1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,000


2
00:00:12,199 --> 00:00:15,420
It's a great honor to be with you and 

3
00:00:16,690 --> 00:00:18,857
Happy Easter . We had a great Easter . 

4
00:00:18,857 --> 00:00:20,968
This is one of our better Easters , I 

5
00:00:20,968 --> 00:00:23,134
think , in a lot of different ways . I 

6
00:00:23,134 --> 00:00:25,246
can say militarily . It's been one of 

7
00:00:25,246 --> 00:00:28,920
the best . So good afternoon . We have 

8
00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:31,087
quite a bit to discuss . We'll go into 

9
00:00:31,087 --> 00:00:34,279
pretty good detail . And we have the 

10
00:00:34,279 --> 00:00:36,390
people that are most involved . We'll 

11
00:00:36,390 --> 00:00:40,110
give you . Exactitude And we're 

12
00:00:40,110 --> 00:00:42,277
here today to celebrate the success of 

13
00:00:42,277 --> 00:00:44,277
one of the largest , most complex , 

14
00:00:44,277 --> 00:00:47,990
most harrowing combat searches . I 

15
00:00:47,990 --> 00:00:50,046
guess you would call it a search and 

16
00:00:50,046 --> 00:00:52,212
rescue mission . Ever attempted by the 

17
00:00:52,212 --> 00:00:55,119
military , generally when planes are 

18
00:00:55,119 --> 00:00:57,230
knocked down in war , especially when 

19
00:00:57,230 --> 00:01:00,240
you're fighting a a strong group , an 

20
00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:03,479
evil group . You can't really do this 

21
00:01:03,479 --> 00:01:06,900
because you send in 200 men to pick up 

22
00:01:06,900 --> 00:01:09,750
one . And it's something that's usually 

23
00:01:09,750 --> 00:01:11,806
not attempted as much as you want to 

24
00:01:11,806 --> 00:01:14,379
attempt . And bad things happen to that 

25
00:01:14,379 --> 00:01:17,489
1 or 2 . And in this case we did too , 

26
00:01:17,500 --> 00:01:19,660
and it might not have been attempted 

27
00:01:19,660 --> 00:01:23,160
before , but we did . And we got , we 

28
00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:25,382
had great talent , we got a little luck 

29
00:01:25,382 --> 00:01:28,930
too , I would say . And uh we were 

30
00:01:28,930 --> 00:01:30,986
helped by a lot of people , a lot of 

31
00:01:30,986 --> 00:01:33,097
great people . And it was an honor to 

32
00:01:33,097 --> 00:01:36,110
be involved with it . It's very 

33
00:01:36,110 --> 00:01:39,519
historic . This is a . A rescue that's 

34
00:01:39,519 --> 00:01:41,575
very historic . It'll go down in the 

35
00:01:41,575 --> 00:01:44,040
books late Thursday night . An American 

36
00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:46,879
F-15 fighter jet went down deep inside 

37
00:01:46,879 --> 00:01:50,139
enemy territory in Iran while 

38
00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:52,980
participating in Operation Epic Fury , 

39
00:01:53,519 --> 00:01:55,630
where we're doing unbelievably well , 

40
00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:57,982
well at a level that nobody's ever seen 

41
00:01:57,982 --> 00:02:01,699
before . The entire country can be 

42
00:02:01,699 --> 00:02:04,139
taken out in one night , and that night 

43
00:02:04,139 --> 00:02:07,580
might be tomorrow night . Both members 

44
00:02:07,580 --> 00:02:09,740
of the crew ejected from the aircraft 

45
00:02:09,740 --> 00:02:12,940
and landed alive on Iranian soil . I 

46
00:02:12,940 --> 00:02:16,630
immediately . I was asked to 

47
00:02:17,210 --> 00:02:19,154
make a decision . I ordered the US 

48
00:02:19,154 --> 00:02:21,229
armed forces to do whatever was 

49
00:02:21,229 --> 00:02:23,340
necessary to bring our brave warriors 

50
00:02:23,340 --> 00:02:26,610
back home , a risky decision . Because 

51
00:02:26,619 --> 00:02:28,990
we could have ended up with 100 dead as 

52
00:02:28,990 --> 00:02:31,949
opposed to 1 or 2 . It's a hard 

53
00:02:31,949 --> 00:02:34,250
decision to make . But in the United 

54
00:02:34,250 --> 00:02:37,589
States military , we leave no American 

55
00:02:37,589 --> 00:02:40,279
behind . We don't do it . Within hours 

56
00:02:40,279 --> 00:02:42,600
our armed forces deployed 21 military 

57
00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:44,800
aircraft into hostile airspace , many 

58
00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:47,440
flying at very low altitude , being 

59
00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:51,210
shot by bullets . You bring rifles 

60
00:02:51,210 --> 00:02:53,377
into play when you're going that low , 

61
00:02:53,377 --> 00:02:56,009
but there are also certain advantages . 

62
00:02:57,389 --> 00:03:00,070
And in broad daylight over Iran for 7 

63
00:03:00,070 --> 00:03:03,990
hours at times facing very , very heavy 

64
00:03:03,990 --> 00:03:05,910
enemy fire . We have a helicopter 

65
00:03:05,910 --> 00:03:07,910
that's got a lot of bullets in it . 

66
00:03:07,910 --> 00:03:09,910
It's amazing . We just realized how 

67
00:03:09,910 --> 00:03:13,389
good those Those weapons are those our 

68
00:03:13,389 --> 00:03:15,910
machines are nobody has , nobody has 

69
00:03:15,910 --> 00:03:18,021
the equipment that we have and nobody 

70
00:03:18,021 --> 00:03:20,021
has the military that we have , not 

71
00:03:20,021 --> 00:03:22,077
even close . We're the most powerful 

72
00:03:22,077 --> 00:03:24,299
military anywhere in the world by far . 

73
00:03:24,419 --> 00:03:26,820
The flight crews and warfighters aboard 

74
00:03:26,820 --> 00:03:29,139
those aircraft took extraordinary risks 

75
00:03:29,139 --> 00:03:31,960
to rescue their fellow service members . 

76
00:03:32,580 --> 00:03:34,636
This first wave of search and rescue 

77
00:03:34,636 --> 00:03:36,747
forces successfully located the pilot 

78
00:03:36,747 --> 00:03:40,690
of the F-15 . And he was extracted 

79
00:03:40,690 --> 00:03:44,690
from enemy territory by an HH60 Jolly 

80
00:03:44,690 --> 00:03:47,809
Green 2 helicopter , fabulous machine 

81
00:03:47,809 --> 00:03:50,690
as our warriors faced gunfire at very 

82
00:03:50,690 --> 00:03:54,460
close range . It's amazing that 

83
00:03:55,580 --> 00:03:57,691
When you look at the machinery , what 

84
00:03:57,691 --> 00:03:59,913
happened that nobody was even injured . 

85
00:04:00,669 --> 00:04:02,836
Meanwhile , the second crew member , a 

86
00:04:02,836 --> 00:04:04,619
weapons system officer , highly 

87
00:04:04,619 --> 00:04:07,229
respected colonel , had landed a 

88
00:04:07,229 --> 00:04:09,173
significant distance away from the 

89
00:04:09,173 --> 00:04:11,507
pilot when you're going at those speeds , 

90
00:04:11,507 --> 00:04:13,840
even if you go out 2 or 3 seconds later , 

91
00:04:14,110 --> 00:04:16,570
it's miles , it's miles and miles away . 

92
00:04:17,489 --> 00:04:20,170
Because you're going fast . He was 

93
00:04:20,170 --> 00:04:22,769
injured quite badly and stranded in an 

94
00:04:22,769 --> 00:04:25,339
area teeming with terrorists from the 

95
00:04:25,339 --> 00:04:27,630
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps RAF 

96
00:04:27,630 --> 00:04:31,579
Group , as well as besieged militia 

97
00:04:31,579 --> 00:04:35,079
and local . Authorities , many , 

98
00:04:35,089 --> 00:04:38,570
uh , on top of everything else , they 

99
00:04:38,570 --> 00:04:42,010
told the communities actually within 

100
00:04:42,010 --> 00:04:44,121
inside of Iran , the people of Iran , 

101
00:04:44,121 --> 00:04:46,970
they were given a tremendous incentive 

102
00:04:46,970 --> 00:04:50,170
to find this pilot . Despite the peril , 

103
00:04:50,209 --> 00:04:52,470
the officer followed his training and 

104
00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:54,751
climbed into the treacherous mountain 

105
00:04:54,751 --> 00:04:57,589
terrain and . Started climbing toward a 

106
00:04:57,589 --> 00:05:00,070
higher altitude , something they were 

107
00:05:00,070 --> 00:05:03,570
trained to do in order to evade capture , 

108
00:05:04,489 --> 00:05:07,190
uh , they want to always go as far away 

109
00:05:07,190 --> 00:05:10,880
from the site . Of the shoot down , 

110
00:05:11,170 --> 00:05:13,392
you want to go as far away because they 

111
00:05:13,392 --> 00:05:15,559
all head right to that site . You want 

112
00:05:15,559 --> 00:05:17,779
to be as far away as you can . And he 

113
00:05:17,779 --> 00:05:20,339
was injured and he was an amazing , 

114
00:05:20,359 --> 00:05:24,140
amazing thing . He scaled cliff faces , 

115
00:05:24,750 --> 00:05:27,190
bleeding rather profusely , treated his 

116
00:05:27,190 --> 00:05:30,149
own wounds , and contacted American 

117
00:05:30,149 --> 00:05:33,269
forces to transmit his location . They 

118
00:05:33,269 --> 00:05:37,029
have a very sophisticated beeper type . 

119
00:05:38,059 --> 00:05:41,820
Apparatus that is on them at all times . 

120
00:05:42,609 --> 00:05:44,609
And when they , when they go out on 

121
00:05:44,609 --> 00:05:46,665
these missions , they make sure they 

122
00:05:46,665 --> 00:05:48,831
have lots of battery space and they're 

123
00:05:48,831 --> 00:05:50,831
in good shape . And this one worked 

124
00:05:50,831 --> 00:05:52,831
really well , amazingly , saved his 

125
00:05:52,831 --> 00:05:55,239
life . We immediately mobilized a 

126
00:05:55,239 --> 00:05:57,820
massive operation to retrieve him from 

127
00:05:58,359 --> 00:06:01,850
the mountain holdout . And he kept 

128
00:06:01,850 --> 00:06:04,017
going higher and higher . The mountain 

129
00:06:04,017 --> 00:06:06,072
kept getting rougher and rougher and 

130
00:06:06,072 --> 00:06:08,350
really very , very hard to find . The 

131
00:06:08,350 --> 00:06:11,089
second rescue mission involved 155 

132
00:06:11,089 --> 00:06:14,649
aircraft including 4 bombers , 64 

133
00:06:14,649 --> 00:06:18,450
fighters , 48 refueling tankers , 13 

134
00:06:18,450 --> 00:06:21,040
rescue aircraft , and more . We were 

135
00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:23,809
bringing them all over and a lot of it 

136
00:06:23,809 --> 00:06:27,170
was subterfuge . We wanted to have them 

137
00:06:27,170 --> 00:06:29,226
think he was in a different location 

138
00:06:29,570 --> 00:06:31,737
because they had a vast military force 

139
00:06:31,737 --> 00:06:33,792
out there . Thousands , thousands of 

140
00:06:33,792 --> 00:06:36,380
people were looking . So we wanted them 

141
00:06:36,380 --> 00:06:38,491
to look in different areas so we were 

142
00:06:38,899 --> 00:06:41,059
scattered all over like we were right 

143
00:06:41,059 --> 00:06:43,799
on top of them . We had 7 different 

144
00:06:43,890 --> 00:06:46,001
locations where they thought and they 

145
00:06:46,001 --> 00:06:48,223
were very confused . They said , well , 

146
00:06:48,223 --> 00:06:50,557
wait a minute , they've got groups here , 

147
00:06:50,557 --> 00:06:50,480
they've got groups there , it's amazing . 

148
00:06:51,809 --> 00:06:55,410
Thing I was listening to . These great 

149
00:06:55,989 --> 00:06:58,470
people , these great generals , General 

150
00:06:58,470 --> 00:07:00,750
Raisin Cane , who's amazing , and Pete 

151
00:07:00,750 --> 00:07:02,972
Hegseth was amazing , but I listened to 

152
00:07:02,972 --> 00:07:05,306
the whole thing . It was pretty amazing . 

153
00:07:05,306 --> 00:07:07,417
So they had all these different sites 

154
00:07:07,417 --> 00:07:09,694
where everybody thought he was located . 

155
00:07:09,694 --> 00:07:11,917
We think we have him over there because 

156
00:07:11,917 --> 00:07:13,972
they have 9 planes circling a little 

157
00:07:13,972 --> 00:07:16,760
area that's 25 miles down the coast . 

158
00:07:18,279 --> 00:07:21,760
So in a Breathtaking show of skill and 

159
00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:23,649
precision , lethality and force , 

160
00:07:23,929 --> 00:07:26,079
America's military descended on the 

161
00:07:26,079 --> 00:07:29,410
area , the real area , engaged the 

162
00:07:29,410 --> 00:07:32,170
enemy , rescued the stranded officer , 

163
00:07:32,250 --> 00:07:35,779
destroyed all threats , and exited 

164
00:07:35,779 --> 00:07:37,668
Iranian territory while taking no 

165
00:07:37,668 --> 00:07:41,440
casualties of any kind . The heroic 

166
00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:44,679
F-15 weapons system officer had evaded 

167
00:07:44,679 --> 00:07:47,600
capture on the ground in Iran . For 

168
00:07:49,269 --> 00:07:51,450
almost 48 hours , that's a long time 

169
00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:53,480
when you're in tough shape and when 

170
00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:56,179
you're bleeding , it's a long time when , 

171
00:07:56,190 --> 00:07:58,989
uh , when we left , as you probably 

172
00:07:58,989 --> 00:08:02,309
know , we had two large planes , old , 

173
00:08:02,570 --> 00:08:04,737
pretty old planes that carried a lot . 

174
00:08:04,737 --> 00:08:06,959
We needed a lot more equipment going in 

175
00:08:06,959 --> 00:08:09,181
than coming out obviously because going 

176
00:08:09,181 --> 00:08:11,269
in we needed to be able to scale 

177
00:08:11,269 --> 00:08:13,619
mountains . And we had a lot of 

178
00:08:13,619 --> 00:08:16,540
equipment , but the sand was it was 

179
00:08:16,540 --> 00:08:19,420
sandy wet sand , so we thought there 

180
00:08:19,420 --> 00:08:21,899
may be a problem taking off because of 

181
00:08:21,899 --> 00:08:23,899
the weight of the plane and then we 

182
00:08:23,899 --> 00:08:26,066
also had all the men jumping back onto 

183
00:08:26,066 --> 00:08:28,660
the planes and they got pretty well 

184
00:08:28,660 --> 00:08:31,420
bogged down and we had a contingency 

185
00:08:31,420 --> 00:08:33,729
plan which was unbelievable where 

186
00:08:33,729 --> 00:08:37,020
lighter , faster aircraft came in . And 

187
00:08:37,020 --> 00:08:39,242
they took them out . We blew up the old 

188
00:08:39,242 --> 00:08:41,479
planes . We blew them up to smithereens 

189
00:08:42,179 --> 00:08:44,346
because we had equipment on the planes 

190
00:08:44,346 --> 00:08:46,512
that frankly we'd like to take , but I 

191
00:08:46,512 --> 00:08:48,679
don't think it was worthwhile spending 

192
00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:50,790
another 4 hours there taking it off , 

193
00:08:50,790 --> 00:08:52,846
so we didn't want anybody to that we 

194
00:08:52,846 --> 00:08:55,068
have the best , best equipment anywhere 

195
00:08:55,068 --> 00:08:54,619
in the world . We didn't want anybody 

196
00:08:54,619 --> 00:08:58,500
examining our , uh , anti-aircraft and 

197
00:08:58,500 --> 00:09:01,210
other equipment . So these were large 

198
00:09:01,210 --> 00:09:03,849
planes that were old and pretty old , 

199
00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:07,489
and we blew them up . And we had faster , 

200
00:09:07,849 --> 00:09:10,020
lighter planes come in and they were 

201
00:09:10,020 --> 00:09:12,076
able to land on the sand . We needed 

202
00:09:12,076 --> 00:09:14,076
the bigger planes because we had so 

203
00:09:14,076 --> 00:09:16,298
much equipment that we needed . We took 

204
00:09:16,298 --> 00:09:18,298
3 helicopters over there which were 

205
00:09:18,298 --> 00:09:20,353
very strongly used and couldn't have 

206
00:09:20,353 --> 00:09:22,520
lived without them . They did and they 

207
00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:24,576
performed unbelievably well . And if 

208
00:09:24,576 --> 00:09:24,380
you'd see it , you wouldn't believe it . 

209
00:09:24,460 --> 00:09:26,859
They came off the plane and these guys 

210
00:09:26,859 --> 00:09:30,479
had them , the , the . The rotors were 

211
00:09:30,479 --> 00:09:33,640
off . They rebuilt these helicopters in 

212
00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:36,989
less than 10 minutes . And that was one 

213
00:09:36,989 --> 00:09:39,270
of the more amazing things these are 

214
00:09:39,270 --> 00:09:42,270
helicopters , uh , small , 

215
00:09:42,549 --> 00:09:45,840
unbelievably powerful but small hell 

216
00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:47,951
very small so it can get into certain 

217
00:09:47,951 --> 00:09:51,409
areas . And they got them off the plane 

218
00:09:51,409 --> 00:09:54,210
and they rebuilt all three of them in a 

219
00:09:54,210 --> 00:09:56,809
matter of less than I would say less 

220
00:09:56,809 --> 00:09:58,920
than 10 minutes . It's pretty amazing 

221
00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:01,140
what the , the genius of these people 

222
00:10:01,409 --> 00:10:03,409
who would think that you'd think it 

223
00:10:03,409 --> 00:10:05,576
would take 5 days to build them and in 

224
00:10:05,576 --> 00:10:07,798
some companies it would take 5 days and 

225
00:10:07,798 --> 00:10:09,798
they wouldn't do it well , but they 

226
00:10:09,798 --> 00:10:11,965
served us well as commander in chief , 

227
00:10:11,965 --> 00:10:13,909
I never . Forget the extraordinary 

228
00:10:13,909 --> 00:10:16,419
risks taken by the warriors that we 

229
00:10:16,419 --> 00:10:18,539
send into battle and the genius . I 

230
00:10:18,539 --> 00:10:20,206
mean , think of it , having a 

231
00:10:20,206 --> 00:10:22,890
contingency of 3 planes waiting because 

232
00:10:22,900 --> 00:10:24,900
we think the sand is so bad that we 

233
00:10:24,900 --> 00:10:27,179
probably won't be able to take off and 

234
00:10:27,179 --> 00:10:30,330
the planes really got bogged . The sand 

235
00:10:30,330 --> 00:10:32,441
was , this was not much of a runway . 

236
00:10:32,441 --> 00:10:34,663
This was a farm , not a runway , it's a 

237
00:10:34,663 --> 00:10:37,960
farm , but uh it did the trick . But to 

238
00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:40,182
have a contingency as opposed to having 

239
00:10:40,182 --> 00:10:42,127
to wait two days , can you imagine 

240
00:10:42,127 --> 00:10:44,293
right in the middle this was central . 

241
00:10:44,460 --> 00:10:46,619
This was right , you would call it 

242
00:10:46,619 --> 00:10:48,619
central casting if you were doing a 

243
00:10:48,619 --> 00:10:51,469
movie for location . And probably the 

244
00:10:51,469 --> 00:10:53,710
toughest area of Iran where we'd be 

245
00:10:53,710 --> 00:10:56,043
sitting there , so these planes came in , 

246
00:10:56,043 --> 00:10:58,043
those pilots came in so fast and so 

247
00:10:58,043 --> 00:11:00,210
quick and got out of there . Everybody 

248
00:11:00,210 --> 00:11:02,710
got aboard and just got 15 minute 

249
00:11:02,710 --> 00:11:06,669
intervals , one load out , one load out , 

250
00:11:06,989 --> 00:11:10,369
one load out . It happened . And we 

251
00:11:10,369 --> 00:11:12,202
were watching and we said that's 

252
00:11:12,202 --> 00:11:14,770
amazing . It's in many ways I was , I 

253
00:11:14,770 --> 00:11:16,603
was almost more impressed by the 

254
00:11:16,603 --> 00:11:20,580
contingency that we had than . The 

255
00:11:20,580 --> 00:11:22,747
fact that you know we would have had a 

256
00:11:22,747 --> 00:11:25,190
runway or decent soil , but it was an 

257
00:11:25,190 --> 00:11:27,134
amazing thing but we thank God for 

258
00:11:27,134 --> 00:11:29,690
every single one of them and the talent , 

259
00:11:30,270 --> 00:11:32,326
the genius is not even talent , it's 

260
00:11:32,326 --> 00:11:34,326
genius , it's the whole ball game , 

261
00:11:34,326 --> 00:11:36,979
every one of them . If you look at what 

262
00:11:36,979 --> 00:11:39,299
we did with Maduro , we went into a 

263
00:11:39,299 --> 00:11:42,099
military compound , a massive with 

264
00:11:42,099 --> 00:11:44,380
thousands and thousands of soldiers and 

265
00:11:44,380 --> 00:11:46,419
within a matter of minutes , and he 

266
00:11:46,419 --> 00:11:48,475
lived behind iron doors . There were 

267
00:11:48,475 --> 00:11:50,308
steel doors , broke them down so 

268
00:11:50,308 --> 00:11:52,739
quickly , and within almost minutes he 

269
00:11:52,739 --> 00:11:54,900
was in the back of these planes . It 

270
00:11:54,900 --> 00:11:57,140
was a similar group , incredible . We 

271
00:11:57,140 --> 00:12:00,030
have incredibly talented people . And 

272
00:12:00,030 --> 00:12:02,669
if the time comes , we move heaven and 

273
00:12:02,669 --> 00:12:04,891
earth to bring them home safely . We're 

274
00:12:04,891 --> 00:12:07,113
going to bring our people home safely . 

