This evening President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump host a reception for Poland’s first couple, President Andrzej Duda and his wife Agata Kornhauser-Duda.  The reception included dignitaries, politicians, business leaders and friends from the Polish-American community.   [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. Melania and I would like to just welcome you all to the White House, a very special place. One of the great homes and houses anywhere in the world. Call it a home or a house; it’s one of the greats. Very important to all of us.

And we’re here, today, to honor the incredible friendship between the United States and Poland, and to celebrate our vibrant, thriving, and proud Polish-American community, of which many of you are (inaudible). (Applause.)

And we are tremendously honored to host President Duda and Mrs. Kornhauser-Duda of Poland. And he’s a highly respected leader. He’s done a fantastic job. You’d be very, very proud of your homeland, your original place. I know so many of you came there and came directly. They are doing really well. So we’re very proud of President Duda.

And I’ve just also spent a lot of time having some very productive meetings. Good for Poland and good for the United States. The alliance between the United States and Poland is stronger than ever before.

And thanks to our U.S. Ambassador to Poland — friend of mine for a long time, Georgette Mosbacher — (applause) — where is Georgette? Hi, Georgette. Not a very good location, Georgette. I’m surprised at you. (Laughter.) That’s not like you. (Laughter.) But she’s done a fantastic job.

Another person doing an incredible job is Wilbur Ross, Secretary. Where is Wilbur? Where is Wilbur? Secretary of Commerce. (Applause.) Thank you, Wilbur.

Betsy DeVos, for joining us. Where is Betsy? Betsy? Hi, Betsy. (Applause.) Hi, Betsy. Education.

Along with some terrific people — representatives, powerful but good. Dan Lipinski. Dan? Dan Lipinski, thank you. Thank you, Dan.

Also here today is Lockheed Martin’s CEO, Marillyn Hewson. And we’re very glad to tell you that President Duda plans to purchase 32 American-made F-35s, one of the great planes. Am I right? (Applause.) Where is Marillyn? Hi, Marillyn. Good job, Marillyn. Doing an incredible job. Thank you, Marillyn.

Last week, the world commemorated the 75th anniversary of D-Day. That was some day. In that momentous endeavor, Polish and American warriors fought side-by-side to defend their nations to defeat the Nazi regime. That Nazi regime was defeated and strongly defeated.

The heroes of D-Day remind us that no power can match the spirit of a free, proud, and sovereign people. They found that out. (Applause.)

In August, we will also mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, when more than 150,000 Polish patriots gave their lives to reclaim their homeland from tyranny.

On my trip to Poland two summers ago — and I will never forget it — I was deeply moved to speak at the Monument to the Warsaw Uprising. Many of you remember that scene. The people went 10 blocks long. It was like spokes on wheel and it went deep, deep. And there were — I guess, I’ve never seen anything like it.

Many young Poles ran into the streets and came face-to-face with the enemy. One such man was Richard Cosby. (Applause.) Richard Cosby. I had no idea, Rita. I’ve known Rita so long; I had no idea. Who fought for weeks on end, was gravely wounded, and was taken to a Nazi prison camp in Germany. Months later, Richard and other Polish prisoners escaped to the American front. That’s a great day for Richard.

This evening, we are honored to be joined by Richard Cosby’s daughter — and a friend of mine for a long time. I had no idea. (Applause.) Huh? That’s great. Rita. Come up here for a second, Rita. Come up here. And, Rita, I have to say, your dad’s story fills our hearts with gratitude for the Polish and American patriots who stared down evil. And I want to thank you. I’ve known her so long, and so I just had no idea. I’ve very impress- — I’m even more impressed now. Thank you. (Laughter.)

Thank you very much. Be careful. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much, Rita.

Today, we pay tribute to the heroes of the Warsaw Uprising and all of those who fought so courageously in Warsaw and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising the year before.

After the Second World War, the people of Poland endured a decades-long struggle to regain their independence — and it was tough — from very oppressive communist rule. And it was oppressive.

This month, we commemorate the 40th anniversary of Saint John Paul the Second’s first pilgrimage to his beloved homeland as Pope. (Applause.) He loved Poland, right? That’s great.

With us today is Jerzy Bogdziewicz. Where — Jerzy, where are you? Get over here, Jerzy. Come on. (Laughter.) Jerzy grew up in communist Poland. He and a group of fellow students met with the Pope. Was that exciting, Jerzy, meeting with the Pope? More exciting than meeting with Trump, right? (Laughter.)

MR. BOGDZIEWICZ: Yes, (inaudible).

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He said, “Yes.” I can’t believe it. (Laughter.) Thank you. Thank you, Jerzy, very much.

MR. BOGDZIEWICZ: Thank you, Mr. President, like always.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Fantastic. Thank you very much.

After the Pope’s pilgrimage, Jerzy was one of the thousands of students who joined the Solidarity Movement. And, Jerzy, we’re honored to have you and every Pole who bravely stood for the rights given to us by God. Jerzy, thank you very much. That was great. Rita, thank you very much. (Applause.)

For centuries, our nations have been united by shared aspirations and values. We celebrate the role of family in society, and the dignity of every human life. We draw inspiration from our heroes and honor from our traditions. We enrich the world through art and exploration and science. We protect our sovereignty, and we understand that law is the cornerstone of liberty.

On this very day, June 12th, in 1987, President Ronald Reagan delivered his famous speech in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. Right? We remember that day. That was a special day. Soon after, through the strength of American resolve, the faith of freedom-striving nations, and the mighty spirit of the Poles, the brutal reign of communism in Central and Eastern Europe came to a peaceful end. That was a tremendous day. That was a tremendous time.

President Duda, we will never forget all that Poland has endured to win back its freedom. The story of your nation will always inspire patriots all around the world.

Here in America, Polish-Americans have built flourishing communities, industries, schools, and churches in every generation. Polish-Americans helped settle the Midwest and they helped lead the industrial revolution. They worked so hard and so smart. (Applause.)

The families here today remind us of the countless ways Polish-Americans strengthen our nation. You uplift our communities, sustain our heritage, safeguard our freedoms, and defend our great American flag. Thank you.

To every Polish-American here today, and to those around our country, we say thank you, God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

And now I’d like to — thank you very much. And now — I know so many of you. (Laughter.) I didn’t know you were all Polish, to be honest with you. (Laughter.) Do you hear that, Rita?

I’d like to introduce you to, now, a man who really has done such an incredible job as a leader. Respected all over the world. And your country is more respected, I think, than ever before. When you look at what’s happened in Poland, it’s truly a miracle. And what they’ve had to go through over the years — it’s never been easy for Poland. But this is a great President, and it’s an honor to have him and Mrs. Duda at the White House. Thank you very much.

Mr. President, thank you. Thank you. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT DUDA: (As interpreted.) Distinguished, Mr. President; wonderful distinguished First Lady of the United States of America; all distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen: My wife and I are greatly honored and thrilled to be here at the White House for the second time in 10 months. And we would like to thank our wonderful hosts, President Donald Trump and wonderful First Lady Melania Trump.

Ladies and gentlemen, last year, Poland celebrated the 100th anniversary of regaining independence. Last year, Poland celebrated the 100th anniversary for regaining independence. And millions of Poles, both at home and abroad, perhaps especially here in the United States, honored that hugely important historic fact.

President and First Lady, thank you for celebrating this anniversary with myself and my wife last September, here at the White House. We are hugely grateful and honored. (Applause.)

But that’s not the end. This year, Poland and the United States remember another common anniversary: the 100th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations in 1919. And from among all the countries that back then, in 1919, were valuable in the international arena — in the international stage, it was precisely the United States, which was the first great power to recognize the newly restored Polish state.

And I’m happy that we are here today not only to recollect and commemorate those anniversaries, but also to invest in our future relations.

Mr. President, one of your predecessors, the 33rd President of the United States, Harry Truman, once said, “Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still.” And then, he continued, “Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.” (Applause.)

Oto jesteśmy. (In English.) “Here we are,” Mr. President. (Laughter and applause.)

(As interpreted.) A lot has been accomplished since we met here in September 2018. We have filled the declaration on strategic partnership with political, economic, energy, and security content. In all these areas, our cooperation has been dependent — benefitting both Poland and the United States.

These are not words; these are concrete effects. Our mutual relations have been deepened and strengthened through our reverence to assured values, which are the pillars of the transatlantic community.

I believe that they have evolved toward — they will evolve towards a true friendship between committed and trusted allies.

Distinguished Mr. President, in Poland we know that you are our great friend. (Applause.) And it is right here, at the White House, that — the very heart of the United States — that I would like to take this opportunity and appreciate these relations that you have with the hardworking and loyal Polish-Americans. (Applause.)

I have met thousands of them in different American cities, and I can assure you, Mr. President, that this feeling is mutual. (Applause.)

(In English.) Dear friends, in two days, America will celebrate the great anniversary. It will be the day of the birth — a new anniversary of the day of the birth of the 45th President of the United States of America, Mr. Donald Trump. (Applause.)

Happy birthday, Mr. President! Happy birthday to you. May all your dreams come true, Mr. President.

AUDIENCE: (Sings “Sto Lat.”) (Applause.)

PRESIDENT DUDA: Mr. President — Mr. President, may this first term of your presidency will be the introduction to the second one. Thank you. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thanks, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.

END 5:44 P.M. EDT

After a series of bilateral meetings President Donald Trump and Polish President Andrzej Duda hold a joint press conference in the Rose Garden.  [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – 2:23 P.M. EDT – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Please. Today, Melania and I are honored to welcome President Duda and Mrs. Kornhauser-Duda of Poland back to the White House. They’ve become friends. We last hosted them in Washington, in September, and it’s wonderful to see you both again. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Great honor.

Since our last meeting, the unbreakable bonds between the United States and Poland have grown even closer. This year, as our nations mark 100 years of diplomatic relations, the U.S.-Polish alliance is stronger, by far, than ever before.

Earlier today, President Duda and I signed a joint declaration affirming the significant defense cooperation between our nations. And, as the declaration makes clear, the United States and Poland are not only bound by a strategic partnership, but by deep, common values, shared goals, and a very strong and abiding friendship.

Our people are united by the enduring ties of civilization, culture, and history. We respect the rule of law, revere individual rights, and prize our timeless traditions. We embrace country, faith, family, and freedom.

Over the past century, brave American and Polish patriots have repeatedly stood together to defend our sovereignty, our liberty, and our noble way of life.

When I was last in Poland, I was very proud to stand among veterans of the Warsaw Uprising and recall their incredible courage in the face of Nazi tyranny.

