President Trump Makes an Announcement, Aug. 22, 2025

Thank you very much. We have a very big announcement to make today. You all know Johnny. He came all the way from Italy, the beautiful country of Italy, to be with us and he just got off the plane. And he's a hard working guy, does a phenomenal job with FIFA. Nobody like him. I'm delighted to welcome FIFA president Johnny Infantino back to the White House for a major announcement about one of the most anticipated competitions in all of sports, the 2026. And this is a big deal, I'll tell you. I was so happy to get it. The 2026 FIFA World Cup. That's going to be the World cup as we know it. It's the biggest, probably the biggest event in sports, I guess. Johnny. Right. On December 5th of this year, the 2026 FIFA World cup draw will take place at the Kennedy Center. Some people refer to it as the Trump Kennedy center, but we're not prepared to do that quite yet. Maybe in a week or so. But right here in Washington D.C. it's a tremendous honor to bring the global event and this incredible group of people and these unbelievable athletes, the best athletes in the world, to the cultural center of our nation's capital. I just left the Kennedy Center. We're spending a lot of money wisely on making it really beautiful. It's going to be beautiful again. It's like Washington, D.C. we had, by the way, in Washington D.C. we have the lowest crime numbers they've had in years. Zero. It sounds like it's a horrible thing to say, but I might as well say it. Zero murders in the last week since we've done this. That's the first time in memory that that's happened, if you can believe it, how pathetic that is to have to even say it. And I'm tired of listening to these people say how safe it was before we got here. It was unsafe. It was horrible. And Mayor Bowser better get her ax straight or she won't be mayor very long. Because we'll take it over with the federal government, run it like it's supposed to be run. The numbers were horrible. It was a crime infested rat hole. And they do have a lot of rats. We're getting rid of them too. And we've made a lot of progress. And it was extremely unsafe and now it's extremely safe. We had virtually no crime. The number was down 87%. And I'm trying to figure out where was the 13% because I don't think it existed. The National Guard has been unbelievable and they're working with the police. And they have some very good people in there. They have some people that shouldn't be police, actually, but they have some great people there. And the Washington, D.C. is a whole different place. And Johnny, I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that, too, actually. Oh, yes, but it's a whole different place. People are excited again. They're going out to restaurants again. That was the other thing I saw in numbers. That restaurant business is down in the last week. No, no restaurant business. You can't get into a restaurant. Just really lying people. And that's why people don't understand how bad and how dishonest the press is. I saw one poll that had us at 19% favorable on what we're doing with Washington. And then I saw another one says that's 94% favorable. And I can tell you the 94% is correct. The others are fake. Just fake news. They got to get their act together. So bad for our country. So sick, actually. So Washington, D.C. is really doing unbelievably well. And the Kennedy center that we're. I was just there all morning with contractors. We're making it unbelievable. It's going to be unbelievable. It's got great bones, but it needs a lot of work. The World cup draw will set up the group stage of competition. 48 teams will play in 104 games across 16 North American cities, from Seattle to Vancouver to Atlanta to Miami. It's going to be so exciting for our country. The 2026 FIFA World cup will be one of the largest and most complex events. This will be one of the greatest events. One of the. In a way, it's like Johnny said it better. It's like having many Super Bowls in a short period of time, because each one of these games essentially is a Super Bowl. Some of them are bigger than Super Bowls, actually, but they're. Essentially, each one of these games is like a Super Bowl. The 2026 FIFA World cup will be the largest, most complex set of events in sports history. And the Kennedy center will give it a phenomenal kickoff. And we'll be involved and they'll be working over there for quite a bit of time. We have it all set that they can stay there for the big events, the big press conferences and everything else. And they'll be in a very safe capital. That will be nice. You don't have to worry about walking down the street. Johnny. Okay. Thank you. But you could handle yourself. Already FIFA is projecting 6 million loyal fans will attend the World cup events next year, and 6 billion more are going to be watching back home. And they think the $6 billion number is going to be actually a low number. And this will drive more than $30 billion into the U.S. economy and create 185,000American jobs in a short period of time, too. No sporting event attracts more attention, more fans, more viewers, or more revenue than the FIFA World Cup. And again, I'll just say it's the World cup and it's the biggest thing there is in sports. And we have it, and I got it in my first administration and I was really somewhat devastated. As devastated as I can be. I don't have time to get too devastated. I was very happy today. As you saw, the group that does this, a government group, radical left group, announced that Trump was right, took in $4 trillion worth of tariffs, that the $4 trillion are going to reduce the deficit by numbers far greater than they ever expected or heard of. And by the way, the stock market went up 1,000 points. That was as of 10 minutes ago. I can't tell you what happened. A lot of things happened, but the stock market is up almost a thousand points. And it's basically on the news that the release that just came out from government that the tariffs that everybody was talking about, that the whole world respects us for because of what we did, the tariffs are going to be at $4 trillion. They're going to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion. Mr. Vice President.

Pretty good, sir.

Too bad it's not 5, right?

That's right.

It's had a huge impact and the stock market is way up. But this will drive more than $30 billion in U.S. economy and create 185,000American jobs. No sporting event attracts more attention or more fans or anything else. And I just look forward to the draw. So we're going to have the draw essentially, Johnny, at the Kennedy center. And by that time it will be in even better shape. We're working on it. It'll take it's about a year project to make it. It'll be great. It'll be fantastic. You see the way this is looking nice. I can't tell you how much that gold costs. A lot of money. There's nothing like gold and there's nothing like solid gold. But this beautiful office needed it. It had to be representative. When we took it over, it was dirty, not clean. I immediately changed the chair and had the. This beautiful desk renovated, brought out by the White House. People that do this, they did a great job. They send it out. We have a craftsman who's great, but this was not appropriate for the Oval Office when I took over. And now you look at all those paintings, you're allowed to turn back. All of these are great presidents and they were all in the vaults. They were in vaults for some cases, much more than 100 years. And now they're proudly hanging on the Oval Office walls. And I can't imagine anybody changing it, but they were, they were buried in vaults for over 100 years, many of them. So it's very exciting. People come in, they really love it. They love what we're doing here, they love what we're doing in D.C. and they love what we're doing, most importantly in the country and the world. I'd like to ask Johnny to say a few words. He's the head of the whole thing. He's been there for a long time, probably the most respected man in sports. He's amazing, actually works very hard. And he's got the biggest event in the world coming right here to the United States. And a little, we did a little for Canada, we did a little for Mexico. We thought, see, I'm a good citizen. I said, let them have a little peace. So we gave a little to Canada. See how nice I am? And we gave a little bit to Mexico. And Johnny, please say a few words. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

President, great honor for me to be here with you today. President, Vice President, Excellencies, Fantastic to announce what you said, which is the final draw of the FIFA World cup on the 5th of December here in the capital, in the Kennedy center in Washington D.C. at 12 noon sharp. It will be broadcast live all over the world. One billion viewers will watch it. And it will determine, of course, the match schedule, the match schedule, which 48 participating teams will play. You said it. 104 matches in one month. 104 Super Bowls. This is not just the biggest, the greatest event, not just a sports event, it's a social event as well, with a lot of emotion. We are uniting the world, Mr. President, uniting the world here in America. And we are very proud of that. And those teams, those national teams who will come here to participate in this draw with their coaches, with their presidents, they will all be proud to be part of writing this history. And that's why we brought as well this, which is the winners trophy. It is the trophy that the winner of the FIFA World cup wins. Only the FIFA president, presidents of countries. And then those who win can touch it, because it's for winners only. And since you are a winner, of course you can as well touch it, it's pretty heavy. It's the winner trophy. The last one who lifted that is Leo Messi, Lionel Messi of Argentina. And here it is in the Oval Office in the White House.

Can I keep it for you?

Well, you can keep it.

That's seriously.

It fits well.

That goes very well in the wall right over there. We'll put it right below the angel.

It fits well here.

I think it's beautiful.

Yeah, until we have to give it to the next winner.

That's fine. That's a beautiful piece of gold. I will say that's beautiful.

Yeah. So, 6 billion euros for the World Cup. 6 million coming to the matches. 30 billion, economic impact, 185,000 jobs. This will be absolutely fantastic. The biggest event ever. And everything will start here in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy center or the Trump Kennedy Center. See that, how it will be called on the 5th of September at noon sharp. 5th of December, noon sharp. Then, if I may, will they be.

Doing most of the draws? All of the draws at the Kennedy. How are you going to do that?

Yes, we'll do that at the Kennedy Center. We'll do all the other meetings around it with the coaches, with the broadcasters, everything at the Kennedy Center. The whole World cup starts and everyone will be happy because everyone has qualified for the World cup and they didn't yet play a game, so they didn't lose yet again. So they all think they can become world champion.

Right? They'll all be happy. Exactly. Now, by the way, an example. Supposing we had a week ago when everybody was being killed and mugged and everything else, despite the phony numbers that were given out, that it was getting better. Brian, do you believe it was getting better or getting worse?

Oh, the crime was getting worse. I mean, I was robbed, it was getting worse.

How did the other guy come out?

Well, he came up with you, Robert 1, Brian 0 now, but can you.

Imagine you do this and then you start hearing that they had a 20 year reduction of crime. It's worse. It was worse during the Biden administration than anybody has ever imagined possible. And I guarantee you he wouldn't be here if those numbers continued. But now we have total safety, we have total security. And for the border in three months, zero people. These are done by liberal people that do these charts. Zero people came through our border in the last 90 days. Can you believe it? Zero. Last year we had millions of people coming in and they came in from the wrong locations. They came in a lot of people that shouldn't be here. So now when we have this event in December. It's going to be very safe. Johnny, you can walk down the street with your beautiful wife. You can take her to dinner if you can get a reservation, which I doubt.

But they're all full of restaurants.

I know they're all full. I heard that, too. The restaurants aren't. The restaurants, since we are doing this, are doing great. And many new restaurants are going to open because, as you know, many close, many restaurants closed because the crime was so bad. This will be one of the safest places anywhere on earth. So, you know, I really, I really am honored that the National Guard has done such an incredible job working with the police and we haven't had to bring in the regular military, which we're willing to do if we have to. And after we do this, we'll go to another location and we'll make it safe also. We're going to make our country very safe. We're going to make our cities very, very safe. Chicago is a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent. And we'll straighten that one out probably next. That will be our next one after this, and it won't even be tough. And the people in Chicago, Mr. Vice President, are screaming for us to come. They're wearing red hats, just like this one, but they're wearing red hats. African American ladies, beautiful ladies, are saying, please, President Trump come to Chicago, please. I did great with the black vote, as you know, and they want something to happen. So I think Chicago will be our next. And then we'll help with New York. We're going to help with. And I think, really, I think a lot of, and a lot of these people that you see on television, they're including the people in this audience, they'll say bad things about me, and then they'll say, thank God he's here, because half of them got mugged and they don't want to get mugged again. But they're, you know, they work for, they work for stupid people that are radical left and they're made to do things and say things that they don't want to be saying. But the people right here are all happy because you're not going to be mugged in Washington, D.C. anymore. I just want to say Johnny has been my friend for a long time. He's an incredible guy. And we will lay out the red carpet. Andrew, you're going to be fantastic. Rick is going to be. Everything Rick ever touched is, has always worked out, and he's working with me on The Kennedy Center. And his very good friend was an actor on Broadway for five years. Right. And I assume he's helping us a little bit, right? Yes. And, Andrew, you're all excited about it? Absolutely. Would you like to say something?

This is a great opportunity, Mr. President, to show off the first 250 years of the United States of America. The greatness and then the hope and promise of the next 250 years. When you think this World cup is going to be over our 250th birthday. Mr. President, your leadership, obviously, with FIFA leading the way, this is the largest sporting event in the history of the world under the Trump administration. So very exciting.

I just want to say one thing. Andrew Giuliani. So his father is Rudy, the greatest mayor in the history of New York, I think by far. He was. He took a ravaged city, a city that was really under siege. Probably most people thought it was going to survive. He turned it around, and he was a great, great mayor. And then they treated him very, very unfairly. You go back and tell your father all of the things that have come out over the last couple of months through Tulsi and through all of the people, Cash, everybody, they've proven your father 100% correct. His father was treated so unfairly. Your father has been 100% correct. And tell him we all love him. Okay?

Thank you, Mr. President.

It was an amazing. What he had to go through was very, very unfair, nasty. These are bad people. Mr. Vice President, would you like to say something?

Well, sure, Mr. President. Thank you and thanks, Johnny, for being here. We're very thrilled about the World Cup. Just to echo something the President said about Crime in Washington, D.C. this is the national capital of the greatest nation in the world. And we had murder rates just a few weeks ago that rivaled some of the worst third world cities anywhere, even in very, very poor regions of the world. Why did we accept that? Why did we allow it to happen? We allowed it to happen because we had broken leadership in Washington, D.C. and unfortunately, sitting behind the Resolute desk, what we have shown in just under two weeks of taking law enforcement seriously is that the American people can have their streets back if their leadership is willing to put in the time and the resources. Mr. President, you've shown in Washington, D.C. that we can have safe streets again. We've just got to have the political willpower to focus on the bad guys and to give the American people back their communities. We are focused on doing that thanks to the President's leadership.

Thank you. And that's a really very small percentage. It's 2%, 3%. But that 2% and 3% wreaks just havoc throughout a community. People are petrified. And I noticed a couple of the women in the back are shaking their head yes, yes, yes. I won't report who you are because you'll end up losing your jobs. But it's true, it's amazing. And the police, and you look at the D.C. national Guard, I saw pictures of them last night getting off vans and all. And I saw some bad ones running, but they're not running so much anymore. They're not there. They're just not even. They're not even trying. You're totally safe now. There'll be something happening sometime. I don't know, maybe it won't be for a long time, but this was. Every night would get reports of people being mugged and kidnapped. There's one woman on television last night, she had a badly busted up nose and she said, I don't like our streets the way they used to be. And she thinks it's going to happen, like by doing nothing. And they say, what happened to your nose? She got slugged by a guy walking down the street. Slugged. Her nose will never be the same. I guarantee you'll listen unless it takes a pretty good turn. She wasn't really for us, but she sort of said, well, maybe something has to happen before this happened to me. She got whacked and I don't think she'll ever be the same. She was, she almost became. She was a half a Trump fan. A woman that would have never finished off, but she was, she was hit hard. It's not going to happen anymore. Not going to happen anymore. But then we're going to beautify the city too. That's where I was today at Kennedy center. And we're going to beautify the city like it hasn't. And we're working with Clark Construction, the biggest construction company in Chicago and in Chicago and Washington. And the head of Clark is great. He's all over the world actually. But Washington, I would say, is their home. That's where they do the best work, the biggest work. And they're doing. They've been doing a fantastic job. So you're going to have a fantastic, clean, beautiful place. It's going to be better than it ever was before. Literally better than it ever was before. We'll get it done very quickly. And I want to thank Clark because they're doing a lot of work in a lot of different locations, but they've been fantastic. For getting us the right contractors and the people that can really do the job. Right. And Johnny, did you want to say something?

Yes. One more thing. Because as you rightly say, you know, with security and beautifying cities and the whole country, we want people to come and enjoy and have fun. And that's why this is not just the most iconic trophy in the world of sport, but we start on the 10th of September, the sale of tickets for the FIFA World Cup. And we have the first ticket here for the final for you. It's of course, row one, seed one is ticket number 45, 47.

