Raymond Lopez (5:04)

You know, Chicagoans, Eric, have forgotten what it means to have a real mayor in charge of the city of Chicago. They've fallen for the Okie doke twice now with people giving the platitudes and speaking to the social justice warrior ethos that everyone wants and thinks that they need to aspire to, while at the same time forgetting that Chicago is a city of neighborhoods. As you know, Chicago is a city of working class, blue collar folks who have the grit within them to lift themselves up and fight and make something of themselves. And what we've seen is a new arrival, a new demographic class of about 40% of our residents who come here from other cities who have this SJW mentality. And they keep voting for individuals like Brandon Johnson whom they think are going to fix all the social ills while ignoring all of those broken window things that we know we need to address on a daily basis. If you want to keep neighborhoods secure, if you want to keep Chicago beautiful, you're a Democrat.

Eric (6:06)

Yeah, I think almost you're in Chicago. I was there for the Richie Daly years, Richard Daly and then Richie Daly years. The Democrat machine. Chicago was a Democrat political machine. Everything had to go through the Democrat Party. My first job ever out of high school, I had to go to an alderman and basically put money in his coffer to get a construction job. That's the way Chicago worked. It continues to this day. But when you talk about the safety of the people in Chicago, there are two. There are two areas, the southern and the western suburbs, that are just horrendous with crime. Should Trump bring in the National Guard to at least temporarily clean up those neighborhoods?

Donald Trump (6:48)

No.

Raymond Lopez (6:48)

No one should have to live with open air drug markets. And we see that a lot on the west side. No one should have to live with, you know, drug dealers standing on the corners now fighting with Venezuelan migrants on the south side. Absolutely. Trump should be able to come in and help the city of Chicago alleviate some of the pressures of public safety that our police officers are facing as they fight every single day to try and make our neighborhood safe. You know, we do not need police officers protecting the bean, protecting Buckingham Fountain, protecting the Mag Mile when they could be in the neighborhoods answering the thousands of 911 calls that go unanswered every single day. But yet Governor Pritzker, Brandon Johnson say no. They say, we're doing just fine. Our numbers are low enough, we're happy with where they are. So they're basically signaling to all of Chicago that there's an acceptable limit of carnage that the Democratic political elite is willing to accept on the streets of the city of Chicago. I'm not one of those individuals. I had a young man shot in the back of his head walking home through an alley this weekend. I had two kids that were gunned down by a Venezuelan migrant that, as the reports say, stalked them coming home from high school. There are real issues that we have to address. And if we save one life, if we prevent one more victim, why wouldn't we do that? Why wouldn't we want that? And it really begs the question now more than ever, who is the Democratic Party's elite serving when they say no to President Trump and the help he's willing to offer?

Eric (8:18)

So. So just to clarify, the question was, are you okay with. I mean, you ran for. For mayor or you ran for a while, you dropped up, you would be a logical representative, but you're a Democrat. You get that Democrat vote. But you're also one of the rare instances of a kind of a centrist or moderate Democrat, especially in City of Chicago. You might get a lot of votes. Would you, as mayor, Mayor Lopez, allow Trump to come in with National Guard, at least on a temporary basis, and do his magic on the southern and western suburbs of Chicago?

Raymond Lopez (8:52)

If I were in that role as mayor, yes, I would. But I also think that if I were in that role as mayor, we would not have been in this predicament where we have crime so rampant, because I would have supported my police officers. I would have demanded that judges stop the revolving door of justice in Cook county, which oftentimes sees criminals out on the streets within hours of being arrested. And I would have elevated the voice of the victim over the criminal. And I think that's the most important part of all of this discussion here, is that no one in the Democratic Party wants to talk about the victims. They're always talking about police brutality or over policing or X, Y and Z and investment, but they never talk about the victims of the violence in our streets. And I think that's the lost voice that needs to be elevated, especially in a city where you have 5,000 shooting victims every year, where you'll have 600 at least murder victims every year. Not to mention all of the other crimes that go on underreported and unaccounted for in the city of Chicago.

Eric (9:48)

Are the western and southern suburbs of Chicago. Are they no go zones for cops? Because here's what happens in certain big cities, Democrat cities, where the, the mayor's office doesn't support the pd, the police department. Cops don't want to go into these areas because they put their lives in their, their lives are at risk every time they walk into these places because they're a target. And then if they aggressively defend themselves or put down a criminal, sometimes the criminals will claim that they were brutalized or beaten or something illegal happened to them. And the mayor's office just doesn't stand up for the police departments. New York, for example, famously, Bill de Blasio went to a police funeral and the whole police force turned their back on the mayor. What's the relation? Will cops go into these suburbs? And more importantly, does the mayor, does Johnson's office support the police being aggressive in areas where crime is high?

Raymond Lopez (10:41)

Well, on the south and west sides of the city of Chicago, you know, we do have our officers who are doing their best, but they have been videoed time and time again being outnumbered, outflanked by criminals and those who support criminals. You don't necessarily have to be a gang banger or drug dealer, but you could be on the corner and then all of a sudden a flash mob erupts around an officer or and their partner while they're trying to make an arrest, and now they are fending for themselves, trying to protect themselves in a very dangerous and hostile situation, that is real. And when you have mayors like Johnson and formerly like Lori Lightfoot, who would immediately throw any officer under the bus twice if they could, and when there's an altercation between an officer and a resident, even with the officer being 100% in the right, you know, it makes it very hard for a police officer to feel as though anyone has their back. There's a handful of elected officials like myself who stand in support and solidarity when our officers do things well and correctly and constitutionally as we should.

