Money and thats something that is really nice to see. A lot of you have been following me when we were on the campaign. That was an exciting campaign. A great campaign. And i used to talk about wages going down, not going up. Going down for years. 19 years. Now they just went up 3. 2 . Theres no inflation because other things are going down like the price of your gasoline at the tank. Its low. That doesnt happen by luck. I work hard on that. Thats like a tax cut for people. So a lot of good things. Labor Participation Rate increased to 63. 1. Thats an incredible number also. I wanted to bring that out. The economy is very good. Remember, from the time of my election, the stock market has gone up close to 30 . Thats with all of the things happening. Theres a lot of things happening. We have a massive trade negotiation going on with china. President xi is involved. So am i. Were dealing at the highest levels and doing very well. Were doing very well. The meantime, weve taken in billions and billions of dollars in tariffs from china and from others. Our Steel Industry has come roaring back. That makes me very happy. I think well have to build a steel wall as opposed to a concrete wall. We have Steel Companies again. Something nice about that sound. So we had a productive meeting today with Speaker Pelosi and senator schumer. I thought it was really a very, very good meeting. Were all on the same path in terms of wanting to get government open. Were going to be meeting ive designated a group and were going to meet over the weekend. That group, to determine what were going to do about the border. Really i want to thank a lot of the Border Patrol people and ice people that came up yesterday. They had a tremendous impact on a lot of democrats frankly and a lot of people. They were able to lay out exactly what the problem is. One of the problems described to me as an example, your ports of entry. Were going to agree with chuck and nancy and steny and dick durbin was there, were going to agree and we want to make the ports bigger, more powerful, able to handle more traffic. Have very powerful drug equipment there. So they make very good stuff now. We dont have it because of budgets and other reasons. But were going to make our ports of entry very powerful and strong. Were going to have the best drugfinding equipment anywhere in the world. They make it better today than they made it two years ago. I explained to them the problem is, we can have a wonderful port of entry, but you have 2,000 miles of border between the United States and mexico. If you take a look and you see like we do through certain technology, including cameras and a airplanes, not just drones, youll see vast numbers of vehicles driving through the desert and entering where you dont have a very powerful fence or a wall. That happened this week where a wonderful young police officer, i spoke to his wife yesterday, where he was shot, viciously shot for simply stopping a person that came over the border illegally. Got shot. Killed. Took the most beautiful picture just hours before a christmas picture. We dont want that happening. I was explained, too and i explained to people because its common sense, so you have ports of entry and you may have fencing or walls up and down, left and right, east and west, but they stop. Because we dont have proper Border Security. These people have vehicles and they drive. Theyre not doing through where they have great Border Patrol officers and ice officers and military. I tell you the military has done a fantastic job. They dont stop. They go right to the easiest part and the weakest part, sometimes out in desert. You have miles and miles of unprotected area. You can see where they drive over. You have people walking in that trek. Its a dangerous trek. And they bring children or even worse, they use children. You know, children are the biggest beneficiaries of what we want to do. Children are hurt more than anybody else. These coyotes, what they do with children, all because we have open borders because they think they can get away with it. They dont come through the port. They come in through empty areas, vast spaces, empty areas. Just like this terrible person came in when he shot officer singh. They come in through these vast open areas. You dont even have a sign saying mexicou. S. Its just open space. And i explained that to the meeting today with nancy pelosi, Chuck Schumer and a lot of other people at the meeting. And i said one of the things that happens there is human traffickers. Maybe thats the worst of all where youll have traffickers having three and four women with tape on their mouths and tied up sitting in the back of a van or a car and theyll drive that van or car not through a port of entry where we have talented people that look for every morsel of drugs or they dont go there. They get off the road and drive into the desert and come in, make a left turn, usually a left, not a right, they came out because in san diego because in areas of california where we finished new walls, beautiful walls, steel walls and they wanted them badly. They asked us. Thats we why did it there. I said lets not doing in california. Theyre always complaining. I said lets not doing it. Let the governor asked us. They really needed it. They had a tremendous problem. We built a new wall in san diego. Its working really well. You should go and look at it. Its amazing, incredible how well it works. These coyotes and human traffickers, they make a right turn before they get to the port of entry, they go as far as the wall is or as far as the barricade is and then they make a left, welcome to the United States and what they do with usually the women, sometimes children, that theyre trafficking with and in, you dont want to know about. So the only way youll stop that is by having a solid steel structure or concrete structure. Whether its a wall or some form of very powerful steel. The steel is actually more expensive than the concrete, but i think were probably talking about steel because i really feel the other side feels better about it. I can understand what theyre saying. Its more expensive. We mentioned the price that we want 5. 6 billion very strongly. Because numbers are thrown around. 1. 6, 2. 