Uh, any questions? Please, sir.
Thank you so much. Well, you have a lot of upcoming Republican rallies. You're heading to Oklahoma, you're heading to Alabama, Ohio. What is your message to your voters heading into the midterms?
We have great people and we're running against communists, lunatics, socialists. We're running against people that are going to open up the water. We have a border that just came out 17 months in a row. We have no people coming in, zero, which is hard to believe even, but that's what it is. I don't want to put out the numbers. And we have a strong border. We have the best economy, the biggest investment in the history of our country. Think of that. $21 trillion is being invested. With China it's $3 trillion. With Biden from the last, it was a half a trillion for 4 years. It would have been negative. We're $21 trillion, the biggest amount in history.
And that money's building plants like today is an example. I don't know if you looked today. This number is a big number, $18 billion. I don't know if you think we're including that number. But we have $21 trillion being invested in our country. We have the highest number of jobs in the history of the United States of America. We have the best crime numbers in the history of our country despite the fact that they allowed 25 million people, many of whom were criminals, into our country. We have the best murder — it's not a nice thing to say, but the murders are lower than at any time since 1900. So, we have the best crime numbers. We have the best economic numbers. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. We're going to win that war very soon. That'll be over and the gas prices will come tumbling down. So, nobody else could have done that. Nobody else. If the Democrats took in, the border will be opened immediately. And you have millions of people pouring through just like it was before. That's the most horrible thing I've ever seen. Yeah, please. Daniel.
Two questions on the steel if that's okay. Why was it so important for you to establish a fully integrated American supply chain for the raw materials, exterior steel and iron specifically from a national security perspective? Why was it so important for you to do that?
Well, because we have a military that's very powerful and there are certain products you have to make. Steel is one of them. You need it for your planes, your army tanks, you need it. You know, we have a lot of problems, we have a lot of things we don't have to make ourselves, but when it comes to national security, I would say steel is number one on your list. Steel, aluminum, big aluminum plant coming, I told you. Big one, beautiful. Great people also. But if we don't make it ourselves, we don't really — we can't defend ourselves. We can't call up another nation and say we want to build 2,000 army tanks and we have no steel, can we get some? We'll call China. Do you mind giving us some steel to build army tanks? I don't think that works out. By the way, we had a great meeting with President Xi. I would say I would rate it as a — on the scale of 0 to 10, I would rate it a 12. Very respectful, very good, great meeting. So, you know, steel in particular, but other things too. We want to make them — medicine coming back. They're all coming back. Hundreds of billions of dollars of plants are being built. Eli Lilly is spending billions, Merck, Pfizer. They're all coming back and we learned that during COVID. We didn't make anything. Now we're making it all. They're all coming back at record numbers. So, thank you for the question, Daniel.
Two questions on the steel project. Is there any federal money going to it and is it a done deal or is it contingent on certain tasks?
Yeah, it's a deal where we're doing very little. We're just — it's a great site. It's very important. It's a phenomenal site and it's phenomenal people they're going to have and that's the biggest thing. How would you want to answer that question or how would you —
Sure. So, my partner, chairman of Exim Bank, they helped finance the mine, right, to produce that. But then these gentlemen from SR, they are going to build the plant. So, it's private money is going to build the steel plant. But Exim Bank drove and assisted in the mine portion of it, but helped launch that project.
Is it contingent on tax rates within Iowa?
No, I think this deal is done. This deal is done. They've already worked it out. That's why we're all together with the president. The president doesn't bring people together unless it's a done deal. You guys know that already.
They've already started building. And you're talking about a tremen— You know, think of it. If you build a $10 million building, it's big. $50 million is quite big. $500 million is really big. $18 billion they're spending from outside money. And all from the highest sources, most respected people anywhere in the world. It's pretty amazing.
