Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters Prior to Departure for Bedminster, New Jersey

The President. Hello, everybody.

So we had a big day. We gave out the world's greatest fighter jet—by far, they say. I think in terms of every criteria known to man, it's the best. Now, that doesn't mean, in 5 years, it'll be good. It will be totally obsolete in 5 years, I guess, but that's the way it works.

But there's never been a plane designed or made like this, and we'll have them within about a 2-year period. They're going to start manufacturing very soon. So we're honored by that.

We are moving along on Russia-Ukraine. We had a couple of good conversations today, and maybe we can get that death march stopped as soon as possible.

And we're going to Bedminster now for work. We have some work. It's a little cold there right now. It's a little early, but we'll be going to Bedminster, and we'll be coming back here.

We're going to the big fight. The reason I'm going is, in Philadelphia, they have the NCAA world wrestling for college, and we—I've always supported the wrestlers, so I want to support them. These are the great college wrestlers from the various schools. I think Penn State is leading and Nebraska is in second place right now, and a lot of good things.

So we're going to be going there on Saturday night, and then probably down to either here or "southern White House." So we're going to have a little—we're going to have a little fun.

But it was a great honor to give out that plane. The technology is unbelievable. There's never been anything like it. It puts us 10 years ahead of any other country in terms of the fighter jets.

Thank you very much. We'll see you later. Thank you.

[At this point, several reporters began asking questions at once.]

Russia/Ukraine

Q. [Inaudible] Did you give him a week to get the cease-fire done?

The President. Say it.

Q. Did you give Putin a deadline for the cease-fire?

The President. Not a deadline, but I think we'll have one. I think—you know, they're going at it pretty heavy right now, as you probably saw—both of them. But I think we'll have it done fairly soon.

Q. Mr. President, why do you want to control the power plants?

National Collegiate Athletic Association Basketball

Q. President Trump, did you fill out a NCAA March Madness bracket?

The President. I didn't. I should have. Have there been upsets? A couple, right?

Q. Too late now.

The President. A little bit late.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

The President. I should give you one, but maybe backdate it, right?

Q. Mr. President, Ukraine's power plants.

Q. Why won't you——

Immigration Enforcement Actions

Q. Are you at all concerned that anyone on those deportation flights on Saturday was not a gang member or does not belong in that prison? Are you concerned about that possibility?

The President. Oh, well, they checked them very carefully. There's some bad people on those flights.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. Mr. President, why won't you impose sanctions on Russia after Putin rejected your ceasefire offer?

The President. He didn't reject anything, and they do have sanctions. They have a lot of sanctions. They have just about more sanctions than anybody.

Q. Can you tell me your plans for the military?

Immigration Enforcement Actions

Q. It doesn't sound—it doesn't sound like this judge, who the DOJ is arguing with today about the deportation flights—he wants to know why the proclamation was "signed in the dark," his words, and why people were rushed onto planes.

The President. Because we want to get criminals out of our country, number one. And I don't know when it was signed, because I didn't sign it. Other people handled it.

But Marco Rubio has done a great job, and he wanted them out, and we go along with that. We want to get criminals out of our country.

Immigration Enforcement Actions

Q. If there was a flight, like, tonight with these—even though it's still being litigated, if there was a flight tonight full of accused gang members and somebody called and said, "Mr. President, I know that this is still being adjudicated, but we can get these guys down to El Salvador right now," would you say that that's okay?

The President. I would say that I'd have the Secretary of State handle it, because I'm not really involved in that. But the concept of getting bad people—murderers, rapists, drug dealers, all of the—these are really some bad people—out of our country, I ran on that. I won on that. I got a margin like—you know, you reported it very well. Everybody did. We—won all seven swing States. We won the popular vote. We won everything.

And a big part of that was exactly this: Getting bad people that shouldn't have been allowed into our country. Biden allowed them in. What they should be asking—this judge—this radical-left judge, he should be saying, "Why did Biden allow these criminals in our country?" That's what he should be doing.

Thank you. I'll see you later.