Remarks on Signing Executive Orders To Reduce Crime and an Exchange With Reporters

The President. Well, thank you very much. This is a very important day for many reasons. We've had a lot of important days lately. But this is a meeting and a group of people that are doing an unbelievable job on a thing called crime and, in particular, violent crime. Today we're going to be discussing it.

And I watched as a very incompetent mayor from Chicago said: "Well, what do they know? They only arrested nine people." I said: "Nine people? We didn't arrest nine people."

We actually arrested a total of well over a thousand people. We took hundreds of guns away from young kids that were throwing them around like it was candy. We apprehended scores of illegal aliens. We seized dozens of illegal firearms.

There have been zero murders. It sounds sort of terrible to say. It's embarrassing. I did this over the weekend—I'm making a speech, and I acted like I was so proud as I said, "We've had zero murders in the last week." And some of these people were from foreign countries. They said, "That doesn't sound so good." And I said, "Well, doesn't sound good, but Washington was the most dangerous place in this country." And now, you know what? It's probably the safest place in our country.

Everyone's starting to come here. The restaurants—now you can't get in. Many of them closed because they couldn't open with crime.

Everybody before me is happy what I'm doing. Most of you won't say that because you're radical left. The newspapers are so dishonest. The press is totally dishonest. But that's all right, we've gotten used to it. And we won in a landslide, so they obviously lost their power.

I mean, it's impossible to imagine that, when you get 97-percent negative stories—purposely negative stories, even though you've done 97-percent positive things—that they could—that you could win an election in a landslide, winning all seven—think of it: all seven swing States, winning by—the popular vote by millions of votes.

We had a fantastic—the best is your districts. Out of 3,000 districts, I guess we won—3,500—we won 2,750, and they won 500. And that's, to me, the best of all.

And we had tremendous in every way, the election. And it's hard to believe you can do that when you have a corrupt media, but you are. Many of you are corrupt, and it's nothing we can do about it. But we keep winning, and we're going to keep winning.

And this whole story on crime is incredible that the Democrats wouldn't be with us.

So the mayor of Chicago, I watched him this morning. He said: "Trump doesn't know what he's talking about. He only apprehended nine people." Well, number one, that's false. It's—literally, it's thousands. We'll get into that. But more importantly than anything, we took guns away. We have some of the worst career professionals out of the country already. They've been taken out of the country. And some are in solid confinement, because these were killers. We arrested some very bad people.

And in the last 11 days—again, I hate to say it, because it sounds so ridiculous—but in the last 11 days, we've had no murders, and that's the first time that's taken place in years—actually, years. We always have a murder a week. They call it "a murder a week."

You come here from Iowa, you come here from Indiana, you come here from Idaho, because you're so proud of your country, you love your country, and then you get murdered, your son gets murdered, your daughter gets murdered, you get murdered. See the media? You get murdered. Many of you have been mugged in Washington, you just don't want to talk about it.

And I know that every time I do this with you, you—almost at—everything—but every time I do this with you, you people are saying to yourselves, "He's right, he's right," and then you write a negative story.

But we are doing an incredible job. The people behind me are amazing. We're working very well with the Washington police, as you know. The DC National Guard is unbelievable. We're also getting tremendous help from Secret Service. And we are at a point where Washington is booming again.

People are pouring in like we haven't seen for years. Nobody wanted to come here. They didn't want to come here and—and get murdered. I have a friend of mine who has a very successful son, and I said, "Where is your son going to be this weekend?" He said, "He's going to Washington with his friends." I said, "Really?" "Yes, he's wanted to do it for 4 years, but he couldn't do it because it was so unsafe." And he's a tough kid too. It's so unsafe.

And he ended up staying and staying 3 nights, going out to restaurants all three nights. He said it was so beautiful, so peaceful, because all the criminals are either arrested or they're hiding, and we're finding the ones that are hiding.

So I want to thank Pam Bondi. I want to thank our Vice President. I want to thank everybody standing behind me, because they are really—Gady, you've been unbelievable, by the way.

U.S. Marshals Service Director Gadyaces S. Serralta. Thank you, sir.

The President. They have done an unbelievable job. They're working 24 hours a day, and Washington, DC, is now in great shape. I'm going to be working with Clark Construction, which is by far your biggest construction company, and we're going to also beautify Washington.

We're going to rip down the broken medians, fix them. We're going to put asphalt on the roads. We're not ripping them apart like these stupid people do. They rip a road down to the dirt, and then they spend 5 years in building the new one, and then it starts settling. [Laughter] You know, the whole thing is so crazy. And they'll spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a road. I'll spend about $2, and it will look better.

So we're going to be replacing medians. We're going to be replacing much of the asphalt in the road, which in the city, which is in bad shape. We have great stripers, we have great contractors, but we have to let them do the thing.

The Congress has said that they'll give us whatever money is needed to fix up the Capital. This is the Capital. And we're not going to spend a lot. It's going to go fast, and it will be spotless. And we want it spotless for the World Cup and for the Olympics.

You saw the World Cup was here the other day. And come to think of it, there's your trophy for the World Cup. In fact, it's solid gold. That's actually solid gold. So heavy that some of the people in this room wouldn't be able to lift it up. [Laughter]

I think what I'm going to do is place it right above the angel, right over there. That's solid gold too. We're going to put it right up there. Look at that. There's a solid gold trophy. They know how to get to me. [Laughter] You know? I like the angel better, to be honest with you.

So we're going to start—sign, and then we'll take a few questions, and we'll tell you how good a job we're doing.

We want to go from here to other places. But I was telling some of the people that, in a certain way, you really want to be asked to go. You know? I hate to barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians and bad politicians, like a guy like Pritzker. He ought to spend more time in the gym, actually. This guy is a disaster. Gavin Newsom is a disaster.

When we went—we saved Los Angeles. You wouldn't have been able to have the Olympics in Los Angeles. You're barely able to have it now. They did lose 25,000 houses to a fire that should have never occurred because they didn't let the water come down from the Pacific Northwest, which you guys don't want to write about. I had to break into the water supply to let the water down.

And even now, we want more. He—we can have much more. It's less than half of what should be coming in. I don't know, they have a political thing about it. It's, like, the craziest thing I've ever seen.

But I don't like going to a town, city, place, a State, and then be criticized by some corrupt or incompetent governor where crime is rampant.

Like, take a look at DC Crime was rampant. It was at the alltime worst. It got really bad during the Biden 4 years, and then I have a Mayor stand up and say how crime has reached a 30-year low. Thirty-year low? People are being killed left and right, and it's not a 30-year low.

Think of it. So, for 11 days, there had been no murders. The record goes back years where that's happened. They haven't seen that happen in years. And then people stand up and instead of thanking us, which they should do—and she's not that bad. She's better than most. But you know, you have people—I watched in Illinois—Chicago, Illinois, is a disaster. I have property there. It's a disaster what's going on in Chicago. And you get a Pritzker going, "He's violating our rights."

I think this is another "men in women's sports" thing. I think this is one of those—you know, they call them "80/20 issues." I call them "97/3." I think the Democrats better get smart. And, you know, politically, I hope they don't, but actually, in terms of love for the country, I hope they do, because it will be good to work together.

So I'm thinking about—you know, when I have some slob like Pritzker criticizing us before we even go there—I made the statement that next should be Chicago, because, as you all know, Chicago is a killing field right now, and they don't acknowledge it. And they say: "We don't need him. Freedom. Freedom. He's a dictator. He's a dictator." A lot of people are saying, "Maybe we like a dictator." I don't like a dictator. I'm not a dictator. I'm a man with great common sense, and I'm a smart person.

And when I see what's happening to our cities, and then you send in troops—instead of being praised, they're saying, "You're trying to take over the Republic." These people are sick.

But I'm really saying—and I say this to all of you—in a certain way, we should wait to be asked, because they have cities that are so under control—you know, out of control. So we go in and fix it, they take the full credit for it, and they go out and say—I heard it this morning. They're saying how well they've done over the last 10-day period, that they set record lows. They don't say that we're there with very tough people, by the way. They have to pass the toughness test. Otherwise, they're not working for us. So—and we're allowed to do that now, according to the United States Supreme Court decision.

No, they have to pass a toughness test. If they're not tough, we don't want them for this job. They might be great for other jobs but not for this job, because they're respected.

