and now a popular place for young, tech startup companies. eastern onp.m. american history tv, the santa monica. historian, author of "santa monica. : a century on the last great pleasure." who chairs the history of the iconic landmark. >> we see 9 million people year come to the pier. that is all levels of life, income levels, interests. there are almost as many reasons to come to the pure as people to come visit it. if you were to ask what brought them, you would hear a different reason from each one of them. >> watch cities tour workingnica, california with our cable affiliates as we

explore the american story. president trump, on wednesday, met with his did discuss border security and the proposal to build a wall on the u.s.-mexico border. he talked about the shutdown, his decision to withdraw troops from syria, and an opinion piece critical of him written by mitt romney. pres. trump: ok. thank you very much. thank you all for being here and joining the first cabinet meeting of 2019. it's going to be a very exciting

year. i think it's going to be a very good year. some people think it'll be controversial and tough, and it probably will, but we're going to get a lot done. i think we can work with the democrats, actually, and get quite a bit done. and we're looking at infrastructure, we're looking at many things that can happen and i think that both sides want. we just did a very big and very highly touted criminal justice reform bill, and that's a very bipartisan thing. and we finished off the year with that. we had a tremendous year in terms of achievement, whether it's regulation cuts or tax cuts, or anything else you can name. so many things. judges, including two supreme court judges and many federal bench judges. so we've had quite a time. and we're going to have, i think, six more years of great success. but i think this coming year is going to be tremendous, actually. every day, border patrol encounters roughly 2,000 illegal

immigrants, i have to talk about this, trying to enter our country. 2000 today. -- 2000 a day. and that's a minimum. every week, 300 americans are killed by heroin, the vast majority of which comes across through our southern border. our southern border is like a sieve. it just pours through our southern border. and unless we're going to have physical barriers, it's never going to be able to be stopped. too much money is being made. last month, 20,000 minors were illegally smuggled into the united states. in the last two years, ice officers arrested 235,000 criminals who were able to come in over the years through the united states. and we're we have a very tough border. i think you see that even last night, where people charged the border and tried to get through, but they couldn't because we have a wall up. but tear gas was flying, and a lot of things were happening. and i guess, for the most part, you've seen it. it's very sad.

if they knew they had a physical barrier, if they knew they had a wall, if they knew they had something that's going to stop them, they would have never come up in the first place. when you see children getting sick, they get sick on the trail up. very sick. it's a terrible journey. it's a horrible journey. and you read the things that go on in those caravans. and if they knew they couldn't get through, they wouldn't even start. another one is forming in honduras. and we've very much lowered the payments to honduras and to a few other countries that are not playing right. because there's no reason for caravans to be forming. they shouldn't allow it to happen. the united states needs a physical barrier, needs a wall, to stop illegal immigration and to halt deadly inflow of drugs and crime. you have human traffickers. it's a thing that's horrible. think of it, human trafficking. they kidnap people, they steal people, and they sell people. and 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's the highest it's ever been in history. and this is a world problem. this isn't a united states situation; this is a world problem. but the southern border is a very, very high highly used place by people that do human trafficking. how can it get worse than that? there's a reason why politicians and wealthy people build walls around their houses and their compounds. president obama recently built a wall around his compound. there's a reason for it. and i don't blame him. we're in a shutdown because democrats refuse to fund the border security. they try and make it like it's just about the wall, and it is about the wall. i said, over the weekend, to a number of people that, you know, the wheel, the wall there are some things that never get old. it's never going to change. the wall is your number-one point of security. if we had a wall and we will.

and, by the way, for those that don't know, we don't want to talk about it all the time, but we've done tremendous amounts of renovation of existing walls and fences, and brought them back into brand-new condition. we've spent a lot of money on it , doing it, and doing it properly. so we have a lot of brand-new fencing. if you saw last night, they tried to come through a wall area. if the wall existed if it didn't exist, you would have had hundreds of people just flowing into our country. some of these are criminals. some of these will split up families by killing people and hurting people very badly. but if we didn't have a form of barrier up last night, you would have a lot of people all those people would have been able to come through. we're in the shutdown because of the fact that the democrats are looking to 2020. they think they're not going to win the election. i guess a lot of signs point to the fact that they're not going to win the election. i hope they're not going to win the election. but they view this as an election point for them.

i actually think it's bad politics, but i'm not thinking about the politics. i'm thinking about what's right and what's wrong. and we need a physical barrier. everything else is bells and whistles. i know more about drones than anybody. i know about every form of safety that you can have. and it's all good, but it's just very minor compared to the power of a wall. all of the people you see coming up, if they knew we actually had a physical presence there, a physical barrier even when you have the soldiers, who have been fantastic; we've had our military but when you have the military, you have border patrol, you have ice, it doesn't i mean, it's great to have, but you have 2,000 miles. you have anywhere from 500 to 600 miles where you need the barrier. some of it we've now completed, as you have seen and as i've told you. but we need barrier, because you

can't put a soldier every hundred yards. if you had a lot of people, you're going to put them every hundred yards people are going to go right through. there's nothing you can do about it unless you're willing to build a wall. and walls work. if you look at israel i was with prime minister netanyahu, and he threw up his hands; he said, i don't understand why they fight you on the wall. in israel, as you know, they built a wall. he said 99.9% it works. and it would with us too. it would work almost 100% of the time, and we'd have much less of a problem. and we'd save money so much money on a monthly basis. probably it would pay for itself in a month or two. because we lose pretty close to $250 billion on illegal immigration. and i would say that it could be on a monthly, or a couple of months, it would pay for the wall, pay for what we're talking about. the house, as you know, approved $5.6 billion. and that's a very small price to pay for total security on the southern border.

the drugs alone, that nobody can even calculate it's such a big number the money you'd save just on drugs and helping families where all of this horrible stuff doesn't come through on the southern border, right there you'd save. and you'd save a lot. the new pelosi bill and, by the way, we're having, i guess they call them, the big 8. so the big 8 plus me are meeting in a little while i think it's going to be 3:00 to discuss the border. we have ice and we have border patrol. they're 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, many more men and women. but the protection isn't good because you're going to go to a certain area where you don't have the wall, and they're going to 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 at christmas, and a few hours later he was shot and killed by somebody that just came across the border. things like that wouldn't happen, or certainly they'd be happening far, far less. now, the democrats, in the bill, want $12 billion additional for foreign aid. they want $12 billion more. it's $54.4 billion, which is, by itself, a lot. but in foreign aid, they want $12 billion over the $54 billion. think of it, we give $54 billion a lot of it because they want to give it. they don't even know who they're giving it to. in many cases, people don't ever don't even know the name of the country. they know nothing about the country. and yet so they're going to give $54.4 billion in foreign aid, but they want $12 billion more than that in foreign aid, but they won't approve $5.6 billion

