[cheers and applause] ♪ >> earlier, president trump spoke to reporters as he departed the white house for kentucky. he was asked about a range of issues, including background checks, the economy, trade with china, and combating isis.

pres. trump: our economy is the strongest in the world by fire, nothing even close. a lot of good things are happening. we have good retail numbers this morning, as you saw, and i guess the stock market is up. [inaudible] pres. trump: i do not demand it, but if he used his head he would lower them. in germany they have a zero interest rate, and we compete. we are stronger but we compete. in germany they have zero interest rates, and when they borrow money, look at what is going on over there. they borrow money and they get

paid to borrow money. and we have to compete with that, so if you look at what is happening around the world, jay powell and the federal reserve have totally missed the call. i was right and just about everybody missed that. i was right. he did quantitative tightening, he should have not done that. he raised interest rates too fast. two furious. too furious. we have a normalized rate, if you call it that, and now we have to go the other direction. if he does it, you will see a rocket ship. if it does not we have a strong economy. but we could be -- we could be at a place we are seldom at if we had interest rate cuts. the federal reserve has let us down. they missed the goal. they raised them too fast, too high, and they did quantitative tightening.

they should not have done the tightening and they should not have raised it to that extent. raises, have had some but nothing like they did. >> what happened to the strong appetite for background checks? ans. trump: oh, i have appetite for background checks. we will be doing background checks, we are working with democrats and republicans. we already have strong background checks, but we will be filling in some of the loopholes, as we call them, at the border. speaking about the border, it would be really nice if the democrats would indeed fix the loopholes because it would be really nice. despite that, i want to think mexico, they have 26,000 soldiers at our border. they are really stopping people from coming in. with background checks, we are dealing with democrats, we are dealing with republicans. we are dealing with the nra. we are dealing with gun owners. we are dealing with everybody. i think we are going to have something hopefully that is meaningful.

-- not do background checks the echo -- background checks? pres. trump: i did not say that. we had a great talk with wayne yesterday and did not say anything about that. we talked about concepts. wayne agrees that rings have to be done, and we have areas where we can close. we have a lot of background checks right now. gun owners can tell you that. others can tell you that, but there are certain weaknesses we want to fix. i think that will happen. .et us see what happens i'm concerned that no matter what we agree to, the democrats will say, well, we now want this. it is a slippery slope. that is what actually gun owners and a lot of other people are concerned with. assuming that that is not going to take place by the democrats want toing they really get this done, we can get it done. >> [inaudible]

pres. trump: you've got to speak up. >> veteran suicide. [inaudible] lot. trump: we are doing a having to do with veteran suicides. we have a task force set up, there is a product that just came out by johnson & johnson, which has a tremendously term, butpretty short tremendously positive effect. i have instructed the head of the va to buy a lot of it, and we are buying a lot of it. hopefully we are getting it at a good cost. this is a -- i guess it is a form of stimulant where if somebody is really in trouble, from the standpoint of suicide, it can do something. it is pretty well known. it just came out, it is made by johnson & johnson, and we have calls in to johnson & johnson. we have been dealing with them for two months. we are buying a lot.

>> [inaudible] pres. trump: denmark, i look forward to going. but i thought that the prime statement, it was absurd. i thought it was nasty. it was inappropriate. all she had to do was to say no, we would not be interested. we cannot treat the united states of america the way they treated us under president obama. i thought it was a very not nice way of saying something. they could have told me no. this is something that has been discussed for many years. harry truman had the idea of greenland, i had the idea, other people have had the idea. it goes back to the early 1900s. but harry truman very strongly thought it was a good idea. i think it is a good idea because denmark is losing $700 million a year with it. it does not do them any good. but all they had to do was say no, we would rather not do that,

or we would rather not talk about it. do not say what an absurd idea. she is not talking to me. excuse me. she is not talking to me, she is talking to the united states of america. you do not talk to the united states that way, at least under me. now, president obama, when would not let him land in the philippines, when they treated him so badly in some any places -- the philippines is the one that comes to mind -- that is different. they can treat him anyway they want to, that is up to him. they cannot treat the united states with the statement how absurd. let your wife do it. who is the boss? >> i am the boss. pres. trump: i agree. >> is millennia the boss -- melania the boss? >> yes. go ahead. >> with regard to background

