Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters Upon Arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland

The President. That was a great trip to a fantastic place: the Commonwealth, Pennsylvania. The steelworkers are very happy we did the tariffs. It's going to put them even—make them even more competitive. And it's turning out to be a great deal. I think it's going to be a fantastic deal.

Seventeen million dollars is—seventeen billion dollars is being invested for new steel mills, new everything. And it's going to be something special. So that was in honor of the steelworkers of Pennsylvania, and it was a fantastic time.

We had a great day, and it is raining quite hard, but that's okay.

How are you? Go ahead.

U.S. Steel Industry

Q. Sir, can you make Pennsylvania the steel capital of the world again?

The President. I think that's going to happen. I think it's——

Q. What's it going to take?

The President. ——going to happen.

Not much. We just had $17 billion given. And again, we're going to have control in the U.S. It's going to be a U.S.A. deal. The board is controlled. More importantly, the money is built—you know, it's spent on facilities. You can't take them and leave and "Let's put them on a boat."

Somebody said: "Well, what about that? Supposing they leave?" Well, the money is invested on the—you know, on brick-and-mortar. You can't lift it up and take it.

But I think, much more importantly, that's going to be a great partnership. And the company, Nippon, is coming in with $17 billion plus. So it's going to be fantastic for all steelworkers.

Nippon Steel/U.S. Steel Corporation

Q. But is the—is it an acquisition? Is Nippon acquiring U.S. Steel?

The President. This is an investment. It's controlled by the United States, and, more importantly, they're spending the money on brick-and-mortar. You can't take it. What are you going to do? Pick it up and move it to Japan? That's not going to happen.

Q. But they will own U.S. Steel?

The President. And you know, I rejected this about four times now, and when they finally got it right, I liked it a lot. And you could see how happy the steelworkers were. More importantly, you could see, from the union standpoint, the union loved it.

U.S. Steel Corporation/Domestic Manufacturing Jobs

Q. Well, it leads to thousands of—it means thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania, right?

The President. Thousands. Thousands—many thousands of jobs.

Q. [Inaudible]——for the State of Pennsylvania going forward.

The President. That's right. I like this man. [Laughter] I like—thank you.

White House Senior Adviser Elon R. Musk

Q. Mr. President, were you aware of Elon Musk's regular drug use?

The President. No, I wasn't. I think he's fantastic. I think Elon is a fantastic guy. And——

Q. Are you troubled by these reports?

The President. ——I wasn't—I'm not troubled by anything with Elon. I think he's fantastic. Did a great job.

And, you know, DOGE continues, and by the time it's finished, we'll have numbers that'll knock your socks off. It's going to be—he did a fantastic job. And he didn't need it. He didn't need to do it.

U.S. DOGE Service

Q. How do you replace him?

Q. Is the steel deal final? Has it been finalized?

The President. He's not easily replaced. He really isn't.

U.S. Steel Corporation

Q. Has the Nippon deal been finalized and signed off on?

The President. No, I have to approve the final deal.

Q. How will the—how will it stay in U.S. ownership? Is the U.S. a chairman?

The President. Well, you'll see. I mean—but I have to approve the final deal with Nippon. And we haven't seen that final deal yet, but they've made a very big commitment, and it's a very big investment. It's the largest investment in the history of the State of Pennsylvania—in any deal, not just steel. And it's thousands of steelworkers—and not only there, all throughout the country.

Russia

Q. Mr. President, do you support the Lindsey Graham-Blumenthal bill that would levy sanctions on Russia?

The President. I don't know. I have to see it. I'll take a look at it.

Cease-Fire and Hostage-Release Deal Between Israel and Hamas

Q. Are you confident that your proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza that was just submitted this week will get approved by Hamas?

The President. I think they want to—they want to get out of that mess. They're in a big mess. I think they want to get out of it.

Japan-U.S. Trade/India/Pakistan

Q. Should we anticipate any trade deals next week at all? And does this deal today with Nippon, sort of overall, help your talks with Japan?

The President. Well, Japan very much wants to make a trade deal. I don't think this has much to do with it, but certainly, it certainly won't hurt, because we have a very good relationship with Japan. But as you know, Japan is in there right now negotiating as we speak, and they want to very much make a deal.

I think the deal I'm most proud of is the fact that we're dealing with India, we're dealing with Pakistan, and we were able to stop, potentially, a nuclear war through trade as opposed through bullets.

You know, normally they do it through bullets. We do it through trade. So I'm very proud of that. Nobody talks about it, but we had a very nasty potential war going on between Pakistan and India, and now, if you look, they're doing fine. That was getting very bad. That was getting very nasty. They're both nuclear powers.

The Pakistan representatives are coming in next week. And India—as you know, we're very close to making a deal with India.

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

And I wouldn't have any interest in making a deal with either if they were going to be at war with each other. I would not, and I let them know.

Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada

Q. And what would your message be to—your message to the G–7 here in 2 weeks? You're going to Canada. Mark Carney up there obviously has a——

The President. I will, yes.

Q. ——different view of the world than you do—[laughter]——

The President. He does.

Q. ——when it comes to energy, clearly. What's your message going to be at G–7 here in a couple weeks?

The President. Well, it's in Canada. And he's a very nice guy, by the way—Mark Carney. I think he's really a very nice person, and we've had some good talks.

We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens.

White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles

Q. Sir, are you aware of the reports that Susie Wiles's phone has been breached and somebody has been impersonating her?

The President. I've heard that. Yes. I've heard.

Q. Are you concerned about that? Do you know anything about the investigation?

The President. No, she's an amazing woman. She can handle it. But I've heard that they breached her phones or they tried to impersonate her. Nobody can impersonate Susie. [Laughter] Nobody. There's only—there's only one Susie.

Chinese University Students in the U.S./Harvard University

Q. Mr. President, what's your message to Chinese college students in the United States that want to stay in the United States, don't want their visa revoked?

The President. Well, they're going to be okay. It's going to work out fine. We just want to check out the individual students. We have—and that's true with all colleges. And I don't know why Harvard is not giving us the list. There's something going on, because Harvard is not giving us a list.

They ought to give us a list and get themselves out of trouble. But they don't want to give the list because they have names on there that supposedly are quite bad.

We want people that can love our country and take care of our country and cherish our country. And for some reason, Harvard doesn't want to give us a list.

I would suggest you all get out of the rain now. Goodbye, everybody. Have a good time.

Q. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Thank you. Thank you.

Come here. Thank you.

Q. Thank you. Nice to see you again.

The President. Who are you with?

Q. Real America's Voice, Steve Gruber.