President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the Prime Minister of Italy, Apr. 17, 2025

Thank you very much everybody. And I've been briefed on the Florida State University Tallahassee active shooting. I guess it's an active shooter. Uh fully briefed as to where we are right now. It's a shame. It's a horrible thing. Horrible that things like this take place and we'll have more to say about it later. In the meantime, it's an honor to have the prime minister of Italy with us, Prime Minister Maloney, who's uh doing a fantastic job. I would say that she has taken Europe by storm and highly respected. Everybody loves her and respects her and I can't say that about many people. and uh she's become a friend and we really have a great relationship uh between Italy and ourselves and we talked about trade, we talked about many many things during our lunchon and uh she'll be saying a few words but she's a very special person and it's nice to have you with us. Thank you very much. Thank you very much Mr. President. Thank you for your warm welcome. Thank you for this occasion which is aimed to strengthen our relation, our friendship that comes from very far. You know, today is April 17th and April 17 marks the anniversary of the uh agreement that allowed Christopher Columbbo to make his trip. And I say to remember how ancient are our ties, but also to remind that we both share another fight which is the fight against the uh war and ADI ideology that would like to erase our history and as I know that uh we share lots of uh things on tackling illegal migration uh on uh uh fighting against synthetic drugs. You know Italy has been one of the nation that made a plan against fentinel for example but we have been talking about many uh bilateral uh topics and things that we can do together right about uh defense about economic uh uh about economy about space about energy uh Italy will have to increase it uh its uh LNG imports uh and also nuclear that we are trying to develop. I think there can be ways to work together and the Italian enterprises will uh invest as they've been doing for many years as you know in the next years I think around 10 billions. Uh that shows how interconnected our economies are and that's very important Mr. president. It's not only about Italy, it's about uh the entire Europe. The exchange between us is uh uh is a very big one. uh uh investments uh trade uh it's a topic that we are discussing in this week but at the end of the day look somebody calls me I was saying it before such a western nationalism I don't know if it is the right word but I I know that when I speak about west mainly I don't speak about a geographical space I speak about the civilization and I want to make that civilization stronger so I think even if we have some problems Okay. Uh between the two shores of the Atlantan ticket as the time that we try to sit down and and find solutions. So I want to thank President Trump for uh having accepted an invitation to pay an official visit to Rome in the in the near future and consider the possibility in that occasion to meet also with Europe. Uh the goal for me is to make the West great again. Okay. And I think we can do it together. we can uh and and uh uh we will keep on work on on that. I I'm I'm going to close. I want to say only I'm proud of sitting here as prime minister of an Italy that today uh has very good uh as a very good situation despite the difficulties a stable country reliable country 1 million more jobs in the last two years and a half. Great. Uh inflation is going down. So you forgive me if I promote a bit my country but you're a businessman and you understand me. So migration flows going down 60%. So we are trying to do our best but I think we can do it even better together. Also on Ukraine I will close uh together we've been defending the freedom of Ukraine. Together we can build a just and lasting peace. We support your efforts to good. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I think we're doing well in that effort, but we want to get it done and we'll see if we can. We want to save on average, think of it, every week 2,500 people are being killed, mostly soldiers, Russian, Ukrainian soldiers. And if we can save those lives, that'll be a very good thing. And so we'll see what we can do. And I think we're getting close, but we'll we'll let you know very soon. And you've been very helpful. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any questions? Russ, how much longer does Vladimir Putin have to respond to your ceasefire proposal before you put secondary tariffs or sanctions on Russia? We'll see what that will be. Uh we're going to be hearing from them uh this week uh very shortly actually and we'll see. But we want it to stop. We want the death and the killing to stop. On Jerome Powell, on Jerome Powell, you said that the termination of Jerome Powell cannot come fast enough. He says he won't leave even if you ask him to. Oh, he'll leave. If I ask him to, he'll be out of there. But I I don't think he's I don't think that I don't think he's doing the job. He's uh too late. Always too late. Little slow. And I'm not happy with him. Uh I let him know it. And uh oh, if I want him out, he'll be out of there real fast. Believe me. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead, please. Question. Are you trying to remove him, Mr. President? Yeah. Question. Judge against your administration. Do you agree with that state? Well, you're going to have to speak to the lawyers. We have great lawyers. Uh I can tell you this. We're doing a fantastic job of getting criminals out of this country who Biden allowed into the country. hundreds of thousands of criminals, murderers and drug dealers. And I was elected because of the fact, I would say maybe that was the number one fact for a lot of reasons, the economy, a lot of things. But one of the primary reasons I was elected is because I said, I'm going to get the criminals that he allowed to come into our country so stupidly through open borders. I'm going to get them out. And I got a lot of votes, record setting numbers of votes. As you know, we want everything. The popular vote, all seven swing states, we want everything. And uh that's what the public wanted. That's what I'm doing. But you'll have to speak to the lawyers because it's up to them. What do you think of the proposal from France and UK of a peace mission um in Ukraine with soldiers? And do you think that Italy should take part? Well, I think Italy will have to make that determination, but peace missions are always good with me. I'm okay with peace missions. Yeah, please. We discussed it very briefly. No, we're doing very well with negotiations, I think, with all countries and uh Scott could uh tell you a little bit, but we are doing very well. We have a lot of countries that want to make a deal. Frankly, they want to make deals more than I do. Go ahead, Scott. Would you say something, Chris? Yeah, we've got a process in place. We're working on the the big 15 economies. First, we had a fantastic meeting with Japan yesterday. I believe there's been calls with the EU already. And then we have South Korea coming in next week and I believe India is also talking that's moving very quickly. Ukraine. President China is supplying weaponry or ammunition to Russia. Do you have any evidence on those? And also he said we could see a mineral deal signed this week. Well, we have a minerals deal which I guess is going to be signed on Thursday, Scott, next Thursday. And uh I assume they're going to live up to the deal. So, we'll see. But we have a deal on that. Uh, no. I have no comment on that. I have no idea. That's his statement, not mine. Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Can you comment on that? Is that accurate? And they said the attack is what? That you waved off an Israeli plan to attack Iranian nuclear facilities. Uh, I wouldn't say waved off. I'm not in a rush to do it because I think that Iran has a chance to have a great country and to live happily without death and I'd like to see that. That's my first option. Uh if there's a second option, uh I think it would be very bad for Iran and I think Iran is wanting to talk. I hope they're wanting to talk. It's going to be very good for them if they do. And I'd like to see Iran be thrive in the future. do fantastically well. I know the Iranian people. They're incredible people. Always have been very smart, very energetic, very successful people. And I don't want to do anything that's going to hurt anybody. I really don't. But Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. It's, you know, pretty simple. It's really simple. We're not looking to take their industry. We're not looking to take their land. We're not all we're saying is we you can't have a nuclear weapon. The deal that was made, the deal that was made with Obama, that deal would have expired already. It was a terrible deal. It was a It was would have expired and that gave them a clear path to a nuclear weapon. I wouldn't have accepted. That's why I terminated the deal. Number one, it was way too short. You know, when countries are involved, you don't make short-term deals. These are countries with long lives. And uh I terminated that and it was a great termination because it didn't allow us to do anything once it terminated. You know what the deal was? It was a terrible deal. Really one of many terrible deals made by the US. Uh but no, I want uh I'd like to see Iran thrive and they can do that I think very easily or they can do it the other way. The other way is not going to be good for them. It's going to be really bad for them. What do you make of the CEO going to China with the trade officials there? Well, Jensen's an amazing guy. He's become a friend of mine and I don't know. He's a person that's very proud of our country. He loves our country. I'm not worried about Jensen at all. Mr. contempt, will you take steps to return Kilaro Garcia to the United States and put him in front of a judge? Well, I'm not involved in it. I'm going to respond that by saying you'll have to speak to the lawyers, the DOJ. I've heard many things about him and uh we'll have to find out what the truth is. But I will say this, you know, we're we were inundated by millions of people, many millions of people during the Biden administration. They say 21 million. And a big percentage of those are criminals, serious criminals. I'm not saying just criminal because they came into the border illegally. I'm saying they're criminals at the highest level, murderers. Many of those people murdered more than one person and they're on the loose. And I was elected to get rid of those criminals, to get them out of our country or to put them away, but to get them out of our country. And I don't see how judges can take that authority away from a president. We've done an amazing job. Tom Hullman, Christine M. We have done an amazing job. Nobody can believe the job we've done. Far greater than what I said. I mean, I got elected on that, but we've done much better. We have right now 99% border. It's a 99%. Nobody thought that would even be part Nobody's coming through our