The President: Hello, everybody. I hope you had a good time in beautiful Scotland. Did a lot of work with the European Union, and yesterday I spent pretty much a whole day with the Prime Minister of the UK, and we had a lot of good discussions. Although I see something came up today, which is interesting. So, go ahead. Hello.
Reporter: Hi, Mr. President. [inaudible]—can we ask about that [inaudible] on Gaza? Keir Starmer has just announced the UK will recognize Palestinian sovereignty in September if Israel does not commit to a ceasefire, ease the suffering in Gaza, and commit to a long-term solution that would deliver the two-state solution in the Middle East. Did you know that was coming? What did you discuss?
The President: No, we never discussed it. Surprisingly, it was never really discussed. Maybe a little bit at the news conference, but he was discussing it with you. We never did discuss it, and we have no view on that. We’re going to get a lot of money to the area so they can get some food. He’s going to also—I think the European Union is going to put up money too—for food, and hopefully it’s going to be properly distributed. And it will be—I think it will be. We have some pretty good response on people for the distribution of the food.
Reporter: Mr. President—
The President: We want to take it one thing at a time. They need food, and they need people to be able to get them the food.
Reporter: But to follow up on that, is there any use at all in pressuring Israel now to come to some sort of longer-term solution? [inaudible]
The President: Well, you could make the case that you’re rewarding people—that you’re rewarding Hamas—if you do that. And I don’t think they should be rewarded, so I’m not in that camp, to be honest. We’ll let you know where we are, but I am not in that camp.
Reporter: Mr. President—
The President: Because if you do that, you really are rewarding Hamas, and I’m not about to do that.
Reporter: Mr. President, you mentioned setting up food centers. When can we expect to see those food centers?
The President: Very soon. Very soon. So, we said $60 million. It’s a lot of money for food—a lot of money; that can take care of people for a long time. And we want to make sure it’s being spent properly, and part of the spending is the distribution. If you know, a lot of money’s been sent by other countries—nothing compared to us—but a lot of things have been stolen. They send money, they send food, and Hamas steals it. So it’s a tricky little game, but we’re going to make sure we have some very good people. They’re going to be watching it.
Reporter: Who is going to be running those food centers for you, and what kind of oversight can we expect?
The President: Well, we’re going to be dealing with Israel, and we think they can do a good job of it. And they want to do it.
Reporter: Of monitoring the food centers?
The President: No, they want to do it—the food centers. They want to preside over the food centers to make sure the distribution is proper.
Reporter: [inaudible] Great time seeing that beautiful course, but there are some critics who say this was a promotional trip for you and your business.
The President: What?
Reporter: That it promoted you and your business personally. What do you say to them?
The President: I haven’t heard that. No, I haven’t heard that. Did you get to see my drive on the first hole?
Reporter: You hit it straight and pretty high.
The President: I did. Pretty long. It’s pretty long. That’s no Joe Biden, let me tell you. That’s not Biden, right? That was a good drive.
Reporter: When did you last speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu? And when will you speak to him again?
The President: Two days ago.
Reporter: How many—
The President: Two days ago.
Reporter: Do you think you’ll—
The President: I said we sent money, and I want to make sure the money is spent wisely and it’s spent judiciously, and that food is distributed in a proper manner. And he wants to do that.
Reporter: Mr. President, you’ve talked about moving Palestinians out of Gaza—you said that in the past. Do you still support that idea?
The President: Well, it’s a concept. Some people fell in love with it, and some people don’t. We really have to see how it all works out before we do that. But you could do something spectacular—but that’s a different concept. You could also probably do it if you left some—some are leaving automatically, you know that. Some would like to leave. I think many would like to leave if they were given an alternative; they really have no alternative now. But certainly that was a concept that was really embraced by a lot of people, but also some people didn’t like that.
Reporter: Prime Minister Starmer—he was critical of Israel and said more pressure needed to be put on Israel to allow food to get in at speed. Do you feel that Israel is a good—
The President: I think Israel wants to do it, actually. I think Israel wants to do that. They’re going to want to, and I can tell you that they want to do it. They don’t want Hamas stealing the money or stealing the food, and that’s what they’ve been doing.
