*Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2019 *

**Remarks on the Signing of the Guatemala-United States Safe Third Country Agreement and an Exchange With Reporters **

*July 26, 2019 *

*President Trump.* Well, thank you very much for being here. We appreciate it.

I'm thrilled to be with a very important man in Guatemala, the Minister Enrique Degenhart. And we are doing a very important signing. It's a historic asylum, or safe third, agreement between our two countries. A very important event.

We've long been working with Guatemala, and now we can do it the right way. It's going to be terrific for them and terrific for the United States. This landmark agreement will put the coyotes and the smugglers out of business. These are bad people. These are very, very bad, sick, deranged people who make a lot of money off other people's miseries. It's going to provide safety for legitimate asylum seekers and stop asylum fraud and abuses of the system.

This is also transformative in the step it will take, and the many, many steps it will take for security, safety. For Guatemala, it signifies the incredible bright future for their country. This agreement will usher in a new era of investment and growth for their nation and sets the stage for cooperation between our countries and expanding access to the H–2A visa, which is your agricultural workers and farm workers.

We're going to have them coming into our country in a easier fashion than even before. It's very important for our business, for our farms, for our ranches. And we are going to make that a very, very much easier, less cumbersome program. And further bilateral investment will take place.

But the H–2A is really going to be streamlined. And all of those workers that come in, we want them to continue to come in. As you know, we have a very low rate of unemployment, record-setting. We're at about 3.5, maybe 3.6. I hear it's going down—probably will—because the country is doing tremendous business. Had a—another record stock market.

Today we're sending a clear message to human smugglers and traffickers that your day is over. And we're investing in the future of Guatemala, the safety of migrants and their families. We'll protect the rights of those with legitimate claims, and we'll end the widespread abuse of the system and the crippling crisis on our border.

I want to thank Mexico. As you know, Enrique, the Mexican Government, the President of Mexico, has now 21,000 troops on our double borders—on their border. By you, they have about 6,000. And then, on our southern border, they have—getting close to 20,000 by itself. It's going to probably be about 26,000 people totally, soldiers. And very good ones. It's had a tremendous impact. Really an incredible impact.

So, Kevin, if you look at what's happened over the last short period of time, it's really been great. Now, if the Democrats would sign something, it would be a lot easier. But we have to do it around the Democrats, because they refuse to want to close up the border. They want open borders. That means smugglers, it means hijackers, it means drugs, it means crime. It's, frankly, a disgrace.

But with Guatemala and with Mexico and with other countries that will be signing safe third agreements very shortly, we're doing really well. I want to thank—if I might, Enrique—the President of Guatemala, President Morales. Please give him my regards.

*Minister of Interior and Home Affairs Enrique Antonio Degenhart Asturias of Guatemala.* Thank you, sir.

*President Trump.* Thank you very much. He's a terrific guy. We like him very much. And we've worked together really, really well.

So if you two gentlemen would sit down, Kevin and Enrique, and you'll sign. I'll stand right behind you. This way, I'll confirm it.

[*At this point, the President witnessed the signing of the agreement.*]

*President Trump.* So that's a very big thing. It's a very important signature. Never been done before. Thank you very much, Enrique.

*Minister Degenhart.* Mr. President, thank you very much, sir. Thank you.

*President Trump.* It's such an honor. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

*Minister Degenhart.* At your service, sir.

*President Trump.* Say hello to the President, please. Okay?

*Minister Degenhart.* I will, sir.

*President Trump. *Thanks.

*Minister Degenhart.* Thank you very much.

*President Trump.* Okay. Thank you all very much. I appreciate it.

*Guatemala-U.S. Relations/Mexico's Cooperation With U.S. Immigration Enforcement/Immigration Reform/Border Security *

*Q. *Mr. President, what difference will this make do you think, sir?

*Q. *Mr. President, what was the breakthrough that led to this? What was the breakthrough that led to this?

*President Trump.* Look, we've been dealing for many years, I would say, with Guatemala and with other countries. And we are now at a point where we are—we just get along. And they're doing what we've asked them to do. And I think it's going to be a great thing for Guatemala. They don't want these problems either. So we were able to get this done, and we got it done fairly quickly. But this is after many, many years.

Mexico also is working along with us very nicely. I mean, tremendously, actually. You'll see a chart where the numbers are really through the floor, I should say, because they're going down.

*Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin K. McAleenan. *Right.

*President Trump.* Kevin, maybe you want to speak to the numbers, how well we're doing in terms of apprehensions.

*Acting Secretary McAleenan.* Absolutely, Mr. President. Since the agreement was signed with Mexico that you energized and drove, we've had 28-percent reduction in June, and we're headed toward another 22-percent reduction in July in crossings. So 43 percent overall thanks to the effort on the Government of Mexico's side and the implementation of our migrant protection protocols border-wide. *President Trump.* And the fact that they do have, really, a big slowdown coming in from Guatemala at the border, because we have, again, 6,000 Mexican troops at the border of Guatemala. So that helps. But this will really help. This is something that's going to be rather incredible. So the numbers are going down.

We could really do this in a much easier fashion if we had cooperation from the Democrats. We have absolutely no cooperation. Nobody can understand them. Most of these people, 5 years ago, they all wanted a wall.

And we're building a lot of wall right now. A lot of it. We've ripped down old wall, and we've ripped down wall that didn't even exist which was—it had bad footings, bad foundations. It was—there used to be a wall there; there wasn't. It was gobbled up by the people that crossed. And we're building beautiful, new wall, a lot of it. And it's getting built rapidly.

So a lot of things are happening. But this is a very big day.

John [John Roberts, Fox News].

*Investigation Into Russia's Interference in 2016 Presidential Election/Border Security/Immigration Reform/Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III/Congressional Subpoena Powers/2020 Presidential and Congressional Elections *

*Q. *Mr. President, the big focus of the Democrats today was to say that they are going to continue and expand their investigations. They're looking through the grand jury testimony behind the Mueller report. They want to try to enforce the subpoena against Don McGahn. What do you say?

*President Trump.* I think it's a disgrace what the Democrats are doing. It's so sad to see what they're—how they're impeding all of the good things that we're doing. Like, as an example, today it's the border. We're strengthening up our border with a great country. And we have other great countries that are going to be signing on also.

And we're doing this all because the Democrats won't give us what we need. So simple: Get rid of the loopholes; work on asylum. It would take a very short period of time. They won't do it. All they want to do is impede. They want to investigate. They want to go fishing.

And I watch Bob Mueller, and they have nothing. There's no collusion, there's no obstruction. They have nothing. It's a disgrace.

We want to find out what happened with the last Democrat President. Let's look into Obama the way they've looked at me. From day one, they've looked into everything that we've done. They could look into the book deal that President Obama made. Let's subpoena all of his records. Let's subpoena all of the records having to do with Hillary Clinton and all of the nonsense that went on with Clinton and her foundation and everything else. We could do that all day long.

Frankly, the Republicans were gentle men and women. When we had the majority in the House, they didn't do subpoenas all day long. They didn't do what they—what these people have done. What they're doing is a disgrace. So destructive to our country. And I think that's why we're going to take back the House. That's why we're easily going to hold the Presidency and we're going to continue to hold the Senate.

And you know, people don't say it, but we picked up two seats in the Senate. We went from 51 to 53 in the '18 election. Nobody says it. They talk about the House. And I didn't get to campaign very much for the House. I couldn't because we were campaigning for the Senate. We almost picked up five seats. You know that very well. So it's a disgrace that they're doing it. They're doing it for political reasons. And most of them, many of them, are admitting that. It's politics. And frankly, it's a very sad thing for our country.

Yes.

*Turkey-U.S. Trade/Turkey's Purchase of Russian S–400 Antiaircraft System *

*Q. *What's your thinking now about sanctions on Turkey? You had that meeting with the Republican Senators the other night.

*President Trump.* Well, we're looking at the whole Turkey situation. You know, they've ordered 125 F–35 fighter jets. Billions and billions of dollars. They've paid some of it. The planes are being made. They're easily sold to other nations, because they're the greatest fighter jet in the world. And we have a backlog of orders.

But it's a tough situation. They're getting the S–400 and the—our statutes, and everything else, says you do that, you just can't order this equipment. And generally speaking, you can't order equipment, period.

I don't blame Turkey because there are a lot of circumstances and a lot of—a lot of problems that occurred during the Obama administration. This dates back to the Obama administration, which was a disaster, okay?

Yes, John.

