[applause] pres. Trump thank you very much, everybody. I want to start by wishing my good friend, Prime Minister abe, from japan, a very happy birthday. He is 39 years old today. [laughter] pres. Trump please extend my wishes to the Prime Minister. He is a great gentleman and we have had rate success, have you know. In addition to what we are talking about today, they are building in japan many car plants in the United States, which they were not doing for a long time. They are building in michigan, ohio, lots of different states. We appreciate it very much. It has been a tremendous investment. But we are here to talk about a different purchase, and that is good as far as we are concerned. I want to thank you very much for it. [applause] pres. Trump so we are gathered here today at the white house this afternoon to discuss a very strong and groundbreaking achievement for the United States and japan the signing of the new u. S. Japan trade agreement and the u. S. Japan digital trade agreement. Digital is becoming a very big factor in the world. These two deals represent a tremendous victory for both of our nations. They will create countless jobs, expand investment and commerce, reduce our trade deficit substantially, promote fairness and reciprocity, and unlock vast opportunities for growth. In the United States, these deals are a game changer for our farmers and our ranchers. We love our farmers and our ranchers and have been working very hard on this, providing them with significantly enhanced access to a critical foreign market. In a moment, i will be honoring a lot of the folks in the room that are here with us from farm country, ranch country. We are going to be witnessing a historic signing by ambassador Robert Lighthizer and the ambassador from japan. A long trip. He just got here. The ambassador from japan. We are grateful to both of you for the outstanding job you have done and all of the people that were involved with both of you and your representatives. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We are also delighted that secretary of transportation elaine chao is here. Where is elaine . Hi, elaine. She is busy. Doing a fantastic job. Deputy secretary of agriculture stephen chancey is here. Where is stephen . Thank. Spoke to sonny last night. We are doing well. A very great gentleman, a popular man in the world, especially his wonderful state steve daines. I see you back there. [applause] pres. Trump i also saw your poll numbers. You are strong. And that is a good decision by the voters, i can tell you. Thanks, steve. Representatives Jodey Arrington and kevin hern, thank you fellows for being here, as well as the north dakota governor. Doug, thank you. Thank you, doug. Good job. Is that your wife . North carolina Lieutenant Governor dan forest. Hi, dan. We are just going to approve that last amount of money for the hurricane. You know that. Iowa Lieutenant Governor adam our greg. Great job. Great job. And many other state and local officials. There are some tremendously respected people, political people. I want to extend a special welcome to all of the leaders here today, representing American Farmers and ranchers benefiting from this deal. This is a tremendously important deal and a big deal. Beef, pork,om our poultry wheat and corn , organizations we would particularly like to recognize zippy. He has been with us from the beginning. Zippy, zippy, where is my zippy . He is always here trying to make good deals. He is president and ceo of the American Farm bureau federation. And we are doing really well. In fact, we are doing a deal, a big deal with japan. You know, china is buying again. You see that . Chinas buying was very big. A lot of people do not like to talk about that, but china is in the market, buying very big agriculture. We are also joined by several Senior Leaders from our nations Top Technology companies, including chris of ibm. Chris, how are you . How is ibm doing . Very well, sir. Pres. Trump you have a lot to do with farming. You do smart farming. Very smart farming. Peggy johnson of microsoft, peggy, thank you very much for being here. Please say hello. And Craig Albright of Business Software alliance. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. We do appreciate your support. And it really is now smart farming. In fact, going to m. I. T. Does not hurt either, when you are a farmer nowadays. It is incredible what they do. From day one, my administration has worked tirelessly to achieve a level Playing Field for the american worker. In addition to the agreements we are signing with japan today, we reached a tremendous agreement with mexico and canada to replace nafta with the new usmca. Hopefully that will get done in the nottoodistant future. Everybody wants it. Manufacturers want it. Farmers want it. Even unions want it. People want it. It is a great deal for all of the countries, but in particular, it is a great deal for us and our workers. We are also completely renegotiating, and now we have completed that and signed it, u. S. Korea trade agreement, substantially expanding American Auto exports. It has made a tremendous difference. That was a terrible agreement and we renegotiated it, and it is now a very good agreement for the United States. It was not a good agreement for the United States at all. Todays signing of the u. S. Japan trade agreement and digital trade agreement bills builds on these incredible successes, to the benefit of both our nations. I have to say that while we are here, and because of the fact we are talking about agriculture ethanol, and the farmers of nebraska and iowa, and all of the different places that wanted it we have come to an agreement, and it is going to be, i guess, about getting close to 16 billion barrels, right . That is a lot. Say it again. 