President Trump Holds a Cabinet Meeting, Aug. 26, 2025

Trump:
Hello. Thank you very much. Are you all set? You all ready? Nice group. Big group. But I want to thank you all for being here as we prepare to celebrate Labor Day, when we honor the incredible, hardworking men and women of our country—which is doing very well.

I have to tell you, every policy of the Trump administration is designed to lift up the American worker, promote great-paying blue-collar jobs, and rebuild the industrial bedrock of our nation. It’s also, obviously, for great defense. We have the greatest military in the world. We rebuilt it largely in my first term. Some of it was stupidly given away to Afghanistan—for what reason, nobody can figure out.

But it was still a relatively small amount compared to the concept of what they did. However, the country is doing well. We’re respected all over the world like never before, probably. We went to NATO, as you know, and they went from 2% to 5% of GDP. Nobody expected that. And the difference is—they didn’t pay the two, and they paid the five. So, as you know, we are selling a tremendous amount of equipment to NATO. We’re not spending any money. We’re making money.

But I don’t want to talk about making; I want to talk about how we’re no longer involved with funding Ukraine. We are involved with trying to stop the war and the killing in Ukraine. So, we’re selling missiles and military equipment—millions, and ultimately billions of dollars—to the NATO people. We’re very friendly, and we have a great relationship.

That was an amazing trip. They’re funding the entire war. We’re not funding anything. I think it’s an important point to make because a lot of people don’t understand that. And we will continue to do that. We’re trying to get as much as we can for them. They want the American product—the American military product is by far the best in the world, and that’s what they want.

They have lots of options, but that’s what they want. So, our factories are doubling up and tripling up, where they make the Patriots and other defensive and offensive weapons. The wages for blue-collar workers are now rising at the fastest rate in 60 years, which is so important to all of us around this table.

The average American worker has already seen a $500 wage increase this year, and there’s no inflation—because there have been decreases, tremendous decreases, thanks to Doug and Chris, and the great job they’ve done with energy. Thank you very much. And Chris, thank you very much.

I see you’re down close to $60 a barrel, and you’ll be breaking that pretty soon. That has a huge impact. So we have groceries down. Energy is way down. It was four and five dollars for a gallon of gas—think of that—and now it’s probably $2.25. In some places, it’s $2. In a couple of locations in the South, it even broke $2.

In places like California, where they charge such high taxes, it’s higher—but it’s still much lower than what it was a year ago. So energy is way down. Groceries are way down. Eggs are way down. Thank you very much, Madame Secretary—you’ve done a great job.

When we came in, eggs were through the roof. They were four times higher than they’d ever been. And my first question from you people was, “What are you going to do with eggs?” I said, “What’s the problem with eggs?” That was caused by Biden—or whoever was operating the autopen—actually caused it, I guess, because I don’t think he knew too much about eggs.

Factories are booming compared to before I took office. Domestic auto production is going to be—it’s going to be so thrilling in two years when you see the numbers, because they’re building plants all over the country. They’re all coming in because of tariffs. They don’t want to pay the tariffs. If they build their plant here, they don’t pay the tariffs. And they’re pouring into our country.

You know about AI, and you know about other things—but the auto plants, you know, that’s the good old-fashioned stuff that I love. The auto plants are pouring into the United States of America. They’re coming from Mexico, Canada, and all over Europe. It’s been pretty amazing.

So factories are booming, and when they actually open—right now they’re booming in terms of construction. This is something given to me by Mark Zuckerberg. You’ll see—this is AI now. I never understood. I said, “Well, I built shopping centers, and for $50 million you can build a very nice shopping center.” So I never understood when they said $50 billion for a plant. I said, “What kind of a plant is that?”

But when you look at this, you understand why it’s $50 billion. This is one he’s building in Louisiana. That’s Meta—Facebook, as people understand it. Look at that. That’s the size of Manhattan, superimposed over the island of Manhattan. It takes up a big part of Manhattan. I think they say 81% of Manhattan.

But these are big things, and they’re going up. A lot of them are going up now. Not all that big, actually—Mark is building four of them, and others are building similar places. And when these things open up, I’ll tell you what: our country—we’re leading China now in AI, substantially leading China.

And the reason is because we’re letting them build their own electrical facilities. We would need double the energy—if you take all the electricity we produce right now in this country, you’d have to multiply it times two or maybe three. Three times. So, three times more than we have right now—for everything to operate, including your toaster and everything else.

And the way we are able to succeed is because China goes out and builds these massive plants. They’re right now building 58 coal-fired plants. Almost all coal-fired. And coal is back with this country, too, by the way. You know, there’s a reason they use it: because it’s good. It works for them.

And we call it “clean coal.” We don’t call it “coal.” We call it “clean coal.” Even “very clean coal.” But we have coal going up. We have nuclear going up—nuclear is very much in vogue now. It’s safe and inexpensive and great.

We don’t allow windmills. We’re not allowing any windmills to go up. Unless there’s a legal situation where somebody committed to it a long time ago, we don’t allow windmills. And we don’t want the solar panels—those black plastic patches from China—because they take up thousands of acres of our farmland.

You see these big ugly blotches of black plastic in the middle of the fields all over the country. It’s crazy. Solar, I like in some ways, but for firing up your big plants—it doesn’t work. It’s unstable. And the farmers are saying, “You’re ruining our farmland.”

So, we’re not heavy into that at all. And windmills—we’re just not going to allow them. They’re ruining our country. They ruin everyone. If you look at the UK—what’s happened there—their energy costs have gone through the roof because of wind. They closed up the northern parts of their country. They had oil. Tremendous oil. And they closed it up.

I tell them, “You’re my friends, but you’re going to have a bad awakening very soon.” They’re ugly. They don’t work. They kill your birds. They’re bad for the environment. And if you look at them from a house, your house is worth less than 50%.

So, I’m trying to have people learn about wind real fast. And I think I’ve done a good job, but not good enough—because some countries are still trying. And they’re destroying themselves. I hope they get back to fossil fuel, because right now, whether we like it or not, fossil fuel is the thing that works.

You can add nuclear with it and other things, but fossil fuel is what works—if we’re going to fire up those big monster factories.

If you look at everything before I took office, domestic auto production is up 18,000 cars a month. And we haven’t even started yet, because a lot of these plants aren’t built. It’s up 18,000 because Ford, General Motors, and a couple of others—Stellantis—they’re taking their existing plants and, as quickly as they can, they’re adding on to them.

So when their plants open—because they’re building big, modern, beautiful auto plants—think of that: we’re up 18,000 cars a month, and essentially all they’ve done is try and utilize their space correctly. As their big plants open up, it’s going to be incredible.

I hope they remember that it was this way. I hope this table gets a lot of the credit for what’s happened. It gets all of the credit, because this would have never happened. We were going out of business in every way. We were losing. All the car plants were leaving this country. Now they’re all coming back in.

And they’re coming from Canada. They’re coming from Mexico. But they’re also coming from Germany, from all over the world.

Domestic steel production is up by 100,000 tons of steel a week. A week. We have a 50% tariff on steel, aluminum, and various other things. Copper just got brought into the picture. And that means people are going to want to make steel here.

We just made a deal with U.S. Steel. As you know, we had an outside company come in and spend $17 billion on building new plants—new everything. It’s great. And it stays right here in America. So we’re doing amazingly well on steel.

And domestic oil production is up by more than 300,000 barrels a day. That’s a lot of barrels. And you’re going to be talking about that in a second. I think Chris and Doug—these two people—have done a fantastic job.

We have the oil price down to about $62 a barrel. Just so you understand, because a lot of you like to talk about costs and prices—I watch so much fake information—product costs are down. Energy is way down.

Energy brings things down. You know, with energy—that’s what happened with Biden. He stopped our program, and then he went back to it when he realized you were going to be paying numbers nobody’s ever seen, like seven dollars a gallon. You were going to pay seven, seven-and-a-half dollars a gallon.

So then he immediately went back to the Trump plan—the one they terminated—but it was too late for them. It was too late. They blew it. They had a great thing going. I gave them something great, and they blew it.

Since the inauguration, we’ve created over half a million new private jobs. And if you notice, when the numbers come out, government jobs are going down and private jobs are coming up. And that’s what really fuels the country.

It’s easy to hire people and pay them for doing something that maybe is not very productive—but government jobs are down, substantially down. Private jobs are way up. And these are the jobs that make money, create a better life.

Meanwhile, we’ve reduced the number of federal bureaucrats by 84,000. So, we got rid of 84,000. And I think the job numbers—you’re going to see—the new job numbers are going to be through the roof because of all of the different businesses that are moving into our country.

And not just production businesses—autos and AI—but any business you can think of.

In the world of furniture, as an example—North Carolina. I went there many times when I built a lot of hotels. I’d go to North Carolina and buy from the greatest, most talented people. And then China came along and took all of those jobs away.

If they would have tariffed them, China wouldn’t have taken any of the jobs. But we had presidents that, honestly—and I like some of them—but they didn’t know what the hell they were doing from a business standpoint.

North Carolina had the most talented woodworkers you’ve ever seen. I’d watch them. I’d say, “I’d like to have a rail on that chair. Can you fancy it up a little bit?” And they’d hand me a piece like they were artists. Unbelievable.

That business was stolen from us—not only by China, but by others. All of a sudden, you’re ordering your furniture from China. It wasn’t even close to being as good. But they couldn’t compete with it. If we would have said, “100% or 200% tariff,” you wouldn’t have lost one job.

It’s so sad. But we’re going to rebuild North Carolina furniture, and other places like South Carolina to a lesser extent. They make furniture too.

Furniture—we’re going to put a very substantial tariff on. We’ve already announced it. It’ll be done pretty quickly. And when that happens, everyone’s going to start.

I just tell you: North Carolina, go out and start getting the grandchildren and the children. Start teaching them. Because some of those incredible artists that I knew as young people—they’re older now, but they still have the talent, and they have time left. They’re going to be teaching their sons and daughters and grandchildren.

And it’s going to be a beautiful thing to see. It’s going to happen like magic. It’s going to happen without question.

The results: Ford just announced it’s going to create 4,000 new American jobs. Hyundai—14,000 jobs. General Motors is moving production of the Chevy Blazer and Equinox from Mexico back to the United States, where it belongs.

Don’t forget—we lost 55% of our auto production over the last 35 years. Fifty-five percent. We were the auto capital of the world. Nobody even thought about challenging us. We lost 55% of it to Mexico, Canada, China—a lot to China—and other countries.

And it’s all coming back. In a couple of years, we’ll be bigger than we ever were. We’ll be more dominant. We’ll be bigger. And we make great product, too. We’re starting to make really great product.

We’re going to be bigger than we ever were. We’re going to be at the level it was when we were the only one—when we sold to the world. And we’re going to be back selling to ourselves and to other parts of the world.

It’s not going to be the same, but it’s going to be equally as important as it was in the heyday 30 years ago.

The auto unions—as you know, the top guy didn’t know me, didn’t like me, and now he likes me. He says, “Man, I can’t believe what Trump has done.”

But the auto workers voted for me. They understood better than anybody else. The auto workers—the Teamsters—voted for me. Teamsters are great. They all voted for me. Nobody—no Republican—has ever gotten the support of the Teamsters and the auto workers.

And now the head of the auto workers—I mean, it’s so amazing. I watch them on television. They can’t even believe what happened. And I told them all what was going to happen.

We secured new market access for American agricultural exports all over the world. Our secretary is doing a great job—thank you, Brook.

And we have negotiated historic trade deals with the United Kingdom, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea—who was here yesterday—and the European Union.

Foreign nations are now paying hundreds of billions of dollars straight into our treasury—numbers nobody’s ever seen before. As you know, we made trade deals with a lot of countries, and many of those countries—just to be able to sit at the table—are paying us hundreds of billions of dollars.

We made a trade deal with the European Union. They were rough on us for a long time, and now we have a very good deal. Trillions of dollars are coming into our country. Trillions—far beyond billions. Trillions of dollars.

Wouldn’t you say, Scott?
“Yes, sir.”

And in a short period of time, they have to buy $750 billion worth of our energy product. Energy is great—we have more than anybody else, and we’re using it. But the European Union is a done deal. And Japan is done.

I heard there was a problem with South Korea, but we met yesterday and they’re done. We didn’t do it—we just kept the same deal. He honored the deal. They wanted to see if they could do something. But they honored the deal, which is nice.

We cut the previous record-setting trade deficit—I hear it just came out—we cut it in half already. And we haven’t even started yet.

We cut the previous record-setting trade deficit—I hear it just came out—we cut it in half already. And we haven’t even started yet. We’ve only been here for a few months—because it takes a little while to fix up the Oval Office and do those things to prepare for the battle.

So, we’ve really only been here for a very short period of time, and we cut the trade deficit in half. Is that right? That’s fantastic. I didn’t even think we were going to do that.

And remember, these are things that are being built. All these numbers up here—they’re not open yet. When they open, you’re going to see things happen in the United States that nobody’s ever seen before, including our country in its heyday.

I had the greatest economy in the history of our country my first four years—despite COVID, which was a very unfortunate situation for the whole world. We did a great job with it. Never got the credit for the job we did.

Operation Warp Speed—people say it’s one of the greatest achievements ever in politics or in the military, because it was almost a military procedure. Everybody—including Putin—said that Operation Warp Speed, what you did with that, nobody can believe it.

But it was still a horrible, horrible cloud over our country. We had a very dark cloud over the world. That was a very bad thing that came out of Wuhan, which I said it came out of Wuhan—that’s where it came from.

China suffered greatly. But everybody did. And we did a good job with that—as good as you can possibly do—and we came back. And now we’re stronger than ever before.

If I didn’t win this election, this country was gone. I’m telling you—economically, it was gone. None of the things we’re talking about would have happened. The whole world was robbing us blind—friend and foe. They were stealing our jobs, our money, our factories. They were stealing everything.

We would have been a shell. We would have been a bankrupt, broken shell. But we’re doing just the opposite—stronger than we’ve ever been.

Last month, in a landmark achievement, I proudly signed the largest working-class tax cuts in American history.

Last month, in a landmark achievement, I proudly signed the largest working-class tax cuts in American history.

So, the bill—I’m not going to use the term “great, big, beautiful.” That was good for getting it approved, but it’s not good for explaining to people what it’s all about. It’s a massive tax cut for the middle class. It’s a massive tax cut for jobs.

Think of it: no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security. So seniors—I don’t know how you can vote for anybody else. And no tax on overtime. You work overtime, you don’t have to pay tax on overtime. That’s good.

The Democrats don’t know what they’re going to do. They have all these sound bites. Some guy sends out a word, and everybody uses it—including the fake news. Some of you are here right now. I’m looking at you. And it’s “death.” They use the word “death.”

No—it’s actually life. It’s almost like a newborn life. It’s not death. That’s their sound bite: “The bill is death.” It’s not.

We strengthened Social Security. We strengthened Medicare and Medicaid. The job we’ve done on Social Security—if the Democrats got in, Social Security would be over, because the country would fail. There wouldn’t be any Social Security.

