31 posts from Wednesday, May 14, 2025

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Trump got an escort in Saudi Arabia, not that kind. A military escort from the Saudi Air Force. 47 kicking off his first major international trip of the second term. Usually presidents go to Canada, Mexico, or a NATO ally first. Trump picks Saudi Arabia because that's where the money is. The Saudis rolled out the lavender carpet over their lavender as a symbol of generosity. It represents the blossoming wildflowers in their deserts. Trump right on cue, rocking a lavender tie to match. The Saudi crown prince breaking protocol and greeting Trump personally on the tarmac. Usually they send an underlink. Trump got a handshake. Remember, Biden gave the prince a fist bump after calling him a pariah, then begged the kingdom to pump more oil. And the prince was like, sorry, Joe, not happening. In Saudi Arabia, to quote the great little Kim, it's about money, power, and respect. That's Trump's language. A traditional welcome coffee ceremony followed, but POTUS isn't a coffee drinker. So they gave him a cup, and he held it like it was poison. Trump over-caffeinated. Can you imagine? They should have just given him a Diet Coke. The Saudis claim Trump later took a sip, but we think he faked it. The coffee ritual symbolizes hospitality, friendship, honor, and respect. Back in the beast, dozens of Arabian horsemen holding American and Saudi flags escorted him through the streets. In Saudi Arabia, horses represent beauty, nobility, and pride. Whereas in America, they're just another thing we bet on. Then the honor guard welcomed the president, each holding golden swords. The Arab swords stand for justice, strength, and sovereignty in Saudi culture. But the most meaningful symbol of all, a mobile McDonald's truck. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. But Trump didn't grab a Big Mac. He had other lunch plans. The Saudis hosted the whole cabinet, plus American business titans at the royal court. On the menu, miso beef with fermented vegetables and bacon crumbles to start. Main course, grilled black Angus and silky potatoes, and an extra virgin olive oil parfait with strawberry salad for dessert. But they barely had time to eat. They were too busy cutting deals. - You're the biggest business leaders in the world here. They're gonna walk away with a lot of checks for a lot of things that you're gonna provide. And in the United States, it's probably two million jobs that we're talking about. - Executives from Coca-Cola, Citigroup, IBM, Delta, United, BlackRock, Google, and Amazon, all in the desert with Trump. Also, Musk was there. Big ball stayed in DC to watch the fraud. But 47 is the main attraction. He managed to shake every hand in the kingdom. If you were a Saudi citizen, you probably shook his hand. After a record rope line, the prince drove the president around in a golf cart before dinner, then played Trump's favorite song. (upbeat music) I don't think the village people would have survived too long in Saudi Arabia, but that's neither here nor there. Golf, McDonald's, Jets, Swords, and the YMCA. The Saudis are laying it on thick. But Trump came on a mission, spread money and peace. - The new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts of tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos. Where it exports technology, not terrorism. - We know the Saudis aren't the nicest guys, but the Middle East isn't what you'd call a nice neighborhood. When you go to a bad neighborhood, it's nice to have a friend. Biden called the prince a killer. What'd that get us besides $5 gas? Not a lot. Trump took a different tack. - If I didn't like him, I'd get out of here so fast. You know that, don't you, he knows me well. I do, I like him a lot. I like him too much, that's why we give so much, you know? Too much, I like you too much. (audience applauding) - Great guy. - After that, Trump was basically like, how do you sleep at night? - Well, how would you sleep at night? How do you sleep? (audience laughing and applauding) Huh? Just thinking. What a job, he tosses and turns like some of us. Tosses and turns all night. How do I make it even better all night? It's the ones that don't toss and turn, they're the ones that will never take you to the promised land, won't they? But you have done some job. - The point of the trip is to tell the region, let's make money, not war. Nobody wants their legacy written in blood. Put down the sword and take out the checkbook. - Just days ago, my administration successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan. And I used trade to a large extent to do it. I said, "Fellas, come on, let's make a deal. Let's do some trading. Let's not trade nuclear missiles. Let's trade the things that you make so beautifully." - But if there's no respect, there's no mercy. - I will never hesitate to wield American power if it's necessary to defend the United States or to help defend our allies. (audience applauding) - And there will be no mercy for any foe who tries to do us or them harm. - That was a message to the Iranians and all their proxies in the region, and for that matter, anyone around the world who gets frisky. It's just day one of the Middle East tour, and Trump's bringing home the bacon. The biggest arms deal in history. Plus, the prince signed over 600 billion in investments, but Trump wants a trillion. - The investment in America was up an astounding 22%. More than $10 trillion of new investments have been announced or are coming just since the election on November 5th. - Looks like the experts were wrong again. They said Trump couldn't bring back manufacturing. Now countries are paying us to make their chips. They said tariffs would trigger inflation. Well, it just hit the lowest rate in four years. - J.P. Morgan says there isn't gonna be a recession, and the stock market is up on the year. Oh, and eggs are cheaper. - Oil is down, eggs are down, food is down. We're seeing that reflected, so all that hysteria over tariffs is not showing up in these numbers. - Why do they keep calling the experts the experts if they're wrong every time? Trump's telling Muslims to stop killing each other and instead make a killing here in America, and it's working. Do you think the Democrats will give him any credit? Nah.

