in washington, d.c. along with new york, los angeles, in particular, speaks not for the people, but for the special interests and for those profiting off a very, very obviously broken system. the press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the american people. tremendous disservice. we have to talk about it. we have to find out what's going on because the press, honestly, is out of control. the level of dishonesty is out of control. i ran for president to represent the citizens of our country. i'm here to change the broken system so it serves their families and their communities well. i'm talking and really talking on this very entrenched power structure and what we're doing is we're talking about the power structure. we're talking about its

entrenchment. as a result, the media's going through what they have to go through to oftentimes distort -- not all the time -- and some of the media's fantastic, i have to say, honest and fantastic -- but much of it is not. the distortion, and we'll talk about it, you can ask questions about it. we're not going to let it happen because i'm here, again, to take my message straight to the people. as you know, our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy. to be honest, i inherited a mess. it's a mess. at home, and abroad. a mess. jobs are pouring out of the country. you see what's going on with all of the companies leaving our country. going to mexico and other places. low pay, low wages. mass instability overseas, no

matter where you look. the middle east, a disaster. north korea, we'll take care of it, folks. we're going to take care of it all. i just want to let you know. i inherited a mess. beginning on day one, our administration went to work to tackle these challenges. on foreign affairs, we've begun e enormously productive talks with foreign leaders that you covered, to move forward to security, stability, and peace in the most troubled regions of the world, which there are many. we've had great conversations with the united kingdom and meetings, israel, mexico, japan, china, and canada. really, really productivity conversations. i would say far more productive than you would understand. we've even developed a new council with canada to promote women's business leaders and entrepreneurs. very important to me. very important to my daughter,

ivanka. i have directed our defense community headed by our great general, now secretary mattis, over there now working very hard, to submit a plan for the defeat of isis, a group that celebrates murder and torture of innocent people in large sections of the world. used to be a small group. now it's in large sections of the world. they've spread like cancer. isis has spread like cancer. another mess i inherited. we have imposed new sanctions on the nation of iran, whose totally taken advantage of our previous administration. they are the world's top sponsor of terrorism. we're not going to stop until that problem is properly solk l, and it's not now. it's one of the worst agreements

i've ever seen drawn by anybody. i've ordered plans to begin for the massive rebuilding of the united states military. i've had great support from the senate. i've had great support from congress, generally. we've pursued this rebuilding in the hopes that we will never have to use this military. i will tell you, that is my -- i would be so happy if we never had to use it, but our country will never have had a military like the military we're about to build and rebuild. we have the greatest people on earth in our military. they don't have the right equipment, and their equipment is old. i used it. i talked about it. at every stop. depleted. it's depleted. it won't be depleted for long. one of the reasons i'm standing

here instead of other people is, frankly, i talked about we have to have a strong military. we have to have strong law enforcement also. so we do not go abroad in the search of war. we really are searching for peace. it's peace through strength. at home, we have begun the monumental task of returning the government to the people to a scale not seen in many, many years. each of the action, i'm keeping my promises to the american people. these are campaign -- >> okay, looks like we had trouble with the feed. >> yeah, indeed. >> president trump currently in the middle of a news conference. when that comes back up, we'll bring that to you. primarily, announced the pick for labor secretary, former assistant attorney general for civil rights -- i believe the feed is back up. let's take you back. see you in a bit. >> lying to you to get elected. they lied to the american people in order to get elected. some of the things i'm doing probably aren't popular, but

they are necessary for security and for other reasons. then coming to washington and pursuing their own interests, which is more important to many politicians. i'm here following through on what i pledged to do. it's all i'm doing. i put it out before the american people. got 306 electoral college votes. >> okay. >> once again -- >> you can see there's technical problems there with that trump presser. we'll bring it to you, go back to it the moment that we can. again, the president not only naming alex acosta as labor secretary, but a plan to destroy isis and swiping the media, calling us dishonest and, quote, out of control. >> he mentioned the visit by paul singerings he was proud of, because he was a never trumper. spent more time on that than the labor secretary nomination. >> and on top of that, that is one -- let's go back. >> they are not happy about it

for whatever reason. and, but a lot of people are happy about it. in fact, i'll be in melbourne, florida at 5:00 on saturday, and i heard crowds are massive that want to be there. i turn on the tv, open the newspaper, and i see stories of chaos. chaos. yet it is the exact opposite. this administration is running like a fine tuned machine. despite the fact that i can't get my cabinet approved. they are outstanding people. like senator dan coates, who is there, one of the most republiced men in the senate. he can't get approved. how do you not approve him? he's been a colleague, highly respected, brilliant guy, great guy, everybody knows it, but we're waiting for approval. so we have a wonderful group of people that's working very hard,

that's being very much misrepresented about, and we can't let that happen. so if the democrats all you have to do is look where they are right now. the only thing they can do is delay because they screwed things up royally. believe me. let me list things we've done in just a short period of time. just got here. i got here with no cabinet. again, each of the actions is a promise i made to the american people, going over just some of them. we have a lot in the next week and weeks coming. we have withdrawn from the job killing disaster known as tpp. we'll have one-on-one deals, bilateral. we directed the elimination of regulations that undermine manufacturing and called for

expedited approval of the permits needed for america and american infrastructure, meaning plant, equipment, roads, bridges, factories. people take ten, 15, 20 years to get disapproved for a factory. they go in for a permit, it's many, many years, and at the end of the process, they spend tens of millions of dollars on nonsense, and at the end of the process, they are rejected. they may be rejected with me, but it's going to be a quick rejecti rejection. not going to take years, but, mostly, it's acceptance. we want plants and factories built. we want the jobs. we don't want the jobs going to other countries. we've imposed a hiring freeze on non-essential federal workers. we've imposed a temporary moratorium and new federal regulations. we issued a game changing new rule that saves for each one new

regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated. makes sense. nobody's ever seen regulations like we have. you go to other countries, and you look at industries they have, and you say, will the me see your regulations. they are a fraction, just a tiny fraction of what we have. i want regulations because i want safety. i want environmental, all environmental situations to be taken properly care of. it's very important to me. you don't need four or five or six regulations to take care of the same thing. we stood up for the men and women of law enforcement, directing federal agencies to ensure they are protected from crimes of violence. we've directed the creation of a task force for reducing violent crime in america, including the horrendous situation, take a look at chicago and others, taking place right now in our

inner cities. horrible. we've ordered the department of homeland security and justice to coordinate on a plan to destroy criminal cartels coming into the united states with drugs. we're becoming a drug infested nation. drugs are becoming cheaper than candy bars. we're not going to let it happen any longer. we've undertaken the most substantial border security measures in a generation to keep our nation and our tax dollars safe. we are now in the process of beginning to build a promised wall on the southern border met with general, new secretary kelly, yesterday, and we're starting that process. and that wall is going to be a great wall, and it's going to be a wall negotiated by me, the price is going to come down like on everything else i negotiated for the government. we're going to have a wall that

works. we're not going to have a wall like they have now that is nonexistent or a joke. we ordered a crackdown on sanctuary cities refusing to comply with federal law and harbor criminal aliens and ordered an end to the policy of catch and release on the border. no more release. no matter who you are. we've begun a nationwide effort to remove criminal aliens, gang members, drug dealers, and others who pose a threat to public safety. we are saving american lives every single day. court system has not made it easy for us. we created a new office in homeland security dedicated to the forgotten american victims of illegal immigrant violence of which there are many. we've taken decisive action to keep islamic radical terrorists out of our country.

though parts of our necessary and constitutional actions were blocked by judges, in my opinion, in correct, an unsafe ruling. our ad mministration is working night and day to keep you safe, including reporters safe. vigorously defending this lawful order. will not back down from defending our country. i got elected on defense of our country. i keep my campaign promises. our citizens will be very happy when they see the result they already are. i can tell you that. extreme vetting will be put in place, and it is already in place in many places. in fact, we had to go quicker than we thought because of the bad decision we received from a circuit that's been overturned at a record number. i heard 80%, i find that hard believe. that's just a number i heard, overturned 80% of the time. i think that circuit is --

that's a circuit in chaos and frankly in turmoil. we are appealing that, and we are going further. we're issuing a new executive action next week that will comprehensively protect our country, so we'll be going along the one path and hopefully winning that at the same time we'll be issuing a new and very comprehensive order to protect our people. that'll be done sometime next week in the beginning or middle at the latest part. we've taken steps to begin construction of the keystone pipeline and dakota access pipelines, thousands and thousands of jobs. we put new buy american measures in place to require american steel for american pipelines. in other words, build a pipeline in this country and we use the powers of the government to make that pipeline happen.

