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Trump Expected To Lay Out Plans To Make Tip Tax-Exempt; Pete Hegseth Sworn In As Defense Secretary; Guatemalan Officials On U.S. Deportation Actions; 4 Israeli Soldiers Freed In Latest Round Of Hamas Hostage Release; Putin Claims "Ukraine Crisis" May Have Been Prevented If Trump Was In Power; U.S. Cancer Rates Rising Among Younger Women. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 25, 2025 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:44]

FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And right now President Donald Trump is in Las Vegas where he is expected to lay out his plans for making tips tax exempt, an issue he campaigned on in the 2024 election. This follows a series of late- night moves from his administration, including one ordering the elimination of DEI from federal agencies within 60 days and another ordering advocacy groups to stop aiding refugees.

I'd like to bring in now CNN's senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak.

Kevin, the president is going to speak to his supporters shortly. What do we know?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, the ostensible topic is that promise he made no tax on tips. Obviously, Trump events have a way of taking on a life of their own, but certainly he does want to talk about all these promises that he made his supporters on the campaign trail, which he has now started to fulfill now that he has entered office using his executive authority, reshaping the federal government, reshaping federal personnel, going after immigration in a very hard line way.

But this is an issue, the taxes issue, that he will have to work with Congress. And so it's not an area he can necessarily exert his executive privilege. Congress this year will have to rewrite tax policy once Trump's 2017 tax cuts expire. And so this is an issue that will come up over the next year. As you had mentioned, this is a promise he made first here in Nevada on the campaign trail. Obviously, this is a state with a high number of hospitality workers, restaurant workers, people who rely on tips for their livelihood.

And it has become enormously popular. You'll remember his rival for the presidency, Kamala Harris, adopted it as a policy of her own. There are some questions about the economics of all of this. Tipped workers don't always pay income tax. There's some questions about whether fraud could be involved. You know, high income workers trying to pass off their income as tips. And these are all questions that Congress and lawmakers and the White House will have to work through if this plan is to become a reality.

But what you're seeing President Trump doing here is really going back to all of those campaign promises he made and trying to demonstrate to his supporters in this room here in a casino in Vegas that's full of his supporters that he is carrying out what he said he would do as a candidate. And I just want to mention one notable attendee at this event that we spotted. His name is Stewart Rhodes. He's the founder of the Oath Keepers.

He was serving an 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy related to January 6th. Trump commuted that sentence on his first day in office. Now he is here at this event. I asked him if he was planning to meet with Trump while he's here. He said he would like to thank him for offering that act of clemency. Not clear that he will, but certainly gives you a sense of the color of this first week of Trump's presidency -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So, Kevin, do you know, was he invited to attend or he voluntarily showed up to attend?

LIPTAK: Well, you know, the attendance for this event, it was open to Trump supporters. You could sign up to attend. And it didn't appear from my perspective that he was getting any kind of VIP treatment as he was walking in. So it seemed as if he's just part of the crowd here at this event. But I think it's certainly notable just given what he was serving that prison term for and Trump's blanket act of pardons and clemency earlier this week.

WHITFIELD: Indeed. All right. Kevin Liptak in Las Vegas, thanks so much.

All right. President Trump has added two new members to his cabinet now. Just a few hours ago, the U.S. Senate voted along mostly party lines in a 59 to 34 vote to approve South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as the new secretary of Homeland Security. Her confirmation comes just shortly after Trump's new leader of the U.S. Military took the oath of office. Pete Hegseth narrowly won confirmation last night as the country's next U.S. Defense secretary. And this morning, he was sworn in by Vice President J.D. Vance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The duties of the office on which I'm about to enter.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The duties of the office of which I am about to enter.

[15:05:02]

VANCE: So help you, God?

HEGSETH: So help me, God.

