Q Do you think that the United States reduced its footprint in the Middle East too far and now we're needing to -
THE PRESIDENT: No, I don't think so. I don't think so. Look, I don't think - I don't think we ever should have been there, okay? I inherited this mess. Should we have been there? No. We shouldn't have been. Should we have gone to Iraq? Should we have attacked Iraq, which did not knock down the World Trade Center?
We had a place that was not conducive to terrorists, okay? The terrorists were killed instantly in Iraq. And now it's, you know, a tough situation. So I think we should not have been in the Middle East.
With that being said, we've done a great job. I took over the ISIS fight. We knocked out 100 percent of the caliphate. That doesn't mean that they're not going to blow up a store. They're totally crazy. But we knocked out 100 percent of the caliphate, and I did it quickly. When I came in, President Obama had totally lost control. He had lost control of the military. He had lost control of the fighting. And our military was totally depleted and in very bad shape. These folks know that better than anybody. They were in very bad shape.
We will soon have the strongest military that we've ever had, by far, and nobody is going to mess with us.
Okay.
Q Can you get a trade deal with Japan relatively soon, do you think?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm going to meet with Japan, as you know. I'm going there on Friday. Many of you are going to be coming with us. And it's a very big thing going on with the Emperor. It's something that hasn't happened in over 200 years. I am the guest, meaning the United States is the guest.
But Prime Minister Abe said to me, very specifically,
"You are the guest of honor." There's only one guest of honor.
"You are the guest honor," as I represent the country. With all the countries of the world, I'm the guest of honor at the biggest event that they've had in over 200 years.
So it's a great thing. And we get along very well with Japan. I get along very well with the Prime Minister. So we're going to be spending two days over there.
Yes, ma'am.
Q Mr. President, is there anything that you are willing to work with Democrats on now? Because you said the two-track thing.
THE PRESIDENT: Everything. I'd like to work with everything. No, no - they have to go down their track. Let them get rid of the nonsense first. And when that's done, we'll go very quickly. We can go very quickly. Infrastructure is very easy. For me, that's very easy. But you can't go down two tracks at the same time. It doesn't work that way.
Q But are you willing to work with them on the -
THE PRESIDENT: Their whole focus - let me explain. Their whole focus is on 2020 and trying to demean the Republican Party and demean the President of the United States as much as possible so that either we get his poll numbers down to a point where he can't win - except a strange thing is happening: My numbers are going up. Someday, you'll explain that to me, Kelly. (Laughter.) But my numbers are going up.
But it's very interesting. So they either want to demean so much or they want to try and get him out of office any way we can. I mean, you had one gentleman - Green, Congressman Green - he sounds like a real beauty. He said,
"The only way we're going to beat him is to impeach him." How about that?
"The only way..." - did you see that statement, fellas?
"The only way we're going to beat him is to impeach him." That is a terrible thing for this country.
Q If they're still investigating, will you raise the debt limit? Will you sign a budget? Will you go with the USMCA?
THE PRESIDENT: We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens.
Q There's a lot of stuff.
THE PRESIDENT: I'm a very capable person. We're going to see what happens. I can tell you this: Let them get this angst out of their belt. And when it is, we can do things so quick your head will spin.
And one thing they do is approve the USMCA so that we have our farmers taken care of. And, by the way, it's not only the farmers, it's every industry - every industry. But they can approve the USMCA so we can take care of our farmers, our industries, our auto industry. And one of the beautiful things - (applause). Yeah.
One of the beautiful things about the USMCA - and, to me, the most important part - I used to talk about this 20, 25 years ago as a private person. And for whatever reason - you'll explain this to me - I always got a lot of publicity. So I said something - even as a private builder, or whatever I was doing at the time, I would get a lot of publicity, and without a lot of trying.
And I was against certain things. But if you look and you take a look back, you'll see all of the things that you're talking about and all of the things that you're asking about, I was against at that time. And I'm still against. I haven't changed very much. I've been very consistent. I'm an extremely stable genius. Okay. (Laughter.)
