Tremendously. Tremendously. China would have super seeded us in two years as an economic power. Now theyre not even close. China got rid of their china 25. I find it insulting. I said that to them. I said china 25. That means in 2025 theyre going to take over economically the world. I said thats not happening. And were going way up. And theyve gone down. I dont want them to go down. Well have a good meeting, and were going to see what we can do. But i have to say this. Billions of dollars will soon be pouring into our treasury from taxes that china is paying for us, and if you speak to mr. Pills bury who probably is the leading authority on china, he was on the other day saying hes never seen anything like it. You know what hasnt . China hasnt. But were going to try to make a deal with china because i want to have great relationships with
president xi as i do and also with china. Reporter how do you see your role as a moral leader . Theres so many people. Im. Reporter as a moral leader, though . I think i am a great moral leader, and i love our country. Go ahead, please. Reporter thank you, sir. You said earlier in the Press Conference that democrats had a choice that you would not work with them on legislation if they were investigating you. Do you not have a choice in the matter as well . I think its very inappropriate. We should get along and get deals done. Now, we can investigate. They look at us. We look at them. It goes on for two years. At the end of two years nothing is done. Now, whats bad for them is being in the majority im just going to blame them. You understand. Im going to blame them. Theyre the majority. Honestly, it makes it simpler for me. They will be blamed, but i think nancy pelosi, and i put that
statement out on social media today about nancy pelosi and that shes short of votes because frankly i think she deserves it. I wasnt kidding. Shes been fighting for it. I mean this. There was nothing sarcastic about it. It was meant with very good intentions. I think she deserves it. Shes fought long and hard. Shes a very capable person. You have other people shooting at her trying to take over the speakership, and i said its appropriate, i said if we can and if we will, if she has a problem, i think i would be able to very easily supply her the necessary votes. Thats not said in any way other than i really believe she deserves that position. I also believe that nancy pelosi and i can Work Together and get a lot of things done along with mitch and everybody else that we have to work with. I think well get a lot done. Reporter mr. President , why cant you do that while
subpoenas are coming through . Excuse me . Reporter why cant you Work Together while there are investigations in process . I think we can. The election is over. Now everybody is in love. Then i see the hostility of questions in the room. I come in here as a nice person wanting to answer questions and i have people jumping out of their seats, screaming questions at me. No, the election is over. And im very i am extraordinarily happy. I really am. By the way, id tell you if i wasnt. Look at what happened in florida. Look at what happened in georgia. Look at what happened in so many locations with governorships. Nobody talks about the governorships. Look at the amount of work that was given to these other candidates against my candidate, and, i mean, im extraordinarily happy. If i wasnt, id let you know. Look, you look at midterms and look at elections generally. You see its very rare that a party who has the presidency
does well. We did unbelievably well. To win florida . Both the senate and the governorship against two very talented people . Ill tell you what. We did incredibly. To win georgia when you had some of the biggest stars in the world campaigning endlessly including president obama . You know, i tell you what. This was a great victory for us. And, again, from a dealmaking standpoint, we are all much better off the way it turned out. I really believe if the democrats want to, we can do a tremendous amount of great legislation. Yes, please, go ahead. Reporter mr. President should we keep this going for a little while . Yes. Reporter yes, i think you should keep this going. When you get bored, would you please tell me . Reporter youre never boring. I dont want toover stay. Please, go ahead. Reporter hello, mr. President. On the Campaign Trail you called yourself a nationalist. Some people saw that as emboldening White Nationalists. I dont know why youd say that. Its a racist question. Reporter some people say the Republican Party is seen as supporting White Nationalists because of your rhetoric. What do you make of that . I dont know. Why do i have my highest poll numbers ever with African Americans. Among the highest poll numbers with African Americans . I mean, why do i have my highest poll numbers . Thats such a racest question. Honestly, i mean, i know you have it written down and youre going to tell me. Let me tell you, its a racist question. I love the word is i love our country. I do. You have nationalists. You have globalists. I also love the world. And i dont mind helping the world, but we have to straighten out our country first. We have a lot of problems. But to say that, what you say is so insulting to me. Its a very terrible thing that you said. Reporter mr. President , mr. President , people have you talked about middle class tax
cuts on the Campaign Trail. How will you get democrats to support that policy . You have to ask them. Reporter whats your plan for working with democrats . My plan is ill ask them. And if they say yes, im for it. If they say no, theres nothing you can do because you need their votes. Reporter thank you, mr. President. You said many times on the Campaign Trail that you didnt want nancy pelosi or the speaker or suggested that. You talked about her and chuck schumer. Its not a question of want. Let me answer it. Would i have preferred winning by two or three or hour . I would almost have to think about that. But certainly i like to win. And if i win, shes not going to be speaker. Reporter what did she say to you yesterday that we had a great conversation. We had a warm conversation. She loves this country. Shes a very smart woman. Shes done a very good job. She was really i mean, shes
had. Reporter did she promise they didnt seek to impeach you . We didnt talk about impeaching. We didnt talk what do you do . Do you impeach somebody because he created the greatest economic success in the history of our country . Lets impeach him because the country is so successful. Has he done Anything Wrong . They asked somebody has he done Anything Wrong . No, but lets impeach him anyway. And they also said lets impeach justice kavanaugh. Lets impeach him. And now the second woman is coming out, and i hate to say this, but it was public. After him were going to impeach the vice president. Were going to impeach mike pence. Mike pence doesnt get impeached for anything. So lets impeach the president , and then well impeach the vice president. These people are sick. And you know what . They have to get their bearings. And when you ask about division, theyre the ones that cause the division. They cause tremendous division. Reporter okay, regarding all the retirements in the house, regarding all the retirements in the house, quickly, you suggested that who is retiring . Reporter you said many of the retirements that happened in the house made it difficult for you in this election cycle. And that it was because they were chairmanships that were vacated. But jeff flake wasnt and paul ryan retired. Why do you think that is . In jeff flakes case, its me. I retired him. Im very proud of it. I did the country a great service. Go ahead. Give him that. He is retired. Id like to call it another word, but well treat him with great respect. Reporter thank you, mr. President. Jeff flake, thats another beauty. Go ahead. Reporter two questions, please. One. One. Too many people. Sorry. Reporter all right. You seem to enjoy this venue very much. Are you going to make the Standard Press conference a staple of the remaining two
years . No. Reporter will you have more briefings with Sarah Huckabee sanders . I think sarah is fantastic. Shes so great. I think sarah, you represented me so well and been abused. Shes been horribly treated by a lot of people. Reporter so shes going to stay on as Press Secretary . It was interesting. We were talking about it the other day. I had a period where i thought i wouldnt do any real interviews. Theyll say why isnt he doing it . Then over the last couple of months i decided ill do a lot. Well stop at the helicopter. Well do this. And then they say why is he doing so many Press Conferences . Whats wrong . When i dont do them, you say whats wrong . When i do them, you say whats wrong . And when i go in the middle you say whats wrong . You know that. Okay. Good. No, excuse me. Well, you complained about access when i purposely just stayed away from the press for a
while because i wanted to see how it worked. And can i be honest . It didnt work well. Reporter mr. President , i didnt finish the question. So sarah will stay on as Press Secretary . Okay, please. Go ahead. No. Go ahead. Reporter first off, i personally think its very good to have you here because a free press. I do too. Actually, i do too. Earned media. Its worth billions. Reporter i have two questions for you if thats all right. Its a rare opportunity. First just a point of clarification on the tax returns issue. You brought up the audit. That doesnt prevent you from releasing them. I know. Sure. I didnt say it prevented me. I said lawyers will tell you not to do it. Whats your next question . Reporter well, just on that second one, Michael Cohen said you called black voters stupid. Thats false. Reporter omarosa has accused of you using the word and you
were accused of using the term little john. I dont use racist remarks. If i did, you people you would have known about it. Ive been hearing there are tapes for years and years. There are tapes. Number one, i never worried about it because i never did. I have never used racist remarks. Okay. Reporter one Point Of Fact because you told her you have biassed polls among African Americans. Its just 8 . When you talk about division, its people like this that cause division. Great division. Point of fact is that i never used a racist remark. Thats the Point Of Fact. Who are you from . Reporter im from yahoo news. Good. Good. I hope theyre doing well. Reporter first question where are you from . Reporter lebanon. Yes. Reporter thank you. Were happy to have this opportunity. Mr. President erdogan said hes
not going to follow your sanctions and hes going to keep buying oil who said that . Reporter president ered wan. Turkey. I know. I just cant understand. Reporter youre going to meet him soon. Youre going to have this talk. And some countries are going to take the same steps preside president erpresident erdogan is doing. We imposed the toughest sanctions in the history of our country just about. I guess north korea is there too. But i gave some countries a break on the oil. I did it a little bit because they really asked for some help. But i really did it because i dont want to drive oil prices up to 100 a barrel or 150 a barrel because im driving them down. If you look at oil prices, theyve come down over the last couple of months because of me. Because you have a monopoly called opec. Wait. And i dont like that monopoly. I dont like it. And oil prices are coming down. So rather than deciding to be as tough as i am on most of the sanctions, what ive done is i said were not going to do it that way. Were going to let some of the oil go out to the countries that need it. Because i dont want to drive the oil prices up to 100 or 150 a barrel. It could happen easily. Its a fragile market. I know it very well. And its the absolutely right decision. Theyll get tougher as time goes by. Maybe. But i dont want to have any effect on the oil prices worldwide where i drive them up. I consider that to be a tax. I dont like taxes. Reporter the Peace Process is over. Who . Congratulations to jon tester. Congratulations. Im sure youre very unhappy about that. Go ahead. Reporter mr. President , can you address the ill take a couple more and well go. Reporter can you address
concerns in places like georgia where people waited in line to vote for hours where Voting Machines werent working in certain districts, and you think thats the reason the candidate lost . Reporter there are concerns being raised. I wasnt involved in georgia other than i love the state. Reporter as president of the United States, are you concerned about the access people are having to voting . I heard it was very efficient in georgia. But, again, youd have to ask the state governments. One of those things youre going to have to ask them. Go ahead, please. Reporter thank you, mr. President. You expressed some concerns about social Media Companies unfairly censoring conservatives during the election. Do you anticipate working with democrats to regulate the companies or are you satisfied . I would look at that. I think its a serious problem. At the same time you start getting into speech. Its a dangerous problem. That could be the beginning. So its very dangerous. Believe it or not, im one that really likes free speech. A lot of people dont understand that. But i am a big believer. When you start regulating a lot of bad things can happen. But i would certainly talk to the democrats if they want to do that. And i think they do want to do that. Yes, sir. Reporter former president barack obama famously said he had a pen and a phone to use Executive Power on issues like immigration. Do you see yourself using Executive Power to get some of your Immigration Agenda done . I do. I do. I think that some of it i can use Executive Power on some. Not all. But he certainly used it. He used it on daca. He said something to the effect im not allowed to do it. It will never hold up. Im doing it anyway. He did it and they found judges that approved it. We also found judges that didnt
approve it. Its going to be determined in the Supreme Court. And if the court rules in favor of what president obama thinks they should rule, which is what he said, then i will probably have a deal with the democrats in a very short period of time. We were very close to having a deal until we got that strange ruling. You also made some promises about immigration during the campaign. I want to know if youre going to follow through with them. Which one . Reporter birthright dealership. Were looking at it seriously. I believe we have the right. Thats another case that will be determined by the Supreme Court of the United States. Reporter you going to send 15,000 troops of the boarder . Youve been reading the time documents as i have. You know exactly what im doing. You know exactly what im doing. Whats your next question . Reporter on the khashoggi matter. A sad, terrible thing. Reporter do you think saudi arabia is guilty of having him murdered . Ill have a stronger opinion on the next couple weeks. Im working with congress, with some talented people. Were working with congress and turkey and saudi arabia and im forming a strong opinion. Go ahead, john. Reporter just a quick followup. You said something about nancy pelosi. You said she loves our country. Do you regret some of the things you said during the campaign . No. Reporter at various times you said democrats want to destroy our current. I believe that. With their current policy, its a Wrecking Ball on our country. This would be a Wrecking Ball. But i think theres a compromise somewhere, and i think that can be good for our country. Okay, how about one more . Reporter do you regret the ad that you did that was branded as a racist ad and even fox and nbc wouldnt air it . Do i regret it . Im surprised you asked that question. I do not. One more. Reporter thank you, sir. I think wed all love to have more of these if youre willing. In 2017 shortly after you took office your Homeland Security office shuddered a grown to and related terrorist groups. Domestic terrorist groups. And redirected that funding toward fighting islamic terrorism. Do you believe that White Supremacist terrorists, right wing terrorists, these home grown terrorists on that side of the spectrum are a problem, sir . And yeah, i do. I do believe thats a problem. I believe all hate is a problem. But i do believe that is a problem. Reporter what are you going to do about it . Its a problem we want to solve. Reporter sir, what are you going to do about it . Cut off the funding. We have given funding for that. A lot of funding. I believe its a problem. And can i tell you what . Its a problem that i dont like even a little bit. Go ahead. Reporter youve said pretend im on the ballot yesterday. You called it a referendum on your presidency. Many local districts across the country rejected your midterm message, particularly suburban women. How do you bridge that divide now . Also with the influx of women coming into congress . I think i was well received. Look at the results. Midterm elections are disasters for sitting president s and administrations. This has been a very successful look, you can write it any way you want. And if you disagree with me, this has been an incredibly successful one. When you look at the races. How about ohio . I didnt even mention. I mentioned florida. I mentioned georgia. How about the governor of ohio . Reporter but whats your response to suburban women voters . Excuse me. A fantastic man down in the polls. Everybody was talk act this person who was so great. I went up there and did a rally,
and they have now a great governor. Youre going to have a great governor in ohio for hopefully