Remarks at a Document Signing Ceremony and Meeting With United States Ambassadorial Nominees and an Exchange With Reporters

The President. Well, thank you very much.

We're going to have a little session today on the Ambassadors. It's a group of people that were selected. They're doing very well. They're very far along in the process, and they're going to each introduce themselves and talk about the country that they're going to. They might say a little bit about themselves also, because people are very interested in that.

We're also going to sign, right now, some Executive orders. And, Will, if you come—would come forward——

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

The President. ——I'll start thinking about signing them. Right?

Staff Secretary Scharf. A few things for you today, sir.

First, we have a pardon for Devon Archer. Devon Archer was a former business partner of the Biden family. He's—was prosecuted relating to a fraud investigation, but, notably, the tone and tenor of that prosecution changed dramatically after he began to cooperate with congressional investigators and serve as a witness against Hunter Biden and the Biden family. We believe that was a—an injustice, and, therefore, we're asking you to pardon him.

The President. And many people have asked me to do this. They think he was treated very unfairly. And I looked at the record, studied the records, and he was. He was a victim of a crime, as far as I'm concerned. So we're going to undo that.

[At this point, the President signed an Executive grant of clemency for Devon Archer.]

All right.

Devon Archer. Congratulations, Devon. [Laughter]

Staff Secretary Scharf. Next, sir, we have a Presidential memorandum for your attention. This memorandum requires the immediate declassification of all FBI files relating to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. This was obviously one of the instances of the weaponization of law enforcement, powers of prosecution against you and others. We believe that it's long past time for the American people to have a full and complete understanding of what exactly is in those files.

The President. Which gives the media the right to go in and—go and check it. You probably won't bother because you're not going to like what you see. But this was total weaponization. It's a disgrace. Should never happen in this country. But now you'll be able to see for yourselves, all declassified.

Is that correct, would you say?

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, sir.

The President. All declassified?

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, sir.

The President. Everything?

Staff Secretary Scharf. The FBI file with a—there's a classified annex. But other than that, this will put everything in the public eye.

[The President signed a memorandum titled, "Immediate Declassification of Materials Related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Crossfire Hurricane Investigation."]

The President. Is anybody going to look? [Laughter] Huh?

What about you? You going to look?

And frankly, the FBI should be ashamed of themselves, and so should the Department of Justice, and so should Biden.

Okay.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Next, sir, we have an Executive order for your attention. We've taken action against a number of law firms that have participated either in the weaponization of Government, the weaponization of the legal system for political ends, or have otherwise engaged in illegal or inappropriate activities.

The law firm of Jenner & Block is one of these law firms. This is a law firm that, as you know, employed Andrew Weissmann after he came off of the Mueller investigation. It's a law firm that's engaged in invidious racially and sexually discriminatory practices. It's also a law firm that has participated in the weaponization of the legal system against American principles and values, and we believe that the measures in this Executive order will help correct that.

The President. And Andrew Weissmann is the main culprit——

Staff Secretary Scharf. He's certainly a——

The President. ——with respect to this firm.

Staff Secretary Scharf. He is one of a number of reasons that we believe this Executive order is warranted.

The President. He's a bad guy.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Addressing Risks from Jenner & Block."]

Okay.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Next, sir, we have an Executive order for your attention relating, actually, to Government payments. Historically, checks issued by the Treasury are, I believe, 14 times more likely to become the subject of fraud than electronic transfer payments. This is an Executive order that's going to push the Treasury Department to modernize its payment system to ensure that, where possible, they're using electronic methods of payment, as opposed to paper checks, in order to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in the Government, which is obviously an endeavor that we've been pursuing in numerous aspects of Government under your leadership.

The President. It's basically modernization of equipment and methods, and it's something that—really, I think he's going to be a great—Secretary of the Treasury wanted, Scott. And so we're doing this. And we have other modernization programs going on.

We could let somebody else, whoever's next, whoever that may be, do it, but it's something that should have been done 25, 30 years ago.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Modernizing Payments to and From America's Bank Account."]

Okay.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Along similar lines, sir, this is an Executive order—we're calling it, "Protecting America's Bank Account." The basic idea here is that, instead of having lots of different departments and agencies and offices issuing payment—often without justification, often without any provided rationale—we're going to be centraling payment processes where possible in the Department of the Treasury and ensuring that measures are taken in Treasury against waste, fraud, and abuse to ensure that money that's leaving the public treasury is as protected as it possibly can be.

