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

    Yes, go ahead, please. She took your place, but that's okay.

    Q Mr. President, just a quick question on rural America. In states like Indiana and North Dakota, folks turned out for Republican candidates. Could you talk a little bit about what this means for your agenda in terms of trade and the farm bill?

    THE PRESIDENT: The farm bill is working really well. I mean, we could have had it approved any time. But we're looking to get work rules approved. The farmers want it. I'd like it. The problem is, the Democrats are not giving us the 10 votes that we need.

    We are - everybody wants it. The farmers want it. But the Democrats are not approving the farm bill with work rules. We could have it very fast without the work rules, but we want the work rules in, and the Democrats just don't want to vote for that. So, at some point, they'll have to pay maybe a price.

    Jeff, go ahead.

    Q Thank you very much, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

    Q Have you seen any evidence that Russia or China intervened in yesterday's election?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, we've going - we're going to make a full report. And unlike the previous administration, we've done a lot of work on that issue. And if you look - speak with the FBI, speak with the Department of Justice, speak to Homeland Security, we've spent a lot of time. It gets very little coverage in the papers. I mean, you cover the nonsense part, but you don't cover the important. This is very important.

    And we have been working very hard on China and Russia, and everybody else, looking into our elections or meddling with our elections. But people tend not to write about it. But we have worked very hard, as you probably heard.

    Q What do you - what do you intend to say, sir, to President Xi and to President Putin when you meet with them later this month?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I have a good relationship with both. I know President Xi better. But I think I have a very good relationship with both. I actually had a very good meeting in Russia that you people didn't agree with, but that's okay. It doesn't much matter, obviously. Because here I am.

    Q You mean Helsinki?

    THE PRESIDENT: But the fact is that I had a very, very good meeting - a very, very good meeting with President Putin, and a lot was discussed about security, about Syria, about Ukraine, about the fact that President Obama allowed a very large part of Ukraine to be taken. Right now, you have submarines off that particular parcel that we're talking about. You know what I'm talking about.

    Q That was President Putin who annexed Crimea, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: That was President Obama's regime. That was during President Obama. Right? That was not during me. No, that was President Obama -

    Q But it was President Putin who did the annexation.

    THE PRESIDENT: No, no. It was President Obama that allowed it to happen. It had nothing to do with me.

    Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President. Cordelia Lynch, Sky News. You're a man who likes to win, but last night was not an absolute victory for you.

    THE PRESIDENT: I'll be honest: I thought it was a - I thought it was a very close to complete victory. When you look at it from the standpoint of negotiation, when you look at it from the standpoint of deal making - because it's all about deal making - again, if we had the majority, and we had one or two or three votes to play with, we would never - we would have been at a standstill.

    I really believe that we have a chance to get along very well with the Democrats. And if that's the case, we can do a tremendous amount of legislation and get it approved by both parties.

    So I consider it to be - hey, look, I won Georgia. President Obama campaigned very hard in Georgia. Oprah Winfrey campaigned very, very hard. All over the television. I said this is going to be tough. I only had me. I didn't have anybody else. And I went to Georgia, and we had one of the largest crowds that anybody here has seen, ever, at a political rally. And you know what? He won. And he won actually by, you know, pretty good margin. He won.

    And then we went to Florida, and they had celebrities all over the place. And a man, who happens to be very smart person, was running - Ron DeSantis. And people didn't give him a chance. And I went and we had - we did some great work. And they're going to have a great governor of the state of Florida.

    And then we talked about the Senate, and a lot of money was pouring in for the Democrat. This is a man who's been in office for like 44 years or something. This is man who was like a professional at getting elected and being in office. So he's not - Bill Nelson - not easy to beat. Okay? And - but they had a lot of celebrities coming out for Nelson. They had everybody coming out for Nelson. And Rick Scott won. And I helped him.

    And I think we've done an amazing job. And you could look at many other places - if you just take a look at some of the other places. And we just got the word that, in Iowa, you have a governor who just got extended, who's - Kim just got extended. And numerous other places.

    I think it was a great victory. I'll be honest: I think it was a great victory. And actually, some of the news this morning was that it was, in fact, a great victory.

    But if you look at it from the standpoint of gridlock, I really believe there's going to be much less gridlock because of the way this is going, than any other way.

    Q Mr. President, a quick follow-up on that.

    THE PRESIDENT: Sit down, please.

