President s remarks. I want to share a little bit of the gaggle notes. The president is in the building. Hes not begun his speech yet. Very interesting. The president talked about his opposition, if you will, to Jeff Sessions decision to recuse himself from the russia investigation. He talked in length about Michael Wolff, calling him a fantasy writer. Wolff the author in the latest book fire and fury which has created so much of a controversy in washington and consternation for the white house. He also talked about an axios piece, neil, that was laying out his executive team. Im not sure if it was suggesting he didnt work hard. Its that he had more free time than other president s. He said he works as hard as any president ever has. As you pointed out, hes here in nashville expected to address this overflow crowd of the American Farm bureau in just a moment. Hes going to be talking about the importance of the new tax law and how it will benefit americas families and in particular, americas farm families. Lets show you an excerpt. This is just prepared from the white house. From now on, most family farms and Small Business owners will be spared the punishment of the deeply unfair estate tax known as the death tax, so you can keep your farms in the family. In every decision we make, were honoring americas proud farming legacy. As you know as we have discussed, usually events like this are backended by other policy initiatives and announcements and the like. Well see if that is the case. I can tell you this, given the venue here, it is a massive crowd. Given its a state that he won 60 to 34 and given the vips in attendance is a good bet he will be rolling out something. Well let you know what we find out shortly. Live coverage coming in a bit. Neil thanks, kevin. The president is firing back at his critics and invoking Ronald Reagan while doing so. He said i have had to put up with the fake news, and now a fake book written by a totally discredited author. Ronald reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will i. The guy that used to work for that president , former regan campaign manager, ed rollins is. There a similarity here . Only from the date that Ronald Reagan was elected, they tried to dismiss him as a viable person. He was the oldest man to serve. Trump is the same age. They said he was a movie star. They forgot he was a governor for eight years in california. He won be a landslide in 1980 for governor. What happened regan didnt Pay Attention to it. He didnt worry about what was in the press and he didnt go crazy over it. He had a staff in the first term that was loyal to him. In the second term, he had a new staff, don regans people. That didnt work as well. After iran contra, he was d disturbed that that could happen on his watch. But every day, and i was with him until the end, he functioned effectively and he had a great sense of humor. He was shot the second month of his administration, almost called. He had colon surgery. A lot of things. But he was deaf in one ear. He was hard of hearing because of a gun that went off. Nearly blind. But he could write beautifully, speak beautifully and had a core of beliefs. Again, the key thing was he came in knowing what he wanted to do. Dishave disarray in the white house and to a certain extent, still they tried to take him apart. Neil you said a lot of profound things there. But the most was his sense of humor. He was thin skinned, he didnt show it. He let the critics and the criticisms just sort of roll down his back. I wonder if theres a lesson there. Some of our more effective president s have been able to turn what are seemed to be flaws, you know, by just joking or kidding about them. John kennedy saying that he wouldnt let his father his father told him he wouldnt pay for a landslide or even Ronald Reagan dismissing critics that say he wasnt too bright. He would famously say, im here, arent i . What could maybe a donald trump learn from that . He bristles at the criticism in this book and what happens to him, he goes out and he will have an event like today and have a cheering crowd. He will come back and read the papers tomorrow and basically wont be as praise worthy. He sees these as ratings where a lot of politicians have been around awhile and certainly by regan, they dont Pay Attention to it. You Pay Attention to the people you believe in like fox and other places. But the post and the New York Times will never write good stuff about him. But he likes to be loved. He reacts and overreacts sometimes. The key thing i think is you are growing to be measured by your programs. You had a great end of the year a great year this year and basically serve out this term and let history write the books about you. Neil what do you make of Michael Wolffs premise that the president is unstable and the people around him think hes unstable . Hes too nuts for the job. As if they would know or be able to qualify that. You know, theres hundreds of people that work in the white house. Who are the people saying hes unstable . Its not the general running the show at this point in time. Certainly not his cabinet. World leaders that sit down with him, nobody walks away saying this guy is not stable. We knew what he was when we elected him. He wasnt a professional politician. He had a unique personality. You know, basically got a lot of his support after his Television Shows and what have you. I think to a certain extent, hes a good communicator and he goes out and connects with audiences. He knows what he wants to do. Not necessarily popular positions with the mainstream media, but they are popular positions with his supporters. Neil maybe the lesson here, maybe Ronald Reagan first laid it out, others successful like john kennedy, never let them see you sweat. Never let them think that theyre getting under your skin. Theres some value in that. Tremendous value in that. I use a different term. I say never show pain. No matter how hard they hit you, never react like its no big deal. Regan was great that way. I asked him one time, i said dont you ever take any of this serious . He said i was a movie star for 25 years. I wasnt a great actor. He said i got panned every day, every movie. I basically just keep going on, appreciate what you have. Im grateful to have this country to serve and i basically care very much about the people and i think to a certain extent, thats where what drove him. He cared about the young people and he got up and did that ever try day. You talk about the people that serve him. The i was left the impression that hes surrounded by people that dont like him, trust him or are afraid of him. Theres none of the comradery and loyalty, for example, that Ronald Reagan enjoyed with his staff, cabinet officials, higher ups, people like yourself. That might be a wrong impression. What do you think . I think its very true. I read the book over the weekend, too. I didnt learn anything new having watched it closely. I was kind of amazed at the disa ray and amazing in a short period of time, before the chief of staff, they were getting even with each other. Everybody had the own Media Program and power center as opposed to being there to serve the president. One of the key things with a campaign, you do serve government, you serve the people that were there. Everybody lives off of reflected power. The bottom line, if you cant serve the people, you walk out. Neil were listening to sonny purdue, the agricultural secretary getting ready to introduce the president. I want to while youre here, get your sense of where the president goes to from here. If it wasnt for some of these lapses that are tweets or vexing with those criticizing him. He does have a record with the markets, the economy, the tax cuts that could be more substantial to the American People that have generally been given the case, that that would have him soaring right now. Hes turned this around. The chief has changed the general have very important and theres order there now. A great accomplishment. It was a learning curve. Hes never been in government. Neil absolutely. None of the people around him had been in government. His campaign was composed of bannon and those people. Never been in a campaign before. So to a certain extent, theyre like ducks. Every day is a new day. To a certain extent, he knew what he wanted to do and kind of a question working it out. And the Communications Office is much better now. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is loyal to him and hope hicks. A lot of people trying to serve themselves and always attendana tendency to tell the press im so smart and im the power behind the throne. The bottom line is youre there to help the person that won every day to move forward. Neil why cant he then leave surrogates or people say look at the markets, look at everything else. Maybe that is somebody that the president will remind people to do. He needs to do. The truth of the matter, every member of the cabinet, there ought to be a theme of the week here he comes. Let him carry his own speech. Neil indeed. Youd be a wonderful anchor if you wanted to take the step back there. I just want to be with you. Neil there we go. The president in nashville today. You people know real estate. They have rooms all over this beautiful building are packed. But youre here with us, right . And i say packed with our people. So its great. So thank you very much, secretary purdue, for the kind introduction. There could be no better person to be our secretary of agriculture. A man known, trusted and respected by your industry. Thats for sure. Im thrilled to be back in the amazing state of tennessee. [cheers applause] here as the state slogan goes, we see america as its absolute best, and youre doing well. Youre doing a lot better since november 8, i might add. At the same time, its true of the people gathered here today in our nations former and you know that our nations farmers are just the most incredible people and were doing a job for you. Youre seeing it like nobody else. Regulation, death tax, so much. Your a big beneficiary and youre really producing like nobody else. I want to thank you for that. [applause] and thats why im so honored to be the first president to address the American Farm bureau in more than 25 years. What happened . Where are what happened . [cheers applause] what happened . Where are they . And you know, this is your 99th year. So i was very disappointed to hear that. [laughter] you understand. 100 is so much cooler. I have to be honest. Ill be back next year. Ill come back. [applause] well come back. I want to thank Governor Haslam and mrs. Hasham along with the tennessee congressional delegation. I sort of have this beautiful list that i wrote. Some of us came in on air force one and there are great people and they are fighting for you. In addition to the governor and your great secretary, senator bob corker. Theyre out here someplace. Bob. [applause] senator Lamar Alexander is here. Senator pat roberts. [applause] thank you, pat. Does he love the farmers. Right, pat . Stand up, pat. Do you love the farmers, pat . Yes. [applause] he will come in. Were talking about a different subject. What about the farmers thats good. Thats why they love you. Representative diane black. Terrific woman. Representative Marsha Blackburn. Marsha . [applause] representative scott desjarlais. I love that name. Right from the beginning. Representative chuck fleischman. [applause] representative david cussoff. Representative phil rowe. [applause] i talk about zippy. I dont have to mention zippy duval. Ill talk about him. Tom nassif. Where is tom . Thank you. And mark morris, state Senate Majority leader. Ive done my job now. All right . Okay. [applause] did i do a good job . Did i leave out anybody . I hope not. Always trouble when you do that. You left out one person. Its like for the rest of your life they never speak to you. Its always very dangerous. Thanks very much. Im thrilled to