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Inside Politics

Trump Meets With Saudi Crown Prince At White House. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 18, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: -- being a kind of a stranglehold on the Republican Party as Trump has been able to do so in the past.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think we're waiting for the President meeting. We are in it right now. President Trump meeting with Mohammed bin Salman. Let's listen.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's the crown prince, the future king. And I just want to pay my greatest respect to your father king, who is an amazing man. I met him early on. He greeted me at the airport at an age that was pretty high up there, and it was about 117 degrees. And he was standing on the red carpet as I came out of the plane.

And he's amazing. And when I met his brilliant son, it was at the Oval Office. Shortly thereafter, you came in representing the country and I called the father. I said, this guy is fantastic. And I don't know if that helped you or hurt you, but obviously it couldn't have hurt too much because here you are, right?

So we had a great meeting and the office has changed quite a bit and we inherited a mess. You actually told me you thought the country was in big trouble. I'm not going to use the exact word that you used. I refuse to say that you thought our country was dead a year and a half, two years ago, but our country was in trouble and now we have the hottest country in the world. You said that also.

And we do, we have the -- the United States is right now the hottest country in the world. And between the tariffs and the election, November 5th election, it -- we've done things that nobody can believe. $21 trillion will be the amount invested in the United States or committed to invest in one year.

So I'm here nine months, we're up to almost $18 trillion. Biden as an example, the Biden administration, if you call it that, it's not to me, it was the Biden lack of administration. They were less than $1 trillion for four years. We're going to be $21 trillion for one year. I think that's hard to believe.

The biggest in history was a certain country, $3 trillion. We're going to be $21 trillion. On top of that, prices are coming down. We inherited a mess with high prices. The worst inflation in the history of our country. We had inflation. That was a single four years, the worst inflation in the history of the United States.

A gas prices through the roof, and that's after destroying our petroleum reserve, which was meant for wars and big emergencies, not to try and win an election. They opened up the reserve so that people get $3 less in gasoline and it didn't work. They got about $0.03 less.

Because as big as those reserves are, they're peanuts. When you're talking about that kind of traffic. And we're rebuilding the reserves. We're doing all of this and we've done a job. We're also bringing down prices very substantially, and we've already brought them down very, very substantially.

Gasoline is way down. I think you'll be seeing $2 gasoline but we're now at $2.50, $2.45. Some are lower than that. It was $4.50, $5, $6, $3.50, $3.75. Under by all different numbers, but way high. And we have energy way down.

But the biggest thing to me, because I know what it means in jobs, is the fact that we're at over $17 trillion, Scott. And we expect to be around $20, $21 trillion in one year. And that's many times bigger than in history. The highest number was $3 trillion, and we're going to be at $21 trillion. That means new plants, new AI, new auto plants.

We have auto plants coming in from Canada, from Mexico, from Germany, from Japan. Toyota just agreed to invest $10 billion on new auto plants, all American workers. We've never been in a position like this. You can go back to the beginning.

Our country has never been in a position like this, and it really is because of the fact that we use tariffs to bring all this money in. And you're going to see the results in a year when these plants start to open up. We have more plants under construction now than at any time in the history of our country. And these are big plants. These are the biggest plants anywhere in the world.

And I want to thank you because you've agreed to invest $600 billion into the United States. And because this is my friend, he might make it $1 trillion, but I'm going to have to work on him. But it's $600 billion. We can count on $600 billion. But that number could go up a little bit higher. Yes, sir. I don't know. We'll see.

But we appreciate it very much. Saudi is going to be investing at least $600 billion and that means investments in plants, in companies, money on Wall Street, and what it really means for everybody that really counts as jobs. A lot of jobs. We have a lot of jobs.

So, I just want to thank you. We've been really good friends for a long period of time. We've always been on the same side of every issue.

[12:35:05]

I think we've done a great job in wiping out the nuclear capacity of Iran. Nobody else could have done that. No other president would've done it. We had the pilots in the Oval Office right here. We were celebrating a very successful attack, so I had them in with that beautiful B2 bomber that's over there.

And they said, sir, for 22 years, we practiced this attack, our predecessors, these were very young guys. So 22 years, they said our predecessors and us practice the attack on Iran. But no president ever gave us the go ahead.

