President Trump Signs a Proclamation, Jun. 11, 2026

Just had a big day. I know you'll never be satisfied, but that's okay. That doesn't bother me at all. We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran, and we're going to be subject to finalization of documents. We should get done over the next few days.

Probably have a signing maybe in Europe, and it's a great thing. Stock market's up 1,000 points. That means they like the deal. See, that means they like— if the market goes down, that means they don't like the deal. But it's been up.

Oil's dropped. Oil will start coming down to, I think, even lower than it was before. We had— I said I was in Iowa. It was $1.85 a gallon. I don't know if we're going to get there, but we're going to get pretty close.

It's going to come down. And when oil comes down, everything else comes down. And most importantly, we have a deal that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. Which was the whole purpose of what we had to go through to get this. So it was a big— very big thing.

But we have a signing soon, and the documents are in pretty final shape. So we'll see. We'll see. Very good. Should be done.

And it should be done pretty quickly. They want it every bit as much as everybody else wants it. And I think a lot of good relationships can ensue from this. I just spoke with the leaders of many of the countries that were mentioned in the release. I just spoke to Bibi.

I spoke to the head of— great heads of nations: Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others. And we're going to be talking to Turkey. President Erdoğan is great. And it's really a wonderful thing with a lot of spirit. Pakistan was fantastic.

The Prime Minister and the— I call him the general. He's a general. He's a great, great general. He's so great that he's actually a field marshal, a step above. And they're all very happy.

The whole Middle East is happy and long beyond the Middle East. The Strait will open as soon as we have it signed. We've been taking out many ships that nobody knew. Even the fake news didn't know it. But over the last month, we've been taking out ships, big ships, quietly at night.

You guys didn't know that. Pretty cool, right? As a captain, he knows about more ships than I do. But it's pretty cool. They turned off the lights.

We bombed their radar and everything so they couldn't see what was going on. We took out Some nights, 25 ships. Some nights, 15. Last 4 or 5 nights, we did 25, 22, 21, 26, 18, and 14. Who else would remember those numbers? Nobody.

Nobody. And— but a lot of ships. A lot of oil is out. That's why oil, even before this, the market couldn't understand why it was so free. There was more oil than they thought, what they're trying to— We took them out at night.

And that was— the Strait will officially open as soon as we sign, which could be soon, very soon, maybe over the weekend in Europe. I won't be able to be there, but JD will be there, Vice President, and some of the people. Steve Whitkopf did a great job. Jared. So we'll take some questions.

But right now we're here to talk about fishermen and fisherwomen. Okay, we have— they're great people. And I guess I'm a little prejudiced because they all voted for me. Would you say I got 100% or just 110%? I think so.

I think if I didn't, we'd have a surprise. We'd have a big surprise. So it's my honor to be taking this action to lower seafood costs and generate millions and millions of dollars in new business for our great, really great fishermen, great people, by restoring commercial access to 3 areas of the Western Pacific Ocean. It's a large amount of space we're talking about that they were restricted. Other countries would use it, but our country couldn't use it.

You ever hear of anything so stupid? I want to thank Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, and Congresswoman Kimberly King Hines for joining us today. We appreciate it all very much. Thank you very much. Thanks as well to Captain Sig Hansen, a superstar.

He's a— him and Tom Cruise are the two biggest people in entertainment. Thank you very much. Great, great job. And Pacific Seafood CEO Frank Dulcich. And his sons, Dominic and Charles, and many more dedicated fishermen and seafood industry leaders.

We have some great leaders here. And your product is amazing. Been going around, going along for a long time, right? Seafood. It's amazing.

And doing great. Under the Obama-Biden administration's radical environmentalists drastically restricted access for fishermen and coastal communities. Hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean was Cut off for them. They can't fish. Other people could fish.

They couldn't. These people weren't allowed to fish. Can you imagine that? Did you ever think that was going to happen as you grew up, probably as the sons of sons and daughters of fishermen, right? That someday they were going to take away the right for you to go fishing in the Pacific Ocean.

What a bunch of dopes. Those decisions close off vast resources. And really the richest fishing grounds, they say, anywhere in the world destroyed livelihoods and made the United States more dependent on foreign products. And I did a similar thing for Maine. Maine is very much in the subject because I have a pig running for the Senate.

He's a pig. He's not a senator. He's a joke. He's a con man. But so it's in the plan.

And, you know, I won half of Maine. I won the— they have two. I won. I won by a lot. Fishermen, actually, come to think of it.

Fishermen and the lumberjacks, people that go out there and work. I won them. So I love Maine. But it's amazing. They had a 5— I think it was 500-mile by 500-mile, massive amount of the Atlantic Ocean.

You weren't allowed to fish, but Canada was. Japan was. They all came in and fished, but our people weren't allowed to fish there. That was put in by Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of Barack Hussein Obama and Sleepy Joe Biden?