1. This is National Security were talking about. Were not talking about games. Were talking about National Security. This should have been done by all of the president s that preceded me and they all know it. Some of them have told me that we should have done it. So were not playing games. We have to do it. Just remember, human traffickers. Remember drugs. The drugs are pouring into this country. They dont go through the ports of entry. When they do, they sometimes get caught. When we finish and the democrats do want this, they want ports of entry strengthened and i want to do that, too, in fact, we have it down, about 400 million and we can have the best equipment in the world. Now what theyll do if we have the protection and we have strong ports of entry with this incredible drugfinding equipment, i dont know what theyre going to do because theyre not coming in through passed the steel gates or the walls depending whats happening. Were meeting this weekend. We have a group, ive set up a group, they are going to tell us who their group of experts and probably people in the senate and congressmen and women are going to come and we have three, i said give us three. I said send over nine or six or three or two. Send over whoever you want. Its common sense. So when they make that turn, they make it and now all of a sudden they cant go any further and they have to go back. Thats going to stop the caravans for two reasons. Number 1, they wont get through. When they realize they cant get through, what will happen . Theyre not going to form and theyre not going to try and come up. They can apply for asylum and they can apply for citizenship. The companies that i told you that created these great job numbers, incredible job numbers beyond anybodys expectations, i dont think there was one wall street genius of which i know many of them, but theyre not geniuses. Theres not one that predicted anywhere close to these job numbers. I thought they would be good, but there wasnt one that i saw. So now we have everything so beautifully handled. We need to have, however, we need Border Security. All of this security if we do what the democrats want, all of the border things that well be building will be done right here in the good old u. S. A. By Steel Companies that were practically out of business when i came in to office as president and now theyre thriving. You call up the heads of u. S. Steel and i could name ten companies. You look at what is going on in the Steel Industry. Its almost a miracle. It was a dead industry. We need steel for defense, we need steel for a lot of things. Steel and aluminum. Those industries were in deep trouble. The Steel Industry was almost dead. Now its a vibrant, vibrant industry. So what im going to do is ask first of all mike pence, Vice President , to say a couple words. Mike is we put together a team of people that will work over the weekend. Theyll be negotiating on the border, on the look, on Different Things having to do with Border Security, including at the ports of entry. And i think theyre going to be very successful. I found the democrats really want to do something. Were at 5. 6. If you look at it, 5. 6 billion. But we are able to also in addition to that because what we want to do has to be done properly and were negotiating tough prices. You heard higher numbers. The higher numbers were a misnomer. You head 20 and 25 billion and daca. What happened is when a judge incredibly it was incredibly i will say a wrong decision. When president obama signed the daca made a statement to the effect, this isnt going to work. Some judge from the ninth s circuit upheld it. And now its going before the United StatesSupreme Court and hopefully that will be properly adjudicated because if it is, talks will begin on larger immigration matters having to do with daca, having to do with other things. So that is taking place. We may add a few things on to our discussions over the weekend. But im going to ask mike pence and then ill have leader mccarthy say a few words and take a couple questions. Were very proud of the jobs and the job numbers that was incredible. And i think ill be even more proud if we can have great Border Security for the first time in really the history of our country. The southern border is a dangerous, horrible disaster. Weve done a great job. But you cant really do the kind of job we have to do unless you have a major powerful barrier. Thats what were going to have to have. First we start with mike pence. Thank you, mr. President. We are nearly two weeks into a government shut down. Our nation is also in the midst of a crisis on our southern border. Today President Trump convened for the second time this week republican and democrat leaders from the congress to address both issues. We are truly grateful for the candid and constructive dialogue that took place today here at the white house with Speaker Pelosi and leader schumer, with our Republican Senate leadership as well. We look forward to continued dialogue over the course of this weekend. Make no mistake about it, we are in the midst of a crisis in our southern border. Every day nearly 2,000 people are apprehended or stopped attempting to come in to a country that has no lawful claim to be here. Last year 17,000 individuals with previous criminal records were apprehended attempting to come across our southern border. Every day all across this country in a single week, 300 americans lose their lives to the scourge of heroin addiction. 