Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
June 10, 2026
The President. Well, thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Anytime you're ready.
Are you ready?
House Majority Leader Stephen J. Scalise. They're ready.
The President. It's an honor to have these very distinguished people alongside of me—not behind me, alongside of me. I would never say "behind me," because they're not behind anybody. They're great.
This morning, I'm thrilled to sign the Secure America Act to immediately and fully fund the Department of Homeland Security through the end of my term. So we won't have that to be talking about anymore, Lisa, will we?
Representative Lisa C. McClain. That's good. No, we will not, sir.
Senator John A. Barrasso. That's good.
The President. We'll give the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol—and that's what they are, they're heroes for what they have to go through to keep us safe—the support and resources they need to defend our borders, protect our homeland, and to keep America safe.
I want to thank Speaker Mike Johnson. He's incredible. Where is Mike Johnson?
Speaker of the House of Representatives J. Michael Johnson. Right here. The President. Mike, you're doing an incredible job. And not a big majority. Leader Scalise. Just enough.
The President. Rather have 40 or 50. I don't think you'd know what to do if we had 40 or—
Speaker Johnson. No. [Laughter] I—[inaudible]. The President. He'd say, "What are we doing?" Rep. McClain. He's willing to try.
House Majority Whip Thomas E. Emmer, Jr. That'd be no fun.
The President. He's done an amazing job.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. And Todd is up, and I hear he's got tremendous support in the Senate, and he's got tremendous support everywhere, actually. He's doing a fantastic job. And Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne. Where's Markwayne?
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin. Right here, sir.
The President. He gave up his Senate seat. He had a guaranteed seat for the next 40 to 50 years. [Laughter] And he gave it up to be Homeland Security, because you just wanted to—
Secretary Mullin. Wanted to serve and work in your administration.
The President. Yes, you're amazing. Amazing.
As well as Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, who's here, I think.
Leader Scalise. Yes, sir. Right here.
Sen. Barrasso. Yes, sir, Mr. President.
The President. And John is—you're incredible. From day one, we've got along, right?
Sen. Barrasso. Thank you, Mr. President. Absolutely.
The President. From—first day I met him.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, one of the bravest people.
Rep. McClain. Yes.
The President. And what he went through is incredible—incredible. And he's—I actually think he looks better now than he did—[laughter]—5 years ago.
Leader Scalise. We're going to win the game tonight, Mr. President.
The President. Oh, is it tonight?
Leader Scalise. Tonight.
The President. The baseball. I'll be watching that.
Leader Scalise. Seven-oh-five.
The President. And House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who is an unbelievable leader, actually. He's just so highly respected, and he's in Minnesota. And he's ripping them, because he knows what's going on. I mean, it's—you have your chance now, Tom, because people have really found out about it.
Rep. Emmer. Yes. Thanks to you.
The President. So I want to thank you for the work.
Rep. Emmer. Thanks to you.
The President. No, but he's working with our—with our people. They look like Eliot Ness. It looks like Eliot Ness and the gang up there, right? [Laughter] They're finding billions of dollars of fraud, and Tom Emmer's really helping us. Thanks, Tom.
Rep. Emmer. Thank you.
The President. And thanks as well to Senators Lindsey Graham—who had a big victory last night. He won by a lot, and no runoff, no nothing. They had a lot of very capable people running against him, and he just blew them away. So, Lindsey Graham, congratulations.
And Chuck Grassley. Rand Paul, who's here. Hi, Rand. Boy, oh boy. [Laughter] It's nice to have Rand here.
Senator Randal H. Paul. Great to be here. Great to be here.
The President. It's a good thing to have Rand. He knows what's important. Eric Schmitt has been an incredible Senator, wherever you may be, Eric. Senator Eric Schmitt. Thank you, Mr. President.
The President. He's tall enough. He's usually not too hard to find. [Laughter] And Bernie Moreno. Is Bernie here?
Senator Bernie Moreno. Yes, sir.
The President. Where's Bernie? Hi, Bernie. What a job, right?
Sen. Moreno. Absolutely.
The President. So how's the race going in Ohio?
Sen. Moreno. You're very popular there, and you'll drag every Republican across the finish line.
The President. I hope so. Well, I love Ohio. We won by a lot, but you ran an incredible race.
It was——
Sen. Moreno. Had a big assist.
The President. They weren't giving him a big chance, and he ended up winning quite easily, right? So it was——
Sen. Moreno. It's all thanks to you.
The President. It was great.
We're also pleased to be joined by Representatives Lisa McClain, Jodey Arrington, and—Jodey. Where's Jodey?
Leader Scalise. Right over there.
Representative Jodey C. Arrington. Here, Mr. President.
The President. You're doing a great job, Jodey.
Rep. Arrington. Your favorite budget chairman. [Laughter]
The President. Andrew Garbarino, Laurel Lee. Thank you. Riley Moore, a newcomer who's doing really well. Guy Reschenthaler, Derrick Van Orden, as well as "Angel" sister Chris Storie. You know that.
Speaker Johnson. Yes.
The President. Fantastic. And we appreciate it, Chris. We appreciate it.
"Angel" sister Chris Storie. Thank you.
The President. For more than—thank you very much. Appreciate it, being here. Gone through a lot.
For more than 100 days, congressional "Dumocrats" tried to block all funding for the Department of Homeland Security in a reprehensible attempt to throw open the borders of the United States of America.
They want to drag us straight back to chaos and crime of the crooked Joe Biden administration, one of the most corrupt administrations—probably the most corrupt ever. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. And we're not going to let them do that.
I have to say that Washington just had some crime numbers out, and it's the lowest number—best crime numbers that we've had, they say, in 58 years. So we went from being a crime-ridden city—our Capital being a crime-ridden place, to being among the safest cities in the country. I'm so happy.
And you have—you're big beneficiaries, because most of you live here. You're here all the time—the press, the media. And even, actually, some of the media—a couple of people that I would not suspect—a couple of people, truly, who treat me unfairly, but they came up and they thanked me, because it's so much. We have a safe city now.