VANCE: Congratulations, Mr. Secretary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And it was the vice president who had to cast the tie- breaking vote last night after the U.S. Senate deadlocked on Hegseth nomination. It's just the second time in U.S. history that a vice president broke a tie for a cabinet nominee. Three Republicans voted with the Democrats against Hegseth nomination, including former GOP leader Mitch McConnell.

CNN's Annie Grayer is on Capitol Hill for us.

Annie, let's start with Noem's confirmation. What more can you tell us about how things went?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a pretty smooth process from start to finish. Seven Democratic senators joined with Republicans to confirm Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security, and we expect her to be sworn in shortly. But now that Noem has cleared the hurdle of being confirmed by Congress, her real work actually begins.

As the head of DHS, Noem is going to have the daunting task of enacting all of Donald Trump's most ambitious and aggressive immigration proposals from what he wants to do with the southern border to his mass deportation plan. And that is going to take a lot of effort on her part, to say the least. Beyond that, her agency is going to oversee FEMA, which deals with disaster relief.

And Donald Trump, as recently as yesterday, said that he thought maybe that agency FEMA could disappear, could go away. And that is going to raise a lot of questions about how Noem is going to handle that, specifically as California recovers from disastrous wildfires and the south recovers from constant hurricanes. So she is going to be sworn in shortly, and her task is really just beginning. But Senate Republicans delivered Trump a win for his cabinet this morning.

QUEST: And as for the new Defense secretary, Hegseth, I mean, that confirmation almost didn't happen. You know, it was pretty close. So can you tell us about how things played out there?

GRAYER: Right. That was an entirely different situation. It was a nail-biter up until the finish. There were three Republican senators who voted against Hegseth's confirmation, and that's what led Vice President J.D. Vance having to come in at the last minute to deliver that tie-breaking vote. We had expected Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to vote against Hegseth. But the big surprise of last night was that Senator Mitch McConnell voted against Hegseth's nomination.

Now, there is a long history of tension between McConnell and Trump, and last night's vote just showed the latest installment of that. I want to read to you some of McConnell's statement from last night as to why he voted against Hegseth. And McConnell said, quote, "Effective management of nearly three million military and civilian personnel, an annual budget of nearly $1 trillion, and alliances and partnerships around the world is a daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the American people and our global interests. Mr. Hegseth has failed as yet to demonstrate that he will pass this test."

Now, when I tried asking McConnell in the hallways this morning for any further details, he did not respond to any of my requests to comment, but Hegseth's confirmation process from the beginning was a bumpy one. He has faced allegations of sexual misconduct against women, of excessive drinking in the workplace, and mismanagement of funds of his previous organizations. But Hegseth has denied all wrongdoing, and Trump and his team stood behind Hegseth the entire time. So getting Hegseth confirmed was a huge hurdle for Trump and his team but ultimately Senate Republicans were able to deliver him that crucial appointment.

WHITFIELD: All right, Annie Grayer on Capitol Hill, thanks so much.

All right. With these new secretaries in place, President Trump is moving to install his vision for sweeping changes to U.S. immigration policies. A source tells CNN that the Department of Homeland Security is preparing for operations in nearly 30 cities across the country, with Chicago slated to face the very first of these planned actions.

Deportations are already underway, according to the White House, with U.S. Military aircraft carrying migrants to their countries of origin. Guatemalan officials say they are in permanent communication with the U.S. as they begin processing the deported. At the same time, the U.S. Military is beefing up forces along the U.S.-Mexico border with National Guard and other troops standing by to implement President Trump's orders.

CNN's Rafael Romo is monitoring the situation.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just a few moments ago, before coming on air, Fred, I checked with the Guatemalan government, no deportation flights today, but it was a very different story yesterday. And perhaps the country with the highest number of its citizens deported this week from the United States is precisely Guatemala.

[15:10:02]

I had an opportunity to speak with Santiago Palomo. He's the press secretary for Guatemala's president's office, and someone who has been working closely on this issue, speaking to us from Guatemala City. He told us several key things regarding the deportations.

