Aug. 19, 2025 - The Benny Show - Benny Johnson
47:09
Participants
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Good morning, Aisha. | ||
| All sides hailed that meeting as extremely productive, very positive, certainly a far cry from the last Oval Office visit that Zelensky had. | ||
| And the leaders went home with some sensitive homework assignments, figure out what those commitments are that they could give to Ukraine to offer them security guarantees if it cedes some territory to Russia. | ||
| And the assignment for Ukraine is to figure out what exactly those territories are. | ||
| Zielinski didn't appear to be open to accepting Putin's first demand, which was to hand over the Donbass region, which has not been won militarily, but there are other areas that he is discussing. | ||
| And President Trump is speaking to the Europeans about what exactly these countries could offer, what the security guarantees could look like. | ||
| One thing, though, he has ruled out. | ||
| What kind of assurances do you feel like you have that going forward and past this Trump administration, it won't be American boots on the ground defending that border? | ||
| Well, you have my assurance. | ||
| You're not president. | ||
| And I'm just trying to stop people from being killed, Charlie. | ||
| Look, they're losing from five to seven thousand people a week in that ridiculous war. | ||
| President Zelensky says he expects all of this to be formalized on paper within the next week to 10 days or so. | ||
| And after that, he will meet with President Putin. | ||
| And then President Trump says he will come in for a trilateral meeting to close the deal. | ||
| And Trump is keeping that fire lit to get this done fast, even detailing how he had to nudge the pace that was suggested by one of the leaders at yesterday's meeting. | ||
| He said, well, let's meet in another month or two and let's see if we can start, you know, making some 40,000 people dead in a month or two. | ||
| You have to do it tonight. | ||
| And I did, actually. | ||
| I called President Putin and we're trying to work out a meeting with President Zelensky. | ||
| We'll see what happens there. | ||
| And then if that works out, if it works out, then I'll go to the tri-lap and close it up. | ||
| Another big priority is returning Ukrainian children who have been abducted. | ||
| President Trump posted Ursula von der Leyen, the distinguished and highly respected president of the European Commission, and I have been discussing the massive worldwide problem of missing children. | ||
| This is likewise a big subject with my wife, Melania. | ||
| It is a subject at the top of all lists, and the world will work together to solve it, hopefully bringing them home to their families. | ||
| Ukraine estimates at least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been kidnapped since the beginning of the war. | ||
| It says that they have been re-educated, many of them as Russian, trained to fight in their military in some cases. | ||
| President Zelensky has said that they should not be used as a bargaining chip and their return should be a mandatory part of any settlement. | ||
|
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Aisha. | |
| Not a yes, sir, not a follower. | ||
| Sit the box, let them all have a scene. | ||
|
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I was lightning before the thunder. | |
| Thunder, thunder. | ||
| Lightning and the thunder. | ||
| What's going on, guys? | ||
| Welcome to another special edition of the Benny Show. | ||
| I'm Danny DiArbina, filling in for Benny Johnson as he takes some very much deserved time to spend with his family. | ||
| We are awaiting Caroline Levitt to walk out of those blue doors in the press briefing. | ||
| Let's put it up if we have it in a live shot right there of the press room. | ||
| Caroline Levitt expected to walk out of those blue doors any moment and take questions from the press. | ||
| Of course, yesterday we saw President Trump hold a historic summit at the White House with European leaders. | ||
| And of course, President Zelensky, we might finally be getting peace between Russia and Ukraine. | ||
| We'll see how that looks. | ||
| I'm sure a lot of reporters there are going to be ravenous for answers as to what comes next. | ||
| From what we're hearing, we could possibly be getting comprehensive peace talks between the two nations in a mere matter of days. | ||
| So we'll see where it goes. | ||
| And of course, I'm sure Caroline will be prepared to answer some of those very detailed questions. | ||
| We know Caroline Levitt is known to pray before she walks out of the out into the zoo that can be the press pool. | ||
| And so right there, she might be doing that right now behind those blue doors. | ||
| She might be praying for some guidance and wisdom as she walks onto that podium and speaks for the administration. | ||
| So lots to come. | ||
| We have President Trump, I believe, sort of describing what comes next after yesterday's massive meetings. | ||
| We'll see where it goes. | ||
| But let's hear President Trump in his own words this morning. | ||
| He was on Fox and he detailed sort of what might come next. | ||
| Let's hear it from his own words. | ||
| President Trump, during the meeting yesterday, when you decided to call Vladimir Putin, what was the reaction among the other people in the room? | ||
| And what was President Putin's reaction to being brought into a phone call in the middle of your meeting? | ||
| Well, I think they expected. | ||
| I didn't do it in front of them. | ||
| I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin. | ||
| You know, I wouldn't do that because they have not had the warmest relations. | ||
| And actually, President Putin wouldn't talk to the people from Europe. | ||
| I mean, that was part of the problem. | ||
| They had no communication with the White House for years, as people died, years with Biden and his people. | ||
| No communication. | ||
| Putin told me, years. | ||
| It was years that he didn't speak to anybody from the White House. | ||
| And it was a long time that he didn't speak to anybody from Europe. | ||
| No, it's a fractured relationship. | ||
| And when I came in, I always had, despite the Russia-Russia, Russia hoax, which truly was a very dangerous thing for our country. | ||
| But despite that, I maintained a very good relationship. | ||
| I mean, you saw that when he got off his plane, I got off my plane. | ||
| There's a warmth there that you can't, you know, there's a decent feeling. | ||
| And it's a good thing, not a bad thing. | ||
| People would say, oh, that's such a terrible thing. | ||
| It's not a terrible thing. | ||
| There you go. | ||
| President Trump. | ||
| You may have caught a glimpse of this in that little montage that they played there. | ||
| Of course, this is Trump calling in. | ||
