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April 16, 2026 15:04-15:43 - CSPAN
38:59
LIVE U.S. House of Representatives

President Donald J. Trump announced a 10-day Israel-Lebanon ceasefire mediated by Secretary Marco Rubio, marking the first meeting of Presidents Aoun and Netanyahu in 34 years. While claiming this is his tenth resolved war, he also asserted Iran agreed to abandon nuclear weapons following B-2 strikes, despite Pope Francis's opposition regarding 42,000 killed protesters. Addressing domestic issues, Trump discussed dropping gas prices, New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, and speculated that missing classified materials entered via open borders. Ultimately, the broadcast highlights a presidency focused on rapid diplomatic resolutions and controversial historical reinterpretations. [Automatically generated summary]

Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo Source
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Democracy And Freedom 00:02:33
President Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon earlier this morning.
The post reads: I just had excellent conversations with the highly respected President Joseph Aoun of Lebanon and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel.
These two leaders have agreed that in order to achieve peace between their countries, they will formally begin a 10-day ceasefire at 5 p.m. Eastern.
On Tuesday, the two countries met for the first time in 34 years here in Washington, D.C., with our great Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
I have directed Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, together with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Raisin Kane, to work with Israel and Lebanon to achieve a lasting peace.
It has been my honor to solve nine wars across the world, and this will be my 10th.
So let's get it done.
President Donald J. Trump Democracy is always an unfinished creation.
Democracy is worth dying for.
Democracy belongs to us all.
We are here in the sanctuary of democracy.
Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies.
American democracy is bigger than any one person.
Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected.
We are still at our core a democracy.
This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom.
Staying informed is essential.
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Gear up for engagement.
This year, as we mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, C-SPAN's Student Cam documentary competition invited students to create short films exploring themes from American history, the rights and freedoms rooted in this founding document, and pressing issues of today-from the economy and immigration to criminal justice, education, and healthcare.
Student Protests Against War 00:06:32
Nearly 4,000 students from 38 states and Washington, D.C. took part in this year's competition.
Throughout this month, we're proud to showcase our top 21 winners.
This year's second prize high school central winner is Chase Peterson, a 10th grader from Olin Tangi Liberty High School in Powell, Ohio, where our local partner is Spectrum.
His winning documentary is titled Against the Silence about the Declaration of Independence's influence on the Vietnam War protests following President Nixon's Cambodian incursion and the Kent State shooting.
Tonight, American and South Vietnamese units will attack the headquarters for the entire communist military operation in South Vietnam.
Despite Nixon's promise to end the war, he authorized about 30,000 U.S. troops to enter Cambodia, aiming to disrupt any logistics and staging areas that are being used to attack U.S. and South Vietnamese forces.
What's important to understand about America at the time was a lot of quote-unquote like traditional American values and practices were starting to change.
War assemble in the nation's capital for Vietnam was a divisive war.
It had been a conflict that divided the American people.
There were two main perspectives on this decision.
On one hand, due to the people who supported Nixon.
An operation to disrupt these enemy supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail while destroying logistical cachets inside of Laos.
While on the other, people strongly disliked how Nixon was handling such a large decision.
There is widespread anger and frustration because Nixon appears to be contradicting his campaign promise to bring the Vietnam War to a conclusion.
Nobody likes war.
Okay, no matter what it is.
I was glad to see it winding down in the 70s.
There is some animosity about young men going back into Vietnam to fight that war.
Shortly following Nixon's announcement, the side that was against his decision took over across the country and the anti-war movement as a whole only grew stronger.
This was a moment where frustration with the government became impossible to ignore, even as many feared protests would lead to chaos and violence.
I wanted the war to end, okay, because it was just, I saw what was going on there firsthand, and you wanted it to end.
Dissatisfaction in the government had not been something new.
During this period, a little under 200 years ago, colonists were upset with how the government was treating them, ultimately declaring independence.
And you really see a similarity to this in a lot of ways with what's happening during the Vietnam War protests, is that you have these members of society that have these grievances and they don't feel that they're being listened to.
That's what our founding fathers were talking about doing, was finding a way to represent ourselves democratically.