And it's a shame. I mean, a shame. But I did it a little while ago and opened it up to them twice. I've done it now, Peter, right? Sir, Peter Navarro, the great Peter Navarro.

And I did it twice. I did it. And then they had a rigged election and I wasn't here. Totally rigged election, just like what was happening in California. You see what they got the kid out.

And then they were doing the same thing to Steve Hilton. And I started bringing it. They said, look, they said it's going to take 2 more weeks. It was a week and it was heading south. And I started saying it's a rigged election.

And then they said it was going to take 2 weeks, 1 week, 2 weeks. And all of a sudden he was approved. You know why? Because the heat was on. He couldn't get away with it.

If I didn't do it, I guarantee he wouldn't. He wouldn't be the nominee. It's a rigged election. Our country— and we have to get, by the way, the Save America Act has to get passed by the Senate. House has passed it 3 times.

But with today's action, we're officially reopening nearly half a million square miles. Wow. Of water around northwestern Hawaiian Islands, northern Mariana Islands, and America. American Samoa. I mean, we'll ask you in a second, but why the hell did they close it?

Why? Not enough fish? Or what's going on? They closed it. Peter, do you have any reasons why they closed it?

Obama. Barack Hussein Obama. Environmental activists tried to shut it down. But you're right, sir. It's crazy.

They let all the foreign boats— They ruined a big industry, man. The foreign boats come in. It's crazy. And they leave our captains out. It's crazy.

It's bad for fish prices, too. But we're making up for it, right? Yes, sir. And this will support millions of dollars in annual harvest of bigeye tuna, swordfish, reef fish, and many other types of fish. It will protect small local fisheries and coastal communities that depend on their livelihoods.

I mean, they are very dependent on this. And it will increase domestic seafood production to help lower costs for American communities. And you're talking about millions, tens of millions of dollars of income. And we have so much. These areas, I mean, they just like say, oh, let's just close them.

The amazing thing is that other countries, there's no restriction. You know, you can go and do whatever you want. It's just crazy. America's fishermen, have never had a better ally in the White House than Donald Trump. That I will say.

I shouldn't say that because I don't want to brag, but based on the vote of getting almost every vote ever. True. But you have never had. And again, in Maine, I opened it up. You know who was fishing there?

Canada. Canada. Japan. Who's fishing there? Maine lobster.

You couldn't get a Maine lobster. You had to go to Japan to get a Maine lobster. You believe it? You had to go to Canada to get a Maine lobster. They were fishing there.

Not only that, you had to go a day and a half in a boat, and they had you at 3 knots. That means like essentially a little bit different than 3 miles an hour, but it means slow. 3 Knots until you got outside of this 500-mile area because they didn't want you to disturb the fish that you weren't allowed to fish for. But think of it. These people are crazy.

And the new thing they had was you had to have an electric boat, even though they didn't work. And even though once you got out there, you had a problem because you couldn't get back because they didn't charge long enough. These are problems that were mentioned to them, and they said, we don't care. You have to have an electric boat. And the other problem was the electric battery is much heavier, as you know.

So the boat has a tendency to sink. And they were forced, you know, by 2030 or so, you were forced to have an electric boat. I don't think you were too happy with that, right? Not at all. Anyway, but we'll, this is going to support millions and millions of people.

America's fishermen have just, they're special people. And especially men and fisherwomen. So tell me, how do they define that? Because in most industries, like you have policemen, policewomen, Do you call them fishermen and fisherwomen? I haven't heard of that one before.

Are we— how would the women do? They want to be designated as fisherwomen? Does anybody want to answer that question? Don't take fishermen. Yes, fishermen, fisherwomen.

How about fisherpeople? Or if you want to be politically correct, sometimes they use the term fisher. But fisher. I like fishermen or fisherwomen myself. How about fisherpeople?

These people are crazy. So, President Trump, I Googled that because I was at the same dilemma you did, trying to figure out to be politically correct. And what is the answer? So the Google answer said that most women attribute to fisherman because they feel like they're strong individuals and they can do the work of a man. Well, be careful.

That might be the end of your career. My administration's already rolled back burdensome regulations, increased Gear flexibility. You know what that means, right? Do you know what that means? I heard they made you buy gear that you didn't want.

Yeah. And that didn't work. Other than that, it was quite good. Expedite— I guarantee the guy made contributions to find whoever owns the company that made the bad gear. Expedite fishing start dates and significantly raise catch limits based on the best available science.

You know about that? That's unbelievable. We expanded access to key fishing grounds in the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, including vast areas off the coast of New England. I mentioned 500 miles by 500 miles. That's a lot.

That's a lot of fish. It's a lot of lobster that was being sold by Japan. I will tell you, foreign countries are very happy because they ended up taking over the Maine lobster business. Maine lobster business, live from Japan, right? But we gave it back to them.

These actions have unlocked billions of dollars in economic value and protected thousands and thousands of jobs from great people that voted for Trump. They voted for me because of common sense. That's all it is. Because anybody can see this stuff is crazy. This is one industry, but other industries likewise.