275
00:12:07,113 --> 00:12:09,280
I want to thank every member of the US 

276
00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:11,619
armed forces involved in these historic 

277
00:12:11,619 --> 00:12:13,897
operations . They really were historic . 

278
00:12:13,897 --> 00:12:16,008
It's just not something that's done . 

279
00:12:16,008 --> 00:12:18,230
And you'd understand that not that they 

280
00:12:18,230 --> 00:12:20,341
don't want to do it , but when you're 

281
00:12:20,341 --> 00:12:22,341
going into areas , when you look at 

282
00:12:22,341 --> 00:12:22,340
these helicopters , when you look at 

283
00:12:22,340 --> 00:12:24,396
the amount of bullets and everything 

284
00:12:24,396 --> 00:12:26,562
else that they took , when you go into 

285
00:12:26,562 --> 00:12:28,673
these areas . You don't come out like 

286
00:12:28,673 --> 00:12:30,859
we came out . God was watching us to 

287
00:12:30,859 --> 00:12:34,099
tell you , well , it was the Easter we 

288
00:12:34,099 --> 00:12:37,309
were . In the eastern territory I guess , 

289
00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:39,880
but God was watching us amazing because 

290
00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:41,880
when you look at the machinery they 

291
00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:44,510
took , they took damage tells you first 

292
00:12:44,510 --> 00:12:46,677
thing I said is these are unbelievable 

293
00:12:46,677 --> 00:12:48,677
machines how they flew back and not 

294
00:12:48,677 --> 00:12:51,710
even much of a problem . But these two 

295
00:12:51,710 --> 00:12:54,070
extraordinary rescues because it was 2 , 

296
00:12:54,109 --> 00:12:56,349
and as you probably know we didn't talk 

297
00:12:56,349 --> 00:12:59,000
about the first one for An hour and 

298
00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:01,239
then somebody leaked something which 

299
00:13:01,239 --> 00:13:03,406
we'll hopefully find that leaker we're 

300
00:13:03,406 --> 00:13:05,517
looking very hard to find that leaker 

301
00:13:05,517 --> 00:13:08,159
and talked about there's somebody 

302
00:13:08,159 --> 00:13:11,880
missing . They basically said that we 

303
00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:14,102
have one and there's somebody missing . 

304
00:13:14,102 --> 00:13:15,991
Well , they didn't know there was 

305
00:13:15,991 --> 00:13:18,213
somebody missing until this leaker gave 

306
00:13:18,213 --> 00:13:20,436
the information , so whoever it is , we 

307
00:13:20,436 --> 00:13:20,159
think we'll be able to find it out 

308
00:13:20,159 --> 00:13:22,103
because we're going to go to the . 

309
00:13:22,289 --> 00:13:25,820
Media company that released it and 

310
00:13:25,820 --> 00:13:28,219
we're going to say national security , 

311
00:13:28,299 --> 00:13:32,229
give it up or go to jail . And we 

312
00:13:32,229 --> 00:13:34,451
know who and you know who we're talking 

313
00:13:34,451 --> 00:13:36,618
about because some things you can't do 

314
00:13:36,618 --> 00:13:38,618
because when they did that all of a 

315
00:13:38,618 --> 00:13:41,630
sudden the entire country of Iran knew 

316
00:13:41,630 --> 00:13:44,229
that there was . A pilot that was 

317
00:13:44,229 --> 00:13:46,940
somewhere on their land . I was 

318
00:13:46,940 --> 00:13:49,940
fighting for his life . And it also 

319
00:13:49,940 --> 00:13:53,250
made it much more difficult for The 

320
00:13:53,250 --> 00:13:55,669
pilots and for the people going in to 

321
00:13:55,669 --> 00:13:58,710
search for him all of a sudden uh they 

322
00:13:58,710 --> 00:14:00,766
know that there's somebody out there 

323
00:14:00,766 --> 00:14:02,932
they see all these planes coming in it 

324
00:14:02,932 --> 00:14:05,099
became a much more difficult operation 

325
00:14:05,309 --> 00:14:08,710
because a leaker leaked that we have 

326
00:14:08,710 --> 00:14:11,719
one we've rescued one . But there's 

327
00:14:11,719 --> 00:14:13,941
another one out there that we're trying 

328
00:14:13,941 --> 00:14:17,710
to get . So actually the country 

329
00:14:17,969 --> 00:14:21,169
Iran put out a major notice you all saw 

330
00:14:21,169 --> 00:14:25,130
it offering a very big award for 

331
00:14:25,130 --> 00:14:27,352
anybody that captures the pilot . So in 

332
00:14:27,352 --> 00:14:30,450
addition to a hostile , very talented , 

333
00:14:30,570 --> 00:14:33,869
very good , very evil military , we had . 

334
00:14:35,369 --> 00:14:37,570
Millions of people trying to get an 

335
00:14:37,570 --> 00:14:40,419
award , so When you add that to it , 

336
00:14:40,469 --> 00:14:42,691
but we have to find that leaker because 

337
00:14:42,691 --> 00:14:44,858
that's a sick person . Probably didn't 

338
00:14:44,858 --> 00:14:47,025
realize the extent of how bad it was . 

339
00:14:47,025 --> 00:14:49,136
I can't imagine that the person did , 

340
00:14:49,136 --> 00:14:51,080
but we're going to find out . It's 

341
00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:53,679
national security and The person that 

342
00:14:53,679 --> 00:14:56,590
did the story . We go to jail if he 

343
00:14:56,590 --> 00:14:58,799
doesn't say , and that doesn't last 

344
00:14:58,799 --> 00:15:00,743
long , and I think everybody would 

345
00:15:00,743 --> 00:15:02,855
understand that they put this mission 

346
00:15:02,855 --> 00:15:04,910
at great risk . They put that man at 

347
00:15:04,910 --> 00:15:07,132
great risk and they put the hundreds of 

348
00:15:07,132 --> 00:15:09,132
people that went in looking for him 

349
00:15:09,132 --> 00:15:11,243
because everyone now knows that we're 

350
00:15:11,243 --> 00:15:13,960
going in . Over the past 37 days , 

351
00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:16,542
America's armed forces have carried out 

352
00:15:16,799 --> 00:15:19,479
more than 10,000 combat flights over 

353
00:15:19,479 --> 00:15:22,030
Iran , unheard of . Striking more than 

354
00:15:22,030 --> 00:15:25,099
13,000 targets , the F-15 we lost last 

355
00:15:25,099 --> 00:15:28,140
week was the first manned aircraft 

356
00:15:28,140 --> 00:15:30,919
downed by the enemy in this entire 

357
00:15:30,919 --> 00:15:33,086
operation with thousands and thousands 

358
00:15:33,086 --> 00:15:35,252
of flights . They got lucky . It was a 

359
00:15:35,252 --> 00:15:37,363
lucky hit . You know , eventually you 

360
00:15:37,363 --> 00:15:39,869
get lucky . But we got lucky too 

361
00:15:39,869 --> 00:15:42,036
because we got both of them back , but 

362
00:15:42,036 --> 00:15:44,147
it's a record that is unparalleled in 

363
00:15:44,147 --> 00:15:46,710
the history of military air operations . 

364
00:15:46,820 --> 00:15:48,931
Nobody's ever seen anything like it . 

365
00:15:48,931 --> 00:15:52,130
It's such an honor to be . Involved 

366
00:15:52,130 --> 00:15:54,789
with it . We were up late at night . 

367
00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:57,816
And then we were waiting for those . 

368
00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:00,742
Contingent planes to come in and we say 

369
00:16:00,742 --> 00:16:02,964
come on let's go get in because they're 

370
00:16:02,964 --> 00:16:06,830
waiting out on this uh farm without 

371
00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:09,200
a runway with wet . 

372
00:16:10,299 --> 00:16:13,200
Crummy soil , sand , mostly sand , wet 

373
00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:16,710
sand , and it eats planes alive and 

374
00:16:17,169 --> 00:16:19,280
we're waiting and we're saying I hope 

375
00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:21,549
that one can land and take off . And 

376
00:16:21,549 --> 00:16:23,719
they came in like magic boom , boom , 

377
00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:25,927
boom , one after another . It was like 

378
00:16:25,927 --> 00:16:27,927
genius . I'm so impressed by that . 

379
00:16:28,580 --> 00:16:30,802
Because we were a little concerned , we 

380
00:16:30,802 --> 00:16:32,913
said , boy . If they don't get in and 

381
00:16:32,913 --> 00:16:35,136
get up fast , we're sitting in them and 

382
00:16:35,136 --> 00:16:37,929
that's called Iran Prime , right , 

383
00:16:38,049 --> 00:16:40,169
General ? That's , that's where the 

384
00:16:40,169 --> 00:16:42,225
whole bed is and here we are sitting 

385
00:16:42,225 --> 00:16:45,090
there waiting for a plane , but they 

386
00:16:45,090 --> 00:16:47,330
came in so fast and so hard and these 

387
00:16:47,330 --> 00:16:49,497
guys knew exactly what let's go , come 

388
00:16:49,497 --> 00:16:52,330
on , get in . Let's go wah . They came 

389
00:16:52,330 --> 00:16:54,386
one right after another , not at the 

390
00:16:54,386 --> 00:16:56,552
same time . They don't want to come at 

391
00:16:56,552 --> 00:16:58,719
the same time . They had to come right 

392
00:16:58,719 --> 00:17:00,941
after each other . They didn't have any 

393
00:17:00,941 --> 00:17:00,280
room . There was barely any room to 

394
00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:03,659
land , tiny little patch of very wet . 

395
00:17:05,020 --> 00:17:08,438
Earth and sand . So I just , I'm so 

396
00:17:08,438 --> 00:17:10,216
proud of the people that I have 

397
00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:12,248
standing up here with me and many 

398
00:17:12,248 --> 00:17:14,359
others that worked . I mean so many . 

399
00:17:14,438 --> 00:17:16,549
Steve Wootkoff's over here he's doing 

400
00:17:16,549 --> 00:17:19,390
fantastically . Jared Kushner . But the 

401
00:17:19,390 --> 00:17:21,612
people that are here , the job they did 

402
00:17:21,612 --> 00:17:24,079
is amazing , and I think I'm going to 

403
00:17:24,079 --> 00:17:26,599
introduce the head of the CIA , and he 

404
00:17:27,510 --> 00:17:30,449
Is a man who he's central casting , OK , 

405
00:17:31,109 --> 00:17:33,165
if we cast a movie , he's gonna play 

406
00:17:33,165 --> 00:17:35,498
the head of the CIA he's one of the few . 

407
00:17:35,498 --> 00:17:37,739
John Radcliffe , he , um , he did a 

408
00:17:37,739 --> 00:17:39,739
phenomenal job that night . He did 

409
00:17:39,739 --> 00:17:41,683
something that I don't know if you 

410
00:17:41,683 --> 00:17:43,906
wanna talk about it . If you want , you 

411
00:17:43,906 --> 00:17:43,780
can . I'm not sure he's supposed to . 

412
00:17:43,829 --> 00:17:46,107
I'm not gonna talk about it , but , uh , 

413
00:17:46,107 --> 00:17:47,718
he really , the CIA was very 

414
00:17:47,718 --> 00:17:49,718
responsible for finding this little 

415
00:17:49,718 --> 00:17:51,385
speck . It's like they use an 

416
00:17:51,385 --> 00:17:53,329
expression on one of the shows the 

417
00:17:53,329 --> 00:17:55,329
general was talking about it's like 

418
00:17:55,329 --> 00:17:57,496
finding a needle in a haystack finding 

419
00:17:57,496 --> 00:17:59,589
this pilot . And the CIA was 

420
00:17:59,589 --> 00:18:02,069
unbelievable and you may , if you can , 

421
00:18:02,150 --> 00:18:04,372
you'll talk it might be classified , in 

422
00:18:04,372 --> 00:18:06,539
which case I'd have to put him in jail 

423
00:18:06,539 --> 00:18:08,761
if he talks about it , and I don't want 

424
00:18:08,761 --> 00:18:10,983
to put him in jail . He doesn't deserve 

425
00:18:10,983 --> 00:18:13,094
that . So John , do you want to say a 

426
00:18:13,094 --> 00:18:15,372
few words ? Thank you . Thank you , Mr . 

427
00:18:15,449 --> 00:18:17,780
President . It's a privilege to be here 

428
00:18:17,780 --> 00:18:20,619
with you today . To share what we can 

429
00:18:21,020 --> 00:18:23,459
about this exceptional mission and to 

430
00:18:23,459 --> 00:18:26,219
recognize the ingenuity and bravery of 

431
00:18:26,219 --> 00:18:28,859
those who executed it , as well as the 

432
00:18:28,859 --> 00:18:31,400
leadership and resolve of the president 

433
00:18:31,780 --> 00:18:34,489
who ordered it . One thing that has 

434
00:18:34,489 --> 00:18:36,600
been clear to me in this role is that 

435
00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:38,711
the flawless military operations that 

436
00:18:38,711 --> 00:18:41,449
the Department of War is known for are 

437
00:18:41,459 --> 00:18:45,010
hostage to flawless intelligence . We 

438
00:18:45,010 --> 00:18:47,890
saw that in the skies over Iran in 

439
00:18:47,890 --> 00:18:50,112
Operation Midnight Hammer last summer . 

440
00:18:50,112 --> 00:18:52,250
We witnessed it in Venezuela during 

441
00:18:52,250 --> 00:18:54,969
Operation Absolute Resolve . We've seen 

442
00:18:54,969 --> 00:18:57,080
it against the cartels in the Western 

443
00:18:57,080 --> 00:18:59,247
Hemisphere , and we're seeing it every 

444
00:18:59,247 --> 00:19:02,229
day in Operation Epic Fury , including 

445
00:19:02,229 --> 00:19:05,530
this mission . To rescue an aviator 

446
00:19:05,530 --> 00:19:07,390
buried deep behind enemy lines . 

447
00:19:08,660 --> 00:19:10,920
Because it is the unique tradition of 

448
00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:13,650
the US armed forces . that we leave no 

449
00:19:13,650 --> 00:19:17,239
man or woman behind . This was a no 

450
00:19:17,239 --> 00:19:19,760
fail mission . That was the spirit in 

451
00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:21,816
which the president put us to work . 

452
00:19:22,260 --> 00:19:24,371
And we were determined not to let him 

453
00:19:24,371 --> 00:19:28,290
down or our airmen down . As an 

454
00:19:28,290 --> 00:19:31,489
agency , the CIA possesses unique 

455
00:19:31,489 --> 00:19:33,545
capabilities that only the president 

456
00:19:33,545 --> 00:19:36,770
can deploy . Some of these capabilities 

457
00:19:36,770 --> 00:19:38,937
fall under covert action authorities . 

458
00:19:39,219 --> 00:19:41,699
And because covert means exactly that . 

459
00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:44,936
I'm not going to be able to tell you 

460
00:19:44,936 --> 00:19:48,170
everything that you want to know . At 

461
00:19:48,170 --> 00:19:50,392
the president's direction , we deployed 

462
00:19:50,392 --> 00:19:52,849
both human assets and exquisite 

463
00:19:52,849 --> 00:19:55,209
technologies that no other intelligence 

464
00:19:55,209 --> 00:19:57,520
service in the world possesses . To a 

465
00:19:57,520 --> 00:19:59,920
daunting challenge comparable to 

466
00:19:59,920 --> 00:20:03,880
hunting for a single grain of sand in 

467
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:06,510
the middle of a desert . This was also 

468
00:20:06,510 --> 00:20:08,550
a race against the clock as it was 

469
00:20:08,550 --> 00:20:10,670
critical that we locate the downed 

470
00:20:10,670 --> 00:20:13,530
aviator as quickly as possible . While 

471
00:20:13,530 --> 00:20:16,900
at the same time , Keeping our enemies 

472
00:20:16,900 --> 00:20:20,339
misdirected . For that reason , in 

473
00:20:20,339 --> 00:20:22,650
addition to the human and technical 

474
00:20:22,650 --> 00:20:25,109
assets deployed by the president to 

475
00:20:25,109 --> 00:20:28,319
find our airmen . The CIA executed a 

476
00:20:28,319 --> 00:20:30,760
deception campaign to confuse the 

477
00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:33,380
Iranians who were desperately hunting 

478
00:20:33,719 --> 00:20:36,640
for our airmen . On Saturday morning , 

479
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,640
We achieved our primary objective by 

480
00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:42,270
finding and providing confirmation that 

481
00:20:42,270 --> 00:20:44,959
one of America's best and bravest was 

482
00:20:44,959 --> 00:20:47,800
alive and concealed in a mountain 

483
00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:50,979
crevice . Still invisible to the enemy 

484
00:20:51,479 --> 00:20:55,020
but not to the CIA . That confirmation 

485
00:20:55,020 --> 00:20:57,569
was relayed by Secretary Hegeth to the 

486
00:20:57,569 --> 00:20:59,969
President . And the operation quickly 

487
00:20:59,969 --> 00:21:01,869
moved to the execution phase . 

488
00:21:02,939 --> 00:21:05,160
Following the successful exfiltration 

489
00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:08,329
on Saturday night . Our intelligence 

490
00:21:08,329 --> 00:21:10,107
reflects that the Iranians were 

491
00:21:10,107 --> 00:21:12,218
embarrassed and ultimately humiliated 

492
00:21:12,550 --> 00:21:15,060
by the success of this audacious rescue 

493
00:21:15,060 --> 00:21:18,689
mission . When the president asked me 

494
00:21:18,689 --> 00:21:21,550
to lead the CIA , He made it clear , 

495
00:21:21,810 --> 00:21:24,319
get back to basics , no politics , no 

496
00:21:24,319 --> 00:21:27,069
agendas , tackle the hardest problems , 

497
00:21:27,410 --> 00:21:29,449
and execute the toughest missions . 

498
00:21:30,479 --> 00:21:33,339
This president is about results . And 

499
00:21:33,339 --> 00:21:36,400
now that's what his CIA is about too . 

500
00:21:37,430 --> 00:21:39,630
The professionals at the agency and at 

501
00:21:39,630 --> 00:21:42,430
the Department of War deserve immense 

502
00:21:42,430 --> 00:21:44,670
credit for their flawless execution 

503
00:21:44,670 --> 00:21:46,614
during this daring mission . Their 

504
00:21:46,614 --> 00:21:48,829
skill , creativity , and courage are 

505
00:21:48,829 --> 00:21:51,540
unmatched . On the battlefield wherever 

506
00:21:51,540 --> 00:21:55,079
they step . But none of that 

507
00:21:55,079 --> 00:21:58,089
matters . And all of that is wasted . 

508
00:21:58,829 --> 00:22:00,996
Without a president with the political 

509
00:22:00,996 --> 00:22:04,439
courage to put them into action . Mr . 

510
00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:07,729
President , I've had the privilege . Of 

511
00:22:07,729 --> 00:22:09,840
seeing you act with political courage 

512
00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:11,785
in the best interest of the United 

513
00:22:11,785 --> 00:22:13,951
States up close on a daily basis , and 

514
00:22:13,951 --> 00:22:13,890
I'm grateful that this successful 

515
00:22:13,890 --> 00:22:16,390
mission has given the American people . 

516
00:22:17,250 --> 00:22:20,260
A window into that as well . The 

517
00:22:20,260 --> 00:22:22,316
secretary and Chairman will tell you 

518
00:22:22,316 --> 00:22:24,538
that our service members' confidence is 

519
00:22:24,538 --> 00:22:27,260
boosted by a commander in chief who has 

520
00:22:27,260 --> 00:22:29,979
their back the same way they have yours . 

