Intelligence Community Delivered a report on publicly and privately to the president , the president elect last week, and also to the allegations that surfaced last night about the notion that russia might, according to a former British Intelligence official, have compromising information on the president elect. All of that of course is a cloud over the onset of his administration and has the potential, if this mushrooms into a major congressional investigation, to crowd out a lot of the political space for movement on republican priorities like tax cuts and repealing obamacare. Robert frank, youre also joining us outside of trump tower. This comes about a month after the original News Conference that donald trump was supposed to hold detailing how he would deal with his businesses once hes inaugurated about nine days away. What are you expecting on that front . Hows he going to avoid this conflict of interest question . Reporter yeah, the important Business News of the morning will be trumps decision on how the wealthiest man ever to become president will separate his business and financial interests from the oval office. Now, he said going into this that there are some simple solutions, its not really that elaborate a problem to unwind. The president , of course, is exempt from federal ethics rules that do apply to cabinet and other government officials. We saw with Jared Kushner, his soninlaw, how one solution would be to put it in some kind of trust and withdraw from the management of the company. But the two important things to watch here number one, dont look at the management of the Trump Organization, look at the ownership. So, if he puts it in a trust, we need to know, how is that being transferred . What kind of trust is it . Is it an Irrevocable Trust . How will that be paid for by the trust . Most importantly, who will be the beneficiaries of that trust . The other important question to watch here is the emoluments clause. Its a fairly obscure part of the constitution, but for experts and lawyers, it will be the key question on whether that will apply to trump and the president or whether in his view it does not. That will have a Large Bearing on, for instance, the new trump hotel in d. C. , and other assets that are used or funded by Foreign Governments. So, the two Big Questions were going to watch here are what happens to the ownership of the Trump Organization and his stake in that and what happens with the emoluments clause. John, big discussion this morning with jim about what the market truly wants to know about. Its not necessarily russia or conflicts of interest, in his view. Its more about timing on tax reform and repatriation and infrastructure. Do those things are they likely to get displaced by discussion of so many other things . Reporter that i was making earlier, carl, those two things are related. That is to say, the durability and the scale of the investigation, of the controversy over donald trump and russia is going to be directly related to both the timing of republican agenda progress on capitol hill, and it will also color the decisions that senators make. And holding with a narrow set of majority at 52, holding his Party Together is of vital importance. And the more questions people have, the more reluctant theyre going to be to cooperate and go along to advance his agenda. So, john, how closely should we be listening to the tone of the questions from republican senators during these confirmation hearings . Marco rubio had a pretty strong line of questioning for Rex Tillerson just moments ago about his position on putinera russia. Do you think that reflects the sort of reception that the Trump Administration is likely to get for certain policies, whether it is the aca repeal or what have you, that some senators might be resistant to . Reporter to some extent, although i wouldnt overdraw that. There are particular issue reasons and reasons of their own political agendas that republican senators would have to closely question one nominee or the other. I do think that it is likely in the end that nearly all the trump nominees, including Rex Tillerson, will be confirmed. I dont think its the case that all of them necessarily will. I think democrats are going to focus on those that they consider the most vulnerable parts. We talked about this before. I think the health and Human Services secretary nominee, because of the positions hes taking on medicare and medicaid, what are at odds with Trumps Campaign positions and also not popular are i think he is one who is going to be an intense focus of controversy. We saw some of Jeff Sessions yesterday. Youll see some with Rex Tillerson. But i think both of those two latter gentlemen are likely to be confirmed. Taking a look at that live shot there, you might notice a desk with some mystery folders to the right of the lectern. We dont know what those are, but perhaps there are some props in store for us as we await the president elect. Eamon javers is on capitol hill taking stock of not just tillerson this morning, but sessions day two, chow over at commerce. Reporter there are a lot of moving pieces. Starting with Rex Tillerson, we knew this hearing would be all about russia. Youve been monitoring it up there, and youve seen the aggressive questioning that Rex Tillerson has gotten, particularly as john just mentioned from marco rubio, asking Rex Tillerson if he thinks that Vladimir Putin, for example, is a war criminal, if he thinks there were war crimes committed by the russians in aleppo. A very, very aggressive marco rubio this morning, particularly on the issue of russian hacking and whether or not Rex Tillerson believes that, in fact, Vladimir Putin ordered that. Tillerson seemed to suggest and fall back on the Intelligence Report that was released publicly last week, endorsing those claims and saying that he doesnt believe that very much happens in russia without Vladimir Putins say so. So, tillerson not necessarily getting kid glove treatment from his own party, which is typically what you expect from this sort of thing. Also joining us by phone as we wait to hear from the president elect is our friend, larry kudlow, has been an informal trump adviser on that team. Larry, what do you want to hear from president elect trump this morning . Reporter growth, growth, growth. Thats what i really want to hear. Hes talking about it publicly, hes been talking about it privately. Hes been talking about tax cuts and deregulation and reforming health kcare, wul of which i think would really rejuvenate the economy. You can see some of the animal spirit in these confidence indexes, Small Businesses and consumers. So im hoping for a growth message, frankly. Robert, i just have a quick question about the business