Reporter: Do you think Israel can be trusted to allow more food in faster?
The President: Look, I think Israel wants to do it, and they’ll be good at doing it. If they do it—if they really want to do it, and I think they do—they’ll do a good job. The food will be properly distributed.
Reporter: There’s a perception, maybe, that Keir Starmer didn’t do so well in the press conference yesterday. Do you have any words of support for him?
The President: I thought he did well in the press conference, and I think they made a good deal. I think we all made a good deal. Why—are you hearing otherwise, I guess?
Reporter: Yeah, and I think the feeling is that he was maybe a little weak and didn’t really have very strong answers, and maybe wasn’t entirely honest about free speech and immigration.
The President: I don’t know. I like him. I think he’s good. I think he’s a great representative for the UK. I haven’t heard that.
Reporter: In your meeting with John Swinney today, did you offer to drop tariffs on Scotch whisky?
The President: No, we really didn’t discuss it much, but I have a lot of respect for him.
Reporter: Mr. President—[inaudible]
The President: And I didn’t have a lot of respect for the woman that preceded him. I thought she was terrible as First Minister of Scotland. But I think John is doing a very good job as First Minister.
Reporter: Mr. President, your Treasury Secretary and Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce—China talks wrapped today. Any sort of reaction coming out of the meeting? They’re extending the truce. Are you pleased with that? Would you like to concede?
The President: I just had a phone call from Scott Bessent and had a very good meeting with China, and it seems that—they’re going to brief me tomorrow. We’ll either approve it or not, but he felt very good about the meeting—better than he felt yesterday. Yesterday, I said, “Here we go again. Here we go again.” But today, it worked out very well.
Reporter: And I saw—
The President: I think the result is probably pretty—
Reporter: I saw a report from Reuters that India is preparing to face higher U.S. tariffs between 20 and 25%. Is that what you’re tracking, or what do you think the rate will be for India?
The President: That they are going to pay 25%?
Reporter: Yeah, that India is preparing to face higher U.S. tariffs between 20 and 25%.
The President: Yeah, I think so. Look, India’s been— they’re my friends, and he’s my friend, and the end of the war with Pakistan at my request—and it was great. And Pakistan did also. We did a lot of great settlements, including the recent one, as you know, with Cambodia—blah, blah, blah. So that was a great one. I think that’s been pretty well finalized now, right?
Reporter: I don’t know. I’m asking you.
The President: Did I do a good job in that one? I did a good job in about five different wars. Do you think I’ll get credit for it? No. Will I get credit for it? She’ll say yes. No.
Reporter: Is the deal with India finalized?
The President: No, it’s not.
Reporter: Okay, so what rate are you expecting it to be?
The President: Oh, we’re going to see, we’re going to see. But India’s been a good friend. But India has charged basically more tariffs than almost any other country—you know that, right? Over the years. But now I’m in charge, and you just can’t do that. I think the trade deals are working out very well—hopefully for everybody. But for the United States, they’re very, very good.
Reporter: Mr. President, The Wall Street Journal case—lawyers are seeking to depose Robert Murdoch—Rupert Murdoch, pardon me. Can you say what the lawyers hope to get out of that?
The President: Oh, I don’t know. We’re going to see. It’s in the lawyers’ hands. I’ve been treated very unfairly by The Wall Street Journal and everything. I don’t know. They even hired people from The Washington Post—third-rate reporters, gossip-type reporters. It’s all gossip. And I’ve been treated badly by The Wall Street Journal. I would’ve assumed that Rupert Murdoch controls it, but maybe he does, maybe doesn’t. They are talking to us about doing something, but we’ll see what happens. Maybe they would like us to drop that, and so we’ll see.
Reporter: Does that mean they’re settling [inaudible]?
The President: Yeah, they want to settle it.
Reporter: With money involved?
The President: No—he’s treated us wrong. When I get treated unfairly, I do things about it, so we’ll see what happens.
Reporter: On Gaza—last week you were rather dismissive of President Macron when he recognized the Palestinian state. Today, you’re saying—
The President: No—
Reporter: [inaudible]
The President: That’s his opinion. He could have an opinion. It doesn’t mean I have to agree. Emmanuel’s a good man. He works hard. Got a lot to say about everything. [inaudible]
Reporter: But now you’re saying you’re not taking a view on Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement. Does that mean you [inaudible]?
