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

President Trump travels to Iowa today to deliver a policy speech on renewable energy.  The remarks are taking place at Southwest IA Renewable Energy in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Later this evening President Trump will deliver remarks at the Republican Party of Iowa annual dinner.  Start time for the energy speech approximately 4:20pm EST:

UPDATE: Video Added

WH Livestream Link – RSBN Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link

White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett squares-off against Fox Business crew on trade tensions with China, the state of the U.S. economy, the outlook for Federal Reserve policy and his upcoming departure from the White House.

Steve Forbes is disconnected from the reality of what happens with tariffs on China. Beijing first responds to off-set the tariff by lowering the value of their currency, and/or subsidizing the targeted products. There is no price increase to U.S. consumers (check inflation).

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Apparently President Trump was watching the segment, and had a word for Maria Bartiromo, Dagan McDowell, Steve Forbes and Stuart Varney: