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00:00And lots of people watching and especially from other countries, the
00:06leaders of, as you know, the other countries, because we have a large group of
00:11leaders and the ones that aren't here are watching on Zoom. I hope they enjoy it.
00:18And the press, we appreciate it very much, so respectful. You've been so
00:22respectful of what we're doing. What we're doing is very simple, peace. It's
00:27called the Board of Peace. And it's all about an easy word to say, but a hard
00:31word to produce, peace. But we're going to produce it. And we've been doing a really
00:36good job. And some of these leaders that are with us have helped me very much
00:41during just this first year. We have a first year like probably no other ever
00:46in our country because we settled eight wars and I think a ninth to come. It's
00:54turned out to be a tougher one. I thought that was going to be the easiest
00:57one. But with war, you never know what's easy and what's not so easy. But we've had
01:04a great relationship and I've become friendly with so many of the people. And
01:08I appreciate you being here. These are great people. These are great leaders. And
01:13the people that are watching by closed circuit and open circuit in many cases
01:18are so proud of it. They want it to be open. But they're, they become incredible
01:23friends of mine. And, you know, we, we built our country in my first term. And now
01:30we're at a point that the United States has never seen before. We broke 50,000 on
01:37the Dow. They said that would take four years. We broke 7,000 on the S&P. They said you
01:43couldn't do that within four years. It would be impossible. And when I came in, they were
01:48all saying, if you could get to anywhere close to 40,000, 45,000, it would be amazing achievement
01:53over four years. Well, we hit 50,000 in the first year.
02:04I've been involved in a lot. And really, I've been involved in a lot with the people up here.
02:12We worked together on ending wars with their country. Some of the wars were 32 years long,
02:2032, 34 and a 37. That's a long time. And we ended it in about two days, each one of
02:26those.
02:28But we have some other work to do, and we're getting it done. Gaza is very complex. It's been
02:35amazing. I want to thank Steve and Jared for an amazing job. Marco's over there watching.
02:42Everybody's fantastic. And JD, what a job. They're all doing this. It's a team. I think it's the best
02:47team ever assembled. And you see that by the results. So today is a tremendous honor to welcome
02:54you all to the United States Institute of Peace for the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace.
03:02Very important. I believe it's the most consequential board. Certainly in terms of power
03:07and in terms of prestige, there's never been anything close because these are the greatest
03:14world leaders. Almost everybody's accepted, and the ones that haven't will be. Some are playing a
03:20little cute. Doesn't work. You can't play cute with me. But they're playing a little bit. But
03:26they're all joining. Everybody. Most of them very immediately. A few that we really don't want
03:35because they're trouble. Take care of them. But this is the most prestigious board ever put together.
03:43You know, I've seen some great corporate boards. I've seen some great boards, period. It's peanuts
03:49compared to this board. Because we have virtually every one is the head of a country other than
03:55Johnny. But he's the head of soccer. So that's not so bad. Right, Johnny? I like your job the best,
04:00I think. And by the way, your World Cup has set every single ticket record in the history of soccer
04:08and the history. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. The sales are virtually complete. Nobody's ever seen
04:15anything. So congratulations. You made a good decision. We did it together. Thank you, Johnny.
04:21Great guy. So I want to thank the many leaders and dignitaries who have traveled great distances and
04:28lengths for the important gathering that we're at right now. This building was built for peace,
04:36and nobody knew what to name it. And then Marco named it after me. I had nothing to do with
04:40it. I swear
04:41I didn't. I swear. I had no idea. They said, there's a surprise coming. I didn't know that surprise.
04:47I thought they were going to give me a lot of money or something, maybe cash. Can always use some
04:51extra
04:51cash. But I came and they stopped the beautiful beast. I got out very safely, I'm sure. And looked
04:59up and there it said, Donald J. Trump on the building. And when I say that that was, had nothing
05:06to do,
05:06nobody believes it. And that's okay. But I appreciated it. That was Marco and JD and a group
05:12got together and they did that. And I just thought it was very nice. And it makes me work harder.
05:17We're
05:17going to have to work harder. We're going to have to make this building much more important. They
05:20built, it's brand new. They built it for peace, but nobody occupied it. You know, nobody knew
05:25what the purpose of it, but the architecture is so beautiful. And it's, it was with the meeting rooms,
05:31the reception rooms. It's, it's really amazing. Who would think that it was built without anybody
05:39in mind or anything in mind. And then the state department took it over. They liked it. Marco
05:44came over one day. He saw this. He said, this building is great. And he actually claimed it,
05:49right? He claimed it. And that's what he does. Where is Marco? I said, Marco, is that true? You claimed
05:56this
05:56building. You took it away from about five groups that wanted it. It was, that was done very quickly,
06:01very methodically, but it was really, really built so beautifully and such a beautiful building.