The President. All right. Good.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Protecting America's Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse."]

Many of these things should have taken place decades ago or longer. [Laughter]

Staff Secretary Scharf. Lastly, sir, we have an Executive order for your attention on the very important subject of election integrity. We believe that this Executive order is the farthest-reaching Executive action taken in the history of the Republic to secure our elections.

[Staff Secretary Scharf continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

There is a lot in here, but we believe that these are very important steps that we need to be taking as an administration, at your direction, to ensure that our elections are as secure as they possibly can be.

The President. Okay. You all understand that? Yes? "Election fraud." You've heard the term. We'll end it, hopefully. At least we'll go a long way toward ending it. There are other steps that we will be taking in the next—in the coming weeks, and we think we'll be able to end up getting fair elections.

Perhaps some people think I shouldn't be complaining, because we won in a landslide, but we're going to straighten out our election. This country is so sick because of the election—the fake elections and the bad elections—and we're going to straighten it out one way or the other.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections."]

And it's an honor to sign this one—to sign all of them—but to sign this one is a great honor. [Applause] Thank you very much.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Excuse me.

The President. Thank you very much.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Sorry, sir.

The President. So we're going to go around the room a little bit, quickly, and we're going to introduce these very outstanding people. They've had, in all cases, outstanding careers. They're very incredible people that—going along as rapidly as the system can go along, we're ahead of, I guess, anybody else thus far.

So I want to thank John Thune. He's done a very good job. And the whole Senate—we're being delayed as much as possible by Democrats, but that's standard. It—your—it gets to be just standard. But the process is moving along very quickly.

So, Sergio, just say hello, and then we'll introduce everybody.

White House Director of Presidential Personnel Sergio Gor. Absolutely. Sergio Gor. Director of Presidential personnel. It's been an absolute pleasure getting to know every one of you every step of this way. As the President said, we're at a record pace. We have more nominees today from the Senate than at any previous point—over 70—and that's a record in 2months. And we're proud of that, and we're determined to ensure the world has America First patriots in all of our posts.

The President. Good. Charlie.

U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco-designate Charles Kushner. Charles Kushner. I'm going to France and Monaco. And I'm proud to serve under the greatest President of our country. Very proud to serve.

The President. Thank you. Thank you, Charlie.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair. James Blair. Honored to work here in the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff. And, Mr. President, I think that all of these successful people would want to go serve the United States under your leadership is a testament to your vision and leadership.

The President. Thank you, James.

U.S. Ambassador to China-designate David A. Perdue, Jr. I'm David Perdue. I'm going to the People's Republic of China. And it's my honor to represent President Trump, the people of America, and to represent our interests and values in China.

U.S. Ambassador to Dominican Republic-designate Leah Campos. I'm Leah Campos. I'm going to represent the President in the Dominican Republic. Mr. President, thank you for the honor to serve you in the Dominican Republic.

The President. Thank you.

Ambassador-designate Campos. Thank you.

National Security Adviser Michael G. Waltz. Mike Waltz, National Security Adviser. I look forward to working with every one of you on behalf of the President, his leadership, and the American people.

The President. Thanks, Mike.

U.S. Ambassador to Portugal-designate John Arrigo. John Arrigo. I am going to the Republic of Portugal, and I'm very excited to do so and serve under what I consider one of my closest friends and one of the best Presidents this country has ever had. Thank you.

U.S. Ambassador to Panama-designate Kevin Cabrera. Kevin Cabrera. I'm nominated to be Ambassador to Panama. It truly is an honor, President, to be part of your administration.

The President. Thank you.

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey-designate Thomas Barrack. Tom Barrack, nominee to the Republic of Turkey. Delighted and honored to be with you, Mr. President, in the host country, which is one of the most ancient in civilization, is——

The President. Yes.

Ambassador-designate Barrack. ——in search for your peace, prosperity, and security program. Thank you.

The President. Good place. Good place.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada-designate Pete Hoekstra. Mr. President——

The President. Good leader too.

Ambassador-designate Hoekstra. Yes. Mr. President, thank you. It's an honor. I'm Pete Hoekstra, you know that.

The President. Yes.

Ambassador-designate Hoekstra. But I am going to Canada.

The President. Ooh. [Laughter]

Ambassador-designate Hoekstra. I look forward to serving you in Canada, and your agenda.

The President. And you'll do a great job. Thanks, Pete.