521
00:22:30,630 --> 00:22:33,270
And I know that the confidence of CIA's 

522
00:22:33,270 --> 00:22:35,680
officers . Is boosted by the knowledge 

523
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:38,099
that their work is informing a 

524
00:22:38,099 --> 00:22:41,180
president who's not afraid to make the 

525
00:22:41,180 --> 00:22:43,579
hardest decisions when the stakes are 

526
00:22:43,579 --> 00:22:46,670
highest . And to the American people , 

527
00:22:47,729 --> 00:22:50,869
Your confidence should be boosted . By 

528
00:22:50,869 --> 00:22:53,091
knowing that the security of the nation 

529
00:22:53,091 --> 00:22:55,258
is in the hands of a president . Who's 

530
00:22:55,258 --> 00:22:57,369
willing to take on problems that have 

531
00:22:57,369 --> 00:22:59,569
confounded both sides of the political 

532
00:22:59,569 --> 00:23:03,430
aisle for nearly half a century . It is 

533
00:23:03,430 --> 00:23:05,510
an honor to serve under a leader who 

534
00:23:05,510 --> 00:23:08,530
just proved . That you can believe him 

535
00:23:08,530 --> 00:23:12,479
when he says , No matter what , We will 

536
00:23:12,479 --> 00:23:15,380
leave no one behind . We will come for 

537
00:23:15,380 --> 00:23:17,709
you . Thank you . Thank you . 

538
00:23:22,959 --> 00:23:26,579
I'm sorry . Well John , thank you for 

539
00:23:26,579 --> 00:23:28,746
the collaboration of the CIA as well , 

540
00:23:28,746 --> 00:23:30,801
incredible and ongoing partnership . 

541
00:23:31,619 --> 00:23:33,952
Ladies and gentlemen , fellow Americans , 

542
00:23:33,952 --> 00:23:36,008
and especially the brave warriors in 

543
00:23:36,008 --> 00:23:37,897
our armed forces over this Easter 

544
00:23:37,897 --> 00:23:39,952
weekend , The United States military 

545
00:23:39,952 --> 00:23:42,250
has once again proved why we possess 

546
00:23:42,609 --> 00:23:44,720
the greatest fighting force the world 

547
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:48,000
has ever known . In two extraordinary 

548
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:50,439
combat search and rescue operations 

549
00:23:50,439 --> 00:23:52,930
deep inside enemy territory in Iran . 

550
00:23:53,739 --> 00:23:55,859
Our warriors executed missions of 

551
00:23:55,859 --> 00:23:59,099
breathtaking skill , courage , and 

552
00:23:59,099 --> 00:24:01,689
precision . When our warriors are 

553
00:24:01,689 --> 00:24:03,729
unleashed , as this president has 

554
00:24:03,729 --> 00:24:05,689
allowed them to be , they are 

555
00:24:05,689 --> 00:24:09,300
unstoppable . When American airmen were 

556
00:24:09,300 --> 00:24:11,356
down behind enemy lines , our forces 

557
00:24:11,356 --> 00:24:13,411
and our president did not hesitate . 

558
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:15,696
Special operators supported by elite 

559
00:24:15,696 --> 00:24:17,196
air crews and intelligence 

560
00:24:17,196 --> 00:24:18,973
professionals moved swiftly and 

561
00:24:18,973 --> 00:24:21,029
decisively into treacherous mountain 

562
00:24:21,029 --> 00:24:23,189
terrain under the constant threat of 

563
00:24:23,189 --> 00:24:26,060
Iranian forces closing in . Ultimately , 

564
00:24:26,270 --> 00:24:30,069
it was an impotent Iranian threat . And 

565
00:24:30,069 --> 00:24:32,291
today , as the CIA director mentioned , 

566
00:24:32,291 --> 00:24:34,513
Iran's military , and we know this , is 

567
00:24:34,513 --> 00:24:37,150
embarrassed and humiliated , and they 

568
00:24:37,150 --> 00:24:40,479
should be . Now these are not routine 

569
00:24:40,479 --> 00:24:42,701
operations . They were high risk , high 

570
00:24:42,701 --> 00:24:44,868
stakes missions conducted in the heart 

571
00:24:44,868 --> 00:24:47,035
of enemy territory . This was not just 

572
00:24:47,035 --> 00:24:49,146
barely into Iran , this was deep into 

573
00:24:49,146 --> 00:24:51,368
Iran , involving coordinated strikes to 

574
00:24:51,368 --> 00:24:53,590
suppress threats , deception tactics to 

575
00:24:53,590 --> 00:24:55,201
protect our teams , and full 

576
00:24:55,201 --> 00:24:57,312
synchronization across air , ground , 

577
00:24:57,312 --> 00:24:59,560
and special operations . The Iranians 

578
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:01,782
are still asking themselves right now , 

579
00:25:01,782 --> 00:25:04,479
how did the Americans do this ? 

580
00:25:05,819 --> 00:25:08,050
One downed airman evaded capture for 

581
00:25:08,050 --> 00:25:10,420
more than a day , scaling rugged ridges 

582
00:25:10,420 --> 00:25:13,630
while hunted by the enemy . When he was 

583
00:25:13,630 --> 00:25:16,510
finally able to activate his emergency 

584
00:25:16,510 --> 00:25:19,800
transponder . His first message was 

585
00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:22,819
simple , and it was powerful . He sent 

586
00:25:22,819 --> 00:25:25,300
a message , God is good . 

587
00:25:26,699 --> 00:25:28,977
In that moment of isolation and danger , 

588
00:25:28,977 --> 00:25:31,969
his faith and fighting spirit shone 

589
00:25:32,189 --> 00:25:34,133
through . You see , shot down on a 

590
00:25:34,133 --> 00:25:38,010
Friday . Good Friday . Hidden in a cave . 

591
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:42,550
A crevice all of Saturday . And 

592
00:25:42,550 --> 00:25:46,329
rescued On Sunday , Flown out of 

593
00:25:46,329 --> 00:25:49,770
Iran as the sun was rising on Easter 

594
00:25:49,770 --> 00:25:53,630
Sunday . A pilot reborn , all 

595
00:25:53,630 --> 00:25:56,150
home and accounted for , a nation 

596
00:25:56,430 --> 00:25:59,500
rejoicing . God is good . 

597
00:26:01,010 --> 00:26:03,760
Despite incoming fire and unforgiving 

598
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:05,871
conditions , our troops brought every 

599
00:26:05,871 --> 00:26:08,038
American home . No American lives were 

600
00:26:08,038 --> 00:26:11,040
lost . We leave no man behind , and 

601
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:13,420
that is not luck . It's the result of 

602
00:26:13,420 --> 00:26:15,579
unmatched training , superior 

603
00:26:15,579 --> 00:26:17,635
technology , and unbreakable warrior 

604
00:26:17,635 --> 00:26:21,569
ethos , and sheer American grit . Our 

605
00:26:21,569 --> 00:26:23,402
special operators , pilots , and 

606
00:26:23,402 --> 00:26:25,819
support crews performed with near 

607
00:26:25,819 --> 00:26:29,439
perfection under fire , and they were 

608
00:26:29,449 --> 00:26:32,680
lethal . Just ask any Iranian soldier 

609
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,439
who dared attempt to get anywhere near 

610
00:26:35,439 --> 00:26:38,400
that pilot before or during that 

611
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:41,359
mission . Death from above . 

612
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:44,671
Our troops turned a potential tragedy 

613
00:26:44,671 --> 00:26:46,616
into a resounding demonstration of 

614
00:26:46,616 --> 00:26:48,504
American resolve and capability . 

615
00:26:48,504 --> 00:26:50,727
That's what excellence in uniform looks 

616
00:26:50,727 --> 00:26:53,099
like . But make no mistake about it , 

617
00:26:54,239 --> 00:26:56,719
None of this would have been possible 

618
00:26:56,719 --> 00:26:58,830
without the courageous leadership and 

619
00:26:58,830 --> 00:27:01,359
ironclad determination of President 

620
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:04,890
Donald J . Trump . From the moment our 

621
00:27:04,890 --> 00:27:07,112
airmen went down , President Trump made 

622
00:27:07,112 --> 00:27:10,160
it clear we will leave no one behind . 

623
00:27:10,369 --> 00:27:12,536
The first mission , the first of two , 

624
00:27:12,609 --> 00:27:16,550
was an audacious daylight thunder run 

625
00:27:16,930 --> 00:27:19,152
right up the middle . It was authorized 

626
00:27:19,152 --> 00:27:21,449
in less than 2 hours from that pilot 

627
00:27:21,449 --> 00:27:24,130
going down when we knew where he was . 

628
00:27:25,949 --> 00:27:28,116
And it was authorized in the middle of 

629
00:27:28,116 --> 00:27:30,060
the night , because anybody that's 

630
00:27:30,060 --> 00:27:29,670
worked for this , this man knows he's 

631
00:27:29,670 --> 00:27:31,448
up in the middle of the night . 

632
00:27:31,448 --> 00:27:33,281
Authorized immediately , without 

633
00:27:33,281 --> 00:27:35,699
hesitation , audaciously . The 2nd 

634
00:27:35,699 --> 00:27:37,921
mission , as soon as we knew where that 

635
00:27:37,921 --> 00:27:39,866
pilot was , and John was certainly 

636
00:27:39,866 --> 00:27:42,900
helpful in that . Also executed 

637
00:27:42,900 --> 00:27:45,122
immediately . You know , I looked up at 

638
00:27:45,122 --> 00:27:47,178
my screen when the final mission was 

639
00:27:47,178 --> 00:27:49,344
complete inside our skiff , our secure 

640
00:27:49,344 --> 00:27:51,511
facility . And we have a running VTC , 

641
00:27:51,511 --> 00:27:53,869
a running coordination cell . And the 

642
00:27:53,869 --> 00:27:57,469
top of it read 45 minutes and 45 

643
00:27:57,469 --> 00:28:00,979
hours and 56 minutes . For 

644
00:28:00,979 --> 00:28:03,979
45 hours and 56 minutes we held that 

645
00:28:03,979 --> 00:28:06,090
call open for coordination . From the 

646
00:28:06,090 --> 00:28:07,979
moment our pilots went down , our 

647
00:28:07,979 --> 00:28:11,109
mission was unblinking . The call never 

648
00:28:11,109 --> 00:28:13,220
dropped . The meeting never stopped . 

649
00:28:13,220 --> 00:28:16,239
The planning never ceased . The 

650
00:28:16,239 --> 00:28:18,530
president demanded rapid , decisive 

651
00:28:18,530 --> 00:28:20,586
action . He backed our military with 

652
00:28:20,586 --> 00:28:22,419
the full weight of his resolve , 

653
00:28:22,419 --> 00:28:24,419
refusing to let enemy propaganda or 

654
00:28:24,419 --> 00:28:26,252
tactical setbacks deter us . His 

655
00:28:26,252 --> 00:28:29,410
leadership . Ensured that every lethal 

656
00:28:29,410 --> 00:28:31,521
and nonlethal resource was brought to 

657
00:28:31,521 --> 00:28:33,243
bear , that our forces had the 

658
00:28:33,243 --> 00:28:35,550
authorities and the support they needed 

659
00:28:35,829 --> 00:28:38,051
to succeed . When the president says he 

660
00:28:38,051 --> 00:28:40,162
has the backs of our warfighters , he 

661
00:28:40,162 --> 00:28:42,849
means it , and it means a great deal , 

662
00:28:42,900 --> 00:28:44,733
and it's a big difference on the 

663
00:28:44,733 --> 00:28:46,619
battlefield . President Trump 

664
00:28:46,619 --> 00:28:48,841
understands that peace through strength 

665
00:28:48,841 --> 00:28:51,719
is not a slogan . It is a doctrine that 

666
00:28:51,719 --> 00:28:54,550
saves American lives . His unwavering 

667
00:28:54,550 --> 00:28:56,661
commitment to rebuilding our military 

668
00:28:56,661 --> 00:28:58,717
and restoring the warrior spirit has 

669
00:28:58,717 --> 00:29:01,339
paid dividends in missions just like 

670
00:29:01,339 --> 00:29:04,530
this one . Under his command , America 

671
00:29:04,530 --> 00:29:06,910
projects power with confidence and 

672
00:29:06,910 --> 00:29:09,430
brings our people home with victory . 

673
00:29:09,510 --> 00:29:11,750
And that continues today , by the way . 

674
00:29:11,989 --> 00:29:14,100
Per the president's direction , today 

675
00:29:14,100 --> 00:29:16,211
will be the largest volume of strikes 

676
00:29:16,211 --> 00:29:18,100
since day one of this operation . 

677
00:29:18,100 --> 00:29:20,609
Tomorrow , even more than today . And 

678
00:29:20,609 --> 00:29:23,569
then Iran has a choice . Choose wisely . 

679
00:29:24,359 --> 00:29:27,040
Because this president does not play 

680
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:30,219
around . You can ask Soleimani . You 

681
00:29:30,219 --> 00:29:33,300
can ask Maduro , you can ask Khomeini . 

682
00:29:34,810 --> 00:29:36,588
To those heroes who planned and 

683
00:29:36,588 --> 00:29:38,643
executed these rescues , your nation 

684
00:29:38,643 --> 00:29:40,829
stands in awe . I stand in awe . The 

685
00:29:40,829 --> 00:29:42,940
chairman stands in awe . We all stand 

686
00:29:42,940 --> 00:29:44,885
in awe of your professionalism and 

687
00:29:44,885 --> 00:29:47,680
bravery . We serve for you . You embody 

688
00:29:47,930 --> 00:29:49,819
the very best of America . To the 

689
00:29:49,819 --> 00:29:51,819
rescued airmen and their families . 

690
00:29:51,819 --> 00:29:53,597
Welcome home . Your courage and 

691
00:29:53,597 --> 00:29:55,930
endurance , the quiet declaration of 

692
00:29:55,930 --> 00:29:59,770
faith amid the storm . Inspires us all . 

693
00:30:00,089 --> 00:30:02,709
God is good . Every day 

694
00:30:03,859 --> 00:30:06,060
And to our adversaries watching from 

695
00:30:06,060 --> 00:30:08,500
Tehran , let this be a clear message . 

696
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:11,560
The United States military will go 

697
00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:14,859
anywhere at any time to protect our own 

698
00:30:15,439 --> 00:30:18,020
and complete the mission . We execute 

699
00:30:18,020 --> 00:30:20,780
with precision . We control the skies , 

700
00:30:20,839 --> 00:30:24,180
you see , we flew for 7 hours in 

701
00:30:24,180 --> 00:30:26,619
daylight over Iran to get the first 

702
00:30:26,619 --> 00:30:29,680
pilot . And we flew 7 hours in the 

703
00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:31,736
middle of the night to get the 2nd . 

704
00:30:32,020 --> 00:30:35,459
And Iran did nothing about it . 

705
00:30:36,770 --> 00:30:38,992
We fight with honor and under President 

706
00:30:38,992 --> 00:30:41,048
Trump's leadership , we win . So God 

707
00:30:41,048 --> 00:30:43,214
bless our troops , God bless President 

708
00:30:43,214 --> 00:30:45,437
Trump , and God bless the United States 

709
00:30:45,437 --> 00:30:49,209
of America . Thank you . Well , 

710
00:30:49,290 --> 00:30:51,530
good afternoon , everyone . Um , thank 

711
00:30:51,530 --> 00:30:53,752
you , Mr . President . Thank you , Ms . 

712
00:30:53,752 --> 00:30:55,974
Chuck Terry . A note before I start , I 

713
00:30:55,974 --> 00:30:58,790
know many of you want specific details 

714
00:30:58,790 --> 00:31:01,079
in these briefings . We will share what 

715
00:31:01,079 --> 00:31:03,880
we can , but I will retain what I must 

716
00:31:04,199 --> 00:31:06,421
in the event that we have to go do this 

717
00:31:06,421 --> 00:31:09,160
again sometime . And I cannot stress 

718
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:11,438
the importance , as the president said , 

719
00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:13,599
around operational security . The 

720
00:31:13,599 --> 00:31:15,821
secretary and I will do a more detailed 

721
00:31:15,821 --> 00:31:18,043
briefing tomorrow morning , and we look 

722
00:31:18,043 --> 00:31:20,210
forward to sharing the details that we 

723
00:31:20,210 --> 00:31:22,349
can . On Thursday to April at 10:10 

724
00:31:22,349 --> 00:31:24,979
p.m. Eastern Time , 4:40 in the morning 

725
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:27,760
local Iran time , the Joint Personnel 

726
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:29,760
Recovery Center , which handles the 

727
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:32,038
Central Command area of responsibility , 

728
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:34,439
declared an isolated personnel recovery 

729
00:31:34,439 --> 00:31:37,239
event for US Air Force F-15E Strike 

730
00:31:37,239 --> 00:31:40,319
Eagle . Call sign Dude 44 , which was 

731
00:31:40,319 --> 00:31:43,109
down in hostile Iranian territory . The 

732
00:31:43,109 --> 00:31:45,189
pilot and weapons system officer had 

733
00:31:45,189 --> 00:31:48,109
both safely ejected and were isolated 

734
00:31:48,109 --> 00:31:50,469
behind enemy lines . Following 

735
00:31:50,469 --> 00:31:52,630
confirmation of active rescue beacons 

736
00:31:52,630 --> 00:31:54,741
and on the direction of the Secretary 

737
00:31:54,741 --> 00:31:56,630
and by order of the president , a 

738
00:31:56,630 --> 00:31:58,869
rescue operation was launched with the 

739
00:31:58,869 --> 00:32:00,989
stated purpose of bringing both 

740
00:32:00,989 --> 00:32:03,459
Americans home safely . As the 

741
00:32:03,459 --> 00:32:05,790
Secretary said several hours later on 

742
00:32:05,790 --> 00:32:08,030
the morning after positively locating 

743
00:32:08,030 --> 00:32:10,989
the front seater , call sign Dude 44 

744
00:32:10,989 --> 00:32:13,859
Alpha . And aware of an aggressive 

745
00:32:13,859 --> 00:32:16,599
ongoing search by the enemy , a US 

746
00:32:16,599 --> 00:32:19,280
Central Command plan was approved by 

747
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,169
the Secretary and the President . 

748
00:32:21,319 --> 00:32:23,839
Shortly thereafter , a US Air Force 

749
00:32:23,839 --> 00:32:26,459
combat search and rescue task force 

750
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,479
comprised of A-10 Warthogs in their 

751
00:32:29,479 --> 00:32:31,479
Sandy role , and I'll describe what 

752
00:32:31,479 --> 00:32:34,099
that is in a minute . HC-130 combat 

753
00:32:34,099 --> 00:32:37,189
King IIs , HH60 Jolly Green II 

754
00:32:37,189 --> 00:32:40,069
helicopters , and Air Force Special 

755
00:32:40,069 --> 00:32:42,750
Warfare Airmen , a package comprised of 

756
00:32:42,750 --> 00:32:45,439
combat rescue officers and para rescue 

757
00:32:45,439 --> 00:32:48,829
operators audaciously penetrated enemy 

758
00:32:48,829 --> 00:32:52,500
territory in broad daylight to find , 

759
00:32:52,750 --> 00:32:56,030
fix , and recover Dude 44 Alpha from 

760
00:32:56,030 --> 00:32:59,209
behind enemy lines . This was an 

761
00:32:59,209 --> 00:33:02,890
incredibly dangerous mission , an 

762
00:33:02,890 --> 00:33:06,209
incredibly dangerous undertaking , but 

763
00:33:06,209 --> 00:33:09,449
a filled promise made to every American 

764
00:33:09,449 --> 00:33:12,290
warfighter that you will not be left 

765
00:33:12,290 --> 00:33:15,479
behind . We will always come find you , 

766
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:17,689
and we will always bring you home . 

767
00:33:18,479 --> 00:33:20,535
Over the next hours , the search and 

768
00:33:20,535 --> 00:33:22,646
rescue task force crossed the beach , 

769
00:33:22,819 --> 00:33:24,750
entered into Iranian airspace , 

770
00:33:25,439 --> 00:33:27,661
protected by a fighter strike package , 

771
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:30,199
and moved into the objective area all 

772
00:33:30,199 --> 00:33:32,910
under fire . En route , as some of you 

773
00:33:32,910 --> 00:33:35,109
have seen on social media , the 

774
00:33:35,109 --> 00:33:38,280
helicopters took gas off the C-130s and 

775
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:40,719
pressed onward and forward up into the 

776
00:33:40,719 --> 00:33:43,619
objective area . While this was ongoing 

777
00:33:43,619 --> 00:33:45,739
and out in front of them , the sandy 

778
00:33:45,739 --> 00:33:48,140
flight of A-10s and other remotely 

779
00:33:48,140 --> 00:33:50,500
piloted aircraft , drones and other 

780
00:33:50,500 --> 00:33:52,880
tactical aircraft were violently 

781
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:55,660
suppressing and engaging the enemy in a 

782
00:33:55,660 --> 00:33:57,920
close-in gunfight to keep them away 

783
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:00,140
from the front seater and allow the 

784
00:34:00,140 --> 00:34:02,900
pickup force to get into the objective 

785
00:34:02,900 --> 00:34:05,500
area . During this engagement , one of 

786
00:34:05,500 --> 00:34:08,139
the Sandy aircraft , the one primarily 

787
00:34:08,139 --> 00:34:10,306
responsible for communicating with the 

788
00:34:10,306 --> 00:34:13,570
downed pilot , was hit by enemy fire . 

