Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
April 13, 2026
The President. Hello. Nice to see you.
Arkansas-based DoorDash driver Sharon Simmons. Nice to meet you.
The President. How are you? Wow.
Ms. Simmons. I have your DoorDash order for you, Mr. President.
The President. Oh, that's very nice. Look at this.
[At this point, Ms. Simmons handed two McDonald's bags to the President.] This doesn't look staged, does it?
Ms. Simmons. They're all your favorites.
The President. That's right. These are good. DoorDash is doing a good job.
Ms. Simmons. We try.
The President. So, the reason for this is the fact that I heard you picked up an extra $11,000 that you didn't think you'd—because the tax bill was so big, the refund was the biggest you've ever had. Is that a correct statement?
Ms. Simmons. It definitely was.
The President. Wow.
Ms. Simmons. Yes, I saved over $11,000 by not having to claim.
The President. Was that surprising to you, actually? Ms. Simmons. It was very surprising. Very surprising. The President. It's the "Great Big Beautiful Bill."
Ms. Simmons. It——
The President. And that doesn't include overtime, in your case. This is only just based on what we did in terms of every other aspect of the tax bill, right?
Ms. Simmons. Yes, sir.
The President. So it was $11,000—saving?
Ms. Simmons. Yes, sir.
The President. Isn't that incredible? And that's what it is—the tax cut. It's really—you know, we call it the "Great Big Beautiful Bill." We should call it the "Great Big Beautiful Tax Cut Bill," because it's a—tremendous amounts of money. And that's overtime. That's also on Social Security, as you know.
Ms. Simmons. Yes.
The President. And it's pretty amazing.
Ms. Simmons. Yes, it is.
The President. Well, you're really nice. Would you like to do a little news conference with me with these people? These are not the nicest people. They're not nice like you. You know that, right?
Ms. Simmons. I'll do whatever you ask me to do, sir.
The President. So the no tax on tips is something special, right?
Ms. Simmons. It's very special.
The President. And that's the one that really pertains to you more than anything else?
Ms. Simmons. Yes, sir.
The President. That's fantastic. It's so—such an honor to meet you. And I think you voted for me. Do you think?
Ms. Simmons. Eh, maybe.
The President. Yes. [Laughter] I heard you're a great supporter. We appreciate it.
Ms. Simmons. Thank you.
The President. I'll put this over here. [The President put down the bags.]
And why don't we have a news conference with the press.
Ms. Simmons. Okay.
The President. You want to do it?
Ms. Simmons. Sure.
The President. You don't have to say too much, I think. They're looking about Hormuz Strait and various other things.
Do you have any questions?
The President's Truth Social Post
Q. Mr. President, did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ? And how—and——
The President. Well, it wasn't depiction. It was me. I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor, and it had to do with Red Cross. There's a Red Cross worker there, which we support.
And only the fake news could come up with that one.
So I had—I just heard about it, and I said, "How did they come up with that?" It's supposed to be me as a doctor making people better, and I do make people better. I make people a lot better.
As an example, the $11,000—and I hear—understand your husband is going through a treatment.
Ms. Simmons. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. He has cancer.
The President. He's going through some very serious cancer treatment. So——
Ms. Simmons. Yes, sir.
The President. ——this goes a long way.
Ms. Simmons. Yes, sir. It sure does.
The President. Yes.
Iran/U.S. Diplomatic Engagement
Q. Mr. President, are another round of talks planned with Iran? And, if so, will you send Vice President J.D. Vance again?
The President. Well, he's done a good job. And Steve and Jared, they've all done a very good job. And I can tell you that we've been called by the other side. They'd like to make a deal very badly. Very badly.
Q. What was the sticking point over? You said it was over nuclear.
The President. It was on—over nuclear. Very similar. Yes, very good. I guess you're listening. It's over the fact that they will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran—are you marking it down? Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And we agreed to a lot of things, but they didn't agree to that, and I think they will agree to it. I'm almost sure of it. I'm—in fact, I am sure of it. If they don't agree, there's no deal. There will never be a deal.
Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, and we're going to get the dust back. We'll get it back—
—
Q. Mr. President——
The President. Either we'll get it back from them, or we'll take it.
Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz/Domestic Oil and Gas Production
Q. Mr. President, as far as the naval blockade is concerned, what's the endgame? Is it to force Iran back to the negotiating table? Is it to open up the Strait so that gas prices ultimately come down?
