A few things I want to share with the media with you being here, and it's about your leadership. First of all, about Iran. I really want to make clear how important it is what you are doing on Iran. This is first of all about the nuclear capability Iran was basically getting its hands on, and it would have been a threat to the region, a threat to the whole world. This is a country which is exporting chaos, exporting terrorism, and they were very near to getting their hands on the nuclear capability. You saw last week at the G7 all the leaders applauding the fact that this nuclear capability has been degraded. This is extremely important. Sometimes people think why was this whole Iran thing going on. This is about security, about safety. This is the leader of the free world taking responsibility beyond the shores of the United States for the rest of the world. And this is what you did.
I know there have been debates about whether your allies in Europe were with you or not. I just want to say one thing: when you look at the numbers, 4,000 to 5,000 US planes taking off from bases in Europe in the six weeks this war took place till the ceasefire took place mid-April. Bucharest, the airport in Romania, had to close for commercial traffic because they had to make sure you were able to send a tanker aircraft up in the air. Generally speaking, your European allies have been there with you. Four to 5,000 US planes taking off from European air bases.
Now I want to take you over to these boards here because I want to show you what this president was able to achieve. I start with this chart. This chart is about the Trump trillion. The Trump trillion shows you the increase Europeans and Canadians are paying into defense since you took office in 2017. Right through Trump 47, a total of extra spend by the Europeans and the Canadians of 1.2 trillion. When you look at the effect of TR47, the isolated effect of the extra defense spending in 2025 and in 2026, you see almost $140 billion extra spent nominal on defense by the Europeans and the Canadians. And this year you will again see an increase by about 120 billion, which brings a total in two years of over $250 billion.
I can assure you this is because of Russia, because of the threat. But I'm also absolutely convinced that you being president of the United States, being consistently pushing for something which since Eisenhower has not been achieved, which is the Europeans equalizing their defense spending with the United States. This is your evidence.
Then when it comes to jobs, look here. In total, 195,000 jobs being supported by investments. Investments from European companies into the United States: 83,000 jobs supported by that. 112,000 jobs created by the fact that Europeans are spending, about half of all their defense spending when it comes to defense industry output, in the United States. 112,000 jobs. Last year they spent 54 billion dollars on US defense industrial output. There is now an order catalog, order backlog of 300 billion. So $300 billion of defense spending from Europeans buying this in the US over the next couple of years which is already on the order book. Last year 54 billion, a total now order book of 300 billion. Almost 200,000 jobs total. These are real jobs, real people.
I want to say two things more if you allow. First of all, to get all of this done, we have to increase the defense industrial output. That is a big problem. The problem is that both in the United States and in Europe, we are not producing enough. Our stockpiles have to be replenished because the war in Ukraine and what we do there and for all other reasons. You have taken leadership here. Last week you signed the defense procurement act. You made it possible for companies to work together to be able to ramp up their defense production. You have been very harsh with them a couple of weeks ago. I had one of them over in my office. It was really harsh. One of the CEOs, and he was still trembling. And I said, this is good. This is exactly what we need because we need this extra defense output. This is important for Europe.
When I point at all these jobs, of course many jobs are also being created in Europe and in Canada, but almost 200,000 here in the United States supported by all these investments. It is about defense industrial output, and this is also what the Ankara summit has to be about. The whole first day will be about defense industrial production because we can spend as much as we want, but we need the interceptors, the missiles, the tanks, the artificial intelligence, etc. And this is what you are doing in the US, but also putting all that pressure on the defense industrial base.
Finally, you had the G7 last week. I think that was a big success. What you've seen there is that yes, you are president of the United States, but for me you are first of all the leader of the free world. In two weeks in Ankara you will have not seven countries, you will have 42 countries: the 32 allies, US and 31 others, but also nine or ten other countries from the Middle East, from the Indo-Pacific, and they want to hear your lead. You will provide it. I know this. This is what you do on Iran, this is what you do on defense industrial output, on spending.
Now we see it with Ukraine. The fact that Ukraine stays strong in the fight, that you still provide all the stuff they need, paid for by European and Canadian allies. Fair enough, but very important for them to stay in the fight, and all the other things the United States is doing. So I'm really looking forward to that summit. I know that Erdogan, the president of Turkey, he looks forward to receiving his good friend Donald J. Trump. But I just wanted to tell this story because, ladies and gentlemen of the American media, this is important. This is your president, but also leader of the free world, taking the leadership role as is necessary.
Thank you very much. Very nice. Any questions, please?