checks, why should anyone who wants to buy a gun get the background checks? what's wrong with that? pres. trump: i want guns in the hands of mentally stable. those people, i want them to easily be able to get a gun. but people who are insane, people that are sick up here, i don't want them to be able to get a gun. >> are background checks a good idea? pres. trump: if a person is sick, if a person is mentally ill, if a person has done things in their past that ra -- are a horror, like in the case of dayton, except he got a gun -- because he was 17 years old when he wrote a list out and said it was not about guns, he had a kill and rape list. he was 17, and one of the things we are talking about is getting rid of the age limit. he was 17, so when he turned 18, it was expunged, so we did not find out about that. a big percentage of the school , the parents would not let their kids go to that school.

it was a very big thing. away.e was 18, it went we cannot let that happen. >> 100 people a day die from guns. do you see that as a public health emergency? pres. trump: i do. i do. they die for a lot of other reasons too. but they do. and, as i have said, i said it very loudly and plainly, i do nothing to have changed positions at all. we are working on background checks. there are things we can do. we already have very serious background checks. we have strong background checks. we can close the gaps. we can do things that are good. things that, frankly, gun owners want to have done. we also have to remember, the gun does not pull the trigger. a person does. we have great mental illness. go ahead. >> the plan to dust off the old law and prosecute the antifa demonstrators under the idea

-- under the law that it is a federal crime -- pres. trump: we are looking at a lot of different things relative to antifa. antifa is a terrorist organization. we have had great support on that. we are looking at various different things. >> yesterday you said -- pres. trump: behind you. >> with greenland it is off the table. looking at any additional land -- pres. trump: we are just looking. greenland was just a thought. but i think when they say it was absurd and it was said in a nasty and sarcastic way, i said we will make it some other time. we will go to denmark. i love denmark, i have been to denmark. frankly, we will do it another time. respect has to be shown to the united states.

>> you said american jews who vote for democrats are disloyal. to whom are they being disloyal, sir? pres. trump: i have been responsible for a lot of great things for israel. one of them was moving the embassy to jerusalem, making jerusalem the capital of israel. one of them was the golan heights, and one of them is frankly iran. very weakened nation, much different. hopefully something works out. wait a minute. wait. no president has ever done anywhere close to what i have done between the golan heights, jerusalem, iran, other things. >> american -- pres. trump: wait a minute. no president has done what i have done. we have a group, we call it aoc plus three, representative tlaib, representative

omar, anyway you want to go. they are anti-semites, against israel, she had a plan to greatly embarrass israel by going there with the fact that she wanted to see her grandmother, i assume that is true and i hope it is true. but it was very bad. very bad, the things that she and others of that group and other democrats have said. they have become the face of the democratic party, and i will tell you this, in my opinion, the democrats have gone far away from israel. i cannot understand how they can do that. they do not want to fund israel. they want to take away foreign aid to israel. they want to do a lot of bad things to israel. in my opinion, you vote for a democrat, you are being disloyal to jewish people and disloyal to israel. only weak people would say anything other than that. >> they are american. they are not --

>> how do you respond to that? pres. trump: i have not heard anybody say that, just the opposite. if you vote for a democrat, you are very disloyal to israel and the jewish people. pres. trump: i am at 94% now in the republican party, the highest in history, the highest of any republican. i think they would have a hard time. >> they outsmarted obama, in fact, because they annexed crimea. pres. trump: that was outsmarting obama? so russia outsmarted president obama, they took over during his term, not during mine. crimea. they took over crimea -- just an organ of the democrats. just let me answer the question. i will answer it very easily. it is a simple question. the fact is that president putin totally outsmarted president

