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Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2019 Remarks Prior to a Meeting

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Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2019 Remarks Prior to a Meeting Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2019 Remarks Prior to a Meeting With President Andrzej Duda of Poland and an Exchange With Reporters June 12, 2019 President Trump. Thank you very much. We have the very great privilege of having the President of Poland with us and his very powerful and lovely wife. First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda of Poland. Thank you. President Trump. Thank you very much. It's great to be with you again. And we are celebrating a lot of different things, the purchase of many F–35 aircraft by Poland, the finest jet in the world, they say. The finest fighter plane anywhere in the world. And you knew that; you had your choice. Poland has done really well, and they have really eclipsed anything that anybody thought. And their numbers are fantastic. Their economy is good. We've helped them a lot, and they've helped us a lot. We have a tremendous trading relationship, and we're going to be discussing numerous things today. We're going to have a pretty long meeting, and at the end of which I guarantee a lot of good things are happening. But they're big buyers of our equipment, of our planes, and our munitions in every form, in every respect. And we're going to keep it that way, and we appreciate it. And on behalf of the First Lady and myself, I'd like to thank you both for coming to the Oval Office, a very special place. And we've been here before together. And I will never forget the speech I made in Poland. We were treated so well. The people are such a great group of people. And we had a tremendous day. I remember it very well. I won't forget it. That was really rolling out the red carpet. We will not forget. Thank you very much. President Duda. Thank you very much, Mr. President. We also remember very well your speech. [Laughter] President Trump. Thank you. Q. Will there be Fort Trump in Poland? President Trump. Excuse me. Go ahead, please. Would you like to—— President Duda. Mr. President, thank you very much for this excellent possibility to meet here in Washington with you, in the White House, second time during the last 10 months. This is excellent opportunity to talk about the important issues in our bilateral relations and about the situation in NATO and the situation of the security and defense in our part of Europe and especially about the future cooperation in trade and especially in the issue of energy, energy security. President Trump. Right. President Duda. And I hope that we will have a lot to say during the press conference. [Laughter] Poland-U.S. Military Cooperation Q. So will there be Fort Trump, sir? 1 President Trump. So we're looking at doing things with Poland, including working with their military. And, as you know, Poland wants to build a great military facility for the United States. They'll build it. They're going to spend money. I mean, that's up to them if they want to do it, but it's something we'll consider. But they'll be putting up the money to build a very major military facility in Poland. And we are giving it very serious thought, and we'll see how that all works out. But they came to us. They like the idea. And it's something that we're very interested in. Q. Mr. President, are the U.S. troops ready for deployment? 2020 Census Q. Mr. President, why shouldn't Americans know why a citizenship question was added to the 2020 census? President Trump. You're talking about the census? Q. Yes, the census. President Trump. Well, I think that—and I'm not overly involved in that. That's really a legal matter. But I think when you have a census, and you're not allowed to talk about whether or not somebody is a citizen or not, that doesn't sound so good to me. Can you imagine, you send out a census and you're not allowed to say whether or not a person is an American citizen? In Poland, they'd say they're either Polish or they're not. Right? So I don't want to get you into this battle— [laughter]—but it's ridiculous. I think it's—— Q. Why not release those documents, Mr. President? Why not let the American people see those documents though? President Trump. I think it's totally ridiculous that we would have a census without asking. But the Supreme Court is going to be ruling on it soon. I think when a census goes out, you should find out whether or not—and you can have the right to ask whether or not—somebody is a citizen of the United States. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Poland-U.S. Military Cooperation Q. Mr. President, are the U.S. troops ready for deployment to Poland? President Trump. Well, we're talking about it. That's one of the reasons that we're here. A lot of money is going to be spent on a facility—a military facility—a great one, in a very good location in Poland. And actually, it will be spread over a little area. But basically, one primary facility. We'll see how it works out. We're talking about it right now. Poland-Russia Relations Q. Mr. President, do you consider Russia as a threat to Poland and to Europe? President Trump. I hope not. I'll tell you what: We're with everybody. And I hope not. I think that Russia will treat Poland with respect, just like the rest of the world is treating. Poland has really built up a great country. You know, they get hurt, unfortunately, too often. Right? Too often. They end up—they're in the middle of everything. And when bad things happen, it seems that Poland is always the first one that's in there. And that's—it's unfortunate. No, I hope that Russia and Poland and Germany and everybody is going to get along. That's what I want. I want everybody to get along. Q. Will you be coming to Poland later this year? 2 Hong Kong Q. [Inaudible]—your reaction to the demonstrations in Hong Kong? Is China overplaying its hand here? President Trump. Well, they're massive demonstrations. I looked today, and that really is a million people. A lot of times, people talk about, they had 2,000 people, but it was really 1,000 or it was 200. I see it all the time. I see it all the time. But when you look at this demonstration, they said it was a million people, and that was a million people. That was as big a demonstration as I've ever seen. So I hope it all works out for China and for Hong Kong. Q. Is it—are they sending a message to China with these demonstrations? President Trump. I don't know what they're sending them. I mean, that's a demonstration that they're having. I understand the reason for the demonstration, but I'm sure they'll be able to work it out. I hope they're going to be able to work it out with China. Q. Mr. President, are you concerned—— President Trump. Yes. Yes. Three Seas Initiative Q. Mr. President, what do you think about the Three Seas Initiative of Central and Eastern Europe countries? President Trump. Say it? Q. Three Seas Initiative that was held in Europe recently. President Trump. Well, we're going to be discussing a lot of those elements today. 2020 Presidential Election Q. Mr. President, are you concerned about your internal polling as it relates to Joe Biden? President Trump. No, because we have great internal polling. They were fake polls that were released by somebody that is—it's ridiculous. No, we are winning in every single State that we've polled. We're winning in Texas very big. We're winning in Ohio very big. We're winning in Florida very big. They were fake polls that were either put out by the corrupt media, because much of the media in this country unfortunately is corrupt; I have to tell you that, Mr. President. And some of it is excellent, but some is very bad. Those are fake numbers. But you know when you're going to see that? You're going to see that on election day. On election day, you're going to see. It was the same thing—I had the same thing for—— Q. Some of your advisers say there is concern. President Trump. I had the same thing for a long period of time in 2016. I was getting these terrible poll numbers, and I didn't see it, because I'd have tremendous crowds and my opponent would have almost nobody. And I said, "I think we're going to win the State of Michigan"—we did. "I think we're going to win the State of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio." And we won them all. And now I have the same stuff. They're giving out phony polls. No, these are polls that we have, that nobody saw. We do very little polling, because I'm not a huge believer in polling. I think you go out there and you fight and you don't really need polls. You have to—you need ideas more than polls.
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