Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    South Lawn  •  October 22, 2018  •  2:45 P.M. EDT


Marine One on the South Lawn: Above. (White House photo)     Click image to expand.
    Q (Inaudible.)

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, you're going to have to see that. I have reports. And they have a lot of everybody in that group. It's a horrible thing. And it's a lot bigger than 5,000 people. And we got to stop them at the border.

    And unfortunately, if you look at the countries, they have not done their job. Unfortunately, they have not done their job.

    Q Have you spoken to the leaders of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador about -

    THE PRESIDENT: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador - they're paid a lot of money. Every year, we give them foreign aid. And they did nothing for us. Nothing. They did nothing for us.

    So we give them tremendous amounts of money. You know what it is; you cover it all the time: hundreds of millions of dollars. They, like a lot of others, do nothing for our country.

    Q Have you spoken to the leaders, Mr. President?

    Q (Inaudible.)


    THE PRESIDENT: I have. I spoke to the Crown Prince. We have people over in Saudi Arabia now. We have top intelligence people in Turkey. And we're going to see what we have. I'll know a lot tomorrow. They'll be coming back either tonight or tomorrow morning. But we have people in Saudi Arabia and people in Turkey.

    Q (Inaudible) a month (inaudible) investigation, will you give them -

    THE PRESIDENT: I think that's a long time. You said they want a month?

    Q They want one month.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's a long time. There's no reason for that much. Be faster.

    Q What about your promise to protect transgender Americans? Are you giving up on that?

    THE PRESIDENT: We're looking at it. We have a lot of different concepts right now. They have a lot of different things happening with respect to transgender right now. You know that as well as I do. And we're looking at it very seriously.

    Q But what about your promise to protect the LGBTQ community?

    THE PRESIDENT: I'm protecting everybody.

    Q Transgender Americans say you've given up on them.

    THE PRESIDENT: You know what I'm doing? I'm protecting everybody. I want to protect our country.

    Q Mr. President, you're headed to Texas. Why hasn't Ted Cruz put this race away already?

    THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I think he has. I think it's going to be. I think they wanted to see that I'm on his side, and I am, 100 percent. We have - I mean, you people have been reporting - over 100,000 people. They lined up two days ago, and it's very exciting.

    Q But they're there to see you. Why does Ted Cruz need your help?

    THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I think Ted will be a big factor tonight. He's going to get up; he's going to make a great speech. I'm going to get up; I'm going to make a great speech. I hope - are most of you going? You're not going. I can't believe it; you're not going to be there tonight. That's terrible.

    Q Beto O'Rourke is now calling him "Lying Ted." Who started that? Do you regret it?

    THE PRESIDENT: I think Beto O'Rourke is highly overrated. When I heard about him, I figured he must be something a little special. He's not. I thought he got beaten badly in the debates. I think he's a highly overrated guy.

    Q Have you buried the hatchet with Senator Cruz entirely?

    THE PRESIDENT: Say it?

    Q Have you buried the hatchet with Senator Cruz?

    THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I have, yeah. Ted and I get along very well, very late into the campaign. And I said, "Don't worry about it. It's only a question of time." And then it became very nasty, and then it was over. And when it was over, we've gotten along great. No, I like Ted.

    If you remember, he was the last one that we really had - I mean, I went very late into the campaign. We actually held a rally together late into the campaign. I said, it will end - and it did - and then it got back.

    No, we've very close. We've done great on tax cuts. We've done great on regulation cuts. No, he's been really terrific.

    And if you look at what's happening in Germany, with respect to the pipeline, they want to now start buying our natural gas. It just came out. So take a look at that.

    Q So is he no longer "Lyin' Ted"?

    THE PRESIDENT: To me, he's not "Lyin' Ted" anymore. He's "Beautiful Ted."

    Q Beautiful Ted?

    THE PRESIDENT: He's Texas - I call him "Texas Ted." No, Ted Cruz and I had a very, very nasty and tough campaign. It was a very competitive - it was a very tough campaign. Once it ended and we got together - and, by the way, very late into the campaign we lasted. People were shocked. I said, "Don't worry, it's only a question of time."