    Go ahead.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President. Let me ask you about one of the campaign promises you made down the stretch, which was a 10 percent tax cut for the middle class. You just talked about gridlock. Democrats, they now run the House Ways and Means Committee. If it means a tax cut of some kind for the middle class, but that means raising rates elsewhere - corporations, on the wealthiest - is that a trade-off that you would be willing to make, and able to enact a middle-class tax cut?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, it could be. You know that this will have to be now proposed. Because if we did it now, we don't have the votes in the Senate. You don't have - we need - we would need 10 Democrat vote; we probably couldn't get them. If we could, we could pass it very easily in the House. But there's no reason to waste time because you don't have the votes in the Senate.

    But if the - as an example, if the Democrats come up with an idea for tax cuts, which I'm a big believer in tax cuts, I would absolutely pursue something even if it means some adjustment.

    Q Some adjustment on which side? The corporate? The individual?

    THE PRESIDENT: Some adjustment. Yeah, to make it possible. But I would love to see a tax cut for the middle class. Now, that's going to be their decision. They're going to have to make that decision.

    As you know, if we bring it up to the Senate, we'd need Democrat votes - 10 - and we don't have those 10 votes.

    Q And just because the markets would - and just because the markets would want to know, sir - some adjustment, would that be one, two, three percent on either side?

    THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I'm not telling you that. I'm just saying, I would be certainly willing to do a little bit of an adjustment.

    Go ahead. Behind me. Go ahead, please.

    Q Mr. President, thank you very much. Two questions. One is, you had talked about leaders who had called to congratulate you. Did President Putin call to congratulate you? And will you, in fact, meet with him at lunch this coming weekend?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I understand it, we're having - and I guess a lot of you are going over. We're having a lunch for numerous countries. I'll be there. I believe President Putin is going to be there. We don't have anything scheduled. I don't think we have anything scheduled in Paris. And I'm coming back very quickly.

    We're going over - there's a great event. This is an important - really, it's going to be very important and, I think, a very beautiful ceremony. I'm looking forward to going. And we're representing the incredible heroes of the world, but the heroes of our country from World War I. And so I'll be going there, and I am very proud to go there.

    Q And did he call you?

    THE PRESIDENT: I don't think we have time set aside for that meeting.

    Now, with that being said, we're very shortly meeting again at the G20, where he'll be there and I'll be there. And that's where we're actually looking forward to meeting.

    We will be having - we will be having a lunch, but I think there are many people there.

    Q And did he call you to congratulate you? And if I could also just invite you, since this is quite a gathering we've got here, to go ahead and talk about the staff changes that you expect in the White House, while we're here. We're eager to hear about them. Is General Kelly going to stay on?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think what I'll do is - as we make changes, we'll sit down and talk to you about it. I mean, there's no great secret. A lot of administrations make changes after midterms. I will say that, for the most part, I'm very, very happy with this Cabinet. We're doing a great job.

    Q But what about in the White House? What about in the White House, sir? You've got a lot White House staff. Some have been talking about leaving. General Kelly has been rumored to be leaving. Is he?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's okay. No, people leave. People leave.

    Q And is that going to happen, sir?

    THE PRESIDENT: People leave. I haven't heard about John Kelly. But, no, people - people leave. They come in, they're here. It's a very exhausting job. Although, I love doing it, I must tell you. But it's exhausting for a lot of people. I'm surprised at a lot of people. They start off, they're young people, they're there for two years, and they're old by the time they leave. (Laughter.) It's quite exhausting. But I love doing it.

    And I'll tell you, there will be changes. Nothing monumental from that standpoint. I don't think very much different than most administrations. But - and we have - I mean, we have many people lined up for every single position. Any position. Everybody wants to work in this White House. We are a hot country. This is a hot White House. We are a White House that people want to work with.

    Okay. No, no. Please. Behind you. Behind you. Go ahead.

    Q Mr. President, this has been a very challenging campaign. It is - this has been a very challenging campaign.

    THE PRESIDENT: It's been a very challenging campaign. That's true.

    Q It has involved quite of a lot of abuse and a lot of violence. People have died during the course of this campaign.

    THE PRESIDENT: Right.

    Q Is there any way in which you think the temperature could be lowered? Perhaps peace could break out with the media? Perhaps you bipartisan relationships across the House and the Senate may now produce some change. Or are we going to have more of the same?

    THE PRESIDENT: It's a very fair question. Look, I would love to see unity and peace and love, and any other word you want to use. And obviously, I think we had to, especially at this particular juncture, we had to wait until after the midterms were over. Now they're over.