You go back and take a look at what they were saying just prior to the election. Nobody thought it was even possible. And weve done many other things, as you know. And i wont go over them because i want to be hearing from you today, but many other things that, frankly, nobody thought possible. Gdp 3. 2, 3, 3. I think were going to have another really big one coming up this current quarter, maybe a number that nobody would have thought would ever be hit. But i think were going to have a very good number because of the stimulus, because of the massive tax cuts that were all benefitting whether youre a republican or democrat, youre benefitting tremendously from those tax cuts. Apple is investing 350 billion in the United States. And you look at whats going on, its really quite something. You just read, a week ago, exxon is now coming in with 50 billion and many, many companies. Also, something that nobody expected theyre also coming in with massive bonuses for their workers. Nobody thought in terms of that. We know that everybody is going to get a lot more income, and weve seen that as of february 1. Everyone is saying, wow, i have an extra 250 in my paycheck. And thats pretty good stuff. So we knew that was going to happen. We didnt know that hundreds and hundreds of companies, millions and millions of people were going to be getting large bonuses because of what we did. And one of the things were working on is fair and reciprocal trade deals. Were not being treated fairly. You, as governors, are not being treated fairly. And when i get too tough with a country, youre always calling, oh, gee, dont do that. But i must say, its more senators and congressmen and women that call. You havent been calling so much. You want to see great deals. But we have to make the deals fair. You know, with mexico, as an example, we probably lose 130 billion a year. Now, for years, ive been saying for the last year and a half, ive been saying 71 billion, but its really not. And they have a vat tax of 16 percent, and we dont have a tax. And, at some point, we have to get stronger and smarter, because we cannot continue to lose that kind of money with one country. We lose a lot with canada. People dont know it. Canada is very smooth. They have you believe that its wonderful. And it is for them. Not wonderful for us its wonderful for them. So we have to start showing that we know what were doing. World trade organization a catastrophe. China became strong you look at it. It was going like this for years and years and hundreds of years, it was going just like this. Im a great i have Great Respect for president xi, by the way. So im not blaming them. Im not blaming mexico. Im not blaming anybody. Im blaming us because we did such a poor job for so many years. Im not just talking about president obama. Im talking about many, many, many president s for 30 years, 35 years. But the World Trade Organization makes it almost impossible for us to do good business. We lose the cases, we dont have the judges. We have a minority of judges. Its almost as bad as the 9th circuit. Nothing is as bad as the 9th circuit. [laughter] pres. Trump its almost as bad. Speaking of that, daca is going to be put back into the 9th circuit. You know, we tried to get it moved quickly, because wed like to help daca. I think everybody in this room wants to help with daca. But the Supreme Court just ruled that it has to go through the normal channel. So its going back in, and there wont be any surprise. I mean, its really sad when every single case filed against us is in the 9th circuit. We lose, we lose, we lose, and then we do fine in the Supreme Court. But what does that tell you about our court system . Its a very, very sad thing. So daca is going back, and well see what happens from there. So we want fair trade deals. We want reciprocal trade deals. Scott walker has a Wonderful Company called Harley Davidson in wisconsin. Right . Great. So when they send a motorcycle to india, as an example, they have to pay 100 percent tax 100 percent. Now, the Prime Minister, who i think is a fantastic man, called me the other day. He said, we are lowering it to 50 percent. I said, okay, but so far were getting nothing. So we get nothing, he gets 50 , and they think were doing like theyre doing us a favor. Thats not a favor. And you know what im talking about. Its a great company. When i spoke with your chairman or the president of harley, they werent even asking for it because theyve been ripped off with trade so long that they were surprised that i brought it up. Im the one thats pushing it more than they are, but its unfair. And india sells us a lot of motorbikes. So when they have a motorbike a big number, by the way they have a company that does a lot of business. So they have a motorcycle or a motorbike that comes into our country the number is zero. We get zero. They get 100 percent, brought down to 75, brought down, now, to 50. Ok. And i wasnt sure he said it so beautifully. Hes a beautiful man. And he said, i just want to inform you that we have reduced it to 75, but we have further reduced it to 50. And i said, huh. What do i say . Am i supposed to be thrilled . And thats not good for you people, especially as governors. Its just not right. And we have many deals like that. Now, with all of that being said, lets talk china. Because china, we probably lost 504 billion, last year, on trade 504 billion. I think that president xi is unique. Hes helping us with north korea who, by the way, wants to talk, as of last night; you heard that. They want to talk. And we want to talk also, only under the right conditions. Otherwise, were not talking. You know, theyve been talking for 25 years. Other president s should have solved this problem long before i got here. And theyve been talking for 25 years. And you know what happened . Nothing. The Clinton Administration spent billions and billions of dollars. They gave them billions. They built things for them. They went out of their way, and the day after the agreement was signed, they