[Video] Trump Gaggles Before Florida Trip: Says U.S. Could Take All of Iran's Oil, Strait of Hormuz 'Totally Ours'
Washington — President Trump took questions from reporters for more than 20 minutes on the South Lawn of the White House on the morning of October 23, before departing for Florida. He walked to the helipad at 11:13 a.m. ET and boarded a helicopter to Air Force One. He was scheduled to address a midterm campaign rally at 2 p.m. at Alico Arena at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, stumping for Florida Republican candidates including gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds. The official White House YouTube channel later posted the full video of the gaggle. Trump opened by calling the previous night in Iowa "a very successful night" and said Fort Myers would have "a tremendous crowd" with people "lined up miles long."
Asked about a possible year-long stalemate with Iran and U.S. preparations for an extended conflict, Trump called Iran "a failing nation": "We're taking all the oil out that we want. Our Navy has it blocked up for them, but not for anybody else, and everybody is taking oil out. In fact, last week we took more oil out than we have ever taken out, even before the war." Pressed with the word "gridlock," he said: "We could, if we wanted to, just take all of the oil. We could take the whole country. And as you know, the Strait of Hormuz is totally ours, and that's the way we'll keep it." He said Iran has "no money" and "inflation that's 30 percent, the highest in the world right now." Asked how the U.S. military prevents attacks on cargo ships and tankers in the strait, he said the Navy "has done a great job" and cited a Wall Street Journal front page reporting that more oil is now moving through the Strait of Hormuz than before the war.
Asked whether First Lady Melania Trump would take part in trilateral peace talks on Ukraine, Trump said: "No, but it's not the worst idea I've ever heard." He said her focus is saving children, that "both sides are cooperating with her," and that the Oleshky ceasefire was her initiative that both sides wanted. He later added: "I think she's done a great job. They worked a ceasefire in a very rough place."
Asked who ordered Starlink access in Ukraine to be restricted, Trump said: "I have no idea. But I wouldn't tell you if I did know." Told that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Starlink is still not working for Ukraine, Trump said: "I haven't heard that, but I'll look at it." Ukrainian officials told Reuters the same day that Starlink speed caps persisted, disrupting connections for drones flying faster than 160 km per hour, and that the caps have been in place since October 13; Zelenskyy, in a remote address to the Hudson Institute in Washington the same day, also said the limits on Starlink and Starshield "are still there and this has not been restored." Asked whether Democrats would go after Elon Musk if they win control of Congress, Trump said "we have to protect our brilliant people" and that Musk "will never do anything wrong."
Asked about his own voting plans, Trump said: "I think we're voting tomorrow in Florida." Early voting in Florida begins Saturday, October 24, and runs through October 31; he said he would spend the weekend at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. Asked which party this year's early-voting figures benefited, he said: "Well, nobody knows. We'll find out," and said Republican enthusiasm was high. He also claimed there were 20,000 fraudulent votes in California, that the number could be in the hundreds of thousands, and that "California is very corrupt in voting."
Responding to a Karl Rove article suggesting his rally blitz could backfire, Trump called Rove "a loser" and said: "Every single place I've gone is full. In Fort Myers, they say there's a line of people that's five miles long. They have thousands and thousands of people that were there yesterday — they were lined up yesterday." He said: "I'm the only one that can get 25,000 people to show up."
On trade, Trump said the United States is "very close to a deal with Mexico," that Canada "is working very hard to make a deal with us," and that "we have all the cards." He said he had spoken with the British prime minister that day, mainly about the United Kingdom opening up North Sea oil, which he said would make the U.K. "a very wealthy country," while Iran and Ukraine were discussed "very, very lightly."
According to Fort Myers local media, Trump will head to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach after the rally and will attend another rally in Georgia on October 24. In the gaggle he also previewed a Sunday trip to Michigan to campaign for Senate candidate Mike Rogers and a Monday trip to Mississippi. The U.S. midterm elections are on November 3.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：特朗普10月23日在华盛顿白宫南草坪启程赴佛罗里达州前回答记者提问。白宫官方 YouTube 视频画面，公共领域。 / President Trump answers reporters' questions on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on October 23, 2026, before departing for Florida. Frame from the official White House YouTube video, public domain.