Mr. President, after all this, you've been so transformative for NATO. I think the Secretary General just stated that you transformed NATO, the life of which nobody would have even thought that you could have done. After all that, do you still think the European allies, like you told me, treated you badly? And if so, what can they do to make things better? And to you, Secretary, can you confirm that all the thousands of flights as you stated today and yesterday on Fox News are in compliance with the NATO treaty?
Well, let me just say, he's been a friend of mine. He's a great guy, great leader, great Secretary General. Everybody respects him and I appreciate your nice words. But you really have done a good job, and I think if anybody else were in that position, we wouldn't even be meeting today to be honest with you, because we were let down. We didn't need help on this at all. We've demolished them in literally the first week. But it would have been nice if they would have said we'd like to help. We didn't even need it, but it would have been nice if they said it. They didn't say it. But as Secretary General, and he's the boss of the whole operation, I believe if I would have called him, and I didn't bother doing that because I was doing individual countries just to take the temperature and see how they were doing, but I think if I would have called him, he probably would have found a way to help if we needed it. I feel it would have been a little bit different. But I was disappointed. I was disappointed with Italy. I was disappointed with the UK. He's now gone. But we were disappointed with the UK. We were disappointed with Germany and France. We're disappointed with most of them. Spain is a horror show. Spain is terrible. Even from your standpoint, they don't want to pay anything. They think they're in for a free ride. Spain is not a good group. Not a good group at all. But I have great respect for this man and so we're going to be discussing what took place and we'll see what happened. Thank you.
Can I answer to your second question? I don't have many disagreements with the President of the United States here. I have slightly, because I do agree there's reason for disappointment. Absolutely. But my argument is this: these are isolated cases. When you look at the overwhelming picture, take for example Germany. From day one they delivered on their bilateral commitments. These are bilateral commitments these countries are having with the United States. This is not strictly speaking NATO. Bilateral commitments, they all did what they promised to do, and this led to the 4,000 to 5,000 US planes taking off from Europe. I would argue it would have been very difficult to do Iran without having Europe as a power production platform for the United States. He's right, there is also reason for disappointment. It is a mixed bag.
Well, the big question is are they paying the 5% they agreed six months ago when we were together to pay 5%. And for the most part they're not paying.
Well, when you look at the numbers, take for example Germany. We agreed they get a couple of years because you cannot spend it in one year, you have an absorption problem. Germany, for example, has doubled, is doubling its defense spending between 2021 and 2029. They will spend over half, 50 billion by 2029, which is staggering, more than the French and the Brits combined. Even take the Dutch, Poland, and the Baltics, they're already there. Countries like Denmark really stepping up, and the Nordics. So it's a bit of a mixed bag, but most of them have been doing it. And the alliance is so much stronger because of this man.
Please, go ahead.
Thank you. From GB News. You mentioned that our Prime Minister has got one foot out the door. The new guy coming in, Andy Burnham. What do you know about him, Mr. President? And what do you need to do to improve the relationship?
I don't know anything. I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town. I hear he's extremely liberal. Extremely. So that means he probably won't open up the North Sea. I gave Keir some pretty good advice. I said, open up the North Sea. Go to Aberdeen, which was the hottest city on the whole continent. It was the oil city, the oil of Europe. And they closed everything. It was terrible. I saw it before my eyes and I couldn't believe it. The North Sea is loaded. I have had every oil company come to see me, sir, could you give us access to the UK? We would do anything to drill in the North Sea. And they haven't even found what's there. The amazing thing is they buy their oil from Norway, which gets the oil from the North Sea. Think of it. And they pay a big premium. Norway's got now two trillion dollars in the bank. And the UK is dying. So they should open up the North Sea. It's an easy one. A lot of good things are going to happen. It's among the greatest fields in the world.
President Trump, great night for Democratic socialist candidates last night in the New York primaries, they swept and knocked out two incumbents. You're from New York. Why do you think it is that now the endorsement of Zohran Mamdani means more than the endorsement of Hakeem Jeffries?
Well, they're going radical left. They're going really, you know, you talk about the Democrat socialists. Really it's really communist. That's these people. I watched that woman last night. That's not a socialist. I know socialists. That woman is a communist. And you know what they don't say is that I was 16-0 last night. But mine were a little more boring, a little more mainstream. They were Republican conservatives. But we were 16-0. And if you look over the last two and a half years, we're about 347 and just about 0. That's pretty good. But nobody writes that. They picked three. They won. They beat a guy named Dan Goldman, who's a loser. He was one of my many prosecutors that they used on me. Dan Goldman. Not a good prosecutor, fortunately, but he's now looking for a job. I was very surprised to see, because he's a pretty liberal guy. When they go more liberal than Dan Goldman, they're really into Never Neverland.
