President Trump Gaggles with the Press on Air Force One, July 29, 2025

Everybody, I hope you had a good time in beautiful Scotland. Did a lot of work with the European Union and yesterday I spent pretty much a whole day with the Prime Minister of UK and we had a lot of good discussions. Although I see something came up today which is interesting. So go ahead. Hello.

Hi, Mr. President.

Can we ask about that? Can we ask about that, please? On Gaza, Sakir Starmer has just announced the UK will recognize Palestinian sovereignty in September if Israel does not commit to a ceasefire, ease the suffering in Gaza and commit to a long term solution that would deliver the two state solution in the Middle East. Did you know that was coming? What is your response?

We never discussed it. Surprisingly. It was never really discussed. Maybe a little bit at the news conference, but he was sort of discussing it with you. We never did discuss it and we have no view on that. We're going to get a lot of money to the area so they can get some food. He's going to. Also, I think the European Union is going to put up money too for food and hopefully it's going to be properly distributed. And it will be, I think it will be. We have some pretty good response on people for the distribution of the food. We want to take it one thing at a time. They need food and they need people to be able to get them the food.

But to follow up on that, I mean, is there any use at all in pressuring Israel now to come to some sort of longer term solution?

Or at least you could make the case that you're rewarding people that you know you're rewarding Hamas if you. And I don't think they should be rewarded. So I'm not in that camp, to be honest. We'll let you know where we are, but I am not in that camp. Because if you do that, you really are rewarding Hamas and I'm not about to do that.

Mr. President, you mentioned setting up food centers. When can we expect to see those food centers?

Yeah, very soon. So we said $60 million. That's a lot of money for food. A lot of money that can take care of people for a long time. And we want to make sure it's going to be, it's being spent proper. And part of the spending is the distribution, you know, the. If, you know, a lot of money has been sent by other countries, but nothing compared to us. But a lot of things have been stolen. They send money, they send food and Hamas steals it. So it's a, it's a tricky little game, but we're going to make sure we have some very good people. They're going to be watching who is.

Going to be running those food centers for you and what kind of oversight?

Well, we're going to be dealing with Israel, and we think they can do a good job of it. And they want to do it. No, they want to do it. The food centers. Yeah, they want to. They want to preside over the food centers to make sure the distribution is proper.

Great time seeing that beautiful course. But there's some critics who say this was a promotional trip for you and your business, that it promoted you and your business personally. What do you say to that?

I haven't heard that. No, I haven't heard that. Did you get to see my driver in the first hole?

You hit it straight and pretty high.

Yeah, pretty long. Pretty long. That's no Joe Biden, let me tell you. That's not bite, right? That was a good drive.

When did you last speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu? And when will you speak to him again?

Two days ago.

How many?

Two days ago.

When do you think you'll speak to him?

You know, we sent money, and I want to make sure the money is spent wisely and it's spent judiciously and that food is distributed in a proper manner. And he wants to do that.

Mr. President, you've talked about moving Palestinians out of Gaza.

You said that in the past.

Do you still support that idea?

It's a concept that some people fell in love with it, some people don't. We really have to see how it all works out before we do that. But, you know, you could do something spectacular, but that's a different concept. You could also probably do it if you left. Some. Some are leaving automatically. You know that. Some would like to leave. I think many would like to leave if they were given an alternative. They really have no alternative now. But certainly that was a concept that was really embraced by a lot of people, but also some people didn't.

Minister Starmer, he was kind of critical of Israel and said more pressure needed to be put on Israel to allow food to get in at speed. Do you feel that Israel will be.

Is a good. I think Israel wants to do it, actually. I think Israel wants to do that. They're going to want to. And I can tell you that they want to do it. They don't want Hamas stealing the money or stealing the food, and that's what they've been doing.

Israel can be trusted to allow more food in faster.

I think Israel wants to do it, and they'll be good at Doing it. If they do it and if they really want to do it, and I think they do, they'll do a good job. The food will be properly preserved.

There's a perception maybe that Keir Starmer didn't do so well in the press conference yesterday. Do you have any words of support for him?

He did well in the press conference. And I thought, you know, I think they made a good deal. I think we all made a good deal. Why are you hearing otherwise? I guess, yeah.

I think the feeling is that he was maybe a little weak and didn't really have very strong answers and maybe was entirely honest about free speech and immigration.

I like him. I think he's good. I think he's a great representative for UK I haven't heard that.

In your meeting with John Sweeney today, did you offer to drop tariffs on Scotch whiskey?

Did you have a really discussion much? But I have a lot of respect for him, Mr. President. I didn't have a lot of respect for the woman that preceded him. I thought she was terrible as a first minister of Scotland. But I think John is doing a very good job as first.

Mr. President, your treasury, your Treasury Secretary and Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce. China talks wrapped today. Any sort of reaction coming out of the meeting? They're extending the truce. Are you pleased with that? Would you like to.

I just had a phone call from Scott Besson and had a very good meeting with China and seems that, I mean, they're going to brief me tomorrow. We'll either approve it or not. But he felt very good about the meeting. Better. Better than he fel yesterday. Yesterday. Here we go again. Here we go again. But today it worked out and I saw, I think the result is probably.

I saw a report from Reuters that India is preparing to face higher U.S. tariffs between 25. Between 20 and 25%. Is that what you're tracking or what do you think the rate will be?

That they are going to pay 25%?

Yeah. That India is preparing to face higher US tariffs between 20 and 25%?

I think so. Look, India's been, they're my friends and he's my friend and you know, the end of the war with Pakistan and my request and it was great. And Pakistan did also, you know, we did a lot of, a lot of great settlements, including the recent one, as you know, with Cambodia, blah, blah, blah. So that was a. That was a great one. I think that's been pretty well finalized now, right?

I don't know.

I'm asking you, did I do a good Job on that one. I did a good job in about five different wars. Do you think I'll get credit for it? No. Will I get credit for it? She'll say yes.

Is the deal with India finalized?

No, it's not.

Okay, so what rate are you expecting?

We're going to see. We're going to see. But India has been a good friend. But India has charged basically more tariffs than almost any other country. You know that, right? Over the years. But now I'm in charge and you just can't do that. I think the trade deals are working out very well, hopefully for everybody. But for the United States, they're very, very good.

Wall Street Journal case lawy seeking to depose Robert Murdoch. Rupert Murdoch. Pardon me, can you say what the lawyers hope to get out of that?

We're going to see the lawyer. It's in the lawyers hands. I've been treated very unfairly by the Wall Street Journal and everything. I mean, I don't know. They even hired people from the Washington Post. Third rate reporters, gossip type reporters. It's all gossip. And you know, I've been treated badly by the Wall Street Journal. I would have assumed that Rupert Murdoch controls it, but you know, maybe does, maybe doesn't. They are talking to us about doing. We'll see what happens. Maybe they would like us to drop that and so we'll see. Yeah, they're having, they want to settle it. He's treated us wrong. I mean, you know, when, when I get treated unfairly, I do things about it. So we'll, we'll see what happens on Gaza.

Last week you were rather dismissive of President Macron when he recognized the palliatilian state. Today you're saying you don't really.

That's his opinion. You know, he can have an opinion. It doesn't mean I have to agree. Emmanuel, a good man, he works hard. Got a lot to say about everything.

But now you're saying you're not taking a view on Sir Keir Starmer's announcement. Does that mean your viewers are.

I guess Starmer is doing the same as Macron, right? He's basically. Is he saying the same thing? I think so. Essentially they're saying the same thing and that's okay, you know, it doesn't mean I have to agree.

Mr. President, you said yesterday your falling out with Jeffrey Epstein was over him taking some of the workers from your business, but your administration in the past said that you threw them out because he was a creep. So can you explain that discrepancy?

Maybe they're the same thing, you know, sort of a little bit of the same thing. But no, he took people that work for me and I told him don't do it anymore and he did it and I, I said stay the hell out of here.

So is that what you, what was meant by being agreed? Me, I'm with, I'm the travel pool but I'm with NBC News NBC.

NBC Fake News NBC is one of the worst. What else do you have?

