US-president elect Donald Trump had his first press
conference - the first time he took questions from reporters
since July, today... and it was mostly a disaster, according to
some US media outfits. Read the full transcript after the cut
courtesy NYTimes.com
OK, questions? Yes, John (ph)?
Q UESTION: (Inaudible) so much.
TRUMP: Thank you.
Q UESTION: Appreciate it.
A couple of aspects of the intelligence briefing that you
received on Friday that we’re looking for further clarification
on.
TRUMP: Sure.
Q UESTION: First of all, did the heads of the intelligence
agencies provide you with the two-page summary of these
unsubstantiated allegations? And secondly to that, on the
broader picture, do you accept their opinion that Vladimir
Putin ordered the hack of the DNC and the attempted hack of
the RNC?
And if you do, how will that color your attempts to build a
relationship with a leader who has been accused of
committing an act of espionage against the United States?
TRUMP: OK, first of all, these readings as you know are
confidential, classified. So, I’m not allowed to talk about what
went on in a meeting.
And — but we had many witnesses in that meeting, many of
them with us. And I will say, again, I think it’s a disgrace that
information would be let out.
I saw the information; I read the information outside of that
meeting. It’s all fake news. It’s phony stuff. It didn’t happen.
And it was gotten by opponents of ours, as you know,
because you reported it and so did many of the other people.
It was a group of opponents that got together — sick people
— and they put that crap together.
So, I will tell you that not within the meeting, but outside of
the meeting, somebody released it. It should have never been
— number one, shouldn’t have even entered paper. But it
should have never have been released. But I read what was
released and I think it’s a disgrace. I think it’s an absolute
disgrace.
As far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also get
hacked by other countries and other people. And I — I can
say that you know when — when we lost 22 million names
and everything else that was hacked recently, they didn’t
make a big deal out of that. That was something that was
extraordinary. That was probably China.
We had — we had much hacking going on. And one of the
things we’re gonna do, we have some of the greatest
computer minds anywhere in the world that we’ve assembled.
You saw just a sample of it two weeks ago up here where we
had the six top people in the world — they were never in the
same room together as a group. And we’re gonna put those
minds together and we’re going to form a defense.
TRUMP: And I have to say this also, the Democratic National
Committee was totally open to be hacked. They did a very
poor job. They could’ve had hacking defense, which we had.
And I will give Reince Priebus credit, because when Reince
saw what was happening in the world and with this country,
he went out and went to various firms and ordered a very,
very strong hacking defense.
And they tried to hack the Republican National Committee
and they were unable to break through.
We have to do that for our country. It’s very important.
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: ... just to the last part of that question (inaudible)
how could all of this potentially color your attempts to build a
better relationship with President Putin?
TRUMP: Well, you know, President Putin and Russia put out a
statement today that this fake news was indeed fake news.
They said it totally never happened.
Now, somebody would say, “Oh, of course he’s gonna say
that.”
I respected the fact that he said that.
And I — I’ll be honest, I think if he did have something, they
would’ve released it; they would’ve been glad to release it.
I think, frankly, had they broken into the Republican National
Committee, I think they would’ve released it just like they did
about Hillary and all of the horrible things that her people, like
Mr. Podesta, said about her. I mean what he said about her
was horrible.
If somebody said about me, what Podesta said about Hillary,
I was the boss, I would’ve fired him immediately or that
person. Because what he said about her was horrible.
But remember this: We talk about the hacking and hacking’s
bad and it shouldn’t be done. But look at the things that were
hacked, look at what was learned from that hacking.
That Hillary Clinton got the questions to the debate and didn’t
report it? That’s a horrible thing. That’s a horrible thing.
Can you imagine that if Donald Trump got the questions to
the debate — it would’ve been the biggest story in the history
of stories. And they would’ve said immediately, “You have to
get out of the race.” Nobody even talked about it. It’s a very
terrible thing.
Yeah?
Q UESTION: Can I ask you a question, sir?
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-elect.
On that intelligence report, the second part of their conclusion
was that Vladimir Putin ordered it because he aspired to help
you in the election.
Do you accept that part of the finding? And will you undo
what President Obama did to punish the Russians for this or
will you keep it in place?
TRUMP: Well, if — if Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that
an asset, not a liability, because we have a horrible
relationship with Russia. Russia can help us fight ISIS, which,
by the way, is, number one, tricky. I mean if you look, this
administration created ISIS by leaving at the wrong time. The
void was created, ISIS was formed.
If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks? That’s called
an asset, not a liability.
Now, I don’t know that I’m gonna get along with Vladimir
Putin. I hope I do. But there’s a good chance I won’t. And if I
don’t, do you honestly believe that Hillary would be tougher
on Putin than me? Does anybody in this room really believe
that? Give me a break.
OK?
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: ... President Obama...
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: ... make clear whether during your visits to either
Moscow or St. Petersburg, you engaged in conduct that you
now regret and that a reasonable...
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: Would a reasonable observer say that you are
potentially vulnerable to blackmail by Russia or by its
intelligence agencies?
