President Trump on trade, Crimea and NATO, per the pool report from Air Force One.
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.”
