Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing | September 16, 2020 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, what I was - what I was saying to him - no, that was a long time ago when I said that. I didn't - we weren't set up at that time.

    Q It wasn't that long ago.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, how many months ago? When was the statement made?

    Q He doesn't say in the book when it was made.

    THE PRESIDENT: You know, his book is, sort of, obsolete because the book comes out -

    Q But he only started interviewing you in December.

    THE PRESIDENT: By the way, I read the book last night - very rapidly because it was very boring. I read it. And if you see what I said, I said a lot of really good things. I mean, for the most part, people like to turn it around, but I said really good things in that book.

    And as an example, he doesn't cover - I told him what we're doing in the Middle East, and we're doing it in an entirely different way. And that's not covered in his book. The whole thing isn't covered in his book.

    And one thing I will say - and I respect the press for this one, which was interesting - almost universally, we've been praised for the deal that we made yesterday with Israel and with, you know, the two very important countries in the Middle East. And UAE, in particular, where it's a very powerful group. It's a warrior country. It's led by a great warrior and a man who's highly respected. And if you take a look at that and Bahrain and Israel making a deal - and I will tell you, we have at least four or five others that want to come in. They would've come in yesterday. I talked to two of them yesterday, and they're ready to trot.

    And I think you're going to have a whole level of peace without blood all over the sand. Nobody was shot. Nobody was killed. We killed hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East. It's all - it's been - it's - I always say, it's - it's the bloodiest sand anywhere in the world, and it didn't have to be that way. The single-worst decision our country ever made was to go into the Middle East. Not only the millions of people killed - and I include people on both sides. You know, some people say, "Oh, you shouldn't say that." I'll say it: "on both sides." Such a horrible thing was done. Such a horrible mistake was made.

    We're doing this a different way. So we have those two countries. We have at least five that we're negotiating with right now. And, you know, you can only negotiate with so many. I think they're all going to come in.

    I think, ultimately, the Palestinians are going to come in. These are all the people that are funding them. You know, I stopped funding the Palestinians fairly early on, because they were saying bad things about our country. I said, "Well, you mean we're giving them $750 million a year, and they're saying all bad things about our country?" So I stopped funding them very early on. But they get funded by other very rich countries. To them, it's like a speck; it's nothing. But they get funded.


    And - but I think now that these countries - these very rich countries are part of the deal, and they're going - you'll see, over the next fairly short period of time, other countries will come in. I think Saudi Arabia, ultimately, will come in too. I think getting Saudi Arabia will be great. But I think Saudi Arabia - this is my feeling; it's not based on knowledge, other than a couple of conversations I had with the king. But Saudi Arabia, I think, will be coming in too.

    And you'll end up with peace in the Middle East. And nobody thought it could be done, and nobody thought it could be done this way.

    I went to some very smart people. I went to some people in the Middle East, and they said, "You'll never be able to do it. It's not possible to make peace." Well, now they're saying to me, "Nobody ever thought of doing this." They all thought you make the deal first with the Palestinians; it had to be that way.

    And I will say the resistance was: Some countries didn't want to do it unless the Palestinians were there first. That was just a psychological thing more than anything else, but they were wrong. Those coun- - the people - our great representatives that have been doing this for 35 years that were telling me how to do it - but they all failed. They were Clinton's administration, they were in Bush, they were in Obama - all these great, brilliant people. They're all telling me how to do it, and I said, "They're wrong." And I guess I was right. And -

    Q Okay, but on this vaccine (inaudible) -

    THE PRESIDENT: And when you see - let me ju- - well, let's talk - finish this. When you see the countries that will be coming - a very short period of time; not talking in a long period of time - all of the countries that will be coming in, just like you saw - Bahrain yesterday, and UAE, and I can think of, I mean, at least five that are going to be quick and easy. Others will be quick and easy also, once the five comes - come in.

    So you're going to have something; you're going to peace in the Middle East. And we want to get out, you know. We want to - our soldiers are largely coming home. I said they're - the endless wars; the ridiculous, endless wars.

    And I will say this: If I didn't withdraw our country from that horrible Iran nuclear deal - that horrible, stupid deal, where President Obama paid $150 billion for nothing and gave $1.8 billion in cash - $1.8 billion. You know what that is? $1.8 billion in cash. That's more impressive than the $150 billion paid normally.

