Remarks on Signing a Proclamation on Gulf of America Day and an Exchange With Reporters Aboard Air Force One En Route to New Orleans, Louisiana

The President. You know, we're flying over—right now we're flying over a thing called the "Gulf of America." And I'm signing a proclamation, and perhaps you could define that.

White House Staffer Venetia Resciniti. Yes. This is a proclamation declaring today, February 9, 2025, as the first ever "Gulf of America Day." This follows the President's Executive order issuing a name change from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

The President. And we are flying right over it right now. So we thought this would be appropriate—even bigger than the Super Bowl. This is a big thing. And almost everybody now has assented to that. And I——

[At this point, an Air Force One crewmember made an announcement over the cabin speakers.]

Air Force One crewmember. Attention on board.

The President. Oh.

Air Force One crewmember. Ladies and gentlemen, if you could please direct your attention out the right side of the aircraft. Air Force One is currently in international waters, for the first time in history flying over the recently renamed Gulf of America.

Please enjoy the flight, and we are now about to head westbound to Super Bowl LIX.

The President. Wow, he did that well. That's a good captain. [Applause] He did—isn't that—isn't that nice? [Laughter] You know, we're about make America great again, right? That's what we care about.

Okay. Here we go.

[The President signed a proclamation titled "Gulf of America Day, 2025."]

So this is a famous pen now, and we'll put it with something. I'll ask you to do whatever you think we should do with it, Mr. Secretary.

Do you want to talk about—you know Doug, Secretary of the Interior, and also working with Chris Wright on extracting vast amounts of oil and gas and making our country rich.

Would you like to say something, Doug?

Secretary of the Interior Douglas J. Burgum. Well, with the Gulf of America, this is a historic day. We want to thank President Trump. His executive order is what set this in motion.

We signed a secretarial order from—as secretary of Interior, directing the U.S. Geologic Survey, who is responsible for the database, which is the Geographic Names Informational System. And so, just prior to this signing, if you will, the button was pushed. It became official with this proclamation to call today Gulf of America Day.

But now it's going out. As we're sitting here right now, our team is calling all the map providers—so Google Maps, Apple Maps, all the map people. That change will take effect this afternoon to Gulf of America.

So, again, fantastic. Thank you, President Trump, for setting this all in motion with your executive order.

The President. Thank you.

Secretary Burgum. It's an exciting, fun day and great to do this as we're flying over the Gulf of America.

The President. We thought it would be very appropriate. We thought it would be appropriate.

Kathryn, thank you very much for being here.

Kathryn Burgum, wife of Secretary Burgum. So happy to be here.

The President. You've been a very important part of his life. And who knows what would have happened to him without you? [Laughter] It might not have been good.

Here you go.

[The President displayed the signed proclamation.]

Okay?

Renaming of the Gulf of Mexico

Q. Have you talked to Mexico about this? Did they have any——

The President. Actually, interestingly, I've never spoken to them about it. It was our call, and I have not spoken to them about—I've spoken to them about many other things, but I haven't really talked to them about this. They have never brought it up. I'm a little surprised at that, but they've never brought it up.

Russia/Ukraine

Q. Sir, could you tell us about your conversation with Vladimir Putin?

The President. I don't want to do that now. You know, we're trying to end that war. It's a war that would have never happened if I were President. It would have never happened. But we're making progress, but I can't tell you.

Judicial Review

Q. You suffered a couple of court losses, Mr. President. And J.D. Vance said judges aren't allowed to control the executive power. What's your take on that?

The President. Well, we're going to see what happens. We have a long way to go.

And we're talking about fraud, waste, abuse. And when a president can't look for fraud and waste and abuse, we don't have a country anymore. So we're very disappointed with the judges that would make such a ruling. But we have a long way to go.

We have to look. We have to find all of the fraud that's going on. We have tremendous fraud, tremendous waste, and tremendous abuse and—and theft, by the way. And the day you're not allowed to look for theft and fraud, et cetera, then we don't have much of a country.

So no judge should be—no judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision. It's a disgrace.

Q. Mr. President——

Q. A few years ago——

The President's Foreign Policy/Canada

Q. Gulf of Mexico—Gulf of America, Canada, Greenland, Gaza—all these are very muscular foreign policy. How does this align with "America First"?

The President. Because it makes us bigger, stronger, and better and more protected.

We need Greenland because of national security—international security, world security, world peace. And we'll have to do that.

Canada—we'll see what happens with Canada, but the people of Canada would be paying less than half of the tax. If you look at the tax, they're going to be paying less than half the tax. You know, they don't pay very much for military, and the reason they don't pay much is, they assume that we're going to protect them. That's not an assumption they can make, because why are we protecting another country?

Now, I love the people of Canada. We have a great relationship. But if they became our 51st State, it would be the greatest thing they could ever do. It would be unbelievable. It would be a cherished State.

And think of how beautiful that country would be without that artificial line running right through it. Somebody drew it many years ago with a ruler, just a line. You look at how beautiful that is—wow. It would be very exciting. But if you look at Canada, it would be cherished as a 51st State.

They don't pay their share of military in NATO. They pay very little for military. They're not protected at all. And the reason is, they think we're going to protect them.

The other thing is, we subsidize them to the tune of about $200 billion a year. If we stop doing that, if we stop allowing them to make cars, through tariffs and other things—cars, trucks, et cetera, what they make—they're not viable as a country.

Immigration Enforcement/Canada

Q. So would you—would you agree that it's a more aggressive foreign policy than your first term? And why is that?

The President. It's more aggressive. It's better.

Why? Because I think I've had a lot of experience. And in my first term, I was fighting everybody, because they were very aggressive toward me. I always said "survival" and "taking care of the country," not necessarily in that order.

But I had to take care of the country, but I had a bunch of lunatics, like Pelosi and all of these people—they fought me, fought me, fought me, and we won. And you know, I had a lot of other things that were going on there.

This time, it's much more—they've lost their confidence. I think they've lost the respect of the American people with, you know, men participating in women's sports, with open borders, with transgender for everybody, for—all the things that they're doing is so—so bad. When you allow people to empty their jails into your country with prisoners, killers—their mental institutions and insane asylums into our country—this is what they're doing. When you allow gang members from Venezuela, but many other countries, coming into our country. We're getting them all out now.

They've lost their credibility, but they've also lost their confidence. So, I have more time to do what I want to do.

So we're making our country larger. We're making our country stronger. And in the case of Canada, if this should happen—I don't know how they can do it without us, because without the U.S., Canada really doesn't have a country. They do almost all of their business with us. And if we say we want our cars to be made in Detroit, I—with a stroke of a pen, I can do that. And other things, in addition to that, would not allow Canada to be a viable country.

Pardons and Commutations/Civil Unrest and Violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021

Q. Mr. President, you said you——

Q. Mr. President, you——

Q. You said you didn't want to——

Q. ——you're going to honor first responders today, but you pardoned hundreds of people who assaulted first responders. Why did you do that?

The President. Who? I'm sorry.

Q. You are going to meet with first responders today.

The President. Yes.

Q. But you pardoned people who assaulted first responders—hundreds of them.

The President. No, I pardoned people that were assaulted themselves. They were assaulted by our Government. I pardoned J6 people who were assaulted by our Government. That's who were assaulted. And they were treated unfairly. There's never been a group of people in this country—outside of maybe one instance that I can think of, but I won't get into it—that were treated more horribly than the people of J6.

So, no, I didn't assault—they didn't assault. They were assaulted, and what I did was a great thing for humanity. They were treated very, very unfairly. There's never been an incident like it.

