WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — After what he called a “very productive” first 100 days, President Donald Trump is vowing to roll out a new health plan and to completely renegotiate the NAFTA continental trade pact.

His remarks, in a CBS interview broadcast Sunday, touched on daunting challenges domestic and foreign, from his vexed effort at health-care reform to a controversial new tax-cut plan to the rising threat from North Korea.

But they followed his assurance at a raucous rally Saturday in Pennsylvania that the “great battles” ahead would be won.

Trump insisted, even after two failed efforts to see an Obamacare repeal vote through Congress, that Americans will get a health-care package that preserves key protections, like coverage of pre-existing medical conditions.

And as Republicans scramble for ways to pay for Trump’s promise this week of major tax cuts — the White House had hoped to use savings from the Obamacare repeal — the president vowed that the money would not come through savings on the huge and popular Medicare program.

“I’m not going to touch it,” he said, except to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse.”

– Frustrations – Trump, who is not known as particularly self-reflective, shared some of the frustrations he has encountered in his young presidency.

He lambasted “unfair” media coverage; said Congress operates by “unbelievably archaic and slow-moving” rules; and called Democrats “totally obstructionist.”

But he will need some Democratic support to pass some of his more ambitious legislative objectives.

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that Democrats looked forward to working with Trump on issues like infrastructure spending and affordable child care.

But so far, she said on ABC, “he hasn’t really proposed anything.”

In a week when Trump dropped a threat to cancel the NAFTA trade agreement following what he called “very nice” phone calls from the Mexican and Canadian leaders — instead ordering a six-month review of all trade deals — he made clear that US security took priority over even trade.

If China can help ease the nuclear tensions with Pyongyang, “that’s worth making not as good a trade deal,” he said.

“Trade is very important,” Trump added. “But massive warfare with millions, potentially millions of people being killed? That, as we would say, trumps trade.”

He scheduled the Pennsylvania appearance after snubbing an invitation to the traditional White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday, where he had risked being roasted by comedians.

Instead, he declared himself “thrilled” to be far from “the Washington swamp” and its “fake news” journalists.

The black-tie affair in Washington was headlined by veteran investigative journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame.

Woodward rebuffed the president’s relentless barbs against news outlets. “Mr President, the media is not fake news,” he said.

“Whether the media is revered or reviled, we should and must persist, and I believe we will.”