Trump to roll back Biden-era refrigerant rules to lower grocery costs

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]hearing about that in a minute. Today is my honor to be discussing uh the taking of a very historic action to substantially lower costs for consumers, protect hundreds of thousands of jobs, and save Americans well over $2 billion a year by officially terminating the Biden administration's ridiculous regulations imposing costly requirements on refrigerators and air conditioners.

[00:00:29]It's ridiculous, unnecessary, and costly, and actually makes the machinery worse. I want to thank EPA administrator Lee Zelden, Senators John Houston. John, thank you. I heard you're doing very well in your race. I hear that's what the word is. And Ashley, I know you're doing very well also. Ashley Moody, Florida. Great. As well as representatives Stephanie Bice, Zack Nun, and Greg Goldman. Thank you all.

[00:00:57]Thank you. Awesome.

[00:00:58]>> Thank you all. You look good.

[00:01:00]>> We're joined by Kroger, CEO. That's a big one. Kroger. That's a big I see those stores all over the place. Greg Farren. Where's Greg? Greg. Very good.

[00:01:12]You look like Central just like you're supposed. So, look.

[00:01:18]Fairway store CEO Reynolds Kramer.

[00:01:21]>> President.

[00:01:23]>> Okay. Hello, Reynolds.

[00:01:24]>> Hello there.

[00:01:25]>> Maybe I won't look around every time.

[00:01:27]Why not stop CEO and co-owner Ann Guthier?

[00:01:32]Ann >> because it's Ann. I'm gonna >> Colombiana Foods co-owner Ron Graph Senior >> right here. Right behind.

[00:01:44]>> Hello Ron.

[00:01:47]Neman Foods President Richard Neman >> right here sir.

[00:01:51]>> Hi Richard.

[00:01:54]Piggy. That's a Piggly Wiggly franchise owner. And that's a big company, too.

[00:02:00]It's actually a cute name. Kevin McDaniel. Where's Kevin?

[00:02:05]>> How is that name playing? Good.

[00:02:07]>> Great.

[00:02:07]>> Piggly.

[00:02:09]I've heard that actually. That's great.

[00:02:11]Franchise owner. Kevin. So, you met Kevin and Food Fresh owner Michael Gay.

[00:02:17]Food fresh.

[00:02:18]>> Hi, Michael. How are you, Michael?

[00:02:21]And this is a representative group of very large-scale retailers.

[00:02:26]Under the Biden administration, the so-called technology transition rule, which was crazy, forced companies to adopt specific high-cost refrigerants, massively driving up the price of transporting and strong and storing uh refrigerants and various goods. Many grocery stores and restaurants had no choice but to replace their refrigerators entirely. They went out of business, half of them. And these costs rose. Americans faced higher grocery prices and reduced access to critical medical supplies. It was a very catastrophic thing that they did.

[00:03:06]At the same time, this rule also drove up the cost of living by forcing consumers to purchase higher cost residential air conditioning units.

[00:03:14]because they went up very substantially in cost and also they were going to be obsolete very quickly. Uh it created national security risk by adding additional hurdles to the already complicated process of manufacturing semiconductors.

[00:03:31]So it was a mess. Likewise, the so-called emissions rule imposed crippling leak repair requirements on virtually all existing large-scale refrigeration systems, hurting consumers and small businesses, making it almost impossible for many small businesses to even buy inferior before it inferior equipment. And this is all across the country. The higher cost threatened thousands of jobs and was passed on in the form of higher prices and higher taxes. Today's reforms will deliver significant financial relief, saving American families and businesses more than $2.4 billion dollar. Think of that.

[00:04:11]Each year, thanks to today's reforms, the American people have lower grocery prices, cheaper transportation of goods, lower cost of air conditioning at no detriment at all to our country. Zero.

[00:04:26]My including environmental detriment. My administration's historic deregulatory agenda's already saved our country an estimated $1.2 trillion.

[00:04:36]That's been done over a relatively short period of time. 1.2 2 trillion with a T.

[00:04:42]We're committed to fixing the and and really completely ending Biden's disastrous regulatory policies and delivering financial relief to each and every American, which is what we're doing. This was a tremendous burden, a tremendous cost. These people had to live with it. Uh not only refrigerants, but a lot more. And it was making the equipment unaffordable. And the actual benefit was nothing. It just made it worse. made life worse and it made it worse and it drove up costs tremendously. So now I'd like to ask administrator Lee Zeldon who's absolutely fantastic. He's doing an incredible job. We're proud of you Lee.

[00:05:22]Really the job you're doing is incredible. Followed by Greg, Kevin, and Michael. Is that okay? Lee, go ahead, please.

[00:05:29]>> Well, thank you, Mr. President. As you know, many Americans were expressing a lot of frustration and anger of this rushed, frantic, reckless sprint by the Biden administration to phase out reliable equipment for grocery stores, for restaurants, and for homes. And the consequences, well, they've been devastating. And once again, the Trump administration is answering the call, which will lower the cost of living for hardworking American families. Now, look at this chart to your far right. Today's actions are saving over 2.4 billion dollars for American families.