relationship with russia. Trump tweeting after these new revelations that there have been no deals in russia, no connection. Does he have to clear up this once and for all . The Washington Post citing his son, donald jr. , in 2008 saying russia represents a big opportunity and that theyve got a lot of deals going on there. We still dont have the tax receipts and his information. Is he going to answer that, robert frank . Reporter well, yes, he probably will answer that, and his answer will probably be consistent with what he said, which is that he has no formal business relationship with the russians. A lot of other media have pointed out that russians are important clients of his, particularly in the luxury condo sector in new york here demand florida, where the wealthy russians have been major buyers. But the basic, true answer is we dont really know whether there are russian lenders that have lent to the Trump Organization or any of his projects. We dont really know if there are other partners that are russian in any of his projects because this is a private company. Its a black box with over 100 different legal entities. And so, we wont really know whether russia is truly in business with donald trump or what the relationships are. But we do know that in advance of today, he has worked to clean up his overseas operations. He has severed relationships with brazil, with india, with azerbaijan and other countries where there were questions about his talking to foreign leaders. So where he doesnt already have an ironclad contract, he has sought to restrict all of his overseas activities. And i suspect going into today what hell probably say is that, look, we may not do any new deals, which is what we saw with Jared Kushner and the kushner companies, where basically, he said look, lets stop focusing on the company and we wont do any more deals, particularly overseas. So i suspect that hell try to put to rest some of those questions, especially with regard to russia, by saying, look, were just not going to do any overseas deals, whether with russia or anyone else, once he becomes president. Yeah reporter can i just add into this . Trump may never satisfy the washington folks, okay . But the fact is, no crimes have been committed. What is wrong with doing business overseas . I dont understand that whole line of reason. Hes done nothing wrong. Hes a businessman. Hes an International Businessman, and he has consortiums of buyers and lenders with respect to real estate and perhaps other areas. So what . What is all this supposed to prove exactly . I dont get it. Larry, i think the question is whether those deals and those interests that he has are at odds with the interests of the country at this point. And it seems to me tell me what you think about this that as long as we dont know specifically what those business interests are, there is the risk that rumor and innuendo at practically every week of this fouryear presidency is going to perhaps dog this administration. Reporter i just dont agree with any of that, with all due respect. I dont agree. As i say, the Washington Post and the New York Times, talk about rumors and innuendo. Thats about what youve got here, nothing concrete whatsoever. And theyll probably never be satisfied. All this stuff is a red herring. Hes going to conduct the governments business as he sees fit in the interests of america. He said that about a million times on the campaign trail. The same is going to be true for his secretary of state and secretary of defense and all of the others involved. I mean, come on, its not a crime to be a businessman. Its not a crime to be a successful businessman. And its not a crime to be an International Businessman so can we lets get on with the business of this country, which is Economic Growth and jobs and new investment and tax reform . Thats really where we need to go here. We just saw steve bannon step off the elevator along with Jared Kushner, so we might expect the president elect in a few moments. Larry, though, i mean, the point youre making is valid, but we just spent four or five minutes talking about it instead of a pro growth policy. This is positioned as a general News Conference, meaning the questions will dictate the conversation. Its hard to imagine that thats going to be talked about in the first third of this appearance. Reporter well, i think mr. Trump is very good at communicating his positions. And questions will come, i guess, carl i have no rproblm with that, freed yoom of the pr, but im sure he will get his message out on the economy, on health care, on trade. Hes proven to be quite good at this. I suppose one could say what he doesnt quite make out in the press conference, i guess well get a couple tweets later on just to clarify, going over the head of the Mainstream Media. I was just going to bring up that point, john harwood. 167 days since the last press conference, but in that period, the president elect has tweeted 1,500 times. Do you expect members of the press to be asking about his twitter plans for after the inauguration . Reporter honestly, i wouldnt expect them to be asking too much because i think we know the answer. I think we know that hes going to continue that method of communication. He thinks its very effective for him, and i would have zero expectation that he is going to change the way he operates in that regard. Here he comes right now. Indeed. Were going to stick with this as we wait for the president elect to get to the lectern. A remarkable 24 hours of news coverage. Whether you agree with the standards that various media organizations have in releasing some of these memos, dossiers. Lets take a listen to the president elect being introduced at trump tower. Its an opportunity to be here today to allow the president elect to take your questions. After the president elect makes some remarks, he will introduce ms. Sherri gillan with the washington, d. C. , firm of morgan lewis who structured the agreements pursuant to the president s business arrangement, and she will give brief remarks. Before we start, i want to bring your attention to a few points on the report that was published in buzzfeed last night. Its frankly outrageous and highly irresponsible for a leftwing blog that was openly hostile to the president elects campaign to drop highly salacious and flatout false information on the internet just days before he takes the oath of office. According to buzzfeeds own editor, there are serious reasons to doubt the allegations in the report. The executive editor of the New York Times also dismissed the report by saying it was totally unsubstantiated, echoing the concerns that many other reporters expressed on the internet. The fact that buzzfeed and cnn made the decision to