around the time period. they should be able to get it all said and done by friday. host: what is your plan for today in terms of tracking these members down? who are you most interested in i will to? juliegrace: be trying to get in touch with white house sources. conservatives, what type of pressure they will place on the president. where they see this deal going. what is happening with appropriators. they continue the legislative text. host: >> president trump said today

he's not heavy with the bipartisan government funding agreement, but he doesn't think there will be another shutdown. reporters asked him about it when they were let into the oval office during a cabinet meeting. president trump: maybe we can begin. i'll ask secretary wilke to say grace. >> god almighty, hose name and ounders of this country -- grant that we and all peoples this land may have graced and maintain those liberties and righteousness and peace. we commend your gracious care in keeping all the men and women of our armed forces, home and abroad, defend them by day with your grace. strengthen them in their trials and tempt tations, give them courage to face the perils which

beset them and grant them a sense of your presence. amen. president trump: thank you very much, secretary. beautiful. thank you-all for being here. before we begin we're thinking about certain things that we're just starting to look at. david bern hart as you know is going through the process of becoming secretary of interior from acting. done a fantastic job. i think he will continue and we look forward to that. we're thinking about doing on the fourth of july or thereabouts a parade, salute to america parade. it will be a gathering as opposed to a parade i guess you have to say. perhaps at the lincoln memorial. we're looking at sites. we're thinking about doing something which would become perhaps a tradition, salute to america on july 4 or july 4 weekend. somewhere around that area. and david, you are taking charge of that and you'll see how it works out with schedules and everything else.

i think it could be an exciting day. the fireworks is there anyway. we saved on fireworks. we get free fireworks. that's very good. good morning, welcome to our cabinet meeting. as he i said in my state of the union address, i'm eager to work with both parties to deliver for all americans. that's what we have to start doing. there is tremendous and quite unusual attitude on the other side, a lot of anger. they are slipping extremely far left. and we don't want that to happen to our country. we're working very hard with the other side and hopefully positive things can take place. since the election we created 5.3 million jobs, including more than 300,000 last month alone. blue collar jobs have grown at their fastest pace in more than 30 years. and we have added half a million manufacturing jobs. that number will soon be 600,000 because of certain things

happening. economic growth has nearly doubled since i took office. we have a big team over in china right now and they are working very hard dealing with the chinese who want very much to make a deal. we'll see what happens. the tariffs are bringing a tremendous amount of money to our treasury. as you read of the 21 points, actually the number would be 25 now, on the areas that are taxed, 25 china is paying for 21 and we're paying for four. that's pretty good. we're bringing billions and billions of dollars into our treasury right now. we'll see what happens, but they very much want to make a deal. their economy's been hurt by the tariffs and our economy is thriving like really never before. we're doing incredibly well. we have a lot of companies going to be announcing, they have already announced in some cases, in many cases they haven't announced, they are moving back into the country. they want to be part of the united states.

it's like a miracle in the united states what's happening. we have a lot of companies that have left in many cases, they left our country, and they are moving back. that means a lot of jobs. speaking of jobs we have to have more people coming into our country because our real number's about 3.6, 3.7, it took a little blip up during the shutdown. went up to four. four any country would take a four. we're about 3.7. probably going lower. we need people so we want to have people come into our country, but we want to have them come in through a merit system and come in legally. that's going to be happening. we're doing very well in that regard. we have tremendous numbers of can companies. you have been reporting on them. a lot of car companies are coming back to the united states. we want to keep the job boom going strong and we must protect our economy and we have to protect it from any attempts to oppose socialism. socialism does not work too

well. we don't want that as part of our country and as part of our heritage. we just can't have it. everything would come to an end and rapidly. then all of a sudden would you see things happening and say what's going on, whatever happened? we're at a high point today and we'll go higher. we have a long way to go as far as i'm concerned. especially where we make the good trade deals and make the good military deals. there is an example as you know south korea, we defend them, and lose a tremendous amount of money. billions of dollars ayear defending them. they agood at my request and working with secretary pompeo and john bolton, they agreed to pay yesterday $500 million more towards their defense. $500 million with a couple of phone calls. i said why didn't you do this before? they said nobody asked. it's got to go up. right now it costs us $5 billion a year to defend. as an example south korea. we have a great relationship with president moon and doing

