it always impacts agriculture. are my colleagues, my republican colleagues in particular, are going to allow president trump to raise taxes on the american people without a say? that should be the job of this committee. the constitution is very clear about this. congress, not the president, has the power to impose taxes and tariffs and to regulate foreign commerce. that is one of the basic functions of the ways and means committee. and my republican colleagues used to agree with this back when there was a democrat in the white house in 2023, chairman jason smith said that president biden's trade initiatives sidestepped congress and that the biden administration, quote, unfortunately has refused to >> we are going to break away and take it to remarks by president trump and british prime minister keir starmer. as bama -- pres. trump: this is a wonderful country that i know very well.

i will be going in there and we expect to see each other in the near future. we will be announcing it, but we are going to be discussing many things today. we will be discussing russia-ukraine, we will be discussing trade, and lots of other items, and i think we can say we are going to be getting along on every one of them. we have had tremendous relationship and frankly the prime minister and i have met before and we get along very famously, as you would say. i look forward to it very much. we will be having a luncheon after this and then another work session. and i believe we are going to have a press conference at the end. so, i look forward to it, and, as prime minister, thank you very much. p.m. starmer: can i think your for your hospice -- you for your hospitality, your leadership? we have had a very constructive conversation.

i'm sure we will today, and of course our countries have been bound together for a very long time now. the closest alliance of any two countries when it comes to prosperity and security. and i know that together we will strengthen that further. and on issues like ukraine, thank you for changing conversation to bring about the possibility that now we can have a peace deal, and we want to work with you to make sure that peace deal is enduring, that it lasts, that is -- that it is a deal that goes down as a historic deal that nobody breaches. and we will make sure that absolutely happens. it is my pleasure to bring from his majesty the king a letter. he sends his best wishes. regards, of course, but he also asked me to bear this letter and bring it to you, so can i present a letter from the king? pres. trump: thank you very much. am i supposed to read it right now? p.m. starmer: please do.

[laughter] i've got to tell him what your reaction is, so i need to know. pres. trump: he is a great gentleman. great, great gentleman. oh, thats -- that is really nice. i must make sure his signature is on there. [laughter] otherwise it is not quite as meaningful. it is, and that is quite a signature, isn't it? a beautiful man, a wonderful man, and we appreciate it. i have gotten to know him very well, actually, in the first term, and now second term. perhaps you would like to say what that very important paragraph? p.m. starmer: this is a letter from his majesty the king.

it is an invitation for a second state visit. this is really special. this has never happened before. this is unprecedented. and i think that just symbolizes the strength of the relationship between us. so, this is a very spe. i think the last state visit was a tremendous success. his majesty the king wants to make this even better than that, so this is truly historic and unprecedented. he wanted to talk that through with you. pres. trump: that says at windsor. that is something. the answer is yes, on behalf of our wonderful first lady, melania, and myself, the answer is yes, and we look forward to being there and honoring the king, and honoring, really, your country. your country is a fantastic country and it will be our honor to be there. p.m. starmer: thank you very

much. p.m. starmer:thank you very much, mr. president. i will happily take that back to his majesty. pres. trump: i'm going to keep that one. >> president trump, andrew and kristin tate landed in florida today after being released from custody in romania. they are accused rapists, human traffickers. not thought of as good people in many circles. did you administration pressured the romanian government to release them? pres. trump: i know nothing about that. you are saying he is on a plane right now? i know nothing about it. we will check it out, we will let you know. p.m. starmer: obviously this involves there is an english element here so it is important justice is done and human trafficking's to my mind a security risk. so, i will catch up with the story in due course. pres. trump: are you aware of it?