run with this unsubstantiated claim is a sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks. The report is not an Intelligence Report, plain and simple. One issue that the report talked about was the relationship of three individuals associated with the campaign. These three individuals, paul manafort, Michael Cowen and carter paige. Carter paige is an individual who the president elect does not know and was put on notice months ago by the campaign. Paul manafort has adamantly denied any of this involvement. And Michael Cowen, who is said to have visited prague in august and september, did not leave or enter the United States during this time. We asked him to produce his passport to confirm his whereabouts on the dates in question, and there was no doubt that he was not in prague. In fact, mr. Cohen has never been in prague. A new report actually suggests that Michael Cohen was at the university of Southern California with his son at a baseball game. One report now suggested, apparently, its another Michael Cohen. For all the talk lately about fake news, this political witch hunt by some in the media is based on some of the most flimsy reporting, and its frankly shameful and disgraceful. With that, it is my honor to introduce the next Vice President of the United States, mike pence. We are nine days away from the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States. Of america. Im profoundly honored and humbled that i will take the oath of office to serve as Vice President of the United States nine days from today, but im even more honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with a new president who will make America Great again. Now, the president elects leadership and his energy during the campaign was impressive, but as the chairman of the transition effort, i can assure the American People that his energy and his vision during the course of this transition has been even more inspiring. To see the way he has brought together men and women of extraordinary capability at a historic pace in this cabinet 19 of the 21 cabinet officials have been announced, Nine Committee hearings already scheduled, seven more soon to go on the books in the next several days, and it is a compilation of men and women with an unprecedented caliber of leadership and background to help this administration move our nation forward. Perhaps thats why theres been such a concerted effort by some in the Mainstream Media to delegitimize this election and to demean our incoming administration. You know, i have long been a supporter of a free and independent press, and i always will be, but with freedom comes responsibility, and the irresponsible decision of a few news organizations to run with a false and unsubstantiated report when most news organizations resisted the temptation to propagate this fake news can only be attributed to media bias and attempt to demean the president elect and our incoming administration, and the American People are sick and tired of it. But today, well get back to real news, to real facts, and the Real Progress our incoming president has already made in reviving the American Economy and assembling a team that will make America Great again. And well hear from the president elect about issues that are of paramount importance to the American People today. So it is my honor to introduce to all of you my friend and the president elect of the United States of america, donald trump. Thank you very much. Its very familiar territory, News Conferences, because we used to give them on an almost daily basis. I think we probably maybe won the nomination because of News Conferences, and its good to be with you. We stopped giving them because we were getting quite a bit of inaccurate news. But i do have to say that, and i must say that i want to thank a lot of the news organizations here today. Because they looked at that nonsense that was released by maybe the intelligence agencies, who knows, but maybe the intelligence agencies, which would be a tremendous blot on their record if they, in fact, did that, a tremendous blot, because a thing like that should never have been written, it should never been had, and it should certainly never have been released. But i want to thank a lot of the news organizations for some of whom have not treated me very well over the years, a couple in particular, and they came out so strongly against that fake news and the fact that it was written about by primarily one group and one television station. So, i just want to compliment many of the people in the room. I have Great Respect for the news and have Great Respect for freedom of the press and all of that, but i will tell you, there were some news organizations, with all that was just said, that were so professional, so incredibly professional, that ive just gone up a notch as to what i think of you, okay . All right. Weve had some great news over the last couple of weeks. Ive been quite active, i guess you could say, in an economic way for the country. A lot of Car Companies are going to be moving in. We have other companies. Big news is going to be announced over the next couple of weeks about companies that are going to be building in the midwest. You saw yesterday fiat chrysler, big, big factory going to be built in this country as opposed to another country. Ford Just Announced that they stopped plans for a billiondollar plant in mexico and theyre going to be moving into michigan and expanding very substantially an existing plant. I appreciate that from ford. I appreciate it very much from fiat chrysler. I hope that General Motors will be following, and i think they will be. I think a lot of people will be following. I think a lot of industries are going to be coming back. We have to get our drug industry coming back. Our drug industry has been disastrous. Theyre leaving left and right. They supply our drugs, but they dont make them here, to a large extent. And the other thing we have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry, because theyre getting away with murder. Pharma. Pharma has a lot of lobbies and a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power, and theres very little bidding on drugs. Were the largest buyer of drugs in the world, and yet, we dont bid properly. And were going to start bidding and were going to save billions of dollars over a period of time, and were going to do that with a lot of other industries. Im very much involved with the generals and admirals on the airplane, the f35. Youve been reading about it. And its way, way behind schedule and many, many billions of dollars over budget. I dont like that, and the admirals have been fantastic, the generals have been fantastic. Ive really gotten to know them well, and were going to do some