Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
June 4, 2026
The President. We'll maybe start where we left off yesterday, and we showed you this picture. And now it's opened, so this is now open. And that——
[At this point, the President held up a poster comparing the length of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with the height of three famous U.S. skyscrapers.]
You see the size of that compared to some of the biggest buildings in the country—or, actually, the biggest.
Hi, Peter [Peter Doocy, Fox News].
Q. Hey, President Trump.
The President. And we have it finished. The water is pouring in as we speak, and maybe we'll show that—what it looks like, because I'm sure the fake news will be thrilled. [Laughter] Take a look.
[A video showing the refilling of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was played on a laptop computer.]
This is from just a while ago. Nice, clean water.
So we're here to talk about clean, beautiful coal. That's clean, beautiful water. That's the longest pool anywhere in the world.
[The President held up a photograph.]
And here, you can tell they're not progressive because—this is not a progressive because progressives never wear or show an American flag. These are proud people from Oklahoma. They came from Oklahoma—a company from Oklahoma—to do it. But you notice the American flag. He's proudly showing off his work. You know he's not a liberal and/or a progressive.
It used to be a liberal, but they changed their name somewhere along the way because liberal wasn't working, but progressive doesn't work too, although "progressive" is a beautiful term.
They're not progressive; they're degressive.
You've got that? What do you think? Huh?
Q. I think it's good.
The President. Daniel [Daniel Baldwin, One America News] is great.
Q. Looks great, sir.
The President. He's a great reporter.
And, again, we have a picture of a gentleman in a car. [The President held up a photograph.]
Proudly—this is the head of construction for the job, so you can see it's just finished. This is just minutes before.
And there's a gentleman named Secretary Burgum from Interior, Doug, who's been doing an incredible job.
So, Doug, we had—we have 22 waterfalls; most of them haven't worked for over 50 years. As of this morning, they all work beautifully, and they're clean. The graffiti is gone. The broken marble is fixed. Well, there's a way of fixing it. You use a thing called silicone, and you fix them. And they look beautiful. All of the hate and everything is removed from them. Some of them are done through stupidity, actually, but hate.
[The President held up a photograph.]
But here's another picture. Now you can tell this is a proud American because he's got a flag.
Protesters never have—the bad protesters never have flags up. They somehow don't like the flag too much, but we do.
So that's great.
We put in today, as you know, about SAVE America—the SAVE America Act. I don't know, someday the Senate and the House will get it done. Although, I must tell you, the House has approved it about three times already.
The SAVE America Act, right here. We have——
[The President held up a printout of a Truth Social post.]
Everybody can see that. And then we'll talk about clean, beautiful coal. You're not allowed to say "coal" within the Trump administration unless it's preceded by the words "clean, beautiful." Complicates our life, but it's good. Right, Chris? Wherever you may be. [Laughter] It is clean and beautiful.
Secretary of Energy Christopher A. Wright. Got your back, Mr. President.
The President. I'll tell you, it's effective.
So the SAVE America Act is all voters must show photo ID. So you go to vote, and you show photo ID. Not complicated. Right? You know, who could oppose it? They say it's an 80/20. It's not. It's about 99/1, and we'll never find the one person, Andy.
Congratulations, Andy, on a big victory. Representative Garland H. "Andy" Barr IV. Thank you. The President. That's a great——
Rep. Barr. Thank you for your help, sir.
The President. I appreciate it, but you're—you're very good at what you do, and I've been backing you right from the beginning for a long time, right?
Rep. Barr. Backing you too, sir.
The President. For years. That's right, you have. Thank you. Congratulations. You won a big election.
So you have all voters must show photo ID—identification. All voters must show a little thing called proof of citizenship.
Would you say that's 99/1, Mr. Pennsylvania?
Representative Daniel P. Meuser. I would say that's maybe 100 to 0, sir. [Laughter]
The President. I would think so. They say it's——
Rep. Meuser. Or at least it should be.
The President. No, but they say it's 80/20. It's not 80/20. It's 99, and we've never found the one person.
Rep. Meuser. No.
The President. There's another one.
Then you have no mail-in ballots, but we want to be liberal, as they say, or we'll say we want to be progressive. So it's no mail-in ballots.
You see that's—so what's happening in California, they're rigging the election. Now, maybe we caught them, and maybe they won't be able to get away with it. They tried with me, and they did it successfully the second time.
The third time we made it too big to rig. Too many votes; they couldn't do it. They can only go—they sort of gave up at about 9:07 when they got slaughtered with the votes that came in.
But no mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military, or travel. So we're being very progressive, and we just don't want cheating in our elections.
And you see it happening in California. Those numbers are coming down rapidly. They found a lot of mail-in ballots last night, shockingly. So we don't want that.
Then we added "best of." This is best of Trump: No men in women's sports, no transgender mutilization surgery for our children. I would say that's pretty close to 99 to 1 also.
No men in women's sports. I would say that's pretty good.
We had the quarterback, Jaxson—who was the quarterback—is the quarterback for the Giants. He's a big, strong guy. And I said, "How do you think you'd do in women's sports, Jaxson?" He said, "Pretty good, sir." [Laughter] He didn't know I was joking. [Laughter] He—was not worried. Let me put it that way. He would have been the greatest athlete in the history of women's sports. You got to see the size of this guy, like a male model, and he's going to be a great quarterback.
So we talk about that, and so we just would like the Senate Democrats, Republicans to pass
it.
Interestingly, Democratic people—Democrat people, not crooked politicians, because most
of them are crooked, or they're sick, or they're Trump deranged. There is Trump derangement syndrome. But the people, it's 86, 87 percent. Democrats. I mean, Democrats are fine. I have a lot of Democrat friends, but they—I don't know, for some reason, when they go into politics, they get radical-left crazy, and they're trying to destroy our country. But we're not going to let that happen.
So today we're taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful coal.
If you look at China, if you look at so many of the successful countries, they're using coal. If you look at some of the real great failures, countries, they're using wind. It just keeps blowing, blowing, blowing, and puts you right out of business. Very expensive. Most expensive energy there is.
So wind is not working very well, but they keep it going because people get subsidies by countries that are stupid.
And, Doug, I would say we haven't been long on wind. Do you agree with that? Do you, Doug—he understands numbers very well.
You know, Doug was very, very successful. Believe it or not, I used to think it was in energy, but he was successful in technology, and he sold his company to, I think, Microsoft, right? And for a lot of money. And he ran for politics. He ran for office, went to North Dakota, won immediately, won Governor. He was very successful for 8 years.
And I watched him during one of the performances of some very talented people, and I said, "We're going to get him to work for us." And then I said I was going to put him in charge of Energy, and he said, "Sir, there's a better man than me for that one." Not in all ways you feel that, but in one way—[laughter]—in energy, you do. And that was Chris, right?
Secretary of the Interior Douglas J. Burgum. Yes.
The President. Where is Chris? Where are you?
Secretary Burgum. Right here.
Secretary Wright. Right behind you. [Laughter]
The President. He's a hard one to find.
And Chris has done a fantastic job, and he's one of the reasons we're here today.
We have had—we're, right now, double Saudi Arabia and Russia. If you double them up, that's what we produce. More than anybody else times two. So think of that.
As a result of the $700 million investment that I'm announcing today, we will protect 14 coal plants and 42 coal mines—it's a tremendous number—and build two new coal plants and one massive new export terminal because we're exporting coal.
Coal is a great business, really, a big business. And it's real power. I mean, it's—in terms of power, there's really nothing like it. You have so many different alternatives. They talk about some. But there's no—no real alternative.
China, by the way, last year, built 52 coal plants. They built about two—windmills. You know, the only time they build a windmill is when they're trying to sell them to stupid people from the United States that—the suckers. And by the way, and all over Europe.
They sell the windmills, but they don't use them. I wonder why. They use coal plants and other things.
These actions will support over 14,000 jobs and save the American people $50 billion in electricity costs.
We're pleased to be joined by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. And he has been great. I don't want to give him a big, swollen ego because then, all of a sudden, he'll leave me, and
I won't be—[laughter]—and I'll be stuck with Interior. I don't want to be stuck.
But he's really done a great job.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, who's fantastic.
And maybe our MVP—what do you think, Doug? You—it's close.
Secretary Burgum. Yes. Yes, right here.
The President. What do you think, MVP? Lee Zeldin. And the job he's done is great.
We had the auto industry in yesterday. They don't want people to fix their car. I said, "That's strange." I'd never heard of that. They have a thing to—nobody is allowed to fix their car. They gave a man 7 years in jail, actually, because he fixed his own car. So I thought we'd do something about that. But we'll get it all straightened away.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee M. Zeldin. Definitely.
