Remarks at a Document Signing Ceremony and an Exchange With Reporters

The President. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. We just had a wonderful meeting with the greatest race car drivers in the world and some really spectacular people that won the Indy 500 for the last—I guess, for the last 4 years—or last 2 years.

And Roger Penske is so incredible, and the Daytona winners and the Daytona 24-Hour champions. So it was really great to see them and to see those cars. Those cars are incredible.

So there's a lot of winning out there. And we're having a good day in the stock market, as you can see, an alltime-record day. And hopefully it continues. I think it should.

Our country is stronger than it's ever been. And somebody had to do that with—we had to take the medicine, we had to go through the operation, and that's what we've been through. And a lot of Presidents would not have done it. No President would have done it, I think. But it had to be done.

And I just want to thank my team—this team here and lots of others. And Scott and Howard have been incredible. And for Energy, there's nobody like this man. And for the roads and highways, boy, you've done well, Sean. So we appreciate it. Very much appreciate it.

And if we could, we'll—let's see. We're signing a lot of Executive orders, and some Ambassadors have been approved.

White House Staff Secretary William O. Scharf. Yes, sir.

The President. And we're going to start that process right now.

And we're honored to have Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan, great State of Michigan. And she's been—she's really done an excellent job. And a very good person. And we're working on the Selfridge, as you know—the air base. We're trying to get the air base open, keep it open. And I think, Gretchen, if you're there—and Matt Hall, the speaker of the House of Michigan. And he's been fantastic as the speaker. I appreciate it.

We won the State, Matt, and——

Michigan State House Speaker Matt Hall. We did.

The President. ——you helped me a lot, so——

State Speaker Hall. I did. And you made me speaker.

The President. So——

State Speaker Hall. So thank you, Mr. President. [Laughter]

The President. That's good too.

And Gretchen, I think, everybody knows.

So we're working on that very hard, and I think it will be—I think we'll come home with a winner from Michigan. Okay?

Governor Gretchen E. Whitmer of Michigan. Let's do it.

The President. I just spoke with the Secretary of Defense. Sometimes we call him the "secretary of war." It used to be called the Secretary of War. They changed it when we became a little bit politically correct. [Laughter]

But I think we're in great shape. We're going to be in great shape. So thank you very much for being here.

Thank you very much, Matt. Congratulations. Great job.

Gov. Whitmer. Thank you.

The President. So we'll start with the first orders, and I think we have one for a man named Mike Huckabee. Does anyone know Mike Huckabee?

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, sir.

The President. He's going to be a great Ambassador to Israel.

Staff Secretary Scharf. So this——

The President. And they're thrilled to have him. That I can tell you.

Go ahead.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, sir. So the Senate confirmed Governor Huckabee to be your next Ambassador to Israel earlier today. That's his commission as Ambassador.

And then we also have a transmittal letter to the President of Israel——

The President. Yes.

Staff Secretary Scharf. ——requesting that he accept Governor Huckabee's—or excuse me, Ambassador Huckabee's credentials.

[At this point, the President signed the commission.]

The President. He's going to be fantastic. He's going to bring home the bacon——

Staff Secretary Scharf. And then there's——

The President. ——even though bacon isn't too big in Israel—[inaudible]. [Laughter]

Staff Secretary Scharf. That's just a third letter——

The President. I had to clear that up. [Laughter]

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins. Well said.

[The President signed the letter to President Isaac Herzog of Israel.]

The President. Okay.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Thank you, sir.

The President. Congratulations to Mike Huckabee.

Staff Secretary Scharf. To Mike Huckabee, yes.

Next, sir, this is a big one. As you've consistently identified, restoring our maritime dominance as a nation is very important, from shipbuilding to having a merchant marine that's capable of supporting American military efforts. Really up and down the line, restoring maritime dominance has been a priority of this administration.

This Executive order, which was prepared primarily by your National Security Council staff and National Security Adviser Waltz has a number of very significant policy steps, all aimed at restoring American maritime dominance and ensuring that we have the shipbuilding capacity and ability to compete globally, both militarily and in the civilian space as well.

The President. And that could be a good one for Michigan too——

Gov. Whitmer. Fantastic for Michigan.

The President. ——because we're going to be spending a lot of money on shipbuilding. We're way, way, way behind.

We used to build a ship a day, and now we don't do a ship a year, practically. And we have the capacity to do it. So we'll talk to you about that. Okay? Matt, you'll think about that. That's a natural.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Restoring America's Maritime Dominance."]

Okay. Shipbuilding, that's a good one. Okay. Thank you.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Thank you, sir. The next Executive order relates to defense procurement. Our current defense procurement process has been criticized by many folks on both sides of the aisle as being too slow—too slow to adapt to new and changing technologies, not delivering the sorts of weapons and systems that our warfighters need in order to compete on the battlefields of the future. So, with this Executive order, we're going to be modernizing the procurement structure the Department of Defense uses——

The President. Good.

Staff Secretary Scharf. ——to allow it to more quickly adapt to changing circumstances around the world.

And we're also going to be launching a review of existing procurement programs to ensure that we're getting value for the money and to ensure that we're getting the best possible systems in the field.

The President. And which are currently horrible. I'll tell you, they're horrible. That process is ridiculous, what they do. They get the highest price and not even good-looking equipment. And we're changing it. We're going to change it to the best.

So this is a very—very important.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base."]

And I want to say hello to Brooke.

Secretary Rollins. Hi, sir.

The President. Wow. Look at Brooke. She got the cost of eggs down 87 percent. [Laughter] Eighty-seven percent, Governor. We have somebody that's done a great job at Department of Agriculture.

And Kristi Noem, who perhaps a few of the—have heard of, she has done the most unbelievable job as somebody that's watching over our country at the border——

Secretary Rollins. Yes.

The President. ——and with Tom Homan and your whole staff of tremendous people.

Secretary Rollins. Yes, that's true.

The President. So thank you.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi L. Noem. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Q. Mr. President——

The President. Who would think—who would think that she's—she is, like, meant for that job, huh? [Laughter]

Secretary Rollins. It's true, she is.

The President. She's meant for it. So congratulations—I just saw you there, both.

Secretary Rollins. Aw, thank you.

The President. Thank you very much.

