Onward with the Remarks. Time to talk about Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace.
Q Mr. Trump, can you talk about the exciting new space program to the moon, sir? And what does that mean for both countries?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: So we’re doing a great program. We have — Vice President Pence is very much involved. And we have a tremendous space program. If you look at our facilities, they were virtually closed up. There was crabgrass growing on the runways and now they’re vital.
And, you know, we’re doing — we’re doing — we’re going to Mars. We’re stopping at the moon. The moon is actually a launching pad. That’s why we’re stopping at the moon. I said, “Hey, we’ve done the moon. That’s not so exciting.” They said, “No, sir. It’s a launching pad for Mars.” So we’ll be doing the Moon. But we’ll really be doing Mars. And we’ll be — we’re making tremendous progress.
What they wanted to say, of course, was “No, you dumb fuck, did you not read any of the material? What the hell is wrong with you?”
Then they talk about minerals. Trump helps a lot.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s very important to Scott. We talk about it a lot. Because that business can get out of control a little bit, from the standpoint of environment. And you have really approached it in an environmentally-sensitive way.
Coal, as an example: You’re the leader of safety in coal digging. And we’ve actually studied it because we’re doing a lot of coal. And you have very — literally, you almost have no — you know, you used to have a thing: black lung disease. And in Australia, you almost don’t have it anymore. You’ve got all of the dust down. And, you know, they’re very — they become wet mines, basically. But it’s great.
PRIME MINISTER MORRISON: Well, it’s a very technologically-advanced industry in Australia.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Incredible.
PRIME MINISTER MORRISON: All of that resources industry are — from the robotics that’s involved in the production and all the way through.
But that, critical metals, space — these are the things we’re going to be talking about because Australia has a wonderful partnership with the United States, not just militarily and not just strategically, but also economically. And that’s going to be a big part of this conversation we have today.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: And environmentally, I have to say —
Q (Crosstalk.)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: And environmentally, the things that they have done, environmentally, with digging. Digging is a — you know, when you talk minerals, it’s about digging. And what you’ve been able to do with environ- — with the environment, having to do with taking minerals out of the ground, including — and, you know, I would say even especially — because you’re leading on coal.
I will tell you: I sent a whole crew over, because you’re record is so good in terms of illnesses from digging. Better than anybody in the world. So we’re going to catch you on that, okay?
Digging. It’s about digging. I can understand digging.
Also let’s not forget the nuclear.
TRUMP: So, we’ll see what happens. Look, the United States is in a class by itself. We have the most powerful military in the world, by far. There’s nobody close. As you know, we’ve spent tremendous and hopefully — and we pray to God we never have to use it, but we’ve totally renovated and bought new nuclear. And the rest of our military is all brand new.
The nuclear now is at a level that’s it’s never been before. And I can only tell you because I know — I know the problems of nuclear. I know the damages that — I know what happens. And I want to tell you: We all hope, and Scott hopes — we all pray that we never have to use nuclear. But there’s nobody that has anywhere close to what we have.
How about that UN, huh?
Q What is your message at UNGA next week?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, UNGA is going to be very exciting, and we look forward to it. We’ll be there. You’ll be there?
PRIME MINISTER MORRISON: Yeah, I’ll be later in the week. Yeah.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: And, for you, it’s a much longer trip.
PRIME MINISTER MORRISON: It is a bit, yeah.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: But we look forward to it. We have a big message for UNGA. We have a big message. And I very much — I haven’t been back to New York in a long time.
We have a big message and he has absolutely no idea what it is. It’s probably something like:
It will work out, and that’s great, or it won’t work out, and that’s great. It always works out. It will be big. The nuclear will be there, and the moon. They told me, sir, the moon will be there. We’ll see what happens.
There’s a question about Iran and military action, and Trump takes the opportunity to share his biography with everyone.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: The easiest thing for me to do — and maybe it’s even a natural instinct, maybe I have to hold myself back. I remember during the debates, and when I was running against Hillary and the Democrats and the media — I view them all the same; I view that partnership very much the same.