i didn't know anything about it. yeah? >> the federal workforce. are you tracking how many veterans have been fired? pres. trump: yes, we are. we are, and we take good care of our veterans and we are watching them very carefully. we hope it is going to be as small in number as possible him about we are having great success in slimming down our government. it has been, really, there is successful. some payouts and buyouts, and others took other things, and some people were finding out don't even exist. we are finding we have a lot of people that don't exist that people thought that did. we will be making a statement, but we are taking care of our veterans. we are going to take good care of them. ok, please. >> could you be persuaded as part of a piece settlement in ukraine to provide a backstop security position? so the contributions that europe might make as well? pres. trump: president zelenskyy

is coming to see me on friday, friday morning, and we are going to be signing, really, macron important agreement for both sides, because it is really going to get us into that country. we will have a lot of people working there, and so in that sense it is a backstop, you could say. i don't think anybody is going to play around if we are there with a lot of workers, and having to do with rare-earth's and other things, which we need for our country. and we appreciate it very much and i look forward to seeing him. we will be talking about it and also talking about that today with the prime minister. p.m. starmer: as you know, we have already indicated that we will play our full part in making sure that any deal -- if there is one, and i hope there is. to make sure it is a lasting deal. we are about to have a discussion about how we can make that work. pres. trump: i have to say this, as i said yesterday. you were talking about a peacekeeping force. have to make a deal first. right now we don't have a deal.

we have russia, we have ukraine. i think we are very well advanced. i think russia has been acting very well. you know, they have representative, steve one cough, and scott, and marco, and jd, were involved, and a lot more of us. i think we are well advanced on a deal but we have not made it delia. i do like to talk about peacekeeping until we have a deal. i like to get things done. i don't want to give it the bad luck sign. but we have had very good talks with russia and ukraine. yes sir. >> does the prime minister have to choose a closer relationship with the eu and a good trade relationship with you? pres. trump: we had a great relationship before. have met a couple of times and i'm very impressed with him. very impressed with his wife, i must say. she is a beautiful, great woman, and she -- p.m. starmer: i second that. pres. trump: i said you are very lucky.

he is very lucky, and we have had a very good relationship. >> are you worried about written potentially doing -- undoing some of the benefits of brexit with closer ties with the eu? pres. trump: no. frankly, what they did was the right thing at the time and i think it will probably prove out over the centuries. you have a long time to go, but i think -- i predicted that was going to happen, and it did happen, and it will work itself out. i think it has already worked itself out. >> keir starmer has signed a deal [inaudible] will you approve that deal? pres. trump: we are going to have some discussions and i have a feeling it is going to work out. they are talking about a very powerful lease, a strong lease, about 140 years, actually. that is a long time. and i think we will be inclined to go along with your country. it is a little bit early.

we have to be given the details, but it does not sound -- yes, please. >> you obviously can do business with our president, keir starmer. you said yesterday that the eu was constructed to screw the u.s. when it comes to trade. what can our prime minister say to you to persuade you not to impose tariffs on the united kingdom? pres. trump: did i use the word you said, that bad word? well, i think the eu -- yeah, i have had problems with the eu because -- and we are not talking about -- we happen to have a great relationship with you, but we did have and we do have problems with the eu because they have tariffed us. they do it in the form of a vat tax, which is about 20%, and many other taxes. they sue our companies. they sued apple, got $16 billion or $17 billion, which was a ridiculous decision, and they are suing google for a lot of money.

they are suing a lot of other companies and we do like the way they are treating our people. we do like the way they are treating our companies. they sell us cars. we don't sell them cars. they don't take our cars, they don't take much of our agriculture, and we have a deficit with them of about $350 billion. so i would not say it has been such a great relationship, personally, but other people did because it is politically correct to say it has been good, but it hasn't been good and we are going to change that. and we are going to have reciprocal tariffs. we are going to have reciprocal. whatever they charge us we are going to charge them -- i would have done that but all of a sudden we had covid and other things to think about. so, it took me a little while to get that on and we had in my first four years we had the greatest economy in the history of -- i think the world, but certainly in the history of our country. i think we are going to have that again, but the eu was tough on us from the standpoint of trade.

then you could take it a step further and go into nato, and that was a very tough situation for us. that has been a tough situation because we were paying a disproportionate share and it wasn't good. so, as you know, they paid hundreds of billions of dollars after i got involved, and the evened it out a little bit, but not very much. then if you look at the war, we are in for 300 billion dollars-plus, and they are in for $100 billion. they get their money back, and we will get our money back also, but under biden you would not have done that. biden did a terrible job. i hate to say that about somebody that sat here just before me, but he did a terrible job. that war should have never happened, the war between russia and ukraine. frankly, october 7 never should have happened. israel, that should have never happened. inflation should have never happened. afghanistan should have never