Ambassador-designate Hoekstra. Thank you.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico-designate Ronald D. Johnson. Ron Johnson, sir. Thank you for the nomination to represent you and the United States to the United Mexican States. And I'm really encouraged by some of the conversations you've had with President Sheinbaum recently, and to the increase in support that we've seen out of her government——

The President. Yes.

Ambassador-designate Johnson. ——along our border on the important issues. So thank you, sir.

The President. They have stepped it up a lot——

Ambassador-designate Johnson. Yes, sir.

The President. ——Mexico and Canada. So, see how it works, right?

Ambassador-designate Johnson. Yes, sir.

The President. Thanks.

U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-designate Matthew G. Whitaker. Matt Whitaker from Des Moines, Iowa. I'm proud to, as soon as I'm confirmed, go represent you at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The President. Good. Thank you, Matt.

U.S. Ambassador to Japan-designate George E. Glass. George Glass, on my way to Japan. In the previous administration, I served for you in Portugal.

The President. Yes.

Ambassador-designate Glass. It is a great honor to be able to do this a second time. And thank you——

The President. Thank you very much.

Ambassador-designate Glass. ——for the opportunity.

The President. Thank you, George.

U.S. Ambassador to Denmark-designate Ken Howery. President Trump, my name is Ken Howery. I'm your nominee to be Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark, a very close partner and ally. I served for you last time in the Kingdom of Sweden. I want to thank you for the faith you've placed in me to—as your nominee to Denmark.

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

U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg-designate Stacey Feinberg. President Trump, thank you for the honor of a lifetime. My name is Stacey Feinberg, and hopefully, I'll have the honor of serving in Luxembourg. And I think that this is the greatest Presidency and the greatest time in history, and it's all because of you.

The President. Thank you very much.

U.S. Ambassador to Croatia-designate Nicole McGraw. Nicole McGraw, nominated to serve in Croatia, and it's such an honor to be here with you today and to serve you and the American people.

The President. Thank you. Thank you very much.

U.S. Ambassador to Chile-designate Brandon Judd. President Trump, thank you very much for your nomination to the Republic of Chile. And let me tell you, Border Patrol agents are so thankful for everything that you've done for them. But it's a great——

The President. That man knows more about the border than anybody, let me tell you. [Laughter] Thank you.

Ambassador-designate Judd. President, it's a great honor. Thank you.

The President. Yes, thanks, Brandon. Good luck.

U.S. Ambassador to Holy See (Vatican City)-designate Brian Burch. Good afternoon, Mr. President. Brian Burch. If I'm confirmed, I'll be representing you at the Holy See. And Catholics are very proud of your work. Your team is doing an excellent job, so thank you. Very honored to serve.

The President. Thank you very much.

U.S. Ambassador to Malta-designate Somers Farkas. Mr. President, thank you again for the honor, the greatest privilege. My name is Somers Farkas. I will serve this great man at the Republic of Malta. Thank you, sir.

The President. Thank you.

U.S. Ambassador to Netherlands-designate Joseph Popolo. Thank you, Mr. President. Joe Popolo from Dallas, Texas. I'm very proud to serve you at the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the very first country to recognize the United States 250 years ago. Thank you.

The President. Thank you.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel-designate Michael D. Huckabee. Mr. President, if I'm confirmed, I will be representing you in the State of Israel. It will be an extraordinary honor. And you've done more for Israel than any President in any time of its history, and we are grateful. And I'm hoping I'll get to be there by Passover. [Laughter]

The President. Thank you, Mike. And Mike is an outstanding guy. We all are—they all are. And Mike, I think, is going to do wonders for Israel. He actually probably gets along with both sides, and that will be interesting to see. But the world is watching you, Mike, so good luck. [Laughter]

Ambassador-designate Huckabee. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Good luck. [Laughter] You're going to do well. Thank you very much.

Ambassador-designate Huckabee. Thank you.

U.S. Ambassador to Italy and San Marino-designate Tilman Fertitta. Mr. President, thank you for this great honor to serve the Republic of Italy and San Marino. I'm so looking forward to going over there and working with that great ally and for the pleasure to serve you. Your staff has been great working with us and have done a great job, and we really appreciate them. Thank you, sir——

The President. Thank you.

Ambassador-designate Fertitta. ——for pushing this along.

The President. Going to have a good time. [Laughter] A really good time. [Laughter]

U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain and Northern Ireland-designate Warren Stephens. I'm Warren Stephens from Little Rock, Arkansas, and I have the honor to represent the President and the United States in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And to be chosen to go to such an important ally of ours is an——

The President. It is.

