done here today.
So thank you, Mr. President.
The President. Thank you very much. The "Big Beautiful Bill" is—it's something. It's amazing. Wait until the people see the benefits and the lower taxes that they're going to have, lower regulations.
Sen. Blackburn. That's right.
The President. So how about Ford?
Mr. Farley. Mr. President and Secretary, all the important lawmakers here, competitors, today is a victory of common sense and affordability.
We're very proud of Ford to be the number-one auto producer in our country. Eighty-five—80 percent of the vehicles we sell here, we make in our country.
The President. Wow. Great.
Mr. Farley. And we never left, unlike many of our competitors. We're the number one exporter, and we have the most factory—auto factory workers.
And this CAFE standard that is aligned with customer demand is the right move for a lot of reasons. We were number two last year in EV sales, we were number three in hybrid, and we're the leading brand for combustion.
We believe that people should be able to make a choice, as you said, Mr. President. And we will invest more in affordable vehicles. This allows us to invest in affordable vehicles made in the U.S., which we will take the lead on, and will allow us to make vehicles more affordable.
So thank you for making this step, for all of you.
The President. Thank you very much.
One of the other things we're doing—it's separate from this meeting, but I think everybody here would agree with it. If you go to Japan, where I just left, and if you go to South Korea and Malaysia and other countries, they have a very small car, sort of like the Beetle used to be with the Volkswagen. They're very small. They're really cute. And I said, "How would that do in this country?" And everyone seems to think good, but you're not allowed to build them.
And I've authorized the Secretary to immediately approve the production of those cars so you'll be able to buy the—they really are—they're actually—some of them are really beautiful, actually, if you take a look. Honda, some of the Japanese companies do a beautiful job, but we're not allowed to make them in this country. And I think you're going to do very well with those cars, so we're going to approve those cars.
Secretary Duffy. We are going to approve them.
The President. Would you like to say something about that?
Secretary Duffy. Well, no, I just—just that he never stops working, so even when he's on Asian time, he's calling me at midnight in the—States. [Laughter] But you—he gave me the directive to clear the regulations on this——
The President. Yes.
Secretary Duffy. ——to which we have. And so, if Toyota or any other company wants to make smaller, more affordable cars, fuel-efficient, we have cleared the deck so they can make them in America and sell them in America.
The President. They're really nice and less expensive, and it really gives people a chance to have a car. You know?
Secretary Duffy. Yes.
The President. For—have a brandnew car, as opposed to a car that maybe isn't so great. And so, you car companies start thinking about that.
Mr. Farley. Yes, sir.
The President. I think it's going to be a tremendous market. Please. Would you like to say something?
Mr. Filosa. Thank you, Mr. President. It's a great day for us at Stellantis today, because it's a day where we see CAFE regulation reconcile with real customers' demand. That's why at Stellantis we decided to invest, through Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler, $13 billion in the next 4 years, increasing production by 50 percent, delivering to the market five new vehicles, and
creating 5,000 additional jobs. That's because we believe in what you, Secretary Duffy, and all your team is doing in this country.
We believe in growth. We are ready to invest even more.
So thank you very much. Thank you very much, also, for this great news of the Kei cars——
Secretary Duffy. Yes.
Mr. Filosa. ——which we are very interested in too. And we are very looking forward to work with Secretary Duffy, your team——
The President. Yes.
Mr. Filosa. ——in the future for the next steps. Thank you very much.
The President. Well, get ready for those cars, because we've——
Mr. Filosa. We will.
The President. ——already cleared the way. You can start right away. Okay?
Mr. Filosa. We will. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
The President. Yes. I think they're great. Thanks. Thank you very much. Please.
Mr. Urbanic. Mr. President, thank you so much for having me.
The President. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Mr. Urbanic. We support your leadership for this issue that is so important to the auto industry. I'm here representing the hardworking men and women of Orion Assembly in Michigan.
The President. Right.
Mr. Urbanic. The facility—our manufacturing facility there is currently going through a retool so that we can build additional U.S.-manufactured pickup trucks and full-size sport utilities for our customers, and we're so excited about that. And thank you for your support.
Secretary Duffy, thank you as well.
The President. And this is largely coming in because of the tariff situation. You know, we have—we're taking in trillions of dollars, actually. Trillions. And we have so many other advantages, but these great companies are coming back to the United States.
They left the United States. If somebody was sitting behind this desk that knew what they were doing, that wouldn't have happened. They would have said, "Well, you can sell your car here, but we're going to put a hundred-percent tariff," and you would have never had the auto industry leave. We—again, we lost more than 50 percent of our auto industry, and now it's all coming back. And I think it's coming back—ultimately, it's going to be bigger. I believe it's going to be bigger than it was before, actually.
But it's an honor to have you here. And please.
Mr. Castriota. Yes, sir.
The President. Would you like to say something?
Mr. Castriota. Mr. President——
The President. Thank you very much.
Mr. Castriota. Tom Castriota, sir. I'm the chairman of National Automobile Dealers——
The President. Right.
Mr. Castriota. ——and represent 18,000 dealers in the country, along with 3,000 heavy-duty truck dealers. And what—the actions that you've done as the President and your administration is definitely going to save our customers money. And you made your promises that let the consumer buy what they want, sir, and you delivered on that.
The President. Yes.
Mr. Castriota. And the other thing that you delivered was your promise in the "Big Beautiful Bill": the tax deduction on loans that had gone away some years back.
The President. Right.
Mr. Castriota. And now that makes it affordable for our buyers that can save money through that loan of the tax—anywhere from several hundred or several thousand.
So, again, sir, I—on behalf of all the dealers and our customers, we appreciate what you and your administrator have done and, of course, our legislative support as well, Mr. President. Thank you.
The President. Thank you. That's very nice. And I'm glad you brought that up. We're allowing people to deduct. So, if you go out and buy a car—and this is for middle income—but for lower income, no—it—no matter what. They never really had deductions. You know, rich people like deductions, but middle-income people were never really afforded deductions, which is very unfair.
You borrow money to buy a car, you're allowed to deduct the interest from your income tax. And I think that's going to be one of the most—in terms of your industry, I think it's going to be the biggest thing that we're talking about——
Mr. Castriota. Yes, sir.
The President. ——maybe even bigger than CAFE standards. People are going to be able to borrow money deducted, so it's going to cost them essentially half. And they'll be——
Mr. Castriota. It will help. Yes, sir.