TRUMP: Lemme just tell you what I do.
When I leave our country, I’m a very high-profile person,
would you say?
I am extremely careful. I’m surrounded by bodyguards. I’m
surrounded by people.
And I always tell them — anywhere, but I always tell them if
I’m leaving this country, “Be very careful, because in your
hotel rooms and no matter where you go, you’re gonna
probably have cameras.” I’m not referring just to Russia, but I
would certainly put them in that category.
And number one, “I hope you’re gonna be good anyway. But
in those rooms, you have cameras in the strangest places.
Cameras that are so small with modern technology, you can’t
see them and you won’t know. You better be careful, or you’ll
be watching yourself on nightly television.”
I tell this to people all the time.
I was in Russia years ago, with the Miss Universe contest,
which did very well — Moscow, the Moscow area did very,
very well.
And I told many people, “Be careful, because you don’t wanna
see yourself on television. Cameras all over the place.”
And again, not just Russia, all over.
Does anyone really believe that story?
I’m also very much of a germaphobe, by the way, believe me.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: ... how you plan to disentangle yourself from your
business. But first, I have to follow-up on some of these
Russian remarks.
Based on your comments here today, do you believe the
hacking was justified? Does Russia have any leverage over
you, financial or otherwise? And if not, will you release your
tax returns to prove it?
TRUMP: So I tweeted out that I have no dealings with Russia.
I have no deals that could happen in Russia, because we’ve
stayed away. And I have no loans with Russia.
As a real estate developer, I have very, very little debt. I have
assets that are — and now people have found out how big the
company is, I have very little debt — I have very low debt. But
I have no loans with Russia at all.
And I thought that was important to put out. I certified that.
So I have no deals, I have no loans and I have no dealings.
We could make deals in Russia very easily if we wanted to, I
just don’t want to because I think that would be a conflict. So
I have no loans, no dealings, and no current pending deals.
Now, I have to say one other thing. Over the weekend, I was
offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai with a very, very, very
amazing man, a great, great developer from the Middle East,
Hussein Damack, a friend of mine, great guy. And I was
offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai — a number of deals
and I turned it down.
I didn’t have to turn it down, because as you know, I have a
no-conflict situation because I’m president, which is — I
didn’t know about that until about three months ago, but it’s
a nice thing to have. But I don’t want to take advantage of
something. I have something that others don’t have, Vice
President Pence also has it. I don’t think he’ll need it, I have a
feeling he’s not going to need it.
But I have a no conflict of interest provision as president. It
was many, many years old, this is for presidents. Because
they don’t want presidents getting — I understand they don’t
want presidents getting tangled up in minutia; they want a
president to run the country. So I could actually run my
business, I could actually run my business and run
government at the same time.
I don’t like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if
I wanted to. I would be the only one to be able to do that. You
can’t do that in any other capacity. But as president, I could
run the Trump organization, great, great company, and I could
run the company — the country. I’d do a very good job, but I
don’t want to do that.
Now, all of these papers that you see here — yes, go ahead.
Q UESTION: (inaudible) do you believe the hacking was
justified? And will you release your tax returns to prove what
you’re saying about no deals in Russia?
TRUMP: I’m not releasing the tax returns because as you
know, they’re under audit.
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: ... since the ’70’s has had a required audit from
the IRS, the last place to release them, but as president sir...
TRUMP: You know, the only one that cares about my tax
returns are the reporters, OK? They’re the only who ask.
Q UESTION: You don’t think the American public is concerned
about it?
TRUMP: No I don’t think so. I won, when I became president.
No, I don’t think they care at all. I don’t think they care at all.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I think you care — I think you care. First of all, you
learn very little to a tax return. What you should go down to
federal elections and take a look at the numbers. And
actually, people have learned a lot about my company and
now they realize, my company is much bigger, much more
powerful than they ever thought. We’re in many, many
countries, and I’m very proud of it.
And what I’m going to be doing is my two sons, who are right
here, Don and Eric, are going to be running the company.
They are going to be running it in a very professional manner.
They’re not going to discuss it with me. Again, I don’t have to
do this. They’re not going to discuss it with me. And with
that, I’m going to bring up Sheri Dillon, and she’s going to go
— these papers are just some of the many documents that
I’ve signed turning over complete and total control to my
sons.
(CROSSTALK)
DILLON: Good morning. It’s my honor and privilege to be here
today at President-elect Trump’s request.
He’s asked me, as you just heard, to speak about the
conflicts of interest and the steps he’s taking. As you know,
the business empire built by President-elect Trump over the
years is massive, not dissimilar to the fortunes of Nelson
Rockefeller when he became vice president. But at that time,
no one was so concerned.
President-elect Trump wants the American public to rest
assured that all of his efforts are directed to pursuing the
people’s business and not his own. To that end, as he
explained a few moments ago, he directed me and my
colleagues at the law firm Morgan Lewis and Bockius to
design a structure for his business empire that will completely
isolate him from the management of the company.