Russia/Ukraine

Q. Mr. President, just two foreign policy—two foreign policy questions. On Putin, again, you realize, if you don't clarify that, everyone is going to assume you're talking to President Putin regularly. Are you a——

The President. Well, they can assume that.

Q. So is it safe to assume?

The President. It makes sense. Well, I don't want to talk about it. And if we are talking, I don't want to tell you about the conversation. It's too early. But I do believe we're making progress. We want to stop the Ukraine-Russia war, and I want to stop it just because I hate to see all these young people being killed. The soldiers are being killed by the hundreds of thousands.

Q. So you're starting to put together a plan for, like, a peace formula or for some sort of resolution?

The President. We're talking to both sides, yes.

U.S. Steel Corporation/Foreign Investment

Q. Okay. And then on Japan, are you okay with having a foreign country having a controlling interest in a U.S. steel company?

The President. Well, let's look at this. When I came here, they were going to buy it, and Biden was going to approve it. All of a sudden, Biden didn't because he heard I wasn't going to. I don't want U.S. Steel being owned by a foreign country.

Q. But a controlling interest is okay?

The President. They can have—not a controlling—they're not—they don't have a controlling. They have an investment. All they're going to have is an investment.

Q. Will—will it be a joint venture?

The President. I don't mind—I don't mind an investment in a company, but—especially U.S. Steel. U.S. Steel, for 15 years, was the greatest company in the world—the greatest, number one company in the world. And I'm not going to let another country buy it—we had a great meeting on that—but they are allowed to invest in it, and that's different.

The President's Trade Policy/Tariffs

Q. Mr. President, on tariffs, sir. You've talked about reciprocal tariffs——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——coming in this week. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? And are you announcing a plan for it this week——

The President. Yes, I'll be announcing——

Q. ——or will the tariffs themselves kick in this week?

The President. I'll be announcing, probably Tuesday or Wednesday at a news conference, reciprocal tariffs. And, very simply, it's if they charge us, we charge them. That's all.

Q. When does it go into effect, sir?

The President. Almost immediately. But I'll be announcing the details of it—highly detailed. And it will be great for everybody, including the other countries. But if they are charging us 130 percent and we're charging them nothing, it's not going to stay that way.

Q. Is this on every country?

The President. Every country will be reciprocal, that's right. Every country.

Q. Mr. President, can you confirm that you——

The President. It won't affect everybody, because there are some where we have similar tariffs. But the ones that are taking advantage of the United States, we're going to have a—it's reciprocity. It's reciprocal. We're going to have a reciprocal tariff.

But we'll have a news conference Tuesday or Wednesday.

U.S. Steel Industry/Aluminum

Q. And just on the steel question, just so I understand you correctly——

The President. We'll also be announcing steel tariffs on Monday.

Q. On this—tomorrow?

The President. On Monday, yes. Tomorrow.

Q. And what countries will those go on?

The President. Everybody. Steel.

Q. Including Canada and Mexico that had exemptions?

The President. Yes. Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff.

Q. What about aluminum, sir?

The President. Aluminum too.

Q. Ten percent—[inaudible]?

The President. Ten—no, 25 percent.

Q. Twenty-five for aluminum as well?

The President. Twenty-five for both.

U.S. Steel Corporation

Q. For both. And on steel, sir. Are you ruling out, then, Nippon Steel having a 51-percent stake or higher? They won't have a majority stake?

The President. Nobody can have a majority stake for U.S. Steel. They can for other companies, but not for U.S. Steel. I think you agree with that, Doug, right?

U.S. Steel was one of our great companies. And through a lot of stupidity and bad government and also bad management of the company, it lost that luster. But it's going to gain it back, and tariffs are going to help. Tariffs are going to make it very successful again. And I think it has good management now too.

Yes.

