Remarks #2 transcript, Jul 21, 2026 (Donald Trump)

We're looking at that.

——you might impose 301?

We're looking—a lot of damage has been done. They're not managing their forests properly, and the wind has a tendency to blow right over New York City, right over—you saw Detroit. They had to close the whole place. Michigan was really affected. They had to close businesses for 4 days.

It's very serious what they're doing, and they don't seem to be able to do anything about it. If they managed their forests, they wouldn't have the fires.

Do you believe that Iran is trying to impact the midterm elections by threatening the Strait of Hormuz?

Probably. That won't have any impact on me. I'm just going to do the right thing. I don't view it as "Gee, we're having an election in a period of time." You know, everyone says, "Oh, I'm doing something before"—no. The election—I can't think about that, having to do with this.

I think people are very impressed. I mean, we took over Venezuela. We now have a great relationship with Venezuela. We went to war with Venezuela, and the war ended in 1 day. And we have, now, an incredible relationship with Venezuela. We're taking out millions of barrels of oil.

They're making more money now than they ever made before, ever. And we're making a lot of money. We paid for the war many times over with Venezuela.

We lost nobody. We lost nobody. We didn't lose one. And it was a violent attack.

As you know, we took out a man who was a very evil man. What he did was very evil. Many, many—in many different ways. We took him out.

But, you know, Venezuela, they said the same thing. When I did Venezuela, everyone said—because look at the drugs. Look at what they did, where they took all of their prisons, they opened up their prisons, and they have everybody in a prison come in through Biden's absolutely insane open-borders policy.

And we did that in one day. Think of it. And now, we are working very closely with the administration, and we get along very well. Venezuela is a very happy place. They had a tragic incident with the—you know, the event that took place a couple of days ago, a couple of week ago. What a terrible thing that was. They had a movement, a shifting of earth that was unbelievable. Nobody's ever—they've never seen anything like it. A lot of people were killed. So, it's all unrelated.

But—and by the way, we were the first ones there to help. We were there to help Venezuela. It was an earthquake, I guess you'd call it. It was a pretty massive earthquake, and we were able to do a lot of good. But they lost a lot of people.

Venezuela—the people are so happy that we're there. The jobs—everything's happening. And we're taking out many, many times the money that we spent on the war.

This one—Iran is bigger. It's more—it's a more complex situation, but we're probably doing equally as well, if you look at the damage that's been done. And again, as I said to the young man that just posed the question over here, if we left today, it would take them decades to rebuild, and I don't believe they could ever rebuild. And honestly, they haven't seen anything yet. We've been nice. We've been nice.

Go ahead, please.

Haley Bull with Scripps News. Thank you for the question. Do you believe that Iran has moved nuclear centrifuges into Pickaxe Mountain? And when you say "we're not done yet," what is left to finish?

Well, I think that they may have. We don't have it on record. All we do is read the fake news. You know, we see the—the news is so wrong so many times. So, you know, maybe this one they have right.

But it's okay. It doesn't mean anything unless they have the material. You're talking about the centrifuges.

Yes.

Yes, it doesn't mean anything unless they have the material. They don't have—we follow the material. That's where the action is. And we'll be hitting that area very—probably pretty soon. And there's not——

Pickaxe Mountain?

——not a thing they can do about it. You know, normally I wouldn't say that. If I thought they could do something about it, I would never say that. But we'll be hitting that area pretty soon and very heavily.

Please, go ahead.

President Trump, 2 years ago, during the campaign, I interviewed you and you told me on MTV Lebanon that the peace will happen in Lebanon. And every word you said during the interview, it's happening today. Like, from the first day in the administration, you were working hard for peace.

It's true.

I have been here daily——

Because I understood Lebanon, and I understood how horribly Lebanon has been treated as a country. They've been like a whipping post, what's happened with Iran and with Hizballah—but Lebanon's been treated very, incredibly badly. And maybe I'm a little prejudiced in favor of Lebanon because I have so many Lebanese friends.

There's—well, no, but there's so many Lebanese friends. And so, I know—I understand Lebanon. Tom Barrack is Lebanese, the Ambassador.

Regarding the Lebanese army—regarding the Lebanese army. President Aoun, does the Lebanese army currently have the funding, equipment, and manpower necessary to implement the agreement, or you are asking today President Trump for additional U.S. assistance today to do the job?

Definitely, with the support of President Trump, and we spoke of it on the phone. And I told him, "I need two things from you: political support and supporting of the LAF," which is—the LAF is the most trusted institution in the country. And it has the most powerful weapon, which is the trust of the public. Like any other—any armed forces in the world, the Lebanese Armed Forces is the backbone of security and stability. We need to support the LAF. The LAF maintain the country safe and stable. Without the LAF, everything will collapse. We don't want that. I think President Trump doesn't want that.

In 1975, the first institution to collapse was the LAF, and as a result, we saw the emergence of many local militias. And the south was empty, allowing the Palestinians to rule the south end and launch attack against Israel. We don't want to see that back again.

All we're asking is keep supporting the LAF. And they know that the LAF is doing great job, performing its duty to the fullest. I fully trust the LAF. I fully trust the leadership of the LAF.

And they did a—and they did a great step forward with the recent signing with Israel. That was a big step.

Are you going to allow direct flight from America to Lebanon again? I'm—[ inaudible ]— from——

I could see that happening, absolutely.

Question for President Aoun. Tony Murat from LBCI TV. So Ambassador Issa—the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa told me that the President Aoun would not leave Washington empty-handed. What concrete outcomes will you—will you bringing back to Lebanon?

You'll find out. [ Laughter ]

Thank you all very much. We're doing very well with Iran. We're doing unbelievably with the economy. We have investment, as you know. Toyota is coming in with the biggest plant, I understand, anywhere in the world. They're leaving Mexico. They're coming into our country. Going to come into Texas, to be specific.

We have more plants under construction now than at any time, by far, by many times. We have over $19.2 trillion being spent in America, and they're going to be opening up in a year or a year and a half. And there has never been a time like this in America. Truly, it's the golden age of America.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

Mr. President, a message for the Lebanese people? For the Lebanese people?

We love them.