continued with nuclear research. It was horrible. The Bush Administration did nothing both. The Obama Administration wanted to do something. He told me its the single biggest problem that this country has. But they didnt do anything. And it would have been much easier, in those days, than it is now. I think most people understand that. But weve been very tough with them. China has been good, but they havent been great. China has really done more, probably, than theyve ever done because of my relationship. We have a very good relationship, but president xi is for china, and im for the United States. And russia is behaving badly because russia is sending in what china is taking out. So china is doing pretty good numbers, but russia is now sending a lot of stuff in. But i think they want to see it come to an end also. I think everybody does talking about tremendous potential loss of lives. Numbers that nobody has ever even contemplated, never thought of. So they want to talk. First time they want to talk. And well see what happens. Thats my attitude well see what happens. But something has to be done. Today, i want to hear your ideas on a number of critical issues. But, most importantly, we want to discuss the Public Safety in schools and Public Safety, generally. But School Safety. We cant have this go on. Im grateful that governor rick scott is here, and we thank him for his leadership in the aftermath of the terrible tragedy in parkland, florida. Horrible. Our nation is heartbroken. We continue to mourn the loss of so many precious, innocent young lives. These are incredible people. I visited a lot of them. But we will turn our grief into action. We have to have action. We dont have any action. It happens, a week goes by, lets keep talking. Another week goes by, we keep talking. Two months go by all of the sudden, everybody is off to the next subject. Then, when it happens again, everybody is angry and lets Start Talking again. We got to stop. By the way, bump stocks were writing that out. Im writing that out myself. I dont care if congress does it or not. Im writing it out myself, ok . [applause] pres. Trump you put it into the machine gun category which is what it is it becomes, essentially, a machine gun, and nobody is going to be able to its going to very hard to get them. So were writing out bump stocks. But we have to take steps to harden our schools so that they are less vulnerable to attack. This includes allowing welltrained and Certified School personnel to carry concealed firearms. At some point, you need volume. I dont know that a school is going to be able to hire a hundred security guards that are armed. Plus, you know, i got to watch some deputy sheriffs performing this week. And they werent exactly medal of honor winners. All right . The way they performed was, frankly, disgusting. They were listening to what was going on. The one in particular, he was then he was early. And then you had three others that probably a similar deal a little bit later, but a similar kind of a thing. You know, i really believe you dont know until you test it but i really believe id run in there, even if i didnt had a weapon. And i think most of the people in this room would have done that, too, because i know most of you. But the way they performed was really a disgrace. Second, we must confront the issue of Mental Health. And here is the best example of Mental Health. This kid they had 39 red flags. They should have known. They did know. They didnt do anything about it. That was really a bad time, i have to tell you. Nobody bigger for Law Enforcement than i am. But between the people that didnt go into that school and protect those lives, and the fact that this should have been solved long before it happened pretty sad. So we have to confront the issue, and we have to discuss Mental Health, and we have to do something about it. You know, in the old days, we had mental institutions. We had a lot of them, and you could nab somebody like this. Because, you know, they did they knew he was something was off. You had to know that. People were calling all over the place. But you used to be able to bring him into a mental institution, and hopefully he gets help or whatever but hes off the streets. You cant arrest him, i guess, because he hasnt done anything, but you know hes like a boiler ready to explode, right . So he just you have to do something. But you cant put him in jail, i guess, because he hasnt done anything. But, in the old days, you would put him into a mental institution. And we had them in new york, and our government started closing them because of cost. And were going to have to Start Talking about mental institutions, because a lot of the folks in this room closed their mental institutions also. So we have no halfway. We have nothing between a prison and leaving him at his house, which we cant do anymore. So i think you folks have to start thinking about that. Third, we have to improve our Early Warning response system so that when friends, family, and neighbors do warn the authorities about a violent or dangerous individual, action is taken quickly and decisively. Look, you had the one mother you remember, in connecticut, how horrible that was. She was begging begging to take her son in and help him do something, anything, hes so dangerous. And nobody really listened to her. And he ended up killing her, and then the rest. You know what happened. It was a horror. But she was begging to do something about her own son. Recently, you had a grandmother that got to see the notes of her grandchild, and she reported him. And they nabbed him. He was ready to go in for a school looked like. She reported him. And there, the Law Enforcement did a very good job. Fourth, we must pursue commonsense measures that protect the Constitutional Rights of lawabiding americans while keeping guns out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others. And fifth, we must strive to create a culture in our country that cherishes life and condemns violence and embraces