US News LIVE: Donald Trump Warns Bibi Netanyahu Against Escalation, Pushes For Iran Peace Deal |N18G

Added: 2026-06-10

[00:00:00]you would not have an existing Israel right now. And the people of Israel know it.

[00:00:06]>> That's why they like me and it's why they really they actually like him. He's got a little bit of lovehate more than I do over there. But uh but you know what?

[00:00:14]Even the haters have a lot of respect for him. There's a lot of jealousy about him. A lot of jealousy. Jealousy is a bad word. But I believe you would not have Israel right now. So it's a big deal. Yeah. Please, Mr. >> President, uh, a recent poll showed that as many of as half of Gazins would be willing to leave the Gaza Strip if afforded the opportunity to do so. Back in February, you said that all Gazins would be >> I heard that number today. Half of Gaza would leave.

[00:00:40]>> I've always said it. I said if they were given the opportunity to live in a a better climate, they would move. They're there because they sort of have to be. I think it would be I think it would be a great opportunity, but let's see if that opportunity presents itself. But we're helping the people of Gaza a lot. So is Israel, by the way. So we'll see what happens. But I saw that there was a poll. It was actually more than half the people would leave if they were given the opportunity. And I've been saying that for a long time. It was to me it was common sense. So it's interesting.

[00:01:12]>> Why wouldn't countries accept them?

[00:01:15]>> Look, let's not talk about because we don't want the controversy right now.

[00:01:20]who were helping Gaza. But if they were given the opportunity, I think even higher than that. The person, the group that did the poll is usually I call them negative pulses. You have a lot of them.

[00:01:32]And yet this poll was I think very accurate other than it would be more than half the people if given the opportunity, but they haven't been given that opportunity. So we'll see what happens.

[00:01:42]>> Mr. point of understanding regarding Syria.

[00:01:48]Uh we do have an understanding regarding Syria. Now with Syria, you know, your new president, I respect him. He's a very strong guy and that's what you need in Syria. You can't put uh a choir boy.

[00:02:03]You can't put a, you know, somebody that's a perfect person. Everything's nice. No problems in life. You have the opposite there. He's a strong guy. We get along with him great. Uh I can't ask for any more. He's he's been with us all the way. We had that mishap with ISIS and he was with us all the way. He was fighting us, you know, he was fighting them. So, uh I hope Israel I'm sure that Israel and him will get along. I will try and make it so that they do get along.

[00:02:33]>> I think they will. BB, do you have anything to say about that?

[00:02:36]>> Yeah. Well, our interest is to have uh a peaceful border with Syria. Our interest is to have uh and we openly say it, we we want to uh make sure that the border area right next to our border is safe. Uh we don't have terrorists, we don't have attacks, and we also want to secure our Drews friends. And by the way, I think not only the Jews, but other minorities, especially the Christians, should be right >> protected as well in Syria and throughout the Middle East and in Nigeria. uh in your efforts we back completely because Christian communities are belleaguered around the world and especially in the Middle East but in parts of Africa too and uh and we stand for the same thing >> and don't forget it was President Erdogan that helped very much get rid of a very bad ruler of Syria. That was President Erdogan and he never wanted the credit for it but he he really gets a lot of credit.

[00:03:36]BB agrees with that. I agree with I mean I know it and President Erdogan should get a lot of good credit for what he did. He got rid of some very bad people and you know they've been wanting to do that for a thousand years with different names but for a thousand years in Syria.

[00:03:52]President Erdogan did it and we give them a lot of credit. I give him a lot of credit. Uh but I think it's going to work out well between Syria and Israel.

[00:04:03]>> Mr. President.

[00:04:05]>> Yeah. Go ahead please.

[00:04:07]>> The Lebanese government what we saw is not meeting the terms of the ceasefire agreement has failed to dis disarm Fisbala actually. In your view, should Israel strike the terrorist organization again?

[00:04:20]>> Well, we're going to see about that.

[00:04:22]We'll see about it. Uh the Lebanese government is at a little bit of a disadvantage if you think of it with Hezbollah, but uh Hezbollah has been behaving badly. So, we'll see what happens.

[00:04:35]Mr. President, how can also we do another operation of Israel in Iran? You said before the meeting with Netanyahu that you are in support of Israel if the ballistic missile project will take on and also the nuclear weapon. But after the meeting, after what you know from the intelligence, how close are we to another war with Iran?

[00:04:53]>> Well, I don't want to say that, but Iran may be behaving badly.

[00:04:59]It hasn't been confirmed, but if it's confirmed, look, they know the consequence. You know, consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than the last time.

[00:05:10]Yeah.

[00:05:12]>> And Iran should have made a deal the last time. I gave them the option. I said, "You can make a deal. Do it." I told them, "Do it." And they didn't believe me. Now they believe me.

[00:05:24]>> You think badly? And what do you mean badly?

[00:05:26]>> This is just what we hear. But usually uh where there's smoke there's fire.

[00:05:33]Have you heard the expression?

[00:05:34]>> But what do you do you mean related to the nuclear capab?

[00:05:37]>> Well, no. I'm hearing that they're not nuclear yet, but maybe nuclear, too. The sites were obliterated, but they're looking at other sites. That's what I've heard. They're looking, so it'll take a long time. They're not going to go back to where they were. But they they have other places they can go. And if they're doing that, they're making a big mistake. Yeah. Please. There's no reason for them to do it.

[00:05:58]>> Mr. President, Mr. President, um is the United States currently uh open to engaging in bilateral discussions with Tran? We're hearing reports from numerous countries that there may be some discussions. Is that something uh you would support or something that is you would support that?

[00:06:13]>> I would. Yes. Right now.

[00:06:14]>> Thank you, sir.

[00:06:15]>> I have been by the way before the war I would support that. But I said to him, BB, I said, "Let's negotiate."

[00:06:22]And uh they didn't believe what was going to happen would happen.

[00:06:26]>> Yes, ma'am.

[00:06:26]>> On China. So, China has been doing naval exercises basically to test encircling Taiwan. Can you explain to us what your knowledge is of that? What do you think about that? Have you had any discussions with >> Well, I have a great relationship with President Xi and he hasn't told me anything about it. I certainly have seen it, but he hasn't told me anything about it. And uh I don't believe he's going to be doing it.

[00:06:52]>> Does it worry you?

[00:06:53]>> No, nothing worries me. Nothing.

[00:06:55]>> Where there's smoke, there's fire.

[00:06:56]Right.

[00:06:56]>> So if you're in circle, if you're doing naval exercises and air exercises, >> I've been doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area. Now people take it a little bit differently, but in fact larger than they're doing right now. So we'll see. But they've been they've been doing that for 20 25 years. Yeah.

[00:07:15]>> Mr. President, if you don't see Hamas disarm in that short amount of time that you're giving them, can you tell us what the next steps would be?

[00:07:21]>> Maybe uh horrible for them. Horrible.

[00:07:28]>> It's going to be really, really bad for them. And I don't want that to happen. But they made an agreement that they were going to disarm. And you couldn't blame Israel. By the way, we have other countries that will come in and do it. They said, "Let us do it for you if they don't." Countries that were with them, wanted the deal to be made, agreed that they would disarm. And now, if they say they're going to disarm, that's fine. If they say they're not going to disarm, those same countries will go and wipe them out. They don't even need Israel. You know, we have many countries, 59 countries that are in agree. This is a real peace in the Middle East and uh Hamas is a small part of it, but it's still a part of it. But we have 59 countries that signed on, big countries, countries that are outside of the uh Middle East, as you know, the Middle East. They want to go in and wipe out Hamas.

