collect it, but we collect it now. so we're 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-way street. for 25 years or longer it was not and trillions and trillions 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're at $250 billion now at 25% interest. a lot of money is coming into our coffers, and it's had no impact on our -- absolutely, by the way, 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 happened with steel, we're charging a 25% tariff for the dumpers. they dump massive amounts of steel. they want to put the steel

companies out of business. after they're out of business, they'll come in and charge five times more than you ever thought possible. and we need steel and we need aluminum, and those industries are doing well, but steel is incredible. u.s. steel is opening up a minimum of eight plants. new core is opening up plants. and these are big plants. $750 million and a billion dollar plants in some cases. so what's happening with the steel industry is very exciting to me. it's being rebuilt overnight. if you look at the miners and coal, if you look at energy, lng, japan just gave us some numbers that are incredible. they are doubling the amount that they are going to be buying for japan. they're taking the lng and they're 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're buying massive amounts of equipment and military equipment.

and other countries are doing the same thing because we have trade imbalances with almost everybody. it's a rare exception that we don't. so we are doing great as a country. unfortunately, 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 am not happy about that. i'd rather pay down debt or do other things, create more jobs. so i'm worried about the fact that they seem to like raising interest rates. we can do other things with the money. but they raised them and they're raising them because we're doing so well. we're doing much better than i had projected in terms of when i was campaigning. i said we were going to do this and we're 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 were going to put restrictions on, they were going to put regulations

on, they were going to choke the economy as it was already choking and it would have been worse and they would have raised your taxes. that's what they do now if they ever got control, so i don't think they'll get control for a long time. with that being said, we'll take some questions. john, please, go ahead. we have plenty of time. >> mr. president, thank you very much. of course what you're looking forward to tomorrow is the hearings with judge kavanaugh. >> yes. >> before the judiciary committee. in 1991 when joe biden passed along to the bush 41 white house the allegations that anita hill had raised against clarence thomas, the bush white house asked the fbi to look into it as part of judge thomas' background investigation. not a criminal investigation, but the background investigation. when these allegations were raised, why didn't this white house do the same thing and with all of the allegations that 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 the other. >> well, the fbi told us they have investigated judge kavanaugh six times, five times, many times over the years. they know him very well. but here there was nothing to investigate from at least one standpoint. they didn't know the location, they didn't know the time, they didn't know the year. they didn't know anything. and it's like where do you go. also it's not for the fbi. if you look at what joe biden said, he said they don't do this, and he said it very clearly. so i think when you really look at it all, it's not going to change any of the democrats' minds. they're obstructionists. they're actually con artists, because they know how quality this man is and they have destroyed a man's reputation and they want to destroy it even more. i think people will see that in the midterms, what they have done to this family, what they

have done to these children, his beautiful chipper ldren of his what they have done to his wife. they know it's a big, fat con job. they go into a room and i guarantee you they laugh like hell on what they pulled off on you and on the public. they laugh like hell. so it wouldn't have mattered with the fbi came back with the cleanest score, and you understand that very well, john. if they would have 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. now, we will get votes from the democrats if we win. you'll have three, four, or five democrats giving us votes because they're in states that i won by 30 and 40 points and they're going to give us votes. but other than that, you probably won't get any. yes, go ahead, please. >> mr. president, there are now three women accusing judge

kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. are you saying that all three of those women are liars? is there anything that could be said tomorrow that could cause you to withdraw the nomination? anything at all? >> i won't get into that game. i only tell you this. this is one of the highest quality people that i've ever met. everybody that knows him says the same thing. and these are all false to me, these are false accusations in certain cases, in 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 interesting, i pick a lot of judges. i have 145 judges i will be picking by the end of a fairly 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.

and 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're going to want to so much. i'll be calling people and we'll have people calling people to do this. and people are going to be scared because we could say it about you. 35 years ago you met -- and you might know -- 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 asked 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. now, the fbi, 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 away outside waiting. and schumer and his buddies are all in there laughing how they fooled you all. let's just stop him, a big fat con. go ahead. >> mr. president, if i could 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 -- >> by the way, i only say this. 36 years, no charge, no nothing. >> but that happens often. >> people are going to have to make a decision. 36 years, there's no charge. all of a sudden the hearings are over and the rumors start coming out. and then you have this other con artist, avenatti, come out

with another beauty today. i only say that you have to look at the facts. the senators are very capable people, they're very good people. i know many of them, they're friends of mine. these are very talented, very good people. and they're going to vote. 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. >> mr. president, my name is tomas. 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 went in there and 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? >> i've been very proactive against cuba. i don't like what's happening in cuba. as you know, president obama 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've 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. yes, please. >> mr. president, just to finish really fast. you said also that you had a call to action to ask the leaders around the world to also end socialism. would you like to be recognized -- >> well, i wouldn't say that socialism has been working really well around the world. you can take a look at venezuela is your number one -- your number one -- i guess the one that's most obvious. but take a look around the world. socialism is not exactly riding high. please. go ahead.

>> thank you very much. if you don't mind, after i'm finished, if hallie or one of our female colleagues could go after me, that would be great. mr. president, just to follow up on these allegations -- >> what does he mean by that. explain. >> i think it would be great if a female -- >> no, what does it mean? >> it would be great if a female reporter would ask you a question about this issue. >> i wouldn't mind that at all. i wouldn't mind it at all. it wouldn't make any difference to me. go ahead. >> if i could follow up on john's question, why is it, mr. president, 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. and, you know, 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 and not the accuser. is that because of the many allegations that you've had made

against you over the years? >> well, first of all, i wasn't happy with roy moore. let's get that straight. but roy moore was -- >> you stood by -- >> -- a republican candidate. i would have rather had a republican candidate win. i was very happy with luther strange, who was a terrific man from alabama, but 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 go the other way also, oounyou understand that. whether it was a man or a 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. and 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, 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. >> but don't you understand, sir -- >> i would look at the character. no. >> they are reluctant to come forward. you've raised doubts about these accusers. >> i don't think they're reluctant to come forward. they're going to have a chance to speak -- excuse me, excuse me. they have a major chance to speak and it will be tomorrow, i assume. we've delayed this, meaning the republican senators, not me. the republican senators have delayed this for weeks now. they're giving the women a major chance to speak. now, it's possible i'll hear that and i'll say, hey, i'm changing my mind. that is possible. we want to give them a chance to speak. >> all three should have the chance? >> well, whoever is given a chance, we've delayed it a long time. but they're going to have a big shot and speaking and making their case.

you know what, i could be persuaded also, okay. yes, please. please, go ahead. go ahead. i'd like to go -- yes, go ahead, please. >> thank you, mr. president. a couple of questions for you to follow up on some answers that i didn't quite hear from you if you would allow me a couple of questions. first of all, do you think these women, all three of them, are liars, yes or no? >> have they been what? >> are they liars? >> i can't tell you, i have to watch tomorrow. i have to read -- i just heard about one a little while ago. i can tell you her lawyer is a low-life. so i can't tell you whether or not they're liars until i hear them. i don't know what happened today because i've been very busy with japan, south korea, china and about 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 and you don't get much worse -- bad reputation to -- 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's said. it's possible that they will be convincing. now, with all of 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. and 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. >> it sounds like what you're saying is there is a situation, there is a scenario under which you would withdraw brett kavanaugh's nomination. is that correct? and have you talked about that -- >> if i thought he was guilty, yeah, sure. >> and you will wait until tomorrow to make up your mind. >> i want to watch. i'm meeting with a lot of countries tomorrow but i will certainly in some form be able to watch. i'll also rely on some very fair and talented republican

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

question. >> to follow up on a question that a colleague asked as well about the benefit of the doubt that you have given to people like roy moore, to roger ailes, to bill o'reilly, to brett kavanaugh. they're all men. >> it's not a benefit of the doubt. >> has there ever been an instance where you've given the benefit of the doubt to a woman? >> hallie, i've known them for a long time, a lot of these people. some i've been disappointed with. i never saw them do anything wrong. i never saw them do anything wrong. there's some i can probably agree. i can tell you there's some that i've been watching for a long time. in a couple of cases they weren't rips, in a lot of cases they were not. they were exactly the opposite but i've been watching them for a long time and 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. thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. president. >> thank you. >> 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. >> i do. >> but -- >> i wish it could have gone quicker. >> you also said that if what she said were as bad as she claims, surely her or her parents would have reported it. just today you said you would have -- >> well, there is a truth. there is a chance that her parents could have reported it 36 years ago. >> so my question is -- >> 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. and in some cases they do report it. frankly, had they reported it, it would have been pretty amazing, wouldn't it. but i guess they didn't and that's okay. i'm not saying they had to report it because it's a very personal thing and a very big problem. no question about it. go ahead. >> do you want to hear her

