Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
September 30, 2026
The President. Well, thank you very much, everyone.
Iraq/Withdrawal of U.S. Military Personnel
I think you read my release—I put it out—on Iraq. We're out of there. We have a very good Prime Minister who I endorsed, actually, in the election. He was not doing particularly well, but he was a great gentleman and a great man, and I endorsed him, and he won.
And we left Iraq after 23 years and billions and billions of dollars spent. We shouldn't have been there in the first place, but we're now gone, and we took everything with us: every nut, every bolt, every screw, every tank, every plane. We're—we left Iraq. Isn't that nice? Should have never been there, but we should have left a long time ago. So very honored to tell you that.
And we left with dignity and respect. In fact, the Prime Minister has great respect for your President and for us, and he appreciates everything. And we'll be there to help if we need to.
But that's the big thing. We're out of Iraq after 23 years. I think—I notice you complain about Venezuela, which was 148 hours. We were in—we won the war in 148 hours, and no deaths.
And in Iran, where their military is gone, their navy is gone, their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft is gone—everything is gone. Their leaders are gone. Just about everything is gone. They have a 301 percent—just came out—inflation rate of 301 percent. Their currency is valueless.
We lost 18 people—great people. Losing one is too many. But if you look at just—if you look at Iraq, we lost 4,500 people, and the result isn't anywhere near what we have here, although we went into Iraq to destroy ISIS, and I did that in my first term. That's why they should have left long ago. But the sole reason we went to Iraq was to eradicate ISIS, and I did it in my first term. They should have left.
Domestic Energy Production
Today we're thrilled to announce one of the largest energy infrastructure investments in American history. Thanks to the agreements my administration has secured with the Republic of Korea, they will invest up to $200 billion—that's the Korean Government—$200 billion to build a six-gigawatt-power generation facility in Texas. That's a major plant; that's about as big as you'll see. Eight new large-scale nuclear power plants. And at long last, Alaska liquefied natural gas pipeline. That's a big one, and that's why we have a lot of people from Alaska here, including a very great Governor and your great Senator, Dan Sullivan.
We're joined on this occasion by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who was very involved in this whole situation, a big one; Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum; Secretary of Energy Chris Wright; Alaska Senator, as I said, Dan S. Sullivan.
You know, the Democrats put up another man in the race named Dan Sullivan. He's a fraud. Dan Sullivan is a fraud. That Dan Sullivan is a disgraceful fraud. They put it up for confusion and everything else. And I believe he actually tried to get his initial, because his initial, I think, was "J." And he said, "No, I have nothing to do with this." But despite saying he has nothing to do with it, I believe he tried to get his initial made to an "S" so it could be exact. Because it was Dan
S. Sullivan and Daniel J. Sullivan. He tried to get it to be Daniel S.
Daniel S. is the good one. Let's see, how do you remember that? "Super." Right? Super intelligence. [Laughter]
So vote for the guy with "S," because I don't know if the other guy, look—unless he's already got that. It's so corrupt. The Democrats are corrupt.
But Dan Sullivan, the Senator of Alaska, has been a great Senator, and he's been working on this deal and other deals in Alaska, the pipeline, for almost 20 years, and we're now getting it done. And so, I want to thank, in particular, Dan Sullivan for getting this deal done, wherever you may be, Dan.
Senator Daniel S. Sullivan. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.
The President. And I want to thank as well Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, who's fantastic. World's tallest Governor, by the way. [Laughter] He's a tall guy. He's—I think Barron might have you. [Laughter] I have a son who's pretty tall. Have a couple of them, actually, that are tall.
But I want to thank Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy. He's been fantastic—he's a great Governor.
Also, as somebody who's a warrior, Representatives Nick Begich. And he is really a warrior.
We—we've been together in a lot of good fights, and Nick has done a fantastic job. Thank you, Nick.
Representative Nick Begich. Thank you, sir.
The President. Really appreciate it.
Westinghouse CEO, a man who's done unbelievably in bringing the company to a very high level, Dan Summer [Sumner; White House correction]. Dan, thank you.
Secretary of Energy Christopher A. Wright. Dan is over there.
The President. Thank you, Dan. Where are you?
Westinghouse Electric Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Dan Sumner. Thank you, sir. Good to see you. Thank you.
The President. Come here, Dan. Young guy. Look at you. He's a nice, young guy. It's nice to be young, isn't it? [Laughter]
Mr. Sumner. It's great.
The President. Young and very successful. But he's done a great job at Westinghouse.
NextEra CEO John Ketchum. John. Hi, John. How are you, John?
NextEra Energy, Inc., Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer John W. Ketchum.
Good. How are you? Good to see you.
The President. Great job you've done. Great company.
Somebody that I relate to—he's the head of Related. Related is a big real estate company, but he was a competitor of mine and a friend of mine. But he's a real estate man at the highest level. CEO Jeff Blau. Thank you, Jeff.
Related Companies Chief Executive Officer and Partner Jeff T. Blau. Thank you, President.
Thank you.
The President. Great job you've done. He's an unbelievable real estate person, I can tell you. Lewis Energy CEO Rod Lewis. Rod. Hi, Rod.
Lewis Energy Group Founder and Chief Executive Officer Rod Lewis. Hello.
The President. Thank you very much.
Mr. Lewis. Thank you.
The President. And Glenfarne CEO Brendan Duval. Brendan. Hi, Brendan.
Glenfarne Group Chief Executive Officer Brendan Duval. How are you?
The President. Great.
Mr. Duval. Thank you for everything.
The President. A lot of great people in this transaction.
The colossal package of investments we are announcing today is a major step toward securing our critical energy supply chain, ensuring American energy dominance, and making our partnership with South Korea and the entire Pacific region stronger than ever before.
As you know, in our trade agreement with South Korea, they have to invest hundreds of billions of dollars, and for doing that, I reduced their tariffs to 15 percent. But they paid to get them reduced, and part of that money is going into this project. Otherwise, this project is so big, probably—I don't know—maybe the money wouldn't be available, very—very easily available.
