Remarks on the United States Supreme Court Decision on Nationwide Injunctions From Lower Federal Courts and an Exchange With Reporters

The President. Morning.

Q. Good morning.

The President. Well, this was a big one, wasn't it? This was a big decision, an amazing decision, one that we're very happy about.

This morning, the Supreme Court has delivered a monumental victory for the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the rule of law. In striking down the excessive use of nationwide injunctions to interfere with the normal functioning of the executive branch, the Supreme Court has stopped the Presidency itself. That's what they've done. And really, it's been an amazing period of time this last hour.

There are people elated all over the country. I've seen such happiness and spirit. Sometimes you don't see that, but this case is very important.

I was elected on a historic mandate. But in recent months, we've seen a handful of radical-left judges effectively try to overrule the rightful powers of the President to stop the American people from getting the policies that they voted for in record numbers. It was a grave threat to democracy, frankly, and instead of merely ruling on the immediate cases before them, these judges have attempted to dictate the law for the entire nation.

In practice, this meant that if any one of the nearly 700 Federal judges disagreed with the policy of a duly elected President of the United States, he or she could block that policy from going into effect or at least delay it for many years, tie it up in the court system. This was a colossal abuse of power, which never occurred in American history prior to recent decades. And we've been hit with more nationwide injunctions than were issued in the entire 20th century together. Think of it: more than the entire 20th century—me.

I'm grateful to the Supreme Court for stepping in and solving this very, very big and complex problem, and they've made it very simple. I want to thank Justice Barrett, who wrote the opinion brilliantly, as well as Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas. Great people.

Thanks for this decision and thanks to this decision, we can now promptly file to proceed with numerous policies that have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis. And some of the cases we're talking about would be ending birthright citizenship, which now comes to the fore. That was meant for the babies of slaves. It wasn't meant for people trying to scam the system and come into the country on a vacation.

This was—in fact, it was the same date—the exact same date, the end of the Civil War. It was meant for the babies of slaves, and it's so clean and so obvious. But this lets us go there and finally win that case, because hundreds of thousands of people are pouring into our country under birthright citizenship, and it wasn't meant for that reason. It was meant for the babies of slaves.

So, thanks to this decision, we can now properly file to proceed with these numerous policies and those that have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis, including birthright citizenship, ending sanctuary city funding, suspending refugee resettlement, freezing unnecessary funding, stopping Federal taxpayers from paying for transgender surgeries, and numerous other priorities of the American people.

We have so many of them. I have a whole list. I'm not going to bore you. And I'm going to have Pam get up and say a few words, but there's really—she could talk as long as she wants, because this is a very important decision. This is a decision that covers a tremendous amount of territory.

But I want to just thank, again, the Supreme Court for this ruling. It's a giant. It's a giant. And they should be very proud, and our country should be very proud of the Supreme Court today.

And with that, I'd like you to listen to the words of Pam Bondi. She's an incredible Attorney General. We're very proud of her.

And as you know, Todd Blanche is with us, and we have so many others that worked on this case and other cases. And I think they're doing a great job.

Pam, please say a few words.

Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi. Thank you, President Trump. Thank you for fighting for all Americans. Americans are finally getting what they voted for. No longer will we have rogue judges striking down President Trump's policies across the entire nation. No longer.

Today, in the 6-3 opinion, Justice Barrett correctly holds that the district court lacks authority to enter nationwide or universal injunctions. These lawless injunctions gave relief to everyone in the world, instead of the parties before the court. As the Supreme Court held today: They turned district courts into the imperial judiciary.

[At this point, Attorney General Bondi continued her remarks, concluding as follows.]

Todd is going to say a few words, because we've had another major ruling today on transgender books and some other great wins that we've had. But no longer will they have this power in our country. It is the President's authority under his executive branch to do everything to fight for the American people, and he will continue to do that. That's why he was overwhelmingly elected.

Thank you.

Deputy Attorney General Todd W. Blanche. Thank you. Today is a great day for the rule of law. It's a great day for the Justice Department, and it's one that's been a long time coming and one that every American should have been waiting for with bated breath.

And so I echo what the President said and—Attorney General Bondi, that the Supreme Court did a great thing today not only for this administration but for every American in this country.

[Deputy Attorney General Blanche continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

And, again, every one of those stays requires a tremendous amount of work and effort by the lawyers and parties involved. And they should be doing other work. They should be doing the work that the President and this administration demands and has a right to demand, and not fighting these local judges who don't make decisions based on the law. They make decisions because they just simply don't agree with the administration's decision about a policy, and that's wrong.

Thank you.

The President. Okay. Any questions?

[Several reporters began asking questions at once.]

Yes. For Pam, please.

Attorney General Bondi. Go ahead.

Q. Sure. Thank you, Madam Attorney General. So, as you know, the Supreme Court did not rule on the underlying constitutionality of the President's birthright citizenship order. So what is the plan now? Are you going to try to implement the EO just in States where there isn't a legal challenge?

Attorney General Bondi. Yes. So birthright citizenship will be decided in October, in the next session, by the Supreme Court, unless it comes down in the next few minutes. I guess it could come down. They're still—I think they're still deliberating right now on some cases. As you heard, we just got transgender books, which is a huge win. But most likely, that will be decided in October in the next session.

However, it indirectly impacts us because, as you correctly pointed out, if there's a birthright citizenship case in Oregon, it will only affect the plaintiff in Oregon, not the entire country. So, yes, it's indirectly, but that's pending litigation, and we're waiting on that in the next term.

Q. And how concerned are you that the Supreme Court will come back and determine that the Executive order is unconstitutional?

Attorney General Bondi. Oh, we are very confident in the Supreme Court. But, again, it's pending litigation, and that will directly be determined in October, but it indirectly impacts every case in this country, and we're thrilled with their decision today.