90 of the heroin in this country flows through our southern border. The Human Trafficking that the president just described so compellingly. Last month alone, 20,000 minors were brought alone across our border. Were interdicted by Border Patrol personnel. You heard the president s passion today here at the podium. We all, leader mccarthy and all the leaders gathered in the situations room heard the president s passion for the better part of two hours. Not just to address a government shut down but to address Border Security and this crisis at our southern border. Today President Trump provided the kind of leadership that the American People expect in such a moment. He made it clear that were committed to achieving Border Security as we resolve this budget impasse. He made it clear that were going to build a wall on our southern border. As i said the conversations were constructive and substantive. At the close of the meeting, the president direct ed me and Jared Kushner and secretary nielsen to meet with top level staff of democrat and Republican Leadership in the house and senate over the course of this weekend and see if we could build on the Common Ground that we identified in the discussions today. Our aim will be to find a solution, not just simply to end the government shut down, to provide funding to end the crisis at our southern border, to achieve real Border Security and to build a wall on our southern border. Mr. President , i promise you as you promised the republican and democrat leaderships today that we will worker will work hard over the weekend and will enter the discussions hopeful. Again, not that we will end a budget shutdown, but that we will make finally meaningful progress on securing our southern border to prevent the flow of narcotics, Human Trafficking, illegal immigration that is so beset our country now for more than a generation. With the president s leadership and direction, well hope to accomplish just that. Thank you, mike. I came down for the second time this week basing on the meeting that we had earlier in the week, i didnt expect the meeting to last very long. Two hours. This was much more productive than weve had in any other time. I think theres places that we can find Common Ground. The president was very strong what he needs to have happen here. We need Border Security. We want the government to open. I found in our discussion sometimes were tough, but theres areas that we can find agreement on. Thats when the president interjected. He actually thought what would be best, that he would designate three individuals with the president being the lead, to work through the weekend, build on this progress. That each leader would also sit. The president was very kind to the speaker. She said she could bring twice as many if need be. Five times. I know leader mcconnell is sending down, im sending members down, staffers that will work throughout the weekend. I know the president said he will call us back next week and invited us back. We want to solve this problem. Theres a great need to do it and we can get it done. Just has to have the will. I see the will from this administration. I promise you this, i will work with anybody that wants to move america forward, secure our border and put this Government Back open. Im making that pledge here. I hope every other leader will make that pledge as well. If that means were staying in the room to get it done, well stay in the room and get this job done. There was progress today. I look forward to solving it. Steve, please. Thank you, mr. President. I thought we had a very important and productive meeting today. What this is always been about, security you just heard from kevin mccarthy. The president addressing the nation from the rose garden after he had a meeting with congressional leaders. He called talks with leader pelosi and leader schumer productive. The president said theyre on the same path to reopening the government and has designated a group to meet over the weekend, which includes mike pence to get it done. The president also just a momenting appointing out the industry economy. The department of Homeland Security need for a border wall, all of which is being hammered out of congress as the partial government shut down remains closed for two weeks. Whether or not the democrats will concede to that in a funding bill remains to be seen. At this point democrats have been certain they didnt want to include any funding for a wall. So still the stance will continue. Stay tuned to Fox News Channel and your local station for continuing coverage of this story. Im Julie Banderas in new york. The president and his team will be taking questions in just a moment. Im back here with our Fox News Channel viewers. I want to bring in Chris Stirewalt to break this down for us. It was interesting, the fox News Politics editor and the editor of half time report. You heard the president talk about how he just had a productive meeting he called it. Those are quotes, with nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer and saying that theyre on the same path toward reopening the government. What do you think that means exactly . What do you want to bet thats not true . What do you want to bet thats not true . I thought it was interesting. I do believe they both want to reopen the government. Its a matter of under what circumstances. They both want to reopen the government. As the president just pointed out, which is a first, which we have not heard from him before, they also want Border Security. A huge concession for trump to make. For him to admit he spent all of 2018 cycle saying democrats want open borders, they want drugs, crime were going back to the president now at the rose garden. Hes taking questions. Senator schumer came out and said that the meeting from his point of view and Speaker Pelosis was contentious. He said that you said in the meeting, this is him quoting you that the shut down could go on for months or even a year or longer. Did you say that . I did. I did say that. Absolutely i said that. I dont think it will. I am prepared and i think i can speak for republicans in the house and republicans in the senate. They feel very strongly about having a safe country, having a border that makes sense. Without borders, we dont have a country. I hope it doesnt go on even beyond a few more days. It really could open very quickly. I told them bring who you want. We have three people. You can bring three or six or nine or 12. Theyll be working over the weekend. It think it may have been somewhat contentious but very productive. He said that, too. What was the productive part from your point of view . Did the democrats move in your direction i dont want to get into that. I dont want to put them in a position where they have to justify anything to people that they have to make happy. We want to save lives. We want children to be safe. The children are being decimated. Im not talking about necessarily children in our country. Im talking about wonderful children that are coming up from other places