16 billion gallons. Pres. Trump that is a lot. That is a lot of gallons. They should like that in iowa and all the different places. I think so. And also, and very importantly, we have taken in tremendous amounts of money in the form of tariffs from china. China has eaten the cost of those tariffs because they have devalued their currency, and they have also pumped a lot of money into their system. Deflation is we have no inflation. If anything, it is going below the number. So therefore we are entitled to an Interest Rate cut. I hope the fed does that. Because we would be like a rocket ship, and we are already the strongest economy in the world, and doing better than just about any economy in the world. And a lot of people are asking us the secret, but we would like to see an Interest Rate cut, a very substantial one. And whatever else they want to do. We would be a rocketship. If you look at from the time i got elected, if you go to november 9 the day after the election, we are up close to 60 on the market, each is numbers that are pretty much unheard of, because it is a fairly short period of time. A lot of countries doing really well. But we are taking care of our farmers, out of the billions and billions of dollars we have got. You know that, right . We are giving 12 billion from the year before. And that is compliments of china, thank you very much. And 16 billion this last year. We will see what happens next year. Maybe by that time, it is straightened out. But the farmers and ranchers were targeted by china, and it is nice that they are coming back. By the way, china is also coming here. Their representatives are coming on thursday and friday, bob, i believe. You will sort some negotiations. The relationship is very good. As to whether or not we will make a deal, i dont know. There is a good possibility. But the relationship is a very good one. But we have taken in billions of dollars. And of those many, many more billions, we are giving 16 billion to our farmers. I asked sonny perdue, what was the amount of money last year that the farmers were hurt . He said, sir, let me get back to you. He got back to me. The number was 16 billion. I said, thats ok. We are going to take 16 billion out of the tariffs, and we are going to give it to the American Farmer. That never gets reported by the fake news, as i say. It never gets reported. I dont know why they dont want to do it. Zippy, as you know, we took 12 billion from the year before, and it also came from large months of tariffs. People were actually saying i read a report today, i believe in the washington times, where they talked about the tremendous amount of money that has actually come in from tariffs. And it has been a number we have never even seen before in this country. We have had a tremendous amount of money coming in. Some of the republican senators said it is not a bad idea. Why dont we give it because we have a lot of money left over after taking care of our farmers. What were doing is we are bringing it right up to the level to farmers were targeted by, so in theory that should be, in its own way, a level Playing Field. The amazing thing about the farmer i have had with so many they dont even want that. They just want a level Playing Field. They dont even want 16 billion. I think almost everybody else in america want 16 billion. The farmer doesnt want it. They want a level Playing Field. They want to play the game the way it should be played, and i think we are close to that. In the meantime, no other president would give 16 billion and 12 billion to the American Farmer and rancher. I can tell you i dont know. It was all of us, everybody standing up here, frankly. Under the terms of the agreement today, japan is committed to dramatically increase Market Access to American Food and agricultural exports. It is a very dramatic number. It is one of the larger trade deals ever signed. As a result, 126 million japanese consumers will have greater access to highquality american almonds, blueberries, corn, wine, poultry, egg products, beef, pork, wheat, and so much more. Anything else you folks can think of . Want to shout it out, steve, anybody . Beef. Ethanol. [laughter] pres. Trump let me think about that one. Once this agreement enters into force, japanese tariffs will be completely eliminated, so that japan will not be charging us as they have for many, many years. Thats we appreciate. And substantially reduced, over 90 of the u. S. Agricultural exports that is a big thing, because we got charged a lot of tariffs. And it is ok for us to charge, but we cant have other