Remarks During a Tour of the "Alligator Alcatraz" Migrant Detention Facility and an Exchange With Reporters in Ochopee, Florida

The President. So I thought this was so professional and so well done that you should come and look at it as opposed to standing around and not knowing where we are.

And we're taking tours through the areas where they stay and the areas where the medical is and all. And they've really done—between Kristi and Ron and the whole group—it's really Government working together. And congratulations to you guys.

But I wanted you to see it as opposed to waiting for us and then say, "How was it?" Right? It really is pretty amazing.

The President's Legislative Agenda

Did they take the vote yet? How's the vote doing?

Q. Haven't heard.

Q. Not yet.

The President. I would normally be home waiting for the vote——

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi L. Noem. Yes, we would, but——

The President. ——or we'd be in Congress.

Secretary Noem. That's right.

The President. ——but I wanted to come down and see.

But I hear the vote is going to be good. You'll let me know. You'll let me know.

Q. I will let you know, Mr. President.

The President. Have they taken it yet?

Q. What's that?

The President. They're taking it now?

Q. I don't think they're—they've taken the vote. Yes?

Q. Not—it's not concluded yet.

Q. Not concluded, but they are taking it.

The President. Boy, wouldn't that be an upset, huh?

Q. Are you confident that this can get through the House?

The President. Yes.

Tax Code Reform

Q. And is there any wiggle room on your July 4 deadline?

The President. It's a great—it's the greatest tax cut in the history of our country. And if it doesn't pass, it's the biggest tax increase in the history of our country. That alone—68-percent increase, as opposed to a massive cut. It's the biggest tax cut in the history of our country, and everybody gets it.

Immigration Enforcement Actions/News Media/U.S. Airstrikes on Iranian Nuclear Facilities

Q. Mr. President and Madam Secretary, CNN, yesterday, pushed an app that lets you track where ICE——

Secretary Noem. Yes.

Q. ——agents are. Tom Homan——

Secretary Noem. Yes.

Q. ——was saying that perhaps CNN should be prosecuted for that——

Secretary Noem. Yes.

The President. That's okay with me.

Q. ——for obstruction of law enforcement. Your——

Secretary Noem. We're——

Q. ——your response?

Secretary Noem. Yes, we're working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them for that, because——

The President. Good idea.

Secretary Noem. ——what they're doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations, and we're going to actually go after them and prosecute them with the partnership of Pam, if we can, because what they're doing, we believe, is illegal.

The President. And they may be prosecuted also for having given false reports——

Secretary Noem. Yes.

The President. ——on the attack in Iran.

Secretary Noem. Yes.

The President. They were giving totally false reports. It was totally obliterated. And our people have to be celebrated, not come home and say: "What do you mean we didn't hit the target? We hit the target perfectly." You know, the pilots came home, and they said, "We hit the target perfectly."

So they may be very well prosecuted for that. What they did there, we think, is totally illegal.

Okay. Let's go. Follow us.

[At this point, the tour continued. The President then spoke to reporters as follows.]

See what I mean? It's a—it's an amazing job. They've all done a great job. Proud of them.

Governor Gavin C. Newsom of California

Q. Mr. President, Mr. Governor, what's your message to Governor Gavin Newsom inside of this facility?

The President. Well, the first thing he should do is come here and learn something, because they don't do this. They don't know—they wouldn't know where to begin. And if they did it, it would cost them a hundred times more.

So I would say he should call the Governor and Kristi, and I'm sure you'd give him—because he——

Secretary Noem. Yes, we would—I could give him lots of advice.

The President. ——his State is a disaster, and he doesn't do this. We don't—

Governor Ronald D. DeSantis of Florida. Well, they have the original Alcatraz——

Secretary Noem. That's right. That's true.

Gov. DeSantis. ——so you guys could approve him being able to set one of these up over there.

Secretary Noem. They have the original.

Gov. DeSantis. I'm sure—

Secretary Noem. That's right.

Gov. DeSantis. The Secretary would be happy to do that and provide—I—my sense is, he's probably not going to bite on that. But—you know.

But I don't know that they'd able to come in at cost, because, you know, they tried to do this high-speed rail; they spent, like, $150 billion—no tracks. We've got a privately funded rail in Florida from Miami to Orlando. It cost the taxpayers zero, and it's very successful.

So it's just a much different approach between States.

Q. And, Mr. President, when's the first person checking in to this beautiful Alcatraz?

The President. We're not going to let him get anywhere near Alcatraz. It would cost a hundred times more than they thought.