happened, the way they got out. not getting out, but the way they got out. i can see that as far as we are here for a different reason we are talking about a different place and this is someplace i have investments. i own turnberry. i own aberdeen and a great place called dune bag in ireland. so, i have a great warm spot for your country. p.m. starmer: our trade obviously is fair and balanced. so we are in a different position there. and obviously in relation with ukraine and taken with europe it is about 50%. pres. trump: it will work. please. >> does that mean they will not be any sanctions on the uk thang? pres. trump: we will have to take a look. we are going to have a good discussion today and we have some very talented people on the other side, and we have some people that probably are not as talented, but they are pretty good. marco, what do you think? [laughter]

no, we are going to have a good discussion and we will be talking. >> the prime minister has said he believes vladimir putin would be at risk of invading ukraine again without a sufficient backstop. do you think vladimir putin would be likely to invade again? pres. trump: out of ink so. i think when we have a deal it is going to be the deal. if i did not win the election i don't think we would be even talking to putin right now or anybody else. i think it would, you know -- i don't know if you are looking at the stats, but thousands of people are being killed a week. soldiers, mostly. because the towns have been destroyed. thousands of soldiers. this was a very bad week, by the way. and you are talking about human life. number one, i want to see that, and it does not involve american soldiers, but it is russian and ukrainian soldiers that i think i am speaking for both. number one, we want to see that stop, and number two, i want to

stop paying the kind of money we are talking about. we are helping, and we are helping nato, but we are helping a lot more than anybody else by far and i want that to stop also. jeff, go ahead. >> you talked about trade tariffs this morning. just a question about china. 10% tariffs has already been implemented on china. pres. trump: this is an additional 10%. >> and are their talks with canada and mexico so far? are you not seeing the progress you want to? pres. trump: i'm not seeing it at all. not on drugs. we have done a great job. if you look at tom homan he has been incredible, and kristi noem, they have done a great job in terms of the border, but drugs continue to pour into our country, killing hundreds of thousands of people. we are losing substantially more than 100,000 people. they are dead. the families are destroyed after that happens, so, you know, it

is not just that. that is the ultimate, but the families are absolutely destroyed. drugs come in through mexico. they come, a lot of them -- not all of them, but a lot of them come from china. it is 10% plus 10%. was there confusion on that? >> there was. pres. trump: 10% plus 10%. it is a second 10%. i think eventually you're going to see drugs stopping because the country should not be allowing those drugs to come into the united states of america. and we are not going to allow it to happen. that goes on on the fourth of march. and then on the second of april we have reciprocal tariffs. that is reciprocal, where we charge countries what they are charging us, and nobody should have a problem with that. it is reciprocity. it is something that i think everybody i have spoken to has said that is fair. if somebody charges us 25% we charge them 25%.

if somebody charges us 10% or 15% or 30%, we charge them an exact like amount. it is simple, but it is reciprocal tariffs, because the united states has been taking advantage of many, many different countries, including our friends. friend and foe, and in many cases our friends took advantage. you talk about the eu -- we are talking about the eu. the eu has been very bad to us in terms of trade. and i am a different kind of a president. i can't let that happen. thank you. please, go ahead. >> what would you be willing to do if vladimir putin did not stick to the terms of any deal on ukraine? pres. trump: if he did what? >> if he did not stick to the terms of any deal on ukraine? pres. trump: i think he will keep his word. i think he is -- i have spoken to him. i have known him for a long time now. you know, we had to go through the russia hoax together.

that was not fair. that was a raid to deal and had nothing to do with russia. it was a rig to deal with inside the country and they had to put up that too. it wasn't just us. they had to put up with a funny story that was made up. i have known him for a long time now and i think he will -- i don't believe he is going to violate his word. i think when we make a deal the deal is going to hold. now, they are going to have security. you are going to have security. you are going to have soldiers. i know france wants to be -- the president has said he wants to have soldiers there. i don't think we are even going to be necessary, but i don't think there will be any problem with keeping the deal with security. did you want to say something? p.m. starmer: i just want to say, the deal, if we get it, is going to be hugely important. i don't think it would happen if that space had not been created by yourself. if there is a deal we have to make sure it is a deal that lasts. that is not temporary and lasts. that is why we have to make sure

it is secure and we have said we will play our part. we will talk about how we work with yourself, mr. president, to ensure this deal is something which is not violated, because it is very important if there is a deal we keep it. pres. trump: and i think i can say that will be the easy part. that is the part we look forward to, because putting security there, that is the part we all look forward to. that is easy. the difficult part is getting the deal made, so i think we have come a long way. did you have something? he has such a nice face. [laughter] he is smiling, but watch, he will ask a total killer. they are the ones that get you. he looks like a nice guy. >> what is your common ground with sir keir starmer? because you are from different backgrounds. pres. trump: i can say this, because we have known each other for a little while. this is not our first meeting, as you know. he loves his country, and so do i. that is our common theme.

