President Trump signs Executive Orders and takes questions from reporters in the Oval Office.
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00:00Peter, ask him a lot of questions.
00:20All set?
00:29So it's an honor to have you back.
00:32A friend of mine, Kid Rock, sometimes referred to as Bob.
00:35I know him as Bob.
00:38But he's been a good friend for a long time, many years, and he's been after something
00:43that is for the good of a lot of people, including in particular the public, and having to do
00:50with ticket sales and scalping and all of the gouging that you have been reading about
00:54that's gotten worse and worse with time.
00:58And I didn't know too much about it, but I checked it out, and it is a big problem.
01:01And I thought, I think you've been trying to get this done for 20 years or something.
01:05He said, Trump got it done in two weeks.
01:08But we came up with a very serious EO, and I'm going to sign it now.
01:15And maybe I'll ask you, Will, to explain a little bit about it, please.
01:18Of course, sir.
01:19So this is an executive order, as you said, that deals with the ticket reselling business.
01:24For fans of live entertainment and for entertainers as well, the ticket reselling industry has
01:30become a huge issue.
01:31These people use bots and computer algorithms to buy up huge blocks of tickets and then
01:37jack up the price so that fans of live entertainers like Mr. Ritchie, I almost called him Mr.
01:42Rock, don't have access to concerts the way that they should.
01:47And when they do, it's at exorbitantly high prices.
01:50So what this executive order does, it charges the FTC and the Department of Justice with
01:55rigorously enforcing laws on the books in collaboration with state attorneys general
02:01that have power over consumer protection and other people who have the power to really
02:06crack down on this issue so that entertainers and fans won't be subject to these abusive
02:12and oftentimes illegal practices.
02:13Good.
02:14Thank you very much.
02:15Bob, you want to say something?
02:18Yeah.
02:20It doesn't matter your politics.
02:21First of all, thank you, Mr. President, because this has happened at lightning speed.
02:25I know you put, I want to make sure Alina Haba, Alina Haba gets her credit too, because
02:30I know she worked very hard on this, but thank you for making this happen so quick.
02:32Anyone who's bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years, no matter what
02:36your politics are, knows that it's a conundrum.
02:39You buy a ticket for a hundred bucks, by the time you check out, it's 170.
02:42You don't know what you're getting charged for.
02:43But more importantly, these bots, you know, they come in, they get all the good tickets
02:47to your favorite shows you want to go to, and then they're relisted immediately for
02:52sometimes a four or 500% markup.
02:55The artists don't see any of that money.
02:57And ultimately, I think this is a great first step.
03:01I would love down the road if there'd be some legislation that we could actually put a cap
03:04on the resale of tickets.
03:06And I'm a capitalist and a deregulation guy, but they've tried this in some places in Europe,
03:10and it seems to be the only thing that's, us as artists, be able to get the tickets
03:14into the hands of the fans at the prices we set.
03:17I'll be the first one to say, and I know the President doesn't like when I say this, but
03:21I'm a little overpaid right now.
03:23It's kind of ridiculous.
03:24I would rather be, you know, a hero to working class people and have them be able to come
03:28attend my shows and give them a fair ticket price.
03:30I can't control that right now.
03:32So hopefully this is a step to really be able to make that happen.
03:35I know a lot of artists and a lot of fans who love concerts and music are going to be
03:40very appreciative of me attending this afternoon.
03:41And I think Bob is more interested in the fans and the people that are happy to pay
03:46crazy prices than he is the artist.
03:49Maybe the artist a little bit, but the fans a lot.
03:51I've spoken to him over the years about it, and it's been, it bothers him.
03:56It bothers a lot of other artists, too.
03:58It does.
03:59The artists, and they go out with a $100 ticket, and it sells for $2,000 the following night.
04:05And they seem to be able to sweep up the best locations, too, which is pretty amazing.
04:10They've only enforced that BOTS Act one time, I believe.
04:12A couple of years ago, New York City, I think, got a couple million dollar fine, and that's
04:16the only time they've enforced that act.
04:18And who's the primary culprit?
04:19Who sells these tickets?
04:21It's the scalpers.
04:23These BOTS go in, and they're automated.
04:25So you're-
04:26But is there a company involved?
04:28You might not want to say.
04:29No, no.
04:30Well, there's reselling markets.
04:31Yeah.
04:32You can't know, Peter.
04:33But that's all right.
04:34Don't get him involved.
04:35What company do you think it is?
04:38Maybe they're more innocent than we think.
04:40Well, if you think of it, if Ticketmaster sells a ticket, if you buy a ticket and go
04:45to a show, you're, in a lot of ways, their worst customer, because they make another
04:4917-whatever-percentage every time that ticket resells.
04:52So they don't want to enforce the BOTS Act, necessarily, because they're making more money
04:55off it.
04:56The artists don't see any of that money, but that's not what I'm advocating for, is for
04:59me to make more money.