But Japan is paying 550 billion, unrelated. Europe pays 650 billion. And South Korea is about $250 billion. It's all money that you never heard about before, but we make great deals. That's what we do. Right, Jeff? [Laughter] Jeff knows that.
The natural gas power plant that will be constructed in Texas will be among the largest ever built anywhere in the world. The eight new nuclear reactors built across the country will solidify our position as the world's leading producer of nuclear power, and we've really taken that lead. Once we were able to show the tremendous safety that's now taking place with respect—it's become safe. And once we were into that, we really pushed and pushed it hard. We're now the leading producer of nuclear power. Pretty amazing, considering we got a very late start over certain countries in Europe.
And by building the Alaska LNG pipeline, we will deliver nearly 4 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas per day, and that makes us—puts us at a level that's not comparable with anyone else. The United States is already the largest natural gas producer and exporter in the world, and this pipeline will help us expand those exports even further.
For five decades, politicians have talked about the Alaska pipeline. I've been hearing about it from the time I'm a little boy. "The Alaska pipeline is going to be built someday." I was always fascinated by it.
But today, with the help of Senator Dan S. Sullivan—and don't get it confused with anybody else. Remember, they put up a fake. It's a fake Sullivan. Guy knows nothing. In fact, I think he just switched to the Republican Party, didn't he? He just switched over.
Sen. Sullivan. Eh, he was never a Republican, Mr. President.
The President. He was never a Republican. He still isn't a Republican.
But we're finally getting it all done. But it just shows you how dirty and disgusting the political game is to do that.
But this alone will be one of the largest energy projects in American history and a gigantic win for the people of Alaska. It will create up to 12,000 construction jobs immediately and 1,000 operational jobs. It will also save Alaska households up to $1,500, maybe even as much as 22—
$2,200 per year on energy costs. It's amazing.
So now I'd like to ask a man—and I have to tell you this because he has an election. It's a crooked deal. It's crooked as hell—I'll say it—when they put up a man with his exact name. They picked him out of a hat. They said, "Anybody named Dan Sullivan in Alaska?" And they put somebody up against him because they know they can't win without cheating. That's what they do is they cheat.
But this is a great Senator who is totally responsible for this pipeline, for what we're doing. So many of the jobs we've done and so many of the jobs—you know, I won Alaska by a lot—many, many points. Did I win it by—how many points? Like, do you know?
Sen. Sullivan. Fifteen, sir.
The President. Yes. How about 22? [Laughter] A lot of points.
So we shouldn't have a problem. But one of the reasons I won is we've done more for Alaska than anybody in history times 10. And this is a man that worked with me by shoulder to shoulder.
But to say a few words, I'd like to ask Secretary Lutnick to start, Secretary Burgum, Secretary Wright, Governor Dunleavy. But I'd like to start with Dan Sullivan.
So he's running for office. He's a spectacular Senator, not just for Alaska. He's great for the—for the world—for our country and the world. What he's done is so important. And he's got my ear, and he's had my ear for a long time on Alaska.
We did so many jobs, between Cove road and all the different things that we got approved that nobody else could have ever. All these energy projects, they're all mine, and I got them done working with Dan Sullivan.
So, Dan, could you say a few words?
Sen. Sullivan. Sure, Mr. President.
The President. And then we'll go to the rest of the group.
Sen. Sullivan. So, Mr. President, I would say this is the most important project in our State by far. This is the project that is going to keep our kids and grandkids in Alaska with a great, bright future. This is the project that our State has been working on to try to get done for almost a half-century. And the reason is it's going to deliver low-cost energy to Alaskans, to our churches, to our schools, our hospitals, our businesses, and we need low-cost energy.
This will—this will deliver low-cost energy to Alaskans for 50 to 100 years. Not to mention our military, which we're all working together to grow our military—a huge military buildup.
They need the energy.
As you said, Mr. President, 12,000 jobs just to build this project. And this could unleash all kinds of other opportunities in Alaska, manufacturing opportunities. The sky is the limit when we get this project done.
And, Mr. President, I want to thank you and your team. You know, you have been focused on this from day one, literally. Your Executive order on unleashing Alaska's extraordinary potential focuses on this Alaska LNG project and pipeline. Your first State of the Union Address, you highlighted how this was a really, really important project for you.
And your team here, they have been absolutely outstanding. All your Cabinet officials, your Chief of Staff, everybody. Howard Lutnick, in particular—Mr. Secretary, thank you.
But, Mr. President, this one is huge for Alaska. It's why I've been, as you mentioned, sir, working on this relentlessly for well before I was a U.S. Senator, because it's the most important thing for my constituents, but it's great for America. This is going to be the biggest LNG project in our country. We'll be able to get gas, of course, to Alaskans first and our military, and we need it, but to our Asian allies.
So, Mr. President, thank you again. And to everybody here, we're going to get this done.
We're going to get this done. This is really exciting for my State, my constituents, and the United States of America.
So thank you again, Mr. President. The President. Thank you very much. Sen. Sullivan. Thank you.
The President. Congratulations. Secretary—thank you, Dan. Great job. Secretary Lutnick, please.
Secretary of Commerce Howard W. Lutnick. Korea is going to invest, with their sovereign money, just under $200 billion in America, in energy infrastructure, to strengthen American energy dominance. Right? This is exactly what the President talked about from the beginning, right? To use our unfair trading relationships around the world—to restructure them, right?
And as the President said, 15-percent tariffs, but $200 billion. So, these projects are being financed, fully paid for by the Korean Government for the benefit of the United States of America.
[At this point, Secretary Lutnick continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]
So I am proud to be up here with these great executives. These are the people that are going to execute it, right? But the number one thing I'm happy about is Dan Sullivan is going to stop calling me every single day—[laughter]—pushing me to get this deal done. So I am really happy that we're going to go on to execution going forward.
So thank you, Mr. President.
The President. Thank you. Thank you. Great job. Thank you. Secretary Doug Burgum, please.
Secretary of the Interior Douglas J. Burgum. Thank you, Mr. President. So much gratitude to share today, the—with—starting with President Trump and Howard Lutnick. As was just described, this is a historic deal that changes the future of Alaska and it changes the future of geopolitics of oil.
