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Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 03-22-20
They're taking their time posting these transcripts now. This is from two days ago.
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: March 22, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
March 22, 2020
5:55 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Just before we begin, I want to mention we’re working very hard — long — on getting a young group of people out of Peru. We’ve removed some, and the rest are being removed with the cooperation of the Peruvian government. And we’re also dealing with Honduras on getting some people out that got caught up. And we are working on that very well — again, with the Honduran government’s work. And they’re working with us, so I appreciate that.
We have a couple of other locations that we’ll report to you, and we were able to get a young woman released from a certain area who was being horribly accosted, horribly treated. And we spoke to General Milley. General Milley took care of it. We went in and we got her out. And we’ll — we’ll report further on that one. But it’s — that was rough stuff.
I want to thank General Milley. I want to thank all of the people that were involved and the people that went in to get her. I want to thank you very much.
As we continue to marshal every resource at America’s disposal in the fight against the Chinese virus, we’re profoundly grateful to our nation’s state and local leaders, doctors, nurses, law enforcement, and first responders who are waging this battle on the ground.
It is absolutely critical that Americans continue to follow the federal government’s guidelines — so important — about social distancing, nonessential travel, and hand washing. Defeating this unseen enemy requires the help and commitment of every single American.
{snip}
We’re working urgently with Congress on legislation to support the millions of workers, small businesses, and industries who’ve been hit hard by the virus through no fault of their own. Our goal is to get relief to Americans as quickly as possible so that families can get by and small businesses can keep workers on the payroll.
This will help our economy, and you will see our economy skyrocket once this is over. I think it’s going to skyrocket. It’s a — it’s a pent-up demand. It’s a built-up demand. And I guess you really have to say, “Who knows?” But I think it’s going to be a tremendous day when we win this war — and we will win the war. We want to win the war with as few — if you look at it — just deaths as possible. We want to have as few number of deaths as possible.
{snip}
One of the things that they’ve been trying to get done for many years — you all know this from following me over the last number of years, but we got it done pretty quickly; they’ve been trying to get it done for many, many decades — was Choice. Veterans Choice and also Veterans Accountability.
Now, if it’s crowded within this — if they can’t get to a doctor — we have great doctors in the VA. I have to say that. We have fantastic doctors — as good as they come. But it’s hard to because of what was bureaucracy, but no longer bureaucracy. We’ve done a lot of things, in that case, because of Accountability. When people aren’t doing their jobs or if they’re bad or if they’re sadistic, or if they steal or anything bad happens, we’re now allowed to fire them for — I signed that a year and a half ago. For many years, you weren’t able to do that.
{snip}
So, highest poll numbers, highest approval numbers in the history of the VA. I was just given that information yesterday.
{snip}
And I’m going to ask, if I might, a combination of — Pete, why don’t start off, okay? Please.
ADMINISTRATOR GAYNOR: Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
ADMINISTRATOR GAYNOR: Just a little bit about what we’re doing in Washington, California, and New York. We understand that the states of Washington, New York, and California are the areas seeing a steady increase in COVID-19 virus cases.
In order to assist with additional needs identified in those areas, the State of New York was approved for a major disaster declaration this morning. Washington State was also approved earlier today. California submitted their request, and the President will consider it immediately.
We have medical supplies in route to the states, including respirators, surgical masks, gowns, face shields, coveralls, gloves, with quantities already delivered to both Washington, New York, and California. And we anticipate additional supplies to be delivered over the next 42 hours to all these states.
Under President Trump’s unprecedented national emergency declaration on March 13, FEMA is assisting state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, including reimbursing eligible emergency protective measures taken at the directional guidance of public health officials in response to this emergency.
{snip}
Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Pete, very much.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Peter.
THE PRESIDENT: Peter Navarro?
MR. NAVARRO: Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening. What I want to talk briefly about is the Defense Production Act and to give you the overview here.