And right now we have $18 trillion being invested in our country. And under the last administration was less than $1 trillion. And $18 trillion, by the way, in less than a year. It was 4 years less than $1 trillion. Right, Howard?

That's correct. By restoring fishing access to these waters in the Western Pacific, we're reclaiming our maritime heritage, empowering American fishermen, and putting American consumers first with lower prices. You're going to have more fish, lower prices. So now let's hear from, first, Secretary Lutnick and then Secretary Bergman, followed by Governor Dunleavy and Frank Dual Stitch and Captain Sig Hansen. And then we'll take some questions.

And maybe you want to hear a little bit about some other subjects. But to me, it's really important. I'm going to sign this now so that we can get it done. No auto pen? I don't want an auto pen.

Can you believe 94% signed by an auto pen? Can you believe that? I think it's higher than 94%. The only one that was definitely signed by him that we know of. You know what it was?

It was his son. It was his son. His son. That was the only one. You could tell.

You know why? Because his signature was horrible. This is the real beauty of that one.

Okay.

Do we want to do some questions? Mr. President, I would like to speak. Do we like to speak? Yeah, go ahead. So this action, 500,000 square miles were closed to American fishermen.

You couldn't go and fish. 500,000 Square miles. I mean, just think of how big that is. And if you had an American flag, you weren't allowed there. But of course, everybody else went.

So they went in our waters. These are our waters. And so what did that result in? That resulted in us instead of having seafood exports, because we have great fishing opportunity. We were an importer.

We became an importer of seafood. How crazy is that? So the president is finally changing that. This is a massive win for our fishermen, massive win for our waterfront communities who process it, all these processors. And in the end, we are going to eat fish caught by us.

What a shock! Eating fish caught by us in our waters. So this is just common sense, smart. We already have the best conservation rules in the world, and this was one on top of another on top of another. So thank God, from the fishermen's perspective— and I get these calls all the time— that President Donald Trump is in this office because he's finally letting our great fishermen and fisherwomen Get out there and catch fish and stop importing fish.

Let's eat fish caught by Americans. Thanks. Thank you. Echoing that, with President Trump's leadership, this is another promise made, promise kept by President Trump that he was going to roll back these job-killing, community-killing, industry-killing jobs. He's done that last year with executive orders, doing it today with this proclamation..

So I want to say thank you to President Trump. I want to say thank you to my great friend Secretary Lutnick in Commerce. We have dual responsibilities across Commerce and Interior related to fish, and of course with our partners in the Pacific, because American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands— we've got the Congresswoman here from Northern Marianas Islands— these are all American citizens. The— as Howard said, this is U.S. territorial waters, and they were closed to us and open to others, and that makes no sense. We've reversed that around.

And so again, as you see around us, the jobs that are creating this industry are often second, third, fourth, and fifth generation family businesses. And you— these folks not only risk their lives, they risk their own personal capital to help feed America. They're the farmers of the sea. Just like President Trump's behind our farmers and ranchers, He's behind our fishermen. He's making sure that America is great.

This brings back healthy food for our schools, our military, all the things that we're working on with Secretary Kennedy and with Pete Higsett. So this is a win-win-win across the board. Again, thank you, President Trump. Thank you, Howard. Great, great day for America.

Thank you very much. Mr. President, this is another example of America First, to be honest with you. Alaska provides 60% of the country's seafood. We're the state with halibut, salmon, king crab, you name it, comes from Alaska. Alaska's one— fishing in Alaska is one of the oldest industries in that entire state, employs thousands of individuals.

Everyone has had fish from Alaska, we know that. But this is an example again, putting America's first, America first, workers first, and really this country first. And so on behalf of Alaska, on behalf of all fishermen, And women, I want to thank you for what you're doing for this country, for the state of Alaska as well. Governor, was this shutdown— I mean, it's just so hard to believe. So this was trauma for your industry, which is a big industry.

Well, your deregulation is what really helps Alaska. It helps the fishermen. The country doesn't need more regulation. We need less regulation. And that includes for this industry as well.

So from that perspective— and it's across the board. We could talk about oil and gas and so forth, but this is about fish. But your deregulation approach is really what we need. We don't need more costs, and as you said, we probably don't need electric boats either. We need to focus on getting seafood to Americans, putting people to work, and this is exactly what this does.

So I just want to thank you. Thanks, good job. Mr. President, I'm third generation, these two are some of our kids, uh, as a rule of four. Pacific Seafood, immigrated micro grandfather immigrated into this country and started his first fish market in 1941. From there, we now are one of the largest family vertically integrated seafood companies in North America.

It was American dream. I'm honored. Where are you from? Portland, Oregon, and now Arizona. Liberal?

No. Are you a liberal? I'm not a liberal. Trust me. There's probably more people than you think as Republicans, conservatives.