we want them to use american steel. and they are willing to do that, but nobody ever asked before i came along. the order was drawn, and they did not say that. i read the order, why not use american steel? they said, that's a good idea. we put it in. to drain the swamp of corruption in washington, d.c., i've started by imposing a five-year lobbying ban on white house officials, and a lifetime ban on lobbying for a foreign government. we've begun preparing to repeal and replace obamacare. obamacare is a disaster, folks. it's a disaster. you can say, oh, obamacare. they fill up our alleys with people that you wonder how they get there, but they are not the republican people that are representativ

representatives. we begun preparing to repeal and replace obamacare and are deep in the midst of negotiations on a very historic tax reform to bring our jobs back. bring our jobs back to this country, big league. it's already happening. big league. i've worked to install a cabinet over the delays and obstruction of senate democrats. you've seen what they have done over the last long number of years. that will be one of the great cabinets ever assembled in american history. you look at rex tillerson. he's out there negotiating right now. general mattis i mentioned. general kelly. we have great, great people, makers with us now. we have great people. among their responsibilities will be ending the bleeding of jobs from our country. and negotiating free trade deals for our citizens. look, fair trade.

not free. fair. if a country is taking advantage of us, we're not going to let that happen anymore. you know, every country takes advantage of us, almost. i may be able to find a couple that don't, but for the most part, that would be a tough job for me to do. jobs have already started to surge. since my election, florida is abandoning plans to build a new factory in mexico, but investing $700 million in michigan, creating many, many jobs. fiat chrysler is investing $1 billion in ohio and michigan creating 2,000 new american jobs. they were with me a week ago. you know, you were here. general motors likewise is investing billions of dollars in its american manufacturing operation. keeping many jobs here that were going to leave, and if i didn't get elected, believe me, they would have left, and these jobs, these things that i'm announcing would have never come here.

intel is moving ahead with a new plant in arizona that probably was never going to move ahead with. that will result in at least 10,000 american jobs. walmart announced it's creating 10,000 jobs in the united states just this year because of our various plans and initiatives. they'll be many, many more, many more. these are a few we're naming. other countries have been taken advantage of us for decades, decades, and decades and decades, folks, and we're not going to let that happen anymore. not going to let it happen. one more thing, i have kept my promise to the american people by nominating a justice to the united states supreme court, judge neil gorsuch, from my list of 20, and who will be a true defender of our laws and our constitution. highly respected. should get the vote from the

democrats. you may not see that, but he'll get there one way or another. he should get there the old fashioned way, and he should get those votes. this last month has represented an unprecedented degree of action on behalf of the great citizens of our country. again, i say it, there's never been a presidency done so much in such a short period of time, and we've not even started the big work that starts early next week. some very big things are going to be announced next week. we are just getting started. we'll be giving a speech as i said in melbourne, florida, at 5:00 p.m. i hope to see you there. and with that, i just say god bless america, and let's take some questions. mara, go ahead, you were cut off quite abruptly at the last

conference. [ inaudible ] >> mike flynn is a wonderful person, i asked for resignation, he respectfully gave it. he's a man that was a certain amount of information given to vice president pence, who is here today, and i was not happy with how the information was given. he did not have to do that because what he did was not wrong. what he did in terms of the information. he saw what was wrong was the way that other people, including yourselves, in this room, were given that information. that was classified information that was begin illegally. that's the real problem. you know, you can talk all you want about russia, which was all, you know, fake news fabricated deal to try to make up for the loss of the democrats and press plays right into it. in fact, i saw a couple of the people supposedly involved.

they know nothing about it, never in russia, never made a phone call, never received a phone call. it's all fake news. it's all fake news. the nice thing is i see it starting to turn where people are now looking at the illegal, i think it's very important, the illegal giving out classify ied information, and let me just tell you, it was given out so much. for example, i called, as you know, mexico. it was a very confidential classified call, but i called mexico, and in calling mexico, i figured, oh, well, i spoke to the president of mexico, had a good call, all the sudden it's out there for the world to see. it was supposed to be secret. supposed to be either confidential or classified in that case, same thing with australia. all of the sudden, people are finding out exactly what took

place. the same thing happened with respect to general flynn. everybody saw this. i'm saying, the first thing i thought of when i heard about it, is how does the press get this information that's classify? how do they do it? why? because it's an illegal process, and the press should be ashamed of themselves, but more importantly, people giving out information to the press should be ashamed of themselves. really a shame. yes, go ahead. >> vice president in the dark for almost two weeks. >> because when i looked at the information, i said, i don't think he did anything wrong. if anything, he did something right. he was coming into office, looked at the information, and he said, huh, that's fine. that's what they are supposed to do. they are supposed to be -- he just didn't call russia, but spoke to both ways, i think, there were 30-some odd countries, just doing his job. you know, he was just doing his job. the thing is he didn't tell our vice president properly, and

then he said he didn't remember, so either way, it was not satisfactory to me. i have somebody that i think will be outstanding for the position, and that also helps, i think, in the making of my decision, but he didn't tell the vice president of the united states the facts, and then he didn't remember, and that just was not acceptable to me. yes? >> looking for clarification here. in the campaign, did anyone from your team communicate with members of the russian government or russian intelligence, and if so, what was the nature of the conversations? >> well, the new york times wrote a big long front page story yesterday, and it was very much discredited, as you know. it was -- it's a joke. the people mentioned in the story, i noticed they were on television today saying they never even spoke to russia. they were not even a part,

really, i mean, there was such a minor part. they had not spoken to them -- i think the one person, i don't think i've ever spoken to him or met him, and he actually said he was a very low level member of a committee for a short period of time. i don't think i ever met him. possible i walked into a room and he was sitting there, but i never met him, i never talked to him ever, and he thought it was a joke. the other person said he never spoke to russia, never received a call, looked at the phone records, et cetera, et cetera, and others knew he represented other countries, but not russia, but represented various countries. that's what he does. people know that. that's mr. metaford, by the way, a respected man, a respected man, but i think he represented the ukraine or ukraine government or somebody, but everybody -- people knew that. everybody knew that. so these people -- and he said that he has absolutely nothing to do and never has with russia.

he said that very forcefully. i saw his statement. he said it forcefully. most of the papers do not print it because it's not good for their stories. the three people they talked about all totally deny it, and i can tell you, speaking for myself, i own nothing in russia. i have no loans in russia. i don't have any deals in russia. president putin called me up nicely to congratulate me on the win of the election. he called me up extremely nicely to congratulate me on the inaugust ration, which was terrific, but so did almost all other leaders from almost all other countries. that's the exception. russia is fake news. russia -- this is fake news put out by the media. the real news is the fact that people probably from the obama administration because they are there, we have new people going in place right now, as you know, mike pompeo is now taking

control of the cia. jameis comey at fbi. dan coates is waiting to be approved. i mean, he's a senator, a highly respected one, and he's still waiting to be approved. our new people are going in. just while you're at it, because you mentioned this, "wall street journal" did a story today that was almost as disgraceful as the failing "new york times" story yesterday. and it talked about -- you saw it, front page -- so director of national intelligence just put out acting a statement, any suggestion that the united states intelligence community -- this was just begin to us -- is withholding information and not providing the best possible intelligence to the president and his national security team is not true. so they took this front page story out of the wall street journal, and they just wrote the

story, but it's not true. i'll tell you something. i'll be honest. i sort of enjoy this back and forth, and i guess i have all my life, but never seen more dishonest media than the political media. i thought the political media was better and more honest, but i will say that i never get phone calls from the media. how do they write a story like that in the "wall street journal" without asking me or write a story in the "new york times" put it on the front page. that was the story they wrote about the women and me, front page, big massive story. it was nasty. and then they called, they said, we never said that. we like mr. trump. they called up my office. we like mr. trump. we never said that. and it was totally -- they totally misrepresented those very wonderful women. i have to tell you. totally misrepresented. i said, give us a retraction. they never gave us a retraction, and, frankly, i then went on to

other things. okay. go ahead. >> mr. president, you said today that you have biggest margins since reagan, and, in fact, president obama got 365 -- [ inaudible ] why should america -- [ inaudible ] why should america trust you when you accuse the -- [ inaudible ] >> actually, i've seen that information. it was a substantial difference, do you agree with that? >> you're the president. >> okay. [ inaudible ] >> can you tell us, can you determine that general flynn

never wronged you? what evidence -- did you ask -- [ inaudible ] you said you'd aggressively pursue -- >> we are. >> review of the intelligence community -- what can you tell us? >> first of all, about that. we now have dan coates, hopefully soon, mike, and james comey, who are in position, so i hope that we'll be able to straighten that out without using anybody else. the gentleman you mentioned is a very talented man, a very successful man, and he's offered his services, and it's something we may take advantage of, but i don't think we'll need that at all because of the fact that, you know, i think that we're beginning to be able to