| So they play some B-roll over it. | ||
| Look at that picture right there. | ||
| So you have European leaders crowded around the Resolute desk, Trump in control of the situation. | ||
| And Trump really has been resolute in his endeavor to bring peace to the world. | ||
| It's part of his MAGA doctrine, really. | ||
| There you go. | ||
| Here's a closer look at the picture. | ||
| You see all these leaders surrounding the Resolute desk inside of the Oval Office. | ||
| And you get a sense of how important this is for President Trump. | ||
| He's not skipping a beat when it comes to securing America's own borders and revitalizing our economy. | ||
| He's also gung-ho on bringing world peace to the world stage. | ||
| And you really get a sense of how much it means to him when you listen to him. | ||
| This was, again, over the phone earlier today. | ||
| They asked him, like, sort of, you know, where's your mind right now? | ||
| Like, when you're thinking about like bringing peace, like, how much does this mean to you? | ||
| And his answer was extremely telling as to the weight he feels in bringing this to the forefront of his administration, bringing world peace. | ||
| We have that clip for you. | ||
| Oh, we have Caroline. | ||
| We'll play it after Caroline Levitt live right now. | ||
| How are you? | ||
| Good to see all of you. | ||
| What we've witnessed President Trump accomplish over the last few days has been nothing short of remarkable. | ||
| We are now three and a half years into the war between Russia and Ukraine, a brutal conflict that has claimed hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian lives and cost trillions of dollars. | ||
| The weakness and incompetence of Joe Biden foolishly allowed the killing to start in the first place. | ||
| Until President Trump returned to office in January, the bloody and broken Biden status quo was to endlessly force American taxpayers to fund Ukraine no matter the cost, no matter how long it takes, and no matter how many lives were lost. | ||
| There is no denying that Biden's America last foreign policy moved the world further away from peace. | ||
| President Trump rejected that failed approach and instead, over the last seven months, has relentlessly pursued peace throughout his second term. | ||
| And thanks to President Trump's efforts, we finally have movement after years of deadly gridlock. | ||
| On Friday, as you all know, many of you were there, President Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, for a bilateral meeting. | ||
| This was the first time President Putin has been to the United States since 2015 and the first time he has met with an American president in years. | ||
| President Putin publicly confirmed what President Trump has said all along. | ||
| The war between Russia and Ukraine never would have started in the first place if President Trump were in office. | ||
| This was always obvious to any person with a shred of common sense. | ||
| Just look at what took place during the last four administrations. | ||
| Under George W. Bush, Russia invaded Georgia. | ||
| Under Barack Obama, Russia took Crimea. | ||
| Under Joe Biden, Russia invaded Ukraine. | ||
| But under President Trump, Russia did not invade nor take anything. | ||
| President Trump is the only president this century, Republican or Democrat, who has held Russia in check and ensured peace in Europe. | ||
| That's because Russia has always greatly respected President Trump and his peace-through-strength foreign policy approach. | ||
| But overall, the bilateral talks in Alaska were very productive, and multiple key points were agreed to between the two leaders that truly opened up the door for phase two discussions, which took place yesterday here at the White House. | ||
| Within 48 hours of that meeting in Anchorage, I may add. | ||
| As you all know, there were many European leaders here, as well as Ukrainian President Zelensky. | ||
| They all traveled here to meet with President Trump to maintain the momentum and work toward a lasting peace. | ||
| Across the board, every leader credited President Trump for his decisive leadership that has reignited the dialogue in hopes of finally bringing this war to a peaceful conclusion. | ||
| Two quotes in particular capture the progress that was made in the optimism moving forward. | ||
| Finished, President Alexander Stubb said, I think in the past two weeks, we've probably had more progress in ending this war than we have had in the past two and three and a half years. | ||
| Again, that is the president of Finland, a country that shares a border with Russia. | ||
| That's what we call the President Trump effect. | ||
| NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta also summed it up well. | ||
| Without President Trump, this deadlock with Putin would not have been broken. | ||
| He is the only one who could do this. | ||
| Following the encouraging conversations yesterday, President Trump spoke with President Putin by phone, and he agreed to begin the next phase of the peace process, a meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky, which would be followed, if necessary, by a trilateral meeting between President Putin, President Zelensky, and President Trump. | ||
| As the president said, Vice President Vance, Secretary Rubio, and Special Envoy Witkoff will continue to coordinate with Russia and Ukraine to make this happen as soon as possible. | ||
| It's very important to remember that before President Trump's landslide victory last November, there was no end in sight to this bloodshed. | ||
| Now there may finally be light at the end of the tunnel and an opportunity for lasting peace. | ||
| That's because President Trump is the peace president and American leadership is back on the world stage. | ||
| It should not be lost on anyone in this room that world leaders are coming right here to Washington, D.C. for help. | ||
| While previous presidents have traveled halfway around the world to apologize for America, President Trump stands up for America and he has firmly restored America's status as the undisputed leader of the free world. | ||
| However, one thing that has absolutely not changed is the media's negative and downright false coverage of President Trump and his foreign policy accomplishments. | ||
| From the beginning of this entire process, much of the left-wing media has been actively rooting against the President of the United States in the pursuit of peace. | ||
| Initially, the media ridiculously claimed that President Trump was somehow beholden to Russia for even agreeing to have a face-to-face discussion with President Putin inside of the United States. | ||
| The media said President Trump was making a grave mistake by, quote, legitimizing Putin. | ||
| They were aghast that President Trump would treat another world leader like a world leader. | ||
