Remarks by President Trump at Signing of Executive Order, "Strengthening Buy-American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects" | Eastern North Carolina Now

    MS. MARTINEZ: Yes.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much.

    So how about our politicians? Now, they want to say, that I know. (Laughter.) These people - they're not shy.

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    REPRESENTATIVE ADERHOLT: Well, let me say, first of all, that this is a very commonsense, a bipartisan piece of executive order that the President - we have worked on legislation in the past that's worked this from the appropriations side from year to year.

    But what this executive order does, it goes beyond that and it really tries to make sure that we - as the President said, American hands are doing the job and this is what we're - when we go back home, we want to see our manufacturers do well. We want to see them grow. We want to see our workers do - have better jobs. So thanks, Mr. President, for doing it. So, thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Appreciate it.

    MR. NAVARRO: Mr. President, if I may - this gentleman here has been a long-time leader on the hill carrying the Buy American banner, and his leadership is very much appreciated.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's why he wins by so much.

    MR. NAVARRO: Yes. That is correct. (Laughter.)

    THE PRESIDENT: That's why he doesn't worry too much about races. You know? Just wins.

    REPRESENTATIVE ADERHOLT: It helps when you've got a district that he wins about 80 percent. So - (laughter).

    THE PRESIDENT: I think I did very well. (Laughter.) Come to think of it.

    REPRESENTATIVE ADERHOLT: The best of 435 districts, so -

    THE PRESIDENT: That's great. That's very nice. Thank you very much. Say hello.

    Linda?

    ADMINISTRATOR MCMAHON: Well, thank you very much. I hear from small businesses, you know, all over the country, and they are very happy to be buying American and hiring American. And, you know, the job growth, it just speaks for itself. And our businesses are growing and starting and expanding.

    THE PRESIDENT: Great job you're doing too. She runs the Small Business, and they're big business when you add it all up. She's done a fantastic job - Linda McMahon.

    Mr. Secretary?

    SECRETARY ACOSTA: Mr. President, you know, in the past, we've encouraged individuals out there to buy American. But what you're doing is so important because you're leading by example. You're saying the federal government will buy American. And we've seen the impact last year with, you know, a 10-year record low in foreign purchases. And this is going to take it to the next step, and it will translate into more jobs for individuals, just like those here today.

    THE PRESIDENT: It's having an incredible effect. I mean, people don't realize it yet, but they're seeing it more and more. We are mandating even pipelines and things that were made elsewhere. They're starting to be made here because we have a steel industry again. But it's having a tremendous effect.

    Please.

    REPRESENTATIVE JOYCE: Thank you, Mr. President, I have been co-sponsoring a bill for years with Daniel Lipinski. Couldn't get it to go anywhere. I'm honored that you're doing it today to force it into action because, as you said, these are American jobs. It's American concrete, it's American steel, it's American asphalt. Thank you for doing so.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

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    REPRESENTATIVE ROUZER: Well, Mr. President, you can't believe how much my folks back home in Eastern North Carolina appreciate your commitment to the American worker, and particularly the American farmer. And I personally really appreciate you taking it to China. They have eaten our lunch for a long, long time, and I appreciate you standing up and really fighting hard for our American workers, and the job creation that's going to result from that. And keep plugging for America's farmers.

    THE PRESIDENT: So China, as you know, has opened up because of us to the financial services industry, which is a big thing. Nobody thought that was possible. And they've opened up to financial services and things of the like.

    But I just want to let everyone know we won't have a deal if we don't open it up to the farmers, and we won't have a deal if they don't open it up to our manufacturers, and just all of it. And I think China is very prone to do this. So we're going to have a talk. But we've already got financial services. A big impact. You have tremendous amounts of money. Tremendous amounts of people. It's a whole different market, and a massive market. I guess you could certainly say the biggest, or one of the biggest markets in the world, but maybe the biggest market in a certain way in the world.

    But we're the number-one country in the world economically. I don't want people to forget that. We're the number one. And we were heading - we were heading south fast. We were going down, and we turned it around. And it started with the regulations that we cut. We cut more regulations than any administration in the history of our country in two years. And, actually, less than two years. And it also was helped by the tax cuts. Put a lot of people to work and really gave companies something where they're now coming back into our country, they're investing in our country, and they're expanding in our country.

    So, a lot of great things are happening.

    Mario?

    REPRESENTATIVE DIAZ-BALART: Mr. President, I, again, it's amazing what leadership does. The economy is booming, you're rebuilding our military, you're leading around the world. Enough said.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. I'm liking this guy more and more. (Laughter.)

    REPRESENTATIVE ADERHOLT: Let me just add one thing that I have - this makes my 22nd year serving in the House of Representatives. This President has stood up more for manufacturing jobs in Alabama and across the country - not just Alabama - than any President. So I thank you for standing up.

    MR. NAVARRO: And Robert and Mario have been leaders on the Reciprocal Trade Act, as well, that you're sponsoring.

    THE PRESIDENT: I know. Reciprocal trade is going be very important. We're going putting in a bill very soon, where when a country charges us tariffs that are massive, and we charge them nothing for the same exact product, we just say, "Hey, got to be equal. You charge us, we charge you." You could call it a reciprocal tax, but some people call it a mirror tax.

