back to their members across the country. people that are standing here behind me on this picket line and around the country hoping to ratify this agreement and make it final. >> thank you so much for your great reporting on this. thank you all so much for joining me today for another wild roller coaster. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thank you, kate. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. president trump says turkey's assault on the kurds in syria is, quote, not our problem. one of his biggest senate defenders says if one result of this mess is an isis resurgence, then the president will have blood on his hands. plus, word of a tentative deal to end the longest auto workers strike in history. gm and united auto workers could

soon get 50,000 workers back on the job. if you weren't sure who went to the debate as the strongest democratic contender, it was crystal clear quickly how the candidates themselves see it. >> and i'm sorry, elizabeth, but you have not said that. >> the senator is being vague on the issue. >> i have a different plan than elizabeth warren. >> and senator warren. >> senator warren -- >> senator warren -- >> back to the 2020 democrats a bit later, but we begin the hour at the white house where in just moments we'll hear again from president trump. this is day 1,000 of the trump presidency. he is punctuating it with a press conference alongside the italian president. but the president already making headline this is morning. he held court with reporters this morning in the oval office for 25-plus minutes. among the topics, the long missing china trade deal, tar f tarif tariffs, nato, securing nuclear weapons. the president tried to wash his

hands of a middle east mess of his own making. >> our soldiers are not in harm's way, as they shouldn't be as two countries fight over land that has nothing to do with us. the kurds are much safer right now, but the kurds know how to fight. as i said, they're not angels. if you take a look, you have to go back and take a look. but they fought with us. we paid a lot of money for them to fight request with us and th okay. our view on the situation with the turkish border with syria to be strategically brilliant. our soldiers are out of there. our soldiers are totally safe. they've got to work it out. >> the impeachment inquiry also led the president down a familiar road, leveling accusations without any evidence against his critics, including the former president barack obama. >> rudy was a great prosecutor. he was the best mayor in the history of the city of new york. i think he's pretty much

acknowledge what had he did for crime and everything else. when he saw what was going on with our election of 2016, the election i won but the election that was absolutely corrupted by things that took place in government. now, we'll see what happens. the i.g. report is going to come out soon. you will see things that you don't even believe, the level of corruption, whether it's comey, where it's strzok and his lover page, whether it's so many other people, mccabe, whether it's president obama himself. >> we go to cnn's kaitlan collins life at the white house. the evidence before us is that russia interfered. the president of the united states invited them to interfere. there's no evidence of any wrongdoing by president obama. the president clearly in a mood and very talkative this morning. >> reporter: yeah, he is, john. we're expecting him to take questions along with the italian leader. a lot of those questions are going to be about what the president just said in that

wide-ranging moment in the oval office. what he said about syria is getting a lot of attention, including where the president said what happens between turkey and syria is between turkey and syria. that would not explain why he's sending mike pence and mike pompeo there. he discussed a cease fire with erdogan, something erdogan has rejected. the president saying the kurds are not angels is going to get a lot of republican attention. what you saw the president do was effectively brush off this turkish invasion into northern area. al syria. the pentagon says that's their

number one priority right now making sure those troops who are in harm's way are going to be safe and be okay there. also what the president said about rudy giuliani, his personal attorney who's come under incredible scrutiny from investigates and come under criticism from republicans and democrats. today the president stood by him. >> rudy giuliani knows what happened in those controversial weeks and months as they were shaping policy. the president hugging him for good reason, smart reason, if you get the drift there. the press conference could begin any moment. with olivier knox with sirius xm. let's start with the syria explanation. the president not my problem, not our problem, strategic brilliance.

russia wins here, syria wins, assad wins here. the kurds fought alongside american troops, lost 10,000 of their own, lose here. the president says it's strategic brilliance. >> isis can be put in the winner's column as well. this is close to the very first statement coming out of the white house. first it was ostensibly a green light and then it was a bad idea and then it was i'm going to obliterate turkey's economy. but now it's strategically brilliant and not our problem. >> i think both the house and the senate have said they're going to announce turkey sanction bills.