big things on the f35 program, and perhaps the f18 program, and were going to get those costs way down, and were going to get the plane to be even better, and were going to have some competition and its going to be a beautiful thing. So weve been very, very much involved. And other things. We had jack ma. We had so many incredible people coming here. Theyre going to do tremendous things, tremendous things in this country, and theyre very excited. And i will say, if the election didnt turn out the way it turned out, they would not be here, they would not be in my office or anybody elses office. Theyd be building and doing things in other countries. So theres a great spirit going on right now, a spirit that many people have told me theyve never seen before, ever. Were going to create jobs. I said that i will be the greatest jobs producer that god ever created, and i mean that. I really im going to work very hard on that. We need certain amounts of other things, including a little bit of luck, but i think were going to do a real job, and im very proud of what weve done, and we havent even gotten there yet. I look very much forward to the inauguration. Its going to be a beautiful event. We have great talent, tremendous talent, and we have all of the bands or most of the bands from the different segments of the military. And ive heard some of these bands over the years. Theyre incredible. Were going to have a very, very elegant day. The 20th is going to be something that will be very, very special, very beautiful. And i think were going to have massive crowds, because we have a movement. Its a Movement Like the world has never seen before. Its a movement that a lot of people didnt expect. And even the polls, although some of them did get it right, but many of them didnt, and that was a beautiful scene on november 8th as those states started to pour in, and we focused very hard in those states and they really reciprocated. And those states are going to have a lot of jobs and theyre going to have a lot of security, theyre going to have a lot of good news for their veterans. And by the way, speaking of veterans, i appointed today the head secretary of the veterans administration, david shulkan. Well do a news release in a little while and tell you about david. Hes fantastic. He will do a truly great job. One of the commitments ive made is that were going to straighten out the whole situation for our veterans. Our veterans have been treated horribly. Theyre waiting in line for 15, 16, 17 days. Cases where they go in and they have a minor, earlystage form of cancer and they cant see a doctor. By the time they get to the doctor, theyre terminal. Its not going to happen. Its not going to happen. So, david is going to do a fantastic job. Were going to be talking to a few people also to help david. And we have some of the great hospitals of the world going to align themselves with us on the veterans administration, like the Cleveland Clinic, like the mayo clinic, a few more that we have, and were going to set up a group. These are hospitals that have been the top of the line, the absolute top of the line. And theyre going to get together with their great doctors, toby cosgrove, as you know, from the Cleveland Clinic has been very involved. Ike perlmutter has been very, very involved, one of the great men of business. And were going to straighten out the va for our veterans. Ive been promising that for a long time, and its something i feel very, very strongly. So, youll get the information on david, and i think youll be very impressed with the job he does. We looked long and hard. We interviewed at least 100 people, some good, some not so good, but we had a lot of talent, and we think this selection will be something that will, with time, with time, straighten it out and straighten it out for good, because our veterans have been treated very unfairly. Okay, questions . Yes. Mr. President elect, thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it. A couple of aspects of the intelligence briefing that you received on friday that were looking for further clarification on. Sure. First of all, did the heads of the intelligence agencies provide you with a twopage summary of these unsubstantiated allegations . And secondly, on the broader picture, do you accept their opinion that Vladimir Putin ordered the hack of the dnc and the attempted hack of the rnc . And if you do, how will that color your attempts to build a relationship with a leader who has been accused of committing an act of espionage against the United States . First of all, these meetings as you know are confidential, classified, so im not allowed to talk about what went on in a meeting, but we have many witnesses in that meeting, many of them with us. And i will say, again, i think its a disgrace that information would be let out. I saw the information. I read the information outside of that meeting. Its all fake news. Its phony stuff. It didnt happen. And it was gotten by opponents of ours, as you know, because you reported it and so did many of the other people. It was a group of opponents that got together, sick people, and they put that crap together. So, i will tell you that not within the meeting, but outside of the meeting, somebody released it. It should never have been number one, shouldnt have even entered paper, but it should never have been released. But i read what was released, and i think its a disgrace. I think its an absolute disgrace. As far as hacking, i think it was russia, but i think we also get hacked by other countries and other people. And i can say that, you know, when we lost 22 million names and Everything Else that was hacked recently, they didnt make a big deal out of that. That was something that was extraordinary that was probably china. We have much hacking going on. And one of the things were going to do we have some of the greatest computer minds anywhere in the world that weve assembled. You saw just a sample of it two weeks ago up here where we had the six top people in the world. They were never in the same room together as a group. And were going to put those minds together and were going to form a defense. And i have to say this also the Democratic National committee was totally open to be hacked. They did a very poor job. They could have had hacking defense, which we had. And i will give Reince Priebus credit, because when reince saw what was happening in the world and with this country, he went out and went to various firms and ordered a very, very strong hacking defense. And they tried to hack the republican National Committee and they were unable to break through. We have to do that for our country. Its very important. Mr. President elect [ inaudible question ] well, you know, president