The President: Well, thank you very much,

and I'm told this is a rather historic meeting because these countries have been bordering each other for many, many years and it doesn't happen much,

although they like each other. I found that out today and I've sort of heard about that. They actually like each other, Lebanon and Israel.

And we had a great meeting with the very high officials of Lebanon and very high officials of Israel.

And we think that the president of Lebanon and the Prime Minister of Israel, over the next couple of weeks, will be coming here.

They've agreed to an additional three weeks of I guess no firing, cease fire. No more firing. Let's see. We hope that happens.

It's not going to happen between that, but they do have Hezbollah to think about.

And we're going to be working with Lebanon to get things straightened out in that country. I really believe we,

it's something we can do pretty easily, just with the power of who we are, the great people, the Lebanese people. We have our ambassador here who, who has done a fantastic job.

Ambassador to Lebanon from the United States.

And we had a great conversation and I think it's the beginning of something very important,

to be a wonderful thing to get this worked out simultaneously with what we're doing in Iran. And I'd like to start by just asking JD,

our vice president, our great vice president to say a few words, and then Marco will speak, and then the representatives from the country.

Mike Huckabee, you'll say a few words, Mike. You've done a great job, by the way. I appreciate it. Everybody does. And JD, please. The Vice President: Yes, sir.

Well, first of all, congratulations. Congratulations to you and our Secretary of State,

but most importantly, congratulations to the people of Israel and Lebanon. I think it's a major historic moment. We're going to extend the ceasefire for three weeks,

that's already in place between Israel and Lebanon.

Of course, it wouldn't have happened without the president's direct engagement.

The fact that you have these leaders of different countries coming together for the first time. They came together in the Oval Office, and they came together because of energetic diplomacy,

of course, led by the President of the United States. So I think it's a big moment for the world. It's a big moment for our country, but just very proud to be a part of it. So thank you, sir, for making it happen.

The President: Thank you very much, JD. Secretary Rubio: Thank you, Mr. President, for hosting this.

Actually, you know, the president wanted to be personally involved and glad he was because it made it possible to get this extension,

and it gives everybody time to continue to work on what's going to be a permanent peace between two countries that want to be at peace. Both are victimized by the same terrorist organization.

A terrorist organization that no doubt has victimized Israel, but is also victimized the people of Lebanon.

The people of Lebanon deserve to live in a country that's peaceful and prosperous. They have an opportunity to do that. They have a history of that.

And what's standing in the way is an organization that operates, a terrorist organization that operates within their national territory that needs to be, that threat needs to be eliminated.

And so thank you, Mr. President, for this gathering today and for, for convening and being a, a key part of it. And it buys us time to continue to work.

I'm very optimistic that in a few weeks we'll be even closer to the kind of permanent peace that the people of Israel and Lebanon deserve. The President: Thank you very much.

Michel, please. Michel Issa: Well, I would like to thank the president,

the vice president and secretary to make this historical meeting today that bring two countries that they never been next to each other more than today in a way.

This is 60, 70 years in the making and today is really the historical day. Thank you, Mr. President, vice president, secretary.

And we are going to keep going, working for a peace that hopefully will get it as soon as possible. The President: Thank you. You're very successful, man.

And when I asked him if he'd like to be ambassador to Lebanon, I said, "Could be a dangerous job." He said, "Well, I'm Lebanese. I was born in Lebanon and I,

your parents have a whole big history." He said, "Danger doesn't matter to me, really. It's something I want to do. He's very successful. He didn't need this."

And I think it's probably more dangerous than you even thought, but you've done a fantastic job, so -- Michel Issa: It is an honor for me to serve you, Mr. President.

And then I'm going to go till the end. The President: Thank you. Thank you very much. And likewise, Mike Huckabee. We all know Mike and he didn't need it either, did he?

But he's doing a fantastic job. Mike, go ahead, please. Mike Huckabee: I just want to say, Mr. President,

what an amazing opportunity to be here at a moment of history. The people of Lebanon and the people of Israel are neighbors, and they want to get along.

They can get along, but it's like neighbors who have a rough little kid living in the neighborhood who keeps throwing rocks at everybody's window.

And if the kid will quit throwing rocks, the neighbors can get along and start actually working together.

The president has initiated something that is truly bringing the neighborhood back to a neighborhood,

and recognizing that the problem is not Lebanon, that the problem is not Israel. The problem is Hezbollah. The bad little kid throwing rocks.

