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Trump To Welcome Netanyahu To The White House; RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard Advance To Full Senate Votes; Former Israeli Hostage Reflects On Time Since Her Release. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired February 04, 2025 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:39]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM.
And let's get right to the news.
In one hour, President Donald Trump will welcome the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, his first time hosting a foreign leader in this -- his second term. The meeting comes amid the ongoing ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza. Negotiations expected for phase two of that agreement -- we're in phase one -- soon, a deal which yesterday Trump said is not fully certain will hold.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have no assurances that it will hold. I mean, I've seen people brutalized. I've never -- nobody's ever seen anything like it. No, I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Trump has at times suggested ideas endorsed by the Israeli far right, including, quote, in his words, cleaning out Gaza, then sending Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan. He has not rejected Israel annexing the West Bank.
The two leaders are expected to discuss their plans for the region, including their ongoing desires for a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House.
Kevin, listen, a lot of potential topics to discuss. Are there any deliverables expected from this meeting, or is this largely about demonstrating the closeness of their relationship?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I don't think there are any concrete deliverables that well see coming out of this. And certainly, it is intended to demonstrate how close they are, although I do think their relationship is a little more complicated than it might seem on the surface. You'll remember Donald Trump was irate after Netanyahu congratulated Joe Biden after his 2020 presidential win. He said, F him, and I don't know that relations have completely been repaired since then.
But I do think this topic of the cease-fire for hostages deal is going to be at the very center of these men's discussions in the Oval Office. A little time from now, obviously, we are now at a point when negotiations are set to begin on the second phase of that deal. But as you heard Donald Trump say there, despite taking credit for this hostage deal, he isn't exactly sure that it would hold. And certainly, Netanyahu is facing competing pressures from all sides as we enter this next phase.
His far right government certainly wants this deal to go away. This temporary truce, they want it to end, but war-weary Israelis, I think, are looking for this war to permanently come to a close. And so I think Netanyahu, before moving forward, will want to ascertain, you know, exactly where Trump stands on all of this before he takes a firm position just to assure that he has the Americans backing going forward.
The other topic of discussion that I think these two men will have is what exactly happens to Gaza. Of course, this is connected to the talks over the hostage and ceasefire deal, but how does that strip become rebuilt? As you said, Donald Trump has said it needs to, quote, be cleaned out and that the Palestinians who live there potentially should move to Egypt or Jordan. That's something that the leaders of those countries have rejected outright.
I think, you know, when you talk to senior officials here at the White House, they have tried to clarify somewhat what the president was saying. Once said today that Trump sees Gaza right now as a demolition site and that it could take 10 to 15 years for it to be rebuilt. But how exactly that moves forward is something that these leaders, I think, will very much want to nail down when they sit down in the Oval Office later today.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. The fate of more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza hanging in the balance.
Kevin Liptak at the White House, thanks so much.
Joining us now, Aaron David Miller, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, former State Department, Middle East negotiator.
Aaron, always good to have you on.
Aaron, you hear me okay?
We'll have to check the audio with Aaron David Miller and bring him back when we have it fixed.
Two of Trump's most divisive nominees seem to be on a path to Senate confirmation today, both passing out of committee on party line votes. Just moments ago, the Senate Intelligence Committee advanced Tulsi Gabbard to be the next director of national intelligence.
[15:05:01] She had faced tough questions, questions even from some Republicans about her quite public support for Edward Snowden and other positions which intelligence officers worry make her a national security risk.
CNN reports that for at least one on the fence, Senator Todd Young, a call with President Trump helped make the difference for him to change his position.
After a testy exchange where Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. refused to say definitively that vaccines do not cause autism, something the science has been very clear on. Senator Bill Cassidy, who himself is a doctor, cast the deciding vote on committee to advance Kennedy's nomination to run the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cassidy explained his vote on the Senate floor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): Now the most notable opponents of Mr. Kennedy were pediatricians on the front lines of our children's health, who regularly have to combat misinformation, combating vaccine skepticism with correct information. If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations without changes, CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: What he says himself will be another question, I imagine. Now both nominees go before the full Senate, where if all Democrats are noes, it would take for Republicans to tank those nominations. It seems a tall order at this point.
Right now, a fight is brewing at the FBI. And well bring you more on that later. Please stay with us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:10:04]
SCIUTTO: President Trump meeting with the Israeli prime minister today at the White House here in Washington.
Here to discuss, Aaron David Miller, former State Department Middle East negotiator.
