Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau: Joint news conference - live updates, videos
2:42 p.m. The press conference just ended. There were no questions about Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn.
2:40 p.m. The president and Trudeau were asked about changes to NAFTA and Mr. Trump said, “We have a very outstanding trade relationship” and that they’ll be “tweaking it.” He vowed to help the workers of the U.S. who he called the “forgotten man and forgotten woman.”
2:34 p.m. Mr. Trump was asked what he thought was the biggest foreign policy challenge facing the U.S. after receiving intelligence briefings for several months.
“When I was campaigning, I said it’s not a good situation,” he said. “We have problems that people have no idea how bad they are, how serious they are...obviously North Korea is a big, big problem and we will deal with that very strongly.”
The president said that the U.S. has problems all over the Middle East and in “every corner of the globe.”
Trudeau acknowledged that Canada has had some differences with the U.S. internationally, but he said he won’t lecture another country on a foreign visit.
2:32 p.m. The president was asked if he’s confident that the U.S.-Canadian border is secure, and he said, you can “never be totally confident,” but “through the incredible efforts already, I see it happening.”
“We really have done a great job,” Mr. Trump said, adding that his administration is taking people out of the U.S. who are criminals with a “track record of abuse and problems and we’re getting them out.”
2:29 p.m. Mr. Trump was asked how he sees the U.S. relationship with Canada playing out and whether there were specific areas they’d like to alter or amend positions on such as terrorism and immigration.
“We just began discussions,” Mr. Trump said, adding that they have “wonderful ideas on immigration” and “very strong, very tough ideas on the tremendous problem that we have on terrrorism.”
“We will see some very, very obvious results,” he said. Mr. Trump added that they are also working on “some cross-border things” on trade that will be “implemented fairly quickly.”
2:20 p.m. Trudeau said that the U.S. is Canada’s “most essential partner” and that both nations benefit from $2 billion a day in two-way trade. He said that he will work with Canada will work closely with the U.S. over the next several years to help citizens get ahead financially. Trudeau said that he and Mr. Trump share a common goal of helping families in both nations get hired, earn money and take vacations.
2:16 p.m. Mr. Trump just kicked off the press conference and thanked Trudeau for coming to the White House and called Canada a “great friend, neighbor and ally” and said that the U.S. and Canada share a love of freedom and collective defense. The president said that the two nations work together to combat terrorism and work together to strengthen trade.
“We will coordinate closely to protect jobs in our hemisphere and to keep wealth on our continent and to keep everyone safe,” Mr. Trump said, adding that he’s committed to a stronger trading relationship between the two nations.
12:30 p.m. At 2 p.m., President Trump is scheduled to hold a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House, following a bilateral meeting between the two leaders. Issues including trade and possibly immigration might come up on their agenda. There might be questions regarding the administration’s plan moving forward on the travel ban and new executive action(s) they’ve said they’d roll out this week.
It’s also possible that Mr. Trump will be asked about whether he stands behind his national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Flynn’s deception about conversations with the Russian ambassador about Obama administration sanctions have deeply soured his relationship with Vice President Mike Pence. Top White House aide Stephen Miller deferred to Mr. Trump or chief of staff Reince Priebus when he was asked about Flynn’s future.
Trudeau’s visit comes after Mr. Trump spent the weekend with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Mar-a-Lago, following meetings at the White House, and comes before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit the White House on Wednesday.