obama on crimea and other things. including the red line in the sand, all right? he made a living on outsmarting president obama, and because of it, obama was upset and he got obama out of what was the g8. it is the g7. should we put russia back in? we spend a lot of time talking about russia at those meetings, and they are not there. i think it would be a good thing if russia were there so we could speak directly and not have to speak by telephone and other things. here is the thing. it is a vote of what is now the g7. they were taken out because putin outsmarted on crimea, on the red line, on other things, totally outsmarted obama. obama was upset and they took him out. i think russia should be a part of it because we are looking for

world peace and other things. trade and other things. it would be easier to have russia in where they have always been. >> they are still there, so why not admit them? in the oval office, you said you had the executive authority -- 1992, the department says -- pres. trump: i read the same report as you. i'm not looking to do indexing. i have studied indexing for a long time. i think it will be perceived as elitist. i want taxes for the middle class, the workers, the people who work hard, that is what i am looking. indexing is really probably better for the upper income groups. i am not looking to do that. if i wanted to do it, i believe i could, but i would need a letter from the attorney general.

>> you are taking america into a recession. is it worth it? pres. trump: the fake news, of which many of you are members, is trying to convince the public to have a recession. let's have a recession. united states is doing phenomenally well, but one thing i have to do is economically take on china, because china has been ripping us off for many years. president clinton, president bush, president obama, and others should have done this before me. my life would've been easier if i just said, let china continue to rip off the united states. it would be much easier, but i cannot do that. we are winning against china. they have lost 2.5 million jobs in a short period of time. they want to make a deal, and it has to be a deal that is good for the united states. when they want to make a deal, probably we will make a deal, but if i did not do that, and

i'm not -- somebody said it was trump's trade war. this is not my trade war. this is a trade war that should have taken place a long time ago. by a lot of other presidents. over the last five or six years, china has made $500 billion. $500 billion. ripped it out of the united states. not only that, if you take a look, intellectual property theft. add that to it and add a lot of other things. excuse me. somebody had to do it. i am the chosen one. somebody had to do it, so i am taking on china. i am taking on china on trade, and you know what? we are winning. we are the piggy bank. we are the one that all of these countries including the european union wants to rob and take advantage of. european union, $200 million. -- $200 billion. china, more than $500 billion. sorry. i was put here -- i was put here

by people -- i was put here by people to do a great job, and that is what i am doing. nobody has done a job like i have done. now, would china rather wait and try and get sleepy joe biden to negotiate with instead of president trump? maybe. but i don't think so. you know why? they are losing too many jobs too fast. they had the worst year in 27 years. i think it was actually 52 or 54 years. it is the worst year they have had in half a century because of me. i am not proud of that, but they want to negotiate, and sleepy joe does not have a clue. sleepy joe said china is wonderful. well, china is wonderful for china, but i am wonderful for the usa. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: we will meet

at some time, but the prime minister used a terrible word when describing something that we have been talking about for years with our country. president truman said what about greenland? and he talked about it openly and it was a big deal. i brought it up again and it was discussed many other times, and i thought it was not a nice statement, the way she blew me off. because she is blowing off the united states. we have done a lot for denmark. we have done a lot. i know denmark well. i have many friends from denmark, many people from denmark that live in the united states. we treat countries with respect. she should not treat the united states that way by saying what -- she said absurd. that is not the right word to use. absurd. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: louder. >> wide -- why is it acceptable

-- [inaudible] pres. trump: if you remember, president obama had separation. president obama built the cages that you talk about. and you attribute them to me. president obama dealt those builtsident obama in 2014 those cages and you were embarrassed when the "new york times" and others put a picture of the cage and said how bad trump was, only to find out that it was president obama that built to those cages. president obama had separation. i am the one who brought them together. this new rule will do more to bring them together. it was president obama that had the separation. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: we are being strong on the border. you see the numbers are down. i want to thank mexico for that. the united states could make the

problem go away very easily if the democrats would meet and we could fix the loopholes and asylum, which is what you are talking about. let me just tell you, very much i have the children on my mind. it bothers me greatly. people make this horrible 2000 mile journey. one of the things that will happen when they realize that the borders are closing and the wall is being built, we are building tremendous numbers of miles of wall in different locations. it all comes together like a beautiful puzzle. but one of the things that is happening when they see that you cannot get into the united states, or when they see that if they do get in, they will be brought back to their country, it will not matter if they get in or not because we are doing that, they will not come. many people will be saved. many women's lives will not be destroyed and ruined. >> will we see a payroll tax cut? pres. trump: i am not looking at a tax cut now.

