you came up with the book title, "why not the best?" president carter: i was a senior officer in developing the second atomic summary. when i was interviewed, he asked me all kinds of questions. every time i answered a question he would ask me a more difficult question and he proved i knew nothing about the subject i had chosen. he finally asked me how i was at the naval academy. i was so-and-so in the class of 800 something. very proud. he said, did you do your best? i thought for a long time. i did always study as part as -- hard as i could have. >> president like donald speaking to the press. president-elect trump: very exciting for a country. we are honored to welcome one of the most respected business

leaders in the middle east, indeed to the world. d is a founder and chairman of -- he is a founder and chairman of demac properties. very respected,. i'm thrilled to announce demac will be investing at least $20 billion over a short period of time into the united states. they may go double or even somewhat more than double that amount of money. a great thing. i believe he will say he is doing it because of the fact he was very inspired by the election. they wouldn't do it without that election. a lot of people wouldn't. peace out last week we had somebody who's going to go from 100 dollars to $200 billion. -- $100 billion to $200 billion. some like to do it somewhat more quietly. some don't. they feel so strongly about the country that they want to let

people know about it. it is an honor to have such a great investor investing in our country. the investment will support massive new data centers across the midwest, the sun belt area and also to keep america on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligences. he's big into the data centers. that will be a hot item in the coming years as you know with ai in particular. the first phase of the project will be in texas, arizona, oklahoma, louisiana, ohio, illinois, michigan and indiana. those places. i will though for you to come up and say a few words. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. it's been amazing news for me and my family when he was elected in november. we have been waiting for years to increase our investments in the u.s.

we are company operating in more than 20 countries around the world. we have delivered more than 45,000 luxury units and another 45,000 in the pipeline. in data center, we are in 10 countries. in asia, europe and the middle east. we are very excited now with his leadership and his open strategy and policy to encourage businesses to come to the u.s. for the last four years we have been waiting for this moment. we are planning to invest $20 billion. even more than that if the opportunity allows us. at the moment we are plenty $20 billion for a data center catering to ai and cloud business for the hyperscalers. thank you, mr. president. president-elect trump: so nice. that man knows what he's doing. he knows.

hussein, we will work with you to make sure everything goes smoothly. we have powers that have not been used in terms of environmental -- investing over $1 billion, we will give expedited reviews to everybody. everybody is afraid it will get caught in the quagmire which is prevalent in the united states, unfortunately. the quagmire of environmental and other regulations and rules. i made it a point of telling people if you invest $1 billion or more -- we will do this with people with far less too. we guarantee it. we will move them quickly through the environmental process. sometimes people held up 12, 13, 15 years. i saw it with plants in louisiana where i got it approved in a week. they were through the review. one week, after spending 14.5 years trying to get it. they were going nowhere. it was a terrible thing.

i have been a victim of that myself over the years. i think i know all the games and all the tricks that are played. much of it is just done to stop progress. we will be helping you and everybody else that comes to the united states and wants to invest that you don't get tied up for the rest of your life and you can't do anything. this commitment underscores that many of the greatest business leaders on earth are seeing a very bright economic future for america. since the election, as you know, a lot of positive things have happened. we are inheriting a difficult situation from the outgoing administration. they are trying everything they can to make it more difficult. inflation is continuing to rage. interest rates are far too high. i have been disappointed to see the biden administration's attempt to block the reforms of the american people that they

voted for. we had a landslide election. we won the popular vote by millions and millions of people. nobody even knows how many people. millions. they are still counting in some areas. they are still counting the vote in some areas. can you believe this? what a place. what a horrible place. we have to fix the election so we get honest counts and they get done by 10:00 in the evening or something thereabouts. they have places where they are still counting votes. president biden's actions yesterday on offshore drilling -- banning offshore drilling will not stand. i will reverse it immediately. it will be done immediately. we will drill, baby, drill. we will be drilling and a lot of other locations. energy costs are coming way down. they will be brought down to low levels. that will bring everything else down.

that is what caused it to go up along with the ridiculous spending for the green new scam. trillions of dollars. it is like throwing it out the window. they are trying to spend so much. they are just taking money and giving it to anybody that wanted for any project at all if it is certified under the green new scam. it is too expensive. they told me that we will do everything possible to make this transition to the new administration very smooth. it is not smooth. they are doing that. they are playing with the courts. they have for four years. probably got me more votes because i got the highest number of votes by republican ever by far. by a lot. we had a great election. i guess it didn't work. even to this day there playing with the courts and their friendly judges. they would like to make

everybody happy on the democrats side. it is the weaponization of justice and its happened at a level no one has seen before. i defeated deranged jack smith. i guess he's on his way back to the hague. we won those cases. those were the biggest ones. the press made such a big deal out of them. we did nothing wrong. we did nothing wrong than anything and the people saw that. not easy for a republican. when a republican wins the popular vote by millions and all seven of the swing states, people said he could win four. we won by a lot. that tells you we won. that tells you they have been watching this injustice. i call it the injustice department. the whole world is watched -- has watched that. it took work but i got a lot of vote. when i explained we have a judge in new york is a very crooked judge, i'm under a gag order.

