President Trump Delivers Remarks, May 6, 2026

You guys ready? Yes, sir. Well, thank you very much. I'm a big sports fan. There are no people tougher in sports than the people behind me. These are the toughest people. I know them all. I know the football players. I know just about everybody you can know. When they come to the Oval Office, we give out all championships, baseball, football, basketball, everything. They're always up here. We take the champions, and these are the great champions. And as you know, on June 14th, we're having a big fight. It's never going to happen again. It never happened before. And it's all of the best fighters, best four fighters standing right behind me, and they're all champions. And it's going to happen right in front of the White House. Here's a picture. I think a lot of people haven't seen this yet. I'll give you that. I think you'll probably be able to do okay with it. Not bad, right? Championship belt. Dana White was here last night. Did you know that? He loves this guy. He loves all of them. Here's another one. This is another. They're going all the way out, all online. It's all people invited. Our country is invited to this. It's free. And, you know, in the park, right across the street, they're going to have, I guess, anywhere from 75,000 to 100,000 people, free. They're going to set up eight big screens, and they're going to have the fight. And then, out here, we're going to have 4,000 seats right in front of the front door of the White House. The hardest ticket I've ever had to. Best live show on Earth, June 14th. This will be the greatest show on Earth is at night. It's all lighting and cover. And I think you get the idea. So, it's going to be June 14th, and it's going to be great. And this is a little different for these political people. And this is a real — these are real warriors. When we talk about warriors, these are warriors. Cyril Gan, who is — these are all champions. I don't have to say champions. And most of you know — many of you know who they are. Cyril, great honor. Alex Pereira, who's — I've seen him knock out a lot of people. That's what he does. He knocks out people. Congratulations on an unbelievable career. Wow. Ilya Topuria, who they say does not get tougher. So, it's pretty much — I mean, that's it. You're very special. And a friend of mine, Justin Gaethje, who is just a fighter like you've never seen. You see the kind of pounding he'll take, and then, all of a sudden, it's over, and the other guy is not in good shape. Right? Not in good shape. So, these are the — these are the toughest people. These are the greatest fighters in the world. They're all champions. And they'll be fighting against very tough people also. And — but I think you always go in thinking you're going to win. But they're fighting against — they're Olympians. They're — they come from all over the world. Some come from extreme poverty. Some come from — not too many people come from Fifth Avenue, for the most part. I would say Fifth Avenue is not well covered in this sport. But it's a special group of people with tremendous heart and, really, tremendous talent. And I really believe you're probably born with the punch. And you're born with an ability to take a punch, too. I was talking to Dana White last night. He was talking about that. Some people can take a punch, and some people can't. And, in life, it's always good to be able to do that. And if you guys want to say anything — I don't want to pick out an individual, but if you want to say anything, you could. But we're going to see you all here on June 14th. Yeah, what an unbelievable honor. I mean, I'm not sure many know how big of a part you were to the UFC coming out — coming out and becoming mainstream in the early 90s, when nobody would let us, and nobody believed in us, and they thought we were just absolute animals. And you gave us a chance to fight in your property. Well, they're right about that. Well, yeah. Somewhat, somewhat. We just — yeah, I mean, it's truly an honor. It's awesome. It's your birthday. Awesome. It's Flag Day. Wonderful to represent this country. You know, these guys aren't from this country, but I'm sure it's an honor for them as well. But I think we'd be 10 years behind if it wasn't for you. And so, thank you for that. Well, Justin, it's great being with you. You know, what he's saying is right. They couldn't get — Dana says it better than anybody can say it. They couldn't get any arenas because it was so violent that they couldn't get arenas. I was able to give them, I guess, the first four or five fights. And I went, and I said, this sport is unbelievable. They had some of the greatest fighting I've ever seen, and it's continued on. Now it's really at a new level because the talent is much greater than it was either then, and much tougher, much — these are the best in the world right here. So, I think you can all — a lot of the press is going to be there. And I think this is going to be one — this is going to be an event you're really going to like. Anybody want to say? And we have all of the great representatives there. They're making a lot of money. They're making a lot of money. Look at that guy over there. Don't fight that one right there. But do you have anything to say? How about you, manager? You know, like Justin said, who's our President Trump, probably the UFC will be 20 years behind. He gave us the jumpstart from the beginning. And I think this is going to be the greatest sport event ever created on planet Earth. It's going to be the most