The President. Maybe everything. I mean, you know, both of those things, certainly, and more. We can't let a country blackmail or extort the world, because that's what they're doing. They're really blackmailing the world. We're not going to let that happen.
And, you know, the amazing thing is we don't—can you believe this? We don't use the Strait. We don't need the Strait. We have our own oil and gas, much more than we need. We have more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia. Think of this. We produce more—Saudi Arabia, and add Russia to it. Substantially more. And by next year, we'll have double that amount.
So we don't need it, but the world needs it. And many ships are heading to our country right now as we speak to load up with the best—really, I guess you could say—somebody said the best and sweetest. I don't know exactly what sweet is, but when it relates to oil, it's a good thing.
But they're coming to our country right now. There are many boats coming to our country. Now, it could very well be this is going to be settled before that. We've been called this morning by the right people, the appropriate people, and they want to work a deal. They would like to work a deal.
Iran/International Cooperation/U.S. Naval Blockade on Sanctioned Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz
Q. Is it your anticipation, Mr. President, that other countries will assist in this effort to blockade Iran and those specific ports?
The President. Yes. Other countries are going to also.
Q. Which countries, sir?
The President. We don't need other countries, frankly. But they've offered their services.
We'll let it be known probably tomorrow.
Q. Has the blockade started, sir?
The President. Yes. It started 10 o'clock.
Pope Leo XIV/Iran/Crime Rates
Q. Bishop Robert Barron—Bishop Robert Barron supports you and your policies. He praises you for defending religious freedom.
The President. Yes.
Q. He now says you owe Pope Leo an apology. Will you apologize?
The President. No, I don't, because Pope Leo said things that are wrong. He was very much against what I'm doing with regard to Iran. And you cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result. You have hundreds of millions of people dead, and it's not going to happen. So I can't. I think he's very weak on crime and other things. So I'm not—I mean, he went public. I'm just responding to Pope Leo.
And you know his brother is a big MAGA person, and he's a great guy, Louis. And I said, "I like Louis better than I like the Pope."
No, you have to have law and order in our country, and that's what we have now. We have the lowest crime numbers we've had in a long time, despite the fact that many criminals were allowed into our country. But we've gotten a lot of them out.
We've done a great job on crime. So we have the lowest murder rate in 125 years. Since 1900, the lowest murder rate. So we believe strongly in law and order. And he seemed to have a problem with that. So there's nothing to apologize for. He's wrong.
And the other thing is, he didn't like what we're doing with respect to Iran, but Iran is a—wants to be a nuclear nation so they can exterminate the world. Not going to happen.
U.S. Military Operations in Iran
Q. And, Mr. President, on Iran. If a deal not reached by the end of the ceasefire, does your threat from before still stand?
The President. Yes, I don't want to comment on that, but it won't be pleasant for them, let me put it that way.
[Several reporters began asking questions at once]
Duration of U.S. Military Operations in Iran/Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz
Q. Mr. President, has your timetable changed in any way, in terms of ending this conflict?
The President. No, I would——
Q. Is still 5 to 6 weeks?
The President. It's going—it's going on. Because right now there's no fighting. Right now, we have a blockade. They're doing no business. I didn't like seeing boats come out if they were doing business with Iran. But if they weren't, no boats came out. So now they're doing—Iran is doing absolutely no business, and we're going to keep it that way, very easily.
Don't forget their navy is gone, their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft is gone, their radar is gone, and their leaders are gone. It's a lot.
[Several reporters spoke at once]
China-U.S. Relations
Q. Exports are coming from—predominantly going to China, Mr. President. Have—has Xi Jinping reached out? I know you're going to be meeting with him.
The President. No, but we have a very good relationship with China. He would like to see this ended also. He certainly wants it ended. Everyone—I want to see it ended too. But we can't give a nuclear weapon to a group of people that have caused nothing but havoc for 47 years.
Look, I'm the President that's done something about it. This should have been—and many other Presidents regret that they didn't, you know? So I'm doing something about it.
Declassified 2019 Impeachment Investigative Documents
Q. Mr. President, the Ukraine impeachment documents that were just declassified show that Eric Ciaramella not only submitted false information, but that he had no direct knowledge of the alleged conversations, all hearsay. Do you feel vindicated by those documents?
The President. Yes, I do. They're a bunch of crooked people you're talking about, with respect to all of the things that they put against me.
Q. The evidence they submitted.
The President. Yes.
Q. Yes, sir.
The President. Well, it's come out that in so many different ways—thank you very much for that question. I appreciate it.
