conference following

the certification of the election results. this is about an hour and 5 minutes. mr. trump: thank you very much. it's an honor to be with you. many things are happening that are exciting. very exciting for our country. we're honored to welcome one of the most respected business leaders in the middle east, indeed, the world, a founder and chairman of damac properties, hussein shazwani, a very

respected gentleman. his company will be nsing at least $20 billion over a short period of time into the united states and they may go double or even somewhat more than double that amount of money. it's a great thing. i believe he will say he's doing it because of the fact that he was very inspired by the election. wouldn't do it without that election, i can tell you, a lot of people wouldn't. you saw last week, we had somebody who is going to go from $100 billion to $200 billion. we have many other people and we'll be bringing some of them out. some of them like to do it sma more quietly, some don't. they feel so strongly about the country that they -- they want to let people know about it. but it's an honor to have such a great investor investing in our country. the investment will support massive due gnu data centers across the midwest. the seat belt area, and also to keep america on the cutting edge

of technology and artificial intelligence. very big into the data centers. that's going to be a hot item not coming years, as you know, with a.i. in particular. the first phase of the project will be in texas. arizona, oklahoma, louisiana, ohio, illinois, michigan, and indiana. those places. and hussein, i'd love 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've been waiting four years to increase our investments in the u.s., to very large amount of money. we are a company operating in more than 0 countries around the world. we have delivered more than 45,000 units and another 45,000 in the pipeline. in data center we are in 10

countries around the world, in asia, europe, and the middle east. and we're very, 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 are waiting for this moment. we are planning to invest $20 billion and even more than that if the opportunity in the market allows us. at the moment we're planning $20 billion in data center for the a.i. and cloud business. thank you, mr. president. mr. trump: that man knows what he's doing. he knows. so hussein, we're going to work with you, make sure everything goes smoothly. we have powers that haven't really been used in terms of environmental, you invest over $1 billion in the united states we're going to give expedite red views to everybody because everyone is afraid they're going

to come in and get caught in the quagmire which is very prevalent in the united states, unfortunately. the quagmire of environmental and various other regulations and rules and i made it a point of telling people if you invest a billion dloors more, we'll do this for people with far les too. but we guarantee it, we're going to move them quickly through the environmental process. sometimes people held up 12, 13, 14, 15 years. i saw it with plants in louisiana where i got it approved in literally a week. they were through the review and one week after spending 14 1/2 years trying to get it and they were going nowhere. terrible thing. i've been a victim of that myself over the years. i think i know all the games and all the tricks that are play. much of it is just to stop progress. we're going to be helping you and everybody else that comes to the united states.

and wants to invest their money, that you don't get tied up for the rest of your life and you can't do anything. this commitment further 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, very -- a lot of positive things have happened. we are inheriting a difficult situation from the outgoing administration and they're trying everything they can to make t more difficult. inflation is continuing to rage. and interest rates are far too high. and i've 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 every swing state. won the popular vote by millions and millions of people. nobody even knows how many people, millions. and they're still counting in some areas. you know they're still counting

the vote in some areas. can you believe this? what a place. what a horrible place. one of the things we're going to do, we've got to fix the elections so that we get honest counts and they get done by 10:00 in the evening or something thereabouts, places where they're still counting votes. president biden's actions yesterday on offshore drill, banning offshore drilling, will not stand. i will reverse it immediately. it'll be done immediately. and we will drill, baby, drill. we'll be drilling in a lot of other locations and the energy costs are going to come way down. they'll be brought down to a very low level. that'll bring everything else down. that's what caused them to go up along with the ridiculous spending on the green new scam. all this money, trillions of dollars, it's like throwing it right out think window what they're doing. they're trying to spend so much now. they're just taking money and giving it to anybody who wants

it for any project at all if it's certified under the green new scam. and they don't work, it's too expensive. and you know, they told me that we're going to do everything possible to make this transition to the new administration very smooth. it's not smooth. because they're doing that. they're playing with the courts as you know. they've been playing with the courts for four years. probably got me more votes because i got the highest number of votes ever gotten by a republican by far. actually. by a lot. we had a great election. so i guess it department work. but even to this day they're playing with the courts. they have their friendly judges, like to try to make everybody happy on the democrat side. it's called law fare, it's weaponization of justice, it's happened at a level nobody has ever seen before. so many -- i defeated deranged jack smith, he's a deranged individual, 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 twhesm did nothing wrong. we did nothing wrong on anything. and the people saw that. when they vote to -- when a republican -- it's not easy for a republican when the republican wins the popular vote by millions, and wins all seven of the swing state, people said, well, he could win four. we won all seven and won them by a lot. that dwroils we won. they've been watching this. injustice. i call it the injustice department. what they've done is so bad. the whole world has watched that and it took work. but it got me a lot of votes. when explained, we have a judge in new york who is a very crooked judge. i'm under a gag order, can't even talk about aspects of the case that are the most vital aspects. i'm under -- did you know i'm the president-elect of the united states of america, i'm a former very successful president, we had the greatest economy in the history of our

country, we had borders that were sealed, we had -- everything was good. we had no wars. we defeated isis. we had no wars. now i'm going into a world that's burning with russia and ukraine. with israel, you took a look at that attack. october 7. the attack on israel. with the horrible way they got -- not the fact that they got out. i would have been happy for them but 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, many badly, horrifically injured, nobody ever talked about that. no arms, no legislation. nobody ever talks about that. the way they got out was outrageous. leaving billions of cloofers brand new military equipment that i bought in the hands of the afghans and specifically the taliban. and we were doing very well.

