Donald Trump Labor Day Press Conference Transcript: Criticizes Pentagon Leaders for Accommodating Arms Makers

Donald Trump: (00:00) We called some people, wished them a very happy Labor Day and they told us how they're doing. And we really celebrate the American worker. We are in the midst of the fastest economic recovery in US history. So we have a lot to be thankful for including this really beautiful day. So I thought we'd do this outside as opposed to your more normal place. The United States experience the smallest contraction of any major Western nation. You probably know that you look around and see how we're doing compared to every other nation. And our rise is spectacular and we're rebounding much more quickly from the pandemic. The US economy added 1.4 million jobs last month. We've added a record setting 10.6 million jobs since May... 10.6 million jobs since May, that's a record that is not even close as second place it's a long ways away. In July the congressional budget office was projecting unemployment over 10.5% through the end of 2020. So they thought 2020, and maybe it would be a lot longer than that. Some projections where you go through the entire year, and that includes a lot of months in the following year, 2021. And instead the unemployment rate plunged, really to the surprise of many all the way down to 8.4% in August and that's the second largest single month decline on record and we have the first, we have both of them. So we have the two number one declines, decline meaning positive, not negative. Donald Trump: (00:26) We're currently witnessing the fastest labor market recovery from an economic crisis in history, world history. By contrast Biden presided over the worst, the weakest and the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression. It was a long slow slog and it was a very small ... Very small in growth and very small in every other factor that you need. It was the weakest recovery. Under my leadership, next year will be the greatest economic year in the history of our country I project and some people are starting to agree. We have a V shape, it's probably a super V and you see what's going on with the stock market where it's ... In certain cases already setting records. The NASDAQ has set 17 records already and this is as we're hopefully rounding the final turn in the pandemic. First we'll end the pandemic under Operation Warp Speed. We've pioneered groundbreaking therapies reducing the fatality rate. 85% since April. You don't hear that from the press very often. They don't like to talk about that. So the fatality rate, 85%. Think of that since April. The United States has experienced among the lowest case fatality rates of any major country in the world and we are an absolute leader in every way. Donald Trump: (01:56) Under my leadership we'll produce a vaccine in record time. Biden and his very liberal running mate, the most liberal person in Congress by the way, is not a competent person in my opinion would destroy this country and would destroy this economy. Should immediately apologize for the reckless anti-vaccine rhetoric that they are talking right now, talking about endangering lives and it undermines science and what's happening is all of a sudden you'll have this incredible vaccine and because of that fake rhetoric, it's political rhetoric, that's all it is, just for politics because now they see we've done an incredible job and in speed like nobody's ever seen before, this could have taken two or three years and instead it's going to be done in a very short period of time. Could even happen during the month of October. So contrary to all of the lies, the vaccine ... They're political lies, they'll say anything and it's so dangerous for our country what they say but the vaccine will be very safe and very effective and it will be delivered very soon. Now you could have a very big surprise coming up. I'm sure you'll be very happy but the people will be happy, the people of the world will be happy. Donald Trump: (03:18) Next we'll return to unprecedented prosperity through our pro-American policies. We'll pass new tax cuts to boost take home pay, we're going to be cutting taxes very substantially, we get it back through growth. We had tremendous growth until we got hit with the China virus. We'll continue our historic regulatory reduction campaign. As you know in three and a half years we've cut more regulations than any other administration, no matter how long, what period of time you're talking about. We'll enact fair trade deals and we're working on seven major fair trade deals right now and when I say fair, fair to our country because our country was ripped off by every nation, friend, foe, didn't matter. Every nation was ripping us off at a level that it's just unbelievable to be honest. Donald Trump: (04:12) We're going to be expanding opportunity zones and we will keep that going, it's been a tremendous program. I want to thank Senator Scott in South Carolina for coming up with that whole concept because he came up and I liked it right away, it's really turned out to be a tremendous thing, especially for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans. We'll continue to unleash American energy, we're number one in the world and we're totally energy independent right now and in 2021 we'll create 10 million jobs at least in the first 10 months. Joe Biden and the radical socialist Democrats would immediately collapse the economy. If they got in they would collapse it. You'll have a crash the likes of which you've never seen before. Your stocks, your 401(k)s. Remember, it's the people that own these massive listed companies. A lot of people, rich people, not so rich people, middle income people and those stocks will crash like you've never seen before. Donald Trump: (05:14) The Biden plan begins with a four trillion dollar tax hike and that will end everything including growth. It won't be growth