But when I was running, everybody said, “Oh, he’s going to get into war. He’s going to get into war. He’s going to blow everybody up. He’s going to get into war.” Well, the easiest thing I can do — in fact, I could do it while you’re here –would say, “Go ahead, fellas. Go do it.” And that would be a very bad day for Iran. That’s the easiest thing I could do. It’s so easy.
And for all of those that say, “Oh, they should do it. It shows weakness. It shows…” Actually, in my opinion, it shows strength. Because the easiest thing I could do, “Okay, go ahead. Knock out 15 different major things in Iran.” I could do that and — all set to go. It’s all set to go. But I’m not looking to do that if I can.
And I think I’ve changed a lot of minds. People are very surprised that — and many people are extremely happy. Many people are thrilled. And many people are saying, “Oh, I wish you’d hit the hell the out of them.” Well, let’s see what happens. But it will take place in one minute; I could do it right here in front of you and that would be it. And then you’d have a nice, big story to report.
And I think it shows far more strength to do it the way we’re doing it. And again, whether it’s next week or two weeks or three weeks doesn’t make any difference. Whether it’s now or in three weeks doesn’t make any difference. But I think the strong person’s approach and the thing that does show strength would be showing a little bit of restraint. Much easier to do it the other way. It’s much easier.
And Iran knows if they misbehave, they’re on borrowed time. They’re not doing well. I’d like to see them do great. I’d love to see them do great, but they’re not doing well. They’re doing very poorly. They’re doing far worse than they’ve ever done before. They’re having riots in their streets. They’re having a lot of problems in Iran right now. They could solve it very quickly.
But the easiest thing for me to do is say, “Okay, let’s go. Let’s just do it.” Very easy for me to do. But it is interesting, because when I was campaigning, everybody here thought that I was going to be like — it would be one day. But what I have done is I’ve defeated ISIS, I’ve rebuilt our military to a level that it’s never been before, spent a lot of money. The budgets are not so hard to fix for me, but when you’re spending one and a half trillion [dollars], so far. Now, another $738 million — billion — on the military. But think of it: one and a half trillion dollars. And we have the greatest in the world.
But I think restraint is a good thing. I think it’s a good thing.
Well that’s all enormously reassuring. I very much get the sense that he’s fully aware of the weight of responsibility on him and all that could go wrong.
Also he’s punched Afghanistan harder than anybody ever has.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, well, we were thinking about having a meeting. I didn’t like the idea that they couldn’t produce a ceasefire. I wasn’t in favor of that. I said, “No. If they can’t produce a ceasefire, then why are we bothering?” And they thought that it was a sign of strength to kill 12 people, wound others — badly wound some others. And one of those 12 people was a young man — young soldier from Puerto Rico, from our country. And when I heard that, I said, “I don’t want to deal with them anymore.”
We have hit — in Afghanistan, we have hit the Taliban harder than they’ve ever been hit in the entire 19 years of war. They’ve been hit harder. It’s come back to me through absolutely impeccable sources that they are saying, “Wow. We made a mistake with this guy. We made a big…” They made a mistake.
Because he’s such a tough scary guy. Like Rambo but with goldy hair.
And as for North Korea, he’s done miracles there.
I was totally willing to have a meeting. I’ll meet with anybody. I think meetings are good. I think meetings are good. There’s no such thing as, “Oh gee, we shouldn’t.” I really believe meetings are good. Worst that happens, it doesn’t work out. That’s okay. Even then, you get to know your opposition. Don’t forget, I’m looking at them like they’re looking at me. You get to know your opposition. You can see if they’re real. Sometimes you develop a relationship, like we do, but sometimes you develop — and many times you won’t. But you get to know your opposition.
I think the best thing that’s happened to this country is the fact that, at least for three years, the fact that I have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un. I think that’s a positive. His country has tremendous potential. He knows that. But our country has been playing around for 50 years and getting nothing. And we have a relationship. There’s never been a relationship with them.
We’ll see what happens. It might work out. It might not work out. I’m not saying it will, but in the meantime, he hasn’t been testing any nuclear. You’ve had no nuclear tests since — since — for a long time. And he has been doing some short-range missiles, but so does every other country — do short short-range missiles. Every country is doing them. They’re pretty standard fare.
Whew!! That’s that fixed then! What a relief!