putin and russia put out a Statement Today that this fake news was indeed fake news. They said it totally never happened. Now, somebody would say, of course hes going to say that. I respected the fact that he said that. And ill be honest, i think if he did have something, they would have released it. They would have been glad to release it. I think, frankly, had they broken into the republican National Committee, i think they would have released it just like they did about hillary and all of the horrible things that her people, like mr. Podesta said about her. I mean, what he said about her was horrible. If somebody said about me what podesta said about hillary i was the boss, i would have fired him immediately, or that person, because what he said about her was horrible. But remember this we talk about the hacking, and hackings bad, and it shouldnt be done, but look at the things that were hacked. Look at what was learned from that hacking, that Hillary Clinton got the questions to the debate and didnt report it . Thats a horrible thing. Thats a horrible thing. Can you imagine that if donald trump got the questions to the debate, it would have been the biggest story in the history of stories, and they would have said immediately you have to get out of the race. Nobody even talked about it. Its a very terrible thing. Mr. President elect thank you, mr. President elect. On that Intelligence Report, the second part of their conclusion was that Vladimir Putin ordered it because he aspired to help you in the election. Do you accept that part of the finding . And will you undo what president obama did to punish the russians for this if given a chance . If putin likes donald trump, i consider that an asset, not a liability, because we have a horrible relationship with russia. Russia can help us fight isis, which by the way is, number one, tricky. I mean, if you look, this administration created isis by leaving at the wrong time. The void was created, isis was formed. If putin likes donald trump, guess what, folks, thats called an asset, not a liability. Now, i dont know that im going to get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope i do. But theres a good chance i wont. And if i dont, do you honestly believe that hillary would be tougher on putin than me . Does anybody in this room really believe that . Give me a break. Can you make clear whether during your visits to either moscow or st. Petersburg you engaged in conduct that you now regret and that a reasonable no reasonable observers say that you are potentially vulnerable to blackmail by russia or by its intelligence agencies. Let me just say what i do. When i leave our country im a very highprofile person, would you say . I am extremely careful. Im surrounded by bodyguards. Im surrounded by people. And i always tell them anywhere, but i always tell them, if im leaving this country, be very careful, because in your hotel rooms, and no matter where you go, youre probably going to have cameras. Im not referring just to russia, but i would certainly put them in that category. And number one, i hope youre going to be good anyway. But in those rooms, you have cameras in the strangest places, cameras that are so small with modern technology, you cant see them and you wont know. Youd better be careful or youll be watching yourself on nightly television. I tell this to people all the time. I was in russia years ago with the Miss Universe contest, which did very well, moscow, the moscow area, did very, very well. And i told many people, be careful, because you dont want to see yourself on television. Cameras all over the place. And again, not just russia, all over. Does anyone really believe that story . Im also very much of a germophobe, by the way, believe me. How you plan to disentangle yourself from your business. But first, i have to follow up on some of these russia remarks. Based your comments here today, do you believe the hacking was justified . Does russia have any leverage over you, financial or otherwise . And if not, will you release your tax returns to prove it . So, i tweeted out that i have no dealings with russia. I have no deals in russia. I have no deals that could happen in russia, because weve stayed away. And i have no loans with russia. As a real estate developer, i have very, very little debt. I have assets that are and now people have found out how big the company is i have very little debt, but i have no loans with russia at all. And i thought that was important to put out. I certified that. So, i have no deals, i have no loans and i have no dealings. We could make deals in russia very easily if we wanted to. I just dont want to because i think that would be a conflict. So i have no loans, no dealings and no current pending deals. Now, i have to say one other thi thing. Over the weekend, i was offered 2 billion to do a deal in dubai with a very, very, very amazing man, a great, great developer from the middle east, hussein dumak, a friend of mine, great guy, and was offered 2 billion to do a deal in dubai, a number of deals. And i turned it down. I didnt have to turn it down, because as you know, i have a noconflict situation because im president , which is i didnt know about that until about three months ago, but its a nice thing to have, but i dont want to take advantage of something. I have something that others dont have. Vice president pence also has it. I dont think hell need it. I have a feeling hes not going to need it. But i have a no conflict of interest provision as president. It was many, many years old. This is for president s because they dont want president s getting i understand, they dont want president s getting tangled in minutia. They want a president to run the country. So i could actually run my business. I could actually run my business and run government at the same time. I dont like the way that looks, but i would be able to do that, if i wanted to. I would be the only one that would be able to do that. You cant do that in any other capacity, but as a president , i could run the Trump Organization great, Great Company and i could run the country. Id do a very good job. But i dont want to do that. Now, all of these papers that you see here yes, go ahead. Do you believe the hacking was justified and will you release your tax returns to prove what youre saying about no deals in russia . Well, im not releasing the tax returns, because as you know, theyre under audit. But every president since the 70s has gee, ive never heard that. Ive never heard that before [ everyone talking at once ] you know, the only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters, okay . You dont think the American Public is concerned about that . No, i dont think so. I won. I mean, i became