Secretary Rollins. Thank you.

Secretary Noem. It's a pleasure to work for you.

The President. Okay.

Q. Mr. President, can I——

The President. We'll do it later, please.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Thank you, sir.

Lastly, in the defense space, one persistent issue that we've had in terms of the issue of foreign defense sales, that we're unable to provide weapons systems in a reliable, effective way to key allies of ours. And a key driver of that is inefficiencies and inconsistencies with the process by which we approve foreign military sales.

So this Executive order is going to direct your Department of Defense, Department of State, other relevant departments and agencies to rework our system of foreign defense sales to ensure that we can provide equipment, creating American jobs and providing, obviously, revenue to American defense manufacturers but provide key military equipment to our key allies in a reliable, effective way.

The President. Okay. That's good. All very important.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Reforming Foreign Defense Sales To Improve Speed and Accountability."]

Okay. Because our budget is just about approved, and it's a big budget, and we want to spend the money properly. Get the best equipment in the world.

We rebuilt our military during my first term. Rebuilt it entirely. Beautiful. And then some was given away to Afghanistan so stupidly—the most embarrassing day in the history of our country, I think. But it's still—we have to fix it up a little bit. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to do a good job of it too.

Thank you.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Next up, sir, we have a series of Executive orders and a memorandum all relating to deregulation, which has obviously been a major priority of your administration.

The first of these is an Executive order. The Biden administration launched what you've called a "war on showers." They had certain regulations that basically killed the water pressure of showers and other water appliances.

The President. You can say it. [Laughter] Go ahead. What are the appliances?

Staff Secretary Scharf. I mean, it's everything, sir. It's dishwashers——

The President. Sinks and toilets. He didn't want to say it.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Dishwashers, toilets, sinks. But the showerheads are a huge deal.

The President. There's no water. You don't get water. It's ridiculous.

Staff Secretary Scharf. So, with this Executive order, we're effectively going to be reversing that set of regulations to ensure that Americans have choice in the consumer market. If they want a low-flow showerhead, they can buy one. If they want a——

The President. They don't.

Staff Secretary Scharf. ——real-deal showerhead, they——

The President. Nobody wants—[laughter].

Staff Secretary Scharf. ——they should have the ability to get one.

Secretary Rollins. That's true. That's true.

The President. You buy a new house, you pay a lot of money, and the developers—you're not allowed to do anything more. They put restrictors on. They used to have a restrictor where you could take it out, but now they weld it in. And you take a shower or wash your hands, whatever you do—including dishwashers, where no water comes out—but you wash your hands, and, in my case, I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair. [Laughter] I have to stand under the shower for 15 minutes till it gets wet. It comes out drip, drip, drip. It's ridiculous.

And what you do is, you end up washing your hands five times longer, so it's the same water. And we're going to open it up so that people can live, and we're going to hopefully have Congress approve it so it's memorialized.

We're going to try and get all of these things, including straws—a little thing like straws. We did straws a month ago, where the paper straws were melting. They were dissolving. They weren't working well, and we went back to the plastic straws.

We're going to get Congress to memorialize just about everything we've done here because most of it's common sense.

But the water is horrible. When you go into a new—anytime you see a new faucet, you know it's going to be a long—it's going to be a long wash of the hands. And so we're changing it.

It's a big deal. I did it in the first administration. Biden came in on his, like, first week, and he had no idea what he was doing, but somebody told him to do it. And his first week, he put the restrictions on all the bathroom utilities, even in areas that have so much water they don't know what to do with it. You see those areas all the time with the flooding.

So we're doing that, and we're going to get all of the things that you've seen—I think we set a record. We're up to almost 200 and—500 amendments. Nobody's ever done that many. We're going to get them approved by Congress so they're memorialized. And we look forward to doing that. It's very important.

And Congress is going to start working on it as soon as we get the big, beautiful deal done. The big, beautiful deal is important. The biggest tax cuts in the history of our country, that's important.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerheads."]

Okay. That's great. Is that okay? Good? It's a 10. [Laughter]

Secretary of Commerce Howard W. Lutnick. Great. We can take a good shower.

Secretary Rollins. Amazing. It's amazing.

The President. We rate the signatures. That's—that was a 10. That's why she——

Staff Secretary Scharf. This is another Executive order relating to deregulation, sir. There are a lot of regulations on the books that either promote monopoly directly or prevent new market entrants from entering into a given market. The net effect of that is very negative for consumers, so what this Executive order is going to do is direct your departments and agencies to work with the FTC, with the attorney general, with the Department of Justice, to ensure that the regulations we have on the books don't function as anticompetitive barriers to new market entrance.

The net effect of all of that is going to hopefully be market forces that—that redound to the benefit of consumers and ordinary Americans, as opposed to—monopolistic businesses.

The President. I said yesterday, he was a great, great student at Harvard before it went bad. It's gotten really bad now. [Laughter] Now they're teaching their students mathematics, basic mathematics. Can you believe it?

So what does that mean? They're allowing people in that can't add two and two. What's going on at Harvard? So——

Staff Secretary Scharf. I went to law school there, sir, and it was pretty liberal when I was there, but it's gone way off the deep end in recent years.

The President. I don't know if you read that. They're teaching them basic mathematics—people that got accepted to Harvard. How come they got accepted if they don't have mathematics?

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Reducing Anti-Competitive Regulatory Barriers."]

And we're holding back $8 billion. Can we believe? We give Harvard $8 billion. And we're holding back Columbia, we're holding back a lot of the schools because they were woke, and they've hurt a lot of people.

Okay. Thank you.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Thank you, sir.

The President. Okay.

Staff Secretary Scharf. There are a large number of regulations on the books—these are regulations that are currently in effect—that we believe blatantly violate the law, blatantly violate Supreme Court precedent, that otherwise are just blatantly illegal. So what this Presidential memorandum does: basically just directs the heads of your departments and agencies to follow the law and to cease enforcing regulations that are blatantly illegal or unconstitutional.

The President. That's a big deal.

Secretary Rollins. A really big deal.

[The President signed a memorandum titled, "Directing the Repeal of Unlawful Regulations."]

The President. It's really very important that we get these memorialized——

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, sir.

The President. ——in Congress. Very important for the long haul, right?

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, sir.