Not only are we going to be in a position to lower the price and drive affordability through this strategic piece of national security infrastructure for Alaskans; it also is going to help Hawaii. Hawaii imports their oil today from the Middle East. They're going to be able to import natural gas.
[Secretary Burgum continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]
So, Dan "Super" Sullivan, Governor Dunleavy, Congressman Begich, you guys have been fantastic in helping make this happen. But without Howard Lutnick, Chris Wright, Lee Zeldin,
the whole Cabinet you've assembled—this is a team effort extraordinaire, President Trump. Thank you for your leadership. And a big day for America, a big day for Alaska.
The President. Thank you very much. Thank you, Doug. Thank you. Thank you. Secretary Chris Wright, please.
Secretary Wright. Yes. Today is pure joy. I have been an energy nerd my whole life. The way to make America better is much more energy infrastructure, much more energy resources. President Trump has always been about energy addition, energy expansion.
In his first term, in his campaigns, as a businessman, he got how central energy was. The first time I ever sat in the Oval Office on the other side of the desk from the President, he brought up this project on day one of this new administration and said: "Do you know about this project? We need to build it." And I said: "Unfortunately—fortunately, I do know about this project because I've known Dan Sullivan before I came into politics, and Dan Sullivan talked to me about this project years ago."
[Secretary Wright continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]
But the combination of President Trump—it's just an incredible alignment of stars. Dan Sullivan's relentless pursuit of this project. Governor Dunleavy and Representative Begich, passionate champions. Anyone they meet, they talk about this project. Then Howard Lutnick comes in in a negotiating way to find a way to make this happen. And Secretary Burgum, in charge of the Interior and so many of the lands in Alaska, had to say: "We're going to be practical. How are we going to benefit the environment and build energy infrastructure, make our country better, and save the economic future of Alaska?"
I am thrilled to be partners with all the gentlemen and the businessmen to my left. It is an incredible day for America.
God bless your leadership, President Trump.
The President. Thank you.
Secretary Wright. Same to you, Sullivan, and all my other partners here. Love you guys.
The President. Thank you. Great job. Thank you, Chris.
And we'll maybe not totally finish off because we have a couple of people that I think everybody wants to hear from, but a man who's really been a great Governor and friend of mine: Governor Dunleavy, please.
Governor Michael J. Dunleavy of Alaska. Mr. President, this is an incredible day for the State of Alaska. I have to condense 2 hours of just discussing with the people all the things that your administration has done for this great State.
You have to realize we're only 740,000 people at the top of the world. We could be forgotten. This President, on day one, issued an Executive order for the great State of Alaska, across the board, directing his departments to do everything they could to unleash Alaska's energy.
[Gov. Dunleavy continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]
And I just want to thank Dan Sullivan. Dan Sullivan I knew back in 2012 when he was with the State of Alaska. He had a role as the Department of Natural Resources Commissioner as well as attorney general. He has been working on this gas line since 2012. And everywhere I go, whether it's in Japan, Korea, anywhere here in the United States, Dan Sullivan is there selling Alaska to everybody on how great this State could be.
And I want to thank Dan. I want to thank the President. I want to thank all the Secretaries.
Thank you very much. This has been fantastic.
The President. Thank you very much.
Gov. Dunleavy. Fantastic.
The President. Thank you. Great job.
Mr. Congressman, do you want to say something?
Rep. Begich. You know, at the end of the day, this is a transformative opportunity for the State, for the Nation. And, you know, I think it really speaks to the level of teamwork that we have with the administration and among our delegation. Leaders like Dan Sullivan, like Governor Dunleavy have been pushing this project for years—for years—trying to find a way. And we have found a way to bring that energy to market, to our benefit, to the benefit of the Nation, and to the benefit of so many allies around the world.
We're seeing right now a realignment—a realignment for energy flows globally. And people have recognized that there's a price to be paid when you're rolling the dice in certain areas of the world that aren't as stable as the United States. The United States offers our allies and our friends abroad something that they can't find anywhere else, and that's reliable energy flows. And that's what Alaska is going to bring to the table.
And, Mr. President, I can't thank you enough for being a partner for Alaska. And your Cabinet, incredible work. Secretary Burgum, Secretary Lutnick, Secretary Wright, you have prioritized Alaska from day one. We couldn't have a better partner than you. Thank you.
The President. Thank you very much. Thanks, Nick.
Everybody okay? Does anybody—would anybody like to say anything? Anyone? Do you want to talk about the real estate business for a second? [Laughter]
Mr. Blau. It's all good.
The President. Huh? Good. So——
Secretary Wright. Mr. President.
The President. Yes, please. Please.
Mr. Ketchum. Yes. John Ketchum with NextEra. And this administration has just been amazing in supporting energy dominance across this country. And NextEra is spending a billion dollars a week trying to finance and fund and build the energy infrastructure this country needs, and this announcement today is just an example of what this administration has been able to accomplish.
So thank you so much, Mr. President, for your leadership.
The President. A billion a week? That's a lot of money. [Laughter]
Secretary Wright. That's a lot.
Mr. Ketchum. That's a lot.
The President. Every week? Not every month? Every week?
Mr. Ketchum. Every week.
Secretary Wright. Every week.
The President. Wow. That's pretty good, I think.
Well, the country is doing great. And if it wasn't, you wouldn't be spending a billion a week. [Laughter] Spending a lot less.
All right. Do you have any questions, please? [Several reporters began asking questions at once.] Please, go.
Domestic Oil Production
Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Jennifer Schonberger with Yahoo Finance.
Building on the discussion here, the United States is a net exporter of crude oil, yet California has to rely on foreign crude oil——
The President. Yes, it's crazy.
Q. ——because it doesn't have refineries. And so how much will this new LNG facility help not just with Alaska and Hawaii, but other coffers here in the United States? Do you have any thoughts or plans also on——
The President. Yes, I do. And it's a great question because it's so unfair what California is doing. They closed their refineries. You know they had a lot of refineries. They're actually the third or fourth biggest oil producer in the country. Nobody thinks of California that way. They have a lot of oil in California, but they don't use it because of the environmental lunatics. And this will help the people of California a lot.
