Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
March 31, 2026
The President. Well, thank you very much. This was a meeting set up very proudly by us, having to do with voter integrity and mail-in ballots and stopping the massive cheating that's gone on.
And so we're going to be signing the Executive order. It's—I believe it's foolproof. And maybe it'll be tested, and maybe it won't. I think it's very obvious what's said.
And I'll ask Will Scharf to start off. Attorney. A great talent. A very brilliant young man. And if you could discuss it, and then I'm going to ask Howard Lutnick to say a few words.
And then I'm going to sign it, and we'll take a couple of questions. Okay? Thank you.
White House Staff Secretary William O. Scharf. Mr. President, as you said, you have in front of you an Executive order that deals with a number of issues relating to election integrity.
As you've consistently identified, two of the biggest problems we have with election integrity in this country are, one, inaccurate voter rolls that allow ineligible people to vote in various Federal and State elections all over the country, and then secondarily, you've consistently identified that vote by mail in this country has become rife with fraud: people returning ballots who aren't eligible—eligible to return ballots, ballots being sent to people who aren't confirmed to be eligible voters.
So what this Executive order is going to do is, one, we're going to take Federal data—we're going to ensure that each State's election officials are provided with a comprehensive view of who the eligible voters in their jurisdiction actually are, allowing them to properly verify that everybody voting in their elections is legally able to vote.
And then it orders the postmaster general, the U.S. Postal Service to take bold new measures to verify that ballots both being sent to people are being sent to people who are eligible to vote, and then the ballots being returned are being properly returned by eligible voters only.
And we believe that, combined, the measures in this Executive order will help secure elections in the future and ensure that the many abuses of our election system in the past aren't repeated in future elections.
The President. Right.
Howard.
Secretary of Commerce Howard W. Lutnick. So the fundamentals of our democracy are built on voter integrity, right? We all need it. You've said it time and time again: It's a total agreement amongst everybody.
So here's the idea: The States—right?—run these elections. They will—if they want to use the U.S. mail—the U.S. Postal Service, they're going to get a code—a barcode from the U.S. Postal Service, and they're going to put that on the envelope, and we will have one envelope per vote. None of this time where we have no idea, there's no observers to mail, there's no envelopes, there's no certainty. That's all going to go away.
And what the President is doing today is, he's going to make sure that mail-in ballots are safe, secure, and accurate. And we'll have a clear distinction: If you voted by mail, you will have
it on the envelope—obviously, not on the ballot, but on the envelope. So we will know, a million mail-in ballots; there'll be a million envelopes, and you'll be able to know exactly, correctly that citizen has voted.
The President. And this came up with some great legal minds. They looked at the various documents and everything that was going on because the cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It's horrible what's gone on. And it's very clearly covered—very, very clearly. So I think this will help a lot with elections.
We'd like to have voter ID. We'd like to have proof of citizenship, and that will be another subject for another time. We're working on that. You would think it'd be easy.
It's a 98 percent issue for Republicans. It's 86 percent. Thing just came out—a poll, and it's 86 percent with Republicans and Democrats—not leaders, because the leaders of the Democrats cheat. And the only people that don't want to do voter ID are people that cheat. There's no other reason for it.
Proof of citizenship. They want to be able to cheat. There's no reason. They have all sorts of reasons, excuses, but it's all nonsense. They want to cheat.
But the Democrats themselves are very high. It's a very positive, very—very good thing—the Democrat voters. The Democrat leaders—guys like Schumer, who are corrupt—they want to use it for cheating because their policy is so bad with—think of their policy: open borders for everybody, where people pour into our country from countries all over the world. Think of that. You look at—just take any issue. Take anything. Everything they have is so crazy.
But the fact that they don't want to sign voter ID is another issue. It's a big issue. The fact that they don't have proof of citizenship; that they want transgender for everybody; that they want men in women's sports, so the only way, they assume—the only way they can win is to cheat.
When you have men in women's sports, it's fine, it's wonderful.
By the way, I worked very hard with the Olympic Committee and got that terminated for the Olympics. Very nice. Now girls won't have to get beat up in the boxing ring like they did last time, if you saw those fights. Two people that transitioned beat the hell out of everyone, out of other people—women. It was not a pretty sight to watch.
So I worked very hard with the Olympic Committee, and we were able to get that out. So, the Olympics will not have men in women's sports.
But these are the things that they vote on, and that's why we're having a problem with them.
They don't want ICE because they don't want people to be taken out of our country that are murderers, that are drug dealers, and that are people from mental institutions, the criminally insane. These are not nice people.