Air Force One, the new Air Force One. When do expect to be flying on the new Air Force One?

They say February, maybe much sooner than the others. The others are being built. Long time build. That's a long time build now they're not normal 747s. They, you know, have a lot of things on them that another plane wouldn't have. But we'll get this one a year and a half, two years earlier.

How much will it cost to retrofit it?

I don't know. It's up to the military. I don't, I really don't know. I haven't been involved. They, it's their plane. It's, you know, the Air Force, they'll be spending an amount of money. You know, it is a different play because it becomes for military use. So but I don't know what the.

Numbers questions about whether the amount that it'll cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars, whether that's worth it since considering how little time you'll be able to use it.

You know, it's, it's a great plane. It's one of the best planes in the world. The Air Force is going to have it. We're going to have a great 747. We need it. If you look at this plane, it's. What is it, 32, 30, 35. I don't know. It's old. It's a good plane, but it's old. Can't get parts for it anymore. It's very hard to get parts they have to go and take from the older planes. So it was time. When you look at 747s and you know the heads of state from especially the Arab countries, you look at from Saudi Arabia, from some of those countries and you put it next to this, it doesn't show well for the United States. And if you remember, it was Obama that wanted to get the. He was the one ready to sign a contract and because he wanted to sign it, I assumed they paid too much and I was able to get about a million, a billion seven off the price Maybe a billion five to a billion seven off the price for the exact same plane. And they're building it, but they're taking a lot longer than they should have taken.

There's a report that a Secret Service agent tried to get his wife onto a support plane for this mission.

That's a weird deal. The wife in the car. Wouldn't you think that might be a little dangerous? You know, I don't know if that has proper compression. I don't know. That's. That's a strange one. I just heard that two minutes ago. I think Sean's taking care of it.

Mr. President, you talked on Russia.

Serious story.

I think it's that.

Well, keep her in the car and she's going to be in a freighter. Don't have a funeral.

Tell us how it was going to work.

I. I don't want to get involved, but it's a strange story. I just heard that one.

Mr. President. Mr. President. Mr. President. You said that you were.

The British farmers are so grateful for what you said yesterday about the importance of farming because we have changed inheritance tax with death taxes.

Farmers are so important. Some farmers are, you know, they like to understand a couple of things. Yesterday they liked what I said for the farm. I'm a big farmer person. I love the farmers. I think they're great. And we have to steer the laws so the farmers don't get hurt in our country and in their country. But Europe has a big immigration problem. Liked when I said that they have one of the worst mayors anywhere in the world in London. He's a horrible mayor. Nasty guy, stupid guy, in my opinion. But he's a nasty man and I want nothing to do with him. But I didn't think it was a big statement and I was. So many people said, thank you for saying that. He's a bad guy. Khan is his name. I guess he's done a lousy job, I can tell you that. Terrible marriage, but people liked it so much when I said that.

Mr. President, yesterday you mentioned that you would change the Russia deadline to 10 to 12 days. Is that. Has that started yet or when can we, you know, see the official statement that that is the new deadline?

I'll tell you what, I'll give it to you now. Do you want a big scoop?

Yes.

Everybody else, close your ears. Okay, you ready?

I'm ready.

Ten days from today.

Got it?

Okay. Got it. Good.

How do you communicate?

We have a scoop and then, you know, we're going to put on tariffs and stuff, and I don't know if it's going to affect Russia, because he wants to obviously probably keep the war, but we're going to put on tariffs and the various things that you put on it may or may not affect them, but it could.

Any of the families of the victims of the Manhattan shooting.

I don't want to tell you that. I don't want to tell you. That's a very. That's a very. Boy, that's a bad one. That's a bad one. But I won't tell you about that.

Have you talked to Mayor Adams? Have you spoken with me?

One of the other things our readers like from yesterday was when you were talking so forcefully about illegal immigration in the United Kingdom. One of the big political flashpoints is migrant hotels where people are being put up while their claims are processed.

People see it as a source of beautiful luxury hotels.

They also think there's low security and it's a problem for their communities. Is that appropriate or does Britain need an alligator Alcatraz?

