In-town pool report #12 - partial Q&A transcript

Partial POTUS Q&A transcript — East Room

Questions are paraphrased. POTUS answers are highlights and some parts were inaudible. Please check, for full quotes and to fill in the inaudible parts, against video and transcript:

Q: What’s your message to auto dealers across the country as they navigate this period of time?

Trump: “They’re going to do better than ever before. … We’re going to make them more money than they’ve ever made before.”

Q: Was Gov. Gavin Newsom trying to kill the auto industry?

Trump: “Oh, he was killing [it]. [Inaudible comment about rising prices]. It’s the most incredible disaster I’ve ever seen. That’s why the cars are just as bad. Everything’s bad. And now you have this situation with his own sheriff, who’s a good man, by the way, said two days ago, three days ago, ‘You could not have done this without the military. They were going to take over this whole [city]. … So sad.”

…

“I like Gavin. I like him, always. … He said I never called him. … They asked him a question on Fox, I guess. ‘I never spoke to him.’ He doesn’t remember the call.”

On producing a call log of a previous conversation: “I had it. It took me about two minutes. Here’s the call, it lasted 16 minutes and 4 seconds. … I called him a second time. He picked up, and I told him, ‘You have to get your ass in gear.”

Q: Your reaction to the plane crash in India, and will you speak to Prime Minister Modi?

Trump: “The plane crash is terrible. I’ve already told them, anything we can do… It’s a big country, a strong country. I let them know that anything we can do, we’ll be over there immediately.

Q: How confident are you, sir, that conflict can be avoided with Iran?

Trump: “Well, I’d love to avoid conflict. Iran’s going to have to negotiate a little tougher, meaning they’re going to have to give us some things that they’re not willing to give us right now. I’m the last person… I kept us out of wars…”

Q: How imminent is an Israeli strike on Iran?

Trump: “I don’t want to say it’s imminent but it looks like something that could very well happen. Look, it’s very simple, not complicated. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Other than that, I want them to be successful. … We’ll help them be successful. We’ll trade with them, we’ll do whatever is necessary.”

Q: With the China trade deal, are you still concerned about the national security issues with Chinese students studying in the U.S.?

Trump: “Look, I've always been in favor of students coming from other countries, that includes China, and we have 500,000 Chinese students coming in. I've always been in favor of it. Does it mean you — that you have to watch people? Yeah. You have to watch students, but you have to watch other people also. I've been strongly in favor of it. I think it’s a great thing. It’s also — it’s good for our schools. It’s good for — I think it’s good for our country. I'm also in favor of having them stay, I've been in favor of letting them stay. If you get educated for four years, you’re willing to get educated for your years, I like people being able to stay. You know, they have great students.”

[Applause]

“To me, that’s almost like, you know, getting your — buying your way in — in a legitimate way. You know, you have stories where Apple wants to hire somebody and they can't because they can't stay. They went to a great school, he finished first in his class, they made him a big offer and everything’s done, but he has no idea whether he'll be able to stay. And I'm all for making sure people like that can go to work for all our great companies.

“And you know what they do? They go back to their country and there are stories all over the place, they go back to their country, and they start a company just like they were going to start there, they end up starting it in China or India or someplace [else], and now among the richest people in the world. They’ve got thousands and thousands of employees. They make a great, this is happening all the time because they are not allowed to stay and … I think we'll probably end up doing something about that, right?”

Q: What about escalation between Ukraine and Russia?

Trump: I’m very close to the situation. I’m very disappointed in Russia. But I’m disappointed in Ukraine, also, because I think deals could have been made. And they were losing five, six thousand people a week, soldiers, mostly, but also people [inaudible] because they get hit by missiles.”

Q: Are you in support of an Israeli strike on Iran or okay with it because it is not an American war?

Trump: “I want to have an agreement with Iran. We're fairly close to an agreement. We are fairly close to a pretty good agreement. … As long as I think there is an agreement, I don’t want them going in … because [inaudible], but it also could blow it.”

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John T. Bennett

White House Correspondent & Editor-at-Large

Roll Call & CQ | FiscalNote publications

| RollCall.com |

@bennettjohnt