The President: Thank you very much, everybody. It’s a big day for a lot of reasons, and it’s an honor to have you in this very nice venue across the street from the White House. Thank you all for being here as we take a major step to ensure the United States is fully prepared to welcome the world to Los Angeles for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games.
Very exciting day of my life when we got nominated and ultimately got it. I didn’t think I’d be here for the games in this capacity, but it worked out that way. So I’m very happy about that. I had no idea that was going to happen. When we got it, I said, “Too bad I won’t be president then.” But, sort of, we took a very circuitous route, didn’t we?
In my first time, we were instrumental in helping the city of Los Angeles win the bid to bring the Olympic torch back to American soil. And today, I’ll sign an executive order establishing the White House Task Force on the 2028 Summer Olympics, mobilizing the entire federal government to ensure the Games are safe, seamless, and historically successful. It’s going to be amazing. I think it’s going to be amazing.
America is a nation of champions, and in July 2028, we’ll show the world what America does best. That’s when we’re winning like we’ve never won before. Or—you see that—all the time.
A year ago, we were not a country that was doing well, and now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world.
I want to recognize several members of the task force, including our great Vice President, J.D. Vance. J.D., thank you very much. Thank you. [applause]
Our equally great Attorney General, Pam Bondi. Pam, thank you very much. [applause]
Secretary of Homeland Security, Cristie Kerr—oh, it says Kristi. Do you know Cristie Kerr? She’s a friend of mine, a great golfer. Kristi Noem—you’re a better golfer than her, that’s the only thing. But you’re better at a lot of other things. Thank you for being here and for doing an unbelievable job. Really unbelievable.
FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr. Brendan, thank you. [applause] Doing a great job.
White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles—the most powerful woman anywhere in the world. [applause] She’s rated the most powerful woman in the world, and I agree.
Deputy Chiefs of Staff: Stephen Miller—Stephen, thank you. [applause] What happened to Stephen? We never want to miss Stephen. He’s an MVP candidate.
Dan Scavino, another MVP. [applause]
James Blair, Taylor Budovich, and Nick Luna—thank you all. Great group of people. They’re going to be very much involved.
I also am grateful to be joined by two of Team USA’s strongest and fastest competitors: retired gold medalist and gymnast, member of the LA28 Athletes Council, Nastasia Lukin. Nastasia. [applause]
How are you, Nastasia? Good. Thank you. I don’t know you, but I’ve watched you. You’re very talented. I would not want to do what you do. This is much easier, believe me. It’s incredible what you’ve done.
Along with retired gold medal Paralympian swimmer and board member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Brad Snyder. Brad. [applause] Thank you very much, Brad. It’s a great honor.
Chairman of the 2028 Olympic Games, Casey Wasserman—a friend of mine for a long time. Casey, thank you very much. Great job. [applause] Amazing.
L.A. is a little bit different than it was when selected, but we’re going to bring it back stronger than ever. I spoke to Casey about that. He said, “Nope, we’re going to make it better than ever.” It’s going to make it even more important as Olympic Games. It was an interesting conversation we had as the fires were raging. Is that right? I appreciated that very much.
And CEO, Reynald Hoover. [applause] Reynal, thank you very much.
I also want to welcome the chair of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Gene Sikes. [applause] Thank you, Gene. And thank him for recently banning men from competing in women’s sports. That’s a big deal. Thank you very much.
It’s amazing that we don’t hear any applause for that when everyone feels it. [applause] Ninety-seven to three—that’s not 80–20, it’s 97–3. But nobody wants to clap. It’s crazy. The United States will not let men steal trophies from women at the 2028 Olympics, so we appreciate the fairness you’ve shown.
Also with us today is LA28 board member Reince Priebus, and also Kevin McCarthy. [applause] Thank you both.
The LA Olympics is shaping up to be a wonderful moment for America. With today’s action, I’m directing the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Secret Service, the Department of Transportation, and many others to use every tool to ensure a fantastic, safe, and beautiful event.
In 2028, the Olympics is bringing back baseball. Wow, that’s great. With teams playing under the lights at the legendary Dodger Stadium.
