Remarks in an Exchange With Reporters at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey

The President. What a nice guy he is.

[At this point, the President gestured to Saquon Barkley, running back for the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles.]

I wanted to race him, but I decided not to do it.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine/Iran

Q. What is your message to Vladimir Putin after your meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and how did that meeting go?

The President. I think the meeting went well. We'll see what happens over the next few days. We'll probably learn a lot. I was very disappointed that missiles were flying—by Russia, but that missiles were flying. Very disappointing. We'll see how it goes.

On the Iran situation, I think we're doing very well. I think a deal is going to be made there. That's going to happen. Pretty sure it's going to happen. We'll have something without having to start dropping bombs all over the place.

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. Do you trust President Putin?

The President. Say it again.

Q. Do you trust President Putin?

The President. I'll let you know in about 2 weeks.

[Several reporters began asking questions at once.]

You did very nice at the dinner the other night. I was very proud of you.

Q. Thank you, sir.

The President. They had your picture up, everything. Very proud of you.

Q. Thank you.

The President. I said, "I know him."

The President's Meeting With President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine in Rome, Italy

Q. What did you—what did Zelenskyy tell you that made you reassured?

The President. Well, it wasn't that. It was just—look, they have a tough road ahead. Okay? And we had a good meeting. It was a nice meeting. It was a beautiful meeting. I'll tell you, it's the nicest office I've ever seen. It was a beautiful scene.

But he was very—you know, look, he wants to do something good for his country. Thinks he's doing a good job, and he's working hard. We'll see what happens. It's a very complicated deal.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Ukraine/U.S. Security Assistance

Q. What did he tell you, Mr. President?

The President. He told me that he needs more weapons, but he's been saying that for 3 years. You know, he needs more weapons, and we're going to see what happens. I want to see what happens with respect to Russia.

Because Russia, I've been surprised and disappointed—very disappointed that they did the bombing of those places after discussions.

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. Are you going to talk to Putin again soon?

The President. Yes, I will. I will.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine/Russia's Annexation of Crimea

Q. Did President Zelenskyy talk to you about Crimea?

The President. Well, he did very briefly, but Crimea was given away by Barack Hussein Obama and by Biden. That's 11 or 12 years ago. That's a long time ago. I don't know how you can bring up Crimea because that's been a long time. Nobody brought it up for 12 years, and now they bring it up now.

So I told them—I tell them you can maybe go back to Obama. Ask him why they gave it up. They gave it up without a shot being fired, by the way.

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. What do you want Vladimir Putin to do?

The President. Well, I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal. And we have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it and be done with it and just go back to life.

Russia/U.S. Diplomatic Efforts/Inflation/Tax Code Reform

Q. What punitive action are you considering taking against Russia? I know on Truth Social——

The President. Well, I have a lot of things I can do.

Q. Yes.

The President. I'm not looking to do it, but I have a lot of strength. You know, we built the United States up. I think we're more respected now as a country, maybe, than ever before. There's no more games. You have somebody that knows what he's doing, not like the previous person who didn't have a clue.

So, you know, I just—I want to end that. I want to end the Iran situation, if we can. And we have other things too. You know, we've got plenty of problems in the world. You know, when I left—4½ years ago, I left, and I'll tell you what, we didn't have any of these problems.

The good news is, costs are way down. Groceries are down. Eggs are down. Gasoline is way down. It's all coming down. It's all looking good. The tariffs are strong. It's—we're taking in a lot of money from tariffs. We were losing a lot before I got here. We were losing billions of dollars a day, and now we're doing great, and we haven't even kicked in yet.

And eventually, we'll be reducing taxes very substantially for the people of our country because the money is so great coming in from tariffs that I'll be able to reduce taxes to a very large extent and maybe almost completely.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Mr. President——

Russia/Ukraine

Q. You keep saying "2 weeks" about President Putin. What is 2 weeks? Give us—what is the actual date? What is the timeline?

The President. Well, 2 weeks—2 weeks or less, and if it's a little more at the time, I say. But, you know, they're losing a lot of people. We have 3-, 4,000 people dying every single week. That's a lot of people to lose. You can imagine parents waving—from Ukraine and from Russia waving to their son as he leaves, and you know, a week later, he's dead on a battlefield, all carved up and chopped up. I've seen them.

