white house to discuss border security, the shutdown and other priorities were his administration. reporters asked about the u.s. troop withdrawal from syria and the president's reaction to a critical op-ed written by republican senator elect mitt romney. this is just over an hour and a half.

>> thank you very much. inc. you all for being here -- thank you all for being here and joining the first cabinet meeting of 2019. i think it's going to be a very good year. some people think it will be controversial and tough and it probably will. i think we can work with the democrats and get quite a bit done. we're looking at infrastructure. many things that can happen that both sides want. we just did a very big and highly touted criminal justice reform bill and that is a bipartisan thing. we finished off the year with that. a tremendous year in terms of achievement, whether it is regulation cuts or tax cuts or anything else you can name. judges including two supreme court judges and many federal bench judges. we've had quite a time and we

will have six more years of great success. i think this coming year will be tremendous. every day come aboard patrol 2000 illegalughly immigrants. trying to enter our country. 2000 day and that is a minimum. every week, 300 americans are killed by ca -- killed by heroin. it just pours through our southern border. unless we have physical barriers it's never going to be able to be stopped. last month 20,000 miners were illegally smuggled -- 20,000 minors were illegally smuggled into the united states. we have a very tough border. you see that even last night

where people charged the border but they could not get through because we have a wall up. teargas was flying and a lot of things were happening. for the most part you have seen it. it is very sad. if they knew they had a physical barrier. if they knew they had something that's going to stop them they would have never come up in the first place. they get sick on the trail of. .t is a horrible journey you read the things that go on in those caravans. if they knew they could not get through they would not even start. another one is forming and on doris. -- another one is forming in honduras. for caravansason to be forming. they should not allow it to happen. the united states needs a physical barrier. needs a wall to stop illegal immigration.

.ou have human traffickers a thing that is horrible. they kidnap people and steal people. because of the internet one of the bad things that happens with the internet, one of the many bad things but because of the internet it is the highest it has ever been in history and this is a world problem. the southern border is a very place for people who do human trafficking. there is a reason why politicians and wealthy people build walls around their houses and compounds. president obama recently built a wall around his compound. . don't blame him we are in a shutdown because democrats refuse to fund border security. they try and make it like it's just about the wall.

and it is about the wall. i said to a number of people the wheel, the wall, some things never get old. it's never going to change. the wall is your number 1.0 security. --we had a wall and we will for those that don't know, we've done tremendous amounts of renovation of existing walls and fences and brought them back into brand-new condition. we spent a lot of money doing it properly so we have a lot of brand-new fencing. they tried to come through a wall area. if it did not exist you would have had hundreds of people flowing into our country. some of these are criminals. some of these will split up families by killing people and hurting people badly. if we did not have a form of barrier of you would have had -- all of those people would have been able to come through.

we are in the shutdown because of the fact that the democrats are looking to 2020. they think they are not going to win the election. . hope they are not they view this as an election point for them. i actually think it's bad politics. i'm thinking about what's right and what's wrong. we need a physical barrier. everything else is bells and whistles. i know about every form of safety that you can have. but it's justood very minor compared to the power of a wall. all of the people you see coming up, if they knew we had an actual physical presence, even when you have the soldiers who have been fantastic. but when you have the military, border patrol, ice, it is great to have that you have 2000

miles, anywhere from 500 to 600 .iles where you need barriers some of it we have completed as you have seen and as i've told you. we need very or because you can't put a soldier every 100 yards. are going to go right through. unless you're willing to build a wall. if you look at israel, i was with prime minister netanyahu in he said i don't understand why they fight you on the wall. in israel, they built the wall. 99.9% it works, he said. it would work almost 100% of the time and we would have much less of a problem. we save money, so much money, on a monthly basis, probably would pay for itself in a month or two. we lose close to $250 billion on illegal immigration.

i would say it could be on a monthly or couple of months it would pay for the wall, for what we are talking about. billion. approved $5.6 that is a small price to the drugs alone, that nobody can even calculate, it is such a big number. the number saved just on drugs and helping families. all of this horrible stuff doesn't come through on the southern border, right there, you would save a lot. the new pelosi bill, the big eight plus me are meeting in a little while at about 3:00. we have i.c.e., and we have border patrol. they are going to make a plea for the wall. they need the wall. they can't do it without the wall. all they can do is add many more

men and women, but protection is not good because you go to a certain area without the wall and they will walk right through. like the killing that took place a few days ago. the young police officer -- great, young, beautiful person. great family. just took a picture with his son and his wife on christmas. a few hours later, he was shot and killed by somebody that came across the border. things like that would not happen. it would be happening far less. the democrats and the bill want $12 billion additional for foreign aid. it is $54.4 billion, which is by itself, a lot. but in foreign aid, they want $12 billion over the $54.4 billion. think of it. we get $54 billion, a lot of it because they want to give it, they do not even know who they are giving it to. in many cases, people do not

even know the name of the country and they know nothing about the country. so there are going to get $54.4 billion in foreign aid, but they want $12 billion more than that in foreign aid but won't approve $5.6 billion for a wall that is going to pay for itself? almost in a monthly basis? it is just politics, folks. it is purely politics. so, we have a lot of loopholes. whether it is catch and release or the world's most ridiculous local, you catch somebody and then you release them. the problem is we have to build vast fields of rooms and places for the people to say that we are catching. we are catching and retaining.

you have a lottery system, where we bring people into our country based on the lottery. you pick them out of a jar. we want to end all this nonsense, the lottery system. you want people to come into the country on the basis of talent and merit. numbers ofge companies, many, many companies, more than we have seen in many years. the companies that left our country are coming back, because of what is going on. you see our job numbers are great. we need people to come in. but, we can't have these loopholes. one thing i have to say with daca, we are all for it, but has -- the republicans are for doing something with daca, but it has been so misreported. we had the confines of a deal. the 25 billion didn't discover a -- it did not just cover a wall,

it covered a lot of border security. has been covered very incorrectly. it is confusing for a lot of people. we were close to having a daca deal, then we had a judge ruled from the seventh circuit. and he said daca was ok. , he essentially said, probably can't find this and it is not legal, but i am going to sign it anyway. everybody thought it was going to be easily overturned by the judge, and the judge amazingly signing, favor of that even though president obama did not think it would hold up. he said it, go back and check. then, you had the ninth circuit court of appeals. and now, it is going to the supreme court of the united states. we had a deal pretty close to being done. a lot of people say i backed away from that deal, i didn't back away. the minute the judge overruled the case and they allowed daca,

they didn't talk to us about -- and i don't blame him, they didn't answer the calls. they said they won the case. why should we make a deal with daca? i think it will be overturned in the supreme court. i think it is going to be overwhelmingly overturned. nobody thinks that should have happened. we think it was a fluke. it was a disgraceful situation way theudge ruled the judge ruled. but we think it is going to be overturned. it is now going, as you probably heard two weeks ago, it will be in the supreme court. if we went that case, and i say this for altar here, we will be easily able to make a deal on daca and the wall as a combination. but until we win that case, they do not want to talk about daca. although they should, because there are those who don't want to allow daca. i have been think that we should

do something about daca. mike agrees, other people agree, some don't. if we get overridden, everybody that has been here has to leave the country. there are a lot of things going on. we are very proud of what we have done with respect to the wall and the renovations that we have done. >> it has covered a lot of territory. a tremendous amount of miles. that continues to go on. but we need the wall for the security of our country. people want to see it. . it is about border security and i think in the end, we are going to be successful. we are doing so much work right now, you see it going up. it is going up all over. given. the money we were i want to thank the military because the military has been fantastic. we have been working with the acting secretary of defense, he has been such a pleasure to work with.

we worked really hard over the last, actually, four or five weeks, and so much has been done. not only in terms of protection but in terms of helping us with respect to areas that we need barriers.physical the military has been really good, the army corps of engineers has been fantastic. with that, i will ask pat to say a few words. and then i will ask matt and kiersten to say a couple of words. maybe i will start with pat shanahan. mr. shanahan: we have been very closely coupled with kiersten and the border patrol. maybe just three points to share with all of you. first is, we have been very withy closely coupled kiersten, customs and border patrol. i was speaking with general shaughnessy. he sends his best. the team is executing operational training every day. the collaboration has been

seamless. kiersten, as you know, she is here to our right, the national guard has been in support. out, mannyut padilla, has done a great job. we have just had exceptional interaction. the second thing, and you highlighted it, restoration of fences, building out additional mileage of the wall, the army corps of engineer is dialed in and doing this cost effectively, quickly, and with the right amount of urgency. the threat is real. the risks are real. we need to control our borders, and maybe the third use i would

share with you is that we are doing additional planning to strengthen the support that we are providing to kiersten and her team. trump: welcome i have to say, the people have been fantastic and they have done a great job. we want to complete it, because you can't have a partial wall. people come to the areas that built. the areas that are built, you cannot get through. unless you are a world-class paul volcker on the olympic team. you have done a fantastic job. a world-class paul --pole v on the olympic team. aulter you have done a fantastic job. i just got back from iraq. we had a fantastic meeting with the generals. i am the only person in the history of our country that could really decimate isis. say we are bringing the troops by come over a.

-- over a period of time. i never said so quickly. but everybody gives me credit for decimating isis. we do that and we say we will bring the troops by come. i have been campaigning on that for a long time. before i won, a big part of my campaign, i want to bring the troops back from the endless wars. 19 years we have been at war. i will bring them home from syria. i am the only one can do that. and they say, he is bringing them home! and let me tell you, when it took over syria, they were , supposed to be there for 3-4 months. and they ended up being there for five years. so that is a little bit different than you thought. they have been there for a long time. we are continuing to fight. we never let anybody down. there was a lot of misinterpretation. but i think you will see a the end, let us work it out we are .

troops back home. we are doing things that i cannot talk about. they are very exciting. a lot of great people understood it. lindsey graham understood it. some others understood it. but what we are doing is the right thing to do, and in many respects, it is very exciting, because i like winning. when i took over syria, syria was a mess. it was riddled with isis. now, everybody says it is down to 1% of the land. sometimes you could even say less. 1%. the place was a mess. it was terrible. but we also have to have other countries fighting isis. you know, we are helping by doing this. iran --ay, russia and we are helping them. everything we do over there helps russia and iran. they don't want to see us leave because we are knocking out isis. let them fight isis too. i want to spend money and our country.

-- i wanted to spend money on our country. we have had tremendous success in syria. we are slowly bringing people back. we are hitting the hell out of them, the isis people. and we are doing something that, frankly, if i would have told you two years ago when we first came into office that we would've had the kind of success , they would have said you were exaggerating, it is not possible. but we are down to final blows. those generals were fantastic. when we met with the generals in iraq, they were pretty fantastic. they really know their business. so we have a lot of exciting things to talk about militarily. it is a great letter. -- i just got a great letter from kim jong-un. those few people i just showed the letter to, they have never written letters like that. this letter is a great letter. we have made a lot of progress with north korea. been -- wem, has

have established a great relationship. i never said speed. it has been this way for 80 plus years. we had our meeting six months ago in singapore. we will probably now have another meeting. he would like to meet. i would like to meet. but we have established a very good relationship and we are given no credit for it. this administration didn't take place, if another administration came in in place of this administration, mainly mica myself and the group around this table, you would be at war right now. you would have yourself a nice take, fat war in asia. it would not be pleasant. instead of that, we are getting along fine. there is no need to rush. there is no rockets. no testing. last night i watched pbs. i was in the white house all by myself.

46, 7 days, it was very lonely. [laughter] my family was down in florida to react i said, stay there and enjoy yourself, but i felt i should be here just in case people wanted to come and negotiate the border security. but i have to say, i was watching pbs and they really covered it accurately. they said that in chairman kim's speech, he really wants to get together. he wants to denuclearize. and a lot of good things are happening. they covered it very, very nicely. i was surprised, based on everything of heard about them. i have to start watching pbs much more. i actually put a quote out last night about what they said. but that was very accurate. they really do want to do something. does that mean it will be done? who knows. deals are deals. you never know. but i tell you, we have established a very good relationship with north korea. be a war,going to there could have been a world war iii, to be honest with you.

a lot of people would've had to get involved with that, all over asia, and it spread beyond asia. instead, we have someone who on tok, once to get economic development and making a lot of success and money, frankly, for his country. north korea has tremendous potential. we will help them out, too. they have tremendous economic potential. i look forward to our meeting with chairman kim. we will be setting it up in the not-too-distant future. with that, i will ask secretary nielsen, we will get back onto the border to say a few words. secretary nielsen: good afternoon, mr. president. i was in san diego reviewing our border security and immigration efforts. can you all hear me? ok. sir, weou described

have a security crisis. we are doing our best out here. i always want to thank the men and women of the border patrol. and customs and border protection. but the system itself is simply overwhelmed. my 17th trip to the border in the last year and i can tell you that unfortunately, the crisis is getting worse. our immigration system is vastly broken. let me start by saying, now more than ever, we need the wall. today, and going to talk specifically about how bad things have gotten, but to fix it, we need what our frontline operators are demanding, which is a barrier that will keep illegal aliens, drugs, terrace, , and other threats from entering our country. it is not a political issue. it is an operational one. we have seen the success of walls in el paso, yuma, san diego under your leadership, we and others. under your leadership, we are building the first new wall in over a decade. but we need more. we need more sections of walls

at our top illegal entry points, something that congress unfortunately prohibited us from doing last year. we also need to continue to replace the old, outdated, and ineffective wall sections that you referenced. with a to replace them walls that have been identified for operational purposes by the professional men and women of cbp. as you know, the southern border remains a critical entry point cocaine and methamphetamine into the united and incidents are spiking. we have also seen, unfortunately, an increase in fentanyl coming across the border, which kills 72,000 thousands of americans every year. the southern border is also the primary entry point for criminals and gang members.