This is the last of our deregulatory EOs for the day. This is zero-based regulatory budgeting. The idea here is that, over time, regulations accumulate on the books and in the Federal Register, and people aren't taking a close, detailed look at what's on the books and clearing them out as times change or as regulations become dated or ineffective.

What this Executive order is going to require is each of your departments and agencies to scrutinize on a continuing, rolling basis all of the regulations they actually have on the books and sunset those that either no longer serve a purpose or the departments and agencies can't identify a specific reason for keeping them active.

The President. Okay.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting To Unleash American Energy."]

Okay.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Thank you, sir.

Sir, you've taken action against a number of law firms that have, in one way or another, been involved in the weaponization of Government or actions of lawfare. One of those law firms is Susman Godfrey. Similar to what we've done previously with other law firms, this is an Executive order that takes certain measures against Susman Godfrey to ensure that they can't access Government resources, Government buildings, scrutinizing certain aspects of their practices as a law firm, given their previous activities.

The President. And we've signed with many law firms, the ones that we thought were inappropriate, and they've all agreed to pay a hundred—let's say a million dollars. They play—they went for some pretty big numbers. I guess we have a total—what did we have? What was the total, about? What's the total right now, Steve, about, would you say?

Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller. Getting close to probably 6-, 700 million dollars now, I would think.

The President. Yes.

Deputy Chief of Staff Miller. We have multiple at $100 million, some at $125 million. So, the numbers are adding up. We're going to be close to a billion soon.

The President. One at $40 million—$40 million. Millions of dollars an hour. But they don't admit guilt. Remember that. They don't admit guilt.

But—and we have another five to go, I think. Five of them.

Deputy Chief of Staff Miller. Yes.

The President. And this one is just—we're just starting a process with this one now.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, sir.

The President. All right. Because that—they were—there were some very bad things that happened with these law firms.

Deputy Chief of Staff Miller. And this firm was very involved in the election misconduct.

The President. Weren't they all involved in the election misconduct? [Laughter] I think they were all involved.

Deputy Chief of Staff Miller. Yes.

The President. Anyway. So they went from $40 million to $125 million, and most of them are at about $100 million. Right? All right.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Addressing Risks From Susman Godfrey."]

Thank you.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Thank you, sir.

The next Presidential memorandum we have for you relates to Miles Taylor. You may recall that Miles Taylor served in the Department of Homeland Security during your previous administration. In his capacity with the Department of Homeland Security, he leaked classified information. He wrote a book under the pseudonym "Anonymous," making outrageous claims both about your administration and about others in it.

What this Presidential memorandum is going to do: One, it's going to strip any active clearance that he has in light of his past activities involving classified information. It's also going to order the Department of Justice to investigate his activities, to see what else might come up in that context, given his egregious behavior during your previous administration.

The President. And I had no idea who this guy was. I had no idea. I saw him on CNN or one of them—I guess, CNN—a lot. He'd be on all the time saying, "The President this, the"—I had no idea.

It's like, you know, in this office, you have a lot of young people, and they're here—I'll see them for 2 minutes. And I assume he was in the office, but I barely remember him. Barely remember him.

It was somebody that went out and wrote a book and said all sorts of terrible things that were all lies. And it was like he was—like he was this gentleman or that gentleman, like I dealt with him all the time.

I had no idea who this guy—I said, "Who the hell is Miles Taylor?" And he made a living on going on CNN, talking about the President. And I think what he did—he wrote a book anonymous—said all sorts of lies and bad things. And I think it's like a traitor, like—it's like spying. He walks into the office. He's supposed to be sitting here—a lot of people—you know, I'll be here, and there'll be—there'll be 20 people standing in the room. There'll be, oftentimes, young people in the office. I assume he was one of them, at least.

But I didn't know anything about him, and he wrote a book anonymous, and I always thought it was terrible. And now we have a chance to find out whether or not it was terrible. But it was a work of fiction. Got a lot of publicity, got himself a nice job with CNN or one of them, and I think we have to do something about it. You can't have that happen.

If that happens to other Presidents, they wouldn't—it wouldn't be sustainable for other Presidents. I seem to be able to sustain. But if that happened to other Presidents—I mean, it's just unfair. And if it was a Democrat President, I'd say that's a terrible thing. A thing like that can happen, that's a terrible thing.

And it's time to find out whether or not somebody can do that. Can they write a book about very confidential meetings and—you know, because they happen to be one of a lot of people in a room, and they go out and write a book? And worse than that, call it "Anonymous," like it's a big deal. And everybody is saying: "Who is it? Who is it? Who is it?" Then it was found out who he was a long time later, and he got a lot of publicity off that one. He's like a promoter.

But we're going to find out whether or not somebody is allowed to do that. I think it's a very important case, and I think he's guilty of treason, if you want to know the truth. But we'll find out.

And I assume we're recommending this to the Department of Justice.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, sir.

[The President signed a memorandum titled, "Addressing Risks Associated With an Egregious Leaker and Disseminator of Falsehoods."]

The President. Okay. Good. Terrible guy.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Similarly, sir, Christopher Krebs, the former head of CISA——

The President. Yes.

Staff Secretary Scharf. This is a man who weaponized his position against free speech in the election context, in the context of COVID-19. This is another—it's a similar Presidential memorandum to the one you just signed. It addresses his access to Government, existing clearances he might have, and further instructs your Department of Justice, other aspects of your Government to investigate some of the malign acts that he participated in while he was still head of CISA.

The President. This is another one. I don't know that I met him. I'm sure I met him, but I didn't know him. And he came out right after the election, which was a rigged election—a badly rigged election. We did phenomenally in that election.

Look what happened to our country because of it: open borders, millions of people coming into our country. Russia and Ukraine, that would have never happened. October 7 would have never happened. Afghanistan, the way that they withdrew with 13 dead, but so many killed, actually—I mean, so many—so many killed outside of the 13 soldiers. Hundreds of people killed. And maybe—I don't know, never mentioned, but I mention it—42 or 43 people so badly injured—the legs, the arms blown off, the face. And this is all because of a incompetent group of people that preceded us. And that would have never happened.

