President Trump takes multiple questions from reporters in the Oval Office after the Myanmar earthquake.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Prime Minister says that they will be implementing retaliatory tariffs.
00:03You said if that were to happen, that you would be responding with large-scale tariffs.
00:08Will you be following through with that promise?
00:11Well, absolutely.
00:12But we had a very good conversation.
00:15Mark called me today at 10 o'clock.
00:18We put out a statement.
00:19We had a very, very good talk.
00:21He's going through an election now, and we'll see what happens.
00:25But we are — we have Liberation Day, as you know, on April 2nd, because — and I'm
00:31not referring to Canada, but many countries have taken advantage of us, the likes of which
00:36nobody even thought was possible for many, many decades — for decades.
00:41And you know, that has to stop.
00:43We're going to end up with a very good relationship with Canada and a lot of the other countries.
00:47Some we probably won't.
00:48It won't be so pleasant.
00:50But with — I think most countries will — are agreeing with me.
00:55They've actually — many of them have actually apologized.
00:57They said, look, we have taken advantage.
01:00And I don't blame them as much as I blame the people that stood — in this case, I
01:05can say the men, because so far they've been all men, haven't they?
01:09But the men that sat right there and behind the Resolute desk — mostly the Resolute
01:13desk, you know.
01:14I don't know if you know, you have a choice of seven desks.
01:18The Resolute is the one I like, but some chose other ones.
01:22But they sat right behind a desk, right in this location, and they let our country be
01:28hurt very badly.
01:30But I didn't do that.
01:31So — but we had a very good talk, the Prime Minister and myself.
01:35And I think things are going to work out very well between Canada and the United States.
01:39Yeah.
01:40Please, go ahead.
01:41Q Mr. President, how are the talks with India tariff going on?
01:44And what are the expectations from India?
01:46How much do you want them to do?
01:47THE PRESIDENT Well, as you know, Prime Minister Modi was
01:48here just recently.
01:50And we — we've always been very good friends.
01:53India is one of the highest-tariffing nations in the world.
01:56You know that.
01:57I know.
01:58I know.
01:59Thank you for shaking your head.
02:00But it's — it's brutal.
02:01It's brutal.
02:02They're — they're very smart.
02:04And he's a very smart man and a great friend of mine, actually.
02:07And we had very good talks.
02:10I think it's going to work out very well between India and our country.
02:13Very, very well.
02:14And I want to say you have a great Prime Minister.
02:16Q Mr. President, there's been a very serious earthquake in Burma.
02:19THE PRESIDENT Yeah.
02:20Q Myanmar today.
02:21Some — up to several hundred killed.
02:23THE PRESIDENT Yeah.
02:24Q They — the military regime there has asked for help from anybody.
02:27THE PRESIDENT Yeah, we're going to be helping.
02:28Q You're going to be —
02:29THE PRESIDENT We've already alerted the people.
02:30Yeah, it's terrible what's happened.
02:31It's — but we're going to be helping.
02:34We've already spoken with the country.
02:36Okay?
02:37Please.
02:38Q Mr. President, Mr. President, yesterday you asked Representative Stefanik to stay
02:41in her seat.
02:42Can you explain your reason for that?
02:43And did it have anything to do with the tight polling in the Florida district that former
02:49Representative Walz held?
02:50Is that —
02:51THE PRESIDENT Well, I think we're doing — yeah, I think we had — as you know,
02:54we have a few elections going on.
02:56And she is phenomenal, number one.
02:58She is a friend of mine, and she was going to go to the United Nations.
03:01And I said, look, there's a lot of room for doing that or something else.
03:06But she's very popular in her district, and I didn't want to take a chance.
03:09I don't even know who else is running.
03:12I assume somebody else would have been running.
03:13But if she runs, she can't be — you never want to say can't be beaten, but I think can't
03:19be beaten.
03:20She's very, very well-liked and very smart.
03:24And I said, Lisa, would you do me a favor?
03:26We can — we cannot take a chance.
03:28We have a slim margin.
03:30We don't want to take any chances.
03:31We don't want to experiment.
03:33And she polls like I do.
03:35I won her district, as you know, by a lot of points.
03:39And she also does very well there.
03:41When it comes to Florida, you have two races, and they seem to be good.
03:46It's a Trump-plus-32 area.
03:49The one thing is they're spending, like, $12 million, and our candidate doesn't have that
03:53kind of money.
