Than mediation. At the end of the day we have constant exchanges with President Trump. I share his goals, hell say he doesnt agree with methods, but i want to get there, i want to have an agreement. And i think theres been a true change. This morning president rohani showed himself to be opening to this meeting happening and President Trump has been saying for weeks hes been demanding and being tough and putting forward sanctions but im ready to have a meeting to make a deal. I think were making progress. I want this meeting to happen and i want there to be an agreement between the United States and iran and france will play the role that its meant to play together with the United Kingdom, with germany and all of the other Signatory Powers and the permanent members of the security council. Iran is a country thats not the same country it was two and a half years ago when i came into office. Iran was the number one state of terror throughout the world. There were 18 sites of confliction in my first week when i spoke with the folks at the pentagon, including lots of
generals and lots of other military experts. 18 sites of confliction. Meaning 18 sites of big problems. Every one of them was backed by iran or in some cases actually using iranian soldiers. But at a minimum iranian wealth, much of it given in the ridiculous deal where they were given 150 billion plus 1. 8 billion in cash and they used that money for some bad purposes. With that being said i think that iran is a country of tremendous potential. Were not looking for leadership change. Were not looking for that kind of change. This countrys been through that many times before. That doesnt work. Were looking for no nuclear weapons, no Ballistic Missiles, and a longer period of time. Very simple. We can have it done in a very short period of time and i really believe that iran can be a great nation. Id like to see that happen. But they cant have nuclear
weapons. Okay . Thank you. Excuse me . Would you agree to meet if the circumstances were correct or right i would certainly agree to that. But in the meantime they have to be players, you understand what that means. And they cant do what they were saying theyre going to do because if they do that theyre going to be met with really very violent force, we have no choice. So i think theyre going to be good. I really think theyd like to and by the way president macron told me every step that he was making yesterday, a lot of you said oh, he came and he told me long before he came in what was happening, what was i didnt think it was appropriate to meet yesterday, too soon. And things have to be worked out first. But president macron told me exactly what was happening, who was coming, what time they were coming, where they were going to meet and after the meeting he told me exactly what happened. And i think he had a very positive meeting. Prime minister rabi of japan, also a large purchaser of oil from iran, he was also very much involved and, you know, look, he knows everybody there so he was a very, very positive force. I have to tell you the president s done an excellent job and were going to see how it all turns out. Maybe it works, maybe it doesnt. I say it all the time about everything, maybe it works and maybe it doesnt but ill tell you what, we made a ridiculous deal, gave them 150,000,000,001,800,000,000 and we got nothing, we got nothing. And by the way that agreement was so shortterm that it expires in a short period of time with a country you dont make a deal that short. Countries last for long times and you dont do shortterm deals, especially when youre paying that kind of money. So i have good feelings about iran. I have good feelings that it will work. I no many iranians living in New York City have many friends from iran, theyre incredible people,
incredible people. So the last thing id like to see is a big problem. But we have to do what we have to do. Okay . Go ahead, please. No, no, you first. Go ahead. No, no, go ahead, yes, yes. Thank you. President macron, did you did you seek President Trumps permission before you invited Foreign Minister zarif or did you simply inform him that he was coming . Translator thank you for the very fine question. To be very clear, and we are part of the gcpoa. We decided to remain we are very much interested by the situation as a sovereign country. Thats why we want the different parties to move. On deals assigned as President Trump made it very clear over the summer, we never spoke on behalf of all the countries. We just tried to put forth solutions and see if we can find an agreement with different countries. So we took an initiative this summer to make a proposal, a technical one. I got the reaction from iran who president zarif visits on friday morning. After the conclusion of the g7 dinner on saturday evening, i thought that it was very clear about where we can go together. So the day after i decided to invite, as friends, minister zarif. So i informed, before making it, i informed President Trump that it was my idea, not to involve the United States, not to say this is on behalf of you. But to say as friends i think it would be a good idea to ask him to go back and try to negotiate
something. So i did it on my own. I informed, before making it, President Trump was informed at each minute about the solution the situation, sorry. And the idea for me was in case of certain moves and important moves and appropriate solutions perhaps to have meetings between ministers, not at President Trumps level because President Trumps level is president ial. This is a french initiative, but made by a clear information of the u. S. President before, information as well of the europeans and each time i informed President Trump in order to monitor the situation and in order to appreciate together that something more was adapted. I have to say the jcpoa was a