The President. I think it's going to be a tremendous factor. They've never had a chance to do that before. And that's all done. That's all in the "Great Big Beautiful Bill." So it's really terrific.
I'd like to ask a couple of our political leaders to say—because you—guys have done an amazing job. This was something that was going to be very tough. We had to fight lunatics to get it done, and they had no answers. You know, it's—you just present them with the facts, and they just say, "Well, we're just not going to vote for it." They couldn't talk about it, but they didn't want to vote.
I see Mike Kelly, my friend, back there. He's been with me from day one. Representative George J. "Mike" Kelly, Jr. Mr. President, good to see you. The President. Right?
Rep. Kelly. Yes.
The President. What do you have to say, Mike?
Rep. Kelly. Well, you know what? I think you—you hit the key. Everybody's talking about the same thing. In America—
The President. See the way they like—look at the way they like each other. You can see—[Laughter].
Rep. Kelly. Well—but I——
The President. You can see, there's no hatred between these two guys.
Rep. Kelly. No, as long as I beat his price, we're friends. [Laughter]
No, but you hit the nail on the head. The American people have always been able to choose what they want to buy.
The President. Right.
Rep. Kelly. They don't want to be taken out of a market by people who, quite frankly, don't even drive their own car, as saying, "This is the way you've got to go, going into the future." And say: "Well, you may say that, but you're not in the market. You have no idea." And I know the business we're in, at the end of the day, if you were there with me, I'd said, "Mr. President, other than price, what's keeping you from taking the car home today?" It's always price. [Laughter]
The President. Yes.
Rep. Kelly. And the fact that we can build a car——
The President. That's right.
Rep. Kelly. ——that's affordable that people want to buy, that's the key to it. What you've done is unlock the most ridiculous statute that ever came in with CAFE. It wasn't done by the Congress.
The President. Yes.
Rep. Kelly. It wasn't done—it was done by President Obama, after the courts failed on it.
So thank you for doing what you're doing. You're making America great again in every single way. Thank you.
The President. Thank you.
Representative J. Roger Williams. Great.
The President. It's going to be so big for the auto manufacturers. You—people aren't even going to believe the impact this has.
Sen. Blackburn. Yes.
The President. You know, Mike used to come to my rallies all the time. [Laughter] And we'd have a rally, and it was, like, zero degrees. It was freezing. Everyone—and he'd sit there without a shirt on. [Laughter] And I didn't need that, you know. I didn't say it was pretty, but he would—[laughter]—he would sit there in the cold, and he didn't mind it at all. I said, that's one tough cookie, right?
Rep. Kelly. You lit it up. I didn't—we didn't need any heat if you were there. The President. Yes. We had a good time. We had a lot of great rallies, right? Rep. Kelly. We did. We did, sir.
The President. Pennsylvania.
Please, Mr. Congressman.
Rep. Williams. Thank you, Mr. President. And what—I represent the dealer—I'm a dealer, and we got some other dealers in here. But this is huge for the dealer body—the local car dealer. We're going to be able to sell what the customer wants. The manufacturer is going to make what the customer wants. We've got all kinds of options with—to the "Big Bill." It's going to enable people, as we talked about, to deduct payments and so forth.
As we say in the business, they've never been cheaper than they are today, Mr. President.
The President. Yes.
Rep. Williams. And it's going to be a great opportunity for the dealer body to sell what consumers want. And 99 percent of the businesses in America are small businesses, many are car dealers—employ a lot of people. It's going to be a great year for us.
And we appreciate your leadership, and we appreciate—and from a—retail standpoint, we appreciate the manufacturers going to step up and build cars that customers want and that we want to sell.
So thank you very much. And makes it a great country.
The President. He's also a very brave Congressman, because he was there on the baseball field that horrible day with Steve Scalise——
Senator Blackburn. Yes.
The President. ——and some other people. He was hit, but he took it very well. He took it very well. You're my pal.
Rep. Williams. Thank you.
The President. Thanks. Great job.
Rep. Williams. Appreciate you.
The President. Great job. Appreciate it. Kevin, could you say a few words——
National Economic Council Director Kevin A. Hassett. Oh, sure.
The President. ——of wisdom? One of the really smart economic forecasters, I will tell you.
Beyond an economist, he's a real forecaster.
Please.
Director Hassett. Sir, I think that there's a massive macroeconomic benefit to what we're doing today. And the way to think about it is that the car that has the best gas mileage that you could buy that has only gasoline is a Honda that gets about 36 miles per gallon. Joe Biden wanted to make every car, on average, be above 50. So there's no car made in the U.S. that you would be able to sell 2 years from now, 3 years from now, under that rule. Because what he wanted to do is make everybody have an electric car, as you know.
But here's the thing: that if everybody had an electric car, then nobody would be buying gasoline anymore, and they'd have to take all the miles that they travel and put it on the grid. And so we would have to increase the production of electricity in the U.S. by 25 percent over the next couple of years, if they had their way.
sir.
And so you've really stopped a massive disruption for the economy with this. So thank you,
The President. And that wasn't the main reason, and yet it certainly is a main reason. You
wouldn't have been able to do it, even if you wanted. It's just so crazy. That was the mandate, which we ended.
Troy, would you like to say something?
Representative W. Troy Balderson. Great honor. Thank you. I'm—my family was a—former dealer, 48 years—Chrysler-Dodge dealer, and then I got in the political world, sir.
The President. Yes.
Rep. Balderson. I had more fun in the dealership world, but—[laughter]—I miss, but I still play a big role in automobiles and grateful.
I remember, under President Obama, when the CAFE standards changed, as Mike brought up, and going through those challenging times. As a Chrysler dealer, before Stellantis came along, it was Daimler before you guys got it.
So thank you very much for being here and making these changes. And as you said, that interest on the car loan piece was big, and I know that Bernie led the charge on that in the Senate and getting the "One Big Beautiful Bill." That really is a big deal, and—people need to understand how big a deal that is.
Rep. Kelly. It's huge.
The President. They did a great job. And by the way, we had a great victory last night all [inaudible].
Sen. Blackburn. Yes, we did. Yes.
The President. Matt Van Epps is going to be a great Congressman.
Rep. Balderson. Kind of like our race, huh?
The President. He's going to be a great Congressman.
Sen. Blackburn. Yes.
The President. I think so. Really. Like us, right?
Rep. Balderson. Yes, he—like us. [Laughter]
The President. That's one of my early endorsements, right?
Rep. Balderson. Yes, sir.
The President. Can we talk about it? You're—right there is the man. Come here. Let me say hello to you.
