Now, small lenders are once again thriving. They're free to invest in our communities and help more families experience the joy and the pride of homeownership. And I'll never get credit for this. The press doesn't give me any credit for anything, no matter what I do. (Laughter.) No, it's true. Doesn't matter. Look, who cares. The people know. The people know. That's why I have to go through a different source. It's called: Do speeches and go with our social media stuff, which is quite powerful, I must say. (Applause.) But they're very dishonest.
And, you know, we're right now dealing with Iran. And they put out so many false messages that Iran is totally confused. I don't know, that might be a good thing. No, they put out - the fake news - they put out messages - these people right back here. (Laughter.) They put out messages that I'm angry with my people. I'm not angry with them. I make my own decisions. But I'm
"angry with my people." I'm
"not angry with my people." I'm
"worse than they are; they're worse than we are. They're more militant."
Mike Pompeo is doing a great job. Bolton is doing a great job. (Applause.)
But they make it sound like it's a conflict. And the good news - I was thinking today, I said,
"Gee, what must our adversaries think?" And then I look and I say,
"You know, it's probably a good thing because they're saying, 'Man, I don't know where these people are coming from.'" Right? (Laughter.) But they put out false - you know, they say,
"confidential sources."
Do you ever notice they never write the names of people anymore. Everything is
"a source says..." There is no source. The person doesn't exist. The person is not alive. It's bullshit. Okay? It's bullshit. (Laughter and applause.)
"Three people who were at that meeting" - you know, a meeting of like seven -
"three people have confirmed that this happened and that happened." There were no three people. They make it up. These are bad people. These are people - that's why I came up with the term "fake news." It's a good term. I've had better, but that's a good term. "Fake news." (Applause.) It's a hoax.
My administration is also committed to reforming our housing finance system. So important. More than a decade after the financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still in conservatorship. Fannie and Freddie still dominate the market with no real competition from the private sector. And taxpayers are still on the hook if another crisis should happen.
And this is a pretty urgent problem. We're doing well with it now. It's well managed now. We have great people, but it's a pretty big problem. And it's really a problem that other than government should be doing, so we're looking at different alternatives. We have many geniuses looking at it and we'll figure something out. But Fannie and Freddie can do a lot better than they're doing, although now they have some very good people running it.
And that's why I recently directed the Department of Treasury and HUD - Ben - to develop a framework for a modern housing finance system. And you're working on that, Ben. I know you have some incredible talent from Wall Street coming in. (Applause.)
We actually call on very smart people. You know, somebody said,
"Why are you using Wall Street?" I said,
"Because I want to get very smart people." I want to get people that do this and one that welcomes the private sector, competition, protects taxpayers, and preserves homeownership for future generations to come. (Applause.)
So we will be working closely with Congress to pass these critical reforms, and we will consider taking other administrative actions to modernize our housing programs and to ensure more affordable housing to get rid of ridiculous regulations so you can build and build quickly and build beautifully. Actually, you'll put more money into the house, because instead of spending on a ridiculous paperwork, you'll be able to buy better lumber and better flooring and better windows. (Applause.)
And just as we believe that every American should have the chance to own a home if they work hard and follow the rules, we'll also believe that every American should have the right to choose their own healthcare. We're going to become, really, the party of healthcare. (Applause.) That includes our newly created "association health plans" that a lot of you are using. (Applause.)
And just very quickly, with us today is Teresa Beth McKee, Chief Executive Officer of Nevada - I love Nevada - Nevada REALTORS. (Applause.) Come on up. Please, Teresa. Please. Thank you. Please.
MS. MCKEE: Thank you, Mr. President Trump. It's such an honor to be here. And we thank you for the work with the Department of Labor to open up association health plans for our members.
In Nevada, we have statewide association health plans offered with - for our members from Nevada and Las Vegas. We cover, currently, over a thousand lives in just the last couple of months that we've had this open. Twenty-seven percent of those people were uninsured before our plan - completely uninsured. For those that were insured, they are saving an average of $150 to $300 a month. (Applause.)
It's saving an estimated $2 million in Nevada this year. And that money goes right back into their businesses and right back into their communities, helping our economy. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: That's great.
