Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
September 2, 2026
The President. Well, thank you very much. And this is a very exciting time in our country's history, frankly, and today I'm thrilled to welcome some of our Nation's top leaders in the travel industry to celebrate the record-setting summer of travel in the U.S.A. It's a total record we've had. The country is thriving.
These are the men and women who help make our country the greatest travel destination anywhere in the world. I've known them in private life, many of them, and they're tremendously talented people.
I want to thank president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, Geoff Freeman, along with executives from great companies like American Airlines, Hilton, Marriott, IHG Hotels and Resorts, Booking.com, MGM Resorts, Caesars, the Venetian, Hard Rock, Carnival, Universal, Raffles and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts—some of the most successful companies anywhere in the world.
I want to give a very special thank you to the great job that Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is doing. Done a job like nobody else could do. Doing a great job.
In the last 3 months, travelers logged 290 billion miles on American highways. Our national parks welcomed 78 million visitors. All records. And, on 11 separate days, more than 3 million travelers flew through the American flies—they—the American skies were loaded up with planes and loaded up with a lot of happy people going to various destinations.
In June, America welcomed visitors from all over the globe for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and Andrew Giuliani did a fantastic job. Andrew is with us also.
White House Task Force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup Executive Director Andrew Giuliani.
Thank you, sir.
The President. Match-day spending at local restaurants rose 80 percent. And across 11 host cities, the tournament added more than $18 billion to our economy and supported more than 160,000 jobs, and there literally wasn't a riot or a fight or any problem at all. It was amazing from the standpoint of law enforcement—what law enforcement did, working along with the National Guard in certain cases and others. We had a summer of real freedom and great entertainment and great soccer. But they set a record. And I believe it was five times greater than any Olympics or—or any FIFA World Cup that they've ever had. So—and we have the Olympics coming in, and the Olympics are going to be, I think, equal.
This summer, we also celebrated the 250th anniversary of American independence. From the historic UFC fight that we had right outside where there is now—we just completed it, essentially, today—one of the most beautiful heliports you've ever seen. Something that they've wanted to have at the White House for many years, where the helicopter was landing on grass, which is not good and very unsafe. We have a beautiful new helipad that just—if you want to take a trip outside, you'll see it. It's beautiful. Incredible the job that they've done. Carved granite with the seal of the President of the United States, a beautiful eagle. And it's something very special. And we built it a little ahead of schedule, and it came out even more beautiful than I thought. I thought it was going to be good. It turned out to be beyond that.
And, as you know, we had a Supreme Court victory on the ballroom. The ballroom is under budget, ahead of schedule. It's a gift of 400—the ballroom is a gift of $400 million by a lot of
great American patriots, and we are proceeding. We're actually under budget and ahead of schedule, so it's been great to watch.
We have a lot of very happy construction workers, however.
From the historic UFC event on the White House lawn, which was a record in the history of fighting on television—there were more viewers on that—watching that than any other fight ever.
To an unforgettable race through the streets of Washington—that was Roger Penske's group—the Indy cars were incredible, and Roger was here, and he thought it was amazing. He—he said he's come here for 25 years trying to get that race approved, but we got it done in about 15 minutes. We got it all taken care of. And it was likewise—like UFC, it was a tremendous success.
To the largest fireworks display in world history. And I don't know if you noticed the television ratings. You know, we got—we thought we were going to be rained out, but we wouldn't put up with the rain, so we just said, "Let's just wait till it didn't rain." And even though the event got started at 11 o'clock instead of 9 o'clock—we waited for the rain to go and pass—it got record television ratings. It was amazing, and it was the greatest fireworks display. The largest ever, but I thought it was also the greatest that I've ever seen, certainly, and I've seen a lot of them.
But we welcome hundreds of thousands of people to our Nation's Capital that night. That—that day, that period of time was incredible. July 4 was not to be forgotten by anybody.
To support your industry during this busy travel season, our administration cut visa wait times by 40 percent, provided faster international connections through the One-Stop Pilot Program, and invested $12.5 billion to modernize American air travel.
And Secretary Duffy is going back to Congress. He wants to be able to modernize the safety equipment on airports, the airport towers, all of the things that will make it really the safest anywhere in the world. We're very safe right now, but we are—we're using 50-year-old equipment, and we're going to have the latest and the greatest.
And Sean's going to be going back to Congress very soon, asking about that. Also, asking for permission to build new towers. Tower design and structures are—have changed a lot, including the height of the tower. So we're going to be asking for that to redo the towers in the country. They're very obsolete—very old, very obsolete. Some of them aren't particularly safe. But all of that safety equipment—you know, that horrible accident that took place with the helicopter and the airliner would never have happened if we had the modern equipment. Bells would have gone off 2 minutes before they unfortunately met, and we have to have that.
And so the technology is there, but we're not using—we're using very old technology. It should have been done by other Presidents, but we're getting—get it done. And Congress has been very good about it, hearing us, and they've given us the additional seed money. The initial seed money is already there, and the system will be second to none, and you won't have horrible things happen, even on runways where they bonk into each other or crash into each other. You won't have any of that.
But I'm thrilled to report that 91 percent of the recent international visitors said they were satisfied with their trip to the United States, and I don't know what about the other 9 percent. I don't know the numbers on that. [Laughter] I'm trying to figure, why were they unhappy? I'm not sure I like that statistic. [Laughter]
But you'll—you guys will inform me later on who they were. [Laughter]
In less than 2 years, the world will return to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and we're pleased to be joined by the chair of the Los Angeles '28 Olympics, and that's Casey Wasserman, who's a very good friend of mine. And he's—you've really done a great job.
Los Angeles 2028 Board Chairman Casey Wasserman. Thank you, sir.
The President. You've done a great job in getting it together. Now we have to make sure it goes off——
Mr. Wasserman. Yes.
The President. ——like FIFA: flawlessly. Right?
Mr. Wasserman. Yes, sir.
The President. But he's a real professional, a great professional, very respected all over the planet and especially in Los Angeles. And he's going to do a fantastic job.
We're working closely together to ensure it is a really incredible success. We want to make this the best Olympics of them all.
