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

Press Release:

    Cabinet Room  •  August 16, 2018  •  11:43 A.M. EDT

    THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Thank you very much for being here. I think we'll start with Secretary Pompeo saying a prayer.

    Mike.

    SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you, Mr. President. So I'm going to read a prayer that is from a - long ago in my history. It's called the "Cadet Prayer." You see this little beat-up little book? Every cadet gets one. And if you'll bow your heads, I'll do the prayer.

    "O God, our Father, Thou Searcher of Men's hearts, help us to draw near to Thee in sincerity and truth. May our religion be filled with gladness and may our worship of Thee be natural.

    Strengthen and increase our admiration for honest dealing and clean thinking, and suffer not our hatred of hypocrisy and pretense ever to diminish...Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won. Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy...Help us to maintain the honor of the [United States] untarnished and unsullied and to show forth in our lives the ideals of [America] in doing our duty to Thee and to our [nation]. All of which we ask in the name of [our] Great Friend and Master of [men]. Amen."


    F Thank you. Thank you for doing a great job too.

    SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to begin today by expressing my condolences to the family of a person I knew well - she worked for me on numerous occasions; she was terrific - Aretha Franklin, on her passing. She's brought joy to millions of lives, and her extraordinary legacy will thrive and inspire many generations to come.

    She was given a great gift from God: her voice. And she used it well. People loved Aretha. She was a special woman. So I just want to pass on my warmest, best wishes and sympathies to her family.

    We meet at a time of great opportunity for our nation. Our economy is doing better than it ever has before. It was going in the wrong direction when we came onboard, and now it's going better than ever before.

    We've created nearly 4 million new jobs since the election, which is an unthinkable number. Nobody would have said that was possible. It's going to go up very substantially from there.

    The African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American unemployment rates have all reached their lowest levels in recorded history. And we're creating manufacturing jobs at the fastest pace in memory. Nobody has any numbers where it's anywhere close to what we're doing.

    And if you remember, during the campaign, everybody said that it was impossible to create manufacturing jobs.

    The past administration - and I won't say who, but I think you know - made the statement that we're not going to have any manufacturing jobs. And we're doing them by the hundreds of thousands.

    Companies are moving back into the United States. That means jobs; it means production; it means taxes. And, really, things are great.

    Yesterday, Larry Kudlow, a man I respected for many years - that voice, that beautiful voice; I've heard it so many years, talking about financial - and he came into my office and he made a statement that was something that was very beautiful, and I'd like to maybe ask him to say a little bit about what he told me last night.

    Larry?

    KUDLOW: Yes, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it. Hi, everybody.

    So, look, it's fairly simple thought - most good things are. But I'm looking at the media, and watching various TV and other outlets talk about stuff that baffles me, that's outside my lane.

    Here's the key point I made to the President yesterday and I make it to you today, and I hope we all we keep making it: By far - by far - the single biggest event, be it political or otherwise, this year is an economic boom that most people thought would be impossible to generate. Not a rise, not a blip - a genuine economic boom.

    And everybody wrote us off, going back to the campaign, and as it was put into place last year, and now the follow through this year. And the numbers are coming in; they just keep coming in, which is one of the reasons I tried to get a hold of the President on this. I mean, we've got 3.1 percent GDP in the first half of the year; 4.1 in the second quarter. The Atlanta Fed is predicting 4.3 in the third quarter. I think it's a very realistic estimate.

    Here's the point: Anybody who does political forecasting using the economy always focuses on a number - hang with me - real disposable income. Just think of it as after-tax pay - "take-home pay," Ronald Reagan used to say (inaudible).

    So that measure is growing at 3.1 percent the last 12 months. When we came to office, it was less than 1 percent on a 12-month basis. It has jumped. So people say only a few are benefitting. Not true. This is a measure of the entire economy. Everyone's wages and salaries, adjusted for taxes and adjusted for inflation, is growing at 3 percent. It's a tremendous number. And there's no signs that's abating.

    Confidence - confidence numbers: Large businesses, small businesses, and consumer confidence numbers are at or near record highs, and, from the latest surveys, are continuing to rise. There's no letup in the increase. And confidence is everything. Confidence is everything. And I can run down the litany - I'm not going to take up your time. I'm just saying.

    The really wonderful part of the story for me - and, you know, I get off on this stuff, I understand that - but it's very important for the country, Americans, the workforce. The new numbers coming in - retail sales, industrial production, low inflation, a rock-steady dollar. Trillions of dollars of capital from all over the world is coming into the United States because our economy, our investors, our workforce are crushing it right now. We are crushing it.

    And people say this is not sustainable, it's a one-quarter blip. It's just nonsense, absolute nonsense. Any business economist worth his or her salt would look at these trends and tell you we're going for a while. We have low inventories. We have rising business investment. Productivity is showing the first lift in years; the last number was 1.3 percent for the year. We haven't seen that in a long time. Businesses are investing. Capital goods is booming. This is a complete turnaround. It's like, if you give Americans some freedom to run, they will run. All right?

    And presidential policy - low tax rates, roll back regulations, open up energy, trade reforms to help the American workforce and the employers - across the board, we're not punishing success; we're rewarding success. We're not against businesses; we are for businesses. And we have a President who, in my words, was telling folks to take a rip at the ball, and they're doing it.

    And again, people may disagree with me, but I'm saying, this - we are just in the early stages. We're in the early innings here. We never had a cap goods boom. We're now starting. And we've never seen income numbers like this - again, after tax, after inflation.

    Policies matter. I mean, America's free market economy - ordinary people run our economy, entrepreneurs. That's the beauty of it. But policies matter. And when you change that switch, as President Trump has changed that switch, things are happening that a handful of us thought might happen, but I would not say it was widespread.

