Key lines from Trump’s first post-election news conference
By Eric Bradner, CNN
(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump, in his first news conference since his victory, downplayed concerns that his administration would revoke the polio vaccine’s authorization, suggested he could pardon New York City Mayor Eric Adams and said he will press Ukraine and Russia to end their war.
The president-elect on Monday took a measured tone in the wide-ranging remarks from Mar-a-Lago, as he also accused the Biden administration of not being forthcoming about possible drone sightings, discussed his meetings with pharmaceutical and tech company executives, the future of the TikTok app and inviting world leaders to his upcoming inauguration.
Trump described himself as a “big believer” in the polio vaccine, telling reporters that Americans won’t lose it amid concerns his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., could seek to revoke its approval.
“You’re not going to lose the polio vaccine. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters.
His comments about the polio vaccine come as Kennedy heads to Capitol Hill to meet with senators ahead of what could be a contentious confirmation fight. CNN previously reported that a lawyer associated with Kennedy has petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration to revoke approval of the polio vaccine used in the United States.
Trump said that “everything should be looked at, but I’m a big believer in the polio vaccine.”
He said that autism rates are much higher now than decades earlier, and that his administration will “look into” why. He added that he wants Kennedy to “come back with a report as to what he thinks. We’re going to find out a lot.”
But he also described Kennedy — the former Democrat who left the party to launch an independent 2024 presidential bid before ultimately dropping out and endorsing Trump — as a “very rational guy.”
Here are other key lines from Trump’s news conference:
Drone sightings
Trump said he doubted that “drone sightings” across the Northeast in recent weeks were acts of a foreign power, but criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for not revealing more details.
“Look, our military knows where they took off from. If it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went. And for some reason they don’t want to comment. And I think they’d be better off saying what it is,” Trump said.
He added: “Something strange is going on — for some reason, they don’t want to tell the people — and they should.”
Federal agencies have faced intense pressure to give the public more details on unexplained sightings in the New York City metropolitan area and beyond that have been going on for weeks over residential neighborhoods, as well as restricted sites and critical infrastructure. Federal officials have said many of the sightings appear to be manned aircraft mistakenly identified as drones.
Pardoning Eric Adams?
Trump said he would consider pardoning New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat whom he said was “treated pretty unfairly” when he was indicted on federal corruption charges earlier this year.
Adams was accused, in part, of illegally accepting free travel to foreign countries. Trump compared the accused illegal travel payments as similar to receiving an airfare rewards upgrade.
“I think that he was treated pretty unfairly. Now I haven’t seen the gravity of it all, but it seems, you know, like being upgraded in an airplane many years ago. I know probably everybody here has been upgraded,” he said.
Trump also suggested that the indictment of Adams, who has criticized Biden’s immigration policy, was politically motivated. Trump said he personally predicted Adams would be indicted “when he essentially went against what was happening with the migrants coming in, and, you know, he made some pretty strong statements, like, this is not sustainable.”
Adams has also claimed without evidence that his condemnations of Biden’s handling of the border prompted the probe, but the investigation into his fundraising practices began much earlier.
Adams has pleaded not guilty and has denied any wrongdoing.
Russia’s war in Ukraine
Trump said he knows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin both well and will push for a deal that would end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Both leaders, he said, “should be prepared to make a deal.”
Trump said he is “trying to get the war stopped; that horrible, horrible war that’s going on in Ukraine.”
“People are being killed at levels that nobody’s ever seen. It’s very level fields, and the only thing that stops a bullet is a body, a human body,” the president-elect said.
Trump did not detail what sort of deal he’d like the countries to strike to end the war Russia launched with its invasion, or whether he would expect Ukraine to give up territory to the Kremlin.
“There are cities where there’s not a building standing,” Trump said. “It’s a demolition site. There’s not a building standing. People can’t go back to those cities. It’s just rubble.”
Primary challengers to GOP senators
Trump said he expects that Republican senators who are “unreasonable” in opposing his Cabinet picks could face primary challengers.
“If they’re unreasonable, if they’re opposing somebody for political reasons or stupid reasons, I would say – has nothing to do with me, I would say they probably would be primaried,” Trump said, drawing a distinction from objections he finds “reasonable” or “fair.”
The comment comes as pressure mounts on Republican senators to back Trump’s selections, including those with controversial backgrounds.
Hegseth ‘making tremendous strides’
Trump said his nominee for defense secretary, veteran and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, is “making tremendous strides over the last week” after meeting with Republicans on Capitol Hill.