I made that pledge: we’re going to take care of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. And we’re doing that in spades, because the country is becoming so successful again. It hasn’t been this successful—I think in the end, it will never have been this successful.

Every American is seeing a tax cut as a result of the bill. The average police officer will keep an extra $1,000 a year, at least, in overtime. And the average waiter or waitress will keep nearly $2,000 extra—in the fact that they would have had to pay that kind of money on tips.

I never realized the government was so strong on that. But waiters and waitresses would tell me that the government would go after them. It was horrible. That’s how it all started with me.

The biggest thing was again—the $4 trillion that they found. They said, “Well, that was nice. They should have announced it.” I could have told them that. A lot of good people didn’t understand it. But now they’re saying, “Trump was right. We’ve never seen anything like this.”

Everybody’s moving back to the United States, because they don’t want to pay a tax. If they’re not here, they have to pay a tax. It didn’t seem that complicated—but it’s working at a level nobody can imagine.

This is working. $4 trillion. That’s a big number. But that’s nothing compared to what’s happening—because these places haven’t even opened yet. Some of them haven’t even started hiring yet. They’re under construction.

So, it’s construction jobs—but not the big number. The big number’s when they open. They’re going to be very successful. It’s a revolution.

We’re also working on things to ensure that the awesome power of artificial intelligence is used to benefit all Americans—including American workers and American children.

In that spirit, our wonderful First Lady has just announced a Presidential AI Challenge. It’s going to be a very good challenge, I can tell you. She’s put her heart into it. It will inspire the next generation to stay on the cutting edge of this vital technology.

This is the new internet. The new computer. The new television. The new everything—all put together in one.

This is why, when I show you a picture like that—I mean, this is a factory superimposed over the island of Manhattan. And you have many of them being built right now all over the country, or soon to start. Some of them have already started. This one has actually started—that’s in the great state of Louisiana.

But the First Lady is working very hard on this, and it’s an important initiative. Melania—when she puts her mind to it—nobody could do better. Nobody.

So, every young person should go to AI.gov to learn more. AI.gov. You’ll see it’s a great challenge. I think it’s going to be a very modern kind of challenge. It involves AI, which is very exciting to people.

I want to thank her. She’s raised a lot of money for children. We’re putting America first, and we’re going to be putting the American worker first.

The Republican Party has picked up 4 million new people. Four million. The Democrats have lost two and a half million. Other than that, they’re extremely happy. No—they’re very depressed. They’re very depressed.

And their new box that they’ve fallen into is crime. There was a consultant on one of the shows this morning—I was watching—I thought he was very good. And he’s a Democrat consultant. He was screaming, “No, no, don’t let him do this to you. Don’t let him! It’s another trap. It’s another trap!”

What he was talking about was men playing in women’s sports.

They said, “That’s an 80–20 issue.” No—it’s a 97–3. It’s 97–3. Like transgender—for everybody. They fought for it. They’re still fighting for it.

I saw a politician you all know very well—fighting like hell for men playing in women’s sports. He said, “You don’t understand, they’re human beings also.”

Well, I agree—they’re human beings. But you can’t have a seven-foot guy playing basketball with the women. You know, just one of those little problems in life.

We all have our place. It’s okay. I’ve got my place, too. But this guy was screaming, “It’s another trap! This is the worst of all!”

He said, “Because this is crime. Trump is saying he’s against crime—and they’re for crime. No, it’s a trap! Don’t do it!”

And then I saw poor, stupid Chuck Schumer. The guy—he looks like he’s aged a hundred years. And I don’t like getting into looks—you know, looks don’t mean anything. When you’re in politics, looks don’t matter.

I look at Pam—I would never say she’s beautiful, because that would be the end of my political career. Blurry secretary. But I will tell you this: this is the best of all.

And they’re going to fight me—like that slob of a governor you have in Illinois. This poor guy got thrown out of his business by his family. I know the family—I was partners with the family. Nice family. But he was no good. They threw him out.

He’s governor of Illinois. And he says about Trump, “We don’t need his help.” Chicago is the worst.

These places are really bad. Crime in D.C. was the worst it ever was. You know, they make up stories—“Crime in D.C. was the worst ever in history.” And now, over the last 13 days, we’ve worked so hard.

We’ve taken so many—there are many left—but we’ve taken so many criminals. Over a thousand.

I watched a man from Maryland who said to me—“Sir, you’re the greatest president. You’re doing an unbelievable job. What a great job.” Governor Moore. Has anyone heard of him? He’s another hopeful for president. I don’t think so.

But I met him, and I didn’t realize it was on camera. Did you see? They caught him on camera. I was at a game—I don’t know, maybe the Army–Navy game or something—and I met him in a hallway. And, as usual, one of these great cameramen had it on tape.

I never met him before. He said, “Sir, you’re doing a great job. You’re doing an unbelievable job. Thank you very much.”

But then he goes on television and says, “Oh, Trump is a dictator. He’s a dictator.”

So the line is: I’m a dictator. But I stop crime. So, a lot of people say, “If that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.” But I’m not a dictator—I just know how to stop crime.

And you would think that Illinois, with such a problem and such a bad governor, he’d be calling me and saying, “Could you send over the troops, please? It’s out of control.”

It’s out of control in New York—not as bad as Illinois, by the way, not even close. In California—you would not have had the Olympics had I not sent in the troops. Sent in the National Guard. They did a fantastic job.

We have the Olympics. We have the World Cup coming. I got them in my first term. And I was really sad, because I said, “Oh boy, I got them, and I won’t be president.”

And then little things happened—thank you, God. Little things happened. I think of it. You could ask Johnny—he’s the head of the World Cup. He’s a great guy, great commissioner. He said, “Trump is the only reason we’re doing this.”

The sad part is, I wasn’t going to have it. I wouldn’t have even been invited to the game, depending on who was president. And I got that.

I did not get the 250th. Okay—the 250th anniversary, I did not get. Whether I was president or not, it was still 250. I’d like to take credit for it, but I didn’t get that.

What I will take credit for is—we’re going to have a better celebration under Trump than you would have had otherwise. We’re going to have a safer place—because of Christy, Tom Homan, and everybody.

So we have the 250th coming up, the World Cup coming up—which is like having 45 Super Bowls—and the Olympics coming up. We’re going to have a very exciting three and a half years remaining.

It’s going to be done properly.

I just want to tell you—our country is in incredible shape. Our military is strong and powerful and respected.

We had some fantastic decisions from the Supreme Court that let us put the people into the military and into other businesses that are best for the job—as opposed to some woke reason that was killing our country.

That was a very strong, very powerful decision. You can now go into a company based on your ability, as opposed to being forced in based on some factor that cannot make our country great. That was a big decision. Very big.

And we’ve had a lot of great decisions. We’ve all made some great decisions, sitting around this table.

I want to thank Scott—unbelievable, what’s happening financially with you and Howard. The Vice President’s involved in everything, and he’s been great.

And Marco has been—really, I think you were born for this job. I don’t think you should ever run for another office. I don’t think you should. Really—you’re so good at this. He is so good. And everybody likes him. You know, everybody likes him.

But more importantly than being liked—they respect him. They respect Marco. They respect all the people around the table.

So, what I’d like to do is go around the table. You seem to like it, your audience seems to like it—based on ratings. And I want to mention crime, because we have a young lady here, Iris of Epoch Times. You’re Iris, aren’t you?

I heard you were very savagely mugged in the city. And we’re not going to let that happen under this administration. That was last year. Would you like to mention what happened?

Iris Tao:
First of all, thank you, Mr. President, for having me here to share my story with the room and the broader public. My name is Iris Tao. I’m a White House correspondent for NTD, the sister media of the Epoch Times.

More than two years ago, on a Saturday morning in broad daylight, I was on my way to work when a young man with a black ski mask pointed a gun at my face. He threatened me to hand over my phone, my wallet, my laptop, and everything else.

When I refused, he used the butt of his handgun to strike me across the face—in the cheek—or what some people call “pistol-whipped” me—before running away.

That has deeply traumatized me and my family ever since. I’ve never dared to walk in the streets of D.C. at night again. My family was extremely worried.

So, Mr. President, thank you so much for what you’re doing right now. Being honest, such incidents involve not just me, but also my family. If he had shot me, I could have died right there in the middle of nowhere—without my family or friends knowing—at the age of 23, just starting my career here in D.C., without even starting a family.

But now I’m very blessed to have this opportunity—

Trump (interrupting):
So, you had a gun pointed at your head. And you probably figured he was going to pull the trigger—because these are animals that don’t know what the hell they’re doing. They couldn’t care less.

Pulling the trigger to him is a very minor event. And I’m sure he’s done it before.

So, how did you—? And you refused to give it, which maybe some people would say was not the right decision, right? But you refused. And then he hit you real hard.

Iris Tao:
Yes.

Trump:
It’s really amazing that you weren’t shot.

Iris Tao:
I’m very blessed. And that’s why having this opportunity to stand here to share my story today—I’m very grateful to God for allowing me to still survive to this day. And also to you, Mr. President—thank you for now making D.C. safer for us, for our families, for my parents, and on behalf of my baby on the way. Thank you so much.

Trump:
That’s nice.

There are other reporters and journalists—and good people—that have also been attacked. Violently. Some not violently, but still pretty badly. And I bet you see a big difference on the streets right now—and this is only 12 days.

People tell me they’re going out to dinner now. I told the story of my friend, but I have a lot of friends that are going out to dinner all the time in D.C. now. Twelve days ago, they wouldn’t even think of it.

One of my friends went out five times. It was four the last time I told it—now it’s five. He said, “I love going out to dinner.” And restaurants are starting to open again. A lot of them closed because nobody wanted to go in.

But you see a big difference now, don’t you?

Iris Tao:
I do. I pass by Union Station every day on my way home, and I do feel a lot safer—seeing the trucks right outside, seeing the National Guard troops right outside. It does make me feel hopeful about D.C. again. And one day, hopefully, we can raise our family here.

Trump:
That’s nice. And those are tough troops, too. Those are not politically correct troops. We don’t have politically correct anymore—we have tough guys. Tough people. Including some tough women. But tough people.

And when you look at them—let me tell you—they showed one scene where a bunch of Tren de Aragua guys, or whatever. Maybe MS-13. Maybe MSDNC, okay? Because to me, they’re worse. I think they’re worse. MSNBC may be worse than Tren de Aragua.

Real scum. Real dishonest people.

But they went into this gang—I think it was Tren de Aragua from Venezuela—and they weren’t nice to this group. The gang was calling them “Sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Get out of here. Get the hell out of here. You’re no good. Get out.”

And these are people that beat up people all day long—and they’re calling our soldiers “Sir.” That’s what they are—real soldiers. There’s no games.

I said, “You don’t have to be politically correct.” You know the way they used to spit in the face of soldiers—soldiers standing like this, with some guy or some woman screaming an inch away, spitting in their face? And they were told: you cannot do anything.

I said, “You spit, we hit.” And they’re totally authorized to do that.

Your story is great. And there are other stories here, but people don’t always want to tell them. Some are ashamed to tell them. But it was like a jungle. And it’s not a jungle anymore.

It’s going to get so good that this will be the safest capital there is. One of the safest places in our nation. Right now, it’s one of the most unsafe places. But not anymore.

Twelve days ago, it was the most unsafe place in our nation. And they have to stop issuing false crime numbers.

I mean—I heard the mayor. And I like the mayor, you know—fine. I don’t care if I like her or not. If she did her job, I’d wish she was a horrible person who did her job. But she’s probably nice. I don’t care. I want her to do her job.

But they issue false numbers. She said crime is down. You know, before—now they can say crime is down, because crime is very much down.

But what they did was issue phony numbers. “It’s the best in 30 years.” Not the best—it’s the worst. Much worse. And they gave phony numbers.

Then they fired the man who didn’t want to write the phony numbers. He got fired. And I guess that whole situation is under investigation. Because it’s a very important thing, Pam.

If they’re going to give phony numbers, it’s a false feeling. When you get crime, you have to do something about it. You can’t go around saying, “Oh, Washington, D.C. is safe,” if it’s not.

It’s going to be very safe very soon. It’s very safe right now. People are going out to dinner. They’re walking all over the place.

I have people who work in government—tough cookies, strong people—they can take care of themselves. But it doesn’t matter how strong you are. Doesn’t matter if you work out, if you lift weights, if you’re the strongest guy in the world—if someone’s got a gun and shoots you in the face, it doesn’t matter.

So we have the toughest guys. And we have the best guys.

I’m willing to go to Chicago—which is in big trouble—but we have a governor that refuses to admit he has problems. Huge problems.

Baltimore—Wes Moore was telling me he wants to walk with the president. Well, I said, “I want to walk with you too someday. But first you’ve got to clean up your crime.” Because I’m not walking in Baltimore right now. Baltimore is a hellhole. And this guy—I don’t even think he knows it.

He’s another candidate for president. Between him and “Nuscom,” you’ve got some real beauties, I’ll tell you.

If we didn’t go into Los Angeles, you wouldn’t have the Olympics. In my opinion, you wouldn’t have the Olympics. We went in, and the sheriff—the boss—said, “Thank God they’re here.” You could see his tape. He said, “We were not able to control what was happening.” That was the sheriff. He said it loud and clear.

And yet—they’re suing us for going in and cleaning up crime. But their own sheriff said, on the first or second night, “We could have never handled that. You weren’t going to have the Olympics. You weren’t going to have the World Cup. There wouldn’t be anything left.”

They shouldn’t have lost 25,000 houses in the wildfires. The water was turned off from the Pacific Northwest. And I was after them in my first administration: “Turn on the water. Turn it on.” Nobody could believe it.

They had no water in the fire hydrants. No water in the sprinkler systems people put in their ceilings. There was no water.

And yet we have tremendous amounts of water. They send it all into the Pacific Ocean, trying to protect a certain little fish. It’s not doing well—because it doesn’t do well without water either. And it shouldn’t even be protected. I think it’s just an excuse.

I actually think these people are sick. There’s something wrong. So we send hundreds of millions of gallons of water a day into the Pacific Ocean. They turn a valve, and the valve heads out. We turned the valve back. I had to do it using force.

We turned the valve back. And now they have water—but not as much as they should. Gavin “Nuscom”—by this conversation right now, turn the rest of the water on. Turn it on.

So, things are being done in this country that are so sad. A lack of common sense. I like to say the Republican Party is the party of common sense. We’re smart, we’re sharp. They’re smart too, but they’re radical left—and they’re destroying our country. But they’re not going to destroy it anymore.

So, we picked up millions of people in the Republican Party. They lost millions of people. And I think we’re going to do very well in the midterms.

And I just want to say one other thing—and that’s medicine.

The cost of medicine all over the world is much cheaper than in the United States. For years, the world pushed us around—including our friends. You go to Germany, you go to England, you go to different places—and you go to a store. Sometimes it’s 10% of what we pay in the United States.

Because they said, “Nope, we’re not paying anymore. You charge the United States.” This went on for 25, 30 years.

And I invoked “favored nations.” I said, “I want to pay the same as they’re paying.”