straighten it out easily on its own. as far as the general's concerned, when i first heard about it, i said, huh, that doesn't sound wrong. my counsel came, white house counsel, and he told me, and i asked him, and he can speak very well for himself. he said he doesn't think anything is wrong. you know, really didn't think -- really what happened after that, but he didn't think anything was done wrong. i didn't either. i waited a period of time and thought about it, well, i don't see, to me, he was doing the job. the information was provided by, who i don't know, sally yates, and i was a little surprised because i said, doesn't sound like he did anything wrong there, but he did something wrong respect to the vice president, and i thought it was not acceptable as far as the actual making the call. in fact, i've watched various

programs, and i read various articles where he was just doing his job. that was very normal. you know, first everybody got excited because they thought he did something wrong. after they thought about it, it turned out he was just doing his job. so, and i do -- and, by the way, with all of that being said, i do think he's a fine man. yes, john? [ inaudible [ inaudible ] >> very, very serious, going to the folks and judges of the various agencies, and we're -- i've actually called the justice department to look into the leaks. those are criminal leaks. they put out by people either in agencies you'll see it stopping because we have our people in. again, we don't have our people in because they are not approved by the senate. jeff sessions was just approved as an example. we are looking into that very

seriously. it's a criminal act. you know what i say, when i was called out on mexico, i was shocked. all this incredible phone equipment. i was called out on mexico, i was, honestly, i was really, really surprised. i said, you know, it doesn't make sense. that won't happen. that wasn't that important a call. hfs fi it was fine. we could show it to the world, the president, a fine man, by the way, same thing with australia. i said, that's terrible it was leaked, but it was not that important. i said, what happens when i'm dealing with the problem of north korea? what happens when i'm dealing with the problems in the middle east? are you folks going to be reporting all of that very, very confidential information? very important, very, you know, i mean, at the highest level, are you going to be reporting about that too? so i don't want classified information getting out to the public. in a way, that was almost a test, so i'm dealing with

mexico, i'm dealing with argentina. we dealt with this case on mike flynn, all the information is put into the "washington post" and put into the "new york times," and i'm saying, what's going to happen when i deal with the middle east? what's happening when i'm dealing with really, really important subjects like north korea? we got to stop it. that's why it's a criminal penalty. yes? john? >> thank you, mr. president. i want to get you to clarify, because it's a very important point, can you say definitively that nobody on your campaign had any contacts with the russians during the campaign, and on the leaks, is it fake news or are these real leaks? >> well, the leaks are real. you're the one that wrote about them and reported them. the leaks are real. you know what they said. you saw it. the leaks are absolutely real. the news is fake because so much of the news is fake. one thing i felt important to do, and i hope we can correct

it, nobody i have more respect for -- well, maybe a little bit, than reporters, than good reporters. it's very important. to me. especially in this position. it's very important. i don't mind bad stories. i can handle a bad story better than anybody as long as it's true. over the course of time, we make mistakes, and i'm okay with that. it's not okay when it is fake. i watch cnn, and it's so much anger, hatred, and just the hatred, i don't watch it anymore because it's good -- you're saying no, it's okay, jim, you'll have a chance. i watch others too. you're not the only one, don't feel badly. i think it should be straight. it would be more interesting. i know how everybody's ratings are now, but i think it would actually be better. people, you have a lower

approval rating than congress -- i heard lower than congress. is that right? but, honestly, the public would appreciate it. i don't mind stories when it's true, but we have an ad min trags where the democrats are making it very difficult. i think we're setting a record or close to a record in the time of i prove in the cabinet. numbers are crazy. some approved immediately. i still have a lot of people we're waiting for. they are delaying. you look the the mess over there. they have nothing going. the only thing they can do is delay. you know, i think they would be better served by, you know, approving and making sure that they are happy and everybody's good. sometimes, president obama lost three or four, and you lose them on the way, and that's okay. that's fine. i think it would be much better

served, john, if they just went through the process quickly. this is pure delay tactics. they say it. everybody understands it. yeah, go ahead, jim. >> you can definitively say -- >> i had nothing to do with with it. i have nothing to do with russia. i have no deals there. wikileaks, if they come out and happens to give -- they are not giving classified information. they are giving stuff, what was said in an office about hillary cheating on the debates, which, by the way, nobody mentions. nobody mentions that hillary received the questions to the debates. can you imagine, seriously, can you imagine if i received the questions? it would be the electric chair, okay? he should be put in the electric chair and you'd call for the reconstitution of the death penalty, okay?

maybe not you, john. yes, you next. >> mr. president, i just want to clarify -- >> yes, yes -- >> an important point, i think. >> sure. >> did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador -- >> no, i didn't. >> prior to inauguration. >> no. >> would you have fired him if the -- >> i fired him because of what he said to mike pence. very simple. mike was doing his job. he was calling countries, his counterparts, so it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. i would have directed him to do it if he was not doing it. i did not direct him, but i would have directed him because that's his job. it came out that way, and, in all fairness, i watched dr. charles the other night say, he was doing his job. and i agreed with him. since then, i've watched many other people say that. you know, i didn't direct him, but i would have directed him if he did not do it, okay? jim? >> just for the record, we don't hate you. >> okay.

well -- >> pass that along. >> well, ask z -- >> if i can follow-up on questions taking place -- >> well, not too many -- >> i don't know which microphones to hold. >> you have other people and your ratings are not as good as others. >> they are okay right now, actually, mr. president. >> go ahead. >> you said earlier that w wikileaks revealed information about the hillary clinton campaign during the election cycle. you welcomed that at one campaign rally, you said you'd love wikileaks, and in a press conference, you called on the russians to find the missing 30,000 e-mails. i'm wondering, sir -- >> well, she was missing 33, and that was extended with -- >> maybe my numbers are off -- >> i said 30, but it was higher. >> i'm asking, sir, it sounds you don't have credibility here when it comes to leaking if that is something that you encouraged in the came pain. >> fair question. >> if i may ask you --

>> do you mind? >> yes, sir. >> in one case, you are talking about highly classified information. in the other case, you're talking about john podesta saying bad things. if he said that about me and working for me, i would have fired him so fast your head would have spun. he said terrible things about her. it was not classified information. in one case, you are talking about classified. regardless, if you look at the rnc, we had a very strong, at my suggestion, and i give reince great credit for this. at my suggestion, because i know something about this world, i said i want a very strong defensive mechanism. i don't want to be hacked. we did that. you have seen that they tried to hack us and failed. the dnc did not do that. if they did it, they could not have been hacked. they were hacked. terrible things came in. you know, the only thing i think is unfair is some of the things were so -- when i heard some of

those things, i picked up the papers next morning, oh, this will be front page, but it was not even in the papers. again, if i had that happen to me, it would be the big story in the history of publishing or newspapers. i would have been the headline in every newspaper. i mean, think of it. they gave her the questions to the debate, and she should have reported herself. why didn't hillary clinton announce that, i'm sorry, i have been given the questions to a debate or a town hall, and i feel that it's inappropriate, and i want to turn in cnn for not doing a good job. >> if i may follow up on that what was asked about. you said the leaks are real, but the news is fake. i don't understand. it seems there's a disconnect there. in the information coming from the leaks is real, then how can the stories be fake? >> the reporting is fake. >> i have to ask -- yes, sir? >> here's the thing.

the public is -- you know, they read newspapers, see television, they watch. they don't know if it's true or false. because they are not involved. i'm involved. i've been involved with the stuff all may life. i'm involved. i know when you are telling the truth or when you are not. i just see many, many untruthful things. what else i see? tone. i see tone. you know the word tone. the tone is such hatred. i'm really not a bad person, by the way. you know, but the tone is such -- i do the get good ratings, you have to admit that, the tone is such hatred. i watch this morning a couple of the networks, and i have to say, fox and friends in the morning, they are very honorable people -- not because they are good -- because they hit me when i do something wrong, but they have the most honest morning show. that's all i can say. it's the most honest, but the tone, jim, if you look, the hatr

hatred, the -- i mean, sometimes -- >> we don't hate you, sir. >> you watch your show that goes on at 10:00 in the evening. you take a look at the show. it's a constant hit. the panel is almost always exclusive anti-trump. good news is he doesn't have good ratings, but the panel is almost exclusive antitrump, and the hatred and vennom from his mouth. and hatred from other networks. i watch it. i see it. i'm amazed by it. i just think you'd be a lot better off. i hopst lhonestly do. the public gets it. you go to rallies, they want to throw their plaques at cnn. you know, i think you would do much better by being different. take a look. take a look at some of your shows in the mornings and evening. if a guest comes out and says something positive about me, it's brutal. now, they'll take this news

conference, i'm actually having a very good time, okay, but they'll take this news conference -- that's the way i won. i used to give you a news conference every time a made a speech, which was every day. that's how i won, with news conference and probably speeches. i did not win by people listening to you people. that's for sure. i'm having a good time. tomorrow, they will say, donald trump rapts and raves at the press. i'm not ranting and raving. i'm telling you you're dishonest people, but i'm not ranting and raving. i love this. i'm having a good time doing it, but tomorrow's headlines will be donald trump, rants and rants. i'm not ranting. go ahead -- >> a follow-up -- >> should i let him more -- sit down -- we'll -- >> just because of the attack of fake news and attacking our network, i just want to ask you, sir -- >> changing it from fake news, though. >> i know -- >> very fake news -- >> i know -- >> go ahead. go ahead. [ laughter ]