Today, we honor the sacrifices of all those who came before by doing our part to safeguard our independence and strengthen the incredible U.S.-Polish alliance.

As stated in the joint declaration, the United States and Poland continue to enhance our security cooperation. Poland will still provide basing and infrastructure to support military presence of about 1,000 American troops. The Polish government will build these projects at no cost to the United States. The Polish government will pay for this.

We thank President Duda and the people of Poland for their partnership in advancing our common security.

Poland’s burden sharing also extends to the NATO Alliance, where it is among eight NATO Allies, including the United States, currently meeting the minimum 2 percent of GDP that’s for defense spending. And Poland is there. And you’ve been there from a very early date, and we appreciate that very much. And we’ve been there also.

There’s been a total of 8 — 8 out of 28, and the rest are coming along. Because nations, at my urging, have paid more than $100 billion more toward the NATO defense.

Last month, I was very pleased that Poland announced the intent to purchase 32 American-made F-35 fighter aircraft, like you just saw.

Moments ago, we witnessed that impressive flyover of this cutting-edge F-35 as it flew over the White House and actually came to a — pretty close to a halt over the White House. I was saying, “What’s wrong with that plane? It’s not going very fast.” (Laughter.) But it’s an incredible — it’s an incredible thing when you can do that. That plane can land dead straight, and it’s one of the few in the world that can do that. Considered to be the greatest fighter jet in the world.

I applaud President Duda for its efforts to strengthen and modernize Poland’s defenses.

I also want to congratulate Poland for its progress on meeting U.S. criteria for entry into the Visa Waiver Program. Today, our country signed a Preventing and Combatting Serious Crimes Agreement — a significant and necessary step for Poland’s entry into the program. Though we still have some work to do, we hope to welcome Poland into the Visa Waiver Program very soon, and that’s a very big deal.

Both of our nations understand that immigration security is national security. In our meeting, President Duda and I discussed the vital issue of energy. Reliance on a single foreign supplier of energy leaves nations totally vulnerable to coercion and extortion.

For this reason, we support Poland’s construction of the Baltic pipeline, which will help European countries diversify their energy sources. It’s desperately needed, and that’s the way to go.

During the past year, Poland has also signed approximately 25 billion dollars’ worth of new contracts with U.S. firms to buy more than 6 billion cubic meters of U.S. liquefied natural gas. Today, our nations just signed another contract for an additional 2 billion cubic meters worth approximately $8 billion.

So between the planes and the liquefied natural gas, and many other things that Poland is doing — which is doing very well because Poland is doing very, very well — we appreciate it. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Our countries also signed an agreement to expand U.S.-Polish civil nuclear cooperation, which will likewise advance Poland’s energy and security, and deepen our bilateral commercial ties.

Economic relations between the U.S. and Poland are thriving. We’re committed to further expanding commerce based on fairness and reciprocity — perhaps my favorite word.

Across many critical areas — from defense and diplomacy, to energy and economics — the alliance between the United States and Poland is reaching extraordinary new heights in 2019. Our longstanding partnership demonstrates the enormous possibilities for the world when two strong and independent nations unite in common purpose and in common cause.

President Duda, it’s a honor to have you with us. And, Mrs. Duda, thank you very much for being here. We usher in a very exciting new era in U.S.-Polish alliance. It’s a very special alliance with very special people. We build a future of promise and prosperity for the American and the Polish people. And, again, our relationship is an extraordinary one, and it’s going to remain that for a long, long time.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT DUDA: (As interpreted.) Distinguished Mr. President, wonderful First Lady of the United States of America, distinguished ministers, all distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

First and foremost, together with my wife, we would like to thank you very much, Mr. President Donald Trump. Thank you also to the First Lady Melania Trump for this invitation to Washington. Thank you for this possibility of holding another, within the last 10 months, official visit to the United States here at the White House.

This clearly demonstrates how close and how good contacts are today between Poland and the United States. Mr. President, all of us hope that you will visit us in Poland, in September, and that we will be able, together, to commemorate the memory of all those who fell and who perished during the Second World War, which started on the 1st of September, 1939, in Poland through the attack of Nazi Germans on our country. And soon, unfortunately, our country vanished from the map of Europe after the attack of the Soviet Union, against Poland, together with Nazi Germany.

That is our history. It’s a very difficult one. And today, we firmly believe that the true ally of Poland, but also a true ally of a free Europe, is precisely the United States of America, who helped that very Europe in such a huge way to win the Second World War and later to establish an independent, sovereign, and free world, which later turned into the European Union.

It exists until this day, and thanks to God. Also thanks to the support of the United States, through the support of subsequent Presidents since 1989; thanks to the great Movement of Solidarity; thanks to the great determination of the Polish nation.

Also, we are part of the free world. Also, Poland, which liberated itself from behind the Iron Curtain — which later led to the collapse of the Iron Curtain through the votes of the people casting elections in 1989. In those elections, people said no to Communists. Also, Poland can develop today as an independent and truly sovereign country — a country which wants to build the European community and a country which also wants to build the Euro-Atlantic community.

In our understanding, this is an absolutely key element of peace and good cooperation across the globe. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you that for sure you are among those Presidents of the United States who understand how it works perfectly. You understand that when the U.S. looks at Europe, when it looks at the security of the European states, it plays a key role for the peace around the globe. It is of key importance for a peaceful development of democratic states and democratic communities.

Thank you, Mr. President, for this extreme kindness towards Poland and perfect understanding of Polish matters, which you showed to us in 2017 during your visit to Poland, during your memorable speech that you gave at the Monument of the Warsaw Uprising where so immensely important words for Polish people fell, which are of historic importance to our nation and to Europe. They showed what Poland means and who Poles are.

Mr. President, thank you for uttering those words back then. And thank you also for this policy which is being implemented right now, which demonstrates that you are this kind of man and this kind of a politician who not only speaks, but to whom first and most important are the deeds. The most important are the deeds.

And whenever you say, Mr. President, “Make America Great Again,” it means “make” not “say.” And this precisely is of crucial importance, hence the agreements that we are signing; hence two agreements between our two states concluded today: two memorandums of understanding, which we signed just a moment ago. One of them I signed personally concerning the security and military cooperation.

As you mentioned, sir, there will be more American troops in Poland. This is going to be an enhanced cooperation. It’s going to be an enduring presence, which hopefully will increase gradually in terms of the number of troops, but also in terms of infrastructure which is very important.

Thank you also for the decision to establish the division headquarters in Poland. This is of huge importance not only to Poland, but also to our part of Europe, to Central Europe, to the Baltic States, and to all those to whom the enhanced forward presence was established, of the United States and other NATO states, along NATO’s eastern flank. I’m deeply grateful for that.

But thank you, Mr. President, also for the remaining agreements. Thank you for this agreement which talks about preventing and combatting serious crimes. It moves us closer to visa waiver program between Poland and the United States — which to you, Mr. President, and to me, and, first and foremost to Poles, is so important — is of such a crucial importance.

Thank you, Mr. President, also for excellent energy cooperation that we have in terms of LNG supplies. We talked about this in 2017, in Warsaw, during our meeting, that gas from the United States should be delivered to Poland. And it is delivered. And we are signing more contracts. And gas tankers from the United States are coming to the Port of Świnoujście today. And the gas from the United States has become a fact in Poland and in our part of Europe.

Thank you, Mr. President, that there are going to be more supplies. I’m very happy about that, because to us, it means diversification of sources of supplies. It also means the development of gas security. To us, it also means good business, just as I do really believe is a good business for the United States of America. But thank you also for the agreement cooperation in terms of nuclear energy used for civil purposes.

I hope that, together, we will be able to implement this program with the benefit for environment protection with the benefit for (inaudible) protection across the globe, and also for the development of the security of my homeland.

Mr. President, I am deeply grateful for this visit. I’m pleased that, thanks to this presence, we’re able to show the very good cooperation that we have between Poland as part of the European Union and the United States.

And I firmly believe that thanks to your incredible view of the European matters, and thanks to your understanding to our Polish matters and to the meanders of our history, this cooperation is going to develop better and better, first and foremost also with the benefit for the United States whose interests you are representing, Mr. President, and also understanding the rest of the world.

Thank you very much for that. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you very much. We’ll take a few questions. Emerald? OAN.

Q Thank you, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

Q Earlier in the Oval Office, before you did your meeting with President Duda, you were quite critical of Germany, as you talked about possibly moving troops from Germany to Poland. Do you think that doing a move like that will put pressure on Germany to meet their defense spending requirements?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I don’t think so. I just will tell you very strongly that I think Germany is making a tremendous mistake by relying so heavily on the pipeline. And I think it’s a tremendous mistake for Germany. But again, Germany is running their affairs. And they’ll do just fine.

But I was critical. I had been critical of it. It’s a tremendous amount of their energy will be supplied by that pipeline.

At the same time, having nothing to do with Germany, Poland said that we would like to build a facility, a great facility, and we’d like to have you come to that facility. So we’re going to be there with a limited force, but we’ll be there. And we appreciate Poland doing what they’re doing. It’s a great location. It’s a tremendous — it’s a tremendous plant, tremendous facility. And it’s our honor to be there.

Poland has been a tremendous friend of ours for a long time. And when Melania and I were there not so long ago, it was a very special day. I think it was a special day for Poland, also. But it was a very special day for our country. So I appreciate that. And our relationship is just a very strong one.

Q And, if I may, would you indulge me with one more question before I get —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, go ahead.

Q — to ask President Duda a question? In more recent news, yesterday you revealed you got another letter from Kim Jong Un. And today we hear of the potential thawing of relations between South Korea and North Korea as Kim Jong Un is sending his sister to South Korea. Now, could you give us an update on more of what was in that letter? And is there a third summit in the works?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He just wrote me a very nice letter, unexpected. And someday you’ll see what was in that letter. Someday you’ll be reading about it. Maybe in 100 years from now, maybe in two weeks. Who knows? But it was a very nice letter. It was a very warm, very nice letter. I appreciated it. Okay?

Q Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Good. Thank you very much.

Q And then, if I may, for President Duda?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Please.

Q You said you were thankful for the commitment that the President made for more troops today, but you hinted that you would like to see more. Ultimately, what is the number of troops that you’d like to see in Poland? U.S. troops.

PRESIDENT DUDA: (As interpreted.) Madam, this, of course, is always going to be the decision of the United States of America.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He’d like to see 250,000 troops. (Laughter.) We’ll keep it (inaudible).

PRESIDENT DUDA: (As interpreted.) It’s always going to be up to the United States to decide how many troops there will be sent to Pol — to which Allied nation.