And this guy, Krebs, was saying: "Oh, the election was great. It was great." Well, it's been proven that it was not only not great, when you look at all these lawyers and law firms that are signing, giving us hundreds of millions of dollars. It was proven by so many different ways, in so many different forms, from the legislatures not approving to the 51 intelligence agents that worked it, from all of the different scamming operations. It was a very corrupt election.

And they used COVID to cheat. And we're going to find out about this guy too, because this guy's a wise guy. He said: "We've been proved. This is the most secure election in the history of our country." No, this was a disaster.

And frankly, we should go to paper ballots, same-day voting, voter ID, and one other thing: a—you should get a little certificate that says you're a citizen of our country. You get a citizen—piece of paper—it says you're a citizen before you can vote. But you want voter ID, and you want paper ballots, and you really want same-day voting. If you don't have same-day voting, they decide to change the air conditioning—"Oh, we're fixing the air—let's move all these boxes. We'll bring them back in a few days," and then they don't bring back those boxes.

We got to have safe elections. We have to have borders. Ideally, we have to have a free press, which we don't have. We don't have a free press. We have a very dishonest press.

This will be—this is an honor. We're going to find out whether or not he was right. This was a disgraceful election. And this guy sat back saying, "Well, I'm a member or"—like he's a Republican or something. And right—almost right from the beginning. And he's tried to make the case that this election was a safe election.

I think he said, "This is the safest election we've ever had." And yet every day you read in the papers about more and more fraud that's discovered. He's the fraud. He's a disgrace.

So we'll find out whether or not it was a safe election. And if it wasn't, he's got a big price to pay.

[The President signed a memorandum titled, "Addressing Risks From Chris Krebs and Government Censorship."]

And he's a bad guy. He's another one, I have no idea who he is. Krebs—I have no idea who he is. I'm sure he was in the room at some point, just like you're all in the room, but I have no idea who he was.

So thank you very much. That's—those last two are very important, I think, for the country.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Thank you, sir.

And lastly, we just have three proclamations. These are the sorts of things that most Presidents use an autopen for. [Laughter] You obviously don't like using the autopen much, if at all.

The first of these is National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day. This is one that you did in each of—I believe, each of the previous years of your previous administration. It recognizes former prisoners of war. More generally, this proclamation is written to acknowledge the—great steps you've made, both in this administration and your previous administration, on behalf of veterans, homeless veterans, others who have suffered in that way, and basically stating that it's a priority of your administration to ensure that veterans and homeless veterans are cared for properly.

The President. Good. And you know what? They ought to find out who was using that autopen. Because whoever that person was, he or she was like the President of the United States. And I'm against autopens. I think autopens are not a good thing, especially when you're talking about documents like we're signing today.

If he can't sign, then he can't be President. It's pretty simple. Let's see whether or not he could sign.

But I think that should be tested. I really think that should be tested. It's another one. And you may think about it, because how can a man that—did he really know that when—they gave all false information on the council? I mean, the whole "unselect committee" of political lunatics, they destroyed all the information. You can't get any information. They went for like a year and a half, almost 2 years, screaming and ranting and raving—Democrats, plus two worse than Democrats. You had Cheney—Liz Cheney and crying Adam Kinzinger—Crying Adam. Every time I looked at him, he was crying. The guy was a crier.

But you can't do that. You just can't do that. So we're going to find out a lot. I think we're going to find out a lot. These last three or four have been very—they've been very, very interesting. We'll see what happens.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, sir.

The President. But I don't think a President should be allowed to use an autopen when they're signing very, you know, important legislation. I think a President should sign it, not use an autopen. And we're going to find out whether or not he knew what the hell he was doing.

I'm sure, at this point, he'll say, "I signed it." They'll tell him what to say.

But to give pardons to people that destroyed all the information. If you destroyed information on a civil case—just a civil case, not a criminal case, a civil case—they put you in jail for that. And they found out that Pelosi was the one that was in charge of the security of the Capitol, and she knew all about it. And she admitted her guilt to her daughter, who was a movie documentary person. I'm sure her daughter is not too happy about that. I'm sure Crazy Nancy is not too happy.

But we found out all the things, everything. And we go for the information: "Sir, we've destroyed all of that information." If I ever destroyed it, I wouldn't be sitting here right now, I guarantee you that. I'd be sitting someplace else.

So I think it's something that we should really look at, because that's so important—the whole concept of an autopen, because whoever—who was—you know, autopens are run by somebody. Whoever ran the autopen was President of the United States, and I would be willing to bet that Biden didn't know—probably didn't know anything about any of it. Very dangerous. Very dangerous.

[The President signed a proclamation titled, "National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day, 2025."]

So you're going to check that out, right? Please.

Deputy Chief of Staff Miller. Yes, sir. We're working on it right now, sir.

Staff Secretary Scharf. This is just another proclamation, sir, declaring National Crime Victims' Rights Week. You've obviously made it a major priority of your administration to track down and, at times, deport criminals who have committed violence on our streets, who have victimized so many people. This is an annual proclamation that, hopefully, gets Americans to remember that when crimes occur, there are real victims, there are real people who are affected, and there are people who suffer as a result.

[The President signed a proclamation titled, "National Crime Victims' Rights Week, 2025."]

The President. Okay. It's very important. Thank you.

I just want to add: So we're working very hard with Democrats, the Governor, with Matt Hall, with a lot of transportation—Sean and all of the people—trying to keep Selfridge Air Force Base open, strong, thriving. And I think we're going to be successful, Governor. I think we'll be very successful at that. We've gotten some good feedback from Pete Hegseth and Department of Defense. And they're talking about F-16s; they're talking about F-35s, you know, et cetera, that we're going to—it's a great piece of property. It's a great location, and it's a great State. So I think we're going to come back with a very good answer.

We're also working on a certain fish that's taking over a beautiful lake called Michigan, right?

State Speaker Hall. Yes.

The President. And that's a tough one.

State Speaker Hall. It is——

The President. That's a tough one. It's very—do you want to just talk about that fish?

State Speaker Hall. Sure, Mr. President. Yes. First of all, I want to thank you for caring so much about Michigan. We've been working a long time. We couldn't get Joe Biden to do anything about either one of these issues, particularly Selfridge Air Force Base. It will be critical to Michigan's economy and our security when you're able to deliver us another mission there.