Yes. Go ahead, Jeff.
Q Mr. President, you mentioned China a few times today. Given the tension now - not only over trade, but over Huawei and technology - what likelihood is there that there will be a trade deal in the next two months?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, there's a possibility. I think probably a good possibility. I don't know how China can do this. Because I'll be honest: We're getting hundreds of billions of dollars brought into our country. We've never gotten 10 cents. We're getting hundreds of billions of dollars coming into our country.
Q But American companies are paying.
THE PRESIDENT: And I'm helping the farmers.
Q Right? American companies are paying.
THE PRESIDENT: But you know what? That help is a very temporary help because they'll pay it back a hundred times over - they will - with what they do, with the importance of what they do.
But Huawei is something that's very dangerous. You look at what they've done from a security standpoint, from a military standpoint. It's very dangerous. So it's possible that Huawei even would be included in some kind of a trade deal. If we made a deal, I could imagine Huawei being possibly included in some form of or some part of a trade deal.
Q How would that look?
THE PRESIDENT: It would look very good for us.
Q The Huawei part, how would you design that?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, it's too early to say. But, I mean, we're just very concerned about Huawei, from a security standpoint right now.
Q Sir, the Constitution says treason is punishable by death. You've accused your adversaries of treason. Who specifically are you accusing of treason?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think a number of people. And I think what you look is that they have unsuccessfully tried to take down the wrong person.
Q Who are you speaking of?
THE PRESIDENT: If you look at Comey; if you look at McCabe; if you look at probably people - people higher than that; if you look at Strzok; if you look at his lover, Lisa Page, his wonderful lover - the two lovers, they talked openly. You know, they didn't use their private server because they didn't want to get caught, so they used the government server. That was not a good move. He talked about the insurance policy, just in case Crooked Hillary loses. And that didn't work out too well for them.
So you look at them - they wanted an insurance policy so that should she, for any reason, lose - remember? One hundred million-to-one. Maybe, he said 100 million to nothing. But should she lose, we'll have an insurance policy, and we'll get this guy out of office.
And that's what they said, and that's what they meant. That's treason. That's treason. They couldn't win the election, and that's what happened.
And that's what's happening right now because - without the "treason" word, I guess - but that's what's happening now. They don't feel they can win the election, so they're trying to do the thousand stabs. Keep stabbing. Let's have a financial. Let's have...
And if you look, for $40 million, I would think, seriously, that Bob Mueller and his group of 18 killers have gone over my taxes, they've gone over my financial statements to a level that nobody has gone over them before. And they were not discussed, even. They weren't ever discussed or brought up. I have great statements.
Okay, what else?
Q You said you don't want to do a dual track. On one hand, you don't want a dual track. But on the other hand, you want the USMCA to pass (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think things are very easy. USMCA is finished, just so you understand. This is a finish. This is not even negotiate. This is a finish. This is a great deal for our country. This is a great deal for our farmers, great deal for our manufacturers.
And one of the things that was absolutely vital to me was that our companies - car companies, in particular - don't leave our country, go to Mexico, build a car, sell it into our country with no tax whatsoever, and all of our workers are fired and all of those plants are empty, like happened to Michigan, and Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, and Kentucky, and lots of other places.
Guess what? Our car industry now is thriving. And under the USMCA, it's prohibitive to do that, financially. It's prohibitive. It will be a tremendous price. Nobody will do it. And if you look, since I've been President, the mass exodus - they have almost 30 percent of our business in Mexico, our car business. It's ridiculous. It's all stopped. It's all stopped. Nobody is doing it.
And now, as you saw in Ohio - great state, an unbelievable state - the only thing I had was General Motors closed Lordstown plant - this big Lordstown plant. And I called up Mary Barra and I said,
"Mary, you either sell it or open it." She didn't like the way I talked to her. I said,
"I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. You either sell that plant or open that plant." And she sold it to a very good company, I think, that will do a good job making electric trucks.
Okay, thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END • 4:28 P.M. EDT
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