Remarks Prior to a Meeting With President Ferdinand R. "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr., of the Philippines and an Exchange With Reporters

President Trump. Well, thank you very much, everybody. It's a great honor to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines—a great family, great family legacy, and highly respected in his country. I know that because I have many friends in the Philippines, and there's great respect, or I couldn't say it. So congratulations.

President Marcos. Thank you.

President Trump. We're going to be talking about trade. We're going to be talking about war and peace. They're a very important nation militarily, and we've had some great drills lately. We're back with them.

I think I can say that the last administration was not getting along with them too well. They didn't get along with anybody. They didn't know—honestly, they didn't know what they were doing. But we have some fantastic military relationships with the Philippines, and that's been reinstituted.

And, Pete, I would say that you were—you couldn't be happier—right?—with the relationship.

Secretary of Defense Peter B. Hegseth. Absolutely. Great partners.

President Trump. So I just want to say it's an honor to have you. We're going to talk about trade today, and we're very close to finishing a trade deal—big trade deal, actually.

And we do a lot of business with you. It's a lot of income coming in for both groups, but I was surprised to see the kind of numbers. They're very big, and they're going to get bigger under what we're doing and what we're proposing.

And I just want to thank you for being with us. It's a great honor—you and your representatives. It's really a great, great honor.

We have a big announcement. AstraZeneca, the big drug company, is going to spend $50 billion—just announced—$50 billion in the United States in order to build various places all over the country—big manufacturing plants, pharmaceutical plants all over the country. So that's an honor.

And you said they did that because of the election and because of the fact that the tariffs are placed. So they're building their facilities in New York—$50 billion. That's a big investment, and it's going to be a very good investment, I have no doubt about it. So thank you to AstraZeneca.

And, with that, I'd like to have you say a few words, please.

President Marcos. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Of course, we're all very happy to be here to once again reaffirm the very strong ties between the Philippines and the United States, ties that go back over a hundred years. And considering the context in which we live these days, especially in my part of the world, this has become—this has evolved into as important a relationship as is possible to have.

We must remember that the United States is our only—only our—our only treaty partner in the Philippines. And that has stood us in good stead over the years, through certainly—certainly through the Second World War.

And the cultural memory of all Filipinos, down to even the schoolchildren, is that our strongest, closest, most reliable ally has always been the United States. That is something that we value, that we are grateful for, that we will continue to foster so—as we go on. With the leadership of President Trump, I am very confident that we will be able to achieve that.

I think this—it is worthwhile to remember that it was President Trump who, in his first term, characterized the relationship between the Philippines and the United States as "ironclad," and that has been necessarily the case since that time that you made that statement, sir. And it is one—it is something that the Philippines will always hold close to its heart.

Thank you once again. And I'm—we are honored, and it is our great pleasure to be here and to visit with the President of United States.

President Trump. Thank you very much.

President Marcos. Thank you, sir.

President Trump. It's my great honor.

Any questions please?

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

Yes, please. Go ahead. Go ahead.

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

Q. Mr. President, would—do you think that Fed Chair Jerome Powell should resign?

President Trump. No, I think he's done a bad job, but he's going to be out pretty soon anyway. In 8 months, he'll be out.

But he's—I call him "Too Late." He's too late all the time. He should have lowered interest rates many times. Europe lowered their rate 10 times. We lowered ours none, and it's causing a problem for people that want to buy a home.

Look, our economy is so strong now. We're blowing through everything. We're setting records. You know that. You see that. And, whether it's the Philippines or anyone else, we're setting records at levels that nobody has ever seen before.

But you know what? People aren't able to buy a house because this guy is a numbskull. He keeps the rates too high and probably doing it for political reasons.

The only time I remember him cutting rates—I mean, he cut the rates just before the election to try and help Kamala or whoever he was trying to help. He probably didn't know.

And he's building a building. He's $2.7 billion—they have a $900 million dollar overrun. What is that? And that was given by Biden. That was another Biden deal. And this guy is building this building that's severely overrun. And what does he need a building for? Why does he need—he needs space for more people?

So they did a big study the other day, and they called all of the great intellects and the great economists and all of the great everything. And they—it was 71, and only 2 got it right: me and another gentleman that happens to be very smart. Sixty-nine people got it wrong. And the Fed got it wrong—more wrong than anybody.