So this is a summer that showed the world America is back and stronger than ever—bigger, better than ever before.
Think of it: FIFA—all those years of FIFA, and we did literally five times the numbers of the second most successful FIFA. It's the United States.
And I give great credit to Gianni. Gianni was with us right from the beginning. He headed FIFA, and we worked together really well. But they've never had anything—they've never had a success like they had.
And with the help of the people here today, we're going to do the same thing with respect to the Olympics and everything else. I mean, it's not only Olympics. It's every day and every night and every weekend. They're not thinking about one event; they're thinking about every weekend. That's why they're so successful.
So now I'd like to ask Geoff Freeman to say a few words; followed by president of MGM Resorts, Bill Hornbuckle; president of American Airlines, Robert Isom; and president of Hilton, Chris—oh, I—this is my—where's Chris?
Hilton Worldwide President and Chief Executive Officer Christopher J. Nassetta. Right here, Mr. President.
The President. Chris? Oh, there's my friend. [Laughter] He's a good—he's a friend of mine.
He's done a good job.
Mr. Nassetta. Thank you.
The President. So you're going to say a few words.
Mr. Nassetta. Yes.
The President. And maybe I'll start off with Sean Duffy, and then you guys can go in that order.
Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy. Sure.
The President. Okay? Thank you.
Secretary Duffy. Thank you, Mr. President.
This is a group of individuals that represent the travel industry that wanted to come in and thank you for a great summer of travel.
I thought the—the coolest thing from the summer was we—we know the country in which we live in, and it was great to see travelers from around the world come to America and remark on social media how beautiful it is, how friendly people are, the great restaurants and shopping and—the number of flights and car rentals and the busses that they took. People were raving about America. They had a wonderful experience, Mr. President. And also, as they came out for the celebration of our birthday on the Fourth of July, a lot of people came to DC for the Grand Prix—the Indy cars.
The President. Right.
Secretary Duffy. But it's a time that we travel, whether it's with business or families, but it's a time that families can spend together, whether it's in the car and going to see our great national parks or going to a theme park. Justa lot of opportunities for us to put our phones down and spend time together.
If I can make one comment: We got $12½ billion for air traffic control, and there's been no greater supporter of building a brandnew air traffic control system than President Trump. That
$12½ billion is going to be completed in the spend—all deployed by the end of your Presidency, by the end of 2028. And we need additional money for software, because that's the magic that's going to bring us more efficiency in the airspace.
We're going to come out with an announcement shortly in the next 30 days on what we're working on. It will be—it—this will be the best in the world.
We have more airplanes in the airspace than anyone, bar none. And I think, as travelers have come to the country, they also remarked at how many flight options we have, how many airlines we have, how many scheduled options they have. So it's been a great experience.
But we have the best hotels, the best cars, the best roads, the best rental companies, the best resorts in the world. And this is a time to say, Mr. President, you drove an economy—an opportunity for us to even make it better. And it's time to say thank you for your leadership and your help in making that happen. So——
The President. Thank you so much.
Secretary Duffy. ——appreciate it.
The President. Great job. You're doing a great job. Okay. Go ahead, fellas.
Secretary Duffy. Geoff.
U.S. Travel Association President and Chief Executive Officer Geoff Freeman. Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, thank you. We're certainly grateful for all the effort that was put into making the World Cup, America250 an immense success. It's because of policies you implemented on the visa side, on the customs side.
We welcomed millions of travelers this summer. The only thing Secretary Duffy left out was their love for ranch dressing and oversized gas stations. [Laughter]
The President. That's right.
Mr. Freeman. They got to see everything the country had to show off, and it made Americans feel a sense of pride—right?—things we take for granted.
We think we can keep this momentum going. You set the record in your first term. In 2018, we welcomed nearly 80 million travelers. We think we can exceed that; we can blow that out of the water. Let's get to 100 million.
Let's make the U.S. the world's most visited destination. That's France today. It's been that way for decades. We'd like to work with you as an industry to go win that title back, to make the
U.S. the world's most visited destination. And we think we've got the momentum right now to do it.
The President. Good. Thank you. Okay. Go ahead.
MGM Resorts International Chief Executive Officer and President Bill Hornbuckle. Mr.
President, I'm Bill Hornbuckle from MGM.
The President. Hi. Sure.
Mr. Hornbuckle. Hi. How we doing?
The President. Good.
Mr. Hornbuckle. Good to see you again. We——
The President. Good job.
Mr. Hornbuckle. Thank you. So, first and foremost, thank you on behalf of all of us, on behalf of the association. This was a great summer.
And I think Secretary Duffy knows this—we've had an opportunity to meet with Secretary and some of the other Secretaries—travel is difficult. Travel needs your leadership. It needs people like Andrew who helped pull the World Cup together to ultimately help Casey go not only for the best Olympics this country has ever seen but beyond. If we're going to meet Geoff's goal of a hundred million, we need your help, we need your direct involvement, and we know we can make this better.
If we can get there, it's 400,000 more jobs. And in a place like Las Vegas——
The President. Right.
Mr. Hornbuckle. ——it means a lot to us.
I want to also thank you on behalf of our employees. No tax on tips has gone a long way. [Laughter] So thank you.
The President. That's pretty good.
Mr. Hornbuckle. It's good.
The President. And overtime. [Laughter]
Mr. Hornbuckle. Yes, yes.
The President. It's been very good.
Mr. Hornbuckle. Thank you.
The President. Thank you. Good.
Mr. Nassetta. Mr. President.
The President. Please.
Mr. Nassetta. It's great to be here. Thank you for hosting us.
The President. Good, Chris.
Mr. Nassetta. Thank you for all the support you've been giving our industry this summer, but broadly, and thank you for the industry—on behalf of the industry for all the support you're giving the economy and trying to have the economy grow at a faster pace.
This summer, as you heard—as you—you stated, was the best summer we've ever had in the history of our business, bar none. America's 250 was extraordinary. The World Cup was extraordinary. The Indy cup here, in my hometown, was extraordinary. That was fabulous.
