Trump's response to F-35 question: We must decide who to give the F-35s to, I asked Turkey to stay out of the Israel-Iran war

The highlights of Donald Trump's statements were as follows:

I thank President Erdoğan. He is a great leader. He has a strong personality. That is why it is a successful country. Militarily, it is extremely strong. He has done an incredible job. Militarily, it is extremely strong. From the moment we got off the plane, the roads coming here from the airport were very beautiful. He built a new airport for our arrival. Everything was very beautiful. I thank Erdoğan very much.

MARK IS DOING A VERY GOOD JOB

I also thank Mark Rutte. It is not easy to lead such great leaders. Each one of them is a leader with a strong personality. Mark is doing a very good job. We cannot find anyone better than him. We saw a lot of love in this room.

THE PRESS MEMBERS COULD NOT SEE WHAT WE DID

Every leader here took the floor, and I did too. We kept the speeches short. The members of the press could not see what we did there. They are very smart people and people with a lot of goodness in their hearts. They are doing very good work for their countries. The tension has decreased a little, it needs to stay that way. It would have decreased 47 years ago if what was necessary regarding Iran had been done.

THE US LED A HISTORIC EFFORT

The US led a historic effort. It led with equipment that no other country possesses. When you look at Venezuela and Iran, we destroyed their entire military in a very short time.

MOST OF IRAN'S MISSILE LAUNCHERS WERE DESTROYED

All their aircraft were destroyed, they burned on the runways. Their radars were destroyed. Their combat forces also dropped significantly. They have very few missiles left and missile launchers left, and most of those were also destroyed.

WE HAVE THE BEST MILITARY IN THE WORLD

We have by far the best military in the world. Other countries cannot even come close to us. Most of the leaders understood the US very well. They acknowledged that the US is by far the country that contributes the most to NATO.

WE HAVE INVESTED AT A RECORD LEVEL IN OUR ARMED FORCES

It was not like this 2 years ago. NATO had left us alone. Now, we have invested at a record level in our armed forces in dollar terms. We will spend these investments on the best equipment in the world. We will invest more than 1 trillion per year in defense, which is an incredible amount of money. Here, we agreed to accelerate the plans and reach the 5 percent target as soon as possible. We agreed to increase current spending in other NATO member countries as well.

We are putting pressure on defense companies here to produce the best equipment. We have the Patriots, the best equipment. We are trying to implement these plans with other companies as much as possible, for example with Boeing. These companies have very big plans. We are telling them to build more factories and we are saying that we will no longer impose taxes.

They are working 24 hours a day to produce defense equipment. We already saw it in Venezuela. They also had equipment, but it did not work for them. Our equipment both works and creates much more impact.

Within 1.5 years, waiting 3 months for the production of equipment will be enough. There are many countries waiting to receive defense equipment. Attack and defense equipment. And we are producing this equipment, and we see that European countries and Canada are spending this money largely on US equipment.

Thanks to this equipment, we have created jobs for tens of thousands of people. We have created the most jobs in US history. Of course, this figure rose much higher with the tariffs. It has risen 6 times higher. Firms do not want high tariffs in foreign countries, and that is why the biggest investments ever are being made in the US.

NEVER SEEN BEFORE IN OUR HISTORY

I said it when I took office. You have 1.5 years to build a factory. Otherwise, I said if you produce chips or set up an automotive factory, I will give you incentives. Something incredible happened. Something like this has never been seen in our history.

A period where so many manufacturing facilities were built has not been seen. Artificial intelligence facilities, power plants are being built. The sector is already like this. The whole country needs more energy than it produces. If you took all the energy the US produces, that huge, powerful artificial intelligence sector would have to use more than 2 times that energy.

I AM NUMBER ONE ON TIKTOK

Supporting the grid would not just be enough. We are leaving China behind in artificial intelligence. TikTok is being talked about, for example. I am number one on TikTok. I looked at the numbers a short while ago and I am number 1 there. Even the names of the most famous entertainment sectors are in the 27th-29th ranks.

EUROPEAN COUNTRIES WILL BUILD THEIR ARMIES WITH US EQUIPMENT

People see how bad those who were against us in the election look. This is not just a matter for the social democrats. They do not want successful work to be done in our country.

European countries will build their armies with US equipment. The biggest beneficiary of this process will be the equipment manufacturing firms.

We decided to make a 3 trillion dollar investment together with US companies. These are the firms that produce the best systems globally. We decided to take forward-looking steps regarding advanced UAV technologies.

Poland is in very good shape, by the way. They have very good heads of state. The news Toyota announced yesterday was not much of a surprise. It will probably be the largest automotive factory in the US.

SHARA DID A VERY GOOD JOB

I held a series of important meetings in the last 2 days. We had dinner with all the leaders last night. President Erdoğan, Zelenskyy... He was also with me at the press conference. On the other hand, Shara... She also did a very good job. It was in a very bad state during the previous administration.