But in so many different ways, the election was rigged—the 2020 election was rigged. We found that out. What you just said is just a piece of that. It's a big piece, but minor, relatively speaking, compared to what they did. They cheated on the election, they cheated on the vote, and they cheated in every way possible. And it's the only way we got an incompetent man to be a President. And he was an incompetent man.
Many of the things that we're talking about, even including this—this would have been settled a long time ago, not now. And it should have been settled by other Presidents. But the election was a rigged election. We can't let that happen to our country.
Q. It's concealment of exculpatory information. What should happen?
The President. Well, it's very serious charge against them and the Democrats. They cheat. They can't get elected with their policy. So their policy's no good. They want to have, I mean, open borders. They want to have men playing in women's sports.
[The President addressed Ms. Simmons.]
Do you think that men should play in women's sports?
Ms. Simmons. I really don't have an opinion on that.
The President. You don't? I'll bet you do.
Ms. Simmons. No. No——
The President. I'll——
Ms. Simmons. I'm here about——
The President. Pizza.
Ms. Simmons. ——no tax on tips. The President. Yes. Okay. [Several reporters spoke at once.] Yes, go ahead, please.
Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz
Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Is it your understanding that during this period of time while the U.S. has instituted this naval blockade, that oil companies will be able to send their oil tankers through the Strait, get more oil out from this area?
The President. Yes, I think they're going to be doing very well there, and I think they're doing very well here. You know, a lot of tankers are coming up here. They're coming in empty and out full, and we have a great capacity to take care of that business.
Q. Ma'am, may we know your name please? Have you delivered to the White House before?
Ms. Simmons. I have not. My name is Sharon Simmons.
Q. And are the White House good tippers? Do you know?
Ms. Simmons. Um——
The President. Wait. [Laughter]
Ms. Simmons. Potentially. [Laughter]
[The President handed Ms. Simmons some cash.] Yes, very.
Q. Mr. President, can I ask you something else?
The President. That's you—thank you. You reminded me. [Laughter]
Cuba
Q. Mr. President, one on Cuba, sir. You previously said that you had no problem with countries sending fuel to Cuba after previously promising to tariff them. What happened? What changed?
The President. Well, we're going to see with Cuba. We—Cuba is another story. Cuba's been a terribly run country for a long time. It's got a bad system. It's been very oppressive, as you know. And we have a lot of great Cuban Americans, all of whom, just about, voted for me. And they were treated very badly. In many cases, family members have been killed. They've been beaten up and mugged, and—like, terrible things happened in Cuba. And Cuba is a failing nation.
And we're going do this, and we may stop by Cuba after we're finished with this. But Cuba is a nation that was—has been horribly run for many years by Castro.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James/Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James B. Comey
Q. Mr. President, Housing regulator, Bill Pulte—regarding those two recent referrals for Letitia James for insurance fraud, do you know if Federal prosecutors have evidence to charge?
The President. Well, I don't know. I know she's a very corrupt person, and she—and the—you're talking about the so-called attorney general of New York. She's a very corrupt person.
That's been proven now. And I know they—I have nothing to do with it, but they're looking at things all over—all over the place, more than one State, concerning her and concerning people like Comey, who's a dirty cop.
Comey's a dirty cop, and dirty cops are bad. I love—nobody likes the police more than me, law enforcement more than me. But Comey's a totally dirty cop, and I'm not going to——
Q. And just one more.
The President. We're not going to stand for it. Yes.
Ultimate Fighting Championship
Q. The UFC fight that's happening at the White House this summer. UFC typically numbers those fights consecutively, but should they label this one UFC 1776?
The President. That's a good idea. I'll tell that to Dana White. I like that idea, actually.
I will say, I've been involved with a lot of big events. I have never had an event that's had more interest than the UFC fight that we have right at the front door. Right there, they're going to start building a—about a 4,500-seat arena. And then, in the back, at the Ellipse, we're going to have maybe 100,000—50- to 100,000 people, I guess. They're building tremendous stages, and you're going to have massive screens of the fight. And it's a, you know, very popular sport.
But I have never been involved—because of the White House and everything. You know, there's a lot of reasons for it. But we're having a fight at the White House on June 14, and we're going to have an arena built right at the front door.
Ms. Simmons. Oh, wow.
The President. And you know, if you want—is your husband up to coming, do you think?
Does he like UFC?
Ms. Simmons. He might.
The President. If he's feeling good, we'll make sure you come. Okay? Is that——
Ms. Simmons. That would be wonderful. Thank you.
