Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

White House South Lawn  •  Washington D.C.  •  July 5  •  10:44 A.M. EDT
    THE PRESIDENT: That's a great crowd of people. We had a phenomenal crowd last night, and it was a fantastic evening for our country. You're going to have a lot of people being recruited, I think, based on that. We're going to have a lot of - a lot of people joining our military. And we really needed that.

    Our job numbers are so good that the military has a hard time getting people. And I think, really, that you're going to see a big spike. I've already heard it - a lot of people calling in. No place like our military. I think we showed that last night.

    We had great numbers this morning. I think it was 224,000 jobs. Those were really unexpectedly good. And our country continues to do really well. Really, really well. So we're very happy about it. I think we're going to - we're going to be breaking records.

    If we had a Fed that would lower interest rates, we'd be like a rocket ship, but we're paying a lot of interest and it's unnecessary. But we don't have a Fed that knows what they're doing, so it's one of those little things. But if we had a Fed that would lower rates, you would have a rocket ship.

    When Obama - President Obama - was here, he paid close to zero interest rates. I'm paying real interest, and yet our economy is much better than it's ever been. From Election Day, we're over 50 percent increase, and we pay trillions and trillions of dollars - with a "T" - trillions. So we're doing very well.

    But last night was spectacular. Yes.

    Q   Mr. President, can you talk to me about infrastructure? Now that you've had some successes, are you willing to bring Democrats back to the table to talk about infrastructure - and, in particular, when it comes to rural broadband for your base?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. I would love rural broadband. We're working on it. And I would love to have the Democrats come back and talk about infrastructure, talk about drug pricing.

    We're going to be announcing something very shortly - a favored nations clause. As you know, for years and years, other nations paid less for drugs than we do - sometimes by 60, 70 percent. We're going to be - and we're working on it right now. We're working on a favored nations clause, where we pay whatever lowest nation's price is.

    Why should other nations, like Canada - but why should other nations pay much less than us? They've taken advantage of the system for a long time - pharma.

    So we're working on, right now, a favored nations clause, so that whatever the lowest nation is, anywhere in the world - or company - but the lowest nation or company. Then what happens is we will pay that amount, and that's being worked on right now. We're going to do it in the form of an executive order.


    Q   Are you going to issue an executive order on the census?

    THE PRESIDENT: We're thinking about doing that. It's one of the ways; we have four or five ways we can do it. It's one of the ways that we're thinking about doing it very seriously. We're doing well on the census.

    Q   Are you upset with Wilbur Ross over his handling?

    THE PRESIDENT: No, he made a statement. He wrote something out. The judge didn't like it. I have a lot of respect for Justice Roberts. But he didn't like it. But he did say, "Come back." Essentially, he said, "Come back." That's what he was saying.

    Q   But he had said they were dropping it.

    THE PRESIDENT: So we'll see what happens. We could also add an addition on so we can start the printing now and maybe do an addendum after we get a positive decision. So we're working on a lot things, including an executive order.

    Q   Joe Biden called you a "bully" in that interview last night. What do you think of that?

    THE PRESIDENT: I don't think I'm bully at all. I just don't like taking - being taken advantage of by other countries, by pharmaceutical companies, by all of the people that have taken advantage of this country.

    You look at what Joe Biden has done with China. We've lost our shirts with China and now China is dying to make a deal. So - and we're taking, by the way, billions and billions of dollars in tariffs are coming in - and China is paying for it, not our people.

    So, if you look at what we've done, and if you look at what we've straightened out, the - I call it the "Obama-Biden mess." We're straightening it out, whether it's North Korea - you were going to end up in a war with North Korea as sure as you're standing there. And now the relationship is a good relationship. We'll see what happens.

    But as sure as you're there, you were going to end up in a war with North Korea.