[00:08:27]They don't want Israel. They don't need Israel. They want to do it because it's the right thing to do. because they were for the deal based on the fact that Hamas pledged they swore that they were going to disarm. Now, if they're not going to disarm, those same countries will wipe out Hamas.

[00:08:44]>> President Trump, do you think that the PA should be involved in the day after in Gaza Strip even in the near future?

[00:08:50]And the same question to Prime Minister Netanyahu. Do you see a real opportunity that the PA will be in Gaza?

[00:08:55]>> Go ahead, Mimi. I think President Trump put clearly the conditions that of reform that he wants to see in the PA for them to be involved. Uh and I I think he put it very clearly what he wants to see the kind of real reforms not just uh preuncterary reforms but real reforms stop pay to slay change the curriculum in your textbooks. uh open up uh you know a different society and a different future if they do it >> well you know let them uh you know I think it was clear he put he put uh >> pretty clear >> he put guidelines that uh were by the way in the Trump plan of 2020 and they were put then in the 20 points and um it's up to them >> remember this if we didn't do what we did to Iran just to make the subject just slightly different you wouldn't have peace in the Middle East. You wouldn't have a a deal signed in the Middle East. You wouldn't have a deal because other Arab nations, which are great, great great people. I know them very well. I know them. They're great people. They wouldn't be able to have agreed to peace in the Middle East because you would have had a dark cloud hanging over everything. It wouldn't wouldn't have been possible. So, Iran has been greatly reduced in power, prestige. I don't want to use the word humiliation because, you know, they're trying to build up again, but we can't let them build up because if they build up, they can't be peace in the Middle East. It was a mistake. You know, when they wiped out Iraq, Iraq and Iran were about the same power. And they fought each other with different names for a thousand years.

[00:10:33]And then our country came out and blew up one of those two countries, namely Iraq. Then all of a sudden Iran had the whole Middle East all to itself. But that's not true anymore. That's not true anymore.

[00:10:48]>> Can you tell us something?

[00:10:50]>> Tell us something about your plan to expand Abraham Accords.

[00:10:55]>> If you can tell us something about your plan to expand Abraham Accords.

[00:11:00]>> Well, the Abraham Accords are a great achievement of Jared and everybody. I mean, it was one of the great achievements. Uh they'll be expanded.

[00:11:12]Uh countries are already talking about expanding it and they'll be expanded fairly quickly. Yeah, please.

[00:11:18]>> Saudi Arabia. Is it still on the table?

[00:11:20]>> The normalization.

[00:11:21]>> Saudi Arabia is great. We have a great leader and uh friend of mine and a friend of a lot of people also an enemy of some people. But uh those people aren't doing so well. No, Saudi Arabia has been very good as far as I'm concerned. They've done everything that we can ask for.

[00:11:42]>> But normalization of Israel is on the >> They're getting along great with Israel.

[00:11:46]They will >> and at some point they'll sign the Abraham Accords, >> Mr. President.

[00:11:51]>> So, one of the big domestic uh tasks ahead of you is to pick a new chairman for the Fed.

[00:11:57]>> Yeah.

[00:11:57]>> You're you've said that you have one favorite, but you're also doing interviews.

[00:12:01]>> Still do. Hasn't changed.

[00:12:03]>> Yeah, I'll announce them at the right time. There's plenty of time. Are you is there >> in the meantime? We're doing numbers that nobody's ever seen. We have $18 trillion coming in. We had a 4.3% GDP.

[00:12:13]They thought it was going to be 2%. And that's despite the Democrat shutdown.

[00:12:18]Had the shutdown not occurred, we would have had an extra point and a quarter.

[00:12:22]Think of that. Uh we are doing and also despite the fact that we have a fool at the Federal Reserve. I mean Biden reappointed him. It's too bad. You would have thought he wouldn't have done that, but uh he's an absolute fool who's building a new Federal Reserve or he's doing a renovation of a building. Maybe he's up to $4.1 billion to do a renovation of a few very small buildings. It's the highest price in the history of construction.

[00:12:56]He's spending more money than any building has ever spent per square foot on the renovation of, as an example, I'm doing a magnificent big, beautiful ballroom that the country has wanted, the White House has wanted for 150 years. It's a massive job and it's a tiny fraction of that number. And we're under budget and ahead of schedule. Now it's it's bigger than I told you. I it's uh you know after realizing we're going to do the inauguration in that building.

[00:13:28]It's got all bulletproof glass. It's got all drone they call a drone free roof.

[00:13:34]It's a drones won't touch it. It's a big uh it's a big beautiful safe building but it's you know it's a big project for a tiny fraction of that. We're under budget and ahead of schedule and they've wanted it for 150 years. Think of it.

[00:13:52]The Federal Reserve building, two buildings there. They don't know what they're doing. They're they're way over budget. I mean, almost this was built during the Biden administration, and I wrote by it the other day, and it's headed by the head of the Federal Reserve.

[00:14:10]Too late, you know, too late, Powell.

[00:14:13]Too late because he's always too late with interest rates except before the election. He was too early because that would have helped. that was supposed to help get her elected. It had no impact.

[00:14:22]We won all seven swing states.

[00:14:24]>> But but no, no, we're thinking about bringing a suit against Powell for incompetence because think of it. These are two these aren't outstanding buildings. These are small buildings.

[00:14:36]He said four billion more. It's going to end up costing more than $4 billion.

[00:14:40]Four billion. It's the highest price of construction. Again, Democrats highest price of construction per square foot in the history of the world.

[00:14:51]There's never been gorgeous monuments are built for a much smaller price. So, we're thinking about bringing a a gross incompetence, what's called gross incompetence lawsuit. It's gross incompetence against Powell.

[00:15:06]And it was his baby.

[00:15:08]And uh the guy's just >> for your support. It's meant from the heart. Thank you. You know, as I said outside, he's been a wartime prime minister, and we were, look, I guess I could say I was a wartime president in more places than just Israel if you think about it. But Israel was a big factor and we're with you and we'll continue to be with you and a lot of good things are happening in the Middle East. We have peace in the Middle East and we're going to try and keep it that way. I think we will be very successful in keeping it that way. and uh you've been a a great friend and I've been a great friend to you and to Israel and it's been my honor and the award that I was given was really uh surprising and uh very much appreciated.

[00:15:56]>> Well, President Trump has broken so many conventions to the surprise of people and then they figure out oh well maybe you know he was right after all. So, we decided to break a convention to or create a new one. And that is to award uh the Israel Prize, which in uh almost our 80 years, we've never awarded it to a non-Israeli.

[00:16:18]And we're going to award it this year uh to President Trump. This was announced formally uh over lunch uh by uh our Minister of Education, who's responsible for the uh Israel Prize. It's going to be awarded to President Donald J. Trump for his tremendous contributions to Israel and the Jewish people. Uh I I think there's it's such a fitting thing and it would honor us obviously, Mr. President, if you could visit Israel uh in that occasion on our Independence Day. But uh I have to say that this reflects the overwhelming sentiment of Israelis across the the spectrum. They appreciate what you've done to help Israel and to help our common battle against the terrorists and those who would destroy our civilization. So again, that's an expression of thanks um and appreciation.