[00:06:11]It's safeguarding 350,000 jobs.

[00:06:15]Just at supermarkets alone, we're going to see a savings of $800 million, which Americans will be able to see when they go and buy their food. The buy an EPA face planted when trying to jam through their restrictions.

[00:06:30]Americans who wanted to be able to fix their equipment were instead being required to buy far more costly new equipment. And that just doesn't make any sense.

[00:06:42]Refrigeration trucks were being handed impossible restrictions to meet. And once again, here we are in the Oval Office. President Trump is writing another wrong. At the Trump EPA, we are proudly implementing President Trump's agenda every single day and delivering for the American people.

[00:07:01]>> Thank you very much. Thank you. Please.

[00:07:05]>> Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Lee. Look, on behalf of the Kroger Company, and we operate about 2,700 supermarkets, an orderly transition of equipment reduces both capital costs and operating costs. And at the end of the day, that's good for consumers because we're able to take that and put that into lowering prices, which is the key objective that we have in our business. So, thank you very much. And you were able to save a lot of money and put it elsewhere by not having to do this ridiculous.

[00:07:40]>> Exactly. So it allows us instead of having to outlay more capital uh at a faster rate and more operating cost to change that equipment >> or to replace a refrigerator that's working perfectly, right?

[00:07:53]>> Yeah. So that allows us, you know, obviously these things have a have a lifespan, but an orderly transition allows us to move through that in a way which keeps the price of groceries down, and that's something that we're, you know, desperately focusing on, Mr. President.

[00:08:10]>> Great. Thank you very much.

[00:08:13]>> Next.

[00:08:15]>> My name is Kevin McDaniel. Uh we operate 14 Pigglywig stores uh in North Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. Uh on behalf of NGA, the uh Piggly Wiggly family, which operates has about 250 stores in the southeast, uh we want to thank President Trump for rolling this terrible Biden uh legislation back because without it, there would have been a lot of independents out of business. Uh and what people don't realize is it's just not a refrigerant change. It was a equipment change. And those equipment per store. You take a store. Our stores run from 25 to 50,000 square feet. You could look for 800,000 to a million half dollars per store to do a change out.

[00:08:58]That would have done >> new equipment would not be as good as the old equipment.

[00:09:02]>> No, absolutely not.

[00:09:03]>> It would be it would be inferior equipment because you weren't able to use a refrigerant.

[00:09:08]>> It was thrown together too fast. The technology is not there yet. It's just way too fast. That's the problem. Good idea, but the it's it it's terrible. So you would have had all these independents go out of business. You'd had independents out of business and you would have seen grocery prices sore.

[00:09:23]That's what would have happened if this would have went through. President Trump, thank you very much on behalf of all every independent United States. We cannot thank you enough for what you've done for us.

[00:09:31]>> Thank you so much.

[00:09:32]>> I mean ju just the bottom line is so you have great equipment that works incredibly takes care of your meats and foods and everything else. Beautiful refrigeration systems. take it out and replace it with stuff that barely works, costs a fortune, and it's no good. Think of it. And everyone's going to go bankrupt because the equipment is much more expensive on top of everything else.

[00:09:59]>> So, the big thing now, we got to get rid of the law that was signed quite a while ago. And we have to get rid of that because ultimately we want to make it permanent. There's no negative impact by having a good system, but there's a tremendous impact. I think it's going to be bad because a lot of people said the other s stuff doesn't even it doesn't cool your product.

[00:10:19]>> No, it's probably >> it's so crazy. Please, >> Michael Gay, um I have a single store, Food Fresh, in Claxton, Georgia. And exactly, um I mean to echo everyone up here, the uh these refrigeration costs, uh I'm the only store in a county of 10,000. Um, I literally two years ago put in equipment that should have about 20 more years of use of life and to replace literally every single piece of equipment in our store would have been unbelievably co cost prohibitive um driving up cost as we fight every day to try to keep them as low as we can. And um, you know, if that cost gets too high, especially attached to regulation, do you have independent stores closed in neighborhoods that once I go away, you've created a food desert? Um, so it it's very beneficial that this happened today. It's uh it's much more complicated than anyone thinks and and to try to rush this through was just the wrong way to go. So, we very appreciative of you today.

[00:11:11]>> Thank you.

[00:11:11]>> I have one grosser who's a friend of mine. He's pretty big and uh he said, "I'm going to go ahead of the schedule and he actually replaced a lot of his equipment." He called me up. He said, "This crap doesn't work. It doesn't cool the food." So, you know about that, right?

[00:11:27]>> What a shame. Okay. Uh would anybody Kevin, would you like to say something?

[00:11:31]>> I'd just like to that this is part of your overall deregulatory agenda and uh the big number 1.2 trillion is the savings so far. Uh but we're going to be hitting that every year. Uh and we're rolling back stuff that every everywhere we look there's stuff that's as awful as this. And I think that really one of the leaders has been Lee. Uh because the EPA has been a hold up for so many years.

[00:11:55]But Lee is just out there saving Americans money. And right now, again, if you look at that number, it's $14,000 per family has been saved at reduced cost because of your deregulatory.

[00:12:04]>> Do we agree that Lee is an M MVP MVP?

[00:12:11]No, he's done a great job and he sees what's good and he's a big environmentalist. I mean, he wants to make sure everything is good, but he also sees stupid things like this.

[00:12:21]>> Uh, Senator, would you like to each speak to this?

[00:12:24]>> Well, Mr. President, I'd like to thank you for this because this hits our goal of trying to keep prices low for working families in America. Cost of food. I have the Graph family here right behind you. They they they operate three grocery stores in Colombana County. They had already upgraded their refrigeration systems a few years ago. This was going to cost them millions of more dollars in Colombana County, which is not an affluent county. It has a grocery store in East Liverpool, Ohio, which is the hometown of the late great Lou Blue Holes. and and these people, not only would it raise food costs, but it might force them to shut a grocery store down so that the town didn't even have a grocery store. So, you're saving uh you're saving uh money for working families and their grocery prices.

[00:13:06]You're also saving grocery stores so that we don't have food deserts in rural places across our country.

[00:13:12]>> Mr. President, I think it is so important that the people see what you choose to hang right by your desk, which is the Declaration of Independence, which is a reminder that government at its core is supposed to function in a way that allows people the opportunity to pursue happiness and not work against them by coming up with regulations that just make it harder to live, more expensive to live. And from day one, I remember standing with you with the same crew of folks. From day one, you have been digging into all of these regulations that are issued with no thought to how they affect real people and real small businesses and businesses trying to uh step up and provide jobs and lift up their communities. Thank you for that. Thank you for getting back to the core of what government is supposed to be and that is working in the interests of the people.

[00:13:59]>> Thank you.

[00:14:01]>> Thank you everybody.

[00:14:03]>> So, any questions for us?

[00:14:06]>> Thank you, Mr. President. How much do you expect that this will save the average American family every week on groceries? And do you expect this change to help?

[00:14:14]>> Very, very substantial. It could be a big saving. I could uh we're breaking it down. In fact, numbers are coming out this afternoon sometime, but the average family will save a lot of money. And you're going to have stores. You know, nobody actually thought of it until it was mentioned this morning. You will have stores closing down in areas where they're not going to have a store anymore. That's right. and you really are uh being forced to spend money, much more money on much more expensive equipment that really doesn't work.

[00:14:44]This friend of mine is a very savvy guy and you know big league stuff and he put some in because he wanted to see and he said the stuff doesn't work. It doesn't cool the food properly. That's why they call the thing that we're talking about a refrigerant for a reason. It's a refrigerant. So that's it. Please. Thank you very much.

[00:15:04]>> Yeah. Thanks, Mr. President Trump. Are there any assurances uh from the grocery chains that they'll pass these uh savings down to consumers?

[00:15:11]>> Well, let's ask Kroger about that. Come on. That's a very good question. You have the you have the biggest right here.

[00:15:17]>> Yeah. Um we're actually right in the middle of doing that at the moment. So, uh we're concerned about the cost of living. It makes a big difference when you get your pricing right. And uh we certainly are interested in ensuring that all our customers right across the country are paying the right price.

[00:15:36]>> You know, if if it were the right thing to do, if it would be, you know, bad for the environment, what they had or and it I'm all for it. I'm all for those. But when you're forced to put in very inferior equipment, it's not going to work. It's not you're going to be wasting a lot of food product because it doesn't cool the food properly. Uh and it's actually a bad thing. And it's the bad thing is more expensive than what they already have. And in many cases, they just put it in. You know, they just put in the other uh apparatus and and a lot of people have said they've spent money recently to do it and then this rule came up out of nowhere.

[00:16:15]>> Y >> and the stuff they just put in they have to change. I'd be all for changing if it, you know, if it was good, even if it was a little bit good. But this is actually bad.

[00:16:26]have any environmental concerns though with this?

[00:16:28]>> No, there is no environmental concern and Lee covered that really well.

[00:16:31]There's no environmental concern. It's not going to have any impact on the environment.

[00:16:36]>> Mr. President, with many Americans concerned about affordability ahead of the midterms, there is some backlash among Senate Republicans to some of the other priorities, uh, the ballroom and that anti-weaponization fund. You clearly still have a stronghold in the Republican party. Your candidates did very well this week during the primaries, but are you losing control?

[00:16:55]Senate did well. Not all candidates sit well.

[00:16:57]>> But are you losing control of the Senate concern?

[00:17:00]>> Are you losing control of the Senate?

[00:17:02]Senate Republicans.

[00:17:03]>> I don't know. I really don't know. I can tell you I only do what's right. Uh I don't need money for the ballroom. You know, I'm making a gift of the ballroom.

[00:17:11]This is the biggest uh misreporting that I've ever seen. The ballroom is being built. It'll cost we've It was going to be 200 million. I've doubled the size of it because we need it. And it's being done in conjunction with the military and with the uh very much in conjunction with the military and secret service.

