Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing | September 4, 2020 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    So I want to thank everybody for being here. I'm going to ask Larry Kudlow to give a couple of examples of how strong our economy is recovering, how strongly it's recovering. And it's setting records at every level, and we're doing better than every other country. And we're very proud of all of the people for doing such an incredible job. This is a "V." It's a "super V."

    Again, we have $300 billion ready to go. All Congress has to do is say, "Use it." If they say, "Use it" - I'd like to use it without their permission, but I guess I'm not allowed to do that. I did ask that question. So Congress has to just say, "Use it." All they have to do is say, "Use it"; $300 billion gets immediately put into our system, and will really help the American people. There's nothing else to do - just a very quick statement.

    So I'm going to ask Larry to come up. I want to thank another man for being here today. There's a man that's a incredible leader: Lou Holtz. I've known him for a long time. He's been a friend of mine. And I think I've received letters from every football coach, almost, in the nation. And that's a little exaggeration, but some - some of the greats. Nick Saban wrote a letter. Coach O - and Coach O is central casting. I said, "We're going to have to put him in a movie" - right? - "as a football coach." He'd really be good playing a football coach like you. And Urban Meyer wrote a beautiful letter. And so many of the other great, legendary coaches.

    Not only coaches though - people in sports and people in life and even great political people, recommending Lou for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And we've analyzed it very closely. We've looked at all of those recommendations. We've looked at Lou's life and his career and what he's done for charity. And the football is obvious - he was a great coach - but what he's done, beyond even coaching.


    So Lou will be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And a date is being picked; it won't be in the too-distant future. Lou was married to a great woman. Right, Lou? A great woman. And she just passed away a few months ago. This is an incredible woman. She was stronger - I knew her; I knew her well - she was stronger than Lou. I think she was stronger than you, Lou, I hate to tell you. You're strong, too. But she was special, right?

    So I just want to congratulate Coach Lou Holtz on - soon to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And we look forward to that, Lou. Thank you very much. And you can stay around and listen to Larry for a couple of seconds or -

    MR. HOLTZ: I - I listen to Larry -

    THE PRESIDENT: - or go to your friend.

    MR. HOLTZ: - every chance I can.

    THE PRESIDENT: You probably know half of the people in the room. I'll bet they treat you better than they treat me. They treat him good. I wish you'd treat me that way.

    Larry, come on up.

    MR. KUDLOW: Thank you, sir. Thanks, sir. I appreciate it. Again, Coach, many congrats. Many, many congrats.

    Just to underscore the President's assessment of the economy: very strong jobs report today, 8.4 percent unemployment rate, 1.4 million payrolls increase. But I want to add: 3.8 million - 3.8 million increase in the important household survey, which aims at small businesses particularly, and from which the unemployment is calculated. In the past four months, we've generated a 10.6 million increase in payrolls and a 14 million increase in households. So we've restored basically half of the jobs that were lost in the pandemic contraction.

    Today's report also included the lower-wage industries and minority groups across the board. The diffusion index was a whopping 69 percent. So these gains are very, very broad based. There's still too many people out. There's still too much hardships, still too many unemployed. And we are working on that, and we are moving in the right direction. And that's why today's numbers are encouraging and optimistic.

    Now, other areas that the President mentioned, just to underscore - we are in a housing boom. There can be no disagreement about that: sales, mortgage applications, prices, home starts of 23 percent annually in July. We're in a car boom - automobile boom. We've gone from 8.7 million in sales to 15.2 million in sales in the recent four months. That's a big jump. As the President mentioned, a leading indicator of that is used car sales and prices.

    The manufacturing indexes are very strong. This recovery includes manufacturing. The ISM is running in the high 50s, the new order index is at 68, production index is 63. We had a manufacturing report for durables - core durables - over the past three months - orders up 35 percent, shipments up 35 percent. So these are very strong numbers. New business applications from 25,000 to 66,000. It's 160 percent gain through August. And as the President referred, consumer spending is booming. We're up 84 percent annually over the past three months.

    My view, of course, we are in a "V"-shaped recovery. It is a self-sustaining recovery. High-demand, increased production and manufacturing, along with a decline in inventories will give us a tremendous momentum going into the second half of the year. I still reckon that the third quarter will be at least 20 percent growth. The Atlanta Fed's GDPNow index is close to 30 percent. I think 20 percent is a good number. I think the whole second half and next year, provided that economic policies remain pro-growth -

    And I just want to mention one thing: On the policy front, I simply don't understand the other side wanting a $4 trillion tax increase after a deep pandemic contraction.

    And on this point, I believe, a vast majority of economists - I don't care if you're a Keynesian demand-sider or supply-sider - you just don't raise taxes by this amount or by any amount, really. But $4 trillion? Really picking the pockets of taxpayers who are returning to work now and need all the resources they can get - you just don't do it. The profession should be - have a complete consensus on that. And so I'm quite surprised and I think that is a potential obstacle, and people are beginning to speak about that.