see one of my good friends and early supporters and that is tom i just said tom nassi and i also want to thank the American Farm bureau. Zippy, im going to mention you. Youve been there from the beginning. The tractor that you drove during the inauguration was a very, very special moment. So i want to thank zippy duval. [applause] thank you, zippy. Thank you. A special day. From that day on, we have been working every day to deliver for americas farmers just as they work every single day to deliver for us, we know that our nation was founded by farmers. Our independence was were on by farmers. Our continent was tamed by farmers. So true. Our armies have been fed by farmers and made of farmers and throughout our history, farmers have always, always, always led the way. Are you surprised to hear that, farmers . I dont think so. [applause] you have led the way. Great people. The men and women in this room come from different background and from all across our land. But each of you carries the same title. Thats been proudly borne by patriots and pioneers, inventors and entrepreneurs. The title of, very proudly, American Farmer. Thank you very much. [applause] you embody the values of hard work, grit, selfreliance and sheer determination we need did you ever here this expression . Make America Great again. Has anybody heard that . [cheers applause] were seeing already, very early, 11 months, the incredible results. Weve created more than two million new jobs since the e electi election. Economic growth has surged passed 3 . Something that wasnt supposed to happen for a long time. Were way ahead schedule. Unemployment is at a 17year low. By the way, African American unemployment is the lowest its ever been in the history of our records. [applause] great. [applause] i told you. The stock market is hitting one alltime record after another. Boosting your 401 k s and retirement accounts for everyday americans. Everybody happy with your 401 k . If youre not, theres something very wrong. I had a policeman in new york come up to me. He said, mr. President i was shaking hands. Dont we love our police and uniformed he came up. He was taking pictures. A nice event. He said, sir, i want to thank you for my 401 k . I never thought in terms of this way. I think im going to use this. He said my 401 k is up 39 . Its so good. My wife thinks im dont forget, this is nine months when i met him said my wife thinks im an investment genius. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I said, you know what . Based on the stocks, 39 is not that good. Youre not doing well. Dont tell your wife that. The American Dream is roaring back to life and we have just signed into law the most significant tax cuts and reforms in american history. [applause] its a total of 5. 5 trillion in tax cuts with most of those benefits going to working families, Small Businesses and who . The family farmer. [applause] and i hate to say this, but your competing party wants to raise the taxes. They want to raise them. Cant let that happen. Weve worked to hard to get them. Businesses across america have already started to raise wages, and more than 100 companies have already given bonuses and other benefits to hundreds of thousands of workers as a result of these massive tax cuts. You see it happening every day. Today they Just Announced more. 1,000, sometimes more, per employee. Hundreds of thousands of employees and overall, millions of employees. We have over a million workers that have already received a tax cut bonus. Something that nobody even thought when we made the bill. Nobody thought of that. It happened. At t came out. Another one came out. Then they started copying. The ones that didnt get it, everybody is saying wheres mine . So theyll all have it. We never thought about it. That worked out fantastically well. Even before the february date where youll start seeing more money in your paycheck. Yet every democrat in the house and every democrat in the senate voted against tax cuts for the American Farmer and for the american worker. But republicans came together and delivered historic relief for our farmers and our middle class. And it wasnt easy. [applause] we cannot let anything happen to that. If the democrats ever had the chance, the first thing they would do is get rid of it and raise up your taxes, sometimes by 40, 50, 60 higher than youre paying right now. We cant have that. That will undermine everything that weve done. You can see the record business all over the world. Theyre talking about the United States again. All over the world. We cannot let anything happen to what were doing. [applause] under the really large tax cut, i always call it massive, sometimes huge tax cuts, but under our huge tax cut that we just passed, americans will be paying less in taxes and keeping more of their own money to do what you want. You can save it, spend it. Its all good for our country. Weve lowered tax rates, nearly double the standard deduction and doubled the child tax credit. [applause] its a big thing. Under this new law, the typical family of four earning 75,000 will see an income tax cut of more than 2,000 each slashing their tax bill in half each year. [applause] american businesses are going from the highest tax rate in the developed world last year, the highest in the developed world think of it to one of the most competitive this year from 35 , which is unacceptable, all the way down to 21 and on top of that, you have a lot of advantages. Small and mid size businesses will receive massive tax cuts. A lot of the folks in this room. [applause] theyll be able to deduct 20 of their business income. All american businesses, including American Farmers, will be able to deduct 100 of the cost of new equipment in the year you make the investment. That is something that is tremendous. [applause] that is something that will be the sleeper of the bill. You deduct it all in one year as opposed to over many years. A tremendous thing. From now on, most family