President Trump Gaggles with the Press on Air Force One, Oct. 12, 2025

This is a little bit more comfortable. I was a little wet out there. Hello. Hello, sir. Go ahead.

So, President Trump, what's harder, peace in the Middle east or ending a government shutdown?

Well, I think the hardest is this. This has been going on for 3,000 years. The shutdown's only been for 10 days. So I think the shutdown, it's gotten to be almost customary, but we're taking care of it. We've got the military PA and we're doing a lot of things. We're ending some programs that we don't want. They happen to be Democrat sponsored programs, but we're ending some programs that we never wanted. And we're probably not going to allow them to come back. I think they made a mistake. I think they made a big mistake. This is really a Schumer shutdown because he's become sort of irrelevant and he wants to make himself relevant.

And in terms of the politics of this historic peace deal that we're on the way to go sign right now, you would think it's good for everybody. But at a rally this weekend, they were cheering for you and they were booing Netanyahu. What's up with that?

I don't know, but we're going to make everybody happy. The one thing I can tell you is everybody is happy. Whether it's Jewish or Muslim or the Arab countries, every country is dancing in the streets. And it's a point in time. I don't think you'd ever see it again. They've never seen it for 3,000 years. If you like one group, you don't like the other group. And if you like the other group, you don't like the first group. And this is the first time they've ever seen where everybody is unified, because, as you know, we're going to Egypt after Israel, and we're going to meet all of the leaders of the very powerful and big countries and very rich countries and others, and they're all into this deal. Everybody's into it. It's never happened before. So I would say this is a lot tougher. But we'll see how it all works out.

Mr. President, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, has not gone so far as to say the war is over. In your view, is the war Israel is over.

War is over. The war is over. Okay? Do you understand that?

Mr. President, is the ceasefire going to hold? Are you confident the ceasefire will hold?

Say it.

Are you confident that the ceasefire is going to hold?

I think so. I think it's going to hold. I Think people are a lot of reasons why it's going to hold, but I think people are tired of it. It's been, it's been centuries, okay, not just recent, it's been centuries. I think people are tired of it. Yeah. The ceasefire is going to hold and.

What will Gaza look like?

The international stabilization force, that's part of the.

I don't think it's going to have a big impact because I don't think I, I think barely we're going to have to use it. I think people are going to behave. Everybody knows their place. It's going to be great for everybody. It's going to be great for the surrounding countries, Arab, Muslim, all of them. It's going to be great for Israel. Everybody is happy and I think it's going to stay that way.

Peter and if this peace, if ceasefire does hold, how long until we get to the part of the 20 point peace plan where developers can go in and make Gaza the Riviera of the Middle East?

Well, I don't know about the Riviera for a while because you take a look at what you have, you have to get people taken care of first. But it's going to start really essentially immediately. I mean, they're going to have to start by removing a lot of the structures that you see that are down to the ground. I mean, it's a very, it's blasted. This is like a demolition site. Almost the entire site is. So you have to get rid of what you have there. You have structures that are very dangerous. They're falling down. If they haven't fallen, they're going to fall down of their own volition. So that process, Peter, is going to start pretty much immediately in that way.

Like a year from now, in your view.

A year. That's very quick. But over the years it'll look very good. It'll be, it's got the first chance it's had in centuries of being peaceful. It's always been a very, very strange area. It's always been loaded up with problems, religious problems, problems like no other place probably in the world. And I think it's going to now it's going to normalize. All you can say if it normalizes.

That would be fantastic, sir, that you have set up in that peace plan. How soon will that new governing body be in place?

Very quickly. And everybody wants to be a part of it. You're talking about the Board of Peace, Tony Blair, yourself. Everybody wants to be a part of it. I've had calls from all of the leaders the leaders of countries, they all want to be a part. I mean, the leaders themselves, they're not going to send somebody. They want to be a part of it.

Do you know who's going to be a part of it yet?

I do. I do. No, not yet.

Have you spoken to Tony Blair about it?

Since the ear things out, have you.

Spoken to Tony Blair about.

You know, I. First, I want to find out that Tony would be popular with all. Because I just don't know that. And I like Tony. I've always liked Tony, But I want to find out that he's an acceptable choice to everybo.

What guarantees have you been able to give to both the Israelis and the Arab countries? The Israelis are very.