789
00:34:14,110 --> 00:34:16,209
This pilot continued to fight , 

790
00:34:16,830 --> 00:34:19,149
continued the mission , and then upon 

791
00:34:19,149 --> 00:34:21,629
exit flew his aircraft into another 

792
00:34:21,629 --> 00:34:23,580
country and determined that the 

793
00:34:23,580 --> 00:34:25,790
airplane was not landable . This was 

794
00:34:25,790 --> 00:34:28,469
one of our A-10 Sandy aircraft . The 

795
00:34:28,469 --> 00:34:31,219
pilot then made the decision to eject 

796
00:34:31,219 --> 00:34:33,750
over friendly territory and was quickly 

797
00:34:33,750 --> 00:34:36,469
and safely recovered and is doing fine . 

798
00:34:37,739 --> 00:34:41,540
After picking up Dude 44 Alpha , the 

799
00:34:41,540 --> 00:34:45,020
HH 60 Jolly Green fight was engaged by 

800
00:34:45,020 --> 00:34:47,899
every single person in Iran who had a 

801
00:34:47,899 --> 00:34:50,060
small arms weapon , and one of the 

802
00:34:50,060 --> 00:34:52,580
aircraft , the trailing aircraft , took 

803
00:34:52,580 --> 00:34:54,860
several hits . The crew sustained minor 

804
00:34:54,860 --> 00:34:57,229
injury and they are going to be fine . 

805
00:34:57,820 --> 00:35:00,149
A note for those of you that do not 

806
00:35:00,149 --> 00:35:03,409
know what a Sandy does . Named after 

807
00:35:03,409 --> 00:35:05,631
the flight call sign that did this very 

808
00:35:05,631 --> 00:35:08,570
mission in Vietnam flying A1 sky 

809
00:35:08,570 --> 00:35:12,209
Raiders and A-7 Corsairs , a Sandy 

810
00:35:12,370 --> 00:35:16,070
has one mission get to the survivor , 

811
00:35:16,449 --> 00:35:18,969
bring the rescue force forward , and 

812
00:35:18,969 --> 00:35:21,729
put themselves between that survivor on 

813
00:35:21,729 --> 00:35:24,449
the ground and the enemy . They are 

814
00:35:24,449 --> 00:35:26,810
committed to this . This is what they 

815
00:35:26,810 --> 00:35:28,810
live for , and this is what they've 

816
00:35:28,810 --> 00:35:32,229
trained for over many , many years . 

817
00:35:32,709 --> 00:35:35,989
The A-10 force and the rescue force did 

818
00:35:35,989 --> 00:35:38,770
fantastic , did a fantastic job 

819
00:35:38,770 --> 00:35:42,300
rescuing Dude 44 Alpha . He was 

820
00:35:42,300 --> 00:35:45,750
recovered Friday afternoon . As I said , 

821
00:35:45,870 --> 00:35:47,870
and the nation needs to know this , 

822
00:35:48,110 --> 00:35:50,669
this was an incredibly brave and 

823
00:35:50,669 --> 00:35:53,149
courageous mission and a testament to 

824
00:35:53,149 --> 00:35:56,820
the courage , skill , and tenacity of 

825
00:35:56,820 --> 00:36:00,379
the joint force and our leaders , and 

826
00:36:00,379 --> 00:36:02,490
especially a daylight option , having 

827
00:36:02,490 --> 00:36:05,189
the guts to try means so much to so 

828
00:36:05,189 --> 00:36:08,820
many . Meanwhile , the backseater , as 

829
00:36:08,820 --> 00:36:10,876
the president and the secretary have 

830
00:36:10,876 --> 00:36:13,020
said , had continued to work and 

831
00:36:13,020 --> 00:36:15,659
survive . Through the hours of daylight , 

832
00:36:15,739 --> 00:36:19,629
dude 44 Bravo , the backseater evaded . 

833
00:36:20,020 --> 00:36:22,620
Using every means available , the 

834
00:36:22,620 --> 00:36:24,842
efforts of the United States military , 

835
00:36:24,842 --> 00:36:26,953
the Central Intelligence Agency , and 

836
00:36:26,953 --> 00:36:28,898
others were attempting to find and 

837
00:36:28,898 --> 00:36:32,139
locate with precision Dude 44 Bravo , 

838
00:36:32,219 --> 00:36:35,310
the backseater . A note on on the 

839
00:36:35,310 --> 00:36:38,389
backseater and the front seater . The 

840
00:36:38,389 --> 00:36:42,260
single most important contributor to 

841
00:36:42,260 --> 00:36:45,469
a successful rescue operation is the 

842
00:36:45,469 --> 00:36:47,790
spirit of attack inside the heart of 

843
00:36:47,790 --> 00:36:50,310
that downed aviator . Their will to 

844
00:36:50,310 --> 00:36:53,590
survive , their will to evade , their 

845
00:36:53,590 --> 00:36:56,709
will to recover is everything . In this 

846
00:36:56,709 --> 00:36:58,598
case , the backseatter's absolute 

847
00:36:58,598 --> 00:37:01,310
commitment to surviving made much of 

848
00:37:01,310 --> 00:37:05,010
our efforts possible . On Saturday , 4 

849
00:37:05,010 --> 00:37:07,290
April , after establishing positive 

850
00:37:07,290 --> 00:37:09,889
communications with the backseater , we 

851
00:37:09,889 --> 00:37:12,056
learned , as the president said , that 

852
00:37:12,056 --> 00:37:14,409
he was injured and actively evading 

853
00:37:14,409 --> 00:37:16,610
enemy forces . And thanks to our 

854
00:37:16,610 --> 00:37:19,090
interagency partners , we were able to 

855
00:37:19,090 --> 00:37:22,090
get eyes on his location and positively 

856
00:37:22,090 --> 00:37:24,770
ID him . Throughout this entire time , 

857
00:37:24,850 --> 00:37:27,072
the enemy force continued to search for 

858
00:37:27,072 --> 00:37:29,629
44 Bravo , and the joint force 

859
00:37:29,629 --> 00:37:32,270
continued to strike them over and over 

860
00:37:32,270 --> 00:37:35,100
and over again . Fighting off marginal 

861
00:37:35,100 --> 00:37:37,760
weather in Iran and the enemy's search 

862
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,899
for a 2nd time on Saturday at the 

863
00:37:40,899 --> 00:37:43,121
recommendation of the CENTCOM commander 

864
00:37:43,121 --> 00:37:45,177
and at the approval of the Secretary 

865
00:37:45,177 --> 00:37:47,066
and the President , we launched a 

866
00:37:47,066 --> 00:37:49,121
rescue task force to recover Dude 44 

867
00:37:49,121 --> 00:37:51,500
Bravo . Again , this came to the 

868
00:37:51,500 --> 00:37:53,278
President and the Secretary for 

869
00:37:53,278 --> 00:37:55,860
approval , this time with a much larger 

870
00:37:55,860 --> 00:37:58,260
force package based on the time that 

871
00:37:58,260 --> 00:38:01,139
the enemy had to prepare to find 44 

872
00:38:01,139 --> 00:38:04,399
Bravo . Again , this force was 

873
00:38:04,399 --> 00:38:06,919
protected by A-10 Warthogs using the 

874
00:38:06,919 --> 00:38:09,840
Sandy call sign , and this force had 

875
00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:12,879
one single mission do everything they 

876
00:38:12,879 --> 00:38:15,840
can to bring an American home . This 

877
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:18,399
meant having a plan . Being prepared to 

878
00:38:18,399 --> 00:38:22,040
execute that plan and more importantly , 

879
00:38:22,399 --> 00:38:24,379
being prepared for multiple 

880
00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:27,989
simultaneous contingencies and because 

881
00:38:27,989 --> 00:38:31,000
of this force's professionalism , grit , 

882
00:38:31,159 --> 00:38:34,159
and determination fight off two enemies 

883
00:38:34,159 --> 00:38:36,719
at the same time the enemy searching 

884
00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:40,600
for 44 Bravo and contingencies , which 

885
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:42,544
anyone who has done these types of 

886
00:38:42,544 --> 00:38:45,919
missions knows we run into every single 

887
00:38:45,919 --> 00:38:48,729
time . The force fought off both of 

888
00:38:48,729 --> 00:38:51,649
those enemies incredibly well . During 

889
00:38:51,649 --> 00:38:53,705
the period of darkness on Saturday , 

890
00:38:53,889 --> 00:38:56,209
and as the secretary said , into Easter 

891
00:38:56,209 --> 00:38:59,050
Sunday and into the daylight , the 

892
00:38:59,050 --> 00:39:01,790
force fought its way in and rescued 

893
00:39:02,010 --> 00:39:05,409
Dude 44 Bravo . They were protected 

894
00:39:05,620 --> 00:39:08,139
overhead by an air armada including 

895
00:39:08,139 --> 00:39:10,979
tactical drones , strike aircraft , and 

896
00:39:10,979 --> 00:39:13,580
others . The force fought through 

897
00:39:13,580 --> 00:39:16,489
multiple simultaneous contingencies , 

898
00:39:16,899 --> 00:39:19,580
something no other nation , no other 

899
00:39:19,580 --> 00:39:23,310
military can do . And safely returned 

900
00:39:23,310 --> 00:39:25,949
dude 44 Bravo , the back seater home . 

901
00:39:26,830 --> 00:39:30,080
And all other Americans home as well . 

902
00:39:30,870 --> 00:39:34,330
At midnight 12 local Eastern Time , 

903
00:39:34,510 --> 00:39:37,449
Easter Sunday , more than 50 hours 

904
00:39:37,629 --> 00:39:41,199
after the start of this operation . The 

905
00:39:41,199 --> 00:39:43,479
Joint Personnel Recovery Center 

906
00:39:43,479 --> 00:39:46,459
declared Dude 44 Bravo , both the front 

907
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:49,080
and back seater , return to friendly 

908
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,969
territory . The courage demonstrated by 

909
00:39:52,969 --> 00:39:55,169
both the pilot and the weapons system 

910
00:39:55,169 --> 00:39:57,409
officer while isolated and them 

911
00:39:57,409 --> 00:40:00,239
invading the enemy cannot be overstated . 

912
00:40:00,570 --> 00:40:03,530
Their grit and warfighting tenacity is 

913
00:40:03,530 --> 00:40:06,090
a direct result of the absolute trust 

914
00:40:06,090 --> 00:40:08,530
they have in our rescue forces , their 

915
00:40:08,530 --> 00:40:10,689
training , and their will to survive 

916
00:40:10,689 --> 00:40:13,770
and return . They always knew that we 

917
00:40:13,770 --> 00:40:16,090
would be ordered to go get them , and 

918
00:40:16,090 --> 00:40:18,290
they always knew that we would be 

919
00:40:18,290 --> 00:40:21,090
coming to get them . These two 

920
00:40:21,090 --> 00:40:23,146
operations reflect our nation's most 

921
00:40:23,146 --> 00:40:25,330
sacred obligation to our military 

922
00:40:25,330 --> 00:40:27,889
service members . We leave no one 

923
00:40:27,889 --> 00:40:30,489
behind . Bless you . It also perfectly 

924
00:40:30,489 --> 00:40:34,320
captures the first truth of our special 

925
00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:37,330
operations forces that people are more 

926
00:40:37,330 --> 00:40:40,129
important than hardware . That is the 

927
00:40:40,129 --> 00:40:42,449
standard we live by , and the rescue 

928
00:40:42,449 --> 00:40:45,050
forces that execute these missions 

929
00:40:45,050 --> 00:40:48,750
operate under a clear motto . These 

930
00:40:48,750 --> 00:40:52,129
things we do that others may live . 

931
00:40:52,669 --> 00:40:55,510
Their actions were a direct embodiment 

932
00:40:55,510 --> 00:40:57,870
of that commitment to others , and I 

933
00:40:57,870 --> 00:41:01,489
could not be more proud of each and 

934
00:41:01,489 --> 00:41:04,679
every one of them today . As the 

935
00:41:04,679 --> 00:41:07,000
Secretary said to our enemies , this 

936
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,810
operation serves as a clear reminder of 

937
00:41:09,810 --> 00:41:12,449
the capability and will of America's 

938
00:41:12,449 --> 00:41:14,840
joint force . The United States of 

939
00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:16,896
America will recover our warfighters 

940
00:41:17,159 --> 00:41:19,399
anywhere in the world under any 

941
00:41:19,399 --> 00:41:21,879
conditions when we want to . We will 

942
00:41:21,879 --> 00:41:23,879
always bring overwhelming skill and 

943
00:41:23,879 --> 00:41:26,280
firepower to every member of the joint 

944
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:29,199
force , our interagency partners , the 

945
00:41:29,199 --> 00:41:31,439
leadership at CENTCOM , and our leaders 

946
00:41:31,439 --> 00:41:33,772
at the department and above . Thank you . 

947
00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:36,007
I'm proud of each and every one of you 

948
00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:39,280
and thankful to our deployed forces and 

949
00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:42,729
their families . And lastly and most 

950
00:41:42,729 --> 00:41:46,310
importantly to dude 44 , welcome home . 

951
00:41:46,770 --> 00:41:48,326
Job well done . Thank you . 

952
00:41:53,110 --> 00:41:56,820
Pretty amazing , pretty amazing . And 

953
00:41:56,820 --> 00:41:59,850
these two gentlemen have been From day 

954
00:41:59,850 --> 00:42:02,290
one they've been perfecto , you know , 

955
00:42:02,330 --> 00:42:06,229
I got to know . General Cain in 

956
00:42:06,229 --> 00:42:08,285
my first term because he was able to 

957
00:42:08,285 --> 00:42:10,507
take out ISIS in 4 weeks instead of the 

958
00:42:10,507 --> 00:42:13,310
4 year projection that was given to me 

959
00:42:13,310 --> 00:42:15,421
by other much lesser generals , and I 

960
00:42:15,421 --> 00:42:17,421
said , you know , if I ever do this 

961
00:42:17,421 --> 00:42:19,588
again , that's going to be the head of 

962
00:42:19,588 --> 00:42:21,477
my Joint Chiefs of Staff , and we 

963
00:42:21,477 --> 00:42:23,588
worked it that way , didn't we ? It's 

964
00:42:23,588 --> 00:42:25,366
amazing . He took out ISIS . We 

965
00:42:25,366 --> 00:42:27,709
defeated ISIS in 4 weeks . I was told 

966
00:42:27,709 --> 00:42:30,270
it would take 4 years . I flew to Iraq . 

967
00:42:30,860 --> 00:42:33,082
To find out with the greatest equipment 

968
00:42:33,082 --> 00:42:35,027
in the world , why would it take 4 

969
00:42:35,027 --> 00:42:38,879
years . And he told me , sir , it won't , 

970
00:42:39,270 --> 00:42:41,492
it'll take 4 weeks and you'll have time 

971
00:42:41,492 --> 00:42:43,492
left over , and that's exactly what 

972
00:42:43,492 --> 00:42:46,110
happened . So he's great and Pete , all 

973
00:42:46,110 --> 00:42:48,669
I can say is that he was treated very 

974
00:42:48,669 --> 00:42:51,199
unfairly . And now those same people 

975
00:42:51,199 --> 00:42:53,421
that treated him unfairly , that fought 

976
00:42:53,421 --> 00:42:55,588
against him , they called me up saying 

977
00:42:55,588 --> 00:42:57,699
what a great choice he was . I said , 

978
00:42:57,699 --> 00:42:59,643
Well , what happened uh during his 

979
00:42:59,643 --> 00:43:01,866
nomination ? What happened to you ? I'm 

980
00:43:01,866 --> 00:43:04,032
telling you , people that were not for 

981
00:43:04,032 --> 00:43:06,310
him , senators , friends of mine , sir , 

982
00:43:06,310 --> 00:43:08,366
I don't think you're doing the right 

983
00:43:08,366 --> 00:43:10,532
thing now they're calling me up . What 

984
00:43:10,532 --> 00:43:12,866
a choice . These two guys are fantastic , 

985
00:43:12,866 --> 00:43:15,032
and John Ratcliffe was incredible . It 

986
00:43:15,032 --> 00:43:17,840
was actually their genius that called 

987
00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:20,959
us . it was 40 miles away . 

988
00:43:21,580 --> 00:43:23,691
And he said , you know , we're seeing 

989
00:43:23,691 --> 00:43:25,802
something moving up in the mountain . 

990
00:43:25,802 --> 00:43:28,050
This is at night . And they kept the 

991
00:43:28,050 --> 00:43:29,969
camera on him for 45 minutes . He 

992
00:43:29,969 --> 00:43:32,247
wasn't moving and they said , you know , 

993
00:43:32,449 --> 00:43:34,338
probably wrong , but we're seeing 

994
00:43:34,338 --> 00:43:36,250
something moving . This is a vast 

995
00:43:36,250 --> 00:43:40,209
mountain . Vast , thick with 

996
00:43:40,209 --> 00:43:42,729
bushes , trees , he said , we see 

997
00:43:42,729 --> 00:43:46,370
something moving 40 miles away . Was a 

998
00:43:47,060 --> 00:43:49,282
The head of a human being , I'm telling 

999
00:43:49,282 --> 00:43:51,600
you , it's moving . And then all of a 

1000
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:53,919
sudden 45 minutes later he moved a lot . 

1001
00:43:55,689 --> 00:43:58,459
stood up and they said we have them and 

1002
00:43:58,459 --> 00:44:01,239
that was really . The beginning of 

1003
00:44:01,239 --> 00:44:03,350
something incredible . We had an idea 

1004
00:44:03,350 --> 00:44:05,350
where he was , but not specifically 

1005
00:44:05,350 --> 00:44:09,300
it's a big mountain , so uh . I want 

1006
00:44:09,300 --> 00:44:11,356
to thank the CIA too . I don't think 

1007
00:44:11,356 --> 00:44:13,411
they get enough credit for the great 

1008
00:44:13,411 --> 00:44:16,100
job they've done . Yes , please . Thank 

1009
00:44:16,100 --> 00:44:18,156
you very much , Mr . President , for 

1010
00:44:18,156 --> 00:44:21,830
this great opportunity . Country , it 

1011
00:44:21,830 --> 00:44:24,510
has a superb army . You make a 

1012
00:44:24,510 --> 00:44:26,732
difference , Mr . President . Thank you 

1013
00:44:26,732 --> 00:44:28,788
for your greatest leadership . Thank 

1014
00:44:28,788 --> 00:44:31,010
you . I have two quick questions , Mr . 

1015
00:44:31,010 --> 00:44:34,189
President . What was your reaction when 

1016
00:44:34,189 --> 00:44:37,149
you learned that Kurdistan region had 

1017
00:44:37,149 --> 00:44:40,110
resumed exporting oil to the 

1018
00:44:40,110 --> 00:44:42,629
international market with your support 

1019
00:44:42,629 --> 00:44:44,989
as the United States of America ? Well , 

1020
00:44:45,070 --> 00:44:47,126
I expected that . We've gotten along 

1021
00:44:47,126 --> 00:44:49,989
with the Kurds for a long time , so I 

1022
00:44:49,989 --> 00:44:53,270
expected that . Another question , what 

1023
00:44:53,270 --> 00:44:56,070
would , what would be your reaction ? 

1024
00:44:56,360 --> 00:45:00,000
If the Iranian people raise up against 

1025
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:02,739
their regime during a ceasefire , Mr . 

1026
00:45:03,169 --> 00:45:05,336
President . Well , they should do it , 

1027
00:45:05,336 --> 00:45:07,613
but again , the consequences are great . 

1028
00:45:07,613 --> 00:45:09,891
I mean , they were told if you protest , 

1029
00:45:09,891 --> 00:45:12,058
you will be shot immediately . You saw 

1030
00:45:12,058 --> 00:45:14,169
what happened to the young wrestler . 

1031
00:45:14,169 --> 00:45:16,336
He was a great champion , by the way , 

1032
00:45:16,336 --> 00:45:16,040
he was a great wrestler , one of the 

1033
00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:18,840
top in the world , and he and his two 

1034
00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:22,570
friends were hung . And all they did 

1035
00:45:22,570 --> 00:45:24,626
was say a little bit about liberty . 

1036
00:45:24,649 --> 00:45:26,639
They wanted liberty and they were 

1037
00:45:26,639 --> 00:45:29,969
violently executed , but the number is 

1038
00:45:29,969 --> 00:45:32,409
up to probably 45,000 people were 

1039
00:45:32,409 --> 00:45:34,576
killed . So , you know , when somebody 

1040
00:45:34,576 --> 00:45:36,798
stays in a house when they know if they 

1041
00:45:36,798 --> 00:45:38,742
walk out of the house to protest , 

1042
00:45:38,742 --> 00:45:41,020
they'll be immediately shot and killed . 