whether its honduras or guatemala or el salvador or mexico or other places. We have to take care of those children also. We cant let them die on the way up. What is happening to women on those caravans, youre not talking about it, but its horrible what is happening. If they know its not going to take place because they cant get through because we have a great border wall or fence or barrier, theyre not going to come up and youre not going to have the problem. At the same time, they can apply to come into our country legally like so many people have done. We need people, major. We have to have people. Because we have all of these companies coming in. We need great people. We want them to come in on a merit basis. They cant come in the way theyve been coming in for years. I get calls from the great tech companies. Theyre saying we dont allow people at the top of their class at the best schools in the country, we dont allow them to stay in our country so they end up going back to china and japan and so many other countries all over the world. We dont keep them. They get educated in our finest schools and we dont allow them through various set of circumstances to have any guarantees of staying. So we less out on great minds. We cant do that. We have companies that if we dont change that and working on that and we discussed that with the democrats and i think they agree, were working on that. We dont want to lose our Great Companies because we have a ridiculous policy that we wont accept smart people. So call it politically correct or not, but we have to let these great Brilliant Companies have the smartest people in the world. Yes, maam. One at a time. Mr. President , why not reopen the government to create more space to have that broader conversation we think it will go very quickly. We wont be opening until its solved. This is a bigger problem. The border is a much more dangerous problem, a bigger problem. Its a problem of National Security. Its a problem of terrorists. I talk about human traffickers. I talk about drugs. I talk about gangs. A lot of people dont say we have terrorists coming through the southern border because they find thats the easiest place to come through. They drive in and make a left. Its not going to happen. So were not going to do that. We wont be doing pieces, we wont be doing it in drips and drabs. Ive seen a lot of people over the last 1 1 2 weeks, ive been in this magnificent structure behind you, called the white house and i was here on christmas, i was here, my family was in florida. I said go to florida. I didnt even find it to be a lonely place. Something special about the white house. I was here christmas, here on new years eve and i will tell you the people that ive spoken with and ive met a lot of people that i wouldnt have met, a lot of people have been coming through the white house and explaining Different Things and different attitudes. A lot of people that you think are upset and certainly theyre not thrilled, but they say, sir, do the right thing. We need Border Security. These are people that wont be getting paid. Border patrol yesterday was saying, sir, were affected by it. Do what is right. Its time. This is after many, many decades, many decades. This should have taken place a long time ago. Were going to get it done. Yes, maam. Thank you. Two questions for you. Was daca part of the today . Yes. We did it take so long for the working Group Sometimes thats what happens in a negotiation. Sometimes you agree to things that could have been agreed to two weeks ago. Thats the way it is. We set out a number, 5. 6 billion. Were very firm on a number. We also explained that as you probably understand the military is very affected. We may use the military for parts of it. Homeland security obviously is very affected. We may in addition to the 5. 6, we will use Homeland Security funds. So we have things happening in addition to the 5. 6. We have to get a structure built. Was daca part of the discussion . A follow up. Go ahead. Thank you, mr. President. To follow up. When with respect to the daca program, were you discussing that in terms of a pathway to citizenship and an end to the partial government shut down . We discussed it a long time ago when you remember. Thats when they had this number of 25 billion. Actually, it was 25 billion but 1 billion up front. We talked 2 billion, 1. 5 billion. The rest of it the government couldnt guarantee because its not set up to guarantee. You remember those discussions. Where it ended is when the judge ruled against. It was i said as soon as that happened, that was a shocking decision, it was shocking to the democrats and it was more shocking to the republicans. It was an incorrect decision, a political decision made by a judge and a lot of people dont like when i say it, but try going there some time to the ninth circuit and try winning a case. Its not easy. Everybody files in the ninth circuit. It was a terrible decision and incorrect decision. When that decision came down, when that judge ruled the way he ruled, i said, as soon as i heard it, i said you know what will happen . Were never going to hear from them again. Thats exactly thats what broke up the daca deal. Yes, we had a pathway, we had many things that was getting close to being a deal. The problem was the money was a very small amount of money. It wasnt the 25. It was 25 and come back every year. We dont want to go through that every year. We were getting close. I said as soon as that decision came down, that incorrect and horrible decision theres been a number of them he made lately, i said youll never hear from them again. I called up. I said, hi, its President Trump. What is going on . They said President Trump, we dont know who that is. It was over. The deal was over. That is what killed the daca deal. The it was nothing else. It was the judges decision. If the Supreme Court does what really everyone thinks from a legal stand point it should be doing, if they dont allow the president of the United States, which is me also, because if president is allowed to do it, im allowed to do it also. Can you imagine . If the Supreme Court overrules that wrong executive order, well have a deal very quickly on daca and other things. The democrats want that and so