Trump speaks to reporters ahead of Connecticut trip

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]He's a vegan in Texas and you can't get elected as a vegan in Texas.

[00:00:04]>> Did you talk to Senate leadership on the Republican side about endorsing against an incumbent?

[00:00:10]>> I did. I did. They'll be all right with it. They want to win. I know how to win.

[00:00:16]>> Are you worried about >> Some of them don't know how to win. I know how to win.

[00:00:20]>> I think I've proven that, haven't I?

[00:00:22]>> Are you worried about the ballroom funding, Mr. President? There's speculation that could be >> The ballrooms are being built.

[00:00:27]>> I'm building the ballroom. You saw it yesterday, right?

[00:00:30]>> Yeah.

[00:00:31]>> We're building a great ballroom. It's been needed. It's a very military complex. The roof is actually a drone court. The roof of the ballroom is a drone court and it gives great safety to everything below. It's we're building a u a really great uh ballroom, but it's it's also a military a strong military position for our our people. Do you think that did better in the press briefing room, sir?

[00:00:58]>> You want to think who?

[00:00:59]>> Vance or Rubio did better in the press briefing.

[00:01:01]>> I think they both did great. What do you want me to say? Right. I think they both Do you like that? That's pretty good though. Right. I think they both did good. I watched both of them. Both very good men. Really are.

[00:01:13]>> Did you have a call with Prime Minister Netanyahu?

[00:01:16]>> When her husband votes against me all the time. Can you imagine?

[00:01:19]>> I don't know what's with him. You better ask him what's with him. Her husband, she's married to a certain congressman.

[00:01:26]He votes, he likes voting against Trump.

[00:01:29]You know what happens with that? Doesn't work out well.

[00:01:32]>> Who are you?

[00:01:32]>> I don't know why he does, but >> Mr. President, are you Taiwan? Do you have any plans to call President Lie before you make your decision on the arms deal?

[00:01:41]>> What?

[00:01:41]>> Do you have any plans to call President Lie of Taiwan before you make a decision on the weapons package?

[00:01:47]>> Well, I'll speak to him. I speak to everybody. Uh we have that situation very well in hand. We had a great meeting with President Xi. Uh he's really it was amazing actually. It was amazing. You many of you were there. Uh we'll work on that. The Taiwan problem.

[00:02:04]>> What have you said to to Prime Minister Netanyahu about Iran and how long to to hold off on strike?

[00:02:09]>> It's fine. He'll do whatever I want him to do. He's very very good man. Uh he'll do whatever I want him to do and he's a he's a great guy to me. He's a great guy. Don't forget he was a wartime prime minister and he's not treated right in Israel in my opinion. I'm right now at 99% in Israel. I could run for prime minister. So maybe after I do this I'll go to Israel, run for prime minister. I had a poll this morning. I'm 99%.

[00:02:38]So that's good. But uh no, he's a wartime prime minister. I just don't think they treat him well.

[00:02:45]>> Mr. President, what do you do? I think they have a president over there that treats him very poorly.

[00:02:50]>> You're on the same page with him on Iran?

[00:02:52]>> Yeah.

[00:02:53]>> Has the president told anyone about replacing Lauren Boowbert after you after she >> If somebody comes along, I'd look. It's a little late in the race, but if somebody comes along, I'd look >> a troop. Do you see yourself in him at all? A former reality TV star?

[00:03:10]>> No, I'd like to see him do well. He's a character. I don't know. I don't know him. I assume he probably supports me.

[00:03:16]Does he support me? I >> think so.

[00:03:18]>> I think so. Yeah, I heard he does. I heard he's a big MAC person. He's doing well. I don't know if you know if you have a rigged vote out there. That's the problem. The votes are rigged. You have a really rigged vote in California. You have all the mail in ballots, everything else. Very hard to win because the elections are very dishonest.

[00:03:37]If we had Jesus Christ come down and count the votes, I would have won California because I do great with Hispanics. But it's a rigged vote. They send out 38 million votes. Nobody knows where they're going. Of course, the Democrats do, I guess. But, uh, disproportionately, Democrats get many more votes. Some get eight votes. They get eight cards. And Republicans have to call in where's my card? It's a rigged system. Uh, one of the most, not the worst. I'll give you a list. Maybe I'll do my list, but it's California's one of the most dishonest states for voting.

[00:04:12]>> What's your message to the cadets today?

[00:04:14]just enjoy your life, you know. I enjoy it. They're great guys. It's my second time at the Coast Guard Academy. Uh they're great guys.