Does this tell you that the Democratic Party's 2028 nominee will likely be, or could likely be, a Democratic socialist?
Well, it should make it easier for Republicans, because most of the nation is composed of sane people. They don't want to, if you look throughout history, go back thousands of years, you've always had socialism and communism by different names. It's never ever worked. It's not going to work this time either.
Thank you very much, sir. As a Turk myself, I can tell you with great confidence that your presence in Ankara is eagerly anticipated. What's your message to your great friend Erdogan and the Turkish people because you're going to be there in less than two weeks?
Well, I like him. He's a friend of mine. And he stayed out of the war. He was a prime candidate to go into the war with Iran, maybe on the Iran side, because he's not a big fan of Israel as you know, and I asked him to stay out. He stayed out. And you know who else was great was President Xi of China. He could have come in. He gets half of his oil from that area and I could see him wanting to. And I asked him to please stay out, and he did. We did a good job, but he stayed out. Erdogan's a great leader, very strong person, great military. And I asked him to stay out, and he did. And so did President Xi, and frankly so did Putin if you look, but you could say that Vladimir has some other things to focus on. But they all stayed out. It was pretty amazing. People were surprised.
And I think that Erdogan, he loves Turkey, right? He's doing a great job. He loves Turkey. I love the US, but he loves Turkey and he's doing a great job. He's a respected man, a respected leader, and he's been a friend of mine. Now, I shouldn't say that because guys like Peter would say, oh, he likes, he likes, no, Peter won't. Peter doesn't get some of the others, let's say. But Erdogan is a strong man. He's been everything I've ever asked him for, he's done.
Mr. President, the Secretary General clearly pointed out that allies want to do defense business with you, and Turkey is definitely one of them. They want the F110 jet engines and they want the F35 fighter jets. Are you going to Turkey with a big gift bag?
I think so. Yeah, I think so. Look, he's a member of NATO. Some people don't consider him so, but he really is a strong member of NATO. Yeah. I'm going to probably do something that's going to make him very happy. And Turkey has a huge defense industrial base. 3,000 companies working all over the alliance, also in the United States. So strong. People don't know how big Turkey is in terms of the military. It's very strong. They have a lot of our equipment. A very strong military because of him.
What are your expectations, sir, about this meeting in Ankara? What do you think?
Well, except for the fact that it was being held in Turkey by President Erdogan, I don't think I would have gone to it. I mean, I wouldn't have gone for what we went through over the last two months with the various countries. But you're probably right, I would have gone for you. But I would have not gone for most people. But he called me up. He said, please, I have it in Turkey. You got to be there. The United States has to be there. And so I'm going out of respect to President Erdogan.
What do you want the allies to do more than what they are doing right now? Do you have that ask?
I just want their loyalty. We don't need their money. We don't need anything. We have the most powerful military in the world by far. But I just want loyalty. We're so loyal to them. We're always fighting for them. We have thousands of troops all over Europe. In Germany, we have 50,000 troops. And then you want a little, give us a little nudge, give us a little kiss. We don't want much. And they say, no, we can't do it. We're paying hundreds of millions of dollars for the troops that we have in Germany, the troops we have in the UK, the troops we have all over Europe. I will say Poland was very good. I endorsed him and he won. Many people that I endorse outside of the United States won. We had a big win yesterday with Colombia. But no, I endorsed a man who was in 10th place, and he won. And the same thing in Poland. He was number 10. I endorsed him. I didn't like the man that was the president at all. And I endorsed him. He was a fighter, a big fighter, a good fighter. And he came from 10th place and he won. And they say it was the biggest upset in Europe in 50 years for a major election. He's going to be a great president to Poland.
Mr. President, you like winners. Do you think President Zelensky is winning right now?
Well, he's doing pretty well. Look, no matter how you look at it, he's doing pretty well. He's holding his own at least. A lot of people dying on both sides, but I think he's doing pretty well. Look, you have to say he's courageous. He's got great equipment, but he's got great men. He's got fighters.
Can I ask you one other question? Have you seen the report into the Minot school attack, sir? Could you tell us?
I have not seen it. No. Well, why not? At some point, well, I have to wait for it to be complete. I don't know that they're ever going to solve that problem. You could ask Pete, but I don't know that they're ever going to say, it was one of our missiles, Pete. I don't know that they're ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it because there were missiles flying all over the place. And it's horrible what happened, but there were missiles flying all over the place. And somebody said it was our missile. Well, maybe it was an air missile, but I've seen nothing to lead me to believe it was. There were plenty of missiles being fired by other people.
Well, Mr. President, we've taken the investigation very seriously. And when the appropriate time is right, whatever that outcome is, that'll be the time to divulge.