watched sport event. And what an honor to fight on the ground, red and white and blue. You know, I know Justin is only American, but it's an honor for a guy from France, Spain, Brazil, that America is the dream. All these guys live in the American dream. And all of it — all of us live in the American dream. It's an honor to be in the Oval Office. And it's an honor to have a President actually, like, welcome the people. You know, welcome the people. Most of the Presidents are just too good to do other things to other people. But this is the greatest President of all the time in any country, in any world, in any time. And thank you, President Trump. The President I like him. I made a good move by asking him to say that. That was very good. Thank you. I really do. Okay, well, you're one of the greats and one of the great managers, too, and a very good friend of a very special fighter that we know, right? Khabib, who fought 29 fights. I think he won 29 fights, right? He had a tough fight with this guy, right? How was his 29th? That was some fight. So, they're going to be going outside. Would you guys, anybody like to say something? I mean, you are. We want to thank you for giving us this opportunity to build the biggest event in sports history. I also want to thank God that you gave us this beautiful day and gave us the opportunity to experience how it feels to be in an Oval Office. So, it's going to be amazing. I want to thank you for this. Thank you so very much. Thank you very much. And I never thought you would be so kind. Well, I have a false image. Yeah? Totally. I have a false image. And why do you want to give the toughest test to your friend? To which? You said he's a friend of you, but you wanted to give him the hardest test. You know, that's what I want. I do want to give. I want to give the hardest test, Israel. We're going to give the hardest test. And actually, each one of you are fighting your hardest test, I think, right? Yeah. How do you think you'll — you know your opponent very well. Very tough. I know. How do you feel? Do you feel good? Very good. What are your chances of winning? Me? Yeah. I have faith that he's going to win. A hundred percent, right? That's why you're here. And they believe that, too. Would you like to say something? I hope he has the same faith. That's right. That's going to make an amazing fight. It's going to be great, yeah. That's right. Would you like to say something? I would like to thank the opportunity to be fighting in the White House. We know it's a special event, that everybody would like to be present to make it feel special. Thank you. Thank you very much. One of the greatest punches in the history of the business. I just shook his hand. He has a large hand. That's a powerful hand. It's — they're very unusual people. Born with great talent, and then they hone the talent. I'll save you for last, okay? Yes, sir. He loves his country so much, but I'll save you for last. Yes, sir. Please, would you like to say something? Yeah, I just want to say thank you. It's an honor. I'm really proud. It's going to be a special life. So, I just want to say thank you. Thank you very much. It's an honor to have you. And we'll all be there watching. And it is something special. So, we'll all be there watching. I don't know how the hell you do it, but they wouldn't have it any other way. They love the sport. They really love the sport. They come out of a ring — the most incredible fight you've ever seen. And they say, this is the greatest sport I could do with. You know, I'd rather sink a three-footer, personally. But these — there's no better thing to watch than this. And Justin is known as just one of the truly — obviously, talented and everything else, but he's got more heart. And he just has an ability. They call it a motor. He's got a motor that doesn't stop. And it all starts right up here. Yep, here and here. And, I mean, I learned that — going to a small town south of Arizona. Copper, cattle, and cotton. That's what we do down there. Three generations in the copper mine. So, and like you said, none of us come from opportunity that well. And this is one of the truest merit-based systems in the world, this sport right here. Everybody has an opportunity. And we all get a chance. And we will get a chance. And so, of course, my faith is as strong as his. And I've committed my whole life to this. And so, to have a President that's willing to go against — and upstream and against the gnomes, it is truly special. It's why you got my vote. And it's why we're such a great nation right now, compared to where we were. Well, we all love you. He's got tremendous fan base. Each one of these people, these — in the sporting world, really, because I think most of the sporting world is watching the UFC. But Dana White was here last night. We were talking about it. He said they've never had anything like what's happening. They all — the problem was everybody wanted to fight. You know, we had so many guys. They all — they were all saying, we want to fight at the White House. Well, they all said, we don't want to because the optics are going to be crying when they didn't get on it, so. That's right. Now they're crying. Now they're crying. It's true. But anyway. So, they're going to go outside. They're going to have some pictures taken on the balcony, the Truman Balcony. I think they're going up to Truman. And it's a beautiful balcony on the White House. And do you have any questions? Only for the fighters now, I think, is — I mean, they want to ask