- 8 hours ago
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00:00Well, thank you very much, and this is a great story, and it's an honor to be with Ryder Williams,
00:07who is a 16-year-old lifeguard, California, the Santa Cruz area, and I understand he was a winner right
00:18from the time they first saw him as a lifeguard, a lot of training, a lot of work, and he
00:22saved this young gentleman who I had a long talk with.
00:26I said, would you have made it without him? And you said, not really, right? Not really, it was trouble.
00:32So you're going to have a long and beautiful life.
00:34And I just thought it was, we were all watching, everybody watched, and got a lot of publicity because of
00:41the ferocity of the waves. I've never seen waves, I mean, that was sort of violent.
00:46We were just discussing, and at certain times of the year, mostly like right around now, the waves get very
00:52rough in that area, and they're swirling, and if you don't know what you're doing, it's going to be tough,
00:57or if you're small, if you're young.
01:00So I just want to congratulate Nathaniel Ray for coming through an ordeal, and that means you're going to have
01:09good luck in life.
01:10You know, that's called good luck. I want to say hello to your father, who came along for the, we
01:16invited them to the Oval Office and to the White House.
01:20After this, if you'd like, we're going to have them brought up to the Lincoln bedroom, where you see the
01:26room of Abraham Lincoln, that's pretty good, right?
01:29And also your sister, it's really nice. We have some of the people that Nathaniel, and that worked so much
01:37on the whole process with Nathaniel, and were with Ryder right from the beginning,
01:44and the, I guess you, you learned from these people. They taught you how to do what you do so
01:49well, Ryder, right?
01:50Yes, sir, they trained me.
01:52And Nathaniel's very happy about that, Ryder, I have to tell you.
01:56Shane Williams, the father of Ryder, thank you very much, Shane. You did a good job.
02:02I see you, you're in one of my favorite uniforms.
02:05I'm a big fan of that.
02:07You couldn't be happier, right?
02:08I couldn't be more proud.
02:10When you saw that on television.
02:12Yes.
02:12It was incredible, actually.
02:15Shannon Williams, that's the mom, so you did a good job.
02:19It's good genetics.
02:21When you look at him, you can see really good.
02:25Summit Ray, that's the father. Thanks again, Summit. We appreciate it.
02:30Layla Ray, sister of Nathaniel. Thank you, honey.
02:34Aaron Bonin, Santa Cruz lifeguard, who assisted Ryder, and he became quite famous also.
02:41That was a good assist. He helped you a lot.
02:43Yes, sir.
02:44He helped you a lot. He helped you a lot. Thank you very much. Great job. Fantastic.
02:50Alex Laskutoff, Chief of Law Enforcement and Emergency Service in Santa Cruz. Thank you. Great job you guys are doing.
02:58Thank you, Mr. President.
02:59Justin McHenry, Assistant Chief of Aquatics and Lifeguard Operations, Santa Cruz.
03:05Right here, sir.
03:06Good job. Were you responsible for the training?
03:09Yes, I helped oversee and guide the training for our lifeguard program.
03:13And for a lot of the lifeguards, right?
03:15We train about 200 lifeguards a year.
03:16Great. At that age, too?
03:19Starting at 16.
03:20Starting at 16. That's a lot. I read that that's a lot to do for a 16-year-old. That's
03:26not easy.
03:27It's a huge responsibility, and it requires a lot of...
03:29That he did it so well, right?
03:30It requires a lot of integrity and resilience, and I think this particular rescue that Ryder performed really exemplifies what
03:38we're looking for in a State Park lifeguard.
03:40And you couldn't let go for an instance. If you let go for one instant, it'd be very hard to
03:45find, right?
03:46Oh, absolutely. In those conditions, losing a victim would be disastrous.
03:51Yeah. Really amazing, but you have no idea the respect. Joel. Where's Joel? State Park superintendent, lifeguard, Santa Cruz.
04:01Great answer, sir.
04:01Joel, thank you very much. That's dinner now, or dinner now, right?
04:07Correct.
04:07Good job, Joel. And Mike McAnamey, State Park superintendent, Santa Cruz.
04:15Yes, sir.
04:15Thank you very much. Well, we're honored to have all of you. And again,
04:21what you did was incredible, and everybody saw it, and you'd watch it over and over.