Peter [Peter Alexander, NBC].

Q. Madam Attorney General, thank you for being here to take our questions. A couple questions to the both of you. The EO goes—had a 30-day grace period before it goes into effect. Is there any thought about trying to make it effective immediately within that period of time?

Attorney General Bondi. We're going to follow the law. We're going to make those decisions, and we're going to do what's right in the bounds of the law.

Q. And then the DOJ didn't ask the Justices to rule on the merits of the birthright citizenship ban. Just for explanation purposes, why?

Attorney General Bondi. Sure. Because that's going to come down in October in the—this—this was huge, because it's indirectly impacted today. As I said, it's—now it's case by case.

Let me reiterate: Of the 35 of the 40 nationwide injunctions filed against this President, against his executive authority as President of the United States, 35 of them came from Maryland, DC, Massachusetts, California, Washington. I mean, that's crazy. These five districts.

So, yes, it indirectly impacts us. It will be a separate decision in October.

Q. And to be clear, if this——

Attorney General Bondi. Next question.

Q. ——if this—[inaudible]——

The President. Go ahead, please.

Judicial Review/Immigration Enforcement Actions

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. A question for you, sir. Do you believe this ends the power of the lower court judges to stop your agenda? Do you see this as a full green light for your agenda going forward?

The President. Well, you'd have to really speak to the lawyers about that, but this is a—really, also a decision based on common sense. It didn't work the other way. It was a disaster, where somebody from a certain location in a very liberal State or a liberal judge or a liberal group of judges could tie up a whole country for years, because their decision would sometimes take years to overturn.

We've overturned many of the decisions, but it would take years to do it. And we have to act quickly when it comes to illegal immigration. We have murderers, killers. We have drug dealers. We have—what they've allowed to come into our country should never be forgotten. It should never be forgotten what they've done to our country. And we have to be able to act very quickly, and we're going to do that.

Thank you.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett

Q. And then, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, sir, I know that you praised her and her opinion here in this case.

The President. Yes.

Q. She has taken some heat, though, from some of your supporters, who have labeled her "weak," "squishy," a "rattled law professor." What is your take on that? Do you think——

The President. I don't know about that. I just have great respect for her. I always have. And her decision was brilliantly written today, from all accounts. Yes.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Please, go ahead.

Constitutional Powers/The President's Executive Authority

Q. Mr. President, what would you say to Americans who fear that this is more and more concentration of power in the White House and the executive power?

The President. Well, this really brings back the Constitution. This is what it's all about. And this is really the opposite of that. I mean, the question is fine, but it's the opposite. The Constitution has been brought back.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Yes, please. Go ahead. Please.

Border Security/The President's Engagement With Latin American Leaders

Q. Thank you so much, President Trump. Illegal crossings in the border are zero now.

The President. Zero. Does everyone hear that? Zero. [Laughter]

Q. Do you—do——

Q. Trump 2028!

Q. Do you intend, President Trump——

The President. Who's that guy? He's pretty good. [Laughter] I like him. I like him.

Q. I'm with LindellTV, sir.

The President. He's working the cameras. [Laughter]

Q. With this new reality, President Trump, in the border, do you intend to engage personally with leaders from South America—not only Central America—in order to——

The President. Sure. Yes. I do that anyway.

Q. ——tackle this situation——

The President. I do that anyway.

Q. ——in a regional way? And if you have a—[inaudible]—of meeting some Presidents from South America?

The President. Sure.

Q. As Brazil, for example.

The President. Sure. Well, you said—as an example, not South America, but NATO, over the weekend.

Q. Yes.

The President. They have great respect for our country now. They did things that nobody thought was possible. They took funding from 2 percent to 5 percent. Nobody thought they'd ever pay the 2 percent, and now they're paying the 5 percent. It's over a trillion dollars more a year. Think of that: a trillion dollars. Nobody thought that could happen. That's a different group of people, different countries.

But we get along with a lot of countries. Our—we are respected again. Our country, the U.S., is respected again. It was not respected 6 months ago, I can tell you.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Yes, go ahead, please.

Tariffs/Trade Negotiations

Q. Yes, Mr. President, you have a deadline coming up on trade in 2 weeks. Which country, if any——

The President. On what?

Q. On trade, on tariffs, sir.

The President. Yes.

Q. Which countries, if any, are close to agreements with the administration?

The President. Well, that's an interesting question. We've made a deal with China. We've made a deal with probably four or five different countries—with the U.K., was a great deal for both. And we're in the process of making some others.

But ultimately—in fact, Scott is here and Howard Lutnick. These two guys have been doing an incredible job, and the people that work with them have been doing an incredible job. But you know, we have 200 countries—you could say 200 countries-plus. We can't do that.

So, at a certain point, over the next week and a half or so, or maybe before, we're going to send out a letter. We talked to many of the countries, and we're just going to tell them what they have to pay to do business in the United States.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

And it's going to go very quickly.

But some of the bigger countries—India, I think we're going to reach a deal where we have the right to go in and trade. And right now it's restricted. You can't walk in there. You can't even think about it. We're looking to get a full trade-barrier dropping, which is unthinkable. And I'm not sure that that's going to happen, but as of this moment, we've agreed to that: go into Indian and trade.

We're going to be trading in China. That's going to come a little bit down the road, but we're going to be trading in China.

We have a lot of great things going, and we're getting along with countries, but some will be disappointed because they're going to have to pay tariffs. And we've taken in already hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. No inflation.

The only problem we have is, we have a Fed guy that doesn't understand what's happening. And it would be great if he'd lower the rate because we'd be able to borrow a lot cheaper.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Yes, go ahead, please.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Why don't we keep it on this subject? This is such a big subject.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

You know what? Trade is so big, but this—I don't know. In a certain way, this might be bigger than trade.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. A follow-up on trade, Mr. President.

