White House: President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Arrival at Palm Beach, FL, Nov. 6, 2026

We have a lot of meetings set up at Mar-a-Lago with a lot of different people having to do with Russia and having to do with other things. The economy is incredible, other than we lost about $3 trillion when they found out that the Democrats did well in the election, rather surprisingly. But that's the way life goes. Had to do— it had to do with the fact that we won't let Iran have a nuclear nuclear weapons. So you always have to go with that first.

But we just had a very good meeting and we have a lot of good calls made and we're doing very well. So we're working well with Russia, Ukraine. We're making a lot of progress. We've made a lot of progress with Iran. We're taking out more oil now than we were before the war.

If you could— it's not a war. It can't be a war when for 5 months nobody was hurt, killed, or anything else. It's not a war. You know, in Russia, Ukraine, they lose 25,000 people a month. We haven't lost anybody in 7 months, so I don't think that's a war.

We have total control. But we're dealing with the Iranians. We'll see how that all works out. Do you have any questions? Yes, Mr. President, you're going to be working with Democrats a lot over the next 2 years.

I think so, yeah. What is an initiative or effort led by the Democrats that you think you could get behind? I think a lot. I mean, I said before, immigration is one. Tax cuts or maybe certain things having to do with taxes to make it more convenient and better.

A lot of economic development initiatives we can do. I think we can do a lot of things together, actually. You know, a lot of them are about common sense also. And I think you'll see that. You can see already some of the people that are elected want to meet and want to discuss things having to do with, as an example, Texas, South Carolina, you know, etc.

So I'm very much open to it. Mr. President, there's people describing Stephen Miller as your wartime consigliere. Do you agree with that characterization? Well, he's a great fighter.

He's been with me right from the beginning, 2015. He was with me from before 2016, 2015. And he's very loyal, smart, does a great job. He's been an MVP every year. He's been just great.

So we're very happy with him. Mr. President, great reviews, I have to say. Were you unhappy with your team because of the results of the election? Not because of the election.

It was just time. Sometimes you change. The election wasn't my election. I wasn't on the ballot. If I was on the ballot, you saw the rallies.

They were the biggest, most powerful rallies in the history of midterm elections. We were— every arena was full and we had thousands and thousands of people outside that couldn't get in. We had to use the big televisions, jumbotrons. They were unbelievable. They were unbelievable rallies.

But I wasn't on the ballot. I wish I was on the ballot. I think you would have had a much different outcome. More— do you expect more departures in the coming months? I mean, we have a great— we have a great cabinet.

Now, when you first went into it— The Washington D.C., when you first struck Iran, rather, it was very popular with GOP voters. But then you eventually pulled back as far as going into negotiations. Who persuaded you to do that? Nobody. We hit Iran very hard.

We look— if we didn't hit Iran, you wouldn't have Israel today. Israel would be gone. It would have been wiped off. The face of the earth. And they know it.

The face of the earth. They know that. You wouldn't have, I believe, the Middle East. Because if you look, Iran, just with regular missiles, started hitting Qatar and Saudi Arabia, UAE. Nobody thought that was going to happen.

If they had nuclear, they would have used nuclear. They would have obliterated the Middle East. They would have gone after Europe. And they would have gone after some of our cities. Because I know them very well.

I deal with them a lot. And I know that they're crazy. So we'll see what happens. We're dealing with them now. They want to make a deal very badly.

They have 300% inflation. Their navy's gone. Their air force— everything's gone. And they want to make a deal. So we'll see if they make a deal.

Mr. President, do you want to make the deal really soon, or are you open to waiting? Well, we have nobody getting hurt, nobody getting killed. You know, this is a war that we may have been there for 7 months, but we probably fought for 3 or 4 weeks, really fought. And again, you look at World War I, that's a war. World War II, that's a war.

To Ukraine. That's a war. We're not fighting. We have the greatest blockade in military history. Nothing comes through the Hormuz Strait without our approval.

Nothing is going to Iran. No oil is going to Iran. Mr. President, you've got a couple months before the new Congress takes their seats. What are your priorities? What would you like to get done?

What do you think you need to get done before they step in. The Senate has to act. The Senate is getting nothing passed, and it's just killing our country. And that means Democrats and Republicans. They're just not getting anything done.

