Remarks by President Trump in Cabinet Meeting | Eastern North Carolina Now

    And the people of Utah really appreciate what I did for hundreds and hundreds of miles of park that they'll be able to now use, as opposed to not.

    And so I was surprised at Mitt Romney. But we - I just hope he's going to be a team player. And if he's a team player, that'll be great. I will say this: If he fought really hard against President Obama like he does against me, he would've won the election. Does that make sense to you? If he fought the way he fights me, I'm telling you, he would've won the election.

    But I think he's going to end up being a team player. I think he agrees with many of the things that we've done and many of the things that we have in mind. And we'll see what happens.

    Q Mr. President, in Afghanistan -

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, go ahead. Afghanistan.

    Q In Afghanistan - you have won ISIS in Syria. But in Afghanistan, Taliban is getting (inaudible). And you mentioned India and Modi. What role do you want India to play -

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think India should be involved in Afghanistan. I mean, I'll give you an example. You can talk about our generals. I gave our generals all the money they wanted. They didn't do such a great job in Afghanistan. They've been fighting in Afghanistan for 19 years.

    General Mattis thanked me profusely for getting him $700 billion. He couldn't believe it. General Mattis thanked me even more the following year when I got him $716 billion. He couldn't believe it. Because our military was depleted.


    Now we're rebuilding our military and we're getting - in fact, Pat was very responsible for a lot of the orders for the new F-35 fighter jets and F-18s, and all of the things we're doing, including ships and missiles and everything.

    But General Mattis was so thrilled. Well, what's he done for me? How has he done in Afghanistan? Not too good. Not too good. I'm not happy with what he's done in Afghanistan. And I shouldn't be happy. But he was very happy. He was very thankful when I got him $700 billion, and then the following year, $716 billion.

    So, I mean, I wish him well. I hope he does well. But as you know, President Obama fired him, and essentially so did I. I want results.

    Q So India (inaudible) more security (inaudible)?

    THE PRESIDENT: We're going to do something that's right. We are talking to the Taliban. We're talking to a lot of different people. But here's the thing - because mentioned India: India is there. Russia is there. Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia, because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia. So you take a look at other countries. Pakistan is there; they should be fighting. But Russia should be fighting.

    The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there. The problem is it was a tough fight. And literally, they went bankrupt. They went into being called Russia again, as opposed to the Soviet Union. You know, a lot these places you're reading about now are no longer a part of Russia because of Afghanistan.

    But why isn't Russia there? Why isn't India there? Why isn't Pakistan there? Why are we there, and we're 6,000 miles away? But I don't mind. We want to help our people. We want to help other nations. You do have terrorists, mostly Taliban, but ISIS.

    I mean, I'll give you an example. So, Taliban is our enemy. ISIS is our enemy. We have an area that I brought up with our generals four or five weeks ago, where Taliban is here, ISIS is here, and they're fighting each other. I said, "Why don't you let them fight?" Why are we getting in the middle of it? I said, "Let them fight. They're both our enemies. Let them fight." "Sir, we want to do it." They go in and they end up fighting both of them.

    It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. I think I would've been a good general, but who knows. But you know what? These are two enemies that are fighting against each other, and we end up going in and fighting. And what are we doing?

    But I say this: India - great relationship with Prime Minister Modi. He's a great gentleman and a great man, and he's done a fantastic job. He's brought the country together. India, Russia - you look at some of the satellite countries that are extremely wealthy with oil, surrounding. I mean, I spoke to some of them. They - I said a certain country, very rich country: "What would you do if the United States pulled out?" "Oh, we'd be taken over by the Taliban and terrorists." I said, "Huh, then why are you charging us when we have to use your country to send product through? Why are you charging us when we send airplanes over your country? We're doing the job for you. Why are you charging us?"

    He said to me - very, great gentleman. Smart. He said to me, "Well, nobody ever asked me not to." I said, "I'm asking you not to. He said, "We will not charge you." And I'm talking about millions and millions of dollars. Flights over his country. But I said to him, "What would happen if we weren't here?" And he looks at me and he goes, "We would be overrun. We could not defend ourselves." And yet he charges us. But he doesn't charge us anymore.

    Okay. Yeah, please. Jeff?

    Q Mr. President, you used the word "slowly" when you were describing withdrawal from Syria.

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I never said fast or slow. Yeah, I just -

    Q What's your timetable? When do you want troops to be out?

    THE PRESIDENT: I don't know - somebody said four months, but I didn't say that either. I'm getting out - we're getting out of Syria.


    Look, we don't want Syria. Obama gave up Syria years ago when he didn't violate the red line. I did, when I shot 59 missiles in, but that was a long time later. And when President Obama decided not to violate his statement that never crossed the red line, and then they did, and he didn't do anything about it - you know, making a threat is okay but you always have to follow through with the threat if you're going to make that threat. You can't make a threat and then do nothing.

    So Syria was lost long ago. It was lost long ago. And besides that - we're talking about sand and death. That's what we're talking about. We're not talking about, you know, vast wealth. We're talking about sand and death.

    Now, the Kurds, it's very interesting - Turkey doesn't like them, other people do. I didn't like the fact that they're selling the small oil that they have to Iran. And we asked them not to sell it to Iran. But the Kurds - our partners - are selling oil to Iran. We're not thrilled about that. Okay? I'm not happy about it at all.

