Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
September 13, 2026
The President. Well, thank you very much. Ireland was fantastic. The tournament was record-setting. The attendance was number one. They have never seen anything like that one, because the person that won—Shane, who's a fantastic player, but he's from Ireland, and he played well. He played fantastic. I mean, everybody was—just a very exciting moment.
So it was an honor to be here. We did a lot of business. Met with Taoiseach. Met with the various other leaders, and we did a lot of business. But it was great to see it. It was a very festive occasion. A very big—a very big thing just happened.
Ireland/The President's Approval Rating
Q. Mr. President, they say your approval rating is really low in Ireland, around 20 percent, but by the way those fans screamed, do you think those polls are incorrect?
The President. I think the polls are fake. My approval rating in Ireland is good. My approval rating in the U.S. is great. The problem is, only the legitimate pollsters show it, as you understand.
No, we're doing well. The country is doing very well. Our country is doing very well.
U.S. Trade Policy
Q. President Trump, you threatened to cut off trade with a nation running a trade deficit with the U.S. unless the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates. Are you actually going to follow through with that——
The President. Oh, yes, yes.
Q. ——if they do next week?
The President. I'm going to do that. With some nations, I'll have no choice. We don't want to have deficits with nations. We want to have surpluses or at least break-evens. But we have—other Presidents, they've—other Presidents have allowed tremendous deficits. And we're not going to have that.
Q. When are you going to do that?
The President. So I will be doing it.
Q. When are—when?
The President. It will take place over a period of time.
Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001
Q. The 9/11 families on Friday asked you to help hold Saudi Arabia accountable for 9/11. They're asking you to release more records that tie, maybe, some of the hijackers or the people—
—
The President. Yes.
Q. ——to Saudi Arabia. And——
The President. I heard of that.
Q. Would you be open to that?
The President. Well, I'm going to look at it when I get back.
Q. Okay.
The President. I know they asked me on Friday. I'll be looking at it when I get back.
Q. Do you think you'd be open to that though?
The President. I could be, yes.
Commemoration of the September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks in New York City
Q. Mr. President, did you see that video of A.O.C. and Mamdani laughing at the 9/11 ceremony in New York? What were your thoughts?
The President. I think it's terrible. It's not a place to be laughing, especially in that case. I thought it was terrible. That fact that they were laughing together at a very important part of the ceremony was inappropriate.
Q. Mr. President, what do you——
United Kingdom/Jewish Settlements in West Bank, Palestinian Territories
Q. What's your—what's your reaction to the countries like the U.K., Ireland, Canada, who put sanctions on the Israeli settlers in the West Bank last week? Did you see that? What's your reaction?
The President. Who put sanctions on?
Q. The U.K. were among the—a number of European countries to sanction Israel.
The President. I did see it. I'll look at it. I'm going to see it. The Prime Minister is calling me on Monday or Tuesday, and I'll be taking a look at it.
Texas Republican Senatorial Candidate W. Kenneth Paxton, Jr.
Q. Mr. President, what do you think of Ken Paxton's race in Texas? It's pretty close. In some cases, the Democrats win it. Is Ken Paxton doing what he needs to be doing?
The President. I think so. I think the fact that we had such a successful convention really helped Ken Paxton. He was a big part of it.
And look, I mean, he was a great attorney general. Ken Paxton was a great attorney general, and that's—and continues to be. And I think that counts for a lot.
Q. Why don't you think he's doing better?
The President. Well, I think he's tied or leading now. I think he got—he picked up a lot. I hear that the convention helped Ken Paxton a lot.
Mistrial in the Case of Lindsay Clancy in Massachusetts
Q. Lindsay Clancy's attorney last week asked you to pardon her. Is that under consideration? Are you——
The President. Well, I know. I—it's a very sad situation. I certainly heard that. But it's—look, it's a very sad—there is no winner there. There's no—there's no win, no matter what you do. It's—three children are dead. So I don't know.
But it's actually a State situation, you know, not a Federal.
Q. He's asking you to call the prosecutor in the State.
The President. Yes, well——
Q. Would you do that?
The President. I appreciate that he feels that way, but—and he's a good attorney. I've heard from other people he's a very good attorney.
