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Trump Speaks at NATO Summit After Iran Strikes, Mideast Ceasefire; Trump Praises Defense Spending Hikes by NATO Allies; Trump Again Says Iran Nuclear Sites Were Obliterated by Strikes. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired June 25, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: -- ceasefire agreement late Monday and we call it the 12-day war.

[10:00:04]

I spoke to a few people. I guess that just sounded like the right name. It was a 12-day war. And we think it's over. I don't think they're going to be going back at each other. I don't think so. Not only have we dealt decisively with the critical threat of Iran's nuclear program, which was what I wanted, I said, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I've said that for 15 years long before I decided to do the political thing. But we've also reasserted the credibility of American deterrence, which is like no other, the people at NATO said this, never been anything. You know, I rebuilt the entire military during my first term, and we have a great military. We have great generals. I got to know the good ones and the bad ones. We kept the good ones.

Over the past two days, I was honored to participate in the NATO leaders meeting, and also had extremely good individual discussions with the king and the queen, Secretary General Ruta and the prime minister, great discussions, very knowledgeable people. Major focus of our conversations at the summit was the need for other NATO members to take up the burden of the defense of Europe, and that include the financial burden. As you know, it was 2 percent. We got it up to 5 percent and they said, a couple of them came up to me. One in particular said, sir, we've been trying to get it up to 3 percent for 20 years and we haven't been able, and you got it up to 5 percent.

So they're going to be -- most of them, I guess almost all of them are going to be contributing now 5 percent, the number that -- people are surprised that, but you need it today. The United States accounts for two thirds of all NATO defense spending. And since I began pushing for additional commitments in 2017, believe it or not, our allies have increased spending by $700 billion. I said to people, you don't have any money, and a lot of them weren't paying. And so I started the process and I picked it up as soon as I got back, which is six months ago.

And following my election last November, almost all have accelerated plans to reach the 2 percent, 3 percent, 4 percent, and then ultimately, very quickly, 5 percent. And all of this is going to be done very quickly, almost immediately. You probably know this, as well as I do. I'm sure they've been talking about it. It's really been a big focus in a very historic milestone this week. The NATO allies committed to dramatically increase their defense spending to that 5 percent of GDP, something that no one really thought possible.

And they said, you did it, sir. You did it. Well, I don't know if I did it, but I think I did. This will be known as the Hague Defense Commitment, which is pretty good, pretty appropriate. When the allies reach this number, it will add more than $1 trillion a year. Think of that, $1 trillion per year to our common defense. And this is a monument really to victory, but it's a monumental win for the United States because we were carrying much more than our fair share. It was quite unfair actually, but this is a big win for Europe and for actually western civilization.

For years, past administrations failed to get most allies to contribute, even the 2 percent. I remember when I came here, we had four countries that were up to 2 percent. And I remember Poland was there, a couple of them were there, but most of them were -- we had 28 at the time. As you know, it's increased a little bit. And they've agreed now to more than double their budgets in all cases.

And Europe is stepping up to take more responsibility for its security will help prevent future disasters, like the horrible situation with Russia and Ukraine. And hopefully we're going to get that solved. Last week they lost 7,000 soldiers, mostly soldiers, but they're also getting hit in Kyiv. They're getting hit in some of the towns also. And that means life. Life is disappearing also in the cities and towns, should have never happened, would've never happened if I was president. I said it a thousand times, and it never did happen. It's never even thought about. But it's vital that this additional money be spent on very serious military hardware, not bureaucracy.

And hopefully that hardware is going to be made in America because we have the best hardware in the world. You saw that where 14 missiles were shot at us the other day. And they were very nice. They gave us warning. They said, we're going to shoot them. Is 1:00 okay? They said, it's fine. And everybody was emptied off the base so they couldn't get hurt except for the gunners.