Three times a year, they went out and they practiced the attack. Nobody let us do it until you came along. And I let them do it because it was the right thing to do. You can't have a nuclear ran (ph). And we put you in a very good position.

But I just want to say it's an honor to be your friend and it's an honor that you're here. And if you'd like to say a few words, but thank you very much.

CROWN PRINCE MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN, SAUDI ARABIA: Thank you, Mr. President. This relation, in relation for about nine decades, and we've been working together for a long time, but today it's very important time in our history because there is also a lot of things that we are working on in the future.

We believe in the future of the rest of America, we believe -- and what you're doing, Mr. President, is really creating a lot of good things and good foundation to create more economical growth, more business in America, and it'll also your work for the world peace, I believe, Mr. President.

And today and tomorrow, we going to announce that we are going to increase that $600 billion to almost $1 trillion of investment, real investment and real opportunity by details in many areas. And the agreement that we are signing today in many areas in technology, AI, air materials, magnet, et cetera, that will create a lot of investment opportunities --

TRUMP: So you are doing that now. You're saying to me now that the $600 billion will be $1 trillion?

BIN SALMAN: Definitely. Because what we are signing to facilitate that and --

TRUMP: I like that very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You work hard for this.

TRUMP: No, that's great. That's -- I appreciate that. That's great. It's -- no, we're doing numbers that nobody's ever done. And in all fairness, if you didn't see potential in the U.S., you wouldn't be doing that.

BIN SALMAN: Definitely, yes.

TRUMP: You don't want to lose money.

BIN SALMAN: As you said, Mr. President, it's the most hottest country in the planet. But what you are creating is not about opportunity today, it's about also long term opportunity and that's it for America that would affect America economy positively in the next coming decades.

Preparing the right foundation of emerging technologies, that's a game changer for America in a good way. And we want to be part of it.

TRUMP: Yes, we're doing really well. And this -- you know, you don't see what we're doing so much because we have -- although the construction industry sees it. If you look at Caterpillar who's been incredible, the, you know, the tractors, everything else, the numbers that we're doing in construction are unbelievable.

You know, some of the plants that we're building AI, and they're building their own electric with the plant. I gave them the right to build their own electric with the plant because no country frankly will have this. China's working very hard to produce enough electric, but we're beating China substantially at AI, which is a big thing.

And we had great meeting two weeks ago with President Xi, but on AI, we're doing well. And I have a man, David Rommel (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

TRUMP: David could you say a few words about what you're seeing on the job front and all of the -- some of the assets and also how we've been helped by the Saudis in terms of the kind of investment they've made. Please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, most certainly. Thank you for the opportunity.

I am a facility leader for GE Vernova. And if you look at the landscape for GE Vernova investment, over $750 million in the U.S. focused on true manufacturing jobs here stateside. We're looking at tripling the output of our Greenville, South Carolina facility where we make the gas turbines that are supporting U.S. needs as well as the Saudi Arabia needs.

TRUMP: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So real jobs, $300 million in gas investment, resulting in over 500 pieces of new equipment being installed in the Greenville, South Carolina facility. That translates into roughly 1,800 jobs across the board for GE Vernova as we try to scale capacity to be able to meet this demand.

Along with that, we're partnering with local communities to build the skill set that's required to meet these capacity needs. So that talent pipeline is incredibly important. So it's real jobs in the manufacturing space.

TRUMP: Well, you've been great, and thank you very much. And we love that state. I won that state by record numbers.

I won a lot of states by record -- Texas, a lot of them. By Indiana, we're working with Indiana or something right now. We won that. We won a lot of them by records, but that was one of them.

[12:40:01] I want to thank you very much. Say hello to everybody. Great job. You're doing a great job. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Appreciate it, Mr. President.

TRUMP: So just in wrapping up, we'll take a couple of questions. But I want to just tell you what an honor it is to be your friend. And I very much appreciate the investment of now $1 trillion, OK? That's -- I'm glad you got that out. I didn't want to be the one to tell them, but that's great news.

BIN SALMAN: You keep increasing, Mr. President.

TRUMP: I know, I know.

BIN SALMAN: You know, each time, the opportunities are just increasing more and more.

