Speakers have appeared before the club over the last century, and have established a very strong tradition of excellence. I would like to take a moment to recognize those of our 297 members as the Centennial Society attending today in the front of the room as their contributions continue to be the financial backbone for the club. They actually enable us to offer our wonderful diverse programming now and into the future. Wed also like to welcome students joining us today from Columbia Business School and Harvard Business school. In addition, we have attending members of the 2019 class of ecny fellows, a select cohort of next generation thought leaders sponsored by members of the club for our yearlong program. Welcome to all of you. [applause] it is both an honor and a privilege for me to welcome the 45th president of the United States, donald j. Trump. [applause] President Trump built on his success in private life when he entered into politics and public service. Hes a graduate of the university of Pennsylvania Wharton School of finance and followed in his fathers footsteps into the world of real estate development, making his mark in this great city. He is also the author of 14 bestsellers and his first book, the art of the deal, is considered a business classic. Mr. Trump announced his candidacy for president june, 2015, and one year later became the republican nominee. Clearing the field of 17 republican candidates during those primaries, and won the presidency in his first run ever for political office. Following the president s address, we will have questions and answers from two distinguished questioners. As a reminder to everyone, this conversation is on the record. It is being carried live. So if everyone could please turn their phones to silence. Mr. President , the podium is yours, sir. [applause] President Trump thank you very much, barbara. So sad that this is live. She said its live. Ugh. Its always live. Theres always somebody with a phone. Ask a lot of politicians that is are no longer in politics. [laughter] i want to thank marie josi gravis for your incredible leadership of the club. Its an honor to be here. It is wonderful also to be back in new york with so many friends and distinguished leaders, business and finance, academia. And i have to add, in real estate, all my real estate friends are here. Im especially grateful for and to your Longtime Club members because its a club with a tremendous reputation. And somebody doing an absolutely incredible job as director of the National Economic council, a friend of mine who i got i have been hearing this voice for 35 years, is driving me crazy larry kudlow. ,[applause] always calm, always cool. And hes just larry. And hes terrific, ill tell you that. Three years ago, i came to speak before this storied forum as a candidate for president , and at that time america was stuck in a failed recovery and saddled with a bleak economic future. And it was bleak. Under the last Administration Nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs had been lost. Almost five million more americans had left the labor force. And jobs were not exactly what you would call plentiful. 10 Million People had been added to the food stamp rolls. In 2016, the department of labor predicted that americans would continue dropping out of the work force in Record Numbers. They predicted and projected a decade of sluggish growth and they expected unemployment over 5 and really 6, 7, and some cases 8 for years to come. The socalled experts said the americans had no choice but to accept stagnation, decay, and a shrinking middle class as the new normal. That was said all the time. In short, the American People were told to sit back and accept a slow, inevitable decline. But i never believed for one moment that our magnificent nation was destined for a diminished future. I knew that our destiny was in our own hands. That we could choose to reject a future of america and really look at a future of american decline unacceptable and to build a future of american dominance, which is what i wanted. It couldnt be any other way. I would have never done this. I refuse to accept that americans had to lower their expectations or give up on their dreams. America is the single greatest country in the world. And i knew that, working together, we could make it even greater. In 2016, i stood before you supremely confident in what our people could achieve if government stopped punishing American Workers and started promoting American Workers and american companies. Our middle class was being crushed under the weight of a punitive tax code. Oppressive regulations, onesided trade deals. And an Economic Policy that put americas interest last and a very deep last at that. I knew that if we lifted these burdens from our economy and unleashed our people to pursue their ambitions and realize their limitless potential, the Economic Prosperity would come thundering back to our country at a record speed. Thats whats happening. I proud to stand before am you as president of the United States to report that we have delivered on our promises and exceeded our expectations by a very wide margin. We have ended [applause] i was waiting for that. Thank you. I was waiting for that. [laughter] i almost didnt get it. We have ended the war on American Workers. We have stopped the assault on american industry. And we have launched an economic boom the likes of which we have never seen before. I did this despite a near Record Number of rate increases and quantitative tightening by the Federal Reserve since i won the election. Eight increases in total. Which were, in my opinion, far too fast an increase and far too slow a decrease. Because, remember, we are actively competing with nations who openly cut Interest Rates so that now, many are actually getting paid when they pay off their loan, known as negative interest. Whoever heard of such a thing . Give me some of that. Give me some of that money. [laughter] i want some of that money. Our Federal Reserve doesnt let us do it. I dont say thank you. [applause] the smart people are clapping. Only the smart people are clapping. [laughter] i dont say thats good for the world. Im not president of the world. I am president of our country. But we are competing against these other countries nonetheless, and the Federal Reserve doesnt let us play at that game. It puts us at a competitive disadvantage to other countries. Yet in the face of this reality , our economic policies have ushered in an unprecedented tide of prosperity surging throughout all the nation. We are paying interest by other comparisons, we are paying actually high interest. We should be paying by far the lowest interest and yet we are doing better than any nation by far on earth. The extraordinary numbers tell the story. Back in 2016 before i took office the Congressional Budget Office projected that fewer than two million jobs would be created by this time in 2019. Instead, my administration, has created nearly seven million jobs and going up rapidly. We beat predictions [applause] thank you. We beat predictions by more than three times the highest estimate that i saw during the campaign. Nobody thought it was even possible to get close to a seven million number. Two million was maxed out if you were lucky, and if you did a great job. Unemployment has recently achieved the lowest rate in 51 years. Africanamerican unemployment, hispanic american unemployment, and Asian American unemployment have all reached the lowest rates in history. Womens unemployment, the best numbers in 71 years, we expect that that number of 71 years, which isnt good compared to the other numbers, is it, but women , also, will soon be historic, we think. Blue collar jobs are leading the way in our middle class boom. We have added 25,000 mining jobs. 128,000 energy jobs. 1. 