[10:05:03]

They call them the gunners. And out of 14 high-end missiles that were shot at the base in Qatar, all 14, as you know, were shot down by our equipment. Amazing stuff, amazing what they can do. It's like shooting a bullet with a bullet. It's the same thing if you think about it, 14 out of 14. And they weren't even that surprised. I said, you do that well often? They say, we pretty much do, sir.

The Ukraine crisis has also highlighted the urgency of rebuilding our defense industrial base, both in the United States and among the allied nations. We cannot afford to be dependent on foreign adversaries for critical minerals. And as you know, we made a deal with Ukraine to take a vast amount of the land they have for minerals. We need it.

And once again, I want to thank all of the people in the Netherlands, incredible people, it's a great place, and all of the NATO allies for the tremendous summit that we just had a letter just came in and a statement came in from the Atomic Energy Commission of Israel. And I just wondered, this is an official letter and they're very serious people. As you know, the devastating U.S. strike on Fordow destroyed the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility totally inoperable. It was devastated. We assessed that the American strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities has set back Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons for many years to come.

This achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material, which it won't. It's so sad that the whole thing had to go. But I just want to thank our pilots. You know, they were maligned and treated very bad, demeaned by fake news CNN, which is back there, believe it or not, wasting time, wasting it. Nobody's watching them. So, they're just wasting a lot of time, wasting my time. And The New York Times, they put out a story that, well, maybe they were hit, but it wasn't bad. Well, it was so bad that they ended the war. It ended the war.

Somebody said in a certain way, you know, that it was so devastating. Actually, if you look at Hiroshima, if you look at Nagasaki, you know, that ended a war too. This ended a war in a different way, but it was so devastating. Also, they have out of Dubai just came that Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, but this is Iran's foreign minister, says it's near -- its nuclear installations were very badly damaged by the American strike.

So, what bothered me about these reports are with fake reports put out by The New York Times failing -- I call it the failing New York Times because it's doing terribly. Without me, it would be doing no business at all. But -- and by fake news CNN and MSDNC, all of these terrible people, you know, they have no credibility.

You know, when I started there were 94 percent credibility, the media. Now, it's at 16 percent, and I'm very proud of it because I've exposed it for what it is. But when I saw them starting to question the caliber of the attack, was it bad? Well, it was really bad. It was devastating. They were obliterated, like you can't get into the tunnels. They just put that over. That just came out. They can't -- there's nothing. There's no way you can even get down. The whole thing has collapsed in a disaster. And I think all of the nuclear stuff is down there because it's very hard to remove.

And we did it very quickly. When they heard we were coming -- it was, you know, you can't move it very hard, very dangerous actually to move too. And they also knew we were coming. So, I don't think too many people want to be down there knowing we're coming with the bunker- busters, as we call them. We're the only ones that have them. We have the best equipment, best nuclear equipment, and we have the best equipment in the world.

And, by the way, we can't forget our submarine, which was out there, submarines actually, but submarine was out there. We shot 30 rockets into an area, every single one of them. I think it was almost 400 miles away, I think, Pete, right, 400 and long, it was in the ocean, long ways away. And we shot a total of 30. Every single one of them hit within nine inches from where it was supposed to be. It took it a lot. Because we didn't do just Fordow, we did two others in addition, which hadn't been completely destroyed.

So, we hit them with a submarine from hundreds of miles away. Amazing, just amazing equipment, greatest submarines in the world, nobody's even close.

[10:10:03]

They're 20 years behind us when it comes to submarine technology.

So, that's one. And the other was from the Atomic Energy Commission, and they have about three or four of them now coming in from Atomic Energy Commissions from various places. But the one that we have that just came out, we released it a little while ago, was from. The Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, but numerous of them are getting to see the site and the site has been demolished. And, again, we had these brave patriots, these incredible flyers, these people that can fly a plane better than anybody can fly a plane, going into very hostile territory, flying into the territory that's got more missiles and things pointed at it. But it was very stealth. They didn't get to see it. It was dark.