do we. Once he ruled that way, it was something you couldnt really negotiate. Haley . Mr. President , two questions for you. Are you still proud to own this shut down . Well, you know, i appreciate the way you say that, but once im very proud of doing what im doing. I dont call it a shut down. I call it doing what you have to do for the benefit and for the safety of our country. When nancy pelosi said you dont have the votes in congress, i will tell you what i was proud of, i was never more proud of my Republican Party and those congressmen and women when they saw that and they got together and they voted 217 to 185 and it wasnt even close. That was an incredible day. Very proud of that. When she said you couldnt get the votes. Im not holding that against her. Despite the fact that im not saying it was an easy meeting or even a kind meeting or a nice meeting, but in the end, i think we have come a long way. Were going to be working very hard over the weekend and well see if we can do something. So you can call it whatever you want. You can call it the schumer or the pelosi or the trump shut down. Doesnt make any difference to me. Just words. Mr. President , my second question sir on federal workers. Go ahead. Just one second. Please. May be the same question. Thank you, mr. President. Two questions. Just to follow up on daca. Are you open to a path to citizenship in theory nor Daca Recipients and can you explain to federal employees of the agencies closed that are not Homeland Security why they should stay closed . Homeland security is significant in itself if it stays closed. Because we want do do what is right and we want to do it at one time. We dont want it in pieces. We dont want to do that. Daca will be a great subject. Well discuss it at another time. A lot of great things that can happen with daca if the democrats want to do that. I think what were all waiting for, to be honest is the Supreme Court justices ruling in a not very long period of time. As you know, its up now. Hopefully they will be making a ruling maybe sometime in the summer. So i think before we discuss too much daca, i would like to see what happens. Its a very important decision. Frankly, if they rule the way it is, it gives the president too much power. Can you imagine me saying that . I would be entitled to the same power. Its not a correct thing that took place. And president obama never felt it was going to hold up. It held up. I dont think its going to hold up at the Supreme Court. If it doesnt hold up, youll see a lot of good things happening. Youll be having daca and youll be putting other things with daca. Hopefully by that time the wall will be well under construction. We have already built a lot of the wall. Weve been working very hard. We renovated a tremendous amount of wall. I told you we did a lot of wall in san diego where we needed it very badly. So we havent been sitting still for the first believe it or not less than two years. Weve been working very, very hard. The wall is weve done a lot of miles of wall already. So were not just starting fresh. But we have large numbers of miles that we have to do. We cant let gaps. If you have gaps, those people will turn their vehicles or the gangs theyll be coming in through the gaps. We cant let that happen. Kevin. Thank you, mr. President. I appreciate that. Question about government employees. What is your personal message to those who are impacted by the shut down and if you wouldnt mind, if you could comment on the remarks made by a Freshman Congress person about impeachment involving a bit of profanity last night. You cant impeach somebody that is doing a great job. Thats the way i view it. Ive done more in the first two years than any president , any administration in our country. Look at tax cuts, regulations, look what weve done for the vets, the rebuilding of the military and the numbers were talking about. Many other things. I can give you a list. Its pages long. So i think its very hard to impeach something that has done a great job, thats number 1. And we even talked about that today. I said, why dont you use this for impeachment . Nancy said were not looking to impeach you. I said thats good, nancy. Thats good. You know what . You dont impeach people when theyre doing a good job. You dont impeach people when there was no collusion. There was no collusion. You know russians better than i do, kevin. There was no collusion. I didnt need russians to help me win iowa. I didnt need russians to help me win the great state of wisconsin and michigan and pennsylvania. I won them because i went there and i campaigned hard and my opponent didnt go there enough. She lost. A lot of good states. A lot of states that for many, many years for decades have gone democrat. They went republican. Thats why i won. Not because of russia. Your comment about the Freshmen Congress persons comment specifically i thought her comments were disgraceful. This is a person that i dont know. I assume shes new. I think she dishonored herself and i think shes dishonored her family. Using language like that in front of her son and whoever else was there, i thought that was a grace dishonor to her and to her family. I thought it was highly disrespectful to the United States of america. Yes. Thank you, mr. President. Earlier this week you repeated your claim through the u. S. Mca mexico will be paying for the wall. Thats right. Can you describe the trade deal and youll seeing it soon. We made a new trade deal. Nafta is one of the great disasters of all time. We lost millions of jobs, thousands and thousands of companies. Nafta left our country dry. Nafta was a disaster. I campaigned on terminating or renegotiating nafta. Bob lighthizer and Jared Kushner and a lot of people did an incredible job. Now we have a deal that is great for our country. By the way, good for mexico, good for canada also. Its the three countries. We will be taking in billions and billions of dollars more money for the United States including jobs and including companies that wont be leaving us anymore and going to mexico and in some cases canada to a lesser extent. But we lost 25 of our car business because of nafta. Nafta was a disaster. Now we have the usmca. United states mexico and canada trade agreement. Its