The President. Can you believe it? They want a bill that prohibits people from fixing. So, if you're mechanically inclined—you know, I grew up—I went to school with some guys. They were—in some cases, horrible students, but they could fix an engine blindfolded. They could take a car apart blindfolded. But they weren't too good at arithmetic and other things. But they were great. And so, there's a move on to stop people from fixing their car.
I—didn't understand it. But we had a great meeting yesterday with head of General Motors and Roger Penske; head of Ford. We had a great meeting, I think.
Thanks as well to West—a friend of mine, also, for a long time, West Virginia Governor, Patrick Morrisey.
I won by 45 points, Patrick.
Governor Patrick J. Morrisey of West Virginia. It's not enough. [Laughter]
The President. I love those people.
And Wyoming, I think maybe even slightly more than West Virginia, right?
Governor Mark Gordon of Wyoming. Just a little more.
The President. We did pretty—this is a—[laughter]—I— like this group of people. [Laughter]
But Wyoming Governor, Mark Gordon—a respected guy, great Governor. Both of them, really amazing. And Dan Meuser, Riley Moore, Derrick Van Orden, Juan Ciscomani, and Andy Barr.
So you have a lot of Representatives here that are fantastic.
Today we're officially invoking the Defense Production Act to save 13 coal plants in West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.
These were incredible plants—so productive, really producing a lot of the electricity, right?
The electricity, it's really the best at that.
You know, when they—find something better, Chris, I think we'll be all set for it, right? But they're a long ways from finding something better.
Secretary Wright. Coal is critical.
The President. And so, when you look at that, those States—West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Wisconsin—what do they all have in common?
Representative Derrick F. Van Orden. Well, Wisconsin——
The President. Trump won them. [Laughter]
Rep. Van Orden. Wisconsin—[inaudible].
The President. I won every one of them. By a lot, right?
Rep. Van Orden. Yes.
Rep. Meuser. Pennsylvania too.
The President. I'm not even mentioning Pennsylvania, which we won also, right?
Rep. Meuser. Yes.
The President. But we won them all. We won—probably, we won all 50, if we had an honest count, if you want to know the truth.
Our action will allow these facilities to invest in upgrades that will extend their operational lives for decades into the future; reinforce the reliability of our electric grid, which is really the biggest beneficiary; and most importantly, keep electricity prices very low for the American people.
This brings the total number of coal plants that we've saved during my administration—just like when we said we saved 25 water fountains. Think of this. These are fountains, beautiful fountains, that were so horrible to look at, with the graffiti. Over 40 years, many of them closed—over 40 to 50 years.
The big one, the reflective lake. In fact, some people call it a pond. Some people, it's like a lake. But the reflective lake was built in 1922. It never really worked, from the beginning, from 1922. That's a long ways.
So it's over a hundred years old, and it never really worked because they had the wrong base.
It was always leaking. They didn't have what we have today.
So it's pretty amazing what's happened. And you know, I hate to say it won't leak, but it won't leak, because we used a material that doesn't allow leaks. You know, it's like, a swimming pool doesn't leak. You use the right—this is—this is called swimming pool on steroids. So it's great stuff.
And today's actions, we're also supporting coal mines and coal miners in Wyoming and Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, North Dakota, and New Mexico. And they're going to—they're all going back to work.
You know, it's interesting with the mines, that famous scene of Hillary, where we went to West Virginia. And she had just left another State, and she was trying to convince everybody that they should go into technology, no longer be miners. And these guys in West Virginia, they didn't want to hear about it. They wanted to be—remember that scene around the table? They talked to this beautiful, big, strong miner, and they wanted him to make computer chips. She said, "We'll teach him how to make computer chips." His hands were so large, he couldn't hold a computer chip. He's looking at it, going—[laughter].
He had fingers that are, like, three inches around, and they're talking about making a computer chip. And he didn't like it, and he ended up being one of our best ads ever. She wasn't—and she did rather poorly. She lost—I think she lost by 77 points or something like that.
Pretty tough to go knock—you knock coal, and then you go 2 weeks later to West Virginia to try and win the State. It didn't work out well for her.
But the miners love us. What do you think we got with the coal miners? Would you say we got 90 percent, 100 percent? Where do you think we were on this?
Gov. Morrisey. It's pretty high.
The President. Yes, pretty high.
Gov. Morrisey. Probably higher than any group in the country.
The President. Pretty high.
Representative Riley Moore. More than 90 percent.
The President. Yes, it can't be bad. Well, we did well with all the groups.
I'll tell you, the group that now likes us are the autoworkers, because we're building more auto plants now than at any time in the history of our country.
So it's very—it's great to watch and see what's going on with the U.S. We're the most respected country anywhere in the world, and we were a dead country a year and a half—we were a dead country. We were a laughed-at—we were a mocked, laughed-at country.
Starting this summer, the West Gateway project will break ground. And by summer 2028, over 12 million tons of clean, beautiful coal per year will be shipped to countries all around the world. And this project has been delayed over 10 years, and Biden ended it, and then Barack Hussein Obama—have you heard of him: Barack Hussein Obama? Another one. He's another beauty. But that delay is now over. And it's going to be very productive. It's going to fuel our electric plants in particular. It's going to be amazing.
Finally, we're taking nearly $200 million in that—to set aside for the "green new scam"—and it was set aside for the "green new scam," but the "green new scam" is history—and repurposing that money so that we start a coal plant in Maryland and help build two brand-new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia. And these are all built with new technology. It's very clean. It's amazing what—how that's come along. It's all very clean.
And the first new coal plants to open in our country since 2013—you couldn't open—you couldn't even think—they were only closing them. They were closing them, and you had brownouts all over the place. But you don't have that anymore, do you notice?
Under 4 years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the radical-left Democrats in Congress, not a single permit was approved for a new coalmining project. But in over 1 year of our administration, we've already approved 76 permits for clean, beautiful coal.
Last year, we prevented 17 gigawatts of coal-powered electricity from going off line, and that's enough power to—for about 13 million homes. Think of that: 13 million homes, at a very low price. It's the lowest price.
So now I'd like to ask Secretary Burgum to say a few words, followed by Secretary Wright, Administrator Lee Zeldin, and then Governor Mark Gordon and whoever else wants to say a few words, including my new friend—my new Governor friend.
So, Doug, go ahead.
Secretary Burgum. Well, thank you, President Trump. With these announcements today and everything that your administration has accomplished so far since you've taken office, this administration has done more to save, protect, and expand coal in our country than any administration, perhaps ever.
The President. Clean, beautiful coal.
Secretary Burgum. Clean, beautiful coal, absolutely. And on——
The President. [Laughter] I'm only kidding.
Secretary Burgum. That's okay.
We—with the—when you took office, the first thing you did was declare an energy emergency. Some people questioned that, but the prior administration under Biden had gone so far down the path of pursuing the highly subsidized, intermittent, weather-dependent sources of electricity that our grid was at risk. You understood that, and you understood that key—how key coal is. It's the backbone of having affordable, reliable, and secure American energy to power our country, power our electric grid, power our competitiveness in AI, and power all the manufacturing that's coming back.
As you mentioned, with those record coal leases—this is where we take Federal public land, lease it to the private sector. They write a check. That comes into the Treasury. They create jobs, help support local communities.
So there was zero coal leases held in 4 years under the Biden administration, and you heard the President talk about 76 here. We've slashed red tape. Those took years to get. Some of these projects for coal mining, we've approved in less than one month under the emergency procedures.
And we also have opened up for leasing another 13.1 million acres that people can bid on in our country on public land. And this is land that was set aside. This is not national parks. It's not wilderness area. It's not our wildlife refuges. This is public land that was set aside for the benefit and use of the American people, including energy development and making sure that we've got affordable, reliable energy. So using those public lands is what we're doing.
And then the last thing within Interior, I would say we did strategically designate—through the U.S. Geologic Survey, which is part of Interior—designate metallurgical coal as a critical mineral so it's on the list, and that opens up a number of opportunities.
But without metallurgical coal, we don't have coke, we don't have the steel industry. The Biden administration was indiscriminate, trying to shut down our metallurgical coal, as well as our thermal coal.
So—and then last thing, you mentioned the coal export facility. Again, working through all the permitting to drive towards that so that we can be selling clean, reliable energy to our allies in the Pacific who want to do more trade with us.
And lastly, again, thank you for creating the National Energy Dominance Council. Our Executive Director, Jarrod Agen, is here today. But Chris, Lee, and I all have details on that team, and that's operated right out of the White House, and that's why President Trump is able to get so much done so quickly, is this is the first time ever we had a President with a White House Council specifically focused on energy. And what an impact it's having.
