Remarks by President Trump in Cabinet Meeting | Eastern North Carolina Now

    But now we're doing something about it. Now we're doing something about it. And - we're doing a lot about it. We picked up close to $20 trillion in wealth during my administration, from election. And, I have to say "from election." Because when I got elected, the stock market - the day after, the stock market went wild. If I would not have gotten elected, you would have had a crash. So I can't give Obama credit - President Obama - credit for the tremendous gain from the day I won until January 20th, was when I took office. Because that was all attributed to the enthusiasm that we've caused and that we've had as a country. From the election until now, it's been extraordinary. We've picked up $20 trillion. China has lost $20 trillion.

    If my opponent had won, China would right now be number one in the world. Right now, we're number one in the world, by far. We're going to keep it that way. And if you have smart people sitting in this chair, in this position, you're not going to lose.

    So we've got an extraordinary country. We're doing numbers that have never been done before. I think a number that makes me the happiest is that, proportionately, the biggest gainer in this entire stock market - when you hear about how much has gone up - blue-collar workers, the biggest proportionate gainer. They've had a tremendous gain. The workers have had a tremendous gain. People without a diploma - high school diploma - have had a tremendous gain. Our country is doing really, really well.

    Just to finish: 401(k)s. People have 401(k)s. Many of you have 401(k)s. Your 401(k)s are up 50 percent, 60 percent - somebody told me 78 percent. People that were losing money all their lives are now doubling their income and doubling their - the money that they had in the bank is being doubled up. Their 401(k)s are going through the roof.

    And they're getting a lot of credit from their wives or husband, whichever one. Because the one that's doing it is saying, "You're a financial genius." (Laughter.) "Darling, I love you very much. First time in your life, I think you're a financial genius." (Laughter.) And it would have been just the opposite had the opponent - this country was set for a big fall had we not come in and cut regulations immediately and let our country breathe. Whether it's the pipelines that we approved on almost day one, or LNG plants.

    I just left Louisiana; we cut a ribbon for a $10 billion LNG plant that's so incredible. People wouldn't believe it. It was many, many years trying to get permits; they couldn't get the permits. But we got the permits and we got them very rapidly. And that was a great thing. Great thing. You know the plant I'm talking about, Rick. And we have about six of them now under consideration. We hadn't built one in 40 years. Forty years. We didn't build plants like that.

    So, our country is doing things that nobody thought would even be possible. We're doing incredibly well.

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    I'd like to start off - and if you'd like to stay for this, you can. Ben Carson is going to say a few words about HUD. And then I think Jared is going to talk a little bit about immigration and some of our plans for immigration. And then we're going to go around the table.

    And if the press wants to stay, you can. If you'd like to leave - it's like I said the other day: I don't mind. If you want to leave, that's your option. You can leave anytime you want, okay?

    Please, Ben.

    SECRETARY CARSON: Thank you, Mr. President. And just before I talk a little bit about what's going on at HUD, I just want to thank you for your incredible courage -

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

    SECRETARY CARSON: - and stamina and resilience with unwithering criticism, unfair criticism, all the time.

    And I would just, sort of, sum it up by saying: Would you rather have a non-politician whose speech is unfiltered, who gets a lot of stuff done? Or somebody with a silver tongue who gets nothing done?

    THE PRESIDENT: But I thought I had a silver tongue. (Laughter.) I heard that so often. I always thought I had a silver tongue. (Laughter.) But I agree with you.

    SECRETARY CARSON: But, you know, as I told you before, I think God is using you.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

    SECRETARY CARSON: I really appreciate that.

    THE PRESIDENT: And you have said that, and I appreciate it. Thank you, Ben.

    SECRETARY CARSON: Now, once again, you know, promises made are promises kept. You said in the inaugural address that the forgotten men and women of this country would be forgotten no longer.

    And last December, you took the extraordinary act of establishing a White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. And I'm privileged to chair that. We have, with us, Scott Turner, who is serving as our executive director, also.