last year we apprehended more than 17,000 criminals and a thousand gang members. we are also concerned about potential terror as well. we apprehended 3000 special interest aliens coming into our country along the southern border an -- in 2018 alone. we need a strong border wall system to keep these threats and others out of the u.s. i strongly suggest your continued effort. let me give you a little bit more about the site test. -- about the crisis. we also need to address poorly written and outdated laws. simply put, our laws allow illegal aliens into the country and allow them to stay. this must change. on average as you said, we see tryt 2000 people a day to illegally and are our country at the southern border. we will never be able to send the majority of them back home

unless and until congress asked to close the loopholes these people are exploiting to stay in the country. down, there are three categories of illegal aliens arriving at our borders models, family units and unaccompanied children. in the past, single adults have been the majority of your legal aliens. there are still the easiest for , and we have dramatically stepped up prosecutions of these illegal border crossings, and we will continue to do so. but the demographics are changing, and the vast majority of even goes we see now our family units and unaccompanied children. they now make up two thirds of people arriving at our borders. because of our poorly written laws and activist court decisions, it is virtually impossible to send them home. we are only allowed, as you know, to hold families for 21 days, that is it, then we have

to let them go under the law. most of them then disappear into the united states. worse, in nine out of 10 cases, immigration has found that these families are not even eligible for asylum in the first case and should be deported. but by then, most of them have vanished and escaped the law. traffickers know our immigration laws much better than many members of congress and their using it as a way to get illegal aliens into america. the result is an explosion in the number of families arriving at our borders and a spike in the number of fake families showing up. they know that if they pretend they are together, they are likely to get in for good. the third category is unaccompanied children. because of outdated laws, we can't send kids back to their to beountries, they have transferred to the department of health and human services, which places them with sponsors or relatives in america.

the result is that we see more and more of them every day. parents are making the unconscionable decision to send children on long, dangerous, and deadly journeys to our country. we are busting at the seams. hhs is at capacity. under the law, cbp must transfer these kids to hhs. these loopholes serve as a giant magnet which are now resulting in a humanitarian catastrophe. our system was simply not built to handle the influx of families and children. the human toll is real and shocking. women are being trafficked and raped. in fact, one out of three women report they are sexually assaulted on the journey to our borders. kids are getting abused, they are getting sick. very sick. many of them are being recycled and used by the smugglers to get more people into the united states, and nearly 70% of illegal aliens report the victims of violence along the journey.

70% of those traveling north to our country. our hearts break for families who have lost children and those who are affected by this violence. canre doing everything we to ensure rapid medical care when it needed, but the men and women of cbp and ice are doing the best they can with what they have, but they don't have the resources or legal authority to keep up with us crisis. only congress can give them that . the bottom line, as you know and have repeatedly stated, we need congress to fund and build the wall. give us the resources to deal with this crisis, terminate the flow of agreement and grant dhs the authority to detain and remove illegal aliens t together, and modify the laws so that an accompany children can be returned home to their families. right now, border patrol and i.c.e. agents are doing with so much overflow, that we are having to pull them off national

security cases, counter drug demand we in more cannot afford to do this any longer. thanking these by whole administration, the department of defense, department of justice, hhs, cbp and others. we are all working together to address the security and humanitarian crisis. mr. president, you have brought the rule of law back to our border. the men and women of dhs could not be prouder to be given the opportunity to do the job that congress and the american people expect. but we need congress to act. we cannot continue to do more to secure and attempt our country with our hands tied behind our backs. thank you for your leadership and your continued focus as you work with congress to try to adjust this. >> thank you, very much. it is a really fantastic presentation, and i appreciate it. and you have been working very hard. you have been down there, every time i have called you, you have

been at a different location around the border. if we had a wall or barrier that was not penetrable, you wouldn't have people making that journey. i think we can say that, kiersten, if we had the wall, people wouldn't even bother making the journey, because of the journey is tremendously dangerous. horribly dangerous children are getting sick. , they are getting accosted. you heard what the secretary said about all the crime and rape and everything else that takes place during that horrible journey. if they thought they couldn't get in, they wouldn't be making journey. again, we want people coming into our country, we need people coming in, but they have to do it through the system. they have to do it legally. and we want people coming in who can help our country. where it can be based on merit and achievement. the people that will help the companies that are coming into many.untry, which are so

so i want to thank you, secretary, it was a great presentation. thank you so much. . we appreciated. attorney general met whitaker, please. >> mr. president, i will start by stating the fact that you stayed in washington dc over the holiday evening of christmas and new year's with your family trying to bring an end to this shutdown and security to our southern border while some members of congress went on vacation and ignored the problem. you have demonstrated your dedication to delivering on this critical issue for our country and the american people, but congress has to act. they have to fund the wall. it is undeniable that a border wall improves the security of our southern border. a wall would reduce the flow of drugs, gangs like the violent ms-13, and criminals across our border. like you highlighted, the brave officer who was a legal immigrant, who was murdered by an illegal immigrant, in california.

it would reduce the incentive for individuals trying to enter illegally and restore integrity to our immigration system. also, as secretary nielsen pointed out, we need congress to close the loopholes in our immigration laws. not only do they frustrate dhs, 's ability to enforce our , including laws judicial rulings that prevent detaining family units together, but these loopholes overwhelmingly contribute to a substantial number of meritless cases languishing in our immigration courts. during the shutdown and afterwards, the doj will continue to do everything in our power to support dhs and its critical mission and address the legality of the border. -- addresseasy gal illegality at the border. illegality will not go unchecked. we will continue to prosecute

aliens for crimes like illegal entry and reentry, which are at a record level for prosecution in your administration. we will never let up. we will continue to target transnational organized crime and criminal gangs like ms 13. the immigration courts are working. we have over 400 immigration judges and we are hiring more. we are restoring the height -- -- we are restoring the rule of law to our immigration court system. to dol continue everything we can, and we are seeing tremendous progress, but the number of cases originating from the border are overwhelming the system. continue to defend our actions, your administration's actions, in federal court as well. this administration has taken strong action to restore legality to our immigration system, but activists continue to try to frustrate us in the federal courts. we will prevail. finally, and i cannot stress is more, we need congress to act. to show up. to negotiate with you.