president. No, i dont think they care at all. [ cheers and applause ] i think you care. I think you care. First of all, you learn very little from a tax return. What you should do is go down to federal elections and take a look at the numbers. And actually, people have learned a lot about my company, and now they realize my company is much bigger, much more powerful than they ever thought. Were in many, many countries and im very proud of it. And what im going to be doing is my two sons, who are right here, don and eric, are going to be running the company. They are going to be running it in a very professional manner. Theyre not going to discuss it with me. Again, i dont have to do this. Theyre not going to discuss it with me. And with that, im going to bring up sherri dillon, and shes going to go these papers are just some of the many documents ive signed turning over complete and total control to my son. Good morning. Its my honor and privilege to be here today at president elect trumps request. Hes asked me, as you just heard, to speak about the conflicts of interest and the steps hes taking. As you know, the Business Empire built by president elect trump over the years is massive, not dissimilar to the fortunes of Nelson Rockefeller when he became Vice President. But at that time, no one was so concerned. President elect trump wants the American Public to rest assured that all of his efforts are directed to pursuing the peoples business and not his own. To that end, as he explained a few moments ago, he directed me and my colleagues at the law firm morgan, lewis and bacheus to design a structure for his Business Empire that would completely isolate him from the management of the company. He further instructed that we build in protections that will assure the American People the decisions he makes and the actions that he takes as president are for their benefit and not to support his financial interests. As he said, hes voluntarily taking this on. The conflicts of interest laws simply do not apply to the president or the Vice President , and they are not required to separate themselves from their financial assets. The primary conflicts of interest statute, since some have questioned this, is section 18 usc208, and its simply inapplicable by its terms. And this is not just our interpretation, its the congress itself who made this in 1989 when it amended section 18 usc202 to state that except as otherwise provided, the terms office and employee in section 208 shall not include the president. Even so, president elect trump wants there to be no doubt in the minds of the American Public that he is completely isolating himself from his business interests. He instructed us to take all steps realistically possible to make it clear that he is not exploiting the office of the presidency for his personal benefit. He also sought the guidance of individuals who are familiar with and have worked extensively in the fields of government ethics and constitutional law. Critical to the morgan lewis team is fred fielding, standing here to our side and with us today. Many of you have known him. He has served several president s over the years, including serving as counsel to president S Ronald Reagan and george w. Bush, as well as serving on president h. W. Bushs commission on federal ethics law reform, and he also held the position of vice chair of the ethics resource center. Mr. Fielding has been extensively involved with and approved this plan. Hes here today to support the plan, and he will continue to provide guidance as the plan is implemented and as eric, don, along with others, take over management of the Trump Organization. Im going to detail some of the extraordinary steps now that the president elect is taking. First, president elect trumps investments in business assets, commonly known as the Trump Organization, comprising hundreds of entities, which again, if you all go and take a look at his Financial Disclosure statement, the pages and pages and pages of entities have all been or will be conveyed to a trust prior to january 20th. Here is just some of the paperwork thats taking care of those actions. Second, through the trust agreement, he has relinquished leadership and management of the Trump Organization to his sons, don and eric, and a longtime trump executive, allen wieselberg. Together, don, eric and allen will have the authority to manage the Trump Organization and will make decisions for the duration of the presidency without any involvement whatsoever by president elect trump. Further, at the president elects direction, the trust agreement provides that to ensure the Trump Organization continues to operate in accordance with the highest and legal ethics standards, an ethics adviser will be appointed to the management team. The written approval of the ethics adviser will be required for new deals, actions and transactions that could potentially raise ethics or conflicts of interest concerns. President elect trump as well as don, eric and allen, are committed to ensuring that the activities of the Trump Organization are beyond reproach and cannot be perceived to be exploitive of the office of the presidency. President elect trump will resign from all officer and other positions he holds with the Trump Organization entities. Further, in addition, his daughter, ivanka, will have no further involvement with or Management Authority whatsoever with the Trump Organization. As she and jared move their family to d. C. , ivanka will be focused on settling her children into their new homes and their new schools. The president elect has also already disposed of all of his investments in publicly traded or easily liquidated investments. As a result, the trust will have two types of assets. First, it will hold liquid assets cash, cash equivalents, and treasuries, and perhaps some positions in a governmentapproved diversified portfolio, one consistent with the regulations from the office of government ethics. Second, the trust is going to hold his preexisting illiquid but very valuable business assets, the ones everyone here is familiar with, golf clubs, rental property, hotels, rights to royalties of trump marks productions and, things like trump tower, maralago, all of his business assets, 40 wall street, will all be in the trust. Through instructions in the trust agreement, president elect trump first ordered that all pending deals be terminated. This impacted more than 30 deals, many of which were set to close by the end of 2016. As you can well imagine, that caused an immediate financial loss of millions of dollars, not just for president elect trump, but also for don, ivanka and eric. The trust agreement as directed by President Trump imposes severe restrictions on new deals. No new foreign