>> john thune saying i would hope he would be open to changing his policy based on the input he gets. then he goes on to say the horse is out of the barn. the kurds had to retreat. they had to ask assad for help. the president of the united states says that's fine. >> syria is pulling in. syria will probably have a partner of russia. if russia wants to get involved, that's really up to them. we shouldn't be losing lives over it. >> just a complete inarticulation -- as olivier said, offering several versions of american foreign policy.

take your pick here. he's been back pedaling since the first initial withdrawal here. who knows what the american foreign policy there. if the president understands the history or depth of any of this, he is hearing from a lot of people, rand paul one of them. lindsey graham was supposed to be the president's close friend on this. he's not listening to him. >> u.s. troops coming home from a mess that this president inherited in the middle east. the question is how does it play out down the road. what are we talking about weeks and months from now. the kurds among other things regarding these prison camps of isis prisoners. word is a good number of them are now out and roaming free. lindsey graham says if they reconstitute and if they strike terror attacks, this.

>> he will have american blood on his hands if he abandons kurds, because isis will come back. >> the president is not listening. he believes he's in the right place on this. >> the president said the complete opposite this morning, that the u.s. has no responsibility which is something given that his decisions alone is what led to this sequence of events. we are going to hear from probably even more republicans now that they are back in session. the pressure, i think, will only continue to increase and will become louder because we reporters are able to talk to them and corner them and ask them about this. >> moving to another subject here, the "new york times," the "wall street journal" reporting the president's personal attorney rudy giuliani is being investigated by the trump

justice department for some of his activities in ukraine, some of which were carried out with the knowledge of the president. rudy giuliani was doing business in ukraine to try to dig up what the president says is dirt even though a lot of it is based on debunks conspiracy theories. he told his deputy, yes, report the conduct you view as inappropriate and perhaps illegal to the white house counsel's office. john bolton now, the democrats would like to talk to him in their impeachment inquiry. >> i don't know that he got along with rudy giuliani. rudy giuliani was seeking out corruption and what happens mostly in the 2016 election. with rudy, rudy was seeking out corruption. i think there's nothing wrong

with seeking out corruption. >> did rudy register as a foreign lobbyist? >> i don't know what he did. that's up to him. you have to ask rudy those questions. don't ask me. >> wash your hands of anything that could be -- well, he was my lawyer, i knew he was up to stuff but don't really ask me what stuff he was up to. >> if the quote from bolton proves to be true, i think the grenade has blown up. it is not good when you are in the oval office and you are trying to answer for weird, strange, possibly ill heegal ths your personal lawyer has done. those are questions no president wants to answer. it will be interesting to see how republicans in congress, whether they try to shift blame to rudy on all of this and make him the fall guy to keep the president politically out of it as much as possible. >> just on john bolton, the

record should reflect that the president was not happy with him at all. they were deeply at odds. he said as much in the oval office. john bolton is a great communicator and he makes it pretty obvious that he is probably going to give a sense of what's up here. if that hand grenade is not going off, it certainly seems to be close to detonating. >> when people are potential witnesses, the president tends to be nice and polite to them. if they say things he doesn't like, that's when the twitter ramps up, that's when the deep state comes out. up next, 12 candidates facing off in tuesday night's very crowded democratic debate. most of them find a way to attack elizabeth warren.

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you. the call is free and there's no obligation. you know medicare won't cover all your medical costs, so call now! and see why a medicare supplement plan from a company like humana, just might be the answer. welcome back. quick reminder, we're waiting for a live press conference from the white house. to the 2020 democrats now. senator elizabeth warren realizing pretty quickly last night at the democratic debate that she had, figuratively anyway, a target on her back. fellow democrats repeatedly clobbering senator warren for everything, from her views on the president's twitter account to her own health care plan. >> i was surprised to hear that you did not agree with me when i called on twitter to suspend donald trump's account. >> senator warren is more focused on being punitive.