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As I said in my address last night, the Gulf Nations are at the forefront of creating a stable, peaceful, and prosperous Middle East. And I have to say that I've seen such progress. It's really incredible. I've also seen great unity in friendships. I've spent a little time with you just before this, and I've seen tremendous unity, tremendous friendship. And the whole world is watching the Middle East, and many are watching with envy. You have something very special going on. Incredible opportunities are within reach for this region. If we can simply stop the aggression from a small group of pretty bad actors, the Biden administration created Havoc and Bedlam by basically being incompetent, but by empowering Iran and its proxies, sending them billions of dollars, billions and billions of dollars. I couldn't believe it to watch. One of the reasons they said, "Let's do this again." But what they did was so bad while turning his back on the Gulf allies. Those days are over. Everybody at this table knows where my loyalties lie, always have. They'll never waver, never. And we'll stand with our friends and partners, and we'll confront the aggression that threatens us all.

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So this is an amazing week so far you get a deal with China I'm just gonna list it then we get into detail India and Pakistan played a big role Hopefully the peace stands you slash Prescription drug prices most favored nation the American people will get first dibs in terms of prices The last American hostage has been released. You've got we're on this trip to Saudi Arabia Qatar There's not much going on in your life. Is there? Well, I've been busy but I've enjoyed it because we're getting things accomplished. We're getting things done You know, you're gonna have times when you're working very hard and not getting things done that happens, too But we're getting a lot done. I don't think there's ever been a little period like this with the Potential nuclear war and two countries. They have very good leaders people. I know very well and Yeah, it was it was a very important process. We got involved with India and Pakistan

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but prescription drugs, which has been very, very painful for a lot of Americans. 80% of medications are created in America, and then we end up paying more for those medications. Foreign countries do not pay as much as we do. You said that is over. Can you explain why this is such a big deal? Well, for many years, we were taken advantage of by other countries and the drug companies, but I blame the other countries in a way more, the European Union, etc. They were very nasty and very tough to the drug companies, and they would give them a very low price for drug costs in the European nations. And when that price was given, that was it. They wouldn't negotiate. They said, "Let America pay for the difference." And this happened all over the world with other countries, and we had stupid people leading us, especially over the last four years. And they wouldn't do anything about it. And it turned out that we were paying, and sometimes you saw it ten times more for the same drug. Same drug, same company, same plant where they make it, laboratory. And it got to a point where I said, "We're not going to do this anymore." The pharmaceutical industry is very powerful, and probably the most powerful, considered the most powerful lobby. And the Democrats were making it impossible to lower drug prices. They knew what they were doing, and I instituted a most favored nation's provision or concept where we're going to pay whatever the lowest country pays in the world. So if it's the UK, which pays very low, and any country, it could be any country, whatever the lowest price is, and the drug companies have accepted it, everybody accepts it. But the Democrats never wanted to play ball. They never wanted to do anything. It's the Democrats' fault that people were being ripped off for years and years. And now I hear Democrats saying, "Oh, well, we're going to now go for the bill." It's going to be very hard for them not to approve the big, beautiful bill that we're doing. We're doing the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country because people are going to be getting a 50 to a 90 percent reduction in drug prices, not a half a percent. I remember when I would fight so hard to get a half a point, and I actually had it down a half a point for one year, and I was so proud of myself because that never happened before. It was always going up. Drugs only went in one direction. That's up. And now after studying the industry, it's a very complex industry, but I figured it out, and I said, "It's not going to happen." But the Democrats fought very hard to keep the prices of drugs very, very high. They really ought to blame for this because they should have done something about it. And when the Republicans went with requests, they said, "We're not going to approve it." And now we have a unified Republican Party, but I think the Democrats are going to approve this bill, too, because how are they going to reject a 60, 70, 80 percent drug cut? I don't think they can.