Q. Mr. President, sir, a couple years——

Middle East/U.S. Diplomatic Efforts/Gaza, Palestinian Territories

Q. May I—may I ask one, please? Can you tell me—or can you confirm that you'll be meeting with MBS and Sisi of Egypt soon? Will that be at the White House, or are you going to speak them——

The President. Well, I'll be meeting with all of them—numerous times, by the way. But I'll be meeting with all of them. And yes, I think that it's a big mistake to allow people—the Palestinians or the people living in Gaza to go back yet another time. And we don't want Hamas going back.

And think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it. And we'll slowly—very slowly—we're in no rush—develop it. We're going to bring stability to the Middle East, to a totally war-torn part of the Middle East, a part of the Middle East that has caused tremendous problem—tremendous problem—the Gaza Strip. And we'll own it.

It's totally demolished right now. It's a demolition site.

It will be reclaimed. It will be leveled out, fixed up. There won't be anybody there. Hamas won't be there. We'll be building—through other of the very rich countries in the Middle East, they'll be building some beautiful sites for the people, for the Palestinians to live in. They'll be living in harmony and peace probably for the first time in hundreds of years.

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. And just to clarify. I know you don't want to tell us about your conversation with President Putin, but can you clarify whether you had that since you've been—since you've been in office or whether it happened before you became President?

The President. I've had it. Let's just say I've had it. And I——

Q. As President?

The President. And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended. It's going to end, and we have to get it ended.

Q. Do you expect to meet with him soon?

The President. And we have to get it ended soon. It should've never happened. Would've never happened if I was President.

Judicial Review

Q. Mr. President, a couple years ago, your Vice President said that the—suggested that if the Supreme Court rules in a way you don't like, just let them enforce it. Do you agree with that?

The President. Say it—the last part.

Q. Your Vice President suggested that if the Supreme Court rules in a way that you don't like, they can just enforce it by themselves. Do you agree with that?

The President. I don't know even what you're talking about. Neither do you.

Who are you with?

Q. HuffPost, sir.

The President. Who?

Q. HuffPost.

The President. Oh, no wonder. I thought they—I thought they died.

Q. No.

The President. Are they still around? I haven't read them in years. I thought they died.

All right. Go ahead.

Security Clearance Revocations/Illegal Immigration

Q. Mr. President, why does Tish James——

The President. Who else?

Q. On security clearances, you've been yanking a lot of them. Why does it make the country safer to take away the AG's security clearance? And is that a form of retribution, which you said you weren't going to do?

The President. If there's somebody—no. It's if—if some—if there are people that we don't respect, if there are people that we thought that were breaking the law or came very close to it in previous years, we do it. And we've done it with some people. We've done it with Biden himself—Biden himself. We think our country is not as safe if you gave him clearance. We don't think he knows what he's doing.

And what he's done to this country is a disgrace. And what he's done in terms of allowing criminals, murderers, drug lords into our country, people from mental institutions into our country, he should be ashamed of himself.

Q. Is that a legally valid reason, though?

Illegal Immigration/Deportations

Q. On deportations. There's been some reporting that you've been upset that there haven't been more deportations.

The President. No.

Q. Can you clarify that?

The President. I think they're doing an incredible job—it's very tough—on deportations. Finding murderers is not easy. Some of them are actually very smart. They shouldn't be in our country. They wouldn't have been. We had beautiful—you know, we just set records for closure. We have the strongest border we've had in many years—since my term, but even—maybe even for many, many years, decades before that.

No, they're doing an amazing job, I think. Tom Homan is doing an amazing job. Kristi Noem is doing an amazing job.

But it's not easy finding murderers who know they're being looked for. But we're sending out thousands of people. We're getting rid of thousands of criminals from our country.

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. Sir, how soon—do you expect to meet him in person anytime——

The President. Where?

Q. Putin. Do you anticipate meeting with him in person?

The President. I would imagine I would be meeting with Putin, yes, at the right time.

Q. How soon, sir?

The President. I think at the right time. At the appropriate time.

