collect it but we collect it now. so we are doing very well in our situation with china on trade. i have a great relationship with the president of china, president xi. but it's got to be a two two wy streets. waiting 24 years and longer was not and trillions and tons of dollars was taken out of the united states for the benefit of china. we just can't have that. we have to make it fair. so we are at $250 billion now with 25% interest and a lot of money is coming into our coffers and it had no impact, absolutely, no impact on our economy which i said it wouldn't. in fact steel is like the hottest industry there is. if you look at what happen with steel, charging a 25% tariff for the dumpers. they dumped massive amounts of steel and they want to put the steel companies out of business and after they are out of business they will come in and

charge five times more than you ever thought possible. we need steel and we need aluminum. those industries are doing well, but steel is incredible. u.s. steel is opening a minimum of eight plants. nucor is opening up plants, big plans, $750 billion and billion-dollar plants in some cases. what's happening with the steel industry is very exciting to me. it's being rebuilt overnight. if you look at the -- japan just give us numbers that are incredible. there doubling the amount they are going to be buying for japan. they are taking the lng and they are doubling it up. i said you have to do me a favor. we don't want these big deficits. you're going to have to buy more. they are buying massive amounts of equipment and military equipment. other countries are doing the same thing.

we have trade imbalances with almost everybody. it's a rare exception that we don't. so we are doing great as a country and they just raised interest rates a little bit because we are doing so well. i'm not happy about that because i know it's going to be a question. i'm not happy about that. i would rather pay down debt or do other things, create more jobs. so i am worried about the fact that they seem to like raising interest rates. we can do other things with the money. but they raised them. they are raising them because we are doing so well. we are doing much better than i had projected in terms of when i was campaigning i said we were going to do this and we are doing much better than anybody ever thought possible. and i will say if others got in, it would have been just the opposite because they would've booked restrictions on, regulations on. they would choke the economy, as

it was already choking but it would have been worse than they were going to raise your taxes. that's what they're going to do now, if they ever got control which i don't think i've control for a long time. that being said, we will take some questions. yes, please. john. we have plenty of time. >> reporter: mr. president, thank you very much. what you're looking forward to tomorrow is the hearings with judge kavanaugh before the judiciary committee. in 1991, when joe biden passed a law, the bush 41 allegations -- the bush white house asked the fbi to look into it as part of judge thomas' background investigation. background investigation. when these allegations were raised, why didn't this white house do the same thing? with all the allegations are coming out now about judge kavanaugh, was there an opportunity missed here to have

investigators look into this and get some sort of clarity one way or another. >> president trump: the fbi told us they have investigated judge kavanaugh six times, five times, many times over the years. they know him very well. here there was nothing to investigate from at least one standpoint. they didn't know the location, the time, the year. they didn't know anything. it's like where'd you go? also it's not for the fbi. if you look at what joe biden said, he said they don't do this. he said it very clearly. i think when you really look at it all, it's not going to change any of the democrats' minds. they are obstructionist. they are actually con artists because they know how quality is mayonnaise and they have destroyed a man's reputation. they want to destroy it even more. i think people are going to see that in the mid terms, what they've done to this family, what they've done to these children, these beautiful children of his, and what they have done to his wife.

they know it's a big fat con job, and they go into a room and i guarantee you they laugh like hell on what they pulled off on you and the public. they laugh like hell. it wouldn't matter if the fbi came back with the cleanest score, and you understand that very well, john. if they would've come back with the most perfect "we found everything and he's perfectly innocent of everything," it wouldn't have made a difference. you wouldn't have gotten one vote. we will get votes. from the democrats if we win. you will have three, four, five democrats giving us votes because they are in the states i won by 30 and 40 points and they are going to give us votes. other than that, you probably won't get any. go ahead please. >> reporter: mr. president, there are three women accusing judge kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

are you saying that all three of those women are liars? is there anything that can be said tomorrow that could cause you to withdraw the nomination, anything at all? >> president trump: i won't get into that game. i only tell you this. this is one of the highest quality people that i have ever met. everybody that knows him says the same thing. these are all false to me. these are false accusations in certain cases and certain cases even the media agrees with that. i can only say that what they have done to this man is incredible. you know, it's very untrusting. i picked a lot of judges. i have 145 judges i will be picking by the end of a short period of time because president obama wasn't big on picking judges. when i got there i said how is this possible? i have 145, including court of appeals judges.