    But all I can say is, factually, the numbers are coming in very positively. There's a lot of optimism going on, more work to be done, but we're rolling in the right direction, sir.


    Thank you. Appreciate it.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Larry, very much.

    Okay, please.

    Q Thank you, President Trump. If I could first ask a clarifying question about the 300 billion -

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

    Q You've ruled out doing that unilaterally. You're going to wait for Congress to repurpose it for stimulus checks.

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. What about it?

    Q No, is that correct: You're waiting for Congress?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I am. You know, there's a theory that I can do it without the approval, but I'd rather get the approval so that we have it. But there's a theory I could take the $300 billion. It's money that we have - money that we built up and money that we haven't spent, and I would love to give it to the American people as a very powerful stimulus. So, yeah.

    I think there is a theory that I could do it without having to go back, but I think it would be appropriate to go back, and I would ask Congress to approve it. It's a very simple approval. It's - literally, it's a one-sentence approval, and the Democrats should do that. The Republicans will do that. They would be glad to do that. So, we'll see whether or not they do it. Okay?

    Please, in the back.

    Q Yes, Mr. President, our editor-in-chief, John Solomon, had an exclusive interview with the head of the Delaware Fraternal Order of Police chapter. He said that they were going to endorse you instead of their native son, Joe Biden.

    THE PRESIDENT: Right.

    Q I'd like your response. As well as - the national organization, the Fraternal Order of Police, is endorsing you as well.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm honored that Delaware - because I don't see Biden anywhere but Delaware. He's - and I like Delaware, too. But to have the law enforcement in Delaware give their endorsement to me is really a great honor. It's really - it just shows you how - how pathetic the Democrats are when it comes to crime, when it comes to law and order.

    So, would you please extend my very great thanks? That's a great honor to get it from Delaware law enforcement. We've gotten it from almost all law enforcement, but that's - that's a - because every time I see Biden speak, it says, "Delaware, Delaware, Delaware." He never leaves. I'm all over the country; I'm all over the place.

    Yeah, please. Go ahead. Did you have? Yeah, go ahead, Jeff.

    Q Thanks, Mr. President. Germany has said that Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, was poisoned. What do you think should be done to Russia about that? And what is your message to Russia about that? And how should the international community and the United States respond?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think we have to look at it very seriously if that's the case, and I think we will. There's nobody been tougher on Russia than I have. We get along. I get along with almost all countries.

    I get along with North Korea. Remember? We were supposed to be going to war with North Korea. If Hillary got elected, you'd be at war right now with North Korea. That would be a very messy war, a very bad war. Many millions of people would be killed. In the meantime, we've gotten along with them. We didn't get to war. Everyone said that if I was elected, I'd be at war in one week; it's been just the opposite.

    We're doing very well in Afghanistan, bringing the troops down - very low level - and other things are happening very interestingly. We have a great peace deal going on in the Middle East, actually, with UAE and Israel. And that's been received like, probably, very few things that many people have done. It's been very well-received. And we'll be having other countries announcing soon; they're joining that, and you're going to have a lot of countries in that. A lot of countries are saying, "Hey, why didn't you bring us in right from the beginning?" They would have loved to have been there, but they want to - they want to be in.

    So, we're doing a lot of things. I think that I was the one that alerted the United States and the world: Nord Stream 2. I said, "Why is Germany spending billions and billions of dollars to Russia to get their energy from Russia, and then we're supposed to protect Germany from Russia? What's that all about?" And the sanctions and everything else.

    At the same time, with Russia, we're right now negotiating a nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which is very important. It's a very important thing. To me, it's the most important thing. Some people say "global warming;" I don't. I say this is far more important. And we are the biggest; they are the second biggest, nuclear-wise. China is third. They're actually a distant third, but they're building pretty rapidly. And at some point, we'll include China into those talks, but we're doing very well with Russia on nuclear nonproliferation.

    So I don't know exactly what happened. I think it's - it's tragic. It's terrible. It shouldn't happen. We haven't had any proof yet, but I will take a look.

    Q Do you doubt it?

    THE PRESIDENT: It is interesting that everybody is always mentioning Russia. And I don't mind you mentioning Russia, but I think probably China, at this point, is a nation that you should be talking about much more so than Russia because the things that China is doing are far worse, if you take a look at what's happening with the world.

    Look at what happened with the China virus. Look at what they did by not keeping that within the confines of China. They should have kept it in the confines of China. Look what they've done to 188 countries all over the world. But you never ask about China; you're always asking about Russia.

    So I would be very angry if that's the case, and we'll take a look at the - at the numbers and the documents, because we're going to be sent a lot of documents over the next few days.


    Q Mr. President -

    THE PRESIDENT: Not - please, in the back.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President. During the conventions, Kimber- - thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

    Q During the conventions, Kimberly and Don Jr. had the outreach - the Indian American community - with a video called "Four More Years" for you, which has gone viral among the Indian Americans in the battleground states.