President Alexander Stubb (00:00):
… 2028.
Presiden Trump (00:01):
Good. Just a little bit before a big event.
President Alexander Stubb (00:04):
Yeah.
Presiden Trump (00:04):
[inaudible 00:00:04] but that's great. And actually, it's true, I came here and they were building an icebreaker. They had no idea what they were doing. They had no idea how much it was going to cost. They knew nothing. And we have our Secretary of the Navy right over here, and we're working on a lot more than icebreakers. We're working on some very, very big and important ships.
(00:25)
But they had no idea what they were doing, and I was with you, and I ended up meeting you and knowing you. And I heard about Finland and their icebreakers, and I said, "Do me a favor. Would you have your people take a look at what these people are doing?" And it came out that, just as I thought, they had no idea what they were doing.
(00:44)
And we got involved and we need these ships very badly 'cause we have a lot of territory, more than anybody. And so, I'm very honored to have this deal, and thank you very much. It's going to be great. It's going to be a great partnership. And it's a great honor to have you Mr. prime Minister. Would you like to say something, please?
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (01:04):
First, Mr. President, thank you very much. It's great honor to be here today. And as the Prime Minister of Finland, I want to say that this deal is, it's very important to in Finland and our economy, because our economy is suffering a lot because of Russian aggression in Ukraine and. This deal, it means investments, it means jobs, and jobs means hope. And that's why this is so important. And I want to thank your leadership on this deal and this issue. Thank you.
Presiden Trump (01:31):
So you've been affected very badly by the war going on, the ridiculous war going on. Right?
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (01:36):
Yes. Because we have to close the border with Russia. We have 1,300 kilometers common border with them, and effects the atmosphere in Finland, in investments. And that's why we need good news. Our people need hope.
Presiden Trump (01:52):
Right. So your border is closed?
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (01:54):
Yeah, it's closed.
Presiden Trump (01:54):
And that's because you have so many Russians trying to get in?
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (01:58):
Yes. They started to push illegal migrants to our border. That's why we were forced to close it.
Presiden Trump (02:05):
And people also that don't want to go into the military, I guess, trying to come through. Right?
President Alexander Stubb (02:09):
Yeah. Some of them are escaping. Fortunately, on our side, we don't have that problem in Finland.
Presiden Trump (02:15):
No, you have a great military.
President Alexander Stubb (02:16):
Yeah, we have compulsory military service. And as I always say, we have 900,000 men and women who've done it, including myself and the Prime Minister, we have 200-
Presiden Trump (02:27):
And you've been fighting Russia for a long time. So how many years have you been indirectly fighting Russia?
President Alexander Stubb (02:33):
Well, put it this way, we have managed our relationship since the 1300s with about 30 skirmishes, but it's been very peaceful at our border after World War II.
Presiden Trump (02:42):
1300s?
President Alexander Stubb (02:42):
Yeah. But it's been peaceful at our border since the Winter War and the War of Continuation. But a lot of it is because we actually have a very large military. It's the biggest in Europe, together with Turkey, Ukraine, and Poland. We have over 60 F-18s, we just bought 64 F-35s. We'll roll out the first one in Texas in December. We have the biggest artillery in Europe, together with Poland. And as I always say, we don't have it because we're worried about Stockholm.
Presiden Trump (03:15):
Well, you really have proportionately, I think, the largest military in the world, proportionately.
President Alexander Stubb (03:20):
It's quite big, yes, I have to admit. But we have it for defense purposes and also to build the deterrence, and it's worked. And I think that's one of the reasons that our relationship is so good as well. We have the defense cooperation agreement with you, we're new allies in NATO. Our defense expenditure is going north of 3%. We work very closely with you and the rest of our allies.
(03:44)
And when you push the ceiling of defense expenditure in NATO to 5%, you can imagine that a country like Finland was quite pleased with that because that means that all of the allies have to bring up their defense expenditure. And you basically increased our security just with that decision in The Hague. And I have to admit that having been to my first NATO summit in the summer of 2024, if someone would've told me that you will move from 2% to 5% after Trump enters, I would've said, "Go see a doctor."
Presiden Trump (04:14):
Well, you had to do it, and you were great about it. Spain has not been, Spain is the one that didn't do it. And so I think people are going to have to start speaking to Spain. The only one that didn't do it, the only NATO country that didn't do it is Spain. And you'll figure what that's all about, right?
President Alexander Stubb (04:32):
Yeah. We'll work, and I think with the leadership also, Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, I think there are a lot of commitments that have to take place. And this, of course, is going to also increase industrial defense exchanges.