Squash players will go head to head inside Universal Studios.
Triathletes will sprint on Venice Beach.
Soccer teams will face off at the Rose Bowl.
Sailors will race through the waters near the Port of Los Angeles.
The opening ceremony will take place at the Memorial Coliseum, just like in 1932 and 1984.
For eight straight summer games, no one has won more medals than Team USA. Over the years, Team USA has won triple the number of Summer Olympic gold medals as the next closest country. I’m confident that’s going to continue in 2028.
Between the LA Olympics and the FIFA World Cup next year, it’s a great time to be a sports fan in America. And maybe most importantly, we’ll also celebrate 250 years of our nation. Between the three of them, there will be no time like it in our history.
So I’d like to ask the L.A. Olympics Chairman, Casey Wasserman, to say a few words. Thank you very much.
Casey Wasserman: Thank you, Mr. President. Your support and the entire administration’s support through this whole process has been truly extraordinary. In just 1,074 days—yes, we’re counting, sir—the eyes of the world will be on this country as we open the 2028 Olympics.
It feels just like yesterday—you were just president-elect in December of 2016, and you leaned into this process back then. You’ve been supportive and helpful every step of the way, and we wouldn’t be here without you. So we greatly appreciate all your support.
The President: Nice work. Thank you. [applause]
Casey Wasserman: Our games plan is near final. We’ve announced a competition schedule. Some of the greatest brands in America have stepped up to support these Olympic Games as commercial partners. And now, with the creation of this task force, we’ve unlocked the opportunity to level up our planning and deliver the largest—and yes, greatest—Games for our nation ever.
We expect more than 150 heads of state will come to the Games. We’ll host approximately 11,000 Olympic and 4,500 Paralympic athletes. They’ll participate in 800 competitions at 49 venues. This will be the equivalent of producing seven Super Bowls a day, sir, for 30 days.
We are now focused more than ever on delivery, and we can’t do this alone. I want to thank President Trump and the entire administration for their support and their partnership as we work to bring these Games home. These will be truly America’s Games.
We expect millions of fans from around the country to attend events. And for the first time in history, we’re going to take the Olympic torch relay to all 50 states. The most it’s ever gone to is 38. But in 2028, we will touch all 50 states. And sir, if you’d like to run on Park Avenue again—[laughter]—to revisit history, you’re more than welcome.
This administration has also delivered critical security funding in the recent bill that will be used by local and state agencies and the federal government to make sure that our Games are safe and secure. And ultimately, the best place to be an Olympic fan.
We remain incredibly confident in our ability to deliver the greatest Games ever, and that starts with the support of this administration every step of the way. Thank you, sir. [applause]
Well, we don’t have trophies in the Olympic movement, but as you know, 1984 hosted the Olympics in Los Angeles.
The President: Right.
Casey Wasserman: And someone we admire, President Reagan, presided over those Games. You will preside over ours. So we have for you a full set of the ’84 original medals.
The President: Wow. [applause] Can I say that I won them athletically?
Casey Wasserman: Yes, sir. [laughter]
The President: That would be a great honor.
Casey Wasserman: Yes.
The President: That’s beautiful. Thank you very much.
Casey Wasserman: Thank you very much.
The President: Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. You want to sign it?
Casey Wasserman: Yep.
The President: Okay, come on around, everybody. This is a big one here.
Casey Wasserman: Yeah.
The President: Okay. Pam, no auto-pen. [laughter, applause] That was not an auto-pen!
[inaudible]
Thank you very much.
Casey Wasserman: Thank you.
The President: Fantastic. Thank you very much, everybody.
Reporter: [inaudible]
The President: Go ahead, please.
Reporter: Mr. President, will the Department of Justice—thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Excuse me, excuse me. [inaudible] Excuse me. No, he called on me, but thank you.
The President: Go ahead, please.
Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President. Do you still plan to follow through on your threat to impose 100% tariffs on all countries that purchase Russian energy, including China?
