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Trump Taking Questions From Reporters At Mar-A-Lago; Trump Vows To Build More Of "Very Expensive" Border Wall; Trump: First Term Everyone Fought Me, Now They Want To Be My Friend; Trump On Tariffs: "They Tax Us, We Tax Them"; Trump Finishes First News Conference Since Winning Reelection; Trump: "I Have A Warm Spot In My Heart For TikTok". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 16, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL- ELECT: Again, you take a look at autism today versus 20, 25 years ago, it's like not even believable. So, we're going to have reports. No, nothing is going to happen very quickly. I think you're going to find that Bobby is much -- he's a very rational guy. I found him to be very rational. No, nothing -- you're not going to lose the the polio vaccine. That's not going to happen.

I saw what happened with the polio. I have friends that were very much affected by that. I have friends from many years ago, and they obviously, they're still in not such good shape because of it. Now that was -- and many people died.

And the moment they took that vaccine, it ended. Dr. Jonas Salk did a great job. So, I don't anticipate that at all, but we're going to look into finding why is the autism rate so much higher than it was 20, 25, 30 years ago? I mean, it's like -- it's hundred times higher. There's something wrong and we're going to try finding that.

We're also going to find out why are we paying more than other countries? And we were in the process of doing that through transparency and other things. We were doing a good job in that first term, and we brought it down. We got the $35, all of the different things we got, you know, we were the ones that got all of that done. Every one of those things, we got them done.

I said, you know, I hope I win, because otherwise somebody is going to take a lot of credit for what we did. But now what happens is, we're going to -- we're going to have a big conversation on price. Why is it that Germany and U.K. and other countries are paying so much more for the same box of medicine made in the same plant. Why is it that we're paying many times more?

And I know the answer because our government didn't do what they were supposed to do. And what I put in place was terminated unexpectedly by the Biden administration, and they shouldn't have terminated. It would had a huge impact.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Mr. President, one quick question on Ukraine. You mentioned that some of the areas are already decimated. Do you believe that Ukraine should cede territory to Russia?

TRUMP: Well, I'm going to let you know that after I have my first meeting, but a lot of that territory. When you look at what's happened to those, I mean, there are cities that there's not a building standing, it's a demolition site. There is not a building standing.

So, people can't go back to those cities. There's nothing there. It's just rubble. Just like when I knocked down a building in Manhattan, which is actually -- this is worse, actually, because we do it step by step. This thing is just got demolished. And by the way, in those buildings are many people. Many people were in those buildings.

You know, when they said, the number in Ukraine is going to be a much higher number of death, is going to be a much higher number than you're hearing. You know, they're big buildings. This is what I did very well. And these are very long buildings.

They're 15 to 20 stories high. They're massive buildings. I was surprised at how big. And they're flatten like a pan cake. One or two bombs hit them, and they just collapse. And they'd say nobody was hurt. Well, nobody knows who was in those buildings. There were a lot of people in the in those buildings. They're going to find that when they start doing the removal.

Many more people are being killed in the Ukraine war with Russia than is being reported, and that includes soldiers. The soldiers are being -- it's a carnage that we haven't seen since the second World War. It's got to be stopped. And I'm doing -- I'm doing my best to stop. Yeah, please go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You had a meeting with Miss -- Mrs. Abe yesterday, but Japanese prime --

TRUMP: Mrs. Abe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mrs. Abe. And Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba is hoping to have a meeting anytime soon. Are you --

TRUMP: I will do that. I sent him a momento. I sent him a book -- the prime minister. But Mrs. Abe was very close with our First Lady, with Melania, and she loved Melania his book, and she called and wanted to know if she could have -- I was very close to the Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe.

He was great. He was a great man. And his wife wanted to know if it would be possible to have dinner. And it was just out of respect to Shinzo. And yes, I'd love to see the prime minister, and we will do that. I actually sent him a book and some other things for him through Mr. Abe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will that happen before the inauguration day?

TRUMP: It could. If they'd like to do that, I would do that. Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I have great -- I have great respect for the, you know, for the position. And if he'd like to do that, I'd be here.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- that ambassador to Japan will be George Glass. Is that your final decision?

TRUMP: Highly respected man, that's right, highly respected. He's been an ambassador before, did a fantastic job. We consider Japan very important. He's very highly respected. OK. --

(CROSSTALK)

[12:05:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which other world leaders have you invited to the inauguration?

TRUMP: The world leaders are calling me, and some they really would like to meet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are they coming?

TRUMP: No. I mean literally, they're calling me, and I'll be seeing some of them. I think it's rude not to. I mean, it's hard to say, I'm not going to see you. And I've spoken to way over hundred, where they called to congratulate on the -- not only the election, but the size of the election, the extent of the victory. And they were great.

I mean, I spoke to over hundred countries. You wouldn't believe how many countries there are, and I'm trying the best I can to get back to everybody. But there are a lot of countries, and every one of them -- literally everyone called, and that was very nice.

So, yeah, I'd see some if some felt it was an emergency. I've seen -- as you know, I've seen President Zelenskyy. He came to France while I was there for the cathedral opening. They actually had about 70 presidents and prime ministers, and in one case, a king. And we saw some great people. I also met with William. And I was very impressed by William. I think William is terrific. I was very impressed by William. As you know, I met with him too.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you invite Zelenskyy to the inauguration?

TRUMP: No. But if you'd like to come, I'd like to have him. I mean, I didn't invite him.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you disappointed that China Xi won't be at the inauguration?

TRUMP: I don't know that he won't be at the inauguration. I mean, I haven't really spoken to him about it. I don't know that actually. I would say that, if he'd like to come, I'd love to have him, but there's been nothing much discussed. I have had discussions with him, letters, et cetera, et cetera, at a very high level.

You know, we had a very good relationship until COVID. COVID didn't end the relationship, but it was a bridge too far from me. But if he'd like to come, I'd certainly --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: -- just so you understand, he hasn't said one way or the other, because a lot of people say, he won't come, He will come. People think he will come. He won't come. It's something we barely discussed, just about didn't discuss. But I have had, especially through letters, some very good conversations.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: you know, because China and the United States can together solve all of the problems of the world. If you think about it. So, it's very important. And you know, he was a friend of mine. I mean, he was here for a long time, right in that spot, except sitting in a very comfortable chair. He wasn't standing like you are. But we spent hours and hours talking, and he's an amazing guy. The press hates when I say that, but he's an amazing person.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me just ask about the border -- real quick. UnitedHealthcare shooting -- can you give us your thoughts about that? And what do you make of the reaction around the suspected shooter? Is that --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Yeah, yeah. I think it's a terrible thing. I think it's really terrible that some people seem to admire him, like him. And I was happy to see that it wasn't specific to this gentleman that was killed. It's just an overall sickness, as opposed to a specific sickness. That was a terrible thing. It was cold blooded, just a cold blooded, horrible killing.

And how people can like this guy is, that's a sickness actually, that's really very bad, especially the way it was done. It was so bad, right in the back, and very bad, very -- thing like that, you just -- you can't believe that some people -- and maybe it's fake news. I don't know, it's hard to believe that that can even be thought of, but it seems that there's a certain appetite for him. I don't get it. Yeah, please?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you just come in on. I want to expand on the defamation lawsuits. Could you see moving that to other people with individual platforms, social media, influencers, people that --

TRUMP: Or newspapers. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

TRUMP: Yeah. Oh, I do. I do. I think you have to do it, because they're very dishonest. We need a great media. We need a fair media. We need -- it's very important. And we need borders. We need walls, but we need borders. And we need fair elections.

You look at California, millions and millions of ballots were sent out. They're still counting the vote in California with the machines, they're counting the vote. If you had paper ballots, the votes would have been counted four weeks ago, three weeks ago.