The President. I think this is bigger than trade.

Yes, please, go ahead.

Parental Options in School Instruction

Q. Mr. President, I was wondering, though, if you could——

The President. Go ahead.

Q. Sir, on the transgender ruling—the Supreme Court ruling that parents with religious objections can pull their kids out of public school lessons that use LGBTQ materials. Pam brought it up. Your reaction to that ruling today, sir?

The President. I think that ruling was a great ruling, and I think it's a great ruling for parents. It's really a ruling for parents. They're—they lost control of the schools. They lost control of their child. And this is a tremendous victory for parents.

And I'm not surprised by it, but I am surprised that it went this far. It took us to bring life back to normal. So wonderful.

It's parental. And I kept saying, "We will give you back your parental rights." They were taken away, and this is a tremendous victory for parents.

Yes.

U.S. Airstrikes on Iranian Nuclear Facilities

Q. Mr. President, if look at the—back at the last week, it's been extraordinary in terms of the action in the Middle East. You were at the Hague. I'm wondering now——

The President. Been a hell of a week, hasn't it? [Laughter]

Q. I'm wondering now if you believe that Iran——

The President. It's been some week.

Q. I'm wondering now, sir, if you believe that Iran has given up its long history of ambitions with nuclear weapons, or what you would like to see from them to prove that they do. And what type of meetings is your administration looking for next week with Iran?

The President. So Iran wants to meet. As you know, their sites were obliterated—their very evil nuclear sites. They were—now has been proven. We had some fake news for a little while. The same people that covered the "Hunter Biden laptop was from Russia," the same people that did three or four other "Russia, Russia, Russia" hoax.

Q. But on their ambitions, sir?

The President. No, no, wait, wait. Just listen.

They came up with something that delayed the credit that our great pilots and these great American—I mean, they—what talent that was, and they hit it right down in the spot. Fifty-two thousand feet. Think of this: dark, no Moon. You couldn't see a thing. And they hit the "refrigerator door," as they say—that's the size of a target—and overwhelmingly.

And it's amazing what was done. The—we're the only ones that could have done it. And we took out the other—two of the other sites also, in addition to that. We finished them off.

That was a very evil intention.

I believe that—and again, time will tell—but I don't believe that they're going to go back into nuclear anytime soon. They spent over a trillion dollars on nuclear, and they never got it together.

And nothing was moved from the site, by the way. To do that is very dangerous. It's very, very heavy material. Those cars were most likely the cars of masons, because they were pouring concrete at the top, at the hatch, as you know—the hatch going into the nuclear site. They wanted to reinforce it, and they had some masons there pouring concrete.

By the way, that concrete was obliterated. It hit exactly at the concrete. It was—I don't think it had a chance to dry. But everything is down there. It's under millions of tons of rock.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Please. Yes.

El Salvador

Q. Hello. Your administration has said that El Salvador is one of the safest countries in the hemisphere. So why haven't you yet canceled temporary protected status for that country? Was it part of the deal with this President?

The President. Well, we'll take a look. We've had a great relationship with El Salvador. They have a fantastic leader. They built a massive prison system. And I don't know exactly why, but it's a hell of a system. And we bring people there, and when they go there, they don't get out. And frankly, when they hear they have to go there, they become very nice people. They become very nice people. It's a tough system, but it's a brilliant system, and it's a system done by a very, very good leader.

We'll talk about El Salvador. A lot of respect.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Yes, please.

Iran/Nuclear Weapons Development

Q. Mr. President, thank you. Thank you. A question for you, and then a question for the Attorney General.

As you go into negotiations and talks with Iran, are you demanding not only that there would be no uranium production inside of Iran, but also that Iran would turn over all existing stockpiles of uranium?

The President. Well, you know, we're a little early for that, but something like that. Yes, we'll do something like that.

Let me say that I've been saying for 25 years, even as a civilian, you cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. And that's what happened.

Q. Would you——

The President. It's been obliterated. It would be years before they could ever get going. And I really think it's probably the last thing—they have to recover from a hell of a tough war.

Q. Would you also be demanding that the IAEA have full rights to inspect in Iran——

The President. Or somebody, yes.

Q. ——anywhere, anytime?

The President. Or somebody that we respect——

Q. And then just a——

The President. ——including ourselves.

Birthright Citizenship/Immigration Enforcement Actions

Q. And a question for both the President——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——and the Attorney General. Under birthright citizenship, if this is implemented, who would be tasked with actually vetting citizenship, and how—like, would this be a situation where you have nurses and doctors checking for citizenship of parents or——

Attorney General Bondi. This is all pending litigation. It's going to be decided in October by the Supreme Court, and we'll discuss that after the litigation.

Q. If you have an undocumented baby, would that baby then be an enforcement priority?

Attorney General Bondi. The violent criminals in our country are the priority now. Let me put it in perspective. Today marked the 2,711th arrest in our country of TDA members—just TDA. Everyone in this room agrees: They are one of the most violent criminal organizations in the world, and the Biden administration let them walk into our country—walk into our country—for the last 4 years. Two thousand seven hundred eleven of them today have been arrested in our country.

That is the priority of Donald Trump. That is the priority of this country, of Homeland Security, of all of our lawyers——

Q. But what would happen to the child——

Attorney General Bondi. ——of FBI.

Q. ——of somebody born to an undocumented parent?

Attorney General Bondi. That's the priority. That will be discussed in October when the Supreme Court, hopefully, rules in our favor, and we're very confident of that.

But you should all feel safer now that President Trump can deport all of these—all of these—gangs, and not one district court judge can think they're an emperor over this administration and his executive powers and why the people of the United States elected him.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

The President. I just might add one thing. And, you know, they used birthright citizenship—some of the worst people, some of the cartels—to get people into our country, just so you know. And, again, I say, if you look at the end of the Civil War, the 1800s, it was a very turbulent time. If you take the end day—was it 1869 or whatever—but you take that exact day, that's when the case was filed, and the case ended shortly thereafter.

This had to do with the babies of slaves, very, very obviously. And I think we're going to win. People didn't—I don't think they went about discussing it right. I came along, and we looked and we said: "Wait a minute. This is wrong. We've been looking at birthright citizenship wrong for years." But they've used it. The cartels have used birthright citizenship to get very bad people in.

And what Pam is doing and what Todd and everybody else, what they're doing at DOJ and all over—FBI, ICE, Border Patrol—these are incredible people. They're trying to keep our country safe, and they don't want to have people come in. This is just another way that they get illegal immigrants into our country and, in some cases, very, very bad ones.

Go ahead.

The President's Legislative Agenda/Border Security

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. On your tax bill, if I could for a moment. Senators are racing to rewrite parts of it right now, after the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that sections of it were outside of the process that they're using to get this through. Do you think that Senators should respect the decisions of the Parliamentarian? And what have you personally done in the last 48 hours to try and get Republican Senators who are against the bill to a yes?

The President. Well, look, it's a great bill. It's a massive tax cut. If it's not approved, your taxes will go up by 68 percent. Think of that. Sixty-eight—a record. The highest in the history.

The Democrats won't approve it, only because, politically, it's so good for the Republicans. The Democrats aren't approving it. But think of what they're not approving. They're not approving border security. We've done a great job at the border, but we have to add some wall. We have to do, you know, various things. We have no money for that. We have no money for the border. We have no money for so many things.

But if the Democrats—and it will be interesting to see if we get any Democrat votes. We should. If I were a Democrat, I would—maybe Fetterman, because he seems to be the most sensible one lately. If I were a Democrat, I would vote for this bill all day long, because it's tax cuts and so many other things that are common sense. They're basic things.

I think they're doing fine. The Parliamentarian has been a little difficult, and I would say that I disagree with the Parliamentarian on some things, and on other ways, he's been fine, but we'll have to see. It's a a big issue.

I will tell you this, if that bill doesn't pass, the country will get a 68—68-percent tax increase. So think of this: You're a Democrat, and you vote against it. That means you're voting in favor, because, essentially, you're voting in favor of the largest tax hike in the history of our country. And you can't do that.

In addition, we're cutting costs by $1.7 trillion, and it won't affect anybody. It's just fraud, waste, and abuse.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Tariffs/National Economy/North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Q. Mr. President, a leading—Mr. President, a leading global economist just did a 180 and says your tariff plan—you may have outsmarted everybody with it.

The President. Oh.

Q. What is your message to——

The President. I love this—I love this question. This is the favorite—this is the best question I've ever been asked—[laughter]—because I've been going through abuse for years on this.

Q. But, Mr. President——

The President. Because, as you know, we're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. No inflation whatsoever.

Q. But, Mr. President, what is your message to critics who think your tariff plan will cause a recession?

The President. I think they should go back to business school. [Laughter] It's so obvious. It's so obvious. I mean, we're taking in billions and billions of dollars from China and a lot of other countries.

We took in—I had a call from somebody in the House and—a high official: "Sir, we have a problem. We don't know what to do. The books are a mess." I said, "What do you mean by 'the books'?" "The books, the money—coming in. It's so terrible." I figured, oh, boy. What's this? I don't like this question. I said, "So what seems"—"There's so much money coming in, and there must be some kind of an accounting mistake." He goes, "We have hundreds of billions of dollars more money than we thought." I said: "Do me a favor. Go check the—call me back. You have to call me back. Check the tariff column." He calls me back 2 hours later. He says: "You're right. We took in $88 billion in tariffs."

They have so much money coming in. But more important than the money coming in, we have companies coming in, factories coming in, auto plants being built. AI is being built here instead of being built all over Europe and Asia. We have all of it.

We have over $15 trillion—just about, Scott. I think we're right about that—at that number. We went to Saudi Arabia, we went to Qatar, we went to U.A.E. Very smart people. Very smart leaders. Great leaders. And we took in $5.1 trillion just there. Without the tariffs—I mean, they also liked a thing called November 5, November 6, and November 7. That was a very good little period of time. It was called a Presidential election.

You know, you used to have 1-day election. Now you have it go over a—but even if you just took that little period, because it was pretty obvious it was going to be a landslide, but—and they liked that, but they love the tariffs.

I had Texas Instruments come in the other day—big company—and he said, "We're putting in $60 billion into new plants and new equipment, new everything. Sir, you're going to keep the tariffs, aren't you?" Because if I ever took the tariffs off—and we are going to absolutely keep it. And they're worried that somebody that—like this Communist from New York someday gets elected—I can't believe that's happening. That's a terrible thing for our country, by the way. He's a Communist. We're going to go to a communistic so—that's so bad for New York, but the rest of the country is revolting against it.

But if somebody got elected, they're afraid that—if this was taken off. Well, we're going to guarantee it's never going to be taken off. And again, we're taking in hundreds—think of this: hundreds of billions of dollars. And they were all confused because they've never seen this before.

You know, it's always the other way. "We don't have enough money." So much money is coming in at levels that nobody has ever seen. But most importantly, we have factories being built, car plants being built, companies moving to our country like never before.

If you look at $15 trillion—and that's only in a few months. You know, I haven't been here that long. Presidents—like, the last one was a disaster. One of the—he's the worst President in the history of our country, by the way. What he did on our border can never, ever be forgotten. I—to me, that's the worst of all the things, and he's done some terrible things. Grossly incompetent. Nobody knew it was him, because I don't think it was him. I think it was whoever was controlling the autopen.