and to solve the challenges that our country faces. the department of justice will work every day to support this administration, but we need congress to do something instead of just going on vacation and avoiding the issue. we need congress to fund the wall, fund the government, and close the loopholes in our laws. if congress wants to have catch and release of the border and more drugs, gangs, and crime to come into our country, it can continue to refuse to provide the funds that we need to build the wall. and it can continue to refuse to close the loopholes in our immigration laws, that is the choice, sir. >> that is great, matt. thank you very much. you mentioned the courts. i know you are hiring judges, but we are one of the only countries, -- everybody knows that -- where if you step one foot into our country, you now have a court case. other countries, you step a

foot, and they say, get out. they put you out. or worse. with our country, if you are able to put a foot on to our land, basically, that is what catch and release is, and even beyond about. lawyers andith judges, and -- it is so ridiculous. this is the system that we have. nobody pointed it out before we came along. so you end up in a court case. no, we catch, we do paperwork, we bring them to court, you can never have enough judges, because you are talking about tens of thousands of people. you end up in trials. but the trials don't take lace, because what you have to do, because it is impossible to hold all of them --this is an idiotic law given to us largely by the democrats, mostly by the democrats, that we can change in

one hour if people got together. so we end up in court cases for people who just happened to step a foot on our land. to 800 we have close thousand pending lawsuits. and what happens, these people disappear into the united states, never to show up for their case, which ends up coming back in about three years, four years, five years, or even longer. it is the most ridiculous system. we should be able to say sorry, you cannot come in. you have to come in legally. and that is your court case. what we have done with asylum and all of this, we are trying to be the nicest people on earth , and it is destroying our country. and i think, honestly, if i didn't come alone, nobody would long-- if i didn't come on , -- if i did not come a long, nobody would even be talking about it. and it would be just as bad. our country gets eaten alive by what is happening at our southern border. we have to do something about it.

and we are doing it now. one of the things we can do is the wall. it will take care of a large number of the problems. even the changing of some of the even the changing of some of the laws will be nearly as important. because people won't come up because they know they cannot get through. one of the other things i would like to mention is i had a very successful mention about a month ago with president xi of china. in argentina. he and i had a meeting that was going to be 45 minutes. it lasted close to four hours. very successful. one of the things i asked him to do was criminalize fentanyl. china has very strong criminal penalties, including the death penalty. if you would criminalize fentanyl, it would really help us. we are losing 80,000 people a year with fentanyl. about 80,000. that is like a football stadium full of people a year. from taking this horrible drug.

most of which comes out of china. he has agreed to criminalize it. that was a big statement. he agreed immediately. and by the way, it was not a long negotiation. it was really a negotiation on trade. which is coming along very well. we will see what happens. this stuff is really brutal, really terrible. i want to thank president xi of china. he was ay is here, and great governor of texas.

he probably knows more about the border than anybody. you know the area very well. mr. perry: i think, mr. president, your focus on this is very important. while i was governor, i tried with very poor results to get the previous administration to recognize the lack of support that the state of texas was getting, and we ran numerous operations along the border. you, as president, governor, talked about it in governors association meetings, about the challenge we had with the 1200 mile border. two-thirds of the border is of course with texas and mexico and the united states. but the challenge has always been the lack of support from

washington, d.c. to have a chief executive finally recognize that it is going to take washington action to address this issue is really from mym heartening, basically having been ignored for those eight ands as i was governor, the previous administration. but it is the message that comes from the media, from those that, for whatever reason, do not want to secure the order. and beu can come rewarded. that has got to stop. one of the ways to do that is obviously with a clear message to those that are trying to use that border as an access into the united states.

there is not a reward anymore. don't come. when the summertime gets here, the humanitarian issue here, mr. all toont, that off t often does not get talked about, the lives that are lost in mexico, in the desert southwest, in that region of texas that is incredibly inhospitable. when you are out there trying to cross it, i mean, that is the heart rendering part of the story, mr. president, that you are trying to address here. i know over the course of the last couple of weeks, there have been some stories about young people who have lost their lives , a couple of young people who have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to them. but what about this literally hundreds of people who have died

trying to cross the border, because of the incentives that people have given them, all of these different incentives to come and penetrate up that border? and you are standing up and saying don't come. don't put your family in jeopardy. i would really like to see the media get focused on those stories, about what you are doing to stop that kind of hostility, frankly, to these individuals. islding that border security the most powerful message we can powerful the most messages from the chief executive of the united states standing as a in congress, you have got a responsibility, a duty to protect and defend the

people of this country. i am sitting here ready to negotiate with you. i am sitting here ready to find a solution to deal with this horrendous condition that we find in this country. all they need is come and sit down with you, mr. president. i know where your heart is. i know where the people around this table's heart is. we are ready to find a solution to this issue of illegal immigration, drug trafficking, potential terrorist activity along the southern border. and we have got the expertise. all we need is that will fund congress to come, and we would be more than happy to partner up with them and find a solution. think you write much. they will be here at 3:00. we will see what happens.

i have to say it would be a lot easier if i never took up this issue, if i've left it the way it was where people stream into the country. you look at what we are doing now, we are taking out thousands that areands of people covered as an example, ms 13, it is a gang, a brutal gang, a vicious gang. they love using knives because it is far more painful than guns. moving them out by the thousands. people do not talk about that. they have taken over towns in long island and other places. they are bad people, and we are doing big numbers. they do not like donald trump. i can tell you that. that is just fine, and that is the way i want it. we are getting them

out, and i.c.e., they are doing a terrific job. they will do it presentation to the folks coming up from congress. but it would be a lot easier if i just sat and enjoyed the presidency like a lot of other people have done and don't bring up the southern border, don't talk about all of the other problems that are taking place at the southern border that nobody wanted to discuss, the fact that people just flow in like it is water. million, i have been hearing 12 million, i have been hearing 35 million. for years, we have been hearing the same numbers. i used to hear 11 million only time. -- all the time. increase?"s it ever 11 million., it is lotle was low income and a of problems are caused,

including problems to our educational system, to our hospital system. so it would be a lot easier for me to sit back and let it continue, but it was out of our strong country makes it even more difficult, because people come up, and our country is doing better than anyone else in the world. talk of the world. the stock market has had a little blip. we settle up once trade issues. the trade deals where making are fantastic for our country. fantastic. whether it is china, mexico, canada, south korea. we started negotiations with japan. they were all one way streets. they were bad for our country, good for their country.

we are changing that. we were taken advantage of by so many countries and our military. they want,iding all and they are not doing anything for us. they are not doing anything toward helping us monetarily. it is disgraceful. i have been saying it for years. where giving military protection to countries that are very wealthy, and they are not doing anything for us. you can call them allies or whatever we want. allies, but great we cannot let them take advantage of us. pat shanahan agrees with that, and he has agreed with that for a long time. other people do not understand it. they do not get what i was saying. so a lot of great things are happening. it would be a lot easier if i did nothing, but eventually, at some point, really the stuff would take place. so we are very proud of the job we are doing.

i am very proud of the people around this table. i would like to, talking about the migration coming up, alex doing ao has been fantastic job getting drug prices down, they are ready to make a final push where we will and we have done an incredible job. , final couple of strokes made which takes a long time to set up statutorily. we have got great big process, and i think you will see a tremendous reduction in drug rises. =-- prices. a lot of great work was done, along with secretary acosta, who has created a a lot of health care problems where the price of health care has gone down, much far below obamacare. some really great programs, and people are signing up. tremendous.

i want to thank you. really great job you have done on health care. a lot of people do not know about it, but we have set up some health care programs that are a lot better than obamacare and a lot less expensive. if i could ask secretary azar, children are coming up, and they are very sick. they are forced to come up. coyotes, theye are the bad ones, they are not stupid. they know our laws better than the people who wrote them. the coyotes are using children to gain access to this country. they are not with families. they are using the children, they are taking the children, and then they dispose of the children after they are done. this has been going on for years. this is not unique to us. but we want to stop it. secretary, if you could talk about the children's situation and help sick some of them are by the time they get to the southern border. sec. azar: sure, mr. president.

thank you ray much, and thank you for your strong leadership to fix our terribly broken immigration system. we asked hhs happy job to , thess the broken system unaccompanied minors who arrive at the border without their parents. isveling to the u.s. border extremely dangerous, traveling with mental, physical, or sexual trauma. parents should not send their children on this journey. it is not a compassionate act, it is a dangerous act. unfortunately, more and more miners have been arriving at our border. the department of homeland security takes them into custody. hhs,hen refers them to where we then select a grantee to care for them until we can release them to a suitable

sponsor. while we saw a dramatic drop in the number of unaccompanied children arriving after the president took office, the number is now rising. 2017, wear year 2018, we received 51,000, almost doubling from the previous year. 13,000ly, there are unaccompanied children and our care, and we expect that number to rise. we have almost doubled our capacity in the last year. but having to continually expand capacity is simply a symptom of a broken system. caring for unaccompanied children in a broken environment is incredibly sensitive. caring in fiscal year 2018 cost ,bout $2 billion just for that

and we expect something similar for this coming year unless the situation is addressed. imagine if we secured our border , and we do not have to spend the money caring for the kids. we have also provided assistance to surge capacity for medical needs for both adults and children migrants when they arrived. standardsud of the that we set for the care of kids in the unaccompanied alien children program, but this is a tragic, unsustainable situation that will continue until our immigration system is fixed. as the president clinton, we need a system that discourages parents from working with smugglers, and i also want you to know, mr. president, the great work with president xi on getting fentanyl scheduled to cut down. it will redirect to mexico and keep coming in from there, keep killing american citizens.

fromstopping the flow china, we have to get it out of mexico if we don't stop the border from securing. pres. trump: thank you. i think it will be something really spectacular. we appreciate it. thank you, mr. secretary. mr. vice president? vp pence: thank you, mr. president. break spent the christmas here in washington along with you, i want to thank you for the strong stance you have taken on border security, not just because you said you were, but because the cabin and the nation looking on today can see you recognize we have a crisis at our southern border. we take the tragedy of officer ngh, a legal immigrants of this country, being struck down at the time of the christmas holiday. we think about the video that the american people will go to

large assault at them toer that required deploy teargas. this is something that we are being made aware of every day, but you are bringing it in front of the american people and taking a strong stand to shut down the government until we can build a wall and achieve true border security. i know it is something millions of americans appreciate, and i personally appreciate your sense. you have given the number before, but they are worth repeating. 17,000 criminals have been apprehended attempted to coming into this country. 235,000 criminal aliens have been apprehended in this country since you come into office. tragedy along the the border that the secretaries talktalked about today, we

about the human cost for not in a meaningful directedresident, you our entire team to reach out to democrats in congress. we met several times before christmas. mick mulvaney and i traveled with later schumer and met with a good-faith offer to achieve a principled compromise only to find out that days after christmas that democrats have stopped negotiations altogether. they are coming today at your invitation. our sincere hope is that confronted with these facts and with the information that we will review again today is that democrats on capitol hill will join republicans and will join in your call to achieve real border security. as you said yesterday, we are ready to deal. we have an offer on the table that would reopen the government id achieve border security

know other senators are talking about fresh ideas, some of which you have reflected on today, and we will give due consideration, but we owe the american people nothing less than our best effort, not just to reopen the government, but as you made clear, to reopen the government was we have the resources to build a wall, a physical barrier, and make measurable progress in achieving real border security. pres. trump: thank you very much. mulvaney.thank mick .e has been a great activist he is on a great job. she's come a we appreciate it. bringing together everything very quickly. things are going really well. middle east, we inherited a lot of problems. took over a lot of problems.

middle east, the southern border, north korea -- and that was the easy death, ok. [laughter] i think we are doing really well. whether we should have ever been in the middle east or not, that is a question for a lot of people. you know where i come from on that. we are doing something very special i think in the middle east. i think you are going to see that. i have followed it in the campaign for a long period of time, and we are seeing a lot more results and i thought that i could do as president. north korea, you know how i stand on that. it was rough there for a while. before i got elected, you look at what was happening, and you look at what is going on now, the relationships really have been very good. we will see what happens. you, i know you

guys would love to see what is on this letter, and i would frankly love to read it to you, but we have a very good relationship going. time will tell. and the economy, the economy is doing fantastically well. at record low unemployment for blacks, hispanics, asians, the lowest it has ever been in the history of our country. even kanye west came out today and said great things about trump. he is a good guy. but he said great things about us, because he sees what we are doing. he is smart. he sees what we are doing. when you have a record low unemployment in the country for african-americans, for asians, for hispanics, that is tough to beat, so we are doing very well. the world is not doing very well, unfortunately. it does have an impact on us.

china has gotten hit hard, other places have been hit hard. europe is not doing too well, but they will come back. they have to do what we have to do, and we are doing well. we are doing very well. i want to thank everybody very much. i want to thank the cabinet. you will stay around for a little while and talk about some other issues. great job. thank you very much to everybody. and thank you for being here. i was lonely over the weekend. i was in washington hoping that we would see a little action, that i would get a call and say let's get together and let's work hard, but they chose hawaii over washington. let me just say come i really believe that they want to do something. what mike said is true. there have been a lot of good discussions going on. been working really hard, and some of the talent around this table, they have been working hard. they have a lot of friends in

congress, on both sides of congress, and we have actually had a lot of good discussions going on. i think the democrats want to see something happen. know.tell you i the republicans want to see something happen but you cannot have border security without the wall. but it has got to be very powerful, it has got to be something very strong, something that people cannot just walk through. the problems that we have spoken about today will totally disappear. we have to have change, because they come into the country. we have to have lost once they enter. nobody will be able to enter once we do it the way we are doing. progressade a lot of on the wall, a lot of progress on the renovations. much of that is finished. we just gave out a large, secretary nielsen, we are in the process of giving out additional large contracts for many miles,

115 miles of wall in a very important area, as i said to you over the weekend. i just appreciate everybody coming. our country had a lot of problems when i was elected, and we have a lot less problems now. and i think a lot of the big ones we are in the process of getting solved. the southern border is one. but we have a lot of others, too. we are in the process of solving problems that a lot of people thought were not solvable. the easiest way when you have a problem, if you think it is not solvable, just sit back and do not do anything and enjoy the presidency. but i cannot do that. we have a long way to go. this country has a great future with tremendous potential. and we a long way to go, want to solve the problems, not just sit back and enjoy the presidency. so thank you all for coming. we appreciate it. >> thank you, mr. president, and happy new year. pres. trump: thank you.