>> a yes or no question that didn't get a yes or no answer, your signature, senator, is to have a plan for everything except this. >> tell people what it's going to cost. >> she's being vague on the issue. >> i want to give a reality check here to elizabeth. >> we just have different approaches. your idea is not the only idea. >> it was incredibly telling. you know, we look at the national polls, warren, biden, then sanders behind. but these are the candidates out there in iowa 109 days a way, out in new hampshire after that, they understand the dynamic in the places they vote first. welcome to being considered the front-runner by your friend, senator warren. >> no doubt. joe biden should have been relieved people were not going after him, except he's likely probably not certainly a stand-alone front-runner but not even the strongest candidate in the field. it was fascinating to watch

elizabeth warren. she didn't lose her cool. she sort of handled all of those questions but didn't answer the central question that's been pressed again and again. would her medicare for all plan raise middle class taxes? she has made a decision not to answer that. i think if you score the debate -- and again, we have to let voters assess this -- amy klobuchar had her strongest debate yet without question. skillfully was raising questions on medicare for all and the wealth tax. pete buttigieg as well. the reason why i think this is different than those early attacks from kamala harris on joe biden et cetera is this is the central issue of the democratic primary and pete buttigieg is spending a lot of money on ads on this very thing. >> it's like the 2007 debate on hillary clinton versus barack obama universal access versus

universal coverage. it's a vehicle for how far left can you take the party and still win a general election. this is buttigieg versus warren. again, biden was almost an after thought for most of the night, which is probably not great for his campaign. buttigieg and klobuchar clearly thinking there's going to be a chance for another to emerge. i want to it to be me. this is buttigieg. >> medicare for all who want it, trusting you to make the right decision for your health care and for your family. >> thank you, mayor. >> senator, your response? >> let's be clear. whenever someone hears the term medicare for all who want it, understand what that really means. it's medicare for all who can afford it. >> i don't think the american people are wrong when they say that what they want is a choice. >> so remember where we are. the mayor from indiana, south bend, indiana, trying to make a

play in iowa where somebody is likely to surprise us. here is the senator from minnesota also going after warren because she wants to do the same thing. >> you know, this isn't a flyover part of the country to me. the heartland is where i live. i want to win those states that we lost last time and i have bold ideas to get us there. i think just because they're different that elizabeth's doesn't mean they're bold. but we can't get any of this done on climate change or immigration reform unless they win. >> it's fascinating to me they wouldn't go after joe biden. we've seen in past debates going after him does you no good. their cal chaculation is he wil just come down naturally. >> what will be interesting to see is whether or not this actually does have any impact on polls. so far we've seen debates don't actually have an impact on them.

warren has risen separately from her performance in the debates. the question i have is how will repeatedly going negative if they continue to go negative, which buttigieg did as well on cnn this morning against warren, if that actually has an impact on them. because right now when you're talking to voters out on the trail, they don't want to see that. they also feel as though they have a lot of information on the health care debate. a lot of them head into this debate wanted other topics to be discussed. >> it was also a big test for bernie sanders, his first time back really on the campaign trail except for some tv interviews since he suffered a heart attack. he looked great. he had energy throughout the three hours and he knew the question was coming. >> now to the issue of candidates and their health. senator sanders, i want to start with you. we're moving on. >> i'm healthy. i'm feeling great. but i would like to respond to that question. let me take this moment if i might to thank so many people from all over this country

including many of my colleagues up here for their love, for their prayers, for their well wishes. i just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and i'm so happy to be back here with you this evening. >> there was that, the performance which was energetic. and then he had in his back pocket, he teased it in the debate and we were able to confirm that congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez, rashida tlaib and ilhan omar are joining team bernie. that was the i just had a spirited debate performance, i'm not going anywhere, i'm getting some juice from important voices in the party. >> yeah. the thing that i always think is interesting is if you think of the person somewhere who just tuned into this debate for the first time. they didn't watch the other debates. those people in america exist. >> normal people, you mean. >> yeah. if they tuned into that, they