We also have a beautiful city. We had 22 fountains; every one of them didn't work. One of them—the—probably the best was one that hasn't worked for 50 years. That was about the best. They've all been out of commission for 50 years or more. Can you imagine that? And they were graffiti-strewn, grass-strewn—grass growing through the cracks, and they were in terrible shape. And all 22 have now been opened.
And the most magnificent, possibly of all, though—the one in front of Union Station is beautiful. You see that? It was all—graffiti all over the place. We—through a lot of work, we've got it looking maybe better than it was the day they put it in.
But the one that they're all talking about is the almost 2,500-foot-long—that's taller than any building in the world, actually. There's no building that's 2,500 feet tall, I don't think. But it's, like, twice the height of the Empire State Building, as an example, and much wider.
So we just got that opened last night. We wanted to do it before July 4, and it is incredible. It's called—it was originally called—1922 it was built—it was called the "reflecting pond," or the "reflecting lake," some people called it—but it was supposed to be a reflection. It never worked from 1922 because it was stone on the base, and no matter what, it always leaked, because you have stone and you have lots of crevices.
We have nice stone out there.
[At this point, the President pointed toward the Rose Garden.]
But if you go between the stone, it leaks. And so it never really worked very well, and it was a bad color. It was gray. It was concrete and stones, so it was gray. And I had the idea, along with some great people that worked for us—Doug Burgum, who's fantastic; his group; Greg—everybody. And we worked very hard. But it was going to cost $400 million, and we did it for about $10 million. It was going to take 4 years to build, and we did it in, like, a month, month and a half.
And we would have had a construction site out there for years, and it wouldn't have worked when they built it. So, when they told me what they were going to do, I said, "That's not a good idea." It's—I built many, many swimming pools as a builder. I built hundreds of them.
And I've got one of our contractors. I had him take a look, and he said: "Oh, we can do a great job if you could just give us a decent surface." The surface wasn't—so we sandblasted the surface. We fumigated it. We took out 11 dumpsters—big dumpsters—full of garbage. It was all garbage strewn. Some of the garbage was there for years. It was all disgusting, and it's—it smelled.
And, anyway, we took 11 dumpsters of garbage out—it's—with shovels. We had to shovel inside of what's called a "pool" or a "lake," and got it cleaned. We then fumigated it. We then sandblasted the entire thing. We washed it, cleaned it, scrubbed it, sandblasted it.
Then we gave it a test. Then we rinsed it out. And we gave them a beautiful surface. And then they put a swimming pool topping, but industrial strength. It's industrial strength. It's used for tanks and lots of other things to hold water.
And we worked out the ratios of expansion and contraction, because, you know, believe it or not, when you have something that's 2,500 feet long, there's tremendous expansion and can—who would think of this? Only a person that does it, like me. And they have a lot of expansion and contraction. So, when we're putting the surface down, we'd leave areas that can expand and contract a little bit, because it expands over a foot and a half. Can you believe it?
Rep. McClain. Wow.
The President. So that would have ripped it apart. So we left areas of expansion and contraction. This—we were testing it for 3 weeks, 4 weeks. It works great, and we just opened it last night. And people are going wild over it.
So it was going to cost $400 million, and we did it for 10—probably 10, if you take away a couple of things. We did a much bigger job than originally planned, because once we put that in, it looked so good the sidewalks outside didn't look good anymore.
Speaker Johnson. Yes.
The President. You know, they looked like they were in good shape, but when you do something new—in this business, you do something new, the thing that you thought were good you'd save it. So we ended up sandblasting—steam cleaning and sandblasting the sidewalks around it. And we had a lot of areas that were in bad shape. We had to fix them. We patched them, and you can't even see the patch.
We have granite surrounding the pool. And the granite is great, but it was filthy, dirty, disgusting. And it was broken, in some cases. We were able to carve out pieces from other pieces that were identical and put them in, and you can't even see the seam. And it's like a beautiful—it's in better shape than it was when it was built.
I told you, from 1922 it never worked because it always leaked, because it had a stone base.
The water leaked through the stone. So we're very proud of it. It's going to be great.
Now we're doing a new surface on the World War II fountain because the surface is so bad, and that will be done during the next couple of—we're going to start it in a week or so and finish it very quickly.
But we've done a great job. And the city is—everyone's coming up to me saying, "The city is so beautiful."
Speaker Johnson. Yes.
The President. So we have 22 fountains that—none of them worked. The earliest—I'm telling you, it's 50 years—for 50 years. Some of them haven't worked for a hundred years. But we have fountains that were not working and were disgusting and dirty, and they're all beautiful now. Every one of them.
We also took care of a lot of the monuments—not fountains, but monuments—and they're all in good shape. Some of them are being finished up now, and it's incredible.
And my goal was to get it all done, along with Interior and others that worked with us—to get it done before the July 4 date. July 4 was a very important date, so that was our—that was the date we looked at, and we—we did a—we did a hell of a job.
But everybody's looking at that reflecting pool, and they can't believe it. It reflects. We used a dark blue. It's called "American Flag Blue." I wanted to go light, but they said: "Sir, light doesn't reflect, and light shows leaves and garbage." If you have garbage.
One man said: "Sir, when you leave, it will be strewn with garbage again, and you don't want that."
See, when I'm here, it will be perfect, but when I leave—[laughter]. I said: "You're right about that. You're probably right." Depending on who's President or who's running it.
But it's really beautiful. It's something for you to see. It's incredible. It's the largest—it's the longest pool in the world by three or four times. It's—you know, it's really pretty amazing.
That's where Martin Luther King made his great speech, and they say he had a million people. And I made a speech there for July 4 a few years ago, and they said—and I was packed. And they said I had 25,000 people. They said he had a million, but when you look at the picture—[laughter]—I said: "Well, wait, the people were even tighter at mine. I had more people than him." But they said I had 25,000 and he had a million, but I'm not going to argue with Martin Luther King because I'm—[laughter].
But the Secure America Act provides $38 billion to ICE, $26 billion to Border Patrol to ensure these critical law enforcement agencies have the necessary resources to do their jobs: protecting our borders and getting criminal aliens out of the country.