That's the amazing thing about the shots. They hit the shots perfectly, and yet it was dead dark. There was no moon, there was no light. It was virtually moonless. It was very dark and they hit, the shots, were hit perfectly, but when they get demeaned. And they were very upset about it because they knew how strong it would be.

Back in Missouri, the pilots flew about 36 hours, two ways, far distance and those incredible B-2s. And we then had the F-22s and we had the F-35s and we had other planes and we had I think a total of 52 tankers. That means the big tankers because the refueling was a lot for all of the different planes that we sent, incredible operation. And I have to say General Razin Caine was incredible. That's why he beat ISIS. And we beat ISIS in a matter of weeks. I was told it would take four to five years. We did it in a few weeks. And he was great. That's why he's the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff right now because I had a very good experience with him. He knocked out ISIS in a period of literally a few weeks, amazing. And it was supposed to take a few years, five years to be exact.

So, we had a great victory there. And we then came here and I think we had a great victory here. But this is an ongoing project. This is the safety of Europe, the safety of the world. And they've raised it from 2 percent to 5 percent, something which nobody -- and you're talking about over a trillion dollars a year. So, we're talking about a lot of money coming in from countries that we're not paying nearly enough to be effective.

So, I have, as you know, Marco Rubio with me and Pete Hegseth, secretary of state and secretary of war. Should we say secretary -- you know, it used to be called secretary of war, maybe for a couple of weeks, we'll call it that, because we feel like warriors. It used to be called Secretary of War. In fact, if you looked at the old building next to the White House, you can see where it used to be secretary of war. Then we became politically correct and they called it secretary of defense. I don't know, maybe we'll have to start thinking about changing it, but we feel that way.

Do we have any questions please? Wow, that's a lot of questions. Who's a nice -- oh, you're not a nice person, but I'll let you ask one. Go ahead. What's he going to ask? He is not nice at all. I know him well.

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Yes.

REPORTER: Thank you for taking the time before flying home. You just said you believe the conflict between Israel and Iran is over. What makes you so confident it is? And what do you do if it isn't?

TRUMP: Because I dealt with both, and they're both tired, exhausted. They fought very, very hard and very viciously, very violently and they were both satisfied to go home and get out. And can it start again? I guess someday it can, it could maybe start soon. I think a big telltale sign was when, as you know, Iran somewhat, by not much, violated the ceasefire, and Israel had the planes going out that morning and there were a lot of them, 52 of them. And I said, you got to get them back. And they brought them back. They didn't do anything. They brought them back. It was very good. I thought it was amazing actually. They have fought a hell of a war. They fought very hard.

I think the war ended actually when we hit the various nuclear sites with the planes. And I just hope you people can give these pilots -- they're the best pilots in the world. They're the best shots in the world. They call them shots. That's what they are. And, wait a minute, and I just hope you can give them the respect they deserve, because they came home to fake news and like, oh, gee, there was hardly any damage, the things had decimated.

But I think. No, I think they're very much finished. I think Israel's going to get back to doing what they do and I think that Iran's going to get back. You know, Iran has a huge advantage. They have great oil and they can do things.

[10:15:02]

I don't see them getting back involved in the nuclear business anymore. I think they've had it. They've been at it for 20 years, and I don't see that happening either. Now, if it does, we're always there. It won't be me, it'll be somebody else, but we're there. We'll have to do something about it.

Yes. Please go ahead. Go ahead. Oh, fake news, CNN? Oh yes. Yes. Here we go. Wait until you hear this question.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thanks for --

TRUMP: You should really say how great our soldiers and our warriors are. COLLINS: I think everyone appreciates our soldiers and our warriors. I do have two questions for you, Mr. President. You just cited Israeli intelligence on these attacks. Earlier, you said U.S. intelligence was inconclusive. Are you relying on Israeli intelligence for your assessment of the impact of the strikes?