2 Million Manufacturing and construction jobs. And manufacturing was supposed to be dead in our country. You would need, according to a past administration representative, at the highest level of that past administration, you would need a magic wand to bring back manufacturing. Well, we brought them back and we brought them back to over 600,000 manufacturing jobs as of today. [applause] those are very important jobs. Nearly seven Million People have been lifted off very importantly food stamps. Seven Million People off of food stamps. [applause] and we are getting americans off of welfare and back into the work force. [applause] nearly 2. 5 million americans have risen out of poverty. Thats a record. The rate of africanamerican and hispanic american poverty has hispanic American Families in poverty has plummeted to the lowest level ever recorded by far. [applause] most of you people wouldnt know these numbers, because most of you arent very active in the market, but since my election the s p 500 is up over 45 . The dow jones is up over 50 . And the nasdaq is up 60 . Slightly more. [applause] and if we had a Federal Reserve that worked with us, you could have added another 25 to each one of those numbers, i guarantee you that. That doesnt happen. But we all make mistakes, dont we . Not too often. We do make them on occasion. American markets have vastly outpaced the rest of the world. This exceptional growth is boosting 401ks, pensions, and College Savings accounts for millions and millions of hardworking families. You hear so much about inequality and all of the differences and all of the problems. The single biggest factors of what we have done are middle class workers and lowincome families. Its been amazing, actually. Altogether, we have added nearly 10 trillion of new value to our economy in a short period of time. Remember, only use numbers from the time of the election because i cant go to january 20. Its not fair. We picked up tremendous stock market and economic numbers. They actually went wild the day after i won. I think that should be attributed to us not attributed to somebody else because it would have gone in the opposite direction. [applause] it would have gone in the opposition direction had the other result taken place, which, fortunately, it didnt. Last year, g. D. P. Growth matched the fastest rate in more than a decade. And it was the best of the g7 countries by far, by far. [applause] perhaps most importantly after years of stagnation and decline, american wages, salaries, and incomes are rising very fast. Median Household Income is now at the highest level in the history of our country. [applause] the average Median Income under president bush rose only 400 over an eightyear period. Under president obama, it rose 975 over an eightyear period. And under my administration it rose 5,000 over slightly more than just 2 1 2 years. Thats a big difference. [applause] and if you remember, president obama was paying 0 interest for a long period of time while we are paying a much higher rate of interest. But in addition to the 5,000, we have to add 2,200 for the tax cuts, average tax cuts and 2,000 to 3,000 for a regulatory and energy cuts. So that would be a total of almost 10,000. Versus 400 and versus 975. Thats something. You have, over eight years, you have 400. Over eight years, you have 975. Over 2 1 2 years, almost up to 3, that this was done and 1 2, andd only as of 2 it has only gone up since then, and we are almost 10,000. So our consumers, because of this, are in the best shape, probably in the history of our country. And i think its going to be very long lasting. Very, very long lasting. This also allows me the latitude and timing to take some of the horrible, incompetent, just terrible trade deals that have been made over the years and make them great. Like make America Great again. Make the trade deals great. I dont know if i can use the word again. Make them great, period. I dont think they were ever any good. Havent seen it. We were great. And then we werent so great. But we are great again. And by the way, on jobs, i am glad this is today, just now they Just Announced we have the , highest number of people working in our country in the history of our country, almost 160 Million People. We have never been close to that number. [applause] so we have achieved this stunning turnaround because we have adopted a new Economic Policy that finally puts america first. As president , i understand and embrace the fact that the world is a place of fierce competition. We are competing against other nations for jobs and Industry Growth and prosperity. Factories and businesses will always find a home. Its up to us to decide whether that home will be in a foreign country, or right here in our country, our beloved u. S. A. , and thats where we want them to stay and be and move to. [applause] if we want our families and communities to prosper, america must be the best place on earth to work, invest, innovate, build, pursue a career, hone a craft, or start a business. We Want Companies to move to america, stay in america, and hire American Workers. My mission is to put our country on the very best footing to thrive, excel, compete, and to win. For many years, our leaders in washington did the exact opposite. They imposed the highest Corporate Tax rates in the developed world. So high that people couldnt even understand what they were doing, and they would leave. Very, very smart executives didnt want to leave, but they would leave, sending our jobs and Everything Else, all aflutter. They waged an unethical regulatory assault on the American People. They tried to shut down American Energy. And, by the way they are still , trying. You want to see energy shut down . Take a look at what im competing against on the other side. I dont think they even believe in energy. So far, i havent found any form of energy thats acceptable to them. I think they think the factories are just going to work without energy, dont they . They dont have a clue, these people. But i dont want to mention it yet. [laughter] i want to wait a little bit longer. Let them go a little bit further so they cant take it back. As a campaign, i like it. I like it very much. [applause] let them keep talking. Every time they talk i say, boy, this looks like it might be easier than i anticipated. [laughter] they passed the disastrous trade deals but encouraged the shuttering of american plants and the offshoring of american jobs by the millions. In short, the failed Political Class sold out American Workers, sold out american prosperity, and sold out the american dream. This was the alarming situation i was elected to end. And ending is never that easy. You see that. You do have people that want to keep it going that way, but they are losing and losing now , rapidly and fast. Those days are gone. And we are not going back. As you know, one of the key insights of economics is the power of incentives. Unlike past leaders, my goal is to ensure that this power works for americas favor and for americas workers and for americas companies. We want the incentives created by our tax trade, regulatory, and Energy Policies to be progrowth, proworker, and 100 proamerican, and more is yet to come. If we take back the house, 2020, and retain the senate and the white house, you will see things that, even this room, and you have experienced a lot of great times over the last 2 1 2 years, but even you will be surprised to see. We have tremendous economic potential. We have tremendous potential. We have tremendous economic potential. At the heart of our economic revival is the biggest tax cut and reforms in american history. We provided massive relief for working families. Saving 2,000 a year for a typical family of four. To bring jobs back, we lowered our business tax rate from the highest tax rate in the developed world down to a very competitive number. Not quite the lowest, but getting close. We may even be able to get there one day in the nottoodistant , future. By the way, we are taking in more tax revenue with these greatly reduced rates, 21 , and it was 39 . But when you added Everything Else it was well into the 40s. And you couldnt bring your money back because that was prohibitive. Both ministerially and from an economic standpoint, the rate was so high. But we brought it down to a level that we are very proud of and we think we can bring it down still more and yet we are raising, we have more tax revenues coming into our treasury than we ever had before. That tells you something right there. Since then, nearly 1 trillion have returned to our shores where that money belongs. Couldnt get it back. No matter what you did, you couldnt do it. It was not only the rate being so high, but the bureaucracy, the documents, the signings, nobody could do it. To promote investment in distressed american communities, our tax plan created nearly 9,000 Opportunity Zones which are one of the biggest successes that you have ever seen. I dont think there has ever been anything like it. Worked with tim scott, senator tim scott, south carolina. And many of the great senators that we do work with and, frankly, congress, we passed something that nobody thought was possible to get passed. Nobody thought it could ever work the way it is. Capital gains are on longterm investments are now taxed in an Opportunity Zone at zero and money is flooding in. Investment is pouring into these long neglected communities, the government wasnt putting money in, nobody was. They were dying. Now tremendous they call it neighborhood push. Its incredible whats happening. Its not spoken of by the fake news media, but they should speak about it. I tell you, it is one of the great successes we have all had. Its employing tremendous numbers of people. You have communities that were down and totally out and they are reviving like nobodys ever seen. Opportunity zones, remember those two words. We believe in no american left behind and we are understand the we understand the enormous power of Investment Capital and opportunity to revitalize communities and bring hope where it is needed the most. To liberate our economy, my administration launched the biggest, oldest, and most Ambitious Campaign to reduce regulation. Nobody has ever come close. No administration has ever come close. In 2 1 2 years we have done far more than any other administration, whether it was four years, eight years, or in one case, more than eight years. Nobodys come close to doing what we have done with regulations. [applause] and i happen to think as great as the tax cut was, the largest in our history, i really happen to think that the regulation cuts may have had an even bigger impact on the economy. And it was quicker because we were able to do them very early in the administration. Earlier than the tax cuts. Within days of taking office, i issued an executive order to end the outstanding, horrible federal intrusions that you saw. It was an onslaught into business, into peoples lives, and it was really done by unelected bureaucrats. They were really accountable and nobody held them accountable. And sometimes its not pleasant to hold them accountable, but i do it. I do it. We had no choice because we were going nowhere fast. My order required that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated. But instead of two for one, we have now eliminated nine for one, and we think that within the next six months, it will be close to 20 for one. Instead of two for one. [applause] the size of this, and they would literally be stacked to the ceiling with regulations. Nobodys ever seen anything like it. And we have actually, i think, a fairly long way to go. We need regulation, but it has to be smart regulation. Highways, we are taking 20 years highways were taking 20 years to get built, to get approved. You put in an application, 20, 21 years later they would reject it. It would cost many, many times more. 25, 30, 40 times more. But they were taking 20 years. We are trying to get that down to one. It may get rejected. Thats ok. But you havent spent 20 years on Environmental Impact statements in order to build a simple highway or roadway thats desperately needed. We have it down close to one year. We want to hit the oneyear number. And if it doesnt work, we are going to reject it, but its going to be rejected fast. Swiftly. But mostly its not going to be reentered. We ended the ridiculous waters of the United States rule. What a beautiful name. The name was beautiful. The act was a disaster. It didnt allow you to do anything. When i signed it, i said, you know, waters of the United States, what could be a more beautiful title . Im going to get killed when i sign this. To kill it. I had to kill it. It was it made Land Development prohibitive. It made impossible situations for farmers, for everybody. And i had 35 people in my office, farmers and builders and ranchers and others, strong people, very strong men and women, and almost all of them were crying. They said, you have given our life back. These laws were horrible. They took away everything. You would have a puddle in your land and they would call it you are under river control, you are under lake control for what is called a puddle. You couldnt get anywhere near it. And if you did, you literally would be arrested. We are streamlining approvals for critical infrastructure. Our regulatory roadblock is also leading to major Price Reductions in health care and Prescription Drugs. We have gotten the Prescription Drugs, first time in 53 years that Prescription Drug prices have gone down. And if we had help from the democrats, which we do not have. You possibly have noticed that, we would have we would be able to cut Prescription Drugs by 30 , 40 and 50 . I have told some of the governors, ron desantis in florida, go buy them from other countries. Im ok with it. Im going to give them an executive order. Because canada and other countries sell the exact same drug from the exact same factory for sometimes 50 , 60 , and 70 less than we do. And rather than going through the political charade and all of the things where the middle man i hope we dont have middlemen in here because somebodys not going to like me too much. We have a middleman any middlemen . I think they have to be the richest people in the world if you want to know the truth. They make far more than the Drug Companies in most cases. But i said buy it from other countries. You go out to other countries, and whats happening already is the companies are coming back, and they want to make great deals because now im giving the right to governors to go to canada, go to england, go all over, go all over europe where the prices are so much less. Because we were forced to pay for all research and development, and they didnt pick up any of the cost. Ridiculous rules. So unfair to our country. I said buy them from other countries and pass along the savings. The savings will be staggering, and we are starting that program. But as soon as we start that program, watch what happens with the drug prices. Theyll come down over here. Its the same companies that make the drugs. Exact same companies. Hard to believe. Altogether our regulatory cuts, as mentioned, save american households thousands and thousands of dollars every year. The foundation of american liberty and prosperity has always been the rule of law. Throughout history economies have failed when the rule of law is abandoned. Thats why we must protect the constitutional rule of law in our country at all costs. [applause] so important. We have got some lawless people in very high positions. They are lawless. For this reason, we have