i can't even talk about aspects of the case that of the most vital aspects. do you know on the president elect of the united states of america, a former very successful president -- we have the greatest economy in the history of our country, borders that resealed. everything was good. we had no wars. we defeated isis. we had no wars. now going into a world that is burning with russia and ukraine, with israel. you took a look at that attack on october 7. the attack on israel. the horrible way they got out. i would have been out before them. we would have been out of afghanistan with dignity and strength as opposed to looking like a bunch of fools, with 13 dead and many badly -- horrifically injured. nobody talks about them. no arms, no legs. nobody talks about them. the way they got out was

outrageous. leaving billions of dollars of brand new military equipment that i bought in the hands of the afghans, specifically the taliban. that is the group. we were doing very well. we would have been respected. it is one of the reasons it was so badly handled, that withdrawal, people jumping onto airplanes and falling off the sides of airplanes when they are 3000 feet in the air. nobody has ever seen anything like that. the worst. because of that, russia went and attacked ukraine. they saw that they said these guys are incompetent. they don't know what they are doing. we know what we're doing now. level all and. -- end. we were in no wars. we got our soldiers guarding syria and turkey. we had 5000 soldiers. they would have been gobbled up

with two armies. we had one army 300000 and another 500,000 or 600,000. we had 5000 people in the middle. how do 5000 people do it in that case? the general looked at me and said not well, sir. not well. i took them out. you know what happened? nothing. i saved 5000 lives. we did a great job. we will do an even better job because now we have a tremendous amount of experience. we have people i can rely on. the 625 million acres -- people can't -- that's like the whole ocean. an acre. you have a house in half an acre or a quarter of an acre. if you have an acre, you have a big deal. now you multiply that by 625 million acres. that is like the whole ocean.

that is our strength. people can say we manufactured -- we don't manufacture. we have oil and gas more than anybody in the world. we will have more of it too. they took away 625 million acres of offshore drilling. nobody else does that. they think they have it -- i will put it back on day one. i will have it revoked. if we need to. i don't think we will have to go to the courts but they try to be sneaky. this is a man that said he wants to transition -- wants the transition to be smooth. given have a judge working hard to try to embarrass you, because i did nothing wrong. i did absolutely nothing wrong. if i did something wrong, i would not be standing here now because i won all these cases. nobody has ever won so many cases as i have against a justice department. jack smith had cases all over the place.

people were being subpoenaed and lives were ruined. they were spending everything we had. we were helping them out. we had to. they were subpoenaing people that had no idea what they were talking about. that is a sick group of people. it was all to influence the election. it was all a fight against a political opponent. we have never had that in this country. you have had that in certain countries. we have had that in third tier countries. we had that in banana republics. we never had that in the place like the united states. i don't even know if it has been on a small level. i'm sure it has been on a small level but this was the largest level ever. they brought this more on out of the hague. he is a mean guy. his picture was perfect. you look at his picture, that's a bad guy with his robe, his purple robe. he executes people. he should not be allowed to execute people because he

will execute everybody. we won all those cases with him. i don't know the judge in florida. we had a brilliant judge in florida that's all right through it. we won the case. a brilliant judge with great courage. the left, as we call them, the radical left, they away. -- they have a way. they go and say horrible things about judges and prosecutors. some judges and prosecutors say the only way i will get these people off my back is to give victory to them. they are playing the ref. i think it is illegal. it is worse than talking to a judge. the judge in florida, judge cannon, was brilliant and tough. she did not stand for it. i don't know her. never met her until the case. i don't believe i said even one word to her. she was very, very strong and

very, very brilliant. her opinion was so brilliant they dropped their appeal. they could not -- all they do is talk. it is all talk. everything they do is talk. we will have a smooth transition, then they take 625 million acres and essentially landmark it so you cannot ever drill there again. we will be drilling soon. we will be opening up and more -- anwar. we will do things nobody thought was even possible. remember when -- just to get off the subject because i could not believe it when i heard it yesterday. i could not believe the size of it. did is just massive. -- it is just massive. remember that, that is worth probably -- i've had estimates of $40 trillion to $50 trillion. that is more than our national debt and he's thrown out away. he has taken $50 trillion -- if

we owe $35 trillion, he's taken $50 trillion of value and thrown it right out the window. we can do that. one other thing he did yesterday which was in many ways worse -- hard to believe it could be worse -- he wants all gas heaters out of your homes and apartments. he wants them to be replaced by essentially electric heaters. i don't know what it is with electric. we will be ending the electric car mandate, by the way. this guy loves electric. we don't have enough electricity. we have a eyewear we need more and he wants everybody to have an electric heater instead of a gas heater. the gas heater is much less expensive. the heat is much better. it is a much better heat, as the expression goes you don't ditch. -- itch. that is what they want you have.

they don't want you to have gas for you to have the problems of the electric. and, the source is plentiful. they are much cheaper to operate, work much better, look much better. 60% of homes and apartments have gas heaters. he wants them all removed quickly. these people are crazy. there is something wrong with them. they also want to go back. they have already started that when you buy a faucet, no water comes out. it is cold rain. pickup -- called rain. it comes down from heaven. no water comes out of the shower. it goes drip, drip, drip. you are in the shower 10 times as long. no water comes out of the faucet. you want to wash your hands. they want to go back to stronger than what they have now. i ended that policy. you can have all the water you

want. make no difference. in some areas we have so much water we don't know what to do with it. they want very little water to go into your dishwasher. almost none. you know what people do? they just keep pressing, pressing, pressing and the use more water. washing machines. they want in your washing machine to have very little water coming out of the washing machine so when you wash your clothing you end up using more water. we are a party of common sense and things i'm telling you now are all about common sense. january 20, we will turn the economy around quickly. right now we are -- when i think of the economy i think about inflation. that is what we have, inflation. at a level we never had before. there's never been anything like it. the united states is going to take off like a rocket ship. it's already doing it, if you