But our country is doing great. And those leaders and other leaders—I just left, as you know, a large group of the most highly respected people, and that includes big—you know, big countries. When you look at Germany and France and Spain—although Spain didn't come through, but they will. By the way, guaranteed they will. That was the only country that sort of tried to hold back on putting up the money.

But just so you know, they said: "It's unbelievable what's happened to the U.S.A. You were a dead country. We didn't respect the country, the leader. You were dead as—as a doornail." One said to me: "You went from being a dead country. You are, right now, the hottest country anywhere in the world. The whole world is talking about the U.S.A., and everybody wants a part of it." And they're pouring into our country, and you're going to see those numbers.

Thank you for the question.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Go ahead. Yes, go ahead, please.

Trade Negotiations

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. I have a question about trade. Secretary Bessent has said that he hopes tariff deals with major partners will be done by Labor Day. So, if some deals are not done by your July 9 deadline, will some countries' tariffs go back up, or will they stay where they are now?

The President. Yes, well, there's some countries that are used to ripping us off, to be honest with you. And I don't want to name them, but you sort of can name them. And they're so used to just, you know, getting—taking in billions and billions of—look, we had a trade deficit of more than a trillion dollars. Think of it: a trillion, a trade deficit. That's because nobody cared. Nobody—we cared a lot when—you know, I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff. We had the greatest economy in history up until now. I think we're going to blow it away.

But during my time and especially prior to COVID, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. I think we're going to blow it away now, based on the kind of numbers that we're seeing.

But some countries are very angry because they've been ripping us off for years. They've been making billions and billions of dollars. There was nobody to negotiate with. They could do whatever they want. They charged us tariffs, by the way, at numbers that we've never seen before, and we ended up losing much more than a trillion dollars a year—a trillion dollars a year to—on trade.

And now they're being met with a force that's far greater than them, and they don't like it. So, they're upset because instead of making, you know, $5 billion, they're going to break even or they'll make a little bit. I want to be nice. They'll make a little bit. "Oh, we'll make a little bit." It's a big difference.

Yes, please. Go ahead, right there.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Go ahead. Red—red dress.

2024 Presidential Election/Former President Joseph R. Biden, Jr./Illegal Immigration/The President's Foreign Policy

Q. On the 2020 election.

Q. Mr. President——

Q. Is there any more information on the special prosecutor? So many Americans still have questions about the 2020 election. And speaking of rogue judges, would you consider appointing somebody at DOJ, maybe, to investigate the judges that allowed for the political persecution of you, your family, and your supporters during the Biden administration?

The President. I love you. Who are you? [Laughter]

Q. I'm Cara [Cara Castronuova, LindellTV] from Lindell TV.

The President. Well, that's a very nice question. And it's not a setup. I have no idea who you are, but I appreciate that question.

Q. Thank you.

The President. All I can say is—we're not here for that—I hope so. I hope they're doing a thing, because that election was rigged and stolen, and we can't allow that to happen.

You know, a lot of people tell me: "Sir, you just won the greatest election in the history of our country. You won in numbers that"—I won all seven swing States. Won the popular vote. Won everything. "Sir, go on with your life." And the—many people say that—good people, friends of mine. Then you have people that say that same thing. "Go on with your life, but you have to find out what happened, because you can't let that happen again."

Look at what this lunatic did. Look at what he did. He opened our borders to people that were murderers—11,888, to be exact, murderers. And we've captured many of those murderers. And we're bringing them back or we're—some of them are so dangerous that we don't even want to bring them back. We're afraid they're going to try and come back in.

But he allowed people to come into this country—people from mental institutions, insane asylums. That's a mental institution on steroids. People from mental institutions, gang members, drug dealers, people—oh, jails being emptied out into our country. Venezuela emptied out its—almost its entire prison population into our country.

But I don't want to blame them. Many countries have done that. The Congo—you know, we have a great press conference coming up later, and it's the Congo and Rwanda. You know, they were fighting for years, and it was machetes. It was vicious. It was as vicious—people's heads being chopped off. And I have a man who's very good in that part of the world, very smart, and put them together, and we're signing a peace treaty today. First time in many years, they're going to have peace. And that's a big deal.

You know, we talk about Russia, and we're going to work—we're working that one. I—President Putin called up, and he said, "I'd love to help you with Iran." I said: "Do me a favor: I'll handle Iran. Help me with Russia. We've got to get that one settled." And I think something's going to happen there.

But we did some we did some—we did some great work. India and Pakistan, that was going to be a—maybe nuclear. We did that.

We did a lot of work. I don't know if there's ever been a President that's done much more.

Serbia-Kosovo was going to go at it. Going to be a big war. I said, "You go at it, there's no trade with the United States." They said, "Well, maybe we won't go at it."

That's what happened with India and Pakistan. I was negotiating with both of them, and I said to Scott, I said to Howard, "Cancel all deals with India and Pakistan. They're not trading with us because they're in a war." They called back, "What do we do?" I said: "Look, you want to have trade with the United States, it's great. But you want to go and start using nuclear weapons on each other? We're not going to allow that," and they both agreed. Both have great leaders. They both agreed not to do it.

So——

Q. On——

The President. So we did a lot, but I appreciate that question.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Please. Orange.

The President's Legislative Agenda

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. I was just speaking with Senator Ron Johnson on the "One Big Beautiful Bill."

The President. Yes.

Q. And he says he really wants to get to "yes" for you and get this accomplished.

The President. He does. He's a good man.

Q. But he also said that he needs more time, and he is not certain that the July 4 deadline is possible—

The President. Well, then he's not such a good man. [Laughter]

Q. ——because there's too much work to do.

The President. No, he's a good man.

Q. How important——

The President. Ron Johnson is doing a good job. He's very committed. Every Republican Senator is committed.