    So, if Europe, as an example - the EU charges us 72 percent tariff on corn, and they don't even want it, and we charge them nothing - it doesn't work that way anymore. So, you know, I've gone to many people that aren't that familiar with it, including politicians that you'll be dealing with soon. And I went to a couple that are always tough. I said, "What do you think of that? They charge us, we charge them." They looked at me and they said, Robert, "Huh. Sounds fair to me."

    And, actually, you probably get rid of tariffs, because rather than charging 75 percent to nothing, now if you're both at 75, you say, "Let's call it quits. We'll go to nothing."

    So it really has that impact too, as you know. Please.

    REPRESENTATIVE GONZALEZ: Thank you, Mr. President. So, as you know, northeast Ohio is all about jobs and the economy. And Dave and I are from the same neck of the woods. And to see the cranes, buildings going up, to see steel jobs coming back - to your point, they said it couldn't be done, and now wages are going up. When was the last time real wages went up? It's been a while. So keep doing what you're doing, and we support you in northeast Ohio on everything with the economy.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

    REPRESENTATIVE GONZALEZ: So, thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: And they're getting - it's a beautiful thing because I opened up, as you know - the best iron ore, they say, virtually in the world is in Minnesota. The big mines. They were closed. President Obama decided to close them. I opened them. And we're not bringing it in; we're taking it right from our own home. And we're having it made in Ohio. We have good ore in Ohio, too. But we're having it made in Ohio, in Pennsylvania, in North Carolina, and all the different places. It's been really incredible to see what's happening. We don't need anything from outside of our own boundaries. So that's been really great.

    Okay, let's go. (Laughter.) Does anybody want this pen? Thank you very much. Thank you all for being here. I appreciate it.

    (The executive order is signed.)

    Okay, here you go. (Applause.) Thank you, everybody, very much. I appreciate it.

    Q Mr. President, (inaudible) your intelligence officials yesterday. Do you still have confidence in Gina Haspel and Dan Coats to give you good advice?

    THE PRESIDENT: No, I disagree with certain things that they said. I think I'm right, but time will prove that. Time will prove me right, probably. I think Iran is a threat. I think it's a very big threat. And I think I did a great thing when I terminated the ridiculous Iran nuclear deal. It was a horrible, one-sided deal that was $150 billion, plus $1.8 billion in cash, and lots of other bad things.

    If you remember, they took our 10 sailors out of waters that people are disputing, and made us look very bad. But, of course, the payment was due the following day, so they eventually let them go, which they had to. I disagree very much on that.

    I also think - and you'll be seeing something next week - because you look at what's happened in Syria with respect to ISIS and the caliphate. We took over a lot of area in the last two weeks. We've done tremendous in the last couple of weeks. At the same time, we're consolidating, and a tremendous amount of good things are happening.

    You even look at what's going on - and I can't tell you that this is a guarantee because we're going into close to 19 years in being in Afghanistan. And, for the first time, they're talking about settling. They're talking about making an agreement. And we bring our people back home if that happens. We'll see what happens, but they're in very serious negotiations for the first time. There's a reason for that.

    So I think we're doing so well on a foreign policy basis. If you look at North Korea - and many of you are going to be traveling with us to North Korea and - for the meetings with North Korea. We're going to a certain location. I think most of you know where the location is. I don't think it's any great secret. But we'll be announcing the location and the date - the exact date. It will be at the end of February. And we've made tremendous progress with North Korea.

    When I came in - or, let's say, at the end of the last administration - frankly, it looked like we were going to war with North Korea. Now there's no missile testing. There's no rocket testing. There's no nuclear testing. We got back our prisoners or our hostages. And we're getting back our remains; they're coming in. And we've had some beautiful ceremonies in Hawaii, other places.

    So I just tell you that we are doing really well. Our military is being rebuilt. It's very close to being rebuilt. We have tremendous amounts of new aircraft, new ships, new weapons of all kinds, which we need - because, hopefully, the stronger we get, the less you have to use it. I guess you know that from growing up in school. The stronger we are, the less we're going to have you use it, and we don't want to have to use it. But we're going to have the strongest military, by far, that we've ever had.

    So I didn't see the report from the intelligence. When you read it, it's a lot different than it was covered on in the news. But I think that Iran is somebody - is a nation that we have to watch very closely. They sent up a rocket the other day, and it failed. But it was sent up. Now, they can say they're sending it up for civilian purposes, but I don't think too many people believe that. They're doing tests. And we don't want to be in a position where we're behind. We're not going to be leading from behind anymore.

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    So that's the story. I have great respect for a lot of people, but I don't always agree with everybody. Okay?

    Q What concessions has China made so far in the talks? Anything on IP theft?

    THE PRESIDENT: So, it's great. Well, we're going to - look, we're going to go into everything. You probably saw, this morning I put out a statement. We're going into everything. This isn't going to be a small deal with China. This is either going to be a very big deal or it's going to be a deal that we'll just postpone for a little while.

    But we've been dealing with China. We've had a great relationship. I have a great relationship with President Xi. The relationship of my people to Chinese representatives has been very good. They're negotiating now. They'll be coming over here at about 4 o'clock, and we'll be talking to, actually, one of the top leaders in China, as you know.

    I think that probably the final deal will be made. If it's made, will be made between myself and President Xi. But we're certainly talking about theft. We're talking about every aspect of trade with a country. And we're talking about fentanyl, too.
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