The President's News Conference With Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom

Thank you very much—very much.

Prime Minister Starmer, Melania and I are tremendously thankful for the wonderful hospitality that you and Lady Starmer have extended today at Chequers. Quite the place, I must say. Quite the place.

And we're grateful beyond words for the spectacular honor of the state visit yesterday at Windsor Castle, hosted by His Majesty, King Charles III, and Her Majesty, Queen Camilla. These are two fantastic people. We will never forget it.

As I said last night, the bond between our countries is like no other anywhere in the world.

The United States and the United Kingdom have done more good on this planet than any two nations in human history.

That is thanks in large part to the traditions of British liberty, which grew up on these isles—these beautiful, magnificent isles—and were carried by our ancestors to the new world. We're forever joined, and we are forever friends, and we will always be friends.

This enduring connection is why I was thrilled that the United Kingdom was the very first country with which we made a historic trade deal and a very good trade deal. He's a tough negotiator. I think it was a better deal for you than us, but these are minor details.

He is a great negotiator. We will extend our unparalleled security alliance into the realm of economic security for the first time, and I look forward to finalizing it very soon. We'll have it done very quickly.

We have also just signed a historic Technology Prosperity Deal—one of a kind—to ensure our countries lead the next great technological revolution side by side. In fact, we just left the business leaders. The biggest in the world. Some are in this room right now, and that was quite a meeting we had on business and trade and technology.

This trip has galvanized $350 billion in deals across many sectors, and we're committed to ensuring that the U.K. is a secure and reliable supply of the best AI hardware and software on Earth. And we supply that, and we'll make sure we supply it in quantity to the U.K.

We also are joining forces on quantum computing and nuclear power, a natural partnership for close allies. The United States, as you probably have heard, is doing better than it has ever done in terms of business and investment.

The stock market has hit a new high, as you know, and that's for many, many days out of our fairly short 8 months. And we seem to be hitting new highs, and I think we're going to do much better, even as time goes by. Jobs are at a record, and most importantly, we have more than $17 trillion—$17 trillion—and this is in—during an 8-month period—being invested in the country, which is not only a record, but if you compare $17 trillion to the last year of the Biden administration, they did $250 billion.

They didn't do $1 trillion for the 4-year period. We did $17 trillion of investment coming in.

A lot of it's because of tariffs, and a lot of it's for a lot of other reasons, but there's never been anything like it. It's an economic superstar. That's what it's become. It was mismanaged and badly handled for a long period of time, but it's not badly handled anymore. So that's a record.

And remember, that's up until 8 months. We have another few months to go, and that number is going to get significantly higher, especially if we win a certain case that we're waiting to hear. That will be something like the world has never seen.

I want to congratulate the United Kingdom on making the vital commitment to spend 5 percent of GDP on defense at the NATO summit this year. We've worked together very closely in so many ways. I'm very honored to tell you that we've solved seven wars—seven wars—wars that were unsolvable, wars that couldn't be negotiated or done. We've done—the U.S. has done seven of them.

The one that I thought would be easiest would be—because of my relationship with President Putin—but he's let me down. He's really let me down. It was going to be Russia and Ukraine, but we'll see how that turns out. But that turned out to be—I thought it might be among the easiest of the group, but we have settled just about every conflict.

And as you know, we're working very hard on Israel and Gaza. All—that's happening over there. Complex, but it's going to be—it's going to get done. It will all get done right. And likewise, Russia and Ukraine will get done.

But it's—you never know in war. You know, war is a different thing. Things happen that are very opposite of what you thought. You thought you were going to have an easy time or a hard time. And it turns out to be the reverse.

As we saw in the unforgettable parade yesterday at Windsor Castle—what a place it is—the British Armed Forces carry on one of the finest military traditions in the world—one of the greatest marching bands, one of the most magnificent sights I've seen.

I know that our service members look forward, and we do look so forward to working even more closely with yours as you push toward that 5 percent goal. And I think, Mr. Prime Minister, you're just about there. You're going to be there very quickly, along with a lot of other great countries.

I want to thank NATO and our wonderful head of NATO, who's really worked very hard—Mark—for the job they've done.

As you know, NATO was at 2 percent GDP, and they didn't pay it. Now they're at 5 percent and they pay it. And we appreciate that, and we're sending a lot of weapons to NATO. NATO is paying for those weapons in full, but we're sending them, and we're doing a great job at getting them what they need.

And we appreciate the fact that they're taken care of, because the United States is into that war for $350 billion and just really very sad. Just got out of control. They didn't know what they were doing.

But over the generations, British and American warriors have shed their blood side by side in defense of liberty and freedom, and that's why it's so imperative that the United States and the United Kingdom stand together for these fundamental rights and values of the English-speaking world. And we've always stood together, and we will continue to.

