US President Donald Trump, in his conversation aboard Air Force One with media personnel, talked about issues ranging from his eldest son testifying before Congress on Russian meddling in 2016 election, North Korea, Healthcare, China and Trade.
The conversation between President Trump and members of the press corps as they flew to Paris were released on Thursday by the White House.
Trump said he is in full support of his eldest son 'If he wants to' testify before the Congress to address about Russian meddling in 2016 election.
There are reports that top Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are considering to call on Donald Trump Jr. to testify after the younger Trump disclosed emails showing he was eager to obtain incriminating information on Hillary Clinton from someone described as a 'Russian government attorney'.
"Don is -- as many of you know Don -- he's a good boy. He's a good kid. And he had a meeting, nothing happened with the meeting. It was a short meeting, as he told me -- because I only heard about it two or three days ago," Trump said.
"Honestly, in a world of politics, most people are going to take that meeting. If somebody called and said, 'Hey' -- and you're a Democrat -- and by the way, they have taken them -- 'Hey, I have ... some information on Donald Trump. You're running against Donald Trump. Can I see you?' I mean, how many people are not going to take the meeting?" Trump asked.
Donald Trump Jr., who has been caught at the centre of the controversy surrounding Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, on Tuesday released an email chain that shows him discussing plans to hear damaging information on Hillary Clinton that were described as "part of Russia and its government's support for Donald Trump."
Trump Jr. tweeted that he was releasing the emails to be "totally transparent" quelling reports that cited that he was told before his meeting with a Russian lawyer that he would be offered compromising information about Hillary Clinton.
According to reports, the unreported meeting, which took place on June 9, 2016 at Trump Tower in Manhattan, was attended by Trump's campaign chairman, Paul J. Manafort and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Though, it is still unclear whether Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, actually fulfilled the promised compromising information about Clinton or not.
Donald Trump Jr. in a statement had said he had met the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance.
When asked about his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20,Trump said: "I said to him, were you involved with the meddling in the election? He said, absolutely not. I was not involved. He was very strong on it. I then said to him again, in a totally different way, were you involved with the meddling. He said, I was not -- absolutely not."
On the issue of North Korea, who has recently tested ICBM, Trump signaled he could use the US-China trading relationship as to pressure China to force North Korea to act, Trump said, "Somebody said, what cards you have? I said, very simple -- trade. We are being absolutely devastated by bad trade deals. We have the worst of all trade deals is with China," Trump said.
"But the biggest strength we have is these horrendous trade deals, like with China. That's our strength. But we're going to fix them. But in terms of North Korea, our strength is trade."
"We have to fix the trade. We have to fix the trade. But we have to fix the trade with China because it's very, very none-reciprocal.
On the Mexico Border wall which President has promised since the very first day of his presidential campaign, Trump told the wall he plans to build on the southern US border will need to be transparent - "literally".
"One of the things with the wall is you need transparency. You have to be able to see through it. In other words, if you can't see through that wall -- so it could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see what's on the other side of the wall," Trump said.
Trump also made clear that the idea he has floated of putting solar panels on the border wall was not a joke.
"No, not joking, no. There is a chance that we can do a solar wall," Trump said. "We have major companies looking at that. Look, there's no better place for solar than the Mexico border -- the southern border. And there is a very good chance we can do a solar wall, which would actually look good. But there is a very good chance we could do a solar wall.
The wall, Trump said, would only need to cover "700 to 900 miles," not the full 2,000 mile-long border. Trump also signaled during the campaign that natural barriers made it unnecessary for the border wall to cover the full length of the US-Mexico border.
Sternly addressing on the steel tariffs, Trump said, "Not only China, but others are also dumping steel and destroying our steel industry, they've been doing it for decades, and I'm stopping it. It'll stop. There are two ways - quotas and tariffs. Maybe I'll do both".
On healthcare, President Trump said, " I'd say the only thing more difficult than peace between Israel and the Palestinians is healthcare. It's like this narrow road that about a quarter of an inch wide. Healthcare is tough.
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