05:00I want the fans to have fair ticket prices, be able to go and enjoy more shows.
05:04Because I know people that can only, they decide on a family vacation or going to their
05:07favorite concert once, and you're rather than, you know, my parents used to go see multiple
05:10shows when you could afford them back in their day.
05:13And I'd like to take my ticket prices lower, but if I set my ticket prices low, these BOTS
05:17immediately eat them up, and they resell for hundreds of dollars more, and I'm just making
05:20these bad actors rich.
05:22Yeah.
05:23Well, I think this is a big step to getting it stopped.
05:26Do you have something, Brad?
05:27Yeah, I do, actually.
05:28I actually feel that the consumer is going to take the money that they've saved and actually
05:35buy merch, which you guys have a big percentage of, or do concessions, which you guys split
05:40with the venue on that as well.
05:42So I think the money goes for it.
05:43We don't share concessions a lot.
05:44No?
05:45No, those are, we try to, but they don't want to share it in the beer prices and parking
05:50or any of that stuff.
05:51But the bottom line is, there's money for everyone to be made.
05:55There's plenty of money to go around.
05:56You know, no one's going to really lose here, you know.
05:58I think if we can get a cap, they're going to lose some money, but I've already talked
06:01to CEO Michael.
06:02He's given me his word.
06:03He's on board for it.
06:04I was talking to Jacoby with Papa Roach earlier, and by the way, he's a big fan of what you're
06:08doing, President Trump, digging into this whole scalping and the bots.
06:14A lot of musicians, you can say that, they're with Kid Rock, sir, on this, without a doubt.
06:20A lot of people are.
06:21President Trump, would you ever wear a jacket like that?
06:24I don't know.
06:25I was thinking about doing it for tomorrow.
06:27We have a big event coming up, and I was thinking about doing it, but I'm not sure.
06:31So you recently bought a Tesla for White House staff to use.
06:35But now there's all these domestic terrorists targeting Teslas.
06:39Are the staff scared to drive it?
06:42I don't think so.
06:43I haven't heard.
06:44They were complaining.
06:45I did buy one, and I let the staff use it.
06:48We have it parked conveniently, and one day we give it to Margo.
06:52One day we give it to Chamberlain, give it to Natalie.
06:54We give it to everybody around, and give it to Dan Scavino, but he's got so much money
06:58it doesn't matter.
07:00But they love the car, and it's a great car, and it's made here, and it's made in the country.
07:06It's got a tremendous plant now in Texas, and he has one in California, does a lot of
07:11his work here.
07:12And he's been really unfairly treated, in my opinion.
07:16I drive one.
07:18There's this other story.
07:19I know it's hypothetical right now, but if you were allowed for some reason to run for
07:24a third term, is there a thought that the Democrats could try to run Barack Obama against
07:30you?
07:31I'd love that.
07:32For his third term?
07:33Oh, I'd love that.
07:34That would be a good one.
07:35I'd like that.
07:36Now, people are asking me to run, and there's a whole story about running for a third term.
07:40I don't know.
07:41I never looked into it.
07:43They do say there's a way you can do it, but I don't know about that, but I have not looked
07:47into it.
07:48I want to do a fantastic job.
07:49We have four years, just about, almost close to four years.
07:54The time is flying, but it's still close to four years, and we're getting a lot of credit
07:59for having done a great job in the first almost 100 days.
08:03And we have some big things we're going to be announcing over the next two days, as you
08:05know very well, Peter, and I think it's going to be something that's going to bring a lot
08:09of wealth back to our country, tremendous wealth back to our country, actually.
08:13And other countries are understanding it, because they've been ripping us for 50 years
08:19longer, but they've been ripping us off for years, right from the beginning.
08:24And I think this is going to be an amazing, you know, I call it a lot of different names,
08:30but it's really, in a sense, it's a rebirth of a country, because what, how we could have
08:34afforded to do what we did, we helped everybody, and they don't help us.
08:40I really, the term I like best probably is the liberation of America, it's a liberation
08:45of this country, because it's incredible, look, we have 36 trillion in debt for a reason,
08:51and that accumulates over a long period of time.
08:54So I think what you're going to be seeing over the next couple of days will be very
08:58inspiring to a lot of people.
09:00You know, they had a lot of auto plants being built in a certain country, I don't want to
09:06mention the country, because we get along great with the country, but those plants aren't
09:09being built there anymore.
09:10They gave them up today and yesterday, day before, and they're building them all now
09:15in the United States.
09:16And we have many examples, not only auto plants, chip companies from Taiwan are coming in.
09:22The biggest, Mr. Wei, he's big.
09:25I said, you are a smart guy, aren't you?
09:27I've been reading about him over the years, but he controls a large portion of the chip
09:32business, as you know.
09:33You don't get smarter, they're going to be investing $200 or $300 billion, Apple's investing
09:38$500 billion.
09:39You know, they always built their places in China, now he's building here.
