Press Conference by President Trump | Eastern North Carolina Now

    New York Times, come on. New York Times. The failing New York Times. Stand up. Go ahead.

    Q You're talking about me, but (inaudible).

    THE PRESIDENT: No, I'm talking about the Times is failing. You are far from failing. Go ahead.

    Q Okay, but you're not - you were pointing to me, so you meant me. But I -

    THE PRESIDENT: The Times are very interesting, though. The Times, I think they're going to endorse me. (Laughter.) I think that ABC - I think - well, Fox - I like Fox. I really do.

    Q Just to be sure -

    THE PRESIDENT: But I think ABC, CBS, NBC, the Times, the - 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?

    Q Just to be sure, I know you were pointing to me, but I work for PBS NewsHour.

    THE PRESIDENT: I know that. No, I know that.

    Q (Laughs.) Okay. So, I want to ask you: Yesterday, you were talking about your administration's accomplishments at the United Nations, and a lot of the leaders laughed. Why do you think they were laughing?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's fake news.

    Q And what was that experience like for you?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. It was 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. You look at 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 - 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. I mean, it is true. And I heard a little rustle. And I said, "It's true." And I heard smiles. And I said, "Oh, I didn't know there there'd be that kind..." 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, and 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."

    Q And I - I want to -

    THE PRESIDENT: I said, "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. 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 has ever said, "You should pay." These are really wealthy countries.

    I mean, I'll be honest, I just asked Japan. I said, "We're defending you. You're a very wealthy country. You're sending us millions of cars. You're making a fortune. We have a tremendous trade deficit with you. And we're defending you, and we're subsidizing your military with a massive amount of money."

    I said it to South Korea. We have 32,000 soldiers in South Korea. They're a very wealthy - these are great countries. These are very wealthy countries. I said, "Why aren't you reimbursing us for our costs?"

    And you know what? They look at me, and they can't even answer it, because there's no answer. If they're a poor country and they needed protection, and people were going to die, I'm all for protecting them; I don't want 10 cents. But when wealthy countries that have massive trade surpluses with us - massive - and then on top of that, we're paying for their military? Or we're paying for a lot of their military? That doesn't work.

    How about two more, and we'll call it?

    Q Mr. President, really quickly. Mr. President, you said you feel a kinship - you said you feel a kinship with Brett Kavanaugh and you - Mr. President, really quickly, you said you felt a kinship with Brett Kavanaugh. You said that you also - your false allegations that you feel like were made against you make you feel like you don't want to believe these women. What message do you think that -

    THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn't say that. Why do you say that?

    Q So, please explain -

    THE PRESIDENT: Fake news.

    Q Please explain -

    THE PRESIDENT: Why - did I say that?

    Q Well, can you please explain then what you're talking about in your own false allegations?

    THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. And by the way, I think you do a very good job, but I didn't say that. I do watch you. And I think you do a very good job. But I didn't say that.

    Q So could you explain what you meant?

    THE PRESIDENT: I said, exactly, "I look forward to watching her." I do want to hear what she says. And maybe she'll say - I could be convinced of anything. Maybe, if she'll say something - but in the meantime, I have to tell you, he's one of the highest quality human beings.

    He's a tremendous man. He's a tremendous genius. He's a great intellect. He was, I believe, number one at Yale. Is that a correct statement? Number one in his class at Yale.

    Q So you don't feel a kinship with him?

    THE PRESIDENT: He was a great student in law. He was - you know, I've heard his name. I didn't know him. Didn't know him. Until this whole thing, I didn't know him. But I heard his name for 10 years.

    And you know how I heard his name? Everybody was saying he should be on the Supreme Court. I said, "Who is he?" "His name is Brett Kavanaugh. And he should be - he's the most brilliant person. He's the most brilliant lawyer." They were talking about him on the Supreme Court 10 years ago. With all of that, I want to hear what she has to say. Okay?

    Q But you said that you don't feel - but you said that you feel like there have been numerous false allegations against you, and that because of that-

    THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I've had many false -

    Q - you feel that you understand what he might be going through.

    THE PRESIDENT: I've had many false statements against me. And if the press would have reported it, I would have been very happy. I think John Roberts would tell you that - you covered the story where the women were paid to say bad things about me. Sean Hannity covered it.

