President Trump signs an executive order targeting mail-in ballot fraud via unique barcodes and federal verification, while Attorney Howard Lutnick advocates for voter ID. The President claims regime change in Iran eliminated nuclear threats and dismisses a court order regarding the White House ballroom as unnecessary due to private funding. He asserts 100% MAGA approval, blames Democrats for birthright citizenship issues, and defends his administration against media criticism despite ongoing concerns over drone swarms and gas prices linked to Iranian tensions. [Automatically generated summary]
There are a lot of different groups also that are jockeying for power right now.
One of the leading figures is the son of the former Shah, Reza Phahlavi, who's seen as maybe like a transitional figure, but he doesn't have a huge constituency inside the country.
A lot of people in the diaspora think of this kind of nostalgia of the time of the Shah when things were better in Iran.
unidentified
And we'll leave this here, but you can finish watching it at c-span.org.
As we take you live now to the Oval Office where President Trump is signing executive orders.
Mr. President, as you said, you have in front of you an executive order that deals with a number of issues relating to election integrity.
As you've consistently identified, two of the biggest problems we have with election integrity in this country are one, inaccurate voter rolls that allow ineligible people to vote in various federal and state elections all over the country.
And then secondarily, you've consistently identified that vote by mail in this country has become rife with fraud.
People returning ballots who aren't eligible to return ballots, ballots being sent to people who aren't confirmed to be eligible voters.
So what this executive order is going to do is one, we're going to take federal data.
We're going to ensure that each state's election officials are provided with a comprehensive view of who the eligible voters in their jurisdiction actually are, allowing them to properly verify that everybody voting in their elections is legally able to vote.
And then it orders the Postmaster General, the U.S. Postal Service, to take bold new measures to verify that ballots both being sent to people are being sent to people who are eligible to vote, and then that ballots being returned are being properly returned by eligible voters only.
And we believe that combined the measures in this executive order will help secure elections in the future and ensure that the many abuses of our election system in the past aren't repeated in future elections.
So the fundamentals of our democracy are built on voter integrity, right?
We all need it.
You've said it time and time again.
It's a total agreement amongst everybody.
So here's the idea.
The states run these elections.
If they want to use the U.S. mail, the U.S. Postal Service, they're going to get a code, a barcode from the U.S. Postal Service, and they're going to put that on the envelope.
And we will have one envelope per vote.
None of this time where we have no idea.
There's no observers to mail.
There's no envelopes.
There's no certainty.
That's all going to go away.
And what the president is doing today is he's going to make sure that mail-in ballots are safe, secure, and accurate, and will have a clear distinction.
If you voted by mail, you will have it on the envelope.
Obviously, not on the ballot, but on the envelope.
So we will know a million mail-in ballots.
There'll be a million envelopes, and you'll be able to know exactly correctly that citizens voted.
But the fact that they don't want to sign voter ID is another issue.
It's a big issue.
The fact that they don't have proof of citizenship, that they want transgender for everybody, that they want men in women's sports.
So the only way, they assume, the only way they can win is to cheat.
When you have men in women's sports, it's fine.
It's wonderful.
By the way, I worked very hard with the Olympic Committee and got that terminated for the Olympics.
Very nice.
Now girls won't have to get beat up in the boxing ring like they did last time if you saw those fights too.
People that transitioned, beat the hell out of everyone, out of other people, women.
It was not a pretty sight to watch.
So I worked very hard with the Olympic Committee and we were able to get that out.
So the Olympics will not have men in women's sports.
But these are the things that they vote on.
And that's why we're having a problem with them.
They don't want ICE because they don't want people to be taken out of our country that are murderers, that are drug dealers, and that are people from mental institutions, the criminally insane.
If you go back, if you go back 12, 13, 15, 20 years, that we even have to bring up a subject like there will be no trans mutilation.
We don't want any transgender mutilization of our children.
We don't want to have people pouring into our country from other countries all over the world.
Where prisons are opened up all over the world, they're opened up, and they pour into our country.
Murderers.
11,888 murderers.
Think of that.
We got many of them out.
And by the way, Washington, D.C. just set a new record for safety.
And I'm sure you know that because, Peter, when you walk down the street, you're not mugged lately.
But it just, it's a very safe city now.
We took great pains to make it that way, but it actually happened pretty quickly.
Within three months, it was good.
Within four months, it was very good.