Mr. President, Mr. President, two questions. One on Iran and then one on Iowa. I'll start with Iowa though. Sir, you won Iowa by 13 points. Some of the polling though for some of the races right now in the Senate and also some of the House races a little closer, much closer in fact. Why are Republicans, do you think, having to work so hard to hold on to these seats?
I don't know. I love Iowa. I've always been very strong with Iowa. There's been some things that the Democrats have done that are very bad for our country. You know, they had high prices. I've reduced the prices, but they like to say affordability, but they're the ones that caused the affordability problem. They're the ones that caused all of these problems and they were unwilling to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon. They said let somebody else. Of course I could say that about many people. We have stopped them from having a — they'll never have a nuclear weapon and they understand that and they're willing to say that. But I'm surprised — I like — first of all, the polls are fake. That when you see somebody like Ashley, one of the greatest politicians — you'll see it. One of the greatest — she'll be one of the greatest politicians in America. Going to be highly respected and she is highly respected. She's going to be representing Iowa in the Senate. She's going to bring back a lot of money for Iowa. You know, Iowa is a state that likes money coming back into it. If you put these people in there, you're not going to bring back any money. These people all, every one of them, they bring a lot of money back to Iowa. That helps with ethanol and other things, many other things. And I know Ashley well and she will be a tremendous success as a senator. She's going to bring a lot of goodies back to Iowa which Iowa needs. I think the polls are inaccurate because I won by so much and it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't be right up there with me.
And really quickly, sir, on the arrest in the UK. There was five suspects that were arrested. They were just released on bail. What's your reaction to that and is this connected to Iran?
Might be, but I will tell you I would have said don't let them have bail. Cashless bail. I wonder if — is it cashless bail like us? That was one of the problems that we had which started the whole mess of crime and we're ending cashless bail. But over there I'm surprised that they released them. I wouldn't have done that. Look, they've been very good. They worked with us very closely. We know everything about them. We would not have released them.
So you said might be Iran, might be. Can you elaborate on that?
No, I don't know. I'd rather not. I mean, I know the answer. I can be very specific, but I'd rather not say it. But I would not have released them.
Has your team spoken to Iran today?
They have through mediators?
Anything else you can share about any movement on the Iran talks?
We're going to win. It's — as far as I'm concerned, it's going to be one way or the other. It's going to be — it's going to go pretty quickly, too.
Mr. President, two questions for you, Mr. President. One on this announcement and one on the state visit that you had last week. On this announcement, last year, you also announced that there will be a steel plant that will be set up in southern Louisiana. Here you have this steel plant that's being set up in Iowa. Is there any concern that these deals may go away if there's a change in the House or the Senate or a change in the presidential election?
We've given them documents that will, you know, really won't matter who's in office. You have to do that. They're putting up $18 billion, you know, if I'm not here and somebody less friendly is going to be here, that person that's less friendly will have no choice but to allow them to build. They will, you know, they're very — they're great businessmen, among the best in the world. They're not going to be putting up with that. So, they have guarantees that what they bargained for, to put up all of that money, all of that tremendous wealth, it'll be 100%.
And then on the state visit yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Ambassador to China Perdue said that you suggested to President Xi that the US would sell US military equipment to China. Is that accurate? Did you make such a suggestion?
No, to China. That's what he said.
I never heard of that. Well, I'm going to have to ask him. You mean, we're going to sell — no, they'd probably like to buy it because we do make better equipment than them. So, maybe it's a good idea. But we didn't discuss it. He may have been talking about that one. I think he probably was talking about it.
Mr. President, I have two questions. One for the investors. I would like to know if in this project, as you know, Africa is a very rich continent that can pretty much supply things for this project. Are you considering to import some of the materials for this project from Africa? Like Congo and Angola can also pretty much supply that.
Most of the critical materials that are required for this project will be sourced from America itself, within the US. There are some materials like manganese that may need to be imported for making and refining the highest quality steel. So, that is something that is not necessarily available in the US. So, we will be looking at global sourcing for those materials until they are there.