countries charge. Our farmers, ranchers, and growers will now be able to compete fairly in japan against your competitors worldwide. In addition to these agriculture agreements, the extraordinary digital agreement we are signing, that digital agreement is a very big deal in its own right. We are signing today it sets standards on the 40 billion in digital trade between the United States and japan. And we just won a big talking about digital, talking about the internet, we just won the big case. You people would know. You people would really know. There was a big case we won on net neutrality. Just won it. We will see. Maybe they wont even appeal it, because it is a hard case to appeal, but it was a tremendous victory in terms of speed and in terms of investment on the internet. This deal is remarkable in that it will ensure that americans have a level Playing Field in trading cutting edge and services such as videos, music, ebooks, and software. These comprehensive provisions meet the Gold Standard of digital trade rules that was set in the landmark usmca. And again we hope that is going to get voted on. We hope that nancy pelosi gets it voted on, because Everyone Wants it. She will have to make her own decision. Let her make her own decision. That i can tell you the American Public is tired of do nothing. And we are doing a lot, and the democrats are doing nothing. Driving commerce between the United States and japan is essential to advancing opportunity and prosperity for our people. The United States and japan are the Worlds Largest and thirdlargest economies. Together, our nations comprise nearly 1 3 of the entire globes gdp. Japan is americas thirdlargest agricultural export market, and this makes it even bigger. And america is japans top foreign investor. That is what i was talking about, all of the plants going up all over the country. I said to Prime Minister abe we need auto plants. I said that right at the beginning when i first met with him. I immediately liked him a lot. And they really produced. They are doing a lot. It is not just auto. Any, many, many plants and many factories are built in the United States by japan and japanese companies. These agreements will ensure our Economic Partnership flourishes brighter than ever before. I think we are probably at the stage with japan where i dont think our relationship has ever been stronger or better than it is right now. In the months ahead, our teams will continue negotiations on remaining areas of interest to achieve a final and very comprehensive agreement. We are working on that right now. There is some big, big things we are working on. And i would like now to invite ambassador Robert Lighthizer to provide further details on these historic deals. I want to thank you very much. I want to thank everybody in the room for being here. And thank you very much to the media for being here. Please. [applause] mr. Lighthizer thank you very much, mr. President. Thank you for helping us get this agreement across the finish line, but more importantly, thank you for reorienting trade policy in the United States in the direction of americas workers, farmers, and ranchers. For too long, we had lost our way, frankly. During the last almost three years, you brought us back, and i am grateful for that. I want to thank, if i can, a few people on my team. We have a huge group involved. Jeff and greg, two of my deputies. Michael beeman, sharon and there are lots of other people. A lot of credit for doing this. Let me quickly make the point that the president has already made. This is a very big trade deal. This is about 55 billion worth of trade. With this, we will have more than 95 of the gdp that would have been in tpp. It is very important for farmers. It is also important for digital trade. Japan is the biggest market for the United States in beef, pork, wheat. And it is a substantial market in a variety of other things, including potatoes, a lot of the nuts, and other products. Thelso affects wine and like. We think we will have substantial additional sales as a result of this. Thank you, mr. President. It is an honor for me to be the person who gets to sign this. I would like to turn the podium over to ambassador sugiyama, who was very active in getting this deal across the finish line. Thank you very much. [applause] mr. Sugiyama i feel very daunted and tense. I could not feel more honored to be here in the signing ceremony, in front of this important leadership. Mr. President , ambassador lighthizer, members of congress, members of the cabinet, governors, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen, i could not forget the time when mr. President and my Prime Minister abe declared, just about one month one year and one month ago, the timeline last year, to declare that we should kick off a bilateral trade agreement. That was 13 months ago. And with some reasons, i think it took Something Like six months. Mr. President and my Prime Minister in new york on the 25th of last month declared that politically it was all done. It was only remaining legal, technical sorts of things. My people, Robert Lighthizers people, and everybody spent 24 hours, day and night, to finalize