Number one, Fred, the government of Guatemala has been in what he described as permanent communication with the White House on the issue of the deported Guatemalan nationals. Palomo also said that 264 citizens of his country were deported on U.S. Military flights on Friday to Guatemala, including six children. And number three, this official also said that his country is ready to handle around 18 weekly flights of Guatemalan citizens deported from the U.S.

The issue of the deportation seems to be a top priority for the government of the Central American nation. Guatemalan Vice President Karen Herrera personally welcomed some of the migrants deported back to their home country this week, greeting them at a Guatemalan air force base just outside the country's capital. Meanwhile, the official we spoke with says the deportations were not a surprise for his government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTIAGO PALOMO, GUATEMALAN PRESIDENT'S OFFICE SECRETARY (through translator): Our authorities in the United States, led by Ambassador Hugo Beteta, were in communication this week with senior officials in the Donald Trump administration. The communication was very fluid. We had fairly detailed information about the flights that they were expecting Friday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And to put the issue of deportations of Guatemalan citizens in perspective, the U.S. deported more than 66,000 back to their home country in fiscal year 2024, according to data from U.S. immigration officials. That's nearly a quarter, Fred, of all noncitizens removed by the U.S. that year.

The Guatemalan official we spoke with said those returning to Guatemala are being treated in a dignified way through a government assistance program spearheaded by President Bernardo Arevalo, called "Returning Home." And that's specifically what's going to happen in the next few weeks and months.

WHITFIELD: All right. Very good. Thanks so much.

All right. Joy in Israel after four more hostages are released by Hamas. You'll see their emotional reunion with families play out. And President Trump speaking this hour in Las Vegas. The message that he's going to deliver straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:57]

WHITFIELD: All right, new today, four more Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas as part of the ceasefire deal. A short time later, each of the hostages was taken to the hospital, where they are being checked and reunited with their families. The hospital says they are all in stable condition.

Despite the release, protests continue in Israel as demonstrators called for the release of all remaining hostages. As part of the deal today 200 Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more from Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flanked by armed Hamas militants, this is the surreal moment four Israeli soldiers emerged from 477 days of captivity. But before they are freed, one final moment of Hamas propaganda, smiling and waving as a crowd of hundreds whistles and cheers.

Their first taste of freedom looks more like this. A rush of emotions as they embrace their parents for the first time on Israeli soil.

Hamas militants had taken them hostage 15 months earlier at the Nahal Oz military base near the Gaza border, where the four women served as field observers monitoring militant activity in Gaza. Their warnings to commanders about Hamas preparations for an attack ignored. In one of the most searing images of October 7th, one of the soldiers, Naama Levy, is seen being taken into Gaza, her pants stained with blood. Now she is reunited with her family. In Israel, an entire country welcomed them back.

And that sound you hear behind me are hundreds of Israelis who are welcoming those four female Israeli soldiers just freed from Hamas captivity, who have now arrived at this hospital here, where they're about to be reunited with their families and begin their long journey to recovery.

(Voice-over): For the family of Agam Berger, the last remaining female Israeli soldier in Hamas captivity, mixed emotions.

On the one hand, we feel great joy, her grandfather tells me. But on the other hand, there's also some disappointment. She was supposed to be among those released. Still, he says today has given him hope she will be next.

The four captive soldiers were exchanged for 200 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, including 121 who had been sentenced to life in prison, three of whom were arrested for orchestrating deadly bombings that targeted Israeli civilians.

In Gaza, hundreds of displaced Palestinians gathered at the gates to northern Gaza. They were meant to be allowed to return north today based on the ceasefire agreement. For hours, they desperately waited on Al-Rashid Street, carrying all their belongings, ready to finally return home.

I've been here since 6:00 a.m., Yusra says.

[15:20:01]

I missed the north and the soil of northern Gaza. My house is gone, but I will live in a tent if I have to. The most important thing is to return north.

