The progress that weve made. My advice, as i said to the president elect when we had our discussions was that campaigning is different from governing. I think he recognizes that. I think hes sincere in wanting to be a successful president. And moving in country forward. And i dont think any president ever comes in saying to himself, i want to figure out how to make people angry or alienate half the country. I think hes going to try as best he can to make sure that he delivers, not only for the people who voted for him but for the people at large. And the good thing is that there are going to be elections coming up so theres a bitin incent i for him to try to do that. But, you know, its only been six days and i think it will be important for him to to have the room to staff up, to figure out what his priorities are, to be able to distinguish between what he was campaigning on and what is practical, what he can actually achieve. You know, there are certain things that make for good sound bites but dont always translate into good policy. And thats something that he and his team i think will wrestle with in the same way that every president wrestles with. I did say to him, as ive said publicly, that because of the nature of the campaigns and the bitterness and veracity of the campaigns, that its really important to try to send some signals of unity and to reach out to minority groups or women or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign. And i think, you know, thats something that he will he will want to do, but this is all happening a little fast. Hes got commitments to supporters that helped to get him here and hes going to have to balance those. And over the coming weeks and months and years, my hope is that those impulses ultimately win out. But too early to start making judgments on that. Has that changed after meeting with him . I think that he successfully mobilized a big chunk of the country to vote for him and hes going to win. He has won. Hes going to be the next president. And regardless of what experience or assumptions he brought to the office, this office has a way of waking you up. And those those aspects of his positions or predispositions that dont matchup with reality, he will find shaken up pretty quick because reality has a way of asserting itself. And some of his gifts that obviously allowed him to execute one of the biggest political upsets in history, those are ones that hopefully he will put to good use on behalf of all the American People. Scott horzly. Thank you, mr. President. Youre off to europe who is facing some of the same pressures weve seen in this country. When you spoke at the u. N. You talked about the choices facing between integration and building walls. Right. What choice do you think the American People made last week and if theres still a chance for what you called a direction before europeans make some of their choices. I think the American People recognize that the world has shrunk. That its interconnected, that youre not going to put that genie back in the bottle. The American People recognize that their careers or their kids careers are going to have to be more dynamic, that they might not be working at a single plant for 30 years but they might have to change careers, they might have to get more education, they might have to retool or refratr. I think the American People are game for that. They want to make sure that the rules of the game are fair and what they that means is that if you look at surveys around americans attitudes on trade, the majority of the American People still support trade. But they are concerned about whether or not trade is fair and whether weve got the same access to other countries markets as they have with us. Is there just a race to the bottom when it comes to wages and so forth. Now, i made an argument, thus far unsuccessfully, that the trade deal we had organized tpp did exactly that, that it strengthened workers e. R. A. Rights and environmental rights, leveled the Playing Field and as a consequence would be good for American Workers and american businesses. But thats a complex argument to make when people remember plants closing and jobs being offshore. So part of what i think this election reflected was people wanting that course correction that you described and the message around stopping surges of immigration, not creating new trade deals that may be unfair, i think those were themes that played a prominent role in the campaign. As we now shift to governing, my argument is that we do need to make sure that we have an orderly lawful immigration process, but that if it is orderly and lawful, immigration is good for our economy. It keeps this country young, it keeps it dynamic. We have entrepreneurs and strivers who come here and are willing to take risks and thats part of the reason why america historically has been successful. Its part of the reason why our economy is stronger and better positioned than most of our other competitors is because we got a younger population thats more dynamic. When it comes to trade, i think when youre governing it will become increasingly apparent that if you were to just eliminate trade deals with mexico, for example, well, youve got a Global Supply chain, the parts that are allowing auto plants that were about to shut down to now employ double shifts is because theyre bringing in some of those parts to assemble out of mexico. And so its not as simple as it might have seemed. And the key for us, when i say us, i mean americans, but i think particularly for progressives, is to say your concerns are real, your anxieties are real. Heres how we fix it. Hire minimum wagers, stronger, Worker Protection