And it's.

For the final in New York, New Jersey. So you have your ticket already for the final. All the others, 10th of September, start getting your tickets.

That's beautiful. Yeah.

Six and a half, seven million tickets. Fans will enjoy. Security here will be fantastic.

We're going to do record business, I think, 100%. Christy, would you like to say something?

Yeah, Mr. President, millions of people will come to this country and we'll make sure they get their travel documents, their visas, that they want to come here and spend their money and enjoy the spread sporting event. It will be the largest event in the world. And sir, you're reminding me of something that my dad used to say all the time when I was growing up. He would say, christy, you kids need to look like you respect yourself before anybody is going to respect you. And in this country, when people look at our streets, when they look at our capital, you're bringing respect back to this city. And people will respect our country more because it's safe, it's clean, it's beautiful. And what you're doing is transforming this nation by making sure that our laws are upheld and millions of people are going to come and be able to enjoy it next year. And I'm excited about that. Thank you for doing that.

Well, our country is respected again. And a year ago, we had a dead country. I'm telling you, it was a dead country. It was a country that was, that had lost its way. It was a country that was going to fail. Look, even today where they say $4 trillion in reductions of deficits and this was totally unexpected, they didn't expect. I mean, I don't know where they've been, the people that do this stuff, but it's. It's terrible. I want to thank Christy for another reason. I said to her two weeks ago, I said, christy, do me a favor. I built hundreds of miles of wall. I built the same wall that the border patrol asked me to Build it wasn't my first choice. I wanted to do concrete plank and everything nice that you wouldn't have been able to see through it. So I had border patrol in and they tested everything else. And we gave them steel wall, high grade steel, very hard to cut. That we gave. Inside that is 9,000 pound concrete, which is a very tough concrete. Inside that is rebar, a big fat piece of rebar. So you have all different materials that are very hard to cut and you need different instruments to cut each one. And I said, krista, we got to get a coat of paint on it. And I didn't know she was listening, but I said, we got to get a coat of paint. And it should be black because black makes the steel very hot. It's untouchable. You could fry an egg on it. And if you got a good black flat paint, it would look beautiful. It will preserve it from rust. And that was it. And I gave it to her along with 30 other things. And she's done such a good job on the border with Tom Holman and the group. Tom Holman's a fantastic guy with the job he does and the way they work together. So I turned on last night and I see Christie's painting the wall and it looked beautiful, by the way, when that paint went over there. And it's hot, it's hot, it's hot. If it's white, it's not hot. If it's black, it's. It's going to be very hard to climb that sucker. You're not going to be easy. But it's black and a high quality black. You know, it really looked good. Is that going to be a two coat job or a one coat?

No, just one coat.

One coat.

We used the paint you told, told me to buy.

Yep. The two coat will take place in three years from now. Right. We'll do the second coat. But it looks beautiful. But thank you very much. I didn't know you were listening to that because we talked about seven different subjects and all of a sudden I see you're out there painting with a lot of painters and everything else. But it was, it was a beautiful thing to say. Would you like to say something? You've been such a big part of this. Please. Well, just. Mr. President, we're delighted to be here.

Today for this announcement.

But we're also looking forward to having you at the final on July 19th in New York, New Jersey. We're going to be there. A lot of people are going to be there.

A lot of people.

I'd like to thank you all. Do you have any questions on FIFA Festival?

It's going to be a big event at the Kenny Center. Do you intend to take part in it? Will you have a part to play on December 5?

I may play. I see the money that these soccer players. We call it soccer, but I see the money that these soccer players are making. I may try and play. I'm a very good athlete. My son. My son is a very good athlete, and he's a good soccer player. On the tall side, for soccer, he's six, nine. That's pretty tall.

That's pretty tall.

It's on the tall side. It's on the tall side. But he's good. But no, I may. I may put on shorts. I'm extremely good in shorts and enjoying the play, you know. No, it's going to be a lot of fun. It's got to be great.

Many foreigners who want to come to us to attend the event are concerned about the visa situation. Can you reassure them?

Yeah, they're going to have a very easy time getting in. Certain countries are going to be very, very easy, and other countries are going to be, obviously, a little bit more difficult. Would you like to explain that, Kristen?

Yeah, absolutely. We have a process set up that we'll be implementing on getting visas approved. Everybody will be thoroughly vetted, but they'll be welcome to this country. Country. It will happen quickly and we're excited for them to come. So I would hope that around the world people know that the United States is excited to bring their family here to enjoy this event.

America welcomes the world. And I can read it from the collaboration that we have testifying for that. Absolutely.

Thank you. And I just sent a picture from somebody that wants to be there very badly. He's been very respectful of me and of our country, but not so respectful of others. But he'll. I'm going to sign this for him, but I was sent one and I thought you'd all like to see it. That's a man named Vladimir Putin, who I believe will be coming depending on what happens. He may be coming and he may not, depending on what happens. We have a lot of things happening over the next couple of weeks, so. But I thought it was a nice picture of him. Okay. Of me, but nice of him. So that was very nice that it was sent to me. Okay.

Mr. President, on that subject, have you talked to Vladimir Putin about the fact that yesterday a big US Factory was hit in a Russian airstrike in Ukraine? What's your reaction to that I'm not.

