Remarks transcript, Aug 3, 2026 (Donald Trump)

Very good. All right. Good question. Very good. A good group too.

And there are almost 20 GOP Senators who have pledged to stay in DC to pass the SAVE America Act. So what's your message to the rest of the Senators who are still on their summer recess?

I think there's nothing more important than the SAVE America Act. I think they should stay. They do what they want, but I think they should stay until they get it passed.

I think it's so important to get it passed.

Yes.

Mr. President, where are the Iran talks, and what are your requirements right now?

Well, you'll find out today or tomorrow. I mean, they're going to go quickly, one way or the other. It's not very complex.

We're talking about the Strait—the opening of the Strait, having it open literally by tomorrow. Completely open. And that's phase one.

And phase two is we then will talk about the nuclear capacity, the nuclear what—you know, as we've been mentioning. The—basically, it's—I think most say—the denuclearization of Iran has to happen. Has to happen. And that'll be the second phase.

But the first phase is the opening of the Straits. The second phase will be the denuclearization, and that'll take a little while.

But we're very strong on it. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and I've never changed in that.

Yes, please in the back.

Thank you, Mr. President. You said that if Democrats get back into power, what is happening in Spain awaits America. Do you—what should voters in other countries with elections coming up soon take away from what's going on with Spain?

Well, we have to be very careful with the whole socialist thing. I think, in many cases, it's much more than socialist. They skipped socialism; they went directly to communism.

But when I saw what happened in Spain, I said, "You know, we had a version of that." You could say much worse. We allowed 25 million people under Joe Biden, the Democrats. We had open borders, and countries all over the world—almost all of them—sent people that they don't want into our country, and we've gotten a lot of them out, and we're getting more, including murderers. And I always said 11,888. That was the number of murderers. Many of them committed more than one murder.

And we're going to be just like that if you put these lunatics in that I see running for office. They had—we had an open border. A year and a half ago, we had the worst border in the history of our country. Now we have the best border. We haven't had one person come in.

And this is done by the Democrats. It's not—by left-leaning people. They do charts, and they have—in 15 months, not one person has come in through our southern border illegally.

Now, that's pretty amazing. I'd say maybe 10, maybe 15. They say none, and believe me, if they did, they'd love to report it. But you could go outside in those vast plazas where hundreds of thousands of people gathered when they stormed our country, just like they did—in my opinion, worse—just like they did to Spain. They stormed our country, and those borders are—those big plazas that were built, they put concrete down. And now you look at them, and there's grass growing in the cracks.

Nobody comes up because they know they're not going to get through, and if they do get through it, they're going to be taken out, brought back to their country. So we've done a fantastic job.

You know, somebody said, "You did it too fast." I did it in 30 days—in my first 30 days. Biden couldn't do it. He couldn't get it done. He tried at the end. He tried to do something because it was so overwhelming. It was so bad politically, but we did it in 30 days.

Somebody said, "You should have taken a year and a half or 2 years complete it, because everyone forgets." Even my speechwriters—they say, "Sir, nobody wants to hear about the border anymore. You've done it. It's an incredible job you've done, but nobody wants to hear about it." And I should have taken a couple of years to do it because—and it actually was—the public has about a 2-year—people do—they have a 2-year memory for certain things. They have a 2-week memory.

I may have gotten elected—I certainly—partially on the border, and because we did such a great job, it was a long time ago. I did it twice. I did it in 2016 when it was bad, but I did it this last time when it was really bad. It was, Steve [Steve A. Holland, Reuters], I would say, many, many times worse than it was in 2016.

Twenty-sixteen was bad, but what we just had a year and a half ago, that was the worst border maybe in world history. There's not a third-world country that would have allowed that to happen, where people coming in from prisons and people coming in from mental institutions, and people forced in by government, because these are the people that those governments, those countries—I know them all—they didn't want. And they walked into our country totally unvetted, totally unchecked.

Not anymore. Nobody comes in, except if they come in legally.

Yes, please.

All right, thank you, Mr. President. Yesterday you were——

Who are you with, please?

I'm with Washington Examiner, sir.

Good. They're doing good.

We——

They've been very nice to me.

We—you were asked yesterday whether Representative Max Miller should resign from Congress over the allegations, and you said that you'd have a look at it.

Yes.

Have you thought about that? And also, do you think that he should be replaced on the ballot?

It's a very sad thing. I know Max. He's a good person. I mean, I always thought he was a very good person, and I'm going to let the families figure that out. You know, those families—I know they're working on it. It's a very sad thing, especially when you know somebody so well to be going through that. But it's accusations, and I'm going to let them figure that out.

Yes, please.

Mr. President, did you sign off on Todd Blanche rescinding the anti-weaponization fund?

And also, there are Democrats right now who say there's essentially two tax codes: There's the Trump family Tax Code and a normal people Tax Code. Why do you think that your family deserves some level of special exemption when it comes to the auditing of taxes?