*Guatemala-U.S. Relations *

*Q. *May I come back to Guatemala, sir?

*President Trump.* Please.

*Q. *Earlier this week, it looked like things were not going in the right direction. You were even threatening tariffs against Guatemala. What turned around in the last couple of days?

*President Trump.* Well, I think I'd ask maybe Kevin and Enrique to answer. The relationship has been very good.

*Acting Secretary McAleenan.* We've stayed at the table. We've been working on it throughout. Enrique has demonstrated a tremendous commitment, the Minister of Government for Guatemala, helping lead the region to take responsibility for migration flows, to work together with the United States on how we can take the power away from the criminal organizations that are exploiting these vulnerable migrants. And we just stayed with it and got over the line.

*Minister Degenhart.* And I would say that Guatemala is definitely clear on the responsibility that it has. We are clear that we have to make changes. And the way to do it is working together with our best ally. That's what we're showing here today, and we are definitely committed to continue doing and improving what we have.

*Q. *But your court said that this was not possible to do. How did you get around that?

*Minister Degenhart.* No, they didn't say that.

*Q. *Well, I thought that—it looked like the courts were saying that you could not sign an asylum agreement with the United States.

*Minister Degenhart.* So what the court said, which is a provisional injunction, was basically define the process that was—that had to be followed. We, as Secretary McAleenan mentioned a little while ago, define how to do that procedure, and we are going to implement it. Okay? *U.S. Asylum Policy/U.S. Safe Third-Country Agreement With Guatemala *

*Q. *Can you explain how this will work? If someone leaves Guatemala and——

*President Trump.* Yes.

*Q. *——walks through Mexico into the U.S., what happens? Are they turned around and—[*inaudible*]?

*President Trump.* Yes. A lot of good things happen. Go ahead, Kevin.

*Acting Secretary McAleenan.* So this is a return to the appropriate approach with—under international law to protecting asylum seekers at the earliest possible point in their journey. If you have a Honduran family or an El Salvadorian national, instead of having them pay a smuggler, come all the way to our border to seek asylum, when they arrive in Guatemala, they're in a country that has a fair proceeding for assessing asylum claims, and that's where they should make that claim. That returns that understanding under international law.

*Q. *Make a claim to stay in Guatemala or claim to the U.S.?

*Acting Secretary McAleenan.* They can make a protection claim, if they would like, in Guatemala. So if they arrive in the U.S. not having availed themselves of that opportunity, they'll be returned to Guatemala.

*Q. *And that's a claim to stay in Guatemala at that point?

*Acting Secretary McAleenan.* It's a claim for protection under international law for asylum.

*President Trump.* Which we've never had before and which is something that's so good—it's good for everybody, but it's so good.

*Q. *Are tariffs off the table now, sir?

*Mexico-U.S. Border Cooperation/Investigation Into Russia's Interference in 2016 Presidential Election/Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III/Guatemala-U.S. Relations *

*Q. *Are you going to sign more agreements soon? And who with?

*President Trump.* Well, we have a great agreement with Mexico, but we're going to probably do some additional work on it, because we can't get anything from the Democrats. Dealing with Mexico is really—what Mexico is doing for us at the border is far greater than what the Democrats have done.

You know, the amazing thing about the Democrats: It was all fine, everything was great, 4 or 5 years ago, before I was President. And now they think we're going to win, so they're doing everything they can—with the impeachment nonsense, where you had no obstruction, you had no collusion.

You know, obstruction is sort of interesting. They've interviewed 500 people. They've interviewed lawyers. They're interviewed everybody that they wanted to interview, people that had—I could have kept back by using Presidential privilege. I could've kept back everybody. They didn't have to interview anybody.

I gave them a total—and they say "obstruction." These people are clowns. The Democrats are clowns. They're being laughed at all over the world. And I watched this morning—I watched Nancy Pelosi trying to get through that, with the performance that Robert Mueller put on, where—I don't think he ever read the agreement or the document. And the document said, "No collusion." They don't even talk about that. So there was no crime. They said, "Well, there was no crime, but he obstructed." How do you obstruct if there's no crime? But actually, it was worse than that because it was a phony crime that they put on. The crime was what they put on.