he loves his country and i love our country, and we also have two countries that have gotten along for the longest period of time. number one ally on each side, and we have good. france, australia. we have a lot of good ones. have a long time relationship, a long time. hundreds of years, and we like each other, frankly, and we like each other's country and we love our country. i think that is our common thread. please. >> on tariffs, you just said with china -- pres. trump: who are you with? >> i'm with the independent. you charge them as we charged china, but the tariffs are paid eventually by american importers and consumers. pres. trump: know they're not. i think they are paid for by the country. we can get into that. i put a lot of tariffs on in my

first turn and we made tremendous amounts of progress because of those tariffs. china paid us hundreds of billions of dollars -- billions. because they took advantage and president xi is a friend of mine, but he knows better than anybody, took advantage of our country. he took advantage of presidents who did not know what they were doing, and they actually expect -- the smart countries expect them for me because they know me and they know our country. but they got away with murder for decades, and we just can't let that happen anymore. behind you, please. >> it sounds as though one of you completely trusts president putin and one of you does not trust him an inch. have i got that right? and why do you trust him? pres. trump: trust and verify, let's call it that. you have to verify because you never know what is going to happen. i know a lot of people that you would say, no chance they would never deceive you, and they are the worst people in the world. i know others that you would

guarantee they would deceive you, and you know what? you're 100% honorable. so, you never know what you are getting. i have confidence that if we make a deal it is going to hold. >> on fentanyl, mr. president, less than 1% of all fentanyl that comes into the u.s. is apprehended at the canadian border. so why is fentanyl as a reason to why -- pres. trump: you are right about that. it is a little more than that, but they should be apprehending a lot more because a lot comes from canada. and as mexico gets stronger in terms of the border it goes up to canada, and a lot of drugs are coming in through canada. we can't have that. go ahead, please, in the back. >> is there anything you can say to president zelenskyy to reassure him that his country's war has not been in vain and its sovereignty is not going to be threatened? pres. trump: you know, he is coming. perhaps he is already on his way.

and we are going to be signing the deal together, probably in front of the media and we are going to be having a good conversation. no, we want to work with him, president zelenskyy. we want to work with him and we will work with him. i think the president and i actually have had a very good relationship. it may be got a little bit testy because we wanted to have a little bit of what the european nations had. you know, they get their money back by giving money. we don't get the money back. biden made a deal. he put in $350 billion and i thought it was a very unfair situation. p.m. starmer: we are not getting hours. quite a bit of ours was gifted, it was given. maybe it was gifted, actually. >> the europeans want ukraine to be part of nato as part of this deal. are you willing to budge on that? pres. trump: i could be nice and say, we will work to add. look, it's not going to happen.

it's just not going to happen. that is what started this whole thing. biden said that and all of a sudden the guns started -- that was one of the primary reasons it started. this was long before president putin. it was an impossibility. so we can say, well, we will try, but that is something that is not going to happen. then the other question is about the land. will you get your land back? they fought long and hard on the land and you and i will be discussing that and we will certainly try and get as much as we can back, but on nato, that is not going to happen. >> you talked about having common ground with keir starmer. there are things you disagree on as well. you described zelenskyy as a dictator. he describes president putin as a dictator. do you see that as a problem? pres. trump: the relationship between president zelenskyy and president putin is not a good one. you have noticed, right? it is not a good relationship,