The President: No—I guess Starmer’s doing the same as Macron, right? He’s—basically he’s saying the same thing. I think so. Essentially, they’re saying the same thing. And that’s okay. But it doesn’t mean I have to agree.
Reporter: Mr. President, you said yesterday your falling-out with Jeffrey Epstein was over him taking some of the workers from your business, but your administration in the past said that you threw him out because he was a creep. So can you explain that discrepancy?
The President: Well, maybe they’re the same thing. It’s sort of a little bit of the same thing. But, no—he took people that worked for me, and I told him, “Don’t do it anymore,” and he did it, and I said, “Stay the hell out of here.”
Reporter: What did they do—[inaudible]—sorry, go ahead. So is that what was meant by being a creep?
The President: Who are you with?
Reporter: Me?
The President: Yeah.
Reporter: I’m the travel pool, but I’m with NBC News.
The President: NBC? NBC—fake news. Okay. NBC is one of the worst. What else do you have?
Reporter: I was on the new Air Force One. When do you expect to be flying on the new Air Force One?
The President: I think by—let’s say February, maybe.
Reporter: Maybe [inaudible]—
The President: Much sooner than the others. The others are being built—long-time build. That’s a long-time build. Now, they’re not normal 747s. They have a lot of things on them that another plane wouldn’t have, but we’ll get this one a year-and-a-half, two years earlier.
Reporter: How much will it cost to retrofit it?
The President: I don’t know. That’s up to the military. I don’t know. I really don’t know. I haven’t been involved. It’s their plane. It’s the Air Force. They’ll be spending an amount of money. It is a different plane because it becomes for military use. But I don’t know what the number—
Reporter: There have been questions about whether the amount—that it’ll cost hundreds of millions of dollars—whether that’s worth it considering how little time you’ll be able to use it?
The President: Well, it’s a great plane. It’s one of the best planes in the world. The Air Force is going to have it. We’re going to have a great 747. We need it. If you look at this plane—it’s what? Is it 32, 34, 35? I don’t know. It’s old. It’s a good plane, but it’s old. Can’t get parts for it anymore. It’s very hard to get parts. They have to go and take from the older planes. So it was time. When you look at 747s and the heads of state from—especially the Arab countries—you look at Saudi Arabia, from some of those countries—and you put it next to this—it doesn’t show well for the United States. And, if you remember, it was Obama that wanted to get the plane. He was the one ready to sign a contract. And because he wanted to sign it, I assumed they paid too much, and I was able to get about a billion-seven off the price—maybe a billion-five to a billion-seven off the price—for the exact same plane. And they’re building it, but they’re taking a lot longer than they should have taken.
Reporter: There’s a report that a Secret Service agent tried to get his wife on a support plane for this mission.
The President: I just heard that. That’s a weird deal.
Reporter: Yeah. [inaudible]
The President: He was going to leave the wife in the car? Wouldn’t you think that might be a little dangerous? I don’t know if that has proper compression. I don’t know. That’s a strange one. I just heard that two minutes ago. I think Sean’s taking care of it.
Reporter: Mr. President, you talked on Russia—[inaudible]—
The President: Is that a serious story?
Reporter: I think it’s [inaudible]—
The President: They were going to keep her in the car and she’s going to be in a freighter?
Reporter: Well, you tell me the details on how—[inaudible]
The President: Those freighters don’t have—you know—
Reporter: He was going to keep her in the car? Tell us how it was going to work.
The President: I don’t want to get involved, but it’s a strange story. I just heard that one.
Reporter: Mr. President—[inaudible]—Mr. President. Mr. President, you said that you were going to set the new—The British farmers are so grateful for what you said yesterday about the importance of farming, because we have changed inheritance tax—death taxing.
