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Remarks by President Trump in Meeting with Workers on "Cutting the Red Tape, Unleashing Economic Freedom"
Press Release:
Oval Office • October 17, 2018 • 11:15 A.M. EDT
President Trump (center), and his executive finance team: Above. (White House photo) Click image to expand.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, and welcome to the Oval Office. On Monday, I traveled to Florida and Georgia to meet with first responders and to visit with those affected by the devastation of Hurricane Michael. And yesterday, Mike Pence traveled also to the two states and he saw devastation like he's never seen before. We're in the same category. It was something. Something horrible.
Thousands of federal employees and military personnel have been deployed to assist in the massive recovery effort. One of the biggest we've ever done, and we've had some pretty big hurricanes. This was just about at the top.
We will not rest until every community has been fully restored. The restoration efforts here is bigger than the others, because the winds were so powerful. They literally lifted businesses and houses and factories - everything in its way. They would literally lift not only the house, they would lift out the foundations, in many cases. They ripped out foundations that were set deep. And nobody has seen anything quite like this.
We're here today to discuss my administration's historic effort to reduce job-killing regulations. We have set a record on killing regulations. No administration has knocked out as many as us, and we have a long way to go.
At the same time, we will have rules, regulations, and other standards which we need, we have to have. But we have knocked out tremendous numbers of unnecessary regulations.
We've removed more regulations, and we will continue to get rid of regulations. I think within a period of about another year, we will have just about everything that we've wanted. And one of the reasons the economy is so strong is that we're not hampered by the ridiculous regulations that we were getting rid of and are getting rid of.
EPA, I can tell you - just speaking of one - the things, Mr. Secretary, that we have gotten rid of, it's unbelievable and totally unnecessary. And I know you have a long way to go. And yet, we're going to have the best EPA that anybody has ever had - and the strictest, in a certain way.
I want to thank very much Secretary Zinke, Secretary Perdue, Secretary Chao, Director Mulvaney, Administrator McMahon, and Acting Administrator Wheeler, who's doing a terrific job, by the way, over at the EPA.
And we're joined today by six really impressive people. People that some of you have gotten to know. People that have been both helped and hurt in lots of different situations, but very spectacular people.
I want to introduce Chris Chinn, a fifth-generation Missouri farmer. Thank you very much, Chris. How's Missouri been, good?
MS. CHINN: We're doing good. We had a drought this summer, but we're recovering.
THE PRESIDENT: That's good. It's a great place. It's a great place.
Luanne Cundiff, a community banker from Missouri, also. Right?
MS. CUNDIFF: St. Charles, Missouri.
THE PRESIDENT: And the community bank business is doing much better now that we got rid of the man that was running the regulatory service that was just absolutely destroying people. How is that going there?
MS. CUNDIFF: Yeah. We have new heads of many regulatory agencies in place now, and they have been boots on the ground trying to listen to concerns from community bankers and address those concerns. So it's going well.
THE PRESIDENT: It's a big difference. They're doing a really good job. And Mick Mulvaney has done a fantastic job in taking that over. We were hampered by a man that was just terrible. And now he's running for the Governor of Ohio, isn't that nice? Running for the Governor of Ohio; would be a terrible Governor.
Adam Red, a councilman of the Ute Indian tribe of Colorado. And tell us a little bit about that tribe.
MR. RED: Well, it's the Southern Ute Indian tribe. We're the only tribe located in (inaudible), Colorado. We are an energy-producing tribe.
THE PRESIDENT: That means you're rich.
MR. RED: (Laughs.) Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: They're rich.
MR. RED: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: That's good.
MR. RED: Got to be humble. (Laughter.) Yeah, we got money.
THE PRESIDENT: That's great. But it's going well?
MR. RED: It's going well. Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: That's good. David Boyer, a trucker with ABF Freight. David, thank you very much. I saw you before. Thank you, David.
Benson Waller of Riverview Coal Mine.