You saw the gang of kids. They were all huddled up, and a group of soldiers walked over—they never even got over—those kids ran back to their homes or wherever the hell they came from. They were gone.

You have—this is one of the safest cities right now in the world, as crazy as that sounds. And it took 7 days. Took, really, 3 days, but we're now in our 11th day. So, I want to thank you.

So we had all of these things: 439 illegal alien criminals have been removed. And we have six known gang members, the worst—some of the worst leaders of gangs anywhere in the country—MS–13 and Tren de Aragua. We have two missing children that have been recovered. They thought they were gone. We brought them back to the family. The family started crying. They couldn't believe that they saw their child again. Forty-nine homeless encampments have been removed.

Like, we have the head of South Korea coming in in a little while—the President. And he drives down the street—already, his people have told me—he said: "What happened? It's so clean. We always came here, it was filthy, dirty with homeless and papers all over the road." That's the other thing: Those roads are swept immaculate, but they're going to be much better in few months when we put a topping on them. They're going to look like they're brandnew.

We'll get rid of those rusty, old medians that have been crashed into a thousand times and they don't fix them. They just let them—they put them—they lay them down on the road, and they sit there for months. But we don't do that. We don't run things—we run things like we run this. It's—we like clean, we like beautiful, and we like safe. And that's what we're getting.

So I'll start signing the Executive orders. To me, this is a very, very big deal.

One of the Executive orders has to do with cashless bail. That was when the big crime in this country started, and I can tell you who did it and when, but I don't want to do that, because others followed pretty quickly. But that was when it happened. Somebody kills somebody, they go in—"Don't worry about it. No cash. Come back in a couple of months. We'll give you a trial." You never see the person again.

And, I mean, they kill people, and they get out. Cashless bail. They thought it was discriminatory to make people put up money because they just killed three people lying on a street. Any street, all over the country: cashless bail.

We're ending it, but we're starting by ending it in DC, and that, we have the right to do through federalization.

Okay. Let's go. Could I——

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

The President. ——ask you to say exactly what this is?

Staff Secretary Scharf. Of course.

So, as you've consistently identified, sir, cashless bail policies are a key driver of the disorder we see on city streets all over America. Catch-and-release system allows criminals to keep going back out onto the street and reoffending.

What this Executive order does: It charges your Attorney General with identifying jurisdictions all over the country that have cashless-bail policies, and then it withholds or revokes Federal funds and grants that are flowing to those jurisdictions to ensure that we're only supporting the people who have reasonable, commonsense policies around crime.

The President. So what area does it cover?

Staff Secretary Scharf. Potentially anywhere that has a cashless bail policy. So some of the largest cities, some of the most left-wing States in America have adopted——

The President. Almost all of them, right?

Staff Secretary Scharf. Illinois would be a great example of that, sir.

The President. Yes. Oh, they have a great cashless bail. You don't even have to go to court sometimes. [Laughter] No. Illinois—I love that State. It's a great State, but it's run so badly by Pritzker. They threw him out of the family business, and he becomes Governor.

Now he wants to run for President. I don't think that's going to happen.

Okay. We'll sign right here, right?

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, sir.

[At this point, the President signed an Executive order titled, "Taking Steps To End Cashless Bail To Protect Americans."]

The President. So important. And this isn't Republican-Democrat. This is—and by the way, most Democrats agree with this. But this is just—we've got to bring our country back.

[The President held up the Executive order.]

Okay? That's a big one.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Also, on the issue of cashless bail, sir, this is a DC-specific Executive order. In addition to the measures that we're taking that are quite similar to what we're doing around the country, in DC in particular, the objective is holding as many criminal defendants in Federal custody and subjecting them to Federal charges as possible. That means that they'll be held pre-trial in Federal jail, as opposed to just being cut back out on the streets due to a cashless bail policy.

The President. Okay.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Measures To End Cashless Bail and Enforce the Law in the District of Columbia."]

And we have the room. And by the way, the prison they have in DC is horrible. [Laughter] It's horrible. People were subjected to live in that dog trap for so long, so unfairly. I have stories. You'll be hearing about them. That prison is horrible.

Okay.

Staff Secretary Scharf. This is an executive order that contains a number of additional measures relating to crime and law enforcement in Washington, DC. It charges, for example, your Secretary of Defense with establishing specialized units in both the DC National Guard and in National Guard units around the country, specifically trained and equipped to deal with public-order issues. It charges all of your various Federal law enforcement agencies with hiring additional personnel to allow them to surge personnel to Washington, DC, to deal with the current emergency here. It does a number of other things in that space.

And it also asks the Attorney General to look at DC Metropolitan Police general orders that have currently impeded law enforcement efforts in the city and to potentially look at unwinding those that are stopping the police from doing their job effectively.

The President. And are we going to ask this to be codified by Congress, all of these things?

Staff Secretary Scharf. I think we could potentially, yes, sir.

The President. Oh, I think so. I think we should. I think we'll get it too. I think Democrats will vote. Well, I don't know, it's hard—it's hard to believe that they might not, but I think Democrats will actually vote for this.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Additional Measures To Address the Crime Emergency in the District of Columbia."]

There's no autopen that can do that, right? [Laughter] Look at that, Pam.

Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi. There's nothing——

The President. Is that a good signature?

Attorney General Bondi. It's a great signature.

The President. Seriously, is that a good signature? Who can—who can write like that? Nobody. [Laughter]

Alright. I don't know—that's the other thing. I assume we're looking at the whole autopen scandal.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, sir.

The President. Because the person that ran it said he spoke to him briefly twice about nothing. That means that all those pardons that he gave to some very bad people, very unpatriotic people, very evil people, it looks to me like those pardons are worthless. Because, number one, you shouldn't use an autopen, very specifically. But if you do, it has to be a very good reason, and they have to know that the president wanted it. The President didn't want this. The President didn't know he was alive. [Laughter] Okay?

He never approved any of this stuff. He wasn't for open borders and all the other things—he was never for open borders. I've known Biden a long time. He was never very sharp, but he was never in favor of open borders and all of the other things he did to destroy our country.

Let's go.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Lastly, sir, this is an Executive order on flag burning. It charges your Attorney General——

The President. Would you listen to this? This is very important. Flag burning. All over the country, they're burning flags. All over the world, they burn the American flag. And as you know, through a very sad court—I guess it was a five-to-four decision—they called it freedom of speech. But there's another reason, which is perhaps much more important. It's called death, because what happens when you burn a flag is the area goes crazy. If you have hundreds of people, they go crazy.

You can do other things. You can burn this piece of paper, you can—and it's—but when you burn the American flag, it incites riots at levels that we've never seen before. People go crazy. In a way, both ways. There are some that are going crazy for doing it. There are others that are angry—angry about them doing it.

Do you want to discuss that please?

Staff Secretary Scharf. Sure. So—what the Executive order does, sir, it charges your Department of Justice with investigating instances of flag burning, and then where there's evidence of criminal activity that—where prosecution wouldn't fall afoul of the First Amendment, it instructs the Department of Justice to prosecute those who are engaged in these instances of flag burning.

The President. And what the penalty is going to be—if you burn a flag, you get one year in jail, no early exits, no nothing. You get one year in jail. If you burn a flag, you get—and what it does is incite to riot. I hope they use that language, by the way. Did they?

Staff Secretary Scharf. Yes, "incitement" is in there.

The President. Incite to riot. And you burn a flag, you get one year in jail. You don't get 10 years. You don't get 1 month. You get 1 year in jail, and it goes on your record.

And you will see flag burning stopping immediately, just like when I signed the statue and monument act. Ten years in jail if you hurt any of our beautiful monuments. Everybody left town. They were gone. Never had a problem after that. It was pretty amazing. We stopped it.

But this is something that's—I don't know, in a certain way, it's equally as important. Some people would say it's more important because the people in this country don't want to see our American flag burned and spit on and—by people that are, in many cases, paid agitators. They're paid by the radical left to do it. You talk to these people, they don't even know—half of them don't even know what they're doing. They say, "I don't know, I was—they gave me money to do this."

I see the same things that you do. They're bad people. They're trying to destroy our Nation. That's not working, because I think our Nation now is the most respected nation anywhere in the world by far.