Within five months, it was great.
Now it's better than it ever was.
And so Washington, D.C. is now considered a very, very safe city.
We removed almost 4,000 people, just so you understand.
You know, an interesting stat is that 2% of the people create more than 90% of the crime.
And the good thing about that is when you get rid of 2%, it's not that many, you don't have a lot of crime.
But Washington, D.C., we're very proud of.
We're very proud of Memphis, Tennessee, and Louisiana, New Orleans is unbelievable.
They had the safest, they just finished their Mardi Gras, their Mardi Gras.
They had the safest Mardi Gras in 58 years.
The governor just called me.
Jeff Landry just called me.
He said, it's the safest Mardi Gras in 58 years because of us.
And really, Chicago should call and say we'd like help.
New York should call.
They've had a lot of problems that we want help.
Los Angeles should call and probably will.
I think they have to.
Now, we're going to have to do something when it comes to World Cup time, and we're going to have to force ourselves upon them, which we have the right to do because we don't want to have any crime.
We don't want to have any problems for the Olympics and the World Cup.
And even for 250.
So with all of that, I'm very happy to be signing the voter integrity, and I think it's going to be really great.
So if you don't mind, I will take some time and I'll make this signature absolutely perfect.
So it looks very good.
So far, so good.
Okay.
So, that's a big deal.
Very proud of it.
And I think, I don't know how it can be challenged.
I'll probably challenge it.
You may find a rogue judge.
You've got a lot of rogue judges, very bad, bad people, very bad judges.
But that's the only way that can be changed.
And hopefully we don't appeal if it is.
But I don't see how anybody can challenge it.
I don't see how they can challenge it.
And remember, it's about voter integrity.
We want to have honest voting in our country.
Because if you don't have honest voting, you can't have really a nation, if you want to know the truth.
I'll give that to you.
Do you have any questions, please?
unidentified
Yes, Mr. President.
As you know, there's issues right now with DHS.
Not being funded.
Coast Guard is one of them, which is very important, especially if the things went on this area that moves and here in our own country.
Do you have power to transfer control from the Department of Homeland Security to the Navy?
And yet, they haven't changed their ways because if they ever took power, they would open up the borders and they would let people pour in and destroy our country.
So I have many powers, but I don't have to use them.
I mean, only in severe cases, yeah.
unidentified
Mr. President, thank you.
If you were able to sign the executive order to pay the TSA agents, why not do the same for FEMA and other agencies within the Department of Communities?
But it's not, I don't know, it's basically, I mean, I wrote part of his opinion, but basically he's saying I need congressional approval.
And he's so wrong.
This is being financed privately.
It's a donation that's being given by companies, very rich companies, very rich people, so that for 150 years they've wanted a ballroom here.
We're going to have the finest ballroom, I believe, anywhere in the world.
And he said, we need congressional approval.
Well, they don't get congressional approval from the White House.
When they do things, especially when you don't, we didn't ask for any tax money.
We have no taxes.
This is taxpayer-free.
We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents.
And I see right here, I just wrote it out.
He said, we need congressional approval.
Well, we built many things at the White House over the years.
They don't get congressional approval when they build in the White House.
It's totally separate.
And especially when it's a donation.
I mean, the ballroom is a donation.
It's gotten great reviews.
People love it.
And presidents for 150 years have wanted this ballroom to be built because when we have President Xi or other presidents or prime ministers coming, we don't have a big room.
We have the East Group, which is very small.
And he said we need congressional approval.
He also said, but this is positive for us.
I'm allowed, meaning we are allowed to continue building as necessary to, let's see, what is that?
To cover the safety and security of the White House and its grounds.
So it says here very carefully, the safety and security have to be protected of the White House grounds.
Well, that's what we're doing because everything's bulletproof glass, et cetera, et cetera, including the ballroom.
And then it goes, construction and all of the things necessary.
It says personal safety of the president and his staff are a part of that.
So it talks about that we're allowed to continue building.
In other words, he put an order on, and even that he gave 14 days.
We don't need it because that's what we're doing.
He's allowed to continue building as necessary.
And when it talks about the safety and security of the White House and its grounds, so just so you know, I wrote some of the thing down.
We have a drone-proof roof.
And it talks about the president and his staff.
Well, we don't have a lot of bulletproof glass.
The White House was built a long time ago.