it will be total contraction. Biden's also pledged to demolish the U.S. energy industry and implement the same policies causing blackouts in California. He wants to have things lit up with wind. He'll have to talk to China, Russia, India, lots of other countries because they're not doing that and if they're not doing it, puts us at a tremendous economic disadvantage and it doesn't work. You take a look at the blackouts in California, it's really rather amazing what's going on [inaudible 00:05:54] they've tried to go and that's just with a small portion going that route. That doesn't work and it can't fire up our big plants. We're going to have this great industry that we've created. Can't fire up our big plants. Donald Trump: (06:06) Biden's plan for the China virus is to shut down the entire U.S. economy. He's going to totally rely on somebody to walk up, "Yes sir, it's time to shut it down." He'd be laying off tens of millions of workers and causing countless deaths from suicide, substance abuse, depression, heart disease and other very serious illnesses. Because when you do a shutdown, there's a problem on the other side. It's not just from the virus, you have a big problem with suicides, with losing your jobs, with all sorts of things that you just take a look. Depression is a massive problem and what happens is they turn to substance abuse, alcohol, drugs. So we can't do that and then we'd have to give up all the gains that I've been talking about over the last three months. Donald Trump: (06:52) What we have done is incredible. We're setting records all over the world no matter where you go. Nobody has done what we've been able to do. So we're setting records in jobs, we're setting records in numbers, and you're going to see some very big numbers. Third quarter numbers are coming out right before a very special day, November 3. So you have the numbers coming out and they're I think going to be fantastic. I think they're going to be fantastic. The best numbers of all if somebody doesn't come along and raise taxes, double, triple, quadruple your taxes will be the numbers from next year but you're going to have a good third quarter number coming out and I think it's going to be hard for even the media to disparage that number. Donald Trump: (07:33) Biden wants to surrender our country to the virus. He wants to surrender our families to the violent left wing mob and he wants to surrender our jobs to China. Jobs and our economic well-being. I've taken in billions and billions of dollars from China, no other president's done what I've done. I've given much of it to the farmers, I've given it to farmers, manufacturers, but I've given most of it to the U.S. Treasury. Nobody's done that, we haven't taken in $0.10 from China ever. They targeted our farmers and I targeted them and I gave $28 billion to our farmers. Our farmers wouldn't be existent right now. Right now they're very happy. Donald Trump: (08:12) In fact they're setting records on purchases. China is purchasing more corn than they've ever done, record purchase of corn and soybeans, beef because they know I'm not happy with them. They know I'm not happy at all and frankly I don't want to set the world necessarily to thinking too much about it right now but there's been no country anywhere at any time that's ripped us off like China has. We lose billions and billions of dollars, for years and years, decades. We've lost billions and billions and billions of dollars by dealing with China. We get nothing from China. They give nothing other than getting our money and they take that money and they build their military and you see they're building up a powerful military and it's very lucky that I've been building ours up because otherwise we'd be dwarfed right now by China. we would be a terrible thing. A terrible thing. We're way ahead on the nuclear front. We've upgraded our nuclear, hope to God we'd never have to use it but we would be in a position that we are not in right now with China spending the money we give them to build up their military. So when you mention the word decouple, it's an interesting word. So we lose billions of dollars and if we didn't do business with them we wouldn't lose billions of dollars. It's called decoupling see, you'll start thinking about it. You'll start thinking. They take our money and they spend it on building airplanes and building ships and building rockets and missiles and Biden has been just a pawn for them. He's been so easy they dream about Biden. There was a report today that they hope that Joe Biden becomes president. If Joe Biden becomes president China will own the United States and every other country will be smiling also. They'll be smiling. Donald Trump: (10:10) When reports come out that certain countries don't really like me too much, that's not because of my personality although it could be that also frankly. It's because of the fact that I've been very tough on countries that have been ripping us off for so many years. If you look at NATO, with the exception of eight countries, we're one of them, every country is way behind, they're delinquent, especially Germany, in paying their NATO bills. That means we end up paying it and we're not doing it. I told them, we're not doing it, and they've increased their spending now $130 billion going up to $400 billion a year. It's all because of me. Then you hear the country doesn't like me, I mean I can understand that. Because President Obama and other presidents in all fairness, we'd go in there and they'd make a speech and they'd leave, I went in there, I looked and I said, " This is unfair. We're paying for NATO. We're paying for NATO. Almost all of it." So they rip us off on the military and then they rip us off with the European Union on trade. Donald Trump: (11:13) Biden doesn't have a clue. You know he doesn't have a clue. Everybody knows he doesn't have a clue. In primetime he wasn't good and now it's not