Remarks transcript, Sep 4, 2026 (Donald Trump)

But, Mr. President, when can the American people expect some resolution?

Mr. President, you said, under your watch, that Putin would never attack NATO territory. Now Germany is blaming Russia for an explosive drone found at a German airport. Isn't that an attack on NATO territory?

I don't think that Putin will be—I speak to him. I know him very well. Putin is not looking to attack NATO territory.

Okay?

Mr. President, on the jobs numbers today. Have you spoken with Kevin Warsh? And you've said that "Lower the rate, or I'll stop trading with countries with which we have a deficit." So have you spoken to Kevin Warsh? And if you were to move forward—

Yes, we have countries that we have deficits with.

——with that, wouldn't that cause more disruption?

I speak to him, yes.

We have countries that are considered elite financially, like Switzerland, like others. But if we didn't trade with them, they would be bankrupt countries. So they're considered elite because we have massive deficits with them.

We have the right not to trade. We have the right to put tariffs on them. But we have a much more powerful right than that: We have a right not to trade with them.

So, if we don't trade with Switzerland—and just to use it as an example: watches, things—if we don't trade, we have no deficit.

Now, we have a big deficit with a lot of countries that should never have been allowed to happen. I had it very much corralled, starting to corral it, my first administration. Then Biden let it go to hell, and we took it over.

We've cut our deficit way down. We've cut our trade deficit way down—tremendously down. Nobody has ever seen cuts like this. But we have the right to take a so-called financially elite country that's paying a much lower interest rate. You know, we have countries paying—some countries are paying a half a point, and we're paying 4 points. And yet we're a much stronger credit than they are, because if we don't trade with them, they don't have any money to pay the bills.

And if we're not going to be treated properly, we're going to do that. And all we have to do to cut our trade deficit with a country is not trade with them.

Canada is one. If we don't do any trading with Canada, we just end all trade with Canada, we'd save ourselves $90 billion. All trading with Canada. Don't forget, they do all of their business—almost all of their business with the United States, and we do a relatively small amount of business with them.

But if we didn't want to—if we were playing hardball, all we'd do is say, "We're going to do no trading with Canada." If we did no trading with Canada, we'd save $90 billion.

And so what I'm saying very simply is that we should be paying the lowest interest rate in the world. Each point in interest in this country that we pay costs us $650 billion. We should be at 1 percent or a half a percent. We shouldn't be at 4 percent.

We have other countries at a half a percent, and yet, if it weren't for us, they'd be bankrupt countries. We should be the lowest in the world, as we were 25 and 30 years ago. Under any circumstance, we were the lowest in the world.

Mr. President, when will your—when will your super PAC, MAGA Inc., start spending on Ken Paxton?

We already did. Yes. We did.

But will you spend more?

Well, I have—I think I have, like, a—close to a billion dollars in the super PAC, and I'm allocating probably 4- or 500 million dollars. So I'll be spending—we'll be spending——

For this midterm election?

Yes, we're going to spend a lot of money because we don't want to lose our country. I want to keep these people wealthy, happy, and they have to keep us fed, right?

How do you make—Mr. President, how do you make that determination of how to spend and——

I just——

——when to spend out of MAGA Inc.?

How do I make it? I sit down and I say: "Let's do this. Let's do that." I'm going to be going around. I'm going to be making——

So it's you choosing where to spend?

I'm going to be making contributions to various campaigns of people that I think are good—Republicans that I think are good, people that I think are going to win and can win or are close to winning, people like—I think we have a chance of doing very well in the midterms.

Look, history has said that the sitting President, Republican or Democrat, no matter how—I don't think anybody has had a better first 2 years than we have. There's never been anything like it. Look at the numbers that you see.

Look at the investment numbers of two—think of it: $20 trillion coming in. Nobody has ever had a first 2 years like we have. It's not 2 years yet, but 1½ years. Nobody has ever had a first 1½ years like we have.

So we're going to just see. I'm going to spend——

When does that money start flowing?

——whatever amount of money necessary to try and help us. And this is money from MAGA Inc. This is my money that I control. Now, this is separate from the RNC. It's separate from people having money. And I think it's not even counted in terms of the media. I'm not sure that they ever talk about it. They just found out about it.

But yes, we have around a billion dollars that I can spend. I can spend for the next race also. I can spend it for what I want to spend it for.

But I'm going to help a lot of the Congressmen and Senators that need help.

Do you think you'll save some of that money for 2028?

I could use it for '28, yes, if I want. Sure. My——

Mr. President——

I mean, I expect to have money left over, and we can use that for '28.

And on Moscow, if I could ask just one more question on Moscow. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are expected to go to Kyiv——

Yes.

——and Moscow. Are they bringing with them new proposals to end that war?