| The media relentlessly attacked President Trump and claimed he suffered a, quote, major defeat for not immediately emerging with a final agreement, even though he said heading into that meeting, this was a meeting to listen and to understand how to move the ball forward. | ||
| All weekend following those historic U.S.-Russia bilateral talks, we listened to clueless pundits on television trying but failing to claim that the president had failed. | ||
| The so-called experts in the foreign policy establishment whose record is nothing but endless wars, trillions of wasted taxpayer dollars, and dead Americans have the nerve to try and lecture President Trump, who has solved seven global conflicts in seven months about peace. | ||
| This is the same president, by the way, who brokered the Abraham Accords in his first term on top of more than half a dozen other peace deals this year alone, as I just said. | ||
| We also saw yesterday the president of Ukraine and all of the other major leaders of Europe fly across the Atlantic Ocean to meet President Trump at the White House because of the progress that was made and that, if you ask the media, failed meeting, but it was not. | ||
| It was highly productive and it was successful. | ||
| This is why Americans' trust in the mass media is at a lowest point in more than five decades. | ||
| Diplomacy is a delicate process, and instead of reporting the facts about what is happening here at this White House and what is happening between this president and other leaders around the world, many outlets in this room continue to try to actively undermine the president and sabotage the efforts towards peace. | ||
| That is why I felt the need to set the record straight. | ||
| In other news on the home front, President Trump's efforts to make DC safe again are working. | ||
| There have been a total of 465 arrests since the start of this operation on Thursday, August 7th. | ||
| Last night, there were a total of 52 arrests, including the arrest of an illegal alien MS-13 gang member with convictions for DWI and drug possession. | ||
| Thanks to President Trump's leadership and the outstanding work of both federal and local law enforcement, dangerous gang members like the one picked up last night will not be allowed on the streets of our nation's capital. | ||
| Other arrests last night included assault with a deadly weapon for stabbing, parole violation for robbery, murder, outstanding warrant for attempted murder, assault on federal law enforcement officer, and felony assault. | ||
| Four more homeless encampments were also removed during yesterday's reporting period. | ||
| To date, a total of 48 homeless encampments have been cleared in Washington, D.C. by multi-agency teams. | ||
| MPD patrol units are actively working with city officials to locate and clear additional encampments and remove homeless residents off of Washington's streets. | ||
| And despite fake narratives from the media, again, a significant number of the arrests have been in high crime areas of DC. | ||
| In fact, nearly half of all of the non-illegal alien related arrests have occurred in wards seven and eight, the two wards that have the highest number of violent crime, as well as homicides and assaults with dangerous weapons last year. | ||
| So while Democrats continue to coddle violent criminals, President Trump and this administration are focused on putting them behind bars and unapologetically standing up for the safety of law-abiding American citizens. | ||
| And the White House will continue to provide all of you with the results of this operation in the days ahead. | ||
| So with that, I will take your questions today. | ||
| Here in our new media seat today, we have Jack Pasovic, who joined us in Anchorage, Alaska last week. | ||
| Jack, thanks for being here. | ||
| Why don't you kick us off? | ||
| Caroline, thanks so much. | ||
| So a couple of questions regarding the status of these peace talks. | ||
| Obviously, we saw the president and President Putin there in Anchorage. | ||
| We saw the world leaders here yesterday with this summit. | ||
| We've heard phrases like coalition of the willing. | ||
| We've also heard Article 5 like guarantees. | ||
| When it comes to the security guarantees, what is the current status of that? | ||
| I know the president earlier today mentioned boots on the ground would be UK, France, Germany possibly, but unequivocally said no U.S. troops on the ground, but U.S. coordination. | ||
| Can you elaborate on that and what would the red lines be? | ||
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unidentified
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Sure. | |
| Well, you got to the heart of what I was going to say to all of you today on security guarantees, which is the president has definitively stated U.S. boots will not be on the ground in Ukraine, but we can certainly help in the coordination and perhaps provide other means of security guarantees to our European allies. | ||
| The president understands security guarantees are crucially important to ensure a lasting peace, and he has directed his national security team to coordinate with our friends in Europe and also to continue to cooperate and discuss these matters with Ukraine and Russia as well. | ||
| Carolyn, now, have the Russians responded at all? | ||
| I know we spoke with President Putin last night. | ||
| What has been their response? | ||
| Because we've heard some reports from the Kremlin and others saying they're unequivocally against NATO troops on the ground. | ||
| Well, look, the president continues to have these conversations with both leaders. | ||
| Those conversations took place in Anchorage, Alaska, again yesterday with the Europeans and President Zelensky. | ||
| And he has directed his team to come up with a framework for these security guarantees that can be acceptable to help ensure a lasting peace and end this war. | ||
| And then just last question real quick on this. | ||
| Regarding some of the funding, we're hearing questions about another round of weapon sales or possibly a round of U.S. purchases of Ukrainian drones. | ||
| Will that money be funded by the U.S. taxpayers? | ||
| Are we finally going to see an end to the U.S. taxpayer-funded seemingly endless mandate for these foreign wars? | ||
| Well, the president is very sensitive to the needs of the American taxpayer. | ||
| And immediately upon entering office back in January, he made it very clear that we're not going to continue writing blank checks to fund a war very far away, which is why he came up with a very creative solution to have NATO purchase American weaponry because it is the best in the world and then to backfill the needs of the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian people and their military. | ||
| So that's the solution the president has came up with. | ||