04:27And then when I first saw it, I said, roll that back. I want to see that again. Is that
04:31really happening?
04:33And both of you people have to be very proud. The whole group is proud.
04:38And your father is the happiest man in the world, you know, because I asked him a question.
04:42And I said, so if that didn't happen, your life would be ruined. And you said, it would be a
04:48whole different life, right?
04:50Absolutely.
04:50Amazing. It's incredible what Ryder did. I'm just beyond grateful to him, and Aaron, and the rest of the team,
04:57and even the good Samaritans that were there.
04:58I mean, it's just such a privilege to be sitting next to him today, and be able to celebrate his
05:02birthday tomorrow.
05:04And I'll bet you'll stay a little bit related to this group of people.
05:08Absolutely.
05:08Because you realize what a fantastic job they did.
05:11Probably, you know, it's interesting, because they're saying that you have, in that area, so many different saves.
05:17You're saying that night you helped somebody out. Maybe not to that extent, but you helped somebody out.
05:23But maybe lifeguards don't get the credit they deserve. This really showed how important it is, and certain areas.
05:31So certain areas of the country, you could say, are just very susceptible to people getting in trouble, right?
05:39And was this one of the worst in, on the state, on that entire coast?
05:44I mean, do you have other areas? Because that looks like a very dangerous place, the way those waves, on
05:51a beautiful day, right?
05:52The characteristics on that given day made it a little more difficult.
05:56You know, it was a warm day, so there's lots of folks on the beach recreating.
06:00And then combine it with that large surf and the strong currents that we had in the area made it
06:05treacherous.
06:06But California's coastline is very diverse, and we have very remote and rugged sections of coastline that our lifeguards work
06:14on.
06:14Every day.
06:15Do you have areas where you don't have lifeguards that are very dangerous, and people innocently go swimming, and they
06:22don't have a chance, probably, right?
06:25Yeah, there certainly are unguarded areas within the state and around the nation.
06:28And, you know, people getting in without the knowledge or ability to recreate in those waters can be extremely dangerous.
06:37And you have a lot of that. Is this one of the more dangerous areas, the swirl?
06:43I would say it's, during the summer months, it's one of our more dangerous summer beaches, yes.
06:49Yeah, it looked amazing. And it didn't stop. You know, the water came in and just keep coming.
06:54And it looked like you were almost unsure, but you weren't really unsure.
06:58It's deceptive.
06:59It was a fantastic thing. Do you have any questions?
07:03Mr. President!
07:04Mr. President!
07:05Mr. President!
07:06Mr. President!
07:06And congratulations on being honored here, Mr. Lee.
07:09Let's give the questions for them just for this, and then we can ask a couple later.
07:13Go ahead, please.
07:13Thank you, Mr. President. So, thank you for doing this, first of all.
07:16Good, sure.
07:17What do you hope young Americans in our country take away from this incredible young man's story?
07:21That's a great question. I mean, look, they're going to look up to Ryder.
07:24They're going to look up to Nathaniel, the way Nathaniel handled it.
07:27He was cool, considering the problems I was watching.
07:31He was, you were very cool.
07:34And they're going to gain respect.
07:36I think, you know, very importantly, they're going to gain respect for what these people do,
07:40having to do with lifeguards and having to do with safety.
07:44This was an unbelievable experience.
07:48Anybody watching, like, it's not my world, but I respect that world.
07:53I always had, but never maybe so much as I do now.
07:56So I thought you'd bring, you know, to your profession, to what you do, and what you do so well.
08:00You brought tremendous grace and experience, really tremendous grace.
08:07This tremendous feeling that it's so amazing to see this happen, to see it before your eyes.
08:16And I don't think any other.
08:18I've seen surfs.
08:19I've seen rescues before.
08:21I've never seen anything quite like this.
08:23It's been a great thing for your profession.
08:26And people are going to respect it even more, respect you even more.
08:29So I just thought it was really a very worthwhile event to have it at the Oval Office.
08:35So congratulations.
08:37Okay, so I actually have a question.
08:39If you don't mind, can I have a question for the young gentleman as well?
08:41Go ahead, sure.
08:41So first of all, a lot of people are very inspired by what you did.
