Remarks by President Trump in Briefing at Al Asad Air Base | Al Anbar Province, Iraq (to the media) | Eastern North Carolina Now

    We need a wall. So when you say, "How long is it going to take?" When are they going to say that we need border security? When are the Democrats going to say it? Don't forget, the Democrats all agreed that you need a wall, until I wanted it. Once I wanted it, they didn't agree.

    Steve.

    Q What's your timeline on a new Defense Secretary?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, we have wonderful man in there now, as you know. Our friend, Shanahan, is a good man, and he's done a great job. And he's a good buyer. I wanted somebody that could buy, because I'm giving a lot of money and I don't want it to be wasted.

    You know, when I came here, they were spending - for a $4 billion aircraft carrier, they were up to $16 billion. That's not me; that's them. I inherited that and many other things. Cost overruns all over the place.

    So Shanahan was at Boeing, and did a great job at Boeing. He was there for a long time. Boeing is a hell of a company. He did a great job. Very responsible for the success of a certain plane, the Dreamliner. And he's a respected man. He could be there for a long time. I mean, I'm in no rush.

    I will say that I've got everybody - everybody and his uncle wants that position. And also, by the way, everybody and her aunt - just so I won't be criticized for that last statement.

    Everybody wants that position. Everybody. Everybody - so many people want to be - who wouldn't want to be Secretary of Defense? Even these folks would like to be Secretary of Defense. Who wouldn't want to be? This guy, he's looking over there. He said, "Boy, I would like that (inaudible)." (Laughter.)

    So we have a lot of people. We have a lot of great people who want to be Secretary of Defense. We'll take our time and we'll make the right decision.

    Q Mr. President, have you come down from $5 billion to $2 billion for border security in the conversations with Democrats?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know - as you know, we've already built a lot of wall. We're building a lot more, you know, just through the normal budget. And we fixed a tremendous amount of wall - many miles. Sarah can give you the numbers. Sarah Sanders can give you the numbers. But we've fixed a lot of wall, and we've renovated it. It's very, very good. It's as good as new. And, you know, many, many miles of that.

    And we've also built new wall a lot. But we just gave out a contract that, when it's all completed out, it'll be 115 miles. That's a lot. We're talking about 500 to 550 miles. And this will be - just this one contract is 115. I'm going there - I assume you're coming with me - on probably the end of January, a little bit before the State of the Union. I think we're going to do it before the State of the Union Address. I'll be going to Texas, and we're going to be sort of having a long - we'll have a long groundbreaking, because it covers a lot of territory. But we're going to have a groundbreaking for the wall.


    Q But as to the matter of negotiations, sir, have you come down from the $5 billion ask to $2 billion? That's a perception Democrats have.

    THE PRESIDENT: Here's the problem - yeah, here's the problem we have: We have a problem with the Democrats because Nancy Pelosi is calling the shots, not Chuck. And Chuck wants to have this done. I really believe that. He wants to have this done. But she's calling the shots, and she's calling them because she wants the votes.

    And probably, if they do something, she's not going to get the votes, and she's not going to be Speaker of the House. And that would be not so good for her. Because she's got - you know, she's in a very tight contest. I know her contest very well; I know it maybe better than she does. I know exactly where she is. And she's in a very, very tight contest. There are those that say she doesn't have the votes yet. Let's see what happens. I say she does.

    But if Chuck does this, it could very well have negative implications on her becoming Speaker of the House. So they all know you need it; they all know you need this border security. They all know you need the wall - or whatever you want to call it - in order to secure our border, which these people know more about than anybody. And they can tell you, you need a wall. But the one who is calling the shots is Nancy Pelosi.

    Q Will you accept $2 billion instead of $5 billion, sir?

    THE PRESIDENT: I'm not going to talk about it now. But I will say this: We have been building a lot of wall. A lot of people don't know it, and I haven't really been stressing it, frankly, because maybe I felt it wasn't the right thing to do. But we've been building a lot of wall. If you go out, you'll see it. Or we can give you an exact list. Sarah, you'll do that.

    But we're building now - we just gave out a contract, as you know; I just released it the other day. But we are building a lot of wall. We have a lot of great wall going in the most important places. We're starting in the most important places, which I would say history says, fellas, that's a good thing to do, right? Do the most important places first and do the least important places last.

    So we are probably up to - with what we're building now and what we're going to start very shortly, we're probably up to over 200 miles of wall. Nobody knows that, nor did I want to tell anybody. So we are moving very rapidly. And I have other sources if I need them. But we have to do it the right way.

    Look, the American public is demanding a wall. I think they're under a lot of pressure. The problem is, we need 10 Democrat votes in the Senate. The House is 100 percent. You saw that. Nancy said we'd never get the votes in the House. Not only did we get them, we got them by a lot - 217 to 185. I mean, we got them by a lot. Nobody believed that.

    Nancy Pelosi sat, and she said you couldn't get the votes in the House. And then we got the votes in the House. And that was for $5.8 billion.


    So we're doing well. The problem is, we need 10 votes in the Senate, and they have to be Democrat votes. They can't - you know, people don't understand. They hear we have the majority. Well, we have, right now, the majority by one. Soon, we'll have the majority by three because we won the Senate and we picked up. Nobody ever reports that, but we won the Senate and we picked up two seats, which is - you know, someday one of you guys are going to get out and actually report that. There are those that say it's more important because that's what approves Supreme Court judges, judges, people - everything.

    But we won the Senate, and people were very surprised at how well we did in the Senate. We almost won three additional seats that we weren't expected to be anywhere near.

    So Nancy is calling the shots. And they all know - look, politically speaking - I don't do it for politics; I'm doing nothing for politics. But, politically speaking, people want border security, okay?

    One more question?

    MS. SANDERS: We'll take one more question.

    THE PRESIDENT: One more.

    Q Did you have any concerns about coming here today?

    THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely, when I heard what you had to go through.

    Q What did you go through?

    THE PRESIDENT: I mean, look, I had concerns for the institution of the presidency because - not for myself, personally. I had concerns for the First Lady, I will tell you. But if you would have seen what we had to go through, with the darkened plane, with all windows closed, with no lights on whatsoever, anywhere - pitch black. I've never seen it; I've been in many airplanes - all types and shapes and sizes. I've never seen anything like it. We're coming in, and I know all of the things that were surrounding us for safety.

    So did I have a concern? Yeah, I had a concern, but my bigger concern was maybe the people that were with me, certainly all of them - except, I think, John Bolton. He's a pretty tough guy. He can handle it. Right, John? John can handle it.

    And, by the way, John and I agree on all of this. And I think John will say that we went through numerous - extension, extension, extension. John - and John is, you know, pretty strong on the subject. He's pretty strong. He's pretty hawkish on everything having to do with the military.

    And, by the way, I think I'm probably more hawkish than anybody. Anybody. Nobody is more hawkish than me. But I also like to use it in the right place. And, frankly, I like not using it at all.

    And one of the things we're doing is we are building the greatest force that we've ever had, that we've ever had. We've never had a force like we're building, in terms of the equipment. We have the best people, to start off with.

    And by doing what I'm doing, hopefully, we won't have to use it. But there is nobody that believes more strongly in having a powerful military than I do. And we're respected once again in the world, and that's nice to see because our military - I'm not going to put them on the spot, but our military was seriously depleted when I took office. Seriously depleted. It was in bad shape. And very soon, it's going to be phenomenal shape.

    Okay? Thank you all very much.

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