we would have been out, would have been respected. i think it's one of the reasons that we're sod a -- it was so badly handled that withdrawal where people were jumping onto airplanes, falling off the sides of airplanes when they were 3,000 feet in the air. and nobody has ever seen anything like that. the worst. and because of that, i think russia went and attacked ukraine. when they saw that, they said these guys are incompetent, they don't know what they're doing. but we know what we are ding now. that's going to all end. we have a great military. i defeated isis. we were in no wars. i just finished a couple. we got also our soldiers guarding syria and turkey, we're in the middle, we had 5,000 soldiers would have been gobbled up with two armies. we had one army, 300,000. another one 500,000, 600,000. we had 5,000 people in the middle. i said to the general how do 5,000 people do in that case? the general just looked at me and said not well, sir.

not well. and i took them out. you know what happened? nothing. got criticized. i saved 5,000 lives actually. and we did a great job. we're going to do an even better job. now we have a tremendous amount of experience. we have people that i can rely on. but the 600 -- the 625 million acres, people can't realize, that's like -- the whole ocean. taken a acre, you know, an acre. you have a house on a half acre, a quarter acre, if you have an acre off big deal. now you multiply that by 625 million acres. it's like -- feels like the whole ocean. that's our strength. people can say we manufacture, we don't manufacture. the thing we have, we have oil and gas more than anybody in the world. we're going to have more of it too. but they took away 625 million

of offshore drilling. nobody else does that. and they think they have but i'm gik to put it back on day one. i'll have it revoked on day one. we'll go -- if we have to go to the court, you know they try to be sneaky. go in and say, remember this is a man that said he wants to transition -- wants the transition to be smooth you don't do the kind of things, you don't have a judge working real hard to try to embarrass you. i did nothing wrong. by the way, i did nothing, absolutely nothing wrong. if i did something wrong i wouldn't be standing here right now because i won all these cases. nobody has ever won so many cases as i have. against the justice department. jack smith had cases all over the place. people were being subpoena. lives were being ruin. they spent everything they had. money. we were helping them out. had to. they were subpoenaing people from -- that had no idea what they were even talking about. that's a sick group of people.

it was was all to influence the election. it was all a fight against their political opponent. we have never had that in this country. we have had that in certain countries. we've had that in third-tyre countries. we've had that in banana republics. we have never had that in a place like the united states. i don't even know if it's been on a small level. i'm sure it has been on a small level. this was the largest level ever. they brought this moron out of the hague. he's a mean guy. he's a mean, nasty guy. his picture was perfect. you look at his picture and say, that's a bad guy. with his robe. his purple robe. and he executes people. he shouldn't be allowed to execute people. he'll execute everybody. he's a nut job. but we want all of those cases with -- won all of those cases with him and i don't know the judge in florida. but a brilliant judge in florida that saw right through it. we won the case. she was brilliant judge, great courage.

you know. the left as we call them, the radical left, they have a way, they play the ref. and they play it very hard. they play the ref. they go and say horrible things about judges and prosecutors. and some judges and prosecutors say look, the only way i'll yet these people off my back is to give ricket i have -- victory to them. i think it's illegal. almost like -- it's worse than talking to a judge. but the judge in florida, judge cannon was brilliant and tough. she didn't stand for it. and i don't know her. and never met her until the case. i don't believe i said even one word to her. but she was very, very strong. very, very brilliant. her opinion was so brilliant they dropped their aniesm couldn't beat the appeal. so that's what we're up against. so they say we're going to have a smooth transition. all they do is talk. all talk. everything that they do is talk.

we'll have a smooth transition. then they take $625 million acres and they eaccept cially land mark it so you can't ever drill there again. we'll be drilling soon. we'll be opening up anwr. we'll be doing all sorts of things that nobody ever thought was even possible. but remember when -- just to get off the subject because i couldn't believe it when i heard it yesterday, couldn't believe the size of it, put down a map, put this up, it's just massive. remember that that's worth probably, i mean i've had estimates, $40 trillion to $50 trillion, more than our national debt. essentially he's throwing it away. he's throwing it away. he's taking $50 trillion, so if we owe $35 trillion, he's taking $50 trillion of value and throwing it right out the window. we can't do. that nobody 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 an apartments. he wants them to be replaced by essentially electric heaters. i don't know what it is with electric. this guy loves electric. we'll be ending the electric car mandate quickly, by the way. this guy loves electric. we don't have enough electricity, then we have a.i., we need more, he wants everybody to have an electric heater instead of a gas heater. gas heaters are much less expensive. the heat is much better. it's a much better heat, you don't itch, does anybody have a heater where you go you're scratch, that's what they want you to have. they don't want you to have gas where you don't have the problems of the electric. and the source is plentiful. they're much cheaper to operate. much better. 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's something wrong with them. something wrong with them. they also want to go back and they have already started that, when you guy bye a faw celt no water comes out because they want to preserve. even in area they don't know what to do. it's called rain. comes down from heaven. they want to do, no water comes out of the shower. it goes drip, drip, drip, so what happens, you're in the shower 10 times as long, you know. no water comes out of the cuas set. you want to wash your hands. they want to go back to even stronger than what they have right now. i, as you know, i ended that policy. you can have all the water you want, it makes no dirns. especially in certain arias we have so much water we don't know what to do with it. these are all things. they want very, very little water to go into your dishwasher. almost none. and you know what people do? they keep press, press,

