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Trump's Remarks in a Roundtable with Restaurant Executives and Industry Leaders; May18, 2020
{still being edited}
The secret word today is "deductibility." Control-F gives 21 hits for "deduct" and 15 for "deductibility."
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump in a Roundtable with Restaurant Executives and Industry Leaders
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: May 18, 2020
State Dining Room
2:47 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. We’re here with the leaders of the restaurant industry. It’s an industry that’s been tremendously impacted by what’s happening with COVID, and it’s an industry that we’re working very hard with and on. We’re looking at doing deductibility so that a corporation can use a restaurant or entertainment clubs, et cetera, and get deductibility. I think that’ll really have a big impact. Steve can maybe talk about it — Steve Mnuchin.
But I’d like to have some of these leaders talk about — real quickly — about their company and the industry and any ideas they have, and I think we can do it in front of the media for a little while, and then we can answer a couple of questions, and we’re going to get back to business. Okay?
Please.
MR. CIL: Well, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary Scalia, and everyone else here, including my — my brethren from the restaurant industry: Thanks so much for — for having us here. It’s an honor for me to be here representing 10,000 restaurants in the U.S. We have Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Hortons. These restaurants are owned by small businesses. We have franchisees from coast to coast that — that work day in, day out. We have team members that are in the restaurants day in and day out.
{snip}
And I just wanted to thank the President. Mr. President and your administration, I think you’ve acted quickly and swiftly and with good measure. The CARES Act and the PPP had a tremendous impact on our businesses. I mean, I think there’s a lot, we think, that it can do to make a very good program even better.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT:
{snip}
Steve, do you have anything to say?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: I just want to add, Mr. President, that – thank you for all being here. We appreciate how many people you employ as an industry and the special issues that we have, and we look forward to continuing to work with you.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Thank you very much. How are you doing on deductibility, Steve? How’s that going? Good? Good.
{snip}
MR. BODENSTEDT: I own and operate 765 restaurants across the United States now.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s fantastic. Wow.
MR. BODENSTEDT: And it’s a — I couldn’t be — it’s an American Dream, sir. And I appreciate everything everyone is doing here to keep that dream going, and the tomorrow is going to be better than today, and I appreciate that. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: If we get deductibility, you’ll do better than you did two months ago.
MR. BODENSTEDT: Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s my opinion.
{snip}
MR. GUIDARA: And then move June 30th to October 31st. If those two changes were made to that program, it would change it dramatically.
THE PRESIDENT: What’s more important: that or deductibility?
MR. GUIDARA: That.
MR. IRBY: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Really?
MR. GUIDARA: Deductibility is amazing, but it’s almost like we need to build the house first. Deductibility is the thing that makes the house —
THE PRESIDENT: Does anybody disagree with that? Because I think deductibility is the biggest thing you can possibly do.
{snip}
MR. GUIDARA: The deductibility thing is great —
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Can I — can I just —
{snip}
MR. RODRIGUE: I would say deductibility, payroll tax deductions, all those things are spectacular, and we need them and they would be greatly beneficial.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: That’s fantastic. Yeah, no, it’s — I think deductibility gets that. Actually, I think you’ll —
MR. LOVE: I would agree with that.
THE PRESIDENT: — you’ll go up very substantially. They got rid of a lot of restaurants when they ended that. People don’t realize that. Then you get used to it. You had fewer restaurants. They rent it to other things. Now I don’t know what they’re going to rent to, frankly.
MR. LOVE: And to your point about that, sir, the deductibility — which you can easily identify with and it does spread wealth amongst the restaurants, most definitely — we’re talking just about an immediate concern with the PPP to get people moving forward —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MR. LOVE: — so that we can get this deductibility going.
{snip}
Q Mr. President —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah?
Q Why did you pass up an opportunity to speak to the World Health Organization earlier at their virtual meeting today?
THE PRESIDENT: I chose not to make a statement today. I’ll be giving them a statement sometime in the near future, but I’m — I chose not to give a statement. I think they’ve done a very sad job in the last period of time.
And again, the United States pays them $450 million a year; China pays them $38 million a year, and they’re a puppet of China. They’re China-centric, to put it nicer. But they’re a puppet of China.
And I think they’ve done a very — even when I did the ban — Mike remembers this very well. When I did the ban, they thought it was inappropriate to do. I did a ban very early. If I didn’t do that ban, you would have lost hundreds of thousands of more people in this country. It was a very important ban. People don’t like talking about the ban. No, but it was very important. I was the only one that wanted to do it, and we did it, and we saved thousands of lives — hundreds of thousands of lives, probably. And Dr. Fauci said that, and other people said that. Deborah said that. You know that.
But the World Health Organization was against it. They were against me doing the ban. They were against — they said, “You don’t need it. It’s too much. It’s too severe. It’s too…” — all of these things. And they turned out to be wrong.
Sleepy Joe Biden said the same thing. He came out, he said I was xenophobic. Do you believe that one, Tilman? I was xenophobic because I said you can’t come in if you come from China. You can’t come into our country. Very early. And Biden said I was xenophobic.
MR. FERTITTA: (Inaudible) while Nancy was walking through Chinatown in San Francisco at the same time. (Laughs.)
THE PRESIDENT: Ah, this is my guy. (Laughter.) We always got along, didn’t we? Huh? “The twins,” they call us.
So, no it’s — it’s a very sad — a very sad thing. So I’m not happy with the World Health Organization. And guess what? There’s some of the people around this table who would understand, being in business, in some cases international — I’m not happy with the World Trade Organization at all either.
Q Mr. President, can you explain, sir, why you decided to fire the inspector general at the State Department?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I don’t know him at all. I never even heard of him, but I was asked to by the State Department, by Mike. I offered — most of my people, almost all of them — I said, “You know, these are Obama appointees. And if you’d like to let him go, I think you should let them go, but that’s up to you.”
He’s an Obama employee. I understand he had a lot of problems with the DOD. There was an investigation on him — on the inspector general. I don’t know anything about it.
So I don’t know him. I never heard of him. But they asked me to terminate him. I have the absolute right, as President, to terminate. I’ve said, “Who appointed him?” And they said, “President Obama.” I said, “Look, I’ll terminate him.”
I don’t know what’s going on other than that, but you’d have to ask Mike Pompeo. But they did ask me to do it and I did it. I have the right to terminate the inspector generals. And I would have — I would have suggested — and I did suggest, in pretty much all cases, you get rid of the attorney generals, because it happens to be very political, whether you like it or not. And many of these people were Obama appointments, and so I just got rid of him.
Q And you got some criticism from Democrats in Congress who are saying this is a pattern of you —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I know.
Q — trying to avoid having accountability.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I know. And if I didn’t fire him, they would have criticized me too. They’d criticize no matter what you do. You know, if you have too many ventilators, they’ll say, “Gee, he has too many ventilators.” If you don’t have enough, they’ll say, “He doesn’t have enough.” No matter what you do, between that and their partner, the fake news media, they’ll find something.
No, I don’t know the gentleman. I was happy to do it. Mike requested that I do it. He should have done it a long time ago, in my opinion. He is an Obama appointment and he had some difficulty. But I just don’t know who he is. I really — I don’t know. I never heard his name.
Q But do you believe there is a role for inspector generals to keep an administration like yours —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, but I think they have to be fair.
Q — or anyone else’s accountable?
THE PRESIDENT: Sure. But I think they have to be fair. And I think it’s a death wish when you — and I told my people, I said, “I think you should, you know, study your situation but let us know.” I think we’ve been treated very unfairly by inspector generals. I can go into instances, but I’m not going to do it now.
But the inspector generals, when they’re put in by Obama — just like it could be that if they were put in by me and it was somebody else’s administration, especially the other party, it could very well be that you’d be treated unfairly. But we’ve had a lot of cases where we thought that was unfair.
So, yeah, they asked me to do that. I think the big thing is that they should have asked me to do it a long time ago.
Q But if you said you don’t know him, sir, what was he doing that was treating you unfairly?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. I don’t know anything about him. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about him other than the State Department — and Mike, in particular — I guess they weren’t happy with the job he’s doing or something. So, because it’s my right to do it, I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.”
I’ve gotten rid of a lot of inspector generals; every President has. I think every President has gotten rid of probably more than I have. A lot of our people kept the Obama inspector general, and I think, generally speaking, that’s not a good thing to do, but they’ve kept them.
