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Remarks by President Trump in Press Conference After Midterm Elections
THE PRESIDENT: No, I don't. No. No. No.
Q NBC wouldn't air it, and other networks.
THE PRESIDENT: Do I regret it?
Q Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: Surprised you would ask me that question. I do not.
Go ahead, please.
Q Thank you, sir. And I think we'd all love to have more of these, if you're willing.
In 2017, shortly after you took office, your Homeland Security Department shuttered a program to counter homegrown, right-wing extremism, white supremacism, and related terrorist groups - domestic terrorist groups; and redirected that funding towards fighting Islamic terrorism. Do you believe that white supremacists, terrorists, right-wing terrorists, these homegrown terrorists on that side of the spectrum are a problem, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I do. I do believe that's a problem.
Q And what is your administration going to do about it?
THE PRESIDENT: I believe all hate is a problem, but I do believe that is a problem.
Q What are you going to do about it, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: And it's a problem we want to solve.
Q How, sir? What are you going to do about it, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, go ahead.
Q Sir - sir, what are you going to do about it? You cut off the funding.
Q Mr. President, you've said -
THE PRESIDENT: No, we have given funding for that - a lot of funding. But I do believe it's a problem. And can I tell you what - it's a problem that I don't like even a little bit.
Go ahead.
Q Aixa Diaz with Hearst Television. You've said, "Pretend I'm on the ballot" - yesterday. You called it a referendum on your presidency. Many local districts across the country rejected your midterm message, particularly suburban women. How do you bridge that divide now - also with the influx of women coming into Congress?
THE PRESIDENT: I think my message was very well received. I mean, just look at the results. Midterm elections are disasters for sitting Presidents and administrations. This has been a very successful - and, look, you can write it any way you want. And if you disagree with me - this has been incredibly success - when you look at the races. How about Ohio? I didn't even mention. I mentioned Florida; I mentioned Georgia. How about the governor of Ohio? A fantastic -
Q But what's your message to suburban women voters?
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. A fantastic man, who was down on the polls. And everybody was talking about this person that was so great. And I went up there, and I did a rally, and they have now a great governor - you're going to have a great governor in Ohio for, hopefully, a long period of time. But for four years. And - Mike DeWine is a fantastic person.
And I went up there for two reasons: Because I felt that his opposition was not a good person - and we know a lot about him - and I felt that Mike was a fantastic person. And he won. And not only did he win, he won easily.
So add that to Florida, and add that to Georgia, and add that to all of the other races that we won - outside, even, of the Senate races, which were the biggest of all. Because these were races that - and Mike Pence can tell you, and some of the folks over here can tell you - these were races that were going to be unopposed. We were not going to oppose certain of the people running - certain senators. They said they couldn't be beaten. They said Heidi could not be beaten. "Please, don't do it." This was a year out.
Q What about in the suburban districts? How do you get those back?
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. You - no, but you're telling me about - you're telling me about popularity. They said many of these people - when I said 9 out of 11 - but I said - when many of these people - these weren't like easy races; they were tough races.
And so I think the level of popularity - the first question I was asked was about, "Well, what have you learned? What about your own popularity?" I think that's what I learned, is - I was very well received by this great country, by the people of our great country. And I'm very proud of that, because I love the people of this country. These people - we are the greatest people. I love the people of our country.
Q So what do you say to women, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: And I'll tell you something: When you look at the races that we won in Florida, which we weren't expected to win; and Georgia, which we weren't expected to win; and Ohio, which we weren't expected to win - and won; I mean, you look at some of them - the number of votes that we got is incredible.
So I'm really happy with not only the way it came out, but the response to me as your President. And as your President, I made our country safe. I've rebuilt and am in the process of rebuilding our military. And the jobs are here. Every one of them built here. We're going to have the strongest - very shortly, we're going to have the strongest military our country has ever had.
I've done more for the vets than any President has done, certainly in many, many decades, with Choice and with other things, as you know. With other things.
But our vets are doing better than they've ever done. But if you look at Choice - Choice alone - I mean, just take a look at what we've done with Choice. But the people of our country are very happy with the job that I'm doing. And you know, one of the things -
Q But looking ahead to 2020 -
THE PRESIDENT: One of the things - one of the things that they want so much is security. They want security, both at the border - they want it with our military; they want it with law enforcement; they want it with ICE.
You know, we've taken out thousands of MS-13 gang members - thousands out of our - hard to believe - thousands - out of our country. Women of our country, who are incredible people, they want security; they want safety. They want financial security also. We've done that. But they want physical security.
And we've taken out thousands of people that shouldn't be in this country. But we have to get strong immigration laws so they don't come in. We want laws where they don't come in, where we don't have to take them out, per se.
And again, I'm very honored to be with all of you. It was a great day yesterday. It was a great evening. I think we had a tremendous success. And hopefully the tone can get better. Hopefully -
Q How will you change that?
THE PRESIDENT: Hopefully the tone can get a lot better. And I really believe it begins with the media. I really - we used to call it the "press." But I really -
Q Does it begin with you, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: But I really believe it begins with the media. If you would cover - and there was a very interesting story written in a very good paper recently that talked about the fact that it isn't good what the media is doing, and that I do have the right to fight back because I'm treated very unfairly.
So I do fight back. And I'm fighting back not for me; I'm fighting back for the people of this country.
