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Trump Holds Final Press Conference as G20 Comes to End. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired June 29, 2019 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- before them and they will have to make a decision but that is one that the farmers love, the manufacturers love, the unions love. It is a great deal for this country.
And NAFTA was I think one of the worst trade deals ever made. Maybe the WTO was worse. The WTO, from the time that happened in 1995, from the time that happened, China became like a rocket ship. It was pretty much flatlined. Then all of a sudden it joined the WTO and they went through the roof.
And very much to our liability, we lost tremendous amounts of money from that time. We just lost tremendous amounts. It was a terrible deal. WTO, World Trade. If you look at NAFTA, NAFTA has been a disaster for our country. The USMCA is a great deal for our country.
I think Canada is happy but they are not happy like we are happy but they are very happy. It is a good deal for Canada, it is a good deal for Mexico. They want it. Mexico just approved it in full. Canada is waiting for us to approve it. I was with the prime minister, I just left him a little while ago. They are thrilled with the deal. We are thrilled. Everybody wants it. Hopefully, it will be a bipartisan deal.
I told that to Nancy Pelosi. I said I view this as a bipartisan deal. Because a lot of the Democrats want it. Especially I would say the farm areas but really the industrial areas also. The unions.
We have things on wages and we have things on the environment that few people have ever been able to get into an agreement. It is a big deal. It is a very big deal. It is a great deal. And tremendous support. We have to put it up for a vote.
And I think you will have a great vote in the House and you will get a great vote in the Senate and you will have a tremendous trade deal between the United States and Canada and Mexico it is going to be something very special.
We spent a lot of time with a lot of countries. We do business with a lot of them. Australia is an example. Japan, we are negotiating with them, because they send us millions of cars and we send them wheat. It doesn't work.
What happens in Japan is, you probably saw some of the things they are doing but they are opening up many car companies, factories and plants throughout our country, especially in Michigan. We have a lot of activity in Ohio, beyond Japan activity, we have a lot of activity now where companies are coming back to our countries.
We are the hot show, we are the hottest show in town, we are the hottest show in the world right now. The economy is the best thing. Virtually every leader that I dealt with said is congratulations, it is incredible what has happened to the American economy. We are the best economy in the world.
It started from Election Day. I put it out yesterday. Because we took a tremendous boost from the day after I got elected. The stock market went crazy, from that point until essentially now. I think we hit in certain markets the all-time high again for many, many times. I can't tell you what it was but many, many times we broke the record.
Our stock market is great, our jobs are great, we have the best numbers for jobs we have essentially ever had. The minimum is in 51 years but it is really more than that. Now it is going to be more than that.
African American, Asian American, you saw that, Hispanic American, the best numbers in history, the history of our country, we have the lowest unemployment numbers, the best numbers. Many others, too.
Blue-collar workers are doing fantastic, the biggest beneficiary of the tax cut. The blue-collar. Blue-collar -- we talk about for the rich. It is really for everybody. It is also for big companies, where they are moving here.
Remember who owns the stocks. The people that own the stocks, it is not the big companies, it is the people with 401(k)'s whose numbers are 60 percent and 70 percent and 42 percent and all different numbers that are tremendously high. Where the other spouse thinks that the spouse that is investing in the 401(k) is a super genius.
Those 401(k)'s are very high. Have you been listening to -- and I have been listening to and we are not going to devote any time to it -- but with that kind of an attitude, their 401(k)s would crash and the market would crash because of what they want to do, you would crash the market.
And the amount of wealth that would be lost would be incredible. I would rather wait until later in the campaign to say that, because to be honest with you, I want them to go and --
[03:05:00]
TRUMP: -- take these policies and bring them -- I don't want them to change them anytime soon. Let them go have a good time. It has been very interesting to watch what has been happening. I found it very interesting. With that, we will take if you -- take a few questions. Then I'm
heading out to South Korea. I may or may not see Kim Jong-un. We will be heading out to South Korea. Spend about a day and a half there with President Moon, who is a really good guy. He was here, too. I saw him. I met with him also. And we will see what happens.
Please, John.
QUESTION: Thanks. Mr. President, thank you so much for joining us here. We all appreciate it. It is always good to have a chance to ask questions of you directly.
Can you tell us a little more about how this China deal may work going forward?
Chinese officials have told FOX News that they will not make any concessions until all of the tariffs have been lifted. They also want relief on Huawei, they want it taken off the blacklist. They might want you to stop pursuing extradition.
How do you see all of this unfolding?
And if you do meet Kim Jong-un at the DMZ tomorrow, would you step across the border into North Korea?
TRUMP: Sure, I would. I would feel very comfortable doing that. I would have no problem. With respect to China, basically we agreed today that we are going to continue the negotiation, which I ended a while back. We are going to continue the negotiation.
We agreed that I would not be putting tariffs on the $325 billion that I would have the ability to put on if I wanted. We are fairly advanced, depending on where you want to look at and where you want to start. Pretty advanced.
We did discuss numerous other things. We mentioned Huawei. I said we will have to save that until the very end. We will have to see. One of the things I will allow, however, a lot of people are surprised -- we send and we sell to Huawei a tremendous amount of product that goes into the various things that they make and I said that that is OK, that we will keep selling the product.