(04:46)
I think we buy four times more military material here from the US, and I think it's an essential part of our whole military setup in Europe. And it's good to be working on this together. But there's one thing that I wanted to mention also. I want to congratulate you for what we have seen in the past 24 hours in Gaza.
Presiden Trump (05:06):
Thank you.
President Alexander Stubb (05:08):
I think it's a historic deal. I went through the 20 points. It's almost like the best of record. You really see all the key elements. And if someone would've said a few weeks back that you and your team are able to push us to a position where there will be a ceasefire, an exchange of prisoners, hostages, and then a pullback, I would not have believed it. But this is what diplomacy is at its best. And I think it's a potentially huge deal. So congratulations to you and your team.
Presiden Trump (05:38):
Peace in the Middle East.
President Alexander Stubb (05:39):
Peace in the Middle East.
Presiden Trump (05:40):
And every country came together. Every single country came together, and people are shocked by it, but it's an amazing situation. Nobody thought it was going to happen. Thank you very much. And you've been of help too. You help always. But we are really working more closely together, having to deal with Russia, Ukraine.
(05:57)
And I would've thought that would've been easier 'cause that would be number eight for me, number eight. And I would've thought the Russia deal maybe would've been one of the easier ones. And unfortunately, last week they had over 7,000 soldiers die unnecessarily. So it's a terrible thing, but I think we'll be getting there, hopefully soon.
President Alexander Stubb (06:16):
Yeah, probably we'll go or you will be going piece by piece. There are only so many agreements that you can get done, and I think this one will be the next big one. Of course, this one needs to stick, and I'm sure it will because the incentives are all there, and then we'll continue to work.
(06:33)
The last time I was here in the Oval Office was with the other European leaders in August, and I think we did a lot of good advancement there on security arrangements. I think you pushed us Europeans hard not to buy oil and gas from Russia, which I think is a very correct decision. Europe just put down its 19th sanctioned package.
(06:54)
I think Russia is actually, right now, both economically and militarily not in a very strong place. And I think it's because of the commitments that we've made to Ukraine. So day by day on this one.
Presiden Trump (07:07):
We're going to get it worked out.
President Alexander Stubb (08:37):
… doesn't win over the small guy and vice versa. But I have to say that the track record of the President of the United States in the past seven months, eight months is rather impressive.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Mr. President, thank you so much, Mr. President. First of all, thank you, all of you on behalf of the state of Israel for everything that you're doing for my country. I want to know, how do you see the Middle East in a year from now under your leadership? And if you see maybe option for normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia?
Presiden Trump (09:13):
I think it's going to be great. I think the hostages will be coming back Monday or Tuesday. I'll probably be there. I hope to be there. And we're planning on leaving sometime Sunday, and I look forward to it.
(09:30)
And everybody, I see you celebrating in Israel, but they're celebrating in many other countries, too. A lot of the Muslim and Arab countries, they're celebrating. Everybody's celebrating. Everybody loves the deal. So it's a great honor to have been working on it. And as you know, it's all finalized and done.
(09:49)
We've had a lot of terrifically talented people. We've had tremendous support from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar has been unbelievable, unbelievable, Egypt, as you know. And Jordan, Indonesia.
(10:05)
I don't want to leave anybody out. Just so many --, so many different countries. It's been incredible. Nobody's seen anything like it, so I think in a year from now, it's going to be great. I think it's going to be-
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Mr. President, how do you rate your chances of winning the Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow?
Presiden Trump (10:21):
Well, look, I made seven deals and now it's, eight, solved the wars, one going 31 years, one going 34 years, one going 35 years, one going 10 years. I made seven deals. This would be number eight. The one I thought that I was going to make, and I think we will, probably, 'cause is because a ridiculous war, it's a horrible war, the worse since World War II, you look at the people dying, is Russia, Ukraine. I think we'll do that too.
(10:55)
A lot of reasons for them to do it, and I think they'll be coming to the table pretty soon, but this is the biggest of them all. This is a big one. Although, I think India and Pakistan is very big, two nuclear nations. I made that. I did that based on trade. And because of the tariffs, if we didn't have tariffs, you wouldn't have been able to do it. But I said, "If you guys are going to fight, I'm putting 100% tariffs on each of you. And they immediately stopped fighting. And that was going to go nuclear, that was back and forth.
(11:24)
So I know one thing, I don't know what they're going to do, really, but I know this, that nobody in history has solved eight wars in a period of nine months, and I've stopped eight wars. So that's never happened before. But they'll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this, I didn't do it for that. I did it because I saved a lot of lives.