You saw that with the European leaders on Friday. You saw that with NATO, where they agreed to go from 2 percent, no pay, to 5 percent, fully paid up—trillions of dollars paid; where they respect your President to a level that they jokingly call me the President of Europe. They call me the president of Europe, which is an honor. I like Europe, and I like those people. They're good people. They're great leaders.

And we've never had a case where 7 plus, really, 28—essentially, 35, 38 countries were represented here the other day—38 European countries were represented—European and other countries were represented. And it was a great meeting.

But your country is respected again. I say it all the time: One year ago, our country was dead. Everybody said it. We had a dead country. We were not going to survive. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. So it's an honor to be involved, and this group has a lot to do with it, right behind me.

[The President signed an Executive order titled, "Prosecuting Burning of the American Flag."]

Does anybody behind me have anything? Pam, would you like to say something?

Attorney General Bondi. Sure, President. Thank you for keeping DC safe. You know, just a couple examples of a mother—a single mom whose house was burglarized and the defendant got out on cashless bail, went back the next night and burglarized her house again. That's why this is so important.

A man got in a fight with another guy. He had a gun. He was let out. Next night, he got out, went back, and killed him.

So that's why it's so important, President, what you're doing. And thank you. And thank you for protecting the American flag, and we'll do that without running afoul of the First Amendment——

The President. Good.

Attorney General Bondi. ——as well. And, President—I think Terry Cole—I—excuse me. I think Gady Serralta had something he wanted to give you on behalf——

Director Serralta. Yes.

Attorney General Bondi. ——of all the law enforcement who are out there every single night.

Director Serralta. Mr. President——

The President. Yes.

Director Serralta. ——thank you for putting me in charge of this surge as the Director of the United States Marshals Service. It's the oldest law enforcement agency. It was created in 1789. So, on behalf of all the Federal law enforcement agencies that we're working with and those that have yet to join the team, we thought it was only appropriate to present you with——

The President. Oh.

Director Serralta. ——an honorary United States Marshals Service badge. And——

The President. That's very nice.

Director Serralta. ——this badge comes with this little item right here, which is a handcuff key, Mr. President, because you continue, through your policies and your efforts with your staff, to unhandcuff law enforcement officers all over this Nation. And I can tell you personally that they thank you for that.

The President. Thank you. That's beautiful.

Director Serralta. So you can continue unhandcuffing law enforcement.

The President. That's a very great honor. I'll save that and put it someplace up which is important. Thank you very much, Gady.

Director Serralta. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Appreciate it.

Director Serralta. Thank you very much.

The President. Really nice. Thank you.

That's very nice. Thank you.

Well, we love those people. They're brave and they love our country, and they don't want to see—they don't want to see it here.

Do you know how many people volunteered for this job?

And before I ask the VP to say a few words, because he feels very strongly about it, I think it's very important, Pam, that when we do this, that a State required—they come and ask us.

Attorney General Bondi. Yes.

The President. I mean, I see Pritzker saying, "We don't want them." In the meantime, his city is being shot to hell. And they do that politically. And they probably do want it.

If we didn't go to Los Angeles, you would literally have had to call off the Olympics. It was so bad. And the sheriff—and the law enforcement people—but the sheriff said—and he came out very strongly—he said, "If we didn't have these people, we were not able to control it." Now, 4 days later, after we had it totally under control—we did that quickly—he changed his tune a little bit. "Well, I think we could have done it, you know."

He was—they were dead. If we didn't send in the troops, Los Angeles was dead, the Olympics was gone, the World Cup was gone, everything was gone.

We did a great job. And Newsom—you've got an incompetent—I mean, he's an incompetent governor, but I think people should want us to be there, because, otherwise, all they'll do is complain as we do our job.

So we'll have to think about that. Okay? We go in—like in Washington, we go in and they—the people that are here that have been doing—I don't want to say terrible, because she happens—you know, she's a nice woman, I guess. I don't care about if she's nice, you know. I really don't care. I want her to do—I'd rather have her be horrible but do the job.

But we come into Washington, and we have the 11 best days they've had here in two centuries. I mean, they've never seen anything like it. Let's go two decades. In over 20 years, they haven't seen anything like what happened. And now they're out there saying, "We don't have crime in Washington"—well, that's true. For 11 days, you don't have crime. But before that, everybody was getting hit and mugged, and you people could not walk to your office without security. That's how unsafe it was.

So I think we should really let them have their city—let their city go to hell, and when they come and beg us to help—the only problem is, we want to save it for the pe-—because the people want us there. The people here—95 percent of the people here want us. The real people, not the people you find on—I don't know where you find these people.

You have one person has a broken nose. "Where'd you get it?" "Well, I was mugged." "Good. Do you want to see Trump here with"—"No, I don't want"—the woman has a broken nose. She got mugged. But she's saying she doesn't want any protection. It—it's all made-up fake news. It's just fake news. I don't know where you find these people.

Anyway, would you say a couple of words, please? And then I'm going to ask J.D. to say something. You have done an unbelievable job in a short period of time.

Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration Terrance C. Cole. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Highly recommended by—you know who, right?

Administrator Cole. Yes, sir.

The President. Do you want to say his name?

Administrator Cole. Mr. Youngkin. Governor Youngkin.

The President. That's right.

Administrator Cole. Yes, sir.

Attorney General Bondi. We stole you from Governor Youngkin.

The President. He called me——

Vice President James D. "J.D." Vance. That's right.

The President. He called me—Glenn Youngkin called and he said, "I have somebody who's really fantastic," and based on that recommendation, here you are. And you've done a fantastic job. I appreciate it.

Administrator Cole. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Thank you.

Attorney General Bondi. Thanks, Terry.

The President. Go ahead.

Administrator Cole. The men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department are back. They enjoy doing their job again. They feel the ability to go out and be law enforcement officers. They feel that they're connected to their communities again. They are making a difference. Thanks to you, Mr. President, and our Federal Task Force, you are making DC safe once again.

The President. Good.

Administrator Cole. Thank you, sir.

The President. Thank you. It's going to get better and better. Well, it can't get much better. There's no crime.

I read where crime is down 89 percent. I said, "Really? Who are the 11 percent?" Okay? There's no crime.

J.D., please.

Vice President Vance. Yes, sir. Well, thank—thanks, Mr. President. Thanks to the incredible team here. You know, I was—want to echo what—something the President said where you say there haven't been murders in a couple of weeks in DC and it doesn't sound good, but then you talk to local law enforcement—and I didn't realize this, that this town averaged one murder every other day for the last 20, 30 years, which means that, in 2 short weeks, the President and the team have saved six or seven lives—people who would've been killed on the streets of DC who are now living, breathing, spending time with their families because the President had the willpower to say, "No more. We're not going to give the streets of DC over to vagrants and robbers and murderers."

And the last point I want to make, sir: To your point about we want people to welcome us, to ask us, because look at Governor Pritzker in Illinois or Governor Newsom in Los Angeles or Governor Moore in Maryland—they are angrier about the fact that the President of the United States is offering to help them get their crime under control than they are about the fact that murderers are running roughshod over their cities and have been for decades.

Why are Democrat Governors angrier about Federal law enforcement helping clean up their streets than they are about the fact that those streets need to be cleaned up to begin with. It shows a real sickness in the head.

And I agree with the President of the United States; I think most Democrats, rank and file—nobody likes crime. Republicans don't like crime. Democrats don't like crime. Independents don't like crime. Why are Democratic Governors doing everything in their power to make crime easier to do in their cities? It doesn't make an ounce of sense to me.

But, Mr. President, I appreciate you being willing to help, and I hope these governors take you up on the offer, because we should clean up all of America's streets. It's the right of every American to live in safety and comfort in their community.

The President. And we've got the people to do it. They're signing up like they've never signed up before.

Our military—as you know, during the campaign, nobody was signing up. We were way short—short of their goals, short of their—we were understaffed. We—nobody wanted to be in the military. Nobody wanted to be a policeman. Nobody wanted to be a fireman. They didn't want anything to do with the country.

We had an incompetent—grossly incompetent President, who, frankly, should not have been there. He should have never been there. What he—the damage he done—he did to this country is incalculable. I mean, just what—he has done—so much of our effort are getting murderers and jailbirds and people out of this country who are drug dealers at the highest level. So much of the energy of people that he let in, it's just—it was an unforced error, but I don't think they think it's an error.

But I don't believe he believed it. It was the radical lunatics that surrounded this guy at this desk, who were brilliant people but with the wrong philosophy. There were some brilliant people, but they're evil people, and they're going to be brought down. They have to be brought down because they really hurt our country.