    I will tell you, when I saw that on Sean Hannity, I actually called him. Believe it or not, I don't speak to him very much, but I respect him. I called him. I said, "This is the biggest story. This is a big, big story." He agreed with me. The next day, I picked up the papers. There wasn't one word about it. The next day, I watched ABC news. John, I watched NBC. I watched CBS. I didn't watch CNN, but, next time, I'm going to. (Laughter.)

    Q And are you okay with -

    THE PRESIDENT: I watched everything. There wasn't one story other than Fox. And it's a big story. It's a shame. Okay. Enough. Thank you, though.

    Q And is it okay if I give it to the New York Times?

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you.

    Q Is it okay if I give it to the New York Times, Mr. President?

    THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. That's enough, please.

    Q I'm just going to - okay.

    THE PRESIDENT: Good job. Good job.

    Q Mr. President, could I ask a question, since I am from the New York Times -

    Q Mr. President -

    Q - before this gentleman?

    THE PRESIDENT: Since you're where? Since you're where?

    Q I'm actually from the New York Times. Yamiche is my former colleague, and we miss her. But I was hoping I could ask a question.

    THE PRESIDENT: I don't blame you. But I'll let you do it after he does it. Is that okay?

    Q That's perfectly well.

    THE PRESIDENT: I will do that in honor of a paper I once loved. (Laughter.)

    Q Thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead.

    Q Mr. President, my name is Edward Szall, with TruNews. Today, you met with Bibi Netanyahu, from Israel. And you brought up, actually, that you support a two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli crisis there.

    THE PRESIDENT: I do.

    Q Can you give us any more preview of what this great deal, the peace deal (inaudible) -

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'd love to be able to make a deal with the Israelis and the Palestinians. You know, my whole life, I was told that's the toughest deal. And I disagree. I think healthcare is probably tougher, okay? You want to know the truth. But it is tough. But we're going to take care of that, too. And that's going to get taken care of. We've already taken care of a lot of it.

    But the whole - my life, I've always heard the deal between, as you know, Israel and the Palestinians, that's like the toughest deal. Every possible thing is tough about that. I think we're going to make a deal. I think we're going to make a deal.

    So, at one of our many meetings today, I was with Bibi Netanyahu, a man who I have a lot of respect for. A man who has been extremely nice to me - very happy that I did the whole thing with Jerusalem and the embassy, which, by the way, we're going to open in four months for less than $500,000. And the budget was over $1 billion, right?

    Q Yes. That's correct.

    THE PRESIDENT: So we saved, let's say, a billion dollars. That's not so bad. And it's open. And it's beautiful, by the way. Jerusalem stone, one of my favorite stones.

    I will tell you, the question - somebody said today, "Well, this is the first news conference in a long time." I said, "What do you mean? I did like, five today." Every time I sit, I take a lot of questions from people that are screaming like maniacs in the back of the room - meaning, reporters.

    And one of the reporters - I won't say that it was John Roberts that said that, I refuse. But one of the - it was, but that's okay. Don't feel guilty, John. But of the reporters that was screaming asked about the one-state, two-state. And I said, "I think the two-state will happen. I think it's, in one way, more difficult because it's a real estate deal - because you need metes and bounds, and you need lots of carveouts and lots of everything. It's actually a little tougher deal. But in another way, it works better because you have people governing themselves.

    So, they asked be about that. I said, "Well, I think the two-state will happen. I think we're going to go down the two-state road." And I'm glad I got it out. And Jared, who is so involved - he loves Israel. He loves Israel. But he's also going to be very fair with the Palestinians. He understands it takes two people to be happy - two groups of people to be happy. Everybody has got to be happy. And that's why it's so tough, because there's been so much hatred and anger for so many years. That's what, probably, the number-one ingredient of toughness is. But they asked me - I said I think it's going to be a two-state.

    And you know what I did today? By saying that, I put it out there. And if you ask most of the people in Israel, they agree with that. But nobody wanted to say it. It's a big thing to put it out. It's a very big thing to put it out.

    Now, the bottom line: If the Israelis and the Palestinians want one state, that's okay with me. If they want two states, that's okay with me. I'm happy if they're happy. I'm a facilitator. I want to see if I can get a deal done so that people don't get killed anymore.

    When we had - in Saudi Arabia, we had one of the great conferences in history. Many of you were there; probably all of you were there. It was one of the most beautiful two days. That, and China - two of the most incredible events I've ever seen. I've never seen anything like it.