Transcript: President Trump, President Lee Jae Myung Meeting at the White House

But I think your approach is a much better one.

LEE JAE-MYUNG: So resolving this issue through my engagement is not an easy thing. And the only person that can make progress on this issue is you, Mr. President. So if you become peacemaker, then I will assist you by being a peacemaker.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s good. We can do big progress, I think, with North Korea, absolutely.

Questions from Reporters

REPORTER: Mr. President, when you met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, how soon did he say that he wanted to sit down with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy? Russia as of now says there’s no meeting on the books and no agenda is set.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, that’s going to be up to them. It takes two to tango, I always say it. And they should meet, I think, before I have a meeting and probably close the deal. But I think it’s appropriate they meet. They do not exactly get along well, as you can understand.

And I’m sure it’s a meeting that perhaps he didn’t like, but he wasn’t happy about coming to the United States either. That was a big concession, and I appreciate the fact that he did. I’ve always had a very good relationship despite a fake “Russia, Russia, Russia” hoax that we had. But we’ve always had a great relationship, very good relationship, strong relationship with Russia. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing, by the way. That’s a very good thing.

And it’s good to get along with Kim Jong Un and it’s good to get along with everybody, including President Lee. It’s good to get along. And I get along with the foreign leaders. You see that with the biggest group of foreign leaders that we’ve ever had. Don’t forget the European Union was here also representing a large group of countries just recently.

Discussion on Ukraine Conflict

So I believe that we’re going to get that war straightened out. We’re going to get it done. I don’t know that they’ll meet. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. They’d like me to be at the meeting. I said, “You guys ought to work it out. It’s between you, it’s not us.”

Now in the meantime, we’re not spending any money on, as you know, on Ukraine. But we’re selling military equipment to NATO. NATO now has taken in a large amount of money from the countries. They’re taking in five percent of GDP versus two percent. They’re paying them five percent. They never paid the two percent. Most of them are, a lot of them. NATO has a lot of money.

We are selling military equipment to NATO at full price and NATO is distributing that equipment to wherever they are, I mean, perhaps to Ukraine. So NATO is working with Ukraine. Biden was giving hundreds of billions of dollars just willy-nilly, just given money. He had no idea where it was going. It was terrible what was happening.

So we’re not involved anymore in terms of the cost. We’re in for 350 billion dollars. As you know, I also got the rare earth deal done with Ukraine, which was worth much more than the 350 billion dollars. But I’m not interested in the money so much even though we’ve done a great job in that regard. I’m not interested in that.

I’m interested in stopping a war where last week 7,109 soldiers died, both Russian and Ukraine. It’s such a waste of life and humanity. They’re not from this country. They’re not from any other country other than Ukraine, for the most part, other than Ukraine and Russia. But it’s a very important thing to me to stop it.

I stopped seven wars, wars that were raging, one for 31 years, the Congo and as you know, Rwanda, one for 35 years. I don’t have to go into them, you know the list better than I do. But we stopped a lot of wars, including, you think about it, India and Pakistan, which was probably two weeks away from being a nuclear war. They were shooting down airplanes all over the place.

So I’m very proud of that. I thought this would be in many ways the easiest one. I have a very good relationship with Putin. I thought it would be the easiest one to stop and it’s really not. It’s very complex. It’s very personal from their standpoint. There’s tremendous dislike personally between the two men and we’re going to have to straighten that out.

But I would like to see them meet first. They’d like me to be there. I may be there. I may not. I’ll see. But I wanted them to work out their differences first because it is ultimately between them. And when that happens, I think we’ll get an end.

REPORTER: How should they meet, maybe they don’t? How long are you willing to let this play out? And if they don’t meet, will there be consequences? And how soon for Russia?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, there could be very big consequences, but we’ll see what happens. There might be very big consequences because this is something that has to end. This war would have never taken place. And for four years, it didn’t take place. But if I were President, this war would have never taken place.