>> real news, mr. president -- >> you're not related to our new -- >> i am not, sir. [ laughter ] i do like the sound of secretary acosta -- >> i looked at the name, and said is there any relation -- >> i'm sure you checked it out. >> they said, no, sir, i said, check the family tree. >> aren't you concerned, sir, you are undermining the people's faith in the first amendment, freedom of the press, the press in the country when you call stories you don't like fake news? why not just say it's a story i don't like -- >> i do. >> you're undermining the confidence in the news media. >> you're right about that. i know when i should get good and when i should get bad. sometimes i say, wow, that's going to be a great story, and i get killed. i know what's good and bad, i'm a good reporter, but not as good as you. i know when's good. i know what's bad. when they change it, make it

bad, something that should be very positive, they'll make okay. they'll even make it negative. i understand it. so because i'm there. i know what was said. i know who is saying it. i'm there. it's very important to me. look, i want to see an honest press. when i started out today by saying it's so important to the public to get an honest press. the public doesn't believe you people anymore. maybe i have something to do with that, i don't know. they don't believe you. if you were straight and really told it like it is as howard used to say, right, of course, he had some questions also, but if you were straight, i would be your biggest booster. i would be your biggest fan in the world, incoming bad stories about me. if you go, as an example, you're cnn, i mean, it's story after story after story is bad. i won. i won. the other thing, chaos. zero chaos. we are running -- this is a fine

tuned machine. reince happens to be doing a good job, but half his job is putting out lies by the press. you know, i said to him yesterday, you know, this russia scam you are billing so that you don't talk about the real subject, which is illegal leaks, but i watched him yesterday working so hard to try to get the story proper. i'm saying, here's my chief of staff, a really good guy, did a phenomenal job at rnc, i may have won the election, right, won the presidency, but we got some senators, all over the country, take a look. he's done a great job. i said to myself, you know, i said to somebody there, look at reince working so hard putting out fires that are fake fires. they are fake. they are not true. isn't that a shame because he'd rather be working on health care. he'd rather be working on tax

reform, jim. i mean that. i would be your biggest fan in the world if you treated me right. i understand there's bias, by jeff, whatever reason, but i understand that. you've got to be at least a little bit fair. that's why the public sees it. they see it's not fair. you take a look at some of your shows issue and you see the bias and the hate, and the public is smart. they understand it. okay. yeah, go ahead. go ahead. [ inaudible ] >> i think they -- i don't think the public -- that's why the poll has me through the roof. i don't think they believe it. i guess one of the reasons i'm here today is to tell you the whole russia thing is a ruse. that's a ruse. by the way, it would be great if we could get along with russia,

you'll see donald trump is trying to get along with russia. this is terrible: it's not terrible. it's good. we had hillary clinton to do a reset. we had hillary clinton give russia 20% of the uranium in our country. you know what uranium is, right? a thing called nuclear weapons and other things like lots of things that are done with uranium incoming bad things. nobody talking about that. i don't do anything for russia. i've done nothing for russia. hillary clinton gave them 20% of the uranium. hillary clinton did a reset, remember, with the stupid plastic button making us look like a bunch of jerks. he looked at her, like, what the hell is she doing with that cheap plastic button? hillary clinton -- that was a reset. remember it said reset. now, if i do that, oh, i'm a bad guy, but if we could get along with russia, that's a positive thing. we have a very talented man, rex

tillerson, who will be meeting with them shortly. i told them, i said, i know politically it's probably not good for me. hey, the greatest thing i could do is shoot that ship that's 30 miles offshore in the water. everyone in the country says, oh, it's so great. that's not great. that's not great. i would love to be able to get along with russia. now, you had a lot of presidents that have not taken that tact. look where we are now. look where we are now. so if i can -- now, i love to negotiate things. i do it really well. all that stuff. but it's possible i won't be able to get along with putin. maybe it is. i just want to tell you, the false reporting by the media, by you people, the false, horrible fake reporting makes it much harder to make a deal with russia. and probably putin said, you know, he's sitting behind his desk saying, you know, i see what's going on in the united

states, they follow it closely. it's going to be impossible for president trump to ever get along with russia because of all the pressure he's got with this fake story. okay? that's a shame. because if we could get along with russia, and, by the way, china and japan and everyone, if we could get along, it's a positive thing, not a negative thing. >> tax reform will happen fairly quickly. doing obamacare, we should be submitting the initial plan in march, early march. i would say. and we have to, as you know, statutorily and for republicaas budget. we have to go first. frankly, the tax would be eas r easier, in my opinion, but for statutory reasons and budgetary reasons, we have to submit health care sooner, so we'll submit health care sometime in mid-march, and after that, we'll come up, and we're doing very well on tax reform, yes. >> mr. president, you mentioned

russia. talk about serious issues in the last week that you had to deal with as president of the united states. >> okay. >> you mentioned the spy vessel off the coast of the united states. >> not good. >> a ballistic test -- >> not good. >> a violation of the two countries and a russian plane buzzed a u.s. destroyer. >> not good. >> i listen to you -- >> excuse me, when did it happen? it happened when, if you were putin, right now, you would say, hey, we're back to the old games with the united states. there's no way trump can ever do a deal with us because the public -- you have to understand, if i was just brutal on russia right now, just brutal, people would say, oh, you'd say, that's wonderful, but i know you well enough, then you would say, oh, he was too tough, she shouldn't have done that. look, i'm -- >> trying to find out your orientation, what you'll do about it, mr. president. >> all the things you mentioned are recent because probably putin assumed he cannot make a deal with me because it's politically not popular for me to make a deal, so hillary clinton tries to reset.

it failed. they all tried. i'm different than those people, go ahead. >> how do you interpret the moves and what do you intend to do with them? rex tillerson, advice or counsel how to deal? >> i have. i'm so beautifully remitted and honored the senate approved him. he'll be fanfantastic, yes. >> is putin testing you, do you believe, sir? >>, no i don't think so. i think putin assumes he can't make a deal with me anymore because politically it's unpopular for a politician to make a deal. i called myself a politician, i can't believe that, but that's what i am now. now, i don't know that we're going to make a deal. i don't know. we might. we might not. it would be much easier for me to be so tough, the tougher i am on russia, the better, but you know, i want to do the right thing for the american people, and to be honest, secondarily, i want to do the right thing for the world. if russia and the united states actually got together and got

along, and don't forget, we're a very powerful nuclear country, and so are there. there's no upside. we're very powerful nuclear countries. so are they. i've been briefed. i can tell you one thing about a briefing, that we're allowed to say because anybody that ever read the most basic book can say it, nuke nuclear holocaust would be like no other. they are a powerful nuclear country, so are we. if we have a strong relationship with russia, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. >> when they say are not good -- >> who did i say -- they not good. >> do they damage the relationship -- >> no -- >> this country's ability to work with russia. >> they all happened recently, i understand what they are doing because they are doing the same thing. now, again, maybe i'm not going to be able to do a deal, but, at least, i will have tried, and if i don't, does anybody really think that hillary clinton would be tougher on russia than donald trump?

does anybody in this room really believe that? okay. i'll tell you one thing, she tried to make a deal. she had the reset. she gave all that valuable uranium away. she did other things. they say i'm close to russia. hillary clinton gave away 20% of the uranium in the united states. she's close to russia. you know what i gave to russia? you know what i gave? nothing. >> conclude there's no response to the particular provocations? >> i'm not going to tell you anything about what response i do. i don't talk about military response. i don't say i'm going in mosul in four months, we're going to attack mosul in one month. next week, we are going to attack mosul. they are difficult. why? i don't talk about military, and i don't talk about certain other things. you're going to be surprised to hear that. by the way, my whole campaign, i'd say that. >> right. >> i don't have to tell you -- >> there's not a response? >> yes, here's what we're going to do. i don't have to do that. >> there will be a response --

>> i'm not going to tell you what i'll do in north korea. i don't have to tell you what i'm going to do in north korea. i don't have to tell you what i'm going to do with iran. you know why? because they shouldn't know. eventually, you guys are going to get tired of asking that question. when you asked me, what am i going to do with this ship? the russian ship as an example, i'm not going to tell you. hopefully i won't have to do anything, but i'm not going to tell you. okay. >> thanks. >> where are you from? >> bbc. >> another beauty. >> it's a good light. free and fair. >> just like cnn. >> on the travel ban, we can banter back and forth, but on the travel ban, do you accept that was a good example of the smooth running of government? >> yeah, i do. i do. >> any mistakes in that?

