President Trump:

Well, that’s a big crowd. This is a very large crowd. You get more than most countries, I have to say. This is a very good crowd of the media.

It’s an honor to be with President Lee of South Korea. Uh, we’ve known each other and gotten along very well. We have some additional trade because I hear they want to renegotiate the deal, but that’s okay. I don’t mind that. That doesn’t mean they’re going to get anything, but I don’t mind.

But we’re going to have some very serious discussions about different things, including trade, where we do a lot with South Korea, as you know. We’re thinking about contracting some ships. They build them very well in South Korea. They’re also thinking about coming to our country with some shipyards to start us on the process of building ships again. Do you know, in World War II, we’d build a ship a day? And today we don’t build ships anymore, which is ridiculous. We’re going to start that again.

We were like you—we were building ships all the time for everybody. And presidents and people allowed that to slip by. Now we buy ships, but we’re going to be buying ships from South Korea. We’re also going to have them make ships here, with our people, using our people, and we’re going to go back into the shipbuilding business again. Because, really, essentially, we don’t build ships anymore, which is ridiculous. How that ever happened—but we were the best at it.

Take a look at World War I, in particular, where we were doing virtually a ship a day. It’s hard to believe. These were tankers and different kinds of ships, but we were very active. And you see a lot of those shipyards sitting there idle. But they’re not so idle anymore. And you’re going to come in also, and you’re going to be doing a lot of ships in this country. So I look forward to that.

But we have a lot of other trade things. They’re a big purchaser of our military equipment. We make the best military equipment in the world, and you saw that recently. Take a look at what we did with the B-2 bomber, which you have one right there. They gave that to me—I guess the company gave that to me. The B-2 bomber was so successful in what took place in the little excursion we made: 36 hours, and it wiped out the—nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Thirty-six hours back and forth. Not a thing went wrong. Not a screw was missing. Not a bolt was missing. Not a plane had even a little bit of a problem.

We actually had 52 tankers. We had many planes. But you looked at the B-2, the way they handled that—every single bomb hit its target. So they understand that we make the best military equipment in the world. South Korea is a big buyer of military equipment, and we’re going to talk about that also. We have many things to talk about, and I look forward to it.

It’s a great honor to be with you. And congratulations on your election. That was a big one. And we’re with you 100%. Thank you.

President Lee Jae Myung:

Mr. President, let me begin by thanking you on behalf of the Korean people. I would like to thank you for giving your time for today’s meeting. I heard that you recently redecorated the Oval Office, and I would like to say that it looks very bright and beautiful. It has the dignity of America, and it symbolizes the new future and prosperity of America.

I believe that making America great again is your goal, and I believe that is what is currently taking place in America. I think the most symbolic proof of that is the Dow Jones index, which recently reached a record high—although it went down a bit, it still reached a record high. I think America is becoming great again.

So, I believe that there is a renaissance taking place not only in shipbuilding but also in the manufacturing industry, and I hope Korea can be a part of that renaissance.

One thing I would like to say is that America’s role—not as a keeper of peace, but a maker of peace—is emerging more evidently. Many wars in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East are coming to peace because of the role you are playing.

Among the many world leaders, I believe you are the only leader who has made such accomplishments. I would also like to mention that the only remaining divided nation in the world is the Korean Peninsula, and I would like to ask for your role in establishing peace there. I look forward to your meeting with Chairman Kim Jong-un—and, perhaps, the construction of a Trump Tower in North Korea and playing golf there. I believe he will be waiting for you.

Korea was able to attain economic growth and development through our ironclad alliance. Going forward, I hope to develop our alliance into a future-oriented partnership that encompasses areas not only limited to security, but also the economy, science, and technology. The Korean people have great expectations for you, Mr. President. Thank you once again for your time.

President Trump:

Well, thank you very much. It’s an honor to be with you.

I will say that Kim Jong-un and I had a very good relationship, as you remember—and still do. When I came in, I didn’t know him. We had two summits, but we became very friendly. There was great respect—it was not going to be that way had Hillary Clinton won the election. It would have been a disaster.

But I think we can do something in that regard, with respect to North and South. I think you are much more prone to doing that than other leaders I’ve worked with from South Korea, and we’ll work on that. I think it’s very good to work on that.

