Following the announcements, he took some questions, including some about john boltons firing. Pres. Trump well, thank you very much. I want to say that the first lady and myself, we just came back from an incredible experience at the pentagon. It was an incredible, really a beautiful ceremony. I was very honored and i think speak for the first lady to have partaken in a ceremony that was so lovely, representing september 11th, 3000 lives. If you think about it, that number, as you know, alex, it got higher than that, directly and indirectly, a lot of great people. That was a tremendous job everybody did this morning letting the world know that we are ready for anything if we have to be. We are ready for anything. Thank you. I know a lot of you were there. I appreciate you being there very much. We have a problem in our country. A new problem. A problem nobody thought about too much a few years ago. It is called vaping. Especially as it pertains to innocent children. They are coming home and saying mom, iey are saying want to vape. Nobody knows too much about it, but it is causing a lot of problems. We are going to have to do something about it. One of the reasons we are meeting today is to let you know that it is out there, and we want to have parents understand that we are studying it very carefully. It is, again, very new and potentially very bad. There have been deaths and a lot of other problems. People think it is an easy solution to cigarettes, but it has turned out that it has its own difficulties. I am going to ask secretary azar to say a few words, and then, if i could, acting director of the fda. And you have done a terrific job. I want to thank you. We want to discuss the situation, because not only is it a problem overall, but early really specifically, with respect to children. We are getting some stories we that we dont want to hear, and we may very well have to do something very strong about it. So if i could ask you, mr. Secretary, say a few words . Azar thank you, mr. President. We briefed the president and first lady today on as yet undisclosed new data that we have from the National Youth tobacco survey. This information shows a continued surging in adolescent usage of ecigarette. It also shows that the youth are drawn to flavored ecigarettes, including mint and menthol. Currently about 8 million adults use ecigarettes, but 5 million children are using ecigarettes. This is exceptionally harmful to our children. An entire generation of children risk becoming addicted to nicotine because of the attractiveness, appealability, and availability of these vaping products. So with the president s support, the food and Drug Administration intends to finalize a guidance document that would commence enforcement to require that all flavors other than tobacco flavor would be removed from the market. This would include mint and menthol flavoring as well as candy flavors, bubblegum flavor, fruit flavor, alcohol flavor, you get the drift. Once the fda would finalize this guidance, we would begin actions to remove all such products from the marketplace. We would allow tobacco flavoring to remain, subject to their filing, the manufacturers of the tobacco flavored ecigarette products filing for free market tobacco approval with the fda to fda to assure that the availability of their product is consistent with Public Health under the standards set by the Tobacco Control act. Any of the other products, which would be removed from the market, would be able to apply to the similar regulatory pathway for approval, but would have to meet that standard. But i would caution met with the support, while we would allow tobacco flavored ecigarettes to remain on the market, to be available for adults who are seeking to stop the use of combustible tobacco, if we find that children are being attracted to tobacco flavored ecigarettes, if we find that manufacturers are marketing tobacco flavored ecigarettes to children or placing them in settings where they get them, we will take enforcement action there, also. Let me turn it over to dr. Ned actingwho is director of the fda, for details and comments he would have. Dr. Sharp thank you, secretary azar. The data gathered by the cdc and fda as described shows a very concerning and alarming trend of use of flavored ecigarette products. The president is directing the fda to take Decisive Action against this problem and to finalize our plans that we have been working on. This would have the effect, as the secretary mentioned, of severely curtailing access to ecigarette products we believe drive childhood use and will help us get a handle on this alarming and concerning trend. Pres. Trump commissioner sharpless has been working on this very hard, but continues to double and triple up. We are looking at strong rules and regulations, but we want to have laws, but we want to get to the bottom of the very unusual situation. It is so new, and it has become so big, so fast. It can become a severe problem. Commissioner, you know what to do. You know what to do. It is something that, frankly, should have been looked into a few years ago in a much more advanced way. It wasnt, and we have something that will be very interesting to see what turns up, but you will be able to report back in the near future, because you have a lot of work on this. We will see what happens. Thank you very much. Any questions . Mr. President , are the taliban talks completely dead still or is it a possibility . Pres. Trump the talks with the taliban are dead. Jeff . Bolton, whatng mr. Led you to decide to part ways . Pres. Trump john is somebody that i got along with very well. He made some very big mistakes. When he talked about the libyan model for kim jongun, that was not a good statement to make. Just look at what happened with qaddafi. That was not a good statement to make and sent us back, and frankly, he wanted to do things not necessarily tougher, and john is a tough guy, hes so tough, he got us into iraq. Thats tough. He is somebody that i actually had a very Good Relationship with, but wasnt getting along with people in the administration that i consider very important, and i hope we left in good stead. But maybe we have, maybe we havent. I have to run the country the way we are running the country. We are doing very well, and we are respected all over the world again. Respected like we havent been respected in many, many years. You look at iran and youre looking at so many things that are happening, iran wants to talk. They all want to talk. We are doing very well with china, and you probably saw the numbers that have come out, and some of them coming up just today. Chinas supply chain is breaking up, the supply chain of china, which was this unbreakable and powerful tool that they had, is breaking up like a toy because companies are moving out, and china wants to make a deal. We will see what happens. We have to make the right deal for this country. China has been taking out hundreds of billions of dollars a year out of our country. I read papers like the wall street journal, they dont have a clue. They havent got a clue. They dont make any excuses for the fact that china has been literally ripping off the United States in the worst manner for so many years. 500 billion pouring out of the United States. And i hear people i dont even know do these people have education on anything . Its common sense, maybe, more than anything else. But i look at some statements that are made from so many different people. And, you know, john wasnt in line with what we were doing, and actually, in some cases, he thought it was too tough what we were doing. Mr. Tough guy. You have to go into iraq. Going into iraq was something he felt very strongly about. We are right now over 7 trillion into the middle east, and i dont say it was only his decision, you have a president , and you had other people also, but he was very out there, civilians. Thought was a better negotiatin. People who want atthition. , they want to be ale want even today, what we are doing, you look at what we are doing today, these are big things. Nobody else would be doing this. They are big things. But weve done more than any admi look at right to try with these two gentlemen. So important. Right to try, where people are able to use some of the incredible innovations that forced to move and leave to other countries that dont have a clue compared to us. And now they have right to try. And by the way, a lot of people are being saved. A lot of great things are happening with right to try. But what weve done for the vets, what weve done for our the way, that is also jobs. Secondarily, but its also jobs. Nobody has done what weve done, and we are very honored to have done it. We are in a very good footing. Our country is respected again. Mr. Trump, who are your picks to replace him . Pres. Trump i have five people that want it very much. A lot more than that would like to have it, but there are five people i consider highly qualified, good people ive gotten to know over the last three years, and we will be announcing someone next week we , but we have some very highly qualified people. But we were sent back very badly when john bolton talked about the libyan model, and he made a mistake. As soon as he mentioned that, the libyan model, what a disaster. Take a look at what happened with ghaddafi, with the libyan model, and he is using that for north korea . Jongunnt blame kim after that. He wanted nothing to do with john bolton. Thats not a question of being tough. Its a question of being not smart to Say Something like that. So i w wish john the best. John came to see me the night before. In fact, i think a lot of you were waiting for me to get on the helicopter. He sat right in that chair, and i told him, john, if you arent getting along with people, a lot of us disagree with some of your tactics and some of your ideas. I wish you well, but i would like you to submit your resignation, and he did that. I know hes going to do well and i hope he is going to do well and i wish him well. [inaudible] pres. Trump so i just spoke with senator toomey, senator murphy, and senator joe manchin. A long time just before this meeting. Just hung up, and we are working hard together to see if we can come up with something that is acceptable to everybody. Its a subject that has been going on for decades. Decades theyve been talking about it. So we are looking at background checks, and we are looking at putting everything together in a unified way, so that we can have something thats meaningful. At the same time, all of us want to protect our great second amendment. It is very important to all of us. We are now in meetings, meetings going on tonight, and i will speak with them again tomorrow. And i think progress is being made. I hope so. Are you willing to put background checks on all gun sales . Pres. Trump we are taking a look at a lot of different things, and we will be reporting some things will never happen, and some very meaningful things can happen. Its really gun sense if you think about it. What were looking at is, maybe that is what we should collect, the gun sense bill. Call it, the gun sense bill. We will see what happens. Reporter the forecasters who said they would not . Pres. Trump i never did that. That is a hoax by the fix news media when they talk about the hurricane, when they talk about alabama. Its fake news. Live from the beginning, it was a fake story. Right from the beginning from the very start, and, well, we are here and we are talking about that, i want to congratulate dan bishop last night on an incredible win. Dan was 17 points behind three weeks ago. The media thought he was gonna lose. They were all set to have a big celebration with their partners from the democratic party. Dan bishop worked really hard, and i worked very hard with him. He made up a 17 point lead in a few weeks. And he won a great election last night. Also, greg murphy, who nobody is even reporting. But greg murphy won a great Congressional Election in North Carolina last night. I want to congratulate, between dan and greg, what a job they did. We picked up 2 seats. Greg was anticipated to win by 2 or 3 points or less. But he won by many, many points. I dont know what the final tab is but he won by a lot. , he campaigned brilliantly, and dan campaigned brilliantly. So, we are very happy about that. That is a tremendous win for the republican party. Okay . Reporter now that john bolton is gone, is your policy on venezuela going to change . Are you open to meeting . President trump we have a policy on venezuela thats a firm policy. But venezuela is really hurting, and we are trying to help people in a humanitarian way. That is probably not good in terms of, you know, crushing a terrible regime. But, you have people dying. This is a country that 15 years ago was one of the wealthiest countries. And now, it is dying. They dont have water, they dont have food, they dont have medical. They have nothing. So, we are trying to help as much as we can. We are also working with colombia. The leader of colombia is a friend of mine and he is doi really good job. I can tell you that. We are working with colombia. We are working with brazil. We are working with other countries on a humanitarian basis. Venezuela is in a very sad shape. That shows you about socialism. And it shows you what happens. Think a country that was so wealthy 15 years ago, and they dont have water, they dont have basic food. So, we will see what happens. No, i disagree with john bolton on his attitude toward venezuela. Thought he was way out of line. And i think i was proven to be right. But, we are always watchin, ver. Reporter are you open to meeting with maduro . President trump i dont want to talk about that. Reporter do you think the Companies Making these products will be treated unfairly by taking these products off the market . President trump they have become very Rich Companies very fast. And the whole thing with vaping is, it was very profitable. And i want companies, look, you know that, i fight for companies very hard. Thats why im fighting with china. Thats why i am fighting with other countries. If you look at the european union, and you look at japan, and if you look at so many others, including south koreas. We are constantly dealing with them to make it good for our companies, because i feel it as i view it as jobs and income for our country. Vaping has become a very big business, as i understand it. A giant business in a very short period of time. But we cant allow people to get sick, and we cant have our youth be so affected. That is how the first lady got involved. She has got a son a beautiful young man, and she feels very, very strongly about it. We are both reading it. A lot of people are reading it. But people are dying. With vaping. So, we are looking at it very closely. You know, if nothing else, this is to let people know about it. People are going to watch what we say, and parents are going to be a lot tougher with respect to their children. A lot of people think vaping is wonderful, its great. Its really not wonderful. Thats one thing we can say definitely. Commissioner, its not a wonderful thing. It has got big problems. We have to find the extent of the problems. Its so new. So new. But were going to find out. And i hope that parents, you know, they have children, and their children are a certain age, i hope they are going to be able to make wise decisions. Maybe based on what was said today. But the commissioner, alex azar, will be coming back over the next couple of weeks with some very strong recommendations. Reporter can you tell us the timeline to get the flavors off the market . It will take a couple of weeks for us to put out the final guidance that would announce all the parameters around the enforcement policy. And then, there will likely be about a 30 day delayed Effective Date as is customary with fda good guidance practices. At that point, all flavored e cigarettes other than tobacco flavored would have to be removed from the market. Tobacco flavored ecigarettes, their manufacturers would by may 2020 have to file for approval by fda of their product. The other flavored products, manufacturers, can at any time, also file until approved by the file, but they would be off the market until approved by the fda. The Obama Administration had allowed his products to go on the market in an unregulated way by delaying enforcement in the hopes about people who were using combustible tobacco would transition to a less harmful form of nicotine delivery through ecigarettes. But what we have seen is that kids are getting access to these products, in spite of our best efforts at enforcement, retail enforcement, controlling vocation, over 8000 warning ,etters to retailers and others despite removing products offtheshelf. We have to remove these attractive flavored products from the market face until they can secure fda approval. Reporter are you looking to arrange a meeting with the iranian president . President trump i am not looking for anything. Iran is a different country than it was 2. 5 years ago. 2. 5 years ago, they were given a lot of money by president obama. 150 billion. 1. 8 billion in cash. In actual cash. Very impressive. But they are much different country right now than they were 2. 5 years ago when i came into office. And i do believe they would like to make a deal. If they do, thats great. If they dont, thats great, too. But they have tremendous financial difficulty, and the sanctions are getting tougher and tougher. We cannot let iran have a nuclear weapon, and they never will have a nuclear weapon. And if they are thinking about enrichment, they can forget about it, because its going to be very dangerous for them to enrich. Very, very dangerous. Okay . You can spread the word to iran. Would you consider easing sanctions . Pres. Trump well see what happens. We will see what happens. I think iran has potential. And, i think, north korea. Those are two countries we are dealing with right now at a very high level. I think iran has tremendous potential. There are incredible people. We are not looking for regime change. We hope that we can make a deal and if we cant make a deal, that is fine, too. That is fine, too. But i think they have to make a deal. Theyve never been in this condition. By the way, china is having the worst year they have had now in 57 years. Ok . 57. It was 27, 22, and then 27. 57 years of the worst years that they have had. And, its only going to get worse. So i think they want to make a deal, too. We are dealing with them, but i think they want to make a deal. They are coming in sometime in early october, and we are speaking to them constantly. And they also, they made a couple of moves last night that were pretty good. You saw that, right . They were pretty good. They were pretty respectful to our people. You didnt see it because youre one of the people that reported it. Your group. But china is, china is having to deal with tariffs. They took tariffs off certain things. A lot of things. Reporter and you are happy about that . President trump they did the right thing. It was good for them. But they took them off. Yeah, i think it was a gesture. Okay . It was a big move. People were shocked. I wasnt shocked. But ideal with them, i know them and i like them, and i hope we can do something. With respect to iran, i think they have to do something. They have potential to have an unbelievably great country. But the way its going right now, it is disintegrating, and i dont think they should allow that to happen. North korea has tremendous potential. North korea is in between russia, china, and south korea. It is incredible. Incredible people. I think that they really will have this truly unbelievable potential. And i think they want to get to it. We will see what happens. Maybe they do it, maybe they want. We just have to wait and see. But i really believe that north korea would like to see something tremendous happen. This could be one of the most unbelievable you look at a country, this could be one of the most unbelievable experiments ever, north korea. I would also say the same of iran. If iran can get back to business, they could do unbelievably well with all of the district. Just to finish, this is all about vaping. This is a meeting that gets a little off track, because you ask those questions about other things, and i think we are better off answering them than not. But we are looking at vaping very strongly. It is very dangerous. Children have died. People have died. The acting commissioner is somebody who is an expert on it as much as you could be on and as much as you could be an expert on a brandnew subject. I will have some very strong rules and regulations. Most importantly, i think we are going to have some very Important Information come out very shortly. Okay . And we will be reporting that over the next couple of weeks. I want to thank you and , commissioner, i want to thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, guys. Thanks. [chatter] announcer Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell offered support for fired National Security adviser john bolton, but said President Trump should have the person he wants in his position. Mr. Bolton was fired on tuesday. Now, on another matter, as he departs the position of National Security advisor, i want to thank ambassador john bolton for his many years of valuable service to our country. Personally, i have always appreciated johns candor and clear advice. He possesses something crucial the aty