story -- >> i'd like to hear her story. >> or have you already made up your mind? >> 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 can say by far. i've heard it's the most important decision a president can make. i disagree with that. war and peace, i always say war and peace and after that, supreme court justice, right? i look forward to hearing from her. we could have heard from her last week. we could have heard from her for a long time. it will be interesting to hear what she has to say. >> 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. >> which question? >> how have your personal experiences being accused -- >> i've been accused. false accusations. 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. excuse me, excuse me. 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. and the one that reported it, i believe was offered $750,000 to say bad things about me and she's the one that reported it. this woman is incredible. she reported it instead of taking the money. so i've had numerous accusations about me. i mean they made false statements about me knowing they were false. i never met them.

i never met these people. and what did they do, what did they do? they took money in order to say bad things. i've had stories written in "the new york times," front page, about four women. the whole top center front page of "the new york times." i think it was four big pictures. i said, 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. and i said, gee, that's too bad. i knew them a long time ago. that's too bad, i'm surprised at them. then all of a sudden i see them on television, nothing to do with me. the next day or day later, they were incensed. they said donald trump is a nice guy. we never said this. "the new york times" did false reporting. they're fake news. and you know what, "the new york times" would not report that their 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. and those women, they're incredible women. they went on television and they didn't want to and i didn't ask him 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. >> if i could just actually ask my question, mr. trump, you didn't let me ask my question. >> you've been asking a question for ten minutes. >> no, you interrupted my question. >> sit down. >> how did those impact your opinions on the allegations against -- >> well, it does impact my opinion, you know why? because i've had a lot of false 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 charges.

i know friends that have had false charges. people wanti 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 many times. i've had many false charges. i had a woman sitting in an airplane and i attacked her while people were coming onto the plane and i have a number one best-seller out. it was a total phony story. there were 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 that they caught these four people, i said, wow, that was a big story, and it was for fox. okay. >> thank you, mr. president. earlier today and just now you made a significant allegation against the chinese government.

you suggested -- >> i did. >> -- that the chinese had meddled in -- >> that's what i hear. that's what i hear. >> what evidence do you have of that, sir? >> we have evidence. we have evidence. it will come out. i can't tell you now but it didn't come out of nowhere, that i can tell you. now, they have actually admitted that they're going after farmers. i think most of you can cover that. i like that you're shaking your head. yes, i'm going to ask you the next question because of that. it's probably going to be the killer of all questions. let me just explain. china now put on $250 billion and they're paying 25% on that. they're paying billions -- this has never happened. this has never happened to china. i like china and i like president xi a lot. i think he's a friend of mine. he may not be a friend of mine anymore but i think that 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 was saying that 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 is 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 let china continue to take $500 billion a year out of our country and rebuild their country. they were building 29 massive bridges, like the george washington bridge. they're building things that we don't build anymore but we're 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're raising rates because we've never done like we're doing now.

and one of the things that is nice about the rates, the people that were hurt the worst by these zero interest rates, you know, when president obama had an economy that has -- it was the worst comeback since the great depression and you've all heard that, but remember, he was playing with zero interest money. he was playing with funny money, that's easy. i'm playing with fairly expensive money. so when he does that, the people that benefit are people that actually in their whole life they would save 10, 15, 20% of their salary. those people got killed because they wanted to live off the interest and there was no interest. now those people are starting to get interest and those are the people frankly that deserve to -- they did a great job. the people that did it right, the people that did the best job got hurt the most. in one sense i like it but basically i'm a low interest rate person, i hate to tell you. yes, ma'am. yes, go ahead. >> mr. president, you have

another meeting tomorrow with rod rosenstein. >> yes. >> are you planning to fire rod rosenstein? >> i'm talking to him. we've had a good talk. he said he never said it. he said he doesn't believe it. he said he has a lot of respect for me and he was very nice and we'll see. he's a member of the trump administration, in that sense it's the 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. i mean if you call that obstruction, that's fine. but there's no obstruction, there's no collusion. i'm going to meet with him tomorrow. i may call rod tonight or tomorrow and ask for a little delay to the meeting because i don't want to do anything that gets in the way of this very important supreme court pick. so i don't want it competing and