And it's a—it's amazing. I just—it's not even believable. If you go back—if you go back 12, 13, 15, 20 years—that we even have to bring up a subject like: "There will be no trans mutilation. We don't want any transgender mutilization of our children.
We don't want to have people pouring into our country from—other countries all over the world, where prisons are opened up all over the world. They're opened up, and they pour into our country—murderers. 11,888 murderers. Think of that. We got many of them out.
And by the way, Washington, DC, just set a new record for safety, and I'm sure you know that—because, Peter [Peter Doocy, Fox News], when you walk down the street, you're not mugged lately. [Laughter]
But it just—it's a very safe city now. We took great pains to make it that way, but it actually happened pretty quickly. Within 3 months, it was good. Within 4 months, it was very good.
Within 5 months, it was great. Now it's better than it ever was.
And so Washington, DC, is now considered a very, very safe city. We removed almost 4,000 people, just so you understand.
You know, an interesting stat is that 2 percent of the people create more than 90 percent of the crime. And the good thing about that is when you get rid of 2 percent—it's not that many—you don't have a lot of crime.
But Washington, DC, we're very proud of. We're very proud of Memphis, Tennessee.
And Louisiana, New Orleans, is unbelievable. They had the safest—they just finished their Mardi Gras—their Mardi Gras. They had the safest Mardi Gras in 58 years. The Governor just called me. Jeff Landry just called me. He said it is the safest Mardi Gras in 58 years because of us.
And really, Chicago should call and say we'd like help. New York should call—they've had a lot of problems—that we want help.
Los Angeles could—which should call and probably will. I think they have to. Now, we're going to have to do something when it comes World Cup time, and we're going to have to force ourselves upon them, which we have the right to do, because we don't want to have any crime, we don't want to have any problems for the Olympics and the World Cup and even for 250.
So, with all of that, I'm very happy to be signing the voter integrity, and I think it's going to be really great.
So, if you don't mind, I will take some time, and I'll make this signature absolutely perfect—[laughter]—so it looks very good.
So far, so good. [Laughter]
[At this point, the President signed the Executive order.] Okay. So that's a big deal.
Secretary Lutnick. It is.
Staff Secretary Scharf. It is, sir.
The President. Very proud of it. And I think—I don't know how it can be challenged. They'll probably challenge it. And you may say—find a rogue judge. You've got a lot of rogue judges.
Very bad, bad people. Very bad judges. But that's the only way that can be changed. And hopefully we'll win on appeal if it is, but I don't see how anybody can challenge it. I don't see how they can challenge it.
And remember, it's about voter integrity. We want to have honest voting in our country, because if you don't have honest voting, you can't have, really, a nation, if you want to know the truth.
Howard, I'll give that to you.
Do you have any questions? Please.
The President's Executive Authorities/Illegal Immigration
Q. Yes, Mr. President. As you know, there's issues right now—DHS not being funded, and Coast Guard is one of them, which is very important, especially with everything that's going on in
the Strait of Hormuz and here in our own country. You have the power to transfer control from the Department of Homeland Security to the Navy. Are you considering doing that?
The President. No, I have a lot of powers to do things, and we use the powers where appropriate. Sometimes, you don't have to use those powers. You know, they're a little severe, and then people accuse me of being a king.
You see "the king." This is the new one. They tried—they've been trying for a long time, including 4 years where I was out of office watching how badly this country was run. But they've been trying for a long time.
You know, what they really are doing is, they want to have people coming into our country.
They want to have open borders. They want to have criminals coming into our country. They want to have people unchecked, unvetted coming into our country that you can look at them and say, "This is not good."
And that's what happened. They allowed 25 million people into our country. Many of those people were criminals. Many of them were drug dealers and murderers and people that were let in—let out of mental institutions, prison populations. In some countries—the Congo: Almost its entire prison population was allowed to come into the United States of America. The Congo.
Many of the countries in South America, they emptied their prisons out into our country.
This was under Biden. And nobody could tell me that's a good thing. And yet they haven't changed their ways, because if they ever took power, they would open up the borders and they would let people pour in and destroy our country.
So I have many powers, but I don't have to use them. I mean, only in severe cases. Yes.
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Q. Mr. President, thank you. If you were able to sign the Executive order to pay the TSA agents, why not do the same for FEMA and other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security?
The President. Well, FEMA is different, because FEMA—I really believe that—it's fine, but I think it's very inefficient.
I think, you know, we have smart Governors. And one way to tell whether or not they're smart is how well they do. FEMA is a very expensive way of trying to put out a problem, but what I'd rather do is let the States do it and help them financially, but let the States do it.