09:44I think because of the, you speak to Tim Cook, because of the election, but maybe more
09:49importantly because of the tariffs.
09:52It's got really an obligation to do it, but we have many, many companies that you haven't
09:56even heard of.
09:57But I think we'll be at $5 trillion very soon, and if you think about this, we've never been
10:04anywhere near that.
10:05I don't know if we've ever been at a trillion dollars.
10:07What do you mean by that?
10:08500.
10:09500.
10:10What do I mean by a trillion?
10:11Five trillion.
10:12Five trillion.
10:13What are you referring to, sir?
10:14I think that we're going to be at $5 trillion of investment.
10:18I think you're going to have investments very shortly.
10:21We're already three and a half, and we have commitments, verbal commitments for a lot
10:26more.
10:27And numbers like that have never been done in this country.
10:30And it's going to get harder.
10:31This is in two months.
10:33It's really less than two months, because since we've really gone out with it, and we
10:37have other interesting things happening, but to me, the whole tariff situation, and
10:42essentially they've done that to us for many years.
10:45So if we're anywhere near $5 trillion in two months, this could be numbers like the country's
10:50never seen.
10:51And every time you hear a dollar spent, that's another job, because the jobs are coming with
10:56it.
10:57So auto plants, chip plants, pharmaceuticals, lumber coming in.
11:03We have things happening in this country.
11:05I don't think, I'm not sure that they've ever seen the steel, you know, we have tariffs
11:09on steel.
11:10They've been here for a while, steel and aluminum.
11:16Nobody's ever seen anything like we're witnessing now.
11:19Nobody's ever seen.
11:20I think you, most of you agree with that.
11:21I mean, it's nothing much you can't agree with.
11:25We have things happening in terms of jobs and investment, the likes of which I don't
11:30think we've ever seen.
11:31If you look at, let's say, $4 to $5 trillion in a period of a month and a half, that's
11:38even more than you do with your concerts, which are always sold out, right?
11:43Nobody's ever seen numbers.
11:44And think of it where Apple's at $500 billion, as I said, but they always used to spend that
11:50money in China.
11:51Now they're spending it here.
11:53That means you're going to build.
11:54Now, they don't have any tariffs.
11:55Remember, there are no tariffs if you do your product here, if you build whatever it is
12:00in the USA.
12:01One of the things we're also trying to get is if you build, if you buy a car that was
12:07built in the USA, you get a deduction on interest.
12:11So if you go out and borrow money to buy a car, if it's built in the USA, never been
12:16done before.
12:18It's a big deduction for people that really aren't used to deductions, frankly, because
12:23people that buy cars like that are not big into the world of deductions.
12:27And now they're going to learn about deduction.
12:29So I think it's going to be great.
12:30Yeah.
12:31Are you going to move out of the universal tariff or different individual tariff rates
12:36on a whole variety of different?
12:37Well, you're going to see in two days, which is maybe tomorrow night or probably Wednesday.
12:43You're going to see and they're reciprocal.
12:46So whatever they charge us, we charge them.
12:49But we're being nicer than they were.
12:51We have a lot of countries, friend and foe.
12:53I always say friend and foe.
12:54But the friend, in many cases, is worse than the foe.
12:57They took advantage of us.
12:59And we are going to be very nice by comparison to what they were.
13:04The numbers will be lower than what they've been charging us.
13:08And in some cases, maybe substantially lower, but we sort of have a world obligation, perhaps.
13:14But we're going to be very nice.
13:15Relatively speaking, we're going to be very kind.
13:17Mr. President, you know, somebody said that about me the other day, said, who doesn't
13:24know me very well.
13:25They said, you're such a kind person.
13:29And I said, say that again.
13:30They said, you're a kind person.
13:32I said, I've never heard that before.
13:34It was a weird statement.
13:35I was kind.
13:36I've heard of words that I don't know, I better not tell you.
13:39You know, I've heard of, I've been called a lot of things, but it's sort of a different
13:43kind of a word.
13:44It's like an old fashioned word.
13:45Isn't it?
13:46Mr. President, you met with the chairman of Stellantis today.
13:49Did he ask you for a pause on the auto tariffs?
13:52No.
13:53What was that meeting about?
13:55It's about some of the problems they have with the environmental, which we're going
13:58to clean up.
13:59We're going to probably go back to 1920s.
14:03If you if you look, we're going to go back probably to a 2020 standard.
14:08So we'll have 2020 standard.
14:09And that's just a few years ago.
14:12Oh, they're putting them, they're making it so difficult all over the world.
14:15It doesn't mean a damn bit of difference for the environment doesn't matter.
14:21They make it impossible for people to build cars.
14:23So we're going to be doing much different.
14:252020 is a strong standard, but they take it to a level now that makes it very difficult
14:31to build a car.
14:32So we're going to be we're going to be bringing it back to a standard that is a very good
14:40environmental standard, but it makes it possible to build a car.
