Donald Trump on AI, China, Iran & Ireland — Doonbeg Press Gaggle Transcript — September 13, 2026

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim remarks00:02Everybody having a good time? Shane's playing great. It's not an easy game, but he's playing great. He's having a good time. Great course, nice hotel. I'm going to wait around, you all. I'm going to wait right here (Inaudible) truth. I'll leave a little bit late, get back in Washington a little later, but we'll be we'll be hanging around. Great tournament, isn't it?

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased00:28[The press agrees that the tournament is going well.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer00:30Thank you, everybody, very much.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased00:31[A reporter asks whether the Federal Reserve is expected to raise rates the following week; part of the question is inaudible.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer00:34On what?

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased00:35[The reporter clarifies that the question is about a Federal Reserve rate increase.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer00:37I don't know. I don't know. We should be paying. The United States is so strong, we should be paying the lowest interest rate in the world, regardless of their formulas. I know more about formulas than anybody, and we're the best credit in the world. We make other countries rich. We could turn that off in two minutes. You understand that.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased00:56[A reporter asks whether Congress would need to approve the proposed $5,000 payment to adults.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer01:03I don't know, but it's easy enough. If the Republicans win, as I say, it's $5,000 to all adults in the country, and we can easily handle that because we're taking in so much money. We've never done better. The Democrats can't make that pledge because it'll all go to hell right away. If Democrats get in, you'll go into a depression. If we get in, we will continue this incredible situation. I mean, we have the strongest, we're the strongest we've ever been. We have trillions of dollars coming into the country. And the 5,000 is going to everybody. I made that pledge. I always keep my pledge. You know, they all said we couldn't get the Great Big Beautiful Bill done, right? They all said we'd never be able to get the 1776 to the military last year. That's $1,776. That's a lot of money, a lot of military. I got them taken care of. But remember that, they said, "You'll never get the Great Big Beautiful --" 'Cause it was 20 bills wrapped up into one. That's why we call it the Great Big Beautiful Bill. They said, "No chance." Guess what? I got done no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. And by the way, when, if the Democrats, for any reason, want all of the no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security for our great seniors, no tax on overtime, it all gets terminated. Who wants that? The country is booming. The country's booming. Iran will end right after the mid, maybe before, but it'll end right after the midterms. Uh, gasoline's going to drop like a rock, just like it was just before I got, I mean, I knew what I was doing. I got, I had to do it. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And, and they won't have a nuclear weapon.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased02:47[A reporter begins a question about whether the timing of the Iran conflict would affect talks.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer02:52It could end before, look, it could end before the midterm, but it'll end after the midterm. And Iran, I will tell you this, Iran wants to make a deal so badly. They are calling constantly. They want to make a deal. They got to make the right deal. I'm not going to make a deal that's no good.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased03:11[A reporter asks about Gulf countries meeting with Iran on Monday.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer03:17I don't care. That's up to them. That's fine. They can be happy, you know? Israel, along with the nations that we're talking about and they're happy. That's fine. 'Cause ultimately get out, unless we decide to stay and keep the oil like Venezuela. You don't talk about Venezuela anymore, do you? Taking in billions and billions and billions of dollars. We paid for the war many times, many, many times, so we'll see.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased03:49[A reporter asks a partly inaudible question in which Vladimir Putin is mentioned.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer03:50Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. Wait a minute. You want, can I talk? Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel 'cause he's causing a shortage of diesel fuel. This isn't done by the Middle East, this is done by what's happening with Russia and Ukraine. So we spoke to Mr. Zelenskyy about it. There are plenty of other targets. Don't hit diesel fuel because that's hurting, that's hurting the world. We don't want him to hit diesel fuel.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased04:25[A reporter starts a follow-up before another question turns to Andy Burnham.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer04:27He's hitting diesel refineries. Yeah, go ahead.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased04:30[A reporter asks whether Andy Burnham should support a referendum on a united Ireland after Trump's comments the previous day.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer04:36Are you talking about my comments on Ireland?

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased04:38[The reporter confirms the question concerns Trump's comments on Ireland and presses on whether it is time for a vote; part is inaudible.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer04:40Well, look, I'm somebody that owns fantastic property here. This is one of the greatest golf courses anywhere in the world. You see that. It's really showed so well. Players are coming out saying one of the best they've ever played. Yeah, I've always loved the people of Ireland, and it just seems to me that you have Northern Ireland and you have Ireland, and it would seem to me that one of the naturals of all time is put them together, so, that's only my opinion, but, and by the way, many people agree. I made the comment just, I just, I made what I considered to be a fairly routine comment. I had, I have had so much support on that. And then they asked me about Scotland. That one I won't talk about yet. I'll save that for another day. They're talking about Scotland. I'll say, if you don't mind, I'll save that for another day.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased05:27[A reporter asks which golfer at the tournament Trump would most like to play a round with.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer05:30Here right now?

