I know you guys are probably very sad since were not going do get a lot of days lice thick together since well be traveling. For those on the trip, look forward to seeing you. For those that arent, well certainly miss all of you and your questions. Its a busy day here at the white house, like most days here. The president was excited to announce the broad com limited it coming a back to the United States from singapore. Theii credited at the president s economic agenda to making the United States the best place the world to grow a business. Has noted the tax reform plan which was rolled out this morning will make it easier for them and other companies to do exactly what the president has promised. Bring back our jobs, bring back our wealth, and bring back our Great American dreams. This morning the president applauded the house ways and Means Committee for introducing the tax cuts and jobs act which is another important step toward providing massive tax relief for the American People. Our entire administration is working tirelessly to make good on the promise to the working people who built our nation to deliver historic tax cuts and reforms. The rocket fuel our economy needs to soar higher than ever before. The president is preparing to leave the country tomorrow for a fivecountry, tenday trip to hawaii and asian. This afternoon we have with us the president S National Security adviser, general mcmaster who will preview the trip and take your questions. Please keep your questions on topic. If you have other questions the press team will be around this afternoon and throughout the next ten days while we are on the road. Thank you very much. General. Good afternoon, everyone. Good to see everybody. Tomorrow President Trump embarks on his longest foreign trip to date. And the longest trip to asia by an american president in more than a quarter century. This trip is a great opportunity to demonstrate americas and the trump administrations commitment to indo pacific and our efforts to strengthen longstanding american alliances and expand new partnerships. The president has actively engaged reed leaderred in indo pacific this year to address a range of strategic issues, including most notably the north Korea Nuclear threat. Since taking office, President Trump has placed 43 calls to indo pack leader piston conduct bilateral meetings with japan, south korea, chinese, india, australia, ma lay sharks vietnam, indonesia, singapore and thailand. This trip will build on that ongoing diplomacy. The president s trip will focus on three goals. First, strengthening International Resolve to denuclearize north korea. Second, promote a free and open Indo Pacific Region. Third,s a answer american prosperity through fair and reciprocal trade and economic practices them United States remains committed to the complete verifiable and permanent denuclearization of the korean plan. President trump will reiterate the plain fact that north korea threatens not just our allies south korea and japan and the United States, north korea is a threat to the entire world. So all nations of the world must do more to counter that threat. That is happening. But the president recognizes that were running out of time too and i will ask all nations to do more. In particular the president will continue to call on all responsible nations, especially those with the most influence over north korea, to isolate the north korean wreckile economic politically. He will make the case that respect for navigation and rule of law, sovereignty, freedom from coercion and private enterprise and open markets is the best model to increase prosperity throughout the region and to secure the freedom and independence of all nations. And of course, increasing prosperity of the American People is always one of President Trumps top priorities. Throughout the trip, the president will stress commitments to free, fair and reciprocal trade. He looks forward to working with partners across the Indo Pacific Region to ensure that governments do not unfairly subsidize their industries. Discriminate against foreign business or restrict or an investment. This will help increase trade, reduce unsustainable deficits and promote prosperity for the American People and the people of the Indo Pacific Region. A final point and appointments often overlooked, this trip like all the president s engagements with foreign leaders builds on previous accomplishments and on previous diplomatic efforts. One example ill provide was in riyadh in may President Trump delivered a historic speech to the leaders of more than 50 muslim majority nations. The president will interact with many of those team leaders at apec, both of those conferences. He will reiterate counterterrorism pillars that he unveiled during that speech in riyadh. Deny safe havens, second, cut off their funding. And third, discredit their wicked ideology. I think its time that, for us to recognize theres been significant progress onall three fronts. A rack and mosul have been liberated and will no longer control territory and populations and the United States has worked very hard with allies and partners to deny that safe haven and in this case, to isis. Second, we should recognize theres been considerable progress on terrorist financing. As you saw, secretary mnuchins visit during which he opened a terrorist Financing Center and also you heard a lot of leaders across the world and the president foremost among them discrediting this ideology, this is the longest or jihadist ideology. And last week i think its worth reading, saudi crown prince, his speech during which he called for a return to moderate islam. At the ozzie on 50th birthday party, the president will discusshow to strengthen partnerships across the indo pacific , to further efforts against terrorist organizations so this trip is an opportunity to build momentum toward shared prosperity, community and im happy to take your questions to the back there. As you use the tools in your toolkit for confronting north korea, how much can you put back on the state sponsor of terror . That is an option under consideration and so the president s cabinet is looking at this as part of the overall strategy on north korea. Eight regime who murders someone in a public airport using nerve agents and a despotic leader, thats clearly an act of terrorism that fits in with arange of other actions sothis is something thats under consideration and you will hear more about this soon , i think. What about using the fiery rhetoric against north korea, he will be meeting on the sidelines and will he be bringing up human rights . So the president will use whatever language he wants to use, obviously and what the president has done is clarified in all of his