they just didn't do it. you know why? they got tired. they got complacent. something happened. i have 145 judges. everybody wants to be a federal judge, not just a supreme court judge. i'm talking about court of appeals. i'm talking about district court. i don't think they are going to want to so much. i will be calling people and we will have people calling people to do this. people are going to be scared because we could say it about you. 35 years ago, you might not know what's going on. what is going on? why did they wait so long? why did senator feinstein wait until the hearings were over and make this case? why didn't she bring it right at the beginning, when you ask about, as an example, the fbi, why didn't they bring this right at the beginning during the hearing? you would have had all the time in the world for the fbi. it would have been fine. the fbi come as you know, did investigate this time as they

have five or six other times. and they did a very thorough investigation, but this is a big con job, and i would love to be in the room with the democrats, close the door, you guys are all the way outside waiting. and schumer and his buddies are all in there laughing, how they fooled you all. let's just stop them. a big fat con. >> if i can follow up, you have daughters. can you understand why a victim of sexual assault would not report it at the time? don't you understand -- >> president trump: i only say this. 36 years, no charge, no nothing. everybody -- people are going to have to make a decision. 36 years, no charge. all. all of a sudden, the hearings are over and the rumors start coming out. then you have this other con artist, avenatti, coming out

with another beauty today. i only say that you have to look at the facts. the senators are very capable people. they are very good people. i know many of them. they are friends of mine. these are very talented, very good people. they are going to vote and they're going to have to believe what they believe. when i look at what's happened to the reputation of a great gentleman, a great intellect, a brilliant man, somebody that has a chance to be one of our great supreme court justices in history, intellectually. i think it's a shame. yes, please. >> reporter: mr. president, yesterday at the speech at the u.n., you spoke about how venezuela's problem was because of cuba and the castros, how they brought socialism and communism to venezuela and now to nicaragua as well. mr. president, are you going to be more proactive now against cuba as well?

>> president trump: i've been very proactive against cuba. i don't like with happening in cuba. the president gave them a pass, and i didn't like it. neither do cuban people. based in miami and based in our country that came from cuba and suffered in cuba. i don't like what he did. i have ended much of it, most of it. i don't like what's happening in cuba, and i certainly don't like what's happening in venezuela. go ahead. >> reporter: just to finish, you set also you had a call to action to ask the leaders around the world to also end socialism. would you like to be -- >> president trump: i wouldn't say socialism has been working really well around the world. you can take a look at venezuela as your number one, your number one, i guess the one that's most obvious. you take a look around the world. socialism is not exactly writing high. go ahead. >> reporter: thank you very much.

if you don't mind, after i am finished, if one of our female colleagues to go after me, that would be great. mr. president, just a follow-up on these allegations -- >> president trump: what does he mean by that? explain. >> reporter: female reporter. >> president trump: what does it mean? >> reporter: that a female reporter would ask you about this issue. >> president trump: i wouldn't mind that at all. it wouldn't make any difference to me. go ahead. >> reporter: if i could follow-up and on john's question, why is it that you always seem to side with the accused and not the accuser. you have three women here who are all making allegations, who are all asking that their stories be heard. if you look at the case of roy moore. if you look at the case of one of your staffers, you seem to, time and again, side with the accused are not the accuser. is that because of the many allegations that you have had made against you?

>> president trump: first of all, i wasn't happy with roy moore. let's get that straight. roy moore was a republican candidate, and i would have rather had a republican candidate. i was very happy with luther strange, who is a terrific man from alabama. luther strange had a lot of things going against him. as far as women, whether it's a man or a woman, these are, you know, it can happen the other way. allegations can happen the other way also. you understand that. whether it was a man or woman, 30 years ago, 36 years ago, in fact they don't even know how many years ago because nobody knows what the time is. that's a long time. i could pick as an example, hopefully i won't have to do it as a replacement because hopefully this is going to go very well on thursday and it's going to go very well on monday or saturday or sunday or whenever they vote. but i could pick a woman, and

she could have charges made from many years ago also. and i would look at the character -- what i have to do -- >> reporter: reluctant to come forward. you've raised doubts about these accusers. >> president trump: i don't think people are reluctant to come forward. they are going to have a chance to speak. they have a major chance to speak, and it will be tomorrow, i assume. we have delayed this, meaning the republican senators, not me. the republican senators have delayed this for weeks now. they are giving the women a major chance to speak. it's possible i will hear that and i will say hey, i am changing my mind. that is possible. we want to give them a chance to speak. and they are given -- >> reporter: to think all three should have a chance? >> president trump: whoever is given a chance. we have deleted a long time. they are going to have a big shot at speaking and making their case. you know what, i could be persuaded also.

yes, please, go ahead. yes, go ahead please. >> reporter: thank you, mr. president. a couple questions to follow up on some answers i didn't quite hear from you, if you would allow me a couple questions. first of all, do you think these women, all three of them, are liars? >> president trump: have they been watch? >> reporter: have they been liars? >> president trump: i can't tell you. i have to listen tomorrow. i can tell you her lawyer is a low life. i can't tell you whether or not they are liars until i hear them. i don't know what happened today because i have been very busy with japan, south korea, china and seven other countries, as you know. and i chaired the security council. so i don't know about today's person that came forward. i do know about the lawyer. you don't get much worse. bad reputation. take a look at his past. as far as the other women are concerned, i'm going to see what happens tomorrow. i'm going to be watching.