08:44Can you tell us what was going through your mind at those dangerous moments?
08:47And what would you like to do in the future?
08:49How has this experience as a lifeguard shaped you?
08:53In those dangerous moments that we have, we always try to fall back on our training.
08:56We are trained so well by many to handle that situation as best we can.
09:01So I'm really just thinking about how to get the boy out of the water as fast as I can.
09:05And for shaping my future, I want to be a firefighter in the future.
09:08Hopefully go through paramedic school.
09:10Is that a good start?
09:12We'll give them recommendations.
09:14You may have some good recommendations.
09:17Go ahead.
09:22First of all, thank you.
09:23You are an inspiration for all of us, I think, and especially you give us hope for your generation.
09:28And along those lines, do you have a message for your generation about service and what you're doing?
09:35I hope that everybody can take away from this and try to help more people,
09:38try to look out for everybody around you, and just try to help everybody out as much as you can.
09:46What's the average age of a lifeguard in your area?
09:51I'd say a lot of this last year, a lot of them were 16 to 17 years old.
09:54And you have some that make it a profession, right?
09:56Yes, sir.
09:57A lot.
09:58So do you have 35, 40, 45-year-olds?
10:02Yes, sir.
10:02That's great.
10:03And they lead a beautiful life on the surf, right?
10:05Yes, sir.
10:05And they would rather do nothing else, right?
10:08That's very good.
10:09I think it's great.
10:10Mr. President, on this topic.
10:11Yes, sir.
10:12By the way, let's finish on this topic.
10:14This is very exciting to me.
10:16Mr. President.
10:17You know, it's so exciting to see something like this happen.
10:19He's a real hero.
10:21You know, when you see that, I don't know if I'd do it.
10:23I wouldn't probably.
10:25You're lucky I wasn't.
10:27You're lucky I wasn't on the service that day.
10:29I don't know.
10:31But, no, he's a real hero.
10:33It's an amazing thing.
10:34And he is a real lucky guy, too.
10:36God was watching you, right?
10:38Great.
10:39Go ahead, please.
10:40Mr. President, I do have a question about Iran, but I would like to ask you something about
10:42the rescue as well.
10:43Following this, there's been a push in Congress to officially affirm that open-water lifeguards
10:47should be recognized as first responders.
10:49That would apparently really open up access to benefits, more federal programs.
10:53Would you support that push?
10:54Well, I think they have gone a long way to get that done.
10:57You know, it's something most people don't talk about.
11:00We have a lot of other things we talk about.
11:02It's the first time I've ever heard the question, but this is something that's been going on,
11:07I guess.
11:07Is that right?
11:08I'd like to put my weight behind it.
11:11So, let's take a look at it.
11:13Very important.
11:15I like the idea.
11:17Why do you ask that question?
11:19I mean, is this something that's been discussed very much?
11:23I've been talking about it in the wake of the rescue.
11:25I think in the wake of what happened here, there's a possibility something like that would happen.
11:29And, Mr. President, your memorandum of understanding with Iran expires today.
11:33Are you any closer to reaching a final deal on ending Iran's nuclear program today than you were 60 days
11:38ago?
11:39Let's finish up with Ryder, and then when we're done, we'll answer a couple of those questions.
11:43Yeah?
11:43Thank you, Mr. President, again.
11:45So, for the young men and for those who trained him here, as a parent, I'm very concerned when I
11:49see moments like those.
11:50What's your message to parents across the country who want to really improve their children's safety,
11:54especially when they're younger like this?
11:56Well, I think you have to be going to the right beach, number one.
12:00And I think you have to have lifeguards around.
12:02Right?
12:03Because you could go to that water.
12:04It looks so beautiful.
12:05The day.
12:06It was such a beautiful day.
12:07Everything nice.
12:08The water didn't look that bad.
12:09And then, all of a sudden, you see these violent waves come in.
12:12That's what amazed me so much.
12:14I studied it.
12:15I said, this is incredible.
12:16I've never seen that kind of roughness in water.
12:20I've seen, unbelievably, I've seen tragic things happen.
12:24But I've never seen water that looks so calm and then every 15 seconds, you know, the violence comes back
12:30in.