That's what the president is getting launched today to get that little kid out of the neighborhood.

The President: Thank you. Mr. Ambassador, please.

Yechiel Leiter: Well, thank you, Mr. President for your hospitality, for bringing Israel/Lebanon together here in the local office.

Israel wants peace with Lebanon, and Israel wants security for its citizens.

We're united with the Lebanese government wanting to rid the country of this malign influence called Hezbollah.

And now that Mr. President, under your leadership, Iran has been so degraded,

the possibility of degrading Hezbollah and liberating Lebanon from their occupation is real. So we hope that together under your leadership,

we can formalize peace between Israel and Lebanon in the very near future, and we are just very thankful for the opportunity.

The President: Thank you, and I look forward to having the next meeting with your great prime minister. He is, he's a wartime prime minister,

with Bibi and with the president of Lebanon, it will be fantastic. I think a lot of, lots going to happen. Madam Ambassador.

Nada Hamadeh Moawad: Of course. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, President Trump. Thank you for your leadership, for making sure to be presiding over this historic moment.

Uh, I want to really say thank you to the United States under your leadership for all, all your effort to help and to support Lebanon. And I think with your help, with your support,

we can make Lebanon great again. Thank you so much. The President: Thank you. I like that phrase. Nada Hamadeh Moawad: Sounds nice. The President: That's a good phrase. Nada Hamadeh Moawad: MLGA.

The President: Thank you very much. I think we will. Any questions? Yeah, please. The Press: President Trump, Anthony Merchak from MTV Lebanon. The President: Yes.

The Press: First, thank you for having us in the White House for a year and a half. This is historical for our audience as well. The President: It is. The Press: We would like to ask you two or three questions.

First question, the peace between Lebanon and Israel, do you think it will happen this year? The President: I think it has a great chance.

I mean, you know, they, they're friends about the same things and their enemies on the same things and it has to do with, I guess you could say a couple of countries,

but certainly it's you look at Hezbollah, that's where everybody seems to be united against them.

So they are both very united in that way. You know, I think there's a very good chance of having peace.

I think it should be an easy one relative to some of the things we're working on, it should be an easy one. But it's been so many years because nobody focused on it.

But Lebanon was a great country. It was a beautiful country. Smart people, very brilliant people, doctors, professors, economists,

some of the smartest people on the, on the planet.

So I, no, I think it can be brought back pretty quickly.

The Press: And when do you think our president will meet Netanyahu here at the White House? The President: I think we'll do it over the next, during this period of time, during the three-week period.

Ideally, I mean, I'd like to suggest over the three-week ceasefire, right? If you can do that. We're here. We're doing in the Oval Office.

The Press: And regarding Hezbollah is not, he's not responding to our government. He's doing whatever he wants. What do you say for Hezbollah and do you --

The President: Well, Israel has to, I mean, we're just talking about it.

Israel is going to have to defend itself if they're shot at and they will. I would never say that they can't.

It'd be nice if they wouldn't have to bother with that, but if they, if something happens, they're going to have to defend themselves, as you know.

But they're going to do it carefully and they're going to be surgical as opposed to beyond surgical and, you know, there's a lot they can do,

but Israel's going to have to defend itself. The Press: And regarding our Lebanese Speaker, Nabih Berri,

reportedly told Prince Yazid bin Farhan that Lebanon will not move forward with peace unless Saudi Arabia is involved.

What is your reaction to that statement and do you believe Saudi Arabia must play a central role in a potential Lebanon-Israel peace process?

The President: Well, Saudi Arabia is great, and they have a great leader, and I think that they'd be very happy with this. I haven't spoken to them. I will.

This happened very quickly. Uh, but Saudi Arabia is going to be -- they're great people, a great, great place, incredible place.

I know it very well. But I know the leader very well, and he'd want to see something like this happen. He's a tremendous guy.

The Press: And make Lebanon great again, this is our slogan on MTV Lebanon. Make, like, make America great again. The President: The what? The Press: Make Lebanon great again.

It's our slogan on MTV Lebanon that all the Lebanese in our audience are putting hope on you, Mr. President. The President: Make Lebanon great again? The Press: Make Lebanon great again.

The President: It's a good slogan to work for here.

