campaign 2020, watch our candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. president trump is spending part of the weekend at camp david. as he was leaving the white house, he took reporters questions on a range of issues including preparations for hurricane dorian, china, the economy and protests in congress hmong. this is about 25 minutes.

president trump: thank you very uch. the hurricane dorian could be a big one. we hope it makes a turn and goes up north. that's about a 5% chance. it's not looking good. it's one of the biggest hurricanes we've seen in a long time, long time. it could be very devastating. i just spoke to rick scott and i just spoke to -- we have a lot of people we're speaking to, marco rubio and the governors of georgia. georgia and florida. and they're doing really well

and working hard. florida seems to be the main target at this moment. but i think a lot of good things are happening. fema is there. tremendous work is going on. many, many gas trucks are coming in. they're bringing gas from louisiana and all over. and we don't know if that evacuation will end up locally right now. we'll see where it's coming in. we don't know where it's going to be coming and how far in it's going to be comings. i'm going to camp david. we have a lot of experts with us and a lot of the fema people coming up but importantly, we're coming back and on sunday at 12:30 we have a meeting at fema headquarters. that will be the time we know where it's going, a day before it hits. we'll see what happens. on other things, the stock market is doing great, the

economy is amazing, worldwide we're the number one by far. stock market is up again and we're getting close -- we'll be very close to a new record soon. and whatever you want to ask. go ahead. [inaudible question] president trump: that i can't tell you. we're speaking to china but can't tell you whether or not it will be president xi. [inaudible question] president trump: i understand twitter accounts have been hacked. yeah. i hope they're not hacking my account. but actually if they do, they're not going to learn too much more than what i put out, right? shouldn't be too bad. [inaudible question] >> what did she say? president trump: she said some things and called me. she was very upset.

she was very down. and she said she was drinking a little bit and was with reporters and everything she said was off the record. it still doesn't really cover for it. mentioned a couple things about my children. but she's a very good person. and i always felt she did a good job and she's very down. in all fairness, it was off the record and of course the press breaks off the records all the time because they're very dishonorable, many of them are dishonorable, not all of you, but you don't say certain things. it was too bad. i just spoke to her before i came out, she called and i wished her well. >> mr. president, are you allocating money for ukraine

military, confronting the russian aggressive. what do you say about farther support and aid on your side? president trump: where? >> ukraine. president trump: we're looking at ukraine now. i was going to meet with the new president but because of the fact we have this really massive hurricane coming in, i had to cancel my trip to poland where i was going to meet the president of ukraine among other things. mike pence is going to poland and taking my place and will be a great job. it will be a beautiful weekend and celebration of the past and mike pence will do a great job. i felt it was important i stay here. and we'll be up at camp david working hard. we have a lot of things happening with respect to that hurricane. we have to be very careful. it could be one of the biggest that we've seen. so far it's looking not good, i have to be honest with you. >> what about china? >> dividing the trip to poland and germany?

president trump: i'll be going to poland at a later date. we have a great relationship with poland and we'll be doing that and angela merkel invited me to go to germany so at some point we'll be setting that up. [inaudible question] president trump: i don't want to get into that. he's a bad guy, i can tell you that. he's a bad guy. i think he's a sick guy personally but i can't get into that with andrew mccabe but e's a bad guy. [inaudible question] president trump: they're on. they're on. we've taken in billions of dollars from those tariffs and as it's starting to come out, if you look at chinese government, china, what they've done with tariffs is very interesting. they've we valued their

currency so much and hurt them ultimately and costs them much more to buy things outside of china. but they've devalued so much. it's a bad situation they've put themselves in. and i just saw, came over the wires, 13% of certain companies are going to be leaving china in the not too distant future. that's a big thing. 13% of companies will be leaving china in the very near future. i'm not surprised to hear that. i think it's going to be much higher because they cannot compete with the tariffs. they can't compete. they devalued their currency. they're pumping money in and we're not paying much for it. but we've taken in tens of billions of dollars. i gave the farmers $16 billion which makes them totally whole on china. that's what china spends in a good year. because they were targeted.