12:31I think, really, you probably have areas, I bet you have areas that you think should have, as you call
12:36them, guards, that don't have.
12:39Do you think, do you, can you imagine having more guards along the coast, parts of the coast, that aren't
12:47guarded where people die?
12:48Yeah, certainly.
12:49The National Water Safety Action Plan and the California State Action Plan both call for more supervision.
12:57And by supervision, we mean like that.
12:58Do we lose a lot of people due to lack of, you know, covering an area?
13:02It can be challenging in some of those spots because of the economy to live there is expensive.
13:08It's a coastal beach community and there's million dollar homes on the beach and our lifeguards are making a little
13:15more than minimum wage,
13:16but it can be challenging to live in those spaces so it's hard to retain employees in those areas.
13:23As the lifeguards grow older and they want to make that a profession, which is a noble profession, they make
13:29much higher salaries, right?
13:31Yes.
13:32I mean, they make a good living.
13:33If they become a full-time lifeguard, which in our department requires you to become a peace officer.
13:37I see.
13:38Okay.
13:39Well, that helps spur that other question.
13:41It does.
13:43That's a livable wage and, you know, they can become members of the community and live where they're working and
13:50give back.
13:51So, will you be doing it?
13:52You helped so much with Rider.
13:55Will you be doing it as a profession or will you be doing other things later?
13:59So, I'm actually a full-time firefighter paramedic with a fire department in California and I've stayed on the books
14:05with State Parks because I owe this program a lot and it's done a lot for me.
14:08Oh, that's great.
14:09I love being here helping train people like Rider.
14:11So, I plan on staying around for a long time.
14:13That's great.
14:14Good job.
14:15That's fantastic.
14:16Yeah, please.
14:17Are you okay?
14:18Policy question, Mr. President?
14:20Go ahead.
14:20There's a lot of debate right now about these license plate scanners that are going up across the country.
14:25They're called flop cameras.
14:26People are worried that the police might misuse them.
14:29Have you heard of them?
14:31What's your stance?
14:32Well, it's being studied right now.
14:33You know, you have pros and cons, right?
14:35It's being studied right now.
14:37We'll have an answer sort of as to our views on it over the next couple of weeks.
14:41Mr. President, John Ossoff said you'd rather travel with your aide, Natalie Harp, and build the ballroom than do your
14:47job as president.
14:47What is your response?
14:48John Ossoff.
14:50You mean Pee Wee Herman?
14:52Pee Wee Herman lookalike?
14:54No, I would much rather do other things.
14:58We're building a great facility here.
15:00We're fixing a White House that hasn't been taken care of.
15:03You can look at this.
15:03This room was a disgraceful situation, the Oval Office, and it was let go.
15:10The whole building, the White House, was let go.
15:13The exteriors were falling apart.
15:15The columns were falling apart.
15:16The whole place was a mess.
15:18In addition, they've been trying to get a ballroom for the last 150 years.
15:22And when I said I was going to build a ballroom, the military asked if they could see me.
15:26And they say, sir, we have an opportunity to go down deep into the ground and build a military facility
15:32to go to the White House and to go with all of Washington, D.C., which would be so valuable.
15:37And then they came up with the drone port on top, which would be a major drone port to protect
15:41the White House and all of D.C.
15:44And all of those things added up and it became much more than just a ballroom.
15:48And I said to myself, well, what an opportunity.
15:50I mean, if I was just going to build a ballroom, I could have had it built very quickly because
15:53I do these.
15:54I build very well and very quickly.
15:56We went five stories down into the ground.
15:58We did a lot of tremendous things for the military, things that they could never get.
16:03They said this is an opportunity that we have because you're building the ballroom that if you would be willing
16:08to spend more time, we would love to be able.
16:12We've been trying to do this at the White House for many, many years.
16:14And they've been trying to have a ballroom at the at the White House for many, many years.
16:19Now, what happened is we used to use tents and the tents are usually made of either plastic or plastic
16:26material or canvas.
16:28And they wouldn't stop a .22 caliber.
16:32They wouldn't stop anything in terms of safety, be very dangerous.
16:36And they haven't used a tent for years.
16:38They haven't had any big like we have President Xi coming on September 24th or so.
16:42I think it's September 24th.