    At the same time, they fight better when we fight with them. You know, when we send 30 F-18s in front of them, they fight much better than they do when we don't. And you've seen what's happened. But we want to protect the Kurds, nevertheless. We want to protect the Kurds. But I don't want to be in Syria forever. It's sand and it's death.

    And when we kill ISIS, if we don't - now, everyone says, "Oh, then they'll come to our country." Well that's possibly true, a very small percentage. But you know where else they're going? To Iran, who hates ISIS more than we do. They're going to Russia, who hates ISIS more than we do. So we're killing. And then I read, when we pull out, "Oh, Russia is thrilled." Russia is not happy. You know why they're not happy? Because they like it when we're killing ISIS, because we're killing them for them, and we're killing them for Assad, and we're killing ISIS also for Iran.

    And just while we're on Iran - because, you know, people don't like to write the facts - Iran is a much different country than it was when I became President. Iran - when I became President, I had a meeting at the Pentagon with lots of generals. They were like from a movie. Better looking than Tom Cruise, and stronger.

    And I had more generals than I've ever seen, and we were at the bottom of this incredible room. And I said, "This is the greatest room I've ever seen." I saw more computer boards than I think that they make today. And every part of the Middle East, and other places that was under attack, was under attack because of Iran. And I said to myself, "Wow." I mean, you look at Yemen, you look at Syria, you look at every place. Saudi Arabia was under siege. They were all. I mean, they wanted Yemen because of the long border with Saudi Arabia, and that's why they're there, frankly. But every place was under siege.

    And I actually asked a question: "How do you stop these people? They're all over the place." They have plenty of money. President Obama had just given them $150 billion. He just gave $1.8 billion in cash. I'm still trying to figure that one out, Mick. Gave $1.8 million in cash. Planeloads of cash. I mean cash from five different countries. You know why from five different countries, Jeff? Because we didn't have enough cash in the Tri-State Area to give them $1.8 billion. So they had to use the currency of other countries. That's the real reason.

    So with all of that, with all of that being said, I did something called terminate the horrible Iran Nuclear Deal - which, by the way, in eight years, gives Iran the legal right to have nuclear weapons. Okay? I did it. Iran is no longer the same country. Iran is pulling people out of Syria. They can do what they want there, frankly. But they're pulling people out. They're pulling people out of Yemen.

    Iran wants to survive now. Iran was a power in the Middle East. They were going to take over the whole Middle East. They were going to take over everything. That was what they wanted to do - and destroy Israel while they're at it.

    Iran is a much different country right now. They're having riots every week, in every city - bigger than they've ever had before. Their currency is under siege thanks to us. A lot of bad things are happening. When we do all of the things that we've done monetarily to Iran, Iran is in trouble. And you know what? I'd love to negotiate with Iran. They're not ready yet, I don't think. But they will be. But Iran is a much different country right now, Jeff, than it was when I took over.

    When I took over two years ago, Iran was going to take over the Middle East and who knows where, and they were going to have all the nuclear weapons they wanted in a very short period of time, because of that stupid deal. When I terminated that deal and then did what I had to do, Iran is a much different country today than it was 19 months ago. That I can tell you.

    Q You just said you don't have a timetable for withdrawing troops. Do you think it's (inaudible)?

    THE PRESIDENT: I think it's just over a period of time. But we're - oh, we're withdrawing.


    Q But (inaudible).

    THE PRESIDENT: We're hitting them. We're hitting them very hard. When I met with the generals in Iraq, I said to a couple of the generals - I said, "Why didn't you do this before?" He said, "Sir, our commanders were telling us what to do." I said, "Well, don't you tell them?" "No, sir. We take orders." And they do. You know, they're great soldiers. They listen. I do it differently. I sat around, and after a few minutes, they loosened up and they said, "This is what we should do." But we were supposed to be out of Syria many years ago.

    If you remember, we went to Syria for some spot hits, and that was five years ago. And we never left. I don't want to be in Syria. I go to Walter Reed Hospital and I see soldiers that are so badly injured and hurt. I don't want that. I don't want it. And I want to rebuild our country, and I want to spend money on our military without depleting it every day. I want to spend money on our country. And that's what's happening. And our military is getting really strong. Our - I mean, I could tell you stories, when I first got here, about our military that I don't even want to talk about. I don't even want to talk about.

    And one of the things I've told the Secretary and other people: We do these reports on our military. Some IG goes over there, who are mostly appointed by President Obama - but we'll have ours too - and he goes over there, and they do a report on every single thing that's happening, and they release it to the public.

    What kind of stuff is this? We're fighting wars, and they're doing reports and releasing it to the public? Now, the public means the enemy. The enemy reads those reports; they study every line of it. Those reports should be private reports. Let him do a report, but they should be private reports and be locked up. And if a member of Congress wants to see it, he can go in and read it. But for these reports, criticizing every single thing, and even, in some cases, saying "good" perhaps - but for these reports to be (inaudible), to be given out, essentially - forget about the public - given out to the enemy is insane. And I don't want it to happen anymore, Mr. Secretary. You understand that.

    We'll look at the reports. Nobody more critical of - hey, it's not my fault; I didn't put us there. But we're getting out, and we're getting out smart. And we're winning. We're winning. Okay?