I'm counting the time, not just in seconds, but in milliseconds, this woman says. We left the north with tears of sorrow. And we will return with tears of joy.

That joy soon turned to disappointment. The Israeli government said it would not allow civilians to return to northern Gaza as planned, claiming Hamas violated the agreement by not releasing a civilian female hostage due to be released. Instead of returning home hundreds ran in panic amid a hail of gunfire. Israeli soldiers firing what appeared to be warning shots towards the crowd. But as the sun set, many here remain undeterred, camping out by the checkpoint, waiting for their chance to return home.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Coming up, a new report says cancer rates in the U.S. for women are rising. The head of the American Cancer Society joins us to explain why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:25:32]

WHITFIELD: The Ukrainian military claims its drones hit one of Russia's largest oil refineries Thursday night. Video of the attack shows people running from a huge explosion that lit up the night sky over Russia. Ukrainian forces said in a statement Friday that the attacks weakening Russia's military capabilities will continue. Russia responded, saying they intercepted 20 Ukrainian drones on Friday, adding that there were no reported injuries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that the, quote, "crisis in Ukraine" might have been prevented if President Trump was in power at the time. Trump has long claimed during his campaigning that the war in Ukraine would not have happened under his watch, but this marks the first time Putin has suggested the same sentiment, while also repeating Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

CNN's Matthew Chance is in Moscow with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, has lavished praise on President Trump while urging a meeting between the two leaders to discuss Ukraine and other issues. In an interview on Russian state television, Putin insisted that he, quote, "always had an exclusively professional and business like relationship with Trump." A U.S. leader he appears to hold in very high esteem. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): He is not only a smart person, he is a pragmatic person. And I can hardly imagine that decisions will be made that will harm the American economy. Therefore, most likely, it would be better for us to meet and talk calmly about all those areas that are of interest to both the U.S. and Russia. We are ready, but this primarily depends on the decision and choice of the current administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: Well, those remarks coming after President Trump said he would meet Putin immediately to bring a rapid end to the conflicts in Ukraine. Earlier, Trump told Putin over social media to make a deal about Ukraine and to end what he called this ridiculous war or face increased U.S. sanctions. Putin's response has essentially been to agree in principle to talks, but also to flatter the U.S. president.

In his state TV interview, Putin called his relationship with Trump trustworthy and added that he agreed with the U.S. president that, quote, "If his presidency had not been stolen in 2020, maybe the crisis in Ukraine would not have happened." Putin, of course, has launched his full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 when Joe Biden was U.S. president.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much, Matthew.

All right. At any moment now, President Trump will take the stage at a rally in Las Vegas where he's expected to lay out his plans for tax exempt tips. We'll take you there live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:33:02]

WHITFIELD: A new report from the American Cancer Society shows cancer rates for women climbing. The number of cancer cases for middle aged women now outpaces those for men for the first time after being 21 percent lower than men in 2007. The report states that young women are even more at risk than their male counterparts, almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with cancer than men.

Joining us right now is the interim CEO at the American Cancer Society, Dr. Wayne Frederick.

Doctor, great to see you.

DR. WAYNE FREDERICK, INTERIM CEO, AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY: Good to see you as well, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So what seems to be triggering this rise in cancer rates among women? Is there a common denominator?

FREDERICK: No. There's no common denominator, but there are a few theories that obviously we will need to explore through research. One is that smoking in women was something that could lead than men in terms of when we look population wide. And so cessation of smoking in women may be delayed compared to men. And so we're probably seeing men slightly decreasing and women increasing.

Nevertheless, there is a concern. And we also are not sure if there are other trends that may be occurring that we need to look at. All of this we will be -- we'll be continuing to investigate and we're supporting research to look into the causes of this trend.

WHITFIELD: So what types of cancers seem to be on the rise among women?

FREDERICK: You know, the traditional ones that we are always concerned about, breast in women, as you would imagine. But we also are seeing a rise in stomach and cervical cancer. And so that's something that we need to look at very closely.