Using the full power of private enterprise and the full force from the federal government, my job at the White House is to make sure, tactically — working with FEMA and HHS — that the American people, particularly our healthcare professionals, get the gloves, the masks, and all the personal protective equipment they need.
And I can tell you, sir, that since you signed the Defense Production Act, my job has gotten easier, and let me explain why. The Defense Production Act, in this context, has two primary functions. One is mobilization of the industrial base — in this case, the public health industrial base — and the other is allocation of resources, both from the supply chain to the manufacturers, and from the manufacturers to the end users, such as the healthcare professionals.
Now, what we’re seeing on a purely voluntary basis — based on the leadership of this administration — we’re seeing the greatest mobilization in the industrial base since World War Two. And, every day, I’m working with organizations and companies — National Association of Manufacturing, the National Council of Textile Organizations, and so on — in terms of building up, rapidly, our capabilities to get what you need.
{snip}
Q On top of Senator Paul, now four senators are in isolation. And the rules say that, in order to vote, they have to be there.
THE PRESIDENT: Who are they, please? Who are they?
Q Mitt Romney, Senator Lee —
Q Senator Gardner and Senator Rick Scott.
Q Senator Gardner and Senator Rick Scott also. Two of them were in contact with Rand.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I guess Rick is coming out.
Q With the critical stimulus package vote expected soon —
THE PRESIDENT: Romney is in isolation?
Q Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Gee, that’s too bad. Go ahead.
Q Did I detect sarcasm there, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: No. No. None whatsoever.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, when it comes to the Defense Production Act, we know that governors across the country all day today were pleading with you to utilize the DPA, saying that they need it —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it depends which. It depends which governors you’re talking about.
Q — specifically for that allocation piece that you mentioned, Mr. Navarro.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
Q Why not use is now if that would answer their pleas for help?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we are using it now. The fact that I signed it, it’s in effect. But, you know, we’re a country not based on nationalizing our business. Call a person over in Venezuela; ask them how did nationalization of their businesses work out. Not too well. The concept of nationalizing our business is not a good concept.
But I’ll tell you why — as Peter said, we may have to use it someplace along the chain, but we’re getting calls. Here’s the beauty of it: If we go out and we want, let’s say, masks, we don’t know who to call on masks. But Hanes, who makes things of cotton — various elements, lots of things; it’s a great company — they called us and they said, “We’re going to make millions of masks.”
We got a call today from 3M — there’s a big article today — the head of 3M — they’re going to make tremendous products, and they’re more or less in that business. And if they’re not — like, for instance, General Motors spoke to us; Ford spoke to us about doing ventilators.
The beauty is, they’re calling us. If you go the national route — nationalization route — we’re going to tell a company to make a ventilator; they don’t even know what a ventilator is. In the case of one company, they used to make them years ago and they know how to make them. You know, it’s a very complex piece of equipment, frankly.
So what we’re doing is — I think Peter said it maybe better than anybody is going to say it. We have the threat of doing it, if we need it. We may have to use it somewhere along the supply chain, in a minor way. But we have millions of masks being done. We have respirators. We have ventilators. We have a lot of things happening right now. So just the threat of using it.
But using it’s actually a big deal. I mean, when this was announced, it sent tremors through our business community and through our country because, basically, what are you doing? You’re talking about — you’re going to nationalize an industry or you’re going to nationalize — you’re going to take away companies. You’re going to tell companies what to do.
The truth is, most people — nobody would know where to start. There are companies out there, that you wouldn’t think of, that have called us, that say, “We can do ventilators. We used to do them years ago.” And they can do them in large quantities. Other comp- — if I call companies and say, “You build ventilators,” they don’t even know what a ventilator is.
So it’s really working out very well. One of the reasons I read the numbers to you is because we’ve given vast numbers of just about everything. We’ve taken it out of our supply — out of our supply, and we’re restocking our supply.