06:07But we worked together to ensure the brighter future for the people of Gaza, the Middle East,
06:12and the entire world. I think that the Board of Peace, because it's mostly leaders and unbelievably
06:19respected people, but mostly leaders of Middle Eastern countries, countries from all over the world.
06:27And they've been very generous with money also. And the United States, which I'll say in a moment,
06:34is also very generous with money, because there's nothing more important than peace.
06:39And there's nothing less expensive than peace. You know, when you go to wars, it costs you a hundred
06:45times what it costs to make peace. And we have a man at the end right there that's smiling because
06:52you learned that after 30 years of fighting, right? 30 years of fighting, we got it done. I want to
06:58thank
06:58you very much. That was a great thing you did. You and your new friend, they came to my office
07:05and they
07:06said, I've been fighting for 22 years. Now you're there for 23 years, right? But I've been fighting for
07:1122 years. That's all I've done is fight this gentleman. And his counterpart was there for seven
07:18years. He said, I've been there for seven years. All I've done is fight this gentleman. And we had it
07:22worked out in about 24 hours, right? And it's been a good piece of that. I think they've become friends.
07:27I'm not sure I'm allowed to say that, but I think so. I think they've become friends, right?
07:31Great. Stand up. Stand up. These are two tough cookies, too. You think that was easy? It wasn't easy.
07:45These are two tough people. Good people, but tough people. But, you know, we're in the Oval Office
07:51and we were getting near. But the one was at one side of the room. I have two chairs right
07:56in front
07:57of the desk, the beautiful, resolute desk. One's over here. One's on the other side of the room.
08:03I said, folks, could you get a little closer? Well, I don't know. They felt very uncomfortable.
08:06You know, they've been killing each other for 32 years. So I say, can you get a little closer?
08:12After one hour, they were right next to each other. We made a deal. They hugged. They signed. And we
08:19had
08:19peace with two very important countries. And I'll never forget it. So they started off a little weak,
08:25and they ended up really strong. And you can be very proud of yourselves. It was a beautiful thing to
08:31see. Thank you. Look at that. Can you believe it? 32 years. Thank you. Thank you very much.
08:44Uh, but we're honored to be joined today by Prime Minister Rama of Albania. President,
08:54where is President Millet? Another one, I'll tell you. Where is President Millet? I had, I endorsed him.
09:02I'm not supposed to be endorsing people, but I endorse, when I like people, you know, I've had a very
09:06good
09:06record of endorsing candidates within the United States. But now I endorse foreign leaders, including
09:14Victor Orban, who's here, and others. And I endorse this gentleman, Millet. He was a little behind in
09:22the polls. He ended up winning in a landslide. I just endorsed the Prime Minister of Japan. She was in
09:28a tight race, but was probably going to win. And she won in the largest number in the history of
09:33Japan.
09:34So she likes me a lot. But, uh, it was an honor. And you're doing good. Oh, look, they're sitting
09:39right next to Victor. I think, but ultimately, I think I'm going to end up endorsing. Hey, look,
09:44as long as it works, it's okay with me. But the endorsement seems to be working in foreign countries,
09:49too. So that's good. But nice to have you both, Victor. Nice to have you both. Very proud of you.
09:54The Prime Minister of another, really just a great guy, Pashinyan of Armenia.
10:06President Aliyev of Azerbaijan. I love saying that name now. You know, at the beginning,
10:11it was giving me a hard time. Now I love saying it. It's a beautiful name. I love it.
10:17His Majesty King Hamad bin Esa Al Khalifa of Bahrain. Bahrain. Thank you. Thank you. Where are you?
10:29Where are you? He's so rich, he can sit there. He can sit wherever the hell he wants.
10:36You know, he could sit up in the corner. He could sit up top.
10:41He might take a piece of this building, Marco. He'll take 25% of the building for about $6 billion.
10:48Thank you. And you've been very generous also. We appreciate it.
10:52Prime Minister Hoon Manet of Cambodia. Raise your hand wherever you may be, because yeah. Hi, how are you?
11:03Congratulations. That was another one, right? We did a good job with that one.
11:12Thank you very much. And say hello to the general slash president. Okay.
11:20Prime Minister Orban of Hungary, who has my complete and total endorsement for election.
11:27Not everybody in Europe loves that endorsement. But that's okay. He does an unbelievable job.