Of course, I know that this depends on the needs and on the real situation on the ground. Of course, I know that this depends on the needs and on the real situation on the ground. Of course, we are very pleased that the U.S. troops are present by giving an evidence to the sustainability and strength of the Alliance. And the U.S. soldiers are kindly treated in Poland. They are received as friends.

And we are happy that they are serving in our country. We would like those bonds between Poland and the United States to become even tighter. And we are trying, also, to create the best possible conditions for American soldiers.

Q Thank you very much, President Trump. Thank you very much, President Duda. I have questions to both of you actually.

President Trump, you plan to enhance U.S. military presence in Poland. Last year, you promised you would enhance our military cooperation, training, intelligence, missile defense, and it’s happening right now. People of Poland still remember your incredible speech in Warsaw. Why Poland is such an important ally for you?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I just have a very warm feeling for Poland. I always have. And it’s now even beyond that because of the relationship, which we’ve developed with your President and First Lady. And it’s just — they’re very — they’re incredible people. Hard working, smart, very industrious people. And what they’ve done with the country over the last five years has been something that the world has watched and the world has marveled at.

I’ve just liked Poland. So when the President came and he asked me whether or not we’d consider this, I said, “I will consider it.” And now, because of his leadership, we’re able to do that. And that’s fine with me. That’s great. Great people. And say “hello.”

Q So I understand we can — we’ll see you in September, in Warsaw, correct?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We are looking very seriously at going back to Poland. And I don’t know what the President has in store for us, but we’re thinking about going back sometime in September. Yes. Thank you.

Q Amazing. Thank you. Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

Q (As interpreted.) A question to President Duda. Mr. President, so far, we have been talking about a rotational presence of U.S. troops in our country. Right now, we are talking about permanent or enduring presence. What does that mean in concrete terms? And when can we expect those additional U.S. troops to arrive?

PRESIDENT DUDA: (As interpreted.) I understand it in the follow way: President Donald Trump and myself are implementing a very calm but consistent policy in terms of security. The presence of the United States in Poland — the military presence — the presence of U.S. troops, which today is about 4,500 troops present on a permanent basis. In other words, it is a rotational presence but it is back-to-back presence. So there is no moment where there are no American troops in the territory of Poland.

And today, we signed a document and further cooperation: a Joint Declaration on Defense Cooperation Regarding the United States Force Posture in the Republic of Poland.

This is of a breakthrough character because it moves us to another era. So far, we can say that the Americans were testing the situation in Poland: how it looks, how it feels; what about logistics; whether it is possible to stay in Poland and to successfully attain the goals and implement the tasks of defensive nature.

I think that the commanders of U.S. Army are convinced that this is simply possible. And today, the documents speaks about this enduring presence — the presence which is a fact and which will stay there.

It is a rotational presence, (inaudible) because this is most beneficial from today’s perspective to train soldiers through rotational presence. By having rotational presence, more soldiers can come to a country, be present there, look at a culture and the condition in place in a given country. So this is beneficial for this, (inaudible) understood a development of the armed forces. Therefore, this is an enduring presence. However, it is implementing this particular way.

And we hope it’s going to develop 1,000 troops, mentioned by President Trump today, which is also — the numbers stipulated in the agreement signed today is very differentiated. It is not one single unit. We are talking about special operation forces. We are talking about logistics component. We are also talking about the already-mentioned division headquarters.

So there is a multitude of forums in which the United States is going to be gradually evermore present in our territory, from the military standpoint. And this will encompass different fields of cooperation. So we’re not talking about just one single beat, but we’re talking about a more comprehensive cooperation. We’re talking about logistics, (inaudible) protection for soldiers, and a number of other elements happening.

Please remember that, right now, there is this missile defense facility being built in Redzikowo. So, talking about the elements of Polish-American cooperation, there are more and more of these elements, and the number is growing. I’m very happy with that. Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Let’s see, who do I like? (Laughter.) Nobody. That’s the end. (Laughter.)

Go ahead. Yeah.

Q Me? Mr. President, thank you very much. President Duda, thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I was pointing at you, but you can go ahead. Here we go.

Q You were pointing to —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I was actually pointing to my friend with that beautiful hat on, but that’s okay.

Q Jeff Mason. All right, well —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You’ll give up your question?

Q Well, I’ll give him my follow-up question.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You’ll give up your —

Q We can share it.

Q We’ll share the question.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Huh? Okay. We’ll share it. Good.

Q Mr. President, you seemed to suggest, yesterday, that you’re essentially committing to not spying on North Korea. Is that what you meant? Were those comments interpreted accurately? If so, why?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, it’s not what I meant. It’s what I said. And that’s — I think it’s different than maybe your interpretation. I think we’re going to do very well with North Korea over a period of time. I’m in no rush. The sanctions are on. We got our hostages back. Our remains are coming back; you saw the beautiful ceremony in Hawaii with Mike Pence. We’re getting the remains back. There’s been no nuclear testing whatsoever. They’d like to do something. I did get, you know, a very — as I said yesterday, a very nice letter from Chairman Kim. And I think we’re doing very well.

When I took over as President, I will tell you, it looked like it was going to be war with North Korea. You know that. Everybody knows that. And it was going to be quite brutal. A strong force. We’re the strongest force in the world, but that’s a strong force.

And we started off a very rough relationship, and I think we have a very good relationship right now. So we’ll see what happens. I’m in no rush. I’m in no rush.

But there’s been no nuclear testing whatsoever. And when I took over, it was nuclear testing all the time. And if you look back to the last four, five, six years — but really go back further than that. In all fairness to President Obama, go back 20 years, 15 years. It was, really, a very dangerous situation. I consider it to be different now.

Now, I may change. And if I change, you will know it very quickly. I will be very quick to tell you exactly what’s going on. I may change. But right now, we have a good relationship, and I think, probably, better than we’ve had for maybe 25 years, maybe forever.

You know, they’ve been there a long time — the grandfather, the father, the son. And they’ve been there for a long time, and nobody has done anything except me. And so we’ll see how it all turns out. I hope it turns out well for you and for everybody.

Q And I’ll give my follow-up to Jeff. Very quickly, President Duda, thank you. Do you see Russia as an ally or an adversary?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Are you talking to me?

Q To President Duda.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Boy, was that a set-up question. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT DUDA: (As interpreted.) I would very much like Russia to be a friend of Poland because it is our great neighbor. It is a country much bigger than Poland, with a bigger potential than Poland in every single respect — except for one, perhaps. I believe that we have got more courage in us — that we are more brave, more courageous, and are able to fight until the end, irrespective of everything.

This is actually what we demonstrated in World War Two, at the Battle of Monte Cassino. We demonstrated that in the Warsaw Uprising. We demonstrated that in many other places around the globe where Polish soldiers died to make sure that Poland is free after the Second World War.

This, unfortunately, did not happen. We found ourselves under the Russian occupation. But even then, for almost 20 years, after World War Two, there was this anti-Communist, anti-Soviet underground, which fought against the Soviets, and those people were murdered. Today, we call them “Unbreakable Soldiers.” We commemorate their memory, although they were dug underground to make it impossible for anyone to find their remains and so that they couldn’t have graves built.

So we were always fighting. We always knew how to defend ourselves. Nevertheless, history was brutal towards us. We never had a great friendship with Russia. Russia was always looking out to take our territory. It was a partitioner in Poland for 123 years. Poland did not exist because part of the territory was taken by Russia.

Poles were deported to the east. Then came an aggression on the right — on the recently reborn Poland, which rose in 1918 from the ashes of the First World War. And in 1919, the Soviet Russia attacked Poland. It wanted to grab Poland’s territory and bring communism to the west of Europe. It was us who stopped Soviets at Warsaw in 1920.

By the bravery of Polish soldiers, we defeated them during a great battle. And then we chased them back to the east. And then they took their revenge on us in 1939 by attacking us, together with Nazi Germany, and murdering our officers in Katyn.

So, madam, as you can see, this friendship is a very difficult one. Today, we are in the following situation: Russia attacked Georgia. Then, in 2014, it attacked Ukraine. And these are facts. These are facts which belong to the recent history.

We would like Russia to be our friend, but unfortunately, Russia again is showing its very unkind, unpleasant, imperial face, and we do not want to be part of Russia’s sphere of influence.

And I am happy that today we can speak boldly, also in connection with the military presence of the U.S. and NATO in Poland, that we truly are, first and foremost, in terms of politics, part of the West. Because we have always been part of the West, in terms of culture. We have always been part of the West, because it is from the West from which we adopted Christianity in 966, more than 1,000 years ago. And since that time, we have been part of the West of Europe. We have been part of the great Christian culture of Western Europe.

But we have to stick to this West also, in terms of politics. And this is what we want — and I firmly believe that this is the biggest desire of Polish people: to be part of the West also in terms of politics.

Thank you that the United States is supporting us in this respect.

Q For the — excuse me.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And just to finish, I hope that Poland is going to have a great relationship with Russia. I think it’s possible. I really do. I think because of what you’ve done and the strength — and maybe we help also, because of what we’re doing and doing for Poland.

But I hope that Poland is going to have a great relationship with Russia. I hope we’re going to have a great relationship with Russia and, by the way, China and many other countries. And we look forward to doing things on North Korea — just to go back to the original part of your question. And we’ll see how that works out.

I do want to say, though: We’re in no hurry. The sanctions are on. China has actually been helping us quite a bit. And despite our trade differences right now — we thought we had a deal, and unfortunately, they decided that they were going to change the deal, and they can’t do that with me. But something is going to happen, and I think it’s going to be something very positive.

But we think we’re going to get along with a lot of countries that, frankly, did not respect us very much because they were ripping us off for many, many years. And they’re not ripping us off anymore.

Jeff.

Q Thank you, sir. Regarding China, what is your deadline, if you have one, for China to make progress on trade before you impose the tariffs on the other $325 billion in goods?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re going to be meeting — President Xi and myself — and you know we have a very good relationship. But, again, he’s for China and I’m for the U.S. It’s a big difference. And we thought we had a deal. We didn’t have a deal. And I would never make something that would be less than what we already had.

We had China opened up to trade. That’s a big thing. They’ve never done that before. We had intellectual property theft taken care of and taken care of beautifully. And all of the sudden, those things started to disappear at the end, after they were fully negotiated.

But that’s — you know, that’s their decision. I think if they had to do again — and in light of the fact that we have 25 percent on $250 billion of goods coming into the United States. And unlike a lot of countries, they subsidize those goods. We haven’t had inflation. And, you know, they keep saying that the American taxpayer is paying for it. No. No. Very little.

