Known. This election marks the Largest Senate gains for a president s party in a first Midterm Election since at least president kennedys in 1962. There have been only four Midterm Elections since 1934 in which a president s party has gained even a single senate seat. As of now we picked up, it looks like, three, could be four, perhaps it could be two. But we picked up a lot. And most likely the number will be three. You people probably know that better than i do at this point because youve looked at the more recent numbers. 55 is the largest number of republican senators in the last 100 years. In the last 80 years a sitting president s party has only gained a cumulative total of
eight senate seats, averaging one per decade. So if we picked up two, three or four, thats a big percentage of that number, so in the lastle last 80 years you think of that. In president s Midterm Election he lost six senate seats including in the deep blue state of massachusetts. Republicans captured at least four senate seats held by democrat incumbents and these are tremendously talented, hardworking people that did this. Indiana, north dakota, florida, missouri, we also won two open senate seats in tennessee. I want to congratulate our great champion who did such a great
job in tennessee, marsha. And in utah, and arizona is looking very good. Really very good. Shes done a terrific job. That was a tough race and shes done a fantastic job. In each of these open seats democrats recruited very strong candidates with substantial fundraising and media support. We were getting bombarded with money on the other side. In the House Republicans dramatically outperformed historical precedents and overcame a historic number of retirements. The most House Republican retirements in 88 years, 43 House Republicans retired. Now, i will say this, in many cases they were chairmen of committees and they left because any werent chairmen because the republicans have a rule for six years and what that does is wonderful in one way, it lets
people come through the system and become chairmen and in another drives people out. When they are a chairman you dont want to go and youre a big deal and all of a sudden youre not doing that anymore so they leave. We had a lot of them leave. I guess you can flip a coin as to which system is better, the democrats do the other. Some of their folks have been on those committees for a long time as chairmen. In 2010 President Obamas first midterm, he lost 63 seats. By contrast as of the most current count, it looks like around 27 house seats or something and well figure that out pretty soon. We also had a slew of historic wins in the governors races. The governors races were incredible. Again, its very well funded, talented and skilled. Democratic candidates and people that worked very, very hard, respectfully, for those candidates like oprah winfrey
who i like, i dont know if she likes me anymore but thats okay. She used to. But she worked very hard in georgia, very, very hard. And if you look at them, four governors races crucial to 2020 and the president ial race, florida, iowa, ohio and georgia. The big ones. Florida, iowa, ohio and georgia. Cant get much more important than that. They were incredible. They were actually incredible campaigns too. Incredible. As of right now, republicans will control the majority of governorships across the country including three great women who worked very hard, governors of alabama, south dakota and iowa. They worked very, very hard and theyre very talented. By expanding our senate
majority, the voters have also clearly rebuked the Senate Democrats for their handling of the kavanaugh hearings, that was a factor, i think, maybe a very big factor the way that was handled, i think, was Tremendous Energy was given to the Republican Party by the way they treated then judge kavanaugh, now justice kavanaugh. And expressed their support for confirming more great proconstitution judges. Candidates who embraced our message of low taxes, low regulations, low crime, Strong Borders and great judges excelled last night. They excelled. They really i mean, we have a list of people that were fantastic and im just going to point them out. Mike bost, rodney davis, andy
barr was fantastic. I went to kentucky. For the most part i didnt campaign for the house, but i did actually make a special trip for andy barr because he was in a very tough race in kentucky and he won. That was a very tough race. The polls were all showing that he was down and down substantially and he won and that one i did do, pete stauber of minnesota. Great guy, hes new and ran a fantastic race. On the other hand they decided to lets stay away. They did very poorly. Im not sure that i should be happy or sad but i feel just fine about it. Carlos carbelo, mike coffman, too bad, mike. Mia love, i saw mia love, shed call me all the time to help her
with a hostage situation, being held hostage in venezuela but mia love gave me no love and she lost. Too bad. Sorry about that, mia. And Barbara Comstock was another one, i mean i think she could have won that race, but she didnt want to have any embrace. For that i dont blame her, but she lost substantially lost. Peter roskam didnt want the embrace. Eric paulsen didnt want the embrace and in new jersey i think he could have done well but Didnt Work Out too good, bob hugin i feel badly because i think that could have been won, john faso decided not to embrace whether its me or what we stand
for, but what we stand for meant a lot to most people and weve had tremendous support and tremendous support in the Republican Party among the biggest support in the history of the party. Ive actually heard at 93 , its a record but i wont say that because who knows. But weve had tremendous support. America is booming like never before, doing fantastic. We have larry kudlow here and he said the numbers are as good as hes ever seen numbers at any time for our country, but hes a young man so he hasnt seen that many numbers. Where is larry . Youre a young man, right, larry, and you havent been doing this too long but theyre as good as youve ever seen, and we may have if you have a question for larry, well do that but i want to send my warmest appreciation and regards