He further instructed that we build in protections that will
assure the American people the decisions he makes and the
actions that he takes as president are for their benefit and not
to support his financial interests.
DILLON: As he said, he’s voluntarily taking this on. The
conflicts of interest laws simply do not apply to the president
or the vice president and they are not required to separate
themselves from their financial assets. The primary conflicts
of interest statutes and some have questioned it, is Section
18 USC 208 and it’s simply inapplicable by its terms. And this
is not just our interpretation. It’s Congress itself who have
made this clear in 1989 when it amended Section 18 USC 202
to state that, except as otherwise provided, the terms office
and employee in section 208 shall not include the president.
Even so, President-elect Trump wants there to be no doubt in
the minds of the American public that he is completely
isolating himself from his business interests. He instructed us
to take all steps realistically possible to make it clear that he
is not exploiting the office of the presidency for his personal
benefit. He also sought the guidance of individuals who are
familiar with and have worked extensively in the fields of
government ethics and constitutional law.
Critical to the Morgan Lewis team is Fred Fielding, standing
here to our side and with us today and many of you have
known him. He has served several presidents over the years
including serving as counsel to Presidents Ronald Reagan and
George W. Bush as well as serving on President George H.W.
Bush’s Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform and he
also held the position of vice chair of the Ethics Resource
Center.
Mr. Fielding has been extensively involved with and approved
this plan. He’s here today to support the plan and he will
continue to provide guidance as the plan is implemented and
as Eric, Don, along with others, take over management of the
Trump organization.
I’m gonna detail some of the extraordinary steps now that the
president-elect is taking. First, President-elect Trump’s
investments and business assets commonly known as the —
as the Trump Organization, comprising hundreds of entities
which, again, if you all go and take a look at his financial
disclosure statement, the pages and pages and pages of
entities have all been or will be conveyed to a trust prior to
January 20th. Here is just some of the paperwork that’s taking
care of those actions.
Second, through the trust agreement, he has relinquished
leadership and management of the Trump Organization to his
sons Don and Eric and a longtime Trump executive, Allen
Weisselberg. Together, Don, Eric and Allen will have the
authority to manage the Trump Organization and will make
decisions for the duration of the presidency without any
involvement whatsoever by President-elect Trump.
Further, at the president-elect’s direction, the trust agreement
provides — that to ensure the Trump Organization continues
to operate in accordance with the highest and legal ethics
standards, an ethics adviser will be appointed to the
management team. The written approval of the ethics adviser
will be required for new deals, actions, and transactions that
could potentially raise ethics or conflicts of interest concerns.
President-elect Trump as well as Don, Eric and Allen are
committed to ensuring that the activities of the Trump
organization are beyond reproach and cannot be perceived to
be exploitive of the office of the presidency. President-elect
Trump will resign from all officer and other positions he holds
with the Trump Organization entities.
Further, in addition, his daughter Ivanka will have no further
involvement with or management authority whatsoever with
the Trump Organization. As she and Jared move their family
to D.C., Ivanka will focused on settling her children into their
new homes and their new schools.
The president-elect has also already disposed of all of his
investments in publicly traded or easily liquidated
investments. As a result, the trust will have two types of
assets; first, it will hold liquid assets. Cash, cash equivalents
and treasuries and perhaps some positions in a government
approved diversified portfolio, one that is consistent with the
regulations from the Office of Government Ethics.
Second, the trust is going to hold his preexisting illiquid, but
very valuable business assets, the ones that everyone here is
familiar with. Trump owned, operated and branded golf clubs,
commercial rental property, resorts, hotels, rights to royalties
from preexisting licenses of Trump-Marks Productions and
Goods. Things like Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, all of his other
business assets, 40 Wall Street will all be in the trust.
Through instructions in the trust agreement, President-elect
trust — President-elect Trump first ordered that all pending
deals be terminated. This impacted more than 30 deals, many
of which were set to close by the end of 2016. As you can
well imagine, that caused an immediate financial loss of
millions of dollars, not just for President-elect Trump, but also
for Don, Ivanka and Eric.
DILLON: The trust agreement as directed by President Trump
imposes severe restrictions on new deals. No new foreign
deals will be made whatsoever during the duration of
President Trump’s presidency. New domestic deals will be
allowed, but they will go through a vigorous vetting process.
The president-elect will have no role in deciding whether the
Trump Organization engages in any new deal and he will only
know of a deal if he reads it in the paper or sees it on TV.
Because any new deal could — and I emphasize could — be
perceived as causing a conflict or as exploiting the office of
the presidency, new deals must be vetted with the ethics
adviser, whose role will be to analyze any potential
transactions for conflicts and ethics issues.
The ethics adviser will be a recognized expert in the field of
government experts. Again, his role will be to scrutinize the
new deals and the actions, and any new deal must receive
written approval.
To further reinforce the wall that we are building between
President-elect Trump and the Trump Organization, President-
elect Trump has ordered, through his trust agreement, to
sharply limit his information rights. Reports will only be
available and reflect profit and loss on the company as a
whole. There will be no separate business by business
accounting.