bad deal, should not have been entered into. A lot of things could have happened that would have been much different. Theyre allowed to test Ballistic Missiles. Youre not allowed to go to various sites to check. And some of those sites of the most obvious sites for the creation or the making of nuclear weapons. And those things have to be changed, and other things have to be changed. And i will tell you, i have very good feelings about it. I think that were going to do something. It may not be immediately but i think ultimately were going to do something. Iran is a much different country than it was two and a half years ago. And we can get that back and id encourage it. I actually had friends years ago, many years ago, they were in the Real Estate Business and they were in iran and they were Building Houses and building housing and Building Office buildings and Apartment Houses and they did very well. They made a lot of money. And to this day theyre not exactly the youngest developers anymore, but i tell you they were young when they went over there. They made a lot of money and they loved the people and they loved what was going on. Its a country with tremendous potential. I also say that, by the way, with respect to north korea. Kim jongun, who ive gotten to know extremely well, the first lady has gotten to know kim jongun and i think shed agree with me, he is a man with a country that has tremendous potential. Youre in between china, russia and south korea. People want to get to south korea. Theyve got to get there somehow. And if theyre going to do anything other than essentially fly they want to go through. So railroads and everything else. So many things want to happen there. I think that north korea has tremendous economic potential and i think that kim jongun sees that. He would be the leader. And i think he sees the
tremendous potential that its got. With respect to iran same thing. Iran is incredible people and incredible country potentially. Location, thats a little rough neighborhood but eventually its going to be a beautiful neighborhood. I think that its going to be i think its going to work out and i really believe that those countries that went into the original deal, that more and more are agreeing with what i did. But i think those countries are going to be saying thank you some day. I hope theyre going to be saying, including france, including the president because i think we dead tid the right t. I know we did the right thing. If for no reason its too short, almost expiring if you think about it. Somebody said youll go and make an extension. No, no, theyre great negotiators, look at what they did to get the deal. Look at what they did to john kerry and to President Obama. Look what happened, where theyre bringing plane loads of
cash, big planes, 757s, boeing 757s, coming in loaded up with cash. What kind of a deal is that . So i think a lot of good things are going to mhappen and i just want to say this because ive spoken a lot with the president this last two and a half days. Weve never had a better relationship. We had a lunch that lasted for quite a while that many of you got to see. It was the two of us, no staff, no anything. He wasnt trying to impress his people. I wasnt trying to impress his people. We were just trying to impress each other. And ill tell you what, it was the best period of time weve ever had. And we accomplished a lot. I dont mean just gee whiz, wasnt that nice . Hes a very capable man, doing a great job for france, did an incredible job for the g7 and i just want to thank you. And you go ahead to your News Conference, and very special. This was a very special, very
unified two and a half days and i want to thank you for it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, i will leave the floor to President Trump. And i will at the end wait for the end of your own Press Conference translator i dont want to give anything away, but we saw your wife, the first lady, drink a glass of french wine yesterday. So can you perhaps give up on your threat to put sanctions on french wine . Because if weve understood correctly you have arrived at an agreement on taxing digital firms. Could you confirm that there has
been an agreement between you and france on taxing digital firms . Confirm that the first lady loved your french wine. Okay . All right, she loved your french wine. So thank you very much. Thats fine. Thank you. I will wait for the end of this Press Conference to have a Press Conference of the presidency. I will leave the floor. Thank you. Good job. Worse than you are. I cant believe it. Come on up. Lets go. Mr. President , can i just ask a question, since i didnt get to ask you directly, on china you have recently been saying that china wants to make a deal but that you are not necessarily ready for a deal . All right, well start now, please sit down, thank you. Thank you, please sit down. Youve recently thank you very much. Youve recently been saying china wants a deal but youre not necessarily ready for a deal. You like the tariff revenue coming in. Are you ready for a deal . Only if its good for the United States, otherwise i will not make a deal. We have billions and billions coming in and i think were going to get there. I do. I believe it more strongly now than i would have believed it a while ago. Were going to get there and were going to have a really were going to have a fair deal. But remember this. When you say fair. Chinas been taking out of this country 500 plus billion dollars a year for many, many years. Many, many years. It was time to stop. As a private person i used to talk about it. Its one of the reasons im president. And were in a great position. Our countrys doing well. Our Unemployment Numbers are the lowest theyve been in over 50 years. Our Unemployment Numbers for