to majority leader mitch mcconnell. We really worked very well together. We have been working very well together. We actually have a great relationship. People just dont understand that, which is fine. And also to perhaps looks like i would think Speaker Nancy Pelosi and i give her a lot of credit. She works very hard and shes worked long and hard. I give her a great deal of credit for what shes done and what shes accomplished. Hopefully we can all Work Together next year to continue delivering for the American People including on economic growth, infrastructure, trade, lowering the cost of Prescription Drug, these are some of the things that the democrats do want to work on and i really believe well be able to do that i think well have a lot of reason to do it and i will say just as a matter of business, i spoke with some successful people last night, we
were watching the returns so if the republicans won and lets say we held on by two or one or three, it would have been very hard having that many republicans to ever even get support among republicans because there will always be one or two or three people that for a good reason or bad reason or grandstanding, we have that too, youve seen that, youve seen that, plenty of grandstanding but for certain reasons that many people, youre always going to have a couple that wont do it. So that puts us at a very bad position. In other words, had we kept and this is no im saying this for a very basic reason, its common sense, it puts us in a tough position, we win by one or two or three and youll have one or two or three or four or five say, look, were not going to go along with that and we wouldnt even be able to get it in many cases out of the republicans hands before we sent it on to the senate and now
we have a much easier path because the democrats will come to us with a plan for infrastructure, a plan for health care, a plan for whatever they are looking at and well negotiate. You know its been very hard in the senate because we need essentially ten votes from democrats and we dont get those because the democrats do really stick together well. I dont agree with them on a lot of policy but i agree with them on sticking together. They stick together great so we. Into the senate. We dont have the ten votes, and what happens . It doesnt get passed. Even if it gets out of the house it doesnt get passed so under the new concept of what were doing, i say come on, let me see what you have. They want to do things. You know, i keep hearing about investigations, fatigue, like
from the time almost from the time i announced i was going to rung, theyve been giving us this investigation fatigue. Its been a long time. They got nothing, zero. You know why . Because there is nothing but they can play that game but we can play it better because we have a thing called the United States senate and a lot of very questionable things were done between leaks of Classified Information and many other elements that should not have taken place and all youre going to do is end up in back and forth and back and forth and two years is going to go up and we wont have done a thing. I really think and i really respected what nancy said last night about bipartisanship and getting together and uniting. She used the word uniting and she used the Bipartisanship Statement which is so important because thats what we should be
doing. So we can look at us, they can look at us. Then we can look at them and itll go back and forth and itll probably be very good for me politically. I could see it being extremely good politically because i think im better at that game than they are actually, but well find out. I mean, you know, well find out or we can Work Together. You cant do them simultaneous, by the way, oh, you can them. No, you cant. If theyre doing that were not doing the other just so you understand. So we wont be doing that, but now what happens is we send it to the senate and well get 100 democrat support and some republican support and if its good i really believe we have republicans that will help with the Approval Process and they will really help with the Approval Process. So it really could be a beautiful bipartisan type of situation. If we won by one or two or three or four or five, that wouldnt happen and the closer it is, the
worse it is. This way theyll come to me. Well negotiate. Maybe well make a deal. Maybe we wont. Thats possible, but we have a lot of things in common on infrastructure. We want to do something on health care. They want to do something on health care. There are a lot of great things we can do together and now well set it up and get the democrats and well get the republicans or some of the republicans and ill make sure that we send something up that the republicans can support and theyre going to want to make sure they send up something that the democrats can support. So our great country is booming like never before and were thriving on every single level, both in terms of economic and military strength, in terms of development and in terms of gdp. Were doing unbelievably. I will tell you our trade deals are coming along fantastically. The usmca and south korea is finished. Usmca has gotten rave reviews. Were not going to lose companies to other countries anymore. Theyre not going to do that because they have a tremendous economic incentive meaning its prohibitive for them to do that, so its not going to be like nafta which is one of the worst deals ive ever seen although weve made some other pretty bad ones too. Now is the time for members of both parties to join together, put partisanship aside and keep the American Economic miracle going strong. It is a miracle. Were doing so well and ive said it at a lot of rally, some of you have probably heard it so much you dont want to hear it again but when people come to my office, president s, Prime Minister, they all congratulate me, almost the first thing on what weve done economically because it is really amazing. And our Steel Industry is back. Our Aluminum Industry is starting to do really well. These are industries that were dead. Our miners are working again. We must all Work Together to protect our military. We have to do that. To support our law enforcement, secure our borders and advance really great position including environmental policy. We want Crystal Clean water, we want beautiful perfect air. Air and water has to be perfect. At the same time we dont want to put ourselves at a disadvantage to other countries who are very competitive with us and who dont abide by the rules at all. We dont want to hurt other jobs. We dont want to hurt our factories. We dont Want Companies leaving. We want to be totally competitive and we are and right now we have just about the cleanest air, the cleanest water weve ever had and its always going to be that way. We insist on it. So