Remarks by President Trump at Signing of Executive Order Establishing a White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing | Eastern North Carolina Now

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you, Tim. You've been a great - you've been a great help. He's been a great help. (Applause.)

    Would anybody like to say something? And then we'll sign up. Anybody? Would you like to say something?

    MR. HOLLAND: Sure.

    THE PRESIDENT: Please.

    MR. HOLLAND: Clyde Holland. With respect to the National Multi Housing Council and Up for Growth, two areas we've been struggling to produce: apartments and the most affordable housing in America. We can't thank you enough, Mr. President -

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

    MR. HOLLAND: - for this help.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I appreciate it, Clyde.

    Yes, please.

    MR. LANIER: Mr. President, thank you for this. And I'd like to thank you as well, Dr. Carson, for your leadership as well.

    Coming from the inner city, coming from urban America, living within the confines of what it takes on the day-to-day, we don't care about the costs and the regu- - we need the housing. And so it's good that we have these barriers removed so that we can actually get access to these things.

    When you're a kid living in urban America, you don't care who your President is, who your governor is, who your mayor is. You care about the things that are practical to you. And the things that really are practical is where am I going to lay my head at tonight and what am I going to eat when I get there.

    And these things help more people in urban America get access to housing that is so needed. And so we thank you tremendously.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.


    MS. ROBERTS-BURKE: And I'd like to say, from the National Association of Realtors, and as a realtor, that I thank you very, very much. The American Dream is homeownership. We have the lowest percentage of homeownership that we've had in many, many years. And I think this is going to go a long way to increase that.

    And thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

    Please.

    MR. UGALDE: Greg Ugalde. On behalf of the homebuilders, Mr. President, we are strongly behind this effort. The regulatory framework throughout the country needs to be focused on. It will help us with workforce development as well. And I think that this is tremendous. And we thank you for this.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

    SECRETARY CARSON: I just want to add one other thing.

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes, please, Ben.

    SECRETARY CARSON: You know, the average net worth of a renter is $5,000. The average net worth of a homeowner is $200,000. That's a 40-fold difference. And we talked so much about the income gap, the wealth gap in this country. A lot of it has to do with homeownership. And that's why this is so important. But it has to be done the right way. It wasn't done the right way, you know, a decade or more ago, and it led to a crisis.

    So we have to learn from those situations, do it the right way. And it's really about recognizing that our people are our most important resource. And we need to develop it, and the best place to develop those resources is a solid home environment.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's great, Ben. Thank you. (Applause.)

    MS. ROLLINS: One quick thing, Mr. President: When you combine this with your criminal justice reform efforts; with the lowest unemployment because of your tax cuts and regulatory reform effort; with your fight for school choice so children have a real opportunity for an education; to Ivanka and your workforce- the Pledge to the American worker; all of that combined lifts all boats, but it lifts those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder the most. And that's because of your leadership.

    So we're just so grateful to you.


    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

    MS. ROLLINS: Thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for bringing up criminal justice reform. We got it passed. Nobody else could have gotten it passed. And we're very proud of that. A lot of people worked very hard on that. And I see it's a big part of the debates. And now they're all saying, "It got passed, and it got passed by a Republican named Trump." (Laughter.) And the Democrats don't know quite how to handle that one.

    But we did criminal justice reform - very comprehensive, also. And there were a lot of people - and the incredible thing about it was we had conservatives - very, very conservatives - and we had very, very liberal people supporting it. We had everybody. We had a great bipartisan group. And we had some people opposed to it, too. But we had, for the most part, tremendous support.

    So thank you very much.

    Larry Kudlow, do you want to just give a moment about how well our economy is doing? Because it looks like June could be one of the best months in the history of the stock market for June - for that month.

    MR. KUDLOW: I know. It's most extraordinary. And it's a terrific sign about the future economy. Really a good sign. We had our correction in the spring; now we've gotten it back and then some.

    And numbers coming out - production went way up in May. Consumer spending, retail sales, way up in May. We're going to have a better Q2 than people initially thought. I think we're on track for 3 percent economic growth or better. And to remind (inaudible): low tax rates, deregulation, opening up energy, trade reform, initiatives like this from Secretary Ben and others. This is what it takes. We're opening doors for the whole - every nook and cranny of this economy is coming alive, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: Right.

    MR. KUDLOW: If we stay on track with your policies, it's going to be great news for America.

    THE PRESIDENT: Number one in the world, too. If you look at Europe, they're having difficulty. If you look at China and various parts of the world - Asia, other places - we're beating everybody. And we're going to keep it that way.

    So I'm going to sign this. And, Ben, congratulations.


    SECRETARY CARSON: Thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: You've been working on this for a long time. It's a great thing. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

    (The executive order is signed.)

    (The President distributes pens to the participants.) Spread these around folks. Spread them around. (Laughter.) I don't like signing one letter at a time. Doesn't look too good - the end result.

    Q   Mr. President, are you personally concerned - Mr. President -

    THE PRESIDENT: Wait until you hear this beauty.

    Q   Are you personally concerned about the conditions at these border facilities, where there are some reports -

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I am. I'm very concerned. And they're much better than they were under President Obama, by far. And we're trying to get the Democrats to agree to really give us some humanitarian aid - humanitarian money. And that is a very fair question, and I appreciate that question.

    But I'm very concerned. It's in much better shape than it ever was. A lot of these young children come from places that you don't even want to know about. The way they've lived - the way they've been - the way - the poverty that they grew up in.

    But, with that, if we can get this bill signed, we'll be able to do it. We have - you know, the Democrats don't want to sign anything. And now, I think they're going to probably sign this. From what I understand it's - I call it "humanitarian aid." This isn't even about border.

    At the same time, you see the numbers are way, way down. Mexico has been really helping us a lot. They have very strong immigration laws. They are moving 15,000 people or 16,000 people to our southern border. And they moved 16,000 troops to their southern border, which is pretty incredible.

    And a lot of signs are coming out where the cartels and all of the bad folks - the "coyotes," as they call them, and all of the bad people that are bringing young children and taking advantage horribly - it's a form of slavery. It's horrible what they are doing to young children. You understand. You've reported on it. A lot of that is stopping now because of what we're doing and because of what's happening on the border.