    And then ultimately, what happened, we fought it out. The outcome was obvious. And we have worked together very closely. I like him a lot. I actually like him a lot. And he's a very smart guy. He loves the people of Texas - which I do. And, in fact, right now, I guess they said they've never seen it. It's like a big tailgate. It goes on for miles; it's over 100,000 people.

    Q What do you think about Nellie Ohr taking marital protective status before Congress?

    THE PRESIDENT: I think Nellie Ohr is a disgrace, and I think her husband is not much better. Maybe he's worse. I think Nellie Ohr is a disgrace, taking marital protection so she doesn't have to talk about corruption. I think she's a disgrace.

    Q (Inaudible) Central America. Won't that cause (inaudible)?

    THE PRESIDENT: Hey, look, I can't tell you. I can only tell you this: We give them hundreds of millions of dollars. They do nothing for us.

    Q How will cutting aid provide (inaudible)?


    THE PRESIDENT: You know what? Maybe it will and maybe it won't. But it certainly hasn't affected. They can do a lot better job. If you look at the three countries in particular - and I don't know what's going on with Mexico. I guess it looks like the people are walking right through the middle of Mexico, so I'm not exactly thrilled there either.

    Q Do you believe what the Saudis have said about Khashoggi now? Are they telling the truth now?

    THE PRESIDENT: You know what, Jon, I'm going to know very shortly, because I have a great group people in Turkey right now and a great group of people in Saudi Arabia. We will know very soon. We have tremendously talented people that do this stuff very well. They're coming back tonight, tomorrow. And I will know very soon. And I am not satisfied with what I've heard.

    Q And what do you say about - Rand Paul says that he's convinced that this had to be the Crown Prince?

    THE PRESIDENT: Look, Rand has some ideas. I agree with Rand on a lot of things. I don't want to lose all of that investment that's being made in our country. I don't want to lose a million jobs. I don't want to lose a $110 billion in terms of investment. But it's really $450 billion if you include other than military. So that's very important. But we're going to get to the bottom of it.

    Yeah.

    Q The new Mexican President says he'd like to work with you on a Central American aid package, figuring that if he can put more money to those countries, maybe people would stay put. Are you open to that?

    THE PRESIDENT: I'm really looking to make America great again. That's what I do. I'm making America great again. We have been giving so much money to so many different countries for so long, and it's not fair and it's not good. And then we ask them to keep their people in their country, they're unable to do it. It's called "Make America Great Again."

    Q You said "lower tax cuts." You said that you wanted tax cuts by November 1st. Congress isn't even in session. How is that possible?

    THE PRESIDENT: No, we're going to be passing - no, no. We're putting in a resolution sometime in the next week, or week and a half, two weeks.

    Q A resolution where?

    THE PRESIDENT: We're going to put in - we're giving a middle-income tax reduction of about 10 percent. We're doing it now for middle-income people. This is not for business; this is for middle. That's on top of the tax decrease that we've already given them.

    Q Are you signing an executive order for that?

    THE PRESIDENT: No. No. No. I'm going through Congress.

    Q But Congress isn't in session though.

    THE PRESIDENT: We won't have time to do the vote. We'll do the vote later.

    Q Congress is out.

    THE PRESIDENT: We'll do the vote after the election.

    Q Mr. President, there's two weeks until the midterms. What's your level of confidence about holding on to the House?

    THE PRESIDENT: I think their tremendous spirt, maybe like I've never seen, other than in 16′. You don't remember 16′; you're too young. I have never seen spirit like the spirit that we have right now, except the week before the race - the presidential race, two years ago.


    I think the Republicans are going to do very nicely. We're doing very well with the Senate. He was just asking about the race. Other than two years ago - the presidential race - I have never seen spirit like I see right now. I think the Republicans are going to do very well.

    People are tired of high taxes. We gave the tax cuts. We've done so much. And they want a strong military. They want protection. They want safety. They want security. We give that; the Democrats do not give that. The Democrats don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're giving.

    I think we're going to do very, very well in the race.