Remarks transcript, Jun 11, 2026 (Donald Trump)

Hello, everybody. Just had a big day. I know you'll never be satisfied, but that's okay. [ Laughter ] That doesn't bother me at all.

We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran, and we're going to be subject to finalization of documents, which should get done over the next few days. We'll probably have a signing, maybe in Europe, and it's a great thing.

The stock market's up a thousand points. That means they like the deal. See, that means they like —if the market goes down, that means they don't like the deal. But it's been up.

Oil has dropped. Oil will start coming down to, I think, even lower than it was before. We had—I said—I was in Iowa. It was $1.85 a gallon, and I don't know if we're going to get there, but we're going to get pretty close. It's going to come down. And when oil comes down, everything else comes down.

And most importantly, we have a deal that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, which was the whole purpose of what we had to go through to get this. So it was a big—very big thing.

But we have a signing soon, and the documents are in pretty final shape. So we'll see. We'll see.

Very good. Should be done. That should be done pretty quickly. They want it every bit as much as everybody else wants it, and I think a lot of good relationships can ensue from this.

I just spoke with the leaders of many of the countries that were mentioned in the release. I just spoke to Bibi. I spoke to the head of—great heads of nations: Qatar, U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others. And we're going to be talking to Turkey—President Erdoğan, who's great. And it's really a wonderful thing with a lot of spirit.

Pakistan was fantastic. The Prime Minister and the—I call him "the General." He's a general. He's a great, great general. He's so great that they—that he's actually a field marshal, a step above. And they're all very happy. The whole Middle East is happy—and long beyond the Middle East. The Strait will open as soon as we have it signed.

We've been taking out many ships that nobody knew. Even the fake news didn't know it. But over the last month, we've been taking out ships—big ships—quietly at night. You guys didn't know that. Pretty cool, right?

As a captain, he knows about more ships—more about ships than I do, but that's pretty cool. [ Laughter ] They turned off the lights. We bombed their radar and everything so they couldn't see what was going on. We took out, some nights, 25 ships; some nights, 15. Last four or five nights, we did 25, 22, 21, 26, 18, and 14.

Who else would remember those numbers? [ Laughter ] Nobody.

And—but a lot of ships. A lot of oil is out. That's why oil—even before this, the market—couldn't understand why it was so free. There was more oil than they thought. What they're trying to—we took them out at night.

And that—the Strait will officially open as soon as we sign, which could be soon, very soon—maybe over the weekend in Europe. I won't be able to be there, but J.D. will be there—Vice President—and some of the people. Steve Witkoff did a great job. Jared.

So we'll take some questions, but right now we're here to talk about fishermen and fisherwomen. Okay? We have—they're great people, and I guess I'm a little prejudiced because they all voted for me. Would you say I got a hundred percent or just 99?

A hundred and ten percent. [ Laughter ]

I think so. I think—if I didn't, we'd have a surprise.

A hundred and ten percent.

We'd have a big surprise.

So it's my honor to be taking this action to lower seafood costs and generate millions and millions of dollars in new business for our great—really great fishermen, great people.

By restoring commercial access to three areas of the western Pacific Ocean—that's a large amount of space we're talking about that—they were restricted. Other countries would use it, but our country couldn't use it. You ever hear of anything so stupid?

I want to thank Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, and Congresswoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds for joining us today. We appreciate it all very much. Thank you very much.

Thanks as well to Captain Sig Hansen, a superstar. He's a—him and Tom Cruise are the two biggest people in entertainment. [ Laughter ] Thank you very much. Great. Great job.

And Pacific Seafood CEO Frank Dulcich and his sons Dominic and Charles, and many more dedicated fishermen and seafood industry leaders.

We have some great leaders here, and your product is amazing. Been going—going along for a long time, right? Seafood. It's amazing. Under—and doing great.

Under the Obama-Biden administrations, radical environmentalists drastically restricted access for fishermen and coastal communities, and hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean was cut off for them. They can't fish. Other people could fish; they couldn't. These people weren't allowed to fish. Can you imagine that?

Did you ever think that was going to happen as you grew up, probably as the sons of—sons and daughters of fishermen—right?—that someday they were going to take away the right for you to go fishing in the Pacific Ocean? What a bunch of dopes.

Those decisions closed off vast resources and, really, the richest fishing grounds, they say, anywhere in the world; destroyed livelihoods; and made the United States more dependent on foreign products.

And I did a similar thing for Maine. Maine is very much on the subject, because they have a pig running for the Senate. He's a pig. He's not a Senator. He's a joke. He's a con man. But—so it's in the—[ inaudible ].

You know, I won half of Maine. I won the—they have two. I won the one by a lot with the fishermen, actually, come to think of it. Fishermen and the lumberjacks—the people that go out there and work. I won them. So I love Maine.

But it's amazing. They had a five—I think it was 500 mile by 500 mile—a massive amount of the Atlantic Ocean, you weren't allowed to fish, but Canada was. Japan was. They all came in and fished, but our people weren't allowed to fish there.

That was put in by Barack Hussein Obama—have you heard of him?—Barack Hussein Obama—and Sleepy Joe Biden. And it's a shame. I mean, a shame.

But I did it a little while ago and opened it up to them. Twice I've done it now, Peter, right?

Yes, sir.

Peter Navarro. The great Peter Navarro.

And——

The "Lobster King."

——I did it twice. I did it then, and then they had a rigged election, and I wasn't here. Totally rigged election, just like what was happening in California.

You see what—they got the kid out, and then they were doing the same thing to Steve Hilton, and I started—I started bringing it—I said, "Look, they said it's going to take two more weeks." It was a week, and it was heading south. And I started saying it's a rigged election. And then they said it was going to take 2 weeks—1 week, 2 weeks. Then, all of a sudden, he was approved. You know why? Because the heat was on. They couldn't get away with it.

If I didn't do it, I guarantee he wouldn't have—he wouldn't be the nominee. It's a rigged election.

Our country—and we have to get—by the way, the SAVE America Act has to get passed by the Senate. House has passed it three times.

But with today's action, we're officially reopening nearly half a million square miles—wow—of water around northwestern Hawaiian Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.

I mean, we'll ask you in a second, but why the hell did they close it? Why? Do—is there not enough fish, or what's going on? They closed it.

Peter, do you have any reasons why they closed it?

Obama—Barack Hussein Obama, environmental activists tried to shut it down. But you're right, sir, it's crazy. They let all the foreign boats——

Ruined a big industry, by the way.

——the foreign boats come in. It's crazy. [ Laughter ]

Foreign.

And they leave—then they leave our captains out. It's crazy. It's bad for fish prices too.

But we're making up for it, right?

Yes, sir.

And this will support millions of dollars in annual harvest of big—bigeye tuna, swordfish, reef fish, and many other types of fish. It will protect small local fisheries and coastal communities that depend on their livelihoods. I mean, they are very dependent on this.

And it will increase domestic seafood production to help lower costs for American communities. And you're talking about millions, tens of millions of dollars of income. And we have so much. These areas, I mean, they just like say, "Oh, let's just close them."

The amazing thing is that other countries, there's no restriction. You know, you can go and do whatever you want. It's just crazy.

America's fishermen have never had a better ally in the White House than Donald Trump. That, I will say. I shouldn't say that because I don't want to brag, but based on the vote of getting almost every vote ever——

True.

——for—but you have never had. And, again, in Maine I opened it up. You know who was fishing there? Canada. Canada. Japan was fishing there. Maine lobster. You couldn't get a Maine lobster. You had to go to Japan to get a Maine lobster. You believe that? [ Laughter ] You had to go to Canada to get a Maine lobster. They were fishing there.

Not only that—you had to go a day and a half in a boat, and they had you at three knots. That means, like, essentially, a little bit different than 3 miles an hour, but it means slow. [ Laughter ] Three knots until you got outside of this 500-mile area, because they didn't want you to disturb the fish that you weren't allowed to fish for. [ Laughter ] No, but think of it. These people are crazy.

And the new thing they had was you had to have an electric boat, even though they didn't work and even though once you got out there you had a problem because you couldn't get back because they didn't charge long enough. [ Laughter ] These are problems that were mentioned to them, and they said, "We don't care. You have to have an electric boat."

And the other problem was the electric—your battery is much heavier, as you know, so the boat has a tendency to sink. [ Laughter ] And they were forced—you know, by 2030 or so, you were forced to have an electric boat. I don't think you were too happy with that, right?

Not at all.

Anyway, but we'll—this is going to support millions and millions of people. America's fishermen have just—they're special people.

And as fishermen and fisherwomen—so, tell me, how do they define that? Because in most industries—like, you have policemen, policewomen. Do you call them fishermen and fisherwomen? I haven't heard of that one before. They put—are—we—how are the women? Do they want to be designated as "fisherwomen"? Does anybody want to answer that question?

We'll take "fishermen."

Yes.

Yes, they take fisherperson.

Fisherman. Fisherwomen. Yes.

How about fisherpeople? [ Laughter ]

Or if you want to be politically correct, sometimes they use the term "fisher"——

Fisher.

——but——

Fisher?

Yes. I like fishermen or fisherwoman, myself. Yes.

Same.

So how about "fisherpeople"?

There you go.

These—people are crazy.

So, President Trump, I Googled that because I was at the same dilemma you did——

Right.

——trying to figure out how to be politically correct.

And what is the answer?

So the Google answer said that most women attribute to "fishermen" because they feel like they're strong individuals and they can do the work of a man.

Oh, wow. Be careful. That might be the end of your career. [ Laughter ]

My administration has already rolled back burdensome regulations to increase gear flexibility. You know what that means, right? Do you know what that means? I heard they made you buy gear that you didn't want——

Yes.

——and that didn't work. Other than that, it was quite good. [ Laughter ]

Expedite—I guarantee you the guy made contributions to Biden—whoever owns the company that made the bad gear.

Expedite fishing start dates and significantly raise catch limits based on the best available science. You know about that. That's unbelievable.

We expanded access to key fishing grounds in the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, including vast areas off the coast of New England I mentioned—500 miles by 500 miles. That's a lot. That's a lot of fish. That's a lot of lobster that was being sold by Japan.

I will tell you: Foreign countries are very happy because they ended up taking over the Maine lobster business. Maine lobster business, a lot from Japan, right? But we gave it back to them.

These actions have unlocked billions of dollars in economic value and protected thousands and thousands of jobs from great people that voted for Trump. And they voted for me because of common sense. That's all it is. Because anybody can see this stuff is crazy. This is one industry, but other industries likewise.

And right now we have $18 trillion being invested in our country, and under the last administration it was less than 1. And 18—and this is $18 trillion, by the way, in less than a year. It was 4 years, less than one.

Right, Howard?

That's correct.

By restoring fishing access to these waters in the western Pacific, we're reclaiming our maritime heritage, empowering American fishermen, and putting American consumers first with lower prices. You're going to have more fish, lower prices.

So now let's hear from, first, Secretary Lutnick and then Secretary Burgum, followed by Governor Dunleavy and Frank Dulcich and Captain Sig Hansen.

And then we'll take some questions, and maybe you want to hear a little bit about some other subjects. But, to me, it's really important.

I'm going to sign this now so that we get it done. With —no autopen. I don't want an autopen. [ Laughter ] Can you believe it? I think it's higher than 94 percent.

The only one that was definitely signed by him that we know of—you know what it was? It was his son. It was son. He signed—that was the only one. You could tell. You know why? Because his signature was horrible. [ Laughter ]

She was a real beauty, that one. Okay.

Do we want to do some questions?

Do you want us to speak first?

Do we like to speak?

Yes.

Yes, go ahead.

So this action—500,000 square miles were closed to American fishermen. You couldn't go and fish—500,000 square miles. I mean, just think of how big that is. And if you had an American flag, you weren't allowed there, but of course everybody else went. So they went in our waters. These are our waters.

And so what did that result in? That resulted in us, instead of having seafood exports—because we have great fishing opportunity—we were an importer. We became an importer of seafood. How crazy is that?

So the President is finally changing that. This is a massive win for our fishermen, massive win for our waterfront communities who process it. All these processors. And in the end, we are going to eat fish caught by us. What a shock. [ Laughter ] Eating fish caught by us in our waters.

So this is just common sense, smart. We already have the best conservation rules in the world, and this was one on top of another on top of another.

So thank God, from the fisherman's perspective—and I get these calls all the time—that President Donald Trump is in this office because he's finally letting our great fishermen and fisherwomen get out there and catch fish and stop importing fish. Let's eat fish caught by Americans.

Doug.

Thank you. Thank you, Howard.

Echoing that, with President Trump's leadership, this is another promise made, promise kept by President Trump—that he was going to roll back these job-killing, community-killing, industry-killing jobs. He's done that last year with Executive orders, doing it today with his proclamation.

So I want to say thank you to President Trump. I want to say thank you to my great friend, Secretary Lutnick, in Commerce.

We have dual responsibilities across Commerce and Interior related to fish and, of course, with our partners in the Pacific because American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands. We've got the Congresswoman here from—Northern Marianas Islands. These are all American citizens. The—as Howard said, this is U.S. territorial waters, and they were closed to us and open to others. And that makes no sense. We've reversed that around.

And so, again, as you see around us, the jobs that are created in this industry are often second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation family businesses. And you—these folks not only risk their lives; they risk their own personal capital to help feed America. They're the farmers of the sea. Just like President Trump is behind our farmers and ranchers, he's behind our fishermen. He's making sure that America is great.

This brings back healthy food for our schools, our military, all the things that we're working on with Secretary Kennedy and with Pete Hegseth. So this is a win-win-win across the board.

Again, thank you, President Trump.

Thank you.

Thank you, Howard. Great, great day for America.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Mr. President, this is another example of "America first," to be honest with you.

Alaska provides 60 percent of the country's seafood. We are—we're the State with halibut, salmon, king crab. You name it, it comes from Alaska. Alaska is one—fishing in Alaska is one of the oldest industries in that entire state. It employs thousands of individuals. Everyone has had fish from Alaska. We know that.

But this is an example, again, of putting America's first—America first, workers first, and really this country first. And so, on behalf of Alaska, on behalf of all fisher men and women, I want to thank you for what you're doing for this country and for the State of Alaska as well.

Thank you.

Governor, was this shut down? I mean, it's just so hard to believe. So this was trauma for your industry, which is a big industry.

Well, your deregulation is what really helps Alaska. It helps the fishermen. We—the country doesn't need more regulation. We need less regulation, and that includes for this industry as well.

So from that perspective—and it's across the board. We could talk about oil and gas and so forth, but this is about fish. But your deregulation approach is really what we need. We don't need more costs. And as you said, we probably don't need electric boats either.

We need to focus on getting seafood to Americans, putting people to work, and this is exactly what this does. So I just want to thank you.

Thanks, Governor.

Absolutely.

Thanks. Good job.

We've got—need to hear from a couple fishermen.

All right. Please.

Mr. President, we're—I'm third generation. These two are some of our kids. [ Inaudible ] Pacific Seafood immigrated—my grandfather immigrated into this country and started his first fish market in 1941. From there, we now are one of the largest family vertically integrated seafood companies in North America. It was the American dream, and I'm honored to have been——

Where are you from?

Portland, Oregon, and now Arizona.

Liberal.

No. [ Laughter ]

Are you a liberal?

He's not a liberal. [ Laughter ]

Trust me.

Probably more people than you think as Republicans, conservatives.

Yes. If we could count the votes. That's another issue.

You've got to—if you could count the votes properly.

But where we are is—this—the act—the proclamation today and the Executive order last year in—prior to this is really going to help us. We have 3,000 families that work with us and 715 fishing families in the lower 48—in Oregon, Washington, California, and Alaska—that depend on—

What we catch, what we process, and what we grow and sell is the healthiest protein on the planet. And you're giving us access to these family-wage jobs in these coastal communities, where we're usually the number-one or number-two employer in those cities and counties and coastal community.

Again, so I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of that 3,000 employees and 715 fishermen. Thank you, Mr. President.

And, Secretaries, thank you, and everybody that supports this industry.

So did you ever see this happening—when they destroyed your whole life and your family and your business, everything else, did you ever think that somebody would come along and save it?