But I think the bigger story, which you should be proud of and we would like to thank you on is as a result of the most favorable regulatory policy that we've seen probably in a generation, most favorable tax policy that we've seen in modern times, an investment cycle that is simply breathtaking—both AI but—of course, AI infrastructure, but also reshoring infrastructure that is going on around the world—when you put all of that together, what it is driving, in terms of economic growth, is extraordinary.
And it—and I think the bigger story is that what we have seen, starting in the second half of last year, is a big—of course, a great summer, but a big uptick broadly in the business.
And importantly—I started saying this a year ago when everybody was saying, "K economy, K economy"—you know, the rich are getting richer; the high end is doing better—I kept saying, with all these policies that you're advancing, that everybody else is going to get in the game because the middle class and everybody else has to get in the game to make this happen, and that's what's happening.
So what I've been saying very publicly over the last 6 or 12 months is it's really a C-shaped economy because not only are we seeing broad, you know, growth in—from an economic point of view, but it's growth where you'd want to see it. It's growth that's going to ultimately—I think drive middle class real wage growth in a way we haven't seen in a generation.
So that leadership that you've been providing has been great for our businesses. Thank you——
The President. Thank you.
Mr. Nassetta. ——for—what you've been doing. I think it's sustainable. I would guess you do too. And we stand ready, as Geoff and Bill said, to do our part both in inbound international and goals there, but otherwise to make sure that we're contributing everything we can contribute to the growth of this incredible economy. So thank you. Thank you.
The President. And you've done a great job. Thank you——
Mr. Nassetta. Thank you.
The President. ——very much. Appreciate it.
Secretary Duffy. Robert.
American Airlines Group Chief Executive Officer Robert Isom. And, Mr. President, I just—I'd like to say that——
The President. Please, go.
Mr. Isom. ——from a commercial aviation perspective, the eyes of the world have been on us, and we've certainly delivered records at American—but records for the industry in terms of transportation. And it's broad-based, every aspect. And no doubt, it's a result of the economy and also the job market.
So as we get into the summer, I want to give a shout-out to Secretary Duffy. You've absolutely chosen the best person possible.
The President. That's right.
Mr. Isom. With these record levels of traffic, we've had to do some things different. And the investments that we're making in infrastructure, the hiring that we've done——
Secretary Duffy. Yes.
Mr. Isom. ——and especially this modernization work that we're doing is leading to great results.
Now, as we finish out the summer, we have a busy Labor Day weekend. We're going to hit all kinds of records this—this weekend. The only thing I could help—ask a little bit of help with is can you help me with the weather a little bit? [Laughter]
American has a flight every 14 seconds coming up, and we've got to have clear skies.
The President. That's great. Great job.
Mr. Isom. But as we look forward, these big events—you know, certainly, the World Cup has—has been fantastic——
The President. Right.
Mr. Isom. ——America250. We can't wait for more of them. And we look forward to the Olympics and many, many other things.
The President. Okay.
Mr. Isom. So thank you, Mr. President.
The President. Very good.
Great. Say hello to American. We like American. [Laughter]
So what's happening is amazing. It's not really covered properly, but it's something that's never happened before. The new number—because I've been saying $19.2 trillion for a while, but the new number's coming out: It's going to be over $20 trillion is being invested in the United States. There's never been a country even close to that number. A lot of it was because of the tariffs, because people don't want to pay tariffs, so they build their plants here.
Honda just announced they're coming in with a big one. Monster. Big. We have many car companies that are coming in from Canada, as you probably have been reading. They're not thrilled, but you know, they took them from us, and now we're getting them back. They're coming in from Mexico, from—if you take a look at South Korea, they're coming in from South Korea, Japan, and also from Germany. We have a lot of car plants going up.
AI is going up. We're leading China in AI very substantially.
By the way, we have the President of China coming on the 24th. That will be very exciting.
Great. Love to have them. We have a lot of good things to discuss. Very productive things to discuss with President Xi.
But there's never been a time when $20 trillion of investment is coming in. And the other number was by China many years ago, the previous record, but this is a record that's five times greater. It's incredible what's happening with our country.
And I guess it's not covered as much as it should, but it will be covering. And when the—you see the construction numbers, you see the construction workers, but soon you're going to see the people that work in the car plants and the factories.
And, as an example, Eli Lilly announced they're building five major places—labs where they make the drugs that they sell. All of them. They're coming in from other countries. They're coming here—Merck and Pfizer, medicines, everything. They're coming back to the United States at levels never even thought possible before.
And, in a year from now, you're going to see numbers that are incredible. And the next President is going to—I hope you people remember, when the next President comes in in 2½ years, going to say what a great job he or she did. I did it. [Laughter] All right? They're going to have numbers—they'll be opening up, and somebody's going to be sitting behind this desk or one of the seven that you have a choice of, and they're going to be saying: "What a great job I'm doing. This is the most incredible thing."
And we did it, and you did it, and you helped us a lot because the investment for your—in your companies are incredible. One of the greatest—great industry.
So I just want to thank everybody here. It's—the numbers are record-setting. The entertainment numbers in our country are—every—just about every number you name, no matter what industry, is record-setting. This is entertainment and hotels and things, and they broke a record by a lot. The airlines are doing incredible business—I think probably better than you've ever done before.
And we do want to modernize your system, though—you know, your system of safety, you could call it. And that's where Sean is doing something very special. A lot of guys wouldn't want to take that one on.
It should have been done a long time ago, actually, but certainly should have been done over the last 20 years. You know, the equipment really became good over the last 20 years, but, actually, the only advantage is, now it's really good.
If we would have done it 10 years ago, it's a—tremendous advancements have been made over the last 10-year period. So we're going to be getting Sean the—the newest and the greatest, and it'll be something—and Congress is very much behind it, obviously. This is safety. I think it'll be bipartisan, but this is about safety.
So do you have any questions?
[At this point, several reporters began asking questions at once.] Peter [Peter Doocy, Fox News].
Iran
Q. Thank you, President Trump. You posted today on Truth Social, "When are the Iranian
people going to rise up and fight?" If——
The President. Well——
Q. If that's what you want, will you send the CIA in to arm Iranians?
The President. Well, I wouldn't want to say that to you, Peter. I'd love to tell you that, but I—it wouldn't be appropriate to say. But I mean, I understand their plight. They're being shot.