for a wall that's going to pay for itself almost on a monthly basis. it's just politics, folks. it's purely politics. so we have a lot of loopholes, whether it's catch and release, the world's most ridiculous loophole. you catch somebody and then you release them. now, what we're doing is we're catching and retaining. the problem is we have to build vast fields of rooms and places for these people to stay that we're catching. and it's physically not possible, nor is it possible even cost-wise. but we're catching and retaining. you have the lottery system the visa lottery system where we bring people into our country based on a lottery. we want to end all of this nonsense, the visa lottery system. so they pick them out of a jar. we want to pick people to come

into our country on the basis of merit and talent so that all of the companies that are moving in we have large numbers of companies many, many companies more than we've seen in many years. the companies that have left our country are coming back because of what's going on. you see our job numbers are great. we need people to come in, but we can't have these loopholes. these loopholes are crazy. one thing i have to say, daca. we are all for daca. the republicans are for doing something with daca. but it's been so misreported. we had a the confines of a deal. and the $25 billion didn't just cover a wall; it covered a lot of border security. and we have a lot that that's been covered very incorrectly. but it's confusing to a lot of people. but we were close to having a daca deal, and then we had a judge rule from the ninth circuit, amazing ruling, and he

said daca was ok, even though when president obama signed it, he essentially said, well, probably can't sign this. probably not legal, but i'm going to sign it anyway. and so everybody thought that it was going to be easily overturned by the judge. and the judge amazingly ruled in favor of that signing, even though president obama didn't think it was going to hold up as he signed it. he said it. go back and check. and then you had it upheld in the ninth circuit, on appeal. and now it's going to the supreme court of the united states. we had a deal, pretty close to being done, and lot of people say i backed away from that deal. i didn't back way. the minute the judge overruled the case and they allowed daca, they didn't talk to us about, and i don't blame them, they didn't answer the calls. they said, well, we're not going to prove that. we won the case. why should we make a deal with daca?

i think it's going to overturned in the united states supreme court, and i think it's going to be overwhelmingly overturned. i mean, nobody thinks that should have happened. we think it was a fluke, and it was a disgraceful situation that a judge ruled a way the judge ruled. but we think it's going to be overturned. it's now going, as you probably heard two weeks ago, it's now going it will be in the united states supreme court. so if we win that case and i say this for all to hear we'll be easily able to make a deal on daca and the wall as a combination. but until we win that case, they don't want to really talk about daca, although they should, because there are those that don't want to allow daca. i happen to think that we can do something with daca. mike agrees. other people agree. some people don't. so i think they're foolish if they don't want to make a deal with daca. because if we get overridden, that means everybody that's been here has to leave the country. so there are a lot of things going on.

we're very proud of what we've done with respect to the wall and the renovation that we've done. it's covered a lot of territory. a tremendous amount of miles. and that continues to go on. but we need the wall for the security of our country. people want to see it. it's about border security. and i think, in the end, we're going to be successful. we are doing so much work right now. you see it going up. it's going up all over. that's the money that we were given. i want to thank the military , because the military has been fantastic. we've been working with pat shanahan, who is the acting secretary of defense, who has he's been such a pleasure to work for 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 help for physical barriers. the military has been really great. the army corps of engineers has

been fantastic. and so, with that, i think what i'll do is i'll ask pat to say a few words, and then i'm going to ask matt and kirstjen to say a couple of words. maybe i'll start with pat shanahan. mr. shanahan: thank you, sir. and happy new year, everyone. maybe just 3 points to share with all of you. first is, we've been very, very closely coupled with kirstjen, customs, and border patrol. i was speaking with general o'shaughnessy, the commander of northcom. he sends his best. the team is executing operational training every day. the collaboration has been seamless. kirstjen, as you know, and she's off here to our right, the national guard has been in support, and the active duty.

maybe a shout-out, manny padilla, kirstjen, has done an exceptional job. when i was talking to general o'shaughnessy, he said pete flores and kevin mcaleenan. and we've just had exceptional interaction. the second is, and you highlighted it, restoration of the fences, building out of additional mileage for the wall. the army corps of engineers is dialed in on doing this cost-effectively, quickly, and with the right amount of urgency as to where we can build additional standup walls quickly and then get after the threat. the threat is real. the risks are real. we need to control our borders. and maybe the third piece i would share with you is that we're doing additional planning to strengthen the support that we're providing to kirstjen and her team. pres. trump: well, your people

have been fantastic. and you've headed it up, and i have to say they really have done a great job. and again, we want to finish it. we want to complete it. because you can't have a partial wall, because people come through the area that's not built. but the areas that are built, nobody is getting through. you can't get through, unless you're a world-class pole-vaulter in the olympic team. it's very hard to get through. very few people are able to get through. and you have done really, in particular, you have done a fantastic job. and while we're on you, as you know, i just back from iraq. we had a fantastic meeting with the generals and the syria situation. i mean, i'm the only person in the history of our country that could really decimate isis, say we're bringing the troops back home over a period of time. i never said so quickly, but over a period of time.

but everybody gives me credit for decimating isis. so we do that, and we say we're going to bring the troops back home, where they belong. i've been campaigning on that for a long time, before i won. a big part of my campaign, i want to bring our troops back from the endless wars. we have endless wars. they've been going on for 19 years in the area. but i'm going to bring them home from syria. so i'm the only one that can do that and get bad publicity. they say, he's bringing them home. because let me tell you, when i took over syria, they were supposed to be there for 3 to four months, pat, and they ended up being there for 5 years. so that's a little bit different than you thought. but they were supposed to be there for a short period of time. they've been there for a long time. and we have done a real job. but we are continuing to fight. we never let anybody down. and there was a lot of misinterpretation, but i think you'll see at the end, that's working out. we're bringing our troops back home. we're doing things that are very excited, that i really very exciting, that i can't talk about, that i don't want to talk about. they're very exciting. a lot of great people understood it. lindsey graham understood it. some others understood it. but what we're doing is the right thing to do.

