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

    Please. Please, go ahead.

    Q Thank you, sir. Two questions. First, Mr. President, have you considered using emergency powers -

    THE PRESIDENT: Should we keep this going or not, folks?

    Q Sure. (Laughter.) Please.

    THE PRESIDENT: I just don't want to say, "Oh, he stood out there." You know, you have so many questions. I'm just looking at Mike and Steve and Kevin. I'm saying, should we - and most importantly, Madam Secretary.

    HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER MCCARTHY: None of us brought coats. (Laughter.)

    THE PRESIDENT: I'm just - oh, are you cold? Get out of here. (Laughter.) Here, take mine. You want mine?

    No, I'm just saying, should we keep this going a little bit longer?


    Q Please. Yes, indeed.

    THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead.

    Q So, first -

    THE PRESIDENT: Let me know when you get tired.

    Q I'm not. Have you considered using emergency powers to grant yourself authorities to build this wall without congressional approval? And second, on Mexico -

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I have.

    Q You have?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I have. And I can do it if I want.

    Q So you don't need congressional approval to build the wall?

    THE PRESIDENT: No, we can use them - absolutely, we can call a national emergency because of the security of our country. Absolutely. No, we can do it. I haven't done it. I may do it. I may do it. But we can call a national emergency and build it very quickly. And it's another way of doing it.

    But if we can do it through a negotiated process, we're giving that a shot.

    Q So is that a threat hanging over the Democrats?

    THE PRESIDENT: I never threaten anybody. But I am allowed to do that, yes.

    Q Second question.

    THE PRESIDENT: Called a national emergency.

    Q On Mexico, the benefits from that trade deal are going to go to private companies, private citizens. So you're talking about tax revenues.

    THE PRESIDENT: No, they're going to pay tremendous tax.

    Q So it's American taxpayers?

    THE PRESIDENT: I'll give you an example. When a company was going to leave for Mexico - or Canada - but for Mexico, because we lost tremendous amounts of our car business, like 25 percent, to Mexico. If they stay, all of those taxes that they have been paying - real estate taxes, sales taxes, employee/employer taxes, tremendous taxes that nobody even understands they pay. They're tremendous. Income taxes - federal income taxes. State income taxes, in some cases. All of those taxes stay with us.

    The wall is - you know, it's great. But the USMCA, which gives a disincentive for companies to leave - it's a tremendous disincentive. Anybody that leaves after this deal is done - look, it's one of the primary reasons that I like it. Because I can live pre-NAFTA too. The only thing I can't live with is NAFTA. I could live pre-NAFTA, before NAFTA - before everybody left New England and left all of the different places - Ohio, Pennsylvania. I mean, you still have empty steel factories all over the place, and other factories. I can live pre-NAFTA, very easily. But the only thing I'm not living with is NAFTA. That was one of the worst trade deals ever made.

    Q So those are American taxpayer dollars, which you consider essentially Mexico paying for the wall?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, many, many times over. Look, the USMCA will make, in the form that we right now are losing approximately a hundred - hard to believe. And this doesn't include the drugs pouring in, which is probably a much higher number than anybody would even know, in addition to destroying lives and families so horribly. We are losing close to $100 billion a year on trade with Mexico, for many years. Not only that - they have a tax of 17 percent. We don't have a tax.

    So they have a value-added tax of 17 percent. We don't have a tax of 17 percent. That deal was bad the day it was made. Because they charged the tax before the deal was made, and we didn't. It was an obsolete deal when it was made, like 30 years ago, whenever it was.

    No, no, all of this stuff is changing now. This is a fair deal. This is a good deal for Mexico. Frankly, oil companies and other companies have an incentive now to go to Mexico and take oil out. And that's why we're keeping gasoline prices so low. You look at what's going on with gasoline prices. I mean, it's rather incredible.

    If you look back four months ago, oil hit $83 a barrel. Eighty-three. It was heading to 100, and then it could have gone to 125. You want to see problems? Let that happen. After I made some phone calls to OPEC and the OPEC nations - which is essentially a monopoly - all of a sudden, it started coming down.

    I'm very happy with what's happened, and I'm very happy that people are paying a lot less, in many cases, than two dollars a gallon for gasoline. You look at what's happening - everyone is talking about - didn't happen by luck; it happened through talent.

    Q Mr. President -

    THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.

    Q Thank you. If this shutdown, sir, does last - since you said you'd come back for the second question - months or years, I want to understand how you expect federal workers to last that long without getting a paycheck, specifically since your Cabinet members -


    THE PRESIDENT: Look, I don't think it will. I'm prepared -

    Q Your Cabinet members are set to get raises tomorrow.

    THE PRESIDENT: Right.

    Q How is that fair?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, we'll have to talk to the Cabinet members then, okay? I'm sure they don't even know that. Let me just say -

    Q Will you ask them to give that money back?

    THE PRESIDENT: Let me just tell you this: It's very important that we have great border security. I think it's going to be over with sooner than people think. But I will do whatever we have to do. If we have to stay out for a very long period of time, we're going to do that. And many of those people - maybe even most of those people - that really have not been, and will not be getting their money in at this moment - those people, in many cases, are the biggest fan of what we're doing.

    All right. Please. Major, go ahead.

    Q Well, just to follow up on that, Mr. President. The $10,000 raise that your Cabinet members and senior administration officials are due to receive starting tomorrow, will you ask them not to accept that, at least during the shutdown itself?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I might consider that. You know, that's something I may consider. That's a very good question.

    Okay, who else is out there? Mike, who do you see out there that's always been very fair to us?

    Go ahead. Yeah, good. Go ahead. Go ahead.

    Q Thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: No - that's right. Right?

    Q Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Mike likes you. (Laughter.)

    Q Thank you, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: Mike highly recommended you. Watch, this will be the killer of them all. Go ahead.

    Q Well, two questions, if that's all right. First one is kind of a follow-up for that. For - you were a landlord. For people that are worried about paying their rent checks - government employees, right now; people that are worried about bill collectors - would you ask those companies, their landlords, to kind of go easy on them?

    THE PRESIDENT: I think they will. I think they will.

    Q But do you - I'm sorry, would you ask them -

    THE PRESIDENT: No, I think that happens. You know - hey, I've been a landlord for a long time. I've been in the real estate business for a long time. When you see there are problems out there, difficulties out there - you know, the people are all good for the money - they work with people. They work with people.


    Q So you would encourage landlords -

    THE PRESIDENT: I would, sure. I would encourage them to be nice and easy. We have a bigger subject that we're doing. It's called "the security of our nation," including terrorism, please. Okay.

    Q If you don't mind, one more question, sir. If you don't mind -

    THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Please, go ahead.

    Q Okay, thank you, sir. Oh.

    THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. No, no, come on.

    Q Okay, sorry. Excuse me.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

    Q I had a question about the terrorism. I wanted to ask: Who are these individuals who are being captured terrorists? Are they people on the watch list? Are they from travel-ban countries? A second question I wanted to ask: Why is Senator Mitch McConnell not here? Why was he not invited to this?