border practically. Uh, two weeks ago we had nine people come through all for medical reasons. We allowed them. We brought them through because one had a heart attack, one had something else. All for medical reasons. We have a great border. We had a great border four years ago, but we have a border now that's even tighter. And we did that in a matter of weeks. And uh no, we have to we need we need to get murderers and drug dealers and people that were in jail for horrible, you know, they released jails Georgia from all over the world. They released them not just South America, all over the world. The Congo and Africa. Many, many people come from the Congo. I don't know what that is, but they came from the Congo and all over the world they came in, opened their jails. Venezuela, practically all of their prisoners released into our country. We took them because we had an incompetent administration called the Biden administration and to think what they've done to our country. And I was elected to straighten that out and I'm doing that. But we have activist judges that don't want murderers to be sent out of our country. They don't want killers and drug dealers and drug lords and people from mental institutions. They want them to stay in our country. I guess I don't know. Maybe that's the liberal way or as they call it nowadays, the progressive way. But I don't think it's the way that our country believes. And that's why I won in a landslide. Mr. President, you did say that you were confident these deals will be done. But you also said that you're in no rush. Americans are seeing prices rise. They're seeing it on their bills. How long can they expect that painting to last? So, uh, they've already seen it get much better because if you were truthful, which you're not, you know, I know you very well. Uh, you have gasoline that hit a dollar 98 yesterday in a couple of states. You have gasoline's way down. The price of oil has dropped substantially. Uh the price of groceries are substantially down. The uh the price of eggs, you know, when I came in, I they hit me with eggs. I just got there. I was here for one week and they started screaming at me, "Eggs have gone through the roof." I said, "I just got here. I was there for seven days and I hear that eggs have gone through the roof before I got there." And they were screaming at me. The press, the fake news, like you you're fake. And the fake news is screaming at me like about eggs. I said, "I've only been here. I just This is my seventh day." And they were right. They went up 87% and you couldn't get them. They said, "You won't have eggs for Easter," which is coming up. Happy Easter, everybody. You won't have eggs for Easter. And we did an unbelievable job. And now eggs are all over the place. And the price went down 92%. And our commissioner of agriculture, Brooke, has done a uh fantastic job. Did really done a fantastic job. So prices haven't gone up. The only thing that's gone up actually is interest rates because we have a Federal Reserve chairman that is playing politics. Somebody that I've never been very fond of actually. But uh he's playing politics. Interest rates should be down now. They should be coming down. Uh in Europe, as you know, they reduced him I guess seven times. It looks like they're going to reduce them again and again and again. But our guy wants to play cute. But uh interest rates are pretty much even. Maybe they went up just a slight bit, but that's the only thing. But that's because of the Federal Reserve because they're not very smart people. Go ahead. Yes, sir. Please. Go ahead. Please. Nominating him. Uh look, in the first four years, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. Stock market went up 88 points. Uh, I think he's terrible, but I can't complain because we had the most successful administration economically in the history of our country. Uh, I think we're going to do even better this time because you will see that the numbers that we're taking in are astronomical. We're taking in tremendous amounts of money with the tariffs. We were treated very unfairly on trade and countries are get having a hard time getting used to the fact that they can't do that to us anymore because we have a real president. We have a president that understands what it's all about. We had presidents that in some cases were smart, but they didn't understand business or they didn't like business or, you know, it wasn't like a priority. And then you had like the last administration, the only thing they were good at was cheating in elections. That's about all they could do. They couldn't do anything. They were useless. They were incompetent. Worst administration in the history of our country. Worse than Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter died a happy man. You know why? because he wasn't the worst president. Joe Biden was. So, uh, I think you're going to see some fantastic numbers when this all happens. It's happening now. I mean, everybody wants to make a deal. And if they don't want to make a deal, we'll make the deal for them because that's what's going to happen. We'll just say this is what it is. But we want to listen to everybody. And I I think I think I think I can I think I can say for Scott and the other people that are working on it that uh we're listening and uh we're going to be very fair to people. But you know, we're the one that really sets the deal and that's what we'll be doing. Okay. Go ahead, please. Question to the our prime minister. Oh, you have a great prime minister. You're so lucky. Yes. Yes, that's right. Okay. I'm