{"id":62295,"date":"2018-06-28T00:41:39","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T07:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=62295"},"modified":"2018-06-28T00:41:39","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T07:41:39","slug":"president-trump-and-president-rebelo-de-sousa-of-the-portuguese-republic-before-bilateral-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=62295","title":{"rendered":"President Trump and President Rebelo de Sousa of the Portuguese Republic Before Bilateral Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Thank you very much.  It\u2019s a great honor to have the President \u2014 and highly respected, I must say \u2014 President of Portugal with us.  We have a tremendous relationship with Portugal for a long time, and I would say it\u2019s never been better than it is right now. So I just want to welcome you and your delegation.  It is a country of great beauty and great people.  And so thank you.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4XUmhkubbgM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And if you don\u2019t mind, I\u2019ll just make a quick statement of a man I also have great respect for, Justice Anthony \u2014 you know who I\u2019m talking about.  Justice Kennedy will be retiring.  And he is a man that I\u2019ve known for a long time and a man that I\u2019ve respected for a long time.  He\u2019s been a great justice of the Supreme Court.  He is a man who is displaying great vision.  He\u2019s displayed tremendous vision and tremendous heart.  And he will be missed, but he will be retiring.<\/p>\n<p>And we will begin our search for a new justice of the United States Supreme Court.  That will begin immediately.  And hopefully we\u2019re going to pick somebody who will be as outstanding.<\/p>\n<p>So I just want thank Justice Kennedy for the years of tremendous service.  He\u2019s a very spectacular man.  Really, a spectacular man.  And I know that he will be around, hopefully for a long time, to advise.  And I believe he\u2019s going to be teaching and doing other things.  So thank you to Justice Kennedy.  Okay?  Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Who will you pick to replace him, sir?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Well, we have, obviously, numerous people.  We have a list of 25 people that I actually had during my election.  I had 20, and as you know, I added 5 a little while ago.  We have a very excellent list of great talented, highly educated, highly intelligent \u2014 hopefully, tremendous \u2014 people.  I think the list is very outstanding.<\/p>\n<p>When I was running, I put down a list of 20 people.  Because not being a politician, I think people wanted to hear what some of my choices may be, and it was pretty effective.  And I think you see the kind of quality that we\u2019re looking at when you look at that list.  But I did add \u2014 I added five additional people to the list.  So it will be somebody from that list.  So we have now boiled it down to about 25 people.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Mr. President, (inaudible) to the World Cup with President Putin, the final?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Yes \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Q    And who are you supporting in the World Cup?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  No, I will tell you, we fought very hard to get it here.  I think they\u2019re doing a fantastic job with the World Cup right now.  It\u2019s in Russia, and I will tell you that it\u2019s exciting.  My son loves soccer, and he loves watching the World Cup.  And they have really done a fantastic job with the World Cup.  It\u2019s exciting even if you\u2019re a non-soccer fan.  I\u2019m a soccer fan a little bit, but I don\u2019t have much time.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Who are you rooting for?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  But \u2014 well, I\u2019m rooting for everybody to do well.  But I think the venue has been fantastic.  They really have shown something very special.<\/p>\n<p>I fought very hard to get it to the United States, Mexico, and Canada, as you probably have heard.  And we were honored to be chosen.  And this is a great gentleman and a great soccer fan too.  But we were very honored to be chosen for the World Cup.  So we look forward to that.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Mr. President, will you meet with President Putin, sir?  And where?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Most likely.  John Bolton is over there now.  He\u2019s over in Russia right now.  I just saw, watching media, that he\u2019s met with President Putin.  I haven\u2019t gotten the full report yet.  But it would look like we will probably be meeting sometime in the not-too-distant future.<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019ve said it from day one: Getting along with Russia and with China and with everybody is a very good thing.  It\u2019s good for the world, it\u2019s good for us, it\u2019s good for everybody.  So we\u2019ll probably be meeting sometime around my trip to Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Do you know where?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  No, it hasn\u2019t been determined yet.  Probably, I will know within an hour.<\/p>\n<p>Q    And what about the injunction on immigration?  Will you fight that \u2014 the California judge who says reunited families must be put together within a month?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Well, we\u2019re going to see.  But we believe that families should be together also.  So there\u2019s not a lot to fight.  But we believe families have to be together.<\/p>\n<p>But what we really do is we believe in very strong borders, no crime.  And the Democrats believe in open borders and plenty of crime, because that\u2019s what you get with the open borders.<\/p>\n<p>I would like to introduce, however, the President of Portugal.  And I\u2019m sorry to bother you, but in our country, the selection of a justice of the United States Supreme Court is considered, I think we can all say, one of the most important events \u2014 one of the most important things for our country.  I mean, you see the decisions that just came down, how big they are, how vital they are.  And they can swing different ways depending on who it might \u2014 whom there might be in the courts.  So it\u2019s always been considered a tremendous \u2014 a tremendously important thing.<\/p>\n<p>Some people think outside of, obviously, war and peace, it\u2019s the most important thing that you could have.  