While meeting with Ambassadors in the White House Cabinet Room, President Trump took questions about the leak of a Signal group chat involving top officials discussing the strike on Yemen.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, are you going to change any of the practices that your national security
00:04officials used after a reporter was inadvertently added to a group chat about attacks on Yemen?
00:10Well, I think it's a question I've been asked now and I've given a few answers and they've
00:17all been the same.
00:19We have an amazing group.
00:20Our national security now is stronger than it's ever been.
00:24We have had a very, very successful numerous attacks on that area.
00:29These are people that shoot down ships, not only our ships, ships all over the world.
00:33They're shooting down right out of the water and damaging them badly.
00:37Or they're going down.
00:38They're also shooting anything that happens to be flying in the area.
00:41We hit them very, very hard.
00:44There was no classified information, as I understand it.
00:48They used a app, if you want to call it an app, that a lot of people use, a lot of people
00:55in government use, a lot of people in the media use.
00:58And I think I'll ask, Mike, Mike is here.
01:00Do you want to respond to that, please?
01:02Yes.
01:03Mr. President, you asked about lessons.
01:04I think there's a lot of the lessons, there's a lot of journalists in this city who have
01:08made big names for themselves, making up lies about this president, whether it's the Russia
01:14hoax or making up lies about gold star families.
01:17And this one in particular, I've never met, don't know, never communicated with.
01:22And we are and we are looking into and reviewing how the heck he got into this room.
01:27But I'll tell you what, the world owes President Trump a favor.
01:31Under Biden, global shipping was shut down, pinprick attacks, months between them, our
01:36destroyers being fired upon dozens of times.
01:40President Trump took decisive action with his national security team, took out the head
01:46missileer, knocked out missiles, knocked out headquarters, knocked out communication sites.
01:52And for once, as we hear, as you all hear from every one of our allies, thank God for
01:57American leadership again.
01:59Thank God for American strength.
02:01You're a welcome here.
02:04And we have a national security team that was coordinating these efforts.
02:11As Director Ratcliffe testified today, his first day on the job, he was introduced to
02:16this app on his government systems at the CIA and at the State Department and otherwise.
02:22So look, this journalist, Mr. President, wants the world talking about more hoaxes and this
02:29kind of nonsense rather than the freedom that you're enabling.
02:33And a key part of our sovereignty is open sea lanes and knocking the crap out of terrorists,
02:38which is exactly what your team and Pete Hex, a good friend and fellow veteran, is leading
02:43the charge on.
02:44We had a very, very successful.
02:46Excuse me.
02:47We had a very, very successful evening and we've had numerous successful evenings and
02:53days in that area.
02:54The hoodies are absolutely on the run.
02:57The worst of them have been killed.
03:01This should have been done a long time ago by Biden, but Biden was an incompetent president.
03:05He couldn't do anything.
03:06He would.
03:07He didn't know where where he was going.
03:08He had no clue.
03:09This guy had no clue.
03:10This should have been done a long time ago as they shoot missiles at ships, randomly
03:15shoot missiles at ships and and they make their own missiles.
03:19You know, this is not an incompetent group of people.
03:21They make their own missiles.
03:23They get the missiles also from Iran.
03:26It's an offshoot of Iran.
03:27Another offshoot.
03:28You have Hamas.
03:29You have Hezbollah.
03:30You have the hoodies.
03:31You got a lot of stuff going on with Iran.
03:34And we sent a letter to Iran.
03:35You're going to have to be speaking to us one way or the other pretty soon because we
03:39can't let this happen.
03:41But that's an app that a lot of people use.
03:44And somebody got on.
03:45I mean, I happen to know the guy's a total sleazebag.
03:48The Atlantic.
03:49The Atlantic is a failed magazine does very, very poorly.
03:52Nobody gives a damn about it.
03:54It gives this gives it a little bit of a shot.
03:58And I will tell you this, that they've made up more stories and and they're just a failing
04:04magazine.
04:05The public understands that he's a very good man.
04:07That man is a very good man right there that you criticize.
04:12He's a very good man.
04:14And he will continue to do a good job.
04:18In addition to him, we had very good people in that meeting.
04:22And those people have done a very, very effective job.
04:26And you're going to see it.
04:27And it goes on, by the way, it's going to go on.
04:30And I think the hoodies wish that it didn't happen.
04:34But that's what it's all about.
04:35We have to create a safe country, a safe world.
04:38And that's what we're doing.
04:39Do you worry that national security was put at risk, Mr. President, of senior officials
04:44using signal?
04:45Do I plan to ban?
04:46Who?
04:47The use of signal to communicate from senior officials?