hurting the decision one way or the other decision. again, i want to hear what she has to say but i don't want to do -- so i may delay that. i'm going to see. 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 hunting, and it is a witch hunting. if you look at the fbi with strzok and his lover, lisa page, if you look at all of the things that have gone on in the fbi, if you look at mccabe taking $700,000 from a hillary clinton pac essentially run by terry mcauliffe who's her best friend in the world and he gives them hundreds of thousands of dollars, and he's in charge of her campaign and his wife is getting all of this money to run -- she lost -- to run. i mean 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'll 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 and nobody in this room believes it. by the way, ideal with the people in this room. i was with mike pompeo before. we were dealing at a very high level with japan. and 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 that i'm looking at. i think i can say that from mike. >> so you don't think anyone in your administration has ever discussed using the 25th amendment against you? >> i don't think so. well, enemies, sure. >> within your administration or your cabinet? >> they use anything they can. they're not in love with me.

they're not going beat me in the election, they know that. they're not going to beat me. the people that i'm looking at are total lightweights. i dream of running against those people. >> but within your administration? >> they're not going to beat me. i'm against what they want to do. i'm in favor of law enforcement. i'm in favor of safety and security and low taxes. i want low taxes. i want borders. we're getting another $1.6 billion in borders. i want borders. we've spent $3.2 and we're getting another $1.6 and eventually we're getting the whole thing and we'll 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'll say things and then wink at me. and again, it's the same old story. they'll 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. they want it. it's 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's 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 he's going to do it, we can't stop him. that didn't work. the next week he said, he's inkpeni incompetent. wait a minute, in one case i'm taking over the world, in another case he's incompetent. they tried that for a week and that didn't work. look, these are very dishonest people. these are con artists. and 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. he's a very high quality person, this man, but he'll probably hit me with a bad one. go ahead, give it to me. reuters.

>> you're getting letters from chairman kim. why do you need a second summit with the north korean leader so soon. >> because he'd like it. >> and what would it be for? >> i've received two letters from chairman kim. at some point i'll give these letters, they're incredible letters. they're lettering that are magnificent in the sense of his feeling for wanting to get this done. i really believe he wants to get it done. i may be wrong. i heard somebody on a certain network i won't mention which one, why has president trump given so much to north korea. i said wait a minute, i asked sarah huckabee, please call this person. i gave them nothing other than 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. i never paid them anything. i haven't paid them 10 cents. but he wants to make a deal and i'd like to make a deal.

we have a very good relationship. a lot better than the last time i was at the united nations, that was a little bit rough. don't forget, that time they said, oh, trump is 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'd be in a war and president obama essentially said the whole thing. he would have had a war and you would have lost millions, not thousands, you would have lost millions of people. seoul has 30 million people, 40 miles and 30 miles from this very dangerous border. if i wasn't elected, you would have had a war. president obama thought you had to go to are war. do you know how close he was to pressing the trigger with war? millions of people. with me, nobody is talking about that. nobody is 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. one i showed, one of the letters, just one, to prime minister abe. he said this is actually a

ground-breaking 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. and i think we're going to make a deal. will we make a deal, steve? i don't really know. but i think we're going to -- in the meantime and i don't want to bore you. no rockets, no missiles, no nuclear tests. you know, 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. and on that one they said he was too soft with president putin. i had a great meeting, it lasted for two hours. we discussed everything, ukraine, syria, israel, and israel's protection.

we had a great meeting. they wanted me to end up in a boxing match. and you know what, if i was killer tough with president putin, they would have said he was too tough. you can't win with these people but you just keep going. in the meantime we're doing well. go ahead. >> so how long do you think it should take north korea to denuclearize? estimates of one year, two year -- >> i don't want to get into the time game. you know why? i told mike pompeo, i said, mike, don't get into the time game. we stopped them, they're taking down plants, they're taking down a lot of different testing areas, they're going to take down some more. you'll be hearing about that very soon. i don't want to go ahead of myself but you'll be hearing about that soon. we had a case just about when i was coming into office, you'll remember it, where there was a massive -- they thought it was an earthquake. a mountain moved over an inch and a half. we're talking about mountains. north korea is very mountainous,