If we could count the votes. Yeah, if you could count the votes, probably. But where we are is this— the act, the proclamation today, and the executive order last year prior to this is really going to help us. We have 3,000 families that work with us and 715 fishing families, lower 48 and Oregon, Washington, California, and Alaska, that depend on what we catch, what we process, and what we grow and sell is the healthiest protein on the planet. And you're giving us access to these family-wage jobs in these coastal communities where we're usually the number one or number two employer in those cities and counties and coastal community.

And so I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of that 3,000 employees and 715 fishermen. Thank you, Mr. President. Secretaries, thank you. And everybody that supports this industry. Sir, did you ever see this happening when— They destroyed your whole life and your family and your business and everything else.

Did you ever think that somebody would come along and save it? I'm going to just be really clear. There's never been a president to do this. Thank you. That's very nice.

I just want to say, Mr. President, that, you know, my father always said, always give credit where credit is due. And I'm here representing the working man, the fishermen. I am one myself, as you know. And, you know, I spent a couple of months with you on The Apprentice, and I saw your work ethic there. And I got to tell you, you know, I understand that— I can't fathom how you can do all this and how you can get the time to do what you do and representing us and helping the fishermen the way you have done.

It's just, it's mind-boggling to me because I know you got your hands full, but putting us on that pedestal and backing up our industry the way you have, it's just phenomenal. And I got to say, I've been fishing since I was 12 years old. I've never been fired in my life until I spent a couple of months with this man. And it was very humbling, to say the least. He did a great job.

I tell you what, you know, when I think about it, And I was a better captain after that because I was very nice to my crew. I was very humbled when I was fired. And anyway, I just want to say, as for you, this is a crew member's cap. You can take that. And you're one of us now.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. You've done more for this nation in the fishing space.

We're farmers of the sea. We produce this great, healthy protein. I'm from North Carolina. But we support you 100%. You have done more for this nation in the seafood space than any President before you in my lifetime.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I'm Eric from Hawaii. The United States fisheries are the best managed in the world, and this action is really about balancing, you know, the interests in U.S. exclusive economic zone. You can have both ocean protection under our laws as well as sustainable fishing. And that's what this is about. And I think, Mr. President, you are the only President that has really stepped up in terms of supporting fishermen like you're doing.

No other President we've seen—. The administration is helping us. And there's a lot more work to do because there's a tremendous seafood deficit in trade. Imports are undercutting us left and right. But seafood is healthy—.

Well, they're taking them right out of your water. Yeah, seafood is a healthy—. They're taking it from your water and selling it in to the United States. That's right. The whole thing is just crazy.

So, really appreciate it. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yeah, please. First of all, thank you, Mr. President, to you and your family for the sacrifice and the commitment to the country.

Thank you. I'm in the sea scallop business. I don't know who likes sea scallops, but—. Me. New Bedford, Massachusetts is a port that is recognized as the highest-grossing revenue port in the United States.

I don't know who knows where New Bedford is, but Seaskulls—. There's roughly 300 vessels, so 300 full-time vessels. They range from 85 feet to 100 feet. Six flights came from New Bedford. And you talked earlier about some examples of stupidity or whatever.

We have vessels that can cost anywhere between $3 to $5 million, and those vessels only work for 35 days a year. They sit the rest of the time at the dock. So we need certain things that could help us. And I know that this— because of your executive order, and it's a game changer. That order is a game changer for us.

And one more example, there's an area that, you know, like Frank mentioned on the Pacific side, but there's an area off Georges Bank that's 248 square miles. 248 Square miles. Restricted. Restricted. Is it now restricted?

It's, it's restricted. It's been closed since 1995, and here we are, X, 29 years later, we can't even get in. It's the, it's the best scald ground. It'd be nice to take a look at it. I spoke with the gentleman beforehand.

We're going to fix it. It's all nonsense. But how do you do this? You talked about stupidity. How crazy is that?

We haven't been able to get in there for 30 years, and it's been environmentalists. Do other people get in? There's lobster guys in there. There's, there's some other guys. Yeah, they cut it.

Well, mostly the United States, but it's, it's, it's the best scallop ground that we have in the United States. How did they get in if it was, if it's restricted? Well, they can get in. We can't. They won't allow scallop fishing in there.

Oh, I see. So it's prohibited for us. Crazy. But there's, I mean, just think of a boat, a boat that we have that sits And we've asked— we're working, and I just explained it to Secretary Letnik about— we're right now pretty close to where we could easily take a permit and put another permit on it. But why should we let these boats sit at the dock for 330 days?

Yeah, it's crazy. So we'll look at that. Thank you so much, and we appreciate it. Thank you. So I'm a federal advisor on the Sea Scout plan, right, President Trump, and, uh, I spent a lot of time helping advise the council how to manage that fishery.

It's the best managed fishery in the world, bar none, of any fishery we have. But it's ludicrous to allow those scallops— they live about 8 to 10 years, and we've already gone through 3 different cycles of those scallops maturing and dying that we're not harvesting. There's a way for us to do that, and your director— it's a positive as opposed to a negative. It needs to be— they die, they just die. They just die.