take a look. last month, softbank announced the $200 billion -- i said make it $200 billion and they said yes. they say $100 billion but it might be $200 billion. creating more than 100,000 jobs. hussein just announced tremendous investment people make and that is money in the bank. he will do a great job and build the best centers in the country. i know the way he builds. the stock market has set records. the s&p 500 index has broken above 6000 points for the first time ever. never even close. small business optimism sword. 41 points. it went up 41 points and that is the largest in the 39-year history of the group that does it. according to gallup the american

people's confidence in the economy has surged to the highest level in history. that is why i have a news conference and i take the greatest business leaders in the world and say do you want to say you will invest the money? they are not looking for news conferences. would have i doing here? it is good to know where the smartest business people in the world are investing. they are investing in the united states. we have done this fall and team months -- two months -- done this all in two months. we think we will do some great things, really great things. we will be respected again all over the world. the pat about t -- the panama canal is a disgrace. jimmy carter gave to them for one dollar and they were supposed to treat as well. i thought it was a terrible thing to do. the most expensive structure ever told in the history of our

country, relatively. the equivalent of over $1 trillion today. we lost 38,000 people. think of it. 38,000 people die from malaria. mosquitoes. they were unable to stop the mosquitoes. they've paid people five times more to take the jobs in a lot of them died. we give it away for a dollar. the deal was, you know, they have to treat us fairly. they charge more for our ships than they do for ships of other countries. they charge more for our navy than they charge for navies of other countries. they laugh at us because they think we're stupid, but we are not stupid anymore. the panama canal is under discussion. they violated every aspect of the agreement. they morally violated it also. they want our help because it is leaking and not in good repair. they wanted to give $3 billion

to help fix it. why don't you get the money from china? china is basically taking it over. china is at both ends of the panama canal. china is running the panama canal and they come to see this biden, this guy who should never have been allowed even to run for president -- of course, she shouldn't have either. had to be two people, not one. they want $3 billion to fix the panama canal that is run by china and makes a lot of money for china. one of the most profitable structures ever built. you have ships lined up back to florida and they keep going through. the numbers are staggering. half a million to $1 million a ship. we give it to them for a dollar. not going to happen. they have charged us. they have overcharged our ships. overcharged our navy.

when any repair money, they come to the united states to put it up. we get nothing. those days are over. working with the republican majority, we will cut taxes, slash regulations and boost incomes the world is never seen before, certainly not from our country. we had a big chunk of it for the first three years prior to covid coming in. we have the greatest economy in history. we cut the most regulations in the history of our country. i did that all in four years. by four times more than any other president, we did that in four years. we were just getting started. we will impose new tariffs so the products in our stores will once again be stamped with those beautiful words, made in the usa. we are not treated well by canada. canada is subsidized to the tune of about $200 billion a year,

plus other things. they don't essentially have a military. they have a small military. they rely on our military. fine. they have to pay for that. it is very unfair. i have so many great friends. one is the great one, wayne gretzky. i said run for prime minister and you will win and it will take two seconds. he said, will they run for prime minister or governor? i don't know. let's make it governor. i like it better. something will have to be done. same with mexico. we have a massive deficit with mexico. we helped mexico a lot. they are essentially run by the cartels. can't let that happen. mexico is really in trouble. a lot of trouble. very dangerous place. we are going to be announcing a future date pretty soon. we are going to change.

we do most of the work there and it is ours. we will be changing. the opposite of biden, where he's closing everything up and getting rid of $50 trillion to $60 trillion worth of assets. we will be changing the name of the gulf of mexico to the gulf of america. which is a beautiful ring. that covers a lot of terro -- territory. it is appropriate. it is appropriate. mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to forward to our country. they can -- pour into our country. we will put serious tariffs on mexico and canada. the drugs that are coming through are at record numbers. record numbers. we are going to make up for that by putting tariffs on mexico and canada. substantial tariffs. we want to get along with everybody but, you know, it

takes two to tango. we are approaching the dawn of america's golden age. this will be a golden age for america. we have more natural resources. number one, nobody knew that until i came along. i made is number one. we were number three. i made is number one in a short period of time and drilling. -- in drilling. windmills are littered all over our country like dropping paper. like dropping garbage in a field. that is what happens to them. they turn into garbage. the most extensive energy ever. they only work you beget subsidy. the only people that want them are the people getting massive subsidies from the u.s. government. it is the most expensive energy there is. many times more expensive than clean natural gas. we will try to have a policy where no windmills are being built.

off the coast of new jersey they want to build 200 windmills. people are going crazy. nobody wants them. they are very expensive. they don't work without subsidy. you don't want energy that needs subsidy. when you build these massive towers -- they are 25 stories tall, 40 stories. they have one that is 70 stories tall. the blades take three ships to ship them. it is crazy. they are dangerous. bc was happening up in the massachusetts area with -- you see what has happened in the massachusetts area. two washed ashore. the windows are driving the wheels crazy, obviously. i think over 125 or something over a number of years. we don't want that to happen. it is amazing the way a true environmentalist would say we love wind. it sounds good but that is about

where it ends. after 10 years you have to redo them. they don't do that. they let them stand in the rust. they say this because of the environment. they say it is a certain fiberglass. the blades cannot be buried in earth. what do you do with them? i don't know if you've ever gone to palm springs, california, any of these places where you have long-term windmills standing. they are rusting, writing, close, falling down -- ro tting, closed, falling down. nobody was to take them down. why should that? it is very expensive and you can't do anything with them because the blades cannot be buried because of the environs of protection. does not make sense but that is what they say. we are at the beginning of a great, beautiful golden age of business. i think we are also at a golden age of common sense. everything i am saying to you,