(11:47)
And that's the thing that bothers me so much about the Russian-Ukraine, 7,000 people are dying a week, young soldiers, they're almost all soldiers of Ukraine and Russia. So in theory, it doesn't affect us, no, but it's a terrible thing, and we'll get that solved, too. But nobody has ever done eight wars. Nobody's done eight wars in 30 years, let alone 9 months.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Are you going to step up?
Speaker 6 (12:10):
Mr. President Obama got it for way less-
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Are you going to step up the pressure for a Ukraine deal?
Presiden Trump (12:14):
We're stepping up the pressure, we're stepping it up together. We're all stepping it up. NATO has been great. The leader of NATO, as you know, Mark, has been fantastic, I think. And he's a fantastic guy, and they are stepping it up. And we're selling a lot of weapons to NATO, and that's going, I guess, to Ukraine for the most part. That's up to them.
(12:36)
But they're buying weapons from the US. We make the greatest weapons in the world. You buy our planes and a lot of our equipment. And you have a big force. Actually, you have a tremendous force of equipment. So I think we'll get that one done, too. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (12:56):
Mr. President, Obama got it for way less.
Presiden Trump (12:57):
[inaudible 00:13:01].
Speaker 7 (13:00):
Mr. President, I'm from Finland. Mr. President, I'm from Finland.
Presiden Trump (13:09):
Is he okay?
Speaker 7 (13:09):
Am I okay?
President Alexander Stubb (13:09):
He's all right.
Speaker 7 (13:10):
I'm all right.
Presiden Trump (13:10):
He looks great.
Speaker 7 (13:10):
Yeah, President, you are buying icebreakers from Finland.
Presiden Trump (13:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:13):
But what if Russia and Vladimir Putin attacks Finland? Would you defend Finland?
Presiden Trump (13:20):
I would. Yes, I would. They're a member of NATO. I would. And a great people, but I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think he's going to do that. I think the chances of that are very, very small.
(13:31)
But it's very interesting, because you have a very big military relative to your size. You have a very powerful military. One of the best, but certainly we will be there to help.
Speaker 7 (13:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (13:43):
[inaudible 00:13:45], Mr. President.
Presiden Trump (13:47):
Okay. Please.
Speaker 9 (13:49):
Thank you. We have a big border, as our president said. How would you exactly defend Finland? And yeah, thank you.
Presiden Trump (13:59):
Say what?
President Alexander Stubb (14:00):
How would you defend Finland?
Presiden Trump (14:03):
Vigorously.
President Alexander Stubb (14:07):
Can I just add on that? We're very pleased with the fact that we have so much training going on with American soldiers right now, so they're getting experience from Arctic conditions, and we're integrating our militaries together, working not only through the DCA agreement, but other ways as well. We see that day to day in the work that we do, and it's working well.
Presiden Trump (14:30):
Okay. Yes, please.
Speaker 10 (14:34):
Yeah. Thank you. How do you see this-
Presiden Trump (14:36):
Where are you from?
Speaker 10 (14:37):
I'm from Finland too, Finnish News Agency.
Presiden Trump (14:39):
[inaudible 00:14:42].
Speaker 10 (14:41):
So Mr. President-
Presiden Trump (14:42):
[inaudible 00:14:43] better than our reporters.
Speaker 10 (14:45):
Thank you. So how do you see the situation in the Arctic developing? Are there going to be any mutual plans for Finland and US to collaborate there?
Presiden Trump (14:55):
We have a lot of relationships together, mostly buying our military equipment. They buy a lot of it. They have an order, I guess 60 plans, 60-
President Alexander Stubb (15:03):
64.
Presiden Trump (15:04):
64 F-35s, and many other things, too. It's a big order. Big countries don't order that many planes.
President Alexander Stubb (15:14):
10 billion.
Presiden Trump (15:15):
You have a lot of aircraft, a lot of great military. We make the best military equipment. They buy a lot from us, so it's very good. We're going to work together very closely with Finland and with NATO, we have a very good relationship. As you know, I requested that they pay 5%, not 2%, and most people thought that was not going to happen, and it happened virtually unanimously.
(15:38)
We had one laggard. It was Spain. Spain. You have to call them and find why are they a laggard. And they're doing well too. Because of a lot of the things we've done, they're doing fine. They have no excuse not to do this, but that's all right. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly.
Speaker 10 (16:03):
Mr. President-
Presiden Trump (16:04):
Please, go ahead.
Speaker 10 (16:04):
What are you planning to do with-
Presiden Trump (16:04):
A tall gentleman, nice tall gentleman with a yellow shirt.