These are American companies that make product and that is , very complex, by the way and highly scientific. In some cases, we are the ones that do it and we are the only ones that do it, we're the only ones with technology. What we are doing in Silicon Valley is incredible. Actually. And nobody has been able to compete with it.
I've agreed pretty easily to allow them to continue to sell that product. So American companies will continue. They were having a problem. The companies were not exactly happy they could not sell, because they had nothing to do with whatever was potentially happening with respect to Huawei. So I did do that.
We talked about education and students. Somebody was saying it was harder for Chinese students to come in and that is something that if it were, if somebody viewed it that way, I don't. We want to have Chinese students come and use our great schools, our great universities. They have been great students and tremendous assets.
But we did discuss it. It was brought up as a point. I said that will be just like anybody else, just like any other nation.
And we're actually going to a point where we are looking that if you graduate from a college, because they're great companies -- we talk about Silicon Valley and other places -- we have a problem in our country that you graduate number one in your class from the best school in the country and they say you have to leave. We can't keep them.
We are going to make it, we are going to call it the smart person's waiver. We are going to make it so they can not only stay but maybe have access to green cards. We want to keep these people here. We have to keep -- go ahead, John.
QUESTION: Are you concerned that (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: Sure.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: That could happen. But we are holding on tariffs and they will buy farm product. That could happen. They would like to make a deal. I can tell you that. If we could make a deal, it would be a very historic event.
You know, we have never really had a deal with China. We have had tremendous deficits. Tremendous amounts of money was put into China. $500 billion a year. I mean not just surplus and deficit. I'm talking about real, hard cash.
It should have never, ever been allowed to have happened for all of our presidents over the last number of years.
Go ahead. Please.
QUESTION: Yes, Mr. President. The voice of America. After your discussions with Prime Minister Abe, are you still thinking about withdrawing from the U.S.-Japan --
[03:10:00]
QUESTION: -- security treaty?
And what did the prime minister say to you about that?
TRUMP: I'm not thinking about that at all. I'm saying it is an unfair agreement. I've told him that the last six months. I said look if somebody attacks , Japan, we go after them and we are in a battle full force in effect. We are locked in a battle and committed to fight for Japan.
If somebody should attack the United States they don't have to do that. That is unfair. That is the kind of deals we have made. Every deal is like that. I mean, it is almost like we had people that either they did not care or were stupid.
But that is the kind of deals we had. That is just typical. I told him, we are going to have to change it. Nobody is going to attack us, I hope but should that happen, it is far more likely it should be the other way but should that happen, somebody attacks us, if they -- we are helping them, they are going to have to help us. He knows that. He has no problem with that.
Yes, please.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to quickly clarify. Is the case also going to have to wait until the very end or is it possible to drop the extradition?
TRUMP: On what?
QUESTION: The top from Huawei.
TRUMP: That was not discussed. We did discuss Huawei but we did not discuss her situation.
QUESTION: Thank you. On Russia, respectfully, it seemed like maybe you did not really mean it when you said yesterday, don't meddle in election, Mr. President.
TRUMP: You are going to have to take a look at the words. I did say it. We will -- had a great discussion, President Putin and myself. I thought it was a tremendous discussion. I think they would like to do trade with the United States.
They have great product. They have rich land. A lot of oil. A lot of minerals. The kind of things that we like. I can see trade going on with Russia. We could do fantastically well. We do very little trade with Russia, which is ridiculous, frankly. I could see some very positive things happening.
As for your question, I did say it and I did discuss it a little bit after that.
Please.
QUESTION: Yesterday, former president Jimmy Carter suggested that your presidency is illegitimate and you only got to the White House with help from Russia.
TRUMP: Russia, Russia, Russia. Isn't it crazy?
Jimmy Carter is a nice man. He was a terrible president. He is a Democrat. It is a typical talking point. He is loyal to the Democrats. And I guess you should be but as everybody now understands, I won not because of Russia, not because of anybody but myself. I went out, I campaigned better, smarter, harder than Hillary Clinton.
I went to Wisconsin. I went to Michigan the night of the vote. I had 32,000 people at 1:00 in the morning on Election Day.
I won Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, I won states that have traditionally not been won by a Republican for many years. For many years have not been won by a Republican. And this had nothing to do with anybody but the fact that I worked harder and much smarter than Hillary Clinton did.
I will say this. Jimmy Carter -- I was surprised that he would make a statement -- it was not a big thing but I saw the statement. A lot of Democrats like to make that statement. He has been trashed within his own party. I felt badly for him. You look over the years, he is like the forgotten president.
And I understand why they say that. He was not a good president. Look what happened with Iran. That was a disaster. Iran tied him up in knots. The reason Ronald Reagan probably became president. So you know, it is a Democrat talking point.
Yes, please. Go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. President, if I could follow-up on the question about your comments with Vladimir Putin about Russian meddling. You did seem to be joking there with the Russian president. Are we taking that to be wrong?
And what is it with your coziness with some of these dictators and autocrats at these summits?
With Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, when you are asked about the case of Jamal Khashoggi, you did not respond to that question in front -- are you afraid of offending him on that subject?