>> wait, wait, i know who you are, just wait. let me tell you about the travel ban. we had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban. we had a bad court. we had a bad decision. we had a court overturned, again, maybe wrong, but i think it's 80% of the time, a lot. we had a bad decision. we're going to keep going with the decision and put in a new executive order next week sometime. we had a bad decision. that's the only thing that was wrong with the travel ban. you had delta with a massive problem with their computer system at the airports. you had some people that were put out there brought by very nice busses and put out at various locations, despite that, the only problem we had was a bad court. we had a court that gave us what i consider to be with great respect, a very bad decision. very bad for the safety and security of our country. the rollout was perfect. now, what i wanted to do was do the exact same executive order say one thing, and i said this

to my people. give them a one-month period of time, but general kelly, now secretary kelly, said, if you do that, all these people will come in, the bad ones. you agree there's bad people out there, right? not everybody that's like you. you have bad people out there. kelly said, you can't do that, and as soon as he said it, wow, never thought it of. what about one week, no good. do it immediately. if you do it immediately, they don't have time to come in. now, nobody reports that. that's why we did it quickly. if i did it a month, everything would have been perfect. problem is we would have wasted a lot of time, and maybe a lot of lives because a lot of bad people would have come in the country. now, in the meantime, we're vettivet ing very, very strongly. very, very strongly. we need help by getting that. >> a follow-up, why not enter

introduce -- >> a yes or no answer with a question involving russia, can you say whether you're aware anyone advising your campaign had contact with russia in the course of the election. >> general flynn was dealing, but he was dealing, as he should have been -- >> during the election? >> no, nobody that i know of. >> you're not aware of any contacts in the course of the election? >> how many times do i have to answer -- >> say yes or no. >> russia is a ruse. i have nothing to do with russia. vice president made a phone call in years. don't speak to people from russia, not that i wouldn't, but i just have nobody to speak to. spoke to putin twice, called me on the election. i told you this. he called me on the inauguration a few days ago. we had a very good talk. especially the second one, lasted for a long period of time. you get it. it was classified. everybody in this room perhaps has it, but we had a very, very

good talk. i have nothing to do with russia. to the best of my knowledge, no person that i deal with, does. they denied it. denied it, now, people knew that he was a consultant over in that part of the world, but not for russia, representing ukraine or people having to do with ukraine or people that, whoever, everybody knew that. >> in his capacity as your campaign manager, was he in touch with russian officials during the election? >> you know what, he said no. i can only tell you that. he was replaced long before the election. you know that, right? he was replaced long before the election. when all of this stuff started coming a, it came out in the election, but paul, a good man, also, by the way, paul was replaced long before the election took place. he was only there for a short period of time. >> how much longer should we stay here, folks? five more minutes, is that okay?

five? wait, i want to find a friendly reporter. are you a friendly reporter? >> i'm friendly. >> watch how friendly, he is. go ahead. >> so, first of all, i'm jake, and -- [ inaudible ] however, what we're concerned about and not heard you address, is -- how the government is planning to take care of it. reports out that 48 bomb threats have been made all across the country in the last couple weeks. people who are committing acts or threatening to receive -- >> he's going to ask a simple easy question.

it's not. it's not. it's not a fair question. sit down. i understand the rest of your question. so he's the story, folks. number one, i'm the least antisemitic person you've seen in your entire life. number two, racism, the least racist person. in fact, we can very well relative to other people running as a republican -- >>. [ inaudible ] >> quiet, quiet, he lied about getting up asking a straight, simple question, so, you know, welcome to the world of the media. let me just tell you something, that i hate the charge. i find it repulsive. i hate even the question because people that know me, and you heard the prime minister. you heard benjamin netanyahu yesterday. did you hear him? he said, i've known donald trump for a long time. then he said, forget it. so you should take that instead of having to get up and ask a

very insulting question. >> go ahead. >> thank you, i'm lisa -- >> shows you about the press, but that's the way the press is. >> thank you, mr. president. lisa from the bbs news hour. >> good. >> on national security and immigration, can you give us details on the executive order planned for next week, even broad outlines? focused on specific countries, and in addition, on the program for immigration, what is your plan? do you plan to continue that program or to end it? >> we're going to show great heart. it's a very difficult summbject for me. the most difficult. you have incredible kids, in many cases, not all cases. in some of the cases, they are gang members and drug dealers, too. you have some absolutely incredible kids. i would say mostly. they were brought here in such a way -- it's a very, very tough subject. we are going to deal with this with heart. i have to deal with a lot of

politicians, don't forget, and i have to convince them what i'm saying is right. i appreciate your understanding on that, but the situation is a very, very -- it's a very difficult thing for me because, you know, i love these kids. i love kids. i have kids. grand kids. i find it very, very hard doing what the law says exactly to do, and the law's rough. the existing law is rough. it's very, very rough. as far as the new order, the new order is going to be very much tailored to the, what i consider to be a very bad decision, but we can tailer the order to that decision and get just about everything, in some ways more, but we're tailoring it now to the decision. we have some of the best lawyers in the country working on it, and the new executive order is being tailored to the decision we got down from the court.

okay? >> reopening of the white house visitors office. >> yes. >> she does a lot of great work for the country as well. can you tell us about what melania trump does for the country and various levels in the administration, so by opening the white house visitor's office -- >> now, that's what i call a nice question. that is very nice. who are you with? >>. [ inaudible ] >> good, i'm going to start watching. thank you very much. melania is terrific. she was here last night. we had skinner with senator rubio and his wife, who, by the way, is lovely, and we had discussions on cuba. we have similar views on cuba. cuba was good to me in the florida election, the cuban-american, and she just opened up the visiting center,

touring of the white house. she, like others that she's working with, feel very, very strongly about women's issues. womens difficulties, very, very strongly. she's a very, very strong advocate. i think she's a great representative for this country, and funny thing happens. she gets so unfairly -- the things they say, i've known her for a long time. she was a very successful person, a very successful model. she did really well. she would go home at night and didn't even want to go out with people. she was a very private person. she was always the highest quality that you'll ever find, and the things they say -- i've known her for a long time -- the things they say are so unfair. actually, she's been apologized to, as you know, by various media, because they said things, but she'll be a fantastic first lady. she's going to be a tremendous representative of women and of

the people, and helping her and working her will be ivanka who is a fabulous person and a fabulous, fabulous woman. they are not doing this for money. they are not doing this for pay. they do it because they feel it, beau both of them, and melania goes back and forth, and after our son finishes school, hard to take a child out of school with a few months left, they'll move to the white house. thank you, that was a very nice question. go ahead. >> mr. president -- >> yes. this is a bad question, but that's okay. >> it's not. >> okay, good, i enjoy watching you on television. >> well, thank you so much. mr. president, i need to find out from you, you said something, as it relates to inner cities, that was one of your platforms during your campaign. >> fixing the inner cities. >> yep, what's that fix and urban agenda as well as your hbcu executive order coming out this afternoon?

see, that was not bad, was it? >> that was very professional and very good. >> i'm very professional, yes. >> i'll let the order speak for itself, but it's something that i think will be very good for everybody concerned, but we'll talk to you about after the announcement. as far as the inner cities, as you know, i was very strong on the inner cities during the campaign. i think it's probably what got me a much higher percentage of the african-american vote than people thought i would get. we did much higher than people thought i would get, and i was honored by that, including the hispanic vote, which was much higher, and, by the way, if i might add, including the women's vote, which was higher than people thought i would get. so we are going to be working hard on the inner cities, working with education, having to do with crime. we're going to try to fix -- it's taken a hundred years or more for some of the places to evolve, and they evolved, many of them, very badly, but we'll

work hard on health, on health care, very, very hard on education, and, also, we're going to work in a stringent good way on crime. go to the inner city places, and it's so sad when you look at the crime. you have people -- i've seen this, and i've sort of witnessed it, and, in fact, in two cases, i have witnessed it -- they lock themselves into apartments, petrified to leave in the middle of the day. they are living in hell. we can't let that happen. we'll be strong. it's a great question. it's a very -- it's a very difficult situation. it's been many, many years. it's been festering for many, many years. we have places in this country that we have to fix. we have to help african-american people that for the most part stuck there, hispanic-american people in the inner cities who are living in hell. look at the numbers in chicago.

