Remarks in an Exchange With Reporters Upon Arrival in Kenner, Louisiana

Promotion Ceremony for United States Army Reserve Major General Andreé G. "Ana" Carter

The President. I just promoted the general to a two-star major general.

Q. Congratulations.

The President. She's lucky to—she has a Congressman she's got to take care of all the time. [Laughter] But this is it. That's why we were upstairs. I was pinning it on. So I just want to let you know what we were doing.

Q. Mr. President, what do you have to say about conflict in the Middle East?

Cancer Prevention, Detection, and Treatment/Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)

Q. Mr. President, how important is it to make this announcement that will aid the cancer fight?

The President. It's critically important. I started this back in the administration with President—at the time, when I was Vice President.

And we found out that—I traveled to every major cancer research facility in the world. And we found out that there's a lot more we could do if they shared more data and information. It wasn't being shared. That was the Cancer Moonshot.

And then, when I got elected when I ran for President, I decided to set up a cancer facility patterned on DARPA, which is the Defense Intelligence Agency position that is separate and apart from everything else. They're the ones that came up with everything from—anyway, they—all of the major breakthroughs.

So that's what we're doing with DARPA. And we're going to continue. We've—a billion five the last 3 years, and we're going to continue it.

But we—I'll let you get out of the sun.

Q. Mr. President, are you very concerned about the—[inaudible]—in the Middle East?

Middle East/Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel

Q. Mr. President, what do you have to say about the conflict in the Middle East?

The President. Of course I'm concerned about it. We——

Q. Speaking to Benjamin Netanyahu, there have been reports that you told him to stop bullshitting. Like, what exactly are you doing to put pressure on him to get to the table?

The President. If I told you what pressure I was putting on, it wouldn't be very much pressure, would it?

Anyway, so——

Ukraine/Russia

Q. Mr. President, what do you have to say about what's happening in Russia and Ukraine? Have you spoken with anyone in the Ukrainian Government?

The President. I have spoken with my staff on a regular basis probably every 4 or 5 hours for the last 6 or 8 days. And it's creating a real dilemma for Putin. And we've been in direct contact—constant contact with the Ukrainians.

That's all I'm going to say about it while it's active. Okay?

Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire and Hostage Release Deal/Iran

Q. On the Middle East, do you think you can still get to a cease-fire deal, or is that starting to be a distinct—a distant possibility?

The President. It's getting hard. We'll see what Ukraine—we'll see what Iran does, and we'll see what happens if there's any attack. But I'm not giving up.

Q. Are those two things tied together? Is—do you have the understanding that Iran could cease or stop doing a—an action if a cease-fire deal was possible?

The President. That's my expectation, but we'll see.

Thank you.