THE US IS BACK

In the speeches, we saw once again that the US is back. We are stronger, we are respected more than we have ever seen before. I also told Mark Rutte, 'I wish the press could see what was in this room,' I said.

We had a very successful summit. Once again, I thank President Erdoğan and the other heads of state.

Q&A

Why can't you end the Iran war?

We are actually doing the exact opposite. Iran will no longer have nuclear weapons. There is a reason for this too. We denuclearized Iran. They had hidden them under granite mountains. We went and destroyed them. It was an incredible success. Oil prices have dropped significantly compared to when it first started. Everything they had is gone... We can call this a success, this is a great success.

Their leaders are gone, another group of leaders came, they are gone too, maybe someone else will come and they will go too. Maybe I will go too. I am also target number 1.

The US military is in extremely good shape. We have done very good work. You know we also implemented the blockade very well. We did a very good job in Venezuela. Maduro is in prison right now. They were taking criminals out of prisons and sending them to our country.

Right now, 0 people are coming down from our southern border. We achieved this in the last 1 year. Millions of people were entering from this border. Most of them were drug dealers. Many people from Congo, South America, and different countries were entering our country.

Question: You issued a wake-up call regarding the dangers of communism in the US. What do people living in communist and socialist regimes not know?

Selling communism is actually very easy. I would have been the best communist in history. I would say you will not pay rent for the rest of your life, but they don't tell you that you will live in a shanty for 12 months. Communism had very bad results everywhere in the world, so it is a very important issue. I have a very good relationship with Hispanic groups because they are people who come especially from communist countries.

When you say social democrat, it does not sound very pleasant to their ears. I am talking about this issue. Communism has never worked. We have created more job opportunities in the US than ever before. I am talking about the workers. They are earning more money than ever before. I really see what is happening. The poor... There are people we call the rabble. They show them as examples, but these people saw the 1st and 2nd World Wars in the past, they were also very big dangers. Once you go to communism, you cannot take it back, you live in poverty and everything becomes terrible.

In recent months, you said that Iranian people were reasonable and strong people to deal with. Today, you are saying the exact opposite?

There is reasonableness at different levels. We are talking about being reasonable at the 3rd level, not the 1st level right now. When you look at what they have done recently, I can say that they are not doing reasonable things at all.

Looking at the volatility in Brent oil prices, what will happen from now on?

Oil prices are falling very fast. They rose a little now, but they will fall again. We will be very good at oil production. I will be proven right on this issue as well, as I am on every issue. I won the election 2 times with my rightness. If it hadn't been rigged, I would have won 3 times. One must be sure of this. We cannot allow people who have lost their minds to possess nuclear weapons. Our planes went and hit Iranian facilities months ago. We can even read the badges of the people in those nuclear facilities.

We followed closely and hit all the points. If we didn't have that, they would have had nuclear weapons in their hands and they would have destroyed Israel. If I were not president, there would be no country called Israel. The nuclear deal Obama made. It gave them everything. The great work we are doing right now is much more important than other issues. What is really important is the prevention of Iran's nuclear program.

You said you had reservations about coming with Air Force One due to security concerns?

A head of state's life can be in danger. If your chance of dying in a bullfight is 1 in 10 thousand, my chance of dying is much higher. I am doing a dangerous job and I am number 1 on Iran's death list. I am doing my job, but I am doing it better than anyone else. I said this because I saw it on the news yesterday. I saw that I am number 1 on Iran's death list, just as I am on TikTok.

Will you return home with your new Air Force plane?

We wanted to show that plane to people. I will go home using normal methods. The plane will especially go to a few bases. Because it is a beautiful plane.

It seems that the war with Iran may start again. What is your expectation from European allies?

It will not actually start again. They only have a few ships left. They asked, 'Will you hit them tonight?' We said, 'We can hit them.' When we hit them, we speak their language. If anything happens, it will be concluded very quickly. We cleared the blockage in the Strait of Hormuz. Whatever is going to happen will happen very quickly anyway.

You said that countries like Spain, Italy, and England did not come to the aid of the US. Would the US help if these countries were attacked?

Some behaved very well, but they did not help us. I asked if we needed help, England for example said, 'When the war is over.' Our most important keyword today is 'unity.' All the countries here love us. We saw a very good spirit of unity.

Following your meeting with Erdoğan, did you and Erdoğan reach a consensus regarding Turkey's return to the F-35 program?

We had a very good relationship in my 1st term. I called Erdoğan during the Pastor Brunson incident and he released him. I did not pay billions of dollars like Biden and Obama. He is a very good person. Brunson visited me in the Oval Office the next day. Everything was very bad during Biden's time. Our relationship with many countries was very bad, but this situation changed on November 5th and it is one of our best relationships... Everyone wants the F-35s. We need to decide who to give them to. I asked Turkey to stay out of the Israel-Iran war. We have a very strong relationship with Turkey. It is the country with the 2nd strongest army in NATO. I have not made my decision completely for the F-35, but my thought is, he has helped us very strongly.

News Source: 12punto