Another step that President-elect Trump has taken is he
created a new position at the Trump Organization; the
position of chief compliance counsel, whose responsibility
will be to ensure that the Trump businesses, again, are
operating at the highest levels of integrity and not taking any
actions that could be perceived as exploiting the office of the
presidency.
He has also directed that no communications of the Trump
Organization, including social media accounts, will reference
or be tied to President-elect Trump’s role as president of the
United States or the office of the presidency.
In sum, all of these actions — complete relinquishment of
management, no foreign deals, ethics adviser approval of
deals, sharply limited information rights — will sever
President-elect Trump’s presidency from the Trump
Organization.
Some have asked questions. Why not divest? Why not just sell
everything? Form of blind trust. And I’d like to turn to
addressing some of those questions now.
Selling, first and foremost, would not eliminate possibilities of
conflicts of interest. In fact, it would exacerbate them. The
Trump brand is key to the value of the Trump Organization’s
assets. If President-elect Trump sold his brand, he would be
entitled to royalties for the use of it, and this would result in
the trust retaining an interest in the brand without the ability
to assure that it does not exploit the office of the presidency.
Further, whatever price was paid would be subject to criticism
and scrutiny. Was it too high, is there pay for play, was it too
much pay to curry favor with the president-elect. And selling
his assets without the rights to the brand would greatly
diminish the value of the assets and create a fire sale.
President-elect Trump should not be expected to destroy the
company he built. This plan offers a suitable alternative to
address the concerns of the American people, and selling the
entire Trump Organization isn’t even feasible.
Some people have suggested that the president-elect sell the
business to his adult children. This would require massive
third-party debt sourced with multiple lenders, whose motives
and willingness to participate would be questioned and
undoubtedly investigated. And if the president-elect were to
finance the sale himself, he would retain the financial
interests in the assets that he owns now.
Some people have suggested that the Trump — that
President-elect Trump could bundle the assets and turn the
Trump Organization into a public company. Anyone who has
ever gone through this extraordinarily cumbersome and
complicated process knows that it is a non-starter. It is not
realistic and it would be inappropriate for the Trump
Organization.
Some people have suggested a blind trust, but you cannot
have a totally blind trust with operating businesses. President
Trump can’t unknow he owns Trump Tower and the press will
make sure that any new developments at the Trump
Organization are well publicized.DILLON: Further, it would be
impossible to find an institutional trustee that would be
competent to run the Trump Organization. The approach that
he is taking allows Don and Eric to preserve this great
company and its iconic assets. And this approach is best
from a conflicts and ethics perspective. It creates a complete
separation from President-elect Trump — it separates him
and prevents him from participating in the business and
poses strict limits on what the trustees can do and requires
the assent of any ethics adviser to a new deal.
I’m going to turn to one last topic today that has been of
interest lately called emoluments. That’s a word I think we’ve
all become familiar with and perhaps had not heard before.
And we’re gonna describe some other actions that President-
elect Trump is taking to avoid even the appearance of a
conflict.
Emoluments comes from the Constitution. The Constitution
says “officials may not accept gifts, titles of nobility, or
emoluments from foreign governments with respect to their
office, and that no benefit should be derived by holding in
office.”
The so-called Emoluments Clause has never been interpreted,
however, to apply to fair value exchanges that have absolutely
nothing to do with an office holder.
No one would have thought when the Constitution was
written that paying your hotel bill was an emolument. Instead,
it would have been thought of as a value-for-value exchange;
not a gift, not a title, and not an emolument.
But since President-elect Trump has been elected, some
people want to define emoluments to cover routine business
transactions like paying for hotel rooms. They suggest that the
Constitution prohibits the businesses from even arm’s-length
transactions that the president-elect has absolutely nothing to
do with and isn’t even aware of.
These people are wrong. This is not what the Constitution
says. Paying for a hotel room is not a gift or a present and it
has nothing to do with an office. It’s not an emolument.
The Constitution does not require President-elect Trump to
do anything here. But, just like with conflicts of interests, he
wants to do more than what the Constitution requires.
So, President-elect Trump has decided, and we are
announcing today, that he is going to voluntarily donate all
profits from foreign government payments made to his hotel
to the United States Treasury. This way, it is the American
people who will profit.
In sum, I and president-elect’s (sic) other advisers at Morgan
Lewis have determined the approach we’ve outlined today
will avoid potential conflicts of interests or concerns
regarding exploitation of the office of the presidency without
imposing unnecessary and unreasonable loses on the
president-elect and his family.
We believe this structure and these steps will serve to
accomplish the president-elect’s desire to be isolated from
his business interests and give the American people
confidence that his sole business and interest is in making
America great again, bringing back jobs to this country,
securing our borders and rebuilding our infrastructure.
The American people were well — well aware of President-
elect Trump’s business empire and financial interests when
they voted. Many people voted for him precisely because of
his business success.
President-elect Trump wants to bring this success to all
Americans. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROSSTALK)
DILLON: You’re welcome. My pleasure. Yes (ph). Don’t want
to lose your note. Thank you.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Here you go, you (ph).