The President: Well, farmers are so important. Some farmers—they liked what I said on a couple of things yesterday. I’m a big farmer person. I love the farmers. I think they’re great. And we have to steer the laws so the farmers don’t get hurt—in our country and in their country. But Europe has a big immigration problem. But they also liked when I said that they have one of the worst mayors anywhere in the world in London. He’s a horrible mayor—nasty guy. Stupid guy, in my opinion. But he’s a nasty man, and I want nothing to do with him. But I didn’t think it was a big statement, and so many people said, “Thank you for saying that.” He’s a bad guy. Khan is his name, I guess? He’s done a lousy job, I can tell you that.
Reporter: [inaudible]
The President: Terrible mayor.
Reporter: Mr. President—[inaudible]—Mr. President—
The President: But people liked it so much when I said that.
Reporter: Mr. President, yesterday you mentioned that you would change the Russia deadline to 10 to 12 days. Has that started yet, or when can we see the official statement that that is the new deadline?
The President: I’ll tell you what—I’ll give it to you now. Do you want a big scoop?
Reporter: Yes, please.
The President: Everybody else, close your ears, okay? You ready?
Reporter: I’m ready.
The President: Ten days from today.
Reporter: Got it.
The President: Okay?
Reporter: Got it.
The President: Good.
Reporter: Have you communicated—
The President: We have a scoop.
Reporter: Thank you.
The President: And then we’re going to put on tariffs and stuff. And I don’t know if it’s going to affect Russia, because he wants to obviously probably keep the war going. But we’re going to put on tariffs—the various things that you put on.
Reporter: [inaudible]—and—
The President: It may or may not affect them, but it could.
Reporter: Have you—[inaudible]—have you spoken to any of the families of the victims of the Manhattan shooting?
The President: I don’t want to tell you that. I don’t want to tell you that.
Reporter: Have you spoken to Mayor Adams?
The President: Boy, that’s a bad one. That’s a bad one. But I won’t tell you about that.
Reporter: Have you talked to Mayor Adams? Have you spoken with Mayor Adams?
The President: I have, yeah.
Reporter: One of the other things our readers liked from yesterday was when you were talking quite forcefully about illegal immigration in the United Kingdom.
The President: Yeah.
Reporter: One of the big political flashpoints is migrant hotels, where people are being put up while their claims are processed. People see it as a source of security—
The President: In beautiful luxury hotels.
Reporter: They also think there’s low security, and it’s a problem for their communities. Is that appropriate, or does Britain need an Alligator Alcatraz?
The President: It’s not an alligator. It’s just that they’re putting people in luxury hotels and other people that are working their asses off are living from hand to mouth and not living the same way. I mean, I looked at some of the hotels they’re using—and they’ve done it in our country also. They’ve put them in the best hotels anywhere in the world, because they could get rooms there—thousands of dollars a night—and other people are living out on the streets, including our veterans. They can’t get a room. Our veterans are living on the streets. There are pictures of our veterans standing right by the door where they’re walking in to live, and the veterans are sitting out on the sidewalk in front of a fancy hotel, and the illegals are coming into that hotel and staying there for a week. It’s no good.
Reporter: Just to button up on Mar-a-Lago—you’re saying that Jeffrey Epstein poached two of your staffers? Who were they? Were they young—
The President: Yeah, I don’t want to say two, or I don’t want to say any number. You’re talking about many years ago. But, yeah—he took people, and because he took people I said, “Don’t do it anymore. They work for me.” And he took—beyond that, he took some others. And once he did that, that was the end of him.
Reporter: And were they young women? [inaudible]
The President: When they steal people, I don’t like it.
Reporter: [inaudible] Did anybody ever go to prison for a social media post?
The President: Are you saying that that’s taking place in the UK?
Reporter: Yeah. [inaudible]
The President: Is it really?
Reporter: Oh, yeah.
The President: I mean, I’m hearing that. Well, I looked at it yesterday. Well, they said they canceled Truth Social. I’ll bet it’s uncanceled very quickly.
Reporter: [inaudible]
The President: I’ll bet it’s—[inaudible]
Reporter: [inaudible]—powers—[inaudible]—there are new digital [inaudible].
The President: No, it’s a little different. It’s different. I see it in some countries that you would never suspect it—not only there. I’ve seen it in other countries where they’re like bread-and-pudding countries, I think, and then all of a sudden they become somewhat violent. When people go socialistic, or when you get the radical left or the left going in, the countries actually become very mean. They become two things: mean and incompetently run—simultaneously. How is Karoline doing? Is she doing a good job?