And we're not doing it right now, I don't think.
On the days following April 30th, students at Kent State held rallies and demonstrations.
They held sit-ins and symbolic funerals.
Some even buried a copy of the Constitution because they felt their government was ignoring their voice.
From some people's views, here finally was a kind of surge of protest against what seemed to be a kind of reversal of the policy of disengagement.
For others, it seemed to be another instance of protests getting out of hand and leading to violent confrontation and in some cases casualties.
The governor of Ohio, James Rhodes, decides to send the National Guard to Kent in order to keep order.
They arrive on campus to discover that student demonstrators have also burned to the ground the ROTC building at Kent State.
The point here is that everything is in place for a confrontation, which arrives on May 4th.
Right here, National Guardsmen were about 500 feet away from the rally.
They then confronted the crowd.
Tensions escalated, and then the shots rang out.
Four students were killed, nine others wounded.
The youngest victim was just 19.
The students had not started a fight.
They were standing for freedom, for accountability, and the right to question authority.
In that moment, the ideas written two centuries earlier, life, liberty, and the courage to speak truth to power, were tested in the most tragic way.
Any student, a college student, should not deserve to die because of a protest.
This was just one example of these anti-war movements turning violent.
But after the tragedy at Kent State, there's a national movement, mostly on college campuses, in direct response to what happened.
One of these was at Jackson State.
What would happen again is that you had protests against the war.
Again, you have the relatively unprovoked and indiscriminate use of gunfire.
And again, you have students tragically killed.
Approximately one to two million students and supporters took to the streets because they were frustrated with how the government was treating ordinary citizens by both sending more to Vietnam and killing them for simply mirroring what the revolutionaries did in 1776 and what is expressed directly in the Declaration of Independence, which were complaints on how the government was treating them.
Universities like Kent State, Jackson State, Ohio State, UC Berkeley, and Columbia were continuing America's 250-year tradition, dating back to 1776, of challenging authority when it failed to meet the people's expectations.
They wanted the Nixon administration to accelerate troop withdrawal, just simply end the war.
They had a purpose.
They wanted freedom, and they fought for that freedom.
You could define the pursuit of happiness as the right to not have to serve in a war that you strongly oppose and that you believe is immoral.
And if the people believe that something is unjust or unfair, that the government is beholden to the people and so has a duty to respond to that.
How many more American men have to be heaped upon that funeral pyramid of war to disprove a theory or a doctrine of military action that has been proven wrong each time it has been acted upon?
The lasting effect of the Declaration of Independence and the protests following Nixon's Cambodian incursions show that freedom demands we challenge those in power and question authority when it is needed most.
Ceasefire Deal With Hezbollah 00:16:37
Be sure to watch all of the winning entries on our website at studentcam.org.
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Earlier today, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified on Capitol Hill on his department's priorities, answering questions on topics such as vaccines, fertility, and the Make America Healthy Again movement.
You can watch the full House Ways and Means Committee hearing tonight at 9 Eastern on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and online at c-SPAN.org.
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C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered.
On this day after Tax Day, President Trump is heading to Las Vegas to hold a roundtable to speak on his tax policies that were enacted through last year's Republican tax and spending cuts law.
We'll bring you live coverage of that when it happens here on our C-SPAN networks and online at c-SPAN.org.
Now, ahead of his departure, the president talked to reporters about the conversations with Iran to reach a ceasefire deal and the rising gas prices following that conflict.
Here is what the president had to say.
The president, anything to say to this comic Prime Minister Miloni, can you just come back?
Important that the Pope understands very, very important.
It would be nice not to say it.
Iran killed 42,000 people that were totally unarmed.
There were protesters.
Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
If they did, every country, including Italy where he's stationed, every single country in in the world, would be in trouble.
So we're doing very well with respect to that.
Having to do with the whole situation on Iran, the The blockade is amazing.
It's holding up very strong, very powerfully.
And I think we're making a lot of progress in that.
But the Pope has to understand, Iran, very simple.
Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
The world would be in great danger.
Mr. President, would you meet with the Pope to even out your differences just to go and share?
I don't think it's necessary.