If you remember, during the Olympics, there was a great time of hostility with North Korea. You weren’t selling tickets, because nobody wanted to be blown up in the stadium during the opening ceremonies, right? You were not selling tickets. I was also at my formative stage with North Korea and Kim Jong-un. We were going back and forth—“rocket man, little rocket man”—and it was really nasty.

Then I got a call one day. They wanted to get together. They wanted to talk. And then he said, really brilliantly, “The Olympics is going to be opening very soon, and we’d like to be a part of it.” They actually put teams in it. You got along great. And immediately upon that phone call, you started selling tickets. It turned out to be a tremendous success.

So, it went from being empty stadiums—because people were afraid to go, thinking it was a target—to being a great success. I was very proud of that. You had one of the most successful Olympics. And now we have the Olympics coming to the U.S., so we’re very happy about that. But it was a great honor to get involved and help make the Olympics so successful.

Reporter:
Mr. President, when you met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, how soon did he say he wanted to sit down with Ukrainian President Zelensky? Russia, as of now, says there’s no meeting on the books and no agenda is set.

President Trump:
Well, that’s going to be up to them. It takes two to tango—I always say it. And they should meet, I think, before I have a meeting, and probably close the deal. But I think it’s appropriate they meet.

They do not exactly get along well, as you can understand. I’m sure it’s a meeting that perhaps he didn’t like. He wasn’t happy about coming to the United States either. That was a big concession, and I appreciate the fact that he did.

You know, I’ve always had a very good relationship—despite the fake “Russia, Russia, Russia” hoax that we had. But we’ve always had a great, strong relationship with Russia. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing, by the way. It’s a very good thing.

And it’s good to get along with Kim Jong-un. It’s good to get along with everybody—including President Lee. It’s good to get along, and I get along with foreign leaders. You see that with the biggest group of foreign leaders we’ve ever had. Don’t forget, the European Union was here also, representing a large group of countries just recently.

So, I believe we’re going to get that war straightened out. We’re going to get it done. I don’t know that they’ll meet—maybe they will, maybe they won’t. They’d like me to be at the meeting. I said, “You guys ought to work it out. It’s between you, it’s not us.”

Now, in the meantime, we’re not spending any money—as you know—on Ukraine. We’re selling military equipment to NATO. NATO now is taking in—excuse me—NATO now is taking in a large amount of money from the countries. They’re paying 5% of GDP versus 2%. They never paid the 2%. Most of them never paid.

NATO has a lot of money. We are selling military equipment to NATO at full price, and NATO’s distributing that equipment wherever they are—perhaps to Ukraine. So NATO is working with Ukraine. Biden was giving hundreds of billions of dollars just willy-nilly, just giving money. He had no idea where it was going. It was terrible what was happening.

So, we’re not involved anymore in terms of cost. We were in for $350 billion. As you know, I also got the rare-earth deal done with Ukraine, which was worth much more than the $350 billion. But I’m not interested in the money so much—even though we’ve done a great job in that regard. I’m interested in stopping a war, where last week 7,019 soldiers died—both Russian and Ukrainian. Such a waste of life and humanity.

They’re not from this country. They’re not from any other country other than Ukraine and Russia. But it’s very important to me to stop it. I stopped seven wars—wars that were raging. One for 31 years, the Congo. And, as you know, Rwanda, one for 35 years. I don’t have to go into them—you know the list better than I do. But we stopped a lot of wars.

Think about India and Pakistan, which was probably two weeks away from being a nuclear war. They were shooting down airplanes all over the place. I’m very proud of that. I thought this would be, in many ways, the easiest one. I have a very good relationship with Putin. I thought it would be the easiest one to stop. And it’s really not—it’s very complex.

It’s very personal, from their standpoint. There’s tremendous dislike, personally, between the two men. We’re going to have to straighten that out. But I’d like to see them meet first. They’d like me to be there. I may be there, I may not—I’ll see. But I want them to work out their differences first, because it is ultimately between them. And when that happens, I think we’ll get an end.

Reporter:
Mr. President, if they meet—or if they don’t—how long are you willing to let this play out? And if they don’t meet, will there be consequences? How soon for Russia?