You know, they're being charged so much. It's so sad to see, and how they keep electing these people that have no idea what they're doing.
But we have—maybe just very shortly, I could ask Chris Wright because he is an expert on how they've destroyed California and the refineries.
Chris, do you want to give that a quick shot, please?
Secretary Wright. Yes, no, you're right. California has just stood in the way of building any infrastructure, so they can't get oil delivered to the States. We're a net exporter of oil, as you said. They import over 60 percent of their oil from abroad, and then they refine that oil in California until they forced so many of their refineries to close, they can't even produce enough gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, so they're going to have to build a new pipeline to bring refined products to California. While, they were going to be an energy island, they strangled their own oil and gas industry and their refining industry.
So California has been dead set on making energy expensive, impoverishing their citizens, and encouraging all the businesses and people to leave the State. That's just the exact opposite of President Trump's goal, which is lower energy prices to make things more affordable, increase job opportunities to raise wages up.
I don't know why California does what it does. I will tell you the Trump administration has been ceaseless in trying to help the population of Californians. They are Americans. This should not be imposed on them.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Liquid Natural Gas/Oil Markets and Prices/U.S. Military Operations in Iran/Democratic Party
Q. Mr. President, on this project that has been announced today——
The President. Right.
Q. ——two questions. What is the timeline for completing the LNG product—project?
And, secondly, I was in Alaska just a few weeks ago. Energy costs are exceedingly high. Is there any consideration of constructing another oil refinery for gasoline in the State?
The President. Well, this is going to bring those prices down. One of the reasons Alaska prices are going to become—way down.
When do you see completion of the job, fellas?
Mr. Duval. Well, the pipeline is going to take 3 years, and we can start immediately as soon as this financing funds.
The President. Right.
Mr. Duval. So, 3 years, we'll have cheap gas for Alaska, which will be the lowest price in probably 20 years—the gas we can deliver. And then the LNG we'll start exporting roughly 2 years after that. So roughly 5 years from LNG export.
The President. Gasoline prices in Alaska are going to tumble. Well, as soon as the war ends, which is going to be soon—the Iran war—prices are going to come way down regardless. But gasoline prices, because of this project and a couple of others, in Alaska are going to tumble.
Now, if the Democrats come along, I can't speak to that. They will—you're going to have double. They'll—prices will double if they come along. You'll end up in a depression, recession, something very bad.
They have the worst policy. That's why they haven't gotten elected. People have to understand what's happening. If they—if anything were done to hurt Alaska, the prices would go up so high.
And remember, our gasoline prices—having stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon, our gasoline prices are lower than Biden, and he didn't stop from nuclear weapons. When the war is over, which will be very soon, gasoline prices are going to drop like a rock.
Yes, please.
Republican National Committee Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas
Q. On the midterms, Mr. President. There was a report that Ken Paxton was complaining about your midterm convention, and he felt like it hurt him. What's your reaction to that?
The President. Well, I haven't heard that, but I can tell you that the convention was amazing, as you probably know. We had 107 million views. Think of that: We had over 100 million views—I think 107. The NFL had 25 million views. So, we had four times what the NFL did.
And you know, it's possible that could be true. I don't know if it's possible. But other people were helped greatly. This was a national convention. A midterm convention—never been done before. And we went directly against the NFL. It was—just the timing worked out that way. And we had 107 million versus 25 million views, which was a big story in the entertainment world and sports world.
So I think the convention—I would imagine they'd do it again, often. Somebody said it won't do as well because I won't be around, but I'll be around in some form. I don't know what form I'm going to be around in. But the convention, you know, just based on the views that it got, it was the most-watched thing on television, and that included the NFL, which is pretty amazing.
Q. Mr. President——
President Xi Jinping of China
Q. Mr. President, last week, with—in your meeting with Xi, did you discuss the release of political prisoners such as American Min Zin and Jimmy Lai?
The President. I did. I did. I did with President Xi. I did. We talked, and I think we had some very important discussions. Hopefully, fruitful discussions.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Cockpit Stabbing Incident Aboard a Flydubai Flight Bound for Tel Aviv, Israel
Q. Mr. President, I have a question about Flydubai and then about your new ads. Have you spoken to Prime Minister Netanyahu yet about the incident on the Flydubai plane?
The President. Yes.
Q. And what do you think the pilot was trying to do?
The President. I think it's an incredible story. It seems—I mean, I can relate the story, but you're better off getting it from him. But, by this time, I guess they have a lot of fake stories out there, and, you know, you never know what's happening.
But I did speak to Bibi Netanyahu at length about this event, and it seems as though the copilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job, and he stabbed the pilot. The pilot was in very bad shape, and I guess he still is in very bad shape.
But he had the sense to—amazing—to—in a way, he was a hero—to open the door. You know, those doors are solid steel. You can't get them open from outside. He was able to fall back and get the door open and scream.
And a plumber—an Israeli plumber—never flew a plane, was rarely in planes, very rarely flew. An Israeli plumber saw what was happening—and strong. You know, when you lift pipe all day, you're strong. And he saw what was going on, and he heard the screaming. He was toward the front, where you had security in the back. You know, you had security, and you had another flight crew, but they didn't have time.
The plane was going sharply down at an unbelievable angle, so sharp that the rudder ripped off the back of the plane. The plane wasn't designed to go at a speed anywhere near that, and so it was well beyond its limits. And he ripped—with the g forces as they were, he ripped this guy out of the seat, threw him back. The crowd got him. The passengers got him, grabbed him.
And having never flown a plane, he took the stick, lifted it up, and leveled out the plane before it crashed.
Now this is the story that I heard. I don't know if it's true, but that's the story that I got from Bibi and from a couple of—probably early; I don't know if you've heard that story yet. I think it's an amazing—so a plumber never flew a plane. Strong guy. Lift him up, throw him back. The crowd was—was—I mean, they knew they were going to die shortly because the g forces. But they were able to hold him, because he was going crazy. And he was crazy.