everything, so that we are able to have today a formal signing ceremony day for the trade agreement, as well as the important digital trade agreement. As well as other related, attached documents. Actually, i had to sign 16 or 18 places prior to this with my very beautiful fountain pen. Mr. President was kind enough to give me a really, really memorable pen to sign with, with his really good signatures. So the to me, as Bob Lighthizer mentioned, from the stretch, i was in the team. Bob lighthizer and my minister and their team and our team seemed to be sometimes in very tense discussions, which is not abnormal. After all, this is a trade deal. But basically, based upon the fundamental friendship and trust relations between the leaders, mr. President and my prime and mr. Shinzo abe a lighthizer and his opposite minister. We had a fierce sometimes debate, which is really natural. But really a wholesome atmosphere was something to try to target the same gain for both of us, a beneficial outcome, which is something i feel very much honored to sign this afternoon. And as mr. President and mr. Lighthizer mentioned, we have, mr. President unfortunately, we are outnumbered by other people. You are here in the states. We are in washington. But nonetheless, we have three gentlemen from japan from our association in washington, d. C. , including from the Toshiba Corporation and the mitsubishi corporation. These are the guys who are good enough to join us. As i told you, we are unfortunately slightly outnumbered. What they are kind enough to come over to see this signing ceremony because of the importance for the Japanese Community and all japan. Thank you, mr. President , and thank you, everybody. [applause] im not doing this until you tell me. [laughter] pres. Trump look at these five gentlemen right here. Central casting. Tough negotiators. [applause] [applause] pres. Trump its a very big one and i would like to introduce some of the folks here. As you know, the ambassadors have been introduced. Great job, fellows. Bruce, the director of the Indiana State Department of agriculture. Eddie, chairman of the wilkes county, North Carolina that is a lot of territory. That is great stuff. Where are you . Good, congratulations. Tony kurtz, state representative, vice chair of the Wisconsin Assembly committee on agriculture. Good job to go back and say you did it. You are going to be can run for anything, right . Barbara glenn, National Association of state department of agriculture. Congratulations. Ben scholes, National Association of wheat growers. That is a big deal. Think they are ready to sell wheat . Pres. Trump they are ready to buy it. They are going to buy a lot of wheat. The National Cattlemens beef association. I can tell with the hat. Kevin ross, National Corn growers association. Congratulations. Great job. Randy mooney, National Milk producers federation. Great job, randy. David herron, National Pork producers council. David, you are a very big beneficiary to things that are going on, about to be. Pork is off the charts, the numbers. You are just going to wonderful news. Wonderful news in this country. Japan has been our number one market for many years. It is just great momentum. It creates a wonderful opportunity in rural america. Pres. Trump and china is a big buyer right now. We are starting to move to china. Pres. Trump it has already happened. Cody carson . Cody carson, National Sorghum producers. Where is cody . Good job. You happy about this one . You said that right. I have got to be careful. Different sorghum pres. Trump this is going to be phenomenal. The north American Meat institute. Darren armstrong, u. S. Greens counsel. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Colby bond, virginia poultry federation. Thank you very much. Tom, western growers association. Thank you for remembering Fresh Produce. Pres. Trump congratulations. Say hello to everyone. Tom, united Fresh Produce association. Yes sir, thank you. Pres. Trump thank you. So you back there. U. S. Wheat associates. Thank you very much. Pres. Trump congratulations. Owing to be a lot of wheat. A lot of wheat going to japan. And montana stock growers association. Right here, mr. President , and thank you. Pres. Trump a fantastic job you have all done. Thank you. Pres. Trump great job. So we have had a tremendous success. Likewise, we are having a lot of successes. We have tremendous success at the border. I want to thank mexico for what they have been doing. You look at numbers, they are tumbling down. This is one on catch and release. Look at that. Look at that, fellas. Would you say that is pretty good . I would say it is pretty good. I would say it is pretty amazing. Even for you, from your standpoint, fellas. The number down to almost zero. So it was not doing so good for a long time, catch and release. We had no help from the donothing democrats. So we did it with mexico. We did it with guatemala. We did it with i mean, we did it with some countries that really stepped out el salvador, honduras, and others, other countries, countries that signed agreements which nobody thought would be even possible. And the border is really doing well. Again, mexico today has 