The President. Well—and thank you, Doug. Perhaps slightly less importantly, but I think very important, the National Garden of American Heroes is going to be unbelievable. And I'd like to know how are you doing on that and how are you doing on the great triumphal arc.
So every city—just about every major city has a triumphal arc. This is an arc that's a real bow—a beautiful bow to your military and military victories. Nobody has had more military victories, including recently, than we have, and they never got the arc built. It's been—the Civil War stopped it. That circle has been sitting there for a long time, for many, many years.
And I guess you could go back to—in 1902 they tried it, and—but in 1860 and 1880 they just never got it done. The war—the Civil War stopped it the first time. That was a good reason. I think that's a—probably not a bad—that was a good excuse. But after that, it just never happened, and we're going to get it done.
And so, we're doing it with the Department of Interior, and we're also doing the National Garden of American Heroes, which is phenomenal.
And we're doing something that just came up. We'll have a little breaking news here, because nobody has heard of it. But, at the Lincoln Memorial, the front was supposed to be the back; the back was supposed to be the front. It never got built because they built two roadways behind it after it was built, and it shut off the gateway to the water. That was really going to be the main entry, and we're going to be doing that. We're going to—it's called the "promenade." It will be the promenade. They want to call it the "Trump Promenade," but I don't know if I want to do that, but it's going to be beautiful. It's a beautiful project.
And it's going to take the Lincoln Memorial right down to the Potomac, which it was always scheduled to do, but when they built the roads, that was the end of that. But we have a way of—beautifully going over those two roads—they're highways—very, very strong; very important roads, actually, as you know, from the bridge. But it's going to be great.
So can I ask, Doug, just—for just a couple of seconds to talk about those—those three great projects that we're just starting?
Secretary Burgum. Well, I'd say that the—it's important for everyone to know that, as you described, these are plans and ideas that have existed almost since the end of the Civil War. But the McMillan Plan, which is the one that designed the National Mall as we see it today, that was in the early part of the 1900s, envisioned this connection that you would have a—the Memorial Bridge between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery. At the halfway point, there's a very large circle; it was designed to hold a monument. The arc that would go there is a fantastic complement in completion of this plan—that's over 120 years ago—President Trump's vision of how to build that.
And of course, President Trump has talked to President Macron from France. More people visit the Arc de Triomphe than even visit the Eiffel Tower. I mean, this would be a highlight for Americans to come.
The views back at the city, from the top of the arch, would be amazing. The views from this side, from West Potomac, where the National Garden of Heroes was, looking across at the arch, would be amazing. And, of course, the promenade on the backside of the Lincoln is, as President Trump described—right now, there's no pedestrian access. You're on the Mall. People come from around the world. They don't know that a hundred yards away is the beautiful Potomac River, which was part of the original plan. And now they'd be able to walk around the Lincoln Memorial, walk on a pedestrian bridge over the first highway, walk over the next one, and right down to the water. It would complete the original—the vision. And these projects would complete the original vision, the McMillan Plan.
And how fortunate are we to have the builder in chief, someone who both has the vision and the understanding of how to get projects done, that would, again, make our city safe and beautiful, just like the Executive order President Trump put out last year has accomplished.
And while we are ready for the celebration of our 250th anniversary, the city has never been safer, it's never been more beautiful, but President Trump is not stopping there.
The vision that he has for these projects would extend for generations forward. So thank you, President Trump.
The President. Thank you very much.
Rep. Meuser. Awesome.
The President. Great job, Doug. And, Secretary Chris Wright, please.
Secretary Wright. Yes. Look, no coal, no modern world. Stated another way: Without clean, beautiful coal, the modern world is impossible.
And we saw—17 years ago, President Obama's election—an all-out attack on the American coal industry, the industry that built our Nation. We wouldn't have the buildings, the factories, the industry, the electricity grid we have today without the critical contribution of coal. It's been the largest source of global electricity for 125 years in a row and will be for decades to come.
In the United States, it remains a critical source of our electricity, also critical source for our industry. Can't produce steel and cement and other materials without coal.
And beyond the impacts of coal in our electricity sector, just think of the direct impact on human lives. If President Trump had not been elected and inaugurated in January of 2025, and through his authority at the DOE, we were able to force keeping open six coal plants. As of today, there'll be a seventh one and more than twice as many that voluntarily said, "Hey, if we're not going to have to close, we need to stay open." Seventeen coal plants were not closed in 2025 because of President Trump sitting at this desk and in this position right here. That saved 17 gigawatts of electric-generating capacity.
And then Winter Storm Fern that hit our country in the last week of January this year, hundreds—conservatively, hundreds of Americans would have lost their lives if those 17 coal plants had closed. We pushed the East Coast electricity grid in the United States absolutely to the limit.
A storm, Uri, hit 5 years ago in Texas, smaller in geographic extent, not the same magnitude. Over 300 people died. But because we had those coal plants operating and running—and not only did they run, wind power disappeared when the storm hit. Solar is irrelevant in the winter, so the things we talk about didn't even matter to our electricity grid, except for cost burdens. Coal stepped up and produced 25 percent more electricity during this storm than its normal reliable chugging out of electricity.
Without those plants, without that increase in electricity production, we lost a lot of Americans, untold economic damage. President Trump is the President with the courage and the boldness to defend an industry that has been maligned for far too long and to recognize its importance.
Americans are upset about high electricity prices. Blame closing existing, reliable, secure plants and replacing them with subsidized, unreliable plants, a guaranteed way to drive electricity prices up.
But this administration is committed to reversing all of that.
That money we've talked about from the Defense Production Act, thankfully, because of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" and these fantastic Congressmen sitting around me and Governors—without that legislation, we wouldn't have the money, and the Defense Production Act authority to keep open so many plants. It is hard to overstate the magnitude of this.
If you look at our efforts across the whole Government so far, 45 coal plants are open today that would not be open. Where would we be to reindustrialize America, where would electricity prices be if we had let all of those plants close?
But we're not doing it. The—all of those plants, that's $700 million of Government funding, but it's matched with $1.7 billion of private investment from the owners and operators of those plants. All the people in those States that say, "Phew, we don't have to kick our industry out and raise electricity prices again."
Common sense is returning to Washington, DC, and for that, I'm incredibly thankful to be here in the United States Government; to work for President Trump, who will stand up for what's right, bring common sense back, and reinvigorate an industry without which we would not have the America we have today.
And we are going to reindustrialize America, win in the next generation of technologies, and we're going to do it, in critical part, because of a growing and thriving coal industry.
Thank you, President Trump.
The President. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chris.
Secretary Wright. Thank you.
The President. Good job.
Secretary Wright. Thank you, Secretary Burgum. Thank you, Lee Zeldin.
The President. Good.
And, Lee Zeldin, how about saying a few words?
Administrator Zeldin. For so many Americans, clean, beautiful coal is their source of heat, of energy, of warmth, of a job, an economy, a community, a family. And for too long, you saw Democrats who were telling these coal miners that they should just learn to code. And what we saw during the Biden administration at the EPA, for example, was regulation after regulation after regulation trying to strangulate out of existence coal, to destroy it.
Enter President Trump. Declares a national energy emergency. Creates a National Energy Dominance Council. And he told us at the EPA, "at Trump speed," to be getting rid of these regulations as quickly as possible on behalf of those Americans who want to just stay warm, who want to live the American dream, who want to have affordable access to energy.
The Democrats were running for power to sit at this desk and to leverage that power to destroy these communities. Enter President Trump. He has saved clean, beautiful coal, and it's been an honor to be part of it.
The President. Thank you, Lee. Great job too. Wyoming Governor, Mark Gordon. Thank you. Mark.
Gov. Gordon. Mr. President, it's an honor to be here. Thank you to the Secretaries, who have breathed life into an economy in Wyoming that has been there for a long time.
Wyoming produces the cleanest, most beautiful coal—low-sulfur coal.
Gov. Morrisey. Can—you don't mind if I push him on that? [Laughter]
Gov. Gordon. And it's fun because we have a chance to educate our kids. And let me just talk a little bit about the other side of this.
When a kid grows up in Wyoming, their education is paid for in large part by the coal severance taxes, by the royalties that come from mining that coal. That was shut down by the Democrats.
When they have a chance to get a job, they can go look to the coal mine. And it's not just digging coal the way we used to; it's high-tech jobs. You know, at this point, we don't mine coal the way we used to at all. It is very, very technologically proficient. And what's more important, it's environmentally sound.