There has not been a war like this since the Second World War. This is the biggest thing that’s happened in terms of warfare wars. It’s a whole new form of fighting. It’s a drone fighting. It’s a drone war. No, a drone war never existed before. And we’re actually studying it from the standpoint of Pete Hegseth and everybody, we’re studying it and studying it very carefully.

This is a whole new form of war, but it’s a violent war and there has been nothing like this since the Second World War. So we’ll see what happens over the next week or two. And at that point, I’ll step in very strongly. And if I have to be there, I’ll be there. And we’ll either have a deal or we won’t, but a lot of people are dying and I want to get this stopped.

Future Meetings with Kim Jong Un

REPORTER: Kim Jong Un wants to meet. When do you want to meet with him?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We do. The North Korean leader wants to meet. How soon would you… We only want to have a meeting. I like to have a meeting. I get along great with him. You know, you were there. We even had a press conference. He had his first press conference. Kim Jong Un had a press conference. This was a little different press conference.

I said, “Have you done a press conference before?” “No.” And you know what? He did great. It was a great press conference actually. It was historic. I doubt he’s done one since. But I said, “Would you like to meet the fake news? Because whatever you want to do.” They came in and they came in like you’ve never seen anything like it. And then he said, “Enough.” And that was the end of the first quarter. It ended very rapidly. But I think he had a good time.

I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong Un in the appropriate future.

U.S. Forces in South Korea

REPORTER: Would you consider reducing the number of U.S. Forces in South Korea so that the United States can have more flexibility in the region?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I don’t want to say that now because we’ve been friends and we’re friends. And look, we have a lot of people out there. We have over 40,000 troops in South Korea. As you know, South Korea agreed to pay for that during my last term. And then when Biden came in, they complained to Biden that I wasn’t a nice person. And he agreed not to pay. He gave up billions of dollars. We were getting paid billions of dollars. But then Biden ended that for whatever reason, it’s unbelievable that he did.

But we have a very good relationship militarily. They would say, “But we gave you land.” I said, “No, you didn’t. You lease us land. There’s a big difference between giving and leasing.” And maybe one of the things I’d like to do is ask them to give us ownership of the land where we have the big fort. We spent a lot of money building a fort and there was a contribution made by South Korea. But I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military business.

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. How are you planning to make… I also want to ask this question to Mr. President. Who are you with?

SONG YOO JIN: I’m Song Yoo Jin. I am from South Korea’s Arirang TV.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Good. Thank you so much.

SONG YOO JIN: So as mentioned earlier, the United States is South Korea’s most important and closest ally.

Key Ways to Strengthen the South Korea-U.S. Alliance

REPORTER: So in this point of view, I would like to ask you and also President Lee, what do you think are the key ways to make the South Korea U.S. Alliance greater?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think it’s great now. I feel very warmly toward South Korea. I will tell you that I have a lot of people in business that I deal with that are from South Korea. They love Trump because they feel I’ve saved. I think you would have had a nuclear war by word. I think you would have had a nuclear war North Korea and South Korea. I think it would have been a disaster.

You’re only sixty miles away from Seoul. They don’t even need nuclear. They have their cannons, you know, howitzers and they have them buried in the mountains. You know what I’m talking about. And I think you would have had if I didn’t if I didn’t win that election, if Hillary Clinton crooked Hillary won that election, think you would have had a nuclear war.

It would have taken place and it would have been horrendous for everybody, including them. It would have been very bad for them because we would have had to enter the picture and we are the most powerful nuclear country in the world by far. Russia is second, China is third. China is going to catch eventually five or six years they’re working to catch.

One of the things we’re trying to do with Russia and with China is denuclearization. And it’s very important. One of the things I discussed with President Putin the other day, it wasn’t just that, it was also other things. And I think the denuclearization is a very it’s a big game, but Russia is willing to do it and I think China is going to be willing to do it too. We can’t let nuclear weapons proliferate. We have to stop nuclear weapons. The power is too great. Okay? Thank you.