[00:17:29]We're on time, on budget. It's going beautifully. Uh have all the money I need. We're making a gift to the United States. Uh they came along and they said, "We want to make it uh the house, the White House overall, more secure."

[00:17:45]And I understand that. Not for me because I'll be gone. you know, I'll be gone and you'll have somebody else in for uh hopefully hundreds of years. But that's what they're doing it for. Uh the ballroom is paid for. It's a gift. I mean, I I want to make it clear because so many people say, "I thought you were giving this away." And all of a sudden, the money that they're spending is for security having to do maybe around the ballroom and other parts of the house.

[00:18:08]But this is not for the ballroom. The ballroom is uh being a tremendous amount of what's being done with respect to the ballroom is for national security including as an example a drone port on top of which was top secret until litigation made it less than top secret.

[00:18:27]But we have a drone port. We had all we have also we have the glass that's 4 in thick bulletproof glass. We have bulletproof walls. We have you need a place like this. But this is being made as a gift from me and other people that are great patriots that spend a lot of money. We're building what will be the finest ballroom anywhere in the world.

[00:18:47]Uh if they want to spend money on securing the White House, I think it would be very very much a good expenditure, but the ballroom is being built.

[00:18:57]>> What if Congress doesn't sign off on the security money, sir?

[00:19:00]>> Uh then the White House won't be a very secure place. But and then regarding Cuba, there was an aircraft carrier that just arrived there um just uh this week, limited aircraft carrier. Are you sending that there to intimidate the Cuban government?

[00:19:14]>> No, not at all. The Cuba, look, it's a failed country. Everybody knows it. They don't have electricity. They don't have money. They don't have really anything.

[00:19:22]They don't have food. And we're going to help them along. And we're going to help them because the people because number one, I want to help them. Don't want to on a humanitarian basis. But we have the CubanAmerican population, much of it living in Miami and Florida. That's a great group of people, amazing group of people, industrious, just they're great Americans. They've wanted this to happen. They want to go back to their country. They want to help their country. I hope they're going to stay here, but they want to go back. They want to invest in their country and, you know, see if they can bring it back. Uh other presidents have looked at this for 50 60 years doing something and uh it looks like I'll be the one that does it.

[00:20:02]So we'd be happy to do it. We want to open it up to Cuban Americans where they can go back and help.

[00:20:09]>> Released a report this morning, their report on the last election on Democrats lost. One thing that it mentions is how they failed to reach middle America, southern Americans. Do you think they've learned lessons from that election? And have you seen that report?

[00:20:23]>> I think the elections are so rigged and we have to do something about it and we're going to do something about it.

[00:20:29]But we cannot continue to have and frankly the Senate and the House, they ought to get together and they ought to pass the Save America Act so that you have voter ID and it's so important you have proof of citizenship. Little thing like proof of citizenship and also mailin voting which is so crooked. So, in Maryland, as you probably saw, they had 500 500,000 mail-in votes that were corrupt. They were corrupt. They said the printer made a mistake. Don't believe that. And they got caught with 500,000 mail-in ballots that were corrupt. We got to stop it. We have a a country that has a very corrupt. We have more corrupt elections than third world countries have. And we ought to get smart. Pass the Save America Act.

[00:21:14]That'll be a long way. You have voter ID, voter identification. The Democrats don't want to pass. Now, I'll tell you what, the Democrat voters do want to pass. 87%.

[00:21:24]But the Democrat politicians don't want to pass. And the reason is they'd never be elected again because with their policy of open borders, transgender for everyone. I call it transgender mutilization of your children for everybody, uh men playing in women's sports, all of the the stuff that they do, high taxes. They want a tax hike.

[00:21:45]They voted in favor of high taxes. They voted against a tax cut. They voted in favor of men playing in women's sports.

[00:21:53]I don't know what these people are thinking. The only way they can win is to cheat. And that's what they want to do. And we ought to pass the Save America Act. Yeah.

[00:22:01]>> Yes. Mr. President, I have two questions for you. One of them. Uh first about the uh the ballroom and the second about Iran. Um first, I'm curious. What is the stone that you're going to be using? And I asked that for a reason because I live in Stafford County and you know a lot about history and stuff like that. So you know the stone that was cried for the capital and the white house is from Stafford County. They still have quaries. So h paint uh down there. Just curious.

[00:22:25]>> Okay. Mostly marles and grass.

[00:22:26]>> All right. Excellent. And then my second question is the vice president mentioned the other day there would be accommodations. They were willing to make accommodations with the Iranian deal. Um could you kind of expand on those possible accommodations? Does does that include >> when you say combination of what?

[00:22:41]>> Accommodations. He's talking about accommodations as far as making a deal uh making a deal going. Is that would that include the proxies?

[00:22:47]>> Right now we're negotiating >> and we'll see. But either we're going to get it one way or the other. They're not going to have a nuclear weapon. You know, when people hear it because often times they won't put up the second part of the sentence having to do with I'll say this is more important than anything that we have to talk about and usually they'll cut it off the fake news. I said because this is the nuclearization of a country that some people would say is somewhat crazy and we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all it is.