14:43Have you heard any concerns from the automakers, though, about the tariffs on parts that will
14:47go into effect over the coming weeks?
14:48They all know.
14:49About what that's going to mean for the price of the car.
14:50Well, I gave them a big break for a month.
14:52I didn't charge them anything.
14:53You know, for a big month, for that first month.
14:55And they brought a lot of material into this country because they could bring it in without
15:00tariff.
15:01If you look at Canada and Mexico, they were driving hundreds of thousands of cars into
15:06the market because they avoid the tariffs by doing it before the tariffs go on, which
15:10would be Wednesday.
15:11And I looked at the some of your shows where cars are lined up for miles and miles.
15:19Some of them didn't have fenders on them.
15:21Some of them didn't have the roof on yet.
15:23They're driving it.
15:24They're brand new.
15:25They're driving it in because they want to avoid the tariffs.
15:27I let them have that.
15:28They sort of took advantage of it because, you know, that wasn't part of the deal.
15:32But that's OK.
15:33Are there any great American car companies and car companies?
15:38And so I gave them a little break on that.
15:40Are there any countries that you're not targeting?
15:43Well, it depends.
15:44You know, I said it's reciprocal.
15:46Not everybody has made a fortune.
15:50Yes, everybody has.
15:51But not everybody.
15:52And the ones that haven't, we're going to be very nice to them.
15:56You're not a separate issue because that word reciprocal is very important.
16:01What they do to us, we do to them.
16:03OK.
16:04Can I just ask you briefly on President Putin, you said over the weekend or indicator of
16:08the weekend, some frustration with him.
16:10How serious are you about imposing oil sanctions?
16:12No, I want to see him make a deal so that we stop Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers
16:19and other people from being killed.
16:22But mostly it's Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.
16:25They're losing at least two thousand five hundred human beings, beautiful human beings
16:31a week.
16:32And I wanted to stop.
16:33And some people would say, why do you worry about Russian soldiers or Ukrainian soldiers?
16:38I worry because it's like they're just like you people.
16:40They're like us.
16:41There's like all of us.
16:43And I seem to have an ability to do those things.
16:46And if I can do that, I think it's a very worthwhile thing to do.
16:51And I think we will know.
16:53I want to make sure that he follows through.
16:56And I think he will.
16:57I don't want to go secondary tariffs on his oil, but I think, you know, something I would
17:01do if I thought he wasn't doing the job.
17:03I did it with Venezuela.
17:06Secondary tariffs.
17:07And you know what happened?
17:08Every boat left the harbor.
17:09Did you see that?
17:10It was a beautiful thing to see the whole harbor emptied out.
17:14My words weren't even finished and have these massive, these massive shifts.
17:19They're actually taking the hoses and dumping them into there.
17:21They couldn't get out of there fast enough because they know I don't play games.
17:25So I think he's going to live up to what he told me.
17:28And I think he's going to fulfill his part of the deal.
17:34Now that you have Zelensky and hopefully he's going to live up.
17:37I see he's trying to renegotiate the rare earth.
17:40You know, we did something because as you know, the Europeans get paid back the money
17:44that they gave it.
17:45We don't because Biden is an incompetent president and he should have asked for rare earth or
17:51he should have asked for the loans to be guaranteed in some form.
17:54That's what Europe did.
17:55Europe is in for a hundred, probably a hundred billion dollars and we're in for 350 billion.
18:02So we're in for more than three times.
18:04And now you could make it a little bit less than that, but it doesn't matter whatever
18:07the number.
18:08We're in for substantially more than Europe.
18:10We could be in for 350 billion.
18:12They have no idea because Biden wasn't a good bookkeeper except for himself.
18:17And what happens is we made a deal for rare earth.
18:21It was all done.
18:22And I heard through through you, I haven't spoken to them yet, but through you, I heard
18:26that they're now saying, well, I'll only do that deal if we get into NATO or something
18:31to that effect.
18:32Well, that was never number one discussed.
18:34Number two, I think it's going to be very long before Putin.
18:37They said, you're not going into NATO.
18:39And it could be.
18:41That's probably the reason the war started, actually, an hour away from a very special
18:46election.
18:47Wisconsin, Florida.
18:48I want to share your thoughts on Republican voters to not sleep on this very important
18:53race together.
18:54Well, it's it's a big race, Supreme Court race in Wisconsin.
18:59It's taking place essentially as we as you know, as early voting.
19:04So we'll see what happens.
19:05It's a big race.
19:08I love Wisconsin.
19:09We won Wisconsin.
19:10Republicans typically don't do very well in Wisconsin, but I did actually won it twice.
19:15I actually probably won it three times to be exact.
19:18We played their son.
19:19Not probably.
19:20I won it three times.
19:21We had a rigged election the second time, but that's, you know, one of those things
19:25we had to make this one too big to rig as each.
19:27Would you agree with that?