Reporter: [inaudible]
The President: Look at her. She’s such a star. Come on, Karoline. Come here.
Reporter: Chloe wanted to watch, sir.
The President: Chloe, do you want to come over? Chloe—she’s a great golfer, a great, talented golfer. She’s probably the most talented golfer, other than Kai, but I think it’s about the same, right? Don’t you think?
Reporter: [inaudible]
Chloe: Yeah, [inaudible].
The President: She hits the ball long. This little girl has a lot of muscle, right?
Chloe: Yeah.
The President: So—
Reporter: Did you have a nice weekend?
The President: And she wins every tournament she plays in of her age.
Reporter: Did you have a fun weekend? You had a fun weekend?
Chloe: Yes, very fun.
The President: You love golf, right?
Chloe: Yes.
The President: But she’s a great athlete.
Reporter: How did the golf course play today?
The President: Great.
Reporter: And be honest—did anyone in your foursome hit that massive bunker on the 9th?
The President: That is a massive bunker. Fortunately, nobody did. Well—I played; two of the guys were pros and really good players. One of them won the tournament last year, and you can see they were very good players.
Reporter: Who at the moment holds the course record?
The President: Well, we played a first round—let’s see, we only played one round. This was our first round, so I’d have to go into that exactly. But they’re two really good players. One of them is the one who—you know the story? Beam—you know who that is?
Reporter: You have to tell me.
The President: He took Tiger, I guess, 18 holes. Tiger went wild with his putting—meaning he started dropping putts from all over the place—and Tiger took him. But that’s the quality. They’re really good players—those two guys were—and terrific guys. Two terrific guys. We had a good time, but I was watching. The only shot that mattered to me was the driver on the first hole, because if I would’ve missed it, you would not have let me forget it.
Reporter: Did you take a bit of a practice on the driving range beforehand?
The President: I hit some—yeah, I did. I hit some balls with the driver. It’s a great course. It’s a great course. It’s been fantastic. You know, I built one, and then I had to build this one; otherwise you would’ve lost your zone again for a certain period of time to build it. So they built it—it opened. My son did a very good job of building it.
Reporter: You said you thought it would be the last dune course. Were you talking about environmental regulations?
The President: Yeah. We obey the regulations—the environmental regulations. You really want to. And it’s top of the line. It’s—really, the pros were saying this is as good as any course they’ve ever played. It’s as good as it gets.
Reporter: The course was surrounded by windmills. Did you talk to Starmer about the windmills?
The President: I did, yeah. I think windmills are a disgrace. I think they hurt everything they touch. They’re ugly. They’re very inefficient. It’s the most expensive form of energy there is. People hate it when they become visible from their house. When you see them from a house, the value goes down by 50% and more. They make noise. When they’re out in the ocean, they’re bad for the sea life—very bad for the whales, obviously, because they wash up on shore nine times more than they did without them. No, they are really bad, and they cost a lot of money. You know, there’s not a wind farm that’s put up without subsidies. Instead of making money, what they should do is open up the whole North Coast oil. They have tremendous oil right there—right where we play—and they made it impossible for people to drill. It’s crazy. I mean, that’s one of the best oil areas in the world. They’ve made it impossible for people to take it out. Instead, they put up these ugly windmills all over the country and all over the world. I don’t know what it is. Nobody likes them. They have the greatest lobby, but I think I’m starting to get to it now. They’re bad energy. They look bad. They kill the birds. They’re really terrible things. And it’s the most expensive energy of any energy there is. And, in fact, every—I mean, not every, I guess; I don’t know, maybe some—but almost every windmill put up needs subsidy from the government. So instead of making money, they lose money. And that’s why UK energy costs are very high—because when we were flying over in the plane, they’re all over the place. It’s terrible. It’s a terrible thing. I’ll say it till I can’t speak anymore. But I think we are having an impact, and they’re starting to take a lot of windmills down. I mean, they’re literally starting to take them down. They don’t work. They’re bad, and they’re too costly. And every year you see them up there, the government is paying a lot of money. Whereas, if you have oil—if you have other forms of energy—you make money on it. In other words, you bring down taxes.