Vice President Vance. That's right.

The President. But we're getting it back very quickly.

And I'll tell you something: Our country is—now, it's stronger. I think we're more respected than we've been respected in a hundred years. That's a whole different ball game.

J.D., could I ask you——

Vice President Vance. Yes, sir.

The President. You gave a stat on murders here. What were the numbers? You said in a short period of time how many people were murdered, right?

Vice President Vance. Local law enforcement told me, sir, that in the past 20 or 30 years, DC has averaged a murder every other day. That's, you know, 200 murders a year—150, 250. But about every other day a person has been killed on the streets of Washington, DC.

We've been doing this for 2 weeks. Zero people killed. That's real lives saved that the media and, frankly, the entire Democratic Party should be saying, "Thank you for saving lives," instead of attacking the president of the United States for doing so.

The President. You know, when the person—when a person—unfortunately, it will probably happen at some point—when a person is murdered in DC, it's going to be the biggest story, maybe, in history. Right?

Vice President Vance. Yes, sir.

The President. "Somebody was murdered in DC Trump is failing." No, we're not failing. We have a safe city. This is maybe the safest city in America right now. That's how good it is, and it would be nice to be appreciated.

These people—eventually, they're going to have to be appreciated for what they're doing, and they're going to have to be appreciated by the officials that are really happy when we go in, because they've lost control of their—their place.

Steve Miller, please, say a few words.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller. Thank you, sir.

So, just to, first of all, follow up on what the Vice President said, no police officer working in this city can remember a time in their lives when there has been no murders. You can work at the police department 20 years, 30 years, or your whole life. We've checked the records—no one can even find a record of being murder-free for as long as we're murder-free under President Trump's leadership.

Additionally—and the President spoke about this before—we've uncovered and in the process of uncovering a massive scandal in Washington, DC, with the doctoring of crime stats. And the Department of Justice, under the attorney general, is leading the effort to uncover this.

But when we ultimately share the results, it will—it will stun you the extent to which—even though DC had the worst crime in America, honestly measured—it dramatically understated how bad it was. There's even accusations that murders and homicides were reported as accidents instead of murders. I mean, this is how severe the manipulation of the crime data——

Vice President Vance. That's crazy.

Deputy Chief of Staff Miller. ——has been in this city, and it will all be uncovered and it'll all be brought to light.

You know, I've had a chance to spend some time—as has everyone here—with the police officers in this city. Members of the public are going up to them and thanking them, just overflowing with gratitude, because for the first time in their lives, they can use the parks, they can walk on the streets. You have people who can walk freely at night without having to worry about being robbed or mugged. They're wearing their watches again. They're wearing jewelry again. They're carrying purses again. People have changed their whole lives in this city for fear of being murdered, mugged, and carjacked.

[Deputy Chief of Staff Miller continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

But President Trump, your leadership has uncovered some of the great public safety scandals of our life, and now, because of you, people are safe and free for the first time ever in the city.

The President. Thank you very much, Steve.

You know, in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills is, you know, a great place. I have a house there—I had a house there. I used to stay a lot of time. Spent a lot of time there. And a great place.

You know that I have friends—they leave their trunk open for their car because they don't want—they know they're going to be vandalized. They don't want the trunk ripped off in order for them to steal what's in the back. They leave the doors open so when they go in to steal the radio or whatever they take that they don't rip off the door. They leave the doors totally open so the criminals, when they go and open the door, they don't have to break the windows and kill the car in order to steal whatever it is in the car that they're looking for.

And that's at a level that nobody's ever seen before. Nobody lives like that.

I have another friend—he has a garage, and in order to save this garage door, he leaves it open so that people can just walk into his garage, take whatever they want, and leave.

But all the cars—or so many cars—I've been told this by many people—stars, big people—they leave their doors open so the doors aren't destroyed by these criminals. All over Los Angeles this is taking place. And you know that. I mean, you've heard that.

Kristi, could you say a few words, please?

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi L. Noem. Sure.

Well, Mr. President, I think one of the most impactful statistics that you used today was of the thousand arrests that have happened already so far, 439 of them were illegal criminals, which means they never should have been in this country to begin with. But they were in this country, invaded over our southern border or our northern border or maritime seas, and then they committed crimes against the American people. So, by getting those individuals incarcerated, we've stopped those violent crimes from happening here in the city.

And, sir, they do—exactly like Stephen was talking, they have ties to cartels. They have networks across this country in other cities. So, by what you're doing here, is going to have a ripple effect in Miami, in Chicago, in other cities, because you're grabbing those networks and giving us information and targeting information to go and get more criminals across this country.

So thank you for the work that you're doing. We have ICE and CBP, Federal Protective Services, Secret Service, HSI—all of our officers are working with all the other agencies every day here in DC, and they're so proud to have this kind of partnership, sir.

The President. They are.

Secretary Noem. They're so glad that you're letting them do their jobs again. And I don't know if you've heard, sir, but the recruitment campaign for ICE, when we were going to hire 10,000 new officers, we've got over 130,000 people that have applied and raised their hands and said they want to work with ICE.

So, no matter what the fake news says or what the media says about ICE not having support, they've got incredible support from the American people. People want to join them and help them do what they're doing to make America safe again.

So thank you for the opportunity.

The President. And I was going to say that our recruitment drive—so it was dead. During the campaign, they couldn't get—every story was: "The Army can't fill up. The Marines"—none of them could fill up. They were way behind. We couldn't get anybody to go into the military, couldn't get any police.

We have just set records on—everybody wants to be in. Everybody wants to go in. And we're taking incredible people. I mean, the level of—you know, because of the Supreme Court, it's based on merit. It's all based on merit now. It's not based on anything else. You've got to—if they—if you need strong people, you have to get strong people. It's all based on merit.

But we're setting records in the Army; Navy; Air Force; Marines; the Coast Guard; my—one of my favorites, because I happen to have created it, Space Force. We're very proud of Space Force. It's amazing what it's doing.

We're leading in space now. China was killing us. Russia was beating us. China was killing us. We're now killing China—we are leading in space by a lot because of Space Force. So, we're very proud.

But everybody wants to go in. We go—we went from not—and you know how bad that is for the spirit, when every story that you were writing a year ago was that nobody wants to go into the military anymore? And if you're in the military, you know how deflating that is? You go home to your family. Nobody wants the job that you have. Well, now it's the opposite. Everybody wants to be there. And that includes police and fire and everything else.

You're doing a good job.

Secretary of Defense Peter B. Hegseth. Thank you, sir.

The President. You're stopping a lot of wars. [Laughter]

Just the presence, we're stopping them. We had—we've stopped seven wars, and really the number is actually 10. We're not including a couple, and we're not including in there the—what we did with Iran, stopping their nuclear play. They would have had—within a month or two, they would have had a nice, big nuclear weapon to use. That's not going to happen. That won't happen.

Pete, go ahead, please.

Secretary Hegseth. Yes, sir. Well, Mr. President, thank you very much for your leadership. And the Defense Department is proud to be a part of this Task Force.

Just like we have been down at the Southwest border, where crossings are at zero—we've got national defense areas where we're working with Border Patrol to secure the southern border for the American people; just like Los Angeles, where ICE officers deserve to do their job without being attacked, we're really proud to be a part of defending the Nation's Capital and ensuring it is safe and beautiful and working with law enforcement.

And, Mr. President, let me tell you, the morale of the troops—getting out there, talking to them——

The President. Yes.

Secretary Hegseth. ——they love this mission. They're grateful to be doing it, whether they're DC National Guard or other State National Guards. And at your direction as well, sir, it's just common sense to make sure they're armed as well. And so they—we're rolling out ensuring they're armed, capable of defending themselves and others, if need be, supporting law enforcement. And we're proud to be there, sir.

The President. Well, look at the mission you just accomplished with Iran. Thirty-six hours back and forth. Flawless. Every bomb hit its target. They went right down those chutes. Dark at night, no Moon, no nothing. Every target—every bomb went right down. They have a chute that goes right down deep into the mountain, and they shouldn't have put ventilation in, I can tell you, because we used that for our advantage. [Laughter]

But what they did—and we had the pilots and even the people that took care of the planes—we had a whole group of people at the White House a couple of weeks ago. And you know, they—I didn't realize this, but they said, "We've been looking at"—their predecessors, and then these were the pilots—they said—we gave them beautiful medals, and—I'll show you the medal. Gave them a medal just like this.

[The President held up a challenge coin.]

See. Just like that. They were so happy. We gave a lot of them out for that. It was an incredible job.

You know, we had 52 tankers—people don't realize—so that they could refuel. We had many fighter jets, F–22s and F–35s. We had many. It was an amazing operation. It was flawless.

Compare that to the operation when they went in with the helicopters crashing and everyone running around the desert and the prisoners being taken. And that was Jimmy Carter. And what a—what a horrible thing.

This was the exact opposite. This was the exact opposite of what they did in leaving a very, very nice place. The Taliban has—runs a tough operation in Afghanistan, and I think it was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country. That was Biden. I was leaving, and we would have left through strengths—tremendous strength. We would had tremendous—we would have kept Bagram, which is the air base. One of the largest runways in the world, one of the most powerful. You could land anything on it. Many, many feet thick. You don't build them that way anymore. You can't. But we left it, and now China is occupying that air base.

This was the most incompetent administration in history, the Biden administration. And you're just lucky that they lost, because if—if they won, you wouldn't have a country anymore.

And so, Pete, you started off by saying the "Department of Defense," and somehow it didn't sound good to me. [Laughter] You know? It didn't sound good. "Defense." What are we defense? Why are we defense?

So it used to be called the Department of War, and it had a stronger sound. And, as you know, we won World War I. We won World War II. We won everything. Now we have a Department of Defense. We're defenders. I don't know.

If you people want to—standing behind me, if you take a little vote, if you want to change it back to what it was where we used to win wars all the time, that's okay with me. All right?

Secretary Hegseth. That's coming soon, sir.

The President. You've got—you let me know if you want to do it.

Secretary Hegseth. Yes, sir.

The President. I think Department of War—it just sounded bad. You said, "Sir, on behalf of the Department of Defense"—Defense? I don't want to be defense only. We want defense, but we want offense too, if that's okay. So you'll make a decision.

But you know, as Department of War, we won everything. We won everything, and I think we're going to have to go back to that.

In the meantime, I've stopped all of these wars. I've stopped them. The big one would have been India and Pakistan, but we stopped them all. We stopped three wars.

Go to Africa. They like to say, "Oh, you know"—let me tell you, I love Black people. And they—and I did great with the vote, with the Black people, but they say: "He's a racist. He's a racist." I said, "Really?" For 35 years, a war raged between Rwanda and the Republic of the Congo, and it was a vicious war. Nine million people were killed with machetes, largely. Hatchets, machetes. That went on for 30—more than 30 years, but 34, 35 years, and I stopped it.

In fact, the Presidents are coming in a week or two to sign the—we have the Foreign Ministers—it's all signed, the war stopped. But I got it stopped and saved a lot of lives.

The Congo, that's deep into—deepest, darkest Africa. I got that war stopped. Nobody else could have done that. We did a lot of jobs. We did a lot of—a lot of wars were stopped that nobody thought would even be possible.

Now, I'll tell you what, the war with India and Pakistan, that was the next level. That was going to be a nuclear war. They already shot down seven jets. That was raging. And I said, "You guys want to do trade? We're not doing any trade. We're not doing anything with you if you keep fighting. You get—you've got 24 hours to settle it." They said, "Well, there's no more war going."

And I used that on numerous occasions—trade. I used trade, I used other—I used whatever you had to use. But we got seven of them stopped.

And the one I thought would be easiest, frankly, was going to be Russia and Ukraine. But that turns out to be some big personality conflicts. [Laughter] It's one of those things. But we're going to get that stopped eventually. We're going to get that stopped too. Seven thousand soldiers died last week. Think of that: 7,000. I usually say 5,000, but 7,221 soldiers died last week in the fighting between Ukraine and Russia.

And they're not our soldiers, but they're souls. They're living souls. And they leave their homes and they wave to their parents, and their parents are so proud as they leave in a beautiful uniform. And a week later, they get their head blown off by a drone. New form of military. It's a whole new form of fighting.

So I would just like to thank the people that are behind me. Thank you very much. You've done a fantastic job. I appreciate it very much.

We're doing a real job. And I'm so proud of DC. I look—I passed it 2 days ago, and all the garbage is off the streets.

It's terrible. I walked—I came in a month and a half ago, I'm driving down, and I see garbage all over the place. The streets were a pigsty, like—like—I won't use the city's names, but you know who—what I'm talking about. There are plenty of them outside of this country and inside of this country.

Baltimore is a horrible, horrible deathbed. It's a deathbed. I know Governor Moore said, "Oh, he wants to take a walk with me." He meant it in a derogatory tone. I said: "No, no, I'm the President of the United States. Clean up your crime, and I'll walk with you." But there's—it's tremendous crime. But he was trying to be derogatory. He doesn't have what it takes, but he's trying to be derogatory.

And I met him at the Army-Navy game. They said, "Oh, there's Governor Moore. He'd love to see you." He came over to me, he hugged me, shook my hand. You were there. He said, "Sir, you're the greatest President of my lifetime." I said, "That's really nice that you say that. I'd love you to say it publicly, but I don't think you can do that, so it's okay." But—"No, sir, you're doing a fantastic job. I want to just shake your hand." "Thank you very much, Governor." That was that.

And then, every time I see him on television, he's knocking the hell out of me, so—[laughter]—but that's all right. That's called politics.

But Governor Moore has got a—he's doing a bad job. Newsom is doing a bad job. All of their potential candidates are doing a bad job. I can't imagine Pritzker being even a candidate, but somebody said he is. He can't do the work, can't do the job. He's not temperamentally suited.

So I just want to thank you all for being here. Do you have some questions?

[Several reporters began asking questions at once.]

Deployment of Military Personnel to U.S. Cities/Drug Interdiction Efforts/Illegal Immigration

Q. Mr. President, is the Pentagon—and maybe the Secretary of Defense can weigh in too—is the Pentagon preparing for military deployment to Chicago? And with what you said there, are you waiting for the Governor there——

The President. Well, we're ready to go anywhere.

Q. Do you want him to call you though?

The President. We have a full complement of great human beings. We're full. You know, our military is full. We were way empty one year ago. Now we're full.

So we can go anywhere on less than 24 hours' notice.

Q. Are you waiting for the Governor, though, to call?

The President. And we're doing a lot to interdict—to stop drugs from coming in too. We have ships out on sea. You know, we have nobody coming through our border anymore. Nobody.

How—doesn't that feel good, to know that you don't have prisoners coming in and, you know, killers, murderers? We had 11,888 murderers come in, let in by the Biden administration. Many of them have been captured, but we still have a couple of thousand that are out there. Some of them—50 percent of them killed more than one person. Okay? But a lot of them have been captured.

What they've done to our country, these people that circle this—this moron that we had behind this desk, what they've done to our country is unthinkable. It's unthinkable. I mean, if you think—so much of our time is devoted to correcting a problem that all they had to do is say, "Close the borders." Remember when he said: "Well, I have no power to close the border. I have to go back and get an act from Congress"?

I didn't get an act from Congress. I came in, I said, "Close the borders." And Tom Homan, who's not here, has been fantastic, Kristi, right?

Secretary Noem. He has been. Yes, sir.

The President. Tom Homan is great. He is a fantastic man and respected by everybody. But I said: "Tom, close the borders. Kristi, close the borders." The borders were closed. We didn't go to Congress——

Secretary Noem. No.

The President. ——and get permission.

Secretary Noem. No.

The President. We just closed the borders. And in the last 3 months—hard to believe this one too—in the last 3 months, we've had zero people come into our country illegally through the southern border. Nobody would have said that's possible.

Yes, please.

Baltimore, Maryland, Resident Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia

Q. Thank you, President—Mr. President.

Today, MS-13 gangbanger and human trafficker Kilmar Abrego Garcia turned himself into ICE in Baltimore. Do you have any comment on this? And why are the Democrats so emotionally attached to this man who beats his wife and is part of a terrorist organization?

The President. Because they're—they think he's going to be good for votes. And I think he's very bad for votes. These people are deranged. He's not good for votes. He beat the hell out of his wife. His wife is afraid to even talk about him. She's been mauled by this animal. And you know, through a system of liberal courts, you know, he's doing things. But no, we have that under control, and Pam has got that very much under control.