No, he ought to—really, he ought to come here and study this, because he could learn a lot.

Yes?

Immigration Enforcement Actions/Border Security

Q. When is the first person checking in to their room, sir?

Gov. DeSantis. Tomorrow.

Secretary Noem. Well, hopefully—yes. Hopefully, tomorrow. Within the next 24 hours.

The President. They have the doctors. They have all the professional people ready.

Gov. DeSantis. There's going to be a security sweep because there have been civilians here. So they will sweep this multiple times to make sure there's nothing can be used as weapons or any contraband. And then, once that's clear, then they'll do. So it's really up to—Secretary, I know, has got people in the queue.

Secretary Noem. Mm-hmm. Yes, we do.

Gov. DeSantis. And so they'll be ready to receive.

Q. I think our viewers at home should note that this is air-conditioned facilities.

Secretary Noem. Yes, it is.

Q. So, if any of the news claims they're keeping them out in the hot, humid South Florida, that is wrong. It's probably 62 degrees in here.

The President. It feels good in here, to be honest.

Q. Or 72, I should say.

Secretary Noem. There you go.

The President. Hey, Biden wanted me in here. Okay? [Laughter] That little—he wanted me—it didn't work out that way, but he wanted me in here, that son of a bitch.

Migrant Detention Facility/Former President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Q. Mr. President, what's your expectation what this will do for the speed and force of deportations?

The President. Well, a lot of things, and they're both telling me that these people come in here, they want to go home—and they want to go home, so we immediately send them home. You know, where it's appropriate. Now, if somebody is a real "killer" killer——

Secretary Noem. Yes.

The President. ——we don't send them anywhere. We put them in a maximum security.

Look, what we inherited from this guy, this incompetent man and his administration, which wasn't incompetent—it was radical-left, lunatic, Communist, whatever you want to say. I know most of them. What we inherited should never, ever be forgotten—what they've made us do.

This is all because of an open-border policy where 25 million people flowed in from all over the world. From prisons, from all over the world, they flowed in for no reason whatsoever.

We had—you know, when I left, we had a very powerful border. We had no problem. He opened it up, day one. He just opened the border. And people couldn't believe it.

Secretary Noem. That's right.

The President. They were standing there. It was—"What are they doing?" They said, "Go in." That's what they—you look at the first day tapes, they opened it up, and they said, "Go in." And that's where all of this began.

But this is an amazing thing that they've done here. Really amazing.

Secretary Noem. But listen, they don't—people don't have to come here. If they self-deport and go home, they can come back legally. We will let them come back legally.

The President. And there is a lot of self——

Secretary Noem. Yes.

The President. ——deportation.

Secretary Noem. But if you wait——

The President. People wouldn't believe it, actually.

Secretary Noem. ——and we bring you to this facility, you don't ever get to come back to America. You don't get the chance to come back and be an American again and work here, so——

Gov. DeSantis. I—they—there weren't with us when the President and the Secretary and Kevin and I—we went through the—in the intake. So, right when you do the intake, they have the information about voluntary departure. They have the ability—obviously, you guys are funding that because it's a lot cheaper to do it that way.

The President. Yes.

Gov. DeSantis. So, you know, even if they get brought to the front doorstep here, they still have an opportunity to just go back voluntarily. And then, this way, they're not——

Deportation Procedures

Q. How fast does that take, from the minute—let's say they get in here——

Secretary Noem. We can put them on a——

Q. ——they're like, "Hey, I don't want to stay here. I want to go back to Venezuela"?

Secretary Noem. We can put them on a plane that day and take them home. We'll buy their plane ticket, go home, and then they get the chance to come back legally. If they wait and say, "We're not going to do that"——

The President. If they do that, they can come back legally after a period of time.

Secretary Noem. Yes. Yes.

Immigration Enforcement Actions

Q. Mr. President, you've talked in—recently about the idea of finding some way to get farm workforce——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——and service-sector workforce, and I think you've discussed, somehow, a program of people leaving on a sponsorship and coming right back. Can you give us a little more detail about that and why, in the view——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——of some hard-liners, it's not amnesty?

The President. We—want to take care of farmers and hotel workers and various other people, and we're working on it right now. And Ron is going to be involved, and you're involved—

Secretary Noem. Yes.