| We'll continue to see that forward. | ||
| As for any additional sales, I'll have to defer you to the Department of Defense. | ||
| Thanks so much. | ||
| Thanks, Jack. | ||
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Kelly. | |
| What has President Trump learned that tells him that Vladimir Putin would be willing to make a deal for him, for President Trump? | ||
| Well, the President has learned a lot, which is part of the reason he opened up this dialogue. | ||
| The previous administration, who oversaw the beginning of this war, refused to talk. | ||
| And President Trump has always said, in order to learn, in order to move the ball forward with diplomacy and towards peace, you have to have open dialogue. | ||
| And so that's why the president has had several conversations by phone and, of course, an in-person meeting last Friday with President Putin. | ||
| He also has talked to President Zelensky dozens of times, had him here at the White House yesterday, and he's understanding what both sides want, what both sides are going to have to give up. | ||
| And he has always said in order to get a good deal, both sides are going to have to walk away a little bit unhappy. | ||
| So he continues to learn a lot throughout these conversations, which is why we've seen progress from both sides. | ||
| And I would also just add, when it comes to learning and moving the ball forward, look at how both Russia and Ukraine have actually talked directly for the first time in many years, thanks to the efforts of this president and this administration. | ||
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Specifically for President Trump, though, what do you think Putin's motivation is to try to do something for President Trump as opposed to just resolving the conflict? | |
| I think, as I just spoke to in my opening remarks, Kelly, Russia and all countries around this world actually respect the United States again. | ||
| And the president is using the might of American strength to demand that respect from our allies, our friends, our adversaries all around the world. | ||
| And we've seen that not just lead to progress with Russia and Ukraine, but also we've seen it in the closing of seven global conflicts around the world as well. | ||
| We've seen it with the release of hostages in Gaza. | ||
| You've seen it with the end of the conflict between India and Pakistan, which could have resulted in a nuclear war if we had not had a president who believed in the strength and the leverage that comes with the job of being the president of the United States of America. | ||
| Rachel. | ||
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unidentified
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Thanks, Caroline. | |
| Heading into Alaska, a lot of the focus in the talk was on this trilateral meeting between these three leaders. | ||
| Can you explain how this went from a trilateral meeting involving President Trump to now the focus being on this bilateral meeting without the president first? | ||
| Well, look, the president has spoken to both leaders about this, and both leaders have expressed a willingness to sit down with each other. | ||
| And so our national security team will help both countries do that. | ||
| Ultimately, the president has always said that there are areas of disagreement in this war that will have to be discussed and decided upon by these two countries. | ||
| And so he wants these two countries to engage in direct diplomacy. | ||
| He's said that from the very beginning, which is why he's agreeable to the idea of having President Zelensky and President Putin get together. | ||
| And I understand accommodations for that meeting are underway. | ||
| As soon as we hear more details, we'll be sure to let all of you know. | ||
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unidentified
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Just a quick follow-up. | |
| We know as of right now, there is no ceasefire in place. | ||
| We've seen Russia continue its attacks on Ukraine. | ||
| What indications is the president getting from Putin that he wants to have this meeting with Zelensky soon? | ||
| Because he spoke to him directly yesterday. | ||
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And he expressed that rather than later. | |
| He spoke to that directly yesterday, and the president put that in his statement that he gave to all of you, the news media, knowing you'd be asking following that conversation in the effort of transparency. | ||
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Haley. | |
| Thanks, Caroline. | ||
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You made clear no U.S. loots on the ground. | |
| Is the president considering U.S. loots in the air as a form of a security guarantee? | ||
| Look, that was something the president mentioned on his interview this morning. | ||
| It is an option and a possibility. | ||
| I won't certainly rule out anything as far as military options that the president has at his disposal. | ||
| I'll let him do that. | ||
| I can tell you he's definitively ruled out boots on the ground. | ||
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unidentified
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Sure. | |
| Thanks, Carol. | ||
| Just about the possible venue for the talks. | ||
| Can you confirm that Putin suggested Moscow as a venue for the bilateral talks? | ||
| And if so, doesn't that indicate that Putin is perhaps not serious about this, that he's suggesting a venue that there's no way that Zelensky is going to go to? | ||
| Look, I'm not going to litigate the private conversations between the president and President Putin aside from what the president himself has already spoken on. | ||
| But I can tell you there are many options that are being discussed by our national security team right now with both parties. | ||
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Can you give us an indication of where? | |
| I just told you we'll provide you details as soon as we can. | ||
| Thank you for trying, though. | ||
| Libby. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you, Caroline. | |
| I wanted to ask about the National Guard troops. | ||
| How is the White House coordinating with how they're being placed in DC in what areas? | ||
| And then also, how long should people here in the district anticipate the National Park to be on the ground patrolling the streets? | ||
| I don't have a timeline for you, Libby, but we will keep you posted on that. | ||
| I think the president, as you know, and this administration, he came to this briefing room with members of his cabinet to lay out the rationale and the reasoning for federalizing the National Guard here in Washington, D.C. and for our work with the Metropolitan Police Department to make our district safer. | ||