believe it or not, i'm going to see what is said. it's possible they will be convincing. now, with all that being said, judge brett kavanaugh has been, for many years, one of the most respected people in washington. he's been on, i guess you'd call it the second highest court. every single person knows him. a lot of people know him well. and those people don't believe what's going on. i can always be convinced. i have to hear it. >> reporter: it sounds like what you are saying is there is a scenario under which you would withdraw brett kavanaugh's nomination. is that correct >> president trump: if i thought he was guilty of something like this, sure. >> reporter: and you will wait until tomorrow to make up your mind. >> president trump: i will watch. i hope i can see. i will be meeting with a lot of countries tomorrow but i am hoping to wash. i'm relying on very fair and

talented republican senators. if we brought george washington here and we said we have george washington, the democrats would vote against him, just so you understand. he may have had a bad pass. who knows? he may have had some i think accusations made. didn't he have a couple things in his past? george washington would be voted against 100% by schumer and the con artist. 100%. 100%. it really doesn't matter from this. when john asked about the fbi, if the fbi did the most thorough investigation in the history of the fbi they found it to be 100% perfect, he would lose every single vote. if the republicans win back tomorrow, i think you're going to get some quotes from the democrats. you know why? we all know why. it's called politics. then you'll probably get some votes. one more question. she says -- i would like to ask three questions. not really fair to everyone else. should i let her ask another question? go ahead.

see? >> reporter: following up, that you had given the benefit of the doubt to all men. has there ever been an instance when you've given the benefit of the doubt -- >> president trump: i've known them for a long time, a lot of these people. a lot of people. some i have been disappointed with. i have been disappointed with some others, there are charges that are pretty weak, but i've known people for a long time. i never saw them do anything wrong. i never saw them do anything wrong. there are some that probably i agree. i can tell you i agree there are some that i've been watching for a long time. in a couple cases, they worked republicans. in a lot of cases they were not. they were exactly the opposite but i've been watching them for a long time. i knew for a long time these were not good people and they were never brought up. okay, yes, ma'am. go ahead. thank you very much by the way.

her board and i thank you, mr. president. when the allegations first surfaced you initially said how important it was for dr. ford to testify and that you wanted to hear from her. >> president trump: i do. i wish it could've gone quicker. >> reporter: you also said if what she said were as bad as she claimed, surely her or her parents would have reported it. just today you said -- >> president trump: there is a chance that her parents could have reported it 36 years ago. >> reporter: my question is -- >> president trump: it doesn't mean they had to report it because in some instances people keep it quiet. it's a very tough situation for a woman. there's no question about it. in some cases, they do reported. frankly, had they reported it, it would've been pretty amazing, wouldn't it? but i guess they didn't. that's okay. i am not saying they had to report it because it's a very personal thing. it's a very big problem. there's no question. >> reporter: do you want to hear her story? >> president trump: i would like to her story.

they would have given her time last week. this is the united states senate. this is the most important position that a president can give out. i think we can say by far. i've actually heard it's the most important decision a president can make. i disagree with that. war and peace, they always say war and peace. after that, supreme court justice. right? i look forward to hearing from her. we could have her -- we could have heard from her last week. it will be interesting to hear what she has to say. >> reporter: let me follow up on jim's question. mr. president, let me follow up on jim's question that i don't think we got an answer to >> president trump: which question? >> reporter: how of your personal experience is, being accused -- >> president trump: i've been accused. false accusations. excuse me. i've been accused, and i was accused by i believe it was four women. you can check with sean hannity.

you can check with fox because they covered it very strongly. who got paid? excuse me. who got paid? i was accused by four or five women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me. we caught them, and the mainstream media refused to put it on television. they refused to even write about it. there were four women, and maybe more. i think the number is four or five. one had a mortgage paid off her house, $52,000. another one had other things happen. the one that reported it i believe was offered $750,000 to say bad things about me, and she is the one that reported it. this woman is incredible. she reported it instead of the money. so i've had numerous accusations about me. they made false statements about me. knowing they were false. i never met them. i never met these people.

what do they do? they took money in order to say bad things. i have had stories written in "the new york times," front page, about four women, the whole top center front page of "the new york times." four big pictures. wow, that's a big thing. what's that? these were women that were quoted saying bad things about me, not the worst things about me but bad things. i said gee, that's too bad. i knew them a long time ago. 15 years ago, 20 years ago. i said that's too bad. i'm surprised. then i see them on television, nothing to do with me. the next day or a day later, they were incensed. they said donald trump is a nice guy. we never said this. "the new york times" devotes reporting. they are fake news. and you know what? "the new york times" would not report that this story was fake. these women said great things. not only did they not say the bad stuff.

