- 2 days ago
U.S. President Donald Trump addressed Republican senators in a closed-door session, discussing key economic and trade issues, including China tariffs, rare earth minerals, and national industrial strategy.
Trump reflected on the importance of safeguarding U.S. economic interests, protecting critical supply chains, and maintaining leverage in international trade negotiations. He highlighted the role of rare earth minerals in technology and defense, emphasizing efforts to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers.
The discussion also covered the broader trade landscape, tariffs, and strategies to strengthen American manufacturing and competitiveness. Trump’s remarks offer insight into his administration’s approach to economic security and global trade policy.
Trump reflected on the importance of safeguarding U.S. economic interests, protecting critical supply chains, and maintaining leverage in international trade negotiations. He highlighted the role of rare earth minerals in technology and defense, emphasizing efforts to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers.
The discussion also covered the broader trade landscape, tariffs, and strategies to strengthen American manufacturing and competitiveness. Trump’s remarks offer insight into his administration’s approach to economic security and global trade policy.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.
00:42Thank you very much.
00:43That was quite a formal entrance.
00:44I thought we were just going to sit down and talk a little bit.
00:47We talk about exactly one year ago, we had that big, beautiful victory.
00:52Exactly one year.
00:57And last night, it was not expected to be a victory.
01:00It was very Democrat areas, but I don't think it was good for Republicans.
01:04I don't think it was good.
01:05I'm not sure it was good for anybody.
01:07But we had an interesting evening, and we learned a lot.
01:11And we're going to talk about that, and I'll say a few remarks.
01:14And then after that, I'll ask the press to leave.
01:16The press has been very nice to us the last couple of months.
01:20They were great to us in terms of the foreign visits with China,
01:24Japan, South Korea, Malaysia.
01:27And they were actually terrific.
01:29So I want to thank you for that.
01:30I'm sure you'll get back to your normal ways soon.
01:33But we did a great job over in China.
01:36And we've done a great job in turning off wars.
01:39We stopped eight wars.
01:40Eight wars.
01:41And we have one to go, as you probably know, and that will get stopped also.
01:45But we've done a great job.
01:47So it's really been an honor to do it.
01:51And I did it with many of the people in this room.
01:53Every one of you I know and every one of you I like.
01:56I like our leaders.
01:57I like everybody.
01:58But I thought we'd have a discussion after the press leaves about what last night represented.
02:05And what we should do about it.
02:08And also about the shutdown and how that relates to last night.
02:12I think if you read the pollsters, the shutdown was a big factor.
02:17Negative for the Republicans.
02:19And that was a big factor.
02:21And they say that I wasn't on the ballot was the biggest factor.
02:24But I don't know about that.
02:26But I was honored that they said that.
02:29And I just want to thank everybody for being here.
02:32And a very special thanks to Vice President J.D. Vance, who's doing a terrific job.
02:36J.D., thank you very much.
02:42As well as the Senate leadership team that has been working very hard.
02:47Working really, I will tell you, nobody's working any harder representing the American people.
02:53Including Senator John Thune.
02:55John, thank you.
02:56Great job.
03:02Senator John Barrasso.
03:04John, thank you very much.
03:05Senator Tom Cotton, wherever you may be.
03:09Tom, thank you.
03:12Thank you, Tom.
03:14Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who's been very involved.
03:18Thank you, Shelley.
03:19Senator James Lankford from one of my favorite states.
03:2477 out of 77.
03:26I always say it.
03:2877 out of 77.
03:30Reagan was 56.
03:31That was the record.
03:32We got every one of them.
03:33Thank you, James.
03:34And a fantastic friend of mine and an incredible advocate during the election a year ago.
03:40Tim Scott.
03:41Thank you, Tim.
03:42So, as you know, we are in the midst of a disastrous Democrat-created government shutdown.
03:51And it is Democrat-created, but I don't think they're getting really the blame that they should.
03:55That's now officially the longest shutdown in American history.
03:59The Democrat radicals in the Senate have shown zero interest in reopening the government.
04:06And I don't think they'll act so soon.
04:09A lot of people disagree.
04:10I've been saying for the last 30 days, we've had four or five different points.
04:14Yes, sir, they're going to get it right now.
04:16We should have it done in a day.
04:18I've heard that about four times.
04:19I heard it after King's.
04:20You know, they said I was a king.
04:22And I heard it after King's.
04:24I heard it after a couple of other moments in time.
04:27And I said, no, I don't believe so.
04:29And now I heard it's after the election.