Gaza, Palestinian Territories/Hostages Held by Hamas

Q. Mr. President, back on Gaza. The White House Press Secretary told us last week that your commitment to rebuilding—you're—you're committed to rebuilding Gaza. Steve Witkoff said that process would take 10 to 15 years. Does your commitment to rebuilding Gaza extend beyond your time in office?

The President. I'm committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we're committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn't move back.

There's nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site. It will be—the remainder will be demolished. Everything is demolished. I mean, you can't live in those buildings right now. They're very unsafe.

But we'll make it into a very good site for future development by somebody. We'll let other countries develop parts of it. It will be beautiful. People can come from all over the world and live there.

But we're going to take care of the Palestinians. We're going to make sure they live beautifully and in harmony and in peace and that they're not murdered. This has been the most dangerous site anywhere in the world to live in. Hamas has been a disaster.

And by the way, I have to tell you that I watched the hostages come back today, and they look like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated. It looked like, many years ago, the Holocaust survivors. And I don't know how much longer we can take that, when I watched that. I know we have a deal where we're supposed to get—they dribble in and keep dribbling in, but they are in really bad shape. They have been treated brutally, horribly—even the ones that came out earlier. They were in a little bit better shape, but mentally, they were treated so badly. Who could—who could take that?

You know, at some point, we're going to lose our patience. When I see that scene that I saw today—with people coming out of helicopters and airplanes that are emaciated, that look like they haven't had a meal in a month—no reason for that, and I don't know how much longer we can take it.

Hostages Held by Hamas

Q. Do you mean you want to recast the hostage deal or——

The President. I don't know how long we can take it. When I watched people that were healthy people a reasonably short number of years ago, and you look at them today, they look like they've aged 25 years. They—they literally look like the old pictures of Holocaust survivors. The same thing. I mean, the same thing. And I don't know how long we're going to take that.

Q. Mr. President, have you gotten some advancement in your proposals for some of the Gulf or Arab nations to take some of the Palestinian people? And if not——

The President. Yes.

Resettlement of Palestinian Refugees

Q. ——like, what do you think the reason is for their hesitance? Is there some very honest reason that they've even told you privately or that you think why they're hesitant to take the Palestinian people?

The President. Why are they hesitant to take them?

Q. Right.

The President. Because they never spoke to me.

Q. Because they never——

The President. They spoke to other people. They didn't speak to me. When they speak to me, they're going to take them.

Q. Is it because they—they think that you would not allow them to return to Gaza?

The President. No.

Q. Is that part of it or——

The President. They don't want to return to Gaza. If we could give them a home in a safer area—the only reason they're talking about returning Gaza—to Gaza is they don't have an alternative. When they have an alternative, they don't want to return to Gaza. If they had a home that was safe, where you don't have Hamas threatening them, killing them, torturing them, they'd rather not return to Gaza. But right now Gaza is the only alternative.

As far as the other regions, the only reason they maybe don't act enthusiastic is they haven't talked to me. They talk to other people, but not to me. When they talk to me, they'll be enthusiastic.

Review of Government Spending/U.S. DOGE Service

Q. And then on spending. You found some maybe questionable expenditures—or Elon Musk has found them.

The President. Not some questionable. The whole country looks like it's a fraud. It's fraud, waste, abuse, but it's a tremendous fraud. And what Elon and his group of geniuses have found is unbelievable. It's unbelievable, and that's just in USAID.

Soon we're going into Education. It will—you'll find the same thing, but bigger. Soon we're going into the military, and you're going to find a lot of bad things happening there. You'll find it because our government has not functioned properly for many, many years, and we're going to make it function properly.

We're even looking at treasuries. There could be a problem—you've been reading about that—with treasuries. And that could be an interesting problem, because it could be that a lot of those things don't count. In other words, that some of that stuff that we're finding is very fraudulent. Therefore, maybe we have less debt than we thought of. Think of that.