I would invite you to come and look at the reclamation that's happened in the Powder River Basin, and we can demonstrate that it's environmentally sound; that, actually, wildlife populations thrive and do better.
Today, Mr. President, I really want to talk to you a little bit about our recent trip to Japan and to Taiwan, both countries that were going to forswear coal, and now they realize that they need that reliable, dispatchable, secure source of energy, but they can't get it as clean as they can from the Powder River Basin.
So, to be able to open that Oak—the Oakland port is absolutely essential for the lifeblood of our State and for our coal mines.
It is something that we tried to do in your first administration, and we almost got there. We actually were prepared to go through that, I guess, belt that we have on the West Coast with California, Oregon, and Washington, and finally enforce the commerce clause to allow States like New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah to have access to that Asian market.
And let me just tell you one last thing about that. It's not just about clean, beautiful coal. We have companies like Peabody that are now saying, "We believe we can get rare earth minerals and critical minerals from what we're doing." So we are advancing technology, advancing the opportunities and the security of the State, all because of your vision, sir.
Thank you.
The President. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mark, very much. Would you like to say something on behalf of West Virginia?
Gov. Morrisey. I would. I would like to say——
The President. I love that place.
Gov. Morrisey. ——Mr. President, all West Virginians are so deeply grateful to you for your focus on protecting their energy jobs.
The coal miners know the incredible importance of why we're here today, and to talk about the potential for new coal-fired power plants, that excites them. And I think West Virginians are really inspired because we're America's energy State.
When you think about what's happening on the global scene, where that fight, that international fight with China for information technology supremacy, we believe that your policies are going to allow America to compete and win, and West Virginia is going to supply the coal, the gas, the nuclear to help make that happen.
So I'm very excited by everything you're doing. Even some of the relatively small things, when you come in and you sign agreements with your administration, putting hundreds of people back to work, it's all making a big difference for West Virginia.
So thank you, Mr. President.
The President. As an example, the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America. It bothered me for many years. We have 92 percent of the frontage, and we made that little change, and Mexico was thrilled. They were thrilled about it. But that was a good one, right? You were telling me before that was a good one.
And it's about the United States now for a little while, if it's okay. Would you have any questions, please?
Ukraine/Russia
Q. Yes. President Trump, this was just crossing as we were heading in here. President Zelenskyy wrote a letter to President Putin. He wants the two of them to meet to hash out the end of the war in Ukraine because he thinks you are too busy with the war in Iran. Is he right?
The President. Well, I don't know. I'm glad that they're maybe talking about meeting. I think we had a lot to do with it. I know exactly what you're doing.
But I think it would be great if they met. They should and get it done.
Potential Commemorative $250 Bill Design
Q. And this—there's been a lot of talk lately about the Treasury putting your face on a $250 bill. Have you seen a mockup of the Trump $250 bill? And if that winds up being currency, would you ever be able to tip anyone anything but that?
The President. Well, I think I probably, even if—[inaudible]. [Laughter]
I have actually seen something just about 2 days ago. I know it's been pushed by a lot of our supporters, and I'm honored that they're doing it, but we'll see how that all works out. But I have heard about it, and there is a group of people—they really like the job we're doing. You know, so that's a great honor.
Yes, please.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William J. Pulte
Q. Mr. President, you announced just a few days ago that you're naming Bill Pulte as the acting director of National Intelligence. There's been a little bit of a pushback from some Senate Republicans. Why do you think, Mr. President, he's the best person for the job?
The President. Well, he's very smart. He's a person who's got high integrity. He's done a phenomenal job at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. You know, you probably have a trillion dollars in value there. When he took over, it was much less.
And I guess I'm responsible for that too, because everybody wanted me to sell it in my first term for 10 percent of what it's worth right now. If I would have sold it, we would have lost $900 billion. We would have lost—I mean, think of it: It's probably worth a trillion dollars.
And I was offered every—people wanted me to sell it at $100 billion, a very small percentage of what it's worth now. So—and he built it up a lot, did a great job. And it's an acting position. It's not a permanent—he's not going to be permanent, because, you know, I don't think he'd want to be permanent.
But he's a very smart guy, and he may find out some things about the rigged elections, et cetera, et cetera. I think he'd like to do it. I'd like to—I think he wants to do it very much. Got a lot of energy. But he'll be very good.
Again, it's not a permanent position.
Q. Right.
The President. We're looking at—we're interviewing people right now. But it's somebody just to take it over for a little while.
Q. Does he have the necessary—in your view, Mr. President, the necessary national security experience to take on that position?
The President. Well, I do, and I think he does, actually, because he's smart, because a lot of national security—I—look, I wasn't greatly experienced in national security, and I think I've done a really great job with it. A lot of people would say that.
I've ended eight wars and soon to be a ninth. I hope that works out too. You know, frankly, it's—but probably—and there's another one also that could be 10.
No President—I don't think a President has ended one war having to do with outside of this country. So, you know, we've done a good job.
I would say that Bill is a guy that will be able to figure it out very quickly. Again, it's short term, but he may be very effective for a short period of time.
Q. Mr. President. Mr. President.
The President. Yes, please.
Electricity Capacity Expansion
Q. So what—will there be a proportional share increase of electricity production as a percentage of our nation's electricity output? And my follow-up is: I took that historic trip with Secretary Wright of the small modular nuclear reactor——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——on the West Coast earlier this year. Are we making more progress? Because I know how critical gas and coal is for the secure grid.
The President. Well, the answer is, we are. But, Chris, do you want to answer that?
Secretary Wright. Yes. The—I mean, our electricity grid essentially runs on gas, coal, and nuclear. Those are the three key sources. They're the backbone of the American electricity grid. We're in favor of seeing all three of them grow. You will see all three of them grow during this administration.
And, in fact, later today, before the Sun goes down, you'll see a big announcement in the nuclear space related to the trip you came on.
Q. Thank you.
The President. Thank you.
Russia/Ukraine
Q. Mr. President, President Putin said today that he was willing to make compromises that you requested to end the war with Ukraine if Ukraine was willing to make similar compromises.
The President. Yes.
Q. What were the compromises that you asked Putin to make?
The President. Well, I'd rather not say, because Peter asked me, and I think it was meant as a little wise-guy question, but I'm not sure. But I'm very responsible when that happens. It's going to happen.
They're going to make—both make compromises. I suggested those compromises. And you know, we've had a lot to do with it. We'd love to see—they're two very good people. They're two very, I mean, incredible countries, beautiful countries. They've got to stop.
Last month, they had 25,000 people killed—soldiers—mostly soldiers—some people, but mostly soldiers. And it's been averaging probably almost 25,000 people every month of soldiers killed. And I've been very strong on the fact that they've got to get that over with.
So—but they—they do. I want them each to make certain compromises. I think they're going to do that.
Yes, Daniel.
Coal-Based Energy Generation
Q. Mr. President, thank you. You, through your actions, have saved and supported more than 100 coal plants in your second term.
The President. Yes.
Q. When you hear something like that and you try to create an environment where they're not just surviving, they're thriving, what does that do to the reliability of our energy grid, but to
the economies as well of States like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wyoming? How does it bolster those economies?
The President. Well, we were destroying our grid because we're relying on wind and other things that don't have the power, they don't have the strength, they're very expensive. Wind is the most expensive form of energy. It sounds good. Wind, beautiful wind. But you know, it's very intermittent. But those windmills cost a fortune. They break. They kill the birds. They're bad for the environment. Nobody wants to be near them. The houses—I don't know how they got popular. They got—they're not popular with the people. They're popular with investors because they get subsidy.
But we pretty much cut that subsidy out, I think, Doug, right?
Secretary Burgum. Absolutely.
The President. Good.
Secretary Burgum. In the Working Families Tax Cut bill, it all expires, and since the subsidies have gone away, there's virtually no one—particularly offshore, no one is trying to build one of those projects in America. Turns out they weren't trying to generate electricity. They were just trying to generate tax credits.
The President. You're supposed to be making money with—you know, with that, with energy. And here, wind, it needs subsidy.
Energy shouldn't need subsidy. We have so much—so many different forms of energy. But you know, I've talked about it for years. Wind is the most expensive. It's the worst. It causes tremendous problems. And it does: It kills millions and millions of birds a year. Nobody mentions that.
You'd think if that were the—anything else, they'd be—everybody would be sued.
You know, if you kill a bald eagle, they put you in jail for, like, 4 years or something. And yet windmills knock them out of the air all the time. Nothing happens. It's a—disgraceful.
So we're into energy that really works and works powerfully. Yes, go ahead.