03:54Spending much less than that, like maybe one-twelfth — about a million dollars, a little bit
03:59more than a million dollars.
04:01So the airwaves are blanketed.
04:04And you never know what happens in a case like that.
04:06I won it by 32 points, and it's very, very strong.
04:10I used to be Democrat, but when I came along, they liked me for whatever reason.
04:15You'll have to explain that.
04:16But they liked me.
04:17And we're way up.
04:18But you don't know what happens in a second district, who seems to be in pretty good shape.
04:24But likewise, he's being outspent about 5-to-1.
04:28So we don't want to take any chances.
04:30So I went to Elise, and I said, Elise, do you mind — a very highly-rated person.
04:36You know, she was a real leader.
04:38And she will be again.
04:40I spoke with Mike Johnson.
04:41They're going to put her in a high-leadership position.
04:42But will you mind staying in Congress?
04:45Because we don't want to take any chances.
04:47And it's as simple as that.
04:48It's basic politics.
04:50It's Politics 101.
04:51She's very popular.
04:52She's going to win.
04:53And somebody else will probably win too, because we did very well there.
04:56I did very well there.
04:57But the word probably is no good.
05:00So I really appreciate her doing it.
05:04She's doing me a big favor when she does it, because she was all set to go to the United
05:08Nations, and she would have dealt with Putin and — and Zelensky and everybody else, and
05:13she would have been very effective.
05:14But we really want to — don't — we don't want to take any chances because it is tight.
05:19Go ahead, please.
05:20Thank you, sir.
05:21You and your team apprehended a top-three leader in the violent gang, MS-13, yesterday,
05:28just 30 minutes outside of Washington, D.C.
05:31What has made you and your team so effective in finding, locating, apprehending, and deporting
05:37these violent, illegal migrants?
05:39I love this guy.
05:42I wish more people would ask questions like that.
05:45That's very nice.
05:46I appreciate it.
05:47And they happen.
05:48All you're doing is being fair with — when you ask a question in that way.
05:52Pam Bondi and Kash Patel and all of the rest of law enforcement — and I think we have
05:57to include ICE and Border Patrol — you know, Paul of Border Patrol — the whole group
06:02from Border Patrol.
06:03They're so incredible.
06:05And it's — you know, dangerous stuff, hard stuff.
06:08And it's really an unforced error because these people were allowed into this country.
06:13They shouldn't have been in this country.
06:14They would have never been in this country.
06:15We're getting rid of some of the worst criminals in the world.
06:18They came out of jails and mental institutions from all over the world.
06:23But Pam and the whole group — and Kash, who's here, and it's so good to have him.
06:28He's — I see him all over.
06:29He's working 24 hours a day.
06:32But the job they've done is incredible.
06:34And they caught one of the worst criminals in the world, I guess, in terms of evilness.
06:41You don't get any worse than the MS-13 guys and the Tren Diaragua guys.
06:47You could flip a coin.
06:48It's a rough group.
06:50And you know, the big thing is they have to be able to do their job.
06:53We — I know I saw — I was watching it on television like you, and I saw the home
06:59that he lived in, in a good area.
07:01But boy, they had a lot of weaponry in there.
07:03Right?
07:04Very sophisticated.
07:05Really brutal stuff.
07:06So I appreciate the question.
07:09And I just want to thank Kash and Pam and the whole group for doing a fantastic — and
07:13the local law enforcement, who's been so terrific — even first responders.
07:19So I want to thank everybody.
07:21And thank you very much.
07:22Mr. President —
07:23Mr. President, happy — I wanted to say, first of all, happy Women's Month.
07:28You do so much for women by, first of all, keeping men out of women's sports, and you
07:31platform so many —
07:32That was an easy one.
07:34It was crazy.
07:35You platform so many great women, like your Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles.
07:38You also have Caroline Levitt doing a great job as Press Secretary.
07:41Now Alina will be joining as well.
07:43Since Democrats seem to struggle answering this question, I wanted to ask you, what is
07:46a woman and why is it important that we understand the difference between men and women?
07:50Well, it's sort of easy to answer for me because a woman is somebody that can have
07:54a baby under certain circumstances.
07:57She can — she has a quality.
08:00A woman is a person who's much smarter than a man.
08:03I've always found —
08:04A woman is a person that doesn't give a man even a chance of success.
08:09And a woman is a person that, in many cases, has been treated very badly because I think
08:13that what happens with this crazy — this crazy issue of men being able to play in women's
08:20sports is just ridiculous and very unfair to women and very demeaning to women.