President Trump:
Yeah, there could be very big consequences. We’ll see what happens. There might be very big consequences, because this is something that has to end. This war would have never taken place. And for four years, it didn’t take place. If I were president, this war would have never taken place.

There has not been a war like this since the Second World War. This is the biggest thing that’s happened in terms of warfare. It’s a whole new form of fighting. It’s drone fighting. It’s a drone war. A drone war never existed before.

We’re studying it—Pete Hegseth and everybody—we’re studying it very carefully. This is a whole new form of war. But it’s a violent war, and there has been nothing like this since the Second World War.

So, we’ll see what happens over the next week or two. At that point, I’ll step in very strongly. If I have to be there, I’ll be there. And we’ll either have a deal, or we won’t. But a lot of people are dying, and I want to get it stopped.

Reporter:
Mr. Kim Jong-un wants to meet. When do you want to meet with him? You said the North Korean leader wants to meet—how soon would you?

President Trump:
Yeah, we want to have a meeting. I’d like to have a meeting. I got along great with him—you know, you were there. We even had a press conference. He had his first press conference. Kim Jong-un had a press conference.

This was a little different press conference. I said, “Have you done a press conference before?” He said, “No.” And you know what? He did great. It was a great press conference—actually, it was historic. I doubt he’s done one since.

I said, “Would you like to meet the fake news?” And he goes, “Whatever you want to do.” And they came in like you’ve never seen before. Then he said, “Enough.” And that was the end of the end. It ended very rapidly.

But I think he had a good time. I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong-un in the appropriate future.

Reporter:
President of the United States—would you reduce the number of forces in South Korea so that the United States can have more flexibility in the region?

President Trump:
Now, because we’ve been friends—and we are friends—look, we have a lot of people over there. We have over 40,000 troops in South Korea.

As you know, South Korea agreed to pay for that during my last term. Then, when Biden came in, they complained to Biden that I wasn’t a nice person, and he agreed not to make them pay. He gave up billions of dollars. We were getting billions. But Biden ended that—for whatever reason. It’s unbelievable he did that.

But we have a very good relationship militarily. They would say, “But we gave you land.” I said, “No, you didn’t. You lease us land.” There’s a big difference between giving and leasing.

Maybe one of the things I’d like to do is ask them to give us ownership of the land where we have the big fort. You know, we spent a lot of money building a fort. There was a contribution made by South Korea, but I’d like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base.

Reporter (South Korea’s Adidang TV):
Thank you so much. As mentioned earlier, the United States is South Korea’s most important and closest ally. From this point of view, I would like to ask you—and also President Lee—what do you think are the key ways to make the South Korea–U.S. alliance greater?

President Trump:
Well, I think it’s great now. I feel very warmly toward South Korea. I’ll tell you, I have a lot of people in business I deal with from South Korea. They love Trump, because they feel I’ve saved them.

I think you would have had a nuclear war if I weren’t president. I think you would have had a nuclear war between North and South Korea. It would have been a disaster. You’re only 60 miles away from Seoul. They don’t even need nuclear—they have their cannons, their howitzers, buried in the mountains. You know what I’m talking about.

If I didn’t win that election—if Hillary Clinton, “Crooked Hillary,” won that election—I think you would have had a nuclear war. It would have taken place, and it would have been horrendous for everybody, including them. It would have been very bad for them, because we would have had to enter the picture. And we are the most powerful nuclear country in the world by far. Russia is second. China is third. China will eventually catch up—five or six years. They’re working to catch.

One of the things we’re trying to do with Russia and with China is denuclearization. It’s very important. One of the things I discussed with President Putin the other day—it wasn’t just that, it was other things—but I think denuclearization is a big aim. Russia is willing to do it, and I think China’s going to be willing to do it too.

We can’t let nuclear weapons proliferate. We have to stop nuclear weapons. The power is too great.

Reporter (Korea Times):
Mr. President, I’d like to ask you further about the South Korea–U.S. alliance. You mentioned the shipbuilding industry, and President Lee mentioned manufacturing. What other areas or sectors do you intend to focus on in this trade deal? Korea is bringing in many investments and creating jobs as well. How can both countries get beneficial outcomes through this deal?