Well, I'll go into that. First of all, I had a 10-year case that was settled until I announced I was running for office. It was a settled deal like I've been doing all my life. I've been audited every year for my entire life, which—I have a lot of wealthy friends that were never audited. To this day, they were never audited. I was audited.

And my deal was settled. In writing, it was settled, subject to final approval. Then I announced I was running for President, and all they did was haunt me with it. They ended the settlement, and they went after—and they went after me illegally.

And they did a lot of bad things to me, like they did to other people. And I was treated very unfairly by the IRS. I was—it was weaponized against me.

Think of it. I had a case from—this is a 10-year-old case, and it was settled. It was done. The case was over. I announced I'm running for President, and they terminated the settlement in Washington and they went after me.

And what they did here was very—frankly, if you talk about reparations or if you talk about payment, what they did to me, I had a very good case against them.

So this was a case that was settled, that when I decided to run for President, right at the beginning—this was a long time; it's been going on for a long time—they terminated the settlement, which is something that never happened before.

We have letters from the biggest law firms in Washington saying that this case is nonsense, just like the "Russia, Russia, Russia" was nonsense. They weaponized Government.

And so that's that. And most people understand that.

On the other, on the fund, these were people that were treated unbelievable. Twenty-two suicides—more than that, I think. Look at Ashli. Look at—look at so many other things that happened.

These people were treated horribly, and this fund could have given them some solace.

But you know, it happens to be very popular among many quarters. And I don't participate in that fund. I was certainly treated badly. I don't participate, but I thought it would be very fair for people that spent years in prison, people that were treated so badly for, in many cases, people that did absolutely nothing wrong.

So I view that fund as a positive, and a lot of Republicans do too. Not so many Democrats.

And it's not only for that. It's for other things too. People that have been treated unfairly, that have been weaponized by a corrupt Government that we had with Obama and that we had with Biden. You had a corrupt Government with both of them.

Mr. President, did you sign off on Todd Blanche rescinding that?

I didn't look at it. All I know is that Todd Blanche is great. He's going to do a great job. Everybody knows it.

And I understand there's been a sign off, but I did—I don't know what they agreed. I think Todd Blanche agreed to reconfirm things that he's already said, and what he said was okay.

Please, go ahead.

Are there other avenues you'd have supporters get paid potentially if it's not the anti-weaponization fund? Is there another way in the future?

Who are you with?

I'm with MSNOW, sir.

You're who?

MSNOW.

MSNOW?

Yes, sir.

What a terrible show that is. [ Laughter ] They have the worst people on that show.

Are there other avenues——

Okay——

that you'd want to see people paid?

No, there's no other avenues that I know about.

Go ahead.

Mr. President, on the Iran talks.

MSNOW. That's the failed MSDNC, right? [ Laughter ] The failed——

Formerly MSNBC, sir.

They failed. They gave it a new name. You know why? Because nobody watched it.

Go ahead.

And they—and fewer people are watching it now.

On the Iran talks, is there discussions? Is Iran willing to return to a fully free navigation of the Strait? Is that on the table?

Say it again, differently.

Would Iran be willing to return to fully free navigation of the Strait?

Has to be. I'm not going to let them charge.

Would you accept any——

Anybody's going to charge, we'll charge. We're the one that has total—we have total control. You know, we have a thing called a blockade with his navy, and that navy is —they call it a wall of steel. The United States wall of steel.

No, no, there's not going to be charging. We're not talking about charging at all. There won't be charging.

Yes, please, in the back.

Mr. President, you said last week that illegal immigration——

Who are you with?

GB News. You said that illegal immigration is killing the U.K. Nigel Farage today has proposed the use of the Royal Navy to combat all those crossing the Channel. Do you think that European nations, including the U.K., should be using their militaries to stop illegal immigration?

Look, you have to stop illegal immigration in Europe. I know Europe better than anybody, better than the people that run it. And I have great relationships.

You're—two things are killing Europe. Number one is immigration. Number two is energy.

Like the U.K.—when you look at the U.K., they have one of the best energy fields in the world: North Sea oil. Now, I think your new Prime Minister is going to actually open up the—from what I hear. I spoke to him, and he sounded terrific on this subject.

But you open it up, you'll be a wealthy country. You keep it closed, you're going to be a bankrupt country, which is what you are now. Essentially, you're a bankrupt country.

You have one of the greatest energy fields—the North Sea oil—one of the greatest fields in the world.

You know, the U.K. buys its energy from Norway, who gets the energy from the North Sea—from not as vibrant a part of the North Sea, oil-wise. You're sitting on top of gold—better than gold—and you don't do anything with it.

It's—it doesn't work. You don't allow the oil companies in, and it doesn't work.