from a simple water faucet that does not allow water to come out appropriately to all the other elements of what we do and what we are going to do. to take $50 trillion to $60 trillion off our country's balance sheet because some men who has no idea what he's doing -- no idea. you know it. i know it. the democrats know it. what they did is a crime by allowing that to happen. if you asked them today, how much acreage did you submit, essentially destroyed -- you destroyed the economic viability of drilling in the ocean. with ai coming along, a lot of people don't realize that ai will be a big thing. you will need double the electricity at least that we have now. we produce electricity for many different things. ai is a very big deal in terms

of the future. china is already building electric facilities. big, bold electric facilities. you know how they are fired up? with coal. we will build bigger and better ones. people like hussein that are doing the same thing as he is. i bet they don't do it as well because i know how he does it. they are doing a lot of things. i promise they cannot get their permits. build the plant with the buildings. with the structure build the plant. they said that is a great idea. build your electric facility alongside of your plant. you can have extra output if you want. once you can build it, you can make it larger. you can have extra output that you will sell to the public. build it with the plant and people are living that idea. -- loving that idea.

we will have a lot of fun making america great again. it has already happened. this has been openly reported by the news. there has never been anything like what is happened since we won the election. a couple of months. since we won the election the whole perception of the whole world is different. people from other countries have called me and said thank you. thank you. the perception of the whole world is different. we will have to settle some big problems that are going on now. we have to settle up with russia and ukraine. that's a disaster. the number of people killed in that war -- people don't know. mostly soldiers. towns have been obliterated. this was a biden fiasco that should've never happened. if we had a real president -- a president that knew what he was doing, brush would have never gone in. -- russia would have never gone in. the cities are all blown up. the people have left.

the soldiers are killing each other at levels not seen since the second world war. we will have to get that one straightened out. much tougher than it would have been before it started, i can tell you that. the deal could have been made just by an average dealmaker. thank you all for coming. we will take a couple of questions. go ahead please. reporter: thank you. i wanted to touch on the world on fire that you mentioned. let's start if we could with references to agreement and the panama -- -- with the panama canal. as you try to get control of these areas, you will not use military or economic coercion? president-elect trump: no. reporter: can you tell us about what your plan is? are you going to negotiate? will you ask the canadians to hold the boat? president-elect trump: you are talking about panama and

greenland. i cannot assure you on either of those two. we need them for economic security. the panama canal was built for our military. i'm not going to commit to that. it might be we will have to do something. the panama canal is vital to our country. it is being operated by china. china. we gave the panama canal to panama. we did not give it to china. they have abused it. they abused that gift. it should have never been made. giving panama canal is why jimmy carter lost the election, more so in my opinion that the hostages. the hostages were a big deal. nobody wants to talk about the panama canal. it is inappropriate, i guess, because it is a bad part of the carter legacy. he was a good man. i knew him a little bit and he was a fine person. it was a big mistake.

giving the panama canal to panama was a big mistake. we lost 38,000 people. it cost us the equivalent of $1 trillion. they say it was the most expensive structure, is -- if we call it a structure -- which i guess you can -- ever built. giving that away was a horrible thing and i believe that is why jimmy carter lost the election even more so than the hostages. those two things. reporter: on ukraine, you said it is a lot more complicated. pres. elect trump: much more complicated. it would not have started. reporter: it has started. pres. elect trump: not only started, cities are largely knocked down. reporter: at this point will you make a commitment to the ukrainians that you will keep supporting them? pres. elect trump: i would not tell you if that were the case. reporter: if they do enter into

an armistice or cease fire, along the lines of the french and the germans. pres. elect trump: a big part of the problem was russia, for many years, long before vladimir putin said, you can never have nato involved with ukraine. they have said that. that has been written in stone. somewhere along the line biden said they should be able to join nato. russia has somebody right at their doorstep. i can understand their feelings about that. there were a lot of mistakes made in that negotiation and when i heard the way biden was negotiating i said he will end up in a war. it turned out to be a very bad work. the war could escalate to be much worse is that it is right now. my view is it was always understood. in fact, i believe they had a deal and then biden broke it. they had a deal that would have been satisfactory to ukraine and

everybody else but biden said, no, you have to be able to join nato. nobody knows more about nato than i do. years ago when i started this i did not know too much about nato but i got it right anyway. i said they are taking advantage. i am the one that got it. the secretary general was here two years ago saying if it were not for me nato would not exist now because i raced from countries that were not paying their bills. at that time 28 countries. 20 of them were not paying their bills. 21 to be exactly that they weren't paying where they were paying a very small portion. i raised over $680 billion. that was the number he gave. by saying, if you don't pay, we won't protect you. as soon as i said that money came pouring in. but obama could have said that. bush could have said it. nobody said it but me. i took a lot of the heat. i said we won't protect you if you aren't paying your bills.