16:44And we'd love to have 2,000 people coming to dinner and celebrating a nice evening, et cetera, et cetera.
16:52But we only have a room that's going to hold 89 people.
16:55And 89 people is not appropriate.
16:57So maybe more importantly, it's totally secure with bulletproof windows, bulletproof sides.
17:03It's drone proof.
17:04It's missile every at the top of the line.
17:08And we need it.
17:09And especially with what's happened, unfortunately, to the world, you could say.
17:14Yeah.
17:14So do you have a problem?
17:16I don't know about this morning.
17:17This morning you said you would bomb the S out of Oman if they got in the way of reopening
17:22the Strait of Hormuz.
17:24Would you say you're out of patience with Oman, a strategic partner?
17:26No, I don't think they behaved very well.
17:28But we'd handle them very easily, just like we do others.
17:32Mr. President, I have two questions.
17:35There was a report by Center Square that nearly two dozen Democratic attorney generals months before your reelection were basically
17:43planning already lawsuits against you.
17:46I wanted to see what your comment is on that.
17:48Second question.
17:48Well, I heard about that.
17:49I'm not surprised because they've weaponized this country like never before.
17:53The Democrats or the Democrats, as they call them, they've weaponized the country like nobody's ever seen anything like it.
18:00When you see the reports that are coming out now that you would have never seen if I had not
18:05won the election in a landslide, but you would have never seen if I didn't win the election.
18:09But the reports that you see coming out now and the kind of illegal activity that they used on the
18:162020 election and beyond is is earth shattering.
18:21These are very dishonest people.
18:22So I wouldn't be surprised to hear that.
18:27This is on D.C.
18:29You have mentioned before the Democrats get in again that they may eliminate the filibuster next time and make D
18:36.C. a state.
18:36A while back, Senator Mike Lee had floated.
18:39It wouldn't be a state.
18:40It wouldn't be.
18:41I mean, if we're talking about us, we have, as you know, a very radically left person elected mayor who
18:48I haven't met.
18:49I'm sure she's very nice, but very, very, very radical left.
18:53And we would have to federalize D.C.
18:56You know, we've made D.C. great.
18:58When I got here, it was a very dangerous capital.
19:02I would have said to Ryder, don't come.
19:04It's too dangerous.
19:05Now I can say you can walk down the street.
19:07You can grab Nathaniel and all your friends.
19:10You can walk in.
19:10You're going to be very safe.
19:12But if you were here a year and a half ago, the numbers were horrible.
19:15The crime stats, the murders, the death, the drug dealing, everything was.
19:21We have one of the safest.
19:22We've taken it from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to as safe a city as there
19:27is.
19:28Amazing what's happened to Washington.
19:30And it's our capital.
19:31We have to have a safe capital.
19:33And we did it through a lot of different reasons.
19:35But we also put the national guard here.
19:37But in addition to that, the cleanliness, the new grass, the graffiti is all gone.
19:44We fixed up 82 monuments, fountains, and other things.
19:48The places.
19:49And when you see it in six months from now, it's going to be even beyond that.
19:54We're proud of our capital.
19:55I think these things are important, whether you build, whether you do something to fix the
20:00White House where, you know, now they've never had a real estate developer, a good one,
20:04a real good one here before.
20:07They might not ever have one again.
20:08But, you know, fixing up our great capital is a very important thing.
20:14I think it's very important psychologically.
20:15It's very important from the standpoint of people being able to come to the country and not get murdered in
20:22the capital.
20:23People would come here.
20:24We had one of the worst, one of the most unsafe cities in the country.
20:28Now we have one of the safest.
20:30Just to finish, we have, we had a real problem with restaurants.
20:34Nobody wanted to have restaurants, entrepreneurs, restaurant entrepreneurs.
20:37Now you can't get space.
20:40Every restaurant is packed.
20:42The place is booming.
20:43People aren't going to get mugged and raped and beat to hell and shot and killed in Washington, D.C.
20:49One of the safest places.
20:51Crime is down 84 percent.
20:54And I did that in a short period of time.
20:56It's also down in Memphis, where we went specifically, and it's also down in New Orleans.
21:02I was asked by the governor, could I do something?
21:05Because they were having Mardi Gras.
21:06It was very bad.