In other words, you'll have a hurricane in Florida, and people will come from Alaska. They haven't been to Florida. By the time they get used to it, you know, the problem can be solved. So I've never been a big fan of FEMA.
I like to keep it local. I like—like to see Governors and neighboring States help each other as opposed to FEMA. FEMA is very expensive, and it really doesn't get the job done.
You know, North Carolina, they did a terrible job until I became elected the second time, and I went in. You know, we had that tremendous water flood—it was a water hurricane, the likes of which nobody has seen. Land areas that never had lakes all of a sudden had lakes that you couldn't even get to it.
And actually, we were helped by Elon Musk with the communication, with his great communication system that worked very well. We were very lucky. Saved a lot of lives.
But no, I—we've got to do things right. And if you don't do them right, we shouldn't do them at all.
Yes, please.
White House Ballroom Construction Project/Federal Reserve System
Q. Thank you, President Trump. After you said today that the Iran war may be ending soon, the stock market closed much higher. Do you have thoughts on that?
And also, a judge just ordered you to stop construction of the ballroom. Are you planning to stop?
The President. Well, we'll appeal that. But it's not—I don't know this—it's basically, I mean, I wrote, part of his opinion. But basically, he's saying I need congressional approval, and he's so wrong.
This is being financed privately. It's a donation that's being given by companies—very rich companies, very rich people. So that—for 150 years, they've wanted a ballroom here. We're going to have the finest ballroom I believe anywhere in the world.
And he said we need congressional approval. Well, they don't get congressional approval from the White House. When they do things, they don't—especially when you don't—we didn't ask for any tax money. We have no taxes. This is taxpayer-free. We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents.
And I see right here—I just wrote it out. He said we need congressional approval. Well, we built many things at the White House over the years. They didn't—they don't get congressional approval when they build in the White House. It's totally separate, and especially when it's a donation. I mean, the ballroom is a donation. It's gotten great reviews. People love it. And presidents for 150 years have wanted this ballroom to be built, because when we have President Xi or other Presidents or Prime Ministers coming, we don't have a big room. We have the East Room, which is very small.
And he said we need congressional approval.
He also said—but this is positive for us—I'm allowed that—meaning "we"—are allowed to continue building, as necessary, to—let's see; what is that?—to cover the safety and security of the White House and its grounds. So it says here very carefully: The safety and security have to be protected in the White House grounds. Well, that's what we're doing, because everything is bulletproof glass, et cetera, et cetera—including the ballroom.
And then it goes: Construction and all of the things necessary. It says personal safety of the President and his staff are a part of that. So it talks about that we're allowed to continue building. In other words, he put an order on, and even that, he gave 14 days. We don't need it because that's what we're doing.
He's allowed to continue building as necessary and when—it talks about the safety and security of the White House and its grounds.
So, just so you know, I wrote some of the thing down. We have a drone-proof roof.
And it talks about the President and his staff. Well, we don't have a lot of bulletproof glass. The White House was built a long time ago. This has the highest level of—in fact, they call this graph—this grass—this—the glass—it's bulletproof, and it's ballistic-proof. It's very thick. It's like that. And it's going 45 feet high. And every window is covered. Every door is covered.
The roof is drone proof. We have secure air-handling systems. You know, bad things happen in the air, if you have bad people. We have biodefense all over. We have secure
telecommunications and communications all over. We have bomb shelters that we're building. We have a hospital and very major medical facilities that we're building. We have all of these things.
So that's called—I'm allowed to continue building as necessary. So think of that: for the safety of the President. So we have all these things.
So, on that, we're okay. Where he's totally wrong—and he made, you know, a statement. That's fine. But where—I'll give you an example. You have, right here, $300- to $400 million, depending on finishes. If I use very expensive marble, if I use very expensive wall coatings, if I—I could bring it up to 400. Otherwise, we're right now ahead of schedule. We're under budget. But depending on finishes, from $300- to $400 million are being given by great people, people that you all know—rich people, rich companies, big companies.
They wanted to see this built because every President, literally for 150 years, has needed a space like this. Many of you have gone to the tent when we have a President of a big country or somebody being honored of great distinction, and they sit in a tent. And if it rains, you get soaked because the grass gets wet here very fast. It's a very—a wet area. They used to call it a wetland, but I guess they don't do that for the White House, but it's essentially a wetland. And when it rains, you're in trouble. The water can go up to 3 to 4 inches over their shoes.
That's not a good feeling for Prince—what—who was Prince Charles, who will be, who was—will be here next couple of weeks. He's King Charles, who's a great guy. We don't want him to sit in a pool of water.