the farmers were targeted by china. so out of the tariffs which are much more than 16 billion by a factor of a lot, i've given the farmers $16 billion and the farmers are happy and want me to continue and win the fight. we're going to win the fight. we're having conversations with china. meetings are scheduled, calls are being made. the meeting in september continues to be on and hasn't been canceled. we'll see what happens. china has lost a lot of companies. a lot of companies have left china and a lot more are leaving. and they are not doing well. they're having the worse year they've had in 61 years. that's a lot of years. go ahead. >> do you believe there is outside information about tweeting that photo about iran? president trump: i just wished

iran well. they had a big problem and we had a photo and i released it which i have the absolute right to do and we'll see what happens. you'll have to figure that one out yourself. we'll see what happens. they had a big mishap. it's unfortunate. so iran as you probably know was going to set off a big missile and didn't work out so well. had nothing to do with us. in ere are u.s. bases south korea, what are you doing with the bases? president trump: we have a good relationship with korea. we'll see what happens. >> what about china? president trump: i have a lot of faith in bill barr. i thought the charges were

unbelieveably powerful. i thought the i.g. report was incredible. i have total confidence in bill barr to do the right thing. if anything this showed how fair he. i think he is a tremendous man and i think this really showed how fair he was. but certainly those were various charges but we'll see what happens. [inaudible] >> called for her to resign? president trump: i don't know much about it. i'd just seen something come over the wires but she's a very high quality woman, very high quality woman i can tell you about that. i know she apologized. [inaudible question] president trump: we all want liberty and freedom. throughout the world we want freedom. we'll see what happens. very interesting time over there. my message really for them is

no, you know, they have a very strong point of view. i don't think people have seen marches of 2000 people. i think we'll learn a lot. actually, i think we're going on hong kong, we'll be learning a lot the next two or three days and hope it's channeled in a very hue main way. -- humane way. [inaudible question] president trump: we have experts coming up and we'll be running things, almost like a control center. we're going up with people and several coming back. i'll be coming back sunday morning and going directly to fema. i think the governor desantis wants to be in florida. he's doing a fantastic job.

[inaudible question] president trump: i haven't thought about it until the question was just approached a whiling a. looks like mar-a-lago is dead center. mar-a-lago can handle itself. that's a very powerful place. the thing i'm worried about is the state of florida because this hurricane is looking like this could be a record setting hurricane. maybe things change. we're hoping for one element that happens and that it makes a right turn and goes up north prior to or equal to hitting the shore and that would be great. but that's a pretty small percentage at this point. [inaudible question] >> around 8,000 is big. how can you say the earth is ver with 2,100 quotes.

president trump: we're bringing them down. we're more than a police force and something we could end quickly if we killed a lot of people and i don't. we're getting along well with a lot of people right now. we have very good negotiations pable.n with the they say they're going to do things. we haven't made a deal yet but will bring it down to 8,600. >> on the military buildup in georgia. president trump: we haven't seen that. >> there are reports there's a military buildup by the russians in georgia. president trump: that's not good news. i'm not happy about that. i have not seen it. >> you tweeted there were u.s. companies contributing to the economic slowdown. can you explain what you meant

there. >> go ahead. you said badly run companies are to blame. president trump: a lot of badly run companies are trying to blame tariffs. in other words, if they're running badly and having a bad quarter andant lucky in some way, it's not the tariff the. a lot of companies are coming out and not affected by the tariffs. not a lot but there's some. the tariffs have put us in an incredible negotiating position. i say that to maine only. but i say it to china directly. we're at an incredible gothing. and we happen to be taking in billions and billions of dollars and we haven't taken 10 , ts from china p. as i said

we've given them $16 billion and from a larger purse than that and doing very well with respect to what we're doing. i do notice, and it was on one of the important shows and i read it this morning some place that some companies for their poor performance are blaming trafse even though they don't mean that. they're just getting away with it. >> if you accidentally between what is going on with hong kong and the trade talks? president trump: the question is do i see a connection in hong kong and what's going on with the trade talks? markie: hong kong would be in a much trouble. it could be violent. china wants to make a deal and puts us in a very bad position if there's not a hue main way of handling it. i said look, handle it in a

humane fashion. we'll see. i do believe because of what i'm doing with trade, that's very much keeping down the temperature in hong kong. i hobbsly think china must make a deal but it's holding it down in hong kong. you understand that, right? >> did you fire madeleine westerhouse. president trump: i think it was automatic. i didn't say fire or not fire. i think she had a bad night and it watts unfortunate. she said she was drinking. the whole thing is very fortunate and the press is dishonest. and she said things that were a little bit hurtful to some people. >> she talks about you not wanting to be in pictures of tiffany, is that true? president trump: no.