I think it's maybe the greatest political slogan in the history of the world, Make America Great Again. But, you know, we're great now,

so I will never say that we won't use that slogan, MAGA, but we have another one America is back.

Where's that at? Does anybody ever -- No, yeah, that's the old one, and then show them the new one. And we never choose, we're never changing MAGA.

(laughing) I don't have the courage to change MAGA. Make America Great Again, but, you know, we're really, we're great now.

We're the hottest country anywhere in the world. We're the most powerful country in the world, by far.

And we, we suffered years of abuse by people that were grossly incompetent like Biden, like Obama.

That's why this happened so fast. I mean, it can happen fast. Thank you. The Press: Sir, the, the, the funding that Hezbollah gets from Iran,

is Iran going to have to cut that off to do a deal with you? The President: Yeah, they'll have to cut that. The Press: That's a must for you? The President: Yeah, sure. That's a must, yeah. The Press: Mr. President,

apparently there was a special forces soldier who was involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Maduro

who was arrested by federal authorities today on suspicion of insider trading and, and betting on Polymarket.

Are you concerned that federal employees are betting on these prediction markets and potentially getting rich? The President: Well, I don't know about it,

but was he betting that they would get him or they wouldn't get him?

The Press: It sounds like he was betting on his removal from office, that Maduro would be removed. It sounds like he was involved in the operation.

The President: That's like Pete Rose betting on his own team. It's a little like Pete Rose.

Pete Rose, it kept him out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on his own team. Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team. I, I'll look into it. Yeah.

The Press: There are also bets that are being placed, as well on the Iran conflict, too.

And there have been some trackings where people suspect that there's insider trading happening on these prediction markets around the war. Are you concerned about that?

The President: Well, you know, the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.

And you look at what's going on all over the world in Europe and every place they're doing these betting things. I was never much in favor of it.

I don't like it conceptually, but it is what it is. No, I, I think that I'm not happy with any of that stuff.

But they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It's a crazy world. It's a much different world than it was, is. Please.

The Press: Mr. President, we talked about the Fed's renovation.

Can someone other than the Justice Department find out the things you said you wanted to learn? The President: Well, it could. I mean, look, it's pretty easy.

When you look look, with Jerome too late,

Powell I have a real problem because he should have been lowering interest rates a long time ago. And despite that,

we fought through it and we have the greatest economy we've ever had. You take a look. I mean, we just, I don't know what the market is today, but we're, broken every record over the last few days.

And this is during a military operation or a war, whatever you want to call it, it makes no difference as far as I'm concerned.

But we have this unbelievable economy. The S&P has a new record. The Dow is right at a new record. We already broke the record with the Dow.

People said it wouldn't happen in four years.

They said in four years, it won't be able to be possible to break 50,000. And we broke it with the Dow.

And I'm actually a little bit surprised that we're breaking it constantly even now during this conflict. Because when we broke it,

I called a lot of the people here. I called JD, I called Marco, I called Howard, I called Scott. I said, "I hate to tell you, fellas,

but we have to do a little bit of a detour.

We have to go to Iran and make sure they don't have a nuclear weapon." We had just broken every financial record.

And the amazing thing is we continue to break them even during the war. Now, fuel went up, but I thought it would have gone up much more.

And a lot of ships are coming to the United States and they're using the United States instead of the Hormuz Strait.

Amazing things are happening. Our country is amazing. You know, we don't have an oil shortage. We have with drill baby drill.

We, we are right now producing more oil than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined.

Did you know that? More, and in about a year from now, we'll be doing double the, the level. And Venezuela's been fantastic.

We have a great relationship with that country and with the people that are running the country. And we're taking out,

we're taking in millions of barrels of oil, millions and millions from Venezuela. It's been a great experience, to be honest with you.

And they're doing a very good job and they have our backing. Okay? Can you just clarify -- again, what exactly --

Here, here we go. Listen to this. The Press: No, no, no. Just because the world is watching. The President: Yes, just clarify. Here we go. Here's his bomb. The Press: What have the two sides agreed to here?

A three weeks ceasefire with the hope that the leaders come and meet? The President: Yeah, three week, and the leaders will most likely be coming here during that time. And I think when they do, that's a very historic meeting.

They have never, they haven't met for many, many years, as I understand here. Michel Issa: Yeah, never. The President: They've never met. Michel Issa: Right. The President: Think of that. They're next to each other.