Speaker 11 (16:04):
Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to change gears just really quickly and ask you, you're going to Walter Reed tomorrow. What are you having done and how are you feeling?
Presiden Trump (16:10):
I'm meeting with the troops, and I'm also going to do a sort of semi-annual physical, which I do. And I think I'm in great shape, but I'll let you know. But no, I have no difficulty thus far. Is there wood around here? Knock on. No difficulty. Physically, I feel very good. Mentally, I feel very good.
(16:32)
About six, seven months ago I do physicals. When I'm around, I like to check. Always early, always be early. It's a lesson for a lot of people, but I also did a cognitive exam, which is always very risky, because if I didn't do well, you'd be the first to be blurting it. And I had a perfect score, and one of the doctors said he's almost never seen a perfect score. I had a perfect score, I got the highest score, and that made me feel good.
(17:03)
When they asked would I like to do one, I said, "Yeah." I said, "Did Obama do it?" "No." "Did Bush do it?" "No." "Did Biden do it?" Definitely Biden wouldn't have gotten the first three questions right. No. Biden didn't do it. Biden should have done it. I'm actually a person that believes that if you're president, you should do a cognitive exam.
(17:22)
But the last time I took a cognitive exam and it was a perfect score, the doctors announced it. And by the way, not the easiest test. The first few questions are pretty easy. Once you get into the middle, it gets a little trickier, and there aren't a lot of people in this room that would get every single question right. I can guarantee you.
President Alexander Stubb (17:43):
You're putting me in a difficult spot now. Next question.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
Mr. President, Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for way less than you did, and you… Obama, President Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for way less.
Presiden Trump (17:56):
He got a prize for doing nothing.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
Exactly.
Presiden Trump (17:57):
Obama got a prize. He didn't even know what he got. He got elected and they gave it to Obama for doing absolutely nothing but destroying our country. No, he was not a good president. The worst president was Sleepy Joe Biden, but Obama was not a good president.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
Are you going to do something with Hezbollah?
Presiden Trump (18:15):
They gave him a prize. How many months after he won the election, then they gave him the Peace Prize. Right?
Vice President JD Vance (18:19):
It was right after.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio (18:20):
It was before he was elected.
Presiden Trump (18:22):
My election was a much more important election.
Speaker 6 (18:27):
Now that you're fixing the situation between Hamas and Israel, are you going to be taking care of the Hezbollah or the Lebanese armed forces, to take care of the Hezbollah?
Presiden Trump (18:38):
Yeah, we'll be able to do that. It's a smaller part of the puzzle, but a very important part. They have a great new ambassador that I appointed, Michel, great new ambassador. So yeah, please.
Speaker 14 (18:48):
Mr. President, you were saying that the hostages will be released on Monday or Tuesday. What's your strict deadline? When do they have to get released, and how do you make sure each party abides by the deal?
Presiden Trump (18:57):
So it should be around that time. Yeah. They're working on it very hard.
Speaker 14 (18:58):
Tuesday, I believe.
Presiden Trump (19:00):
They're at very diverse parts of the earth. Okay? They're very, very diverse. Actually, I think they're going to come through. I'd be surprised if they didn't. I think it'll happen.
Speaker 15 (19:15):
Thank you, sir. The 19th point of the 20-point plan that in the future there could be conditions in which the Palestinians might eventually get a state. Under what conditions do you think the Palestinians could ever get astate in the future?
Presiden Trump (19:26):
Well, we'll look at it at the time. We're going to see how it all goes. And there's a point at which we may do something that would be a little bit different and may be very positive for everybody, but we'll be looking at that at the time. And I think we'll get to that period, too.
Speaker 15 (19:42):
Yeah, please.
Speaker 16 (19:42):
Mr. President-
Presiden Trump (19:43):
Yeah, please. Glasses.
Speaker 17 (19:45):
Thank you. Mr. President, the United States has previously said that Europe would have to take more responsibility for its own security. Are you or the US planning to withdraw some of the US forces from the European soil?
Presiden Trump (20:02):
No, but we may move some around a little bit. I'd ask you that question, Pete. Go ahead.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (20:07):
I think that's right, Mr. President. We're very much heartened by your leadership to get NATO to rise up to 5%, which means they can take primary responsibility for defense of the continent. But that doesn't mean America is abandoning NATO in Europe, but we could look at where our troops are postured, what makes the most sense for America and our NATO allies.
Presiden Trump (20:27):
We have a lot of troops in Europe, as you know, a lot, and we can move them around a little bit, but no, basically we'll be pretty much set. Go ahead, what's your second?