they said great things about me. front page. they are incredible women. they went on television and they didn't want to when i didn't ask them and they said "the new york times" made it up. they gave false quotes. and they went on a lot of shows. they were really incensed and they couldn't believe it. that's why, people know that a lot of the news is fake and a lot of the people sitting here are fake. but 20% of them are wonderful, okay? >> reporter: if i could actually ask my question. you didn't let me ask my question. >> president trump: you've been asking a question for 10 minutes. please sit down. >> reporter: how does it impact your opinion on the allegations? >> president trump: i've had a lot of full charges made against me. i'm a very famous person unfortunately. i've been a famous person for a long time but i've had a lot of false charges made against me, really false. i know friends that have had full charges.

people want fame. they want money. they want whatever. so when i see it, i view it differently than somebody sitting home watching television where they say oh, judge kavanaugh, this or that. it's happened to me many times. i've had many false charges. i had a woman sitting in an airplane and i attacked her while people were coming on the plane and i have a number one best seller out. i mean, it was a total phony story. there are many of them. so when you say does it affect me in terms of my thinking, with respect to judge kavanaugh, absolutely because i've had it many times. and if the news would have reported these four people, i couldn't believe it. when i heard they copies for people i said wow, that's a big story, and it was for fox. >> reporter: thank you mr. president. earlier today and just now you made significant allegations against the chinese government. you suggested the chinese had

meddled or are meddling in. >> reporter: that's right, that's what i hear. that's what i hear. we have evidence. we have evidence. it will come out. i can't tell you now. it didn't come out of nowhere, that i can tell you. they have actually admitted they are going after farmers. most of you can cover that. i like that you are shaking your head so i'm going to ask you the next question. let me explain. china now, $250 billion and they are paying 25% on that. they are -- this never happened. i like china and i like president xi a lot. he think he's a friend of mine. he may not be a friend of mine anymore but i think he probably respects, from what i hear. if you look at mr. pillsbury, the leading authority on china, he was on a good show. i won't mention the name of the

show recently and he's said china has total respect for donald trump and for donald trump's very, very large brain. he said donald trump, they don't know what to do, never happened. one thing they are trying to do as they are trying to convince people to go against donald trump because a normal, regular political person that has no concept of what the hell he's doing would like china could tend you to take $500 billion a year to rebuild their country. they were building 29 massive bridges. they are building things that we don't build anymore but we are starting to build them again. and our economy now is hotter than it's ever been. i don't know if you saw the confidence levels this morning that just came out. fantastic. in all fairness to the fed raising rates, they are raising rates because we've never done like we are doing now. one of the things that's nice

about the raids, the people that were hurt the worst by the zero interest rates, president obama had an economy that was the worst come back since the great depression and you've all heard that. remember, he was playing with zero interest money. he was playing with funny money. that's easy. i am playing with fairly expensive money. when he does that, the people the benefit are the people that actually, in their whole life, they would save ten, 15, 20% of their salary and put it in the bank. those people got killed because they put the money in the bank. there was no interest. now those people are starting to get interest and those are the people frankly that deserve, they did a great job. the people that did it right, the people that did the best job got hurt the most. so in one sense, i like it basically i am a low interest rate person, i hate to tell you. go ahead. >> reporter: mr. president, you have another meeting

tomorrow with rod rosenstein. are you planning to fire rod rosenstein? >> president trump: i am talking to him. we had a good talk. he said he never said it. he said he doesn't believe it. he says he has a lot of respect for me, and he was very nice. we will see. he's a member of the trump administration, justice department. i would certainly prefer not doing that. there was no collusion. there was no obstruction. unless you call obstruction the fact that i fight back. i do fight back. i really fight back. if you call that obstruction, that's fine. but there is no obstruction. there is no collusion. i'm going to meet with him tomorrow. i may call rod tonight or tomorrow and ask for a little bit of a delay to the meeting because i don't want to do anything that gets in the way of this very important supreme court pick. i don't want it competing and hurting the decision one way or

the other. again, i want to hear what she has to say. but so i may delay that. i don't want to do anything that's going to conflict with that. but my preference would be to keep him and to let him finish up. you know i call it a witch hunt and it is a witch hunt. if you look at the fbi statements with strzok and his lover lisa page, if you look at all the things that have gone on in the fbi, if you look at mccabe taking $700,000 from a hillary clinton pac rabbi terry mcauliffe and he gives them hundreds of thousands of dollars and he's in charge of her campaign and his wife is getting all this money to run. she lost. what's going on? if you look at the horrible statements like "way to go, page.

