Remarks by President Trump, President Vučić of Serbia, and Prime Minister Hoti of Kosovo in a Trilateral Meeting | Eastern North Carolina Now

    VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: Well, Mr. President, I just - I just want to extend all of our congratulations to the President of Serbia and the Prime Minister of Kosovo.

    Mr. President, you've demonstrated, again, a commitment to peace. And today's agreement on economic cooperation, we believe, as the President and the Prime Minister do, as you do, that this is an important step toward peace in the Balkans in the long term.

    And let me also say, I - how much we appreciate and welcome the important steps that both these countries are making, Mr. President, and the direction of recognizing Israel, moving embassies to Jerusalem, as you have done.

    The Good Book says: Blessed are the peacemakers. And, Mr. President, I think to the American people, to the people of Serbia, to the people of Kosovo that are looking on know that there are three peacemakers here. And we've - we've made an important step for this economic agreement toward lasting peace in the Balkans. And I want to congratulate them, and I want to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your leadership that brought us to this historic day.

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you, Mike, very much.

    I'd like to have a really great Senator, Ron Johnson, Wisconsin - and we have a lot of people from Serbia and Kosovo living in your state. And you were a big part of it. So thank you, Ron, very much. Would you like to say something?

    SENATOR JOHNSON: Well, first of all, this is a really big deal. I could not be happier for everybody - you know, particularly the people of Kosovo and Serbia. This was a brilliant strategy.

    Now, I've been involved and I've made multiple trips to both Kosovo and Serbia. And, by the way, if you go, you will find what fantastic hosts the folks from Kosovo and Serbia are.

    But this has taken real political courage. This is not easy. And as much as we can say, "Well, what's the big deal?" - this is a really big deal. But it really was a - the leadership shown by President Vučić, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, the beauty of focusing on economics is that their people will see the benefit, and they will be able to overcome and take the next step. This is a big - big day for, I think, stability in the Balkans as well.

    So again, I'm just glad to be here to see the culmination of this, and I just want to congratulate everybody involved, but in particular, I want to congratulate the people of Kosovo and Serbia. America is your friend, and we want nothing but the best for the people of Kosovo and Serbia.

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: And you have a very good tennis player playing right now in the U.S. Open, right?

    PRESIDENT VUČIĆ: The best in the world. (Laughter.) By far, the best in the world.

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: He's (inaudible) - Djokovic.

    PRESIDENT VUČIĆ: Number one, officially. Yes.

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: Djokovic. He's a great player.


    PRESIDENT VUČIĆ: Yes. And many NBA player.

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, you do.

    PRESIDENT VUČIĆ: NBA players. Yes. Yes. Very good players, as a matter of fact.

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: They're all as tall as you are. Even a little bit taller, maybe.

    PRESIDENT VUČIĆ: Yes.

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we want to thank you both. And this has been really terrific.

    Would you have any other questions for the Prime Minister or the President?

    Q We want to ask you about the economy, if we can, a little bit, if that's possible.

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, sure.

    Q So, on the economy today, obviously there was 1.4 million jobs -

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.

    Q - they were added. At this pace, though, it'll still take a full year before all the jobs lost before the pandemic are regained. Is that good enough?

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think what's happening is you're going to see tremendous growth in the very near future.

    We're rounding the curve. We're coming up with vaccines. I think the vaccines are going to be announced very soon, and I think you're going to see great companies announcing these vaccines.

    I spoke with Pfizer today. I speak with the different companies. Johnson & Johnson, as you know, doing really well. Moderna.

    We have tremendous - tremendous talent, tremendous scientists, and they're really right there, and I think you're going to hear some very good news.


    And also, to me, maybe even better I think, when it comes to therapeutics, you're going to have some, Peter - some incredible news coming out very soon. I say "therapeutics" because that's - you walk into the hospital, and whether it's a transfusion or a shot, people get better. That's something that I think, right now, is really incredible.

