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Trump Meets With Cabinet As Markets Dive, China Tariffs Raised. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 10, 2025 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Not 31,000, 31. That is a that's a horrible statistic, isn't it? And there's got to be something artificial out there that's doing this.

So you think you're going to have a pretty good idea, huh?

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR, HHS SECRETARY: We should know by September.

TRUMP: There will be no bigger news conference than that. So that's -- that's it. If you can come up with that answer, where you stop taking something, you stop eating something or maybe it's a shot, but something's causing it.

It can't be -- it can't be from 10,000 to -- can you imagine that, Marco? That's a big -- that's a big number.

Thank you very much. You're doing great. Thank you. Bobby.

Please?

DOUG BURGUM, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR: Well, Mr. President, one of your primary administration goals is to make sure that we unleash American energy.

And, of course, the strategy behind that is, when we do that, it helps make it more affordable for all Americans. Energy isn't just industry. It is the foundation of every other industry, whether it's food, manufacturing clothing, transportation.

And then also when we've got the ability to generate and not just be energy independent, but energy dominant, then we have the opportunity to sell energy to our friends and allies versus them buying from our adversaries.

And our adversaries were funding terrorism and conflicts against our allies, by their oil and gas sales that we're going through a Swiss cheese set of sanctions.

So with your creation of the National Energy Dominance Council, over half the people at this table serve on that, everyone has been engaged, whether it's interactions with negotiations with other countries, with putting sanctions in place that actually work with cutting deregulation, working on -- on biofuels, building infrastructure for transportation.

There's a whole range of things that -- that are being tackled. But when in the -- the outcome of all that is, is that your -- the Biden administration was restricting supply. You're increasing supply. When you increase supply, then prices start to come down.

And we have a huge opportunity to do this. Just in interior alone, there's 500 million acres of surface, 700 million acres of subsurface and 2.5 billion acres of offshore.

And the Biden administration was trying to restrict this so that you couldn't -- you know, you couldn't get a timber lease, you couldn't cut a tree, you couldn't graze a cow, you couldn't develop oil and gas minerals.

And you couldn't develop the critical minerals we need for our technology, for our defense industries and to be able to help us win the A.I. arms race against China.

So we're opening up this. And with your executive orders and your work, we've -- we've -- on Tuesday, a historic day, you ended the war on beautiful, clean coal, which has been going on since Obama took office.

China gets 60 percent of their electricity from coal. They're opening up a -- they've opened up 94 gigawatts of coal in the last year as part of this A.I. arms race. Ninety-four gigawatts, that's enough for 94 Denvers to be able to -- one gigawatt per metro area like that. It's unheard of.

So what we -- we have an opportunity under your leadership to come back. The Gulf of America had its first offshore lease sale, which is scheduled for later this year. But that was -- the industry loved that, because we're now -- the Gulf of America is now open for business again.

And -- and there's the -- as much as seven billion barrels of oil accessible now. They've increased the -- the upside of what they think that is.

On the coal front, the estimate is, the financial value of the coal in America is $8 trillion. That was an asset on the balance sheet that we've now being put back on again.

And of course in Alaska with your separate executive orders to unleash Alaska energy, between ANWR, the North Slope, the -- the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Alaska, all of those we've reversed Biden's decision. Those are all open for business again.

And all of this is leading to the -- to the investment coming to America. The smart money is coming to the U.S. That's why we've got, you know, trillions of dollars of investment that are showing up at the door because they know if they're going to do manufacturing here, there's going to be energy to power their plants.

And so, again, thank you for your leadership and thank you for everything you're doing.

TRUMP: Very good. Thank you.

Marco?

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, Mr. President, one of the most important things I believe you'll achieve in your presidency is -- is reordering the world in a proper way.

For 31 years, more than 31 years now, multiple administrations have allowed the Chinese to de-industrialize this country, to take away jobs and factories and the pillars of our national strength.

And what you're doing now, I think is a great service to our country, but ultimately to the world. And I want to congratulate you and your team that's working on that.

Because it has extraordinary geopolitical implications, as you see, from all these other countries that are now coming here and wanting to join something that actually makes it crazy to allow these.