great things. north korea is coming along. south korea is an example. south korea is costing us $5 billion a year and they pay -- they were paying about $500 million. for $5 million worth of protection. we have to do better than that. they have agreed to pay $500 million more. over the years it will start going up. they will be terrific. they have been very good. we have had a really strong -- we made a new trade deal with south korea. the same thing with japan and the same thing with saudi arabia and many others. we protect saudi arabia. they have nothing but cash. we protect them with great subsidy. we give saudi arabia a subsdy. it should be the other way around as far as i'm concerned, right? a lot of things are happening. all of this enures to the strength of our country and to our economy. we're looking forward to seeing that. the mexico deal, as you know, mexico/canada trade deal, usmca,

is a tremendous deal things -- the worst deals in the history of this country every signed. it cleaned out our jobs and company. it was a terrible, terrible thing that we signed nafta. this is the nafta replacement. has nothing to do with nafta. one of the things that make it very hard, it's very hard for a company, financially, to leave our country under the usmca. very, very prohibitive to leave. that was the thing i wanted more than any other element. i said i don't want these companies going and leaving and going to mexico and canada. they have their own companies. i don't want to do that. we lost -- we lost 25% of our automobile industry to mexico. we lost 30%, combination of both. canada and mexico. that's wielding its way through and hitting congress shortly and we'll see how that does. that's a great deal. it's a very labor friendly deal. it's a deal that the workers of our country will love.

one in three women, as you know, are sexually assaulted on the long journey north. we want to stop that. we want to stop those journeys. the way you do that is with barrier security. a wall and making a lot of progress. i noticed yesterday when i got to el paso they had signs, finish the wall instead of build the wall. we're doing a lot of wall right now. started a big portion of the wall in the rio grande valley, which is now the biggest area for people coming in. we have sealed up a lot of areas where people come in. they are looking for the soft spots and come up in a caravan and look for the areas without any barrier. that's where they like to come in. we grab them and it's a very tough situation. we could save billions and billions of dollars in costs and hundreds of billions of dollars in trugs in what they are doing to us with drugs. so much of it comes through.

don't believe people when they say it all comes through the portals, it doesn't. the ports of entry. it comes through the big loads come through the border where you don't have a wall. where they can drive a truck, a big truck loaded up with drugs, loaded up with human cargo. human cargo. these are traffickers. these are the worst people on earth. they don't come through the ports of entry with people in the back of a car tied up. could never do that. they come through areas where there is no barrier. we'll see what happens. i got reports last night when i was going out to speak, we had, by the way, a massive crowd. my competitor had very few people, but the press didn't report it that way. the press reported it like two speeches. we had a competitor that decided to challenge me with the crowds. he failed very badly. from what i hear he had less than 1,000 people. and we had a packed arena and we had probably 25,000 people outside of the arena.

it was an incredible night in texas, i can tell you that. it was amazing. but as i'm going on stage to speak, they are telling me about the committee -- the committee came out with a deal. they went over it briefly. then i went over briefly last night but it was 3:00 in the morning. and i can't say i'm happy. i can't say i'm thrilled. but the wall's getting built regardless. doesn't matter. because we're doing other things beyond what we're talking about here. so we'll see what happens. we're having a meeting on it later. it's really obstruction, the democrats want everybody to be able to come into our country. we have many criminals -- when you you look at the numbers of criminals that are nabbed -- i'm looking at numbers that are incredible. this card was given to me by secretary neilsen. assaults, 99,000 assaults. larceny, 40,000. burglary, 5,000.