Mr. President, you spoke with private disability just a couple of days ago.
What was the conversation like?
What is it that is on the table now?
I had a very good talk with him, and he's a friend of mine from India.
And he's doing great.
We had a very good conversation.
With who?
With Iran.
We're doing very well, I can tell you.
Maybe it'll happen before that.
I'm not sure it needs to be extended anymore.
Iran wants to make a deal.
And we're dealing very nicely with them.
We've got to have no nuclear weapons.
If we do, that's a big factor.
And they're willing to do things today that they weren't willing to do two months ago.
Are you confident in that?
I think they will.
I think it's going to be, actually, it's very exciting because it's 48 years.
We're going to be meeting with Bibi Netanyahu, as you know, and the president of Lebanon.
And I had a great talk with both of them today.
They're going to be having a ceasefire.
And that'll include Hezbollah.
And I think it could be number 10 for me.
Do you have any news regarding Ukraine?
Ukraine is moving along.
I wish they could get along, frankly.
A lot of people are dying in Ukraine.
We'll see what happens.
There are things happening there.
We're focused so much right now in Iran, seeing if we can get that completed.
And I think if you look, the stock market is good.
The oil prices are coming down.
And it's looking very good that we're going to make a deal with Iran.
And it's going to be a good deal.
It's going to be a deal with no nuclear weapons.
When is the next in-person round of negotiations on the war in Iran?
They're all important.
I mean, it's not a question of Iran.
All of them are important.
Probably, maybe over the weekend.
Mr. President, will you send them back to the United States?
Yes, sir.
The blockade has been incredible.
It's held.
They're not doing any business.
They're unable to do any business because of the blockade.
And so the combination of having no Navy, having no Air Force, having no anti-aircraft equipment, they have nothing.
Everything is gone, including their leaders.
Now they have a new set of leaders, and we find them very reasonable.
And then the president wants a 20-year minimum to stop enriching uranium.
Well, we haven't agreed to any.
We haven't agreed to any reasonable to you.
Sir, is that the final sticking point?
What we have is we have a statement, very powerful statement, that they will not have beyond 20 years, that they will not have nuclear weapons.
That's beyond.
There's no 20-year limit.
Can you please give us more information on it?
They'll go against the weapon of the US.
I think that Todd Blanche is doing a very good job from what I'm seeing.
All I can say thus far, I think Todd Blanche is doing a very good job.
Is there no deal?
Would you be willing to extend the ceasefire, or will the fighting resume at the present time?
I would say the fighting, if there's no deal, fight and resume.
Okay, and then on gas prices, how much longer will Americans continue to see these high gas prices?
Well, they're not very high if you look at what they were supposed to be in order to get rid of a nuclear weapon with the danger that entails.
So the gas prices have come down very much over the last three, four days.
I know, you know, that's what ABC says.
But the fact is that if you look at the stock markets up, everything's doing really well.
And the big thing we have to do is we have to make sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon because if they do, you want to talk about problems, you'd have problems.
So very important is that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon.
And they've agreed to that.
Iran's agreed to that.
And they've agreed to it very powerfully.
They've agreed to give us back the nuclear dust that's way underground because of the attack we made with the B-2 bombers.
So we have a lot of agreement with Iran, and I think something's going to happen very positively.
Very complicated subject.
I don't think we're waiting.
I think we're moving very fast.
It could happen pretty quickly.
How long you could sustain the blockade on the strike of humans?
The what?
How long you could sustain Kita Vluke on the Striker Humans?
We're doing very well with the blockade.
It's very routine for us.
The Navy is incredible.
And I think the blockade is doing very well.
No chip is even thinking about entering.
No chip is going past our navy.
I think the word is...
Why are you fighting with the Pope?
And are you worried about setting your nation?
No, no, I don't.
I have to do what's right.
The Pope has to understand that.
Very simple.
I have nothing against the Pope.
His brother's MAGA all the way.
I like his brother, Louis.
I'm not fighting with him.
The Pope made a statement.
He says Iran can have a nuclear weapon.
I say Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
And if the Pope looked at the 42,000 people that were killed over the last two or three months as a protester with no weapons, no nothing, I mean, if you take a look at that, so I could disagree with the Pope.