{snip}
Q You mentioned about — sir, I apologize. There was a woman that was an American that was — was she being tortured? What was going on there, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Bad things were happening to her in a certain country. And we’re — we’re really under the feeling that we should keep it somewhat private until —
Q She’s coming home?
THE PRESIDENT: She’s already been freed. And I have to tell you, General Milley and the — his people were unbelievable. They were not playing games. General Milley does not play games. He’s a very interesting guy. They got her out. They got her out of a certain country where she was seriously abused, accosted, and — whatever the maximum word is, other than death, that happened. But we got her out and she’s okay, and she’s back with her parents.
Q Can I ask you one last question, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q And something I’ve just been curious about. Previous crises, like the tsunami, Katrina — past presidents, they’ve called up predecessors and said, “Hey, I need you step in,” do something like that. Do you can any interest in reaching out to Presidents Bush, Obama, Clinton, Carter, or talking to them?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I mean —
Q I’m just curious if that’s being considered or not.
THE PRESIDENT: Look, I have the best people in the world. I think we’re doing an extraordinary job. If you look at — if you look in, let’s say, the H1N1 — you look at that whole — that was a disaster. That was a tough period of time for our country. You look at so many other things that weren’t handled very well, whether it’s Katrina or something else.
Look, I respect everybody, but I feel I have an incredible team and I think we’re doing an incredible job. When you look at the job we’re doing — and all you have to do is look at the approval numbers on the job we’re doing. I think we’re doing an incredible job.
So I don’t want to disturb them, bother them. I don’t think I’m going to learn much. And, you know, I guess you could say that there’s probably a natural inclination not to call.
Now, if I felt that if I called, I’d learn something and that would say one life — it would save one life, okay? — I would make the call in two minutes. But I don’t see that happening.
{snip}
Q Sir —
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, please.
Q Mr. President, the bill that is being contemplated by the Senate right now has a fund that has hundreds of billions of dollars for the Treasury Department to use to bail out states and localities, as well as specific industries, such as cruises and hotels. Will you commit publicly that none of that taxpayer money will go towards your own personal properties?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, every time I do it — like, for instance, I committed publicly that I wouldn’t take the $450,000 salary. It’s a lot of money. Whether you’re rich or not, it’s a lot of money. And I did it and nobody cared. Nobody — nobody said, “Thank you.” Nobody said, “Thank you very much.”
Now, I didn’t commit legally. I just said, “I don’t want it. I don’t want my salary. I work for zero. I don’t want my salary.” Nobody said, “Oh, thank you very much.” But I guarantee you, if I ever took it, you would go out after me — you, in particular, would go out after me like crazy.
So I have no idea what they’re talking about with regard to the one element. Everything is changing, just so you understand. It’s all changing. But I have no idea. But every time I commit to do something — I’ve committed to do my — look, I ran and everybody knew I was a rich person. I built a great company and people knew that. But I agreed to do things I didn’t have to. I still don’t have to.
But my company — I told the kids, who are running it — I’m not running it. But I told them, “Don’t deal with foreign companies. Don’t deal…” I didn’t have to do that. I could have just ran and I have — I didn’t have to do that at all. And instead of being thanked for, again, not agreeing to do, but just not doing it, I get excoriated all the time.
So I’ve learned — let’s just see what happens because we have to save some of these great companies. They can be great companies, literally, in a matter of weeks. We have to save them.
Yeah, please.
{snip}
Q I mean, just to follow up on that: Are you willing to work directly with Speaker Pelosi as she writes the House bill?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, we’ll work with whoever we have to. We have to help the American worker. We have to help the countries from which the American workers — I mean, they came out of these companies — they were doing phenomenally well. You saw where payroll was going way up, where wages were going way, way up. There’s never been a time like this.
We can’t lose those companies and we want the worker to be happy. And we’re being, I think, more generous than anybody has ever been. We want to take care of the worker, but we want to make sure that when we win the war — it’s only a question of — it’s “when,” not “if.” When we win the war against the virus, we want to make sure those companies are ready to charge forward — not that they’ve been disbanded because we were pennywise and dollar foolish.