    And thanks in part to the work of the Revitalization Council, Opportunity Zones are delivering an incredible dose of energy and optimism and investment into some of our nation's most economically distressed neighborhoods. And we're proud to report a great success - this council's prescription for prosperity. I have to throw in a medical thing there.

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    Now, Opportunity Zones are home to approximately 35 million Americans - about 10 percent of our population. One in three of them live in poverty. And this prescription indeed requires the coordinated efforts of all the councilmembers, all the agencies. And I want to thank all of my fellow agency heads for the tremendous help that they've provided in getting this done.

    With unemployment, Opportunity Zones sitting near twice the national average - unemployment Opportunity Zones - forgotten families are just the people that you've been targeting.

    And over the past year, property sale prices in Opportunity Zones have increased by 20 percent, which is about double the appreciation rate for eligible non-selected areas. So what does that mean? That obviously means that those people who live there and who own that property are benefitting significantly even though a lot of people said, "You're not getting any benefits." They are getting benefits. And a massive pool of capital is preparing to revitalize these areas with community and business development.

    Now, less than two years ago, Secretary Mnuchin predicted that these Opportunity Zones would draw about $100 billion, and a lot of the pundits said that was way too optimistic.

    But today, like so many other milestones this administration has surpassed, you know, we're already approaching extraordinary figures. For example, last month, the National Council of State Housing Agencies announced that its Opportunity Zone Fund Directory has expanded to nearly $29 billion in anticipated investment.

    THE PRESIDENT: And - but I might add that Opportunity Zones, for the media, is one of the hottest things anyone has ever done with respect to inner cities and with respect to minorities. It is working out far beyond anybody's expectation.

    SECRETARY CARSON: Absolutely.

    THE PRESIDENT: I don't think it's been written about very much, but I'm not that surprised at that. But the Opportunity Zones are an incredible thing. And if you want to do something, you should write about them. Because what's happened, the employment, the investment - people are investing that would have never invested in these locations in a million years, and they're investing a lot of money. It has absolutely been - you can talk about the number of sites, the number of cities.

    SECRETARY CARSON: Absolutely.

    THE PRESIDENT: What's happened with Opportunity Zones is somewhat of a miracle. Nobody in their wildest imagination thought this could happen.

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    SECRETARY CARSON: That's right. And to add onto that, you know, we've gotten a lot of positive reports, you know, from government officials across the country about the investors in Opportunity Zones and how it's un- - stoking unprecedented interest in these underserved communities.

    And, in fact, last week I was in Salt Lake City, and a big multi-family dwelling is going up with a concentration of people with autism and a center for helping autistic people to get back into the workforce. They were able to do that because of the completion of the gap funding through an Opportunity Zone fund.

    And, you know, public officials from both sides of the political aisle are united in trying to maximize the impact of the program.

    The Governor of Maryland, Hogan, is spending $56.6 million for training programs to supercharge the Opportunity Zones.

    In Mississippi, Governor Phil Bryant has approved a special Opportunity Zones cycle as part of the low-income housing tax credit program offered through the Mississippi Home Corporation.

    In Michigan, the Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has issued an executive directive that focuses state procurement practices on businesses located within Opportunity Zones. And, you know, the list goes on and on.

    The Revitalization Council has played a key role in convening community stakeholders as well as championing the support of public officials and communicating a green light for businesses and investors.

    And, as you know, the council consists of members across 17 federal agencies and federal state partnerships with a core mission to prioritize Opportunity Zones, including deregulation, grant funding, loan guarantees, infrastructure spending, and, importantly, crime prevention.

    To date, the council has identified more than 160 federal programs that can increase targeting to Opportunity Zones through grant preference points, loan qualifications, reduced fees, and alterations in eligibility criteria. And we've already implemented more than 120 of these actions across the agencies.

    The Revitalization Council has also been conducting a nationwide listening tour of Opportunity Zones to incorporate the input from community leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors. And to ensure local leaders are doing all that they can to help their constituents in these communities, I personally, in the last several weeks, have visited a lot of communities like Miami, Chicago, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Birmingham, Las Vegas, and more at the end of this week, more next week.
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