fraudulent activities, 25,000. damage in stolen property, 17,000. sex offenses, 13,552. sexual assaults, 10,468. that's sexual assaults on people that live in our country. people that are coming illegally across our borders. in many cases people that have come before i became president. what happens is we're working very hard, we're getting rid of tremendous numbers of ms-13, and the democrats don't like us to get rid of ms-13. you figure that one out. these are violent people and they don't like us to get rid of ms-13. robberies, 11,177. kidnappings, 4,112. urders, 3,914.

so these are people that i.c.e. is dealing with and nobody can deal with them more effectively. there is probably no group in this country that does so much and truly so little respect or love as i.c.e. it's a terrible thing. they are doing an incredible job. one other thing i might want to say is that anti-semitism has no place in the united states congress. and congressman omar is terrible what she said. and i think she should either resign from congress or she should certainly resign from the house foreign affairs committee. what she said is so deep-seated in her heart that her lame apology, that's what it was, it was lame, and she didn't mean a

word of it, was just not appropriate. i think she should resign from congress, frankly. but at a minimum she shouldn't be on committees. certainly that committee. with that we're going to have a meeting, our cabinet is doing really well. we're doing great. our country is doing great. stock market is up tremendously today. i haven't seen it in 15 minutes. larry cud low, anything -- so far, so good. we're hitting new records with growth. we're hitting new records with the economy. we have hit many new records on unemployment. more people working today in the united states than any time in the history of our country. we're getting very close to 160 million people. and we never had anything like that. which tells you that we have to have people come into our country. great people. from the areas that we're talking about. we want them to be productive -- we want people who love our

country and help our country. i want to thank our cabinet. the cabinet's doing a fantastic job. really unsung job. because members of this cabinet -- there are those people that say this is one of the best cabinets this country has ever had. i happen to agree. i happen to agree. we have great, great people in our cabinet. i want to thank you-all very much for doing a fantastic job. thank you very much. i guess maybe at some point there will be a vote. at some point -- i think you have done a tremendous amount of abuse. you handled yourself incredibly last friday. on behalf of all of us i want to thank you very much. ack. heartfelt, too. believe me. ok. thank you very much. i have to study. i'm not happy about t it's not doing the trick.

but i'm adding things to it. when you add whatever i have to add, it's all -- it's all going to happen where we're going to build a beautiful big, strong wall that's not going to let criminals and traffickers and drug dealers and drug -- it's very simple. very simple. we're building a wall. i'm not saying we're firning a wall. we just started a big, big section on the rio grande. you probably saw it. some of you were there when you started. you didn't believe t you went there. you see trucks all over the place. he's not kidding. i don't kid. i never kid about construction. i love construction. i know how to do it for the right price. we're getting a beautiful looking structure that's also less expensive to build. and works much better. that's a good combination of events. it was crazy what they were putting up. i happen to think the walls they were building so unastruckive and ugly, that walls got bad

names, if that means anything. but they were so ugly with russed -- rusted steel and big ugly plates on top, called tin cans, because the heat makes them expand and contract and they tin can. why didn't you paint the steel? sir, we save money by not painting. yeah, but it's going to rust. you have to paint -- i have never seen in my whole life steel come to me unpainted. this can only happen at the border. it wasn't me. it was our past geniuses. i can tell you that many i happy at first glance? i just got to see it. the answer is no. i'm not. i'm not happy. but am i happy with where we're going? i'm thrilled. because we're supplementing things and moving things around and we're doing things that are fantastic. taking from far less -- really

from far less important areas. the bottom line is we're building a lot of wall. right now we're building a lot of wall. you think it's easy. we're building in the face of tremendous obstruction and tremendous opposition from a small group of people. one thing that happened that was, i think, very revealing. we had the biggest and best border agents and experts come up and see the committee. and they said, more than anything else, you need a barrier. you need a wall. and the recommendation was unacceptable to the committee. so that tells you more than anything else. i don't think you are going to > a -- see a shutdown. if did you have it it's the democrats' fault. i accepted the first one. i'm proud of what we have accomplished. people learned during that shutdown all about the problems coming in from the southern border.