brand new. Its totally different. Makes it very difficult for companies to incentivewise move to other countries. And we will be making billions and billions of dollars a year more money. So why not use that for the wall . Because i didnt have to. Because that is paying for the wall. Many, many times over. In fact, what we save on the usmca, the new trade deal with next co and canada, what we save on that with mexico will pay for the wall many times over just in a period of a year, two years or three years. So i view that as absolutely mexico is paying for the wall. Thats fine. Will you be pressuring putin yes, maam. You ran your campaign promising supporters that mexico is going to pay for the wall. Here we go again. You said the wall will be made of concrete. You just said it could be made of steel. Right now our government is shut down over a demand from your administration that the american taxpayer pay for the wall. How can you say youre not failing on that promise to your supporters. A very nice question so beautifully asked even though i just answered it. You didnt answer it excuse me. Are you ready . I just told you that we just made a trade deal. We will take in billions and billions of dollars, far more than the cost of the wall. The wall is peanuts compared to the value of this trade deal to the United States. As far as concrete, i said i was going to build a wall. I never said im going to build i said you said concrete. I know youre not into the construction business. You dont understand something. We now have a great steel business that is rebuilt in the United States. Steel is stronger than concrete. If i build this wall or fence or anything that democrats need to call it because im not into names, im into production, im into something that works. If i build a steel wall rather than a concrete wall, it will actually be stronger than a concrete. Steel is stronger than concrete. You can check it out. Listen, if i build a wall and the wall is made out of steel instead of concrete, i think people will like that. Heres the other good thing. Ill have it done by the United States steel corporations, companies in our country that are now powerful Great Companies again. Theyve been powerful over the last two years because of my and because of our trade policies. If i have a steel wall or you can call it a steel fence, but it will be more powerful than any of the concrete walls that were talking about, its possible that it will look better. One of the things i think you have seen this, its very important for us, very, very important, in speaking of Border Patrol, ice and actually local Law Enforcement and even military, they want to see through it. You cant really see through a concrete wall. They want to see who is on the other side of the wall. Because if theyre here and you have about a 12inch concrete wall and you have people on the other side but you cant see whats over there, its dangerous. They want to see through the wall. A seethrough wall made out of steel is far stronger than a concrete wall. So im very happy with it. I think im not sure, but i think that is what the democrats prefer. If it can get them there, im okay. It will be a more powerful wall and it will be a more beautiful wall than having a concrete wall. The new trade deal mr. President jeff, go ahead. Mr. President , you mentioned china in your remarks. Are you concerned about the words and the actions of apple this week with regard to revenue and can you tell us what sort of progress you meant when you refer to trade talks with china . I think were doing very well. Theyre paying us tremendous tariffs. Were getting billions and billions of dollars of money pouring into the treasury of the United States, which in history weve never gotten from china as you know. Its been very unfair. I had a fantastic meeting with president xi who i like and respect. One of the things that came out of that meeting was fentanyl. As you know, almost all of it comes from china. Hes going to now criminalize the making of fentanyl. Unlike hour country, they have unbelievably strong prohibitions about drugs. It was not on their list. They view it as i guess as some kind of a commercial product. Now they view it as something dangerous. Theyre going to be changing their laws to make fentanyl a criminal, a criminal process if youre making fentanyl. If they do that, you know what their ultimate is . Its called the death penalty. I thanked president xi very much. First question i said in argentina in the trade talks, this was a meeting that was supposed to last 4 about 45 minutes. It ended up four hours. Some of you were there. It was a great meeting. Well see what happens. You never know with a deal. But china is not doing well now. It puts us in a very strong position. We are doing well. Were taking in billions and billions of dollars. I hope were going to make a deal with china. If we dont, theyre paying us tens of billions of tariffs. Not the worth thing in the world. I think we will. I think we will make a deal with china. I really think they want to. I think they sort of have to and i think we will have a great relationship. I think that president xi and myself have a great relationship. Also north korea were doing very well with north korea. Thats based on relationship also. Mr. President one more quickly. One follow up. Apple issued a revenue warning this week which led its stock to go down and the rest of the stock market to go down as well. Are you concerned about that . No, im not. Look, theyve gone up a lot. Theyve gone up hundreds of percent since im president. Apple was at a number that was incredible. Theyll be fine. Apple is a great company. I have to worry about our country. Apple makes their product in china. I told tim cook, a friend of mine, make your product in the United States. Big those build beautiful plants that go on for miles it seems, build them in the United States. I like that even better. Apple makes its product in china. China is the biggest beneficiary of apple more than us. Because they build their product mostly in china. Now hes investing 350 billion because of what we did with taxes and the incentives that we created in the United States. Hes going to build a campus and lots of other places. So my focus