The President: Well, I never said a percentage, but we’ll be doing quite a bit of that. We’ll see what happens over the next fairly short period of time. We’ll see what happens, yep.
Reporter: [inaudible]
The President: You know, they have a meeting tomorrow. We have a meet with Russia tomorrow. We’re going to see what happens. We’ll make that determination at that time.
Reporter: [inaudible]
The President: Yeah, please, go ahead.
Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President. On Gaza, sir—he called on me, thank you, Mr. President. On Ukraine: President Zelensky just signed a law allowing for citizens age 60 and above to serve in the military. We’ve seen dozens of videos of young men being hauled into vans and dragged to the front lines against their will. We’ve even seen videos of a young man with Down Syndrome serving on the front line.
You campaigned saying you wanted to “stop the dying,” and many admired that statement. Now the people dying are elderly, mentally handicapped, and conscripts. So—even if a ceasefire doesn’t work out—why should Americans continue to fund a foreign military that’s scraping the bottom of the barrel of its population like this?
The President: Well, you have to understand—very importantly—this is Biden’s war. This is not my war. I’m here to get us out of it. It’s a mess, and I’m here to get us out.
I haven’t heard that—when you say about 60-year-old men, et cetera. But this is Biden’s war, and we’re working very hard to get us out. I stopped five wars in the last five months, actually, and I’d like this to be the sixth, frankly.
That doesn’t even include Iran—you know, obliterating their nuclear hall—because they would have had nuclear weapons within two months. But I stopped a lot of wars. You just take a look at the ones over the last two or three months. It’s been amazing.
This is the one I’m trying to stop. This is the one we’re working hardest on. The other ones I stopped within a matter of days, almost every one of them—including India and Pakistan. I could go over the whole list, but you know the list as well as I do.
But this is Biden’s war. It’s a war he got us into—or indirectly got us into. It should have never happened. It would have never happened had I been president.
Yeah, next to you.
Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President. Would you support Israel reoccupying all of Gaza, as has been suggested by some Israeli officials?
The President: Well, I don’t know what the suggestion is. I know that we are there now trying to get people fed. As you know, $60 million was given by the United States fairly recently to supply food— and a lot of food, frankly—for the people of Gaza that are obviously not doing too well with the food. And I know Israel is going to help us with that in terms of distribution and also money. We also have the Arab states that are going to help us in terms of the money and possibly distribution. So that’s what I’m focused on. As far as the rest of it, I really can’t say. That’s going to be pretty much up to Israel.
Yeah, please—go ahead, please.
Reporter: Thank you. On transgender athletes in the Olympics—back to the safety, especially of female combat boxers—will the Department of Justice consider pressing charges against any man who tries to masquerade as a woman coming into this country to beat up American athletes? And secondly, would your administration consider genetic testing so that these people can prove they are actually women competing?
The President: Well, I think there is going to be a very strong form of testing. As far as charges, I’d have to ask the Attorney General about that—I don’t know. But there will be a very, very strong form of testing. And if the test doesn’t come out appropriately, they won’t be in the Olympics.
Yes, ma’am—please. Go ahead, please—white.
Reporter: Thank you. Mr. President, do you believe that the U.S. committee would have made this decision on men in women’s sports if you weren’t president? And do you think this decision will stay in place once you are no longer president?
The President: I think they probably would have, because it just seems to be an issue that most people feel should be. I can’t really say—you could have asked Chairman Wasserman. But I would say that, yeah, there’s a possibility. It could go either way, if you really want to know the truth. I feel strongly about it. I ran a campaign at least partially on that—that was one of the many issues I talked about: open borders, the economy, taxes, all of the things. But that was certainly one of the issues. So I really can’t—I really don’t know. Could have gone either way. Please.
Reporter: Sir, have you decided on a replacement for the Fed Governor?
The President: The Fed Governor? I’ll be making that decision before the end of the week, and we’ll either decide on one for permanence or the four-month period—the term, you know, there is a term of about a number of months. We have a couple of candidates. Everybody wants it, okay? It’s not a couple, but we’ve narrowed it to a couple of candidates. And we’re looking at the Fed Chair, and that’s down to four people right now.