Ultimate Fighting Championship
Q. And we were waiting outside to come into the Oval Office. Everyone is looking at the UFC structure——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——the claw. Are you happy with how that's coming along? And what are your——
The President. It's incredible.
Q. ——expectations for the fight next weekend?
The President. We put it up in 5 days. It's incredible. And I told yesterday the story of the Eiffel Tower. It was 1889, it was put up. It was going to be brought down right after the World's Fair ended. It was up for a short while, and they said, "Well, let's leave it a little bit longer." Then they said, "Let's leave it a little longer." It never came down. That was 18—I think 1889, the World's Fair in Paris. So I jokingly said, "You know, let me tell you a story about the Eiffel Tower."
No, no, it will come down after the fight. [Laughter] There were actually some people who said, "He wants to leave it up."
Yes, please.
Columbus Fountain at Union Station in the District of Columbia
Q. Mr. President, about the Columbus statue.
The President. Yes.
Q. Columbus fountain at Union Station. It looks amazing.
The President. Thank you.
Participant. Amazing.
Q. And what does that mean for the relations between Italy and the United States?
The President. Well, it means Italian people love Trump. [Laughter]
Q. They do.
The President. Because, you know, that was controversial. People wanted to rip it down. You see how beautiful it is. And we don't—didn't only not rip it down, but Doug and his group, and all of us together, we—beautified it. It's—I didn't know the marble was going to be so beautiful. When we—once we cleaned it up, you wouldn't believe it. When you saw that thing was loaded for 50 years with filth and graffiti and everything else. It's amazing. It's amazing how good—they did a really great job.
Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz/International Cooperation
Q. On the Strait of Hormuz, Mr. President. Do you still want European allies' help? We're discussing energy today, and——
The President. Well, we don't need their help.
Q. ——what kind of help do you——
The President. Yes.
Q. What kind of help would you want? Do you have a definite ask?
The President. We're the most powerful military in the world. We gave them a chance to help, but they chose not to—NATO. We went to the NATO countries; we went to others too, in all fairness to NATO. And I wouldn't say I gave them a hard sell, but I said, "Hey, if you'd like to help, it'd be wonderful." And they all turned us down, and, you know, it's going to be an expensive proposition for them because they shouldn't have done that. They should have helped.
You know, we don't need it. We have our own—we have much more than we need in terms of oil and energy, generally. But—European countries and other countries, they need it tremendously—some of the European countries need it really big. And they should have said, "We'd love to help." But they didn't.
U.S. Military Operations in Iran/California Elections
Q. But if you could choose—but, Mr. President, if you could choose, what—what would you ask them to do, sir? If you wanted——
The President. Well, I would have asked them—I mean, there's not much—look, we want—they have—there's no navy. There's no air force. We've wiped them out. We've wiped out their leadership and—almost all of it. We've wiped out all their military leaders. They're down on the third.
Now, maybe they're very good. I don't know; I can't tell you that. But certainly the first ones didn't do very good because they weren't—they were literally—after 3 days, almost the entire military was wiped out. They had to get new generals. And then, after that, they had to get more new generals.
And we knocked out their anti-aircraft, their air force, just about everything you can knock out. So—and then you read in the fake news that they're doing really well in the war. I mean, it's unbelievable. We knocked out everything there is to knock out, and you'd pick up the fake news, and they say how well they've done. They're doing brilliantly. They have no air force.
You know they had exactly—we knew that—159 ships. Andy, out of 159 ships, all 159 lie beautifully at the bottom of the ocean. We actually took pictures of them down there. And then you read the fake news. They say, "Well, their navy is really great."
You know what they have now? [Laughter] Little runabouts with a machinegun on the front.
It's a—the ships don't even really deal with them, but it's just—they're like a gnat. You know, like, "Get off." That's all they have. It's crazy.
You know, this country needs a fair press, and one thing I think that's done is expose how corrupt our media is. And I really do—while we're here, I hope the media looks at this election that's taking place in California, where they think it'll take seven or eight days to count the votes. Can you believe this?
Gov. Morrisey. No, sir.
The President. I mean, we're supposed—they spend all that money on the machines, the big voting machines. They think it's going to be 7 or 8 days before we know who won the election.
But the numbers are looking strange, because without any vote counting, the numbers dropped very precipitously for two Republicans that are doing well—that had been doing well.
And I hope you're all watching it because I'm watching it very closely.
China-U.S. Relations/U.S. Military Readiness/Ukraine/U.S. Security Assistance
Q. Mr. President, are you worried that China is funding an anti–data center movement here in the U.S.?
The President. No, no, we're in a better—we had a great meeting with China. And, you know, they do things to us, and we do things to them. I say it all the time. They say, "Oh, it's—are you worried about China tapping your phones?" I said, "Well, you know, they're worried about the same thing."
No, we're very highly sophisticated—we've become very highly sophisticated. We had 4 years. I rebuilt the military. We had a military that was not good, and we rebuilt it. And I didn't know I'd use it quite as much, but we used it.
Ukraine has been given a tremendous amount of our military—without our military and our equipment, Ukraine wouldn't be alive to fight today, you know, I mean, just in terms of the question. We gave them hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of equipment and the best equipment in the—we make the best equipment anywhere in the world, but they wouldn't have—they wouldn't have lasted one or 2 days. They wouldn't have been able to do it.
Remember the antitank missiles—remember that, right?—when the tanks got stuck in the mud, and then they went around and boom, boom, boom. And those were given by yours truly. They said Obama gave sheets and Trump gave the antitank—the—one of the most devastating weapons.
But you check that out.
But we have the greatest military. We have the greatest military equipment anybody has ever seen before.
Look at Venezuela. We went in there; it was over after about 48 minutes, and, you know, they have a strong military—a different kind of a military, but a lot of soldiers.
And you look at Iran, where we essentially wiped out their military. No, there's some missiles left, but very few compared to what they had.
U.S. Military Operations in Iran
Q. And speaking of our military and Iran, I wanted to ask you about this report that you would only restart the conflict with Iran if they killed U.S. troops. Is that your red line for ending the ceasefire?
The President. If they killed——
Q. U.S. troops.
The President. What does that mean?
Q. That you would restart the war with Iran if they killed U.S. troops, but that's——
The President. Well, I—it would be a good reason. I'll be honest with you: Yes, if they killed
U.S. troops, I think I would do that very quickly. Yes, that's a very interesting question.
Hizballah Political-Paramilitary Organization/Lebanon/Israel
Q. Mr. President, on Iran. You—responded to the vote in the House yesterday of the War Powers Resolution. Also, we've seen Hizballah reject the U.S.-brokered peace in Lebanon. You said that negotiations are—negotiations are in final stages.
The President. Well, you don't know. What does "reject"——
Q. But Iran is saying they're stalled.
The President. Yes.
Q. How long is this going to go on?
The President. Yes, what does "reject" mean? They didn't reject. Look——
Q. They didn't reject it?
The President. They're looking. I think Hizballah—I will tell you, they called us and they said, "How about stopping?" And I think you see things happen over there.
That's been, like, a little bit of a different world, but it's interconnected with Iran, and it would be really nice if Lebanon could have some peace. Lebanon has been under attack for so many years and always like an underdog. And it would be really nice if it could end.
And I spoke to Bibi Netanyahu about that, and I speak to them about it, and I actually spoke to Hizballah about it, and I think progress is made. That's been going on for a long time. You know, when you look at that, for years and years—48 years. I say, "Well, let's get this settled.
How long has it been going on?" "Forty-eight years." I said, "That's a long time." [Laughter] Not that easy.
But go ahead.
2026 Midterm Elections/Venezuela/Gasoline Costs/Iran
Q. As we get closer to the midterms, are you starting to factor in domestic reaction to this in your handling of this? Or are you——
The President. No. I have—I just do what's right.
Q. Indefinitely you're——
The President. No, I—mean, look, it was like Venezuela was very unpopular, then we won, and my numbers went through the roof. I have very high poll numbers. They went through the roof.
It was very unpopular when I went to Venezuela. They said, "Oh, we don't want"—well, first of all, that one is relatively close. It's sort of a semineighbor, right? And the relationship with Venezuela is incredible. We've taken out millions and millions of barrels of oil out of Venezuela. It's very oil-prone, I guess, Chris. One of the most, right?
Secretary Wright. Yes.
The President. And we've taken out—you're sort of leading it. But do you want to just tell them real fast about the relationship we have with Venezuela, Chris?
Secretary Wright. Yes. Things with Venezuela have gone very well. Venezuelan oil exports today are three times higher than they were right before we went in, so it has been a meaningful incremental supply of oil to the world and one of the reasons we're solving a 47-year-old problem of Iran's race for nuclear weapons and oil prices in the U.S.