And you know, he has these think tanks. And they build buildings for people that think. And it's really not thinking. It's a little bit of combination of thinking, but it's something you sort of have or you don't have.

They don't—this—the job he's done is just terrible. He ought to raise interest rates. You know, we would—we should be at 1 percent. We should be leading the world. Instead, we're paying 4 percent. And if you look at what that means, that's over a trillion dollars in interest that we have to pay that—with the striking of a pen, we would be saving more than $1 trillion.

Is that right, Scott?

Secretary of the Treasury Scott K.H. Bessent. Yes, sir.

President Trump. Do you have anything to say about it?

Secretary Bessent. Yes, sir. I called yesterday and this morning for the Fed to do a big internal investigation to understand their—not their monetary policy, but everything else. The Fed has had big mission creep, and that's where a lot of the spending is going. That's where—why they're building these new—or refurbishing these buildings.

And I think they've got to stay in their lane. And I think that the—you know, based on the way they cut rates last fall, they should be cutting rates now.

President Trump. It's inconceivable—I know the Fed very well—that they can be spending $2.7 billion to build a building. They don't do anything. They just—I mean, it's the greatest job. You show up 1 day, a half a day, you make a little speech. "The economy is doing well. The economy is not doing well. We're going to raise interest"—and he's got it wrong. That's why I call him "Too Late"—t-o-o—"Too Late." And it's really too bad.

But it is affecting people that want to buy houses, and that shouldn't happen.

Q. And, Mr. President——

President Trump. And you know, he should lower it—he should lower them. Those rates should be 2 points lower. That's what they should be—three points lower, maybe more than that.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

China

Q. Mr. President—I would like to ask both for you——

President Trump. Yes.

Q. ——one question.

Mr. President Marcos. Next year, Philippines is going to be the rotating chair of ASEAN. I wonder: How do you plan to balance your relationship between the United States and China?

And for President Trump. Kremlin yesterday said if you are going to Beijing in September, they wouldn't rule out a meeting between you and President Putin. Is such a meeting possible? And how soon do you plan to visit China?

President Trump. Well, we have a lot of meetings possible. President Xi has invited me to China, and we'll probably be doing that in the not-too-distant future, a little bit out, but not too distant. And I've been invited by a lot of people, and we'll make those decisions pretty soon.

Please.

President Marcos. Well, as you—we'll be the—as you say, we are chairing ASEAN for 2026. There is no need, in—in a sense, to balance to—as you—as you characterize as—to balance our relationship within the United States and China, simply because our foreign policy is an independent one, and we are essentially concerned with the defense of our territory and the exercise of our sovereign rights.

Now, whether—we do this not alone. We need to do this with our partners. And again, our strongest partner is always—has always been the United States. But, of course, we are—we are trying to form coalitions and multilateral relations so that we—those like-minded nations who share the same values as we do, who hew to the—to international law, most specifically the—[inaudible]—are—present that—that position very clearly to anyone who has intentions of unilaterally changing the world order. And that is where—that is how we are guided in that——

President Trump. And I don't mind if he gets along with China, because we're getting along with China very well. We have a very good relationship. In fact, the magnets—which is a little complex piece of material—but the magnets are coming out, you know, very well. We're—they're sending them in record numbers. We're getting along with China very well. And I don't mind if the president dealt with China, you know, if that's meant—because I think he has to do what's right for his country.

I've always said, you know, make the Philippines great again. Do whatever you need to do. But your dealing with China wouldn't bother me at all.

President Marcos. Well, now, to be—it is something that we have to do in any case.

President Trump. Yes.

President Marcos. And certainly, that——

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Convicted Sex Offender Ghislaine Maxwell/Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche/Past Investigation Into Russian 2016 Presidential Election Interference

Q. Mr. President, do you support the Justice Department seeking a new interview with Ghislaine Maxwell? And did you urge the Attorney General to seek one?

President Trump. I don't know anything about it. They're going to, what, meet her?

Q. They're going to—there's—your Deputy Attorney General is—reached out to Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney asking for a new interview.

