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

Press Release:

White House South Lawn  •  Washington D.C.  •  August 1  •  3:47 P.M. EDT

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

    Q   Mr. President, why the tariffs against China now? And are you concerned about the nosedive the Dow took today as a result?

    THE PRESIDENT: No, I'm not concerned about that at all. I expected that a little bit because people don't understand quite yet about what's happened.

    We've taxed China on 300 billion dollars' worth of goods and products being sold into our country. And China eats it because they have to pay it. Because what they do is they devalue their currency and they push money out.

    Our people haven't paid, as you know. We're also charging them 25 percent on $250 billion. So we're taking in many billions of dollars. There's been absolutely no inflation. And frankly, it hasn't cost our consumer anything; it costs China.

    Now, what has happened is a lot of companies are moving out of China so they can, you know, avoid. And China has had a rough twenty- - this is their worst year in 27 years, according to yesterday's Wall Street Journal. I don't want that.

    But when my people came home, they said we're talking. We have another meeting in early September. I said, "That's fine." But in the meantime, until such time as there's a deal, we'll be taxing them.

    We're just getting - and we're getting very good numbers from the border. The 21,000 soldiers supplied by Mexico. And I want to thank Mexico. They're doing a great job. The numbers are way down at the border.

    Q   On North Korea, sir. On North Korea, they apparently just launched their third missile in about a week. Is Kim testing you?

    THE PRESIDENT: I think it's very much under control. Very much under control.

    Q   President Trump, we're talking about a full-blown trade war here. What do you say to American -

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, what would you say it is?

    Q   No, I'm asking you -

    THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you a question.

    Q   What do you say to American business owners -

    THE PRESIDENT: Right. Right. Right.

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    Q   - and consumers who are going to pay the price for these tariffs, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: Sure. Sure. What would you say when China, for the last 20 years, has been taking hundreds of billions of dollars out of our country? And we had a President that would never do anything - a number of Presidents that never would do anything about it. What would you say?

    For many years, China has been taking money out by the hundreds of billions of dollars a year. We have rebuilt China. So now it's time that we change things around. If they don't want to trade with us anymore, that would be fine with me. We'd save a lot of money.

    Q   Mr. President, sir, do you believe that Xi is slow-walking this? And is this 10 percent tariff a bit of a hurry-up call?

    THE PRESIDENT: No, I don't know. I think President Xi, who's somebody I like a lot, I think he wants to make a deal. But frankly, he's not going fast enough. He said he was going to be buying from our farmers; he didn't do that. He said he was going to stop fentanyl from coming into our country - it's all coming out of China; he didn't do that. We're losing thousands of people to fentanyl. And this was time.

    And very importantly, for many years - you know this better than anybody; you've been covering it for a long time - for many years, China has been taking out hundreds of billions of dollars a year and rebuilding China. It's time that we rebuild our country.

    And, you know, the one thing I have to say - and you have to say this: What China is doing is they're devaluing their currency and they're pumping money out like they've never done before. And they're paying for these tariffs; we're not.

    Q   Are you concerned by reports that the Chinese army may be preparing to intervene in Hong Kong against the demonstrators? And what do you say to the accusation that the U.S. is somehow behind these protests?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, something is probably happening with Hong Kong because when you look at, you know, what's going on, they've had riots for a long period of time. And I don't know what China's attitude is. Somebody said that at some point they're going to want to stop that. But that's between Hong Kong and that's between China, because Hong Kong is a part of China. They'll have to deal with that themselves. They don't need advice.

    Q   You put a date - you put a date of September 1 on these tariffs. Are you giving Xi a chance to negotiate himself out of this?

    THE PRESIDENT: No. No, no, no. It's September 1. The reason is, it takes a long time for the ships to come over. And it's a period of time. So I'm giving him four - like a four-week period of time before the tariffs go on.

    But we're now taking in tariffs on 10 percent on over $300 billion, and 25 percent on $250 billion. And it's been proven that our people are not paying for those tariffs.

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    Q   Mr. President -

    THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Go ahead.

    Q   Thank you. About North Korea, North Korea launched two missiles again yesterday. How did you feel about that? And -

    THE PRESIDENT: Short-range missiles. We never made an agreement on that. I have no problem. We'll see what happens. But these are short-range missiles. They're very standard.

    Q   And your response to Bernie Sanders who says -

    THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. What?

    Q   - that you are a pathological liar, sir?

    THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead.

    Q   Thank you. Mr. President, are you concerned about reports that your DNI nominee, Congressman Ratcliffe, has embellished his record at all - that Democrats plan to oppose his nomination?

    THE PRESIDENT: Congressman Ratcliffe is an outstanding man and I'm sure that he'll be able to do very well. I think he's just outstanding. Highly respected by everybody that knows him.

    Q   On Huawei, what will you do on Huawei to give relief to the companies -

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, we've not changed on Huawei. We're not allowing Huawei into our country. We're not changed on that. We can do business for non-security things with Huawei because that's - you know, we'll do that. But anything having to do with national security, we're not dealing with Huawei.

    Q Mr. President, what do you think about the decision to not prosecute James Comey for leaking?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I haven't actually heard that. I know there's a lot of things going on. That's a piece of it, I guess. But I really don't know. I haven't spoken to them about that.

    I would, frankly, be surprised, because what James Comey did was illegal. So I would be surprised, but I don't know anything about that.

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    Q   Mr. President, in Cincinnati, at your rally tonight, are you prepared to tell your supporters to stop if they begin chanting something problematic?

    THE PRESIDENT: I don't know what's going to happen. I can tell you this: I'm going to Cincinnati. The arena is a very large one. And we've sold it out. We could sell it out probably 10 times, from what I hear. The applications for seats, as you know - never had an empty seat - the applications are very big. I have no idea.

    We have a great group of people. They love our country. They love the job we're doing. And when they see the kind of people that want to represent us from the last two nights, that's not what they want.

    I don't know - I can't tell you whether or not they're going to do that chant. If they do the chant, we'll have to see what happens.

    Q   Will you stop it, sir? You think you will?

    THE PRESIDENT: I don't know that you can stop people. I don't know that you can. I mean, we'll see what we can do. I'd prefer that they don't, but if they do it, we'll have to make a decision then.

    Q   Mr. President, do you have a message - do you have a message for them now, like before they go in?

    THE PRESIDENT: I do have a message. My message is for the people I'm going to - so, we had over 100,000 applications for whatever the size of the - I think it's a 14,000-seat arena. But we're way over a hundred and - I think 122,000 applications for those seats.

    You know what my message is? I love them. And I think they love me.

    Q   So your message is not "don't do this"?

    THE PRESIDENT: I actually think they love me.

    Q   India has rejected your offer of help on Kashmir. India is also - India has rejected your offer of help on Kashmir. India says Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.

    THE PRESIDENT: Have they accepted the offer or not?

    Q   No, they have not.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's up to - it's really up to Prime Minister Modi. And I met with Prime Minister Khan; I got along great with - I think they're a fantastic people, Khan and Modi. I mean, I would imagine they can get along very well.

    But if they wanted somebody to intervene or to help them - and I spoke with Pakistan about that, and I spoke, frankly, to India about it. But that's been going on, that battle, for a long time.

    ...

    Read the full transcript HERE.


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