And what it really does mean is that a lot of those companies that are in China are going to be moving back to the U.S. You have car companies — General Motors, as an example — that built plants in China. Well, that doesn’t work out too well when you have the tariff wall up because now they’re going to have to get through that and they can’t really get through that. So maybe they’ll start building plants in the United States instead.

I think that we’ll end up making a deal with China. We have a very good relationship, although it’s a little bit testy right now, as you would expect. I think they really have to make a deal. A lot of companies are leaving China, as you know. It’s in all the reports. And they’re going to Vietnam and various other places, and they’re also coming to the United States to make their product because they don’t want to pay the tariff.

And there is no tariff if you do it in the United States. People don’t realize that. You know, they say “the tariff,” but there is no tariff if you don’t do it — you know, if you just do exactly as I say: You bring your company back to the United States.

And as far as Mexico is concerned, which was a very big topic yesterday — and now people are finding out that the reports that were written were totally false — we would never have had a deal with Mexico without imposing tariffs. Once the tariffs were imposed — and they’ve been trying to make this deal with Mexico for 20 years, 25 years. The older reporters, those great reporters with the very gray hair in the back — you know who I’m talking about; they know exactly what I’m talking about — you would have never made the deal with Mexico.

We have a great deal with Mexico. I actually think we have a much better relationship right now with Mexico because they respect us again. But you would never have had that deal if I didn’t impose the tariffs. And those tariffs were ready to going to on Monday morning, and we made the deal on, essentially, Sunday night.

And that extra little page of the deal that you saw that brilliantly — I had gained such respect for you people when I held it up to the sunlight and it was closed, and you were able to read it through the sunlight. That was not anticipated. But regardless, I mean, you knew enough of what it said. And I didn’t do it on purpose, but we have a lot of strength in 45 days if we decide to use that strength. Maybe we will, and maybe we won’t. But there’s a lot of power right now in the border.

And I will say this: Mexico is, right now, doing more for the United States on illegal immigration and all of the problems of crime and other problems on the border than the Democrats. We can solve our problem on the border in 15 minutes if the Democrats would sit down, straighten out asylum — which is a total mess, but very uncomplicated — straighten out asylum, and get rid of the loopholes. It would take, Jeff, 15 minutes.

Okay? Thank you. Please.

Q But just — my original question, sir, was: Do you have a deadline for imposing the 325?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I have no deadline. My deadline is what’s up here. We’ll figure out the deadline.

Q Okay.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Nobody can quite figure it out.

Q And, President Duda, if I could just throw one your way as well: You said in the Oval Office earlier that democracy in Poland was strong. Not all of your European Union counterparts agree with that. How is forcing Supreme Court justices to retire early consistent with democratic principles? And, President Trump, is that something that you support?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No.

PRESIDENT DUDA: (As interpreted.) Ladies and gentlemen, this is a very complex issue. And it’s hard to answer this question because a lot of people in Western Europe — I think also in the U.S. — do not fully understand this problem because they have not grown up in a country such as mine.

I was born in 1972, in a Poland which was in the Russian sphere of influence, in which a career could be made only, actually, when somebody enrolled as member of the Communist Party and who followed these people’s power who was the supreme authority. And this is what was happening for many years.

Although, as you know, ladies and gentlemen, as Solidarity Movement grew, people were imprisoned, people were tortured, people were killed during the martial law, and after as well — be it openly or in a secret way. And this was the reality of Poland until 1989.

And now imagine, ladies and gentlemen, that no so long ago — a few years ago — I was surprised to discover that, in the Polish Supreme Court, there was a whole group of justices who were issuing sentencing as judges — members of the Communist Party — before 1990, who were even passing sentences during the martial law, sentencing people to prisons based on the law of the Communist martial law.

And when I was asked whether the Supreme Court needs to be reformed, I said “yes.” If Poland is supposed to be a truly democratic, free, and sovereign country, if it is supposed to be a country we want it to be for our children, for the generation who was born after, in 1989, then for God’s sake, those people have to leave. They have to retire. And this is what we did.

As a matter of fact, everything that we were doing was aimed at retiring those people. But, as you can see, unfortunately, although 30 years have passed, they have got influence — the influence which they were building after 1989 where they assumed a new identity of an elite of a new state. So this influence is still strong. This is what I can say.

And let me assure you of one thing: that freedom of speech is absolutely respected in Poland. Poland absolutely respects all constitutional standards, just as in the United States: the right to assemble; the right to the freedom of speech. There is free media in Poland. There is everything that is functioning in a normal democracy.

One can announce what they think, one can demonstrate, one can say what they think. In Poland, people are not attacked during demonstrations as it happens in other Western European countries. Police do not use truncheons or tear gas against people. People can speak their mind. They can express that they’re not pleased with something. This is their right in democracy.

Please ask Polish journalists, “When was the last time — when was the last demonstration in Poland when some kind of tension happened?” No, it didn’t, because in Poland we respect the right to demonstrate and to express your concern, because we believe that this is one of the foundations of democracy. In Poland, there is absolutely free and just elections. All the standards are respected.

So, please, ladies and gentleman, come to Poland and see Poland with your own eyes. Please do not repeat certain stereotypes that are repeated in the West. Poland, today, has got quite a conservative government, that is true. And this government has got certain standards of action. Not everybody subscribes to those standards, especially people of more leftist views. But this is the nature of democracy.

So once you have got one side of the political scene in power, and then people make a different choice and another side of the political stage comes to power. There is nothing extraordinary about that. And this is the change that is happening in Poland.

But when somebody wins the elections, they then have the right to implement the program which they announced before the elections. Excuse me, however, realizing that implementing the program, which you presented in your election campaign, is not only the right, but I think an obligation resting on a politician. And this is exactly what is happening in Poland.

Q A question for both Presidents. Mr. President, you said just a moment ago that Poland will join the visa waiver program soon. How soon?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We think fairly soon. We’re doing very well with it. It’s a complex situation, as you know. But we’re getting very close. We allow very few countries to join, but Poland is one that we’re thinking about allowing in. So we’ll be making that decision over the next, probably, 90 days.

Q Sir, will you hope, or do you think that maybe when you are in Poland in September you will make the announcement?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think it’s a very good idea. Thank you very much for giving me that idea. (Laughter.)

Q Thank you, Mr. President.

(As interpreted.) Mr. President, the visa waiver program appeared on many occasions but then it did not come into practice. How optimistic are we about the words uttered right now by President Donald Trump?

PRESIDENT DUDA: (As interpreted.) I’m looking at these words optimistic. I’m optimistic about that because I think this is the first U.S. administration which has treated this problem in such a serious way and in such a comprehensive way. So, both.

When we talk with Mr. President, we — the President expresses his deep care about that. Also, when I talk with President, Mosbacher — the U.S. Ambassador to Warsaw — she looks at the problem all the time. And I firmly believe that, in accordance with the law binding the United States — because this is something that I want to stress very strongly — according to the law, binding in the United States, by all the actions which are necessary in this respect such as today’s signing of the agreement on preventing and committing serious crimes, I believe that, through all these sanctions, this visa waiver program — covering Poles with visa waiver program — is going to be possible soon. Anyway, that it is going to be possible before the end of the first term of President Donald Trump.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

Thank you very much. Thank you.

[End Transcript]

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome Polish President Andrzej Duda and his wife Agata Kornhauser-Duda to the White House.  The relationship between the U.S. and Poland is one of the cornerstones of a newly invigorated united alliance in Europe.

President Trump visited Warsaw, Poland, (July, 2017) where he delivered a speech vowing to confront “new forms of aggression” targeting Western values. The President and First Lady received a very enthusiastic reception during their visit to Poland.

Ahead of a bilateral meeting between the two leaders they held a press availability in the oval office.  [Video and transcript]

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•President Donald Trump says he is seriously considering a return visit to Poland this fall. •The United States will send 2,000 more service members to Poland as he announces a broadening security and economic alliance. •The Polish government will pay for the infrastructure to support additional troops. •Poland will purchase 32 U.S. made F-35 fighter jets. •The U.S. and Poland have agreed to $8 Billion sales of liquefied natural gas.

[Transcript] PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. We have the very great privilege of having the President of Poland with us and his very powerful and lovely wife. Thank you very much. It’s great to be with you again.

And we are celebrating a lot of different things. The purchase of many F-35 aircraft by Poland — the finest jet in the world, they say. The finest fighter plane anywhere in the world. And you knew that; you had your choice.

Poland has done really well, and they have really eclipsed anything that anybody thought. And their numbers are fantastic. Their economy is good. We’ve helped them a lot and they’ve helped us a lot. We have a tremendous trading relationship, and we’re going to be discussing numerous things today.

We’re going to have a pretty long meeting, and at the end of which I guarantee a lot of good things are happening. But they’re big buyers of our equipment, of our planes, and our munitions in every form, in every respect. And we’re going to keep it that way, and we appreciate it.

And on behalf of the First Lady and myself, I’d like to thank you both for coming to the Oval Office — a very special place. And we’ve been here before together. And I will never forget the speech I made in Poland. We were treated so well. The people are such a great group of people. And we had a tremendous day. I remember it very well. I won’t forget it. That was really rolling out the red carpet. We will not forget. Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT DUDA: Thank you. Mr. President. We also remember very well your speech. (Laughs.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

Q Will there be Fort Trump in Poland?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Excuse me. Go ahead, please. (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT DUDA: Mr. President, thank you very much for this excellent possibility to meet here in Washington with you, in the White House — second time during the last 10 months.

This is excellent opportunity to talk about the important issues in our bilateral relations and about the situation in NATO and the situation of security and defense in our part of Europe, and especially about the future cooperation in trade, and especially in the issue of energy, energy security. And I hope that we will have a lot to say during the press conference.

Q So will there be Fort Trump, sir?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So we’re looking at doing things with Poland, including working with their military. And, as you know, Poland wants to build a great military facility for the United States. They’ll build it. They’re going to spend money. I mean, that’s up to them if they want to do it, but it’s something we’ll consider. But they’ll be putting up the money to build a very major military facility in Poland. And we are giving it very serious thought, and we’ll see how that all works out.

But they came to us. They liked the idea. And it’s something that we’re very interested in.

Q Mr. President, why shouldn’t Americans know why a citizenship question was added to the 2020 census?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You’re talking about the census?

Q Yes, the census.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think that — and I’m not overly involved in that. That’s really a legal matter. But I think when you have a census, and you’re not allowed to talk about whether or not somebody is a citizen or not, that doesn’t sound so good to me. Can you imagine, you send out a census and you’re not allowed to say whether or not a person is an American citizen? In Poland, they’d say they’re either Polish or they’re not. Right? So I don’t want to get you into this battle, but it’s ridiculous. I think it’s —

Q Why not release those documents, Mr. President? Why not let the American people see those documents, though?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think it’s totally ridiculous that we would have a census without asking.