primetime. He's spent 47 years sending American jobs to China, to Mexico and to other countries while collecting millions of dollars in campaign and super PAC contributions from global corporations that got rich by making American workers poor. His son Where's Hunter, Where's Hunter? I call him Where's Hunter walked away with one and a half billion dollars to manage even though he never did that before. He walked away with a fortune from Ukraine, from China and from other countries. Between his son and his brother, you ought to read the statements and the press doesn't pick that up. If I ever did that, it would be - Donald Trump: (12:03) ... And so the press doesn't pick that up. If I ever did that, it would be hell even worse than it's been, even worse than it's been. What he's done is so incredible. "I won't give them the billion dollars," he says. "I won't give them unless they get rid of that prosecutor." Then woola, they got rid of the prosecutor and the press doesn't even want to talk about it. You talk about quid pro quo. With me, there was none. With him, he's right on tape and you don't want to cover it. You should be ashamed of yourselves. The press should be ashamed of themselves. With Biden, shipped away our jobs, threw open our borders and sent our youth to fight in these crazy, endless wars. Donald Trump: (12:43) I'm not saying the military is in love with me, the soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren't because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else, stay happy. But we're getting out of the endless wars, you know how we're doing. We defeated 100% of the ISIS caliphate, 100%. When I came in, it was a mess. They have it in a certain color, all ISIS. A year later, I said, "Where is it?" "It's all gone, sir. Because of you, it's all gone," because of my philosophy, but all gone. I said, "That's good. Let's bring our soldiers back home." Some people don't like to come home. Some people like to continue to spend money. Donald Trump: (13:36) One cold-hearted globalist betrayal after another and that's what it was. Biden supported NAFTA. He supported China's entry into the World Trade Organization, two disasters, the most disastrous trade deals in history. Both of them. I can't tell you which was worse. They were both terrible. As you know, I ended it and I ended NAFTA and we're looking at the World Trade Organization. They think I'm much better. I will say that. We were tough and world got out of it because we're spending $500 million. China was spending $38 million and Chine controlled it. But World Trade, we're looking at it. They've been very nice to us lately. I will say that. Amazing. Donald Trump: (14:23) We never used to win anything at the World Trade. We'd lose every case. Now, all of a sudden we're winning a lot of cases. We just won $7 billion as a case and they're talking to us much differently than they used to because if they don't shape up, we're going to ship out, that's all, if we're not treated fairly. China is treated as a developing nation, developing nation. We're treated as a nation that's fully developed. We're not fully developed as far as I'm concerned. When you look around at Portland and you see what these Democrats are doing to our cities, take a look at what's happening in New York and Chicago. We have Democrat-run cities, mayors that are running and governors that are running states so badly and mayors running city so badly. Donald Trump: (15:06) It's very sad to look at it. It's Democrat-run, every one of them that I see. I guess we could probably find one or two that aren't, but so far, I haven't been able to. If you look at Biden, he supported TPP, Tran-Pacific Partnership, which would have been a disaster. It would have destroyed our automobile business. By the way, many plants are being built right now, auto plants in Michigan, just like I said. They're big built in Ohio. They're being built in South Carolina, North Carolina. They're being built all over and expanded at a level that we've never seen before, because I said to Japan, Germany and others, "Sorry, you got to come here and build plants. Otherwise, we're going to have to make it very tough on you with tariffs. Donald Trump: (15:52) We got out of the horrible Paris Climate Accord that he'll go back into it because it sounds wonderful. It's a disaster for this country. They've basically taken away your wealth, the Paris Climate Accord, and the other countries don't have to adhere to it. China doesn't kick in until 2030. They're not going to do anything until 2030. We had very high standards. We went out and closed other some scenarios, 25% of our businesses in order to qualify under this ridiculous Paris Climate Accord. It sounds good. It was very bad and very expensive. The New York Times has just published an entire story on Biden's China sellout, which is amazing for the New York Times. I appreciate that. Donald Trump: (16:34) In 2001, Biden said, "The United States welcomes the emergence of a prosperous, integrated China at the global stage, because we expect this is going to be a China that plays by the rules." They didn't play by the rules. They didn't play the rules. The World Trade Organization, one of the reasons it's so bad is that China didn't lay by the rules. We did. We did, but their rules were easier because they're considered a developing nation. So they had a much lower standard, but even that they didn't play by the rules. That's when they became a rocket ship. They were flat in line for years and years and years, then they joined the World Trade Organization and frankly, they cheated. They cheated. Donald Trump: (17:16) I'll say it. What difference does it make? I made a great trade deal with China, great, and they're buying. You know why they're buying because they know I'm not happy. That's why they're buying. I talk about it because today is Labor Day. It's a good time to talk about when we're being ripped