Q For the - excuse me.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: And just to finish, I hope that Poland is going to have a great relationship with Russia. I think it's possible. I really do. I think because of what you've done and the strength - and maybe we help also, because of what we're doing and doing for Poland.
But I hope that Poland is going to have a great relationship with Russia. I hope we're going to have a great relationship with Russia and, by the way, China and many other countries. And we look forward to doing things on North Korea - just to go back to the original part of your question. And we'll see how that works out.
I do want to say, though: We're in no hurry. The sanctions are on. China has actually been helping us quite a bit. And despite our trade differences right now - we thought we had a deal, and unfortunately, they decided that they were going to change the deal, and they can't do that with me. But something is going to happen, and I think it's going to be something very positive.
But we think we're going to get along with a lot of countries that, frankly, did not respect us very much because they were ripping us off for many, many years. And they're not ripping us off anymore.
Jeff.
Q Thank you, sir. Regarding China, what is your deadline, if you have one, for China to make progress on trade before you impose the tariffs on the other $325 billion in goods?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we're going to be meeting - President Xi and myself - and you know we have a very good relationship. But, again, he's for China and I'm for the U.S. It's a big difference. And we thought we had a deal. We didn't have a deal. And I would never make something that would be less than what we already had.
We had China opened up to trade. That's a big thing. They've never done that before. We had intellectual property theft taken care of and taken care of beautifully. And all of the sudden, those things started to disappear at the end, after they were fully negotiated.
But that's - you know, that's their decision. I think if they had to do again - and in light of the fact that we have 25 percent on $250 billion of goods coming into the United States. And unlike a lot of countries, they subsidize those goods. We haven't had inflation. And, you know, they keep saying that the American taxpayer is paying for it. No. No. Very little.
And what it really does mean is that a lot of those companies that are in China are going to be moving back to the U.S. You have car companies - General Motors, as an example - that built plants in China. Well, that doesn't work out too well when you have the tariff wall up because now they're going to have to get through that and they can't really get through that. So maybe they'll start building plants in the United States instead.
I think that we'll end up making a deal with China. We have a very good relationship, although it's a little bit testy right now, as you would expect. I think they really have to make a deal. A lot of companies are leaving China, as you know. It's in all the reports. And they're going to Vietnam and various other places, and they're also coming to the United States to make their product because they don't want to pay the tariff.
And there is no tariff if you do it in the United States. People don't realize that. You know, they say "the tariff," but there is no tariff if you don't do it - you know, if you just do exactly as I say: You bring your company back to the United States.
And as far as Mexico is concerned, which was a very big topic yesterday - and now people are finding out that the reports that were written were totally false - we would never have had a deal with Mexico without imposing tariffs. Once the tariffs were imposed - and they've been trying to make this deal with Mexico for 20 years, 25 years. The older reporters, those great reporters with the very gray hair in the back - you know who I'm talking about; they know exactly what I'm talking about - you would have never made the deal with Mexico.
We have a great deal with Mexico. I actually think we have a much better relationship right now with Mexico because they respect us again. But you would never have had that deal if I didn't impose the tariffs. And those tariffs were ready to going to on Monday morning, and we made the deal on, essentially, Sunday night.
And that extra little page of the deal that you saw that brilliantly - I had gained such respect for you people when I held it up to the sunlight and it was closed, and you were able to read it through the sunlight. That was not anticipated. But regardless, I mean, you knew enough of what it said. And I didn't do it on purpose, but we have a lot of strength in 45 days if we decide to use that strength. Maybe we will, and maybe we won't. But there's a lot of power right now in the border.
And I will say this: Mexico is, right now, doing more for the United States on illegal immigration and all of the problems of crime and other problems on the border than the Democrats. We can solve our problem on the border in 15 minutes if the Democrats would sit down, straighten out asylum - which is a total mess, but very uncomplicated - straighten out asylum, and get rid of the loopholes. It would take, Jeff, 15 minutes.
Okay? Thank you. Please.
Q But just - my original question, sir, was: Do you have a deadline for imposing the 325?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I have no deadline. My deadline is what's up here. We'll figure out the deadline.
Q Okay.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Nobody can quite figure it out.
Q And, President Duda, if I could just throw one your way as well: You said in the Oval Office earlier that democracy in Poland was strong. Not all of your European Union counterparts agree with that. How is forcing Supreme Court justices to retire early consistent with democratic principles? And, President Trump, is that something that you support?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No.
PRESIDENT DUDA: (As interpreted.) Ladies and gentlemen, this is a very complex issue. And it's hard to answer this question because a lot of people in Western Europe - I think also in the U.S. - do not fully understand this problem because they have not grown up in a country such as mine.
I was born in 1972, in a Poland which was in the Russian sphere of influence, in which a career could be made only, actually, when somebody enrolled as member of the Communist Party and who followed these people's power who was the supreme authority. And this is what was happening for many years.
Although, as you know, ladies and gentlemen, as Solidarity Movement grew, people were imprisoned, people were tortured, people were killed during the martial law, and after as well - be it openly or in a secret way. And this was the reality of Poland until 1989.
And now imagine, ladies and gentlemen, that no so long ago - a few years ago - I was surprised to discover that, in the Polish Supreme Court, there was a whole group of justices who were issuing sentencing as judges - members of the Communist Party - before 1990, who were even passing sentences during the martial law, sentencing people to prisons based on the law of the Communist martial law.
And when I was asked whether the Supreme Court needs to be reformed, I said "yes." If Poland is supposed to be a truly democratic, free, and sovereign country, if it is supposed to be a country we want it to be for our children, for the generation who was born after, in 1989, then for God's sake, those people have to leave. They have to retire. And this is what we did.
As a matter of fact, everything that we were doing was aimed at retiring those people. But, as you can see, unfortunately, although 30 years have passed, they have got influence - the influence which they were building after 1989 where they assumed a new identity of an elite of a new state. So this influence is still strong. This is what I can say.
And let me assure you of one thing: that freedom of speech is absolutely respected in Poland. Poland absolutely respects all constitutional standards, just as in the United States: the right to assemble; the right to the freedom of speech. There is free media in Poland. There is everything that is functioning in a normal democracy.
One can announce what they think, one can demonstrate, one can say what they think. In Poland, people are not attacked during demonstrations as it happens in other Western European countries. Police do not use truncheons or tear gas against people. People can speak their mind. They can express that they're not pleased with something. This is their right in democracy.
Please ask Polish journalists, "When was the last time - when was the last demonstration in Poland when some kind of tension happened?" No, it didn't, because in Poland we respect the right to demonstrate and to express your concern, because we believe that this is one of the foundations of democracy. In Poland, there is absolutely free and just elections. All the standards are respected.
So, please, ladies and gentleman, come to Poland and see Poland with your own eyes. Please do not repeat certain stereotypes that are repeated in the West. Poland, today, has got quite a conservative government, that is true. And this government has got certain standards of action. Not everybody subscribes to those standards, especially people of more leftist views. But this is the nature of democracy.
So once you have got one side of the political scene in power, and then people make a different choice and another side of the political stage comes to power. There is nothing extraordinary about that. And this is the change that is happening in Poland.
But when somebody wins the elections, they then have the right to implement the program which they announced before the elections. Excuse me, however, realizing that implementing the program, which you presented in your election campaign, is not only the right, but I think an obligation resting on a politician. And this is exactly what is happening in Poland.