| We've seen violent crime has taken the lives of far too many residents here in our nation's capital, and the president wants to make it safe again. | ||
| And as for the coordination efforts, this interagency team is meeting and talking daily. | ||
| In fact, there's a meeting taking place right now in the West Wing with members of the interagency task force to continue to discuss not just the National Guard deployment, but also how we can continue to remove public safety threats off of the streets of Washington, which as the numbers I just showed you prove, they are doing every single night. | ||
| I will just reiterate 465 total arrests and counting since the start of this operation. | ||
| I believe 11 or 12 days ago, I'll have to check the calendar, but those are pretty remarkable results. | ||
| If not for this task force and their high level of coordination and the leadership of this president, there would have been 465 more violent criminals on the streets of this capital that you all live in every day. | ||
| So I think we should all be very grateful for that, Stephen. | ||
| Thank you, Caroline. | ||
| Three questions about the DC crackdown. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| First, I was wondering if you could clarify something President Trump said. | ||
| He mentioned getting rid of the slums where criminals live. | ||
| Was he talking about tents or permanent residential buildings? | ||
| And then the mayor has expressed an interest in clarifying how much of a focus illegal immigration enforcement is as part of this crackdown. | ||
| Can you say anything about that? | ||
| Sure. | ||
| Any preview on the beautification? | ||
| Three questions. | ||
| I'll try to answer all three of them pointedly for you. | ||
| First, when it comes to what you said and the president said the slums of Washington, D.C., he's referring to the most dangerous communities, neighborhoods, and streets in this city where unfortunately violence has ravaged these communities and taken the lives of, again, far too many law-abiding D.C. residents. | ||
| We know on July 5th of this year, just more than a month ago, a three-year-old, beautiful young girl was shot and killed in her car with her family in one of these communities, which is why there has been a surge, despite what many of you have been falsely reporting. | ||
| And I believe it was the Washington Post who put out a map claiming it to be fact-based when it was just based on, I don't know, accounts that they've heard on the street, not actual statistics and data. | ||
| So we went and reconfigured the numbers. | ||
| And as I said, half, nearly half of all the non-illegal alien-related arrests have occurred in Wards 7 and 8 in the District of Columbia, where we know, excuse me, there's the highest rate of crime. | ||
| So we'll continue to do that. | ||
| And what was your second question, Stephen? | ||
| Legal immigration. | ||
| How much of a focus that? | ||
| Yeah, look, I mean, the focus is to make DC safe and beautiful and to remove public safety threats and violent criminals from our streets. | ||
| If federal law enforcement, with the help of the Metropolitan Police Department, come across illegal aliens, of course, we are going to abide by this administration's policy of law and order. | ||
| And we are going to remove illegal criminals from our nation's capital. | ||
| They will be detained and deported, just like they are in every other community across the country. | ||
| Kristen. | ||
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unidentified
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First question is, whose idea was it to change the next steps from a trilateral to a bilateral meeting? | |
| It was an idea that evolved in the course of the president's conversations with both President Putin, President Zelensky, and the European leaders yesterday. | ||
| And as you saw, Kristen, with all of those European leaders leaving the White House, including the NATO Secretary General, they all agree that this is a great first step. | ||
| And it's a good thing that these two leaders are going to be sitting down together. | ||
| And the President expects that to happen. | ||
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unidentified
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How long is Trump willing to wait and operate in good faith for Putin to actually arrange a meeting before he intervenes? | |
| Look, the president has put tremendous public pressure to bring this war to a close. | ||
| He's taken actions, as you've seen, sanctions on India and other actions as well. | ||
| He's made himself very clear that he wants to see this war end, and he has scoffed at the ideas of others that have been raised that we should wait another month before any meeting takes place. | ||
| The president wants to move and he wants to bring this war to an end as quickly as possible. | ||
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unidentified
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Sean, you said earlier about Putin agreeing to the meeting. | |
| The Kremlin seemed to indicate that Putin did not firmly agree to a bilateral. | ||
| Did he agree to have a sit-down with just Zelensky on the phone? | ||
| I can assure you that the United States government and the Trump administration is working with both Russia and Ukraine to make that bilateral happen as we speak. | ||
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unidentified
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Sean? | |
| If the point is to get everybody on the same page, why wouldn't Trump just take the call from Putin while the other leaders were in the room? | ||
| He said it would be disrespectful to do that. | ||
| Why is it disrespectful? | ||
| With all due respect, only a reporter from the New York Times would ask a question like that, Sean. | ||
| The president met with all of these European leaders at the White House 48 hours after sitting down with President Putin on American soil. | ||
| In fact, there was so much progress in the readout that was given to these European leaders immediately following his meeting with President Putin that every single one of them got on a plane 48 hours later and flew to the United States of America. | ||
| And if I could just read for all of you some of the statements from those European leaders yesterday, you had President Zelensky himself saying it was a very good conversation. | ||
| It was really good. | ||
| We spoke about very sensitive points. | ||
| The Secretary General Mark Ruda, it was the president only because of the president that this deadlock was broken with President Putin by starting a dialogue. | ||
| So these leaders who this war is in their backyard are very grateful that the president took that call and that he was there to provide them with a readout of Russia's thinking on this, something that was not done by the previous administration at all. | ||
