--- 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: 2026-02-23T17:52:56.107Z 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Just Spoke About Everything From Puerto Rico to Robert Mueller. Read the Transcript  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Oct 16, 2017 7:50 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at his side in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 16, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at his side in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 16, 2017.Yuri Gripas—REUTERS  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: --- > “” --- ```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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