Happy about it and I'm not happy about anything having to do with that war. I said I settled seven wars and actually if you think about Pre wars, add three more, so it would be 10. I thought this would be in the middle of the pack in terms of difficulty. Now I'm not happy about anything about that war. Nothing. Not happy at all. We'll see what happens. I think over the next two weeks we're going to find out which way it's going to go and I better be very happy.

How are we willing to wait for today?

A very good call with Prime Minister Carney of Canada yesterday morning. Yes, actually, Canada is taking away some retaliatory tariffs.

He's removing his tariffs. Yeah, he's removing his retaliatory tariffs, which I thought was nice. And we're going to have another call soon. Yeah, we had a very good call.

You're getting closer towards a different country.

I like them. You know, look, I'm fighting for the United States. Canada and Mexico take a lot of our business over the years, over 25, 30 years, especially during the Biden years, they took a lot of our business and it's basically all coming back into the United States now. We're hot as a pistol and it's coming back in because of tariffs and the incentives we give. It's coming back and it's impossible, I think, for another country to stop it. And we are working on something. We want to be very good to Canada. I like Carney a lot. I think he's a good person and we had a very good talk yesterday, so I think it will be good.

Mr. President, I have a question about the search of Ambassador Bolton's home. The vice president recently just did an interview saying that it's about classified documents, but that there's also broad concern about him. What are, what are the concerns that you have?

Mr. I haven't spoken to Pam in the group yet, but I will be. I saw that just like everybody else. I try and stay out of that stuff. I'm allowed to be, and I'm chief law enforcement officer, believe it or not. You know, I don't like to go around saying that, but I am. That's the position, but I purposely don't want to really get involved in it. I'm not a fan of John Bolton. I thought he was a sleazebag, actually, and he suffers major Trump derangement syndrome. But so do a lot of people and they're not being affected by anything we do. I don't know anything about it. I saw it. Just saw that. I'll find out about it. But if you believe the news, which I do, I guess his house was raided today, but my house was raided, also called Mar?

A Lago.

They went through everything they could, including my young son's room and my wife's area. They went through her drawers, as the expression goes. They went through everything you can imagine. And when she came back, she looked, she said, she's very neat, you know, she's meticulous. And she looked and she said, whoa, this wasn't, this wasn't the way that she had it. So, you know, so I know the feeling. It's not a good feeling. Thank you, Mr. President. On Ukraine, how long will you give Putin? A couple of weeks? We're going to figure it out. We'll find out.

Do you think you'll have to intervene at some point?

Look, it takes two to tango. You understand that? I wanted to have a meeting with those two. I could have been at the meeting, but a lot of people think that nothing is going to come out of that meeting. You have to be there. Maybe that's true, maybe it's not, but we're going to see. In the meantime, people continue to die. But I solved seven of them where they were in wars for 31, 35 and 37 years. We had three of them that were for more than 30 years. Johnny and I got them solved, and we solved one that could have been a nuclear war with India and Pakistan that was getting ready to be a nuclear war. I solved them all. And this one, I thought we would have had it done by now, but it's a. It's more difficult. There's a lot of anger, a lot of hatred there. There's a tremendous amount of hatred there. But we'll see what happens. I think in two weeks, we'll know which way I'm going, because I'm going to go one way or the other, and they'll learn which way I'm going.

Mr. President, if I've got two questions for you, one on FIFA, the other one on D.C. let's talk. Can you talk about the economic impact FIFA will have in these cities? And what's your message to the mayors to get their cities prepared not only in the beautification process, but also the safety aspect?

Well, Los Angeles is an example. You know, it's poorly run. We have a mayor there that can't even get permits to the people that lost their houses. Lee Zeldin got every permit. The hardest permit is the federal permit. Within 20 days, every single permit was there for the people to build their houses. But people are writing us and they're saying they won't give us. The mayor is incompetent, the governor's incompetent. You know Gavin. I know Gavin very well. He's an incompetent guy with a good line of bullshit and he doesn't get the job done. And frankly, those people want to build their houses. It's terrible. They could have been built. Some of them could have been built already. But think of it, the federal government that has the most complex part, it's the most complex environmental thing to do. We got it. Everybody had it within 30 days. And they're not even close to getting their permits. And now they're talking about taking some of those sites and building low income housing on them. These are high end neighborhoods and I'm all for low income housing. I built a lot of low income housing. I know all about 236. I know every program that there is in the government. I used every one of them. I know more about low income housing than probably almost anybody. And it's great, it's fine, it's wonderful. But. But you don't build it in Pacific Palisades. You don't build it there, and you don't build it in the other areas that burn down. So they're talking about putting up low income housing. And you talk about riots. They're going to have riots if that happens because you're taking the people's property away. They want to build their houses and they're unable to get permits from the mayor and from the governor. And that's a terrible thing. But. And let me tell you, if I didn't send in the troops in Los Angeles, Johnny wouldn't be in Los Angeles. You wouldn't be having your World cup there. I sent in the troops and we kept it. And even the police commissioner, the sheriff and the police, they all said the same thing. They said we could have never handled what was happening. You saw that. You, you were there. He said we could have never handled what was happening. And then you hear Gavin Newsom, after it's all quelled, he and Newsom get up and said, we could have done this by themselves. Now if they couldn't have, and if they could have, I wouldn't have taken the chance either.