| Catherine. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Is the White House looking at Budapest as a possible location? | ||
| I'm not going to confirm or deny locations. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We'll provide you with details as soon as we can. | |
| I understand that the White House is working and allies are working to make this meeting happen, but did Putin promise to do a meeting with Zelensky, a direct meeting, in the coming weeks? | ||
| He has, and I just answered that question for you. | ||
| Franko. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks. | |
| I just want to clarify. | ||
| So you are saying that President Trump is considering U.S. pilots and U.S. aircraft potentially supporting European or Ukrainian forces. | ||
| The president spoke to that himself this morning when he called into Fox and Friends, and I would defer you to his answer. | ||
| You can read it directly yourself. | ||
|
unidentified
|
In addition, can I ask no boots on the ground, Steve Witcoff's talking about Article 5-like security guarantees? | |
| Can you talk about what other Article 5-like security guarantees that are being considered if it's not boots on the ground? | ||
| These are very sensitive diplomatic discussions that are currently taking place literally as we speak. | ||
| So I will leave it to the national security team and I'll leave it to the president to have those private discussions with these leaders as we try to bring this war to an end. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can I ask one question? | |
| Mary Margaret, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Caroline. | |
| Two questions if that's okay. | ||
| So on these meetings, I know you said that the trilateral will take place if necessary. | ||
| Do you think that we might not need the trilateral and that Zelensky and Putin might come to this conclusion on their own? | ||
| And then as a follow-up, I know the president said on Fox News this morning that he's partially seeking peace in order to get to heaven. | ||
| Was he joking or is there spiritual motivation behind his peace deals here? | ||
| I think the president was serious. | ||
| I think the president wants to get to heaven, as I hope we all do in this room as well. | ||
| Annie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Carlin. | |
| I'm just shifting gears to the Department of Justice for a minute. | ||
| Can you walk us through why a deputy, another deputy FBI director was named? | ||
| Does Trump have any displeasure with how the FBI has been being run to date? | ||
| Any other question about the antitrust? | ||
| No, Andrew Bailey is extremely qualified. | ||
| As you know, he's been serving with honor as the Attorney General of Missouri, and he's been brought on as another set of very credible and experienced hands to work alongside the current deputy director, Dan Bongino, under the leadership of the director, Kash Patel, and the Attorney General, Pam Bondi. | ||
| And the FBI has been doing a tremendous job. | ||
| We've seen their agents out on the streets as part of this interagency task force here in Washington. | ||
| But the crime that they've been stopping here in Washington, they've been doing this for seven months all across the country. | ||
| In fact, there's been 19,000 arrests by the FBI nationwide. | ||
| That's more than double last year in the same time period. | ||
| Of those, 1,600 arrests were for violent crimes against children. | ||
| 4,000 child victims have been rescued by this FBI under this current leadership. | ||
| 1,000 arrests from investigations of foreign terrorist organizations. | ||
| There's been 1,500 kilos of fentanyl seized. | ||
| 6,300 kilos of meth have been seized. | ||
| And three of the top 10 most wanted have been arrested so far. | ||
| Not a single one of the individuals on the top 10 most wanted lists were arrested under the previous administration. | ||
| We've arrested three in seven months. | ||
| So when you're actually working and enforcing law and order, you need all hands on deck. | ||
| And so we look forward to welcoming Andrew Bailey to this new post. | ||
| Jackie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have a quick question about Roger Alfred, who's a former DOJ official. | |
| He gave a speech in Aspen yesterday where he said that senior DOJ aides are cutting deals with favored lobbyists. | ||
| I'm wondering if the president has any concerns at all with the way the antitrust division is working. | ||
| I have no idea who that individual is. | ||
| I don't know why he made those comments. | ||
| I don't know what basis he's making those comments on. | ||
| My instinct tells me it's not true, but we will definitely look into them and I'll get you a response. | ||
| Jackie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Caroline. | |
| Since the president often says that this war would not have started if he were in office and Putin confirmed that, it's true. | ||
| Do you accept that as true? | ||
| The European leaders do. | ||
| And President Putin himself said that, by the way, I did say that. | ||
| The question I have, though, is what is the president going to do to ensure that these security guarantees last beyond him into the time when he is no longer president? | ||
| And does that have to involve Congress at all? | ||
| Well, he understands the need for that, which he spoke to yesterday. | ||
| And what's he going to do? | ||
| It's why he's engaging in so many talks and so many conversations with both sides of this war, with our European allies. | ||
| It's why on the way home from Anchorage, Alaska, very late at night, when I know many of you on the press plane were sleeping and many staff were sleeping, the president himself was still awake at two o'clock in the morning talking to European leaders and NATO about how we can ensure a lasting peace and bring this conflict to an end. | ||
| He has expended an incredible amount of time, energy, and effort into bringing this war to an end, and he remains determined to do that. | ||
| Also, can you ask you about the Debbie? | ||
| Go ahead, DC crime. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| Jake, and then to your right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Callan. | |
| Which of the half-dozen peace deals that the president's pulled off would you say he's the most proud of? | ||
| And then I have another question. | ||
| That's a good question, Jake. | ||
| I'll leave that to the president to answer. | ||
| I think he's proud of all of the peace deals that he's been able to achieve. | ||
| You saw the president of Armenia and the head of Azerbaijan both at the White House just a couple of weeks ago. | ||
| The president, I know, very much enjoyed spending time with them and helping to bring that conflict to an end. | ||
