REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP
AND PRESIDENT DUDA OF POLAND
BEFORE BILATERAL MEETING
InterContinental New York Barclay
New York, New York
2:22 P.M. EDT
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. It’s a great honor to be with President Duda of Poland. And we’ve become friends over the last fairly short period of time. But it’s been -- it was quite a day in Poland, when we made the speech. You said some nice remarks, I said some nice remarks, and a lot of people remembered what we said. And that was a big -- that was a big afternoon, a big weekend, and it's something we -- that I will never forget, frankly. And I know the United States was very well received.
The people of Poland loved the United States. We love the people of Poland. We love Polish people. I think it’s -- you can tell me: How many Polish people -- ancestry -- do we have in the United States right now? What is it approximately?
PRESIDENT DUDA: How many people --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes.
PRESIDENT DUDA: -- we think is living here in the United States?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s a tremendously large number.
PRESIDENT DUDA: Oh, it’s about 10 million.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. It’s one of the largest. They’re great people. They’re fantastic people. So, thank you.
We’re going to be discussing trade --
PRESIDENT DUDA: I met them yesterday in New Britain.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right. That’s right. I know exactly what you’re saying. We’ll be discussing trade and many other things. We have some long meetings set up over the next two weeks. But Poland has been a very, very great country, as far as the United States is concerned. We do a lot of business with Poland.
And they also make product and they sell a lot of us product -- a lot of us really very good product. You have great craftsmen. And that’s what we like, is great craftsmen. But so do we. So, we’ve had a great trading relationship.
The visa waivers are in store; it’s already approved. And we’re doing it mechanically now so that we get them done as soon as we can, so it’s much easier to get to Poland and to the United States for the people that want to get there. It’s something that’s very important. It was very important, I think, for the President to get that done. And he was able to do it. Through a lot of hard work, he was able to do it.
So I congratulate you, and that’s something that’s going to be great for a lot of -- as you say, for the 10 million people living in the United States that want to travel easily to Poland. It’s our honor.
PRESIDENT DUDA: (Inaudible) to visit United States more Polish people as tourists.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s true. That's true. That’ll work both ways.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Q Could you talk about that defense cooperation agreement you just signed? What were the details of that?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re going to be cooperating in so many different ways, and militarily, primarily. We’ll be moving soldiers there. Poland has borne the expense. They’re going to be building us facilities that I’m sure will be very beautiful. They’re -- it’s being worked out right now.
But Poland came to us; they asked us if we would put some troops there. And they will bear the entire expense, and we appreciate that. And we worked out a deal.
Perhaps, Mike, you’d want to say something about that?
SECRETARY POMPEO: We’ll put out the full document shortly. You can see all the hard work that both our teams have done. Both our Department of Defense and the Poland Ministry of Defense have done great work to (inaudible) and to do better information sharing -- all the things that friendly partner countries do to keep each other secure.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: And we’ll most likely be moving troops from other places in Europe, as opposed to new troops going over there.
Q Are you considering more troops to Poland in the future? Are you considering --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’ll talk to the President and the others about that. Yeah.
Q Mr. President, did you order a review? Did you initiate a review of Ukraine’s aid in order to encourage them to investigate Joe Biden?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I think what happens, if you look at Ukraine -- and very important to me -- why isn't Europe -- in fact, I was speaking about this to the President -- to President Duda. Why isn’t Europe spending more money? Why is it always the United States spending money? I’ve been complaining about this to my people for a long time.
We spend so much money not only to Ukraine, but to other places. And why isn’t Germany spending more money? Why isn’t France? Why aren’t other countries in Europe helping Ukraine more? Why is it always the United States? And I’ve been saying that from the beginning. And I don’t like it that it's only us.
Despite that, we've given far more than the Obama administration. He used to send sheets and pillows, and we sent anti-tank guns and weapons. But we really do.
And when I spoke with -- I had a great conversation with the new President of Ukraine. And during that conversation, we discussed it. Perhaps you'll see it, perhaps you won't see that. It depends on what we want to do. But we had a great conversation. A very, very -- a very nice conversation, too. But one of the things we discussed is why isn’t Europe helping Ukraine more? Why is it always the United States? That’s bothered me from day one. It's not fair to the United States.
Q Mr. President, when are you going to visit Poland?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Say it?
Q When are you going to visit Poland?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I'll be there fairly soon. We've had a very open standing invitation, and I'll be there very soon. That was something -- I really love doing that. We made a speech. Even the fake news gave me great reviews on that speech. (Laughter.) So I was very happy. So in that case, it wasn’t fake. It was real. That was real news.
Q Why have you decided to increase U.S. military presence in Poland? Is it because of Russian threat?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I don’t think so at all. I think it's just because we have a President of Poland who I like, who I respect. And he asked whether or not we'd be willing to do that. And I said, "Well, you know, there'll have to be installations built." And they said they're willing to do that. And we worked out a deal, and it's my honor.
Again, we have 10 million Polish -- in terms of heritage -- Polish people in the United States. Certainly special parts of the United States. And they're great people. It's a great country. They've done very well, and their economics are very good. They've had an economy that's been very strong -- stronger than most.
So we worked out a deal. And I think it's great for Poland and it's very good for us.
Q Sir, is visa waiver a done deal already? Will citizens of Poland be able to come to the United States soon without --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Very soon. Yeah. We have to work out structurally. In other words, from the -- we have to get it done. But they qualify. We worked together very hard on that. But now they qualify, Georgette, and we're going to be able to work that out very quickly. I think over the next couple of months we could have it done. And I know Poland has been looking for that. How many years have you been looking for that -- the waivers? How many years have you? How many?
PARTICIPANT: Thirty.