11:33He's done an incredible job on immigration. Unlike some countries that have
11:39hurt themselves, but they're working on it. But I just want to let you know, you have my total and
11:44complete endorsement. And I'm putting it out. I already did, but I'm putting it out again. And
11:49you're coming up with an election. And I think you should be good. I'll tell you, Milley did pretty
11:54well. He was a little down, right? And then he was, he ended up winning in a landslide. So that's
11:58pretty
11:59good. You're going to do great, Victor. Thank you very much for being here. I appreciate it. You run a
12:03great country. A man that I really like a lot is, he's definitely tough. I don't want to fight him.
12:14President Prabowo of Indonesia. Thank you very much. Please. This is a big guy. I tell you, I said,
12:21how many people in Indonesia? He said, like 240 million. I said, no, no, say it again. How many?
12:28It's a big country you have. And you do a great job and respected by everybody. And thank you very
12:34much
12:34for being here. Thank you very much, Mr. President. President Tokayev of Kazakhstan. Thank you very
12:44much. What a country that is. It's a wonderful country and a rich country, in case anybody has any
12:51question. We have some very rich people here today. President Osmani of Kosovo. President, thank you very
13:00much. Great. Great job you're doing, too. Thank you very much. Prime Minister Sharif. I like this man,
13:09of Pakistan, because there was some fighting going on when I got to know him. And your field marshal,
13:18general, great, great general, great field marshal, a great guy. And I got to meet the prime minister.
13:28And he said in front of our chief of staff, Susie Wells, who's right here. He said, you know,
13:33nobody knows us, but I believe that President Trump saved 25 million lives when he stopped the war
13:44between us and India, right? You made that statement. I said, 25 million lives could have been much more,
13:50actually. But it was really a beautiful thing. You said that in front of a group of people that was,
13:55they walked out. They don't think about it. But you're talking about that kind of lives.
14:00That war was raging. Planes were being shot down, right? And it was Pakistan and India.
14:07And I got on the phone with both of them. And I knew him a little bit. I knew
14:12Prime Minister Modi very well, actually. But I got to know Pakistan through a little trade.
14:19They were trying to make too good a deal. And I got a little upset with them. And
14:23in the end, they got what they wanted, right? And they made a good deal. And I got to like
14:28them,
14:29the prime minister, the field marshal, who's a tough man, a tough, good fighter, right? Good,
14:35serious fighter. I like good fighters, actually. And when I heard that they were fighting, I pick up
14:41a certain newspaper. I won't tell you which one, because it's fake news generally. But I picked up
14:46this newspaper, and I saw that Pakistan and India were really going at it. And then it got worse
14:52and worse. And many planes were shot down. It was all out. And I called them. I said, listen,
15:00I'm not doing trade deals with you two guys if you don't settle this up. They said, no, no, no,
15:06that has both of them. They didn't want to do that. I said, no, it has to. If you don't
15:10do it,
15:10I'm not doing a trade deal. We're not doing a trade deal. And they do a lot of business with
15:15the
15:16United States. And they sort of softened up all of a sudden. And all of a sudden, I read where
15:21there was
15:21a little bit of a pullback by one and the other. And all of a sudden, we worked out a
15:26deal, right?
15:26But I said, if you fight, I'm going to put 200 percent tariffs on each of your countries,
15:33which essentially makes you not allowed, you know, you can't do any business. And one of them,
15:39I won't say which one, said, no, can't do that. They both wanted to fight. But when it came to
15:47money,
15:47it's nothing like money. When it came to losing a lot of money, they said, I guess we don't want
15:52to fight. And we solved that deal in two, three days, right? And we did. We said, these are two
15:58very powerful nations. These are two nuclear nations. And I don't want to say what was going
16:03to happen, but, you know, bad things happen. So Prime Minister, I want to thank you, because that was a
16:10big, that was a very big deal. People have no idea. A lot of them say, oh, well, they weren't
16:14fighting.
16:14They were fighting. Eleven jets were shot down, very expensive jets. And they were all in. Both
16:21of them were all in. And now they're not. And I think we'll always be able to settle up with
16:26them.
16:26I really do. I think you're going to have, you know, it's a lot of progress was made,
16:30even in the relationship. And Prime Minister Modi also. He's a great man. He's a great guy.
16:36They're all great. But I was very proud of it. President Pena of Paraguay is here, President.
16:44President, thank you very much. Young, handsome guy. It's always nice to be young and handsome.