And they've been wanting this for a hundred—think of it—a hundred and fifty years. And we're building it, and it's covered perfectly.
What's not covered perfectly is the fact that the judge said we need congressional approval.
Many things have been built in the White House; they haven't gotten congressional approval, especially when the money is being not put up by the taxpayer. The taxpayer is not putting up a dime. This building was necessary for many years. But the fact that I've built many ballrooms and I built many things and I know how to build—I'm not building the Federal Reserve, where the guy is spending $4 billion for a tiny, little building. Four billion dollars for the Federal Reserve building.
That contractor is going to be one of the richest men anywhere in the world after he finishes the Federal Reserve. The man is totally incompetent—Jerome "Too Late" Powell is totally incompetent, and he's got to get out of office pretty fast. He's doing a bad job, but he's also done a bad job in shepherding the construction in that building.
You know, they ripped down a part of that building, and it was a nice—they say it's one of the nicest buildings in Washington. They ripped it down.
So we feel—and we don't feel—we know that congressional approval is not necessary to put up a ballroom. And—many things have been built on the site. They've never gotten congressional approval, and especially when the money is all put up. This is all donations by people that love our country, that love the White House, and that feel it was very necessary.
Yes.
Gasoline Prices/U.S. Military Operations in Iran/National Economy
Q. Mr. President, a couple of questions for you on Iran, but first one that affects Americans here at home: gas prices. Today they hit $4 across the Nation.
The President. We're at $4, yes. And we have a country that's not going to be throwing a nuclear weapon at us in 6 months.
Q. Of course. But Americans are feeling the effects in the interim of this operation.
The President. And they're also feeling a lot safer.
Q. What is the plan to bring them back down?
The President. All I have to do is leave Iran, and we'll be doing that very soon, and they'll be—come tumbling down.
And stock prices were up today almost to a record, because they know two things: Number one, we have a safe country. We had to take a little detour, because we had a madman named Khamenei, who, sadly, is no longer with us, and we had regime change already. We've knocked out one regime. Then we knocked out the second regime. Now we have a group of people that's very—that are very different. They're much more reasonable, I think much more one—much less radicalized. It's a—we have had regime change. We're dealing with people that are much more rational. And it's very—it's amazing what we've done. We had to make a little detour.
So, when the stock market broke all records just a few weeks ago, when it hit 50,000 on the Dow, 7,000 on the S&P, I said to the American people: It's time that we have—make a little detour because we have a madman that wants a nuclear weapon. And if we didn't knock him out with a B–2 bomber, we would have a nuclear weapon right now. We would—it would have been used before this, before today, and you may not be standing there asking that question. Okay? So I think we have a country that understands that.
I see CNN did a poll, and they talked about voters—or MAGA voters, and my poll came out at 100 percent. Nobody covers that poll. They had another poll where I was at 92 percent approval. I think that the people understand it.
We'll be leaving very soon. And if France or some other country wants to get oil or gas, they'll go up through the Strait and—the Hormuz Strait—they'll go right up there, and they'll be able to fend for themselves. I think it will be very safe, actually, but we have nothing to do with that. What happens in the Strait, we're not going to have anything to do with because these countries—China—China will go up, and they'll fuel up their beautiful ships, and they'll leave, and they'll take care of themselves. There's no reason for us to do it.
We hit them hard. We got rid of a lot of the radicalized lunatics along the Strait. But if they want something—but I would say that within 2 weeks, maybe—2 weeks, maybe three. We're hitting them very hard. Last night, we knocked out tremendous amounts of missile-making facilities. We—as you probably read or wrote. We knocked out——
U.S. Military Operations in Iran/Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz
Q. Will be gone within 2 or 3 weeks? Is that what you mean, sir?
The President. Excuse me?
Q. Pardon me for interrupting. Will be—the U.S. will be gone or done with the war in 2 or 3 weeks?
The President. I think with 2 or 3 weeks, yes.
Q. That 3 weeks, if it is 3 weeks——
The President. We'll leave, because there's no reason——
Q. ——then it would be past your 4- to 6-week deadline.
The President. ——for us to do this.
Look, the problem with the Strait: A guy can take a mine, drop it in the water and say, "Oh, it's unsafe." It's not like you're taking out an army or you're taking out a country or you—they can drop it, or he can take a machinegun from the shore and shoot a little—few bullets at a ship, or maybe an over-the-shoulder missile, small missiles. That's not for us. That will be for France.
That will be for whoever is using the Strait.
But I think when we leave, probably that's all cleared up. Today I heard tremendous numbers of ships were sailing through. We're negotiating with them right now. They've been—again, we have had regime change.