And starting on day one of my administration, we took the most dangerous, unsafe, violent, and open border—people out of this country. We got them out. I'll give you an example. In Washington, over five—I don't even know if you know this. It's not just policing. You have criminals. You have career criminals. There's nothing you can do to make them nice. They're tough people. They're bad people. Some of them had records—22, 23—one had 28 arrests, and rough arrests for murder.
And we've got—we took out almost 5,000 people out of Washington, DC. And if you remember—so 2 percent of the people create 91 percent of the crime. When you hear that number, it's great. I love that number because you could handle 2 percent.
Secretary Mullin. That's right.
The President. If it's 91 create 91, that's no good. Too many people. But 2 percent of the people, and we've got—we took 5,000—almost 5,000 people out of Washington, DC. They'll never come back.
In addition, the National Guard—and we worked with the police department. Law enforcement was great. And we have a very safe city. Everyone is going out to eat now. Restaurants were all closed. They were all closing. The few that were open were closing. And now you can't get a restaurant in Washington. Everyone wants to have a restaurant. It's a whole different—so it's very—something we're very proud of.
New Orleans—the same thing, by the way.
Leader Scalise. Yes.
The President. It's a little earlier in the process.
Leader Scalise. Yes.
The President. But if—I got a call from your Governor. I got a call from Steve.
Leader Scalise. Yes.
The President. They called me together, actually, and they said—
Leader Scalise. Safest Mardi Gras ever.
The President. They said we've never had a Mardi Gras like that. They had the lowest crime they've ever had in the history of the Mardi Gras, which has been going on for a long time.
Leader Scalise. A long time.
The President. They usually—Steve said they usually have numerous numbers of murders. And they had none. But beyond murders, they—I heard it was the best—like, the best you've ever had. Right?
Leader Scalise. It really was. A great Super Bowl too. That you were at.
The President. And Memphis—and that's going to be great for the Super Bowl——
Leader Scalise. Yes.
The President. ——because we'll keep it that way. I think you're bidding on the Super Bowl coming in a few years.
Leader Scalise. Twenty-thirty-one.
The President. Yes. And it's going to be—now you can—you can really say it was a safe—a safe city. And the other one is Memphis. We—crime is down 77 percent. Can you believe it?
People are calling me up—friends that were leaving Memphis. They were all leaving, and now they're staying. And the Governor's—everyone's thrilled. It's amazing.
And if they would call me for Chicago, we'd straighten out Chicago so fast. We'd straighten out New York fast. We'd straighten out Los Angeles fast. We do it really well, and part of it is you have to get the really bad ones. You have to get the career criminals out because they will—they will hit you hard.
And they ought to get rid of, by the way, cashless bail. You ought to do that as soon as possible, where they—Markwayne.
Secretary Mullin. That's right.
The President. Where they walk in, they commit a crime, they go out, and they—in the afternoon, they commit another crime, and sometimes those crimes are murder.
Ms. Storie. Yes.
Secretary Mullin. Right back on the street. That's right.
Rep. McClain. Yes.
The President. Cashless—I'll tell you what, cashless bail was a tremendous help to criminals.
It's one of the greatest thing that ever happened to a criminal, and they ought to end it. In every city, they ought to end it. Chicago, New York, L.A.—they ought to end it.
Starting on day one of my administration, we took the most dangerous, unsafe, violent, open border in the world—we had the most unsafe border, I believe, anywhere in the world. And you—numbers came out 2 days ago that for 11 months, not one person came into our country illegally through the southern border. We had 25 million people come in over a 4-year period. We have it good, and nobody tries to come in.
All the caravans—I came up with the name "caravan." It was a—you'd have 25-, 30,000 people coming up, and they'd pour through the border. You've seen the scenes where they're knocking over the fences. A very, very bad, a very dangerous situation. We don't have them anymore because they know they can't get through. So, when they know they can't get through, they don't come, and a lot of lives are saved.
Women were being raped on the journey up. They were being raped in numbers—25, 30 percent were being raped coming up. You don't have that anymore, because they don't come up in caravans anymore, because they know they're not going to get through.
So, starting on day one, we took the most dangerous and unsafe, violent, open border in the world, and we created the most secure border anywhere in our country, probably one of the most in the world. I believe it was the most insecure and unsecure border anywhere in the world, because there's no country—even a third-world country—that has a situation like that, where you'd have criminals just walk across totally unchecked.
They had a—the Biden. It wasn't Biden. He didn't know what the hell was going on. It was—it was people that are radical-left lunatics who were very smart, very violent, very vicious—politically vicious—and they allowed this open-border policy where millions of people came into our country, unchecked, unvetted, people from jails, people—drug dealers, people from mental institutions. Jails and mental institutions from all over the world were emptied out into our country. And we've got a lot of them out. We have a ways to go.
It's very tough with the courts, because every—these—the judges have been very terrible. They've been terrible. Very sad. But we're doing—we're fighting our way through it. We have made this a much—in fact, we made it a country that, as you saw last month, they said we had the lowest murder rate that we've had in 125 years. Think of that. And that's despite the fact—because we've got a lot out. But we do have more.
We had 11,888 people come into our country who murdered—committed a murder. Fifty percent—more than fifty percent created more than one murder. Think of that. So, you had people coming—one, I think seven—seven murders. We allowed them into the country. We've got most of them out.
In the last 12 months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted into the United States. We cut the flow of fentanyl across our border by almost 60 percent. Think of that. And by the way, coming in by sea: 97 percent. And we're looking for the 3 percent—[laughter]—because we think they're among the bravest people. [Laughter] That's—but we cut them down, right, Mark?
Secretary Mullin. Yes.
The President. We cut it down 97 percent.
Secretary Mullin. Under your leadership.
The President. And now I—you know, I hate to tell this to Mexico, but we're now focused on coming in by land, because the sea was tougher. A lot was coming in by sea. A much bigger percentage than anyone would know. It was safer for them. They—it used to be safe. Not safe anymore. [Laughter]
But we're 97 percent down coming in by sea, by ocean, by water. And you see what happens to them, and they don't do it a second time. They used to have—they were totally unchecked.
When they did capture somebody, they'd bring them in, they'd book them, then they'd let them go. And they'd go, and they'd be back on their boat the following night. So we're doing a great job.
