Remarks by President Trump in Meeting on Human Trafficking on the Southern Border | Eastern North Carolina Now

    And I'll tell you this: If we build a proper barrier, with all of the technology, which only really works with the barrier - but if we build a proper barrier with great technology, too, we will see crime throughout the United States go down in percentages that we've never seen before. It'll be an amazing thing. Because so much of it comes through the southern border.

    Q Mr. President, a follow. Can you tell us some of the themes that are important to you in the State of the Union speech?

    THE PRESIDENT: I think most of the themes you would know. It's economic development. It's success. I mean, no country has had the success that we've had over the last two years. And I will say this: If the other party got into office, instead of being up and having these phenomenal 304,000 jobs added - and we had so many great months.

    And, you know, it's been a little bit tricky because I'm in the middle of some very big trade deals, which is disruptive before you make it. But after you make it, those deals are much better than they were before. I don't even mean much better; I mean better like nobody has ever seen before. That includes a deal. If we make the deal with China, you're talking about, it'll be a different world for us. We lost $500 billion a year with China, for many years. Five-hundred billion, not million. Five-hundred billion. We're not going to do that anymore.

    Our relationship with China is extraordinary. My relationship with President Xi is better, I guarantee, than any relationship of a President and a President. It's not even close. But it can't go on this way. We can't allow this to happen.

    And, if you notice, yesterday - and I think it was a big story, or it should have been - but China, as a sign of goodwill, has agreed to purchase a tremendous, massive amount of soybeans and other agricultural product. Our farmers, this morning, are very happy. I spoke to Sonny Perdue, Secretary of Agriculture. He called me this morning. Our farmers are extremely happy.

    Q In Texas, where you want to build about 168 miles of wall, you can't build the wall right on border; you've got to build off the floodplain.

    THE PRESIDENT: Right.

    Q So you may slow down human trafficking, you may slow down drug runners, you may slow down people who don't want to get caught. But for all these tens of thousands of Central American migrants who just want to touch foot on U.S. soil and wait for the Border Patrol to pick them up, how does building new wall solve that problem?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, we're going to solve the problem, and we're also working on different things because there's so many loopholes.

    You're right: Touch the land - all of the sudden, it's a catch-and-release deal. They become - they go into the country and, in some cases, if they're criminals, you - they're released into our country. It's a ridiculous thing. It's a loophole.

    And if you look at the visa lottery, and if you look at all of these other - chain migration. We have to fix all of it, John. It's very important. The wall is the most important thing by far. But we have to fix the loopholes. You're 100 percent right.

    Okay, yeah.

    Q Nancy Pelosi says you're risking an arms race with Russia today. What's your answer?

    THE PRESIDENT: Say it again.

    Q Nancy Pelosi says you're risking a new arms race with Russia. What's your answer?

    THE PRESIDENT: Honestly, I don't think she has a clue. I really don't. I don't think Nancy has a clue. And I see that when she says, "Walls are immoral." She doesn't have - she doesn't know. And I wish she did because she's hurting this country so badly. It's all rhetorical; not delivered well. But it's all rhetorical. She's hurting our country very, very badly, even with statements like that.

    Okay, thank you very much everybody.

    Go ahead.

    Q Pulling out of the INF, is this as much about the threat in the Western Pacific from China as the emerging threat from China (inaudible)?

    THE PRESIDENT: No, the reason is - the reason is - first of all, you have to add countries, obviously. It's old. But, very importantly, one side has not been adhering to it. We have, but one side hasn't. So unless they're going to adhere, we shouldn't be the only one.

    I hope that we're able to get everybody in a very big and beautiful room, and do a new treaty that would be much better. But - because certainly I would like to see that.

    But you have to have everybody adhere to it, and you have a certain side that almost pretends it doesn't exist - pretty much pretends it doesn't exist.

    So unless we're going to have something that we all agree to, we can't be put at the disadvantage of going by a treaty, limiting what we do, when somebody else doesn't go by that treaty. Okay?

    Thank you. Thank you very much.




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