Eric (11:41)

You are overwhelmingly, you are the rare politicians, rare and likable, the rare and likable moderate Democrat, especially in the city as hard blue as Chicago is. I wish you luck. I, I, one final question very quickly. Cubs or white socks?

Raymond Lopez (11:58)

White socks, of course.

Eric (11:59)

Wow.

Raymond Lopez (11:59)

You know, gotta support the south side where I'm From.

Eric (12:02)

Wow. Wow. Cubs. Cubs. I'm teasing. You're a great guy. You go with both. How's this? Bears on Monday night. How's that? That work for you?

Raymond Lopez (12:13)

I'm never gonna root for the Packers.

Eric (12:15)

So there you go. Raymond Lopez. Alderman Raymond Lopez. Maybe someday we'll be calling you Mr. Mayor and would love to get you back.

Raymond Lopez (12:23)

Thank you. Have a great weekend.

Eric (12:25)

Thank you, Raymond. All right, folks. Are you stressed about back taxes? Maybe you missed that April 15 deadline. Your books are cooked a mess. Don't wait. The IRS is cracking down. Penalties add up fast. 5% per month. Yep, that's right. I said per month. Up to 25% if you just fail to file. But there's help. Tax Network usa, they're great folks. They do a lot of work. They can help take the burden off your shoulders. Stop that spiral before it gets worse. They've helped literally thousands of Americans, whether you're an employee, a small business owner, maybe, or maybe just haven't filed in years. Your book's a mess. So what? They don't care. No problem. They've seen it all. They know exactly how to clean it up. With direct access to powerful IRS programs and expert negotiators on your side, Tax Network USA knows how to win. You'll get a free consultation. And if you qualify, they may be able to eliminate or reduce what you owe. Or maybe even completely eliminate it. Think about that for a second. More importantly, they'll help you. Protect you from wage garnishments or bank levies. So don't wait for the next irs letter. Call 8009-0580-0080-0905 8000 or visit tnusa.com rav to talk to a real expert at Tax Network you USA. Take the pressure off. Let Tax Network USA handle your tax issues. They're really, really good at this, folks. They've been doing it a really long time. All right, how about this? You know, I've been working on something extremely diligently, hard, time consuming behind the scenes. Another little taste of it. It's coming soon. April 6th. Sorry. September 16th. Watch the fire. Doesn't care who you are. It tests you. It breaks most men. But if you rise through it, you'll find the edge.

Donald Trump (14:25)

The edge.

Eric (14:26)

A no politics zone built for risk and resilience. No politics, only pressure. Well, must be four o'.

Donald Trump (14:47)

Clock.

Eric (14:48)

Yeah. The President of the United States.

Donald Trump (14:51)

Good job. Good. It's a great honor, John. Okay, there it is. And that's going to help a lot of the homeowners of our Great country. John, want to hold that? Sure. Thank you, John, very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Okay. Will you go ahead you with this.

General Pete Hegseth (15:27)

Gift from a constituent back in Tennessee.

Donald Trump (15:29)

Oh, I could use that at night.

General Pete Hegseth (15:32)

It's an American flag.

Donald Trump (15:33)

That's very nice. I like that.

Eric (15:35)

Thank you, Mr. President.

Donald Trump (15:35)

Thank you very much. That's very nice.

Adam Bowler (15:38)

Next, we have a number of executive orders for your attention, sir. From 1789 until 1947, our nation won some of its greatest military victories under the direction of a Secretary of War operating within a Department of War. Today, with this executive order, you will authorize the current Secretary of Defense and the current Department of Defense to once again. To once again embrace this great lineage and once again be named the Secretary of War and the Department of War.

Donald Trump (16:10)

So this is something we thought long and hard about. We've been talking about it for months, Pete and I and Dan. Dan. And came into the fall, by the way, a great general. He headed up the. I wouldn't call it an attack. I'd almost call that one, maybe even more than an attack, what he did with Iran. You saw the success of that operation. It was perfect. In fact, we have. This was said to me by the great company that makes that particular B2 bomber. And it was flawless. It was actually flawless. They flew for 3:37 hours back and forth, and it wasn't a bolt that was out of condition. There wasn't an engine failure. There was no problem. It was a perfect attack, and it knocked out any possible nuclear capability for Iran, which nobody wanted to see and we weren't going to put up with. So great job, Dan. And we've been talking about this Department of War. So we won the First World War, we won the Second World War. We won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to Department of Defense. So we're going Department of War. And I'd like to ask our Secretary of War to say a few words. Pete Hegsett. I think it's a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now. We have the strongest military in the world. We have the greatest equipment in the world. We. We have the greatest manufacturers of equipment by far. There's nobody to even compete. And you see that with this and so many other things, the Patriots are the best. Every element of the military, we make the best by far. So, Peter, I'd like to ask you and maybe Dan. Dan Raisinkane to say a few words, please. Mr. President.