President Trump:
Well, we’re going to get along great, because we really sort of need each other. We love what they do—we love their products, we love their ships, we love a lot of the things they make. And they love what we have.

We’re dealing with them on Alaska, having to do with oil. They need oil—and we have it. So, we have a big advantage in that way. We have more oil, gas, coal, and energy than any other country in the world, by far. For whatever reason, God was very good to us. He gave us the greatest resources.

But we didn’t use it. We started to use wind. Wind doesn’t work. They started to use solar panels, which took over land all over the Midwest. Farmers were saying, “What happened to my land?” They’d have a ten-mile by ten-mile solar field they couldn’t farm. The most valuable, vibrant farmland in the world—covered with solar panels. It’s ridiculous. Big, massive black fields of solar. And it all comes out of China—plastic from China.

But we have the greatest amount of energy in the world. And we’re dealing with South Korea, as you know, in Alaska. We’re going to be making a deal—a joint venture—with South Korea. Japan is involved also, very strongly. So, we have Japan and South Korea.

Actually, it seems far away, but Alaska is quite close. Right up the little Pacific Ocean. It’s actually pretty close, relatively speaking. But we have more oil, gas, and coal than any other nation in the world, by far. And we’re going to use it. That’s the thing South Korea most wants from us, I would think.

Reporter:
Would you go back to the DMZ to meet with the North Korean leader?

President Trump:
I loved it. Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy—especially Secret Service? I looked into those windows—you know, the windows with glass you can only see through if you look directly. And I saw more rifles pointing at me than you could imagine. There were a lot of rifles in that building.

The Secret Service was not happy. You know the buildings I’m talking about—the two blue buildings on each side. I walked up the middle, looked in the window, and I saw more guns in that room than I’ve ever seen in my life. I looked at the other side, and it was the same thing.

And yet I felt safe. I felt safe because I have a great relationship with Kim Jong-un. I hope it stays that way. I think it will. I have a very good relationship. I understand him. I spend a lot of free time with him, talking about things we probably aren’t supposed to talk about. And I just—I get along with him really well.

I think he has a country of great potential. Tremendous potential.

Reporter:
Is it possible to meet him this year, or maybe next year?

President Trump:
Well, I’m meeting a lot of people. It’s hard to say. But I’d like to meet him this year.

President Xi would like me to come to China. That’s a very important relationship. We’re taking a lot of money in from China because of tariffs and other things. It’s a very important relationship.

We’re going to get along with China. I hear stories—“Are we going to allow their students? Are we not going to allow their students?” We’re going to allow them. It’s very important—600,000 students.

We’re going to get along with China. But it’s a different relationship now. A much better relationship economically than it was before with Biden. Boy, what he allowed—it was terrible. They just took him to the cleaners. You know the expression, “They took him to the cleaners”? I’m sure they have an equal expression in South Korea. They took him for a ride like nobody’s ever been ridden before. Terrible.

But we have a very strong economic relationship now with China.

We have to get magnets. If they don’t give us magnets, then we have to charge them 200% tariffs or something. But we’re not going to have a problem, I don’t think. I think that’s perhaps behind us.

You know, China intelligently went and took a monopoly of the world’s magnets. Nobody needed magnets until they convinced everybody, 20 years ago, “Let’s all do magnets.” There were many other ways the world could have gone. But they cornered the market.

So, it’ll take us probably a year to have them ourselves. We’re heavy into the world of magnets now, only from a national security standpoint. And we’re going to have a lot of magnets in a pretty short period of time. In fact, we’ll have so many we won’t know what to do with them.

But you know the story. It’s an interesting history with magnets. Presidents— not being businesspeople—allowed that to happen. They shouldn’t have.

Now, we have much more. In terms of playing the cards, we have much bigger and better cards than they do. But with that being said, I think we have a great relationship.

I spoke to your President Xi fairly recently. At some point—probably during this year or shortly thereafter—we’ll go to China. I think we’re going to see a magnificent sight. It’s still a great country.

And actually, they had 200 Boeing jets that didn’t fly, because we weren’t giving them Boeing parts—purposely—since they weren’t giving us magnets. So their planes were grounded.

But I sent them all the parts, based on his word. I could have held them back, but I didn’t, because of the relationship I have. And now their planes are flying again.