great story you put into a newspaper. essentially now we will go and investigate that group," it's terrible. we have caught people doing things that are terrible. i would much prefer keeping rod rosenstein, much prefer. many people say i have the right to fire him. he said he did not say it. he said he does not believe that, nobody and through believes that. i deal with the people in this room. i was with mike pompeo and we were dealing at a very high level with japan. i was saying things that nobody in the room even understood and i said them a long time ago and i was right. he said that's not the 25th amendment i'm looking at. i can say that for mike. >> reporter: you don't think anyone in your administration is ever discussed using the 25th amendment against you. >> president trump: enemies, sure. >> reporter: and your administration? >> president trump: use anything they can. they are not in love with me. they are not going to beat me in

the election. they know that. the people i'm looking at our total lightweights. i dream of running against those people. if they come up with somebody -- they are not going to beat me. i am against what they want to do. i am in favor of law enforcement. i am in favor of safety and security and low taxes. i want low taxes. i want borders. we are getting another 1.6 billion in borders. i want borders. we have spent 3.2 and we are getting 1.6 and that eventually we are getting the whole thing and we will complete the wall. they don't want that. they don't want that. they don't want the things that i have. now i must say i know many of the democrats. they will say things and then winked at me. again, it's the same old story. they will say things. they don't mean it. it's politics. the reason they don't want me is because they want to run the show. its power. it's whatever you want to call it.

but what they have done here is a disgrace, a total disgrace. and what they do, i know it's sort of interesting. in one case, they say he is a fascist. he's taking over the government. he's the most powerful president ever. he's a horrible human being. he wants to take over the entire government and is going to do it. we can't stop him. that didn't work. the next week, he said he's incompetent. i said wait a minute. in one case i'm taking over the world and any other case he's incompetent. they tried that for a week. that didn't work. look, these are very dishonest people. these are con artists. in the press knows it but the press doesn't write it. wow, that's a lot of hands. that's a lot. steve, go ahead. >> reporter: very high quality . go ahead. give it to me. reuters. >> reporter: you are getting letters from chairman kim.

why do you need a second summit with the north korean leader so soon? what would it be for? >> president trump: i've received two letters from chairman kim. at some point i will give these letters. they are incredible letters. they are letters that are magnificent in the sense of his feeling for wanting to get this done. i really want to believe he wants to get this done. i may be wrong. i heard somebody on a certain network last night. i won't mention which one. saying why has president trump given so much to north korea? i said wait a minute. i asked sarah huckabee, please call this person. i give them nothing. other then i met. what did i give them? i didn't do what obama did, give them $1.8 billion in cash to get back four hostages. i got back our hostages never paid them anything. i haven't paid them $0.10. he wants to make a deal, and i would like to to make a deal. we have a very good relationship.

very different from the last time i was at the united nations. that was a little rough. that time, they said trumpet saying these horrible things. he's going to get us into a war. you're going to have a war. if i wasn't elected, you would be in a war and president obama essentially said the same thing. he was ready to go to war. he would have had a war and you would've lost millions, not thousands. you would've lost millions of people. seoul, south korea, has millions of people. if i wasn't elected, you would have had a war. president obama thought you had to go to war. you know how close he was depressing the trigger for war? millions of people. with me, nobody's talking about that. nobody's talking about that. we have a very good relationship. he likes me. i like him. we get along. he wrote me two of the most beautiful letters. when i showed one of the letters, just one, to prime minister abe, he said this is actually a groundbreaking

letter. this is an incredible -- this is a historic letter. and it is a historic letter. it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful piece of art. i think we are going to make a deal. would make a deal? i don't really know but i think we are going to. in the meantime, i don't want to bore you. no rockets, no missiles, no nuclear tests. for over a year, you haven't seen. before i got here, everybody in this room thought you were going to war. and then what happened was funny. they said he was terrible. he was so rough with chairman kim, kim jong un. he was so rough. it's terrible. well, i had a great meeting with president putin. on that one, he said he was too soft with president putin. had a great meeting. it lasted for two hours. we discussed everything. ukraine, syria, israel. israel protection. we had a great meeting.

they wanted me to end up in a boxing match. you know what? if i was killer tough with president putin, they would've said he was too tough. you can't when -- you can't win with these people. >> reporter: how long do you think it should take north korea to denuclearize? >> president trump: i don't want to get into the time game. i told mike pompeo, i said mike, don't get into the time game. we stop them. they are taking down plants. they are taking down a lot of different testing areas. they're going to take down some more. you will be hearing about that very soon. i don't want to go ahead of myself but you'll be hearing about it soon. they have no interest right now in testing nuclear. we had a case just about when i was coming into office, you will remember. there was a massive, they thought it was an earthquake. a mountain moved over an inch and a half. north korea is very mountainous, beautiful land, beautiful.

this mountain actually shifted. it shifted. somebody thought it was an earthquake and they found out no, this was nuclear testing. shifted a mountain. serious stuff, serious size. when i came in, and certainly before i came in and even at the beginning of mind because when i was having rhetorical contests early i guess you could call it with chairman kim, which we both smile at now and we laugh at. everybody thought that was a horrible thing. we've had many presidents who were unable to do anything, anything at all with north korea. we now have a good relationship. we have a good relationship. most importantly, all of the things that you have been hearing about, the horror stories, and my opinion, will they start up again? i am a deal guy. could be that we don't work it out. i think. i have it right here.