Ambassador-designate Stephens. I know, sir. And I'm looking forward to it. But thank you for the honor.

The President. And you're going to do fantastically. These are tremendously successful people, and you two guys, and then you add on Mike. [Laughter] I think they have a little more money than Mike, but——

Ambassador-designate Huckabee. He's got a lot more money.

The President. He's got some other advantages. [Laughter] He's got some other, like up, upstairs, he's got some big advantages. [Laughter]

Ambassador-designate Stephens. Yes, he does.

The President. It's very exciting. It's really exciting to have all of you.

Would you have any questions, media, for the people that you just saw? So outstanding. And I thought it would be nice to bring them before you. And so, if you have any questions, please.

Ukraine/Russia/Gaza, Palestinian Territories

Q. I wanted to ask about the talks in Saudi Arabia. It sounds like you made some progress on a Black Sea cease-fire.

The President. Yes.

Q. Could you update us on that? What happens now?

The President. So we've made a lot of progress on two fronts—on both sections, that we call them—we call them sections, but they're much more than that—Russia-Ukraine and also the Middle East. And we'll see what happens.

We're in deep discussions with Russia and Ukraine, and I would say it's going well, but it's a very—it's a situation we should have never had to even think about. It should have never happened.

And, on the Middle East, that's been going on for a lot of years. Centuries and centuries, it just keeps going. And we are making a lot of progress. So that's all I can report. But some very, very big talks are going and detailed talks are going on right now on both fronts.

Q. Mr. President——

Q. Mr. President, you said that your National Security Adviser learned a lesson after a reporter——

The President. Wait a minute. Excuse me. I didn't pick you.

Go ahead, please.

Ukraine/Russia

Q. Mr. President, the cease-fire agreement that was brokered today allows for third-party countries to help implement the agreement. What does that look like, and who's going to be involved?

The President. The cease-fire agreement?

Q. Yes, the maritime cease-fire agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

The President. Well, they're going to get together. Look, it's—they agreed to something, and it got broken. There's tremendous animosity. There's a lot of hatred, as you can probably tell, and it allows for people to get together—mediated, arbitrated—and see if we could get it stopped. And I think it will. It will get stopped.

Q. What countries are you looking to work with, sir, to help implement and monitor that ceasefire?

The President. We have other countries involved, and they're involved very strongly in the process, and the—that will come—that will be resolved. That's actually—as bad as it is, that's the least of the problems. So that will—we'll get that resolved.

And we are being aided by other countries too.

Yes, please.

Q. Yes.

The President. Brian [Brian Glenn, America's Real Voice].

Public Media Subsidies/U.S. DOGE Service

Q. Tomorrow the subcommittee on DOGE is going to review funding——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——for NPR and PBS. Now, every Republican President has always promised to take away this money that's going to these two public news outlets. If this—if they're successful—I know Senator Kennedy has backed it; Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress has backed it—would you be interested in defunding and taking away taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS?

The President. Well, I would love to do that. I think it's very unfair. It's been very biased with the whole group—I mean, a whole group of them. And frankly, there's plenty—look at all the media you have right now. There's plenty of coverage.

That was a—from a different age, and they spend more money than any other network of its type ever conceived. So the kind of money that's being wasted—and it's a very biased view. You know that better than anybody. And I'd be honored to see it end.

We're well covered. Look at all the people that we have here today. We're well covered, and we don't need it. And it's a waste of money, especially. I don't even know what DOGE's recommendation is. I assume their recommendation is to close them up.

Q. Well, after they hear all the testimony, I think they're going to make a decision relatively sooner than later.

The President. Yes.

Q. But we'll see what that turns out.

The President. Yes, I can imagine—I can't imagine that they wouldn't, because they have found so much waste, fraud, and abuse—hundreds of billions of dollars and just waste, fraud, abuse. You heard yesterday some of the new things that were found: $22 billion just in environ-—billion.

You know, if you had $22 million, Warren, it would be nice, but $22 billion——

Ambassador-designate Stephens. That's a lot of money.

The President. ——put into environmental accounts. One was $2 billion into one account—Stacey Abrams—where they had $100 in the account, and just before I came in, they put $2 billion. And you guys are looking, "So you mean $2 million or maybe $200,000?" No, $2 billion were put in the account.

