I don't want powerful people being involved in this disgusting behavior. But I have to defend the president on this because when he said that it was a hoax, what he was talking about was this Democrat idea that he's connected to Epstein.

What you see in those emails is that Jeffrey Epstein hated Donald Trump and Donald Trump hated Jeffrey Epstein.

In fact, one of the emails is about Donald Trump narking on Jeffrey Epstein to the local sheriff, saying, "This guy's a scumbag. You should go and pick him up."

When President Trump says, "This is a hoax," he's saying this Democrat idea that somehow he was Epstein's best friend is a hoax.

One of the best signs for whether you're a good person or not is if the worst people in the world hate your guts.

The fact that Jeffrey Epstein hates Donald J. Trump is a pretty good thing for Donald J. Trump.

I have the feeling that Trump has said from the beginning that he will stay in the middle. This shows that he is neither on my side nor on the Russian side.

His signals are more positive towards Russia than Ukraine, that's the way it is.

And if Putin is afraid of the US—I think so—that's why there's the possibility of putting pressure on him.

If the U.S. does not exert pressure on Putin, but only has a soft dialogue with the Russians, they will not be afraid anymore.

The sooner the American team arrives in Kyiv, the more understandable their reasoning [regarding negotiations] becomes.

They're constantly in talks with Iran and have no time for Ukraine.

I would put it this way: I am not of the opinion that they have a better relationship with Moscow.

I don't feel that one could have very good relations with Moscow. That's impossible, because Moscow only thinks about itself, about the power it could gain, and about its own influence.

Kushner and Witkoff — they're pragmatic guys. The only problem is that they think the Russians are winning this war. However, they're wrong. This isn't the first time the Americans have been wrong about the Russians. I'm saying that openly.

We have very constructive conversations with Kushner and Witkoff, but they think that the Russians are winning.

Maria: You keep saying "was"... Is this war over?

Trump: I think it’s close to over. Yeah. I mean, I view it as very close to over.

I had to divert because if I didn't do that, right now you would have Iran with a nuclear weapon.

If they had a nuclear weapon, you would be calling everybody over there, "Sir." And you don't want to do that.

I think it's (the war) close to over. I mean, I view it as very close to over.

If I pulled up stakes right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild that country. And we're not finished. We'll see what happens.

I think they want to make a deal very badly.

We need to be ready to go and take Kharg Island. Take it down.

Finish them now. Finish them once and for all so that we don't have to worry about this in the future. We need to get the uranium out of there and take control of that.

A blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented as U.S. forces maintain maritime superiority in the Middle East.

An estimated 90% of Iran's economy is fueled by international trade by sea.

In less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, U.S. forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea.