00:00Welcome, Bill White.
00:02Hey, Stefan. How are you? Nice to see you.
00:04I'm very good. Thank you so much.
00:06So is Brussels looking more and more like Chicago?
00:10Do you still feel safe here?
00:12Oh, yeah. Well, I feel safe.
00:13It's not fair to ask me if I feel safe
00:17because I am very grateful to the Belgian Federal Police
00:21who are here in the studio with me.
00:24They're wonderful men and women who are serving their country.
00:28They are also very frustrated with the crime here.
00:32There are certain policies, of course, that we all know,
00:35as there were in major U.S. cities,
00:38until President Trump came to town in Washington, D.C.,
00:43where criminals really are not being properly prosecuted or put in jail.
00:48I actually went to visit the jail here.
00:51They renovated the beautiful Palais de Justice,
00:54and I went with my husband to visit,
00:56and we talked with the police officers.
00:58I actually went into the jail to see it's full.
01:02We have many, many, many illegal aliens in the jails here,
01:08but some good news, the Minister of Migration
01:11and the various countries from where these people have come from
01:15are moving quickly to extradite them back to their home country.
01:21That's a good thing because there will be more room in the jails then
01:23to put the real criminals who keep getting let out.
01:28We have a prosecutor here in Brussels who is the king's prosecutor,
01:31and he's doing a fantastic job trying to clean this up once and for all.
01:36What would be your number one recommendation to the Belgian authorities
01:40to fight drug crime?
01:42Yeah, I think they keep doing what they're doing.
01:44Minister Canton and the Minister of Defense,
01:47that's the Belgian Federal Police, that's the military.
01:51They're on the streets in front of the synagogues and at the train station.
01:55I went there the other day, and they're doing a great job.
01:56The crime there is coming down.
02:00You have a new minister president in Brussels, Boris Deliais.
02:05They are focused on this.
02:07They know it hurts business, it hurts tourism,
02:09it hurts, of course, their own citizens first and foremost.
02:14I know you love Belgium.
02:16You love the Belgians.
02:17I do, yeah.
02:18I've got to ask you this question about that survey that came out during the summer
02:23that now more than half of Belgians believe that the U.S. is a bigger threat
02:28to global security than China.
02:31Why do you think that is?
02:32Oh, I don't know.
02:33I think it's because of fake news.
02:35The news here in Belgium is very negative on President Trump.
02:40It really disappoints me.
02:42I had a nice talk with the man who owns most of the stations here,
02:47and I said the last time I did a survey,
02:49it was 90% of the media on President Trump is negative.
02:54I will tell you one thing.
02:56In the United States, our GDP is going through the roof.
03:00It's 4.3% and rising.
03:02In Europe, it's fairly stagnant.
03:06The economy is surging.
03:09Unemployment is way down.
03:11We have $19 trillion in new investment.
03:13With President Trump encouraging NATO to come to the 5%,
03:18you'll have $1 trillion now.
03:21$1 trillion.
03:21It's the Trump trillion that you'll be able to spend in Europe.
03:25That will be millions of jobs over the next 10 years,
03:29that those funds will be spent to build a stronger defense for NATO and for Europe.
03:36If I may, I mean, President Trump doesn't always make it easy for Europeans to like the U.S.
03:44I mean, there are his attacks on European leaders, the tariffs,
03:47there's the anti-European rhetoric in general, there's NATO, there's Greenland, all these things.
03:55Does that make your life more difficult here, representing the U.S.?
03:59No, not at all.
03:59In fact, you mentioned Greenland.
04:01And it's been resolved.
04:04So everybody here who was worrying and calling me and coming to see me,
04:09I told everybody to relax, take a deep breath.
04:11It will all be fine.
04:13And yesterday, it was announced that it's all fine.
04:17President Trump was looking to secure the strategic importance of Greenland
04:21to the safety and security of the United States.
04:23If the United States is not safe, it certainly cannot help Europe if Europe is attacked.
04:28Because if America is not safer, stronger, more prosperous, it cannot help anybody or be a good partner.
04:36So I think the criticism is really unfair.
04:39I hate it.
04:40I will tell you that.
04:41I wish people knew President Trump the way I do.
04:44I've known him for 32 years.
04:45He's a fantastic human being.
04:47He's a great father.
04:49He's a great grandfather.
04:49And he's a great friend.
04:51And he's a great president.
04:52I would say he's the best president the United States has ever had.
04:56With the EU-USA trade deal being signed, you will see hundreds of billions of dollars moving forward.
05:03So we're across the street from the EU.
05:05They signed a historic trade deal.
05:07I'm talking about $50 billion of LNG coming into Belgium.
05:11I'm working on $10 billion of U.S. financing for nuclear power plants.
05:15I'm also talking about getting global entry for Belgians so they don't have to wait on any lines when they
05:21go to the United States.
05:23And on October 2nd, I will announce this with you first.
05:26We have three World War II veterans, 101, 102, and 103, coming to visit the Henry Chappelle Cemetery,
05:36where one of the men is visiting his brother-in-law who's buried there for the first time.
05:42I love your enthusiasm, Ambassador, but I've got to ask you this.
05:46What good does it do attacking America's closest allies almost constantly and not, for example, Vladimir Putin?
05:55Oh, that's not fair at all.
05:57President Trump is not attacking its closest allies.
06:01He is in a longstanding – I would say it's like a marriage.
06:05It's a longstanding – I'm married 26 years.
06:08We do have arguments.
06:10This is normal.
06:12In loving relationships, sometimes you have to do a little tough love.
06:15And tough love is actually very effective.
06:18I understand where this is going.
06:20I think he's doing a great job.
06:21All right.
06:22Thank you so much, Ambassador Bill White.
06:24Thank you so much for coming on.
06:25All the best.
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