Now, regime change was not one of the things I had as a goal. I had one goal: They will have no nuclear weapon. And that goal has been attained. They will not have nuclear weapons.
But we're finishing the job, and I think within maybe 2 weeks, maybe a couple of days longer to do the job, but we want to knock out every single thing they have. Now, it's possible that we'll make a deal before that, because we'll hit bridges, and we've hit some. We'll hit some bridges. We got a couple of nice bridges in mind. But if they come to the table, that will be good.
But it doesn't matter whether they come or not. We've set them back. It will take 15 to 20 years for them to rebuild what we've done to them. They have no navy. They have no military. They have no air force. They have no telecommunications. They have no anti-aircraft systems. They have no leaders. You know, their leaders are all gone. That's why we have regime change. We have nice, new leaders.
Peter.
Drone Activity Near U.S. Military Installations
Q. Thank you, President Trump. You talked about how the ballroom needs to have a drone-proof roof.
The President. Right. Right.
Q. There have been drone swarms flying over sensitive military installations in the U.S. over the last couple of weeks.
The President. Yes.
Q. The reports are: They don't look commercial, and they can't be jammed. Is this another country's military?
The President. I don't think so. We have a great system of—do you notice that over the last 4 or 5 days, you haven't seen very many drone hits, right? We have some unbelievable anti-drone weaponry that's incredible.
But you want to have—like, for instance, the ballroom, we have a very powerful steel—very steel roof with other things in it. And you want to have, if you're building a building for security—like, just like this judge's opinion, you have to have security for the President and his staff—they have—you need heavy, strong ceilings. You need seriously thick, bulletproof ballistic glass. And we have that.
Other buildings don't. You know, modern—fairly modern buildings don't have that. They have roofs that are weak, and they have regular glass windows.
Q. There was this incident down at Barksdale, though, where apparently a whole swarm of drones for a couple hours was over the flight line. There's a lot of really important planes down there.
The President. Yes.
Q. How concerned are you that this is some—some other country——
The President. Well, I'm not concerned.
Q. ——just scoping out——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——where we have all of our stuff?
The President. Yes. I know about it. They've checked that out, and they've gotten to the bottom of it.
You know, you have a lot of people now that fly these things all over the place, and we're coming down very hard on them, but we're able to take them out. Militarily, we're able to take them out very easily.
And a new thing is lasers. You know, the lasers are becoming very, very effective. You hit a drone, and it melts in air. It's a beautiful thing to see. If it's coming at you, having a laser is a very nice thing.
But we have—there are methods of defending against drones. I mean, the advantage, from the standpoint of defense, is they don't go very fast. Relative to a F–22, that plane right over there, they go very slow. They can be also shot out of the air by, you know, high-quality aircraft, which we have more than anybody ever had.
Musician Robert J. "Kid Rock" Ritchie
Q. And just as we were—just—there was a viral video this week—I don't know if you saw it—of Army helicopters hovering near Kid Rock's house in Nashville. Did you see that video?
The President. I didn't see it, no. But I'm sure they had a good time. [Laughter]
Q. Well, so, the Army just said the crews of these helicopters have been suspended. What do you think of that?
The President. Well, it depends. It—are they—well, they probably shouldn't have been doing it, yes. You're not supposed to be playing games, right? But I'd take a look at it. They like Kid Rock. I like Kid Rock. Maybe they were trying to defend him. I don't know.
U.S. Military Operations in Iran/Nuclear Weapons Development
Q. Does Iran have to make a deal—does Iran have to make a deal for the U.S. to end its operation in Iran?
The President. No. No.
Q. And have you spoken——
The President. Iran doesn't have to——
Q. And have you spoken directly——
The President. Iran doesn't have to make a deal, no.
Q. ——with anyone in Iran?
The President. Yes, I've spoken to a lot of people. It's a new regime. They are much more accessible. They are right. You know, they said, "We have a present for you, Mr. President, out of respect." And they said——
Q. I know it would be unlikely, but would you reveal——
The President. Wait a minute. Do you want me to answer the question? You're a fresh person. You know? We've had a lot of problems with you, haven't we?
No, they don't. You asked me a question. No, they don't have to make a deal with me. When we feel that they are, for a long period of time, put into the stone ages, and they won't be able to come up with a nuclear weapon, then we'll leave. Whether we have a deal or not, it's irrelevant.