It's not alligator. It's just that, you know, they're putting people in luxury hotels and other people that are working their asses off are living, you know, from hand to mouth. They're not living the same way. I mean, I looked at some of the hotels hotels are using and they've done it in our country also. They put them in, like the best hotels anywhere in the world because they could get rooms there. Thousands of dollars a night. And other people are living out on the streets, including our veterans. They can't get a room. Our veterans are living on the streets. There are pictures of our veterans saying, right by the door where they're walking in to live. And the veterans are sitting out on the sidewalk in front of a fancy hotel and the illegals are coming in into that hot and staying there for a week. That's no good.

Just a button up on Mar a Lago. You're saying that Jeffrey Epstein poached two of your staffers. Who were they? Were they.

I don't want to say two or. I don't want to say any number you're talking about many years ago. But yeah, he took people. And because he took people, I said, don't do it anymore. You know, they work for me. And he took. Beyond that, he took some others. And once he did that, that was the end of him. I didn't like when they steal people. I don't like it.

Did anybody ever go to prison for a social media?

Are you saying that that's taking place in the uk?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'm hearing that. Well, we. I looked at him yesterday. Well, they said they canceled Truth Social. I'll bet it's uncanceled very quickly. I'll bet it's uncanned. No, it's a little different. It's different. I see it in some countries that you would never suspect it. Not only that, I've seen it in other countries where, you know, they're like bread and pudding countries, I think. And then all of a sudden they become somewhat violent. When people go socialistic or when you get the radical left or the left going in, the countries actually become very mean. They become two things. Mean and incompetently run simultaneously. How is Caroline doing? Is she doing a good job? She said she's. Come on, Caroline. Come here. Chloe, do you want to come over? Chloe is a great. She's a great golfer. A great, talented golfer. She's probably the most talented, talented golfer other than Kai. But I think it's about the same, right? Don't you? She hits the ball long. This little girl has a lot of muscle, right? Yeah, so. And she wins. She wins every tournament she plays in of her age.

Yes, Very fun.

You love golf, right? Yes, but she's a great athlete.

How did the golf course play today? And be honest, did anyone in your foursome hit that massive bunker on the 9th?

That is a massive bunker. Fortunately, nobody did. Well, I played. Two of the guys were pros and really good players. One of them won the tournament last year and you could see they were very good players.

Who. Who at the moment holds the course record.

Well, we played a first round. We played. We only played one round. This was our first round, so I'd have to go into that. Exactly. But they're two really good players. One of them, you know, is the one that. Who. You know the story. You know that. So he took tiger, I guess, 18 Halsey. Tiger, you know, went wild with his putting, meaning he started dropping putts from all over the place and Tiger took him. But that's the quality, you know, they're really good players. We had. Those two guys were terrific guys. Two terrific guys. We had. We had a good time, but I was watching. The only shot that mattered to me was the driver in the first hole. Because if I would have missed it, you would not have let me forget it.

Did you take a bit of a practice? You're on the driving range beforehand.

I hit some. Yeah, I did. I hit some balls on the driving range. It's a great course. It's a great Course, it's been fantastic. You know, I built one and then I had to build this one. Otherwise you would have lost your zoning up for, like a certain period of time to build it. So they built it, it opened. My son did a very good job on building it.

So you thought over the last dune course. Are you talking about environmental regulations?

We have. We obey the regulations, the environmental regulations. You really want to. And it's top of the line. It's. The pros were saying this is as good as any course they've ever played. It's as good as it gets.

The course was surrounded by windmills. Did you talk to Swarmer about.

I did, yeah. I think windmills are a disgrace. I think they. They hurt everything they touch. They're ugly, they're very inefficient. It's the most expensive form of energy there is. People hate it when they become visible from their house. When you see them from a house, the value goes down by 50% and more. They make noise when they're out in the ocean. Bad for the sea life. Very bad for the whales, obviously, because they wash up on shore like nine times more than they did without them. No, they are really bad and they cost a lot of money. You know, there's not a wind farm that's put up without subsidy. So instead of making money, what they should do is open up the, you know, the whole north coast.

Oil.

They have tremendous oil right there, right where we play. And they've made it impossible for people to drill. It's crazy. It's. I mean, that's one of the best oil areas in the world. They've made it impossible for people to take it out. Instead, they put up these ugly windmills all over the country and all over the world. I don't know what it is. Nobody likes them. They have the greatest lobby. But it's starting. I think I'm starting to get to it now. They're bad energy. They look bad, they killed the birds. They're really terrible things. And it's the most expensive energy of any energy there is. In fact, every. I mean, not every, I guess, I don't know, maybe some. But almost every windmill put up needs subsidy from the government. So instead of making money, they lose money. And that's why UK energy costs are very high. Because when we were flying over to the plane, they're all over the place. It's terrible. It's a terrible thing. I'll say it until I can't speak anymore. And I think. But I think we are having an impact. And they're starting to take a lot of windmills down. I mean, they're literally starting to take them down. They don't work. They're bad. They're too costly. And every year you see them up there, the government is paying a lot of money. Whereas if you have oil, if you have other forms of energy, you make money on it. In other words, you bring down taxes.

Well, your friend Bryson Shambeau said LIV Tour players weren't playing enough Lynx Golf. Is that something we might see at the well?

Lynx golf is just different golf. It's. It's quite a bit different. I love Bryson. Bryson's great. He's a great player. Very powerful guy. Long hitter, great putter, great everything. And it's interesting because he plays well in links course.

But is that in the future for the greatest 36?

Oh, yeah. I mean, look, we have a tournament this weekend there and we have another tournament next weekend, big tournaments. And we're looking to get the Irish Open at Dunebeg. You know, I have a course in Dunebeg in Ireland, and we have a lot of great tournaments coming to my. I build. I build the best courses. That's not only said by me, that's said by everybody.

Dr. Russia, sir, since you made the announcement of the 10 to 12 days, have you gotten any feedback or any official. Gotten any feedback that it had a response that Russia is going to do something?

I haven't had any response. It's a shame. So I used to say to you, 5,000 people die a week. Now it's 7,000 people are dying a week. Mostly Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, but people also from having bombs dropped on their head, the disgusting war.

How worried are you on the oil markets if you were to put sanctions on Russia?

I don't worry about it. We have so much oil in our country. We'll just step it up even further. I mean, oil is down pretty low right now. We'll step it up even further.

I heard you mention compression. How were you feeling out there when you were playing? Like, how did you feel? Because I think it's the first time you played since you saw the dog, right?

I felt good. I thought it was great. I thought the course was great. It looks even more beautiful than I thought. You know, we did the first one, like 11 years, 12 years ago, and it's gotten tremendous reviews. It's one of the best courses in the world. And I had the other piece of land to do this one also on the ocean and the North Sea. And we really have. And by the way, the North Sea is the exact term for the oil. They have the greatest, among the greatest reserves. It's tremendous. And they're not using it. Instead they're putting up these stupid windmills. It's so crazy. UK could reduce their energy cost by 70% if they would use the North Sea oil. It just doesn't make sense. It's just not a liberal thing to do. But it's becoming more liberal thing to do. I love being out there. It was great. Good feeling.

UK and the US both have increasingly unhealthy populations.

Is that what they say?

We do, don't we?

I can see it.

I'm interested in the work that makes America healthy again.

I should think about it for myself. Bobby's doing a great job. People are loving Bobby Kennedy and the whole group. Dr. Oz, Marty McCary. We have a fantastic group and you're going to see a lot of things happening over the next couple of months. I mean, true activists and, you know, they're going with the science and you know, if you, if you take a look at some of the problems, some of the diseases that are coming up to a level that we've never seen before, there's something wrong. There's something wrong. And we're going to, I think we're going to solve the problem, but he's really working hard. A lot of all we're doing now is stats, statistics, and I think we're going to make a big change. Going to save a lot of lives. You know, when the babies are born and they end up having problems that they've never had before and by like 15 and 20 times more. So there's something wrong and we're going to find what it is pretty soon, we think pretty soon.

Mr. President Epstein has a certain reputation, obviously. Just curious, were some of the workers that were taken from you, were some of them young women?

Some of them.