In the last 12 months, the numbers have changed in this country like nobody's ever seen before. But zero illegal aliens have been admitted. And that's made by largely Democrat people, those lists are made. And I find it hard to believe when I say zero. I say, "There must have been some." But they say zero. And it's very close to zero. It's hard to believe.
You look—you know, they used to have that—certain areas on the other side of the wall. I built over a thousand miles of wall. Without the wall, you couldn't do it. But I built over a thousand miles of wall. We're building more now in certain areas where you need it.
But nobody's ever seen anything like this. They had plazas, where you'd have thousands of people standing in those plazas. They were built—they actually made them out of concrete because the land was so disgusting and dirty, and it was so muddy and horrible.
So they put massive concrete plazas on the other side for people to wait getting in. There's nobody on them. There's nobody. They took a picture this morning. There was nobody on any of the plazas. They have four of them—big ones—where they'd come and stand by the thousands. There was nobody on the plaza. So, it's—it really amazing.
I want to speak about it in my speeches. I wanted to—I made a speech last week, which was really wonderful. Wisconsin.
Participant. That's right.
The President. And I wanted to speak about the great job I've done on the border. And my people said, "Sir, nobody cares about that." I said: "What do you mean? I got elected on that."
Twice, actually, because I got elected the first time—2016—and after I left, it became horrible. Horrible. Second time was far worse. The—what it was in 2024, it was so bad. Far worse than 2016. Twenty-sixteen was like a pleasure trip by comparison to what it became. [Laughter]
It became—worst in the history of the world. I don't think there's ever been a border where 25 million people came across, all unchecked and unvetted. We can never let that happen. We can never let that happen, what happened to our country, again, because no country can stand it. No country could have withstood what these people—we had a border czar who never saw the border. [Laughter] We had a border czar who never called—never once—the people that we're giving good paychecks to. They never called up ICE. They never called up the Border Patrol, who are phenomenal people, by the way.
She never once called them. She was the border czar for 4 years—almost 4 years—and she never went to the border. And she never called up.
I used to call them all the time—Paul and Brandon. I used to call them all the time and say, "Hi, how we doing on the border?" "Sir, we're doing okay." But they're great people. Amazing people. She never called them. We had the worst border, I think, of any country in history. No third-world country would allow people to come into their country like that.
So the bill provides crucial funding for domestic law enforcement investigations and combating child exploitation, continuing our work to restore law and order across our Nation and to protect America's youth. We're so proud.
We're so proud of Washington, DC, and the National Guard, the job they've done. And we've worked with the Washington—the Capitol Police are—they're great people. I've gotten to know so many of them.
Very simply, the radical-left "Dumocrats" in—and I'm going to use that term a lot, because they're dumb. I mean, who wants open borders? Who wants transgender mutilization of your child? Who wants that? Who wants men playing in women's sports? They're dumb. They're "Dumocrats." They have the worst policy of anybody.
I watched that thug that's up in Maine. He's a thug. And they're trying to make excuses for him. I mean, he's worse than any human being that's ever run for office, probably. I don't know him. I don't want to say bad, but I just—look, I mean, nobody's ever had a record like that.
And you'll have Schumer—he goes crazy over this or that or Epstein. "Epstein, Epstein." This guy—why aren't they talking about him? He said, "Well, we don't know." But this guy's got a rap sheet. I've never seen anything like it. He's a thug. I know thugs. I had to deal with thugs.
I built a lot of buildings. I dealt with the toughest people on Earth. [Laughter] I dealt with worse than thugs. This guy's a thug. He's a low-level thug, and he's running for—to be a Senator, to work with Eric Schmitt.
Great—Eric will handle him, I think. [Laughter]
Sen. Schmitt. That's right.
Rep. McClain. He's not getting there.
The President. To be with Barrasso, to—who the hell do we have?—to be with Rand. Now, Rand would be a very interesting with him. Rand would figure it out. [Laughter] He'll put him away. But this is a thug. He's a cheap, no-good person. And I watch these Senators on—the "Dumocrats." And "Well, we don't really know." You do know. He's as bad—I've never seen a person like that run for office.
And the guy from Texas—different, but he's terrible too. He's terrible. These are radical-left communists.
But I watched this guy this morning, and he was so bad. He was so bad. He's a bad guy. You know, he's just a bad guy. He must be laughing up his sleeve when he looks at these idiots, going—like Schumer—"Well, he's okay. He's okay." He's not okay. Can you imagine if the Republicans had him?
Rep. McClain. Oh, my golly.
Sen. Barrasso. No way.
The President. What if we had him, John? So——
Sen. Barrasso. Wouldn't let it happen. The President. I think—I really believe it. Sen. Barrasso. Yes.
The President. If it meant losing the Senate, you would not let that happen.
Sen. Barrasso. Correct.
The President. It's just a terrible thing. I mean, I watch it happening. It's unfolding. It's really history, because there's never been a guy like that that's ever run for office at any level. I don't think at any level. And the excuses they come up—every day, somebody comes forward with, really, proven stuff.
Even his business, you know, "He's a"—he's not a businessman at all. His parents supported him. The guy's a loser. Other than that, he might be a very nice guy. [Laughter]
But very simply, the radical-left "Dumocrats" in Congres—and I don't—I look forward to the day when I don't call them "Dumocrats" anymore. And I won't if they do their job, if they want to stop crime, if they want to lower taxes, if they want to do the common—the education, the good things. There's so many things we can do together.
I look forward to the day that I don't call them "Dumocrats" anymore. There will be that day, I think. I hope. But they're in Congress, and they voted with the cartels, the terrorists, the gang members, the drug dealers, the human traffickers, the child predators. And our great Republican majorities voted to protect law-abiding American citizens.
I mean, they voted to raise your taxes. They voted for men in women's sports. They voted in favor of men participating in women's sports. It's ridiculous. They voted for the transgender mutilization of your child. They voted for all these things. They voted for open borders. So bad. One of the worst things that's ever happened in this country. Hardest thing to cure, because we had 25,000 people.
Remember this: When countries—because countries sent those people up—when countries put people into a cartel, into a—through the cartels, they put them into a whole group of 10-, 15-, 20,000 people that come in. They're not giving you their best people. They're giving you people that they don't want.