in a true sense i saved to nato but nato has taken advantage of us. one of the problems that i have that i have set openly, i have said this to president zelenskyy, europe is in for a tiny fraction of the money we are in for now. whether you like that situation or not, europe is much more affected than the united states. we have a thing called the ocean in between us. why are we in for billions and billions of dollars more money than europe? they are a similar sized economy as the united states when you add them up and yet europe is in for a small fraction of the number that the united states is in. biden could have called them up during the term. that is what i did. i said, you have to pay your bills. one stood out. you probably have it. the media hate to report on it. a prime minister stood up from a

country. a famous meeting of 28 nations with no press, know anybody. he stood up and said, does that mean if we don't pay our bill -- and at that point it was a 2%. it should be 5%. many people did not pay anything. include in germany. germany was at less than 1%. i think nato should have 5%. you can't do it at 2%. if you are going to have a country and a regular military you are at 4%. they are in dangerous territory. they could all afford it. they should be at 5%, not 2%. i am the one that got them to pay 2%. a prime minister stood up and said to me, sir, can i ask a question? if we don't pay our bills, will the united states protect us from russia? i said, you mean you are delinquent? i said if you are delinquent we

will not protect you. i took a lot of heat. from the media. do you know what happened? money started pouring in. that is why nato has money. the secretary-general said it was the most incredible thing he had ever seen in a negotiation. if i would have said, yes we will nobody would have paid. i would have loved to have said yes we will protect you even if you don't pay but that is not the way life works. >> two questions related to each other. first, you set on your first day of office you will pardon january 6 defendants. are you planning to pardon those that were charged with violent offenses? pres. elect trump: we are looking at it. 24 or 28 people came from the fbi that came out very quietly. nobody reported it. they had people in some form related to the fbi, four or five people strongly related to the fbi. we have to find out about that.

we have to find out about hezbollah. we have to find out exactly who was in that whole thing. people that did some bad things were not prosecuted. i see it all the time. you see it too. people that were doing bad things were not prosecuted. people that did not even walk into the building are in jail now. we will look at the whole thing. i will be making major pardons, yes. reporter: two questions about syria and the ongoing war in gaza. about syria, the pentagon disclosed last month the u.s. has some 2000 troops in syria, almost double the number we were initially told, 900. will you keep the troop capacity the same? pres. elect trump: i will tell you that because it is part of military strategy. but i will say that it is turkey. turkey has but after that question in different names in different forms in different shapes for 2000 years. those people that went in are

from turkey. president erdogan is a friend of mine. he's a guy i like and respect and i think he respects me also. he is the one that did not go after certain people after i requested he not read you know who i am talking about. the kurds. i do not know how long that will go because they are natural enemies. they hate each other. but he did not do that. he did not do that in the past also. he started. i said, please don't do that. he did not do it. look at what happened with syria. russia was weekend. around --iran was weekend. he was a very smart guy. he sent his people in there through different forms and different names and they went in there and took over and that is the way it is. by the way, i have the envoy. is that in the back? standing with my son eric is a steven witkoff who just got back from the middle east.

he has done a fantastic job. he's a great deal maker. i said what we need there is a dealmaker. nobody makes a deal. we have people who understand where the rivers are but they can't talk. they can't make deals. steve has done a great job. thank you, steve. you have then working endlessly for months. he is working specifically on the hostages, trying to get them back. steve, come up for a second. maybe you want to say a couple words. i did not know steve would be here. he has done a fantastic job. it's a dangerous job too and i appreciate him. we did not know about -- he did not know about this kind of danger in the other dealmaking he did. now he knows about the danger. can i get a report on the hostages, steve? thank you. >> while.

--wow. i think we are making a lot of progress. i don't want to say too much because i think they are doing a really good job back in doha. i am leaving tomorrow back to doha. i think we have had some really great progress and i am really hopeful that by the inaugural, we will have some good things to announce on behalf of the president. i believe that we are working in tandem in a really good way. but, it is the president, his reputation, the things he has said that are driving this negotiation. so, hopefully, it will all work out and we will save some lives. i believe we have been on the verge of it. i don't want to discuss what is -- has delayed it. i don't want to be negative in any way but i think it is the

president, his stature, what he has said he expects, the redlines he has put out there that is driving the negotiation. i am going back probably through this evening or tomorrow night. reporter: will there be a deal before january 20? if there is a dealer event at all. we have heard this before. -- if there is a deal even at all. we have heard this before. >> i would say that the president is exasperated yet i don't want to talk for him. i don't know anybody that delegates better than president trump. he gives us a lot of authority to speak on his behalf that he exhorts us to speak emphatically. because the alternative --. reporter: do you think they are waiting for president trump to take office? what's i think they heard him loud and clear and it will

happen before the inaugural. reporter: when you say all hell will be paid if they pres. elect trump: don't release the hostages? if the hostages aren't back by the time i get into office all hell will break out in the middle east and it won't be good for hamas or anyone. all hell will break out. they should have given them back a long time ago. they should have never taken them. there should have never been the attack of october 7. people forget that. but there was. many people were killed. there are no longer hostages. i have people from israel and others calling, begging me. we had also people there from the united states. just so you know. they are holding so-called hostages from the u.s.. i have had mothers come to me, father's crime, can i get the body of their son back?

can i get the body of their daughter back? that beautiful girl. they threw her in the car. they pulled her by her ponytail and threw her under the car like a sack of potatoes. what happened to her? sir, she is dead. a 19-year-old, 20 year old, beautiful girl. the way they treated her. steve has a job to do. he is a great guy and a great negotiator. they respect him over there already. here's what we needed over there. we have people who know everything about the middle east but they can't speak properly. they don't know. he is a great negotiator. that is what i needed. i could have said that a gentleman over there. there are people that are rare. great negotiators are very rare. like a great surgeon. but we have the right person. i don't want to hurt the negotiation. if the deal is not done before i take office, which will now be in two weeks, all hell will break out in the middle east. reporter: thank you, mr.

