Our live coverage of Trump’s news conference has ended. Scroll through the posts below to see how it went down.
President Trump just wrapped a rare news conference — the 4th of his presidency , by CNN’s count — where he touched on a variety of topics.
Many questions were centered on his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who is facing allegations of sexual assault, and Trump’s time at the UN. Here are the biggest lines:
As Jake Tapper put it:
President Trump sought to correct the record at his press conference on Wednesday by claiming world leaders at the United Nations didn’t laugh at him, as it seemed, but were laughing with him.
“They didn’t laugh at me. People had a good time with me. We were doing it together. We had a good time. They respect what I’ve done. The United States is respected again,” Trump said.
This was the moment at the UN:
President Trump said he rejected a meeting request from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau amid a bitter NAFTA renegotiation.
“Yeah I did,” Trump said. “His tariffs are too high and he doesn’t seem to want to move.”
He suggested deep mistrust in Chrystia Freeland, the lead Canadian trade negotiator, and her team.
“We’re not getting along at all with their negotiators,” Trump said. And he warned the US would soon go after Canadian auto imports.
President Trump, discussing his relationship with North Korea and Kim Jong Un, claimed that if he “wasn’t elected, there would have been a war” adding that former President Obama was close to “pressing the trigger.”
“President Obama thought you had to go to war. You know how close he was to pressing the trigger,” Trump claimed saying that there could have been a world war.
Trump also claimed that President Obama said as much. “If I wasn’t elected, you’d be in a war. And President Obama essentially said the same thing.”
Trump also claimed that “not thousands- millions of people would have been killed. That could have been a world war.”
Trump flaunted his relationship with North Korea and once again referenced the letters between the two leaders.
President Trump said he may delay his Thursday meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to avoid “competing” with the Kavanaugh hearing on Capitol Hill.
“I don’t want to do anything that gets in the way,” Trump said at a news conference.
The President also goes on to say that he “would certainly prefer” not to fire Rosenstein.
He suggested he may well keep him around for awhile. He also said he believes Rosenstein’s denials of the New York Times story that he didn’t talk about wearing a wire or the 25th Amendment.
But remember: Of course, the potential delay — or cancelation of Rosenstein meeting — is not only about competing with Kavanaugh. It’s actually an acknowledgment from the President that his advisers — from lawyers to Sean Hannity to others — are urging him not to fire Rosenstein, which could only complicate the Russia probe.
Watch more:
President Trump, speaking at a press conference in New York, said allegations against Brett Kavanaugh “effect” him because he has had similar allegations many against himself “many times.”
“People want fame. They want money. When I see it, I view it differently,” Trump said. “It’s happened to me many times. I’ve had many false charges.”
“When you say does it effect me? Absolutely. Because I’ve had it many times,” Trump said regarding the allegations surrounding Kavanaugh.
“I was accused by, I believe it was four women… who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me,” Trump said as he continued to blast the media for repeating the allegations.
In reality, at least 17 women have accused Trump of sexual assault.
“I’ve had a lot of false charges against me,” Trump said.
President Trump, while discussing US-China relations, said an expert on China recently said the country has “total respect” for his “very, very large brain.”
Trump made a reference to a “Mr. Pillsbury,” likely Michael Pillsbury, the Hudson Institute’s director for Chinese strategy, and said, “If you look at Mr. Pillsbury, the leading authority on China, he was on a good show — I won’t mention the name of the show — recently. And he was saying that China has total respect for Donald Trump and for Donald Trump’s very, very large brain,” Trump says.
President Donald Trump signaled Wednesday that he could change his mind if he finds the women who have accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault and other inappropriate behavior credible.
“They’re giving the women a major chance to speak. Now it’s possible I’ll hear that and say hey I’m changing my mind. Hey, that’s possible,” Trump said.
Trump also said he plans to watch tomorrow’s hearing between Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused him of sexual assault.
He later added: “I want to watch. I want to see. I hope I can watch. I’m meeting with a lot of countries tomorrow.”
President Trump suggested Wednesday that Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers should have reported their purported sexual assaults when they occurred.
“I only say this: 36 years, no charge, no nothing,” he said during a news conference. “People are going to have to make a decision. Thirty-six years and there’s no charge.”
He suggested it would be up to lawmakers to decide Kavanaugh’s fate, and again denigrated Michael Avenatti, the lawyer representing the latest accuser.
“The other con artist Avenatti come out with another beauty today,” he said about the new allegations.
Trump was just asked if he believes any of the allegations agaisnt his Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh. “These are all false, to me,” Trump said.
Here’s the question:
And here’s how Trump answered:
President Trump defended his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and blamed the Democrats for delaying his conformation hearing.
Asked about if the FBI should investigate allegations against Kavanaugh, Trump said the agency had already investigated the judge, and then turned his attention to the Democrats.
“So I think when you really look at it all, it’s not going to change any of the Democrats’ they’re obstructionists,” Trump said. “They’re actually con artists, because they know how quality this man is, and they have destroyed a man’s reputation.”
He continued: “And they want to destroy it even more. And I think people are going to see that in the mid terms. What they have done to this family, what they have done to these children. These beautiful children of his. And what they have done to his wife.”
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President Trump criticized the Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday to raise interest rates.
“Unfortunately they just raised interest rates a little bit,” Trump said at a news conference. “I am not happy about that.”
Trump has previously stated his opposition to raising rates, a break in longstanding tradition of presidents avoiding wading into the Fed’s business.
He said on Wednesday he’d have prefered to pay down US debt or invest in job creation measures.
“I’m worried about the fact they seem to like raising interest rates,” he said. “We can do other things with the money.”
“They raised them because we’re doing so well,” he said.
His Supreme Court nominee is facing a growing list of sexual assault allegations. His deputy attorney general think he might soon be fired. But President Trump opened his press conference this afternoon – his fourth of his presidency – by talking about trade, tariffs and interest rates. He then opened it up to questions, telling reporters, “we have plenty of time.”
President Trump’s press conference has begun. Watch it live in the player above.
Tonight’s news conference in New York is a rarity.
By CNN’s count, this is just President Trump’s fourth formal, solo news conference that was announced in advance.
He held other news conferences…
Note: The President has held other media availabilities where he has taken questions from reporters. But those have been “2 and 2” news conference with other world leaders (where only 2 White House reporters are called), availabilities where he just took questions from pool reporters or impromptu availabilities like when he stops on the way to Marine One.
The bottom line: The formal news conferences with a large group of White House correspondents at a podium announced beforehand are very unusual in this President.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced Trump’s news conference with a tweet yesterday,
She said it will cover both the President’s UN visit and “news of the day.”
Here’s her tweet:
