Posted on 07/14/2020 9:51:02 PM PDT by lightman
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, everybody. Please. I hope its not too hot. But its pretty warm. Thank you.
So, weve had a big day in the stock market. Things are coming back, and theyre coming back very rapidly a lot sooner than people thought. People are feeling good about our country. People are feeling good about therapeutics and possible vaccines. But were going to go over quite a bit, and maybe at the end, well take some questions if we have time, if its not too hot.
Today, I signed legislation and an executive order to hold China accountable for its oppressive actions against the people of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which I signed this afternoon, passed unanimously through Congress. This law gives my administration powerful new tools to hold responsible the individuals and the entities involved in extinguishing Hong Kongs freedom. Weve all watched what happened. Not a good situation. Their freedom has been taken away. Their rights have been taken away. And with it, goes Hong Kong, in my opinion, because it will no longer be able to compete with free markets.
A lot of people will be leaving Hong Kong, I suspect. And were going to do a lot more business because of it, because we just lost one competitor. Thats the way it is. We lost a very, very serious competitor. A competitor that we incentivized to take a lot of business and do well. And we gave them a lot of business by doing what we did. We gave them things that nobody else had the right to do, and that gave them a big edge over other markets. And because of that edge, theyve done really historic business, tremendous business far bigger than anybody would have thought, years ago, when we did this gift. It was really a gift to freedom.
Today, I also signed an executive order ending U.S. preferential treatment for Hong Kong. Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China: no special privileges, no special economic treatment, and no export of sensitive technologies.
In addition to that, as you know, were placing massive tariffs and have placed very large tariffs on China first time thats ever happened to China. Billions of dollars have been paid to the United States, of which Ive given quite a bit to the farmers and ranchers for our country because they were targeted. And thats been going on for three years. Its the first time anybodys ever done anything like that.
And prior to the plague pouring in from China, they were having the worst year, you know, in 67 years. And I dont want them to have a bad year; I want them to have a good year, but they were taking advantage of the United States for many, many years, and thats stopping.
But then they then the virus came in, and the world is a different place. But were now getting back, and one of the reasons the market is doing so its almost at the point that it was at prior to the plague. Almost. Were getting very close. Its a great thing. Its an amazing thing, what our people have done and what theyve endured.
No administration has been tougher on China than this administration. We imposed historic tariffs. We stood up to Chinas intellectual property theft, at a level that nobody has ever come close. We confronted untrustworthy Chinese technology and telecom providers. We convinced many countries many countries and I did this myself, for the most part not to use Huawei because we think its an unsafe security risk. Its a big security risk. I talked many countries out of using it. If they want to do business with us, they cant use it.
Just today, I believe that UK announced that theyre not going to be using it. And that was up in the air for a long time, but theyve decided. And you look at Italy; you look at many other countries.
We withdrew from the Chinese-dominated WHO, and we fully rebuilt the United States Military. The WHO World Health Organization we were paying close to $500 million a year. China was paying $39 million a year. And China had too much say. They worked it very hard, which is a bad thing done by our past administrations. But we were tough, and we were saying I was asking I said, Why are we paying so much more than China? China has 1.4 billion people; we have 325- probably 325 million, approximately. Nobody can give the exact count. Were trying to get an exact count. But you have, over the years, many illegals who have come into the country, so it depends on how you want to count it. But you could say 325- to 350 million people, as opposed to 1.4 billion people.
And the World Trade World Trade is terrible. That deal is terrible. And the World Health is a terrible deal. Weve been very tough on the World Trade Organization, and weve been, I guess, as tough as you can get on World Health. We withdrew our money. We told them were getting out. It doesnt mean that someday we wont go back in. Maybe we will, when its correctly run. But they made a lot of bad predictions, and they said a lot of bad things about what to do and how to do it. And they turned out to be wrong, and they were really a puppet of China.
And make no mistake: We hold China fully responsible for concealing the virus and unleashing it upon the world. They couldve stopped it. They shouldve stopped it. It wouldve been very easy to do at the source when it happened.
In contrast, Joe Bidens entire career has been a gift to the Chinese Communist Party and to the calamity of of errors that theyve made. They made so many errors. And its been devastating for the American worker. China has taken out hundreds of billions of dollars a year from our country. And we rebuilt China. I give them all the credit in the world. I dont give the credit for the people that used to stand here, because they allowed this to happen where hundreds of billions of dollars were taken out of the United States Treasury in order to rebuild China.
Theres no company and no country in the world no country in the world has ever ripped off the United States like the incredible job that they did on this country and the people that ran it. Possibly, its one of the reasons certainly, its one of the very big reasons trade and things related to trade that I got elected in the first place. Ive been talking about it for a long time, along with many other subjects, frankly.
Joe Biden supported Chinas entry into the World Trade Organization one of the greatest geopolitical and economic disasters in world history. If you look at China, if you look at the moment they joined the World Trade, they were flat lining for years and years and years and decades. And then, all of a sudden, they joined the World Trade Organization, and they went like a rocket ship. They were given all sorts of advantages. They were considered a developing country. As a developing country, they got tremendous advantages over the United States and other countries. And they took advantage of those advantages, and and then some.
Biden personally led the effort to give China permanent, most-favored nation status, which is a tremendous advantage for a country to have. Few countries have it. But the United States doesnt have it. Never did. Probably never even asked for it, because they didnt know what they were doing.
As Vice President, Biden was a leading advocate of the Paris Climate Accord, which was unbelievably expensive to our country. It wouldve crushed American manufacturers while allowing China to pollute pollute the atmosphere with impunity. Yet one more gift from Biden to the Chinese Communist Party.