president. reporter: more than 140 police officers responded january 6. will you pardon anybody that attacked a police officer? pres. elect trump: the only one killed was a beautiful young lady named ashli babbitt. she was killed. there was somebody else killed also, a -- maga person but people don't give it 100% credibility. ashli babbitt was killed. she was shot clear as you should have never been shot. she was shot for no reason whatsoever. they were saying she was trying to hold back the crowd. the crowd was made up of a lot of different people. we will see. i will tell you this. the person that was killed was ashli babbitt. there were never charges of insurrection or anything like that. if there were, this would be the

only insurrection in history where people went in as insurrectionists with not one done. ok? let me tell you, the people we are talking about have a lot of guns in their home for hunting, shooting, entertainment. a lot of good reasons. but there was not one gun that they found. why didn't they find the bomber? the pipe bomber? the fbi knows who it is. the status of the fbi has gone down so far. the status of the doj, or, as i call it, the department of injustice. the department of injustice. being left out all over the world. hopefully with pam bondi and kash patel and other people we are putting in that will all come back. if you do a pool in the fbi --poll in the fbi i guarantee i am like at 90% with the agents

of the fbi but they have hurt that incredible place. law enforcement in the fbi rated this house. they could have told me. i told them, come in anytime you want. you can see anything. they raided the house. the case was dismissed. now i am in litigation. i'm suing them for doing that. i feel so badly doing it. i am the president of the united states and i am suing the united states, but i am suing them for other things. the fbi has gone so -- it's reputation has been so horribly hurt between comey, who is the worst, and all of the others. we will make it great again. we will make the fbi great again. we will make the department of justice fair and strong. strong but fair but fair again. all they did was attack me because i am their political opponent that includes local judges. you want to find out. ask them.

why do i have a gag order where i am not allowed to speak? think of it. i am the president of the united states and i am not allowed to speak. why? because, if i did speak, people would understand the scam. it's a scam. we have very dishonest judges. new york judges, very bad. we had one that valued $19 million. he valued this house as $18 million. we have another one that was so nasty. so horrible. such a brute. the most vicious, vile person. these are new york judges. we have won most of the cases, so we are very happy about that. reporter: you have specific action to draw plans? pres. elect trump: we need

greenland for national security purposes. i have been told that for a long time. people have been talking about it for a long time. you have approximately 45,000 people there. people don't even really know if denmark has any legal right to it. if they do, they should give it up. we need it for national security, for the free world. protecting the free world. you do not even need binoculars. look outside. you have china ships all over the place. you have russian ships all over the place. we are letting that happen. we are letting it happen. if denmark wants to get to a conclusion -- but nobody knows if they have any right title or interest. people will probably vote for independence or to come into the united states. if they did do that i would tariff denmark at a very high level. we are not at that stage. i haven't entered office yet.

reporter: musk has drawn criticism and a lot of attention for some of his actions and provocative statements about foreign affairs including in europe. your reaction to that? pres. elect trump: you mean where he likes people that tend to be conservative? i don't know the people. i can say that elon has done a good job. he is a very smart guy. i don't know the people you are talking about. i know he has said some negative things about a couple people running for office. but that is not so unusual. reporter: i want to ask you about ukraine and putin. how soon do you anticipate going to meet with putin to discuss the ukraine situation? pres. elect trump: i can't tell you that but i know that putin would like to meet. i do not think it is appropriate to meet until after the 20th, which i hate. because every day many young people are being killed. the land is very flat. hundreds of thousands of

soldiers from each -- many hundreds of thousands from each side are dead. they are laying in fields all over the place. nobody to even collect. landmines all over. it's a disaster. but it's very flat. it's farmland. it's very very flat. the only thing that stops a bullet is the human body. the human body is stopping a lot of bullets. i hope to have six months. i hope long before six months. look, russia is losing a lot of young people and so is ukraine. it should have never been started. if that is a war that should have never happened. i guarantee you, if i was president that war would have never happened. i will be announcing. reporter: should we work under

the assumption that you are serious about making canada the 51st state of the united states. the leader of the canadian conservative party said under no circumstances. you said you were considering military force to acquire canada and greenland. are you considering military force? pres. elect trump: no. economic force. because canada and the united states, that would really be something. you get rid of that artificially drawn a line and then you take a look at what that looks like. it wouldn't be much better for national security. don't forget, we basically protect canada. here is the problem with canada. so many friends up there. i love the canadian people. they are great. but, we are spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it. we are spending hundreds of billions per year to take care of canada. in trade deficits we are losing massive.

we don't need their cars. they make 20% of our cars. we don't need that. i would rather make them in detroit. we don't need their lumber. we have massive fields of lumber. we have unrestricted them because stupid people -- unrestrict them because stupid people put restrictions on what i can do with an executive order. we don't need their dairy products. we have more than they have. so why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect canada? i said to governor judo, what would happen -- president what would happen? we don't want a partner in the buying of icebreakers. we have a right not to help them with their financial

difficulties. we owe $36 trillion too. we will start knocking it out fast. we will be able to do it because of energy and other things. no right. no right. why are we supporting a country, 200 billion plus per year. our military is at their disposal. all of these other things. that is what i told justin trudeau when he came down. i said what would happen if we did not do it? he said canada would dissolve. canada would not be able to function. if we take 20% of the car market. they send us hundreds of thousands of cars and make a lot of money with that. they send us a lot of other things. we don't need their cars. we don't need the other products. we don't need their milk. we have a lot of milk. we have a lot of everything. i said to him, why are we doing it? he said, i don't really know. he was unable to answer the question.