Aaron, we got you back now. I wonder what -- how seriously the region is taking the prospect of Trump pressuring the residents of Gaza, more than 2 million of them, out into Jordan, into Egypt. I've heard two schools of thought on this. I've heard -- I've heard some regional diplomats say, well, this would really just be if it were to happen temporary as they rebuild Gaza.
AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: Jim, I may have lost you. SCIUTTO: You still can't hear me?
All right. We'll -- we'll try to get this audio -- audio issues fixed once more. Other story we're following, a fight brewing at the FBI. The bureau has handed over the -- to the Trump Department of Justice, the names of thousands of individuals who worked on January 6th cases with the understanding that those employees could now be fired.
Already today, an anonymous group at the FBI filed a class action lawsuit seeking to prevent their firing, arguing they have legitimate fear of retribution.
CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez has been following this.
Evan, agents are understandably concerned about this. They were doing their jobs, the vast majority of them under orders from higher ups, to investigate criminal activity.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right.
SCIUTTO: Now, you have some of them suing. Where does this go from here? And can that lawsuit stop or at least delay those firings in the meantime?
PEREZ: Well, I think there's two aims of the lawsuit. There's a couple of lawsuits now that have been filed, Jim, and one of them is asking a judge to issue a temporary restraining order. And what that would do is that would, at least in the interim, prevent the Justice Department or anyone at the Justice Department from publicly releasing the names of all of these 5,000 agents and analysts who were working on January 6th cases. They want all of their personal data to be protected.
And there's good reason for that. I mean, you and I have talked over -- over the last couple of years, right, where agents who simply were doing their job and who had to sign affidavits or were working on either the search of Mar-a-Lago or the -- or the investigation of the classified documents case, or the January 6th investigations. Their names got out there and they faced threats, their family members -- families face threats, and these were real things.
So these lawsuits, what they're trying to do is prevent their information from getting out there. And in the meantime, you know, we don't know what's going to happen next from Pamela Bondi, who is about to become the attorney general, Kash Patel, who appears to be definitely have the votes to become the FBI director, because now there appears to be a process that they're going to review these -- the 5,000 individuals and determine whether or not they still have a job.
And keep in mind, Jim, we're talking about, you know, agents, there's 13,000 agents at the FBI, 38,000 employees in total. So this is a huge chunk of -- of people who are now wondering whether their futures are secure simply because, again, as you pointed out, they did the job that they were supposed to do and what they were, they were ordered to do. SCIUTTO: Listen, they were investigating alleged crimes for which
there were indictments. Grand juries found the evidence sufficient to pursue them. So it's not like they were out there, you know, freelancing, freelancing.
PEREZ: Keep in mind. I mean, keep in mind, Jim, I'll leave you with this real quick. You know, we're talking about one of the most documented crime scenes in American history. We're talking about agents who had video of people attacking cops. And the question is, what are you supposed to do when you have that evidence? Are you not supposed to prosecute it?
And that's, you know, obviously, now, apparently, according to Donald Trump, this was a grave injustice to prosecute these people.
SCIUTTO: That's where we are. Evan Perez, thanks so much.
PEREZ: Sure.
SCIUTTO: We want to turn now to central Sweden, where police say around ten people have been killed in a school shooting. They add the shooter is among the dead. Several more people were injured.
Sweden's prime minister calls it the worst mass shooting in Sweden's history.
CNN's Melissa Bell is following the developments. She joins us now from Paris with more.
Do we have any sense of the identity of the shooter here? Any connection to the school?
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All they've told us for the time being, and this is Swedish police that have been speaking a couple of times today, Jim, is that the perpetrator was a man and that they believe he was killed in the shootout. It was just after midday that this suspected gunman went on the rampage at what is an adult learning center, but that's on a campus with schools for children as well.
[15:15:01]
What we understand from Swedish police is that that death toll, sadly, already making this the deadliest shooting in Sweden's history, could rise further. There are several people still in the hospital. We don't know anything for the time being about this mans motives. The police have said they don't believe that it was a terror motive behind it, and they are even now conducting investigations to try and figure out what could have prompted him to carry out this attack.
But what the police described are really terrible scenes, a nightmare, they say, given the violence of the attack and the number of people who died, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Good Lord. Yeah, and truly unusual for Sweden, is it not? I mean, as the prime minister said, the deadliest shooting in the country's history.
BELL: That's right. This is something that doesn't happen. Neither school shootings nor mass casualty shootings. They don't tend to happen in a country like Sweden.
What the country has seen over these last couple of years is a rise in its crime rates, with gang violence blamed for some of that. Now, the police have also ruled out any gang connections between to do with this man. So for now, the motives are very mysterious.