and in many respects, it's very exciting because i like winning. when i took over syria, syria was a mess. it was riddled i think you could say this better than anybody it was riddled with isis. and now, everybody says it's down to 1% of the land, and sometimes, you could even say, less. 1%. that place was a mess. it was terrible. but we also have to have to other countries fighting isis. you know, we're helping by doing this. people say russia and iran. we're helping them. everything we do over there helps them. they don't like seeing us leave because we're knocking out isis. let them fight isis too. we're spending all of this money. i want to spend money in our country. but we've had a tremendous success in syria. we're slowly bringing people back and bringing them back. we're hitting the hell out of them, the isis people. and we are doing something that, frankly, if i would have told you two years, when we first came into office, that we would

have had that kind of success, nobody would have believed it. they would have said you're exaggerating; it's not possible. but we're down to final blows. and those generals were fantastic. when we met with the generals in iraq, they were really fantastic. they really know their business. so we have a lot of exciting things to talk about militarily. we've had a lot of victories. i just got a great letter from kim jong-un. and those few people that i've shown this letter to they've never written letters like that. this letter is a great letter. we've made a lot of progress with north korea and kim jong-un. and chairman kim has been we've had a we've really established a very good relationship. a lot of good things are happening. and i never said speed. look, it's been this way for 80-plus years. we had our meeting six months ago, in singapore. we'll probably now have another meeting. he'd like to meet; i'd like to

meet. but we've established a very good relationship. we're given no credit for it. you know, frankly, if this administration didn't take place, if another administration came in instead of this administration namely mike and myself, and the group around this table you'd be at war right now. you'd be having a nice, big, fat war in asia. and it wouldn't be pleasant. and instead of that, we're getting along fine. i'm not in any rush. i don't have to rush. all i know is there's no rockets; there's no testing. in fact, i watched, last night, pbs. i haven't seen it in a while, pbs. and i just noticed you know, i was in the white house all by myself for six, seven days. it was very lonely. my family was down in florida. they were all 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 that 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 i've heard about them. i'll have to start watching pbs much more. but they covered it very accurately. and i actually put a quote out last night about what they said. but that was very accurate. they really do want to do something. now, does that mean it's going to be done? who knows? who knows? deals are deals. you never know. but i tell you, we have we've established a very good relationship with north korea. that was going to be a war. that could've been a world war iii, to be honest with you, because that would've a lot of people would have had to get involved in that, all over asia, and then it spreads beyond asia. and instead, we have somebody that i really think wants to get on to the economic development and making a lot of success and money, frankly, for his country. because north korea has tremendous potential, and we'll help them out too.

but north korea has tremendous economic potential. and so i look forward to our meeting with chairman kim. we'll set that up. we'll be setting it up in the not-too-distant future. and with that, i'll ask secretary nielsen we'll get back on to the border to say a few words. please, secretary. sec. nielsen: good afternoon, mr. president. so i'm in san diego reviewing our border security and immigration efforts. is it working? can you all hear me? ok. and as you've described, sir, in fact this is a humanitarian security crisis. we're doing our best out here. i always want to take the opportunity to thank the great men and women of the border patrol and customs and border protection. but the system itself is simply overwhelmed.

this is my 17th around 17th trip to the border in the last year. and i can tell you, unfortunately, the crisis is getting worse. our immigration system is simply badly broken. so let me start by saying, from a dhs perspective, mr. president, now more than ever we need the wall. today i'm going to talk quickly about how bad the crisis has gotten. but to fix it, we need what our frontline operators are demanding, which is a barrier that will keep illegal aliens, drugs, criminals, terrorists, and other threats from entering our country. walls work. as you said, it's not a political issue; it's an operational one. we've seen the successes of walls in el paso, in yuma, in san diego, and in el centro sector. under your leadership, we're building the first new wall in over a decade, but we need more. we need new sections of wall at our top illegal entry points something that congress unfortunately prohibited us from doing last year in our appropriations. and we also need to continue to replace the old, outdated, and ineffective wall sections that you referenced. we need to replace them with

wall that has been identified for operational purposes by the professional men and women of cbp, not by uninformed political restrictions that have been put on our appropriations. as you know, the southern border remains a principal entry point for both cocaine and methamphetamine entering the united states. and seizures in both narcotics are spiking. we've also seen, unfortunately, an increase in fentanyl coming across the southern border, which kills about 72,000 americans every year. the southern border is also the primary entry point for criminals and gang members. just last year, we apprehended more than 17,000 criminals and 1,000 gang members along the southern border. we are also concerned about potential terrorists as well, as you know. in 2018 alone, we apprehended 3,000 special-interest aliens coming into our country along the southern border. these are aliens that have travel patterns or other characteristics of concern to the intelligence community.

mr. president, we need a strong border wall system to keep these threats and others out of the u.s. and i strongly support your continued efforts to obtain the needed resources from congress. and if i could, let me just give you a little bit more about the crisis. we also need to address poorly written and outdated laws. simply put, our laws allow illegal aliens into the country and allows them to stay. this must change. here is the reality of the crisis we're facing, on average, as you've said, we see about 2,000 people a day try to illegally enter our country at the southern border. we'll never be able to send the majority of them back home unless, and until, congress acts to close the loopholes these people are exploiting to stay in the country. to break it down, there are 3 categories of illegal aliens arriving at our border, single adults, family units, and unaccompanied children. in the past, single adults have been the vast majority of illegal aliens.

they're still the easiest for us to handle. we're able to detain and deport them quickly. under your administration, mr. president, we've dramatically ramped up prosecutions of these illegal border crossers with help from the department of justice. and we will continue to do so. but the demographics are changing, and the vast majority of the people that we see now are family units and unaccompanied children. they now make up about two-thirds of those arriving at our borders. because of poorly written laws and decisions, it's virtually impossible to send them home. we're only allowed, as you know, to hold families for 21 days. that's it. then we have to let them go, under the law. most of them then disappear into the united states. what's worse, in 9 out of every 10 cases, immigration judges find that these families are not even eligible for asylum in the first place and should be deported. but by then, most of them have vanished and escaped the law.

smugglers and traffickers know this. in fact, they know our immigration laws much better than many members of congress. they are using this as a fast pass to get illegal aliens into america. the result is an explosion in the number of families arriving at our borders, and a massive spike in the number of fake families showing up. they know if they pretend they're together, they're likely to get in for good. and quickly, the third category is unaccompanied children. because of outdated laws, we cannot send kids to show up alone back to their home countries and to their families. they have to be transferred to the department of health and human services, which places them with sponsors or relatives in america. the result is we see more and more of them every day. parents are making the unconscionable decision to send children on long, dangerous, and sometimes deadly journeys to our country. we are busting at the seams. hhs is out of capacity. and under the law, cbp must transfer these kids to hhs.

these loopholes serve as a giant magnet, which is now resulting in a humanitarian catastrophe. our system was simply not built to handle this influx of families and children. the human toll is real and shocking. women are being trafficked and raped. in fact, 1 out of 3 women report they are sexually assaulted on the journey to our borders. kids are getting abused. they're getting sick very sick. many of them are being recycled and used by smugglers to get more people into the united states. and nearly 70% of illegal aliens report being 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. we do not have the resources or legal authority to keep up with us crisis.

only congress can keep up with that. we need congress to fund and build the wall. give us the resources to deal with this crisis. grants dhs the authority to retain and remove illegal family units aliens together. and allow unaccompanied children to be returned to their families. ice agents are dealing with so much overflow that we are having to pull them off national security cases, counter drug cases, and we cannot do this anymore. i would like to close by thanking the whole of your administration.

