Trump says they talked about Hamas and disarmament.
Hamas “will be given a very short period to disarm”, he says, “and we’ll see how that works out.”
But if they don’t disarm – as they agreed to do, they agreed to it – then there’ll be hell to pay for them.
And we don’t want that. But they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time.
Key events
Donald Trump’s actions and incendiary remarks in the first year of his second presidential term have left many women, people of color and their allies in a tailspin. My colleague Melissa Hellman has collated the racism and misogyny of the past year, in the president’s own words.
And that’s it, the press conference is over.
Trump said he wanted to move to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan “as quickly as we can, but there has to be a disarmament” from Hamas. He said Hamas would be given “a very short period of time” in which it must disarm or “there’ll be hell to pay for them”.
Trump also claimed that if Hamas doesn’t disarm, there are other countries that backed the ceasefire plan that were willing to “go in and wipe them out”.
Despite reports that senior officials in his administration are frustrated with Netanyahu stalling the peace process by refusing to further withdraw his forces from Gaza, Trump said he was “not concerned about anything that Israel is doing”. “Israel has lived up to the plan, 100%,” he said.
But, Trump said, he and Netanyahu don’t fully agree on the issue of the occupied West Bank. “We don’t agree on the West Bank 100%, but we’ll come to a conclusion on the West Bank,” he said, adding he believes Netanyahu “will do the right thing”.
And on Iran, Trump responded to reports that Tehran is rebuilding its nuclear program, saying that they’re possibly using new sites to do so. “If they are, we’re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that build-up,” he said.
However, he also claimed that Iran wants to make a deal and urged them to do so, adding later that he would support the US engaging in bilateral talks with Tehran.
Robert Mackey
Asked during the news conference about his search for a new Federal Reserve chair, Donald Trump offered no details about who he intends to nominate but launched an extended attack on the current chairman, Jerome Powell, in which the president repeated false claims about the cost of a renovation of the central bank headquarters, and told reporters that he might file a lawsuit against Powell for “gross incompetence”.
Trump began his response by boasting about what he said was the great state of the US economy, before adding that it was so, “despite the fact that we have a fool at the Federal Reserve.”
“I mean, Biden reappointed him. It’s too bad. You would have thought he wouldn’t have done that,” Trump said, without any acknowledgment that he had first appointed Powell himself, in 2018.
“But he’s an absolute fool,” the president continued, “who’s building a new Federal Reserve, or he’s doing a renovation of a building.”
Turning to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump then repeated a false claim about the cost of the renovation fo the central bank headquarters he has been making for months.
“Bibi, he’s up to $4.1 billion to do a renovation of a few small buildings,” Trump said, wildly inflating the cost of the renovation, which, as Powell pointed out to Trump on camera this summer, is $2.5nb.
“It’s the highest price in the history of construction,” Trump went on.
The president then suggested that the “magnificent, big, beautiful ballroom that the country has wanted, that the White House has wanted for 150 years”, which he is building in place of the demolished East Wing of the White House, will cost “a tiny fraction of that number.”
On the ballroom, Trump said, “we’re under budget and ahead of schedule.”
He then immediately contradicted himself, by acknowledging that the latest cost estimate for the ballroom, $400 million, is double the $200 million he said it would cost a few months earlier.
The increased cost, Trump said, came “after realizing that we’re gonna do the inauguration in that building,” which required “all bullet-proof glass” and a “drone-free roof, so drones won’t touch it.”
Pushed to say more about who he had in mind for the new Fed chair, Trump instead suggested that he was considering a lawsuit against Powell, the man he installed as chair in 2018.
“Gorgeous monuments are built for a much smaller price” than the Federal Reserve renovation, Trump said. “So we’re thinking about bringing a gross incompetence, what’s called a gross incompetence lawsuit, it’s gross incompetence, against Powell,” the president told reporters.
Trump makes the extraordinary claim that there are countries – other than Israel – that are willing to go in and “wipe out” Hamas if it doesn’t to disarm.
He didn’t name any of these countries or give further details.
Asked about Chinese military drills near Taiwan, Trump says: “It doesn’t worry me.”
He adds that Chinese president Xi Jinping hasn’t told him anything about it.
Asked if he would support engaging in bilateral discussions with Tehran, Trump says he would support that.
Asked about Lebanon’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah and whether Israel should strike Hezbollah again, Trump says:
Hezbollah’s been behaving badly so we’ll see what happens.
Asked if he and Netanyahu have an understanding on Syria, Trump says: “We do have an understanding regarding Syria.”
Calling Syria’s president Ahmed al-Sharaa a “very strong guy” that he respects, he adds:
I’m sure that him and Israel will get along. I will try and make it so that they get along.
Trump says he’s “not concerned” about Israel’s actions, with regards to moving to phase two of the Gaza ceasefire plan.
I’m not concerned about anything that Israel is doing. I’m concerned about what other people are doing or maybe aren’t doing, but I’m not concerned. They’ve lived up to the plan. They’re strong.
Israel has lived up to the plan, 100%.
Earlier we reported that senior officials in the Trump administration are reportedly frustrated with Netanyahu “undermin[ing] the fragile ceasefire and stall[ing] the peace process”, as he is refusing to further withdraw Israeli troops from Gaza until Hamas disarms.
The second phase of the deal includes Israel’s further withdrawal, Hamas’ disarmament, the beginning of reconstruction of Gaza and the establishment of its interim postwar governing body.
Trump says he hopes Iran isn’t trying to build up its missile programme again, adding:
If they are, we’re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that build-up.
I hope Iran is not trying to build up, as I’ve been reading, that they’re building up weapons and other things, and if they are, they’re not using the sites that we obliterated, but they’re using possibly different sites.
Trump says he knows “what they’re doing” and “we can’t let them build up again”.
He adds that he doesn’t want to “waste a lot of fuel” that would be required to send US bombers there for a second attack.
Asked about Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank and whether settler violence is undermining the peace process, Trump says he and Netanyahu “don’t agree on the West Bank 100%, but we’ll come to a conclusion on the West Bank”.
“He will do the right thing,” he adds, gesturing towards Netanyahu.
Trump didn’t go into details during this press conference about what their disagreement is, but he did say back in September that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.
Trump says they talked about Hamas and disarmament.
Hamas “will be given a very short period to disarm”, he says, “and we’ll see how that works out.”
But if they don’t disarm – as they agreed to do, they agreed to it – then there’ll be hell to pay for them.
And we don’t want that. But they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time.