Okay, my second question is on crime prevention. Would you be open to expanding the national concealed carry to apply to DC like it does in other states, like Texas?

Yeah. Well, they have it in some states and they feel strongly about it. I, you know, as you know, I'm in favor of it. People have to protect themselves. I'm a Second Amendment person. Very simply. People have to be able to protect themselves. Especially like in Washington. You walk down the street, a guy comes up and slugs you. He's got a, he's got a pistol in his hand. You can be tough, you can be in great shape, you can be a powerful person, or you can be a guy that weighs 100 pounds with a gun in your hand. And I'll bet on the guy with a gun 100% of the time. Right. And so you need protection. So I'm a Second Amendment person all the way. Yeah. Please.

President Trump, you said this morning that you were working with Congress to get $2 billion to help clean up D.C. have you had any conversations with Mike Johnson and John Thune about where they're going to get that money from?

Of which money you said this morning.

That you're going to get $2 billion from Congress to help clean up?

Yeah, I've spoken to Mike Johnson, I've spoken to John Thune, the Senate, the House, and I think it's going to be very easy to get. It's going to be not a lot of money. I wouldn't even know where to spend the number that you mentioned. But it's going to be money to beautify the city. Yeah, they're ready. Everybody wants to save D.C. in one way, it's the easiest. The violence was more than any other city in the country. Actually, by far, it may have been more than any other city in the world. If you could think, you know, we looked at some of the worst cities in the world, it was worse. And that's why it angers me to see the mayor saying about how they have it on the side, not on this slide. It was worse than ever. Yeah, we have no problem getting that money. That money will come out of Congress. I think it will be even bipartisan.

That is the plan to get, I.

Mean, I would imagine Democrats would vote.

For that one is the plan to get it before the September 30th spending deadline on the Hill.

Well, I don't know if there is a headline, a deadline, because if I declare a national emergency, which this was, that ends the deadline. So, I mean, I keep seeing about a 30 day deadline of which we have 22 days left or something. But if I think we're in great shape here, that's one thing. But if I don't, I'm going to just say it's a national emergency. And if I have a national emergency, I can keep the troops there as long as I want. People are not going to want to have the troops in 30 days. You know, it's one thing to get them out, it's another thing to keep them out for a long period of time. You've got to train people. You can't do this. You can't bop people over the head. And a lot of those people are in courts right now. Going to court, they're going to go to jail for a long time. So that's going to take more than 30 days. But if I have to, I'll declare a national emergency, which I don't think I have to do.

Yeah, Mr. President said in two weeks you'll know whether you go.

Yeah, I think I'll know. I think I'll know. The attitude of Russia and frankly of Ukraine. It takes two.

What are the two ways you can.

Go at the end of two weeks, then.

Well, then I'm going to make a decision as to what we do. And it's going to be. It's going to be a very important discussion decision, and that's whether or not it's massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or do we do nothing and say, it's your fight. Look, I would have never been in this war if I were president. You wouldn't have. You wouldn't have had this war. It was never going to happen. This was caused by stupid people that fought, fought. And you know, people say, well, how do we know? Because for four years it was never even a subject. And Vladimir knew. And you see his picture right here. It was nice that he sent, but Vladimir knew very strongly we wouldn't have stood for it. It wouldn't have happened. 100% wouldn't have happened. But it did happen. And now they're losing from five to seven young kids. Think of it. You're a parent and your son is leaving. He's Russian or he's Ukrainian, and he's leaving and they're waving goodbye. Nice. Beautiful kid. Nice crew cut. All set. He wants to be a soldier and he goes there the first week he has his head blown off and he's no different than you people. Me, and it doesn't matter where. I mean, I solved a problem in the Congo that was vicious. Rwanda and the Congo, the Republic of the Congo. And they were fighting for 31 years and it was machetes. People were getting their heads chopped off. That was going on for 31 years. I got it solved. You saw it. They came to the White House, that we signed an agreement. It was amazing. People can't believe we got it done. I love to stop killing, I really do. People thought it would be just the opposite. Hillary Clinton said, oh, he'll get us into a war. No, I'm getting everybody else out of wars.

Are you saying there's a real possibility.

Then that you do nothing? If Putin doesn't come to the table.

For a ceasefire, I'll see whose fault it is. If there are reasons why, I understand that. I know exactly what I'm doing. We're going to see whether or not they have a meeting. That will be interesting to see. And if they don't. Why didn't they have a meeting? Because I told them to have a meeting. But I'll know in two weeks what I'm going to do. I have a pretty good idea.

Your Justice Department is also sending some of the Epstein files over to the House Oversight Committee today. Are you in support of them releasing the law?