discussions the statements on north korea, our determination to ensure north korea is unable to threaten our allies and partners and certainly the United States so hes done that in the past and im sure hell do that during this trip as well. Thats been a great reassurance to our allies, partners and othersin the region who are literally under the gun of this regime. You dont think there will be modulation in the language where he is . I dont think the president modulates his language, have you noticed him do that . Hes been clear about it. And just to talk about this quickly, ive been aware of the discussions about his inflammatory, what inflammatory is the north korean regime and what theyre doing to threaten the world. I think there would be great danger if that regime didnt understand our resolve, the president s resolve tocounter north korean aggression and the president s made it clear. Is there a likelihood during the trip that additional multilateral sanctions will be announced to north korea and the second question has to do with china, in your view general, are they doing enough to apply pressure on the north korean effort . On those questions, what youve seen is a concerted effort to isolate north korea economically and thats been combined with a major diplomatic effort that asks all countries to do more. There is tremendous momentum behind that and we seem countries across the Indo Pacific Region but globally doing more to expel these really, in effect north korean slave laborers who are a big source of income, to shut down a lot of Illicit Trafficking that was aimed to circumvent un sanctions and also to shut down the moneymaking enterprises of this regime, often run out of their embassies so you seem explosion of ambassadors, obviously the diplomatic corps, a restriction on this activity and the president welcomes that and appreciate it but we will also be asking others to do even more so it is both diplomacy and sanctions working together. China is definitely doing more. But obviously its not enough. And so all of us achieve denuclearization and i think whats really essential to remember about chinas approach to this is china recognizes, this isnt the United States or anyone else. Its up to china do us a favor, china recognizes it is in chinas interest and all nations interest to need the nuclear eyes the peninsula and thats because of the direct threat from a regime like this with a Nuclear Weapon but its also because of the specter of the breakdown of the nonproliferation regime and what others in the region conclude that they have to arm within these Nuclear Weapons and thats not good news for anybody. I think china will as it always does act in its interest what this is an area where interests are clearly aligned. You mentioned in your opening comment that the world is running out of time. If you could expand on that in a moment. Earlier this week, general mattis was asked about the process by which the president might use Nuclear Weapons and he said if he were to detect a potential launch from north korea, that is the scenario under which the president might act, do you agree with that assessment and is that something that has been discussed within the situation room or options presented . On the first, im out of time, were out of time because approaches in the past have not delivered, not delivered on reversing north koreas Dangerous Nuclear missile programs. And the approach in the past has been that we will be happy with something that some people call a freeze for freeze or suspension or suspension and thats the beginning of a long, drawnout negotiation process during which the north korean regime continues to develop its nuclear capability, continues to develop its weapons. Then upon delivery of a week, not enforceable agreement, the framework for example in 94, what that does, what that agreement does is it locks in the status quo as the new normal. And then the person then breaks the agreement and continues with the programs so we are out of time to do that because of how these programs advanced over time. What its time for is a concerted effort to do everything, everything all of us can to resolve this short of military action. In terms of scenarios, the president is always clear. He doesnt draw redlines, he doesnt for class or say directly what is going to do but what he will do is whatever it takes to protect the American People and our allies overseas. And so what is clear is that the United States will respond with all capabilities available to north korean aggression and they are appropriate to that. Gentleman in the center in the back thank you general, there have been stories coming out of north korea and certainly parts of, that part of the world that the north koreans have targeted the president and are you confident about his security and have you heard any of the rumors about his targeting of them by pyongyang . Whenever the president travels our team does an assessment and we have a capable force in the region so thats routine for us to take all that into consideration. Is your assessment now that he has consolidated his power, as it made it easier to deal with north korea or harder . The president already had a strong personal relationship that they developed at morrow lago and built a substantial policy dialogue we had on the security side. In meetings since then have the g 20 and in multiple phone calls between President Trump and president xi jinping and i would highlight the elements of that foundation for the us chinese, really a multinational approach to north korea. The first of these is a recognition that north korea is not just a threat to the United States remember in the old days youd hear this is a problem between north korea and the United States. Everyone acknowledges that, china especially, that this is a problem between north korea and the world. The second thing thats critical is the universal acknowledgment , that denuclearization of the peninsula is the only acceptable outcome. No more freeze for freeze, suspension for suspension and the thirdthing is chinas acknowledgment that its acting in its interests, obviously but that china as a great deal of economic power. 