But I watched Mueller—for 2½ years, we've watched this. And that's the best they have, and it's a disgrace. And the world is laughing at them. And unfortunately, it's so bad for our country. It's bad in our relationships with other countries, including Russia. There's no reason we shouldn't get along with Russia. There's no reason we shouldn't get along with other countries.

And one of the things that's nice about Guatemala is, we've never had a better relationship. Right now they've agreed to do something that's very good for the United States. And we're going to work with them also. We're going to be—it's going to be a partnership. And it's happening with Mexico too. We never had any kind of cooperation with Mexico ever, until this President, frankly, and my Presidency, where you have maybe 21,000—could be 26,000—soldiers.

And it's so good for Mexico because they're killing—they're getting rid of the cartels, which everybody knows they've been running big portions of Mexico—and the coyotes and all of these terrible people. Mexico has done a great job for their people. The President has done a great job for his people. And President Morales has done a great job by doing this, because now he has a friend in the United States instead of an enemy of the United States.

Yes, John.

*French Digital Services Tax/France-U.S. Trade Relations/President Emmanuel Macron of France/China-U.S. Trade Relations/Iran *

*Q. *Mr. President, are you going to slap tariffs on French wine?

*President Trump.* I might. I might. So France put on a tax on our companies. You know that. And—wrong. Wrong thing to do. They should not have done it. So I may do that. I may—I've always liked American wines better than French wines, even though I don't drink wine. [*Laughter*] I just like the way they look, okay? But the American wines are great. American wines are great. And they didn't do the right thing, when they start taxing our companies. We tax our companies; they don't tax our companies.

So France did that. I told him—I said, "Don't do it, because if you do it, I'm going to tax your wine"—tariff or tax—call it whatever you want. So yes, we're working on that right now.

*Q. *You were critical of Macron's decision to do this. How is that relationship between you and Macron?

*President Trump.* Good. I just spoke to him.

*Q. *You used to be very close.

*President Trump.* No, I just spoke to him. I have a good relationship with President Macron.

*Q.* Today?

*President Trump.* But they shouldn't have done this. They're used to taking advantage of the United States, but not with me as President.

Look, I look at deals that were done with other Presidents and this country, and it's a disgrace that our country has allowed this to happen—where China, for years and years and years was making from $300 billion to $507 billion a year, okay? Now we're taking in billions of dollars from China, and it's all turning around.

Whether a deal is made—you know, they're going next week; they have more meetings. Meeting after meeting. I don't think, personally, China would sign a deal if I had a 2-percent chance of losing the election. I think China would probably say: "Let's wait. Let's wait. Maybe Trump will lose, and we can deal with another dope or another stiff," like the people that allowed these deals to happen, this horrible thing to happen to our country. Because what's happened to our country—the money that China has taken out of the United States has rebuilt China. And I don't blame China, I blame the United States for allowing that to happen.

So if I'm President Xi, or if I'm, frankly, Iran—and Iran wants to make a deal; I can tell you that right now. But if I'm Iran, I'll probably say: "Man, if I can hold out, I'm going to wait for Sleepy Joe Biden instead of Trump, because Sleepy Joe, we can make any deal we want with him. He doesn't know what's happening."

So what else?

*Q.* On the dollar, sir——

*France-U.S. Trade Relations *

*Q. *Check back to tariffs on French wine. When?

*President Trump.* We'll be announcing it sometime fairly soon. We'll see what happens. But they put a tax on. We said: "Don't do it. We tax our companies. You don't tax our companies." And we'll be announcing something. It might be on wine; it might be on something else. But we'll be—it's called "reciprocal." It's a reciprocal tax. And we'll be announcing that fairly soon, John.

It makes sense, John. Do you agree with that? You're a man of—you're a man that enjoys wine. [*Laughter*] You just won't enjoy French wine anymore.

Go ahead, Steve [Steve A. Holland, Reuters].

*Q. *I would agree that American wines are very, very good.

*President Trump.* They are great. I agree.

*China-U.S. Trade Relations/2020 Presidential Election/U.S. Monetary Policy/Federal Reserve System *

*Q. *I think Mnuchin and Lighthizer are going to Shanghai next week for those trade talks. Are——

*President Trump.* They will be going.

*Q. *You don't sound optimistic that they're going to come out with a deal.