and we are going to have to try and work something out. sometimes that happens. i get along with both. i have a very good relationship with president putin. i think i have a good relationship with president zelenskyy. now we are doing the deal and we are going to be in there. we are going to be actually in there, digging our hearts out, and hopefully we need the rare earth, and we have some here, but we don't have enough. our economy is very strong, and we need a lot of things that in some cases we don't have here. so, i think we're going to have a very good relationship, but the relationship between them is not the best. >> do you still think that mr. zielinski is a dictator? pres. trump: did i say that? i can't believe i said that. next question. please, go ahead. >> can you see any situation where the u.s. forces could be

deployed as a backstop in direct confrontation with russian forces? pres. trump: there is a backstop. first you have to have european countries, because they are right there. have an ocean between us, but we want to make sure it works. when you say a backstop you mean psychologically or militarily or what? we are a backstop because we will be working in the country. that is a great thing economically for them because camino, when you talk about economic development we are going to have a lot of people over there. so, we will be working in the country. i just don't think you are to have a problem. i think when we have an agreement, you can say whatever you want about security, who is going to do it. that is going to be a pleasant conversation. hard conversation will be, do we have an agreement? i think russia will agree and i really believe ukraine will agree also. >> if british troops are in ukraine keeping peace and are

attacked by russia, will you come to their aid? pres. trump: if the british people get attacked? i have always found about the british, they don't need much help. they can take care of themselves very well. you know what? no, it sounds like it is evasive, but it is not evasive. the british have been incredible soldiers, incredible military. and they can take care of themselves. help, i will always with the british every it you look at their career, they've done very well. p.m. starmer: we have, i'm proud of that. we have always been backing each other up and that is why this is the greatest alliance for prosperity and security i think the world has ever seen. pres. trump: could you take on russia by yourselves? [laughter] >> vice president vance

condemned free speech violations in the u.k. particularly, can you respond? pres. trump: i have an idea, we have the man right here. we have jd right here. >> yes, i said what i said which is we do have a special relationship with our friends in the u.k. and our european allies, but we also know there have been infringements on free speech that affects not just the british with what they do in their own country is up to them, but also american technology companies and american citizens and we will talk about it today at lunch every it p.m. starmer: we have had free speech a long time in the united kingdom and it will last for very long time. we wouldn't bother to reach across u.s. systems and we don't . in relation to free speech, i'm very proud of that. >> the australians and the brits

, will you be discussing from the prime minister side? pres. trump: what does that mean? we will be discussing that. we have had another great relationship and you have two with australia. >> are you both disappointed that the afd did not come first in the german elections given your previous support? pres. trump: whatever happens with germany, the relationship has been very strong with germany but we will have to see what happens. they have a lot of things going on right now. i'm not disappointed about anything, if anything, you would say that them group we would be most opposed to lost. but we got along with them also. we have a good relationship with all groups in germany. >> the ceo was talking about his proposal to use private forces

to assist in deportations. do you support that? pres. trump: i haven't seen it, i don't think it's necessary, our people would be doing a phenomenal job. i wouldn't be opposed to it. i go to our military people and ask. i don't see it as being, we do an unbelievable, unbelievably getting people out, getting criminals out, people that should have never been here that the biden administration with their stupid open borders should never have allowed, they came in from prisons and jails and men still insist duchenne and gang members and drug dealers coming into our country like this. we are getting them out and we are doing really well. the level of effectiveness has been incredible, everybody is talking about it. how about one more? >> mr. president, one on the middle east. pres. trump: go ahead, you have been so nice, here we go. [laughter] >> are there areas specifically in ukraine that you are talking about giving back, specifically

crimea? have you gotten to those details yet? pres. trump: you mean the areas that were taken? there are a lot of areas that were taken. we have talked about it, a lot of the see line has been take it and we will be talking about that and we will see if we can get a lot of it back for ukraine, if that is possible. we will be seeing about that. ok? thank, everybody. >> thank you, press, we are headed out. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> you have been watching live coverage and we return now to our scheduled program and we join it in process. >> it is critically important american dairy producers have a fair process and i'm disappointed canada continues to keep u.s. producers from playing out a level field.