off by countries, but nobody's even close to China. Biden cheered China's rise at great power because great powers adhere to international norms in the areas of non-proliferation, human rights and trade. Well, they didn't. They took advantage of stupid people, stupid people and Biden's a stupid person. You know that. You're not going to write it, but you know that. Donald Trump: (17:58) The cost of Biden's economic treachery was 60,000 shuttered American factories and I hear this morning, that the real number is probably 70,000. Seventy thousand shuttered American factories and he's talking about how wonderful it is with China. Now, China has been very bad on top of which we had the China plague sent to us and other viruses, nothing near this serious, but this one. We had other viruses sent in over the years that came from China. I wonder why. If Biden wins, china wins because China will own this country, if Biden wins, China will own this country and hopefully you're not going to be able to find that out. It's the most important election in our history right now, most important election in our history. Under my administration, we will make America into the manufacturing super power of the world and we'll end our reliance on China, once and for all, whether it's decoupling or putting in massive tariffs like I've been doing already. Donald Trump: (19:01) I'm going to end our reliance on China because we can't rely on China. I don't want them building a military like they're building right now. They're using our money to build it. We'll manufacture our critical medical supplies in the United States. We'll create made in America tax credits and bring our jobs back from China to the United States and we'll impose tariffs on companies that desert America to create jobs in China and other countries. If they can't do it here, they let them pay a big tax to build it someplace else and send it into our country. We'll prohibit federal contracts from companies that outsource to China and we'll hold China accountable for allowing the virus to spread around the world. Now you can understand why China would much rather see sleepy Joe than Donald Trump, but as long as I'm president, we will never waiver in our undying loyalty to the American worker and to our country as a whole. So happy Labor Day, everybody. Go ahead. Speaker 1: (20:06) Thank you, Mr. President. The issue of what happened when you were in France continues to be a story. Donald Trump: (20:10) You're going to have to take that off, please. You can take it off. How many feet are you away? Speaker 1: (20:15) I'll speak a lot louder. Donald Trump: (20:15) Well, if you don't take it off, you're very muffled. So if you would take it off, it would be a lot easier- Speaker 1: (20:21) I'll just speak a lot louder. Is that better? Donald Trump: (20:23) It's better. Yeah. It's better. Speaker 1: (20:26) Mr. President, some people are having a hard time believing your denial of the Atlantic story because of what you said about John McCain in the past. Do you understand that and have you asked John Kelly- Donald Trump: (20:41) No, I don't understand it. Speaker 1: (20:42) ... Have you asked John Kelly to refute that story? Donald Trump: (20:44) No, I don't understand it at all because I've always been on the opposite side of John McCain. John McCain liked wars. I will be a better warrior than anybody, but will we fight a war we're going to win them? Frankly, I was never a fan of John McCain. You know that. It's been very obvious, but I had to approve his entire, his funeral I wanted him to get. He deserved a first class ... you know that all was approved by me. We sent Air Force One to pick up the casket, a lot of things. But no, I was not a fan of John McCain because he wanted the endless wars and I didn't. I thought that the way the vets were taking care of, our great vets, was not good, not appropriate. Of course he took the fake dirty dust and gave and gave it over to the FBI. Donald Trump: (21:25) So if this is not somebody, am I supposed to say, "What a wonderful guy?" So, you know what? I lived with him. He lived with me, but we had different philosophies. I think my philosophy is right. I think it's turned out to be right, but I wasn't a fan, but I respect people. I respect a lot of people, that doesn't mean I necessarily have to agree with them and I didn't agree with him on a lot of things. The story is a hoax written by a guy who's got a tremendously bad history. The magazine itself, which I don't read, but I hear it just totally anti-Trump. He's a big Obama person. He's a big Clinton person and he made up the story. It's a totally made up story. In fact, I was very happy to see Zach Fuentes came out and said, "Now, I think that's number 15," and these are the people who were there. That's the 15th person, General Kellogg, everybody that was there knew what happened, so I was happy to see that Zach came out and said it's not true. Donald Trump: (22:29) It just came out and it's a disgrace. Who would say a thing like that? Only an animal would say a thing like that. There is nobody that has more respect for, not only our military, but for people that gave their lives in the military. I think John Kelly knows that, I think he would know that. I think he knows that from me, but Zach Fuentes who does work for John, I think they both know that. But Zach came out, as you know, today or yesterday, last night and said very strongly that he didn't hear anything like that. Even John Bolton came out and said that was untrue. Now what was true is that we had the worst weather. I think it was his bad a rain as I've just about ever seen and it was a fog. You literally couldn't see. I walked out. I didn't need somebody to tell me. I walked out. I said, "There's no way we can take helicopters in this." I understand helicopters very well. Donald Trump: (23:24) They said, "No, sir. That's been canceled." Secret Service, I have the