[00:23:19]We can't let it. You will have uh a nuclear war in the Middle East and that war will come here. That war will go to Europe. Uh we cannot let that happen and it won't happen. It's not going to happen. That's more important than anything else. You can't think I can think of nothing that's more important than the fact that we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon and and we won't.

[00:23:40]You know, Jeff, >> following up on that, sir, Iran is negotiating with Oman to set up a formalization of charging tolls in the straight of Hormuz. Is that acceptable to you?

[00:23:49]>> Well, we're looking at it. We hear about it. They've negotiated. They've had a relationship with them before. Uh and we'll see. Uh, we have total control of the Strait of Armus, as you know, with our blockade. The blockade's been 100% effective. Nobody's been able to get through. It's like a steel wall. It's our navy. We have the greatest military anywhere in the world. We wiped out their navy. We knock wiped out their air. I think they're down to about uh I would say we knocked out 85% of their missile capacity. It's very hard for them now to build missiles uh to build drones. We have great drone technology, anti- drone technology now that frankly we didn't have even two months ago. We have unbelievable drone technology both both for making them and also for knocking them down. Uh but look, we're going to either make sure they don't have a nuclear weapon or we're going to have to do something very drastic. And uh the people of the country, I believe when it's put to the people of our country, they will all agree that we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

[00:24:54]>> Stand up. Just just let me just just one follow up on that. How do you want things to end up with the straight of Hormuz though? Would you like them to have it?

[00:25:01]>> We want it free. We don't want tolls. Uh it's international. It's an international waterway. They're not charging tolls. Uh right now they are losing $500 million a day is what it's projected. I don't know. It sounds like a lot of money, but whether it's 500 or 200 or 300, they're losing a lot of money. There hasn't been a ship that's been able to get through without our approval. And uh the Navy has done an amazing job and uh no ship is going to Iran as you know. No ship is going to or out of Iran without our approval.

[00:25:34]>> Can they keep their highlyenriched uranium?

[00:25:36]>> No. No. We get the highlyenriched. We will get it. We don't need it. We don't want it. We'll probably destroy it after we get it. But we're not going to let them have it.

[00:25:46]>> Okay. Mr. President, I have two questions. First on deregulation, the second on the Supreme Court. You coming from business, you've seen the effects of what unnecessary red tape can do your business. Do you believe that given the amount of deregulatory actions you've taken along with this, the rolling back the endangerment finding, the cafe standards, with your tax cuts and tariffs, do you believe that you've made the United States the most pro business, pro-investment country in the world?

[00:26:11]Yeah, thank you very much for that question because we are we are for every one new regulation that we add we're getting rid of 20 to 30 to 40 and now it's actually at even a number. My first term uh for every regulation that was added we got rid of a minimum of 10 and I understand Lee that it was up it's up to 43 or 44 right now. So if we add a regulation, we get rid of 43 44, we're making it a much more pro business, pro people, uh, you know, regulations are very costly for the people. They're bad for everybody. They're bad for jobs, bad for every and we have, as of today, we have more people working in the United States than at any time in the history of our country. To me, it's one of my favorite stats. But we have more people today working in the United States than at any time in the history. And this is with the Iran conflict. That'll end soon, very soon. And when it ends, your gasoline prices will go down lower than they were before. You know, I left Iowa a few months ago, and gasoline was at $185 a gallon. That's right.

[00:27:17]>> Uh and we'll be hitting numbers like that again. Mr. >> President, we'll be hitting them in a much nicer way. By the way, we will be hitting them and we will have a country that will not have a nuclear weapon yet.

[00:27:28]>> So, so what is today's executive on the Supreme Court, sir? We're still waiting for the decision on birthright citizens.

[00:27:35]You attended the oral arguments of that.

[00:27:37]Can you just explain what's at stake with that decision, sir?

[00:27:40]>> It's a big decision that we're waiting for from the Supreme Court. Uh we had a terrible tariff decision. They cost they cost our country a fortune. They said, "Do it a different way. We're doing it a different way, but we're going to most likely have to pay back $149 billion."

[00:27:58]All they had to do is put a little sentence in there, half a sentence saying that any money's paid don't have to be paid back. You know, you're talking about the people in many cases that hate our country. Give them back money. It was a terrible decision. And uh it's not going to affect because we do the tariffs a different way. The tariffs are are what's bringing in all of this money. It's it's really made our country rich, modernly rich. Uh, now we have another one coming up which is birthright citizenship and we're the only country in the world that has it.

[00:28:30]You step into our country and you're all of a sudden a citizen. You come in a certain way. This was not meant for Chinese billionaires to have their children become citizens of our country.

[00:28:42]This was meant or other rich people, poor people. This was meant for the babies of slaves. This was signed during right after the civil war. You look at the dates, the dates alone. Immediately after this was having to do with the babies of slaves and people have used it and if this is allowed to stand, it will be a disaster economically for our country and you'll have 25% of the people coming into our country coming in through birthright citizenship and we won't have any control. This decision by the Supreme Court is a very big one.