TRUMP: Yes -- well, the opportunities. We're doing better. If -- even if you look back six months ago, I mean, all of a sudden, you feel even better. So -- and I think we're only going to go in one way.

Does anybody have any questions?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President? Mr. President?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, have you approved the export licenses for advanced checks to Saudi Arabia? The export licensing?

TRUMP: We are working on that. We're negotiating that right now. Marco, do you want to talk about that or Scott?

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: OK. Well, I mean, that's part of what we may have announcements on that later today. But that's what we've been working on, is the mechanics by which something like that could be achieved. And it's part of the broader process, part of this broader engagement and cooperation between our two countries.

TRUMP: Certain levels of chips. Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And for the Crown Prince, Your Royal Highness, you're talking about $1 trillion of investment. Could the kingdom continue to do that with oil prices in the mid-60s?

BIN SALMAN: Yes, it's -- we are not creating fake opportunities to, you know, please America, please President Trump. It's real opportunities. For example, when you ask about the AI and the chips, Saudi Arabia have a huge demand of -- huge need of computing power. And we're going to spend in the short term around $50 billion by consuming those semiconductors for our needs in Saudi Arabia.

And with the agreement that we're going to have with America, that will allow us to focus that consuming power in the short term by $50 billion from the State of America and long term with hundreds of billions of dollars in the long term. So there's a lot of real opportunities that fit to all our needs in Saudi Arabia and fit to our investment strategy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, is it appropriate, Mr. President, for your family to be doing business in Saudi Arabia while you're president? Is that a conflict of interest? And Your Royal Highness, the U.S. intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist.

9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office.

TRUMP: Who are you with? Who are you with?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why should Americans trusting you?

TRUMP: Who are you with?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the same to you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: No, who are you with?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm with ABC News, sir.

TRUMP: You're with who?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ABC News, sir.

TRUMP: Fake news. ABC fake news. One of the worst --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the question is --

TRUMP: One of the worst in the business. But I'll answer your question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

TRUMP: I have nothing to do with the family business I have left. And when I -- I've devoted 100 percent of my energy. What my family does is fine. They do business all over.

They've done very little with Saudi Arabia, actually. I'm sure they could do a lot. And anything they've done has been very good. That's what we've done. We've built a tremendous business for a long time. I've been very successful.

I decided to leave that success behind and make America very successful. And I've made America more successful by far than it ever was. And that it ever could have been no matter who was president. There would be nobody bringing in $21 trillion. That I can tell you right now.

As far as this gentleman is concerned, he's done a phenomenal job. You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. And we can leave it at that. You don't have to embarrass our guests by asking a question like that.

BIN SALMAN: It's OK, just she ask. Mr. President --

TRUMP: Please, go ahead.

BIN SALMAN: -- if you'll allow me to answer. You know, I feel painful about, you know, the families of 9/11 in America. But, you know, we have to focus on reality. Reality based on CIA documents and based on a lot of documents that Osama bin Laden, he used Saudi people in that event for one main purpose, is to destroy this relation. To destroy the American-Saudi relation. That's the purpose of 9/11.

So whoever buying that, that means they are helping Osama bin Laden purpose of destroying this relation. He know that strong relation between America and Saudi Arabia, it's bad for extremism. It's bad for terrorism.

And we have to approve him wrong and to build our relation -- continue developing our relation. It's critical in the safety of the world. It's critical against extremism and terrorism.

About the journalist, it's really painful to hear, you know, anyone that been losing his life for, you know, no real purpose or not in a legal way. And it's been painful for us in Saudi Arabia. We've did all the right steps of investigation, et cetera, in Saudi Arabia.

And we've improved our system to be sure that nothing happen like that. And it's painful and it's a huge mistake. And we are doing our best that this doesn't happen again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President?

TRUMP: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President. The Crown Prince has been instrumental in helping lifting the sanctions on Syria. Will there be any joint investment between the U.S. and Syria? And will you visit Damascus --

TRUMP: Are you from Syria?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, but --

[12:45:07]

TRUMP: Where are you from?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm from Palestine.

TRUMP: Oh, making a lot of progress, huh?