Very good—well, I can tell you, because I’ve already said, there are two Kevins and two other people.
Okay—Brian?
Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President. This has to do with the safety aspect of the Olympics. What can you do as president to ensure that Southern California—the greater Los Angeles area—is safe from any fire danger, that the state clears away brush and state parks, given that’s the reason this last fire happened in Pacific Palisades? What can you ensure for that?
The President: Well, as you know, Brian, I’ve been fighting with them for a long time about allowing the water to come down from the Pacific Northwest, essentially. And we actually opened up that water pretty strongly. We got a lot of opposition from the governor. We opened it up anyway, and the water is coming down. We want it opened further.
They have a lot of water; they send it out into the Pacific Ocean in order to protect the smelt. It’s a little tiny fish that’s not doing very well—especially when they don’t have water, they really do badly, okay? But it’s a fish—environmentally protected—even though it’s in many other areas. I think they just use that as an excuse—the smelt; you’ll check that out. But I think it’s just an excuse.
They’ve got to allow full water, and they’re working with—Lee Zeldin is really helping us a lot—but they’ve got to allow a full complement of water to come down from the Pacific Northwest. There is so much water. If Gavin Newsom let the water come down—see the way I pronounced his name properly for a change—if this guy allowed the water to come down from the Pacific Northwest, they have so much water they don’t know what to do with it. All of those sprinklers would have gone on—all of those people, with those beautiful houses with sprinklers in the ceilings and with the water, the fire pumps outside— all that water. They didn’t have any water because they wouldn’t let the water come down. There’s so much water there.
At first, when I got involved with this issue in my first term, I said to the congressmen—they took me up because they wanted to show me the fields where they could farm ten times more product—you’d see 100 acres and you’d see one acre or two acres, beautiful green. It’s very vibrant soil, but they don’t give it the water that it’s entitled to. And I said, “Oh, they have a drought?” They said, “No.” They told me they don’t have a drought. They don’t—the Democrats don’t allow the water to come down into the farms and into anywhere. By the time it gets down even into certain parts of California, it’s fed out—stupidly—into the Pacific Ocean.
If that water were allowed—so we broke into it, and we allowed it to come down, and it can come down at a higher level. And we want that, and we’re demanding that of the governor.
The other thing is we’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard—or military, okay? No, I will use the National Guard or military. This is going to be so safe. And if we have to—because, obviously, you have a mayor that is not very competent. She can’t get the permits for the people. You know, the people are still waiting for their permits. Lee Zeldin got them the federal permit, which is ten times harder to get—and everybody can build on the federal basis, and that’s the hard one. But the Mayor, Bass—she cannot—she refuses to or cannot—get them permits. They’re waiting.
I was there right after the fires, and I saw all these beautiful people standing by their homes, ready to get in and get to work. And they’re waiting for their permits, and they’re still waiting for their state permits and city permits. It’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace.
Reporter: [inaudible]
The President: Red dress—red dress—yes, ma’am.
Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President. India says that the U.S. imports Russian uranium, chemicals, fertilizers, while criticizing their energy imports. Your response to that, sir?
The President: I don’t know anything about it. I’d have to check, but we’ll get back to you on that.
Yeah, please.
Reporter: Mr. President—
The President: Yeah, go ahead.
Reporter: Have you seen the Hamas-released video of Israeli hostage Evi Tare David starving and being forced to dig his own grave in a Hamas tunnel?
The President: I have, yeah.
Reporter: What is your reaction?
The President: I think it’s horrible. I think it’s horrible. And I hope a lot of people do get to see it—as bad as it is—because I think it’s a horrible thing.
Yep, behind you, please.
Reporter: Can you speak to how this drop-off in foreign-born workers is going to benefit Americans, and will it force American companies to pay fairer wages to American workers?
The President: Well, we want to take care of our American workers first and foremost, and that’s what we’re doing. We also want to help our farmers, because our farmers are producing like never before—we have to help them. And we’re working out some very complicated strategies and language. But the main thing that I think I was elected to do is to get the illegals out of our country—especially, in particular, criminals.