i can answer that we are doing it because of habit. we are doing it because we like our neighbors. we have been good neighbors. but we cannot do it forever. it's a tremendous amount of money. why should we have a $200 billion deficit and many other things we give them in terms of subsidy? i said, that's ok to have if you are a state. but if you are another country we don't want to have it. we don't want it with the european union either. with the european union we have a trade deficit of $350 billion. they don't take our cars. they don't take our farm products. they don't take anything. so we won't have it with them either. reporter: happy new year, by the way. breaking news. canada has blocked -- they have blocked the doj from releasing the smith report until further proceedings. pres. elect trump: that's a big story. if i get it right, the fake

witch hunt started by the doj having to do with books and records, and by then had many more and he was not protected by the presidential records act, i was billion all of the fake stuff that took the lives of people, literately destroy people. people are destroyed because of what they did, destroyed. biden did it for 40 years. he did it when he was a senator. that was illegal. they ruled it was illegal. how about that? they said it is illegal but he is unfit to stand trial. he can stand and be president of the united states but the prosecutor found he is unfit for trial. i was going to use that as a major talking point but i never got to because all of a sudden i had a new candidate that was also unfit to stand trial. what you are saying is the judge just blocked the --.

canon was thrown off the case. they dropped their appeal because he had no case. they dropped all of that. all the lawsuits against us. they lost the lawsuit. jack smith dropped to the lawsuits. he was told to by the doj because they had no lawsuit. they lost in court in front of a very strong and very brilliant judge. they lost in court. that pertained to other cases in other courts. he wanted to do a report. just before i take office, probably. he will do like a five hundred page report. it will be a fake report just like the investigation was a fake investigation. i said, wait a minute. this guy was thrown off in disgrace. in disgrace. he has gone back to the hague or wherever they will send him in disgrace because he failed so badly. because it was a fake case against a political opponent.

they thought they would use this to be to me. what you are saying is -- and i am just hearing that. or they are not allowed to issue the report. if they are not allowed to issue the report that is the way it should be because he was thrown off the case in disgrace. why should he be allowed to write a fake report? that's great news. reporter: many americans are angry we are sending millions of dollars every month to the taliban. pres. elect trump: it's not even believable. not millions, billions. billions of dollars to essentially the taliban, afghanistan. it is given by biden. that is the same man that took away $50 trillion-$60 trillion of value from the united states, our most valuable asset, took away our most valuable asset. this cannot be allowed to happen. we are now a nation of common sense. what you -- when he does that,

625 million acres, that cannot be allowed to happen. thank you for the information. most other people probably knew about it but would not have told me. reporter: on the campaign trail you vowed to bring down prices at stores very fast. and recently you told time magazine bringing down prices would be very hard. what can the american people expect when you come into office? pres. elect trump: it is always hard to bring down prices when somebody else has screwed something up like they did. energy and bad spending brought it up and energy will bring it down. we will have prices down. you will see pretty drastic price reductions. as an example, food. bacon. ham. apple's. everything is going through the roof. as you know, and i said, inflation was one reason. but i think one of the biggest reasons i won was the fact they

are allowing prisoners to come into our country. they release their prisoners, their murderers, thousands of murderers are now walking around the streets of our cities and farmland all over. people that have killed many. 32% have killed more than one person. they released them from their jails, their prisons, and their menstrual institutions -- and in the -- their mental institutions reporter: into our country. president carter was laid in state today in washington. pres. elect trump: is a man what is a mandolin ring with his policies. i thought that giving away the panama canal was a good thing. i think it -- was not a good thing. i think it cost him the election. that in the hostages. i think it was a big factor.

that was a deal that should not have been made. this was a question that was asked of me. i did not want to bring it up. i did not want to bring up the panama canal because of jimmy carter's death. but you and other people have asked me about it. it was a deal iit was a deal i y against. i was a young guy when it took place. why would we spend all of that money, losing 38,000 people, to malaria, the mosquito. they were dying. it was horrible what was happening. for one dollar. reporter: you appeared to open the door yesterday in a radio interview for a two bill approach. pres. elect trump: i like one big beautiful bill but if two is

more certain it does go a little quicker because you can do immigration stuff early. for immigration, and the wall, we won the case on the wall. they tried to sell the wall for five cents on the dollar. fortunately we had a judge that stopped that. or they were already discarding the wall. five cents on the dollar. you know what they were doing d? calling us of saying we will sell it back to you at 200 cents, double what we paid for it. so, they were going to buy it from this guy for five cents. steel, concrete, rebar. very heavy steel. very powerful steel. hard to cut. very, very heavy.

7000 pound concrete. very strong concrete we had everything top. would be double what we paid six years ago. let me tell you. they were selling it for five cents on the dollar to people. those people were calling us asking us to pay them 200 cents. because that's a good deal because we can have it immediately. just leave it in place. the papers have not written that. that deal is like all of the other things. these people either hate our country or they are very stupid. i do not believe they are stupid . because nobody can cheat on elections like they cheated and be stupid. they either hate our country or they are stupid. remember what i said. nobody wants to report it. they were selling the wall for five cents on the dollar and trying to resell it back to us for 200 cents or less. for 200 cents on the dollar.

