Remarks by President Trump on the National Security and Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border | Eastern North Carolina Now

    THE PRESIDENT: A lot has been accomplished. Okay.

    Q - on denuclearization.

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. A lot has been accomplished. We're dealing with them, we're talking to them.

    When I came into office, I met right there, in the Oval Office, with President Obama. And I sat in those beautiful chairs and we talked. It was supposed to be 15 minutes. As you know, it ended up being many times longer than that.

    And I said, "What's the biggest problem?" He said, "By far, North Korea." And I don't want to speak for him, but I believe he would have gone to war with North Korea. I think he was ready to go to war. In fact, he told me he was so close to starting a big war with North Korea. And where are we now? No missiles. No rockets. No nuclear testing. We've learned a lot.


    But much more importantly than all of it - much more important - much, much more important that that is we have a great relationship. I have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un. And I've done a job. In fact, I think I can say this: Prime Minister Abe of Japan gave me the most beautiful copy of a letter that he sent to the people who give out a thing called the Nobel Prize. He said, "I have nominated you..." or "Respectfully, on behalf of Japan, I am asking them to give you the Nobel Peace Prize." I said, "Thank you." Many other people feel that way too. I'll probably never get it, but that's okay.

    They gave it to Obama. He didn't even know what he got it for. He was there for about 15 seconds and he got the Nobel Prize. He said, "Oh, what did I get it for?" With me, I probably will never get it.

    But if you look at Idlib Province in Syria, I stopped the slaughter of perhaps 3 million people. Nobody talk about that. They don't talk about that. Russia and Iran and Syria were going to go in and perhaps destroy 3 million people in order to get 45,000 terrorists. And I heard about it from a woman who had her parents and her brothers living there, and she said, "Please, please." And I thought - I said, "No, it can't happen. What are you talking about?" "No, they're going to get..." And I come home, and I read a certain paper where the story was there that they were actually forming to go into - to really - to really do big destruction. And I put out a statement that "you better not do it."

    And in all fairness to Russia and Iran and Syria, they didn't attack. Or they're doing it surgically, at least. Saved a lot of people. We do a lot of good work. This administration does a tremendous job, and we don't get credit for it. But I think the people understand what we do.

    So Prime Minister Abe gave me - I mean, it's the most beautiful five letter - five-page letter. Nobel Prize. He sent it to them. You know why? Because he had rocket ships and he had missiles flying over Japan. And they had alarms going off; you know that. Now, all of a sudden, they feel good; they feel safe. I did that.

    And it was a very tough dialogue at the beginning. Fire and fury. Total annihilation. "My button is bigger than yours" and "my button works." Remember that? You don't remember that. And people said, "Trump is crazy." And you know what it ended up being? A very good relationship. I like him a lot and he likes me a lot. Nobody else would have done that.

    The Obama administration couldn't have done it. Number one, they probably wouldn't have done it. And number two, they didn't have the capability to do it.

    So I just want to thank everybody. I want to wish our Attorney General great luck and speed, and enjoy your life. (Laughter.) Bill, good luck. A tremendous reputation. I know you'll do a great job. Thank you very much. And thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you.

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