04:31I don't believe so.
04:32I think they will.
04:33I think they're kamikaze pilots.
04:35I just got back from Japan.
04:36I talked about the kamikaze pilots.
04:38I think these guys are kamikaze.
04:40They'll take down the country if they have to.
04:42So I don't think so.
04:43Millions of Americans are going to be without SNAP benefits.
04:47And I will say about SNAP benefits.
04:49So when I was president, we had $7 billion worth.
04:52And now they have many times that.
04:55Because these benefits were given to anybody that asked.
04:58And they're up to, I hear, just many times, $47 billion.
05:03So it wasn't the purpose of SNAP.
05:06It was for people that really had problems.
05:09Down and out.
05:10People that really had problems.
05:12But during Biden, they gave it to anybody that wanted it.
05:15I think it's something you have to talk about.
05:17Because the numbers are incredible.
05:19But countless public servants are now not being paid.
05:23And the air traffic control system is under increasing strain.
05:27We must get the government back open soon.
05:29And really, immediately, we have to get it open.
05:32We have the hottest economy we've ever had.
05:34And it's affecting the stock market now a little bit.
05:37But the stock market, as of Friday, has hit many record highs
05:42during the last nine months.
05:45Many.
05:46And it will again.
05:47This is just the beginning.
05:48Because when these plants that are being built right now
05:50start opening up.
05:51We've never had anything like this as a boom.
05:54There's a construction boom right now.
05:55But that's going to be bigger than that.
05:57That's going to be an economic boom as soon as they open up.
06:01And it's going to be something special.
06:03We have car companies coming in.
06:05When I was in Japan, Toyota, Mr. Toyota, I said,
06:08what's your name?
06:09Toyota.
06:10I said, oh, you're rich.
06:13He said, how much of the company do you own?
06:1692.1%.
06:17I said, I'm glad you said the one.
06:19He wants to be.
06:20I said, you're a rich guy.
06:22And he said, I'm investing $10 billion in the U.S.
06:26And you know who I'm talking about, right?
06:29You introduced me, Mr. Senator.
06:31You introduced me originally when you were the ambassador to Japan.
06:35He's still good.
06:36He's still strong.
06:37But he had no interest in investing in this country.
06:40Now he's investing $10 billion as of one week ago in building new plants.
06:45We have auto plants coming in incredibly.
06:47But we have AI and all of them.
06:49And we can't be extorted to give $1.5 trillion to people that came into the country illegally,
06:57many from prisons, many drug dealers.
06:59A lot of people came in from mental institutions.
07:03They want to give a lot of money to the people that came in illegally.
07:07We have to get them out.
07:08We can't.
07:09No country can sustain that.
07:10That's not like an attack on our country.
07:11In no country, these are not going to be productive people.
07:14These are going to be anti-productive people.
07:16And we can be all have big hearts.
07:18They have a bigger heart than anybody.
07:20But we can't let that happen.
07:22It's time for Republicans to do what they have to do.
07:24And that's terminate the filibuster.
07:26It's the only way you can do it.
07:27And if you don't terminate the filibuster, you'll be in bad shape.
07:31We won't pass any legislation.
07:33There will be no legislation passed for three and a quarter.
07:36We have three and a quarter years.
07:37That's a long time.
07:38But when they can't do an extension.
07:40And, John, I think they've done an extension every single time they've ever been asked forever.
07:45This is the first time they haven't done an extension.
07:48Extensions are supposed to be easy.
07:49But if they won't do an extension, they won't do any bill, even a simple bill.
07:52And we should do our own bills.
07:54We should get out.
07:55We should do our own bills.
07:56We should open up.
07:57We should start tonight with the country's open.
08:01Congratulations.
08:02Then we should pass voter ID.
08:05We should pass no mail-in voting.
08:07We should pass all the things that we want to pass to make our election secure and safe.
08:11Because California is a disaster.
08:13Many of the states are disasters.
08:15But can you imagine when they vote almost unanimously against voter ID?
08:20All we want is voter ID.
08:22You go to a grocery store, you have to give ID.
08:24You go to a gas station, you give ID.
08:26But for voting, they want no voter ID.
08:29It's only for one reason.
08:30Because they cheat.
08:31We would pass that in 15 minutes.
08:34If you don't get it, you'll never pass that.
08:36You'll never talk about mail-in ballots.
08:39Mail-in ballots make it automatically corrupt.
08:41If you have mail-in ballots, automatically it's correct.
08:43Even Jimmy Carter, they had the Carter Commission after he got out of office.
08:47And he had a group of very distinguished people, Democrats and Republicans.
08:51And they passed.
08:52They recommended things take place.
08:54It was a long time ago.
08:56And they said about mail-in ballots, if there is mail-in ballots, there will definitely be corruption.
09:01Because, you know, they passed through too many hands.
09:04I mean, you go in to vote and they want your card.
09:06Even me.
09:07I went into Palm Beach.
09:08You go in to vote, they want your card.
09:10You're this, you're that.
09:11They said, I'm sorry to do this, sir, but I have to look at your identification.
09:14I said, that's all right.
09:16I love that.
09:17But, you know, you're really not going to get away with much.
09:20It was very, very professional and very good.
09:22The way it's supposed to be.
09:24But these people don't want that.
09:26They have legislation in California where it's illegal to ask somebody for voter ID.
09:32If you ask somebody for voter ID, if you're an official and you say, I'd like to see your voter ID, they can arrest you.
09:41Okay?
09:42They can arrest you.
09:43Because they want to cheat.
09:44And they get away with it.
09:45And the Republicans let them get away with it.
09:47And we won't do that if we have the filibuster.
09:50So I'm just going to, we're going to talk about that a little bit.
09:53And we're going to see if we can sway.
09:55Because I know we have a lot of, not a lot, I'd say half feel this way.
09:59Maybe a little bit less than half.
10:01And it's time to have a really good talk.
10:03If I thought that they weren't going to pass the filibuster, I wouldn't even bring it up.
10:08They're going to pass it within the first hour.
10:11If they take power, and it's more likely that they take power if we don't do it.
10:15Because we're not going to be passing any legislation.
10:17They're not going to approve anything.
10:18We're going to go three and a quarter years.
10:20There won't be one bill that we're going to pass.
10:22Because the easiest thing to pass is exactly right now what they won't pass.
10:27And they'll do that.
10:28And they'll wreak havoc.
10:29But let's assume they get in.
10:31They're doing it anyway.
10:32So it wouldn't matter.
10:33They're doing it anyway.
10:34And, you know, I have a case where I have great U.S. attorneys that can't be approved because of the blue slips.
10:40The blue slips, I think you should terminate blue slips, too.
10:42It's a mental termination because it's really a custom.
10:46But if you have a Democrat senator or two, two is bad, but it doesn't make any difference.
10:52If you have one senator who writes a negative letter on some great U.S. attorney.
10:56We had it in Manhattan, Southern District.
10:58Jay Clayton, one of the most respected lawyers in the whole country.
11:02By far, one of the most respected.
11:04And couldn't get approved.
11:07The courts approved him.
11:08The courts couldn't believe it.
11:09They did it, like, instantly.
11:12He went to the best schools.
11:13Got the best marks.
11:14Top of his class.
11:15Everything was perfect.
11:16I mean, he was, like, led the perfect line.
11:18Went to Sullivan and Cromwell.
11:20Almost immediately became the head of Sullivan and Cromwell.
11:23You know, the most prestigious law firm, I would say, in the country, just about.
11:29Whether it's Sullivan or two or three, I could name.
11:31But Sullivan, I would say, really, maybe number one.
11:34He was the head of Sullivan and Cromwell for, like, 20 years.
11:38He went to the SEC.
11:39He was flawless.
11:40He did it for me.
11:41He was the SEC chairman.
11:43He was flawless.
11:44Then he went to Apollo, where he was the chairman of Apollo.
11:49And it was flawless.
11:51Everything went good.
11:52The stock went through the roof and everything.
11:53I asked him to go to the Southern District.
11:55And he said, I'll do what you'd like to do, sir.
11:58He's a very high-quality person.
12:00But he couldn't get approval from Schumer.
12:03Schumer didn't approve him.
12:05The best student, the best schools, everything.
12:07He's, like, flawless.
12:09And the courts actually said, you're not approving Jay Clayton.
12:13Right, Lindsey?
12:14You heard this.
12:15The courts actually interceded.
12:17And they approved him.
12:18But that's an unusual guy.
12:20We have other people that are really good, but people don't know how good.
12:24Top students, top colleges, and they're U.S. attorneys.
12:29And they won't be approved.
12:31They're not going to be approved.
12:33We have one in Los Angeles who's phenomenal.
12:36But the senators, the Democrats are, you know, again, they're kamikazes.
12:41The Democrats are not going to approve them.
12:43Blue slips are a disaster.
12:45So the only people I can get approved are Democrats.
12:48I was told that by the Democrats.
12:50We'll only approve Democrats.
12:51I said, really?
12:52Is that right?
12:53It's not going to work that way.
12:54It's not going to work that way with me.
12:56But the blue slips are a total disaster.
12:59We will — I have 10 people right now that will not be — that are doing a phenomenal
13:03job.
13:04And they will be out of office pretty soon.
13:06They've got another two, three weeks, a couple of them.
13:08And then they're going to have to leave.
13:10And it's actually a blight on their record because, you know, nobody knows why they left.
13:15But it looks like they served eight weeks and then they had to leave.
13:19But they're not going to get the approval because the Democrat radical left lunatic senators
13:24are saying you can't — we're not going to approve you.
13:28And if we're not going to approve you — I had actually one Republican who got two great letters.
13:33But it turned out that he was a rhino.
13:36But that was a nice term for him.
13:38Now, he got two letters of approval.
13:40And when I said two Democrats approved him, I had to fire him.
13:43Because I figured if two Democrats approved him, they wrote the most beautiful letters.
13:47I found out, man, this is strange.
13:50And he was no good.
13:51I fired him.
13:52He was really not much of a Republican.
13:55The recommendation of that one wasn't such a good recommendation.
13:58Someday I'll tell you who recommended him.
14:00But it wasn't exactly the best.
14:02But when I saw two — you know, when I saw the two senators from Virginia gave him glowing marks,
14:08Tim, I said, let me see this.
14:10I read the most beautiful letters I've ever seen.
14:12I said — I called him up.
14:14I said, sorry, you're fired.
14:16Get the hell out of here.
14:17And — but it's a horrible thing.
14:19Blue slips is a horrible thing.
14:20Because I have the right to pick judges.
14:22And I have the right to pick U.S. attorneys.
14:25And this takes away the right from me.
14:27And I think we're going to go to court on it.
14:29And, you know, we'll see what happens in court.
14:31But it gives the president — it takes away the right of the president to pick people to serve on the court and to serve as U.S. attorneys, which is very important.
14:40But the biggest thing is the filibuster.
14:43We have to get the country going.
14:45We will pass legislation at levels you've never seen before.
14:49And it'll be impossible to beat us.
14:51By the way, if they do, they're going to do it anyway.
14:54And they are going to immediately do the filibuster.
14:56And when they do the filibuster, they're going to pack the court.
14:59They want five — at least five — now they — I hear it's up to five.
15:03I actually heard up to seven and up to nine.
15:06Okay?
15:07They want new judges.
15:08They want to pack the court.
15:10And they will do it the first day.
15:12Maybe the week.
15:13Maybe they'll slow it down.
15:15Because there's no reason to rush.
15:17But they'll do it the first week.
15:19They'll vote on this.
15:20And I have friends over there that are Democrats very — I'm close to a lot of people.
15:25And I asked them about that because some people say, well, maybe they won't do that.
15:29I mean, they destroyed the career of Manchin and Sinema.
15:33And they got them out.
15:34They were the only objectors.
15:35Nobody else is going to object.
15:36They're going to do it the first day.
15:38They're going to pack the court.
15:39They're going to make D.C. a state.
15:42And they're going to make Puerto Rico a state.
15:44So now they pick up two states.
15:46They pick up four senators.
15:48Okay?
15:49You think you have problems?
15:50They're going to do all of the things.
15:52They're going to pick up electoral votes.
15:54It's going to be a very, very bad situation.
15:57And it's done.
15:58It's done.
15:59As soon as they attain power.
16:00Now, if we do what I'm saying, they'll never — they'll most likely never attain power.
16:04Because we will have passed every single thing that you can imagine that it's good and all good for the country.
16:11And there'll be no reason to do it.
16:13If we don't do that, people will say they're not doing much.
16:17And they're in power.
16:18So the good news is we did the Great Big Beautiful Bill.
16:22And it's the greatest thing we could have done.
16:24And the smartest thing with John and our Speaker of the House, who's so good, Mike.
16:30Mike Johnson.
16:31We did all in one bill.
16:34If we didn't, John, it would be a problem.
16:36Because, you know, we would have gotten a small piece passed.
16:39A lot of people wanted to do that.
16:40A lot of people in the room wanted to do that.
16:42And along with me and John and everybody.
16:44And we got this thing passed.
16:46Honestly, it's four years' worth of goodies.
16:49And no tax on tips.
16:51No tax on Social Security.