Now you need fair elections. You need borders, and you need a fair press. And the press says, no, I see others. I have a few others that I'm doing. I'm going to -- as an example, we're bringing -- I'm doing this not because I want to. I'm doing this because I feel I have an obligation to.

[12:10:00]

I'm going to be bringing one against the people in Iowa, their newspaper, which had a very, very good pollster, who got me right all the time. And then just before the election, she said I was going to lose by three or four points. And it became the biggest story all over the world, because I was going to win Iowa by 20 points. The farmers loved me, and I love the farmers.

And it was interesting the way she did it. She brought it down. Two weeks before, she said I was going to only win by four. That was a big story. But that was good, because she brought it down from like 22 points to four, or whatever the number was, way up, way up, an easy win. Never even thought to go there.

I respect them, I love them, and they understand there's no reason to go there, because she brought it from way up walk away, which it was, and it turned out to be in the election too, by the way, it was a win by many, many points. And then she brought it down very smartly to four a couple of weeks before, and everyone said, wow, that's amazing. He's only up by four points.

Then she brought it down to where I was down by three or four, whatever number she used. And that was the Des Moines Register, and it was their parent, and in my opinion, it was fraud, and it was election interference. You know, she's gotten me right always. She's a very good pollster. She knows what she was doing. And she then quit before.

And we'll probably be filing a major lawsuit against them today or tomorrow. We're filing one on 60 minutes. You know about that, where they took Kamala's answer, which was a crazy answer, a horrible answer, and they took the whole answer out, and they replaced it with something else she said later on in the interview, which wasn't a great answer, but it wasn't like the first one.

The first was grossly incompetent. It was weird. And that was fraud and election interference by their news magazine, a big part of CBS News. So, as you know, we're involved in that. We're involved in one which has been going on for a while, and very successfully against Bob Woodward, where he didn't quote me properly from the tapes.

And then, on top of everything else, he sold the tapes, which he wasn't allowed to do. He could only use them for reporting purposes, not for sale purposes. And he admits that, and I think we'll be successful on that one. And we have one very interestingly on Pulitzer, because reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post got Pulitzer Prizes for their wonderful, accurate and highly professional reporting on the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. Well, it turned out to be a hoax, and they were exactly wrong.

People -- like many people, John Solomon, Sean Hannity is not for Pulitzer, but Sean Hannity got it right. Many people got it right. Tucker got it right. Jesse got it right. Laura got it right. Jenny got it right. A lot of people got it right. They didn't get anything.

They gave it to reporters that got it absolutely wrong, and now everybody admits it was a hoax. And I want them to get back, take back the Pulitzer Prizes and pay big damages. And I think we're doing very well on that. They have no excuse for it. They gave a Pulitzer Prize to writers that got Russia, Russia, Russia, wrong.

And so, I think we're doing well. And I feel I have to do this. I shouldn't really be the one to do it. It should have been justice department or somebody else, but I have to do it. It costs a lot of money to do it, but we have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt, almost as corrupt as our elections.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you worried about Venezuela? Sir, do you have senses (Ph) to Venezuela?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a question. For January 6 defendants, you have said, in the first few minutes of your administration, you want to issue pardons for January 6 defendants. Does that include -- will that be a blanket pardon? Does that --

TRUMP: Well, you'll find that, but it's going to go quickly.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And just to follow up on your --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In discussion, Sir, with in terms of your mass deportation plans. If you had any preliminary discussions with countries like Venezuela from where the Tren de Aragua gang is now popping up --

TRUMP: They'll take them back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to take it back?

TRUMP: They're all taking them back. Yep. And if they don't, they'll be met very harshly economically. OK. They'll all take them back. You know, Venezuela and other countries were not behaving very well with us during my administration. And within 24 hours, they were behaving very well. They'll all take them back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Its evenly cast (Ph) follow up on that?

