Remarks by President Trump at the National Association of REALTORS Legislative Meetings and Trade Expo | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel  •  Washington, D.C.  •  May 17  •  2:21 P.M. EDT
    THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. I feel like home. Realtors. (Applause.) Realtors. Great business. We love that business. I love that business. Every time I go down in this incredible Beast - you know what the Beast is? The world's most expensive car. (Laughter.) It's really not a car; it's an army tank that rides better. But it's something. But I look at the real estate. I'm always looking at the real estate. I don't know, I'll never get it out of my blood. It's in our blood, right? (Applause.) Please, sit down. Sit down, if you want. Sit down.

    You know, I tell you to sit down because otherwise they'll say he got no standing ovations. (Laughter.) It's true. The fake news, they'll say, "The crowd didn't like his performance. They gave him no..." I had that the other day. They just wouldn't sit down. So they said, "It wasn't one of his better speeches. He got no standing ovations," because they never sat down. It was one. (Laughter.)

    But we love you people, and I know - they were just telling me, John, that it's a record. They have people here. They have people in all the ballrooms all over this beautiful hotel. And they have people outside, in closed circuits. Somehow you people know real estate, so you know you have the best location, right? (Applause.)

    But I'm honored to be here with the hardworking men and women who help millions of families live the American Dream. And that's so true. The incredible members of the National Association of REALTORS - a name I know very well.

    I want to thank my friend. He was my friend - my competitor for a while, but he was still my friend - Secretary Ben Carson for his tremendous leadership. (Applause.) Where are you? Stand up. He's a great guy. When I put him in charge of HUD - first of all, he's a very smart guy, very adaptable. I said, "Ben, what do you know about real estate?" "Not much." "How would you like to head HUD?" (Laughter.) And you know what? Within a - it didn't take you long, did it, Ben? And he got some of the smartest people in the business, and they're doing a great job. And everybody is talking about it. Thank you, Ben. Great job. (Applause.)

    And I also want to thank the President of the National Association of REALTORS, John Smaby. (Applause.) Where is he? Where is he? Hi, John. Please, stand up. Thank you, John. Great job. Thank you, John. (Applause.) Popular.

    Where is CEO Bob Goldberg? Bob. Thank you, Bob. (Applause.) Respected guys. Vice President Tracy Kasper. (Applause.) Vice President. I just met Tracy. (Applause.) Great family. Thank you, Tracy, and your entire team for everything that you do to support realtors around the country. I guess that includes me. (Laughter.) I took a little sabbatical for eight years. You know - (applause). But I miss you. But I miss you. But we got you one hell of a tax cut, didn't we? Didn't we do it? (Applause.)

    And the regulation cut may be more important. You know, we did regulation cutting, where you couldn't build jobs, you couldn't build anything. You'd have a puddle on your land and they considered it to be one the Great Lakes of the world. (Laughter.) It's true. You'd have a puddle, and if it formed more than twice a year - a puddle. We used to call it a "puddle." They called it a "lake." It came in lake restriction. I actually had it happen to me in Bedford, New York. I was building a development. I was going to build some really luxury, beautiful houses. A very great area. And it kept -

    AUDIENCE MEMBER: New York!

    THE PRESIDENT: That's right. New York, New York. I'll tell you, they might be screwing up New York. We got to be careful, right? (Laughter.) The taxes are going high. They're doing a mansion tax now. You know what that is, right? They want to be your partner. That's not good - the mansion tax. I just heard about that one.

    But, you know, the environmental stuff was very tough. It was getting worse and worse every year. And I actually had this beautiful piece of land - 216 acres - and I was going to do something with it, and then I decided to do this. I'm glad I did this, because I can help more people. But, Tracy, they had a little area where water would sort of form when it rained. And all of a sudden, I found out that I can't build on the land. Does that make sense to you? I can't build on the land because it was considered, for all intents and purposes, a lake. And how did people find out about the lake? My consultant told them. Because, this way, you have to use your environmental consultant longer, pay them more money to get you out of the jam. Isn't that nice? (Laughter.) I fired his ass so fast. (Laughter and applause.) True story. It's a true story. A true story.


    I'd see them up in Albany. "What are you doing here?" And they were making it more and more difficult, so you had to hire a lot of people. But that's what we're getting rid of. We're getting rid of a lot of the regulations. And, frankly, I've had some great business leaders talking to me. And if they had their choice between - we have the biggest tax cut bill in the history of our country, and we also, in that bill, got included ANWR - one of the great oil sites in all of the world, in Alaska.

    And we got rid of the individual mandate, which is, by far, the biggest problem with Obamacare - the individual mandate - - (applause) - where you paid a lot of money for the privilege not to pay a lot of money for healthcare. How about that one? This is the only thing: You paid not to have it. You paid a fortune not to have it. And we got rid of it.

    So - but we are doing regulations. And I think regulations, frankly, maybe are a bigger reason for our tremendous success as a country over the last two and a half years. Maybe even bigger than the tax cuts. I mean, it's incredible what's happening.

    I just left Louisiana, and we're building - (applause) - oh, wow. Well, then you know what I'm talking about. Building a tremendous LNG terminal - LNG refiner. It's $10 billion. One of the biggest in the world. It must be a mile long. I've never seen anything like this. It's a building, but it's all pipes inside. All pipes. There's no space. It's all pipes. They didn't use any space, Ben. And I've never seen anything - it's incredible. Ten billion dollars. Ten thousand jobs. Louisiana. And now they're going to do more of them.

    And if you look over the last 40 years, I don't think we built a refinery, or certainly we built very few of them. And now we have a lot of refineries going up in great locations, and it's really - it's really incredible. Nobody thought they'd ever see a refinery built. But we worked with the EPA and we worked with people that were really stopping them.

    These people were in - they were in the process of getting permits for many, many years, and we helped them and we got them very, very quickly, and they've invested tremendous amounts of money. And it's sold out. It's sold out. For 20 years, it's all sold out. See, that's no different than an office building. You sign a lease and you get your financing, right? These people, they sign with countries and they get their financing. But I think it's bigger and probably even better, if you want to know the truth. And they're happy, and it's a lot of people that are working. And we did that, but we did many of them.

    We did the pipeline, as you know. The big pipelines. The Keystone XL pipeline. We did the - (applause) - right. And that was dead. Forty-eight thousand jobs. And the Dakota Access pipeline. And these are tremendous things, and, frankly, environmentally great. Better than tracking it down. Better than putting it in trains. Better than doing any other way. And it goes to the various parts of the country that need it. They're fantastic.

    These are things that would never have happened if other people got into office. I can almost say if almost anybody else in the world got into office, I don't think it would've happened - (applause) - including Republicans. (Applause.)

    But before I begin, I'm pleased to announce that we've just reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico, and we'll be selling our product into those countries without the imposition of tariffs or major tariffs. Big difference. (Applause.)

    As you know, Canada has been, for years - and we have a great relationship with Canada and the Prime Minister. We have a great relationship. But they've been charging us extremely high tariffs - as much as 285 percent or more - for our agricultural products, which is an absolute barrier. It's essentially a barrier. In other words, when you pay 285, guess what? You know what they're saying? "We don't want your business." So it was a barrier to our farmers being able to do business with them, to our farmers being able to sell product in there.

    So that deal is going to be a fantastic deal for our country. And hopefully Congress will approve the USMCA quickly. And then the great farmers, and manufacturers, and steel plants will make our economy even more successful than it already is - if that's possible, which it is possible. (Applause.)


    We could have the greatest economy in the history of our country. We could have - if you look at the unemployment numbers - the best since 1969. (Applause.) And in a very short period, it'll be - assuming we just go a little bit further - it'll be the best in history.

    The unemployment numbers are great, but the employment numbers are even better. We have the most people working today than at any time in the history of our country. We have almost 160 million people working. (Applause.)

    And many of those people are going to go out and buy a house. Right, Tracy? They're going to use you as the broker. (Applause.) They're going to call - "Tracy, I want to buy a house. And I won't pay you 6 percent, Tracy. I won't." (Laughter.) "I'll pay you 1 percent." I was famous for that. (Laughter.)

    AUDIENCE: Booo -

    THE PRESIDENT: No, no. Don't worry. Nobody accepted it. Don't feel - (laughter) - but I tried like hell, I'll tell you. (Laughter.) No, but I'd get it down to 4 or 5; that's not so bad.

    I had one case in Palm Beach - believe it or not - a hundred-million-dollar house. Can you believe it? And the broker did a fantastic job. But I told the broker, "I'm paying you more than you're supposed to get." He got millions. He sold the house for a hundred million dollars. You believe it? Bought it for 39. Then I sold it for a hundred. It wasn't immediate. Took a couple of years. That's okay. (Laughter.) I had to paint it inside a little bit - a little paint. (Laughter and applause.) A little fix-up. A little fix-up.