Are support of keeping it open? Innocent people shouldn't be hurt. But I'm in support of keeping it totally open. I couldn't care less. You got a lot of people that could be mentioned in those files that don't deserve to be people because he knew everybody in Palm Beach. I don't know anything about that, but I have said to Pam and everybody else, give them everything you can give them, because it's a Democrat hoax. It's just a hoax. The whole Epstein thing is a Democrat hoax. So we had the greatest six months, seven months in the history of the presidency. And the Democrats don't know what to do. So they keep bringing up that stuff. But it affected them. The Bill Clinton was on his plane and went to the island, supposedly 28 times. I don't want to bring that up, frankly. You have Larry whatever his name is, Summers, the head of Harvard, who was Jeffrey Epstein's best friend. Nobody ever talks about that. I mean, I. But I don't want to hurt Larry Summers, but he was best friends with Jeffrey Epstein. No, this is a Democratic hoax to try and get the significance of what we've done over the past seven months. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. They say it's number one in history, what we've done, including stopping seven wars. I mean, just include that. And now you look. And now you look at the stock market today. It's way up to start off with, from where I took it. And this market was going to crash if Joe Biden Or Kamala were president, this market, we would have had a crash like in 1929. You're not going to have that. It's only a question of how high is it going to go. You know, I had the strongest economy in the history of our country, and despite Covid, we had the strongest economy in the history of our country, and we're going to blow it away this time. I was always good at making a lot of money. And whether it was for myself or whether it was. I like doing it this way better. I mean, I like. I like making it for the country. Our country has been ripped off by friend and foe nations all over the world. Ripped off. And the friends have been much worse than the foes for the most part. And they're not ripping us off. We just signed a deal with the European Union. They're paying us essentially $950 billion, like a signing fee. They're going to buy $750 billion worth of energy. They weren't buying much of our energy there, and they're very smart in doing it. And as you know, Ursula was here a couple of days ago having to do with the people, the leaders that we. We had a great people, said they've never seen anything like it where we had the leaders of Europe right here in the Oval Office. And she's so happy that she has an agreement. But people aren't ripping us anymore. They're. We're run by. This country is run by smart people. Now.

One is about Intel. There's been reports that you're considering taking a stake in Intel.

Can you tell us about the 10%?

About the 10%, yeah.

I met a man. He was a very nice man. And I called for his removal because I saw something by a man named Tom Cotton, a senator from Arkansas. He's a great guy. Friend of mine, supporter of mine, big supporter. I'm a supporter of his, too. And he wrote a pretty nasty story about the head of Intel. And I said, well, that's right. He should read. Resigned. And he came in, he saw me, we talked for a while. I liked him a lot. I thought he was very good. I thought he was somewhat a victim. But, you know, nobody is a total victim, I guess. And I said, you know what? I think the United States should be given 10% of intel. And he said, I would consider that. I said, well, I'd like you to do that because intel has been left behind. Behind as, you know, compared to Jensen and some of our friends. Nvidia, some of the people. And the people in because intel should have never been. Intel was the biggest, most powerful chip company in the world. And then they started leaving and they started going to foreign countries, in particular Taiwan. And if we had a president that would have said okay, you can go to Taiwan but we're going to put a 100% tariff or 2, 200 or 300 or 500% tariff. Anybody that sells into the United States has to pay. They wouldn't have left. They would have never left and we wouldn't have. So in the meantime we had people that were in some cases good politicians that weren't good on trade. I loved that man, but he was not good on trade. I totally disagree. He allowed the car industry to be taken out of this country. We lost 50% of our car industry. But that's all coming back. All coming back. But if somebody would have said that with intel would be a giant right now. Now with that they've had some bad management over the years and they got lost. And I said I think you should pay us 10% of your company. And they said yes, that's about $10 billion for the. I don't get it. This comes to the United States of America. And I said I think it would be good having the United States as your partner. He agreed and they've agreed to do it. And I think it's a great, great deal for them. And I think it's a great deal. He walked in wanting to keep his job and he ended up giving us $10 billion for the United States. So we picked up $10 billion and we do a lot of deals like that. I'll do more of them if somebody has like we have restrictive covenants with Jensen. We have it's Nvidia and to unrestrict the covenant. Nothing to do with losing our, our powers or military or anything because that I wouldn't do. But there are things you can do that don't affect us, that actually help us. And if we're going to give somebody a free out a restricted covenant we have a strong restrictive covenant on certain industries. And I will absolutely give somebody a opening or a restrict to do a lot of business which is good for us as long as it doesn't hurt us in, in a security or military way. And if I do that I think the country should be paid because anybody else I have it in real estate where I'll have a deal with somebody and I'll have them restrictive covenant and they'll come back and they'll say I'd love to be able to Build over here, but I'm not allowed to because you have me covered. You have me restricted. I say I'll let you build over there, but pay me a lot of money. No different. But the country never did it because. Because the country was run by foolish people.

Mr. President, on crime, on D.C. crime, you said Chicago might be next. Are you making. Have there been concrete steps that the administration is taking to do that, or what are other cities as well?

I haven't spoken to the mayor. He's grossly incompetent. I haven't spoken to the mayor, no. When we're ready, we'll go in and we'll straighten out Chicago just like we did D.C. chicago is very dangerous. Great place. I built great stuff there. I have a. I have the most beautiful building in Chicago, I think. But I hate to see what's happened to Chicago. Chicago is our greatest city. Actually. Bob Tisch, a great friend of mine, passed away, used to own the Giants and very successful lows. He said Chicago, I think they had their main office in Chicago. He said Chicago and San Francisco, the two greatest cities in the world. Now you look at what the Democrats have done to San Francisco. They've destroyed it. I own a big chunk of the bank of America building in San Francisco. And you know, it's just different. We can clean that up, too. We'll clean that one up too. Now, if we. If everything works out and we've already had calls from other cities, quiet calls, calls from Democrats. We'd love you to come here because they've lost control of. I'm not going to say because I don't want them to lose their elections. But we've had calls from Democrats and calls from people generally. We'd love you to come because we'll straighten out the problem.