| He very much enjoyed his time with leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Oval Office, talking to them about bringing that decades-long war to an end, India and Pakistan. | ||
| He used trade in a very powerful way as leverage to bring that conflict to an end. | ||
| So I know he's very proud of all of these achievements, and I know he's very honored to serve as the president of the United States and to restore peace around this world. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| You mentioned Armenian Azerbaijan. | ||
| That's a conflict that, you know, I spent time in the Southern Caucuses covering that. | ||
| And, you know, a conflict of over 30 years, and he resolved it in just a couple of months. | ||
| Are there other conflicts that the president's working on right now that are off the radar screen that we should be tracking? | ||
| In fact, there are. | ||
| There are many. | ||
| The State Department is always working around the clock under the leadership of Secretary Rubio and keeping the president apprised of conflicts that are bubbling up all over the world. | ||
| But of course, as you all know, as we've talked a lot about in this briefing, he's spending a lot of time right now on ending this war in Russia-Ukraine. | ||
| And of course, the conflict in Israel and Gaza, which he wants to see come to a close as well. | ||
| Sure, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So the president says that he's starting a movement to eliminate male and voting, but states administer elections, not federal authorities. | |
| So can you provide any more details about how the White House plans to eliminate that? | ||
| The White House continues to work on this. | ||
| And when Congress comes back to Washington, I'm sure there will be many discussions with our friends on Capitol Hill and also our friends in state legislatures across the country to ensure that we're protecting the integrity of the vote for the American people. | ||
| And I think Republicans generally and the president generally want to make it easier for Americans to vote and harder for people to cheat in our elections. | ||
| And it's quite mind-boggling that the Democrat Party could stand in opposition to common sense. | ||
| He wants to ensure election integrity. | ||
| There were great efforts that were made in 2024. | ||
| I won't get ahead of myself for hatch act reasons to get ahead for the next election, but I can assure you this is a priority for the president. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| If I could just follow up on your comments about Gaza. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| There was a ceasefire proposal put forward by both Qatar and Egypt. | ||
| Hamas accepted it on Monday. | ||
| Israel has yet to officially weigh in. | ||
| I'm wondering if the U.S. was at all involved in it, if it's supportive of it, and whether or not the president believes Israel should accept it. | ||
| I don't think it's a coincidence that Hamas accepted this proposal after the President of the United States posted a very strong statement about this conflict on Truth Social yesterday. | ||
| I would refer you back to that statement. | ||
| As for this proposal that Hamas has now accepted, the United States continues to discuss it, and I'll let the president weigh in on it definitively. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're welcome. | |
| Sure. | ||
| Caroline. | ||
| Can you describe the president's perspective on taking a stake in Intel in exchange for federal grants? | ||
| And is this a we expecting to see the White House make similar arrangements with other semiconductor companies and manufacturing companies? | ||
| Well, the president, he's been very clear about the need to reshore manufacturing that's critical to our national and economic security. | ||
| That is especially in regards to chips and semiconductors, which is why the president has initiated the Commerce Department to conduct a study on semiconductors, a Section 232 investigation, so we can ultimately implement tariffs. | ||
| And it's why our export license requirements remain in place as well. | ||
| As for this 10% government stake deal, the Department of Commerce continues to work on it. | ||
| I know Secretary Luttnick is working on it and ironing out the details, but the president wants to put America's needs first, both from a national security and economic perspective. | ||
| And it's a creative idea that has never been done before to ensure that we're both reshoring these critical supply chains while also gaining something of it for the American taxpayer. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're welcome. | |
| Emily. | ||
| Thanks, Caroline. | ||
| I wanted to ask about the three U.S. warships that are being sent to Venezuela, and there's 4,000 Marines on board. | ||
| Are you looking at possibility of boots on the ground there? | ||
| What I will say with respect to Venezuela, President Trump has been very clear and consistent. | ||
| He's prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice. | ||
| The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. | ||
| Is a narco-terror cartel in Maduro. | ||
| It is the view of this administration, is not a legitimate president. | ||
| He is a fugitive head of this cartel who has been indicted in the United States for trafficking drugs into the country. | ||
| And with that, I will leave you all, and we will see you later, if not tomorrow. | ||
| And I look forward to taking more of your questions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thanks, Caroline. | ||
| There you go. | ||
| You had Caroline Lovitt answering some very interesting questions there. | ||
| Spicy today. | ||
| You can notice Caroline Lovitt was not putting up with any of the press's sort of antics and, you know, very of asking questions is very, you know, not direct. | ||
| And they're doing it away to try to sabotage the peace talks that are currently underway that President Trump is sort of orchestrating. | ||
| So you saw there, you had Jack Pisovic in the new media seat, which is very interesting. | ||
| And if we have any clips, we'll play them up again of just Caroline just going scorched earth on the press. | ||
| I mean, we've watched every single press briefing that Caroline has put on. | ||
| And I think this one was, I've never seen her this sort of fed up with the nonsense that people in that room spew the press in that room from these corporate sort of overlords. | ||
| We have Jack Pisovic's questions here. | ||
| I think they're very interesting because it sort of set the tone for where Caroline was taking the briefing from there. | ||
| So if we have that, let's queue it up and we'll play Jack Pisovic. | ||
| Here we go, asking some questions from the new media chair. | ||
