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

    As you know, most of the fentanyl - which is killing 80,000 Americans a year is - it comes through China. And, in China, it was not criminalized. And they've agreed to criminalize fentanyl and give it the maximum penalty. The maximum penalty in China, if you're selling drugs, is death; it's the death penalty. And they've agreed to do the death penalty for selling fentanyl. And if it's shipped to the United States, that would be a very severe penalty.

    So I think that's going to have a tremendous impact. We put that one item into the trade deal - the fentanyl. I think that's a very important item to put in. But they've agreed - they've agree, and agreed very readily - we really appreciate it - to criminalize the sale of fentanyl.

    Steve?

    Q Do you think you'll make the March 1 deadline?

    THE PRESIDENT: I don't know. I mean, it's -

    Q And you are going to add (inaudible)?

    THE PRESIDENT: I can tell you, there's - a lot of people are working. What happens - we're charging large tariffs to Chinese products that are coming in, which hurts China. As you know - you saw the reports - out of the 25 points, we're paying for four points out of the 25. They're paying for 21. That's a big difference. I've always said that.


    We're taking in billions of dollars. And, frankly, we're creating a lot of industry. But the rate goes from 10 percent to 25 percent on March 1st. So they would like to do it, and I'd like to accommodate them. If we can, I'd like to accommodate China if we can get the deal done.

    It's a lot of work because this is a very comprehensive deal. This isn't what we're talking about, you know, they're going to buy some corn and that's going to be it. No, they're going to buy corn. Hopefully, they're going to buy lots of corn, and lots of wheat, and lots of everything else that we have. But they're also talking heavy technology, heavy manufacturing, financial services, and everything else.

    Q So you may have to extend the talks beyond March the 1st? Is that what you're saying, sir?

    THE PRESIDENT: I think we can do it by March 1st. Can you get it down on paper by March 1st? I don't know. I can say, on March 1st, the tariff on China goes to 25 percent, and that's a big tariff.

    Q I'm just curious, what's the tone looking like for the State of the Union, sir? And then, I don't know if you've seen, the Democrats have tapped the rebuttal speech - Stacey Abrams, who ran for Governor of Georgia. Any thoughts on their pick, sir, or any of the messaging?

    THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I campaigned against Stacey Abrams. I know that President Obama campaigned for her. Michelle Obama campaigned for her. And Oprah campaigned for her. And all Brian had was me. And he won fairly easily - you know, fairly easy.

    So I hope that she does a good job. I mean, I respect her. I don't know her. I haven't met her. But I hope she does a good job.

    Q And the tone for your speech, sir - can you tell us -

    THE PRESIDENT: I think it's unification. I think it's industry. I think it's about the people that you see right here. It's also working with these people, because they've been incredible. We have had some incredible report. And we've have incredible Republican support.

    The problem is, the Democrats - you know, when they say, "We don't want to build..." - as an example, "We don't want to build a wall because it doesn't work or because it's immoral." Well, it's also immoral the people that come into our country that shouldn't be here and kill people. That's immoral, too. That's a lot more immoral.

    So - but I really think it's doing to be a speech that's going to cover a lot of territory. But part of it is going to be unity.

    Yeah, please.

    Q Mr. President, Nancy Pelosi said this morning that there is not going to be a wall in this deal, but she did say she'd be open to other kinds of physical barriers. Would you accept that?

    THE PRESIDENT: No, because if there's no wall, it doesn't work. She's just playing games. So if there's no wall, it doesn't work.

    And we're building the wall right now. I mean, a lot of people don't know that, but we have a lot of wall under construction. We've given out a lot of contracts over the last three, four weeks - good contracts. A lot of wall is soon going to be under construction.

    We will be - we're finishing up design on certain areas, the most important areas - the Rio Grande area and others. We are building a lot of wall. You know, I'm not waiting for this committee. And I've told a lot of people I don't expect much coming out of the committee because I keep hearing the words that, "We'll give you what you want, but we're not going to give you wall."

    The problem is, if they don't give us a wall, it doesn't work. Without a wall, it doesn't work. We have caravans right now coming up from Honduras, who we give a lot of money to - which is stopping, by the way. But we pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. And then they have caravans leaving their country, coming up here.


    And, by the way, if you go to Tijuana and you take down that wall, you will have so many people coming into our country that Nancy Pelosi will be begging for a wall. She'll be begging for a wall. She will say, "Mr. President, please, please give us a wall." It'd be very interesting. Some people have suggested: Let me take the wall along California, let's move it to Arizona, let's move it to Texas. And, you know, it's going to - it would be a very interesting statement.

    About Nancy: So, in California, they wanted the wall built in San Diego so badly. And we built it. And probably I should have waited, because as soon as it was finished, they started screaming, "We don't want a wall. We don't want a wall." But they wanted the wall so badly. And, by the way, it worked. Nobody is getting through.

    But the minute it was built, they started saying, "We don't want a wall." Without a wall, it doesn't work. It's very simple. I mean, I'm not saying this as a Republican. I'm not saying it as anything other than a fact-stater. Without a wall, it just doesn't work.