saw the three front runners going into the debate for still the front runners, joe biden, elizabeth warren, self-fulfilling prophecy in that all these people deciding to attack her makes her look even more important than maybe she was. you have bernie sanders who just had a heart attack but also a spirited debate performance. those are the things you're dpr grappling with. there are three front runners for the nomination. >> it used to be if you were a democrat leading the race right now, you were nervous. history says howard dean, john edwards, that's not the place to be. this race has been pretty static, though, for a long time. because of the party's focus on president trump, is this going to stay. joe biden had one issue that's been in the news the past couple of weeks, the president's attacks on his son, the president calling the former

vice president corrupt. much of what the president says is reckless and unfounded. anderson cooper asked him a direct question. hunter biden says if his dad is elected president, he won't have any international business dealings. joe biden says if he's president, he would not allow such things. >> if it's not okay for a president's family to be involved in foreign businesses, why was it okay for your son when you were vice president? vice president biden? >> look, my son did nothing wrong. i did nothing wrong. >> did you make a mistake by letting him -- you were the point person on ukraine at the time. you can answer. >> look, my son's statement speaks for itself. i did my job. i never discuss aed a single thg with my son about anything having to do with ukraine. >> it's a lenlgitimate question >> it is. he didn't answer there. maybe a voter will ask the

question. that is often more difficult for a candidate to ignore this. how this plays in the mind of the electorate, we don't have an understanding of it yet. if you like joe biden, it probably does not affect you at all. but if you have some concerns -- one thing i was talking to a lot of democrats afterward, it looked like he was answering this for the very first time. he's had several weeks to think about this. it was not a passionate defense, this is my son, how dare you. >> many wondered why he didn't try to pivot more to the trump family. but we do know that so far the trump's attacks and repeated bringing up of conspiracy theories surrounding ukraine and the bidens has not actually had an impact on biden in the polls, that he has maintained a pretty steady level in the polling. >> i don't know how many other people around this table reported on hunter biden joining

the board in realtime. i did. what's amazing to me is biden is giving this answer when in realtime it was clear that the vice president's office felt deeply uncomfortable about what was transpiring. they punted reporters over. they said, hunter's a private citizen, talk to his office. he office said, he's traveling. when is he coming back? we don't know. in realtime you could see there was a lot of discomfort over this decision. the fact that the former vice president is coming up with this answer at this late date makes you wonder a little bit. >> there's an opportunity to say d.c. can be better, this wasn't a great idea. hunter biden said in that interview it wasn't a great idea, actually. and biden is missing this opportunity to, one, try to stake a claim on making d.c. better, something that i realize donald trump said he was going to clean up the swamp, but also then being able to attack the president for what his kids are

doing. >> i think voters give you grace if you look them in the eye and say it was a mistake. when we come back, more from the debate. from the couldn't be prouders to the wait did we just win-ners. everyone uses their phone differently. that's why xfinity mobile let's you design your own data. now you can share it between lines. mix with unlimited, and switch it up at anytime so you only pay for what you need. it's a different kind of wireless network designed to save you money. save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill. plus get $250 back when you buy an eligible phone. call, click, or visit a store today.

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governot just the powerful and well-connected. that's the american promise. but big corporations and special interests are in control. nothing's happening for real people. our democracy has been purchased. the candidates running for president have great ideas. but we can't get anything done unless we make our democracy serve the people again. i'm tom steyer. i approve this message. i'm running for president because it's time our democracy works for people.

welcome back. i want to remind you, you see it right there. waiting for president trump and the president of italy to have a press conference. we will take you there live when it happens. back to last night's democratic debate. near the end some tension between joe biden and elizabeth warren. remember back in the obama administration joe biden was the vice president. elizabeth warren was the first chairwoman of the consumer finance protection bureau. she led it first. he says he helped get the votes to make it happen. she was a bit skeptical. >> i went on the floor and got you votes. i got votes for that bill. >> senator warren, do you want to respond? >> i am deeply grateful to president obama who fought so hard to make sure that agency was passed into law and i am deeply grateful to every single