90 percent of the trade is through china so the implementation, enforcement of the Un Resolution holds promise but theres more that can be done beyond that and its time maybe for nations to do more beyond what has been called for in the Us Security Council resolutions. Two questions, one to follow up on the previous question, have you determined whether there will be a formal bilateral resolution . Thats not been determined yet but we will announce it if thats determined. I just wanted to talk a second about the president weighing in on the man whos been charged with mowing down pedestrians in new york city, he called for the death penalty. Have there been conversations in the white house about how that could complicate prosecutors efforts . The president wants security from this threat and from mass murderers like this, murderers like this and so what hes asked is for options to take a look to assess if our tremendous Law Enforcement teams and our judicial system has all the tools they need to be able to come back this threat to the American People so what we own now is options to take a look at to see if this is the time to reassess, change our capabilities in this area in the area of lawenforcement in particular. Your Opening Statement you spoke about a lot of different freedoms but i did not hear anything on freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and selfdetermination, democratic bulwarks and what i like to know is are these things no longer as important to the United States under President Trump . Is he comfortable with authoritarian regimes consolidating power and moving away from democracy as long as they can help us accomplish larger goals such as north korea and any other subject . What youll hear is the president when he talks about serenity, talks about sovereign nations protecting the rights of their citizens. You heard a preview and you will hear more in the speeches and statements the president makes a broad about the importance of the true rule of law, promoting freedom and individual rights so this is extremely important to the president and what we ought to do is look at the president s record. In syria you have a regime that is a big human rights of vendor, obviously in a number of areas. The murder, torture, the displacement of 6 Million People internally, 5 million refugees, mass murder of their own people with weapons. Who stood up against assad . The president did. If you look at the policy toward venezuela, a regime that is consolidating its grip on power and denying their citizens their rights, the president has taken a strong stance along with our great latin American Partners on venezuela so i would say look at the actions, look at the cuba policy, look at the shift from the old cuba policy that enabled an autocratic regime and a Nuclear Policy which incentivizes human rights and the development of free enterprise. She was in his room several times and you mentioned venezuela that the president and this administration have on many occasions condemned whats going on in venezuela but have not come to the same conclusion with other leaders in the philippines and in turkey and also in russia. The president has no problem with some authoritarian regimes but problems with others and i ask you one more time, why is venezuela different from turkey or russia or the philippines . I think what the president focused on his being effective in advancing and protecting human rights and advancing the rule of law. You see him do that in his relationship with everyone, we seen him do it quietly in every relationship so how much does it help. To yell about these problems. It hasnt really delivered in recent history, anyway so i dont think you should assume anything because youre not in the meetings, youre not in the phone calls and the president has done quite a bit. We need to do more to advance and protect human rights across all of our relationships. With the president in the region, is there any concern or expectation that it could have caused the north korean regime to ratchet up their aggression and are we doing anything proactively . The only thing that is ratcheting up north koreas aggression is that the north korean regime itself. So whats important is for us to have the capabilities necessary and have them in the right locations to deter conflict and if necessary to be able to respond to north korean aggression and were doing that with our allies and with partners in the region. Primarily over at south korean allies who are under the gun of that regime and have since the armistice in 1953. So we are working together with our allies every day to make sure we have the highest degree of readiness and of course you seen the most recent problem or some of the most recent provocations involving missile launches over japan. And north korea poses a great threat to our allies in japan as well. This is a global threat that requires a global response. Improving our military readiness, ensuring that we have the right assets including Strategic Asset in the region. Its immensely important to preventing conflict and then making sure that we are prepared to respond. General, there are some Foreign Policy experts who believe that the only route to a negotiated settlement within the United States that would win China Support would be a strong pledge from the United States not to seek regime change in north korea and also to remove us forces from the Korean Peninsula and provide other methods for south korean defense, is that something is white house would even entertain . We are always assessing our strategies based on the degree to which we think they are effective. Right now we set the goal is the nuclears age and of the peninsula and what you see is just the very beginning. Maybe the end of the beginning of the president s strategy in theform of new sanctions in place , much more work to do by slave regimes diplomatically and economically. And i think we have to be a little patient here for a few months to see what we and others can do including china as some of you mentioned at the beginning. So i dont think you need to reassess our strategy now. I think we have to give it a couple months and then see what adjustments we might need to make quick. Weve obviously made a point of this visit, can you talk about how hes going to be leading the us conversation about trading because we know that secretary mnuchin, we dont have confirmation or even, not even qr, so can you talk about whos leading this conversation. Our ustr is going to be leading the discussions on trade. In terms of trade economic development, economic practices, it will be our ustr and at times other members of the president s team but really it is the president s trip so the president is going to be leading other discussions on trade and on security and the rest of it, is really his engagement and to make the most out of this as we can. Thanks everybody. And we had. [inaudible conversation] President Trump begins his trip to asia with stops in japan, south korea, china, vietnam and the philippines in south korea he will visit with troops and address the countrys national assembly. Youll attend the asiapacific Economic Cooperation meeting in hanoi and later the association of Southeast Asian nation summit in the philippines