Remarks in an Exchange With Reporters Aboard Air Force One En Route to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska

The President. Hello, everybody. I brought a friend of yours, Bret Baier [Fox News]. He's here. Bret, how you doing? How are you?

Russia/Ukraine/North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Q. What will make a success of this summit today?

The President. I can't tell you that. I don't know. It's—there's nothing set in stone. I want certain things. I want to see a cease-fire. This is not to do with Europe. Europe is not telling me what to do, but they're going to be involved in the process, obviously, as well as Zelenskyy.

But I want to see a cease-fire rapidly. I don't know if it's going to be today, but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today. Everyone said it can't be today, but I'm just saying I want the killing to stop.

I'm in this to stop the killing. You know, we're not putting up any money. We're making money. They're buying our weapons, and we're sending them to NATO, and NATO is sending us big, beautiful checks. But that—I don't care about that. 

I care about—it was a big factor when Biden spent $350 billion and got nothing. But what I do care about is they lost—last week, 7,011 people were lost, almost all soldiers—36 people in a town which got hit by a missile. But 7,000—over 7,000 soldiers. It's crazy.

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. Can you describe a little bit, Mr. President—because I know you've had a lot of phone calls with President Putin—what's the difference in a face-to-face, in-person meeting?

The President. No different. Look, he's a smart guy. Been doing it for a long time, but so have I. Been doing it for a long time. And here we are. We're President. That was much more difficult than what I'm doing today, believe me.

So we get along. There's a good respect level on both sides. And I think, you know, something's going to come of it. I noticed he's bringing a lot of businesspeople from Russia, and that's good. I like that, because they want to do business, but they're not doing business until we get the war settled.

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

National Economy/Tariffs

Q. Will you talk about business? Will you talk——

The President. [Inaudible]—business. We have the hottest country on Earth. We have the hottest economy on Earth. We have the hottest company—country. We just set a new stock market record again. We have hundreds of billions of dollars flowing in from tariffs. We have—we're the hottest country—we were a dead country, like dead like doornails—a dead country.

One year ago, we were dead as a doornail, and now we have the hottest country. And he wants a piece of that, because his country is not hot economically. In fact, it's the opposite. And China is not doing well economically. But we're all—look, I want everybody to do well. The war has got to stop, and the killing has got to stop.

Q. Mr. President, what do you mean by severe consequences?

Russia/Ukraine

Q. Thank you for coming back to take questions. We saw that Russia continued its violence into Ukraine last night, launching even more drones. What did you make of that?

The President. Well, I think they're trying to negotiate. He's trying to set a stage. I mean, in his mind, that helps him make a better deal. It actually hurts him. But in his mind, that helps him make a better deal, if they can continue the killing. Maybe it's a part of the world. Maybe it's just his fabric—his genes, his genetics. But he thinks that makes him—gives him strength in negotiating. I think it hurts him. But I'll be talking to him about it later.

Ukraine/Russia

Q. And on the table for discussions today, Mr. President—are the territorial swaps on the table? Will you be discussing that?

The President. They'll be discussed, but I've got to let Ukraine make that decision, and I think they'll make a proper decision.

But I'm not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I'm here to get him at a table. And I think you have two sides—look, Vladimir Putin wanted to take all of Ukraine. If I wasn't President, he would right now be taking all of Ukraine. But he's not going to do it.

Q. Mr. President, what did you mean——

Ukraine/International Security Assistance

Q. Is it possible—one—just one thing. What about the possible——

The President. [Inaudible]—hat either.

Q. ——the possibility of the United States providing security guarantees to Ukraine?

The President. Maybe.

Q. Is that on the table?

The President. Along with Europe and other countries.

Q. You would be——

The President. Not in the form of NATO, because that's not going to—you know, there are certain things that aren't going to happen. But yes, along with Europe, there's a possibility of that.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

National Economy/Tariffs

Q. You mentioned the number of businesspeople that President Putin is bringing along. Is that something that you want to discuss with President Putin at this meeting?

The President. Yes, if we make progress, I would discuss it, because that's one of the things that they would like. They'd like to get a piece of what I built, in terms of the economy.

Just so you know, we were a dead country in—with our economy. He wouldn't be interested—he wouldn't have been interested a year ago with the Biden economy, but he is interested in the Trump economy because we're doing—wait until you see when those factories start opening up. We have hundreds of factories all over the country, and that includes auto factories, AI factories, and every other—they're all coming in because they want to beat the tariffs, because if they open here, they don't have to pay tariffs. If they don't open here, they have to pay, in some cases, 200 percent, 300 percent. I haven't even set some of the tariffs yet.

I'll be setting tariffs next week and the week after on steel and on, I would say, chips. Okay?

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Steel and what?

The President. Chips and semiconductors, we'll be setting sometime next week, week after.

Tariff Rates/Incentives for Domestic Manufacturing Investment

Q. What rate are you looking at? What rate?

The President. Oh, I'm going to have a rate that is going to be lower at the beginning, then that gives them a chance to come in and build, and very high after a certain period of time. And if they don't build here, they have to pay a very high tariff, which doesn't work, so they'll come and build.

[A reporter gestured to another reporter.]

Q. Mr. President, hi. You had said earlier——

The President. He's such a gentleman. [Laughter] I didn't see you over there.

Q. He didn't do that with me. [Laughter]

The President. Isn't he a gentleman? [Laughter]

Q. He is.

The President. He's a nice person.

Q. He's helping me out.

The President. He's a very nice—he's one of the few nice ones, actually.

Russia/Ukraine

Q. You had said earlier this week that Putin would face severe consequences if you get the sense from him——

The President. Yes. [Inaudible] Very severe.

Q. ——that he's not interested. What do you mean by that?

The President. Yes, economically severe. Yes, it will be very severe. I'm not doing this for my health. Okay? I don't need it. I'd like to focus on our country, but I'm doing this to save a lot of lives. Yes, very severe.

Thank you very much, everybody.