And I spoke with your new Prime Minister. I was very impressed, and he sort of indicated to me—I said, "Look, you can be a wealthy country or a bankrupt country. You have your choice." Not every country has that choice. Almost no country has that choice.

But in the case of the U.K., Scotland—I'm talking about Scotland—right off the shore, in Aberdeen, Scotland. That—Aberdeen was the oil capital of Europe for years. And then, 1 day, the liberals got in and they closed it, and your energy rates have quadrupled.

You have among the highest energy prices in the world. You could cut them in half. You could give away free energy if you'd open up the North Sea. And it's good for another 500 years, maybe more—probably 1,000 years.

Has our new Prime Minister restored your faith in the leadership of Britain or—has our new Prime Minister restored your faith in the leadership of Britain, or do you think it's too late?

Look, I think we're going to have a very good relationship. We'll see. I'm not going to tell him how to run his country.

But I can tell you, immigration is an incredible problem for Europe. You're allowing people in that, in many cases, are not going to help you. I'm going to be nice. They're not going to help you.

And the people that are there, people from your country, people from other countries that have been there for a long time and did a great job—beautiful—look, I love it. You know, my parents both came from Europe, indirectly. So a German, Scot. And you know, it's like one of those things. It's very sad. When I see what's happening to Europe, it's very sad to me.

But they have a problem with immigration. They have a problem with energy.

You have windmills all over the place. Windmills, you lose your shirt. Any country with windmills is a loser. Okay? You just have to look. If they have windmills, they're a loser, because you lose money with windmills.

Yes. Please, go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Two domestic——

Go ahead. Who are you with.

John Fredericks Media.

Yes, that's right.

Original name.

What was your name before?

John Fredericks. [ Laughter ]

Go ahead, John.

[ Inaudible ] Two domestic questions, sir.

The first one is: Exxon and Chevron—integrated oil U.S.—just announced record profits second quarter.

Yes.

Unbelievable. For Exxon, for instance, $14 billion—highest they've had in over a decade. For Chevron, for the quarter, highest in history. On the backs——

By 12 times.

On the backs——

You saw that.

Yes. I mean, it's unbelievable.

On the backs of——

I don't like it.

on the backs of workers paying higher gas.

Yes.

What are—is our Department of Justice doing?

They're making too much money. Okay? Based on a shortage, they're making too much money. I don't like it, and I'm—I should be the last one to say it, because I'm a big free enterprise guy. Nobody bigger.

And, you know, we're—you're going to see oil—when we're finished with Iran, you're going to see the prices drop through the floor. But they made too much money. Too much money. Chevron, too much money. ExxonMobil, too much—too much money.

When you look at one company, where they made 12 times what they made the year before, they ought to give some of that back to the public. And they'd better cut the retail price, the consumer price.

Too much money. You're surprised I'm saying it. I'll say it loud and clear. I'm not happy about it.

Go ahead.

Mr. President, a follow-up.

Mr. President, have you talked to Jeanine Pirro since Friday?

A follow-up.

Go ahead.

Just one. For those of us here that live in Washington, DC, with our families, like I do, the renaissance of the city that you've been able to do in 18 months is incredible.

Before you were here, I——

I hope you heard the——

I couldn't take my——

Did hear that, everybody?

I couldn't take my wife to dinner.

The renaissance of Washington, DC, in 15, 16 months is incredible, and it is. It's clean, it's safe, and you haven't seen anything yet.

We're replacing all of the grass that hasn't been replaced in the fields—all the beautiful fields where the grass is. You know, grass is like humans: It has a life. This grass hasn't been changed in a hundred years.

We're doing all the fields. We're doing all the—most of the graffiti is—but most important thing is it's been beautified.

We did 78 monuments and fountains and waterfalls. And they went from being horrible, mostly graffiti—he said, most of them, for 25 years, never worked. They haven't worked. And it's a renaissance. Like, you used the word "renaissance," but it's a renaissance.

But the biggest thing is, we have very little crime now. This was the crime capital, frankly, of the world. It was the most unsafe capital of any country in the world. Now it's one of the safest, and it's one of the safest places in the United States.

And people are coming down—you see it. The tourism in Washington—everyone's safe now. Nobody get—nobody's getting mugged, shot.

We used to lose three people a week. Death. That's the least—I mean, it's three people in terms of death. Hundred and fifty people a year were killed. They come down from Iowa. They come from Indiana: "Mom, I'm looking at the Washington Monument. I'm looking at"—and they end up getting killed. You call their parents, "I'm sorry."

Doesn't happen anymore. We don't have that anymore. We play—we're rough. But we don't have that anymore.

Our military has been unbelievable, and they work very well with the DC police.

But our military came in, the general, people that we know so well, General. Right? They don't play games. And we got the gangs out.

We removed almost 5,000 people who were career criminals, who came in with Biden with the open borders—lot of them—and they're no longer here. We send them back to their countries.

Okay?