Please, go ahead.
Representative Vernon G. Buchanan. I think——Senator Shelley Moore Capito. Whoa. I'm sorry. Rep. Buchanan. Thank you, Mr. President——The President. Thank you.
Rep. Buchanan. ——for your leadership.
But the thing I've admired most: You've been in business. You've been in the battles over the years, and you're helping us—lead us out. Most people that are up here have no idea about business or small business.
The President. That's true.
Rep. Buchanan. It makes a big difference—one is.
Number two is, I would just say, in terms of the tax stuff we're talking about: One of the things that get missed—and I'm in Florida, Sarasota region——
The President. Right.
Rep. Buchanan. ——is the ability to deduct. Most people have a small business. They'll have a lawn business. They'll have this, that. They buy a new or used truck. They can take that deduction—let's say they're in a 20-percent tax bracket, but the vehicle is 60 grand—they can take 20 percent of the 60 grand and get a $12,000 write-off. They can pay their payments for the first year. That's a powerful tool we don't talk about. I don't know why.
But at the end of the day, because of what you've put in place, full expensing——
The President. Right.
Rep. Buchanan. ——that's the tool that it would use.
The President. Big.
Rep. Buchanan. And you could just think about all the people in Florida, just—general places. They're buying old vans or new vans. They're buying—trucks—mainly trucks, and they're getting a deduction. They don't even have a payment for a year.
The President. Right. That's right.
Rep. Buchanan. So it's one of the best things for——The President. It's one of the biggest things——Rep. Buchanan. ——Ford and everybody else.
The President. ——in the bill. Rep. Buchanan. In the bill——The President. The expensing.
Rep. Buchanan. ——one of the—yes, expensing is a powerful tool.
The President. Yes.
Rep. Buchanan. They can write the whole asset off the first year, take that deduction, put
$12,000 in their pocket on a—$20,000.
Let me mention one other thing. They got into the E-vehicles—electric cars—and I'm talking to dealers that come in—they come in and talk to me. And basically, they couldn't sell one; they couldn't give one away. And the—when these companies—or they got them because of whatever political pressure under Biden administration, and they end up realizing that they got no market. A guy says: "The car has been sitting there a year. I can't get rid of it."
So they don't understand the market—the people who produce the vehicles. And that's made a big difference in your leadership.
But thanks for what you're doing here today.
The President. Thank you very much.
Rep. Buchanan. It's big. It's huge. It'll make a big difference: $12,000 on a $60,000 vehicle up-front, day one.
Thank you.
The President. Thank you very much. Great job.
Rep. Buchanan. Yes.
The President. You know, you were just talking about something that's interesting: Ford would make—and I don't want to speak for Ford, because we have——
Sen. Capito. Ford here. [Laughter]
The President. ——one of the top people right here.
Mr. Farley. Mr. President, it's fine if you want to talk about Ford. [Laughter]
Sen. Capito. [Inaudible]
The President. But Ford would make numerous electric cars in order to sell——
Mr. Farley. Yes.
The President. ——one Ford 150——
Mr. Farley. Yes.
Secretary Duffy. Right.
The President. ——because they'd make all their money with a 150.
Mr. Farley. Yes.
Senator Bernie Moreno. Yes.
The President. And they were willing to lose money on building two or three electric cars that they couldn't sell in order to make some money on the 150, because the 150 is a monster. I'll tell you what, that—no matter where you go——
Sen. Blackburn. My grandson's truck.
The President. ——they love that Ford–150.
Mr. Farley. Yes.
The President. But isn't it a ridiculous model, when you have to build two or three cars that you know you're not going to be selling or not be selling for much in order to really do something that you should have the right to do——
Mr. Farley. Yes.
The President. ——which is make a car that you want to make——
Mr. Farley. Yes.
The President. ——and that the market wants, right?
Mr. Farley. Right.
The President. So congratulations on the 150. [Inaudible]
Mr. Farley. Thank you. Best selling vehicle in the United States. [Laughter]
And, Mr. President——Sen. Capito. Just saying. The President. Now——
Mr. Farley. And 100 percent built in the United States.
Rep. Buchanan. It's a monster.
The President. Now it's only going to do—no, but it really is—it's amazing. It's an amazing brand.
Representative Samuel B. Graves, Jr. You took my answer.
Sen. Moreno. There was a lot of—there was a lot of stupid things done here—[inaudible].
The President. What would you like to say?
Sen. Capito. Yes, I—thank you, Mr. President and Secretary Duffy, and all of us—you know, one of the last times I was here is when you signed the electric vehicle CRA, Congressional Review Act, that all of us participated in—the beginning of really making common sense, because it was going to impact 17 other States and really a large part of our economy.
This is about affordability here.
I'm just going to say one thing. Well, maybe—I already said one thing, so now I'm going to say two things. [Laughter] When we talk about a car and auto, we sort of talk about just, "Oh, we need a car." Do you know what a car does for a family? You can take your children to school.
You can go to the store. You can visit your mother. You can go to church. You can have a job. You can have the flexibility that you need. A car for an American family is about a roadway to prosperity.
The President. Big deal.
Sen. Capito. It's a big deal.
And so, by making them more affordable, making them more choice-driven by what families want and need, today is a great day for the American family.
Sen. Moreno. Absolutely. Sen. Blackburn. Absolutely. Sen. Capito. Thank you.
Senator R. Edward Cruz. Yes.
Sen. Moreno. Absolutely, and——
Sen. Blackburn. And for the American worker.
The President. Say it.
Sen. Blackburn. Well, thank you, Mr. President and Secretary Duffy and to my colleagues that are here.
In Tennessee, we make great automobiles, and we have a fantastic workforce. And whether you're GM or Ford, with their new investment in Tennessee, or Nissan or VW or Toyota with the engine plant, what you see is the components that are necessary to build these cars.
And removing these standards and making cars more affordable does mean that more people will purchase them, but it also means we're going to have to make more cars to meet that demand. And for Tennessee, that is a great thing.
The President. So, you know, I'm just sitting here, and I'm thinking, like, we have the biggest auto manufacturers in the world. They're talking about investing billions and—they're investing it as we speak, but billions and billions of dollars in our country—thank you very much—and they're here. They're not, like, "Well, maybe we'll do it." They're doing it because of tariffs, and they're doing it because of maybe they like the President and we're doing things like this for them, which, frankly, no matter who you are, this should be done.
And we're doing things like deductibility of interest.
Senator Eric Schmitt. Yes.