DILLON: Thank you.
Q UESTION: Mr. Trump? Thank you. Mr. Trump, (inaudible)
from America News.
What is your response to your critics that say not only you, but
also your Cabinet is filled with conflicts of interest?
And do you plan to set an example in the future to make sure
that your — your Cabinet and everyone throughout your
administration...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I — I really think that when you watch what’s going
on with what’s happening in — I was just watching, as an
example, Rex Tillerson. I think it’s brilliant what he’s doing
and what he’s saying.
I watched yesterday, as you know, our great senator, who is
going to be a great attorney general. And he was brilliant. And
what people don’t know is that he was a great prosecutor and
attorney general in Alabama. And he was brilliant yesterday.
So, I really think that they are — I think we have one of the
great Cabinets ever put together. And we’ve been hearing that
from so many people. People are so happy.
You know, in the case of Rex, he ran incredibly Exxon Mobil.
When there was a find, he would get it. When they needed
something, he would be there.
A friend of mine who’s very, very substantial in the oil
business, Harold Hamm — big supporter — he said there’s
nobody in the business like Rex Tillerson.
And that’s what we want. That’s what I want to bring to
government.
I want to bring the greatest people into government, because
we’re way behind. We don’t make good deals any more. I say
it all the time in speeches. We don’t make good deals
anymore; we make bad deals. Our trade deals are a
disaster.TRUMP: We have hundreds of billions of dollars of
losses on a yearly basis — hundreds of billions with China on
trade and trade imbalance, with Japan, with Mexico, with just
about everybody. We don’t make good deals anymore.
So we need people that are smart, we need people that are
successful and they got successful because generally
speaking, they’re smart. And that’s what I’d put, I’m very
proud of the Cabinet, I think they’re doing very well.
It’s very interesting how it’s going, but it’s — I think they’re
doing very, very well.
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: ... a quick follow-up on — on Russia, sir.
Q UESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-elect. I wanted to ask a
few questions on Obamacare?
TRUMP: Yeah.
Q UESTION: Can you be specific on what guidance you’re
giving congressional Republicans on the timeline for repeal
and replace, whether it needs to be simultaneous or...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Finally, Obamacare, I thought it was never gonna be
asked.
Q UESTION: (OFF-MIKE) though if you have outlined a plan for
what you want the replace package to look like, would it
guarantee coverage for those who have gotten health
insurance through the current Obamacare law?
TRUMP: You’re gonna be very, very proud, as not only the
media and reporters, you’re gonna be very proud of what we
put forth having to do with health care. Obamacare is a
complete and total disaster.
They can say what they want, they can guide you anyway they
wanna guide you. In some cases, they guide you incorrectly.
In most cases, you realize what’s happened, it’s imploding as
we sit.
Some states have over a hundred percent increase and ’17
and I said this two years ago, ’17 is going to be the bad year.
It’s going to be catastrophic. Frankly, we could sit back and it
was a thought from a political standpoint, but it wouldn’t be
fair to the people.
We could sit back and wait and watch and criticize and we
could be a Chuck Schumer and sit back and criticize it and
people would come, they would come, begging to us please,
we have to do something about Obamacare. We don’t wanna
own it, we don’t wanna own it politically. They own it right
now.
So the easiest thing would be to let it implode in ’17 and
believe me, we’d get pretty much whatever we wanted, but it
would take a long time. We’re going to be submitting, as soon
as our secretary’s approved, almost simultaneously, shortly
thereafter, a plan.
It’ll be repeal and replace. It will be essentially,
simultaneously. It will be various segments, you understand,
but will most likely be on the same day or the same week,
but probably, the same day, could be the same hour.
So we’re gonna do repeal and replace, very complicated stuff.
And we’re gonna get a health bill passed, we’re gonna get
health care taken care of in this country. You have
deductibles that are so high, that after people go broke paying
their premiums which are going through the roof, the health
care can’t even be used by them because their deductibles
bills are so high.
Obamacare is the Democrats problem. We are gonna take the
problem off the shelves for them. We’re doing them a
tremendous service by doing it. We could sit back and let
them hang with it. We are doing the Democrats a great
service.
So as soon as our secretary is approved and gets into the
office, we’ll be filing a plan. And it was actually, pretty
accurately reported today, The New York Times. And the plan
will be repeal and replace Obamacare.
We’re going to have a health care that is far less expensive
and far better. OK.
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: President-elect, can we just ask you — sir, sir...
Q UESTION: President-elect Trump...
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: Mr. President — which one?
TRUMP: I was going right here.
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: President-elect Trump, Jon Steinberg (ph) from
Cheddar. When you look at all the meetings that you’ve had
with Carrier, SoftBank and Alibaba, do you conceive of
making this a program, maybe sitting inside of commerce?
And then my follow-up question to that, is how soon will we
see the program on capital repatriation and corporate tax
cuts?