No, they're bringing with them a proposal to end the war. Because I ended eight wars.

The same proposal or a different one?

I hope you're proud of me. I ended eight wars. I get no credit for it. I ended eight wars. Did I get the Nobel Prize? No. Although, the person that got it was nice enough that she gave it to me. She said, "Nobody in the history of the Nobel Prize deserves it more than you."

But in Norway, they don't like me because I think they think I'm a little conservative.

Mr. President——

Mr. President, back to the rates. Back to interest rates. A rate hike could reassure the bond market. If you would like to see lower rates——

I—to me, it doesn't reassure a bond market. To me, you should do a rate cut——

And why not?

——because we should be at 1 percent or a half a percent. We should not be at 4 percent, because everything—as I explained, we could do tremendous good for ourselves by just not trading with countries.

We lose with the European Union $200 billion a year. If I didn't trade with them, we'd lose nothing. Just one swipe of the pen.

But wouldn't that make prices go higher?

We lose with Mexico $195 billion a year. If I don't trade with Mexico—they have nothing that we have to have. I mean, hot tamales, tomatoes, a couple of things. But basically, they have nothing that we need. We have oil. We have everything.

I don't want to do that because we get along very well with the President. We like the president, respect her a lot.

But if we didn't want to trade with Mexico—if we didn't want to trade with Canada, we'd save from $60- to $90 billion a year just by not trading with Canada.

Now, Canada would be in a heap of trouble. They would—I don't think they'd exist because, again, they do 95 percent of their business with us. So, if I say we're not going to trade, that means 95 percent of their business gets wiped out. I don't know what they'd do. But—

So we should have the lowest interest rate, as we used to 25, 30 years ago, when we were smart.

Mr. President, about the Trump coin. How—it's very successful. It sold out in just a couple of hours. I'm with Real America's Voice. Our viewers want to get their hands on one of those. Is there a chance that you guys will probably release more at some point?

You mean the coin, like the coin with the "Make America Great Again" and things like that? Yes.

Yes.

Probably so. I know—I hear it does great. I don't know. I don't run it.

You know what I run? I run this country. I don't focus on that. But somebody told me it sells very well. Yeah.

Thank you. Nice question.

Thank you.

Who you with?

Real America's Voice. I'm with——

Good. It's a good group.

Does the new Air Force One still need to be——

And she's with ABC, one of the worst. Maybe the worst.

Go ahead.

Mr. President, thank you for taking my question. Does the new Air Force One still need to be maxed out? Is it safe to fly——

It's going to be maxed out.

——to Ireland?

Yes. It's going to go away, and it's a magnificent plane. Interior-wise, the best.

Will you fly it to Ireland?

Engines, the best.

Oh, yeah, no, I—well, it has a lot of stuff. But to max it out, meaning you can go into any territory, it will take about 60 days, and it's being sent in October to be maxed out.

And what do you plan to do with the plane after you leave office?

It will probably go to the museum.

Probably? Is that up in the air at this point?

I haven't made a decision——

It's still an open question?

——but it will probably go to the museum. It's scheduled to go to the museum.

If it doesn't go to the museum, what would you do with it?

I think it's going to the museum.

Mr. President, on China, one, when President Xi is here, will you host a state dinner?

Yes.

And what does it say to allies as you guys are moving to punish people who support Iran? China is obviously one of Iran's biggest supporters.

Well, not giving it great support.

Does it send a——

Look, China has been——

——mixed message?

China has been very—I said "Please don't get involved" to President Xi. I have a very good relationship. And they're not really involved. Very little involvement by China.

China could have plenty of involvement. They get 50 percent of their oil from the Hormuz Strait.

And by the way, pipelines are being built right now. The road through Syria, which is fantastic, is being built and it's open, actually. And people are taking trucks through Syria, massive trucks with oil in it. A lot of alternatives are being made to the Hormuz Strait. The Hormuz Strait is not what it used to be.

Iran is going to end up, if they don't get smart, really smart—which I don't know if they can; I don't know if they're able to do that—but they're going to end up with a Hormuz Strait that's not very necessary anymore.

Pipelines are being built all over the Middle East now so they don't have to go through the Hormuz Strait.

When should the American public expect resolution on Iran? You just said that you could perhaps strike——

A revolution?

Resolution.

Oh.

You just said that you can perhaps strike——

A big difference. [ Laughter ]

——Pickaxe Mountain and other things. When should people feel——

I thought that revolution was more interesting. [ Laughter ] No.

No, a resolution, sir.

Resolution—I don't know. I can't tell you. But we've already won the big thing. There's not going to be a nuclear weapon.

You know, if we left today, it would take them 25 years to rebuild their country, but I want to leave so that the next President doesn't have to worry about it.

