Trump's Remarks at Honeywell International Inc. Mask Production Facility -- Phoenix, AZ

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Today's word salad is brought to you by the word "fantastic." It appears 12 times in the transcript. Don't worry; I'm not going to include them all here.

REMARKS

Remarks by President Trump at Honeywell International Inc. Mask Production Facility | Phoenix, AZ

HEALTHCARE

Issued on: May 5, 2020

Honeywell International Inc.
Phoenix, Arizona
2:32 P.M. MST

THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much, everybody. It’s a great company, and it’s an honor to be with you. And we traveled with Darius. He’s a great chief executive. He is a — he’s a great businessman. Done a tremendous job with your company.

But I’m thrilled to be here in the fantastic state of Arizona — I love Arizona — with the incredible — (applause) — true. I had some good moments here, especially on Election Day. It was a good moment, right?

But they’re incredible patriotic and hardworking men and women of Honeywell. Moments ago, we saw the brand-new production lines where you’re making high-quality N95 respirators. And they are made to perfection. There’s no bad masks, like various countries have been sent — some very bad masks from other places. There’s nothing like that at Honeywell.

{snip}

I want to thank also the entire leadership team at Honeywell, including Darius — who’s, again, a fantastic man — Anne Madden, Mike Madsen, John Waldron, Jim Carroll, Brian Rudick, William Lange, Tony Stallings, and Romina Khananisho.

In normal times, it would take nine months to stand up one facility like this. But Honeywell has built this in less than five weeks, creating 500 new jobs in Arizona and another 500 jobs in Rhode Island. Together, these new factories will soon produce more than 20 million N95 respirators every single month. A truly miraculous achievement.

We’re grateful to be joined by Secretary of Labor Gene Scalia and Governor Doug Ducey. What a fantastic governor he is. Where is Doug? (Applause.) Where is Doug? Thank you, Doug. (Applause.) You’re doing a fantastic job. And he already won his election by, like, 17 points. So I don’t have to praise him too much, but I will say that he has been a fantastic governor. And that’s — you people recognize it. That’s why he had what they say is a walk. That’s very good, and we’re proud of you, Doug. And anything we can do, you’re going to call me. We don’t have to worry about that. He calls me plenty. He calls me plenty because he’s doing his job.

But I want to thank you both. And, Gene, the job you’re doing is fantastic. Thank you both very much. We appreciate it. Thank you, Gene. (Applause.)

And I also want to express my appreciation to Senator Martha McSally — a fantastic person. Fantastic person. (Applause.) She’s fighting to uncover the full truth about the China situation and how the World Health Organization handled the outbreak and what happened. There must be transparency and accountability. Martha is also somebody that is bringing tremendous amounts of dollars back to her state that she loves so much — the state of Arizona. And I know the Governor appreciates it very much, Martha. And I appreciate it very much too. You’re doing a fantastic job, and good luck. Good luck.

Thank you as well to Betty and Jorge Rivas at Sammy’s Mexican Grill in Catalina. Where are they? They’re around here someplace. (Applause.) They’re great. Where is the — come on up here. Come on up here. Come on. Say a couple of words. (Laughter.) Say — these people. You know, I saw them on television. (Applause.) I saw them on television. They were being devastated by what happened. And I put out a simple tweet saying what wonderful people they are, and they became very rich. They had lines that went around the block.

Say a few words, please. Come on. There’s a mic right over here. I can’t believe I have to socially distance myself from these two people. (Laughter.) They’re probably the ones that want it from me.

Please, say a few words.

MR. RIVAS: Mr. President, we thank you very much. I think you’re doing a great job.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

MR. RIVAS: I think we represent a lot of the Latino community that is very proud of the job that you’re doing. And I think most of us, all of us, all the Latinos are going to vote for you because we think you’re doing a — like I said, a very good job.

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT:

{snip}

One day they came to us and they said, “Sir, we’re going to have to close it down.” We had the greatest economy in history. Darius can tell you about that. Greatest economy we’ve ever had. Best employment numbers in the history of our country. The best stock market in the history of our country. Most number of jobs. Almost 160 million jobs. We were never even close to that. And they said, “Sir, we have to close it down.” It’s a terrible thing, but we did what was right.

And now we’re reopening our country, and it’s going to be something very special. I was saying before that we’re going to have a transition period, the third quarter. It’s going to transition. Fourth quarter is going to be very good — we think very good. And I think next year we’re going to have one of the strongest years we’ve had in a long time, and that’s my ambition: to get it back to not only where it was, but to beyond where it was.

{snip}

But we’re taking it back, and we’ve been taking it back. When you look at our job numbers, you knew that — we were taking it back. When we got up to almost 160 million, something had to be happening. One of the things that happened was we were taking it back. We know it matters where something is made, and we want essential medicines, supplies, and equipment to be manufactured, produced, and made right here in the good old USA.

{snip}

END

2:52 P.M. MST