Transcript: President Trump Remarks on FIFA World Cup, Putin, DC Crime

Read the full transcript of President Trump’s remarks on FIFA World Cup, Putin, DC Crime from Oval Office on August 22, 2025. Trump delivers remarks from the Oval Office alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino regarding the FIFA World Cup, while also addressing DC crime statistics and economic updates.

Major FIFA World Cup Announcement

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, we have a very big announcement to make today. You all know Gianni, he came all the way from Italy, the beautiful country of Italy to be with us. He just got off the plane and he’s a hardworking guy, does a phenomenal job with FIFA, nobody like him.

I’m delighted to welcome FIFA President Gianni 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, Gianni, 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, just left the Kennedy Center.

Washington D.C. Safety and Improvements

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 act 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 Washington, D.C.

is a whole different place, and Gianni, I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear that too, actually, but it’s a whole different place, people are excited again, they’re going out to restaurants again.

Media Coverage and Public Opinion

That was the other thing I saw numbers, that restaurant business is down in the last week, I know, 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, then I saw another one that says it’s 94% favorable, and I can tell you that 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 fixing, I was just there all morning with the contractors, we’re making it, it’s going to be unbelievable, it’s got great bones, but it needs a lot of work.

World Cup Details and Economic Impact

The World Cup draw will set up the group stage with 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, in a way it’s like Gianni 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’ll be nice, you don’t have to worry about walking down the street, Gianni, okay? But you can 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 dollars into the U.S. economy, and create 185,000 American jobs in a short period of time.

Tariffs and Economic Updates

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, the government group, radical left group, announced that Trump was right, took in 4 trillion dollars worth of tariffs, that the 4 trillion dollars 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’s up almost 1,000 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 dollars, they’re going to reduce the deficit by 4 trillion dollars.

Oval Office Renovations and Historical Elements

But this will drive more than 30 billion dollars in U.S. economy and create 185,000 American 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, Gianni, at the Kennedy Center, and by that time, it’ll 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, look, nice? I can’t tell you how much that gold cost, 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 this beautiful desk renovated, brought out by the White House. People that do this, they did a great job, we have a craftsman who’s great, but this was not appropriate for the Oval Office, what I took over, and now, if 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, in some cases, much more than a hundred years, and now they’re proudly hanging on the Oval Office walls, and I can’t imagine anybody changing it, but they were buried in vaults for over a hundred 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, in the world.

I’d like to ask Gianni 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

FIFA World Cup Draw Announcement

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, well, see, I’m a good citizen, I said, let them have a little piece, so we gave a little to Canada, see how nice they are, and we gave a little bit to Mexico, and Johnny, please say a few words.

JOHNNY: 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, it’s 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 winner’s trophy, it is the trophy that the winner of the FIFA World Cup wins, only the FIFA presidents, 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.

TRUMP: It’s pretty heavy, is the winner trophy. The last one who lifted that is Leo Messi. Leo Messi of Argentina. And here it is in the Oval Office in the White House. Can I keep it? What do you think?

JOHNNY: Well, you can keep it in the wall, Governor. We’re not giving it back.

TRUMP: That’s serious. It fits well, it’s very well on the wall right over there. Let’s put it back below the edge. It fits well here. That’s beautiful. Yeah, you’re right. Until we have to give it to the next winner. That’s fine. That’s a beautiful piece of gold, I would say. That’s beautiful. Yeah. So, six billion Euros for the World Cup, six 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. You see that? 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?

JOHNNY: 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 the game. So, they all think they can become world champions, right? They’ll all be happy. Exactly.

Crime and Safety in Washington D.C.

TRUMP: 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?

TRUMP: That was your drink case? Robber 1, Brian 0. 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’s 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 checks. 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. They’re all full of the restaurants. I know. They’re all full. I heard that too. The restaurants aren’t too… The restaurants, since we are doing this, are doing great. And many new restaurants are going to open, because as you know, many closed. 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 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. We have to.