Can you tell us more about this new proposal for peace between Ukraine and Russia? Would it involve, for example, Ukraine ceding territories to Russia?

No, we have an idea for peace. Look, I settled eight wars. Most of them were supposed to be, in my opinion, more difficult than Russia-Ukraine.

There's a personality problem in Russia-Ukraine. You have President Zelenskyy and President Putin; they truly hate each other. Do you know what hate is? They have serious hate, and it's getting in the way of them—you know, last week they lost 32,000 people, mostly soldiers, last—during the last month. Four weeks, they lost 32,000 soldiers. They're losing, on average, 25,000 soldiers a month. It's got to get settled.

So I did—I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the two great negotiators. They've done a great job. And we sent them over to see whether or not we can get something done. And there may be a good chance that we'll do it.

Mr. President, while we were here with you, a mistrial was declared in the Lindsay Clancy trial. Have you been following that trial? Have you watched——

I have.

——any of it? And what do you make of it?

Well, it's hard not to. It's on television so much. It's hard not to follow it. I followed it, pretty much. But it's a shame. It's a horrible tragedy. It's a horrible tragedy. I see what's happened, and it's—looks like it's a hung jury, and I think the judge just said it's going to be a mistrial. I assume there's going to be another trial. It's a terrible situation.

Look, she did a horrible, horrible thing. Can't be worse. But you'll find out what the price to pay is. There'll be a price. It's going to be mental institution or jail or something.

Mr. President——

But I guess they're going to go through another trial. It's too bad.

One last question for you. Thank you so much. Speaker Johnson sent members home early, especially with the midterm elections coming up. Do you feel that Republicans delivered everything you wanted?

Well, he can—look, the House has been great. You know, they sent the SAVE America Act up to the Senate. We're waiting for the Senate. So the House has been great. We got the "Great Big Beautiful Bill." That was—you know, just so people understand, a lot of the things that we gave you, we gave it in the "Great Big Beautiful Bill." We don't have to do new law—we put 17 different bills into that. Lucky we did because it wouldn't get anything else passed. But the House has been—Speaker Johnson has done a fantastic job.

On beef, Mr. President—the suspension of tariffs on ground beef imports. Where is that beef coming from? The White House still has not released——

Well, it's coming from different places. From——

Which countries?

It's coming from Argentina. It's coming from Brazil. It's coming from a couple of other places. We have our inspectors down. It's very clean. It's very good.

And as soon as these people—you know, their herds are increasing. Their herd decreased very, very substantially during the Biden years, during the Biden administration. But even from an environmental standpoint—you know, they wanted to decrease your herds for environmental reasons. Do you believe that one? So we're building up the herds. The farmers——

And to follow up—to follow up——

——the ranchers are building up their herds.

To follow up on that, Mr. President, you had said that importers had agreed that ground beef would be sold at 25 percent below market prices. So are those countries only Argentina and Brazil, or are there other countries that——

Well, there could be——

——agreed to that?

——other countries. But right now it's primarily Argentina and Brazil, but there could be other countries. And we're doing it in a very limited fashion because our ranchers can handle it. But our ranchers really needed a little bit of help, and our ranchers want the prices to be down too. They want to see the prices come down.

But I think a very big thing, and I hear it—I've been hearing it for a long time—is the food processing. Our ranchers are going to be able to do their own food processing, and they'll have inspections. They'll have inspectors. They'll have everything just like these big plants had them.

But I would be willing to say that our ranches will be more sanitary than those plants. I think it's going to be a great thing. I would think it's going to make a big difference when you can do your own processing. You don't have to drive hundreds of miles away.

On the—on the labeling——

Hey, Zippy, could I ask you to say a word? Zippy, you are such a great leader. Go ahead.

Well, thank you, Mr. President. It's always an honor to be here with you, and you've had—you have been the best president for farmers and ranchers and continue to do that.

Thank you.

Of course, a lot of things that happen in agriculture is very difficult and very complicated, and some of these issues are complicated. But these executive orders that you are signing today to recognize that we ought to evaluate the wolves is a really good move because if we put them back in a state where they can maintain themselves, we shouldn't have them threatening our cattle herds and our—and the people around this country. So that is a great, great thing.

And being able to process your meat, it opens up the opportunity for small, beginning, young farmers to——

That's right.

——actually start out little and have the opportunity to grow bigger by being able to slaughter or harvest their animals closer to home and being able to give sales directly to the consumer. So that's one of the areas that we see growth in agriculture today, especially with the first-generation farmers. So I think those are very good moves.

And, Mr. President, on the country——

Thank you, Zippy. He's done a fantastic job.

On the country-of-origin labeling, what is the timeline there? When can consumers who go to the stores——

Well, that's going to be——

——see that?