Bobby Kennedy is doing a good job. Dr. Oz is doing a good job. And I asked them—other than the basics they’re doing on autism and other things, which we’ve got to solve because it’s crazy what’s happening, it’s out of hand—this is their most important thing.

Favored nations.

We’re not talking about a 25% cut. Or 50%. We’re talking about a 1,500% cut. Because people go to Europe to buy drugs. They come back with prescription drugs—normal drugs, not bad drugs, prescription drugs—because you can buy them for 10%, 15%, 20% of what we pay.

So they’re going to go up a little. And I told the countries—I get along with all of them, you can ask anyone—I told them, “You’re going to go up a little bit, because it’s the world. But we’re going to go down a lot.”

It’s called equalization. We’re going to have equalization. We’ll pay the same price as the lowest drug sold anywhere in the world. And I think, Bobby, that’s going to happen pretty soon. The companies are ready for it.

I was with a very great gentleman from Eli Lilly—an incredible executive. We had this argument my first term, and again in my second. I wouldn’t stop until I won the point. And he threw up his hands. He said, “You’re right. I can no longer defend it. A pill made in the same factory, by Johnson & Johnson, sells for 10–20% in Europe what we pay here. I can’t defend that anymore.”

He said it was the hardest part of his job. And I appreciated it—it broke the ice.

So, we’re going to get it done. We have to. If you don’t, we’ll charge a 25% tariff on everything you send into our country. That’s much more money than what we’re talking about.

And we have tremendous power over the drug companies, too. We’re going to get it done. I just hope we get it done fast, Bobby.

The cost of medicine is going to go down not 2%—it’s going to be massive. Think of that. Not 2%. Thousands of percent.

When I was in my first term, in my last year, I was so proud because drug prices went down for the first time in 28 years under my administration. Do you know how much they went down? One-quarter of one percent. And I was proud of that.

I even held a news conference congratulating myself. For the first time in 28 years, drug prices went down one-quarter of one percent.

But then I realized—we were getting ripped off by the whole world. So I got on this kick, and I got the drug companies to agree. And I got the countries to agree. They didn’t agree because I’m a nice guy—they agreed because they knew I’d put tariffs and costs on them that would be many times worse.

So the companies are there. The countries are there. We’ve got to get it done, Bobby. We’ve got to get it done fast.

This is going to lower Social Security costs, Medicare, everything—because drugs touch everything. It’s going to have the biggest impact of anything that can be done.

RFK Jr.:
We are deep into MFN negotiations—Most Favored Nation status negotiations—with 14 companies.

Howard Lutnick is a breath of fresh air, and I think he’s going to help us get across the finish line with the leverage we have. They’re smart, but don’t let them get away with it.

Well, the combination of Bobby’s MFN and the 232 pharmaceuticals, which we launched together—when you put those two together—it really gives me the tools to go execute your plan. So, I’m supporting this fully as I execute.

This Cabinet meeting is supposed to be about working Americans and bringing jobs back—particularly rural America. I want to mention the Big Beautiful Bill.

Right now, we spend 7% of Medicaid dollars on rural hospitals. They’re getting the short end of the stick—about $19 billion a year. Under the Rural Transformation Program, we give them an extra $10 billion a year. That’s a 50% increase—the biggest infusion in history. It’s going to restore and revitalize those communities.

We can’t survive as a nation if we don’t honor our rural communities. They are the source of our values, our virtues, our character, our economy, our food. And you are bringing them back.

You mentioned the wind farms. We now have an interdepartmental coalition team—Doug Burgum, Howard Lutnick, Chris Wright, Pete Hegseth, and Lee—all working together. Right now, 11 wind farms are planned between Maine and Virginia. That’s 1,130 towers—twice the size of the Washington Monument. The blades are 350 feet long.

One blade blew up on Nantucket last summer. The water was filled with shards of sharp glass. Dangerous to swim. They had to close the beaches. And the companies indemnified themselves—so the local communities can’t sue them. None of these projects are bonded. If you build an oil derrick in the Gulf, you have to put down a bond. Not here.

That’s one of the tools Doug is using to challenge them. The cost of energy from these projects is 39 cents a kilowatt hour. The average cost in this country is 17 cents. Natural gas is 3 cents. So this is the most expensive energy ever.

I’ve been representing commercial fishermen for 40 years. They are so excited about what you’re doing, Mr. President, because their fisheries are being wiped out. As soon as construction begins, the fish leave the area. Ground fisheries just disappear.

They’ve killed 160 whales in the last two years—wiping out the Atlantic whale population: the minkes, the greys, the humpbacks, the right whales. And you are going to save them. You are going to save these economies, based on commercial fishing.

On fishing—South Asian nations are now dumping shrimp on our country. Heavily contaminated shrimp. We just stopped a shipment with cesium-157—radioactive. They’re farming shrimp with bactericides, antibiotics, all kinds of chemicals. The shrimp are so contaminated that Europe won’t take them. So they’re dumping them here—putting our fishermen out of business.

We have the most sustainable, highly regulated fishery in the world. What our fishermen do is good. And yet our trawlers in the Gulf and Alaska are being shut down because we’re being flooded with contaminated imports.

So we’ve now increased FDA inspections of shrimp, to make sure Americans aren’t eating contaminated shrimp—and to protect our domestic shrimpers from being put out of business.

I’ll talk just very briefly. We have an historic agreement on pre-authorization. We brought together 80% of the insurance industry, which has agreed—for 80% of diseases and injuries—to give immediate pre-authorization.

So when you go to your doctor’s office and he prescribes you a new knee, or whatever it is—you will immediately know whether your insurance company will pay for it. This is an historic agreement. People have been trying to do this for decades. And because of your leadership, Mr. President, we got them to voluntarily agree.

Similarly, we’ve made another historic agreement on personal health records. The 60 biggest tech companies in our country have all agreed to allow Americans, for the first time, access to their personal data—which they own, but which these companies have been monetizing without permission.

By next year, you’ll be able to see all of your health records on your cell phone. It’s going to save lives. It will fuel an infusion of technology into this space, where people can access their records, compare their diet to what they personally need, and move toward personalized medicine.

We are also doing price transparency. You passed this during your first term, and the Biden administration refused to enforce it. Now, under your leadership and mine at HHS, we’ve brought more enforcement actions than Biden did in four years.

I’m working with Linda on forcing medical schools—and the MCATs, the accreditation people—to put nutrition into medical school education. Right now, 25% of doctors don’t feel competent to give nutritional advice. And yet 70% of diabetes cases can be reversed or ended by changing people’s diets. But doctors only know how to prescribe drugs. We’re going to change that.

So, if you graduate under the Trump administration, you’re going to know about diet.

And finally—most importantly—the Pete and Bobby Challenge. Here’s the update:

• 100 push-ups
• 50 pull-ups
• Try to do it within 10 minutes

I got 5 minutes and 48 seconds. Pete beat me—5 minutes 25.

The Cabinet leader is Scott Turner—despite a dislocated arm, he did it in 5 minutes and 15 seconds.

I’m waiting for reports from the rest of the Cabinet. The only exemption is if you can hit a 50-yard drive, which President Trump did with Bryson DeChambeau. So, he’s the only one exempt in this room. Everybody else has to do it.

Trump:
That’s great, Bobby. But autism—if I could. I don’t want to go too long because we have a lot of people. But autism is such a tremendous horror show, what’s happening in our country—and in some other countries, but mostly our country. How are you doing on that?

RFK Jr.:
We are doing very well. We will have announcements, as promised, in September. We’re finding certain interventions now that are clearly, almost certainly, causing autism. And we’re going to be able to address those in September.

It’s such a big day. I’m looking forward to that day, because there’s something wrong when you see the kind of numbers you have today versus 20 years ago.

Trump:
What are those numbers, Bob?

RFK Jr.:
Well, in 1970, the biggest epidemiological study in history was done in Wisconsin. They looked at 900,000 children. They were looking for autism—they knew what it looked like. They were very precise. And they found an incidence rate of 0.7 per 10,000. Less than one per 10,000 children.

Today, our most recent numbers are one in every 31 kids. It’s probably actually much worse, because California, which has the best collection system, is reporting one out of every 19 children with autism. One in every 12.5 boys.

So, it’s gone from less than one in 10,000 in 1970 to one in 12.5 boys today.

Trump:
Look at those numbers. There has to be something artificially causing this—meaning a drug or something. And I know you’re looking very strongly at different things. I hope you can come out with that as soon as possible.

So—one in 10,000, and now one in 31. Or one in 34. Or one in 12 if it’s a boy. Can you imagine that? One in 12. On average—12.5. It’s not even believable.

That was one in 10,000 not so long ago. I’ve been hearing these numbers—they get worse and worse every year. There’s got to be something.

I think there’s nothing—including favored nations and everything else—there’s nothing more important than if you can find out the reason that’s happening.

I know we’re going to do some things. I think maybe we know the reason. And I look forward to that press conference with you. That’s going to be a great thing.

Thank you, Bob. You’re doing a great job.

Linda—how about it? And we want nothing less than $500 million from Harvard. Don’t negotiate, Linda. They’ve been very bad. Don’t negotiate. Go ahead.

Linda McMahon:
All is working well, Mr. President. Thank you very much. Since we are focusing today on Labor Day, I know that Kelly and Lori are both going to echo some of the things I’ll say as well.

We are really focusing on our workforce. What I’m finding with great joy around the country is that states are being innovative—working more with middle schools and high schools to make sure we are having hands-on learning, with pathways to jobs that are happening now.

We see more and more community colleges working with middle schools and high schools, so that high school students graduate not only with a diploma, but also a certificate. Maybe from Toyota or another company that’s coming in through public–private partnerships. They’re learning on the job.

So when they graduate from high school, they’re ready to go into the workforce. Because with all these wonderful jobs coming back—through AI, through normal industries—we need electricians, HVAC operators, and more.

If we don’t have this training, we won’t have the workforce needed for these jobs. Governors are excited about this. I’ve visited several states, toured community colleges and tech schools with governors. They’re all on board.

I think it’s one of the best things we’re hearing relative to the job market.

Trump:
So—we’re bringing education back to the states, to put it in simple fashion. We’re going to let the states educate our children again.

We’re rated—out of 40 countries—we’re 38, 39, or 40. Obviously, what they’ve been doing the last 30–40 years isn’t working.

If you look at the top—Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland—very highly rated. And if you look at us in the past, if we gave Iowa or Indiana, or other states, the chance—they’d compete with Norway and Sweden.

Some states won’t do well. A guy like Gavin “Nuscom” isn’t going to do well. But others will. Even California—if you broke it into sections like Riverside—you’d get some good results.

So maybe five disasters we’ll have to work on. But about 40 states would be competing with the top countries.

We’ll zoom up those charts in education, just like we have in everything else. It’s one of the most important things we’re doing at this table.

Bringing education back to the states—where parents run it, where local school boards run it. Not people from Washington who’ve never even been to the states they’re in charge of. They don’t care about them.

We’ll close the Washington buildings, sell them off, let someone else get rich on the real estate. It’ll be a crime-free city.

And speaking of crime—anybody murders someone in the capital, we’ll be seeking the death penalty. That’s a very strong preventative. Everyone who’s heard it agrees. In D.C.—capital punishment for murder. States will make their own decision, but here in the capital, that’s how it will be.

Fantastic job, Linda. Thank you very much.

Lee—please.

Lee Zeldin:
Mr. President, the Trump EPA has a special Labor Day message to America’s workforce—especially our auto workers, our coal miners, our steamfitters, our pipefitters, and many others.

See what a difference a year makes. A year ago, the way the EPA was operating, the choice was: to protect the environment, you had to strangulate the economy. That’s how the EPA worked for years. It was always a binary choice. One or the other.

The Trump EPA rejects that. We choose to protect the environment and grow the economy.

A very special shout-out to Russ Vought and his team at OMB. We give them a lot of work, and he’s happy to do it. Dozens of deregulatory actions.

We just announced a proposed rescission of the 2009 Obama EPA “endangerment finding,” and all of the light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicle regulations that followed. This is the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.

When you add up the dozens of actions we’ve announced, one agency in one year will do more deregulation than entire federal governments have done across whole presidencies.

And what we’re accomplishing wouldn’t be possible without this team you’ve assembled around the table—the well-oiled machine at the White House, led by Susie Wiles, and the policy shop led by Stephen Miller.

I was just in Iowa with Administrator Leler and Secretary Rollins, announcing a reversal of the derating on diesel exhaust fluid systems. Mr. President, you said you wanted water flowing faster—we did it. We’re getting gas cans flowing faster. We stopped the annoying start-stop feature in vehicles.

People might say these are little things. But if it’s little to you, it can still be a very big deal for millions of Americans.

The charge was clear when you called me in November:

• Clean air, land, and water for all Americans
• Unleash energy dominance
• Advance cooperative federalism
• Reform permitting
• Make America the AI capital of the world
• Bring back American auto jobs

I was in Mexico City recently, signing an agreement with Mexico for a permanent solution to the Tijuana River sewage crisis—something you’ve been outspoken and passionate about. That wouldn’t have been possible without Secretary Rubio, Deputy Secretary Landau, Ambassador Johnson, and the State Department team.

The EPA has also been working with the Department of Defense and the Army Corps—responding to L.A. wildfires, getting water flowing in California, helping farmers and ranchers, revising the “Waters of the United States” definition so landowners don’t need a lawyer to figure out if a puddle is federally regulated.

Mr. President, it’s an honor to serve at the Trump EPA, where we protect the environment and grow the economy. It’s a very happy Labor Day for America’s workforce.

Trump:
And Lee—in Los Angeles, because of the fires—you were there. You know we have very strict federal rules on rebuilding. And you were able to get approvals done for everybody immediately. It was so fast, nobody could believe it.

The mayor and the governor still haven’t gotten them their approvals. They’re going to have riots out there for that reason. People want to build their homes, but they can’t get approved. The toughest permit to get was the federal one. And you got it done in no time.

How long did it take?

Lee Zeldin:
Well, Mr. President, you signed an executive order and gave the EPA less than 30 days to complete hazardous material removal. We got it done in just under 30 days. The Army Corps then came in for debris removal. Over 13,000 properties were cleared.

Today, property owners are grateful to the Trump administration—but desperate to rebuild. And there isn’t a single green light approval left that’s federal. The EPA and Army Corps did our work. It’s the local officials who are holding things up. The land is theirs. It doesn’t belong to the mayor of Los Angeles.

Trump:
When will they have their permits from Los Angeles?

Lee Zeldin:
That’s the problem, Mr. President. We were meeting with property owners in February—they were ready with contractors then. And some of those same people are still waiting now, in mid-August.

Trump:
They should’ve had it in two days—not two years. But it’s incompetence. Nuscum and Mayor Bass don’t know what they’re doing. She was in Africa during the fire. They’re bad. Just bad. Congratulations—you found some interesting things. Tulsa—she’s becoming a bigger and bigger star every day. She found a lot of good things. Go ahead.

Tulsi Gabbard (DNI):
Thank you, sir. As we approach Labor Day weekend, this is a great opportunity to recognize your leadership as a true champion for working people.

The common thread we see in your policies—putting the American people first—is driving results across the administration.