is the United States. I want to get those companies to come back like so many are doing into the United States. I want apple to make their iphones and all of the great things that they make in the United States. That will take place. Thank you, mr. President. I want to ask you two questions. As you talk about the wall, imminent domain. Many of those that own property on the southern border will lose their property because of it and once its happened, they say that they could go to court with you for years. Could take years. Then also, what is the safety net for federal workers. Youre saying months and possibly a year for the shut down. Do you have in mind a safety net for those that need their checks, those that need medication, what have you . The safety net is having a strong border. Were going to be safe. Im not talking about economically. But ultimately economically. I really believe that these people, many of the people that were talking about, many of the people youre discussing, i really believe that they agree with what were doing. We could have this fixed very quickly. We can this could happen by early next week. Were going to be working over the weekend. We can have a solution to this but i wanted to keep it at one point. A lot of the people that youre referring to, april, are wanting that to happen, too. I believe a lot of them want to see Border Security and theyre willing to give it up. When i had the people in yesterday and they represent most of the Border Patrol, people that you had yesterday that were at the News Conference, they represent most of Border Patrol. Every one of them said dont even think about us. Get this fixed. That is doing the great thing for our country. As far as imminent domain, youre right. 100 . Imminent domain is very interesting. But without imminent domain, you wouldnt have any highways, you wouldnt have schools or you wouldnt have any roadways. What were doing with imminent domain is in many cases well make a deal up front and we have already done that, the secretary has done a lot of that. And if we cant make a deal, we take the land and we pay them through a court process, which goes actually fairly quickly. Were generous. We take the land. Otherwise you could never build anything. If you dont use imminent domain, you wouldnt have one highway in this country. You have to use it. Its something that you dont want to use it, but if youre going to do a stretch as an example, pipelines and other things that go, you have to use imminent domain. Otherwise youd never buy the land. If we had one person that would sell us, it only takes one, we wouldnt have proper Border Security. Well have the big opening. So what happens is some are paid up front. You make a deal up front and were willing to do that in all cases and when theyre unwilling to make a deal, you go to court. Meantime, we build the Border Security. So its a fair process. I think its a process that is very necessary but its fair. Couldnt that hold up your wall . No. Because under the military version of imminent domain and under actually Homeland Security, we can do it before we even start. A lot of times well make a deal. I would say a good percentage of the time were making deals. We have already purchased a lot of it. A lot of the money that weve been given has already been spent on purchasing the land, the right of way. Its essentially a right of way. Were very far along on that. But imminent domain has to be used for anything long like a road, a pipeline or a wall or a fence. Okay . Thank you. Good question. A good question. Please. Go ahead. Two questions. First, mr. President , have you considered using Emergency Powers should we keep this going not . Sure. I dont you have so many questions. Im just looking at mike and steve and kevin. Should we and most importantly madam secretary are you cold . Get out of here. You want mine . Should we keep this going . Please. Yes, indeed. First, let me know when you get tired. Im not. Have you considered using Emergency Powers to grant yourself authorities to build this wall without congressional approval . And second i have. I can do it if i want. So you dont need congressional approval no, we can absolutely call a National Emergency because of the security of our country. Absolutely. No, we can do it. I havent done it. I may do it. I may do it. But we can call a National Emergency and build it very quickly. Its another way of doing it. We can do it through a negotiated process, were giving that a shot. So is that a threat hanging i never threaten anybody. I am allowed to do that, yes. Second question its called a National Emergency. On mexico, the benefits from that trade deal are going to go to private companies, tax revenues theyre going to pay tremendous tax. Ill give you an example. When a company was going to leave for mexico, or canada but for mexico, because we lost tremendous amounts of our car business, 25 to mexico. If they stay, all of those taxes that they have been paying, real estate taxes, sales taxes, employee, employer taxes, tremendous taxes that nobody even understands that they pay, theyre tremendous, income taxes, federal income taxes, state income taxes, all of those taxes stay with us. The wall is you know, its great, but the usmca, which gives a disincentive for companies to leave, a tremendous disincentive. Anybody that leaves after this deal is done its one of the primary reasons that i like it. I can live prenafta, too. The only thing i cant live with is nafta. I can live before nafta. Before left new england and left all of the different places, ohio, pennsylvania. You still have empty factories all over the place. I can live prenafta very easily. The only thing im not living with is nafta. One of the worst trade deals ever made. Those are american taxpayer dollars that you consider mexico paying for the wall . Many, many times over. Look, the usmca will make in the form that we right now are losing president hard to believe. This doesnt include the drugs pouring in, which is a higher number than anybody would know in addition to destroying lives and families so horribly. We are losing close to 100 billion a year on trade with mexico for many years. Not only that, they have a tax of 17 . We dont have a tax. So they have a valueadded tax of 17 . We dont have a tax of 17 . That deal was bad the day it was made. Because they charged a tax before the deal was made and we didnt. It was an obsolete deal when it was made 30 years ago. All of this is changing now. This is a fair deal. This is a good deal for mexico. Frankly, Oil Companies and other companies have an incentive now to go to mexico and take oil out. Thats why were keeping gasoline prices so long. Look whats going on with gasoline prices. Its rather incredible. If you look back four months ago, oil hit 83 a barrel. 