Remarks transcript, Jul 29, 2026 (Donald Trump)

Thank you very much, everybody. This is very exciting to me as a builder—somebody that builds lots of big, nice projects, before I got here. And we're doing some of the best in the world right now. This is all about the Dulles Airport remodeling.

It's considered one of the worst airports anywhere in the world. We're going to make it maybe the best, with some hard work and some good thought process.

But thank you for being here as we unveil exciting plans for a major and long-overdue renovation and reconstruction of Washington's really horribly thought-of Dulles International Airport.

I want to thank Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. He's fantastic. He's doing a great job. Doing a great job, including having to do with the safety of airlines and getting in with the control towers and all new equipment that we'll be ordering in the not-too-distant future. So they will have—we'll go from—again, we're one of the worst countries in the world for that, and we'll end up being one of the best countries in the world. That's automation, having to do with landings, takeoffs, and safety. But—for his leadership at this important project, and that's the Dulles project.

Thanks as well to the CEO of United Airlines, Scott Kirby. Thank you, Scott.

CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Jack Potter. Thank you, Jack.

And we have—we've developed a great relationship with them. We're going to make this something special.

As well as a member of the Airports Authority Board of Directors, Trent Morse. Thank you, Trent. Thank you very much.

Dulles Airport is the primary international gateway to our Nation's Capital, which is now one of the safest cities in the country. It's one of the hottest cities in the country. We are the hottest country in the world. But our Nation's Capital has made tremendous improvements in the last year and a half since we got here.

Crime is down by 84 percent. We've removed 8,000—almost 8,000 career, hardened criminals. And amazing statistic: 2 percent of the people caused 91 percent of the crime. And we can handle that really easily. So they've done—I just want to thank our great National Guard and the Metropolitan Police and others that worked with us. But the job in Washington—everyone's talking about.

I can also say—and if you look at Memphis, Tennessee, where crime was rampant, and it's down, now, 71 percent. And it will go down still further.

And Louisiana—New Orleans—the Governor called. He said, "We need help," and we gave him help. And the crime is down 72 percent. And they just finished Mardi Gras. And they said it was the safest Mardi Gras on record.

So we have a modernization of Dulles that's sorely needed. Last year, J.D. Power ranked Dulles 23 out of seven—27—that's a very bad ranking—large airports nationwide. So, it ranks at the bottom of the list—just about the bottom of the list.

After an extensive review of more than 30 proposals with the top architects anywhere in the world—and I was involved with Sean and with a lot of other people, actually—but Scott was very much involved, I can tell you—but we are announcing plans to add more than 5 million square feet of new or renovated space. We'll replace the current C and D concourses, which are basic disasters, all the while preserving the iconic original terminal.

That is—one of the great architects of the world did the original terminal. And it was very, very important that it be left. That's one of the reasons—it was both an asset and a liability. The liability is that nobody wanted to build anything near it, and people had to walk crazy distances. And it's no good, not acceptable. So we've addressed it all, and we have a plan that's going to be phenomenal.

But we're going to replace the C and D concourses and preserve the iconic original terminal that first made the airport an architectural landmark. So it's going to be something.

You can sort of see a little example of it right here.

That's your front. On the other side of the street, we're building a massive 9-story, 8-story, 10-story—we're not sure yet. But we're building a garage that—a parking garage that will be right next to the terminal. You'll walk right across the street, and you'll have a glass bridge—a number of glass bridges that will go right into the terminal.

Right now you have to walk so far. You have to walk blocks and blocks to get to your—to get to the terminal. And we have an empty site right directly across the street that nobody wanted to tinker with, which was crazy. So we're going to have a magnificent garage.

What would you say, Sean? How many—how many cars?

Thirty—thirty-two thousand parking spaces.

Thirty-two thousand. It'll be, actually, the largest garage in the world. Thirty-two thousand is big. Mostly above ground. We don't like down—people don't like going down underneath. Mostly above ground. It'll be beautiful.

But a central walking tunnel and a new AeroTrain connections will provide travelers with easy options. Really, it's an impossible airport. You get off a bus. You go into a train. You get from train. You get onto another bus. It's the worst airport.

This plan also includes expanded options for parking, modern check-in areas, more efficient security screenings, hotels, et cetera, et cetera. We have a beautiful hotel right on the property, but further away so that we can give the good location—frankly, the best location—to parking. So people literally will be able to park their car and walk 15 yards, and they'll be in the terminal.

In addition, many of the new restaurants and shops will be added, including plans for one of the largest United Polaris lounges anywhere in the world. And it will be a beautiful level of luxury.