deals will be made whatsoever during the duration of President Trumps presidency. New domestic deals will be allowed, but they will go through a vigorous vetting process. The president elect will have no role in deciding whether the Trump Organization engages in any new deal, and he will only know of a deal if he reads it in the paper or sees it on tv, because any new deal could and i emphasize could be perceived as causing a conflict or as exploiting the office of the presidency. New deals must be vetted with the ethics adviser, whose role will be to analyze any potential transactions for conflicts and ethics issues. The ethics adviser will be a recognized expert in the field of government experts. Again, his role will be to scrutinize the new deals and the actions, and any new deal must receive written approval. To further reinforce the wall that we are building between president elect trump and the Trump Organization, president elect trump has ordered through his trust agreement to sharply limit his information rights. Reports will only be available and reflect profit and loss on the company as a whole. There will be no separate businessbybusiness accounting. Another step that president elect trump has taken is he created a new position at the Trump Organization, position of chief compliance counsel, whose responsibility will be to ensure that the trump businesses again are operating at the highest levels of integrity and not taking any actions that could be perceived as exploiting the office of the presidency. He has also directed that no communications of the Trump Organization, including social media accounts, will reference or be tied to president elect trumps role as president of the United States or the office of the presidency. In sum, all of these actions complete relinquishment of management, no foreign deals, ethics adviser approval of deals, sharply limited information rights, will sever president elect trumps presidency from the Trump Organization. Some have asked questions why not divest . Why not just sell everything . Form a blind trust. And id like to turn to addressing some of those questions now. Selling, first and foremost, would not eliminate possibilities of conflicts of interest. In fact, it would exacerbate them. The trump brand is key to the value of the Trump Organizations assets. If president elect trump sold his brand, he would be entitled to royalties for the use of it, and this would result in the trust retaining an interest in the brand without the ability to assure that it does not exploit the office of the presidency. Further, whatever price was paid would be subject to criticism and scrutiny was it too high . Is there pay for play . Was too much paid to curry favor with the president elect . And selling his assets without the rights to the brand would greatly diminish the value of the assets and create a fire sale. President elect trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built. This plan offers a suitable alternative to address the concerns of the American People. And selling the entire Trump Organization isnt even feasible. Some people have suggested that the president elect sell the business to his adult children. This would require massive thirdparty debt sourced with multiple lenders whose motives and willingness to participate would be questioned and undoubtedly investigated. And if the president elect were to finance the sale himself, he would retain the financial interests and the assets that he owns now. Some people have suggested that president elect trump could bundle the assets and turn the Trump Organization into a public company. Anyone whos ever gone through this extraordinarily cumbersome and complicated process knows that it is a nonstarter. It is not realistic and it would be inappropriate for the Trump Organization. Some people have suggested a blind trust, but you cannot have a totally blind trust with operating businesses. President trump cant unknow he owns trump tower, and the press will make sure that any new developments at the Trump Organization are well publicized. Further, it would be impossible to find an institutional trustee that would be competent to run the Trump Organization. The approach he is taking allows don and eric to preserve this Great Company and its iconic assets, and this approach is best from a conflicts and ethics perspective. It creates acreates a complete n from president elect trump and separates him and prevents him from participating in the business, imposes strict limits on what the trust trees can do and requires the assent of any ethics adviser to a new deal. Im going to turn to one last topic today that has been of interest lately called omalumans. Weve become familiar with it and perhaps not heard before. Were going to describe some other actions the president elect trump is taking to avoid even a the experience of a conflict. It comes from the constitution. The constitution says officials may not accept gifts, titles of nobility, or emonumants from Foreign Government respect to their office and no benefit should be derived from holding an office. The clause has never been interpreted however to apply to fair value exchanges that have absolutely nothing to do with an office holder. No one would have thought when the constitution was written that paying your hotel bill was an emolumant. Instead a value for value exchange. Not a gift, not a title, and not an emolmumant. Since President Trump has been elected they want it to cover routine actions like paying for hotel rooms nape suggest the constitution prohibits the business fres arms length transactions that the president elect has absolutely nothing to do with and isnt even aware of. These people are wrong. This is not what the constitution says. Paying for a hotel room is not gift or present. Its not an emolument. The constitution was not require president elect trump to do anything here. But just like with conflicts of interest he wants to do more than what the constitution requires. So president elect trump has decide and we are announcing today that he is going to voluntarily donate all profits from Foreign Government payments made to his hotels to the United States treasury. This way it is the American People who will profit. In sum, i and president elects other advisers at morgan lewis have determined the approach weve outlined today will avoid potential conflicts of interest or concerns regarding exploitation of the office of the presidency without imposing unnecessary and unreasonable losses on the president elect and his family. We believe this structure and these steps will serve to accomplish the president elects desire to be isolated from his business interests and give the American People confidence that his sole business and interest is in making America Great again, bringing back jobs to this country, securing our border, and rebuilding our infrastructure. The American People are well aware of president elect trumps Business Empire and financial interests when they voted. Many people voted for him precisely because of his business success. President elect trump wants to bring this success to all americans. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Trump, what is your response mr. Trump, but, mr. Trump. American news. What is your response to your critics that say not only do you but also your cabinet is filled with conflicts of interest and do you plan to set an example in the future to make sure that your cabinet and everyone throughout your administration i really think that when you watch whats going on with whats happening and why i was just watching as an example, Rex Tillerson, i think its brilliant what hes doing and what hes saying. I watched yesterday, as you know, our great senator who is going to be a great attorney general, and he was brilliant. And what people dont know is that he was a great prosecutor and attorney general in alabama, and he was brilliant yesterday. So i really think that they are i think we have one of the great cabinets ever put together. And weve been hearing that from so many people. People are so happy. You know, in the case of rex, he ran incredibly exxonmobil, when there was a find, he would get it. When they needed something, he would be there. A friend of mine who is very, very substantial in the oil business, harold hamm, big supporter, he said theres nobody in the business like Rex Tillerson. And thats what we want. Thats what i want to bring to government. I want to bring the greatest people in to government because were way behind. We dont make good deals anymore. I say it all the time in speeches. We dont make good deals anymore. We make bad deals. Our trade dreeals are a disaste. We have hundreds of billions of dollars of losses on a yearly basis. Hundreds of billions in china, with japan, with mexico, with just about everybody. With dont make good deals anymore. So we need people that are smart, we need people that are successful and they got successful because, generally speaking, theyre smart. And thats what i put. Im very proud of the cabinet. I think theyre doing very well. Its very interesting how its going. But its i think theyre doing very, very well. Thank you, mr. President elect. I want to ask a few questions on obamacare. Can you be specific on what guidance youre giving Congressional Republicans on the timeline on repeal and replace, whether it needs to be simultaneous finally, obamacare. I want to ask you if you have outlined a plan for what you want the replace package to look like, would it guarantee coverage to those who have gott gotten Health Insurance through the obamacare law . You will be very, very proud, not only as the media and reporters but youre going to be very proud of what we put forth having to do with health care. Obamacare is a complete and total disaster. They can say what they want. They can guide you any way they want to guide you, in some cases they guide you incorrectly. In most cases you realize whats happened. Its imploding as we sit. Some states have over 100 increase. And 17 i said this two years ago, 17 is going to be the bad year. Its going to be catastrophic. Frankly we could sit back, and it was a thought from a political standpoint, but it wouldnt be fair to the people. We could sit back and wait and watch and criticize and we could be a Chuck Schumer and sit back and criticize it and people would come they would come begging to us, please, we have to do something about obamacare. We dont want to own it. We dont want to own it politically. They own it right now. So the easiest thing to be to let it implode in 17 and, believe me, we would get pretty much whatever we wanted but it would take a long time. Were going to be submitting as soon as our secretarys approved, almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter, a plan. It will be repeal and replace. It will be essentially simultaneously. It will be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same day or the same week but probably the same day. Could be the same hour. So were going to do repeal and replace. Very complicated stuff. And were going to get a health bill passed. Were going to get health care taken care of in this country. You have deductibles that are so high that after people go broke paying their premiums, which are going through the roof, the health care cant even be used by them because of deductibles are so high. Obamacare is the democrats problem. Were going to take the problem off the shelves for them. Were going them a Tremendous Service by doing it. We could sit back and let them hang with it. We are doing the democrats a great service. So as soon as our secretary is approved and gets into the office, we will be filing a plan and it was actually pretty accurately reported today, the New York Times, and the plan will be repeal and replace obamacare. Were going to have a health care that is far less expensive and far better. Okay. Sir. Mr. Trump which one . I was going with you. Go ahead. Then cbs. President elect trump, when you look at all the meetings youve had with carrier and softbank and alibaba do you conceive of making this a program, sitting inside of commerce . Follow up, how soon will we see the program on capital repe repatriation and cuts . We did a good job with carrier and i want to thank you united technologies, which owns carrier. But we saved close to a thousand jobs. And they were going. And mike pence and his staff really pemed us a lot. But those were that was a tough one because they announced a year and a half before that they were leaving. Its always tough when theyre building a plant, a little tougher than before they start or before they make an announcement. I want to thank united technologies. But weve been meeting with a lot of companies. But what really is happening is the word is now out that when you want to move your plant to mexico or some other place and you want to fire all of your workers from michigan and ohio and all these places that i won, for good reason, not going to happen that way anymore. You want to move your plant and you think, as an example, youre going build that plant in mexico and youre going to make your air conditioners or your cars or whatever youre making and youre going to sell it through a what will be a very, very strong border, not a weak border like it is we dont even have a border. Its an open siv. Youre going of sell through a very strong border. Not going to happen. Youre going to pay a very large border tax. So if you want to