1043
00:45:41,020 --> 00:45:43,187
And they issued that , you know , that 

1044
00:45:43,187 --> 00:45:45,520
was publicly issued . It's not a secret . 

1045
00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:47,853
That's why so many people say , oh well , 

1046
00:45:47,853 --> 00:45:47,770
why are you doing this way ? We can't 

1047
00:45:47,770 --> 00:45:51,080
let Iran have a nuclear weapon . You 

1048
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:53,770
know , we got regime change , we do , 

1049
00:45:53,850 --> 00:45:55,850
we're dealing with a much different 

1050
00:45:55,850 --> 00:45:58,072
regime than before . We're dealing with 

1051
00:45:58,072 --> 00:46:00,479
different people . They're smarter . I 

1052
00:46:00,479 --> 00:46:03,840
think they're sharper and far less 

1053
00:46:03,840 --> 00:46:07,149
radical . We have regime change , but 

1054
00:46:07,439 --> 00:46:09,550
we didn't do this for regime change . 

1055
00:46:09,550 --> 00:46:12,629
We did it for the fact , and my view is 

1056
00:46:12,629 --> 00:46:14,907
very simple . I saw somebody said , Oh , 

1057
00:46:14,907 --> 00:46:16,907
he doesn't have a plan . I have the 

1058
00:46:16,907 --> 00:46:16,889
best plan of all , but I'm not going to 

1059
00:46:16,889 --> 00:46:19,000
tell you what my plan is , you know . 

1060
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:21,167
They want me to say , Here's my plan . 

1061
00:46:21,167 --> 00:46:23,222
We're going to attack at 9:47 in the 

1062
00:46:23,222 --> 00:46:25,556
morning and then we're going to do this , 

1063
00:46:25,556 --> 00:46:27,611
and then we're going to , and if you 

1064
00:46:27,611 --> 00:46:26,919
don't do that , they say , I have a 

1065
00:46:26,919 --> 00:46:29,129
plan . These people know what the plan 

1066
00:46:29,129 --> 00:46:31,351
is . Everybody here knows what the plan 

1067
00:46:31,351 --> 00:46:35,149
is , but it's very unfair to say 

1068
00:46:35,149 --> 00:46:37,260
because I don't mind being insulted . 

1069
00:46:37,260 --> 00:46:39,316
I've been insulted for many years by 

1070
00:46:39,316 --> 00:46:41,482
the by the fake news , but you can't . 

1071
00:46:41,482 --> 00:46:44,429
It's so bad for the people that are so 

1072
00:46:44,429 --> 00:46:47,229
pro you just saw too great and John 

1073
00:46:47,229 --> 00:46:49,451
Radcliffe , three unbelievable people . 

1074
00:46:49,451 --> 00:46:51,770
They have a plan . Every , every single 

1075
00:46:51,770 --> 00:46:54,103
thing has been thought out by all of us . 

1076
00:46:54,810 --> 00:46:56,780
But I can't reveal the plan to the 

1077
00:46:56,780 --> 00:46:59,179
media , so you know , but we're just 

1078
00:46:59,179 --> 00:47:01,449
thrilled by the success of this 

1079
00:47:01,449 --> 00:47:03,616
operation . Yes , please . Thank you , 

1080
00:47:03,616 --> 00:47:05,727
Mr . President . You've said Iranians 

1081
00:47:05,727 --> 00:47:07,616
would be mad if you stopped these 

1082
00:47:07,616 --> 00:47:09,727
attacks , but why would they want you 

1083
00:47:09,727 --> 00:47:11,893
to blow up their infrastructure to cut 

1084
00:47:11,893 --> 00:47:11,419
off their power ? Wouldn't that be 

1085
00:47:11,419 --> 00:47:13,530
punishing Iranians for the actions of 

1086
00:47:13,530 --> 00:47:15,752
the regime ? They would be willing to , 

1087
00:47:15,752 --> 00:47:17,586
they would be willing , and it's 

1088
00:47:17,586 --> 00:47:19,641
suffering . They would be willing to 

1089
00:47:19,641 --> 00:47:21,808
suffer that in order to have freedom . 

1090
00:47:21,808 --> 00:47:23,808
The Iranians have , and we've had . 

1091
00:47:24,139 --> 00:47:26,379
Numerous intercepts , please keep 

1092
00:47:26,379 --> 00:47:28,620
bombing bombs that are dropping near 

1093
00:47:28,620 --> 00:47:32,139
their homes . Please keep bombing . Do 

1094
00:47:32,139 --> 00:47:34,083
it . And these are people that are 

1095
00:47:34,083 --> 00:47:36,159
living where the bombs are exploding 

1096
00:47:36,159 --> 00:47:38,860
and when we leave and we're not hitting 

1097
00:47:38,860 --> 00:47:40,860
those areas , they're saying please 

1098
00:47:40,860 --> 00:47:42,860
come back , come back , come back . 

1099
00:47:42,860 --> 00:47:45,050
These are the people . I don't know 

1100
00:47:45,050 --> 00:47:47,106
what they do . All I can tell you is 

1101
00:47:47,106 --> 00:47:49,889
they want freedom . They have lived in 

1102
00:47:49,889 --> 00:47:52,250
a world that you know nothing about . 

1103
00:47:52,570 --> 00:47:55,969
It's a violent , horrible world where 

1104
00:47:55,969 --> 00:47:57,747
if you protest , you are shot . 

1105
00:47:58,330 --> 00:48:00,497
Remember the great woman protest where 

1106
00:48:00,497 --> 00:48:02,610
they had 400,000 , 500,000 women and 

1107
00:48:02,610 --> 00:48:04,666
they were all enthused and they were 

1108
00:48:04,666 --> 00:48:06,888
gonna protest and everybody said , oh , 

1109
00:48:06,888 --> 00:48:09,054
the regime's going to come to an end , 

1110
00:48:09,054 --> 00:48:12,800
and then all of a sudden , boom . Boom , 

1111
00:48:13,340 --> 00:48:17,270
5 . 6 different areas . A woman 

1112
00:48:17,270 --> 00:48:19,437
would go down right between the eyes . 

1113
00:48:19,437 --> 00:48:21,659
They had snipers . They had 5 snipers . 

1114
00:48:21,659 --> 00:48:23,919
That's all it took . And those 4 or 

1115
00:48:23,919 --> 00:48:26,500
500,000 women said , Oh my God , what's 

1116
00:48:26,500 --> 00:48:28,780
that ? Oh , look over there , what's 

1117
00:48:28,780 --> 00:48:31,979
that ? A woman shot right between the 

1118
00:48:31,979 --> 00:48:35,969
eyes . And after 5 or 6 of them go 

1119
00:48:35,969 --> 00:48:38,649
down , then you start hearing the purr 

1120
00:48:38,649 --> 00:48:41,310
through the vast number of people . 

1121
00:48:42,719 --> 00:48:45,030
And then they said , oh my God , who 

1122
00:48:45,030 --> 00:48:47,909
would do that ? And they're incredible 

1123
00:48:47,909 --> 00:48:50,189
people , but they've lived so horribly . 

1124
00:48:50,350 --> 00:48:52,517
They've lived so horribly , you know , 

1125
00:48:52,517 --> 00:48:54,739
Iran was a great country if you go back 

1126
00:48:54,739 --> 00:48:58,310
25 years ago or so . The Persian people , 

1127
00:48:58,709 --> 00:49:00,987
they're incredible , smart , brilliant , 

1128
00:49:00,987 --> 00:49:03,379
actually . And I know so many . I know 

1129
00:49:03,379 --> 00:49:06,020
coming from New York originally , I , I 

1130
00:49:06,020 --> 00:49:07,964
know so many people from . They're 

1131
00:49:07,964 --> 00:49:10,187
incredible people , incredible energy , 

1132
00:49:10,187 --> 00:49:12,459
and , and , uh , very , very brilliant 

1133
00:49:12,459 --> 00:49:14,681
people . And , but when you're standing 

1134
00:49:14,681 --> 00:49:16,848
in a group and protesting and you have 

1135
00:49:16,848 --> 00:49:18,792
a woman , in the case of a woman , 

1136
00:49:18,792 --> 00:49:20,626
remember the Great Women March ? 

1137
00:49:20,626 --> 00:49:22,848
Everybody was saying , oh , this is the 

1138
00:49:22,848 --> 00:49:24,959
end of the country . And then snipers 

1139
00:49:24,959 --> 00:49:27,409
selectively picked . Every single one 

1140
00:49:27,409 --> 00:49:29,600
was shot right between the eyes from a 

1141
00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:31,600
long distance . They were on top of 

1142
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:33,822
buildings . Nobody even knew where they 

1143
00:49:33,822 --> 00:49:36,044
were , where they're coming from . This 

1144
00:49:36,044 --> 00:49:38,100
wasn't like a machine gun , which is 

1145
00:49:38,100 --> 00:49:37,929
also very bad . They've done that too . 

1146
00:49:38,179 --> 00:49:40,800
They did that recently . This was 

1147
00:49:40,979 --> 00:49:44,229
snipers sitting on the top of buildings , 

1148
00:49:44,620 --> 00:49:47,159
aiming and hitting women . And when 

1149
00:49:47,159 --> 00:49:49,215
they see people go down and all of a 

1150
00:49:49,215 --> 00:49:51,639
sudden there's a riot in the reverse 

1151
00:49:51,639 --> 00:49:53,861
direction and they never came out again 

1152
00:49:54,080 --> 00:49:56,399
and a lot of the the news doesn't talk 

1153
00:49:56,399 --> 00:49:59,080
about they they talk about oh women's 

1154
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:01,302
rights , you wanna see women's rights ? 

1155
00:50:01,302 --> 00:50:03,358
You're not gonna see it there . It's 

1156
00:50:03,358 --> 00:50:05,469
amazing when I see some of the stupid 

1157
00:50:05,469 --> 00:50:07,636
people like , you know , AOC + 3 , all 

1158
00:50:07,636 --> 00:50:09,636
that group , they talk about , oh , 

1159
00:50:09,636 --> 00:50:12,040
freedom for Iran , they don't tell you 

1160
00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:15,389
the real facts , women . Men , 

1161
00:50:15,889 --> 00:50:18,689
gays , how about gays for Iran ? 

1162
00:50:19,780 --> 00:50:21,836
They kill the gays . They throw them 

1163
00:50:21,836 --> 00:50:24,002
off buildings . So I , I wonder what , 

1164
00:50:24,002 --> 00:50:26,224
what's going on . I can only say this . 

1165
00:50:27,340 --> 00:50:30,120
They want us to keep bombing even if it 

1166
00:50:30,219 --> 00:50:32,275
jeopardized because their life is in 

1167
00:50:32,275 --> 00:50:34,497
much greater danger . They want freedom 

1168
00:50:34,497 --> 00:50:36,663
for Iran , but it's very hard for them 

1169
00:50:36,663 --> 00:50:38,775
to protest . I actually tell them , I 

1170
00:50:38,775 --> 00:50:40,441
said , don't go out . I fully 

1171
00:50:40,441 --> 00:50:42,608
understand . Nobody in this room would 

1172
00:50:42,608 --> 00:50:41,979
go out . I don't think there's any 

1173
00:50:41,979 --> 00:50:44,090
because frankly , it's not a question 

1174
00:50:44,090 --> 00:50:46,257
of bravery . We're all brave , right ? 

1175
00:50:46,257 --> 00:50:48,312
You're brave . I'm brave . We're all 

1176
00:50:48,312 --> 00:50:50,535
brave , but we're also intelligent . If 

1177
00:50:50,535 --> 00:50:52,679
you have people shooting at you , 

1178
00:50:53,239 --> 00:50:56,000
expert shots with the best rifles you 

1179
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:58,139
can get and hitting you right between 

1180
00:50:58,139 --> 00:51:00,469
the eyes every single time and you're 

1181
00:51:00,469 --> 00:51:02,413
looking here and you're seeing and 

1182
00:51:02,413 --> 00:51:04,413
you're looking here . You're out of 

1183
00:51:04,413 --> 00:51:07,149
there . I don't care who it is . Mark 

1184
00:51:07,149 --> 00:51:09,149
Meredith , Fox News . I know that . 

1185
00:51:11,250 --> 00:51:13,306
Go ahead . America's watching . Uh , 

1186
00:51:13,989 --> 00:51:16,100
can we go back to the weekend ? First 

1187
00:51:16,100 --> 00:51:18,156
off , was everyone on board with the 

1188
00:51:18,156 --> 00:51:20,267
operation , or were there people that 

1189
00:51:20,267 --> 00:51:20,250
were trying to talk you out of going 

1190
00:51:20,250 --> 00:51:22,583
through with the operation this weekend ? 

1191
00:51:22,583 --> 00:51:24,694
Not everybody was on board . Somebody 

1192
00:51:24,694 --> 00:51:26,806
else within . No , there was military 

1193
00:51:26,806 --> 00:51:28,694
people , very professional , that 

1194
00:51:28,694 --> 00:51:30,917
preferred not doing it . These two were 

1195
00:51:30,917 --> 00:51:32,806
totally on board . Which was very 

1196
00:51:32,806 --> 00:51:34,917
important . If they weren't , I would 

1197
00:51:34,917 --> 00:51:37,250
have had a little difficulty , but , uh , 

1198
00:51:37,250 --> 00:51:39,306
no , there were military people that 

1199
00:51:39,306 --> 00:51:41,528
said you just don't do this . You don't 

1200
00:51:41,528 --> 00:51:43,583
go into the heart of a very powerful 

1201
00:51:43,583 --> 00:51:45,694
military , you know , this is , hey , 

1202
00:51:45,694 --> 00:51:47,861
you have countries and countries . You 

1203
00:51:47,861 --> 00:51:50,028
have some countries where the military 

1204
00:51:50,028 --> 00:51:52,139
is not their strong suit . This whole 

1205
00:51:52,139 --> 00:51:54,361
thing is militarized like nobody's ever 

1206
00:51:54,361 --> 00:51:54,129
seen before . Half the people are 

1207
00:51:54,129 --> 00:51:57,929
wearing uniforms . And we had , we had 

1208
00:51:57,929 --> 00:52:00,649
people within the military . Usually 

1209
00:52:00,649 --> 00:52:02,538
it's not done . That's one of the 

1210
00:52:02,538 --> 00:52:04,705
reasons , you know , I was surprised . 

1211
00:52:04,705 --> 00:52:06,816
Somebody said it's the only time it's 

1212
00:52:06,816 --> 00:52:06,370
ever been done . I said that's not 

1213
00:52:06,370 --> 00:52:08,850
possible , but it is possible because 

1214
00:52:08,860 --> 00:52:11,409
you're going into hundreds of thousands 

1215
00:52:11,409 --> 00:52:14,479
of soldiers along the path . I mean , 

1216
00:52:14,530 --> 00:52:16,641
look at some of the helicopters , how 

1217
00:52:16,641 --> 00:52:19,250
they got hit . So yes , there were 

1218
00:52:19,250 --> 00:52:21,306
people within the military that said 

1219
00:52:21,306 --> 00:52:23,417
it's a wise and don't forget how many 

1220
00:52:23,417 --> 00:52:24,972
men did you send altogether 

1221
00:52:24,972 --> 00:52:27,219
approximately for the operation ? I'd 

1222
00:52:27,219 --> 00:52:29,497
love to keep that a secret . OK , well . 

1223
00:52:31,330 --> 00:52:34,020
But I will tell you the number , I'll 

1224
00:52:34,020 --> 00:52:36,860
keep it a secret , but it was 100s and 

1225
00:52:36,860 --> 00:52:39,193
100s of these people , it's pretty good . 

1226
00:52:39,550 --> 00:52:41,790
Is he central , is he central casting , 

1227
00:52:42,229 --> 00:52:45,389
but hundreds of people went into this 

1228
00:52:45,389 --> 00:52:47,611
journey , hundreds of people could have 

1229
00:52:47,611 --> 00:52:49,333
been killed . Forget about the 

1230
00:52:49,333 --> 00:52:51,556
equipment , a lot of equipment . Nobody 

1231
00:52:51,556 --> 00:52:53,667
cares . Hundreds of people could have 

1232
00:52:53,667 --> 00:52:55,667
been killed . So we had people that 

1233
00:52:55,667 --> 00:52:57,889
were within the military that said this 

1234
00:52:57,889 --> 00:53:00,111
is not a wise , and I understood that , 

1235
00:53:00,111 --> 00:53:02,530
but I decided to do it . Was there a 

1236
00:53:02,530 --> 00:53:04,474
point that they were that you were 

1237
00:53:04,474 --> 00:53:06,586
thinking there's too much on the line 

1238
00:53:06,586 --> 00:53:08,752
and somebody was saying maybe we abort 

1239
00:53:08,752 --> 00:53:10,919
this now and wait ? I mean , given the 

1240
00:53:10,919 --> 00:53:12,974
resources like the general said , it 

1241
00:53:12,974 --> 00:53:12,659
seemed like there was so much on the 

1242
00:53:12,659 --> 00:53:14,992
line here . You must have been thinking , 

1243
00:53:14,992 --> 00:53:14,899
well , this could have completely 

1244
00:53:14,899 --> 00:53:17,840
changed . So the first one . Which was 

1245
00:53:17,840 --> 00:53:21,520
in many ways as dangerous as the 2nd I 

1246
00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:23,742
guess it gets because we're flying over 

1247
00:53:23,919 --> 00:53:26,141
daylight , you know , we're the best at 

1248
00:53:26,141 --> 00:53:28,363
the world at night we have goggles that 

1249
00:53:28,363 --> 00:53:30,475
nobody , we have goggles . I've tried 

1250
00:53:30,475 --> 00:53:32,586
them and they're unbelievable . I see 

1251
00:53:32,586 --> 00:53:34,808
better with the goggles at night than I 

1252
00:53:34,808 --> 00:53:36,863
see without them during daylight . I 

1253
00:53:36,863 --> 00:53:39,086
mean daylight today we have a beautiful 

1254
00:53:39,086 --> 00:53:41,419
day . You see just as well with goggles . 

1255
00:53:41,419 --> 00:53:43,830
In many ways it's enhanced . So we have 

1256
00:53:43,830 --> 00:53:45,886
the best in the world , so it's much 

1257
00:53:45,886 --> 00:53:47,941
safer for us to , for us to do it at 

1258
00:53:47,941 --> 00:53:50,163
night , whereas other people , no other 

1259
00:53:50,163 --> 00:53:52,108
country has that capability . They 

1260
00:53:52,108 --> 00:53:54,108
don't have the they don't have that 

1261
00:53:54,108 --> 00:53:56,219
particular piece of equipment like we 

1262
00:53:56,219 --> 00:53:59,800
do . But when I was told flying and in 

1263
00:53:59,800 --> 00:54:02,320
daylight I think we flew 7 hours over 

1264
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:04,260
Iran and that's a long time over 

1265
00:54:04,879 --> 00:54:07,639
unbelievably hostile territory where 

1266
00:54:07,639 --> 00:54:10,040
they have nothing but weapons . We took 

1267
00:54:10,040 --> 00:54:11,984
out their anti-aircraft , which is 

1268
00:54:11,984 --> 00:54:14,207
great . We took out their radar , which 

1269
00:54:14,207 --> 00:54:16,429
is great . We took out a lot , but they 

1270
00:54:16,429 --> 00:54:18,651
still have , you know what hit this one 

1271
00:54:18,651 --> 00:54:20,596
was a shoulder . Handheld shoulder 

1272
00:54:20,596 --> 00:54:22,651
missile heat seeking missile so it's 

1273
00:54:22,651 --> 00:54:24,540
not like you know they're totally 

1274
00:54:24,540 --> 00:54:27,729
whatever but but and they have probably 

1275
00:54:27,729 --> 00:54:29,929
a little luck because you gotta get 

1276
00:54:29,929 --> 00:54:32,489
lucky but they shot it and it got 

1277
00:54:32,489 --> 00:54:34,711
sucked in right by the engine but these 

1278
00:54:34,711 --> 00:54:36,989
guys were out of there they were great , 

1279
00:54:36,989 --> 00:54:39,100
the timing was great . But no , I was 

1280
00:54:39,100 --> 00:54:41,550
told that this is a very dangerous 

1281
00:54:41,550 --> 00:54:43,717
mission . I understood they didn't say 

1282
00:54:43,717 --> 00:54:45,772
it's a foolish mission . They said , 

1283
00:54:45,772 --> 00:54:45,629
you know , we're going to be 

1284
00:54:45,629 --> 00:54:48,030
sacrificing hundreds of people to do 

1285
00:54:48,030 --> 00:54:49,974
this . This is , I mean , you have 

1286
00:54:49,974 --> 00:54:52,141
tankers that are flying over this area 

1287
00:54:52,141 --> 00:54:54,197
so that they could the flight was so 

1288
00:54:54,197 --> 00:54:56,308
long they had to refuel . It's a very 

1289
00:54:56,308 --> 00:54:58,669
dangerous mission . I just felt it was 

1290
00:54:58,669 --> 00:55:00,725
worth it . If you would have told me 

1291
00:55:00,725 --> 00:55:02,780
that we would have been successful , 

1292
00:55:02,780 --> 00:55:04,669
gotten both , and nobody was even 

1293
00:55:04,669 --> 00:55:06,891
essentially injured . I would have said 

1294
00:55:06,891 --> 00:55:09,129
that would be impossible . Yes , thank 

1295
00:55:09,129 --> 00:55:11,351
you very much . Thank you , sir . We'll 

1296
00:55:11,351 --> 00:55:13,889
come back to you . OK . Given that you 

1297
00:55:13,889 --> 00:55:16,111
are now dealing , you say , with a more 

1298
00:55:16,111 --> 00:55:19,120
reasonable , less extreme leadership in 

1299
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:21,649
Iran , what does that mean for the 

1300
00:55:21,649 --> 00:55:23,538
protesters , for the human rights 

1301
00:55:23,538 --> 00:55:25,538
movement in that country after this 

1302
00:55:25,538 --> 00:55:28,330
conflict ? What's your , if they assume 

1303
00:55:28,330 --> 00:55:30,441
control , if we do something and they 

1304
00:55:30,441 --> 00:55:32,386
assume control , I think it's very 

1305
00:55:32,386 --> 00:55:34,497
positive , a big step . I don't think 

1306
00:55:34,497 --> 00:55:36,608
you'd see the radicalization that you 

1307
00:55:36,608 --> 00:55:38,497
have seen in the last , look what 

1308
00:55:38,497 --> 00:55:40,497
happened . I mean , women are being 

1309
00:55:40,497 --> 00:55:42,608
executed because they're not properly 

1310
00:55:42,608 --> 00:55:44,830
clothed , they say they're not properly 

1311
00:55:44,830 --> 00:55:46,997
clothed , and they execute the women . 

