Verbatim transcript of a Feb 16, 2025 press gaggle with President Trump. He opens with remarks about the Daytona event and answers reporters on ongoing diplomatic efforts (a potential meeting in Saudi Arabia and talks involving Putin and Zelensky aimed at ending the Russia–Ukraine war), Israel–Hamas ceasefire/hostage returns, arms shipments justified as “peace through strength,” reciprocal tariffs/food-import bans, and brief domestic remarks blaming prior administrations for inflation. The tone is conversational, repetitive, and politically assertive.
Chapters
So Daytona was fantastic. The crowd was amazing. The people love that sport, and they're wonderful people that run it. And they had a little rain delay, but we'll go home and watch it, I guess, or some of you will and others will try and create peace throughout the world. Do you have any questions, please?
Sir, did you speak to Technician Rubio this morning? I did. What is the latest with the negotiations in Saudi Arabia? Was he taking.
We're moving along. We're trying to. To get a peace with Russia, Ukraine, and we're working very hard on it. It's a war that should have never started.
You expect Zelensky to be involved in these conversations? What will his role be?
He will be involved, yes.
Mr. President, would you allow the Europeans to buy US made weapons for Ukrainians? Yeah. So Zelensky said today that Russia is going to wage war on NATO. Do you. Do you agree with that? Do you have any concerns about.
No, I don't agree. I don't agree with. Not even. Not even a little bit.
Vice President Vance said that the United States would potentially take military action against Russia if they won't come to an agreement. Do you agree with that stance?
I don't know. That's what he said. I don't think he said that. Based on your conversations, based on your conversations with President Putin, what do you think he wants ultimately in Ukraine? I think he wants to stop fighting. I see that. We spoke long and hard. Steve Witkoff was with him for a very extended period, like about three hours. I think he wants to stop fighting. They have a big, powerful machine. You understand that? And they defeated Hitler and they defeated Napoleon. You know, they've been fighting a long time. They've done it before, and. But I think he'd like to. I think he would like to stop fighting. Do you think he wants the whole of Ukraine or just like, what do.
You think he wants?
No, I think he wants to stop. That was my question to him, because if he's going to go on, that would have been a big problem for us, and that would have caused me a big problem, because you just can't let that happen. I think he wants to end it, and they want to end it fast, both of them. And Zelensky wants to end it, too. Sir, when do you think that could actually happen? When do you think the fighting can stop? Well, we're working to get it done. I mean, you know, it's too bad it started. It would have been a lot easier to end it before it started.
Right.
But it started because we had an incompetent president. He didn't know what he was doing. That should have never started. That war was so easy to stop. Remember this, that under Bush, they took a lot. Under Obama, they took a lot. Under Biden, they're trying to take the whole thing. And under Trump, they took nothing. Nothing. Nothing was gone, not even a little bit. So it's too bad. It's really too bad. A lot of people are dead right now that should be alive and a lot of cities are destroyed that can never come back like they were those beautiful golden domes and all of the multicolored domes that were a thousand years old, they're all laying in, you know, just shattered. So it's very sad. They ruined the culture.
They're beginning phase two of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. What is. What's going on there? Have you been briefed on the latest related.
Yeah, I have been briefed. I told Bibi, you do whatever you want because, you know, my statement was, they got to come back. Now, the reason I made that statement, because they said they weren't going to deliver, they were not going to deliver. The people that they said they were going to deliver and that they agreed to deliver, they did agree to do that, but they broke that agreement. When I made the statement, they delivered everybody, plus an American. Now, the good news is they look like they're in pretty good shape because the people from the week before didn't look like they were in good shape. They look like Holocaust survivors, frankly. Horrible. Whatever happened to them was horrible. But that'll be up to Israel. What the next step is, in consultation with me.
To use these weapons for that you've now allowed to be shipped. Given the fact that there's a ceasefire supposed to be in effect, why ship those things off now?
Peace through strength. You understand that, right? It's called peace through strength. You know, they contracted for those weapons a long time ago in the Biden administration, and then Biden wouldn't deliver the weapons. But I look at it differently. I say peace through strength. They were sitting there, nobody knew what to do with them. They bought them. But I believe in that very strongly.
Do you have an update on your has talking about banning food imports from the us Kind of along the lines of your reciprocal tariffs. It's like the reciprocal tariffs. They don't like the pests.
I don't mind. Let them do it. Let them do it. They're just hurting themselves if they do that. I can't imagine it, but it doesn't matter. We're having reciprocal tariffs. Whatever they charge, we charge. Very simple. If a certain country like India, which is very high tariff, if they charge US X dollars, we charge them X dollars. It's all right. It's a fair, it's thing to do. Even the media said it was fair and it's going to be very good for the United States.
Do you have a question on your timing of your meeting with Putin in Saudi Arabia?
No time set, but it could be very soon like this, this month or it'll be soon. We'll see what happens. But they're meeting right now and that's more. I mean this should have been done four years ago, three years ago, before it started. But it should have been done immediately after it started as opposed to now three years later.
Sir, prices have reached an all time. What's your administration egg. Prices have reached an all time high.
It was a long before I ever got here. It was at an all time. This is, remember I've been here for three weeks and when you saw the inflation numbers. I've been here for three weeks. I have had nothing to do with inflation. This was caused by Biden. I had four years of virtually no inflation. So I'm just taking over. But I'll tell you what, this country has made more progress in the last three weeks than it's made in the last four years. And we're respected again as a country. Thank you very much. Thank you.
