Remarks by President Trump to Korean Business Leaders | Eastern North Carolina Now

    And Keystone, as you know, is one of the biggest anywhere, and that's been under consideration for a long time. And we got it approved in my first few days in office. The head of the big company, the pipeline company - they're actually based in Canada, which - a little sad; it just means we have a very good relationship with Canada. We just made a deal with Canada and Mexico, which is a tremendous trade deal, and hopefully we'll get that passed soon, in Congress.

    But the head probably said, "Gee, I couldn't get it for years and years. I couldn't get my permit. Now Trump gets elected; I get my permit." And you people, as great businessmen, know what's going to happen. He's sitting there, and he will be inundated now with every consultant that worked on the project for the last 10 years, and they're all going to want these massive fees. They're going to want millions of dollars because they're going to say that they did such a good job.

    But I never spoke to any of them. I don't want to speak to any of them. They didn't do a damn thing, and they're going to get millions of dollars, right? And everyone in this room knows what I'm talking about. But it's one of those things. We don't want to have that situation happen. But we got Keystone approved. We got it approved early. And it's going to be a tremendous pipeline.

    Economic growth is now over 3 percent. And for the first quarter - which is always our worst quarter; it's always down around 1, less than 1 - it was 3.2 percent, which is shocking. We are taking in tremendous dollars from China with the tariffs of goods: $250 billion at 25 percent. That will remain under our deal until we have a new deal, and then we'll see what happens, whether it's more or less or whatever. We'll see what happens.

    We were very close to having a deal with China. And then, unfortunately, things happened, and the deal didn't happen. But we're now back on track, so we'll see what happens. Now we're going to - we started it up. We had a very good meeting. We really had a great meeting yesterday. And I like President Xi a lot. I consider him a friend, and - but I like him a lot. I've gotten to know him very well. He's a strong gentleman, right? Anybody that - he's a strong guy, tough guy. Very smart. And loves China. And I love the United States.

    All of this is only the beginning to, really, want - I just wanted to have a group of the leaders. I didn't know they were going to get - you're not just South Korean leaders. You're world-renowned leaders. You have done things that are incredible. I mean, some of the companies.

    I happened to fly over a building. It was one of the largest buildings I've ever seen: Samsung. Samsung. It was one of the largest buildings I've ever seen. And it was a manufacturing building. And you know what I'm talking about, right? I looked; I said, "What the hell is that?" It was acre on acre, except it was piled up. How tall is that building? Like 12 or 10? Ten stories? I want to see it. I want to see it. I want to get some ideas. Because this was laid up on top. We usually just go in one direction. And it was really great.

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    And I must tell you also - I said, "What is that beautiful building?" And that was your great tower. Lotte Tower was beautiful. Love the design. I said, it's pretty hard to miss it, right? (Laughter.) We're flying in. It wasn't like, "Oh, gee, what's that?" But I knew immediately. I knew it from even pictures. But that's a beautiful tower, and I know it's done very well. Congratulations. Beautiful job.

    It's nice to build them nice, right? It doesn't cost that much more. I tried to explain to friends of mine. I have a competitor in New York, and he builds very inexpensively. And then he wonders why we get higher rents and why we get higher condo prices. And I look at his building. He said, "What the hell is going on?" He has windows that are so little because he saves two dollars. He saves nothing. I mean, sometimes a wall is more expensive than a window. Sometimes brick and mortar is more expensive than glass. So you make them big. You have nice, big, fat windows, and you have certain things.

    But you folks have done a great job. Really great. Thank you very much.

    But this is all just the beginning. We're going to have a lot of great relationship with South Korea. I think I've done a good job in stability. I can say the Ambassador came. When he met me at the airport yesterday, he said when he first came here, people were nervous. A lot of bad things were happening. A lot of bad things with missiles flying over Japan. And they weren't too thrilled in Japan either, by the way.

    And now you don't have that. And people aren't feeling the same way that they felt when I became President. When I became President - it's hard to believe, two and a half years ago, I became President. And the biggest - probably the biggest thing was Kim Jong Un and the problems that you were having with them. And a lot of bad things could've happened. Could've gone very bad, very fast.

    And, as you know, we took a very tough stand, and so did he. And then, all of a sudden, we came together, and I was asking other people, "Have you ever spoken to him?" They said no. I said, "How can you not speak to him?" They didn't speak to him. You don't lose anything by speaking. And we did, ultimately, speak, and we got along great. But it's a lot different now. The ambassador was telling me - he said he got here and people were very nervous. They were having drills - many, many drills all the times. Drills, drills. And - to get under cover. And you don't have that anymore.

    So let's see what happens. Nothing is final. Got a long way to go. But this a situation that could've been really bad. You know, at home, they think that I'm a, sort of, a tough warmonger. I'm a warmonger. They thought that, when I got elected, within in the first year we'd be in World War Three. And I'm really the opposite of a warmonger.

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    But we built our military now. It's stronger than it's ever been. Brand new. I mean, we spent one-point- - if you think, we spent $716 billion this year; $700 billion last year. This year, we're going for, actually, more than that, potentially. We have brand new fighter jets, brand new ships, brand new military equipment for the soldiers. Very important. Can never forget that. All brand new.

    We were very depleted from fighting wars all over. Fighting in the Middle East for 19 years, in the Middle East, just being there. And we're now - you probably heard we knocked out the caliphate as soon I got in. I knocked them out very quickly. Very quickly. Once we started, it was a very quick operation.

    We have the greatest military in the world. There's nobody close. We have the greatest equipment in the world. Missiles and planes and everything else. The F-35 fighter jet, which is the hot one now. I was talking to one the pilots. These guys are central casting. There's nobody in Hollywood that looks like these people, with their crew cut, boom under the eyes - the whole thing.

    I speak to this guy, and I said, "How good is the F-35?" "Very good, sir." "How does it compare to so and so?" You know, another country. "Well, they have a basic problem, sir. They can't see it. You could be right next them; they can't see it." And I said, "That sounds good." They say it's really hard to win when they can't see the plane. It's really stealth, and it's really great. And, by the way, you're ordering those planes, in addition to a lot of Boeings. But you're ordering those planes.

    So I just want to tell you that you're our friend. I've had a tremendous relationship. President Moon has treated me and our country with great respect, which I appreciate. Because we're doing a lot for you. We're doing a lot. We're spending a lot of money, and money that hasn't been reimbursed. And they're agreeing to reimburse us for some of this, because the cost is astronomical. We have 42,000 soldiers. We've had them for many years. And we're working on that, and it's really working along well. But most importantly, we're doing the job.

    And you're going to have a very safe country, and it's already a great country. And it's an honor to be with you, especially so many people that I know and that I recognize. A lot of people don't. You know, a lot of people don't knew these great business genius. They don't understand that that means. But we understand what business genius is. People say, "How come so and so is always successful?" Because he's a business genius. It's one of those things. It's a talent. Just like baseball is a talent, or golf is a talent, or anything.

    We had, recently, the U.S. Women's Open at my course in Bedminster, New Jersey. And I think 9 of the top 10 finishers were from South Korea. Do you know that? Nine of the top ten. I said, "What's going on over here?"

    So I want to just thank you. You have a great country, and it's an honor to be with you. Thank you all very much. Thank you. (Applause.)

    Q   Mr. President, is Chairman Kim going to meet you at the DMZ today? Has he committed?

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we'll see. He very much wants to. I'm going there. This was (inaudible) when I told him we were going, that I will see him. But there was - we'll try to work it out. (Inaudible.) Very short. It will be a very short - very short. Virtually a handshake, but that's okay. A handshake means a lot. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

END  •  10:45 A.M. KST

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