Trade Deal Focus Areas

REPORTER: Ask you further questions about South Korea and U.S. Alliance. I’m Anna from the Korea Times. So I’d like to ask you about the trade deal that’s on the table. You mentioned about the shipbuilding industry and President Lee mentioned about the manufacturing industry. And what other areas or sectors that you intend to focus on this trade deal because Korea is bringing in many investments and trade jobs. I’d like to know the opinions of both how to get a beneficial outcomes for both countries through this deal.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re going to get along great because we really sort of need each other. We love what they do. We love their product. We love their ships. We love a lot of the things that they make. And they love what we have. We’re dealing with them on Alaska having to do with the oil. They need you need oil and we have it. So we have a big advantage in that way.

We have a big we have more oil and gas and coal and energy than any other country in the world by far. For whatever reason, God was very good to us. He gave us the greatest. We didn’t use it. We started to use wind. Wind doesn’t work. They started to use solar panels that took over the land all over the Midwest where the farmers said, “What happened to my land?” They’d have a ten mile by ten mile solar field that they couldn’t farm. Most valuable land, farming land in the world, probably the most vibrant in the world. And they put solar plants all over the place.

It’s ridiculous. A big massive black fields of solar that all comes out of China or plastic, all comes out of China. But we have the greatest amount of energy in the world and we’re dealing with South Korea, as you know, in Alaska and we’re going to be making a deal a joint venture with South Korea. Japan is involved also very strongly involved. So we have Japan and South Korea and we’re actually the closest, it seems like quite far away, Alaska and but actually it’s right up the little ocean, right up the little Pacific Ocean.

It’s actually pretty close relatively speaking, but we have more oil and gas and coal than any other nation in the world by far and we’re going to use it. And that’s the thing that South Korea, I think most wants from us, I would think.

DMZ Visit and North Korea Relations

REPORTER: Mr. President, would you go back to the DMZ to meet?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I loved it. Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy, especially Secret Service, I would say it was all. And I looked into those windows, the windows are glass that you could only see if you look directly, there was all sorts of stuff. But I looked in and I saw more rifles pointing at me than you could. There were a lot of rifles in that building. The Secret Service was not happy.

You know the buildings I’m talking about, the two blue buildings on each side and I walked up the middle and I looked in the window and I saw more guns in that room than I’ve ever seen in my life. I looked at the other side and it was the same thing. And yet I felt safe. I felt safe because I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un. I hope it stays that way. I think it will.

I have a very good relationship. I understand him. I spent a lot of free time with him talking about things that we probably aren’t supposed to talk about. And I just I get along with him really well. I think he has a country of great potential, tremendous potential.

China Relations and Future Visits

Well, I’m meeting a lot of people. I mean, it’s hard to say that, but I’d like to meet him this year. President Xi would like me to come to China. It’s a very important relationship. As you know, we’re taking a lot of money in from China because of the tariffs and different things.

And it’s a very important relationship. We’re going to get along good with China. I hear so many stories about we’re not going to allow their students or we’re going to allow their students to comment. We’re going to allow it’s very important, six hundred thousand students. It’s very important.

But we’re going to get along with China. But it’s a different relationship that we have now with China. It’s a much better relationship economically than it was before with Biden. Well, what he allowed that, I mean, they just took him to the cleaners. You know the expression, they took him to the cleaners. I’m sure they have an equal expression in South Korea, but they took that guy out for a ride like nobody’s ever been ridden before. Terrible.

But we have a very strong relationship, Howard, I would say you economically with China now getting much better. They have to give us magnets. If they don’t give us magnets, then we have to charge them two hundred percent tariff or something. But we’re not going to have a problem. I don’t think with that. We’ve I think that’s perhaps behind us.

China intelligently went and they sort of took a monopoly of the world’s magnets and nobody needed magnets until they convinced everybody twenty years ago, “Let’s all do magnets.” There were many other ways that the world could have done, but so for it’ll take us probably a year to have them. We’re heavy into the world of magnets now only from a national security standpoint.