1312
00:55:46,997 --> 00:55:49,219
They absolutely , they shoot them right 

1313
00:55:49,219 --> 00:55:51,540
on the street . No , you have a much 

1314
00:55:51,540 --> 00:55:53,651
different group of people . Now , I'm 

1315
00:55:53,651 --> 00:55:55,762
not saying we are dealing with them . 

1316
00:55:56,050 --> 00:55:59,239
Uh , Essentially they have till 8 

1317
00:55:59,239 --> 00:56:01,350
o'clock tomorrow night Eastern time , 

1318
00:56:01,770 --> 00:56:03,937
but we are dealing with them . I think 

1319
00:56:03,937 --> 00:56:06,103
it's going well . Mr . Witkoff is here 

1320
00:56:06,103 --> 00:56:08,770
and JD is involved in the dealing . Mr . 

1321
00:56:08,889 --> 00:56:10,945
Whitkoff is sitting right here and I 

1322
00:56:10,945 --> 00:56:13,111
think it's going fine , but we'll have 

1323
00:56:13,111 --> 00:56:15,222
to see . You have to understand we've 

1324
00:56:15,222 --> 00:56:17,333
been dealing with these people for 47 

1325
00:56:17,333 --> 00:56:20,219
years . I'm standing here with a much 

1326
00:56:20,219 --> 00:56:24,120
more powerful Iran . As of a 

1327
00:56:24,120 --> 00:56:26,120
month ago , not anymore . Right now 

1328
00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:28,389
they are decapitated , but I'm standing 

1329
00:56:28,389 --> 00:56:30,590
here a month ago with a much more 

1330
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:33,167
powerful Iran than it was at any point 

1331
00:56:33,167 --> 00:56:35,689
during 47 years . This should have been 

1332
00:56:35,689 --> 00:56:38,850
handled by 7 presidents , a lot of 

1333
00:56:38,850 --> 00:56:41,409
presidents , and those presidents are 

1334
00:56:41,409 --> 00:56:43,631
saying now , every one of them to their 

1335
00:56:43,631 --> 00:56:45,687
friends , we should have done this a 

1336
00:56:45,687 --> 00:56:47,909
long time ago , so it's not something I 

1337
00:56:47,909 --> 00:56:50,189
like doing . It's very dangerous and 

1338
00:56:50,189 --> 00:56:52,669
we're getting them at the height of of 

1339
00:56:52,669 --> 00:56:55,110
their strength . If I didn't terminate 

1340
00:56:55,110 --> 00:56:57,909
the Barack Hussein Obama Iran nuclear 

1341
00:56:57,909 --> 00:57:00,389
deal , they would have had a , don't 

1342
00:57:00,389 --> 00:57:02,389
forget that was a path to a nuclear 

1343
00:57:02,389 --> 00:57:04,909
weapon . Remember this . He chose Iran 

1344
00:57:04,909 --> 00:57:08,189
over Israel , pure and simple . How 

1345
00:57:09,020 --> 00:57:11,830
how Israel can vote for a Democrat is 

1346
00:57:12,030 --> 00:57:14,929
if you're Jewish in New York City . Or 

1347
00:57:14,929 --> 00:57:17,040
anyplace else in this country and how 

1348
00:57:17,040 --> 00:57:19,530
you can vote for a Democrat is 

1349
00:57:19,530 --> 00:57:23,489
unbelievable because he chose Iran , a 

1350
00:57:23,489 --> 00:57:25,570
very hostile Iran . Remember when he 

1351
00:57:25,570 --> 00:57:28,649
filled up a 757 with cash , billions of 

1352
00:57:28,649 --> 00:57:30,969
dollars of cash , and he sent it over 

1353
00:57:30,969 --> 00:57:33,290
to them . Then they gave him tens of 

1354
00:57:33,290 --> 00:57:35,879
billions of dollars . He chose Iran 

1355
00:57:35,879 --> 00:57:39,010
over Israel and really the Arab world 

1356
00:57:39,010 --> 00:57:41,177
if you look , because , you know , the 

1357
00:57:41,177 --> 00:57:44,469
other Saudi Arabia , Qatar , UAE . I 

1358
00:57:44,469 --> 00:57:46,691
mean you take a look . I mean I can add 

1359
00:57:46,691 --> 00:57:48,909
Kuwait and I can add Bahrain and you 

1360
00:57:48,909 --> 00:57:52,310
can add others . He chose such an 

1361
00:57:52,310 --> 00:57:55,110
unlikely candidate nobody could believe 

1362
00:57:55,110 --> 00:57:57,110
it frankly , if you're gonna choose 

1363
00:57:57,110 --> 00:57:59,277
between Iraq and Iran , he should have 

1364
00:57:59,277 --> 00:58:02,120
chosen , he should have befriended Iraq . 

1365
00:58:02,310 --> 00:58:05,629
He went in the exact opposite direction 

1366
00:58:05,629 --> 00:58:08,030
of of all thinking and he made a 

1367
00:58:08,030 --> 00:58:10,649
terrible mistake , but that was a road 

1368
00:58:10,649 --> 00:58:12,870
to a nuclear weapon and when I 

1369
00:58:12,870 --> 00:58:15,139
terminated that . Everyone said , oh , 

1370
00:58:15,209 --> 00:58:17,265
he terminated it . It was one of the 

1371
00:58:17,265 --> 00:58:19,431
best things we ever did because he had 

1372
00:58:19,431 --> 00:58:21,542
a road to a nuclear weapon and It was 

1373
00:58:21,542 --> 00:58:23,765
gonna , it was a very short term deal , 

1374
00:58:23,765 --> 00:58:25,876
you know , countries don't do 10 year 

1375
00:58:25,876 --> 00:58:28,153
deals . Countries do hundreds of years . 

1376
00:58:28,153 --> 00:58:30,042
You don't do a 10 year deal for a 

1377
00:58:30,042 --> 00:58:32,209
country you need this isn't , you're a 

1378
00:58:32,209 --> 00:58:34,376
landlord , you're renting a store on , 

1379
00:58:34,376 --> 00:58:36,209
on a certain street and you give 

1380
00:58:36,209 --> 00:58:38,265
somebody a 5 year or 10 year lease . 

1381
00:58:38,265 --> 00:58:40,487
This is a country . It was a short term 

1382
00:58:40,487 --> 00:58:42,376
deal . It was ready to expire . I 

1383
00:58:42,376 --> 00:58:44,542
terminated it before it expired , took 

1384
00:58:44,542 --> 00:58:46,653
a lot of heat , and it was one of the 

1385
00:58:46,653 --> 00:58:46,530
best things I ever did because he would 

1386
00:58:46,530 --> 00:58:48,530
have had a nuclear weapon , then he 

1387
00:58:48,530 --> 00:58:50,752
would have had another nuclear weapon . 

1388
00:58:50,752 --> 00:58:52,752
Had those beautiful B-2 bombers not 

1389
00:58:52,752 --> 00:58:54,363
gone in eight months ago and 

1390
00:58:54,363 --> 00:58:56,419
obliterated that it and by the way , 

1391
00:58:56,419 --> 00:58:58,929
the word is obliteration . CNN said , 

1392
00:58:59,250 --> 00:59:01,306
well , maybe it wasn't complete , it 

1393
00:59:01,306 --> 00:59:03,528
was so complete that they still haven't 

1394
00:59:03,528 --> 00:59:05,139
been able to get it . It was 

1395
00:59:05,139 --> 00:59:07,417
obliteration but if we didn't hit them , 

1396
00:59:07,570 --> 00:59:09,514
that was a courageous decision too 

1397
00:59:09,514 --> 00:59:11,681
because we had all those planes flying 

1398
00:59:11,681 --> 00:59:14,040
in at night . With very little cover , 

1399
00:59:14,120 --> 00:59:16,719
unbelievable stealth planes , and they 

1400
00:59:16,719 --> 00:59:18,840
were able to do their job . If we 

1401
00:59:18,840 --> 00:59:21,800
didn't do that , Iran would have had a 

1402
00:59:21,800 --> 00:59:24,879
nuclear weapon at a high level , either 

1403
00:59:24,879 --> 00:59:26,879
one of those two instances , and if 

1404
00:59:26,879 --> 00:59:29,520
they did , in my opinion , I told this 

1405
00:59:29,520 --> 00:59:32,620
to Bibi Netanyahu yesterday , Israel 

1406
00:59:33,159 --> 00:59:36,100
would have been extinguished . Large 

1407
00:59:36,100 --> 00:59:38,379
portions of the Middle East would have 

1408
00:59:38,379 --> 00:59:40,546
been extinguished , whether it's Saudi 

1409
00:59:40,546 --> 00:59:43,820
Arabia , Qatar , UAE , or others , and 

1410
00:59:43,820 --> 00:59:46,042
you saw that with thousands of missiles 

1411
00:59:46,042 --> 00:59:48,098
raining down upon them . They didn't 

1412
00:59:48,098 --> 00:59:50,264
think they were going to be hit . They 

1413
00:59:50,264 --> 00:59:52,376
thought they'd be watching us fight , 

1414
00:59:52,376 --> 00:59:54,598
and all of a sudden UAE got hit by 1500 

1415
00:59:54,598 --> 00:59:56,820
missiles . He would have taken them out 

1416
00:59:56,820 --> 01:00:00,280
also . And they were powerful . If I 

1417
01:00:00,280 --> 01:00:02,709
didn't come along and terminate the 

1418
01:00:02,709 --> 01:00:04,820
Obama deal , which was terrible , the 

1419
01:00:04,820 --> 01:00:07,550
Iran nuclear deal was a road to a 

1420
01:00:07,550 --> 01:00:09,828
nuclear weapon , a big one , unlimited , 

1421
01:00:09,828 --> 01:00:13,439
legally . I terminated it without even 

1422
01:00:13,439 --> 01:00:16,129
much thought . It was so easy . I 

1423
01:00:16,129 --> 01:00:18,129
terminated that and then the B-2 

1424
01:00:18,129 --> 01:00:20,449
bombers , and I did one other thing . I 

1425
01:00:20,449 --> 01:00:23,770
had killed . Qasem 

1426
01:00:24,239 --> 01:00:27,000
Soleimani , who was an evil genius . 

1427
01:00:27,780 --> 01:00:29,836
And the reason I did it , I heard he 

1428
01:00:29,836 --> 01:00:31,613
was going to knock out 5 of our 

1429
01:00:31,899 --> 01:00:35,659
military bases . And Had 

1430
01:00:35,659 --> 01:00:37,580
he lived , I believe we would be 

1431
01:00:37,580 --> 01:00:41,540
fighting perhaps a different . Iran 

1432
01:00:41,540 --> 01:00:44,139
right now because , because he's never , 

1433
01:00:44,800 --> 01:00:46,911
he's never been replaced , you know , 

1434
01:00:46,911 --> 01:00:49,133
and I also , I did one other , but this 

1435
01:00:49,133 --> 01:00:51,467
one was not picked up . Osama bin Laden . 

1436
01:00:52,360 --> 01:00:54,582
If you read my book , I said you got to 

1437
01:00:54,582 --> 01:00:56,804
take them out one year before the World 

1438
01:00:56,804 --> 01:00:58,749
Trade Center came down , so I wish 

1439
01:00:58,749 --> 01:01:02,479
you'd read the book , but , but you as 

1440
01:01:02,479 --> 01:01:05,340
a president . To be a good president , 

1441
01:01:05,379 --> 01:01:07,157
I believe you have to have good 

1442
01:01:07,157 --> 01:01:08,990
instincts , and a lot of this is 

1443
01:01:08,990 --> 01:01:10,435
instinct . Yes , please . 

1444
01:01:14,020 --> 01:01:16,110
Last week , last week you suggested 

1445
01:01:16,110 --> 01:01:18,110
that Europe should take the lead on 

1446
01:01:18,110 --> 01:01:20,166
reopening the Strait of Hormuz . Has 

1447
01:01:20,166 --> 01:01:22,277
circumstances changed now that you're 

1448
01:01:22,277 --> 01:01:24,939
issuing a direct 48 hour , I mean 48 

1449
01:01:24,939 --> 01:01:27,520
hour ultimatum ? And secondly , would a 

1450
01:01:27,520 --> 01:01:29,631
new ceasefire include Israel or would 

1451
01:01:29,631 --> 01:01:31,798
it just be between Iran and can't talk 

1452
01:01:31,798 --> 01:01:33,853
about ceasefire , but I can tell you 

1453
01:01:33,853 --> 01:01:37,199
that we have . An active , willing 

1454
01:01:37,199 --> 01:01:39,255
participant on the other side . They 

1455
01:01:39,255 --> 01:01:41,421
would like to be able to make a deal . 

1456
01:01:41,421 --> 01:01:43,255
I can't say any more than that . 

1457
01:01:49,310 --> 01:01:51,366
Thank you , Mr . President . Who are 

1458
01:01:51,366 --> 01:01:53,477
you with ? Who are you ? My name is . 

1459
01:01:53,477 --> 01:01:53,280
I'm with the largest Kurdish media 

1460
01:01:53,280 --> 01:01:55,447
outlet Ruda Media Network . It's based 

1461
01:01:55,447 --> 01:01:57,558
in Iran . Go ahead , Mr . President , 

1462
01:01:57,879 --> 01:02:00,120
you said before that you don't want the 

1463
01:02:00,120 --> 01:02:02,120
Kurdish forces to enter Iran and be 

1464
01:02:02,120 --> 01:02:04,475
harmed . Do you still want them to stay 

1465
01:02:04,475 --> 01:02:06,642
away , or what role do you expect them 

1466
01:02:06,642 --> 01:02:08,905
to play now ? I'd rather have them stay 

1467
01:02:08,905 --> 01:02:11,635
away . I'd rather have them stay away 

1468
01:02:11,635 --> 01:02:13,691
because I think they bring with them 

1469
01:02:13,691 --> 01:02:15,802
some problems and some difficulties , 

1470
01:02:15,802 --> 01:02:17,968
and I don't think they bring death , I 

1471
01:02:17,968 --> 01:02:20,079
mean , you know , to themselves , but 

1472
01:02:20,079 --> 01:02:21,913
I'd rather have them stay away . 

1473
01:02:24,810 --> 01:02:26,866
Thank you , Mr . President , for the 

1474
01:02:26,866 --> 01:02:28,699
question . Deliberate attacks on 

1475
01:02:28,699 --> 01:02:30,699
civilian infrastructure violate the 

1476
01:02:30,699 --> 01:02:32,760
Geneva Conventions and international 

1477
01:02:32,760 --> 01:02:34,871
law . Who are you with ? I'm with The 

1478
01:02:34,871 --> 01:02:36,871
New York Times , Zolan from The New 

1479
01:02:36,871 --> 01:02:39,149
York Times . Are you failing , failing . 

1480
01:02:39,149 --> 01:02:41,371
Are you circulation way down at The New 

1481
01:02:41,371 --> 01:02:43,371
York Times . Are you concerned that 

1482
01:02:43,371 --> 01:02:43,320
your threat to bomb power plants and 

1483
01:02:43,320 --> 01:02:46,840
bridges amount to . I hope I don't have 

1484
01:02:46,840 --> 01:02:50,620
to do it . But again , I just said 47 

1485
01:02:50,620 --> 01:02:52,620
years they've been negotiating with 

1486
01:02:52,620 --> 01:02:54,231
these people . They're great 

1487
01:02:54,231 --> 01:02:56,231
negotiators and because they're not 

1488
01:02:56,231 --> 01:02:58,820
gonna have a nuclear weapon . And if 

1489
01:02:58,820 --> 01:03:01,620
somebody that takes my place someday is 

1490
01:03:01,620 --> 01:03:03,731
weak and ineffective , which possibly 

1491
01:03:03,731 --> 01:03:05,509
that will happen because we had 

1492
01:03:05,620 --> 01:03:07,676
numerous presidents that were weak , 

1493
01:03:07,676 --> 01:03:09,620
ineffective , and afraid of Iran , 

1494
01:03:10,219 --> 01:03:12,590
we're never going to let . Iran has a 

1495
01:03:12,590 --> 01:03:15,649
nuclear weapon and if you think it's OK 

1496
01:03:15,649 --> 01:03:18,350
for people that are sick of mind that 

1497
01:03:18,350 --> 01:03:21,810
are Tough , smart , and sick , 

1498
01:03:22,389 --> 01:03:25,830
really sick , you know , from , from a 

1499
01:03:25,830 --> 01:03:29,469
policy standpoint , from a stand any 

1500
01:03:29,469 --> 01:03:31,525
which way you want to say mentally , 

1501
01:03:31,525 --> 01:03:33,719
these are disturbed people . If you 

1502
01:03:33,719 --> 01:03:35,608
think I'm going to allow them and 

1503
01:03:35,608 --> 01:03:38,909
powerful and rich to have a nuclear 

1504
01:03:38,909 --> 01:03:41,020
weapon , you can tell your friends at 

1505
01:03:41,020 --> 01:03:42,909
the New York Times , not going to 

1506
01:03:42,909 --> 01:03:46,469
happen . means 

1507
01:03:46,469 --> 01:03:48,989
violating international law . You no 

1508
01:03:48,989 --> 01:03:51,211
longer have credibility at The New York 

1509
01:03:51,211 --> 01:03:53,433
Times because the New York Times said , 

1510
01:03:53,433 --> 01:03:55,656
oh , Trump won't win the election , and 

1511
01:03:55,656 --> 01:03:57,600
I won in a landslide . I won every 

1512
01:03:57,600 --> 01:03:57,350
swing state . The New York Times said , 

1513
01:03:57,389 --> 01:03:59,611
oh , Trump won't win the election . The 

1514
01:03:59,611 --> 01:04:01,833
New York Times has no credibility . The 

1515
01:04:01,833 --> 01:04:04,000
credibility they have is it used to be 

1516
01:04:04,219 --> 01:04:06,275
all the news that's fit to print , a 

1517
01:04:06,275 --> 01:04:08,219
great , the old gray lady , it was 

1518
01:04:08,219 --> 01:04:10,330
great , but they're , they're running 

1519
01:04:10,330 --> 01:04:12,497
on past fumes and you can't keep doing 

1520
01:04:12,497 --> 01:04:14,663
that . You have to be able to give the 

1521
01:04:14,663 --> 01:04:16,830
correct news and people like you who I 

1522
01:04:16,830 --> 01:04:18,830
know . Are fake . You're fake . Go 

1523
01:04:18,830 --> 01:04:21,719
ahead , please . Your messaging on the 

1524
01:04:21,719 --> 01:04:23,989
war has moved from the war is coming to 

1525
01:04:23,989 --> 01:04:26,120
an end to we're going to be bombing 

1526
01:04:26,120 --> 01:04:28,064
Iran to the Stone Ages , and we've 

1527
01:04:28,064 --> 01:04:30,398
heard a range of those kind of messages . 

1528
01:04:30,840 --> 01:04:32,951
So are you , so which is it ? Are you 

1529
01:04:32,951 --> 01:04:35,118
winding this down ? Are you can't tell 

1530
01:04:35,118 --> 01:04:37,340
you . I don't know . I can't tell you . 