beautiful land, beautiful. this mountain actually shifted, it shifted and somebody thought it was an earthquake. no, it was nuclear testing. shifted a mountain. i'm talking about serious stuff, serious size. when i came in, and certainly before i came in, appearnd even the beginning of mine because when i was having rhetorical contests early i guess you could call it with chairman kim, which we both smile at now and laugh at, but everybody thought that was a horrible thing. we've had many presidents were unable to do anything. anything at all with north korea. we now have a good relationship. we have a good relationship. and most importantly, all of the things that you've been hearing about the horror stories, in my opinion they're gone. now, could they start up again? yes. i'm a deal guy. could they start? yeah. it 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 and i don't blame you for not knowing about, personal letters, private letters, but saying 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'd be very impressed. we were a country going to war. i really believe that president obama would admit 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 and millions of people, not -- they say oh, thousands of people. no, no, not thousands. millions of people would have been killed and that could have left right next to china. that could have been a world war very easily. right now we're 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. and all of a sudden we got back, it was a few weeks ago, i think we were back like two 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've got to understand the media. i've been dealing with the media all my life, too much, too much. they're screaming. and i saw that and our guys were -- oh, we're working as fast -- i've got all the time in the world. i don't have to rush it. there's no cessation of sanctions. we got the sanctions on. i didn't take any sanctions off. i did see a reporter last night, a guy i like personally a lot. 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 and we had a meeting. now, giving would be if i took 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 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, well, we fly the planes in from a short distance away. where is that? guam. oh. how long a trip is that? seven hours. oh, great. we're flying these massive bombers. i've wanted to stop this for a long time. i consider that an asset. but we're saving -- by the way, for the taxpayer, we're saving a fortune. and if we need them, we can start them up immediately. if i think we need them, i'll start them before the generals will start them. the fact is, this reporter said that. i said what have we done? i haven't given anything.

and we're really onto the cusp -- i think we're really going to do something that's going to be very important but we're not playing the time game. if it takes two years, three years or five months, it doesn't matter. there's no nuclear testing and no testing of rockets. yes, ma'am, go ahead. go ahead, please. this is the one that was nodding with every nice thing i said so watch this question. >> it's a hackett of mine. hannah thomas -- >> you're with who? >> sky news. >> sky news. congratulations on the purchase. >> nothing to do with me. >> i hope you benefited. go ahead. >> are you at all concerned at the message that is being sent to the women who are watching this when you use language like con job in relation to allegations of sexual assault? >> i've used worse language in my life. that's probably the nicest phrase i've ever used. it is, it's a con job.

you know, confidence. it's a con job by the democrats and they know it. >> what about the message that's being sent to women who are watching. >> with regard to the russia 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, gee, we're not doing well. i won both those states. we're not doing well. let me call the russians to help. does anybody really believe that? it's a con job. and i watch these guys, little adam schiff and all of the guys, he takes a call from a russian who turned out to be a faker. you know, he was a comedian or something. this is so and so calling. he took the call. why is he taking a call from a russian. senator warner took a call from a russian. he was a comedian or something. but he said we have pictures of president trump. oh, where can i get them. if we ever did that, it would be like a big deal.

yeah, it's a con job and it's not a bad term. it's not a bad term at all. i'll tell you one thing i can say. i've had a lot of people talking about this to me with respect to what's happening because it's a horrible precedent. i'm going to have to get other judges and other supreme court judges possibly. i could have a lot of supreme court judges, more than two. and when i called up brett kavanaugh, spoke to him and his family and told them that i chose them, they were so happy an so honored. it was as though i mean the biggest thing that's ever happened, and i understand that. u.s. supreme court. i don't want to be in a position where people say, no thanks. no, thanks. 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'll tell you this. the people that have complained to me about it the most, about what's happening, are women. women are very angry. you know, i got 52% with women, everyone said this couldn't happen. 52%. women are so angry. and 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. but give them their day in court. let her have her day in court. let somebody else have a day in court. but the ones that i find -- i mean i have men that don't like it, but i have women that are incensed at what's going on. i've always said women are smarter than men. i've said that a lot an i mean it. but women are incensed at what's going on. yes, go ahead. go ahead. go ahead in the back.

