Trump begins his statement by expressing condolences to the Bushes. Calls Barbara a "wonderful, wonderful person," hails her strength, toughness, warmth, patriotism, faith.
Trump expresses admiration that the Bushes were married for more than 70 years. "I'll never beat that record," he ad-libs.
Trump boasts that none of the U.S. missiles were shot down in Syria. Says civilized nations need to band together to avoid the horrors of "chemical warfare - and, in fact, warfare."
Trump on the state of affairs with regard to North Korea: "It's a historic moment, and possibly beyond that, if it works out properly."
Trump ad-libbing some more: "We have to end nuclear weapons, ideally in all parts of the world. That would be a goal for all of us to hope for and to cherish."
Trump promises to send Japan the US military equipment it has purchased in a mere "matter of DAYS," rather than the "years" he says it used to take to make the shipments because of "bureaucracy."
Abe, according to the translator, compliments the "infinitely blue sky and soothing and refreshing sea breeze" at Mar-a-Lago.
Abe compliments Trump for how "carefully" he listened to the families of Japanese people abducted by North Korea. Says, per the interpreter, that the image of this moment is "indelibly etched in the eyes and minds of many of the Japanese people."
Abe praises Trump's tax cuts, says they have allowed Japanese investors in the US to be "gaining momentum."
Trump gives the first question to the New York Times's @MarkLandler.
Asked if he's willing to sit with Kim if American prisoners are still being held in North Korea, or if he'll demand tangible concessions, Trump says they're negotiating about the prisoners, "fighting very diligently" to get them, says "there's a very good chance of doing it."
Unprompted, Trump heaps praise upon China's Xi, says Xi has done for the Trump-era US more than what any other Chinese leader has done for any other US administration.
Trump on the Kim meeting: "If I think that it's a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we're not going to go. If the meeting when I'm there is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting...I like always remaining flexible."
Trump falsely claims again that Moon said "the Olympics would have been a total failure" if not for Trump. Moon did not go nearly that far.
Trump's accounting of the state of the U.S. solar industry is fantastically inaccurate. In like five different ways.
Trump boasts that African-American and Hispanic unemployment are at the lowest level "in the history of our country." That's likely not true - it's at the lowest level since the government started separately reporting that data in the 1970s.
Most notably, Trump keeps wrongly claiming that two solar companies were near-dead and are now, thanks to his tariffs, building 7-plus plants. One of these two is still bankrupt and not doing anything; one is merely hiring 200 people at its one plant.
Trump gives a second question to a legit outlet! The excellent @JenniferJJacobs asks him if he's decided against removing Mueller and Rosenstein.
Trump: "There was no collusion, and that's been so found..."
Trump: "There was no collusion, and that's been so found..."
Trump is not answering the Mueller/Rosenstein question, instead doing his standard anti-Democrat obfuscation spray. "This is a hoax," he says, and adds that he's been the most transparent person ever, providing many documents and such.
Trump's final non-answer on Mueller and Rosenstein: "They've been saying I'm going to get rid of them for the last three months. Four months, five months. And they're still here. So we want to get the investigation over with."
Trump falsely claims trade deficit with Japan is "anywhere from $69 billion to $100 billion."
It's $69 billion if you only count goods trade. Including services, the net deficit is $56 billion. There are no numbers under which it's even close to $100 billion.
It's $69 billion if you only count goods trade. Including services, the net deficit is $56 billion. There are no numbers under which it's even close to $100 billion.
Trump on TPP: "Unless they offer us a deal that we cannot refuse, I would not go back into TPP." Says again that he prefers bilateral deals to multilateral deals.
Trump accepts a shouted post-event question on Russia, which is highly unusual...
Trump says nobody has been tougher on Russia than he has been: "There has been nobody tougher than me. With the media, no matter what I did, it's never tough enough."
Trump concludes by saying it'd be good to get along with other nations, including Russia.
Not much news. Trump didn't explain what happened with this weekend's announcement and then abandonment of new sanctions; wasn't asked in the official portion of the news conference.
Not much news. Trump didn't explain what happened with this weekend's announcement and then abandonment of new sanctions; wasn't asked in the official portion of the news conference.