But again, to that sense of shock being felt in Sweden tonight, you're right, Jim, this is a country where these kinds of things simply don't happen. Hence the words there of the prime minister urging people to let the police do their work, even as they try and figure out what happened.
SCIUTTO: No question, and our thoughts to the families.
Melissa Bell, thanks so much.
Now, President Trump last week and today was describing his intention to send migrants from this country to Guantanamo. And today, the first plane carrying migrants is now en route to that prison camp. The Pentagon has been building tents to house migrants at Guantanamo, a move that is raising not just operational, but certainly legal questions.
Priscilla Alvarez has been on this story for us -- Priscilla.
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, as you mentioned, we now know that that flight is en route to Guantanamo Bay. I'm told, by a homeland security official that there are around ten migrants who are on that military aircraft heading to the base there.
Now, we should note that there is a migrant operation center at Guantanamo Bay. It has been used in the past for the interdiction of migrants at sea before they're repatriated to their origin country. The difference here is that the Trump administration is trying to build that out, and that number that they are shooting for is one that the president described last week.
That is 30,000 people. So they are trying to build tent facilities, I'm told, to house 30,000 people, but in the interim, they are already sending migrants to Guantanamo Bay.
Now, the homeland security attorneys, as well as pentagon attorneys over the last few days have been assessing whether it is legal to pluck someone off of U.S. soil who has crossed the U.S. southern border, who may be in the U.S. illegally, and to send them to Guantanamo Bay, because, of course, again, as I mentioned before, it was interdicting someone at sea. So they're not at -- they're not on U.S. soil.
So that remains a question, but they appear to have resolved it enough to begin these flights starting today -- again, that flight already en route. Now, another question that remains is when there are people in these facilities, what legal service providers do they have access to, if any? What will the circumstances be for those held and how long will they be held?
The Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying over the weekend they will not be held indefinitely. But all the same, Jim, what we have seen in the past is that there can be situations where a country says they're going to take their nationals and then they don't. The Trump administration reached an agreement over the weekend for Venezuela to restart deportation flights, while they also did that under the Biden administration and then abruptly changed course. And then the Biden administration was no longer able to send Venezuelans back.
So that just shows you some of the logistical hurdles that could be coming down in the future. But certainly now it is a logistical undertaking in terms of setting up these facilities and getting migrants there.
SCIUTTO: Our thanks so much to Priscilla Alvarez. We know we'll continue to follow the flights and we'll be right back with more news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:23:46]
SCIUTTO: Of course, critical topic of the upcoming Trump-Netanyahu meeting is the continuing push to release all remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas and its allies inside Gaza. So far, 18 have been released as part of the latest cease fire deal, which went into effect on January 19th.
Ilana Gritzewsky was among those kidnapped on October 7th alongside her boyfriend, you've seen him there, Matan Zangauker. She herself spent 55 days in captivity before she was released in the first hostage exchange deal back in November 2023. Matan is one of 79 hostages still in captivity, his name not listed among the hostages slated for release during this phase of the agreement.
Ilana joins me now.
And thanks so much for -- for coming on.
ILANA GRITZEWSKY, FORMER HOSTAGE RELEASED IN NOV. 2023: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: You spent 55 days in captivity, which for folks listening, and certainly for myself, I can only imagine how difficult that was. Tell me how your recovery has been since then.
GRITZEWSKY: I don't have a really recovery because my boyfriend is still there.
[15:25:01]
My boy (ph) -- my -- my friends from my kibbutz is still there. I tell them before I get out of there, I'm going to make everything so they can come home. SCIUTTO: Yeah.
GRITZEWSKY: That's the last word I tell my friends on the tunnels of Hamas that I saved before I get out. So I don't have really have time to make my reality. So I -- all the time -- I have to do psychologists. I have to do therapists because they broke my hip. They broke my low. I can hear from the -- from this side.
They bore my leg. So I have a really, really hard recovery to do.
SCIUTTO: I'm sure.
GRITZEWSKY: They touch of (INAUDIBLE). So I really psychology hard work I have to do.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. Do you have any -- do you -- do you know about the condition of Matan and other friends of yours from the kibbutz?
GRITZEWSKY: Few months ago. We have a video from Matan. So I know that he's alive, at least that. But I don't know how is the conditions.
I can say that I -- I lost 11 kilos in two months.
SCIUTTO: Wow.
GRITZEWSKY: I don't receive medical treatment. After they broke all my (INAUDIBLE) of my body?
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
GRITZEWSKY: So if after 55 days I have a really serious problems, medical problems.
SCIUTTO: I'm sure.