21:06And they're the best Mardi Gras they've ever had.
21:09The safest Mardi Gras that they've ever had.
21:12And we could do it in New York.
21:14We could do it in California.
21:14We could do it in Chicago if we were asked to do it.
21:17But the crime stats in the whole country, we have down 15, 16, 70 percent.
21:23A record.
21:24And the conservative Mardi Gras has been around the rest of the country in the South Korea.
21:27Why hasn't Kim Jong-un responded to your request to have a conversation?
21:32How do you know he has a response?
21:34Has he?
21:37Yeah, he has.
21:38Did you speak to me?
21:39Did you speak to me?
21:40Did you speak to me?
21:40Where are you in conversation?
21:42I'm very positive.
21:43Well, just so you understand with South Korea.
21:45Look, South Korea has been protected by us for many, many years.
21:50And during my first term, they agreed to pay close to $3 billion a year for protection.
21:55Because we don't, you know, they essentially weren't banked.
21:58And I asked them to do that at my request.
22:01I said, not right.
22:01They weren't happy about it, but they agreed.
22:05I asked for $10 billion.
22:08And they were very unhappy.
22:10But we agreed for a short term that it would be $3 billion.
22:13The next year would go up and the next year would go up.
22:15So they start paying for their protection.
22:18When the election was rigged and I ended up watching for four years and then coming back,
22:23I watched Biden rescind that $3 billion a year for whatever reason.
22:28When I called recently President of South Korea, who I like.
22:32I think he's very nice, actually.
22:35But I called him.
22:36I said, would you like to give us a little hand?
22:37We don't need help with Iran.
22:39But if you'd like, give us a hand with Iran.
22:42He said, no, thanks.
22:44And I said, wait a minute, we have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong-un, your
22:51next-door neighbor.
22:52And you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran?
22:58That's strange.
22:59No, no, we'd rather not get involved.
23:01I said, well, why are we involved in helping you?
23:05So, and I want to help them.
23:07But, you know, when you ask somebody, would you like to give us a hand?
23:11And they say, no, thanks.
23:12And then we're guarding them from a country and paying ourselves billions of dollars.
23:18It's costing us billions and billions of dollars to protect not only them, but other countries.
23:23Look at NATO.
23:24We spend hundreds of billions of dollars protecting Europe from Russia.
23:32Hundreds of billions mostly from Russia, but from other things, too.
23:36And then they say, well, they don't want to get involved with getting, you know, guarding the strait where they
23:43get most of their oil.
23:44They get 50 percent of their oil and they don't want to get involved.
23:47Why are we doing it?
23:48So all I want is fairness.
23:50And South Korea, I get along with them very well, but they were paying $3 billion a year.
23:55And then they convinced Biden that I was probably a bad person and they shouldn't.
24:00And he immediately rescinded that order.
24:02So we were getting paid.
24:04We would have been getting paid a lot more.
24:06But we can't go around and protect all of these countries, especially when they're not there to help us.
24:16The Pressure on the Memorandum of Understanding, are you any closer today to reaching a final deal to end Iran's
24:23nuclear program?
24:23Well, they want to make a deal, but they're not going to make the kind of a deal that I
24:26feel is necessary.
24:28Look, we're in there for one reason.
24:30Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
24:33You understand that?
24:34Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
24:36And they won't have a nuclear weapons.
24:38And right now, them building one after what we did previously with the B2 bombers,
24:43they're going to be a long-time behalf.
24:46But Iran cannot have it — it's very simple.
24:49They can't have a nuclear weapon.
24:50Why do you respond to folks who say that you are prioritizing the interests of adversaries in North Korea over
24:58our long-time partners by scaling back these military actions?
25:01I'm making it much safer.
25:02You see, I'm actually making it much safer.
25:06Kim Jong-un has always treated me with great respect.
25:10And we met on numerous occasions, actually,
25:14two primary occasions.
25:16Spoken and spent time.
25:20I understand him.
25:22He understands me.
25:23You're doing war games.
25:25I get along with him.
25:27You know, he didn't like Biden.
25:28He didn't like Obama.
25:29He didn't like anybody.
25:31But I get along with him very well.
25:34No, what I'm doing is making things safer.