whole list, they would've had to go through a very, very busy section during the day of Paris. They would have had to go through the city. The Paris police were asking us, "Please don't do it," because they're not ready. When you do that, you need a lot of time. That take days and days and days to prepare for that. I wanted to do it very badly. I was willing to sit in the car for two hours, three hours, four hours, I didn't care. It didn't matter. I had nothing else to do. I went there for that. I had nothing else to do. It was ended because of the terrible weather and nobody was ... Donald Trump: (24:03) It was ended because of the terrible weather, and nobody was prepared to go through in terms of Paris, the police, the military, and the secret service, and they came out very strongly and said, "Sir, we can't allow you to make this trip." If I wanted to, "Sir, we can't allow you from a safety standpoint." Donald Trump: (24:20) It was a phony story just like the dirty dossier, the fake dirty dossier. Just like the Russia collusion, just like all of the other phony stories. And there'll be more phony stories. But I do appreciate Zack coming out, but Zack now is the fifteenth person that's denied it. Zack now I think also talked about the weather aspect of it, and he's probably the fourteenth or fifteenth person that blamed it on weather, so that's enough of that. Yes please. Speaker 2: (24:52) [inaudible 00:24:52]. Donald Trump: (24:52) Thank you. Speaker 2: (24:52) We're seeing judges, most recently in Detroit, limit police ability to use nonlethal force. My first question would be should the police be allowed to use nonlethal force to quell the violence in our cities? Donald Trump: (25:04) We're talking about where nonlethal force? Speaker 2: (25:06) Right. So in the riots. Most recent- Donald Trump: (25:06) The riots? Speaker 2: (25:08) Yeah. Donald Trump: (25:08) Well I think what's happened is the toughness. These are Democrat run cities all, and there's no retribution. There's no ... They stand there. They throw things at the people that are supposed to be protecting something, and nothing happens. They throw rocks, they throw cans of soup, they throw lots of hard objects. And rarely does anything happen. But I've told when we have the federal in there, as you know I told the U.S. Marshalls to go get the man who killed another man, and they know who it was, and you have to arrest him. You have to arrest him. After two and a half days they didn't arrest him. The U.S. Marshalls went in, and it ended up being a gunfight, and then man was killed. But this is a man that had a bad record, and this is a man that killed a man in the street. I witnessed it. Most people witnessed it. And the U.S. Marshalls went in. They weren't playing games. They can't play games. Donald Trump: (26:10) If somebody is breaking the law there's got to be a form of retribution. I watch so often, when I watch some of the areas that we're talking about ... Now we have Rochester. That's again, Democrat governor, Democrat mayor, all Democrats every one of them, and it always will be. I was with the governor of Texas. He looked at me and said, "I can't imagine how they allow this to happen." And it's different, it's different. I could talk about other governors saying the same thing. Yeah, please, go ahead. Speaker 2: (26:39) I'd like to follow up on that. We're also hearing reports of groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter traveling around the country traveling around the country leaving their home cities to go riot and protest in other cities where they're causing damage. Can we expect to see prosecution as far as [inaudible 00:26:52] those problems [inaudible 00:26:54]? Donald Trump: (26:55) So we have now over 1,000 people, federal, in jail. We're prosecuting many people. A big thing was when I signed the law putting people in jail if you knock down monuments. That was three months ago. There hasn't been a federal monument knocked down in three months or even thought about. I don't think they've even thought about it, so that's had a very big impact, very big impact. But, yeah, we're going around. And the nice part is you people take ... See those people up there. They take nice pictures of everybody, so we don't even have to bother. We can use the news photos. We had a photo right over there of Andrew Jackson the monument. He was getting ready, and this guy was a big, brave guy, and he was up like this, and he was showing off to all his friends. He got arrested, so did a lot of other people get arrested. And I would say we have the ultimate proof. Now, in that case we got there before they ripped down the statue of Andrew Jackson, which is so beautiful, which is right over there. But they never got it. Donald Trump: (27:50) But right after that I signed an order saying you go to prison for 10 years. And as soon as I signed that order that was the end of the statues coming down. But they have other ideas. They've got plenty of ideas. They're not at want for ideas. Please, go ahead. David Spunt: (28:05) Mr. Spunt, David Spunt from Fox News, Mr. President thank you for taking my question. Sir, you talked a lot about the economy and touted the economy. Three weeks ago in [Bentminster 00:28:16] I asked you specifically why you have not called Democratic leadership to The White House to meet with them. If they don't want to meet it's on them. A lot of people are criticizing you. I cover you on the weekends and stuff. [crosstalk 00:28:28]. Why have you not met with them in person? We're in September. There's no deal. There's no hope of a deal. We're two months out from the election. Donald Trump: (28:37) Don't say there's no hope. Why do you say there's no hope? What do you know? David Spunt: (28:41) What can you say [crosstalk 00:28:42]? Donald Trump: (28:41) What do you know? David Spunt: (28:43) It doesn't seem like [crosstalk 00:28:43]. Donald Trump: (28:44) Let me just