that's a nice return. reporter: fact checks on puts on its -- posts on its website. pres. elect trump: i watched as their news conference. i thought it was a very good news conference. i think they have come a long way,meta, facebook. i watched it. the man was very impressive. i watched it on fox. i'm not allowed to say that. probably. reporter: the last time you were here, you were asked about the u.s. possibly launching a preemptive strike on iran's nuclear facilities. pres. elect trump: that's something i don't talk about. it's a military strategy. reporter: it's a legitimate question. pres. elect trump: it's not

really because only a stupid person would answer it. it is a military strategy and i am not answering questions on military strategy. one more. brian. reporter: can give you give us a preview of how you might talk to leaders of congress who expect to come here the next couple days? you have a very supportive congress behind you. pres. elect trump: they are great. we have a wonderful republican congress. we have a leader that i have a lot of confidence in. i think he will hopefully be a great leader. great speaker. we have a leader, by the way in the senate. i think he has been great. john thune has been doing fantastic. it goes through the house first. the question is just a bills or one. i can live either way. i like the idea of one big bill. but i can live either way. they will be coming down. the senators also will be coming down. ultimately we will be meeting in the white house in a few weeks. but this is the winter season. they call it the winter white house.

marjorie meriwether post and ef hutton built this. i saved it. i got a lot of credit for saving it. a lot of big houses have been knocked down in palm beach. about all of them, actually. you build 10 mansions on one side. we saved it. it was built as a southern white house. she gave it to the government created by the way, jimmy carter gave it back. he said it is too expensive. i did not realize that. actually, nixon was through watergate. nixon came here once. he thought it was incredible. but he had a thing called watergate. if anybody remembers that. he had other things on his mind, to put it mildly. jimmy carter felt it was too extravagant for the country. fortunately for me, he gave it back to the foundation. reporter: some republicans are saying you could trade for a massive bill that you and they

share interest in. they want to big spending cuts. pres. elect trump: i like spending cuts. i am on the record for spending cuts. the debt ceiling was given to us. it should not have been. but it was put in our lap. what i want in terms of the debt ceiling is not the debt ceiling, i just don't want to see it default. i didn't want to spend more money necessarily. all i want is no default. nobody knows what would happen if there was a default. it could be 1929. it could be nothing. but that was put into our lap. it should not have been, but it was. we will handle it. the debt ceiling isn't about raising a lot of money, it's about extending it. i just want to see an extension. reporter: on immigration, how much can you do by executive order, are you planning to do with executive order when it comes to immigration? and how much do you want

congress to tackle this issue? pres. elect trump: i had the safest border in the history of our country by far for you to remember the famous chart i brought down. i love that chart very much for a lot of reasons. i had the safest border by far in the history of our country. when i took it over it was it oe best. nothing like it is now. this is 10 times worse. i got elected because of the border this time. i think i got elected largely because of the border the third time. and the second time. i did equally well. not as well as the last time, but fairly well. do you know the expression? too big to rig. i did not get very much from congress at all. i just said, we are being invaded and i took the money out of the military. much of the wall i've built over 500 miles of wall. much of the wall was built through money i put into the military. we took it out because we could not get things from congress in those days.

we took it out. the wall was built largely with money from the military. very simple. i went to the military and i set our country is being invaded by -- very similar -- nothing like what is invading our country now. they were not releasing prisons into our country. they weren't releasing mental institutions in. but some bad dudes were coming in. i said, our country is being invaded. i took the money largely from the military. i was sued nine times by the democrats in congress and won all the suits. we ended up building 500 71 miles of all. when the wall was built they started going around it. so we will add another 200. that would be up in three weeks and then we had another -- a very unfortunate election result and then said, we don't want to put it up. we will sell it. they started selling it for five cents to the dollar.

this will be the golden age of america. the golden age of america. we are now a country under siege. we have so made different problems for nobody respects us overseas. but now they do. the italian prime minister just flew in and flew out overnight to see me. great respect was shown when i went to the funeral in france. great respect was shown by the prime minister, the president, everybody. and by the way, i have to say they did a great job with the cathedral. great respect is being shown to our country again. we have a great country. we have to run it properly. it will be run properly. we want to get back to those hostages for israel and for us. you know, we do have hostages being held. i will say it again. if the deal is not done with the people representing our nation by the time i get to office all hell will break out.

[crosstalk] reporter: can you clarify what you mean by military force in the panama canal? >> president elect donald trump holding his second news conference since winning in november at his mar-a-lago club in palm beach florida. at that has wrapped up. while have you -- while you have been listening to the incoming president we are showing you the departure of the late president jimmy carter, the state funeral continuing today. we watched as his casket left the presidential carter center and made its way to dobbins air reserve base. that is right now where the proceedings are on your screen. that is air force one. today, it is known as special air mission 39. that is its callsign today. when it is not carrying the president, air force one's

callsign is special air mission. 39 added to it today to honor jimmy carter who died at age 100 december 29. the state funeral began january 4. it continues today. the casket and the family, the carter family are all aboard air force one. it will depart from dobbins air reserve base shortly and land at joint base andrews around 2:15 eastern time. we expect that the aircraft here will take off around 12:45 p.m. eastern time. as we continue our coverage of the state funeral for the late president we want to go back to the 1998 interview c-span it did at the carter presidential center with the then former president jimmy carter and his wife rosalynn carter.

>> 1943? >> i had an appointment at the naval academy. >> why annapolis? >> when i was five years old if anybody asked me what i wanted to do when i grew up i said i wanted to go to annapolis and to be an officer in the navy. my father was a first lieutenant and it army during the depression years. nobody in my father's family had finished high school. daddy was insistent i go to college even though we did not have money at the time. and annapolis and rushmore were the two free universities in our country and i had a favorite uncle that was on active duty in the navy so i chose the navy and annapolis is what i thought about growing up. reporter: why nuclear submarines? pres. carter: that came later. submarines were the elite force in my opinion in the entire navy . i was in fleet type