16:51Doesn't mean we have to like you. I don't like young, handsome men. Women? Yes, I like. Men,
16:59I don't have any interest. Good. That's right. That's right. Thank you very much. You're doing
17:05a great job, too. His Excellency Prime Minister Al Thani of Qatar, just a great man. Please,
17:14a great man and highly respected. And he's working with a man who is amazing. I always say he needs
17:24a
17:24public relations agency because you do so much good and they have you down as evil. And you're not evil.
17:31You help us so much. And you're such a good ally. And I just want people to know that. And
17:37the emir is incredible. Smart. Smart as you can be a great leader. And he cares so much for the
17:45people. And he cares so much for the Middle East. So I want to thank you very much and send
17:49my regards.
17:49Your country has been a great help. Surprising to some of the people riding out there. But now
17:55they'll start changing that too. Because it's true. I only tell the truth. Prime Minister Don of Romania,
18:03wonderful people. The Romanian people are fantastic, fantastic people, like you're fantastic.
18:09And a lot of them come and work in this country and help us in this country, as you know.
18:14And it's,
18:14they are just really, really solid people. President Mirzi Oyev of Uzbekistan, who is,
18:27where? There he is. And a friend of mine. He's got one of the most difficult names in history.
18:33But that's okay. It doesn't matter. Your country is doing great. You're doing great. And just no problems.
18:40Every time I see him, nope, we're doing good. No problems. And General Secretary,
18:46Toh Lam of Vietnam. Vietnam is incredible as a country and as a force. And it's an honor to have
18:54you. A really great honor to have you. A lot of respect. A lot of respect for your country. We'll
18:59also
19:00want to express my gratitude to Vice President J.D. Vance, who is a fantastic man. He's a fantastic
19:08talent. He was a great student. They went to one school. He graduated. You know, most people,
19:16if you watch some of the people that were at the event in Munich, they didn't graduate quickly from
19:21college. They had everything they could do. There was one young, attractive woman. She was unable to
19:28answer questions. And she didn't do so well like J.D. did in college. J.D. graduated
19:35in a four and a half year college in two years. And then he went to Yale and he graduated
19:41at the top of his class. Went to the military grade. But when he went to Yale, there was one
19:46person that was marginally ahead of him. So he married her. Can you believe it? He married the
19:52person that was ahead. I don't know. I always like to say J.D. was first and Usha was second.
19:58Because I get a little uncomfortable when I say that. But he's been incredible. He's a brilliant
20:04guy and a great guy. And he's been my friend. All of our people. We have a fantastic group of
20:10people. Our cabinet members, many of them here. But J.D.'s been great. Thank you very much. He
20:16gets a little bit tough on occasion. We're going to slow him down just a little bit on occasion.
20:20He says his mind. Now, then we have the opposite extreme. We have your friend sitting in the back,
20:25your best friend sitting in the back is Marco. Marco does it with a velvet love. But it's a kill.
20:35The result is the same. They do it very differently. And Marco, you really did yourself proud two days
20:42ago in Munich. In fact, so proud that I almost terminated his employee. Because they were saying,
20:50why can't Trump do this? I do. But I say it differently. But Marco, don't do any better than
20:58you did, please. Because if you do, you're out of here. But no, I want my guys to do great.
21:06And
21:06the acclaim he's gotten and the acclaim J.D. gets is great. We have smart people. And when you see
21:13the
21:13representatives there, like Gavin Newsom, he didn't know what he was doing. They didn't even know why.
21:20He didn't know why he was there or AOC. She was unable to answer a simple question.
21:27And she could have said, well, I'm studying it and I'll report back to you next week. You know,
21:31you can get away with that. But she just went, uh, uh, it's actually been, I think it could be
21:38a
21:38career ending answer. Because for 25 years, anybody running against her, I think Susie is going to use
21:45that, that little piece of stuff. It was not good. It was not good. That was not a natural.
21:51So I want to thank J.D. I want to thank Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They're extraordinary. I want
21:57to
21:57thank Special Envoy for Peace, Steve Whitcoff, who has been unbelievable. You know, I took Steve because
22:06I was a developer in New York, really successful. Actually much more successful than Steve, but I
22:11don't want to say that. I'm not going to say that, Johnny. I refuse to say it. But I saw
22:17something
22:17in Steve. Steve's a great negotiator. Everybody loved him. All these developers, and they're tough.
22:22You know, New York developers tend to be on the tough side. And, you know, most of them hate each
22:29other,
22:29like a lot of the people in this room hate each other. You know, it's sort of natural, I guess.
22:33But we're bringing love back into the room, like the old days. But everybody loves Steve.