MR. WALLER: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Benson. Chip Kovach, Vice President of Engineering for his family's small business, City Machine Technologies. How's that going?
MR. KOVACH: Great. Ever since the administration, we are busier than ever. Having trouble finding good, qualified help. It's actually a very good problem to have.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we're setting records on unemployment or employment, use either word.
MR. KOVACH: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Use either way. Either way, it's a record.
MR. KOVACH: Supply and demand.
THE PRESIDENT: It's good. And a lot of people are being trained and we're training a lot of people. And companies are coming into our country now at a record clip, and they're all coming in and training large amounts of people. And frankly, I like them training them better than anybody. But I heard you're doing really well, and that's really nice.
Do you have anything to say, anybody? This side?
MS. CHINN: The agriculture industry is very appreciative of everything that you've done. You've brought attention back to rural America, and we appreciate it. We've had a struggling infrastructure system. High-speed Internet access in Missouri - over 60 percent of our rural Missourians don't have access to affordable, high-speed Internet.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MS. CHINN: And the work that you've done with Secretary Perdue to get many out into our rural communities, we really appreciate the reverse-path auction through the FCC. Missouri was awarded $254 million of that. It's going to connect 95,000 homes to high-speed Internet. And we just really appreciate it. Missourians appreciate what you're doing on their behalf to make their rural communities vibrant again, and to help the agriculture industry pass on to that next generation of farmers and ranchers.
THE PRESIDENT: Great. Well, it's my honor. And you have a great race going on out there.
MS. CHINN: We do.
THE PRESIDENT: And that will make a big difference. A very positive difference, the outcome. I won't say it because I'm not a political person, so I won't discuss that. (Laughter.) I won't discuss that in front of the press, okay?
Go ahead. How about yourself?
MS. CUNDIFF: That's funny.
So Missouri is well represented here. Again, I'm from St. Charles, Missouri, representing the community banking sector. I actually -
THE PRESIDENT: Have you seen a big difference in community banking over the last couple of years?
MS. CUNDIFF: We have. Actually, much has changed. We actually had a meeting here last March to talk about issues we needed to work on. And the Treasury implemented some suggested changes, and you signed a law in May of this year - Senate Bill 2155.
THE PRESIDENT: That's right.
MS. CUNDIFF: A reg relief bill. And the tone has certainly changed -
THE PRESIDENT: They actually needed - think of it: They needed a regulatory relief bill. The regulations were so bad, they needed relief from regulations, which is somewhat of a classic.
Go ahead.
MS. CUNDIFF: But my - I think my message here is we have so much more to do. We have a lot of positive things happening. You talked about workforce issues being a good problem to have, but it is still a problem. But we need to forge ahead, because we, as an example bank, we're kind of falling in the gap for that particular regulation. We're too small to benefit from some provisions, and too large -
THE PRESIDENT: You're in the middle.
MS. CUNDIFF: We are in the middle. So we have lots of ideas on how to modernize some existing regulations that are on the books. So we look forward to working with -
THE PRESIDENT: We'll do that.
MS. CUNDIFF: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. And go ahead, tell me about your situation.
MR. RED: Thank you, Mr. Trump. I'd like to start by saying thank you to your administration and also Secretary Zinke. I'm on his Royalty Policy Committee. So, I mean, we're tasked with streamlining the red tape.
Also, our tribe - I mean, I can't thank you enough for your work in rolling back some of these regulations that we are ruled by. Our tribe has faced hurdles for years, and now we're starting to see some of the light come through with the work.
THE PRESIDENT: Your tribe had some big problems. You couldn't get to what you wanted to get to.
MR. RED: Exactly.
THE PRESIDENT: And now you're able to do it.
MR. RED: Exactly. And I mean, your administration has given deference back to the tribes to make the decisions on what happens on their land, and that was our goal to begin with. We shouldn't be told from outside sources what is best for us.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Well, good. You're doing a great job.
