To have a weak dollar. Well talk about all of this coming up. Big interview in davos historically just something that is usually not said by administrations or treasury secretaries. In reality, in the shortterm, currencies will fluctuate. Thats kind of what mnuchin was saying bob rubin thought all of these things, they would just never say the it publicly. This might not be the first time that this administration voiced things that other administrations didnt voice mike allen is with us, too. Its not something where you want to add thoughts to it i dont want to revisit the last administration, but we her defense of israel and we saw the way the administration actually stuck to their card, too. Exactly so they say what would you rather have, someone that smiles at you and says we love israel, then behind their back, netanyahu is ready to pull his hair out he doesnt have hair i had the opportunity to sit down with President Trump. We talked about trade, the dollar and his message to this crowd, the Economic Forum crowd in davos mr. President , welcome to davos. Thank you very much thank you for agreeing to come on cnbc and squawk box. Appreciate it. Ive known you a long time. Youve known me a long time weve done many of these, because bit different position a few more people around, too. The America First president comes to davos you know when you say davos, you know a lot of people think globalists yeah. Elitiselitists what will you say when you address not just the globalists and the elitists but everyone, what will be your message . So, when i decided to come to davos, i didnt think in terms of elitists or globalists i thought of lots of people who want to invest, lots of money, and theyre all coming back to the United States. Theyre coming back to america i thought of it much more in those terms. After i said i was going, there were massive stories about the elite, globalists, planes flying in its not about that. Its about coming to america, investing your money, creating jobs, companies coming in. Were setting records every week, every day. Were setting records. You can see apple with 350 billion. Most people thought they meant 350 million, which would build a nice plant i spoke with tim cook. I was very honored by it you remember in my campaign i used to say i wont consider this great unless apple starts coming in and investing big money doing the plants you moved a little but so Many Companies are coming in. Yes but you moved towards i saw macron saying globalism doesnt solve problems suddenly other countries are saying, you know, we need to take care of our own country to some extent. Its almost like the differences between America First and davos, i think theres plenty of room for it theres lots of room. We love global but we love home. We have to take care of our home we have the disadvantage of having spent about a month ago 7 7 trillion in the middle east 7 trillion. Thats a big disadvantage. And were still there. And ive beaten isis weve done a good job. But its such a shame. Let me tell you its a sad thing. Let me tell but the difference of davos this year. Go ahead. Weve done three threehour shows, we have about eight guests per hour. Thats like 50, 60 guests. They are more optimistic this year and theres Global Growth sure. But the one thing most are bringing up then i want to tell you about, if you didnt see jamie dimon and lloyd blankfein, the potential for gdp growth those guys might know what theyre talking about. The tax plan has been brought up almost without exception in a positive way by not just the ceos but by leaders from other countries even maybe they need to look at things, maybe they need to invest in the United States now because its a better environment for business thats why im here to a large extent i think the tax plan has been even better than we thought, joe. What did happen that nobody considered is that at t started. But they immediately followed, hundreds of companies are giving thousands and thousands of dollars to workers, now you have almost 3 million workers receiving thousands of dollars nobody thought that was not in the plan. Even starbucks. Starbucks even starbucks. Yesterday disney and others so dimon said the ones who are not doing it, those employees are going how about us guess what theyll be doing it, too jpmorgan ceo, jamie dimon not only did he say 3 was possible, he said we could get to 4 in 2018. Lloyd blankfein, and i pressed him a little, i said that was not the outcome, the election that you were, i think, hoping for. Now that you have seen whats happened to the stock market, up 40 since election day, how businesses are going, confidence, are you happy with the outcome . He said he couldnt really say im happy with the outcome, but he did thats okay no but he said i dont think the stock market would be where it is. I dont think gdp would be where it is. Maybe the polarization would be less, but he to concede that the benefits probably outweighed any of the downside. That was lloyd. That was lloyd. And jamie has become very positive jamie and lloyd said 3 is possible longterm which we have not heard from all the economists i think it will be much higher than that i said lets see what happens, because, as you know, were getting a report very soon well see what that is i just happen to ask what we were doing, because, you know, if you look at the real numbers, had i not won, had the democrat won, i will be nice, the democrat i say won, i would consider their last quarter my First Quarter. Because i just got there so lets say the First Quarter of 17, you had a 1. 2 gdp. Okay 1. 2. In the Fourth Quarter, which is the obama quarter, you had a 1. 8. Before that, you had a 2. 8. 2. 2. You werent doing very well. It was the worst recovery, i guess they say ever or since the Great Depression but the worst recovery okay now, in my First Quarter, which i considered to be the Second Quarter, because i was there now long enough to have made an impact, dont kid yourself, regulations are just as big as the tax cuts right i cut more regulations than any president in history and ive been here for one year. You can take their term, whether its eight years or 16 years in one instance, but you can take anybody you want, in one year we cut more regulations by the way, theres going to be regulation, but theyre good, solid, sane regulations. But in quarter two, 3. 1. In quarter three, as you know, we had 3. 2 but in quarter one, which is the obama quarter, you had 1. 2 we were going in the wrong direction. The hurricane had the democrat won, the stock market is up almost 50 since my election. Had the democrat won i believe wow have been down 50 thats the direction we were headed the you know a lot of that, regulation it was staggering. You could not do anything. You couldnt build they approved immediately the two pipelines. Can we talk about the year . The year all these things that you have pointed out, but you have beeen dealing negotiating in government rather than the private sector. Its been lovingly referred to as the swamp by certain individuals. Its difficult. Is it difficult are you approaching it differently now . Would you give what would you give yourself in terms of dealing negotiating with the government versus business what grade for the first year . A lot of people have given me an a. Somebody gave me an a plus i got the biggest tax plan in history approved dont forget, not just a tax plan doe you do anything differently now one second. I got rid of the individual mandate. The most the biggest part and the most unpopular thing in obamacare, which really repeals obamacare, cant live without the mandate, thats where the money came, very unfair to people, and we did anwar Ronald Reagan tried to do it 40 years ago. Everybody has been trying to do anwar and i got an wwar done the money is pouring in we probably take in 4 trillion from overseas, would never have been able to be here can we talk trade real quickly. Yeah. We had somer panels, washing machines, im not sure where it goes from here im not sure how china reacts. Whatever it is. Theyre grownups i think they understand that maybe we had its time we had some legitimate right. You will stick with bilateral or would you ever do would you ever go back into multilateral tpp, would that everen possible ever be possible to look at that again . I like bilateral, if you have a problem, you terminate when youre in with many countries, like tpp, so you have 12, you dont have that same you dont have that same option. Somebody asked me the other day, would i do tpp heres my answer ill give you a big story. I would do tpp if we had a much better deal than we had. The deal was a horrible deal the deal was a horrible deal nafta is a horrible deal, were renegotiating it i may terminate nafta, i may not. Well see what happens nafta i told stadiums full of people i would are you opening up the door to reopening tpp or im only saying this. I would do tpp if we were to make a substantially better deal the deal was terrible. The way it was structured was terrible if we did substantially better deal, i would be open to tpp thats interesting. Would you hand are you surprised to hear me say that yeah. Im a little taken aback dont be surprised. No the deal was a bad deal. Like the iran deal is a bad deal maybe not nafta can you give me an indication of which way youre leaning a lot of ceos on here, they all seem to acknowledge that its 30 years later, theres a lot of changes that make a lot of sense, but not to abandon the deal joe, we have a trade deficit with mexico. Mexico 71 billion a year right . We have a trade deficit with canada of a substantial amount of money i have a number, they keep arguing. I wont say it i wont tell you its 17 million, okay . We have a trade deficit with canada we have a massive trade deficit with mexico. We have to do something. Are you leaning towards staying in or would you really i always said during the campaign, as you always notice and said a couple times, ive fulfilled a lot of what ive said im only here a year i think i have four years, maybe another four years well keep going, and see what happens. But we have a 71 billion trade deficit with mexico. We have to do something about it we cant have that will it be renegotiated . Were trying now with bo lighthauser and the whole group. I think we have a good chance, well see what happens the way that the shutdown finally was you know, was ended. Yeah. I get the feeling that senator schumer is taking a lot of flack from his the far left flank. I feel like hes been burned, which makes me worry about when we go back in two weeks he made a mistake in shutting down he shouldnt have shut down. The people of this country wharwant security and safety. What will happen on monday with daca will you stay with cotton or move further to i think cotton and purdue and the people that ive been dealing with, cornyn, these are great people these are people that really have shifted a lot they have really shifted a lot i think theyre willing to shift more so am i you said 10, 12 years for citizenship for th d. R. E. A. Mers well see if they make the right deal these are people with strong opinions on daca, immigration generally. I happen to think theyre largely right. Were going to try to make a deal on daca we have a good chance of making it what we need is we need the wall, we need security we need security at the border we have to stop the drugs from coming in we need safety and a strong military. We need almost more than ever before weve been in war. So we needed it then but we need to be sure that our military is properly funded. And it would be really great to get rid of the you know, wed like to have a regular budget. Will you ask for 25 billion, mr. President . Did Chuck Schumer offer 1 1. 