11,888 murderers were allowed into our country with Biden’s open-border policy—with our border czar who never spoke to the Border Patrol, never went to the border one time—that’s Kamala. And think of it: we have murderers; we have people coming in from all countries all over the world—from prisons in the Congo and Africa, from prisons all over South America, all over rough parts of Europe, all over Asia. They’re pouring into our country—not anymore.
We just announced we had our third consecutive month where we were rated zero people. And these are, frankly, very liberal people that make up these charts, so I don’t know what’s wrong with them. They seem to not be doing their job for the Democrats, but I’m honored by the fact that they say it.
We’re very tough on the border. People can come into our country, but they have to come in legally. I think we’ve done an amazing job, actually. But we have to get the criminals out of our country—murderers, drug dealers, gang members. They emptied prisons into our country. It’s one of the reasons—I think, even beyond the economy—it’s one of the reasons I got elected. Maybe the number one. It was between the economy and that.
Our nation is doing really well, but we have to get these really bad people—they should have never been allowed in our country. Open-border policy is for fools. We’re the only country in the world with an open-border policy—but we don’t have that anymore. We had zero now for three months in a row.
Peter?
Reporter: President Trump—nice to see you got off the roof all right.
The President: Yeah, yeah.
Reporter: You said this morning that you probably won’t be running for a third term. This weekend, Secretary of State Rubio said that he thought J.D. Vance would be a great nominee. You could clear the entire Republican field right now. Do you agree that the heir apparent to MAGA is J.D. Vance?
The President: Well, I think most likely—in all fairness—he’s the Vice President. I think Marco is also somebody that maybe would get together with J.D. in some form. I also think we have incredible people—some of the people on the stage right here. So it’s too early, obviously, to talk about it. But certainly, he’s doing a great job, and he would be probably favored at this point.
Reporter: And on Texas—if Texas redrawing their congressional map would get you five safe red seats, doesn’t that mean that California, New York, Illinois, and Maryland are all going to redraw their maps to add safe—
The President: Well, they’ll do it anyway.
Reporter: Is it worth it?
The President: Yeah, they’ll do it anyway. Why—if we stopped over there, they would have done it anyway. Look, a lot of these states—you know, I watched this morning as Democrats are complaining. And they’re complaining from states where they’ve done it—like in Illinois, like in Massachusetts. I watch this lunatic “Pocahontas.” She’s a total lunatic—I don’t know what she’s on. She’s all jumping up and down like I’ve never seen anything like it—talking about supporting the communist mayor. And he’s not a socialist—he’s a communist, okay? This is not a socialist man. This is a communist, if you look at any of his policies. Go back six months—you don’t have to go back further than that.
So they want to put a communist in New York. Now, the good news is we have a lot of power over that, because we’re the ones with the money. We send the money— if we don’t send the money, it’s up to the White House. A lot of the power in the White House.
But when I watched her jumping up and down—talking about that and supporting the communist. If you look at what’s going on with the redistricting, or whatever you want to call it, the Democrats have done it long before we started. They’ve done it all over the place. They did it in New York. They did it in a lot of different states.
But in Massachusetts—so somebody used this as an example today. I was interviewed this morning, and they said, you know, it’s pretty unfair: Trump got 40%. I’m not proud of that—but I think I probably got more—but that’s okay. I got 40% in Massachusetts, and yet they have 100% of the vote in terms of Congress. So there’s no Republican—there’s anything. So we should have 40%. You know why? They redistricted.
And they’ve done it all over the place. And they’ve done it in California, by the way—before this. They’ve done it in California. So we’ll see what happens.
We have a wonderful governor in Texas. He feels strongly about it. It’s going to be up to him. I think there’s tremendous support for it. And, you know, we’ve watched the Democrats destroy our country in four years. They’ve destroyed—between their open borders that we talked about, transgender for everybody, all of the horrible things that they’ve done—high taxes, horrible medical provision for people. We’ve watched them destroy our country for four years, and people don’t want that.