Very good. They like me. The Palestinians like me. The Palestinians are doing very well, actually. I think we're working very closely with a lot of people to make everybody happy, including Israel, the Palestinians and everybody. That's very interesting.

No, I think that -- I will tell you, the Crown Prince called me and he specifically asked me if I would lift the sanctions on Syria because he wants to see Syria make it. As you know, the leader of Syria was just here. And we had a great meeting and he's a strong guy.

And I guess you need a strong person to run it. And I think Syria has made tremendous progress. We did lift the sanctions at the request of the Crown Prince. Also, the president of Turkey, Erdogan, called me specifically. He said, you know, if you don't lift the sanctions, Syria doesn't have a chance. If you do, they have a very good chance.

And between the two of them and some others, I lifted the sanctions. And the results so far have been pretty good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, can I ask you a question about the F-35s that are being sold --

TRUMP: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- to Saudi Arabia? Are these the same ones that are being used by the Israeli military? And if so, how does that allow for the qualitative military edge for Israel? And then I want to ask you, because you brought up the flight of the Palestinians, are you aware of relocation flights to South Africa that are taking place right now?

TRUMP: Which flights?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're relocation flights that are taking place. Some Palestinians are being charged up to $2,000 a seat.

TRUMP: I'm not going to South Africa for the G20, because I think their policies on the extermination of people are unacceptable. So I'm not going. So I won't refer to anything having to do with South Africa. South Africa has behaved extremely badly.

But I will say that when you look at the F-35 and you're asking me, is it the same? I think it's going to be pretty similar, yes. You know --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How will that --

TRUMP: -- this is a great ally. And Israel is a great ally. And I know they'd like you to get planes of reduced caliber. I don't think that makes you too happy. They've been a great ally. Israel's been a great ally. And we're looking at that exactly right now. But as far as I'm concerned, I think they are both at a level where they should get top of the line.

Yes, please? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to quickly ask for the Crown Prince. If I could just ask about the direct talks between the --

TRUMP: It's all right. Steve, one second. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you reached an agreement on a U.S.-Saudi defense treaty today? And are you going to bring up the Abraham Accords in your discussion?

TRUMP: I already brought them up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you say?

TRUMP: I think I got a positive response. Would you like to respond?

BIN SALMAN: Yes, so --

TRUMP: A quick yes is fine.

BIN SALMAN: Yes. So definitely. We believe having a good relation with all the eastern countries is a good thing. And we want to be part of the Abraham Accords. But we want also to be sure that we secure a clear path of a two-state solution.

And today, we have a healthy discussion with Mr. President that we're going to work on that to be sure that we can prepare the right situation as soon as possible to have that.

TRUMP: I think we're -- you know, I don't want to use the word commitment, but we've had a very good talk on the Abraham Accords. We talked about one state, two state. You know, we talked about a lot of things in a short period of time. We'll be discussing it further, too.

But I think you have a very good feeling toward the Abraham Accords.

BIN SALMAN: Yes, definitely, Mr. President. We want peace for the Israelis. We want peace for the Palestinians. We want them to coexist peacefully in the region. And we will do our best to reach that date.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the defense agreement, have you reached agreement on that?

TRUMP: We very much have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, on the conference, if I could just finish.

TRUMP: We have reached agreement on that. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted to ask you about the direct talks between the United States and Iran. Have you been fully briefed on that? And are you concerned at all about how this might impact Saudi security interests? BIN SALMAN: Well, we are close. And I will be working closely together on that issue. And we will do our best to help to reach a deal between the United States of America and Iran. And we believe it's good for Iran's future to have a good deal that will satisfies the region and the world and the United States of America. So we will do our best to see that day happen.

TRUMP: And, by the way, Iran does want to make a deal. I can say I think they very badly want to make a deal. I am totally open to it. And we're talking to them. And we start a process.

But it would be a nice thing to have a deal with Iran. And we could have done it before the war. But that didn't work out. And something will happen there, I think. But they would very much like -- I mean, they may say something else, but they would very much like to have a deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President --

TRUMP: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- you are going to sell F-35 jets.

TRUMP: Say it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are planning -- you said you are planning to sell the F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia.

TRUMP: Yes.