They took all of the advantage away from us. They took everything away. They dont have oil. We wouldve had to close up tremendous amounts of our energy to qualify, eventually, not too far into the future. We wouldve had to do things that would have been unbelievably destructive to our country, including the possible closing of 25 percent of our businesses. Think of that. And it was going to cost us hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars for the privilege of being involved in the Paris Climate Accord.
And you just have to look at what took place this year in Paris and France, where money was being sent to countries all over the world, and the people of France didnt want to take it, and they didnt, and they did a lot of rioting. They had their taxes raised. We would have had to raise our taxes. And it was a disaster. Ive been given a lot of credit for what I did there. It took a certain amount of courage, I guess, because it sounds so nice the Paris Climate Accord but it wasnt good for us at all.
America lost nearly 10,000 factories while Joe Biden was Vice President. Think of that: 10,000 factories. He wrote something today, and he made a statement today that I wrote down. Its pretty accurate.
So Biden was here for 47 years. Eight years the last eight years, not long ago as Vice President, he said, One in five miles of our highways are still in poor condition. Well, were doing a good job in highways, but why didnt he fix them three years ago? Why didnt he fix them?
Tens of thousands of bridges are in disrepair and on the verge of collapse. Well, its probably not a right number, but we have bridges that should have been fixed. Why didnt he fix them? He was there for eight years with President Obama. Why didnt they fix them? Tens of thousands of bridges. This is what he wrote: High-speed broadband. We want high-speed Well why didnt he get it? Three years ago its not a long time.
And he didnt do any of the things, but now he says hes going to be President, and, as President, hes going to do all the things that he didnt do. He never did never did anything, except make very bad decisions, especially on foreign policy.
So Joe Biden and President Obama freely allowed China to pillage our factories, plunder our communities, and steal our most precious secrets. And Ive stopped it largely, but Ive stopped it. And it wasnt easy, because you talk about a certain power of the telephone and the calls, where they would call and say, No, we dont want to do that. And other countries would call on behalf of China. But I did it. I did what has to be done. And you just take a look at whats gone on. And take a look at the kind of at the numbers where they devalued their currency in order to pay the tariffs.
Now the Democrat Party is calling for defunding of our military. Think of that: defunding. They want to defund our military when China is building a massive military. Theyre building a massive military, and Biden wants to defund our military. And the world needs American strength right now more than ever, and weve got it.
Weve weve got now, soon as it all this equipment comes in, all made in the USA weve got the newest, most incredible weapons anywhere in the world. We have the best tanks, the best ships, the best missiles, rockets. We have the best of everything. We have the best fighter jets the F-35, the F-18. All of these assets are being built. Tankers incredible tankers. Bombers. Hope we dont have to use them, but we have the most incredible military.
When I came in, the military was totally depleted. It was it was at a level that was just absolutely incredible. And you know the statements. I made the statements before I told you what generals told me about our military. And Ill make them again. If somebody needs them, well give them to you. Very well documented.
As Vice President, Biden opposed tariffs, and he was standing up for China. He didnt want to do anything to disrupt the relationship with China, even though China was taking us to the cleaners. He opposed my very strict travel ban on Chinese nationals to stop the spread of the China virus. He was totally against it. Xenophobic, he called me. Xenophobic. A month later, he admitted I was right.
We wouldve had thousands of people additionally die if we let people come in from heavily-infected China. But we stopped it; we did a travel ban in January. Nancy Pelosi was dancing on the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco a month later, and even later than that, and others too. They all thought what I did was a terrible mistake.
We would have lost in fact, Dr. Fauci said you wouldve lost thousands of additional people if President Trump had to do that. And I was a crowd of one, because even experts didnt want to do it. They thought it was a mistake. And then I did Europe when I started seeing what was going on in Italy and Spain and France and other countries in Europe. I did a ban on people coming in from Europe. That would have been disastrous for our country also.
And we saved tens of thousands of lives, but we actually saved millions of lives by closing by closing up, we saved millions, potentially millions of lives. Could be a number that were actually working on but it could be 2- to 3 million lives. So were at 135,000, which is terrible; one is too much. But we wouldve had millions of people dead from this curse that came at us.
But we did what we had to do, and now well put out the flames as it as it happens. We have to get the schools open. We have to get everything open. A lot of people dont want to do that for political reasons, not for other reasons.
But if we had listened to Joe Biden, hundreds of thousands of additional lives would have been lost. And if you look at the job he did on swine flu I looked at a poll they have polls on everything nowadays and he they got very bad marks on the job they did on the swine flu, H1N1. He calls it N1H1. H1N1. He got very poor marks from Gallup on the job they did on swine flu. And they stopped, very early on, testing. They totally stopped it. They just said, Stop.
And, frankly, if we didnt test, you wouldnt have all the headlines because were showing cases. And we have just about the lowest mortality rate. But if we did think of this: If we didnt do testing instead of testing over 40 million people, if we did half the testing, we would have half the cases. If we did another you cut that in half, we would have, yet again, half of that.
But the headlines are always testing. Now, the testing is a good thing, but at the same time, its its fodder for the fake news to report cases. So were doing 40 million-plus, going to be very close to 45 million people. And when I turn on the news, I see, cases, cases, cases. They dont talk about deaths being cut down to a level that actually, tenfold, they use. I got that from one of the very respected media outlets Tenfold. Cut tenfold. Yes, but they dont talk about that; they talk about cases. And the cases are created because of the fact that we do tremendous testing. We have the best testing in the world.
We now make ventilators for the world. We had very few ventilators. There wasnt one person in any hospital anywhere in this country that needed a ventilator that didnt get it. And that was because we mobilized to a level using the Purchasing Act, in some cases we mobilized to a level that nobody thought possible.
