Donald Trump takes Questions from Reporters

Get them out. And it's an honor that you're. If you'd like to take some questions. (00:04) Now?

Two questions. On the debate, first of all, I know you've said that you will not do another debate. Some of your own Republican allies have come out and said that you missed the mark, that you missed [inaudible 00:00:17]-

No, no, no, excuse me. Most of my Republican allies had said I was great in the debate. You're just like a lot of other people at Fox.

[inaudible 00:00:25].

Well, why don't you say 94% of the Republicans said I did phenomenally in the debate? Some said that I could have been tougher. I don't know how I could have been tougher when I said he's the worst president and she's the worst vice president in the history of our country. 94% of the Republicans, and the only one that wouldn't, maybe a Mitt Romney or somebody like that. But we've gotten great praise for the debate, and based on the polls like Rasmussen being up six today, the first poll out, based on the polls obviously I did well in the debate. Also based on the debate polls where sometimes had in one case 92% win. So look, you come from Fox, you shouldn't play the same game as everybody else. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Do you have anything to say to your Republican colleagues or your allies who are concerned about your close relationship with Laura Loomer?

Well, I don't know what they would say. Laura's been a supporter of mine, just like a lot of people are supporters and she's been a supporter of mine. She speaks very positively of the campaign. I'm not sure why you asked that question, but Laura is a supporter. I don't control Laura. Laura has to say what she wants. She's a free spirit.

[inaudible 00:01:37].

Well, I don't know. I mean, look, I can't tell Laura what to do. Laura's a supporter. I have a lot of supporters, so I don't know what exactly you're referring to. That's okay. (01:49) Yeah, please. I just don't know. Laura's a supporter. I don't know. She is a strong person. She's got strong opinions and I don't know what she said, but that's not up to me. She's a supporter. Please.

[inaudible 00:02:03] traveling with you on your plane.

Okay. A lot of people do. It's a very big plane.

[inaudible 00:02:08] traveling with you. She made racist remarks about your opponent. She also espoused conspiracy theories about 9/11. Do you disavow those remarks? And why-

I'll have to see what the remarks are.

[inaudible 00:02:19]-

You're telling me for the first time. We're here discussing the destruction of San Francisco and California by a person that's running for president, so I don't even know what you're talking about. I do know that she may have said something based on what you're telling me, but I don't know what she said. But I'll go take a look and I'll put out a statement later on, but I really don't know. Please.

Mr. President, Springfield, Ohio is experiencing a migrant crisis. Will you [inaudible 00:02:45] an event there to show the media what's actually happening?Maybe a town hall?

Well, we could and maybe we'll do that. Where are you from? That's good. Very good. They're doing a very good job. Yeah, that's very good. (02:57) Now, I will maybe Springfield, maybe Aurora, maybe both. We'll go there. I can say this: we will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio, large deportations. We're going to get these people out. We're bringing them back to Venezuela. He told Biden he's not accepting anybody back. They moved all their criminals, not all of them, but the rest are moving in now. They emptied their jails in Venezuela, emptied their criminals, emptied the nests. They call them nests of bad people. They're all now in the United States and they're now taking over cities. It's like an invasion from within, and we're going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country, and we're going to start with Springfield and Aurora, okay?

The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, the police chief, the Republican governor of Ohio have all debunked this story about people eating pets. And now there are bomb threats at schools and kids being evacuated. Why do you still spread this false story?

No, no, no. The real threat is what's happening at our border because you have thousands of people being killed by illegal migrants coming in and also dying. You have women dying as they come up. They're coming up in large groups. We call it a caravan. I think I came up with that name, but it's really what it is. 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people. And you have large numbers of women being killed in those caravans coming up to this country. And then when they get here, they can go into the country and they end up being sex slaves, and everything else. Those are your real problems, not the problem that you're talking about. Yeah, okay.

A quick question. So, you just said that you will carry out the largest mass deportation of illegal immigrants. How are you going to have, for example, governor Gavin Newsom or officials in sanctuary cities comply with that?