there's two chicagos, as you know. there's one chicago that's incredible, luxury, safe. there's another chicago that's worse than almost any of the places in the middle east that we talk about and that you talk about every night on the newscasts. we're going to do a lot of work in the inner cities. i have great people lined up to work in the inner cities. >> when you say inner cities, do you include the cbc, mr. president, in the conversations with your urban agenda, inner city agenda, as well as including the congressional black caucus and -- >> well, i would. you want to set up the meeting? do you want to set up the meeting? >> no, no. >> are they friends -- >> i know some of them -- >> set up the meeting. i would love to meet with the black caucus. i think it's great, the congressional black caucus, it's great. i actually thought i had a meeting with congressman cummings, and he was all excited, and then he said, oh, i

can't move. it might be bad for me politically. i can't have that meeting. i was set for the meeting. we called him and called him. he was set. i spoke to him on the phone, a nice guy. >> i hear he wanted that meeting with you as well. >> he did. we called and called, they can't make a meeting with him. every day, i walk in, i said, i would like to meet with him, because i want to solve the problem. he probably was told by schumer or somebody like that, some other lightweight, he was probably told -- he was probably told, don't meet with donald trump. it's bad politics. that's part of the problem in this country. okay. one more. >> it's not about your personality -- but we're talking about a rise around questering supporters in your name. what -- >> some of it -- can i be honest

with you? racism, horrible things, some of it written by our opponents. you do know that? you understand that? you don't think anybody would do a thing like that. some of the signs you'll see are not put up by the people that love or like donald trump. they are put up by the other side. you think it's, like, playing it straight. no. you have some of those signs and anger that is caused by the other side. they'll do signs and drawings that are inappropriate. it won't be my people. it's the people on the other side to anger people like you. okay. go ahead. >> what are you going to do about this? >> who is that? >> who are you going to do about the tensions that have been -- >> oh, i'm working on it. >> discussed, are you going to give a speech? >> we had a divided for eight years and long before that in

all fairness to president obama, long before president obama. we have had a very divided -- i didn't come along and divide this country. this country was seriously divided before i got here. we're going to work on it very hard. one of the questions that was asked, i thought it was a very good question, about the inner cities, that's part of it. but we're going to work on education. we're going to work on -- stop -- try to stop the crime. we have great law enforcement officials. we're going to try to stop crime. we're not going to try to stop it, we're going to stop crime, but it's very important to me, but this is not donald trump that divided a nation. we went eight years with president obama, and we went many years before president obama. we lived in a divided nation, and i'm going to try -- i will do everything within my power to fix that. i want to thank everybody very much. it was a great honor to be with you, thank you, thank you very much. thanks. >> that was president trump

wrapping up a very long, very wide ranging news conference there, guys. it was a lot of headlines, very contentious at points. most of the questions directed to the president towards russia, but commented on record highs of the stock market, surge in business optimism, upgrading military equipment and speeding up infrastructure projects, some of the more eye-opening comments, about thousands of jobs flowing out of america, economy in rough shape. welcome to "power lunch," michelle, no details about a tax plan. >> not a single reporter asked about the border adjustment tax. very frustrating on my part. they were clearly far more focused on the issue of russia. do you think we got some clarity where he said, nobody that i know of at one point, when asked about whether or not anybody in the campaign had spoken with somebody from russia, but what's striking me was the tone of it. this was the donald trump on the

campaign trail. we saw him like this before he became president, but now to see him in this situation, again, incredibly confrontational, loving to diss reporters finding the questions uncomfortable or unfair in his opinion. it was remarkable to watch. >> it was. president trump redefined a lot of things over the course of his brief political career, and, today, he redefined the art and nature of the presidential press conference, in my view. number two, i thought it was very interesting that he took pains to address his administration as a well-oil machine, and, today, i think the administration decided that it was time to put in front of the public the administration's single best communicator, and that is president donald j. trump, whatever you think of him, the people who favor him would see everything he said there today as vintage trump, as you pointed out.

the combative guy, the guy who takes no you know what from anybody and willing to give as well as he takes in front of the press. third thought, i invite president trump to watch cnbc all day. tape it, sir. watch it in the evening. you will see coverage of a rising stock market, of the economy, of substantive issues in a way that we think is devoid of some of the unfairness that you perceive in our media. >> from a stock market perspecti perspective, a tax plan last week, he had that press conference or event at the white house where he said there's going to be a phenomenal tax plan in a couple weeks. today, indicating it's going to follow a repeal and replace for budgetary reasons, that has to take place first, health care, and then shotly in march, and after that, atax plan would come. >> on the border adjustment tax, someone who is familiar with the

meeting of the retailers yesterday, and he would make no promises to not lay his hand out as to what he believes, even though i'm told the border adjustment tax dominated. >> i spoke to someone last night about infrastructure, and there's growing frustration that there's, a, no real infrastructure bill, and that quoting to the person i spoke with, the draft of the house tax bill does not include provisions for infrastructure, particularly on the public-private partnership side. we heard from others in the writings, et cetera, that's not something they favor. either way, to follow-up with excellent comments, whatever you think about the president, whatever you think about the man, the president, he stands there and takes it. he does not need to give an hour long press conference or take questions, but he does. for that, you almost have to say thank you because there's a lot of presidents over the past 50, 60 year s -- >> he had a lot to get off his

chest today, and he did. he began with a recitation of all of the things that have taken place, and it's certainly been agree or disagree, a busy, busy month for the new administration, and before -- lest we become too critical of some of the things not going his way, lots administrations have shake downs and problems with the courts and executive appointments and so on and so forth, so he had a lot to say today and get a lot off his chest. >> two pieces of news, the executive order that was controversial, they are rewriting it in a way to comply with the decision to get past the courts. that's important. two, i thought it important to listen to him talk about his internal indecision about what to do with the dream act, the children who were brought here as illegal immigrants and raised here. he understands that that's a very, very tough issue. >> yeah. not a lot of questions off the issue of russia, but those were some of them. let's go now to the white house.

you've got your work cut out for you, my friend, because we talked in the press conference, and, you know, we were joking, i look at tyler and melissa, michelle, i'm not at a lack of words, but i had no concept how to wrap up that press conference. >> unconventional press conference is the way that you can put it today here from the president at the white house, but a couple other pieces of news for you. he did say that he plans on rolling out his obamacare proposal in early to mid-march, but at the same time, he acknowledged that the chief of staff here, reince has difficulty focusing on the issues because he spends time dealing with this issue of russian intelligence and whether or not the trump team had any contact with the russian intelligence folks during the course of the presidential campaign. he said, that reince would rather be working on health care and tax reform, but he's had to spend his day dealing with those things, and that goes to the question of whether this white house can make sure it keeps itself from becoming mired down

in some of the daily issues. it was a remarkably sour tone from the president of the united states at the beginning of the press conference. he said, the country was a mess, at home, abroad, isis is spreading like cancer. the country is becoming drug infe infested, but he seemed to sort of warm up as the hour went on, and as he got into the interplay with the media, who he began by denouncing and continued ed throughout the course of the press conference rs but , but e that give and take and sparring. it gave him something to play from. fascinating conference here to digest for some time. >> interesting as we watched offline, really, amazing performance, that he loves the joust. >> yes. >> he loves conflict. let's just specify here. most presidents want to be liked. they want to be loved. mr. trump doesn't care about being liked as he he does about

other things, just about getting things done. he's willing to offend. he's willing to put it out there. he's willing to go go where other presidents won't because it's too controversial, whatever you think of him, i'm not carrying his water here, but i am saying, this is a guy who welcomes the conflict and confrontation with the press, with political adversaries, the number of times he disparaged senator schumer, a man who, by the way, raised money for, back in 2008 when she whe was runnin the senate. an amazing performance we witnessed in the east room of the white house today. thanks. >> reporter: you bet. all right, let's bring in jimmy at the american enterprise institute, jimmy, you've been watching. you hear the conversation. what would you like to add? >> i think that the big news is that trump investment research said they changed the market call. no longer in a big fat ugly bubble. this is a fundamental market,

stock market rising because they are excited about trump. i think that's a bit of news. the other bit -- >> being snide, i assume, jimmy. >> what must paul ryan be thinking right now? he needs -- listen, they need leadership on health care and tax reform. and that's the press conference e he got. he's going to need trump to push this up through the senate. >> can i push back against that, jimmy? >> had a press conference talking about nuclear holocaust. >> because he's asked about russia over and over and over and over and over again and one question about tax reform that was vague at best. i mean, part of that is because the questions that he's asked were almost solely on one topic. >> right. well, part of the reason he's getting those questions asked is because there's something to ask questions about. >> there's a lot of other things to ask about. >> congressional republicans would just like a pause. they would like a pause from the chaos in the white house so they