tiffany is great. i love tiffany. >> can you specifically say how you're preparing for hurricane dorian? president trump: i said it. we have fema, we have first responders. here. tremendous things i have to tell you georgia is very much in this past. we are working with our great governor of georgia. we have our top people there. and it's really, really been amazing. i have to say we've done a great job in puerto rico. we were totally ready in puerto rico. but erto rico we get lucky well.lly very the new governor was on top of things and we had a really great relationship with puerto rico.

fortunately we didn't use what we had but we're set in puerto rico and in great shape. >> are you having evacuations at the time? president trump: we're thinking florida evacuation but it's a little too soon. people are getting ready and may have be evacuated. we'll probably make that determination on sunday. >> mr. president, the polish government demands reparations from germany for the second world war. president trump: i think it's going to be between poland and germany and get along with them both. >> are you concerned you don't have a female administrator or defined homeland security major ? and acting is request p. if i like the people, i make them

permanent. i like acting. it gives you great credibility and i'm familiar with the word acting. i can leave acting for a long period of time but if i like them, i make them permanent. >> many studies have shown legal access to marijuana results in less opiod abuse and fewer overdose beths. then say to legalize to money. you ming it will happen? president trump: right now we're allowing states to make those discussions. and a lot of states are making that discussion but allowing the states to make that determination. [inaudible question] >> social media? president trump: it's terrible. the allegations are absolutely terrible. [inaudible question] president trump: usmca has become very popular.

our deal with mexico and canada. unions are liking it, farmers are loving it. manufacturers are really liking it. moving we wovent be companies down there testimony to mexico or canada anymore. the usmca is a very important deal and i think it's going to be a very bipartisanship deal and i hope nancy pelosi puts it up for a vote. many democrats will push up's for it. if it's not put to a vote, it's a very bad thing our company. we got the approval from mexico. they voted. congress is ready to vote. they essentially approved it. we're waiting for a vote. nancy pelosi i think will do the right thing, i really do p. it's replacing

the worst deal in trade, nafta, total disaster. it took our industry out. t's one of the worst deems [inaudible question] >> negative interest rates in the united states? president trump: i think the fed is making a big mistake. if you look at what the other fed equivalents are doing around the world, it's a much ler rate and makes it harder to com complete. with that said we're doing better than anyone else. the fed is hurting me. the fed is making it very, very hard to compete. we're so far ahead of everyone in my 2 1/2 years, you go to the aelection day and go the day after.

we're up to 50% and it's amazing. our jobs numbers are fantastic. probably 3.6%. african-american, hispanic american, we're talking about this country. on this very day, more than 160 million people are working. the most ever in the people of our continue it. now, if the feds lowered the rates our stock market be close tom a new record. we're not far away from a new record. we've had some very good days the past pull week, but if they will we move the weight, they went way too fast and did quantitative lighting, they did a double. big mistake. because the economy was so strong and lowered the rate.

it would be good for us. him i think it would go up a lot. >> on columbia, how do you feel bout the former park leader. president trump: colombia used that? >> yeah, on colombia. president trump: you're talking the country of colombia? >> yeah. president trump: we have a great relationship and they're not doing badly. they have a problem because of venezuela, a lot of people are pouring in. colombia, we've had a great relationship with colombia. >> tiffany yesterday? president trump: they'll be calling me back as soon as they get to camp david. i'm going to say it's absolutely false. she's a wuffle person and studied so hard and a great student and she's a great person. so i look forward to talking to her. i'll be talking to her as soon tiffany, - i love

she's a great person. thank you very much. >> c-span's "washington journal" live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning, american enterprise institute visiting fellow jim harper discusses the use of crypto currencies and the future of money. then the librarian of congress will join us to preview the 2019 book festival. combatting alks illegal robocalls. and on the oversight, federal

elections commission. watch c-span's washington journal at 7:00 eastern and join the discussion. >> watch c-span's 2020 campaign coverage of the presidential candidates at the convention. our live coverage is on c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. >> this is an hour and 30 minutes. >> all that stuff i said? >> ok, all that stuff i said, it was off the record. all right. i thinwe