person who fought for it and who helped pass it into law. >> you did a hell of a job in your job. >> thank you. >> what's interesting talking to people about that after a lot of women including democratic strategists thought the vice president was a little bit condescending there. and there were some other democrats who said she was kind of mean to uncle joe, a guy who's beloved in the party. the one thing i take away from it is they don't want to directly attack each other in debates. but that was tension. >> that was so interesting. it sounded to me like, oh hillary, you're likable enough, that famous line from the 2008 new hampshire primary when barack obama said that to hillary clinton and it backfired on him. she did not want to engage. why should she? she is essentially at the head of the pack or to be charitable joining him at the head of the

pack leehere. what she has not done is something she said the day he got in the race in april. she talked about the bankruptcy bill and other things he's done. i mean, this is going to happen at some point, probably in the iowa debate, maybe new hampshire. at some point those distinctions will be drawn but that was as close as we've gotten to it. >> it was dripping there. i'll leave it at that. another interesting moment. elizabeth warren is a very polished debater going back to her high school and college days. one of the reasons for her success is not only is she building a good campaign around the country but she's had very strong debate performances. there was a moment last night where she looked just for a minute to be looking around trying to regain her footing. it was about the impact of automation on american jobs, robots in factories. elizabeth warren making the case that the biggest factor in jobs disappearing are bad trade jobs not automation.

>> the data show that we've had a lot of problems with losing jobs but the principle reason has been bad trade policy. >> americans around the country about automation, they see a self-serve kiosk in every mcdonald's, every grocery store, every cvs. my friends are piloting self-driving trucks. what is that going to mean for the people who rely on the truckers getting out and having a meal. saying this is a rules problem is ignoring the reality that americans see around us every single day. >> that hurt. i'm sure she's right about the data she cites. andrew yang was trying to say you need to go to a mcdonald's, you need to walk a factory floor. it's not just trade deals. >> this has definitely been one of the pluses or benefits of an andrew yang candidacy, which is that he has definitely pinpointed his other opponents

on the dimmemocratic side on automation. there are those realities which is that a number of american workers are suffering from having their jobs replaced by machines. i'm sure that next time warren she will probably have a better answer next time around as she continues to be attacked by her rivals. >> she came up to him after the d debate and asked him for information. that's pretty interesting as well. >> she's growing -- >> she can soak up his talking points as well. >> that's how you grow as a candidate. >> you want to avoid seeming like that old george h.w. bush not knowing how cash registers work kind of thing. what andrew yang was pointing out is i'm going to get on the level with people. >> there's a generational here and there's a kind of jobs here.

manufacturing jobs go away in part because of trade deals. the next challenge on the horizon is automation of services, what obama used to talk about with atms. they can both be right with some of the problems here. >> she has grown as a candidate. you grow by learning and you learn from the other candidates sometimes. up next congressional committees right now interviewing another key state department figure, secretary pompeo's former advisor on the hill as part of the impeachment inquiry.

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right now congressional committee is meeting with their fifth witness in the impeachment inquiry investigation, secretary of state mike pompeo's former advisor michael mckinley. he resigned less than a week ago after working in the state department for 37 years. we're told he was deeply concerned department leadership did not defend the former ambassador to ukraine marie

yovanovitch. >> in the first hour of his testimony -- >> i'm sorry i need to interrupt you. the former vice president joe biden speaking in columbus, ohio. >> that we pull all troops out of the middle east. it's extremely -- i'm not sure if she meant pulling our fleet out of the eastern mediterranean or the persian gulf.

one of the things i think was done so brilliantly after world war ii was our fathers and mothers put together a security apparatus that built everything from nato to our alliances in the pacific that were not just designed to keep russia from then the soviet union from invading europe, they were to keep europe from fighting with one another, they were to keep us together so no one nation could abuse power. i hope she didn't mean in a literal sense because it would be i think a disaster for american security and american foreign policy. >> we are a little over three months away from the iowa caucuses and your campaign is burning through a lot of cash. are you confident you're going to have the resources if this

primary carries all the way? >> i am confident. >> are you changing anything operationally? >> no. remember, we got started later than anybody at all in this campaign, number one. number two, we did not start off by dropping $10 million from a senate campaign, wherever that money was raised from into a race. number three, our fund-raising is building. we've raised a lot of money online and we've raised money offline as well. we feel confident we're going to be ready. >> talk about what it's like to have a target on your back as the front-runner in the race. it felt like last night there was somebody else with that target on their back. do you still feel like the