I see the satellite pictures. They're horrible. They're horrible. I would say it can't get any worse. Body parts laying all over—I don't even like looking at them. Body parts laying all over the fields. What are they doing? It would have never started if I were President.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine

Q. Is your relationship with President Zelenskyy better now than——

The President. I think so. But look——

Q. ——things were in the Oval Office?

The President. ——it was never bad. We had a little dispute because I disagreed with something he said, and the cameras were rolling, and that was okay with me. But we had a dispute, but I—look, he's in a tough situation, a very tough situation.

He's fighting a much bigger force. Much bigger. And that force has not been very distinguished. You know, it's been a lot tougher than they thought. But it helped them when we gave that $350 billion worth of weapons or cash.

Ukraine/Russia

Q. Is Zelenskyy ready to give up Crimea, do you think, Mr. President?

The President. Oh, I think so, yes. Look, Crimea was 12 years ago. That was President Obama. They gave it up without a shot being fired. So don't talk to me about Crimea. Talk to Obama and Biden about Crimea.

Q. I was just wondering what Zelenskyy thought about it.

The President. And remember, this is Biden's war. This isn't Trump's war. I came in to try and solve a problem, and the problem is, so many people are being killed.

By the way, Saquon, what a great guy.

Q. Sir, can I ask——

The President. You see the conditioning. His conditioning is pretty good. [Laughter] Better than you. Better than me.

Death of Jeffrey Epstein Accuser Virginia Giuffre

Q. Sir, can I ask you, do you have a reaction to Virginia Giuffre's suicide? Do you have a reaction to Virginia Giuffre's suicide in Australia?

The President. Well, it's a very sad situation, the whole thing. That whole situation is very sad—her and others. And so, certainly, that's a horrible thing. Horrible.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine

Q. Mr. President, one more on Zelenskyy. You know, the last meeting you had was pretty rough. What—did you sense a different attitude now? And, if so, why?

The President. I do. I see it—I see him as calmer. I think he understands the picture. And I think he wants to make a deal. I don't know if he wanted to make a deal. I think he wants to make a deal.

Q. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Q. Mr. President——

The President. Good job.

Q. ——did you talk to——

Q. Thank you.

Tariffs

Q. Did you talk to anyone about tariffs yesterday? Did any foreign leaders approach you and ask for——

The President. I did, and you probably saw—I think every foreign leader approached me and said hello. A lot of good relationships.

And we're going to be taking in a tremendous amount of money. We're going to be taking in a lot of jobs, a lot of plants and factories. They're already coming. I mean, you see it. And we're going to make a lot of money, and we're going to cut taxes for the people of this country. It will take a little while before we do that, but we're going to be cutting taxes, and it's possible we'll do a complete tax cut, because I think the tariffs will be enough to cut all of the income tax.

Now, we have a lot of debt that's been left to us, you know, unfortunately, over many years. We'll take care of that. But the tariffs, when—if people only understood the tariffs. We're going to be giving people a—of this country a tremendous tax cut, and we're going to start with people making less than $200,000 a year.

China-U.S. Trade

Q. Is there any movement on the China—Mr. President, China said you haven't really been talking——

The President. A little bit. Look, a little bit. They want to make a deal, obviously. Right now, they're not doing business with us. You know, people talk about going cold turkey with China, meaning just forget about it.

We were losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year with China, and now they're not doing any business with us. You know, because—not because of them. Because of me. Because at 145-percent, you can't do business.

But something's going to happen that's going to be possible.

First Lady Melania Trump's Birthday/Funeral Service for Pope Francis

Q. Did you and the First Lady have a nice birthday dinner on the plane?

The President. We had a great dinner. She's a great First Lady. People loved her.

And the funeral was beautiful. It was a beautiful funeral. As funerals go, it was a beautiful funeral.

Immigration Enforcement Actions

Q. Mr. President, the Wisconsin judge is being prosecuted by the FBI for sheltering someone that ICE was trying to detain. Do you have any thoughts about the Wisconsin judge?

The President. Well, I think it's horrible. I think the whole thing is horrible with judges with what's going on, and they shouldn't be doing that. That's very dangerous territory.

And we have to be able to do what I ran on. I ran on a campaign of taking criminals out of our country—murderers, drug dealers, people that are insane, people are—that are insane moved out of insane asylums and mental institutions. These are insane people. And I won on the fact that we're going to be doing this.

We have to be allowed to do it. Otherwise, we're not going to have a country any longer.

Thank you very much.

Q. Thank you, Mr. President.