The President. When you borrow money to buy a car, you're allowed to deduct it from your income tax. That is a massive tax cut for people that probably are going to be trying to buy that car anyway. And I really think that that interest factor is going to be one of the biggest things.
When I——
Rep. Kelly. Absolutely. Absolutely.
The President. I was proud of that, because I thought of it, and it seems so simple. Other people are allowed big interest—if you're a rich person, you're allowed to have big interest deductions for different things you do. But if you're a middle-income person that has to buy a car, you were never entitled to anything. And now you're getting a full interest deduction on the loan, and I think that's going to have one of the biggest impacts.
But we're here with companies that are investing tens of billions of dollars in our country as we speak. It's not going to be in 2 years or 3 years. A lot of it's because of the expensing provision in the bill "Big Beautiful Bill." But a miracle is happening in our country. It's a miracle.
This is just the auto industry, but we have other industries where it's the same thing. They're building all over our country, and something—this is—a revolution is happening. It's a business revolution. It's a jobs revolution. It's a car revolution.
We're bringing back the car industry that was stolen from us because we have people that didn't know what they were doing sitting at this desk. They—the—and they put the wrong people in, because they weren't advised properly.
And this is really an incredible thing that's happening. Go ahead, Kevin.
Senator Kevin J. Cramer. Yes. Well, thank you, Mr. President.
And I think, in many respects, pretty much everything that could be said has been, except that I think what Kevin talks about in terms of the cascading economic opportunity——
The President. Yes.
Sen. Cramer. ——from this one single event is just the tip of the iceberg.
When you think of all the rules and regulations that you have repealed, I think it's more important, frankly, than the tax cuts. However, in the Working——
The President. [Laughter] That's right.
Sen. Cramer. ——Working Family Tax Cuts Act, remember, we made permanent a lot of really good policy from the first Trump era, not the least of which, for small businesses, is bonus
depreciation: the opportunity to depreciate the year that you purchase an F–150 for your small business or a large truck for your farm.
I just think we're—we're going to roll into 2026, and we're going to see an escalation of economic opportunity the likes of which——
The President. You are.
Sen. Cramer. ——I probably have never seen.
The President. I think nobody has ever seen it, nobody in the world.
Rep. Buchanan. That's true.
The President. Because there's never been 18 or whatever it ends up being—in 10 months, we have $18 trillion being invested.
Sen. Cramer. Yes. Yes.
The President. We never had $1 trillion being invested.
Sen. Cramer. Yes. Yes.
The President. And Biden had much less than that. Think of it. He had less than a trillion over 4 years. We have $18 trillion in 10 months, and it's actually as of 9 months. So, there's never been anything.
Eric——
Sen. Schmitt. Yes.
The President. ——what—do you have to say?
Sen. Schmitt. Mr. President, thank you. And on behalf of the people of the great State of Missouri, who—we actually make things—from F–15s——
The President. [Laughter] That's true.
Sen. Schmitt. ——to F–47s now.
The President. Right. That's right.
Sen. Schmitt. Thanks to you, we'll be building the F–47—and then F–150s.
Mr. Farley. Thank you.
Sen. Schmitt. And those are real jobs. And we make things in Missouri. This is going to go a long way, I think, for making things more affordable for normal people.
Nothing could be more American than driving a car on a highway, and this is going to make that more accessible for more people.
So thanks for your leadership.
The President. Yes.
Sen. Schmitt. Secretary Duffy——
The President. Your State is doing a great job.
Sen. Schmitt. Yes. Well, they love you too. The President. It's a great place. Thank you. Please.
Rep. Graves. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to talk to you just a minute from a rural perspective——
The President. Okay.
Rep. Graves. ——because these CAFE standards were absolutely unworkable. In rural Missouri, we need vehicles that are practical and affordable——
The President. Right.
Rep. Graves. ——and can haul, for our small businesses, for agriculture. And it just simply didn't work. Those CAFE standards didn't work.
So, I applaud you and Secretary Duffy for your hard work and what you're doing on behalf of rural America.
Sen. Moreno. [Inaudible]
The President. Well, it was keeping a lot of manufacturers out of our country too. They said, "We're not going to—are you crazy?"
Sen. Moreno. Yes.
The President. They thought—outside manufacturers thought we were absolutely insane—
—
Sen. Moreno. We kind of were. [Laughter]
Sen. Blackburn. Because we—
The President. ——with all of the different things——
Senator Blackburn. We were. [Laughter]
The President. ——that were just made-up nonsense. It was, like, made-up. It was really
made up by people that hate our country, I really believe. Do you—does anybody else have anything to say? Sen. Moreno. I—two—quick things, Mr. President. The President. Oh, go. Bernie, I didn't see you.
Sen. Moreno. Two quick things I think are really important.
So the person who sat behind this desk before you gave $7,500 in subsidies to multimillionaires who are leasing electric Rolls-Royces, electric Porsches, electric Lamborghinis—were getting $7,500 from the taxpayer. And these Democrats sit under this floor and say that Republicans are for millionaires and billionaires.
The President. That's true.
Sen. Moreno. We are the opposite of giving $7,500 to multibillionaires to lease foreign electric vehicles.
Number two, because of your policies, at the beginning of the year, 51 percent of the cars made—sold in America were made in America—51 percent before you got sworn in. Last month, that number was 57 percent. We moved it six points, which nobody thought would be possible in 4 years. We did it in 10 months. That's something that maybe the news should cover a little bit more.
And we've driven down the price of automobiles. The car prices for consumers are down before you did this.
The President. Just about everything is down. You know, this whole thing is—they use the word "affordability." It's a Democrat hoax. They're the ones that drove the prices up, and all they do is say "affordability," and you're supposed to say, "Oh, that means they had low prices."
No, we inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country. They say 48 years, but let's say that's history. I don't believe that. Biden had, because of his stupid ways and his—between his energy policies and his spending policies, we had the worst inflation in the history of our country. And now our prices are coming down, and they're coming down for cars and they're coming down—I mean, did you hear yesterday when Chris Wright from Energy—the head of Energy in our country—said there are now parts of our country—it's parts—it's all happening—$1.99 for gasoline, a gallon.
And we have it at $2.50, $2.60. It was at $5. And that's bigger than any tax cut we could give, you know, for the average family. That's considered bigger than any tax cut.
So the word "affordability," when they mention it—you ever watch them? It's all about—I saw the young lady that lost last night. She lost by a lot more than they thought. And we have a great new candidate in the—in Congress—really great. Matt Van Epps. But I saw last night she said, "It's all about affordability, all about"—they never talk about, like, the specifics.