TRUMP: No. This is also -- Iran made the statement. And it's also -- if you read the document that was given that Pete can talk about if you'd like, the document said it could be very severe damage, but they didn't take that. They said it could be limited or it could be very severe. They really didn't know other than to say it could be limited or it could be very, very severe. And you didn't choose to put that because it was very early after.

Since then, we've collected additional intelligence. We've also spoken to people who have seen the site and the site is obliterated and we think everything nuclear is down there. They didn't take it out, okay?

Question, please go ahead. Go ahead. Yes, blue dress.

REPORTER: Thank you so much, Mr. President. Yesterday, you said China can now continue to purchase oil from Iran.

TRUMP: Yes.

REPORTER: Are you giving up on your maximum pressure campaign?

TRUMP: With who?

REPORTER: Because there's sanctions right now.

TRUMP: With who?

REPORTER: On Iran.

TRUMP: No. Look, they just had a war. The war was fought. They fought it bravely. I'm not giving up. They're in the oil business. I mean, I could stop it if I wanted. I could sell China the oil myself. I don't want to do that. They're going to need money to put that country back into shape. We want to see that happen. Would they? No. If they're going to sell oil, they're going to sell oil. We're not taking over the oil. We could have, you know?

I used to say with Iraq, keep the oil. I could say it here too. We could have kept the oil. Now, China's going to want to buy oil. They can buy it from us, they can buy it from other people. But you're going to have to put that country back into shape. It desperately needs money. Yes?

REPORTER: Mr. President?

TRUMP: Yes, please. Here we go. I'm picking the beauties today. Go ahead.

REPORTER: Mr. President, Secretary General Ruta has described President Putin as an adversary, a threat, an enemy. Do you view him the same way? And in addition to that, you mentioned General Caine, your chief of staff, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

TRUMP: General Caine.

REPORTER: Yes. He has said that Mr. Putin has territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine. Do you view that in the same way?

TRUMP: It's possible. I mean, it's possible. I know one thing he'd like to settle. He'd like to get out of this thing. It's a mess for him. He called the other day. He said, can I help you with Iran? I said, no, you can help me with Russia. Because, you know, in the last few weeks we took care of India and Pakistan, Kosovo, Serbia. I think on Friday, we have coming in -- the Congo is coming in and Rwanda is coming in. That was a vicious war that went, on a machete war, heads chopped off all over Africa. They're coming in. We did two others in addition to that. Nobody's ever done anything like this.

No, I consider him a person that's I think been misguided. I'm very surprised, actually. I thought we would've had that settled easy. I've settled four of them in the meantime, but he did call up and he said, you know, he's close to Iran. He'd like to help us get a settlement. I said, no. You help me get a settlement with you, with Russia, and I think we're going to be doing that too.

Yes, please? Go ahead, please.

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. You've made clear your position on what impact the strikes had. I wanted to ask you, what is next with Iran. For instance, is there any indication from U.S. intelligence Iran was able to move any material?

TRUMP: No, just the opposite. We think we hit them so hard and so fast they didn't get to move. And if you knew about that material, it's very hard and very dangerous to move. It's called and many people they call it dust, but it's very, very heavy. It's very, very hard to move. And they were way down, you know, they. 30 storeys down. They're literally 30, 35 storeys down underground. Oh, yes, we think we got it. We think it's covered with granite, concrete, and steel.

[10:20:00]

REPORTER: Can I ask you, are you interested in restarting negotiations with Iran? And if so, have they --

TRUMP: So, our people -- Marco could answers this, but our people are not -- I'm not. The way I look at it, they fought the war is done and, you know, I could get a statement that they're not going to go nuclear. We're probably going to ask for that, but they're not going to be doing it, but they're not going to be doing it anyway. They've had it. They've had it.