19:28Brian?
19:29Yes, sir.
19:30Yes, sir.
19:31So anyway.
19:32But yeah, it is a big race.
19:33And I hope you get out of both of the Republican.
19:35The woman is a radical left lunatic and let's see who wins.
19:40But the woman will be very bad.
19:43And, you know, Wisconsin's a big state politically.
19:47And the Supreme Court has a lot to do with elections in Wisconsin.
19:50So if whoever it is that's running, including, you know, even Senate races, et cetera.
19:56But whoever it is in four years, it runs.
19:59Having Wisconsin is a very big we want it early and big.
20:03But winning Wisconsin's a big deal.
20:06So therefore, the Supreme Court choice is that's is the one you're talking about right
20:10now.
20:11It's a big race.
20:12It's going to be announced fairly shortly.
20:16President Trump, on TikTok.
20:18Big league deadlines.
20:19You got Liberation Day and the TikTok deadline.
20:21Yeah, we do, which I can extend if I want.
20:24But we have a lot of enthusiasm for TikTok for buying it.
20:28I think TikTok is good.
20:29I use it very.
20:30I was a I was a great TikTok guy.
20:34And we won by 36 points.
20:36The youth.
20:37You know, we won the youth, which Republicans don't do.
20:40Maybe it's because Kid Rock likes Trump.
20:42I don't know.
20:43But we won.
20:44We won the youth by 36 points.
20:47And I attribute some of that to TikTok.
20:50Is the TikTok deal negotiations now tied to a bigger tariff deal with China?
20:55No.
20:56But, you know, it could be.
20:57I mean, you know, I've used tariffs for lots of different reasons.
21:00But I could see, you know, one point in tariffs with China, a big country, would be probably
21:06worth more than all of TikTok is valuable as TikTok is.
21:10It's big stuff.
21:11So there's a great example.
21:12That's a great question, actually.
21:15I'm a very flexible person.
21:16I could use that for that.
21:18Maybe I'll take a couple of points off if I get approvals for something.
21:22I haven't done it.
21:24Maybe I'll do it.
21:25Maybe I won't.
21:26But it's a very good question.
21:27Peter, you're very good.
21:29You'll love this one.
21:31It's not front page news, but I am just curious.
21:34What is your thought about Tiger Woods now becoming part of the broader Trump family?
21:39Well, I love Tiger and I love Vanessa and they had a great relationship.
21:46I happen to think the relationship with my son, I think I happen to think the relationship
21:51was hurt very badly by the witch hunt that went on Russia, Russia, Russia and all the
21:55crap that they put Don through, who knew nothing about it.
21:59But Vanessa and Don had a very good relationship.
22:01They have incredible children, five incredible children, all good athletes, all great students
22:08are like great.
22:10And they broke up, you know, quite a while ago.
22:13And which was, to me, very sad because I think they're both great.
22:17Don and Vanessa and Tiger actually called me a few months ago and he and they have a
22:23very special, very good relationship with Tiger played golf with him a couple of times
22:27over the last month.
22:28And he's a fantastic guy and a fantastic athlete.
22:31And he told me about it.
22:33And I said, Tiger, that's good.
22:35That's good.
22:36I'm very happy for both.
22:38I just let them both be happy.
22:40Let them both be happy.
22:41They're both great.
22:42To follow up on China, China, South Korea and Japan say they're going to work together
22:49in cooperation to respond to the tariffs that you're going to put into effect this week.
22:53Are you concerned that this move of the tariffs this week could push some of the United States
22:58closest allies to work with China?
23:00No, I'm not worried.
23:02I'm not worried.
23:03Yeah.
23:04Mr. President, can I ask you?
23:05I think they have a chance of doing better, actually, with the tariffs.
23:08It can actually help them in a certain way.
23:10And I think a lot of them will drop their tariffs because, you know, they've been unfairly
23:13tariffed the United States for years.
23:17And if you look at the European Union on cars, the European Union already dropped the tariff
23:23down to two and a half percent.
23:24It was announced a couple of days ago, which is what the United States, which is a very
23:29small tariff.
23:30The United States charged very little.
23:34And a lot of I think I heard that India, just a little while ago, is going to be dropping
23:38its tariffs very substantially.
23:40And I said, why didn't somebody do this a long time ago?
23:43A lot of countries are going to be dropping their tariffs.
23:45About what happened in France today, Mr. President, Marine Le Pen, the far right leader, got convicted
23:52in court and is now banned from running for office for five years.
23:55Do you have a comment?
23:56That's a big deal.
23:57That's a very big deal.
23:58I know all about it.
23:59And a lot of people thought she wasn't going to be convicted of anything.
24:00And I don't know if it means conviction, but she was banned from running for five years
24:01and she's the leading candidate.
24:02That sounds like this country.
24:03That sounds very much like this country.
24:04Okay.
24:05Anybody else?