PRESIDENT DUDA: Thirty. (Laughs.)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thirty? (Laughter.) Thirty is a long time. I didn’t know it was that long. But we got it done. Trump gets it done. Other people don’t get it done. We get it done. And that was a good one. That's good for everybody.
Q Mr. President, on the aid question -- aid -- from a moment ago. Did you tell the Ukrainian leader that they would have the aid only if they investigated Joe Biden and his family?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I didn’t. No, I didn’t. I didn’t do it at all.
Q Can you elaborate as to what you did say, sir?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: But Joe Biden said it about his son. Joe Biden was very dishonest, what he did. What he did is he said if they don’t do this or that and get rid of a certain prosecutor -- Joe Biden said it. But because you're a faker -- you in particular; you're a fake-news group of people -- you don’t want to report that.
I didn’t do it. And you can -- and I hope you're going to be able to see a call, because I didn’t do it. You know everybody is looking for that call. And keep going the way you're doing because when you see the call, you're going to be very surprised.
No, but Joe Biden --
Q Are we going to see that call?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Let me just -- let me just -- be quiet. Joe Biden is the one that did a very, very bad thing when he said that. And I think it was $1.2 billion he wasn’t going to give unless they got rid of the prosecutor who was investigating his son and the company that his son works for. Then you also say: How much did his son make from the Ukraine? And then ask another question: How much money did his son make from China, based on energy?
He knows nothing about energy, so why did he leave China? Why did he leave the Ukraine with all of this money?
So, Joe Biden was very dishonest. Now, when you see the call -- if you see it; I hope you see it, frankly -- you will find out that I did not do that at all. And you'll be very disappointed when you see it.
It's really a disgrace. It really is a situation where -- it just shows, the press, you've had such a bad week between Justice Kavanaugh and this and other things. It's showing how dishonest so many members of the press are. Not all of you, but so many members of the press are so totally dishonest.
But this is a case -- I hope you get to see the call because your question, you will see, I did not ask for -- I did not make a statement that "you have do this or I'm not going to give you aid." I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t do that.
With that being said, what I want is I want -- you know, we're giving a lot of money away to Ukraine and other places. You want to see a country that’s going to be not corrupt. The President is a good man. He got elected on the fact that he was going to get rid of corruption in Ukraine. That’s, I think, the primary reason he got elected. So he gets elected on the basis of ending corruption in Ukraine. Well, I think that’s good, and that’s what I want to see. But when Biden does a thing like that, then there's still corruption, and that’s not good.
Q Sir, you can release -- you can authorize a release of the transcript. Will you do that, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: I can do it very easily. But I'd rather not do it from the standpoint of all of the other conversations I have. I may do it because it was a very innocent call on both his part and mine. We had a very nice call. It was really a congratulatory call because he had just won. It was just confirmed. And he's the new President. And I think he's going to do an excellent job.
But remember, he got elected on the basis of -- the biggest part was corruption, in his campaign. And so he wants the same thing, and he's looking for the same thing as I am. He did a very good job. It was a very nice call. I hope you get to see it. And I hope you get to see it soon.
Q (Inaudible), question, sir.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: What?
Q On Iran. The Iranian Foreign Minister --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Boris Johnson. You were going to say Boris Johnson?
Q No, no. No, I'm talking about the Iranian Foreign Minister.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, you mentioned Boris Johnson at the beginning of the --
Q No, the Iranian Foreign Minister, sir.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because he wants a new deal with Iran.
Q Sure.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right?
Q But the Iranians are saying now that they're willing to negotiate to end the war in Yemen. Do you take this seriously?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Say it again.
Q The Iranian Foreign Minister --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Talk up, please.
Q The Iranian Foreign Minister is saying that they are willing to negotiate to end the war in Yemen. Do you take this statement seriously?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think that's a very big, positive statement, if they said that. I haven't heard it. I've been here and having lots of different meetings. We just had a very good meeting with Pakistan, by the way. We had a great meeting on religious liberty, I think, when you get right down to it, Mike. That was pretty much incredible. It was the first time that the President of the United States was involved in a meeting such as that.
No, I think that Boris Johnson made a strong statement saying that he'd like to see a new agreement. And I think that's good. And if what you're saying about Yemen is true, I like that also. We haven't heard that yet. That's a very positive thing if that's the case.
Q Mr. President, on the whistleblower -- on the whistleblower, you say you want the transcript of the call released. Do you also want the whistle- --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I didn't say that at all.
Q Do you also want the whistleblower's complaint --
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I didn't say that at all. It may get released. I didn't say that at all. I don't think it's a great precedent to be releasing calls with foreign countries -- heads of foreign countries. So I don't think it's a great precedent, so I didn't say I was going to release it at all.
I will tell you, it's a great call. It's a very honorable call. It's a nice call. The Ukrainian government, last night, very strongly, they announced that this call was a very nice call. There was -- and they also said there was no pressure put on them, like the character over to your left. There was no pressure put on them whatsoever. I put no pressure on them whatsoever. I could have. I think it would probably, possibly, have been okay if I did. But I didn't. I didn't put any pressure on them whatsoever. You know why? Because they want to do the right thing. And they know about corruption. And they probably know that Joe Biden and his son are corrupt. They probably know that.
Joe Biden and his son are corrupt. All right? But the fake news doesn't want to report it because they're Democrats. If that ever happened -- if a Republican ever did what Joe Biden did, if a Republican ever said what Joe Biden said, they'd be getting the electric chair by right now.
Look at the double standards. You people ought to be ashamed of yourself. And not all. We have some great journalists around. But you got a lot of crooked journalists. You're crooked as hell.
Okay. Thank you very much. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you very much.
END 2:34 P.M. EDT
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