But we have a powerful thing. It’s airplane parts. We have many Boeing jets. They had two hundred jets that didn’t fly. And I’ve sent them all based on his word. I sent them all of the parts so their planes can fly. I could have held them back. I didn’t do that because of the relationship I have. And their planes are now flying.

We had two hundred of their planes were unable to fly because we were not giving them Boeing parts purposely because they weren’t giving us magnets. Therefore, we weren’t giving them but we have a much more powerful thing than tariffs. If we want to put one hundred percent, two hundred percent tariffs on, we wouldn’t do any business with China. And it would be okay too if we had to.

But the magnet situation, we have tremendous power over them and they have some power over us with magnets. We’re going to have a lot of magnets in a pretty short period of time. In fact, we’ll have so many we won’t know what to do with them. But you know the story. It’s a very interesting history with magnets. And really it’s because Presidents not being business people, they allowed that to happen and they shouldn’t have.

But we have much more I mean, look, in terms of playing the cards, we have much bigger and better cards than they do. But with that being said, I think we have a great relationship. I spoke to President Xi fairly recently and at point, probably during this year or shortly thereafter, we’ll go to China. And I think we’re going to see a magnificent sight. It’s a great country.

REPORTER: Because our management still and presently actually are planning to go to China. You mentioned either this year or next year. Could you please share more details about your plans going to China? And also presently, I think

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Maybe we’ll go together. You want to go together? We can share a plan. We’ll save energy. We’ll save a little the ozone ozone layer. Remember, President Obama used to talk about the ozone layer and then he fly to Hawaii to play a round of golf at the seven forty seven. Sort of meant jokingly, but if you want, you can go. I would like to go with If you want to go, I’m going to get special permission. I’m sure you can go.

But we’re going to have a great relationship with China. I mean it’s happening. You see it, it’s happening. They have some cards. We have incredible cards, but I don’t want to play those cards. That wouldn’t if I played those cards, that would destroy China. I’m not going to play those cards.

National Guard Deployment

REPORTER: Mr. President, on the National Guard, you talked a lot about democratic run cities and states. You also consider sending the National Guard into red states and red cities that are also seeing high crime?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Sure. But there aren’t that many of them. If you look at the top twenty five cities that for crime, just about every one of those cities is run by Democrats. And one of the bad things they did cashless bail. If you look back on times when they allowed a murderer out that afternoon, you know, he’d kill somebody and then a couple of hours later, he’s walking the streets again, oftentimes killing again rapidly.

Cashless bail is a disaster. You saw we had a news conference today and that we’re wiping it out in D.C. Immediately wiping it out. It started in New York, I must tell And it’s been a horrible thing for crime, especially violent crime. So we’re going to end cashless bail. Yes. Thank you.

REPORTER: When will you deploy to Chicago and how long are you keeping troops here?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: In very minimal discussion, I really want to be appreciated. When we go into a city and wipe out the crime. So DC, it sounds so horrible. Embarrassed to say it in front of you because they don’t have anything like this. Washington DC, sir, has not had a murder in eleven days. Now he’s saying that’s a horrible thing to hear because they don’t have murders for ever.

But Washington DC, if you go back and check, it’s been many years since we went a week without having a murder. Now we haven’t had and I would say that Washington DC right now is much safer than Seoul. You know why? Because we have a friendly neighbor. We have more friendly neighbors. You have a different kind of problem. We all have different problems. Washington DC is a very safe city right now.

People are going out to dinner. Restaurants are opening. Restaurants that we’re going to close are now going to stay open. Friends of mine are going out to dinner all the time. They didn’t go out to dinner for four years. It went rampant during the Biden years. Biden just rampant.

That’s why it Susie is very close to the mayor and has a lot of respect for her. But I view it maybe a little differently because the mayor would say that it’s gotten better for thirty years. It’s gotten better. No, it’s gotten worse. And the worst day of all was when we just got to office for the second time and it’s in very bad shape.