WHITFIELD: And why do we think that is?

FREDERICK: You know, this is, like I said, there may be a variety of factors were concerned about and we have to look at all of them. We also have to look at women being screened, you know, at the same rate. Are we detecting those cancers earlier or later? So all of these are things that the American Cancer Society is looking to further out.

[15:35:07]

The other thing that we're seeing as well is that in women under the age of 64, we're also seeing an increase in lung cancer, and we're seeing an increase in nonsmokers getting lung cancer as well. And so again, there's an area of interest that we are going to have to dig into to try to figure out whether or not there's something in that information that suggests that there's an underlying genetic cause or some hormonal cause, et cetera. So we will be looking into all of those things.

WHITFIELD: And it's so alarming because there's such a variation of these cancers you're talking about, you know, cervical, stomach, lung cancers. I mean, all rooted in very different kind of derivatives.

I wonder now, you know, Dr. Frederick, if we can kind of turn the corner here because, you know, you were once the president of Howard University, and there have been, you know, quite a few changes in this new administration and the Trump administration. And you've been a big advocate while you were president, a big advocate of introducing students at the HBCU to Silicon Valley, a real champion of DEI measures, internships, really kind of broadening the scope of a lot of Silicon Valley companies, as well as broadening the scope of many of these students.

And now you're hearing in this administration the eradication of DEI initiatives on the federal level. In your view, what is being lost by the elimination of DEI efforts and programs on the federal level?

FREDERICK: You know, well, first to begin with, I have to admit that these executive orders, while they may be jarring, we do need to wait and see what happens with respect to policies and regulations. While we know that executive orders can put out and they give some guidance to all of the agencies as to where they should head, we need to see what actually comes out of the Congress in terms of policies and regulations. That's one.

The second thing is, my focus has always been on excellence and on humanity. Those are the two main pillars of trying to make sure that we're taking care of the entire society. So the first is that we want to amplify everyone's humanity, and that's what an institution like Howard University is about and has been about and has contributed to the society, same thing with the American Cancer Society.

Cancer affects everyone, and we need to ensure that our citizens who are in rural areas and our citizens who are in urban cities, for example, you know, get the care that they need. Our black Americans today are two to three times more likely to die from certain cancers than white Americans. And that is an issue in terms of access and other things that we have to continue to advocate for.

And the other one is excellence. We -- I insist that the students, regardless of what we want to call it, regardless of what programs are set up, the calling card is excellence. And I think that in all that we do, we want to do that. And that's what we're doing at ACS. Our mission is to end cancer for everyone and that -- and for people who have disparate outcomes like Native Americans, Latinx, and black Americans, we need to advocate for them to get access and care.

WHITFIELD: I understand. And then, you know, on the issue of DEI programs, well, you know, while you say let's see what happens on the federal level, already in the private sector, there is a response. I mean, Meta, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Boeing have modified their initiatives, scrapping their DEI goals or ending participation in, you know, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index. So while shareholders for -- Costco, rather, held firm on DEI, you know, voting this week to end an anti-DEI push within the company.

Are you concerned about how the private sector may follow the lead or be influenced by what happens on a federal level?

FREDERICK: I'm very concerned, but let me tell you why I'm very concerned. Back in 2020, 2021, after George Floyd's murder, I made the point several times publicly, privately and at Howard University that many people will join the caravan to social justice during this moment, and that's what happened. But I also predicted that those people would also leave the caravan and it was our responsibility as institutions that were certainly there to advocate for those who are less fortunate, to make sure they left us with enough gas, new chassis, new tires, et cetera, because I knew that they would leave.

Today, donations to social justice issues and issues of that type, human rights issues, is less than it was in 2019. And so our society has the pendulum swings. And just like our democracy is messy, it works, the pendulum is going to swing back, we have to self-correct at some point. So I am concerned.