Right now, you know, these gentlemen sit here in the lap of luxury, and they see things. But over there, it's not so luxurious.
As of 3 months ago, they had—52,000 protesters were killed. Can you imagine this, fellas? And now I hear the number is probably 20-, 25,000 more. They have close to 65,000 protesters killed.
So, when I ask that question, I ask it sort of knowing the answer. The only answer is that they're being shot. The regime is getting weaker and weaker by the day. And at some point, they're not going to be able to shoot so easily because I think the people aren't going to take it.
But I did pose that question because, you know, it would be time. But unlike most—most people can't kill their people like that. Most people try and reason, they talk, and then there might be an overthrow. In Iran, they kill the people. When they get out to protest, they kill them. They shoot them right between the eyes.
They have two forms: machineguns and snipers. And they use them—sometimes the machineguns and sometimes the snipers. They like the snipers better because all they do is—they'll have a crowd of 200,000 people, and a person goes down here right between the eyes, and they'll have three snipers doing it. And it's a horrible thing to watch.
So that's why it's not happening. And who can blame them? Who can blame them? But the regime is getting weaker by the day.
Colombia/Argentina/Brazil
Q. Mr. President, yes. I have two questions. One on the topic here, do you have anything else up your sleeve—big events coming up—between now and the Summer Olympics?
And the second is on South America. I know you're trying to cement a lot of your ties down there. Are there any plans? There are no major—there are basically no military bases in South America. Do you have any plans to——
The President. Well, South America——
Q. ——put one down there?
The President. Yes, it's great that you mention South America because, as you know, I endorsed a gentleman, "El Tigre." I liked his name. "El"—I guess that means he's a tough guy. [Laughter] But he's now the President of Colombia. He wasn't expected to win. He was 1 of 10 people running. He wasn't the favorite person, and he turned out—and he's doing a great job. But he was elected.
We have numerous people—Argentina—lots of people that I got elected. And the—that part of our hemisphere is really turning out to be very much different than it was. They've gone from being left to going right. They're all going right.
We have a good relationship with Brazil, a good relationship, really, with just about all of them now. They have a lot of respect for our country. They didn't respect our country 2 years ago at all.
And so we're doing very well in South America, Latin America. We're doing very well. And these people—flying—I mean, they're the ones that get you there, for the most part, and they're all doing very well. That whole thing is opening up. There's great cooperation between our country and all of South America.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Canada-U.S. Trade/China
Q. Mr. President, Canada is America's second largest trading partner. Are there any plans for renewed trade talks between the U.S. and Canada? And has there been any decline in terms of Canadian tourism to the U.S.? And perhaps you folks would know that.
The President. Well, I don't know. I can tell you this. You know, Canada has been ripping off the United States for many, many years—for decades, many decades. We lost anywhere from
$60- to $100 billion with Canada. We traditionally lose that for last 15 years.
It's a very unfair deal. They charge tremendous tariffs to our farmers. They take advantage of our farmers. They take advantage of our tourists. They take advantage of airlines.
Something that nobody brought up. I'll bring it up right now. They think it's so sensitive, but I don't find it sensitive. Canada has all of its major banks here, and we're their biggest source of income, far bigger than they are in Canada. They basically don't allow banks of America to be in Canada. That's sort of emblematic of the way they treat us.
Think of it. So they have their banks here—Bank of Canada, all of the big banks—big, beautiful banks. I think they have six or seven major banks here. We don't have our banks there. You know why? They don't allow it.
I had a case about a week ago where a friend of mine was buying a Gulfstream jet, and he said: "You know, it's a crazy thing. We're not able—that Canada won't certify Gulfstream." Won't certify it. Gulfstream is the best private jet. You know, considered the best of the best, and they won't certify it in Canada because they make a competitor: Bombardier Global Express.
And so their competitor didn't want them to have competition. So, for approximately 9 years, this has been going on. They won't certify Gulfstream.
So he's very friendly with Gulfstream. He told the head of Gulfstream to call me. Gave him the numbers. We called. We spoke. He said: "Sir, I've spent $60 million trying to get certified in Canada. I can't get certified in Canada. They won't do it."
So I immediately said I'm putting a major tariff on Bombardier and other things that they sent until they're certified. They got certified in 2 hours. [Laughter]
I got a call from the Prime Minister, "President, what seems to be the problem?" I said: "Well, you have a little problem. For 9 years, you didn't certify Gulfstream." Essentially, they can't sell any plane in anything having to do with Canada. But Bombardier has free rein over the United States. Both good planes. Very good planes.
And I said, "So what we're going to do is, we're going to charge you tariffs on various products, including Bombardier." We put a nice, big—and within 30 minutes, I guess it took—maybe less—everything got certified.
He told me they spent millions and millions of dollars on legal fees over about a 9-year period trying to do it. I did it in a matter of moments.
But that's the way they treat us. And I thought that was really egregious. It was incredible, because everyone knows how good the Gulfstream is. It's a—it's the best plane, and for them to not be allowed to sell it in Canada—but that's the way they are.
And people are surprised when I say it. Like, I have China coming here. A lot of people say: "Who's the toughest one to deal with? Is it China, sir? Is it China? Is it Vietnam? Is it"—I said, "No, actually, it's Canada." Canada has felt emboldened. We—they had Presidents that didn't know what was happening. Not only the last one, all of them. I mean, they just were taken into—our country's been taken advantage of by Canada.
They took 20 percent of our car industry out. I don't blame them for that, but if we would have had a President that knew what was happening, nobody would have left. Now they're all coming back. All they would have had to do is charge tariffs, and they would have put tariffs on. If you build a car in Canada, you have to pay a 25-percent tariff, and nobody could pay. And if that didn't work, you make it 50 percent, or if that didn't work, you make it 100 percent.