27,000 27,000. I want to thank the president of mexico, because he has been great. At the border is really looking good. The wall is moving rapidly. Large sections are being built every day. More contracts are being given out. We are doing it in about 17 different sections because it is over 450 miles long, the area we have to close up. It could even hit 500 at some point. And we expect to have anywhere between 400 and 500 built, hopefully by the end of next year. It is going up very rapidly. It is a very its a really powerful wall. It has everything you can have. Border patrol just left, actually. We were going over some of the numbers. We gave them every single element of the wall that they wanted. We had mountain climbers come in to climb. We had different samples put up, and we had mountain climbers literally coming which is the hardest one to climb . The steel panel makes it very difficult. It is called an anticlimb panel. Never thought i would be doing this for a living. We built an anticlimb panel. It is not easy, not so easy. Anticlimb panel, and the border is coming along well. The economy is doing great. As i said before, we are the hottest economy in the world. We are the largest economy in the world. We are up 15 trillion at least since the election. 15 trillion. And china is down probably 22 trillion dollars, 24 trillion. I think china might have caught us. If my opponent would have gotten in by now, they would have caught us. Now it will be a long time if they ever catch us. I do not think anybody is going to catch us. If we are smart, nobody will catch us. With that being said, if you have any questions on the trade deal, please anything on the trade deal specifically . Please. Any productions about china . Do you expect optimism . Any predictions about china . Do you expect the new deal optimism . , pres. Trump they are down 3. 5 million jobs since we started doing what we do. Their supply chain has really cracked and broken. They want to make a deal. They are coming to see us on thursday and friday. We think there is a chance we could do something substantial. Bob, i think you think that. We will see what happens. In the meantime, we are taking in billions and billions of dollars of tariffs every month, and we have never had this. We never took in . 10 from china. We are taking in tens of year. Now we are taking in billions of dollars, tens of billions a year. On october 15 as you know it to 35. Its going to is going to raise fairly substantially. We could always get a lot more. So, thats the story. I think that they will they are coming to make the deal. We will see whether or not a deal can be made. But its got to be a fair deal. We have lost 500 billion dollars a year for many years. If you include intellectual property theft and all of the other things, it is incredible that past administrations could have allowed it to have happened. Were talking about 500 billion dollars. Not million. That is a lot, too. We rebuilt china. They did a great job. I do not blame president she one i do not blame president xi one bit. I blame the people who ran this country to allow this to happen. We will have a very important meeting. They will have their top people coming in. And i will have my top people. And they will do a good job. If i do not think they are doing a good job, i will fire them and go in and take their place. [laughter] [indiscernible] President Trump we would like to see a very humane solution to that. I hope that is going to happen. Hong kong, they have great people over there. They are flying the american flags. They even have signs make china great again. Make hong kong great again. They have tremendous signage. They have tremendous spirit for our country. A lot of signs. I would just like to see a humane deal worked out. I think president xi has the ability. He is a very convincing man. And if you met with some of the leaders that could be the problem. You do not seem to have a specific leader. I think they can do something. We just want to see a humane solution. Did you tell xi jinping you would be quiet about the hong kong protests . Pres. Trump no, i did not. I did say we are negotiating and if anything happens bad, i think that would be bad for the negotiation. I think politically, it would be very tough, maybe for us and maybe for some others and maybe for him. But i think they have to do that in a peaceful manner. I will say the first time, i said 2 Million People, i have never seen anything like it. That was serious crowd size, right . The crowd size is much smaller now. Maybe that is saying something. Hopefully they can work out something that is amicable. Yes . Would you accept a partial trade do with china . There is talk it could be headed in that direction. Pres. Trump that is a very good question. I think that is not what we would prefer at all. They are starting to buy our agricultural products. You see that. They are coming in very strong. On pork also, very strong. I do not know if you would call that a partial win, the fact my inclination inclination is to get a big deal. We have come this far. We are doing well. The fact that they have done what they have done with their devaluation really , it is a crisis. It does not mean in all cases that happens, but in the case of china that has not happened. They put a lot of money into their goods. They want to keep their people working. I understand that very well. We have to see what happens. I would prefer a big deal. That is what we are shooting for. Could something happen . Who knows. I think it is unlikely. On withdrawing forces from syria why are you siding with an , authoritarian leader and not our allies . Pres. Trump i am not siding with anybody. We have been in syria for many years. Syria was supposed to be a shortterm hit. That was many, many years ago. We only have 50 people all in that area deny do not want those 50 people hurt or killed or anything. I do not want anything bad to happen. I said to president erdogan, i said dont hit any of our people. Big trouble. A couple of things. I think there is big pressure on turkey. They have been fighting with the pkk for many years. They are natural enemies. When president obama started this whole thing, as you know, it was started by president obama, it crated a natural war with turkey and their longtime enemy pkk, and it is still , there, they are still hating each other beyond anybodys belief. But i have told turkey if they do anything outside of what we would think is humane, to use the word a second time we talk about hong kong and this they could suffer the wrath of an extremely decimated economy. I have done it once, you remember the pastor they would not give him back and they ended up getting him back quickly. Their currency fell at record levels. Lots of other things happened. Its a very Good Relationship with president erdogan. I will tell you this though. We defeated isis. When we were at 96 and 94 and 97 , i said let the other countries in the area finish it off and i was met with a lot of anger from some people. I said, all right, i will finish it off. I got together with our generals. We did better than any general from here could tell us we could do. And i said, too, the European Countries, isis, you know, we have 60,000, maybe 70,000 people. That includes families, that includes wives of fighters that were killed, many fighters that were killed. 100 of the caliphate, i took over quickly. It was a mess when i came in. It was a real mess. I took it over, that then i said, what are we going to do with the 60,000 to 70,000 people that are being held and guarded . And they said, i want to go back to germany and france. Two different European Countries from which they came. I said to the European Countries, i said to all of them, take them back. They said, no, no, no, we dont want them back your it i said, the came from germany. Take them back. They are so used to the United States being a sucker, being a fool were talking about millions and millions of dollars. You are talking about so many elements of complexity. They got to go back to these countries where they came. So i said, take them back. They said no. I said i will give them another 30 days. Take them back. And they kept saying no. Maybe they will not be saying no now. I told president erdogan, is going to be your responsibility. Really, whose responsibility is it . It is russia, turkey, iran, iraq, syria and anybody else in the neighborhood to read it is not a friendly neighborhood. These countries should do it. Isis is these sworn enemy of all of these countries. Many of them they hate far more than they hate us. There terrible, terrible savage killers. I said, take them back. But these countries are rich. In most cases. They are powerful. They have armies. They can do work. We are not bringing them to Guantanamo Bay in cuba. We are not going to be paying them for the next 50 years. We are paying to take care of them. We did a Great Service to the world. We did a Great Service to europe in particular. We said take them back, and unfortunately, like nato, i got the secretarygeneral, and i think very loudly the secretarygeneral said because of what i did, they have paid over 100 billion dollars more money toward nato defense but , its still not enough. Its still not enough. Not fair. The United States pays far too much. Like nato, like trade with the European Union which is a very tough group to trade with. Almost as tough as japan. Not quite. They take advantage. I said, we are not going to do this. We are not going to put them in Guantanamo Bay. Right now we are in a position where it turkey does anything other than what they should be doing, we will hit them hard in the economy. When you talk about this, we only had 50 soldiers in the area. Its a very small area. I do not them to be in a bad or compromising position. I will tell you this. Everyone respects our country again. If we have to go bad for any reason we are 7000 miles away. These isis people, whatever you want to call them, these people are right there. They are right there. They are touching many of these countries. Iran is an example. Iran hates isis. Iraq, you know all about that. Turkey, syria. Let them take care of it. Let them take care of it. We want to bring our troops back home. It has been many, many decades. I got elected on that. If you go back and look at our speeches, i would say i want to bring our troops back home from these endless wars. We are a police force over there. We are not fighting. We are policing. We are not a police force. We are the greatest military force ever assembled because of what we did the last three years. With 2. 