[12:50:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it part of the security agreement? And how will you assist the defense partnership between Saudi Arabia and the United States? And the question for -- well, I mean --

TRUMP: Well, no, you said it, though. I mean, I'm going to -- we're going to sell them F-35s. That's the end of the question, I guess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it part of the security agreement or no?

TRUMP: No, we're going to have -- no, we're going to have a deal. They're going to purchase F-35s. They're buying them from Lockheed. And it's a great plane.

We make, by the way, the best military equipment. You saw that during the Iran little skirmish. We make the best planes, the best missiles. We make the best offensive missiles. We make the best military equipment in the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice. For His Royal Highness, I would like to ask you about how you see the cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia in the technology -- advanced technological field, especially AI, and how it will support Saudi Arabia to serve its goals to achieve the vision of 2030. BIN SALMAN: Well, I will try to answer that in short, but definitely there's a lot of interest in many industries between Saudi Arabia and America. And we are signing a lot of agreements in different areas that would really add value to American economy, but also to add value to us and Saudi Arabia.

And AI, it's critical for us because one of the long-term problems that we could have is lack of workforce. As you've seen in the past few years, some of them have reached 30 percent of the global immigration to Saudi Arabia. So we know that to assure the Saudi Arabia GDP growing with the lack of workforce that we have, we need to use a lot of computing power to replace job in the long term.

So that's huge demand in Saudi Arabia, and we want to link it to American private sectors and getting the supply from America. So there's a lot of opportunities in that area.

TRUMP: And we're also involved in AI in Saudi Arabia. So we're working. And again, we're leading by a lot on AI, actually a lot. China would be in second place, but we're leading by a lot.

And I have to say this, and our relationship with China has been very good. And as far as buying our farm products, they're pretty much on schedule. Scott, I'd like you to call them, say if they could speed it up, we'll be good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.

TRUMP: OK, but they're pretty much on schedule.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President?

FAISAL ABBAS, EDITOR IN CHIEF, ARAB NEWS: Mr. President, if you could, please. If I may, I have a question for both the Crown Prince and --

TRUMP: Sure. Go ahead. Who are you, and where are you from?

ABBAS: I'm Faisal Abbas from Arab News, Saudi Arabia, Your Excellency.

TRUMP: You should be afraid of the question.

ABBAS: Your Royal Highness, just picking up on something you just mentioned about how some people tried to destroy the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States. Perhaps, you know, since the launch of the vision, we've been used to having the bigger picture and that everything fits into the bigger picture.

Might you want to elaborate a little bit about where is the relationship, the bilateral relationship, the strategic partnership between Saudi Arabia and the United States heading, and what's the big picture there?

BIN SALMAN: Well, I don't think it's a relation that we can replace it from the Saudi side or the American side. It's a critical relationship for our political attempt, for our economical attempt, for our security, for our military, for many things. And I've been there for nine decades, and the opportunities that we have today, it's huge and seems that it's going to get deeper in the next few decades.

And what we are having today and tomorrow with President Trump, it's really a huge new chapter on this relation that will add value to both of us.

ABBAS: Thank you.

TRUMP: You know, when you think about it, I'm just sitting here, you're with the future king, a man who's respected by everybody, a man that doesn't have to be doing this, really. I don't have to be doing it either. And yet, we're sitting here taking questions, any -- we didn't say, oh, you can't talk about this, and there's never been transparency like this, even in his country.

But there's never been -- in our country, that's been acknowledged. But we didn't put restrictions. And I'm saying it's sort of wonderful to be taking questions from all over the world. Everybody's here. This is just a small group representative of tremendous numbers of media that are outside that are very jealous that these people were so selected. But they're representing a lot of people that are outside.

I think it's terrific that we could be sitting here being this open. And, you know, I think it's really a wonderful thing. Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don't mind, I have a personal question for you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: OK, here we go. I should have said it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So apart from everything you mentioned in your opening remarks, you forgot to mention that you've de-escalated seven wars since you started. At least in our part of the world, you are seen as a peacemaker. And adding that to all the executive orders and everything else you've mentioned, I really have to wonder, you -- in your speech in Saudi Arabia, I was there, you said that His Royal Highness does not sleep at night thinking how he does things better.

We wonder in Saudi Arabia, how do you manage your own time? And what's your formula for managing it?