We have a lot of verbal guarantees, and I don't think they're going to want to disappoint me. I have a lot of verbal guarantees, guarantees that aren't down in writing, but they were given to me, and I believe they're going to be held very strongly. That's why I think it's going to be successful. Look who we have. Hi. Katie Levichek. Good to see you. Mr. President. Good to see you. I'm sure you've seen reports of Hamas rearming, instituting themselves as a Palestinian police force, taking, you know, shooting, shooting rivals. What is your message? We're standing because they do want to stop the problems, and they've been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time. You have to understand they've lost probably 60,000 people. That's a lot of retribution. They've lost 60,000 people. And the ones that are living right now were, in many cases, very young. With this all started, and we are having them watch that there's not going to be big crime or some of the problems that you have when you have areas like this that have been literally demolished. You know, you have 2 million people, and probably it'll be less than that, but you have close to 2 million people going back to buildings that have been demolished, and a lot of bad things can happen. So we want it to be. We want it to be safe. I think it's going to be fine. Who knows for sure, Kenny, But I think it's going to be fine. Yes. Hi.

What is the latest that you've heard.

About hostages, when they will be released? Do you expect to meet with hostages? Might be even a little early, but I don't want to say that. So they have the hostages, I understand, all 20, and we may get them out a little bit early, getting them was amazing, actually, because we were involved and they were in places that you. You don't want to know about. Deep, deep. De.

Some of the top Biden administration folks who were there, like Antony Blinken, seem to want some credit for the peace deal. Blinken says it's good that President Trump adopted and built on the plan that the Biden administration developed. What do you think about that?

Everybody knows that's a joke. Look, they didn't do. They did such a bad job. This should have never happened. This wouldn't have even happened. That was weak leadership, terrible. And the same thing with Russia, Russia, Ukraine. If a just a decent president, not a great president like me, not a great president. If a decent president was in, you wouldn't have had the Russia, Ukraine. And this is, I would say, even more so. This was bad policy by Biden and by Obama. Remember when Bibi came and he begged that you not do what they were doing with Iran? You remember that, right? Begged him and they wouldn't even listen to him. Everything they did was the opposite, what you should have done. And it's nice that they try and take a little credit. That was years ago and the mistakes were made years ago, and it was both by Biden and Obama.

So what did you do so differently? Because a lot, I know a lot of it was behind the scenes. So what did you do so much differently than Joe Biden and to end the war?

I resonated with the Arab leaders, the Muslim leaders and the Jewish leaders. For whatever reason, you tell me why. You know, he said that in my first news conference, I answered more questions of him than Biden did in four years. And I think that's pretty close to being true.

There were, there were no Pinocchios in the fact check.

That's right. That's right.

Your relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu has been through some ups and downs. You had to get a little tough on him. Where is that relationship now? And can you tell us?

Very good. He just put me up for the Nobel Prize. So, you know, I don't know what it means with the Nobel Prize, but he put me up yesterday for the Nobel Prize that I should get it. But I mean, I think it's very.

Good commitments to you personally about moving forward to the next phase of peace.

Look, let me tell you, he's a wartime president. He did a very good job. I had some disputes with him and they were quickly settled, I can tell you that. But as far as I'm concerned, I think he's done a great job I think he was the right person at this time. You know, look, it's been, it's been this way for centuries. You know, we're not talking about for 10 years, for five. It's been this way for centuries. And he did a great job and worked working with me. He was fantastic. Now working with Biden, no good. They didn't get along and they had the opposite because Biden and Obama backed Iran. And just so when you talk about a thing like that, if you think they were backing Iran, when you back Iran, this wouldn't have worked. And had we not taken out the Iran nuclear facility and we made the same deal, it would have a really dark cloud over it. And you wouldn't have people dancing in the streets, Katie. You would have people saying, oh, you know, you're making a deal. But we have a guy over there with nuclear weapons all over the place. He's going to knock the hell out of us if we didn't take out the Iran nuclear when we did. Because in two months they would have had a nuclear weapon. This deal, even if it were done the exact same way, would have had a dark cloud over it. And now there's no dark clouds. There's nobody they have to worry about. Katie, have you talked to the Qataris about their changing behavior in your first term? You talked about how they were funding terrorism, The Qataris? Yeah. The Amir has really helped us with this deal. And the emir is an amazing man who really helped us. You have to understand his country is right in the middle of everything. More so than any other country. More so than uae, where you have to fly an hour and a half to get there. More so than Saudi Arabia, where you have to fly an hour and a half to get there. His country, you walk across a line and you're there. So he's in the middle of this unbelievable hostile territory with people on all different sides of the, you know, of the opinion and the question. They were a tremendous help. Qatar was a tremendous help to getting this done. I hope people can realize that. It was very tough and very dangerous for Qatar. They were very brave. And their leader, the emir, was very, very brave. And Qatar should start getting some credit. And you have to understand, they lived in the middle of everything. So they can't just be like, you couldn't do. Nobody, nobody could do it. Say what? They changed their behavior from 2017 when you accused them of funding terrorism? I don't know. In 2017. I didn't really know them very well. You know, 2017, that was at the very beginning of my. My term, as I got to know them, I got to understand them, and I got to realize that they're in the middle of. They are right in the middle of everything. Other countries are there, but they're an hour and an hour and a half away. A big difference. They're literally. You walk over from Ran to Qatar, you can walk it in one second, you go, boom, boom. And now you're in Qatar. That's tough territory. I think Qatar was amazing, the way they helped us.