Now, it's possible that we'll have a deal because they want to make a deal. They want to make a deal more than I want to make a deal. But, in a fairly short period of time, we'll be finished. They will not be able to do a nuclear weapon for years. And when they are ready, maybe in a long time from now, able to do a nuclear weapon, you'll have a President that will be like me in that he will go there and he'll knock the hell out of them again, because they cannot have a nuclear weapon. They are very radicalized people. They have very sick leaderships.
And I will say, though, that the leadership we're dealing with now, the new regime—because we have a new regime—and the new regime is much better than the past.
Yes.
Iran
Q. Mr. President, the Iranian Government threatened a bunch of U.S. companies today in the
region, including Google, Apple. Is the——
The President. With what? What did they threaten them with? BB guns or what?
Q. Well, that's a good question.
The President. They don't have much left to threaten.
Q. My question for you is: Are you——
The President. I don't know. I mean, what are they——
Q. Is the U.S. talking to those companies——
The President. You made a statement.
Q. ——and how do you react to that?
The President. What did they threaten them with? I don't know. Go, tell me. How did they threaten them?
Q. Well, all I know is that they threatened them, sir.
The President. What does that mean?
Q. Fair enough.
The President. They said something nasty?
Q. Do you have—do—are you—is the Government in touch with these companies? Are you helping to backstop them?
The President. You don't even know what the threat was. What was the threat? I haven't heard it. What was their threat?
Q. I'll get back to you on the threat.
The President. Did they say they're going to blow them up? They're going to hit them—they're not——
Q. They said—Iran's IRGC——
The President. You know what they're not going to do? They're not going to him them with a nuclear weapon.
Q. Is it something you're concerned about, sir?
The President. No.
Iran/U.S. Technology Companies
Q. Iran's IRGC issues a warning that they will target 18 U.S. technology companies if the
U.S. continues targeted assassinations of Iranian leaders beginning on April 1. Those companies included——
The President. Oh, really? Okay.
Q. ——Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google——
The President. Most of those people are dead already. Yes, Peter.
The President's Planned Presidential Library
Q. I've got one. Your son Eric posted a photo of what will be the Trump Presidential Library.
The President. Yes.
Q. It's a huge skyscraper. Is that——
The President. In Miami.
Q. Is that all a library? What else is going in there?
The President. No, well, it's a library. It's a museum, a library. It's the Presidential—but I wouldn't start it until I'm out of office. I don't believe in building libraries or museums. It's really like the Barack Hussein Obama one in Chicago—in not a good location, and it's a very unattractive building that's seriously late and seriously over budget.
I think you're going to see a great one here, and it will go up on time, on budget, best location in Miami. Best—they say it's the best block in Miami. And the State worked with us for it.
Q. Will people live there? Will people live in the floors?
The President. No. It's going to be most likely a hotel. You know, just a concept. Could be office, but it's most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby, which is going to be a trick.
"Birthright" Citizenship/14th Amendment
Q. And the Supreme Court tomorrow is going to hear arguments about your Executive order trying to get rid of birthright citizenship.
The President. And I'm going.
Q. You're going to go to the Supreme Court tomorrow?
The President. I think so. I do believe.
Q. And just sit there and listen?
The President. Because I have listened to this argument for so long. And this is not about Chinese billionaires, or billionaires from other countries, who all of a sudden have 75 children or 59 children, in one case, or 10 children becoming American citizens.
This was about slaves. And if you take a look, slaves—we're talking about slaves from the Civil War. And if you take a look at when it was filed, all of this legislation, all of this—everything having to do with birthright citizenship, it was at the end of the Civil War.
The reason was, it had to do with the babies of slaves and the protection of the babies of slaves. It didn't have to do with the protection of multimillionaires and billionaires wanting to have their children get an American citizenship.
It is the craziest thing I've ever seen. It's been so badly handled by legal people over the years.
If you look at the original birthright citizenship papers, they all happened right after the Civil War. The reason was it had to do with the babies of slaves.
And hopefully, it's going to say it, because our country is being scammed. We're getting all of these people. They're selling the rights to them. People are making a living—a big living getting hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars from bringing people in and saying, "Congratulations, your whole family is going to be a citizen of the United States of America."
That's not what it was for. It wasn't for billionaires bringing people in or family in. It was for the children of slaves. And what you really have to do—and I don't think the lawyers talk about it as much: Look at when the Civil War ended, and look at the date of when this was enacted.
Okay. Next.
U.S. Supreme Court Justices
Q. Have you ever been to the Supreme Court before? Is this going to be the first time going to the Supreme Court?
The President. No, I went once before: the opening of the Supreme Court in the last administration.