environmental is very important to me and with that ill take a few questions if youd like. Whoa. I didnt know what happened. All right. Go ahead, jon. That was a lot of hands shooting up so quickly. Theres a lot to talk about. Mr. President , you talked at length just now about bipartisanship, the presumed Speaker Of The House nancy pelosi talked about it last night. Im sure thats encouraging for the American People, but do you really believe given what the relationship has been like between this white house and the Democratic Party that that will happen . I think theres a good chance, john. I think theres a very good chance. Will you have to compromise on certain issues to the point where it could hurt you in 2020 and do you expect that when the democrats take over the chairmanship of all these important committees youre going to get hit with a blizzard of subpoenas from the Russian Investigation to your Cell Phone Use to your tax returns . Then youre going to if that happen, then were going to do the same thing and government comes to a halt and i would blame them because they now are going to be coming up with
policy. Theyre the majority in the house. I expect that they will come up with some fantastic ideas that i can support on the environment, on so many Different Things including Prescription Drug prices, which weve made a big dent in already, including some of the thing that is were working on for the vets. Weve gotten choices approved but there are a lot of other elements we want. There are many things we can get along on that we agree with them and they agree with us. I would like to see bipartisanship. Id like to see unity and i think we have a very good chance maybe not on everything but i think we have a very good chance of seeing that. Go ahead. One question on the lame duck, sir, and one on your cabinet. You toyed with the idea during the campaign of a shutdown before the midterms in order to secure border wall funding. Are you prepared to go on a Shutdown Strategy during the lame duck since this might be
your last, best chance . Not necessarily. To secure that . Look, i speak to democrats all the time. They agree that a wall is necessary. A wall is necessary and as you know were building the wall. We started but we should build it at one time. You want much more money and you want it much sooner. We need the money to bill the whole wall. Now we have the military. Now we have other elements of a wall that are pretty nasty to be honest with you, but its nevertheless, its pretty hard to get through it but, no, id like to see the wall. Many of the people that will be dealing with, you know, in 2006 they approved the wall essentially. It wass very Strong Border fence but it was the same thing. And they all approved it. They all agreed. I have statements from every one of them saying we need the wall. They sound like me. But we do need it because we have people coming and im not just talking about the caravans. We have people coming through our border that you physically cant put that many people. Its a 2,000mile stretch. You cant put that many people
along that stretch to guard it. And even if you did tremendous fight wog ensue. So we need the wall. Many democrats know we need the wall and well just have to see what happens. I mean well be fighting for it. They have done everything in their power to make sure i got the military 700 million and 716 billion. The wall is a tiny, tiny fraction of the cost of that but their whole agenda has been to try not giving me anything for the wall. I really believe politically theyre hurting themselves. I actually think politically thats a good thing but no shutdown snare yee. I cant commit but its possible. Can you give us clarity, sir, on your thinking currently now after the midterms about your Attorney General and your Deputy Attorney general, do they have longterm term security . Id rather answer that at a little bit different time. Were looking at a lot of Different Things including cabinet im very happy with most
of my cabinet. Were looking at different people for different pentagon, you know, its very common after the midterms. I didnt want to do anything before the midterms but i will tell you that for the most part im extremely happy with my cabinet. I think mike pompeo has fit in so beautifully and has done your Interior Secretary . Were looking at that and i do want to study whatever is being said. Is he in jeopardy. I think hes doing an excellent job but we will take a look at that and well probably have an idea about that in about a week. Thank you, mr. President. Thank you. Wow. This is go ahead. He gave me a fair interview the other day so i might as well let him. Picking up there, you told me the other day you are an open book, so i think i am an open book. So point blank, democrats go after your tax returns, will you try to block that or will you allow them to have it . Look, as ive told you theyre under out did. Theyre extremely complex. People wouldnt understand them. Theyre done by among the biggest and best law firms in the country, same thing with the accounting firms. The accountants are very, very large power firm from the standpoint of respect, highly respected. Big firm. A Great Law Firm or you know it very well. They do these things, they put them in. But people dont understand tax returns. Now, i did do a filing of over 100 page, i believe, which is in the offices and when people went and saw that filing and saw the magnitude of it, they were very disappointed and they saw the detail, youd get far more from that and i guess we filed that now three times but you get far more from that than you could ever from a tax return but when youre under audit and im continuous out did because there are so Many Companies and it is a very big company, far bigger