But I told them — for three years I said, “Anybody who wants to get rid of their inspector generals because they were appointed by President Obama, I think you should do so.” Some of them didn’t, but now they’re doing — a couple of them are doing it now.
Yeah, go ahead.
Q Mr. President, there is an appearance of a conflict of interest that Secretary Pompeo is asking you to fire an inspector general that’s investigating —
THE PRESIDENT: That I can’t tell you. I don’t — I don’t think so. I think maybe he thinks he’s being treated unfairly.
Again, he wanted to — he asked me if that would be possible. I said, “I’ll do that. Sure.” I think it should have been done a long time ago, frankly. And this is a man that has had some controversy — this inspector general. But — so again, I don’t know anything. I haven’t even read much about him. I see that it’s a little bit of a story — not much of a story, because everybody agrees that I have the absolute right to fire the inspector generals. I think they should have done it a long time ago.
Yes, please.
Q Mr. President, some of these executives today told you they expect the recovery to be a little bumpy; it could take a little — take a little while. Are you forecasting a faster bounce back?
THE PRESIDENT: I think they’re forecasting a very fast bounce back. I mean, I see great optimism, though. These are big restaurant people that are really up on the business. They’re very successful. They’ve been very successful. They’ll be, I think even more successful again, especially if we get deductibility.
(snip}
Q Mr. President —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah?
Q Why did you pass up an opportunity to speak to the World Health Organization earlier at their virtual meeting today?
THE PRESIDENT: I chose not to make a statement today. I’ll be giving them a statement sometime in the near future, but I’m — I chose not to give a statement. I think they’ve done a very sad job in the last period of time.
And again, the United States pays them $450 million a year; China pays them $38 million a year, and they’re a puppet of China. They’re China-centric, to put it nicer. But they’re a puppet of China.
And I think they’ve done a very — even when I did the ban — Mike remembers this very well. When I did the ban, they thought it was inappropriate to do. I did a ban very early. If I didn’t do that ban, you would have lost hundreds of thousands of more people in this country. It was a very important ban. People don’t like talking about the ban. No, but it was very important. I was the only one that wanted to do it, and we did it, and we saved thousands of lives — hundreds of thousands of lives, probably. And Dr. Fauci said that, and other people said that. Deborah said that. You know that.
But the World Health Organization was against it. They were against me doing the ban. They were against — they said, “You don’t need it. It’s too much. It’s too severe. It’s too…” — all of these things. And they turned out to be wrong.
Sleepy Joe Biden said the same thing. He came out, he said I was xenophobic. Do you believe that one, Tilman? I was xenophobic because I said you can’t come in if you come from China. You can’t come into our country. Very early. And Biden said I was xenophobic.
MR. FERTITTA: (Inaudible) while Nancy was walking through Chinatown in San Francisco at the same time. (Laughs.)
THE PRESIDENT: Ah, this is my guy. (Laughter.) We always got along, didn’t we? Huh? “The twins,” they call us.
So, no it’s — it’s a very sad — a very sad thing. So I’m not happy with the World Health Organization. And guess what? There’s some of the people around this table who would understand, being in business, in some cases international — I’m not happy with the World Trade Organization at all either.
Q Mr. President, can you explain, sir, why you decided to fire the inspector general at the State Department?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I don’t know him at all. I never even heard of him, but I was asked to by the State Department, by Mike. I offered — most of my people, almost all of them — I said, “You know, these are Obama appointees. And if you’d like to let him go, I think you should let them go, but that’s up to you.”
He’s an Obama employee. I understand he had a lot of problems with the DOD. There was an investigation on him — on the inspector general. I don’t know anything about it.
So I don’t know him. I never heard of him. But they asked me to terminate him. I have the absolute right, as President, to terminate. I’ve said, “Who appointed him?” And they said, “President Obama.” I said, “Look, I’ll terminate him.”
I don’t know what’s going on other than that, but you’d have to ask Mike Pompeo. But they did ask me to do it and I did it. I have the right to terminate the inspector generals. And I would have — I would have suggested — and I did suggest, in pretty much all cases, you get rid of the attorney generals, because it happens to be very political, whether you like it or not. And many of these people were Obama appointments, and so I just got rid of him.
Q And you got some criticism from Democrats in Congress who are saying this is a pattern of you —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I know.
Q — trying to avoid having accountability.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I know. And if I didn’t fire him, they would have criticized me too. They’d criticize no matter what you do. You know, if you have too many ventilators, they’ll say, “Gee, he has too many ventilators.” If you don’t have enough, they’ll say, “He doesn’t have enough.” No matter what you do, between that and their partner, the fake news media, they’ll find something.
No, I don’t know the gentleman. I was happy to do it. Mike requested that I do it. He should have done it a long time ago, in my opinion. He is an Obama appointment and he had some difficulty. But I just don’t know who he is. I really — I don’t know. I never heard his name.
Q But do you believe there is a role for inspector generals to keep an administration like yours —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, but I think they have to be fair.
Q — or anyone else’s accountable?
THE PRESIDENT: Sure. But I think they have to be fair. And I think it’s a death wish when you — and I told my people, I said, “I think you should, you know, study your situation but let us know.” I think we’ve been treated very unfairly by inspector generals. I can go into instances, but I’m not going to do it now.
But the inspector generals, when they’re put in by Obama — just like it could be that if they were put in by me and it was somebody else’s administration, especially the other party, it could very well be that you’d be treated unfairly. But we’ve had a lot of cases where we thought that was unfair.
So, yeah, they asked me to do that. I think the big thing is that they should have asked me to do it a long time ago.
Q But if you said you don’t know him, sir, what was he doing that was treating you unfairly?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. I don’t know anything about him. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about him other than the State Department — and Mike, in particular — I guess they weren’t happy with the job he’s doing or something. So, because it’s my right to do it, I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.”
I’ve gotten rid of a lot of inspector generals; every President has. I think every President has gotten rid of probably more than I have. A lot of our people kept the Obama inspector general, and I think, generally speaking, that’s not a good thing to do, but they’ve kept them.
But I told them — for three years I said, “Anybody who wants to get rid of their inspector generals because they were appointed by President Obama, I think you should do so.” Some of them didn’t, but now they’re doing — a couple of them are doing it now.
Yeah, go ahead.
Q Mr. President, there is an appearance of a conflict of interest that Secretary Pompeo is asking you to fire an inspector general that’s investigating —
THE PRESIDENT: That I can’t tell you. I don’t — I don’t think so. I think maybe he thinks he’s being treated unfairly.
Again, he wanted to — he asked me if that would be possible. I said, “I’ll do that. Sure.” I think it should have been done a long time ago, frankly. And this is a man that has had some controversy — this inspector general. But — so again, I don’t know anything. I haven’t even read much about him. I see that it’s a little bit of a story — not much of a story, because everybody agrees that I have the absolute right to fire the inspector generals. I think they should have done it a long time ago.
Yes, please.
Q Mr. President, some of these executives today told you they expect the recovery to be a little bumpy; it could take a little — take a little while. Are you forecasting a faster bounce back?
THE PRESIDENT: I think they’re forecasting a very fast bounce back. I mean, I see great optimism, though. These are big restaurant people that are really up on the business. They’re very successful. They’ve been very successful. They’ll be, I think even more successful again, especially if we get deductibility.
{snip}
Q Have you made a final decision to fully defund the W- — our contribution of the WHO, going forward?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I have a concept, because we paid 450 thousand. And somebody came out — because we have different ideas. One was that — I mean, I could ask these brilliant people. So we helped fund the World Health Organization. We use it like everyone else does. They gave us a lot of very bad advice — terrible advice. They were wrong so much. Always on the side of China.
China paid $40 million last year. And we’ve been paying $450 million a year for many years. Somehow that doesn’t work out too well. So I was thinking about bringing our 450 down to 40. And some people thought that was too much. So we’re going to make a decision fairly soon. But I think it’s very unfair when we’re paying 450. For many, many years we’ve been paying 300, 400, 450, almost 500 sometimes. And we’re not treated right.
And we’re not treated by World Trade — we’re not treated right either. The World Trade Organization. China, there, is considered a developing nation. If you’re a developing nation, you get massive tax advantages and other advantages. Well, I want the United States to be a developing nation then, okay? We should get the same advantages as China gets. Why should China get advantages over the United States? Because they got somebody to say they’re a developing nation. And so that’s under review also.
