President Trump: Thank you all very much. Do you have any questions?
Reporter: You’re going to come down on steel, aluminum?
President Trump: Excuse me?
Reporter: You’re going to come down on steel or aluminum, or auto parts, or anything?
President Trump: Well, we’re in great shape. The trade deal was made with the UK. The Prime Minister – they did a great job. You know, they’ve been trying to make that deal for 12 years, and he got it done. So everybody respects it. There’s going to be a lot of jobs for here, and great for America.
And, you know, in terms of even the relationship — our relationship is unparalleled — but it keeps it even closer. You know, when you’re able to have a good trade deal, it keeps it even closer.
Reporter: It would have been better if you could be done on whiskey and tariffs.
President Trump: Whiskey? Well, we’ll talk about that. I didn’t know whiskey was a problem. I’m not a big whiskey drinker — maybe I should be when I’m home. Maybe I’ll have some whiskey today.
Reporter: We’ve been preparing for certain tariffs before.
President Trump: Well, we’re going to take a look at it.
Reporter: What about [inaudible], Mr. President?
President Trump: We want to make the Prime Minister happy. We want to make, by the way, your First Lady — I would say First Lady. She’s a respected person all over the United States. I don’t know what he’s doing, but she’s very respected. As respected as him. I don’t want to say more — I’ll get myself in trouble — but she’s a great woman and very highly respected.
Reporter: What do you have to say on Gaza today? What do you hope to accomplish?
President Trump: Well, we’ve, as you know, given a lot of money to Gaza for food and everything else. A lot of that money is stolen by Hamas, and a lot of the food is stolen. But we’re very much involved, and I think it’s one of the main reasons for our meeting today.
PM Starmer: Yeah, yeah, we’re going to be discussing it today.
President Trump: We’ll be talking about Gaza.
Reporter: Can you get ceasefire [inaudible] going then?
President Trump: Well, we want to get it going. But as you know, with Cambodia, we just did a — they just announced a very big, a very big — yeah, this peace. That was going to be a very bad war. And so we’re honored we got involved, and it’s essentially settled. I think they’re going to be settling it today. So it went for a few days. That was going to go on for years. That could have gone on for years. Millions of people could have been killed. We ended the war, and we’re very happy about it.
Reporter: The Prime Minister says that recognizing the Palestinian state will be a concrete step towards a lasting peace. Do you agree with his position?
President Trump: Well, I’m not going to take a position. I don’t mind him taking a position, but I’m looking for getting people fed right now. I think that’s the number one position, because you have a lot of starving people.
You have people that — you know, the United States recently, just a couple of weeks ago, we gave $60 million. It’s a lot of money. No other nation gave money. I know the Prime Minister would if he knew about it, and he really knows about it now because we’re going to be discussing it.
But we gave $60 million. Nobody said even “thank you.” You know — thanks. Somebody should say thank you. But other nations are going to have to step up. When I spoke to Ursula yesterday, she said that the European nations are going to step up very substantially, too.
Reporter: Can you discuss the importance of free speech today?
President Trump: Well, free speech is very important. I don’t know if you’re referring to any place in particular. Perhaps they are. But —
PM Starmer: We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time here. So we’re very proud about that, we want to protect it.
Reporter: What’s your advice on dealing with the small boats crisis in this country?
President Trump: What’d he say?
Reporter: The small boats crisis.
PM Starmer: It’s about the boats coming over the Channel. So we’re taking a lot of action to stop people coming over the Channel who shouldn’t be here — stopping them coming in the first place.
President Trump: Immigration is a big factor. And I think, frankly, if they’re coming from other countries and you don’t know who they are — and are they coming from prisons? We have them where they came in from prisons. We’re moving them all out.
We had a border last June — just recent, you know, last month. We had zero people come into the country. Zero. Other than coming through legal means.
If you’re stopping immigration and stopping the wrong people — my hats are off to you. You’re doing a — not a good thing. You’re doing a fantastic thing.
So I know nothing about the boats. But if the boats are loaded up with bad people — and they usually are — because, you know, other countries don’t send their best. They send people that they don’t want. And they’re not stupid people. They send the people that they don’t want.
And I’ve heard that you’ve taken a much stronger stance on immigration?
PM Starmer: Yeah, we’ve done a lot of work stopping them coming. We just signed an agreement to return them, and we’ve returned 35,000 in fact — as the first year of this Labour government — of people who shouldn’t be in this country. So we’re very pleased that we’re getting on with returning people who’ve got no right to be here.
President Trump: That’s great. As somebody that loves this — I love this country. My mother was born in — as you know, my mother was born in Scotland, and it’s an incredible place, a beautiful place. And if that be the case, I congratulate you.
That’s exactly — because, you know, Europe is going to — is a much different place than it was just five years ago, 10 years ago. They’ve got to get their act together. If they don’t, you’re not going to have Europe anymore as you know it. And you can’t do that.
This is a magnificent part of the world, and you cannot ruin it. You cannot let people come in here illegally. And what happens is there will be murderers, there will be drug dealers, there’ll be all sorts of things that other countries don’t want. And they send them to you, and they send them to us, and you’ve got to stop them.
And I hear that you’ve taken a very strong stand on immigration, and taking a strong stand on immigration is imperative.
Reporter: Mr. President, Prime Minister Netanyahu said there’s no starvation in Gaza. Do you agree with that assessment?
President Trump: I don’t know. I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry. But we’re giving a lot of money and a lot of food, and other nations are now stepping up. I know that this nation is right here.
PM Starmer: It’s a humanitarian crisis.
President Trump: Right.
PM Starmer: It’s an absolute catastrophe, but nobody wants to see that. And I think people in Britain are revolted at seeing what they’re seeing on their screens. So we’ve got to get to that ceasefire — and thank you, Mr. President, for leading on that — and also to just get more and more aid in.
And again, America’s done a lot on this, a lot of countries have done a lot. We’re now working with Jordan on getting direct aid drops in. But this is a desperate situation.
Reporter: Do you think Israel has done all it can do to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza?
President Trump: Well, I think nobody’s done anything great over there. The whole place is a mess. It’ll get straightened out, but it’s a mess. They have to get food and safety right now.
And ultimately — look, Hamas did a horrible thing, and they paid a big price. But Hamas did a horrible thing. But I always said, when you get down to the last 20 or 10 — they’re down to 20. We got a lot of hostages out. And you helped us, by the way.
But we got a lot of hostages out over the last six months that I’ve been in. I’ve been in office for six months now. And these hostages have been — I mean, many of them have come to the Oval Office and they’ve thanked me so profusely.
I said, you don’t have to thank me. I did what I have to do. But I always said, when you get down to the final 20, they won’t release them, because that’s like their shield. Very unfair. And so something’s going to have to be done.
They were really unwilling to talk. But I’ve said that. You’ll get down to the final 10 or 20 — it turns out to be 20. I thought that would be the number. I said, they’re not going to be dealing with us.
And you know, many of the hostages are now dead. You know that. And parents come up to me. A woman came up to me two weeks ago. She just wants her son back.
And I said, “How is he doing?”
“My son’s dead, sir. But he’s with them. We want the body.”
She wanted the body of this young boy, of her young, beautiful son — just as much as if he were alive. It was just as important. There was no difference.
And it’s a very — it’s a tragic situation, frankly. But we got a lot out. And now, possibly, the fight will have to be a little bit different.
But they have totally changed now. They don’t want to give hostages. Very unfair. You have 20 living people. In this case, living. You have many dead people, too, that they —
PM Starmer: Going on a long time as well.
President Trump: Yeah. They have 20 living people. And I told Israel, I told Bibi, that you have to now maybe do it a different way.
Reporter: Do you think that ceasefire is even possible, Mr. President?
President Trump: Yeah, ceasefire’s possible, but you have to get it — you have to end it. You’re talking about with Israel, and you’re talking about there.
Because we have many ceasefires going on. The whole world is — if I weren’t around, you’d have right now six major wars going on. India would be fighting with Pakistan.
You see what we just did yesterday with two nations that we’re trading with. And during the trade, I said, I’m not going to do any trade deal unless you guys settle your differences. We got it settled in 24 hours.
I mean, they just announced it was settled, which is a tremendous thing. But Serbia-Kosovo is another one. We have many hotspots that were at war.
I think a very big one was India and Pakistan, because that’s — you’re talking about two nuclear nations. That was a very big one.
But now we get help from the UK, the Prime Minister’s help. We have cases where we specifically need the help, because somebody comes from here that you’re aware of.
And you know, when you come from a country, you can do things. And I call up the Prime Minister. And all of a sudden, he’s able to do things.
Other — true also with other presidents and prime ministers. But we’ve — nobody’s ever done what we’ve done. We have six different major — if you take a look at Rwanda and the Congo, Republic of the Congo.
They’ve been fighting for 31 years. Eight million people dead. It was going on. Nobody could go to that part of Africa — they were being killed.
To even walk there, you’re being killed with machetes. And it was a violent situation. And I was able to — they liked Trump. They wanted to make a trade deal with Trump.
They wanted us to take their rare earth. They want to give us their rare earth. And I got to know the leader of the Congo. I got to know both of them indirectly.
And I called him. I said, “Let’s end the war. I don’t want anything until you end the war.”
And we ended the war, as you know. The foreign ministers came up two weeks ago, and the leaders are going to be coming very shortly to Washington — Rwanda and Congo. I mean, that’s another one that we did.
So we’ve done a lot. It’s an honor to do it. It’s not hard for me to do. And I use — not in all cases — but I use a combination of knowing them a little bit or, in some cases, knowing them a lot.
I knew the leaders of Pakistan and India. I know them very well. And they’re in the midst of a trade deal, and yet they’re talking about nuclear weapons.
And I say, “This is crazy.” So I said, “I’m not doing a trade deal with you guys.”
And they want the trade deal. They need it. “I’m doing a trade deal with you if you’re going to have war. And that’s a war that spreads to other countries.”
You’ll get nuclear dust. We’ll all get nuclear dust. When they start using nuclear weapons, that stuff blows all over the place, and really bad things happen.
So maybe we’re being a little selfish when we want to save wars, too. But we stopped a lot of wars, and it’s a great honor to have done it.
Thank you all very much. We’re going to be talking inside about — very much about Gaza and the humanitarian aspects of Gaza.
Reporter: Mr. President, what about Russia and Ukraine? You’re talking about ceasefire. What’s the latest there?
President Trump: I would have said five times we would have had a deal. I’ve spoken to President Putin a lot. I got along with him very well. But five times — and every time — four times maybe, but we’ve had discussions.
You and I have had discussions — we thought we had that settled numerous times. And then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kiev, and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever.
You have bodies lying all over the street. And I say, “That’s not the way to do it.”
So we’ll see what happens with that. I’m very disappointed. I’m disappointed in President Putin. Very disappointed in him.
So we’re going to have to look. And I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number, because I think I already know the answer to what’s going to happen. Okay?
Thank you very much, everybody. We’ll see you later.
PM Starmer: Thank you.