*From:* "Radnofsky, Louise" <xxx@wsj.com> *Date:* August 11, 2017 at 6:48:31 PM EDT
*Subject:* *Out of town pool 4a: second Bedminster spray*

Local pooler Matt Arco of the Star-Ledger likes you enough to send a transcript of the first half of the Bedminster spray, typed while barreling back to the press filing center. Highlights from second half coming in separate email:

Thank you everybody. We have a very good meeting. We talked about North Korea, as you could imagine. We're very much in agreement. I think we're very unified. I think we have been right from the beginning.____

____

This is something that has to stop. We all feel that very strongly. I will be speaking to President Xitonight, from China. We have been working very closely with China and with other countries. That phone call will take placetonight.____

____

REASSURE SOUTH KOREA:____

Well, I think as far as reassurance the probably feel as reassured as they can feel. Certainly they feel more reassured with me than they do with other presidents from the past because nobody has really done the job that they're supposed to be doing and that's why we're at this horrible situation right now.____

____

It is a very bad situation. It's a very dangerous situation and it will not continue, that I can tell you.____

____

I think South Korea's very happy, and you don't mention Japan. But I think Japan is very happy with the job we're doing. I think they're very impressed with the job we're doing and let's see how it turns out.____

____

*Q: Were you being sarcastic when you thanked V Putin?____*

*____*

In order to reduce our payroll? Absolutely. I think you know that. I think you knew that.____

____

We'll see, in fact, I was just speaking to the secretary and we're talking about coming up with an answer ("this is about1:45min in, I lost a sentence or two he said after this.)____"

"____"

*AMERICANS ON EDGE____*

You know what I can say? Hopefully it'll all work out. Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump, that I can tell you. Hopefully it'll all work out. But this has been going on for many years. It would've been a lot easier to solve this years ago before they were in the position they're in.____

____

But we will see what happens. We think that lots of good things can happen and we could also could have a bad solution. But we think lots of good things will happen.____

____

*THINK IT WAS A QUESTION ABOUT WHAT'S A "BAD THING" THAT COULD HAPPEN____*

*____*

I think you know the answer to that.____

____

*Q: Is Iran abiding by the nuclear agreement in your view?____*

*____*

We have some pretty strong opinions. But I would say they're certainly not abiding by the spirit of the agreement and I'd go, really, a further step. But I would say the spirit of the agreement, Iran is not abiding by -- absolutely.____

____

*Q: Staying in that region, do you have the right generals in place right now in Afghanistan?____*

*____*

Well, we're going to make a determination, Peter, in a very short period of time as to Afghanistan. I've been looking at it. It's our longest war in history, 17 years, that's unacceptable. We will be making decisions, as you know, very well. But we're looking at that very closely. We talked about that a little bit today. We talked about Venezuela today also, by the way.____

____

Venezuela is a mess. A very dangerous mess and a very sad situation. But we talked about Venezuela also.____

____

*Q: We're a couple weeks into Gen. John Kelly as chief of staff, what have you done differently? What has he done to change the way you act or how the way your White House acts?____*

*____*

Well I think Gen. Kelly has done a fantastic job. He's a respected person, respected by everybody. Things have come together very nicely and I have to say, I think probably, I've gone through this a lot, but I think very few presidents have done what we've done in a six-month period, whether it's optimism in business, whether it's the stock market, whether it's picking up $4 trillion of value with companies and equity, whether it's all of the many things including the Supreme Court justice, regulations being cut massively. We have, I think it's 48 bills being passed in the, I'm talking about the Legislature not just executive orders.____

____

I think few have done anywhere near what we've done and we'll work now on tax reform cuts, we'll never stop working on, as you know, health care. And we're working on other things, including infrastructure. We're going to have to have a very big infrastructure bill.____

____

Very rarely could I say that anybody has done, I'm not sure that anybody has done what we've done in a six-month period. But I think Gen. Kelly has brought a tremendous, brought something very special to the office. Chief, I call him chief. He's a respected man. He's a four-star from the Marines and he carries himself like a four-star from the Marines, and he's my friend -- which is very important.____

____

*WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF GOP SENATORS COMING TO MITCH'S DEFENSE?____*

*____*

I don't make anything of it. We should have had health care approved. He should have know that he had a couple of votes that turned on him and that should have been very easy to handle, whether. it's through the fact that can take away a committee chairmanship or do whatever you have to do. But what, in my opinion, last week is unacceptable. People have been talking about repeal and replace for seven years, long before I ever decided to be doing what I am doing. Seven years they've been talking repeal and replace and it didn't happen. And not only didn't happen, it was a surprise and a horrible surprise. It was very unfair to the Republican Party and it was very unfair to the people of this country, so I was not impressed.____

____

Now, can he do good? I think so. I think we can do very well on taxes, cuts [and] reform. I think we are going to do well on infrastructure, and things will happen with respect to health care. And I think things will happen maybe outside of necessarily needing Congress because there are things that I could do as president that will have a huge impact on health care, so you watch.____

__

--
Louise Radnofsky The Wall Street Journal 202-xxx-xxxx 202-xxx-xxxx


Public Pool is an automated feed of White House press pool reports. For live updates, follow @WHPublicPool on Twitter.