And you know, you could have a couple of grandstanders, in all fairness. You could have somebody else. And it's very dangerous, because our country would go from being the most successful country in the world to who knows what happens with a 68 percent—think of it: 68-percent tax increase. That was given by the Democrats, because they like high taxes. I don't know what happened.

You know, all my life, I'd grow up and I'd watch politicians talking. I'd say, "Oh, that's fun." And they were always saying: "We will cut your taxes. We will cut your"—I never heard it——they say: "We will raise your taxes." And they elect people like this guy in New York that maybe has a chance. I find it hard to believe, but he maybe has a chance. They want to raise your taxes. So they want to see a 68-percent tax increase.

That's more money than anybody could afford. You'd go into a depression if that ever happened.

So I think there's a lot of pressure to get that approved.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Mr. President, how important is the July 4 deadline to you if the default——

The President. It's important. It's not the end-all.

Q. ——deadline is not till August?

The President. It can go longer, but we'd like to get it done by that time, if possible.

And look, we have a lot of very committed people, and they feel very strongly about a subject—subjects that you're not even thinking about that are important to Republicans.

The problem we have is that it's a great bill, it's a popular bill, but we'll get no Democrats, only because they don't want to vote for Trump. If they—if that bill was their bill, oh, they would be so happy. It's so great for our military. It's great for everything. And they would normally vote, but because their hatred of Trump—they have Trump derangement syndrome at levels never seen before. [Laughter]

And instead of voting for a tax cut, they're voting for a tax increase of 68 percent. They're voting to destroy Social Security, destroy Medicare, and destroy Medicaid. And we're voting to make them perfect and to make them better—make them stronger and better. They're going to destroy Medicaid and they're going to destroy Medicare, and Social Security will follow.

If you vote for the Democrats, you're dead on those three things.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Crypto Currency and Digital Finance

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. On a related subject, many Democrats have said that they are not going to support crypto bills in Congress only because of you and your family's personal crypto ventures. And these votes are, in some cases, needed to pass. Are you open to the idea of pulling away from your personal crypto ventures, just for the next few years, if that helps get these crypto bills passed——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——in the next few months?

The President. Well, it's a very funny thing, crypto. So I became a fan of crypto, and, to me, it's an industry. I view it as an industry. And I'm President, and if we didn't have it, China would, or somebody else would, but most likely China. China would love to. And we've dominated that industry.

It's a big industry, by the way. In fact, when the stock market went down recently, crypto and Bitcoin and all of that went down much less than anybody else, as a group. And we've created a very powerful industry, and that's much more important than anything that we invest in.

We invest in it. But, really, that was an industry that wasn't doing particularly well. I got involved with it a couple of years ago, and—before this whole—before the second term. I got involved before I decided to run. I only decided to run because I saw what was happening, and Biden was incompetent, and the administration was crooked and incompetent. And I was in Bitcoin then, not knowing if I was going to do it a third time.

So it's become amazing. I mean, it's—the jobs that it produces. And I notice more and more you pay in Bitcoin. I mean, people are saying it takes a lot of pressure off the dollar. And it's a great thing for our country.

So I don't care about investing.

Q. Would you——

The President. You know, I have my—I have kids, and they invest in different things. They do believe in it. But I'm President, and what I did do there is build an industry that's very important. And you know, if we didn't have it, China would.

Okay.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Go ahead. With the glasses. Gentleman. Go ahead, please. Go ahead.

California/Immigration Enforcement Actions/Wildfires in Los Angeles Area

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. So are you going to cut funds in the sanctuary States? Like, for instance, California, they keep supporting illegal immigration, and then these people work under the table.

The President. Yes, we're giving them a hard time.

Q. And, also, a foreign policy question.

The President. I mean, they don't have a Governor in California. They have a man that wants to give away everything to people that nobody's seen before.

If we didn't go into Los Angeles with the military, which did a fantastic job—but if we didn't go into Los Angeles, bringing in the National Guard—I would have brought the military if it was necessary, because you have to. We have the right to. That was another thing upheld by the Supreme Court. But if we didn't go in with the National Guard and be strong and tough, you wouldn't maybe have a Los Angeles. It would be like the rest of California—the rest of Los Angeles. They lost 25,000 houses in a fire. They should have lost none.

You know, I sent the water down. I had to break into their water supply, because they just refused to do it. They're crazy. There's something wrong with them. They have plenty of water. They don't have droughts or anything. They have plenty—we let it come down from the Pacific Northwest. They routed all the water out into the Pacific Ocean for environmental reasons. Okay?

And now you have 25,000 houses, none of which would have burned down if you had the water. They didn't have water. They didn't have water for the fire pumps. They didn't have water in the sprinkler systems that people put in.

So the answer is: We're going to work with Governors, we're going to work with radical-left Democrats and Democrats, and we're going to make it good for everybody.

We'll have to stop the crime in those—all—in—the case of the cities, I think I can say just about all cities with heavy crime are run by Democrats.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Go ahead.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Yes, with the glasses, please.

Q. I'm with Iran International——

The President. Go ahead, yes. Yes, go——

Q. I——

The President. No, no, the man behind you. Yes, please.

Lebanon/Security Threats to the President

Q. President Trump, Anthony Merchak from MTV Lebanon. I want to ask you regarding the threats posed by Iran's allies and proxies operating in the U.S. They were threatening your life. So what do you say about that? And regarding the—Lebanon, because Hizballah is as well part of Iran's allies—

The President. Yes.

Q. ——if there any time frame in Lebanon regarding disarming Hizballah in Lebanon?

The President. Yes. Lebanon is a great place with brilliant people. You know, it was known for the professors and doctors and had an incredible history, and hopefully, we can bring it back again.

I just appointed a friend of mine who's Lebanese. And I didn't know he was Lebanese. I've known him for 20 years. Very, very successful man. And I just appointed him. And I said, "Why would you want that?" He says: "Because I was born there. I was raised there. I love it. I love it so much." I said, "You know, it's very dangerous going to Lebanon as Ambassador." And he said, "That's what they say, but I don't care about danger."