[00:29:21]They'll probably rule against me because they seem to like doing that. Uh you know, frankly, uh uh I'm not happy with some of the decisions. Look at NIL. Look what they've done. Look what look what the courts have done to college sports.

[00:29:36]They're destroying college sports.

[00:29:38]They're destroying universities. But birthright citizens are big deal. And uh literally if that's allowed to stand and again this was a civil war. This was right after the civil war and it has to do with the babies of slaves. It doesn't have to do with the babies of very rich people coming into the country. One of them came in with 57 children. Okay. 57 children. They're using the system and it's usually people that hate our country. If you want to know the truth.

[00:30:09]birthright citizen is done by no other country no other country in the world the way we're doing it. It's it's we're a laughingstock.

[00:30:22]And if the Supreme Court approves that decision, they have done a great disservice to the United States of America, just like they did a great disservice by costing us $149 billion on tariffs by saying, "Do it a different way. Get the same result. do it a different way. We should have won that decision. We had a very strong, very powerful descent. We had three descents.

[00:30:46]So, it wasn't like a unanimous decision by any means. We had very powerful descents. When you read that descent, people that read that descent say, "You really should have won this case. We should have won that case on tariffs."

[00:30:57]That case cost our country $149 million.

[00:31:00]It goes to people that hate our country.

[00:31:03]So, now we have another one coming up.

[00:31:05]Birthright citizenship. It would be a disgrace.

[00:31:09]It would be a disgrace if the Supreme Court of the United States allows that to happen. Remember what I said? 20 to 25% of the people coming into our country will come in through birthright citizenship. They'll become citizens through birthright citizenship. And it'll cost us numbers that are I don't even think they're doable. And it's all up to a couple of people and I hope they do what's right. Birthright citizenship is a disgrace. The fact that look at the people that are bringing the suit. Study the people that are bringing the suit. These are not people that love our country. I can tell you that.

[00:31:51]>> Mr. President, >> why has today's executive order on AI been postponed?

[00:31:56]>> Because I didn't like certain aspects of it. I postponed it. I think it gets in the way of uh you know, we're leading China. We're leading everybody. And I don't want to do anything that's going to get in the way of that lead. We have a very substantial on AI. It's causing it's causing tremendous good and it's also bringing in a lot of jobs, tremendous numbers of jobs. Again, we have more people working right now than we've ever had. Uh I I really thought that could have been a blocker and I want to make sure that it's known.

[00:32:25]>> Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President >> with President Xi last week. Did you discuss AI AI safeguards?

[00:32:32]>> Who in China last week with President Xi? Did you discuss um AI safe?

[00:32:38]>> I discussed it and he uh acknowledges how well we're doing. We're doing well.

[00:32:43]He's doing the two of us. The two countries are fighting for it. Other countries uh are way behind. Way way behind. They're fighting for it. They want it. Everybody wants it, but they're way behind. But I didn't want to do it.

[00:32:55]I I postponed that meeting. It was a press. It was a signing actually because I didn't like what I was seeing.

[00:33:01]>> Mr. President, a few moments ago, the Commission of Fine Arts approved your design, the design for your arch. Do you think you need congressional?

[00:33:09]>> I finally get good news from >> Do you think you need >> What was the vote? Do you know what?

[00:33:14]>> What was the vote?

[00:33:16]>> I I'm just seeing the headline here. I don't have the exact vote, but >> so we're building what's called the triumphal ark uh right opposite the Arlington Memorial Bridge right by Arlington Cemetery. It's beautiful. It's the Arc to Triumph would be the one that you would probably know in Paris. It's one of the most beautiful. It's a very similar size, slightly larger. We're doing We have to do slightly larger. It doesn't have to be a lot larger otherwise you'd all be disappointed in me. But it's even far more beautiful.

[00:33:44]And I think that the Arctic Triumph is beautiful. It's, you know, a couple of hundred years old, but I think it's beautiful. And some arcs go back over a thousand years. And it's called a triumphal arc. It's usually uh done for victories and war and things. 59 of them in the world. And some are really beautiful. And we're the only major Washington DC, which should be number one. We're the only important and major city that doesn't have one. We don't have a triumphal arc. So, uh, it was meant to be built for many years, the circle going up to the bridge. It was people pass that circle, they say, "Why isn't something built here?" And so, uh, that's very good. We just got approval from fine arts. That's fantastic.

[00:34:28]>> But you need Congress to sign off on it.

[00:34:30]>> No, we don't. No, no, we're doing it.

[00:34:32]It's, uh, the land is owned by Secretary by the Interior Department. We don't need anything from Congress.

[00:34:39]>> Are you president your son's wedding this weekend, by the way?

[00:34:43]uh he'd like me to go, but it's going to be just a small little private affair, and I'm going to try and make it. I'm I'm in the midst. I said, you know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things. Uh that's one I can't win on. If I do attend, I get killed. If I don't attend, I get killed by the fake news, of course, I'm talking about. No, but he's uh got a very uh person who I've known for a long time and hopefully they're going to have a great marriage.