Well, if you go to the people of California, they don't want to have sanctuary cities anymore. They're tired of sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities are really blocks that protect bad people from deportation and other problems, and they're going to do it. And our federal government has tremendous power, but we're not going to let states, even like California, even though I know it's largely a sanctuary state, essentially. But we're not going to let that happen to the people of California. They want these people out. They're just as scared as everybody else. (05:17) The people of Ohio are scared. The people of Colorado, you have a governor there who's very weak. He doesn't know what to do, and he doesn't want to talk about it. A lot of it as per your question, they don't want to talk about what's happening. They say, "It's so bad for the city, let's not go public. Let's live with it for a little while. Maybe it'll go away." It's not going to go away. It's going to get worse. It's going to get so bad. You know, what we're experiencing now is they're just getting settled in. There's 21 million people that have come in, they're just getting settled in. It's going to get much worse. It's going to get worse at a level like nobody's ever seen before. Go ahead.

Follow-up question regarding the economy. We're seeing more and more companies are shipping their jobs overseas, but even for white collar jobs-

That's right.

... they're having problems with that. We've been seeing mass lay-offs. How would you prevent these white collar jobs from being [inaudible 00:06:09]?

By lowering taxes and regulations. And what they're doing is they're seeing that every time it looks like Kamala's doing well, companies want to leave. Stock markets go down. The stock market, there's a great gentleman, Scott Bessent who is one of the top Wall Street people. He said, "The market's only up because they all think that Trump is going to get elected." We had a great stock market. Even with COVID, we ended up handing over a market that was higher than previous to COVID or the China virus coming in. (06:40) No, we are going to make sure that the taxes are going to stay where they are, and/or come down, ideally come down, both for the middle class and for corporations because corporations put the people to work. We had the best numbers in the history of our country by far, not even close. And there are companies leaving because they cannot stand what's happening right now to our country. (07:05) And one of the reasons I'm doing this today is to let them know: you're not going to have to leave, because we're going to take care of the problem. They have a tremendous crime problem. Like if you're in Los Angeles, look at the crime numbers. And then you have the FBI lying about the numbers saying the numbers went down. But anybody with common sense know the numbers are through the roof. I didn't know they were as high as they are. (07:25) But think of it, how good is a person from a government agency that would release the numbers when they saw that I was unfairly targeted by ABC? And you could say by the FBI with false numbers. So I have great respect. I have to find out who that person is, or who that group is, but I have great respect. Go ahead. One more?

[inaudible 00:07:46] North Korea, Kim Jong Un, he just toured a uranium facility. The US is saying that Iran is sending ballistic missiles to Russia. If reelected, how would you address a situation with our adversaries?