[00:17:15]>> Thank you, baby, very much. That really is a great honor.

[00:17:19]>> Any questions, please? We'll go pretty quickly because pretty much we agree on most of the things and you would know what most of those things are. Please go ahead.

[00:17:28]>> Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to know if if you and the prime minister talked about having uh Israel uh pull back its troops before uh Hamas fully disarms. I know that's been been an issue. Did you push for that today?

[00:17:40]>> Well, we talked about Hamas and we talked about disarmament and they're going to be given a very short period of time to disarm and we'll see how that works out. Steve Woodoff and Jared Kushner will be in charge of that from our side. Uh but if they don't disarm as as they agreed to do, they agreed to it and then they'll be held to pay for them and we don't want that.

[00:18:07]We're not looking for that. But they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time.

[00:18:12]>> Was it Israel withdrawing its forces?

[00:18:14]>> Well, that's a separate subject. We'll uh we'll talk about that.

[00:18:17]>> Mr. President, >> Mr. President, >> did you have a message for the prime minister about the West Bank? And are you at all concerned that settler violence, Israeli settler violence could be undermining the peace plan?

[00:18:27]>> Well, we have had a discussion, big discussion for a long time on the West Bank, and I wouldn't say we agree on the West Bank 100%. But we uh we'll come to a conclusion on the West Bank.

[00:18:40]>> If I could ask what is the dis?

[00:18:41]>> Well, I don't want to do that. It'll be announced at an appropriate time. But he will do the right thing. I know that. I know him very well. He will do the right thing. Yes. Um there is a growing fear of a confrontation between Israel and Turkey. How you going to ease this tension given the fact that Erdogan, President Erdogan calls Mr. Netanyao Hitler and compares Israel to the Nazi?

[00:19:03]>> Well, I know President Erdogan very well and as you all know, he's a very good friend of mine and uh I believe that and I do respect him and BB respects him and they're not going to have a problem.

[00:19:17]They're not going to have a problem. We know him very well and you've seen me do things with President Erdogan and Turkey that nobody else could have done. We're not going to have a problem. He's uh he's done a fantastic job. I'm with him all the way. I'm with BB all the way.

[00:19:33]Nothing's going to happen.

[00:19:35]>> Yes, Mr. Mr. President. Um are you concerned that Israel is not moving quickly enough to phase two of the peace plan?

[00:19:43]>> Well, I'm not concerned about anything that Israel is doing. I'm concerned about what other people are doing or maybe aren't doing, but I'm not concerned. They've lived up to the plan.

[00:19:54]They're strong. They're solid. And sometimes they don't understand when somebody violates something that you want to give them a second chance. Well, we'll give them a couple of second chances. But no, Israel's lived up to the plan 100%. Don't forget, we made the plan possible by taking out Iran.

[00:20:15]And speaking of Iran, I hope they're not trying to build up again because if they are, we're going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that buildup.

[00:20:24]So, I hope Iran is not trying to build up as I've been reading uh that they're building up weapons and other things.

[00:20:32]And if they are, they're not they're not using the sites that we obliterated, but they're using possibly different sites.

[00:20:40]We know exactly where they're going, what they're doing, and I hope they're not doing it because we don't want to waste the fuel on a B2. It's a 37-hour trip both ways. I don't want to waste a lot of fuel.

[00:20:53]>> Okay.

[00:20:53]>> Mr. President Trump, what was your last remarks regarding the Perdon's request of Prime Minister Netanyahu? Heritar office told us that you have not talked um after the official request of Prime Minister Netanyahu Perdon. Can you clarify to us? Did you talk >> which request are you talking about >> with the um the president? The Israeli president. Did you talk with him directly?

[00:21:16]>> Erdogan is the president.

[00:21:20]>> You're talking about pardon?

[00:21:21]>> Yeah.

[00:21:21]>> Oh, well, you got to say that. No, I think he's going to be in great shape.

[00:21:25]He's a wartime prime minister at the highest level.

[00:21:29]He's achieved tremendous success. And I'll say it, you know, uh if you had eight out of 10 prime ministers in his position right now or before right now maybe you wouldn't have Israel any longer. Israel would not exist. I'd say two two of them would and eight of them wouldn't. That's a those are not good odds. You needed a very special man to uh to really carry through and and really help Israel through this horrible jam. You know, these are major factions and it started with our negotiation with Iran. I think it probably started with uh Solomoni.

[00:22:11]That was really where you mentioned that today. It started with Salami.

[00:22:16]Uh bad guy doing bad things, hurting a lot of people, killing American soldiers and other soldiers. But it started right there would probably be the starting point. And then uh from that point forward uh but you would you have a wartime prime minister at the highest level. There could be other wartime prime ministers but they'd lose.

[00:22:38]He won and I think the people of Israel appreciate it. I think a lot of the people in the world appreciate it actually. And because of that victory we were able to get peace in the Middle East. If you had a different kind of a personality, if you had a weak person or a stupid person, and there are plenty of both of them, uh you would not have had success and you might not have Israel, and you report for Israel. I know you're very proud of it, and you do a great job. Uh you might not have a job because there might not be an Israel right now if you had a different prime minister.

[00:23:08]That's a big statement, but to me, it's a very simple statement to make. I'm looking at Pete Hexath and he's sort of nodding. If they don't have a strong prime minister, Pete, you might not have Israel today. I think he'll go down in the record books. And you know, I was a big help. I'll be honest with you. Big big help. Uh somebody may said in the room, if you don't have Trump, you needed a a proper combination of everything.

[00:23:34]And if you didn't have that combination, which they had, you would not have an existing Israel right now. And the people of Israel know it.

[00:23:43]>> That's why they like me. And it's why they really they actually like him. He's got a little bit of a lovehate more than I do over there. But uh but you know what? Even the haters have a lot of respect for him. There's a lot of jealousy about him. A lot of jealousy.

[00:23:57]Jealousy is a bad word. But I believe you would not have Israel right now. So it's a big deal. Yeah. Please.

[00:24:03]>> Mr. President, >> uh a recent poll showed that as many of as half of Gazins would be willing to leave the Gaza Strip if afforded the opportunity to do so. Back in February, you said that all Gaz I heard that number today. Half of Gaza would leave.

[00:24:17]>> I've always said it. I said if they were given the opportunity to live in a a better climate, they would move. They're there because they sort of have to be. I think it would be I think it would be a great opportunity. But let's see if that opportunity presents itself. But we're helping the people of Gaza a lot. So is Israel, by the way. So we'll see what happens. But I saw that there was a poll. It was actually more than half the people would leave if they were given the opportunity. And I've been saying that for a long time. It was to me it was common sense. So it's interesting.

[00:24:49]>> Why wouldn't countries accept us?

[00:24:52]>> Look, let's not talk about because we don't want the controversy right now.

[00:24:57]We're helping Gaza. But if they were given the opportunity, I think even higher than that, the person the group that did the poll is usually I call them negative polls. You have a lot of them.