pressing, keep it going. end up using more water. loo likewise washing machines. they want in your washing machine to have very little water coming out of the washing machine. so when you wash your cletting you have to wash it four times instead of once. end up using more water. we're a party of common sense. things i'm telling you now is really all about common sense. january 20, we'll turn the economy around very quickly. because right now we are, when i think of our economy, i think about inflation. it's a what we have. we have inflation. i believe at a level we never had before. never been anything like it. over the next four years the united states is going to take off like a rocket ship. really it's already doing it if you take a look. last month softbank announced $00 billion, i think it'll be $200 billion, he said $100 billion, i said why not 200, he

said yes but might be 200, the united states create mrpg 100,000 jobs. hussein just announced tremendous investment he's going to make. that's money that's in the bank. he's going to come and do it. he'll do a great job. he'll build the best centers in the country, i guarantee. i know the way he builds. since my election the stock market has set records. s&p500 index broken above 6,000 points for the first time ever. never even close. in a single month small business optimism soared 41 points. it's not at 41. it went up 41 points. that's 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 just surged. to the highest level in history. that's why i have a news conference like that. i take the greatest business leaders in the world, i say, hey, do you want to say you're going to invest the money? they're not looking for news

conferences. they're saying what am i doing? they go in and invest money. it's good to know where the smartest business people in the world are nsing. they're investing in the united states. so we've done this all in two months of not being there, you know. we haven't been there. and it's pretty amazing. we think we're going to do some really great things, really great things. we're being respected again all over the world the panama canal is a disgrace, what took place at the panama canal. jimmy carter gave it to them for $1. they were supposed to treat us well. thought it was a terrible thing to do. it was the most expensive structure ever built in the history of our country, relatively. it would be the equivalent of over -- substantial over $1 trillion today. we lost 38,000 people. think of it. 38,000 people that died from malaria, mosquitoes.

they were unable to stop the mosquitoes. paid people five times more to take the job, many of those people die. we gave it away for $1. the deal was they have to treat us fairly. they don't treat us fairly. they charge more for our ships than ships of other countries. they charge more for our navy than navies of other countries. they laugh at us because they think we're stupid. but we're not stupid anymore. so the panama canal is under discussion with them right new. they violated every aspect of the agreement and it's -- they morally violated it also. and they want our help pause it's leaking and not in good repair. and they want us to give $3 billion to help fix it. i said why don't you get the money from china? china has basically taken it over. china is at both ends of the panama canal. china is running the panama canal. they come to see this biden,

this guy who should never have been allowed to even run for president, of course she shouldn't have either, that never happened, had to be two people not one. but 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, frankly, and they just keep going through, the numbers are staggering, half a million to a million dollars a ship. they took it away from us. meaning we gay it to them for $1. not going to happen. what they done to us, they charged us, they overcharged our ships, overcharged our navy. and then when they need repair money they come to the united states to put it up. we get nothing. those days are over. working with the republican majorities in congress we'll cut taxes. slash regulations. raise wages. and boost incomes at a pace the

world has not seen before. certainly not from our country. we had a big chunk of it for the first three years of, prior to covid coming in in my administration. had 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 cut. we did that in four years. we were just getting started. we'll impose new tariffs so that the products on our stores will once again be stamped with those beautiful words, made in the u.s.a. and we are not treated well as you know by canada. canada is subsidized to the tune of about $200 billion a year plus other things. and they don't essentially have a military. they have a very small military. they rely on our military. it's all fine but you know, they got to pay for that. it's very unfair.

i have so many great friends, one of them is the great one. wayne gretzky. i said run for prime minister, you'll win, it'll take two seconds. he said well, am i going to run for prime minister or governor, you tell me? i said let's make it governor, i like it better. something has to be done. same thing with mexico weasm massive deficit with mexico. and we help mexico a lovment they're essentially run by the cartels. and can't let that happen. mexico is really in trouble. a lot of trouble. very dangerous place. and we're going to be announcing a future date pretty soon, we're going to change because we do most of the work there and it's ours. we're going to be changing, sort of the opposite of biden where he's closing everything up, essentially getting rid of $50 twrl to $60 trillion worth of assets we'll be changing the name of the gulf of mexico to

the gulf of america. which has a beautiful ring. that covered a lot of territory. the gulf of america. what a beautiful name. and it's appropriate. it's appropriate. and mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. they could stop them. and we're going to put very serious tariffs on mexico and canada because canada, they come through canada too. the drugs coming through are at record numbers. record numbers. so we're 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, they have to -- it's got to -- it takes two to tango. we're approaching the dawn of america's golden age. it'll be a golden age for america. we have more natural resource, we have -- number one, nobody knew that until i came along. i made us number one.

we were number three. i made us number one in a very short period of time in drilling. and you know, you can talk about windmills. they litter our country. they're littered all over our country like dropping paper, line dropping gar bang in a field. that's what happens to them because in a period of time they turn to garbage. most expensive energy ever. they only work if you get subsidy the only people that want them are people getting rich off windmills, getting massive subsidies from the u.s. government. it's the most expensive energy there. is many, many times more expensive than clean natural gas. so we're going to try and have a policy where no windmills are being built. off the coast of new jersey they want to build like 200 windmills, people are going crazy. nobody wants them. and they're very expensive. they don't work without subsidy. you don't want energy that needs subsidy. energy is a good business. you don't need subsidy. when you build these massive

towers, 25 stories tall, 40 story, they have one 7 ostories tall. the blades, they take three ships to ship them. it's crazy. they're dangerous. you see what's happening up in the massachusetts area where the whale, they had two whales wash ashore. i think a 17-year period. and now they had 14 this season. the windmills are driving the whales crazy. obviously. and they had -- actually over i think 125 or something over a number of years. over a number of years. and we don't want that to happen. it's a disaster -- it's amazing the way a true environmentalist would say we love wind. it sounds good but that's about where it ends. after 10 years you have to redo them. and what happens is they don't do that. they let them stand and they rust and they say because of the environment, i don't believe this, but they say you can't because it's a certain fiber glass that the blades cannot be buried in earth.

that that's an environmental -- so what do you do with them? what do you do with them? i don't know if you've ever begun to palm springs, california, or any of these places. we have long-term windmills stand, they're a disaster. they're rust, rotting, closed. falling down. this is as you enter palm springs. and they put new ones next to them. because nobody wants to take them down because why should they take them down? it's very expensive to take them down. and you can't do anything with them. the blades, you can't bury them because of the environmental protection. we'll look at that. doesn't make sense. but that's what they say. we're at the beginning of a great, beautiful golden age. of business. and i think we're also at a golden age of common sense. everything i'm assaying to you from a simple water faucet that doesn't allow water to come out appropriately to all the other elements of what we do and what we're going to do.

to take 50 to 60 trillion dollars off our country's balance sheet because some man that that is haz 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. i bet you if you asked him today how much acreage did you submit, essentially, did you destroy, you destroyed the economic viability of drilling that the ocean. and with a.i. coming along, you know, a lot of people don't realize a.i. is going to be a big thing. you'll need double the electricity at least that we have right now. right now we produce electricity for many, many different things. a.i. is a very big deal in terms of the future. china is already building electric facilities. big, bold electric facilities. you know how they're being fired up? with coal. they're being fired up with coal. and we're going to 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. but they're doing a lot of things. the problem is they can't get their permits. they say build the plant with the buildings. with the structure, build the plant plant. if you go to dwrid, the grids are all -- they said that's a great idea. in other words build your electric facility alongside of your plant. you could have extra output if you want. once you build it you can make it larger, pretty inexpensively. you could have extra output to sell to the public. but build it with to the plant. people are loving that idea. we're going to have a lot of fun making america great again. it's going to happen, i think, very, very quickly. it's already happened. so i would say this. this has been pretty openly reported on the news. there's never been anything like what's happened in the -- since we won the election. couple of months. since we won the election, the

whole perception of the whole world is different. people from other countries have called me, they said thank you. thank you. the perception of the whole world is different. we're going to have to settle some big problems that are going on right now. going to have to settle up with russia, ukraine, that's a disaster. i look at numbers every week. the number of people being killed in that war. people don't know, mostly soldiers now. but the towns have been obliterated. thises after biden fiasco, it should have never happen. if we had a real president, if we had a president that knew what he was doing, russia would have never, ever gone in. but they did go in. and we have a mess. cities are all blown up they feel people have largely left. and the soldiers are killing each other at levels that haven't been seen since the second world war. so we'll have to get that one straightened out too. that's a tough one. much tougher than it would have been before it started, i can tell you that. a deal could have been made just

by an average keelmaker, a deal could have been made. so thank you all for coming. we'll take a couple of questions. go ahead. please. reporter: the world on fire, start with your reference to greenland and panama canal, can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas, that we're not going to use military or economic force? can you tell us what your plan is? how you're going to -- are you going to negotiate a new treaty? are you going to ask canadians to hold a vote? mr. trump: i can't -- you're talking about panama and greenland. i can't assure you on either of those two. but i can say this. 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 that you'll have to