TRUMP: Not at all. I don't really --
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TRUMP: -- care about offending people. I sort of thought you would know that.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Well, you passed up an opportunity.
TRUMP: And by the way, congratulations. I understand your book, is it doing well?
QUESTION: It is doing very well, Mr. President --
TRUMP: Really?
QUESTION: I will get you an autographed copy.
TRUMP: Good, send it. I want to see it.
QUESTION: Yes, sir. Yes. TRUMP: Send me a copy.
No, I get along with everybody. Except you people, actually.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: I get along with a lot of people. I have a tremendous relationship with President Xi. Nobody else would have the deal that we have. We are getting tens of billions of from China coming in. A lot of things are happening. Despite that we are moving along toward something that could be very historic.
But I get along with President Putin. I get along with Mohammed from Saudi Arabia. Look, I spoke to Saudi Arabia a year ago, when oil prices were getting very high and I was not so nice and I said, you've got to get more oil into the system because what is happening is no good. And they did.
And people are driving at very low numbers right now. You haven't seen. In the old days you would have , spikes for the gasoline went to $5 and more and it wasn't so good.
But I also get along with people that would be perceived as being very nice. You have a lot of very nice leaders of countries. I was with Prime Minister May today. I was with so many.
You take a look. The new head of Australia. Look at Japan. Abe, Prime Minister Abe. They are fine. They are all fine as far as I'm concerned. Some are stronger than others. Some are tougher than others.
QUESTION: But if I may, Mr. President, on the case of Jamal Khashoggi, we have a lot of journalists in this room who object to what appears to be the Saudi government's complicity and perhaps orchestration of the assassination and dismembering of a journalist.
And when you were given the opportunity to call Mohammed bin Salman out on that, you did not do it.
Did you do it privately?
Do you agree that it is despicable for a government to kill a journalist?
TRUMP: Yes, I do. I think it is horrible. Or anybody else, by the way. I think it is horrible. If you look, you see what is happening in Saudi Arabia. 15 people are so have been prosecuted. Others are being prosecuted. They have taken it very seriously. They will continue to.
I have let everybody know, I'm very unhappy about that whole event. But if you look at what is going on and right now within Saudi Arabia they are prosecuting additional people. There is a lot of things happening.
At the same time, I will also say -- and nobody so far has pointed directly at finger at the future king of Saudi Arabia -- I will say I spoke to his father, I spoke to his father a great length. They have been a terrific ally. They are creating millions of jobs in this country.
They are ordering equipment, not only military equipment but $400 billion worth and more than that over a period of time worth of different things.
With that being said, I'm extremely angry and unhappy about a thing like that taking place but as of this moment, more than 13 people are being persecuted and I hear the number is going to be going up. But it is a good question.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. It is very good to know that you are over further escalation of trade tension with China.
Can you share some details of your interaction with President Xi this time?
Also, if I may, another quick question on North Korea. Do you think it is possible that there will be a third one-on-one summit with Chairman Kim within this year?
TRUMP: It might happen tomorrow, to be honest. We won't call it a summit, we will call it a handshake, if it happens. I don't know that it will but it could happen. I think you would like to do it and I would not mind doing it at all. And literally visiting the DMZ.
As for your question about President Xi, he is a brilliant leader, he is a brilliant man. You know better than I, he is probably considered to be one of the great leaders in 200 years in China. And we just have a very -- he is strong, he is tough but he is good. We have a very good relationship.
I said, we can't have it where the United States loses this kind of money for the privilege of building up China. It has to be a fair deal. And he understands that. but as he said, nobody ever came to us. It is true. No other president came to them. It could be a lot easier. Not only for that but for a lot of other reasons.
But I don't want it to be easy. I have a chance to do --
[03:20:00]
TRUMP: -- things that nobody else has ever done. So we are making a deal with China or we are attempting. If we don't, we will go back to a tremendous ripe field of tremendous money that would be coming into our country.
I have a feeling that over a period of time and I'm not rushed and I told him I want to get the deal right. It is extremely -- I would not even say complicated but very intricate. But in the meantime, I think our farmers will be the great beneficiary.
What I did with the farmers , because they did lose a certain amount of money, I went to our Secretary of Agriculture, I said, how much money in the best year did China spend on our farms, in our farms, buying?
He said, the best year, about $16 billion. I said, OK, we are taking and much more than that every year in tariffs. I took $16 billion out of those tariffs and -- essentially out of those tariffs -- and we are disturbing it among farmers, who have been hurt, because they have been used as a pawn, so that China could get a good deal.
But in the end, the farmers are going to be the biggest beneficiary. I have made up for the fact that China was targeting our farmers, because they know farmers like me and I like them. I love them. And they sort of love me, I guess, when you get right down to it.
It was $16 billion -- billion -- that is a lot of money. I took it out of the tariff money, essentially we are in the process of distributing it evenly. The farmers could not be happier. I had them around a table, many of the farmers about five weeks ago. They said, we don't want money, we want a level playing field.