General Pete Hegseth (17:58)

Thank you after winning a war for independence in 1789. In 1989, George Washington established the War Department, and Henry Knox was his first Secretary of War. And this country won every major war after that to include World War I and World War II. Total victory. Mr. President, as you said then, 150 years after that, we changed the name after World War II from the Department of War to the Department of defense in 1947. And as you pointed out, Mr. President, we haven't won a major war since. And that's not to disparage our war fighters, whether it's the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or our generation of Iraq and Afghanistan. That's to recognize that this name change is not just about renaming, it's about restoring. Words matter. It's restoring, as you've guided us to, Mr. President, restoring the warrior ethos, restoring victory and clarity as an end state, restoring intentionality to the use of force. So, at your direction, Mr. President, the war Department is going to fight decisively, not endless conflicts. It's going to fight to win, not not to lose. We're going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality, violent effect, not politically correct. We're going to raise up warriors, not just defenders. So this War Department, Mr. President, just like America, is back. Thank you for your leadership and your clarity. We're going to set the tone for this country. America first, Peace through strength. Brought to you by the War Department.

Eric (19:38)

We're back.

Donald Trump (19:39)

Thank you very much. Very well stated. And really, it has to do with winning. We should have won every war. We could have won every war, but we really chose to be very politically correct or wokey, and we just fight forever. And then we, you know, win. We win, lose, really. We just fight to sort of tie. We never wanted to win wars that every one of them, we would have won easily with just a couple of little changes or a couple of little edicts. You know, I was told that ISIS would take five years to win. And Dan Kaine, when I told him, how long would it take? He said, I think about four weeks, sir. I said, what do you mean, four weeks? I was told five years by the people in Washington, you know who they were. Five years. I said, you can't do it in four weeks. I actually flew to Iraq to meet with him, and I met him at a big air base. And remember that famous day? Right? It turned out to be a famous day for our country because you're now the joint head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which is the biggest Deal. And he is, because he did things that everybody said he couldn't do. So they said it was going to be five years. And he knocked him out in about four weeks. Total 100%. We took over and ISIS was gone. And pretty amazing, but we never fought to win. And now we. If we have to fight at all, you know, we solved seven wars. We have the one that I thought was going to be probably one of the easier ones, and that's with President Putin and Ukraine. And that turned out to be one that's a little bit more difficult. But the seven are done. They were supposed to be much more difficult to solve. I solved every one of them and we're going to get the other one done, too. But it turned out to be a little bit more difficult than I thought. And it'll get done or they'll be held to pay, but because they're losing six, six to seven. It used to be five. I used to tell you five. Now it's almost seven. I guess. 7,000 people. Last week. 7,813 people. Young soldiers died. Russian and Ukrainian, not American soldiers. But it's a shame. It's just, you know, the human lives, and I want to see it stop. But General Kaine has done a fantastic job and again defeated isis, which. Which they said would take a long time, and it didn't take a long time at all. And did other things that people said really couldn't happen. We have the greatest equipment in the world. We have the greatest soldiers in the world. Dan, say a few words, please.

Jennifer (22:11)

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. It's a true honor for me today to represent the incredible men and women of America's joint force. Today and every day, the 2.8 million service men and women stand ready to fulfill our sacred duty to protect America at home and abroad. As the President said, America's military is the single most powerful fighting force in the world. The mission you and the Secretary have given us is clear and unambiguous, to deliver peace through overwhelming strength. And I remind everyone that the US Military can reach any adversary at the time and place of our choosing. Service to this nation is an incredible gift, and we're grateful and honored every day to do so. Thank you, Mr. President.

Donald Trump (23:05)

Well, thank you. And it's an honor to sign this, and we will do that right now. I think that's a big one. I'll be honest. That's a big one. It's a big one. Mr. President, do you have any questions on this subject? We're going to be discussing the G20 in a couple of minutes, but, yes, please.

Reporter (23:39)

No. What gave you the idea of this rebrand? And a question for you and the newly minted Secretary of War. What message does this send to our enemies, to our allies, to the American people? And again, what gave you the idea for this rebrand at this moment?

Donald Trump (23:53)

I think it sends a message of victory. I think it sends a mess, really. A message of strength. We're very strong. We're much stronger than anyone would really understand. And again, you know, having. Having the great equipment we have, just so much better. You look at all of the. Just any of it, submarines, as an example, with 20 years ahead of anyone else, nobody even compares. And I let a lot of this happen in my first term. You know, we totally rebuilt our military. Then, of course, you had that catastrophe in Afghanistan where they gave up a lot of the equipment, but a relatively small amount. But a lot. It was a lot in Afghanistan. I think it was the most. General, I'd say it was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country. The way that happened, the way they went to the wrong airport. They should have gone to Bagram, not the local little airport with no security, with tight quarters, et cetera. You know, what happened, I think it was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. Frankly, that was under the Biden administration. That was terrible. And we were going to be leaving, but we were leaving with strength and dignity. We were going to keep Bagram because Bagram is one hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. We're going to have that all to ourselves. A big, beautiful place built many years ago from money that today would be the equivalent of, you know, many, many billions of dollars. You couldn't build it. The longest runways, the most powerful runways in terms of loads of capacity. And we just walked away from it. So stupid. And they were fools. The people were fools. No, we're. We have the strongest military, and I think that indicates we have the strongest military. And, you know, we had it. And we won World War I, we won World War II. We won everything before. And as I said, we won everything in between. And we were very strong, but we never fought to win. We just didn't fight to win. We didn't lose anything, but we didn't fight to win. We could have won every one of those wars quickly, but they went a route that I think was probably politically correct, but not correct for our nation. So I think the Department of War sends a signal. Yeah, please.

Adam Bowler (26:07)

Mr. You alluded to this a little while ago. But you said that this rename is.

Donald Trump (26:14)

A good reflection of where the world.

Adam Bowler (26:15)

Is at right now. How do you square naming it to the Department of War when you've been pursuing peace so many different parts of the world?