But on the Asian carp, you know, for years, when Obama was there, we could never get anyone to do anything about this invasive species that's going to destroy our Great Lakes. You know how important recreational fishing and so much of that is to our State.

Because of your work, we're hopeful that we'll get a solution there and we'll get that barrier built so we can protect our Great Lakes. So thank you, Mr. President.

The President. And they're very powerful fish. I mean, I see them—they jump out of the water. They jump at the fishermen. I mean, I've never seen anything like it.

And has this gotten into any of the other lakes yet? Because you would think it would be pretty easy, because they're all sort of connected.

Governor?

Gov. Whitmer. It's why we're working so hard to make sure that, you know, we work with the Army Corps and erect a barrier so that the Asian carp can't get into——

The President. Right.

Gov. Whitmer. ——Lake Michigan. It will devastate the ecosystem, the economy, tourism.

The President. Sure.

Gov. Whitmer. And it's 20 percent of the world's fresh water is in the Great Lakes, Mr. President, which is why it's so important that, as a nation, we protect the—pristine waters. So——

The President. We'd better stop it now.

Gov. Whitmer. Yes.

The President. And, you know, all of a sudden, I assume the lakes—they're all interconnected, right?

State Speaker Hall. Yes.

The President. So, at some point, they're going to be in the other lakes. And so we're going to work hard on that.

I spoke with the Army Corps of Engineers, and they have a method. It's a pretty gruesome method, but it's a method, and I think they know what to do. So we're going to work on that very hard.

And thank you, Governor, very much. It's sort of a bipartisan thing, when you get right down to it.

State Speaker Hall. Yes.

The President. It's a very expensive thing, actually. It costs a lot. I looked at the numbers, and I said, "Wow." [Laughter] But we have to save Lake Michigan, because these fish, they—eat everything in their way, including the other fish. They eat everything.

Are people endangered by the—the fish at all?

State Speaker Hall. I think it's an—it's—I mean, they're going to eat all the fish there. We won't be able to fish anymore, and that's a big deal in Lake Michigan. There's a lot of fishing, recreation.

The President. Yes.

State Speaker Hall. So it's going to be a problem there.

But it—you're right it's bipartisan, sir, but you're the one taking action on these issues. We couldn't get Biden to do it on Selfridge. This thing has been delayed for—what?—15 years, where we were trying to do it. We started under Obama, where we were trying to do it. He wouldn't do anything about it.

The President. Yes.

State Speaker Hall. So we appreciate you paying so much attention to this and taking action, sir.

The President. Well, I would—and the Governor, in all fairness, called me about it. I had seen it, and she called me, and John James called me, and we spoke with your office.

And it's—you know, I want to put that down. It really is bipartisan. It's great to see it, actually. It's great to see that. And that includes Selfridge too. And we're going to get it done, and we're going to—we'll all stand there together and cut a ribbon. Okay?

Gretchen, good.

Gov. Whitmer. I'm—eager to do that.

The President. That's good. Thank you very much. It's—

Gov. Whitmer. Thank you.

The President. I'm glad you brought it up, and I'm glad you brought it up, Matt. Appreciate it.

And I know you two get along pretty well, right?

Gov. Whitmer. Yes. [Laughter] About 70 percent of the time, which is pretty good. [Laughter]

The President. Nah. I think you do.

All right. Good. We'll have a big—we'll have something to celebrate pretty soon. So, pretty sure about that. Okay? Thank you.

State Speaker Hall. Thank you, sir.

The President. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Gretchen, very much.

Gov. Whitmer. Thank you.

The President. Okay. Do you have any questions?

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

TikTok

Q. Mr. President—Mr. President, where does the TikTok deal stand? Given what we've seen, we know the tariffs on China——

The President. Well, it's moving along, but obviously, I would say, right now China is not exactly thrilled about signing it. We have a deal with some very good people, some very rich companies that would do a great job with it, but we're going to have to wait to see what—what's going to happen with China. So——

Q. So is it off the table, or is it still on the table?

The President. No, it's on the table very much. I think China is going to want to do it, actually.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

China-U.S. Trade

Q. Mr. President, can you explain more of what you believe is the end game with China? Are you waiting for President Xi to blink? How do you think——

The President. No, I'm not. I'm not.

Q. ——this is all going to be resolved?

The President. Look, for years, we've been ripped off and taken advantage of by China—and others, in all fairness, but by China. That's the big one. And it's just one of those things. You know, we're making $2 billion a day right now—this country—$2 billion a day with tariffs, and they were making $2 billion a day. We'll be making more on that when you see what happened today. I don't know if it's still there. You know, this was—I looked an hour ago, but we were up like close to 3,000 points. Nobody has ever seen a day like that.

I think that's a record, isn't it, fellas?

Secretary Lutnick. Definitely.

The President. Is that a record?

Secretary of the Treasury Scott K.H. Bessent. It's a big day, sir.

The President. Who would have thought we were going to have a record like that after watching? But because the geniuses of the world, they get it. Our country is very strong. We were left a very, very weakened country—both economically, financially—because of all of the tariffs and all of the other companies just raiding us and ripping us off; and also at the border, where 21 million people were allowed to come in. Many of those people were criminals.

And—but the people that do this for a living, some of them are very smart, and some of them aren't smart at all. But these guys are very smart, and my group is very smart. My whole group is smart.

And you've done so amazing on the border. I read the other day that there were nine people—and hundreds of thousands 2 years ago with Biden, and we had nine. We had it down to nine, and they were all let in for medical reasons. They were in bad shape. We let them in for medical reasons, not even for anything else.

Secretary Noem. Correct.

The President. So you've been amazing.

But that's a big thing. I think it's one of the greatest—one of the greatest problems that—I've never seen anything like it—open borders. The whole world was emptied out. Prisons from all over the world, from the Congo in Africa. From Africa to Asia—a lot in South America, but it wasn't just South America—prisons emptied out.

And I said it outside with the drivers before, but El Salvador has been amazing, that job that the President has done. He's coming to see me next week, and we look forward to that, but that's really been amazing.

Yes, please.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

European Union/Tariffs

Q. Mr. President, the EU also announced increases in tariffs today. Why not treat——

The President. Oh, that's bad timing for them. That's bad timing.

Q. Why not treat them like——

The President. Is that right?