do something. look. the panama canal is vital. to our country. it's being operated by china. china. and we gave the panama canal to panama. we didn't give it to china. they've abused it. they've abused that gift. should have never been made by the way. giving the panama canal is why jimmy carter lost the election in my opinion, more so maybe than the hostage. the hostages were a big keel. but if you remember, nobody wants to talk about the panama canal, feels inappropriate, i guess, because it's a bad part of the carter legacy. but he was a good man, look, he was a good man, i knew him a little bit, he was a fine person. but that was a big mistake. giving the panama canal to man ma was a big mistake. we lost 38,000 people. it cost us the equivalent of $1 trillion, maybe more than that. they say it was the most expensive structure if we call ate structure which i guess you

can, ever built. and giving that away was a horrible thing. i believe that's why jimmy carter lost the election even more so than the hostages. those two things. reporter: heading into, on ukraine you said it's a lot more complicated now. mr. trump: much more complicated. reporter: but it has -- mr. trump: not only start, the cities are largely knocked down. reporter: at this point, to hold on to leverage from dealing with president putin, would you make the commitment to the ukrainians that you'll keep supports them during negotiations? mr. trump: i wouldn't tell you if that were the case. reporter: provide a security guarantee if they do enter into an armistice or a ceasefire along the lines of the french and germans? mr. trump: you know, a big part of the problem was russia for many, many years, long before putin said you could never have

nato, involved with ukraine. they've said that, that's been written in stone. and somewhere along the line, biden said no they should be able to join nato. then russia has somebody right on their doorstep, i can understand their feeling about that. but there were a lot of mistakes made in that negotiation. and when i heard the way that biden was negotiate, i said you're going to end up in a war. and it turned out to be a very bad war. and it could escalate that. war could escalate and be much worse than it is right now. my view is that it was always understood, in fact, i believe that they had a deal and then biden broke it. they had a deal which would have been a satisfactory deal to ukraine and everybody else, but that biden said no, you have to be able to join nato. and that's always been, nobody knows more about nato than i -- years ago when i first started this, i didn't know much about nay doe toa but i got it right anyway. they're taking advantage.

i'm the one that got -- the secretary general was here two weeks ago, i said if it weren't for me nato wouldn't exist, i raised -- unt countries that western paying their bill, of 28 countries, 20 weren't nairg bill, 21 to be exact. they weren't paying or they were paying a small portion. i raised over $680 billion. that was the number we gave by saying if you don't pay we're not going to protect you. as soon as i said that the money came pouring. in obama could have said it. other people could have said it. bush could have said it. nobody said it but me. i took a lot of heat. they said that's a threatening statement. i said they're not paying their bills. we're not going to protect if you're not paying your bills. so i saved nato. but nato is taking advantage. i said this openly, even to president zelenskyy, europe is in for a tiny fraction of the

money we're in for. whether you like that situation or not europe is much more affected than the united states, we have a thing called the ocean between us. why are we in for billions and billions of dollars more money than europe? and you know, they're a similar size, a little smaller, but a similar size economy as the united states when you add them up. yet europe is in for a small fraction of the number of the united states is in. biden could have called them up, that's what i did. i said, you have to pay your bills. they all -- one stood up, i won't say who, you'll probably have it. because the papers, the media hated to report on it. but a prime minister up from a country, our famous meeting of 28 nations with no press, no anybody in the room he stood up and said, does that mean if we don't pay our bill and at that point it was 2%, should be 5%, it should be 5%, not 2%, but at that point it was 2%. many people didn't pay.

some people didn't pay anything. many people were -- including germany. germany was at less than 1%. i think nato should have 5%. you can't do it at two. at 2%, every country if you're going to have kawntry and a regular military, you're at 4%. i think they're in dangerous territory. i think they should be, they can all afford it. they should be at 5%, not 2%. i'm the one that got them to pay 2%. but a gentleman stood up, a prime minister stood up and he said to me, sir, can i ask you a question? you're say wefg to pay our bills. if we don't pay our bills will the united states protect us from russia? i said if you don't pay, you're delinquent? he said yes. i said if you're delinquent we won't protect you. i took a lot of heat. although we're somewhat closed door, i took a lot of heat from the media. and the money started pouring in. that's why nato has money. the secretary general said it was the most incredible thing he

had ever seen in a negotiation. now if i would have said yes, we will. nobody would have paid. i would have loved to say yes we'll protect you even if you don't pay but that's not the way life works. reporter: two question, related to each other. first you said on your first day of office you're going to pardon january 6 defendants. are you planning to par dob those who were charged with violent offenses? mr. trump: we're looking at it. we have other people in there as you see, i guess 24, 28 people now came from the f.b.i., that came out, very quietly, nobody reported it, but they had people in some form related to the f.b.i., they had four or five people that were strongly related to the f.b.i., we have to find out about that. we have to find out about hezbollah, we have to find out about who exactly was in that whole thing because people that did some bad things were not prosecuted. i see it all the time. you see it too. people that were ding some bad things weren't prosecuted and people that didn't even walk