In Israel, the families of hostages are. In Israel, families of hostages are opposed to the reoccupying of Gaza. Why is the U.S. well, not all of them.

And you have to understand, I'm the one that got all of the hostages out. You got a lot of people out. If it wasn't for me, they wouldn't be out. I worked with Bibi and I worked with Steve Whitka, but it wasn't for me, you would have all these hostages with most likely be dead right now, every one of them. So they all come up here. They all come in groups of 10, 12, 13, and many of them. And I've gotten to know a lot of them. They're great people. What they had to go through is incredible. But so now they have 20, but the 20 is actually probably not 20 because a couple maybe aren't around any longer. It's a terrible thing. No, I like. I don't like anymore. I said, you know, when you get down to 20, they're not going to make deals anymore. And they didn't. And then I put out a statement, as you know, that was a tough statement. Go in and get them. And they said, we'll give you 10, we'll give you 10. I don't know what Israel is doing. But they were willing now immediately to give us another 10. The situation has to end. It's extortion and it has to end. And we'll see what happens. I actually think they're safer in many ways. If you went in and you really went in fast and you did it, and people can't forget October 7th. Remember that. I'm friendly with all groups. I won the Arab vote in Michigan. I did so great with the Arab vote. Remember, I started off at zero. I ended up winning. I wouldn't say the candidate was the greatest, but I would have won against anybody. They're great people, but we have to do things properly. And, you know, I'm very proud to say I got the hostages out. You have hundreds of people that are living now because. Because of me. And now we have that final little group of people. And Hamas knows that if they give them, that's probably the end of their lives. So it's not easy to get. And I know if you're a parent, you just don't care. You want to. I want my baby back. They want their babies back. They want their kids back. And I understand it, but I got them out and did a good job. And we'll. We're doing everything we can to get the hostages out. Thank you all very much. Yes.

So Jackson Hole Jay Powell today said he, you know, suggested that they might cut interest rates, but they have to proceed.

Well, we call him too late for a reason. He should have cut him a year ago. He's too late. You know, we have a stock market that's up 1,000 points today. I better be careful because I go out there and I'll see it's down a thousand, right? But it's up a thousand points. When I came in here, we have a country that the markets are hottest. It's a ever been. The country is better than it's ever been. We have a military that I rebuilt largely in my first term. We had a great, successful first term, but this is going to be even better. But we rebuilt it. We gave a lot of it away to Afghanistan, but relatively small compared to the overall. But I think it was the most embarrassing day and period in the history of our country that they allowed those 13 wonderful people. But it's really. Hundreds of people were killed, and they don't talk about the 48 that was so severely wounded with no legs, no arms, no. Nobody ever mentions them except me. But that was the worst day, the most. It just showed how incompetent. Frankly, if that didn't happen, I really believe that you might not have had the problem with Russia. I think Putin was sitting there watching these stupid people running our country and said, this is a time to invade. This is a time. And then Biden made the statement, well, he can do a small incursion. When he said that, it was off to the races. Right? When he said he can do a small incursion, remember that? I was surprised he knew the word incursion. I indicated that could have a vocabulary. I want to thank everybody. It's very important to me and to everybody up here, the World Cup. And Johnny has been so incredible. I mean, he's really a great leader. I mean, to think I said, johnny, do it by phone. You don't have to come. No, he said, I'll come. I'll come. And he flew all night long to be here and listen to this about how great we're doing in D.C. but he's a fantastic leader, and this will be your most successful World cup ever. Thank you, sir. His name America will win. Yeah.

Can we win it, Mr. President?

I don't know. I watch some of those teams go. They go down that field. I don't know. But let me ask you can. What chance does America have of winning?

Well, the home team always has a good chance to win.

It depends.

He's a good diplomat.

Of course.

Of course you have a chance.

Will Bear be going into the games.

Mr. President, I'd love to have him. He'd love to. He's very tall. Maybe we can make him a goalie. The goalies are very tall now, right?

Boys are very tall.

The goal is to. Well, he'd be a perfect goalie, 100%. At his height, he'll be a great goalie. So we'll put him on the American team. No, but do the Americans have a chance of, like, getting into the quarterfinals? Yes, definitely.

Not the quarterfinal, definitely. But then, you know, as the tournament goes on with the.

With the public.

250 years of the United States, let's not forget, they will all feel energized about that.

You know, it's amazing. The talent is really great when you watch these things. I went to the game two weeks ago and it was a big upset. But you look at these people, they're so. The way they pass it. It's amazing. Really amazing. It's a great. It's a great art, right? It's a great talent.

It is incredible.

You know the expression a what? He's the boss.

That's an interesting proposal.

He's the boss.

We'll discuss that.

It's going to be great. And I think the American team is going to do. I mean, I hear it's a very good luck, everybody. Thank you very much.

Thank you.