Plans for Other Cities

TRUMP: 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’s a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent. And we’ll straighten that one out probably next. That’ll 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, they’re 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, and we’re going to help with Boston.

I think, really, I think a lot of — and a lot of these people that you see on television, they are — 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 a lot of — 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.

Acknowledging Team Members

TRUMP: I just want to say, Johnny’s 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, correct?

TRUMP: And, Andrew, you’re all excited about it? Absolutely. This is — Would you like to say something?

ANDREW: This is a great opportunity, Mr. President, to show off the first 250 years of the United States of America, the greatness, and 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 excited.

TRUMP: 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 wasn’t going to survive. He turned it around. 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 — Kash, everybody — they’ve proven your father 100 percent correct. His father was treated so unfairly. Your father has been 100 percent correct. And tell him we all love him, okay?

Vice President Responds on D.C. Crime Progress

VANCE: 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.

So, Mr. President, you showed 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.

President Trump on Crime Statistics and Public Safety

TRUMP: And that’s a really very small percentage. It’s 2 percent, 3 percent. But that 2 percent and 3 percent 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, we’d 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, “Well, I like our streets the way they used to be.” And she thinks it’s going to happen, like, by doing nothing.

And they said, “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, 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 on that. But she was — she was hit hard. It’s not going to happen anymore. Not going to happen anymore.

City Beautification and Construction Plans

But then we’re going to beautify the city, too. That’s where I was today at Kennedy Center. We’re going to beautify the city like it has it. 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 a — 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 fantastically getting us the right contractors and the people that can really do the job right.

FIFA World Cup Ticket Sales Announcement

Gianni: 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 1 seat 1 is ticket number 4547, 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 with your security here would be fantastic.

TRUMP: You’re going to do record business I think. Kristi would you like to say something

Kristi on National Respect and Tourism

Kristi: 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 sporting event. It’ll be the largest event in the world and so you’re reminding me of something that my dad used to say all the time when I was growing up he would say Kristi, your kids need to look like you respect yourself before anybody’s 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 the 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.

Border Wall Paint Project

TRUMP: 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 had lost its way. It was a country that was going to fail look even today where they say four trillion dollars in reductions of deficits, and this was totally unexpected. I mean I don’t know where they’ve been the people that do this stuff but it’s… I want to thank Kristi for another reason. I said to her two weeks ago I said Kristi, 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. You wouldn’t have been able to see through it. So I had Border Patrol and they tested everything else, then we gave them steel wall high-grade steel very hard to cut. So 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 you need different instruments to cut each one. And I said Kristi, 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 Homan and the group. Tom Homan’s a fantastic guy, what the job he does and the way they work together. So I turn on last night and I see Kristi’s painting the wall and it looked beautiful by the way when that paint went over there.

And it’s hot. It’s hot. If it’s white it’s not hot. If it’s black it’s going to be very hard to climb that sucker. It’s not going to be easy but it’s black and a high-quality black you know it’s really look good. Is that going to be a two coat job or one coat?

Kristi: No, just one coat. We used the paint you told me to buy. The two coat will take place in three years from now. But it looks beautiful but thank you very much I didn’t know you were listening. 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 see.

SPEAKER: Mr. President, delighted to be here today for this announcement but we’re also looking forward to having you at the finals. On July 19th in New York. We’re going to be there. A lot of people are going to be there.

FIFA World Cup Event and Athletic Aspirations

TRUMP: I’d like to thank you all. Do you have any questions? It’s going to be a big event at the Kennedy Center.

REPORTER: Do you have time to take part in it? Will you have a part to play on the soccer pitch?

TRUMP: I might play. I see the money that these soccer players are making. I may try and play. I’m a very good athlete. My son is a very good athlete and he’s a good soccer player. He’s on the tall side for soccer. He’s 6’9″. That’s pretty tall. He’s on the tall side but he’s good. I may put on shorts. I’m extremely good in shorts. Enjoy the play. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Visa Process for International Visitors

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

TRUMP: 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.