Q And then, Mr. President, Secretary Pompeo was reportedly under investigation both for having staffers do personal errands, like walking his dog and picking up his dry cleaning, and concerns that he may have subverted the will of Congress with Saudi — deals with — Saudi arms deals. Are you concerned that he may have made this request to avoid an investigation (inaudible)?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t know anything about it. I heard about it the same time maybe you heard about it. I don’t know anything about it. I mean, you mean he’s under investigation because he had somebody walk his dog from the government? I don’t know.
Q Are you worried (inaudible)?
THE PRESIDENT: It doesn’t sound — I don’t think it sounds like that important. I mean, you have a man that’s supposed to be — and he’s a brilliant guy, number one at West Point, number one at Harvard, I believe — Harvard Law School — or close. And — but he was number one at West Point. Number one at Harvard Law School, or very close to number one. And they’re bothered because he’s having somebody walk his dog, is you’re telling me? I didn’t know that. I didn’t hear that. I didn’t know about an investigation.
But this is what you get with the Democrats. Here’s a man supposed to be negotiating war and peace with major, major countries, with weaponry like the world has never seen before. And the Democrats and the fake news media — they’re interested in a man who is walking their dog. And maybe he’s busy and maybe he’s negotiating with Kim Jong Un — okay? — about nuclear weapons, so that he’d say, “Please, could you walk my dog? Do you mind walking my dog? I’m talking to Kim Jong Un.” Or “I’m talking to President Xi about paying us for some of the damage they’ve caused to the world and to us. Please walk my dog.” To who? A Secret Service person or somebody, right?
I don’t know. I think this country has a long way to go. They — the priorities are really screwed up when I read this.
Now, I don’t know anything about the investigation, but you’re just telling me about walking a dog. And what did you say? Doing dishes?
Q Saudi arms deals, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: What Saudi arms deals? Explain.
Q Congress passed a law to restrict sales to Saudi Arabia over certain arms out of concern —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah?
Q — over their use in the Yemeni crisis. So the question is whether Secretary Pompeo tried to subvert the deal with actions that he may have taken (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think so. I mean, I think that when somebody pays us a fortune for, you know, arms, we should get the deal done. I will tell you that. I don’t — I don’t know what you’re talking about.
I know this: that we have countries that want to buy our arms, and we make it so difficult for them that they end up going to Russia and China. And under my administration, if they’re friendly countries, I try and make it as easy as possible. If they want to buy our fighter jets, and if they want to give us billions and billions of dollars — and they have other alternatives, including China, Russia, and others — I think we should make it as easy as possible for them, and we should take the jobs and take the money because it’s billions of dollars.
And in past administrations, they waited so long that people wouldn’t even want to do business with us. And one of the things that we’ve done, and we make the greatest equipment in the world by far, and especially now under this administration because we’ve upped the scale a lot, as you know, and we bought a lot. We’ve totally rearmed our military — $1.5 trillion.
But if somebody wants to give us billions of dollars to buy an airplane or a number of airplanes and missiles, and all of the other things that we make better than anybody in the world, we should take the money and we should make the deals fast. I would certainly say that.
Q Even if it leads to human rights abuses?
THE PRESIDENT: Why don’t you take your mask off? You know, you’re — just for a second, please.
Q Even if they —
THE PRESIDENT: Don’t worry about Jeff. Jeff, why don’t you move out of his way so he doesn’t infect you, please?
Q Sure. Even if they —
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t want you to become infected.
Q Even if it results in human rights abuses? That was Congress’s concern with these (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: Human rights?
Q Abuses.
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. That, I don’t know. I mean, you know, you’re telling me something that I never heard of. Now you’re talking about human rights abuses. You’ll figure something out, I’m sure.
Look, he’s a high-quality person — Mike. He’s a very high quality — he’s a very brilliant guy. And now I have you telling me about dog walking, washing dishes. And you know what? I’d rather have him on the phone with some world leader than have him wash dishes, because maybe his wife isn’t there or his kids aren’t there. You know. What are you telling me? It’s terrible. It’s so stupid. You know how stupid that sounds to the world? Unbelievable.
Okay. Yeah.
Q Any reaction to President Obama’s speeches over the weekend?
THE PRESIDENT: Look, I think he was an incompetent President. I think President Obama was one of the worst Presidents in the history of our country. I think he was an incompetent President. I know what he left us. He left us a broken military. He left us a military that ISIS was all over the place, and I got rid of it. I knocked out 100 percent of the caliphate. And even you will admit that, Jon. And when I came in, it was a mess.
But we had a broken military. We had a depleted military. We had little on the shelves, if you talk about pandemics. We had a country that was a mess. We were paying high taxes. We were paying it. And outside of this artificial event that took place two months ago, and I’m going to build the country into stronger and better than it was even then. And it’s already happening, and you can see it. You can see it today. Just take a look at the stock market. Look at what’s going on. Look at the great numbers that are being called. And look at these medical companies calling in. And we’re talking about more than one. So many things are happening.
But I think President Obama was an incompetent President. He did a terrible job. And, by the way, there was great division in our country with President Obama. You didn’t see it as much, but there was tremendous division in our country. Okay?
Q (Inaudible) division now, too, right? I mean —
THE PRESIDENT: I think we’ll have great, yeah. You know, success brings. We had a great success going. Things were really going along, and then China gave us a wonderful gift. Okay? And it wasn’t pretty. What — it came out of China. Just in case you had any questions, Jon. It didn’t come out of — it came out of China, spread to Europe, but also came here. And the whole world became infected by this horrible thing that they unleashed one way or the other. Not a good situation. Not a good situation. I’m not a man that likes taking that. What happened to us — and it was totally preventable; they could have stopped it at the source. They knew it was happening.
We wanted to go in, others wanted to go in. They wouldn’t let — they wouldn’t let the world — as you know, they wouldn’t let — they wouldn’t let other — other countries go in. They wanted — other countries wanted to. World Health wanted to, in all fairness to World Health. They wouldn’t let World Health in. And we’re a part of World Health. They wouldn’t let them in either. They could have stopped that at the source, and they chose not to.
And yet, they stopped them from going to Wuhan into different parts of China. So you couldn’t go into Beijing. What do you think of that, Tilman? You couldn’t go into China. But I better not get you involved in it — China. You got enough problems with —
MR. FERTITTA: All of my restaurants in China are back though. They are doing business.
THE PRESIDENT: I’m asking — I’m asking the — an interesting guy that question. But seriously, look — they wouldn’t let them into China, but they’d let them into Europe and they’d let them into all over the world, including the United States. It’s lucky I did the ban. That’s all I can tell you. It’s lucky I did the ban.
Okay. How about one or two more? Yeah.
Q (Inaudible) how you’re going to specifically make China be held responsible?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m not going to tell you that question. Why would I tell you?
Go ahead.
Q Will they be held responsible? Will you — will you take steps to hold China —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. China should be held responsible for what they’ve done. They have hurt the world very, very badly. They’ve hurt themselves also. But they’ve hurt the world very, very badly. Yeah, they should be held responsible. Okay?
Q Sir, you tweeted recently that this whole whistleblower racket needs to be looked at very closely —
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q — and it is causing a great injustice —
THE PRESIDENT: Sure. I had a fake whistleblower.
Q — and harm.
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q Who should look —
THE PRESIDENT: I had a fake whistleblower originally. He was a faker. Because when he looked at my — he wrote down a conversation that was totally different from the conversation I actually had with the President of Ukraine. It was a fake whistleblower. And, by the way, everybody knows who he is. He’s a political operative. You know that. Jon knows who he is. You know him better than anybody, Jon. Right? He’s a faker, and he was a fake whistleblower, and it was a phony, disgraceful period of time. And we came out well. You know why we came out well? Because everyone recognized it for what it was: just a political witch hunt.
But he was a fake whistleblower. He wrote a story that bore no resemblance to the conversation that I had with the President of Uk- — Ukraine. Nothing whatsoever. And by the way, the inspector general, he went by the whistleblower. He didn’t want to see the conversation that I had. When he saw the conversation that I had, he said, “Well, that bears no resemblance to what the whistleblower said.” Why didn’t he look first before he ran to Congress? He ran to Congress like he couldn’t get there fast enough with a whistleblower report.
But when they offered him to see the actual conversation — and we called the head of Ukraine, and we said, “We’d like to expose the conversation that we had, if you don’t mind.” He said, “What was wrong with that?” That conversation, as I say, was perfect. It was a perfect conversation. Not a thing said wrong.