{snip}
Q Did you sell stocks Mr. President? Did you or your family sell stocks in advance of this epidemic?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I don’t have stock. I own things that —
Q Did you make any alternates to investments in advance of this pandemic?
THE PRESIDENT: No. I didn’t even think about it. You know, it’s very interesting that you ask a question like that — you know, a nasty question. And yet, it deserves to asked, I guess.
What I’ve done, by deciding to run — and I knew this. I knew this the first day. I said, “If I win, it’s going to going to cost a lot of money.” It cost me billions of dollars to become President — to be President of the United States — in things that would normally be run at a certain thing, even people that don’t like me because they think I’m too tough on the border. Now, some people love me for it; other people don’t like me at all. You know, it’s very funny.
My wife — we were at a charity event in New York City. I had just announced that I was running. And we were at the Robin Hood Foundation at the Convention Center — which now we’re going to be converting to hospitals for Governor Cuomo, right? And I was walking in and there was a smattering of boos and a smattering of cheers; I was getting both. And our very popular First Lady — she’s turned out to be very popular –people have great respect for her. But our very popular First Lady said to me, “Huh, that’s strange. I’ve never heard anybody booing you.”
That was very early on — because I think I called for strong borders or I called for something that other people don’t like, you know. And I knew this would happen. I knew it was going to happen. But the fact that I ran — and I knew as soon as I announced. When I ran, I said, “It’s going to cost me a fortune.” Not only in terms of actual costs — look at my legal costs. You people, everybody — everybody is suing me. I’m being sued by people that I never even heard of. I’m being sued all over the place — and doing very well, but it’s unfair.
But I’ll say this: In terms of running for President — and I don’t think rich people — Michael Bloomberg spent now, it was determined, almost a billion dollars and look what happened. I think it’s very hard for rich people to run for office. It’s — it’s far more costly. It’s just a — it’s a very tough thing.
Now, with all of that being said, I’m so glad I’ve done it. Because, you know, there are a lot rich people around. I’ve got a lot of rich friends, but they can’t help and they can’t do what I’ve done, in terms of helping this country. We are — we are doing things. We got sidetracked by the invisible enemy.
But, you know — what — when you look at what we’ve done, I said before, with the veterans, with — with all of the things we’ve done, especially Choice. But when you look at all of — Accountability — when you look at all of the things that we’ve done — rebuilding the military; the tax cuts, which — thank goodness we had the tax cuts because we had cushion. Oh, without that, this would have been catastrophic. We had a big cushion.
I mean, with all of the losses that you’ve seen in the stock market, we’re basically back — and with this horrible thing, if this would have happened before, you would have had nothing left. This was all cushion.
But I will say that it cost me billions of dollars to be President, and especially with all the money I could have made for the last three, four years — and I didn’t because I was being President. I have no interest in it.
I’m allowed to. You know, I don’t know if you know it — George Washington, they say he was a rich man, supposedly. Relatively rich. And he ran the presidency and he also ran his business. They say he had two desks.
Nobody complained until I came along. I got elected as a rich person, but nobody complained until I came along. So it cost me billions of dollars to be President and I am so happy I did it. Because who cares? Who cares?
I’m really happy with the job we’re doing. And I’m glad that this team and me are here for this horrible thing. I mean, it’s — a number of people have said it, but — and I feel it, actually: I’m a wartime president. This is a war. This is a war. A different kind of war than we’ve ever had.
And when you look at the economics of the war — in the past, we used to stimulate to get people jobs. Now we’re stimulating to protect people because we don’t want them to work, because we want them to stay away from each other. We don’t want them to gather. Social — social gathering. So we’re paying billions of dollars more than that so that they don’t gather, they don’t — because we have to defeat this virus. And we will.
But it cost me billions and billions of dollars to be President and I am so happy I did it.
{snip}
SURGEON GENERAL ADAMS: Donate blood. Donate blood. We need it.