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>> The man on the mission, that's the focus of tonight's angle. Now, do you all remember the mornings when Biden used to call a lid before noon? Or when his enablers would shoe reporters out after every public event? Well, before noon today, Donald Trump made more pro-American policy announcements than Biden did in his entire first term. And he took more than a dozen questions from the press, no note cards. Then he got on a plane to Saudi Arabia for meetings with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and others. He hinted at a stopover at some point, maybe in Turkey, on the Russia-Ukraine issue. There's already a meeting set Thursday between those two powers. Now, I remember when Democrats used to demand peace, but now it's Republican President Donald Trump who's the peacemaker. >> I think good things can come out of that meeting. I stopped the bloodshed of the horrible to bloodbath. They're not American soldiers. They're from Russia, they're from Ukraine, but they're people. They're human souls, and they're being killed at levels that we haven't seen since the Second World War. We're working very hard to see if we can end that bloodbath. >> Now, this would be good for all sides and better for us. We do not have another $200 billion to blow there, period, end of story. But the goal never changes. Trump wants to put points on the board for America, for our people. On domestic, foreign policy, all those matters. Trump 2.0 is acting like an administration operating almost on borrowed time. What do I mean by that? They all know that their window for making real change in Washington is narrow. And Trump's a man on a mission. Issues that other presidents ignored or even made worse. He's diving into them, straight into them. Like resetting our global trade relationships, especially with China. But Trump's team met over the weekend with the Chinese, and both sides right now see a path forward. For at least the next 90 days, tariffs are coming down significantly. But can we really trust that China is going to change its ways? >> Yeah, I think they're going to follow through. I think they want it very badly. I think they want the deal very badly. Again, this doesn't include the steel tariffs that I put on a long time ago. That Biden tried to get off, but he couldn't get them off, because it was too much money. You know, I took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China, which a lot of people don't know. But we put on the tariffs originally. And if I didn't do that, we wouldn't have a steel industry today. Now we have a thriving steel industry. It'll be thriving much more with what we're doing, because this is the next level. >> Well, we know this. Wall Street liked what it saw. The stock market jumped more than 1,100 points today. More on this with Jameson Greer, the U.S. trade rep, who was in the negotiations in a few minutes. Now, there was also good news on the release of Eden Alexander, that American hostage held by Hamas for more than 580 days. Trump's team has been pressing for his release. Now, this is the moment his mother heard his voice on the phone for the first time in over a year. >> They just released a photo of you. You look unbelievable. Wow. You look beautiful. I love you so much. And I'm going to see you, like, soon. >> Well, they were celebrating in Israel and in Tenafly, New Jersey, where his family is from. Now, Trump has made bringing home all of our prisoners held unfairly by foreign countries a top priority. Fantastic. And then there's a small matter of Trump helping to prevent a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. >> We helped also with trade. I said, come on. We're going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let's stop it. Let's stop it. If you stop it, we're doing trade. If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade. People have never really used trade the way I used it, that I can tell you. And all of a sudden, they said, I think we're going to stop. We're going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan. We're going to do a lot of trade with India. We're negotiating with India right now. We're going to be soon negotiated with Pakistan. And we stopped the nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war. >> Again, could Biden or Harris have exerted any of this pressure? They wouldn't even know where to start. And their answer would have been something like, we're going to convene the UN Security Council for a meaningless vote on this. Now, finally, perhaps most important, the most important move by Trump today was against the obscene prices Americans pay for prescription drugs versus the rest of the world. Pharma's probably going to take him to court over this. But if this executive order survives legal scrutiny, get ready to save a lot of money. More on this coming up with FDA commissioner Marty McCarry. But all of these big issues, taxes, deregulation, the cost of living, energy, the border, the pursuit of peace, the push for more investment and manufacturing in America, look, Trump is firing on all cylinders. Not everything may work out. Not everything is always supported by a majority in Congress. But no one, and I mean no one, can doubt that we have a president who is trying with everything he has pushing his staff 24/7, and he pushes them to deliver results for the American people. Just think of where we were a year ago. The contrast could not be clearer. And that's the angle.

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