What do you think of that, Mike? Do you think that's a straight deal—$2 billion?

Ambassador-designate Huckabee. Just write me the check, Mr. President. [Laughter] I'll take it with me to Israel.

The President. It's sad. Just a—it's a horrible thing. And we had—we have so many of those things. So they've done an incredible job, and the country wants to hear it. I think DOGE is actually very popular because of what's happening. They're hearing about all of these scams, and for big, big money, tremendous amount. And when you add it up, just hundreds of billions of dollars being wasted. And much of it's fraud.

You know, we talk about waste, and it is waste and abuse, but a lot of it's fraud too.

Q. Can I follow up on something?

Q. Mr. President, I have a question on DOGE.

The President. Yes, go ahead, Brian.

Q. I just want to follow up on that. If Planned Parenthood is defunded, would you look into the harvesting of baby organs that they've done throughout the years and maybe go after some criminal prosecution on that?

The President. Well, I think you're talking about a subject that is a heated subject, and we'll look into it. We're going to look into everything. But that's certainly a subject that's been debated for a long time, and we will look into it.

Yes.

Q. A question on DOGE, Mr. President——

U.S. DOGE Service/Sanctuary Cities/Immigration Enforcement Actions

Q. Mr. President, a lot—some Senators have expressed hope that the White House will support a rescission package to codify some of the DOGE cuts into law. Where does the White House stand on that? And are you making progress on——

The President. On which package?

White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles. A rescission.

Q. A rescission package to codify some of the DOGE cuts into law.

The President. Yes, what—it would be great. I think we're going to do that. I think they're going to do it. I think we're also going to be codifying a lot of the Executive orders that we've done, which have been very popular.

And we're looking at one, I will tell you right now, that I think perhaps will be controversial, but not with the people, and that's sanctuary cities. We're going to end sanctuary cities for some of these jurisdictions that aren't cooperating with law enforcement.

They're guarding criminals. They're taking the rights away from the citizens of their State and their city. And we're going to be ending sanctuary cities, if we find it necessary to do, in certain major areas. And we may just end the entire thing altogether, because it's just a way of protecting criminals, and nobody else is benefited by that.

And for some reason, Democrats want to keep and they want to shield criminals from being sent back to their countries or being sent to prison. And in the meantime, the crime rate has gone through the roof.

Under Biden, it was through the roof. It's starting to come down, but we're taking a lot of people out of here. So we may be presenting you very shortly with a Executive order ending sanctuary cities.

U.S. Airstrikes on Yemen/Houthi Rebel Group/Signal Messaging Application

Q. Mr. President, are you going to change any of the practices that your national security officials use after a reporter was inadvertently added to a group chat about attacks on Yemen?

The President. Well, I think it's a question I've been asked now, and I've given a few answers, and they've all been the same. We have an amazing group. Our national security now is stronger than it's ever been. We have had a very, very successful numerous attacks on that area. These are people that shoot down ships. Not only our ships—ships all over the world they're shooting down, right out of the water, and damaging them badly or they're going down. They're also shooting anything that happens to be flying in the area.

We hit them very, very hard. There was no classified information, as I understand it. They used a app—if you want to call it an app—that a lot of people use, a lot of people in Government use, a lot of people in the media use.

And I think I'll ask Mike. Mike is here. Do you want to respond to that, please?

National Security Adviser Waltz. Yes, Mr. President. You asked about lessons. I think there's a lot of—the lesson is there's a lot of journalists in this city who have made big names for themselves making up lies about this President, whether it was the Russia hoax or making up lies about Gold Star families. And this one in particular, I've never met, don't know, never communicated with, and we are looking into him, reviewing how the heck he got into this room.

[National Security Adviser Waltz continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

So, look, this journalist, Mr. President, wants the world talking about more hoaxes and this kind of nonsense, rather than the freedom that you're enabling. And a key part of our sovereignty is open sea lanes and knocking the crap out of terrorists, which is exactly what your team and Pete Hegseth, a good friend and fellow veteran, is leading the charge on, and it's an honor to be a part of.

The President. We had a very, very successful——

[Several reporters began asking questions at once.]

Houthi Rebel Group/Iran/Atlantic Magazine

Excuse me. We had a very, very successful evening, and we've had numerous successful evenings and days in that area. The Houthis are absolutely on the run. The worst of them has been killed.