At ODNI, our focus is threefold:

1. Security.
   Our top priority must always be ensuring the intelligence community keeps Americans safe, secure, and free. We’re doing great work. For example, the National Counterterrorism Center, led by Director Joe Kent, is working across agencies—Homeland Security, DEA, FBI—to catch terrorists. Both those trying to come in, and those already here. They’re finding the worst cartel bosses and making sure they can’t continue wreaking havoc.
2. Truth.
   Mr. President, you charged me with finding the truth and telling the truth to the American people. We’ve exposed some of the worst examples of the weaponization of intelligence in recent weeks. I will continue down that path—wherever it leads. Transparency and truth will bring accountability for the American people, who deserve nothing less.
3. Stewardship.
   We must be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Last week, I announced a major reorganization at ODNI. We cut nearly half of redundant, unnecessary functions—saving taxpayers over $700 million a year. We’re focusing on core missions.

Trump:
And you’ve also found many bags of information—I think they call them “burn bags.” Supposed to be burned, but they didn’t get burned. Documents about how corrupt the 2020 election was. When will that all come out?

Tulsi Gabbard:
Mr. President, I’ll be the first to brief you once we have that information collected. But you’re right—we’re finding documents literally tucked away in the backs of safes, in random offices, in bags. It shows the intent of those who tried to hide the truth from the American people. John Brennan, James Clapper, others—they caused immeasurable harm to the country.

Trump:
Great job. Thank you. We look forward to hearing it. The public looks forward to hearing it.

Treasury/SBA Administrator:
Thank you, Mr. President. Well, everyone knows there’s no stronger advocate for hardworking American families than you.

Thank you for the largest tax cut in American history. For working families, the average family of four is going to save about $10,000 more in take-home pay a year.

We’re seeing that through:

• an increase in the child tax credit,
• the increase in the standard deduction,
• and reductions in payroll burdens.

Hardworking families benefit. And small businesses—no bigger beneficiary than Main Street. Small businesses make up 99% of all businesses in this country.

I’ve traveled to nearly half our states—24 states, 40 visits. I was with the Vice President in Georgia last week at a small business manufacturer. I visited a trucking company in Ohio, a motorcycle manufacturer in Michigan.

The return of “Made in America” is being driven by small businesses. Ninety-eight percent of our manufacturers are small or medium-sized. That’s 600,000 factories employing 5 million people.

As Secretary McMahon mentioned, work-based learning is real. I’ve seen it in Utah, Maine, Georgia—trade schools and community colleges preparing kids for real jobs. Small businesses need skilled labor. Now that inflation is solved and taxes are cut, they can hire.

Every Democrat voted for a $4 trillion tax increase on hardworking Americans. You stopped it. You prevented it.

And thanks to Administrator Zeldin, we’re seeing deregulation. The diesel exhaust fluid rollback made a real difference to farmers, construction, and heavy industry.

Your domestic economic agenda runs through small business. That’s why optimism is above its 53-year average again.

What small businesses want now is a rate cut. Interest rates are still hurting them. They’d grow higher, expand more, if rates were lower.

Finally, I want to thank you for your executive order on debanking. We’re about to announce a major investigation. It happened to you and your family. It happened to me. It’s happened to thousands of Americans—disproportionately to conservatives, Christians, pro-life groups, and 2A businesses.

The SBA operates the largest government business loan program—5,000 banks in our network. We’re making sure debanking never happens to anyone again.

Trump:
Good job. You’re doing a great job. Thank you very much. Kristi?

Kristi Noem:

Well, Mr. President, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to work for you. You committed, when you ran, to make America safe again. And today, the average family and individual in this country is safer than they’ve been in years—because of what you’ve done.

We’ve got three months in a row now with zero illegal aliens coming into this country. And I want to thank Pete and the Department of Defense for all their help—they’re still down at the border with us, helping us keep it secure and making sure we know who’s coming in.

You’ve arrested and brought to justice hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens—criminals who committed violence against the American people.

You’ve also had 1.6 million people voluntarily go home to their home countries. They were here illegally, but because of your strong message and law enforcement, they decided to leave on their own so they could come back the right way someday.

One of the most remarkable statistics is this: under Joe Biden’s administration, 88% of new jobs went to foreign-born individuals. Under your administration, 2.5 million Americans have jobs today that they didn’t before. They have those jobs because you created opportunities. You enforced the law. You opened the economy. You made the country safe.

Every one of those illegal aliens who went home was costing us $8,700 to $9,000 apiece—draining Social Security and social programs. You’ve saved the country billions. About $15 billion, just in what they were costing.

At DHS, I’ve cut over 450 contracts. We’ve gotten rid of corrupt ones, inefficient ones, and renegotiated with our biggest vendors to demand better. That’s saved taxpayers over $13 billion.

So, Mr. President, we’re accountable with taxpayer dollars, but focused on your mission: keeping America safe, putting Americans first.

Trump:
Great job. And great job at the border. We had millions coming in—and now, three months in a row, zero. Incredible. That’s some job. Thank Tom, thank everybody. And Pete—good job. Not surprised.

Thank you very much. Chris—please.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright: Sorry about that. Mr. President, like Secretary Noem, I’m thrilled to be here to work with you on the simple platform you were elected on—which was to bring back the American dream, to bring jobs and opportunity for families across the country, and to lower their costs so they can live their lives and expand the choices they have.

You led off today talking about gasoline prices. I’ll throw in diesel. If you correct for inflation, they’re at multi-decade lows. This is a huge expense. This is a huge constraint on people’s lives. We should celebrate that. Natural gas has become our main industrial fuel, powering factories around the country. Natural gas prices are quite low in this country, and they’re lower than in any country in the world.

The reason for that is the United States produces two times more natural gas than the second-largest natural gas producer in the world, and four times more natural gas than the number three and number four producers in the world. So, you’ve opened up American opportunity and energy. Together with the work of Secretary Burgum, Administrator Zeldin, Secretary Lutnick, Secretary Rollins—you know—we’ve made it easy to produce energy in America again, and those benefits are flowing.

I could go on about this stuff forever, but let me talk about one specific area of energy: electricity. That’s in the front of people’s minds. The day you were inaugurated, we got hold of all the data. We looked at the resource plans of utilities across the country. What you inherited when you arrived was a plan over the next five years to close 100 gigawatts of reliable electric generation. That’s 100 large power plants. Now, that was offset with the plan to build 22 gigawatts of reliable electricity generation.

Their plan was to close more than four times as much electricity-generating capacity as they were going to build in that five-year period. How do we lead the world in artificial intelligence if we’re shrinking our supply of reliable electricity? How do we reshore steel, aluminum, automobiles, semiconductors—all those jobs Americans want back in our country—when we’re degrading and shrinking our energy system? We were going to hand that leadership to China in artificial intelligence, not just to our economic loss, but to our huge national security loss.

Your team around this table—and almost everyone around this table is involved in it—is pivoting dramatically. We’re stopping the closure of all these plants way before their retirement date. Some plants reach their end of life—that’s a small percent of the planned closures—but most of those were just political nonsense at the cost of American taxpayers.

So, we have rapid new construction of power plants under way in the United States. We’re doing everything we can with suppliers who build the equipment for these power plants. They’ve got to build their factories bigger to build power plants in America. People thought those days were past—that we weren’t going to build big things in America anymore, that we’d just keep sending it over to Asia and overseas and just buy other people’s stuff. Totally nuts—economically nuts, nationally nuts, and crushing for working Americans, particularly Americans that work with their hands.

But we are seeing a revitalization of those people, of that optimism. You showed that picture of that plant being built in Arkansas. Dozens of those are under construction—not just in artificial intelligence, but in the reshoring of steel, aluminum, plastics, fertilizer, semiconductors. America is the land of opportunity.

How did we become this awesome nation? Because we believed in the American dream and we leaned in on it. But the wealthy in our country and the coastal elites who live away from where stuff is actually made—they lost their way. And politicians just let them have it. Your tireless campaign and relentless messaging made people realize the American dream isn’t dead. It’s just been smothered—and we’re unsmothering it and setting it loose.

God bless your efforts. God bless your assembly of this team around this table. We’re bringing the American dream back.

President Trump: Thank you, Chris. Great job you do. Appreciate it.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Secretary of Labor:
Mr. President, everybody here who spoke works at the Department of Labor, clearly—which I love. They have all the correct talking points, but I think that’s a testament again that we are all working together every single day. We talk to each other often.

And the workforce—the skilled workforce, the education factor, retirees—it’s been so important because they all touch the Department of Labor, and I have the opportunity to work with every single one.

If you all haven’t stopped by the Department of Labor, Mr. President, I invite you to see your big, beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor because you are really the transformational president of the American worker. Alongside the American flag and President Roosevelt, we are bringing business and labor together, and I was so honored to unveil that yesterday. Everybody is taking note of it.

You also mentioned crime, and I think it’s been important for my colleagues to recognize that now American workers can return to work and feel safe. Business owners aren’t shutting down their businesses because they’re afraid they can’t protect their workers. Now it’s open for business again—and it’s starting right here in our nation’s capital.

Many things have been mentioned: consumer confidence is up, unemployment is holding steady, and more than two million net jobs for native-born Americans have been key. Under your leadership, 84% of the workforce and jobs have been produced by the private sector. I think that was the mission of this administration and the Department of Labor.

And I will continue to say, for a little bit longer until I heard you today, the “one big beautiful bill” because it equals one big beautiful workforce. When Congress passed this legislation, it probably became the single most important bill that they did sign—because it is protecting our American workforce by expanding Pell Grants, child care, and reducing taxes so that workers can keep more of their hard-earned dollars.

I am, at the Department of Labor, announcing $30 million in grants for our skilled workforce that I have announced with Secretary McMahon and Administrator Leler. That’s important to share—the data points on how important this is. In June, we awarded nearly $84 million in grants for the capacity of registered apprenticeships.

An executive order has called for one million active apprentices across this nation, where we’ve already registered 185,000 in just the last few months.

One of the other things we have done is roll back the Biden administration’s guidance on cryptocurrency. Thanks to you and your leadership on that, we’ve ensured investors’ 401(k) and alternative assets are protected. That’s been key through the Department of Labor.

Partnering with our agencies again, as I mentioned before, is important as we work together. I will have visited 31 states on my 50-state tour by the end of this month. I’m headed with Secretary Duffy and South Korean President Lee today as we move through shipbuilding in Philadelphia, and then I’m off to New England to talk to those states about how important the apprenticeship program is.

While visiting Hexcel in Salt Lake City—100% domestic carbon fiber for the Department of Defense—they announced another billion-dollar investment pursuant to your executive order on advanced manufacturing. So it is working. Everything you’ve been saying since you were elected, and since we all could put it into play, has been working.

Ohio McDonald’s is investing 375,000 new jobs. The shrimpers I visited need our help in protecting that industry for our American fishermen and shrimpers. In Minnesota, I toured Cambria—quartz countertops all made in America. And in Oregon, where we are expecting a crackdown—thank you for what you are doing with your agents at ICE, and thank you for the prosecutions. I hope you will come to Portland, Oregon, and crack down.

While there are still good people, I was able to visit Buckeye Pacific, really a trading floor for the timber industry. We still want to focus on great, hardworking American businesses.

Mr. President, I couldn’t be more excited to ring in Labor Day in Erie, Pennsylvania, for the Labor Day parade. I will be there to welcome it. It is an honor to serve this country. It is an honor to serve under your administration as the labor secretary. And we will kick off—and Republicans will own Labor Day again, not Democrats. We will own it, because we are, and you are, the President of the American Worker.

President Trump: Thank you for everything that you do. Thank you very much. Absolutely—you’re doing a fantastic job. And I will tell you that Lori was recommended by the Teamsters. And I said, “That doesn’t really work, does it?” And it turned out to be one of our best choices. So, I just want to thank you and Sean, who as you know recommended you very strongly. You’ve really turned out to be a gem.

Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer: Thank you.

President Trump: I was able to talk to the president on the phone the other day. He called, and we visited, and he said, “But I know you were, you know, a little bit middle of the road and not so sure.” I said, “Mr. President, I have been a Republican.” He’s like, “What? What? Now I like you even more!”

Secretary Chavez-DeRemer: I appreciate it. Thank you.

Attorney General Pam Bondi:
Mr. President, I’m working with everyone around this table almost daily on legal issues that we’re winning on. But today, because it’s Labor Day, I’d like to focus on public safety—not only domestic, but from our foreign adversaries.

Secretary McMahon, I know you know kids are out of school this weekend—it’s Labor Day. And Secretary Duffy, you know our highways are going to be packed with travelers coming to our nation’s capital and all over this country. We’re also going to have boaters, Secretary Duffy. Right—on our waterways. It is illegal to be under the influence on a boat. So, get a designated boater if you’re out on our waterways, whether it’s the Potomac, the Gulf of America, or the Pacific. Wherever you are this weekend, people need to be safe.

On an international level, Secretary Rubio—thank you for all your help, and thanks to everyone around this room. Yesterday, there was a big win: “El Mayo,” the co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel with El Chapo, pled guilty. There’s even a Netflix Narcos series about these guys. Well, now we know the ending—he’s going to die in an American prison. They are among the worst narco-traffickers in our world, and he will spend life in prison now.

That’s so important, because traffickers like El Chapo and El Mayo, and others around the world, have brought into our country drugs—cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamines—that are killing our kids. We have to stop it. That’s what you’ve been doing—not only in D.C., but around the country—under your leadership.

Over the weekend, parents need to know: with kids out of school, with people out on our highways and on our waters—do not take a pill from anyone you don’t know. Do not buy anything on the street. It could be laced with something toxic. We’ve seen so many fentanyl overdoses.

When you were here in D.C., we showed you pictures of some of the drugs that had been seized right here. They were packaged for children. Packaged for children. And people are dying from them around our country.

So thank you, President Trump, for your leadership and for letting Americans know that it’s now a safe place to go. But parents also have to know—college kids have to know—to be vigilant and not take this trash. You could be thinking you’re taking a Xanax, an Adderall, anything—and it could be laced with something lethal.

President Trump: It’s a great message. Thank you, Pam. Great message. And you’ve been fantastic this last 12 days in D.C. The job you and your whole group have done—everyone’s talking about it all over the world. I hate to have to talk about it, but we have to.

It’s becoming a very safe place again. And the work—I’ve seen how hard you’ve worked, not just the last two weeks but from the very beginning. This focus on D.C. is so important for the country. Great job.

And to everybody here—our team is working hand in hand, side by side, all of our agencies together to make America safe and D.C. safe.

And, Iris—congratulations on your baby. I’m so glad that you’re safe now. Thank you very much.

Mr. VP, would you like to say something?

Vice President JD Vance:
Yes, sir. I’ll be brief, but I want to congratulate you and the entire team on all the things that have been accomplished. You’ve already heard some of it, but I thought it’d be helpful, Mr. President, just to take stock—not just of what we’ve accomplished and what we will accomplish, but of the mess that we inherited. I think it makes this first Labor Day a bigger and more special occasion.

You heard Christy talk about this: all of the net job growth under the Biden administration had gone to the foreign-born. Now that net job growth is going to American citizens, who deserve opportunity in their own country. That’s a great accomplishment.