>> is there a number below $5 billion that you might be willing to accept in order to reopen the government? pres. trump: well, i would rather not say it, but what we do it for a little bit less, it is so insignificant. i have heard as high as $250 billion we lose on immigration. as has have a wall -- already been said, we have been getting money in. we don't paint contractor before they finish the job. that is another thing that we instituted. we like to have people do the job. we are paying as they build it, we pay it when it is finished, so they do a good job. if they don't do a good job, we don't pay them. so not all of the money has been paid, but the money has been used to. so maybe you can remember that when you say i have not spent the money. we have spent the money.

five $.6 million approved by the house, such a small amount compared to the level of the problem. when you see the democrats want to give away $12 million extra and we give away $54 billion in aid. we give to countries, but we don't give to our own country, which is another thing i have been complaining about. it is very unfair. guatemala,ey to honduras, el salvador, and they do nothing for us. when we give money to pakistan, $1.3 billion. i ended that. a lot of people do not know that. because they have not been fair to us. we want to have a great relationship with pakistan come up with a the enemy, they take care of the enemy. we just cannot do that. the new leadership in pakistan, we will be doing that in the not-too-distant future. but i ended the $1.3 billion that we pay like it was water.

a lot of money was sent out on a monthly basis, on a yearly basis for countries that do not even vote for us in the united nations. we give them billions of dollars, and they do not even vote for us in the united nations. and you know it is not all about the rich countries. the risk of research a given of us, because they pay very small amount for militaries. but there are countries that are poor. we do not want anything from them. we want to help them. there are some awful things going on in the world, and we want to help them. we do not want that. we are not looking for that. but when you have massively wealthy countries that have very low military costs because the united states subsidizes them, so they take advantage of us on military. they could easily pay us.

they also take advantage of us on trade. when i speak up, i mean, that is why i got elected, issues like that, issues like the border. it would be so easy not to do anything. when they said i am popular in europe, i should not be popular in europe. if i were popular in europe, i would not be doing my job, because i want europe to pay. germany pays 1.5%. they should be paying 4%. other countries pay a small percentage of what they should be paying. folks, i say i am sorry, you have to pay up, i should not be popular in europe. at 88%,a poll, i was and now i am at a very low number. in europe. iam not elected by europeans, am elected by american taxpayers, frankly. our relationship with leaders in europe are very good. a lot of them cannot understand

how they got away fro with it fr so many years. i will say to angela and many other leaders, how did this happen, and they will say i cannot believe it either. they cannot believe it! they had a president and other people in the administrations , well, no one ever asked us to pay. we have negotiations going on with numerous countries right theto pay a lot of money to united states for what we are doing to them. i would not say they are thrilled, because they had many, many years where they did not have to pay. so they will have to pay. if that makes me unpopular in these countries, that is ok. but we are doing tremendous ervice for those >> i want to follow up, maybe the military has an angle here or a possible -- president trump: they have no angle. i know every angle.

the military under past leadership, including for many years, was taken advantage of by other countries. allies and not allies. they were taken advantage of and our country has to be respected. we're not respected when we do that. when we're taking -- when horrible things are happening on trade where we have barriers put up and tariffs put on and we open our country up, we just open it up where cars are sent into our country with virnlly no tax, no nothing yet they won't accept our cars. when cars are sent in and they pay no tax but we're expected to pay 25, 40, 50% and we pay nothing? oil be honest with you, it's not in my d.n.a. i don't know how people in my position allowed these things to happen. and we're not allowing it to happen anymore. i can be the most popular person in europe.

i could run for any office if i wanted to but i don't want to. i want people to treat us fairly and they're not. there's no angles. sends us 200 soldiers to iraq or sends us a hundred soldiers from a big country to syria or afghanistan and then they tell me a hundred times, oh, we sent you soldiers, we sent you soldiers, and that's 1/100 of the money they're taking advantage of. they're just doing that to make me happy or past presidents happy. i heard past presidents, well, they're involved in the afghanistan war because they sent us a hundred soldiers and yet it's costing us billions and billions of dollars. i can give you an example i get along we very well with india d the prime minister modi,

but he constantly tells me he built a library in afghanistan. you know what that is, like five hours of what we spent. he tells us and he's very smart and we're supposed to say thank for you the library. i don't know who is using it in afghanistan. one of those things. i don't like being taken advantage of. what other countries have done for the last long period of time is give us some soldiers and then talk about it like it's the end of the world and we're subsidizing their militaries by billions, many times what those soldiers cost that country. >> did you hear about the mitt romney op-ed? have you heard about it? president trump: i thought he'd be more of a team player. i was surprised he did it this quickly. i was expecting something but surprised he did it this quickly. i endorsed him and he thanked me very profusely and was very

nice because i'm surprised because we've done a lot. i read his op-ed. he said it. he agrees. i don't think anybody would be able to do the tax cuts like i did. we got the greatest tax cuts approved and wr the case in texas should win from the supreme court. it only kept because of the individual mandate. now that that's gone, i don't know how you can keep it. that's repeal and replace. john mccain voted against it after campaigning many years, he voted against it. he went thumb's down and that was the end of that. for many years it was repeal and replace and then at 2:00, in the morning, it's thumb's down. i'm a very flexible guy. we were a part of the lawsuit, as you know.

a great judge, highly respected, set the individual mandates up. that means we should win at the supreme court where this case will go. now, when we do, we'll sit down with the democrats and come up with great health care, far better. we'll have everything included. far better. because obamacare is too expensive, the premiums way too high and the deductibles don't -- you can't even use it. the deductible is so high, unless you get hit by a tractor, you can't use it. nobody has seen anything like it, the deductibles are so high. obamacare is a tremendous stale you are -- tremendous failure. but now that we won the mandate -- it was by far the most unpopular thing in health care. mitt romney, i'd love him to be a team player, possibly he won't be, i'm surprised he acted so quickly.

i gave him an endorsement and was happy that he won. in utah i have great popularity and did something for utah that nobody would have done that has to do with their parks, as you know. it was a big day, a big thing. and we did that for a very special person who will be retiring after 42 years, our great friend, our great senator who is a spectacular man and mike lee who pressed very hard. orrin hatch and mike lee. the people of utah appreciate what i did for them. hundred of miles of park they'll be able to now use as opposed to not. i was suppliesed -- i was surprised by mitt romney. if he's a team player, it will be great. i will say this, if he fought

really hard against president obama like he does against me, he would have won the election. does that make sense to you if he fought the way he fights they he would have won the election. but i think he'll be a team player. i think he agrees with many things we've done and have in mind and see what happens. india, you mentioned what role do you think -- president trump: i think india should be involved. i gave our generals all the money they wanted and didn't do a great job in afghanistan. they've been fighting in afghanistan 19 years. general mattis thanked me profusely to getting himmed 700 billion. he thanked me the next year. he couldn't believe it.