Do you want to comment on it, Pam?

Attorney General Bondi. No, no, we've got him under control. He will no longer terrorize our country. He's currently charged with human smuggling, including children. The guy needs to be in prison. He doesn't need to be on the streets like all these liberals want him to be.

And as part of this operation here in DC, we've also taken off MS–13 members. We've taken—I think, just last night, we got a TDA guy off our streets. Right here, right around from where we all work, another TDA member gone because of this project.

So we're going to keep America safe from all of these foreign terrorist organizations, including Abrego Garcia.

The President. Okay.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Steve [Steve A. Holland, Reuters].

Israeli Military Operations in Gaza, Palestinian Territories/Hostages Held in Gaza, Palestinian Territories

Q. If we could get your reaction, sir. The Israelis bombed a hospital in Gaza that killed 20 people, including five journalists. Are you aware——

The President. When did this happen?

Q. This happened overnight today.

The President. I didn't know that. Yes.

Q. Any reaction to this? Are you going to talk to Prime Minister Netanyahu ——

The President. Well, I'm not happy about it. I don't want to see it. At the same time, we have to end that whole nightmare.

I'm the one that got the hostages out. I got them out, all of them. Steve Witkoff has been amazing. He's done a great job, but I'm the one that got them all out through my people and through me, and now we're left with probably a little bit less than 20, because I think one or two are gone.

And I said, a long time ago, I'm going to get them out, but when we get down to that final 10 or 20, these people aren't going to release them, because they're dead after they release them. So, it's a nasty situation—very nasty, horrible thing.

Yes.

South Korea

Q. Mr. President, could you please elaborate on your post on South Korea? What were you referring to?

The President. Well, I heard that there were raids on churches over the last few days, very vicious raids on churches by the new Government in South Korea, that they even went into our military base and got information. They probably shouldn't have done that. But I heard bad things.

I don't know if it's true or not. I'll be finding out. As you know, your new President is coming in just a couple of hours—coming here. I look forward to meeting him. But we won't stand for that. We just won't stand for that.

Yes.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Deployment of Military Personnel to U.S. Cities/Invasive Carp

Q. Mr. President, are you prepared to order National Guard troops, though, into American cities if those Governors don't request the Federal deployment?

The President. I am, but I also think that—look, Chicago, everybody knows how bad it is. Everybody standing there knows. We know. You don't have to be doing any studies.

They should be saying, "Please come in." Pritzker should be saying that.

You know, I did a favor for Christy [Gretchen; White House correction]—for Christy [Gretchen; White House correction] Whitman—Whitmer—a good—a good favor, I think, with the fish, the carp—the China carp. Did you ever hear of it? China carp. And it's taken over your Great Lakes. You know about that, right? And she came and she wanted to know if it's possible for us to do something about it. And I said, "Well, I'll do it." But I think it's appropriate that the person from Illinois—the Governor from Illinois asks also. It's a tremendously expensive project, actually. It's invasive. It's horrible, what's happened. And we can do it with GSA and various people.

But we can do it. We're going to just have to see what happens. Okay? We're going to have to see what happens, but——

Q. Do you believe that you have the legal authority to order those troops?

The President. But the Governor of Michigan came, was very respectful, asked for it. She's done a good job.

We—I did that. I opened the Air Force base—you know, kept it open for F–35s and various planes—F–22s too. I did that for the State of Michigan, at her request. And I will—and also—and our Congressmen. You know, we have Congressmen that are unbelievably pro-Michigan up there.

But some of this stuff, like the lakes—the Great Lakes—this is a big problem that nobody ever talks about. Most of you probably have never heard of. We have a very—pretty violent fish that has—comes from China—China carp—Chinese carp—and you see them jumping out. They jump into boats, and they jump all over the place. They've got a lot of energy.

And there's a way of getting rid of them. It's very expensive. And we—I didn't get a request from the Governor of Illinois—is affected maybe more than anybody else, right? And I think until I get that request from that guy, I'm not going to do anything about it.

It's—and I feel the same way about crime. We go in, we will solve Chicago within 1 week, maybe less. But within 1 week, we will have no crime in Chicago, just like we have no crime in DC.

But you know, I don't like to go in and do it and then have somebody stand up and say what a great job he's doing on crime and: "We don't want the military in our State. We don't want the military." Do you understand?

Q. But these Governors ——

The President. Do you understand that?

Q. Yeah. These Governors will say that——

The President. So I don't know——

Q. ——there was no emergency to respond to.

The President. So we're going to have a little meeting, I think. You know, I feel like we go in and we do it, like here—to a lesser extent with the Mayor. She hasn't been terrible, but she hasn't been, you know, exactly saying, "Oh, great." She said—she did say—last night, I heard her say that, "Well, we really don't want the military in DC." Well, that's, you know, not very nice, I guess. That's a little bit of a hit, but she's not as bad as some.

We saved Los Angeles, and all we did is get criticized by this idiot that's running the State into the ground—right?—where people are leaving. He should be thanking us, and he should be requesting us to be there.

And the Governor of Illinois should be. Chicago is a disaster. And the Governor of Illinois should say: "President, would you do us the honor of cleaning up our city? We need help." They need help. They need help.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

The President's Authority To Deploy Military Personnel Domestically

Q. But without that request, do you believe you have the authority?

The President. We may wait. We may or may not. We may just go in and do it, which is probably what we should do. The problem is, it's not nice when you go in and do it and somebody else is standing there saying—as we give great results, say, "Well, we don't want the military here."

They need help badly. Chicago desperately needs help. Just look at the crime statistics. Look at the statistics that J.D. said about—even I didn't know it was that bad. That's terrible.

But all I know is, we're being celebrated because we went an entire week—now it's 11 days—we went an entire week without a murder, and I said, "Boy, that sounds terrible." I didn't know how—I actually made a speech—I didn't know how to say it, because it's a great number, it's a great thing, but it sounds so bad.

I mean, supposing you're from a foreign country which is properly run and they don't have murders and things—right?—so much—or, in some cases, virtually at all—and you have somebody saying, "I'm proud to announce that nobody was murdered in the capital of the United States this week." It sounds terrible, but—

Q. Well, but what about New York? What about New York, sir?

California Redistricting Efforts for Congressional Seats/Senate Confirmation Process

Q. Mr. President, Gavin Newsom—you've mentioned Gavin Newsom on crime——

The President. Gavin Newscum, yes.

Q. Is there a Federal mechanism you're hoping to use to fight back against his redistricting constitutional amendment, or is that California——

The President. Well, I think I'm going to be filing a lawsuit pretty soon, and I think we're going to be very successful in it. We're going to be filing it through the Department of Justice. That's going to happen.

We're also going to be filing a lawsuit on blue-slipping. You know, blue slips make it impossible for me, as President, to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney because they have a gentlemen's agreement. It's nothing memorialized. It's a gentlemen's agreement that's about a hundred years old, where if you have a President like a Republican and if you have a Democrat Senator, that Senator can stop you from appointing a judge or a U.S. attorney, in particular. Those two—those are the two. I guess anything, but those are the two that——

Attorney General Bondi. Those are the two.

The President. ——are very important.

So, we have numerous States where we have unbelievable people. Now, Jay Clayton was just approved in the Southern District, but he was so good. He was a top student, top schools, top everything. Went to Sullivan and Cromwell. Became the head of Sullivan and Cromwell. Came down here—it was Securities and Exchange Commission. Ran it for 4 years during my term, like, impeccably. Beautiful job. He did an incredible job.

And we went to court, and the judges—Democrat judges—voted that he could—that's the only way you get by it. But generally speaking, you can't do that because you'll have judges from the other party.

So Jay Clayton just got approved, and he's in. But he didn't get approved by the Senators. He got approved by the court system in New York, which was a great thing.

And I had a big victory in New York, I might add. I saved myself $500 million with a fake, corrupt attorney general, and a really corrupt person with a corrupt judge who was disgraceful. And they're being mauled right now by everybody.

It just—it's so corrupt, and it kept business out of New York. It kept—stuff like that.

But the appellate division vacated all of that stuff that you read about. And we're going to do a big number on that whole thing.

You can't have a corrupt court system. You can't have that, you have to have borders, and you have to have a free press. Otherwise, you don't have a country.