Rep. McClain. Yes.
The President. And they're sending them into our—and the Democrats voted in favor of that.
It's really a shame. And it's so bad for the country. You'd almost think they hate the country because they can't—they're not stupid people. You can't cheat like they did.
And look at the election in California, as an example. After a week, they determined that a kid who's leading and had all the mojo—all of a sudden, he doesn't make the runoff. And then I hit them hard on that. But I started talking about Steve Hilton, who's a fantastic guy. And I saw them say it was going to be 2 weeks before they knew. And I started hitting them.
It's going to happen to Steve Hilton too. It's—watch. You've got to watch. And they approved Steve Hilton very quickly. [Laughter] They didn't want to. There was too much heat on him. The only reason he got approved: He had all the votes he needed, probably, to be first place. But the only reason they approved Steve Hilton—it was going to be 2 weeks. They said it. And then they approved him that night, because the heat was on them——
Rep. McClain. Yes.
The President. ——because they're cheating dogs, and you can't have a great country when that happens. That's why Los Angeles—that's why that State is in such trouble. It's the most beautiful place. Best weather, maybe anywhere in the world. But it's in big trouble.
So we're going to have a tremendous success. The people alongside of me are amazing people. They're amazing people—every one of them. I know every one of them. They're amazing people. And they love their country. They want to do right for the country.
And if you have any questions, please let's go.
U.S. Military Operations in Iran
Q. Mr. President, on Iran, you posted this morning about Iran, and you said that they've taken too long to get to a deal. And I want to make sure I quote you correctly. You said that "now they will have to pay the price."
The President. Yes.
Q. What did you mean by that specifically?
The President. Well, we're going to be attacking them and attacking them very hard.
Q. Resuming bombing?
The President. Yes, well, we are. Based on the helicopter, I guess we have the right to do that. You know, they shot down a very incredible—actually, an incredible machine. And at first, they said they didn't do it. Then they admitted they did it. It was sort of easy, because we have the—we have the bomb. We actually have the bomb. We got very lucky that bomb didn't explode. That bomb was lodged in the helicopter. It didn't explode. It was on fire, but it didn't explode. This was—those two guys, they knew how to fly, but they got very lucky.
And then we had the unmanned boat going very, very fast—at speeds that you wouldn't want to go. That's why it's unmanned, I guess, because nobody can go in that. But they rescued—so, the both—both people are—fortunately, the pilots are okay.
No, look, I've been working with Iran for a number of months, and they should sign the deal. It's a good deal. It doesn't give them the right to have a nuclear weapon. In fact, it totally prohibits them from ever having a nuclear weapon. And it was just tap, tap, tap. I don't know what they're doing.
So they then shot out a—shot at our helicopter—a very expensive helicopter, by the way, but much more importantly, the two men. Fortunately, they're okay. But an amazing rescue. If you
ever get a clip, you'll—you won't believe the rescue, how cool it was. The equipment we have—look, we have the strongest military in the world.
And I gave them a break at the request of Pakistan. The field marshal and the Prime Minister of Pakistan are great. We stopped them from going to war with India. You would have had a nuclear war if it wasn't for me. But they became friendly to me—very friendly—and they're close to Iran, and they work—and they still are working on trying them to do what's right.
But we want a deal that's meaningful. We want a deal that works. We don't want to just have a Barack Hussein Obama deal—JCPOA, the worst deal.
That was a path to a nuclear. It's the exact opposite—you know, I like, on television, they say, "Oh, well they should have kept that deal." First of all, it was over. It was a short-term deal. But that deal was a path to a nuclear weapon.
This is a path against a nuclear—you can't have a nuclear weapon. His was a path to a nuclear weapon. They were developing, during his administration, nuclear weapon. If they had a nuclear weapon, there'd be no Israel, there'd be no Middle East, and they would have absolutely shot at us.
So we'll see what happens. But we hit them hard yesterday, and we're going to hit them again hard today, in case you miss it, in case you don't turn on your television set. And we'll see what happens with the deal.
We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers, because, you know what? They dealt with some very stupid Presidents. I have to say that. I'm embarrassed to say it. Some very stupid people were sitting here.
Yes.
Senator Susan M. Collins/Maine Democratic Senatorial Candidate Graham C. Platner
Q. Mr. President, you mentioned the Senate race in Maine. Are you all-in in supporting Susan Collins? Does she have your full support and endorsement in her Senate reelection?
The President. Yes, she does, because she's a sane woman. She's not my best friend at all.
These guys are.
[The President gestured to the people standing near him]
I get along well. But I have some. But she's a sane person, and she's a person that never missed a vote in many years. I mean, she's, like, had 10,000 votes.
Sen. Barrasso. Ten thousand is right. Yes, that's right.
The President. She had 10,000 votes. She never missed a vote—unfortunately, because sometimes she voted against me. [Laughter] You know, look, she's a sane woman, and she's a respected person. Maybe a little different ideology than me.
But this guy is a thug. He's a fake—he's a fake thug. He's a phony. I made a lot of money picking out phonies. He's a real phony. He's bad—he's a bad person.
Yes.
U.S. Military Readiness/Ukraine/U.S. Security Assistance/Iran
Q. Mr. President, are you going to go back to attack—or are you thinking of attacking Iranian power plants and bridges, as you've threatened before?
The President. Well, I'm not going to say that to you. I'm—but I can do that. Look, I could knock out—we have the most powerful—I built the military, with these people approving it. They approved numbers that nobody would have ever thought we would be.
But we built it. And we gave a lot to Ukraine through Biden. He gave a lot of money—a lot. But we're in great shape. We have a lot of storage capacity. But he gave a lot. And if you look at, you know, what's happened—I—when I left, our cupboard—our cupboards were full. He gave—and he gave it. Now, I sell it to the European Union, and they give it to Ukraine, for the most part.
But we have the strongest military anywhere in the world, and sometimes you'll have to use it. And we have to remember—and when people hear this—Iran, very simply, cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won't. And they've agreed to that. All they have to do is, they have to start signing a paper.