This has the highest level of, in fact, they call this graph, this grass, the glass.
It's bulletproof and it's ballistic proof.
It's very thick.
It's like that.
And it's going 45 feet high.
And every window is covered, every door is covered.
The roof is drone-proof.
We have secure air handling systems.
You know, bad things happen in the air if you have bad people.
We have bio-defense all over.
We have secure telecommunications and communications all over.
We have bomb shelters that we're building.
We have a hospital and very major medical facilities that we're building.
We have all of these things.
So that's called I'm Allowed to Continue Building as Necessary.
So think of that for the safety of the President.
So we have all these things.
So on that, we're okay.
Where he's totally wrong, and he made, you know, a statement, that's fine.
But we're, I'll give you an example.
You have right here $300 to $400 million, depending on finishes.
If I use very expensive marble, if I use very expensive wall coatings, I could bring it up to $400.
Otherwise, we're right now ahead of schedule, we're under budget.
But depending on finishes, from $300 to $400 million are being given by great people, people that you all know.
Rich people, rich companies, big companies.
They wanted to see this built because every president, literally for 150 years, has needed a space like this.
Many of you have gone to the tent when we have a president of a big country or somebody being honored of great distinction.
And they sit in a tent and if it rains, you get soaked because the grass gets wet here very fast.
It's a very wet area.
They used to call it a wetland, but I guess they don't do that for the White House.
But it's essentially a wetland.
And when it rains, you're in trouble.
The water can go up to three to four inches over their shoes.
That's not a good feeling for Prince, who was Prince Charles, who will be here next couple of weeks.
It's King Charles, who's a great guy.
We don't want him to sit in a pool of water.
And they've been wanting this for 100, think of it, 150 years, and we're building it.
And it's covered perfectly.
What's not covered perfectly is the fact that the judge said we need congressional approval.
Many things have been built in the White House.
They haven't gotten congressional approval, especially when the money is being not put up by the taxpayer.
The taxpayer is not putting up a dime.
This building was necessary for many years by the fact that I've built many ballrooms and I've built many things and I know how to build.
I'm not building the Federal Reserve where the guy's spending $4 billion for a tiny little building, $4 billion for the Federal Reserve building.
That contractor is going to be one of the richest men anywhere in the world after he finishes the Federal Reserve.
The man is totally incompetent.
Jerome, too late.
Powell is totally incompetent, and he's got to get out of office pretty fast.
He's doing a bad job, but he's also done a bad job in shepherding the construction of that building.
Do you know they ripped down a part of that building?
And it was a nice, they say it's one of the nicest buildings in Washington.
They ripped it down.
So we feel, and we don't feel, we know that congressional approval is not necessary to put up a ballroom.
And many things have been built on the site.
They've never gotten congressional approval.
And especially when the money is all put up, this is all donations by people that love our country, that love the White House, and that feel it was very necessary.
unidentified
Yes, President.
A couple of questions for you, Arvan.
The first one affects Americans from home gas prices.
All I have to do is leave Iran, and we'll be doing that very soon.
And they'll become tumbling down.
And stock prices were up today almost to a record because they know two things.
Number one, we have a safe country.
We had to take a little detour because we had a madman named Khomeini, who sadly is no longer with us.
And we had regime change already.
We've knocked out one regime, then we knocked out the second regime.
Now we have a group of people that's very different.
They're much more reasonable, I think much less radicalized.
We've had regime change.
We're dealing with people that are much more rational.
And it's amazing what we've done.
We had to make a little detour.
So when the stock market broke all records just a few weeks ago, when it hit 50,000 on the Dow, 7,000 on the SNP, I said to the American people, it's time that we have making a little detour because we have a madman that wants a nuclear weapon.
And if we did knock him out with a B-2 bomber, we would have a nuclear weapon right now.
It would have been used before this, before today.
And you may not be standing there asking that question, okay?
So I think we have a country that understands that.
I see CNN did a poll and they talked about voters or MAGA voters.
And if France or some other country wants to get oil or gas, they'll go up through the strait and hormones straight.
They'll go right up there and they'll be able to fend for themselves.
I think it'll be very safe, actually.
But we have nothing to do with that.
What happens with the strait, we're not going to have anything to do with because these countries, China, China will go up and they'll fuel up their beautiful ships and they'll leave and they'll take care of themselves.
There's no reason for us to do it.
We hit them hard.