GRITZEWSKY: After 486 days. so they can die every moment. It is so -- this is my fear that I have to live with that. That. Okay, I have a video before two months ago, but I didn't really know if today. What is the -- what is the really --
SCIUTTO: How is he doing today? He is not part, at least for now. He's not on the list of people to be released during the first phase. There is a planned second phase when there would be more releases. Are you confident? Are you hopeful that that agreement will move forward?
GRITZEWSKY: I -- I really, really am hope and really, really thank Trump that make real this deal and real happen. And we can see our loves come home again.
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
GRITZEWSKY: And I trust Trump that like he see that the leadership that he can do the impossible possible that now she can take the job in in the middle. She can -- to run to the deal to the -- to the deal until the all hostages go home. Because if we don't take this deal until the end, we sleep to the hostages. They can't survive any more time there.
SCIUTTO: Do -- what advice can you give? Can you give us a sense of what these hostages will face when they are released? And, of course, they were in much longer than you. Close to ten times as long as you.
What will they need when they leave?
GRITZEWSKY: Hey. I was in shock. I didn't realize really what is happening to me. Also, because they are telling me that I'm going to go out like four times and they don't really go -- go home.
SCIUTTO: Oh, they told you -- you were going and you weren't.
GRITZEWSKY: They take me to a tunnels after they took me to the -- they took me to the hospital and they take me there. They told me that I'm going home. After they told me that I'm going home and take me to the tunnels.
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
GRITZEWSKY: Tell me how they go. They tell me that I go home and take me to another house.
SCIUTTO: Was that -- was that on purpose? Was -- was that a way to torture you in effect?
GRITZEWSKY: Yeah. They tell you that no one is fighting for me.
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
GRITZEWSKY: They -- they -- they -- they are coming and hugging me and telling me that I'm going to marry him, that we are going to make a family there. They foresee this ordeal. I am not going out, I sleep in the floor.
They make interview in the middle of the night. They wake you up. You can look. You can talk. You have to ask to go to the -- to the bathroom.
SCIUTTO: Right.
GRITZEWSKY: You don't have any rights, human.
SCIUTTO: As you know, President Trump is meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today. If you had a moment to speak to them, what would you say to Trump and Netanyahu?
GRITZEWSKY: There is time to end this war and bring all the hostages home. They don't have time. Everyone know -- I know that the hostages don't -- don't receive medical service. They don't receive food.
[15:30:01]
They have torturing them, them. They kick them, they rape. They kill people without reason.
They kill six hostages in the tunnel. Hersh, that is American citizen. They kill him in the tunnel.
They don't respect borders. They don't respect. We need to end to bring all the hostage. I trust Trump that this -- you are a leadership that you show with this deal that you know to make, to how to do leadership. So then don't take anyone, anyone take this deal, slip away of us. Because if we slip away, all the hostage will slip away. They are going to --
SCIUTTO: We hope -- we hope you get to see your boyfriend Matan soon. And we're glad you're safe. But we wish you and your family the best of luck. Thank -- thank you for joining us.
Ilana Gritzewsky, who spent herself 55 days in Hamas captivity. Thanks so much for taking the time.
We're going to join now live pictures from the White House where President Trump will soon meet with the Israeli prime minister. I believe we have those live pictures. Let's listen in.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Okay. Thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:35:54]
SCIUTTO: All right. We're going to rejoin comments from the president. This is just moments ago from the Oval Office.
Let's listen in.
REPORTER: -- either to do it himself or for the. U.S. to participate with them.
TRUMP: I don't know that that's what he's going to be asking for. I have no idea that it is you're telling me. We're going to have a pretty long meeting. We're going to be discussing a lot of things. Not only that, but a lot of things.
And I'll let you know if the time comes to let you know. But right now, that's not something that I can discuss.
REPORTER: Mr. President, when you just said when you said if they do it, they get obliterated. Just to be clear, you're talking about if Iran made another, made an attempt on -- on your life.
TRUMP: Yeah, yeah. That would be called total obliteration. And I can't imagine they do that. It should have been stated by Biden, but he didn't state it because he had no clue, as you know, as everybody knows.
REPORTER: What is your vision actually for the relationship?
TRUMP: Do you have anything else?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. That's all we have.
TRUMP: My vision for what?
REPORTER: Our relationship with Iran. And would you --
TRUMP: I would love to have a good relationship with everybody. They can't have a nuclear weapon. That was my only that was the only thing that was very important. They can't have a nuclear weapon beyond that. You know, we'd be very tough if they insist on doing that.
