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

    We will be taking in billions and billions of dollars more money for the United States, including jobs, including companies that won't be leaving us anymore and going to Mexico, and in some cases, Canada, to a lesser extent. But we lost 25 percent of our car business because of NAFTA. NAFTA was a disaster.

    Now we have the USMCA. It's the United States, Mexico, and Canada Trade Agreement. It's brand new. It's totally different. It makes it very difficult for companies to, incentive wise, move to other countries. And we will be making billions and billions of dollars a year more money. And that is paying -

    Q So why not do that for the wall, though?

    THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. Because I didn't have to. That is paying for the wall many, many times over. In fact, what we save on the USMCA - the new trade deal we have with Mexico and Canada - what we save on that, just with Mexico, will pay for the wall many times over just in a period of a year, two years, and three years. So I view that as, absolutely, Mexico is paying for the wall. And that's fine.

    Yes. Yes, ma'am. Go.

    Q Mr. President, thank you. You ran your campaign promising supporters that Mexico is going to pay for the wall -

    THE PRESIDENT: Oh, here we go again.


    Q - and that the wall was going to be made of concrete. You just said earlier that the wall could be made of steel. And right now, our government is shut down over a demand from your administration that the American taxpayer pay for the wall. So how can you say you're not failing on that promise to your supporters?

    THE PRESIDENT: A very nice question so beautifully asked, even though I just answered it.

    Q You didn't answer it.

    THE PRESIDENT: Look, let me just tell you -

    Q The USMCA has not even passed Congress yet, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. Excuse me. Are you ready? Are you ready? I just told you that we just made a trade deal and we will take in billions and billions of dollars, far more than the cost of the wall. The wall is peanuts compared to what the value of this trade deal is to the United States.

    As far as concrete, I said I was going to build a wall. I never said, "I'm going to build a concrete..." I said I'm going to build a wall.

    Q You said concrete.

    THE PRESIDENT: Just so you - because I know you're not into the construction business. You don't understand something: We now have a great steel business that's rebuilt in the United States. Steel is stronger than concrete. If I build this wall, or fence, or anything the Democrats need to call it - because I'm not into names, I'm into production. I'm into something that works. If I build a steel wall rather than a concrete wall, it will actually be stronger than a concrete. Steel is stronger than concrete. Okay? In case you - you can check it out.

    Listen, if I build a wall, and the wall is made out of steel instead of concrete, I think people will like that. And here's the other good thing: I'll have it done by the United States Steel Corporation, by companies in our country that are now powerful, great companies again. And they've become powerful over the last two years because of me and because of our trade policies.

    So if I have a steel wall - or you could call it a steel fence - but it'll be more powerful than any of the concrete walls that we're talking about. It's possible that it will look better.

    And one of the things - I think you have seen this - that's very important for us - very, very important - in speaking to Border Patrol, ICE and, actually, local law enforcement, and even military: They want to be able to see through it. You can't really see through a concrete wall. They want to be able to see who's on the other side of the wall. Because if they're here, and you have about a 12-inch concrete wall, and you have people on the other side but you can't see what's over there, it's very dangerous. They want to be able to see through the wall. A see-through wall made out of steel is far stronger than a concrete wall. So I'm very happy with it.

    I think - I think - I'm not sure, but I think that's what the Democrats prefer. And if it can get them there, I'm okay. It actually will be a more powerful wall, and it will be a more beautiful wall than having a concrete wall.

    Jeff. Jeff, go ahead.

    Q Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Go ahead, Jeff.

    Q You mentioned China, sir, in your remarks. Are you concerned about the words and the actions of Apple this week with regard to revenue? And can you tell us what sort of progress you meant when you were referring to trade talks with China?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think we're doing very well. China is paying us tremendous tariffs. We're getting billions and billions of dollars of money pouring into the Treasury of the United States - which, in history, we've never gotten from China. As you know, it's been very unfair.

    I had a fantastic meeting with President Xi, who I both like and respect. One of the things that came out of that meeting was fentanyl. As you know, almost all of it comes from China. And he's going to now criminalize the making of fentanyl. And unlike our country, they have unbelievably strong prohibitions about drugs. That was not on their list. They view it as a - I guess, as some kind of a commercial product. Now they view it as something that's very dangerous.

    They're going to be changing their laws to make - to make fentanyl a criminal - a criminal process, if you're making fentanyl. If they do that, you know what their ultimate is; it's called the death penalty. I think that could have a tremendous - and I thanked President Xi very much.

    It was the first question I said to him before we started the trade talks in Argentina. This was a meeting that was supposed to last for about 45 minutes, and it ended up being almost four hours. Some of you were there. It was a great meeting. We'll see what happens. You never know with a deal.