Just last week, a great American, Charlie Kirk, was heinously assassinated for speaking his mind. He was a great young man. Incredible future. Some people said he might be President someday. I told him—I said, "Charlie, I think you—you have a good shot someday at being President." And he just wanted to take care of youth. He loved youth. He was—I've never seen anybody relate to youth like Charlie. And they related to him, and they're devastated, but I appreciate the many British citizens who have offered their condolences.

And again, Charlie was a great person. We'll be going out to a service on Sunday. I'll be leaving with some of the people in this room just to celebrate Charlie and all that he's done. So incredible. Never seen anything like it.

But I hope that, together, our nations can lead a movement to defend the glorious traditions of freedom on both sides of the Atlantic. There could be no greater tribute to the immortal bonds of affection and loyalty that unite the British and the American people for all of time. We have a relationship like no other. It will always be that way. We will always be united. We'll always be together.

And I just want to thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for the great job I think you're doing.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Okay, any questions?

Good. Good.

Sure.

Yes——

Go ahead.

True.

Well, simply, I want the hostages released now. Right now. Not one, two, "we'll give you three more tomorrow," and—you know, like it's been. But we're the ones that got all the hostages released. We got many, many—they came—many have—came to the Oval Office. And I've heard stories like I've never thought even possible. There was no humanity, no anything.

I said to them—I said: "Was there any warmth shown during this stay? Like they offered you a little extra meal, they gave you a little smile, and they said, 'Don't worry. You'll be okay'?" And every one of them said, "Not even a little bit." Amazing, you know, to think that during this stay—long stay, in some cases. We had a man the other day, 451 days he was there.

I always ask that question, "And was there any warmth shown—just a little word of, you know, encouragement?" And the answer is, every time, "Absolutely not." I'm shocked to hear it, because in the worst cases, there's always somebody that comes through.

We have to remember October 7—one of the worst, most violent days in the history of the world—not just there, in the history of the world. And I got to see the tapes. And I wish I didn't see them, actually, but I got to see them.

And I want an end. I want the hostages released, and I think it's going to be okay, but it has been a brutal period of time. But this has been going on for a long time.

This is not something that's over the last year, 2 years. But this has been for decades and decades, but we want it to end. We have to have the hostages back immediately. That's what the people of Israel want. They want them back.

And we want the fighting to stop, and it's going to stop.

But a lot of bad things. You know, Hamas said that they're going to put the hostages up as bait. They're going to put the hostages in front of any attack, and that's pretty brutal. We haven't heard that one in a long time, so we have to remember that.

So I have a disagreement with the Prime Minister on that score. Okay? One of our few disagreements actually.

Good.

Yes.

So we had millions of people flowing in totally unchecked, totally unvetted from the Biden administration—25 million, in my opinion. That would be about 25 million.

They came from prisons. They came from mental institutions. They were gang members.

They were drug dealers. They came from the Congo. They came from all parts of South America. They came from everywhere. Think of it. Prisoners from the Congo being released into the United States. Prisons opened up in Venezuela and many other countries pouring into the United States. And I couldn't believe it.

It's one of the reasons I decided to run. I decided to run because—I don't want to be controversial, but you see what's happened, and you see all the information that's come out. We won in 2020—big. And I said: "Let's run. We've got to run." Because I saw what was happening.

And the worst thing that I saw was all of these people—you know, we've already solved inflation. We've solved prices. Oil is way down. Energy is way down in the United States. But what I saw happening with millions of people pouring into our country, I couldn't stand to watch it.

And we've done a great job. Nobody, if you've seen the last—I appreciate your question, by the way—nobody, absolutely zero. And I'm not even sure that's possible, but it's a very liberal group. They come out with those statistics. The last 3 months, we had zero—from millions of people a year ago, we had zero people enter our country illegally.

And we do have people coming in legally through a legal process and testing and lots of other things.

I think it's very important, and we speak about it, and I think your situation is very similar.

You know, you have people coming in, and I told the Prime Minister I would stop it.

And I—it doesn't matter if you call out the military, it doesn't matter what means you use, but it's going to destroy—it destroys countries from within. And we're actually now removing a lot of the people that came into our country. It's a very hard chore. It's a very—we were given a very, very bad hand. Millions of people came in from prisons and mental institutions. We have to remove them, and we are removing them. We have no choice, and I feel very strongly about it.

Thank you very much.

I would like to say that we inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country. We had inflation the likes of which we've really never seen. They say 48 years, and I'll accept that, but I really don't. We had the worst inflation in the history of our country.