TRUMP: Well, if I can save jobs, for instance I was doing
individual companies and people said well, that’s only one
company, like we did a good job with Carrier. And I wanna
thank United Technologies which owns Carrier, but we saved
close to a thousand jobs.
And they were gone and Mike Pence and his staff really
helped us, a lot. But those were — that was a tough one
because they announced a year and a half before that they
were leaving so it’s always tough when they’re building a plan,
just a little tougher than before they start or before they make
an announcement.TRUMP: So I wanna thank United
Technologies. But we’ve been meeting with a lot of
companies. But what really is happening, is the word is now
out, that when you want to move your plant to Mexico or
some other place, and you want to fire all of your workers
from Michigan and Ohio and all these places that I won, for
good reason, it’s not going to happen that way anymore.
You want to move your plant and you think, as an example,
you’re going to build that plant in Mexico and you’re going to
make your air conditioners or your cars or whatever you’re
making, and you’re going to sell it through what will be a very,
very strong border — not a weak border like it is — we don’t
even have a border. It’s an open sieve.
But you’re going to sell through a very strong border — not
going to happen. You’re going to pay a very large border tax.
So if you want to move to another country and if you want to
fire all of our great American workers that got you there in the
first place, you can move from Michigan to Tennessee and to
North Carolina and South Carolina. You can move from South
Carolina back to Michigan.
You can do anywhere — you’ve got a lot of states at play; a
lot of competition. So it’s not like, oh, gee, I’m taking the
competition away. You’ve got a lot of places you can move.
And I don’t care, as along as it’s within the United States, the
borders of the United States.
There will be a major border tax on these companies that are
leaving and getting away with murder. And if our politicians
had what it takes, they would have done this years ago. And
you’d have millions more workers right now in the United
States that are — 96 million really wanting a job and they
can’t get. You know that story. The real number — that’s the
real number.
So, that’s the way it is. OK. Go ahead.
Q UESTION: President-elect, I have a question about the
Supreme Court and border security. But I also wanted to ask
you about something you said on Twitter this morning. Are we
living in Nazi Germany? What were you driving at there? Do
you have a problem with the intelligence community?
And on the Supreme Court, what’s your timeline? You said a
while ago you were down to four. Have you conducted those
interviews yet? What’s your timeline for nominating?
And on the border fence, it now appears clear U.S. taxpayers
will have to pay for it up front. What is your plan to...
TRUMP: That’s not clear at all. OK.
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: ... to get Mexico to pay for it?
TRUMP: I’ve got it. Do you have any more?
(LAUGHTER)
On the fence — it’s not a fence. It’s a wall. You just
misreported it. We’re going to build a wall. I could wait about
a year-and-a-half until we finish our negotiations with Mexico,
which will start immediately after we get to office, but I don’t
want to wait. Mike Pence is leading an effort to get final
approvals through various agencies and through Congress for
the wall to begin.
I don’t feel like waiting a year or a year-and-a-half. We’re
going to start building. Mexico in some form, and there are
many different forms, will reimburse us and they will
reimburse us for the cost of the wall. That will happen,
whether it’s a tax or whether it’s a payment — probably less
likely that it’s a payment. But it will happen.
So, remember this, OK? I would say we are going to build a
wall and people would go crazy. I would then say, who is
going to pay for the wall? And people would all scream out —
25,000, 30,000 people, because nobody has ever had crowds
like Trump has had. You know that. You don’t like to report
that, but that’s OK.
OK, now he agrees. Finally, he agrees.
But I say who is going to pay for the wall? And they will
scream out, “Mexico.”
Now, reports went out last week — oh, Mexico is not going to
pay for the wall because of a reimbursement. What’s the
difference? I want to get the wall started. I don’t want to wait
a year-and-a-half until I make my deal with Mexico. And we
probably will have a deal sooner than that.
And by the way, Mexico has been so nice, so nice. I respect
the government of Mexico. I respect the people of Mexico. I
love the people of Mexico. I have many people from Mexico
working for me. They’re phenomenal people.
The government of Mexico is terrific. I don’t blame them for
what’s happened. I don’t blame them for taking advantage of
the United States. I wish our politicians were so smart.
Mexico has taken advantage of the United States. I don’t
blame the representatives and various presidents, et cetera,
of Mexico. What I say is we shouldn’t have allowed that to
happen. It’s not going to happen anymore.
So, in order to get the wall started, Mexico will pay for the
wall, but it will be reimbursed. OK?
Supreme Court judge. So, as you know, I have a list of 20.
I’ve gone through them. We’ve met with numerous
candidates. They’re outstanding in every case. They were
largely recommended and highly recommended by Federalist
Society. Jim DeMint was also very much involved, and his
group, which is fantastic, and he’s a fantastic guy.TRUMP: So
between Leo and Jim DeMint and some senators and some
congresspeople, we have a great group of people. I’ll be
making the decision on who we will put up for justice of the
United States Supreme Court, a replacement for the great,
great Justice Scalia. That will be probably within two weeks
of the 20th. So within about two weeks, probably the second
week. I consider the first day because we’ll also be doing
some — some pretty good signings and I think what we’ll do
is we’ll wait until Monday.