    Q   Mr. President, are you going to continue - are you going to hold the ICE raids that you said you gave a two-week break? Do you plan to move forward, and when?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't call them "raids." I say they came in illegally, and we're bringing them out legally. These are people where we have the papers, we've gone through the court system. They'll be starting fairly soon.


    But I don't call them "raids." We're removing people that have come in - all of these people over the years that have come in illegally - we are removing them and bringing them back to their country.

    Q   Were you sending any messages to our adversaries with the military celebration yesterday?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't think of it in terms of that; we're just celebrating our country. But there is nobody stronger. There's nobody that has a military anywhere close to ours.

    As you know, we spent $700 billion. When I took over the military, it was absolutely depleted. We had old planes, we had old jets, we had bad - I mean, just stuff that was tired. Now we have the finest jets in the world: the F-35; the F-18s - the new one. We have military equipment the likes of which we've never had. Building submarines, building aircraft carriers - all made in the USA. So it's a double. It's all made -

    Now, I'm all about jobs. We had great job numbers today. But when it comes to the military, it's not about jobs. We have to have the greatest in the world. There's nobody that comes close. And our military now is just about the top - just about the best it's ever been. There's nobody that comes close to the power we have in our military.

    What we have - and, in fact, if you look, our nuclear now is in great shape. We've renovated. We've fixed. We're buying some new. Never want to use it. You never want to use it. But we have to be in a position that - we have to be in a position.

    But our nuclear is in great shape. Our military now is in great shape.

    Q   Will you make it an annual event, based on your experience last night?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I can just tell you, those people that you see - there's a lot of people in front of the White House - every one of them loved it. I would actually say - and I want to sort of give a little appreciation - the media, generally speaking, loved it. They loved the evening.

    We had a lot of rain. I stood in the rain. The teleprompter went out, so I had -

    Q   Is that what happened with the airport comment in the Revolutionary War?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, the teleprompter went out. It kept going on. And then, at the end, it just went out. It went kaput. So I could have said - and, actually, right in the middle of that sentence, it went out. And that's not a good feeling, when you're standing in front of millions of millions of people on television, and - I don't know what the final count was, but that went all the way back to the Washington Monument. And I guess the rain knocked out the teleprompter.


    So - but, no, it's not that. I knew the speech very well, so I was able to do it without a teleprompter. But the teleprompter did go out. And it was actually hard to look at anyway because there was rain all over it.

    But, despite the rain, that was just a fantastic evening. I think people really had it. And I think a lot of people - you know, it was really a recruitment situation. A lot of people are going to be going our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard.

    Q   Do you think the New York Attorney General should be fired?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, she campaigned on "I'm going to get Trump. I'm going to get Trump." She never knew me. I never met her. I don't know who she is. But she cam- - her whole campaign was that. And that's illegal; you're not allowed to do that. She knew nothing about me.

    She campaigned - "Oh, I'm going to get Trump. I'm..." We have 100 clips, and so do you. And you can't do that. Our system isn't about that. Our system isn't about, "Let's see if we can find something." You can't do that.

    But her whole campaign was "I'm going to get Trump. I'm going to get him." You can't do that.

    Q   (Inaudible.)

    THE PRESIDENT: It would have to be a long time. You know what? It's very interesting. After 500 witnesses, 2,500 subpoenas, every single person I know, practically, was called in one form of another - nothing.

    And I'll tell you what: Even with you people - you're honest people - none of you could have withstood that. They would have found something. If there was a comma put in the wrong place, if there was period in the wrong location, they would have grabbed it. No collusion. No obstruction. After that, it's almost - it's amazing.

    You know what it shows? It shows I'm a very honest guy.

    Q   (Inaudible.)

    THE PRESIDENT: So China - so we'll see what happens. They're talking to us. They want to make a deal. But we had a deal, and they broke it. They broke the deal. They shouldn't have broken it. I think if they had it to do again, they wouldn't. Because, right now, we put very big tariffs on, and we have a lot more to put on if we want. But China broke a deal. We are talking to them. We'll see what happens.