You’ll hear Scott talk about tariffs. People forget that we inherited the largest peacetime deficit in U.S. history. And now, because the president is not letting foreign countries take advantage of us, we’re collecting hundreds of billions of dollars—trillions of dollars over 10 years—in tariffs from countries and companies that were formerly exploiting the American people.

You heard Pam talk about public safety and the success we’ve had there. I happen to believe that maybe the most sacred thing we can deliver to American workers is the ability to live safely and comfortably in their own neighborhoods. Public safety should not just belong to the wealthy—it should belong to every working man and woman in this country. And because of this administration, that is happening.

And of course, Mr. President, you yourself talked about the inflation mess we inherited. Maybe the most striking statistic of the Biden administration is that housing costs doubled over four years. Literally doubled—making the American dream of homeownership unaffordable.

We’ve made great progress already. But to the American people listening, there’s a lot more to do. We’re going to keep on working hard at it. It’s an honor to do this job under your leadership and with this great team you’ve assembled.

President Trump: Thank you, sir. Thank you, Scott.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent:
Sir, as we’ve said very often, economic security is national security—and our country has never been so secure, thanks to you. You have brought us back from the edge. You have the overwhelming mandate from the American people. You’re restoring confidence in government.

A topic that is on the front of everyone’s mind: the Federal Reserve. The Fed’s independence comes from a political arrangement between itself and the American public. Having the public’s trust is the only thing that gives it credibility. And you, sir, are restoring trust in government. You are weeding out waste, fraud, and abuse, and the old ways of doing things are not good enough.

We are seeing a blue-collar boom in the first seven months of your administration. Real blue-collar wages have taken off—and the only other time they’ve done this in the past 70 years was during your previous term. Your efforts on tax, trade, and deregulation have boosted paychecks for American workers while slowing inflation and lowering the cost of energy.

Inflation has plummeted to just 1.9% since you took office, and the economy rebounded with real GDP surging 3% last quarter. The blue-collar boom coincides with a capex comeback, in anticipation of your “one big beautiful bill.” In the first half of this year, capital expenditures by American businesses increased nearly 14%. And as you and I talk about frequently—and as that chart or photo attests—we are going to see a bigger capex boom from here. This is just the beginning.

You have saved this country by making it the best place in the world to do business again. Treasury is helping to implement new provisions: no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security.

This weekend, I’ll be meeting with workers from local restaurants to discuss the positive impacts of these pro-labor reforms—especially no tax on tips. And I have to tell you, thanks to you, when I go into a restaurant or stop by a hotel doorman, I am the most popular person there. Since my first job at age nine was as a busboy getting tips, I’ll be spending Labor Day going from restaurant to restaurant, talking to workers about how your “one big beautiful bill” is increasing their take-home pay and making a big difference.

That’s the domestic front. On the international front, you have leveled the global trading system. Countries can no longer take advantage of us—and it’s over. Treasury is taking in record tariff revenues. I’ve been saying it was running at $300 billion a year. You chastised me for saying that number was too low—and as usual, you were right.

We had a substantial jump from July to August, and I think we’ll see a bigger jump from August to September. We could be on our way well over half a trillion—maybe toward the trillion-dollar number. This administration has made a meaningful dent in the budget deficit.

The average budget deficit during this term is 26% lower than the last 12 months under Biden. And even the CBO—though we don’t always agree with them—had to admit last Friday that, over the next 10 years, the budget deficit will be $4 trillion lower than previously projected: $3.3 trillion of tariff income, $700 billion of lower interest costs. And I expect that number could go even higher.

So, Mr. President, your return to the White House marked the return of the American worker. Thank you for reclaiming Labor Day for the American people. You’re growing the economy for everyone—especially middle- and lower-income households who suffered disproportionately under the last administration.

It’s an honor to do this under your leadership.

President Trump: Great job. You’re doing great. Thank you very much, Scott. Brooke?

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins:
Sir, I dropped my second son off at college last week. I wasn’t planning to say this, but listening to everybody, I want to put a little bit of a personal touch on this work. He started his freshman year yesterday at Texas A&M. For all my SEC friends in the room—thank you for saving college football, by the way. We’re all very grateful.

The country just feels different. There’s such optimism, such love, such faith—a movement especially among our younger Americans. For those of us with kids in college, I know we feel it. I experienced it firsthand last week, moving him and my older son in.

As we move toward Labor Day, you’ve made a lot of dreams come true for a lot of people. But one of my longtime dreams was the right to recapture Labor Day. I’ve been talking and writing about this for almost 20 years: Why are we ceding the day celebrating the American worker to the Democrats? This is our day—perhaps more than any other.

America was founded and fought for by fishermen, farmers, workmen. The Genesis, the first book of the Bible, talks about the righteousness of work and the art of creation. To be part of this effort—to represent farmers, ranchers, and the agriculture industry at this moment in time—I believe we’re in a revolution. 1776 was the first. 1863, with Lincoln, was the second. This is the third, with Donald Trump leading the way. We are saving America.

The idea that we’re putting the worker—the central component of the American dream—at the center of it all is why this matters. At USDA, it continues to be my greatest honor to fight for the original American worker—the farmer.

This year, we’re going to have the best harvest on record for our row-croppers and others. What this team has done to open markets ensures farmers can return prosperity to rural America.

I’ll finish with this: This morning we had a working group with six of our cabinet members—Bobby Kennedy (healthcare), Linda McMahon (education), Lee Zeldin (deregulation), Kelly Leler (small business), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (labor), and Scotty Turner (housing). Under your vision, Mr. President, this will return the golden age to rural America—to the very fabric of our country.

Whether it’s better hospitals, better education, more opportunity, less government, stronger small businesses, better housing, or, of course, agriculture—the “big beautiful bill” made the greatest investment in rural America in history. Now we have the chance to make it real.

It’s a game-changer. A country-saver. And a joy to do it under your leadership.

President Trump: Thank you, sir. Thank you. Beautifully stated.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scotty Turner:
Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. I’m so grateful to be here to celebrate Labor Day with the greatest team in America. And it is football season, so I’m happy about that.

Mr. President, I want to thank you for reclaiming Labor Day. You’ve been a tremendous champion for the American worker. I come from a hardworking family, as many people around this table do, and thank you for helping us change the conversation. I believe we are changing the conversation around the kitchen table.

As everybody knows, my job is to steward HUD. We have been intentional about changing the conversation about the dignity of work, and the dignity and honor of family formation through work. When younger generations see their parents work, they’re incentivized to work. America is not a welfare state—America was built on small business and entrepreneurship.

As it pertains to housing, we are being very focused—even for those who receive HUD funding. For example, under Section 3, when you receive HUD funds, you must provide opportunities for the most vulnerable Americans you serve to work. Work requirements are not a bad word. That’s a great word. Time limits are a great word—because they incentivize able-bodied, able-minded people to work.

Under your leadership, sir, I believe we are changing the conversation in America: that working is an honorable thing.

Secretary Wright talked about revitalization. Revitalization means to bring new life. I believe we are bringing new life to America through work and through all the jobs being created by the people at this table.

With the “one big beautiful bill”—the most extensive tax break in American history—opportunity zones are now permanent. You know how passionate I am about opportunity zones, sir, and you are too. This permanence allows us to keep building affordable housing across the country.

Mr. Vice President, I’m coming your way later this week—to Columbus—to see how we can continue to build affordable housing with opportunity zones.

One million people were lifted out of poverty because of opportunity zones. $90 billion of private money was invested in them—urban, tribal, and rural. Now that they’ve been made permanent, we’re looking at millions more lifted out of poverty, $100 billion more invested, hundreds of thousands of jobs created, and hundreds of thousands of units of housing coming online.

So, Mr. President, I’m excited about the future of this country. I’m proud to be at this table. I’m humbled to do so. And at HUD, we’re on a good path. Thank you for your support and for helping us serve.

President Trump: Okay. God bless you. And I want to give credit to Tim Scott, great senator from South Carolina—that place we love, right? Tim really came up with opportunity zones. We worked with him and together created something that nobody talks about very much, but it’s probably the most successful thing ever done of its kind. It’s been amazing. Tim Scott deserves a lot of credit for that. Thank you. Thank you.

President Trump: So, Russell, go ahead.

Russell Vought, OMB Director:
Thank you, Mr. President. I get the opportunity to go hand-in-hand with all these people as they move their deregulatory initiatives through OMB. I wanted to zoom out for a second.

In your first term, you gave us a goal of two-for-one [regulatory repeal-to-new rule ratio]. We outperformed it under your leadership—we came in around five-and-a-half or six-for-one. Then, when you ran for your second term, you put out a goal that I thought was very ambitious: ten-for-one.

Well, where we are right now—in just eight months—we’re at 245 deregulatory initiatives planned by these agencies. That comes out to 30-for-one. We are making incredible strides.

And these aren’t small things. Endangerment Finding is one of the most deregulatory actions in U.S. history. NEPA reform—incredibly deregulatory. WOTUS [Waters of the United States]—just came in. Every agency is doing incredible work on deregulation.

We add that to what’s being done to get us going on energy and reduce spending, and we are lowering costs for the American people. We’re creating innovative jobs and getting people back to work.

So thank you for your leadership, Mr. President.

President Trump: Thank you. Great job, Russell. Appreciate it.

John. Central casting—I call him Central.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe:
Well, Mr. President, I’m grateful to be with everyone today as we talk about jobs and workforce. At CIA, consistent with your directives, we’ve embraced your mantra for a leaner, more effective, more efficient workforce.

We also had an additional challenge: at times, our workforce had been misdirected—its focus put on political narratives, some that even worked against you and against the American people.

President Trump: I heard about that.

Director Ratcliffe: But under your leadership, we have focused back on CIA’s core mission—providing you and this team with decisive strategic advantages to accomplish your goals.

The examples are clear: with regard to Iran, flawless military operations depend on flawless intelligence. CIA was the backbone in providing that intelligence that allowed you to obliterate Iranian nuclear facilities and set back their program by years.

Likewise, with your ability to prevent and preempt wars—India and Pakistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Rwanda and the DRC—in each case CIA intelligence enabled you and your team to make that possible.

It’s not just you—it’s everyone around this table: Secretary Besson, Secretary Lutnick, Trade Representative Greer—all successful in their negotiations on trade and tariffs. Behind them was CIA intelligence enabling their success.

So as we roll into Labor Day, I’ll tell you: the Trump CIA workforce is grateful to be focused on what it should be—helping you prevent and end wars, and making America safer.

President Trump: Thank you very much. You’ve been really fantastic—but I’m not surprised. I’ve known John a long time. I’m not surprised at all.

Steve Witkoff:
Mr. President, working for this government—for you—is the greatest honor of my life. I tell that to everybody, and I truly mean it. Thank you, because it’s a privilege to go out there and represent you in your humanitarian efforts and in your goal of solving conflicts all over the world.

I think there were actually more than seven conflicts you’ve put to bed in just the last eight months. And when I travel, I hear this constantly. In Hostage Square, they talk about you reverentially. It’s really quite amazing. Sometimes I wish I had a camcorder with me—I could show you what I hear directly.

I was in Gaza—the first American diplomat there on your behalf. As we delivered food and aid under your new initiative—pushed forward by Secretary of State Marco Rubio—the people were applauding you. The signs were up. I don’t think you get the proper credit for it.

We are negotiating multiple entries into the Abraham Peace Accords because of your vision. Azerbaijan, all these other conflicts we are out there working on—they’re historic. These are people who never really believed peace was possible. But “peace through strength” really works.

Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Israel, Hamas—we are having meetings all this week on all three of those conflicts, and we hope to settle them before the end of the year. Your team is nothing short of incredible.

And there’s one thing I wish for: that the Nobel Committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate since the Nobel Peace Prize was ever conceived. You deserve that recognition for the successes you’ve delivered on the world stage.

President Trump: Thank you, Steve. Jameson, please.

U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer:
Mr. President, I like to think of Labor Day as “Trump Trade Policy Day.” Everyone around this table, and everyone listening, knows one of the major reasons why American workers and organized labor voted for you is because of your trade policy.

You’ve advocated for these policies for 40 years—and in just the past few months, you’ve reset global trade policy. And it’s working for American workers.

When you look back at President Biden—in the last quarter of 2024, median weekly earnings fell 2.1%. In the first quarter of your term, they went up 3.3%. That’s why we’re doing this trade policy: to help the workers of the United States. They are the best in the world, but they can’t do it without a level playing field.

You flipped the script. For many years, other countries had high tariffs and high non-tariff barriers, while we were open to all of their goods, services, and capital. You flipped it. Now we have the tariffs, and they have lowered theirs. Non-tariff barriers have come down as well.

We couldn’t have done it without you, and without the leverage you created. Between the tariffs and the deals, the hot streak continues for American workers.

President Trump: Thank you very much. Really good job, by the way. He’s a good negotiator—a very good negotiator. Thank you.

President Trump: Well, Mr. President—you’ve…

Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough (VA):
Mr. President, I feel like as everybody here has said—it’s great working with this team—but I have to emphasize: you’ve given me the privilege of working with the best of America, our veterans.

Labor Day really finds its roots in veterans. Think about it—we wouldn’t have Labor Day if it weren’t for men and women who left their jobs to fight this nation’s battles to keep us free and independent, so that they would have jobs to come home to.

Over the past few years, too many came home to a government that kept them back, holding them down—taxing them, regulating them. Now we have veterans who represent the “big beautiful bill.” They’re the beneficiaries of it. They see the jobs, they see the care they’ve been given, and they can look at their country with pride—knowing that we’re taking care of them, just like you told me to do when you said: “Go take care of my veterans.”

That’s what we’re doing.

We’re also deregulating from within the VA—the largest bureaucratic organization in government. It’s been amazing. We had a powerful workforce, but they kept tripping over their own rules—one step forward, three steps back. Always hurting veterans in the end. We’re tearing those rules down.

We’re making community care a part of our direct care system. If a veteran wants to get into the community, they now can—without worrying about miles logged, wait times, or bureaucratic hoops. That’s unleashing our workforce, and it’s making a difference.

Wait times at our hospitals are going down. Backlogs are going down. When I first came in, in February, there were over 260,000 backlogged claims—meaning 125 days with no answer. In just over four and a half months, we’ve dropped that by over 100,000. We’re under 150,000 and heading to historic lows. Within the next month, we’ll be lower than any time under the previous administration.

We’ve opened new facilities. We’ve expanded hours—over a million extra hours—so veterans, especially younger ones, can get appointments after work or on Saturdays. That’s what it means to be in the Trump administration. That’s what it means to take care of veterans.

President Trump: You’ve done a tremendous job. I hear it all the time. The VA now has a 93% approval rating—and you know what it was before. It was horrible. Thank you very much.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth:
Sir, amen to what Howard said. Heading into Labor Day, I’ll note this: the American military happens to be the largest employer in the country. We like to think we have a different form of employee—one who must be the toughest, the strongest, the most well-trained, and the most lethal.