22:38Every developer, the worst, most evil people, horrible human beings, actually. And they love Steve.
22:45So I remember this, and we had some conflicts, to put it mildly, in the world. And I said,
22:50Steve, how would you like to be Henry Kissinger Jr. that doesn't leak? I said, are you a leaker,
22:57Steve? No. He didn't even know what the word meant. And it's true.
23:00I always say, Henry Kissinger, who was one of the great leakers of all time, by the way,
23:04Richard Nixon said to him, Henry, Henry, who's leaking all this stuff? I don't know,
23:10Mr. President. It was Henry. These are little stories I like telling you. But Steve has been
23:17unbelievable. Everybody likes him. Ukraine loves him. Europe loves him. Russia loves him. I mean,
23:26there's nothing wrong with this. He goes to see. President Putin didn't know Putin. I set him up
23:31a meeting to see. I said, how's Steve doing? Sir, he's still inside. Oh, that was an hour.
23:38I call back, tell Steve to call me when he's finished. I want to find out what the hell is
23:42going on. We want to end that war. Sir, he's still inside. Three hours, four hours. They were together
23:48for four hours, the first meeting. That's talent. And they get along. I mean, people like or don't
23:56like Putin or Zelensky. They get along. Same thing with Zelensky. I mean, they all love Steve,
24:03and Steve's doing a great job. That's a tough one. That's a much tougher one. I would have thought that
24:09some of the ones that we settled that are up here would have been, would have been,
24:14I thought this would be easy, because I have a very good relationship with President Putin. I have
24:19a very good relationship with President Xi. I'm going to be going to China in April. It's going to
24:23be, that's going to be a wild one. I said, but we have to put on the biggest display you've
24:28ever had
24:29in the history of China. You know, last time I went to China, President Xi, he treated me so well.
24:34He gave me a display. I never saw so many soldiers all the same height, exactly the same height within
24:40a quarter of an inch. You can do that when you have 1.4 billion people. You know, lots of
24:46shoulders.
24:47Everybody was wearing about one eighth of an inch the same height. I said, if they put their helmets
24:52down, you could have played pool on the top of their heads. And it was pretty amazing. But I said,
24:59you got to top it. He said, I'll top it. We're going to top it. We're going to have a
25:04lot of the
25:04people. Most of the fake news back there is going to be going. So we have, Steve has done a
25:11great job.
25:11And then a little bit later on, we brought Jared in. Jared was responsible for the Abraham Accords,
25:18which is incredible. Nobody else could have done that. A very smart guy. And we're making Jared an
25:24envoy also, envoy of peace. They're both envoys of peace. And you couldn't get to, I tell you what,
25:30I watch these two guys. I say, at least we're covered from an IQ standpoint. These two guys
25:35walk into a room and, but people like them both, you know, they're good people and they like them
25:41both. And they've had some very good meetings. They've had some very interesting meetings having
25:46to do with, as you know, Iran is a hotspot right now and they're meeting and they have a good
25:51relationship with the representatives of Iran and, you know, good talks are being had.
25:56It's proven to be over the years, not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran. We have to
26:02make a meaningful deal. Otherwise bad things happen, but we have to make a meaningful deal.
26:06But they have a great relationship with the representatives of Iran. They have a great
26:10relationship with the other one that they're really working on now. Because so many of these,
26:15I mean, as an example, Kosovo, Serbia, I did that one. Could you stand up if any of you guys
26:22are,
26:23when you're here? Just stand up for a second. Kosovo, Serbia, stand up. What a job. Thank you
26:29very much. We appreciate it. So good. And you're getting along. And when you don't get along,
26:35you'll call me and we'll get it solved, right? We'll get it solved. Thank you very much. Really
26:41good. And then again, Pakistan and India, that was a big one. And just, I think you should actually
26:46stand. Come, please stand just for a second. Pakistan and India, thank you very much. And
26:52I spoke to Prime Minister Modi. He's excited. He's watching us right now.
26:59Egypt and Ethiopia. We're going to get that, you know, there's a little dam that got built.
27:04A little dam, like maybe the largest dam in the world. Built and financed, of course, by the United
27:09States brilliantly. And having a little trouble getting water to the Nile. It's not, it's a tough
27:18situation. But we're going to get that solved. Armenia and Azerbaijan, we talked about. And again,
27:25thank you, fellas, very much. Great job. Great job. Thank you. Cambodia and Thailand.
27:32So incredible what you did, that you, you got together and it all worked out. They're watching,
27:38they're watching right now on closed circuit. Thank you very much. And thank you.