We wish they were lower, but gasoline prices in the U.S. are, you know, a little over $4.
They're $10 in Europe. They're higher in Asia. They're very high in California.
The bigger threat to energy prices in the United States is Democratic green energy policies.
They have driven up energy prices far more than a conflict in Iran.
And the conflict in Iran will come to an end. We hope that crazy, green energy—drive-up-energy-prices policy, the Democrats at Federal and State levels—we hope that comes to an end too.
The President. And remember this: We're—if you want to call it a war or if you want to call it a military operation, you cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, and everybody agrees to that, no matter—almost everybody.
[Several reporters began asking questions at once.]
But wait a minute. Our gasoline prices are lower than they were with Biden without that.
And he would have let them have—in fact, he inspired them to have, frankly, a nuclear weapon—him and Obama. Obama picked the wrong country. You know that.
And the Obama deal—I terminated that, or they would have had a nuclear—that was a road to a nuclear weapon.
Our deal, if we make that deal—and it's going well, but who knows—if we make that deal, it's the exact opposite. They will not have—they will never have a nuclear weapon.
Iran/Nuclear Weapons Development
Q. It sounds like you're in it for as long as it takes.
The President. I'm not going to let them have a nuclear weapon, no.
With Obama, it was a road—you know that. It was a road to a nuclear weapon. That was a short-term agreement, and at the end of which they would have a nuclear weapon. So, they would have had it 4 years ago.
Then we attacked with this beautiful plane right here, the B–2 bomber. We attacked—10 months ago, we attacked their nuclear sites, and they were obliterated. It turned out that, you
know, CNN was wrong. They said, "Well, maybe they weren't hit that hard." They were hit so hard nobody knows if you can even get it out.
But the only ones that have the capability of getting out is us and China. We're the only ones with that kind of equipment that's powerful enough to go down that deep into a mountain.
But that mountain crushed it. That mountain literally collapsed on top of it. Those pilots did one hell of a job.
Rep. Van Orden. That's right.
The President. And now the Atomic Energy, as you know, has backed us up on that. They think it's a very, very hard thing to get it, but we'll get it anyway.
But we're the only one—and China. I believe China too, but we're the only two that have the capability of getting it.
Former President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Q. Mr. President, Jill Biden is out promoting a new book this week. When you met with Joe Biden—President Joe Biden—right here in the Oval Office on November the 13th of 2024, could you detect any cognitive decline in President Biden at that time?
The President. No, not really. He was the same guy I've been watching for a long time. I mean, you can go back 40 years. I watched him 40 years ago, 30 years ago. He was never the sharpest guy. You do know that, right? It wasn't like he was sharp as a tack. But no, it was the same guy.
He actually invited me here before the election, which was strange. You know, we went here before, but then I met also—as you know, we did the ritual. And, I mean, he was fine, as far as I was concerned.
I don't know. Something happened to him during the debate. It could have been me. You know, I thought I had a very good debate. Nobody ever says that. They say that Biden did badly. What about me? Did I do well? You know, there's a reason he did badly. And so, the question is: Did he do badly because he choked or because he didn't have it?
But he didn't have a good—I would say this: He did not have a good night.
Q. But during that—during that time period—you met with him for about 2 hours—you didn't feel he was slowing down or he was——
The President. No, he spoke softly.
Q. Okay.
The President. Very softly. And as we started to speak, he—you know, I mention this to people: He spoke very, very softly. Very low. Very low. And as we talked, we got along really well, and I thought he was fine. I thought he was fine.
When I say "fine," I mean was he, like, talking to Doug Burgum? [Laughter] Was he, like, talking to Chris? Was he, like, talking to any of these monsters up here, all these tremendous politicians and environmental geniuses? Was he, like, talking to Andy Barr? No. He was fine.
2028 Presidential Election/Democratic Party
Q. I have a question about Hunter Biden. He's on social media now, and he has suggested—maybe joking; I don't know—that he could run for President in 2028. How would he do, Hunter Biden, in a 2028 Democratic primary?
The President. Well, you would think that, you know, past has something to do with winning an election, and I would say his past is not the greatest. "Where's Hunter?" Remember my "Where's Hunter?" It became the number-one shirt anywhere in the world for about 3 weeks.
I'm not going to say bad. I'm sure—you know, hey, if the guy from Maine can do well—[laughter]—I guess Hunter could do well too. [Laughter] Because the guy from Maine is a basket case, and I would say worse than him is the one from Texas that looks like Alfred E. Neuman. [Laughter] I would say that if he can do well, maybe Hunter can do well. I'm not sure. It would be pretty close, as far as I'm concerned.
Iran/Disposition of Nuclear Material
Q. And I've got a question about the nuclear dust. So the bombers go in, they entomb a lot of this enriched uranium.
The President. Right. Yes.
Q. At this point, do you need a deal with Iran to go get it?
The President. No.
Q. Or have you thought about just——
The President. I was——
Q. ——a covert, daring—send in the SEALs, send in the Rangers?
The President. Yes, but I didn't want to be Jimmy Carter. You know, I didn't feel like being Jimmy Carter.
Q. So that's off the table?
The President. We did—well, we thought about it right at the very beginning, before you saw, before we did what we did, where—before we destroyed their entire military. We thought about it, and I didn't want to be in a position where you had to be—you know, to get there, it's not like—it's not like Venezuela, like you go in, you're there for a matter of minutes, and you're out and everybody is waving goodbye as you, you know, take off, and you've brought the cargo back.
This is different. You'd have to be there for 2 weeks. You'd need massive equipment. You'd have to airlift the equipment in. You know, you're in a war zone.
And there was a time at the very beginning when we thought about doing that because they would have not been watching, but they would have found out. I mean, during a period of a week to 2 weeks, you know, that's—you would have had a major construction operation, because that plane and, more importantly, those people that operate those planes, including the mechanics—you know, they flew for 37 hours round trip. Think of that. And the tankers that refilled them four times, and—what an operation it was. Amazing.
And—but we would have been—Peter, we would have been there for a period from a week to 2 weeks. We would have gotten it, but I said, "I don't like the idea of that." All of a sudden, they, you know, pinpoint—they still had missiles left. That means they would pinpoint you and just keep lobbing them in until one gets through, and people would have gotten killed. So I didn't like it.
We could get it right now. I don't think they could stop us if we wanted, but there's no reason to. It's entombed. You used a good word. It's entombed.
Q. Thank you.
The President. We also have cameras on it through Space Force. We have very powerful cameras. Every door—there's a door. You know, the—you know where the doors go? They go to bad places.
But every single place on that—on those mountains—there's three—basically three, because we also hit it with Tomahawks after. You know, after that, we hit it with Tomahawks.
Every inch of that land has cameras on it. We have about nine of them, and they're on it. We cover it. So, if anybody even got near it, we would know what we had to do.
Iran/U.S. Diplomatic Engagement
Q. And we've heard that you want to meet with the new Ayatollah, the new Supreme Leader.
The President. I don't want to meet, but if—if I did meet, I'd be honored to meet him. I'd like to see if we make a deal. But if we make a deal, it's possible that I would meet him. I'd be okay with that.
Q. Would that happen here in the U.S.? White House? Camp David?
The President. Oh, I don't know, Peter. I haven't really heard too much about it. It's not—I—didn't suggest it, but some people have suggested it. If it happened, it would be—happen. I'd be be respectful.
U.S. Military Operations in Iran
Q. Do you think—do you think because Epic Fury killed his dad and his wife and his kid, that he's got hard feelings and wouldn't want to meet? Have you heard——
The President. Well, I would say I'm not his favorite person. But with that being said, he's probably a—I don't know him. He's probably a professional. In some circles, he has a very good reputation, actually. You know, sometimes some people say bad, but a lot of people say bad about me. It's totally false, of course.
[Several reporters spoke at once.] Please.
Q. On jobs. Tomorrow, the jobs report will be released.
The President. Yes.
National Economy/Automobile Industry
Q. While the unemployment rate has been steady at 4.3 percent, the Black unemployment rate has been 7.3 percent. When you ran for President, you courted Black voters and talked about what you described as "Black jobs." How do you describe why—this disparity is happening? And what can you do to close that gap?
The President. Well, we're doing very well with the Black jobs, African American jobs.
We're doing—I saw some numbers that we're doing really well.
But where we're really going to do well is when all these plants are open. You know, we're building many car plants. We're bringing cars back from Germany. We're bringing—you know, we lost the car industry years ago. Fifty-four percent of the industry went to Germany, Japan, Canada, Mexico. It's all coming back. It's amazing.