Secretary Lutnick. They didn't put them in. No, they threatened them, but they picked a later date, which our expectation is——

The President. Oh.

Secretary Lutnick. ——it's going to be later still.

The President. Okay. Because I'm glad that they held back. [Laughter]

Q. Can I ask you another question?

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. With the markets—you said you were watching the markets.

Tariffs

Q. If this was the—if this was the strategy all along to bring them to the table, why did you instruct or advise or—or maybe they did it on their own—some of your top aides to say, "This is not a negotiation," to hold the line, that they were going to hold the line, that you were not going to change your mind?

The President. Well, a lot of times it's not a negotiation until it is. And that happens. And, you know, I said outside that you have to have flexibility to do it right, and that's what we have. We brought everybody to the table, and it may not be a negotiation. It may not last. I mean, you know, things may be asked that are—I think are not fair to us.

Look, we've been ripped off by everybody—essentially, everybody for 35 years. This is not just a new thing.

And Roger Penske just left. He's a great gentleman—great man, actually. And he said no other President would have had the guts to do this, and I believe that's right. They wouldn't have done it. They should have done this a long time ago. A long time ago, they should have done it.

I started it with China. I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and taxes from China in my first term, and we had the greatest economy. We were up 88 percent on the stock market. That was the greatest ever in the history of our country.

But it had to be done. It's something that had to be done.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Xi Jinping of China

Q. Mr. President—Mr. President, the—Mr. President, thank you so much. Which countries will you be negotiating first? Do you have any criteria? Because, for example, Brazil and the U.K.——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——they do not have deficits with the U.S. They have a surplus. They do not have a surplus; they have deficits with the U.S. So what is the criteria? And, also, would you consider talking or meeting with Xi Jinping

The President. Oh, sure, I would. He's a friend of mine.

Q. So what is condition?

The President. I like him. President Xi, I like him. I respect him. But they haven't treated our country right. Sure, I'd meet with him.

On the other countries, we have—Japan is here, and South Korea is here, and others are here, and we're trying to see them. It's—from what I hear, it's much more than 75. I said 75-plus.

Secretary Lutnick. So many.

The President. It's—everybody wants to make a deal, actually. And you know, we want to do what's right for our country. We also want to do what's right for the world. The world is important. I mean, it's the world, right? And I think we're going to make a lot of people very happy.

And I think investing in the United States of America will be the greatest investment that anybody has ever made.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Q. Mr. President, can we expect to see the sectoral tariffs or the pharmaceuticals, steel? Is that something you're still considering moving forward with?

The President. Yes, well, I will be, because we want them coming back. You know, I—we realized during COVID that we don't make our drugs and our pharmaceuticals in this country. So I realized that, and it was a big realization.

We had to go to China to get drugs. We had to go to other places. I won't even mention the names, but we had to go to other places. We don't make it, and that's because we let them leave. And now, if they want to come back, we're going to put tariffs on the pharmaceutical companies, and they're going to all want to come back. They're going to come back.

I'm not going to pay them any money, like Biden with the CHIP deal. That CHIP deal was horrible. They give billions and billions of dollars to chip companies. All they have is money. They have so much money, and they give billions of dollars, and they're just going to keep the money. They're not going to spend it.

And the only thing that's going to bring them back is you say: "We have a barrier. You have to pay 50 percent or 100 percent or 200 percent." And if they have to pay that, they're going to say: "We're not going to pay that. We're going to build here."

And that's what happened. We have the biggest, most prestigious chip company in the world spending 2- to 300 billion dollars—billion. Think of that. A billion dollars to build essentially one massive plant. It'll be one of the largest plants in the world.

And we're going to get them very quickly. We're going to get them energy. We're going to get them the electricity they need and the energy that they need. And it will be approved by Lee Zeldin, a total professional, and it will be approved very quickly, and they'll get their zoning very quickly. They'll have everything done in a matter of months.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Please.

Q. Do you have any update on Iran talks, Mr. President?

Manufacturing Investment

Q. Thank you, sir. You've procured a record amount of private sector investments——

The President. Right.

Q. ——since your election: $7 trillion. You talked about the importance of all that. Can you talk about how these investments will have a positive impact on families who felt like the previous economy——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——left them behind, and why your Executive orders on coal yesterday is so important, given the amount of manufacturing that you're ushering back in?

The President. Good. Thank you. And—which is correct. We have, I would say, more than $7 trillion now—right?—of investment——

Secretary Lutnick. Definitely.

The President. ——coming in. Apple is coming in for $500 billion alone. We have other companies coming in with massive numbers. We have car companies that are coming in.

No, we've never seen anything like it. Maybe in the 1940s or '50s or something, but we've never seen anything like it. They had three plants canceled in Mexico. Not that we want to hurt Mexico, but we're for—we're for us, and that's what my job is. It's not to take care of other countries, but I want to help other countries as much as I can, but we have to take care of America first. And it's about America first.

So we have many, many companies coming in that would have never come in if we didn't win the election and then put the tariffs on. And they're coming in because, when they build in the United States, there are no tariffs. You don't have to pay any tariffs. So, instead of paying 30, 40, 50 percent—or 25 percent, but it could go a lot higher in some of the industries.

So we have steel mills right now that are raging. The steel industry was gone. If I didn't put the tariffs on steel—because China was dumping massive amounts of steel in my first term, and I put tariffs on it. I saved the steel industry, but now it's going to thrive, maybe like never before.

I mean, if you go back to U.S. Steel from 90 years ago, it was incredible. It was the number one company in the world for a long time. That's why we don't want to see it go to Japan. And we love Japan, but we—you know, U.S. Steel is a very special company. We don't want it to go to Japan or any other place.

So we're working with them. And, you know, I don't know if they need any money now. I've—I'll be honest with you, they're—they hit gold. They hit gold, because if you look at it, they have such orders for steel now, it's incredible.

What's going on is—what's going on in our country is incredible with respect to plants. So we lost 90,000 plants and factories from the beginning of NAFTA, the worst trade deal ever made in the history of this world, but certainly in the history of trade. There's never been a worse trade deal. We were able to cancel that. We had to get approval from Congress. It was a disaster—it was like—it was like a disastrous curse because you—you know, you had to go to Congress to get it terminated. You couldn't just terminate it because it was a bad deal, and you had people in Congress that didn't want to do it because they had other reasons—maybe bad reasons. They're mostly not there anymore, those people.