thank you would even understand, but its a great company, but its big and its complex and its probably feet high. Its a very complex instrument and i think that people wouldnt understand it but if i were finished with the audit, i would have an open mind to it. I would say that but i dont want to do it during the audit and really no lawyer even from the other side, they say, often, not always but when youre under audit you dont subject it to that. You get it done and then you release it. So when that happens, if that happens, i would certainly have an open mind to it. So that means if the audit is still on, you will not turn over the tax returns or youre going to fight to block it. Nobody would. Nobody turns over a return when its under audit. Go ahead. I was tempted to ask you why you like oprah so much but i think ill go on to the question that why do i like oprah . What kind of a question is that . Im just asking. A comedian here. I do like oprah, by the way, she was a person i knew well. Came to my place in palm beach often and i have a lot of respect for her. Unfortunately, she didnt do the trick. The real question is, you just said from this podium that are you offering a my way or highway scenario to the democrats, youre saying negotiation. Not at all. If they start investigating you, that you can play that game and investigate them. Better than them. Can you compartmentalize that and still continue to work with them for the benefit of the rest of the country or are you or are all bets off. No, if they do that then all it is is a warlike posture. So wait a minute then the follow up you heard my answer. Go ahead. Well, since its jim, ill let it go. Thank you, mr. President. I want to challenge you on one of the statements that you made in the tail end of the campaign in the midterms. Here we go. That, well, that this caravan was an invasion. I consider it to be it was not an invasion. Ateman a group of migrants moving up from Central America towards the border with the u. S. Thank you for telling me that. I appreciate it. Why did you characterize it as such and because i consider it an invasion. You and i have a difference of opinion. But do you think that you demonized immigrants in this elections to try to keep them i want them to come into the country but they have to come in legally. They have to come in, jim, through a process. I want it to be a process you are campaign had ang ad showing migrants climbing over walls. They werent actors. Do you think they were actors . They werent actors. They didnt come from hollywood. These were people this was an actual, you know, it happened a few days ago and there are. Theyre hundreds of miles away. Thats not an invasion. Honestly i think you should let me run the country, you run cnn and if you did it well, your ratings would be much higher. Are you worried thats enough. Thats enough. Thats enough. Excuse me, thats enough. I had one other question if i may ask on the Russia Investigation. Are you concerned that you may have im not concerned about anything with the Russian Investigation because its a hoax. Thats enough. Put down the mike. Mr. President , are you worried about indictments coming down in this investigation . Mr. President ill tell you what, cnn should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldnt be working for cnn. Go ahead. I think thats youre a very rude person. The way you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible. You shouldnt treat people that way. Go ahead, peter. In jims defense i traveled with him and watched him. He is a dill dent igent im not a big fan of yours. You repeatedly over the course of just sit down, please. Pipe bombs when you report fake news which cnn does a lot, you are the enemy of the people. Go ahead. Mr. President , over the course of over the course of the last several days of the campaign, sir, sir, at the end of the campaign you repeatedly said americans need to fear democrats. You said democrats would unleash a wave of Violent Crime that endangers families everywhere. Because theyre weak on crime. Excuse me. Why are what, are you trying to be him . Let me tell you, very simple. Because theyre very weak on
crime. Because they have often suggested members and people within the Democrat Party at a high level have suggested getting rid of i. C. E. , getting rid of law enforcement, thats not going to happen, okay. We want to be strong on the borders. We want to be strong on law enforcement. And i want to cherish i. C. E. Because i. C. E. Does a fantastic job. What they do for us is so really its so unrecognized how good a job they do. So we want to take care of them and we want to hold them very close because they do a good job. But the question to be clear thank you very much. Sit down. The question but you didnt answer my question. Simply the question is why are you pitting americans against one another, sir . Im not. Is that how you view citizens of this country. I tell you what, we won a lot of elections last night. We did very well last night and in many ways i think its going to have a very positive impact. I watched nbc this morning. They didnt report it exactly correctly but thats, you know, very, very thats the fact
with nbc, nothing i can do about that. But i want this country to have protection. We want security in our country. I want security, peter. I mean, you maybe dont think its so important and i think when you dont have it, you are, indeed, unleashing crime. I teal that. You said you would scene an Executive Order on birthright citizenship. Are you still going to you ask me that question later. Go ahead. Sure. Thank you, mr. President. The investigation by the special counsel, robert mueller, has been going on since last spring. Its been over a year its been a long time. Its been over your head, over republicans heads. Is this an opportunity for you, mr. President , to end that investigation . Would you consider removing mr. Mueller from his position . I could have ended it they time i wanted. I didnt. And there was no collusion. There was no anything. I didnt. They went after hackers in
moscow. I dont know about that they went after people with tax problems from years ago. They went after people with loans and other things, nothing to do with my campaign. This is an investigation where many, many millions of dollars has been spent and theres no collusion. It was supposed to be on collusion. Theres no collusion and i think its very bad for our country. I will tell you, i think its a shame and a poll came out today, by the way from nbc or at least i saw it on nbc where a majority of the people do not agree with the Mueller Investigation or it Wasnt Approved they have approval and disapproval and it had a much higher diggs approval. It should end because its very bad for our country. So if im not just talking about the tremendous expense. And the other thing is they should look at the other side also. They only look at one side. Theyre not looking at all of the things that came up during this investigation. They dont do that. They should also get people that could be fair, not 13 or 14 or 17 i call them the angry democrats. They are angry people and its a very unfair thing for this country. Its a very, very forget about unfair to me. Its very bad for our country. So, mr. President , if its unfair please. If its unfair to the country and its costing millions of dollars, why dont you just think him the mike please. Ive answered the question. Take it. Well, ill give you i will give you voter suppression. You just have sit down, please. Sit down. I didnt call you. I didnt call you. I didnt call you. Ill give you voter suppression, take a look at the cnn polls how inaccurate they were. Thats called voter suppression. Go ahead, please. Thanks you, mr. President. In georgia . Im not responding. Im responding to excuse me, im not responding to