President Trump. Yes, I don't know about it——

Q. She has said she——

President Trump. ——but I think it's something that would be—sounds appropriate to do, yeah.

Q. Do you have any concern that your Deputy Attorney General, who's your former attorney, would be conducting the interview, given your relationship——

President Trump. No, I——

Q. ——your past relationship with Epstein?

President Trump. He's very talented person. He's very smart. I didn't know that they were going to do it. I don't really follow that too much. It's sort of a witch hunt—just a continuation of the witch hunt.

The witch hunt that you should be talking about is they caught President Obama absolutely cold—Tulsi Gabbard. What they did to this country in 2016—starting in 2016, but going up all the way—going up to 2020 of the election, they tried to rig the election, and they got caught. And there should be very severe consequences for that.

You know, when we caught Hillary Clinton, I said, "You know what, let's not go too far here. It's the ex-wife of a President." And I thought it was sort of terrible. And I let her off the hook, and I'm very happy I did. But it's time to start—after what they did to me, and whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people.

Obama has been caught directly. So people say, "Oh, you know, a group." It's not a group. It's Obama. His orders are on the paper. The papers are signed. The papers came right out of their office. They sent everything to be highly classified.

Well, the highly classified has been released. And what they did in 2016 and in 2020 is very criminal. It's criminal at the highest level. So that's really the things you should be talking about.

I know nothing about the other, but I think it's appropriate that they do go.

2016 Presidential Election/Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian Election Interference/Oval Office Decorations/News Media/Illegal Immigration

Q. May I ask you about that, Mr. President?

President Trump. Yes.

Q. Tulsi Gabbard has submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. From your perspective, who should the DOJ target as part of their investigation? What specific figures in the Obama administration?

President Trump. Well, based on what I read—and I read pretty much what you read—it would be President Obama. He started it. And Biden was there with him, and Comey was there, and Clapper—the whole group was there—Brennan. They were all there. The—in a room. Right here. This was the room.

This is much more beautiful than it was then, but that's okay. I have nice pictures up. They came out of the vaults. They were in there for a hundred years. This is much more beautiful.

We have the Declaration of Independence now in the room, which wasn't here. I guess people didn't feel too good about putting it here, but I do.

But you know what? If you look at that—those papers, they have him stone cold, and it was President Obama. It wasn't lots of people all over the place. It was them too, but the leader of the gang was President Obama—Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?

And except for the fact that he gets shielded by the press for his entire life, that's the one they—look, he's guilty. It's not a question—you know, I like to say, "Let's give it time." It's there. He's guilty.

They—this was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody's ever even imagined, even in other countries.

You've seen some pretty rough countries. [Laughter] This man has seen some pretty rough countries, but you've never seen anything like it.

And we have all of the documents. And from what Tulsi told me, she's got thousands of additional documents coming.

So President Obama, it was his concept, his idea, but he also got it from Crooked Hillary Clinton. Crooked as a $3 bill. Hillary Clinton and her group, the Democrats, spent $12 million to Christopher Steele to write up a report that was a total fake report. Took 2 years to figure that out, but it came out that it was a total fake report. It was made-up fiction, and they used that—now, the one thing they weren't able to do was to get—and probably the only thing I respect about the press in years, is the press refused to write it before the election. They refused to put it in. The Steele report was a disaster. All lies. All fabrication. All admitted—an admitted fraud.

She paid $12 million—and the Democrats—for that report to a wise guy named Christopher Steele. He wrote a phony report, and they wanted to get that report in before the election.

And I'll tell you what—I talk about it all the time: the fake news, how bad it is. But, in this case, they wouldn't do it. They saw it, they read it, and they said, "We don't believe it." And it was only after—substantially—like a month and a half after the election, that it got printed. And it was a big whisper—it was just like a bang of nothing, because the election had ended.

If that report had gotten published by the New York Times or somebody—and I respect the Times for maybe only this, because they're crooked as you can be. They're a terrible paper—a crooked, corrupt paper. But for this one moment, they said: "This is bullshit. We can't put this in." And neither could any other paper—Wall Street Journal is a lousy paper—a very, very dishonest paper. As you see, I'm suing them for a lot of money because they do things very badly. It's a really—it's got a nice name, but it's really—in my opinion, it's a terrible paper, and it can be corrupt.