I said, you are right. Most groups want money. Anyway want to give it to them, they will take. The farmers are in a class by themselves in so many ways. They don't want subsidies, they don't want to hand out. All they want to do is have a level playing field. They are unbelievable people. As I said, they are unbelievable patriots.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. First, a quick follow up. You made a public invitation to Kim Jong-un.
Would it be a bad sign if he did not show up?
TRUMP: No. Of course I thought of that. If he didn't, everybody would say, he was stood up by Chairman Kim. No, I understood that. It is very hard -- he follows my Twitter.
QUESTION: He does?
TRUMP: I think so because we got a call very quickly. A lot of people follow it. You know, they have contacted us. We are not talking about for extended -- just a quick hello. We get along. I get along with him. I get along with other people.
Like for instance, it is a fair question but I really have great relationships with everybody. I think -- I said a long time ago that maybe I will be a sleeper on foreign policy.
If you look at what has happened on foreign policy, we are working on Iran, we will see what happens, I think they would like to make a deal, I think they would be very smart to make a deal. We are going to see what happens.
I'm OK. I have all the time in the world. They were doing a very poorly. They were very brutal when I first came in. 18 sites of confliction where they were behind. I think on foreign policy, if you look at what is happening -- and the other thing that is happening, we are not being taken for suckers anymore.
We have countries where we lose on defending them. Because we defend a tremendous percentage of the world. They don't pay us for it. And then on top of it, we lose money in that same country on trade. It is all changing. And they understand it is changing. They expect it to change.
They can't believe, honestly, like I would ask Prime Minister Abe, I said, how did this happen?
You send us billions and billions of worth of cars and other things and we send you practically nothing?
He said, nobody ever complained. Same thing with China. I said, you know, you send a car to us, we charge you essentially nothing. 2.5 percent but basically there are ways around that. So you send a car to us and you pay nothing. We send a car to you made in the United States and we have to pay 45 percent tariff.
I said how did that happen?
He said, we just kept lifting it, lifting it, lifting it. They are being honest with me. We just kept lifting it and nobody called. But I call. I call.
Go ahead.
QUESTION: I want to ask you about the debate. You clearly saw at least some of the Democratic debate. I'm sure you saw the exchange between Joe Biden and, let Harris -- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the issue of federal busing, federally mandated busing. Biden thought that was a bad policy. Senator Harris said --
[03:25:00]
QUESTION: -- that it was an important part of desegregation, including in her experience. Where do you stand on that issue of federally mandated busing?
TRUMP: Before I get into that, I thought she was given too much credit. He did not do well. Certainly. And maybe the facts were not necessarily on his side. I think she was given too much credit for what she did. Was it that outstanding?
I think probably he was hit harder than he should have been hit. Biden, I thought he was hit actually harder. As far as that, I will tell you in about four weeks because we are coming out with certain policies that are going to be very interesting and very surprising, I think to a lot of , people.
Jennifer, do you have a question?
QUESTION: Do you think Kamala Harris would be a tough opponent for you given what you saw in the debate?
TRUMP: You never know who is going to be tough. You never know. One that you think is going to be tough turns out to be not much. And sometimes you think -- I've seen it. I had 17. Actually, we had a total of 18. A lot of people think 17 -- governor Virginia, remember, add and the governor Virginia, was not there long, previous governor -- of the 18, many of them were, all their lives they wanted to be politicians -- I never thought about being a politician until about two days before I decided to run. A little before that. But not too much before.
And they -- you look at some of them, very talented, you look at the resumes, it is like great. And sometimes the ones I thought would be the toughest were not the toughest at all.
I could write a book. I should write a book. Some of the people I did in the Republican, we had 18. I guess they have 24, 25. Some of the ones that I felt would be absolutely without question the toughest turned out, I did not think they were tough at all. Others that a lot of people said they were tough, they were tougher.
I think she was given far too much credit for what she did. It was so out of the can what she said. It was right out of a box. I thought he did not respond great. This was not Winston Churchill we are dealing with, OK?
But it wasn't, I don't think nearly as bad as they portended it to be. Jennifer, go ahead. QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Can I clarify go negotiations
and what you agreed to with China on Huawei?
Did you agree that Huawei can sell to the U.S. or that U.S. companies can sell?
TRUMP: U.S. companies can sell their equipment to Huawei. We are talking about equipment where there is no great national emergency problem with it.
But the U.S. companies can sell their equipment, so we have a lot of the great companies in Silicon Valley and based in different parts of the country that make it extremely complex equipment. We are letting them sell to Huawei.
QUESTION: On Turkey, will Turkey face sanctions if it goes ahead with the S-400 purchases?
TRUMP: Turkey is an interesting case. There is another one, Jim, that I get along with very well and he is a tough cookie, President Erdogan. He is tough but I get along with him.
Maybe that is a bad thing but I think it is a really good thing. Because frankly, he wanted to wipe out -- he has a big problem with the Kurds, as everyone knows. He had a 65,000-man army at the border and he was going to wipe out the Kurds. Who helped us with ISIS to take out the caliphate, we got 100 percent of the caliphate.
I asked him not to do it. I guess they are natural enemies of his or Turkey's. He hasn't done it. They were lined up to go out and wipe out the people that we just defeated the ISIS caliphate with. I said, you can't do that. And he didn't do it.