That’s why we had, other than half a vote from Romney — and Romney is a, you know, loser — but other than a half a vote we had from Romney, I got 52 and a half percent to a half. In the House, we got 196 to nothing — 196 to nothing. The Republicans were so unified not because they all liked me, but because they knew this was a horrible thing that happened.
But he was a fake whistleblower. He reported on a conversation that didn’t happen, just like Shifty Schiff. Shifty Schiff went up before Congress, and because he has immunity — in other words, you can’t put them in jail be- — if he lies in front — because they have immunity in the halls of Congress, in the Great Hall.
So he made a statement that was totally different from what I said. You know that. Eight times “quid pro quo.” There were no quid pro quos. Nothing. Zero. Eight times — over and over again. And he made it as though that was the conversation, but he knew that wasn’t the conversation I had.
And anyplace else, he would’ve been thrown out of office and put in jail for what he did, but he had immunity because he made it in the halls — it should be the opposite: If you make a statement like that, if you lie in Con- — you should get double penalties. Okay?
So, you know, that’s the way it goes. So you had a phony whistleblower. And this other guy with the hydroxychloroquine — okay? — well, he — he went out and he’s the one that approved the hydroxychloroquine. He’s the one that signed the application. He also happens to be — if you look — see whether or not — I won’t put it on me; I’ll put it on you. See whether or not he was a big contributor to the Democrats. See whether or not he wanted the Democrats to win. No, there’s a lot of bad things coming out about him, but you people don’t want to write the — the news.
You know, but — if you look — but he’s the one that signed the application. The very important form, he signed it. Now, if he doesn’t believe in it, why would he sign it? And a lot of good things have come out about the hydroxy. A lot of good things have come out. You’d be surprised at how many people are taking it, especially the frontline workers — before you catch it.
The frontline workers — many, many are taking it. I happen to be taking it. I happen to be taking it.
Q You’re taking hydroxychloroquine?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m taking it — hydroxychloroquine.
Q Right now?
Q When —
THE PRESIDENT: Right now. Yeah. A couple of weeks ago, I started taking it.
Q Why, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Because I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of good stories. And if it’s not good, I’ll tell you right — you know, I’m not going to get hurt by it. It’s been around for 40 years for malaria, for lupus, for other things.
I take it. Frontline workers take it. A lot of doctors take it.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. A lot of doctors take it. I take it. Now, I hope to not be able to take it soon because, you know, I hope they come up with some answer, but I think people should be allowed to.
I got a letter from a doctor the other day from Westchester, New York — around the area. He didn’t want anything. He just said, “Sir, I have hundreds of patients and I give them hydroxychloroquine; I give them the Z-Pak, which is azithromycin; and I give them zinc. And out of the hundreds of patients — many hundreds, over 300 patients — I haven’t lost one.” He said, “Please keep pressing that, sir.”
And if you look at that phony report that was put in, that report on the hydroxyl — was given to people that were in extraordinarily bad condition — extraordinarily bad, people that were dying. No, I — I think, for whatever it’s worth, I take it. I was — I — I would’ve told you that three, four days ago, but we never had a chance because you never asked me the question.
Q Did the White House doctor recommend that you take that? Is that why you’re taking it?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. A White House doctor — didn’t recommend — no, I asked him, “What do you think?” He said, “Well, if you’d like it.” I said, “Yeah, I’d like it. I’d like to take it.”
A lot of people are taking it. A lot of frontline workers are taking hydroxychloroquine. A lot of front- — I don’t take it because — hey, people said, “Oh, maybe he owns the company.” No, I don’t own the company. You know what? I want the people of this nation to feel good. I don’t want them being sick. And there’s a very good chance that this has an impact, especially early on.
But you look at frontline workers. You look at doctors and nurses. A lot of them are taking it as a preventative, and they’re taking — totally unrelated, but they take the Z-Pak or the azithromycin for possible infection.
Now, I haven’t taken that, other than an original dose because the ori- — all you need. You don’t have to take it simultaneously, but the zinc you do take. So I’m taking the two: the zinc and the hydroxy. And all I can tell you is, so far, I seem to be okay.
Q Can you explain, sir, though, why you started taking it? Have you been exposed?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, because — no. No, not at all. I just said that — I’ve had so many letters from people, like the one I told you about. I got it last week. I’ll give you — would you like a copy of it? I’d love to give you — if you ask Molly, she’ll give you a copy of it.
But this is a doctor — he doesn’t want anything. I don’t know him, never heard of him, but he treats people that are — that we’re talking about. And he said, out of hundreds of people that he’s treated, he hasn’t lost one. And he just wanted me to know about it. That’s all. It wasn’t — he wasn’t saying, “Gee, could I have dinner with you, Mr. President? I’d like to come to the White House.”
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: But I’ve received many such letters. I’ve received a lot of positive letters and it seems to have an impact. And maybe it does; maybe it doesn’t. But if it doesn’t, you’re not going to get sick or die. This is a — a pill that’s been used for a long time — for 30, 40 years on the malaria and on lupus too, and even on arthritis, I guess, from what I understand.
So it’s been heavily tested, in terms of — I was just waiting to see your eyes light up when I said this, but — you know, when I announced this. But, yeah, I have taken it for about a week and a half now, and I’m still here. I’m still here.
Q Can you explain, sir, though, you — what is the evidence that it has a preventative effect?
THE PRESIDENT: Here we go. Are you ready? Here’s my evidence. I get a lot of positive calls about it. The only negative I’ve heard was the study where they gave it — was it the VA? With, you know, people that aren’t big Trump fans gave it — and we’ve done the greatest job maybe of anything in the VA, because I got VA Choice and VA Accountability both approved. Accountability, Tilman, is where you can fire bad people that work in the VA that you couldn’t fire them.
We had thousands of people that were sadists, that were stealing, that were robbers, that were horrible people. They’d beat up our veterans. They couldn’t do it in primetime, but they did it when they were sick.
And we got Accountability. Nobody thought you could get it because of the unions and civil service. I got it passed so that now you fire bad people in the VA. We got rid of tremendously bad people that should have never been there. But I also got — probably, even more importantly, if you can say that; maybe not — VA Choice.
So if you have to wait on line for a doctor, you go outside, you have a private doctor, we pay the bill. We work out deals with doctors. We have pricing. So you go out, you pay the bill. And it was a great thing that we did, so we’ve done a great job with the VA.
But they had a report come out and the results of the report — it was a very unscientific report, by the way. But I get a lot of tremendously positive news on the hydroxy. And I say, “Hey.” You know the expression I’ve used, Jon? “What do you have to lose?” Okay? “What do you have to lose?”
Q Is that a reason to take medicine?
Q So are you taking this every day?
THE PRESIDENT: I have been taking for about a week —
Q For a week and a half?
THE PRESIDENT: — for about a week and a half.
Q Every day?
THE PRESIDENT: At some point — every day. I take a pill every day. At some point, I’ll stop. What I’d like to do is I’d like to have the cure and/or the vaccine, and that’ll happen, I think, very soon.
Q So you’ve had no symptoms, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Zero symptoms. No, I haven’t had any symp- — no, I tested — we — I test — every couple of days, they want to test me, you know, for obvious reasons. I mean, I am the President, alright? So they want to test me. I don’t want to be tested, but they want to test me. So every couple of days I get tested, and I’ve been — I’ve shown always negative. Right? Negative. Is that the term you use for this? Right? Negative. Totally negative. No symptoms. No nothing.
But, no, I take it because I think — I hear very good things. Again, you have to go to frontline workers. Many frontline workers take it and they seem to be doing very well.
Q Sir, have any other members of your administration, Vice President Pence, or your family members taken this?
THE PRESIDENT: No, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I — I don’t want to ask them because that’s a personal decision as to whether or not you want to say. I just want to be open with the American public because, you know, I happen to think it’s good.
I do want the letter given because this letter made — not in terms of my taking it, but I thought it was a very well-crafted letter by a man who’s a respected doctor up in Westchester, maybe a little beyond Westchester — a little up higher and — in New York. And he just — he didn’t want anything. He just wanted me to know the results of what he’s doing as a doctor. And he was so happy with the fact that I — I fight for this stuff.
And then we have this crazy whistleblower, this fake whistleblower get out and try and, you know, knock it, who is — who signed the application. He — he did all the — he did the signing. He was a believer at one point, I assume. Otherwise, he shouldn’t have signed it. No matter who told him to, he shouldn’t have signed it.