Q. And which Justices will you be listening for most closely?
The President. I love a few of them. I don't like some others. And you know, you say what you want, but you'd have—the ones that were appointed by Barack Hussein Obama and Biden—I don't care how good your case is. You could have the greatest case ever; they're going to rule against you. They always do. And it's not supposed to be that way.
Now the Republicans tend to be very different. They want to show how honorable they are. So a man can appoint them, and they can rule against him. It's—so proud of it. "We're so proud we ruled against Trump. We're so proud. We're above it."
There are those that say, "That's wonderful," and there are those that say, "They're so stupid."
But the Democrats never fail at one thing: When Barack Hussein Obama or when Biden appoints somebody, they go along that line. You can have the greatest case in history, and almost—I guess I have to say "almost"; maybe I don't have to say it—almost without fail, those people—four of them, sometimes five of them—but four of them will vote against you. You don't have a chance. You don't have a chance. And that's not what the court system is.
Now, the Republican appointees tend to go—and this has been long before me. This has been for many years. Some people would call it stupidity. Some people would call it disloyal. Some people would say they're right in doing it.
And I don't mind being right. But the other side almost never does it. Almost. I think you could find maybe a couple of incidents. Almost never does.
When a Democrat appoints a judge—and I'm talking about judges not just Justices. You go before some of these Democrat judges in Washington, DC, and you don't have a chance. That's why I gave pardons to hundreds of people that were so badly treated having to do with J6.
Yes.
Q. On the SAVE America Act——
Q. President Trump, next—
The President. Oh, do you have a question?
Q. Yes.
The President. Let's go. I didn't see you over there.
Q. Sorry.
The President. You've been so nice. Here we go. Now she's going to——
Q. On——
The President. Now she's going to hit me with a bad one. Go ahead. [Laughter]
Election Reform/New York Times/2024 Presidential Election
Q. On the SAVE America Act, Mr. President, do you still think it's going to pass? Were you signing this Executive order——
The President. I don't know. It's the craziest thing. The Democrats are totally against it.
Again, they're unified. I think maybe we'd have Fetterman, who I have a lot of respect for it. But the Democrats are unified against it, and you need Democrat votes unless you do something smart called the filibuster—terminate the filibuster, which they should do.
Republicans should do that. But there are a couple of Republicans that—maybe they're not so smart, because the Democrats will do it in the first day in office. Maybe the first hour. It's a question. Will be the first hour or the first day?
So who can—who can believe that a person—you can't even get it to the floor—that a person wouldn't vote for—think of it: for citizenship, proof of citizenship; for voter identification?
And we also added one. We added mail-in ballots—mail-in ballots with exceptions for the military, for people that are sick, people that are traveling, for the disabled. We have very generous exceptions.
But who would believe that that would be possible not to get those things to vote for? And then we added—best of Trump. We added no men in women's sports. Different subject, but we added that. And we said no transgender mutilization of our children.
These are all 90, 95—maybe 98, in some cases; maybe 99, in terms of if you—those first two. If you talk about the first two, I think—you know, I think that—I think a 98, 99 percent. Voter identification, right? Wouldn't you think—don't you think it's nice? With picture. Wouldn't you think it's nice?
When the Democrats had their convention—I remember it so well—you had to have identification to get into the arena, and they had a card that was bigger than most of their chests. And it had everything. It had their picture, it had—and if you didn't have that card, they threw you away.
In New York City recently, we had a big snowstorm. Mayor Mandami [Mamdani; White House correction] had—he called out for people to shovel snow, but you had to give identification with picture. If you didn't have—and it wasn't one identification. You had to have two. So, to shovel snow in New York City, you need identification—double—with picture. But to vote, which is maybe our most cherished thing, you don't need.
They don't want voter ID, the Democrats, because they want to cheat. The problem is, we need their votes. In order to get it, you need their votes. And look, they know—their policy is so bad, they know that if they gave those votes, they might never win another election. So, they're fighting like hell.
[Several reporters began asking questions at once.]
They're actually fighting their—for their survival, because their policy—the Republicans have great policy, smart policy: strong borders, low interest rates, low taxes. We just gave you the largest tax cut in history. All these great policies. You know, we want a strong military. Look at our military. We have the strongest military—look what happened in Venezuela. It was so incredible. People say the greatest military maneuver they've ever seen.
Look what's happening in Iran. We're just—I mean, we're totally unchecked. Everything has been bombed out. They have no anti-aircraft protection. They have no nothing. They don't have anything. Look at our military.
The Democrats don't want that. And when I read the fake New York Times, you take a look at it, it's like, "Oh, they're putting up a good fight." They're not putting up a fight. They're not even shooting at us. Okay? We have planes—planes are—just ruling the sky. We have airplanes. Those too. Those too.