This should have been done a long time ago by Biden, but Biden was an incompetent President. He couldn't do anything. He wouldn't—he didn't know where he was going. He had no clue. This guy had no clue. This should have been done a long time ago, as they shoot missiles at ships—randomly shoot missiles at ships. And—and they make their own missiles. You know, this is not an incompetent group of people. They make their own missiles. They get the missiles also from Iran.

It's an offshoot of Iran—another offshoot. You have Hamas. You have Hizballah. You have the Houthis. You got a lot of stuff going on with Iran. And we sent a letter to Iran: You're going to have to be speaking to us one way or the other pretty soon, because we can't let this happen.

But that's an app that a lot of people use, and somebody got on—I mean, I happen to know, the guy's a total sleazebag. And the Atlantic——

Q. But how did a reporter get added to that chat, sir?

The President. The Atlantic is a failed magazine. It does very, very poorly. Nobody gives a damn about it. It gives—this gives it a little bit of a shot.

And I will tell you this, that they've made up more stories, and they're just a failing magazine. The public understands that.

He's a very good man. That man is a very good man right there that you criticize so strongly.

Q. Sir, did he make a mistake?

Q. Do you have plans to ban the use of——

The President. He's a very good man, and he will continue to do a good job.

In addition to him, we had very good people in that meeting, and those people have done a very, very effective job, and you're going to see it. And it goes on, by the way. It's going to go on. And I think the Houthis wish that it didn't happen, but that's what it's all about. We have to create a safe country, a safe world, and that's what we're doing.

Q. Do you worry that national security——

Signal Messaging Application

Q. Mr. President, do you plan to ban the use——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——was put at risk, Mr. President?

Q. Do you plan to ban the use of senior officials using Signal moving forward?

The President. Do I plan to ban who?

Q. The use of Signal to communicate from senior officials——

The President. Well, I don't know what is——

Q. ——especially when it comes to sensitive information?

The President. I don't know anything about Signal. I wasn't involved in this, but I just heard about it, and I hear it's used by a lot of groups. It's used by the media a lot. It's used by a lot of the military and, I think, successfully. But sometimes somebody can get onto those things. That's one of the prices you pay when you're not sitting in the Situation Room with no phones on, which is always the best, frankly.

But you know, you—the best is to be there. In fact, oftentimes, I've been in the—in fact, just last week, I was in the Situation Room with something very important, and we had a couple of people hooked up by line, and I said: "Cancel the line. Sorry, fellas." What you do is: "We'll tell you all about the meeting." Because I know people do get on those lines, whether it's Signal or anything else.

Yes.

U.S. Airstrikes on Yemen/Classified National Security Information

Q. So are you going to change any procedures as a result of this?

The President. Well, I mean, look, we look at everything, and, you know, they've made a big deal out of this, because we've had 2 perfect months. We're bringing business—we are bringing in business. We have another one announced tomorrow—a big one, very big—like, in the history of our country, nobody's ever seen anything like it.

And I think, probably, a lot of people are saying it's—they started by saying it was the greatest first month that a President has ever had. And I think that's true. And now they say it's the best second month. And they had to find something.

And this—certainly, we'll look at this. But the main thing was, nothing happened. Nothing—the attack was totally successful. It was—I guess, from what I understand, took place during, and it wasn't classified information. So this was not classified.

Now, if it's classified information, it's probably a little bit different. But I always say, you got to—you have to learn from every experience.

I think it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael. He's a good person. The person that was on just happens to be a sleazebag, so maybe that's just coincidence. I don't know.

Q. But you are going to conduct an investigation, Mr. President?

Q. Mr. President, would it be a problem if the Atlantic released all the text messages if they're not classified? Jeffrey——

The President. Well, I don't know. I'd have to ask the military about that, because, you know, maybe you wouldn't want that. I don't know.

I will say this, that, from what I heard, the man that we're talking about, who's not somebody that, I don't think, most people have ever heard of—he left—he found it very boring, and he left early. He got off the line very early.

So I can't speak to it other than that. So he's made up a lot of stories. And, you know, I think he's basically bad for the country.

But it's a failing venture—very failing venture. They're very upset. And a thing like this is publicity for them.

But I don't think we should allow people that are very good—like that man sitting right at the end of the table, who's done a great job—we shouldn't allow them to be hurt by it.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Yes. Go ahead.

Signal Messaging Application

Q. Are you—so are you saying you're okay with the continued use of Signal by administration officials for sensitive——

The President. No, that's not what I said. I said we'll look into it, but everybody else seems to be using it. It seems to be the number one used device or app, whatever you want to call it, and we will certainly look. If it was up to me, everybody would be sitting in a room together. The room would have solid lead walls and a lead ceiling and a lead floor. But you know, life doesn't always let you do that.

