On his way to Camp David, Trump stopped to take questions from reporters.
POTUS left the Oval at 5:52 pm.
He stopped to take questions from reporters. Q&A below. As always, check quotes against transcript.
He talked about Hurricane Dorian, says it’s “not looking good” and could be very devastating to FL. Says he spoke to Gov. Rick Scott and that “tremendous work” is going on in FL to mitigate damage. Adds that FEMA people are coming to Camp David this weekend.
“Puerto Rico got lucky” but “would’ve been set to go” if the hurricane had hit there
The stock market is “doing well,” economy is “doing great.”
President Xi: can’t say if he will talk to him this weekend
On if he is concerned about his Twitter account being hacked like Jack Dorsey: “If they hack my account they won’t learn too much more than what I put out.”
Madeline Westerhout: she “always did a good job,” notes that the meeting was off the record. “I wish her well.”
He called her comments “a little bit hurtful”
“I love Tiffany”
Poland: says he will go to Poland at a “later date.”
Andy McCabe: “Bad guy” but “can’t get into that”
China Tariffs: “taking up billions of billions of dollars”
“13% of companies are going to be leaving China”
“Farmers were targeted by China.”
“The Farmers are very happy,” Farmers want him to fight China
Says badly run companies are blaming failures on tariffs
Iran: “I wish Iran well — they have a big problem.”
“We’ll see what happens. They had a mishap.”
“It had nothing to do with us.”
Barr declining to indict Comey: “I have a lot of faith in Bill Barr…if anything this shows how fair he is.”
Says the IG report findings against Comey were very serious
Kay Ivey blackface: “I don’t know much about it “high quality woman…I know she apologized”
Hong Kong: “we want freedom, we’ll see what happens”
Notes 2 million people marching
He believes China wants to make a deal and urges them to handle it in a humane fashion
Afghanistan: pulling some troops out to about 8600, repeats he could win the war very quickly but doesn’t want to kill that many people
I’m having a lot of “acting” rather than confirmed staff: “I like acting … it gives flexibility”
“If I like them I make them permanent”
On Ilhan Omar allegedly using campaign funds to pay for affair: “I think it’s terrible. I think those allegations are absolutely terrible.”
USMCA: “it’s a very important deal, I hope it will be a bipartisan deal.”
Urges Pelosi to put it up for a vote
“I hope Nancy Pelosi will do the right thing.”
Fed: “the Fed is hurting me….it makes it harder to compete”
“Our stock market would be like a rocket ship” if Fed lowered the rate
On Tiffany Trump: “She’s going to be calling me when we get to Camp David … It’s absolutely false. She’s a wonderful person and she studies hard.”
POTUS boarded Marine One at 6:16 pm and is on his way to JBA.