Under the previous administration, and frankly for decades, social justice and political correctness seeped into the ranks. Divisive ideologies changed how well we did our job. No more. Now it is merit-based, gender-neutral, colorblind—the best of the best from top to bottom. That’s our expectation.

And sir, you’ve enabled that. The troops constantly ask me to thank you for your boldness, clarity, and common sense—for providing a shield to let us put America first and apply “peace through strength.” Our job is strength, to stand behind everyone here and alongside John at CIA, to keep the country safe.

The world is noticing. I wish everyone could have seen two meetings yesterday.

The first: today is the four-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate disaster in Afghanistan. You met with those Gold Star families again—the only president who gave them a proper greeting, who recognized their sacrifice during that debacle of a withdrawal. You promised accountability, and at the Defense Department we are investigating.

At the same time, the world saw the contrast. Israel, Ukraine—those wars never would have started if you had been president. Instead, they looked at Biden’s foolishness. Under your military, deterrence is restored. Whether it’s Midnight Hammer with B-2s flying 37 hours straight, counter-drug ops in our hemisphere, border missions with Christy, or allies in Europe and the Indo-Pacific paying more—the world knows America is back.

The second meeting: D.C. security. Pam has taken the lead, and our whole team is working together. That’s exceptional, sir, and you demanded it.

You joked that maybe I should be “Secretary of War” instead of “Defense.” And you’re right: George Washington created a Department of War to win wars—not endless deployments, but to fight, win, and bring troops home. Our motto at Guantánamo Bay was: Those who long for peace must prepare for war. You are the peace president, sir—because we are strong, our enemies know it.

From drill instructors on day one, to strategic nuclear deterrence, we’re going back to basics. Our stockpiles are full, munitions are flowing, and our Golden Dome program for missile defense is on track. That’s our job, and it’s an honor to be part of it, sir.

President Trump: I think you like “Department of War” better. But either way—you’ve been great. Thank you very much.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio:
Mr. President, first of all, everyone has already said it—but it bears repeating: you were elected as the president of working Americans. That’s why this Labor Day is so meaningful for me personally. It’s the most meaningful Labor Day of my life. And yes, I say that as someone with four jobs.

From the outset, you made it clear: even in foreign policy, everything we do must be pro-American. It has to make America stronger, safer, or more prosperous.

The first point: for the first time in the modern era, we are truly on offense against organized cartels pumping poison into our cities. That’s a team effort—Christy at Homeland, Pete at Defense, Pam at Justice—and under your leadership we are building an international coalition to confront this scourge. Just last week alone, Ecuador, Paraguay, Guyana, Trinidad, and today Argentina joined us in efforts against drug trafficking.

Second: illegal mass migration. Dangerous for the country, devastating for American workers. We’re not just addressing it at the border. Through safe-third-country agreements and foreign cooperation, we’re preventing flows before they start. We’ve redefined what border security means—it now begins overseas.

Third: peace. Steve said it well—he’s doing a phenomenal job—but ultimately we both work for the peacemaker-in-chief. Think about it: how many wars have you prevented or ended simply by picking up the phone?

Just since our last meeting: Cambodia and Thailand were on the brink of war. You called, told them to stop fighting, and within 72 hours the conflict ended. No one else in the world could have done that.

Or look at Azerbaijan and Armenia. How many countries said a peace deal was impossible? Yet here they came, to Washington, to sign it—because of your leadership.

And on a personal note, sir—I wasn’t even going to raise this, but I think I should: there’s a scourge dividing families across America. Weddings during college football season. Saturdays in the fall. Mr. President, it’s difficult. There are seven other months in the year to get married. Maybe an executive order is in order.

President Trump: (laughs) Fantastic. Thank you very much, Marco.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum:
Well, Mr. President, you’ve heard from around the table how grateful people are to work for you and to serve the American people. As we head into this Labor Day, what really differentiates you and this team is one word: respect.

This is a group of people that respects our farmers and ranchers. We respect law enforcement. We respect those in uniform. We respect our veterans. We respect shrimp fishermen. We respect the people building roads and bridges. And when you start from respect, the policies follow—and the people benefit.

What have you done? You’ve delivered lower taxes, deregulation, record investment, lower interest rates. All of that lifts up working people.

There are 140 million Americans who drive to work every day. One of the most obscene policies of the prior administration was the hidden energy tax on those workers. The poorer you were, the farther you usually had to drive, because housing near your job was unaffordable. So people in hotels, in service industries, were punished the most.

You understood that peace abroad and prosperity at home are directly tied to energy policy. You said: “We’re going to sell energy to our friends and allies. We’re going to bring prosperity at home through affordable energy. And we’re going to stop funding wars abroad with bad energy policy.”

That’s exactly what has happened. And with the work of Jameson, Howard, Scott, and the whole team, America is now set for a renaissance in energy—selling to the world and keeping prices down at home.

Let me add one story. The U.S. Park Police—oldest uniformed law enforcement group in the country—saw you visit before their surge began. Carjackings are down, muggings are down, homicides are down. Morale is through the roof. Just like Pete is seeing with record military recruitment, law enforcement morale is surging. You breathed life back into policing.

One small but telling example: when I asked officers about their work, they said, “We can’t even pursue suspects anymore. If someone speeds off, we’re ordered not to chase.” That was an old rule. You changed it in 24 hours. The next night, they were chasing criminals again, stopping stolen cars with stolen plates. The bad guys themselves were shocked: “You’re not supposed to chase us!” That’s morale. That’s results.

Yesterday, you announced we’re hiring more Park Police. They protect our monuments, the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate. But on behalf of all law enforcement, thank you.

And finally, to energy and AI. We’ve solved some massive threats in seven months—like Iran’s nuclear program—but the next great challenge is China’s electricity advantage. They are building massive capacity, while we were shrinking ours. But under your leadership, we are stopping plant closures, expanding power plants, and bringing back coal, mining, timber, and other industries.

Here’s the critical point: for the first time in history, electricity can be directly converted into intelligence. Power is knowledge. China knows it. And thanks to your executive orders, America is catching up and will dominate in AI the same way we dominate in energy.

So thank you, Mr. President.

President Trump: Thank you very much. And we are leading in AI by a lot—and we’re going to keep the electricity coming. In China, one person says “do it” and it happens. But essentially we have one person here too, and we’ve given that order. The job you and Lee and Chris are doing is fantastic. Amazing work.

And Sean was right—these guys holding the boom mics up… try holding your hand out for two hours. That’s a long time. They’d beat Biden in the test, I think. Strong guys.

If you want, we can call it a day and take questions. I believe in openness with the media—even though they’re not always honest with us. But I think they’re getting better.

So, let’s take a few questions.

Reporter: Governor Lisa Cook’s lawyer has said they are going to file a lawsuit challenging this legal action. What is your response? Are you prepared for a legal fight?

President Trump: Oh, sure. Always—you always have legal fights. Look, I had a legal fight that went on for years with crooked people, with very horrible people. People who’ve now been exposed—between John Ratcliffe, Tulsi, Pam, and the things we’ve found out—it’s a very sad group.

But no—she seems to have had an infraction. And she can’t have an infraction, especially that infraction, because she’s in charge of mortgages. We need people who are 100% above board. It doesn’t seem like she was.

Reporter: Mr. President, I’d love to ask a serious question, but I have to tell you—the biggest pop culture news of the year just broke while we’ve been in this Cabinet meeting: Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are engaged. The world wants your reaction.

President Trump: (laughs) Well, I wish them a lot of luck. I think he’s a great player, a great guy, and I think she’s a terrific person. So I wish them a lot of luck.

Reporter: On a serious note—yesterday, Secretary Rubio said they were aggressively removing visas for Chinese students. But you just said you want to allow 600,000 Chinese students to study in the United States. Could you and the secretary clarify the policy?

President Trump: Well, we think we’re getting along very well with China. And I’m getting along very well with President Xi. I think it’s very insulting to say their students can’t come here. Because if they don’t, they’ll just go home, start building schools, and they’ll survive it.

But I like that their students come here. I like that other countries’ students come here. You know what would happen if they didn’t? Our college system would go to hell very quickly. And it wouldn’t be the top colleges—it would be the ones that struggle. You take 300,000 or 600,000 students out of the system and it collapses.

I told President Xi—we’re honored to have their students here. Now, with that, we check, we’re careful, we monitor who is here—and Marco wants that too. We’re in the same position. But the fact is—we have the greatest college system in the world. Nobody else is close. That’s why China sends their students here.

Call it an industry if you want—you’re talking about millions of people. And I’m honored to have those students here.

We’re getting along very well with China. It’s a different relationship than the last few years, when they sucked hundreds of billions out of our country. They respect us again. And I respect them. It’s important—these are two very major powers, nuclear powers.

When I get along with Putin, when I get along with Xi—that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. We’re tough, we’re smart, we’re strong—and we get along. That’s much better than not getting along.

And remember, Ukraine and Russia? That war would never have started if I had been president. Putin said it himself.

So yes—we want Chinese students here. We want students from other countries too. There are a few places we can’t accept because of ideology, but overall, we’re honored to have them.

Reporter:

Yeah. Yesterday, you said that within two to three weeks we would have a conclusive, pretty good conclusive end to the war in Gaza. What did you mean by that? And could you tell us—

Trump:

On what?

Reporter:

In the war in Gaza.

Trump:

Yeah. What about it?

Reporter:

You said in two to three weeks we would have a conclusive and pretty good—

Trump:

There’s no conclusive. It’s been going on for a long time. But you’re talking about, I guess if you really add it up, Steve, you’re talking about thousands of years. Okay. It’s been going on for—there’s nothing conclusive. But hopefully we’re going to have things solved very quickly with regard to Gaza, and also with regard to Ukraine and Russia.

Reporter:

Mr. President, you’re considering for the replacement to nominate for Lisa Cook. And what economic background or history are you—?

Trump:

Well, we have some very good people for that position. And I think we have some very good people. We’re down to—I mean, I think maybe in my own mind I have somebody that I like. But I deal with Scott, and I deal with Howard, and we’re dealing with a lot of people actually that are going to be involved in that decision. Ultimately, it’s a very important decision, as we see. And I got a bad recommendation when I went with, uh, Jerome—Too Late, you know. This is—he’s “Too Late.” His nickname is Too Late. Costing us a lot of money, hurting the housing.

I mean, our housing industry is good, but it could be phenomenal. Most of this country, in economic terms, has been phenomenal. We’ve never seen anything like it. Because of him and his high interest rates, the housing is less than it could be. We’re going to get that straightened out very quickly. He gets out very quickly, fortunately. He’s been the wrong guy. Not a bad person, I don’t think, but you know, I do think he has motives, by the way. But I don’t consider him—I’ve dealt with worse. But he hasn’t done the job.

The recommendation from a certain person was not a great recommendation. That person vouched for him, but we’re doing a very careful study. We’ll see what happens. Look, we just put a very good man in that—in one position. We might switch him to the other, it’s a longer term, and pick somebody else. But we’re very happy with the person we have in there. And we’ll have a majority very shortly. So that’ll be great. Once we have a majority, housing is going to swing, and it’s going to be great.

People are paying too high an interest rate. That’s the only problem with housing. We have to get the rates down a little bit, and when we do, it’s going to be a tremendous difference for the country. But the country is doing so well, it sort of blows through the fact that we have a man who’s too late and not doing a very good job. Please, in blue—

Reporter:

Regarding crime in D.C., something that might help, especially ladies, is being able to carry. I know you talked about reciprocal carry. Would you like for that to apply here in Washington, D.C.?

Trump:

When you say “carry,” I assume you’re talking about carry what we’re talking about, right? In other words, carry a gun. Is that right? Would you like to carry a gun?

Reporter:

I would like to, yes sir.

Trump:

You’d feel a hell of a lot better, right?

Reporter:

I absolutely—I agree with you 100%.

Trump:

Okay. Okay, great. But I’ll tell you, within another couple of weeks—it’s hard to believe what’s been accomplished in 12 days—but within another couple of weeks, you won’t have to carry. You’re not going to have to carry. You’re going to be safe. People are safe now. The turn has gone fast. I knew it was going to go fast, but this turn has gone really fast. And within a month or two, this is going to be one of the safest places in the country. I have no doubt about it.

And we’ll do an extension. We’ll work with Congress. Or I could declare an emergency, but I don’t think that’s going to be necessary. We’ll work with Congress. We’re going to be working with Congress. I spoke with our great Speaker, and I will be speaking to John Thune. And we’re getting tremendous support from Congress, especially maybe here. Everybody wants to see our capital be great. Could say be great again, you know. It’s such a beautiful place, but if you have crime, nothing looks beautiful.

So—but you won’t need to carry a gun. But if you do, well, I would like—just in case.

Well, a lot of people feel that also in other blue cities. You’ve got Karen Bass in Los Angeles, Brandon Johnson in Chicago. It seems to be very popular here, the fact that people can walk around, go to restaurants, shop, not worry about their safety. If blue city mayors oppose those efforts in their cities, do you anticipate the Democrat voters are going to take it on?

I think so. I think that crime is going to be a big thing. And we are the party—the Republicans are the party—that wants to stop crime. We’re against crime. The Democrats like crime. I don’t know why.

I mean, we talk about common sense. I think I got elected on talking about common sense. The border—we have to have a wall. We don’t want transgender for everybody. We don’t, as I said before, we don’t want to have men playing in women’s sports. I mean, you see the difference. Weightlifting—take a look at weightlifting. Take a look at long-distance running, where a runner came in five hours and 14 minutes ahead of another runner. Both champions. One male, one—It’s not fair. It’s demeaning to women. It’s so bad.

But they have another one, and I think this is the beauty of them all: crime. They’re against crime prevention. You can’t do that. You can’t do that. And I think to myself, I say, “Is there some game?” You know, they’re smart people. Is there anybody that could cheat like that in elections who isn’t smart? Okay. And there’s never been in history anybody that could cheat like that. They’re smart. They’re brilliant in many ways.

I say, “Is there some trick to this? When they say Trump is in Washington, D.C., stopping crime, he’s a dictator—and people are being mugged, like your brilliant associate here. I don’t know how you’re alive.” I mean, based on that story, you got very lucky. He didn’t just go. All he had to do was this, right? And, you know, it’s pretty amazing.

So we have something. I think we have two things. I think what Bobby was talking about with respect to drug prices is unbeatable—nobody else could have done it but us. And I think crime—crime will be the big subject of the midterms, and will be the big subject of the next election. Think of it.

Instead of saying, “Trump’s right about crime, it’s really bad in Chicago,” you have a guy in Illinois, the governor of Illinois, saying that crime has been much better in Chicago recently—and Trump is a dictator. And most people say, “If you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants.”

I’m not a dictator, by the way, but he could be whatever he wants. I think it’s going to be a big, big subject for the midterms, and I think the Republicans are going to do really well. They are—they called it a trap.

This Democrat consultant—they said, “He’s put them in a trap again,” because these are all traps. You know, 80/20. But they’re not 80/20. They’re almost 100 to nothing, all these issues. But I would say that crime is stronger than men playing in women’s sports. I think it’s stronger than transgender for everybody. You know—it’s transgender for everybody, according to them. It’s stronger.