But the Supreme Court is going to be ruling on it soon. I think when the census goes out, you should find out whether or not — and you have the right to ask whether or not somebody is a citizen of the United States.

Okay. Yes, ma’am.

Q Mr. President, are the U.S. troops ready for deployment in Poland?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re talking about it. That’s one of the reasons that we’re here. A lot of money is going to be spent on a facility — a military facility. A great one, in a very good location in Poland. And, actually, it will be spread over a little area. But, basically, one primary facility. We’ll see how it works out. We’re talking about it right now.

Q Mr. President, do you consider Russia as a threat to Poland and to Europe?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I hope not. I’ll tell you what: We’re with everybody. And I hope not. I think that Russia will treat Poland with respect, just like the rest of the world is treating. Poland has really built up a great country. You know, they get hurt, unfortunately, too often. Right? Too often. They’re in the middle of everything. And when bad things happen, it seems that Poland is always the first one that’s in there. And it’s unfortunate.

No, I hope that Russia and Poland and Germany and everybody is going to get along. That’s what I want. I want everybody to get along.

Q (Inaudible) your reaction to the demonstrations in Hong Kong? Is China overplaying its hand here?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, they’re massive demonstrations. I looked today, and that really is a million people. A lot of times, people talk about they had 2,000 people but it was really 1,000 or it was 200. I see it all the time. I see it all the time. But when you look at this demonstration, they said it was a million people, and that was a million people. That was as big a demonstration as I’ve ever seen. So, I hope it all works out for China and for Hong Kong.

Q Are they sending a message to China with these demonstrations?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t know what they’re sending them. I mean, that’s a demonstration that they’re having. I understand the reason for the demonstration, but I’m sure they’ll be able to work it out. I hope they’re going to be able to work it out with China.

Q Mr. President —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes. Yes.

Q Mr. President, what do you think about the Three Seas Initiative of Central and Eastern Europe in (inaudible)?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Say it?

Q Three Seas Initiative that was helping Europe (inaudible)?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re going to be discussing a lot of those elements today.

Q Mr. President, are you concerned about your internal polling as it relates to Joe Biden?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, because we have great internal polling. They were fake polls that were released by somebody that is — it’s ridiculous.

No, we are winning in every single state that we’ve polled. We’re winning in Texas very big. We’re winning in Ohio very big. We’re winning in Florida very big. They were fake polls that were either put out by the corrupt media — because much of the media in this country unfortunately is corrupt; I have to tell you that, Mr. President. And some of it is excellent, but some is very bad.

Those are fake numbers. But you know when you’re going to see that? You’re going to see that on Election Day. On Election Day, you’re going to see it. It was the same thing — I had the same thing for —

Q Some of your advisors say there is concern.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I had the same thing for a long period of time in 2016. I was getting these terrible poll numbers, and I didn’t see it, because I’d have tremendous crowds and my opponent would have almost nobody. And I said, “I think we’re going to win the state of Michigan” — and we did. “I think we’re going to win the state of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio.” And we won them all.

And now I have the same stuff. They’re giving out phony polls. No, these are polls that we have, that nobody saw. We do very little polling because I’m not a huge believer in polling. I think you go out there and you fight and you don’t really need polls. You need ideas more than polls.

But we have some internal polling — very little — and it’s unbelievably strong. The strongest I’ve ever been is exactly today.

Q Some of your advisors say there is concern. Is that inaccurate?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, they’re not advisors. It’s fake news. You don’t understand what I’m saying. Those advisors don’t exist. They don’t exist. It’s made up by the newspapers. It’s fake news.

Q Mr. President, the House and Senate committees have subpoena power. How is this going to play out over the next two years?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think what the Democrats are trying to do — because they know they’re going to lose the election so they’re going to give this a shot — they’re going to — just every day they’re going to be going more and more after, after.

I don’t know if you have this, Mr. President, but we have people that are totally out of control. It’s the only way they think they can win the election. So we’ll see what happens. But at some point, the Mueller report spoke. They were very disappointed. It said, “No collusion and no obstruction and no nothing.” And, in fact, it said we actually rebuffed your friends from Russia; that we actually pushed them back — we rebuffed them.

So, the Democrats were very unhappy with the Mueller report. So now they’re trying to do a do-over or a redo. And we’re not doing that. We gave them everything. We were the most transparent presidency in history. We gave them everything. And you and I, we’ve all had this conversation many times before. There’s never been anybody so transparent. Gave them 1.5 million documents. We gave them hundreds of people. I gave them lawyers, which I didn’t have to give. I didn’t have to give anybody. We gave them everybody.

And people that didn’t like Donald Trump — 18 Trump haters — 18 Democrats, and they were Trump haters. And they were supporters, in some cases, of Hillary Clinton. They made the decision. And Bob Mueller, no fan of Donald Trump; I’m no fan of his. And Bob Mueller came out with a report that said “no collusion” and, by the way — and led to no obstruction.

So now the Democrats want to try and win an election, so they just keep it going. And I think the American public is not going to stand for it. I’ll tell you what the Democrats should be doing; they should be working on the border, they should be working on drug pricing, and they should be working on infrastructure, where we could get that done very quickly, but they don’t have any time to do anything. And I think it’s going to be a tremendous day for us. It’s a year and half now until the election. I think it’s going to be a tremendous day for us.

Q Mr. President, what are you expecting to get out of your meeting with President Xi at the G20? And also, can you update us on the agreement you have with Mexico that you alluded to yesterday?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We expect to have a meeting with President Xi. We’re doing very well with respect to China. We’re taking in billions and billions of dollars, which we never took in before. The tariffs are — been, you know, very strong. We have 25 percent of $250 billion. And tremendous money is flowing into our Treasury.

China is subsidizing those companies, so our people are not paying for it. If you look, our people are not paying for it. China is subsidizing those companies so that people continue to work.

Now, the problem for China is that a lot of companies are leaving China because they don’t want to pay the tariffs. But we’re doing very well. And I think — I have a feeling that we’re going to make a deal with China because I really don’t believe that China wants to continue the problem that they really caused themselves. Because we had a deal done.

Almost, I would say, all of the tough points were negotiated. They were negotiated and they were agreed to. And everything was finished. And then China told us they can’t agree to things that they already agreed on. All right. And that’s okay. So I said, “That’s okay. We’re going to put tariffs on — 25 percent on $250 billion.”

Now we have another $325 billion left. And if we don’t make a deal, we’re going to put a tariff on that too. And the United States is making more money than they’ve ever made ever, ever before from China. I’d like to make a deal, but we’ll see what happens. But I can tell you, as much as I’d like to, China wishes they had that deal to do over again, because what they did was wrong. You can’t renegotiate a deal. We had a deal that was done and they wanted to renegotiate. You can’t do that.

Q We know that President Duda invited you to Poland again. Are you going to visit —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right.

Q — Warsaw in September?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think I will. We haven’t picked a date, but we will. I just had an incredible time. That speech was special, from the standpoint of the people of Poland. And I know it was considered a very important speech. You people even gave me very high marks on that speech. I could say it, but I don’t want to say it, but some people said it was the best speech ever made by a President in Europe. But I did not say that. I’m just quoting other people. (Laughter.)

But it was a great — it was a great day. The two folks — you treated us so great. I’ll never forget it. We won’t forget our trip to Poland. Very, very tremendous, special people.

Q Mr. President, how concerned are you —

Q Mr. President, should the women’s soccer team get paid as much as the men’s?

Q — about backsliding on democracy in Poland?

Q Should the women’s soccer team —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Quiet. Quiet.

Go ahead.

Q Mr. President, how concerned are you about backsliding on democracy in Poland? And will that be a subject of discussion today?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’m not concerned. I know the President very well. I know the people and the leadership of Poland very well. I’m not concerned at all. By the way, Poland is doing so well and they know if they do backslide, they won’t be doing well like they’re doing right now.

They’ve probably never done better economically. They’re like us: The U.S. has never done better economically than we’re doing right now. They don’t want to backslide. They won’t backslide. And besides that, they owe us a lot of money because they’re buying a lot of things, right? So that’s important. So they have to do well. We have to make sure they do well. We’re very, very happy with Poland.

You may want to say something about that.

PRESIDENT DUDA: (Inaudible) someone cheated you. Sorry.

Q Excuse me?

PRESIDENT DUDA: Someone cheated you. There is no problems with democracy in Poland. Really.

Q Thank you.

PRESIDENT DUDA: Everything is excellent.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s what I hear. Okay?

Q President Trump?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes.

Q The base that Poland says they want to build, is this permanent? Is this meant to house a permanent U.S. presence or not?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: This would be a — certainly a statement that the U.S. would be making. I don’t talk about permanence or non-permanence. But this would be a statement that the U.S. is making.

Steve, go ahead. Please.

Q How many troops are you talking about?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, they’re talking about 2,000 troops, but we’d be taking them out of Germany or we’d be moving them from another location. It would be no additional troops to Europe. We’ve be moving them from another location.

Q And have you signed off on this?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And as you know, we have 52,000 troops in Germany, and Germany is not living up to what they’re supposed to be doing with respect to NATO, and Poland is. I have to congratulate you. Thank you very much.

But Poland is paying the max. The max will be raised. I raised over $100 billion last year from countries that were not paying. And it wasn’t fair to the United States. So we put in — they put up over $100 billion more.

But as you know, Germany is at 1 percent. They should be at 2 percent. And they’re not getting there fast. We have 52,000 troops in Germany. We’ve had them there for a long, long time. So we’d be, probably, moving a certain number of troops to Poland if we agree to do it.

Poland is going to build a phenomenal facility in a very good location.

Q So you’re not totally convinced that you want to do this?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We haven’t totally made up a decision. No. We haven’t finalized anything, but the facility itself would be world class.

Q Would you like this facility to be named “Fort Trump?”

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, that’s up to them. I have nothing to do with naming it.

Q What do you think?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Fort Trump.” That’s all I need, “Fort Trump,” and you people would have a field day with that, right? (Laughs.) No, that’s up to them. They can name it whatever they want.

Yes, sir.

Q Thank you for allowing us to ask questions.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

Q Can you comment about — your speech in Poland was brilliant, so thank you very much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

Q Can you comment —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Did everybody hear that? No. (Laughter.)

Thank you.

Q Can you — a question — an open question: Can you comment about the energy cooperation? I understand that there is (inaudible).