    The numbers are way down, as you know. Florida is doing very well. Arizona has been actually a little bit of a miracle, how quickly it went down, because it went up and it went down very quickly. Two really great governors. Texas, great governor - same thing. California, the numbers are way down. So we're really starting to see those areas that popped up are really going down.

    The mortality rates, you look at the percentages, what's happening - and that's because of the convalescent plasma; it's because of the remdesivir; it's for a lot of different reasons.

    But we all - you know, we do have - we do have therapeutics that are really having an impact. And if you're looking at what's going on, I've seen numbers from 50 to 85 percent better. So that's really something.

    So we're very proud of the job we're doing. And I think, in particular, not only the great companies, but the companies - every one of them has said to me: If this was a more typical kind of presidency - I'll be nice - if this was a more typical kind of President, getting these approvals would take two or three years. And they'll have them - I mean, as far as we're concerned, they're very close to announcing some very big news. So we're honored by that.

    And I've had a team, whether it's Vice President Mike Pence, head of the task force, and all of the people on the task force - and they've really done a great job. I don't think they've been recognized for the great job they've done.

    And last night, I read out in Pennsylvania, Latrobe, the home of the great Arnold Palmer - but I read out some statistics on how we're doing compared to other parts of the world, and we're doing phenomenally well.

    And if you took New York - because New York was just - really, they made a lot of mistakes in New York. But if you took that out - you know, a tremendous number of deaths in New York - if you took that out, our numbers are just about as good as anybody in the world. And even without that, without taking it out, you see the kind of numbers we have.

    So - so we've done a good job. We've done a great job in helping governors. I think every governor is very happy. Not everybody expresses it to the media, but they do at the task force meetings. We've had task force meetings where they're laying praise on us, and then they'll go out and talk to the press and they won't be quite as generous. But that's okay.

    But for the most part, I think we've helped - in every case, we've helped every governor, and we've helped them a lot. And some of them, we've made look very good. And some have done a really great job, and others haven't.

    But as a country, we have really done a terrific job. And I want to thank Vice President Pence and - but I won't thank too much right now because we'd like to get the job finished first. And the vaccines are going to come out soon, and the therapeutics are continuing, and that's why we're having the kind of numbers we have.

    And I'll be doing a news conference today at 5 o'clock, so I'll see you there, okay?

    Q Sir, do you need to apologize to service members and veterans?

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. It was fake story written by a magazine that was probably not going to be around much longer. But it was a totally fake story, and that was confirmed by many people who were actually there.

    It was a terrible thing that somebody could say the kind of things and - especially to me, because I've done more for the military than almost anybody else.

    You look at how the VA is doing, it's doing incredibly well. We got all sorts of things done, from Accountability to Veterans Choice to everything. And it's got right now - and it's got, right now, the highest approval rating that it's ever had: 91 percent approval rating. It's never been anywhere close to that.

    Nobody has done what I've done, and that includes salary increases, but it really includes the rebuilding of our military. Because, as you know, when I came here, our military was totally depleted, and we spent almost $2.5 trillion - much more than you spent on your military, I can tell you that, right? Slightly more. $2.5 trillion, all made in the USA. You have F-35s, brand-new jets and rockets and missiles.

    And hope to God that we never have to use it, but our nuclear is now in extraordinary shape, including new weapons. I just hope we never have to use that because that's a level of power that you don't even want to talk about, you don't even want to hear about it.


    So it's a fake story, and it's a disgrace that they're allowed to do it. And very interestingly - I hate to bring up his book, but John Bolton, no friend of mine, I thought he was - you know, didn't know too much about what he was doing. He was - he was - didn't do a good job, but he wrote a book. And if you read it, he talks about this incident and he doesn't mention it. And, frankly, a lot of reporters, even some pretty bad ones, they read that, and that was the end of the story.

    No, there's nobody that considers the military - and especially people that have given their lives in the military - to me, they're heroes. To me, they're heroes.

    It's - it's even hard to believe how they could do it. And I say that - it's so - the level of bravery. And to me, they are absolute heroes. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

    END

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