I mean, basically, we lived in a world where country -- company, Chinese companies can do whatever they want in America, but our companies cannot do anything over there unless they allow it. And even then, they steal our stuff and reverse engineer it.

[13:35:04]

So just reordering all of that has dramatic implications on the -- on the peace and security of the world. So we thank you.

An important meeting, thanks to you. it's going to happen on Saturday. For the first time in a long time, there will be direct talks between Ambassador Woodcock and a top-level leader in Iran. We hope that will lead to peace.

You've been very clear what Iran is never going to have as a nuclear weapon. And I think that's what led to this meeting. And we'll wait for him to come back from it. And we're hopeful about that.

I would also say that we are receiving -- and I think the Department of Homeland Security can confirm this -- historic cooperation from countries all over the world.

Number one, in taking back their citizens. Every country in the world has to take back people that are illegally in another country. And we have countries that refuse to do it, or were kind of ignoring our calls. All of them are doing it. The ones that are not, are paying a price.

And we've also found cooperation in other countries that are willing to take some of these people, some very dangerous criminals. I know the president, El Salvador will be here next week, has really been a good friend to the United States in that regard.

These are some of the worst people you'll ever encounter. And Pam knows this, and Kristi knows this from the work they're doing.

You know, and -- and one last point I want to make, Mr. President. And again, it's under your leadership. It's actually under your executive order. If you come to this country as a student, we expect you to go to class and study and get a degree.

If you come here to, like, vandalize a library, take over a campus and do all kinds of crazy things, you know, we're going to get rid of these people and we're going to continue to do it.

So when we identify lunatics like these, we take away their student visa. No one's entitled to a student visa. The press covers student visas like there's some sort of birthright.

No, a student visa is like me inviting you into my home. If you come into my home and put all kinds of crap on my couch, I'm going to kick you out of my house.

(LAUGHTER)

And -- and so, you know, that's what we're doing with our country thanks to the president.

And last but not least, very important development this week. Both Pam and I were very excited. The finest higher education institution in the United States, the University of Florida, is also now --

(LAUGHTER)

RUBIO: -- the national champions in basketball. And we hope you'll host them here soon, Mr. President. Go, Gators!

TRUMP: They're coming.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good for the SEC. Congratulations.

TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. You're really doing a great job. We appreciate it.

Any questions?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. -- Mr. President, can you give us a reaction to today's stock market drop? And also give us a sense of the next steps with China?

TRUMP: Well, I haven't seen it because I've been here for two and a half hours.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: So I'll -- I'll be seeing it.

I think Scott went out.

Scott, you want to have a statement on that?

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Oh, sure.

Look, the up two, down one is not a bad ratio or up -- up 10, down five. And I think as we have talked about, as we go through the queue and settle with these countries who are going to bring us their best offers, we will end up in a place of great certainty over the next 90 days on tariffs.

We had very good inflation numbers today. Oils down. We had a successful bond market. So I don't see anything unusual today.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And next steps for China, sir?

TRUMP: We'll -- we'll see what happens with China. We would love to be able to work a deal. They've really taken advantage of our country for a long period of time. They've ripped us off beyond anybody. Nobody -- how people stood for it sitting in my position is not even believable.

And we're talking about many presidents, not just a couple, but they did. And all we're doing is putting it back in shape. We're resetting the table.

And I'm sure that we'll be able to get along very well. I have great respect for President Xi. He's been -- in a true sense, he's been a friend of mine for a long period of time.

And I think that we'll end up working out something that's very good for both countries. I look forward to it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, China retaliated today by reducing the number of American films that can be shown there. What's your reaction to them now targeting cultural exports from the United States?

TRUMP: I think I've heard of worse things than --

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Yes, worse.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Also on China, the Ukrainians say they have evidence that Chinese soldiers have been found fighting for the Russians in Ukraine. Can the U.S. verify this? And if so, what does the U.S. plan on doing to China if it turns out that --

TRUMP: We'll look into it. But I think beyond that, we're really looking to get that war stopped. They're losing 2,500 and even more than that young people a week. They're Russian and they're Ukrainian. They're not American, but they're people.