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 with less. in an attempt to secure our country with our hands tied behind our back. thank you for your leadership and your continued focus as a work with congress to try to address this. pres. trump: thank you so much. that was a really fantastic presentation. you have been working hard on there. if we had a wall that was not penetrable, you would not have people making the journey. i think we could say that if we had the wall, people would not even bother making the journey. because the journey is tremendously dangerous. children are getting sick. they are being accosted. you heard what she said about

all of the crime and raped and everything else that takes place during that horrible journey. if they thought they could not get in, they would not be making the journey. we want people coming into our country. we need people. but they have to do it through the system. they have to do it legally. we want people coming who can help our country. it can be based on merit and achievement. people who are going to help companies that are coming into our country. which are so many. thank you for that great presentation. we really appreciate it. acting attorney general matt whitaker, please. a.g. whitaker: you stayed in washington, d.c. over the holidays. while members of congress went

on vacation and ignore the problem. you have demonstrated your dedication to delivering on this critical issue for our country and for 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. it will reduce the flow of drugs, gangs like the violent ms 13, and criminals across our border. you highlighted the case of a officer who is a legal immigrant who was murdered by an illegal immigrant in california. it would reduce incentives and restore integrity to our immigration system. we need congress to close the loopholes in our immigration laws. not only do they frustrate dhs, 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. it will not go unchecked. and we will continue to prosecute aliens for crimes like a legal 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 gangs like ms 13. the immigration courts are working. we have over 400 immigration judges and we are hiring more. we are restoring the rule of law

court system. we will continue to do everything we can. we are seeing tremendous progress. the number of cases originating from the border are overwhelming our system. we will continue to defend our actions in federal court. this administration has taken strong action to restore legality to our immigration issue. 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 doj 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 law, funds the government, and close the loopholes and hour 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 loopholes in our immigration laws. pres. trump: that is great. thank you very much. i know you are hiring judges. we are one of the only countries where if you step one foot into our country, you now have a court case. others say get out. they put you out. or worse. with our country, if you are able to put a foot on to our land, that is what catch and releases. even beyond that. value end up with lawyers and judges and, it is so ridiculous. this is the system that we have. nobody pointed it out before we came along. you have to have a court case. you can't just say we are on

your land and get out. 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 and trials. but they don't take place because what they have to do, it is impossible to hold all of them. this is by law. these idiotic laws given to us largely by the democrats. that we can change in one hour if people got together. so we end up with court cases for people who just happen to step a foot on our land. you are talking tens of thousands. i think we have close to 800,000 pending lawsuits. these people disappear into the united states. never to show up for their case. which comes back and three or four 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. 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. i think honestly, if i had not have come a, no one would 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 laws will be nearly as important. because people won't come up because they know they cannot come for. one of the other things i would like to mention as i had a very successful mention about a month ago with president xi of china. he and i had a meeting that was going to be 45 minutes but 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 are criminalize fentanyl, it would really help us. we are losing 80,000 people a

year. think about that. 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. it was not a long negotiation. it was really a negotiation on trade. it's coming along very well. we will see what happens. i talked about fentanyl. he agreed to criminalize it at the highest level, which means, i assume, death penalty. that will be put into effect fairly soon. that should have an amazing impact on the fentanyl coming into our country. i'd like to have your opinions on the barriers we have to put up.

>> your focus on this is really important. while i was the 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. we ran numerous operations along the border. we talked about it at the governors association meeting, the challenge that we had with that 1200 mile border. two thirds of the border the challenge has always been the lack of support from washington, d.c.

to have a chief executive finally recognize that it's going to take washington acting to address this issue, it's really heartening from my perspective, having basically been ignored for those eight years as i was the governor. it's this message that comes from the media, from those who don't want to secure that border, that you can come and be rewarded. that's got to stop. one of the ways to do that is with a clear message to those that are trying to use that border as an access into the united states. there's not a reward anymore. don't come. when the summertime gets here, the humanitarian issue here that all too often doesn't get talked about, the lives that are lost in mexico, in the desert southwest, in that region of texas that is incredibly inhospitable.

you are out there trying to cross -- that's the heart reckoning side of this. what about the hundreds of people who have died trying to cross that border? because of the incentive that people have given them, all of these different incentives to come and penetrate that border. you are standing up and saying, don't come.

don't put your family in jeopardy. i personally like to see the media really get focused on those stories, about what you are doing to stop that type of danger. frankly, hostility to these individuals. building that border security is the most powerful message that we can send. the most powerful message is from the chief executive of the united states. standing up and saying, congress, you have to -- a responsibility to protect and defend the people of this country. i'm sitting here ready to negotiate with you. i'm sitting here ready to find a solution, to deal with this horrendous condition that we find in this country. all they need to do is come and sit down with you, mr. president. i know where your heart is. we are ready to find a solution. to this issue of illegal immigration, drug trafficking, potential terrorist activity along that southern border. we got the expertise. all we need is the will from congress to come.

we would be more than happy to find a solution to this. >> they will be here at 3:00. we will see what comes of it. i have to say, it would be a lot 80 year -- easier if i never took up this issue. if i left it as it was, where people stream into this country. we've had tremendous difficulties. you look at the numbers, the crimes, what we are doing now. we're taking out thousands of

people that are -- ms 13, the brutal gang. they love using knives because they are far more painful than guns. what they do to people is incredible. we are moving them out by the thousands. people don't talk about that. they came here over years. they have taken over towns, long island and other places. they are bad people. we are doing big numbers. they don't like donald trump, i can tell you that. ms 13 and other gangs, we are getting them out. ice and border patrol, people who have done an incredible job. it will be making a presentation at 3:00 to the folks coming up from congress. it would be a lot easier if i didn't do anything, if i just enjoyed the presidency.

and don't bring up the southern border, don't talk about all of the problems that we are -- that are taking place at the southern border but nobody wanted to discuss. people were flowing like water. a lot of things happen. when you hear 11 million, 35 million. for years, we've been hearing the same numbers. i used to hear 11 million all the time. i said, does it ever increase or go down? nobody knows. they would flow in mostly from the southern border. nobody would talk about it. nobody would do anything about it. problems were caused, including to our educational systems, or hospital systems, so many different things that we have. tremendous damage was done. it would've been a lot easier for me to sit back and let it continue. it was out of control. our strong economy makes it even

more difficult. people, because our country is doing better by far than any other country in the world. we are the talk of the world. we had a little glitch in the stock market last month, but it's still up around 30% from the time i got elected. it's going to go up once we settle trade issues and a couple of other things happen. it's got a long way to go. the trade deals we are making is just our fantastic for our country. whether it's china, mexico, canada, south korea. we started negotiations with japan. they were all bad for our country. we are changing that. we were taken advantage of by so many countries on our military. we are providing all they want. they are not helping us. they are not doing anything toward helping us monetarily. disgraceful. i've been saying it for years. military protection to countries that are very wealthy and are

doing anything for us. you can call them allies if you want. a lot of our allies were taking advantage of our taxpayers. we can't let that happen. shanahan agrees with that. that was very important to me. i couldn't get other people to understand. they didn't get what i was saying. a lot of great things are happening. it's a lot easier if i did nothing. eventually, at some point, really bad stuff would take place. we are very proud of the job we are doing. i'm very proud of the people around this table. we're talking about the migration coming up. if alex azar, who has been doing a fantastic job, we are almost

ready to make that big final push. it's not an easy situation. they've been trying for years. i don't think anybody's actually been trying. we've done an incredible job. you will see a final couple of strokes made. it takes a long time to stand up -- set up statutorily. we have gone through a big process. you will see a tremendous reduction in drug prices. a lot of great work was done. along with secretary acosta was created some incredible health care programs, cooperative programs. where the price of health care has really gone down, far below obamacare. some really great programs. people are signing up in tremendous numbers. i would like to thank you, very great job you done on health care. we've set up some incredible health care programs that are far better than obamacare and a lot less expensive.