So a lot of things are happening, but Elon is doing an excellent job. We started with 12 guys with high IQs, and now we have a hundred guys with very high IQs.

Q. Do you think Congress has failed to do their oversight, or do you think——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——in your first administration, some of your Cabinet agencies failed to do their jobs?

The President. I think everybody failed. I think everybody failed.

[Several reporters began speaking at once.]

White House Senior Adviser Elon R. Musk

Q. Why does—why does Elon's financial disclosure remain secret?

The President. Because nobody is looking at that. We're looking at all the corruption that's taken place. I mean, his financial disclosure is largely the number of shares that he's got in very public companies, and that's not secret at all. If you read that, you'll see a lot. I mean, he talks about his whole thing. I read one where it really gave a very good history of him, but, basically, it's a number of shares times a certain stock price.

Q. So why is that not public?

The President. It is public. All you have to do is read it.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. On USAID, sir.

Q. Would you accept——

U.S. Agency for International Development

Q. On USAID, sir. What is kind of, like, the message to countries that depend on humanitarian aid distributed through USAID? What is your message to those countries, sir?

The President. The ones that have been—the few that have been legitimate, in terms of getting legitimate money, we'll probably put it through the State Department. It will be handled by Marco Rubio, a highly respected man, secretary of State. There's no reason for USAID.

When you look at the politicians that have been in there sucking the blood out of it, when you look at all of the fake deals—I mean, look, all you have to do is get a list of all of the things—you can see by the—the heading. It's fake. It's fraudulent. It's probably kickbacks, where they send the money and then it gets kicked back to the person that sent it.

So the ones that are good—and there are not many of them, but the ones that are good—and there are some—we'll probably have that be handled by Marco Rubio in the State Department.

Q. Will they take on some of the USAID workers? Or will——

The President. They could. They could if they like them.

Q. Mr. President, another—another—you want to go ahead?

Q. Will it still be called "USAID," Mr. President, or will it not be?

The President. I don't know that it's going to exist.

Q. Okay.

The President. Why would you need it? The State Department can take care of it.

Federal Deficit and National Debt

Q. Do you think the amount of spending on foreign aid will decrease also or just the number of employees from USAID?

The President. It should decrease, yes. I hope it decreases.

Q. Yes, by how much? By half?

The President. When we have——

Q. By——

The President. When we have $36 trillion in debt, and we're taking care of countries that are very rich and sending aid to countries, in some cases, that are rich. In some cases, they're not rich. But no, it should very much decrease.

Q. And then——

Q. Mr. President——

Q. Related on that, the——

The President. But it won't be——

Q. ——the ports——

The President. It won't be the scams that you've seen.

Q. Okay.

Q. The food that's been stuck in ports.

Federal Research Grants/U.S. Agency for International Development

Q. [Inaudible]—that NIH put out a memo on Friday night. It's going to cut $4 billion from—from the percentage that they play to—pay to universities and public colleges. But all those states, not foreign countries. Four billion, is that okay to take that off the top?

The President. Sure. Sure. It could be okay. I mean, you have to look at the universities. Some are legit.

You could also say, "Why are we giving money to Harvard when it's got a $50 billion endowment?" Fifty billion. And yet they don't use that endowment to help their students.

Q. This is for research, like biomedical research and whatnot.

The President. Yes, that's fine. Look, we want to take care of research. We want to do a lot of things. But when you look at the USAID and you look at all the things and all the scams that was with—I don't have to go through it now, but I'll get you a little list, and you'll see, one after another, there were very few legitimate. It was the opposite. Usually, you find something wrong, like one out of a hundred, but this is the opposite here. Here, almost everything was wrong. You find very few that were good.

But there was some that were good. That will be handled by the State Department, I assume. That's not final yet, but I think the best would be Marco Rubio at the State Department.

One—one or two more.