25:36Just the opposite.
25:37Did he ask us?
25:38Did he ask us?
25:39Mr. President.
25:39Quiet.
25:40Quiet.
25:41You're very disrespectful in front of this young man.
25:44Okay?
25:45Don't you find her disrespectful?
25:47He understands.
25:48Quiet.
25:49Who are you with?
25:50I'm with CNN.
25:51Fake news.
25:52You're fake news.
25:54You're a loud, boisterous person.
25:57You're fake news.
25:57Be quiet.
25:58Be quiet.
26:01You're a fake reporter and you report fake news.
26:05Go ahead.
26:06Mr. President, is there enough food on the USS Lincoln?
26:09Yeah, it is.
26:10That was a CNN fake report.
26:13The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time, a good period of time.
26:20But over the years, we've had him out there much longer.
26:22I was at a group meeting and an admiral came up to see me over the weekend.
26:28And it was at a big group and he happened to be an admiral retired.
26:31He said, I've been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir.
26:34And I know people on the Lincoln, they say it's beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.
26:40And other people went out and they found out to be true.
26:43It was fake news reporting from CNN.
26:45Mr. President, there was a report that a senior intelligence official with the CCP just bought a historical building overlooking
26:53the White House.
26:54Have you heard about this?
26:55Do you have a reaction to that?
26:56Mr. President.
27:02The British Prime Minister recently reportedly sent texts to someone impersonating Susie Wiles.
27:08Are you concerned about his judgment or the state of communications between the two countries?
27:13No, but who happened?
27:15What happened?
27:16They sent texts?
27:16Apparently the Prime Minister sent texts to somebody impersonating Susie Wiles.
27:20No, I'm sure that he had a miscommunication.
27:25Mr. President.
27:28He's the Prime Minister.
27:29Mr. President.
27:29You know, I spoke to him.
27:30We had a good conversation.
27:31A couple of them.
27:32We had a good conversation.
27:33One of the things he is going to do, I think he's going to open up the North Sea.
27:37That'll make, that'll make UK pretty rich, I'll tell you.
27:42Mr. President.
27:44If he opened up the North Sea, now he's got an immigration problem and he has an energy problem.
27:49He would have solved one of his problems.
27:50That would be a big thing.
27:51That would make UK rich.
27:53If you open up the North Sea, it's one of the great finds anywhere in the world.
27:57And if they would open up, the North Sea UK would be rich again.
28:01Mr. President.
28:01Mr. President.
28:02Mr. President.
28:02Yes, Mr. President.
28:03Have the people, the people who are-
28:05Don't we find them nice?
28:06Huh?
28:07Nice people.
28:08Right?
28:09Look at him.
28:10He's saying, where do people like this come from?
28:13He's starting to say, where do people like this come from?
28:16Go ahead.
28:16The people who are opposing the ballroom and challenging it, have they offered any sort
28:23of solution or sort of compromise or are they just saying there should be a hole there?
28:28What is-
28:28The people that are opposing the ballroom are people that, in my opinion, are very disloyal
28:34to our country.
28:35Very, very disloyal to our country.
28:37And I think we're doing very well.
28:39We're way ahead of schedule.
28:40We're under budget.
28:42It's going to be the most beautiful ballroom of its kind.
28:45You know, when I was in China, we went to the Great Hall of China.
28:47It was a big, beautiful building.
28:49And we don't have anything like that.
28:51And we have to have that.
28:52It's very important.
28:53But we also are getting tremendous military protection, drone protection.
28:58The building is drone-proof.
29:00It's missile-proof as much as something can be missile-proof.
29:04It's totally bullet-proof.
29:05Any bullet, nothing can go through the windows.
29:07We have, you know, walled, top-of-the-line stuff.
29:11It's very safe.
29:13And, you know, the one thing, it's not for me.
29:16Because I'm going to be here a very short period of time when it's finished.
29:19If it finishes right on time, on budget, on time, I'll be there for four, five, six months.
29:26This is for future presidents.
29:28This isn't for me.
29:29This is for future presidents.
29:30And it's a gift.
29:32We're making a gift to our country.
29:35Spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a ballroom.
29:38And it's a gift from great patriots of this country.
29:42From, as an example, I mean, I'll give you names.