[00:35:14]>> Mr. President, actually to add to the the art, I just actually passed by it on my way here. I saw that the the pink flags and there's just geese that are there all the time. So, uh it's perfect.

[00:35:24]How long will that take? And also, I have to say I have to pass along something for my mother who she drove in with me. She was amazed by all the people uh she was seen on the streets here in DC. She doesn't get in here as much, but uh she was she was noticing how clean and beautiful it was. So, I'm passing that along to her.

[00:35:39]>> Well, that's the way I do. Clean. Take a look at We had a broken uh we had broken path. It was so terrible coming into the White House. It was slate. Slate's a roofing material. It's not a walking material, but the slate was all broken and chipped and terrible. And I put down a new granite floor and paid for it myself, by the way. But I put down a nice new granite floor. It looks beautiful. It's actually getting rave reviews. It's beautiful. As a terrible having people walking up to the White House and they're walking over broken tiles and broken floors. So now we just finished. It's going to be finished when the moldings are put on. But we just, you might take a look at it. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's beautiful. It's >> very beautiful.

[00:36:18]>> Of other things we're doing while you're at it. We fixed We have 31 fountains in Washington. Of the 31, not one worked. Now we have 21 working and the others are going to be fixed. And people are calling and saying it's amazing what's happened. The fountains and they're working top level. And my most exciting is the reflecting pool between the Washington Monument and the uh the the Washington Monument Lincoln Memorial. I It's a It's 200 2,500 feet long by almost 200 feet wide. It's a massive structure if you think of it.

[00:36:57]It's taller than the tallest building in the world. If you sat the building down, the tallest building in the world would not reach the end of it. It's a very big thing. It hasn't worked properly since it was built in 1922.

[00:37:11]Uh, President Obama and Biden spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to fix it. They didn't, of course, they couldn't do that. They didn't fix it. It was a mess. So, mostly they turned it off uh collecting garbage. It looked horrible. And we are very close to getting it finished. And when it's finished, it'll be beautiful. It'll be blue water, dark blue. We call it American flag blue because that's the name of the color that we chose, American flag blue. Can't do better than that. It's a rich dark blue and it'll be, I think, very reflective, very, very good. Big project. I decided to do a much bigger job. I was going to just get it open, but I said, "Let's do it right.

[00:37:54]Let's get it open. Let's have it be good." because uh President Obama, President Biden spent hundreds of millions of dollars, much more than a hundred million, but hundreds of millions. It never worked. Uh in fact, when they finished it, it was much worse than it was before. It leaked at a higher level. They would have to fill it up every single day with water. The whole thing was ridiculous. So, they ended up turning it off and it became like a garbage dump. Well, it's uh pretty close to finished. So, they were going to they had estimates of $350 million to fix it. I'll be doing it for a tiny fraction of that. A bigger job than I I originally thought I'd do it for $2 or $3 million, just do a base, but now we're fixing up the exterior of it. We're doing so we'll probably be in there for less than $20 million. And uh the estimate was going to be using a different method, $350. It was going to take uh four years, 350 million. I'll be doing it in basically a couple of months for less than $20 million. That includes all of the exterior base, which I never included in my original numbers. Uh when I went there last week, I saw the exterior was in very bad shape as well as the interior. So, I said, "We're going to fix that, too." The stone, it's going to be beautiful. When that's done, you might see it. It's probably three quarters done. We have rain delays. We get a lot of delays. But uh it that will be that will be something special. The reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln and Washington monuments. Uh I think it's going to be incredible. It's largely done. If you want to go see it, you can see it before we put the water in. We'll uh the key is to have it done before July 4th. We want to see if we can have it done before July 4th. But we have uh about 20 or 21 uh of the water water features in Washington open and I can say we top top of the line. They are they look better than they did the day they were built. Some of them have been closed for 2530 years. There's been no waterfair 25 or 30 years and they're really beautiful. Some of the fountains are as beautiful as I've ever seen. And you probably see them. And in addition to that, you brought up something.

[00:40:14]Washington DC is now a safe city. We had a city that was one of the most unsafe cities anywhere in the country. And now it's considered a very safe city.

[00:40:25]Restaurants are opening. Restaurants were closing. You couldn't you couldn't go to a restaurant. The restaurants were closing all over because of the danger from during the Biden administration.

[00:40:37]Now you have restaurants opening. It's thriving. And it was very nice that you said that. I like this reporter. I uh uh No, it's nice. It's We have a vibrant city again. People are going out. I have a lot of people in the White House.

[00:40:51]Every time I see somebody, they thank me. And I know immediately what they thank me for making the city safe. They walk to work now. Before that, they would they'd take Uber or something and they were they felt unsafe even in Uber.

[00:41:04]You know, we moved over 5,000 people out of the city. career criminals that came in through the open borders and other reasons. And we moved over 5,000. And an interesting statistic is that 2% of the population creates 91% of the crime. And the reason I like that is that you can handle 2% of the population. Mr. Kroger, I see. Do you you have sores in Washington? You see a big difference.

[00:41:35]>> Well, you said the right thing. Could you That would have been the end of Kroger.