And we had a expression that I used a lot: "Drill, baby, drill." And, as you know, we brought fuel way down—the prices way down. And we don't do wind, because wind is a disaster. It's a very expensive joke, frankly. And we got our energy prices way down. That brought the inflation way down. And now we have very little inflation, and we have a very, very strong economy. So that was very important: "Drill, baby, drill."

And you have a great asset here, and we spoke about it. It's called the North Sea. The North Sea oil is phenomenal. And I hope—because I love this country. You know, my mother was born in Scotland, in the Hebrides—Stornoway. That's serious Scotland.

We were talking about it.

And I want this country to do well. And you have great assets that you're going to start using, I believe, under this prime minister.

Thank you.

Well, he has let me down. I mean, he's killing many people, and he's losing more people than he's—you know, than he's killing. I mean, frankly, the Russian soldiers are being killed at a higher rate than the Ukrainian soldiers.

But yes, he's let me down. I don't like to see—it's death. You know, it doesn't affect the United States. We have—other than, unless you end up in a world war over this thing—you could. This was a thing that would have never happened had I been President. If I were President, it would have never happened, and it didn't happen for 4 years. People—most people agree. It didn't happen, nor was it close to happening.

And I spoke to President Putin about Ukraine. It was the apple of his eye. I've said that many times. It was. But he would have never done what he did, except that he didn't respect the leadership of the United States. They just went through the Afghanistan total disaster for no reason whatsoever.

We were going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity, and we were going to keep Bagram, the big air base that—one of the biggest air bases in the world. We gave it to them for nothing.

We're trying to get it back, by the way. Okay? That could be a little breaking news. We're trying to get it back, because they need things from us. We want that base back. But one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it's an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.

So a lot of things are happening. But I'm—I am very disappointed in the fact that that one is not settled.

To think that we settled Aberbaijan [Azerbaijan; White House correction] and Albania [Armenia; White House correction], as an example. It was going on for years. It was never going to be settled. If you remember, the Prime Minister and the Presidents, they were there for many years.

They said—when they were in my office, we settled. And they started off at both sides of the Oval Office. So far away. I didn't know you could be so far away.

And as we were together for an hour, they kept getting closer, closer, and by the time we finished, we all hugged each other.

And one said, "I was—I've been in this position for 22 years, and all I've done is kill their people." The other was there for 7 years, and all he did was kill their people. And we got it settled.

And we did others, as you know. Congo—the Congo, we did. We settled the Congo with Rwanda. That was going on—and that was a machete war. That was a gruesome war. Many people—close to 10 million people killed. We got that settled.

My biggest disappointment, but it's—you know, look, we did seven, and most of them were not thought to be settleable.

We did India, and we did Pakistan. That's two nuclear—that was purely for trade. You want to trade with us, you're going to have to get along. And they were going at it hot and heavy.

But the Russia situation—I hope we're going to have some good news for you coming up.

But, again, it doesn't affect the United States. And he—look, it doesn't so much affect you. Of course, you are a lot closer to the scene than we are. We have a whole ocean separating us.

But I will say this. It's—millions of people have died in that war. Millions of souls. And they're not American. They're soldiers—mostly soldiers, as you know. The soldiers are being killed at levels that nobody's seen since the Second World War. But they're being—they're being killed, and I feel I have an obligation to get it settled for that reason.

Thank you.

But that's a war that could have been a third world war——

——and I don't think we're going to be there now, but that was heading to a third world war. And what a shame it is. What a shame it is.

I would love to call a few of them. Bev, do you want to have a question?

When you say "we," are you talking here or——

Here?

I'd rather have him answer that question.

I can't give you that answer.

Yes. I'd like to have you answer that question.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Brian [Brian Glenn, Real America's Voice], please.

Yes. It's just gotten worse, from their standpoint. He's—he—the people that used it and one—in particular, one person was never told by Biden to do it. Only spoke to Biden twice, and that was just talking about the weather, not talking about any order. And he was taking orders from people other than Joe Biden. Joe Biden wasn't giving those orders.

You know, Joe Biden didn't believe in open borders. He didn't. I've known him for a long time. He was never the brightest bulb in the ceiling, as we know. You can go back 40 years ago, and you'll see that. Go back and take a look at the hearings on Justice Thomas, and you'll see that very much.

But he didn't believe in open borders and all of this nonsense that they're peddling now, which is why they're not in office any longer.

It's a shame. The autopen was illegal. It was illegally used. He never gave the orders. He never told them what to do. And I guess the only one he signed—or one of the few he signed—was the pardon for his son.

But you had the Congressmen who, when they got the information, they found out they were guilty. And they deleted and destroyed all information—everything. You couldn't get any of it.