KRISTI: 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. It’ll happen quickly and we’re excited for them to come. I would hope that around the world people know that the United States is excited to bring their family here to enjoy this event.

Putin’s Potential Attendance

SPEAKER: America welcomes the world. I can relate from the collaboration that we have.

TRUMP: 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. I’m going to sign this for him. I was sent one and I thought you would like to see it. It’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. 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.

Ukraine War and Russian Airstrikes

REPORTER: Mr. President. Can you talk to Vladimir Putin about the fact that yesterday a big U.S. factory was hit in a Russian airstrike in Ukraine? What’s your reaction to that?

TRUMP: 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 three wars add three more so it would be ten. 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.

Canada Trade Relations

REPORTER: Mr. President. I just made a very good call with Prime Minister Carney of Canada yesterday morning. Actually Canada is taking away some retaliatory tariffs. He’s removing his tariffs. Exactly.

TRUMP: He’s removing his retaliatory tariffs which I thought was nice. And we’re going to have another call soon. We had a very good call. They’re getting closer and towards… 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. And 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’ll be good.

Ambassador Bolton Investigation

REPORTER: Mr. President. You talked about the search of Ambassador Bolton’s home. The Vice President recently did an interview saying that it’s about classified documents, but that there’s also broad concern about him. What are the concerns?

TRUMP: Well, I haven’t spoken to Pam and 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. 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 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 for 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. She’s meticulous. And she looked, and she said, “ooh, this wasn’t the way that she had it.” So I know the feeling. It’s not a good feeling. Thank you.

Putin Timeline and War Resolution

TRUMP: 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 I know a lot of people think that nothing’s 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. 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, 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 more difficult. There’s a lot of anger, a lot of hatred. 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 I’ll learn which way I’m going.

Los Angeles Fire Recovery and Permits

REPORTER: I’ve got two questions for you, one on FIFA, the other one on D.C. You talk about the economic impact that people will have in these cities, and what’s your message to the mayors to get their cities prepared, not only for the beautification process, but also the safety aspect?

TRUMP: 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 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 burned down. So…

REPORTER: My second question is on crime prevention. Would you be open to expanding the national concealed carry to apply to D.C. like it does in other states like Texas?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. Well, they have it in some states, and they feel strongly about it. 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, and he’s got a pistol in his hand. You could be tough. You could be in great shape. You could be a powerful person. Or you could be a guy that weighs 100 pounds with a gun in your hand. And I’ll bet on the guy with the gun 100% of the time, right? And so you need protection. So I’m a Second Amendment person all the way. Yeah, please.

Congressional Funding for D.C. Cleanup

REPORTER: President Trump said this morning that you’re 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?

REPORTER: You said this morning that you’re going to get $2 billion from Congress to help clean up D.C.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. I’ve spoken to Mike Johnson. I’ve spoken to John Thune, the Senate 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. 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. And, 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 this side. Not on this side. 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. I mean, I would imagine Democrats would vote for that one.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I don’t know if there is a deadline, either 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. If 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’ll have to do.

Russia-Ukraine War Strategy

REPORTER: Mr. President, if you can spend two weeks, you’ll know whether you go or not.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, I think I’ll know. I think I’ll know the attitude of Russia and, frankly, of Ukraine. It takes two.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, then I’m going to make a decision as to what we do. And it’s going to be a very important 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 would have had this war. It was never going to happen. This was caused by stupid people that 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 said, but Vladimir knew very strongly. We wouldn’t have stood for it. It wouldn’t have happened. A hundred percent 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 him by. Nice, beautiful kid. Nice crew cut. All set. He wants to be a soldier. And he goes there. 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 saw 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. I was going over 31 years. I got it solved. You saw it. They came to the White House and 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.

REPORTER: Do you think it’s a real possibility then that he’d do nothing if Putin doesn’t come to the table for a ceasefire?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’ll see who’s fault it is. If there are reasons why, I’ll understand that. I know exactly what I’m doing. We’re going to see whether or not they have a meeting. That’ll 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. Pretty good idea.