i accept that. i have always accepted it. but this one i i would never accept it if it happens. don't think it will happen. this would be totally on the democrats. >> when you say you may amend and send back the compromise or you may grudgingly accept it and move forward? president trump: you have to negotiate a little bit. i would hope there won't be a shutdown. i'm extremely unhappy with what the democrats have given us. sad. it's sad. they are doing the country no favor. they are hurting our country very badly. but we certainly don't want to see a shutdown. but you'll be hearing fairly soon. the bottom line is on the wall, we're building the wall. and we're using other methods other than this, in addition to this. we have a lot of things going. we have a lot of money in this country. we're using some of that money, small percentage of that money torques build a wall which we esperately need.

we have our people over there now. i just got a report things are going well with china. china wants to make a deal very badly. i want it to be a real deal, not just a deal that makes cosmetically looks good for a year. we have a chance to really make a deal, real deal with china. we have never been in this position before. we have always been the blame duck. we're not the lame duck anymore. we have gone up tremendously in value as a country and economic value. tremendously. arry, we have gone up, what, $14 trillion and china's gone down close to $20 trillion since has rted this whole -- anybody heard of larry kudlow? that voice, i hear that voice. ou think money, right?

i didn't know that. china said it's the worst performing stock market in the world. we don't want that. e want china -- that's because of us. and we have to be one of the best performing stock markets. we're the best performing country. we have a lot of potential for further growth. we're doing very well over in china. our people are there. the people very well. i think we're going to have good answers. i'm happy either wafmente i could live receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars a month from china. china never gave us 10 cents. t was always the opposite. now they are paying bills of dollars a month for the privilege of coming into the once and taking advantage of our country. we'll see how it works out. -- ome point i would expect

i like president xi and make the parts of the deal that the group is unable to make. that's wait deals happen. >> will the march 1 deadline slide? president trump: as you know the tariffs took up for us, in other words we take in much more money because the tariffs -- there is nothing they can do that's comparable. it's not like tit for tat. the tariffs kick in. they go up. right now they were -- they are paying 25% on $50 billion. and they are paying 10% for $200 billion. we have $250 billion, we have $267 billion that we were very nice about and not taxing. on the $200 billion we're paying the 10%. the 10% for $00 billion goes up to 25% on march 1. so far i said don't do that. if we're close to a deal where we think we can can make a real deal and it's going to get done, i could see myself letting that slide for a little while.

but generally speaking i'm not nclined. i considerving. i'm considering everything. we already have national emergencies out there. president obama, president clinton, president bush they declared many national -- this is not unique. they declared many national emergencies, many. and you have some out there that we can use in addition to one we can declare if we wanted -- thank you very much, everybody. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. isit ncicap.org]

the c-span bus recently traveled to louisiana asking folks, what does it mean to be american? >> to be an american means that are you part of a community. that innately able to overcome obstacles that's diverse in many ways. that includes everyone. >> to be american really has a mindset you can do anything you put your mind to. no matter what that value come from. no matter where you are from. when you come here you can do anything. you can can do it. you will achieve everything. that's what it's like to be an american. >> to me being american means that you love this country. i mean truly love this country. it's brokenness, just like the people, we're all broken. the country can be broken sometimes. maybe it was broken. but to love it all the same. i also think that being american

means you stand for the constitution. the bill of rights. and you wish to uphold those. if you don't know them, if you don't uphold them, or you think that we don't need them, those are the formations of our country. that's what we are built upon. i say that you would be n-american to not be key -- be devoted to those. >> i think to be american is that we get to stand up and express ourselves that. we have the right to express our voice, our actions, and to quote wilcox, to y emma send by swlens when we should protest. make cowards out of men. >> what i think what it means to be an american is having the right to choose your own future. choosing where you live. taking whatever job you want. and living the way you want. spending your money how you want it. that's truly what it means to be american. having the right to choose your own destiny.