They have some of their leadership, I can tell you right now, and maybe you know it. Maybe you don't. But there are many people at the top ranks of Iran that do not want to have a nuclear weapon just for that very reason.
REPORTER: Mr. President, what's your reaction to China's retaliatory tariffs?
TRUMP: It's fine. It's fine. We're going to do very well against China and against everybody else.
Right now, they've taken advantage of the Biden administration like I've never seen. I've never seen -- the deficit with China is about $1 trillion. Think of it, $1 trillion. They're using our money to build their military. And Biden let that happen.
You know, we're taking a lot of fires here. We came back. This is like a different place. The good news is we're doing very well. We're doing well with countries that nobody expected we do well with.
We are respected again as a nation, maybe at a level that people haven't seen for many, many decades. But when I left, we didn't have any wars. I defeated ISIS, 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate. And now, the world seems to be ready to blow up. But we'll see if we can stop it.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Say it?
REPORTER: Have you reached out to the Iranians about any kind of deal to start those discussions?
TRUMP: I would reach out. I mean, I have nothing. I say I'm one that doesn't care whether I reach out or they reach out. A lot of people say, let them reach out, sir. That to me, it doesn't matter. It's just -- it's just talk.
But, I want to see everybody do well. I want to see great countries, and I want to see peace in the Middle East and elsewhere. We're also working very hard with respect to Russia, Ukraine, that's a bloodbath. It's a total bloodbath. What's going on there is incredible.
What's going on with the soldiers -- young, young soldiers being killed by the thousands. I mean literally by the thousands. And we want to see if we can get that stopped. And I think we've had some very good talks.
REPORTER: Any update on when you would speak to President Xi, sir? Any update on when you would speak to President Xi?
TRUMP: No, we'll speak to him at the appropriate time. I'm in no rush. I'm in no rush at that program.
REPORTER: Do you think that conversation can lend itself to the type of freeze that it meant for the tariffs for Canada and Mexico?
TRUMP: Well, we'll see what happens. I mean, well, there's a short term freeze with Mexico. And as you know, and with Canada, but they've agreed to be very, very strong on the border, stronger than they ever were by far, by a factor of about 30. And in addition to that, as you can see, we've been strong because we've had numbers like you've never seen before. I mean, the border is now closed, really closed.
And with that being said, we're letting good people come through and we want good people to come into our country. But the border is closed.
REPORTER: In your -- in your talks with president -- with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, do you intend to press him about how many deaths there have been amongst the Palestinians?
[15:40:06]
Are you concerned about that death?
TRUMP: I talk about that, too. You know, both sides mean a lot. I talk about that. I talk about the other side. I talk about everything.
REPORTER: What's your main message to him today during your meeting?
TRUMP: Well, I'm here to listen. He's here to see me, and I'm here to listen. So --
REPORTER: Will you continue to press -- will you --
TRUMP: The right time, I'll give him my message.
REPORTER: Mr. President, will you continue to press for this idea that Jordan and Egypt take Palestinians from Gaza?
TRUMP: Yeah, I would like to see Jordan. I'd like to see Egypt take some. Look, the Gaza thing has not worked. It's never worked. And I feel very differently about Gaza than a lot of people. I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land, and we get some people to put up the money to build it and make it nice and make it habitable and enjoyable. And make it a home.
REPORTER: You said they don't want to leave, though. Palestinians say they don't want to leave.
TRUMP: I don't know how they could want to stay. It's -- it's -- it's a demolition site. It's a pure demolition site. If we could find the right piece of land or numerous pieces of land and build them some really nice places with plenty of money in the area, that's for sure. I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza, which has had just decades and decades of death.
REPORTER: Where would those pieces of land be?
TRUMP: Well, they could be in Jordan and they could be in Egypt, and they could be in other places. You could have more than two, more than one, but you could have more than two, and you'd have people living in a place that could be very beautiful and safe and nice. Gaza has been a disaster for decades.
REPORTER: Would the U.S. pay for that?
TRUMP: I don't --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I don't think you would pay, but I think there's plenty of people that would in the area. They have a lot of money. They certainly have a lot of money. Some of the countries over there, they'd like to see it.
I know that Saudi Arabia wants to see peace. I can see that. And, many of the countries there, as far as I'm concerned, they all want peace. I think a -- you know, maybe I'm wrong on this, but I think Iran would like to see peace, too. They've had enough, don't you think they've had enough?
REPORTER: But the leaders but the leaders of Egypt and Jordan have said, bluntly, they -- they have no interest in doing this.
