President Trump answered questions Monday in the Oval Office about the war in Iran and his decision to cancel military exercises with South Korea:

REPORTER: Why hasn’t-why hasn’t-why hasn’t Kim Jong Un responded to your request to have a conversation? DONALD TRUMP: How do you know he hasn’t responded? REPORTER: Has he? DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, he is. [unclear] are very positive. Well, just so you understand, with South Korea: South Korea has been protected by us for many, many years, and during my first term they agreed to pay close to $ 3 billion a year for protection because they essentially weren’t paying. And I asked them to do that at my request. I said-they weren’t happy about it, but they agreed. I asked for $ 10 billion, and they were very unhappy, but we agreed for a short term that it would be $ 3 billion, and next year it would go up, and the next year it would go up, so they start paying for their protection. When the election was rigged and I ended up watching for four years and then coming back, I watched Biden rescind that $ 3 billion for whatever reason. When I called recently the president of South Korea, who I like-I think he’s very nice, actually-but I called him and I said, “Would you like to give us a little hand? We don’t need help with Iran, but if you’d like to give us a hand with Iran.” He said, “No thanks.” And I said, “Wait a minute. We have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next-door neighbor, and you’re not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran? That’s strange.” “No, no, we’d rather not get involved.” I say, “Well, why are we involved in helping you?” And I want to help them, but, you know, when you ask somebody, “Would you like to give us a hand?” and they say, “No thanks,” and then we’re guarding them from a country and paying ourselves billions-it’s costing us billions and billions of dollars to protect not only them, but other countries. Look at NATO. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars protecting Europe from Russia-hundreds of billions-mostly from Russia, but from other things too. And then they say, well, they don’t want to get involved with, you know, guarding the strait where they get most of their oil. They get 50% of their oil, and they don’t want to get involved. Why are we doing it? So all I want is fairness. And South Korea, I get along with them very well, but they were paying $ 3 billion a year, and then they convinced Biden that I was probably a bad person and they shouldn’t, and he immediately rescinded that order. So we were getting paid. We would have been getting paid a lot more. But we can’t go around and protect all of these countries, especially when they’re not there to help us. REPORTER: On the expiration of the memorandum of understanding, are you any closer today to reaching a final deal to end Iran’s nuclear program? DONALD TRUMP: They want to make a deal, but they’re not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary. Look, we’re in there for one reason: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. You understand that? Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t have a nuclear weapon. And right now, them building one after what we did previously with the B-2 bombers is going to be a long time. We have-but Iran cannot have-it’s very simple. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. REPORTER: How do you respond to the folks who say that you are prioritizing the interests of adversaries in North Korea over our longtime partners by scaling back- DONALD TRUMP: I’m making it much safer, you see. I’m actually making it much safer. Kim Jong Un has always treated me with great respect. And we met on numerous occasions-actually two primary occasions-spoken and spent time. I understand him. He understands me. You’re doing war games. I get along with him. You know, he didn’t like Biden. He didn’t like Obama. He didn’t like anybody, but I get along with him very well. No, what I’m doing is making things safer. Just the opposite. Quiet. Quiet. You’re very disrespectful in front of this young man. OK? Don’t you find her disrespectful? He understands. Quiet. Who are you with? REPORTER: I’m with CNN. DONALD TRUMP: Fake news. You’re fake news. You’re a loud-you’re a loud, boisterous person. You’re fake news. Be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. You’re a fake reporter and you report fake news. Go ahead. REPORTER: Mr. President, is there enough food on the USS Lincoln? DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, it is. That was a CNN fake report. The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time, a good period of time, but over the years we’ve had them out there much longer. I was at a group meeting, and an admiral came up to see me over the weekend. And it was at a big group, and he happened to be an admiral, retired. He said, “I’ve been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir, and I know people on the Lincoln. They say it’s beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.” And other people went out and they found out to be true. It was fake news reporting from CNN. REPORTER: There is a report that a senior intelligence official with the CCP just bought a historical building overlooking the White House. Have you heard about this? DONALD TRUMP: No, I haven’t heard.
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