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased05:30[The reporter clarifies that the question means among the golfers there right now.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer05:32Well, right now I'll take Shane and I'll also take Rory and I'll also take about 40 others because, you know what, they're great players. They're all great, every one of them. It's amazing. It's a tough course. But Shane is playing, look, Shane had nine one-putts in a row yesterday. I watched it. I said, "That's not bad." So, but he's playing great. I know the people of Ireland would love to see it.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased05:54[A reporter says Trump would face some competition.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer05:55Yeah, I would have competition. I think so. I'd have a little competition.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased05:59[A reporter asks whether Trump is worried President Xi Jinping could cancel their upcoming summit; the final reason is inaudible.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer06:02No, I'm not worried about that. No. We have a great relationship. He wants to get along, and we want it. We're going to get along. Uh, China's been, I think, very fair with us over the last number of years that I've been there. But over the years, over the decades, but over the years and during Biden and during Obama, China took tremendous advantage of the United States. Did you hear that sound?

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased06:26[A reporter asks what the sound was.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer06:27I don't know, but it was Shane. I don't -- it wasn't, it wasn't negative. It was positive.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased06:31[A reporter asks when Trump expects democratic elections in Venezuela.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer06:37Well, when they're ready. The people of Venezuela now are so happy because they were living in a tough situation. And now, the oil companies are going in. A lot of money's being made. Venezuela's making a tremendous amount of money, so are we. And it's, you know, we have all the big companies going in there now and they're drilling. And when they start really drilling, when that really starts to happen, it's already happening, but the people of Venezuela are very, very happy. You know, it was a very sad, it was a very sad country, actually. The people -- excuse me. It was a very sad country, and now the people are very happy. People of Venezuela are very happy, and they see what's happening. And by the way, jobs are being created by the thousands. But the oil companies, all the big companies that really couldn't or wouldn't go there, they're all there now. They're all going in. ExxonMobil wants to go in. Chevron is in there big already. They're they're really moving and they're moving, and they're moving very quickly. And we're taking millions of barrels of oil out of Venezuela and bringing it to Houston, refining it. It's a lot of, a lot of oil.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased07:41[Reporters overlap while asking about Benjamin Netanyahu and beginning a separate question about AI.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer07:44Bibi, get along with him?

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased07:46[A reporter asks whether Trump will endorse Benjamin Netanyahu in his election.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer07:47Well, I haven't even looked at the race. I can say that I have a very good relationship with him. Yeah.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased07:53[A reporter asks whether recent concerns about AI mean the industry should slow down or face more regulation.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer07:59Well, I say this. Look, we're leading China in AI. We're the most sophisticated country in the world. And frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins. And we can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing it up, and they're bringing up things that won't happen. But whoever wins with AI wins, you know? It's an expression that I came up with and it's true. We're building billions and billions of dollars, you look at the plants and factories, forgetting about AI for a second, we have more auto factories under construction right now than we have had in many, many decades, maybe ever. Maybe ever. He likes being on camera this week. Thank you very much. I didn't want to be impolite in asking. He's a much better looking guy than me, so I didn't know.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased08:54[A reporter asks whether Trump saw footage of protests against his visit in Dublin and what he thinks of the opposition.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer08:59I don't know. You know, you remind me of somebody. Let's see. Very good Irish singer who passed away recently. Do you know who that is? Sinead. Yeah, you look like Sinead O'Connor. And that's, that's a compliment 'cause she sang beautiful.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased09:16[A reporter asks about Andy Burnham's response to Trump's comments on a united Ireland.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer09:22I don't know what he said, Tom.

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased09:24[The reporter begins to summarize Burnham's position on a referendum, but the sentence trails off.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer09:27Everybody says that and then things happen. By the way, I've spoken to him. I think he's a very nice guy. He tends to be on the liberal side, unfortunately. The one thing he is going to be doing, I think he's going to be stopping the stupid windmills, and he's be going, he's going to be drilling in the North Sea. That's my impression. I hope no windmills. If you have a windmill in your backyard --

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased09:47[A reporter reminds Trump that she previously asked him about windmills in the Oval Office.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer09:52Who are you with?

Press (editorial paraphrase) — question paraphrased09:53[The reporter says she is with Real America's Voice.]

President Donald J. Trump — verbatim answer09:54That's good. No, no windmills. Windmills, if you have a windmill near your house, your house is practically valueless. Uh, i- -- it's the most expensive form. It's so sad when I go over. You know, Ireland's been very good on windmills. They have proportionately far less than Scotland. Scotland is, it's a shame what they've done. Here's the good thing about a windmill: it can be taken down. But you know, it's so bad, it's so pathetic, you can't really bury them. They say the blades will cause all sorts of problems in the earth. They got something for everything, but the truth is, Scotland has the great North Sea. You have oil among the finest in the world, really incredible. The oil companies call me all the time, "Please, we'd like to go to the North Sea." And you know where Scotland gets its oil from? The North Sea. It buys it from Norway. Can you believe it? And Norway's got, and Denmark. It buys it from other countries, coming out of the North Sea. Can you imagine that? So, they don't want to drill. Tell me about it. Instead, they're paying a huge premium to buy oil from the North Sea. And they have North Sea prime, and the oil they're buying is not prime. So Scotland can be and, and UK can be a very, very wealthy country if they open up the North Sea. And, and the capital of, you know, it used to be the capital of oil, but the capital of European oil was in Aberdeen. Aberdeen was an unbelievable capital, and it could be again. But they should, if they open up the North Sea, the UK is going to be rich. If they don't open up the North Sea, the UK is bankrupt. Thank you, everybody.