Remarks by President Trump in Press Conference After Midterm Elections | Eastern North Carolina Now

    But we'll find out. I mean, you know, we'll find out. Or we can work together. You can't do them simultaneously, by the way. Just think if somebody said, "Oh, you can do them both." No, you can't. Because if they're doing that, we're not doing the other, just so you understand. So we won't be doing that.

    But now what happens is we send it to the Senate, and we'll get 100 percent Democrat support, and we'll get some Republican support. And if it's good, I really believe we have Republicans that will help with the approval process - and they will really help with the approval process.

    So it really could be a beautiful bipartisan type of situation. If we won by one or two or three, or four or five, that wouldn't happen. And the closer it is, the worse it is. This way, they'll come to me, we'll negotiate. Maybe we'll make a deal, maybe we won't. That's possible. But we have a lot of things in common on infrastructure.

    We want to do something on healthcare; they want to do something on healthcare. There are a lot of great things that we can do together. And now we'll send it up and we will really get - we'll get the Democrats and we'll get the Republicans, or some of the Republicans. And I'll make sure that we send something up that the Republicans can support, and they're going to want to make sure they send something up that the Democrats can support.

    So our great country is booming like never before, and we're thriving on every single level, both in terms of economic and military strength; in terms of development. In terms of GDP, we're doing unbelievably.

    I will tell you, our trade deals are coming along fantastically. The USMCA and South Korea is finished. USMCA has gotten rave reviews. Not going to lose companies anymore to other countries. They're not going to do that because they have a tremendous economic incentive, meaning it's prohibitive for them to do that.

    So it's not going to be like NAFTA, which is one of the worst deals I've ever seen - although we've made some other pretty bad ones too.

    Now is the time for members of both parties to join together, put partisanship aside, and keep the American economic miracle going strong. It is a miracle. We're doing so well. And I've said it at a lot of rallies. Some of you have probably heard it so much you don't want to hear it again. But when people come to my office - presidents, prime ministers - they all congratulate me, almost the first thing, on what we've done economically. Because it is really amazing.

    And our steel industry is back. Our aluminum industry is starting to do really well. These are industries that were dead. Our miners are working again.


    We must all work together to protect our military - I have to do that - to support out law enforcement, secure our borders, and advance really great policy, including environmental policy. We want crystal-clean water. We want beautiful, perfect air. Air and water, it has to be perfect.

    At the same time, we don't want to put ourselves at a disadvantage to other countries who are very competitive with us and who don't abide by the rules at all. We don't want to hurt our jobs. We don't want to hurt our factories. We don't want companies leaving. We want to be totally competitive, and we are.

    And right now we have just about the cleanest air, the cleanest water we've ever had, and it's always going to be that way. We insist on it. So environmental is very important to me.

    And with that, I'll take a few questions if you'd like. Woah. (Laughter.) I didn't know what happened.

    All right, go ahead, John.

    That was a lot of hands shooting up so quickly.

    Q There's a lot to talk about.

    THE PRESIDENT: There's a lot to talk about.

    Q Mr. President, you talked at length just now about bipartisanship. The presumed Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, talked about it last night. I'm sure that's encouraging for the American people. But do you really believe, given what the relationship has been like between this White House and the Democratic Party, that that will happen? Will -

    THE PRESIDENT: I think there's a good chance, John. I think there's a very good chance that -

    Q If I could just finish -

    THE PRESIDENT: - it will happen.

    Q Will you have to compromise on certain issues to the point where it could hurt you in 2020? And do you expect that when the Democrats take over the chairmanship of all these important committees, you're going to get hit with a blizzard of subpoenas on everything from the Russia investigation -

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, then everything is going to come - okay.

    Q - to your cellphone use, to your tax returns?

    THE PRESIDENT: Ready? Then you're going to - if that happens, then we're going to do the same thing and government comes to a halt. And I would blame them because they now are going to be coming up with policy. They're the majority in the House.

    I expect that they will come up with some fantastic ideas that I can support on the environment, on so many different things, including prescription drug prices - which we've made a big dent in already, including some of the things that we're working on for the vets. We've gotten choice approved. We've gotten a lot of things approved. But they have some other elements that we want.