08:25And that's got to be about a 94 percent — I read today it was a 94 percent issue.
08:30And I watched — the other day, I watched a congressman, a Democrat congressman, fighting
08:36for the fact that men should be allowed to compete, essentially, in women's sports.
08:42And I say I hope they keep that going because they'll never win another election.
08:47That's a big deal.
08:48But women are basically incredible people, do so much for our country.
08:52And we love — we love our women, and we're going to take care of our women.
08:55Yeah.
08:56Mr. President —
08:57Mr. President —
08:58Go ahead.
08:59Mr. President, what do you make of President Trevor Milton?
09:02Highly recommended by many people that was taken advantage of.
09:08He did a business deal, like in Utah, as I have it.
09:13And I think he was exonerated.
09:15And then they brought him into New York, where he had a rough, rough road and road — I
09:22mean, he was exonerated.
09:23It was a big celebration.
09:24Again, I don't know him, but I was — they say it was very unfair.
09:30And they say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported
09:35a gentleman named Donald Trump for president.
09:38He supported Trump.
09:39He liked Trump.
09:40I didn't know him, but he liked him.
09:42It was in Utah.
09:44And they went after him.
09:45They went after his family.
09:46They went after his businesses.
09:48And he was, I believe, exonerated.
09:52And then they went after him again, and they brought him this time into Manhattan.
09:55And he had nothing to do with Manhattan.
09:58And they got him.
10:00And I said, that's unfair.
10:01There are many people like that.
10:03They support Trump, and they went after him.
10:05You don't realize, this is a vicious group of people that were in this office before
10:09us.
10:10This is a vicious group.
10:11They're violent.
10:13What they were — what they were doing to people — and you could go story after — hundreds
10:17and even thousands of stories.
10:21And they went after this man.
10:23And when I heard about it, I said, nope, not going to happen.
10:27They persecuted — they destroyed five years of his life.
10:31He went — fought for five years of his life.
10:33And he did nothing wrong.
10:35And he's a good person.
10:36And basically, I had these fantastic recommendations about him from people that you know very well,
10:43all top-of-the-line people.
10:44They thought it was a horrible thing.
10:46There were — there are many such cases, by the way.
10:48Many such cases.
10:49The Press.
10:50Mr. President, have you spoken to Vladimir Putin about buying weapons from Iran?
10:51Mr. President, do Americans buy cars now if they want to own higher prices?
10:52Please go ahead.
10:53Thank you, Mr. President.
10:54Have you spoken with Vladimir Putin about buying weapons from Iran and from North Korea?
11:00Not about specifically that, no.
11:01I haven't.
11:02Well, that seems to be an issue that you want to make important, is —
11:05Well, I'm making all issues important.
11:07You got a lot of important issues.
11:09You also have the children issue that's important, you know.
11:12So, a lot of children are living in Russia right now.
11:16That's a horrible situation that would have never taken place if I was a president.
11:21And the country is being decimated.
11:23But you know, they're losing 2,500, on average, young men — mostly men, almost, in all cases,
11:31men, actually.
11:32But young men every single week — 2,500.
11:36And they're not from our country.
11:37They're from Ukraine and they're from Russia.
11:40But it's human lives.
11:42And if we can get it stopped, then I think we're making progress.
11:45But there's a lot of ill will between the parties that can't do it.
11:49Mr. President, should Americans buy cars now if they want to avoid higher prices?
11:55And then, just to follow up —
11:56No, I don't think so.
11:57I think you're going to have a country that's going to boom.
11:59I just spoke to Tim Cook of Apple.
12:01He's investing $500 billion in the United States, which he would have never — he told
12:06me, I would never have done it if you lost the election, and I would have never done
12:10it if there wasn't a tariff system that is an incentive for people to come.
12:15And remember, there are no tariffs.
12:17All you have to do is do your work right here.
12:20If you have your company here, if you build your product, make your product, make your
12:24car, or whatever it is you're making — no tariffs.
12:27And we're going to have — I think, Scott, I would say we're close to $4 trillion, even
12:32going close to $5 trillion.
12:34Now, we haven't had that for years.
12:39If you add up years, they haven't invested like that.
12:42And here we are in two months.
12:43We think we're up to close to $5 trillion of investment.
12:46They're going to build car plants.
12:47They're already building.
12:48Many of them have already started.