    But I will tell you, China is not doing well now, and it puts us in a very strong position. We are doing very well. But we're taking in billions and billions of dollars, and I hope we're going to make a deal with China. And if we don't, they're paying us tens of billions of dollars' worth of tariffs. It's not the worst thing in the world.

    But I think we will - I think we will make a deal with China. I really think they want to. I think they sort of have to. And I think we're going to have a great relationship. I think that President Xi and myself have a great relationship.

    Also, North Korea. We're doing very well with North Korea, and that's based on relationship also.

    Yeah.

    Q Can you just - Mr. President, just to follow up -

    THE PRESIDENT: All right. Go ahead. One more quick one. Go ahead, Jeff.

    Q Just to follow up, sir. Avenue - or Apple, rather, issued a revenue warning this week, which led its stock to go down and the rest of the stock market to go down as well. Are you concerned about that?


    THE PRESIDENT: No, I'm not. I mean, look, they've gone up a lot. You know, they've gone up hundreds of percent since I'm President. Apple was at a number that was incredible. And they're going to be fine. Apple is a great company, but that's not my - look, I have to worry about our country.

    Don't forget - don't forget this: Apple makes their product in China. I told Tim Cook, who's a friend of mine, who I like a lot: "Make your product in the United States. Build those big, beautiful plants that go on for miles, it seems. Build those plants in the United States." I like that even better.

    Apple makes its product in China. China is the biggest beneficiary of Apple, more than us, because they build their product mostly in China. But now he's investing $350 billion because of what we did with taxes and the incentives that we created. In the United States, he's going to build a campus, and lots of other places.

    So my focus is the United States. I want to get those companies to come back - like so many are doing - into the United States. I want Apple to make their iPhones, and all of the great things that they make, in the United States. And that'll take place.

    Please. Go ahead.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President. I want to ask you two questions. One, as you talk about the wall - eminent domain. Many of those who own property on the southern border will lose their property because of this. And once this happens, they say that they could go to court with you for years. It could take years.

    Then, also, what is the safety net for federal workers? You're saying months and possibly a year for this shutdown. Do you have in mind a safety net for those who need their checks, those who need SSI, those who need Medicaid, what have you?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, the safety net is going to be having a strong border because we're going to be safe. I'm not talking about economically, but ultimately economically. I really believe that these people - many of the people that we're talking about, many of the people you're discussing - I really believe that they agree with what we're doing.

    And we can have this - April, we can have this fixed very quickly. We can - this can happen by early next week. We're going to be working over the weekend. We could have a solution to this, but I wanted to keep it all at one point. And I think a lot of people that you're referring to, April, are really wanting that to happen, too. I really believe a lot of them want to see border security. And they're willing to give it up.

    I had - when I had the people in yesterday - and they represent most of the Border Patrol. The people that you had yesterday, that were at the news conference, they represent most of Border Patrol. Every one of them said, "Don't even think about us. Get this fixed. That is doing the great thing for our country."

    As far as eminent domain, you're right, a hundred percent. Eminent domain is very interesting. But without eminent domain, you wouldn't have any highways, you wouldn't have any schools, you wouldn't have any roadways. What we're doing with eminent domain is, in many cases, we'll make a deal upfront. And we've already done that. The Secretary has done a lot of that. And if we can't make a deal, we take the land, and we pay them through a court process - which goes, actually, fairly quickly. And we're generous. But we take the land. Otherwise, you could never build anything.

    If you didn't use eminent domain, you wouldn't have one highway in this country. You have to use eminent domain. It's actually something you don't want to use it, but if you're going to do a stretch - as an example, pipelines and other things that go - you have to use eminent domain; otherwise, you'd never be able to buy the land.

    If we had one person that wouldn't sell us - out of hundreds, just one; it only takes one - then we wouldn't be able to build proper border security because we'd have that big opening that I was talking about.


    So what happens is some are paid upfront. You make a deal upfront. And we're willing to do that in all cases. And when they're unwilling to make a deal, which also happens, then you go to court. But in the meantime, we're able to build the border security. So I think it's a fair process. I think it's a process that's very necessary. But I think it's fair.

    Q But that - couldn't that hold up your wall?

    THE PRESIDENT: No, it's not going to hold it up, because under the military version of eminent domain, and under, actually, Homeland Security, we can do it before we even start. Now, a lot of times we'll make a deal, and I would say a good percentage of the time we're making deals. We have already purchased a lot of it. You know, a lot of the money that we've been given has already been spent on purchasing the land, the right of way. It's essentially a right of way.

    So we are very, very far along on that. But eminent domain is something that has to be used. Usually you would say for anything that's long, like a road, like a pipeline, or like a wall or a fence.

    Okay? Thank you. Good question. It's a good question.