And we have everybody coming. Or you stop doing business with the nation. You know, when we lose $60- to $100 billion with Canada, I could say, "Well, if we don't do business"—because we don't need—we have more oil and gas than they do. We have tremendous forests. We don't need their lumber. We don't need the things they have. They need what we have. They do most of their business with us. I've heard numbers—95 percent. We do a very small percentage compared to others. We do a very small percentage by comparison to that.
But they need us. We don't need them. They've taken advantage of us for years, and it's time to stop. We can't lose $60- to $100 billion a year for the privilege of allowing them to make cars. We don't want their cars. We want the cars to be made in Detroit and in South Carolina and in Tennessee and in all of our places where we make cars. We don't want them to be made in Canada. So this is nothing against anybody.
And this started with Trudeau. Trudeau and I used to have it out pretty good, and now we have this new guy, who's a nice guy, but you know, he's just—and then they have the other guy, the slob. I guess some people call him a slob. I don't want to call him that because I want to be nice.
But—and I did change the name of a certain lake to Lake America, just like I changed the name of the Gulf of America—of—Mexico to Gulf of America. And people in this country love it. You know, we have 92 percent of the frontage, and why was it Gulf of Mexico? We have most of the frontage, almost all—93, 94 percent.
So we do things like that because we're fighting for our country.
Canada has taken advantage of us. They have ripped us off for years, and now we're turning the tables very—very easily turning the tables.
Yes.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Q. On the subject of foreign——
The President. Wait, wait, wait. Say it.
United Kingdom Royal Family
Q. On the subject of foreign visitors to the United States, what's your reaction to the recent news that Prince Harry and Meghan have left the United States and have gone back to Britain?
The President. I'm happy about it. [Laughter] No, I was not a fan. I thought—look, I had a very good relationship with the Queen. Really good. I got to know her very well. A really good relationship with King Charles. I knew him as Prince Charles and King Charles. I've known him for a long time. He's great—a great guy.
And I thought they treated the royal family with great disrespect. I didn't like it. I didn't like the way she acted. I thought she was terribly disrespectful to the Queen, to King Charles. And I don't know, I—maybe I'm different. I wouldn't have taken them back, frankly. If I were——
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
If I were the royal family, I would not have taken them back.
Oil Markets and Prices
Q. Mr. President, thank you. Sorry. The recent resumption of U.S. strikes in Iran have sent oil prices back up to $95 a barrel.
The President. They'll come down.
Q. How long will this renewed campaign go for?
The President. I don't think too long.
U.S. Military Operations in Iran/Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz/Gasoline Costs/Stock Market
Q. And also, given that—what you've said about having destroyed the Iranian military, what is there still left to strike, and why?
The President. Okay. We have controlled and we are controlling the Hormuz Strait. We are bringing lots of boats out every day with millions of barrels of oil. We are, for the most part, doing it without trouble. Every once in a while, they shoot a drone, and we knock it down.
But we have control—very strong control. They were trying to rebuild their radar systems and a missile system and a mine dropper. You know, we got rid of all the mines in the Hormuz Strait.
They were trying to build a rocket that drops mines. Who does that? Did you ever build a rocket that drop—I never heard of such a thing, but that's what they were doing. They were building, and it was almost finished, so we took it out. We saw that they were building it. We see everything that they're doing. They can't move. They can't go to the bathroom without us seeing it. So we saw that, and we took it out.
We took out some other things, and then we hit them last night because they took a shot at us in Jordan—at our base in Jordan. We knocked all of them down. There were, I guess, eight missiles that were shot. We—they were all knocked down.
One we let go because it was so inaccurate it landed in the middle of the desert someplace, so we let it go. Sometimes we let them go if they're not aimed correctly. It's an amazing science. What they can do is absolutely incredible.
We had a case where 111 were shot at a certain ship, fellas. And a hundred—out of 111, all 111 were knocked down. Can you imagine that? Now, 5 years ago, 7 years ago, you couldn't do that. Today, we have technology that's incredible. Nobody has technology like we have.
So we hit them hard last night—very hard. They gave a little love tap, but we hit them very hard last night. We took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz—some defensive, some offensive. They were trying to see the ships because they can't see the ships. You know, we're taking out a lot of ships. They can't see it because they have no radar because we blew it up, and we blew up much more than their radar last night. It was—it was a very heavy attack last night, and we're prepared to do another one any time we want. I——
Q. So how long will this continue——
The President. I do think this.
Q. ——the back-and-forth?
The President. I do think this: We had gasoline selling—when I decided that I have to go in and stop this because we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon, so a little more than a year ago,
gasoline in Iowa—I was in Iowa making a speech—it was $1.95. Right? And then it went to
$1.85. Passed another station, I went—$1.95. Think of that. And $1.85.
And right after that, I called everybody into the office, made my speech, and I said: "We have a problem because Iran is soon going to have a nuclear weapon. And I hate to do this, but we're going to have to do it. Oil will go up, and probably, the stock market will go down."
Well, the good news is, the stock market hits new records every day, so the stock market wasn't affected. Although, it would even be higher, believe it or not. The stock market will go up.
But it's very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. As soon as it's over—which I don't think will be very much longer. I've—I don't know how much more they can take. But you know, whatever it is, it doesn't matter.
And I'm not affected by the election. Number one, I'm not running, but my party is running, and I'm going to help my party. But I think my party respects the fact that we're not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
And frankly, other Presidents should have done that, but they didn't have whatever it takes to do it.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Q. Your endorsement, Mr. President——
Oil Markets and Prices
Q. Mr. President, on gas prices, you—yesterday you met with oil industry leaders, and you've previously accused them of price gouging. Is that something you brought up with them?
The President. Yes, I did. I want the retail prices—these were mostly retailers, and I want the retail prices to come down.
[Several reporters spoke at once.] Go ahead.
Q. And, Mr. President, on data centers, real quickly.
The President. Go ahead. No, no.
Go ahead.