i think that what we've done behind the scenes which nobody really knows about and i don't blame you for not knowing about, personal letters, private letters. saying that they want to get it done. we know much more than the media for a change, much more. but if you saw what's going on behind the scenes, i think you would be very impressed. we were a country going to war. i really believe that president obama would admit that he said it's by far his biggest problem. when i sat with him prior to going into office, he said to me that's by far the biggest problem. and he said to me that he was very close to going into war. in millions of people, knocked, you know, they say thousands. no, no, not thousands. millions of people would have been killed. you are right next to china. that could have been a world war very easily. right now we are in a great position. i don't want to play the time

game. i told mike pompeo don't let them do that to you. i haven't given anything. all of a sudden, we got back, a few weeks ago, we were back to and a half months from the summit which was a great success, and people are screaming what's taking so long? i said oh, i get it. you have to understand the media. i've been dealing with the media all my life, too much, too much. they are screaming and i saw that now guys -- not mike but our guys were, we are working as fast. i said i have all the time of the world. i don't have to rush it. there is no cessation of sanctions. we have the sanctions. i didn't take any sanctions off. i did see a reporter last night, a guy i like personally a lot and he asked a question to president moon of south korea. he said why did the president give so much? i didn't give anything. i gave nothing. what have i given other than some time? yes, i flew to singapore.

we had a meeting. giving would be effective the sanctions off. i didn't want to do -- if you ask general mattis, for a year and a half i said why don't we stop these ridiculous, in my opinion, the military games. i call them the military games. if i've told you how much those games cost and frankly i told south korea you should be paying for these games. we pay for them. they say we fly the planes in from a short distance away. i said where's that? guam. how long the trip? seven hours. oh, great. we are flying these massive bombers. i wanted to stop this for a long time. i consider it an asset. we are saving a fortune. if we need them, we can start them up immediately. if i think we need them, i will start them before the generals will start them. this reporter said. i said what have we done? i haven't given anything and we are really onto the cost -- i

think we are really going to do something that's going to be important. we are not playing the time game. if it takes two years, three years or five months, it doesn't matter. there is no nuclear testing and there is no testing of rockets. go ahead please. this is the one that was nodding with every nice thing i said so watch this question. >> reporter: from sky news. >> reporter: congratulations on the purchase. reporter -- >> president trump: go ahead. >> reporter: are you concerned to the message being sent to the women watching this when you use language like "con job," with regard to allegations -- >> president trump: it's a con

job. you know confidence. a con job by the democrats. >> reporter: what about the message being sent -- >> president trump: they did the same thing with the russian investigation. they tried to convince people that i had something to do with russia. there was no collusion. think of it. i'm in wisconsin. i'm in michigan. i say g, we are not doing well. i won both of the states. we are not doing well. let me call the russians to hel help. does anybody really believe that? it's a con job. i watch these guys, little adam schiff on all the guys, he takes a call from a russian who turned out to be a faker. he was a comedian or something. this is so-and-so. why is he taking a call from a russian? senator warner took a call from a russian. he was a comedian or something. he said we have pictures of president trump. oh, where can i get them? if we ever did that, it would be a big deal. it's a con job and it's not a

bad term. it's not a bad terminal. i will tell you one thing i can say. i have a lot of people talking about this to me with respect to what's happening. this is a horrible precedent. i'm going to get other judges and other supreme court judges possibly. i could have a lot of supreme court judges, more than two. when i called up brett kavanaugh and spoke to him and his family and told them that i chose them, they were so happy and so honored. it was as though, i mean, the biggest thing that's ever happened. i understand that. u.s. supreme court. i don't want to be in a position where people say no thanks. no thanks, i don't want to -- i spoke to somebody 38 years ago and it may not be good. we have a country to run. we want the best talent in the world. but i will tell you this.

the people that have -- complained to me about it the most about what's happening are women. women are very angry. i got 52% with women. everybody said this wouldn't happen. 52%. women are so angry. i frankly think that, i think they like what the republicans are doing but i think they would have liked to have seen it go a lot faster. give them their day in court. let her have her day in court. let somebody else have a day in court. i have men that don't like it, but i have women that are incensed with what's going on. i have always said women are smarter than men. i have said that a lot and i mean it. women are incensed at what's going on. go ahead. go ahead. who are you and where are you

from? yeah, you. this is going to be not good. have you ever been picked before for a question? >> reporter: yes, i want to ask you, -- i am from north of iraq, i am a kurd. >> president trump: great people, great people. they are great people. they are great fighters. i like them a lot. let's go, i like this question. >> reporter: you say that you support your allies. kurds now after the defeat of isis are under a lot of pressure in syria and iraq. what will you do to elevate their position, to support them after they helped the

united states defeat isis? >> president trump: we are helping them a lot and we've been very friendly with them. we have fought side-by-side. we have defeated isis essentially a very short while ago in the middle east. we did it with a lot of help from the kurds. they are great fighters. some people are great fighters. the kurds are great fighters. we are discussing that situation right now. we are going to be discussing that situation. we have already started discussing that situation but without tremendous support from the kurds. >> reporter: about syria, sir. >> president trump: go. >> reporter: did you reject a one-on-one meeting with canadian prime minister justin trudeau? has mack i did. his tariffs are too high and he doesn't seem to want to move and we are thinking about taxing cars coming from canada.