Donald Trump (26:23)

Well, I think I've gotten peace because of the fact that we're strong. If we weren't strong, those seven deals I told you about, the seven wars, a majority of them wouldn't have happened. They happened for two reasons, trade and our strength. Those are the two reasons. And probably strength may be more important than trade. So if we. I was very proud of all those wars. Those were wars that could not be settled and I settled all of them. And we'll get the other one settled also. That'll get settled, but without the strength, we wouldn't have settled any of them. Yeah. Please.

General Pete Hegseth (26:54)

Mr. President, is your, is it your expectation that Congress will codify this name.

Donald Trump (26:58)

Change in the law? I don't know, but we're going to find out. But I'm not sure they have to. We're signing an executive order today, but we're going to find out. We're going to see if they do. We're going with it and we're going with it very strongly. There's a question as to whether or not they have to, but we'll put it before Congress.

Reporter (27:17)

Do you know how much this rebrand will actually cost? And are there any concerns about, you know, the Pentagon's mission of actually cutting back on spending?

Donald Trump (27:24)

But not a lot. You know, we know how to rebrand without having to go crazy. We don't have to re carve a mountain or anything. We're going to be doing it not in the most expensive. We're going to start changing the stationary as it comes due and lots of things like that. We're not going to be doing things like have been done in the past. When they changed the name of forts that shouldn't have been changed. Those names of the forts should not have been changed, at least for the most part. And as you know, many of them have been changed back already at the request of the communities. Every one of those communities said we want our name back, like Fort Bragg as an example. The people in that community wanted that name back. They refused to call it anything else but Fort Bragg. So we're not going to be spending very much money on that. Yes. When you spoke with the Europeans in.

General Pete Hegseth (28:13)

Zelensky earlier this week, did you preview.

Donald Trump (28:15)

This for them and did you say what security guarantees they might be involved in? This has nothing to do with anybody but the United States of America, the people of America. This is who I talk to about changing a name. This is a very important change because it's, it's an attitude and we know how to win. We've been winning and we're going to win like you've never seen. Wait till these factories start to open up that are being built all over the country. You're going to see things happen in this country that nobody expects. We have over $17 trillion in investment coming into the country. We never did anything even remotely close to that. We. We've never. No other country has either, by the way. So you're going to see things that are pretty amazing, but it's really about winning. And what about the security guarantees aspect of that with Ukraine, sir? Well, we'll work that out. Well, we'll help them look. We want to save a lot of lives, so we'll do something with that. I think people expect that we'll help them. Well, Europe will be first in by far, and they want to be first in. They want. They want to see it end. Europe wants to see it end. And it'll end. It'll end. All of a sudden. It's going to come together. You watch. Yeah. Did you want something right here? Yeah. Behind you, please. Yes.

Reporter (29:28)

Yes, sir. You haven't been shy about taking bold, decisive offensive action to protect American values. Strikes in Iran, the strikes this past Tuesday and the positively ID trende Aragua narco terrorists. Is that going to be a critical function of the department?

Donald Trump (29:44)

It depends on the individual instance. You know, we don't want drugs coming in from Venezuela or anybody else or anyplace else. And we'll be tough on that. We don't want human trafficking. We don't want to see people coming in where they open their prisons from all over the world and they dump their prisoners into our country, which is what they did in the Biden administration, where they took insane asylums in places of that held people that were seriously mentally ill, mentally incompetent, incompetent, mentally dangerous. And they dumped those people into our country and we're trying to get them out. Now, what they've done, what the Democrats and Biden have done to this country will go down in infamy. What they have done to our country, and especially that, you know, they created the worst inflation we've ever had. That's nothing compared to what they did with the people in our country right now. And we're getting them out. And it's not easy when you have the liberal judges destroying our country. But we've won them all. We've won it all, ultimately won it all. Hard process. It should be easier. We know who it is. We know exactly who we're looking for. We had 11,000 murderers dropped into our country. We've gotten a lot of them out, or in some cases, they're so dangerous, we were afraid to get them out because they'd come back in. But for the last 120 days, zero people came in. Can you imagine? This is me speaking. But these are figures developed by, they say, a pretty liberal group of people. They admit that zero people came into our country. Think of that. A year ago. It was millions of people were coming in. Millions. They were coming in. You could look at them and you could say, big trouble. And that's what we have in our country. But we're getting them out. And despite that, we're doing really well. Yeah. Please. Brian, can you comment on the recruitment levels across the military branches? Well, the recruitment is the most exciting thing. So when I was campaigning for the office, numbers were coming out that the recruitment numbers, generally, you could speak to it better than anybody. The recruitment into the military, all branches of the military and police and firemen and everything else. Anything having to do with like a public service. The numbers were horrible, record setting bad, and now they're record setting good. We're setting every record every month for recruitment. We're, we're packed in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, My beautiful air. I love Space Command. I love Space. I see Space Command, but Space Force has been. We've got a waiting list of people wanting to go in. A year ago, especially a year and a half ago, you know, when I took the lead in the polls, which was very early, it really helped with the recruiting. And when I won, from November 5th on, it's been amazing. And over the last four or five months, it's been. We're just packed. It was very hard to get police officers. Now the departments are loaded up. Everyone wants to be a police, policeman or woman. So it's been a great thing. Jenner, do you want to talk about that?

Jennifer (32:59)

Sure. As you said, serving our nation is an incredible gift that we give. And the reward on that gift pays back exponentially, year over year. And I think the young people of America are seeing the importance of service. And whether it's in any of our armed services or in local police, fire rescue service is an important thing that I personally, personally encourage. And I know everyone else in government service sees that same reward.