Reporter: Well, your friend Bryson DeChambeau said that LIV Tour players weren’t playing enough links golf. Is that something we might see at—
The President: Well, links golf is just different golf. It’s quite a bit different. I love Bryson. Bryson’s great. He’s a great player—very powerful guy. Long hitter, great putter—great everything. And it’s interesting—he plays well on a links course.
Reporter: But is that in the future for the Greatest 36?
The President: Oh, yeah. I mean, look—we have a tournament this weekend there, and we have another tournament next weekend—big tournaments. And we’re looking to get the Irish Open at Doonbeg. I have a course at Doonbeg in Ireland. And we have a lot of great tournaments coming to mind. I build the best courses.
Reporter: [inaudible]
The President: That’s not only said by me—that’s said by everybody.
Reporter: Back to Russia, sir. Since you made the announcement of the 10 to 12 days, have you gotten any feedback—or any officials gotten any feedback—that has had a response that Russia is going to do something?
The President: No, I haven’t yet. I haven’t had any response. It’s a shame. So I used to say to you, “5,000 people die a week.” Now it’s 7,000 people are dying a week—mostly Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, but people also from having bombs dropped on their head. It’s a disgusting war.
Reporter: How worried are you on the oil markets if you were to put sanctions on Russia?
The President: I don’t worry about it. We have so much oil in our country. We’ll just step it up even further. I mean, oil is down pretty low right now. We’ll step it up even further.
Reporter: One of the—sorry, I heard you mention compression. How were you feeling out there when you were playing? How did you feel? I think it’s the first time you played since you saw the dog, right?
The President: I felt good. I thought it was great. I thought the course was great. It looks even more beautiful than I thought. We did the first one 11 years—12 years—ago, and it’s gotten tremendous reviews. It’s one of the best courses in the world. And I had the other piece of land to do this one also—on the ocean and the North Sea. And, by the way, the North Sea is the exact term for the oil—they have among the greatest reserves. It’s tremendous. And they’re not using it. Instead, they’re putting up these stupid windmills. It’s so crazy. The UK could reduce their energy costs by 70% if they would use the North Sea oil. It just doesn’t make sense. It’s just not a liberal thing to do—but it’s becoming more of a liberal thing to do. I love being out there. It was great. Good feeling.
Reporter: Mr. President, the UK and the U.S. both have increasingly unhealthy populations.
The President: Is that what they say?
Reporter: Yeah. We do.
The President: Well, I can see it.
Reporter: I’m interested in the work that—
The President: No, I can see it.
Reporter: —Make America Healthy Again.
The President: I can see it. I should think about it for myself. Bobby is doing a great job. People are loving Bobby Kennedy and the whole group—Dr. Ross, Marty Makary. We have a fantastic group, and you’re going to see a lot of things happening over the next couple of months. I mean, true activists. And they’re going with the science. And if you take a look at some of the problems—some of the diseases—that are coming up to a level that we’ve never seen before, there’s something wrong. There’s something wrong, and I think we’re going to solve the problem. But he’s really working hard. All we’re doing now is stats—statistics. And I think we’re going to make a big change. We’re going to save a lot of lives. You know, when the babies are born and they end up having problems that they’ve never had before—and by 15 and 20 times more—so there’s something wrong, and we’re going to find what it is pretty soon. We think pretty soon.
Reporter: Mr. President, Epstein has a certain reputation, obviously. Just curious—were some of the workers that were taken from you, were some of them young women?
The President: Were some of them—
Reporter: Were some of them young women?
The President: Well, I don’t want to say, but everyone knows the people that were taken. And it was—the concept of taking people that work for me is bad. But that story has been pretty well out there. And the answer is yes, they were.
Reporter: Yes, they were young women? What did they do?
The President: In the spa.
Reporter: Jobs in the spa?
The President: Yeah, people that work in the spa. I have a great spa—one of the best spas in the world—at Mar-a-Lago. And people were taken out of the spa—hired by him; in other words, gone. And other people would come and complain: “This guy is taking people from the spa.” I didn’t know that. Then when I heard about it, I told him—I said, “Listen, we don’t want you taking our people.” Whether it was spa or not spa—I don’t want him taking people. He was fine. And then, not too long after that, he did it again, and I said, “Out of here.”