we do not need it. we have a strong economy. certainly a payroll tax cut -- president obama did that to jack up the economy artificially. president obama had zero interest rates. i don't have zero interest rates. i have real interest rates, and despite that i have a strong economy. president obama did two payroll tax cuts and despite that i have a much stronger economy. if you look at my numbers from november 9 to the present, the stock market is up over 50%. that guy is most biased reporter. nbc. you know, i made a lot of money for nbc with "the apprentice." i used to like them, but they are the most biased -- peter is such a biased -- he should be able to ask a question -- same question in a better way. you are so obviously biased, and that is why the public has no confidence in the media. go ahead.

>> joe biden -- pres. trump: joe biden does not have it. let me tell you about joe biden. joe biden does not have it. >> you said that the massacre happened and toledo when it happened in dayton -- was that fair game -- pres. trump: joe biden doesn't have it. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: i think "the new york times" has lost credibility. they have given up on the russian collusion dilution. now what they are doing is trying the racist deal, and that is not going to work because i am the least racist person ever to serve in office. i am the least racist person, but "the new york times" is trying everything they can. it is a totally dishonest newspaper. it is a paper that really has lost tremendous credibility. and let me tell you -- in six years, maybe 10 or maybe 14, right? in six years when i am not here, "the new york times" goes out of business very quickly.

you know what else? nbc news. nbc news has less credibility in my opinion, guys like you, then cnn. i think cnn has more credibility than nbc news. >> an additional question -- pres. trump: did you hear what i said? i said you have more credibility than this guy. that's not saying much because -- you know why, because i do not think you have much credibility. but i will tell you this. nbc has less credibility than cnn. that is not saying much but that is the way i feel. >> you are focused on mental health issues. pres. trump: very important. >> but other countries have the same levels of mental illness but not the levels of gun violence. do you really deny the access to guns -- pres. trump: there are many things in play. people are talking about videos, talking about lots of different things, but we do have a way of bringing what we already have, because we have many people --

as you know, we have many, many people that are unable to buy guns right now. many people are unable to buy guns. we have background checks. but there are loopholes in the background checks and that is what i spoke to the nra about yesterday. they want to get rid of the loopholes as well as i do. at the same time, i do not want to take away people's second amendment rights. i do not take away the constitution having to do with gun ownership. we cannot let that slope go so easy that we are talking about background checks, then all of a sudden we are talking about let's take everybody's gun away. people need weapons, unfortunately, for protection. >> that is an nra talking point. pres. trump: that is a trump talking point. you approve one thing and then another thing, and then all of a sudden you are on the slope, and all of a sudden nobody has any legal protection. we have a second amendment. let me tell you this. we have a second amendment, and

our second amendment will remain strong. go ahead. yes, go ahead. >> are you worried about the potential reemergence of isis? in afghanistan -- pres. trump: at a certain point, russia, afghanistan, iran, iraq, turkey, they are going to have to fight their battles, too. we wiped out the caliphate 100%. i did it in record time. but at a certain point, all of these other countries, where isis is around, they have been decimated, badly decimated. but all of these countries are going to have to fight them because do we want to stay there for another 19 years? i do not think so. at a certain point, other countries, that includes russia, ,t includes iran, turkey, iraq

and afghanistan, and pakistan, and india -- look, india is right there. they are not fighting it, we are fighting it. pakistan is right next door, they are fighting it very little. very very little. it is not fair. the united states, we are 7000 miles away, we have decimated isis. you have not been hearing much about isis. we took the caliphate 100%. when i took it at 98%, i thought , alright, maybe we go home now and let other countries handle it. everyone went crazy and said do 100%. they said it was going to take a year. it took me a month, and they are gone. the caliphate is gone. by the way, we are holding thousands of isis fighters right now. and europe has to take them. if europe does not take them, i will have no choice but to release them into the countries from which they came.