27:42That was a big one. Cambodia and Thailand. These are nasty fighters. I have to tell you. These
27:48fighters are nasty. Now we talk about, you talk nasty fighter, you're nice guys compared to this. Congo
27:59and Rwanda. That was, and we've got them pretty peaceful. There's little flare-ups every once in a
28:07while. I'll get a call once a week. Sir, there's a flare-up in the Congo again. We'll get it
28:12straightened
28:13out. Right, Susie? We'll get it straightened out. And Israel, as you know, with, you could say Israel
28:20in numerous countries, if you want to really know the truth. But Israel and Iran, and we'll see where
28:25that goes. But when you think of Israel, we have, we've done the biggest thing of all, we have peace
28:30in
28:30the Middle East right now. That's bigger than people said it couldn't be done. For 3,000 years,
28:35they've been talking about Middle East. They said it couldn't be done. And you look at what's happened
28:41in Gaza. And one of the keys to it was when we took those beautiful, magnificent, we just ordered 22
28:49more of them, updated model. The B-2 bombers are incredible. I never understood the B-2 bomber. I'd watch,
28:56it's a wing. And I've never quite understood that, Johnny. I'd look at it, I'd say it was beautiful,
29:01but what does it do? It carries very big bombs. And it went into Iran, and it totally decimated the
29:09nuclear, nuclear potential. And when it did, when it decimated that, all of a sudden we had peace in
29:17the Middle East, because nobody, there was a black cloud hanging over the Middle East. And if that wasn't
29:22done, that cloud would have been there. And countries like Saudi Arabia, countries like
29:28Qatar, countries like, nobody could have signed. You would have had that threat. Nobody could have
29:33had, you couldn't have had peace in the Middle East. So now we may have to take it a step
29:37further,
29:37or we may not. Maybe we're going to make a deal where you're going to be, you're going to be
29:40finding
29:40out over the next probably 10 days. But this meeting today is proof with determined leadership,
29:47nothing is impossible. When I took office, the war in Gaza was raging with thousands of people being
29:52killed and no end in sight. Today, thanks to unrelenting diplomacy and the commitment of many
29:58of the great people in this room, we have 59 countries signed up on Gaza. Think of that.
30:06We have, it's amazing. But all the people, many, really so many in this room, the war in Gaza is
30:13over.
30:14It's over. There are little flames, little flames. Hamas has been, I think they're going to give up
30:21their weapons, which is what they promised. If they don't, it'll be, you know, they'll be harshly
30:25met, very harshly met. They don't want that. You know, all this stuff like they don't mind dying.
30:31They told me that's not true. Everybody said, oh, they don't mind dying. No, they don't want to die.
30:37They said, we don't want to die. People don't want to die. The ceasefire was held
30:42and every last remaining hostage, both living and dead has been returned back home. Think of that.
30:48That was an impossibility. And we did hundreds of hostages, but the last 20, and I always said
30:54to Steve and Jared, I said, the last 20 are going to be very tough, very, very tough.
30:59And we got them back. We got the living back. And then we only got about 16 of the dead.
31:04And we said,
31:04well, you got to get them all. You promised them all. And they dug and dug and dug. You can
31:10imagine
31:11it's a job that's brutal. And Hamas really did a lot of that work. And you got to give them
31:18credit
31:18for that. They brought the last one home a week ago. And we got all 28 of them, living and
31:28dead.
31:28The amazing thing, because I've never seen anything quite like it. The parents of the dead,
31:33they knew their boy was dead. In this case, boys, all boys, men, but to the parents, boys. They knew
31:40their boy was dead. They wanted that dead body as much as if he were alive. And when they got
31:49them
31:50back, there was great sadness, but there was great joy, too. They wanted it as much as the people that
31:56got their sons back alive. But we got a lot of people before those 20, Steve, that nobody talks
32:03about. But, you know, hundreds of people. We did a good job. And you guys did a fantastic job. I
32:09want
32:10to thank every nation that helped us achieve this monumental breakthrough, saving countless lives,
32:17and really bringing peace and bringing the concept of peace, because nobody thought peace in the Middle
32:21East. I've always heard peace in the Middle East is impossible. And it turned out not to be. And we
32:28do
32:28have some work to do with Iran. They can't have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple. They can't have,
32:34you can't have peace in the Middle East if they have a nuclear weapon. And they can't have a nuclear
32:39weapon. And they've been told that very strongly. Since the hard-won ceasefire of last October, the United
32:45States and our partners have facilitated the delivery of vast amounts of humanitarian aid,
32:51numbers that nobody's ever seen before. In November, the United Nations Security Council unanimously
32:57approved the Board of Peace. And last month in Davos, we welcomed over two dozen members to this very
33:05important new organization. And we are very closely working with the United Nations. In fact, I'm going
33:12to speak to the Secretary General in a little while. He's a good man. And I've had a good relationship.