Everything was through the roof. Eggs—when I took over, eggs were four times higher than they ever were. We got the prices down to the lowest level.
Sen. Cruz. Yes.
The President. I mean, amazing. But they never—you got to watch. They're the great con people. It's like the Inflation Reduction Act. And after they got it approved, because everybody said "Inflation Reduction"—they admitted it had nothing to do with reducing inflation. It's a con job.
I think affordability is the greatest con job. They look at you, and they say "affordability." They don't say anything else. Everyone says, "Oh, their prices were so low." No, they had the worst inflation. We had the highest prices we ever had, and now they're all coming down, including beef is coming down. Beef was up there a little bit.
Our ranchers did well, but we've got to make them do a little bit less well, perhaps. But the beef is now coming down. Coffee is now coming down. It's all coming down, and it's a beautiful thing to see.
But remember this: When they use the word "affordability," they just say—they never say anything else. "This election is about affordability," and then they go on to the next subject. It's a con job.
They caused the highest prices in the history of our country, the worst inflation in the history of our country, and we're getting those prices down. And they're coming down rapidly, and you'll see those results very soon.
Anybody else want to say a few words?
Oh, Ted, I—Ted, I can't believe it. [Laughter]
Sen. Cruz. I'm easy to miss.
The President. I didn't see you. [Laughter] It's very rare that I would miss you. Go ahead, Ted.
Sen. Cruz. Well, Mr. President, I want to congratulate you on behalf of everyone here for the leadership that you're showing, and this is a victory today for consumers. This is a victory for affordability.
Your critics like to say the word "affordability." Under Joe Biden and the Democrats, they put mandate after mandate after mandate on cars and trucks, and they drove the price up thousands and thousands of dollars. And with the actions you're taking today, and you put on top of that the "One Big Beautiful Bill"—you know, most of the Senators here are on the Senate Commerce Committee, and on the Commerce Committee, we work together to zero out the CAFE standards. We wrote that into the law that the CAFE standards went to zero. What does that mean? It means you can now, as a consumer, buy the car you want.
It also means people's lives will be safer, because what these regulations did is they forced cars to be more expensive and made of plastic instead of steel, to—because you had to make them lighter to comply with these standards. So you'd get in a wreck and people would die.
The President. That's crazy.
Sen. Cruz. The results of what you're doing: You're literally saving people's lives, and you're making it where families can afford to get a new car.
These actions will drop the cost of cars and trucks thousands of dollars. That's makes a real difference.
And I'll make one final point. You know, about half the members here are car dealers. [Laughter] And I will say, my good friend Roger Williams, out in the lobby, he tried to sell me a car—[laughter]—which didn't surprise me, but I just want to give props to Mike Kelly. He showed he was savvier, because he tried to sell you a car, and you can afford a much nicer car than I can. [Laughter]
So, well done, Mike. Roger, you just went to the wrong customer.
Rep. Williams. I was a hundred dollars cheaper. [Laughter]
The President. The thing that Ted just said, it's true: plastic instead of steel. Think of that. And people died because of that. The plastic—it was plastic in an auto accident, and it broke up, and people were shattered because of that crazy deal. But that's—it's a really good point.
Go ahead.
Sen. Cruz. And, Mr. President, I'll tell you, the Senate Commerce Committee, on January 14, we're going to have a hearing with all of the Big Three there, and Tesla, and the entire hearing is going to focus on how your leadership has reduced the burdens on carmakers. That's lowering costs, that's giving consumers more choices, and it's producing more jobs in America, and it's highlighting—that's a real record of success.
The President. Yes. Well, we're really—it's an honor. And you know, they were going by California. We had, like, two different countries: California and 15 that followed California, because you had 15 States——
Sen. Cruz. Yes. Yes.
The President. ——follow California. And the rules from California were just like everything else. That's why people are leaving. That's why it's such a mess. It's got such—there's a State with such unbelievable potential. But what they did with the car industry is incredible.
And that was—you know, the car companies didn't know what to do because they had two standards, and you can't build two different cars for the same country. And what we're doing today is very big.
Would anybody like to say something? I—would you like to say something, my friend? Deputy Secretary of Transportation Steven G. Bradbury. I just want to say thank you. Sen. Moreno. Yes, thank you.
The President. Well, thank you. Thank you very much.
[At this point, several reporters began asking questions at once.] Brian [Brian Glenn, Real America's Voice]. Hold it.
Q. Mr. President, thank you.
The President. Brian.
Q. Once again——
The President. And we love you, Brian.
Q. Oh, I love you too, Mr. President.
The President. Okay? He's a——
Q. I've always said——
The President. He's a good man. Go ahead.
Q. Well, I appreciate that.
Consumer Confidence/2024 Presidential Election/U.S. Armed Forces Recruitment Efforts
Q. I've always said, you've tackled three—the three M's: mortgage, munchkins, and marriage. [Laughter] You've solidified all of those. I'll add motor vehicles to that now. My question—I got one about consumer confidence. We just came off one of the record-high Black Friday, up 9.1 percent——
The President. Record high. Highest ever. Biggest amount ever purchased in 1 day. Yes.
Q. ——which I think counters this narrative of affordability, because, apparently, the Americans are spending money. So I wanted to see: How do you view that for a consumer confidence being so high going into Christmas and going into next year?
And I do have one for the auto group after you—after that.
The President. Yes, I just think that we do—we have tremendous confidence in the country. You know, one of the things in terms of confidence, when—if you go back a year and a half—you know, it's amazing we're, like, into 10 months already—but you go back a little bit before the election, because after November 5, it started changing rapidly, even though we weren't running it until January 20. But when—you look back and you look at the enlistment of soldiers, people that wanted to join the military—the Army, Navy, the Air Force, Marines, the Coast Guard—it's, like, booming. It's all—Space Force.
But we had—a very, very—we had the worst recruitment in the history of our country. A year later, we have the greatest recruitment in the history—you can't even get in. Getting in is like getting into a top college that you couldn't get in.
People want to be in the service now, and that includes the police and firemen and other things. You couldn't hire police. You couldn't hire anybody in the Army or the Navy. You couldn't get people in. And we now have gone from that to record recruitment. We're getting—
and we're getting high-quality people, amazing people wanting to be in the military. They have spirit, now. You know? Call it what you want.
Representative Lisa C. McClain. Yes. Right.