TRUMP: Jeff. Nice to see you, Jeff, this is like the old days, right? You've looked -- actually you look much better now than you did four years ago. What are you doing? What's he doing? Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Sir. The first day you just mentioned that you're in office. I imagine you've got some executive orders --

TRUMP: Yeah. We'll all go through.

[12:15:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell us what --

TRUMP: We'll have a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are your priorities?

TRUMP: I bet you could tell. You could say as well as I could. We will have many executive orders and other things that we'll be signing on the first day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you also -- just going back to my initial question about the Middle East. You said that your conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu was kind of a review. Did you repeat that --

TRUMP: We just had a very good conversation. And you know, the real conversations will start on the 20th, but we had a really good conversation. And I think we're going to be in a good place in the Middle East. I think the Middle East is -- will be in a good place. I think actually more difficult is going to be the Russia, Ukraine situation. I see that as more difficult.

I don't think they should have allowed missiles to be shot 200 miles into Russia. I think that was a bad thing. And that brought the Koreans in -- North Korea, another man I get along with very well. I'm the only one that does, but that did a lot of bad things. I don't think that should have been allowed, not when there's a possibility, and certainly not just weeks before I take over. Why would they do that without asking me what I thought? I wouldn't have had them do that. I think it was a big mistake they made.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you reverse that decision when you're in the office to let those --

TRUMP: I might, yeah. I thought it was very stupid thing to do.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just one last thoughts. When you say that there will be hell to pay if the hostages are not released before January 20. What does that mean?

TRUMP: Well, they're going to have to determine what that means, but it means, it won't be pleasant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: It's not going to be pleasant. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How was your meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook? And did you talk about tariffs in that meeting?

TRUMP: Meeting with him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Apple CEO Tim Cook.

TRUMP: I did have dinner with Tim Cook. I had dinner with sort of -- almost all of them and the rest are coming. And this is one of the big differences, I think, between we were talking about it before. One of the big differences between the first term -- the first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend. I don't know.

My personality changed or something. But I had -- as you know, I had Sundar from Google, but I also had Sergei. Nobody reported that. Sergei is the owner, the primary owner, along with his friend, as you know, and Sergei was here also.

I can't believe you didn't pick that one up. Nobody picked that up. But I will tell you, No, it's a big difference. The big difference is that the first time everybody was fighting me on all fronts, and we had a great administration. We got the biggest tax cuts in history and rebuilt the military, too much of it was given away to Afghanistan

Stupidly given away, horribly given away. I think that's one of the reasons that Putin went in to Ukraine. When he saw the stupidity of Milley and these guys. They're stupid people, very stupid people. If he didn't -- if they didn't do such a big, you know, we were pulling out of Afghanistan, but I would have pulled out with dignity and strength.

They wouldn't be having parades, I guarantee you, showing our equipment that they left behind, because we weren't going to leave any equipment behind. Not 10 cents. We were going to take every screw and every bolt.

So, yeah, the biggest difference is that people want to get along with me this time. Well, they've gone through four years, and you know, it wasn't easy for me, but it wasn't easy for them either. And that's a great thing, though, getting along is a great thing.

So, Tim Cook was here. I think he's done an incredible job at Apple. And he talked about the future of Apple. It's going to be a bright future. But we have many others also and not in that business. And we do have Jeff Bezos' Amazon coming in, sometime during the week. Look forward to that.

We have a lot of great executives coming in, the top executives, the top bankers. They're all calling -- and honestly, in the first, I don't know what it was. It's like a complete opposite in the first one -- and the press has covered that fairly actually for change. The first one, they were very hostile, and maybe it was my fault, but I don't really think so. They were just very right from the beginning. And this one is much less hostile. It's really the opposite of hostile.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know that you had some, I believe, involvement 18 years ago with the students at Duke, accused of rap and La Crosse. Now we have this.

I thought it was a hoax when it happened the Duke situation. I didn't believe the woman, as you know, and I -- you destroyed. They destroyed the lives of these, these kids. They destroyed. And I don't care what they got. Their lives have been destroyed. Their lives have been shortened by what took place, and now the woman admitted that it never happened. That is a horrible.

[12:20:00]

And as you know, I took a lot of heat when I said that this is -- this did not happen. And those kids were beautiful, kids with beautiful families, and they were -- in some cases, will never be the same. They will never be the same.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you talked to them by chance?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any thoughts on the postal service? You mentioned Bezos, a second go, and I've always thought Bezos would be a key person to go in there and really streamline the logistics of the post office, but they lose billions.

TRUMP: Well, there is talk about the postal service being taken private. You do know that. Not the worst idea I've ever heard, really isn't. You know, it's a lot different today with between Amazon and UPS and FedEx, and all the things that you didn't have. But there is talk about that. It's an idea that a lot of people have liked for a long time. We're looking at it. I think we're looking at that, along with a lot of it. Any questions for Howard, by the way?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. Mr. Congress secretary, do you see another trade deal with China coming?

HOWARD LUTNIK CEO, CANTOR FITZGERALD: I think the president -- yeah. Oh, it's easy for me. You're sitting next to me, so it's OK. Look, the president has very clear agenda for tariffs, and I think reciprocity is something that is going to be a key topic for us. How you treat us is how you should expect to be treated.

(Crosstalk)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you like to give answer on that?

TRUMP: We said, it's no (inaudible). If they tax us, we tax them the same amount. They tax us -- forget it just for a second about the word. They tax us we tax them. And they tax us -- almost in all cases, they're taxing us, and we haven't been taxing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there a deal already underway? TRUMP: Is there a deal already underway, with respect to that? Let's just say this, we're going to make great deals, and we have all the cards. And until I came along, don't forget, and Howard was going over the numbers with me last night. We took in $600 billion and more in taxes and tariffs from China. No other president took in 10 cents, not 10 cents, not 10 cents.

And no. Well, we're going to be doing things. We're going to be treating people very fairly. But the word reciprocal is important, because if somebody charges us -- India, we don't have to talk about all. If India charges us 100 percent, do we charge them nothing for the same. You know, they send in a bicycle, and we send them a bicycle. They charge us 100 and 200. India charges a lot. Brazil charges a lot. If they want to charge us, that's fine, but we're going to charge them in the same thing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you worry about tarrif?

TRUMP: The senators. Some of them aren't necessarily businesspeople. When I give that to them, they say, that sounds fair to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you concerned that tariffs might hurt the stock market rise that you have seen in the economy more broadly?

TRUMP: To make our country rich. Tariffs will make our country rich.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But won't be raise by --

TRUMP: I'll make enough well. I didn't have any inflation, and I had massive tariffs on a lot of things. We put tariffs on steel. If I didn't put tariffs on steel, 50 percent and more. They were dumping steel in China and others. I put tariffs on, and it stopped. And we took a fortune. We made a fortune on it. Tariffs properly used, which we will do, and being reciprocal with other nations, but it will make our country rich.

Our country right now loses to everybody, almost nobody. Do we have a surplus. There are a couple of countries, and they're embarrassed about it, but almost nobody. And tariffs will make -- I always said to me, tariffs most beautiful word in the dictionary. It'll make our country rich. As you go back and look at the 1890s, 1880s McKinley, and you take a look at tariffs. That was when we were at our proportionately the richest.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What should Zelenskyy, if anything we prepared to give up to --

TRUMP: As we prepare to make a deal, that's -- you got to be a deal. No, got to be a deal. Too many people being killed. That is a war that's too many people got to make a deal.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Who has to make a deal? And Putin would have never gotten if I was president. If I was president, we wouldn't have had inflation. Our oil prices would have been lower. I had a good relationship with Putin. He would despite the Russia hoax, which made it more difficult. If we had that election, if it were an honorable election, we wouldn't have had any of the problems that we're talking about right now.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, you said that you make that deal before you take office. Do you still think you can make that deal?

TRUMP: I'm going to try.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you ask to give up Assad?