And this plumber, never having flown a plane, had the sense to lift a stick. Who would—and you know, it's not like—planes are different today. You used to have a little steering wheel, whatever. Today they fly differently.
And when I asked why he did that, he said he watches that show, "Air Disasters." [Laughter] You know the show? It's a crazy show. I never want to watch it——
Secretary Lutnick. Wow.
The President. ——because if I watch it——
Rep. Begich. That's crazy.
The President. I don't like watching it because bad things happen.
But he said he watches it a lot, and he learned from watching that show sort of how to fly. I mean, you tell me. This is the craziest thing.
And then shortly thereafter, the pilots, you know, that were there, in case—they have emergency pilots on these planes, and the security guys, but they were in the back of the plane. They came up; they took over the plane. I think it's the most amazing story.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Q. Did he want to crash the plane into Tel Aviv?
The President. They said he wanted to crash. They don't know that—they don't know that kind of information.
But, supposedly, a plumber grabbed the stick, and through watching this unbelievably crazy show—I watched it numerous times, actually; I don't want to watch it, although now maybe I will start watching it. [Laughter] Well, now maybe I will start watching it. But he learned about flying, you know, because they'd always talk about "this should have happened, that should have"—he grabbed the stick, pulled it up, leveled out the plane before it crashed.
I think it's like—Jeff, I think it's true.
Mr. Blau. It's pretty incredible.
The President. And he happened to be a Jewish plumber. Jeff is very proud of him. [Laughter] A Jewish—he's a Jewish plumber, Jeff.
Mr. Blau. There you go.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
The President. Yes, please.
Poverty Rate/Household Incomes/Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz
Q. Thank you, sir. Last year, U.S. reported the lowest property rate on record——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——and medium house—median household incomes went up to a new record.
The President. Right.
Q. With this investment that you're announcing today, as well as the trillions of other invest—dollars of investments you've announced over the last year——
The President. Right.
Q. ——how do you expect that trend to continue? Is that what you presently—
The President. I think it's great. Thank you for that question.
So we announced the lowest poverty rate in the history of our country, the best numbers we've ever had, and we've also announced the best individual income numbers. In other words, people—individual—their individual income was higher than at any point. Higher than inflation, by the way. And our inflation numbers are way down, other than for oil, which is still lower than Biden but is coming down rapidly.
And, as you probably noticed, we've taken out, over the last couple of days, more oil than we took out during the prewar days from the Hormuz Strait. Taken out a lot of oil. And so far, there's not a thing they could do to stop us. It's pretty—pretty amazing.
I think our Navy has been incredible, and I think—and our military is truly in a class by itself.
[Several reporters spoke at once.] Go ahead, please.
Immigration Enforcement Actions/Inflation
Q. Mr. President, yesterday the Supreme Court lifted a ban on deportations to third countries——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——for migrants. I just wanted to see if you have a comment about that decision. And are you hopeful that the courts in Massachusetts will—[inaudible]——
The President. Well, we're going to see what happens. Look, you never know with this kind of thing, but we—we got a little help. We've done a great job on getting criminals out of our country, but we have to fight the court system quite a bit, and so we get a little help every once in a while, and that was good.
But you know, we had 25 million people that the Democrats, Biden, the Biden administration allowed with their border czar, Kamala, who never spoke to the Border Patrol. Not one call to Border Patrol. Not one visit to the border. She was the czar for 4 years. She was the border czar.
And we had people coming in from all over the world. They came in from the Congo. They come in from all over the world. The Congo in Africa, I don't know what it is, but they came in. Look, I made peace between Rwanda and the Congo, but I told the head of the Congo—he's a good guy, actually—I said, "You sent us a lot of your people from prisons." And they did.
But they sent from all over South America, from all over the world. They emptied their prisons into our country, and we've gotten a lot—I would say it's the most difficult job I have. We've gotten—because we have to fight the court system, and you get some of these judges that are just terrible. They'd just rather—like, superliberal and terrible. They make it very difficult.
But despite that, we've gotten many of the bad ones out. I would say most of the really bad. We're going for the bad ones: the murderers, the drug dealers. We got them out of the country. In some cases, they're so evil. We had 11,888 murderers, and we got them mostly out. Some are still out, but we're on the hunt for them. And we've done an amazing job. Nobody can believe it.
The biggest inflation we've got—way down, and I inherited the worst inflation in history. The Democrats caused the highest prices in history. And they have—it's considered the worst inflation in history, and we have it down now to a very good number. We're going to get it down still further, and when the war ends, oil is going to bring it down into a really low number, and oil prices are going to go down tremendously.
But I——
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
But I appreciate your question. We've done a great job on getting criminals removed from our country.
Security Incident at Royal Air Force Base in Fairford, United Kingdom
Q. Mr. President, on Iran, the U.K. has just said that Iran played a role in that incident at RAF Fairford. Are you planning any kind of response to Tehran as a result of that?
The President. They said Iran played a role?
Q. They said that Iran——
The President. Did they say Iran played a role?
Q. ——played a role in that incident at RAF Fairford, where the U.S. is using that base.
The President. Yes.
Q. Are you planning any response to Tehran? And are you——
The President. Well, we are.
Q. ——satisfied with how the U.K. is handling this?
The President. Look, we are studying it right now. We're studying it, and we're studying it very hard.
Iran has got a lot of problems right now. You know, they have no money. Their currency is dead. Their economy is dead. Their military is gone. They have no military. They have no navy. They have no air force. And their leaders are fighting for control. I think their leaders are fighting very strongly for control, but control of what?
So—but we'll have an answer to that very quickly.
Q. And, Mr. President, are you satisfied by how the U.K. is responding to this?
The President. About the U.K.?
Q. Are you satisfied with how the U.K. has been responding to this since the——
The President. Well, no, the U.K. did release a number of people that we caught wanting to blow up a base. We caught them early, and I'm trying to figure out if that's for real that they actually did it. Maybe they did it for a reason, but we're going to know about that this afternoon.
So we'll report on it.\
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Iran/U.S. Diplomatic Engagement
Q. Mr. President, you have described the Iranians that the U.S. is dealing with as "crazy." How do you get a deal done when the counterparts to the U.S. are crazy, irrational, whatever you want to use to describe them?