1531
01:04:37,340 --> 01:04:39,340
It depends what they do . This is a 

1532
01:04:39,340 --> 01:04:41,673
critical period . They have a period of , 

1533
01:04:41,673 --> 01:04:44,629
well , till tomorrow at 8 o'clock . I 

1534
01:04:44,629 --> 01:04:46,851
gave them an extension . They asked for 

1535
01:04:46,851 --> 01:04:49,185
an extension of 7 days , right ? I said , 

1536
01:04:49,439 --> 01:04:52,250
Steve , give them 10 days . 

1537
01:04:53,379 --> 01:04:56,070
10 days is up actually today , so I 

1538
01:04:56,070 --> 01:04:58,229
gave them 11 , I guess indirectly . I 

1539
01:04:58,229 --> 01:05:00,285
thought it was inappropriate the day 

1540
01:05:00,285 --> 01:05:02,618
after Easter . I wanna be a nice person . 

1541
01:05:02,629 --> 01:05:05,790
Uh , they have till tomorrow . Now 

1542
01:05:05,790 --> 01:05:08,149
we'll see what happens . I can tell you 

1543
01:05:08,149 --> 01:05:10,316
they're negotiating , we think in good 

1544
01:05:10,316 --> 01:05:12,538
faith . We're going to find out . We're 

1545
01:05:12,538 --> 01:05:14,538
getting the help of some incredible 

1546
01:05:14,538 --> 01:05:17,679
countries that want this to be ended 

1547
01:05:17,679 --> 01:05:19,901
because it affects them also . A lot of 

1548
01:05:19,901 --> 01:05:22,123
people are affected by this . But we're 

1549
01:05:22,123 --> 01:05:24,500
giving them , uh , we're giving them 

1550
01:05:24,500 --> 01:05:27,350
till tomorrow 8 o'clock Eastern time 

1551
01:05:27,750 --> 01:05:30,030
and after that they're gonna have no 

1552
01:05:30,030 --> 01:05:32,310
bridges , they're gonna have no power 

1553
01:05:32,310 --> 01:05:35,870
plants . Stone Ages , yeah , 

1554
01:05:36,159 --> 01:05:37,159
Stone Ages . 

1555
01:05:39,260 --> 01:05:43,179
CNN fake , are you willing 

1556
01:05:43,179 --> 01:05:45,679
to make a deal that does not include 

1557
01:05:45,840 --> 01:05:48,007
reopening the Strait of Hormuz , or is 

1558
01:05:48,007 --> 01:05:50,118
that now a top priority ? I would say 

1559
01:05:50,118 --> 01:05:53,030
it's a very big priority because See , 

1560
01:05:53,110 --> 01:05:55,332
that's that's one thing that's a little 

1561
01:05:55,332 --> 01:05:57,388
different than other things . We can 

1562
01:05:57,388 --> 01:05:59,332
bomb the hell out of them . We can 

1563
01:05:59,332 --> 01:06:01,277
knock them out for a loop . But to 

1564
01:06:01,277 --> 01:06:03,443
close the strait , all you need is one 

1565
01:06:03,443 --> 01:06:06,090
terrorist . That somehow has a truck 

1566
01:06:06,149 --> 01:06:08,316
loaded with because you can carry them 

1567
01:06:08,316 --> 01:06:11,090
in trucks , large trucks , a water mine , 

1568
01:06:11,629 --> 01:06:14,060
drop them in the water . And now you 

1569
01:06:14,060 --> 01:06:16,227
tell people that own ships that cost a 

1570
01:06:16,227 --> 01:06:18,282
billion dollars to don't worry about 

1571
01:06:18,282 --> 01:06:20,504
the mine . You can do that even just by 

1572
01:06:20,504 --> 01:06:22,616
saying we put mines in the water . So 

1573
01:06:22,616 --> 01:06:24,727
it's not like the rest . We can knock 

1574
01:06:24,727 --> 01:06:26,893
out their military . We already have . 

1575
01:06:26,893 --> 01:06:28,949
We've knocked out their navy . We've 

1576
01:06:28,949 --> 01:06:31,227
knocked out their air force completely . 

1577
01:06:31,227 --> 01:06:33,449
We've knocked out 158 ships in 3 days . 

1578
01:06:33,449 --> 01:06:35,338
We've knocked out even their mine 

1579
01:06:35,338 --> 01:06:37,338
droppers . They don't have any mine 

1580
01:06:37,338 --> 01:06:39,560
droppers anymore , but they put them on 

1581
01:06:39,560 --> 01:06:39,409
other boats and they could drop them . 

1582
01:06:39,489 --> 01:06:41,600
I'm not even sure they have any mines 

1583
01:06:41,600 --> 01:06:43,600
yet , by the way . I'm not sure . I 

1584
01:06:43,600 --> 01:06:45,822
don't , I'm personally , they say there 

1585
01:06:45,822 --> 01:06:47,822
might be 8 . I don't know . I don't 

1586
01:06:47,822 --> 01:06:50,156
know . I think there might be none . Uh , 

1587
01:06:50,156 --> 01:06:52,100
because they're very good bullshit 

1588
01:06:52,100 --> 01:06:53,989
artists , that's why for 47 years 

1589
01:06:53,989 --> 01:06:53,290
they've been bullshitting other 

1590
01:06:53,290 --> 01:06:55,457
presidents , and they haven't done the 

1591
01:06:55,457 --> 01:06:58,090
job , and people are living in hell . 

1592
01:06:58,330 --> 01:07:00,274
You live in that country , they're 

1593
01:07:00,274 --> 01:07:02,608
living in hell . Uh , no , I think that , 

1594
01:07:02,608 --> 01:07:06,489
uh , 47 years . Of this stuff is 

1595
01:07:06,489 --> 01:07:09,050
long enough . They're at the weakest 

1596
01:07:09,050 --> 01:07:11,500
point they've ever been . They have no 

1597
01:07:11,500 --> 01:07:13,556
navy . They have no air force . They 

1598
01:07:13,556 --> 01:07:16,000
have no anti-aircraft . Weaponry , they 

1599
01:07:16,000 --> 01:07:17,611
have no radar . They have no 

1600
01:07:17,611 --> 01:07:19,722
communication . In fact , the biggest 

1601
01:07:19,722 --> 01:07:21,833
problem we have in our negotiation is 

1602
01:07:21,833 --> 01:07:24,056
that they can't communicate . I said to 

1603
01:07:24,056 --> 01:07:26,111
Steve , what are they saying , Sir ? 

1604
01:07:26,111 --> 01:07:28,222
They can't communicate . They have no 

1605
01:07:28,222 --> 01:07:30,167
method of communication . So we're 

1606
01:07:30,167 --> 01:07:32,278
doing , we're communicating like they 

1607
01:07:32,278 --> 01:07:34,500
used to communicate 2000 years ago with 

1608
01:07:34,500 --> 01:07:36,833
children bringing a note back and forth . 

1609
01:07:36,833 --> 01:07:40,040
They have no communication , but all I 

1610
01:07:40,040 --> 01:07:41,984
want to see is I wanna have a safe 

1611
01:07:41,984 --> 01:07:43,984
world , and you're not gonna have a 

1612
01:07:43,984 --> 01:07:46,929
safe world . Israel will be gone . The 

1613
01:07:46,929 --> 01:07:48,969
Middle East will be gone , and then 

1614
01:07:48,969 --> 01:07:51,136
they're coming for Europe , and I have 

1615
01:07:51,136 --> 01:07:53,302
to tell you , I'm very disappointed in 

1616
01:07:53,302 --> 01:07:55,850
NATO , very , I think that NATO . I 

1617
01:07:55,850 --> 01:07:58,139
think it's a mark on NATO that will 

1618
01:07:58,139 --> 01:08:00,361
never disappear , never disappear in my 

1619
01:08:00,361 --> 01:08:02,583
mind , you know , they're coming to see 

1620
01:08:02,583 --> 01:08:02,159
me on Wednesday . They're going to say , 

1621
01:08:02,209 --> 01:08:04,265
oh , we'll do this , we'll do that . 

1622
01:08:04,330 --> 01:08:06,441
Now they all of a sudden want to send 

1623
01:08:06,441 --> 01:08:08,497
things , you know . But they said it 

1624
01:08:08,497 --> 01:08:10,663
loud and clear at the beginning when I 

1625
01:08:10,663 --> 01:08:12,830
spoke to UK of all , I would have said 

1626
01:08:12,830 --> 01:08:12,770
they would have been the first because 

1627
01:08:12,770 --> 01:08:15,489
they've been , they're the oldest . And 

1628
01:08:15,489 --> 01:08:17,378
I say , yeah , I'd love to have a 

1629
01:08:17,378 --> 01:08:19,600
little help . He said , no , sir , we'd 

1630
01:08:19,600 --> 01:08:21,600
rather wait till you win . I said I 

1631
01:08:21,600 --> 01:08:23,600
don't need help after we win . They 

1632
01:08:23,600 --> 01:08:25,711
have two old broken aircraft carriers 

1633
01:08:25,711 --> 01:08:27,822
barely work . I said , I guess we can 

1634
01:08:27,822 --> 01:08:29,711
use them . Who the hell knows ? I 

1635
01:08:29,711 --> 01:08:31,711
called the general . He didn't even 

1636
01:08:31,711 --> 01:08:33,822
want them . He said , we don't really 

1637
01:08:33,822 --> 01:08:35,767
need them . We got , we got the SS 

1638
01:08:35,767 --> 01:08:37,878
Abraham Lincoln , sir . We don't need 

1639
01:08:37,878 --> 01:08:39,989
them . You know , we have in terms of 

1640
01:08:39,989 --> 01:08:41,979
technology , we had one day 101 

1641
01:08:41,979 --> 01:08:45,299
missiles going at 2700 miles an hour 

1642
01:08:45,299 --> 01:08:48,849
aimed at the Abraham Lincoln . 101 

1643
01:08:48,849 --> 01:08:51,539
missiles out of 101 missiles , 

1644
01:08:52,059 --> 01:08:54,898
101 missiles were shot down . 

1645
01:08:55,569 --> 01:08:59,160
Unbelievable technology . 10 years ago , 

1646
01:08:59,240 --> 01:09:01,184
5 years ago , I don't know if that 

1647
01:09:01,184 --> 01:09:03,407
would have been possible , but 10 years 

1648
01:09:03,407 --> 01:09:05,184
ago that would have been . That 

1649
01:09:05,184 --> 01:09:07,669
wouldn't have been possible . 101 

1650
01:09:07,669 --> 01:09:10,930
missiles heading to a ship . That's not 

1651
01:09:10,930 --> 01:09:14,709
that far off the coast . And out of the 

1652
01:09:14,709 --> 01:09:18,040
101 missiles we shot down all 101 . We 

1653
01:09:18,040 --> 01:09:20,549
have weaponry . The Patriots are 

1654
01:09:20,549 --> 01:09:22,438
unbelievable . We have weaponry . 

1655
01:09:23,089 --> 01:09:24,700
That's unbelievable , yeah . 

1656
01:09:28,479 --> 01:09:30,535
Go ahead , please . Thank you , Mr . 

1657
01:09:30,535 --> 01:09:32,757
President . Um , you said earlier today 

1658
01:09:32,757 --> 01:09:34,979
during the egg roll that you would like 

1659
01:09:34,979 --> 01:09:37,398
to take Iran's oil , but Americans want 

1660
01:09:37,398 --> 01:09:39,639
US forces home . Correct ? What's that 

1661
01:09:39,639 --> 01:09:41,750
trade-off ? If I had my choice , if I 

1662
01:09:41,750 --> 01:09:43,806
had my choice , yeah , because I'm a 

1663
01:09:43,806 --> 01:09:47,139
businessman first with Venezuela , 

1664
01:09:47,838 --> 01:09:50,060
as you know , the war was over in about 

1665
01:09:50,060 --> 01:09:53,399
45 minutes . And we have great people 

1666
01:09:53,399 --> 01:09:55,566
running Venezuela , very good people . 

1667
01:09:55,566 --> 01:09:57,788
I mean , the relationship is good , and 

1668
01:09:57,788 --> 01:10:00,439
we are a partner with Venezuela and 

1669
01:10:00,439 --> 01:10:03,470
we've taken hundreds of millions of 

1670
01:10:03,470 --> 01:10:05,879
barrels , hundreds of millions , over 

1671
01:10:05,879 --> 01:10:09,520
100 million barrels already is in 

1672
01:10:09,520 --> 01:10:13,290
Houston refined and out . And paid for 

1673
01:10:13,290 --> 01:10:15,457
that war many , many times over , many 

1674
01:10:15,457 --> 01:10:17,623
times , you know , the old days to the 

1675
01:10:17,623 --> 01:10:21,529
victim . OK , you know that to the , 

1676
01:10:22,189 --> 01:10:25,270
uh , to the winner belong the spoils go 

1677
01:10:25,270 --> 01:10:27,437
the spoils , and I've said , why don't 

1678
01:10:27,437 --> 01:10:30,419
we use it to the victor go the spoils , 

1679
01:10:30,430 --> 01:10:32,652
and we don't have that , we haven't had 

1680
01:10:32,652 --> 01:10:34,708
that in this country probably in 100 

1681
01:10:34,708 --> 01:10:37,041
years because even the Second World War , 

1682
01:10:37,041 --> 01:10:39,152
you look at the Second World War , we 

1683
01:10:39,152 --> 01:10:39,029
didn't have it with the Second World . 

1684
01:10:39,069 --> 01:10:41,291
We helped rebuild all those countries . 

1685
01:10:41,291 --> 01:10:43,458
We rebuild Germany . How about Germany 

1686
01:10:43,458 --> 01:10:45,625
telling us , Germany telling us that , 

1687
01:10:45,625 --> 01:10:48,740
uh , well , it's not their war . We had 

1688
01:10:48,740 --> 01:10:50,907
nothing to do with it . They wanted me 

1689
01:10:50,907 --> 01:10:52,962
to go and tell them everything I was 

1690
01:10:52,962 --> 01:10:55,073
doing . We didn't know anything about 

1691
01:10:55,073 --> 01:10:57,296
it . Well , if I would have told them , 

1692
01:10:57,296 --> 01:10:59,129
they would have leaked it and we 

1693
01:10:59,129 --> 01:11:01,462
wouldn't have been nearly as successful , 

1694
01:11:01,462 --> 01:11:03,518
possibly , right ? But to the victor 

1695
01:11:03,518 --> 01:11:05,851
belong the spoils , so we haven't heard , 

1696
01:11:05,851 --> 01:11:07,907
we haven't heard that in , I think , 

1697
01:11:07,907 --> 01:11:09,950
maybe hundreds of years . Now with 

1698
01:11:09,950 --> 01:11:12,228
Venezuela , and just so you understand , 

1699
01:11:12,228 --> 01:11:14,450
the people of Venezuela , they say if I 

1700
01:11:14,450 --> 01:11:17,660
ran for president of Venezuela , I'm 

1701
01:11:17,660 --> 01:11:19,716
polling higher than anybody has ever 

1702
01:11:19,716 --> 01:11:21,660
polled in Venezuela , so after I'm 

1703
01:11:21,660 --> 01:11:23,493
finished with this , I can go to 

1704
01:11:23,493 --> 01:11:25,327
Venezuela . I will quickly learn 

1705
01:11:25,327 --> 01:11:27,493
Spanish . It won't take too long . I'm 

1706
01:11:27,493 --> 01:11:29,493
good at language , and I will go to 

1707
01:11:29,493 --> 01:11:31,827
Venezuela . I'm gonna run for president , 

1708
01:11:31,827 --> 01:11:31,620
but we're very happy with the 

1709
01:11:31,620 --> 01:11:33,898
president-elect that we have right now , 

1710
01:11:33,898 --> 01:11:36,180
the , the , the people that are running 

1711
01:11:36,180 --> 01:11:39,439
it . If you remember Bush with Iraq , 

1712
01:11:40,299 --> 01:11:42,355
they fired the generals , they fired 

1713
01:11:42,355 --> 01:11:44,577
the police , they fired the people that 

1714
01:11:44,577 --> 01:11:46,577
worked in there . Equivalent of the 

1715
01:11:46,577 --> 01:11:48,743
White House , they fired everybody and 

1716
01:11:48,743 --> 01:11:50,910
you know what they had they had a mess 

1717
01:11:50,910 --> 01:11:52,799
and you know what happened ? ISIS 

1718
01:11:52,799 --> 01:11:54,577
formed those generals and those 

1719
01:11:54,577 --> 01:11:56,632
soldiers got together the police got 

1720
01:11:56,632 --> 01:11:58,855
together , they all got together , they 

1721
01:11:58,855 --> 01:12:01,077
formed ISIS not gonna happen with us so 

1722
01:12:01,077 --> 01:12:03,188
uh Venezuela has been an incredible , 

1723
01:12:03,188 --> 01:12:05,355
it's been an incredible situation . We 

1724
01:12:05,355 --> 01:12:07,243
went in , we were very successful 

1725
01:12:07,243 --> 01:12:09,410
military power like nobody's ever seen 

1726
01:12:09,410 --> 01:12:12,149
the general , uh , Venezuelan general 

1727
01:12:12,149 --> 01:12:14,260
said I was on that site . I said I've 

1728
01:12:14,260 --> 01:12:16,529
never seen . Ferocity like that . I've 

1729
01:12:16,529 --> 01:12:18,807
been doing this for 40 years , he said . 

1730
01:12:18,807 --> 01:12:20,918
I've never seen it . They hit us from 

1731
01:12:20,918 --> 01:12:23,251
17 different . It was they were all set . 

1732
01:12:24,089 --> 01:12:26,450
They saw that big beautiful aircraft 

1733
01:12:26,450 --> 01:12:28,970
carrier , the Ford in that case , and 

1734
01:12:28,970 --> 01:12:30,859
planes were pouring off it at one 

1735
01:12:30,859 --> 01:12:32,979
o'clock in the morning , so typically 

1736
01:12:32,979 --> 01:12:35,370
when you see that late at night you 

1737
01:12:35,370 --> 01:12:37,950
know you could be in trouble , right ? 

1738
01:12:38,290 --> 01:12:41,220
And . We were all ready . They had 

1739
01:12:41,220 --> 01:12:43,276
their equipment . It was Russian and 

1740
01:12:43,276 --> 01:12:45,498
they had Chinese equipment . It was all 

1741
01:12:45,498 --> 01:12:47,442
set . They were going to give us a 

1742
01:12:47,442 --> 01:12:49,498
fight . He said , and then they came 

1743
01:12:49,689 --> 01:12:51,633
and they came at speeds like we've 

1744
01:12:51,633 --> 01:12:53,930
never seen , and they came at 17 

1745
01:12:53,930 --> 01:12:56,520
different angles , the general and his 

1746
01:12:56,520 --> 01:12:58,520
people , that was a lot of angles . 

1747
01:12:58,609 --> 01:13:00,942
They hit him from every angle , he said , 

1748
01:13:01,129 --> 01:13:04,680
we knew it was over in 3 minutes . We 

1749
01:13:04,680 --> 01:13:06,902
were waiting for them . Their equipment 

1750
01:13:06,902 --> 01:13:08,970
didn't work and there's a reason it 

1751
01:13:08,970 --> 01:13:10,970
didn't work . Someday we'll explain 

1752
01:13:10,970 --> 01:13:12,859
that to people . They pressed the 

1753
01:13:12,859 --> 01:13:14,692
button , nothing happened . They 

1754
01:13:14,692 --> 01:13:16,748
pressed it again and again , nothing 

1755
01:13:16,748 --> 01:13:18,748
happened . And he said we knew this 

1756
01:13:18,748 --> 01:13:20,748
whole thing was over in 3 minutes . 

1757
01:13:20,748 --> 01:13:22,970
We've never seen any , he , he used the 

1758
01:13:22,970 --> 01:13:25,410
word ferocity , the ferocity of these 

1759
01:13:25,410 --> 01:13:27,689
planes from 17 different angles , and 

1760
01:13:27,689 --> 01:13:30,049
it was over . They went inside and 

1761
01:13:30,049 --> 01:13:32,105
remember that was on a military base 

1762
01:13:32,105 --> 01:13:34,271
with thousands of soldiers , and those 

1763
01:13:34,271 --> 01:13:36,509
soldiers looked and they said . Get the 

1764
01:13:36,509 --> 01:13:38,398
hell out of here . Thousands , we 

1765
01:13:38,398 --> 01:13:40,620
didn't have thousands , we had like 200 

1766
01:13:40,620 --> 01:13:44,250
people , so we have a great military 

1767
01:13:44,589 --> 01:13:46,700
and I'll tell you what , somehow this 

1768
01:13:46,700 --> 01:13:49,350
rescue captured the world's attention 

1769
01:13:49,350 --> 01:13:51,779
more so than . Normally you're talking 

1770
01:13:51,779 --> 01:13:54,740
about two people , but this rescue 

1771
01:13:55,180 --> 01:13:57,859
captured the world's attention , but we 

1772
01:13:57,859 --> 01:14:00,279
did it in Venezuela . That was amazing , 

1773
01:14:00,299 --> 01:14:02,240
and now we have a very bad man in 

1774
01:14:02,459 --> 01:14:04,681
prison and going to trial . I mean he . 