can begin to focus their time and get through the two key pieces of legislation, which right now, are not making tremendous progress, and they need leadership and some guidance, or at least a break from the white house. >> they write the laws, jimmy, congress writes the laws. they can be, and i know for a fact they are working on some things. >> right. >> are they not? so, i mean, things -- the american public should take comfort in the fact that things are being done behind the scenes. you got the president. you got that around this. you got press conferences. there's 535 men and women on the hill who are, we hope, working towards actually creating some tax rules, infrastructure plans, health care fixes, et cetera. >> listen. this is not going to be a situation where congress cooks this up, you know, put it through the house and senate and trump signs it. the white house -- listen, the white house needs to make its feelings known on exactly what they want from the bill, how they envision obamacare. if you're not going to get that from the white house, this is going to be bogged down. >> are you convinced that's not

happening behind p the scenes? >> listen. i think there's not a consensus, obviously, on health care, and, certainly with the border adjustment, there's not a consensus on what that tax reform should look like. if that border bit falls through, that's a trillion dollar hole to fill. they need a white house that's focused on passing this agenda, and those questions are legitimate because they are -- they are questions about things actually happening in the white house that they need answers for. the white house should give good answers and focus on the agenda. >> jimmy, one quick question. how is the tax cut a tax cut if on the one hand you reduce rates for individuals and corporations, but on the other hand, you replace lost revenue with a fresh tax on border adjustment? >> well, technically, neutral, it's a tax cut on some things and overall you call that tax reform rather than a tax cut. >> all right. >> jimmy, leaving it there. thank you. coming up, president taking credit for an optimistic business climate and rising stock market and said democrats

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all right. the first thing that occurred at the white house press conference was the that president announced that alexander acosta is labor secretary, one day after andrew dropped out, and he took credit for an optimistic business climate and record high stock market. do you have an hour or two to kill, congressman? we got a lot to get through there. as you sit and watched the press conference -- >> writing "saturday night live" scripts right now. >> listen, you know, a lot of that stuff's gone on, but we have to take away substance from it. most was on russia. was there anything in there that was new to you as a congressperson that wants to write laws? did you hear anything that was eye-opening? >> not really. i didn't listen to the whole thing. i was in briefings and meetings and working today, so i didn't hear too much of it other than when i was hear listening. it -- i'm honestly, like, it's

so incoherent sometimes, it's hard to follow what he's saying, you know, i don't think we need the chaos, the conflict and fighting you mentioned earlier, you know, people in ohio and around the country want him to get to work. this is what they hired him to do, create think abostability, , provide security. everything he touched turns to chaos. we have to stop. >> but he would say, and did, that he's done nothing but get to work in his last month. everything from -- whether you agree or not -- from tpp to the regulatory cut two for every one starting progress, on the wall to the crackdown on sanctuary cities, the keystone and daekot pipelines, all of that, he says he's busy, and the reason he didn't get as much done as he'd like is democrats on the senate side is not approving his cabinet. what do you say to that?

>> democrats cannot stop the appoinment appoinments. those not going through or when pence comes down is because republicans are leaving his nominees, not because of what democrats are are doing. they have a role to provide opposition and consent on his nominees. they are doing that. they are providing opposition, but the republicans control the senate, and if so, he's not getting the nominee through, blame mitch mcconnell, not chuck schumer. we have to get in the legislative process. he's been talking about a trillion dollar infrastructure package for a long time. here we are, a month in, and he says everything's in shambles, why aren't you bringing us the biggest piece of legislation to get people back to work. weav we're waiting. >> your cause is starting as the chief u.s. manufacturing office, proposing legislation with others out there. curious, how would you grade president trump on efforts to keep manufacturing jobs in the united states? one hand, there's chaos in the white house, and, yet, those are the tangible things that he

would point to, probably, towards what he accomplished so far. >> i supported what he did with the tppment i thi. we have to renegotiate that. there's a better way to go about it. we need a new trade model that does not completely wipe out communities like mine in youngstown or akron or cleveland, ohio or other cities around the country. i support what he did with sitting back down and looking at another way to do the transpacific partnership. i'm okay with that. for the most part, he's not getting into the main things that we need to deal with. you look at just stories you guys covered over the last few days, you know, amazon go, you go into a grocery store and not check out. everything is logged in -- >> i'm confused, the president should be talking about that? >> there's a broader point in a second, so that -- that's coming online. 2.7 million people work in those

gre grocery stores. you hear about uber and ford investing in driverless cars and trucks. the top job in 25 states is truck driving. we need a president to focus on what the hell we're going to do when we lose truck drivers and people who work at grocery stores and all this automation that's coming into the economy -- >> sir -- >> we need him to stay focused on issues, and he's not. >> sir, republicans argue, chairman brady and house speaker paul ryan, say their plan for corporate tax reform would, in fact, incentivize manufacturing here in the united states. do you support the border adjustment tax provision? >> i have to see exactly what it looks like. there's a lot of winners and losers in a border tax proposal. i want to sit down and hear and listen to the groups that are growing to be affected by ittings and them make a judgment based oven what i think is in the best interest of the country and best interest of manufacturing here in the united states. look, i've been here a long time

in congress. i was here when george bush passed two rounds of tax cuts, and that was to lead to a lot of growth, and we had a stagnant decade that led to a collapse in the economy in the housing market. i'm not convinced a fly side economic approach is in the best interest of the country. >> they are not convinced either. maybe you don't agree with this. >> i don't know that it's going anywhere to be honest with you. it's been talked about, but there's not the steam to get it through. who knows. i don't know how to figure out the republican conference yet. >> got it. sir, thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> congressman ryan. all right, next, back to the markets. thank goodness. this record breaking rally. once again, there goes the dow higher. all three major averages posting double digit gains since election day. could a new wave of tech ipos keep the rally going?

there could soon be fewer farms in america than any time since the pioneers move west. the farmers that are still working the land are making less money today. we'll get the real story of an american farmer live on "power lunch." ♪ ♪ only at&t ofrs you all your live channs and dvr on your devices. da-free. entertnment. youwa only froat&t.

i inherited a mess. it's a mess. at home and abroad. a mess. jobs are pouring out of the country. you see what's going on with all of the companies leaving our country. going to mexico. other places. low pay. low wages. mass instability overseas, no matter where you look. the middle east, a disaster. north korea, we'll take care of it, folks. we're going to take care of it all. >> that was president trump during his news conference a short while ago echoing themes we heard on the campaign trail, and he's still saying them as president when it comes to what his vision for the country should be. >> that one caught our ear only because we've added 15 to 16 million jobs in five to ten years. i know manufacturing jobs

obviously left the country over 20 years, but i'm not sure what jobs are currently pouring out of the country. >> he often does not speak with precision, but we no from data points that people who have college degrees have great level of employment in this -- >> 2.5% unemployment rate. >> exactly. if you don't have a high school degree, level of unemployment is higher. perhaps that's what he talked bowe, yep. >> when he said, i inherit the a mess, you know who i thought about? barack obama. it's a classic way that -- >> yes. it's very annoying. >> it's what presidents do, though. >> well, presidents -- republican or democrat, they need to stop, you know what i mean? it's -- i get it. there's messes. >> yeah. >> we had the ceo of amtrak yesterday, and i went after him hard, but we made the note -- he really inherited a mess, but you're now in charge. what are you going to do? >> play the cards dealt. >> like ceos. when a ceo comes in, they do a clean, and that's what happens.

that's what we're witnesses now with the presidency. right now, less thanth 0 minutes from closing bell. stocks are lower. notched a new intra-day record before turning negative here. oil trading meantime, that just closed, closed up slightly for the day. let's go to bob on the floor of the new york stock exchange. >> good afternoon. look at the s&p 500, and amazing thing, the president spoke with the press for an hour did not move the markets. that does not happen often. probably because he didn't say anything about -- anything substantive about taxes or infrastructure or border adjustment tax. frustrating hour for those of us who care about those things. we want more information, didn't get it. look at the dow movers here. a little bit of the big movers, not doing anything. taking profits. the banks are not doing anything today. home depot had a huge move. it was 137 a week ago, look, and now it's sort of taking profits. chevron and exxon, major problems here, new lows on the year.