So the Democrats vote in a block. We could have the best bill in the world for our country. They vote in a block, and we always have a few Republicans that obstruct. And hopefully John Thune can finally get them to act. I mean, the Senate has to act.

The biggest problem we have, it's a It's you send things to the Senate when you want it to die. So they have to get together, Schumer and John Thune or whoever is going to be representing the Democrats. And they got to have to get things done. The Senate, the Senate is killing our country. Nothing is getting through the Senate.

And you know what? Our voters saw that. And that's one of the problems we had, in my opinion, the biggest. The Save America Act didn't get passed. All of these things didn't happen.

And I mean, think of it, Save America, it's the simplest thing in the world. So the Senate has to— now, the Democrats voted against it unanimously. So they voted against voter ID and proof of citizenship. That's Save America. And how do you do that?

You do that because I guess you want to cheat. But the Republicans should have passed it. So with John Thune, who's a good man, but he's got to get things done. Do you see appropriate leader for Republicans in the Senate? It's going to be up to the Republicans.

They choose. I don't choose. They choose. I don't get involved with the— they choose. It's a very strong custom and it's going to be happening, I guess, next week.

They got to put John or whoever it is. They've got to get things done. We have many judges and many other people waiting for approval. They can't get anything done in the Senate. There were reports of strikes near Iran today in Qeshm Island.

Did the U.S. do those strikes near Qeshm Island in Iran? Was the U.S. Involved in that? I don't want to talk about it. We do minor strikes, but they knock out— they built a little bit of an anti-aircraft device, and we knocked it out in about 15 minutes, maybe 5.

Mr. President, how does the Republican Party now rebuild after such devastating losses? Great party. We had a bad election because of a few things. One thing was not getting things approved in the Senate.

One thing was we had a higher oil price. Price that we had before, still lower than Biden and still lower than Obama. And what we did is something very significant. We ended Iran having a nuclear weapon. They did nothing.

And yet, all right, now the oil is coming down very rapidly. Unfortunately, when it was learned that the Democrats won that particular interim and just so the midterm election, just so you understand, Midterms. Presidents always lose them. I don't know why, but they lose them all the time. There were a lot bigger losses than this.

But when they learned about the midterms, the stock— stock market lost $3 trillion. That's the most in history. So, in other words, the markets all over the world, when they heard that the Democrats won that election, the market dropped $3 trillion, the highest amount in history. But it'll level off and. We'll do great.

Reported that the White House sent a letter to a lot of conservative groups warning them that the White House is monitoring their statements, their press statements, TV appearances. Why is it important for the White House to make that warning to conservatives? I haven't heard that. I mean, I'd like to see it. I haven't heard that.

I don't know. I mean, maybe somebody sent something, but I know nothing about that. Who are you? I'm with— I'm Frank Ordoñez with NPR. Oh, NPR.

In these latest conversations you're having with Russia, does anything feel different this time? Is there anything you're doing? Does anyone settle? Russia and Ukraine for the first time, I think, want to settle. We have meetings.

I've had phone calls today. I'm having some tomorrow. They're having a meeting on Monday and Tuesday, as you know. But they— I think they want to settle. You haven't—.

It's going to be a very big settlement. I think it's going to involve all of Europe. It's going to be a very big settlement. Anything you're doing to try to encourage them to come to the table that you haven't done before? I do all the time.

I'm friends with everybody and I do all the time. I'd like to see the killing stop. And, you know, they lost 25,000. Mostly soldiers last month between the two of them, between Russia and Ukraine. And it shouldn't happen.

It's very sad. 25,000 Souls and very sad. Mr. President, coming up with Xi Jinping. That's called a war, not a war where you go 6 months and nobody's even wounded. All we are is maybe an occupier.

It could be an occupier because, you know, we do, we control the Barmouth Strait. We're taking out more oil now than we have at any time time in the history of the Hormuz Strait. You. Have a meeting coming up with Xi Jinping. Will you talk with him about detained Americans that are still being held?

I do, and I do talk to him about that a lot, and we've done well. As you know, Russia just released one that we wanted very badly, and, uh, we're talking about detainees or people that they oftentimes say are spies and they put them in jail. Yeah, we talked to him about a lot. We've had the best record in history on that. We get a lot of them back.

We got one back, as you know, last week. It was a great thing. Thank you very much, everybody. We'll see you during the weekend. Thank you.

Good night.