TRUMP: Well, they may have said that, but a lot of people said things to me. They said they wouldn't take anybody back in Venezuela. And right now, they're flying them right back into Venezuela and a lot of people, and they're doing the right thing in Venezuela, the Panama Canal is an active discussion right now. They said things about that and virtually everything that's been said has been incorrectly stated based on the result.
REPORTER: Does that amount to forcibly displace or wouldn't that amount to forcibly displacing those people from Gaza?
TRUMP: I don't think so. I think if they had the opportunity, they'd love it. If they had an alternative to -- they have no alternative right now. I mean, they're there because they have no alternative.
What do they have? It is a big pile of rubble right now. I mean, have you seen the pictures of it? Have you been there? It's terrible to live. Who can live like that? And very dangerous as shooting all over the place. There's bombing all over the place on both sides.
Now, I would think if they had an option of moving to an area either in a large group or various smaller groups, and take care of the close to 2 million people, I would think that they would be thrilled to do it. They have no -- you know, when you say about the Gaza strip, they don't have an option.
REPORTER: To be clear, you're saying they'd -- TRUMP: It's very dangerous.
REPORTER: They'd be thrilled to leave Gaza?
TRUMP: Oh, I think they'd love to leave Gaza if they had an option. Right now, they don't have an option. What are they going to do? They have to go back to Gaza. But what is Gaza?
There's practically not a building standing, and they're very dangerous. You know, those buildings are shifting and they're falling down all over the place. And there's gunfire all over. It's going to be that way for a while.
REPORTER: Mr. President, wouldn't it have made more sense to evacuate people while the war was ongoing, rather than now, when there's a ceasefire.
TRUMP: Which is what you're talking about?
REPORTER: When it was more dangerous, when there were strikes overhead than now?
TRUMP: Well, the strikes could start tomorrow. There's not a lot to -- there's not a lot left to strike. It's a demolition site. The whole place is demolished. It's unsafe. It's unsanitary. It's a not a place where people want to live.
REPORTER: Mr. President --
TRUMP: Nobody -- nobody has gone. It's -- they -- they have no alternative but to go back. If we gave them an alternative of living in a beautiful, open place with some, you know, nice quarters there, nice housing of sorts. And we have the money in the Middle East to build that.
REPORTER: Do you support Israelis actually moving back and creating set up buildings?
TRUMP: Not necessarily. No. I just support, cleaning it up and doing something with it. But it's failed for many decades. And somebody will be sitting here in 10 years or 20 years from now, and they'll be going through the same stuff, the wars.
[15:45:06]
And, you know, they've had civilizations on Gaza, many civilizations on Gaza, and they're buried in the sand. It doesn't seem to work.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Yeah?
REPORTER: Thank you, sir.
On Elon Musk, how often are you talking to him? And have there been ideas that he's brought to you that you've said, oh, no, wait a minute, this is going a little too far?
TRUMP: Well, many ideas, but look, he's done a great job. Look at all the fraud that he's found in this USAID. It's a disaster. What the people, radical left lunatics. They have things that nobody would have believed.
That the whole thing with 100 million spent on, you know, what? With money going to all sorts of groups that shouldn't deserve to get any money with the money, id like to see what the kickbacks are. How much money has been kicked back, who would spend that kind of money to some of the things that you read about and I read about and I see every night on the news and every morning when I read the papers? Who would spend money for that?
I would say this, the people that got all that money, are they kicking it back to the people that gave it from government? No, that's -- to me, very, very corrupt.
The real question is how much of a kickback has there been? And one of the things I want to investigate rapidly, because I've never seen anything to this extent, the train that's being built between Los Angeles and San Francisco is the worst managed project I think I've ever seen, and I've seen some of the worst.
Billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars over budget. In fact, I read where you could take every single person that was going to go on the train and get the finest limousine service in the world and take them back and forth with limousines, and you'd have hundreds of billions of dollars left over. It is the worst thing. And we're going to start an investigation in that because it's not possible.
I built for a living and I built on time, on budget. It's impossible that something could cost that much. And now it's not even going to San Francisco, and it's not going to Los Angeles. It's -- they made it much shorter. So now it's at little places way away from San Francisco and way away from Los Angeles.
No, we're going to start a big investigation on that because it's -- I've never seen anything like it. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. The worst overruns that there have ever been in the history of our country. And it wasn't even necessary.
I would have said, you don't buy it. You take an airplane, it cost you $2. It cost you nothing. You take an airplane. But this got started. And if you have to, you drive, you can drive.
They have hundreds of billions of dollars of cost overruns, and it's not even the same project. It's much shorter. It's way outside of San Francisco and way outside of Los Angeles. So we're going to be looking into this.