down close 10% on the year. look at the xop, the oil exploration and production etf, acts like oil will be $50 for the rest of the year or less. confusing day with crude oil. inventories up, but opec might extend. the market's not believing this stuff about oil going higher. elsewhere, the transports, the story here, huge move in the transports recently. rider, southwest, fedex, they had big moves up. today, just no news. just taking profits. avis had news, disappointing earnings. look at the s&p. last time, there's a 1% move either way. december 7th, believe it or not, straight up, bottom line here, a lot of anxiety, folks, but not real shifts in the market sentiment. at least, not so far. back to you. >> thanks, bob. you heard president trump say he inhearted a mess. the jobs were pouring out of the country. do business people think of

this? craig underwood, a fourth generation farmer, one of the largest farmland owners in ventura county, california p. thank you so much for joining us. >> glad to be here. >> how does the economy look from your perspective? >> the farm economy is having some real problems right now. all commodities are -- i shouldn't say all commodities, there's areas of strength, but in general, the farm commodities are suffering. >> why is that? >> combination of things. probably over production is a big one, but, you know, there's a lot of competition from all over the world. we grow a lot of fresh vegetables, and we have competition from mexico. >> it occurs to me there's two policies that we talk a lot about on cnbc that would have direct impact on your business. immigration. tell me about the labor that you use. what would happen if labor restrictions were or immigration restrictions became much, much

harder, and, also, what if the house republicans were successful in a border adjustment tax where they would tax imports but not exports? >> well, number one, immigration, we're in ventura county. we have a lot of very high labor crops here, and we're looking at huge increases in the cost of labor, and that's with the current situation. if it becomes even more scarce, it's hard to do business here. california is dependent on migrant labor. anything that impacts our ability to export impacts us because all the crops we grow, we export a good portion of them. lemons are exported to china, korea, japan. we grow cannery tomatoes exported all over the world. we're dependent on exports. >> i'm sure the strong dollar,

weak peso affected your business in a direct way. i want to get back to the labor question, though. how worried are you about being able to get the labor that you need to pick the crops that you grow, and how vulnerable would your specific business be, and this is a disguised question to the idea there's a crackdown on undocumented workers? that's another way of asking, is that a big part of your labor force? >> it is a big part of our labor force. there's not been a legal way for immigrants to come into the country since the '80s, so you have to think a good portion of the labor force is undocumented, so any kind of a crackdown is going to make labor more scarce. >> do americans not want the jobs you can offer them? >> no. even in the -- even in the dark days of the recession over the last few years, we have not had one application from somebody

with u.s. citizenry. >> not one? not one? >> basically the people who -- >> not one. basically, the people who come up here have grown up in a rural environment. they've grown up on the farms, and they have the skills to work on the farms. u.s. raised citizens do not. they don't -- when they think about jobs, they do not think about working on the farm. >> how much do you pay an hour to the workers? >> the starting wage is $10.50 and if they work on contract basis, it can go up to $15-$20 an hour. >> and i just want to be clear, in california, that is above the minimum wage, correct? >> it has been, yeah. we generally pay above the minimum wage. there's a scarcity of labor -- >> >> go ahead. >> there's a scarcity of labor, so people migrate to the farms that pay more and offer better

conditions. >> how do you think your business has been affected unfairly by other countries' trade policies? we hear a baht lookout that. has that affect your business? in other words, do you feel at a disadvantage in terms of exporting your crops to other countries, whether it's mexico, whether it's to asia or elsewhere? >> we're at a disadvantage because our labor standards are different. we have to meet all kinds of food safety requirements, labor laws here that are not enforced in other countries, plus, their wages are generally lower. the weakness of the peso and strength of the dollar, of course, makes the wages here much higher in comparison to mexico. >> so it's really a price and cost problem more than it is a trade barrier for tariff or subsidy problem? >> it is, in my view, yes. >> if there were a crackdown on

imb gra imgrants, sir, how much more would it cost in yourest pag es burgos -- >> we are price takers, not price makers, so if our costs went up and we change the pricing of the product, we might have some ability to adjust, but we don't. >> you just eat it basically? you eat it, basically? >> we either diss the crop or sell at a loss. that's happening now. >> quickly, sir, we were out there last year talking about the drought, at a reservoir. i'm from the area originally. you have enough water? you went from drought to inundati inundation. where do you stand with getting water you need? >> northern california's in that situation. we're not in that situation in ventura county, although the storm coming in tomorrow may change that, but right now, our reservoirs are still quite low. one of our major lakes is at

25%, and others at 14%. others at 39%. we need some serious rains to fill the lakes up, but it's helping, we have an irrigated since before christmas. >> craig underwood, thank you. technology the best performing sector so far this year. can the run continue? that's straight ahead. you're watching "power lunch" with michelle caruso-cabrera, brian sullivan, tyler, and melissa lee on cnbc, first in business worldwide.

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let's get back to the stock market, shall we? the technology sector rising 9% this year, leading the market. will it continue? asking the trading nation team. gina, nice to talk about stocks. do you think technology's going to continue to roll or roll over? >> look, i think it's interesting what's happening right now. if you look at the xlk, brian, there's a big dispersion in terms of how different stocks are performing, so, if you look

at apple, microsoft, take six stocks, they are upwards over 12% year to date return. if you look at the rest of the xlk, it is literally around 5%, so i think when you think about how much this can go further, i could say you canfurther, i could say you could make a strong argument that they're over valued but there are a lot of interesting under valued stocks that are caught up in the xlk. this is a stock picker's market. i'm not making a comment whether or not the technology boom can continue. i am a little bit suspect because the leaders are over valued. >> fair enough. do you have the contention that it's top heavy, apple, microsoft, and everybody else? >> it's definitely top heavy. two minds of tech, sec cue larlly i'm a huge bull. tech is eating the world. it's so over bought that i think there's going to be some mean reversion. i think the market is going to

come back in and tech is going to follow. it's going to be a short-term sell. >> short-term sell. boris, gina, thank you very much. for more trading nation you can go to our website. where did the two hours go? president trump's plan to get more companies to make products in america getting a very important backer, and we've got the details after this. s thfood sysm.

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general motors likewise committed to invest billions of dollars in its american manufacturing operation keeping many jobs here that were going to leave, and if i didn't get elected, believe me, they would have left. and these jobs and these things that i'm announcing would never have come here. >> president trump during his news conference talking about keeping jobs in america. now one of the biggest unions in the country making a big push for made in america. phil lebeau in chicago. phil? >> reporter: tyler, today the president of the uaw in detroit had a press conference where he was talking about the number of issues, including the possibility of the big three bringing some of these plants that are in mexico or in canada

or elsewhere back to the united states, and he said, look, maybe we have to do a campaign of buy american. it brings up the question, how much of what's sold in show rooms is actually built in america at assembly plants in america. it's just 57%. there you see how many come from canada, mexico, japan, europe as well. the uaw says this campaign, if they launch one, would essentially be buy american and people would go into show rooms and they would know these were american automobiles being shown. if it's not built in the u.s., you really shouldn't buy it. that in theory sounds like people may pay attention to it. only one area where we think it really would have an impact, and that might be with pickup trucks. american truck buyers are incredibly brand loyal to specific brands. having said that, there are many gm models, pickup trucks, and many ram pickup trucks that are built in mexico and when you ask those owners, did you know it was built in mexico, a lot of them say, no, but i love the

silverado or i love the ram. they're loyal to the truck, to the brand, not necessarily to where it's built. as you take a look at shares of the big three, and what they've done since the trump election, consider this, guys, i have interviewed people right before the election in rural indiana, huge trump sign on the side of a barn. in their gravel driveway a lexus suv. i said to them, you want jobs coming back to the u.s., why do you have a lexus suv it's made better. that summarizes the problem with saying to people you have to buy what's built in the u.s. >> sure thing. >> phil, thanks very much. check please is next. ju lthe maris did. oneoint, i change to a dntompa with c insurce, oneoint, i change to a dntompa ans noppth thecustomvice. wee switched and weeelili wee ba home to a dntompa i that i pass taa seffortless,e wembership to myldn,y.

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bwhen y havthrightype juncl advisor,ife n be illiant. eripri check, please. >> and we're coming off, of course, another press conference be by the president of the united states. within it as far as investors are concerned, better timing in terms of when to expect a tax plan. just last week he said we will get a phenomenal plan. now it sounds like it's more along the time frame of mid march or later. but for all of that the markets are still hanging close to record highs. we did notch fresh record highs across the board for three major indid i sees. we're pretty much at those levels. >> amid tongues of calls in the wake of the meeting with the retailers to try to figure out did he indicate in any way how he feels about the border adjustment tax. all i am told is he said, you're going to love my tax plan is what he told the retailer? >> the president announced today

he's going to have one of the great cabinets ever assembled in american history. i wish him all the luck. that included thomas jefferson, alexander hamilton and henry knots jefferson versus tillerson, him ton versus mnuchin. >> thanks for watching power lun. . >> "closing bell" starts right now. hi. welcome to the closing bell. i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. >> i'm mike santoli. we've seen the last hour, the market slightly backing off record highs after president trump wraps up a news conference that covered a lot of grounds. jobs, obamacare, russia and the media. we'll bring you the highlights and what they mean for trump's agenda coming up. pressures over key tax provisions in the health