Were some of them young women?

Well, I don't want to say, but everyone knows the people that were taken. And it was. The concept of taking people that work for me is bad. But that story's been pretty well out there. And the answer is yes, they were.

Yes, they were young women.

What did they do in the spa? Yeah, people that work in the spa. I have a great spa, one of the best spas in the world at Mar a Lago. And people were taking out of the spa, hired by him, in other words, gone. And other people would come and complain. This guy is taking people from the spa. I didn't know that. And then When I heard about it, I told him, I said, listen, we don't want you taking our people. Whether it was spa or not spa, I don't want him taking people. And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, out of here.

Mr. President, did one of those stolen, you know, persons that include Virginia Nephre?

I don't know. I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know, none whatsoever.

We've seen how good your security detail is this weekend, and the team around you are amazing. Do you have any answers yet as to what happened with the assassination attempt? Having seen them in action seems remarkable that that was.

You mean the assassination with. They just weren't as good that day. They had a bad day. They shouldn't have had a roof that was, you know, unpatrolled. They should have had coordination with the local police because, you know, you had a lot of talk going on. You had the woman screaming, there's a man up there with a gun. And a number of people were screaming, there's a guy up there with a gun. And they didn't have the. One group wasn't hooked into the other. Tell you, the Secret Service shooter, David, was amazing, because in four seconds, it was over. And if this lunatic was allowed to keep shooting, because they had a lot of tens of thousands of people there, so a lot of people could have been killed. I mean, we lost a great person and two people very badly injured. But the shooter, one bullet.

Think of that.

One bullet from a very far distance. So he was great.

Changed you as a person.

I don't know. You know, maybe and maybe not, but it's. I like to not think about it. You know, it affects some people greatly. I can't afford to be affected because I have a job to do. So I like not to think about it.

Does it not go through.

I think about it too much. It's probably not a good thing.

Does it not go through your mind at all? On a morning like this morning, when you're outside, there's a crowd and you're.

I don't think about it. I don't. I think you see the kind of protection now. It's. It's. I think they're very good. It's a whole different level. Look, these people went to Biden and Biden's people and asked for more help because I was having rallies. 60,000, 70,000 people I had 115,000 people and Biden would have two people. Nobody wanted to see the guy. And he'd have a bigger security detail than I had. And they were asking Sean and the various people were asking for more people and they were denied. So they denied them and, you know, so could make that case. I don't think they've made that case well, because they, I knew for a fact that they were asking for more people. A lot they haven't wanted. They have said it, but not that publicly, but they wanted more people and the Biden people would not give it to them. And we had massive crowds, you know, you were there. We would have routinely 50, 60, 70,000 people and he would have nobody. He couldn't fill the circles, you know, the eight circles. And he didn't need very many people. And so that was a problem too.

Can I ask about the first lady you mentioned a couple of weeks ago, her role in talking to you about the war in Ukraine and perhaps it being part of your evolution in thinking. Have you discussed the crisis in Gaza and the terrifying, horrific.

She thinks it's terrible and she sees the same pictures that you see that we all see. And I think everybody, unless they're pretty cold hearted or worse than that, nuts. There's nothing you can say other than it's terrible. When you see the K kids and those are kids, you know, whether they talk starvation or not, those are kids that are starving. That's. I mean, they are starving. And you see the mothers, they love them so much and there's just nothing they seem to be able to do. They got to get them food and we're going to get them food.

Do you plan to attend the G20 summit this year in South Africa?

No, I think maybe I'll send somebody else because I've had a lot of problems with South Africa and they have some very bad policies. Very, very bad policies, like policies where people are being killed. A lot of people are being killed. So I think I probably won't. I'd like to, but I don't think I will.

Any update on when you'll meet with President Xi? When can we expect that he wants to meet?

And I look forward to the meeting too, but I would say before the end of the year. I mean, just to go full circle. So we had a very good meeting today. If you would have asked me the question yesterday. No, it wasn't looking too good. I would have said maybe. I might have said nothing, but I might have also said it wasn't going to good I just heard from Scott that the meeting went very well today with China. Thank you all very much. Enjoy the flight. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.