I have a relationship. Let me tell you. He goes out during the Obama administration, he wants to buy our Patriot missile. They would not sell it to him. He wants to buy it. Even though he is a member of NATO and in theory he could be an ally if he respected the president.
He's got a big army. They are fighters. Turkey's big fighters. We are working on it look province -- it live province -- Idlib province together. He does not want to see 2 million people killed and neither do I in Syria.
That was another thing I mentioned, folks, to President Putin. I said, please, take it easy. They have been encircling that. I think if I did not put out a statement six months ago, that would have been catastrophic. They have 30,000 terrorists in Idlib province.
You have 2 million people. Getting terrorists is OK but you don't want to kill 3 million people or 1 million people --
[03:30:00]
TRUMP: -- to get the terrorists. We get along great but what happened with Turkey and I will tell you what is fair and is not fair, he wanted to buy the Patriot missile. President Obama's group said no. He kept wanting to buy it. They kept saying no, no, no. Couldn't buy it.
Now he needed it for defense. So he then went to Russia and he bought the S-400. He made a deal to buy it. They would not allow him to buy it. This administration, meaning this administration previous to mine, would not let him buy it.
So he goes out, he goes to Russia. He makes a deal for the S-400. Let's assume it is not nearly as good but he made a deal. He paid the money, he put up a lot of money and he bought it.
As soon as he bought it, people from our country and they said, listen, we don't want you to use that system, because it is not the NATO system, et cetera. You know all the reasons. We don't want you to use that system. Do us a favor, we will send you the Patriot.
He said, it is too late, I already bought it. There was nothing he can do, he already bought it. In the meantime, he bought over 100 F- 35's. The greatest fighter jet in the world. It is stealth, you cannot see it. It is hard to beat something when you cannot see it.
He bought 100. He has options for more. Now he wants delivery. He has paid a tremendous amount upfront to Lockheed, our company, our jobs, everything and now they are saying he is using the S-400 system which is incompatible with our system and if you use the S-400 system, Russia and other people can gain access into the genius of the F-35.
But honestly, I'm all for our country but he got treated very unfairly. He was told, you can't buy it, you can't buy it. It is the old secret when you can't have something. All of a sudden, he ends up getting something else, then they said, first they said, we will sell it to you, then they -- we will sell it to in four years, then they said we will get it to you immediately. But he said, I can't do it, I've spent a fortune on buying another
system, similar system, from Russia. The problem is he already bought the planes. The planes are not compatible from our standpoint, from the standpoint of compatibility but from our standpoint, national security was.
So it is a mess. It is a mess. Honestly, it is not really Erdogan's fault. Now we have the great thing Donald Trump loves Turkey. , Donald Trump loves Turkey. Donald Trump is on the side of Turkey. No I'm not. I love our country but I have to tell you. President Erdogan, who has done -- he gave me Pastor Brunson -- nobody else could get him back. Remember?
They could not get him back. President Obama -- he was in jail 35 years. He was going to be in the jail forever. Pastor Brunson, who was an innocent man. I called them. After a very short period of time, Pastor Brunson was standing in the Oval Office with me. He was back.
You know, from my standpoint -- and he is a tough guy. When you talk about tough, he is tough but I get along with him. I think he was unfairly treated. He was told you can't have it , then after he bought another system, we said, we will sell it to you, we will give it to you right away.
But he couldn't use it but by that time he had already bought the planes. It is a complicated deal. We are working on it.
QUESTION: Can I ask you one quick thing on China?
TRUMP: Yes.
QUESTION: There was a negotiation on Huawei, welcoming students, holding off on tariffs. It sounds like China has agreed to buy more ag but is that a lopsided agreement?
TRUMP: What more -- no we agreed on , China -- it is actually a good question -- I did agree to allow our companies selling things to other people. So I allow that to happen. Very complex things. Not easy. These are not things that are easy to make. Very few companies do it. A tremendous amount of money.
Our companies were very upset. These companies are great companies. You know all of them. They were not exactly happy when with it but we are allowing that because that was national security. We agreed to leave that until the end.
Huawei is a complicated situation. We are leaving that toward the end. We will see where we go with the trade agreement.
Yes, please.
QUESTION: Thank you. I have a question about the border but I wanted to follow up quickly on the question about busing.
Do you see it as a viable way of integrating schools? Is that linked to the policy?
TRUMP: It has been something they have done for long period of time. There are not that many ways to get people to schools. This is something that has been done.
[03:35:00]
TRUMP: In some cases, it has been done with a hammer instead of a velvet glove. That is part of it. This has certainly been a thing that has been used. I think if vice president Biden had answered the question somewhat differently, it would have been a different result, because they really did hit him hard on that one. It is certainly a primary method of getting people to schools.
QUESTION: Does it relate to the policy you are going to unveil, that you just floated?
TRUMP: It relates to everything we are doing. You will be hearing about it over the next couple of months. over the next couple of months?
QUESTION: OK. I wanted to ask you about the border. It seems like there is officially a week to go until the ice raids begin under that deadline that you imposed.
Given that you have a July 4th recess, is it realistic to think you are going to get a deal to actually reform the asylum laws?