Nothing has happened like that since World War Two. Our task force has done a great job. Mike Pence worked so hard and gets so little credit. Sad to see that, actually. But he works so hard, and gets so little credit. The governors would tell us wed be on the phone with 50 different governors; theyd all tell us what a great job Great job. And then theyll go to the media and say, Well, they didnt do such a good job. Well, we did a great job.
We made a lot of governors look fantastic. We did in New York what we did in New York was one of the most incredible things: 2,800 beds in Javits Center, but the governor used very few of them, unfortunately. Then we moved in our great hospital ships one of our two great. We moved one also to Los Angeles. And we could have used that for our senior citizens. We could have used it for other people. They could have used it instead of sending our seniors back into nursing homes that were infected, where you lost thousands of people. Thousands of people in New York died because of poor management by the governor. And its a very sad thing to see and very sad to watch and very sad to look at those statistics.
But we have we have an incredible Javits Center that we built with thousands of beds. I think it was 2,800, all ready to go. And they could have sent people there or they could have sent senior citizens there instead of sending them into the nursing homes. And after all of that work and getting it done, the Army Corps of Engineers I mean, the job they did was incredible. They built it in a matter of days.
When it was all completed FEMA, everybody was there doctors. We ended up getting doctors. They said, We cant man it. I said, So well man it and woman it. And thats what we did. We brought in doctors, nurses, everything. Were all set. We said, Where are the people? They didnt send the people. Very few people came in. They could have sent them into the Javits Center. They could have sent them to the hospital ship, which was virtually unused, but we were there.
By contrast, my administration acted very early to ban travel from China, from Europe, saving all of these lives. Incredible. And I want everyone to know, I want every citizen know that were using the full power of the federal government to fight the China virus and to keep our people safe.
Through Operation Warp Speed, we will deliver a vaccine in record-breaking time. Were doing very well on the vaccines. We have many, many different vaccines being studied right now, many of which are looking really good. And were ready to distribute the vaccine when we get it. Were all set. Taking a risk an economic risk of preparing for delivery because we feel very certain its going to be there. But logistically, we have our military ready to go. We have generals that thats all they do is distribute things, and theyre going to be distributing, hopefully, a vaccine or a therapeutic, and its coming out really well. And I think youre going to have some good news very, very quickly having to do with the vaccines.
Were also working with many other countries on the vaccine. Many countries are working with us. Were unleashing our nations scientific genius to kill the virus.
Joe Biden didnt just side with China on the virus he did; he called me, again, xenophobic. Thats what he said. You all heard it many times. He described the rise of China as, quote, a very positive development. Its not a positive development not for us, its not. He said that the idea that China is our competition is really bizarre. Hes really bizarre.
He said China is not a problem. No, nobodys ripped us off more than China over the last 25, 30 years. Nobody close. And he says China is not a problem.
Now he takes it all back now. Now he wants to be Mr. Tough Guy. But for years 47 years he never came out against China, never said anything bad. Just the opposite.
His son walked out with $1.5 billion of money to invest, where hell make hundreds of thousands of dollars maybe millions of dollars a year. Walked out with $1.5 billion. I asked one of the biggest people on Wall Street maybe the biggest Is that possible? He said, No. Hes never seen it. They dont do that.
But Hunter wheres Hunter? Where is Hunter, by the way? Hunter Biden walked out with 1.5 billion. In Ukraine, he got $83,000 a month and, I guess, an up-front payment of $3 million. So he went from not having a job to getting $83,000 a month, with a lot of money paid upfront to work for Burisma. And you all know about Burisma, but nothing happens. Nobody cares. And he was unemployed, as you know. He was unfortunately forced to leave the military. He was forced to leave. Didnt have a job, and all of a sudden, hes making a fortune. But nobody talks about that.
Indeed, Biden expressed more fawning praise about China on an ordinary day than about America on the Fourth of July. The last Independence Day, Biden attacked the United States and said we had, quote, never lived up to the ideals of our fathers, our forefathers, or our Founding Fathers those founding ideals. And yet, he enthusiastically stated that China is a great nation and we should hope for its continued expansion.
Well, we all wish well to China, but what China has unleashed on the world, its its hard to even fathom. I see people now, friends of mine they walk up, they want to say hello, and they have to keep their distance, and theyre all covered up, like youre all covered up, with facemasks. Its a different world, but were coming out on top.
Biden sides with China over America time and time again. And he said, on the Fourth of July, American history is no fairy tale. And yet, blindly celebrates China, saying, few nations in history have come so far, so fast. Hes so proud of them. Hes so proud of them.
Now Joe Biden is pushing a platform that would demolish the U.S. economy totally demolish it.
So we built the greatest economy in the history of our country greatest in the history of the world. That was a few months ago. Best unemployment numbers ever. Best for African American, Asian American, Hispanic American. Best for women. Best for everybody. Best for young people that didnt have a high school diploma, didnt have a college diploma. If they had a diploma, they were really in good shape. We built the greatest-ever stock market, highest ever in history. We had 143 days of all-time stock market highs in just less than three and a half years.
And we had to close it down because we did the right thing by doing that. As I said, we saved millions of lives. But China was saying, This is incredible whats going on. China was, for the first time, respecting the United States. And now they want to do something thats much different: Joe Biden.
So, Ive watched this and Ive watched it with great interest. Were building our economy again. I guess the stock market went up almost 500 points today or something thereabouts. Youll check. But it was up a lot when I left. And our economy is coming back. Were almost at a level where even though its long before the very important maybe the most important ever election of November 3rd. But long before that but were close to record stock markets again. And Nasdaq hit an all-time high for the 16th time. Think of that: for the 16th time over the last month or so, for the 16th time. So one of our markets already hit an all-time high.
Today, Joe Biden gave a speech in which he said that the core of his economic agenda is a hard-left crusade against American energy. He wants to kill American energy. He wants to reenter the unfair, one-sided Paris Climate Accord which will destroy us at the expense of many other nations who benefit. It was actually drawn, in my opinion, to take advantage of the United States, just like so many other deals that are done to take advantage of the fools running the United States. But this would do nothing for the environment, but would cripple American industry while greatly helping China.
He wants to impose massive energy taxes and job-crushing mandates to eliminate carbon from the United States economy let him define the word carbon, because he wont be able to obliterating American oil, clean coal, natural gas, and the natural energy resources that supply supply countless American jobs.
Joe Biden put AOC, a young woman not talented, in many ways in charge of his energy plan and the environment. Essentially, her and Bernie Sanders who ran a lot of times for President, never made it. Good base, but thats about it. In other words, he wants to impose the Green New Deal on our country.
When I first saw the Green New Deal, I thought it was a joke. I said, This will never go anywhere. Now theyre trying to impose it. This will destroy our country and make us noncompetitive with other countries.
Dont forget were in competition with China, and with many other countries throughout the world. Were in tremendous economic competition, including Europe, which has never treated us well. The European Union was formed in order to take advantage of the United States. They formed, and they take advantage of the United States. And I know that, and they know I know that, but other Presidents had no idea.
Last week, Joe Biden released his unity platform, developed with socialist Bernie Sanders, describing what he would do if elected President. The Biden-Sanders agenda is agenda is the most extreme platform of any major party nominee, by far, in American history. I think its worse than, actually, Bernies platform; its gone so far right. And hes doing that because hes begging for their vote.
But one of the things I just asked my people to do is just draw up for me, just quickly, some of the things that weve been hearing about over the last couple of weeks. And these are actual key elements of the Biden-Sanders unity platform:
Abolish immigration detention. No more detention. You come in here illegally, no more detention.
Stop all deportation. So if we get a MS-13 gang member, which weve taken out of our country by the thousands brought them back to Honduras, Guatemala cant do that anymore El Salvador. Cant do that anymore. Stop all deportations. So in other words, well take all of these people many of whom are in prison for rape, murder, lots of other things.
End prosecution of illegal border crossers. Oh, okay, they come in illegally, and we have to stop the whole process.
Support the deadly sanctuary cities where many of these people are protected better than the American citizen is protected.
Incentivize illegal-alien child smuggling. Give it an incentive. Because if you look at what theyre saying, thats exactly what they do: incentivize illegal-alien child smuggling. Theyre incentivized by what this plan calls for.
Expand asylum for all new illegal aliens. How about that one? All new illegal aliens, expand asylum.
Cancel all asylum cooperation agreements in the Western Hemisphere. Well, we have agreements with Honduras, Guatemala, with El Salvador. We have great agreements, where, when Biden and Obama used to bring killers out, they would say, Dont bring them back to our country. We dont want them. Well, we have to. We dont want them; they wouldnt take them. Now, with us, they take them. Someday Ill tell you why. Someday Ill tell you why. But they take them, and they take them very gladly.
They used to bring them out and they wouldnt even let the airplanes land if they brought them back by airplanes. They wouldnt let the buses into their country. They said, We dont want them. I said, No, but they entered our country illegally. And theyre murderers; theyre killers, in some cases. And they said, Nope, we dont want them. Theyd turn the bus around, theyd turn the plane around, and theyd land in the United States, and who knows what happened to them, but it wasnt good.
Taxpayer-funded lawyers will be given to all illegal aliens. So were going to pay now for the lawyers lobby. And were going to give all illegal aliens taxpayer-funded lawyers. How does that sound? Pretty good? In other words: Come in here illegally. Were going to give you a free legal advice. Well take you up to the Supreme Court as much as possible.
Abolish immigration enforcement against illegal workers. Think of that: Abolish immigration enforcement. Theyre going to abolish immigration enforcement. Well, basically, as you know, what theyre going to do is theyre going to rip down the wall. Theyre taking it down. They want to take down the wall, which we fought hard for: up to 259 miles right now of great, powerful wall thats really working because, if you look at the numbers, in addition to the fact that Mexico, for various reasons, has 27,000 soldiers on our southern border to keep people out of our country and I appreciate it.
We had a great meeting last week with the President of Mexico. Great guy. Friend of mine become a friend of mine. A lot of people thought that couldnt happen because were very opposite, in terms of our views, maybe even in terms of our temperament. But hes a great guy, and hes a friend of mine, and theyve been terrific. Mexico has been terrific. Twenty-seven thousand soldiers on our border Mexican soldiers. And we have great, great numbers.
We got rid of so many different things: Catch and release is gone. So many different things have taken place. We used to catch them, take their name, and release them into our country. We dont do that anymore. We now release them back where they came from. Sometimes well bring them back to their country.
Grant work permits for illegal aliens. So if you come in illegally, you get a work permit. People that live here dont get work permits, in many cases.
Provide taxpayer subsidies and welfare for illegal aliens and new immigrants. So we want to provide taxpayer subsidies and welfare for people that come into our country illegally illegal immigrants. They want government healthcare for all illegal aliens.
This is part of their plan. Im not making this up. This is all down in their plan from last week. And this is good, compared to what I heard today.
Federal Student Aid and free community college for illegal aliens. What do you think about that? Federal Student Aid and free community college. Were going to have every person in the world pouring into our country from all over the world. And by the way, the wall was so timely, because it stopped people coming in from heavily infected areas of Mexico. If we had that, we would be in trouble like you wouldnt believe. You wouldnt believe.
And remember, cases is different than deaths. And cases we give you, because our testing is the best in the world. And by the way, by far, the most: 45 million. Find out which country tested 45 million people. If China, if Russia, if India tested 45 million people or if they did tests like we did, check out how many cases theyd have.
But its still weve done a great job; get no credit for it. And I dont want the credit. I want the people that have done this great job the people that have done such an incredible job on building the ventilators and doing the testing and building a testing platform thats been amazing. We have many platforms. Many companies have come up with different forms of tests. When we started, there was no such thing.
Sign new immigrants up for welfare immediately. This is Joe Biden. So they walk off, and they come in, and they put a foot into our land, and we sign up new immigrants up for welfare. We sign them up immediately. They get welfare benefits. United States citizens dont get what theyre looking to give illegal immigrants. Think of that: sign up its hard to believe Im even reading that new immigrants for welfare immediately. Not to mention the cost of this, which is incalculable. The cost of this is so crazy.
End requirement for immigrants self-sufficiency and maximize their welfare. Now, this is us writing this. Whos not coming to the United States? Every person from South America is going to pour in and every person from other countries, theyre going to be pouring in. End requirement think of that for immigrant self-sufficiency and, remember, to maximize welfare. So were giving them maximum.
Then, we have massively expand immigration during a global pandemic, taking jobs from unemployed Americans.
End all travel bans, including from jihadist regions. So now we have travel bans a lot of you said I didnt get the travel ban, and you were wrong. We got the travel ban. We lost in the Ninth Circuit, we lost again in the Ninth Circuit, and then we won in the Supreme Court. We have a very strong travel ban. And we dont want people that are going to come in and blow up our cities, do things. And, frankly, with the with the liberal Democrats running the cities that we do have, where they do have problems, maybe they wouldnt mind. But I would mind, and the people of this country mind.
So, listen to this: End all travel bans. Hes talking about the ban that I won that everybody said I didnt win. They said I didnt win because in the lower court we lost. And we lost in the Appellate Division, and then we won in the Supreme Court. So they said, He lost. And theyre right, at the lower level. But, in the meantime, we won in the Supreme Court. So its in effect, but they didnt say that. They said, He lost, which again, is fake news, but thats the way they do it.
So, end all travel bans, including from jihadist regions. They specified that.
Grant mass amnesty. Everybody gets amnesty. Mass amnesty. Think of that. And this says: Create a roadmap to citizenship for massive, massive numbers.
And were not talking about DACA, because Im going to take care of DACA much better than the Democrats did. The Democrats had their chance, and they blew it. But were going to take care of DACA because Im going to be doing, in the not-too-distant future, pretty soon Im going to be signing a new immigration action very, very big merit-based immigration action that, based on the DACA decision, Ill be able to do.
Vastly expand low-skilled immigration to the United States. So they want a lot of people come in with low skills; I like merit. Think of that: Vastly expand low-skilled immigration to the United States. These are the things that are in the plan. This is Biden. Biden has gone radical left.
Increase refugee admissions by 700 percent. Huh. Thats a lot: by 700 percent. Nobody has ever heard of such a thing. Increase refugee admissions by 700 percent.
Abolish law enforcement as we know it. I think the police do an incredible job in this country. And youre going to have a rogue, terrible cop, on occasion, like you do in any industry, in any business, in any profession. But I think they do an incredible job. Abolish law enforcement as we know it.
End cash bail. No bail. Just, we let you right out. Look at whats happened to New York: Crime is up, shootings are up at numbers that nobodys ever seen before. Look at Chicago. What a disaster. And were waiting for them to call us because were all set to go. We have the FBI. We have Homeland Security. We have everybody ready to go. We have the National Guard. Theyre all ready to go. End cash bail, releasing dangerous criminals onto our streets. Cash bail. New York just did that. Other places have done it. They havent turned out to good.
Abolish completely the death penalty. And I know theres a lot of debate on the death penalty, and there has been for a long time, but sometimes you use the death penalty, depending on the crime. You know what happened today with regard to the death penalty.
Appoint social justice prosecutors in order to free violent criminals. So, they want to appoint social justice prosecutors to free violent criminals.
End mandatory minimums. And thats by empowering judges to determine appropriate sentences by fighting to repeal mandatory minimums at the federal level and give states incentives to repeal their mandatory minimums.
We could go on for days. Incentivize prison closure. So they want to close our prisons. They now want to abolish they want to abolish our police departments. They want to abolish our prisons, I guess. Incentivize jail and prison closures as populations decline.
Ensure the resources saved are invested directly into those communities. So they want to close them, rather than have them for some very bad people people that are not going to behave when they get out. You see that in New York; they allowed a lot of criminals out, and those criminals are causing havoc. And then they got rid of their incredible and legendary crime squad. And bad things are happening in New York. Bad things are happening. I love New York. I hate to see whats going on.
End solitary confinement.
Free federal housing for former inmates. So, federal housing now can go to inmates former inmates.
Rejoin Paris Climate Accord, and seek an even higher level of restrictions. Oh, I didnt notice that. Oh, I see. So they want to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, and they want to seek an even higher level of restraint. In other words, make it worse than it was.
Mandate net-zero carbon emissions for homes, offices, and all new buildings by 2030. That basically means no windows, no nothing. Its very hard to do. I tell people when they want to go into some of these buildings, How are your eyes? Because they wont be good in five years. And I hope you dont mind cold office space in the winter and warm office space in the summer, because your air conditioning is not the same as the good old days.
Mandate zero carbon emissions from power plants by 2035. Zero. Were talking about zero. Nothing can go in the air.
