Remarks by President Trump in Press Conference After Midterm Elections
THE PRESIDENT: See, when you talk about division, it's people like this that cause division. Great division.
Q Point of fact, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Great - no. No, point of fact is that I never used a racist remark. That's the point of fact.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Where - who are you from?
Q I'm from Yahoo! News. (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Yahoo! - oh, Yahoo! - oh, good. Good, I hope they're doing well.
Q MTV Lebanon (inaudible). Sir, first question -
THE PRESIDENT: Where are you from?
Q MTV Lebanon. Lebanon.
THE PRESIDENT: Lebanon. Good.
Q Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. We're so happy to be - as well have this opportunity. Mr. - President Erdoğan said he's not going to follow your sanctions and he's going to keep buying oil from -
THE PRESIDENT: Who said that?
Q President Erdoğan. Turkey.
THE PRESIDENT: I know. I know.
Q And you're going to meet him soon -
THE PRESIDENT: I just can't understand his speak -
Q Okay. You're going to meet him soon. You're going to have this talk and some countries are going to take the same steps that President Erdoğan is doing and -
THE PRESIDENT: So let me just say about the oil, okay? So we're - we imposed, just recently, the strongest sanctions in the history of our country, just about. Although I guess North Korea is there, too. But I gave some countries a break on the oil. I did it a little bit because they really asked for some help. But I really did it because I don't want to drive oil prices up to $100 a barrel or $150 a barrel, because I'm driving them down.
If you look at oil prices, they've come down very substantially over the last couple of months. That's because of me. Because you have a monopoly called "OPEC." And I don't like - wait.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: And I don't like that monopoly. I don't like it. And oil prices are coming down.
So rather than deciding to be as tough as I am on most of the sanctions, what I've done is I said, "We're not going to do it that way; we're going to let some of the oil go out to these countries that really do need it because I don't want to drive the oil prices up to $100 or $150 a barrel, which could happen very easily. It's a very fragile market. Very, very fragile. I know it very well. And it's the absolute right decision.
And they'll get tougher as time goes by, maybe, but I don't want to have any effect on the oil prices worldwide, where I drive them up. Because I consider that to be a tax, and I don't like taxes.
Go ahead.
Q What happened with the peace process between Israel and Palestine?
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Please. Please.
Q The peace process is over?
THE PRESIDENT: Who?
Q It just came out that Jon Tester won -
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, congratulations to Jon Tester. Congratulations. I'm sure you're very unhappy about that.
Go ahead.
Q Mr. President, can -
MS. SANDERS: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Please, go ahead.
Q Can you address the -
THE PRESIDENT: We'll take a couple of more, and then we'll go.
Q Can you address concerns in places like Georgia where people waited in line to vote for hours, where voting machines weren't working in certain districts, and there hasn't -
THE PRESIDENT: Do you think that's the reason that the candidate lost?
Q Well, there are concerns being raised that it wasn't -
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I mean, look, I wasn't involved in Georgia. I wasn't.
Q I know, but are - but, as President -
THE PRESIDENT: Other than I love the state. I do love the state.
Q Yes, but as President of the United States, are you concerned about the access that people are having to voting?
THE PRESIDENT: I heard it was very efficient in Georgia. I heard it was very efficient. But again, you'd have to ask the state governments because - just one of those things you're going to have to ask them.
Yeah, go ahead. Please. Please, go ahead.
Q Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. You expressed some concerns about social media companies unfairly censoring conservatives during the election. Do you anticipate working with Democrats to regulate these companies, or are you satisfied with the way things are?
THE PRESIDENT: I would - I would do that. Yeah. I would look at that very seriously. I think it's a serious problem. At the same time, you start getting into speech; that's a very dangerous problem. That could be the beginning. So it's very dangerous.
Believe it or not, I'm one that really likes free speech. A lot of people don't understand that. But I am a big believer. And when you start regulating, a lot of bad things can happen.
But I would certainly talk to the Democrats if they want to do that. And I think they do want to do that.
Yes, sir. Go ahead.
Q Former President - former President Barack Obama famously said that he had "a pen and a phone" to use executive power on issues like immigration. Do you see yourself using executive power to get some of your immigration agenda done?
THE PRESIDENT: I do. I do. I think that some of it I can use executive power - on some. Not all. But I got - I mean, he certainly used it.
He used it on DACA. And when he did it, he said something to the effect that "I'm not allowed to do this, it will never hold up, but I'm doing it anyway." And he did it and they found judges that approved it. We also found judges that didn't approve it, so it's obviously going to be determined in the Supreme Court.
And if the Supreme - if the court rules in favor of what President Obama thinks they should rule - which is what he said - then I will probably have a deal with the Democrats in a very short period of time. We were very close to having a deal until we got that very strange ruling.
Q Thank you, sir. You also made some promises about immigration during the campaign, and I want to know if you're going to follow through with them. Are you going to be aggressive -
THE PRESIDENT: Which one are you talking about?
Q Birthright citizenship. Are you going to sign an executive order to ban -
THE PRESIDENT: We are looking at it very seriously. Absolutely.
Q I mean, is it yes or no? Or are you -
THE PRESIDENT: And I believe we have the absolute right. But that's another case that will be determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Q Are you going to send 15,000 troops to the border?
THE PRESIDENT: You've been reading the same documents as I have; you know exactly what I'm doing. You know exactly what I'm doing.
So go ahead. What's your next question?
Q Also, on the Khashoggi matter, it's been more than a month since the death of Mr. Khashoggi, the journalist.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Very sad thing. Very terrible thing.
Q Do you think Saudi Arabia is guilty of having him murdered? And if so, what kind of punishment would be involved?
THE PRESIDENT: I'll have a much stronger opinion on that subject over the next week, and I'm working very closely with Congress. We're working together. Some very talented people. And we're working with Congress, we're working with Turkey, and we're working with Saudi Arabia. And I'm forming a very strong opinion.
Go ahead, Jon. Go ahead, Jon.
Q Mr. President, just a quick follow up. You said something about Nancy Pelosi. You said that Nancy Pelosi, she loves our country. Do you regret some of the things you said during the campaign?
THE PRESIDENT: No.
Q I mean, at various times, you said Democrats -
THE PRESIDENT: No.
Q - want to put a "wrecking ball...to our future"; they want to "destroy our country."
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I believe that. I believe that. With their current policy, they are using a wrecking ball on our country. I believe that 100 percent. This would be a wrecking ball.
But I think there's a compromise somewhere, and I think that could be really good for our country.
Okay, how about one more?
Q Do you regret the ad? Do you regret the ad that you did that was branded as racist ad and even Fox News wouldn't air it?
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