tell you, I know my customers. That's what I do. I know Pelosi. I know Schumer very well. They don't want to make a deal because they think it's good for politics if they don't make a deal. This has nothing to do with anything other than you have to know who you're dealing with. I do. These are people that I don't have a lot of respect. I don't think they have a lot of respect for the American people, and I know who I'm dealing with. I don't need to meet with them to be turned down. They don't want to make a deal because they know that's good for the economy. And if they make a deal that's good for the economy, and therefore it's good for me for the election in November, November 3rd, and therefore they're not going to make a deal. Donald Trump: (29:25) Now, if we gave the store away, if we bailed out all of their Democrat run cities where we give them a trillion dollars, which is the kind of money they want. They want a trillion dollars to bail out badly run Democrat cities and states whether it's New York or Illinois or others, they want to bail them out. And we're saying, "We're not going to pay that kind of a price in order to bail the ... We'll do something to help cities, but that's going to have to rest on its own. And why didn't you do this at the beginning?" Because they could've done it in the beginning. So I know who I'm dealing with. Donald Trump: (29:56) I'm on the phone with Mnuchin and with Meadows and with all of these people constantly, but while they're there. But I also know when it's time to meet with people. I've done very well with deals. Okay, that's what I do. And I know when it's time to meet. But I don't have to meet them in order to be turned down and in order for them to walk out to the sticks, which is the microphones, and give you people a false report of what just took place in the Oval Office. They don't want to make a deal because they think that if the country does as badly as possible even though a lot of people are being hurt that's good for the Democrats, but David, that's a bad thing. Yeah, please go ahead. David Spunt: (30:34) But as president, you take the high road, sir. Donald Trump: (30:36) I am taking the high road. I'm taking the high road by not seeing them. That's the high road. Yeah. David Jackson: (30:42) [inaudible 00:30:42]. Donald Trump: (30:42) And if I thought it made a difference or would make a difference I'd do it in a minute. Yeah, go ahead. David Jackson: (30:48) David Jackson, USA Today. My question is about the [inaudible 00:30:50] that you have talked about recently, said let's see what happens. Now, you've accused people of committing crimes against you during the Russian investigation. Donald Trump: (30:58) Yeah, sure. They spied on my campaign, that's right. David Jackson: (31:01) My question [crosstalk 00:31:02]. Donald Trump: (31:01) They spied on my campaign, and if they were Democrats they would've been in jail two years ago. They would've been in jail literally. If this side were the Democrat side they would've been in jail two years ago for 50-year terms for treason and other things. David Jackson: (31:14) Excuse me. My question is do you want the Justice Department to indict people over this? Donald Trump: (31:17) I'm not going to say that. I have to see the report. I haven't seen it. I purposefully ... I don't know if that was a good thing, smart thing, I don't know. But nobody can complain about it. I have every right to have been very much involved. And maybe someday I'll get involved in it. They spied on my campaign, and that includes Biden and Obama. They spied on my campaign, tried to defeat me. They wrote up a fake dossier that has proven to be totally fake, written by Christopher Steele, paid for by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. And they use that illegally in the FISA codes. If we did what they did you would have many people in jail right now, and you have other than the one agent that admitted his guilt, that he forged documents, we don't have that yet, but the report hasn't been issued yet. Let's see what happens, but let me just ... David Jackson: (32:07) [crosstalk 00:32:07]. Donald Trump: (32:07) Let me just say something. President Obama and Biden, Sleepy Joe, he knew everything that was happening. They were spying on my campaign, and they got caught. Now let's see what happens. But if this were the opposite way people would've been jailed. They would've been in jail already for a period of at least, it would've started two years ago, and it would've been for 50 years for treason because you can't do that. Nothing like that's ever happened before. Donald Trump: (32:32) Then they created, at tremendous expense ... The money they paid is tremendous. I'm sure you know the money that was paid, millions of dollars. They created a fake dossier, a fake dossier, proven to be now fake, everyone, and they used it in the FISA codes. That's a crime. So far I haven't seen anybody have a problem, but the report hasn't been issued yet. Let's see what happens with the Durham report. But this started at Obama, and some people would say, and some people go, "Well, but he was the president," like, "Let's leave him alone." If it were me they wouldn't be leaving me alone, I can tell you. It's a totally double standard, and it's a disgrace. Donald Trump: (33:12) And if I were a Republican senator, and if were a Republican congressman, and we have some great ones, but we have a lot of them that don't fight the way that the other side fights. We have much better policy. We have much better things going for us like borders and walls and immigration and no sanctuary cities. They have a lot of bad stuff going, but they're dirty fighters, and the dirtiest fight of all is the issuance of 80 million ballots unrequested. They're not requested. They're just sending 80 million ballots all over the country, 80 million ballots, non requested. I call them unsolicited ballots. That's going