But just so you know, they didn't take the Steele report. It was the dossier. Remember the famous dossier? I called it "the fake news dossier." The news wouldn't publish it, and I'm amazed. They had 2½ months. It was finished. Two and a half months. That was supposed to be what was going to happen, and it got published a couple of months after the election, and frankly, nobody cared too much about it. But that was a big thing.

No, no, we caught Hillary Clinton. We caught Barack Hussein Obama. They're the ones, and then you have many, many people under them. Susan Rice—they're all there. The names are all there.

And I guess they figured they're going to put this in classified information and nobody will ever see it again, but it doesn't work that way. And it's the most unbelievable thing I think I've ever read.

So you ought to take a look at that and stop talking about nonsense, because this is big stuff. Never has a thing like this happened in the history of our country.

And by the way, it morphed into the 2020 race. And the 2020 race was rigged, and it was a rigged election. And because it was rigged, we have millions of people in our country. We have—we had inflation. We solved the inflation problem.

But millions and millions of people came into our country because of that and people that shouldn't have been—people from gangs and from jails and from mental institutions, people that we don't want in our country and people that we're getting out, dangerous people—11,888 murderers. Many of them—50 percent—more than 50 percent murdered more than one person.

I hate to say this with such a distinguished guest, but you know, they asked me a question. I got to answer the question.

No. Barack Hussein Obama is the ringleader. Hillary Clinton was right there with him and so was Sleepy Joe Biden. And so were the rest of them: Comey, Clapper, the whole group. And they tried to rig an election, and they got caught. And then they did rig the election in 2020, and then, because I knew I won that election by a lot, I did it a third time and I won in a landslide—every swing State, won the popular vote. But I won that all the same way in 2020, and look at the damage that was caused.

Okay.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Philippines-U.S. Defense Relationship/Overseas Ammunitions Hubs

Q. Mr. President, how crucial—how crucial is the ammunitions hub in——

President Trump. Yes.

Q. How crucial is the ammunitions hub that the U.S. plans to build in Subic and the Luzon Corridor, considering that these will be built in the areas that hold—that hosts strategic ports as well as military air bases?

President Trump. You're talking ammunition?

Q. Yes, the——

President Trump. Yes.

Q. ——U.S. House Congressional Committee——

President Trump. Yes?

Q. ——on Appropriations approved budget to——

President Trump. Well, it's very important.

Q. Sorry?

President Trump. Otherwise, we wouldn't have approved it.

Q. Sorry?

President Trump. Yes, it's very important, otherwise, we wouldn't. We need ammunition. We're going to end up—in a few months, we'll have more ammunition than any country has ever had. We're going to have more missiles than any country has ever had. We're going to have all the speedy missiles. We'll have the speedy ones, the slow ones, the accurate ones, the ones that are slightly less accurate. We have everything, but we will have more ammunition than any country has ever had. It's very important to me.

Okay.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Go ahead. Please, red.

Philippines-U.S. Trade/China

Q. Sir, when you say that you're close to making a trade deal, what gaps remain?

And for President Marcos. Sir, I was just wondering, do you not think that perhaps you—the Philippines hosting U.S. missile systems could be considered escalatory by China, especially because they can strike deep into mainland China? Thank you.

President Trump. Well, it's an honor to be with this gentleman. You know, I've known him and I've known his family, actually, but I've known him, and he's—I assume you're from the Philippines. Are you from the Philippines?

Q. Yes, sir.

President Trump. It's good. You're very lucky to be from the Philippines, right?

Q. I think so.

President Trump. It's a great place.

But we're going to have a very good relationship. I mean, I know you had some problems with another President, and it was not your fault. It was the President's fault. And the country was maybe tilting toward—toward China——

President Marcos. [Inaudible]

President Trump. ——but we untilted it very, very quickly.

But you know, you did have—you had a country that was tilting toward China for a period of time, and I just don't think that would have been good for you. You can deal with China, and you should deal with China.

But when I got elected, everything changed, and they came right back to us.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. My question to President Marcos. I'm sorry, same question to President Marcos.

President Trump. Say it again.

Yes, Brian [Brian Glenn, Real America's Voice], go ahead.