TRUMP: We could do it -- I used to say 45 minutes, I say 15 but we could do it in a day, we could do it in an hour. We could reform asylum very quickly. We could get rid of the loopholes very quickly.
These are horrible loopholes. The reason that Mexico is so good, because they do have very , very tough immigration. They don't have the kind of things, the kind of stupidity that we have.
Somebody touches one foot on the sand and we now have to bring them into court. Then we have to register them, catch and release them. They live in our country and they are supposed to come back in three years for a court case. About 2 percent come back. You know just as well as anybody. Maybe better than most.
The fact is they come back but nobody comes back, 2 percent come back. They come in illegally. We are bringing them out legally.
At the request of some very good Democrats, they asked me if I could hold it and I did for a couple of weeks and we have a week left. Other than the fact that we did get a very bipartisan way -- and I appreciate Speaker Pelosi, because she really worked with us -- it was humanitarian money. They did not have any money.
Don't forget. Nobody has ever had this problem before. We are running hospitals. We are running so many different things for the kids. And the kids are brought up because under the laws, the kids are used, legally used, to get other people to come in. I f you have a child, it is much easier to come into our country. It is easy anyway but if you have a child, it is much easier. We have these kids who have been absolutely abused, horribly abused and we could stop that with a minor change in the law. It is a terrible thing that they are not doing it.
Here is what is happening. I said, let's see if you can give that to us. In the meantime, we got it approved last night. We have $4.5 billion in humanitarian aid. That is good. We have that.
But we can have that done -- -- but we can have that number go way down if we stop people from coming up. If we had walls up and if we had it hard, the father and the beautiful daughter who drowned -- the Rio Grande is very tough, that has moments where it can be very calm and then all of a sudden it becomes totally violent and people get swept away.
If they thought it was hard to get in, they would not be coming up, they would not be coming up. So many lives would be saved. Essentially, if they would change the laws and I said it would take us an hour but let's give them two weeks, at the end of the second week we would be removing people, legally removing --
QUESTION: You are still planning for that deadline?
TRUMP: Yes, unless we do something pretty miraculous. The Democrats, it seems to me, they want to have open borders. For the life of me, I can't gear that out. I want people to come into our country.
We need them. We have all these companies coming in. We have Foxconn in Wisconsin, we have so many companies coming in. Auto companies. Just today I was with President Abe, another auto company is going to build a big plant. They need people. I'm all for that.
The only problem is they have to come in through a process, they have to come in legally. It is also very unfair. You have millions of people online for years trying to get in. They take tests, they study, they know a lot about our country, they read they have to , go through a very complicated process.
And these people have worked hard. They have been online seven or eight years and somebody walks in and they are welcomed to the United States. It is very unfair. We will be removing large numbers of people. People have to understand.
QUESTION: In a week?
TRUMP: Yes, starting in a week. Sometime after July 4th. the deal that was just passed does nothing to -- that is different. That is humanitarian. We needed that just to take care of people. We are running hospitals.
[03:40:00]
TRUMP: The Border Patrol. These are incredible people. They are doing what they -- nobody ever thought they were going to be doing this. People are coming up, the reason people are coming up is because we are doing so well as a country. In past years, we weren't doing well.
In past years, Mexico was doing better. They took 32 percent of our car business. They were doing better than we were doing in the past. Now we are the hot country in the world and people are coming up because they want a piece of that action.
The other reason children are coming up is because we had a separation policy under President Obama. We had separation. President Obama built those cells. In 2014, they were built. They said, how horrible. Then it turned out it was built by President Obama.
And I'm not blaming anybody. I'm not blaming him. They had a separation policy. I ended it but when I ended it, I put out a statement. I think it is going to bring more children up. Now you are allowing the child to stay with the parent. I said ending it is nice in one way.
But in terms of what we are doing, it makes it even tougher but the really bad thing is the cartels -- and I really think that Mexico -- they did 6000, now they are doing 16,000 on our border. I think that Mexico is looking to swamp the cartels. Those kind of numbers will do it, it will be a great thing.
What Mexico was doing for us is great. Without the tariffs, they would not have done it. We have been after them for many years to do it. They have really, so far, it is only a week, the numbers are way down. So far, a lot of good things have happened.
Yes, sir, please.
Yes, please, in the second row.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Two questions.
TRUMP: Would you like me to leave now or... ?
Here's the thing: I can stay, we can do this. My only problem is this. I don't need stories, he stayed up there too long. I don't need those stories. If I stay up there quickly they say, why did he not give us more time?
If I stay up for two hours -- everybody has a hand up and if you want, I will go on.
Should I go on or not go on?
What do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go on.
TRUMP: OK. And you are not going to say, he went on too long?
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Because we have time. I have a flight that leaves pretty much when I want it to. Let's go.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Two questions about Iran.
A week ago, you called off a strike because you were concerned it would kill Iranians.
TRUMP: Disproportionately. Absolutely.
QUESTION: Disproportionately.
Did military leaders provide you with any alternative that there's some derelict oil rig that could have been hit?
TRUMP: No, no, oh, I had many -- oh, yes, I have -- I bet I have 50 alternatives. I have many alternatives. Yes. And you don't know what the sites were. But I have many alternatives.