we are very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of canada. we don't like their representative very much. they've -- i love canada. i have so many friends. i have everybody. so many friends. that has nothing to do with this. i am representing the united states. mexico was totally, i mean, they were great. the new president has been grea great. the deal is done. now it has to go through congress and a lot of things have to happen but we've done -- bob lighthizer who's here someplace. bob lighthizer is done a great job of negotiating, as they have. the deal is done. canada has treated us very badly. they have treated our farmers and wisconsin in new york state and a lot of other states very badly. dairy products, 300%. 300%. how do you sell a dairy product at 300%?

the answer is you don't. it's a barrier. it's basically them saying we don't have any barriers. 300% so you don't senator -- u don't send it in. we are not getting along with her negotiators. we think they are have taken advantage of our country for a long time. we'd had people who didn't know they were doing. over the last five or six years, if you average it out, we had $800 billion a year and trade losses. it's ridiculous. it's not going to happen. >> reporter: what is it mean for nafta? will you be pulling out of nafta? >> president trump: i don't like nafta. i've never liked it. it's been very bad for the united states. it's been great for canada and great for mexico. i'm not going to use the name nafta. i refused to use it. i've seen thousands of plants and factories close. i've seen millions of jobs lost to auto companies.

mexico, 25% of our auto business because of nafta. under our deal, it's not going to happen anymore. i hate to tell you it's not. i told the mexicans, i have to sit we have to keep companies but they are getting a lot also. they are getting other things, good things. mexico made a very good deal. with canada, is very tough. what we are doing, if we made a deal with canada, which is, there's a chance still. >> reporter: are you going to notify -- >> president trump: what we are probably going to do is call it the usmc, like the united states marine corps, which i love. general kelly likes it even more. where is general kelly? he likes it. usmc. u.s., mexico, canada. it will probably or possibly be just usm. it will be united states and mexico. canada will come a long if canada doesn't make a deal with us, we are going to make a much better deal. we are going to tax the cars that come in. will put billions and billions

of dollars into our treasury and frankly will be very happy because it's more money then you can make under any circumstance with making a deal. good job. you do a very good job. yes, please. mr. kurd. >> reporter: thank you very much for your time, mr. president . quick questions. what will be the usa relations with the kurd or less. >> president trump: we get along great with the kurds. that's their territory. i want to help them. they fought with us. they died with us. they died. we lost tens of thousands of kurds fighting isis. they died for us in with us and for themselves. they died for themselves. they are great people.

we have not forgotten. we don't forget. i don't forget. what happens someday later but i can tell you i don't forget. these are great people. >> reporter: mr. president, what's your clear plan to stop iranian influence in iraq, syria. >> president trump: i think you've seen that. i don't mind your questions. i think there has been no greater change other than may be china because china unfortunately their markets have dropped would you say 30% of the last four months? i think i watched you recently. i think it's actually 32. but a lot. china is a very special place and iran is a very special place but i think there's been no country that's changed so much as iran.

in the last six months, since i took off the horrible, horrible iran nuclear deal, as they called it, one of the dumbest deals ever made. as an example, why didn't they take care of young men? why didn't they take care of syria? kerry said it was too complicated. we paid millions in cash. we gave 1.8 billions in cash. why didn't we take care of young men? why didn't we take care of syria? he said it was because it was to complicate it. you gave $150 billion. now yemen is a mess but it's getting better. and syria is a mess. and i was responsible and i hope it stays that way, when i put out on social media a few weeks

ago about a lib province. i said don't do it. -- idlib province. at a meeting, a woman stood up and said the iranians, the russians, and the syrians are surrounding the province they are going to kill my sister and they are going to kill millions of people in order to get rid of 25,000 or 35,000 terrorists or enemies of theirs. i think we can call them terrorists. i said that's not going to happen. i didn't hear of idlib province. i came back to new york and i picked up the failing "new york times." i hate to admit it was "the new york times." it was the failing "new york times." there is a big story. i said that's the same story the woman told me that i found hard to believe because how would

anyone do that with 3 million people? it said they were being surrounded and they were going in and starting litter the next day they were going to drop bombs all over the place and perhaps kill millions of people in order to get 35,000 terrorists. i put out on social media and elsewhere. i gave mike pompeo, john bolton, everybody these orders. don't let it happen. i said don't let it happen. that doesn't mean they can't be selective, they can't be, you know, go in and they're going to do what they've got to do don't kill millions of people. it stopped. you saw that. nobody's going to give me credit but that's okay. that's okay because the people know. i have had more syrians thanked me for that.