This transformation is another step in our ongoing efforts to make Washington, DC, safe and beautiful again.

The safety aspects, both in terms of the airlines and in terms of crime, are unparalleled for what we're doing.

For years, the United States has watched other major cities around the globe welcome travelers with grand and modern airports. Yet, last—the last major airport built in the United States was Denver in 1995, and it hasn't gotten very great reviews. That's more than 30 years ago.

So we're doing something with Dulles that's going to make it, I think, the top—maybe the top anywhere in the world.

And by the way, Palm Beach is going to be one of the top too. Palm Beach is going to be incredible, what the plans are. The people—Joe and all the people working in Palm Beach that have such—Meg—that have done such an incredible job. That's going to be an unbelievable airport very shortly.

So it's time to ensure that the United States has the greatest airports anywhere in the world, and we're starting right here with the capital city.

And you can see—just before Sean goes up—if you take a look, this is——

This is only showing the terminal in one rung, but you have numerous of them. You have here, here, here.

And you have a spine coming—here's your main entrance. You have a spine coming right through the building into these massive—massive ports.

Now, the planes won't have to be bothered because we drop down a little bit, and our walkway is underneath. We have systems—walking systems that go very quickly, or you can walk because it's very close. But this is it.

So you enter here. You have a parking garage, which will be built right here. This whole thing is parking garage. Thirty-two—probably thirty-two thousand cars. That will be a world record and very convenient.

And then you'll have glass tunnels that go into the airport right from here, so you're—you'll be one story above. This road stays—beautified and stays. We keep this. This is your landmark. This is all new. This is your first tunnel, and then you drop down from there on.

And so that—when you have—the planes will be able to go right across without having to go back, make turns, or anything else. It's going to be amazing.

It will be one of the largest airports anywhere in the world, and I think it will be actually one of the most efficient and the best.

So I'd like to ask Secretary Duffy to say a few words and then Jack Potter.

And I'd like to welcome a very great gentleman to our midst, Jensen Huang, who's here someplace. And he's—if we can do with an airport like he does with chips, it will be the greatest airport anywhere in the world.

[ Laughter ] He looks at this problem as being a very simple—he looks at this as being a very simple problem to solve because his chips are a little bit more complicated. But it's important that he's able to travel nicely, along with everybody else.

Thank you, sir.

And right now this is not a very good airport. We're going to make it a great airport.

Sean, please.

Thank you, Mr. President.

So, to your point, the president has worked incredibly hard to make DC safe and beautiful. I think this is the cherry on the top, Mr. President. This is the gateway to the world from our Nation's Capital.

And any of you who've traveled through Dulles, it is dark, it is dated—a little dank, maybe. It's not a great airport.

And so we—we had multiple architects come in and present to the President. And we are blessed that not only does he give his time to really important matters, but he gave his building skill to take the best of all the designs and come up with this concept.

So just if I could quickly point out——

——we keep the Saarinen building, so that's going to be the foyer. A whole new headhouse. We are going to get rid of the people movers, Mr. President.

Right.

So, if you don't know what these are, these are like elevated busses. It's kind of like—it looks like it's from "Star Wars," if you will. And they're slow, and people are angry about them.

We are going to get rid of those. We are going to have a horseshoe train system throughout the airport. And as you mentioned, right down the spine of the airport is going to be a walkway. So, easy access to all of your gates, fast movement.

And what I like—the President, he was like, "Listen, we have to have great parking." So, when you pull up to the airport, you have easy access to the concourses—to the terminal.

And so I think this is one of the best designs, Mr. President—probably because you were—you actually did it—that you'll see in the country as a whole. And we've had—but this—just to—this is bipartisan, Mr. President. A lot of people, whether you're Republican or Democrat, you hate the way Dulles operates. So everyone's come together, and we're building for America and building for the future.

And it's your vision that made this happen, so thank you for doing this. And it's going to be, I think, one of the—it's going to be the premier airport in our country when you're done with it.

Well, thus far, what Sean said about bipartisan—really is bipartisan. And I don't know if that's because it's the right thing to do, which it is, but it's also that whether you're a Republican or Democrat, you don't want to go and be subjected to this airport, because this airport is a—it's a terrible place to be. And it's going to be—I believe it's going to go—it will be rated—within a few years, it will be rated the best airport in the country.

So it's going to be so efficient. Right now it's totally inefficient between the trams and the "Star War" thing that they call it—the "Star Wars" and elevated buses, and nobody knows what's going on. It's a real mess.

And, as you know, United is subjected to it. It doesn't—doesn't help United very much. He's been very much involved with what we've done, and other airlines too.

And I have to say that we've had over 30 architects and 30 different designs, and we did a little cherry-picking, and we spoke to a lot of people about it, and we've come up with a plan that's efficient and really beautiful. And I think it's going to give you one of the most beautiful. Keeping the Saarinen—so Saarinen was one of the great architects of the world, and when he built this 30 years ago, I guess, or about that, this was considered one of the—like, the Eighth Wonder of the World. This was considered the greatest terminal anywhere in the country, and it is. It needs some work. It needs some fixup, but it'll be architecturally amazing—the rounded glass and the whole thing. Massive, massive sheets of glass.

Cost was no object, unfortunately or fortunately, and we will—we're going to be using that. You know, it's going to be fixed. We're using it again as the primary entrance, and, almost, that's about it because essentially this is a brand-new airport. And yet, we're going to be able to work it well enough that it will work at least as efficiency—efficiently as it works right now.

And in the end, you're going to end up with, I think, maybe the best airport and one of the biggest airports anywhere in the world, and it's going to be a great thing for Washington, DC.

So could I ask Jack to say a few words, please?

Yes.

Jack.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for your inspiration here and challenge. You challenged all of us to step into the issues that you just described. We're very proud of the process that we've gone through.

We're very happy that United Airlines, the Airports Authority, and the other airlines have agreed to step up and fund this thing so this is not requiring Federal dollars. This is going to be airport-generated dollars, airline contributions, which is phenomenal. It means that we're off to a fast start here.

We're engaging with the Saarinen family to make sure that they stay intimately involved with this. All the aspects that were just described, I think, will make this a world-class airport.

And you challenge us to do this. We're building off of growth, though. I have to tell you: Our airport was the fastest growing airport in '24 and '25 of any large airport in the country. So, we are—we're going to continue to build on the momentum that we have, and we're excited about taking on this challenge.

And it will be a challenge to construct this. And our goal is to construct it and make sure that the traveling public is minute—there'll be minimal impact to them as they transit through our airport.

So, again, Mr. President, thank you for your inspiration, and we look forward for you to continue to participate in this in the coming years because we're going to bring designs to you and other things, so we very much look forward to working with you.

Thank you very much. Great. Great job too.

Scott, would you——

Yes.

——like to say something?

Well, thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Secretary and Jack and everyone. We're really—at United, we're really excited to have this project get off the ground.

The terminal that's out there today was built 45 years ago. It was meant to be temporary, and so I've spent my whole career at United Airlines waiting for this day, and all the people of United Airlines have spent even longer waiting for the day that we could have, really, the best airport in the world.

And this design is one that works great for the airline. The President talked about how it works great for the—on the outside for the airline, but it's going to be a beautiful airport inside for customers, and it's something that all of us at United but really all Americans will be able to be proud of—having an airport, when people come into the Capital, that really represents what the United States of America stands for.

So I'm proud of it as CEO of United but proud of it as an American as well.

That's right.

It's going to be a great one. Thank you. And for—and thank you for your help.

And, Trent, would you like to say something?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership on this. On behalf of the MWAA board, this is something that everyone's tried to do for decades and no one's been able to get it done. And without the president's leadership on it, we'd be back in square one. So thank you for your leadership on this project. Thank you to United and the Department of Transportation for moving this along as quickly as possible.

One of the things that is interesting, they were going to build this over a 60-year period. They were going to start with a little section here, a little section there, a little—and that wouldn't have worked. It wasn't a design like this, but it wouldn't have worked. So, we're doing it all at one time. It will all be completed, and it will be beautiful, and it will be something very special.

Would you like to say something? Please.

Thank you, Mr. President. I really want to thank the Airport Authority and United Airlines for your partnership—the board of the Airport Authority. Your partnership is critical to make this happen. I know you had a plan to improve the airport, but as the President said, it was a long-term plan. We thought it was too modest—too slow, too modest, and we——

Sixty years isn't too modest.

Decades. And—but with the President's attention and focus on this——

Two years.

——it's accelerating——

Two years.

——it's expanded, and we're actually going to realize the vision, and a much greater vision now. So it's a very exciting day for Washington, for the whole nation.

Well, these people have all been fantastic, and they really—they want to see it get done and get done properly, and it should be done as one airport, not being built in chunks, which would have been, frankly, a catastrophe, I think.

So thank you very much.

Do you have any questions?

Thank you, Mr. President. Very quickly on this issue, did you just say "2 years"? It would take 2 years to finish this?

We think we can get it started fairly quickly. It's largely financed, and yes, go—we need some approvals from Congress probably. But, generally speaking, it's been very bipartisan.

Drone Attack on a Fuel Tanker Ship Off the Egyptian Coast/U.S. Military Operations in Iran

And then on the attack—the drone attack on the LNG tanker off of Egypt.

Yes.

What can you tell us about that? And is there any indication it's Iran-related? Does it represent——

Well, let me give you a report.

a widening of the war?

We've—I've been briefed. It's a little more of the same, but it's going to be straightening out. It's going to be straightening out.

In the meantime, we're going to be hitting them very hard because it's our turn to hit them. They know it's coming. They're asking us not to do it.

But you know, they tried shooting at—last night. So we had five rockets shot, going 8,500 miles an hour, and all five rockets were knocked down to the ground. But they nevertheless took a shot, so it's our turn. And we'll see if we get there with an agreement at some point. But we're going to hit them very hard.

Mr. President, first on this. Is this expected to affect any incoming or outgoing flights——

No, we think—–

during the renovations?

——we could do it without a lot of disruption. Very little.

And then on——

It might even be better.

on Leader Thune. He—what's your reaction to him saying that there's no evident path to success on killing the filibuster or passing the SAVE America Act?

Well, that's too bad for him. I mean, that's too bad for him and too bad for the Republican Party.

Do you believe that——

He's got the votes. He should get it done. He should be able to get it done.

Mr. President, thank you. Dr. Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than a hundred times today.

Yes. Terrible.

Senator Rand Paul said he's going to hold a vote on holding him in contempt of Congress. Do you think Dr. Fauci should face repercussions for this?

Well, I watched the whole thing today, but more importantly, I was a part of the whole Fauci—I inherited Fauci. He was here from the 1980s, so I had him for a period of time. And I disagreed with him on a lot. I would have had to close down the whole country if I listened to him.

I went the federalist way, which is basically let the Governors decide. And, generally speaking, the Republican Governors did very well; the Democrat Governors did not very well.

But Fauci wanted to have nobody wearing masks, if you remember. And then everybody had to wear five masks—as many masks as you could get. I mean, he made a lot of mistakes.

And he wasn't a big factor for me. He was a very big factor for Biden. And if you remember, even though we were sort of prime time in terms of that whole disaster of COVID, far people died—fewer in the Trump administration than in the Biden administration.

We ran—we ran it well. Operation Warp Speed was talked about as being one of the great success stories anywhere in the world, actually, and we did a good job. But many more people died under Biden than died in the Trump administration from COVID.

COVID was a disaster, but Fauci did not help.

Mr. President, do you think that the DOJ should reopen the investigation into the autopen, specifically pertaining to Fauci?

Well, the only thing you can really think about is the autopen, because the most powerful thing a President has, they say, is the power of pardon. So he was pardoned by Biden, and I respect that. I know how powerful it is. It's a very powerful—they say it's literally the most powerful thing a President has.

Now, whether or not—I sign my things directly always. Almost everything, I sign directly. You're a witness to many of them.

He signed very few. The only thing I know that he signed was Hunter Biden's pardon, but I'm not sure that he signed—he probably didn't sign this one.

So I can't tell you what the law is. I've heard that you have to have a lot of proof. You need to have letters. You need to have all sorts of things, that the person operating the autopen has to know exactly what it's all about.

He didn't know what it was about, because I saw him testify, so maybe there's something on the autopen.

Other than that, the power of pardon is very powerful.

Bev.

One question, briefly, on the—on the——

Thank you.

Yes, wait, wait, sir.

Bev.

Thank you. Bev Turner, GB News. We've just heard you talking about another example of American excellence. That's really what this is.

Right.

It's a project where you're striving to be the best in the world. As a Brit, that's really striking to me. You've had a couple of weeks to get to know our new prime minister.

True.

Have you spoken to him much?

I have.

And do you think he is the man to lead us to excellence again, sir?

Well, he did say one very good thing. He said he's going to open up North Sea oil. If he does that, you're going to be a wealthy country, if he does it reasonably.

I was telling Prime Minister Starmer: "Open up the North Sea. Open it up. You'll be okay. Open it up."

They have two problems. They have a huge immigration problem, people coming from all over the world and just camping out in your country.

And we've taken a very tough stand. In fact, for 14 months, nobody has come into our country—zero—which is almost hard to believe, but that's what the report says. We—our border has become very strong, and your border is very weak. He's got that problem.

And he's got energy problem. He's got windmills all over the place, and every—any time you see windmills, you see a failing country. And they're made in China. Not used by China, but they're made in China.