Remarks transcript, Jul 19, 2026 (Donald Trump)

I thought FIFA was incredible. There has never been anything like it, probably in terms of an event, let alone soccer or football, whatever you want to call it. But I thought it was incredible. It was four times greater than any FIFA ever held, and it's probably about five times, actually, they're telling me today.

So we're very proud of our country. We're very proud of the job that was done by everybody. We congratulate Gianni Infantino and all of his staff and the incredible job they did. But this was one of the greatest events of any kind ever held, so we're really happy that it did so well.

And all over the world, people have come and they've loved our country—you know, shown off our country in a different light. And it's a great thing. It was a great event, and I'm glad you all enjoyed it.

Were you sad Argentina lost, Mr. President?

Say it?

Were you sad Argentina lost?

No, I wasn't sad. I thought they both played well. I would say Spain played better, really. But they both played well. I mean, they got to the finals, and it was very exciting, actually. It looked like Spain dominated, but it was a very close match.

So it was great. It was a great event.

Yes.

U.S. Military Operations in Iran/U.S. Service Members Killed in Iranian Attacks on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan

A message for the families of those who died?

Well, we feel very badly. But you know, those great people, those great patriots were out there fighting that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Iran has been very, very badly damaged. They've lost everything, almost, militarily. They've got very little left. They've got some missiles. They've got some drones. They've got some manufacturing ability, not much. We control the Strait. They don't control anything. So we'll see what happens.

But we hit them very hard again tonight, and we did that in honor of the probably three—it's probably three, as opposed to two—great patriots.

Mr. President, what are the consequences for China for meddling in U.S. elections after your speech on——

Well, we're going to see. We'll be speaking to them probably soon.

And, sir, could I ask you: Did you have a conversation with Carney from Canada today?

I did. Yes, I did.

How did that go?

Well, it went good, but I told him, I mean, you got to stop these fires from coming in and, you know, poisoning our air. Our air has been poisoned. I have a good relationship with Mark Carney, but, you know, we've got to stop the fires up there. If we can help them, we'll help them. But maybe they should pay us some damages or something, or we should do some tariffs. But it was terrible. I mean, you had businesses closing, in particular Michigan. If you look at Detroit—the Detroit, Michigan, air—they had to close everything. They had to close car plants and a lot of other things.

So I've never remembered this happening. Over the last 4 or 5 years you saw it starting to take place. I never remembered it happening before.

Did you have a chance to talk to the Prime Minister of Spain as well?

I did. I spoke to Spain, and I congratulated them on having a great team. I spoke to—I really spoke to a lot of people.

You've had tensions with Spain before.

No, I have no tension. I have no tension with anybody.

Mr. President, this plane does not have anti——

Yes.

missile defense systems on it. Why are you flying it?

Well, it has a lot. And you know, it has a lot of capability. But as I understand it, in about a month or so, they're going to send it to have it be maxed out. So they're going to be sending it, and they'll have it be maxed out. It will take about a month.

Mr. President, on the Canadian wildfires. Did you speak to the Canadian Prime Minister at all about tariffs?

I did. Well, I was just saying. I gave an answer here. I spoke to him about it. I said, "You've got to get it stopped." It's really forest management, and they should know how to do that.

If you go back 4 or 5 years, I don't remember ever having a problem like this, and we do have that problem.

On Iran, Mr. President, you said at the start of the war it would be 4 or 5 weeks. It's now been nearly 5 months.

Well, you keep—[ inaudible ]. This is a far bigger job that we're doing. We were doing a little job of stopping them from having a certain capability. Now we're just ending it, so it's really not the same thing. What we're doing now is, we're ending any chance where they could have a nuclear missile. If you look at it, after a week and a half—not 4 weeks—a week and a half, 2 weeks, we stopped them from probably, but I don't want to have the word "probably."

Thank you very much, everybody.