Q. Oh, Mr. President, I do want to piggyback off the thousand——

Q. Sorry, I had a question to President Marcos.

Q. I'll let the President defer on that.

Q. Yes. Thank you.

President Marcos. Yes, yes. I'm sorry. What was the question again?

Philippines-U.S. Defense Relationship

Q. It was about whether having U.S. missiles hosted in the Philippines could be considered escalatory by China because they can reach China.

President Marcos. All of the—what we consider part of the modernization of the Philippine military is really as a response to the circumstances that surround the situation around the South China Sea and now the—what we used to refer to the as "Asia Pacific," which we have expanded now to the Indo-Pacific. And if—we would certainly like in any kind of military spending, we would wish that we—it wasn't necessary, but it is. And so that is what we are doing.

And as an adjunct to the question about the ammunition production: This is actually—the United States is assisting the Philippines in what we call our Self-Reliance Defense Program, which is to allow us to be self-reliant and to be able to stand on our own 2 feet, whatever the circumstances that occur in the future. And that—and the reason that we have all—we have encouraged more interaction with the United States is because it is—again, it is necessary.

And it is not just with the United States. It is with all our neighboring countries and even countries as far afield as the Scandinavian countries, the EU. And so, this is an ongoing process.

And, again, I will stress the point that we do this because we feel it is necessary.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Trump. And don't forget—don't forget, just as tantamount to what you're asking: The Philippines were loaded up with ISIS and a lot of terrorists, and they were at a very, very dangerous point.

President Marcos. Very dangerous.

President Trump. And during my administration, we went in, and we wiped them out—working with the Philippines, but we wiped them out. But if we didn't get in, I don't know what would have happened. I don't know who would be your President right now.

But we spent a lot of time and a lot of talent on going into the Philippines and wiping out terrorists. They had a tremendous problem——

President Marcos. We did.

President Trump. ——during my administration. And we cleaned it up, we got them out, and now you really have a good, solid country again.

President Marcos. I believe so. Yes, sir.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Mr. President, I want to——

President Trump. Brian.

Q. ——follow up on the housing question.

President Trump. Yes.

Tax Code Reform/Interest Rates

Q. You've got no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. How important is it we have no tax on home sales, capital gains, to unleash the housing market in this country?

President Trump. Well, we're thinking about that, but we'd also unleash it just by lowering the interest rates. If the Fed would lower the rates, we wouldn't even have to do that. But we are thinking about no tax on capital gains on houses.

And I'm very impressed that you asked that question, because nobody knew that.

Q. Well, I think it——

President Trump. How did you find that out? That's very——

Q. Well, I wonder why. There's somebody I'm very——

President Trump. There's——

Q. ——close to who has a bill on that.

President Trump. There's a leaker. [Laughter] There's a leaker.

2024 Assassination Attempt on Former President Donald J. Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania/U.S. Secret Service/Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian Election Interference/Former President Joseph R. Biden, Jr./

Q. A least—I've also got a question. I find it a very interesting world that we know more about two people at a Coldplay concert just hours after that viral video than we know of Thomas Crooks 1 year after attempting to assassinate you.

President Trump. Yes.

Q. What is holding back the investigation on Thomas Crooks?

President Trump. Well, they've reported to me, and they've told me things, and they really say they haven't found anything that was abnormal.

I would say this: The Secret Service was very brave, because they—you know, they were right there, and they jumped on me. They made a mistake. They should have had somebody on that roof, and they should have had communication with the local police, who also—I mean, they did a very good job, but they made some mistakes.

And we have a whole different group of people now. It's just—I don't think any—look, anything can happen, but I think we have the best people anywhere in the world right now, and I think they've learned.

And you know, they went into him very—you know, in great detail. They gave me the whole thing. And what can I do? They say that it was just a nutjob that was looking to do this. And I spoke with the FBI—the new FBI. I spoke to the FBI. If it was the old FBI, I wouldn't have believed a thing they said, because the old FBI under Comey was crooked as hell. He was one of the most crooked.