The President. But that's part of it. But they have great spirit now. It's a great thing. Go ahead, ask your second question.
Automobile Mileage Tracking Devices
Q. Okay. My second question: I've got a lot of close family friends that are in the automotive business, own dealerships all across Southern California. They sent me a question to ask you. There's a thing called a mileage blocker that is installed on vehicles. It's a type of a computer chip which alters the actual mileage driven on the vehicle, so that when you have a leased vehicle that's turned in—they're losing thousands of dollars. They've got to go chase down these manufacturers.
What can we do to track down these manufacturers of this illegal computer chip that's really hurting the automotive industry?
The President. Have you heard about this?
Mr. Castriota. Yes, sir. They're getting built in China, and most of them are coming on out of Great Britain, sir.
Sen. Moreno. [Inaudible]
Mr. Castriota. They're being distributed through China through—to distributors selling them online through Great Britain. Yes, sir.
The President. Wow. That's not so good.
Mr. Castriota. Yes, sir.
The President. What do you think? Secretary Duffy. We'll look at that. Mr. Farley. Yes.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
The President. Do you—Bernie, do you know anything about that?
Sen. Moreno. I—it's a—it works on older vehicles, and obviously, we've got to do a better job of—[inaudible]—at the border.
The President. Yes, I think it's something—I've never heard of it. Very good.
Q. Yes, I appreciate it. Well, you said—[inaudible].
The President. We never heard of it.
Q. That's great. Well—
The President. That's pretty good. [Laughter]
U.S. Airstrikes on Suspected Drug-Trafficking Vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific
Q. Mr. President, you released video of that first boat strike on September 2 but not the second video. Will you release video of that strike so that the American people can see for themselves what happened?
The President. I don't know what they have, but whatever they have, we'd certainly release. No problem. You know, we stopped—every boat we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives.
Sen. Moreno. That's right. That's right.
Q. So you——
Senator Blackburn. Thank you.
The President. And if you look at our——
Rep. McClain. Thank you.
The President. If you look at our numbers, the drugs coming in through sea are down 91 percent.
I'm surprised there's 9 percent——
Sen. Cruz. Yes.
The President. ——you want to know the truth? [Laughter] I don't know who's doing the 9 percent.
But it's down 91. And we're going to start very soon on land, and I'm sure you're thrilled to hear that.
Q. So why not just release the full——
Ukraine/Russia/U.S. Diplomatic Efforts
Q. Mr. President, on Ukraine. On Ukraine. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were there last night with Vladimir Putin.
The President. Yes.
Q. Can you give us an update about those talks? It sounds, from what the Kremlin is saying, like they're—they're not going to compromise. Can you tell us what you've——
The President. I don't know what the Kremlin is doing. I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Putin. We're going to find out.
It's a war that should have never been started. It's a war, if I were President—we had a rigged election. If I were President, that war would have never happened. It's a terrible thing.
But I thought they had a very good meeting yesterday with President Putin. We'll see what happens.
It's—you know, when I was in this office and I talked about no cards—I said, "You have no cards"—that was the time to settle. I thought that would have been a much better time to settle. But they, in their wisdom, decided not to do that. They have a lot of things against them right now.
But you have—President Putin had a very good meeting yesterday with Jared Kushner and with Steve Witkoff. What comes out of that meeting, I can't tell you, because it does take two to tango.
You know, Ukraine—I think we have something pretty well worked out with them. They're very satisfied, considering. But the sad part is, if I were President, no war would have ever happened. They would have had a hundred percent of their territory. Nothing would have happened. It's a—very sad situation.
So think of this: Last month, 27,000 soldiers——
Participant. That's crazy.
Rep. McClain. Insane.
The President. ——that's like, you take a stadium——
Sen. Cruz. Yes.
The President. ——a football stadium, not an arena—and you cut it in half. Twenty-seven thousand people died. Young—mostly young soldiers died last month, in 1 month.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
That's—and that's the only reason I'm involved.
You know, we're not spending any money on the war. We're selling to NATO. We're not being ripped off like we were under Biden. Biden was handing everybody everything we had, giving us—giving them all the missiles, everything they wanted, free, no charge. "Oh, just"—he had no idea what he was doing.
They're paying top dollar, full price for everything. It goes to NATO, and then NATO distributes it. NATO pays us. So we're not—it's not money.
We would all—I think I could speak for everyone behind here—I—the politicians, I know, and the auto manufacturers are good people—they don't want to see 27,000 people die for no reason whatsoever. And that's the only reason I'm trying to help.
Yes, please.
Venezuela
Q. Mr. President, switching to Venezuela for a second. Have you checked back with President Maduro? I mean, is your pressure campaign working? And do you think he—how——
The President. I don't know——
Q. ——how is he responding to your demand——
The President. You tell me.
Q. ——that he leave the country?
The President. Is it working? It's not pressure campaign. It's much beyond that, I think.
But I spoke to him, briefly just told him a couple of things. We'll see what happens with that. Venezuela sends us drugs, but Venezuela sends us people that they shouldn't be sending.
They sent us—they emptied their prisons into our country. They sent us killers, murderers. They
sent us drug dealers at the highest level. They sent us gang members. They sent us people from their mental institutions. They emptied their mental institutions into our country, and so did other countries, because we had stupid people running this country, really stupid people.
And I think probably you had some stupid ones, and you had some smart ones, but they were bad people too, because nobody—not all of them were stupid. You can't cheat on elections like they did and be stupid. Okay?
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Q. You spoke to him just the one time, Mr. President? Just the one time? Did you talk to him a second time or just that one time?
The President. What's that?
Q. To Maduro. Did you speak to him again to check——
The President. No, I didn't.
Q. Okay.
Q. Mr. President, if you do find——
Russia/Ukraine
Q. When you spoke with Mr. Witkoff and with Mr. Kushner——
The President. Last night.
Q. ——last night—did they give you the sense that President Putin still wants to end the war, still wants to make peace?
The President. Yes. Yes. He would like to end the war. That's what they—that was their impression. Now, whether or not, you know——
Q. Do you believe him?
The President. That was their impression—you know their impression was that they'd like to see—he would like to see the war ended. I think he'd like to get back to dealing a more normal life. I think he'd like to be trading with the United States of America, frankly, instead of, you know, losing thousands of soldiers a week. But their impression was very strongly that he'd like to make a deal. We'll see what happens.
U.S. Airstrikes on Suspected Drug-Trafficking Vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific
Q. Mr. President, if the boat strikes—if it is found that survivors were actually killed while clinging on to that boat, should Secretary Hegseth, Admiral Bradley, or others be punished?
The President. I think you're going to find that this is war, that these people were killing our people by the millions, actually, if you look over a few years. I think, last year, we lost—close to 300,000 people were killed.
That's not mentioning all the families. Have you seen what happens with the families of——
Rep. McClain. Yes. Yes.
Sen. Moreno. Terrible. It's devastating.
The President. ——not only the people killed, the people that are trying to get their son or their daughter off of this poison that they've been fed?
I think you're going to find that there's a very receptive ear to doing exactly what they're doing: taking out those boats.
And very soon, we're going to start doing it on land too, because we know every route. We know every house. We know where they manufacture this crap. We know where they put it all together. And I think you're going to see it very soon on land also.
Yes, please.
Q. So, to be clear, you support the decision to kill survivors after the initial strike?
The President. No. I support the decision to knock out the boats. And whoever is piloting those boats, most of them are gone. But whoever are piloting those boats, they're guilty of trying to kill people in our country.
Yes, please.
Former Department of Justice Special Counsel John L. Smith/Former President Joseph
R. Biden, Jr.
Q. The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed Jack Smith to ask about his investigation of you—I wondered—for a deposition. I wondered if you'd prefer to see that as a hearing so that the American public can see the questions and the responses more easily.
The President. I'd rather see it probably at a hearing. Look, Jack Smith is a thug. He's a failed prosecutor. He's a bad man. He's a bad—he's an evil man. He hurt a lot of people. Forget about me. You know, I do this stuff, but I got indicted many times by a guy that—they were dismissed. He's a bad guy. He's a sick man. There's something wrong with him, actually. I think Jack Smith is a sick man. There's something really wrong with him.
I'd rather see him testify publicly, because there's no way he can answer the questions.
But Biden knew this was going along. Kamala knew it was going along. And there's a lot of things happening right now that they don't like. One of the things is the autopen.
Everything he signed, almost—with the exception of the pardon of his wonderful son, Hunter—one—just about everything he signed was not signed by him. He had no knowledge of it. He didn't know what it was. People sitting around the beautiful Resolute Desk knew exactly what it was, and those people are guilty, in my opinion, of a major crime.
Everything that was signed by that autopen—he—the man operating the autopen—and I'm sure there are more than one, because I think some of the people can operate it themselves—some of the high-level people, operated it themselves. They would just go in and sign his name with an autopen onto very important documents—not only pardons, but policy. Maybe CAFE standards—okay?—as an example. [Laughter] Who signed CAFE? If you asked Biden, "What's a CAFE standard," he would have absolutely no idea. He'd say—[Laughter]—he'd say, "Where is the café located?" [Laughter]
Sen. Capito. He'd order a sandwich.
The President. The guy didn't know anything.
Look, that just shows you what a rigged election can be. But you understand what I'm saying.
Thank you very much.
Semiconductor Manufacturing/U.S. Export Controls
Q. On Nvidia. You've had conversations with—
The President. I did, with Jensen.
Q. Right. So——
The President. Smart man.
Q. In your conversations with him, have you kind of given a sense of where you are with export controls and the types—
The President. Sure. No, he knows very well.
Q. ——of chips that NVIDIA can give to China?
The President. Sure. He knows—he knows very well. He's a—he's done an amazing job.
Nvidia, very good.
Yes.
Gaza, Palestinian Territories/U.S. Cease-Fire Agreement Between Hamas and Israel
Q. Mr. President, when do you expect for phase two of the Gaza peace plan to be implemented? And do you think——
The President. Well, it's going along well. You know, they had a problem today, I understand, with a bomb that went off and hurt some people pretty badly, probably killed some people. They're telling me. It just happened. But it's going on very—we have peace in the Middle East. People don't realize it. We have tremendous support. Fifty-nine countries. There's tremendous support, but we'll—phase two is moving along, yes. It's going to happen pretty soon.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Representative Enrique R. Cuellar/U.S. Cease-Fire Agreement Between Hamas and Israel
Q. Mr. President—Mr. President, did you speak with House Republican leadership about your decision to pardon Congressman Henry Cuellar? And are you concerned that you made a vulnerable Democrat perhaps less vulnerable with that decision?
The President. It—didn't matter that—he was—he's a respected person. He was treated very badly because he said that people should not be allowed to pour into our country, and he was right. He didn't like open borders. He didn't—he—was on the border. You know, he represents—very respected man. He represents the people on the border, and he saw what was happening.
And as soon as he made that statement, I then said, "I'll bet he gets indicted," and that's what happened. You know, I put out my truth from that—well, I did a truth. Wonderful Truth. We love Truth. But what happened is he got indicted for speaking the truth. And his wife got indicted—Imelda—and that's sort of a first. Usually, they leave the wives alone, right? Don't they, Congressman?
Rep. Williams. Yes, usually.
The President. Typically, they indict somebody, put him in jail for the rest of his life, but the wife can just sit home and cry, or she'll find a new man. You know—[laughter]—a lot of times, they find a new man that makes them much happier. In fact, a lot of times they like that man better than the one that's in jail. [Laughter]
Go ahead.
Somali Immigrants in Minnesota/Representative Ilhan A. Omar
Q. Mr. President, thank you. The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, is saying that he's actually proud to have the largest Somali community in the country. And his police chief is——
The President. Well, then, he's a fool.
Q. Well, his police chief is also saying he might——
The President. Okay? I wouldn't be proud to have the largest Somalian—look at their nation.
Look how bad their nation is. It's not even a nation. It's just people walking around killing each other.
Look, these Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of our country. They've taken billions and billions of dollars. They have a Representative, Ilhan Omar, who they say married her brother. It's a fraud. She tries to deny it now, but you can't really deny it because, you know, it just happened. She shouldn't be allowed to be a Congresswoman, and I'm sure people are looking at that, and she should be thrown the hell out of our country.
And most of those people, many—they have destroyed Minnesota. Okay? Minnesota—you have an incompetent Governor. You have a crooked Governor. He's crooked as hell, but he's incompetent. Walz is—he should be ashamed.
That beautiful land, that beautiful State, it's a hellhole right now, and the Somalians should be out of here. They've destroyed our country, and all they do is complain, complain, complain. You have her—she's always talking about the "Constitution provides me with"—go back to your own country and figure out your constitution. All she does is complain about this country, and without this country, she would not be in very good shape. She probably wouldn't be alive right now.