I have a right to disagree.
I have a right to disagree with the Pope.
What do you think of people who see that, who say your criticism?
Look, nothing, I have no disagreement with the fact the Pope can say what he wants, and I want him to say what he wants, but I can disagree.
I think that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
If they do, the whole world would be in jeopardy.
The Middle East will be blown up and the whole world will be in jeopardy.
We're very close to making a deal.
That'll be a great thing.
The Pope has to understand, Iran has killed more than 42,000 people over the last few months.
Think of it.
Protesters without guns, without anything.
They were totally unarmed protesters.
The Pope has to understand that.
This is the real world.
It's a nasty world.
But as far as the Pope and saying what he wants, he can do that.
Now, I know the Pope's brother.
He is a big MAGA person.
He's got MAGA all over his house.
His name is Lewis.
He's actually a great guy.
And I'm sure the Pope is a great guy.
I haven't met him.
But I disagree with the Pope.
If the Pope would allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, you can't do that.
No, not really.
Anthony Murchacho from Anti-Lebanon.
What?
Anthony Murshakto from Anti-Lebanon.
I would like to ask you regarding congratulations for the 10th war.
It's very exciting.
With Lebanon, it's very exciting.
I think we're going to have a deal.
We're going to have a meeting first time in 44 years and Lebanon will be meeting with Israel and they're probably going to do it at the White House.
When do you think they would over the next week or two?
Or the next week?
And do you think this agreement can reach out to Hezbollah agreement?
I think we will have an agreement between Lebanon and they're going to take care of Hezbollah.
But they're going to be working on Hezbollah right now.
But we'll have a degree between Israel, very importantly, and Lebanon.
Would you support our Lebanese army as well as Israel?
I would agree with the Iran going to Hezzo.
Has Hezbollah agreed to the ceasefire?
They're all agreeing.
It's a very nice little package for about a week, and we're not going to have lots of bombs dropping, and we're going to see if we can make peace between Lebanon and Israel.
And I'm going to tell the Pope President, because there was a group of bishops that did put out a statement saying the Pope isn't merely exercising his opinion.
He's preaching the gospel.
What do you say to people that do that?
Well, I want them to preach the gospel.
I'm all about the gospel.
But I also know that you cannot let a certain country, which is a very mean-spirited country, have a nuclear weapon.
If they did, they would use it, and I think they'd use it quickly, and they would kill many millions of people.
So, you know, the Pope could disagree with me on that, but certainly we're allowed to have that.
I'm all about the gospel.
I'm about it as much as anybody can be.
But I can't allow, as President of the United States of America, I can't allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
And here's the story.
They won't have.
They've already agreed not to have.
That's good news.
And I think the Pope will be very happy.
The Federal Reserve should wait and see about the Tehran war before lowering interest rates.
Do you agree with that?
No, I don't agree.
I think we should have lower interest.
Iran is going to execute four more protesters accordingly, including the first woman protester.
What do you tell Iran?
We'll tell that to the Pope.
What do you say?
Tell that to the Pope.
I don't know that Iran is going to win.
Did you just hear that?
Iran is going to execute four people, including Lebanon.
Do you extend a ceasefire?
What makes you an extended city?
I don't know if we're going to have to, but if we need to, I would do that.
Wait, that's important.
Sorry, what are you telling the airlines with the oil company about the way you're going to open up the trends?
So if you look at the oil, and if you look at the price we're paying, it's about half what people thought it would be if you did what I had to do.
We had to take this journey to the Middle East in order to get rid of a nuclear weapon.
There would have been, if we didn't hit it with the B-2 bombers, or if I didn't kill the Barack Hussein-Obama deal, the nuclear deal, which was a disaster, we would have had nuclear weapons exploding in the Middle East and beyond.
I believe I've been able to stop that.
I think we have a very successful negotiation going on right now.
And I think it'll be, if it happens, it'll be announced fairly soon.
And that'll give us free oil, free hormones, straight.
Everything will be nice.
And I think your oil price will go down to lower than what it was before.
And I think a lot of good things will happen.
Just for clarity, you're willing to extend the ceasefire for the money.
Well, we'll see.
I don't know that will happen.
Ideally, but if I needed to, I will.
The Lebanese people love you so much.
What do you say?
The Lebanese people love you so much.
What's your message for them?
And you will visit Lebanon after this deal.
I will do this.
At the right time, I would certainly go there.
You're looking at war in Ukraine.
You know, Putin doesn't want to stop it.
Apparently, he's bombing Ukraine.
Do you think this war has the potential to go on for years more?
Well, it should have been.
It should have never started.
If I were president, the war in Ukraine never would have started with Russia.
But it's going on.
Hopefully it'll get over soon.
Who did?
The First Lady, Melania.
She had none.
Why did she come out and say that last night?
The fake news was saying she did, and she had none, and I think that's been proven.
It bothered her that the fake news was being fake news.
That's all she just wanted to clarify.
Are you surprised?
Who's taking care of Hezbollah?
Do you think that they are destroying the deal that you are trying to?
We're going to see how it all works out.
But they'll be working and coordinating.
If you know, you know, Lebanon, right?
So they'll be working with Hezbollah.
If they're firing JPL.
What?
Are you still interested in acquiring Iranian oil after?
Well, we'll see.
I mean, we have a very good relationship with Iran right now, as hard as it is to believe.
And I think it's a combination of about four weeks of bombing and a very powerful blockade.
The blockade is maybe more powerful than the bombing, if you want to know the two.
Are you going to make the Arab countries pay a portion of all of the costs of the country?
I think they're going to make that contribution.
I think the Arab countries, because we've done a lot, I think they'd make a contribution toward the cost.
Not been involved.
We're going to see what happens.
But I think we're very close to making a deal with Iran.
You'll be the first to know.
But I think we have a chance.
And if that happens, oil goes way down, prices go way down, inflation goes way down, and you're going to have, much more importantly than even that, you won't have nuclear holocaust.
What's happening now?
I think the deal could be released.
Possibly.
I would be foolish not to.
I mean, if we're close to a deal, would I extend it?
Yeah, I would do that.
But we're close to a deal.
We're getting along very well with the new Iranian leaders.
It really is.
It's regime change.
Lower Prices And Inflation 00:12:54
These are people that are a lot different than we were dealing with at the beginning.
As you know, they're no longer around.
They're no longer with us.
But we have a very good relationship, and I think there's a very good chance that we're going to make a deal.
Also, Israel and Lebanon, I think there's a good chance that they'll make a good deal.
So the actual Russians overnight attack on Kiev.
They killed the United States.
I think it's terrible.
Well, I have a great relationship, as you know, with President Xi, and I look forward to being there.
We have a very special relationship.
So I look forward to being in China.
Thank you.
Mr. President, you impose sanctions on Rwanda because they keep violating the Washington authorities.
But President Kabam just said he don't care about sanctions, and he said he will not withdraw from Congo.
His troop will continue in Congo.
What is your reaction to that?
We look into it very strongly, but they do have very big sanctions.
There was a G20 meeting in Washington today.
Why did you invite Poland instead of South Africa?
Well, Poland's a great country.
We like it a lot.
We're friends with Poland.
The president is doing a great job, so we invite him.
I saw your good social posts about Bruce Blakeman in New York.
He's being denied up to $7 million of public campaign funds in New York by partisan Democrats.
Have you seen that?
And what's your reaction to it?
I can just tell you this.
Bruce Blakeman is running for governor.
He will be a great governor.
If he wins, I don't know that he wins or not because it's New York.
And, you know, people cheat on elections and a lot of other things.
Bruce Blakeman is a great, great gentleman.
As you know, he comes from Nassau County, which is a Democrat area, and he wins by a landslide all the time.
And if Bruce Blakeman gets in, your taxes are going to go way down, and a lot of good things are going to happen, including cleanliness and all of the things that you want to see.
I know him very well.
He's been a great leader, a great even though it's largely Democrat, he wins in a landslide.
Everybody loves him.
He's a very talented guy, very great politician.
And I think he probably has a chance.
