Well, thank you very much. It's an honor to have a friend of mine because we went through this together and got along very well for my entire period of time. I knew him as a very young man. Now he's just a young man and he's done a fantastic job, Mr. President. It's an honor to have you. Thank you. You're doing incredibly for your country and we appreciate working with you because you want to stop crime and so do we and it's very effective. I want to just say hello to the people of El Salvador and say they have one hell of a president. I mean that and I know him well. I knew him as a very young man, even younger than you. He started pretty young. He'll always be young at heart, but I want to thank you for the great job you're doing. I appreciate it.
Well, it's an honor to be here in the Oval Office with the president and leader of the free world. We're very happy and we're very eager to help. We know that you have a crime problem and a terrorism problem that you need help with and we're a small country but if we can help we will do it. We actually turned the murder capital of the world, as the journalists called it, into the safest country in the western hemisphere. Sometimes they say that we imprisoned thousands, I like to say that we actually liberated millions. So that's very good.
Who gave him that line? Do you think I can use that?
In fact, Mr. President, you have 350 million people to liberate. But to liberate 350 million people, you have to imprison some. That's the way it works. You cannot just free the criminals and think crime is going to go down magically. You have to imprison them so you can liberate 350 million Americans that are asking for the end of crime and the end of terrorism. I mean, it can be done. You're doing it already. I'm sure that people have seen the change in the streets. A long way to go because you're just initiating your second term. But it's clear that with the numbers at the border, we need help from even in Democrat run cities, they get help from the work you're doing. So I'm really happy to be here, honored, and eager to help.
Well, we had a terrible thing happen. We had an administration that allowed people to come in freely into our country from not only South America, but from all over the world. Many from the Congo and Africa, Asia, all over the world, Europe, rough parts of Europe. And they came from prisons and they came from mental institutions and they came from gangs and the gangs of Venezuela and other places. Hundreds of thousands and even millions of them came. 21 million people altogether. But many of the people that came, a tremendous percentage of them, were criminals, in some cases violent criminals. We had 11,088 known murderers. Half of them murdered more than one person. This was allowed by a man who did to our country something unbelievable. So we're straightening it out. We're getting him out. But what they did and what that party did to our country, open borders, anybody could come in. As soon as I heard that, I said, every prison is going to be emptied out into our country. That's what happened. And we're straightening it out. We just had numbers. We had the highest recruiting numbers in the history of our country going into police departments. A year ago, we had the lowest numbers. That is the biggest change nobody has ever seen. The military now, Marines, the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, every slot is filled. We have the best numbers we've ever had. We have records at every single level. But very important, the policemen are joining forces now. We really were having a hard time with policemen because we weren't protecting our police. We cherish our police. The police are great and the firemen and everybody else. But we have the highest numbers we've ever had, the most enthusiasm. On trade and other things, we're doing great. We're taking in billions and billions of dollars. Two weeks ago, I gave them a little bit of a pause because you have to show a little flexibility, but we go back to what we have to do. The markets have been very strong once they got used to it. We were losing $2 billion a day. There's no company big like this. This is the biggest deal ever made. Now we're making $3 billion a day. We're a great country, but we had stupid people running this country. What they've done to us at the border should never and can never be forgotten. It's a sin what they did and you are helping us out and we appreciate it. Thanks.
Thank you. Actually, what you're doing with the border is remarkable. It has dropped what, 95%? It's incredible.
As of this morning, 99% — 99.1% to be exact.
Why are those numbers not in the media?
Well, the fake news, CNN over here doesn't want to put them out because they don't like putting out good numbers. They only like putting out bad numbers because I think they hate our country, actually.
That's a shame. You're right. Isn't that a great question? Why doesn't the media put out numbers? 99%. It's crazy. We're doing great. It's a crazy turnaround.
Christie, could you maybe say a couple of words about the border? How we're doing?
It's been absolutely phenomenal what a great leader can do. Clear direction. Our laws matter. We should only have people in our country that love us. The Border Patrol and our ICE officers and law enforcement officers have done fantastic work. So we're proud of them. Now, we just need to get the criminals and murderers and rapists and dangerous gang members and terrorist organizations out of our country. So, Mr. President Bukele, we thank you very much for your partnership. It has been wonderful for us to be able to have somewhere to send the worst of the worst and someone to partner with. We'd like to continue that partnership because it's been a powerful message of consequences. Mr. President, you wanted people to know that there were consequences if you break our laws and harm our people and endanger families. This is a clear consequence for the worst of the worst. We have somewhere to put them. Thank you very much.
Yeah, we even had this gang member from Venezuela, one of the ones you sent. We interviewed him to get some information. He said, 'I got arrested six times, but they released me six times, so I should be released again.' Then he said, 'I shot a cop in the leg, but I didn't kill him, I just shot him in the leg.' This guy was arrested six times in the United States. He was released five times, and the last time he was sent to El Salvador. So he's not getting a release. The last time he shot a cop. There's something broken in the liberal establishment, but they're not running things anymore in this country. We're run by people with great common sense.
Yeah, common sense. Because it's all common sense. It's not liberal or conservative. It's common sense. Like, do you allow men to play in women's sports? Do you allow men to box your women? That's violence. That's abusive.