    But he gave all this money, all of this - all of these chips that we had. We had these chips, and he gave them all away. And we got nothing. And, you know, it was a short-term deal. It would be practically expiring now. It would be practically - it starts to expire, actually, right now. But it would practically be -

    And there is no way we will let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Just remember that. There's no way that's going to happen.

    Okay.

    Q Are you reversing the statement? You never answered about the statement. Just - I'll just let you go after this, but do you want to reverse what you told Woodward about the 13- to 14-month timeline for a vaccine?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, the vaccine - at the time, I thought it might take that period of time, but we've stepped it up very substantially.

    And now - I mean, I'm just telling you the - this is just what it is. We've been able to step it up very, very rapidly. I never thought we could have a vaccine as quickly as we did, but I freed it up. I freed up the FDA. Dr. Hahn has done a great job. And they're ready to approve something when they come in.

    The other thing that's happening that's very different is - you look at a company like Pfizer, a great company - really, one of the great companies of the world. Johnson & Johnson. They're all great companies. They're doing a lot of testing at a very rapid rate that nobody has ever seen anything like it. You know, they're out in third - they're in the third level of trial. And I think that you're going to see things that are amazing.

    When I made statements like that - that's an old statement. When I made statements like that, I had no idea that we could produce as well as we're producing. But only because of what I've done with the FDA and other things can we come up with numbers like that. We're lucky that we don't have to, because that was considered fast.

    If this were a - an administration from the past - and I think I can say "far beyond Obama," if - it was other administrations also - you wouldn't have a vaccine for two and a half, three years. And we're going to have a vaccine within, at most, a couple of months.

    Okay? John.


    Q Mr. President, if I could ask you about coronavirus relief: Do you support the Problem Solvers Caucus proposal that was put forward?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah -

    Q Are you comfortable with the -

    THE PRESIDENT: - something like that.

    Q - $500 billion for the states?

    THE PRESIDENT: Something like that. Yeah, I like the larger amount. I've said that, you know. Some of the Republicans disagree, but I think I can convince them to go along with it because I like the larger number.

    I want to see people get money. I want to see - it wasn't their fault that this happened. It was China's fault, you know? People say, "Oh, maybe you shouldn't say that. That's not nice." It was China's fault.

    So I'd like to see the larger number. Yeah, I would like to see it. There are some things I disagree with, but I'm sure they can be negotiated.

    Q On that point -

    THE PRESIDENT: Now, I heard Nancy Pelosi said she doesn't want to leave until we have an agreement. She's come a long way. That's great. If she said that, she's come a long way.

    I agree with her. We should have an agreement. People should be helped, and they should be helped as rapidly as possible. And I think it's going to happen. I think it's very important.

    So the Problem Solvers came up with - it's a group of people in Congress, as you know. You know them all. I know them all. They're very good people. I guess you'd consider them dead center. But in many cases, they're not. They're left. They're right. But they came up with this idea, and I think they're well on their way to suggesting some pretty good things.

    Yeah.

    Q So in terms of things -

    THE PRESIDENT: I agree with a lot of it.

    Q In terms of things that you don't agree, are you comfortable with the $500 billion?

    THE PRESIDENT: I think the things I don't agree we can probably negotiate. But I think we've made some progress over the last week, and I think it was positive that they came out with that report.

    Q So, just to button this up, would you endorse that proposal?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, not that proposal, but we're getting closer. We're getting closer.

    I do like a lot of money getting sent to people that really were - really were hurt unnecessarily by China, because they could have stopped it. They stopped it from going into their country. They could have stopped it from coming to our country and from going to Europe and from going to the rest of the world - 188 different countries from all over the world.

    Please.

    Q Mr. President, the director of the CDC also testified today that a mask, in his estimation, is guaran- -

    THE PRESIDENT: The mask.

    Q - is guaranteed to protect the American public more from the coronavirus than a vaccine. You have, as detailed, poured a lot of resources into a vaccine development. Why not devote your energy -


    THE PRESIDENT: And to masks.

    Q Then why not devote your energy now to a campaign to have all Americans wear a mask - something that if - if more effective than a vaccine, would also help schools and the economy?

    THE PRESIDENT: Okay, number one, it's not more effective, by any means, than a vaccine. And I called him about that. Those were the two things I ta- - I discussed with him. And I believe that if you ask him, he would probably say that he didn't understand the question. Because I said to him - I asked him those two questions: the one question which we covered and the mask question.