We have a much more powerful thing than parts, though—that’s tariffs. If we want to put on 100% or 200% tariffs, we wouldn’t do any business with China. And you know, it would be okay too, if we had to.

So, the magnet situation—it gives them some power. But we have tremendous power over them, and in a short time, we’ll fix it.

I think we have a great relationship. I spoke to President Xi. Probably during this year, or shortly thereafter, we’ll go to China. It’ll be a magnificent trip.

Maybe we’ll go together. Do you want to go together? We can share a plane. Save energy. Save the ozone layer. Remember, President Obama used to talk about the ozone layer—and then he’d fly to Hawaii to play a round of golf in a 747.

(Reporters laugh.)

It was sort of joking, but if you want, you can come. I’m sure you can get special permission.

We’re going to have a great relationship with China. It’s happening—you see it. They have some cards, we have incredible cards. But I don’t want to play those cards, because if I did, it would destroy China. And I don’t want to destroy China.

Reporter:
Mr. President, what conversations have you had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about what is going on in Gaza? There was a UN-backed report that said there is a famine in Gaza. Based on what you’ve been briefed, do you agree with that?

President Trump:
I deal with Bibi Netanyahu quite a bit. We had great success, obviously, with Iran—we knocked out their nuclear threat. That would have been a horror show, having them with a nuclear weapon. They would have used it too.

Right now, they’re talking about Gaza City. They’re always talking about something, at some point. But it’s going to get settled. And I’m saying—you better get it settled soon. You have to get it settled soon.

Nobody can forget October 7th. People forget October 7th—that was one of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen terrible things, brutal things, but that was about as bad as it gets. And nobody can forget that.

With that being said, it’s got to be over. It’s got to end. Between the hunger and, worse than hunger, death—pure death—people being killed.

I’m the one who brought back the hostages. I did it with that gentleman right there, Steve Witkoff, and with Marco [Rubio], and the whole team. Even the trade people worked on it with us. We brought back a lot of hostages.

Now we’re left with—what would you say, Steve, 20? Or less than 20? I hope it’s 20. He hopes it’s 20, because some could be dead. That’s what he means, I assume.

So, we have 20, but there are rumors some could be dead. It’s a terrible situation. Terrible, terrible situation.

But it’s coming to a head. It’s coming to an end. We sent $60 million of food over there recently. I don’t even know if people know it. We distributed it ourselves. We’re giving a lot of food, spending a lot of money on food, getting it there.

We have the greatest farmers in the world, and we have a lot of food. But with all that said—it’s a lot of people to feed.

I think within the next two to three weeks, you’re going to have a pretty conclusive ending. Hard to say that, because they’ve been fighting for thousands of years. It’s been a hotbed forever.

But I think we’re doing a very good job. It does have to end. But people can’t forget October 7th.

Reporter:
Mr. President, do you plan to attend the APEC Summit in South Korea?

President Trump:
Yes. No—I’d love to. Last time, I spoke in front of your parliament, and I loved doing that. Beautiful. The respect they had for our country—it was a beautiful room. I remember how beautiful it was, and I enjoyed doing it.

So, yes, I could see going. I think I’m going for a trade meeting to South Korea pretty soon—you’re hosting a trade meeting. I could sneak away from that and do something for the President if he’d like me to do that. We’ll be going there fairly soon.

Reporter:
If you attend, then there’s a good chance to meet with Kim Jong-un again, or make a decision then. How do you think that will be?

President Trump:
You mean set them up together? That would be interesting. We could arrange a meeting between me and Kim Jong-un.

Would you like that? (Pauses) That’s a very tough question right now. I don’t know where that question is leading. Anyway, I get along great with Kim Jong-un, and whatever I can do with South Korea to get people together—I think you should get together.

Reporter (follow-up, smiling):
Yes, sir.

President Trump:
Beautiful smile. And then she’ll turn out to be the worst one in the room! (laughter)

Reporter:
Can I ask about the Masca Project?

President Trump:
Masca Project—oh, yeah, sure. We’re going to do that. I think we’re going to do that very strongly. Within a period of time—you know, it takes a while. That’s a hard one to start. Some companies you can start easily. Shipbuilding is a tough one to start. But we’ll be doing that.