I hope they can work it out. That's something they have to work out. It's a very sad—there is no win there.
Illinois Gubernatorial Election
Q. Mr. President, would you be willing to meet with the Republican candidate for Governor in Illinois when you're in Illinois at the end of this month?
The President. Well, I like the candidate from Illinois. He's a good man.
Q. Darren Bailey.
The President. He had a tragedy—a horrible tragedy. His family was partially wiped out in a terrible helicopter accident—a plane accident.
Q. Has J.B. Pritzker reached out to you, prior to the Presidents Cup?
The President. No, I think J.B. Pritzker is a disaster as a Governor. You know, you look at what's happening with crime, and J.B. Pritzker should lose. I—you know, for some reason, Democrats win there. I don't know why. But Bailey is a very good candidate.
Q. Do you think he could win?
The President. He had a horrible tragedy. Amazing that he could go forward, but his—a large portion of family was wiped out.
Q. And he backs you a hundred percent. He's only down about 8 percent.
The President. Yes, I was—I've already endorsed him. I'm all for Bailey.
U.S. Military Operations in Iran
Q. Iran says that one of their vessels was struck last night. Was it the United States?
The President. I don't want to say.
2028 Presidential Election
Q. Mr. President, J.D. Vance. Are you ready to throw your weight behind him in 2028?
The President. Well, it's too early. I mean, it's too early. I think he's terrific. We've got so many terrific people. We have, as they call it, a very deep bench.
Q. Who would be most competitive with J.D. Vance?
The President. I—you know, I just think they're all very good. And J.D.'s fantastic, and he did a very good job.
Whiskey Tariffs
Q. On the whiskey tariff—taking it off. When is that going to happen? And that's an EU tariff. Are you taking——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——all EU tariffs——
The President. Well, that was very unfair because others have the relief, and they didn't. So I thought I'd do it.
And actually, Shane, asked me about it too. A lot of people. It was pretty unfair, so I decided to do it.
[At this point, several reporters began asking questions at once.]
Q. But just Ireland, or all of the EU?
The President. Just Ireland. They already have it. That's why it was unfair. The other ones already have it.
U.S. Tariff and Investment Revenue/Tax Code Reform
Q. Mr. President, on the $5,000 checks, when did you first come up with that idea?
The President. A while ago.
Q. And how exactly are we going to pay for that?
The President. And that's going forward. The $5,000 checks are going forward. And that's because we're taking in so much money in so different ways, including the tariffs.
Q. Is there a plan—exactly how we're going to pay for that?
The President. Yes, yes. No, I know exactly how we're going to pay.
Q. Why?
Q. How?
The President. You know, it's interesting on that, because everybody said that the "Great Big Beautiful Bill" will never happen. It happened.
They said that the 1,776 for the military—$1,776—would never happen, and it happened.
They were paid.
And now they say, "Oh, the $5,000." The $5,000's going to happen, 100 percent. And the reason is because our country has taken in trillions and trillions of dollars, and it's going to happen, because the people deserve it because it was treated so badly by the Democrats and by Biden.
So, remember, they said the "Great Big Beautiful Bill," which was basically 17 bills wrapped up into one, will never happen. It happened. They said, when I gave the military, last year $1,776—1776, like a certain date that's quite important—
[At this point, several reporters began asking questions at once.] They said that wasn't going to happen. That happened.
And what do you think? I think it's going to happen.
Q. I think it's going to happen, Mr. President.
The President. I like—I like her.
2026 Midterm Elections
Q. You have Congress—you have Congress now. So why don't you do the checks now versus after the election?
The President. Because—I don't want to do it now, because if the Democrats got in—get in, our country will be in shambles, and they won't be able to do it. If we get in, we're taking in tremendous amounts of money.
We're taking in over $20 trillion in terms of investment. And if the Democrats—all of that money will be thrown out. If the Democrats get in, they won't be able to pay it.
With me—I've always made money. Now I make a lot of money for the country.
2026 Midterm Elections/2024 Presidential Election
Q. Mr. President, you told voters to think of you on the ballot——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——to consider you're on the ballot. Should they then think that this is a referendum on your administration?