now appointed as of today, 161, and fully approved, brandnew federal judges, federal court of appeals judges to interpret our constitution as written. That will soon be 182 judges. And as you know two Supreme Court justices who are great gentlemen, both fully in and making some very Big Decisions even today as we speak. The 161, 162 that we have now will be at 182 within two months. And then we normalize meaning we , go through the normal system. When i came into office, one of the first things i said how many federal judges do i have to appoint . I always heard it was the single most important thing a president can do, federal judges. And Supreme Court justices. They said sir, you have 142. I said what . Because i was always told you would never have any. Maybe you would have one or two. Maybe three if the previous president wasnt doing a good job. But they said you have 142. I said you have to be kidding. We did, we had 142. And we have added to that through different things. And we will be at 182, that will be a record. Nobodys ever done that before. It was shocking, but i just want to say thank you very much, president obama. We appreciate it very much for the 142. Thank you. [applause] im sure his party is thrilled with him. But if they are, they wont say anything, dont worry about it. Thanks to these and other policies, last year the World Economic forum recognized the United States as the globes most competitive economy. We have put it back into this position where we are competitive like no other nation. To fuel our economic boom, we are boldly pursuing American Energy independence. You see that in the middle east where ships are at great danger. They keep saying what happened , to the american ships . They dont see too Many American ships over there anymore. Did you notice that . We stopped the radical crusade to dismantle u. S. Energy production and empower rogue regimes. We withdrew from the onesided , horrible, horrible, economically unfair, close your businesses down within three years, dont frack, dont drill, we dont want any energy, the horrible Paris Climate Accord that killed american jobs and shielded foreign polluters, was a disaster for this country. Ask them how are they doing in paris with your paris accord . Not too good. And i will tell you when i signed, that was another one, clean waters of the United States, the paris accord too, and i said this is going to take guts. I just close my eyes and i sign it. I got one day of a big hit from some of the radical left newspapers. And then after that everybody thanks me. They thank me so profusely. You are talking about trillions and trillions of dollars of destruction would have been done to our country with the Paris Climate Accord. And it is so unfair. It doesnt kick in for china until 2030. Russia goes back into the 1990s, where the base year, it was the dirtiest year ever in the world. India, we are supposed to pay them money because they are a developing nation. I said we are a developing nation, too. Why arent we under the w. T. O. China is called a developing nation. So we wrote them a letter recently. Larry knows it, im not sure he liked the idea too much, but he went along with it. We wrote them a very tough letter and we said what . Larry wrote it. Boy, you hopped on that bandwagon quickly, didnt you . Thats ok. But we wrote them a letter, and we said much more strongly than the letter that not fair to have china as a developing nation. One of the reasons they have taken advantage of us is because of that. We are considered the big, fat cow, and no longer. No longer. We have a lot of things to work out. And i will say this, because they know that im very tentative on the w. T. O. , we are winning cases for the first time. We just won a 7. 5 billion case. We never won cases. They would rule against us because they said, hey, dont worry about the United States. They are the stupid people. Dont worry, rule against them. Keep ruling. We had case after case. Now we are winning cases because they really think ill do something very powerful, which we have the right to do. And they are right when they think that way. And we are winning a lot of cases at the wto level that we never even would have thought of winning before. Americas now the number one producer of oil and natural gas on the entire planet earth. Net Energy Imports [applause] net Energy Imports, this is so great, set a historic low, its a 58year low, but thats only because they only go back 58 years. Meaning if it is low now, i assume its lower than it used to be unless something happened thats very strange back then. But its at a historic low. We are now a net exporter of natural gas. We recently became a net exporter of crude oil and Petroleum Products for the first time in our countrys history. Its a big thing. [applause] according to the council of economic advisors, the astonishing increase in production made possible by the shale revolution saves americans 2500 for a family of four in lowering electric bills and prices at the pump, and the numbers actually now even higher than that. My administration is also restoring the principle that to be a strong nation, america must be a manufacturing nation. These are great jobs. These are brilliant, great people that know how to manufacture. These people were under appreciated and under taken care of. But we take care of them. We cherish them. Past leaders wrote off American Manufacturing as dead. But their policies were the ones that were actually killing it. We killed manufacturing. Thats why we were losing all those jobs because we made it impossible to manufacture. We have opened it all up. After losing, and this is a number thats hard to believe, and i have been saying it for three years, and i know its right because the fake news has never corrected me if it was wrong, it would have been headlines, trump made a mistake. But they cant say it after losing 60,000, can you believe that, factories, under the previous two administrations, america is now gaining over 10,000 brand new, beautiful factories, and many, many, more than that want to come back in because under my administration, we are producing jobs and incentives for these companies to come back. Im calling, as an example, Prime Minister abe of japan. I say, mr. Prime minister, shinzo, we have tremendous problem. We have big deficits with your country. You have to Start Building plants. Hes building many, many car plants now in the United States he would have never built here if he didnt have this kind of a president. And hes very happy to be doing it. But they are all coming back to the United States. They want to be where the action is. Very simple. They want to be where the action is. This is where the action is. There is nobody close. There is no country close. When i meet with the leaders of countries as they come in, kings and queens, and Prime Ministers, and president s, and dictators, i meet them all, anybody wants to come in, dictators, its ok. Come on in. Whatevers good for the United States, we want to help our people. But the first thing they said was congratulations on your economy. They all say it congratulations. , its incredible whats happened to your country. Its incredible whats happened to your economy. First thing they say in almost every instance. But central to this comeback is a series of bold initiatives to reform a broken system of international trade. We want thriving commerce with as many countries as possible. But trade must be fair. And to me it must be my favorite word, reciprocal. It is not reciprocal. We are getting it to be much more reciprocal. The American Market is the most valuable and coveted market anywhere in the world. Those who want access must play by the rules. And they have to respect our game and our laws, and they have to treat our workers and businesses