Donald Trump (33:25)

And Peter, and recruitment.

General Pete Hegseth (33:27)

I was down at Fort Benning, the newly properly renamed Fort Benning, yesterday, watching army basic training, and they're so full they can't barely handle the throughput. It is truly historic across all the services, as you said, it's been a surge into the. I was going to say the Defense Department, but I would say the War Department. And that you might almost call it a vibe shift, an attitude shift, a feeling that the country is back, that service is back. And there were military families last year, Mr. President, that said, I don't know if I can recommend. I mean, I wrote a book on this. I don't know if I can recommend service to my son or daughter, given what's been done to our military. You heard it over and over and over again. And I hear from those same military families right now, sir, and they're saying, I recommend to my kids that they go into this department, this Pentagon, under this commander in chief, who they know you'll have their back, and they want to serve. So it is historic, and it's the biggest reflection of how motivated Americans are.

Eric (34:22)

By your leadership, sir.

Donald Trump (34:23)

You know, really, it's nothing more than spirit, love for the country, I guess, the esprit de corps, as they say. You have more of that than we've had, maybe ever, frankly. But to see it turn over a period of less than a year, I would say. But to see it turn. Nobody wanted to go into the military. Now everybody wants to go into the military. Jennifer, you want to. Yeah.

Reporter (34:46)

There's some new reporting on North Korea and this Navy seal incident in 2019. Can you say if the administration has engaged with North Korea on that incident since it happened recently? And then can you share some records?

Donald Trump (34:59)

I don't know anything about it, though. I'd have to. I could look, but I know nothing about.

Reporter (35:03)

Can you confirm that it happened?

Donald Trump (35:05)

I don't know anything about it. I'm hearing it now for the first time. Okay, great.

Reporter (35:08)

And now on the Hyundai incident in Georgia with the arrests of some workers, construction workers at the plant. Have you heard any feedback from Hyundai?

Donald Trump (35:18)

I just heard about that a little while before the news conference. And I would say that they were illegal aliens and ICE was just doing its job. But I know nothing about the instance. It happened a little while ago. Okay.

Reporter (35:33)

There has been some pushback on that, though, from South Korea already. And of course, you know, they pledged to invest $150 billion in the US when they were just here last week. Are you concerned about.

Donald Trump (35:42)

Well, and they have the right to sell cars and things in our country. You know, it's not like a one sided deal.

Reporter (35:47)

Are you concerned at all about, you know, your immigration agenda potentially clashing with these economic goals?

Donald Trump (35:54)

Well, we want to get along with other countries and we want to have a great stable workforce. And we had, as I understand it, a lot of illegal aliens. Some not the best of people, but we had a lot of illegal aliens working there. So, you know, look, they're doing their job. That's what they have to do. These are people that came through with Biden, they came through illegally, they came into our country, so we have to do our job.

Reporter (36:18)

Mr. President, the now Department of War has been involved in the great crime cleanup in D.C. you've tasked Congress with proposing and passing a crime bill. What are some things that you would really like to see codified in that crime bill?

Donald Trump (36:29)

Well, I think one of the things is the cashless bail is killing it. When that came out originally, when that came out the first time, that's when you saw the real big crime start to happen. Cashless bail, what a disaster that is. You murder somebody, you don't have to put up bail and you go out on the street, you murder somebody else else. That's what's happened, happened so often. And that's one of the things and other of the things you're reading about, you know, is this standard, but just a certain toughness. I have to say. One of the elements of fascination for people over the last period of time has been what's happened to D.C. so we've gone from a, one of the most dangerous cities in our country to a, what they call a safe city. It's a totally safe city. In fact, I set up dinner in Washington D.C. next week. I wouldn't have done that, to be honest. I would have had an obligation not to do it before I came into office or even at the very beginning when things were so corrupt and so dangerous out on the streets. So Washington D.C. has had virtually no crime. We even have a mayor that's admitting to it. And she, she's a, you know, liberal Democrat. In all fairness, she's a person that hasn't gotten exactly along with Republicans over the years. And she said she's never seen anything like it. So Washington D.C. is a totally safe city. We have virtually no crime. One of it's gone from the most unsafe city in the United States, almost just about, to one of the safest cities, maybe the safest city in the United States. That's a tremendous compliment to our military. What we did. The National Guard's done a fantastic job. Yeah.

General Pete Hegseth (38:15)

Please, Mr. President, can I ask about Florida real quick? Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez was at the White House yesterday as part of a leadership summit.

Donald Trump (38:21)

Yes.

General Pete Hegseth (38:21)

We understand you met with him separately, Mr. President.

Eric (38:24)

What did you two talk about?

General Pete Hegseth (38:25)

And also did you explore him running for Florida?

Donald Trump (38:29)

I didn't. We didn't talk about that. But he's done a fantastic job. Job. He's respected all over the country, really. He's a leader and he's done just a fantastic job. We didn't discuss anything having to do with his future. I'm sure he'd be very good at that.

General Pete Hegseth (38:43)

My second question, Alligator Alcatraz, sticking with Florida. A major ruling appeals court blocked a federal judge's order to close it and it can remain open for now. Your reaction?