i said they are surrounding a city of 3 million people. they are going to start bombing the city. don't let it happen. i meant it. i meant it. millions of people have been saved and i gave today great credit to iran. i don't know if you heard that. i gave credit to iran, to russia and syria for not doing it. now i hope it's going to be surgical, meaning go in and do, it's lengthy and everything els else. they possibly have to do it. i think millions of people would've been killed, that would have been a shame. hopefully, you tell you turkey n a big help. turkey has been great. turkey has helped us very much with that whole situation. yes. >> reporter: thank you, mr. president. >> president trump: thank you very much. >> reporter: you put out a call to action to other countries to rally with america to put pressure on iran.

rouhani still calling for the u.s. to come back into the old deal but after meeting with world leaders this week, did you make any progress toward a potential new deal? >> president trump: it doesn't matter what world leaders think on iran. iran is going to come back to me and they're going to make a good deal. i think. maybe not. we'll. you never know, but they are suffering greatly. they are having riots in every city. far greater than they were during the green period with president obama. far greater. at one president obama stuck up for government, not the people, you probably would have had a much different iran, but i'm sticking up for the people. i'm with the people of iran. but here's the thing, they have rampant inflation. their money is worthless, everything is going wrong. they can't buy bread, they can't do anything, it's a disaster. at some point i think they're going to come back and they are going to want to say hey, can we do something? and i just don't want them to

have nuclear weapons, that's all. is that too much to ask? i want them to have a great economy. i want them to sell so much oil so that the oil price was -- i'm not happy with opec. i told them, are not happy with opec. we take care of all these people, we defend them, they wouldn't be there for two weeks if it wasn't for me in the united states and are much stronger armed forces than it was because of our armed forces were depleted, we had old equipment. you know better than anybody, 700,000,000,716,000,000,000, we have the most incredible new jets and everything. we need it. not that i want to spend it, although it is jobs, it's all made in the united states, but iran has to come back and they have to talk, and i'm not doing this from strength or weakness. if i'm just thinking at some point they're going to have to come back. if you look at what's going on, companies are leaving left and right. mercedes-benz just left.

they're all leaving. they don't want to be any wrong because they have a choice. do they want to be with iran or do they want to be with us? we picked up $10 trillion since my election. we were being caught by china, now it's going the other way. people can believe it. people have never seen this situation with china. for 20 years, china is so great, china is so great. you don't hear that so much anymore. i love china, i think they are great, but you don't hear that much anymore. you know who's great now? we are great now. how about just a couple of more. i could be doing this all day long. i could be doing this all day long, should we continue for a little while? it doesn't matter to me. a couple of more? i don't care. "new york times," "new york times." the failing "new york times," stand up, go ahead. no, i'm talking about the times is failing, you are far from failing. >> reporter: you are pointing to me, so you meant me.

>> president trump: the times are very interesting. i think they're going to endorse me. >> reporter: yeah. >> president trump: i think abc -- i like fox, i really do. i think abc, cbs, nbc, the times, they're all going to endorse me, because if they don't they're going out of business. can you imagine if you didn't have me? go ahead. >> reporter: i know you are pointing to me but i work for pbs news. >> president trump: i know that. >> reporter: i want to ask you, yesterday you were talking about your administration accomplishments at the united nations and a lot of the leaders laughed. >> president trump: that's fake news. and it was covered that way. so i said that since my election our economy has become the hottest in the world, tax reductions, regulations, confidence levels are the highest in 18 years, really seem to be. unemployment is the lowest in history of our country. you look at black unemployment,

asian unemployment, you look at women, 65 years, the unemployment numbers are among the best we've ever had ever. the numbers of new companies pouring into our country, which nobody thought was possible, and i said this and i was in front of a large group of highly professional people, most of whom are from either other countries or the united nations united nations -- people that aren't big into clapping, applauding, smiling. and i heard a little rustle as i said our country is now stronger than ever before, it's true. it is true. and i heard a little russell and i said it's true and i heard smiles and i said i didn't know there would be that -- they were laughing at me they were laughing with me, we had fun. if that was not laughing at me. the fake news said people laughed -- they didn't laugh at me. people had a good time with me. we were doing it together.

we had a good time. they respect what i've done. the united states is respected again. the united states was not respected. everybody was taking advantage of us from jobs and taking our companies and not paying the price to so many other things -- even military protection. a number of countries over the last few days, i said listen, you are a very rich country, we protect you. without our protection he would have real problems. you would have real problems. i said you should reimburse us for this protection. why are we protecting you, and you want to know what they said? after about 2 minutes of talking, they agreed with me and you can ask this group of very talented people, they agreed with me, but they said -- one of them said but mr. president, nobody ever asked us for that. they never asked us for that. nobody's ever said you should pay -- these are really wealthy countries. i'll be honest, i just asked

you,