| Let's go. | ||
| I will take your questions today. | ||
| Here in our new media seat today, we have Jack Pisovic, who joined us in Anchorage, Alaska last week. | ||
| Jack, thanks for being here. | ||
| Why don't you kick us off? | ||
| Caroline, thanks so much. | ||
| So a couple of questions regarding the status of these peace talks. | ||
| Obviously, we saw the president and President Putin there in Anchorage. | ||
| We saw the world leaders here yesterday with this summit. | ||
| We've heard phrases like coalition of the willing. | ||
| We've also heard Article 5 like guarantees. | ||
| When it comes to the security guarantees, what is the current status of that? | ||
| I know the president earlier today mentioned boots on the ground would be UK, France, Germany, possibly, but unequivocally said no U.S. troops on the ground, but U.S. coordination. | ||
| Can you elaborate on that and what were the red lines behind? | ||
| Sure. | ||
| Well, you got to the heart of what I was going to say to all of you today on security guarantees, which is the president has definitively stated U.S. boots will not be on the ground in Ukraine, but we can certainly help in the coordination and perhaps provide other means of security guarantees to our European allies. | ||
| The president understands security guarantees are crucially important to ensure a lasting peace, and he has directed his national security team to coordinate with our friends in Europe and also to continue to cooperate and discuss these matters with Ukraine and Russia as well. | ||
| Caroline, now, have the Russians responded at all. | ||
| I know we spoke with President Putin last night. | ||
| What has been their response? | ||
| Because we've heard some reports from the Kremlin and others saying they're unequivocally against NATO troops on the ground. | ||
| Well, look, the president continues to have these conversations with both leaders. | ||
| Those conversations took place in Anchorage, Alaska, again yesterday with the Europeans and President Zelensky. | ||
| And he has directed his team to come up with a framework for these security guarantees that can be acceptable to help ensure a lasting peace and end this war. | ||
| And then just last question, real quick on this. | ||
| Regarding some of the funding, we're hearing questions about another round of weapons sales or possibly a round of U.S. purchases of Ukrainian drones. | ||
| Will that money be funded by the U.S. taxpayers? | ||
| Are we finally going to see an end to the U.S. taxpayer-funded, seemingly endless mandate for these foreign wars? | ||
| Well, the president is very sensitive to the needs of the American taxpayer. | ||
| And immediately upon entering office back in January, he made it very clear that we're not going to continue writing blank checks to fund a war very far away, which is why he came up with a very creative solution to have NATO purchase American weaponry because it is the best in the world and then to backfill the needs of the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian people and their military. | ||
| So that's the solution the president has came up with. | ||
| We'll continue to see that forward. | ||
| As for any additional sales, I'll have to defer you to the Department of Defense. | ||
| There you go. | ||
| It's always great to see sort of how this White House has taken their approach to the media, of course, allowing new media into the room to ask honestly the most important questions because the questions that you're getting asked from these corporate reporters doesn't really reflect what Americans actually care about, where their priorities are. | ||
| And they're not honest, these reporters. | ||
| So it's good to have someone like Jack Posevic in that seat to ask some actually valid questions. | ||
| We have just an amazing clip. | ||
| This was probably one of my favorite moments from this briefing where Caroline just claps back at this reporter. | ||
| Let's play it up. | ||
| It is a good one. | ||
| Let's go for it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What indications is the president getting from Putin that he wants to have this meeting with Zelensky soon? | |
| Because he spoke to him directly yesterday and he expressed that rather than later. | ||
| He spoke to that directly yesterday and the president put that in his statement that he gave to all of you, the news media, knowing you'd be asking following that conversation in the effort of transparency. | ||
| Well, there you go. | ||
| Caroline going pretty hard on these reporters. | ||
| So I got to say, I can't think of a better way to wrap up what this briefing was than that clip right there. | ||
| Caroline just clapping back, not having any of the media sort of BS. | ||
| JD Vance even tweeting about this, going, Caroline is going hard right now. | ||
| And it was a lot of fun to watch. | ||
| I hope you guys had some fun watching as well. | ||
| There you go. | ||
| JD Vance tweeting. | ||
| She's just lighting the American press on fire. | ||
| And it was, I mean, it was glorious to watch. | ||
| So I'm sure our master meme maker Jerry has prepared a pretty savage meme for today. | ||
| So we'll end off with that. | ||
| Thank you guys for joining. | ||
| And let's see what Jerry's cooked up today. | ||
| See you guys. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Not a yes, sir. | |
| Not a follower. | ||
| Fit the box, fit the mold, have a seat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, yeah. | |
| Take a number. | ||
| I was lightning before the thunder. | ||
| Thunder, thunder. | ||
| Lightning and the thunder. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's the Danny Show. | |
| Where the truth gonna be? | ||
| But don't ever fear. | ||
| It's the Danny Show. | ||
| It's like the Benny show, but with better hair. | ||
| From the border to the stage, Danny's sharp like a blade. | ||
| Homie, cut the bullshit, watch the truth escalate. | ||
| With the warrior's heart, this voffo never fades. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know it's prime time when Danny invades. | |
| It's the Danny show where the truth's gonna be. | ||
| Faith and freedom on your TV screen. | ||
| Stand up tall, run from CBP. | ||
| But don't ever fear. | ||
| It's the Danny Show. | ||
| It's like the Benny show, but with better hair. | ||
| From the border to the stage, Danny sharp like a blade. | ||
| Homie, cut the bullshit, watch the truth escalate. | ||
| With the warrior's heart, this vollo never fades. | ||
| You know it's prime time when Danny invades. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's the Danny Show where the truth's gonna be. | |
| Faith and freedom on your TV screen. | ||
| Stand up tall, run from CBP, but don't ever fear. | ||
| It's the Danny show. |
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