That will be our really first business day as opposed to doing
it on Friday, because on Friday, people are going to have a
very good time at the inauguration, and then Saturday, as you
know, we’re having a big church service and lots of good
things are happening. So our first day — and you’ll all be
invited to the signings, but we’ll be doing some pretty good
signings on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and
Thursday and Friday, and then also the next week. And you’re
all invited.
But on the Supreme Court, I’ll be making that decision, and it
will be a decision which I very strongly believe in. I think it’s
one of the reasons I got elected. I think the people of this
country did not want to see what was happening with the
Supreme Court, so I think it was a very, very big decision as
to why I was elected.
Q UESTION: The tweet that you had this morning about are we
living in Nazi Germany, what were you driving at there? What
are you trying to tell the American public?
TRUMP: I think it was disgraceful — disgraceful that the
intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out
to be so false and fake out. I think it’s a disgrace, and I say
that — and I say that, and that’s something that Nazi Germany
would have done and did do. I think it’s a disgrace that
information that was false and fake and never happened got
released to the public.
As far as Buzzfeed, which is a failing pile of garbage, writing
it, I think they’re going to suffer the consequences. They
already are. And as far as CNN going out of their way to build
it up — and by the way, we just found out I was coming down.
Michael Cohen — I was being — Michael Cohen is a very
talented lawyer. He’s a good lawyer in my firm. It was just
reported that it wasn’t this Michael Cohen they we’re talking
about. So all night long it’s Michael Cohen.
I said, “I want to see your passport.” He brings his passport to
my office. I say, hey, wait a minute. He didn’t leave the
country. He wasn’t out of the country. They had Michael
Cohen of the Trump Organization was in Prague. It turned out
to be a different Michael Cohen. It’s a disgrace what took
place. It’s a disgrace and I think they ought to apologize to
start with Michael Cohen.
Q UESTION: Since you’re attacking us, can you give us a
question? Mr. President-elect —
TRUMP: Go ahead.
Q UESTION: Mr. President-elect, since you are attacking our
news organization...
TRUMP: Not you.
Q UESTION: Can you give us a chance?
TRUMP: Your organization is terrible.
Q UESTION: You are attacking our news organization, can you
give us a chance to ask a question, sir? Sir, can you...
TRUMP: Quiet.
Q UESTION: Mr. President-elect, can you say...
TRUMP: He’s asking a question, don’t be rude. Don’t be rude.
Q UESTION: Can you give us a question since you’re attacking
us? Can you give us a question?
TRUMP: Don’t be rude. No, I’m not going to give you a
question. I’m not going to give you a question.
Q UESTION: Can you state...
TRUMP: You are fake news. Go ahead.
Q UESTION: Sir, can you state categorically that nobody — no,
Mr. President-elect, that’s not appropriate.
TRUMP: Go ahead.
(APPLAUSE)
Q UESTION: Do you think President Obama went too far with
the sanctions he put on Russia after the hacking?
TRUMP: I don’t think he went too far. No.
Q UESTION: Will you roll them back? What do you think of
Lindsey Graham’s plan to send you a bill for...
TRUMP: Plans to send me a bill for what?
Q UESTION: Tougher sanctions.
TRUMP: I hadn’t heard Lindsey Graham was going to do that.
Lindsey Graham. I’ve been competing with him for a long
time. He is going to crack that one percent barrier one day. I
didn’t realize Lindsey Graham still had it. That’s all right. I
think Lindsey Graham is a nice guy. I’ve heard that he is a
nice guy and I’ve been hearing it.
Go ahead. Go ahead. You’ve been waiting.
Q UESTION: As far as we understand, the intelligence
community...
TRUMP: Stand up.
Q UESTION: From BBC news. Ian Pannell from BBC news.
TRUMP: BBC news. That’s another beauty.
Q UESTION: Thank you. Thank you.
As far as we understand it, the intelligence community are
still looking at these allegations, this false news, as you
describe it. If they come back with any kind of conclusion that
any of it stands up, that any of it is true, will you consider your
position...
TRUMP: There’s nothing they could come back with.
Q UESTION: Can you...
TRUMP: Go ahead.
Q UESTION: (inaudible) published fake news and all the
problems that we’ve seen throughout the media over the
course of the election, what reforms do you recommend for
this industry here?
TRUMP: Well, I don’t recommend reforms. I recommend
people that are — that have some moral compass.
You know, I’ve been hearing more and more about a thing
called fake news and they’re talking about people that go and
say all sorts of things. But I will tell you, some of the media
outlets that I deal with are fake news more so than anybody. I
could name them, but I won’t bother, but you have a few
sitting right in front of us. They’re very, very dishonest people,
but I think it’s just something we’re going to have to live
with.TRUMP: I guess the advantage I have is that I can speak
back. When it happens to somebody that doesn’t have this —
doesn’t have that kind of a megaphone, they can’t speak
back. It’s a very sad thing. I’ve seen people destroyed. I’ve
seen people absolutely destroyed. And I think it’s very unfair.