But it's amazing what's—I appreciate that question, because it's incredible. I don't think we've ever seen anything like it. Seven trillion dollars, and it's much more than that, because, you know, these are places that we know. Seven trillion dollars is unheard of.

I never looked at the Biden numbers, but you could go a whole year, and it was peanuts. People—everybody was leaving. They weren't coming in; they were leaving. And that means jobs are leaving. And so we're not—we're not playing games. We're going to make this country greater than ever before.

Thank you for that question.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Mr. President, over the past few days——

Q. Mr. President, it seems that China is—made some——

Q. ——for the past—for the past few days——

The President. Let her just do that——

Q. Oh, yes. Absolutely.

The President. ——and then we'll get to you.

Timing of Tariffs/China-U.S. Trade

Q. Thanks. For the past few days, we've heard from this administration "no pause." Was this idea of doing a pause, did that just come about this morning? Can you tell us exactly what came into consideration for you and your advisers?

The President. For a period of time. I wouldn't say this morning. Over the last few days, I've been thinking about it. I've been dealing with Scott, with Howard, with some other people that are very professional, and I think it probably came together early this morning, fairly early this morning. Just wrote it up. I didn't—we didn't have the use of—we didn't have access to lawyers or anything. We just wrote up—we wrote it up from our hearts, right? [Laughter] It was written from the heart, and I think it was well written too, but it was written from the heart.

It was written as something that I think was very positive for the world and for us. And we don't want to hurt countries that don't need to be hurt. And they all want to negotiate. The only problem is, you know, you can only do so many at one time. It's like—it's—we want to do it right. We want to get it right. And we want to take care of them, but we have to take care of our country.

So—but this was something, certainly, we've been talking about for a period of time, and we decided to pull the trigger.

Q. Pull the trigger today?

The President. And we did it today, and we're happy about it. I didn't know it would have that kind of an impact, but it's—you know, I think, they have the biggest increase in the history of the stock market. That's pretty good. That's pretty—you're almost—you know, if you keep going, you're going to be back to where it was 4 weeks ago.

But it was a sick market 4 weeks ago, you know, because the trade was sick. It was only a question of time. I don't blame the tariffs. I think the tariffs just sort of magnified what was happening. It was—it was sick. Biden allowed these people to get away with murder. Biden allowed China to just take advantage of us.

We had, like, a trillion-dollar deficit with China—trillion-dollar deficit. So that was going to only be a matter of time.

I think the tariffs brought it out faster, and they magnified the problem. But I think this was a problem that existed far beyond tariffs. This is a—this was a systemic problem, and we're going to cure that problem. And maybe, to a large extent, we have, because we've revealed it, and we've revealed it very strongly.

Yes, sir, please.

China-U.S. Trade

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. So it seems China has made some serious missteps here in these negotiations. And Secretary Bessent said earlier, you may have "goaded" them into a tough position here. I'm wondering is—are you, in a way, putting together a coalition against China in terms of trade here?

The President. No, no. Well, China—look, they're very capable. And I don't blame China for what happened. I blame the people sitting right at this desk—right behind this desk or another desk. You get your choice of seven. [Laughter] I happened to pick the Resolute.

But I blame the people sitting behind in this chair or behind this desk for being stupid, incompetent, or not having courage. This should have been done years ago. This should have been done before Obama, in all fairness—not only Biden—Obama. This should have been done many years ago.

This started with the World Trade Organization, which was owned by China. It was owned and paid for by China. They didn't even have to do things. They considered them a nation that was undeveloped. They said they were a developing nation. Well, we're a developing nation too, if you think about it. Look at our inner cities. Look at what's happened. I think we're starting from ground zero there, right?

Secretary Rollins. I agree.

The President. So we're a developing nation too.

No, I don't—I know it's—a lot of people take heat for saying it, but I blame the people sitting at this desk more than I blame China. If China can get away what they got away with, with taking hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars right out of our pocket because our people here were stupid—they were stupid people, maybe corrupt. I don't know. I don't know how you can be that stupid. How do you get to be President and you're stupid?

But they certainly weren't courageous, and they allowed this to happen. And with Japan and with many other countries that took advantage of us. I mean, we had deficits with almost every country. I used to read these things—the first term, I'd read them. I'd actually read the agreements, and I'd say, "How could anybody agree to this stuff?"

So, certainly, they were rough, and they were tough, and they were smart. And you can blame them, but I really blame the people that allowed them to do it, because, you know, you—if you could read first grade and you could read these agreements, you'd say, "These are terrible deals." I actually used to say, "Who would allow deals like this to be made for our country?" And maybe it's people that didn't care. Maybe it's people that weren't courageous. Maybe it's people that were corrupt. I don't know, but I blame those people more than I blame anybody else.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

U.S. Energy Sources/China

Q. You've been very specific in—saying that you would like the EU to purchase U.S. energy. Is there something specific that you would like China to do?

The President. Well, I'll—you'll be hearing about that, yes. There are a lot of things I'd like China to do.

Q. Are there some examples, sir?

The President. There are a lot of things that I want China to do, and I'll be telling China what that is. Not you. [Laughter] I'll be telling China.

Q. Mr. President——

Iran//Nuclear Weapons Development/Russia/Ukraine

Q. Mr. President, on Iran, you said the other day that if they do not agree to a potential nuclear deal, that it would be very dangerous for them.

The President. Yes.

Q. What specifically did you mean?

The President. Well, they can't have a nuclear weapon.

Q. Did you mean military action, though, if they don't agree?

The President. Oh, if necessary, absolutely. Yes.

Q. Do you have a timeline for that, sir?

Q. And do you have a—a date?

Q. Do you have a deadline for these talks?

The President. Yes, I do.

Q. And this——

The President. You're talking about with Iran?

Q. Yes.

Q. Yes.

The President. Yes, I do.

Q. They are saying it's not direct talks.

Q. Do you want something definitive this weekend, or do you see this as a start of a process in——

The President. It's a start.

