← Videos · Foreign Policy & Defense

Trump Gaggles with Press Before Departing the White House, Feb. 13, 2026

February 13, 2026 · The White House · 0:11:24

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump took press questions on the White House grounds on February 13, 2026, before departing for Fort Bragg. He opened on the morning’s inflation release: “We had the worst inflation in the history of our country and now we have very modest inflation, which is what you want to have.”

Iran ran through the exchange. Asked why he had decided to send a second aircraft carrier, he said: “In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it. If we have a deal, we could cut it short… We have one out there that just arrived. If we need it, we have it ready — a very big force.” On the talks themselves: “I think they’ll be successful. And if they’re not, it’s going to be a bad day for Iran. Very bad.” On Ukraine, he pressed the timeline onto Kyiv: “Zelenskyy is going to have to get moving. Russia wants to make a deal and Zelenskyy is going to have to get moving, otherwise he’s going to miss a great opportunity. He has to move.”

On the DHS funding fight, asked whether he was personally involved and where compromise lay, he answered with the enforcement record — “we have the safest border in the history of our country… Our crime numbers are the best in 125 years” — and his charge: “I am here to protect law enforcement… because they’re protecting us.” He said he believed Prime Minister Netanyahu would receive a pardon; that Greenland “is going to want us” and negotiations were under way; that his message to European leaders at Munich was that NATO members were “paying 5% and they’re paying” because of him; and, on the Nancy Guthrie case, that the FBI’s involvement had brought progress and that it was “a little bit early” to say whether cartels or a nation state were involved.

Why it matters

This departure gaggle is the President’s most compact statement of the mid-February board: the carrier as the Iran talks’ enforcement shadow, the public pressure on Zelenskyy, and the DHS standoff framed entirely as a law-enforcement protection question. It is recorded on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub.

Scoreboard watch

The President’s statements — the second carrier held ready against the Iran talks, and Zelenskyy urged to move — are recorded here for the weekly scoreboard. The scoreboard entry itself remains review-gated.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Gaggles with Press Before Departing the White House, Feb. 13, 2026,” The White House, February 13, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by the President and reporters at the gaggle.