33:18Other than in my last speech, they did turn off my teleprompter. I got up there. My teleprompter
33:25didn't work. I'm sitting in front of all of you people and more. I had no teleprompter. I knew I
33:31was in trouble because I'm walking up. You know, the teleprompters are over. I had the most beautiful
33:35speech ready. I was all set to knock them dead. First, I had an escalator that stopped. You know that.
33:42It's going up. Boom. It's lucky my movie star first lady was in front of me because I put my
33:51hand on a
33:51certain part of her body and I was able to stop my fall. Otherwise, because she had no trouble. I
33:58said, boy, that was a very sharp stop, Johnny. So I said, that was strange. I've been on a lot
34:05of
34:05escalators. It's never happened before. Usually it stops very slowly. This was just boom.
34:10But our first lady was right in the proper location for me. I'm waving to people. And
34:17she was holding it a little tighter. She knew what was happening. She did. She said,
34:22she has a very successful movie out right now. Like, number one, can you believe this?
34:28And it's a big movie, big movie star. And I always say it's trouble because I always say there's
34:33not room in one family for two stars. We can't have two stars in one family. So I don't know
34:41what
34:41that means, but it's not good. But it is good because we're proud of her. People in the United
34:47States love the first lady. And she did the movie and it's become the biggest selling documentary in
34:5520 years. Can you believe the theaters are all packed? Women, especially, they go back and they
34:59see it two or three times, four times. But together, we're committed to achieving a Gaza that
35:05is properly governed throughout. The whole area is going to be, you know, so many countries that have
35:11really nothing to do with the Middle East, but they're maybe somewhat close by. They're all involved.
35:17They want to go in and fight. They tell me all the time, we'd like to send soldiers to fight
35:21if it's
35:21necessary. And I don't think it's going to be necessary. We have two countries that want to go in and
35:27do a number on Hamas. I said, I really don't think it's, I hope it's not going to be necessary
35:33because they made a promise and they promised me to get rid of their weapons. Looks like they're going
35:38to be doing that. But we'll have to find out. But it's no longer a hotbed of radicalism and terror.
35:47And to end that, we have today, and I'm pleased to announce that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, UAE, Morocco,
35:58Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait have all contributed
36:07more than $7 billion toward the relief package. That's great. Thank you, fellas. Thank you.
36:19And many more are contributing too. So the numbers are, you know, this just started. This is our first
36:25meeting. But every dollar spent is an investment in stability and the hope of new and harmonious.
36:34It's a region that's so important. It's so vibrant. It's so incredible. The people are so incredible.
36:39But we want to have a harmonious Middle East. The Middle East is amazing. So many friends in the
36:44Middle East. They're so smart. Sometimes they're too energetic. That's the, you know, a lot of people
36:51aren't energetic. Sometimes they're a little bit too energetic. These are great people. The world is now
36:57waiting on Hamas, and that's taking place. And it's the only thing that's right now standing in the way.
37:06We have Lebanon with certain things that we're working on that are very important.
37:12We have to solve the problem of Lebanon, but it's relatively small in terms of what we've,
37:18what's been done. And again, the key was getting rid of the nuclear potential because Iran would have
37:24had a nuclear weapon based on everything we found out since within one month. We can't let that happen.
37:30So many of our friends in Europe are attending today, and we're eager to have them become full
37:36members. They all want to become full members. And we've had a great response from Europe. And Europe is,
37:42you know, it's where I come from, where so many people come from that are in the United States.
37:47But we have a great relationship with Europe. We have a great head of
37:50NATO. He is a fantastic man, and he's doing a great job, really great job. I'm excited to announce
37:59that Norway has agreed to host an event bringing together the Board of Peace. Oh, I thought when I
38:06saw this note, I'm excited to announce that Norway, I thought they were going to say that
38:12they're giving me the Nobel Prize. Oh, this is less exciting. Oh, says, I'm excited to announce
38:20that Norway, and I'm saying, oh, great, I'm getting the Nobel Prize. Finally, finally, they got it right.
38:26But I don't care. I don't care about Nobel Prize. I care about saving lives, just so you understand.
38:31We play and we all, you know, do what we have to do. I only have one thing. I don't
38:35want to see people
38:36killed from parts of the world that are very far away from the United States. And if I have an
38:41ability to turn off, to turn off wars, I want to use that ability, because it's people, millions of
38:46people. It's like the Prime Minister said, 25 million people, maybe. And that's a small number
38:52compared to what it could have been, if you really think about it, right? No, I want to save lives.
38:57And I don't care about prizes. And the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance is
39:05raising two billion dollars for the support of Gaza. Additionally, Japan has just committed to
39:13host an aid fundraiser, which will be a very big one. It's already successful. We know some of the
39:20numbers that are being talked about, which will be attended by other nations in the region,
39:25including South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, and others. And I know that China is going to be
39:31involved. And I think Russia is going to be involved. I think they will be. I want to have
39:36everybody get all sides, because it doesn't help when you have all sides with one ideology. You have
39:44to have everybody together for this. I'm also pleased to announce that FIFA will be helping to raise a
39:51total of 75 million dollars for projects in Gaza. And I think they're soccer related, where you're doing
39:57fields, and you're getting the greatest stars in the world to go there.
40:00Well, coming out of that address there from Donald Trump, as he kicked off the inaugural
40:07meeting of his Board of Peace. To speak more about that, I'm joined in the studio by France 24's James
40:13Andre. James was seeing there at that meeting that the members of the Board of Peace either seem to be
40:19Donald Trump's friends, people who want to be friends with Donald Trump, or, you know, people who
40:24Trump are then praised in return. It kind of seems to be this club of the president's making.
40:31Well, yes, it does seem to be a bit of a club with, indeed, as you were saying, the president's
40:36allies, the ones who want to become allies. And then these countries that allegedly Donald Trump
40:43has made peace in. So he was talking about all his peace achievements as he sees them. And also,
40:49while the countries were directly involved in the situation in Gaza. Now, the problem is,
40:55this was the initial point of this board, and we do not have much more information. But yes,
41:00for now, what we have seen is basically a group of leaders with Donald Trump praising them,
41:07as you were saying, and indeed announcing a series of pledges.
41:12Meanwhile, we know that this Board of Peace was kind of put forward as part of the ceasefire
41:17a plan for Gaza, with, you know, reconstruction of Gaza, pitched as being the main task for this
41:24Board of Peace. So far, what we've heard from Donald Trump hasn't really cleared up any ambiguities
41:30around what the board will be doing to achieve that. Perhaps we'll hear later from US envoy Steve
41:36Whitcoff or Marco Rubio about that. But still, there's a lot of questions that remain, James.
41:41Well, there are a lot of questions. There are a lot of people who've been watching this
41:43board of peace arise and ask themselves if Donald Trump's ambition was not to replace
41:48the UN Security Council. It is still unclear. I mean, we've just listened to Donald Trump now for,
41:54you know, the best part of an hour, and it is still not clear what he is trying to achieve
42:00with this board of peace. What we do see, though, is more of the same, I'd say, strategy, which is
42:04his negotiators. He's been praising them a lot, both Steve Whitcoff and Jared Kushner. Steve Whitcoff,
42:10who's sitting right behind the president during this address, explaining that, you know, that
42:15basically, in his view, all the world leaders that they've been tasked with negotiating with
42:21like them a lot. But, you know, there's no word for, for example, the State Department or even how,
42:28you know, diplomatically this board of peace is going to work. And then there's another big question,
42:33Mark, which is the fact that indeed, if you read the statutes of this board of peace,
42:36which I've actually done, it is true that basically Donald Trump gets to choose and pick whoever is on
42:43or off the board. He can, you know, decide to revoke anyone at any given time. He can, basically, he
42:48is in
42:49absolute control of everything. And he is indeed with a group of leaders that, to some extent, he has a
42:54lot of control on. It's really interesting to see who is absent, actually, today. And that would include
43:00all the United States traditional allies, you could speak of most of the European countries,
43:05we know that France, Germany, Italy have not cared to be part of this board of peace at this stage.
43:12And Mark Carney, for example, is the Canadian Prime Minister, was scheduled to come and has been
43:19basically revoked. So, you know, it is something which is very difficult to fathom exactly what it is
43:27and how it is going to work. What we do have, though, is indeed a group of roughly 45 nations
43:32represented with one task, which was rebuilding Gaza. But, you know, when you hear the president,
43:37the little he has to say about Gaza itself, because all we've heard is that, in his view,
43:42you know, the only obstacle is Hamas. He sees, you know, the countries from the Middle East who are
43:47part to this board, as he said it, the handlers of Hamas. But we don't see any clear strategy apart
43:54from a lot of, I'd say, wishful thinking.
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