Speaker 17 (20:37):
My second question would be, are you planning to impose more sanctions on Russia at this point?
Presiden Trump (20:42):
I might. Yeah, I might.
Speaker 19 (20:43):
Mr. president, your 20-point plan says we will encourage people to stay. Can you confirm that as Gaza is rebuilt, that no one will be forced to leave?
Presiden Trump (20:54):
Nobody's going to be forced to leave. No. It's just the opposite. This is a great plan. This is a great peace plan. This is a plan that was supported by everybody. As I said, they're dancing in the streets of many, many countries right now. It's amazing. I've never seen anything like it. No, we're not looking to do that at all. Please.
Speaker 20 (21:16):
Mr. president, can you cut through politics on the shutdown? We had another failed vote today. Can you speak to our viewers from Orlando to Sacramento? What's your message to some of these families tonight facing missed paychecks, potential layoffs, and missed benefits due to the shutdown?
Presiden Trump (21:28):
Yeah, I blame the Democrats. They ought to call their local Democrat representative, whether it's a senator or a congressman, and it's their fault. They admit it, it's their fault. They campaigned on the fact that they'd never shut down the country, but they wanted to shut it down.
(21:45)
And we have the greatest economy. We're the hottest country in the world right now. I think you'd admit that. The hottest country. We went from a dead country a year ago to the hottest country in the world. So, I think they probably don't like that, but we're doing great. My message is call your local representative, congressman or senator, and tell them to get on the ball. The Democrats have caused this problem. Yeah, please.
Speaker 21 (22:14):
Thank you, Mr. President,
Presiden Trump (22:16):
Where are you from?
Speaker 21 (22:16):
I'm from Finland.
Presiden Trump (22:17):
I love [inaudible 00:22:18] so nice. Uh-oh. Here we go. Here we go with the killer question.
Speaker 21 (22:24):
I would like to circle back to the icebreaker deal. So Finland and the US are strengthening their economic partnership through the deal. What other areas of cooperation with Finland do you see as possible for at this moment?
Presiden Trump (22:39):
Good question. We're going to be talking about that in a little while. We're going into the next-door room, commonly known as the Cabinet Room, beautiful room, and we're going to be discussing that, but we'll be doing other things. It's a wonderful country with wonderful people. We've had a long-term relationship, but it's never been as close as it is now. We'll be doing other things. Go ahead.
President Alexander Stubb (22:58):
We've been talking about a lot with the president. Two specific fields where I think Finland has strength. One is quantum and quantum computing, and we know that that is basically what gives food for thought for artificial intelligence. That's very important.
(23:12)
The second one is actually networks, and you know that they're two sort of safe and trustworthy Western networks right now. One of them is Nokia and the other one is Ericsson. And actually, 70% of all broadband in the United States is Nokia. So one of the things that we could work on together is creating the 6G space through networks. And actually, Nokia has 7,000 people working here in the United States, and an American CEO.
Presiden Trump (23:40):
Okay. Anybody else?
Speaker 22 (23:41):
What is the international stabilization force that's going to deploy to Gaza? What is that going to look like?
Presiden Trump (23:50):
To be determined. I think there's going to be a large group of people determining what it'll be, and a group of people funding it that are very rich countries that are going to be funding it. People want to see this work. It's going to work. It's absolutely going to work. It's already started. We've signed, as you know, everybody's agreed.
(24:12)
I think Monday is going to be a very big day, Monday, Tuesday, but it's going to be, depending on where you are, it's going to be a very big day. I think it's going to be a day of great celebration. I've never seen anything like it. The streets of so many countries right now, they're just roaring with love and with praise for the people that did this, and these are countries that did this.
(24:36)
The whole world came together for this, even Iran, and I really thank them for it. Iran came out and said, "This is a good thing. This is a very good thing." So it was terrific. It's been a terrific experience for me. Thank you very much, everybody. [inaudible 00:24:52].
Speaker 23 (24:54):
Thank you.
Speaker 24 (24:54):
Thank guys. Thank you [inaudible 00:24:58].
Speaker 23 (24:54):
Thank you, press.
Speaker 24 (25:03):
Thank you guys. Thank you, press. Let's go. Let's go. Thank you.
Speaker 23 (25:11):
Thank you guys. Keep moving. Thank you.
Speaker 24 (25:11):
Keep going. Thank you.
Speaker 23 (25:11):
Keep going.
Speaker 24 (25:11):
Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 23 (25:13):
Thanks, guys. Let's go. Let's go.
Speaker 24 (25:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 23 (25:13):
Thank you. Keep going.