END
7:27 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: March 22, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
March 22, 2020
5:55 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Just before we begin, I want to mention we’re working very hard — long — on getting a young group of people out of Peru. We’ve removed some, and the rest are being removed with the cooperation of the Peruvian government. And we’re also dealing with Honduras on getting some people out that got caught up. And we are working on that very well — again, with the Honduran government’s work. And they’re working with us, so I appreciate that.
We have a couple of other locations that we’ll report to you, and we were able to get a young woman released from a certain area who was being horribly accosted, horribly treated. And we spoke to General Milley. General Milley took care of it. We went in and we got her out. And we’ll — we’ll report further on that one. But it’s — that was rough stuff.
I want to thank General Milley. I want to thank all of the people that were involved and the people that went in to get her. I want to thank you very much.
As we continue to marshal every resource at America’s disposal in the fight against the Chinese virus, we’re profoundly grateful to our nation’s state and local leaders, doctors, nurses, law enforcement, and first responders who are waging this battle on the ground.
It is absolutely critical that Americans continue to follow the federal government’s guidelines — so important — about social distancing, nonessential travel, and hand washing. Defeating this unseen enemy requires the help and commitment of every single American.
{snip}
We’re working urgently with Congress on legislation to support the millions of workers, small businesses, and industries who’ve been hit hard by the virus through no fault of their own. Our goal is to get relief to Americans as quickly as possible so that families can get by and small businesses can keep workers on the payroll.
This will help our economy, and you will see our economy skyrocket once this is over. I think it’s going to skyrocket. It’s a — it’s a pent-up demand. It’s a built-up demand. And I guess you really have to say, “Who knows?” But I think it’s going to be a tremendous day when we win this war — and we will win the war. We want to win the war with as few — if you look at it — just deaths as possible. We want to have as few number of deaths as possible.
{snip}
One of the things that they’ve been trying to get done for many years — you all know this from following me over the last number of years, but we got it done pretty quickly; they’ve been trying to get it done for many, many decades — was Choice. Veterans Choice and also Veterans Accountability.
Now, if it’s crowded within this — if they can’t get to a doctor — we have great doctors in the VA. I have to say that. We have fantastic doctors — as good as they come. But it’s hard to because of what was bureaucracy, but no longer bureaucracy. We’ve done a lot of things, in that case, because of Accountability. When people aren’t doing their jobs or if they’re bad or if they’re sadistic, or if they steal or anything bad happens, we’re now allowed to fire them for — I signed that a year and a half ago. For many years, you weren’t able to do that.
{snip}
So, highest poll numbers, highest approval numbers in the history of the VA. I was just given that information yesterday.
{snip}
And I’m going to ask, if I might, a combination of — Pete, why don’t start off, okay? Please.
ADMINISTRATOR GAYNOR: Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
ADMINISTRATOR GAYNOR: Just a little bit about what we’re doing in Washington, California, and New York. We understand that the states of Washington, New York, and California are the areas seeing a steady increase in COVID-19 virus cases.
In order to assist with additional needs identified in those areas, the State of New York was approved for a major disaster declaration this morning. Washington State was also approved earlier today. California submitted their request, and the President will consider it immediately.
We have medical supplies in route to the states, including respirators, surgical masks, gowns, face shields, coveralls, gloves, with quantities already delivered to both Washington, New York, and California. And we anticipate additional supplies to be delivered over the next 42 hours to all these states.
Under President Trump’s unprecedented national emergency declaration on March 13, FEMA is assisting state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, including reimbursing eligible emergency protective measures taken at the directional guidance of public health officials in response to this emergency.
{snip}
Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Pete, very much.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Peter.
THE PRESIDENT: Peter Navarro?
MR. NAVARRO: Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening. What I want to talk briefly about is the Defense Production Act and to give you the overview here.
Using the full power of private enterprise and the full force from the federal government, my job at the White House is to make sure, tactically — working with FEMA and HHS — that the American people, particularly our healthcare professionals, get the gloves, the masks, and all the personal protective equipment they need.