REPORTER: Who's going to investigate that? Is that DOGE is going to investigate the train?
TRUMP: No, I'm doing that myself.
REPORTER: Some of these DOGE engineers that Elon Musk has helping him are as young as 19 years old.
TRUMP: That's good. They're very smart, though, Peter. They're like you. They're very smart people.
REPORTER: Thank you.
Has he -- have you met any of these guys?
TRUMP: No, I haven't seen them. They work actually, out of the White House. They're smart people, unlike what they do in the control towers where we need smart people. We should use some of them in the control towers where we were putting people that were actually intellectually deficient.
That was one of the qualifications is you could be intellectually deficient. No. We need smart people. Some are young and some are not young. Some are not young at all.
But they found great things. Look at the list of things. I'll -- maybe I'll do it tomorrow. I'll read off a list of 15 or 20 things that they found inside of the USAID. It's -- it has to be corrupt. Nobody could approve that. They could only approve that if they were getting kickbacks.
You're talking about -- you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.
REPORTER: And it sounds like you're going to wind down USAID.
TRUMP: Yes, sounds like it. I mean, I think so.
REPORTER: So how would that when that happens, which part of the government.
TRUMP: Well, I could see Marco Rubio being in charge, State Department, because they're giving money to -- I mean, some of the money is well spent. I guess, but much of it is really fraudulent.
REPORTER: And on the Education Department, why nominate Linda McMahon to be the Education Department secretary if you're going to get rid of the Education Department?
TRUMP: Because I told Linda -- Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job. I want her to put herself out of a job, Education Department.
So we're ranked number 40 out of 40 schools, right? We're ranked number one in cost per pupil. So we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world. And we're ranked at the bottom of the list. We're ranked very badly.
And what I want to do is let the states run schools. I believe strongly in school choice. But in addition to that, I want the states to run schools, and I want Linda to put herself out of a job.
[15:50:06] REPORTER: Do you think that's something? Do you think that's something you can do with an executive order?
TRUJMP: I'd like to be able to do it. Yeah, I would like to be able to.
Look, if I could give the schools back to Iowa and Idaho and Indiana, and all these places that run properly, there's many of them, I think.
So if you look at the list, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, believe it or not, China is doing very well in that list. A list of well-educated, you know, where they run their school system. Well, you have a lot of countries. Not surprising names.
I think that if you moved our schools into some of these states that are really well run states, they would be as good as Denmark and Norway and Sweden and some of the other states. And then you'd have the, the laggards and you know who they are. I don't have to go to it, but you'd have the laggards, the same laggards that are laggards with everything else, including crime.
But even then you'll break it into systems. As an example, if you went to New York, you go to Westchester County, you go to Dutchess County, you go to Suffolk and Long Island and Nassau and Long Island. You have maybe 6 or 7 locations, and you have New York City, which would include the five boroughs. And I think even that would run much better than it does right now.
Same thing with Los Angeles or California. You'd have riverside, you'd have -- you'd break it up into six or seven, but most of them would be states, and you'd have one, like in Iowa. You give it to the state of Iowa, you give it to the state of Indiana, you give it.
These are really well run states. They don't have debt. They don't have problems. They don't have any crimes. You know, relatively speaking, to speak of.
And you would have education that would be the equivalent of Norway and Denmark and various other places that are at the top of the list. So we're at the bottom of the list and we're the most expensive. We're at the top of the list when it comes to cost per pupil.
We spend more money per pupil than any other nation in the world, and yet we're rated number 40. The last ratings came out. You saw them. So they -- they talk about 40 countries we're rated number 40.
And I say that if we did this, we would -- we would go 20, 30 notches up. We could do great. And we would have some of the best districts in the world.
REPORTER: But are you looking to do that with an executive order, sir, or do you need to work with Congress?
TRUMP: Well, there are some people that say, I could. I think I'd work with Congress. I think we'd get -- look, we'd have to work with the teachers union because the teachers union is the only one that's opposed to it. Nobody else would want to hold them back.
Look, we have to tell the teachers union. We're rated last in the world in education of the top 40, we're rated. We were 38. Now we're 40. We went to 39. We went to 40. We were 37. But we're at 40 now. The thing just came out that's under Biden. Remember that.
REPORTER: Secretary Rubio announced the deal this week that would allow potentially American citizens who are criminals to be put in a different country. Is that something you're looking to do?
TRUMP: No, I didn't know that he announced that yet. But if he did, it's fine. Yeah, we have hard, hardened criminals, horrible people. You see them pushing people into subways. The train is coming.
