Interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News "Good Morning America"

STEPHANOPOULOS: More than half of Americans have lost confidence in your ability to lead the country and get the job done. That may have been stunning to you? Disappointed?

THE PRESIDENT: I've been dealing with stuff like this since 2009.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How do you turn it around?

THE PRESIDENT: There have been a number of times where, you know, the punditry said gosh, you know, how do you turn it around. And what we do is staying focused on what matters and chip away at it and try to make progress.

People have health care. The economy has gotten a lot better.

What I do worry about is that right now we've got a Republican Party that seems to only care about saying no to me.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You've got Speaker Boehner talking about suing you for executive actions that he says has crossed the line. He says we elected a president; we didn't elect a monarch or a king.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you notice that he didn't specifically say what exactly he was objecting to.

I'm not going to apologize for trying to do something while they're doing nothing.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Even if you get sued?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, the suit is a stunt. But what I've told Speaker Boehner directly is, if you're really concerned about me taking too many executive actions, why don't you try getting something done through Congress.

The majority of the American people want to see immigration reform done. We had a bipartisan bill through the Senate, and you're going to squawk if I try to fix some parts of it administratively that are within my authority while you are not doing anything?

STEPHANOPOULOS: You mentioned immigration. There's a humanitarian crisis on the border. Some of your critics have said you have to speak out more directly to the people of Central America and say: Don't come; if you come, you will be deported.

THE PRESIDENT: Actually, we've done that. The problem is is that, under current law, once those kids come across the border, there's a system in which we're supposed to process them, take care of them until we can send them back.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Is your message "don't come"?

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, our message absolutely is: Don't send your children unaccompanied on trains or through a bunch of smugglers. That is our direct message to the families in Central America. Do not send your children to the borders. If they do make it, they'll get sent back. More importantly, they may not make it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's talk about Iraq. How serious is this ISIS threat to people here in Minnesota, around the country? I was so struck by an article that Ryan Crocker, who served as Iraq ambassador under you, wrote last week. He said: Make no mistake. This is global jihad. It's coming our way. They have 2,000 fighters with Western passports that don't need a visa to get in.

Are we under serious threat right now from ISIS?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, I think we have been under serious threat my entire presidency, and we have been under serious threat predating 9/11 from those who embrace this ideology.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But they're gaining strength, aren't they?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, they're gaining strength in some places. But we've also got a lot better at protecting ourselves.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask you a final question on foreign policy. It comes from something you wrote back in 2006 in "Audacity of Hope."

You were talking about President Bush's foreign policy strategy and you said: Without a well-articulated strategy that the public supports and the world understands, America will lack legitimacy and ultimately the power it needs to make the word safer than it is today.

The majority of Americans don't support your path on foreign policy.

Are you failing by your own standard?

THE PRESIDENT: George, I not only go back to the polls, but let me just say that throughout the first half of my presidency, polls consistently showed strong support for my foreign policy and --

STEPHANOPOULOS: But the public has to support it, doesn't it?

THE PRESIDENT: But not at every minute, George. Not every week. Because there are going to be times where the world is messy.

One of the things we also realized during the course of five years is that, if the problems were easy, somebody else would have solved them already. And one of the great challenges of this job but one of the great privileges of this job is that, you know, you're tackling stuff that is really tough. And I'm glad that, after five years, I'm still here able to do it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: [Watching the world cup on AF1]

THE PRESIDENT: We really only had a couple of shots at the goal.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yeah. This has been a tough game.

And now everyone knows not to bite.

THE PRESIDENT: [chuckles] We have advanced from a nonfactor to being a solid middle -- we're a middle-of-the-pack team. We're not Germany yet or Italy or France, but -- or Argentina or Brazil. But we're now in the mix.

You get a sense that it's captured the popular imagination.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I was surprised by how much this has broken through. My little girl -- my nine-year-old came up to me and asked to watch the game Sunday, but she doesn't seem much into TV, but everybody's talking about it.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Well, if you think about it, part of it is what's happening with us as parents. Right? You know, even kids who end up being basketball players or whatever, a lot of times their first sport is playing soccer.

I will tell you, though, we have to -- there have been elements, which I won't detail, of our foreign policy that have had to be shaped around the World Cup.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Get out of here. Phone calls?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, certain phone calls, certain meetings, initiatives that we might roll out that we've had to think about.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Just because the whole world stops?

THE PRESIDENT: It stops.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you have an event with Angela Merkel after today's game?

THE PRESIDENT: No. I think that would be -- unless she was giving me points.

STEPHANOPOULOS: [question about his family]:

THE PRESIDENT: I was thinking about why that is so. And it's part of maybe that the girls are getting older. When the girls were young, we would spend our time, you know, with them. And now we end up seeing them go off on their own.

STEPHANOPOULOS: They've got the summer off. You're working.

Are they having a good time?

THE PRESIDENT: They're having a great time.