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, energy is a tremendous asset that we have. Since I’m President, we became the largest energy producer in the world. And we now are shipping a lot of energy offshore and to different countries. Vietnam just made a tremendous purchase of coal from West Virginia. We’re a tremendous energy producer now in all forms of energy. And it’s actually, within a year — especially if I get certain pipelines built — it won’t even be close. We’ll be double what other countries are.

It used to be Saudi Arabia and Russia; now it’s United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. So we’ve made tremendous strides.

Poland is buying a lot of LNG. It’s going to buy billions and billions of dollars’ worth of LNG from us, and we appreciate that.

Q Is it the result of a common initiative, Mr. President?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right.

Q Mr. President, will you use sanctions to block Nord Stream II — the pipeline from Germany to Russia? From Russia to —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re looking at it. Look, people have a right to do what they want to do. I think it’s a — you know, something that I’ve been looking at and I’m thinking about. And I’m the one that brought up the pipeline problem where you have Russia giving a tremendous percentage of energy. You know this gas is going into Germany. I say, “How can you do that?” So, we’re protecting Germany from Russia. And Russia is getting billions and billions of dollars of money from Germany. I’m the one that brought up the problem.

With that being said, I hope they get along. But Russia is paying 1 percent, as I said. They’re not paying 2 percent. They should be paying much more — Germany. That Germany is paying 1 percent; they should be paying 2 percent. They should really be paying more than that. But we’ll see how that works out.

No, I think this: We have something much better. We have tremendous LNG — liquefied natural gas. And a lot of the European countries are wanting it, including yourselves. I mean, tremendous amounts are being sold to different places all over the world, but also to Europe. And I think that’s really the way, if they want to spend a tremendous amount of money.

I do think this: And I would say, hopefully, nothing will happen. Nothing negative. Hopefully, we’re going to have a great relationship with Russia, great relationship with China and with Germany, and everybody else. But I do think that Germany is putting themselves at a tremendous disadvantage when 50, 60, or 70 percent of their energy is being supplied by Russia. I don’t know how you can do it.

Q (Inaudible) you have the power to block the pipeline. You can just put sanctions.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, Germany — no, no, let me explain it differently. Germany has the power to block it. You know how they block it? By not buying it. I mean, Germany made a decision to buy a tremendous percentage of their energy from Russia. Germany — whether they should be doing that or not, they’re the ones that have the power to block it.

They shouldn’t buy it. Or, if they want to, they can. But that’s really a decision of Germany. I’m not saying that I would be in favor. I think the German people aren’t very happy about it. Because it really makes Germany a hostage of Russia if things ever happened that were bad. Hopefully that will never be — happen.

Okay. Go ahead.

Q Your comments to — your reaction to new comments by Iran. Rouhani is saying Iran will not start a war but will defend itself if attacked.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I would think they would.

Q Your response? What do you think of that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Sure. I would think they would. I hope they defend themselves.

Q What do you think of that? Does that increase the chances of coming to the table?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I would think they would defend themselves. Iran is not the same country. When I became President, Iran was a terror all over the world. They had just made this horrible deal for the United States — the Iran Nuclear Deal. And I became President and I terminated the deal. And Iran now is in chaos. It’s got a lot of problems. I don’t want them to be that way. But we’re stopping their oil. We’re stopping a lot of different things. We just stopped, two weeks ago, the steel, metals — all metals, all forms of metals.

And, as you know, they have tremendous inflation. They have a lot of problems. I don’t want them to have problems. The problem could be solved, but you know what they have to do. And they didn’t do it properly. And the deal that President Obama made was a horrible deal. It was a horrible deal — $150 billion; $1.8 billion in cash. It was a horrible deal, and I terminated the deal very nicely. I terminated the deal.

Since I terminated that deal, Iran is not the same country. But I — with all of it being said, hopefully we’ll able to get along with Iran. If we can, that’s great. And if we can’t, that’s great too.

Q Can I ask a question on Venezuela, please?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Venezuela is, obviously, in flux. It’s doing unbelievably badly. This was, Mr. President, one of the richest countries. Had tremendous oil, tremendous everything. It just shows you, when you have a bad system, it became a socialistic system, or worse. And now people don’t have food. They don’t have water. They don’t have anything. It’s a very sad thing. We’re watching Venezuela very closely.

Q You tweeted that Russia had told you that they were taking out a large part of their military. Russia has denied that. What is the situation right now? What do you know?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, let’s just see who’s right. You know what you’re going to do? You’re going to see in the end who’s right. Okay?

Q What do you know at this point?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You just watch it. Okay? And we’ll see who’s right. Ultimately, I’m always right.

Yeah. Go ahead.

Q Sir, are you any closer to making the decision on meeting with Putin at the G20?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’ll be meeting with Putin at the G20. I’ll be meeting with President Xi at the G20. I’ll be meeting with many of the leaders at the G20.

Q Are you going to have a lot of people in the room with you — national security officials?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, it’s probably easier because you people are so untrusting. So it’s probably better if I — would you like to be in the room? Okay?

Q I would love to report on it.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Would you like to be? I can imagine you would be.

Q I would love — sir. Sir, I would love —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think it’s probably easier is we have people in the room because you people don’t trust anything.

Go ahead.

Q Mr. President, you established great cooperation with President Andrzej Duda. Can you comment about the program of First Ladies? They’ve been a great part of —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, the First Ladies know each other. They get along with each other. They’re going out to lunch right after this. Would you like to say something?

MRS. TRUMP: It is great to have them here again in the Oval Office and in the White House. And I’m looking forward to talking with Mrs. Duda about the children — what they’re facing in our country, what they’re facing in Poland — as we did the first time, and we will continue to do so.

Q Mr. President, when do you fulfill your promise to remove visa requirement for the Poles?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re looking at that, actually. We’re looking at that. That’s the kind of a relationship we have with Poland. We are looking very strongly at visa requirements, with respect to Poland.

Q When?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ll know pretty soon. Something could happen.

PRESIDENT DUDA: We’ll talk about it during the press conference, but today a very important agreement between our government was signed — very important for the — for this —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Step.

Q — visa regime.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Big step.

Q Mr. President, can you say what your measurement for the success of your deal with Mexico would be? How will you know if the deal is working?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, because our country has been so successful over the last two and half years, it’s been incredible — our GDP numbers, our production numbers, our manufacturing employment numbers. We have the most people working in our country that we’ve ever had. We’re almost up to 160 million people. We’ve never been close.

And because the United States has become so successful, in terms of its economic and what it means — the economy of the United States — tremendous numbers of people are trying to come into our country. And I’m saying you can’t do that. You have to come in legally, and you have to come in through merit.

Now, a lot of things are happening, but Mexico stepped up to the plate. Perhaps it was because of the tariffs. I would say “perhaps” being defined as 99 percent. But that doesn’t matter because the President of Mexico and I have a very, very excellent relationship. We spoke. His people were here for two and half, three days, working intensively on the agreement. And I think it’s going to mean a lot of — a lot fewer people coming up.

You just can’t crash our borders like this. Mexico has very, very strong immigration laws. We have incompetent — we have the worst immigration laws, the dumbest laws anywhere in the world — anywhere in the world. There’s nothing close. But Mexico’s laws are as strong as they can be.

Now, Mexico is moving 6,000 troops to their southern border. That’s a lot of troops. That’s a lot more — we never even heard of a number like that. That’s a lot of troops. But that’s what they want to do because they want to produce. I think Mexico really wants to produce. If Mexico does a great job, then you’re not going to have very many people coming up. If they don’t, then we have phase two. Phase two is very tough. But I think they’re going to do a good job.

Now, with all of that being said, if the Democrats got together with me for 15 minutes, we could wipe out the loopholes and we wouldn’t need anything from anybody. But, right now, Mexico is helping us much more on immigration than the Democrats in the U.S.

Q What’s phase two, Mr. President? What’s phase two?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Phase two is a much tougher phase. Much tougher.

Q What’s it look like? Safe third country?

Q Mr. President, we know you have a special surprise for President Duda: F-35 flyover over the White House.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. I do.

Q Can you elaborate a little bit more about that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, at 1:55, we’re going to have the world’s greatest fighter jet — most advanced plane, probably, anywhere in the world beyond fighter jet; most advanced plane.

And at 1:55 to 2:00 — we have to hurry because we have to make it, so we’ll end with this question — we’re going to have two Super F-35s flying at a great rate of speed, and then they’re doing a second flyback. And I think they’re going to go straight up. So they’re going to put on a very small show for us, but it’s going to be something.

And we’re doing that because Poland has ordered 32 or 35 brand new F-35s at the highest level and the latest model. And I congratulate you on that. That means you have good taste.

Q Mr. President, where does your respect for Poland come from, other than your visit to Poland?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, because the United States has a tremendous Polish population. They were very much in favor. They liked me and I like them, and a lot of them voted for Trump. And I’ve always loved the Polish people, and I’ve always respected the Polish people. They’re very, very hardworking and they’re smart. And they love their country and they love our country, too. So I’m always in favor of Poland.

Thank you, sir.

END 12:39 P.M. EDT

Following the press availability President Duda and President Trump went to the South Lawn to watch a fly-over by F-35 fighter jets.

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President Trump and First Lady Melania welcome President Duda and his wife Agata Kornhauser-Duda.

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On Tuesday afternoon President Trump was asked a question by media about Kim Jong Un.  President Trump responded to the question, and simultaneously delivered an openly coded message to Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping that few would understand:

[Transcript] Q (Inaudible) about your meeting with Kim Jong Un while you’re in South Korea? Are there discussions underway?

THE PRESIDENT: So, I see that. And I just received a beautiful letter from Kim Jong Un, and I think the relationship is very well. But I appreciated the letter. I saw the information about the CIA, with respect to his brother, or half-brother. And I would tell him that would not happen under my auspices, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t let that happen under my auspices.

But I just received a beautiful letter from Kim Jong Un. I can’t show you the letter, obviously, but it was a very personal, very warm, very nice letter. I appreciate it.

And I’ll say it again: I think that North Korea has tremendous potential, and he’ll be there. I think that North Korea, under his leadership — but North Korea, because of what it represents — the people are great, the land is great, the location is incredible between Russia, China, and South Korea — I think North Korea has tremendous potential. And the one that feels that more than anybody is Kim Jong Un. He gets it. He totally gets it.

Q (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. I have not heard about that, but we’ll see.

Q (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: I would, but I want to get it further advanced.

In the meantime, no nuclear testing. No major missile testing. Nothing like when I first got here. When I first got here, it was a bad mess.

We have a very good relationship together. Now I can confirm it because of the letter I got yesterday. And I think — you know, I think that something will happen that’s going to be very positive. But in the meantime, we have our hostages back. The remains keep coming back. We have a relationship.