And I can tell you, sir, that since you signed the Defense Production Act, my job has gotten easier, and let me explain why. The Defense Production Act, in this context, has two primary functions. One is mobilization of the industrial base — in this case, the public health industrial base — and the other is allocation of resources, both from the supply chain to the manufacturers, and from the manufacturers to the end users, such as the healthcare professionals.
Now, what we’re seeing on a purely voluntary basis — based on the leadership of this administration — we’re seeing the greatest mobilization in the industrial base since World War Two. And, every day, I’m working with organizations and companies — National Association of Manufacturing, the National Council of Textile Organizations, and so on — in terms of building up, rapidly, our capabilities to get what you need.
{snip}
Q On top of Senator Paul, now four senators are in isolation. And the rules say that, in order to vote, they have to be there.
THE PRESIDENT: Who are they, please? Who are they?
Q Mitt Romney, Senator Lee —
Q Senator Gardner and Senator Rick Scott.
Q Senator Gardner and Senator Rick Scott also. Two of them were in contact with Rand.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I guess Rick is coming out.
Q With the critical stimulus package vote expected soon —
THE PRESIDENT: Romney is in isolation?
Q Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Gee, that’s too bad. Go ahead.
Q Did I detect sarcasm there, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: No. No. None whatsoever.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, when it comes to the Defense Production Act, we know that governors across the country all day today were pleading with you to utilize the DPA, saying that they need it —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it depends which. It depends which governors you’re talking about.
Q — specifically for that allocation piece that you mentioned, Mr. Navarro.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
Q Why not use is now if that would answer their pleas for help?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we are using it now. The fact that I signed it, it’s in effect. But, you know, we’re a country not based on nationalizing our business. Call a person over in Venezuela; ask them how did nationalization of their businesses work out. Not too well. The concept of nationalizing our business is not a good concept.
But I’ll tell you why — as Peter said, we may have to use it someplace along the chain, but we’re getting calls. Here’s the beauty of it: If we go out and we want, let’s say, masks, we don’t know who to call on masks. But Hanes, who makes things of cotton — various elements, lots of things; it’s a great company — they called us and they said, “We’re going to make millions of masks.”
We got a call today from 3M — there’s a big article today — the head of 3M — they’re going to make tremendous products, and they’re more or less in that business. And if they’re not — like, for instance, General Motors spoke to us; Ford spoke to us about doing ventilators.
The beauty is, they’re calling us. If you go the national route — nationalization route — we’re going to tell a company to make a ventilator; they don’t even know what a ventilator is. In the case of one company, they used to make them years ago and they know how to make them. You know, it’s a very complex piece of equipment, frankly.
So what we’re doing is — I think Peter said it maybe better than anybody is going to say it. We have the threat of doing it, if we need it. We may have to use it somewhere along the supply chain, in a minor way. But we have millions of masks being done. We have respirators. We have ventilators. We have a lot of things happening right now. So just the threat of using it.
But using it’s actually a big deal. I mean, when this was announced, it sent tremors through our business community and through our country because, basically, what are you doing? You’re talking about — you’re going to nationalize an industry or you’re going to nationalize — you’re going to take away companies. You’re going to tell companies what to do.
The truth is, most people — nobody would know where to start. There are companies out there, that you wouldn’t think of, that have called us, that say, “We can do ventilators. We used to do them years ago.” And they can do them in large quantities. Other comp- — if I call companies and say, “You build ventilators,” they don’t even know what a ventilator is.
So it’s really working out very well. One of the reasons I read the numbers to you is because we’ve given vast numbers of just about everything. We’ve taken it out of our supply — out of our supply, and we’re restocking our supply.
{snip}
Q You mentioned about — sir, I apologize. There was a woman that was an American that was — was she being tortured? What was going on there, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Bad things were happening to her in a certain country. And we’re — we’re really under the feeling that we should keep it somewhat private until —
Q She’s coming home?