Now, maybe someday in the future, we'll want that. But I've asked Marco, do you want to draw -- I just asked him the question as we were walking on the stage, you want to draw up a little agreement for them to sign? Because I think we can get them to sign it. I don't think it's necessary. Marco, do you want to talk about that, please? MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, Mr. President, I think you, President Trump has shown a willingness to meet and talk to anybody in the world who's interested in peace. I don't know of any president that's been as willing as he has to meet with anyone and talk about peace. We'd love to have peaceful relations with any country in the world. And so, obviously, that'll depend on Iran's willingness, not just to engage in peace, but to negotiate directly with the United States, not through some third country or fourth country process. But I know of no president probably in our modern history that's sought peace more than President Trump has.

REPORTER: It sounds like the door is open, because you're in no rush. Is that right? It sounds like the door's open.

TRUMP: I'll tell you what, look, we're going to talk to them next week with Iran. We may sign an agreement. I don't know. To me, I don't think it's that necessary. I mean, they had a war, they fought. Now they're going back to their world. I don't care if I have an agreement or not. The only thing we'd be asking for is what we were asking for before about we want no nuclear, but we destroyed the nuclear. In other words, that's destroyed. I said, Iran will not have nuclear. Well, we blew it up. It's blown up to kingdom come. And so I don't feel very strongly about it.

If we got a document, it wouldn't be bad. We're going to meet with them, actually. We're going to meet with him. Yes.

Yes, go ahead, please.

REPORTER: Mr. President, Netherlands T.V., thank you for visiting our country.

TRUMP: Good, thank you.

REPORTER: Of course, I'd like to know how you slept last night at the House of the King.

TRUMP: Oh, I slept beautifully.

REPORTER: But probably more serious question. I think you just had a meeting with President Zelenskyy. Did you discuss any ceasefire in this Russo-Ukrainian war?

TRUMP: No. No. I just, I wanted to know how he's doing. It was very nice actually. You know, we had little rough times. Sometimes he was -- couldn't have been nicer. I think I'd like to see an end to this. I do. I think I -- what I took from the meeting couldn't have been nicer actually, but I took from the meeting that he'd like to see it end. I think it's a great time to end it.

I'm going to speak to Vladimir Putin and see if we can get it ended. But, look, these are brave people. They're fighting these wars all over the place. You know, last week they had, I guess close I told you, close to 7,000 young soldiers, Russian and Ukrainian soldiers were killed, 7,000 in one week. It's crazy. It's crazy. So, I'll be speaking to Putin. No, I had a good meeting with Zelenskyy. And I had a lot of good meetings. I had a lot of good meetings with a lot of people, a lot of great leaders. But he's fighting a brave battle. It's a tough battle. Yes.

Go ahead, white dress.

REPORTER: Thank you. (INAUDIBLE) from Finland (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Good.

REPORTER: You have played golf with President Alexander Stubb. How do you see Finland as a NATO ally and partner? And how would you describe your relationship with our president?

TRUMP: Well, he's a very good golfer, okay? In fact, he was on his college golf team. He went to a good college in the south, as you know, a very good college, and he was a good golfer. We had a good time. I think my relationship's great. I want to buy icebreakers, you know, you're very good at icebreakers. And I actually made him an offer. I didn't go to Congress until they try and impeach me for this, but there's an old -- it's not old, it's fairly new, but it's used icebreaker, and I offered him about one third of what he asked for. But we're negotiating. We need icebreakers in the U.S. And if we can get some inexpensively, I'd like to do that. Actually, they'll fix it up, make it good.

Also, we may buy some icebreakers. You know, you make -- you're the king of icebreakers, that particular country. They make them good. They make them really good, and they know what they're doing. And so we're negotiating with them for about 15 different icebreakers, but one of them is available now. It's old and it's, you know, old, it's like five, six years old now. We're trying to buy it. I'm trying to make a good deal. All I do my whole life. My whole, that's all I do, is make deals.

Yes, please. Go ahead. Sir, go ahead.