12:50And if you build a car in the United States —
12:52And one thing that we just — I just spoke with John Thune about.
12:57I just spoke to Mike Johnson about, Speaker.
12:59We're going to do something that has never been done in this country before.
13:04I'm very proud to say it was my idea.
13:05And so, sometimes a simple idea, they say, how did you think of that one?
13:09It's so simple.
13:10It was never done.
13:12If you buy a car in the United States that's made in the United States, if it's manufactured
13:17here, when you borrow money — if you borrow money, you have interest payments, we're going
13:21to let you deduct the interest payment for income tax reasons.
13:24And I think that's going to more than pay for itself.
13:27I think people are going to be — they've never had a deduction.
13:30You know, deductions are supposed to be for, like, rich people.
13:34And it's unfair to have that.
13:36But rich people are — I think I know more about deductions than any human being on Earth.
13:41But, you know, the truth is that people that are middle-income people that buy a car and
13:46actually have to borrow money, they're going to now get an interest deduction on their
13:50car if it's made in the United States.
13:52If it's made someplace else, that won't take place.
13:55But car companies, as you know, are already expanding and building new plants.
14:00They've already started.
14:01And I think you're going to see numbers.
14:04Howard, you're seeing it.
14:05And, Scott, you're seeing it.
14:07You're going to see numbers the likes of which you've never seen before.
14:10Yeah, please go ahead.
14:11Go ahead.
14:12Go ahead.
14:13The Vice President is in Greenland right now.
14:15Do you have plans to expand U.S. military presence in Greenland?
14:19Is that —
14:20We get along very well with Greenland.
14:22We get along very well with Denmark.
14:24We've always had a good — Denmark does a lot of business in the United States.
14:28We don't do so much there, but they do a lot of business in the United States.
14:32And I think they want to see — I think everybody wants to see that work out.
14:36We need Greenland, very importantly, for international security.
14:42We have to have Greenland.
14:43It's not a question of, do you think we can do without it?
14:46We can't.
14:47If you look at Greenland right now, if you look at the waterways, you have Chinese and
14:51Russian ships all over the place.
14:54And we're not going to be able to do that.
14:55We're not relying on Denmark or anybody else to take care of that situation.
15:00And we're not talking about peace for the United States.
15:03We're talking about world peace.
15:04We're talking about international security.
15:07And right now, you look at it, you have warships all over the place going through right along
15:12Greenland.
15:13We're not going to let that happen.
15:15We cannot let that happen.
15:17Or if it's going to happen, we have to be protective of our country.
15:21And more important — really, protection not only of our country, of the world.
15:25So Greenland is very important.
15:28And modern-day weaponry makes Greenland — a hundred years ago, less so.
15:34But also, if you notice — if you notice, also, some of those — you could call them
15:40roadways, okay?
15:41They're water roadways.
15:43But some of those areas are opening up.
15:46And they're opening up — icebreakers out there, they're opening them.
15:49And by just nature, they're opening up.
15:52And they're headed right into China, right into Russia.
15:55And we have no choice.
15:57The answer is, he's there with his wonderful wife, Usha.
16:01They're there right now.
16:03They landed a couple of hours ago.
16:05And they will represent us well.
16:07But Greenland is very important for the peace of the world, not the peace of the entire
16:12world.
16:13And I think Denmark understands it.
16:15I think the European Union understands it.
16:18And if they don't, we're going to have to explain it to them.
16:20Would you like to visit — would you like to visit Greenland, Mr. Trump?
16:22Mr. President, thank you, Mr. President.
16:24I'd say it.
16:25Iranian drones are attacking and killing Ukrainians every day.
16:29Why aren't you doing something about that?
16:30Well, we're going to see what happens with that.
16:32I'm getting reports on that, and we're looking at a report — you're right.
16:36They make a lot of drones.
16:38Iran makes a lot of drones.
16:39They make very effective drones, too.
16:40They do very effectively at some things.
16:43But Iran is very high on my — on my list of things to watch.
16:49And as you probably know, I sent them a letter just recently, and I said, you're going to
16:55have to make a decision one way or the other.
16:58And we're going to either have to talk and talk it out, or very bad things are going
17:02to happen to Iran.
17:03And I don't want that to happen.
17:05I don't want that to happen.
17:06My big preference — and I don't say this through strength or weakness — my big preference
17:11is we work it out with Iran.
17:13But if we don't work it out, bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran.
17:17Okay.
17:18Thank you very much, everybody.