    I call it a "turnaround." (Laughter.) Because I had nothing to - you know, I had a beautiful house - Mar-a-Lago - and I said that was - this was one that came onto the market through a - really, a tragedy. A very sad situation with the - the owner had a tremendous problem. And so, anyway, it was put up, and I got it. And I sold it. I flipped it.

    But I had a great broker. Two good brokers, actually. But I paid them more money than they actually asked for. I made a deal with them and I paid them more. And I've done that a lot. I've also done it the other way, where I'm not so happy. (Laughter.) Then I do a little - but I won't talk about that today. We'll save that for another time. (Laughter.)

    But, really, there's nothing like a good broker. I mean, you're no different than a great surgeon, a great anything. I mean, it's true. (Applause.) It's true. And you're not all brokers; you're realtors, and you build, and you rent, and you lease. But you sell.

    And, honestly, I've seen cases where you give it to the wrong person, and you just sit and you just die with it. And then the right person comes along and it's like genius. It's like genius. And you have to remember those people. Those are great people. And you have to reward them properly. I really mean it; you have to reward them properly. (Applause.)

    So you are really, truly, fantastically talented people. There are some, probably, in this room that don't have such great talent. You know who I am and you know who they are. (Laughter.) But you have some tremendously talented people in this room. I know this business so well. I love this business. And you have people that can really do a job that very few people can do.


    And, frankly, if you went into another business, you'd do great with that too. But there's something about the real estate world that's - it's incredible. You just love it. It's in your blood. It's in your blood. (Applause.)

    So, even as President - and that's why I tell you - even as President, I ride down those streets, and I say, "Wow, is that place nice. Wow, what could you do with that? Look at that site." And then I said, "Wait a minute. I have to deal with China. Forget about this now." (Laughter and applause.)

    So I love your business, and we're here today because realtors play a special role in the American economy. And that's true. I would think it's the largest business in this country, when you add it all up. You add up all the family firms and the big real estate firms, and the single-family homebuilders, and the ones that do a lot of homes - I mean, thousands and thousands.

    But you add it all up, and it's the biggest business. There's nothing close. It's bigger than oil and gas, which is big. It's bigger than cars. Bigger than anything. You know, as a group - as a group, you're a tremendously big business and a very powerful business, politically, because you have numbers. Numbers is power.

    When a young family needs room to grow; when a new job sparks a new adventure in a brand new, beautiful city; when parents want to find the right neighborhood and schools for their children, Americans put our trust in you - our great realtors. And that's true. Very important. (Applause.)

    I mean, I'll just tell you one little thing. In what business do you have where you're selling your home - your home is very important to you. You may not sell it. Maybe you'll only sell it if you get the right price. And you leave the key under the mat so the broker can take anybody they want, even though you're going to be away for three weeks, right? (Laughter.) How many people trust people - you would only trust a great realtor to do that, right? (Applause.) It's true. A lot of truth to that. (Laughs.) (Applause.)

    See, I have a speech and I have great speechwriters, but they don't know this kind of stuff. So this is all - (laughter). So far, this is all off cuff. (Laughter.) But they don't know what I know, and they don't know what you know because they write speeches and - "Our economy is great. Our..." But you've heard that before, right? (Laughter.) But they don't know these kind of little things, right? And these are the little things that make you great.

    Home is where our hearts are. And all of you, as Americans, you find a home for the ones that you love the most. So today, I want to thank all of you. This is a time of extraordinary opportunity for our country. And as I said, I think our country is doing better now than we've ever done before, as an economy. And I think it's going to get even better. (Applause.)

    We're the envy of the world. There's only - truly never been a better time, in my opinion, to build and break ground in America. People are making a lot of money and they're doing well. And jobs are so good. And so many positive things are happening.

    We've added nearly 6 million jobs since my election, including more than 120,000 real estate jobs. You believe that? (Applause.) See, I view that as a negative. I say, "120,000 more people that we have to compete with." Right? (Laughter.) What do we need that for?

    We've also gained more than 650,000 new construction jobs. (Applause.) And, you know - and if you remember, when I first came here - and if you remember three years ago, four years ago, five years ago, it wasn't so good. But right now, America really is, once again, a nation of builders. We're building again. (Applause.)