Q. Do you have a timeline for——

The President. We have a little time——

Q. ——that process?

The President. ——but we don't have much time——

Q. Who is starting the conversation?

The President. ——because we're not going to let them have a nuclear weapon.

Q. Is Witkoff going to be there, Mr. President?

The President. We can't let them have a nuclear weapon. And we're going to let them thrive. I want them to thrive. I want Iran to be great. The only thing they don't—they can't have is a nuclear weapon. They understand that.

Q. When does the——

The President. You know, the people are so incredible in Iran, and they're so smart. They're very smart people. And—but you know, they're in a rough situation—rough, rough regime. But they understand, and the leaders understand.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

And I'm not asking—I'm not asking for much. I just—I don't—they can't have a nuclear weapon. And I've said that. And I was a little bit surprised, because when the election was rigged, I figured they'd get the weapon, because, with me, they were broke. They were broke. They had no money because of the sanctions. They—nobody could buy oil.

We did that to Venezuela just recently, and we'll do it to other countries if we have to.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. When does the clock run out on those talks?

The President. I want to see—I want to see Russia and Ukraine make a deal. They've got to make a deal. When schools get blown up and bad things happen, like I'm hearing about, it's no good. I hope we're going to make a deal with Russia and Ukraine.

But with Iran, yes, if we—if it requires military, we're going to have military. Israel will obviously be very much involved in that. They'll be the leader of that. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do.

Q. Do you have an update——

Iran/Nuclear Weapons Development

Q. When would that clock run out on the talks before you might——

The President. Say it.

Q. When would the talks need to conclude before you might do military action?

The President. I can't really be specific. But you know, when you start talks, you know if they're going along well or not. And I would say the conclusion would be when I think they're not going along well. So that's just a feeling.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

U.S. Servicemembers Stationed Overseas/Administrative Actions Targeting Law Firms

Q. Mr. President, on the subject of U.S. troops stationed in Europe. Do you have any plans to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Europe or in other NATO countries?

The President. Well, I could. I mean, it depends. We pay for military over in Europe. You know, we don't—we don't get reimbursed by much. South Korea too. So it will be one of the things we discuss. That's unrelated to trade, but I think we'll make it part of it, because it makes sense. Be nice to wrap it all up in one package for each country. You know, it's nice and clean.

And we have plenty of law firms. These are great law firms that we signed with—the best. And I think part of the way I'll spend some of the money that we're getting from the law firms, you know, in terms of their legal time, will be—if we can do it; I think we can do it—using these great law firms to represent us with regard to the many, many countries that we'll be dealing with. We'll have good lawyers representing us. But we want to have good lawyers, and these are the best—considered the best lawyers in the world, right? I mean——

Deputy Chief of Staff Miller. Yes, sir.

The President. ——considered the best in the world. I don't know. They just went off a little bit. [Laughter]

President Xi Jinping of China

Q. Mr. President, two questions. On Iran. Do you have an update on who will be participating or conducting these conversations? Will Witkoff be there on Saturday for these direct talks?

And on China. Some economists are saying that right now is technically a embargo on China with 125 percent tariffs. Are you concerned of escalation beyond the trade war with China?

The President. No, I'm not concerned. I think President Xi is a very smart guy, and I think we'll end up making a very good deal for both. But you know, we've been treated so badly for so many years. Again, we allowed that to happen. We've been treated so badly for so many years.

But, no, I don't expect that. I think President Xi is one of the very smart people of the world, and I don't think he'd allow that to happen.

And we're very powerful. This country is very powerful. Let me tell you——

Q. And, on Iran, the talks.

The President. ——it's far more powerful than people understand. We have weaponry that nobody has any idea what it is, and it is the most powerful weapons in the world that we have—more powerful than anybody even—not even close. So nobody is going to do that.

But I think that—if that's what you're referring to. Maybe it's not. But just in terms of basic escalation, which is what you said, no, I think that President Xi is a man who knows exactly what has to be done. He's a very smart man. He loves his country. I know that for a fact. I know him very well, and I think he's going to want to get to a deal.

I think that's going to happen. We'll get a phone call at some point, and it'll be off to the races. It will be a great thing for them. It will be a great thing for us. It's going to be a great thing for the world and for humanity.

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia/Ukraine

Q. Will you—do you have plans to meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia?

The President. At some point, I will, yes. At some point.

Q. But in Saudi Arabia?

The President. We'll have to see. I mean, we have to get there right now. Yes. We got to get there.

In the meantime, they're losing 2,500, on average, young people every single week. Think of that: 2,500 people a week. It's not even conceivable. We've got to get there fast.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Take a couple of more. Yes.

Q. Do you think you'll have to increase tariffs on China even more before they come to the table or give you a phone call?

Tariffs

The President. I can't imagine it. No, I can't imagine.

Q. You think this is the last?

The President. I don't think—I don't think I'll have to do it. I don't think we'll have to do it more. You know, we calculated it very carefully.

By the way, you know, when you hear a hundred, a lot of people charge much more than that. Canada charges much more than that to our farmers—our dairy farmers.

Secretary Rollins. On our dairy. That's right.

The President. Many, many people charge much more than 100 or 125, in this case. But I don't—you know, it's still a significant number. I don't see—no, I don't see that again.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Sir, on the investigations——

The President. Yes, please.

Tariffs

Q. Yes. Mr. President, so, do you think some of your tariff critics would prefer, you know, to see the United States go through turmoil than to actually see it succeed just because they are your policies on——

The President. You mean just leave the tariffs the way they are now and just relax, right?

Q. Yes.

The President. Some people have said that. Look, again, we're making—it will be, soon, much more than $2 billion a day. That's not the worst thing that I've ever heard. So yes, some people say that.

But you know, we look at the other side too. I think as—the United States, we have an obligation to look also at the other side. We want what's good for everyone. I mean, it's America first, but we also want to make sure there's a world that can live and live happily and all of that. And so, you know, this is the way I look.

No, but there are people that say—look, where we are now, I've been in worse positions in my life than making $2 billion a day plus, plus, right? It's really plus, plus.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Q. Any thoughts on Elon Musk——

Stock Market Volatility

Q. Do you think the markets are what—are the markets are what really changed your mind when it came to putting the pause on these tariffs?

The President. The markets right now are extremely good.

Q. But before then?

The President. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.