Trump: "Not under any pressure" to end Iran war

So are you saying-- But now what I'm doing-- I can't tell you that. I don't want to put that kind of a timetable on it, but it will go pretty quickly, and we'll have the Strait opened up. Right now, we have it closed. We have total control of the Strait. And the fact that it's closed-- you know, they would have opened it up three days ago. They came to us, and they said, we will agree to open the Strait, and all my people are happy. Everybody was happy except me. I said, wait a minute. If we open the Strait, that means they're going to make $500 million a day. I don't want them to make $500 million a day until they settle this thing. So I'm the one that kept it closed. We have total control of it, and it'll open when they make a deal or something else happens that's very positive. [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

What do you say to the American people who question how much longer this will take? Obviously, you know that they are having-- You are such a disgrace. Did you hear what I just said? Vietnam, how many years was Vietnam?

I understand, sir. How many years was Vietnam?

You are past a six-week deadline. Well, I did my-- I took--

--to the American people who are-- I took the country out militarily in the first four weeks. I took it out militarily. Now what we're doing is sitting back and seeing what deal. And if they don't want to make a deal, then I'll finish it up militarily with the other 25% of the targets. We've hit 78% of the targets that we've wanted to hit. We've knocked out their manufacturing. We've knocked out their missile production. We've knocked out their drone production. We've knocked out everything. In some cases, when I say knocked it out, 70%, 80%, 90%. It's amazing what we've done. So I've done that within that period of time that I mentioned, but I don't want to rush myself because every story said, oh, Trump is under time pressure. I'm not. No, no. You know who's under time pressure? They are because if they don't get their oil moving, their whole oil infrastructure is going to explode. You know what that means? Because they have no place to store it. And because they have no place to store it, if they have to stop it, something happens, and only Len can explain. Something happens underground that essentially renders it in very poor shape, and you never recover fully. You can recover 50%, 60%, but you can never have it like it is right now. And they have a matter of days before that event takes place. So I'm not under any pressure whatsoever. We've never had so much ammunition. Our ships are loaded. I call them locked and loaded. They're locked and loaded. They're ready to go. We have much higher-quality equipment than we did when we first started the war or the military operation, whatever you want to call it. And they're coming to us. The problem they have is they are very disorganized right now. Well, now, yesterday-- and I was very pleased with this-- eight young women were going to be executed yesterday afternoon at 6 o'clock. And I asked them-- call it a favor or call it just a moral request-- that they not be executed. And they came back with an answer that they won't be executed, and they're going to release-- there was protesting-- eight beautiful young women, very young women, and they were-- their pictures in the paper. And it's been a story for a little while, and I saw that. And I said, let's see if we can save them. And they were-- it was very nice what happened. So they're not going to be-- what they're doing, as you know, they're releasing four of them very shortly, and they're going to keep four of them in jail for a period of one month and release them. So they won't be executed. Yeah, please.

So if you're asking for more time to sort out negotiations-- I'm asking you for more time. I'm not asking for them, no. But if you need more time. I'm not asking anybody for more time. If you need more time, does that mean Americans should anticipate spending more on gasoline for the foreseeable future? For a little while. And you know what they get for that? For how long? You know what they get for that? Iran without a nuclear weapon that's going to try and blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East. You want to see what shock would be? And I have to be honest, the stock market is at an all-time high right now. I thought it would have been down 20%, 25%. But you want the prices down-- Wait a minute. Wait. Can I finish my question, wise guy? Stock market's at an all-time high right now. I projected-- and I'm pretty good at this-- that the stock market, Howard, would drop maybe 20%, 25%. And I understood that, and I said, hey, it's a bad thing, but I have to do what's right for the country, even the world, because you can't have them. You cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. So the stock market, unlike what a lot of people were predicting, I thought they weren't necessarily wrong. The stock market today hit an all-time high. Hit an all-time high yesterday, the day before, and it's staying there. I thought oil would go up to maybe $200 a barrel, and oil is at a very different number than anyone thought. In fact, this country is much lower because we have all the oil we can use where, actually, ships are coming from all over the world to Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska. They're coming from all over the world to get oil from the United States while this is closed, the Hormuz Strait. So if you look at what I said, I guess it was right because I said I'd have it four to six weeks. And in four weeks, we have totally defeated that military. So right now, I don't want to rush it because you guys are trying to make us look as bad as possible. I don't want to rush it. I want to take my time. We have plenty of time, and I want to get a great deal. I want to get a deal where our nation and the world is safe from lunatics with nuclear weapons.

If it does go to $200, are you OK with that, sir, if oil goes to $200? I think that there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that takes out one of your cities or two of your cities or three. I think there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that's going to destroy the Middle East, including Israel. I think there's nothing worse than Europe being under attack by people that have missiles now that reach Europe. As you know, they don't reach us, but they reach Europe. But they will reach us at some time, probably in the not-too-distant future, unless we stop them now. I think there would be nothing worse than having a nuclear holocaust in Europe, London, Paris, various places in Germany, all targeted. No, what I say is you can't let them have-- I don't think it will happen, by the way. I really think we-- actually, it turns out that we are drill, baby, drill, and it turns out we're producing a lot of oil, and they're buying the oil. They're going to Alaska. They're going to Texas, Louisiana, and our guys have done a fantastic job. We're putting out, right now, more oil and gas than we ever have in the history of our country. And one other thing. There are more people employed today in the United States than ever in the history of our country. I have a question, sir. Is it true that your administration is considering sending Afghans to the Democratic Republic of Congo? And if so, do you have a response? I don't know. I'd have to check. [REPORTERS CLAMORING] Please.