I'll be able to make phone calls and solve most of the problems. I may actually have to meet a couple of times. But Victor Orban, and you've heard me say this, but it wasn't long ago he said, "The only way you're going to solve the world problem is Trump has to be President again." And I don't say it, I didn't say it. I would be embarrassed to say it. But he said, "Everybody was afraid of Trump. He said China was afraid. Russia was afraid. North Korea was afraid." Everybody was afraid we had no wars. We defeated ISIS in four weeks and they said it was going to take five years, the generals in Washington. I went there and met a great general and some great people and I said, "Go to it," and he took them out in four weeks, a hundred percent of the ISIS caliphate. I flew there. I flew to Iraq to the field, and they took them out in a very short period of time, short order. (08:48) We have a great military, but a great military needs a leader. If you don't have leaders, then you end up with Afghanistan, the worst withdrawal from a country in the history. Look, I've gotten to know great people. I went to Arlington at their request and I stood and I was with them for hours. And I stood with them, they did a ceremony, and then they asked me if I'd go down to the graves of their children. They called them their children, and they always will be their children. And there were tears all over, as they should be. And they said, "Sir, could you take pictures with me by the grave of my son?" In one case, a daughter. And I said, "I'd love to." (09:28) And I took pictures with them for a while and then I left and that was it. And I got home and I got a call from the people in the campaign. "Sir, the Biden people are saying that you did this for publicity." If people knew how hard it was to get there, because I was coming from a location that was very far away, and yet they were having the ceremony and I really felt I had them up to Bedminster, most of the family members, and I got to know them. They're great people. Their sons and daughter, just as though Kamala shot them with a pistol in her hand or his hand, they were killed by Biden and Kamala. They were killed. They should have never left from that airfield. They should have left for Bagram. We should have never given up Bagram. (10:14) Bagram now is controlled by China. The reason we shouldn't have given it up was not because of Afghanistan, the reason we shouldn't have given it up one hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. And I wasn't giving it up. We were getting out quickly and effectively. I'm the one that got the numbers down to less than 5,000 soldiers. But I would've never left unless they fulfilled their obligations under an agreement. I had a wonderful agreement, but the agreement said, "You have to do this, this, this." They didn't do three of the first five things, so therefore they would've done it. (10:46) Abdul was the leader and he wouldn't have done it, and he would have never done that to us. And just in finishing up with that, and I appreciate the question actually, but in finishing up with that, for 18 months, spoke to Abdul over the phone. For 18 months, not one American soldier was shot or killed. Not one American soldier was even shot at. Abdul understood, "Don't do it." I said, "Don't do it, Abdul. Don't do it." And for 18 months, not one soldier was even shot at. And that's the way it's supposed to be. And then they had that horrible situation with the 13 dead, leaving billions of dollars of equipment behind and leaving a lot of Americans behind. A lot of Americans. And you know what else? Leaving a lot of soldiers badly wounded. Nobody ever talks about them, but I do.

Mr. President. Let's talk about California. You are claiming that we need to do major changes in this state. If you're president, what's the policy difference for the people of California? And what would the nature of your relationship be with the leaders of California who you're calling scum? How do you get that-

Well, I would have a great relationship with them. And what you have to do is start all over again. You cannot have these policies of high taxation, you can't have these policies of politics where you go after your politicians. You have to have an honest voting system because you don't have an honest voting system. They send out millions and millions of ballots, they go all over the place. Some people get two, three, four, five. You have a very dishonest system over here. (12:29) If I ran with an honest vote counter in California, I would win California. But the votes are not counted. Honestly, it's a very dishonest system that you have in California. And I'd make it business-friendly. Right now it's business-unfriendly. Look, Elon Musk is a friend of mine. He endorsed me very powerfully. He endorses me every time he speaks. He really wants to see us win because he knows we can do a great job and turn it around. He left California. (12:56) I said to him, "Elon, did anybody ever call you?" It's a big company. He moved to Texas. A lot of people moving to Texas. Great state, excellent governor and excellent lieutenant governor, great people. They love entrepreneurs. They love the people that live there. They want to keep their taxes low. Taxes are way too high here. But I said to Elon, "So, you have a big company and you're moving it to Texas from California. Did anybody call you like the governor to try and get you to stay?" "No." "Did anybody see you? Write a letter, do anything to try and keep you to stay? You have thousands of jobs." He said, "Nobody ever called. There'd be so many things you could do." (13:35) This would be the easiest place to turn around if they knew what to do. Look at it. I mean, look at the weather. We're standing out here on the Pacific Ocean in the most beautiful weather. A lot of states don't have weather like this. They don't have Pacific Oceans. So, it's many things you could do, but you start by lowering taxes and making it friendly. But think of it, Elon Musk, a great guy, brilliant guy, big company, lots of jobs leaving. Nobody even calls him to try and get him to stay. I would have been on him. I would have said, "Let's have lunch, let's have dinner, and then let's have breakfast the following morning." I would have tried to talk him out of it. Yeah, go ahead, please.

What value do you feel that Laura Loomer brings to you? And has nobody told you about the conspiracy theories that she is promoting?

No, I don't know that much about it. No, I don't. I know she's a big fan of the campaign, but I really don't know.

[inaudible 00:14:36]. (14:36) I would say that, well, she brings a spirit to us that a lot of people have. We have very spirited people, and in all fairness to her, she hates seeing what's happened to the country, I guess. I mean, she hates seeing what's happened to the country. So do I, it's very sad. It's very sad when I have to stand out here on my property and see how bad California is. Did you have another one?