depleted. y is we're rebuilding our military. there were order for the first-35 fighter jets and f-18's and all the things we're doing including ships and missiles and everything. jep mattis is so thrilled but what has he done for me? how has he done in afghanistan? not too good. i'm not happy with what he's done in afghanistan. and i shouldn't be happy. he was very happy and thankful when i got him $700 billion and the following year, $716 billion. i wish him well and hope he does well. but president obama fired him and essentially so did i. i want results. reporter: what will you -- [inaudible] president trump: we'll do something that's right. we're talking to the table and different people. here's the thing, because you mentioned india, india is there, russia is there.

russia used to be the soviet union. afghanistan made it russia because they went bankrupt fighting in afghanistan. russia. so you take a look at other countries. pakistan is there. they should be fighting. but russia should be fighting. the reason russia is in afghanistan is terrorists were going into russia. and it was a tough fight and literally went bankrupt and went into being called russia again as opposed to the oast union. a lot of these places you're reading about now are no longer a part of russia because of afghanistan. why isn't india or pakistan there? why are we there, we're 600 miles away? i don't mind. we want to help our people and

other nations. you do have terrorists, mostly table but isis. i'll give you an example. so table is our enemy. isis is our enemy. i had an issue i brought up with our generals, table is here and isis is here and they're fighting each other. i said why don't you let them fight? why are we in the middle of it? let them fight. they're both our enemies. sir, i want to -- and they go in fighting both of them. the craziest thing i'd ever seen. but those are two enemies fighting each other and send up going in and fighting. what are we doing? i say this, india, great relationship with the prime minister. he's a great man and done a fantastic job and brought the ountry together.

india, russia, the satellite countries extremely rich with oil, surrounding. i spoke with some of them. i said to a certain country, very rich country, what would you do if the united states pulled out? oh, we'd be taken over by the table. and terrorists. then why are you charging us to send product through or why are you charging us when we send airplanes over the country? we are helping you, why are you doing that? and the gentleman said nobody asked me not to. i'm asking you not to. he said we will not charge you. and i'm talking millions and millions of dollars. flights over his country. i said to him, what would happen if we weren't here? he looked at me and said we would be overrun and can't

defend ourselves. he charges us but not anymore. reporter: you used the word "slowly" describing the withdraw. what's your timetable? president trump: nobody said four months. i didn't say that either. we're getting out of syria. look, we don't want syria. obama gave up syria years ago when he didn't violate the red line. i did when i shot 59 missiles in but that was a long time later. and when president obama decided not to violate his statement that never crossed the red line and then they did, he didn't do nilling about it. making a threat is ok but you have to follow through with the threat. you can't make a threat and then do nothing. syria was lost long ago. and besides that, i don't want we're talking about and

depth, not rich wealth. the kurds, very interesting, turkey doesn't like them, other people do. i didn't like the fact they're selling the small oil that they have to iran and we asked them not to sell it to iran. but the kurds are selling oil to iran. we're not thrilled about that. not happy at all. him you know, when we send 30 f-18's in front of them, they fight better when they do than they don't. you see what's happened. but we want to respect the kurds. but i don't want to be in syria forever. ize sad and it's death. and when we kill isis -- if we don't -- then they'll come to our country. sure, probably true l. a small percentage. they're going to iran who hates

isis other than we do. so we're killing it. then i read when we pull out, russia is thrilled. russia is not happy. you know why? because they like it when we're killing isis. assad lling them for and iran. and just while we're on iran, people don't like to write the facts. iran is a much different country than it was when i became president. iran when i became president, i had a meeting at the pentagon with lots of generals, like from a movie, better looking than tom cruise or stronger. i had more generals we've ever seen and were at the bottom of this incredible room and i said this is the greatest room i've ever seen. i saw more computer boards than i think they make today. and every part of the middle

east and other places that was under attack was under attack because of iran. and i said to myself. wow. i mean, you look at yemen and .yria and every place saudi arabia was under siege. they wanted yemen because it's a border to saudi arabia and why they're there, frankly. every place was under siege. i asked the question, how do you stop these people, they're all over the place? they have plenty of money. president obama had just given them $150 billion. he just gave $1.8 billion in cash. i'm still trying to figure that one out. gave $1.8 billion in cash, plane loads of cash. from five different countries. you know why from five different countries? we didn't have enough cash in the tri-state area to give them $1.58 billion. they had to use currencies from

other countries. with all that being said, i did something called terminate the horrible iran nuclear deal which in eight years gives iran the legal right to have nuclear weapons. i did it. they're no longer the same country. iran is pulling people out of syria and can do what they want, frankly. they're pulling people out of yemen. iran wants to survive now. iran was a power in the middle east -- they were field goal to take over the whole middle east and destroy israel while at it. iran is a much different country. they're having riots in every city bigger than before. their currency is under siege. a lot of bad things are happening. when we do all of the things we've done monetarily to iran, iran is in trouble.

and you know what, i'd love to negotiate with iran. they're not ready yet, i don't think. but they will be. iran is a much different country right now, jeff, than it was when i took over. when i took over two years ago iran was going to take over the middle east and have all the nuclear weapons they wanted in a short period of time because of that stupid deal. when i terminated that deal and did what i had to do, iran is a much different country today than it was 19 months ago. that i can tell you. reporter: can you give us a timetable for withdrawing troops? president trump: over a period of time. we're withdrawing. we're hitting them very hard. when i met with the generals in iraq, i said to a couple of the generals, i said why didn't you do this before? he said, sir, our commanders were telling us when to do. i said don't you tell them? no, we take orders.

and they're great soldiers. they listen. i do it differently. i sat around and after a few minutes they loosened up and said this is what we should do. but we were supposed to be out of syria many years ago. if you remember, we went to syria for some spot hits and that was five years ago and we never left. i don't want to be in syria. i go to walter reed hospital d i see soldiers that are so ladly injured and hurt. i don't want that. i want to rebuild our country and spend money on our military without repleting it every day. that's what's happening and our military is getting really strong. i can tell you story when i first got here about our fill i don't really want to talk about. one of the things i told the secretary and other people, we

do these reports on our military. some i.g. goes over there, mostly appointed by president obama but we'll have ours, too. and they do a report telling everything that happened and release it to the public. what kind of stuff is this? we're fighting wars and they're doing reports and releasing it to the public. the "public" means the enemy. the enemy reads the reports and study every line. those reports should be private. let them do a report but they should be private reports and locked up. and if a member of conference wants to read it, should go in and read it. but these reports, criticizing every single thing, but for these reports to be given out -- forget about giving out to the enemy is insane. i don't want it to happen anymore, mr. secretary. you understand that. we'll look at the reports. nobody more critical, hey, it's not my fault.