[00:25:09]And yet this poll was I think very accurate other than it would be more than half the people if given the opportunity but they haven't been given that opportunity. So we'll see what happens.

[00:25:22]>> Point of understanding regarding Syria.

[00:25:25]>> Uh we do have an understanding regarding Syria. Now with Syria, you know, your new president, I respect him. He's a very strong guy and that's what you need in Syria. You can't put uh a choir boy.

[00:25:40]You can't put a, you know, somebody that's a perfect person. Everything's nice. No problems in life. You have the opposite there. He's a strong guy. We get along with him great. Uh I can't ask for any more. He's he's been with us all the way. We had that mishap with ISIS and he was with us all the way. He was fighting us, you know, he was fighting them. So, uh I hope Israel I'm sure that Israel and him will get along. I will try and make it so that they do get along.

[00:26:10]>> I think they will. BB, do you have anything to say about that?

[00:26:13]>> Yeah. Well, our interest is to have uh a peaceful border with Syria. Our interest is to have uh and we openly say it. We we want to uh make sure that the border area right next to our border is safe. uh we don't have terrorists, we don't have attacks, and we also want to secure our Jews friends. And by the way, I think not only the Jews, but other minorities, especially the Christians, should be >> right >> protected as well in Syria and throughout the Middle East and in Nigeria. Uh in your efforts, we back completely because Christian communities are belleaguered around the world and especially in the Middle East, but in parts of Africa, too.

[00:26:56]>> And uh and we stand for the same thing.

[00:26:58]And don't forget, it was President Erdogan that helped very much get rid of a very bad ruler of Syria. That was President Erdogan.

[00:27:09]And he never wanted the credit for it.

[00:27:11]But he he really gets a lot of credit.

[00:27:13]BB agrees with that. I agree with I mean I know it. And President Erdogan should get a lot of good credit for what he did. He got rid of some very bad people.

[00:27:23]And you know they've been wanting to do that for a thousand years with different names but for a thousand years in Syria.

[00:27:29]President Erdogan did it and we give him a lot of credit. I give him a lot of credit. Uh but I think it's going to work out well between Syria and Israel.

[00:27:40]>> Mr. President >> Yeah. Go ahead please. The Lebanese government what we saw is not meeting the terms of the ceasefire agreement has failed to dis disarm Fisbala actually.

[00:27:54]In your view, should Israel strike the terrorist organization again?

[00:27:57]>> Well, we're going to see about that.

[00:27:59]We'll see about it. Uh the Lebanese government is at a little bit of a disadvantage if you think of it with Hezbollah, but uh Hezbollah has been behaving badly. So, we'll see what happens.

[00:28:12]>> Mr. President, Mr. Are you closer to another operation of Israel in Iran? You said before the meeting with Netanyahu that you are in support of Israel if the ballistic missile project will take on and also the nuclear weapon. But after the meeting, after what you know from the intelligence, how close are we to another war with Iran?

[00:28:30]>> Well, I don't want to say that, but Iran may be behaving badly.

[00:28:36]It hasn't been confirmed, but if it's confirmed, look, they know the consequences. You know, consequences will be very powerful.

[00:28:45]Maybe more powerful than the last time.

[00:28:47]Yeah.

[00:28:49]>> And Iran should have made a deal the last time. I gave them the option. I said, "You can make a deal. Do it." I told them, "Do it." And they didn't believe me. Now they believe me.

[00:29:01]>> You think badly? And what do you mean by that?

[00:29:03]>> This is just what we hear. But usually uh where there's smoke there's fire.

[00:29:10]Have you heard the expression?

[00:29:11]>> But what do you do you mean related to the nuclear capab?

[00:29:14]>> Well, no. I'm hearing that they're not nuclear yet, but maybe nuclear, too. The sites were obliterated, but they're looking at other sites. That's what I've heard. They're looking, so it'll take a long time. They're not going to go back to where they were, but they they have other places they can go. And if they're doing that, they're making a big mistake. Yeah. Please. There's no reason for them to do it.

[00:29:35]>> Mr. President, Mr. President, um is the United States currently uh open to engaging in bilateral discussions with Tran? We're hearing reports from numerous countries that there may be some discussions. Is that something uh you would support or something that is you would support that?

[00:29:50]>> I would. Yes. Right. Now, >> thank you, sir.

[00:29:52]>> I have been by the way before the war I would support that. I said to him, BB, I said, "Let's negotiate."

[00:29:59]And uh they didn't believe what was going to happen would happen.

[00:30:03]>> Yes, ma'am.

[00:30:03]>> On China, so China has been doing naval exercises basically to test encircling Taiwan. Can you explain to us what your knowledge is of that? What do you think about that? Have you had any discussions with >> Well, I have a great relationship with President Xi and he hasn't told me anything about it. I certainly have seen it, but he hasn't told me anything about it. And uh I don't believe he's going to be doing it.

[00:30:28]>> Does it worry you?

[00:30:30]>> No, nothing worries me. Nothing.

[00:30:32]>> You said where there's smoke, there's fire. Right.

[00:30:33]>> So if you're in circle, if you're doing naval exercises and air exercises, >> I've been doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area. Now people take it a little bit differently, but in fact larger than they're doing right now. So we'll see. But they've been they've been doing that for 20 25 years. Yeah.

[00:30:52]>> Mr. President, if you don't see Hamas disarm in that short amount of time that you're giving them, can you tell us what the next steps would be?

[00:30:58]>> Maybe uh horrible for them. Horrible.

[00:31:05]>> It's going to be really, really bad for them. And I don't want that to happen. But they made an agreement that they were going to disarm. And you couldn't blame Israel. By the way, we have other countries that will come in and do it. They said, "Let us do it for you if they don't." Countries that were with them wanted the deal to be made, agreed that they would disarm. And now, if they say they're going to disarm, that's fine. If they say they're not going to disarm, those same countries will go and wipe them out. They don't even need Israel. You know, we have many countries, 59 countries that are in agree. This is a real peace in the Middle East and uh Hamas is a small part of it, but it's still a part of it, but we have 59 countries that signed on, big countries, countries that are outside of the uh Middle East, as you know, the Middle East. They want to go in and wipe out Hamas. They don't want Israel. They don't need Israel. They want to do it because it's the right thing to do.

[00:32:08]because they were for the deal based on the fact that Hamas pledged they swore that they were going to disarm. Now, if they're not going to disarm, those same countries will wipe out Hamas.

[00:32:21]>> President Trump, do you think that the PA should be involved in the day after in Gaza Strip even in the near future?

[00:32:27]And the same question to Prime Minister Netanyahu. Do you see a real opportunity that the PA will be in Gaza?

[00:32:32]>> Go ahead, Mimi. I think President Trump put clearly the conditions that of reform that he wants to see in the PA for them to be involved. Uh and I I think he put it very clearly what he wants to see the kind of real reforms not just uh preuncterary reforms but real reforms. Stop pay to slay change the curriculum in your textbooks. Uh open up uh you know a different society and a different future. if they do it >> well, you know, let them uh you know, I think it was clear he put he put uh pretty clear >> he put guidelines that uh were by the way in the Trump plan of 2020 and they were put then in the 20 points and um it's up to them.