1775
01:14:05,040 --> 01:14:07,520
He released , aside from the drugs , 

1776
01:14:07,560 --> 01:14:10,500
which he was terrible , Maduro released 

1777
01:14:10,879 --> 01:14:13,200
hundreds of thousands of people from 

1778
01:14:13,200 --> 01:14:16,160
jails into our country . Drug dealers , 

1779
01:14:16,279 --> 01:14:18,560
murderers , the worst people in the 

1780
01:14:18,560 --> 01:14:20,616
world were released into our country 

1781
01:14:20,959 --> 01:14:23,640
because we had a stupid president who 

1782
01:14:23,640 --> 01:14:25,640
probably didn't know , and we had a 

1783
01:14:25,640 --> 01:14:27,529
border czar who never went to the 

1784
01:14:27,529 --> 01:14:29,473
border . And never once called our 

1785
01:14:29,473 --> 01:14:31,529
great border patrol agents , right , 

1786
01:14:31,529 --> 01:14:33,584
not once , Kamala . She never called 

1787
01:14:33,584 --> 01:14:35,640
the Border patrol . She never said , 

1788
01:14:35,640 --> 01:14:35,430
how are we doing ? I used to call the 

1789
01:14:35,430 --> 01:14:37,597
Border patrol guys every day . You can 

1790
01:14:37,597 --> 01:14:39,763
ask him , Paul , ask any one of them . 

1791
01:14:39,763 --> 01:14:42,129
Brandon , ask him all the time , how 

1792
01:14:42,129 --> 01:14:44,240
are we doing ? How are we doing ? And 

1793
01:14:44,240 --> 01:14:46,185
we now , I'm proud to say , have a 

1794
01:14:46,185 --> 01:14:48,129
totally sealed border . 9 months , 

1795
01:14:48,129 --> 01:14:50,351
nobody is coming through our border and 

1796
01:14:50,351 --> 01:14:49,850
nobody even tries because they know 

1797
01:14:49,850 --> 01:14:51,961
they're not going to get through , so 

1798
01:14:51,961 --> 01:14:54,620
we don't have caravans anymore . So 

1799
01:14:54,620 --> 01:14:56,731
maybe 1 or 2 more and we'll be done . 

1800
01:14:58,700 --> 01:15:00,811
Mr . President , are you allowed to , 

1801
01:15:00,811 --> 01:15:02,867
are you willing to end this conflict 

1802
01:15:02,867 --> 01:15:05,459
with Iran charging tolls for passage 

1803
01:15:05,459 --> 01:15:08,259
through the Strait , US charging tolls , 

1804
01:15:08,379 --> 01:15:11,160
Iran . What about us charging tolls ? 

1805
01:15:11,540 --> 01:15:13,707
Is that something you're considering ? 

1806
01:15:13,707 --> 01:15:15,818
I'd rather do that than let them have 

1807
01:15:15,818 --> 01:15:18,040
them , right ? Why shouldn't we ? We're 

1808
01:15:18,040 --> 01:15:20,040
the winner . We won , OK . They are 

1809
01:15:20,040 --> 01:15:22,096
militarily defeated . The only thing 

1810
01:15:22,096 --> 01:15:24,207
they have is the psychology of , oh , 

1811
01:15:24,207 --> 01:15:26,318
we're going to drop a couple of mines 

1812
01:15:26,318 --> 01:15:28,484
in the water , all right . No , we , I 

1813
01:15:28,484 --> 01:15:30,540
mean , we have a concept where we'll 

1814
01:15:30,540 --> 01:15:32,762
charge tolls , OK ? I thought you meant 

1815
01:15:32,762 --> 01:15:34,818
us . Your question , your question , 

1816
01:15:35,700 --> 01:15:37,644
your question would have been more 

1817
01:15:37,644 --> 01:15:40,910
accurate if you said just to clarify , 

1818
01:15:40,950 --> 01:15:43,310
in order for Iran to successfully meet 

1819
01:15:43,310 --> 01:15:45,421
your deadline tomorrow , do they have 

1820
01:15:45,421 --> 01:15:47,790
to make a deal , open the street , or 

1821
01:15:47,790 --> 01:15:50,069
both ? We have to have a deal that's 

1822
01:15:50,069 --> 01:15:52,589
acceptable to me , and part of that 

1823
01:15:52,589 --> 01:15:54,529
deal is going to be we want free 

1824
01:15:54,529 --> 01:15:56,585
traffic of oil and everything else . 

1825
01:16:00,029 --> 01:16:01,990
President , thank you very much . 

1826
01:16:02,370 --> 01:16:04,370
You've said glory be to God in this 

1827
01:16:04,370 --> 01:16:06,370
conflict . Do you believe that God 

1828
01:16:06,370 --> 01:16:08,537
supports the United States' actions in 

1829
01:16:08,537 --> 01:16:10,426
this ? I do because God is good , 

1830
01:16:10,426 --> 01:16:12,919
because God is good and God wants to 

1831
01:16:12,919 --> 01:16:15,649
see people taken care of . God doesn't 

1832
01:16:15,649 --> 01:16:17,705
like what's happening . I don't like 

1833
01:16:17,705 --> 01:16:19,760
what's happening . Everyone says , I 

1834
01:16:19,760 --> 01:16:21,816
enjoy , I don't enjoy this . I don't 

1835
01:16:21,816 --> 01:16:23,927
enjoy it . These two guys don't enjoy 

1836
01:16:23,927 --> 01:16:23,479
it , you know . People say , oh boy , 

1837
01:16:23,770 --> 01:16:25,826
they're so tough . They don't want , 

1838
01:16:25,826 --> 01:16:27,937
they don't like , I don't like seeing 

1839
01:16:27,937 --> 01:16:29,937
people killed . I've ended 8 wars . 

1840
01:16:30,080 --> 01:16:32,779
Nobody's ever done it . The person who 

1841
01:16:32,779 --> 01:16:35,112
won the Nobel Prize came to me and said , 

1842
01:16:35,112 --> 01:16:37,089
You deserve the Nobel Prize . She 

1843
01:16:37,089 --> 01:16:39,145
announced that when they announced , 

1844
01:16:39,145 --> 01:16:41,359
they said , Goes to Maria . She's a 

1845
01:16:41,359 --> 01:16:43,470
great person , really a good person . 

1846
01:16:43,680 --> 01:16:46,000
She said , No , no , no , this is 

1847
01:16:46,000 --> 01:16:48,629
ridiculous . They gave me the Nobel 

1848
01:16:48,629 --> 01:16:50,830
Prize . President Trump ended 8 wars . 

1849
01:16:50,839 --> 01:16:52,839
I could go over every one of them , 

1850
01:16:52,839 --> 01:16:54,895
including India and Pakistan , where 

1851
01:16:54,895 --> 01:16:56,895
the Prime Minister of Pakistan said 

1852
01:16:56,895 --> 01:17:00,120
President Trump saved from 30 to 50 

1853
01:17:00,120 --> 01:17:02,879
million lives . That makes me much 

1854
01:17:02,879 --> 01:17:05,212
happier than what we're doing right now . 

1855
01:17:05,759 --> 01:17:07,815
That makes me much happier . We have 

1856
01:17:07,815 --> 01:17:09,537
one more to end , by the way . 

1857
01:17:12,390 --> 01:17:16,339
you called yesterday in your Truth 

1858
01:17:16,339 --> 01:17:18,506
Social , you called the Iranians crazy 

1859
01:17:18,506 --> 01:17:21,819
bastards . What is your response to 

1860
01:17:21,819 --> 01:17:24,152
critics who say that I don't care about . 

1861
01:17:24,180 --> 01:17:26,236
What is your response to critics who 

1862
01:17:26,236 --> 01:17:28,402
say that it is your mental health that 

1863
01:17:28,402 --> 01:17:30,736
should perhaps be examined as this wars ? 

1864
01:17:30,736 --> 01:17:32,791
I haven't heard that , but if that's 

1865
01:17:32,791 --> 01:17:31,859
the case , you're going to have to have 

1866
01:17:31,859 --> 01:17:34,520
more people like me because our country 

1867
01:17:34,520 --> 01:17:37,700
was being ripped off on trade , on 

1868
01:17:37,700 --> 01:17:39,939
everything for many years until I came 

1869
01:17:39,939 --> 01:17:42,106
along . So if that's the case , you're 

1870
01:17:42,106 --> 01:17:45,709
going to have to have more people . You 

1871
01:17:45,709 --> 01:17:47,876
said that very little is off limits in 

1872
01:17:47,876 --> 01:17:49,931
Iran as far as targeting , including 

1873
01:17:49,931 --> 01:17:51,709
power plants , bridges , you've 

1874
01:17:51,709 --> 01:17:53,653
mentioned those very little is off 

1875
01:17:53,653 --> 01:17:55,653
limits . Are there certain kinds of 

1876
01:17:55,653 --> 01:17:57,820
civilian targets though ? I'm thinking 

1877
01:17:57,820 --> 01:17:57,479
I don't want to tell you that I don't 

1878
01:17:57,479 --> 01:18:01,220
want to tell you that we have , we have 

1879
01:18:01,240 --> 01:18:03,270
a plan because of the power of our 

1880
01:18:03,270 --> 01:18:06,939
military where every bridge in Iran 

1881
01:18:07,680 --> 01:18:10,609
will be decimated . By 12 o'clock 

1882
01:18:10,990 --> 01:18:13,029
tomorrow night , where every power 

1883
01:18:13,029 --> 01:18:16,529
plant in Iran will be out of business , 

1884
01:18:16,790 --> 01:18:19,509
burning , exploding , and never to be 

1885
01:18:19,509 --> 01:18:22,109
used again . I mean complete demolition 

1886
01:18:22,470 --> 01:18:24,770
by 12 o'clock , and it'll happen over a 

1887
01:18:24,770 --> 01:18:27,200
period of 4 hours if we wanted to . We 

1888
01:18:27,200 --> 01:18:29,669
don't want that to happen . We may even 

1889
01:18:29,669 --> 01:18:32,029
get involved with helping them rebuild 

1890
01:18:32,029 --> 01:18:34,520
their nation . And you know what , if 

1891
01:18:34,520 --> 01:18:36,520
that's the case , the last thing we 

1892
01:18:36,520 --> 01:18:38,742
want to do is start with power plants , 

1893
01:18:38,742 --> 01:18:40,687
which are among the most expensive 

1894
01:18:40,687 --> 01:18:42,964
thing and bridges . You saw the bridge , 

1895
01:18:42,964 --> 01:18:45,187
the bridge went , we were very close to 

1896
01:18:45,187 --> 01:18:47,919
a deal . And then I got a call from Mr . 

1897
01:18:48,240 --> 01:18:51,680
Witkoff , Mr . Kushner , and JD . 

1898
01:18:52,689 --> 01:18:54,890
Saying I think they're breaking the 

1899
01:18:54,890 --> 01:18:57,290
deal . I said , tell them that's OK , 

1900
01:18:57,370 --> 01:18:59,592
don't worry about it , but tell them to 

1901
01:18:59,592 --> 01:19:01,592
look out their window and watch and 

1902
01:19:01,592 --> 01:19:04,419
within . 45 minutes I gave the order to 

1903
01:19:04,419 --> 01:19:07,390
knock out the biggest bridge . I gave 

1904
01:19:07,390 --> 01:19:09,334
the order to knock out the biggest 

1905
01:19:09,334 --> 01:19:11,557
bridge in , I believe the Middle East , 

1906
01:19:11,557 --> 01:19:13,612
but the biggest bridge in Iran , and 

1907
01:19:13,612 --> 01:19:16,299
within . 10 minutes after I gave that 

1908
01:19:16,299 --> 01:19:19,770
order , that bridge was Was over . So , 

1909
01:19:20,089 --> 01:19:22,689
so do I want to do that ? No . Do I 

1910
01:19:22,689 --> 01:19:24,856
want to destroy their infrastructure ? 

1911
01:19:24,856 --> 01:19:27,370
No . It will take them 100 years to 

1912
01:19:27,370 --> 01:19:30,810
rebuild . Right now , if we left today , 

1913
01:19:31,200 --> 01:19:34,009
it would take them 20 years to rebuild 

1914
01:19:34,009 --> 01:19:36,120
their country , and it would never be 

1915
01:19:36,120 --> 01:19:38,176
as good as it was . And the only way 

1916
01:19:38,176 --> 01:19:40,176
they're going to be able to rebuild 

1917
01:19:40,176 --> 01:19:42,342
their country is to utilize the genius 

1918
01:19:42,342 --> 01:19:42,250
of the United States of America . 

1919
01:19:46,200 --> 01:19:48,600
voiced your displeasure with NATO in 

1920
01:19:48,600 --> 01:19:50,959
the past . Is there a danger to the US 

1921
01:19:50,959 --> 01:19:53,319
not being the de facto of the leader of 

1922
01:19:53,319 --> 01:19:55,640
the alliance and then other powers 

1923
01:19:55,640 --> 01:19:57,696
within the alliance then getting the 

1924
01:19:57,696 --> 01:19:59,807
decision making when it comes to wars 

1925
01:19:59,807 --> 01:20:02,140
and nuclear weapons ? It's not a danger . 

1926
01:20:02,140 --> 01:20:04,470
NATO's look , we went to NATO . I 

1927
01:20:04,470 --> 01:20:06,748
didn't ask very strongly . I just said , 

1928
01:20:06,748 --> 01:20:09,026
hey , if you want to help , great . No , 

1929
01:20:09,026 --> 01:20:11,137
no , no , we will not help . I said , 

1930
01:20:11,137 --> 01:20:11,000
that's all right . You don't want to 

1931
01:20:11,000 --> 01:20:13,167
help . Because I've always said NATO's 

1932
01:20:13,167 --> 01:20:16,100
a paper tiger . See , NATO's a paper 

1933
01:20:16,100 --> 01:20:18,459
tiger . Putin's not afraid of NATO . 

1934
01:20:18,790 --> 01:20:20,901
Putin's afraid of us , very afraid of 

1935
01:20:20,901 --> 01:20:23,068
us , and he's explained it to me a lot 

1936
01:20:23,068 --> 01:20:25,346
of times . I got to know him very well . 

1937
01:20:25,346 --> 01:20:27,560
I know him very well . Uh , NATO's a 

1938
01:20:27,560 --> 01:20:30,859
paper tiger . NATO is us . And when we 

1939
01:20:30,859 --> 01:20:33,081
needed them , and we didn't need them , 

1940
01:20:33,081 --> 01:20:35,026
by the way , we didn't need them , 

1941
01:20:35,026 --> 01:20:37,248
obviously , because they haven't helped 

1942
01:20:37,248 --> 01:20:39,303
at all . Just the opposite . They've 

1943
01:20:39,303 --> 01:20:41,415
actually gone out of their way not to 

1944
01:20:41,415 --> 01:20:41,149
help . They didn't even want to give us 

1945
01:20:41,149 --> 01:20:44,370
landing strips . Think of it , and it's 

1946
01:20:44,370 --> 01:20:46,259
not just NATO . You know who else 

1947
01:20:46,259 --> 01:20:48,259
didn't help us ? South Korea didn't 

1948
01:20:48,259 --> 01:20:50,481
help us . You know who else didn't help 

1949
01:20:50,481 --> 01:20:52,529
us ? Australia didn't help us . You 

1950
01:20:52,529 --> 01:20:54,819
know who else didn't help us ? Japan . 

1951
01:20:56,240 --> 01:20:59,750
We've got 50,000 soldiers in Japan to 

1952
01:20:59,750 --> 01:21:01,972
protect them from North Korea . We have 

1953
01:21:02,299 --> 01:21:04,790
45,000 soldiers in South Korea . 

1954
01:21:06,020 --> 01:21:08,790
To protect us from Kim Jong Un , who I 

1955
01:21:08,790 --> 01:21:11,068
get along with very well , as you know , 

1956
01:21:11,068 --> 01:21:13,234
do you notice he said very nice things 

1957
01:21:13,234 --> 01:21:15,457
about me . He used to call uh Joe Biden 

1958
01:21:15,457 --> 01:21:17,830
a mentally person . OK , so don't tell 

1959
01:21:17,830 --> 01:21:20,709
me about your stuff . Joe Biden , he 

1960
01:21:20,709 --> 01:21:22,990
said he's a mentally person . He was so 

1961
01:21:22,990 --> 01:21:25,157
nasty to Joe Biden , it was terrible , 

1962
01:21:25,157 --> 01:21:28,229
but to me he likes Trump and you notice 

1963
01:21:28,229 --> 01:21:30,396
how nice things are with North Korea ? 

1964
01:21:30,396 --> 01:21:32,609
It's very nice . But we have 45,000 

1965
01:21:32,609 --> 01:21:35,970
people , soldiers in harm's way and 

1966
01:21:36,209 --> 01:21:38,431
right next to Kim Jong Un with a lot of 

1967
01:21:38,431 --> 01:21:40,431
nuclear weapons , 45 , which should 

1968
01:21:40,431 --> 01:21:43,410
have never happened if a certain 

1969
01:21:43,410 --> 01:21:45,577
president , I'm not gonna mention this 

1970
01:21:45,577 --> 01:21:47,854
president because I happen to like him , 

1971
01:21:47,854 --> 01:21:47,770
believe it or not , but if a certain 

1972
01:21:47,770 --> 01:21:50,450
president did his job , Kim Jong Un 

1973
01:21:50,450 --> 01:21:52,506
would not have nuclear weapons right 

1974
01:21:52,506 --> 01:21:54,450
now , but they're all afraid to do 

1975
01:21:54,450 --> 01:21:56,283
their job properly . But just to 

1976
01:21:56,283 --> 01:21:59,509
conclude and just to finish , Japan 

1977
01:21:59,509 --> 01:22:01,676
didn't help us . Australia didn't help 

1978
01:22:01,676 --> 01:22:03,990
us . South Korea didn't help us , and 

1979
01:22:03,990 --> 01:22:06,212
then you get to NATO . NATO didn't help 

1980
01:22:06,212 --> 01:22:08,546
us . There were some countries that did . 

1981
01:22:08,546 --> 01:22:10,768
Now countries that have been good , now 

1982
01:22:10,768 --> 01:22:12,879
you could also say they're gotta be a 

1983
01:22:12,879 --> 01:22:14,712
little bit more involved because 

1984
01:22:14,712 --> 01:22:16,768
they're in the territory , but Saudi 

1985
01:22:16,768 --> 01:22:18,768
Arabia's been excellent . Qatar has 

1986
01:22:18,768 --> 01:22:21,101
been excellent . UAE has been excellent . 

1987
01:22:21,101 --> 01:22:23,157
Bahrain , Kuwait , I mean Kuwait did 

1988
01:22:23,157 --> 01:22:25,268
shoot down 3 of our planes . The only 

1989
01:22:25,268 --> 01:22:27,323
planes really that we lost it with . 

1990
01:22:27,323 --> 01:22:29,434
Friendly fire , they call it . I call 

1991
01:22:29,434 --> 01:22:31,657
it unfriendly fire . They unfortunately 

1992
01:22:31,657 --> 01:22:34,660
didn't know how to use our , our great 

1993
01:22:35,080 --> 01:22:37,990
patriots . The pilot said , What kind 

1994
01:22:37,990 --> 01:22:40,157
of a missiles coming at us , Patriot ? 

1995
01:22:40,157 --> 01:22:42,750
Boom , they got out . Because they know 

1996
01:22:42,750 --> 01:22:45,120
a patriot never misses , so they had 

1997
01:22:45,120 --> 01:22:47,479
beautiful patriots . There were planes 

1998
01:22:47,479 --> 01:22:49,090
heading in their direction . 

1999
01:22:49,419 --> 01:22:51,660
Unfortunately they decided to shoot 

2000
01:22:51,660 --> 01:22:53,771
those planes . They were our planes , 

2001
01:22:53,771 --> 01:22:57,549
so . You know , NATO is a paper tiger . 

2002
01:22:58,049 --> 01:23:00,327
Now he's coming to see me on Wednesday , 

2003
01:23:00,327 --> 01:23:02,382
as you know . He's a wonderful guy . 

2004
01:23:02,580 --> 01:23:05,540
Secretary General is great . And Mark 

2005
01:23:05,540 --> 01:23:09,100
Rutte , he's a great person , but he's 

2006
01:23:09,100 --> 01:23:11,267
got , and you know it all began with , 

2007
01:23:11,267 --> 01:23:13,600
if you wanna know the truth , Greenland . 

2008
01:23:13,669 --> 01:23:15,836
We want Greenland . They don't want to 

2009
01:23:15,836 --> 01:23:18,002
give it to us , and I said , bye-bye . 

2010
01:23:18,509 --> 01:23:20,676
OK , thank you very much , everybody . 

2011
01:23:24,500 --> 01:23:28,330
I . What about rising gas prices for 

2012
01:23:28,330 --> 01:23:29,560
Americans who are concerned ?