So, all I can ask for is honest reporters.
Yes?
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: I just wanted to follow up on the questions about
the U.S. intelligence community. And be very clear about what
you’re saying. Do you trust your U.S. intelligence officials?
And what do you say to foreign policy experts who say you’re
actually weakening national security by waging this war of
words against that community?
TRUMP: Intelligence agencies are vital and very, very
important. We are going to be putting in, as you know, Mr.
Pompeo and others, you know the Senator Dan Coats. We’re
going to be putting in some outstanding people. Within 90
days, they’re going to be coming back to me with a major
report on hacking.
I want them to cover this situation. I also want them,
however, to cover, maybe most importantly — because we’re
hacked by everybody — you know, the United States, our
government out of a list of 17 in terms of industries is the
worst, it’s number 17, in terms of protection.
If you look at the retail industry, if you look at the banking
industry, various industries, out of 17 industries — they put
this in the category of an industry — the United States is last
in terms of protecting, let’s say, hacking defense. Like we had
a great hacking defense at the Republican National
Committee.
That’s why we weren’t hacked. By the way, we were told that
they were trying to hack us, but they weren’t able to hack.
And I think I get some credit because I told Reince, and
Reince did a phenomenal job, but I said I want strong hacking
defense.
The Democratic National Committee didn’t do that. Maybe
that’s why the country runs so badly that way. But I will tell
you — wait — wait — wait, let me finish. Within 90 days, we
will be coming up with a major report on hacking defense,
how do we stop this new phenomena — fairly new phenomena
because the United States is hacked by everybody.
That includes Russia and China and everybody — everybody.
OK.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Go ahead — go ahead.
Q UESTION: Mr. President-elect, you said, just now, that you
believe Russia indeed was responsible for the hacking of the
DNC and Jon Podesta’s e-mails, et cetera.
TRUMP: All right, but you know what, it could have been
others also.
Q UESTION: But why did you spend weeks undermining U.S.
intelligence community before simply getting the facts and
then making a public statement?
TRUMP: Well, I think it’s pretty sad when intelligence reports
get leaked out to the press. I think it’s pretty sad. First of all,
it’s illegal. You know, these are — these are classified and
certified meetings and reports.
I’ll tell you what does happen. I have many meetings with
intelligence. And every time I meet, people are reading about
it. Somebody’s leaking it out. So, there’s — maybe it’s my
office. Maybe in my office because I have a lot of people, a
lot of great people. Maybe it’s them. And what I did is I said I
won’t tell anybody. I’m going to have a meeting and I won’t
tell anybody about my meeting with intelligence.
And what happened is I had my meeting. Nobody knew, not
even Rhona, my executive assistant for years, she didn’t
know — I didn’t tell her. Nobody knew. The meeting was had,
the meeting was over, they left. And immediately the word
got out that I had a meeting.
So, I don’t want that — I don’t want that. It’s very unfair to the
country. It’s very unfair to our country; what’s happened. That
report should have never — first of all, it shouldn’t have been
printed because it’s not worth the paper it’s written on. And I
thank the New York Times for saying that.
I thank a lot of different people for saying that. But, I will tell
you, that should never, ever happen. OK.
(CROSSTALK)
Q UESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-elect, can you stand
here today, once and for all and say that no one connected to
you or your campaign had any contact with Russia leading up
to or during the presidential campaign. And if you do indeed
believe that Russia was behind the hacking, what is your
message to Vladimir Putin right now?
TRUMP: He shouldn’t be doing it. He won’t be doing it.
Russia will have much greater respect for our country when
I’m leading than when other people have led it. You will see
that. Russia will respect our country more. He shouldn’t have
done it. I don’t believe that he will be doing it more now.
We have to work something out, but it’s not just Russia. Take
a look at what’s happened. You don’t report it the same way;
22 million accounts were hacked in this country by China.
And that’s because we have no defense. That’s because we’re
run by people that don’t know what they’re doing.TRUMP:
Russia will have far greater respect for our country when I’m
leading it and I believe and I hope — maybe it won’t happen,
it’s possible. But I won’t be giving (ph) a little reset button like
Hillary. Here, press this piece of plastic. A guy looked at her
like what is she doing? There’s no reset button. We’re either
going to get along or we’re not. I hope we get along, but if we
don’t, that’s possible too.
But Russia and other countries — and other countries,
including China, which has taken total advantage of us
economically, totally advantage of us in the South China Sea
by building their massive fortress, total. Russia, China, Japan,
Mexico, all countries will respect us far more, far more than
they do under past administrations.
I want to thank everybody. So this is all — just so you
understand, these papers — because I’m not sure that was
explained properly. But these papers are all just a piece of the
many, many companies that are being put into trust to be run
by my two sons that I hope at the end of eight years, I’ll
come back and say, oh, you did a good job. Otherwise, if they
do a bad job, I’ll say, “You’re fired.”
Good-bye, everybody. Good-bye.