so workers have more leverage to get a bigger piece of the pie. Stronger financial regulations, not weaker ones. Yes to trade but trade that ensures that these other coun y countricountr countries that trade us with are not engaging in child labor, for example. Being attentive to inequality and not tone deaf to it but offering prescriptions that are actually going to help folks in communities that feel forgotten. Thats going to be our most important strategy. And i think we can successfully do that. People will still be looking to the United States. Our example will still carry great weight. And it continues to be my strong belief that the way we are going to make sure that everybody feels a part of this Global Economy is not by shutting ourselveses off from each other even if we could but rather by working together more effectively than we have in the past. Thanks, mr. President. Some of the harsh words you had about mr. Trump, calling him temperame temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief. Did anything surprise you when you had him in your office, and, also, i want to know does anything concern you about a Trump Presidency . Well, we had a very cordial conversation. And nothing surprised me to some degree because i think that he is obviously a gorgarious person. He is somebody who likes to mix it up and to have a vigorous debate and whats clear is that he was able to tap in to, yes, the anxieties, but also the enthusiasm of his voters in a way that was impressive. And i said to him, because i think that to the extent that there were a lot of folks who missed the trump phenomenon, i think that connection that he was able to make with his supporters, that was impervious to. Events that might have sunk another candidate, thats powerful stuff. I also think that he is coming to this office with fewer set hard and fast policy prescriptions than a lot of other president s might be arriving with. I dont think he is ideological. I think ultimately hes pragmatic in that way. And that can serve him well as long as hes got good people around him and he has a clear sense of direction. Do i have concerns . Absolutely. Of course ive got concerns. You know, he and i differ on a whole bunch of issues. But the federal government and our democracy is not a speed boat. Its an ocean liner,s i discovered when i came in to office. It took a lot of really hard work for us to make significant policy changes, even in our first two years when we had larger majorities than mr. Trump will enjoy when he comes into office. And one of the things i advised him to do was to make sure that before he commits to certain courses of action, hes really dug in and thought through how various issues play themselves out. Ill use an obvious example, where we have a difference but it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming year. And thats the Affordable Care act. So obviously this has been the holy grail for republicans over the last six, seven years, was we got to kill obamacare. Now, that has been taken as an article of faith, but this is terrible, it doesnt work, and we have to undo it. But now that republicans are in charge theyve got to take a look and say, lets see, weve got 20 Million People who have Health Insurance who didnt have it before. Health care costs generally have gone up a significantly slower rate since obamacare was passed than they did before, which has saved the federal treasury hundreds of billions of dollas. S people who have Health Insurance are benefiting in all sorts of ways that they may not be aware of. Everything from no longer having lifetime limits on the claims that they can make to seniors getting preription drug discounts under medicare, to free mammograms. Now, its one thing to characterize this thing as not working when its just an abstraction. Now, suddenly youre in charge and youre going to repeal it, okay, well, what happens to those 20 Million People who have Health Insurance . Are you going to just kick them off and suddenly they dont have Health Insurance . In what ways are their lives better because of that . Are you going to repeal the provision that insures that if you do have Health Insurance on your job and you lose your job or you change jobs or you start a Small Business that youre not discriminated against because you have a preexisting condition. Thats really popular. How are you going to replace it . Are you going to change the policy that kids can stay on their parents Health Insurance plan until theyre 26 . How are you going to approach all these issues . Now, my view is that if they can come up with Something Better that actually works and a year or two after theyve replaced the Affordable Care act with their own plan, that 25 Million People have Health Insurance and its cheaper and better and running smoothly, ill be the first one to say, thats great, congratulations. If, on the other hand, whatever the proposing results in millions of people losing coverage and results ineople who already had Health Insurance losing protections that were contained in the legislation, then were going to have a problem. I think thats not going to be unique to me. I think the American People will respond that way. So i think on a lot of issues what youre going to see is now comes the hard part, now is governance. We are going to be able to present to the Incoming Administration a country that is stronger, a federal government that is working better and more efficiently, a National Security apparatus that is both more effective and truer to our values, Energy Policies that are resulting in not just less pollution but also more jobs, and i think the president elect rightly would expect