Mandate net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. And I believe hes changing that. Hes bringing it down. He wants no petroleum product. He wants no oil or gas. I dont think Texas is going to do too well. Theyre going to get rid of about 7 million jobs if you go by the Biden plan. I dont think that Oklahoma, North Dakota, Pennsylvania are going to be too happy with that and many other states Ohio.
Mandate all 500,000 school buses and all 3 million government vehicles be changed to zero-emission vehicles within five years. Ive heard it worse than that.
Install 500,000 taxpayer-funded charging stations nationwide.
Heres a bad one a really bad one: End school choice. There is nothing that the African American community wants more than school choice. And mothers and fathers are going to be very happy to see him be defeated just on that alone: End school choice. So Joe Bi- Joe Biden wants to end school choice.
End tax credit scholarships serving disadvantaged students in 26 states.
Oppose 14 million Americans with education savings accounts and get rid of school choice, having to do with school choice.
Eliminate school choice in Washington, D.C. You know what theyve done in Washington. They have some incredible example right here. Example I know of one example. I think they have a number of them, but one is incredible.
Abolish all charter schools. Charter schools are doing great.
Ban funding for charter schools in poor neighborhoods. We dont want charter schools in poor neighborhoods. Well, thats not fair.
Abolish educational standards.
Abolish in the suburbs, youre going to abolish the suburbs with this. Enforce Obama-Bidens radical AFFH thats the AFFH regulation that threatens to strip localities of federal affordable housing funds unless they change their zoning laws to fit the federal governments demands. So what you have I mean, Ive been watching this for years in Westchester, coming from New York. They want low-income housing built in a neighborhood.
Well, Im ending that rule. Im taking it out, so I spoke with Ben Carson the other day. Were going to be taking it out. Ive watched that whole thing go, and now they want to make it twice as bad in the suburbs in the suburbs. Mothers arent happy about that. Fathers arent happy about that. They worked hard to buy a house, and now theyre going to watch the housing values drop like a rock, and that has happened. It dropped like a rock. So were not going to do that; were going to do the exact opposite.
Probably, there has never been a time and this is just a few this is its much worse than that. We did this very quickly. Its probably never been a time when candidates are so different. We want law and order; they dont want law and order. We want strong closed borders with people able to come in through merit, through a legal process; they dont want to have any borders at all.
Theyre going to rip down the wall. It was hard to get that built. And now its almost completed. Itll be completed by a little after the end of the year, and they want to rip it down. And its had such an impact. Its incredible. It stops trafficking human trafficking of women and children, but women, mostly.
Human trafficking: one of the worst things ever all at a level that has never been at because of the Internet. You wouldnt think you think of it as an ancient statement. You wouldnt think thats possible today, but its human trafficking of women and children. And they want to let that continue.
The wall has stopped it so much because they will go over to a section where there arent people not an entry point and theyll make a left into the United States. Theyre on their way. They cant do that anymore. We have a 30-foot wall that goes 6 feet into the ground. It stops a lot of the tunneling because theyre pretty good at tunnels. But we watch the tunnels, and we have equipment for that. But you cant make a left anymore and come into the United States loaded up with human traffic.
So they want to take down the wall. They want to have open borders. Think of open borders today though, with the pandemic. I mean, the timing is sort of interesting, but with the pandemic.
So theres never been a time when two candidates were so different. I mean, Ive seen races where its like the same exact platforms. Im even talking about essentially Democrat, Republican. Theres not that much difference. Theres a little difference, but theres not much. Choose one because you like the way they look, you like the way they sound, you like the way they talk. You like something about one, and you dont like the other. But theres you know, theres never been a difference.
Heres one of the greatest difference this is without question the single biggest difference: If you want law and order for instance, I enacted recently, when I saw what was going on with federal monuments we dont have the right to do states, although were going tr- were trying to find it. But with the monuments, where they wanted to rip down Andrew Jackson, they wanted to rip down George Washington. They were actually heading over to the Jefferson Memorial, if you can believe that. But this has been going on, and I found an act that weve used. And we have many, many people in jail right now many, many people in jail, all over the country because they tried to destroy or, in some cases, got got it down, a federal statue or monument.
We havent had anybody making a move since I enacted this. I signed an executive order a couple of weeks ago, and it says very simply, Ten years in jail. You do it, 10 years in jail. The amazing part is were able to catch everybody because, thanks to all of you on television we appreciate it but we have their pictures. We have the man standing on Andrew Jacksons horse. We have the man standing by General George Washington. We have everybody standing you know, they were going to go for the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln, standing with a young man who was being freed. And we said, Were going to do something. We cant let this happen.
Now, it could be removed at some point. You go through a process, a legal process, go through Congress, whatever. I understand that. At the same time, some people like these statues and monuments. But it can be removed, but you have to go through a legal process.
So they were going to have 20- to 25,000 people that night, and nobody showed up. Nobody. You know that because you were disappointed to see that. The next night, I believe, 22 people showed up. They said, Were going to make it Friday night instead, and 22 people showed up. Four were actually arrested because we have pictures of them knocking down all the statues. So theyre in jail now.
So, there has never been an election where weve had this kind of difference. We want strong borders. Without borders youve heard me say it 1,000 times without borders, you dont have a country. They dont want to have borders; they want to have open borders. Its radical left, and itll destroy our country. Twenty years ago, Venezuela was a very rich country one of the richest, one of the richest anywhere. Per capita, one of the richest. Tremendous oil reserves. Now they dont have water. They dont have food. They dont have medicine. We do everything we can to take care of the people, but they have nothing. And thats exactly the ideology that you have going over here. If I wasnt there to stop it, if I wasnt here to say, No way, thats not going to happen, wed be in some mess. Wed be in some mess.
And Pelosi and Schumer and Bernie and Joe, theyll never stop it. They dont have the power, the strength to stop it. Its beyond them. But we do.
So theres never been a time like this, where youve had an election of people so different.
Okay, a couple of questions. Yeah, please, go ahead.
Q Sir, you just spent the better part of an hour explaining why American should choose you and not your opponent. Yesterday, you said on Twitter, Be careful what you wish for! I guess the question is: Do you see yourself as the underdog in this race? Do you see yourself losing in the fall?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I dont. I think we have a really good poll numbers. Theyre not suppression polls; theyre real polls. You look at the Intracostal in Florida. You look at the lakes. You see thousands of boats with Trump signs, American signs. Youve got the Trump-Pence sign all over. You look at whats going on. You look at bikers, for miles and miles, riding up highways proudly with their signs.
I have look, we won a race where it was the same thing: 2016. We had polls that were fake. They turned out to be fake. Not all a couple of them got it right. Three of them, to be exact. Three of them. One of them was unsuspecting, but they got it right. They were very proud of it.
But we had, in 2016, something even more so, but we got in, and we had 306 to, I guess, 223, which was a tremendous margin of difference. You remember, they all said, He cannot get to 270.
I went to Maine a number of times, where we just freed up lobster fishing and fishing. Just they took away 5,000 square miles from Maine. I just opened it up. And I just got rid of tariffs in China. And were working on European Union, which charge our fishermen tariffs. And I said, Youre not going to do that. So we freed it up for Maine.
But if you take a look, we went up there recently. There were crowds. Thousands of people lined up going over to a factory where we were opening up for were making swabs. A beautiful, big, new factory, making swabs.
I think that the enthusiasm now is greater and maybe far greater than it was in 2016. I think a lot of people dont want to talk about it. I think theyre not going to say, Hey, Im for Trump. Im for Trump. They dont want to go through the process. And I fully understand that, because the process is not fair. The media doesnt treat us fairly. They never have, and perhaps they never will. But maybe they will when we turn this around for a second time. And its going to happen very quickly. When we turn it around for a second time, maybe they will.
I think were doing very well in the polls. And I think you have a silent majority the likes of which this country has never seen before. This is a very important election. Weve done a great job. We had to turn it off, as I said. Turn it off. And now weve started it again.
As you know, they announced two weeks ago, record job numbers: almost 5 million people. And that beat the last month, which was also a record: 2.8 million people. Nobodys ever done what weve done, and now were doing it twice.
And I think by Election Day, youre going to see some incredible numbers. The third quarter is going to be really good. Fourth quarter is going to be great. But next year is going to be one of the best economic years. So hopefully, Ill be able to be the President where we say, Look at the great job I did.
Q (Inaudible) at this point?
THE PRESIDENT: I think, great. I think we have a great chance. I think were going to have a lot of people show up. Im very worried about mail-in voting because I think its subject to tremendous fraud and being rigged. You see that Paterson, New Jersey, where I believe it was 20 percent of the vote was fraudulent. It was all sorts of things happened. I understand a a mailman was recently indicted someplace for playing games with the mail-in ballots.
Youll have tremendous fraud if you do these mail-in ballots. Now, absentee ballots are okay, because absentee ballots you have to get applications. You have to go through a process. If Im here and I vote in Florida, you get an absentee ballot, but you have to go through a process. Absentee ballots are great.
But mail-in voting where a governor mails millions of ballots to people all over the state California millions and millions of ballots, as an example and then they come back; they dont come back. Who got them? Did you forget to send them to a Republican area or a Democrat area, I guess you could say?
But if you take a look at all of the unbelievable fraud thats been involved with mail-in voting over the last even a short period of while but look at Paterson, New Jersey. It was a massive error and a massive miscalculation, and there was incredible fraud. Look at the city council, whats happened to it. This is one place, but you have many places, and theyre all over.
Yes, please.
Q Thank you, sir. I wanted to know: Whens the last time you spoke with President Xi of China? And do you plan to speak with him in the near future?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I havent spoken to him. No, I dont I have no plan to speak to him.
Yeah, please.
Q And, sir, as a follow-up one follow-up?
Q Thank you so do you want to do a follow-up? Or
Q Yeah, if you dont mind.
Q Okay, yeah. Is it okay?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, go ahead.
Q I just wanted to Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized today with an infection. I wanted to know if you had any reaction to that news?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I I wish her the best. I hope shes better. I didnt hear that, actually. She was just hospitalized? No, thats too bad. No, I wish her the best.
Shes actually given me some good rulings. Okay? So you know that, right? People were surprised. No, I wish her the absolute best.
Please.
Q Okay. Thank you, Mr. President. So you were mentioning the travel bans. And I wonder: When do you plan to review that? Because the European countries the situation is under control much are better place than the U.S. And there is no ban for other hotspots like Russia and India. So what will be the criteria to change that? And I another question
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, weve banned for Europe, and at some point thatll come off. And were dealing with them all the time. The relationship is very good, they just dont treat us very well on trade. They are they have been very unfair to us over many, many decades. And were doing that. Its very easy to solve. I was all set to solve it actually, and then we got hit with the plague.
But we have a travel ban on various countries, and that travel ban remains until such time as we say it doesnt remain.
Q And Mr. Pres-
THE PRESIDENT: We want our country safe. We dont unlike Biden, we dont want to have criminals pouring into our country. We dont want to have open borders. Were not going to have that. And we want to take care of our police. We want to actually fund our police, not defund them. And were not going to abolish our police. And were not going to make our military small and weak, because probably or, at least, at top of the level, we need our military right now.