Totally. We have people that fight to the death because they think men should be able to play in women's sports. Some of those sports it wouldn't matter much, but some are very dangerous for women. Some years ago, about a decade ago, women's rights movements were pressuring us to enact specific laws to avoid men abusing women. I think those laws were great because there were a lot of men abusing women. But now some of the same people are trying to backtrack on that and make new laws allowing men to abuse women in sports. That doesn't make sense. It's crazy. They have weightlifting records. A woman gets up, she's incredible. A guy gets up and beats her by 100 pounds. A record that hadn't been broken in 18 years, they have a guy come up and break it. The whole thing is crazy.
They continue to fight and I don't like talking about it because I want to save it for just before the next election. I said to my people, don't even talk about it because they'll change. But I watched this morning, there was a congressman fighting to the death for men to play against women in sports. Why? What are they doing? Your country is not too big in that.
No, of course not. We're big in protecting women.
Good. It's a very important form of protection.
And as you can see, most of my cabinet are women.
That's impressive. That's why you're succeeding. And they're not DEI hires or anything. They're just great at what they do.
Right. This is very impressive. This is a first. We've had women, but we've never had three of them right here. That's four women and three men. Look who we have. You guys feel a little bit mistreated? That's good. I like it.
We've been very advanced in that regard too. We have Pam who's been fantastic. Christie, and the most powerful woman they see anywhere. They're all afraid of Susie. Most powerful woman in the world according to magazines. What do I know? But I think she probably is. Congratulations. And Steven has done such a great job. We have great people but we love working. He really lets him have it.
Do you have any questions, please? President Bukele, let's not start because they're so wrong.
Thank you, Mr. President. You repeatedly mentioned last night that Russia's attack on Ukraine was a mistake. What is the exact mistake? And had you given Putin a deadline to move toward a ceasefire?
The mistake was letting the war happen. If Biden were competent and if Zelenskyy were competent, and I don't know that he is, we had a rough session with this guy over here. He just kept asking for more and more. That war should have never been allowed to happen. I went four years and Putin wouldn't even bring it up. As soon as the election was rigged and I wasn't here, that war started. There was no way that war should have been allowed to happen. Biden should have stopped it. Take a look at Putin. I'm not saying anybody's an angel, but I went four years and it wasn't even a question. He would never. I told him, don't do it. You're not going to do it. It was the apple of his eye. But there was no way he would have done it. All you had to do is lower oil prices. Biden kept the prices so high because he made it impossible to get it. If you lowered oil prices, you would have never had the war. But you wouldn't have had it with me anyway. That war would have never happened. I think it's a great abuse. Now what do you do? You get a country where 25% of its land is gone, millions of people are killed. You haven't reported accurately the death. This was Biden's war and I'm trying to stop it. I think we're going to do a good job. They lose 2,500 young people a week on average. They're Russians and Ukrainians, 2,500. We don't care. It's a killing field. That should not be happening in our time. That's a war that should have never been allowed to start. Biden could have stopped it and Zelenskyy could have stopped it and Putin should have never started it. Everybody's to blame.
Have you spoken to President Zelenskyy about his offer to purchase more Patriot missile batteries?
He's always looking to purchase missiles. When you start a war, you have to know that you can win the war. You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles. If we didn't give them what we gave, remember I gave them Javelins. That's how they won their first big battle, with the tanks that got stuck in the mud and they took them out with Javelins. Obama gave them sheets and Trump gave them Javelins. But this should have never happened. The towns are destroyed. The beautiful spires are mostly laying on their side, shattered and broken. Most importantly, you have millions of people dead because of three people: Putin number one, Biden who had no idea what he was doing number two, and Zelenskyy. All I can do is try and stop it. I want to stop the killing. I think you'll have some very good proposals very soon.
Last question, sir. Have you contributed a motive to the FBI investigation behind the attack on Governor Josh Shapiro over the weekend?
No, I haven't. The attacker was not a fan of Trump. I understand just from what I read and from what I've been told, the attacker basically wasn't a fan of anybody. It's probably just a wack job. A thing like that cannot be allowed to happen. Relation with President Bukele?
The best guarantee that this time you won't terminate the temporary protective relationship with this man.
I have the best relationship with him. I've known him since he was a very young man. I was impressed. This guy looks like a teenager. You look like a teenager.
Good or bad, Mr. President?
He grew up well in the last 5 years.
Do you support an extension for nationals of El Salvador under temporary protective status? Do you plan to ask President Bukele to help return the man who was mistakenly deported?
Let's hear the question from this very low-rated anchor at CBS. Do you plan to ask President Bukele to help return the man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador? Let me ask Pam, would you answer that question?
First and foremost, he was illegally in our country. In 2019, two courts, an immigration court and an appellate immigration court, ruled that he was a member of MS-13 and he was illegally in our country. Additional paperwork needed to be done. That's up to El Salvador if they want to return him. The Supreme Court ruled that if El Salvador wants to return him, we would facilitate it by providing a plane. So, will you return him?
You are doing a great job. Thank you.