Mr. President, another world leader.

There was a ceasefire that collapsed in March this year. There was a ceasefire earlier this year that collapsed in March. Do you think this could have been done then? This took a lot of pressure on both sides. Do you have any regrets?

I see it, and I see it with Russia. Russia. Russia, too. Sometimes you have to go through some pain before it all happens. I saw it with Turkey, and by the way, Turkey was fantastic, too. President Erdogan was fantastic. He really helped a lot because he's very respected. He's got a very powerful nation, he's got a very, very powerful military, and he helped a lot. President Erdogan, UAE was great. You know, we mentioned Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the king, they were great. Indonesia was. We had tremendous help. Jordan, the king, they were great. This is an amazing thing. Countries that. Very diverse countries. Some got along, some didn't, but for the most part, nobody got along with anybody. And they all came together and they're all dancing in the streets, just like Israel. It's a unique point in time. You were talking about the ceasefire. That wouldn't have had. That held. That wouldn't have happened.

Back then, both of your elections, the biggest issues were the economy and immigration. Now you're getting credit from Democrats and Republicans for this Middle east peace deal. Where does it fit? Where do you think it fits into your legacy?

Well, look, I solved. This will be my eighth war that I've solved. And I hear there's a war now going between Pakistan and Afghanistan. I said, I'll have to wait till I get back. You know, I'm doing another one because I'm good at solving wars, I'm good at making peace, and it's an honor to do it. I saved millions of lives. Millions of lives. Now, in all fairness to the Nobel Committee, I was. It was for 19, it was for 2024, and this was picked for 2024. But there are those that say you could make an exception, because a lot of things happened during 25 that are. That are done and complete and great. But I did this not for Nobel. I did this for. I did this for saving lives. I mean, we've saved millions of lives. Think about India, Pakistan. Think about some of the. That were going on for years. We had one going for 31, one going for 32, one going for 37 years with millions of people being killed in every country. And I got every one of those done for the most part within a day. It's pretty good.

What are the world leaders, sir, that you've been.

What do you think you can take from this pro, these negotiations and this peace process into Moscow and try to end the Russia, Ukraine?

Well, I think, I think what you can take is that never give up. Just never give up. You know, last week killed over 7,000 soldiers, mostly soldiers and a little bit more, frankly, Russian soldiers than Ukraine soldiers last week. But think of it, every week they're losing from five to 7,000 soldiers. It's ridiculous. And I thought that would be one of my easier ones. I mean, when you settle something that's been going on for 31 and 32 years, that's in theory a lot harder than setting, you know, something that's been going on for three years. But this is a war going on for three years should never started. Frankly, I give Ukraine credit for doing so well. I mean, they're good fighters. They're very good fighters. I think that, I really think that President Putin would look great if he got this settled. And I think he's going to settle it, but we're going to see. And if he doesn't, it's not going to be good for him.

Speaking of China, you've been truthing about another world leader. You said not to worry about China, but he's been putting out some tough statements in regards to your tariffs. Sir, are you planning to speak with him? When's the last time putting out tough statements?

Because we are taking in hundreds of billions of dollars, not only from China, from other countries. We've become a wealthy country again. And the tariffs have given us a diplomatic strength, they've given us negotiating strength. I settled a few of the wars just based on tariffs. I said with as an example, with India and with Pakistan, I said, if you guys want to fight a war and you have nuclear weapons, I'm going to put big tariffs on you both, like 100%, 150 and 200%. No, no, no, don't do that. I said I'm putting tariffs thing settled in 24 hours. If I didn't have tariffs, you could have never Settled that war. You knew that better than anybody.

McGee, on China, are you considering walking that question?

Who are you with?

Politico. Dasha Burns, sir.

Dasha. Politico. Politico has gone bad. They've been so wrong about everything. Politico? No, no. Politico has been so wrong about everything. Let's get somebody else to ask some questions. You mind? Is that all right, Ms. Politico is fake news to go to Asia in a couple of weeks. But you saw the statement I put out that he had a bad day. And I think we're going to be fine with China. Look, I have a great relationship with President Xi. He's a very tough man. He's a very smart man. He's a great leader for their country. He's a great leader, and I have a great relationship with him. I think we'll get it set. I know what happened. I really understand what happened. And I'm not even saying he's wrong. But then we met him with something much tougher than what he did to us. Again, because of the tariffs. It's much tougher.

Would you ever visit Gaza? Would you ever visit Gaza?