[The President pointed to model planes on the Resolute Desk.]
We have airplane—nice, right? Lincoln with a little modern touch. The great Benjamin Franklin with a little modern touch.
[The President pointed to some nearby bust statues.]
But think of it: They are roaming the skies over Tehran. They're not even being shot at, because their equipment has been totally decimated. They have nothing to shoot. We have—they have no navy. They have no anything. And just think about this: They have no navy. They have no military. They have no nothing. They're losing. They admit they're losing. They're begging to make a deal.
And if you read the fake New York Times—a corrupt newspaper, where I'm suing them, and I think I should do very well—but you would almost think, "Who's winning?" It's so fraudulent.
But just to finish up with the New York Times: If you read The New York Times prior to my election victory, including the first one—and the second one too. I won three times. I won three times, convincingly. But let's go to the third victory.
If you read the New York Times, you would say, "Oh, Trump is going to lose." But I won in a landslide. I won the popular vote. I won the Electoral College in a massive number, right?
Massive. I won the counties—86 percent of the counties, I won. All of these different things.
Winning the popular vote for a Republican is, you know, pretty amazing. But if you read the New York Times, for months and months and months you were hearing, "Oh, Trump—he's doing so badly."
We have to straighten out our media. The reason their circulation is way down—The New York Times' circulation, you know, has gone way down. Washington Post is almost extinct. The papers that are being dishonest—papers, generally. People don't believe the media.
And to finish, I got 93 percent bad publicity. Some people say 97, but between 93 and 97. A person that gets 97 percent of bad stories—maybe Karoline is doing a poor job. I don't know.
She's my—you're doing a terrible job. Should we keep her? I think we'll keep her.
But I get 93 to 97 percent bad press—fake press, all fake. I won in a landslide. When you get 93 to 97 bad stories, bad press, and you win in a landslide, you know what that says? People don't believe the press. And when people don't believe the press, that's a very bad thing for our country.
And when you look at, let's say the New York Times or The Washington Post, their stories are so fake. Wall Street Journal too. A lot of bad stories. I don't know what happened to them, but they're bad. Their circulation went way down—Wall Street Journal. I don't know if you saw the numbers that came out yesterday. New York Times, way down. Wall Street Journal, way down. Washington Post, number one, way down. Because people don't believe them anymore.
And until they get—it's not the paper, it's not the—it's that they have no credibility anymore, which is a very sad thing for our country.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much.
NOTE: The President spoke at 5:33 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer; Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif; Taiwanese Olympic boxer Lin Yu-ting; Elon R. Musk, chief executive officer, SpaceX; Richard
J. Leon, judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; President Jinping Xi of China; King Charles III of the United Kingdom; Chairman of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors Jerome H. Powell; Supreme Court Associate Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia M. Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson Sen. John K. Fetterman; and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. He also referred to S. 1383. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on April 1.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Federal elections, efforts to ensure citizenship verification, signing the Executive order.
Locations: Washington, DC.
Names: Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Charles III, King; Fetterman, John K.; Jackson, Ketanji Brown; Kagan, Elena; Khelif, Imane; Landry, Jeffrey M.; Leavitt, Karoline; Leon, Richard J.; Lin Yu-ting; Lutnick, Howard W.; Mamdani, Zohran K.; Musk, Elon R.; Obama, Barack; Powell, Jerome H.; Ritchie, Robert J. "Kid Rock"; Scharf, William O.; Schumer, Charles E.; Sotomayor, Sonia M.; Xi Jinping.
Subjects: 2021 civil unrest and violence at U.S. Capitol; America's 250th birthday celebration; Border security; California, 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles; China, President; Citizenship; District of Columbia, law enforcement improvement efforts; Drone defense systems, improvement efforts; Election security and integrity, strengthening efforts; Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); Federal Reserve System; Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup; Florida, site of Donald J. Trump Presidential Library in Miami; Gasoline costs; Illegal immigration; Iran, commercial transit through Strait of Hormuz; Iran, diplomatic engagement with U.S.; Iran, U.S. airstrikes on nuclear facilities; Iran, U.S. military
operations; Louisiana, Governor; Louisiana, law enforcement improvement efforts in New Orleans; New York Times; Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act; Secretary of Commerce; Senate filibuster; Senate minority leader; Sports, efforts to restrict transgender participation; Stock market; Tennessee, law enforcement improvement efforts in Memphis; Transgender athletes, efforts to restrict participation; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; United Kingdom, King; White House Ballroom construction project; White House Press Secretary; White House Staff Secretary.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600218.