[12:25:00]

TRUMP: Well, I hadn't thought of it. I think we have to get on with our lives. We'll have to see what happens. But right now, Syria has a lot of, you know, there's a lot of indefinites. Nobody knows what's going to happen with Syria. But I think Turkey is going to hold the key to Syria. Actually, I don't think you've heard that from anybody else, but I've been pretty good at predicting.

I want to thank you all. And we're going to make America great again. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Howard.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to Inside Politics, and welcome back to the Trump era. I'm Dana Bash in Washington. And we are going to start where we just left off with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago wrapping up an extended Q&A with reporters.

The first time we've seen that since winning reelection. And he has been talking about a slew of things, his cabinet picks, the borders, foreign affairs, the drones over New Jersey, whether he privatized the post office, TikTok, all kinds of things, including, just now we heard him asked about whether or not Bashar al-Assad should be forced to leave Russia.

And he said he hadn't thought about that. Talked about Zelenskyy and Ukraine, got to be prepared to make a deal. He commented on everything from the Duke lacrosse scandal and very, very, very many other issues.

We want to start where this started, which is on the economy. And Donald Trump tried to plug $100 billion investment from a Japanese tech billionaire. CNN's Alayna Treene is there in West Palm Beach, right by the president-elect resort. Our fact-checker Daniel Dale is also here.

Alayna, such a wide-ranging news conference. Where do you want to start? Because we are going to spend a lot of time breaking down and fact-checking what the president-elect said.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: I mean, there is a lot. As you mentioned, Dana, that he covered. This was a very wide-ranging press conference. I would argue as well. I know that it was not entirely clear if he was going to be taking questions when reporters went into the room where he was giving this announcement about that major investment from the SoftBank CEO.

It was $100 billion with the promise of trying to create 100,000 jobs. That is double what this same group SoftBank announced in December of 2016 after Donald Trump first won his election for the White House.

But again, I want to get into the Q&A part and in that news conference, because that is where Donald Trump actually made a lot of news. One thing I want to talk about because I know this has been such a big focus on so many people's minds, is what is happening with the drones over New Jersey, my home state. I know my family is worried about this too.

Donald Trump said that he didn't want to get into whether or not he's been briefed on it, but he argued that he believes that the government knows exactly what is happening and that they should be identifying what the cause of this is. I want you to take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from. If it's a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went. And for some reason, they don't want to comment. And I think they'd be better off saying what it is. Our military knows and our president knows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Dana, I know where Daniel Dale standing by to fact-check some of this. But I will argue that what Donald Trump said there is very much not the same from what we have heard from these exact government officials over this week.

And we did hear from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this weekend addressing this. We also heard from many FBI officials and those at DOJ. All of them kind of trying to assuage the concerns of voters who are seeing these drones, while also arguing that they have a right to be concerned.

Mayorkas said this weekend that there's no question. People are seeing these drones that they have promised the federal government will give more assistance to New Jersey state police, but also said that they're still trying to find answers on this. They don't believe that this is a major national security concern, something Donald Trump also just argued in that sound that you heard. But that, again, they still need to get to the bottom of this.

And so, this is something that I find, you know, very interesting to see whether or not, as we continue reporting this out, whether Donald Trump is actually getting his own updates on this. Some other big areas that he went into. TikTok, I think he addressed, you know, really publicly for the first time, his stance on TikTok. He had wavered on this over the campaign trail.

We know in the past Donald Trump had threatened to ban TikTok. That has since changed. Donald Trump said today that he has warmed up to TikTok because he believes many young people voted for him. So, they will be looking into it, but seemed, you know, less inclined to do so. That's just two things that he said in a number of topics that he addressed today at that press conference. Dana?

BASH: Thanks Alayna. And I just want to go back before I get to you, Daniel. I'm going to do a little Daniel Dale right now and say that, while the president-elect was speaking and saying what you just played, alleging that the government knows, suggesting that there is something nefarious going on.