fairly, not the way they have been treating them over the last 25 years. America will not be taken advantage of anymore. [applause] many countries charge us extraordinarily high tariffs or create impossible trade barriers. Impossible. And ill be honest, european union, very, very difficult. The barriers they have up are terrible, terrible. In many ways worse than china. We are working on legislation known as the United States reciprocal trade act, meaning quite simply whats good for them is good for us. They want to charge us, we charge them. Its a simple thing. Even people that arent well versed in what we all do, say i went to a couple of senators, went to lindsey graham. Let me ask you what do you think of that . They are charging us 100 . Well charge them. That makes sense to me. It really does make sense to shall because its very unfair the way we are treated by certain countries. There are certain countries that the average tariff is over 100 . And we charge them nothing. And then they call it fair trade. Thats not fair trade. Thats stupid trade. [laughter] pres. Trump of course this will be subject to regaining the house to be able to do these things. Nowhere has the change in u. S. Strategy been more vital or dramatic than in our dealings with respect to china. Before my election, washington politicians sit by and did nothing while china ransacked our companies, stole our intellectual property, subsidized their industries at the expense of ours, and dumped their products in a deliberate strategy to close american factories all across our land. For many years american leaders have just sat back. Maybe they didnt understand what was going on . Its impossible to believe that. But they just let it happen. And its gotten worse, and worse, and worse, and now we have changed it. It has changed a lot. Im sure you havent noticed, but its changed a lot. In particular, since chinas entrance into the World Trade Organization in 2001, no one has manipulated numbers better or taken advantage of the United States more. And i wont use this word cheated. I will not say the word cheated, but nobodys cheated better than china. But i will not say that. Well say that off the record, ok . And theres only about 600 cameras back there. In fact, that is a big group up there. Good. I hope you use it because its true. They understand its true. China, by theame way. I blame our leaders. Because we should have been doing what they were doing. They did it to us. We didnt do it to them. We were defenseless. We had no leadership. This is for a long time. This is long beyond the obama administration. So i dont blame them. I said this to president xi. I was making a big speech in china. I have 5000 people in front of me, and i was talking about how bad china was. I said this is not going over well. I was in beijing, this massive hall. And i looked down at president xi, he was sitting right where larry is. He was not as imposing a figure as larry kudlow, but he was quite imposing. And i said, you know, i think hes getting very angry. And then i realized. How do we save this . This is going to be a disastrous afternoon. [laughter] pres. Trump and i said i dont blame china, i blamed our leaders. I realized its true. I blame our leaders to allowing it to happen. I told that to you and many people many times. But the theft of american jobs and american wealth is over. They understand that. My administration has taken the toughest ever action to confront chinas trade abuses. We are taking in billions and billions of dollars in tariffs that china is paying for. We are not paying it. China is paying. Because they are devaluing their currency to such an extent, and they are pouring tremendous amounts of cash into their system. They are having the worst year in more than 57 years, more than half a century. Their supply chains are cracking very badly. And they are dying to make a deal. We are the ones that are deciding whether or not we want to make a deal. We are close. A significant phase one trade deal with china could happen. Could happen soon. But we will only accept a deal if its good for the United States, and our workers, and our Great Companies because we have been hit very hard. We have had deficits for many years. Go back many years. 500 billion a year, not million. 500 million a year is a lot. 500 billion a year trade deficits with china. And we have it with many other countries, just not nearly as large. China probably makes up 60 of our deficits. We also renegotiated the last administrations failed trade agreement with south korea. It was a terrible agreement. Our new agreement doubles the number of american cars that can be sold to south korea under the u. S. Standards. And it keeps americas 25 import tax known as the chicken tax on small trucks which was all ready to disappear. It was going to disappear. The deal from the Previous Administration was projected by them to add 250,000 jobs, and they were right. It did add 250,000 jobs. Unfortunately the jobs went to south korea, not to the United States. Thats what we got stuck with. We also struck a deal which is historic with japan. Its just partial because we are having very tough negotiations and strong negotiations with japan to substantially reduce barriers for american agriculture and facilitate 40 billion in digital trade and agricultural purchases. That deal was signed. And its a great deal, but its only phase one of the japan deal, too. A lot of these leaders dont like me too much, folks. When you hear that im not so popular in various countries, please dont accept that as gee, he doesnt have a good personality. Just realize what im trying to do for you. Its about time, ok . Please. [applause] they recently came out with a poll that president obamas much more popular in germany than i am. I said guess what . He should be. He should be. The day im more popular than him, you know im not doing my job. Lets put it that way. [applause] because we are treated very badly by countries. They take advantage of us, and they have for many, many years. Its hard to break that cycle. But we are breaking it, and we are getting along with them, believe it or not. We are actually i think they respect us far more today than they ever have, if you want to know the truth. We are replacing one of the worst trade deals ever in history, nafta, with a brand new u. S. Mexicocanada agreement, a historic win for american farmers, energy producers, and manufacturers. And the reason its such a good deal for us is i said listen, if you dont sign this deal, we are going to charge you tariffs on your product coming into the United States. Including all of those cars that are now manufactured in mexico. 30 of our business was lost over the last 20 years, went to mexico. I said so if you dont sign it, so it is a good agreement, we are going to just charge you tariffs. They signed everything we wanted. The usmca will create up to half a million american jobs and add at least 1. 2 more to our total gdp. And it should be much higher than that. Yet democrats in washington would rather pursue outrageous hoaxes and delusional witch hunts which are going nowhere. Dont worry about it than pass the usmca and deliver real stuff for the American Workers. Its a great usmca, it put pressure on the democrats, there is tremendous pressure already, and most of them, if you had to vote today, i think most would actually vote for it. But nancy pelosi, nervous nancy has to put it out there. And if she doesnt, shes doing her party a tremendous disservice. And shes doing this country a tremendous disservice. As we create millions of new jobs, we are also transforming lives. Under the last Administration Nearly 1. 