Of course, this is the cause of it: open borders. Open borders gave us a lot of this crime. So, you know, they’re sort of on an equal footing, I guess. But crime is going to be a very big subject.

And you know what he should do, if he was smart? Illinois or New York, if they want—or Gavin “Nuskum”—they should call me, and they should say, “You know, we’ve got a problem. We could solve it with this team. Different players, but work the same way. Because you’d leave them here. You don’t want to take them out and let it go to hell.”

Everybody’s so happy. And why? I bet you walked over here today, and you had no fear. Nobody has any fear anymore, last 12 days.

But what if—if they—what it would be so smart: call me up and say, “You know what, we have a big problem. We have the Olympics coming up. We want to do well. We have tremendous problems on crime and other things, and would love some help.”

Chicago, in particular, maybe right now—I mean, it’s a disaster. It’s a disaster. We could solve their problem in—It’s bigger than this. Let’s say two months, okay? Working with their police. I know their police very well.

I have a big project in Chicago. I built—I was so proud of it. It’s the best site in Chicago. I got it. Nobody else got it. And I was happy as hell. That was when I was a real estate guy, and I got it. The Suntime site, they call it, and I built the building. It’s a great building. And I’m so embarrassed when I see the kind of crime stats coming out. They’re so—so embarrassed.

And if I were a governor, Democrat governor, or mayor, or anybody having to do—I’d call up President Trump. I’d say, “President Trump, we need your help. We saw what you’ve done in D.C. in a period of 12 days. This is 12 days. We haven’t even started. This is going to be so safe. Going to be the safest place on Earth. And we’ll do the same thing in Chicago.”

But I’d like to be asked, as opposed to just going in and doing it. Because, you know, when you go in and do it, then they start screaming, “Oh, he shouldn’t be here. We don’t need him. We’re doing so well.” And then the better we do, they take credit for it. So it’s really pretty unfair.

Reporter:

Crime for a lot of victims like myself, a big concern is long-term sustainability. Can you share more with the American public about your plan in ensuring that D.C. is safe in the long term?

Trump:

Longer term, yeah. Well, it’s a great question. Number one, we want to stay there for longer than 30 days. As you know, we have an absolute mandate, and I can extend it, but I’d rather not have to declare a national emergency. Because by that time—I mean, right now there’s not an emergency. We’ve done—as you sort of said yourself—it feels like a different world.

We’ve got under arrest and prosecution, and we’ve thrown out, taken some—and we’re in the process of taking hundreds out of our country that shouldn’t be here. And these are hardcore professional criminals. They were born to be criminals, in my opinion. But they’re seriously bad people—murderers, drug dealers—you know them all. You see them all as you walk beautifully to work, and every once in a while somebody puts a gun to your head, because that’s what happened in your case.

We’re getting a lot of them out of the country. We’re putting a lot of them in prison because we’re afraid if we bring them out of the country, they could come back. You know, as good as we’re doing, they could come back. We don’t want them back. And that’s going to solve a lot of it.

We also think there should be a presence here for long enough. We should also work with our police department, because you have very good police here. Very good. We’re working very well with them, by the way. And we have to work together for a while.

We have some people that are very tough and very strong working with the police. They’re going to be able to handle it. And you know what? If it gets a little bit bad—a little bit, just a little bit—I’ll bring them back in and we’ll straighten it out. We’ll make it perfect. You’re going to be so safe in the city.

And you’re going to have the city beautified. We’re going to be giving out—we’re working with Clark, as you know, construction. They’re the biggest. They’re working with me also. We’re building a beautiful ballroom for the White House. They’ve been after it for 150 years. Employs a lot of people. It’s going to be as beautiful a ballroom as has ever been built. And Clark is the big builder in this city. They’ve done, I guess, a majority of the good work, the big work.

And we’re working with them on the beautification—the fixing up of the roads, the fixing up of the medians. You know, between the roads so cars don’t wrap into each other—they wrap into that. I had one piece sitting on the ground for weeks. This was a year ago, when I had to come in, unfortunately, for fake court cases. And I looked at the condition.

We have it fixed up a lot right now. You know, the tents are removed, and a lot of things have taken place. But I’d come into this city, and I’d say, “Boy, does it look bad. The filth on the roads. The medians were broken and always laying down, and nobody would fix them.” Well, we’re going to have new medians. We’re going to have a nice topping put on the road. We’re not going to rip the roads apart and start a construction project that lasts for two and a half years as they rebuild the road—which they don’t have to do.

And we’re going to have this place so beautiful. That’s going to be a part of it. Now, the biggest part is crime, but it’s also a part. You know, when you see a dirty city—it’s like I told, I don’t know, it became the number one thing, viral—I said my father is a smart guy. He’s a great guy. He’s a loving, wonderful father. But he could be a little on the tough side.

He told me that, “Son, when you walk into a restaurant, you see a dirty, filthy door going into the restaurant—don’t go there, because the kitchen’s dirty also.” When they see a dirty capital, the rest of the world—they lose a lot of respect for our country. This capital is going to be so beautiful.

We’re going to have new poles, new lights, new fences. Stuff that, when you add it up, it’s money, but it’s peanuts compared to what we’re talking about. And we’re also going to have great safety.

Reporter:

I wanted to ask you on crime, and also a question on foreign policy that maybe other officials can weigh into. On crime: Iris shared her story, and you mentioned people going to dinner.

Trump:

A terrible story. I’m just amazed she’s here. When the gun is—Pam, when the gun is put to the head—did they ever capture these people, by the way?

Pam Bondi:

I kept calling, but I haven’t heard back about this.

Trump:

It’d be really great if you could maybe give the information. She’s very good at capturing people. You know, she’s very good. If you could give that information to Pam, it would be great. Would you do that? Wouldn’t you love to see them? I would assume you’d like to see them captured.

You can’t. You just can’t.

Yeah. Take a good look at that. Go ahead.

So, go ahead.

Reporter:

Just a few weeks ago, I was out to dinner with my husband. And then, you know, we’re taking the Metro back, and then we get attacked in the Metro. They’re throwing things. Some teenagers—you know, like throwing liquid at us.

Trump:

Oh, they’re throwing things.

Reporter:

They throw—

Trump:

How about where they chop down the granite curbs and the concrete curbs—the granite curbs, so expensive. You know, those granite curbs—nobody uses them because they’re so expensive. And you see a guy chopping them and handing out big chunks of them, like a brick, because they couldn’t get in, because people were stopping them from walking out.

A little bit unusual when you’re walking with a bag of bricks. Generally speaking, Sean, that’s not a good sign, right? That’s not a good sign.

But they now come in with hammers. They can disguise a hammer, and they start pounding the concrete and the granite, and they hand out chunks. And those people take those chunks and start throwing them on cops. Or they stand on the top of bridges, and they drop them down into the windshield of your car, and you get killed running into a light pole. Those days are over.

Reporter:

So I wanted to ask you—Governor Hochul, Kathy Hochul, said that she spoke to you on the phone, and you said you might send National Guard troops to New York. You mentioned that. Will you?

Trump:

I’d love to do it, if she’d like. I get along with Kathy. If she’d like to do that, I would do it. See, look—New York has difficulty, like other [places]. And I don’t want to make this—I want to make this friendly. But the places we’re talking about happen to be virtually all Democrat-run.

Now, take a look at your 25 places that are most troubled. Every one—except maybe one, and it’s way back in number 24 or 25. But essentially, 25 out of 25 are run by Democrats. And cashless bail was a disaster when they did that. I believe it was instituted first in New York. But when they did cashless bail, that was a tragedy for this, because that’s when it really started—it really started getting bad.

When somebody kills somebody, you don’t say, “You can come out. You don’t have to put up anything.” You put that person in jail, and you find out whether or not it’s true. But you don’t give cashless bail with a promise to come back in a couple of months—“We’ll start talking to you.” Because they go out, and they kill other people. And you can’t do that.

The cashless bail has been—it’s just a woke thing. It’s got to stop. You see that, Christie, better than anybody. It’s got to stop. It causes unbelievable [damage]. And we’re doing that. We’re stopping it in D.C.

I would love to have the governor of Illinois call me and say, “Look, we have a problem in Chicago.” We will stop that problem in Chicago in two months—maybe less. Two months, we’ll stop it.

These are tough cookies we have working for us. These are tough cookies. These are not politically correct soldiers—and I won’t go into definitions of what that means—but these are not politically correct soldiers. These are rough guys.

I watched it last night. I see it. I saw them the other day when we went down and we spent some time together with them. These are tough cookies. These are not people that you’re going to laugh at and spit in their face, and they’re not going to do anything about it.

And these people—they’re afraid. These gang members, who are bad people too, these are bad. These are just bad people. Ours are bad, but they’re bad in a good sense, right? You understand that, Scott?

And we can solve Chicago in two months. Now then, as per your statement before, we have to keep it going. And we’ll be able to keep it going. The first thing you have to do is get it down. We are very close to being at that position in D.C. And within a month, we will be—within a month from when we started, which is quicker than I thought—you’re going to feel very, very safe.

I think you feel very safe right now. But I would love it to have these governors, mayors, call me and say, “We’d like to invite you into our community, because we have a problem, and you can handle the problem, and we can’t.”

One other thing: sanctuary cities—they should be terminated. They’re sanctuary for criminals. There’s safety and security for criminals. They are very, very bad. And all of these places have big sanctuary cities. And all they’re doing is protecting criminals.

Okay.

Reporter:

Questions about Lisa Cook. You have spoken out very strongly for a long time about what you see as the weaponization of government. Is your administration weaponizing government by digging into the mortgage records of officials you don’t like?

Trump:

No, they’re public. I mean, you can find out those records. You can go check out the records yourself. And you should be doing that job. Actually, you wouldn’t do that because that’s not the kind of reporter you are. But you should be doing that job. I shouldn’t have to be doing it. If you did your job properly, we wouldn’t have problems like Lisa Cook.

Go ahead. You were going to say something—

Reporter:

[Inaudible]

—to lower interest rates on national security.

Trump:

I think we have to have lower interest rates, yes.

Reporter:

A follow-up question for you and Madam Attorney General on national security. We’ve heard from Stephen Miller yesterday in the Oval Office that there are street criminals here in D.C. who are actually found to be doing business with transnational criminal cartels overseas.

Trump:

And we know who they are. And we know who they’re doing business with. And we’re arresting the people—very strongly arresting—and we’re keeping them there. Because you know, your laws here make it very difficult.

And one of the other laws we’re trying to get done—you have 14-year-old kids that are just as tough as a 25-year-old kid, just as dangerous, and they carry the same gun. And we have to make a provision where they’re treated like older people. Because these are seriously tough, bad—

They’re children, but they’re criminals. And they’re really bad criminals. And they’re used by older people because they never get charged, because you can’t do anything to them. But we are getting that changed, Pam, I hope. Because you have 14-year-old kids that are evil. They’re sick. And they have to be put away. Something has to be done, because you can’t have a society where they’re allowed to walk the street.

You know that better than anybody. On your way to—I can’t believe you’re not tired holding that. Look at this. How strong are you? How strong are you? Look at him—he’s been holding that thing for three hours. You’re good. You’re a good fisherman.

Well—go ahead.

Reporter:

On the way to Alaska—you had mentioned that there would be severe consequences if Vladimir Putin did not agree to [peace terms] after that summit that was rolled back. Is he back on the clock now?

Trump:

I want to see that deal end. It’s very, very serious what I have in mind if I have to do it. But I want to see it end. I think that in many ways he’s there. Sometimes he’ll be there and Zelensky won’t be there. You know, it’s like, who do we have today? I got to get them both at the same time.

But I want to have it end. We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic—because we’re not going to get into a world war. I’ll tell you what—in my opinion, if I didn’t win this race, Ukraine could have ended up in a world war. We’re not going to end up in a world war anymore. But it would have ended up possibly in a world war. They were ready to trot.

But just like India and Pakistan were going to end up in a nuclear war if I didn’t stop them. You know, it was sort of strange. I saw they were fighting. Then I saw seven jets were shot down. I said, “That’s not good. That’s a lot of jets. You know, $150 million planes were shot down. A lot of them. Seven. Maybe more than that. They didn’t even report the real number.”

And I’m talking to a very terrific man, Modi of India. And I say, “What’s going on with you in Pakistan?” Then I’m talking to Pakistan on trade. I said, “What’s going on with you in India?” And the hatred was tremendous. Now, this has been going on for a hell of a long time—sometimes with different names—for hundreds of years.

But I said, “What’s going on? I don’t want to make a trade deal.”

“No, no, no. We want to make a trade deal.”

I said, “No, no. I don’t want to make a trade deal with you. You’re going to have a nuclear war. You guys are going to end up in a nuclear war.”

And that was very important to them. I said, “Call me back tomorrow. But we’re not going to do any deals with you. Or we’re going to put tariffs on you that are so high—you were there, Howard, right?—we’re going to put tariffs on you that were so high, I don’t give a damn. Your head’s going to spin. You’re not going to end up in a war.”

Within about five hours, it was done. It was done. Maybe it starts again. I don’t know. I don’t think so. But I’ll stop it if it does. We can’t let these things happen.

The Russia–Ukraine situation. Last week, 7,012 soldiers died. They were Russian. They were Ukrainian. They weren’t American. So, a lot of people would say, “What do you care? They’re not American.” I care that they’re there. Twelve thousand over the last couple of weeks—over 12,000 people died in two weeks.

You know, we’re talking about crime, where somebody’s killed here or somebody—think of it. You have your son leaving Russia, leaving Ukraine, their little house, wherever they live with their parents. They’re waving goodbye, just like our parents would wave goodbye. And they’re waving goodbye, “Son,” and then a week later his head’s blown off in a stupid war, by a drone. A whole new form of military problem.

So, no, I’d like it to stop. I want to get it to stop. And it will not be a world war, but it’ll be an economic war. And an economic war is going to be bad. And it’s going to be bad for Russia. And I don’t want that. Now, I have to also see—because not everybody—you know, Zelensky is not exactly innocent either, okay? It takes two people to tango. And I say it all the time: you got to get them together.

I get along with Zelensky now, but we have a much different relationship because now we’re not paying any money to Ukraine. You know, stop that. We’re paying money to ourselves. What’s happening is NATO is buying all of the equipment and paying in full. But even with that, forget about that—I want to get it stopped because it’s a lot of lives that are being lost every week.

It’s 7,000, 5,000, 6,000. I get the reports, and I see battlefields. I’d rather not see them. And you know, you read about Gettysburg. You read about Gettysburg and you see, you know, those 600,000 people. But in that war in particular, it was really bad—like 150,000 or something, just dead bodies. I’m seeing the same. I see pictures. I see satellite pictures of heads over here, arms over here, legs over here. And this is like a modern age.

That’s no different than the worst wars that I’ve ever seen. And if I can stop it—because I have a certain power, or a certain relationship. I had a very good relationship with President Putin. Very, very good. That’s a positive thing again. And I think I’m probably the only—Steve would tell you—I’m the only one that can solve it. I don’t know. You’ve told me that a few times. Unless he was saying that just to build up my ego.