The President. ——already. So we have a case where—a lot of cases where ICE will go into a farm, and these are guys working there for 10, 15 years. No problem. The farmers know them. We're going to put—it's called "farmer responsibility" or "owner responsibility," where they're going to be largely responsible for these people.

And they know these people. They've worked in the—on the farms for 15 years. And all of a sudden, they're—so I have a great—Ron does and Kristi does—we have a great feeling for the farmer and for others in the same position, and we're going to give them responsibility for people. And we're going to have a system of signing them up so they don't have to go. They can be here legally. They can pay taxes and everything else—they're not getting citizenship, but they get other things. And the farmers need them to do the work. Without those people, you're not going to be able to run your farm.

The President's Relationship With Governor Ronald D. DeSantis of Florida

Q. Mr. President, you and the Governor tangled pretty hard in the 2024 election.

The President. I didn't notice that. [Laughter]

Q. Yet you stand here now——

The President. I didn't notice it.

Q. Yet you stand here now as partners on this effort. How would you describe the relationship, and what future does Governor DeSantis have?

The President. I would say it's a 10.

Q. Excuse me?

The President. I think it's a 10. Maybe 9.9, because there might be a couple of little wounds. So maybe 9.9.

Secretary Noem. Little wounds. A little scar tissue.

The President. I think we have a 10. We're—we——

Q. Do you think his wife should run for Governor?

The President. We get along great.

Q. Should Casey DeSantis run for Governor?

Gov. DeSantis. Well, the—you know, the thing about it is, you know, I endorsed him immediately in January 2024. I raised his—one of his PACs millions and millions of dollars. And obviously, we saved him a lot of money in Florida, because Florida was a deep red State. He didn't even have to do a rally in Florida, whereas 2016 and '20, this was, like, ground zero.

And so we've been, you know, really happy to do that. And then we've worked very well on this and other issues——

The President. Other issues.

Gov. DeSantis. ——with Florida.

And you can call him at any time, and he wants to be helpful for Governors. I mean, I can tell you that. We did Hurricane Helene last year. You didn't hear from the President at the time then. And then—but you know, with President Trump, you know, we know immediately, you just make the phone call.

Gaza, Palestinian Territories/U.S. Airstrikes on Iranian Nuclear Facilities

Q. Can we ask you a Gaza follow-up question? I'm sorry. Like, another thing you inherited. How firm are you going to be with Netanyahu about ending the war in Gaza?

The President. Very firm. Very firm. But he wants it too, I will tell you. He's coming here next week. He wants to end it too.

We had a tremendous success with Iran. They weren't happy. Somebody said, "When are you going to sign?" I said, "Sign?" They are so bombed out. Did you see the report issued this morning? The place was decimated. It will be years before anybody even gets down there.

So that's not a priority, but we'll have a report, and we'll have whatever we want. We'll get from—whatever we want from Iran.

And I think, and I hope, they want to have a good country. You know, they have massive sanctions right now, biting sanctions. It's going to be very hard for them to do anything with those sanctions. And I look forward to—maybe there'll be a time when we get along with them and they can rebuild their country. Would be——

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel

Q. Is there a point where you tell—where you tell Netanyahu, like: "You've got to end this now. You've got to strike a deal"?

The President. Well, he wants to. I can tell you he wants to, and I think we'll have it. I think we'll have a deal next week.

Q. Thank you.

The President. That's what I think.

Chairman of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors Jerome H. Powell

Q. Mr. President, do you— intend to announce your pick for successor to Jay Powell earlier than—than, say—or as early as, say, this summer or the fall?

The President. Will I do something about who it's going to be?

Q. Yes.

The President. I don't know. Hey, he'd be a good candidate. [Laughter] He might do—she'd be a great candidate too. Anybody would be better than Jay Powell.

Secretary Noem. Would be better than Jay.

The President. No, he's causing us a fortune because he keeps the rate way up. I think it's Trump derangement syndrome, personally.

But you know, we have a very strong country. We're the strongest country. Look, our country right now is at a level that we haven't seen for 40, 50 years. What we're doing now is—nobody has seen anything like it.

I told you I was with—in the Middle East. The King of Saudi Arabia said to me very strongly—he said: "You know what? A year ago, you had a dead country. Now you have the hottest country in the world."

We do. We have the hottest country in the world.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Q. It looks like Syria——

Q. When are we going to see that exemption for farmers? And what about other industries——

The President. We'll be seeing it over the next of weeks.

Q. What about construction and other industries?

The President. Also.

Q. Also construction?

The President. Those type of industries, yes.