8 million americans in their prime working years simply gave up, they gave up looking for work altogether and dropped out of the labor force. Under my administration two million prime age americans have come off the sidelines already. People that we thought maybe would never work again, and they have fully rejoined the labor force, something we are very proud of. [applause] and this includes a group that was having a hard time from the day of our founders, the day they signed, these people have had a hard time. They are former inmates, people that went to jail, who are getting a fresh start thanks to the landmark criminal Justice Reform bill that i signed into law, but maybe equally so because the economy is so good. They are coming out of jail now, and they are getting jobs. I will tell you the people that have been hiring them, and i get reports, they cannot believe how good they have been and obviously not in all cases. But its incredible. First time they ever had an opportunity to get out of jail, and they end up with a great job, and they cherish the job more than you would, more than i would. They cherish they cant believe what happened to them. And they are doing a phenomenal job. First time its ever happened in the history of our country. Its really terrific. [applause] when we say hire american, we mean hire all americans. By focusing on the needs of people, not the desires of government, we are helping our citizens realize their ambitions and pursue rewarding careers. Over 1. 1 million fewer americans are now forced to rely on parttime work today than when i was elected. Thats a tremendous number. People are working two jobs and three jobs and making less money than they made 21 years ago. That was the stat. A Record Number of americans are quitting the job that they have to take a job that they like even better. They like the job better, they like getting up in the morning, like we all do. They like going to work, and they have something that they can do, and they are getting paid more money for it, which is something thats probably never happened before in this country to the extent its happened now. This increased competition is driving up wages for Blue Collar Workers who are the biggest beneficiaries of what we are talking about and all the things that im mentioning today. Real weekly wages for the lowest paid earners have grown more in the first three years of my administration than in the entire decade before my election. And decade and much more than that. Since the election, real wages have gone up 3. 2 for the median american worker, but for the bottom income group, real wages are soaring, a number thats never happened before, 9 . And that means you might make a couple bucks less in your companies. You know what . Thats ok. Thats ok. There is a great thing for our country. When you talk about equality, this is a great thing for our country. Our tight labor market is helping them the most. Yet, democrats in washington want to erase these gains through an extreme policy of open borders, flooding the labor market and driving down incomes for the poorest americans and driving crime right through the roof. They want nothing to do with looking at the people that are coming in. Some very, very bad people are trying to get in. But were building the wall. Its going up rapidly. We have tremendous help from mexico, despite what you read. It was a terrible thing that you read over the last period of a few days, but also over the last years, but they have 27,000 soldiers on our border now protecting us from people coming into our country. And because of that, im not tariffing mexican goods. So it works out well for everyone. We have 27,000 mexican soldiers, and they play by different rules than our people. If our people speak rudely to a person coming in, it means they get the electric chair. Its a very unfair situation. Our border, our border is so our laws are so bad, our immigration laws, its so sad. We have whats called loopholes. Many loopholes. I could fix them in 15 minutes, but the democrats dont want to fix them for two reasons. They dont want to give us a win. And honestly, i think they maybe just dont care. And it would solve all of the problems, and you wouldnt need mexicos help, but we want to thank mexico. We want to thank the president , and ive likewise offered a lot of help, because they have a tremendous problem with the cartels in their country, a problem like nobody would believe, where the cartels are almost ruling a country. And i am offering to the president of mexico the ultimate hand, and he and i have a very Good Relationship, and lets ultimately see what happens, but those cartels are horrible, what theyre doing. You see it every day. All you have to do is turn on the news. I want people to come to our country, but they must come in legally, and they must come through a system of merit. We now know all of our obligations. Our moral obligation is to the American Workers, and were committed to helping them climb that great ladder of success. To equip them with the skills they need, we launched the pledge to americas workers. 367 private sector partners are providing more than 14 million skills and Career Training opportunities for u. S. Workers, and i have to say i am very proud of them. My daughter, ivanka, thats all she wants to talk about. I say, ivanka, can we please talk about Something Else . No, dad. I met with walmart. She want to have these people have great lives. And when she started this 2. 5 years ago, her goal was 500,000 jobs. Shes now created 14 million jobs, and theyre being trained by these Great Companies, the greatest companies in the world, because the government cant train them. Its a great thing. [applause] so jareds here. Youll thank ivanka. Shes done an amazing job. 14 million from 500,000. 14 million and going up. Today, the world is witnessing the resurgence of a strong and proud and prosperous america. The world is a better place because of it also, but everything that we have achieved is under threat from the left wing ideology, relentless regulation, and a topdown control of the entire u. S. Economy. Far left politicians in our Nations Capital want a massive government takeover of health care. They want to give government bureaucrats domination over every aspect of your business and your life. They want to eliminate american oil and natural gas. They want to enlist us in Global Projects designed to redistribute american wealth and kill american jobs. All over our nation. Washingtons democrats and their radical agenda of socialism would demolish our economy, reinstate the avalanche of regulations that have already ended, decimate the middle class, and totally bankrupt our nation. As long as im president , be america will never be a socialist country. [applause] we are reawakening the majestic spirit of enterprise and exploration, discovery, and all of the other things that we need to create that exceptional character that our nation is developing now more than at any time in the past. We are a nation of unbridled pioneers and adventurers and risk takers. We inherit the legacy of courageous, free and independent souls who ventured across oceans, braved the wilderness, settled the frontiers, tamed the wild west, and raised up towering cities of concrete, iron, and steel. Our american ancestors produced miracles of science, lost this is lost so many lives, but launched revolutions and in technology, created groundbreaking new industries, built the railroads that linked our cities, fashioned the skyscrapers that touch the clouds and gave us the most prosperous nation to ever exist on the face of the earth. This is our american heritage. This is who we are. This is who we will forever be. We believe in the dignity of work and the nobility of each and every american worker. We believe the future is forged in the mind of the american inventor, the soul of the american craftsman, the heart of the american entrepreneur, and the