Remarks by President Trump After Meeting with Congressional Leadership on Border Security | Eastern North Carolina Now

    And I'll tell you what: I've seen a lot of people over the last week and a half. I've been right in this magnificent structure right behind you. It's called the White House. And I was here on Christmas, and I was here. My family was in Florida. I said, go to Florida. And I didn't even find it to be a lonely place. There's something very special about the White House.

    But I was here at Christmas. I was here on New Year's Eve. And I will tell you, the people that I've spoken with - and I've gotten to meet a lot of people that I wouldn't have met. A lot of people have been coming through the White House and explaining different things and different attitudes. A lot of people that you think are upset, and certainly they're not thrilled - but they say, "Sir, do the right thing. We need border security." And these are people that won't be getting paid.

    Border Patrol, yesterday, was saying, "Sir, we're affected by it. Do what's right. It's time." This is after many, many decades. Many, many decades. This should have taken place a long time ago. We're going to get it done.

    Yes, ma'am.

    Q Thank you. Two questions for you. Was DACA a part of the discussions today?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

    Q And also, why did it take this many days for a working group to come together? Why didn't you just hash the details out today?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, sometimes that's what happens in a negotiation. It does take longer than it should. And sometimes you agree to things that could have been agreed to two weeks ago. But that's just the way a negotiation is.

    I mean, we set out a number - $5.6 billion. We're very firm on a number. We also explained that, as you probably understand, the military is very affected. We may use the military for parts of it. Homeland Security obviously is very affected. We may, in addition to the 5.6, we will use Homeland Security funds.

    So we have things happening, in addition to the 5.6, but we have to get a structure built.

    Please, go ahead. Go ahead.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President. To follow up on that question, with respect to the DACA program, were you discussing that in terms of a pathway to citizenship being included in the end to the partial government shutdown?


    THE PRESIDENT: Well, we discussed it a long time ago, as you remember. That was when they had this mythical number of $25 billion. But actually, it was $25 billion, but only $1 billion upfront. Then we talked $2 billion, $1.5 billion. The rest of it, the government couldn't guarantee because it's not set up to guarantee. You remember those discussions.

    But where it really ended was when the judge ruled against, and it was - I said, as soon as that happened - because that was a shocking decision. It was shocking to the Democrats, and it was more shocking to the Republicans. It was an incorrect decision. It was a political decision made by a judge. And I know a lot of people don't like when I say it, but try going there sometime, to the Ninth Circuit, and try winning a case. Not easy. Everyone files right in the Ninth Circuit.

    The fact is, it was a terrible decision and an incorrect decision. When that decision came down, when that judge ruled the way he ruled, I said, as soon as I heard it - I said, you know what's going to happen? We're never going to hear from them again. And that's exactly. That's what broke up the DACA deal.

    Yes, we had a pathway. We had many things. That was getting close to being a deal. The problem was that the money was a very small amount of money. It wasn't really the 25; it was 25 and then come back every year. Well, we don't want to go through that every year.

    But we were getting close. And I said, as soon as that decision came down - that incorrect and horrible decision. I mean, there's been a number of them made lately. But as soon as that decision came down, I said, "You'll never hear from them again." And I called up, I said, "Hi, it's President Trump. What's going on?" They say, "President Trump - we don't know who that is." It was over. The deal was over. That's what killed the DACA deal. It was nothing else. It was the judge's decision.

    And if the Supreme Court does what, really, everyone thinks from a legal standpoint it should be doing; if they don't allow the President of the United States, which is me, also - because if President Obama is allowed to do that, I'm allowed to do it also. Can you imagine? If the Supreme Court overrules that wrong executive order, we'll have a deal very quickly on DACA and other things. And the Democrats want that, and so do we.

    But once he ruled that way, it was something you couldn't really negotiate.

    Yes, Hallie.

    Q Thank you, sir. Mr. President, two questions for you. Are you still proud to own this shutdown?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, I appreciate the way you say that. But once - I'm very proud of doing what I'm doing. I don't call it a shutdown. I call it "doing what you have to do for the benefit and for the safety of our country."

    But when Nancy Pelosi said, "You don't have the votes in Congress," I will tell you what I was proud of: I was never more proud of my Republican Party and those congressmen and women when they saw that, and they got together and they voted 217 to 185. And it wasn't even close. That was an incredible day - I'm very proud of that - when she said you couldn't get the vote.

    And I'm not holding that against her - because despite the fact that I'm not saying it was an easy meeting, or even a kind meeting, or a nice meeting, but in the end, I think we've come a long way. We're going to be working very hard over the weekend, and we'll see if we can do something.

    So you can call it whatever you want. You can call it the Schumer or the Pelosi or the Trump shutdown. Doesn't make any difference to me. It's just words.