[15:40:00]

But at the same time, I think that there are common areas that we can agree on, and I think we can agree that anyone who gets cancer in this country should have access to the best care. And we should not have any programs that should be defunded that destroys that access or worsens the outcome of certain Americans.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Wayne Frederick, we'll leave it there. Acting CEO for the American Cancer Society. What a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us and being able to carry on with a scope of issues. Appreciate it.

Right now, I want to take you straight to Las Vegas. President Trump giving remarks at an event there. Let's listen in. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Stavros, Anthony

Stavros, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Where are you? There you are, Stavros. You're very good. Is he doing a good job, Joe? I think so, huh? He's all right.

Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald, he --

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: He did something which not a lot of people have been able to do, but I think Republicans are going to start winning this thing. You know, typically, they don't necessarily do so good. We did really well. We won in a landslide. That's really why I'm here. I must be honest with you. Republican National Committeewoman Sigal Chattah.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Sigal, thank you. Wherever you may be. Hi, Sigal, thank you very much.

Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid. That's a hell of a beautiful name, but I know the name so long, it's easy to say. One of the greatest people, I'll tell you, a man who's done so damn well, I don't know what it is with him. He's just a legend. He's one person. You know, we can all sort of be replaced, although we don't like to think that. Maybe it's not true. But this is a guy that can't be replaced. There's nobody like him. Dana White. Where's Dana White?

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Where's Dana White? Where the hell is he? UFC. Are the Nelk Boys here? Oh, yes. There they are. The Nelk Boys right there.

WHITFIELD: All right. We're going to bring you right back to Las Vegas and President Trump in a moment. Right now we're going to take a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:52]

WHITFIELD: All right. Right. Now back to Las Vegas there. President Trump giving remarks at an event there. He's thinking of voters in Nevada for giving him a win in that swing state in the 2024 election. He lost that state in the 2020 race. Let's listen in.

TRUMP: Many of them are criminals, murderers. Well, we're getting them out. You see it. You see it yesterday, first day. Our message could not be more clear. America's decline is over. American decline is over. We laughed at all over the world. Now we're not laughed at anymore, I'll tell you. What the world witnessed this week is nothing less than a revolution of wealth creation for everyone and also common sense. It's about common sense. It really is.

We're the party of common sense. On day one, I directed every member of my cabinet to -- and by the way, Pete Hegseth got approved. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And Kristi Noem just got approved, governor. She's going to keep it. She's a tough one. She's a tough one. And she's going to do a great job.

On day one, I directed every member of my cabinet to marshal all powers at their disposal to defeat inflation and bring down the cost of daily life. We want to bring prices down. Too high. They went way up. They didn't come down. I imposed a federal hiring freeze, a federal regulation freeze, a foreign aid freeze. Oh, that's a nice one.

And I created the new Department of Government Efficiency. And we're going to have a lot of good people. Elon, we're going to get Elon Musk to get involved in that a little bit. He already is. People like him.

I terminated the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful green new scam.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Wasn't the environment supposed to eat us up like in 12 years? But that was like 13 years ago. What happened? We're still here. We're still here. Remember? We have 12 years to live. Remember that? Done by somebody that never even took a course on the environment. AOC plus three. Do you remember those three? They were telling us about the environment. AOC plus three.

This action alone will save hundreds of billions of dollars of American taxpayers' money. I withdrew from the one-sided Paris Climate Accord.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I canceled the insane and costly electric vehicle mandate keeping my sacred pledge to Americas auto workers. Boy, did we get a big vote with the auto workers out there and the Teamsters. Any Teamster in the room? We got a tremendous vote from the Teamsters. Thank you. They appointed, like, one guy. But they voted for us in the millions so we have -- we had a lot of Teamsters voting for us.

I withdrew from the World Health Organization.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Where we paid $500 million a year, and China paid $39 billion a year, despite a much larger population.