In the meantime, the attack itself that we were talking about and discussing has been an unbelievable success.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Classified National Security Information/Signal Messaging Application

Q. But you will conduct an—you will conduct an investigation, is what you're saying, into this?

The President. We'll look into it, sure.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Who is going to lead that investigation?

The President. I would look into this. Yes. I want to look into——

Q. Is that the FBI, or who would lead that?

The President. Anything like that, I would—I would ask them. It's not really an FBI thing. It's really something having to do with security like will somebody be able to break in, are people able to break into conversations. And if that's true, we're going to have to find some other form of device. And I think that's something that we may have to do.

Some people like Signal very much. Other people probably don't. But we'll look into it. I think, Michael, I've asked you to——

National Security Adviser Waltz. Yes, sir.

The President. ——immediately study that and find out. If people are able to break into a system—now, in this case, it wasn't that the—this attack was going on, and nobody found out anything. And, again, the person that was on, as I understand it, he left very early, because he didn't find it very exciting.

But I think it's something you should look into.

National Security Adviser Waltz. Yes, sir, we are. We have our technical experts looking at it. We have our legal teams looking at it. And of course, we're going to keep everything as secure as possible.

No one in your national security team would ever put anyone in danger. And as you've said and we've repeatedly said, the attack was phenomenal, and it's ongoing. But the media wants to talk about everything else, except for the hostages you're getting out of the Middle East; Iran on its back foot; sea lanes getting reopened; peace in Europe, as we just saw today, with a Black Sea cease-fire. We were just on with Steve Witkoff, myself, our team in Saudi Arabia.

They want to talk about all this other stuff, except for your amazing successes and the successes of your team.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

The President. One of the other things—and sometimes you have to move very quickly, and there are other devices that are very good, but they are very, very cumbersome, and you're not able to use them and—from a practical standpoint. So we—all we can do is find out the best we have with modern technology. They'll probably get better over the years.

Yes. Go ahead.

Ukraine/Russia

Q. Sir, on the Black Sea. So the Kremlin has said that there were—are several conditions that would need to be met for this agreement to happen. This includes sanction relief for banks and some companies. Did the U.S. agree to all of those conditions that they laid out?

The President. They will be looking at them, and we're thinking about all of them right now. There are about five or six conditions. We're looking at all of them.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Signal Messaging Application

Q. You said it wasn't classified information——

Q. The White House has said that it's looking into how a journalist got added to that Signal chat. Is it possible that there could be a firing of a—even a low- or mid-level official once that person is identified?

The President. About what?

Q. About the Signal chat that we've been discussing.

The President. We've pretty much looked into it. It's pretty simple, to be honest. It's not—it's just something that can happen. It can happen—it—you can even prepare for it. It can happen.

Sometimes people are hooked in, and you don't know they're hooked in. They're hooked into your line, and they don't even mean bad by it. But it's not a perfect technology. There is no perfect technology. The really good ones are very cumbersome, very hard to access. And I think we're going to look into—we always want to use the best technology. This was the best technology for the moment. But, again, it wasn't classified, so they probably viewed it as being something that wasn't that important. And it obviously—with the attack being—I mean, I don't know if it's been read out to you yet, but that attack was a tremendous success for the U.S., a tremendous success.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Who said the information—who said the information——

The President. Go ahead, please.

Q. ——was not classified?

National Security Adviser Michael G. Waltz

Q. Do you think that Mike Waltz made a mistake, and does he need to apologize?

The President. No, I don't think he should apologize. I think he's doing his best. It's equipment and technology that's not perfect, and probably, he won't be using it again, at least not in the very near future. [Laughter]

National Security Adviser Waltz. No, sir.

The President. What do you think?

National Security Adviser Waltz. Yes, sir. I agree with you. Let's get everybody in the room whenever possible.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

The President. A lot of times you find out defects by exactly things like that, but I don't think it's something we're looking forward to using again. We may be forced to use it. You may be in a situation, you know, where you need speed as opposed to gross safety, and you may be forced to use it. But generally speaking, I think we probably won't be using it very much.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

European Defense Spending Levels/Ukraine/Tariffs

Q. Mr. President, the Secretary of Defense—on that chain, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and J.D. Vance, the Vice President, said that the Europeans were "freeloading." Do you agree with that assessment?