They're great people and they've never met. This should be an easy one. Okay? Good question. The Press: Thank you for clarifying. The President: Thank you. The Press: Just wanted to clarify.

The Press: The law. The Lebanese law. We can't communicate with Israel. What we can do about this law, like if we talk with a Israeli, it will be a crime for us as Lebanese.

And this is a question on behalf of -- The President: How is it a crime now? The Press: Under Lebanese law, it's a crime. You -- they put you in jail. The President: Well, I think we have to end that. Michel Issa: Yep. The President: Okay.

That's something we're going to have to end. I've never heard of that. But that's a good start. It's a crime to talk with Israel.

Well, I, I'm pretty sure that that'll be ended very quickly. Okay? I'll make sure of that. And I know Lebanon doesn't want that.

We'll end up, will you work on that please, everybody? That's crazy. The Press: The ship that was captured on Monday, you said there was a gift for the Iranians in it.

What was that in that ship? The one from China. The President: Yeah, well we have, that's very top secret. Yeah. There was some in there, but it's top secret.

(talking simultaneously) The President: I'd like to, I'd like to.

That's one of those little questions where, ooh, this is not good. No, it's we have a lot of things that we got.

You know, that the the Strait,

the what we've done with the blockade is amazing and nobody, nobody gets through. And nobody wants to get through. Nobody's trying.

The one tried, they shot out the engine, but nobody's trying. We have complete control.

Now they can drop their mines in there and do all those stupid things.

It's just going to take longer for them to make money because the mines are going to affect them much more than they're going to affect us. But and we don't know that they're doing that,

but they could be that they are, and if they're doing it, it's a very foolish thing to do. Just like for Iran to shoot at Saudi Arabia,

UAE and Qatar and Kuwait, Bahrain, all the different places they, they shot.

Nobody expected that. They thought they'd shoot at Israel in all fairness,

but you didn't expect they'd be shooting at numerous other countries. I think it was a big mistake. If they're putting mines down, it's a big mistake for them, I will say.

The Press: Are you angry at China for what they sent Iran? The President: No. No. No. I guess we do the same thing, don't we?

With other countries. You know, it's like one of those things, but nothing that are, it wasn't earth shaking. Yeah?

The Press: There's some reporting today, sir,

that you intend to invite Vladimir Putin to the G20 in Miami. Is that the case? The President: No, but if he came, it would be probably very helpful.

You know, I've said a long time ago when they made the G8, the G7, they threw Russia out before my time.

That was Obama and a certain prime minister from a place called Canada, Strudeau.

And I said, "That, that's a stupid thing to do." And I was right.

You know, they spent, I'd go to these meetings at the G7 and about 90% of the meeting was talking about Russia and what's going on with Russia.

And I said, "Why'd you throw them out?" You know, if, if they didn't throw them out, they would have been much better off, in my opinion, you know.

It should, it should have been the G8.

But when they threw out President Putin he was very offended by that. He was rightfully, but he was very offended by that.

I'd venture to say you probably wouldn't be having these problems if you didn't throw him out. The Press: So he's not coming to the G20, as far as you're concerned?

The President: Not that I know of, but --

The Press: Because there are senior administration officials being quoted in, in news reports this afternoon that says they're being,

the Russians are being invited to at least ministerial meetings at this point.

The President: Well, you're, you're saying being invited as opposed to coming. I don't know of the invitation, but if he were invited -- The Press: Would you like him to come?

The President: I'm of the opinion that you talk to everybody. I'm not one of these guys that, "Oh, let's not talk to him. You know, there's a war going or let's not talk to him."

I like talking to everybody. If you, if you're a smart person,

if you have control over your emotions and all the other things you need control over, I'm, I'm somebody that believes in talking.

I don't know of that. I don't know that he's coming. I doubt he'd come, to be honest with you. I sort of doubt he'd come. But we're working on trying to get that one solved,

that would be number nine. I, I've ended eight wars, um, and that one is, but it's, they continue to fight.

The hatred between him and President Zelenskyy is extraordinary, I can tell you.

The Press: Can I ask you a FIFA question, sir?

19 minutes, 30 seconds

What do you think of this idea of replacing Iran with Italy in, in the World Cup? The President: I don't think about it too much.

That's an interesting question. Let me, let me give it. You know what? Let me give that a little, that's a very, is that what they're doing?