Ukraine/Russia
Q. Mr. President, thank you. On Ukraine, something you've said for a long time is that the war should have never happened. And something you used to say, which was proven correct, was that they—the Biden administration, along with much of the mainstream media, was lying about the number of Ukrainians who were dying in the war. And now we're seeing they're having a shortage of young men. There's these horrific videos coming out of Ukraine where they're kidnapping them off the streets. Their moms, their wives are being thrown to the ground and sprayed with mace while their loved ones get taken away. I'm wondering, have you seen these videos? Because the mainstream media is also not reporting on those. And if you haven't seen them, could I send them to Steven Cheung or——
The President. Sure. You——
Q. ——or another member of your staff to show you?
The President. You could send them, and I'll put them out.
But I know about the videos. I heard about them very strongly.
Look, it's a war that should have never happened. If I were—if the election weren't rigged in 2020, that war would have never happened, and it didn't happen for 4 years.
You know, I was there 2016 to 2020, and I would talk to Putin about it. It would have never happened. Zero chance. And when I left, I saw what was going on, and I said, "You know, I think these guys are going to go to war." I thought it was crazy. It would—just wouldn't have happened.
So it's one of the—you know, the way it happened for me was—a lot of people say it was more important. It was more important with the skip and doing this—that this is a more important term than it ever could have been.
But I will say this: One thing is that war would have never happened, and all those young—mostly soldiers, but people—you know, missiles going into towns—but mostly young soldiers. Twenty-five thousand soldiers a month are being killed. Can you imagine that? Twenty-five—that's like a stadium. Twenty-five thousand, on average. And many of them are Ukrainian. You know, they like to say, "Oh, it's all Russian." Well, there are a lot of Russians. Probably more Russians because they're offensive. You know, they're on the offense, as opposed to the defense, and more people die when you're on the offense. But tremendous numbers of soldiers, both Ukrainian and Russian, are being killed, and they ought to stop that stupid war.
And we are continuing—you know, I stopped eight wars. Eight. Some of them would be thought of as much tougher to stop than this, and I got them stopped. But there's tremendous animosity between the two Presidents. Tremendous animosity.
But I think it's going to be pretty close. It's going to be time. They seem to have a new burst of energy. But I think they're going to be—I'm dealing with both of them, and I think they're going to stop it.
But you're right about that. [Several reporters spoke at once.]
President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia
Q. Mr. President, on Russia as well, is there any hope that Russian President, Vladimir Putin, would do another summit with you in the near future?
The President. Oh, well, he'd do it if I wanted it, but I want to do it when we're ready to do a peace deal. I want to do it. We're—you know, we want to have good relationship with Russia, Ukraine, with everybody. It'd be great for business. Russia's got great land. Got very valuable land. A lot of good things happening.
But no, we could do one—I'll bet I—I could do it immediately. I want to do it when that war is ending, and I think we will.
Trump Accounts Children's Savings Program/Federal Film Tax Credit
Q. And on the Federal film tax credit. Are—were you surprised to see Gavin Newsom come out and support that?
The President. That he supported the——
Q. The Federal film tax——
The President. ——Trump accounts?
Q. Federal film tax credit.
The President. Oh, the film. Well, he supported two things. He supported the Trump Accounts for children. You know, when they're born, they're going to end up—when they're 18 or 21, they're going to end up being rich people, maybe, and a good chance. At a minimum, they're going to have a lot of money. But at a maximum, they could actually be rich, and these are people, in many cases, that have no money.
But I understood that he just came out and he supported the television.
And it's—just so you know, Canada, again—but Canada, number one, but the U.K., Australia, many countries give tremendous incentives to take our film industry, our entertainment industry, television industry, the making of the product into their countries. I mean, Canada is booming because they give tax incentives. We don't give anything, and we should.
And this is probably more of a Democrat thing, frankly, because they seem to be the Hollywood. Hollywood is dead, and they want it to be revived.
And I've spoken to Netflix, who's a fantastic—Ted, who's fantastic, and Ari Emanuel, and many others. And Jon Voight came to see me about it. Jon Voight came to see me about it 2 days ago. He's a friend of mine. He's a phenomenal actor. Did some of the greatest movies of all time.
I said, "So Jon, what's up?" He goes: "Sir, Hollywood is dying. You've got to do something." I said, "What do you think we should be doing?" And he talked about the tax credits.
And all I'm going to do is offer the tax credits that other tax—other countries are offering. I don't have to do any more. They all want to be in Hollywood. They don't want to lose Hollywood, and the unions want that. The unions are going to work along. I've done a lot of work on that in the last—last week, and I think we have bipartisan support. I think we have tremendous Democrat—I understand Adam Schiff is totally in favor of it. And I'd like to get it done. We call it the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act.
You think Biden could have done that? I don't think so. What do you think? I don't think so.
I think he would have——
Q. Mr. President——
The President. Number one, he wouldn't have done that, but number two, he wouldn't have remembered the name. [Laughter]
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
But just so you understand—so it's a revitalization act for that industry, and it's a beautiful thing. It's going to work very quickly.
These people don't want to fly to Australia to do a movie. You know, it's a 22-hour flight, and they don't want to fly 22 hours. And they don't want to go to Canada. But Canada offers big subsidies and big credits. You know, beyond just credit, they offer subsidy.
And we're going to match any country, and we're going to bring a hundred percent of that back—because every one of them, they want to make Hollywood—they want to make movies in Hollywood. That's—they grew up wanting to be in Hollywood. Now you can't make a movie in Hollywood. It doesn't make sense. So we're going to bring it back.
Peter.
Professional Golfer Eldrick T. "Tiger" Woods
Q. President Trump, what do you think about the plea deal down in Florida today? Tiger Woods, who famously called you as he was being arrested, has agreed to have a suspended driver's license for 5 years.
The President. Well, look, I know Tiger very well. He's a great guy. He's unique in so many ways and especially as an athlete, but also as a man.
You know, he suffers great pain. Great pain. He has a very tough situation, because they didn't find alcohol on him. You know, he didn't test positive at all for alcohol. But he—because of his horrible back—because he had, in my opinion, a bad doctor—but he had a back operation that did not work out well, and he is under pain. And so it's a tough deal when you're taking a painkiller because you're under pain—and tremendous pain—and you have a problem, and you test positive. He would have told them that. I mean, it's a prescription painkiller.