into the building are in jail right now. we'll be looking at the whole thing. i'll be making major par tennessee dons. reporter: good afternoon, mr. president. two questions about syria and the ongoing war in gaza. about syria, the pentagon disclosed last month the u.s. has some 2,000 troops in syria. almost double the number initially we were told of 900. will you keep that troop capacity the same? mr. trump: i won't tell you that, that's part of military strategy. but i will say it's turkiye. turkiye has been after that country in different names and forms and shapes for 2,000 years. those people that went in are from turkiye. and president erdogan is a friend of mindful he's a guy i like, respect. i think he respects me also. he's the one that didn't go after certain people after i requested that he not. you know who i'm talking about, the kurs. i don't know how long that's -- they're natural enemy, hate each

other. but he didn't do that. yet. and he didn't do it in the past also. he started and i said, please don't do that. and he didn't do it. but if you look at what happened with syria, russia was weakened. iran was weakened. and he's a very smart guy. and he sent his people in there through different forms, different names. and they wept in there and took over. that's the way it is. reporter: do you have concerned about -- mr. trump: by the way, envoy is that in the back? standing with my son, eric, is steve wyckoff, who just got back from the middle east, he's done a fantastic job. he's a great dealmaker. i said what we need there is a dealmaker. nobody makes a deal. we have people that understand where the rivers are and where the meets and bounds are but they can't talk. can't make deals.

steve has den a great job. thank you, steve. you've been working endlessly for months. and he's working specifically on the hostages. trying to get them back. steve come up for a second. maybe you want to say a couple of words. i didn't know steve was going to be here actually. he's done a fantastic job. it's a dangerous job too. we appreciate it. he didn't know about this kind of danger in the other deal making he does. now he sees a lot of big danger. come on up, steve. i'll give you a little report on the hostages if were wow! i think we are making a lot of progress, and i don't want to stay too much because i think they are doing a good job back in doha. i'm leaving tomorrow to go back

to doha. i think the president and stature, the red lines. that's driving this negotiation. i'm going back probably this evening or tomorrow night.

[indiscernible] >> i would say -- right. i would say the president is is ex as per ated. but i don't know who delegates than president trump. he gives us authority to speak on his behalf and emphatically means, you better do this because the alternative -- >> waiting for president trump to take office. >> i think they heard him loud and clear, get it done by the inaugural. [indiscernible] >> if those hostages -- if they are not back by the time i get

into office, all hell will break out in the middle east and not good for hamas. all hell will break out. they should have given -- they should have never taken them or attacked on october 7. people forget that. there was and many people are killed and no longer hostages. i have people from israel and others calling, begging me -- we had people there from the united states. they are holding some so-called hostages from the u.s. but i had mothers and fathers coming to me can i get the body of their son back or daughter back. that beautiful girl and pulled her by her pony tail like she was a sack of potatoes. i said what happened to her? she's dead. 19, 20-year-old, beautiful

girl. and i just say it simply, steve has a good job to do. great negotiator. they respect him over there. people can't speak properly. they don't know. he is a great negotiator. i could have sent that gentleman over there. there are people. negotiators are very rare, like a great surgeon. but i tell this. i don't want to hurt the negotiation. if the deal isn't done before i take office, which is now two weeks, all hell will break out in the middle east. [indiscernible chatter] >> four police officers were injured by violence on january 6. will you pardon anyone who attacked a police officer? >> the only one who was killed

was a beautiful young lady, she was killed and somebody else, a maga person, but people don't give it 100% credibility. i'm going to find out about it. but ashley bab it was killed. she was shot. she was shot for no reason whatsoever. in fact, she was trying to hold back the crowd. and the crowd was made up of a lot of different people. but i will tell you this, the person that was killed was ashley babbit. there were never charges of insurrection. if there were, this would be the only insurrection that people went in but not one gun, ok. the people you are talking about have a lot of guns in their home for hunting, shooting and

entertainment. but wasn't one gun that they found. and why didn't they find the pipe bomber. the f.b.i. knows who it is. the status of the f.b.i. has gone down so far and the status of the d.o.j. or the department of injustice being laughed at all over the world and with pam bondi and patel, it will come back. 90% with the agents of the f.b.i. but they have hurt, hurt that incredible place. law enforcement. you think of the f.b.i. they raided this house -- by the way, they could have told me -- i actually told them, come in any time you want. you can see anything.

they -- and the case was dismissed and i'm suing them for doing that. and i feel so badly doing it. i'm the president of the united states and suing the united states and suing them for others, too. the f.b.i. has gone so -- its reputation between comey who was the worst and all of the others, what has happened -- and we are going to make it great again. we are going to make the department of justice fair and strong but fair again because all they did was attack me because i am their political like local judges like mere chan. why do i have a gag order? i'm the president of the unions and i am not allowed to speak. why? because if i did speak, people would understand we have a

scam. and new york judges, one that valued his house because it was good for that case. that chand leer is worth more and valued his house at 18 million and another one who is so nasty, so nasty and such a brute, most vicious, vial person and these are new york judges and won most of the cases and we are very happy about that. [indiscernible] >> i have been told that before i have even run. approximately 45,000. people don't even know if denmark has any legal right.

