The other one is Iran. Iran is doing very poorly, once I took the horrible Iran nuclear deal off. It's had a massive effect in Iran. They're pulling back troops all over the place. They're not doing well. They want to talk.
Q What about Syria? How long will the troops stay in Syria?
THE PRESIDENT: In Syria, we've had a tremendous impact. When I went there - don't forget, when they went to Syria five years ago, they were supposed to be there for three to four months, and they never came out. We are pulling back in Syria. We're going to be removing our troops. I never said we're doing it that quickly. But we're decimating ISIS.
When I was elected President two years ago, ISIS was all over Syria and all over Iraq. We've wiped out ISIS in Iraq. We've wiped out ISIS. And we're doing it for two reasons. We're really doing it because we don't want them coming here, just so we understand. But we're doing it for a number of reasons.
Now, we're helping other countries when we do that too. You have to remember, Iran hates ISIS more than we do, if that's possible. Russia hates ISIS more than we do. Turkey hates ISIS, maybe not as much as we do. But these are countries that hate ISIS. And they can do a little of the fighting in their neighborhood also, because we're fighting them in their neighborhood.
But with that being said, we're pulling out of Syria, but we're doing it and we won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone.
Q How long is the pull-out period?
THE PRESIDENT: It's going quickly.
Q (Inaudible) agreement with Turkey (inaudible). John Bolton said today the withdrawal (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: John Bolton is, right now, over there, as you know. And I have two great stars. And John Bolton is doing a great job, and Mike Pompeo is doing a great job. They're very strong and they work hard. And, as you know, they're doing things that are very - very good. We're coming up with some very good results.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm in no hurry. I have Acting. And my Actings are doing really great. David is doing great at Interior. Mick Mulvaney is doing great as Chief of Staff. But I sort of like Acting. It gives me more flexibility. Do you understand that? I like Acting. So we have a few that are Acting. We have a great, great Cabinet. If you look at my Cabinet, we have a fantastic Cabinet. Really good.
Q Is Pence doing a good job on the shutdown negotiation?
THE PRESIDENT: I think we're doing a great job in the shutdown negotiation. We have no choice. Look, there will be - there will be -
Q Do you need to be more involved, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. I'm totally involved, but I'm involved with principals. Because ultimately, it's going to be solved by the principals. Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and myself can solve this in 20 minutes, if they want to. If they don't want to, it's going to go on for a long time.
I will tell you this: If we don't find a solution, it's going to go on for a long time. There's not going to be any bend right here. And the people that voted for Donald Trump, which are a lot of people - one of the great elections ever - those people are for it so much. And let me tell you: People that didn't vote for Donald Trump are for it also. They want border security. They want to stop human trafficking. They want to stop drugs. They want to stop crime.
Q Have you accepted Speaker Pelosi's invitation to deliver the State of the Union? (Inaudible) on the 29th?
THE PRESIDENT: I will be making the State of the Union on January 29th. And I look forward to it. I look forward to it. And I look forward to speaking, really, before the world. We have a lot of great things to say. Our country is doing better than any country in the world, right now. Our military is almost completely rebuilt. When I took it over, it was a mess. It was depleted. Our trade deals are going great. We have a deal with Mexico, with Canada, with South Korea. We're negotiating with Europe, the European Union. We're negotiating with China, which is, by far, the biggest of them all. We're doing very, very well. Very, very well.
Q (Inaudible) Russia - Paul Whelan (inaudible)?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, we're looking into that. We're looking into that. Yeah.
Q Mr. President, what should be done about federal workers who are calling out sick right now?
THE PRESIDENT: Look, they have to do what they have to do. But many of those workers agree with me. And I think, frankly, there's been very little of that so far, as you know. Very, very little.
Okay, any more? Thank you, everybody.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: I don't like doing this. I have no fun doing this. I was elected to protect our country. That's what I'm doing. And Presidents before me have all voted for this, or many of them. And many of the senators that I'm negotiating with right now have voted for this.
But let me tell you something: They didn't have the guts do it, just like they didn't have the guts to move the embassy to Jerusalem, in Israel. They didn't have the guts to do things that they should have done. Just like they didn't take out ISIS. Just like so many other things. I was voted 306 to 223 - or something like that - by a lot. I was voted to be your President, partially because of security. It's a big part of what I talked about. Not only the wall; the military and lots of other things. I think - I think I've done a great job.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: I think I've done a great job. I'm getting credit from the real news for doing a great job. But border security is a big part of that. We also have to stop drugs.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Listen. We also have to stop drugs. If we don't stop drugs soon - there has never been a time, over the last 10 years - and it's gotten worse and worse over the last five. There has never been a time when our country was so infested with so many different drugs coming from so many different locations. And I believe that President Xi, in China, when he made the pledge to me to criminalize fentanyl, I believe that's going to go a long way to helping us.
I'm going to Camp David. Thank you.