But I thought it was very fair. I mean, I think he's going to have somebody drive him. I told him that a long time, "Why don't you get somebody to drive you?" [Laughter] So he's going to have somebody drive him from now on. And you know, he's just a very special guy. I'm glad—I'm glad that was resolved.
Q. Mr. President——
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Texas Senatorial Election
Q. Thank you, Mr. President. It just came out that James Talarico in Texas called capitalism oppressive and said it needed to be dismantled. Do you think by embracing socialism and bashing, you know, capitalism, Democrats—that's a wise move for Democrats?
The President. Well, that's one of the least of the bad things he's said. He's said a lot of bad things. He's—I mean, they have a name—a nickname for him. I don't want to use it, but the name happens to be Talafreako, because he is one of the worst candidates I've ever seen.
And you know, we have a guy named Ken Paxton, and some people don't like the way he dresses, or some people don't like the way he interviews or talks. But you know the one thing about him? He was the best attorney general in this country for the last 10 years or more. The most effective, the hardest working—he was the best attorney general in the United States.
And so, I don't care about an interview, and I don't care about the way he dresses. All I know is that he was considered by almost everybody to be the best—the single strongest, smartest attorney general in the United States. And I can attest to that because we have a lot of business and—both governmental and when I was in the private sector. He was the most effective guy there was. And I think he should win on the basis of that.
Yes.
Q. Mr. President, Mr. President——
Venezuela/Elections
Q. On Venezuela, what's stopping you from demanding Venezuela set a firm date for the election?
The President. On what?
Q. On an election.
The President. What about it?
Q. What's stopping you from asking Venezuela to set a firm date for an election?
The President. Oh, I just don't think they're ready yet. You know, it's very new. We took them out of a dictatorship, and we're getting along great with the Government. Delcy, as you
know, is doing a very, very good job—very highly respected. And—oh, we want that, and they want that. Delcy wants it, but they're not ready yet.
You know, we have—we've taken them out from a very powerful, ruthless dictatorship where many people were in jail. You know, those people have largely been released from jail. They were political prisoners. But we sort of had that in this country too, where we have a vicious—we had a vicious—that last 4 years, it was run by some—not Biden so much; he didn't know what the hell was happening. But the people that surrounded him at this desk, they were vicious, violent people. Smart people, but they're—they were nuts. Radical-left lunatics.
You had a very powerful, very nasty dictatorship in Venezuela, and they're just not going to be ready for it yet. But soon. We look forward to doing it and soon.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz
Q. Mr. President, how serious are you about renaming the Strait of Hormuz the "Trump Strait"? And if so——
The President. No, no, it was just thrown out. [Laughter]
Q. ——how would you do it?
The President. That was just thrown out.
Q. How would—how would you do it?
The President. Go ahead.
It was just thrown out there.
2026 Midterm Elections/Democratic Party
Q. Mr. President, your endorsement of Darline Graham was pivotal. It was crucial in helping her win her runoff election. There's another close election that's happening out in Alaska. Senator Sullivan is in a tight race. Do you——
The President. He's a good man.
Q. Do you anticipate actually traveling——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——out to Alaska to help him out?
The President. That means you're going to have to go with me. [Laughter] Yes, I do. I'll go out there to fight for him.
Just to show you how crooked the Democrats are: First of all, they have rank choice, which is a crooked form of voting. It's totally dishonest. Rank choice. They throw everybody into a hat, and somebody backstage that nobody knows picks a winner. It's ridiculous.
But they have a man named—we have a very good Senator named Dan Sullivan. The Democrats put up another man named Dan Sullivan. So we have two Dan Sullivans on the thing. And by the way, the other man who had never been in politics, had never voted. He hasn't voted for years. A totally—pretty nonpolitical person, I guess. But never had any thought of running. All of a sudden, he's running for the Senate in Alaska. His name is Dan Sullivan. They have the same name.
And that guy got 2½ percent in the recent primary. And that's—you know, 2½ percent is a lot when it comes to winning elections. And it's a disgrace. They went to the court, and the court
made it a little bit easier. They put an initial or something on the one name. [Laughter] But it's very unfair.
I will go to Alaska to help Dan Sullivan get elected. Dan Sullivan—it's like Ken Paxton. Dan Sullivan is a great Senator. Dan—I mean, you look at the thing he's—the things he's done. He would call me all the time, because I think no—I definitely know: Nobody has helped Alaska like Donald Trump. We've invested billions and billions of dollars and created trillions of dollars in value. You have Japan. You have South Korea. You have all of these people now going to Alaska to load up with fuel, load up with oil, build pipelines, everything else.
Dan Sullivan has done a great job, and I will—it's a long trip. I love Alaska. You know, I won Alaska by a landslide.
Q. Thirteen and a half points, sir.
The President. How much?
Q. Thirteen and a half points.
The President. Oh, I thought it was 23 or 24. [Laughter]
Q. Why did you think—why do you——The President. Thirteen and a half is a lot. What do you think, Peter? Not bad.
Alaska Senatorial Election/2024 Presidential Election
Q. Why do you think—Mr. President, you won it by 13½ points. Why is this race so close—
—
The President. I don't know.
Q. ——given your strength there?
The President. Well, it's close for one reason: that they have a phony Dan Sullivan. This guy
is a phony. And he was put up by the Democrats. And they don't admit it, but it's been so proven.
So I will go to Alaska to make sure that a great Senator gets reelected. I will be going to Alaska. I'm going to be going—the last 30 days before the election, I'll be making a lot of stops.
You see how I helped Darline? You see how—how I helped the Governor—the future Governor of Oklahoma? He was way behind, and I endorsed him, and I did tele town halls for him. I did, and he ended up winning against somebody that seemed to have an insurmountable lead. He's great. He's going to be a great Governor for Oklahoma.
I won—in Oklahoma, they have 77 counties. As you know, all three times, I won 77 counties. They like me.
Peter, I think I should just move there. [Laughter] They like me. They seriously like me in Oklahoma—and you know who second was? Ronald Reagan at 56. But I won 77 out of 77 counties in Oklahoma.
And I endorsed him, and he won, and it was an amazing victory. You know, that was a victory that everybody said couldn't happen.
