Remarks by President Trump in Cabinet Meeting | Eastern North Carolina Now

    In terms of HIV/AIDS epidemic, you know, we have 40,000 new cases of HIV every year in this country, and that's plateaued over the last decade. We have the tools. We have the tools now to keep people from getting infected and to treat those who are infected. We can identify people who are at risk. We can put them on treatment if they're at risk. It's called "PrEP."

    The President secured a historic deal to get 200,000 courses of treatment per year for the next 11 years of free drug for our program to be able to treat people that keeps them from being able to get HIV, even if they have at-risk behaviors.

    We have the treatments - the antiretroviral treatments that can get people who have HIV to not have it still in their body to be transmissible to other people. So what is called the viral load - viral suppression - we can keep them from being able to spread it to other people. We just have to attack the 48 counties, the District of Columbia, and San Juan where over 50 percent of new cases are happening.

    We have to address stigma. We have to get people in the system. We have to care for them. We got to get Congress to appropriate the money to support us in this. We're making huge progress working with the activist community, with the African American community, the Latino, the Native community here in the United States that are disproportionally impacted by this.

    We have the chance to, within 10 years, stop HIV from being an epidemic in this country. I mean, it's really - it's going to be one of President Trump's great legacies for history, is the eradication of HIV as an epidemic here in the United States.

    And then, we just did something last week the President announced on kidney care. You know, we spend one out of five dollars on kidney care and the complications from kidney care. And last week just blew the paradigm up to help patients. Everything puts people into this - going to centers for dialysis. Everything puts you towards that dialysis. And instead, we're changing how we're paying for kidney care now in the United States to create incentives where we're going to keep people from progressing in their kidney disease. We're going to get them transplanted faster, doubling the number of kidneys available for transplantation. And we're going to switch it so that people can get their dialysis at home instead of at centers, if they have to be on dialysis.

    I've got to tell you, Mr. President, the reaction has been just bipartisan across the board, nationwide, and it's been unbelievable. You see in the media, people say, "You know, I'm not a big fan of President Trump, but I've got to tell you what - you know what he did? He just delivered for America's people who have cancer and who have kidney disease." He just delivered for everybody who has kidney disease, or a loved one with kidney disease. This is the first transformation in 50 years. Just like on HIV, tackling a problem that other Presidents have not been willing to tackle.

    So, thank you.


    THE PRESIDENT: Well, that was an amazing meeting we had last week on kidney disease, which I didn't know too much about. I knew it was a very big problem. Nobody knew the cost. When you say one in five, that's incredible. But I learned, and I met so many people that had the problem. And we spent a long time with you, last week, at that conference, and then we made a speech.

    And one of the things I learned is that people with kidney disease, oftentimes, they die of hard work. They literally die like - we all work hard. We work hard. I don't know, we seem to be able to handle it. But their work is much harder. And it is so hard to go through this dialysis program, that they die of exhaustion. It is an unbelievably horrible situation. And we're working on transplants. And we're actually working on something - and there's some pretty positive news: artificial kidney, which would be the ultimate answer. We think there's going to be some good news on that -

    SECRETARY AZAR: Absolutely.

    THE PRESIDENT: - long before people thought.

    I would like you to mention, because a certain, very large pharmaceutical company - you know, you hear very bad things about pharmaceutical companies, and I agree with that.

    SECRETARY AZAR: Deservedly so.

    THE PRESIDENT: And - deservedly so. But I would like you to mention the name of the company because they're giving hundreds of millions of dollars for the HIV/AIDS, and you might mention the name.

    SECRETARY AZAR: So we secured - we secured this deal with Gilead. So Gilead is the company that invent- - that has drug PrEP. PrEP is the medicine that if a patient takes it regularly, as prescribed, they reduce by 97 percent the chances that they can contract HIV/AIDS. We have patent issues between us and Gilead. Without sacrificing any of the rights that we have, we were able to secure a donation by Gilead of 200,000 courses of treatment per year of PrEP, for use in our ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic program - of PrEP or any successor product developed - up until 2030. It's really a historic agreement.

    THE PRESIDENT: The dollar value of that?

    SECRETARY AZAR: Billions and billions and billions of dollars.

    THE PRESIDENT: It's billions of dollars they're contributing.

    SECRETARY AZAR: Billions. Huge.

    THE PRESIDENT: It's something, right? That's really something. I want to thank you very much.

    I also want to thank a man who has been really an outstanding Secretary of Labor, Alex Acosta. This is your last meeting in the Cabinet Room.


    SECRETARY ACOSTA: It is.

    THE PRESIDENT: And I just want to say, "Job well done." You really were - you were absolutely terrific. Never once a problem. Always in advance of everything else, whether it was on 401(k)s or all of the other things we worked on. You really did an outstanding job as Secretary of Labor. We - everyone in this room, I think, we can say we're going to miss you. But we'll see you. But, congratulations. And a job well done. (Applause.)

    SECRETARY ACOSTA: So, first, let me say thank you. The opportunity to work with you, to work with everyone in this room, has been truly special. As we look back, I think one of the unwritten stories - we talk a lot about the economy. But we are a safer nation in the workplace. I mentioned it before, but last year we had fewer workplace fatalities. We had 45,000 fewer workplace injuries. We had the safest year ever in mining. We returned more than $300 million in back-wages to American workers - the highest amount of back-wages ever returned by the Department of Labor.