africanamerican, asian, for hispanic, are the best theyve ever been, historic numbers. Were in a very strong position. Our consumers are strong. Walmart Just Announced numbers that were i mean, mind boggling numbers, thats a great poll right there, the ultimate poll how the retailers are doing and how Certain Companies are doing. Were doing very well and i think that i think were going to make a deal with china and i think were probably eventually going to make a deal with iran too. Why are you optimistic theyll change their behavior . Its not a question of behavior. They want to make a deal and they should make a deal and if they dont make a deal its going to be very bad for china and i very much appreciate the fact that they came out very late last night and they said they wanted to make a deal. They want it to be under calm circumstances. It was a little bit different kind of a statement. I thought it was a beautiful statement. I thought it indicated a lot. Go ahead. Thank you, mr. President. I have a question for next years g7 summit. Can i clarify, you mentioned earlier today one question. Let me do the clarification, and then ill get to the question. No, one question. You talked about calls to china, what did you hear from china and on next years g7, you alluded today, made several hints about miami and hosting next year at your property, what reassurances, if any, can you give the American People that you are not looking to profit off the presidency . Ill tell you what. Ive spent, and i think i will in a combination of loss and opportunity probably it will cost me anywhere from 3 billion to 5 billion to be president. And the only thing i care about is this country. Couldnt care less. Otherwise i wouldnt have done it. People have asked me what do you think it costs . And between opportunity, not doing i used to get a lot of money to make speeches. Now i give speeches all the time. You know what i get . Zippo, and thats good. And i did a lot of great jobs
and a lot of deals, i dont want to do them. The deals im making are great deals for the country. Thats much more important. Dural is within miami, its a city. Its a wonderful place. Its a very, very successful area of florida. Its very importantly only five minutes from the airport. The airports right next door. Its a Big International airport, one of the biggest in the world. Everybody thats coming, all of these people with all of their big entourages come. Its set up and by the way, my people looked at 12 sites, all good, but some were two hours from an airport. Some were four hours. I mean, they were so far away. Some didnt allow this or they didnt allow that. With dural we have a series of magnificent buildings, we call them bungalows. They each hold from 50 to 70 very luxurious rooms with magnificent views. We have incredible Conference Rooms, incredible restaurants. Its like such a natural. We wouldnt have to do the work they did here, and theyve really done a beautiful job. And what we have also is miami. And we have many hundreds of acres so that in terms of parking, in terms of all of the things that you need, the ballrooms are among the biggest in florida, and the best. Its brand new. And they want my people wanted it. From my standpoint, im not going to make any money. In my opinion im not going to make money. I dont want to make money. I dont care about making money. If i wanted to make money i wouldnt worry about 3 billion to 5 billion. At some point ill detail that and will show. But its a great place to be. Having it in miami is fantastic. Really fantastic. Having it at that particular place, because of the way its set up. Each country can have their own villa, or their own bungalow. And the bungalows when i say they have a lot of units in them. It just works out well. And when my people came back, they took tours and went to different places. I wont mention places because youll have a list because theyre going to give a presentation on it fairly soon. They went to places all over the country and they came back and said this is where we want to be. We had military and secret Service People doing it. They understand what its about, not about me, its about getting the right location. Its very important. Boost your own brand . Not at all. Go ahead, jonathan. Thank you, mr. President , president macron said hed like to see talks between you and president rohani within weeks. Does that sound realistic to you . It does. Could you yourself in talks with iranians within weeks . I dont know the gentleman, i know him a little bit by watching the last couple years whats happened. Hes a great negotiator. But i think hes going to want to meet. I think iran wants to get this situation straightened out. Is that based on fact or based on gut, thats based on gut. But they want to get this situation straightened out,
jonathan. And theyre really hurting badly. Their inflation, as you know, because i saw your reporting on it, their inflation is through the roof. Their economy is tanked entirely. The sanctions are absolutely hurting them horribly. I dont want to see that. I dont want to see that. Theyre great people. I dont want to see that. But we cant let them have a nuclear weapon. Cant let it happen. So i think that theres a really good chance that we would meet. Jeff, please. Thank you, mr. President. Another followup from what the president of france said, there might be a need for compensation to iran. Would you, given all of the criticism youve made of the jcpoa and the money they got, be open to giving iran compensation. No. If it met the criteria . No. What hes talking in terms of compensation is they are out of money. And they may need a shortterm letter of credit or loan. No, were not paying. We dont pay. But they may need some money to get them over a very rough patch. If they do need money certainly and it would be secured by oil, which to me is great security, and they have a lot of oil. But its secured by oil so were really talking about a letter of credit type facility. From the u. S. Or from all the countries . It would be from numerous countries and it comes back. It would be it would expire, it would be paid