But it’s not really—I have no ego when it comes to this stuff. I just want to see it. Thousands of young people, mostly young people, are dying every single week. If I can save that by doing sanctions, or by just being me, or by using a very strong tariff system that’s very costly to Russia or Ukraine or whoever we have—you know. But I stopped seven wars. And three of those wars were going on for more than 30 years.

If you look at Congo, if you look at—just look at any of them. Almost all of them were going on for extended periods of time. Now, interestingly, one had just started. It was two days old. And you know that one that we did, that one when we were in Scotland negotiating? It was two days, but there were 2,000 dead bodies laying on the border. And I got that one stopped, too. And I’m very honored by that.

But I still—the one that I thought would be the easiest is turning out to be the hardest. That’s President Putin and President Zelensky. But I think I’ll get it done. You never know. That’s war. Can you stop? With war, you never know, right? War’s very tricky. Very horrible. But with war, you never know.

Things change. People go into war thinking they’re going to win the war, and then they get their asses kicked and they lose their country, and they lose millions of lives. Nobody goes into a war thinking they’re going to lose. They go in—I’m sure that Ukraine thought they were going to win. “It’s going to be, you know, we’re going to win. You’re going to beat somebody that’s 15 times your size.” Biden shouldn’t have let that happen.

Biden shouldn’t—I mean, the man was grossly incompetent. He should have never been there. That would have never happened. But you don’t go into a war that’s 15 times your size.

Reporter:

Just put out a statement saying that Lisa Cook has indicated to her personal attorney that she’ll promptly challenge this action in court, seek a judicial decision that would confirm her ability to continue.

Trump:

That’s all right.

Reporter:

Whatever it is, the Fed will abide by any court decision.

Trump:

Thank you very much.

Reporter:

By a court decision—

Trump:

I abide by the court. Yeah, I abide by the court.

Yes, please. That’s enough. That’s enough.

Reporter:

[Inaudible] what other companies are you thinking about taking stake in?

Trump:

Well, you know, we didn’t take a stake in the sense that it was reported. Everyone said, “I bought a stake in Intel.” No. I got it for free. I said—I was with the—Is that correct, statement? Howard was there?

Howard Lutnick:

Absolutely correct.

Trump:

Scott knew all about it. They came in, a man was charged with something. A very good person, Senator Cotton, made some statements about the gentleman that was running Intel. When he came in—I said some rough things about him. I said, “I’m not happy with it.” And he was very devastated at what I said. I said, “He should immediately resign.”

And he came to see me, and I was very impressed by him, actually. And he made a mistake, or factors happened where something like this could have taken place. In the meantime, his board was standing by him.

And I said to him—it took about, I would say, less than 45 seconds—I said, “You know what you should do, if you’re smart? Give the United States of America 10% of your company.”

And he looked at me, and he said, “I’ll do that.”

I said, “I just made $11 billion—for the United States.”

And we made the deal. I didn’t pay. We didn’t write a check.

Now, I guess Biden, with his stupid CHIPS Act, handed money to all these people that didn’t need any money. It didn’t do anything. You know, the CHIPS—they’re giving billions of dollars to everybody. They all have so much money, and they have more money. But there’s no commitment that you had to build. They just took all this money. I don’t—it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.

See, with tariffs, they have to come in. Because if they don’t come in, they can’t sell into our country. So it’s power, and you don’t have to give up any money. But I said to him very simply—I’m glad we’re straightening this out because everyone thinks I bought in.

No. I said, “It would be great. We’d be a great partner. And I want to see Intel do well. Intel was a great company, and it can be a great company again. But I think it would be good if we owned 10% of your company.” He said, “I’ll make that deal.”

And it happens to be worth $11 billion. So we made $11 billion for the country. And then I was criticized by some of the fake news media: “That’s not the American way.”

Actually, it is the American way. Now, if I can help other countries or do those deals, I would do that. I think it’s great. It’s good. Builds up our balance sheet.

Let me tell you, our country is becoming very rich again. You don’t see it. When the CBO came out on Friday and said, “We just found four trillion dollars, and that goes to reduce our deficit. Four trillion.” And it was from the tariffs. Our country is becoming very, very rich again. I hope you get used to it. You’re going to have to get used to it.

Reporter:

In addition to reducing the deficit—any update on your previous talk about potentially giving Americans a tariff rebate check?

Trump:

We have a lot of money coming in. Rebate check for the Americans—and it’s coming in at tremendous numbers. Don’t forget, I would say, Scott, we probably are talking about right now 50%—maybe even less than that—with all the money you’re hearing is coming in.

You’re talking about—you know, a lot of it hasn’t kicked in yet. And when it really kicks in is in two years, when these plants are built and opened, and the money starts pouring in, right? But I mean, there’s a concept of making a—you could call it a dividend, as we would say—making a dividend to the people in this country who have had to suffer through stupid leadership.

And they paid a lot of taxes, and they got nothing for it. Or they got attacked, like you were, okay? No. There’s a possibility. Primarily, we want to pay down debt, but there’s a possibility that we take a piece of it and make a dividend to the people.

Reporter:

I have a question for Steve Witkoff, if I may. This past weekend, Sergey Lavrov was saying that Putin will not sign a peace deal with Zelensky because Russia views him as illegitimate. Just wondering if the Russians have been relaying this to your team—if they view Zelensky as a leader worth signing a peace deal with.

Trump:

It doesn’t matter what they say. Steve can answer, but I can answer it too. Doesn’t matter what they say. Everybody’s posturing. It’s all posturing, okay? Everybody’s posturing.

Steve, do you have a different answer?

Steve Witkoff:

I agree with you, sir.

Reporter:

In this city, there are 500 people short on the police department of our Metropolitan Police. In New York City, it’s 3,000. In Chicago, it’s 1,300. Would they have had to bring in troops from the National Guard if the police departments in this country were fully staffed? Defund the police—how bad did that turn out for America?

Trump:

It’s an interesting question. I found—I was surprised when I heard how many police were here. It’s not a really big area. And I think they said they’re down to 3,200 police or something like that. I said, “That’s a lot of police.” And I was a little bit surprised because, to me, that’s a big force. And it’s not a big area. But it is what it is. There’s a lot of crime.

You have a lot of—don’t forget—you have a lot of police that weren’t allowed to do their job. When I came in, as you remember, we made tremendous strides. And a little conflict that we had going at the time, because I allowed our military to make the decision.

I said, “You can make any decision you want.” I gave it to the colonels in the field. I gave it to the captains in the field. You remember that—where everything went through Biden, meaning one of the people, and everything went through Obama before him. Everything went through—they had to make the decision as to whether or not to attack the Taliban.

So they’d find 30 people together, they’d call up Washington, and they’d go to a political hack who knew nothing about it. My first night, I got that same call. They called me, and they said, “We have a few—” I get a call at three o’clock in the morning, because I listen to their system, and they were calling me and they were asking me whether or not they could attack a group of people having to do with—you know what war I’m talking about.

And I said, “I know nothing about this. Wait a minute.” And then I said, “Who is he? Let me speak to the people calling.” They’re calling from Afghanistan. And I said, “Let me speak to them.”

And it was a colonel. I said, “Where’d you go to school, Colonel?”

“I went to West Point, sir.”

“Were you a good student?”

“I was, sir. I was a very good student.”

“So you’re calling the White House to ask for permission to attack. And by the time you get the answer, how long does it take?”

“Sometimes two or three weeks.”

“So, by the time you get the answer, the people that you want to attack have already left, right?”

He said, “How did you know that, sir?”

I said, “Let me ask you. So you’re a good student. You went to West Point, and you love the military, right?”

“Yeah.”

“You make the decision.” And I gave all those guys that went to all these great schools—and they’re all military people—I gave them the right to make their own decision.

And we kicked ISIS’s ass. Don’t forget, ISIS was supposed to take five years to terminate. And we had a man named Raisin Kane, who happens to have done the whole thing in Iran. He’s a great general, and he’s a wonderful guy too, believe it or not—but he’s a great soldier. We let them do their work.

And we defeated ISIS. We defeated everybody. Every fight that we had militarily—that I had—we won. And I let these great soldiers do it. Some make a mistake, I guess. But like this colonel—I’ll never forget it.

“Where did you go to school?”

“I went to West Point, sir.”

I did ask him a question. I like good students as opposed to bad students. He said, “I was a good student, sir.” And I said, “You do what’s necessary.”

And you know, I don’t want to sound overly vicious, but he wiped out the entire group of very bad people that wanted to kill us. So you have to let them do their job. In Washington, they’re not allowed to do their job. Okay? They’re not allowed.

You have great police. You have great police. But they’re not allowed.

Reporter:

On Congress, Mr. President, would you be open to a year-long continuing resolution?

Trump:

I’m always open to whatever is necessary. Look, here’s the problem: in Congress, you have Democrats that will never vote for anything. I could say that we’re going to lower your taxes by 50%, we’re going to guarantee you free cities, safe cities—nobody will ever get touched, molested, beat up, shot in the head. We’re going to give you the greatest country ever. We need your vote. And they won’t vote.

And they do it in unison. The only thing they do good is cheat on elections and unite. You know why they unite? Not because they’re good or they’re loyal people. They unite because they’re afraid. They’re afraid of the radical left. And you can’t get their vote.

So, we have a vote coming up at the end of September. And I think we’re going to pass it because we have the majority. And I think almost every Republican will vote for an extension. Because no matter what deal you make with these people—look at Schumer. He made a deal a year and a half ago, and after making the deal, he’s been almost run out of the party. He’s not the same man. He’s not the same man. He’s finished.

He aged 20 years. He’s become a Palestinian, by the way. We call him our great Palestinian senator—Chuck Schumer. And I wrote him a letter. I said, “Chuck, that was really great. Thank you very much.” And somebody gave the letter to the press—not me. And he was destroyed because they thought I was being sarcastic. And I wasn’t. He made a great decision. It kept our country open. That was a positive.

But you can count on almost no vote. I mean, I see things—I’ll give you an example: crime. So, we’re going to pass a bill to stop crime. We may not get one Democrat vote. Okay? We may not get one.

So when you say continuing resolution, I guess so. And it’s going to be passed exclusively by Republicans.

Reporter:

Mr. President, you mentioned in Iowa that you wanted to see some changes to the H-2A visa program for farm workers. Do you want to see that before the fall harvest?

Well, I love both groups. And we take care of our farmers, and we also take care of the people that want bad people out of our country. And we’re working on something that’s going to work really well. We take care of our farmers, but we also have to take care of those people that voted for me because they don’t want criminals in our country. And we’re working on something where we can take care of both.

Reporter:

Mr. President, you were talking about the CBO report that two of your cabinet members were talking about. I remember back on Liberation Day, many of us reporters covered your detractors—people saying that it was going to explode the deficit and therefore explode the debt. Who has called you to say, “I was wrong”?

Trump:

Very good. You know the answer to that. Okay. Yeah. Please.

Reporter:

Governor Pritzker said yesterday at a press conference that he would encourage nonviolent resistance to the National Guard if they were sent to Chicago. What’s your response to that?

Trump:

He said what?

Reporter:

That he would encourage nonviolent resistance if the National Guard is sent to Chicago.

Trump:

Look, this guy doesn’t know what resistance is, or nonviolent resistance is. He’s a bad politician. It’s amazing. I mean, if he didn’t have the money, he wouldn’t get any votes. Because there’s no compelling reason to vote for him. The guy’s a major loser.

But it would be nice if he would call me. I would change my mind immediately. He said—you know, because everybody knows Chicago is a hellhole right now. Everybody knows it. It’s not like he’s saying, “Chicago has much better numbers.” Right?

Well, what’s “much better”? You mean a hundred people are going to be murdered? It’s going to be much more than that. So, I would have much more respect for Pritzker if he’d call me up and say, “I have a problem. Can you help me fix it?” I would be so happy to do it.

I don’t love—not that I don’t have—I would. I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the President of the United States. If I think our country is in danger—and it is in danger in these cities—I can do it. No problem going in and solving his difficulties.

But it would be nice if they’d call and they’d say, “Would you do it?” And we’d do it in conjunction. Now, we work very well with the police, because we naturally get along with the police. So, the police and us work really well together.

Whether the mayor is opposed or not—I mean, you have a really rotten mayor there, too. He’s got a 6% approval rating in Chicago. And I see black women wearing a red MAGA hat last night on television: “Please let the President come in. My son was attacked. My—”

You have a force of black women. Black women—they’re like, “Only Trump.” They want Trump to come in. And you see them. They’re all over the place in Chicago, because they’re afraid to go out, and they don’t want their son or their daughter killed—just like your parents didn’t want you killed.

And we have a tremendous—look, it’s not about winning elections. Because we want to have nice, fair elections. It’s not politics. We want to see a safe country. You have people that want to see a safe country. And they’re great people. You have great people in Chicago.

The mayor is at 6% approval. He’s an incompetent man. He should have never been put in a position like that. He can’t handle it. You have an incompetent governor there. You have an incompetent governor in California—Gavin. I know him very well. He’s incompetent. He’s a nice guy, looks good—“Hi everybody, how you doing?” He’s got some strange hand action going. I don’t know what the hell his problem is. It’s a little weird, to be honest. A little something shaky going on there.

But you know, all he has to do is call me and say, “We have the Olympics coming up. We want to make it really good and safe.” And I’ll put some really good, great American patriots in there, and you won’t have any problems. Don’t forget, it’s loaded up with some stone-cold killers, some really bad people—some people that were just born to be bad. They’re criminals. Bad criminals. Dangerous. And we can solve the problem for them very quickly. Very quickly.

You know what I think? I think this—you have not had this happen for four years. You sat and you’d ask one question to Biden, and it was always the ice cream question, right?

“What flavor ice cream do you like best?”
“Uh, uh, I like vanilla.”

And that was the end of the conference.

I think now we’ve done enough. These people are very busy. I want to just thank—this is the greatest. This has never been done before. First of all, a cabinet meeting was sacred. You’d never let the fake news media in.

But the fake news media isn’t all fake. A lot of it is, but it’s not all. I think it’s a great thing. I think maybe it’s going to be done in the future. I hope it’s going to be done. But you really get the word out.

I mean, we had each one of these people speak. I think each one—if I thought one of them did badly, I would call that person out. I would say, “Christie, what the heck are you doing?”

No, but seriously—you have a very talented group of people. They get along. They work together. And there’s something really nice about just, you know, the openness of what we’re doing. It’s government. It’s an open government. That’s what we are.

And we haven’t made too many mistakes. Maybe we will, but we haven’t made too many mistakes. We’ve called it right. And I think you can be very proud of your country.

We are a respected country again. We are really, right now, respected at the highest level. And we’re doing great. And we’re a very rich country again—very rich. And that’s a good thing. Because when we’re rich, we can take care of the poor. And that’s what we’re doing. And we’re taking care of crime.

And I hope—just in finishing—I hope that Illinois, I hope that New York, I hope that California, I hope they call me and they say, “I’d love to have you come in and help us out.” I will be a totally different person with them. I will respect them for doing it.

Thank you all very much.
Thank you, everybody.