And we're seeing if we can get it stopped. And I think we're making progress.

I appreciate the ballerina who was released. It was at the request of a very good friend of all of ours, actually. Dana White called me and he said, it's - it's the friend or the relationship of one of the fighters for UFC or one of the fighters. And Dana is an incredible guy.

[13:40:01]

And we spoke to President Putin about it. And they made a deal. They released the young ballerina. And she is now out. And that was good. So we appreciate that.

We hope that we're going to be able to make a deal relatively soon with Russia and Ukraine to stop the fighting. It's so senseless. It's such a horrible thing. Would have never happened if I were president.

But it did happen. And we were given that card. And I think we're going to get it -- I think we're going to get it stopped. Got to get going. We got to get it. We have to move it faster.

Likewise, with the hostages. We're making progress. We -- you know, there's 59 hostages, but only 24 of them are living. And that's the way it's been presented to me by the mothers of some of the dead -- mothers and fathers of some of the dead hostages.

And they want the bodies of their -- of their baby, as they say, their baby, their young boys. They want -- they want them back as much as if they were alive. It's amazing.

Because when I met the hostages two weeks ago here -- I couldn't believe what they had to go through, by the way. But when I met him, they said, yes, there's 59, but 24 are living.

And they actually consider -- I guess if you're a parent, you do consider it this way, that the -- the remainder who are dead, the 24 that are alive, the remainder that are dead, they want them back just as much as they would want them back if they we're alive. It's really pretty amazing and pretty sad.

So we're getting close to getting them back. We have -- a lot came back. A lot of people are very grateful. And some came back in pretty bad shape, some came back, they're OK. I think they're going to be scarred mentally for a long time.

Because if you sit down and talk to them, as I have, and what they went through is incredible. But we're making progress. We're dealing with Israel. We're dealing with Hamas. And it's -- it's a nasty group.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, so, how close are you to the first country coming to actually make a deal with the United States over terrorists? Days, months?

TRUMP: Well, I think it's very close. But, you know, we have to have a deal that we like. We don't want a deal that's going to be a bad deal. Or I could -- I could make every deal in one day if I wanted to. I could do this in all in one day. I could just say, here's what we'll do.

And I was saying to the people before, to Scott, mostly to Scott and Howard and some of the other people that work with us on the negotiations -- you know, we have a lot of law firms that have paid me a lot of money in the form of legal fees.

We're going to probably use those firms to -- if we can. I think we can. I'll make a contribution to the country. But they're great firms. They're the best firms, the biggest and really the most prestigious.

And we may be using them to help you guys out, because you're going to need a lot of lawyers.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: And I'm not sure Pam's going to be happy if I say, can you send over about 200 lawyers that work on trade?

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: She's working on criminal stuff, and I think that's going to be her focus more than anything else. So we'll find out if we can do that.

But we have a lot of lawyers that you've been reading about where they paid $100 million a firm on average. Now we have the final four or five are at $125 million. So I have a lot of legal fees I could give to you people, but -- and we might as well use them.

Hopefully, I won't need that many legal fees or that much. I may. Who knows? After -- after it ends, after -- after we leave, maybe I'll need it, but if I do, it's not going to be very pleasant.

RUBIO: (INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: So I think we're going to try to use these -- these very prestigious firms to help us out with the trade. Because, you know, we have a lot of countries. But we want to make deals that are proper for the United States, not just -- we can make deals easily. We want to make them proper.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, if you aren't able to reach the deals that you want to see at the end of the 90 days, will you put those higher tariffs in place or will you extend --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, that's what would happen. I mean, if we can't make the deal that we want to make or we have to make, or that's, you know, good for both parties, it's got to be good for both parties --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: -- and then we'd go back to where we were.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Go back to the numbers that you announced last week.

TRUMP: Yes, I thinks so.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You wouldn't extend the pause? TRUMP: Yes. We'll have to see what happens at that time.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, you said yesterday you were considering some exceptions for companies. Can you talk about what you're considering? And then also on the tariffs, could be substantially lower. Is the same math formula going to be used or is that tossed out?