THE PRESIDENT: She’s already been freed. And I have to tell you, General Milley and the — his people were unbelievable. They were not playing games. General Milley does not play games. He’s a very interesting guy. They got her out. They got her out of a certain country where she was seriously abused, accosted, and — whatever the maximum word is, other than death, that happened. But we got her out and she’s okay, and she’s back with her parents.
Q Can I ask you one last question, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q And something I’ve just been curious about. Previous crises, like the tsunami, Katrina — past presidents, they’ve called up predecessors and said, “Hey, I need you step in,” do something like that. Do you can any interest in reaching out to Presidents Bush, Obama, Clinton, Carter, or talking to them?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I mean —
Q I’m just curious if that’s being considered or not.
THE PRESIDENT: Look, I have the best people in the world. I think we’re doing an extraordinary job. If you look at — if you look in, let’s say, the H1N1 — you look at that whole — that was a disaster. That was a tough period of time for our country. You look at so many other things that weren’t handled very well, whether it’s Katrina or something else.
Look, I respect everybody, but I feel I have an incredible team and I think we’re doing an incredible job. When you look at the job we’re doing — and all you have to do is look at the approval numbers on the job we’re doing. I think we’re doing an incredible job.
So I don’t want to disturb them, bother them. I don’t think I’m going to learn much. And, you know, I guess you could say that there’s probably a natural inclination not to call.
Now, if I felt that if I called, I’d learn something and that would say one life — it would save one life, okay? — I would make the call in two minutes. But I don’t see that happening.
{snip}
Q Sir —
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, please.
Q Mr. President, the bill that is being contemplated by the Senate right now has a fund that has hundreds of billions of dollars for the Treasury Department to use to bail out states and localities, as well as specific industries, such as cruises and hotels. Will you commit publicly that none of that taxpayer money will go towards your own personal properties?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, every time I do it — like, for instance, I committed publicly that I wouldn’t take the $450,000 salary. It’s a lot of money. Whether you’re rich or not, it’s a lot of money. And I did it and nobody cared. Nobody — nobody said, “Thank you.” Nobody said, “Thank you very much.”
Now, I didn’t commit legally. I just said, “I don’t want it. I don’t want my salary. I work for zero. I don’t want my salary.” Nobody said, “Oh, thank you very much.” But I guarantee you, if I ever took it, you would go out after me — you, in particular, would go out after me like crazy.
So I have no idea what they’re talking about with regard to the one element. Everything is changing, just so you understand. It’s all changing. But I have no idea. But every time I commit to do something — I’ve committed to do my — look, I ran and everybody knew I was a rich person. I built a great company and people knew that. But I agreed to do things I didn’t have to. I still don’t have to.
But my company — I told the kids, who are running it — I’m not running it. But I told them, “Don’t deal with foreign companies. Don’t deal…” I didn’t have to do that. I could have just ran and I have — I didn’t have to do that at all. And instead of being thanked for, again, not agreeing to do, but just not doing it, I get excoriated all the time.
So I’ve learned — let’s just see what happens because we have to save some of these great companies. They can be great companies, literally, in a matter of weeks. We have to save them.
Yeah, please.
{snip}
Q I mean, just to follow up on that: Are you willing to work directly with Speaker Pelosi as she writes the House bill?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, we’ll work with whoever we have to. We have to help the American worker. We have to help the countries from which the American workers — I mean, they came out of these companies — they were doing phenomenally well. You saw where payroll was going way up, where wages were going way, way up. There’s never been a time like this.
We can’t lose those companies and we want the worker to be happy. And we’re being, I think, more generous than anybody has ever been. We want to take care of the worker, but we want to make sure that when we win the war — it’s only a question of — it’s “when,” not “if.” When we win the war against the virus, we want to make sure those companies are ready to charge forward — not that they’ve been disbanded because we were pennywise and dollar foolish.