83. It was heading to 100. Then it could have gone to 125. You want to see problems . Let that happen. After i made some phone calls to opec and the opec nations, which is essentially a monopoly, all of a sudden it started coming down. Im very happy with what has happened. Im very happy that people are paying a lot less in many cases than 2 a gallon for gasoline. Look at what is happening. Everybody is talking about didnt happen by luck. Happened through talent. Go ahead. If the shut down does last you said you would come back for the second question months or years, i want to understand how you expect federal workers to last that long without getting a paycheck . Specifically i dont think it will cabinet members are set to get raises tomorrow. Well have to talk to cabinet members. Will you ask them to give that money back . Its very important that we have great Border Security. It will be over with sooner than people think. I will do whatever we have to do. If we have to stay out for a very long period of time, were going to do that. Many of those people, most of those people, that really have not been and will not be getting their money in at this moment, those people in many cases are the biggest fan of what were doing. How do you know that, sir . You have evidence to support that . Major, go ahead. Mr. President , the 10,000 raise that your cabinet members and Senior Administration informations are due to receive, will you ask them not to accept that during the shut down . I may consider that. A very good question. Okay. Who else is out there. Mike, who do you see out there that is is there a commitment are you committing to that, mr. President . Are you committing to that . Go ahead. Yeah. Good. Go ahead. Thank you, mr. Vice president. Mike highly recommended you. This will be the killer of them all. Two questions if its all right. First one is a follow to that. You were a landlord. For people worried about bill collectors, paying rent, would you ask landlords to go easy i think they will. I think that happens. You know, hey, ive been a landlord a long time. Ive been in the real estate business a long time. When you see theres problems, difficulties out there, the people are all good for the money. They work with people. They work with people. You would encourage landlords sure. I would encourage them to be nice and easy. We have a bigger subject. Its called the security of our nation. Including terrorism, please. Okay. If you dont mind, one more question, sir. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you, mr. President. Thank you. I have a questions about the terrorism. I wanted to ask, who are these individuals who are being captured terrorists . Are they people on the watch list, are they from travel ban countries . Second question i wanted to ask, why is senator Mitch Mcconnell not here . Why was he hes been great. Hes Mitch Mcconnell first of all, he was here why is not here hes running the senate. Mitch mcconnell has been fantastic. Hes been really great. Hes right at the top of everything that were doing and hes really been fantastic. Kirsten, you want to answer that questions about the terrorists . Obviously i cant get into classified information, but what we do know, we stopped over 3,000 what question call special interest aliens trying to come into the country on the southern border. Those are aliens that the Intel Community has identified of concern. They either have travel patterns that are identified as terrorist travel patterns or they have known or suspected ties to terrorism. So we have 3,000 that we know about. What the president continues to make clear is its our sovereign duty to know who comes into our country. Without any structure and without changing the laws, we have no way to know the identity of every person that walks across the unsecured border. So the ones we know about, we can give you 3,000. Well look what else we can see you. Theres ongoing investigations i cant get into. So i think that we can say with surety, a great meeting. Well see what happens. It may get solved, may not get solved. You know the number. Well do what we have to do. Again, were going to be i believe very productive over the weekend. We have a very talented group of people and they do, too, so i understand. I think some tremendous things will happen. I really believe the biggest beneficiaries are children, women, workers and a lot of these people that really do benefit are not only the people in our country but the people that travel up trying to get into a country that they think theyre going to get into and cant. They get sick and tremendous damage done to them and their families. These are all tremendous b beneficiarie beneficiaries. This has a higher purpose than next weeks people. The people that wont get next weeks pay and the following weeks pay, if you ever really looked at those people, i think theyd say mr. President , keep going. This is far more important. I want to thank you all. Theyll be very working very hard over the weekend. Thank you very much. And there you have it. The president wrapping up an extensive News Conference in the rose garden. This follows the meeting he held with Top Democrats and republicans meeting with President Trump again with no end in sight for the partial government shut down which has dragged on now for two weeks. Good afternoon. Im Trace Gallagher in for shepard smith. The president saying todays meeting was productive. Democrats called it contentious. Democrats are urging President Trump to reopen the government while they hash out their disagreements on money for the president s border wall so hundreds of thousands of federal workers can get paid. We made a plea to the presiden