The President. Maybe you blow them up. Maybe you blow them up. We have to make that decision. We blow them up or make a deal. But the time is coming. It's going to end very soon, one way or the other.
[Several reporters spoke at once.] Yes, please.
2026 Midterm Elections
Q. Thank you. I know that you're starting to travel into more Republican-friendly States this week——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——as you go on the campaign trail. Do you think, one, that's a sign that Republicans are in trouble ahead of the midterms? And do you have a planned date for when you're going to go to Alaska, as you said?
The President. Well, I only see that, for whatever reason—I don't understand it, nobody does; nobody has been able to explain it—whoever wins the Presidency, Republican or Democrat, automatically does poorly in the midterms. I don't know why. You know that. But we shouldn't.
We have—I think we had the most consequential Presidency, maybe one of the most ever. Maybe some people say the most consequential. Look at what we're doing now. We're building plants and factories all over the Nation. We have record employment numbers. We have more people working in the United States today than at any point in the history of our country by far. We are booming.
You know, I use the expression from the King of Saudi Arabia, but others said almost the exact words. He said at the time—and is referring to a different time period, but at the time, he said, "Sir, 1 year ago"—again, he said it a year ago, so we're talking about 2 years. I don't want you to get that wrong. But he said a year ago: "1 year ago, during the Biden administration. You were a dead country. You were dead. We never thought you had a chance, and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world." And we're a lot hotter now than a year ago when he made the statement.
So they said it, and they say it to this day: "We thought you were a dead country, and now you're the hottest country." We're the hottest country in the world. There's nobody close. And we have the best military, the strongest military, and we have the best economy anywhere in the world. There's no economy like this economy. And the only thing we don't have is good public relations.
Q. But, Mr.——
The President. We don't seem to be able to get the word across that we have more people working than ever before. We have the best job numbers than ever before, and we don't get the word across, and that's because the press doesn't want us to get the word across. And you know, press has to become real news, not fake news.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Yes, go ahead. Jeff [Jeff Mason, Bloomberg News].
Federal Reserve System
Q. Thank you, sir. You made a post today about Jay Powell saying you wanted him——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——to "be forced to resign." Do you expect Kevin Warsh to help with that?
The President. I don't know. I mean, I'm going to—you know, Kevin is going to do his own thing, but Jay Powell is a disaster. He's a—I call him "Too Late" because he was too late with interest rates. He wasn't good. But he took a building. It's too bad you didn't work on that building, Jeff. It's a small complex of buildings. Going to end up spending 3½ to 4 billion dollars——
Mr. Blau. That's a lot.
The President. ——to renovate, not to build them. To renovate.
He could have done it for $50 million. I think I could have done it for $25 million. I would have left the walls. I would have left those gorgeous ceilings. We would have spackled them up and fixed them up and painted them up, and they would have been beautiful. They would have been good for another hundred years. They ripped them down, and now they're putting up sheetrock, just straight sheetrock.
No, they're going to be—he's a great real estate man, one of the best. And say hello to Steve too, by the way.
Mr. Blau. Will do.
The President. A great real estate man also.
But they would have fixed up that building for, I say, 25 to 50. You would have had new electric, new air conditioning—new everything, and they wouldn't have been ripping down gorgeous eagles all over the ceiling. They would have had it—they ripped them down, Jeff. And when it ripped down, then the walls came tumbling down, and all of that beautiful work.
They had foot-and-a-half-thick walls, masonry walls. Now they have sheetrock. [Laughter].
Now they put up some sheetrock, Jeff, with no insulation. And the reason they have no insulation—he said it wasn't in the budget. Wasn't in the budget. You know what insulation—insulation is a penny a foot. It's horrible what they've done.
He's incompetent, and a man that's incompetent should not be sitting on the Federal Reserve Board.
And I get—I'm sure that Todd and everybody is going to be looking, because the report was a pretty bad report. The report said they did—they did a bad job. They didn't know what they were doing.
Yes, please.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Advertisements Promoting Administration Policies
Q. Mr. President, DHS is spending millions of dollars on new ads about you. And your critics say those ads might violate Federal propaganda laws.
The President. Well, when——
Q. Why should U.S. taxpayers pay for that?
The President. When you look at them—no, well, I'm not running for office, first of all.
Q. Right.
The President. And so the ads are, you know, given by me, but I'm not running for office, and I don't talk about anybody. If I was talking about Dan Sullivan, if I was talking about anybody behind me that's a politician, like Nick, if I ran, that's a political ad. But when I'm talking about making America great, making our country great, that's a countrywide ad. That's an ad for the spirit of our country.
Now, if somebody said that that's wrong, I'll gladly pay the money. But these are ads for the country. These aren't ads——
Q. But is it a good use of taxpayer dollars?
The President. I'm not promoting—you have to understand, I'm not promoting a candidate.
I'm not promoting myself because I'm not running for office. I'm promoting the country.
Musician Willie Nelson
Q. Mr. President, right here. Mr. President, thank you. Willie Nelson with Salem Media.
The President. Willie Nelson. Are you related to the Willie Nelson?
Q. No. It is a family name though. So it's——
The President. Too bad. Yes.
Q. Yes, have you met him before?
The President. He's a good man. Yes, I have.
Q. Yes?
The President. He's a good man. Go ahead.
Los Angeles, California, Mayoral Campaign/Election Reforms
Q. So, Mr. President, in my home city of Los Angeles, the mayor's race is Karen Bass versus Nithya Raman. One let the Palisades burn. The other is a DSA Socialist. A lot of LA voters hate both choices. What's your reaction to that?
The President. Well, I thought Spencer did really well. I mean, Spencer Pratt. I thought he did really—he's a great guy. He worked really hard. And it looked like he was in the runoff easily, at least in the runoff. But then the fake votes kicked in. It was a fake vote. And I told him—I said the one thing—I didn't know Spencer Pratt, but I thought he ran well. He had a lot of spirit. He had a lot of common sense. He was going to clean up crime, clean up the filthy streets and everything else.