TRUMP: He does not sleep much, and I don't sleep much. I think we have the same schedule. We're thinking about our countries. And if you sleep a lot, and your president, we just had one that slept more than any president.

He broke every record. He sleeps all the time, during the day, during the night, on the beach. The only guy could fall asleep on the beach with the press watching.

[12:55:08]

No, he's not asleep. I'm not asleep. But we don't. We talk at night. We can talk. I can call him almost any time. He goes, hi, how you doing? It's like the craziest times. But now, when you love your job, when you love your country, and when you're in a position like we are, future king, highly respected, crown prince, and in my case, president, you're thinking about your country.

You're thinking about making America great again. We're thinking about keeping Saudi Arabia strong and vital in a pretty tough part of the world. Tricky part, right? Tricky part. A lot of tricky people.

But they -- he thinks about his country, and I think about my country. I don't want to sleep.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump, do you expect a formal civil nuclear deal to be reached soon? Can you talk to us about that aspect of today's --

TRUMP: With whom?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With Saudi Arabia?

TRUMP: I can see that happening, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think that that will -- an agreement will happen today?

TRUMP: It's not urgent. You know, it's always -- when you have civil nuclear, but you have more oil than almost anybody else. We actually have more oil and gas than they do, but I refuse to say that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And on that --

TRUMP: We have more than -- is it? We have more than anybody. Can you imagine?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And on the F-35s, are those sales -- Israel had reportedly wanted those sales to be conditioned on Saudi Arabia moving to normalized relations --

TRUMP: Israel will be happy. Israel is going to be happy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that a condition of the F-35 --

TRUMP: Israel is aware, and they're going to be very happy. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crown Prince?

TRUMP: Yes, please. Hello.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, hello. My name is Amanda Hazzan (ph) from Al- Sahafa (ph) newspaper. I'm from Riyadh, of course. I have a question for the Crown Prince and for you, Mr. President.

Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, what -- how much you expected from developing the cooperation with the United States in the field of new energy, AI, supply chain? How much you expected from that?

BIN SALMAN: No limits. We just continue pushing forward. There's no limits. So we just push forward for all the opportunities that we have.

TRUMP: This is -- you have to understand, this is really a great ally.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: Just the fact that they're now doing -- I came in here at 6:00. I did not know that. I was pushing for the $1 trillion, but he didn't tell me that. Now he told me. This is a great ally of ours.

You know, when you invest $1 trillion, that's national security for us too, because it creates jobs, it creates a lot of things. And I would say, Scott, right? When you hear one country is putting $ 1 trillion into the United States, that creates national security.

And, you know, I think that they don't have to say that, but I think a big part of that is also the fact that tariffs are in play. But even beyond tariffs, that's a real ally that will do that. It creates a lot of power for the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, we are also in Saudi Arabia, very happy for this much of Saudi, you know, money if function here. And of course, it's come back for us, for benefits. So it's complimentary interest. So this is what friends and ally do.

TRUMP: Well, look, I love the country of Saudi Arabia. I know the people very well. The level of treatment that we go when we go to Saudi Arabia is something that is incredible. And the people like us, and I think they really like America, especially when I'm president.

I mean, I don't think they liked America so much, maybe for four years recently. I think Obama treated Saudi Arabia very, very badly, very badly, as you know. But -- and I think Biden didn't have any idea where the hell he was. I don't think Biden knew the difference.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How would you describe the future relationship with Saudi Arabia? I mean, from the strategic aspects, how would you describe that --

TRUMP: How would I say the relationship is with?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes, the good of economic --

TRUMP: I would say top of the line. It's as good as it can -- I don't think it can get much better. We have -- look, we have a country that trusts us and trusts us. They couldn't make that investment. And we trust them very reliably. Now, we, you know, we are -- I rebuilt our military in my first term. And we spent trillions of dollars.

And we gave away some of it in Afghanistan, stupidly, because we have stupid people running our country. But we gave away, but that's as much as it was. It's a tiny fraction of what we what we put here. And we're again, we're bringing our military to a new level, the highest level ever.

Oh, we have those plants are going out. And again, it's all American jobs and everything else, so it's good for a lot of reasons. But as far as Saudi is concerned, now I don't think our --