    There are many things we can get along on without a lot of trouble - that we agree very much with them and they agree with us. I would like to see bipartisanship. I would like to see unity. And I think we have a very good chance of - and maybe not on everything - but I think we have a very good chance of seeing that.

    Go ahead.

    Q One question on the lame duck, sir, and one on your Cabinet. You toyed with the idea during the campaign of a shutdown before the midterms in order to secure border wall funding. Are you prepared to go on a shutdown strategy during a lame duck, since this might be your last, best chance -

    THE PRESIDENT: Not necessarily my last chance.

    Q - to secure that?

    THE PRESIDENT: Look, I speak to Democrats all the time. They agree that a wall is necessary. Wall is necessary. And as you know, we're building the wall. We've started. But we should build it at one time, not in chunks.

    Q But you want much more money, and you want it much sooner.

    THE PRESIDENT: No, we need the money to build the wall - the whole wall - not pieces of it all over. And we are doing it.


    Now we have the military. Now we have other elements of wall that are pretty nasty, to be honest with you. But it's - nevertheless, it's pretty hard to get through it.

    But no, I'd like to see the wall. Many of the people that we'll be dealing with, you know, in 2006, they approved the wall, essentially. It was a very strong border fence, but it was the same thing. And they all approved it; they all agreed. I have statements from every one of them. We have them saying, "We need the wall." I mean, they sound like me.

    But we do need it because we have people coming - and I'm not just talking about the caravans. We have people coming through our border that you physically can't put that many people. It's a 2,000-mile stretch. You can't put that many people along that stretch to guard it. And even if you did, tremendous fighting would ensue.

    So we need the wall. Many Democrats know we need the wall. And we're just going to have to see what happens. I mean, we'll be fighting for it. They have done everything in their power to make sure we're - I got the military $700 billion and $716 billion. The wall is a tiny, tiny fraction of the cost of that. But their whole agenda has been to try not giving me anything for the wall.

    I really believe, politically, they're hurting themselves. I actually think, politically, that's a good thing for me. But I want to get the wall up because we need it for security.

    Q So no shutdown scenario for the mid - for the lame duck?

    THE PRESIDENT: I don't know. I can't tell you that. No, I can't commit to that, but it's possible.

    Q And can you give us clarity, sir, on your thinking currently now, after the midterms, about your Attorney General and your Deputy Attorney General? Do they have long-term job security?

    THE PRESIDENT: I'd rather answer that at a little bit different time. We're looking at a lot of different things, including Cabinet. I'm very happy with most of my Cabinet. We're looking at different people for different positions. You know, it's very common after the midterms. I didn't want to do anything before the midterms.

    But I will tell you that, for the most part, I'm extremely happy with my Cabinet. I think Mike Pompeo has fit in so beautifully. He's done an incredible job as -

    Q How about your Interior Secretary?

    THE PRESIDENT: We're looking at that, and I want - I do want to study whatever is being said. I think he's doing -

    Q Is he in jeopardy?

    THE PRESIDENT: I think he's doing an excellent job, but we will take a look at that in a very strong - and we'll probably have an idea about that in about a week.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Okay? Thank you.

    Wow, this is -


    Go ahead, Jon. He gave me a fair interview the other day, so I might as well ask him a question.

    Q All right, thank you, Mr. President. And picking up there, you told me the other day that you are an "open book." So -

    THE PRESIDENT: I think I am an open book.

    Q So point blank, if Democrats go after your tax returns, will you try to block that or will you allow them to have it?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, as I have told you, they're under audit. They have been for a long time. They're extremely complex. People wouldn't understand them. They're done by among the biggest and best law firms in the country. Same thing with the accounting firms. The accountants are - a very, very larger, powerful firm, from the standpoint of respect. Highly respected. Big firm. A great law firm. You know it very well. They do these things; they put them in. But people don't understand tax returns.

    Now, I did do a filing of over 100 pages, I believe, which is in the offices. And when people went and saw that filing and they saw the magnitude of it, they were very disappointed. And they saw the - you know, the detail. You'd get far more from that. And I guess we filed that now three times. But you get far more from that than you could ever get from a tax return.