And the night of the election, he—you know, he was in the runoff. It was obvious. But the election never ended. They kept getting more and more votes. And, all of a sudden, I started hearing—in fact, the woman who came in second was crying profusely that night that she lost. She knew she lost. Everybody knew she lost. Then all of a sudden, 2 weeks later, she's in the runoff.
Look, our elections are a disgrace. We should have the SAVE America Act. We should have voter ID. We should have proof of citizenship. I appreciate the question.
So I'm watching this race between two extremely liberal women, to put it mildly, and I don't know who's going to win. But I thought Spencer Pratt did a great job. I mean, I—it's amazing.
The night of the election, that night—now, that election never ended because they were getting votes after that. But the night of the election, the woman was crying profusely that she lost, and she lost by a lot. But, all of a sudden, she surged. And you know, it's one thing for somebody to surge if you have—nobody ever heard of her. When a person that nobody ever heard of surges, you know what that means? Rigged election.
So she surged. She got tremendous—thousands and thousands of votes out of nowhere, and she beat out Spencer Pratt for the runoff.
No, it was very crooked. California has a very crooked election system. And if we had an honest election, Republicans would win. I would have won. I would have won—if California—I got millions of votes, but I would have won California. If that were an honest system, I would have won.
Go ahead.
Q. I wanted to also ask, Mr. President——
The President. I like this guy. That's why I ask him. [Laughter] Some guys I like.
Q. Mr.——
Like him, I like a couple of people over here. Most of them I don't like.
Artificial Intelligence
Q. Thank you. Mr. President, you just signed the super intelligence agreement with the tech industry leaders.
The President. Yes.
Q. Do you think Democrats drop that "end of the world" talk now, or is that their midterm message?
The President. The Democrats are a hoax. Whoever wins super intelligence—we've changed the name officially, by the way. I signed the document. We don't call it artificial intelligence because it's not artificial. It's real. It's a terrible word. It's amazing it lived on so long, actually. I used to talk about it 2, 3 years ago, and I said, "Why do these brilliant people allow that word?" It's a very inaccurate word. It's super intelligence. In fact, it's, in some ways, too super. But it's real intelligence. It's, you know, very, very real intelligence.
So I changed it, and they were—they were all agreed; we talked about it yesterday. I had a room yesterday that was—I don't think there will ever be another room like that. That was—that was a who's who, and they all agreed that that would be a great word. We looked at "superior intelligence." We looked at "supreme intelligence," but I didn't want to mix it up with the Supreme Court—get myself in trouble. [Laughter] I don't do so well there anyway, but get myself in a little trouble.
But we had "supreme." We had "superior." We had "extreme intelligence." And we had "super," and "super" was the best word by virtually everybody. And so now it's not called what we had: "artificial." Artificial means it's fake, like the press. I call the press artificial media. I'm changing it from crooked to artificial media.
Artificial means it's fake or it's false, and this is not. This is real. So—and I think it's going to be great. I spoke to President Xi about it—he agrees on the name, by the way. But I spoke to President Xi about the whole thing. They're going full blast.
Look, if we want to destroy our country, then we should stop. This is bigger than the Industrial Revolution, and largely for good. And they're going to police, and they're going to police each other, and they're going to self-police. They're going to police themselves. It's going to work out very well.
But we're leading China by a lot, and if we start doing what some people would like us to do
—I mean, Bernie Sanders said, "Stop all work immediately." Well, you can't stop work. If you stop work, somebody is going to do it. And whoever wins super intelligence wins. That's it. You know? Used to say whoever wins the other. But whoever wins super intelligence wins.
And right now, there are two players: It's us and China. There practically is no third. It's between the two of us, and it always will be. But we're leading them by a lot, and the Chinese know that, and I don't think they're too happy about it. But we're leading them by a lot. And remember, whoever wins super intelligent wins.
Okay.
[Several reporters spoke at once.]
Alaska Senate Election
Q. Mr. President, you won—you won Alaska by substantial margins all three times you ran for President, 13½ points in 2024. Why do you suppose the Senate race involving Senator Sullivan is as close as polls show it is right now?
The President. Because the people of Alaska, who I love, don't know how good he is. He's really good. He would call me constantly, talk to me constantly about this project that we did today. This was an incredible project. It's the biggest in the world, and he would call me constantly. He didn't want us to forget about it. He was—he did a great job as Governor.
If the people of Alaska knew what I know—and I know the real facts—there wouldn't even be a race. There wouldn't be a race. And plus, I'm, you know, very concerned about that crazy voting system they have up there. That bothers me. And it bothers me that we have another candidate, that the Democrats put in, named Dan Sullivan. It's a fraud. I'm surprised the courts allowed it. They put some little caveats on—but I'm surprised the courts allowed it to happen.
It's very fraudulent, in my opinion. But he's so good that I think he's going to go through the fraud. I think he's going to just—I mean, just to answer your question. If people knew how good Senator Daniel Sullivan was, there would be no race.
Okay, anybody else?
[Several reporters spoke at once.] Go ahead.
Secretary of the Treasury Scott K.H. Bessent
Q. The Treasury tomorrow is going to be giving you auction sizes out for long-term bond yields, and my question is: Would you like to see the Treasury reduce the size of auctions for long-term dated Treasury—[inaudible]?
The President. Well, it's—Scott has done a terrific job, and, you know, he likes doing what he does, and he has a good instinct for it. So do I. I think he's doing a great job. I mean, we'll see how it all——
Q. But would you like to see——
The President. We'll see how it all works out. Jeff, go ahead.
Diesel Exports/Oil Markets and Prices/Iran
Q. Mr. President, have you decided to ban diesel exports?
The President. Diesel?
Q. Diesel exports.
The President. I'm thinking about it. I speak to Chris and Doug about it a lot. They sort of think it's—it will help diesel, but it might raise the price of other things. And I think we're in a good place because oil prices are going to start to come down. Tremendous oil is coming out of the Hormuz Strait now. We're running it. We're literally running it. We have total control. I guess that's always subject to change, you know? One mind—if they drop one mine and they say this a mine they ship, you know, they don't want to take their billion-dollar ships through the Hormuz Strait.