but if they do, they should give it up. that's for the free world. i'm talking about protecting the free world. you look outside, you have china ships all over the place. you have russian ships all over the place. we aren't letting that happen. we aren't letting that happen. if denmark wants to get to a conclusion -- nobody knows if they have right title or interest. people are going to vote. if they did do that, then i would tariff denmark at a very high level. [indiscernible]

>> i don't know the people. elon is doing. i don't know the people you are talking about. i know he said some negative things about people running for office, but not so unusual. [indiscernible] >> i want to ask you about ukraine. how soon do you anticipate going to meet with putin to discuss the ukraine situation snr. >> i don't think it's appropriate i meet until after the 20 which i hate. every day -- million young people are being killed, soldiers. the land is very flat. and hundreds of thousands of -- many hundreds of thousands from each side are dead and laying in fields. nobody has even collected. it's a disaster. but it's very flat. it's farmland and very flat.

the only thing that stops a bullet is the human body. and the human body is stopping a lot of bullets. i hope to have -- six months. i hope long before six months. russia is losing a lot of young people and so is ukraine and should have never been started. i guarantee you, if i were president, that war would have never happened. [indiscernible chatter] [indiscernible question] >> maybe he won't win. --

[indiscernible] >> military force to acquire panama and greenland. are you considering military force? >> economic force. canada and the united states. you get rid of that artificially drawn line and look at what that looks like and we basically protect canada. here's the problem with canada, so many friends up there. i love the canadian people. they're great. but we are spending hundreds of billions to protect it. spending hundreds of billions to take care of canada. in trade -- we don't need their cars. i would rather make them in detroit. we don't need the cars. we don't need their lumbers. we don't need their and stupid people put restrictions on

whether i can do that with an executive order. we don't need their dairy products. we have more than they have. why are we losing $200 billion a year to protect canada. and i called him governor trudeau. i said, what would happen if we didn't subsidize you? we give them a lot of money. as an example we are buying ice breakers and they want to join us. i said we don't want a partner. we don't need a partner -- [indiscernible] >> nope. we have a right not to help them with their financial difficulties because we are $36 trillion and do it because of energy and other things. no. no. no right. but why are we supporting a

country $200 billion plus a year. our military is at their disposal, all of these other things, they should be a state. i told trudeau, what would happen? he said canada would dissolve. canada wouldn't be able to function. if we didn't take on 20%. they send us hundreds of thousands of cars. and send us -- we don't need their cars or the other products, their milk. we got a lot of milk. , we don't need any of it. i said why are you doing it? he was nail to answer the question. we are doing it because of habit and doing it because we like our neighbors and been good neighbors. but we can't do it forever and it's a tremendous amount of money and why should we have a $200 billion deficit and many

other things that we give them in terms of subsidy. i said that's ok to have if you are another state. if you are another country, we aren't going to have it with european union. we have a trade deficit of $350 billion. they don't take our cars or farm product. they don't take anything. we aren't going to have it with them either. >> happy new year by the way, looks like cannon has blocked the d.o.j. until further court proceedings. >> that's a big story. as i get it right. the fake witch hunt started by the d.o.j. having to do with books and records and -- and biden wasn't protected by the presidential records as i was.

and destroyed people. people are destroyed because of what they did, destroyed. but we got to be president. but biden did it for 40 years. he did it when he was a senator. it was illegal. and ruled it was illegal. how about that? they said it's illegal but unfit to stand trial. the prosecutor found he is unfit to trial. i was going to use that as a major talking point because i had a new character that was unfit to stand trial, right? what you are saying is that the judge just blocked -- so cannon was thrown off the case. they dropped their appeal because he had no case. they dropped all of that -- the lawsuits against us. they lost the lawsuit. so this is the rejects.

he dropped the lawsuits. they lost in court. in front of a very strong and very brilliant judge. they lost in court. and that pertained to other cases in other courts. he wanted to do a report just before i take office probably. he said he'll do a 500 page report and be a fake report like it was a fake investigation. and i said wait a minute, this guy was thrown off in disgrace. and going back to the haeg or wherever, in disgrace because he failed. it was a fake case against a political opponent and use it to beat me. what you are saying -- they are not allowed to issue the report. if they are not allowed, he was thrown off the case in disgrace. why should he write a fake

report? that's great news. >> many americans are angry we are sending millions of dollars to the caliphate. >> billions, not millions, billions of dollars to essentially the taliban, afghanistan. and that's the same man who took away $60 trillion worth from the united states. and took away our most valuable asset. this can't be allowed to happen. we are now a nation of common sense. what he does that, 625 million akers, this can't be allowed to happen. thank you for the information. most other people know about it. >> you vowed to bring down the costs very fast --