If Bruce Blakeman gets in, your taxes are going way down.
And you know what else is going down?
Crime.
With access to classified stuff, nuclear material, aerospace, they've all gone missing or turned up dead in the last couple months.
Based on what you've been briefed, what do you think is happening here?
And do you think that this is connected or totally random?
Well, I hope it's random, but we're going to know in the next week and a half.
I just left a meeting on that subject.
So, pretty serious stuff.
But we're going to be hopefully, I don't know, coincidence, whatever you want to call it.
But some of them were very important people, and we're going to look at it over the next short period of time.
It's impossible that some foreign adversary is in the United States duping these people up.
Well, you know, by dead open borders, it wasn't very hard to get here, but we've gotten many of them out.
You know, we've caught many, many people, many, many, very bad people, including thousands drug lords that we've taken out of our country.
Hundreds of thousands of prisoners that were let into the U.S. that we've taken out of our country.
As far as the scientists are concerned, we'll probably have a pretty good answer over the next week.
And what do I do, Iran?
Does it have to be a big deal all at once, or would you accept a little deal to start?
Well, I have a little deal.
I can make a little deal.
I want to get it done and get back to keep going with low.
You know, our pricing is doing great.
As soon as the war is over, we're going to be lower than we were two or three years ago.
So I want to get back to that.
We had to do something.
We had to make sure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.
And we're at that.
They've agreed to that.
They've totally agreed to that.
They've agreed to almost everything.
So maybe if they can get to the table, there's a difference.
They agree.
They've got to get to the table with a pen.
We'll have that over with.
And then we can focus on our great economy.
And also, you know, I inherited the highest prices in the history of our country, the worst inflation in the history of our country.
I'll get it down to a very low number.
We had it to a very low number, and it's still low.
But the most important thing right now is to make sure Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.
Would you ever go to Pakistan to steal the deal yourself?
I would.
I would go to Pakistan.
Pakistan has been great.
They've been so good.
Islamabad, I'll be...
I might go.
Yeah, I might go.
If the deal is signed in Islamabad, I might go.
The field marshal has been great.
The prime minister has been really great in Pakistan.
So I might go.
They want to make sure that.
The first meeting last week called on Congress to further look into and uncover the truth on the Epstein files, the Epstein saga.
Do you believe that there should be a public hearing for more of these Epstein survivors?
I'm okay with it.
I think we've had a lot of public hearings.
I'm okay with it.
But I understand that the women didn't want to go under oath.
That's what I heard.
That the women, the victims or whatever, they refused to go under oath, which was a little surprising.
So Melania felt strongly about it because she was accused of that I met her through Epstein, but it turned out to be totally false.
It was a false deal.
Don't be fired also in Kanuka, Iraq, American.
Are we talking about the one with Lebanon?
Lebanon, Iraq, and okay.
So we just made a deal with Lebanon.
As of two hours from now, we have a ceasefire with Israel and Lebanon, and that'll be great.
And they'll be meeting, probably coming to the White House over the next four or five days.
Happy New Year!
That'll be the first time they've met in 44 years, which is pretty unneighborly, considering their neighbors.
But there's a really good chance that that'll work out with Lebanon and Israel.
I met with through the telephone with the president of Lebanon, who's a really good guy, highly respected, and with Bibi.
And I think there's a chance we'll be meeting right here in the not too decision.
Israel and Lebanon have tried to make peace before.
What's going to be the difference this time?
Dean.
I'm going to do it.
Big difference.
Dean.
States like Virginia, North Carolina, and New York Democratic states are looking at raising taxes.
Is that going to take away from the tax cuts?
No, because, you know, no tax on tips.
I'm going over no tax on tips today.
That's why I'm going to Nevada.
I'm going to Arizona.
But this is sort of a no-tax on TIPS.
What's happening is people are finding out that in their tax returns, they're getting a big refund, much bigger than they thought.
So it's no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime.
I think it's a good question.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
I think it's going to be amazing.
But if you look at what they're doing in New York and California, they're raising taxes, and they're driving people out.
It's a thing.
Australia has just announced that it's increasing its defense spending to 3%.
You've been asking for 3.5%.