So the mayor shouldn’t be saying that violent crime has been getting better. It’s been getting much worse. And the day I took office, it was the worst. And we did some minor things, made it a little bit better, but then we said, “Look, gotta stop it because too many people getting killed.” And we have not had a murder in eleven days. It sounds crazy. I hate to say this in front of this gentleman who I respect because they don’t have murders for years.

But we have not had a murder in eleven days. And that’s going to go on for a long time. And there will be, I guess, it will happen a little bit, but we have a very safe city. This is one of the safer cities right now in the country. And in a short period of time, it will be like the border.

Nobody came in through our border for the last ninety days, three months, we had zero illegal aliens from the Congo, from South America, from all over the world, from prisons coming in, pouring into our country. Nobody, not one person, and this is done by a liberal group, a liberal think tank, they do the work. Not one person has come into our country. Think of that. It’s been amazing.

And I didn’t have to go back to congress and ask, Biden could have done this by himself. I did. I said, “Close the borders.” We had the great Tom Homan. We had Christy as you know, Christy Norma did a fantastic job. She’s doing a fantastic job.

Bilateral Meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Pete Hegseth has been incredible at the Department of War. We call it the Department of Defense, but between us I think we’re going to change the name. You want to know the truth? I think we’re going to have some information on that maybe soon. But I think because Department of Defense, we won World War I, World War II, it was called the Department of War.

And to me, that’s really what it is. Defense is a part of that. But I have a feeling we’re going to be changing. I’m talking to the people. Everybody likes that.

We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War, then we changed it to Department of Defense. So that’s a little thing. Has nothing to do with your country, but it’s something that I think you’re going to be hearing about or seeing about over the next couple of weeks. Probably that change is going to be made over the next week or so.

REPORTER: Are there two Koreas North and South or is there one Korea waiting to be uniform?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I know it is two Koreas. I mean, there was one Korea. It was a very large country and a very powerful country and it was a country that went to war with China. President Xi explained it, went to war with China many times over the last two thousand years. He had many, I think he told me fifty-one times.

So I remember I went to President Xi and said, “You know, having a problem with North Korea. Straighten it out. Would you please?” He said, “Well, we have been to war with them.” And I think he said fifty-one times. But at that time, it was the whole of Korea. It wasn’t North and South.

And after he explained it, I said, “Alright, not going to be that easy. I guess you’re right.” But you had one Korea, and it was a very big powerful nation. Now you have two big powerful nations, but you have essentially a wall in between.

REPORTER: Comments on South Korea earlier this morning, like raids on churches going into U.S. Military base, purge, revolution. How do you think about it?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I heard from Intel that there was a raid on churches. We’re going to talk about that later. I haven’t spoken about it yet, but we will meet. And that would be too bad if that’s the case. But I did hear that from Intel that there was a raid on churches, closing some churches. So we’ll talk about that later.

I could ask you now if you want. Wait a minute, if you’d like. Because it didn’t sound to me like South Korea.

Discussion on Special Prosecutor Investigation

PRESIDENT LEE JAE-MYUNG: It hasn’t been long since Korea has overcome the political turmoil following the self coup by the former President. Currently, there is a fact finding investigation by a special prosecutor that was appointed by the National Assembly. And this special prosecutor…

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Is named deranged Jack Smith by any chance? They took him from our country. Deranged Jack is a deranged sick individual. Go ahead. What’s the… I’m only kidding. Maybe I’m not.

PRESIDENT LEE JAE-MYUNG: And that special prosecutor is not under my control. And so the special prosecutor is conducting a fact finding investigation. And I would like to explain about what you said about U.S. Bases. They did not conduct a search and seizure of American bases, but they looked into the control, the chain of command and the control system of the Korean military.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s okay. I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding, but there is a rumor going around about churches, raiding churches. So we’ll talk. I’m sure that’s going to be worked out fine. Please go ahead.