Everybody should read the Horowitz report. Unfortunately, Bill Barr didn't use it, but the Horowitz report—not appointed by me. It was a report on Comey and the FBI. It is one of the worst shots at a human being I think I've ever seen. In fact, the New York Times did an editorial that was one of the worst editorials I've ever seen about anybody. That was about Comey. You ought go back and get—and Barr didn't use it because he didn't have the guts to use it, or something happened. I don't know. And too bad.

He went to Mr. Durham instead of using—instead of doing the Durham, all they had to use was the Horowitz report. And I always felt badly for Horowitz, frankly, because he's a Democrat, I guess. He was appointed by a Democrat. But that report has gotten lost, and it shouldn't be lost.

You should all go back. It should be mandatory reading. Go back and read the Horowitz report on Comey and his cronies, and you'll see exactly—I'm—we're going to add that to all the stuff that we found. It just confirms it.

But what we found is even more so, and we found absolute—this isn't, like, evidence or the—this is, like, proof—irrefutable proof that Obama was seditious, that Obama led—was trying to lead a coup. And it was with Hillary Clinton, with all these other people, but Obama headed it up.

And you know, I get a kick when I hear—everyone talks about people I never even heard of. "It was this one." No, no. It was Obama. He headed it up. And it says so right in the papers. Got everything. Got everything.

This is the biggest scandal in the history of our country, and it really goes on to even the autopen, because it all relates to the same thing. It all started—the same sick minds. You have an autopen, which is a tremendous—where we don't have a President, we have an autopen that signs everything. [Laughter]

I'll bet you sign everything. You don't have autopens.

President Marcos. No, I do not. [Laughter]

President Trump. Everybody—who doesn't sign? You're the President of a country. But it's all that whole thing. Leading right up to the—to the end of it is the autopen. And the autopen was used by people, and Biden knew nothing about it. Biden knew nothing about it. They were signing documents that he knew nothing about.

As an example, they released the "Unselect Committee" of liability. The "Unselect Committee" spent 2 years grilling everybody, and then they destroyed all the evidence. You know why? Because the evidence made them guilty. And he gave them all a pardon. The—Cheney, all the—all the scum that was on the "Unselect Committee"—Crying Adam Kinzinger and Democrats. And he gave them a pardon.

Do you have something else? Go ahead.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Senator Adam B. Schiff

Q. I was just going to add one more thing on Adam Schiff.

President Trump. Yes.

Q. Director Pulte reports that Adam Schiff claims he lived in a one-bedroom apartment. So how is a family of four—and you're a developer, a very successful developer.

President Trump. Yes.

Q. How does a family of four live in a one-bedroom apartment?

President Trump. No, it looks like Adam Schiff really did a bad thing. They have him. Now let's see what happens. It's not up to me. It's not up to—I stay out of it purposely. But it's mortgage loan fraud. It's a big deal. He defrauded banks and insurance companies and the Federal Government.

But it's very simple. It's mortgage loan fraud. And you're right. That's a lot of people to live in a one-bedroom apartment, right? But he put it down. But he has a lot of other things far worse than that.

So, no, Adam Schiff—they have him a hundred percent on mortgage fraud. Now, if it was anybody else in this room, except you—you would have no problem, but anybody else in this room, you'd have a problem. I'd have a problem.

Yes, please.

Harvard University

Q. Sir, there was a hearing yesterday in the Harvard case. Would you allow Harvard to get their Federal dollars back as a part of any agreement with the administration?

President Trump. No, I'm not giving—Harvard has been given $7 billion—can you believe it?—by the Fed——

President Marcos. [Inaudible]

President Trump. ——$7 billion. And we want money to go to all universities, not Harvard. Harvard got more than anybody else.

They have $52 billion. They get huge tax incentives and tax breaks on that $52 billion, but they have $52 billion, and they got $7 billion over a short period of time. And we have a very hostile judge, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama—a very, very hostile judge who knows exactly right from wrong. But you know, we don't—we expect to win it on appeal. She hasn't given a decision yet, but she's very hostile. And she's been—she was put by Barack Hussein Obama. And generally speaking, anybody that does that, it's going to—we're going to have problems with. So we don't expect to have—we won the case yesterday. Anybody that was there that was a neutral would say we easily won the case. But a lot of the case and—and a big part of it's going to be how much money Harvard gets in the future. That's not part of the case, and they're not going to get very much.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Philippines-U.S. Trade

Q. Mr. President, where are we in terms of negotiating about the reciprocal tariff? How far are we from——

President Trump. With who?