It's fully negotiated. We have it fully negotiated, but they're tapping and tapping. And I say: "All right, let's give them a couple of more days." They're tapping. Because it's a meaningful paper. They know when they sign that paper, it's meaningful. The Obama deal, JCPOA, one of the worst, one of the dumbest documents I've ever seen.
Yes, please. Go ahead.
Artificial Intelligence
Q. Thank you, Mr. President. When are you meeting with tech executives about the Government taking stake in AI companies, and what could this partnership look like?
The President. About AI?
Q. Yes, sir.
The President. Well, I can say this. We're having a meeting with them. It's an amazing industry. It's bigger than any industry anyone's ever seen. We are leading China by a lot. And, you know, whoever leads that is going to really lead the world, to a large extent. That's how big it is.
And we're—I'm going to have meetings with the top 12 or 15 executives very shortly, and we're talking about giving back something to the public. And if we do that, the public will become very rich—the people in our country—because that's the kind of money we're talking about. And I think they'll do that, and I think it will make it very popular.
[Several reporters began asking questions at once.] Please.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey
Q. Thank you, President. I have two questions. First of all, Turkish President Erdoğan keeps threatening Israel. Do you think there's a chance of a conflict between Israel and Turkey? And will you sell F–35 to Turkey?
The President. Well, you know, he's a very good friend of mine, and we've worked very well together. I like him a lot. I'm not supposed to say that because the press will say, "Oh, he likes Erdoğan." No, he's a hell of a leader and a strong person. Very strong person.
I haven't heard that at all. If I did, I'd call him, and I think I'd make sure that things were fine.
I don't think that will happen with Turkey, not as long as I'm President, because he respects me and I respect him. But beyond that, we have a good friendship. So, you know, we'll see.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
The President's Foreign Policy
Q. And my second question. Just my second question. Beside peace in the Middle East, what do you wish yourself for your birthday? [Laughter]
The President. For my birthday. Well, I'll go a step bigger: Peace for the world. Okay? [Laughter] Peace for the world. Middle East, yes. Peace for the whole world.
Yes.
New Jersey Democratic Congressional Candidate Adam Hamawy/Maine Democratic Senatorial Candidate Graham C. Platner
Q. Mr. President, there is a New Jersey Democratic congressional nominee over in the 12th District. His name is Adam Hamawy. He has a connection to the "Blind Sheikh."
The President. Yes.
Q. And I was wondering if I can get your thoughts on that.
The President. I think it's terrible. Okay?
Leader Scalise. It's who they are.
The President. I think it's terrible. I've seen it. I mean, he was more—you know, now he's trying to sort of say, "Yes, I sort of knew him." He didn't "know him." They were very good friends.
And you look at the—you go back and look at what happened during that period of time. He was a witness at the trial for him. He was a positive witness for him. He said the most glowing things. The guy knocked down the World Trade Center—admitted that he knocked down the World Trade Center.
Rep. McClain. Good grief.
The President. I think it's another one, if you look. I actually think the one in Maine is worse, because he's just an outright pig. He's like a pig. I watched him a couple of times. He's like a pig. [Laughter] That's what he reminds me of. You know, I come up with good names for people. I don't want to stick him with that one, although I think pigs would be very upset about it. [Laughter]
Go ahead.
Canada-U.S. Trade/Mexico-U.S. Trade
Q. Mr. President, July 1 is coming fast. How confident are you that you'll be able to renew the USMCA? And what more do you expect from Canada at this point?
The President. Well, I'm not looking to renew it. I don't—you know, I mean, I made the deal, and the primary reason I made the deal is that NAFTA was the worst trade deal I've ever seen.
Speaker Johnson. Yes.
The President. And I made it better, but I have the right to terminate. And, you know, with NAFTA, we didn't have the right to terminate. I had to get these Senators to approve that deal. That was a tough thing. Congressmen too.
NAFTA had no termination. So, I mean, I've never said this before, but I'll tell you what my thinking was: NAFTA was a disaster for our country—the worst trade deal ever made, by far.
You know, they had typos in. Okay? And they were supposed to correct them, and they never
corrected them when they were signed. They knew there were typos. And there's a process for that. You state your claim, and, you know, you get it changed. They had typos on percentages, or maybe somebody wrote—and it was—for years, they never ran—they had horrible—all against us. So it probably wasn't typos. They never—NAFTA was the worst trade deal we ever had.
USMCA did one thing that I loved. After 6 years, it comes up for renewal. I don't know that I'm going to renew it because, to be honest with you, United States does much better. Hey, we don't need anything that Canada has. We don't need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have. And they have to treat us better.
You know, with Mexico and Canada, we have trade deficits. We should have surpluses with them. We don't need their cars. We don't need their lumber. We don't need their energy. We don't need anything that they have.
So the primary thing that I got—it was a much better deal than NAFTA. Much, much better.
It was sort of a good deal, but it was a great deal for one reason: It gave the right to terminate. And who would have thought that I was—you know, they just didn't want to have it during the 4-year period when I was President. So now they made it so that I wouldn't be President. And because they rigged the election—the second election—as you probably hear and probably know. Most of you know that happened, and now it's been proven. And it will be proven as time goes by even more so. We have things that you won't believe. When we release the full files, you're not going to believe how crooked the second—the 2020 election was.
But who would have thought that it comes due in my term? I mean, this was——[The President looked upward.]
Thank you very much. [Laughter]
So it was very important that we be able to do that. So we're talking to them. We'll see if we do something.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Acting Director of National Intelligence William J. Pulte/Federal Housing Finance Agency/Acting Attorney General Todd W. Blanche
Q. Mr. President, just before we came in here, you posted about Bill Pulte and that he'd be starting the job early.
The President. Yes.
Q. You said he's going to be downsizing the DNI. Can you talk about your thinking there?
The President. Well, yes, people have wanted that downsized for a long time. And many people don't want it at all.
Q. Does that mean cutting intelligence jobs?
The President. You know, a lot of people thought it was a duplication. Yes. A lot of people thought it was a duplication.
He's done a great job at Fannie Mae. And you know, you take Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae. The value of that has increased so much since I've been in charge. You know, I had the right to sell that. And, in my first term, a group came to see me wanting to buy it, and they offered me exactly 10 percent of what it's worth today. And I didn't want to do it because I didn't want to look foolish when they flipped it a year later for hundreds of billions of dollars more. So I kept it.