Okay. One more question. That’s it? Thank you all very much.
END
4:32 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump in a Roundtable with Restaurant Executives and Industry Leaders
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: May 18, 2020
State Dining Room
2:47 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. We’re here with the leaders of the restaurant industry. It’s an industry that’s been tremendously impacted by what’s happening with COVID, and it’s an industry that we’re working very hard with and on. We’re looking at doing deductibility so that a corporation can use a restaurant or entertainment clubs, et cetera, and get deductibility. I think that’ll really have a big impact. Steve can maybe talk about it — Steve Mnuchin.
But I’d like to have some of these leaders talk about — real quickly — about their company and the industry and any ideas they have, and I think we can do it in front of the media for a little while, and then we can answer a couple of questions, and we’re going to get back to business. Okay?
Please.
MR. CIL: Well, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary Scalia, and everyone else here, including my — my brethren from the restaurant industry: Thanks so much for — for having us here. It’s an honor for me to be here representing 10,000 restaurants in the U.S. We have Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Hortons. These restaurants are owned by small businesses. We have franchisees from coast to coast that — that work day in, day out. We have team members that are in the restaurants day in and day out.
{snip}
And I just wanted to thank the President. Mr. President and your administration, I think you’ve acted quickly and swiftly and with good measure. The CARES Act and the PPP had a tremendous impact on our businesses. I mean, I think there’s a lot, we think, that it can do to make a very good program even better.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT:
{snip}
Steve, do you have anything to say?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: I just want to add, Mr. President, that – thank you for all being here. We appreciate how many people you employ as an industry and the special issues that we have, and we look forward to continuing to work with you.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Thank you very much. How are you doing on deductibility, Steve? How’s that going? Good? Good.
{snip}
MR. BODENSTEDT: I own and operate 765 restaurants across the United States now.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s fantastic. Wow.
MR. BODENSTEDT: And it’s a — I couldn’t be — it’s an American Dream, sir. And I appreciate everything everyone is doing here to keep that dream going, and the tomorrow is going to be better than today, and I appreciate that. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: If we get deductibility, you’ll do better than you did two months ago.
MR. BODENSTEDT: Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s my opinion.
{snip}
MR. GUIDARA: And then move June 30th to October 31st. If those two changes were made to that program, it would change it dramatically.
THE PRESIDENT: What’s more important: that or deductibility?
MR. GUIDARA: That.
MR. IRBY: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Really?
MR. GUIDARA: Deductibility is amazing, but it’s almost like we need to build the house first. Deductibility is the thing that makes the house —
THE PRESIDENT: Does anybody disagree with that? Because I think deductibility is the biggest thing you can possibly do.
{snip}
MR. GUIDARA: The deductibility thing is great —
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Can I — can I just —
{snip}
MR. RODRIGUE: I would say deductibility, payroll tax deductions, all those things are spectacular, and we need them and they would be greatly beneficial.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: That’s fantastic. Yeah, no, it’s — I think deductibility gets that. Actually, I think you’ll —
MR. LOVE: I would agree with that.
THE PRESIDENT: — you’ll go up very substantially. They got rid of a lot of restaurants when they ended that. People don’t realize that. Then you get used to it. You had fewer restaurants. They rent it to other things. Now I don’t know what they’re going to rent to, frankly.
MR. LOVE: And to your point about that, sir, the deductibility — which you can easily identify with and it does spread wealth amongst the restaurants, most definitely — we’re talking just about an immediate concern with the PPP to get people moving forward —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MR. LOVE: — so that we can get this deductibility going.
{snip}
Q Mr. President —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah?
Q Why did you pass up an opportunity to speak to the World Health Organization earlier at their virtual meeting today?
THE PRESIDENT: I chose not to make a statement today. I’ll be giving them a statement sometime in the near future, but I’m — I chose not to give a statement. I think they’ve done a very sad job in the last period of time.
And again, the United States pays them $450 million a year; China pays them $38 million a year, and they’re a puppet of China. They’re China-centric, to put it nicer. But they’re a puppet of China.
And I think they’ve done a very — even when I did the ban — Mike remembers this very well. When I did the ban, they thought it was inappropriate to do. I did a ban very early. If I didn’t do that ban, you would have lost hundreds of thousands of more people in this country. It was a very important ban. People don’t like talking about the ban. No, but it was very important. I was the only one that wanted to do it, and we did it, and we saved thousands of lives — hundreds of thousands of lives, probably. And Dr. Fauci said that, and other people said that. Deborah said that. You know that.
But the World Health Organization was against it. They were against me doing the ban. They were against — they said, “You don’t need it. It’s too much. It’s too severe. It’s too…” — all of these things. And they turned out to be wrong.
Sleepy Joe Biden said the same thing. He came out, he said I was xenophobic. Do you believe that one, Tilman? I was xenophobic because I said you can’t come in if you come from China. You can’t come into our country. Very early. And Biden said I was xenophobic.
MR. FERTITTA: (Inaudible) while Nancy was walking through Chinatown in San Francisco at the same time. (Laughs.)
THE PRESIDENT: Ah, this is my guy. (Laughter.) We always got along, didn’t we? Huh? “The twins,” they call us.
So, no it’s — it’s a very sad — a very sad thing. So I’m not happy with the World Health Organization. And guess what? There’s some of the people around this table who would understand, being in business, in some cases international — I’m not happy with the World Trade Organization at all either.
Q Mr. President, can you explain, sir, why you decided to fire the inspector general at the State Department?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I don’t know him at all. I never even heard of him, but I was asked to by the State Department, by Mike. I offered — most of my people, almost all of them — I said, “You know, these are Obama appointees. And if you’d like to let him go, I think you should let them go, but that’s up to you.”
He’s an Obama employee. I understand he had a lot of problems with the DOD. There was an investigation on him — on the inspector general. I don’t know anything about it.
So I don’t know him. I never heard of him. But they asked me to terminate him. I have the absolute right, as President, to terminate. I’ve said, “Who appointed him?” And they said, “President Obama.” I said, “Look, I’ll terminate him.”
I don’t know what’s going on other than that, but you’d have to ask Mike Pompeo. But they did ask me to do it and I did it. I have the right to terminate the inspector generals. And I would have — I would have suggested — and I did suggest, in pretty much all cases, you get rid of the attorney generals, because it happens to be very political, whether you like it or not. And many of these people were Obama appointments, and so I just got rid of him.
Q And you got some criticism from Democrats in Congress who are saying this is a pattern of you —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I know.
Q — trying to avoid having accountability.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I know. And if I didn’t fire him, they would have criticized me too. They’d criticize no matter what you do. You know, if you have too many ventilators, they’ll say, “Gee, he has too many ventilators.” If you don’t have enough, they’ll say, “He doesn’t have enough.” No matter what you do, between that and their partner, the fake news media, they’ll find something.
No, I don’t know the gentleman. I was happy to do it. Mike requested that I do it. He should have done it a long time ago, in my opinion. He is an Obama appointment and he had some difficulty. But I just don’t know who he is. I really — I don’t know. I never heard his name.
Q But do you believe there is a role for inspector generals to keep an administration like yours —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, but I think they have to be fair.
Q — or anyone else’s accountable?
THE PRESIDENT: Sure. But I think they have to be fair. And I think it’s a death wish when you — and I told my people, I said, “I think you should, you know, study your situation but let us know.” I think we’ve been treated very unfairly by inspector generals. I can go into instances, but I’m not going to do it now.
But the inspector generals, when they’re put in by Obama — just like it could be that if they were put in by me and it was somebody else’s administration, especially the other party, it could very well be that you’d be treated unfairly. But we’ve had a lot of cases where we thought that was unfair.
So, yeah, they asked me to do that. I think the big thing is that they should have asked me to do it a long time ago.
Q But if you said you don’t know him, sir, what was he doing that was treating you unfairly?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. I don’t know anything about him. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about him other than the State Department — and Mike, in particular — I guess they weren’t happy with the job he’s doing or something. So, because it’s my right to do it, I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.”
I’ve gotten rid of a lot of inspector generals; every President has. I think every President has gotten rid of probably more than I have. A lot of our people kept the Obama inspector general, and I think, generally speaking, that’s not a good thing to do, but they’ve kept them.
But I told them — for three years I said, “Anybody who wants to get rid of their inspector generals because they were appointed by President Obama, I think you should do so.” Some of them didn’t, but now they’re doing — a couple of them are doing it now.
Yeah, go ahead.
Q Mr. President, there is an appearance of a conflict of interest that Secretary Pompeo is asking you to fire an inspector general that’s investigating —
THE PRESIDENT: That I can’t tell you. I don’t — I don’t think so. I think maybe he thinks he’s being treated unfairly.
Again, he wanted to — he asked me if that would be possible. I said, “I’ll do that. Sure.” I think it should have been done a long time ago, frankly. And this is a man that has had some controversy — this inspector general. But — so again, I don’t know anything. I haven’t even read much about him. I see that it’s a little bit of a story — not much of a story, because everybody agrees that I have the absolute right to fire the inspector generals. I think they should have done it a long time ago.
Yes, please.
Q Mr. President, some of these executives today told you they expect the recovery to be a little bumpy; it could take a little — take a little while. Are you forecasting a faster bounce back?
THE PRESIDENT: I think they’re forecasting a very fast bounce back. I mean, I see great optimism, though. These are big restaurant people that are really up on the business. They’re very successful. They’ve been very successful. They’ll be, I think even more successful again, especially if we get deductibility.
(snip}
Q Mr. President —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah?
Q Why did you pass up an opportunity to speak to the World Health Organization earlier at their virtual meeting today?
THE PRESIDENT: I chose not to make a statement today. I’ll be giving them a statement sometime in the near future, but I’m — I chose not to give a statement. I think they’ve done a very sad job in the last period of time.
And again, the United States pays them $450 million a year; China pays them $38 million a year, and they’re a puppet of China. They’re China-centric, to put it nicer. But they’re a puppet of China.
And I think they’ve done a very — even when I did the ban — Mike remembers this very well. When I did the ban, they thought it was inappropriate to do. I did a ban very early. If I didn’t do that ban, you would have lost hundreds of thousands of more people in this country. It was a very important ban. People don’t like talking about the ban. No, but it was very important. I was the only one that wanted to do it, and we did it, and we saved thousands of lives — hundreds of thousands of lives, probably. And Dr. Fauci said that, and other people said that. Deborah said that. You know that.
But the World Health Organization was against it. They were against me doing the ban. They were against — they said, “You don’t need it. It’s too much. It’s too severe. It’s too…” — all of these things. And they turned out to be wrong.
Sleepy Joe Biden said the same thing. He came out, he said I was xenophobic. Do you believe that one, Tilman? I was xenophobic because I said you can’t come in if you come from China. You can’t come into our country. Very early. And Biden said I was xenophobic.
MR. FERTITTA: (Inaudible) while Nancy was walking through Chinatown in San Francisco at the same time. (Laughs.)
THE PRESIDENT: Ah, this is my guy. (Laughter.) We always got along, didn’t we? Huh? “The twins,” they call us.
So, no it’s — it’s a very sad — a very sad thing. So I’m not happy with the World Health Organization. And guess what? There’s some of the people around this table who would understand, being in business, in some cases international — I’m not happy with the World Trade Organization at all either.
Q Mr. President, can you explain, sir, why you decided to fire the inspector general at the State Department?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I don’t know him at all. I never even heard of him, but I was asked to by the State Department, by Mike. I offered — most of my people, almost all of them — I said, “You know, these are Obama appointees. And if you’d like to let him go, I think you should let them go, but that’s up to you.”
He’s an Obama employee. I understand he had a lot of problems with the DOD. There was an investigation on him — on the inspector general. I don’t know anything about it.
So I don’t know him. I never heard of him. But they asked me to terminate him. I have the absolute right, as President, to terminate. I’ve said, “Who appointed him?” And they said, “President Obama.” I said, “Look, I’ll terminate him.”
I don’t know what’s going on other than that, but you’d have to ask Mike Pompeo. But they did ask me to do it and I did it. I have the right to terminate the inspector generals. And I would have — I would have suggested — and I did suggest, in pretty much all cases, you get rid of the attorney generals, because it happens to be very political, whether you like it or not. And many of these people were Obama appointments, and so I just got rid of him.
Q And you got some criticism from Democrats in Congress who are saying this is a pattern of you —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I know.
Q — trying to avoid having accountability.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I know. And if I didn’t fire him, they would have criticized me too. They’d criticize no matter what you do. You know, if you have too many ventilators, they’ll say, “Gee, he has too many ventilators.” If you don’t have enough, they’ll say, “He doesn’t have enough.” No matter what you do, between that and their partner, the fake news media, they’ll find something.
No, I don’t know the gentleman. I was happy to do it. Mike requested that I do it. He should have done it a long time ago, in my opinion. He is an Obama appointment and he had some difficulty. But I just don’t know who he is. I really — I don’t know. I never heard his name.
Q But do you believe there is a role for inspector generals to keep an administration like yours —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, but I think they have to be fair.
Q — or anyone else’s accountable?
THE PRESIDENT: Sure. But I think they have to be fair. And I think it’s a death wish when you — and I told my people, I said, “I think you should, you know, study your situation but let us know.” I think we’ve been treated very unfairly by inspector generals. I can go into instances, but I’m not going to do it now.
But the inspector generals, when they’re put in by Obama — just like it could be that if they were put in by me and it was somebody else’s administration, especially the other party, it could very well be that you’d be treated unfairly. But we’ve had a lot of cases where we thought that was unfair.
So, yeah, they asked me to do that. I think the big thing is that they should have asked me to do it a long time ago.
Q But if you said you don’t know him, sir, what was he doing that was treating you unfairly?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. I don’t know anything about him. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about him other than the State Department — and Mike, in particular — I guess they weren’t happy with the job he’s doing or something. So, because it’s my right to do it, I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.”
I’ve gotten rid of a lot of inspector generals; every President has. I think every President has gotten rid of probably more than I have. A lot of our people kept the Obama inspector general, and I think, generally speaking, that’s not a good thing to do, but they’ve kept them.
But I told them — for three years I said, “Anybody who wants to get rid of their inspector generals because they were appointed by President Obama, I think you should do so.” Some of them didn’t, but now they’re doing — a couple of them are doing it now.
Yeah, go ahead.
Q Mr. President, there is an appearance of a conflict of interest that Secretary Pompeo is asking you to fire an inspector general that’s investigating —
THE PRESIDENT: That I can’t tell you. I don’t — I don’t think so. I think maybe he thinks he’s being treated unfairly.
Again, he wanted to — he asked me if that would be possible. I said, “I’ll do that. Sure.” I think it should have been done a long time ago, frankly. And this is a man that has had some controversy — this inspector general. But — so again, I don’t know anything. I haven’t even read much about him. I see that it’s a little bit of a story — not much of a story, because everybody agrees that I have the absolute right to fire the inspector generals. I think they should have done it a long time ago.
Yes, please.
Q Mr. President, some of these executives today told you they expect the recovery to be a little bumpy; it could take a little — take a little while. Are you forecasting a faster bounce back?
THE PRESIDENT: I think they’re forecasting a very fast bounce back. I mean, I see great optimism, though. These are big restaurant people that are really up on the business. They’re very successful. They’ve been very successful. They’ll be, I think even more successful again, especially if we get deductibility.
{snip}
Q Have you made a final decision to fully defund the W- — our contribution of the WHO, going forward?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I have a concept, because we paid 450 thousand. And somebody came out — because we have different ideas. One was that — I mean, I could ask these brilliant people. So we helped fund the World Health Organization. We use it like everyone else does. They gave us a lot of very bad advice — terrible advice. They were wrong so much. Always on the side of China.
China paid $40 million last year. And we’ve been paying $450 million a year for many years. Somehow that doesn’t work out too well. So I was thinking about bringing our 450 down to 40. And some people thought that was too much. So we’re going to make a decision fairly soon. But I think it’s very unfair when we’re paying 450. For many, many years we’ve been paying 300, 400, 450, almost 500 sometimes. And we’re not treated right.
And we’re not treated by World Trade — we’re not treated right either. The World Trade Organization. China, there, is considered a developing nation. If you’re a developing nation, you get massive tax advantages and other advantages. Well, I want the United States to be a developing nation then, okay? We should get the same advantages as China gets. Why should China get advantages over the United States? Because they got somebody to say they’re a developing nation. And so that’s under review also.
Q And then, Mr. President, Secretary Pompeo was reportedly under investigation both for having staffers do personal errands, like walking his dog and picking up his dry cleaning, and concerns that he may have subverted the will of Congress with Saudi — deals with — Saudi arms deals. Are you concerned that he may have made this request to avoid an investigation (inaudible)?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t know anything about it. I heard about it the same time maybe you heard about it. I don’t know anything about it. I mean, you mean he’s under investigation because he had somebody walk his dog from the government? I don’t know.
Q Are you worried (inaudible)?
THE PRESIDENT: It doesn’t sound — I don’t think it sounds like that important. I mean, you have a man that’s supposed to be — and he’s a brilliant guy, number one at West Point, number one at Harvard, I believe — Harvard Law School — or close. And — but he was number one at West Point. Number one at Harvard Law School, or very close to number one. And they’re bothered because he’s having somebody walk his dog, is you’re telling me? I didn’t know that. I didn’t hear that. I didn’t know about an investigation.
But this is what you get with the Democrats. Here’s a man supposed to be negotiating war and peace with major, major countries, with weaponry like the world has never seen before. And the Democrats and the fake news media — they’re interested in a man who is walking their dog. And maybe he’s busy and maybe he’s negotiating with Kim Jong Un — okay? — about nuclear weapons, so that he’d say, “Please, could you walk my dog? Do you mind walking my dog? I’m talking to Kim Jong Un.” Or “I’m talking to President Xi about paying us for some of the damage they’ve caused to the world and to us. Please walk my dog.” To who? A Secret Service person or somebody, right?
I don’t know. I think this country has a long way to go. They — the priorities are really screwed up when I read this.
Now, I don’t know anything about the investigation, but you’re just telling me about walking a dog. And what did you say? Doing dishes?
Q Saudi arms deals, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: What Saudi arms deals? Explain.
Q Congress passed a law to restrict sales to Saudi Arabia over certain arms out of concern —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah?
Q — over their use in the Yemeni crisis. So the question is whether Secretary Pompeo tried to subvert the deal with actions that he may have taken (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think so. I mean, I think that when somebody pays us a fortune for, you know, arms, we should get the deal done. I will tell you that. I don’t — I don’t know what you’re talking about.
I know this: that we have countries that want to buy our arms, and we make it so difficult for them that they end up going to Russia and China. And under my administration, if they’re friendly countries, I try and make it as easy as possible. If they want to buy our fighter jets, and if they want to give us billions and billions of dollars — and they have other alternatives, including China, Russia, and others — I think we should make it as easy as possible for them, and we should take the jobs and take the money because it’s billions of dollars.
And in past administrations, they waited so long that people wouldn’t even want to do business with us. And one of the things that we’ve done, and we make the greatest equipment in the world by far, and especially now under this administration because we’ve upped the scale a lot, as you know, and we bought a lot. We’ve totally rearmed our military — $1.5 trillion.
But if somebody wants to give us billions of dollars to buy an airplane or a number of airplanes and missiles, and all of the other things that we make better than anybody in the world, we should take the money and we should make the deals fast. I would certainly say that.
Q Even if it leads to human rights abuses?
THE PRESIDENT: Why don’t you take your mask off? You know, you’re — just for a second, please.
Q Even if they —
THE PRESIDENT: Don’t worry about Jeff. Jeff, why don’t you move out of his way so he doesn’t infect you, please?
Q Sure. Even if they —
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t want you to become infected.
Q Even if it results in human rights abuses? That was Congress’s concern with these (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: Human rights?
Q Abuses.
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. That, I don’t know. I mean, you know, you’re telling me something that I never heard of. Now you’re talking about human rights abuses. You’ll figure something out, I’m sure.
Look, he’s a high-quality person — Mike. He’s a very high quality — he’s a very brilliant guy. And now I have you telling me about dog walking, washing dishes. And you know what? I’d rather have him on the phone with some world leader than have him wash dishes, because maybe his wife isn’t there or his kids aren’t there. You know. What are you telling me? It’s terrible. It’s so stupid. You know how stupid that sounds to the world? Unbelievable.
Okay. Yeah.
Q Any reaction to President Obama’s speeches over the weekend?
THE PRESIDENT: Look, I think he was an incompetent President. I think President Obama was one of the worst Presidents in the history of our country. I think he was an incompetent President. I know what he left us. He left us a broken military. He left us a military that ISIS was all over the place, and I got rid of it. I knocked out 100 percent of the caliphate. And even you will admit that, Jon. And when I came in, it was a mess.
But we had a broken military. We had a depleted military. We had little on the shelves, if you talk about pandemics. We had a country that was a mess. We were paying high taxes. We were paying it. And outside of this artificial event that took place two months ago, and I’m going to build the country into stronger and better than it was even then. And it’s already happening, and you can see it. You can see it today. Just take a look at the stock market. Look at what’s going on. Look at the great numbers that are being called. And look at these medical companies calling in. And we’re talking about more than one. So many things are happening.
But I think President Obama was an incompetent President. He did a terrible job. And, by the way, there was great division in our country with President Obama. You didn’t see it as much, but there was tremendous division in our country. Okay?
Q (Inaudible) division now, too, right? I mean —
THE PRESIDENT: I think we’ll have great, yeah. You know, success brings. We had a great success going. Things were really going along, and then China gave us a wonderful gift. Okay? And it wasn’t pretty. What — it came out of China. Just in case you had any questions, Jon. It didn’t come out of — it came out of China, spread to Europe, but also came here. And the whole world became infected by this horrible thing that they unleashed one way or the other. Not a good situation. Not a good situation. I’m not a man that likes taking that. What happened to us — and it was totally preventable; they could have stopped it at the source. They knew it was happening.
We wanted to go in, others wanted to go in. They wouldn’t let — they wouldn’t let the world — as you know, they wouldn’t let — they wouldn’t let other — other countries go in. They wanted — other countries wanted to. World Health wanted to, in all fairness to World Health. They wouldn’t let World Health in. And we’re a part of World Health. They wouldn’t let them in either. They could have stopped that at the source, and they chose not to.
And yet, they stopped them from going to Wuhan into different parts of China. So you couldn’t go into Beijing. What do you think of that, Tilman? You couldn’t go into China. But I better not get you involved in it — China. You got enough problems with —
MR. FERTITTA: All of my restaurants in China are back though. They are doing business.
THE PRESIDENT: I’m asking — I’m asking the — an interesting guy that question. But seriously, look — they wouldn’t let them into China, but they’d let them into Europe and they’d let them into all over the world, including the United States. It’s lucky I did the ban. That’s all I can tell you. It’s lucky I did the ban.
Okay. How about one or two more? Yeah.
Q (Inaudible) how you’re going to specifically make China be held responsible?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m not going to tell you that question. Why would I tell you?
Go ahead.
Q Will they be held responsible? Will you — will you take steps to hold China —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. China should be held responsible for what they’ve done. They have hurt the world very, very badly. They’ve hurt themselves also. But they’ve hurt the world very, very badly. Yeah, they should be held responsible. Okay?
Q Sir, you tweeted recently that this whole whistleblower racket needs to be looked at very closely —
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q — and it is causing a great injustice —
THE PRESIDENT: Sure. I had a fake whistleblower.
Q — and harm.
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q Who should look —
THE PRESIDENT: I had a fake whistleblower originally. He was a faker. Because when he looked at my — he wrote down a conversation that was totally different from the conversation I actually had with the President of Ukraine. It was a fake whistleblower. And, by the way, everybody knows who he is. He’s a political operative. You know that. Jon knows who he is. You know him better than anybody, Jon. Right? He’s a faker, and he was a fake whistleblower, and it was a phony, disgraceful period of time. And we came out well. You know why we came out well? Because everyone recognized it for what it was: just a political witch hunt.
But he was a fake whistleblower. He wrote a story that bore no resemblance to the conversation that I had with the President of Uk- — Ukraine. Nothing whatsoever. And by the way, the inspector general, he went by the whistleblower. He didn’t want to see the conversation that I had. When he saw the conversation that I had, he said, “Well, that bears no resemblance to what the whistleblower said.” Why didn’t he look first before he ran to Congress? He ran to Congress like he couldn’t get there fast enough with a whistleblower report.
But when they offered him to see the actual conversation — and we called the head of Ukraine, and we said, “We’d like to expose the conversation that we had, if you don’t mind.” He said, “What was wrong with that?” That conversation, as I say, was perfect. It was a perfect conversation. Not a thing said wrong.
That’s why we had, other than half a vote from Romney — and Romney is a, you know, loser — but other than a half a vote we had from Romney, I got 52 and a half percent to a half. In the House, we got 196 to nothing — 196 to nothing. The Republicans were so unified not because they all liked me, but because they knew this was a horrible thing that happened.