[15:50:04]

Think of that. China is paying $39 million. They have 1.4 billion people. We pay $500 million. We have -- nobody knows what the hell we have. Does anyone know? We have so many people pouring in, we have no idea. We go up, but we're going down a little bit now. You don't mind that, do you? Going to take some bad ones out. I withdrew four years ago, but Biden immediately went back for even more money. I mean, he went back, and you know, they offered me $39 million. They

said, we'll let you back in at 39. So we're going to reduce it from 500 to 39. I turned them down because it became so popular, I didn't know if it would be well received even at 39, but maybe we would consider doing it again. I don't know, maybe we would. They have to clean it up a little bit. But China pays 39 million for 1.4 billion, and we're paying 500 million for 325 million.

I don't know. What the hell is wrong with these people? And then when Biden went back in, you know, they immediately went back in? They paid more than we were paying in the first place. They paid more than the 500 million. So they knew they could have had it for 39. They paid more.

You wouldn't do that, Joe, right? No, think of it. They know they have a deal at 39. So they went back in at 525 million. What the hell? Man, oh, man. It just -- it infuriates you, doesn't it?

I declared a national energy emergency to unlock the liquid gold under our feet and pave the way for rapid approvals of the new energy infrastructure. The United States has the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth, and we may be a very substantially enlarged country in the not too distant. Isn't it nice to see? You know, for years, for decades, we're the same size to the square foot, probably got smaller, actually, but we might be an enlarged country pretty soon.

And one of the things we're going to be doing is drill, baby, drill, because that's going to bring everything down.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: It's going to bring everything down. My administration has also begun the largest deregulation campaign in the history of our country, far exceeding -- I had the record for you. We ran. We had a great economy, we had the greatest economy that we've ever had four years ago. But this is going to be better. You watch. This will be -- this will be better even than the first term. And the reason I got elected was because of the first term. You know, somebody said what was the reason you got elected? I mean, you won by so much. I said, my first term.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: You know, that's all I did. I just said, well, take a look at the numbers, take a look at the numbers. In total, the Biden administration imposed $50,000 in additional regulation costs on the average American. I mean, think of this. The average American was paying much more than $50,000. And, you know, just think of it. Nobody can even believe the numbers.

I promise to eliminate 10 old regulations for every new regulation. So we put in a regulation, we have to get rid of 10. Thats what I did. I did it, I did it 1 in 7. We're going to do 1 in 10 this time, which will soon put many thousands of dollars back into your pockets and the pockets of American families. As a result of the reforms we've just begun to implement economic confidence.

And it's soaring. So this week, Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank announced Stargate, a $500 billion investment in A.I. infrastructure, which is going to be very big for Nevada. I have to tell you. The largest in history and which will create an estimated 100,000 American jobs.

Saudi Arabia just said that they're going to invest at least $600 billion. This is because of the election, by the way. And I think they'll make it a trillion. I'm going to ask them to make it $1 trillion. What the hell? The money means nothing to them. You know where they made their money from? Liquid gold, right? They got a lot of liquid gold. We have more. We have more than Saudi Arabia.

They've got a lot. We've got more. We've got more than anybody. We just don't use it because of the environment. These people are crazy. And many other companies likewise are looking to invest. But I don't have enough time to do that. And we have a lot of news conferences. Everybody wants to have a news conference. You know, they're calling up by the hundreds. We want to have a news conference. We're going to invest $12.

I said, no, I don't do that. I said, it's got to be $1 billion or more for a news conference. It's $1 billion or more.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Just two days ago, because of our tariff plans, Stellantis announced, that's a very good automobile company, the revival of its Belvidere, Illinois, plant, saving 1500 American auto jobs that were previously in Canada, along with major investments to expand American auto production in Detroit, Michigan. Toledo, Ohio, and Kokomo, Indiana. Good place.

[15:55:15]

All of these investments are happening only because of our historic victory, and if we didn't win, we'll just --

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll continue to watch and listen to President Donald Trump there. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. So much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM with Jessica Dean after this.

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