faith of the american investor. We know there is nothing we cannot achieve as one team, one people, one family, and one glorious nation under god. With everyone here today and millions of patriots across our land, we are making america stronger, prouder, and greater than ever before, and ladies and gentlemen, the best is yet to come. Thank you. God bless you and god bless america. Thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] thank you very much. [applause] thank you, mr. President and theur insights great work that you do, sir. We will move to the question and answer portion of our program. Our two very able questioners today are mr. John hess, ceo of hess corporation, and mr. Mark, managing principal of Center Bridge partners. Mr. Hess, you have the first question. President , welcome back to new york. Mr. President , you have been a tough negotiator to address unfair trading practices and ensure that u. S. Businesses get fair treatment. But theres a growing consensus that the trade war has a cost and is weighing on our Economic Growth and Capital Spending. As you know, Capital Spending in 10 United States was up last year. This year its flat. While you mentioned in your speech significant progress thats been made on several fronts, a number of industrial sectors have recently been hurt, manufacturing, automotive and oil. What are your plans to address these economic headwinds . Pres. Trump thank you. They havent been hurt. They were totally down. Now theyre a little bit down because a little bit, perhaps, the uncertainty of trade wars , but there is no uncertainty. We are the bank that everybody wants to take from, were the source that Everybody Needs and everybody wants all over the world. The real cost, john, would be if we did nothing. The cost of doing nothing was killing us as a country. Our National Debt and so many other things, but it was killing us. So when you say, gee, lets just, because perhaps this is an assumption based on the question, gee, lets just keep it the way it is with china, that will be the real cost. We cant do that. One of the things i was able to do with china, as an example, weve taken in i mean, well soon up to 100 billion in tariffs. You havent seen inflation, and you havent seen, in many cases, price increases. Our farmers, because i have a very Good Relationship with our farmers, our Great American farmers, i call them patriots, they were hurt very badly by china because china targeted them because they were my vote. The whole middle of the country. Its a beautiful thing to see, i will say. But they targeted them, and i said to sonny perdue, our secretary of agriculture, sonny, how much is it . He said, the year before last it was 12 billion. And this year its 16 billion in orders. I said, thats ok, sonny. We are going to give them 28 billion. We are going to take it right out of the tariffs and hopefully the farmers will say thank you very much, china. And we spread, distribute, two years, 28 billion around to china, around from china into our farmers and farms and ranchers and all of the people who were targeted. So i would say in a rough manner by china, i would say in a very rough manner, and now chinas coming back. And as you know theyre already starting big buys, very big buys. And the farmers are very happy. The incredible thing with the farmers is they dont want a subsidy. They dont want a handout. In this case it was something i was able to do and do it. 28 billion. After that we had tremendous amounts of billions left over that we could use, actually we could use it for tax reductions, we could distribute it to people. Again, if we dont make a deal with china look, i had a deal. We had a deal. This gentleman can tell you. We were so close to a deal. The hard points were negotiated. Opening up china, intellectual property, also its tremendous penalties. And then one day we get a call. Seven months ago, we get a call. They would like to see us. And we saw them, and they explained why they cant do three or four things that were already agreed to. And i said ok. Hey, look, i am in the real estate business in new york. I have heard that before. [laughter] pres. Trump sadly. It wasnt like, oh, gee, im so shocked. But i was a little surprised. You know, its china. Theyre not supposed to do that, but they did. I tell you what, i bet you they wished they wouldnt do it. Then i put in 25 tariffs on the on everything coming in on , the first 250 billion of product. Its going to 15 very soon. I told this to larry. I tell it to everybody. If we dont make a deal, we will substantially raise those tariffs. They are going to be raised very substantially. Thats going to be true for other countries that mistreat us too. We have been mistreated by so many countries. There are a few that havent mistreated us. And, you know, cant blame them. If you can get away with it. This is why i blame our past leadership. I dont know how its gotten this way. So well have a trade deficit of over the last, you know, long period of time, close to 800 billion. Who ever heard of this . 800 billion of trade deficit. Its supposed to be the other way around. It will take a while. You have statutory constraint. You have, in some cases, you take it to one phase, then you have to wait six weeks before you can go to phase two and phase three and phase four. Weve made a tremendous amount of progress. We are respected on many fronts. We rebuilt our military, john, which is very important. You know we can all talk about , trade. We can all talk about judges. We can all talk about everything were doing. If we dont have a military in this world today, you saw what we did with albaghdadi last week. We have the greatest military force on earth. It was depleted when i took over. We have to spend money on the military, otherwise its wonderful to have budgets. If we dont rebuild our military, and we have rebuilt it. 700 billion. 716 billion the second year. And 738 billion this year. And our military will be at a level that nobody can even come close to competing with. And thats where we have to be. We had a military that was so depleted, so bad. The planes were so old. Many of them didnt fly. I could tell you stories about ammunition. They didnt have ammunition. We had a real problem. Where we have to do that. Otherwise everything we talk about doesnt matter because we have some very big, very powerful players. I am not talking about radical islam. I am talking about beyond radical islam. We have to look at the even bigger picture. But we handled radical islamic in addition. We wiped out isis. Now we would like to bring our people back home. We kept the oil. We kept the oil. We want to bring our people back home. [applause] pres. Trump when i took over three years ago, isis was all over various parts of the middle east. I would show you a map. It was put in a certain color, and that color was very predominant, and now that color doesnt exist. Now you are going to have offshoots, and theyll Start Building up again. It would be nice if other countries could handle it. But maybe they wont. But we have decimated isis and captured many, but weve decimated isis, and were going to have to keep it that way. That is why we got the leader, albaghdadi, who, when you saw those orange jumpsuits with the cutting off of the heads standing on the beach, many young men in this case, that was albaghdadi. We also got his second. They had just taken a man. He just became second. He got it too. Guess what, we have our eye on his third. His third has got a lot of problems, because we know where he is too. [laughter] pres. Trump so we have to keep it that way. Otherwise, well continue to have problems. You look at whats happening in europe. I mean, whats going on in europe is very sad when you look , whats taken place in europe. They have to be able to straighten