We got rid of a lot of the radicalized lunatics along the strait.
But if they want something, but I would say that within two weeks, maybe, two weeks, maybe three, we're hitting them very hard.
Last night we knocked out tremendous amounts of missile-making facilities, as you probably read or wrote.
Do you notice that over the last four or five days you haven't seen very many drone hits, right?
We have some unbelievable anti-drone weaponry that's incredible.
But you want to have, like, for instance, the ballroom.
We have a very powerful steel, very steel roof with other things in it.
And you want to have, if you're building a building for security, like just like his judge's opinion, you have to have security for the president and his staff.
They have, you need heavy, strong ceilings.
You need seriously thick, bullet-proof, ballistic glass.
And we have that.
Other buildings don't.
You know, modern, fairly modern buildings don't have that.
They have roofs that are weak and they have regular glass windows.
You know, they said, we have a present for you, Mr. President, out of respect.
And they said, wait a minute.
You wanted me to answer the question?
You're a fresh person.
You know, we've had a lot of problems with you, haven't we?
No, they don't.
You ask me a question.
No, they don't have to make a deal with me.
When we feel that they are, for a long period of time, put into the Stone Ages and they won't be able to come up with a nuclear weapon, then we'll leave.
Whether we have a deal or not, it's irrelevant.
Now, it's possible that we'll have a deal because they want to make a deal.
They want to make a deal more than I want to make a deal.
But in a fairly short period of time, we'll be finished.
They will not be able to do a nuclear weapon for years.
And when they are ready, maybe in a long time from now, able to do a nuclear weapon, you'll have a president that will be like me and that he will go there and he'll knock the hell out of them again because they cannot have a nuclear weapon.
They are very radicalized people.
They're very sick leaderships.
And I will say, though, that the leadership we're dealing with now with the new regime, because we have a new regime, and the new regime is much better than the past.
unidentified
Mr. President, the Iranian government threatened a bunch of U.S. companies today in the region, including Google, Apple.
They're not going to hit them with a nuclear weapon.
unidentified
Is it something you're concerned about, sir?
No.
Iran's RGC issues a warning that they will target 18 U.S. technology companies if the U.S. continues targeted assassinations of Iranian leaders beginning one, April 1st.
It's really like the Barack Hussein Obama one in Chicago.
In not a good location, and it's a very unattractive building that's seriously late and seriously over budget.
I think you're going to see a great one here.
And it'll go up on time, on budget, best location in Miami.
They say it's the best block in Miami, and the state works.
No, it's going to be most likely a hotel.
You know, this concept could be office, but it's most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby, which is going to be a trick.
Because I have listened to this argument for so long, and this is not about Chinese billionaires or billionaires from other countries who all of a sudden have 75 children or 59 children in one case or 10 children becoming American citizens.
This was about slaves.
And if you take a look, slaves, we're talking about slaves from the Civil War.
And if you take a look at when it was filed, all of this legislation, all of this, everything having to do with birthright citizenship, it was at the end of the Civil War.
The reason was it had to do with the babies of slaves and the protection of the babies of slaves.
It didn't have to do with the protection of multi-millionaires and billionaires wanting to have their children get an American citizenship.
It is the craziest thing I've ever seen.
It's been so badly handled by legal people over the years.
If you look at the original birthright citizenship papers, they all happened right after the Civil War.
The reason was it had to do with the babies of slaves.
And hopefully it's going to say, because our country is being scammed.
We're getting all of these people.
They're selling the rights to them.
People are making a big living, getting hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars from bringing people in and saying, congratulations, your whole family is going to be a citizen of the United States of America.
That's not what it was for.
It wasn't for billionaires bringing people in or family in.
It was for the children of slaves.
And what you really have to do, and I don't think the lawyers talk about it as much, look at when the Civil War ended and look at the date of when this was enacted.
And you know, you say what you want, but you have the ones that were appointed by Barack Hussein, Obama, and Biden.
I don't care how good your case is.
You can have the greatest case ever.
They're going to rule against you.
They always do.
And it's not supposed to be that way.
Now, the Republicans tend to be very different.
They want to show how honorable they are.
So a man can appoint them and they can rule against him.
It's so proud of it.
We're so proud we ruled against Trump.
We're so proud.
We're above it.
There are those that say that's wonderful.
And there are those that say they're so stupid.