    Q Mr. President, my second question, sir, on federal workers.

    THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead.

    Q Sir, Mr. President, my second question on federal workers, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, just one second. Just one second, please. Please. Go ahead.


    Q It may be the same question. Thank you, Mr. President. Two questions. Just to follow up on DACA -

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

    Q - are you open to a path to citizenship, in theory, for DACA recipients? And then, can you explain to federal employees of the agencies that are closed, which are not Homeland Security, why those agencies should stay closed? Homeland Security is significant in and of itself, if it's staying closed.

    THE PRESIDENT: Because we want to do what's right, and we want to do it all at one time. We don't want to take it in pieces. We just don't want to do that.

    And DACA is going to be a great subject. I look forward to discussing it. We'll discuss it at another time. But there are a lot of great things that can happen with DACA if the Democrats want to do that.

    I think what we're all waiting for, to be honest, is the Supreme Court judge - judges - the Supreme Court justices' ruling in a not very long period of time. You know, as you know, it's up now; hopefully, they will be making a ruling maybe sometime in the summer.

    So I think before we discuss too much DACA, I would like to see what happens. I think it's a very important decision. Because, frankly, if they rule the way it is, it gives the President too much power. Can you imagine me saying that? But I would be entitled to the same power.

    It's not a correct thing that took place. And President Obama never felt it was going to hold up. And it held up. But I don't think it's going to hold up at the Supreme Court. If it doesn't hold up, you're going to see a lot of good things happening because you'll be having DACA and you'll be putting other things with DACA. Hopefully, by that time, the wall will be well under construction.

    And just a little statement on that: We've already built a lot of the wall. We've been working very, very hard. We've renovated a tremendous amount of wall. I just told you we did a lot of wall in San Diego, where we needed it very badly, where they wanted it very badly.

    So we haven't been sitting still for the first, believe it or not, less than two years. We've been working very, very hard. The wall is - we've done a lot of miles of wall already. So we're not just starting off fresh, but we have large numbers of miles that we have to do. And we can't let gaps. Because if you have gaps, those people are going to turn their vehicles, or the gangs - they're going to coming in through those gaps. And we cannot let that happen.

    Kevin. Kevin. Kevin.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President. Appreciate that. A question about government employees: What is your personal message to those who are impacted by the shutdown? And if you wouldn't mind, if you could comment on the remarks made a freshman congressperson about impeachment, involving a bit of profanity last night.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, you can't impeach somebody that's doing a great job. That's the way I view it. I've probably done more in the first two years than any President, any administration, in the history of our country.

    If you look at tax cuts, you look at regulations, you look at what we've done for the vets, you look at the rebuilding of the military and the numbers that we're talking about, and many other things - I could give you a list that's pages long. So I think it's very hard to impeach somebody who's done a great job. That's number one.

    And we even talked about that today. I said, "Why don't you use this for impeachment?" And Nancy said, "We're not looking to impeach you." I said, "That's good, Nancy. That's good." But you know what? You don't impeach people when they're doing a good job. And you don't impeach people when there was no collusion. Because there was no collusion. You know Russians better than I do, Kevin. Okay? There was no collusion.

    I didn't need Russians to help me win Iowa. I didn't need Russians to help me win the great state of Wisconsin and Michigan, and Pennsylvania. I won them because I went there and I campaigned hard. And my opponent didn't go there enough, and she lost a lot of good states. A lot of states that for many, many years, for decades, have gone Democrat. They went Republican. That's why I won. Not because of - not because of Russia.

    Q Your comment about the freshman congressperson's comments, specifically about -


    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I thought her comments were disgraceful. This is a person that I don't know. I assume she's new. I think she dishonored herself, and I think she dishonored her family. Using language like that in front of her son, and whoever else was there, I thought that was a great dishonor to her and to her family. I thought it was it was highly disrespectful to the United States of America.

    Yes. Go ahead.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President. Earlier this week, you repeated your claim that, through the USMCA, Mexico will be paying for the wall.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's right.

    Q Can you describe in detail the specific mechanisms in the trade deal that will make Mexico pay for the wall?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, you're going to be seeing it very soon. We made a new deal - a new trade deal. NAFTA has been one of the great disasters of all time. Probably the worst trade deal ever made, maybe. We lost millions of jobs, thousands and thousands of companies. NAFTA left our country dry. NAFTA was a disaster.

    I campaigned on either terminating or renegotiating NAFTA. And Bob Lighthizer and Jared Kushner, and a whole group of people, did an incredible job. They did an incredible job. And now we have a deal that's great for our country and, by the way, good for Mexico, good for Canada, also. As you know, it's the three countries.