[indiscernible] what can the american people expect? >> we'll bring them down and bring them down and energy is going to bring down prices. and energy is what brought them up. and energy is going to bring it down. i think you are going to see some pretty drastic price reductions. food, bacon, ham, apples, everything has gone through the roof. so as you know, i said it inflation is one of the reasons i won. but the reason i won they are allowing prisoners to come into our country and release their prisoners, murderers, thousands of murderers are walking around the streets of our cities and farmland. many. 32% have killed more than one

person and release them from their jails and prisons and mental institutions into our country. i believe that's the reason we have a large vote. maybe one or two more questions. [indiscernible] >> i liked him as a man and disagreed with him as his policies. i think it cost the election, that and the hostages. that was a biggest factor. again, this is a question that was asked of me. i didn't want to bring up the panama canal because of jimmy carter's death. but people don't bring it up. but you asked me about. it was -- i was a young guy when

this took place. why would we spend all of that money and lose 38,000 people to malaria, they were dying and horrible that was happening. they paid him four times than they were making in the united states. and they died in the jungles of malaria and gave it away for $1. >> you talked in a radio interview yesterday. still your preference for one big beautiful bill. i like it. it does go a little bit quicker and do the immigration stuff earlier. for immigration and the wall. they tried to sell the wall for five cents on the dollar, by the way and we had a judge that stopped that. but they were discarding the

wall. five cents on the dollar. they were calling us up and sell it back to 200 cents, double of what we paid for it. buy it from this guy on five cents on the dollar. we had a very smart judge that stopped it cold. and i think he called for an investigation, too. and he should. but think of it, they were selling the wall that was the wall that the border patrol wanted, that was designed by them. steel, concrete, rebar. very heavy steel. and concrete. everything was top of the line. double of what we paid for it then six years ago. let me just tell you, they were selling it for five cents on the dollar to people and those people were calling us asking us

to pay them 200 cents because it's a good deal because we can have it immediately. you know what immediately is, just leave it in place. that deal is like all the other things. these people, either hate our country or very stupid. i don't believe they are stupid because nobody can cheat on elections. they either hate our country or stupid. remember what i said because nobody wants to report it. they were selling the wall for five cents on the dollar and sell it for 200 cents on the dollar. that's a nice return. [indiscernible question] >> i thought it was a very good

news conference. i think they have come a long way, meta, facebook. i watched it on fox. i'm not allowed to say it. >> do you think -- [indiscernible] >> probably. [indiscernible chatter] >> you were asked a question about possibly launching a preemptive strike on iran. >> military strategy. only a stupid person would answer that. it's a military strategy and i'm not answering your questions on military strategy. one more. >> could you give us a preview of what you are talking to leaders of congress in the next couple of days and you have a

very supportive congress behind you. >> we have a wonderful republican congress and a leader that i have a lot of confidence in and hopefully be a debate leader and speaker. and leader in the senate. john thune have been doing a fantastic job and the question is whether we do it in two bills or one bill. i like the idea of one big bill. but they will be coming down and the senators coming down and we be be be meeting in the white house. this is the winter season. they call it the winter white house. post and hutton built this. and i say that and i get a lot of credit, most of these great houses have been knocked down in palm beach and build 10 man chons on one side but this was

built as the southern white house and gave it to the government and by the way, jimmy carter gave it back and said too expensive. i didn't realize that. jimmy carter and nixon, nixon came here once and thought it was incredible. and everybody remembers that. so he had other things on his mind and jimmy carter felt it was too extravagant. and he gave it to the foundation and i bought it from the foundation. [indiscernible] >> i like spending cuts. and the debt ceiling was given to us. but put on our lap. and what i want in terms of debt

ceiling isn't the ceiling, i just don't want to see a default. i never talked about spending more money necessarily. nobody knows what would happen if there is a default. could be 1929 or could be nothing. but that was put into our lap and shouldn't have been, but it was and we'll handle it but debt ceiling isn't raising a lot of money but extending it. i just want to see an extension. >> how much can you do by executive order on immigration when it comes to immigration and how much do you want congress to tackle this issue? and also on day one -- >> you remember the famous chart. i love that chart. but i have the safest border by far. and when i took it over, it was

a mess. nothing like it is now. i got elected because of the border the first time and i got elected largely because of the third time and the second time i did equally well. and i will say this is too big to rig. they couldn't do it. they tried. i didn't get much from congress and said we are being invaded. over 500 miles of wall, it built through money i put into the military and took it out because we couldn't get things from congress and that wall was built with money coming from the military. so very simple. i went to the military and i said our country is being invaded. nothing like what is invading our country now.

they weren't releasing mental institutions. some bad dudes were coming in. i took that money from the military. i was sued nine times by the democrats and i won all those suits and we ended up building 571 miles of wall. once that wall is built. that would have been up in three weeks and we had the unfortunate election result and they said we don't want to put it up and sell it. and started selling it for five cents on the dollar. we'll do this again. i'm telling you this will be the golden age of america. we are going to have a great country again. we have so many different problems and nobody respects us overseas. but now they do. the italian prime minister

through in and flew out. she wanted to see me. and great respect is being shown. when i went to the cathedral in france. great respect was shown by the prime minister, the president. france -- and by the way, they did a great job on the cathedral. great respect is being shown. but we have to run properly. and we want to get back those hostages for israel and for us. we have people that are being held. if this deal is not done with the people representing our nation, by the time i get to office, all hell is going to break out. thank you very much. [indiscernible chatter] >> are you going to use military force in the pan march canal?

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