24:06You presented with a bunch of proposals for tariffs by your advisers.
24:07They were talking about that idea.
24:08And who?
24:09That your advisors have presented ideas about tariffs and what to do in the next few days.
24:26Have you settled?
24:27Well, you're going to see.
24:28I've settled.
24:29Yeah.
24:30A long, actually a long time ago.
24:31But we talk about it.
24:32We talk about it a lot.
24:33We want to do what's right for the country and even the world, you know, affects the
24:36world, not just this country.
24:39This has been the piggy bank for the entire world.
24:42So it really does affect the world.
24:44And that's important to me.
24:45Also.
24:46Yeah.
24:47Mr. President, in the past, you have said that you want the quick return of Austin Tice,
24:52a Marine Corps veteran and a journalist who went missing in Syria over 12 years ago.
24:58Have efforts been made to locate Austin Tice been extended beyond Syria, including potential
25:04leads in Iran?
25:05And do you have plans to get in touch with Ms. Deborah Tice, the mother of Mr. Austin
25:11Tice?
25:12And also, at the same time, organizations like Hostage Aid Worldwide have been on the
25:16ground in Syria searching for searching for Austin Tice for many years.
25:22Can I get your comment on the future potential future plans to relocate to locate Austin
25:29Tice and to bring him home finally?
25:31So we've been looking, as you know, for Austin for years.
25:35The I don't know about Biden.
25:37I don't think Biden was looking for anything, but we were.
25:42And there's been virtually no sign.
25:44You know that there's been no sign of Austin, an incredible young guy, less young now.
25:52It's been a long time.
25:53It's been many, many years.
25:55The mother is fantastic.
25:57She's a very committed mother that her whole life is to find your son, who was in Syria
26:03and just disappeared off the face of the earth.
26:05So, you know, a lot of bad things happen.
26:08But we're always you know, we'll never we will never until we find out something definitive
26:13one way or the other.
26:14We'll never stop looking for him.
26:16But we have been.
26:17And the response, it's just a lot of dead ends.
26:22He's been gone for a long time.
26:24The problem is there's never been a sighting.
26:26You know, sometimes you'll have somebody you're looking for him and there's a sighting.
26:29There's never been a sighting of Austin.
26:33But we are out there and we have great respect for his family and for his mother.
26:37She's been unbelievable.
26:38Yeah.
26:39The question about behind you.
26:40Oh, yes.
26:41You've had outreach with the leaders of Russia and China.
26:45You've made an outreach to Iran.
26:48When are you going to plan to reach out to North Korea and Kim Jong Un anytime in the
26:52near future?
26:53Well, I do.
26:54I have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.
26:58Now, you people hate to hear that, but it's very important.
27:02I got along with him fantastically, as you know.
27:04It started off very rough, very nasty, little rocket man.
27:09The whole thing was a nasty deal.
27:11And then one day we got a call that they'd like to meet.
27:14We met.
27:15We have a great relationship.
27:17And yeah, we have.
27:21There is communication.
27:22Yeah.
27:23Mr. President.
27:24I think it's very important.
27:25You know, he's a big nuclear nation and he's a very smart guy.
27:31I got to know him very well.
27:33I remember I put my foot across the line and then I walked across the line.
27:38I don't know if Secret Service was thrilled with that.
27:41They actually wasn't.
27:42They were not too thrilled.
27:44But I have a very good relationship with him.
27:47Yeah, I will probably do something at some point.
27:49Yeah, please.
27:50Who's on your short list, Mr. President, to replace Elise Stefanik as U.S. ambassador
27:55to the U.N.?
27:57So we have a lot of good people that want it.
28:01First of all, Elise is fantastic.
28:02And I just don't want to take chances with you guys saying, how is the election going?
28:06We have a congressional election that's a little bit close.
28:09I guess the one is in good shape, but the other one's a little bit close.
28:13But Randy Fine is a great guy.
28:16They're both good candidates.
28:17They're very good.
28:18But it's, you know, a little bit.
28:21We want to be careful.
28:22And Elise is very popular in her district.
28:24And so am I. We won by a lot of points and so did she.
28:30And there's a lot of people that wanted to run for it.
28:32But we have no idea.
28:33Are they going to win?
28:34I think it's just security.
28:35And I said, Elise, what about going back?
28:39Because they love you there.
28:40And she's going to take a big leadership position with Mike Johnson and the group, the speaker.
28:46And I can tell you that for the replacement, we have a lot of people that have asked about
28:53it and would like to do David Friedman, Rick Grinnell, and maybe 30 other people.
29:02Everyone loves that position.
29:03That's a star making position.
29:06And so we'll see what happens.
29:08But we have a lot of people that are interested in going to the United Nations, as you can
29:12imagine.
29:13Yeah.
29:14Quick music question.
29:15Favorite song to play live is what?
29:17And then my question for you, Mr. Mr. President, your favorite rally you did last last year,
29:212024.