Last week, guy walking around and just sees somebody waiting for the train. Trains coming 40 miles an hour, and he gets pushed into the subway. And that happens all the time. These are sick people, if we could get them out of our country, we have other countries that would take them. They could.
It's no different than a prison system, except it would be a lot less expensive, and it would be a great deterrent. Send them to other countries. We -- if we could go a step further. In other words, we're talking about getting the criminals out of our country that come in through other countries illegally, right? The illegal migrants, as I call them.
Well, we have people that are just as bad as them in our country. If we could get them out, I'd be very happy.
REPORTER: The president of El Salvador said that he would -- wanted you to pay a fee for that. Would you pay that?
TRUMP: Well, it's a lot -- it's a very small fee compared to what we pay to private prisons.
REPORTER: But under what authority --
TRUMP: And a very, very small fee, I don't know. We'll have to find that out legally. I'm just saying, if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat. I don't know if we do or not. We're looking at that right now, but we could make deals where wed get these animals out of our country.
And, you know, if you take the shooters, the people that hit old ladies in the back of the head with a baseball bat when they're not looking, they walk down the street, the people that you -- and you see it, the people that take out a gun and shoot you for no reason at all, if we could get these animals out of our country and put them in a different country under the supervision of somebody, that made a relatively small fee to maintain these people, because you know what? These are criminals.
You call them hardened criminals. They've been in jail 40 times.
[15:55:02] There's one, 42 times. And every time the person gets out, it's a he. Every time he gets out, he commits another crime within 24 hours. And it's a heinous crime. It's a rough crime.
We don't want these people in our country either. We don't want them in our country.
If we had the option -- if we had the option to get them out and let them be based in some other country at a fraction of the cost, and frankly, they could keep them because these people are never going to be any good. That person that has been arrested 42 times or 22 times or 17 times, and is all in for manslaughter and everything else and everything else, and only gets out because of a very weak judicial system that only goes after people like Trump. They don't go after the criminals, they don't go after people like this, and they laugh at our law. If that took place, you would have a lot less crime automatically.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: On Guantanamo Bay, is there enough space there to accommodate?
TRUMP: Yeah. There's a lot of space to accommodate a lot of people. Yeah. So we're going to use it.
REPORTER: Can you talk a little bit about why?
TRUMP: We have it. It's already up. It's -- we have it for nothing.
But we can do less expensive and even more secure. We've had other countries come to us saying we would love to do that. We would love to take your criminals and we'll maintain that. Well, you know, we'll be their jail.
And I'm only talking for the most severe cases. Like, I watched that guy on tape pushing the man into the subway last week. That man that did that is a real bad guy. Many, many arrests. And do you think you're going to convince him someday to be good in a wonderful, wonderful citizen for our country? It's never going to happen.
I want to get those people out. I'd love to get them out. Along with the illegal migrants, the migrants are rough, but we have some bad ones too. I'd like to get them out. It would be all subject to the laws of our land, and we're looking at that to see if we can do it.
REPORTER: Mr. President --
REPORTER: What countries have offered to take American citizens --
TRUMP: Say it?
REPORTER: What other countries have offered to take these Americans?
TRUMP: Numerous, many. And Marco brought it up today. I'm glad he did, because a lot of people are thinking it when I watch some of the crimes being committed in New York City and Chicago. Look at Chicago, the volume of crime they have and the viciousness of the crime.
These people are horrible people. And if somebody thinks they're going to be wonderful citizens someday, they're wrong. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen.
They're bad. These are hard, tough criminals. In many cases, they're crazy. They're absolutely crazy, but they're very dangerous. If I could get them out of the country and be in some other country where they're glad to have them because they make a small fee compared to what we'd pay to a private prison or to, you know, put them in one of our prisons that cost even more money -- I think it would be great.
I'd love to get them the hell out of our country. Thank you very much, everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, guys. Let's go guys, lets go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
REPORTER: President Trump, who's your bet (ph) at Super Bowl?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
TRUMP: I don't want to say, but there's a certain quarterback that seems to be a pretty good winner.
REPORTER: And just last one because you mentioned him many times. What do you think about Joe Biden signing on with a talent agency?
TRUMP: You got to be kidding. He signed on with the talent agency?
REPORTER: He does. He's got some entertainment agents now.
TRUMP: I think he's got bigger problems than that, I really do. I think he's got much bigger problems than that. But I wish him well.
We inherited a mess. This place is a mess, but it's quickly being solved. The problem. We're going to make America great again. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, guys, let's go. Thanks, guys.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
