'This deal will make me look terrible': Full transcripts of Trump's calls with Mexico and Australia
Source: WP
The Washington Post has obtained transcripts of two conversations President Trump had with foreign leaders: one with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and another with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The transcripts were prepared by the White House but have not been released. The Post is publishing reproductions rather than original documents in order to protect sources. The reproductions below also include minor spelling and grammatical mistakes that appeared in the documents.
-snip-
Now getting back to the taxes for second, I have been given as President tremendous taxation powers for trade and for other reasons far greater than anybody understands. The powers of taxation are tremendous for the President of the United States and if you study that you will see what I mean. That is why I did not want to have the meeting, I just wanted to tax the border. With all that being said, I would love if you want to reinstitute the meetings between Luis and a staff that I will assemble in the United States. Our Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Ross, will be approved very soon and we have a great team of people Gary Cohen and lots of others we have lots of great talent. And talent that wants things to happen. They are dealmakers, they are not obstructionist. We have some of them, but so do you of course. With that being said, if you would like to try and work a deal, that is okay. But if we cannot work a deal, I want to tell you we are going to put a very substantial tax on the border coming into the United States because, honestly, we will not want your products unless your products are going to be taxed. I do not want the products and lesser tax. And what that will mean is factories and plants will start to be built in the United States because the taxes will be too high in Mexico. I do not want to do that if we can work out a deal, so Jared Kushner and Luis can have the teams work out the deal. The only thing I will ask you though is on the wall, you and I both have a political problem. My people stand up and say, Mexico will pay for the wall and your people probably say something in a similar but slightly different language. But the fact is we are both in a little bit of a political bind because I have to have Mexico pay for the wall I have to. I have been talking about it for a two year period, and the reason I say they are going to pay for the wall is because Mexico has made a fortune out of the stupidity of U.S. trade representatives. They are beating us at trade and they are beating us at the border, and they are killing us with drugs. Now I know you are not involved with that, but regardless of who is making all the money, billions and billions and billions some people say more is being made on drug trafficking that is coming through Mexico. Some people say that the business of drug trafficking is bigger than the business of taking our factory jobs. So what I would like to recommend is if we are going to have continued dialogue we will work out the wall. They are going to say, who is going to pay for the wall, Mr. President? to both of us, and we should both say, we will work it out. It will work out in the formula somehow. As opposed to you saying, we will not pay and me saying, we will not pay.
Because you and I are both at a point now where we are both saying we are not to pay for the wall. From a political standpoint, that is what we will say. We cannot say that anymore because if you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that. I am willing to say that we will work it out, but that means it will come out in the wash and that is okay. But you cannot say anymore that the United States is going to pay for the wall. I am just going to say that we are working it out. Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important talk about. But in terms of dollars or pesos it is the least important thing. I know how to build very inexpensively, so it will be much lower than these numbers I am being presented with, and it will be a better wall and it will look nice. And it will do the job.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/politics/australia-mexico-transcripts/
This IS breaking news, even though these calls took place months ago, because this is the first time we've seen the full transscripts.
Look at the last two paragraphs above, from Trump's conversation with the president of Mexico. Notice how much is just about Trump's political concerns about his own image.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)jpak
(41,760 posts)What a maroon.
Cosmocat
(14,583 posts)Mr. Evil
(2,863 posts)iluvtennis
(19,897 posts)lark
(23,186 posts)there's a whole lot of whining coming from the orange assface in that conversation, not just bullying and threatening.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,509 posts)yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)'Comedy Central' getting transcripts, too?
This source would have to be the caddy, of course.
progressoid
(50,011 posts)I've never watched that show. That video confirms my suspicion that the show is more of a documentary than satire.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)Trump is really LAZLO TOTH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)SCVDem
(5,103 posts)Here's Dump setting up an attempt at collusion to deceive not just Americans, but Mexicans as well.
There is no honesty in this sorry excuse for an American president!
Resist! Remove! Peace!
DLevine
(1,788 posts)highplainsdem
(49,091 posts)a la izquierda
(11,802 posts)at an institute that is very multi-national in terms of folks' backgrounds. I can tell you, no one feels any pity. Disbelief, yes for sure. But no pity. Mind you, we're all academics, and there are many who study Latin America (myself included). We're reaping what we've sown is the attitude here.
FWIW, the Germans mock him whenever they can. I'll try and take some photos and post them one of these days. The billboards are funny.
highplainsdem
(49,091 posts)Docreed2003
(16,890 posts)OMG....we really do have a moron in the Oval Office. I guess I naively hoped that his public persona was at least a little bit of an exaggeration for show, but nope...he's a fucktard, a damn imbicile. No wonder other world leaders can't stand to be around him.
Deb
(3,742 posts)a shame (for him) that it was not caught early in life. I thought perhaps it was a gimmick. OK, compassion over now.
underpants
(182,992 posts)At least not the ONLY leaker
muriel_volestrangler
(101,405 posts)Not sure what computer security is like in the Trump White House, but I reckon it would have been pretty bad at the start if they couldn't figure out where the light switches were. So if I were a Chief of Staff who'd hardly ever get challenged or investigated, I'd be copying all the embarrassing stuff and getting it somewhere I can access it later if needed.
underpants
(182,992 posts)Yes the light switches. Not exactly the brightest bunch.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Remember that NO one in the WH reserved any hotel accommodations for his G-20 meeting?
turns out, that is the job of a dept. which Trump has not filled.
Yep...no one to do it, and no one in his Gang Who Can't Shoot Straight even thought about it, or even had the brains to ask where they would be staying.
Those of us who have had hotel stays as part of our job knows to at least LOOK at that information.
mobeau69
(11,167 posts)Bahahahahahahahahaha!
janx
(24,128 posts)he told Nieto that it was the American people's idea!!
AnotherMother4Peace
(4,260 posts)Kali
(55,027 posts)lunasun
(21,646 posts)dhill926
(16,380 posts)janx
(24,128 posts)I cannot believe what I am reading.
mobeau69
(11,167 posts)mobeau69
(11,167 posts)janx
(24,128 posts)MFM008
(19,827 posts)Word vomit.
BumRushDaShow
(129,892 posts)highplainsdem
(49,091 posts)him
Link to tweet
DK504
(3,847 posts)... I am being presented with ..."
Yeah Donnie Two Scoops, we alllll know you know how to build shitty "buildings" they are called slums and you don't pay your employees.
" ...it will be a better wall and it will look nice."
Seriously? Will it look lie you wanna be early Russian Oligarch or post modern Oligarch?
Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)We all know about how you cut corners in your crappy buildings, Donald, but thanks for owning up to it. It's long past time that we have the fire department check to see if the sprinkler heads in your "resorts" are actually attached to anything.
uppityperson
(115,681 posts)Good grief, what a loon.
3catwoman3
(24,092 posts)...that even MEAN?
syringis
(5,101 posts)...he make it sure to let us not forget wich weird dimension he dragged us into
C_U_L8R
(45,031 posts)and vapid.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Let's not even talk about money anymore. Life is not about money! Just remember to pay for half of my bill.
procon
(15,805 posts)What was he offering to Mexico? Nothing, he made no attempt to sweeten the pot and give something of equivalent value to the Mexican President in exchange. He threatened. He whined. He pleaded. And like a petty thug, he tried to leverage Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, to put the squeeze on him and intimidate him with extortion.
Trump doesn't care about the country, and he'd screw over his base in a minute if it glossed his fragile ego and buffed up his celebrity image.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,405 posts)At last, a small bit of self-awareness.
potone
(1,701 posts)Any foreign leader needs an interpreter to translate Trump's word salad into English before translating into another language. I don't think that skill is taught anywhere.
Freethinker65
(10,093 posts)Justice
(7,188 posts)This is the same kind of talk from GOP on healthcare. They say, for 7 years, we said we were going to repeal and replace. We have to do it because we've been saying we would do it. How is that even logical?
Now Trump's argument to Mexico to get them to agree to pay for the wall is they have to because Trump talked about it for two years.
riversedge
(70,419 posts)hamsterjill
(15,224 posts)You beg your adversary not to make you look bad? Oh, the entertainment value!!!
It would be funny if it weren't so sad that we are all having to live the nightmare.
Doodley
(9,164 posts)dealmaking," that should mean he is an expert at talking to executives, what would you say his IQ is? I would think around 75.
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)Per Trump himself:
PEÑA NIETO
Yes, I will be okay.
TRUMP
Because I have been with him he speaks better English than me so we will just go on.
And:
For once, Trump is right. Almost anyone with a modicum of English speaks it better than the so-called president.
dreamland
(964 posts)...for one of his buildings. You can actually substitute tower for wall and it's still the same. This is probably how he ran all his business dealings.
Hieronymus
(6,039 posts)Timmygoat
(779 posts)How many poor kids could get healthcare and how many seniors could stay in nursing homes for the cost of that wall, he is taking the American people for suckers like the con man he always has been.
LiberalLovinLug
(14,178 posts)As illustrated by his favorite cartoonist:
Garrison and other rabid Trump supporters really did have this image of him in their heads of a larger-that-life superman master deal maker. I wonder what Garrison is drawing these days.
Nasruddin
(754 posts)Why does he say in one of the transcripts that he won New Hampshire?
He sounds like he's making some kind of sense for a few lines and then lets slip some delusional bit like this.
chowder66
(9,098 posts)"In Ohio, they are having rallies for Trump right now because Trump has taken a hard stance on Mexico. We lost a lot of factories in Ohio and Michigan and I won these states some of these states have not been won in 38 years by a Republican and I won them very easily."
Does he mean counties when referring to "....have not won in 38 years by a Republican..."?
xxqqqzme
(14,887 posts)grifter mode all the time. It doesn't matter if he is off script/teleprompter at a 'rally' or on the phone with another country's leader. He doesn't know how to shut up.
J_William_Ryan
(1,760 posts)Trump is unfit to be president.
Julian Englis
(2,309 posts)Humiliating to Trump as they reveal him to be a huge jerk.
Humiliating to the US as the transcripts reveal just what a huge jerk the US has as a President.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,375 posts)spiderpig
(10,419 posts)One thing that jumped out was Trump addressing "Enrique" and "Malcolm" while they each consistently responded with "Mr. President".
Of course, Trump's complete unawareness of protocol is the least of our worries these days.
3catwoman3
(24,092 posts)...wall, why not take it a step further and say it is invisible? Tell his supporters that a wonderful new and secret technology has been used to build this invisible wall, and it is in place but no one can see it.
Those who believe there is a child sex slave colony on Mars would have no trouble believing this.
tavernier
(12,412 posts)You're a Looney Toon!!!
In fact, most ppl say that these days.
(I can hear the music now... bedee bedee bedee, That's All Folks!)
obamanut2012
(26,181 posts)And not Hillary.
Sparkly
(24,162 posts)My people stand up and say, Mexico will pay for the wall and your people probably say something in a similar but slightly different language.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)patsy man!