    And I mention this because I think this is a story that isn't written, that needs to be written, that that's part of your legacy, that's part of our legacy.

    And you see similar work, whether it's been with Opportunity Zones, whether it's at the Small Business Administration, and how, after hurricanes and other natural disasters, the bureaucracy has been cut and reduced. All of us could point to these unwritten stories. And they're transformative, and they're impactful, and they need to be told. And so thank you for the opportunity and thank you for the honor.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Great job. Thank you very much everybody. I appreciate it. Thank you.

    Q   Mr. President, when you say that the Democratic congresswomen should leave if they're not happy, where should they go?

    THE PRESIDENT: It's up to them. They can go wherever they want or they can stay. But they should love our country. They shouldn't hate our country. You look at what they've said. I - I have clips right here. The most vile, horrible statements about our country, about Israel, about others. It's up to them. They can do what they want. They can leave. They can stay. But they should love our country and they should work for the good of our country.

    All right, thank you very much everybody.

    Q   Mr. President, what about Turkey and sanctions? Turkey and sanctions?

    THE PRESIDENT: We're talking to Turkey. We're speaking to Turkey.


    Q   What are you saying to them, sir?

    THE PRESIDENT: I've had a very good relationship. And, frankly, it's a very complex situation. The Obama administration would not sell them the Patriot missiles. They need the Patriot missiles for defense. They would not sell them, under any circumstance.

    And Turkey tried very hard to buy them, and they wouldn't sell them, and this went on for a long period of time. And it was as soon as they found out that they were going to have to buy the missiles - a comparable missile - not as good a missile, but a comparable, almost, missile from Russia, all of a sudden everybody started rushing and saying to Turkey, "Okay, we'll sell you the Patriot missile." It was only when they found out they couldn't get it, then, they say, "Let's go, we'll sell you the Patriot missile."

    But, by that time, Turkey had already signed and paid a lot of money to Russia for the missile system that they were not allowed to buy here, foolishly - because Turkey is a NATO member.

    Turkey has also ordered over a hundred F-35 planes - substantially over a hundred - and they have plans to order more. But because they have a system of missiles that's made in Russia, they're now prohibited from buying over a hundred planes. I would say that Lockheed isn't exactly happy. That's a lot of jobs.

    And, frankly, I've always had a very good relationship. We have Pastor Brunson - came back, at my request, when I called up. Pastor Brunson was going to be in jail for 25 years. And I called President Erdogan, and I said, "Listen, he's an innocent man. He's a pastor. He's a religious man. He's not a spy. He's not the things they said." And we had a couple of conversations, and I was able to get him back. Along with many other people, I was able to get back. The press doesn't want to write about it.

    Our ambassador for hostage negotiations said, "Trump is the greatest of all time." I only tell you that because you'll never say it. But I guess we have 21 back. I got 21 back. I don't pay, either - unlike the $1.8 billion that was paid by the Obama administration to get hostages back. I don't pay because, once you pay, it doesn't work out.

    So what happens is we have a situation where Turkey is very good with us. Very good. And we are now telling Turkey that, because you have really been forced to buy another missile system, we're not going to sell you the F-35 fighter jets. It's a very tough situation that they're in. And it's a very tough situation that we've been placed in - the United States.

    With all of that being said, we're working through it. We'll see what happens. But it's not really fair. They wanted to buy - I don't stick up for countries. I don't stick up for Turkey. I don't stick up - other than I've had a good relationship with President Erdogan.


    He wanted to buy our Patriot missile. We wouldn't sell it. And then, when he made a - and he really wanted to buy it. And then, when he made a deal with another country - Russia - to buy their system that he didn't even want, then, all of the sudden, we say, "Oh, okay. We'll now sell you the Patriot." And because of the fact he bought a Russian missile, we're not allowed to sell him billions of dollars' worth of aircraft. It's not a fair situation.

    Do you have something to add to that, Mike?

    SECRETARY POMPEO: No, sir. I think you explained it well.

    THE PRESIDENT: I think so. Good. You said the right thing. (Laughter.)

    Q   Google and China? Google and China? You tweeted about it.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, what we're doing with China, first of all - you know, Thiel is a friend of mine. He's a tremendous contributor. He's a big - he's a big - he spoke at our convention - at the Republican National Convention. Peter is a brilliant young man - one of the most successful people in Silicon Valley. I guess he was an original investor in some of these biggest - biggest companies, including Facebook, I understand.

    Yeah, he made a very strong charge. He's one of the top - maybe the top expert on all of those things. And he made a very big statement about Google. And I would like to recommend to the various agencies, including perhaps our Attorney General, who is with us, to maybe take a look. It's a big statement, when you say that, you know, Google is involved with China in not a very positive way for our country.

    So I think we'll all look at that. I know that our other agencies will be looking at it. And we'll see if there's any truth to it. But that's a very big statement, made by somebody who's highly respected. So we'll certainly take a look at that.

    Q   And at least two Central American countries have said they're not going to play ball with your new asylum plans. What are you going to do?

    THE PRESIDENT: We'll see what happens. We were sending hundreds of millions of dollars to - are you talking about Guatemala and Honduras?