04:49Well, I don't know.
04:50I don't know anything about signal.
04:51I wasn't involved in this, but I just heard about it.
04:55And I hear it's used by a lot of groups.
04:57It's used by the media a lot.
05:00It's used by a lot of the military and I think successfully.
05:04But sometimes somebody can get onto those things.
05:06That's one of the prices you pay when you're not sitting in the situation room with no
05:12phones on, which is always the best, frankly.
05:14But you know, you the best is to be there.
05:17In fact, oftentimes I've been in fact, just last week, I was in the situation room with
05:23something very important.
05:24And we had a couple of people hooked up by line and I said, cancel the line.
05:28Sorry, fellas.
05:29What you do is we'll tell you all about the meeting, because I know people do get on those
05:33lines, whether it's signal or anything else.
05:35Yeah.
05:36Are you going to change any procedures as a result of this?
05:39Well, I mean, look, we look at everything and, you know, they've made a big deal out
05:43of this because we've had two perfect months.
05:45We're bringing we are bringing in business.
05:48We have another one announced tomorrow, a big one, very big, like in the history of
05:53our country.
05:54Nobody's ever seen anything like it.
05:55And I think probably a lot of people are saying it's they started by saying it was the greatest
06:00first month that a president has ever had.
06:03And I think that's true.
06:04And now they say it's the best second month and they had to find something.
06:08And this certainly will look at this.
06:11But the main thing was nothing happened.
06:14The attack was totally successful.
06:17It was, I guess, from what I understand, took place during and it wasn't classified information.
06:23So this was not classified.
06:24Now, if it's classified information, it's probably a little bit different.
06:28But I always say you got to you have to learn from every experience.
06:31I think it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael.
06:35He's a good person.
06:38The person that was on just happens to be a sleazebag.
06:40So maybe that's just coincidence.
06:41I don't know.
06:42But you are.
06:43What is the problem?
06:44Is the Atlantic release all the text messages that are not classified?
06:48Well, I don't I'd have to ask the military about that because, you know, maybe you wouldn't
06:52want that.
06:53I don't know.
06:54I will say this.
06:56The the man that we're talking about, who's not somebody that I don't think most people
07:03have ever heard of.
07:04He left.
07:05He found it very boring and he left early.
07:07He got off the line very early.
07:10So I can't speak to it other than that.
07:13So he's made up a lot of stories and, you know, I think he's basically bad for the country.
07:18But it's it's a failing venture, very failing venture.
07:21They're very upset.
07:23And a thing like this is publicity for them.
07:26But I don't think we should allow people that are very good like that man sitting right
07:30at the end of the table.
07:31He's done a great job.
07:33We shouldn't allow them to be hurt by it.
07:35Mr. President, are you saying you're OK with the continued use of signal by administration?
07:42No, that's not what I said.
07:43I said, we'll look into it.
07:45But everybody else seems to be using it.
07:48It seems to be the number one used device or app, whatever you want to call it.
07:53And we will certainly look.
07:55If it was up to me, everybody would be sitting in a room together.
07:59The room would have solid lead walls and a lead ceiling and a lead floor.
08:04But you know, life doesn't always let you do that.
08:07In the meantime, the attack itself that we were talking about and discussing has been
08:11an unbelievable success.
08:14But you will conduct an investigation is what you're saying.
08:18We'll look into it.
08:19I would look into it.
08:20I want to look at anything like that.
08:24I would I would ask them.
08:26It's not really an FBI thing.
08:27It's really something having to do with security, security like, will somebody be able to break
08:33in?
08:34Are people able to break into conversations?
08:37And if that's true, we're going to have to find some other form of of device.
08:41And I think that's something that we may have to do.
08:44Some people like signal very much.
08:46Other people probably don't.
08:48But we'll look into it.
08:49I think, Michael, I've asked you to immediately study that and find out if people are able
08:55to break into a system.
08:57Now, in this case, it wasn't that the this attack was going on and nobody found out anything.
09:02And again, the person that was on, as I understand it, he left very early because he didn't find
09:07it very exciting.
09:09But I think it's something you should look into, sir.
09:12We are.
09:13We have our technical experts looking at it.
09:15We have our legal teams looking at it.
09:18And of course, we're going to keep everything as secure as possible.
09:23No one in your national security team would ever put anyone in danger.
09:26And as you've said, and we've repeatedly said, the attack was phenomenal and it's ongoing.
09:32But the media wants to talk about everything else except for the hostages you're getting
09:35out of the Middle East, Iran on its back foot, ceilings getting reopened, peace in Europe,
09:42as we just saw today with a Black Sea ceasefire.