Q. With the Philippines.

Q. With the Philippines.

President Trump. Oh.

Q. Yes, sir. How far are we from——

President Trump. Are you from the Philippines?

Q. Yes, sir. I am from——

President Trump. Good.

Q. ——the Philippines. How far are we from achieving a free trade agree- ——

President Trump. Well, it's tough. He's a very tough negotiator. [Laughter] So far, we're not there, because he's—he's negotiating too tough. In fact, I used to like him better than I do now. [Laughter] He's too tough. But we'll—we'll probably agree to something.

But he is. He's strong—a strong negotiator. Loves—he loves your country.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Mr. President——

Q. When are you coming to the Philippines?

Q. ——you talk——

Q. When are you coming to the Philippines, sir?

President Trump. No, no. Please.

2016 Presidential Election/Russian Election Interference

Q. You talked a lot about the severe consequences that those who were involved in the Russia hoax must face. In your view, sir, what are the next steps now that these documents are out there and Tulsi Gabbard released them?

President Trump. Well, the Justice Department would have to act, and we have a very competent, very good, very loyal-to-our-country person in Pam Bondi. Very respected. And she—it's going to be her decision.

Q. And just a follow-up to that, sir. Kristi Noem was in New York City visiting an off-duty CBP officer who was allegedly shot this weekend by an illegal alien who came into the country during the previous administration.

President Trump. Right.

Immigration Enforcement Actions

Q. What is your message to any local leaders who continue to push sanctuary city policies after this nearly tragic incident?

President Trump. So the only thing I don't understand—because you like to understand things, and we're all smart people and all—but why would they allow 21 million people into our country unvetted, unchecked?

[The President addressed President Marcos.]

You don't allow it. You wouldn't allow people in. [Laughter]

President Marcos. No.

President Trump. He's tough. No, their country is run properly.

Biden and his group of thugs—and I don't think it was Biden; I think it was the people that surrounded that beautiful Resolute Desk right behind you—they allowed 21 million people, probably much more than that in. Many of them came from jails and gangs and drug dealers and mental institutions, insane asylums. Many of them are very sick. Twenty-one million. Probably 25 million. Probably even more than that. And we're getting them out. Many were murderers, as I said. They killed people. Many killed more than one person. Stone-cold murderers.

I don't understand why they would have allowed that. There's only two reasons: the vote, because they want voters. That's one reason. I don't think they would have done it for that, because they cheat. You know, they're so good at cheating, they don't need that. But the vote.

And the second reason is, they hate our country. I think they hate our country. I actually do. And it's the biggest problem. I mean, much of our time is spent with—you know, we create—we have the strongest border anywhere in the world now. Maybe even stronger than your border, if you can believe it.

We have—no people came in last month.

President Marcos. [Inaudible]

President Trump. Zero. Which is pretty amazing—I'm not even sure I can believe that. But liberals are the ones that do that calculation, so—but we had no people come in.

A year ago, we had hundreds of thousands of people come in—hundreds of thousands of people. And they flowed in, and if it wasn't for the election, it would have been millions of people came in last year.

So millions of people—prior to election time, they allowed millions and millions of people to come into our—I mean, you saw it. They'd open the gates.

If you took an Alabama-LSU football game that holds 128,000 people—I was there—128,000 people—and I like them, and they liked me. But if you took that and doubled it, that's what used to flow into our country on a daily basis. It's not even believable.

And we're getting them out, and we're starting with the worst ones. And we had a man shot yesterday, a police officer, who's a great gentleman. Shot right here in the throat. Probably won't be able to speak again. But he was brave, and he shot the other guy, and they ended up getting him.

And you saw the scene where his friend took him to a hospital and dumped him down on the sidewalk. The whole thing was—the whole thing was crazy.

But why would anybody do to our country what these Democrats have done? And honestly, we can never forget it. We can never forget it. What they have done—the damage that they've done to America is very, very sad.

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

The President's Schedule

Q. When will you come to the Philippines, sir?

President Trump. I'll come. If I'm invited, I'll come. [Laughter]

Thank you.