to be the dirtiest fight of all. People are going to get ballots. They're going to say, "What am I doing?" And then they're going to harvest, they're going to do all the things. Donald Trump: (33:59) And if you look at the last period of six months, take a look at the races where they've sent ballots out. Take a look at Carolyn Maloney whose race should be redone because she won that race totally unfairly to her opponent. Her opponent did very well against her. That race should be rerun, but they declared her the winner because they heard I found out about it. But take a look at what's happened in New Jersey and in Virginia and different places. It's a disgrace. That'll be a beauty. Yeah, please. Speaker 3: (34:29) Thank you, Mr. President. If proven true, are you okay with Postmaster General DeJoy and the fact that he asked former employees at his private company to make donations to the GOP and then reimburse them? Are you okay with that? Donald Trump: (34:42) I don't know too much about it. I read something this morning, but other than that I'd have to see it. He's a very respected man. He was approved very much by both parties I guess. It was an approval that took place by both parties. I don't know exactly what the story is. I'll certainly know within a short period of time. I just read it for the first time. I read it this morning just like you did. Speaker 3: (35:05) Would you support an investigation, sir? Donald Trump: (35:08) Sure, sure. Speaker 3: (35:09) And [crosstalk 00:35:10]? Donald Trump: (35:10) Let the investigations go, but he's a very respected man. Again, it was a bipartisan commission. Postmaster general is appointed by a bipartisan commission. And we'll see how that goes, but I think he's a very honest guy, but we'll see. Yeah. Speaker 3: (35:27) If proven to be [crosstalk 00:35:28]. Speaker 4: (35:27) Thank you, Mr. President. Speaker 3: (35:29) Mr. President, followup please, if you don't mind. If it's proven to be a campaign finance scheme do you think he should lose his job? Donald Trump: (35:34) Yeah, if something can be proven that he did something wrong always. Speaker 3: (35:37) Thank you. Donald Trump: (35:37) Always. They've been looking at me for four years. They found nothing. Four years, think of it, for four years, from the day I came down the escalator I've been under investigation by sleaze, and they found nothing. They found nothing. A friend of mine said, "You have to be the most innocent, honorable man ever to hold the office of president." Think of it, they spent, just Mueller alone he spent ... Donald Trump: (36:03) Don't think of it. Just Mueller alone he spent... I guess the real number turned out to be $48 million, but whatever it was many, many millions of dollars. They had 18 angry Democrats looking, they had FBI agents all over the place, and they'd have no collusion. Friends of mine have said... Sophisticated friends have said, "You've got to be the most innocent guy ever to hold this office." And there's a lot of truth to that. Yeah, please. Speaker 5: (36:28) Thank you, Mr.President. After Navalny poisoning, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is under pressure to cancel Nord Stream 2 Pipeline from Russia to Germany. Would you support such a move? Donald Trump: (36:41) Sure. Speaker 5: (36:41) Do you think the project should become- Donald Trump: (36:43) Sure. Well, I've been supportive of that. I was the first one that brought it up, you'd never heard of Nord Stream 2 until Trump came along. When I came along, I said, "Wait a minute, we're protecting Germany from Russia, right? NATO. We're protecting Germany from Russia. Germany's paying Russia billions and billions of dollars to get their energy, and the real number is probably 60 to 70%. Ultimately of their energy is going to come from Russia, and I said this for years and nobody talks about it. One of the many things between sanctions and all of what we've done for Ukraine relative to what the past had. They used to send pillows, and we sent tank busters. But I brought that up a long time ago, Russia is unhappy that I brought it up, but you never heard of North Stream 2, nobody did until I got elected. And I said, "Why is Germany making a deal to give billions of dollars to Russia? And then we're protecting Germany from Russia.How does that work?" Donald Trump: (37:43) Then on top of it, Germany is delinquent because they're only paying a little more than 1% and they're supposed to be paying 2%, and even the 2% is low, but just remember Trump me, I got the countries of NATO to spend 130 billion going to $400 billion a year. Think of it, $400 billion a year more for NATO. The purpose of data primarily is your protection against Russia. Now they can use it for other, I guess, and they have a little bit in the Middle East, et cetera, et cetera. But I'm the one that did that, but nobody talks about that. Nobody talks about North Stream 2 the answer is absolutely, if they feel that something happens. But I don't know that Germany is in a position right now, because Germany is in a very weakened position energy wise, they're closing all their plants, they're closing their nuclear, they're closing their coal, they're closing a lot of plants. They have put themselves in a very bad position, frankly. Very, very bad position. Yeah, please. Speaker 6: (38:53) [inaudible 00:38:53] Have you asked [Bolond 00:38:56] Kelly to cover for you if you get [inaudible 00:38:58] and then massacre? Donald Trump: (38:59) No, I have nothing against John. I have nothing against anybody, no. I was very heartened to see that a friend of his, because I know Zach is a friend of his and worked for him. I was very heartened to see that Zach [Forenz 00:39:12] just came out with the statement that he did I guess late last night that it was not true. Speaker 7: (39:16) We're asking other questions [inaudible 00:39:18] what exactly is Un-American about separate government training