They found out that Nancy Pelosi actually was offered the 10,000 soldiers, and she turned them down. They found out many things that were very bad, so they deleted and destroyed all information.

You talk about freedom of the press and freedom of speech. How about that one? And there's not a thing. This is after a year and a half of hearings. They destroyed everything, and somebody has got to be held responsible.

So, Biden, what he did is—they knew. I don't think he knew, but somebody knew. I don't think Biden had a clue and—about anything, if you want to know the truth. But they gave a pardon to those Congresspeople. They gave a pardon. Those people are so guilty. They gave a pardon, but Biden didn't know about it.

The people—whether it's Lisa or any of those people in there that really ran it—I know them all, and they're sick people. They're smart people. They're very smart. They're probably brilliant, but they're sick in ideology.

And they were running the autopen, and it was totally illegal what he did. And I hope it's going to be so adjudged.

Yes. Okay.

Let's see.

Peter [Peter Doocy, Fox News], go ahead.

Yes.

Yes.

So, what we're doing—and we're speaking to President Xi on Friday to see if we can finalize something on TikTok, because there is tremendous value—and I hate to give away value, but I like TikTok. I—it helped get me elected.

In fact, Charlie said, "Sir, you ought to get on TikTok. You'd be great." I said, "Really? Tell me about TikTok."

And we—as you know, we did unbelievably well with youth, like at a level that no Republican has ever even dreamt of. And in—you know, look, I think we won it for a lot of reasons, but that was a reason we won the election by such a big number.

TikTok has tremendous value. The United States has that value in its hand because we're the ones that have to approve it. I specifically get the right to approve it.

The people that are investing in it are among the greatest investors in the world—the biggest, the richest—and they'll do a great job. And we're doing it in conjunction with China, but we are getting—the United States is getting a tremendous fee plus—I call it a "fee plus"—for just making the deal. And I don't want to throw that out the window.

I can say this, that you'll have a lot of very unhappy youth. And I use TikTok very legitimately, very straight, just statements every day.

I do little statements, short statements. "Sir, make it short, please." And "TikTok Jack," we called him—he was pretty good; did a good job for me, I guess.

But no, I'd rather reap the benefits. I mean, the kind of money we're talking about is very substantial, and it will be owned by all American investors and, you know, the best investors. And the, you know, very rich people and companies are going to be owning it—very, very straight, very legitimate countries—companies and, really, companies that love America. So, they're going to be owning it. It's a big thing.

And on a much bigger scale—and probably that's why we were able to get that—but on a much bigger scale, we're pretty close to a deal. We may do an extension with China, but it's an extension based on the same terms that we have right now, which are pretty good terms.

That's good.

Okay.

It will all happen.

Yes.

Sure.

But you do understand about October 7?

You do understand?

One of the worst days in the history of humanity. What happened—I have seen the tapes: babies that are 4 months old and just chopped up to pieces. And you've seen the tapes, and I've seen the tapes. You're a professional, and so am I.

And people forget about October 7. I can't forget about it. So I want it to end, but I want the hostages back. I don't want the hostages used as human shields, which is what Hamas is threatening to do.

Well, it would—it would certainly help. But I have to have the hostages back. And I don't want them back piecemeal, as I said before, I want them back.

Yes.

Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk. And Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago. So, you know, you can call that free speech or not.

He was fired for lack of talent.

Yes. Please, go ahead.

Yes.

No, no.

No.

Q.——and scare him and—and impose sanctions?

And finally, if I may, the elephant in the room: Lord Mandelson. He is no longer the Ambassador. Do you have some sympathy with him that he lost his job over historic links to Jeffrey Epstein?

Thank you very much, sir.

I don't know him, actually. I had heard that, and I think maybe the Prime Minister would be better speaking of that. That was a choice that he made. And I don't know.

What is your answer to that?

Very simply, if the price of oil comes down, Putin is going to drop out, and he's going to have no choice. He's going to drop out of that war.

And when I found out that the European nations were buying oil from Russia—and as you know, I'm very close to India. I'm very close to the Prime Minister of India. I spoke to him the other day; wished him a happy birthday. We have a very good relationship. He put out a beautiful statement too. We have—but I said—you know, I sanctioned them.

China is paying a very large tariff right now to the United States. But I'm willing to do other things, but not when the people that I'm fighting for are buying oil from Russia.

If the oil price comes down, very simply, Russia will settle. And the oil price is way down. You know, we got it way down. We're drilling, and we produce more oil than anybody else in the world. We're doing a lot.

But I was disappointed to see that, and the Prime Minister was disappointed to see that. And it wasn't him. It was other countries. And you can't do that. You can't do that. You can't—that's not playing fair with the United States, and we can't have that.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.