But you'll be hearing about the blue-slipping, because if you have—not—you don't need two Senators —you just need one Democrat Senator with a Republican. The only person that I can get approved are Democrats or maybe weak Republicans, but we don't want that. But the only person I will be able to get approved in any of those States where you have a Democrat will—I can't get a U.S. attorney. I can only get a Democrat U.S. attorney.

And this is based on an old custom. It's not based on a law, and I think it's unconstitutional. And I'll probably be filing a suit on that pretty soon.

Yes, please.

U.S. Government Ownership Stake in Private Companies/Tariffs

Q. During the campaign, you called Kamala Harris a Communist. But the Biden-Harris administration, they never called for nationalizing a private company with the federal government like you're proposing with Intel. What do you say to some who say this is a bit hypocritical? And is this the new way of doing industrial policy?

The President. Yes. Oh, sure it is. I want to try and get as much as I can if people come in and they need something. As an example, as a real estate person, if I have an agreement and I have a—I have any form of a stopgap where I can stop somebody from doing something—right?—I have a covenant in an agreement, and they come to me and they say, "We'd like you to—we'd like to do something, but you have us restricted"—if I do that, they usually have to pay.

Now, in the case of Intel, it was interesting, but I hope I'm going to have many more cases like it. Intel came in. I met with a gentleman. I had a lot of respect for him. He came in under a little bit of a cloud. I liked his story. I thought he was good. He—I think he really means to do a good job with Intel.

I said, "I'd like to ask whether or not you'd give the United"—give, you know, because he could have—[inaudible]—a lot of people said I invested in Intel. I didn't invest, but it—I invested my heart in it and my soul, because I want the country to be strong. But I said, "I'd like you to give 10 percent of Intel to the United States of America." Not to me, to the United States of America. And I said, "If you have them as a partner—you have the United States as a partner, I think that would be a very good thing for Intel."

And he thought about it a little bit different, and he said: "I like that idea very much. We have a deal." And that's—I just made $10 billion or $11 billion for the United States of America.

And yes, there will be other cases. If I have that opportunity again, I would do that. And then, you know, you do have stupid people say, "Oh, that's a shame." That's not a shame. It's called business.

If somebody's willing to give you 10 percent of a company and you're not paying for it—and I will tell you, with a company like Intel, as you know, it's had difficulty. I want them to do well. I have a—I want them to do well anyway, but I want them to do well, in particular, now.

Q. But isn't public ownership of a private company a new way of doing business in the business of the United States? Isn't that what——

The President. Yes. So are tariffs.

Q. ——you were sort of rejecting?

The President. So are tariffs.

So our—as you know, the stock market went up almost a thousand points on Friday, and it went up not because of this very, I think, terrible——

[A cellular phone could be heard playing some audio.]

Hello. Who is that back there? [Laughter] All right, get out of the room. [Laughter]

It went up because of something much different. It went up because it was announced—CBO announced the numbers, and as you know, they gave no credit to tariffs. They said they made a mistake, that the trade deficit reduce—will be reduced—because of Trump's tariffs, will be reduced by $4 trillion, right? Is that what they said, right? They said $4 trillion. And the market went up like a rocket ship, because the tariffs are good.

Well, tariffs aren't that usual.

Of the seven wars I stopped, four of them were because of the fact that I had tariffs in trade. And I was able to say, "Well, if you do this, if you go fight and you want to kill everybody, that's okay, but I'm going to charge you each 100-percent tariff when you trade with us." You know what? They all gave up. I stopped seven wars. Numerous of them was because of tariffs.

So, you know, you never knew the word "tariff." It didn't exist, really, essentially, in this country until—actually, in the 1870s up till 1913 it existed, and we were the richest country. We were richer then, proportionately, than at any time in the history of our country. And then, stupidly, in 1913, they said, "Let's go to the income tax way of life. Let the people pay instead of foreign countries."

No, we're taking in trillions of dollars in tariffs, and we're stopping wars because of tariffs. So that's not so normal either. But you know what? Other countries did it to us, and now we're doing it to other countries.

Ukraine/U.S. Security Assistance

Q. You ruled out boots on the——

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

You ruled out boots on the ground in Ukraine, but how would air support, as part of a security guarantee, be any different? Those U.S. airmen——

The President. Boy, you really went from one question to the next. [Laughter]

Q. Those U.S. airmen would be——

The President. You're there for one—that's—I expected him to at least challenge me. Now we're talking about boots on the ground.

Q. But U.S. air assets over the skies of Ukraine as part of a security guarantee. Wouldn't those U.S. airmen also be in danger?

The President. Well, you don't know what security guarantee is because we haven't even discussed the specifics of it. And we'll see.

Number one, Europe is going to give them significant security guarantees. And they should, because they're right there. But we'll be involved, from the standpoint of backup. We're going to help them. And I think if we get a deal—and I think we will—but if we get a deal, you're not going to—I don't believe you're going to have much of a problem. But we'll back it up, because I want to stop seeing people being killed.

You know, when Biden was here, he gave $350 billion—you know this from covering business—$350 billion to Ukraine. I said that Zelenskyy is the greatest salesman I think I've ever met, better than P.T. Barnum, because he'd come to the country and walk out with $50 billion every time.

He actually came here—once, he walked out with $100 billion. We're up to $350 billion. I got a trillion dollars' worth of air—rare earth that we have from the country because I felt badly for our taxpayer. But I did something else at the NATO meeting. They are wealthy countries, but they weren't paying, and we don't pay any money to Ukraine anymore.

Do you know that? In fact, it's the opposite. They request through NATO. We deal with NATO. We don't deal, really, with Ukraine. NATO requests missiles. They want Patriots. They want missiles. We give the missiles to NATO. NATO pays us in full and does what they want. I mean, I think they give them mostly to—they can do other things with them too, because we're dealing with NATO. We pay no money to Ukraine.

We gave $350 billion to Ukraine. You know, if we didn't give that kind of money—and I was the one that gave the Javelins, if you remember. I gave the Javelins; they were very effective. They say Obama gave sheets and Trump gave Javelins. They were very effective with those tanks right at the beginning.

But you would have never had a war if I were President. You would have never had a war.

Just to finish, we spend no money on Ukraine anymore. We were getting fleeced by a President that didn't know what he was doing, to be honest—I don't blame Ukraine. I mean, if—if they come and ask for $100 billion and they get it—but we were in for $350 billion. Now we make money. I don't want to make money on Ukraine. I want the war to end because I want to save all those lives.

I want to just say—but just so you understand, we're no longer losing money on that thing. We were losing money hand over fist, and now we don't lose any money. Now we sell weapons to NATO. Because NATO agreed, because of me, to go to 5 percent—they had 2 percent and didn't pay; now they have 5 percent and they're all paid up—so they have trillions of dollars, and they give us that money. But I really want the war to end, and we're going to get it ended.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. Mr. President, it's been one week since the historic summit here with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. European leaders all met here with you at the White House. You said you wanted to get this done, a bilateral as soon as possible. Have you spoken to Putin since last Monday? Since a week ago?

The President. Yes, I have. Yes.

Q. What is your conversation—or, can you share——

The President. Every conversation I have with him is a good conversation. And then, unfortunately, a bomb is loaded up into Kyiv or someplace, and then I get very angry about it.

I think we're going to get the war done. It's tough. I thought that would be—of the seven that I settled, I thought that would be the easiest of the group. See? You never know what's going to happen. You know, war—strange things happen in war. The fact that he went to Alaska, our country, I think was a big statement that he wants to get it done.

That was not easy for him to go to Alaska—you know, for him to come here. But the fact that he—he showed up on a very successful—that was a very successful day for other things, because, you know, we're also talking about missiles, nuclear—we're talking about a lot of different things.

We're talking about limiting nuclear weapons. We'll get China into that. We have the most, Russia has the second most, and China has third. But China is way behind, but they'll catch us in 5 years. We would like to denuclearize. It's too much power, and we talked about that also. That's part of it. But we have to get the war over with.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Francis Scott Key Bridge Reconstruction in Baltimore, Maryland

Q. On Baltimore. On Baltimore, sir.

The President. Go ahead, please. Behind the red tie.

Q. Me? Thank you.

On Baltimore, you said that you are going to have to reconsider bridge funding. Is that contingent on Wes Moore cleaning up the streets?