which is germany, france, and other places, because we beat them. we captured them. we have thousands of them. now, as usual, our allies say, oh no, we don't want them, even though they came from france, germany, and other places. we are going to tell them what we have already told them. take these prisoners that we have captured, because the united states is not going to put them in guantanamo for the next 50 years and pay for it. >> what is your deadline? pres. trump: it is moving along, my deadline. they know. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: i did. i went to the hospitals, i will tell you this. i went to the hospitals, it was totally falsely reported. they were beautiful, beautiful, very sad, you know, horrible moments, but they were beautiful moments in the sense that these people, the families and also the people who were so badly injured that i was with, they love our country.

and frankly, do you want to know the truth? they love their president and nobody wrote that. nobody wrote that. you did not write the truth. "the new york times" does not like to write the truth. but they love -- they totally love our country and our president. so when i went to dayton and el paso, and i went into those hospitals, the love for me, and me maybe as a representative of the country, but for me, and my love for them was unparalleled. these are incredible people. but if you read the papers, it was like nobody would meet with me. not only did they meet with me , they were pouring out of the rooms. the doctors were coming out of the operating room. there were hundreds of people all over. you could not even walk. is a lot lot -- there that happened. the people in dayton -- let me just explain. people in dayton, el paso, these are incredible people.

and those victims and survivors and the families, i love those people. >> what about -- [inaudible] pres. trump: louder. >> yesterday you said -- which is it? pres. trump: i have looked at indexes for a long time. it is not something i love. i think it is better for the high-income people, and i am not looking to do that. i want to do for the workers. i am looking to do for middle-income people. i think indexing? i would have to get a letter from the attorney general or the justice department, which i think i would be able to get, otherwise i will have to go through congress, but i have not been seriously looking at it. we have such a strong economy. if the fed did what they were supposed to do, they would drop interest rates by 100 basis

points, they would do maybe not tightening, but loosening, or leave it alone, do nothing. compete with the united states. right now, the fed is tying our hands, because we are paying interest rates and germany and other countries that are not like us are not. it should be the other way around. why should they be paying no interest rate and have an incentive beyond that and we are paying interest rates? the fed has missed the call for a long time. >> on the economy -- [inaudible] >> i think we have a very strong economy. i don't see any reason to. i think the fed has been very late and very early. they were very early to raise and late to cut, but the fed can o the whole thing.

yesterday, we had the strongest dollar in the history of our country. yesterday, we had the strongest dollar in the history of our country. in one way, i am honored by that, but in another way, it makes it harder to export goods. i love it, but in another way i don't like it because it is harder to compete. we have literally the strongest dollar in the history of our country. >> [inaudible] >> we are looking at that very seriously. birthright citizenship, where you have a baby in our land, walk over the border, have a baby, congratulations, the baby is a u.s. citizen. we are looking at it seriously. i don't know how you found that out. we are looking at birthright citizenship very seriously. frankly, it is ridiculous.

>> [inaudible] detention of migrant minors -- president trump: i am the one that kept the families together. you remember that, right? remember i said it. president obama and others brought the families apart, but i am the one that kept the families together. with what we are doing now, even more of that, but i will make it almost impossible for people to come into our country illegally. we are building large sections of the wall. i won the lawsuit in the supreme court. we are building large sections of wall. >> [inaudible] announcer: in 1979 a small

network with abstrange name and a new idea. bringing you unfiltered content. en television and online, c-span is your unfiltered view of government so you can make up your own mind, brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. washington governor jay inslee ld msnbc's rachel maddow nching, it is becoming clear i'm not going to carry the ball. i'm not going to win the race for president. his withdrawal comes nearly six months after announcing his candidacy which placed an mphasis on climate issues. pbs science correspondent miles o'brien joins state