dignity. Now, with all of that, over the weekend i cannot believe the press didnt find this out, i cant believe it. I think theyre getting a little bit i could never use the word lazy you dont want to say that. We dont want to give them any more enthusiasm than they already have. But i cant believe they didnt figure this one because i had lunch with wayne lapierre, chris cox, and david lehman of the nra. And i want to tell you, they want to do something. And i said, fellas, we got to do something. Its too long now. We got to do something. And were going to do very strong background checks very strong. We got to do background checks. If we see a sicko, i dont want him having a gun. And, you know, i know there was a time when anybody could have i mean, even if they were sick, they were fighting. And i said, fellas, we cant do it anymore. And theres no bigger fan of the Second Amendment than me, and theres no bigger fan of the nra. And these guys are great patriots. Theyre great people. And they want to do something. Theyre going to do something. And theyre going to do it, i think, quickly. I think they want to see it. But we dont want to have sick people having the right to have a gun. Plus, when we see somebody is sick like this guy, when the police went to see him, they didnt do a good job. But they have restrictions on what they can do. We got to give them immediate access to taking those guns away so that they dont just leave and hes sitting there with seven different weapons. [applause] pres. Trump got to give immediate access. Dont worry, youre not going to get any you wont dont worry about the nra. Theyre on our side. You guys half of you are so afraid of the nra. Theres nothing to be afraid of. And you know what . If theyre not with you, we have to fight them every once and a while. Thats ok. Theyre doing what they think is right. I will tell you, they are doing what they think is right. But sometimes were going to have to be very tough and were going to have to fight them. But we need strong background checks. For a long period of time, people resisted that. But now people, i think, are really into it. And john cornyn great guy senator, mitch mcconnell, paul ryan, and Kevin Mccarthy hopefully are going to work on some legislation. I hope you guys they started already. In fact, john has legislation in. Were going to strengthen it, were going to make it more pertinent to what were discussing, but hes already started the process. Weve already started it. And the other thing we need hardened sites. We have to have hardened sites. So just in concluding, we have tremendous things happening. The country is doing well, and then we have a setback like this thats so heartwrenching. Its so heartwrenching. And we have to e have to clean it up. We have to straighten it out. You know, its wonderful that were setting records on the economy. Were setting records. Black unemployment at an alltime historical low. Hispanic unemployment at a historical low. Women unemployment at an 18year low 18 years. And actually, i did very well with women during the election. Nobody wants to give me credit for that, as you know. But and im very proud of that. To me, these are incredible statistics. And very importantly, were doing our companies are doing well. The fundamentals are beyond what literally beyond what anyone has ever seen. This isnt a bubble. You know, there was bubbles in the past because these companies were valued and nobody understood where wheres their money . Wheres the money . And these are really Strong Companies were building now. We have tremendous underlying value. I want to bring the Steel Industry back into our country. If that takes tariffs, let them take tariffs, okay . Maybe it will cost a little bit more, but well have jobs. Let it take tariffs. I want to bring aluminum back into our country. These plants are all closing or closed. Recently, we put a tariff on washing machines because we were getting killed, believe it or not, on washing machines and solar panels. That was two months ago. You have to see the activity on new plants being built for washing machines and for solar panels. We had 32 solarpanel plants. Of the 32, 30 were closed, and 2 were on lifetolife resuscitation. They were dead. Now theyre talking about opening up many of them reopening plants that have been closed for a long time. And we make better solar panels than china. One of their knocks were that their solar panels were lousy, they werent good. We make a much higherquality solar panel. So, after two months, were opening up at least five plants, and other plants are expanding on the washing machines which, by the way, it sounds like, sort of, a little hokey to say washing machines. Its a big business. Its a very big business. But then you look and you see, like i wont mention i wont mention countries. I would never do that. But how many chevrolets are in the middle of berlin . How many fords are in the middle of tokyo . Not too many. In fact, ford, sort of, closed up their operation in japan because they couldnt get cars in there. I spoke to Prime Minister abe, another great friend of mine hes a great person but i said, listen, youre sending us millions of cars, and if we send you one and if we make it so perfect they actually told me a case where they made this car so good. This was they spent a fortune. They had the best environmental, the best this, the best skins, the best everything you can have in a car. The best safety. They brought it in, and after inspections that lasted forever, it was rejected. You see, thats a form of tariff, too. Maybe thats a more deadly form of tariff. That, to me, is just as deadly as 50 percent, and 25 percent, and 100 percent in many cases. So were going to straighten it out. Weve already started. I mean, the first year is just we laid the seeds. You know, a lot of it is statutory, where you cant do anything unless you go through a process. Well, now, through our great team, weve gone through that process. Many of the in other words, youll do a r