Thank you all very much. Thank you.
Go Back
Q NBC wouldn't air it, and other networks.
THE PRESIDENT: Do I regret it?
Q Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: Surprised you would ask me that question. I do not.
Go ahead, please.
Q Thank you, sir. And I think we'd all love to have more of these, if you're willing.
In 2017, shortly after you took office, your Homeland Security Department shuttered a program to counter homegrown, right-wing extremism, white supremacism, and related terrorist groups - domestic terrorist groups; and redirected that funding towards fighting Islamic terrorism. Do you believe that white supremacists, terrorists, right-wing terrorists, these homegrown terrorists on that side of the spectrum are a problem, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I do. I do believe that's a problem.
Q And what is your administration going to do about it?
THE PRESIDENT: I believe all hate is a problem, but I do believe that is a problem.
Q What are you going to do about it, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: And it's a problem we want to solve.
Q How, sir? What are you going to do about it, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, go ahead.
Q Sir - sir, what are you going to do about it? You cut off the funding.
Q Mr. President, you've said -
THE PRESIDENT: No, we have given funding for that - a lot of funding. But I do believe it's a problem. And can I tell you what - it's a problem that I don't like even a little bit.
Go ahead.
Q Aixa Diaz with Hearst Television. You've said, "Pretend I'm on the ballot" - yesterday. You called it a referendum on your presidency. Many local districts across the country rejected your midterm message, particularly suburban women. How do you bridge that divide now - also with the influx of women coming into Congress?
THE PRESIDENT: I think my message was very well received. I mean, just look at the results. Midterm elections are disasters for sitting Presidents and administrations. This has been a very successful - and, look, you can write it any way you want. And if you disagree with me - this has been incredibly success - when you look at the races. How about Ohio? I didn't even mention. I mentioned Florida; I mentioned Georgia. How about the governor of Ohio? A fantastic -
Q But what's your message to suburban women voters?
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. A fantastic man, who was down on the polls. And everybody was talking about this person that was so great. And I went up there, and I did a rally, and they have now a great governor - you're going to have a great governor in Ohio for, hopefully, a long period of time. But for four years. And - Mike DeWine is a fantastic person.
And I went up there for two reasons: Because I felt that his opposition was not a good person - and we know a lot about him - and I felt that Mike was a fantastic person. And he won. And not only did he win, he won easily.
So add that to Florida, and add that to Georgia, and add that to all of the other races that we won - outside, even, of the Senate races, which were the biggest of all. Because these were races that - and Mike Pence can tell you, and some of the folks over here can tell you - these were races that were going to be unopposed. We were not going to oppose certain of the people running - certain senators. They said they couldn't be beaten. They said Heidi could not be beaten. "Please, don't do it." This was a year out.
Q What about in the suburban districts? How do you get those back?
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. You - no, but you're telling me about - you're telling me about popularity. They said many of these people - when I said 9 out of 11 - but I said - when many of these people - these weren't like easy races; they were tough races.
And so I think the level of popularity - the first question I was asked was about, "Well, what have you learned? What about your own popularity?" I think that's what I learned, is - I was very well received by this great country, by the people of our great country. And I'm very proud of that, because I love the people of this country. These people - we are the greatest people. I love the people of our country.
Q So what do you say to women, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: And I'll tell you something: When you look at the races that we won in Florida, which we weren't expected to win; and Georgia, which we weren't expected to win; and Ohio, which we weren't expected to win - and won; I mean, you look at some of them - the number of votes that we got is incredible.
So I'm really happy with not only the way it came out, but the response to me as your President. And as your President, I made our country safe. I've rebuilt and am in the process of rebuilding our military. And the jobs are here. Every one of them built here. We're going to have the strongest - very shortly, we're going to have the strongest military our country has ever had.
I've done more for the vets than any President has done, certainly in many, many decades, with Choice and with other things, as you know. With other things.
But our vets are doing better than they've ever done. But if you look at Choice - Choice alone - I mean, just take a look at what we've done with Choice. But the people of our country are very happy with the job that I'm doing. And you know, one of the things -
Q But looking ahead to 2020 -
THE PRESIDENT: One of the things - one of the things that they want so much is security. They want security, both at the border - they want it with our military; they want it with law enforcement; they want it with ICE.
You know, we've taken out thousands of MS-13 gang members - thousands out of our - hard to believe - thousands - out of our country. Women of our country, who are incredible people, they want security; they want safety. They want financial security also. We've done that. But they want physical security.
And we've taken out thousands of people that shouldn't be in this country. But we have to get strong immigration laws so they don't come in. We want laws where they don't come in, where we don't have to take them out, per se.
And again, I'm very honored to be with all of you. It was a great day yesterday. It was a great evening. I think we had a tremendous success. And hopefully the tone can get better. Hopefully -
Q How will you change that?
THE PRESIDENT: Hopefully the tone can get a lot better. And I really believe it begins with the media. I really - we used to call it the "press." But I really -
Q Does it begin with you, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: But I really believe it begins with the media. If you would cover - and there was a very interesting story written in a very good paper recently that talked about the fact that it isn't good what the media is doing, and that I do have the right to fight back because I'm treated very unfairly.
So I do fight back. And I'm fighting back not for me; I'm fighting back for the people of this country.
Thank you all very much. Thank you.
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