They die. So a scallop will die of old age. But it needs to. How do they taste when they're dead? Not very good.

Not very good. Not good. Not good. And you talked about the maja. I mean, it's one of the best.

Frank said his fish, the scallops, are one of the best proteins. Yeah, there you go. Anybody else? You guys okay? For sure.

The other thing too, the price of crab has tripled for us, so We're not getting that competition from other countries, which is— from— explain that. Go ahead. Russian product, for example. So tariffs—. Not coming in the country.

Our price just skyrocketed. And it sells. People buy it. It's all U.S. And you want to have product coming in from— so, in other words, I— you know, at the dock, we received triple the amount of what we've seen in the past. So the demand is there.

And people buy it. Okay. We have a fisherwoman that would like to—. Yeah, sure. Hi, Mr. President.

My husband Sterling here. How are you? I'm doing well. Thank you. He's an Alaska Bering Sea crab fisherman, and I'm a farmer's daughter from Iowa.

Good. Good combination. It is. Harvesters. We're both harvesters.

I just wanted to say thank you for your leadership and representing not only fishing families, but the farmers to help make American agriculture, and not only that, but Alaskan seafood. Very good. Thank you very much. Great couple. Thank you.

It's a good combination. I like that. Right? Yes. Thank you.

Mr. President, thank you, sir. This is a question that will directly impact the fishing industry. Fishermen cheered and support you in your fight to stop offshore wind turbines because experts say that they destroy the commercial fishing industry, not to mention they're a national security threat, as you've highlighted. Does your administration plan to continue to fight the judge's ruling that's allowing for the continuation of the turbines? Forward.

Right by Jamaica States, right where you live, off of the Atlantic. Yeah, I'm for it. 154 Of them are going to litter the sea. Will you put a stop to that, Mr. President, now that Cathy Hochul broke her deal about the pipeline? And she did break her deal.

Doug, would you want to answer that question? Because I am for it. She broke her deal. By stopping a pipeline. She wanted to stop a pipeline which was so good for New England and so good for Connecticut, and she broke her deal.

What do you want to do on that, Doug? Well, I think I want to say, first of all, absolutely positively, uh, the construction of these wind towers have an effect on fisheries. We've had multiple, multiple roundtables between NOAA, which is part of Commerce, and Interior, which manages all of the offshore leasing. So we have plenty of evidence that it destroys fisheries. Number 2 is marine mammals, which Howard has in NOAA.

It's affected— we've had more whales wash up onshore during the construction of these offshore things. So it's not great for marine life, not great for fisheries. We also have the report from Secretary Pete Higsett, which conclusively— this is a national security threat, and we should understand this was thrown out by the Democrats and said, no, it's not, it can't be a national Oh, sure, they're just making it up. Other countries, including Sweden, have canceled offshore wind projects because of national security issues. And all you have to do is pay attention to the way the wars are being fought today.

It's autonomous on autonomous, a lot of it low altitude. These wind towers that President Trump has worked to try to stop, the towers themselves can be 600 feet, the blades are 250. On top of that, you could launch an attack on the US in the Northeast, in our most populous area, with a bunch of autonomous drones coming through a wind tower field, which cover thousands, if not tens of thousands of miles. That level of attack would be undetectable until it was— came through, 'cause the radar interference. And then we know that there's autonomous undersea activity going on now.

That's happening in the Gulf with advances in technology on all sides. The sonar, the vibration of running the wind towers affects the undersea sonar. So it's a huge national security threat, bad for marine mammals, bad for fish, President Trump is going to keep fighting for what's right for this country. But you stopped the blades right now. They're coming over from Asia right now.

They're sending the blades to start installing them. So it's sort of pending. Yeah, well, and then on top of that, it's the most expensive electricity. It's weather-dependent. It's intermittent.

And it's foreign-sourced, as you say. It's terrible. And they do affect fishing. And it's very bad. And everybody is against it.

Yeah, please. Mr. President, on Iran—. Go ahead. Mr. President, on Iran, how confident are you that there will be a signing this week? Weekend?

Because you have come close to sealing a deal, but at the last minute it has fallen apart. And— It'll be soon. Maybe this weekend. And has the Supreme Leader approved this deal, sir? I understand the answer is yes.

And when this deal is signed, is the United States going to immediately lift the blockade? Yes, that's true. That's part of the deal. And just one—. And you'll have oil prices dropping like a rock.

And, sir, have you actually secured an agreement on the discussions about the nuclear material and the nuclear negotiations? Yes, conceptually on that, and nobody's getting close to it because it's buried under a mountain, basically. Those B-2 bombers—.

But has Iran committed to not pursuing a nuclear weapon, or will there be more negotiations on that down the line? They will not have a nuclear weapon. They've agreed to that. There will be no— which is the whole reason, which is a big part of the reason. Is that going to be your agreement, sir?