[00:04:23]We like them. You know, you don't realize how important Coast Guard is until you have a hurricane. And I remember the big hurricane in Texas where these kids go on boats and they're going to waves that are 20 times higher than the boat. And I say, "Can they really make it? I'm watching this." And they say they find a way. But they were going into waves, these massive waves to save people that were inside. And you don't realize it, but boy, they are good. They are good semen. They are unbelievable. I wouldn't want to do it, >> Mr. President.

[00:04:56]>> I'm a very brave person, but I wouldn't want to do it.

[00:04:58]>> What do you make of President Xi meeting with Putin this week?

[00:05:02]>> Well, he told me he was going to. I think it's good. I get along with both of them, but I think it's good. I don't know if the ceremony is quite as brilliant as mine. I watched I think we topped him. I think we topped him. Good team. But no, I like I get along with Putin. I get along with I get along with everybody but your husband and a few others.

[00:05:23]>> On the Iran deal, would you be open to a limited deal that just covered the straight of Hamoose?

[00:05:28]>> What does that mean?

[00:05:29]>> On Iran, just a limited deal just for a longer ceasefire.

[00:05:32]>> We'd have to open the straight that would open immediately.

[00:05:35]>> So, we're going to give this one shot.

[00:05:37]I'm in no hurry. You never think, oh, the midterms I'm in a hurry. I'm in no hurry. I just uh ideally I'd like to see few people killed as opposed to a lot.

[00:05:46]We can do it either way, but but I'd like to see few people killed. I just wonder whether or not they have the good of the people because some of the things they're doing to me means they don't have the good of the people and they have to have the good of the people. Um there's a lot of anger now in Iran because people are living so badly.

[00:06:06]There's a lot of fament that we haven't seen before so much and we'll see what happens.

[00:06:10]>> Has it taken longer than you expected it would to make a deal with Iran?

[00:06:14]>> Well, let's put it this way. You were in Vietnam 19 years, right? You were in you were in Afghanistan and these other places 10 years. You were in Iraq. How long were you in Iraq? 12 12 years. You were in uh Korea for 7 years. World War II is different. That was four years.

[00:06:33]I'm in for three months.

[00:06:35]And much of it's been ceasefire. So, and you know what? You lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers in these various wars. In two wars, Venezuela where we lost nobody. And here we lost 13 people.

[00:06:50]Now, 13 people is 13 too much, but we lost 13 people. In other wars, you lost hundreds of thousands of people. So, uh, people don't like it when you say, "Oh, do you know you've lost 13?" We've lost in two major wars. We took over Venezuela. We essentially took over Iran and we've lost so far 13 people. Some other some somebody else would have lost a 100,000 people. Okay. But I get a kick when I look at somebody on television.

[00:07:25]He's lost 13 people. I lost 13 people.

[00:07:28]They lost 13 people leaving an airport.

[00:07:31]Obama 13 very good people that I got to know their family. So, so what we've done is uh amazing and we have them decimated. Iran is decimated and uh I mean you're going to see things that are amazing. You're going to see a lot of amazing things over the next three years for our country. And I'd like to talk more about the economic because we have $18 trillion being spent and no country's ever had anything like that.

[00:07:57]We have car plants pouring in from Mexico, Canada. They don't want to be there. There's no reason to be there because they want to sell our market. We have car companies and plants coming in from Germany, from South Korea, from Japan, coming in by the billions, and they're being built now. You're going to see things that nobody thought was possible. Mr. President, >> you're going to end up saying he's the greatest president that ever lives.

[00:08:23]Goodbye, everybody.

[00:08:24]>> James called me over the weekend, Mr. President. He suggested that there's still people in your DOJ and FBI that are waiting you out. They're waiting until your your administration is over to get back to work. Do you think those people are still in the DOJ and FBI?

[00:08:36]>> I hope not. Well, if we're going to seek them out, we'll seek them out. We'll get rid of them. Okay? Because you have in every agency you have scum. And certainly they did in the FBI and DOJ.

[00:08:48]But Todd Blanch is doing a fantastic job. Cash is doing a very good job. So we'll uh we will prevail. I've been standing here a long time with you, many years, right? And they've been saying, I think it's it trouble here. I am, you know, we just it's a very constant situation. But I think you're going to find that uh we have great people in the FBI and we have great people in DOJ.

[00:09:13]Todd Blanch has really been doing a great job and a lot of things to come.

[00:09:17]We have a lot of things that are coming right now. So going to be great. Our country is doing well. Thank you very much.

[00:09:23]>> Thank you, Mr.