[00:33:15]>> Remember this. If we didn't do what we did to Iran, just to make the subject just slightly different, you wouldn't have peace in the Middle East. You wouldn't have a a deal signed in the Middle East. you wouldn't have a deal because other Arab nations, which are great, great great people. I know them very well. I know them all. They're great people. They wouldn't be able to have agreed to peace in the Middle East because you would have had a dark cloud hanging over everything. It wouldn't wouldn't have been possible. So, Iran has been greatly reduced in power, prestige. I don't want to use the word humiliation because, you know, they're trying to build up again. But we can't let them build up because if they build up, they can't be peace in the Middle East. It was a mistake. You know, when they wiped out Iraq, Iraq and Iran were about the same power. And they fought each other with different names for a thousand years.

[00:34:10]And then our country came out and blew up one of those two countries, namely Iraq. And all of a sudden, Iran had the whole Middle East all to itself. But that's not true anymore. That's not true anymore. Will they sell?

[00:34:25]>> Can you tell us something?

[00:34:27]>> Tell us something about your plan to expand Abraham Accords.

[00:34:32]>> If you can tell us something about your plan to expand Abraham Accords.

[00:34:37]>> Well, the Abraham Accords are a great it was a great achievement of Jared and everybody. I mean, it was one of the great achievements. Uh they'll be expanded.

[00:34:49]Uh countries are already talking about expanding it and they'll be expanded fairly quickly. Yeah, please.

[00:34:55]>> Saudi Arabia. Is it still on the table?

[00:34:57]They're normally taking >> Saudi Arabia is great. We have a great leader and uh friend of mine and a friend of a lot of people also an enemy of some people. But uh those people aren't doing so well. No, Saudi Arabia has been very good as far as I'm concerned. They've done everything that we can ask for.

[00:35:19]>> But normalization with Israel is on the >> They're getting along great with Israel.

[00:35:23]They will. And at some point they'll sign the Abraham Accords.

[00:35:27]>> Mr. President, we know.

[00:35:28]>> So, one of the big domestic uh tasks ahead of you is to pick a new chairman for the Fed.

[00:35:34]>> Yeah.

[00:35:34]>> You're you've said that you have one favorite, but you're also doing interviews.

[00:35:38]>> Still do hasn't changed.

[00:35:40]>> Yeah. I'll announce them at the right time. There's plenty of time.

[00:35:43]>> Are you there? In the meantime, we're doing numbers that nobody's ever seen.

[00:35:46]We have $18 trillion coming in. We had a 4.3% GDP. They thought it was going to be 2%. And that's despite the Democrat shutdown. Had the shutdown not occurred, we would have had an extra point and a quarter. Think of that. Uh we are doing and also despite the fact that we have a fool at the Federal Reserve. I mean, Biden reappointed him. It's too bad. You would have thought he wouldn't have done that, but uh he's an absolute fool who's building a new Federal Reserve or he's doing a renovation of a building. Maybe he's up to $4.1 billion to do a renovation of a few very small buildings. It's the highest price in the history of construction.

[00:36:33]He's spending more money than any building has ever spent per square foot on the renovation of, as an example, I'm doing a magnificent big, beautiful ballroom that the country has wanted, the White House has wanted for 150 years. It's a massive job and it's a tiny fraction of that number. And we're under budget and ahead of schedule. Now it's it's bigger than I told you. I it's uh you know after realizing we're going to do the inauguration in that building.

[00:37:05]It's got all bulletproof glass. It's got all drone they call it drone free roof.

[00:37:11]It's a drones won't touch it. It's a big uh it's a big beautiful safe building but it's you know it's a big project for a tiny fraction of that. We're under budget and ahead of schedule and they've wanted it for 150 years. Think of it.

[00:37:29]The Federal Reserve building, two buildings there, they don't know what they're doing. They're they're way over budget. I mean, almost this was built during the Biden administration, and I wrote by it the other day, and it's headed by the head of the Federal Reserve.

[00:37:47]Too late, you know, too late Powell. Too late because he's always too late with interest rates. Except before the election, he was too early because that would have helped. that was supposed to help get her elected. It had no impact.

[00:37:59]We won all seven swing states.

[00:38:01]>> But but no, no, >> we're thinking about bringing a suit against Powell for incompetence because think of it. These are two these aren't outstanding buildings. These are small buildings.

[00:38:13]He said four billion more. It's going to end up costing more than $4 billion.

[00:38:17]Four billion. It's the highest price of construction. Again, Democrats highest price of construction per square foot in the history of the world.

[00:38:28]There's never been gorgeous monuments are built for a much smaller price. So, we're thinking about bringing a a gross incompetence, what's called gross incompetence lawsuit. It's gross incompetence against Powell.

[00:38:43]And it was his baby.

[00:38:45]And uh the guy's just >> for your support. It's meant from the heart.

[00:38:51]Thank you. You know, as I said outside, he's been a wartime prime minister and we were, look, I guess I could say I was a wartime president in more places than just Israel if you think about it. But Israel was a big factor and we're with you and we'll continue to be with you.

[00:39:09]And a lot of good things are happening in the Middle East. We have peace in the Middle East and we're going to try and keep it that way. I think we will be very successful in keeping it that way.

[00:39:19]and uh you've been a a great friend and I've been a great friend to you and to Israel and it's been my honor and the award that I was given was really uh surprising and uh very much appreciated.

[00:39:33]>> Well, President Trump has broken so many conventions to the surprise of people and then they figure out oh well maybe you know he was right after all. So, we decided to break a convention to or create a new one. And that is to award uh the Israel Prize, which in almost our 80 years, we've never awarded it to a non-Israeli.

[00:39:55]And we're going to award it this year uh to President Trump. This was announced formally uh over lunch uh by uh our Minister of Education, who's responsible for the uh Israel Prize. It's going to be awarded to President Donald J. Trump for his tremendous contributions to Israel and the Jewish people. Uh I I think there's it's such a fitting thing and it would honor us obviously, Mr. President, if you could visit Israel uh in that occasion on our Independence Day. But uh I have to say that this reflects the overwhelming sentiment of Israelis across the the spectrum. they appreciate what you've done to help Israel and to help our common battle against the terrorists and those who would destroy our civilization. So again, that's an expression of thanks um and appreciation.

[00:40:52]>> Thank you, baby, very much. That really is a great honor.

[00:40:55]>> Any questions, please? We'll go pretty quickly because pretty much we agree on most of the things and you would know what most of those things are. Please go ahead.

[00:41:04]>> Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to know if if you and the prime minister talked about having uh Israel uh pull back its troops before uh Hamas fully disarms. I know that's been been an issue. Did you push for that today?

[00:41:16]>> Well, we talked about Hamas and we talked about disarmament and they're going to be given a very short period of time to disarm and we'll see how that works out. Steve Woodoff and Jared Kushner will be in charge of that from our side. Uh but if they don't disarm as as they agreed to do, they agreed to it and then they'll be held to pay for them and we don't want that.

[00:41:44]We're not looking for that. But they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time.

[00:41:49]>> Israel withdrawing its forces.

[00:41:51]>> Well, that's a separate subject. We'll uh we'll talk about that.

[00:41:54]>> Mr. President, >> Mr. President, >> did you have a message for the prime minister about the West Bank? And are you at all concerned that settler violence, Israeli settler violence could be undermining the peace plan?