The President. Well, maybe. I don't care. Whatever it takes, because when I run—I, you know—everybody does well. When I don't run, maybe they don't go and vote because they don't care. But I'm asking the voters—the Republican voters, that—you know, I got a record vote, the highest vote in the history of the Republican Party.
And if those voters would go out, we will win everything, just like I did. I won every—I won all seven swing States. We won the popular vote. We won—everything was a landslide, in—including counties. If you take a look at counties, we won 86 percent of the counties in the country.
So, if we get those people to go out, we're going to have a tremendous victory.
The problem is, if I'm not running, if I'm not on the ballot, they think, oh, I'm not running, and if they like me—and they do like me. I mean, I have polls that show me I'm very popular. You know, you have a lot of fake polls. But they like me.
Here's the story: If they get out and vote, we win in a landslide. Thank you.
Yes. One more question.
The President's Political Legacy
Q. Your two sons over there, Mr. President—there could still be a Trump name on the ballot. Would it ever happen? Maybe they could win.
The President. I don't know—I better not get into that. [Laughter] But they're good. You know what? They work hard, and they're very good people. I call them "kids." They're not kids, but I call them——
Q. They're your kids.
The President. ——they're still my kids.
Q. They're your kids.
The President. And they're great.
Q. Thank you.
White House Press Secretary Vacancy/The President's Cabinet
Q. Who's your top contender for Press Secretary?
The President. Huh?
Q. Who's your top contender for Press Secretary?
The President. I don't know. Would anybody like to be Press Secretary? [Laughter]
Q. I mean, Mr. President——
Q. So, no favorite? No—no shortlist?
The President. No, no. But I may have developed one over the weekend, you know.
Q. Who's that? Who's in it?
The President. No, we have—we have a lot of people that want it. Many people want it.
Many people have been written about, as you know. But many people want it. And we'll, in a—you know what we're going to do for a little while? We're going to use the Secretaries, the—you know, Marco and, maybe—J.D. just did it. He did a great job.
Q. Can you do Marco next?
The President. But we're going to use Scott. We're going to use Howard. We're going to use a lot of our Secretaries. Linda McMahon is so great. And we'll do it for a little while. I—but, ultimately, I'll pick somebody.
Q. When—when do you think you do it?
Q. Can you do Marco next?
The President. We'll do Marco next. I will.
Q. Thank you.
The President. Thank you very much.
Q. Thank you.
NOTE: The President spoke at 7:45 p.m. on the tarmac at the Shannon Airport prior to boarding Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, MD. In his remarks, he referred to professional golfer Shane Lowry; Prime Minister Micheál Martin of Ireland; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Mayor Zohran K. Mamdani of New York City; Prime Minister Andy Burnham of the United Kingdom; defense attorney Kevin Reddington; Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio; Secretary of the Treasury Scott K.H. Bessent; and Secretary of Commerce Howard W. Lutnick. He also referred to his sons Donald and Eric. A reporter referred to Plymouth County, MA, District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on September 14.
Categories: Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, Shannon, Ireland. Locations: Shannon, Ireland.
Names: Bailey, Darren; Bessent, Scott K.H.; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Burnham, Andy; Lowry, Shane; Lutnick, Howard W.; Mamdani, Zohran K.; Martin, Micheál; McMahon, Linda E.; Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria; Paxton, W. Kenneth, Jr.; Pritzker, Jay R. "J.B."; Reddington, Kevin; Rubio, Marco A.; Trump, Donald J., Jr.; Trump, Eric F.; Vance, James D. "J.D.".
Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; 2026 midterm elections; Foreign nations, investment and business ventures in U.S.; Free and fair trade; Golf; Illinois, Governor; Ireland, Amgen Irish Open golf tournament in Doonbeg; Ireland, President Trump's visit; Ireland, Prime Minister; Ireland, trade with U.S.; Massachusetts, mistrial of Lindsay Clancy in Plymouth County; News
media, Presidential interviews; Secretary of Commerce; Secretary of Education; Secretary of State; Secretary of the Treasury; September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; Special warrior dividend; Tariffs; Texas, Republican National Committee Midterm Convention in Dallas; United Kingdom, Prime Minister; Vice President; Voter participation; West Bank, Jewish settlements; White House Press Secretary.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600607.