They will not only not have, they will not purchase, develop in any way, any shape, in any way, shape, or form a nuclear weapon. They will not have a nuclear weapon. Mr. President, just to follow up on that, you have said before that Iran and the United States were close to a deal. It has not happened yet. Why are you so convinced that this time is different?

Because— They've taken a pounding. They've taken a pounding like very few people could take. And they want to make the deal a lot more than I do. And we could have had it done the other way, I guess, but it would have taken longer. They got hit very hard recently, as you know.

And I don't like to have to do things that way, but I felt it was necessary. It's a great deal for the United States and for the Middle East. And I think, ultimately, great for Iran because they'll be able to build up their country and of the country. I really believe it's a regime change because I find these people to be much more rational than the people that are no longer with us. We knocked out the first team of leadership, the second team of leadership.

This is a different group. This is a different level. And I think it's, frankly, a smarter level. And it's a level that has reason. And they've all approved the deal.

Everybody has approved the deal. Now we'll— to get it finished up. And hopefully that'll be done. We will not have Iran having a nuclear weapon, which is very important to these people behind me. We can talk about fishing.

There won't be anybody to fish. The fish will still be around, I guess. They're probably going to be affected, too. We're not going to let it happen. So Iran will essentially— most important paragraph to me— Iran will in no way, shape, or form have a nuclear weapon or purchase a nuclear weapon.

But is this just a concept of that agreement when it comes to nuclear? You said this was just a concept of that agreement. So is this just essentially setting the stage for deeper talks on nuclear? Well, it's a very strong memorandum of understanding that is a little conceptual, but it's something that's going to get done. And if it doesn't get done for any reason, which I can't imagine that not happening— they want to sign it as much as I do or more.

I would say they want to sign it more, maybe a lot more. But it's a very detailed— a memorandum of understanding, also agreed to by many other countries that have great influence over them. And everybody wants it done. So it's going to get done. Mr.

President, you suggested yesterday that Iran may be tapping along the U.S. Those were the words that you used. What makes you believe that they are sincere this time in wanting to pursue diplomacy? The level of enthusiasm for getting it done. And we were hitting them very hard for the last 3 days. We're going to hit them even harder tonight.

They knew that. We told them exactly what we were going to do. We explained it exactly because they had no Navy, they had no Air Force, they had no any weapons of detection. They had nothing. And so we could tell them exactly what— there wasn't a thing they could have done about it.

And we won this war militarily very early on. The only thing we didn't win was the fake news was You know, no matter if they could have raised the white flag of surrender and the fake news would say, oh, they did wonderfully. They didn't do wonderfully. But you know what? They've got a chance to build a country.

The country is largely demolished again. Their Navy is gone. Their Air Force is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. Everything's gone.

Their leadership is gone many times over. Even many people from This leadership is gone. But we found them to be rational, and they're going to make a deal. Mr. President—. And I'll tell you what, it's a great deal.

You know why it's a great deal? Because they will never have a nuclear weapon. Mr. President, is there a specific amount of time that has to pass between this memorandum of understanding and a final deal being done? Well, we hope it's going to go relatively quickly, but it's—. Is there a 60 or 90-day deadline?

I mean, the streets are going to open immediately upon signing. Maybe it'll be Saturday or Monday. Is there a deadline, though, How long is it from this to a final deal?

We think it's going to go pretty quickly. I don't want to say a deadline because if I say a deadline, you'll say, "Oh, he didn't meet the deadline." You know, this is like— it's not going to matter much because it's going to get signed and the strait is open. But the straits have been open for a number of months already, and you just didn't know about it. You know, you, as reporters, weren't able to get it. I just announced yesterday that we're bringing— that we brought a lot of ships through.

You know about it. I guess we did a pretty good job, Peter, right? But we brought many, many ships across and millions, hundreds of millions of barrels of oil were brought across. And there wasn't a thing that anybody could have done about that. Yeah.

Is the Cargill Island operation off the table? And are you ruling out? Well, now it would be if we signed this agreement. It would be. They weren't so thrilled when they heard that that's what I would have done.

And I just don't think I like it. Great. Look at Venezuela, how well that's worked out. We paid for that war many times over. Many, many times over.

We have millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela going to Houston, and we're working great with the Venezuelan government. Couldn't be better. It's a real— it's a real good relationship. Really good relationship. Venezuela has been amazing.

This is a larger situation, actually less oil. Venezuela has a lot of oil, but we think of it We spent X dollars. We paid for it many, many times. What was the last time you heard that? Many times over we paid for it.

You ever think you'd see that in this country? We go to wars, we end up with— always we end up with just blasting the hell out of people and we come home. Nothing happens. Venezuela was amazing. And this is amazing.

Yeah. Mr. President, are you considering using or drafting an executive order to extend FISA or to continue using Section 214? Well, the Congress wants me to do it. And let's see what happens. The Republican leadership wants you to do it.