you. Im talking to this gentleman. Will you please sit down . Excuse me. Would you please sit down. Please, go ahead. Thank you, mr. President. Now that the House Of Representatives very hostile. Such a hostile media. Its so sad. You ask me no, you rudely interrupted him. You rudely interrupted him. Go ahead. Thank you, mr. President. Do your demands remain the same to the United States congress on immigration in exchange for a daca fix, in exchange for amnesty for 1. 7 million are you willing to change any of those demands you gave to congress early. I think we could do something having to do with daca and what really happened with daca, we could have done some pretty good work on daca but a judge ruled that daca was okay. Had the judge not ruled that way i think we would have made a deal. Once the judge ruled that way, the democrats didnt want to talk anymore. So itll well see how it works out at the supreme court. Do you still go ahead. Take a question from the international from where . Go ahead. Go ahead. Mr. President go ahead. Which group . Where do you want me to take a question from . Thank you. Either one. Either one. Or both. Are you together . Go ahead. Were not together. Mr. President , how do you respond to critics who say that your message on the campaign towards minorities have been polarizing. I dont think it has been at all. Is the election of two muslim women, one is veiled to the house. Is this a rebuke of this message i is it a rebuke of the message. Do you think its more reflective of Multicultural America . Well, that question i can only say this, you look at the employment and unemployment numbers for africanamericans, for asianamerican, for Hispanic Americans theyre at an historic high. A poll came out recently where my numbers with hispanics and with africanamericans are the highest, the best theyve ever been. That took place two or three days ago, the poll. I have the best numbers with africanamerican and hispan hispanicamerican that ive ever had before. I can say this, you look at median income, you look at all of the employment and unemployment numbers, theyre doing the best theyve ever done and it reflects it really is reflective in the poll. Mr. President , im from brooklyn so youll understand me. My question is on health care. How is it possible to keep premiums down and cover preexisting conditions without the individual mandate to fund it . Well, first of all, what were doing and if you look at the Department Of Labor also Secretary Separately the secretary and what theyve done theyve come up with Incredible Health care plans causing great
competition and driving the prices right down, but we are getting rid of the individual mandate because it was very unfair to a lot of people but at the same time were covering the people that need it. But the individual mandate was a disaster because people that couldnt necessarily afford it were having to pay for the privilege of not having to pay for health care and it was bad health care at that. So we are working many plans with health care and creating tremendous competition. We had obamacare repealed and replaced. Unfortunately, one person changed his mind at the last moment and we had no democrat support. I have to say that we didnt have one vote. We would have repealed it, replaced it. We would have had a largescale very Good Health Care plan. Now were doing it a different way. Were doing it a different way. But getting rid of the individual mandate is a very, very popular thing and a very important thing and people very much appreciate it. Go ahead. Thats enough. You went through the results and obviously studied them late last night. What lesson did you learn most from look at those results . Was there one thing as you kind of reviewed them that youll change your strategy not just for congress but kind of going forward. I think the results that ive learned and may be confirmed, i think people like me. I think people like the job im doing, frankly, because if you look at every place to do a rally i couldnt do it with everybody and it was very hard to do it with people in congress because theyre just too many it would be too many stops, but i did it with andy barr as you know. And he won a tough race against mcgrath. That was a tough race in kentucky and he was down quite a bit and i went there and we had a tremendous very successful some of you were at that rally and he won that race but i could only do that so much because theres just so many players
involved but i did focus on the senate and we had tremendous success with the senate. Really tremendous. Can i ask one pormore questi. Rare opportunity. A lot will rush to iowa, new hampshire. You know the democrats are already looking ahead to 2020. Do you want to lock down your ticket right now, sir . Will the Vice President be your running mate in 2020 . Well, i havent asked him but i hope so. Where are you . Mike, will you be my running mate . Huh . Stand up. Raise your right hand . No, im only kidding. Will you, thank you. Okay, good. The answer is, yes, okay. [ applause ] that was unexpected but i feel very fine. Yeah, please. Thank you, mr. President. Going back to the Russia Investigation and the potential investigations from the now democratic majority and congress, some say that you could stop all this by declassifying i could fire everybody right now but i dont want to stop it because politically i dont like
stopping it. Its a disgrace. It should have never been started because there was no crime. It is everybody has conflicts. They all have conflicts over there that are beyond anything that anybody has ever seen in terms of conflicts. From the fact that people ask for jobs from the fact that they have very good friends on the other side like really good friends like Comey Who By The Way lied and leaked and also leaked Classified Information, Nothing Happened there. It might perhaps, maybe something is happening that i dont know about. I stay away from it but you know what i do, i let it just go on. Theyre wasting a lot of money but i let it go on because i dont want to do that but youre right, i could end it right now. I could say that investigation is over but its really its a disgrace, frankly, and its an embarrassment to our country. Its an embarrassment to the people of our country and its too bad. Go ahead. What about the declassification of the documents, some say that would clear were looking at that very seriously. Declassification. Were looking at it seriously. Can i ask one more question. Its amazing how people on the other side just dont want those documents declassified but were looking at that carefully. I certainly wanted to wait until after the midterms. Can i ask you one more question, mr. President . Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you, mr. President. You have campaigned as a prolife president. You have defended the rights of unborn children. Now you have a divided congress. How are you going to push forward your prolife agenda . Ive been pushing and done a very good job and theyre happy with me but its a tough issue for the two sides. What are you going to do . What am i going to do . I wont be able to explain it to you because it is an issue that is a very divisive polarizing
issue but there is a solution. I think i have that solution and nobody else does. Were going to be were going to be working on that. Yes, go ahead, please. She took your place but thats okay. Mr. President , just a quick question on rural america. In states like indiana, north dakota, folks turned out for republican candidates. Could you talk a little about what this means for your agenda in Terms Of Trade and the farm bill . The farm bill is working really well. I mean we could have it approved any time but were looking to get work rule as proved. The farmers want it. Id like it. The problem is the democrats are not giving us the ten voights that we need. We are everybody wants it. The farmers want it but the democrats are not approving the farm bill with work rules. We could have it very fast without the work rules but we want the work rules in and the democrats just dont want to vote for that, so at some point theyll have to pay maybe a price. Jeff. Mr. President , thank you very
much. Thank you. Have you seen any evidence that russia or china intervened in yesterdays election . Were going to make a full report and unlike the Previous Administration weve done a lot of work on that issue and if you look speak with the fbi, speak with the department of justice, speak to homeland security, weve spent a lot of time, it gets very little coverage in the papers, i mean, you cover the nonsense part but you dont cover the important this is very important and we have been working very hard on china and russia and everybody else looking into our elections or meddling with our elections, but people tend thought to write about it but we have worked very hard as you probably heard. What do you intend to say, sir, to president xi and President Putin when you meet with them late they are month . Well, i have a Good Relationship with both. I know president xi better but i think i have a very Good Relationship with both. I actually had a very good meeting in russia thaw people
didnt agree with but thats okay. It doesnt much matter obviously because here i am but the fact is i had a very, very good meeting, a very, very good meeting with President Putin and a lot was discussed about security, about syria, about ukraine, about the fact that President Obama allowed a very large part of ukraine to be taken and right now you have submarines off that particular parcel that were talking about. That was President Putin who annexed crimea. That was President Obamas regime. That was during President Obama, right . That was not during me. It was putin, sir, who did the annexation. So, it was President Obama that allowed it to happen. Had nothing to do with me. Okay. Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Im from sky news. Youre a man who likes to win but last night was not an
absolute victory. Ill be honest, i thought it was a very close to complete victory. When you look at it from the stangepoint of negotiation, when you look at it from the standpoint of dealmakes because its all about dealmaking, again, if we had the majority and we had one or two or three votes to play with, we would never we would have been at a standstill. I really believe we have a chance to get along very well with the democrats and if thats the case we can do a tremendous amount of legislation and get it approved by both parties. So, i can consider it to be hey, look, i won georgia. President obama Campaignedty Ha campaigned very hard in georgia. Oprah winfrey campaigned very hard over the television. This is going to be tough. I only had me and didnt have anybody else and went to georgia and we had one of the largest crowds that anybody here has
ever seen here at a political rally. And you know what, he won. And he won actually by, you know, pretty good margin. He won. And then we went to florida and they had celebrities all over the place, and a man who happens to be a very smart person was running, ron desantis, and people didnt give him a chance and i went and we had we did some great work and theyre going to have a great governor of the state of florida and then we talked about the senate and a lot of money was pouring in for the democrat. This is a man whos been in office for like 44 years or something. This is a man who is like a professional at getting elected and being in office so hes not bill necessary, not easy to beat, okay. And but they had a lot of celebrities for nelson and had everybody coming out for nelson and rick scott won and i helped him and i think weve done an amazing job and you could look at many other places. You just take a look at some of the other places. And we just got the word that in iowa, you have a governor who just got extended who kim just got extended and numerous other places. I think it was a great victory. Ill be honest. I think it was a great convivic and some of the news was that it was a great victory but if you look at it from the standpoint of gridlock, i really believe theres going to be much less gridlock because of the way this is going than any other mr. President sit down, please. Go ahead. Thank you, mr. President. Let me ask about one of the Campaign Promises you made down the stretch which was a 10 tax cut for the middle class. You just talked about gridlock. Democrats now run the house, ways and