When we chose and designated certain areas we were thinking about, I said how many people are going to die?
I meant on the other side. That means a lot to me, too. How many people are going to die?
They said probably about 150. It could be worse but it could be much less or much worse. It could be more than that, because this is heavy stuff going in. We have the greatest military in the world. I deal with them all the time. These people are incredible people. Lethal. Hopefully, we don't have to use it much.
We have spent, you look at the numbers, $716 billion this year. We had planes that were so old, -- now we have brand-new F-35's, brand- new Super Hornets. The equipment we have is incredible. The army now has beautiful new things. Everything is -- we have a military that is really great. Hopefully we don't have to use it very much.
They came in, they came back a short time later. They said about 150 people. I said that is really disproportionate, I don't like it.
QUESTION: My second question is that here at the G20 summit, what can you tell us?
Has the ball been moved in any particular direction toward easing tensions in some of the -- easing tensions in Iran in some of the meetings that you have had?
TRUMP: I have had a lot of countries that have come up to me. President Macron is a good guy. They do a lot of business with Iran. I said, anybody can see them. I think talking is great. I'm not going to say, don't talk to them. Don't talk to them.
I do think John Kerry should not have been talking to them. I think that was the lamest process alive. I think he violated the Logan Act actually. I think John Kerry speaking to Iran a lot, maybe saying things like -- [03:45:00]
TRUMP: -- if you wait another 15 months, maybe Trump will lose the election and then you can deal with the person that is a lot easier person then Trump. You will deal with the stiff that will give you everything you want. That makes it tougher for me to make a deal but that is OK.
QUESTION: Mr. President, during the week, you tweeted out your displeasure with the Supreme Court's decision on the census.
TRUMP: I think it is very unfortunate.
QUESTION: Are you going to try to delay?
We are looking at that legally. They are asking us to do a census. The census was shocking to me. I figured it would not be expensive to do a census. It is billions of. You know that, right?
Billions. Billions. They knock on doors of every house in the country. They are not allowed to ask whether or not somebody is a citizen of the United States?
How horrible and ridiculous is that?
We are looking at that. It wasn't a real decision. It was like now, right now. It depends on what happens, I guess. It was a very strange decision. It was a very, very sad decision. Not in terms of voting.
Not in terms -- just a very sad -- because it was so convoluted. To get to that decision. Had to be very, very hard.
QUESTION: The justice said that your guys were playing politics.
TRUMP: Hey, who is really playing politics?
Check it out. You tell me who is playing politics.
Yes, go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. President.
It has been a while.
I think I heard you mention that with Vladimir Putin you said you spoke on election interference privately as well. Did you speak in a sterner tone?
TRUMP: No, we talked about it. We have talked about it before. You know he denies it totally.
How many times can you get somebody to deny something?
He has in the past denied it. He has denied it publicly. We talked about it. We talked about a lot of other things. I tell you, we talked about something I think is very important and
that is putting a cap on what he is buying and we are buying from a nuclear standpoint and other arms control. We talked a lot about arms control. I think he would like to see arms control. So would we. It makes a lot of sense.
QUESTION: What was the context in which --
TRUMP: Go ahead.
QUESTION: -- in the Mueller report
TRUMP: -- the Mueller report was a very good report. It was a good report. I had 18 people that hated me. I had Mueller, who was totally conflicted. Obviously didn't like me. He was totally convicted -- totally conflicted. No obstruction, no collusion.
The Democrats want a do over. They want to get it right. They are working to get it right. They want to do over or five.
QUESTION: President Trump, your administration just avowed the economic portion of the deal of the century.
Why were no Palestinians members of the White House peace plan committee?
TRUMP: They are a very important part of it but they don't really have to be. We are just getting started. We have -- as you know, we have a very good, David Friedman, one of the most successful lawyers in New York who loves Israel.
We have Jason, who worked for me and my company, great lawyer, great talent. Jared Kushner. And with me being president, if you don't get the deal done, it will never happen. We will have to see what happens.
I think the Palestinians, basically, I'm not sure, I know they want to make a deal but they want to be a little bit cute and that is OK. I fully understand where they I fully understand where there are coming from.
As you know, I have ended the money that we were paying them $550 million a year. I ended that money because a year ago, I heard they were saying nasty things. We are trying to make a deal and help them and we are saying nasty things and we are not going to pay.
If a deal is made or humanitarian, like the borders, because you see what is going on. We have a good chance of making a deal. A lot of people think that is the toughest deal of all and it may very well be. A lot of people think it can't be. A lot of people say it can't be made no matter what.
We are going to try. I went to other negotiators from past years and for many years they have been trying to make the deal.
[03:50:00] TRUMP: And I said, did you ever take the money away because they were
always very hostile. They said, we wouldn't do that because it is inappropriate. Why is it inappropriate?
What I have done is say if you want negotiating and don't want to help make peace, we are not going to pay you. So let's see what happens. I think they want to make a deal.
I have had a good relationship with some of their leaders and I have had a good relationship with Israel. The transaction was thrown up in the air a little bit because of what happened with Bibi Netanyahu -- Bibi Netanyahu and the election. That will be going on for three months. There is a good chance. I don't want to say good chance there is a chance because people say it is the hardest you.