*President Trump.* No, I'm never—look, look, look: I think that China will probably say: "Let's wait. It's 14, 15 months until the election. Let's see if one these people that give the United States away, let's see if one of them could possibly get elected." And I'll tell you what: When I win, like almost immediately, they're all going to sign deals, and they're going to be phenomenal deals for the country.

But—so I don't know that they're going to—I don't know if they're going to make a deal. Maybe they will; maybe they don't. I don't care, because we're taking in tens of billions of dollars' worth of tariffs. And the farmers are happy because I gave them $16 billion out of the tariffs and had tremendous—you know, much more than that left over, as you know. Tremendous amount of money left over, like, by three times. And we haven't even taxed China yet, compared to what I could do. So we have tens of billions of dollars rolling in from China. We never had 10 cents coming in.

And again, I don't blame President Xi. I blame our past leaders for allowing it to happen for so many years with the World Trade Organization. China was totally flatlined. And when the World Trade Organization came about and China joined the World Trade, they became a rocket ship, because, you know, it's a very unfair situation that took place at the World Trade Organization, as are many of them.

So they're going to go and we'll talk. We'll see. I don't personally care that much because we're getting billions and billions. Remember this: The people aren't paying for it. Everyone says people pay for it. China has devalued the currency, and they're putting money in—they're pumping money into their society, into their country, like you wouldn't believe. You call it "quantitative easing."

With us, we have a Fed that does quantitative tightening, and they raise interest rates. So we have a normalized rate. President Obama had no rates and he had no tightening. And we still have a much better economy than in his wildest dreams.

So—and there is something okay about that, but we—look, the Fed acted too soon. I turned out to be right. They acted too soon and too violently. We've had nine increases, I believe—you'll check that—but I believe it's nine increases. A couple of under—a couple under her and a lot under Powell. I'm not a fan.

Okay, what else?

*Strength of the U.S. Dollar/National Economy *

*Q. *On the U.S. dollar, sir. The U.S. dollar, is it too high? Too low? Just right? What do you think?

*President Trump.* Well, the dollar is very strong. The country is very strong. The dollar is a—it's a beautiful thing in one way, but it makes it harder to compete. And despite that—but we have a very powerful dollar. So that's the good news.

Despite that, we're doing really well. The country is doing well. It's really become, more than ever before, the currency of choice. You know, you have the euro that tried to cut in. Well, the euro is now not doing so well. Europe is not doing so well. China is not doing very well. You look at other countries, we're the hottest economic country in the world. There's nobody close. Even Guatemala wants to do business with us now. So we're happy. Right?

*Minister Degenhart.* Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.

*Q.* Have you rolled out any measures——

*U.S. Monetary Policy/National Economy/Federal Reserve System *

*Q. *On the dollar valuation, why did you not consider a proposal that was floated on Tuesday here in the Oval Office to devalue it?

*President Trump.* I could do that in 2 seconds if I wanted.

*Q. *But why did you not want to entertain it?

*President Trump.* Well, I wouldn't say I'm not going to do something, but I'm—you know, look, having a strong dollar—there's a reason that it sounds so good. And having a strong dollar is having a strong dollar.

We have an amazing country. We have a very strong country. That's why our country has a strong currency. Other countries have a currency that's down the tubes. It's a currency that's weak. China's currency is very low. You look at other countries—look at the euro; the euro is so low. I mean, Germany is paying almost no interest. We're paying 2.1 percent. We're paying a lot of interest. That's because we have a strong currency. It's a very complicated formula for some people. It's not complicated for me. The Federal Reserve raised the rates too fast and too soon, and they shouldn't have done quantitative tightening, which they did. If they didn't do that, we would be at 4.5 percent instead of 2.1. Everybody is so thrilled with 2.1. We could have had it much more, except for the Federal Reserve. And we could have been five- to ten thousand points higher in the Dow.

Now, I don't want to sound too upset about it, because we just broke the alltime record in the history of our country on the Dow. But we could have been higher, right? Could have been a contender. Could have been higher, as Marlon would say. Marlon Brando, the great Marlon Brando.

Yes, Steve.

*North Korea *

*Q. *Are you okay with North Korea firing off these short-range missiles?

*President Trump.* Well, you said it: They're short-range missiles. And my relationship is very good with Chairman Kim. And we'll see what happens. But they are short-range missiles, and many people have those missiles.

*Q. *You don't sound too spun up about it.

