Remarks by President Trump on Renewable Energy | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Past administrations did nothing while the farm income declined. In the last two years of the previous administration, farm income plummeted by more than $30 billion, and agricultural exports dropped by over $22 billion. Did you know that? Did you know that? You'll be hearing it a lot over the next little while. That's not a good number.

    But we are turning it all around, and we've turned it all around. And wait until you see the real number start coming in, when it all comes together. Somebody had to do it. You knew we had to do it. We couldn't take it any longer. Nations all over the world were ripping off the United States like never, ever before - whether it's China or so many others that I won't mention, including our allies. Sometimes our allies did a better job of it than the enemies. But we're changing it all around, and you see it already. And you see it by the kind of numbers that I'm talking about.

    By the end of this year, farm incomes are projected to rise by more than $10 billion from the day I was elected. And under my administration, we will always protect and defend our great American patriot farmer. (Applause.) Always. Always. Thank you very much.

    We're reversing decades of failed trade policies, opening up new markets, and fighting to give our farmers the fair and level playing field they deserve. You never had a fair playing field for the last 15 to 20 years. You were taken advantage of by stupidity, by incompetence, by people that don't care. Who knows? You were really treated very badly. But you're not being treated badly anymore. You see what's happening. (Applause.)

    The brand new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the USMCA, will replace NAFTA - one of the worst deals ever made by any country, on trade - and expand market access for American agricultural products, and very, very substantially. With that being said, you have to get out and push the Democrats to put it up. Because they'd rather see our country do badly than give us a victory. And, actually, it's going to be a victory for them too, if they get it approved. And they could use a victory.

    So, go out - go out and press the Democrats. Everyone in your area, press. We need the help of the Democrats. Press Nancy Pelosi. Press them all. Because if they don't put it up, it's a tremendous opportunity - probably something like you won't see again. Got to get it done. It's incredible for the farmer, for the manufacturer, for virtually everybody. It's going to go down as one of the greatest trade deals. Already acknowledged to be one of the best negotiated trade deals.


    But if you look at Canada, with the tremendous tariffs they were charging you to sell you product inside, and Mexico, it's all a much more balanced, much more fair transaction. You're going to make a lot of money. You're going to grow a lot of corn and a lot of everything else. You got to get the Democrats to approve it. You got to get the Democrats - all they have to do is put it up for a vote. Because many Democrats - probably most Democrats - if not told to do the other alternative, they will all vote for it. So get the Democrats out. Put it up for a vote. And let's get - let's get it signed. It's all ready. (Applause.) It's all ready.

    The USMCA ends unfair trade barriers for American dairy farmers, wheat producers, egg producers, and winegrowers. And it will ensure robust market access for American exports of corn, beef, pork, poultry, and many other farm products from coast to coast. It's a winner. And we just wanted to do pretty much the opposite. How bad was NAFTA - what they did to you with NAFTA? And that's why, for 15 years, you've been going - that and other reasons. That's why the farmer has been hurt so badly over a 15-year period.

    This deal is amazing for our farmers. And I'm proud to announce that nearly 1,000 farm groups have already endorsed it this morning. And the biggest groups. (Applause.) So it's time for Congress to bring this groundbreaking agreement up for a vote.

    We're also taking long-overdue steps to stand up to China's chronic trade abuses. Have to do it. (Applause.) Somebody had to do it. They've been taking out of our country, for many years, 500 billion - with a "B" - billion dollars a year. And somebody had to say "no more." And Obama-Biden didn't say it. They just let it happen. And, in all fairness, so did other Presidents. We're stopping it. It's stopped.

    And we're taking in, right now, billions and billions of dollars in tariffs, and they're subsidizing product. And, by the way, I haven't seen any inflation. We are taking in billions. And out of those billions that we're taking in in tariffs, we gave the farmer $16 billion because that was the highest amount that China had ever used to purchase your product. Sixteen billion. So we took it right out of the tariffs that we're getting from China. And, Sonny Perdue, you're going to be distributing that to all of the farmers over the next, probably, two months, right? (Applause.) Nobody else is going to do that, I can tell you. Nobody else does that.