that hes judged on whether we improve from that baseline. And on those metrics or things get worse. And if things get worse, then the American People will figure that out pretty quick. And if things get better, then more power to him and ill be the first to congratulate him. Mr. President , you had talked specifically about his temperament. Uhhuh. Do you still have any concern about his temperament . As i said, because athena asked the question, whatever you bring to this office, this office has a habit of magnifying and pointing out and then hopefully you correct for. This may seem like a slight example but i know myself well to know i can k. Not keep track of paper. Im not well organized in that way. So pretty quickly after im getting stacks of briefing books coming in every night i say to myself, ive got to figure out a system because i have bad filing, sorting, and organizing habits. And ive got to find some people who can help me keep track of this stuff. That seems trivial but actually it ends up being a pretty big piece of business. I think what will happen with the president elect is there are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well unless he recognizes them and corrects them, because when youre a candidate and you Say Something that is inaccurate or controversial, it has less impact than it does when youre president of the United States. Everybody around the world is paying attention. Markets move. National Security Issues require a level of precision in order to make sure that you dont make mistakes. And i think he recognizes that this is different. And so do the American People. Im going to take just a couple more questions and then ill get out of here. Nadia . Thank you, mr. President. President elect trump lev level what would you say if he altered part of it around what would you advise him considering that hes saying hes open to your advice . And im curious, [ inaudible question ] you go back to bosnia and warn againsthe killing of americans there. Many were criticized the administration. Are you willing to let it fall under your watch and how do you take president elect trumps statement that he wont support the Syrian Opposition . Thank you. Iran is a good example of the gap i think between some of the rhetoric in this town, not unique to the president elect, and the reality. I think there was a really robust debate about the merits of the iran deal before it is completed. And i actually was pretty proud of how our democracy process went. It was a serious debate. People of good will or on both sides of the issue. Ultimately we were able to persuade members of congress and the public, at least enough of them, to support it. At the time the main argument against it was iran wouldnt abide by the deal, that they would cheat. We now have over a year of evidence that they have abided by the agreement. Thats not just my opinion. Its not just people in my administration. Thats the opinion of Israeli Military and Intelligence Officers who are part of a government that vehemently opposed the deal. So my suspicion is that when the president elect comes in and hes consulting with his republican colleagues on the hill that they will look at the facts, because to unravel a deal thats working and preventing iran from pursuing a Nuclear Weapon would be hard to explain, playly if the alternative were to have them freed from any obligations and go ahead and pursue a weapon. And keep in mind this is not just an International Agreement between us and the iranians, this is between the p51 and other countries, other allies. For us to pull out would then require us to start sanctioning those other countries, in europe or china or russia, that were still abiding by the deal because from their perspective iran had done what it was supposed to do. So it becomes more difficult, i think, to undo something thats working than undo something that isnt working. And when youre not responsible for it, i think you can call it a terrible deal. When you are responsible for the deal, then preventing iran from getting a Nuclear Weapon, youre more likely to look at the facts. That is going to be true in other circumstances. For example, the Paris Agreement. I think theres been a lot of talk about the possibility of undoing thisnternational agreement. Now, youve got 200 countries that have signed up for this thing. And the good news is that what weve been able to show over the last five, six, eight years is that its possible to grow the economy really fast and possible to bring down Carbon Emissions as well. Its not just a bunch of rules that weve set up. Youve got utilities that are putting in solar panels and creating jobs. Youve got the big three automakers who have seen record sales and are overachieving on the fuel efficncy standards that we set. Turns out that people like not having to fill up as often and save money at the pump, even if its good for the environment. Youve got states like california that have been moving forward on a Clean Energy Age a agenda, separate and apart from any federal regulations that have put forward. In fact, 40 of the country already lives under in states that are actively pursuing whats embodied in the Paris Agreement and the clean power plant rule. And even states like texas that politically tend to oppose me, weve seen huge increases in. Wind power and solar power and youve got some of the countrys Biggest Companies like google and walmart, all pursuing Energy Efficiency because its good for the bottom line. So what weve been able to do is embed a lot of these practices in to how our economy works and its made our economy more efficient. Its helped the bottom line of folks and its cle