who are you, where are you from? yeah, you. the guy looks like he's shocked. this is going to be not good. he looks totally like stunned. have you ever been picked before for a question? >> yes, sir, but not from president of the united states. >> go ahead. >> thank you very much. i want to, sir, ask you, you always talk about -- >> you said from where? >> kurdistan region, north of iraq. i'm a kurd. >> great people. >> thank you, sir. >> great people. thank you. >> mr. president -- >> are you a kurd? >> mr. president -- >> they're great people, they're great fighters. i like them a lot. let's go, i like this question so far. >> you always say you support your allies. kurds right now after the defeat of isis are under a lot of pressure in syria and in iraq by many adversaries. >> that's true. >> what will you do to elevate their position to support them after they helped the united

states to defeat isis? >> well, we are helping them a lot and we've been very friendly with them. as you know, we've fought side by side and we have defeated isis essentially a very short while ago in the middle east and we did it with a lot of help from the kurds. and they are, they're great fighters. some people are great fighters and some people aren't. the kurds are great fighters and they're great, great people. we're discussing that situation exactly right now. >> what will you do to support them, sir? >> we're going to be discussing that situation. we have already started discussing that situation, but we have had tremendous support from the kurds in defeating isis. >> and about syria, sir, in your speech you did not mention -- >> yes, go. >> mr. president, susan lee from fox business. did you reject a one-on-one meeting with the canadian prime minister justin trudeau? >> yeah, i did. >> why? >> because his tariffs are too high and he doesn't want to move and i told him forget about it.

frankly we're thinking about taxing cars coming in from canada, that's the mother lode, the big one. we're very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of canada. we don't like their representative very much. they have taken -- i love canada, by the way. i have so many friends, i have everybody, so many friends. but that has nothing to do with this. i'm representing the united states. mexico was totally -- i mean they were great. by the way, the new president has been 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 is here someplace, where's bob. bob has done a great job of negotiating, as they have, but the deal is done but canada has treated us very badly. they have treated our farmers in wisconsin and 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. what it is is a barrier. basically they're saying we don't have any barriers. by the way, it's 300% so you don't send it in because you can't compete. i must be honest with you, we're not getting along at all with their negotiators. we think they have taken advantage of our country for a long time. we had people that didn't know what they were doing and that's why we had over the last five or six years, if you average it out, we had $800 billion a year in trade losses. it's ridiculous. it's not going to happen. >> mr. president, nafta, what does that mean for nafta? will you be pulling out of nafta? >> i don't like nafta. i never liked it. it's been very bad for the united states. it's been great for canada and great for mexico, very bad -- >> will you pull out of -- >> i'm not going to use the name nafta. i refuse to use it. i've seen thousands of plants and factories close. i've seen millions of jobs lost to auto companies that moved.

mexico has 25% of our auto business now because of nafta. under our deal, it's not going to happen anymore. i hate to tell you, it's not. we're going to keep companies. i told the mexicans, i said we have to keep companies, but they're getting a lot also. they're getting other things. they're getting a lot of good things. mexico made a good deal. with canada, it's very tough. what we're doing, if we made a deal with canada, which is a good chance but -- >> are you going to notify congress of pulling out of nafta? >> we're probably going to call it the usmc, like the united states marine corps, which i love. general kelly likes that. usmc, which would be u.s., mexico, canada but it will probably be or possibly be usm. canada will come along. now, if canada doesn't make a deal with us, we'll make a much better deal. we'll tax the cars that come in.

we will put billions and billions of dollars into our treasury. frankly, we'll be very happy because it's actually more money than you can make under any circumstance with making a deal. good job too. you do a really good job, really. yes, please, mr. kurd. >> thank you very much for your time, mr. president. two quickly questions. what will be the usa relations with the kurds? >> i thought i just answered that. >> post isis. >> okay, we're trying to get along -- we do get along great with the kurds. we're trying to help them a lot. don't forget, that's their territory. we have to help them. i want to help them. they fought with us. they fought with us. they died with us. they died. we lost tens of thousands of kurds died fighting isis. they died for us and with us and for themselves. they died for themselves.

but they're great people. and we have not -- we don't forget, i don't forget what happens some day later but i don't forget. these are great people. okay, yes, ma'am, please. >> mr. president, about iran, one question. what is your plan to stop iranian influence in iraq, in syria and kurdistan? >> i must tell you i don't mind your question. i think there's been north pole greater change other than maybe china, because china, unfortunately, their markets have dropped, would you say 30% in the last four months, right? i think i watched you recently when you said that. i said i think she's wrong, 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 yemen in the deal? why didn't they take care of syria in the deal? you know what kerry said the reason? it was too complicated. we're giving $150 billion, we paid $1.8 billion in cash, cash. this whole room would be filled up with $100 bills and you'd need probably five rooms like this. we gave $1.8 billion in cash. why didn't we take care of yemen? why didn't we take care of syria and other -- and he said because it was too complicated. well, you just gave all your cards. you gave them $150 billion. and 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 idlib province. i said don't do it. i'll tell you, it happened where i was at a meeting with a lot of supporters and a woman stood up and she said there is a province in syria with 3 million people. right now the iranians, the russians and the syrians are surrounding that province and they're going to kill my sister and they're going to kill millions of people in order to get rid of 25,000 or 35,000 terrorists or enemies of theirs, but i think we can call them terrorists. and i said that's not going to happen. i didn't hear of idlib province. i came back to new york and picked up the failing "new york times," i hate to admit it was "the new york times" but it was the failing "new york times." i opened it up and i said, wow, that's the same story that the