front-runner? >> it's kind of about time other people get questioned. you know, i haven't seen any polling showing that nationally on average that anybody else is a front-runner. you guys keep talking about that. i think elizabeth warren's done very well. she's moved. but now that she has moved and is taken more seriously, people are going to ask her about a little candor here, tell us how you're going to do what you say what you're going to do. what i found interesting last night is two things. if you notice, all my colleagues in the past on the stage talked about biden's naive, we can't unify the country. i found it amazing. they all had an epiphany that we're going to work with these republicans. you have to be able to do this and we can do it. the second thing i observed was all of a sudden everybody likes the biden health care plan. it's the same plan.

that's a good thing and there's a focus. public opinion is changing across the board based on recent polling data and zstuff that's come out today. i'm feeling awfully good about the debate. >> now we're seeing that with vice president mike pence and also secretary pompeo. do you think that they should be removed from office as well? >> no, no. look, let's do one thing at a time. you know, i mean, this is going to be a gigantic undertaking, impeaching the president who deserves to be impeached because he's indicted himself. this is a difficult thing for a nation to go through. the fact of the matter is i've been through two of them, two presidents being impeached and it's deadly, deadly earnest. this is a constitutional issue. focus on the constitution. the irony is the very day the

constitution was signed when benjamin came out and said what have you given us, mr. franklin? he said, a republic, you can keep it. he said the greatest issue we have is interference from foreign powers. this is a constitutional issue. it should be taken in a deadly serious manner and this should be done at a minimum one at a time. in the meantime, other people like giuliani may go to jail. at least the two thugs he had with him have been indicted and they've been totally discredited. this is a very serious undertaking. >> how do you convince progressive minded primary

voters that you're a better choice than bernie sanders when alexandria ocasio-cortez just announced that he is her guy? >> that's how i do it. >> when you learned that your son was taking that ukrainian job through press reports, do you regret not going to him and maybe saying you should not do this to maybe fend off this whole situation being used against you? >> my son's comments and i'm very proud of my son. my son's comments speak for themselves. let's keep the focus here. the president of the united states says he wants to talk about corruption. he is running the most corrupt government in the history of the united states of america, number one. number two, he also is in a position where as he talks about corruption, he is engaged in practices that, in fact, everyone the world is looking

and saying how in god's name can this man be doing that while he's president. look, mr. president, you want to talk about corruption. i've released 21 years of my tax returns. i entered as one of the poorest men in congress, left as one of the poorest men in government and as vice president. i made no money while i was in there other than my salary. mr. president, even richard nixon released his tax returns. mr. president, release your tax returns or shut up. >> so you wouldn't change anything? >> no, i don't. because i never discussed with my son anything having to do with what was going on in ukraine. that's a fact. look, guys, let's focus on what the problem is here. the problem is a corrupt president engaging -- the reason why he is running after me is he knows i will beat him like a drum. he understands that.

have you ever heard of anybody going out and getting these special interests, all of whom i have beaten, the nra, the gun manufacturers, the health care people. across the board, have you ever heard any time that they've spent millions of dollars going into the primary of another party to try to eliminate a candidate before they can get a chance to beat them? i mean, come on, this is so obvious. this is so obvious. as i said, rudy giuliani and the henchmen and trump's lawyers, how many of these folks are in jail? these are the president's people, for god's sake. this is a corrupt, thoroughly corrupt outfit. the reason why i will -- if i'm not mistaken and i did not coordinate any of this with my son. i didn't even know he was having these long discussions for some time with abc. i guess it's abc. was it abc?