Donald Trump (38:52)

I think they've done a fantastic job in building it. The governor and everybody else that's been involved. It's an incredible facility. It's housing people for usually a very short period of time before they get brought back to their countries. As you know, we focus on criminals before we focus on anybody else. And we're taking thousands and thousands of criminals out every month out of our country, some of them murderers. And I think Florida has done a great job by building it. And whether it's Alligator Alcatraz or anything else you want to call it, I was there. I visited with the governor, with other people. I guess Nikki was there. Tom Holman's been there a lot. A lot of people have been there from. It's an amazing facility for what it is. It's not a hotel, it's not supposed to be a hotel. But they've done a great job with it and I'm very happy with the judge's decision.

General Pete Hegseth (39:47)

You also mentioned Venezuela. I want to ask one, one more follow up question on that on the US Strike. I know tied to a Venezuelan drug cartel, the Maduro regime is pushing back today. In fact, they say the US sees regime change through military threat. Your reaction to those words and also, would you like to see regime change in Venezuela?

Donald Trump (40:02)

Well, we're not talking about that, but we are talking about the fact that you had an election, which was a very strange election, to put it mildly. I'm being very nice when I say that I can only say that billions of dollars of drugs are pouring into our country from Venezuela. The prisons of Venezuela have been opened up to our country. They've taken their prisoners. The worst prisoners murderers trend. The worst prisoners that you can ever imagine are now happily living in the United States of America. Now, many of them we've gotten out. It's not easy to get them out because of the liberal system that we're working with in many cases, not in all cases. But millions and millions of dollars and billions of dollars of drugs are pouring out of Venezuela and other countries. Look, China, what they're doing with fentanyl is a terrible thing. It comes through Canada and it comes through Mexico, but a lot of it is coming through Venezuela. Venezuela has been a very bad actor and we understand that. And when you look at that boat, you look at the. You see the bags of whatever it is those bags were. You know what those bags represent? Hundreds of thousands of dead people in the United States. That's what they represent. Yeah. Please.

General Pete Hegseth (41:24)

Mr. President, your reaction to the jobs report this morning?

Donald Trump (41:27)

Well, I'm going to talk about that in a minute. We have our great people here, so I'll talk that in a minute. Let's talk about this. We're to going give a couple of the. Because these two people want to get to work on the Department of War. So let's keep them first.

Reporter (41:39)

Mr. President, the DOJ is reportedly considering a ban on transgender people owning guns after the Minneapolis shooting. Do you think?

Donald Trump (41:47)

Are we talking in the military in general? Okay. I thought you were talking about in the military. I'll refer to that then differently, because it's not a military question. I'll be able to pass on that very nicely. Unless you'd like to take talk about it. He doesn't want any part of that question. Yes, please.

Reporter (42:05)

Mr. President, who do you blame for losing India to China in your post earlier today in the morning? You did put that out.

Donald Trump (42:11)

I don't think we have. You know, I've been very disappointed that India would be buying so much oil, as you know, from Russia. And I let them know that we put a very big tariff on India, 50% tariff around very high tariff. I get along very well with Modi, as you know. He's great. He was here a couple of months ago. In fact, we went to the Rose Garden and it was. The grass was so soaking wet. It was so such a terrible place to have a news conference. I said, well, let's use a beautiful white stone emblematic of the White House, okay? And it's been very well received. But we had a news conference in the. On the grass. That was my last news conference I had on the grass because everybody sunk in. You probably sunk in. Every reporter out there, they ruined their shoes. We made that change it's been a really well received change. Yeah, please go ahead.

Adam Bowler (43:06)

On Venezuela, you've sent F35s down in Puerto Rico, you've sent naval vessels into the Caribbean. You're concerned about drugs being illegally sent into the. How do you describe this buildup, this situation?

Donald Trump (43:21)

Well, I just think it's strong. We're strong on drugs. We don't want drugs killing our people. I believe we lost 300,000. You know, they always say 95, 100,000. I believe they've been saying that for 20 years. I believe we lost 300,000 people last year. I know families that lost their son. Those families will never be the same. I know a family lost a daughter, a beautiful daughter. In fact, it was like she took something that she thought was like a minor deal and it turned out to be be riddled out with fentanyl the size of the head of a pin, and you're dead. And no, we're stopping the drugs. We're going to save a lot of people. Look, whether it's 100,000, but it's not. It's 300, 350,000 people died last year from drugs, and we're not going to let that happen to this country. Think of that. Think if you're in a war and you lose 300,000, we'll lose 600,000. In the. Pretty much between Gettysburg and all of that, the Civil War, we lost what, 600,000. So we're losing half of that every year to drugs. We're not going to do it. We're not going to allow it to happen. You think of the wars. If we lost 600,000 people in a war, but we lost, we lose that every two years, more than that. So it's 300 to 350,000 people. And when I see boats coming in, like loaded up the other day with all sorts of drugs, probably fentanyl mostly, but all sorts of drugs. We're going to take them out. And if people want to have fun going on the high seas or the low seas, they're going to be in trouble. I will tell you. Boat traffic is substantially down in the area that happened. And they called it the Runway. It's a Runway to. It's a Runway to the United States. And boat traffic is very substantially down on the Runway. You can imagine why. I think anybody that saw that is going to say, I'll take a pass. I don't even know about fishermen. They may say, I'm not getting on the boat. I'm not going to take a chance.

Adam Bowler (45:17)

What happens If Venezuela flies jets over.

Donald Trump (45:20)

US Naval vessels again, Well, I would say they're going to be in trouble. We'll let them know about that. We heard that happen, but it wasn't really over, not like they described. But I would say, General, if they do that, you have a choice of doing anything you want. Okay. If they fly in a dangerous position, I would say that you can. You or your captains can make the decision as to what they want to do.