[00:41:41]>> Okay, we'll do we'll do one or two more.

[00:41:44]>> Do you think Democrats are genuine in their focus on affordability, especially after they delivered 40-year high inflation last time they were in power?

[00:41:52]And then um or do you think they're using it or focusing on it as a means to try and win midterms and begin the impeachment process?

[00:42:00]>> Look, the Democrats had the highest inflation in the history of our country.

[00:42:04]48 years they say, but the history of our country uh they had the highest inflation that we've ever had. When I inherited it, I inherited very high prices. And from day one, they said affordability. Affordability is the word because they're good at that. They're good at words, but I'm good at words, too. But they hit me with affordability.

[00:42:25]I'd just gotten there. They hit me with eggs. Uh, we had a news conference on my third day and they said, "Uh, egg prices are through the roof." I said, "I just got here. Tell me about eggs." And we got the prices down, way down, actually lower than it was four years before, but we've gotten everything. The thing that we have now, the only thing that's really of great concern, two things.

[00:42:49]Beef is coming down and the reason is they put restrictions on beef under the Biden administration and it takes a while to settle that but prices are down. But the big thing is uh of course energy. We had the energy way down but I had to do a journey to Iran. I had to say you know we just hit the best markets. By the way the stock market today is at the highest it's ever been and we've had 59 of them. 59 days out of a very short period of time where the stock market hit all-time highs. So we have a all-time high stock market. We have all-time high job numbers. We have 401ks just hit the highest number they've ever been. So many of you have 401ks. You that means you're richer than you've ever been.

[00:43:33]>> And we're doing really well. But they they came up with this word affordability.

[00:43:38]But it's them that caused the problem.

[00:43:42]And they use that word senator senator.

[00:43:45]They use that word right from the beginning. I was in one day and I heard somebody on television say affordability and I inherited this mess from them. But we've got it uh in great shape. The country is doing well. We're respected all over the world. This country is respected. We're the hottest country. We were a dead country two years ago and now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. So I think uh most of you appreciate that. Some of you don't.

[00:44:12]Yeah, please.

[00:44:13]>> Washington Times. Um, if the Supreme Court doesn't rule in your favor on birthright citizenship, are there any other avenues that your administration has explored to remedy this? And did you talked with President G about uh Chinese foreign nationals taking advantage of birth tourism here in this country and how they could >> Well, that's a great question. You know, if the Supreme Court hurts our country by ruling against us on birthright citizenship, that that would be just between that and tariffs, what damage they've done. What damage they've done. Again, they they could have said, which they said, do the tariffs a different way, but they could have said the money taken in hundreds of of billions of dollars, $149 billion we have to pay back. Kevin understands that better than anybody. All they had to do is say any money taken in because they agree you could do it a different way.

[00:45:10]Any money, this is a better way, but the other way is a very secure way. And maybe in many ways it's a stronger way.

[00:45:17]They could have said any money taken in thus far does not have to be paid back to in many cases the enemy, people that don't like our country. Well, it was a half a sentence. The Supreme Court could have saved us $149 billion dollars with a half a sentence, but they chose not to do that. Now they have a ruling which is a much bigger ruling actually. Birthright citizenship uh the cost, forgetting about the fact that it's wrong. The cost of birthright citizenship is barely not affordable by our country. It's going to cost hundreds of billions of dollars and it's in their hands. What can I tell you? It's a common sense ruling. It's common sense.

[00:46:03]It was about It was exact timing and it's about the babies of slaves. Thank you for that question.

[00:46:13]>> Thank you, Mr. President. So, do you think if Democrats were to take control of Congress again, they would immediately begin the impeachment process?

[00:46:19]>> I think if Democrats took control of the Congress, I think that uh and let's say took control of the country. Uh, I think that this country's finished. These people are sick. They suffer from Trump derangement syndrome, but really they they they have bad policy. They have horrible policy. They cheat on elections. They get elected by cheating on elections. But you would have two states added. They'll terminate the filibuster immediately. Republicans should do that. They'll terminate the filibuster. You'll have Washington DC and you'll have Puerto Rico as a state, which will be a disaster. uh which would be four Senate seats. Uh tremendous numbers of electoral college votes. Uh you will have uh you will have the that's that's really bad. But you will have the destruction of our country. They want to go to 21 Supreme Court judges. That's their perfect number. They talk about 13, but uh they want to go to 21. 21 Supreme Court judges. If they get in power, I think this country would be maybe finished. If I didn't win the election, I'll say this, we've become the hottest country anywhere in the world. We were a dead country two years ago. If I didn't win this election, we would have been a country that was essentially would have been I don't even know that we would have been a country any longer. They were destroying our country. They were letting hundreds of thousands, millions of people pour through our southern border. Criminals, people from jails, people from mental institutions, drug dealers and drug addicts. They were sending everybody. Countries were sending everybody that they didn't want by the millions. 25 million people. If I didn't win this election, I believe our country would have been finished. Thank you very much.

[00:48:16]>> Thank you. Thank you, breath. Thank you, guys.