Q Do you think he had his half-brother killed? Do you think he had his half-brother killed?

Q Are you saying that the CIA (inaudible) was wrong?

THE PRESIDENT: Say it?

Q Was the CIA wrong? Did he have his half-brother killed?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know anything about that. I know this: That the relationship is such that that wouldn’t happen under my auspices. But I don’t know about that. Nobody knows.

[…]

Q Any plan, any thought, about another meeting with Kim Jong Un?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it could happen, but I want to bring it further down the line.

Look, in the meantime, he’s kept his word. There’s no nuclear testing, there’s no large, you know, long-range missiles going up. The only thing he sent up were very short-term, short-range. That was just a test of short range. It’s a whole different deal.

But he’s kept his word to me; that’s very important. And again, the letter he sent was a beautiful letter. It was a very warm letter. That’s a very nice thing. And I don’t say that out of naiveté. I say that was a very nice letter. (link)

The media immediately began criticizing President Trump for saying he received a “beautiful letter” from chairman Kim Jong Un who the media have labeled a brutal dictator.  However, what everyone has missed, for over two years, is the hostage dynamic.

China controls North Korea as a proxy province.  Beijing also controls the top-tier of the DPRK military leadership.  In essence, North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un is a hostage to the manipulative interests of Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping.

Beijing uses the DPRK as a military foil against western influence.  It’s not Chairman Kim in charge of the North Korean missile tests; it’s Chinese Chairman Xi…. And almost no-one understands that dynamic.

When you understand the hostage dynamic, and you evaluate President Trump’s public response today, you also find the stunning answer to a long-standing question: Who killed Kim Jong Nam?…

(VIA CBS) The 2017 assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the older half-brother of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, was recorded by security cameras. Two women came up behind him one at a time and rubbed chemicals over his face, which combined to make the deadly nerve agent VX.

At the time, it was assumed North Korea’s ruthless leader had simply eliminated a potential rival. But now, the plot surrounding Kim Jong Nam has thickened.

“He seemed to be short on money in his final years, so he had been supplying information about North Korea to the CIA,” said Anna Fifield, the Beijing bureau chief for The Washington Post.

Fifield has written a new book about Kim Jong Un. In it, she suggests that Kim Jong Nam, who spent most of his life living in exile outside North Korea, might actually have been returning from a meeting with his CIA handler when he was killed.

“On the day he was killed, he was found with $120,000 in cash in his little backpack and so that may have been as a payment for his services,” she said.

CBS News could not independently confirm Fifield’s reporting and the CIA has no comment. So the bizarre life and death of Kim Jong Nam is likely to remain one of the many mysteries surrounding North Korea. (read more)

If Kim Jong Nam was recruited by the CIA, due to the dynamic of China covertly controlling Chairman Kim Jong Un as a hostage, then it’s almost a guarantee Jong Nam was assassinated by China in an effort to remove an intelligence emissary who might work to enhance hostage rescue efforts with the Trump administration.

But President Trump did something in 2018 China did not expect.  U.S. President Trump openly engaged in direct face-to-face talks with Chairman Kim.  Essentially, President Trump entered the hostage chamber and the Chinese control agents were cut out of the private discussion.

So when President Trump said:

…”I saw the information about the CIA, with respect to his brother, or half-brother. And I would tell him that would not happen under my auspices, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t let that happen under my auspices.”…

In essence President Trump is saying, he has put nothing between himself and Chairman Kim.  There is no concern of intelligence compromise on Trump’s side of the dynamic. There is no risk from Trump’s end; and there is no need for an intermediary… Kim is safe with Trump.

The hostage rescuer is talking directly to the hostage; and both are clear-eyed about the dynamic of who is the terror agent,.. Chairman Xi Jinping.  But the world can’t yet see it.

More stunningly, by his remarks today President Donald Trump just let Chairman Xi Jinping know through open -albeit coded- public comments, that he is aware China killed Chairman Kim Jong-un’s half brother.

When you look at all of the activity through the correct lens, every irreconcilable action suddenly makes sense.

Additionally, when you know the correct context you can look at the action of China against the backdrop that Chairman Xi is aware President Trump knows the historic manipulation of North Korea by Beijing; and their control over the people around Kim Jong Un.

Quite remarkable.

[SIDEBAR – Now the role of former CIA Director and now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, takes on more importance.  It also makes sense why the ‘government’ of North Korea, the covert Chinese agents within Kims’ government, said they no longer wanted to work with Pompeo.  It’s not Chairman Kim making that decision; it’s the Chinese agents within his government.]

It’s highly likely the recent conflicts about Kim Jong Un officials being killed or sent to labor camps is directly related to Beijing taking action to disrupt any assembly of allies close to Chairman Kim.

Xi (China) needs to keep Kim (DPRK) isolated in order to try and retain the increasingly important covert leverage of North Korea.  Given the conflict between the U.S. and China, Beijing cannot give up the usefulness of their covert control over North Korea.

Inspector General Horowitz is doing a FISA review based on the Carter Page application. However, if Michael Horowitz has started looking deeply into the DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD), via their historic use of FARA definitions to submit Title-1 surveillance warrants against U.S. persons…. well, there’s a strong possibility such an IG investigation would take much longer than expected.

Additionally, if the Obama DOJ-NSD was using the appearance of FARA violations as the predicate for FISA warrant authority (now seems likely); and that sketchy predicate was the basis for keeping all OIG oversight away from the NSD (again, likely); then the entire political system in/around Washington DC would be opened as a target for surveillance.

Anyone targeted under such a sketchy legal predicate for lobbying violations, would unknowingly be carrying their Title-1 surveillance virus into every interaction.  The downstream ramifications are almost beyond imagining….

President Trump delivered remarks today to the Iowa GOP during a dinner fundraising event in West Des Moines.

Yesterday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a press conference to answer questions about the U.S-Mexicos migration and border security agreement. After reviewing some info from today, I’m inserting a graphic into Pompeo’s transcribed responses to better understand the “45 days” aspect. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript – (emphasis mine)] SECRETARY POMPEO: A couple things this afternoon. First, I’ll give some remarks later this week that are consistent with what we’ve been working on for my entire time here in the Indo-Pacific.

I’ll be speaking to a group of Indian business leaders in preparation for the trip that I’ll take in a couple weeks where I’ll be visiting India, an important part of President Trump’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific. And I’m looking forward to the opportunity both to give the set of remarks about how it is our relationship is so closely tied economically, but also importantly the things that the United States and India can continue to do to build out what is an incredibly important relationship for both countries.

I thought too I’d spend just a minute here talking about the agreement that was reached with the United States and Mexico on Friday of last week. Frankly, it reflects diplomacy at its finest. It shows the enduring strength, too, of the relationship between our two countries, and it’s a significant win for the American people.

The deal continues the Trump administration’s commitment – the strongest by any administration in history – to confront the tide of illegal immigration and many other problems along our southern border, including the drug trafficking issues that transit there. The President is doing precisely what he said he would do.

We agreed to a number of things, including the placement of 6,000 Mexican National Guard along the Mexican southern border. It’s the biggest effort to date that the Mexicans have committed. It’s something that we pressed for with them throughout the time of the negotiations. We will work closely with them to make sure that that is a successful effort.

Those crossing the U.S. southern border to seek asylum will be rapidly returned to Mexico where they may await their adjudication of their asylum claims. We’ve seen this before; we were able to do this to the tune of a couple of hundred people per day. We now have the capacity to do this full throttle and engage this in a way that will make a fundamental difference in the calculus for those deciding to transit Mexico to try to get into the United States. This full-blown effort under the migration protocols is a big deal and was something that we worked on very, very diligently with our Mexican counterparts over two days.

And we’ll pursue other cooperative efforts, too.

For much of last week, Foreign Secretary Ebrard and his team were excellent partners in all of this. We worked alongside them with our team here at the State Department.

I’ve seen some reporting that says that these countless hours were nothing, that they amounted to a waste of time. I can tell you that the team here at the State Department believes full-throatedly that this an important set of agreements, important set of understandings, one that we’ll continue to work on, because in the end we’ll be measured by the outcomes that we deliver with respect to stemming the flow of illegal immigration into our country.

I want to, on that note, repeat my personal gratitude to Foreign Secretary Ebrard and his team. They worked hard; they were diligent; they defended the Mexican people. I think we made both of our countries proud with this agreement. I spoke to President Trump not too long ago about this. He is grateful to everyone who made this happen, and he had a chance to speak with President Obrador about this as well.

As I mentioned, this isn’t the end of the road. We’ve got a lot of work to do to implement what we’ve agreed to, not just in the joint declaration but the approach to the region, for Central America, that we agreed to last December. And we have full confidence, as the President tweeted yesterday, that Mexico will fulfill its shared commitments.

We’ll continue to work with Mexico to discuss migration asylum issues, and if necessary, we’ll take additional measures that the Mexican government agreed to during these conversations as well.

I look forward to great cooperation between our two countries. And with that, I’m happy to take a couple of questions.

MS ORTAGUS: Christina.

QUESTION: Thank you. Hi, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Hi.

QUESTION: Can you explain what in this agreement was different than what was discussed between Secretary Nielsen and the Mexican governments in December, the agreement that people have been talking about? And have – in addition, is there a separate agreement with the Mexican government than what was announced Friday, as the President has suggested on Twitter? And both sides have said if there’s not enough progress we’re going to come back to the table and re-evaluate. How are you measuring that? What kind of metric are you going to use? Is there a specific number or target you need them to hit?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Sure. So I was part of those conversations in Houston in December when the original migrant protocols were put in place. The scale, the effort, the commitment here is very different from what we were able to achieve back in December and frankly wouldn’t have happened.

The entire team from the Mexican government that came up, they came up because the President had raised the specter of 5 percent tariffs on their products. It’s what prompted this series of conversations that took on a level of seriousness and a timed commitment that we were committed to getting done before the weekend. And so it’s a fundamentally different commitment about doing this across the entire border at scale.

You see the numbers in the several thousand per day. Those are the folks that will now be subject to the migrant protocols and will be, when appropriately adjudicated, returned to Mexico to await their asylum hearings inside of Mexico.

As for other agreements, there were a number of commitments made. I can’t go into them in detail here, but each side was committed to a set of outcomes.

The United States retained its ability to use its own determination of whether there was success along the border. You saw that the announcement was that the President would indefinitely suspend the tariffs.

That means if it’s the case that we’re not making sufficient progress that there’s risk that those tariffs will go back in place. And as we had these conversations with my foreign secretary – my counterpart Marcelo, we both understood that.

