--- title: Donald Trump's Rose Garden Press Conference: Read Transcript description: President Donald Trump held a press conference Monday at the White House with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Here's the transcript canonical: https://time.com/4984507/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell-rose-garden-press-conference/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-16T19:50:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:57:11.573Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Spoke About Everything From Puerto Rico to Robert Mueller og:description: Read the transcript of the 40 minute press conference og:url: https://time.com/4984507/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell-rose-garden-press-conference/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c238e0e980cd393/6988e22e7cdbac61d8d5a80a/trump-senatormcconnell-rose-garden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5610 og:image:height: 3156 og:image:alt: trump-senator-mcconnell-rose-garden og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Spoke About Everything From Puerto Rico to Robert Mueller twitter:description: Read the transcript of the 40 minute press conference twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c238e0e980cd393/6988e22e7cdbac61d8d5a80a/trump-senatormcconnell-rose-garden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Just Spoke About Everything From Puerto Rico to Robert Mueller. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ffffc518-7999-4083-a341-69db232e5e39&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Donald Trump Doubles Down on NFL Controversy After Hillary Clinton's Comment [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump Doubles Down on NFL Controversy After Hillary Clinton's Comment](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SQGrQbmp.m3u8) (0:58)  _Published 2017-10-16. Donald Trump Doubles Down on NFL Controversy After Hillary Clinton's Comment_  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Oct 16, 2017 7:50 PM UTC  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Oct 16, 2017 7:50 PM UTC President Donald Trump [held a press conference Monday at the White House](http://time.com/4984491/donald-trump-tom-marino-drug-czar/) with [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell](http://time.com/4983799/why-president-trump-and-mitch-mcconnell-need-each-other/), where the President took questions for nearly forty minutes on a huge range of topics. Trump weighed in on everything from the current crisis to Puerto Rico (he said that the island has more generators than anywhere else in the world, but did not provide statistics), whether he is considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller (he’s not), and his plans to call the families of the U.S. soldiers recently killed in an attack in Niger. Read the full transcript below: --- > “” --- ## Transcript When you go down and take a knee, or any other way, you're sitting essentially, for our great national anthem. You're disrespecting our flag and you're disrespecting our country. And the NFL should have suspended some of these players for one game. Not fire him, suspended him for one game. And then if they did it again it could have been two games, then three games and for the season. You wouldn't have people disrespecting our country right now. [ CROSSTALK ] And if Hillary Clinton actually made the statement that in a form sitting down during the playing of our great National Anthem is not disrespectful, That I fully understand why she didn't win. Look, there are a lot of reasons she didn't win, including the fact that she was not good at what she did. But I will tell you, that is something that I had just heard about and I think that her statement in itself, is very disrespectful to our country. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4984507/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell-rose-garden-press-conference/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4984507/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell-rose-garden-press-conference/"},"headline":"President Trump Just Spoke About Everything From Puerto Rico to Robert Mueller. 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