TRUMP: Yes. I'm not considering now for any country or company, but it's possible that I would. But I'm not -- we don't have that situation right now. People understand where we are, what we're going to do. But it could happen. You know, it's called flexibility. You have to have certain flexibility.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, what are you planning on using the money that you're gaining through the tariffs on?

[13:45:04]

TRUMP: Paying down national debt, reducing taxes, creating good budgets, helping Kristi with the border, and all of the other things we built.

I built hundreds of miles of wall, as people now understand, 571 miles of border wall in the first administration. But we're going to beef it up and we're going to add more.

And, you know, the numbers are incredible. Really, the numbers are what's -- what's taking place. We had great numbers, but these numbers are topping my last administration.

And Kristi and Tom Homan have done an amazing job. But -- but you know, it's an expensive process.

This weekend, where they used to have hundreds of thousands of people standing there pouring through the border in Tijuana, Mexico, this weekend, they had nobody.

You had a man sweeping this massive piece of concrete, which is, you know, the area where they -- massive. And I've looked at that during the Biden administration, you couldn't see a piece of that concrete there were so many people on it.

You couldn't -- if you if you had a helicopter shot, you couldn't see concrete. Now, this weekend, you had nobody there but a man with a broom sweeping it and cleaning it up. Pretty amazing. It's -- it's really an amazing job.

But it will be used for that. It'll be used for a lot of things. It'll be used by the Department of Justice for -- for doing a great job. Pam is doing a fantastic job. So it's going to be used for a lot of different things.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, on the 10 percent, on a 10 percent tariff, is that a basement? Is that the --

TRUMP: It's a baseline.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can -- can countries negotiate that to bring that down?

TRUMP: It depends on what they're adding. You know, some countries have -- we have massive deficits with or they have big surpluses with us, and others, it's not that way. So it depends.

That's why -- it's really all -- they're all different. Every country is different. Some have certain advantages that others don't have and certain things. We have some -- China has a surplus of $1 trillion. I mean, the numbers are crazy. And others have basically no surpluses.

You know, we have some that are pretty even, but they hurt us in other ways, and we just want to get that taken care of. So it's -- every one is a little bit different.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So you negotiated with the E.U. as one bloc or individual nations for the rest of the tariffs?

TRUMP: We're looking at it as one bloc. They've been very tough. But they were very smart. They we're ready to announce retaliation. And then they heard about what we did with respect to China and others, but China. And they said, you know, we're going to hold back a little bit.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Decided -- they decided to hold back. I thought they were very smart. Look, the E.U. is very smart, but they really have taken advantage of the United States.

They -- they we're formed for the purpose of taking advantage of the United States. And I don't blame them. And I don't blame China. I don't blame anybody. I blame the people that we're sitting at that desk in that other beautiful Oval Office for allowing it to happen.

Many presidents, I blame. They should have never allowed it to happen. And I'm doing something that a lot of them wouldn't want to do. But I'm here, I do those things, and we're going to make this country great again.

We were -- we were taken advantage of by almost everybody. I sat back -- in the last administration, I would actually read -- I don't have to read them now. I know them so well.

I would read some of these documents that were signed, deals, and I said, who would do it like this? Who would do it? You've seen it, Elon.

ELON MUSK, DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY: Yes. TRUMP: I'd look at deals where it's so one sided. Even we have a deal with Japan -- and we get along great with Japan and we had the prime minister here. He was fantastic. As you know. Abby was great. Shinzo was great. He was a good friend of mine. Unfortunately, no longer with us.

But we defend them. But they don't have to defend us. I said, that doesn't sound too good. But we have a deal where -- a defense deal. We pay hundreds of billions of dollars to defend them. But, if for any reason -- in other words, we pay all the money. They don't pay anything.

But if we're ever attacked, they don't have to do a thing to protect us. They said, well, that sounds like a wonderful deal. So I just -- that's just one out of thousands. And I just wonder, who did this?

And it's people that either hate our country or didn't care -- an expression that you use. I think it's really the -- a lot of them didn't care. They -- they just -- it's just hard to believe how -- how bad they are.