And where your Black worker is really going to do well is when those factories open. So, I think they're going to be great.
Yes, we've—been doing very well. It's been a big focus for me.
Yes, please.
Consumer Prices/The President's Foreign Policy/National Economy/Iran
Q. Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. On today's announcement, how do you ensure the estimated cost savings are passed on to the consumers and not held by the company?
And then, on Iran, what specific progress has been made today in talks with them, and where are the sticking points still?
The President. So we're really lowering costs. You know, when I came into this job, we had the highest inflation in the history of our country. Forty-eight years, they say, but I—think the history of our country, whether it's 48 years or more. But we had tremendous inflation with Biden. During the Biden—they had the highest—they had one of the highest ever, and I inherited that.
The costs were very, very high. And at my first news conference, Peter and others were screaming at me about eggs. Remember, Peter? "Eggs! What about eggs?" Maybe it wasn't you.
Q. I don't think I screamed about the eggs. [Laughter]
The President. I know, but I wanted to inject Peter into it. But he was screaming to me on eggs, and I said: "What? Tell me about eggs." This is 2 days in. They said eggs had quadrupled. I said, "Well, they didn't quadruple under me. They"—and they didn't want me to order eggs for the Easter egg hunt that was going to take place in a few months, right? [Laughter] And I said: "Nope. We're not going to"—they wanted me to order plastic eggs, and I said, "Nope."
And we got eggs down to lower than what it was long prior to when I took over, and eggs today are about 15 percent lower.
What we had is a bunch of con artists, the Democrats—the "Dumocrats." And what they did is they said—they left. They gave the highest prices that we've ever had for all products—groceries, everything—and they started saying, "Affordability." They'd say, "This is about affordability." It's a con job.
I inherited their high prices. We brought those prices way down. And when the—and if you go back 3 months ago—if you go back before the—war started, think of it: 3 months.
So, with Vietnam, we were there for 19 years. With Iraq, it was about 9 years. With another one, it was about 12 years. And with another one—we had all these wars that lasted for 9, 10, 12—19 years for Vietnam. Think of it.
And they said: "You're in there for 3 months. This is a terrible thing."
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed in these other wars. We lost not one soldier in Venezuela. We didn't lose one soldier. And we lost a total of 13, which is 13 too many, but when you look at hundreds of thousands of soldiers were killed in these various wars. They lasted many, many years. We're in there for a few months, and what we've done is amazing. They won't have a nuclear weapon.
And we did—it was tough because we just got—Doug and everybody came in to see me. We just got the best numbers. Well, today, again, the New York Stock Exchange and every other exchange just hit a new alltime high. That's 73 days out of my short term we've hit brand-new highs. Every 401(k) is setting records.
And 401(k)s, a lot of people have. You probably all have 401(k)s. Every—I'll tell—look at your 401(k). You're happy about your 401(k)? You know, the nice reporters are smiling at me, and the stupid reporters are like that. [Laughter] But their 401(k)s are setting records. They should be happy. They shouldn't be angry; they should be very happy.
But 401(k)s are setting records. They've never had anything like it. So, you know, we've done a good job.
As far as Iran is concerned, you're going to find out what the deal is, but the main parts of the deal is, they can't have a nuclear weapon. The Strait will open immediately. You know, it's going to open immediately.
And we've largely swept for mines. We have the most sophisticated minesweepers—they're underwater minesweepers. I actually said to somebody, one of the generals, "Why underwater?" He said, "Because usually it's hostile." You know, when you're looking for mines, typically it's not in a good neighborhood, right? So underwater made a lot of sense, when you—it didn't take long to figure that one out.
So I think we're doing very well, but we're going to see. If—we're going to win one way or the other. We're going to win on paper or we're going to win military. One way or the other, it's going to be militarily or on paper.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Domestic Energy Production/Artificial Intelligence/Environmental Permitting Process
Q. Thank you, Mr. President. How critical is energy dominance—whether it be coal, whether it be LNG, whether it be oil——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——to national security?
The President. Very critical. Without it, you can't win.
As an example, AI is a big deal. Whether we like it, not like it, it's going to be amazing in many ways. It's going to be—I think, for medical, it'll be amazing. But without massive amounts of energy, you can't even play the game.
And we're leading China by a lot in AI. I was talking to President Xi about it. But if we didn't do—Lee Zeldin has done so great because, number one, fast approvals from professionals. You know, you have the best firms in the world submitting papers to him, and we didn't keep them waiting for 10 years and then vote against them after 10 years. That was your—guys would file with the environmental for a plant of some kind. After 15 years, they would be rejected. It was terrible.
Now we have great professionals there, and we accept—we only accept plans from great professionals, but we give them fast turnaround, and it's been really amazing.
I think the biggest thing we've done, Lee, is we let these geniuses with all this money build their own electric plant. We don't take it from our grid; we let them build their own plant. They become a utility. So they're building a plant, and at the same time, they're building electricity, because if we didn't do that, you couldn't have anything. You couldn't have—and we're letting that happen too with car plants and other plants, if they want to build their own electric.
But with the AI, you know, when you hear so much about it—but one of the biggest things, they build their own. And then excess energy that they create will go back into the grid.
Yes, please.
Q. Mr. President, on Cuba. Are you——
Q. Mr. President——
Q. Mr. President, on——
The President. Wait a minute. Just let him have one.
India-U.S. Trade
Q. Mr. President, Secretary Rubio was in Delhi last week. He delivered a letter from you to Prime Minister Modi. And, sir, you also addressed people of India through your favorite Ambassador, Sergio Gor.
The President. That's right.
Q. Yes. Both of them have said the trade deal is around the corner. Where do we stand on the trade deal with India?
The President. Well, we have it. And you know, look, India, for years, has—and I don't blame them; I blame us, because we had stupid people here. India, for years, really took advantage of the United States. You know that.
Are you from India, by any chance? Huh?
Q. Both people—both countries——
The President. I thought you were from Germany. [Laughter]
Q. I am from India, sir.
The President. I'm only kidding. You're central casting, okay? And that's a very good thing. [Laughter]
India, for years, took advantage of this country. They charged us tremendous tariffs, and they paid nothing. They wouldn't let Harley—as an example, in the past, they wouldn't let Harley Davidson sell its motor. They would charge 200-percent tariff, so Harley Davidson was precluded. They ended up going to India and building their own plants, which is unfortunate that that happened, but it happens. That was before me.
But they charged tremendous amounts of tariffs to our—and—we didn't charge them anything. You know, they sell—sold motorbikes here too. You know what we charged them? Nothing. And now it's the exact reverse.
And we're making a lot of money with India, but we'll get to a deal because I like—you know, I like your Prime Minister a lot. He's a good friend of mine. Get along great. And we're going to make a deal. We get—we have a very good relationship.
Cuba/Venezuela
Q. Mr. President, yes. Speaking of deals, Mr. President. On Cuba, are your sanctions on Cuba meant to accelerate its collapse?
The President. No. It's just—we just want them to be a nicely run country that can feed its people.
Look, it's a failed nation. Without Venezuela—you know, Venezuela, because it has such wealth in the ground—mostly in the ground—but Venezuela took care of them for years, and they took care of Venezuela. They were like the bodyguards. When we went in and burst into their country, the Venezuelans were guarding Maduro and everybody else. It was mostly—I mean, the soldiers were—in that case, we were a lot—we had a lot of Cubans were guarding. The Cubans were the guards. And they're good soldiers.
But the country is starving, and it's got no energy, it's got no oil, it's got no money, it's got nothing. It's got a beautiful piece of land. You could have beautiful resorts. Doesn't have oil, but
Venezuela was giving them the money to survive. And now, you know, the money is—I guess you could say it's coming to us and is going to Venezuela.
Venezuela has been an amazing thing because we've paid for the cost of the attack many, many times over, and it's been a long time since you've heard of it.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Q. Do you think Cuba is close to collapsing though? Based on everything you just laid out, do you think that Cuba is close to collapsing?
The President. It's sort of collapsed, and we're going to handle that as soon as we've—I like to do one thing at a time. And we'll take care of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And as soon as that's done, on our way back we'll just make a little brief stopover.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
We'll take care of it. We want to help them out.
Look, we have a lot of people that voted for Trump. Whether they did or not, it didn't matter, but I had 95 percent of the Cubans voted for me. They're unbelievable people. They're energetic. They're entrepreneurial. You know, some of the richest people in Miami are Cuban. They're unbelievable. And I'm going to take good care of them. I'm going to let them go back to their land. They want to be back with family. You know, they have a lot of family over there. They've been treated very badly by Cuba.