But the Democrats never fail at one thing.
When Barack Hussein Obama or when Biden appoints somebody, they go along that line.
You can have the greatest case in history.
And almost, I guess I have to say almost, maybe I don't have to say it, almost without fail, those people, four of them, sometimes five of them, but four of them will vote against you.
You don't have a chance.
You don't have a chance.
And that's not what the court system is.
Now, the Republican appointees tend to go, and this has been long before me, this has been for many years.
Some people would call it stupidity, some people would call it disloyalty.
Some people would say they're right in doing it.
And I don't mind being right, but the other side almost never does it.
I think maybe you would have Fetterman, who I have a lot of respect for.
But the Democrats are unified against it, and you need Democrat votes.
Unless you do something smart called the filibuster to terminate the filibuster, which they should do.
Republicans should do that.
But there are a couple of Republicans that maybe they're not so smart because the Democrats will do it on the first day in office, maybe the first hour.
It's a question, will it be the first hour or the first day?
So who can believe that a person, you can't even get it to the floor, that a person wouldn't vote for, think of it, for citizenship, proof of citizenship, for voter identification.
And we also added one, we added mail-in ballots, mail-in ballots with exceptions for the military, for people that are sick, people that are traveling, for the disabled.
We have very generous exceptions.
But who would believe that that would be possible not to get those things to vote for?
And then we added best of Trump, we added No Men in Women Sports, different subject, but we added that, and we said no transgender mutilization of our children.
These are all 90, 95, maybe 98 in some cases, maybe 99 in terms of those first two.
If you talk about the first two, I think, you know, I think in 98, 99%, voter identification, right?
Don't you think it's nice with picture?
Wouldn't you think it's nice when the Democrats had their convention, I remember it so well, you had to have identification to get into the arena, and they had a card that was bigger than most of their chests.
And if you didn't have that card, they threw you away.
In New York City recently, we had a big snowstorm.
Mayor Mendemi had, he called out for people to shovel snow, but you had to give identification with picture.
If you didn't have, and it wasn't one identification, you had to have two.
So to shovel snow in New York City, you need identification, double with picture, but to vote, which is maybe our most cherished thing, you don't need.
They don't want voter ID, the Democrats, because they want to cheat.
The problem is we need their votes.
In order to get it, you need their votes.
And look, they know their policy is so bad.
They know that if they gave those votes, they might never win another election.
So they're fighting like hell.
They're actually fighting for their survival because their policy, the Republicans have great policy.
Smart policy.
Strong borders, low interest rates, low taxes.
We just gave you the largest tax cut in history.
All these great policies, you know, we want a strong military.
Look at our military.
We have the strongest military.
Look what happened in Venezuela.
It was so incredible.
People said the greatest military maneuver they've ever seen.
Look what's happening in Iran.
We're just, I mean, we're totally unchecked.
Everything's been bombed out.
They have no anti-aircraft protection.
They have no nothing.
They don't have anything.
Look at our military.
The Democrats don't want that.
And when I read the fake New York Times, you take a look at it, it's like, oh, they're putting up a good fight.
They're not putting up a fight.
They're not even shooting at us, okay?
We have planes.
Planes are just ruling the sky.
We have airplanes.
Those two.
Those two.
We have airplanes.
Nice, right?
Lincoln with a little modern touch.
The great Benjamin Franklin with a little modern touch.
But think of it.
They are roaming the skies over Turan.
They're not even being shot at because their equipment's been totally decimated.
They have nothing to shoot.
They have no Navy.
They have no anything.
And just think about this.
They have no Navy.
They have no military.
They have no nothing.
They're losing.
They admit they're losing.
They're begging to make a deal.
And if you read the fake New York Times, a corrupt newspaper, where I'm suing them and I think I should do very well, but you would almost think, who's winning?
It's so fraudulent.
But just to finish up with the New York Times, if you read the New York Times prior to my election victory, including the first one and the second one too, I won three times.
I won three times convincingly.
But let's go to the third victory.
If you read the New York Times, you would say, oh, Trump's going to lose.
But I won in a landslide.
I won the popular vote.
I won the Electoral College in a massive number, right?
Massive.
I won the counties.
86% of the counties are won.
All of these different things.
Winning the popular vote for Republicans, you know, pretty amazing.
But if you read the New York Times for months and months and months, you're hearing, oh, Trump is doing so badly.