Now that's a little bit of a defensive deal. But I'm talking about trade deals. It's the same thing. They're so bad. You would say, how come?

[13:50:02]

And even when I'd renegotiate, like I'd go to a country, they'd give me everything I asked for. I said, why didn't somebody ask for it, like originally? They give me everything.

I think when -- when they were negotiating, they didn't care or they didn't ask or they were shy or they were very stupid, or they hate our country.

Yes. Go ahead, Jeff.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You we're speaking about Japan. Can you clarify what your vision is for U.S. Steel? You referenced it yesterday.

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There's some questions about what you actually want.

TRUMP: Sure. Look, U.S. Steel is going to do very well now because of tariffs. And I don't know why they even need a deal. But the only thing is U.S. Steel, if you go back 80 or 90 years, that was a behemoth in this -- that was our biggest, most -- we were -- if we were around we would have been very proud of it.

But today, we have different types of companies that are big, Google, it's not the same as U.S. Steel. And I love -- I love Google, and I got to like the people that run it. Very capable people.

They didn't like me so much in the first administration, but they like me a lot now. I don't know what happened, but I like them.

But, you know, I think they would be the first to admit, when I envisioned -- you look at some of those steel factories from 90 years ago, we were - were -- it was a different kind of a country.

But they were miles long. Today, you see just empty hulks. Those hulks are going to be filled up very soon because of what I'm doing with tariffs. It was a different kind of a thing.

But if I didn't do that in the first term, my first term, if I didn't put tariffs on, we wouldn't have because China and others we're dumping steel, billions of dollars of steel. Our steel companies were all closing, every factory. We wouldn't have one steel plant open.

And now we have a steel industry that's doing very well. But soon it's going to be thriving, really thriving. And those factories are going to be filled up. But more importantly, they're going to build brand new ones.

Nucor and so many other companies call me. Nucor being a big steel company. They're building massive new steel plants and it's great.

And likewise, car companies. We have many, many car companies. Three of them -- I'm not looking to hurt Mexico and I like Mexico.

And by the way, I think the new president is a terrific person, a fantastic woman. We've had many conversations. She's a very elegant, just a fantastic person. And she's -- she's been very nice, very, very nice.

But I'm not looking to hurt them. But we have three car plants that were under construction in Mexico. They stopped constructing and now they're going to build in the United States because of tariffs.

See, we should have never let this happen because whoever it was that was president at the time -- we lost 90,000 plants and factories since NAFTA, 90,000. It's not believable.

How about that, Laura? You know, you're that sort of world of factories and plants.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- factory construction jobs, bringing those workers back home.

TRUMP: That's right. We're going to bring them all back.

But think of it, from that period of time, which isn't so long ago, we lost -- I said the other day, if you had a map on a big wall like this, and if you had pins, 90,000, I don't know if you'd have enough.

I don't think you'd have enough room on the map to put the pins. 90,000 factories that we've lost since NAFTA. And it's not even -- and about six million jobs. Really, I think probably a lot more than that. But they say six million jobs. We're going to bring many of that back. I think we're going to bring

more than -- more than all of it back. We're going to bring -- we going to be better and stronger than ever before.

But if a president, when they we're leaving, said, look, you can leave, but if you're going to build a factory someplace else and you think you're going to come and sell your steel or your car or any product that you make, your pharmaceuticals, which we're going to do, we're going to get them all back, but if you think you're going to -- just all they had to do is say this and they wouldn't have left.

You know, I said it the other day, I said it with respect to -- I made a speech a year ago and I told them, if I win, we're going to charge a big, big tariff at the border. And people we're thinking about building in Mexico a car plant.

And I said, we're going to have a big tariff. So if you want to build a car, you're going to have to pay 25 percent more than the cost of that car. You're going to have to pay 25 percent tariff at the border. They would have never left. They could have kept everybody.

If a president said, if you leave this country, you leave Michigan, you leave Detroit, you leave any -- any of the anybody, any of our states -- because to me, they're all the same, I love them all, I love them all, and I probably won them all. But they say --

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: -- they say I won most of them, but I probably -- I think I won them all, but that's OK.