But we're going to treat Cuba well, and we're going to let our people go back and let them invest in Cuba if they'd like. So we have some very good plans for Cuba. I think, you know, we have to get rid of the—the regime was—very tough, very nasty. The difference is now they don't have money coming in.
They had a lot of money coming in from Venezuela. They don't have any money coming. They had oil coming in. They had money coming in. But we're going to take care of Cuba. And they—you know what? They want us to. The people want us there so badly.
Q. Mr. President, sir.
The President. Yes, go ahead.
National Basketball Association Finals
Q. Last night, huge night for the city of New York: The Knicks won game one——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——of the NBA finals. There's been a lot of speculation. Have you decided whether or not you want to attend a game at Madison Square Garden?
The President. Well, I've been a Knick fan for a long time, and I'm also a Jim Dolan fan.
He's a nice guy. Okay? He's been a long time wanting to win, and he's a competitive guy, and he's got a team that's amazing. You know, they—I don't think they've lost a playoff game.
Q. Twelve straight wins.
The President. Can you imagine that? And it was not looking good. I saw the beginning of the game, and it wasn't looking good. I missed the middle——
Q. That's right.
The President. ——because I talk to generals all night long now. But I watched that end of the game, and they were dominant. Really amazing. And Wemby is a great player. He's going to
be a great player, and he is already a great player. I say: "How do you guard this guy? He's 7-foot-5, and he's got a great shot." Right? But they find a way to do it. They're really great. They're a great team.
And I'm happy for Jim because Jim has really been fighting hard to, you know, produce such a team. So you never know.
The answer is yes. He's invited me, and I'm going. I'll be——
Q. Which game? Have you decided, sir?
The President. Say it?
Q. Game three? Game four? Are you excited for it?
Q. Monday?
The President. It could be Monday. Yes, Monday.
Q. You mentioned you're meeting with the automakers——
Q. Mr. President—[inaudible]—New York.
The President. Maybe I'll do both. [Laughter]
U.S. Automobile Industry/Emissions Regulations/Tax Code Reform
Q. You mentioned your meeting with the automakers yesterday. Can you tell us a little bit about that—more about that? In particular, did you discuss trade, tariffs, USMCA?
The President. I did. We—had a great meeting with the auto. I mean, most of them were here. They were really talking about the fix-your-own-car kind of a thing, right? But they're doing very well since I'm in office, because I got rid of a lot of environmental restrictions that—
In fact, you might just tell them a little bit about that, Lee. We made it so much easier for them to build a car. They can build a less expensive car that's much better. And they were so choked up with environmental nonsense that in order to save four ounces of gasoline, you had to spend thousands and thousands of dollars.
Lee, do you want to go into that, please?
Administrator Zeldin. President Trump, we sent to Congress congressional—three Biden EPA waivers to California that Congress passed, President Trump signed last year, getting rid of the electric vehicle mandate that a whole bunch of other States had signed on to. Just a couple months ago, President Trump announced here at the White House the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States to repeal the 2009 endangerment finding. All the greenhouse gas emission standards of light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles were following the law. And what that means for cost of living: just on that act alone, $2,400 more affordable per vehicle for Americans.
The victories come out every single day. President Trump gave us very clear guidance. He wanted us to act at Trump speed to get this done as fast as possible. And what you see now all across America is billions upon billions of investments all across this country with new factories being built. They believe in America. They're investing in America with the American jobs that come—come up with it.
And by the way, consumer choice—we got rid of that climate participation trophy for that annoying start-stop feature in cars to make your car die at every stop site—stop sign and red light.
So, yes, the gift—the gifts, the receipts, the wins, they keep coming. And we're just getting started.
Q. Did they ask you for any tariff changes on auto imports?
The President. No, they didn't do that.
Q. And what do you——
The President. They're making so much money now because—you know, I did something else that, I don't know, doesn't—because we have no tax on tips and no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime, right? So that's really been big. That's turned out to be much bigger than anyone knew. If you look at the people, they're saving from $5- to $7-, $8,000 even on average because of that. So it's been good.
But I did something else that nobody talks about. If you buy a car and you borrow money, you're allowed to deduct the interest for income tax purposes. Never happened before. And deductions were always meant for rich people. They weren't meant for middle class people or other people wanting to buy a car. So now you're allowed to get a deduction of your interest payment.
That's a tremendous thing. I mean, it's a trade—but what's the key? Only if the car is made in America.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you.
Acting Attorney General Todd W. Blanche
Q. Wait. Todd Blanche. Have you commented yet on Todd Blanche and your nomination of him?
The President. It's great. Todd is great.
Q. Why now? Why now?
The President. Todd is great. It's moving—very well. Todd is very popular. He's doing great.
Q. Will you nominate him soon?
The President. Soon. They're doing the paperwork.
NOTE: The President spoke at 3:21 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Jaxson C. Dart, quarterback, National Football League's New York Giants; Mary T. Barra, chair and chief executive officer, General Motors Corp.; Roger S. Penske, founder and chairman, Penske Corp.; James D. Farley, chief executive officer, Ford Motor Co.; former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her capacity as the 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee; former President Barack Obama; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel; R. Hunter Biden, son of former President Biden; Maine Democratic candidate senatorial candidate Graham C. Platner; Texas Democratic senatorial candidate James D. Talarico; Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei of Iran, son of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei of Iran, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Tehran, Iran, on February 28; U.S. Ambassador to India and Special Envoy for South and Central Asia Sergio Gor; former President Nicolás Maduro Moros of Venezuela, who was captured, along with his wife Cilia Flores, in a U.S. military operation in Caracas, Venezuela, on January 3 and exfiltrated to the U.S. for criminal processing in New York City; James L. Dolan, executive chairman and chief executive officer, Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp.; and Victor Wembanyama, forward-center, national Basketball Association's San Antonio Spurs. He also referred to S. 1383. A reporter referred to Jill T. Biden, wife of former President Biden; and Zahra Haddad Adel, wife, and Mohammad Bagher, son, of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who were also killed in the February 28 Israeli airstrike on Tehran.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Coal-based energy production, expansion efforts; Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, White House.
Locations: Washington, DC.
Names: Barr, Garland H. "Andy," IV; Barra, Mary T.; Biden, Jill T.; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Biden,
R. Hunter; Blanche, Todd W.; Burgum, Douglas J.; Ciscomani, Juan, III; Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Dart, Jaxson C.; Dolan, James L.; Farley, James D.; Gordon, Mark; Khamenei, Mojtaba; Meuser, Daniel P.; Modi, Narendra; Moore, Riley M.; Morrisey, Patrick J.; Netanyahu, Benjamin; Obama, Barack; Penske, Roger S.; Platner, Graham C.; Pulte, William J.; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich; Talarico, James D.; Van Orden, Derrick F.; Wembanyama, Victor; Wright, Christopher A.; Xi Jinping; Zeldin, Lee M.; Zelenskyy, Volodymyr.
Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; 2026 midterm elections; Acting Attorney General; Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies; Automobile industry, strengthening efforts; Basketball; China, President; Coal-based energy production, expansion efforts; Cuba, political and economic stability; Defense Production Act of 1950, executive authorities; Director of National Intelligence; District of Columbia, beautification efforts; District of Columbia, Columbus Fountain at Union Station; Election security and integrity, strengthening efforts; Environmental Protection Agency; Federal Housing Finance Agency; Ford Motor Co.; Gasoline costs; General Motors Corp.; India, Prime Minister; India, trade with U.S.; Inflation; Iran, commercial transit through Strait of Hormuz; Iran, nuclear weapons development; Iran, Supreme Leader; Iran, U.S. airstrikes on nuclear facilities; Iran, U.S. military operations; Israel, military operations in Lebanon; Israel, Prime Minister; Job creation and growth; Lebanon, Hizballah political-paramilitary organization; Lebanon, Israeli military operations; Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; National Garden of American Heroes; News media, Presidential interviews; North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Penske Performance, Inc.; Reflecting Pool, renovation work; Renewable energy sources and technologies; Russia, conflict in Ukraine; Russia, President; Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act; Secretary of Energy; Secretary of the Interior; Solar and wind energy; Stock market; Tariffs; Tax Code reform; Transgender athletes, efforts to restrict participation; U.S. Armed Forces, funding and equipment, improvement efforts; U.S. military readiness, improvement efforts; U.S. servicemembers, service and dedication; Ukraine, President; Ukraine, Russian invasion and airstrikes; Ultimate Fighting Championship; Venezuela, U.S. military capture and exfiltration of President Maduro; West Virginia, Governor; Wyoming, Governor.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600380.