16:53No tax on — think of it — no tax on overtime.
16:57It's an unbelievable tax cut for the workers and for business, where business is going to create jobs.
17:03And we are.
17:04We're creating jobs at levels that nobody's ever seen before.
17:06All these things are good.
17:07We have to be able to get the word out.
17:09If we don't get the word out, we're making a very big mistake.
17:12So I have this long, beautiful, and very boring speech.
17:14I won't bother reading it.
17:15But — because we can just start talking.
17:18And I think it's very important.
17:21We have to get the country open.
17:22And the way we're going to do it this afternoon is to terminate the filibuster.
17:26And it's possible you're not going to do that.
17:28And I'm going to go by your wishes.
17:29You're very smart people.
17:30We're good friends.
17:31We're good friends.
17:32But I think it's a tremendous mistake, really.
17:34It would be a tragic mistake, actually.
17:37It's time.
17:38It's time.
17:39If I thought they weren't going to approve, I'd sort of be with you.
17:43It'd be fine.
17:44I'd be neutral to with you.
17:46But knowing that they're going to pass it as soon as they get any semblance of control,
17:51they'll pass it first thing.
17:52Then it's like we have to do it first.
17:54And we have two years.
17:56And we'll end up with two, three years.
17:58And we'll have this country so perfect, we will have passed more legislation than any
18:03Congress and any group of senators or a group of congressmen.
18:08And we will get it through.
18:10They'll send it to us.
18:11We'll send it to them.
18:12It'll be a beautiful machine.
18:14Otherwise, we're just going to sit around and argue with these people all day long.
18:19And they're highly unrealistic.
18:21Highly unrealistic.
18:22Many of them are radical left subversives, frankly.
18:27So, I want to thank everybody.
18:29And we're going to talk.
18:30And I want to thank the press for treating us so really well for that foreign trip.
18:34It was an amazing — we had just an amazing meeting.
18:37Don't forget, two months ago, it looked like the whole world was in trouble over rare earth.
18:42And that's no longer even a subject that people talk about.
18:46It was all worked out very quickly.
18:48Without tariffs, I couldn't have done it.
18:50I put a 100 percent tariff on China.
18:52As soon as I heard it, within 20 minutes, I put a 100 percent tariff on China.
18:57One President Xi, who's really a friend of mine, as much as he can be a friend.
19:01He's a tough man.
19:02He's a tough man.
19:03Smart man, actually.
19:05Very smart.
19:06The press doesn't like it when I call him very smart.
19:09You know, they think I'm not supposed to call him smart.
19:11But he leaves 1.4 billion people, without question.
19:15In fact, during the meeting, we were there.
19:17And a couple of you were there.
19:19And some of you saw it.
19:21So he's here, and he's got about six people on each side.
19:24And every one of those people was standing like this.
19:27They were at attention.
19:29And I made a comment to one of them, and I got no response.
19:32I said, are you going to answer me?
19:34I got no response.
19:35And President Xi didn't let him have any — so, if there's any question.
19:40I said, I want my Cabinet to behave like that.
19:42That's the way — I'm demanding that my — I want them sitting up like that, Tim.
19:46Just nice and straight.
19:47I never saw a posture like that.
19:49I've never seen men so scared in their lives.
19:52They have the equivalent — the equivalent of a Vice President.
19:56He was — I said, are you going to answer my question?
19:59And he's like, he doesn't move.
20:00I said, what's wrong with this guy?
20:02I will answer all questions.
20:03Why don't you behave like that?
20:05J.D. doesn't behave like that.
20:07J.D. buds into conversation.
20:09What's — I want to have — I want to have that for at least a couple of days.
20:13Okay, J.D.
20:14We'll keep you long-term, but a couple of days of that — a couple of days of that would
20:19be very, very nice.
20:20Okay.
20:21I want to thank you.
20:22And we'll talk a little bit.
20:23And I see they set me up with a podium.
20:26I thought I'd just be sitting, but it's probably easier.
20:28I want to thank you all very much.
20:30Thank you to the press.
20:31And you can go, and we'll speak to you later.
20:34I'm going to Miami to make a speech today at a big group.
20:37And we have a nice big crowd.
20:39And we'll see you there.
20:40A lot of you are traveling down with me.
20:41Thank you very much.
20:42I was on my phone.
20:43I went, and we'll see you later.
20:44It's okay, thank you very much.
20:46Thank you very much.
20:47Thank you very much.
20:48Thank you very much.
20:50You will see a few hours later.
20:54You
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