White House: President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Arrival at Reading, PA, Jun. 23, 2026

Hello, everybody. We're in Pennsylvania. We're celebrating the great steel numbers. We are back in the steel business in a big way, one of the biggest in the world again. And we're here to have a good time with a very big crowd of people.

Mr. President, your Department of War is asking for $80 billion more for the Iran war. Do you think Americans support this at a time when so many are financially struggling? Who are you with? I'm with News Nation, sir. Not a very good group.

Not doing very well.

Not only do they support it, not only do they support it, they demand it because they won't allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. You want to see trouble? Let them have a nuclear weapon. We're doing very well with Iran. They've been decimated and we're making a deal with them and we'll see how that all goes.

And right now, as you probably heard yesterday, we had 19 barrels of oil, 19 million barrels of oil come off. And that's the biggest in the history of the strait, the Hormuz Strait. Our stock market is through the roof and oil prices tumbling. We actually hit for a moment today, in fact, I think it's going to break it, $70 a barrel. That's lower than we were when we started.

And it's been amazing. And the big thing is Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. Mr. President, what's on your agenda for your meeting tomorrow with senators at the lunch about the Save America Act? Well, we're just going to talk about Save America. We have to get, we have to pass the Save America Act, which is voter ID, which is proof of citizenship, etc.

We have to pass it. So we're going to have a talk about that and many other A lot of good relations. Mr. President, the Senate Majority Leader, John Cruz, has told you many times he doesn't believe that they have the votes to pass it. He's a leader. John's a leader.

That's what being as a leader is about. Look, we have to be able to get proof of citizenship when you vote. Otherwise, we don't have elections. We have to be able to get voter ID. So John is a leader, and hopefully he can get the votes.

Mr. President, on Iran, the Iranians are saying there's no scheduled visit for the IAEA inspectors.

—Part of your agreement. They're wrong. They're wrong. They know they're wrong. They told us inside, and we have it down 100%, inspections.

And if they were right, I'd cancel the meetings right now. And Iran said they're closed. I urge you, Mr. President, when will those inspectors actually be on the ground? At the appropriate time.

At the appropriate time. There's no rush, but they'll be on the ground at the appropriate time. Mr. President, I come from South Africa. I'm going to ask you, what are the hopes for travel to Qatar in Saudi Arabia? And today is getting too people.

Are you confident that the ceasefire is still holding? Yeah, we'll see what— look, they've been fighting each other for many, many years, decades, and we'll see. But it's going to come along. Mr. President, on Nancy Guthrie, there's a note that our Brian Entin reported on that says that she's dead.

She's with nature. Is there any hope that the FBI and investigators find her? I hope they find her. I mean, Savannah's gone through a rough— that family's gone through hell, but I hope they find her. Mr. President, I want to reflect on coal.

You mentioned yesterday that the Interior Department has video and photos. We reached out to them and they haven't shared it with us. Are you going to come visit them? They've arrested, I think, 6 people on the reflecting pool. So the reflecting pool looks fantastic.

I just got pictures of it. It's beautiful. But somebody went in with a knife and cut it. They cut it up good. And then they cut a 200, 350-foot slip in the form of lots of little slips.

A real horrible stuff. And they destroyed the grass. We put a brand new big load of grass out there. They destroyed it. So it's all being fixed.

But it's a shame. So I understand 5 or 6 people are arrested. The Interior Department can refer to you on that. And I hear that— I hear they have 6 people under investigation. Mr. President, you're about to speak to truckers.

Truckers are at high risk of losing their jobs to AI because of self-driving cars. Well, now they're not. You can't get a job. Right now, we have the highest job numbers we've ever had in the country, in the history of the country. And I'm just with a couple of the great senators and congressmen.

We're talking— it's actually hard to fill the job. Nobody's ever seen a time like this. We have, right now, so many jobs that are going to be available. And the biggest problem we have is getting the people. So we're really doing spectacular.

In this area, in Pennsylvania, for steel, Eli Lilly just announced billions of dollars' worth of plants. We have more plants being built right now in the United States than at any time in the history of our country. The Press: Mr. President, when you meet with senators tomorrow, what will you say to allies of yours, like Senator Cruz, who've been critical of the Iran deal?

Well, I think anybody that's been critical of it has to be educated, even if they're friends of mine. Because we have Iran in a position that nobody's ever had. This should have been done for 47 years by other presidents. And we have Iran in a position where their military has been totally wiped out. Their leadership has been wiped out.

Their radar has been wiped out. Everything's been wiped out. They have not a good negotiating position. But despite that, and money that will be taken out of Iran is going to go to our farmers to give corn, soybeans, wheat to Iran because they have a hunger problem. They have a food problem.

They have a medicine problem. They got a lot of problems and they have an inflation. Their inflation now just hit 300%. So they have a lot of problems. Mr.

President, are you planning to do a federal takeover of D.C. soon? Does it look likely that a socialist—. So we have a radical left communist elected, I guess, soon to be elected mayor of D.C. D.C. is now a safe— you people know better than anybody. It's a safe, beautiful city. When I came here, it was an unsafe, unkempt, horrible city.

It was horrible. The monuments and the waterfalls and the statues and everything were graffiti written. Hadn't been fixed in 50 years, cleaned. Now it's beautiful. We did 52 statues, monuments, waterfalls, including the thing that, you know, where the vandals hit the reflecting pool.

But we'll get that back very quickly. In fact, I will say, this morning I sent people over. They say it looks Absolutely beautiful. But we're going to have to let a little water out and fix it, and then we'll put the water back in. But just so you understand, so our country is doing really well and we're going to keep it that way.

And any senator that didn't vote for all of the things we need— because we're making an amazing deal with Iran. We're making a deal that's going to keep our country and the world safe because we're not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And they know that and they agree to that. Thank you very much.