Mr. President. Getting back to some questions that matter to the people of California. There are a lot of folks here who feel like they are forgotten men and women, the state government-

They are.

... doesn't seem to care, but you are coordinating with the local mayor. What can you do to help this community either now or when you get elected?

Well, we're going to help them. And I told John, the local mayor, but I told John, we're going to help him with his slide problem. There are ways of fixing that. We discussed it. He knows better than anybody. And he needs help from the federal government. He needs help from the state government. And it's a very wealthy area, but you also have people living here that are elderly and have fixed incomes and have houses that are going to be shoved into the Pacific Ocean if something's not done, and he wants it taken care of. He's a great mayor. He wants it taken care of. He wants nothing for himself. He just wants to help these people. And John, I think you said you have about 600 houses on the site that's sliding, and he'd like to be able to save those houses for people that some of which will never be able to have a house again. It's pretty sad.

Trump media shares are down about 75% from their peak in March. Your lockdown provision ensues. Will you sell your shares?

No, I'm not selling. No, I love it. I mean, I use it as a method of getting out my word. When it opened it went way high, but then the SEC gave us nothing but problems. We had to go through a long, long process with the SEC, but people think that I'm leaving. That's why they're down because if I leave, it's different if I leave, but I'm not leaving. I love it. I think it's great. Mechanically, it works the best. And again, I'm friendly with Elon, and Elon would love me to come over to X, but I have close to 100 million people on X. I had 230 million people on X, and then they shut me down and I said, "I'm not going to let that happen again." You know that I had hundreds of millions of people on X and Facebook and Instagram, I think more than anybody. (16:49) Zuckerberg told me at the White House, he said, congratulations, "You're number one on Facebook." This is a number of years ago. And then all of a sudden it went from being number one to having no voice. And after about two or three weeks, because I have a lot to say, I put out old-fashioned press statements, like a press statement, and they got really successful and they did very well. And then we built this platform. And the reason I built it is because I don't want to have my voice shut down. But a lot of people think that I'll sell my shares. They're worth billions of dollars, but I don't want to sell my shares. I'm not going to sell my shares. I don't need money. And it is a great, for me, it's a great voice. (17:32) It's a great voice, and it's a voice, it works so well. And we just won, as you know, we got final approval from the SEC. It took us a long time, and that really turned it off. When I originally opened that stock, it went from about two to about 182, did you know that? It was the biggest increase in the history of the stock market? I believe, I have to say, I believe because you're going to find one company maybe, who knows. But I believe it was the single biggest movement. And I think I was worth 61 billion from that one stock. And then we had nothing but problems with the SEC. (18:10) And it gets whittled down, down, down. But I didn't do it for the money, I did it because I really wanted to have a strong voice, and it's a great voice for me. And as long as my voice is on there, it's going to always be good. But a lot of people think the reason it's down is that a lot of people think I'm going to sell. And if I sell, it wouldn't be the same. I could understand that, but I have absolutely no intention of selling, okay?

You started talking about this community of Palos Verdes. You talked about California, we have fires raging to the east [inaudible 00:18:43]-

I agree. I agree.

... miles from here. What will you do to help people in this state whose homes are being damaged again and again, or are falling off of these cliffs right behind us or burned down? Or for the people across the country whose homes are jeopardized by natural disaster?

This is my favorite question of the day. You're asking me what would I do for ... Let's talk California first. Is that okay? Do you mind? So, I was riding with Devin Nunes and some congressmen four years ago. I was riding up north in California. And I looked at these fields, they were massive, I was telling John. This is my favorite question, I love that somebody would ask me this question, and I never told you to do it, right? Who are you with?

Spectrum.

Good, Spectrum. It's good. New hot, right? It's hot, it's doing well. But that's because you ask good questions. So what happened? I'm saying why I look at this field and it's massive, and in the middle of the field, there's a little spot of the most green, plush land you've ever seen. And then I'd see another one, another one, these little plots, like one and two acres, and you'd have a thousand acres that's barren and dead and dark. (19:55) And I said, "What's the problem here? What is that green acreage? You know, the soil is unbelievably fertile, but they have no water." I said, "So, do you have a drought?" "No, we don't have a drought. We have the water is cut off upstate up in the north," you know that? And the water, in order to protect a certain little tiny fish called a smelt, they send millions and millions of gallons of water out to the Pacific Ocean way up north. Never even gets close to here. And in Los Angeles and Beverly, Hills, all these rich areas, they want to give you 38 gallons of water to use. You buy a house for a lot of money, and then you're allowed to use 38 gallons of water, but you have no water down here. (20:37) And the reason you have no water, you have the canals. The reason you have no water is because Gavin Newscum didn't want to do it. I had it all done. I had the Department of Commerce at the time, believe it or not, they're the ones that rule on this particular issue. So, you have millions of gallons of water pouring down from the north, with the snowcaps in Canada and all pouring down, and they have essentially a very large faucet. And you turn the faucet and it takes one day to turn it, it's massive. It's as big as the wall of that building right there behind you. And you turn that and all of that water goes aimlessly into the Pacific. And if they turned it back, all of that water would come right down here and right into Los Angeles. They wouldn't have to have people not use more than 30 gallons and 32 gallons. (21:29) They want to do that, you know? They're trying to do that. You have so much water. And all those fields that are right now barren, the farmers would have all the water they needed. And you could revert water up into the hills where you have all the dead forests, where the forests are so brittle because no place is like California, I go to Austria, the head of Austria tells me, "We have trees that are much more flammable than what you have in California. We never have forest fires," because they maintain their forests. And you have all that water that could be used to, as what they call water flow, where the land would be damp and you'd stop many of these horrible fires that are costing billions and billions of dollars by the federal government, et cetera. (22:15) So, one thing I'm going to do for California, vote for me, California. I'm going to give you safety, I'm going to give you a great border, and I'm going to give you more water than almost anybody has. And the farmers up north are going to be able to use 100% of their land, not 1% of their land. And the water's going to come all the way down to Los Angeles, and you're going to have more water than you ever saw. And the smelt is not making it anyway. In fact, they make and grow smelt because it dies all the way up and down the line. And they put stuff that was artificially made, you know that. (22:48) So, you're going to have water in California at a level that you've never seen before. The farmers are going to do great, those fields are going to be all green instead of 1% green. And maybe even more important, you're not going to have illegal immigrants pouring into your country and killing your family. You're not going to have the problems that you have right now. We're going to lower your taxes, we're going to bring the car industry back because your car industry is gone. We're bringing it back to Detroit at levels that you'll never see again. We'll bring it back to better than it was 30 years ago. (23:19) But with this group, everything is dead. The automobile industry is dead. The water coming here is dead. And Gavin Newscum is going to sign those papers, and if he doesn't sign those papers, we won't give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don't give him the money to put out his fires, he's got problems. He's a lousy governor. And he treated me very nicely, and I treated him very nicely when I was president, but he's done a lousy job. But there's a case. I said, "Gavin, will you sign? It took him a month-and-a-half or two months, and then he decided for political reasons. And then we got hit with COVID and we had to solve another problem. (23:57) But you're going to have so much money, Mr. Mayor, you're going to have so much money from economic activity and growth, and you're going to have water you never thought. Now, in your case, maybe you don't want so much water, but we'll bypass your beautiful area. But we have tremendous amounts, millions of gallons of water that's shoved right into the Pacific Ocean where it doesn't make a dent. And all of that water is going to take care of California, and nobody can make a bigger promise than that. You're not going to have to do desalinization plants, which a lot of people want to do. Very expensive to do, but it's better than the alternative of no water. (24:37) So California, vote for Trump, and you're going to have water, and you're going to have growth, and you're going to have prosperity, and all those people that are leaving that are going to really come back. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Mr. President this morning, tens of- Steve Garvey. Why have you not endorsed?

Will you endorse Steve Garvey? Will you endorse Steve Garvey?

Will the government shut down if Johnson can't get say back?

Mr. President.

What's your closing argument to the people of California.