Now, with that being said, we make the best submarines anywhere in the world. We’re 25 years ahead of anybody else in submarines. We do that. But we really gave up the shipbuilding industry—foolishly—many years ago. But we’re going to start it up again. We’ll be making our own ships again soon.

Okay—how about one or two more questions?

Reporter:
Mr. President, have you been briefed on the search of John Bolton’s home and office from Friday?

President Trump:
I have not been briefed, no. I read it just like you did. I was never a fan of his. I thought he was stupid. I thought he was a guy who only wanted to go into war—he liked killing people. I thought he was essentially a bad guy. But I’m not involved in that. No. You’d have to ask Pam Bondi about that.

Reporter:
Are more raids like that coming, sir? Are more raids like the ones on John Bolton’s house coming?

President Trump:
More raids? I don’t know. You’d have to ask the Department of Justice.

They raided my house, I can tell you that. They did a big raid on my house. They took away everything that wasn’t pinned down—and they took away some of that too. They raided Mar-a-Lago. They started that. These were bad people we had in our government before.

They raided Mar-a-Lago. They went into my wife’s area. They went into my son’s area—my young son. And what they did was a disgrace. But how did it work out for them? Where—oh, I see. We’re in the White House now. I guess it didn’t work out too well for them, did it?

They are bad people. They’re sick—very sick people. They came in with their guns into Mar-a-Lago—like 98 people. I wasn’t there, fortunately. I wasn’t there. But they are very evil, very sick people, that group.

If they had won the election, this country wouldn’t exist as we know it. It would have been a failed country. And now it’s the hottest country anywhere in the world, by far. We are the hottest country in the world, by far.

Reporter:
Mr. President, President Lee met with the Japanese Prime Minister before this summit. Is there something to discuss regarding cooperation among South Korea, the U.S., and Japan?

President Trump:
I think so. Look, Japan is a great ally of ours. I had a little bit of a hard time getting you two together—because you’re still thinking about comfort women, right? Comfort women. That’s all they wanted to talk about: comfort women.

I thought that was settled a few times over the decades. But there is an overlapping problem with that. Perhaps I’m wrong in saying it, perhaps this isn’t right—but the whole issue of comfort women, very specifically, was a very big problem for Korea. Not for Japan—Japan wanted to move on. But Korea was very stuck on that. You understand.

So, I don’t know. Perhaps you’d like to answer. It’s a good question. It was hard getting Japan and Korea together because of what took place a long time ago. But Japan wants to do it. I can say Korea is a little bit more tenuous.

President Lee:
So, trilateral cooperation among Korea, the U.S., and Japan is very important. Better Korea–Japan relations are also important for the Korea–U.S. relationship as well.

I know, President Trump, you’ve put emphasis on trilateral cooperation. Before coming to the U.S., I visited Japan to settle the difficult issues we have.

President Trump:
Good. Well, Japan wants to get along very well with you. I find them to be great people—great country, obviously. They want very much to get along with South Korea. And you have something in common—you want to solve the North Korea problem.

Japan very much wants to get along with you, and I’m sure they will. I find the people I deal with in Japan to be wonderful people, as they do with you.

If you look at Prime Minister Abe—he was a great man, a great friend of mine. He was assassinated, tragically, but he felt very warmly toward your country, I can tell you that. And the current Prime Minister, whom I’ve gotten to know very well, feels the same way.

So, I think you’re going to have a great relationship with Japan.

Reporter:
Mr. President, just to close the loop on Gaza—is there a diplomatic push underway to try to get all of this to end?

President Trump:
Oh, there’s a diplomatic push. There has been. Yes—right now, Steve, I would say a very serious diplomatic push.

Marco—or Steve—you want to answer that first?

Sen. Marco Rubio:
Yes, we’ve never stopped. We’ve always looked to find a solution there. Ultimately, as the President said, we want it to end. It has to end—with no Hamas.

Steve Witkoff:
Steve, where are we? I would say that we wouldn’t be anywhere but for the President’s Truth last week—which was a statement to Hamas that they’d better get their act together and get to the peace table. But for that, it would have been all stalled.

So, as usual, he is the man who moves it.

President Trump (closing):
Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you, friends. Thank you, friends.