So I'm going to be campaigning for numerous people, both Congressmen, a few Governors. I love the Governors, but we're interested in the Senate, and we're interested in the House. So I'll be campaigning for the House Members, and I'll be campaigning for Senators.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Yes. Wait.
Department of the Army Leadership/Senate Confirmation Process
Q. Are you concerned about the lack of Senate-confirmed individuals at both the civilian and military level at the Department of the Army right now?
The President. Well, I think they're trying to get them confirmed as quickly as possible. The Democrats hold up the confirmation like crazy. I mean, you get—I mean, you don't get one vote.
We could have George Washington. See that man right up there? [Laughter] He was good.
See the other man? Ulysses S. Grant. See the other man? Abraham Lincoln. I'd say those are three top ones. If I put them up for nomination for a fairly routine position in the military, the Democrats would not give them one vote.
What do you think of that, Peter? You know it's true.
Now you could also look over there: Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan. Monroe Doctrine. That's the Monroe Doctrine, as opposed to the "Donroe" Doctrine.
[Laughter] They get them mixed up.
But I could take those three: Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, George Washington—and if I put them up in this modern era, they would get no Democrat support.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good time.
Q. They'd get John Fetterman. [Laughter]
The President. Yes. Right. Maybe one vote. They'd get one vote.
Q. Is that the new phone?
The President. Huh?
Q. Is that a new phone?
The President. Yes. You know who gave this to me? The phone company. [Laughter] You know, it's beautiful.
Q. I've never seen it.
The President. Isn't that nice? It's the latest and the—heavily secure. You know, it's always secure until they listen to your conversation. It looks good, though, right?
Q. It does.
The President. Thank you, Peter.
Q. Thanks, President Trump.
The President. Doing a good job.
Q. Thanks for all the questions.
The President. You know his father, right?
He asks more questions for me than he did to Biden in 4 years. [Laughter] Right?
Q. It's true.
The President. Have a good time.
Q. Thanks a lot.
NOTE: The President spoke at 1:47 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Roger S. Penske, founder and chairman, Penske Corp., and owner, The IndyCar Series, automobile racing league; Giovanni V. Infantino, president, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA); President Abelardo Gabriel "El Tigre" de la Espriella Otero of Colombia; Mark Burns, president, Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.; Prime Minister Mark Carney and former Prime Minister Justin P.J. Trudeau of Canada; Premier Douglas R. Ford, Jr., of Ontario, Canada; Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Princess Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, of the United Kingdom; President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine; Gov. Gavin C. Newsom of California; Theodore A. Sarandos Jr., chief executive officer, Netflix; Ariel Z. Emanuel, executive chairman and chief executive officer of TKO and executive chairman of WME Group; Sen. Adam B. Schiff; Texas Democratic senatorial candidate James D. Talarico; Texas Republican senatorial candidate State Attorney General W. Kenneth Paxton, Jr.; Acting President Delcy Rodriguez Gomez of Venezuela; Alaska Republican senatorial candidate Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan; South Carolina Republican senatorial candidate Sen. Darline Graham Nordone; Alaska senatorial candidate Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr., an unaffiliated challenger on the general-election ballot; Oklahoma Republican gubernatorial candidates Michael P. Mazzei and State Attorney General Gentner F. Drummond; and Steve Doocy, cohost, Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" program. A reporter referred to White House Communications Director Steven Cheung; and Sen. John K. Fetterman.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Travel executives, meeting with President; Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, White House.
Locations: Washington, DC.
Names: Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Burns, Mark; Carney, Mark; Charles III, King; de la Espriella Otero, Abelardo Gabriel "El Tigre"; Doocy, Steve; Drummond, Gentner F.; Duffy, Sean P.; Emanuel, Ariel Z.; Ford, Douglas R., Jr.; Freeman, Geoff; Giuliani, Andrew; Graham Nordone, Darline; Harry, Prince; Hornbuckle, Bill; Infantino, Giovanni V.; Isom, Robert; Mazzei, Michael P.; Meghan, Duchess; Nassetta, Christopher J.; Newsom, Gavin C.; Paxton, W. Kenneth, Jr.; Penske, Roger S.; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich; Rodriguez Gomez, Delcy; Sarandos, Theodore A., Jr.; Schiff, Adam B.; Sullivan, Daniel J., Jr.; Sullivan, Daniel S.; Talarico, James D.; Trudeau, Justin P.J.; Voight, Jon; Wasserman, Casey; Woods, Eldrick T. "Tiger"; Xi Jinping; Zelenskyy, Volodymyr.
Subjects: 2020 Presidential election; 2024 Presidential election; 2026 midterm elections; Air traffic control system, modernization efforts; Alaska, senatorial election; America's 250th birthday celebration; Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies; Automobile industry, strengthening efforts; Brazil, relations with U.S.; California, 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles; California, Governor; Canada, Prime Minister; Canada, trade with U.S.; China, President; Colombia, President; Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup; Film industry, domestic promotion efforts; Foreign nations, investment and business ventures in U.S.; Freedom 250 Grand Prix automobile race; Gasoline costs; Geographic names, efforts to restore American greatness; Iran, human rights issues; Iran, nuclear weapons program; Iran, U.S. military operations; Iran, U.S. Naval blockade in Strait of Hormuz; News media, Presidential interviews; Oil markets and prices; Oklahoma, gubernatorial election; Pharmaceutical supply chains, improvement efforts; Russia, conflict in Ukraine; Russia, President; Russia, relations with U.S.; Secretary of Transportation; Senate confirmation process; South Carolina, senatorial election; South Lawn, helipad construction project; Stock market; Tariffs; Tax Code reform; Texas, senatorial election; Tourism and travel, expansion efforts; Travel executives, meeting with President; Trump Accounts, children's savings program; Ukraine, President; Ukraine, relations with U.S.; Ukraine, Russian invasion and airstrikes;
Ultimate Fighting Championship Freedom 250 Event; United Kingdom, Duchess of Sussex; United Kingdom, Duke of Sussex; United Kingdom, King; Venezuela, Acting President; Venezuela, elections; Venezuela, release of political prisoners; White House Ballroom construction project.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600570.