means committee. If it means a tax cut of some kind for the middle class but that means raising rates elsewhere, corporations, on the wealthiest, is that a tradeoff that you would be willing to make. You know this has to be now proposed because if we did it now we dont have the votes in the senate. We need we would need ten democrat votes. We probably couldnt get them. If we could we could pass it easily in the house. No reason to waste time because you dont have the votes in the senate but if the as an example, if the democrats come up with an idea for tax cuts which i am a big believer in tax cuts i would absolutely pursue something, even if it means some adjustment to make it possible but i would love to see a tax cut for the middle class now. Thats going to be their decision. Theyll have to make that decision. As you know if we bring it up to the senate wed need democrat vote, ten, and dont have those. Just because the markets would want to know, sir, some adjustment, would that be 1, 2, 3 on either side i would certainly be willing to do a little bit of an adjustment. Go ahead, please. Thank you. Mr. President , thank you very much. Two question, one is you had stalked about leaders who called to congratulate you. Did President Putin call to congratulate and will you meet with him at lunch this coming weekend . Well, as i understand it were having and i guess a lot of you are going over. Were having a lunch for numerous countries. I believe President Putin is going to be there. We dont have anything scheduled. I dont think we have anything scheduled in paris. And im coming back very quickly. Im going over there is a great event this, is an important really its going to be a very important and i think a beautiful ceremony. Im looking forward to going and were representing the incredible heroes of the world but the heroes of our country from world war i and so ill be going there and i am very proud to go there. Did he call you i dont think we have time set aside for that meeting. Now, with that being said were shortly meeting again at the g20 where hell be there and ill be there and thats where were actually looking forward to meet. We will be having we will be having a lunch but i think there are many people there. Did he call you to congratulate and also if i could invite you since this is quite a gathering weve got here to go ahead and talk about the staff changes that you expect in the white house while were here, were eager to hear about them. Is general kelly going to stay on . As we make changes well sit down and talk to you bit. No great secret. A lot of administrations make changes after midterms. I will say that for the most part im very, very happy with this cabinet. Were doing a great. What about in the white house. You have a lot of white house staff and some have talked about leaving. General shkreli has been rumored to be leaving. People leave. Is that going to happen . People leave. I havent heard about john kelly. But, no, people people leave. They come in. Theyre here. Its a very exhausting job although i love doing it, i must tell you but its exhausting for a lot of people. Im surprised that a lot of people, they start off, theyre young people. Theyre there for two years and theyre old by the time they leave. [ laughter ] its quite exhausting. But i love doing it and ill tell you, there will be changes. Nothing monumental from that standpoint. I dont think very much different than most administrations and we have i mean we have many people lined up for every single position. Any position, everybody wants to work in this white house. We are a hot country. This is a hot white house. We are a white house that people want to work with. Okay. No, no. Please, behind you. Behind you. Go ahead. Mr. President , this has been a very challenging campaign. This has been a very challenging campaign. It has. It has involved quite a lot of abuse and a lot of violence. People have died during the course of this campaign. Is there any way in which you think the temperature could be lowered, perhaps peace could break out with the media, perhaps your bipartisan relationships across the house and the senate may now produce some change or are we going to have more of the same. Its a very fair question. Look, i would love to see unity and peace and love and any other word you want to use, and obviously i think we had to especially at this particular young tur, we had to wait until after the midterms are over. Now theyre over. If they would cover me fairly, which they dont, which they dont, im not saying that in a hostile way, i get extremely inaccurate coverage, i can do something thats fantastic and theyll make it look like not good. And i dont mind being having bad stories, i make a mistake, cover it. Id like you to cover it fairly, but cover it but when you do something terrific, look how little the economy is talked about. A poll came out this morning talking about how little the three networks i dont think they included cnn but how little the three Networks Talk about how good the economy is. How little. Almost not at all. If President Obama had this
economy and, by the way, if that administration through somebody else kept going, you would have had negative 4. 2 instead of positive 4. 2 growth. You would have had negative. It was heading down but the point is this, excuse me, i would love to see unity including with the media because i think the media ill be honest, i think its a very divisive thick for our country. And you would be amazed at how smart people are that are reading the stories and seeing your stories and watching, youd be amazed how perceptive and how smart they are. They get it. And it really does bring disunity. I didnt excuse me. You are not you are not called on. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead, please. Thank you, president trump. Shortly after your Victory Speech on the night back in November 2016 i asked you to
what single factor you most attributed this victory too. Speak up. Sure, on the night of your victory i asked you right after your speech to what you would attribute your victory. You pointed up to the ceiling and you said that it was god. Based off of that how would you say over the last two years god plays what kind of a factor he plays in the daytoday execution of the Office Of The President god plays a Big Sfashth In My Life and god plays a factor in the lives of many people that i know very well in this room like your Vice President , god plays a very big role in my life. And one more back quick one, quick followup. Which loss last night surprised you the most and which of these unsuccessful candidates are you most likely to consider for future administration there were some losses last night and there were some victories last night that have been incredible. I mean there were victories last night that nobody would believe. Especially based on the Suppression Polls, they had a lot of Suppression Polls and