if i could ask secretary azor. children are very sick by the time they come up. remember this. the coyotes, they are the bad ones. they are not stupid. they know our laws better than the people who wrote them. they are using children to gain access into this country. they are using these children. they are not with families. they are using the children. they are taking the children. they dispose of the children. this has been going on for years. >> thank you for your strong leadership. these are miners who arrive at the border without their parents. traveling to the u.s. border is extremely dangerous. miners suffering physical, mental or sexual trauma on the way to this country. parents should not send their

kids on this journey. this is not a compassionate act. it's endangering your children. unfortunately, more and more miners have been arriving over the past year. when they are apprehended at the border, the department of homeland security takes them into custody. dhs refers them to hhs. we then select a grantee to care for them until we can release them to a suitable sponsor. we saw automatic drop in the number of unaccompanied children arriving after the children took office. the numbers are now rising significantly. we received approximately 29,000 unaccompanied children. in 2018, we received approximately 51,000 unaccompanied alien children. currently, there are almost 13,000 in our care.

we expect that number to rise during the new year. we brought more capacity online to address the situation, almost doubling our capacity. having to continually expand capacity is simply a symptom of a broken system. caring for a company children in an appropriate environment is incredibly expensive. care for you ac in 2018 cost about $2 billion. we expect something similar for this coming year unless the situation is addressed. imagine if we secured our border and we didn't have to spend that money caring for those kids. we also have had to provide technical assistance to help address medical needs of both adults and children migrants when they arrive.

we are proud of the standards that we set for the care of these kids in the program. this is a tragic situation that will continue until our immigration system is fixed. as the president mentioned, we need a system that discourages parents from working with smugglers to bring minors into our country on this dangerous journey. we need it now. i want to note the great work you did with president xi to get fentanyl scheduled. if we do not have border security on our southern border, it will redirect to mexico and come in from there and keep killing american citizens. pres. trump: thank you very much. thank you for what you are doing with drug pricing. it's going to be something very

spectacular. mr. vice president, please. >> thank you, mr. president. having spent the christmas break here in washington along with you, i want to thank you for the strong stand you have taken on border security. not just because you said you would, but because as the cabinet and nation looking on can see, you recognize that we have a crisis at our southern border. we think the tragedy of officer singh, a legal immigrant, being struck down during the christmas holiday. we think of the videos of the american -- of a large assault on our border that required our border patrol to deploy teargas. this is the information you. every day. -- you hear of every day. you being willing to take a strong stand to shutdown the government until we secure the

funding to build a wall and bring about the kind of changes we will achieve, i know it's something that millions of americans appreciate. i personally appreciate your stand. you gave the numbers before. they are worth repeating. 17,000 criminals have been apprehended attempting to come into this country. since this is ministration took office, 235 criminal aliens have been apprehended. we think about the tragedy along the border that the secretaries both spoke about today. we think about the human cost to the american people in our society by not addressing this issue in a meaningful way. mr. president, you directed our entire team to reach out to democrats in congress. we met several times before

christmas. mick mulvaney and i traveled. we presented a good-faith offer to resolve this issue, to achieve a compromise, only to find out that days after christmas, the democrats had stopped negotiations altogether. they are coming here today at your invitation. our sincere hope is that, confronted with these facts, that democrats on capitol hill will join republicans in your call to achieve real border security. we are ready to deal. we have an offer on the table. it would reopen the government and achieve border security. i know other senators are talking about fresh ideas, some of which reflected on today. i know will get due consideration. we owe the american people nothing less than our best efforts. not just to reopen the government, but to reopen the

government once we have the resources to build a wall and make measurable progress on achieving real border security. pres. trump: thank you very much. it's true. i want to thank mick mulvaney, he's been a real activist. he's got great energy. doing a great job. we appreciate it. hold everything together very quickly. things are going very well. i want to say, we inherited a lot of problems when i became president. i took over a whole lot of problems. the middle east, the southern border, north korea. that was the easy stuff. we took over a lot of problems. i think we will do well with all of them. we are doing really well. whether we should have ever been in the middle east or not, that's a question for a lot of

people. you know where i come from on that. we are doing something very special in the middle east. you're going to see that. we're doing a lot more work and a lot more results. north korea, you know how i stand on that. it was rough there for a while. if you go to before i got elected and look at what was happening, the relationships really have been very good. we will see what happens. i only say, dealing with people. i know you guys would love to see what's on this letter. i would love to read it to you. we have a very good relationship going. time will tell.

time will tell. the economy is doing fantastically well. unemployment is at a record low. unemployment for black, hispanic, asian is at the lowest it's ever been in the history of our country. even kanye west came out today and said great things about trump. he's a good deficit. he said great things about us. he sees what we are doing. we have record low unemployment for african-americans, for asians, or for hispanics. that's tough to beat. we are doing very well. the world isn't doing so well. the world has an effect on us. china has gotten hit hard. other places have been hit hard. europe is not doing too well. they will come back. we have to do what we have to do. we are doing well. we are doing very well. i want to thank everybody very much. i want to thank the cabinet. we will talk about some other issues.

great job. thank you very much everybody. thank you to the media. i was lonely over the weekend. i was in washington hoping that we would see a little action, i get a call, let's get together and work hard. they're just whining over washington. i really believe that they want to do something. what mike said is true. there's been a lot of good discussions going on. jared has been working very hard. some of the talent we have around this table has. they have a lot of friends in congress on both sides. we have a lot of good discussions going on. i think that the democrats want to see something happen.

i know that the republicans want to see it. you can't have border security without the wall. you can't have border security without a very strong barrier, call it anything you want. it has to be very powerful. it has to be very strong. something that people cannot just walk through. you have that, many of the problems we have spoken about will totally disappear. even some of the laws we have to have changed. we have laws once they enter. nobody's going to be able to enter once we do with the way we are doing it. we made a lot of progress on the wall and the renovations. much of that is finished. we just gave out a large -- we are in the process of giving out additional large contract for many miles, 115 miles of wall in a very important area. as i said to you over the weekend. i appreciate everyone coming. our country had a lot of problems when i was elected. we have a lot less problems now.