5 trillion. Our is what we spent on military. We are not going to be there longer. We are going to be watching turkey. We hope that them and all of the other countries, including the European Union, goes in and does what they are supposed to do with these capture isis fighters and families. [indiscernible] a number of republicans are critical of this decision today. Mr. Mcconnell said he wished you could exercise leadership and reconsider. Doing so would be reminiscent of what the Obama Administration would do. Could you respond to that, sir . Pres. Trump i consulted with everybody. I always consult with everybody. If you remember five months ago, i talked about this. Once we captured isis, i did not want to stay there for the next 40 years. The end game will be the same. I have Great Respect for all of the people you named. They have an opinion. A lot of people do. I could name many more that are supportive. You see the names coming out. People are extremely thrilled. They say it is time to bring our people back home. We are not a police force. They are policing the area. We are not a police force. The u. K. Was thrilled with this decision. As you know, they are over there, they have soldiers over there also. Many people agree with it quite strongly. I understand both sides of it. I campaigned on the fact i will bring our soldiers home. And bring them home as rapidly as possible. I, we, altogether. We defeated and took over 100 of the isis caliphate area caliphate. Everybody said it would be an impossible thing. I did it. When i took over our military, we did not have ammunition. I was told by a top general sir, we dont have ammunition. I said, i will never let another president have that happen to him or her. We did not have ammunition. Now we have captured isis. Areave 50 soldiers in the areae youre talking about. I said, we want to bring soldiers back home. It has been a long time. We were going to be in there for 30 to 90 days. That was many years ago. It is time. Mr. President. The cards themselves have lost thousands of fighters. Battling isis. Can you guarantee their safety . Pres. Trump the kurds, you know , that is a natural enemy of turkey. Specifically, as i said. They have natural enemies. They have been fighting each other for hundreds of years. One historian said they have been fighting for hundreds of years. We interject ourselves into wars andinto tribal wars revolutions and all of these things that are very they are not the kind of things you settle the way we like to see it settled. It just doesnt work that way. Hopefully, that will all be very strong and strongly done. We are spending tremendous amounts of money. I can tell you the two countries that are most disappointed we are leaving are china and russia. They love that we are bogged down and just watching and we are spending tremendous amounts of money. Instead of continuing to build forces. We have tremendous new weapons under development. We have weapons nobody can even believe. We are making some stocks over the next weeks. Some we show, some we dont show. But we have rebuilt our nuclear. We have renovated and rebuilt nuclear. We are building submarines. The likes of which theyve never thought of before. The genius of them. Hopefully hope to god, we do not , have to use them. We are doing what we have to do. We have been there many, many years beyond what we were supposed to be. Not fighting. Just there. I understand. If you go by the other side, that means we should never, ever come home. I have to sign letters often to parents of young soldiers that were killed, and it is the hardest thing i have to do in this job. I hate it. I hate it. Afghanistan. I signed one the other day, erect. Iraq. Syria. They get blown up by mines. They get taken out by a sniper. And i have to write letters to people. We make each letter different. Each person is different. Its devastating. The parents will never be the same. The families will never be the same. Many people are still being killed. We go on that way for perhaps a long time and we are willing to do what we have to do, but there has to be an endgame. And if you stay, it will be the same thing. I think what we are doing is the right thing. A lot of people agree. You go back and look at my speeches. A big part of my speech, and a lot of people consider this to be a surprise election, there was a poll that just came out where i am up massively because of independent voters. I do not know if it is this or the hoax that is going on with nancy pelosi and her friend adam schiff. Hes another beauty. He got caught lying all over the place. He does not know what to do. He is a mess. Right now he is a mess, and Everybody Knows it. All you have to do is a little good reporting. He is a total mess because he got caught. But we have to do the right thing for our country. What ever it may be, that is the right thing. The problem is with your opinion, when do we leave