    So I'll just end, sir. And I appreciate the time very much. The single biggest story this year is an economic boom that is durable and lasting, and that most people thought was impossible. And they were wrong. And you were right, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Larry, very much. Larry, I should end on that. This is always a mistake. (Laughter.) Could I ask you one question? China. As you know, China was, for many years - as long as anybody up here, including the media, could remember - China was on a one-way road to becoming the biggest economy and all of that. And we were just going to be left behind.

    I'd like you to say how are we doing versus China, and how is China doing. We want them to do well, frankly. And President Xi is a friend of mine. I want them to do well. But how are we doing versus China? How is China doing?

    KUDLOW: You know, sir, the latest batch of numbers from China, spanning a good six months now, nine months - their economy is just heading south. Retail sales, business - business investment is collapsing in China, according to the numbers. Industrial production has fallen and now is plateauing at a low level. People are selling the currency; there may be some manipulation. But mostly, I think investors are moving out of China because they don't like the economy, and they're coming to the USA because they like our economy.

    I'm not a China expert, although I'm boning up as fast as I can. I will just say, right now, their economy looks terrible.

    THE PRESIDENT: Okay, thank you. Thank you very much, Larry.

    KUDLOW: Thank you, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: I'd like to ask Ryan Zinke, Secretary, who actually I watched this morning. He was giving a rundown on the horrible fires that are taking place mostly in California. And I thought what he said was so true and, actually, rather incredible - people don't hear it - they don't hear it like it is. There are things you can do about those fires before they start, and you wouldn't have nearly the damage and the problems.

    We're spending a fortune in California because of poor maintenance and because, frankly, they're sending a lot of water out to the Pacific to protect the smelt. And, by the way, it's not working. The smelt is not doing well. But we're sending millions and millions of gallons, right out into the Pacific Ocean, of beautiful, clean water coming up from the north - or coming down from the north.

    And I thought Ryan was great this morning. So before we start on a couple of other things we'll be discussing today, including, very importantly, schools and education, I would ask you to give maybe a little recap of what you said this morning on television.

    SECRETARY ZINKE: Well, thank you, Mr. President. And first, our firefighters - which there are 30,000 of them - are doing spectacular things. We've had six deaths related. And we forget that firefighters, while they're in the frontline, their homes and families are in jeopardy, and our hearts and prayers need to be with our frontline firefighters that are out there every day.

    It is a matter of gross mismanagement; there is no question. The fuel loads are up. The density of our forests is historical. We have dead and dying timber. And if you don't believe me, believe your own eyes: Go out and take a look at our forests. Take a drive out there and look at the dead and dying timber. It's been a gross mismanagement for decades. But we're burning our forests, we're destroying our habitats, and we're destroying our communities and neighborhoods by these catastrophic fires of two-, three-hundred-thousand acres.

    Thus far, there's 5.7 million acres of our public lands that have been destroyed at a cost of about $3 billion this fiscal year. Americans deserve to go out and recreate rather than evacuate. So we went out - Secretary Perdue and I went out to California. We are committed to reestablishing sound science, best practices for the greatest good for all of us.

    But sound active management, Mr. President, is the path that you have laid. And it's clear: This is unacceptable that year after year we're watching our forests burn, our habitat destroyed, and our communities devastated. And it is absolutely preventable. And public lands are for everybody to enjoy and not just held hostage by these special interest groups.

    Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: And, Ryan, you're saying it's not a global warming thing, it's a management situation. And one of the elements that he talked about was the fact we have fallen trees. And instead of removing those fallen trees - which get to be extremely combustible - instead of removing them - gently removing them, beautifully removing them - we leave them to burn and, actually, in many cases, catch fire much easier than a healthy tree, a healthy-growing tree.

    Could you just discuss that for a second?

    SECRETARY ZINKE: Well, Mr. President, we import lumber in this country, and yet there are billions of board feet that are on the forest floor rotting. Rotting. And whether you're a global warmist advocate or denier, it doesn't make a difference when you have rotting timber, when housing prices are going up, when a lot of Americans are right at that border of affording a house, and yet we are wasting billions of board feet for not being able to bring them to a local lumber mill. It is unconscionable that we would do that to our citizens.

    And so, Mr. President, we are actively engaged. We have signed secretarial orders. Secretary Perdue and I went out to California. We are joined at the hip to make sure we actively manage our forest, remove the dead and dying timber, replant diversity of species. And on the salvage operations - 5.7 million acres - a lot of that can be salvaged if we get to it in the first year. And we're going to do it, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: And just to add, just to conclude, especially when Canada is charging us a lot of money to bring their timber down into our country. It's so ridiculous. Here we have it. We're not even talking about cutting down trees, which in certain areas we can do. We're talking about lying on the floor, creating a tremendous hazard and a tremendous fire hazard and death trap.

    So I thought they were great points. Thank you very much, Ryan. Appreciate it.

    We're also working to reduce violent crime and to help our great law enforcement, including the very brave men and women of ICE, who have been absolutely abused. They are tremendous people. They're brave. They're strong. They're tough. And they're good. They're good people.

    And you think you're going to send just regular people in to take care of MS-13 and these gangs? Not going to happen.

    So I just want to thank ICE and everybody in law enforcement for the incredible job they've done and are doing.

    Our families prepare, and they are in the process of preparing for the new school year. My administration is working closely with state and local authorities to protect our schools and to protect our children. Our hearts continue to grieve for the victims of the horrific shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that we all know too well about what they went through. Incredible people. And Santa Fe High School in Texas - same thing.
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