Q. You're—you're—you're going to——

U.S. Space Force

Q. Is the Pentagon spending too much on launch services? Is the Pentagon spending too much for launch services to space?

The President. I think space is going to be a very important element. You know, I'm the one that came up with the Space Force. I'm very proud of it. Biden tried to get out of it, and he was really rebuked by the military.

I think space is going to be one of the most important things we do. It's going to be all about space, especially defense. So space is very important.

Q. You're going—you're going to——

Resettlement of Palestinian Refugees

Q. Mr. President, would you accept Palestinian refugees into the United States since you're looking to other countries to accept them also?

The President. I'd have to look. I think it's a very far distance for them to travel, but I'd have to look at individual cases. But I do think that coming into the United States—we've taken a lot of people—but coming into the United States, it's a long way for them to travel. They're far away from their families and their friends and everything else.

I think they'd be very happy staying in the general area with a—in a place that was safe, where they could be safe and lead a good life. They don't want to go back to Gaza. As I said—I've said it a lot: They only go back because they have no alternative. They don't want to go back to Gaza. So we'll see.

We hope that we'll be helped by Egypt. We hope that we'll be helped by Jordan. We hope that we'll be helped by other countries. We hope—help—hope that some of the—like Saudi Arabia and others can spend some money on it. They have tremendous amounts of money, and they'll spend some money on making people comfortable and safe.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs

Q. One question about the Super Bowl. You're going to the game. One of the big things that you've done so far in office is cracking down on DEI. I saw that the NFL Commissioner said, I think this week, that they're happy with their diversity program. What's your take on that? Would you like to see any changes there?

The President. I don't know what their diversity program is, to be honest. I know Roger very well. I'd have to look at what he said he's happy with. He was happy also with the flag and a lot of other things that didn't work out too well. We'll have to see what he was happy with.

But right now that's—you know what the law is. The law is the law, and it changed, and it's been backed up by the U.S. Supreme Court. But we'll see.

There are a lot of interesting things going on right now. I'll tell you why. There's a light over the United States. People are happy. They're more confident. The approval ratings for this country have gone through the sky—more than at any time. We've had approval ratings that there's never been anything like it. We've never seen 49 points up. Forty-nine points up.

And I think there's a light, actually, long beyond this country, all over the world. I've been called by other leaders. They said: "Sir, there's a light over our country right now. There's a light over the world."

We got rid of a horrible and totally inept administration—an administration where the president wouldn't even go and do a Super Bowl interview. For 4 years, I mean, he didn't do a Super Bowl interview. I did. You'll see it in about 1 or 2 hours.

Q. One more on the refs.

Q. What—what is your analysis——

Super Bowl LIX

Q. Do you have an opinion, sir, on whether the referees have been throwing the games to the Chiefs all season?

The President. I don't believe that, no. I don't believe that.

Q. What is your analysis of the game?

Q. Why do you want to be Chairman of the Kennedy Center board?

Super Bowl LIX

Q. What are you looking to watch for?

The President. I think you're going to have a great game. It's two great teams. I don't know if—who knows who's going to win. You have great players, though. You have, really, superstars playing on both teams. So I think it's going to be a great game.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Q. Why do you want to be Chairman of the Kennedy Center board?

The President. Because I want to make sure it runs properly. We don't need "woke" at the Kennedy Center. We don't need—some of the shows were terrible. They were a disgrace that they were even put on. So I'll be there until such time as it gets to be running right.

Q. Have you seen any shows there? How do you know they were terrible?

The President. I didn't go, no. I got reports. They were so bad, I didn't want to—I didn't want to go. There was nothing I wanted to see.

Thank you very much, everybody.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. May I ask about Modi, sir? About Modi.

White House aide. Thank you.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India

Q. You're meeting Modi today—or this week.

The President. I look forward it. I look forward.

The President's Golf Game

Q. How did Tiger do?

White House aide. Thank you.

The President. He was great. He's a—he's a great guy. He's—he's very sad over his mother's passing. He's a great guy.

Q. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Thank you.