But again—and you know we had more oil coming out over the last 2 days than any time in history. That's long before we stopped them from having a nuclear weapon.
But would either of you two guys like to give Jeff an answer to that?
Secretary Wright. So we—as the President said, we work every day for weeks, for months on this issue. And you've seen diesel prices come down the last week. I think you'll see them move meaningfully down in the coming weeks and days, and we'll have some announcements about that.
But yes, we're tight on diesel because we've lost diesel exports from Russia. We've lost diesel—some diesel exports from the Middle East, although we're restoring those. And we've lost diesel exports from China. So that's a lot of interruptions.
But American refiners are running at record highs, and you will hear announcements from our friends in Europe about new diesel supplies that will come to the market. That will meaningfully push diesel prices down.
Russia/Ukraine
Q. So is it fair to say you've advised against that and you're not going to do that?
The President. No, I mean, I think it's something that we think about and we talk about every day. But it just seems that it would have a negative impact on gasoline. So that would go up a little bit and diesel would come down a little bit. And we think we're in a very good place. It's going to start to come in.
You know, diesel is really hurt much more not by the Middle East, but by what's going on in Russia, because those diesel refineries are being knocked out at a pretty alarming rate. And if that didn't happen, we wouldn't have a diesel problem. What's happened in Russia with Ukraine has been really the biggest problem for diesel.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. [Several reporters spoke at once.]
Former National Basketball Association Power Forward Dennis Rodman
Q. Are you meeting with Dennis Rodman?
The President. Somebody told me I am. He's a nice guy. [Laughter]
Q. About Kim Jong Un?
The President. Oh, I don't know that. I don't know. But he's a good guy. Dennis is good guy. Thank you very much, everybody.
Senator Lisa A. Murkowski
Q. Mr. President, where's Senator Murkowski?
The President. I don't know.
NOTE: The President spoke at 4:26 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Ali Falih Kadhim al-Zaydi of Iraq; Alaska senatorial candidate Daniel
J. Sullivan, Jr., an unaffiliated challenger on the general-election ballot; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel; Hamam al-Hammami, copilot, and Smit Machchhar, pilot, of Flydubai flight 1073 from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Tel Aviv, Israel, on September 30, during which Mr. Hammami reportedly attacked and wounded Mr. Machchhar in a thwarted attempt to hijack the
aircraft, and Yaniv Hayoun, a passenger aboard the flight who assisted in taking control of the aircraft; former Vice President Kamala D. Harris; President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombohe of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia; Kevin M. Warsh, Chairman, and Jerome H. Powell, member and former Chairman, Federal Reserve System Board of Governors; Stephen M. Ross, founder and nonexecutive chairman, Related Companies; Attorney General Todd W. Blanche; former Los Angeles, CA, mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt; Los Angeles, CA, mayoral candidates Mayor Karen R. Bass and city councilmember Nithya V. Raman; and Sen. Bernard Sanders. He also referred to his son Barron; the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization; and S. 1383. Sen.
Sullivan referred to White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles. Reporters referred to Texas Republican senatorial candidate State Attorney General W. Kenneth Paxton, Jr.; Min Zin, executive director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy–Myanmar, and Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong businessman and politician, who are both currently detained in China; and State Affairs Commission President Kim Jong Un of North Korea. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on October 1.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Domestic energy production. Locations: Washington, DC.
Names: Bass, Karen R.; Begich, Nick; Bessent, Scott K.H.; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Blanche, Todd W.; Blau, Jeff T.; Burgum, Douglas J.; Dunleavy, Michael J.; Duval, Brendan; Hammami, Hamam al-; Harris, Kamala D.; Hayoun, Yaniv; Ketchum, John W.; Kim Jong Un; Lewis, Rod; Lutnick, Howard W.; Machchhar, Smit; Nelson, Willie; Netanyahu, Benjamin; Powell, Jerome H.; Pratt, Spencer; Raman, Nithya V.; Rodman, Dennis; Ross, Stephen M.; Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, King; Sanders, Bernard; Sullivan, Daniel J., Jr.; Sullivan, Daniel S.; Sumner, Dan; Trump, Barron W.; Tshisekedi Tshilombohe, Felix-Antoine; Warsh, Kevin M.; Wright, Christopher A.; Xi Jinping; Zaydi, Ali Falih Kadhim al-.
Subjects: 2026 midterm elections; Alaska, Governor; Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies; Attorney General; China, President; Congo, Democratic Republic of the, relations with Rwanda; Congo, President; Domestic energy production; Economic improvement; Election security and integrity, strengthening efforts; European Union, trade with U.S.; Federal Reserve System; Football; Gasoline costs; Government accountability and transparency; Household income and wages; Illegal immigration; Inflation; Interest rates; Iran, commercial transit through Strait of Hormuz; Iran, nuclear weapons program; Iran, U.S. diplomatic engagement; Iran, U.S. military operations; Iraq, Prime Minister; Iraq, withdrawal of U.S. military forces; Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization; Israel, cockpit stabbing incident aboard Flydubai flight for Tel Aviv; Israel, Prime Minister; Japan, investment and business ventures in U.S.; Job creation and growth; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; News media, fairness and accuracy; North Korea, State Affairs Commission President; Nuclear energy, expansion efforts; Oil and natural gas, domestic production; Oil markets and prices; Poverty reduction efforts; Russia, conflict in Ukraine; Rwanda, relations with Democratic Republic of the Congo; Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act; Saudi Arabia, King; Secretary of Commerce; Secretary of Energy; Secretary of the Interior; Secretary of the Treasury; South Korea, energy infrastructure investment in U.S.; Tariffs; Texas, Republican National Committee Midterm Convention in Dallas; U.S. Border Patrol; U.S. servicemembers, service and dedication; Undocumented immigrants, deportation of criminals; United Arab Emirates, cockpit stabbing incident aboard Flydubai flight for Tel Aviv; United Kingdom, security incident at RAF Fairford; Venezuela, U.S. military capture and exfiltration of President Maduro.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600658.