It means that we’re got hard work to do over the coming days and weeks to deliver on those actual outcomes on the ground along our southern border. I know the Mexican government is committed to it, and I know that not only the State Department but DHS and all the others who have real responsibility that will deliver this. I’m confident that this hard work will go to get – go – we will go hand-in-hand to make this deliverable something that we can all say yeah, this resulted from what we did last week.

QUESTION: And is there a metric that you’re going to use to judge that? Like, how will you decide how much progress or if enough progress has been made?

SECRETARY POMPEO: We will evaluate this literally daily.

MS ORTAGUS: Lesley.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, good afternoon. What do you think about other countries such as Brazil and Panama helping with this? Are you talking to them about perhaps backing up Mexico in its efforts to stem this migration, given that it’s – and again, coming to my colleague’s question, how much time are you prepared to give this to ensure – to make sure that it’s actually working?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah. So I can’t answer the second question. Some amount of time. This won’t be instantaneous. It won’t happen today, but the work has already begun. So I don’t know. The agreement – we talked about 90 days, but I imagine that we’ll know the effectiveness, the ability of us to work together to deliver this, much more quickly than that. Perhaps a month, perhaps 45 days, we’ll have a good sense of whether we’re able to achieve these outcomes in the way we’re hoping that we can.

Graphic of Text in POTUS Hand Today – Note: “45 days“

As for other countries, yes, we’re going to work with the Central American countries too. A good deal of the folks who are transiting through – or into our country are coming through Mexico and are not originally from Mexico, and we have high expectations they’ll deliver as well. We have teams that will be working there this week to get agreements with those countries to put the onus where it is for them to make sure that their citizens are not the ones transiting through Mexico into the United States.

I can take one more.

MS ORTAGUS: Okay. BBC.

QUESTION: Just to follow up on that, in the agreement it says the United States and Mexico will lead in working with regional and international partners to build a more prosperous and secure Central America, but there have been steps to cut aid to Central America, so I’m wondering how that fits and whether you’re committing resources, not just sort of negotiations to this. Are you going to put money into it or expertise?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah, I think you’ve conflated economic prosperity with U.S. dollars going down to those places. I don’t think about them that way remotely. Those economies need to grow. They need to develop rule of law. They need to develop systems and to grow their economies.

The United States is prepared to do the things we need to do, but we’ve made no incremental resource commitments associated with this deal. We didn’t offer any resource assistance to the Mexican government to deliver these outcomes. We’ve not done so in Central America as well. Where we find it in our interest in the Northern Triangle or in Mexico to provide resources that make sense to protect the American people, we’ll do that. But in the first instance, these nations have the responsibility to take care of these immigration problems in their home country.

Thank you all.

[Transcript End]

There’s always a larger geopolitical dynamic when you assess the economic alliances that President Trump puts together…. Always and underlying plan…  Sometimes it just takes time to surface.

As we have noted, even going back to 2017, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe always appeared to be the fulcrum for President Trump’s Indo-Pacific strategy.  

Remember the trip to Japan as honored guests of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at the Imperial Palace?  Remember last month’s (May 25th) unprecedented reception with the titans of Japanese business?  Remember the private reception set up by a very nervous U.S. Ambassador William F. Hagerty?  A reception with the most influential business CEO’s in Japan and Southeast Asia? 

Well…

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Tokyo Electron, the world’s No.3 supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, will not supply to Chinese clients blacklisted by Washington, a senior company executive told Reuters.

The decision shows how Washington’s effort to bar sales of technology to Chinese firms, including Huawei Technologies, is ensnaring non-American firms that are not obliged to follow U.S. law.

China, which is locked in a crippling trade war with the United States, is pushing to build its semiconductor industry to reduce its reliance on U.S., Japanese and European suppliers for chip-making machinery.

“We would not do businesses with Chinese clients with whom Applied Materials and Lam Research are barred from doing businesses,” the executive said, referring to the top U.S. chip equipment firms.

“It’s crucial for us that the U.S. government and industry see us as a fair company,” he said, citing Tokyo Electron’s long U.S. partnership since the 1960s, when it started off as an importer of U.S. equipment.

He did not want to be named given the sensitivity of the matter. Applied Materials and Lam Research declined to comment.

Another major Japanese chip equipment supplier is also considering halting shipments to blacklisted Chinese firms, a person familiar with the matter said.

“The issue is beyond something we can decide on our own,” said the person, who also declined to be identified.

Executives at other equipment suppliers said they were communicating closely with the Japanese industry ministry. (read more)

Now the design of President Trump’s multidimensional strategy to confront China gains clarity.  Now we see the benefits of personal investment…

President Trump is executing one of the most brilliant geopolitical economic resets in the history of global trade. It really is stunningly remarkable how President Trump has controlled the entire landscape. The consequential phase has begun.

It is fascinating how the financial pundits didn’t see this coming. Perhaps one of the best indicators of where things are comes from this quote within the South China Post:

…“The Administration’s Section 301 tariffs and China’s retaliatory tariffs will now further disrupt – or even break – many thousands of supply chains in both countries.”…

[Nelson Dong, a senior partner at Dorsey & Whitney]

The quote by Nelson Dong is stated *as if* shifting/breaking supply chains is a flaw in the approach. It’s not. Exactly the opposite is true; this is a feature of the strategic reset.  A specific and purposeful feature designed by President Trump.

What Dong is predicting is the deconstruction of “one-belt, one-road”.

As President Trump highlights, over time (and it won’t take long) there will be an exodus of multinational manufacturing away from China.  Corporations will shift their purchase agreements, manufacturing and assembly plans to ASEAN countries outside the investment ‘risk zone’ that is now China.

Notice some of the nuance (specific references) within President Trump’s tweets. Japan, Vietnam (President Trang Dai Quang), South Korea (KORUS), Philippines and India are positioned to pick-up business.

To counteract the predictable exodus the Chinese state-run enterprises (and banks) will offer incentives to retain the corporate manufacturing business. This process means China, in essence, subsidizes the tariffs:

China has no choice if they want to retain their economic model. Remember, China’s economy is deep (manufacturing) but also narrow. They are dependent on raw materials, customers and market access. {Go Deep}

Additionally, President Trump announced he has not made any decision on the next phase of 25% tariffs on the remaining $350 billion in Chinese products.  He doesn’t need to.  Merely the possibility of additional tariffs will pause any further investment; and some companies not currently impacted will make decisions to avoid the possibility of impact.

President Trump has walked Chairman Xi into a trap.  There is only downside for China in the current dynamic.  In an effort to avoid the downside, China will bleed cash to retain their economic position…. However, this can only last so long.

President Trump knows the strength of our U.S. position is that our economy is deep and wide.  The U.S. is a self-sustaining economy.  Almost 80% of our internal production and manufacturing is purchased within our own market.

In the big picture – economic strength is an outcome of the ability of a nation, any nation, to support itself first and foremost. If a nations’ economy is dependent on other nations to survive it is less strong than a nation whose economy is more independent.

The reality of China as a dependent economic model; heck, they cannot even feed themselves; puts them at greater risk from the effects of global economic contraction.  However, more importantly it puts China at risk from President Trump’s strategic use of geopolitical economic leverage to weaken their economy.  Trump is exploiting that risk.

As things go forward, China cannot sustain a long-term economic conflict with the U.S.  As each day passes the ASEAN alliance will see inbound investment grow as companies pull-out of China and invest in Japan, S-Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, India etc.

The GDP of our allies (including Mexico, think recent ‘migration deal’) grows, and the controlled GDP of China, as an adversary, shrinks.

(LA Times) GoPro Inc. will move most of its U.S.-bound camera production out of China by summer, becoming one of the first brand-name electronics makers to take such action to minimize the impact of the U.S.-China trade war.

“Today’s geopolitical business environment requires agility,” GoPro Chief Financial Officer Brian McGee said in a statement Monday. “We’re proactively addressing tariff concerns.” The company is still deciding where to put the manufacturing operation. (more)

All of this was entirely predictable.  President Trump and Ambassador Lighthizer told the world what to expect in 2017:

Da Nang, Vietnam – United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer today released the following statement in response to President Trump’s speech on trade between the United States and the Indo-Pacific region, at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit (emphasis mine):

“The President spoke loud and clear: the era of trade compromised by massive state intervention, subsidies, closed markets and mercantilism is ending. Free, fair and reciprocal trade that leads to market outcomes and greater prosperity is on the horizon.

“President Trump understands that too many nations talk about free trade abroad, only to shield their economies behind tariff and non-tariff barriers at home. The United States will no longer allow these actions to continue, and we are willing to use our economic leverage to pursue truly fair and balanced trade.

“I look forward to doing as the President instructed me and to pursue policies that will improve the lives of our workers, farmers and ranchers.” (link)

• Kiyotaka Ise, President of Aisin Seiki
• Peter Jennings, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan
• Noriyuki Inoue, Chairman of Daikin Industries
• Koji Arima, President and Chief Executive Officer of DENSO
• Hiroyuki Ochiai, President of Fuel Total System
• Toshiaki Higashihara, Chairman of Hitachi
• Toshiaki Mikoshiba, Chairman and Director of Honda
• Masatsugu Nagato, President and Chief Executive Officer of Japan Post Holdings Co.
• Yuzaburo Mogi, Honorary Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors for Kikkoman
• Akira Marumoto, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mazda
• Ken Kobayashi, Chairman of Mitsubishi Corporation (Trading House)
• Masaki Sakuyama, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Seiji Izumisawa, President and Chief Executive Officer for Mitsubishi Heavy Industry
• Nobuyuki Hirano, Chairman and Corporate Executive for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc.
• Shigenobu Nagamori, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer for Nidec Corporation
• Hiroto Salikawa, President and Chief Executive Officer for Nissan
• Junko Nakagawa, Executive Managing Director for Nomura Asset Management Co.
• Hiroshi Mikitani, Chief Executive Officer for Rakuten
• Yasuhiko Saitoh, President of Shin-Etsu Chemical
• Masayoshi Son, Chief Executive Officer of Softbank
• Masayoshi Fujimoto, President and Chief Executive Officer for Sojtz
• Shiro Kambe, Executive Vice President for Sony
• Tomomi Nakamura, President of Subaru (Fuji Heavy Industries)
• Masayuki Hyodo, Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sumitomo Corporation
• Takeshi Niinami, President and Chief Executive Officer of Suntory
• Christoph Weber, President and Chief Executive Officer of Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co.
• Michiaki Hirose, Chairman of Tokyo Gas Co.
• Satoshi Tsunakawa, President of Toshiba Akio Toyoda, President of Toyota