OK, questions? Yes, John (ph)?
QUESTION: (Inaudible) so much.
TRUMP: Thank you.
QUESTION: 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.
QUESTION:
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)
QUESTION:
... 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?
QUESTION: Can I ask you a question, sir?
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: 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)
QUESTION: ... President Obama...
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION:
... 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)
QUESTION:
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)
QUESTION:
... 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.
QUESTION:
(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)
QUESTION: ... 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.
QUESTION: 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.
QUESTION: 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)
QUESTION: ... a quick follow-up on — on Russia, sir.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-elect. I wanted to ask a few questions on Obamacare?
TRUMP: Yeah.
QUESTION:
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.
QUESTION:
(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)
QUESTION: President-elect, can we just ask you — sir, sir...
QUESTION: President-elect Trump...
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Mr. President — which one?
TRUMP: I was going right here.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION:
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.
QUESTION:
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)
QUESTION: ... 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.
QUESTION:
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.
QUESTION: Since you’re attacking us, can you give us a question? Mr. President-elect —
TRUMP: Go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. President-elect, since you are attacking our news organization...
TRUMP: Not you.
QUESTION: Can you give us a chance?
TRUMP: Your organization is terrible.
QUESTION: You are attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir? Sir, can you...
TRUMP: Quiet.
QUESTION: Mr. President-elect, can you say...
TRUMP: He’s asking a question, don’t be rude. Don’t be rude.
QUESTION: 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.
QUESTION: Can you state...
TRUMP: You are fake news. Go ahead.
QUESTION: Sir, can you state categorically that nobody — no, Mr. President-elect, that’s not appropriate.
TRUMP: Go ahead.
(APPLAUSE)
QUESTION: 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.
QUESTION: 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?
QUESTION: 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.
QUESTION: As far as we understand, the intelligence community...
TRUMP: Stand up.
QUESTION: From BBC news. Ian Pannell from BBC news.
TRUMP: BBC news. That’s another beauty.
QUESTION: 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.
QUESTION: Can you...
TRUMP: Go ahead.
QUESTION:
(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)
QUESTION:
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.
QUESTION:
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.
QUESTION:
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)
QUESTION:
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.
CREDIT: NEWYORK TIMES.
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