[10:25:00]

REPORTER: Yes. Question for Nieuwsuur Dutch T.V. First of all, on Article 5, on your way here, you spoke about the commitment of the U.S. to Article 5, saying, I'll give you my definition once we're here. What is your definition and may the U.S. commitment to Article 5 change in case some of the NATO members do not reach the threshold that was discussed today?

My second question is following up on a colleague on Iran, what intel reports do say that everything over there was obliterated?

TRUMP: Yes. Well, there are numerous of those reports and they're coming out fast and furious, but the most respected ones we've already seen. And I will say that on a very confidential basis, they're looking at the reports, like numerous reports and including people going to the site and checking the site. And they're going to be having -- I guess you're going to be having over the next couple of days a full. You're going to encapsulate it. But, no, the site was obliterated, just like I said it was, and just like the pilots should be given credit for.

As far as Article 5, look, when I came here, I came here because it was something I'm supposed to be doing, but I left here a little bit differently. I said -- I watched the heads of these countries get up. And the love and the passion that they showed for their country was unbelievable. I've never seen quite anything like it. They want to protect their country and they need the United States. And without the United States, it's not going to be the same.

And you can ask Mark, or you can ask any of the people that were there. It was really moving to see it. They loved their country. They were so respectful of me because I'm the head of the United States. And I made -- you know, the king of Saudi Arabia, when I was in the Middle East, so I was in Qatar for a different reason, not a reason to get shot at, we were in there for economic development reasons, Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, all three leaders of those countries, and we took back $5.1 trillion into the United States.

All three leaders said, you know, you're presiding over the hottest country in the world. The United States right now is the hottest. Everybody wants to be there. Everybody wants a piece of it. He said a year ago, your country was dead. You had a deadhead running it. You had a country that was dead and it was dead. You had people pouring through the borders. You had inflation. You had everything. He said, you've made it in five months, at that time, you've made it the hottest country. This is the hottest country in the world.

United States right now is the hottest country in the world. And when I was around that table, it was a nice group of people, many of whom I knew from previous. When I saw the passion they had for the country, almost everyone, and you probably have the tapes, it was very public, but almost every one of them said, thank God for the United States. Without the United States, we couldn't -- they couldn't really have -- NATO wouldn't work. It wouldn't work. It will in the future because now they're paying much more money. But it wouldn't work. It was great.

And I left here differently. I left here saying that these people really love their countries. It's not a rip-off. And we are here to help them protect their country.

Okay. We'll do one or two more.

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Yes. A question on Spain. Are you satisfied with today --

TRUMP: Oh, I think Spain's terrible what they've done. No, I do. They're the only country that won't pay the full up. They want to stay at 2 percent. I think it's terrible and, you know, they're doing very well. The economy is very well, and that economy could be blown right out of the water with something bad happening. You know, Spain is the only country that -- are you from Spain? Yes. Good. Congratulations. You're the only country that is not paying. I don't know what the problem is. I think it's too bad.

So, we'll make it up. You know what we're going to do? We're negotiating with Spain on a trade deal. We're going to make them pay twice as much. And I'm actually serious about that. We're going to make Spain -- I like Spain. I have so many people from Spain that it's a great place and they're great people. But Spain is the only country out of all of the countries that refuses to pay.

And, you know, so they want a little bit of a free ride, but they'll have to pay it back to us on trade because I'm not going to let that happen. It's unfair. It's unfair.

All right, sir, please, go ahead, right in the back. Yes, you, tall one, the tall man.

REPORTER: Mr. President, Johannes Petra (ph) from Austria National Television.

TRUMP: How are you?

REPORTER: He once said that you would end the Ukraine war in 24 hours. You later said, you said that sarcastically.

TRUMP: Well, of course, it was sarcastic.

REPORTER: But you've now been in office for five months and five days. Why have you not been able to end the Ukraine war?

[10:30:00]

TRUMP: Because it's more difficult than people would have any idea. Vladimir Putin has been more difficult.