[00:42:04]>> Well, we have had a discussion, big discussion for a long time on the West Bank, and I wouldn't say we agree on the West Bank 100%. But we uh we'll come to a conclusion on the West Bank.

[00:42:17]>> If I could ask, what is the dis?

[00:42:18]>> Well, I don't want to do that. It'll be announced at an appropriate time. But he will do the right thing. I know that. I know him very well. He will do the right thing. Yes. Um there is a growing fear of a confrontation between Israel and Turkey. How you going to ease this tension given the fact that Erdogan, President Erdogan calls Mr. Netanyahu Hitler and compares Israel to the Nazi?

[00:42:40]>> Well, I know President Erdogan very well and as you all know, he's a very good friend of mine and uh I believe that and I do respect him and BB respects him and they're not going to have a problem.

[00:42:54]They're not going to have a problem. I know very well and you've seen me do things with President Erdogan and Turkey that nobody else could have done. We're not going to have a problem. He's uh he's done a fantastic job. I'm with him all the way. I'm with BB all the way.

[00:43:10]Nothing's going to happen.

[00:43:12]>> Yes, Mr. Mr. President. Um are you concerned that Israel is not moving quickly enough to phase two of the peace plan?

[00:43:20]>> Well, I'm not concerned about anything that Israel is doing. And I'm concerned about what other people are doing or maybe aren't doing, but I'm not concerned. They've lived up to the plan.

[00:43:31]They're strong. They're solid. And sometimes they don't understand when somebody violates something that you want to give them a second chance. Well, we'll give them a couple of second chances. But no, Israel's lived up to the plan 100%. Don't forget, we made the plan possible by taking out Iran.

[00:43:52]And speaking of Iran, I hope they're not trying to build up again because if they are, we're going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that buildup.

[00:44:01]So, I hope Iran is not trying to build up as I've been reading uh that they're building up weapons and other things.

[00:44:09]And if they are, they're not they're not using the sites that we obliterated, but they're using possibly different sites.

[00:44:17]We know exactly where they're going, what they're doing, and I hope they're not doing it because we don't want to waste the fuel on a B2. It's a 37-hour trip both ways. I don't want to waste a lot of fuel.

[00:44:30]>> Okay.

[00:44:30]>> Mr. President Trump, your last remarks regarding the Perdon's request of Prime Minister Netanyahu office told us that you have not talked um after the official request of Prime Minister Netanyahu Perdon. Can you clarify to us? Did you talk >> which request are you talking about >> with the um the president? The Israeli president. Did you talked with him directly?

[00:44:53]>> Erdogan is the president.

[00:44:56]>> You're talking about pardon?

[00:44:58]>> Yeah.

[00:44:58]>> Oh, well, you got to say that. No, I think he's going to be in great shape.

[00:45:02]He's a wartime prime minister at the highest level.

[00:45:05]He's achieved tremendous success. And I'll say it, you know, uh if you had eight out of 10 prime ministers in his position right now or before right now maybe you wouldn't have Israel any longer. Israel would not exist. I'd say two two of them would and eight of them wouldn't. That's those are not good odds. You needed a very special man to uh to really carry through and and really help Israel through this horrible jam. You know, these are major factions and it started with our negotiation with Iran. I think it probably started with uh Salami.

[00:45:48]That was really where you mentioned that today. It started with Salami.

[00:45:53]Uh bad guy doing bad things, hurting a lot of people, killing American soldiers and other soldiers. But it started right there would probably be the starting point. And then uh from that point forward uh but you would you have a wartime prime minister at the highest level. There could be other wartime prime ministers but they'd lose. He won and I think the people of Israel appreciate it. I think a lot of the people in the world appreciate it actually. And because of that victory we were able to get peace in the Middle East. If you had a different kind of a personality, if you had a weak person or a stupid person, and there are plenty of both of them, uh you would not have had success, and you might not have Israel, and you report for Israel. I know you're very proud of it, and you do a great job. Uh you might not have a job because there might not be an Israel right now if you had a different prime minister.

[00:46:45]That's a big statement, but to me, it's a very simple statement to make. I'm looking at Pete Hexath and he's sort of nodding. If they don't have a strong prime minister, Pete, you might not have Israel today. I think he'll go down in the record books. And you know, I was a big help. I'll be honest with you. Big big help. Uh somebody may said in the room, if you don't have Trump, you needed a a proper combination of everything.

[00:47:11]And if you didn't have that combination, which they had, you would not have an existing Israel right now. And the people of Israel know it.

[00:47:20]>> That's why they like me. And it's why they really they actually like him. He's got a little bit of a lovehate more than I do over there. But uh but you know what? Even the haters have a lot of respect for him. There's a lot of jealousy about him. A lot of jealousy.

[00:47:33]Jealousy is a bad word. But I believe you would not have Israel right now. So it's a big deal. Yeah. Please.

[00:47:41]>> Uh a recent poll showed that as many of as half of Gazins would be willing to leave the Gaza Strip if afforded the opportunity to do so. Back in February, you said that all Gaz I heard that number today. Half of Gaza would leave.

[00:47:53]>> I've always said it. I said if they were given the opportunity to live in a a better climate, they would move. They They're there because they sort of have to be. I think it would be I think it would be a great opportunity. But let's see if that opportunity presents itself.

[00:48:09]But we're helping the people of Gaza a lot. So is Israel, by the way. So we'll see what happens. But I saw that there was a poll. It was actually more than half the people would leave if they were given the opportunity. And I've been saying that for a long time. It was to me it was common sense. So it's interesting.

[00:48:26]>> Why wouldn't countries accept us?

[00:48:29]>> Look, let's not talk about because we don't want the controversy right now.

[00:48:34]We're helping Gaza. But if they were given the opportunity, I think even higher than that, the person the group that did the poll is usually I call them negative polls. You have a lot of them.

[00:48:46]And yet this poll was I think very accurate other than it would be more than half the people if given the opportunity but they haven't been given that opportunity. So we'll see what happens.

[00:48:56]>> Is the president point of understanding regarding Syria?

[00:49:02]>> Uh we do have an understanding regarding Syria. Now with Syria, you know, your new president, I respect him. He's a very strong guy and that's what you need in Syria. You can't put uh a choir boy.

[00:49:16]You can't put a, you know, somebody that's a perfect person. Everything's nice. No problems in life. You have the opposite there. He's a strong guy. We get along with him great. Uh I can't ask for any more. He's he's been with us all the way. We had that mishap with ISIS and he was with us all the way. He was fighting us, you know, he was fighting them. So, uh I hope Israel I'm sure that Israel and him will get along. I will try and make it so that they do get along. Mr. >> I think they will. BB, do you have anything to say about that?

[00:49:50]>> Yeah. Well, our interest is to have uh a peaceful border with Syria. Our interest is to have uh and we openly say it. We we want to uh make sure that the border area right next to our border is safe. uh we don't have terrorists, we don't have attacks, and we also want to secure our Jews friends. And by the way, I think not only the Jews, but other minorities, especially the Christians, should be >> right >> protected as well in Syria and throughout the Middle East and in Nigeria. Uh in your efforts, we back completely because Christian communities are belleaguered around the world and especially in the Middle East, but in parts of Africa, too.

[00:50:33]>> And uh and we stand for the same thing.