And people in Texas—as you saw—I got the highest vote in the history of Texas. I love Texas; Texas likes me, obviously. But I got the highest vote—and that was checked out on the show. Did you see that, where they checked it out? They said he actually did get the highest vote in the history of Texas—which disappointed them. They were very disappointed to hear that.
But Texas is a place that’s done very well with a free-enterprise kind of an attitude—the exact opposite of what’s happening in New York with a communist mayor. And they know what they’re doing, and they’re doing the right thing.
Yeah.
Reporter: Two questions for you—Mr. President, thank you. Texas Senator John Cornyn is asking for your help to force Democrats back to the state and hold them accountable. Do you want the federal government and the FBI to help locate and arrest these Texas Democrats who have left the state?
The President: Well, I think they’ve abandoned the state. Nobody’s seen anything like it—even though they’ve done it twice before. And, in a certain way, it almost looks like they’ve abandoned the state. It looks very bad.
Yeah, go ahead, please.
Reporter: Should the FBI get involved? Should the FBI get involved?
The President: Well, they may have to. They may have to. I know they want them back—not only the Attorney General, the Governor wants them back. If you look, I mean, the Governor of Texas is demanding they come back. So a lot of people have demanded they come back. You can’t just sit it out. You have to go back. You have to fight it out. That’s what elections are all about.
Yeah, please.
Reporter: Thank you so much, President Trump—two questions for you. One: were you aware of, and did you personally approve, the prison transfer for Ghislaine Maxwell that your Justice Department—
The President: I didn’t know about it at all, no. I read about it just like you did.
Reporter: And do you believe that she is—
The President: It’s not a very uncommon thing.
Reporter: Do you believe that she’s credible—to be listening to your Deputy Attorney General, who sat down with her recently?
The President: Well, he’s—let me tell you, he is a very talented man. His name is Todd Blanche. He’s a very legitimate person—very highly thought-of—respected by everybody. I didn’t talk to him about it, but I will tell you that whatever he asks would be totally appropriate. And it’s not an uncommon thing to do that.
I think he probably wants to make sure that, you know, people that should not be involved—or aren’t involved—are not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people. But I will say this: Todd Blanche is one of the most highly respected people you’ll ever meet.
So, I didn’t discuss it with him, but anything he talked about with her—or the fact that he did that— not unusual, number one; and most importantly, totally above board.
Please.
Reporter: [inaudible]
The President: Yeah, please—go ahead.
Reporter: Thanks, Mr. President. Mr. President, how much more would you like DOGE to cut from the federal government?
The President: Well, it’s not so much DOGE anymore. And, by the way, I have to say that somebody from DOGE was very badly hurt last night—you saw that—a young man who was beat up by a bunch of thugs in D.C. And either they’re going to straighten their act out in terms of government and in terms of protection, or we’re going to have to federalize and run it the way it’s supposed to be run.
But it’s not a question of DOGE. We have great people—secretaries and all—working with DOGE and cutting with a— I said with a scalpel as opposed to an ax. They’re cutting with a fine-tooth comb, and they’re getting rid of people that aren’t doing their job, or bad people, or bad things—bad policy, et cetera, et cetera. And I think we’ve been very successful in that.
There’s more cutting to do, but there’s also more getting—we want smart people in government. Our country is doing great. I think we are doing, probably, maybe in many ways, better than we’ve ever done before.
You know, we’re taking in trillions—not billions—trillions and trillions of dollars from other countries, who for years took advantage of us. They took advantage of the United States like we were children—and that’s not happening anymore. Now they’re paying a lot of money, and they’re paying hundreds of billions of dollars—individual countries paying hundreds of billions of dollars. You’re seeing what everybody else is seeing.
And we have a lot of things we can do. You know, one of the questions asked to me this morning is: are you going to make a dividend to the people? And the purpose of what I’m doing is primarily to pay down debt—which will happen in very large quantity. But I think there’s also a possibility that—we’re taking in so much money—we may very well make a dividend to the people of America.
Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you very much—thank you.