Thank you, Mr. President. Breitbart News's Matt Boyle just published an interview with Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis in which the prime minister said that he's rooting for you to succeed in getting a deal with Iran, and he also said he looks forward to hosting you in Greece later this year. Do you have any response? No, it's just really nice. I mean, Greece has been very supportive, actually. Greece has been terrific. He's a terrific guy because he understands the importance of it. Oil goes up a little bit. I hate it. I was the one that had it-- I had it down to $60 a barrel. And I look at guys like Howard Lutnick. Howard, you remember it well. I said, well, we just hit an all-time high in the history of the market. Think of this. When we hit 50,000, I was told-- everybody was told when I won the election November 5, they said, well, during the four-year period, it will be impossible for the Dow to ever reach 50,000. It will be impossible for the S&P to ever hit 7,000. Impossible. And you remember that, Howard? It was going to hit maybe six, seven years, eight years. But I did it in my first year, hit 50,000. Now it's just about at 50,000, and S&P is higher than it was when we started. And S&P hit over 7,000, and that was before the year ended, up one year. So I can only tell you this. It'll end. I don't think it'll be very long, by the way. They're delaying it because we don't know who to deal with. They know who the leader is in this country. We don't know who the leader is in Iran because, remember, regime change. Khamenei is gone. He's gone to greener pastures. He's gone, and all of his team is gone. Then a second group came in. They're all gone. And now you have the third group, and they're a little concerned about being gone too.

Sir, would you use a nuclear weapon against Iran? You posted on Truth Social a few weeks ago-- No. No, I wouldn't. We don't need it. Why do I need it? Why would a stupid question like that be asked? Why would I use a nuclear weapon when we've totally, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it? No, I wouldn't use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody. [REPORTERS CLAMORING] --as a state visit, which we're all very much looking forward to. Prince Harry today has said that he would like to see you do more to end the war in Ukraine. Do you think it's appropriate for a royal to make those comments ahead of the visit on Monday? Prince Harry? Yes, sir. How's he doing? How's his wife? Please give her my regards, OK? No, no, I don't know. I think I know one thing. Prince Harry is not speaking for the UK. That's for sure. I think I'm speaking for the UK more than Prince Harry. But I appreciate his advice very much. Great advice. Would you invite him to the dinner, to the state visit? Well, I look forward to the dinner. We're having King Charles come. He's a friend of mine. We're really looking forward to it. We've spoken, and we're going to have a great time. I'll tell you, if I had that ballroom built, it would be full. I wish we had more seats. They've wanted a new ballroom for 150 years. Now they're getting the best in the world. We're going to have the best in the world. But we have a room that's not big enough to handle what would be a big crowd. But we're going to have very great people that love the UK. I love the UK. I think they made a big mistake on energy. You should open up the North Sea in Aberdeen. You should open it up. And the other thing is they've made a big mistake on immigration. [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

What do you hope to learn from Jeanine Pirro's investigation into the Fed's renovation that you did not-- Say it again? What do you hope to learn from Jeanine Pirro's investigation into the Federal Reserve's reservation that you did not learn when you visited the site yourself? Well, look, the Federal Reserve building is a small building. They're going to be in there by the time it opens, in my opinion, for $4 billion. I built a hotel down the road for $201 million that I believe is bigger than the Federal Reserve building-- $201 million. The ballroom-- I'm going to have the ballroom from $300 to $400 million, depending on finishes like marbles, the quality finishes. We'll go top of the line. But that's a much bigger project. When you look at the fact that they've taken this beautiful building and destroyed it-- they've taken down the beautiful ceilings with eagles. They've taken down the walls that are a foot and a half thick masonry. You couldn't hear from office to office. They ripped it all down. They ripped down-- this Kevin Warsh, who's terrific, said the saddest thing is they ripped down the nicest building in Washington for boardrooms and all. Did you know about that building? They ripped it down.

It was beautiful. The boardroom building, it was beautiful, and they ripped it down, probably because it costs so much to fix it. So I would have done that job for $25 million, had money left over. It's going to cost more than-- in my opinion. It's not going to open for a long time. Kevin may not be able to have an office. They're going to have to get him an office. Can you give him an office?

Yes. He has space. Bobby, do you have some space over there, please? ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: Yeah, we have a lot of space. [LAUGHTER] He has more than you think. But we're going to have Kevin sitting right next to you, Bobby. But it may not open for a long time. I looked at it the other day. It's a see through-- see through. You know what that means? The walls aren't even up yet. This is after years and years of construction. And somehow, you have to find out what went wrong that a small building-- I could have done it for $25 million and had money left over. It would have been beautiful. That a small building can cost $4 billion. It may never open. It may never open. And we have to get to that. On top of that, he's been terrible on interest rates because he should have lowered interest rates. That's why I call him Jerome "Too Late". "Too Late." It's his nickname, Jerome "Too Late" Powell. He likes me a lot. Thank you very much. [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Thank you, press.

Have you been in contact--

That is President Donald Trump. He just was updating reporters there in the Oval Office on a multitude of issues, one of them being the war with Iran. I just want to point out one highlight from that news conference where our very own Ed O'Keefe asked the president if he thought gas prices were going to continue to stay elevated. The president mentioned a little bit more, but Americans should know that they are getting Iran without a nuclear weapon. Also, when pressed about the negotiations with Iran, the president said that he wants to take his time.