yeah. but he pointed out the reason why he regrets it is he didn't anticipate that thugs like giuliani would use it to, in fact, try to embarrass his father. that's what they are. they're flat thugs. the reason why i am setting up the idea that i've laid out has nothing to do with hunter. >> from columbus, ohio, to the east room of the white house, the president of the united states and the italian president press conference. let's listen. >> thank you very much. today it is my honor to welcome president of italy to the white house. we've known each other for a while, we've dealt with each other for a while. we've had some really great conversations. we've had a very productive discussion throughout the day with our staffs and representatives and i look

forward to hosting the president and his daughter laura at a reception for the italian americans this evening. i look forward to that very much. the united states and italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years to ancient rome. over the centuries, the italian people have blessed our civilization with magnificent works of art, science, philosophy, architecture and music. on monday we paid tribute to the italian explorer who led a voyage of discovery to the new world, a gentleman known as christopher columbus. to me, it will always be called columbus day. some people don't like that. i do. today the united states and italy draw strength from our cherished heritage as we work together to safeguard our people and promote prosperity as nato

allies and our country cooperate on a wide range of defense issues, including the protection of our nations against radical islamic terrorism. the problem is that italy is only paying 1.1% instead of the mandated 2%, which by and of itself is a low number. it should be probably 4%, anywhere from 4-5%. only 8 of the 28 nato countries are paying the 2%. meaning 20 of the countries are delinquent in the payment to nato and they have been for many years. germany is at 1.3% at most depending on calculations. spain is at less than 1%. turkey is almost current, almost paid up. i want to thank the secretary general because he's going around saying that president trump was able to raise over

$100 billion last year, which is true. but it's still only a large fraction. it's still a large fraction of the amount of money that's owed by many of the countries that aren't paying their dues. we hope that italy will boost its defense spending in order to meet nato's minimum 2% of gdp. i will say they have just purchased 90 brand new beautiful f-35s. the strike fighter program is doing phenomenally well. one of the challenges is the instability in the north african areas. much of that stems from the violence in libya. the ongoing libyan conflict has

led to a migration crisis placing significant and unfair burdens on italy in particular. i've asked that the european union get much more involved because they're not involved. that's a problem for the european union. they had a trade surplus with the united states over the last five or six years of about $150 billion a year. they have to get more involved and help italy. the italian government has stepped up as a leader to fight this illegal immigration. we urge also our nato and european partners to fake firm action to halt illegal immigration and uphold sovereign borders. immigration is critical to national security and essential to the well-being of our citizens. nations must be able to vet, screen and properly manage entry and admission into society. you know the legislation that we had passed. we have had absolutely no help from the democrats on our

borders, absolutely nothing. the closure of loopholes, which would be very easy to do, they refuse to do. they want open borders. italy doesn't want open borders and we're not going to have open borders. our numbers are very good. i want to thank also mexico and the president of mexico for the great help they've given us. they've helped us much more than the democrats. here in the united states we're taking dramatic action to secure our borders, shut down smuggling networks and speed the removal of illegal immigrants. we're moving the ms-13 gang members out literally by the thousands. what we've done with guatemala and honduras and el salvador is, they tell me close to a miracle, the agreements that we've signed. they accept them back and they keep them back. it's a much different relationship than we've ever had with those three countries.

i want to thank the leadership of those three countries. we've been working very well together. our message is clear. if you enter illegal the united states, you will be promptly returned home. they're all returning home. takes a long time because we've had years of people coming and staying and that's the end of that. we also discussed the steps we must take to enhance commerce and economic growth between our two countries. our nations are already investing nearly $70 billion in each other's economies without the burdens as unfair as they are imposed by the european union, we would actually have a much higher number than $70 billion between italy and the united states. however, we can do more and achieve fairness and reciprocity. america's trade deficit with italy accounts for about 20% of our nearly 150 to $170 billion

probably according to some estimates could even be $178 billion annual trade deficit with the european union. we welcome italy's support for a mutually beneficial trade agreement with the eu that ensures a level playing field for american workers and it hasn't been that for many, many years. i could solve the problem instantly, but it would be too harsh. it would involve tariffs on european products come into this country and for right now we're going to try and do it without that. but that would solve the problem instantly, because the united states is not being treated fairly. we also welcome italy's participation in combatting predatory trade and investment practices world wide, especially in technology. we must work together to shield our intellectual property, critical infrastructure, ports and data security. i applaud italy's recent commitment