The President. That's better than the tip I just gave you, I'll tell you. [Laughter] That's a lot better. But no, if he's feeling good, right?
Ms. Simmons. Yes.
The President. Is he doing okay? Is he going to be okay?
Ms. Simmons. He doing very well. He's doing very well. He actually—during the process, he wrote a book, and——
The President. Go ahead, give them the name. Maybe he'll sell——
Ms. Simmons. Oh, he hasn't had it published yet.
The President. Okay.
Ms. Simmons. But it's a book on humility. And his name is Leo, and he's just——
The President. Good guy.
Ms. Simmons. ——doing good. He's doing great.
The President. How long are you married?
Ms. Simmons. We have been married for 6 years.
The President. Oh, so—oh, that's good.
Ms. Simmons. But we've—you know, like most people, we've been together for over 10.
So——
The President. That's very good.
Ms. Simmons. Thank you.
The President. Well, that's very nice. Say hello to him. He's going to be good. Okay? He's going to get better, and he's going to be good.
Ms. Simmons. Yes, sir. The President. Good. Ms. Simmons. Yes, sir.
The President. Well, I want to thank you all, and I especially want to thank you for being here.
Ms. Simmons. Well, I want to thank you for——
The President. Thank you very much. Ms. Simmons. ——the no tax on tips. The President. Oh, that's good.
Ms. Simmons. It has helped my family out immensely, and I definitely appreciate it. Thank
you.
The President. That's so amazing.
You know, the one thing that I—just, in leaving—we have had more good press for a change
having to do with the fact that people are receiving more money from their tax refunds than they ever thought possible.
We had a man the other day, got $5,000. Another one got $7-. They weren't expecting anything like this. And it's because of the "Great Big Beautiful Bill." And that's why you came, and I really appreciate it.
And tell your husband to get better.
Ms. Simmons. I will.
The President. And if he's feeling good, you'll come up and you'll watch that fight.
Ms. Simmons. All right.
The President. June 14.
Ms. Simmons. I appreciate it.
The President. All right?
Ms. Simmons. Thank you.
The President. Thank you very much.
Ms. Simmons. Thank you so much.
The President. You take care of yourself.
Ms. Simmons. Thank you.
The President. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Department of Justice Leadership
Q. Any update on DOJ, though, Mr. President——
The President. Thank you very much.
Q. ——who you want to lead DOJ?
Q. Your reaction to Viktor Orbán?
Q. Any update on who you want to lead DOJ, who you're going to nominate?
The President. Well, I think Todd, thus far, is doing a fantastic job. I will say that he's a great lawyer. I know that because he's been with me a long time. And so far, he's doing a great job. But we have incredible people in the DOJ. Getting better all the time.
Thank you very much, everybody.
Q. Thank you, Mr. President.
Q. Thank you, sir.
The President. Do you want to come in for a second? Come on in.
Ms. Simmons. Okay. Thank you.
NOTE: The President spoke at 12:38 p.m. on the West Wing Colonnade. In his remarks, he referred to U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steven C. Witkoff; Louis M. Prevost, brother of Pope Leo; President Xi Jinping of China; former President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.; former President Raul Castro Ruz of Cuba; Dana F. White, chief executive officer, Ultimate Fighting Championship; and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. He also referred to his son-in-law, U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Jared C. Kushner. Reporters referred to Bishop Robert Barron of Diocese of Winona-Rochester, MN; former Central Intelligence Agency analyst and National Security Council staffer Eric Ciaramella; Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William J. Pulte; and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : DoorDash delivery, remarks on receiving; Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, White House.
Locations:
Names: Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Blanche, Todd; Castro Ruz, Raul; Comey, James B.; James, Letitia; Kushner, Jared C.; Leo XIV, Pope; Prevost, Louis M.; Simmons, Leo; Simmons, Sharon; Vance, James D. "J.D."; White, Dana F.; Witkoff, Steven C.; Xi Jinping.
Subjects: 2020 Presidential election; China, President; Crime rates; Cuba, political and economic stability; Deputy Attorney General; DoorDash; Holy See (Vatican City), Pope; Iran, commercial transit through Strait of Hormuz; Iran, diplomatic engagement with U.S.; Iran, nuclear weapons development; Iran, U.S. military operations; News media, Presidential interviews; Oil and natural gas, domestic production; Tax Code reform; U.S. Special Envoy for Peace; U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions; Ultimate Fighting Championship; Vice President.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600249.