But another very important thing is introducing the President \u2014 the highly respected, I must say \u2014 President of Portugal.  Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  Thank you.  Thank you, President.  Well, as a constitutional law professor \u2014<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Oh, very good.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  \u2014 I know how important it is when a justice in your Supreme Court retires, because it\u2019s a key institution for your country.  So I just heard the news, and I imagine how important it is for you and for any United States President.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I\u2019d like to tell you that we have a very long-lasting friendship and partnership \u2014<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Yes.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  \u2014 that started the moment we recognized you.  We were the first neutral country to recognize the United States of America\u2019s independence, although we had as our oldest ally, England.<\/p>\n<p>So it was courageous at that time.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  And, I don\u2019t know if you know it, but your Founding Fathers celebrated independence with our wine \u2014 with Madeira wine.  They made a toast \u2014<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Good taste.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  \u2014 with our wine, Madeira wine.  It\u2019s a long, long story, this one, of our friendship and partnership based on common values, democracy and freedom and rule of law and human rights, but also of a very strong community, of fellow citizens that are both American and Portuguese and they love United States of America and they love Portugal.<\/p>\n<p>There are around 1,500,000 Portuguese Luso-Americans living here.  They\u2019re very important.  So it\u2019s not just a military, a political, and an economic alliance.  It\u2019s more than that.  It\u2019s something very human, because we\u2019re speaking of a 1,400,000 people that they live their love for two countries at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>As you spoke of soccer, let me then ask you something \u2014 well, make you a suggestion.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Go ahead.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  If you\u2019re going to meet Mr. Putin \u2014 well, I was with him last week.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Good.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  Yes.  And he asked me to greet you.  So, of course, he was expecting your visit.<\/p>\n<p>But anyway, don\u2019t forget that Portugal has the best player in the world that is called Cristiano Ronaldo.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Oh, okay.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  I\u2019m sure your son knows it and \u2014<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  He knows all about him.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  And so \u2014 and so, don\u2019t forget if you ever go to Russia during the championship, don\u2019t forget Portugal is still there and wanting to win the championship.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  That\u2019s right.  They\u2019re doing very well.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  Yes.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  And they say he is doing \u2014<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  \u2014 and doing very, very, very well.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  That\u2019s very good.  And so tell me, how good a player is he?  Are you impressed?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  I\u2019m very much impressed.  He\u2019s the best player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo.  So in a sense \u2014 well, I think, has been a success.  I do agree with you \u2014 the championship  Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Yeah, great.  No.  No.  I think \u2014 I think (inaudible) \u2014<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  No doubt about it for the world \u2014 for the world.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  So will Cristian ever run for President against you?  (Laughter.)  He wouldn\u2019t win.  You know he won\u2019t<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  President, you know \u2014 you know something \u2014 I must tell you, Portugal is not just United States.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  That\u2019s right.  That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  It\u2019s a little different.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Yes, go ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Mr. President, when did you learn that Justice Kennedy would be retiring?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  About a half hour ago.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Were you surprised?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  He came to the White House.  We had a wonderful discussion just prior to meeting the President and really had a very deep discussion.  I got his ideas on things, including \u2014 I asked him if he had certain people that he had great respect for that potentially could take his seat \u2014 which is a very hard seat to fill.<\/p>\n<p>So we talked about different things.  And he was here for about a half an hour.  I don\u2019t think you folks saw him come in and out, did you?  I\u2019m shocked.  Boy, they\u2019ve done a great job.  That\u2019s a shocker.  That\u2019s a shocker.<\/p>\n<p>But, yeah, we had a \u2014 he just left a little while ago, just prior to meeting the President.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Will you tell us who he recommended?  Will you give us any sense of \u2014<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  No, I won\u2019t do that.  But he has \u2014 you know, there are certain names that are just outstanding \u2014 names that you already know, to be honest with you.  I mean, there are names that you know that are outstanding, highly respected \u2014 names that you would know, President.  And we\u2019ll be looking at them; we\u2019ll be looking at some others.  But they will come from the list of 25 people.  Okay?<\/p>\n<p>Q    Mr. President, it\u2019s an election year.  Would you give consideration to holding that spot open until the makeup of Congress is determined come November?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  I haven\u2019t really thought about that.  I think you want to go as quickly as possible.  It\u2019s a process, but haven\u2019t really thought of that.  