*President Trump.* Nope. Not at all.

*North Korea *

*Q. *Mr. President, they're describing those short-range as a warning, and "short-range" is short-range for the United States, but not short-range for our allies, right? South Korea, Japan.

*President Trump.* Well, he didn't say—he didn't say a warning to the United States, I can tell you that. He didn't say a warning to the United States. But they have their disputes. The two of them have their disputes. They've had them for a long time. But he didn't say that. But they are short-range missiles and very standard missiles.

*Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom/U.K.-U.S. Relations *

*Q. *Mr. President, have you spoken with Boris Johnson yet?

*President Trump.* Yes. Very good question.

*Q. *And what did you have to say?

*President Trump.* That's the best question you've ever asked.

*Q. *I asked it the other day, and you said no.

*President Trump.* Well, you know why your timing is good? Because I spoke to him about—how long have you been here? Sixteen minutes. I spoke to him 17 minutes ago. I hung up the phone as you were coming in.

And he's a good guy. He's a friend of mine. I think we're going to have a great relationship. And Boris is going to be a great Prime Minister. I predict he will be a great Prime Minister. He has what it takes. They needed him for a long time. U.K. needed him for a long time. And——

*Q. *Did you invite him here?

*President Trump. *——let's see what happens. Yes, he'll—he and I will spend a lot of—we just spent a lot of time when I was with the Queen in one of the great, most beautiful couple of days that I've ever experienced. She's a tremendous woman, incredible woman. We get along very well. So Boris and I just spoke. I congratulated him. And he's all set to go. He's going to be—I think he'll do a great job.

We're working already on a trade agreement. And I think it will be a very substantial trade agreement. You know, we can do with the U.K.—we can do three to four times. We were actually impeded by their relationship with the European Union. We were very much impeded on trade. And I think we can do three to four, five times what we're doing.

We don't do the kind of trade we could do with what some people say is Great Britain and some people remember—a word you don't hear too much is the word, "England," which is a piece of it. But with the U.K., we could do much, much more trade. And we expect to do that, okay?

*Apple, Inc., Chief Executive Officer Timothy D. Cook *

*Q. *President Trump, on Apple. You just warned Apple about tariff. So——

*President Trump.* Apple.

*Q. *Yes, Apple. And they're saying they don't have a skilled labor in the U.S.

*President Trump.* Well, I want Apple to build their plants in the United States. I don't want them to build them in China. So when I heard they were going to build in China, I said: "No, it's okay. You can build in China, but when you send your product into the United States, we're going to tariff you." But we'll work it out.

A man I have a lot of liking for and respect is Tim Cook. And we'll work it out. I think they're going to announce that they're going to build a plant in Texas. And if they do that, I'm starting to get very happy. Okay?

*U.S. Asylum Policy/Guatemala-U.S. Relations *

*Q. *Mr. President, do you expect to get similar agreements, like the one signed today, with Honduras and El Salvador? And are you working on doing that?

*President Trump.* I do. I do. I do indeed.

*Q. *Will you get them soon?

*President Trump.* Pretty soon. I mean, we get quick agreements.

So I just want to end up by saying that Guatemala has been really a pleasure to deal with, and we're going to have a great relationship for many years to come.

And I'd like you, please, extend my warmest regards to the people of Guatemala.

*Minister Degenhart.* Thank you, Mr. President. I will.

*President Trump.* Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.

*The President's Upcoming Travel to Bedminster, New Jersey *

*Q. *When are you planning your working vacation in Bedminster?

*President Trump.* What?

*Q. *Are you planning a working vacation in Bedminster this year?

*President Trump.* By the way, Bedminster is not a vacation. I don't go to——

*Q. *That's why I said, "working." [*Laughter*] *President Trump. *——Manhattan, because when I go to Manhattan, I—you know, I stay at Trump Tower, and I have to close up the whole city of Manhattan. So I go to Bedminster, which is a beautiful place, but it's never a vacation. It's working, mostly.

*Q. *Are you planning a trip to Bedminster over an extended period of time in August?

*President Trump.* I hope not, because I like working. I'd rather be right here. You know, but probably over a short period of time. A lot of times, you go, and they do a lot of work in the White House. For instance, the Obama administration worked out a brandnew air conditioning system for the West Wing, and it was so good before they did the system. Now that they did the system, it's freezing or hot in here.