Gaza Situation and Israeli Relations

REPORTER: Mr. President, what conversations have you had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about what is going on in Gaza? There was a UN backed report that says there was a famine in Gaza based on what you know and what you’ve been briefed on. Do you agree with that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, I mean, I deal with Bibi Netanyahu quite a bit. And we had great success obviously in Iran. We knocked out their nuclear threat. That would have been a horror show having them have a nuclear weapon. They would have used it. We did very well there.

Right now, they’re talking about Gaza City. There’s always talking about something. At some point, it’s going to get settled. And I’m saying you better get it settled soon. You have to get it settled soon.

And that means nobody could forget October seven. People forget October seven. That was one of the most brutal… I’ve seen some terrible things, some brutal things that was about as bad as it gets and nobody can forget that. With that being said, it’s got to get over with. It’s got to get over with because between the hunger and all of the other problems worse than hunger, death, pure death, people being killed.

And, you know, I’m the one that brought back the hostages and I did it with that gentleman right there, Steve Witkoff and with Marco. All of us, the whole team we worked together, even the trade people worked on it with us. And we brought back a lot of the hostages.

Now we’re left with, would you say twenty, Steve? Or would you say it’s less than twenty? I hope it’s twenty. And he hopes it’s twenty because some could be dead. That’s what he means. So we have twenty but there’s rumors that some could be dead. It’s a terrible situation over there, terrible, terrible situation.

But it’s coming to a head. It’s coming to an end. We are sending… we sent sixty million dollars of food over there just recently. And I don’t even know if people know it. We distributed ourselves. We’re giving a lot of food, spending a lot of money on food, getting it over there.

We have a lot of food. We have a lot of oil and we have a lot of… we have the greatest farmers in the world. So we have a lot of food. So we’re sending a lot of it over to Gaza, we’re feeding a lot of people.

But with all of that being said, it’s a lot of people to feed. And I think that we will have… I think within the next two to three weeks, you’re going to have pretty good conclusive ending. It’s a hard thing to say because they’ve been fighting for thousands of years. You want to know that’s been a hotbed forever.

But I think we’re doing a very good job, but it does have to end, but people can’t forget October seven either.

Future Summit Attendance and Regional Cooperation

REPORTER: Do you plan to attend APEC Summit to be held in Korea? In South Korea?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’d love to. Last time I spoke in front of your parliament and I love doing that beautiful respectful they had for our country and a beautiful room. I remember how beautiful it was and I enjoyed doing it. No, I could see going. I think I’m going for a trade meeting to South Korea pretty soon. You’re hosting a trade meeting. So I can sneak away from that trade meeting and we’ll go and do something for the President if he’d like me to do that.

But so we’ll be going there fairly soon.

REPORTER: If you attend, then it’s a good chance to meet Kim Jong again or maybe Xi Jinping? And how about how do you think about it?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You mean set them up together? That’d be interesting. We’ll arrange a meeting between you and Kim Jong Un. Would you like that? That’s a very tough question right now. Don’t know where that question is leading.

Anyway, look, I get along great with Kim Jong Un and whatever I can do having to do with South Korea and getting people together, it should… you should get together, right?

REPORTER: [QUESTION INAUDIBLE]

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re going to do that. I think we’re going to do that very strongly. We’re going to have a big… within a period of… it takes a while, that’s a hard one to start. Some companies you can start easily. Shipbuilding is a tough one to start, but we’ll be doing that.

Now with that being said, we make the best submarines anywhere in the world. We make submarines and we’re twenty-five years ahead of anybody else in submarines. So we do that, but we really gave up the shipbuilding industry foolishly many years ago, but we’re going to start it up again. We’re going to be making our own ships again soon.