Jennifer (45:43)

All right, sir, we have.

Eric (45:46)

We have one. You said they didn't go over.

Donald Trump (45:48)

Say it.

Eric (45:48)

How close did they get?

Donald Trump (45:49)

You said the planes did not. Well, I don't want to talk about that. But if they do put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shut down. Thank you very much, everybody. So we're going to now cover the G20, and I'm going to let these people go back to the Department of War and figure out how to maintain peace. Okay?

General Pete Hegseth (46:06)

Thank you, mister.

Donald Trump (46:07)

Thank you very much. Congratulations, General. Thank you very much, Sir.

Adam Bowler (46:12)

Just before G20, we do have one more EO for you today. And I should also say that the Department of War EO that you signed was actually your 200th EO since you came back into office on January 20th. That's more than Joe Biden did in his entire term in office, more than Obama did in either of his two terms in office. So it's a momentous accomplishment, and congratulations.

Donald Trump (46:33)

That's good. But Biden never signed one.

Adam Bowler (46:36)

No, you've done every one up in here.

Donald Trump (46:38)

They've been signed by the auto pan. Right, didn't he? So we really beat him by much more than you think.

Adam Bowler (46:43)

This the 201st executive order, sir. This relates to hostages and wrongfully detained American Americans. This provides a new legal mechanism to declare foreign countries to be countries that engage in those sorts of practices and gives your administration powerful tools to get American hostages out. This has been a focus of your administration this time around. Adam Bowler is here, and he's done incredible work already. This will give him even more.

Donald Trump (47:09)

I think it's great. And Adam's amazing. So, Adam, do you want to describe how many hostages we've gotten out together? You and I and you and a couple of other people that we know and, yes, me and a couple of other people that you don't know. But we've gotten a lot of hostages. You want to describe, Mr. President, you brought back 72 hostages since your term. If we compare that to President Biden, he has gotten 20 taken. So he is negative. 20 taken. 20 taken. They don't take our people so often. So, Mr. President, when we spoke, you.

Eric (47:39)

Said that that was a primary focus. And I'll tell you, the job is.

Donald Trump (47:43)

Easy because of you. And we paid nothing too.

Eric (47:46)

We paid Nothing.

Donald Trump (47:47)

They paid 6 billion. They always paid 6 billion for five people. Six billion. It was just a number. I kept hearing. Not only that, 6 billion plus we'd get like one person and they'd get six. They got one. The Prince of Doom, they called him. He was the number one arms merchant anywhere in the world ever. And they got him out. And on top of that, we paid money. So no, we don't do that. You know, once you pay money, then a lot of people start disappearing. They start grabbing reporters too. They think the reporter is going to get a lot of money. And to me they would. You would be. You'll be well taken care. I want to. I better stress that because otherwise we have headlines. He said this or he said that. No, I'm not smiling about it. But they would. They'd be grabbing reporters, they'd be grabbing everybody. And especially when you pay the kind of money that Biden and Obama, they used to pay money that was crazy. We don't pay. And if you don't pay, they find it to be not a lucrative business anymore. That's fantastic. Would you like to say something, Julia?

Julia (48:55)

Sir, it's really special envoy Bola. It's Rick Grinnell. It's Steve Witkoff. Who brought Americans home. But with this EO you are signing today, you are drawing a line in the sand that US citizens will not be used as bargaining chips. And it provides your sector of state, Marco Rubio, the same tool set to punish states who take our citizens wrongfully. The same way that we can punish those who sponsored terrorists. This is a very significant EO you are signing today, sir.

Donald Trump (49:28)

Thank you, Sebastian. Very good. You're doing a great job too.

Julia (49:31)

And this is your director for hostage affairs at the nsc. So Julie was seminal as well to all of this.

Donald Trump (49:36)

I heard you're doing unbelievable. Would you like to say something?

Reporter (49:39)

Absolutely. It's a outstanding eo, absolutely unprecedented action against those foreign adversaries who would take our people. They now know they are on notice and it's not acceptable. And if you take our people now, you will pay.

Donald Trump (49:56)

You know, Adam gave up a job where he was making tremendous amounts of money. Big, big stuff. Top of the line Wall Street. And he wanted to do this, he wanted to do hostages. I offered him other jobs too. Very big jobs, he said. I was shocked, actually. He didn't want to. He wanted to do hostage negotiation. And pretty amazing. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Do you have any questions for them on this very important subject? I think it shows a lot of your leadership as far as fighting for Americans and fighting for humans. And to think that Joe Biden went to negative territory. Oh, he went way negative. Way negative. And you're actually making progress on this. I think this does send a message to. To the world that we don't negotiate. We're going to stay strong in that type of, what they call business.

Julia (50:50)

Well, one little anecdote that may be of interest. We were told by numerous families who had missing loved ones during the Biden administration that this building, Biden's National Security Council, told those families not to talk about their missing loved ones, to be quiet, not to create any pressure on Biden and on Jake Sullivan, the key propagator of the Russia hoax. This administration has met with those families on a weekly basis. People like Adam, yourself, sir, your envoys are doing everything to get every single American home, not to tell them not to talk about their loved ones, but bring them home.