i didn't put us there. were getting out and getting out smart and winning. we're winning. just to answer your question, over a period of time. i never said i'm getting out tomorrow. i said we're pulling our soldiers out and will be pulled back in syria and we're getting out of syria. yeah, absolutely. we're getting out very powerfully. [inaudible question] president trump: we're asking for $5.6 billion. somebody said 2.5 billion. no, look. this is national security we're talking about. just like we're talking about the military and syria or afghanistan or all these different places. e spend in afghanistan more in one month than what we're alking about for the wall. we spend in afghanistan more

money than most countries spend. just a few. it's ridiculous. what i'm talking about is the $5.6 billion the house approved. i have to tell you, the house was very impressive. they stepped up and went in and approved. i'm not holding nancy to this but she said you'll never get the republicans to vote for it. i never saw anything so beautiful in my life. the spirit they had -- and i'd like mitt romney to join in that spirit because we're doing some great things. we don't need another democrat. i want the democrats to join in it, too. the $5.6 billion is a small number, literally, it's one month in afghanistan. and we're talking national security. this isn't just a border, this is national security, this is health and wellness. this is everything. [inaudible question] president trump: let's see, maybe they have an idea. i talk also daca.

i think we're better off waiting for the supreme court. if the supreme court rules that president obama was wrong, which they should, because by the way, if he was right, then i'd be given tremendous power. can you imagine me having that power? wouldn't that be scary? right? but if president obama is allowed to do what he did on daca, then i'm allowed to do whatever i want to do on things that, you know, probably a president, as he said, probably a president doesn't have the right to do. reporter: how long can the government stay shut down? president trump: could be a long time or could be quickly. it could an long time. it's too important a subject to walk away from. i was here on christmas evening. i was all by myself in the white house. it's a big, big house, except for all the guys out on the lawn with machine guns. i was waving to them. i never saw so many guys with machine guns in my life, secret

service and military. these are great people. and they don't play games. they don't, like, wave. they don't even smile but i was there all alone with the machine gunners and i felt very safe, i have to tell you. they're great people. and there are a lot of them. but i was hoping that maybe somebody would come back and negotiate but they didn't do that. that's ok. look, look, this is really something that should be bipartisanship and we'll see if it is. i hope it is. i hope it is. reporter: are you willing to keep the government shutdown until the supreme court rules on daca? president trump: no. because i think this should be settled. by the way, if the supreme court would do a great favor to this country if they'd say the president should not have done that, we will settle this whole thing, including really a big immigration policy, not just border security which is very important, because we would do

something with daca. a lot of the republicans -- most republicans are fine with some deal on daca. daca is ok. these are people that have been in the country a long time. in many cases they don't even speak the language of the country from which their parents came. reporter: it's you in this meeting and you mentioned border patrol coming in and is his an education campaign? president trump: chuck and nancy and others from i.c.e. and border patrol and also some local law enforcement, how bad it is, how dangerous it is and why we need a wall. when they say the wall is immoral, then you better do something about the vatican because the vatican has the biggest wall of them all. the wall is immoral. look at all of the countries that have walls and they work a hundred%.

-- 100%. it's never going to change. a wall is a wall. we can have all the drones flying over last night rushing the border. the only thing that stops them is the wall. if we have drones, we get nice pictures. [inaudible question] president trump: a lot of people thought it was $25 billion. that was for overall homeland security. that was for much more than the wall. the wall was a piece of that. a lot of people said you shouldn't have taken thed 25 billion. well, that covered more territory than the wall. reporter: how long are you willing to keep the government shutdown? president trump: as long as it takes. i'm prepared. i think the people of the country think i'm right. i think the people of this country think i'm right. again, i could have done nothing and had a lot easier presidency by doing nothing but i'm here, i want to do it right. and i'm not always talking to

you but middle east problems and north korea problems. reporter: why do you think mitt romney will eventually become a team player? president trump: i don't know that he will. i hope he does. i think i have the highest rating in the history of -- i was just looking at that poll. yeah, i mean, i don't know why, but they like me. they say i'm the most popular president in the history of the republican party. you see the same polls i do. a number that is hard to believe considering i never get fair press or good press. how do i have these numbers and get bad press? because people see the job we're doing. people see the gasoline is way down. the reason it's way down is because i called up some of the opec people and i say don't do it. you know, if you look back a few months a gasoline was at $83 a barrel and was going to be bad and people were saying 125. $

and you better let it flow and now it's down to $44. i put out a social media statement the other day, you think it's luck that happened? no, it's not luck. i called up certain people and i said, let that kam oil -- damn oil and gasoline, you let it flow, the oil. it was going up to $125. if that would have happened, then you would have had a recession, depression like we've had in the past when that happened. [inaudible question] president trump: i don't know if he's going to become a team player. i hope he does. it will be better for him. i think people are very upset with what he did. he hasn't even gotten into office yet. he hasn't gotten into office. and he was very happy when i endorsed him. i don't know what changed other than we succeeded in many of the things i said we were going to do.

let me tell you, we're succeeding in others, we're really succeeding in things people thought were impossible to do. i think mitt romney hopefully will be a team him player. if he's not, that's ok, too. i handle it. i got rid of -- they say bob corker retired. they say that jeff flake, wonderful guy, i never met him and he's hitting me. he was going to tell people how to win in 2020 because 2016 doesn't -- he wrote a book and didn't work out and we wanted it in 2016 and didn't want to wait until 2020. jeff flake is now selling real estate or whatever he's doing. he'll probably go to work for cnn is my prediction. bob corker, unfortunately, he thought he would get publicity for himself and he couldn't come in fourth in the primary. he was going to be a senator. bob corker was going to be a

senator for another 20 years and then for some reason he hit me because he thought it would be good publicity. well. n't work out too with mitt, i hope he's a team player and if he's not, that's ok, too. i will tell you we have some great republicans and if you look at how they're standing up for border security, you'd be very proud of them, if you're a republican or person who loves our nation. thank you very much, everybody. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. c-span was created by america's television company as a public service and today we bring you unfiltered coverage of congress , the white house and supreme court and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp.2019]

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> here's a live look at the opening day of the 116th congress. on c-span they gavel in at noon eastern to vote on a new speaker and welcome in the other members. they will adopt a rules package and the consideration of two spending bills that will end the partial government shutdown. on c-span 2, vice president pence administers the oath of officers when the senate meets at noon and will elect a new president pro tem. and on c-span 3, senators pose for pictures at vice president pence at a ceremonial swearing in from the old senate chamber followed by the ceremonial swearing in of house member with a newly elected speaker. >> coming up on today's "washington journal" we get your thoughts on the opening day of the 116th congress and talk about what to expect from the house and senate