But we had a big day yesterday, very big.  We had a great decision today, in terms of what was just released by the Supreme Court.  Yesterday, obviously, with the travel ban was extremely big.<\/p>\n<p>And we had some tremendous elections.  South Carolina, from my own standpoint, South Carolina \u2014 the governor, McMaster \u2014 It was a big win.  And as you know, I was very much involved in New York with the Congressman, Donovan.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019re very happy.  We\u2019re \u2014 this was a good few days, and now I get to cap it off by meeting with the President of Portugal.  And Portugal has been actually very important to our nation.  And you\u2019re right, we have about a million and a half people from Portugal here.  So that\u2019s very important.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Do you have a message to House Republicans who have failed to pass the immigration bill earlier?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  No, I want them to do what they wanted.  You know, the problem we have \u2014 and I told them this morning, I said, \u201cHey, pass it, if you can.\u201d  But I also want them to do what they want.  We have a big immigration bill, like everybody does \u2014 like you\u2019re talking and everybody talks about immigration now, I think, more than ever before.<\/p>\n<p>I told them \u2014 a few hours ago, I said, \u201cLook, pass something or come back with something that would be a derivation, but get something you want.\u201d  The problem we have is we need Democratic votes in the Senate, and that\u2019s why I don\u2019t get overly excited with the House bill right now, because it\u2019s not going to pass in the Senate.  You\u2019re not going to get the Democrats to vote for anything.  If we gave them 100 percent of what they wanted, and then doubled it, they still wouldn\u2019t pass it because they think it\u2019s a good election point.<\/p>\n<p>I think it\u2019s good for us because I think strong borders \u2014 I don\u2019t even know how you feel about that, but I think strong borders and no crime is \u2014 that\u2019s us.  And I think that\u2019s going to be a great election point for us.<\/p>\n<p>So I told them two hours ago, I said, \u201cYou know, do what you want, and ultimately we\u2019ll come to something.\u201d  And perhaps it\u2019ll be after the election, maybe it\u2019ll be before.  But as of this moment, Democrats are not going to vote for anything, because they really are resisting or obstructing.<\/p>\n<p>Okay?  Thank you very much.<\/p>\n<p>Q    John Bolton said he doesn\u2019t expect a specific outcome from your meeting with President Putin.  Do you expect an outcome?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Well, I think we\u2019ll be talking about Syria.  I think we\u2019ll be talking about Ukraine.  I think we\u2019ll be talking about many other subjects.  And we\u2019ll see what happens.  So you never know.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Election meddling?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  You never know about meetings, what happens.  Right?  But I think a lot of good things can come with meetings with people.  We had great meetings with President Xi of China.  We have \u2014 every place I\u2019ve been, we have had great meetings.  So maybe something positive will come out of it.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Mr. President, what about the progressive challenger that beat Joe Crowley, that young woman from New York?  Are you worried about a blue wave?  Does that \u2014<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Well, that was a shocker.  Losing \u2014 for Crowley to lose that election, that was a shocker.  I was surprised.  Everybody was surprised.  We had somebody that\u2019s been in there for many years, Mr. President, and I think he probably took it for granted.  And I can\u2019t say that I\u2019m disappointed because I was never a big fan, but he lost his election.  Probably shouldn\u2019t have lost his election.  Maybe you get a little complacent, you know?  That does happen; you get complacent.  And he lost.  That\u2019s a big loss.  I tell you what, that\u2019s an amazing \u2014 that was a shocking loss.  But it is what it is.  Thank you all very much.  Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Sir, Mr. President, are you worried your tariffs are backfiring?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  No, they\u2019re doing great.  By the way, the steel industry is absolutely doing great.  The tariffs have been incredible.  And the steel industry is doing great, and our country is doing great.  You\u2019re seeing the results.  The numbers coming out from the companies are far beyond what anybody ever thought possible.  We\u2019re doing really good.<\/p>\n<p>But we have to have fair trade deals, and we working on really fair trade deals.  We\u2019re working with your representatives on fair trade deals.  So \u2014<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  Oh, I heard you\u2019re going to receive President (inaudible).  That\u2019s good news.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Yes.  Yes.  Yes.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT REBELO DE SOUSA:  That\u2019s good news.  Must speak with (inaudible).<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Thank you everybody.<\/p>\n<p>Q    (Inaudible.)<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  They\u2019re working \u2014 it\u2019s going to be very good.  It\u2019s going be good.<\/p>\n<p>Q    And, Mr. President, as far as when you might meet with Putin, will it be after NATO?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Probably after.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Right after NATO, you think?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Probably after.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Thank you everybody.  Thank you very much.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Helsinki?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Could be.  Or Vienna.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Or Vienna?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  It\u2019ll be announced very soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Thank you very much. It\u2019s a great honor to have the President \u2014 and highly respected, I must say \u2014 President of Portugal with us. We have a tremendous relationship with Portugal for a long time, and I would say it\u2019s never been better than it is right now. So I just want to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/whitehouselogo200.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}