When I was young, people would say what is this, the metaphor they use to use for a deal that was tough to make. It is the toughest deal to make. I think there is a good chance.
Yes, go ahead. The gentleman behind.
QUESTION: Thank you.
TRUMP: That is the man I am looking at.
QUESTION: Can I ask for a clarification.
Are you saying you're taking Huawei off?
TRUMP: We are going to talk about Huawei but we will be supplying equipment from our companies. We are not discussing Huawei with President Xi Jinping yet. They have a national security problem which is paramount.
QUESTION: Are you taking Huawei off the Commerce Department entity list?
TRUMP: We have a meeting on that tomorrow or Tuesday.
QUESTION: You talk about the economic and trade practices of China and your critical but you do not talk about the national security concerns about China.
What do you worry about?
TRUMP: That goes without saying. Who has done what I have done? I took ZTE off and then I was asked by President Xi Jinping for a personal favor. He is a leader of a major company and it was important and how the employees were located and his relationship to that. They were almost out of business.
He agreed to pay a $1.2 billion penalty and some other things, including management changes. ZTE is much smaller than Huawei.
The problem is that the Democrats go out and say if I got $200 trillion and say this is terrible. They made changes to the board and they made management changes and they paid a lot of money. Buying American product is very important to me.
(CROSSTALK)
Are we going to continue onward?
QUESTION: Yes?
TRUMP: Yes?
Does anybody say no?
QUESTION: Thank you. One question --
TRUMP: We just left Angola.
QUESTION: I know.
TRUMP: She's another friend of mine. People don't think so --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: We have a great relationship and we spent a lot of time together, too.
QUESTION: You praised the G20 summit as successful but if we look at climate change, why is it that you still think ignoring the dangers of climate change is in the interest of the American people?
TRUMP: We have the best numbers we have ever had recently. I am not looking to put companies out of business and create a standard that is so high that we will lose 20 percent or 25 percent of our production. I am not willing to do that. We had the cleanest water and air we have ever had.
You saw reports coming out recently. I am not willing to sacrifice the tremendous power of what we have built up over a long period of time and what I have enhanced and revived. I am not willing to do that. I am --
[03:55:00]
TRUMP: -- not necessarily sure I agree. I am not sure I agree with certain countries and what they are doing because they are losing a lot of the power of what they can do with factories. I am not talking about a little power, although that comes with it, I am talking about the powering of a plant. It doesn't always work with a windmill.
When the windmill goes off, the plant doesn't work. It doesn't always work with solar because it is not strong enough. A lot want to go to wind which has caused problems. The United States is subsidizing wind towers because it doesn't work without subsidy. I do not to be subsidizing things that don't need to be subsidized. I don't like it and I don't want to do it.
We will take a few more. Go ahead.
QUESTION: Thank you, sir. Two questions on Iran.
TRUMP: One.
QUESTION: One question on Iran.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Iran says they will be on the verge of violating the threshold for uranium enrichment in the JCPOA as soon next week.
What will be your response when that happens?
TRUMP: You will see. That is all I can do. I can only say you will see. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, we just can't do it.
Please?
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. You met yesterday with President Putin and the radar says you touched the subject of Venezuela.
Can you touch a little about what was said about Venezuela?
TRUMP: We are following Venezuela very closely. It is a catastrophe and it is what socialism can do. It was one of the richest countries 20 years ago. It has among the largest oil reserves in the world and they don't have food, water.
It is incredible. I have discussed it with almost every leader this weekend. We discuss Venezuela because we do not want that to happen to us or their countries.
Go ahead.
QUESTION: You mentioned change of regime takes time in Venezuela.
TRUMP: So many people are leaving Venezuela, it will be a ghost town. It is a very bad thing that is happening. No one has seen anything quite like it, especially from the standpoint that they were still wealthy.
I know so many people from Venezuela living in Miami, are incredible people. A lot of them live in Doral Miami. I know them so well. These are people who are hard workers. To see what is happening to Venezuela is heartbreaking.
QUESTION: Do you think it is time to change the strategy and do think that Juan Guaido is the person to leave the country?
TRUMP: You have different strategies. I have different strategies and I can change in a moment. We are helping them with the standpoint of aid and we are getting as much as we can. I think they are making a mistake because they are not making the aid easy or making it easy to get to people.
The people are starving to death and they have no water. We have a lot of things in store if we have to do that we don't want to do anything. But we know not want to get involved to the extent you are thinking. We will see what happens. It is doing very poorly. Maduro is doing very poorly. It is not working.
Yes, ma'am. Go ahead.
QUESTION: I wanted to follow-up on the questions about the crown prince that you met with earlier today. I did not hear you answer the question. Did you raise the killing of Jamal Khashoggi with him?
TRUMP: I asked him what was happening and he said I think 13 and more in the works and that there are large numbers of people being prosecuted or he is angry and unhappy about it. I did mention it to him and he answered strongly. They are prosecuting large numbers of people. That was a bad event.
QUESTION: Can I just follow up?
You mentioned that no one had pointed the finger at him but actually the CIA did, the --
[04:00:00]