    For years, China imposed massive barriers to the American farm goods, stole our intellectual property, and plundered vital trade secrets from even American agri-business. You know, they would take - your business has become very sophisticated. And they and other nations would take these beautiful, incredible secrets - no different than computers and other things - and they'd use them, and they'd take them, and they wouldn't pay for them. And that's not right. Because you're the ones that developed them.


    Our colossal trade deficits financed the build-up of China's infrastructure, military, and technology at the expense of us, the American taxpayer.

    Now, in response to our economic self-defense, China has levied unfair retaliation against the farmers and ranchers, but we've made up for that retaliation with the $16 billion. And, I must tell you, made up for it and more so. And more so. (Applause.) And, again, we had no choice. We want to get along with China, but we had no choice. I have great respect for the President of China, President Xi, but he's representing China and I'm representing the United States of America. Nothing much you can do about that. (Applause.)

    And all around the world, my administration is knocking down barriers to products made, grown, and raised in the USA - not only on the farm, but all over. Just recently reached an agreement to eliminate restrictions and expand exports of American beef - you saw that - to Japan by up to $200 million a year. You saw that. There's somebody selling beef over there. (Applause.) They haven't bought our beef since the year 2000.

    The European Union removed barriers on U.S. soybeans for the use in biofuels. Everybody said they'll never do that. We have a long way to go with that, but it's going to happen very easily.

    Argentina and Paraguay opened their markets to American pork. It was a one-sided deal before. Now their markets are opening rapidly.

    And after suspending imports in 2016, Vietnam agreed to reopen its market to dried distillers grains - a high-value byproduct - and produced by ethanol plants just like this one. I got to look at it; it's pretty good-looking stuff. Vietnam. (Applause.)

    In the past, and under the Obama administration, our politicians let other countries push us around, treat us badly, treat our country with no respect. And you see that with Biden. We would never be treated with respect because people don't respect him, even the people that he's running against. They're saying, "Where is he? What happened?"

    He makes his stance in Iowa once every two weeks and then he mentions my name 74 times in one speech. (Laughter.) I don't know. That reminds me of Crooked Hillary. She did the same thing. (Laughter and applause.) And then, when it came time to vote, they all said, "You know, she doesn't like Trump very much, but what else does she stand for?" The same thing is happening with Sleepy Joe. He's a sleepy guy.


    As we stand up for our farmers abroad, we are fighting to get the governments from other countries, and our government in particular, off of your farms and out of your wallets, and put them right back where it used to be many, many, many decades ago. We passed the largest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history, by far. (Applause.)

    And to keep your family farms and ranches in the family, we eliminated the estate tax, also known as the "death tax," on the small farms and ranches and other businesses. (Applause.) That was a big one. That was big one.

    No, people were having a farm, they loved their children, and they want to leave it to their children. And some of them aren't cash businesses, but they're great businesses, and the farms have real value. And something would happen to them; they want to leave it to their children. And the estate tax was so much, the children would have to go out and borrow a lot of money from unfriendly bankers, in many cases. And they'd end up losing the farm, and it was a horrible situation. We've eliminated the death tax. That's a great thing. That's a great thing. (Applause.)

    And it's only good, though, if you love your children. (Laughter.) I say it all the time: If you don't love you children and if you don't like your children, but especially if you don't love them - does anybody here not love their children? (Laughter.) Because if you don't love your children, it's not going to mean a damn. (Laughter.)

    We slashed 30,000 pages of job-killing regulations from the Federal Register. That's an all-time record in the history of our country. (Applause.) And we got rid of the horrible, disastrous calamity known as the Waters of the United States rule. (Applause.)

    And I tell you, Joni and Deb, I was getting ready to sign that one. You know, the Waters of the United States rule. What could be more beautiful sounding? That was the only thing good about it - the title. Everything else was a catastrophe. They took your land away. If you had a puddle in the middle of your field, they considered it a lake. The rules and regulations made it impossible.

    And I signed that, and behind me I had homebuilders and farmers mostly, and ranchers. And many of them never cried in their life, including when they born, and they were crying. Yeah. (Laughter.) It's true, though. They were crying behind me. You know that. You know that, Pete. They were crying because we gave them back their land. We took it away. It was like eminent domain. It was terrible. We gave it back.