{snip}
Q Did you sell stocks Mr. President? Did you or your family sell stocks in advance of this epidemic?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I don’t have stock. I own things that —
Q Did you make any alternates to investments in advance of this pandemic?
THE PRESIDENT: No. I didn’t even think about it. You know, it’s very interesting that you ask a question like that — you know, a nasty question. And yet, it deserves to asked, I guess.
What I’ve done, by deciding to run — and I knew this. I knew this the first day. I said, “If I win, it’s going to going to cost a lot of money.” It cost me billions of dollars to become President — to be President of the United States — in things that would normally be run at a certain thing, even people that don’t like me because they think I’m too tough on the border. Now, some people love me for it; other people don’t like me at all. You know, it’s very funny.
My wife — we were at a charity event in New York City. I had just announced that I was running. And we were at the Robin Hood Foundation at the Convention Center — which now we’re going to be converting to hospitals for Governor Cuomo, right? And I was walking in and there was a smattering of boos and a smattering of cheers; I was getting both. And our very popular First Lady — she’s turned out to be very popular –people have great respect for her. But our very popular First Lady said to me, “Huh, that’s strange. I’ve never heard anybody booing you.”
That was very early on — because I think I called for strong borders or I called for something that other people don’t like, you know. And I knew this would happen. I knew it was going to happen. But the fact that I ran — and I knew as soon as I announced. When I ran, I said, “It’s going to cost me a fortune.” Not only in terms of actual costs — look at my legal costs. You people, everybody — everybody is suing me. I’m being sued by people that I never even heard of. I’m being sued all over the place — and doing very well, but it’s unfair.
But I’ll say this: In terms of running for President — and I don’t think rich people — Michael Bloomberg spent now, it was determined, almost a billion dollars and look what happened. I think it’s very hard for rich people to run for office. It’s — it’s far more costly. It’s just a — it’s a very tough thing.
Now, with all of that being said, I’m so glad I’ve done it. Because, you know, there are a lot rich people around. I’ve got a lot of rich friends, but they can’t help and they can’t do what I’ve done, in terms of helping this country. We are — we are doing things. We got sidetracked by the invisible enemy.
But, you know — what — when you look at what we’ve done, I said before, with the veterans, with — with all of the things we’ve done, especially Choice. But when you look at all of — Accountability — when you look at all of the things that we’ve done — rebuilding the military; the tax cuts, which — thank goodness we had the tax cuts because we had cushion. Oh, without that, this would have been catastrophic. We had a big cushion.
I mean, with all of the losses that you’ve seen in the stock market, we’re basically back — and with this horrible thing, if this would have happened before, you would have had nothing left. This was all cushion.
But I will say that it cost me billions of dollars to be President, and especially with all the money I could have made for the last three, four years — and I didn’t because I was being President. I have no interest in it.
I’m allowed to. You know, I don’t know if you know it — George Washington, they say he was a rich man, supposedly. Relatively rich. And he ran the presidency and he also ran his business. They say he had two desks.
Nobody complained until I came along. I got elected as a rich person, but nobody complained until I came along. So it cost me billions of dollars to be President and I am so happy I did it. Because who cares? Who cares?
I’m really happy with the job we’re doing. And I’m glad that this team and me are here for this horrible thing. I mean, it’s — a number of people have said it, but — and I feel it, actually: I’m a wartime president. This is a war. This is a war. A different kind of war than we’ve ever had.
And when you look at the economics of the war — in the past, we used to stimulate to get people jobs. Now we’re stimulating to protect people because we don’t want them to work, because we want them to stay away from each other. We don’t want them to gather. Social — social gathering. So we’re paying billions of dollars more than that so that they don’t gather, they don’t — because we have to defeat this virus. And we will.
But it cost me billions and billions of dollars to be President and I am so happy I did it.
{snip}
SURGEON GENERAL ADAMS: Donate blood. Donate blood. We need it.
END
7:27 P.M. EDT