    Q Mr. President, after listening to the hardship from many federal government workers, as well as those who were contractors and who relied on the federal government employees' finances to fund their businesses, are you willing to jeopardize the economy again, and also your presidency, with people who are fearful of another government shutdown over this wall?

    And also, I want to ask you about Jussie Smollett. Have you heard about that story? In Chicago, a situation - the actor from "Empire" who was allegedly attacked with racist and homophobic -

    THE PRESIDENT: That, I can tell you, is horrible. I've seen it last night. I think that's horrible. It doesn't get worse, as far as I'm concerned.

    As far as the people are concerned, many of those people wanted me to stay out, but I didn't want to do it because people were getting hurt.

    People - what I think is the worst sin of all is the fact that we're allowing people to come into this country and sell drugs and human traffic, and do all of these horrible things. That if we had the simplicity of a well-constructed, beautiful barrier or wall, they wouldn't be able to come into our country. That, to me, is the great sin. And everybody knows it works. I watched this morning, early in the morning, somebody trying to justify walls are immoral.

    I mean, if walls are immoral, maybe we should take down all the walls that are built right now. You will see a mess like you've never seen before.

    So I only say this: I was elected partially on this issue - not as much as people say, but partially on this issue. This is a very important issue. Nothing to do with elections. Nothing to do with votes. Nothing. Only to do with common sense and only to do with security. And if we don't put up a barrier or wall - a strong one, but one that looks good - in the old days, they used to build them; they looked terrible. Now we build them, they look really good.

    If we don't put up a physical barrier, you can forget it. Our country is going to be a very unsafe place. People are coming in. Drugs are coming in. Human trafficking is coming in, which is so horrible. Things are happening that won't happen after the wall is constructed.

    So we're building a lot of wall. We're building new sections that are starting in about two weeks. We're building some brand new sections - large sections. And the wall is getting built. I would like to build it even faster, but it's getting built, and it's getting built very substantially, as some of you see because you've been there.

    Yeah, please.

    Q I have an immigration question. But first, if I could just clarify something you said about North Korea. Do you have an agreement with North Korea on the time and place for that next summit?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes. I do.

    Q Can you share it?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, we're going to very soon. We're going to announce it pretty soon. We'll be announcing it early next week.

    Q Okay. And you also said that -

    THE PRESIDENT: And they very much want the meeting, and I think they really want to do something. We'll see. But I think they really want.

    But again, remember, North Korea was a whole different story. When I came to office, many people thought we were going to war with North Korea. I would sit and listen, and I would read people saying, "Go to war with North Korea." Well, you'd lose, I mean potentially, hundreds of millions of lives. You know, Seoul has 30-some-odd million people, and it's literally right off their wall, by the way. But that wall works, I can tell you.

    Q About the wall, you just said that people make that out to be a bigger deal on your election than you -

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, it was one of my points. I had - yeah.

    Q I mean, you would consider that the biggest campaign -

    THE PRESIDENT: Now they say it's the wall, because I've accomplished practically everything else. Look, I accomplished the military. I accomplished the tax cuts. I accomplished the regulation cuts. I accomplished so much. The economy is the number-one economy in the world. We're the number-one economy in the world. We're the number one, not even close. Companies are pouring into our country.

    I've accomplished so much. So now they say, "Oh, if he doesn't get the wall..." - they make that the only issue. But it's not going to work, because I'm building the wall. The wall is happening right now, okay?

    Q The government has been reopened for several days now. Are you closer or farther apart on an immigration deal, now that - since you opened the government?

    THE PRESIDENT: With respect to the committee?

    Q Yes.


    THE PRESIDENT: I would say we're the same. Because I'm hearing they don't want to do a wall, for political reasons. I actually think it's bad politics. I mean, frankly, I think them fighting us on what everybody knows has to be done to have proper security.

    And you can add the other things, but the other things only really work if you have the physical barrier. Without the physical barrier, you just won't - what are you going to have? Drones flying over the 12,000 people? You're going to have a nice drone flying - doing circles around the 12,000 people that are walking in from Honduras and Guatemala and El Salvador? No, you don't want that.

    So I want to do real things, like the deal with China. I want it to be a real deal. I could do a deal with China, where people would say, "Isn't that wonderful?" It's not wonderful. I have to do the real deal. We have to open up China. We're open to them. They have to be open to us.

    So, it would be so easy for me to make a deal with China, but it wouldn't be a real deal. I could get them to buy more corn than they've ever bought, and more soybeans than they've ever bought. And they'd be so happy if I did that. But they're going to do that, but in even higher numbers. But we're going to do a lot of other things.

    And just remember, we are taking in billions and billions of dollars from China. We never took in 10 cents from China. China is being charged tremendous amounts of money for the privilege of coming in and doing what they do to our country. They're being charged a tremendous amount of money. And we're going to make a deal. I think we're going to make a deal with China, but it's going to be a very comprehensive deal. We're going to cover everything, okay