i'm going to throw out a few questions. how do exports relate to commodity prices and how can stepped up trade enforcement step up export markets? i'm going to throw that 3.5 minutes and you were going to cover all of that perfectly in that time. >> 44% of our dairy goes to canada and mexico. i think to look at it and say, we have taken the dairy trade so obviously these free-trade

agreements were big deal. today it is 2.5 billion. the next thing i would say is trade enforcement is critically important. before moans with the eu, very interesting situation. they have never fixed the problem, they have no interest in fixing the problem, they are protectionist. we are very competitive i had a fascinating conversation with the chinese ambassador. our goal is to expand

consumption around the world to increase u.s. exports of that consumption. we are trying to increase protein and that is our advantage on the protein side. >> comment on the effect on commodity prices. that is a huge issue for everybody. >> i believe senator dole said you have to sell it or smell it with agriculture. that is the way we look at it, 18% of our dairy is exported. beef is 15%-20%. everything we do we grow in abundance in this country we are completely dependent on our ability to sell it to customers >> well, and i appreciate that. and with that, mr. chair, i will yield back. thank you. >> thank you. i now recognize mr. schnyder for 5 minutes.

>> thank you, chairman smith and ranking member sanchez for holding this hearing. i want to thank our witnesses for being here. i just want to read a headline from this morning. it was the new york times came across my phone. americans are expecting higher prices. that could unnerve the fed. more americans are starting to brace for higher prices as president trump's policies begin to take effect. we expand on that in a minute. now i do share many of the frustrations that some of my colleagues have articulated most clearly representative panetta, where the last administration fell short in pursuing strategic trade agreements to benefit american exporters and american workers. like representative del beni, i joined with colleagues on both sides of the aisle when the last administration sought to take actions without direction or input from congress. so i also share the great disappointment articulated today with the republican majority in the house that seems quite content to abrogate our constitutional responsibilities.

to give them up to the executive branch. now the subject of this hearing today is about priorities, and at core i think the trade priorities that we should be focusing on are fairly simple to state improving the lives of our citizens, economic growth, which includes raising wages and helping working families achieve financial security and building wealth, lowering the cost of living, and bringing inflation down. greater access to global markets for american exporters, manufacturers, and farmers, creating more high paying american jobs, and a stable supply chain, giving greater confidence to american manufacturers and american consumers. unfortunately, this is not what the actions of the trump administration are doing thus far. in fact, i don't think they've done anything to lower prices. voters made clear last november that lowering prices was their number one priority. but the tariffs, tariffs being swung about like a giant battle ax against our most important trade partners will have the

exact opposite effect. we saw the effect 8 years ago when retaliatory tariffs against the united states resulted in having to bail out our farmers. with the bombastic threats and actions emanating from the white house, we're going to see the cost of chaos again raising prices for american-made autos that depend on north american supply chains. higher costs for home builders who are reliant on lumber from canada, higher food prices at the grocery store for fresh produce that consumers have come to expect to be available year round. the president's recent trade announcements have caused costly uncertainty for small and medium sized companies here in the united states who depend on access to global markets to sell their products and grow their businesses. these businesses need certainty to thrive, and that comes in the form of policy stability, a clear regulatory framework, and

an equitable, equitable and transparent system to resolve trade disputes. the president's trade agenda has pointlessly rattled our trading system, demonstrating that his priorities are not focused on helping american workers and businesses. now i appreciate ambassador dowd, your remarks on agriculture and dairy in particular. last week i sat down with a roundtable conversation with farmers in my district, and i was surprised to discover that in lake county, illinois, the biggest part of my district, there's only one dairy producer left operating. the conversation started out with one of the attendees noting that us farmers are the most productive in the world and grow far more food than is necessary to feed our population. but here's the thing, farming is a low margin enterprise, and if american growers are excluded from export markets, many of their products, as you said, ambassador dowd, it's sell it or smell it. many of their products will be left either on the vine or in

the fields, and many of these farms will either shut down or require once again another bailout. and of course it's not just our dairy farmers that are facing challenges. again, failing to focus on lowering costs and enhancing american exporters' access to markets means more economic pain for american workers and communities. the united states is strongest when we work with our partners and allies, and i agree with my colleagues today that we should prioritize trade enforcement and opportunities to open new markets for farmers and small businesses, sell american products around the world, and invest in trading systems that support both workers and businesses. that said, at this moment, i fail to see how upending decades of trade policy and going back on our word with our closest trading partners meets the moment. >> we take you live to a discussion looking at public trust in the news industry. the summit is in washington, d.c. posted by semafor. >> killing the harris