out their own problems. But john, we have rebuilt our military. Our manufacturing is coming back at a very, very strong pitch. Its a little bit down from where it was last year, but last year we were doing Record Numbers. Its coming back very, very powerfully. And our country is really strong. And i think one of the things we can all talk about is the 10,000 per consumer, per person, but per consumer, when you look at that, i think, really, well go forward, because our consumer is so strong and never have been strong like this. We are in great shape for the future. Thank you, john. Mr. Hess thank you, mr. President. Pres. Trump thank you. Mr. President , all the folks in the room are business leaders. Business works hard to think through and mitigate risk. How do you think about risk as it relates to trade policy and to really big issues like Climate Change . Pres. Trump well you know, Climate Change is a very complex issue. I consider myself to be in many ways an environmentalist. Believe it or not. When i built buildings, i did the best Environmental Impact statements. I know the game better than anybody. I used to go and see my consultants that i was paying a lot of money, environmental consultants. They would up in albany. I would say, what are they doing up there . They were trying to make it more difficult so we would hire them and pay them even more money than we were paying now. I know what it is. To me its clean air and crystal clean, clear water, and we have now the cleanest air we have ever had in our country. Meaning, over the last 40 years. I guess, 200 years ago, it was cleaner, but there was nothing around, right . I am not sure that it was much cleaner, you want to know the truth. I want clean air. I want clean water. Environmentally. If you take a look we discussed the Paris Climate Accord. That will just put us out of business. Were spending money all over. Were doing things that are unnecessary. It would have been a catastrophe. So i want im very much into climate, but i want the cleanest air on the planet, and i want to have i have to have cleaner water. And you know, when people ask the question, your part of the question about climate, i always say, you know, i have a little problem. We have a relatively small piece of land, the United States. And you compare that to some of the other countries like china, like india, like russia, like many other countries, that absolutely are doing absolutely nothing to clean up their smoke stacks and clean up all of their plants and all of the garbage that theyre dropping in the sea and that floats into los angeles, along with other problems that los angeles has, by the way. Amazing it ends up in los angeles. [laughter] pres. Trump what a mess that is. But when you see this happening, its nobody wants to talk about it. They want to talk about our country. We have to do this. We cant have planes any longer. We cant have cows any longer. We cant have anything. I said what about china . , i dont think theyre going to subscribe to a poor student coming up with you know, i actually heard the other day, some pretty good politician. I have seen him around for a long time, nice, white hair, everything is like central casting. You could put a guy in the movie. I dont know if he believes this. He was a democrat. He said, we have 11 years first time i had heard it i heard 12. Now, its been a year. Now they think we have 11 years to live. I dont know. I think these people have gone totally loco. [laughter] pres. Trump but we are you know, they will kill our industry. They dont want oil. I mean go to texas. , tell texas there will be no more drilling. There will be no more oil and gas. Well put hundreds of thousands of people out of work. We wont fuel our factories. And now youre talking about millions and millions of people, and you are talking about a country that couldnt even exist. These people i almost dont know. Is this politics . I think its bad politics. I think its bad politics. But we have to be very careful. You know, recently, i walked into a meeting, and i was with a group of people that have, you know, generally i didnt like. I never liked them. Its a Certain Group of people. I have my likes and dislikes. [laughter] pres. Trump and i walked into a room, a couple hundred people. Very substantial people. And i said, listen, i dont have to make a long speech. Here is the story. I dont like you. You dont like me. You have no choice but to vote for me. You will do whatever you have to do. And they said yes, sir. ,we will, we will. Look, you have no choice. Because the people were running against are crazy. [laughter] [applause] pres. Trump theyre crazy. [applause] and i have to say this, be i i dont think, there is that much i think the biggest risk is the election, ill be honest. I think the biggest risk because i think some of these people mean what they say. I really believe that. Its just not, its just not acceptable. We have a very important election coming up. I think were going to do very well. I think were going to win it. I think we are going to win it hopefully easily. It doesnt matter as long as we win it by a vote. It will be important for all of you. I have Great Respect what all of you have done. I know so many of you. We want to keep it going that way. Our country is strong. Our country is great. Our economy is probably the best its ever been. And we want to keep it that way. Thank you, all, very much. Thank you, thank you. [applause] thank you, mr. President. Lets give him [applause] it was our pleasure to host you today. Thank you so much. And well keep watching, sir. As you can imagine, the president packed a lot into his trip to new york. Hes not able to stay for lunch, but we appreciate him very much taking time for us. Please, lets give him another hand as he and his senior staff depart the room. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] i am pleased to announce we have many great speakers i had of us still this fall, starting with the president and ceo of cigna and the chairman of Dell Technologies coming. We have actually the ceo of uber, the founder and ceo of blackrock. Please stay tuned. Thank you for being here and now enjoy your lunch. Announcer 1 cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Wednesday morning we are getting your reaction ahead of the first public house impeachment inquiry hearing. Join the discussion in the morning with your phone calls, facebook comments, Text Messages and tweets. Be sure to watch washington journal 7 00 eastern wednesday morning. Live wednesday on the cspan networks, the house returns at 10 00 for work on legislation regarding security for Supreme Court justices and the u. S. Import, export bank. That is cspan. On cspan 2, the Senate Continues work on judicial combinations. Housecspan3 the Intelligence Committee holds the first public impeachment hearing. Watch the house impeachment inquiry hearing wednesday 10 00 eastern on cspan3 with testimony from top u. S. Diplomat in ukraine taylor and the assistant george kent. Find the procedures on the website cspan. Org impeachment and watch our live allday coverage on cspan3, cspan. Org, or listen live wherever you are on the free radio app. Cspan followed democratic president ial candidate senator Michael Bennet as he files his official candidacy paperwork at the New Hampshire statehouse, and then travel to meet with Granite State voters. During his trip he held a town hall at a dover specialty paper company. Later he attended a house party hosted by marjorie smith, a Democratic State representative and supporter of senator bennets campaign. Should we go in and do this . Yeah. Lets go do it. Do i have a check . Hey how are you . , very nice to see you. Thank you. Paperwork. Ok. Come on in. Thank you. 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