The President. Do you really want me to answer that? [Laughter]

Q. Yes, sir.

The President. Yes, I think they've been freeloading. The European Union has been absolutely terrible to us on trade—terrible. And, as you know, NATO—I got them to pay hundreds of billions of dollars. They were way behind.

And if you look even—if you look at Ukraine—so we're in for $350 billion because of Biden. Should have never happened. This war should have—all these dead people should not be dead. All these broken cities that are demolished down to the ground, those gorgeous towers—the most beautiful in the world, the most beautiful spires in the world. The spires in Ukraine were said to be the most beautiful of all. Just about every one of them is lying on its side in a million pieces. It's so sad to see what's happened to a heritage.

No, I think that—I think when they say the European Union and the U-—and you could say NATO, also—look, NATO—and I don't blame NATO for this. I don't blame Europe for this. I blame Biden for the fact that he didn't make them equalize. And to this day, I said to him: "You've got to catch up. You've got to equalize." But why are they in for $100 billion and we're in for possibly $350 billion? It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be.

Q. But—but, sir, on that——

The President. And you could say more important for them, because we have an ocean in between.

So, you know, it's one of those things. You'll be seeing liberation day—I call it liberation day in America. You're going to be seeing on April 2. Didn't want to do it on April 1, for the obvious reason. April 2. But you'll be seeing tariffs, and I think I've been very fair. I have them set, but I think I've been very fair to countries that have really abused us economically for many, many decades.

Q. But, sir, on the same—on the same group chats——

Q. Mr. President, who told you that information was not classified?

The President. Another question?

Q. Which of your national security advisers——

The President. Please, go ahead.

Q. ——advisers told you that?

National Economy/Inflation

Q. Just following up on your comments on the economy. There is reporting that consumer confidence fell for the fourth straight month. What is your message to Americans who are concerned about tariffs and the inflation?

The President. Well, I know this: that for the first time in, like, 50 years—right track, wrong track—we're on the right track. And I think people see that.

And if you look at prices, prices are way down. You know, when I first came here, the first time I met with you people, officially, they were screaming at me about eggs. I said, "I've been here for a week, and I'm being yelled at about eggs." Eggs prices have come down 45, 50 percent in the last week and a half.

And our Secretary of Agriculture has done a great job, as you know. Brooke, she's done a fantastic job, and others working with her have done a great job. But we brought eggs down at a level that nobody thought we could get at.

I inherited that situation, and I inherited a grocery situation. The groceries went way up. An old-fashioned word, but it's a very descriptive word. Groceries have gone through the roof. And I used to campaign on it. I used to say, "We're going to get groceries down," and we have got it down.

I watched a certain newscast over the weekend, and a Congressman—Democrat Congressman, said: "Well, Trump has done a lot. I agree. He's been great on the border. He's been great on the military. But you know, he hasn't brought prices down." That's false.

Gasoline is way down. Eggs are way down. Groceries are down very substantially, but down. Almost everything is down.

Now I'd like to see interest rates come down a little bit. And you're going to see billions of dollars, even trillions of dollars coming into our country very soon in the form of tariffs, because we were abused by Presidents and, frankly, in all fairness—it wasn't their expertise, but they had no idea what they were doing.

Manufacturing Investment/Job Creation and Growth

Q. Mr. President, you say tariffs will create more jobs here in America. So——

The President. Oh, yes. Sure. It's going to agree——

Q. ——which States——

The President. It—it'll be——

Q. Which States do you——

The President. It will create a lot of money and more jobs. But if you look—so, in the last—these gentlemen would know about it—and ladies, because some of the ladies are great businessmen in this room that are becoming ambassadors. Great. Really great. Top of the line.

When you look at the number of companies that have said—like, we're close to—I would say close to $4 trillion. We never had numbers like that. The number-one chipmaker in the world from Taiwan coming in with $200 billion. We have Apple. Look at Apple: $500 billion—$500 billion. They're going to build plants all over the United States. They were all being built in China.

You have many, many companies. And maybe, above all, you have the car companies coming in at levels that nobody has ever seen before. We have—Honda is opening up one of the biggest plants in the world in Indiana. And many car companies are coming in.

We have AI. We're leading China by a lot in AI. And we're going to keep it that way, because we've made it very good for them. And we're going to protect them. Once they're here, we'll protect them through taxes, through incentives, and also through tariffs.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you.