Epstein Files Release

REPORTER: The House Department is also sending some of the Epstein files over to the House Oversight Committee today. Are you in support of them releasing all of them?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’m in support of keeping it open. People shouldn’t be hurt, but I’m in support of keeping it totally open. I couldn’t care less. You’ve 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. 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. 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’s 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 at the stock market today,

Economic Performance and Market Recovery

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 have 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 I like doing it this way better. I mean, 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 had agreed. People said they’d never seen anything like it. Well, 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. We’re run by… This country is run by smart people now.

Intel Partnership Deal

REPORTER: Mr. President, I have two questions. One is about himself. You have been reported that you’re considering taking a stake in himself. Can you talk about that? About the 10%?

TRUMP: About the 10%. Yeah, I met a man who 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, a friend of mine, a supporter of mine, a 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, if that’s right, he should resign.

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’s 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,” 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, “OK, you can go to Taiwan, but we’re going to put a 100% tariff or 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 have 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. It’s all coming back. But if somebody would have said that with Intel, we’d 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 dollars. 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 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 dollars 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 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 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. Then 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 said, “I’ll let you build over there, but pay me a lot of money.” No different. But the country never did it because the country was run by foolish people.

Chicago Crime and City Intervention

REPORTER: You said Chicago might be bad. Have there been concrete steps that the administration has taken to do that? Or what other cities have done that?

TRUMP: I haven’t spoken to them. He’s grossly incompetent. I haven’t spoken to them. 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 the most beautiful building in Chicago, I think. But I hate to see what’s happened to Chicago. Chicago was our greatest city, actually.

Bob Tisch, a great friend of mine, passed away. He used to own the Giants, very successful Lowe’s. 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. It’s just different. We can clean that up, too. We’ll clean that one up, too.

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 themselves. I’m not going to say it, 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 here. This will straighten out the problem.”

Gaza and Hostage Situation

REPORTER: In Israel, the families of hostages are opposed to the reoccupying of Gaza. Why is the U.S. doing that?

TRUMP: 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 Whitaker. But if it wasn’t for me, you would have all these hostages would 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. 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 don’t like it 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’s 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

TRUMP: 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 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, I want my baby back. They want their babies back. They want their kids back. And I understand that. But I got them out and did a good job. And we’re doing everything we can to get the hostages out.

Thank you all very much. Thank you very much. Well, we called him too late for a reason. He should have caught him a year ago. He’s too late. You know, we have a stock market that’s up a thousand 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 markets the hottest it’s ever been. The country is better than it’s ever been.

Military and Afghanistan Withdrawal

TRUMP: 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. 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 the time to invade. You know, this is the 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 didn’t think he had that good of a vocabulary.

World Cup and Team Prospects

TRUMP: 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. It’s been a miracle.

REPORTER: Can he win it, Mr. President?

TRUMP: I don’t know. I watched some of those teams go. Did they go down that field? I don’t know. But let me ask you, what chance does America have of winning?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well, the home team always has a good chance to win. It depends on… It’s a good difference. No, but… We have a chance. Of course.

TRUMP: Of course you have a chance.

REPORTER: It will barely go into the games, Mr. President?

TRUMP: I’d love to have him. He’d love to. He’s very tall. Maybe we could make him a goalie. Goalies are very tall now, right? Goalies are very tall. Well, he’d be a perfect goalie. 100%. At his height, he’ll be a great goalie. Exactly. So we’ll put him with the Americans.

REPORTER: No, but do the Americans have a chance of, like, getting into the quarterfinal?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, definitely. No, the quarterfinal, definitely. But then, you know, the tournament goes on with the public 250 years of the United States. They will forget. They will all feel energized about that.

TRUMP: 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, the way they pass it. It’s amazing. Really amazing. It’s a great art, right? It’s great talent. It is. You know the expression? Will you drive the name? I don’t know. I don’t know. He’s the boss. That’s an interesting proposal. He’s the boss. Well, we’ll discuss that. It’s going to be great. I think the American team is going to do well. I mean, I hear it’s a great team.