29:22What was your favorite one?
29:23Favorite song to play live?
29:24Yeah.
29:25Favorite song to play live?
29:26Oh, that's a tough one.
29:27Hmm.
29:28It'd have to be one of the hits, probably Cowboy on a Ball with the Bar.
29:36There's a song that I played every night that was never a single hit that I probably should
29:40not say the words to in this office right now.
29:43I think for you, Mr. President.
29:44You've never met a certain person like me.
29:45By the way, his rallies are amazing.
29:47He does great and gets big crowds.
29:50He's been he's been he's really a star when it comes to that.
29:54He is a very talented guy.
29:57I would say maybe Madison Square Garden.
30:00Yeah.
30:01Because anybody that was there, the owner of the garden, Jim Dolan, who's, you know,
30:07to me, always been terrific.
30:08He said this.
30:09He's never seen anything like it.
30:11We had when you announced Madison Square Garden, you know, it's a big arena, but we sell out
30:17big arenas.
30:18We sold out of Milwaukee.
30:19We sold out of every big arena.
30:20We don't have we never had empty seats.
30:22It's amazing.
30:23They talk about Bernie Sanders gets two or three thousand people versus these crowds.
30:27I get one hundred and seven thousand people in New Jersey.
30:31In Butler, PA, we had over one hundred thousand the second time we had fifty five thousand
30:36the first time.
30:37We have big crowds.
30:38I would say Madison Square Garden because I grew up in New York and the garden is great.
30:44Jim Dolan treated as well.
30:46But everybody said that because I think I could have filled it up ten times.
30:50We had hundreds of thousands of people that were stacked all the way back to the Hudson
30:55River and on the other direction, back to Fifth Avenue.
30:59Nobody's ever said I don't mean with a line.
31:00I mean, like 50 deep, like 50 deep this way.
31:05The streets were closed.
31:06The whole thing was crazy.
31:08And when you take that, you know, you want to do well at Madison Square Garden.
31:11You don't want to have empty seats.
31:14But we could have sold it out, Brian, ten times and everybody knew it.
31:17And I think we got a good indication that that's where the election was going.
31:20And we won every swing state and we won by millions of votes.
31:24It was it was a great election.
31:26Yeah.
31:27Mr. President, the U.S. military transferred 17 individuals to El Salvador overnight.
31:31Did you discuss with your team whether these deportations would run afoul of any recent
31:36court orders?
31:37No, I do want to thank, however, the president.
31:40He has been unbelievable and, you know, in relation to us.
31:46But I think that our people have done an incredible job.
31:50You know, I got elected on the basis of getting bad people out of our country that shouldn't
31:54be here, very dangerous people out of our country.
31:58And that's what I did.
31:59And then you have a judge that wants to take over.
32:02And I can't imagine it can be allowed if it was up to him that all be put back in our
32:06country.
32:07These are killers.
32:08These are drug lords.
32:09These are really bad people.
32:11But I want to thank the president of El Salvador because he's he did a he's done an amazing
32:17job.
32:18You saw it.
32:19Yeah.
32:20Yeah.
32:21Elon Musk's special government tenure is coming to an end in 130 days, I think another month.
32:26Do you want him to stay longer or is it time for him to go back to running his companies
32:29in Europe?
32:30Well, I think he's amazing, but I also think he's got a big company to run.
32:34And so at some point he's going to be going back.
32:35He wants to.
32:36But I keep him as long as I can keep him.
32:40He's a very talented guy.
32:42You know, I love very smart people.
32:45He's very smart.
32:46And he's done a good job.
32:47You know, Doge Doge is.
32:51We found numbers that nobody can even believe, like 400 billion, 500 billion.
32:58It could be close to a trillion dollars by the time they end on different things.
33:04And he's led the charge.
33:06And you've seen a lot of his people.
33:07And these are people that joined up.
33:09I would say the high IQ people.
33:11I like high IQ people.
33:13And they've done a great job.
33:15No, at some point, Elon's going to want to go back to his company.
33:17I will say he's got despite the way he's been treated.
33:22So he's an American patriot.
33:24But the way he's been treated with Tesla is just terrible.
33:27It's just terrible.
33:28Once he goes.
33:30Have a Tesla.
33:31And you love it.
33:32He was saying before he bought a Tesla, a lot of people are buying Tesla's, I think.
33:37And I hope they are.
33:38He should not be treated that way.
33:40He's done an incredible service.
33:42But once he goes back, is Doge going to keep operating even without Elon here?
33:46Well, I can't tell you that I can say this, that a lot of the people that are working
33:50with Doge are the secretaries, you know, the heads of the various agencies.
33:54And they've learned a lot.
33:56And they're dealing with the Doge people.
33:58I think some of them may try to keep the Doge people with them.
34:02But, you know, at a certain point, I think it will end.
34:04But they have also gotten a big education and they're doing a really good job.
