*From:* Emily Cochrane <xxx@nytimes.com>
*Sent:* Friday, June 29, 2018 6:31 PM
*Subject:* Travel Pool 5: Transcribed quotes

Please check all quotes against the official transcript, it was hard to hear on the plane apologies for any omissions or errors. Thank you for your patience.

On SCOTUS pick: "I'll be announcing it the Monday after July 4...I'll be announcing it on the 9th...We've got great people."

"I may have two of them come up, like the old days to Bedminister...could be this weekend...It is exciting."
"Outside of war and peace, of course, the most important decision you make is the selection of a Supreme Court judge, if you get it. As you know, there are many presidents who never get a choice."

"That's not a question I'll be asking them" re: undoing Roe v. Wade
"It is a group of highly talented, very brilliant, mostly conservative judges."
"I'm very honored he decided to do it during my term," regarding Kennedy's decision to retire.

On Mike Lee: "He's an outstanding talent...I actually saw him on television last night, where he said he would love the job. You know, usually, they don't say that.
"We've become good friends..very good guy, very talented, very smart."

On traveling to Bedminster: "I've been so busy I haven't been able to go. I mean, normally, I'd go to Manhattan, but it's so disruptive for the city."

On legislation: "We have a lot of great healthcare bills coming out."
"If you look at a list of our accomplishments, I don't know if anyone's done more...I think we're going to have tremendous support from the Supreme Court."

On John Kelly: "We have a very good relationship. He's a wonderful man. John Kelly, 4 star, wonderful man. Don't forget, this is a big change for him. This has not been an easy change for him. We have a very, very good relationship.
[Q:How long will he stick around?] "That I can't tell you. But I can say we've had a very good relationship, and we've achieved a lot...I like John a lot. I like him and I respect him."

On Hope Hicks: "I love Hope..I think everybody misses it, I think when they leave for a while...you people exhaust a lot of people. They come in full of life and vim and vigor and then they're exhausted....
"Many people would like to come back. Look, there is nothing more exciting than what we're doing."

On the media: "Obviously, the press has treated me very badly, in the meantime I'm president, so, I guess they didn't treat me badly enough...I have a lot of respect for the media, tremendous respect. Some of the greatest people I know are reporters and people in the media. But also you have, like anything else, people that are bad."

On the Capital Gazette shooting: "That's terrible. Nobody has the full story yet, but what happened there is a disgrace."

On the economy: If a Democrat had been elected, our country wouldn't be doing nearly as well...I can only tell you that we are doing well, like no one thought possible. I think these are like you're talking about golden years, from an economic standpoint, from the economy, these are the golden years of our country...now what I'm doing is, I'm getting trade deficits much changed.

On Rod Rosenstein being held in contempt over documents: "I think the whole thing is going to work out. I think that he'll give what is necessary...I think that whole thing will work out...I watched yesterday, I really believe it's going to work out very easily between Rod and between the rest of the [inaudible] I think they'll get what they need, and I'm sure Rod will do what he has to do."

On WTO: "We've been treated very badly by the WTO...it's a very, very unfair situation. When you look at the WTO, that's where China emerged, when they joined the WTO. We have been treated very badly. We have lost many, many cases over the years...we've had minority judges..we've had a minority position in judges. WTO has to start treating the United States fairly because they have not treated us fairly."
"I'm not talking about pulling out. I'm saying they haven't treated us fairly. We have not been treated fairly."

On Crimea: "Don't forget, President Obama gave up Crimea. That was totally given up by President Obama...No, he lost President Obama allowed that to happen, which was very unfortunate...It was during President Obama's term...I think it could've been handled much differently...which is a shame, frankly."

On meeting with Russia: "We're going to be talking about Ukraine, we're going to be talking about Syria, we're going to be talking about elections. We don't want anybody tampering with elections. We'll be talking about world events. We'll be talking about peace. We may even talk about saving millions of dollars on weapons...we are building a force like nobody's ever seen before."
"Perhaps the world can deescalate, with China, Russia...maybe the world can somewhat deescalate. That would not be a bad thing. But I think having a relationship with China, Russia...it's a good thing.
[Asked about potentially lifting sanctions on Russia]: "We'll see what Russia does. We're going to be talking to Russia about a lot of things. We're going to be talking to them about Syria...

On NATO: "NATO is very interesting, we'll see what happens there. Germany has to spend more money, Spain, France, it's not fair what they've done to the United States.
"The United States is paying much more disproportionately to anyone else."

On trade: "We're not being treated fairly on trade, by almost any country. Our leaders have let it get away, missing in action. We will be treated fairly. We will be treated very fairly. But we have not been treated fairly on trade. If you look at the European Union, it's $150 billion dollar deficit. If you look at China, it's $375 billion. If you take any country look at Mexico, it's $100 billion trade deficit...You look at Canada. Canada's treated us poorly...but it'll all work out."

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*Emily Cochrane | The New York Times*

*Cell/WhatsApp/Signal: 305-xxx-xxxx| Office:**305-xxx-xxxx**|Twitter: @ESCochrane [ %3ehttp:/twitter.com/ESCochrane%3c ]*


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