about Iran and a couple of other things. I can try on Iran. Go ahead. Go ahead. Let me — look, I'll bridge this. Here you go. You're facing — well, I'll try. Wait, wait. This will work. You're facing an opponent right now in Iran that has refused to submit. You seem optimistic now. You may be closer to a deal. What's different about this moment now than in other moments where a deal has seemed close? Well, why do you say they refused to submit? You don't know that. You don't know what's going on. They were firing on U.S. ships a few days ago. Yeah, I know. A few days ago. It was a long time ago. You know? In the world of war, a few days ago. No, they want to make a deal badly. And we'll see if we get there. If we get there, they can't have nuclear weapons. You know, it's very simple. But what's not to submit? So, they had a Navy with 159 ships, and now every ship is blown to pieces and lying at the bottom of the water. They had an Air Force, lots of planes, and they don't have any planes. They don't have any anti-aircraft. They don't have any radar left. Their missiles are mostly decimated. They have some. They have probably 18, 19 percent, but not a lot by comparison to what they had. And their leaders are all dead. So, I think we won. Now it's only a question of, look, if we left right now Iran, it would take them 20 years to rebuild. You would call that we're in good shape, right? We're in good shape. And now we're doing well. Now we have to get what we have to get. If we don't do that, we'll have to go a big step further. But with that being said, they want to make a deal. We've had very good talks over the last 24 hours. And it's very possible that we'll make a deal. Yeah, please. The Press Thank you, Mr. President. Good to see you. What are the status of these talks? Have they been very good? Just give us some insight as to where we are at this point. The President And we've had some good talks before, as you know. And all of a sudden, the next day they're like — they forgot what happened. You know, they're proud, like these guys are proud. Nobody more proud than these guys. Sometimes they fight on pride because, you know, they're injured, they're hurt. No matter how great you are, you get hit by somebody else that looks like them. It's very tough. But they have great pride. These people have great pride. The others do too. Enemies have great pride. We went into Venezuela. Smart people, great people. They have a really strong military. We won it very quickly. And we have a fantastic — it's been a great thing for Venezuela. The people are really happy. They're dancing in the streets because they have a lot of money coming in through the big oil companies that are all moving in. I was with ExxonMobil last night. The chairman was here. And we're talking about Venezuela, along with a lot of them. Chevron. They're all — they were all here last night. They all want to go there and elsewhere. We just hit a new high in the stock market. The stock market is the highest it's ever been. And I expected that the market would be down 20, 25 percent. I was willing to do that to get rid of a crazy country. Crazy. The people — you know, you talk about regime change. Their first-level leaders are dead. Their second-level leaders are dead. Some of their third-level leaders are dead. And I call that regime change. But I thought we'd be down maybe 20 percent, and we're up. The stock market is higher now than when we started this war. And I thought oil prices would go to $200, $250. It's at $100 now. And I think you're surprised, and I'm surprised. But even if it went to $200, it would have been worth it. I understand that. We had just set a record — 50,000 on the Dow, 7,000 on the S&P. A record. And I said, I hate to do this, but we have to make an excursion down to Iran because we can't let them have a nuclear weapon. Look — and this is very simple — Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Because as tough as they are, we want to keep them alive. We want to keep all of you alive. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And they won't. And they've agreed to that, among other things. Yeah. The Press. Mr. President, you've had some recent back-and-forth with Pope Leo. I understand Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to meet with the Pope tomorrow. What message do you hope he delivers to the Holy Fathers? The President. Well, I can tell you this, that as far as the Pope is concerned — and it's very simple — whether I make him happy or I don't make him happy, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And he seemed to be saying that they can. And I say they cannot, because if that happened, the entire world would be hostage, and we're not going to let that happen. That's my only message. Okay? So they're going to go out now, and they're going to have some great pictures taken. And we'll see you guys on June 14th. But I know, in your case, we're going to see a lot more. We'll see you probably tomorrow. Of all the events on the South Lawn, why this event? I think it's going to be the biggest event we've ever had at the White House. I mean, the White House doesn't really do athletic events, for the most part. And this is — these are all the greatest champions. These are — they're the greatest fighters in the world. You can tell by looking at them. These are the greatest fighters in the world. How do you think, if you went into heavy training, that you'd be — it'd be — it would be a little tough, right? Have a good time, everybody. Thank you.