MR. RED: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: I've seen what you've done in a short period of time. It was fantastic.
MR. RED: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Congratulations.
Tell me.
Go Back
Oval Office • October 17, 2018 • 11:15 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, and welcome to the Oval Office. On Monday, I traveled to Florida and Georgia to meet with first responders and to visit with those affected by the devastation of Hurricane Michael. And yesterday, Mike Pence traveled also to the two states and he saw devastation like he's never seen before. We're in the same category. It was something. Something horrible.
Thousands of federal employees and military personnel have been deployed to assist in the massive recovery effort. One of the biggest we've ever done, and we've had some pretty big hurricanes. This was just about at the top.
We will not rest until every community has been fully restored. The restoration efforts here is bigger than the others, because the winds were so powerful. They literally lifted businesses and houses and factories - everything in its way. They would literally lift not only the house, they would lift out the foundations, in many cases. They ripped out foundations that were set deep. And nobody has seen anything quite like this.
We're here today to discuss my administration's historic effort to reduce job-killing regulations. We have set a record on killing regulations. No administration has knocked out as many as us, and we have a long way to go.
At the same time, we will have rules, regulations, and other standards which we need, we have to have. But we have knocked out tremendous numbers of unnecessary regulations.
We've removed more regulations, and we will continue to get rid of regulations. I think within a period of about another year, we will have just about everything that we've wanted. And one of the reasons the economy is so strong is that we're not hampered by the ridiculous regulations that we were getting rid of and are getting rid of.
EPA, I can tell you - just speaking of one - the things, Mr. Secretary, that we have gotten rid of, it's unbelievable and totally unnecessary. And I know you have a long way to go. And yet, we're going to have the best EPA that anybody has ever had - and the strictest, in a certain way.
I want to thank very much Secretary Zinke, Secretary Perdue, Secretary Chao, Director Mulvaney, Administrator McMahon, and Acting Administrator Wheeler, who's doing a terrific job, by the way, over at the EPA.
And we're joined today by six really impressive people. People that some of you have gotten to know. People that have been both helped and hurt in lots of different situations, but very spectacular people.
I want to introduce Chris Chinn, a fifth-generation Missouri farmer. Thank you very much, Chris. How's Missouri been, good?
MS. CHINN: We're doing good. We had a drought this summer, but we're recovering.
THE PRESIDENT: That's good. It's a great place. It's a great place.
Luanne Cundiff, a community banker from Missouri, also. Right?
MS. CUNDIFF: St. Charles, Missouri.
THE PRESIDENT: And the community bank business is doing much better now that we got rid of the man that was running the regulatory service that was just absolutely destroying people. How is that going there?
MS. CUNDIFF: Yeah. We have new heads of many regulatory agencies in place now, and they have been boots on the ground trying to listen to concerns from community bankers and address those concerns. So it's going well.
THE PRESIDENT: It's a big difference. They're doing a really good job. And Mick Mulvaney has done a fantastic job in taking that over. We were hampered by a man that was just terrible. And now he's running for the Governor of Ohio, isn't that nice? Running for the Governor of Ohio; would be a terrible Governor.
Adam Red, a councilman of the Ute Indian tribe of Colorado. And tell us a little bit about that tribe.
MR. RED: Well, it's the Southern Ute Indian tribe. We're the only tribe located in (inaudible), Colorado. We are an energy-producing tribe.
THE PRESIDENT: That means you're rich.
MR. RED: (Laughs.) Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: They're rich.
MR. RED: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: That's good.
MR. RED: Got to be humble. (Laughter.) Yeah, we got money.
THE PRESIDENT: That's great. But it's going well?
MR. RED: It's going well. Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: That's good. David Boyer, a trucker with ABF Freight. David, thank you very much. I saw you before. Thank you, David.
Benson Waller of Riverview Coal Mine.
MR. WALLER: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Benson. Chip Kovach, Vice President of Engineering for his family's small business, City Machine Technologies. How's that going?