6 billion sure, he took it back how much did he agree to . He didnt really take it back you see numerous senators on the other side, they say we would give the wall in two minutes if we could solve daca. Everybody wants to solve the daca problem it should have been solved by pr president obama, especially when he had the house and senate, it could have been involeen solved. He did an executive order, that was no good. It wasnt me, the courts were not upholding that executive order. You have to do it through congress i want to solve the daca problem. I will consider that a great achievement to solve the dhaka problem. Its been out there for a long time these are good people. These are people who should be able to stay in the country. We will solve the daca problem we also want to solve a tremendous problem on the southern border, which is crime. We need a wall we need the drugs to stop flowing in theyre coming in like theyre coming in less now than they were because we have strong we have great bore eh patrol agents, but we need a Strong Border. To do that you need a wall they did agree to a 25 billion wall, of which ill have a lot of money left over i dont need 25 billion to build a wall we will build a great wall, have a lot of money left over and spend it on other things, we need Great Security. Yes, senator purdue, senator cotton, cornyn, this one, that one. We have tremendous support to get something done tremendous, joe. I think something will get done. I want to ask you a davos question because were here and i dont know, i even get taken over by this whenever were here, we talk about wealth disparity, income inequality not just globally, but everywhere big problem big problem a resurgent United States, a strong growing United States makes a world of difference, not just for the United States but for the world in general im wondering if you did if you were able to keep gdp or if the United States grows at 3 , 4 , and we have the coffers, we can do a lot with 3 , 4 , its totally different than when we dont have money different country do you have a way of addressing the skills gap and education . As a business person, you sovr probl solve problems we need vocational schools. Will that be something . Its a big factor for us, but i want these Big Companies coming in, toyotas coming in we talked about apple apple coming in with a big presence Many Companies chrysler is coming in, leaving mexico and coming back to michigan. How good is that when is the last time you heard that without me being here, without what weve been doing, including regulation, by the way i happen to think regulation is as big as the tax cuts, okay i think the tax cuts are incredible, but i think the regulations, the cutting of regulations, because the businesses couldnt even they couldnt do anything they were totally bound. Would have to get 16 different approvals from 15 different agencies joe, it was impossible to do business i think you know that maybe better than anybody. The cutting of the regulations was ever bit as important as what we did with the tax cuts. But you put them both together, we have a dynamic country again. I mean, everybody is talking i just came out and some really wonderful people said davos has never been like this this is like walking into the Academy Awards, except we have more photographers the journal this morning, lead editorial they gave a lot of credit to the Trump Administration for where Economic Growth is right now but then they said why would a cabinet member bring up the idea of a weaker dollar when things are going so well . Im wondering whether you saw the secretary mnuchins comments yesterday. Do you agree with those . Were they taken out of context let me tell you, i think they were taken out of context. I read his exact statement i will tell you where i stand, which is ultimately very important. Number one, i dont like talking about it because frankly nobody should be talking about it it should be what it is. It should also be based on the strength of the country. Were doing so well. Our country is becoming so economically strong again, strong in other ways, too, by the way, that the dollar is going to get stronger and stronger and ultimately i want to see a strong dollar. Right now it floats. Its your great reserve currency, there can never be anything close to it there is nothing close to it there never will be. Ultimately the dollar, because our country is going to get so much stronger economically, if you look at whats happened to our country over the look, ive been talking about this with you for 25 years, trade it started with japan. Morphed into china now china, japan its everybody. Everybody is taking advantage of our country. They have ripped our country off. You look at what they do i saw something on motorcycles today, with a certain country, why should i say but they sell motors cycles into our country, no tax. We sell motorcycles into their country, harley davidson, the greatest, right . We sell into their country, 100 tax. Wont happen the word reciprocal is the most important word with donald trump when it comes to the subject that we talk about and the subject that cnbc covers so well especially you, by the way because i dont agree with all of your people but thats okay. Reciprocal i want reciprocal. If theyre going to charge us 100 for a motorcycle, it should be 100 pshsz t the other way, you mention a at the border for everything coming in, im a free trader, totally im a fair trader. Im all kinds of trader, but i want reciprocal. When china is charging us a fortune to send products in, and making it impossible for the product to get there many other countries, also, not just china. China is the biggest we charge them nothing to sell their stuff here its not fair. When you use the word reciprocal, everybody understand theres a. If th s that you are already seeing it. Well have to end it there. Last question. Will we have another shutdown . Will you move more to the center on immigration i dont think the democrat also shut it down again. Every poll says they made a mistake. I dont want to say schumer got badly beaten why would i do that . I wont say he got badly beaten. You look at what happened. The people want security they want daca taken care of more importantly they want security they wanted the border strong. They want to have a Strong Border they dont want to have ms13 coming into our cities you know how many of these people were getting out these are hor