[00:50:35]And don't forget, it was President Erdogan that helped very much get rid of a very bad ruler of Syria. That was President Erdogan.

[00:50:46]And he never wanted the credit for it.

[00:50:48]But he he really gets a lot of credit.

[00:50:50]BB agrees with that. I agree with I mean I know it. And President Erdogan should get a lot of good credit for what he did. He got rid of some very bad people.

[00:51:00]And you know they've been wanting to do that for a thousand years with different names but for a thousand years in Syria.

[00:51:05]President Erdogan did it and we give him a lot of credit. I give him a lot of credit. Uh but I think it's going to work out well between Syria and Israel.

[00:51:17]>> Mr. President.

[00:51:19]>> Yeah. Go ahead please. The Lebanese government what we saw is not meeting the terms of the ceasefire agreement has failed to dis disarm Fisbala actually.

[00:51:31]In your view, should Israel strike the terrorist organization again?

[00:51:34]>> Well, we're going to see about that.

[00:51:35]We'll see about it. Uh the Lebanese government is at a little bit of a disadvantage if you think of it with Hezbollah, but uh Hezbollah has been behaving badly. So, we'll see what happens.

[00:51:49]>> Mr. President, Mr. also with another operation of Israel in Iran. You said before the meeting with Netanyahu that you are in support of Israel if the ballistic missile project will take on and also the nuclear weapon. But after the meeting, after what you know from the intelligence, how close are we to another war with Iran?

[00:52:07]>> Well, I don't want to say that, but Iran may be behaving badly.

[00:52:13]It hasn't been confirmed, but if it's confirmed, look, they know the consequences. You know, consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than the last time.

[00:52:24]Yeah.

[00:52:26]>> And Iran should have made a deal the last time. I gave them the option. I said, "You can make a deal. Do it." I told them, "Do it." And they didn't believe me. Now they believe me.

[00:52:38]>> You think badly? And what do you mean badly?

[00:52:40]>> This is just what we hear. But usually uh where there's smoke there's fire.

[00:52:47]Have you heard the expression?

[00:52:48]>> But what do you do you mean related to the nuclear cap?

[00:52:50]>> Well, no. I'm hearing that they're not nuclear yet, but maybe nuclear, too. The sites were obliterated, but they're looking at other sites. That's what I've heard. They're looking, so it'll take a long time.

[00:53:01]>> They're not going to go back to where they were. But they they have other places they can go. And if they're doing that, they're making a big mistake.

[00:53:09]Yeah. Please. There's no reason for them to do it.

[00:53:12]>> Mr. President, Mr. President, um is the United States currently uh open to engaging in bilateral discussions with Tran? We're hearing reports from numerous countries that there may be some discussions. Is that something uh you would support or something that is >> I would you would support that?

[00:53:27]>> I would. Yes. Right now.

[00:53:28]>> Thank you, sir.

[00:53:29]>> I have been by the way before the war I would support that. I said to him, baby, I said let's negotiate.

[00:53:36]and uh they didn't believe what was going to happen would happen. Yes, ma'am.

[00:53:40]>> On China, so China has been doing naval exercises basically to test encircling Taiwan. Can you explain to us what your knowledge is of that? What do you think about that? Have you had any discussions with >> Well, I have a great relationship with President Xi and he hasn't told me anything about it. I certainly have seen it, but he hasn't told me anything about it. And uh I don't believe he's going to be doing it.

[00:54:05]>> Does it worry you?

[00:54:07]>> No, nothing worries me. Nothing.

[00:54:09]>> Where there's smoke, there's fire.

[00:54:10]Right.

[00:54:10]>> So if you're in circle, if you're doing naval exercises and air exercises, >> I've been doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area. Now people take it a little bit differently, but in fact larger than they're doing right now. So we'll see. But they've been they've been doing that for 20 25 years. Yeah.

[00:54:29]>> Mr. President, if you don't see Hamas disarm in that short amount of time that you're giving them, can you tell us what the next steps would be?

[00:54:35]>> It'll be uh horrible for them. Horrible.

[00:54:42]>> Going to be really, really bad for them. And I don't want that to happen. But they made an agreement that they were going to disarm. And you couldn't blame Israel. By the way, we have other countries that will come in and do it. They said, "Let us do it for you if they don't." Countries that were with them wanted the deal to be made, agreed that they would disarm. And now, if they say they're going to disarm, that's fine. If they say they're not going to disarm, those same countries will go and wipe them out. They don't even need Israel. You know, we have many countries, 59 countries that are in agree. This is a real peace in the Middle East and uh Hamas is a small part of it, but it's still a part of it, but we have 59 countries that signed on. Big countries, countries that are outside of the uh Middle East, as you know, the Middle East, they want to go in and wipe out Hamas. They don't want Israel. They don't need Israel. They want to do it because it's the right thing to do.

[00:55:45]because they were for the deal based on the fact that Hamas pledged they swore that they were going to disarm. Now, if they're not going to disarm, those same countries will wipe out Hamas.

[00:55:58]>> President Trump, do you think that the PA should be involved in the day after in Gaza Strip even in the near future?

[00:56:04]And the same question to Prime Minister Netanyahu. Do you see a real opportunity that the PA will be in Gaza?

[00:56:09]>> Go ahead, Mimi. I think President Trump put clearly the conditions that of reform that he wants to see in the PA for them to be involved. Uh and I I think he put it very clearly what he wants to see the kind of real reforms not just uh preuncterary reforms but real reforms. Stop pay to slay change the curriculum in your textbooks. Uh open up uh you know a different society and a different future if they do it.

[00:56:35]Well, you know, let them uh you know, I think it was clear. He put he put uh >> pretty clear >> he put guidelines that uh were by the way in the Trump plan of 2020 and they were put then in the 20 points and u it's up to them.

[00:56:52]>> Remember this. If we didn't do what we did to Iran, just to make the subject just slightly different, you wouldn't have peace in the Middle East. You wouldn't have a a deal signed in the Middle East. you wouldn't have a deal because other Arab nations, which are great, great great people. I know them very well. I know them. They're great people. They wouldn't be able to have agreed to peace in the Middle East because you would have had a dark cloud hanging over everything. It wouldn't wouldn't have been possible. So, Iran has been greatly reduced in power, prestige. I don't want to use the word humiliation because, you know, they're trying to build up again. But we can't let them build up because if they build up, they can't be peace in the Middle East. It was a mistake. You know, when they wiped out Iraq, Iraq and Iran were about the same power. And they fought each other with different names for a thousand years.

[00:57:47]And then our country came out and blew up one of those two countries, namely Iraq. And all of a sudden, Iran had the whole Middle East all to itself. But that's not true anymore. That's not true anymore.

[00:58:02]Can you tell us something?

[00:58:04]>> Tell us something about your plan to expand Abraham Accords.

[00:58:09]>> If you can tell us something about your plan to expand Abraham Accords.

[00:58:14]>> Well, the Abraham Accords are a great it was a great achievement of Jared and everybody. I mean, it was one of the great achievements. Uh they'll be expanded.

[00:58:26]uh countries are already talking about expanding it and they'll be expanded fairly quickly. Yeah, please.

[00:58:32]>> Saudi Arabia, is it still on the table?