programs that are improving in [inaudible 00:39:24]. Donald Trump: (39:26) Well, we're going to do a report. Yeah. I find those people... They're all gone. It was a disgrace, frankly. We're going to give you a big report, that's going to make you very happy. All right, yeah please. Speaker 8: (39:36) Thank you. [inaudible 00:39:37] You said a moment ago, "They will say anything." You were talking about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and their comments about the vaccine. Donald Trump: (39:44) Okay. Speaker 8: (39:44) You- Donald Trump: (39:47) No, they say worst. They say negative. They say negative. They're going to make the vaccine into a negative, so then when do we have it. And I spoke to the head of Pfizer, I spoke to the head of Johnson & Johnson, I spoke to the heads of greatest medical companies in the world, we're doing great, we'll have it soon. Wait a minute, so now what they're saying is, "Oh wow, this is bad news. President Trump is getting this vaccine in record time." By the way, if this were the Obama administration, you wouldn't have that vaccine for three years, you probably wouldn't have it at all. So we're going to have a vaccine very soon. Maybe even before a very special day, you know what date I'm talking about? Speaker 8: (40:26) Yes. Donald Trump: (40:26) Let me just tell you wait. What they're doing because they think it is going fast, and if you talked to a lot of your sources, if you have sources. If you talk to your sources in the FDA, you'll see it's going very, very well. The numbers are looking unbelievably strong, unbelievably good. So now they're saying, "Wow, Trump's pulled this off. Okay, let's disparage the vaccine." That's so bad for this country, that's so bad for the world to even say that, and that's why they're saying it, but I watched Kamala's whole numbers drop from 15 to almost zero and then drop out even before she ran in Iowa because people didn't like her, and I understand why. She will never be president, although I have to be careful because Obama used to say that about me so I have to be a little bit careful. Speaker 8: (41:16) Right. Donald Trump: (41:16) But you have to look at her a little bit more closely because obviously Joe's not doing too well. So you're going to have to look at her a little bit too closely, but she's talking about disparaging a vaccine so that people don't think the achievement was a great achievement. I don't want the achievement for myself, I want something that's going to make people better that people aren't going to get sick with that includes therapeutics, where we're doing equally as well. Therapeutics, go ahead. Speaker 8: (41:42) Your point, is that what they're saying is that they're saying it for political purposes. Donald Trump: (41:46) Yes. Speaker 8: (41:48) You have distorted reputedly the vaccine will be on the market by before the election? Donald Trump: (41:52) No, I didn't say they were. [crosstalk 00:41:54] by the end of the year. Speaker 8: (41:55) The same thing- Donald Trump: (41:58) No, but you're not quoting me accurately. I said that vaccines will be on the market before the end of the year, but they may even be on the market, they may even be developed and fully developed, tested, everything else. We have 30,000 people in just one vaccine right now under test in very, very highly infected areas, so we're going to be able to get a good result one way or the other very soon. So I didn't say what you said, what I said is by the end of the year, but I think it could even be sooner than that. It could be during the month of October actually, it could be before November. Speaker 8: (42:30) But aren't you also saying that for political reasons? Donald Trump: (42:31) No, I'm saying that because we want to save a lot of lives. With me, it's the faster the better. If somebody else made me they would say it politically, but I'm saying it in terms of this is what we need, we have to have, if we get the vaccine early that's a great thing, whether it's politics or not. Now do benefits in Newark, if you're able to get something years ahead of schedule, I guess maybe they do. But the most important thing to me is saving lives, that's the most important thing. Yeah, go ahead [inaudible 00:00:43:01]. Speaker 9: (43:02) Hi, just based on some of your recent tweets sir, do you- Donald Trump: (43:05) You sound so clear as opposed to everybody else where they refuse. Speaker 9: (43:11) Your tweets about the 1619 [inaudible 00:43:13] why do you object to that being taught in schools and do you object to slavery itself being taught in schools? Donald Trump: (43:19) Yeah, so I want everybody to know everything they can about our history. I'm not a believer in cancel culture, the good and the bad. You don't study the bad, it could happen again. So I do want that subject studied very, very carefully, and very accurately. But we grew up with a certain history and now they're trying to change our history, revisionist history. That's why they want to take down our monuments, that's why they want to take down our statues. I saw something the other day, which was absolutely horrendous, a Washington monument they want to rename it, the DC committee, but the DC committee is all Democrats, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson. I mean, we're talking about... This is the big stuff now, this is the big stuff. And they want to rename it, they want to re-designate it, they want to take some down. Donald Trump: (44:09) Now we don't do that, never going to happen with me I guarantee you that. Well, I want to thank you all and I just want to wish you a very Happy Labor Day and we're having tremendous success whether it's on the vaccines, whether it's on the pandemic, the plague that came in from China, that China should have never let happen because I will never feel the same about China. And I just want to again, wish you a Happy Labor Day. Thank you very much.