09:45We were just on with Steve Whitkoff, myself, our team in Saudi Arabia.
09:50They want to talk about all this other stuff except for your amazing successes and the
09:54successes of your team.
09:56One of the other things, and sometimes you have to move very quickly and there are other
10:00devices that are very good, but they are very, very cumbersome and you're not able to use
10:04them and from a practical standpoint.
10:07So all we can do is find out the best we have with modern technology.
10:13They'll probably get better over the years.
10:14Yeah, go ahead.
10:15Sir, on the Black Sea, so the Kremlin has said that there were several conditions that
10:19would need to be met for this agreement to happen.
10:21This includes sanction relief for banks and some companies.
10:24Did the US agree to all of those conditions that they laid out?
10:26They will be looking at them and we're thinking about all of them right now.
10:30There are about five or six conditions.
10:32We're looking at all of them.
10:33The White House has said that it's looking into how a journalist got added to that signal
10:41chat.
10:42Is it possible that there could be a firing of even a lower mid-level official once that
10:46person is identified?
10:47About what?
10:48About the signal chat that we've been discussing.
10:50We've pretty much looked into it.
10:51It's pretty simple, to be honest.
10:53It's not, it's just something that can happen.
10:57It can happen.
11:00You can even prepare for it.
11:01It can happen.
11:03Sometimes people are hooked in and you don't know they're hooked in.
11:05They're hooked into your line and they don't even mean bad by it.
11:09But it's not a perfect technology.
11:11There is no perfect technology.
11:13The really good ones are very cumbersome, very hard to access.
11:19And I think we're going to look at, we always want to use the best technology.
11:23This was the best technology for the moment.
11:26But again, it wasn't classified, so they probably viewed it as being something that wasn't that
11:31important.
11:32Obviously, with the attack being, I mean, I don't know if it's been read out to you
11:37yet, but that attack was a tremendous success for the U.S., a tremendous success.
11:41Who said the innovation was not classified?
11:44Do you think that it might be Walt's mistake and does he need to apologize?
11:49No, I don't think he should apologize.
11:53I think he's doing his best.
11:55It's equipment and technology that's not perfect.
11:59And probably he won't be using it again.
12:02At least not in the very near future.
12:04What do you think?
12:05Sir, I agree with you.
12:06Let's get everybody in the room whenever, whenever possible.
12:10A lot of times you find out defects by exactly things like that.
12:14But I don't think it's something we're looking forward to using again.
12:18We may be forced to use it.
12:20You may be in a situation where you need speed as opposed to gross safety.
12:26And you may be forced to use it.
12:28But generally speaking, I think we probably won't be using it very much.
12:32Turkey defends on that train.
12:34The Secretary of Defense PXF and JD Bond, the Vice President, said that the Europeans
12:39were freeloading.
12:40Do you agree with them?
12:41Is that correct?
12:42Do you really want me to answer?
12:45Yeah, I think they've been freeloading.
12:47The European Union has been absolutely terrible to us on trade.
12:52Terrible.
12:53And as you know, NATO, I got them to pay hundreds of billions of dollars.
12:56They were way behind.
12:58And if you look, even if you look at Ukraine, so we're in for three hundred and fifty billion
13:03dollars because of Biden.
13:05Should have never happened.
13:06This war should all these dead people should not be dead.
13:08All these broken cities that are demolished down to the ground, those gorgeous towers,
13:13the most beautiful in the world, the most beautiful spires in the world, the spires
13:17in Ukraine were said to be the most beautiful of all.
13:22Just about every one of them is lying on its side and a million pieces.
13:25It's so sad to see what's happened to a heritage.
13:28No, I think that I think when they say the European Union and the end, you could say
13:35NATO also look NATO.
13:37And I don't blame NATO for this.
13:39I don't blame Europe for this.
13:41I blame Biden for the fact that he didn't make them equalize.
13:45And to this day, I said to him, you got to catch up.
13:47You got to equalize.
13:49But why are they in for one hundred billion and we're in for possibly three hundred and
13:52fifty billion dollars?
13:54It shouldn't be.
13:55It shouldn't be.
13:57And you could say more important for them because we have an ocean in between.
14:01So, you know, it's it's one of those things you'll be seeing.
14:07Liberation Day, I call it Liberation Day in America.
14:08You're going to be seen on April 2nd.
14:11Didn't want to do it on April 1st for the obvious reason, April 2nd.
14:14But you'll be seeing tariffs.
14:17And I think I've been very fair.
14:19I have them set.
14:21But I think I've been very fair to countries that have really abused us economically for
14:24many, many decades.