The President. No, we were very generous to him on a bridge. You know, a boat ran into a bridge, and the bridge came down like I've never seen anything—the boat was just—it just shows you the mass of that boat, the power of that boat. You know, people were up on that bridge, painters. They were painting the bridge, and they were watching it happen, and they thought they were very safe. They all died.

They were painting the bridge, can you imagine? And they watched the boat—the engines were off, and they watched the boat, and the power of that boat, the mass of that boat, went right through that steel just like it was nothing. It's amazing. It's called mass. Mass is a big deal. But the mass of that boat—those people all died.

But they were—they thought they were totally safe. Two of them were eating their lunch. They were, you know, whatever—they were watching it. They could have gotten off.

Somebody did a very good job. A police officer called in and said: "Close the bridge. Close"—and he did it with power. "Get everybody off the bridge, close that"—that guy should get a medal because he stopped the bridge. A lot of people would have died. A lot more people would have died. The ones that died were the workers on the bridge.

And they were just—they thought there was no danger, because, you know, it's a big steel bridge. And it came down like toothpicks. It was incredible to watch that. It was just—and they died. They all died.

But that police officer—again, the police do a great job. The police officer did an amazing job. And I heard the tapes. He was saying—"Get everybody off." Most people wouldn't have said that. You know, when you see a thing like that, you assume it's going to, you know, tap the bridge and it's going to be rebuffed. The thing just came down. I've never seen anything like it. So he did a good job.

In fact, I think we should get him in for a medal.

Attorney General Bondi. That's a great idea.

The President. The man that gave the warning—I listened to him—"Everybody get off"—screaming, "Everybody off." He had the sense to realize that this could be a catastrophe, as opposed to a ship that sits—because the engines weren't working. It was just floating. It's an amazing thing that a thing floating like that with no power just knocked it right down like it was—like it was nothing.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Let's do that. Let's give him a medal.

Attorney General Bondi. We'll get him in.

The President. I've been thinking about that.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Former Governor Christopher J. Christie of New Jersey

Q. Mr. President, do you plan to investigate Chris Christie?

The President. Say it. What?

Q. Do you plan to investigate Chris Christie?

The President. Look, Chris is a slob. Everybody knows it. I know Chris better than anybody in the room. I always felt he was guilty. But what he did is, he took the George Washington Bridge—which is very serious—he closed down the George Washington Bridge. And you had medical people, you had ambulances caught up. You know, you—this thing was closed down, and obviously, he knew about it.

But he blamed the young lady that worked for him and another person, and they got into a lot of trouble. She ultimately was—I don't know—exonerated, but she got out of it a little bit, but—but she went through hell. She was a young mother, a nice person. I knew her a little bit. And another man went to jail, and Chris got off.

And so, when I listen to Chris speak his hate, I say: "Oh, what about the George Washington Bridge? You know, tell me about the George Washington Bridge." He blamed other people, but he knew all about it.

So, no—I don't know. If they want to look at it. It's not for me. If they want to look at it, they can. You could ask Pam. I think we have other things to do, but I always thought he got away with murder.

Q. On Ukraine, Mr. President.

Texas Senate Race

Q. Mr. President, do you plan to make an endorsement between—in the Texas Senate race between Ken Paxton and John Cornyn?

The President. Well, I'll make up my mind. I like them both. The worst situation I have is when I have two people that I get along with well. I hate it. And they all want the endorsement.

You know, I'm almost—a hundred percent of the people I endorse win. It's a great honor. And I got—as you know, I got the largest vote in the history of Texas by far—nobody has ever gotten more votes—in the last election—I think in all the elections, the three elections. But—but they like me in Texas, so people are waiting for me.

But I just—I'd rather not comment on it right now. I like both guys.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Mr. President, there's talk——

The President. They're both friends of mine, and they're both good and very different.

Entitlement Spending/Prescription Drug Costs

Q. There's some talk among congressional Republicans about another reconciliation bill. Where do you fall on that? And what would you like to prioritize, if so?

The President. Well, I don't want to do cutting. I want to save all the different things. I'm going to cut things that are unnecessary. But the one thing I said, and I gave my word: We're not going to hurt anybody on Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security.

And in fact, we're doing great on Social Security. We found 300,000 illegals on Social Security. We got them out. And you know, things like that make Social Security very, very strong.

So, no, we're—I am very big into certain things. And one of those three—you could say three of those things are Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. We're going to protect it. And so, we'll see how everything works out.

If we're talking about rescissions on other things, I'm always open to cost cutting. If we can cost cut, I like it, but nothing is going to happen to medical.

We have something coming up—favored nations—where I'm going to be reducing drug prices by 14-, 1,500 percent, where a pill that sells in Germany for $10 costs $150 here because of the bad practice—and I was all set to do it, and then we had the COVID come up, and I had to focus on that, because we had the greatest economy in history my first term.

I will tell you that we are going to be doing numbers on the cost of drugs in this country that it's—I'm not talking about a 20 percent decrease, which would be great. I'm talking about 1,000 percent decrease. We're talking about where a product would sell for $80 in Germany and $1,300 here, and we're not going to do that. We were subsidizing the entire world, and we're not doing it anymore.

I informed the drug companies. I informed the world. And if the world wants to—if countries in the world don't want to go along, then I'm going to put tariffs on those countries, and I'll make—we'll make more money. But they have to go along with it.

So this is moving along rapidly. Dr. Oz is in charge—Bobby's group—and they do it very well, and we're getting great cooperation from the drug—because the drug companies know it's unfair.

You know, for years they'd say, "Well, we had to do research, and we had to do"—I said, "I don't care. You had to do research for these other countries also."

They are ready to go, and I'm ready to go. And you know, if I pull that off, there's no way a Republican will lose an election. There's no way.

All right. One more question. Steve.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Steve.

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia/President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine

Q. Back to Ukraine. Why——

The President. Watch this guy. He's the nicest guy I know, and he asks the most vicious questions. [Laughter]

Q. No, no.

Why do you think President Putin is so reluctant to meet with President Zelenskyy?

The President. Because he doesn't like him. He doesn't like him, you know? They don't like—I have people I don't like. I don't like to meet with them. Sometimes I do like to meet with people I don't like. [Laughter]

Q. So how do you get them together, then?

The President. They don't like—no, they don't like each other, really.

And if we had a real President, instead of a guy that got in there with a fraudulent election—if we had a real President, that war would have never happened. Putin actually said—he said, "If Trump were President, it wouldn't have happened." It happened for a lot of reasons. Happened because of Afghanistan. When he saw how incompetent Milley was and all these guys were, I think he said, "Wow, this might be it," because it was the apple of his eye. It would have never happened if I were president.

State Affairs Commission President Kim Jong Un of North Korea/District of Columbia

Q. Mr. President, you have built a relationship with Russian leaders and also North Korean leaders.

The President. Yes.

Q. As they are getting closer, how did that affect your diplomatic approach?

The President. Well, I have very good relationships with Kim Jong Un—North Korea. I mean, a lot of people would say, "Oh, that's terrible." No, it's good.

In fact, someday, I'll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me. We had two meetings—we had two summits. We got along great. I know him better than you do. I know him better than anybody, almost—other than his sister. [Laughter] His sister knows him pretty well.

No, I know him well, and I got along with him. You know, I'm not supposed to say I really like him a lot, because if I do that, I get killed in the fake-news media. But I got along with him very well, and we had no problem.

If, at the time, Hillary Clinton won the election, you would have had a nuclear war. You would have had a nuclear war.

We're not going to have a nuclear war. Once that happens, it's over. We're not going to have a nuclear war.

No, but Kim Jong Un—we'll meet at some point. I look forward to it, actually.

But do you notice that since I came into office, you haven't had a problem with him? It hasn't been—you know, he tests lots of rockets. He does have great capability. I will say that.

But I think a lot of good things—lot of good things are happening for our country, a lot of really good things. And the thing we're here today to talk about is crime and specifically in DC.

I am so proud of what these people, every one of them, what they've done in DC, because to literally stop crime on a button—I'd walk down that street right now. If I were—

Friends of mine are going out to dinner now. They haven't gone out to dinner in four years. They were afraid. They were petrified. Half the restaurants closed because nobody could go because they're afraid to go outside. Now those restaurants are open, and new restaurants are opening up. It's like a boomtown.

It's a great thing to see, and I'm very proud of the people behind me.

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