I would, yeah. I would. I'd be proud to. I see it. I mean, I know it so well without visiting, but I do see it. Yeah. I would, actually. I'd like to do it. I'd like to put my feet on it, at least. But I think it's going to be a great miracle over the. Over the coming decades. And, you know, if you go too fast, that's not going to be good. You have to go at the right speed. You can't go too fast. Who are you? BBC. BBC.

Tom Bateman, BBC with the radio call.

Nice accent. Thank you.

When Steve Wykoff was in Hostages Square last night, he mentioned Prime Minister Netanyahu and the crowd booed. I wondered if you saw that, what.

You made of that.

I also saw the crowd cheer when he mentioned Trump, like, really cheer. And it's an honor. No, as I said, I think Beebe did a great job. I had some words with him a couple of times where I didn't agree. He was always. He was the right guy at the right time.

Are you confident? Because many Palestinians will be concerned that after the hostages are handed over that Israel might restart the war for some reason? Are you.

I'm not worried about anything. I think we have a great deal, and it's a great deal for everybody. You know, a great deal is a deal where everybody's happy and every country, they're Dancing in the streets. That's a great deal. It's a unique. It's a unique period in time.

November 1, 100% tariffs on China is what you said. Is that still the plan?

Yeah, right now it is. Yeah. Let's see what happens. You know, for me, you know what? November 1st is an eternity. November 1st is an eternity for me because somebody else is right around the corner. For me when I hear November 1st, it's an eternity. Go ahead.

You had talked a couple weeks ago, you were doing an interview and you talked about how you hope to end the war in Ukraine because it might help you get into heaven. How does this help? Does this help?

I mean, you know, I'm being a little cute. I don't think there's anything going to get me in heaven. Okay. I really don't. I think. I think I'm not maybe heaven bound. I may be in heaven right now as we fly an Air Force One. I'm not sure, Abe, I'm going to be able to make heaven, but I've made life a lot better for a lot of people. And, you know, as an example, had the election of 2020 not been rigged, you would have millions of people living just in Russia, Ukraine alone. That would have never happened. And it didn't happen for four. And I knew Putin very well. It was the apple of his eye. All the things I've said would have never happened. We had an incompetent administration. We had an incompetent president, and because of a crooked election, millions of people are dead. And by the way, the Israeli thing was much harder to get settled because of the past administration. Okay, rest, enjoy yourselves. Say hello to your boss and I'll see you guys. Right, good. Before you go, can you tell us about your conversations with President Zelensky?

Did you talk about.

We had a very good conversation this morning and yesterday, and he basically would like to. As you know, we are not sending any weapons. We're sending them to NATO, and NATO is paying, which is a big difference between Biden and Trump, because Biden gave $350 billion and we didn't. We gave them, we gave them nothing, but we gave them respect and some other things, frankly. So we talked about weapons. And the WEAP are sent to NATO, and NATO then sends us a check. They pay for info and they would need more weapons, and we're looking into doing that. We, we hope we're going to be able to provide them. You know, our country needs weapons, too. We can't give so many weapons that we don't have weapons. You never know what's going to happen. Who knows what's going to happen? But NATO pays us 100% for the weapons and then they send them into Ukraine. And we talked about the weapons they need. What kind of weapons? They need Patriots very badly. They'd like to have Tomahawks. That's a step up. They'd like to have Tomahawks. We talked about that. And so. So we'll see. Well, I don't know. I bet I might have to speak to Russia, to be honest with you, about Tomahawks. Do they want to have Tomahawks going in their direction? I don't think so. I think I might speak to Russia about that. In all fairness, I told that to President Zelensky because Tomahawks are a new step of aggression. Right. You other. Very well. Are you saying that you will speak to Putin first about. I might talk to him. I might say, look, if this war is not going to get settled, I'm going to send them Tomahawks. I may said that the Tomahawk is an incredible weapon, very offensive weapon. And honestly, Russia does not need that. They don't need that. Yeah. I might tell them that if the war is not settled that we may. Very well, we may not, but we may do it. I think it's appropriate to bring them. I want to see the war settled. Thank you very much. Tell them to be honest and not honest. Sir.

Talk to Caroline. She'll vouch for him. Okay, thank you.

Thanks, President. Thank you.

My first time on the plane.

Oh, really? What do you. He flies private. He's doing pretty well. So who's going to be the head anchor at cbs? Not Nora o'. Donnell. I don't believe. I don't believe. You know, there's a story that they could. I don't know.

What do you think?

Well, I tell you what, Larry Ellison is great and his son David is great friends of mine. They're big supporters of mine and they'll do the right thing. They're going to make cbs, hopefully. They called it the Tiffany Network and it's got great potential. CBS has great potential. Thank you all. Thank you.