Well, you know, I put out a statement, too. That's very important. You have the executive. It's very important for our military. Yeah.

Mr. President, on the Save America Act, you are now urging Republicans to add that to this third reconciliation bill. Yeah. What's your perspective on why election integrity matters so much for national security, from your perspective as the President? Well, we need it for our elections. We need to have voter identification.

Which you don't have right now on a national basis. We need it for— and the voter ID is very important. We need it for proof of citizenship. Do you believe it? The Democrats are fighting.

They don't want you to prove your citizenship when you vote. You know why they want that? Because they cheat. And we also want it with mail-in voting, where you have people that are sent 7, 8 ballots, 2 ballots, 4 ballots. And a lot of them signed those ballots.

Mail-in voting. And we want to be very judicious. If you're in the military and you're far away, or if you're handicapped, or if you're sick, or if you're on vacation, that you have a— but you're not going to— millions and millions. Look at California. They send out millions of ballots, tens of millions.

They have no idea what's going on. Those elections are so corrupt. So we have a mail-in ballot and we have no men in We had two more. No men in women's sports. We're talking about saving America, right?

No men in women's sports. Another one, very popular. I think it's 99 to 1. They say it's 80-20. I think it's 99 to 1.

And we have no mutilization of your children for transgender purposes. So let's see, transgender mutilization of your children. Does that sound good with you guys, generally speaking? You're not into transgender mutilation? Not at all.

Not at all, sir. Where your child leaves your house and they take your child from you. In some cases, think of it, in 6 states, they take the child and do what they want to do. What they do is, I don't even want to talk about it. We end that.

No transgender mutilation of your children. On DNI, Mr. President, do you intend to have Bill Pulte continue to serve as the acting acting director of national intelligence? And do you think it's unreasonable that some Republicans have concerns that he has no intelligence experience, even if he's serving in this acting role? But he's intelligent, unlike a lot of other people. But do you think that's a priority?

No intelligence. He's only there for a little while. He's running it for a short while. Well, we get a very talented person, Jake Layton. And as you know, Jake Layton is an incredible talent, the head of Sullivan Cromwell.

He was head of the SEC. He's now Southern District. I mean, nobody has better credentials. But Bill will run it for a short while. He's done a fantastic job at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac.

Created tremendous— it's probably worth a trillion dollars now. Trillion. He's done a great job. He's a smart guy. Mr. President, today's another example of you bringing these everyday Americans into the White House and listening to them.

How important is it for you to listen to Everyday Americans with policy making on a daily basis. These people built the country. Not the complainers. The complainers didn't build the country. These people built the country.

Whether it's fishermen or farmers or anything else. Me, guys like me, they built the country. You know, I watch all these ingrates. They're always complaining, complaining. They didn't build anything.

They couldn't build anything. Look at what's happened in Minnesota. Somalia. Somalia. All these people came in from Somalia.

They ripped off our system. You have the woman who married her brother. She came in and married her brother. Isn't that wonderful? And then she talks about the Constitution of the United States.

She comes from Somalia. They don't have constitutions in Somalia. They don't have police. They don't have it. All they have is people that run around shooting each other.

And then she comes and tells us how to run our country. I don't like it. These people don't like it. I can tell you. I think I can speak for you.

She comes in, Ilhan Omar. She comes in. She tells us how to run the United States of America. And she comes from a place without anything, without anything, probably among the worst countries in the world. And she says, the Constitution of the United States protects me.

She shouldn't be protected. She honestly, she should be thrown out of the country. She's corrupt. And most of the people that came in are corrupt. And the whole voting system is corrupt in Minnesota.

I won Minnesota 3 times easily. I won almost every county, but they didn't give it to me. It's a corrupt system. Very corrupt state. The governor is terrible.

The attorney general is terrible. They're all very corrupt people. Yeah. But sir, on this back and forth with himself, do you think there's enough support for Republicans in Congress? I hope so.

I mean, any Republican that voted against it would be—. McConnell and Collins say they don't think so. Well, McConnell is an angry man. He got thrown out of his position. He's an angry guy.

He should be very thankful to me because if I didn't win, he wouldn't have gotten to appoint. I appointed the judges. He didn't. He gets credit for appointing judges. He didn't appoint anybody.

I did. You know how I did? I won the election and then I picked judges. And the judges ended up getting approved. And they said, oh, didn't he do a good job?

He didn't do a good job. What the hell did he do? I won the election. He's an angry man who's very disloyal to John Thune. John Thune's a good man.

He was a loyal worker for Mitch McConnell. He worked for Mitch McConnell. He worked very hard. He was very loyal to him. I disagreed with him a lot because Mitch McConnell gave so much money to Democrats.

He gave them money. I had to go get the wall money from The military. I just took it out of the military because that guy wouldn't do anything. He gave it— no, Mitch McConnell is a bad guy. And he's a lousy— I thought he was lousy at his job.

Lousy at his job. But when they give him— the only thing they give him a lot of credit for judges. But I'm the one that got the judges. You know why? I won the election.