And I put him in charge as soon as I got here, and he's done an amazing job. Could be worth a trillion dollars, yes.
Q. That's a pretty different portfolio, though.
The President. Well, it is. I know. But, you know, smart people are smart people. I always say, I'd rather have smart than experienced, but experience is good too.
I would say this: He's going to be there for a short while, while we pick somebody else. We're interviewing five different people. They're all very good, very different. And we'll put somebody there.
But people want it downsized. The Senators and the Congresspeople—I think everybody wants it downsized. And many people, I think—and I won't speak for Todd, but—and I'm not sure how Todd feels, but—by the way, he's great. I hope you people have—give him an easy run, because he's very busy. He doesn't need stupid people saying: "Why didn't you get a higher mark at a certain college?" Because he's highly educated. He was a great student. He's great at everything he's done. And, "How come he got a B-plus?" [Laughter] See, they'll go after him for getting a B-plus instead of an A, but the other guy can be a thug, and: "Let him run. He's okay.
He's fine."
The one thing about him—it's great, because every time they bring something up, he's worse than anybody that we've ever seen. And I hope the Republicans are going to use him as your—as your standard-bearer, when they—when they say that: "Gee, Eric, we don't like the way you dress today. It's unacceptable, right?" And then all you have to do is point to this thug that they're trying to put in. So, pretty much, that's the way it is.
He's going to do a good job. He's going to be there for a very short period of time. He will be superseded and replaced by somebody that's going to have the job permanently.
Okay?
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Democratic Party
Q. What do you—what do you make of Democrats saying they'll hold up the FISA extension over this?
The President. I don't care what they say.
Q. It's an important tool.
The President. "Dumocrats." They're not Democrats. They're "Dumocrats." They're dumb people.
Yes.
Q. Do you need their votes?
The President. Then, I guess, something's going to happen. No, we can't let them extort us. I told the guys today: We can't let them. They did—they've done it on numerous occasions. I said, "We can't"—this—what we're signing today has been amazing, but they tried to extort us.
Speaker Johnson. Exactly.
Leader Scalise. Yes.
The President. And eventually—and they were losing tremendous support, because they're extorting on law and order, and they can't win on law and order. People want law and order. They
don't want crime. And that's essentially what they were doing. And ultimately, they could not take the heat. But we can't let them extort us.
Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup
Q. The World Cup, Mr. President, it starts tomorrow and some——
The President. What starts?
Q. The World Cup.
The President. Yes.
Q. The soccer World Cup. The football World Cup.
The President. The most successful World Cup they've ever had.
Q. Exactly. And——
The President. They've never sold tickets at that level. They've never sold that many tickets so quickly. It's amazing, because you don't think of soccer—we use the word—football, soccer, right?—but you don't think of soccer in this country.
It's the most successful—I spoke to Gianni this morning. He's fantastic. And he's the boss.
He said: "There's never been anything close to what's happened."
U.S. Visa Policy
Q. But because of the success, some people are afraid that it's going to be harder and harder to get visas to come from outside. Can you reassure them?
The President. Well, we're going to—we're working on it very closely to make sure the right people come into our country.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup
Q. Mr. President, are you going to go to any games, sir?
Q. Are you going to go to any World Cup games?
The President. I will. I will.
Inflation/Oil Markets and Prices/Iran/Stock Market/Venezuela
Q. Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number, which came out this morning? Could that be a net win——
The President. No, I love it.
Q. ——for Republicans in terms of——
The President. The numbers were great.
Q. ——trying to hold onto the House and the Senate?
The President. You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why?
Q. Tell me.
The President. Because as soon as this war is over—you know, I can say it now. Something you didn't know. Do you know we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it? Iran, until right now. We took out, the other night, 22
ships, late at night with no lights, because they don't have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it. We took out—that's why oil is $85 a barrel. I mean, you take a look.
Remember, when I did this, I said, "Look, the one bad thing will be"—we hit the best economy we've ever hit, and I said to my people—I had Scott. I had Howard. I had Pete. I had all of them. I had Todd in the room. I said, "The one thing we have to do now"—we had just hit the highest stock market in history, highest 401(k)s in history. Everything was going well. And I said: "I hate to do this to you guys, but Iran's going to have a nuclear weapon very soon. We have to go and attack."
So we hit them with the B–2 bombers, which took a lot of courage. It was totally successful.
We buried it. Very hard to get. But—now we had to make the second move. And I said: "You know, the bad part is the stock market will go down by a lot, based on predictions of experts, by 25 percent." And it was worth it. To me, it was worth it not to have a nuclear weapon. And the other thing is that oil would go to $250 a barrel. It's at $85, and—which is pretty amazing.
And here's the key: We just hit, today, another stock market high: it's 74—in my short time here, 74 days, we hit stock market alltime historical highs. Nobody can believe it. The Dow. The Dow, the S&P.
S&P was at 7,000. They said: "In 4 years, maybe 5 years. It will never hit it during the term." It was too much. I hit it in my first year. I hit—on the Dow, it was 50,000 was an impossible number. They said, "5, 6 years out, you'd hit"—well, I hit it in my first year. And now I get everyone in the room and say: "Congratulations, but now I'm going to take it down a little bit, because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon."
And they all agreed with me. Todd, you remember. They—everybody agreed. And we took a little journey down to Iran. We first stopped off at Venezuela, by the way. And we have paid for that war many, many times over. And we have great relationships with the people of Venezuela. We get along with them great. It was a great success. It was a 1-day war. It was really—it was really, to be exact, 48 minutes of fury, and it was over. And Venezuela is doing great.
Relationships with the people are great. It's become a happy country, believe it or not. I mean, it's become a happy country. And we are—we're taking out millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela.
And then we went to Iran, and, essentially, we've done the same thing. It doesn't look as pretty, but it—we've—there's no navy. Hundred and fifty-nine ships at the bottom of the sea. There's no air force. All of their planes are blown up. Most of their drones are gone. Most of their drone-making ability is gone. Most of their missiles are gone. All of their leadership is gone, so they replaced it. All of that leadership is gone, so they replaced it. And that's the people we're dealing with now.