a lot of the big ones, we are in the process of getting them solved. we are in the process of solving problems that a lot of people thought were not solvable. the easiest way, when you don't have a problem you think is not solvable, just sit back and enjoy the presidency. i can't do that. i want to get them solved for the country. we have a long way to go. this country has a great future with tremendous potential. we want to solve the problems, not just sit back and enjoy the presidency. thank you all very much for coming. we appreciate it. [inaudible] >> happy new year. i want to ask you a few questions. is there a number below $5 billion that you might be willing to accept in order to reopen the government and get this thing moving forward? pres. trump: i would rather not say it. could we do it for a little bit less? you know, i've heard numbers as

high as $275 billion we lose on illegal immigration. a lot has already been done. we've been getting money in. somebody said we didn't spend the money. we have spent it. we don't pay contractors before they finish the job. we like to have people do the work. we are building the wall. we are paying as they build it. we pay it when it's finished. so that they do it good -- do a good job. not all of the money has been paid. but the money has been used. maybe if you guys could remember that. we spent the money. we want to finish it up. 5.6 billion approved by the house is such a small amount compared to the level of the problem. when you see that the democrats want to give away $12 billion extra, we are giving away 54 billion in foreign aid. we don't give money to our own country. we are cutting that back. it's very unfair when we give money to guatemala and honduras and el salvador and they do

nothing for us. when we give money to pakistan, $1.3 billion. i ended that. they haven't been fair to us. we want to have a great relationship with pakistan. they house the enemy, they take care of the enemy. we just can't do that. i look forward to meeting with the folks, the new leadership in pakistan. i ended the 1.3 billion we paid like it was water. we just paid it to pakistan. we ended a lot of other money that was being sent out on a monthly basis, on a yearly basis to countries that don't even vote for us in the united nations. we give them billions of dollars. we want something to help certain countries. it's not all about the rich countries. the rich countries to take advantage of us.

they pay a small percentage of the military. they cheat on trade. other than that, they are wonderful. there are countries that are poor. we don't want anything from them. we want to help them. we don't want money from them. we don't want that. we're not looking for that. when you have massively wealthy countries that have very low military costs because the united states subsidizes them, they take vintage of us on military. they could easily pay us the full amount. they also take advantage of us on trade. when i speak up -- that's why i got elected. issues like that. issues like the border. it would be so easy not to do anything. when they say i'm not popular in europe, i shouldn't be.

i wouldn't be doing my job. i want europe to pay. germany pays 1%. they should be paying 4%. other countries pay a small percentage of what they should be paying. when i say, you have to pay up, i shouldn't be popular in europe. i was at 88%, now i'm at a very low number in europe. i don't care about europe. i'm not elected by europeans. i'm elected by americans. by american taxpayers, frankly. i think my relationship with the leaders in europe is very good. a lot of them don't even understand how they got away with it for so many years. angela merkel, i'm friends with all of them. how did this ever happen? they go, i don't believe it either. their presidents, and other

people within the administration's, love them to get away with it. no one ever asked us to pay. we have negotiations going on with numerous countries right now to pay a lot of money to the united states for what we are doing for them. i wouldn't say they are thrilled. they had many years were they didn't have to pay. now they are going to have to pay. if that makes me unpopular, that's ok. they should at least respect us. they didn't respect us. go ahead. >> i appreciate it. maybe the military has an angle there or possible -- pres. trump: there are no angles. they have no angle. the military under past leadership was taken advantage of by other countries. allies and not allies. they were taken advantage of. our country has to be respect for.

when we are taking, when horrible things are happening on trade, where we have barriers put up and tariffs put on, and we open our country up. cars are sent into our country with no taxes. yet they won't accept our cars. when cars are sent in and they pay no taxes but we are expect to pay 40% -- i will be honest with you, it it's not in my dna. i don't know how people allowed that. we are not allowing it to happen anymore. i could be the most popular person in europe. i could run for any office if i wanted to. i don't want to. i want people to treat us fairly. there's no angles. there's nothing. when a country sends us 200 soldiers to iraq or 100 soldiers to syria or afghanistan, and

then they tell me, we sent you soldiers. that's one 100th. i've heard past presidents, they are involved in the afghanistan war. because they sent us 100 soldiers. and yet, it's costing us billions and billions of dollars. i could give you an example, i get along very well with india and the prime minister there. he's constantly telling me, he built a library in afghanistan. that's like five hours of what we spend. he's very smart. we are supposed to say, thank you for the library. i don't know who's using it in afghanistan.

it's one of those things. i don't like being taken advantage of. what other countries have done for the last long. -- longtime has given us soldiers. they talk about it like it's the end of the world. we are subsidizing their militaries by billions of dollars. many, many times what those soldiers cost that country. >> did you hear about the mitt romney op-ed? what is your reaction? pres. trump: i'm surprised he didn't this quickly. i was expecting something. look, i endorsed him. he thanked me profusely. it was very nice. i am surprised. we've done a lot. i read the op-ed. he said it. he agrees, i don't think anybody would of been able to do the tax cuts like i did.

we got an war approved. we got rid of the individual mandate. that case from texas should win in the supreme court. it only was kept, obamacare, because of the individual mandate. now that that's gone, i don't know how you could possibly keep it. that's repeal and replace. john mccain voted against it. i've been campaigning for many years. he went phones down and that was the end of that. for many years, it was repeal and replace. at 2:00 in the morning, he went phones down. i'm a very flexible guy. we were part of that lawsuit. a great judge, highly respected, said the individual mandate is dead. that means we should win at the supreme court. when we do, we will sit down with the democrats and come up with great health care. far better, far better.

we will have everything included. obamacare is too expensive. the premiums are way too high. the deductibles, you can't even use it. it's so high. unless you get hit by a tractor, you can't even use it. nobody's seen everything like it -- anything like it. obamacare is a tremendous failure. now that we won the individual mandate, which was the most unpopular thing in obamacare. i would love mitt romney to be a team player. possibly he won't be. i'm surprised he acted so quickly. i gave him an endorsement. i was happy that he won in utah. i have great popularity in utah.

i did something for them that nobody else would of done that has to do with their parts. -- parks. we did that for a very special person who is now going to be retiring after 42 years. our great friend who is a spectacular man. also for mike lee who pressed it very hard. orrin hatch and mike lee. the people of utah really appreciate what i did for them. hundreds and hundreds of miles of park that they will be able to now use, as opposed to not. i was surprised at mitt romney. i hope he's going to be a team player. if he is, that will be great. i will say this.

if you thought really hard -- he fought really hard against president obama like he does against me, he would've won the election. does that make sense to you? i'm telling you. he would've won the election. i think he's going to end up being a team player. i think he agrees with many of the things we have done. we will see what happens. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: i think india should be involved in afghanistan. a give you an example. i gave our generals all the money they wanted, they didn't do such a great job in a -- in afghanistan. they've been fighting there for 19 years. general mattis thanked me for getting money. he thanked me even more when i got him $716 billion. he couldn't believe it. our military was depleted. now we are rebuilding our military. pat was responsible for a lot of the orders for new fighter jets, all the things we're doing. general mattis was so thrilled. what has he done for me? how has he done in afghanistan? not too good.