MS. MCKEE: I have one member who could not afford to insure his family. He let his health lapse, needing urgent hip and back surgery. When he was able to finally get this affordable, full-coverage care in Nevada, under the association health plan, he was able to, in his words, get back on track, be the breadwinner for his family again, and make himself great again. (Applause.)
Another really critical part of association health plans is what it's done for our rural communities. Before association health plans, our rural communities had one choice - one product, one plan. Through HomeTown Health, we have - they have offered multiple insurance products to the rural areas. That gives our rural realtors a choice now of their health plans - a choice of the products that they use to insure themselves and their families.
We recently went - a couple of colleagues and I went and met at the White House with the Department of Labor because association health plans are under attack. And we're working with the Department of Labor to ensure that this critical need for our realtors is allowed to continue. It's critically important to our realtors to have choices to fully affordable and full-coverage health plans.
Thank you again, Mr. President. It's a great honor. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks, Teresa. It's a great state, too. Great. And it is under attack - you know, these health plans are - because they want to keep the public deal going. And it's a shame. And they're fighting it so hard. But we're going to win, and we are winning. And it's saving a tremendous amount of money for firms, but it's also getting great healthcare like you haven't had before. And we also have to protect the 180 million people with private healthcare. They want to destroy that.
I must tell you, we have an election coming up that's going to be very important for you people, because they want to take it away. They want to bring your taxes up to 80 or 90 percent. They started, a couple of months ago, at 70. But they really mean 80 or 90 or 95 - and that won't pay for it, by the way. That won't - you'd need twice that. So you have to be very careful. But we'll always be defending America's rights to have low-cost, high-quality healthcare of your choice. So important.
And sadly, when you look at what's going on with Washington, you see a lot of positives, but you also see people that are fighting very hard. They have 25 people now running for the Office of President. And some of these people are stone-cold crazy. (Laughter and applause.)
I mean, they're promoting the biggest socialist takeover in the history, really, of the world. Because, if you think - I mean, this is the United States. And they have a hundred-trillion-dollar Green New Deal. Nobody has any idea what the hell it is. (Laughter.) They know that you can't take a plane anymore; you have to take a train to Hawaii. Train. (Laughter.) A train to Australia and a train - hey, if they can't build from San Francisco to Los Angeles - (laughter and applause) - what's going to happen when they say,
"Let's build a train to Europe"?
"Let's build one up to Europe. We'll do a fast train." (Laughs.) A hundred miles an hour. Let's see. Well, a plane goes six [hundred], so you got a long trip on a train, I'll tell you.
This is crazy. This is crazy. But I don't want to hit it too hard. I want to save it for the election, because I don't want them to change. (Laughter and applause.) You know? I don't want them to change. I don't want them to have time to pivot. I want them to go with this stuff.
But we still have to be careful. And it'll never happen as long as I'm President, so you can bet on that. (Applause.)
So, just to finish up - you're friends of mine; I know a lot of people in the room. And homeownership and what you do as realtors and as real estate people, this is a part of Americana. This is a great, great thing you do. You work hard. You love people. You love this land. You love this country. You take care of employees. In some cases, you are employees, and you love the person that takes care of you. But you're very, very special people.
I know so much about what you do because I did the same thing. Can you believe it now? It's almost three years. Can you believe this? Who knew this was going to happen? (Applause.) It just shows how smart you are when you can go and do this. And they say,
"But he doesn't have any experience." But, you know, intelligence is a very, very good substitute sometimes. (Laughter and applause.)
And I'm gaining a lot of experience very fast. I have a lot of experience. And I had a lot of experience because I was in your business. And you do everything. You build, you lease, you rent, you negotiate, you deal with foreign people, you deal with people that live right next door - you do everything. You're very smart and you love your business. And I loved being here. And John and everybody, thank you. And Ben Carson, thank you. (Applause.) And this was great.
And go and enjoy your lives and keep building, and we'll keep the economy strong so that you will go on and on and on. (Applause.)
Have a great time. It's been my great honor. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
END • 3:29 P.M. EDT
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