Remarks by President Trump on the Jobs Numbers Report | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

Rose Garden  •  Washington D.C.  •  June 8  •  10:30 A.M. EDT
    THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. This is a very big day for our country. It's affirmation of all the work we've been doing, really, for three and a half years. This isn't just over the last few months; this is for three and a half years. And it's a great thing. We were very strong. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. We had the greatest economy in the history of the world. And that strength let us get through this horrible pandemic, largely through. I think we're doing really well.

    Vaccines — by the way, I had a meeting yesterday on vaccines. We're doing incredibly well with that. I think you're going to have some very positive surprises. And therapeutics, likewise, we're doing extremely well. Cures we're doing well. I think those two words really blend in with each other.

    But tremendous progress is being made on vaccines. In fact, we have ready to go, in terms of transportation and logistics — we have over 2 million ready to go, if it checks out for safety. And it's also — the nice part is we have four companies — I guess you could even say seven or eight companies — that are doing some similar and some very different on the vaccine front, and some similar and some somewhat different on the therapeutic front.

    So, tremendous progress is being made on that. And I think even without that — and I have to say, even without that, and I don't think you're going to be having to use that in the future, that statement, "even without," because I think they're going to have it. But we're going to be back, and we're opening our country.

    And I hope that the lockdown — governors, I don't know why they continue to lock down, because if you look at Georgia, if you look at Florida, if you look at South Carolina, if you look at so many different places that have opened up — I don't want to name all of them, but the ones that are most energetic about opening, they are doing tremendous business. And that — this is what these numbers are all about.

    And you have to remember one other thing very importantly: I think it's extremely important for you to remember that many of our states are closed or almost closed. Some of the big ones — New York, New Jersey — they'll start; they're starting now to get open, I hope. And I hope they also use our National Guard. Call me. We'll be ready for them so fast their heads will spin.

    We did it in Minnesota, in Minneapolis. We were incredible. They were ripping that place apart. I love the — I love it. We had such success there. And they were ripping it apart. And I called the governor, and the National Guard went in, and one night it was over. You don't see the problem in Minnesota now at all. Not even a little bit.

    You take a look at a great city. It just — a great, great city, Minneapolis. And it was — it was under siege, like nobody has ever seen, where people are running from a police department, the great police, and they were told to. They didn't want to run; they were told to. It's bad — bad governing. And I'm not blaming the governor, I'm blaming the mayor.

    But we want to get all of this finished. This is a great tribute. What we're announcing today is a tremendous tribute to equality. We're bringing our jobs back. You know, when we had our tremendous numbers, and when we had — just prior to the China plague that floated in, we had numbers, the best in history, for African American, for Hispanic American, and for Asian American, and for everybody. Best for women. Best for people without a diploma — young people without a diploma. I mean, so many different categories. Our numbers were the best in almost every category.

    We had the most people working in the history of our country — almost 160 million people. We were never even close to that. So we had things that were — we were doing so well. And then it came in. But we're going to be back there. I think we're going to actually be back higher next year than ever before.

    And the only thing that can stop us is bad policy. Frankly, left-wing bad policy of raising taxes and Green New Deals and all of the things that you have been writing about long and hard, that will stop it like you wouldn't believe. And frankly, it's holding it back. If — if there were no possibility that that can happen — and I like to be an optimistic person; I think we're looking very good. I think even before today, our polls were — the polls that I've seen and the polls that we do, we're looking very good.

    But if we didn't have the possibility of having massively higher taxes, like the Democrats want to do; and Green New Deals, which are totally ridiculous, frankly — ridiculous; and all — and I'm a big environmentalist. I believe strongly in taking care of our environment. We have the cleanest air we've ever had, like over the modern era, which, let's say you go back 30 years — we have the cleanest air, the cleanest water we've ever had. We're setting all sorts of really good environmental records. We're very proud of that.

    But the Green New Deal would kill our country. The deal — the Green New Deal would have a devastating effect on the world. And it's not going to happen anyway because it's impossible for them to do it. If you ever look at what they want to do under the Green New Deal, it's — it's like baby talk.


    But we are doing something that — this was an important day because this shows that what we've been doing is right. And the reason it's been and is so good is because the body was strong. Our body was so powerful that we could actually close our country, save millions of lives, stop people very early on, from China, from coming in — because we stopped early, at the end of January, very early, people coming from China, who were infected, coming into our country. That was a very hard decision to make. Nobody — almost nobody wanted me to make it. I would almost say nobody wanted me to make it. But we made that decision, and even my enemies said that was an extremely important — we saved tens of thousands of lives with that decision.

    So, we did a lot of things. And then we really ended up with empty cupboards. We went into ventilator period that — the likes of which nobody has seen since the Second World War. We mobilized. Nobody has ever seen anything like it.

    And then we did tests. We're over 20 million or very close, but I think we're over 20 million tests — more than anybody in the world. Germany is at — about at four, and South Korea is at three and a half. We're at over 20.

    And, by the way, when you do more testing, you have more cases. We have more cases than anybody because we do more testing than anybody. It's pretty simple.

    But this is outstanding, what's happened today. Now, they thought the number would be a loss of 9 million jobs, and it was a gain of almost 3 million jobs. Nobody has ever seen anything — I think it was incredible in a couple of ways. Number one, the numbers are great, and this leads us on to a long period of growth. We'll have the greatest — we'll go back to having the greatest economy anywhere in the world. Nothing close.

    And I think we're going to have a very good upcoming few months. I think you're going to have a very good August, a very good July, but a spectacular — maybe spectacular September, but a spectacular October, November, December. And next year is going to be one of the best years we've ever had, economically. And if you look at the numbers, they bear it out.

    But we were strong. It's sort of like when you go in for an operation — if a person is healthy — healthy — we were healthy. We had the greatest economy in the world. We went in for an operation. We closed our country down. We closed it down. We saved, possibly, two million, two and a half million lives. Now, it could have been a million lives; I don't think anything less than that. But if you think we're at 105 million today — 105,000 today, that would mean, at the lowest number, it would be 10 times that amount.

    And I think everybody believes the least — if we went "herd," as they say. And if you look at Brazil, they're having a very hard time. And, by the way, they kept bringing up Sweden; it's come back to haunt Sweden. Sweden is having a terrible time.

    If we did that, we would have lost a million, a million and a half, maybe even two and a half million or more lives. So we're at 105,000 lives. Big move closing it up. We also closed it up to Europe. Europe became very infected from China.

    A gift from China — not good. They should have stopped it. They should have stopped it at the source. But it's a gift from China and a very bad gift, I will tell you that.

    And you do say, "How come at Wuhan, where it started..." And they were very badly — they were in bad trouble. But it didn't go to any other parts. It didn't go to Beijing. It didn't go to other parts of China. Then you say, "How come it came out to Europe, to the world, to the United States?" So it didn't go to China; they stopped it cold. They knew it was a problem. But they didn't stop it cold from coming to the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world. Somebody has to ask these questions, and we'll get down to the answer.

    You know, we — we made a great trade deal — great. They're going to buy 250 billion dollars' worth of product. And, by the way, they are online. They're doing okay. But the ink wasn't dry on that deal when the — when the plague floated in. "What's going on?" "A plague is floating in from China." "What's going on?"

    So the ink wasn't dry, so I guess I view the trade deal a little bit differently than I did three months ago. It's a great deal. I will say they are buying a lot from us. And, in that way, I respect. And getting along with China would be a good thing. I don't know if that's going to happen. I'll let you know. We'll let you know. I think they want to get along very much with us.

    ...

    Read the full transcript HERE.


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