i'm not happy with what he has done there. i shouldn't be. he was very thankful when i got him $700 billion. the following year, $716 billion. i wish him well. president obama fired him, and essentially so did i. i want results. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: we are talking to the taliban, we are talking to a lot of different people. here's the thing. you mentioned india. india is there. russia is there. russia used to be the soviet union. afghanistan made it russia. they went bankrupt fighting in afghanistan. russia. you take a look at other countries, pakistan is there.

they should be fighting. russia should be fighting. the reason russia was in afghanistan was because terrorists were going into russia. they were right to be there. the problem is, it was a tough fight. they went bankrupt. they went to being called russia again. a lot of these places you are reading about now are no longer part of russia. because of afghans. why isn't russia there? why isn't india there? why is in pakistan there? why are we there. we are 6000 miles away. we want to help other nations. we do have taliban, isis. i will give you an example. taliban is our enemy. isis is our enemy. we have an area i brought up with our generals four or five weeks ago.

taliban is here. isis is here. they are fighting each other. i said, why don't we let them fight? why do we get in the middle of them? sir, we didn't want to do it. they end up fighting both of them. it's the craziest thing i've ever seen. i think i would've been a good general but who knows. these are two enemies fighting against each other. we end up fighting. what are we doing? india, great relationship with the prime minister. he's a great man. he's done a fantastic job. he's brought the country together. india, russia. look at some of the satellite countries that are extremely wealthy with oil. i spoke to some of them. i said to a certain country, very rich country, what would you do if the united states pulled out? we would be taken over by the

taliban. i said, why are you charging us when we have to use your country to send products through? why are you charging us when we send airplanes over to your country? we're doing the job for you. he said to me, smart gentlemen, nobody ever asked me not to. i said, i'm asking you not to. we will not charge you. i'm talking about millions and millions of dollars. flights over his country. i said, what would happen if we weren't here? he says, we would be overrun. we could not defend ourselves. he charges us, but he doesn't charges anymore. please. >> [inaudible] what's your timetable? pres. trump: i didn't say that. we are getting out of syria.

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, but that was a long time later. when president obama decided not to violate his statement -- making a threat is ok. you always have to follow through with the threat. you can't do nothing. syria was lost long ago. besides that, we are talking about sand and death. we are not talking about vast wealth. sand and death. the kurds, is very interesting. turkey doesn't like them. i didn't like the fact that they are selling oil that they have to iran, we asked them not to.

the kurds are selling oil to iran. we're not thrilled about that. at the same time, they fight better when we fight with them. when we sent 30 f-18s in front of them, they fight better. you've seen what has happened. we want to protect the kurds, nevertheless. i don't want to be in syria forever. it's sand. it's death. when we kill isis -- everyone says, they will come to our country. that's true of a small percentage. they are going to iran. they are going to russia, who hates isis more than we do. i read, when we pull out, russia is thrilled. russia is not happy. we are killing isis for assad. we are killing isis also for iran.

while we are on iran. people don't write the fact. iran is a much different country than it was when i became president. when i became president, i had a meeting at the pentagon with lots of generals. it was like from a movie. better looking than tom cruise and stronger. i had more generals than i'd ever seen. we were at the bottom of this incredible room. i said, this is the greatest room i've ever seen. i saw more computer boards than they make today. every part of the middle east, and other places, that was under

attack was because of iran. i said, wow. you look at yemen, syria, every place. saudi arabia was under siege. they wanted yemen because of a border with saudi arabia. that's why they are there. every place was under siege. i asked the question, how do you stop these people? they have plenty of money. president obama had given them $150 billion. i'm still trying to figure that one out. $1.8 billion in cash. planeloads of cash. we didn't have enough cash in tri-state area to give them $1.8 million. they had to use the currency of other countries. with all of that being said, i did something called terminate the horrible iran nuclear deal. in eight years, if iran the legal right to have nuclear weapons. i did it.

iran is no longer the same country. iran is pulling people out of syria. they can do it they want their, frankly. they are pulling people a lot of yemen. iran wants to survive now. they were a power in the middle east. they were given take over the whole middle east. they wanted to destroy israel. iran is a much different country right now. they are having riots every week. in every city, bigger than they've ever had before. their currencies under siege, thanks was. a lot of bad things are happening. when we do all of the things we have done monetarily to iran, it is in trouble. i would love to negotiate. they are not ready yet. they will be. iran is a much different country right now than it was when i took office. two years ago, iran was going to take over the middle east. they would have all the nuclear

weapons they wanted. because of that stupid deal. when i terminated that deal, and then did what i had to do, iran is a much different country today. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: we are withdrawing. we are hitting them very hard. what i meant with the generals in iraq, i said, why didn't you do this before? he said, our commanders were telling us what to do. i said, don't you tell them? no, we take orders. i do it differently after a few minutes, they loosened up. this is what we should do. we were supposed to be out of syria many years ago. if you remember, we went to

syria for some spot hits. that was five years ago. we never left. i don't want to be in syria. i go to walter reed hospital. i see soldiers that are so badly injured and hurt -- i don't want that. i want to rebuild our country. i want to spend money on our military without depleting it every day. that's what happening. our military is getting really strong. i could tell you stories. i don't even want to talk about it. one of the things i told the secretary and other people, we do these reports on our military. ig goes over there, mostly appointed by president obama. we will have ours too. he goes over there. they do will report over every single thing that's happening. they release it to the public. what kind of stuff is this? the public means the enemy. the enemy reads those reports.

they study every line. let them do a report, that they should be private and locked up. if a member of congress can see it, he can go in and read it. for these reports, criticizing everything of thing. even in some places, saying good. for these reports to be released to the enemy is insane. i don't want it to happen anymore. you understand that. nobody more critical -- it's not my fault. i didn't put us there. we are getting out. we are getting out smart. we are winning. we are winning. just answer your question, over sometime. i never said we are getting out tomorrow. they will be pulled back in syria.

absolutely. we are getting out very powerfully. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: we're asking for $5.6. somebody said $2.5. look. this is national security we are talking about. just like we talk about the military and syria. all these different places. we spent in afghanistan more in one month than what we are talking about for the wall. think of that. we spent in afghanistan more money than most countries spent, except a few. it's ridiculous. what i'm talking about is $5.6 billion that the house approved. the house was very aggressive. they stepped up. they went in. i'm not holding nancy to this. she said, you would never get

the republicans to vote for it. i never saw anything so beautiful in my life. the spirit they had. i would like mitt romney to join in that spirit. we are doing some great things. we don't need another democrat. i want the democrats to join in. $5.6 billion is such a small number. literally. it's one month in afghanistan. we are talking about national security. this isn't just a border. this is national security. this is health and wellness. this is everything. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: let's see. maybe they have an idea. i talked daca to i think we are better off waiting for the supreme court. if they rule that president if the supreme court rules that president obama was wrong, which they should because, by the way, if he was right, then i've been given tremendous power. can you imagine me having that power? wouldn't that be scary? right?

no, 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. >> how long do you think the government is going to stay partially shut down? >> it could be a long time, or it could be quickly. could be a 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. nicest machine guns i've ever seen. [laughter] 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. [laughter] but i was there all alone with the machine gunners, and i felt very safe. and 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. and that's okay. look, look, this is really something that should be bipartisan, and we'll see if it is. i hope it is. i hope it is. okay? >> mr. president, are you willing to keep the government shutdown until the supreme court rules on daca? >> no, because i think supreme court, no, i think this should be settled. by the way, if the supreme court would do a great favor to this country, if they would 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 okay. 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.

>> so how are you viewing this meeting later this afternoon? you mentioned border patrol coming in, ice. is this an education campaign? is this a negotiation? are you issuing demands to democrats? >> all this is, is to tell chuck and nancy, and some others from ice and from border patrol, and also from some local law enforcement how bad it is, how dangerous it is, and why we need a wall. but they know that. look, look, when they say the wall is immoral, well then you better got to 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 100 percent. it's never going to change. a wall is a wall. the other is just, i mean, we can have all the drones flying over the people last night as they tried to rush the border. the only thing that stopped them was the wall. if we have drones up there, it's wonderful. we'll get nice pictures. >> the 5.6 is a small amount

compared to the problem. how long are you willing to keep the government shut down? >> it was never 25. you know, a lot of people just a lot of people thought it was $25 billion. and that wasn't, that was for overall homeland security. that was for much more than the wall. the wall was a piece of that. so, you know, a lot people said, "he should've taken the $25 billion." well, that covered a lot more territory than the wall. >> how long are you willing to keep the government shut down, then, in order to get that $5.6 billion? >> as long as it takes. i mean, look, 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've done nothing. i could've had a lot easier presidency by doing nothing. but i'm here. i want to do it right. and i'm not only talking here, i'm talking about middle east problems and other problems, and north korea problems. >> can i just ask on mr. romney too, why do think he'll eventually become a team player? and do you expect -- >> i don't know that he will. i hope he does. >> do you expect to get challenged from within the republican party in 2020?

>> i don't see it. i think i have the highest rating in the history of -- i was just looking at that poll. yeah, i think 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 as 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 i get bad press? because people see the job we're doing. people see that gasoline is way down. and the reason it's way down is because i called up some of the opec people. i say, "don't do it." you know, if you look back a few months, gasoline was at $83 a barrel. that was going to be bad. and it was going to $100, and some people were saying $125, rick. and i make calls. i said, "you better let that oil and that gasoline flow." and they did. and now it's down to $44. and i put out a social media statement yesterday, i said, "do you think it's luck that that happens?" it's not luck.

it's not luck. i called up certain people, and i said, "let that damn oil and gasoline, you let it flow, the oil." it was going up to $125. if that would've happened, then you would've had a recession, depression, like we've had in the past when that happened. >> these are all numbers that senator romney is aware of. why do you think he is going to come around and become a team player? >> i don't know if he's going to become a team player. i hope he does. if he does, i think it's going to be better for him. i think people are very upset with what he did. he hasn't even gotten to office yet. he hasn't even gotten to office. and he was very happy when i endorsed him. so, you know, i don't know what changed other than we've succeed in many of the things that i said we were going to do. and let me tell you, we're succeeding in others. we're really succeeding in things that people thought were impossible to do. so i think that mitt romney hopefully will be a team player. and if he's not, that's okay too. look, i handle it.

i mean, i just got rid of, i wouldn't say, they say they retired. they say that bob corker retired. they say that jeff flake, wonderful guy, i never even met him and he's hitting me. he was going to tell people how to win in 2020 because 2016 can't -- he wrote a book about it. didn't work out too well that book, because we won in 2016 because we didn't want until 2020. so jeff flake is now selling real estate, or whatever he's doing. he'll probably go to work for cnn. that's my prediction. bob corker, unfortunately, you know, i had a good relationship, and then he thought he was going to get some publicity for himself, and his ratings tubed, where he couldn't have 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 was going to be good publicity. it didn't work out too well. so, with mitt, i hope he's a team player. but if he's not, that okay, too.

i will tell you, we have some great republicans. and if you look at the way they're standing up for border security, you'd be very proud of them if you're a republican or if you're a person that loves our nation. thank you very much everybody. thank you. thank you very much. >> this weekend, c-span's cities tour takes you to santa monica, california. we highlight santa monica's literary life and history. visit with journalist and author saul rubin as he describes santa monica's history and culture and more. >> santa monica is a progressive southern california beach city. it is a major tourist destination. it is most well-known for being the place where people might come to enjoy the day and now as a popular place where young tech

startup companies. >> sunday on american history tv, santa monica pier historian shows the history of this iconic landmark. >> we see almost 9 million people a year come to the pier. that is people of all walks of life, all income levels, almost as many different reasons to come to the pier as there are people that visit it. if you were to walk down the pier on any given day and asked them what brought them, you would get a number of different reasons. sunday at 2:00 p.m. on .merican history tv on c-span3 working with our cable affiliates as we explore the american story.

over 100 new members joined the house and senate for the 116th congress. five of whom come from states that only have one or two congressional districts. north dakota voters elected kelley armstrong to represent the state in the house of representatives. he chaired the north dakota republican party before joining his office. he is an attorney and executive in his family's oil and gas expiration business. dusty johnson joins the house from south dakota. he served as chief of staff to the outgoing senator dennis to term. during his first republican russ folger was elected to idaho's first district after serving a decade in the senate. he had a prior career as a sales and marketing executive at an electronics company.

democrat jared golden is the first member elected to congress by instant runoff voting in which voters rank candidates by preference, which are taken into account if no candidate wins a majority. mr. golden has held a seat in the state house for the last four years. he served in iraq and afghanistan as a u.s. marine before working for susan collins on a committee staff in washington, d.c. caser congressman ed returns to congress, representing hawaii's third district. he was a member of the state legislature, serving as the house -- , watchgress, new leaders it all on c-span. >> today is day 15 of the partial government shutdown.

this morning, white house kushner kushner with mike pence and kiersten nelson and mick mulvaney who serves as budget director and acting chief of staff were at the white house complex. president tweeted this morning that he is meeting with top level staff of house and senate leadership. >> the u.s. senate met on thursday for the opening day of h congress. new and reelected senator's work sorted by vice president mike pence, who serves as president of the senate. we'll hear speeches from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and minority leader chuck schumer. >> the chaplain will lead the senate in prayer. the