But Hegseth is facing a challenging confirmation fight amid scrutiny over allegations related to his workplace behavior and treatment of women, including a surfaced sexual assault allegation from 2017. Hegseth has denied the allegation, and no charges were brought.
“From the first day I met him, all he wanted to talk about was military. He’s just a military guy. I think it’s a natural,” Trump said.
He added that Hegseth “gave up a lot because he was going big places in Fox. Big, big places, a lot of money. And he didn’t even hesitate when I said, ‘Do you want to do this?’ He said, ‘Absolutely.’”
Trump continued: “I said, ‘You know, if it doesn’t work out, you’ll never have the opportunity that you have right now in terms of the world of entertainment or business, whatever you want to call it, you’ll never have that opportunity again. In fact, it could be just the opposite because it’s nasty out there.’ He said, ‘I don’t care. I have to do it for my country.’ He gave up a tremendous amount.”
TikTok ban
Trump suggested he might reverse course on the impending ban on the social media app TikTok in the United States.
“You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points and there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with it,” he told reporters. (Trump lost 18-29-year-old voters to Vice President Kamala Harris by 11 points, according to exit polls.)
Trump also credited interviews with podcasters like Joe Rogan for GOP gains with young voters, but said TikTok “had an impact so we’re taking a look at it.”
Trump is meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at Mar-a-Lago Monday afternoon, a person familiar with the meeting told CNN.
Tech executive meetings
In other upcoming meetings, Trump is scheduled to meet with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, a source familiar with the meeting told CNN.
Trump also said during his Monday remarks that he is scheduled to meet sometime this week with Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, which plans to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.
“I’m looking forward to that,” the president-elect said.
He also discussed recent meetings with several prominent tech figures, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Apple’s Tim Cook, which demonstrate how tech leaders are seeking to have closer relationships with Trump ahead of his second term in the White House.
Federal workers need to be in the office
Trump said federal workers who don’t work in person will be “dismissed” while he attacked an agreement between the Social Security Administration and the union representing its workers that would allow them to continue to telework into 2029.
“If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed. And somebody in the Biden administration gave a five-year waiver of that, so that for five years, people don’t have to come back into the office,” he said. “They just signed this thing that’s ridiculous, so it was like a gift to a union.”
Trump and his allies have previously suggested they would eliminate telework for federal employees. Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, which sees the push to return to the office as a tactic to reduce the federal workforce.
Trump said his administration is “going to obviously be in court to stop” the agreement between the Social Security Administration and the union.
Talking with more than 100 countries
Trump said that world leaders are “calling me, and some would really like to meet,” and that he has spoken to representatives of more than 100 countries.
“I am trying the best I can to get back to everybody but there are a lot of countries, and every one of them — literally every one called and was very nice,” he said.
CNN previously reported that Trump has personally extended invitations to some foreign leaders, including asking Chinese President Xi Jinping, to attend his swearing in — an exceptionally rare offer extended to the communist leader of one of America’s chief geopolitical rivals.
A delegation of senior Chinese officials is expected to attend in place of Xi, CNN reported last week.
Senator Lara Trump?
Trump’s nomination of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state is likely to open up a Senate seat in Florida. But while Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, has been publicly floated by prominent Republicans as a potential selection, the president-elect was careful not to pressure Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who will ultimately make the decision.
Trump said he doesn’t expect DeSantis to appoint Lara Trump, but added that he doesn’t know what the governor will do.
“Ron is doing a good job. That’s his choice. Nothing to do with me. Lara is unbelievable,” Trump said.
Insurance CEO shooting
Trump said it is “really terrible” that some social media users seem to be praising the man accused of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“It was cold blooded. Just a cold blooded, horrible killing. And how people can like, this guy is — that’s a sickness, actually. That’s really very bad,” Trump said, referring to the suspect, Luigi Mangione.
Duke lacrosse false accusations
Trump said he thought the allegations that Duke lacrosse players raped a woman in 2006 were “a hoax when it happened.”
His comments come after Crystal Mangum, the former exotic dancer who accused three Duke men’s lacrosse players of rape, said on a web show that she had lied.
“They destroyed the lives of these kids,” Trump said. “Their lives have been destroyed. Their lives have been shortened by what took place. And now the woman admitted that it never happened.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Aaron Pellish, Michael Williams, Antoinette Radford, Elise Hammond and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.
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