[00:58:34]They're normally taking >> Saudi Arabia is great. We have a great leader and uh friend of mine and a friend of a lot of people also an enemy of some people, but uh those people aren't doing so well. No, Saudi Arabia has been very good as far as I'm concerned. They've done everything that we can ask for.

[00:58:55]>> But normalization with Israel is on the >> They're getting along great with Israel.

[00:58:59]They will >> and at some point they'll sign the Abraham Accords.

[00:59:04]>> Mr. President, >> so one of the big domestic uh tasks ahead of you is to pick a new chairman for the Fed.

[00:59:10]>> Yeah.

[00:59:11]>> You're you've said that you have one favorite, but you're also doing interviews.

[00:59:15]>> Still do hasn't changed.

[00:59:17]>> Yeah, I'll announce them at the right time. There's plenty of time.

[00:59:20]>> Are you there? In the meantime, we're doing numbers that nobody's ever seen.

[00:59:23]We have $18 trillion coming in. We had a 4.3% GDP. They thought it was going to be 2%. And that's despite the Democrat shutdown. Had the shutdown not occurred, we would have had an extra point and a quarter. Think of that. Uh we are doing and also despite the fact that we have a fool at the Federal Reserve. I mean, Biden reappointed him. It's too bad. You would have thought he wouldn't have done that, but uh he's an absolute fool who's building a new Federal Reserve or he's doing a renovation of a building. Maybe he's up to 4.1 billion dollars to do a renovation of a few very small buildings. It's the highest price in the history of construction.

[01:00:10]He's spending more money than any building has ever spent per square foot on the renovation of, as an example, I'm doing a magnificent big, beautiful ballroom that the country has wanted, the White House has wanted for 150 years. It's a massive job and it's a tiny fraction of that number. And we're under budget and ahead of schedule. Now, it's it's bigger than I told you. I it's uh you know after realizing we're going to do the inauguration in that building.

[01:00:42]It's got all bulletproof glass. It's got all drone they call it drone free roof.

[01:00:48]The drones won't touch it. It's a big uh it's a big beautiful safe building but it's you know it's a big project for a tiny fraction of that. We're under budget and ahead of schedule and they've wanted it for 150 years. Think of it.

[01:01:06]The Federal Reserve building, two buildings there, they don't know what they're doing. They're they're way over budget. I mean, almost this was built during the Biden administration, and I wrote by it the other day, and it's headed by the head of the Federal Reserve.

[01:01:24]Too late, you know, too late, Powell.

[01:01:27]Too late because he's always too late with interest rates. Except before the election, he was too early because that would have helped. that was supposed to help get her elected. It had no impact.

[01:01:36]We won all seven swing states.

[01:01:38]>> But but no, no, >> we're thinking about bringing a suit against Powell for incompetence because think of it. These are two these aren't outstanding buildings. These are small buildings.

[01:01:50]He said four billion more. It's going to end up costing more than $4 billion.

[01:01:54]Four billion. It's the highest price of construction. Again, Democrats highest price of construction per square foot in the history of the world.

[01:02:05]There's never been gorgeous monuments are built for a much smaller price. So, we're thinking about bringing a a gross incompetence, what's called gross incompetence lawsuit. It's gross incompetence against Powell.

[01:02:20]And it was his baby.

[01:02:22]And uh the guy's just >> for your support. It's meant from the heart.

[01:02:28]Thank you. You know, as I said outside, he's been a wartime prime minister and we were look, I guess I could say I was a wartime president in more places than just Israel if you think about it. But Israel was a big factor and we're with you and we'll continue to be with you.

[01:02:46]And a lot of good things are happening in the Middle East. We have peace in the Middle East and we're going to try and keep it that way. I think we will be very successful in keeping it that way.

[01:02:56]and uh you've been a a great friend and I've been a great friend to you and to Israel and it's been my honor and the award that I was given was really uh surprising and uh very much appreciated.

[01:03:10]>> Well, President Trump has broken so many conventions to the surprise of people and then they figure out oh well maybe you know he was right after all. So, we decided to break a convention to or create a new one. And that is to award uh the Israel Prize, which in almost our 80 years, we've never awarded it to a non-Israeli. And we're going to award it this year uh to President Trump. This was announced formerly uh over lunch uh by uh our Minister of Education, who's responsible for the uh Israel Prize.

[01:03:46]It's going to be awarded to President Donald J. Trump for his tremendous contributions to Israel and the Jewish people. Uh I I think there's it's such a fitting thing and it would honor us obviously, Mr. President, if you could visit Israel uh in that occasion on her Independence Day. But uh I have to say that this reflects the overwhelming sentiment of Israelis across the the spectrum. They appreciate what you've done to help Israel and to help our common battle against the terrorists and those who would destroy our civilization. So again, that's an expression of thanks um and appreciation.

[01:04:29]>> Thank you, baby, very much. That really is a great honor.

[01:04:32]>> Any questions, please? We'll go pretty quickly because pretty much we agree on most of the things and you would know what most of those things are. Please go ahead.

[01:04:41]>> Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to know if if you and the prime minister talked about having uh Israel uh pull back its troops before uh Hamas fully disarms. I know that's been been an issue. Did you push for that today?

[01:04:53]>> Well, we talked about Hamas and we talked about disarmament and they're going to be given a very short period of time to disarm and we'll see how that works out. Steve Woodoff and Jared Kushner will be in charge of that from our side. Uh but if they don't disarm as as they agreed to do, they agreed to it and then they'll be held to pay for them and we don't want that.

[01:05:21]We're not looking for that. But they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time.

[01:05:26]>> Israel withdrawing its forces.

[01:05:28]>> Well, that's a separate subject. We'll uh we'll talk about that.

[01:05:31]>> Mr. President, >> Mr. President, >> did you have a message for the prime minister about the West Bank? And are you at all concerned that settler violence, Israeli settler violence could be undermining the peace plan?

[01:05:41]>> Well, we have had a discussion, big discussion for a long time on the West Bank, and I wouldn't say we agree on the West Bank 100%. But we uh we'll come to a conclusion on the West Bank.

[01:05:54]>> If I could ask, what is the dis?

[01:05:55]>> Well, I don't want to do that. It'll be announced at an appropriate time. But he will do the right thing. I know that. I know him very well. He will do the right thing. Yes. Um there is a growing fear of a confrontation between Israel and Turkey. How you going to ease this tension given the fact that Erdogan, President Erdogan calls Mr. Netanyahu Hitler and compares Israel to the Nazi?

[01:06:17]>> Well, I know President Erdogan very well and as you all know, he's a very good friend of mine and uh I believe that and I do respect him and BB respects him and they're not going to have a problem.

[01:06:31]They're not going to have a problem. I know very well and you've seen me do things with President Erdogan and Turkey that nobody else could have done. We're not going to have a problem. He's uh he's done a fantastic job. I'm with him all the way. I'm with BB all the way.

[01:06:47]Nothing's going to happen.

[01:06:49]>> Yes, >> Mr. Mr. President. Um are you concerned that Israel is not moving quickly enough to phase two of the peace plan?

[01:06:57]>> Well, I'm not concerned about anything that Israel is doing. And I'm concerned about what other people are doing or maybe aren't doing. But I'm not concerned. They've lived up to the plan.

[01:07:08]They're strong.