Yeah, go ahead. Please.
Q Mr. President, so how do you think that the America First policy can work during a pandemic? Arent you concerned that this could actually damage the U.S. and make China more influence around the world?
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, look, my policy is America First. Weve lost hundreds of billions of dollars a year with China and many other countries. And what were doing is just handing everybody everything. Its just a sad Ive watched it, Ive looked at it.
We did the U.S.-Mexico- you saw that, USMCA. We made a very fair deal on trade. We had the worst deal ever, right? You know that. We had the worst deal ever, and it replaced that; it replaced that horrible NAFTA deal. That was one of the worst trade deals ever made.
Ill tell you, the only deal that might be worse is the WTO World Trade Organization. May be worse.
OAN, please.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. Your administration has taken tangible steps to ensure that Chinese companies are not taking advantage of our U.S. stock markets, our
THE PRESIDENT: Its true.
Q our trade. Last week, your administration sent a letter to the Railroad Retirement Board alar- asking them to reconsider investments in Chinese defense fund firms.
THE PRESIDENT: Meaning not to invest?
Q Correct.
THE PRESIDENT: Thats correct.
Q So, where is that request now? And are you taking tangible actions to ensure that U.S. investments dont continue to fund
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q defense firms in China?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, and youll see more coming. This was a very important bill that we signed. But youre going to see more coming over the next short period of time. But, yes, we dont want them investing in Chinese military companies. Okay?
Q (Inaudible) I mean what actions can be taken to ensure that does not happen?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you have a lot of actions we can take, including the including the increase. You know, right now people dont know: China is paying a lot of tariffs. We made a China deal, and they bought just I think the third-highest amount of corn ever in our in world history. They just bought from us the highest amount, which is great for our farmers.
But I view it differently than I did before I made the deal. When I made the deal, I thought this was a great deal. After what happened to us what happened to the world, coming from China I view it much differently. But we can impose massive tariffs on China if we want and other countries, if we want. And well see. We just want to be treated fairly. We want a level playing field. Our farmers were never treated properly by anybody, and they were targeted by China.
You know, I paid our farmers $28 billion over a two-year period because they were targeted to that amount of money to that exact amount of money: $28 [billion]. It was $16 billion, and it was $12 billion $28 [billion] over a two-year period. And we gave $28 billion to our farmers. Thats why theyre all here.
And now theyre doing very well. Our farmers are doing very well because we made really great trade deals. USMCA just kicked in. The China deal theyre buying a lot. They are buying a lot. Yeah, well say that: Theyre buying a lot. A lot of people ask, How are they doing on the trade deal? Theyre buying a lot.
So I want to thank everybody and well be having these conferences again.
I were going to be signing an immigration act very soon; its going to be based on merit. Its going to be very strong. Were going to work on DACA because we want to make people happy. And Ill tell you, even conservative Republicans want to see something happen with DACA.
The Democrats had their chance for three years to do something with DACA, and they always turned it down. They always turned it down. They used it as politics. Im using it to get something done.
But well be signing a very powerful immigration act. Itll be great. Itll be merit-based. The country has tried to get it for 25 or 30 years. Itll be strong on the border, but youll come in legally, and youll be able to come in legally.
And very importantly, well be taking care of people from DACA in a very Republican way. A Republicans Ive spoken to many Republicans, and some would like to leave it out, but, really, they understand that its the right thing to do.
So were going to be taking care of DACA. We will be doing for DACA what the Democrats had a chance to do and they never did it. Okay?
Thank you all very much.
END
6:33 P.M. EDT
Praying for his victory in 2020. Not just on behalf of America but behalf of the free world. And those aspiring for freedom!
Total take-no-prisoners kick-azz speech ping.
No wonder the MSM is silent!
Jim Rob, THANK YOU for the only alternative!!!
“Remarks by President Trump.”
I will summarize. Sit in the hot sun, MSM, and bite me.
2020 AD (Anno Domini)
Good speech.
China has, through both parties’ sellouts, been very hostile to America.
Trump is the first US President to say a word.
BOTH PARTIES have been selling out America, for thirty years.
It is about darned time, we have someone standing for America.
Thirty years.
All that and Biden cant say a single sentence without stumbling all over himself.
Fantastic speech!
F kin eh right! Best AMERICAN President ever! God I know I am a sinner PLEASE continue to bless this man Donald John Trump as he places your name on the highest and gives all glory to you and your son (my) saviour Jesus Christ. Thank you God for placing this man in power when needed....we as Americans will back him and support your grace and bountiful blessings as we your children should. God THANK YOU....all grace and glory to you
WOW! I was at work this afternoon and didn’t hear this. We need this man. He fights.
I copied the entire speech into Word. The speech went for 15 pages and the Q and A went for 5 at 500 words per page. Imagine Biden being able to put 15 pages of text together in a speech.
Full transcript of this press briefing yesterday . FR comments encouraged.
Can you imagine Joe Biden speaking this long and economics/foreign relationships and national security on live TV ?
I just cant see Joe Biden being able to do this. Strong leadership is required during this time of crisis and while Kayleigh does a great job there is a lot to be said about the President of the United States being able to take on the media directly on live TV.
Great speech
Thanks for posting that! A great read.
Zingers at Biden, Hunter, China, Dems, Cuomo, et. al.
Warmed the cockles of my black, shriveled heart! MAGA! :)
Chump change!
Why CHOICE has wiped out about 1/2 MILLION by now this year alone!
AMEN!
I can’t image ol’ Bumblin’ Joe to be able to read The Night Before Christmas!!
Quite the contrast to Trog’s speech in 2020 B.C.
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