MR. KOVACH: Great. Ever since the administration, we are busier than ever. Having trouble finding good, qualified help. It's actually a very good problem to have.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we're setting records on unemployment or employment, use either word.
MR. KOVACH: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Use either way. Either way, it's a record.
MR. KOVACH: Supply and demand.
THE PRESIDENT: It's good. And a lot of people are being trained and we're training a lot of people. And companies are coming into our country now at a record clip, and they're all coming in and training large amounts of people. And frankly, I like them training them better than anybody. But I heard you're doing really well, and that's really nice.
Do you have anything to say, anybody? This side?
MS. CHINN: The agriculture industry is very appreciative of everything that you've done. You've brought attention back to rural America, and we appreciate it. We've had a struggling infrastructure system. High-speed Internet access in Missouri - over 60 percent of our rural Missourians don't have access to affordable, high-speed Internet.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MS. CHINN: And the work that you've done with Secretary Perdue to get many out into our rural communities, we really appreciate the reverse-path auction through the FCC. Missouri was awarded $254 million of that. It's going to connect 95,000 homes to high-speed Internet. And we just really appreciate it. Missourians appreciate what you're doing on their behalf to make their rural communities vibrant again, and to help the agriculture industry pass on to that next generation of farmers and ranchers.
THE PRESIDENT: Great. Well, it's my honor. And you have a great race going on out there.
MS. CHINN: We do.
THE PRESIDENT: And that will make a big difference. A very positive difference, the outcome. I won't say it because I'm not a political person, so I won't discuss that. (Laughter.) I won't discuss that in front of the press, okay?
Go ahead. How about yourself?
MS. CUNDIFF: That's funny.
So Missouri is well represented here. Again, I'm from St. Charles, Missouri, representing the community banking sector. I actually -
THE PRESIDENT: Have you seen a big difference in community banking over the last couple of years?
MS. CUNDIFF: We have. Actually, much has changed. We actually had a meeting here last March to talk about issues we needed to work on. And the Treasury implemented some suggested changes, and you signed a law in May of this year - Senate Bill 2155.
THE PRESIDENT: That's right.
MS. CUNDIFF: A reg relief bill. And the tone has certainly changed -
THE PRESIDENT: They actually needed - think of it: They needed a regulatory relief bill. The regulations were so bad, they needed relief from regulations, which is somewhat of a classic.
Go ahead.
MS. CUNDIFF: But my - I think my message here is we have so much more to do. We have a lot of positive things happening. You talked about workforce issues being a good problem to have, but it is still a problem. But we need to forge ahead, because we, as an example bank, we're kind of falling in the gap for that particular regulation. We're too small to benefit from some provisions, and too large -
THE PRESIDENT: You're in the middle.
MS. CUNDIFF: We are in the middle. So we have lots of ideas on how to modernize some existing regulations that are on the books. So we look forward to working with -
THE PRESIDENT: We'll do that.
MS. CUNDIFF: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. And go ahead, tell me about your situation.
MR. RED: Thank you, Mr. Trump. I'd like to start by saying thank you to your administration and also Secretary Zinke. I'm on his Royalty Policy Committee. So, I mean, we're tasked with streamlining the red tape.
Also, our tribe - I mean, I can't thank you enough for your work in rolling back some of these regulations that we are ruled by. Our tribe has faced hurdles for years, and now we're starting to see some of the light come through with the work.
THE PRESIDENT: Your tribe had some big problems. You couldn't get to what you wanted to get to.
MR. RED: Exactly.
THE PRESIDENT: And now you're able to do it.
MR. RED: Exactly. And I mean, your administration has given deference back to the tribes to make the decisions on what happens on their land, and that was our goal to begin with. We shouldn't be told from outside sources what is best for us.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Well, good. You're doing a great job.
MR. RED: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: I've seen what you've done in a short period of time. It was fantastic.
MR. RED: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Congratulations.
Tell me.
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