Good grief, talk about a nothingburger – this phone call is fine. Here’s the transcript of the phone call between President Trump and President Zelenskyy.

[White House] President Donald J. Trump has released a declassified, unredacted transcript of his telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from July 25th, 2019. The transcript can be read HERE.

The political planets are aligned to provide a considerably interesting day today.

If events happen as outlined in recent media reports, the White House will release the transcript of a call (underpinning a hearsay whistleblower complaint) between U.S. President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine (pictured below).

Additionally, the Intelligence Community Inspector General is expected to release research documents from his office showing a concerning political motive behind the hearsay whistleblower; a person who complained about the Trump-Zelenskyy phone call while not actually hearing the call, or reading what the call content was all about.

Exactly when the call transcript and ICIG documents are going to be released is an unknown. President Trump has a 12:10pm bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  PM Abe is a very good friend of President Trump and together they have recently agreed to a set of sector specific trade deals; with more stuff in the works.

At 2:15pm things really get interesting, as President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy will be holding their own bilateral meeting at the UNGA.  Media cameras are generally present for a short Q&A at the start of every Bilat, and obviously the #1 topic will be this mysteriously alarming phone call; with an opportunity for President Zelenskyy to address the U.S. political narrative therein.

At 4:00pm President Trump will be holding a press availability concluding the UNGA.

How far into the mud the predictably combative U.S. media will attempt to take this press conference is anyone’s guess given the unknown possibilities within the late morning & early afternoon….

Today, President Donald J. Trump hosted President Barham Salih of the Republic of Iraq. The two leaders discussed how best to enhance our already robust partnerships on issues such as security, trade, and energy. Specifically, President Trump highlighted his strong support for the continued fight against ISIS and all terrorist groups. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. We’re glad to be joined by the President of Iraq and his representatives. And I will say that we’ve had a very good couple of meetings with Iraq. We’re doing well with Iraq. It’s been a very long and complicated but friendly relationship, especially over the last little while. I was in Iraq a little while ago, as you know. And it’s fascinating what’s taking place.

So we’re going to — we have a lot to talk about. There’s things to talk about that we can’t talk about in front of you, but we have a lot of good things to talk about. And you’re doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT SALIH: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

PRESIDENT SALIH: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Please.

PRESIDENT SALIH: It’s an opportunity, Mr. President, to reaffirm our gratitude to the United States and the international coalition that has come to help us overcome the tyranny of ISIS and terrorism.

This was an amazing battle. And Iraqis were in the forefront of this battle, but your support has been absolutely crucial, and we appreciate it. Now, the task of rebuilding Iraq, reconstructing Iraq, affirming the sovereignty of Iraq, and being a partner in the neighborhood for a more stable Middle East is a hope and an aspiration that we look for the help of the United States and the help of the international community.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I understand. And it has been a great achievement. We took 100 percent of the caliphate from ISIS. And ISIS — now we have thousands and thousands of people that we’ve captured. These people have done a lot of destruction, not only in that area, in a lot of other areas. But, as you know, we have thousands of people. We’ll talk about that also because we’re going to have to do something — put them on trial, et cetera, et cetera.

But we’ve captured thousands of ISIS fighters and taken back 100 percent of the caliphate. And when I first became President, it was a mess. It was a big mess. And we — we all worked together and we got it done, but it was a great achievement, so we appreciate that. And we look forward to our discussion.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Q Thank you. Mr. President, good to see you. Iraq has declared that it won’t allow its territory to be used as a launching pad against its neighbors. Can you assure us that you can control all the rogue elements, especially with the (inaudible), especially that we have two rockets landing?

PRESIDENT SALIH: It’s our sovereign responsibility. It’s our sovereign responsibility to abide by our constitution, not — Iraq not to be used as a base for any threat against our neighbors. It is work in progress, and Iraq has been a constructive player in the neighborhood, trying to assure all our neighbors that the stability and sovereignty of Iraq is a common interest.

And a lot of things, in that regard, is happening, and I’m looking forward to talking to the President about it.

Q Mr. President, the French President just now said that it’s time to negotiate with Iran. Do you believe that the time is now to negotiate with Iran? And are you going to meet with him today?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, they would like to negotiate. We haven’t really worked that out. They’re here, we’re here, but we have not agreed to that yet. But they would like to negotiate. And it would certainly make sense, but we have not agreed to that yet.

Q Are you meeting with Mr. Macron?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He’s also talking to us. A number of people are. So is Prime Minister Khan of Pakistan and a lot of people; Chancellor Merkel — just left Chancellor Merkel. And she’s very much involved. We have a lot of people involved. A lot of people would like to get us to the table. We’ll see what happens. But, so far, we have not agreed to a meeting.

Q President Trump —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Say it?

Q Have you asked Prime Minister Khan to mediate with Iran?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, he’d like to do that, and we have a very good relationship. And there’s a chance that that could happen. But, no, I haven’t spoken. He actually asked me. He thought it would be a good idea to meet.

And we’re here. We’re in New York together. And we have the time to do it, although we’ve done a lot of bilats in the last two days. We’ve had tremendous success. I was treated very nicely on the speech. A lot of good reviews on what we had to say. And so, I appreciate that. The media was actually very good on the speech.

Q Mr. President, your reaction to Speaker Pelosi saying today that she is moving toward an impeachment announcement later this afternoon?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I haven’t heard this. Look, it’s just a continuation of the witch hunt. It’s the worst witch hunt in political history. We have the strongest economy we’ve ever had. We have the best unemployment numbers we’ve ever had. African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, lowest in history. Best numbers we’ve ever had. Our country is doing phenomenally well.

We have rebuilt our military to the tune of $2.5 trillion. We have the strongest military on Earth. If you look at the vets, if you look at any group, they’re doing fantastically well.

So the country is doing the best it’s ever done, and I just heard that she’d like to impeach. We also just had Rasmussen, as you heard, just came out with a poll. We’re at 53, and they say 53 plus maybe 10. A lot of people say that, because you add about 10 percent to the Trump polls because some people don’t want to talk; they just want to go out and do it, and they know what’s good.

Our country is doing the best it’s ever done. They’re going to lose the election and they figure this is a thing to do. This never happened where we’re in the election, and — I mean, if she does that, they all say that’s a positive for me, for the election. You could also say, “Who needs it?” It’s bad for the country. Then they wonder why they don’t get gun legislation done. Then they wonder why they don’t get drug prices lowered. Because all they do is talk nonsense. No more infrastructure bills. No more anything. All they do — that’s all they do.

You watch Jerry Nadler and Schiff — you know, Schiff has been doing this stuff for three and a half years. It’s the craziest thing anybody has ever seen.

And other countries — like today we’re with Iraq and we were with other countries during the day, and every one of them says how crazy it is. We have the strongest country in the world, the best economy we’ve ever had. And she’s talking impeachment. So I think that — and, by the way, she hasn’t even seen the phone call. The phone call was perfect. The call that wasn’t perfect and the words that weren’t perfect were Joe Biden with respect to his son. And his son takes away millions of dollars out of Ukraine, and millions of dollars out of China, and you don’t talk about that. It’s a real disgrace.

But the good news is, the voters get it. This is why they say it’s good for the election. But you know what? It’s bad for the country. What she’s doing is very bad — if it’s true. I can’t even believe that it’s true. How can you do this and you haven’t even seen the phone call?

The whistleblower, they say, was second-hand or third-hand. And it was reported — I have no idea who the whistleblower is. I guess I could find out. Maybe I couldn’t find out. But they say it was a very partisan person — the whistleblower. But it was second- or third-hand. Never heard the call.

But I have better than that. We have the whole transcript of the call, which will be released tomorrow. And comments will be put with respect. It was a perfect call. There was no quid pro quo, unlike Biden. There was no nothing. It was a perfect call. A very nice call. And, in fact, I thought this was very nice. Ukraine just came out. It made a very good statement. It was a very good call. There was no pressure put on them whatsoever.

Thank you all very much. Appreciate it.

END 3:39 P.M. EDT

Today, President Donald J. Trump met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the United Nations General Assembly. The two leaders reaffirmed the value of their Special Relationship and discussed ways to deepen bilateral ties, including through a comprehensive trade agreement. They acknowledged the importance of protecting the security of telecommunication networks, especially 5G, and agreed to continue close coordination to address tensions in the Middle East and respond to Iran’s increasingly belligerent behavior.  [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much everyone. It’s great to be with my friend, Boris Johnson. He just got a position that he’s having a very easy time with. It’s much easier than he thought. (Laughter.) They’re saying, “Is it tougher or easier?” He said, “Well, it’s…” — I guess, what he expected. I think it’s pretty much what you expected.

PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON: It is.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And he’s doing a fantastic job. Not easy. But doing a really good job. And I think you’re going to make great progress come October, come November. But great progress for the country, long term.

PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON: October. October. October the 31st. (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: The results are going to be — the results are going to start to show in November. But it looks to me like he has made some great progress. So it’s an honor to have him here.

We’re going to be discussing trade. We can quadruple our trade with UK. And we can, I think, really do a big job. Bob Lighthizer is here — our trade representative. Your trade representative is here. And they’re already scheduled today to continue negotiations.

But we can have substantially more trade with UK, and we look forward to doing that. So we’ll talk about other things also. It’s great to have you, Boris.

PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON: Well, thank you very much. It’s great to be here. And I certainly hope that we can make a lot of progress quite fast on trade. We’ve got our Secretary of State for International Trade, Liz Truss, is here. We hope to get going on that, always remembering that the NHS is not for sale.

But everything else — there’s a huge amount we can — we can do.

And I guess we’ll also talk a bit about Iran —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ll be talking about that.

PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON: — and some of those difficult issues where I think we share a common perspective, and we want to dial things down but also make sure that people in the Gulf don’t get the wrong idea about what they can get away with. That’s a complicated issue. We have to make progress there as well.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ll be talking about many things, and we look forward to it. And we’ll start in just a minute.

So thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

Q Prime Minister Johnson, some of your critics are saying that you should resign because you misled the Queen with regard to shutting Parliament down. How do you respond to that?

PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON: Well, as I said earlier on — thank you very much. As I said earlier on, let’s be absolutely clear: We respect the judiciary in our country, we respect the court.

I disagree profoundly with what they had to say. I think it was entirely right to go ahead with a plan for a Queen’s speech. This is a — with the longest period. We haven’t had a Queen’s speech for 400 years. We’ve got a dynamic domestic agenda we need to be getting on with: more police on the streets, investment in our National Health Service, improving our education. We need to get on with that.

And, frankly, I think we need to get on with Brexit. That’s the overwhelming view of the British people. Whether they voted to leave or remain, they want to get this thing done by October the 31st. And that’s what we’re going to do.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That was a very nasty question from a great American reporter. I’m shocked.

PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON: Was that — no, was that an American reporter?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s an American reporter.

PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON: Was it? I thought —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And he’s a good one.

PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON: But I think he was asking a question, to be fair, that a lot of British reporters would have asked me.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, now that we have that out of the way — he’s not — I’ll tell you, I know him well: He’s not going anywhere. Don’t worry about him.

Okay, go ahead. Any other questions?

Q Any advice for the Prime Minister as to how he should deal with the judges?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I think he’s dealing very well. Everything I see here is what — look, I’ve watched it very closely. He’s a friend of mine. I tend to watch friends closer than enemies, but the enemies you have to watch in a different way.

I think he’s doing very well. It’s a complicated subject, but they took a vote, and the vote was — I was there. I happened to be there the day of that vote.

PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON: Were you down at the vote?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I made a prediction, even. I even made a prediction. And it was a correct prediction. And, you know, that was a long time ago. And it takes a man like this to get it done. And they have to get it done; otherwise, it would be a terrible thing to do it any other way.

I don’t see another vote. I don’t see anything happening. I think he’s going to get it done.

Q Mr. President, what was your reaction when you heard these UK supreme court decision? What was your reaction to it?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I had no reaction. I just asked Boris. And, you know, to him, it’s another day in the office. He’s a professional. It’s just another day in the office.

PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON: Yeah, well, it’s — tomorrow is another day in Parliament. That’s what he means. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know, we had — we had, Boris, the first couple of months, we had been — I think we were 0 for 7 with the Supreme Court. And since then, we won the wall, we won asylum, we won some of the biggest ones. We’ve had a great streak going.

But we — we started off, we were 0 for 7. And then as you will report — in fact, the first time we won, you were, like, shocked that we won. And since then, we’ve almost run the table. We’ve won a lot of decisions. So I’m sure that’s going to happen to you.

PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON: Well, we’re not counting our chickens. And we’re full of respect, as I say, to the justices of our — (laughter) — supreme court. But we’re going to — we’re going to push on. We’re going to respect what the court had to say, but we’re going to get on and deliver Brexit. That’s the — I think that’s what the British people want to see.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: In other words, he’s been very nice to the court, please. Okay? He has —

Q Mr. President —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He has total respect for the court.

Yeah, Jeff.

Q Mr. President, on a separate subject, can you explain why aid to Ukraine was stopped?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because I think that other countries should be paying also. Why is the United States the only one paying to Ukraine? And I’ve been talking about this for a long time — not only with respect to Ukraine, but a lot of other countries.

But, frankly, why isn’t Germany — I just met with the Chancellor — why isn’t Germany, why isn’t France, why aren’t these other countries paying payment? Why are we paying all the time? And nobody has given, I believe, more to Ukraine. You know, President Obama used to send pillows and sheets. I sent anti-tank weapons and a lot of things to Ukraine. We think that it’s very important and — by the way, I don’t know if you know it or not, that payment was made.

But I wanted to get other countries. Other countries should also pay because, frankly, it affects them more. I mean, that’s a barrier. That’s a wall between Russia and the UK. And they don’t pay. And why are they not paying? Why is it always the United States that’s paying? And I made that loud and clear. I told that to Mick Mulvaney. I told it to a lot of people. Where’s Mick? Wherever he is. But I told it to a lot of different people. I told it to Mike. I told it to two Mikes. I told it to Steve.

I keep asking the same — I said it to Wilbur Ross. I keep asking the same question: Why is it that the United States is always paying these foreign countries and other foreign countries that, frankly, are much great — much more affected, and they’re not?

So I said, “Hold it up. Let’s get other people to pay.” And then everybody called me: “Oh, please can we pay?” And I said — and there was never any quid pro quo. The letter was beautiful. It was a perfect letter.

It was — unlike Biden, who — by the way, what he said was a horror. And ask how his son made millions of dollars from Ukraine, made millions of dollars from China, even though he had no expertise whatsoever. Okay? So what he did was a real problem. With us, there was no pressure applied, no nothing.

Okay, folks. Thank you very much. Thank you.

END 11:42 A.M. EDT