29:45I released some of the names.
29:47In fact, I wanted to put them out today.
29:49But we got a little busy.
29:50And this was, frankly, being with this group of people was very important to me.
29:54But we'll be putting them out, some of the people that contributed.
29:57But this is a gift to the United States of America.
30:00No taxpayer money is necessary.
30:03And you're going to have the finest ballroom anywhere in the world.
30:07It's not something I wanted to do, but it's something that's needed.
30:10And, again, I'm not going to get to use it very much.
30:13Because by the time it's completed, I'll have four or five months left.
30:16Three months.
30:16Who knows?
30:17But we're ahead of schedule.
30:19It's going to be the best in the world of its kind in the world.
30:23There will be nothing like it in the world.
30:25It fits beautifully with the White House.
30:27It's gotten fantastic reviews, architectural reviews.
30:31People think it's incredible.
30:32And when you see it, you'll say, wow, that's really something.
30:35And that's what the United States is all about.
30:37We have to have that.
30:38But in addition to the ballroom, we're building a great military complex.
30:43The people that started the lawsuit, the head person, I believe, was fired.
30:48And she was fired from another event just before that.
30:52And she's the one that started it.
30:53It's the National Trust.
30:54But the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
30:57Now, they say it's a United States.
31:00They use the word United States.
31:01But it's not related to the United States.
31:03In fact, the United States doesn't even contribute to it.
31:07It has nothing to do with it.
31:09It stopped contributing when they realized there were nothing but troublemakers.
31:13Years ago, it stopped contributing.
31:15So this isn't like an official United States Bureau or United States agency.
31:21They stopped contributing to the National Trust.
31:24And it's called the National Trust.
31:26It has this great name, National Trust for Historic Preservation.
31:31There are a bunch of troublemakers that the United States, many years ago, long before me, stopped contributing to.
31:37The woman that started it was fired.
31:40She's no longer there.
31:42So this is the remnants of it.
31:44And the bottom line is they're trying to stop something, and they won't be successful, but they're trying to stop
31:49something that's almost completed.
31:51When you say, when you say, when they brought a suit, why didn't they bring the suit a year before?
31:57Why did they bring the suit in the middle of construction, when $400 million almost is spent on its construction?
32:05Why wouldn't they have started the suit a year earlier?
32:08Everybody knew it was going to be, I mean, it was no secret.
32:11Everybody knew that it was taking place.
32:13So they should have done that.
32:14But the National Trust is very disloyal to the country because they reveal things.
32:19You know, I said the problem with the suit, I told them this, is that we have many military things
32:24in this ballroom.
32:25And ideally, they shouldn't be revealed.
32:27But no, they are revealed.
32:29So the world knows about it.
32:30That's okay.
32:31They shouldn't have done it.
32:32They're very disloyal.
32:34But I think we're doing really well.
32:37We're way ahead of schedule.
32:40And somebody, and many presidents are going to use it for many years to come.
32:44The country will have one of the greatest gifts it's ever received.
32:47One more, one more question.
32:48Could you elaborate now?
32:50Could, last week, you said that you would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz to be a territory of the
32:54United States.
32:55Could you elaborate on what you meant with that a little bit?
32:57Well, I just think it's a great idea, yeah.
32:58I mean, we control it.
32:58We control it with the blockade.
33:00We have a blockade.
33:02We control it with a blockade.
33:04And I like the idea of declaring it a territory.
33:07Why do you do that?
33:08We have total control over the Strait.
33:10Now, they can be a nuisance.
33:11They can put a mine in the water.
33:13And people don't like having mines hit their billion-dollar ships, you know, et cetera.
33:17But the blockade has been very effective.
33:19And, you know, we're taking out, now maybe that will stop or maybe it'll open up even further,
33:24but we're taking out millions of barrels of oil a week.
33:28I think if you look at the kind of numbers that we're doing, we're doing — the Strait is open,
33:33and the oil prices are coming down, and they will continue to come down,
33:37unless we decide to do something far more drastic than we're doing.
33:42Iran is in big trouble.
33:43They have 300 percent inflation.
33:47The country's a mess, and the military is totally defeated.
33:50Thank you very much, everyone.
33:52Are you seeking an extension?
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