John Bolton Investigation

REPORTER: So have you been briefed on the search of John Bolton’s home and office from Friday? Have you been briefed?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I have not been briefed. No, I read it just like you did. I was never a fan of his. I thought he was stupid. I thought he was a guy that only wanted to go into war. He liked killing people. I thought he was essentially a bad guy, but I’m not involved in that. No, you’d have to ask Pam Bondi about…

REPORTER: Are more raids coming, sir? Are more raids like that coming, sir? Are more raids like the ones on John Bolton’s house coming?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: More raids? I don’t know. You’d have to ask the Department of Justice. They raided my house. I can tell you that. They did a big raid on my house. They took away everything that wasn’t pinned down and they took away some of that too.

Now they raided Mar-a-Lago. They started that. These were bad people that we had in our government before. They raided Mar-a-Lago. They went into my wife’s area. They went into my son’s area, my young son. And what they did was a disgrace.

But how did it work out? I see. I guess it didn’t work out too well for them, did it? They are bad people. They’re sick. They’re sick people. And they came in with their guns into Mar-a-Lago and, like, ninety-eight people. I wasn’t there. Fortunately, I wasn’t there.

But they are very evil, very sick people that group. And they… if they would have won the election, this country wouldn’t exist as we know it. This country would have been a failed country. And now it’s the hottest country anywhere in the world by far. We are the hottest country in the world by far.

Japan-Korea Relations

REPORTER: President Lee met with Japanese Prime Minister before this summit. So is there something to discuss regarding the cooperation among the South Korea, U.S. And Japan?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think so. Look, Japan is a great ally of us. And I had a little bit of a hard time getting you two together because you’re still thinking about comfort women, right? Comfort women. That’s all they wanted to talk about was comfort women. And I thought that was settled a few times over the decades.

But there is an overlapping problem with that. Perhaps I’m wrong in saying it. Perhaps this isn’t the right question. The whole issue of the women, comfort women, very specifically, we talked and that was a very… it was a very big problem for Korea, not for Japan. Japan wanted to go. They want to get on and but Korea was very stuck on that. Do you understand?

So I don’t know perhaps you’d like to answer. It’s a good question. It was hard getting Japan and Korea together because of what took place a long time ago. But Japan wants to do it, I can say. Korea is a little bit more…

PRESIDENT LEE JAE-MYUNG: Trilateral cooperation among Korea, the U.S. And Japan is very important. And better Korea Japan relations is also important for the Korea U.S. Relationship as well. Because I know that President Trump that you put emphasis on trilateral cooperation, made a visit to Japan before coming to the U.S. To settle the difficult issues that we have.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, Japan wants to get along very well with you. And I find them to be great people, great country obviously, and they want very much to get along with South Korea. And you have something in common, you want to solve the North Korea problem.

But Japan very much wants to get along with you and I’m sure they will. I find the people that I deal with to be wonderful people as I do with you.

PRESIDENT LEE JAE-MYUNG: So when I visited Japan and met with Prime Minister Ishiba, I realized that many of the obstacles that existed between our two countries have now been removed.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s true. During my term. We removed them during my term. There was an overlay a little bit, but we removed many of those obstacles during my term. And if you look at Prime Minister Abe, who was a great man, he was a great friend of mine and he was assassinated, but he felt very warmly toward your country, I can tell you that.

And the current Prime Minister, who I’ve gotten to know very well, feels the same. So I think you’re going have a great relationship with Japan.

Closing Remarks on Gaza Diplomacy

STEVE: Just to close the loop on Gaza, is there a diplomatic push underway to try to get all this to end?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: There’s a diplomatic push? Yes, has been. Yes, sure. Right now. Steve, I would say very serious diplomatic push. Marco or Steve, you want to answer that?

MARCO: It’s never stopped. We’ve always looked to find a solution there. Ultimately, as the President said, we wanted to end. It has to end with no Hamas. Steve, where are we?

STEVE: Would say that we wouldn’t be anywhere, but for the President’s truth last week, which was a statement to Hamas that they better get their act together and get to the peace table. But for that, it would have been all stalled. So as usual, he is the man who moves it.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you very much everybody.

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