woman told me that i found hard to believe. how would anyone do that with 3 million people. and it said that they were being surrounded and they were going in and starting literally 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. and 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 -- go in -- they have got to do what they have got to do with terrorists. but don't kill millions of people. and it stopped. you saw that. nobody is going to give me credit, but that's okay. that's okay because the people know. i have had more syrians thank me for that. this was about four weeks ago i put that out. i said they're surrounding a

city of 3 million people. they're going to start bombing the city. don't let it happen. and i meant it too. i meant it. and millions of people have been saved. and i gave today great credit to iran. i don't know if you heard that. i gave great credit to innran, 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 else. and they possibly have to do it. but i think millions of people would have been killed and that would have been a shame. hopefully -- and i have to tell you, turkey has been a big help. turkey has been great. turkey has helped us very much with that whole situation. yes, yes. >> thank you, mr. president. >> good, thank you very much. >> touching back on iran, of course this week you put out a call to action to other countries to rally with america

to put pressure on iran. rouhani is 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 towards a potential new deal? >> it doesn't matter what world leaders think on iran. iran is going to come back to me and make a good deal. i think. maybe not. deals, you never know. but they're suffering greatly. they're having riots in every city. far greater than they were during the green period with president obama. far greater. when president obama stuck up for government, not the people. he probably would have had a much different iran had he not done that. but i'm sticking up for the people. i am with the people of iran. but here's the thing. they have rampant inflation, their money is worthless, everything is going wrong. they have riots in the street. you can't buy bread, you can't do anything, it's a disaster. at some point i think they're going to want to come back and say, hey, can we do something?

and i'm very simple, i just don't want them to have nuclear weapons, that's all. is that too much to ask? i don't want them to have nuclear weapons. i want them to have a great economy. i want them to sell so much oil so the oil prices -- i'm not happy with opec. i told them, i'm 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 and the united states and a much stronger armed forces than it was, because our armed forces was depleted. we had old equipment. hey, you know better than anybody. $700 billion and $716 billion. 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, i'm just saying at some point i think 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 in iran. because they have a choice, do they want to be with iran or do they want to be with us? and we have -- we picked up $10 trillion since my election. we were being caught by china. now it's going the other way. people can't believe it. people have never seen this situation with china. everything has always been for 20 years, oh, china is so great, china is so great. you don't hear that so much anymore. i love china, i think they're great. but you don't hear that so much anymore. you know who's great now? we're great now. okay, how about just a couple more. now, 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," come on, the failing "new york times" go ahead and stand up. "the times" is failing, you're

not failing. >> but you were pointing at me. >> "the times," i think they're going to endorse me. i think that abc -- well, fox, i like fox, i really do. but 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, what would you like to say? >> i know you were pointing to me but i work for pbs news. >> i know that. >> so i want to ask you, yesterday you were talking about your administration's applicators at the united nations and a lot of the leaders laughed. >> well, that's fake news. that's fake news. and it was covered that way. okay. 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 soon to be historic. unemployment is the lowest in the 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 are 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. 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 whether and i hear a little rustle and i said it's true and i heard smiles. i said, oh, i didn't know there would be -- they weren't laughing at me, they were laughing with me. we had fun. that was not laughing at me. so the fake news said people laughed at president trump. 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 an taking our companies and not paying the price to so many other things. even military protection. i told a number of countries over the last few days, i said, listen, you're a very rich country. we protect you. without our protection, you would have real problems. you would have real problems. >> and i want to -- >> you should reimburse us for this protection. why are we protecting you? and do you want to know what they said? after about two minutes of talking, they agreed with me. 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 has ever said you should pay. these are really wealthy

countries. i mean i'll be