*Q. *Can I rephrase my question?

*President Trump.* Yes.

*Q. *Will you be spending an extended period of time working in Bedminster during the month of August?

*President Trump.* Not extended, but for a short period of time. You know, meaning like less than a week.

*Q.* Okay.

*President Trump. *But again, I don't—I do that, just officially—just to put that on record—I do that because when I go into Trump Tower, they close up 10 blocks around the building. And it's Manhattan, New York City. It's a big—I don't want to inconvenience people. I don't get any credit for that, but that's okay.

Whereas Bedminster, everybody—you know, it works out very easily. It's a much easier—it's a much easier thing. It's a great place. But I would love to go to Manhattan. I just don't like seeing the city closed up.

I've had to suffer—living in Manhattan, I've had to suffer gravely as Presidents would come in and come out. And the entire city would be shut down. So I guess I understand it better than most, right? Thank you.

*Group of Seven (G–7) Nations Summit in Biarritz, France *

*Q. *You've got the G–7 summit coming up after that.

*President Trump.* We have the G–7 coming up. Yes. We look forward to it. It will be in France.

*Q. *Any other stops planned?

*President Trump.* I don't know. This was a stop which—this is a stop that we didn't have planned, right here in the Oval Office—[*laughter*]—with Guatemala.

And again, thank you very much, Enrique. Thank you everybody.

*France-U.S. Trade Relations *

*Q. *Would you put tariffs on wine before the G–7, or would you wait to negotiate with Macron?

*President Trump.* Maybe before.

*Q. *Maybe before?

*President Trump.* Maybe before. *Q.* Thank you.

*President Trump*. Maybe.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:48 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico; former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi; former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.; Janet L. Yellen, former Chair, and Jerome H. Powell, Chairman, Federal Reserve System; and Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. A reporter referred to former White House Counsel Donald F. McGahn II.

*Categories:* Addresses and Remarks : Guatemala-U.S. safe third-country agreement; Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters :: White House*.*

*Locations: *Washington, DC.

*Names:* Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Cook, Timothy D.; Degenhart Asturias, Enrique Antonio; Elizabeth II, Queen; Johnson, Boris; Kim Jong Un; Lighthizer, Robert E.; López Obrador, Andrés Manuel; Macron, Emmanuel; McAleenan, Kevin K.; Mnuchin, Steven T.; Morales Cabrera, James Ernesto; Mueller, Robert S., III; Obama, Barack; Pelosi, Nancy; Powell, Jerome H.; Xi Jinping; Yellen, Janet L.

*Subjects:* Agriculture : Farm subsidies; Apple, Inc.; China : President; China : Trade with U.S.; China : U.S. tariff structure, strengthening efforts; Commerce, international : Group of Seven (G–7) nations; Congress : House of Representatives :: Speaker; Defense and national security : Border security; Economy, national : Improvement; Elections : 2020 Presidential and congressional elections; Employment and unemployment : Unemployment rate; Europe : European Union :: United Kingdom, membership status; France : Digital services tax; France : President; Guatemala : Minister of Interior and Home Affairs; Guatemala : President; Guatemala : Safe third-country agreement with U.S.; Guatemala : U.S. visa policy; Homeland Security, Department of : Acting Secretary; Immigration and naturalization : Reform; Immigration and naturalization : Refugees; Immigration and naturalization : Visa policy, U.S.; Iran : International diplomatic efforts; Mexico : Border with U.S., infrastructure and security; Mexico : Immigration enforcement, cooperation with U.S.; Mexico : President; New Jersey : Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Bedminster; North Korea : Ballistic missiles, testing and development; North Korea : Chairman, State Affairs Commission; Presidency, U.S. : Congressional subpoena of Presidential records; Reserve System, Federal; Russia : 2016 U.S. elections, interference; Russia : Relations with U.S.; Trade Representative, Office of the U.S.; Treasury, Department of the : Secretary; Turkey : Purchase of Russian S–400 antiaircraft system; Turkey : Trade with U.S.; United Kingdom : European Union, membership status; United Kingdom : Prime Minister; United Kingdom : Queen; United Kingdom : Relations with U.S.; United Kingdom : Trade with U.S.; World Trade Organization.

*DCPD Number:* DCPD201900509.