not sure that what I I that sounded absolutely That was so beautiful. What the hell was What did she say? Please. No, I mean it sounded great. It was about It was beautifully presented, but maybe I could hear what she said, please. Go ahead. Hold it. Hold it. Have some respect, please. Thank you. No, no, wait. I want to hear what you said. Go ahead. Yeah, President Prime Minister Maloney was asked whether what she thinks about the fact that President Trump holds Zalinski responsible for the the war in Ukraine. And Prime Minister Maloney answered, "Well, actually we um we have a um no and and and also if you talked about the military spending, how and the raising of the military spending and the fact and the first thing President Prime Minister Moroni said is that no actually we didn't talk about the raise of military spending. Of course, Italy will keep its commitments with 2% and then we will see because we are absolutely aware of the fact that it is very important to uh to Well, I will do that. Defense is very wait I will do that. They've been asking if we raise if we decided another percentage about the this defense expanded spendings and I said yes NATO and I said that Italy is uh reaching the 2% as it it was already decided. We didn't speak about a spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe specific other percentage but we are aware of the fact that defense is important uh for the future and we see what also the the work that we are trying to do at the European level and I don't hold I don't hold Zilinski responsible but uh I'm not exactly thrilled with the fact that that war started. That was a war that would have never started if I were president. You'd have millions of people living right now that are dead. You'd have cities that would be open and thriving and they'd have their beautiful turrets. Those terrorists are the most beautiful in the world, but they're not with us any longer. They're smashed to smitherines laying on the ground in a million pieces getting hit by rockets, bombs, and bullets. And uh so I'm not happy with him and I'm not happy with anybody involved. I think it's a war. I know it's a war. It didn't happen for four years. It was never close to happening. It was never even a thought. And I spoke to President Putin about it a lot. It was the apple of his eye. But there's no way he would have ever gone in if I were president. Now I'm trying to get him to stop. Uh because as you know, Russia's a lot bigger. It's a bigger military force. And if you're smart, you don't go involved and get involved in wars that uh you can blame the man that was sitting in this seat, Biden. He didn't know what the hell was going on. But I can guarantee you that, and everybody agrees to it, if I were president, that war would have never taken place. I'm not blaming him. But what I am saying is that uh I wouldn't say he's done the greatest job. Okay? I'm not a big fan. I really am. I'm not a big fan. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Are you sure about the definition of parasite? Would you say again that European parasite? It's never said. Would you say again? Have you Have you said that Europeans are parasites? Yeah. Have you seen it? No, I haven't said I don't know what I don't even know what you're talking about. Go ahead, please. Go ahead. No, no, wait. Wait. Next. Next. Next. Go. Just said we want to make Europe again. And we want to do it together. Together. True. West. Did you I guess that's that's what you said, Mr. Prime Minister. Um, how are you going to do that? And are you looking to do it to counter who is really trying to gather influence against the United States with the help of I hope that Europe is going to be great again. Europe is going through a lot of problems and a lot of it's having to do with immigration and I'm not a big fan of Europe uh and what they've done with immigration at all. And I think they got to get smart because uh Europe is being very badly hurt by what they've done with immigration. Now, I'll say this that the prime minister has taken a very tough stand on uh immigration and I commented to her before. I I said I wish more people would be like you having to do with that subject, but uh they're not. Uh Europe is very important to me. Europe is very important to the world. I want Europe to do very well. I think they have to get a lot smarter on immigration. But we are we are beginning do it doing it. You've seen you've all seen how the the policies of the European Union in the last let's say two and a half years have been changing. Okay. At the beginning we were talking only about how we were redistributing illegal migrants coming to Italy. Now we are talking mainly about how to stop illegal migration work with the uh countries of origin and transit and to return people. uh uh the comm the European Commission just did the new uh rules about uh repatriations and things like that. So things are changing thanks also to the uh example that Italy brought in in lowering lowering the rates of illegal migration. So they uh we are working now together. So I'm I'm optimistic on that. Good. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'd like to ask I'd like to ask president if you have discussed the option of studying on satellite communications and President Trump if you want to see the Google company the Google what the Google what about Google business go ahead please oh well we didn't discuss about about starink uh we we've been discussing about uh defense space uh we We will work together also in the Mars missions. Uh so there are big big uh things to do together but we didn't discuss it. [Music] Prime Minister that changed your mind potentially about tariffs and what you plan to do going forward said to you that changed your perspective? No. Tariffs are making us rich. We were uh losing a lot of money under Biden. Trillions of dollars. trillions on trade. And now that's that whole tide has turned. We're making a lot of money. We're taking in a lot of money. Don't forget we're taking in 25% on cars, 25% on steel, 25% on aluminum, 10% baseline. We put penalties on China for sending us fentinol. We put penalties on Mexico and Canada, 25% for for uh allowing fentinol and allowing the borders to be weak. No, we're taking in billions and billions of dollars while I sit here and talk to you. And we didn't do we didn't take in anything before other than the tariffs that I put on previous to Biden, which were the tariffs I put on China where we took in up until this point probably $700 billion. They were trump tariffs. He tried to weaken them. He did everything he could. You know, he got paid money by China, right? Family got paid money. He did. And uh so I don't know, maybe that was the reason or maybe it wasn't. But he tried to weaken them, but he couldn't because it was so much money that his budgets, you know, they couldn't stand not doing it. But I took in in the up till this point my tariffs on China. Nobody ever took in 10 cents from China. No other president took in 10 cents. I took in more than $700 billion dollars from China. So, we're uh we're doing very well. I mean, our our country is doing very well. They had a bad report today from one of the healthc care companies that had an impact on the stock market. But this isn't about that. This is really we're building a base. We're building a country like no other. And again, I had the I had the strongest economy in the history of our country by far. History of any country probably, but the history of our country in four years. And I think this has a chance to be much better. Will that be signed here at the White House with Ukraine on Thursday? Will be coming here for that? I don't know exactly. I'm going to leave that to Scott. What do you think? Where would it be signed and when? We're still working on the details. We're shooting for around April 26th. Is there any more detail that you could tell us about what's in that deal and how it came together? It's substantially what we agreed on previously. When the president was here, we had a memorandum of understanding. We went straight to the big deal and the uh I think it's an 80page agreement and that's what will be signed. President Trump on clarify on can you clarify on rate cuts? Do you intend to seek Powell's firing if he doesn't change his chance on rate cuts or is that is that on the table or is that Well, I think he should do the rate cuts because I think uh if Europe has done it, it puts us at a disadvantage to Europe. I mean, he plays right into their hands. So, I think he should do the rate cuts. We don't have really inflation now. I just said the major things are going down. Oil is great. Oil is way ahead of schedule and that's because of our policies. But oil is down into the uh $60 $65 range now per barrel. And I told you in certain states we have less than $2 for gasoline. And uh food is down. Groceries, as we call it, are down. Uh other than interest rates, everything's down. Interest rates are pretty flat. They're not It's not that they're up, but we should be better than flat. We should if he would lower the interest rate I think it would have a good impact on that too. But the costs are down. We have very little inflation. I would say we have essentially no inflation. Hard to have inflation when oil goes down and oil goes down. When when uh Biden came in, oil went through the roof. That's what caused our problem. That and his very dumb spending. But uh when the oil prices go down and they have gone down a lot. We've gotten it down really good. We've opened it up and we've gotten them down. And that means that uh people driving cars are going to be paying $2 and $2.50 instead of $4.50. And you know, even at the end, they tried they tried just for the purpose of the election to get it down. But they had really lost that sucker. That was really it was not good. But uh if they had won, oil right now would be at seven or eight dollars because of their policy. And we're going to be at about $2, could be even a little bit less than that. And you're starting to see it. So, I don't know how you can have inflation when oil is has come down quite a bit. And and uh I would say the Fed really owes it to the American people to get interest rates down. That's the only thing he's good for. And he would have an effect on that if he if he if he lowered them. And I think at some point he will. He's going to have a lot of political pressure. you know they are uh political also and I think there's a lot of political pressure for him to lower interest rates. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry please. Do you think that Italy can be your best ally in Europe and also notice when only if the prime minister remains the prime minister can it be our best. She's she's doing no she's doing a great job and yeah certainly one of our great allies not just in Europe anywhere she's a fantastic person and doing a great job and our relationship is is great and we have a lot of Italians in this country I tell you and they like Trump and they voted for Trump thank you very much everybody [Music] thank Thank you. Thanks guys for moving. Thank you. Thank you.