Eat that aside.
We're going to see what happens.
But on defense spending, look, we built the greatest military anywhere in the world.
There's nobody even close.
All you have to do is take a look.
I'm all the way in the bath.
The bombs.
The bombs were powerful.
And it weakened them.
They have no navy.
They have no air force.
They have no anything.
They have no leaders.
But their new leaders, the ones that have replaced them, it's a regime change.
They are much more, I think, frankly, more intelligent and more moderate.
But we have a real chance to make a deal very soon with Iraq.
On Australia, Mr. President, you asked for 3.5% increase like 5% you did with NATO.
Australia has only gone to 3%.
Are you satisfied with that decision?
Would you like to be able to do that?
Well, I'm not happy with Australia because they were not there when we asked them to be there.
So Australia was another one.
They were not there having to do with Hormuz, the harmless people.
What do you mean by Abuzz?
I'm not happy.
I'm not happy.
But why specifically?
Do you still have a convoy in Tibetan involvement with Prime Minister?
What message did you think to six far and levy sends to the UK and other European allies who chose not to get involved in the war?
Well, you know, we spend trillions and trillions of dollars on NATO.
And when I asked them to get involved on a much smaller situation, which is Harmos and Iran, they weren't there for us.
Remember what I said?
They weren't there.
None of them.
They weren't there.
So we were there on Ukraine.
I mean, we shouldn't have been.
It would have never happened if I were president.
But nevertheless, when they've had problems over the years, we were there.
When we asked them to get involved on a very minor skirmish by comparison to what it could be, they weren't there.
So I don't think they'd be there for a large skirmish.
And therefore, I think they've got themselves a problem.
Do your policies like no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, show that the Democrat Party is no longer the party of the working class and the Republican Party under your leadership action.
I love this question.
This is the greatest guy.
Look how handsome he is.
What a great guy he is.
Yes, the Democrats don't know what they're doing.
They want to tax everybody out of business.
They want men playing in women's sports.
They don't want voter ID.
They don't know what they're doing.
We've had an unbelievable run.
And the people getting their tax returns and they're coming back and they're ending up getting $5,000, $6,07,000 more than they thought possible.
Who do you think the Punch Act was being disrespectful?
The who?
The Punk.
Do you think he was being disrespectful to you?
I don't think about it that way.
The Pope has to understand that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
And the Pope has to understand that you can't let a country kill 42,000 protesters, totally unarmed protesters.
You can't do that.
So the Pope, you know, I know his brother.
His brother's MAGA all the way.
You know that.
Lewis is a great guy.
But the Pope has to understand you're not allowed to kill 42,000 protesters who are totally unarmed.
And you cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, or the entire world could be gone.
And, you know, when the Pope realizes that, I think we'll have a different understanding.
Problems mean that Europeans should be buying more gas and oil from the United States.
Well, they should be buying more from us.
And what they should be doing is using the North Sea.
I can tell you, UK, I've been telling that to your prime minister, UK should open up the North Sea Os, one of the greatest in the world, and they should use it instead of buying oil from Norway and other places that use the same source.
They should use it.
And they're not doing it.
They're doing windmills and windmills.
Windmills do one thing.
You know what they do?
Put you out of business.
I want all the regional leaders about the peace deal or the peaceful.
We're dealing with everybody.
We're dealing with all of the leaders on many different subjects.
We're very close to a deal with Iran.
Thank you.
President Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon earlier this morning.
The post reads: I just had excellent conversations with the highly respected President Joseph Aoun of Lebanon and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel.
These two leaders have agreed that in order to achieve peace between their countries, they will formally begin a 10-day ceasefire at 5 p.m. Eastern.
On Tuesday, the two countries met for the first time in 34 years here in Washington, D.C., with our great Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
I have directed Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, together with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Raisin Kane, to work with Israel and Lebanon to achieve a lasting peace.
Historic Peace Meeting 00:00:21
It has been my honor to solve nine wars across the world, and this will be my tent.
So let's get it done.
President Donald J. Trump.
Join C-SPAN Saturday, April 25th at 7 p.m. Eastern for Washington's premier black tie event, the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Watch live.
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