[13:54:59]

But all you had to say, if you were the president, is, if you leave and you think you're going to now fire all those workers, leave all that, you know everything behind, and you're going to build in another country and sell it anyway, no, you're not going to.

You're going to pay 50 percent or 100 percent tariff, they would have never left.

And all you had to say, Marco, is -- all you had to say, very simply, is -- you don't have to write it down. All you have to do is say it verbally. If you leave, you're going to pay 100 percent tariff. Therefore, don't leave. They would have never left.

But they left 90,000 plants. I mean, it's hard to believe that many. It's not -- you can't envision it.

So just getting back to your, you know, because I'm the great weaver of all time.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: To weave, you have to be a genius to --

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: -- go on tangents. Anybody can do that.

But we'll get back to your original, U.S. Steel. U.S. Steel is a -- is a big name in this country. You know, it's -- Babe Ruth is a big name. We have a lot of big names, but not too many.

U.S. Steel is one of the great names in the history of our country. And normally, I wouldn't mind so much. I wouldn't be thrilled with it. But to buy, for a foreign country -- and we love Japan -- but for a foreign country to buy that cherished U.S. Steel brand, that's hard for me to do.

I mean, somebody else -- somebody else may want it. The company, Nippon, that's involved with it is a big, powerful company. Do a good job. But why can't they just build a plant themselves? I mean, why do they have to, you know, take U.S. Steel?

So, as you know, I rejected the deal. Now they've come back in a different form. They're coming back as an investor. And, you know, I feel better about that, I guess.

But, you know, I know them very well. I know -- I know the thinking, that's the investor. They'll invest and somebody else may be sitting in this chair and they will no longer have an investment. They'll have the whole thing.

You know, that's the way it works. Very smart. They're very, very smart people. We're dealing with, very smart people throughout the world. Great geniuses actually. Look what they've done to our country.

And again, I don't blame China. I don't blame anybody. If I could have done it, if I were in that position, I'd have great respect. I have great respect for the people. They ripped off the United States.

And all we had to do, have a president that knew what the hell was going on, and none of those countries would have left -- those companies. None of them would have left.

So that's a little lesson in basic business. And it's really basic business. It's not complicated business. It's very basic business. And we'd have every one of those car plants going just the way they were 30 years ago. None of them would have left. But now they're coming back.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, the Labor Department --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- the Labor Department has confirmed that $400 million went to fake people for unemployment benefits.

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What's your initial reaction?

TRUMP: I think it's terrible. I just heard it from Laura and I appreciate it. And you heard it from Elon's people, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.

TRUMP: Elon's done a fantastic job. Look, he's sitting here and I don't care. I don't need Elon for anything other than I happen to like him. But I'm telling you, this guy -- this guy did a fantastic job.

I don't need his car. I actually bought one because -- and they said, oh, did you get a bargain? No. I said, give me the top price. I paid a lot of money for that car.

But honestly, he makes -- he makes a great car. You know what I do with it? I let the people in the office drive around in it.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Margot and Natalie --

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: -- they're all -- Chamberlain, they're all driving around the most beautiful car. It's gorgeous.

But I did that as a sign of just a show of support. Numerous people have done that. Just a show of support. Because you know, he's done a fantastic job. But he hasn't been treated properly. He hasn't been treated properly.

Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, can you talk to us about your communications with China? Has President Xi reached out at all since the tariffs --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, I don't want to say who's reached out. I just say that I think -- I think it's going to work out, hopefully well.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: They're very big. It's hard to get over, if you're me, the -- what they've done to our country. They've destroyed our economic base to a large extent.

The good news is we're very vibrant and we're going to get it back fast. We already have -- look, we're making $2 billion a day now. And during Biden we were losing $3 billion a day.

Biden was a disaster. He was the worst president in the history of our country. And you know, to me, worse than that, because the money you can make, if you have the right guy in this position.

[13:59:51]

Worse than that was what we have to -- what they did on the border by allowing the jails of the world, not South America, all over the world, to be opened up so that we take everybody from Africa, Asia, South America, Europe, the bad ones.