So Somalia is considered by many to be the worst country on Earth. I don't know. I've—I haven't been there. I won't be there anytime soon, I hope.
But what Somalia—what the Somalian people have done to Minnesota is not even believable. It's not even believable. And a lot of it starts with the Governor. A lot of it starts with Barack Hussein Obama, because that's when people started coming in. And you have to have people come in that are going to love our country, cherish our country. They want to kiss our country good night. They talk about our country. We want them to pray for our country.
This is not the people living in Minnesota, and she's a disaster. She should not be—and her friends shouldn't be allowed—frankly, they shouldn't even be allowed to be Congresspeople.
Okay? They shouldn't even be allowed to be congresspeople, because they don't represent the interests of our country.
Anybody else?
U.S. Automobile Industry
Q. The automakers spent billions on meeting the Biden EV rules. Should they be able to recoup that somehow, given that the change? And there's a question, about——
The President. No, I'm not doing it. No. [Laughter] No. I'm not letting them recoup. They're going to do just fine. You know how they recoup? From this point forward, they'll do very well.
Mexico/Canada/Tariffs/Legal Challenge to U.S. Tariff Policy
Q. Can you also talk about the USMCA and what you're thinking about renegotiating that with the automakers?
The President. Well, we're—you know, that's just an ongoing thing. It expires in about a year, and we'll either let it expire, or we'll maybe work out another deal with Mexico and Canada.
But look, Mexico and Canada have taken advantage of the United States—like just about every other country, in all fairness. It's not them. I'm not blaming them. But every country—because we had stupid people running our country. We had a lot of stupid people running. That's why we have $38 trillion in debt.
But the beautiful thing about the tariffs is, we'll start paying off that debt. The money coming in, they've—they're finding money in our country now that they never knew existed. The other day, $30 billion. "Where did it come from?" I said, "Why don't you check the tariff shelf?" They said: "Sir, that tariff hasn't started yet. It doesn't start till January." I said, "No, it started 2 months ago." They call back: "Sir, you're right. It was from tariffs."
No, we have a whole different country. I hope the Supreme Court—I pray that the pre-—the Supreme Court understands the importance of the sensible—really, I mean, this would be country-threatening if something happened with regards to that.
You know, the people that brought that case are bad people. They're very bad people. They hate our country. They represent foreign countries, including China. But they represent—and China is paying us a lot of money now in tariffs. But they represent people that really don't like our country much, and I know some of them, and they're scum. In my opinion, they're scum.
They're absolute scum. And they're not suing for any good reason. They're just suing to see if they can stop it because they make money if this country does badly. You know?
So—but we're taking in trillions of dollars. We're stopping wars. We have great national security because of tariffs. And then to think that we have—have to even go and justify this. The reason a lot of these people—I can tell you this—maybe we would have had add the political people—we wouldn't have these people without tariffs. The people that are up here from Stellantis and Ford and General Motors—great companies, including this gentleman right—they wouldn't be here today if we didn't have tariffs.
They'd be building their plants in Mexico and other places. They're leaving Mexico and they're leaving Canada. They're leaving because they ripped off our country. They took our businesses away from us, and now, because of tariffs, they're all coming back, so it's a great thing.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much.
Q. Mr. President, you called Somalians—Mr. President, you called Somalians "garbage"—
—
NOTE: The President spoke at 3:27 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Gavin C. Newsom of California; Shawn Fain, president, United Auto Workers; Tennessee Republican Congressional Candidate Matthew R. Van Epps; House Majority Leader Stephen J. Scalise; former Secretary of Transportation Peter P.M. Buttigieg; Tennessee Democratic congressional candidate State Rep. Aftyn A. Behn; U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steven C. Witkoff; President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia; former Vice President Kamal D. Harris; R. Hunter Biden, son of former President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.; Jensen Huang, founder, president, and chief executive officer, NVIDIA Corp; and Imelda Rios Cuellar, wife of Rep. Enrique R. "Henry" Cuellar. He also referred to his son-in-law Jared C. Kushner. Reporters referred to Adm. F. Mitchell Bradley, USN, commander, U.S. Southern Command; and Chief of Police Brian O'Hara of Minneapolis, MN. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on December 4.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Fuel efficiency standards; Interviews With the News Media
: Exchanges with reporters, White House. Locations: Washington, DC.
Names: Balderson, W. Troy; Behn, Aftyn A.; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Biden, R. Hunter; Blackburn, Marsha W.; Bradbury, Steven G.; Buchanan, Vernon G.; Buttigieg, Peter P.M.; Capito, Shelley Moore; Castriota, Tom; Cramer, Kevin J.; Cruz, R. Edward "Ted"; Cuellar, Enrique R. "Henry"; Cuellar, Imelda Rios; Duffy, Sean P.; Fain, Shawn; Farley, James D., Jr.; Filosa, Antonio; Graves, Samuel B., Jr.; Harris, Kamala D.; Hassett, Kevin A.; Huang, Jensen; Kelly, George J. "Mike," Jr.; Kushner, Jared C.; Maduro Moros, Nicolas; McClain, Lisa C.; Moreno, Bernie; Newsom, Gavin C.; Obama, Barack; Omar, Ilhan A.; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich; Scalise Stephen J.; Schmitt, Eric; Smith, John L.; Urbanic, John; Van Epps, Matt; Walz, Timothy J.; Williams, . Roger; Witkoff, Steven C.; Wright, Christopher A.
Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; Armed Forces, U.S., recruitment efforts; Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies; Automobile industry, strengthening efforts; California, Governor; Canada, trade with U.S.; Carbon emissions, reduction efforts; Deputy
Secretary of Transportation; Egg prices; Electric and hybrid vehicles, promotion efforts; Electric vehicle charging infrastructure, improvement efforts; Federal regulations, reduction efforts; Food markets and prices; Fuel efficiency standards, strengthening efforts; House majority leader; Illegal drugs, interdiction efforts; Inflation; Job creation and growth; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; Mexico, trade with U.S.; Minnesota, Governor; Minnesota, Somali immigrant community; National Economic Council; North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Opioid epidemic, efforts to combat; Pardons and commutations; Russia, conflict in Ukraine; Russia, President; Secretary of Energy; Secretary of Transportation; Semiconductor manufacturing; Suspected drug-trafficking vessels, U.S. airstrikes in Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific; Tariffs; Tax Code reform; U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions; Ukraine, international military aid; Ukraine, Russian invasion and airstrikes; Venezuela, President.
DCPD Number: DCPD202501158.