you leave . Are we going to stay there forever . [indiscernible] what do you hope to achieve . Pres. Trump first of all, the impeachment inquiry is a scam. The conversation i had with ukrainian president zelensky, it was a very cordial conversation. The mistake they made, the democrats, the opponents, the radical left, deep state, whatever you want to call them they came out with a , whistleblower. Had they waited one day, nancy pelosi would not have made a fool out of herself. She would have been able to say what i said. When she saw it, she said, this is not what the whistleblower said. I had a very, very congenial with a mansation that i like and he ran on corruption. Of course, ukraine is known as a very corrupt country. One of the most in the world. Shockingly. I know ukrainian people. It is surprising to me, but it is known as one of the most corrupt countries and underpass under the past leadership it was , having harder difficulty. This current president , the new president ran on anticorruption. As you know, i think it was the single biggest thing. And we had a great conversation. It was not reported that way. The only reason i would have released the letter, because i think its terrible to release a letter you have with the leader of a country, i think it is a terrible precedent but the whistleblower, whatever the news was, it was so off. It was so horrible. I said, i never said that. Let me see it. We have a stenographer. We had a word for word report. I released it. Almost everyone who read it said it is either perfect or really very good, but it is a very normal, nice conversation. When you see the president of ukraine, zelensky, said there was no pressure on me whatsoever. His spokesman came out two days ago and said there was absolutely no pressure. I didnt tell him to say that. There was no pressure. All you have to do is read the report. The problem is i released it a day after they had already made their big statements. Its a big scam. I think adam schiff should be investigated for what he did. The chamber, congress, and he made a speech. His speech was a fraud. Everything he said was a fraud. He went out and he defrauded the american people. He defrauded congress. He defrauded himself. It was a horrible speech. I said, what is going on here . I i think he is having some kind of breakdown. He got up and made a speech that bore no relationship to what the conversation was. A lot of people heard that speech and a lot of people thought that was what i said. Aey are not going to read three or four page conversation. They dont have access to it. I thought it was a terrible thing. He was speaking as the president of the United States, saying things i never said, and the meeting was horrible and then the whistleblower, he did, through his committee come out with a whistleblower dusty never said that. They never said that. They never talked about it. Nancy pelosi knew all this stuff. She is is as guilty as he is. She knew everything about it. And she did not do anything about it and i will tell you what. They should really be looked at very strongly because what they did is unthinkable. What they did to this country is unthinkable. I sort of thrive on it. You know why . Because it is so important we get to the bottom. We went through the whole mueller scam, two and half years. We went through and then i am walking into the united nations. They released it as i am walking in. Im going to meet with i do not want to name, but with one of the top leaders of the world. And i see up in the screen and people start screaming about the scam of impeachment. You cant impeach a president for doing a great job. You cant impeach a president for having the lowest and best unemployment numbers we have had in 51 years. You cant impeach a president for regulation cuts. We have the strongest economy in the world. We have the strongest economy in the world. This is a scam. The people are wise to it. That is why my polls went up. I think they said 17 points in the last two or three days. Ive never had that one. Ive never had that one. I think its sad for the country. I think its hard to do my job, but i do my job and i do it better than anybody has done it for the two and half years based first on results. If you look at unemployment numbers, not only unemployment numbers. We have almost 160 Million People working. Now today we signed a deal with japan which is such an honor. Country, agreat great, great country, and to have you partake in our agricultural product and digital is a real honor for me. Thank you very much for coming all this distance to be here. And i look forward to see for many years to come. Please, again, we wish president Prime Minister abe happy birthday. Hes a very special man. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] [applause] live tuesday on the cspan networks. The Heritage Foundation hosts on religious liberty. You can see it live ant noon eastern on cspan at 1 00 p. M. At the National Press club, a discussion on lgbtq rights. The case of a county Child WelfareServices Coordinator who was fired after joining a gay recreational soft ball league. Middle a. M. , on cspan , east strategy looking at u. S. Withdraw