there was some victories last night that were very surprising but im not going to pick out would you consider any tough enough for them to have a loss. Would you consider any for administration as one of would i what . Would you consider any of the people who lost last night for a post in the administration in the near future . I know a couple of very good ones, yeah, i would, go ahead. Mr. President , mr. President , i asked you on monday if there was anything you regret in your first two years and you said that at times you could have and should have used a, quote, softer tone. Your critics as you can imagine, your skeptics say theyre holding their breath on that happening. Will you indeed have to change your tone if youre to get things passed through Congress Since you lost the house and you might extend an olive branch. I would love to have id be good at a low tone but when things are done not correctly about you, written about you, said about you on television, on
wherever it is you have to defend yourself. I would love to do very even toned much easier than what i have to do. I have to go around and going around is much easier than facing somebody and being treated fairly. But when youre not treated fairly you have no choice. I would love to have a very even modest boring tone but when you have to fight all the time fight because youre being misrepresented by the media, you really cant do that. Not about the media, sir, but, sir, real quickly, not about the media but with congress please, go ahead. Mr. President , how you focus on the economy where are you from. Japan. Say hello to shinzo. Im sure hes happy about tar f tariffs on his car. Thats nye question. How you focus on Trade Commensurate with japan. You ask japan to do more or
change the tone i really dont understand. How would you focus on trade trade with japan. Were dealing with japan right now on trade. Japan has its a great country. You have a great Prime Minister who just had a very successful election. Hes a very good friend of mine. Hes one of the people im closest with and but i tell him all the time that japan does not treat the United States fairly on trade. They send in millions of cars at a very low tax. They dont take our cars. And if they do they have a massive tax on the cars. Japan and im not blaming japan. Im blaming the people that were in charge of the United States for allowing that to happen but as you know we have close to 100 billion trade deficit with japan and japan has treated us very unfairly but dont feel lonely because you werent the only one. Thank you, mr. President. Two questions. The first one, secretary
pompeos talks about with north korea have been postponed. What is happening there and will your meetings tell what happened well change it because of trips being made. Well make it on another date but were very happy how its going with north korea. We think its going fine. Were in no rush. The sanctions are on. Youre still expect to meet kim jongun . Excuse me, wait. The sanctions are on. The missiles have stopped. The rockets have stopped. The hostages are home. The great heroes have been coming home. Mike pence was in hawaii where the one of the most beautiful ceremonies that anyone has ever seen for the fallen, these are great heroes, very important when i was running, a lot of people as many years ago as it was in many cases grandchildren were asking about that, theyre coming home and theyre being provided to us as we speak. But im in no rush. Im no no rush. The sanctions are on. I read a couple of times and ive seen a few times where they said hes done so much. What have i done . I met. Now, id love to take the sanctions off, but they have to be responsive too. Its a twoway street but were not in any rush at all. Theres no rush whatsoever. You know, before i got here they were dealing with this for over 70 years and i guess on a Nuclear Front for 25 years. Thats a long time. Ive been there, i probably left singapore four or five months ago and made more progress in that four or five months than theyve made in 70 years and nobody else could have done what ive done. But ill say this, ill say this very simply. Were in no rush. The sanctions are on. And whenever it is but that will be rescheduled. That meeting but i bet your meeting with kim jongun, sir, will it happen in the next
months . Sometime next year, i would say. Sometime next year. Sometime early next year. A quick question on usmca. Now that its been concluded have you repaired your relationship with Prime Minister trudeau . Yes, i have. We have a very Good Relationship. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. President. Weve been talking a lot about division and the division that exists in this country right now and some of the statistics are disturbing i think to just about everyone. Antisemitic incidents have increased by 57 since 2016. Hate crimes are on the rise. Why do you think that is and what will you do about it . Its very sad to see it. I hate to see it and as you know ive done more, in fact, if you were with us the last time we met, Prime Minister netanyahu said that this president has done more for israel than any other president. Those words. Those exact words. Jerusalem, protection, working together, so many Different Things but the big thing is jerusalem. You though know, many president s said theyll build the embassy in jerusalem. Never happened. Making it the capital of israel. Never happened. Never happened. But it happened with me and quickly. And not only did it happen, we built the embassy. That would have taken another 15 or 20 years and cost probably billions of dollars and we did it for a tiny amount of money. Its already done. Its open. Nobody has done more for israel than donald trump and the nice part is thats not me saying it, thats Prime Minister netanyahu. But what about mr. President , what about the divides in this country, mr. President , what about healing the divides in this country. We want to see it here. One of the things i think that can help heal is the success of our country. We are really successful now. Weve gone up 11. 7 trillion in worth if you know