I mean, this is a guy that is just a very big business guy. He wants to give up his whole life to go to Lebanon because he believes in it so much.

We're with Lebanon all the way. We'll try and straighten it out.

Q. They are threatening the—your life as well, so what action regarding—because——

The President. Threaten my life—yes, they have threatened. I get that throbbing feeling every once in a while. Get that throbbing feeling. But you know what? That's okay. This is a dangerous business. What I do is a dangerous business.

You know, I tell the story of the car companies and different people in different professions. You have race car drivers, as an example. One-tenth of 1 percent die. Bull riders, one-tenth of 1 percent. That's not a lot, but it's—people die. When you're President, it's about 5 percent. If somebody would have told me that, maybe I wouldn't have run. Okay? It's——

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

This is a very dangerous profession.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Yes, please.

Q. Thank you, President Trump. On New York.

The President. Should—by the way, so many questions. Should we keep this going, Pam, or not?

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

This is the opposite of Biden. Biden would take a half a question, and he'd leave without answering it.

Go ahead.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. On Iran.

Q. On New York, President Trump.

The President. You tell me when it gets boring. Okay?

Q. President Trump, on Iran. On Iran. If Iran——

The President. Are you from Iran?

Q. No, I'm not from Iran.

The President. Okay.

U.S. Airstrikes on Iranian Nuclear Facilities/Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Terrorist Organization

Q. I'm from the U.K. But if the intelligence reports conclude that Iran can enrich uranium to a level that concerns you——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——would you consider bombing the country again?

The President. Sure. Without question, absolutely.

Q. And have you had any conversation——

The President. Turned out to be unbelievable. But, you know, our—incredible fliers and our—I call them the shots. These guys are unbelievable. Think, from 52,000 feet, they hit the equivalent of a refrigerator door. They actually hit it right in the center, so it's much smaller than that. And just bomb after bomb going deeper, deeper, blowing up. Incredible, incredible thing.

I don't know if you heard the General—he was very impressive—"Razin" Caine. You know, he's the one that beat ISIS for me. And he did it in a matter of weeks. And I was told it was going to take 4 or 5 years. And when I got this job, I always said, "If I get this job, I'm going to put that guy as the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and—Dan Caine. And he—when I heard his name was "Razin"—his nickname is "Razin"—"Razin" Caine—I said, "You've got to be kidding."

So I liked him right from the beginning, but he knocked out ISIS in a time that nobody ever thought possible. And when this attack was completed and so successful, I said, "Now I know how you knocked out ISIS so quickly."

But we have the best people. We have the best equipment in the world. You know, I rebuilt the military during my 4 years—during my other term. We have the best equipment in the world.

The problem is, we gave away, you know, a lot of it, but small, relatively speaking. We gave a lot of it away to Afghanistan. Shouldn't have happened. That just shows how incompetent they were. They gave all that equipment away—billions and billions of dollars' worth. Shouldn't have happened. But that was small compared to what we have. Now we have a great military with great people.

Okay.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Yes, please.

Rwanda/Democratic Republic of the Congo

Q. Mr. President, congratulations. A couple of very different questions. One is Rwanda, in 1994, as you grew up in New York. We all knew how horrific those attacks were.

The President. Right.

Q. Congratulations on the treaty. There are talks that perhaps——

The President. That's going to take place today at 3 o'clock in the Oval Office. We're going to have a signing——

Q. Yes.

The President. ——with Rwanda and the Congo.

Q. I have a follow-up, Mr. President.

The President. So I'm a little—out of my league in that one, because I didn't know too much about it. I knew one thing: They were going at it for many years and—with machetes. And it is——

Q. Decades.

The President. ——one of the worst—one of the worst wars that anyone has ever seen.

And I just happened to have somebody that was able to get it settled. I mean, just a brilliant person who is very comfortable in that part of the world. It's a very dangerous part of the world. I said, "Are you uncomfortable there?" People are being killed. Schoolchildren are being raided and killed. And I don't even want to say how, but as viciously as I've ever heard. "Are you uncomfortable?" "No, that's the part of the world that I know." Very comfortable. Was able to get them together and sell it.

And not only that, we're getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of it. They're so honored to be here. They never thought they'd be coming to—look, this is a very tough part of the world. They never thought—they were just telling me, they never thought they'd ever be coming to the White House. And they're so honored. And so we're going to give them a great, big reception. But that's after many years of fighting.

It's a great thing. That's at 3 o'clock, I believe.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Go ahead.

Iran/Nuclear Weapons Development

Q. Sir, are you concerned at all about secret nuclear sites in Iran? You talked about maybe just—just a——

The President. Secret nuclear site?

Q. Yes, that there might be some that are not on the radar.

The President. Not really. Can I tell you: They're exhausted. And Israel is exhausted too. And I dealt with both of them, and they both wanted it settled—both of them. And we did a great job, but they're exhausted. The last thing they're thinking about right now is nuclear.

You know what they're thinking of? They're thinking about tomorrow, trying to live. It's such a mess. It's such a mess. The place was bombed to hell.

And no, I'm not worried about it at all. And I'm putting out a little statement. I'm going to respond to the Ayatollah's statement yesterday that we won the war. Oh, God—won the war.

And I said: "Look, you're a man of great faith, a man who's highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth. You got beat to hell." And Israel was beat up too. They were both beat up, and it was a great time to end it. It was quick. They got the hate out. There was a lot of hate. A lot of hate. It would be great if they didn't have that hate.

But the last thing they're thinking about is nuclear weapons right now.

Please.

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Iris Tao with NTD Researcher Media, with the Epoch Times.

The President. Good.

Q. Thank you so much for doing this.

The President. Sure.

Q. It's very refreshing for all of us here, I believe——

The President. It's a good group.

Q. ——in this room. So, for——

The President. It's refreshing?

Q. Very refreshing, yes. We haven't had this in——

The President. Probably.

Q. ——you know, for the past—[inaudible].

The President. I can—I understand what you mean.

Q. So, thank you so much for coming out here to talk to us.

The President. Other than Karoline has done a great job. [Laughter]

Q. Yes. Yes, sir.

The President. She—you're referring to the past administration.

Q. Yes, yes.

The President. Not to Karoline, right? [Laughter]

Q. Yes.

Judicial Review

Back to the ruling today, if you don't mind. So you have always talked about winning for the American people.

The President. Right.

Q. How do you think today's ruling will enable you to further deliver for American families and workers across the country, not only when it comes to immigration, but also when it comes to trade, energy? What actions are you most eager to move forward with now?

The President. Well, I think taking power away from these absolutely crazy, radical-left judges is a tremendous—this is such a big day. This is such a big day. It's like—it's sort of sad, because we're doing the—the signing at 3 o'clock, and I—you know, this may very well dominate the signing of—a big war that was going on and really affecting the continent of—think of it, the entire continent of Africa was being affected. And we're settle—we're settling that war today, and this will probably be a headline.

But this is a very big moment, and it gives—gives power back to people that should have it, including Congress, including the Presidency. And it only takes bad power away from judges. It really doesn't power—it takes bad power, sick power, and unfair power. And it's really going to be—it's—this is a very monumental decision.

Yes, please.

Tariffs

Q. Mr. President, thank you very much. On July—July 9. Is that July 9 date set for tariffs to snap back?

The President. No.

Q. Or could they—could there be a——

The President. We can do whatever we want. We could extend it. We could make it shorter. I'd like to make it shorter. I'd like to just send letters out to everybody: "Congratulations. You're paying 25 percent."

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

He doesn't want—he's a much nicer person than I am.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Go ahead. You're going to finish it up?

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

Q. Who are you considering for the Federal Reserve then? And are you speeding up that process? I see Secretary Bessent——

The President. Oh, he's terrible. He's terrible. I mean, I have a list of things—we're, like, 38 on the list. We pay—you know, Cameroon and different places are paying the same as us. Because, you know, you have somebody sets their rate at 4 percent or 4½ percent. It's hard to go out and say, "We should be paying 1 percent," when you have your so-called experts doing that.

And the sad part is, you know, as per the question that you asked about tariffs, we've had the tariffs, and we have less inflation than we had before. What we have is a hell of a lot more money, a hell of a lot more income, and we shouldn't be paying a rate like that. In other words, when we pay a rate—I'll tell you, each point is the equivalent of $300 billion, so if we had it down three points, because I think we should be at one. You have Switzerland is at .25—in other words, 25 percent of 1 percent. And they're the number one right now, but we should be the number one.

And soon you're going to have—I believe, I think—you're going to have where the people will pay, the bank—you know, we'll pay, like we had a few years ago, where you put up money, you loan money—and, I mean, you actually—instead of paying, you get paid. I love that. I don't know if it's any good, but I love it, where you put up money, and you get paid.

But we should be in a category—so we should be at the top of the list, not toward the bottom of the list. But we have a man who's not a smart man, and he probably has Trump derangement syndrome, and he's just not a smart person.

What he's doing, though, he's hurting us for years to come, because if we borrow money at two points higher than we should be paying, that's $600 billion. You—wouldn't you say those numbers are about right, Scott? So it's w points would be about 600—actually, more than that, but about $600 billion, all because the guy doesn't want to lower the rates.

Q. But are you speeding up the process?

The President. He's doing disservice—a very—and then he goes up and talks about, "I'd like to see costs come down." You know, he gets up, and he does his little thing for 5 minutes. Then he goes out, and he goes back to the beach. He goes, "I'd like to see costs come down." Well, he could lower the interest costs by $900 billion a year. All he has to do is lower rates.

And everybody's saying—I was watching some of the business shows today, and they're saying, "You know, Trump's right. He should really be cutting." The country is doing well. We have no inflation. Now, despite him, we're doing great. But if we got the rates down, we would be a rocket ship.

So I think that will be it. And I just want to thank everybody. This is a really big day. We've had——

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

We've had a big week. You know, we've had a big week. We've had a lot of victories this week. NATO was a tremendous victory. The war was a tremendous—look, we were talking about this for 30 years, about Iran being nuclear, and all I said is it will not be nuclear, and it's not going to be nuclear.

And you know, I want to give credit to a lot of people—most importantly, to our great military. Boy, they put out that fire. Once that happened, once those bombs got dropped, that—that war was over. That war was over. But I just want to compliment them. Incredible. The general and all of his generals. Pete Hegseth was great. They're all—and now I want to compliment Pam. A lot of genius went into this. You know, people—if you don't say it exactly right, if the Supreme Court doesn't get it because it's incorrectly spoken about—and that happens. A lot of cases are lost because they don't—they don't say the right words. But I want to—she's going to go down as a great Attorney General. I may change it—my mind about that. I don't know. [Laughter] Maybe someday I'll—call and say, "I was only kidding." [Laughter]

She's going to go down as a great Attorney General. This was a tremendous win. And we've had tremendous wins, but this was a tremendous win today.

So I just want to congratulate you and Todd and your whole staff.

Attorney General Bondi. Thank you.

The President. Very brilliant people. And we can't forget John Sauer——

Attorney General Bondi. That's right.

The President. ——who is with——

Attorney General Bondi. John Sauer.

The President. There's a medical emergency within his family, so he's taking care of that. And we said absolutely.

So I just want to thank everybody very much. Thank you.

Q. Sir—[inaudible]—about the cease-fire, sir?