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CNN town hall with Biden

G20 summit 2019: Trump meets leaders in Osaka

By Jessie Yeung, Ben Westcott, Kevin Liptak and Steve George, CNN

Updated 10:43 p.m. ET, June 29, 2019

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5:48 a.m. ET, June 29, 2019

Trump on Jamal Khashoggi: Saudi Arabia is "a terrific ally"

At an ongoing press conference in Osaka, US President Donald Trump criticized Saudi Arabia's persecution and detention of citizens, but deflected a question about the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

CNN's Jim Acosta asked: "Do you agree that it is despicable for a government to kill a journalist?"
Trump responded: "Yes I do. I think it's horrible and if you look into Saudi Arabia and see what's happening, 13 people or so have been prosecuted... And I've let everybody know that I'm very unhappy about that whole event.
At the same time I will also say -- nobody so far has directly pointed a finger at the future king of Saudi Arabia. I will say I spoke to his father at great length. They've been a terrific ally, they're creating millions of jobs in this country. They are ordering equipment, not only military equipment, but $400 billion worth and even more than that over a period of time worth of different things.

With that being said, I'm extremely angry and unhappy about a thing like that taking place. But as of this moment, more than 13 people are being prosecuted and I hear the numbers are going to be going up."

Afterward, CNN's Jim Sciutto tweeted: "False: US intel and UN found evidence Crown Prince directed the killing."

Hear Trump's comments:

An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified the reporter who questioned Trump. This has been corrected.

3:34 a.m. ET, June 29, 2019

Trump: US companies can sell to Huawei

From CNN's Ben Westcott

US President Donald Trump said that US companies can again sell products to Chinese technology giant Huawei after an effective ban in May.

Trump clarified his comments earlier in the press conference, saying after his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping he would allow Huawei to once again buy US products.

"US companies can sell their equipment to Huawei... there's no great, national emergency problem," Trump told reporters.

The US Commerce Department formally added Huawei to the list of companies the US government considers to be undermining America's interests in May.

Experts said that Huawei would be crippled by the effective ban, which would stop them buying advanced US chips over security concerns.

4:36 a.m. ET, June 29, 2019

Trump: I would be "very comfortable" setting foot in North Korea

From CNN's Kevin Liptak

US President Donald Trump said he would visit North Korea, adding he would feel "very comfortable."

Trump told reporters at his G20 press conference that he would feel happy to set foot in North Korea when he visits the DMZ Sunday.

"Sure I would," Trump said when asked whether he would step foot into the country.
"I feel very comfortable doing that. I would have no problem," he said.

No sitting US president has ever visited North Korea.

Trump added that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un followed his Twitter.

Earlier this morning Trump tweeted an open invitation to Kim to meet him in the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.

Watch the moment:

3:26 a.m. ET, June 29, 2019

Trump appears to soften his tone on Huawei

US President Donald Trump has appeared to soften his tone on Chinese communications giant Huawei, suggesting that he would allow the company to once again purchase US technology.

Speaking at a press conference in Osaka, Saturday, Trump said that the US sells a "tremendous amount of product" to Huawei. "That's okay, we will keep selling that product," said Trump.

"The (US) companies were not exactly happy that they couldn't sell."

The US Commerce Department formally added Huawei to the list of companies the US government considers to be undermining US interest in May.

It effectively meant that companies would need to apply for a US export license to sell to Huawei, cutting off its primary supply chain.

Trump added that while he did discuss Huawei, he didn’t talk about Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who is detained in Canada and facing extradition to the US.

"We did discuss Huawei but didn't discuss her situation," Trump said.

3:35 a.m. ET, June 29, 2019

Trump: I won because I was "better, smarter, harder" than Hillary

When a journalist at the press conference asked US President Donald Trump about former President Jimmy Carter's criticisms, Trump sighed. "Russia, Russia, Russia. Okay."

"Jimmy Carter -- look, he's a nice man, he was a terrible president. He's a Democrat, and it's a typical talking point. He's loyal to the Democrats and I guess you should be, but as everybody now understands, I won not because of Russia, not because of anybody but myself. I went out and I campaigned better, smarter, harder, than Hillary Clinton," Trump said.

"This had nothing to do with anybody but the fact that I worked harder and much smarter than Hillary Clinton did," he added.

3:12 a.m. ET, June 29, 2019

Trump: US will not apply more tariffs to China

US President Donald Trump addressed his trade talks with China at the press conference today, saying trade negotiations were continuing and that the US would not add additional tariffs.

"We won't be adding an additional tremendous amount of $350 billion dollars left which could be taxed or could be tariffed. We're not doing that, we are going to work with China on where we left off to see if we can make a deal. China is going to be consulting with us and spending money even during the negotiations will, to our great farmers in the midwest and the great patriots -- because that's what they are. China is going to be buying a tremendous amount of food and agricultural products and they're going to start their very soon and almost immediately," Trump said.

"Basically we said today that we were going to continue with negotiations, which I ended a while back. We agreed that I would not be putting tariffs on the $325 billion that I would have the ability to put on if I wanted."

3:34 a.m. ET, June 29, 2019

Trump on Japan: "They send us millions of cars and we send them wheat"

US President Donald Trump is moving between criticizing the US trade relationship with other countries and praising the current state of the economy.

The US leader said that he'd had meetings with many leaders, as well as some trade negotiations.

"We spent a lot of time with a lot of countries. Japan, we're negotiating with them because they send us millions of cars and we send them wheat," he said.

But Trump said that the US economy was booming, claiming that "a lot of activity" was coming back to the United States.

"We're the hottest show in town ... One thing that virtually every leader I deal with said was 'congratulations'," he said.

"We have the lowest unemployment numbers, best numbers."

3:02 a.m. ET, June 29, 2019

Trump: US immigration laws are "a disaster"

From CNN's Jessie Yeung and Ben Westcott

Mexico has been doing "an incredible job" with border security, US President Donald Trump said at a press conference in Osaka, where he slammed the Democratic presidential candidates for being weak on immigration.

"They have 6000 troops on their southern border like Guatemala, very hard to come in now. It was somewhat of a surprise, 16,000 troops at our southern border. Their immigration laws are very strong, ours are a disaster, ours are a disgrace to a country. We have loopholes and asylum that -- we could fix the asylum really quickly, we could get rid of and fix the loopholes, we get rid of loopholes and have absolutely no problem at the border, but if you watch the debates -- if you call them debates, whatever they were -- I think they want open borders," Trump said.

3:01 a.m. ET, June 29, 2019

Trump on Xi: "We had a great meeting"

From CNN's Ben Westcott and Steve George

US President Donald Trump said that he had a "great meeting" with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Osaka earlier today.

"We've known each other for as long as I'm president," Trump said, praising his relationship with the Chinese leader.

Trump said that the two sides had agreed to leave tariffs unchanged for now. "We won't be lifting tariffs on China, for the time being," Trump said.

There are no further details yet on what other agreements were made but Trump hinted that there would be increased purchases of US goods as part of the deal.

"We're going to give them lists of things that we'd like them to buy," he said.