Donald Trump (51:37)

Well, you know, I can tell you one story that was amazing a few weeks ago, very little written about it, but there should have been, but it was a very nice gesture. The head of Belarus, who's a very respected man, strong, strong person, strong leader, he released 16 hostages. John Cole, a lawyer who works on, a great lawyer, actually one of the greatest lawyers. But John Cole was over there and he heard that they had hostages. And you know about this 16 people he released. And I just want to thank the pen of Belarus. But while John was over there, they had, I believe, another 1400 hostages. Now, not from us, from places all over the world, and just pretty tough place in all. Fair, fairness, but they had 1400. And I believe they're going to be releasing a lot of those 1400. They're not, I think very few of any. We got. We got pretty much hours back and we didn't pay anything. But I very much gave my respects to the leader of the country, who is, again, he's a very strong man, but he's got 1,400 or 1,500 or a large number and we're talking about. About releasing them. Some are political, I guess a lot of them are political and looks like they're going to be released at some point in the pretty near future. So it's a great thing. They have to respect your country. If they respect you and they respect your country, they release it. If they don't, then you have to pay $6 billion. I mean, 6 billion. Can you imagine that paying $6 billion? Kind of related, but not really. But to be calling on Tina Peters who's been locked up in a high bars from Colorado in the election. I think you put out a truth a couple days ago about it. We have a wonderful woman who was an election official and she saw cheating in Colorado and she viewed it as horrible. And she said, what's going on here? And she went to the machine and she tried to open to find out whether or not it was cheating. And they went to her and they said, did you touch this machine? Yes. And they arrested her. They arrested her instead of the people that did the cheating. It's a state charge, so it's hard to do anything with. But we're going to, we're going to do something. What they did in Colorado, Look, Colorado just went to all mail in voting. That means they cheat. That's why they lost. That's one of the reasons. But that's a big reason why they just lost. The whole space command situation, that is going to Alabama. But when you have mail in voting, you have nothing but cheating. But this woman is a, is a real patriot. And they put her in jail for a long time. She's 72 years old, 73 years old. And she wanted to find out. She didn't do anything. She touched the machine, she looked at the machine. She's trying to find out what was going on. And they went and arrested her for doing that. And it was supposed to be the other way around. I'm glad you brought that up. They should let her go. Let her out. Thank you. Yeah. Please.

Reporter (54:50)

This is a subject that gets talked.

General Pete Hegseth (54:52)

A lot about, Mr. President, but what.

Reporter (54:54)

About your team's strategy has made them so effective at getting a record amount of these hostages, many of whom have.

Eric (55:00)

Been forgotten back home.

Donald Trump (55:02)

I think they respect us. I think they respect us. They know we're not going to pay. Adam is a great negotiator. Steve Witkoff is a great negotiator. Seb is a great negotiator. They're all smart people. They're a little bit natural negotiators. Some people aren't good negotiators. Nothing you can do about it.

Julia (55:21)

And they're afraid of you, sir.

Donald Trump (55:23)

Yeah, well, maybe, I don't know. I hope so, or whatever. We have the best. I'd like to say respect, but, you know, whatever, Whatever it takes. You know, I actually say whatever it takes. But we've Got a lot of people out, and we'll continue. We don't have too many in. How many are you working on right now? There's not a lot left.

Julia (55:39)

A handful.

Donald Trump (55:40)

We got most of our people out. We got them mostly back.

General Pete Hegseth (55:43)

Mr. President, do you have an update on the negotiations to release the rest.

Donald Trump (55:47)

Of the hostages in Gaza? We're in very deep negotiation with Hamas. We said let them all out right now, Let them all out, and much better things will happen for them. But if you don't let them all out, it's going to be a tough situation. It's going to be nasty. That's my opinion. Israel's choice, but that's my opinion they're going to let them out. You got 20, plus you have about 38 dead people. Young, beautiful dead people. And I'll tell you, the parents want them every bit as much, almost more than as if their son or daughter were alive. But you have many dead people that are coming out as part of the deal. It's 20 people, but I think of the 20, there could be some that have recently died, is what I'm hearing. I hope that's wrong. But you have over 30 bodies in this negotiation. Can you believe? I mean, we negotiate for people that are living here. We know that at least 30 people are dead, and we're negotiating to get them out. The parents want them back so badly, so badly, as if they were alive every bit as much. It's really pretty amazing. It's very sad. I'm in the middle of it, and I put out the other day, I said, we want all 20. We don't want two. You know, I was the one with myself and my people. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner was great on this, but they got a lot of people out. We got almost all of them out. They're down to 20. But, Adam, we got, like, a tremendous number out. But I always said when you get down to the final 10 or 20, you're not going to get them out unless you're going to do a lot. And doing a lot means capitulation. That's still good, either. It's a very tough situation. But I put out the other day, let them all out, every single one. No more twos and ones. We'll give you one this week, and in two months, we'll give you two more. And there's negotiation going on right now.

General Pete Hegseth (57:54)

Okay, and real quick, what is the biggest challenge negotiating with Hamas right now? 10 to 20. What do they want to let them free?

Donald Trump (58:01)

Well, they're asking for some things that are fine. Look, you have to understand, you have to remember October 7th. You know, people forget October 7th. It's not an easy thing to forget. Right. But people forget, or they maybe purposely forget October 7th. So, you know, you have to put that into the equation very strongly. It's amazing. Some people even deny it. They deny it. Crazy. But I've seen tape that's as violent as anything that you can imagine. Many of you have seen those same tapes. So you have to put that into the equation, too. So it's not an easy situation. It's a tough one. But there are 20 people, maybe a little less, but there are 20 people that we want out. We want the bodies of these parents. They are. I've never seen anything like it.

Raymond Lopez (58:56)

The level of this is an iHeart podcast.