But he was a fake whistleblower. He reported on a conversation that didn’t happen, just like Shifty Schiff. Shifty Schiff went up before Congress, and because he has immunity — in other words, you can’t put them in jail be- — if he lies in front — because they have immunity in the halls of Congress, in the Great Hall.
So he made a statement that was totally different from what I said. You know that. Eight times “quid pro quo.” There were no quid pro quos. Nothing. Zero. Eight times — over and over again. And he made it as though that was the conversation, but he knew that wasn’t the conversation I had.
And anyplace else, he would’ve been thrown out of office and put in jail for what he did, but he had immunity because he made it in the halls — it should be the opposite: If you make a statement like that, if you lie in Con- — you should get double penalties. Okay?
So, you know, that’s the way it goes. So you had a phony whistleblower. And this other guy with the hydroxychloroquine — okay? — well, he — he went out and he’s the one that approved the hydroxychloroquine. He’s the one that signed the application. He also happens to be — if you look — see whether or not — I won’t put it on me; I’ll put it on you. See whether or not he was a big contributor to the Democrats. See whether or not he wanted the Democrats to win. No, there’s a lot of bad things coming out about him, but you people don’t want to write the — the news.
You know, but — if you look — but he’s the one that signed the application. The very important form, he signed it. Now, if he doesn’t believe in it, why would he sign it? And a lot of good things have come out about the hydroxy. A lot of good things have come out. You’d be surprised at how many people are taking it, especially the frontline workers — before you catch it.
The frontline workers — many, many are taking it. I happen to be taking it. I happen to be taking it.
Q You’re taking hydroxychloroquine?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m taking it — hydroxychloroquine.
Q Right now?
Q When —
THE PRESIDENT: Right now. Yeah. A couple of weeks ago, I started taking it.
Q Why, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Because I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of good stories. And if it’s not good, I’ll tell you right — you know, I’m not going to get hurt by it. It’s been around for 40 years for malaria, for lupus, for other things.
I take it. Frontline workers take it. A lot of doctors take it.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. A lot of doctors take it. I take it. Now, I hope to not be able to take it soon because, you know, I hope they come up with some answer, but I think people should be allowed to.
I got a letter from a doctor the other day from Westchester, New York — around the area. He didn’t want anything. He just said, “Sir, I have hundreds of patients and I give them hydroxychloroquine; I give them the Z-Pak, which is azithromycin; and I give them zinc. And out of the hundreds of patients — many hundreds, over 300 patients — I haven’t lost one.” He said, “Please keep pressing that, sir.”
And if you look at that phony report that was put in, that report on the hydroxyl — was given to people that were in extraordinarily bad condition — extraordinarily bad, people that were dying. No, I — I think, for whatever it’s worth, I take it. I was — I — I would’ve told you that three, four days ago, but we never had a chance because you never asked me the question.
Q Did the White House doctor recommend that you take that? Is that why you’re taking it?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. A White House doctor — didn’t recommend — no, I asked him, “What do you think?” He said, “Well, if you’d like it.” I said, “Yeah, I’d like it. I’d like to take it.”
A lot of people are taking it. A lot of frontline workers are taking hydroxychloroquine. A lot of front- — I don’t take it because — hey, people said, “Oh, maybe he owns the company.” No, I don’t own the company. You know what? I want the people of this nation to feel good. I don’t want them being sick. And there’s a very good chance that this has an impact, especially early on.
But you look at frontline workers. You look at doctors and nurses. A lot of them are taking it as a preventative, and they’re taking — totally unrelated, but they take the Z-Pak or the azithromycin for possible infection.
Now, I haven’t taken that, other than an original dose because the ori- — all you need. You don’t have to take it simultaneously, but the zinc you do take. So I’m taking the two: the zinc and the hydroxy. And all I can tell you is, so far, I seem to be okay.
Q Can you explain, sir, though, why you started taking it? Have you been exposed?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, because — no. No, not at all. I just said that — I’ve had so many letters from people, like the one I told you about. I got it last week. I’ll give you — would you like a copy of it? I’d love to give you — if you ask Molly, she’ll give you a copy of it.
But this is a doctor — he doesn’t want anything. I don’t know him, never heard of him, but he treats people that are — that we’re talking about. And he said, out of hundreds of people that he’s treated, he hasn’t lost one. And he just wanted me to know about it. That’s all. It wasn’t — he wasn’t saying, “Gee, could I have dinner with you, Mr. President? I’d like to come to the White House.”
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: But I’ve received many such letters. I’ve received a lot of positive letters and it seems to have an impact. And maybe it does; maybe it doesn’t. But if it doesn’t, you’re not going to get sick or die. This is a — a pill that’s been used for a long time — for 30, 40 years on the malaria and on lupus too, and even on arthritis, I guess, from what I understand.
So it’s been heavily tested, in terms of — I was just waiting to see your eyes light up when I said this, but — you know, when I announced this. But, yeah, I have taken it for about a week and a half now, and I’m still here. I’m still here.
Q Can you explain, sir, though, you — what is the evidence that it has a preventative effect?
THE PRESIDENT: Here we go. Are you ready? Here’s my evidence. I get a lot of positive calls about it. The only negative I’ve heard was the study where they gave it — was it the VA? With, you know, people that aren’t big Trump fans gave it — and we’ve done the greatest job maybe of anything in the VA, because I got VA Choice and VA Accountability both approved. Accountability, Tilman, is where you can fire bad people that work in the VA that you couldn’t fire them.
We had thousands of people that were sadists, that were stealing, that were robbers, that were horrible people. They’d beat up our veterans. They couldn’t do it in primetime, but they did it when they were sick.
And we got Accountability. Nobody thought you could get it because of the unions and civil service. I got it passed so that now you fire bad people in the VA. We got rid of tremendously bad people that should have never been there. But I also got — probably, even more importantly, if you can say that; maybe not — VA Choice.
So if you have to wait on line for a doctor, you go outside, you have a private doctor, we pay the bill. We work out deals with doctors. We have pricing. So you go out, you pay the bill. And it was a great thing that we did, so we’ve done a great job with the VA.
But they had a report come out and the results of the report — it was a very unscientific report, by the way. But I get a lot of tremendously positive news on the hydroxy. And I say, “Hey.” You know the expression I’ve used, Jon? “What do you have to lose?” Okay? “What do you have to lose?”
Q Is that a reason to take medicine?
Q So are you taking this every day?
THE PRESIDENT: I have been taking for about a week —
Q For a week and a half?
THE PRESIDENT: — for about a week and a half.
Q Every day?
THE PRESIDENT: At some point — every day. I take a pill every day. At some point, I’ll stop. What I’d like to do is I’d like to have the cure and/or the vaccine, and that’ll happen, I think, very soon.
Q So you’ve had no symptoms, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Zero symptoms. No, I haven’t had any symp- — no, I tested — we — I test — every couple of days, they want to test me, you know, for obvious reasons. I mean, I am the President, alright? So they want to test me. I don’t want to be tested, but they want to test me. So every couple of days I get tested, and I’ve been — I’ve shown always negative. Right? Negative. Is that the term you use for this? Right? Negative. Totally negative. No symptoms. No nothing.
But, no, I take it because I think — I hear very good things. Again, you have to go to frontline workers. Many frontline workers take it and they seem to be doing very well.
Q Sir, have any other members of your administration, Vice President Pence, or your family members taken this?
THE PRESIDENT: No, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I — I don’t want to ask them because that’s a personal decision as to whether or not you want to say. I just want to be open with the American public because, you know, I happen to think it’s good.
I do want the letter given because this letter made — not in terms of my taking it, but I thought it was a very well-crafted letter by a man who’s a respected doctor up in Westchester, maybe a little beyond Westchester — a little up higher and — in New York. And he just — he didn’t want anything. He just wanted me to know the results of what he’s doing as a doctor. And he was so happy with the fact that I — I fight for this stuff.
And then we have this crazy whistleblower, this fake whistleblower get out and try and, you know, knock it, who is — who signed the application. He — he did all the — he did the signing. He was a believer at one point, I assume. Otherwise, he shouldn’t have signed it. No matter who told him to, he shouldn’t have signed it.
Okay. One more question. That’s it? Thank you all very much.
END
4:32 P.M. EDT
1 replies
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questions are weak and useless. Great job people