president trump: thank you very much, everybody. we have a lot of good news to report. tremendous trade deals are being made. we are negotiating very hard, very long, but very quickly. the deal with south korea is very close to being finished. we will have a deal with a wonderful ally. it was causing problems with our country in terms of employment and lots of other things. i might ask secretary ross to just say a few words about that, and then we are going to get on to this ridiculous situation

that took place over the last week. so, secretary ross? secretary ross: thank you, mr. president. we believe we are relatively close to a pretty comprehensive resolution with the south korean government. will encompass, if it goes through, both the 232's and broader trade issues. we hope by sometime later next week to have a real announcement. trump: thank you very much, wilbur. time we negotiated something like this -- and as you know, it has always been a problem for our country. they get together and create a series of documents that nobody has been able to read because it was just done. you tell me who can read that

quickly. for the last eight years, deep defense cuts have undermined our national security. what is taken out, they have hallowed our readiness as a military unit and put america at really great risk . my highest duty is to keep america safe. nothing more important. the omnibus bill reverses this dangerous defense, as crazy as it has been, as difficult as it has been, as much opposition to the military as we have had from the democrats, and it has been tremendous. explain to them the military is for republicans and democrats and everybody else. for everybody. we have tremendous opposition to creating what will be the strongest military that we have ever had.

we have had that from the democrats. if we take something from the -- if we take something for the military, they want something that, in many ways, are a wasted sum of money. it is bad for our country. we are looking for funding in our final fight in certain areas. we have gotten just about 100% of our land back from isis. we have troop increases necessary to accomplish what we have to do. we have a pay increase for our troops. this will be the largest pay increase for our incredible people in over a decade. it increases total defense spending by more than $60 billion from last year. it funds the addition of critically needed ships, helicopters, planes, tanks, and submarines. we have submarines being built unlike anywhere in the world.

our military equipment is the best in the world, and one thing you saw in saudi arabia and other countries, saudi arabia is buying hundreds of billions of and we are getting very fast approvals on that. i have signed this omnibus legit bill. there are a lot of things i am unhappy about in this bill. there are a lot of things we should not have had in this bill, but we were in a sense forced if we want to build our military, we were forced to have. there were some things we had to have endowed bill. i am not going to sign a bill like this again. i will not do it again. nobody read it. it is only hours old. $1.3 trillion, the second-largest ever.

president obama signed one which was larger, which i am sure he was not too happy with either. but in this case it became so because we need to take care of our military and because the democrats, who do not believe in that, added things that they wanted in order to get their vote. we have to get rid of the filibuster rule. we have to get rid of the filibuster rule and go to 51 votes in the senate if we are going to have really sustained, continued success. have beenients treated extremely badly by the democrats. we wanted to include daca. we wanted to have them in this cell. -- this bill. 800,000 people, and it could be more. in we wanted to include daca this bill.

the democrats would not do it. they would not do it. situation the omnibus from ever happening again, i am calling on congress to give me a all i can veto for government spending bills, and the senate must in -- they must end the filibuster rule and get down to work. we have to get a lot of great legislation approved, and without the filibuster rule, it will happen just like magic. i want to address the situation on border security, which i call national defense, i call it stopping drugs from pouring across our border, and i call it illegal immigration. it is all of those things. national defense is in important two words, because by having a strong order system, including a wall, we are in a position

militarily that is very advantageous. and before i get off of that subject, i would like to ask secretary mattis to talk about what we have accomplished in terms of the military, because there has never been anything like we have been able to do. our military is very depleted, but it is rapidly getting better, and in a short time, it will be stronger than it has ever been. i would like to ask secretary mattis to say a few words. ttis: in 1790 in washington's first address to congress, he stated, to be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving the peace. the president noted today we received the largest military budget in history, reversing many years of decline and

unpredictable funding. and together we are going to make our military stronger than ever. we in the military are humbled and grateful to the american people for their sacrifices on behalf of this funding. it is our response ability in the military to spend -- our responsibility in a military to spend every dollar wisely to keep the trust of the american people and the congress. thank you. president trump: thank you very much. thank you very much, general. the border we have worked very hard on. , really by anyf standard, a lot, but not by this standard, but we are going to make it go a long oway. we have funded the initial down payment. we're going to be working on monday on not only some new

walls -- not enough -- that we are working on it very quickly, but also fixing existing walls and acceptable fences. there are some areas you have to be able to see through to see what is coming. and in many cases, it is not a pretty picture when you look, but you have to be able to see it. we have $1.6 billion for the wall that will start immediately. this is a short-term funding, but it is immediate, it starts immediately, and i would like to ask secretary nielsen to say a few words about what we have done in terms of homeland security and what the bill does for homeland security. thank you. secretary nielsen: good afternoon. work homeland security closely with defense and we support this omnibus in the defense of our country.

leadership, the president has delivered for the american people. this is a down payment on a wall system. as a 10% increase in enforcement. us improveelp aviation security with badly needed upgrades, and we look forward to working with congress on additional needs we have. i will say it is unfortunate that congress chose not to listen to the men and women at dhs and those on the front lines. they told us how, where, to build the wall, and we will continue to work with them to make sure the wall is where we do this come and make sure it serves the american people and serves the security of this nation. we will continue to work with congress to close loopholes that the president has mentioned and to continue to increase our overall security. we thank those encompass who support dhs. i will make myself available to them. i look forward to working with them, but we must find the department give it the totals it

needs to execute the mission the american people have asked us to do. thank you. president trump: thank you very much, secretary. many elements in the bill that we wanted. just look at a few of them, $654.6 billion in total discretionary funding for defense, a record, all records for defense. there will be nobody that says our military is going to be depleted like they have been saying over the last long period of time, long period of time, frankly beyond president obama. that will not be happening. we are spending a lot money on nuclear, nuclear systems, to

upgrade and in some cases brand-new, whether it is submarines, nuclear submarines, and other. so we will have by far the most powerful nuclear force on earth, and it will be absolutely in perfect shape and condition, and hopefully, praise be to god we do not ever have to use it, but there will be nobody that is even close. this will give a substantial increase to people even outside of the military, but military related. wee of the many things that are buying in the military, we billion to procure navy ships. our navy as at about the lowest point in terms of ships that it has 10 in over a hundred years. significantdding a

number of extremely advanced vessels. 90 f-35llion for aircraft. that is the most sophisticated aircraft in the world, jet fighters. they are hard to find, they are hard to seek an therefore, they are hard to beat. it is very tough to beat a plane when you do not see it. this is the most advanced in the world. 10.2 billion dollars for 90 f-35's. we have money for tanker aircraft. tanker aircraft is very important based on everything. it allows our planes to travel anywhere in the world.without landing -- in the world without landing.

super hornet fighter craft. pa, then dollars for 10 poseidons, incredible stuff. hawk helicopters so the most advanced helicopter in the world by far, fighting machine. $1.1 billion for the upgrade of 85 abrams tanks. for the crawford of programs we are working with for missilethers defense systems. we are spending a lot of money on missile defense. there is a lot of offense that has been installed. we are spending money on missile defense. you understand what that means? everybody does. missile defense is very, very important. our border patrol

agents and our ice agents. they are working long hours under tremendously dangerous conditions. we are adding large numbers of immigration judges, high-quality judges. not only are we adding them in the district court level and the federal level of board of appeals, but we are adding immigration judges at a very high level. so while we are very $1.3pointed in the trillion -- nobody more disappointed than me because the number is so large -- it will start coming down -- he had no choice but to fund our military, because we have to have by far the strongest military in the world. and this will be by far the strongest military that we have

ever had. so when you look at all these pages can a lot of that is devoted -- a lot -- to the military. i just want to thank members of congress for working so hard. while we can be disappointed in some ways, we have to also know that there are a lot of strings pulling everybody in different directions. the republican senators, the andblican congressmen women have been steadfast on their fight for the border and for their fight on the military. billionlso spending $6 on, as you know, various forms control, helping people that are addicted. -- terribleoral

problem, but this will also be a record. drugll be suing certain companies for what they have done with the opioids, and we will be bringing the suits at a federal level. the level of drugs put out there and the parent of this and diction is hard to believe. people go to the hospital for a week and they come out, they are drunk at a. it has to be a better way. doctors are waiting down now on their orders, way down. it is a great thing. they're looking in our research funds, we're looking for a medicine that can stop the pain without the addiction so that people are not going to become addicted to these incredible drugs. as part of what we had. $6 billion for this problem that we as a

country and the world is having with drugs. we are extremely proud of what we have been able to do when it comes to our military. our military will be far superior than to any military anywhere in the world. it is very important for us. you see the players out there, what we are dealing with. where very happy with what has happened with opioids. we are very happy with what has happened with certain elements of the border. 1.6 millionth billion,rom -- $1.6 and we won't make it go very far. i can tell you this, and i say recipients, republicans are with you, they want to take your situation care of. the democrats fought us every

inch of the way. they did not want daca in this bill. is also tieddaca to the wall for the major funding, the $25 billion, and other things. i think that will be coming up very soon. but i do want the hispanic dacunity to know and recipients to knowa that republicans are much more on your side than the democrats, who are using you for their own purposes. with that being said, i want to thank everybody for being here. where very proud of many of the items we have been able to get. we are disappointed that in order to fund the military we had to give up things will be considered in many cases them to be bad for them to be a waste of but that is the way, unfortunately, right now the system works. but we have a great country.

they're going to have the greatest military we have ever had. and lots of good things are happening. will bee situation we talking about next week. we had many trade deals, not only the deal being made on south korea, which looks like it is close to being finalized, and many other countries are now negotiating fair trade deals with us. so we will be rolling them out as you see them. and part of the reason we are able to do that is a fact that we have the tariffs on steel and becauseffs on aluminum, it showed how unfair some of these trade deals -- that happve been in existence for many years -- have been. it will be great for our country and great for other countries, and it will be fair, and it will be reciprocal.

>> mr. president, why the veto threat? president trump: you will hear about that in about 20 minutes. out.e going to figure that i looked very seriously at the veto. i was thinking about doing the veto, but because of the that we haveins been able to make for the military, that overrode any of our thinking. >> and how about the impact on the terrace on the stock market? president trump: i think the stock market is going to be good. the stock market is way up. when i came into office, the stock market was from a different planet. the market is way up. china was treating us very unfairly. we are great relationships with china. look, it is time, it is time. last year we lost $500 billion on trade with china. cannot let that happen. thank you all, very much.

>> [indiscernible] if you missed any of these comments, we will air them tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. other program tonight on oraln2, a supreme court argument in the case of national institute of family and life becerra. vs. on c-span3, boris johnson foreigns the u.k.'s policy. saturday, live coverage of the march for our lives rally in washington. activists joined politicians to rally against gun violence in recent mass shootings. live coverage at noon eastern on c-span. in about 20 minutes, richard

blumenthal discusses gun violence prevention head of tomorrow's march for our lives rally in washington. he will join panelists at this by reuters. live at 6:00 p.m. eastern. until then, a portion of today's "washington journal." joining us from chicago this morning is keith fargo. he is the alzheimer's science ands outreach director, here with a new report on the disease. let's begin with the numbers. americans are living with alzheimer's in 2018. that is projected to go to 14 million by 2050. will costn 2018 -- it the nation $277 million -- billion. that could rise to $1.1 trillion. explain