And I think they're going to want to make a deal, but we're going to find out. [Several reporters spoke at once.]
Oil Markets and Prices/Venezuela/U.S. Military Operations in Iran
Q. Do you expect—do you expect inflation to come down between now and November?
The President. Oh, when the war is over?
Q. Yes.
The President. It's coming down.
Q. I know you can't predict the future——
The President. It's going to come down like a rock. And, again, we're taking out millions—which I'm just announcing today for the first time—but we've been taking out millions of barrels
of oil. Millions of barrels. Every night, we took out oil, but now I'm going to tell you, because they just figured it out. So now that they figured it out, I can tell you.
It was very hard for me. I wanted to say it so badly—[laughter]—but it was—I didn't want to ruin it. But it was very hard. But millions of barrels of oil has come out, and that's why it's at
$85, $90 a barrel, instead of $250.
But we have the greatest military in the world, the toughest military in the world, the—just the best in every way. Nobody even close. There's no military that's even close. I rebuilt it during my first term. I'm using it now.
When this conflict is over—Todd said, "Please call it a conflict." Right? [Laughter] As opposed to the word "war." He didn't—he didn't like that word, "war." But it's sort of a conflict. It's a military operation.
When it's over, you will see oil drop to where it was before. We were getting gasoline—just before it started, I was in Iowa, and we passed gas stations: $1.85 a gallon. And we'll be back at those levels very soon.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. [Several reporters spoke at once.]
You can show us signing the bill. They're the only ones that matter. [The President gestured to the cameras. He then signed the bill.] See, Biden wouldn't do this.
Leader Scalise. No, he wouldn't.
Sen. Barrasso. No, he'd need the machine. Leader Scalise. That's the real deal right there. The President. Okay.
Senate Majority Leader John R. Thune. Beautiful.
The President. Thank you very much, everybody.
NOTE: The President spoke at 11:17 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to South Carolina Republican U.S. senatorial candidates businessman Mark Lynch, Duncan, SC, town council member Calvin Cowen, author and motivational speaker Thomas Dismukes, businessman Patrick Hermann, and social media influencer Darius L. Mitchell; Sen. Charles E. Grassley; Secretary of the Interior Douglas J. Burgum; Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management Gregory Winscher; Gov. Jeffrey M. Landry of Louisiana; Gov. William B. Lee of Tennessee; former Vice President Kamala D. Harris; Paul A. Perez, president, and Brandon Judd, former president, National Border Patrol Council; Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer; Texas Democratic senatorial candidate James D. Talarico; Bronson Platner, father, and Leslie Harlow, mother, of Maine Democratic senatorial candidate Graham C. Platner; Los Angeles, CA, mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt; California gubernatorial candidate Stephen G.C. Hilton; Chief of Defense Forces Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan; Giovanni V. Infantino, president, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA); Secretary of the Treasury Scott K.H. Bessent; Secretary of Commerce Howard W. Lutnick; and Secretary of War Peter B. Hegseth. S. 2, approved June 10, was assigned Public Law No. 119–98.
Categories: Bill Signings and Vetoes : Secure America Act, signing remarks; Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, White House.
Locations: Washington, DC.
Names: Arrington, Jodey C.; Barrasso, John A.; Bessent, Scott K.H.; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Blanche, Todd W.; Burgum, Douglas J.; Collins, Susan M.; Cowen, Calvin; Dismukes, Thomas; Emmer, Thomas E., Jr.; Erdogan, Recep Tayyip; Garbarino, Andrew R.; Graham, Lindsey O.; Grassley, Charles E.; Hamawy, Adam; Harlow, Leslie; Harris, Kamala D.; Hegseth, Peter B.; Hermann, Patrick; Hilton, Stephen G.C.; Infantino, Giovanni V.; Johnson, J. Michael; Judd, Brandon; Landry, Jeffrey M.; Lee, Laurel; Lee, William B.; Lutnick, Howard W.; Lynch, Mark; McClain, Lisa C.; Mitchell, Darius L.; Moore, Riley; Moreno, Bernie; Mullin, Markwayne; Munir Ahmed Shah, Syed Asim; Obama, Barack; Paul, Randal H.; Perez, Paul A.; Platner, Bronson; Platner, Graham C.; Pratt, Spencer; Pulte, William J.; Reschenthaler, Guy L.; Scalise, Stephen J.; Schmitt, Eric; Schumer, Charles E.; Sharif, Shehbaz; Storie, Chris; Thune, John R.; Van Orden, Derrick F; Winscher, Gregory.
Subjects: Acting Attorney General; Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies; Border security; Canada, trade with U.S.; Cashless bail, efforts to eliminate; Criminal justice system, reform efforts; Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management; District of Columbia, beautification efforts; District of Columbia, law enforcement improvement efforts; District of Columbia, Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, renovation work; Election security and integrity, strengthening efforts; Federal Housing Finance Agency; Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup; Fraud enforcement, strengthening efforts; Gasoline costs; House majority leader; Illegal drugs, interdiction efforts; Illegal immigration; Illinois, crime in Chicago; Inflation; Iran, diplomatic engagement with U.S.; Iran, nuclear weapons development; Iran, U.S. airstrikes on nuclear facilities; Iran, U.S. military operations; Louisiana, Governor; Louisiana, law enforcement improvement efforts in New Orleans; Mexico, trade with U.S.; National Border Patrol Council; National Guard; Office of National Intelligence; Oil markets and prices; Pakistan, Chief of Defense Forces; Pakistan, Prime Minister; Secretary of Commerce; Secretary of Homeland Security; Secretary of the Interior; Secretary of the Treasury; Secretary of War; Secure America Act; Senate majority leader; Senate minority leader; Speaker of the House of Representatives; Stock market; Suspected drug-trafficking vessels, U.S. airstrikes in Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific; Tennessee, Governor; Tennessee, law enforcement improvement efforts in Memphis; Transgender athletes, efforts to restrict participation; Transnational criminal organizations; Turkey, President; U.S. Border Patrol;
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; U.S. military readiness, improvement efforts; Ukraine, U.S. assistance; Undocumented immigrants, deportation of criminals.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600391.