Reporter: Mr. President, did one of those stolen persons—does that include Virginia Giuffre?
The President: I don’t know. I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people, yeah. He stole her. And, by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know—none whatsoever.
Reporter: We’ve seen how good your security detail is this weekend, and the team around you are amazing.
The President: They’ve done a good job.
Reporter: Amazing. Do you have any answers yet as to what happened with the assassination attempt? Having seen them in action, it seems remarkable that that was—
The President: You mean the assassination—with— They just weren’t as good that day. They had a bad day. They should have had a roof that was unpatrolled. They should have had coordination with the local police because, you know, you had a lot of talk going on. You had the woman screaming, “There’s a man up there with a gun.” And a number of people were screaming, “There’s a guy up there with a gun,” and they didn’t have—the one group wasn’t hooked into the other group. I’ll tell you, the Secret Service shooter, David, was amazing, because in four seconds, it was over. And if this lunatic was allowed to keep shooting—because they had tens of thousands of people there—so a lot of people could have been killed. We lost a great person, and two people very badly injured. But the shooter—one bullet. Think of that: one bullet from a very far distance. It’s amazing.
Reporter: Has it changed you?
The President: So, he was great.
Reporter: Do you feel like it’s changed you as a person?
The President: I don’t know—maybe and maybe not, but I like to not think about it. It affects some people greatly. I can’t afford to be affected because I have a job to do, so I like not to think about it.
Reporter: Does it not go—
The President: If I think about it too much, it’s probably not a good thing.
Reporter: Does it not go through your mind at all in the morning—like this morning when you’re outside—there’s a crowd and—
The President: I don’t think about it. I think you see the kind of protection now. I think they’re very good. It’s a whole different level. Look, these people went to Biden—and Biden’s people—and asked for more help because I was having rallies: 60,000, 70,000 people; I had 115,000 people. And Biden would have two people—nobody wanted to see the guy—and he’d have a bigger security detail than I had. And they were asking—Sean and the various people were asking for more people, and they were denied. So they denied them. And so you could make that case. I don’t think they’ve made that case well, because I knew for a fact that they were asking for more people a lot. They have said it, but not that publicly. But they wanted more people, and the Biden people would not give it to them. And we had massive crowds—you were there. We would have routinely 50, 60, 70,000 people. And he would have nobody—he couldn’t fill the circles—the eight circles—and he didn’t need very many people. And so that was a problem, too.
Reporter: Can I ask about the First Lady? You mentioned a couple of weeks ago her role in talking to you about the war in Ukraine—perhaps a big part of your evolution in thinking. Have you discussed the crisis in Gaza and the terrifying [inaudible]—
The President: I have. She thinks it’s terrible, and she sees the same pictures that you see, and that we all see. And I think everybody, unless they’re pretty cold-hearted—or worse than that, nuts—there’s nothing you can say other than it’s terrible when you see the kids. And those are kids—whether they talk starvation or not—those are kids that are starving. I mean, they are starving. And you see the mothers—they love them so much—and there’s just nothing they seem to be able to do. They got to get them food, and we’re going to get them food.
Reporter: Do you plan to attend the G20 summit this year in South Africa?
The President: I don’t think so, no. I think maybe I’ll send somebody else, because I’ve had a lot of problems with South Africa, and they have some very bad policies—very, very bad policies—like policies where people are being killed; a lot of people are being killed. So I think I probably won’t.
Reporter: Any updates—
The President: I’d like to, but I don’t think I will.
Reporter: Any update on when you’ll meet with President Xi? When can we expect that?
The President: Oh, he wants to meet. And I look forward to the meeting, too. But I would say before the end of the year. I mean, just to go full circle—so we had a very good meeting today. If you would’ve asked me the question yesterday—no, it wasn’t looking too good. I would’ve said—maybe I might’ve said nothing, but I might’ve also said it wasn’t going too good. I just heard from Scott that the meeting went very well today with China. Thank you all very much. Enjoy the flight. Thank you.
The Press: Thank you.