If I didn't win the election, he wouldn't have had any judges. So, yeah. So when did you send the supplement? Say it again. When did you send the supplement?

Supplemental to. Do you have any idea? I'll send a supplemental. But you have him. You have Murkowski.

I've done so much for Murkowski. You have the governor, right? Your governor. Have I done a lot for Alaska? Is there anybody done more for Alaska than me?

You've been the best president for Alaska in our history, Mr. President. I've said that many times. And Murkowski is terrible, terrible to us, terrible to the country. Mr. President, and I almost feel guilty. I do more, probably done more for Alaska than any other state.

Not because of her. Because it's the right thing to do. She's just an impediment. But she's there. She probably will be a negative vote.

You have a couple of others. I think Rand Paul's come a long way. Let's see what happens. I think Rand Paul likes Save America. So because Rand Paul is usually a negative vote, but I think he likes Save America.

So that's good. I like Rand Paul, but, you know, I hope he votes for us. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. The president of the Kentucky the Farm Bureau—.

Yes. —Testified before the Senate about a month ago, middle of May. At that point, he said that the pricing and availability of fertilizer was a crisis for farmers. Yes. And he said the war was not helping that.

And he said we need the government to step in and provide economic help. Even if you do make a deal in the next couple of days, that was a month ago that farmers were saying they were in crisis. Do you think there needs to be federal aid specifically for farmers because of the war? No, it's fair. You know, I gave the farmers $28 billion in my first term because they were taken advantage of by China.

And I charged China for it. I put tariffs on and China paid us hundreds of billions of dollars. And I took $28 billion out of the tariffs from China and other countries that treated our farmers very badly. I gave them $28 billion. And I'm looking at that, actually.

The war is the primary impediment, which is now going to come down from Ukraine. You know, a lot of it comes out of Ukraine and other things, but other places. But no, the farmers have a problem with fertilizer, but that's all coming down now. And your fuel is going to be— I think it's going to be lower than it was 4 or 5 months ago. 4 Or 5 months ago, we were doing unbelievable.

Remember this. If you look at Biden, his oil prices without saving our country, saving the world by going out and saying to Iran, you cannot have a nuclear weapon. If I ask these people about Iran having a nuclear weapon and they're going to have to go through some pain, I mean, I don't think I hate to really do it because it's a little dangerous. Every one of these people are going to say you cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon because they'd use it. You want to see turmoil?

You want to see death and destruction? Let Iran have a nuclear weapon. So, but I am looking at doing a form of help because the fertilizer. But fertilizer is going to come way down as soon as this is over. And then a political question, if I can.

Next week, there's a big runoff race in Georgia for U.S. Senate. You notably endorsed a candidate for governor there. You haven't endorsed for U.S. Senate between the two Republicans. Why not? I may do that.

But, you know, every time I endorse, they win. It's been a pretty amazing track record. I was 18-0 this last week. And a lot of them are insurgents. Do you regret endorsing Rand Paul?

What? Do you regret endorsing Rand Paul? The man running against him was all Trump. And the only one out of hundreds of races, hundreds. I'm glad she brought it up.

You know, she's got to bring it up. There's a gentleman in Georgia that I endorsed who was much less Trump than the other man that won, as you know. And had I been given the proper information, which I don't think I was, I probably would have endorsed the other person, but— or not endorsed at all, but I would have endorsed the other person. The other person was much more Trump, as you know, than Randi. Mr. President, here in Washington, D.C., there's a Democratic primary for mayor.

One of the two leading candidates, Jeniece Louis-George, is running a Zuran Mandami campaign. It's focused on socialist policies. How would you feel if she emerges victorious? Victorious in next Tuesday's—. Well, I wouldn't like it, and maybe we'd take back Washington, run it on the federal basis.

We won't put up with it. We're not going to lose our businesses. By the way, Washington now is a safe, beautiful place. We had 22 fountains dug that are all working. Not one of them worked for years.

25 Years, 40 years, 58 years. The— actually, the pool didn't work from 19— it was 1928 it was built. It always leaked because it was done in stone. Now it's done properly. It's not going to leak at all.

But this is a beautiful place now. People are coming. Restaurants are thriving. The restaurants are all closing, closed. Nobody wanted.

Now you can't get restaurant space. You can't get into it. We have a thriving community. We got rid of the crime. We're 92% down on crime.

Think of it. And we're going to be close to 100% pretty soon. You always have some whack job someplace, but we're going to be close to 100%. So Washington is thriving. Memphis is The people came in from Memphis, 74% reduction in crime.

New Orleans, think of that, 78% reduction in crime. They had the safest Mardi Gras that they've ever had. You know why? Because we sent in people that take care of crime. Chicago should do it.

New York should do it. Los Angeles should do it. We'll make them safe places. Thank you very much. Thank you, press.

Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Thank you, press.

Thank you, guys. You can head that way. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Thank you, guys.