They're thinking about replacing them? The Press: Apparently it's a proposal. But Marco -- The President: Marco, could you make a statement on that please? What do you think of --

Secretary Rubio: Yeah, there's nothing from the US has told them they can't come. I mean, the problem with Iran, it would be not their athletes.

It would be some of the other people that we want to bring with them, some of whom have ties to the IRGC, we may not be able to let them in, but not the athletes themselves.

But no one's, I don't know where that's coming from,

other than speculation that Iran may decide not to come and Italy would fill their spot. But that's, if they decide not to come on their own, it's because they decided not to come,

what they can't bring is a bunch of IRGC terrorists into our country and pretend that they're, you know, journalists and athletic trainers. The President: We would not want to affect the athletes.

The Press: Is the government going to buy a stake in Spirit Airlines?

The President: So Spirit is an airline that's had some trouble.

They were going to merge with People Express or one of them a number of years ago and Barack Hussein Obama decided it was a bad idea.

How did that work out? It's bad for both of them. That would have been a natural merger. Not united in American, but Spirit and the other.

We're looking at helping them.

We have 18,000 people that live in this country that are great people and great employees and we're thinking about doing it, helping them out,

meaning bailing them out or buying it. I think we just buy it. Uh, we'd be getting it virtually debt free.

They have some good aircraft, good assets, and when the prices of oil goes down, we'll sell it for a profit. I'd love to be able to save those jobs.

I'd love to be able to save an airline. I like having a lot of airlines, so it's competitive. So we are looking at Spirit.

It's in a bankruptcy, it's in bankruptcy court, and we're looking, if we could get it for the right price, I'd do it to save the jobs,

and we have somebody that wants to run it, do a good job, smart person, and if they run it properly,

and if prices come down, all of a sudden it's a valuable asset. And they have some very good slots too, which are pretty valuable.

The Press: You will visit Lebanon and visit the ambassador to the embassy because we're building a huge US embassy in Lebanon.

Are you going to plan to launch it for opening or attending for the opening? The President: You want to answer that? Michel Issa: Well, we're working on it.

It's not done yet, but once it's done, I will ask the president to come and cut the ribbon. The President: I have no objection to that.

Go ahead, please. The Press: In the UK today,

they've just announced a total of $1.3 billion in returns from digital service tax,

which you in the past have called it an unfair tax on American companies. You know it very well. You have, you previously called for investigations, but so far as we can tell there has been none.

Would you call for that -- The President: I'd say, so what tax is this? The Press: A digital service tax is, they kind of nicknamed it, the tech tax or big tech tax that kind of --

The President: They're going to put a tax on basically American company? Did you say the UK? The Press: Yes, sir. And they made $1.3 billion last year.

So is that something you would kind of investigate, call for it to be scrapped, have a look at?

The President: We don't like it when they target American companies, because basically you're talking about our great American companies. Whether we like those companies or don't like them,

they're American companies. They, they, they're top companies in the world. And we are looking at it, we've been looking at it.

No, we've been looking at it, and we can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff in the UK, so they better be careful. If they don't drop the tax,

It's like us targeting their companies, which we could do very easily. But you don't have big companies like that. You don't have those great companies. Not fair.

During a, you know, a war, it's not a big war for us, but it's a war. And during the war, we have the highest stock market.

tampering of fraudulent mail ballots being passed in the Tuesday election or if there was any evidence of non-citizens voting in that election. Why did you say that that election was rigged?

The President: Well, you have mail-in ballots and they found a lot of them at the end of the day all of a sudden.

The Press: They said that they have received no credible information related to this. The President: Well, I know you'd say that no matter what.

they're supposed to protect people and they're paying all these people, crooked as can be millions of dollars, millions of dollars going all,

to all these people that they're supposed to be protecting from,

but they're actually supporting them because they want to have companies that they can protect and because they want to rig elections? That was all a rigged election.

All of the things were Charlottesville, all of the stuff that they did, and you won't bring that up, but you'll bring up some nonsense.

Let me tell you, the election we were winning all day long, it's a totally horrible situation. Hopefully the courts will overturn it, what they did in Virginia.

The, you said that the US will work with Lebanon to protect itself from Hezbollah. What does that look like exactly? The President: What is that?

The President: Save America. I'd love to say the Save America Act, which is voter ID, which is proof of citizenship,

for people that are traveling like business or whatever, different things. But disability where they have a problem,