34:09There'll be a point at which the secretaries will be able to do this work and do it very,
34:15you know, as we say, with the scalpel.
34:17And that's what we want.
34:18Yes, Jeff.
34:19Mr. President, have you had any updates on the U.S. soldiers missing in Lithuania?
34:23I have.
34:24Can you give us an update?
34:25So three are no longer with us.
34:29And one is unfortunately probably in the same category, but they haven't declared that yet.
34:36It was a very heavy truck, like I told you, but I mean, really heavy.
34:40They left lifted the heaviest equipment.
34:43It would seem that the bank of the lake collapsed, you know, the weight is so big.
34:48And it was at night and it was very cold weather, ice, a lot of ice.
34:53And it's possibly slipped and the weight is so enormous of this thing.
34:58It's a massively heavy vehicle.
35:02And if they slipped a little bit, they it's probably what happened and it flipped.
35:07And three are are gone.
35:12And one is missing.
35:13On a separate topic, a follow up on immigration, did you see the video of a Tufts University
35:19student who was taken off the street by ICE agents last week in hoodies and masks?
35:26There's been a lot of criticism of that.
35:28Are you comfortable with how that was handled?
35:29Well, I haven't really looked at it in any detail, but I will.
35:32I mean, I have seen it quickly, but not I wouldn't want to comment on.
35:36Yeah.
35:37Yeah.
35:38Mr. President, would you be able to confirm recent reporting that you are making plans
35:42to go to Saudi Arabia next month?
35:44And if so, why is Saudi Arabia so important?
35:47So I have a very good relationship with the Middle East.
35:51In fact, if you look at Michigan, I won the vote by a lot.
35:55People were a little surprised.
35:56And I have a very good relationship with Mohammed and the king son is Mohammed.
36:02He's great.
36:03Crown Prince.
36:04Actually, he's prime minister to he's got a lot of good titles, but he's great.
36:10And the king has been wonderful.
36:12And if you remember last time I went to Saudi Arabia, I put a person on the list because
36:17they agreed to buy four hundred and fifty billion dollars worth of American goods, military
36:24and otherwise.
36:25And they did.
36:26And it was an unbelievable day.
36:28It was in this gorgeous ballroom and companies were there from many, many, probably one hundred
36:34companies.
36:35And they were given anywhere from 40 or 50 million dollars to less and more.
36:44Actually, some of them were given numbers that were just many times that amount.
36:48I think we had a couple of 20 billion dollar deals, big stuff.
36:53And it's a very rich country because of oil.
36:56And we are a very rich country, ultimately, when we straighten out because of oil.
37:01Oil is always good.
37:03And I agreed to do it again.
37:06And they've agreed to spend close to a trillion dollars of money in our American companies,
37:12which to me means jobs.
37:14So they're going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars giving them to American companies
37:21that are going to be making equipment for Saudi Arabia and other places in the Middle
37:27East.
37:29And for that, I think it's worth it.
37:30I did it last time.
37:31Four hundred and fifty billion.
37:33And the press was there.
37:34It was a it was it was one of the most unique days I've ever seen where companies we get
37:39up and you're getting 20 billion, the name of the company and the chairman.
37:43We're all there.
37:44Every chairman and top person in the company.
37:46You remember that, Peter?
37:47I don't know if you were there.
37:48You might be too young for that.
37:49I was on the Democratic campaign trail.
37:52It was boring.
37:53This was a much better deal.
37:55But it was amazing.
37:57Actually, it was an amazing day.
37:59We sold and we partook in four hundred and fifty billion dollars worth of investment
38:05into American companies.
38:07And they announced the company, the amount of money, a billion dollars, five billion
38:11dollars, twenty five billion dollars.
38:13And the chairman of the company, many of whom, you know, well-known figures, prestigious
38:18figures, great business leaders, they went up, they shook the hand of somebody and they
38:24would sit down and we just had a big investment made.
38:28So it was a record.
38:30Nobody ever beat it before.
38:31Four hundred and fifty billion dollars worth of jobs.
38:33I view it as jobs more than anything else.
38:36Now we're close to a trillion dollars.
38:38So it's more than double the number that we did when I first came to office.
38:42And this trip takes place next month.
38:45It could be next month, maybe a little bit later.
38:49And we're going to Qatar also.
38:54And also we're going to possibly a couple of other countries.
38:59UAE is very important.
39:01It's a great leader, UAE.
39:04I had his brother here the other night.
39:06If you saw that, we had a wonderful guy, a wonderful family.
39:10So we'll probably stop at UAE and Qatar.
39:13And as I used to call it, Qatar, nobody's ever told me right or wrong.
39:18I always like to say Qatar, but it's Qatar.
39:21They like to say Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the three of them.
39:25And then we'll go other places also.
39:27But in the Middle East, those seem to be the three.
39:30Again, tremendous amounts of jobs will be created that in those two or three days.
39:37Thank you very much, everybody.