TRUMP VS. WORLD
Talks tough with Italy's new PM
President Trump covered a lot of ground during a White House press conference with populist new Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte at the White House on Monday — discussing Iran, NATO, his recent summit with Vladimir Putin and a possible government shutdown over border security.
IRAN
Trump said he’d welcome a meeting with the leaders of the longtime US enemy without any preconditions — minutes after vowing that he would never allow the Islamic Republic to develop nuclear weapons
“I ended the Iran [nuclear] deal. It was a ridiculous deal. I believe they will wind up wanting to meet,” the president said.
“I’m ready to meet any time they want. I think it is an appropriate thing to do. If we could work something out that’s meaningful, not the waste of paper that the other deal was, I would certainly be willing to meet,” he continued.
“No preconditions. They want to meet, I’ll meet, any time they want, any time they want. Good for the country. Good for the world. No preconditions. If they want to meet, I’ll meet.”
Earlier, the commander in chief warned that Iran must “never be allowed” to possess nuclear weapons.
Trump had zeroed in on the threat posed by Iran in recent weeks, focusing on Tehran instead of the dangers posed by North Korea or Russia.
That included a searing all-caps tweet earlier this month after a “mother of all wars” warning from Iran about possible armed conflict.
“To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!” the president raged on July 22.
NATO
Trump said he had rescued NATO, claiming the 69-year-old alliance of 29 nations was going down the tubes before he stepped in and shaped it up.
“It was a great meeting in every respect. I would say it was very good. NATO, in particular. I went to NATO. It was essentially going out of business because people weren’t paying. It was going down and down and down,” the president crowed.
“I came along last year and in a fairly nice tone I said, ‘You have got to pay,’ and they paid $44 billion more. And this year, I said it in a little bit stronger tone, and they are paying hundreds of billions of dollars more over the years. And NATO will be strong again,” Trump continued, adding that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was his “biggest fan.”
“If you speak to Secretary General Stoltenberg, I think he’s the biggest fan of Trump because he said, ‘We couldn’t collect money until President Trump came along,’ ” Trump said.
He had berated several leaders at the meeting in Brussels, particularly German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May.
RUSSIA
With his record on Russia under scrutiny after the summit with Vladimir Putin, Trump on Monday insisted that the United States will not drop sanctions against Moscow.
“Sanctions on Russia will remain as is,” Trump said, even as Putin demands that be dropped.
Italy’s Conte first broached the sub-
ject and said lifting the sanctions would be “unthinkable.”
Trump also scolded Germany — just as he did at the NATO summit — for agreeing to use a Russian natural-gas pipeline while, in his estimation, not paying enough for defense.
The president has endured withering criticism in recent weeks for his summit with Putin in Helsinki, in which he did not chastise Moscow for its 2016 election interference and undercut the US intelligence community’s unanimous conclusion that the Russian strongman personally ordered the meddling.
Trump, of course, also took a shot at the supposedly “fake news” media for not sharing his rosy view of his muchmaligned sit-down with the former KGB officer.
“I had a great meeting with President Putin,” the president insisted.
BORDER WALL
Trump doubled down on his willingness to shut the government unless Congress passes immigration reform that includes funding for his long-promised Mexican border wall.
“As far as the border is concerned, and personally, if we don’t get border security, after many, many years of talk within the United States, I would have no problem doing a shutdown,” he said standing alongside Conte, an immigration hardliner himself.
“It’s time we had proper border security,” Trump added. “We’re the laughing stock of the world. We have the worst immigration laws anywhere in the world.”
Asked if he would veto a spending bill if it didn’t include full funding of the wall, priced at roughly $25 billion, Trump said, “I’ll always leave room for negotiations.”
Congress is up against a September deadline to pass a funding bill or the government could shut down Oct. 1, a little more than a month before the midterm elections, in which GOP control over the House and Senate hangs in the balance.
Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill on March that allocated $1.6 billion for the wall — which he vowed during his campaign Mexico would pay for — but that also stipulated that the cash can’t be used on new construction.
A measure that would have provided $25 billion for the wall was defeated in the House in June.
Trump raised the idea of shutting down the government over the immigration issue in a tweet on Sunday if Democrats “don’t give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall!”