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Trump's Remarks on Supporting our Nation's Farmers, Ranchers, and Food Supply Chain; May 19, 2020
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump on Supporting our Nation’s Farmers, Ranchers, and Food Supply Chain
LAND & AGRICULTURE
Issued on: May 19, 2020
Roosevelt Room
11:33 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: We’re here this morning to announce dramatic action to support our nation’s farmers, ranchers, and growers as we work to safely re-open America. And it’s happening very fast — much faster and with much better numbers than anybody would have thought.
I want to begin by expressing our profound gratitude to everyone here today, and the farmers and producers across the country, who have kept our nation fed and nourished as we have battled the invisible enemy. It is an invisible enemy. It’s tough, but we’re going to win, and we’re going to win very big.
But we can never forget all of the people that have been left behind, that have died for some reason that should have never happened. It should’ve never happened. You know that. I know that. And the people that caused the problem, they know that too. It’s too bad.
You remind us once again that the American farmer is the backbone of our country. And they’re really a great friend of mine, and I appreciate all the support. And I know they appreciate our support.
We’re glad to be joined by Secretary Sonny Perdue, along with Ivanka, who has been working closely with Sonny to deliver this vital assistance for farmers and needy families. I’m also grateful to the President of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Zippy Duvall. Thank you very much. Thank you and thank you. Zippy, thank you. The President of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Marty Smith. Marty, thank you. Marty. And several of our great agricultural producers. It’s nice to meet all of you. It’s really good to meet you.
Zippy, you doing okay?
MR. DUVALL: Doing great.
THE PRESIDENT: You got my condolences, I hope? Right?
MR. DUVALL: Yes, sir. I did. Thank you so much.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Zippy was married to a great woman, and for
purposes of the record, you still are. You always will be, right? She was a great person.
MR. DUVALL: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, no, she was a great person.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: No, but we eliminated that horrible death tax, and most of the kids — many of the kids lost the farm. They go borrow to pay the tax and then they ended up losing the farms, right? You don’t have to pay that tax anymore. I think that’s one of the reasons the farmers like me, I guess. But hopefully that’s not the only reason.
We eliminated crushing Washington regulations, kept our promise on ethanol, and replaced and negotiated our badly broken trade deals to finally give you a fair and level playing field. When China unfairly targeted our farmers, we provided $28 million [billion] in direct assistance. And it came from China, not from our government. And you know that happened, and they paid for it. We didn’t pay. You know, they have this misconception; they like to say this as much as possible.
China devalued their currency in order to pay it. We didn’t pay it. And what we did is we helped — I went to Sonny — we had $12 billion two years ago, we had $16 billion last year, and this year you’ll be hearing about what we’re doing because it’s very substantial.
And through the Paycheck Protection Program, we have approved billions of dollars in relief to farmers as part of our unprecedented coronavirus relief efforts. So the Paycheck has been a fantastic success, as you know.
{snip}
No other President has done this, Zippy. I’ll tell you, you can go back to Abraham Lincoln and there’s no President that’s treated the farmers like Trump. I don’t know, I hear we’re doing well with the farmers, but I can’t imagine — I want to find out who wouldn’t be — who wouldn’t be with Trump, right? But it’s an honor to do it, actually. It’s an honor. They’re great people. These are great, great people.
{snip}
We’re very self-sufficient, and we’re becoming more and more self-sufficient. Probably one of the reasons I got elected.
Sign-ups will begin on May 26th through your local Farm Service Agency offices. You got to go sign up to pick it up, to get the money. And we’ll start issuing payments within one week of receiving application. So that’s a lot of money. You’re talking about a total of $16 billion plus $3 billion.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Great job.
You know, the farmers were targeted by China when we started negotiating tough with China. And what I did is we’ve taken in tens of billions of dollars of tariffs. Sonny was very aware of this because he had to distribute the money to the farmers. I said, “Sonny, we’ve taken in a lot of money. How much did the farmers lose?” This was two years ago. They were targeted for an amount. “What do you think the impact?” He said, “$12 billion.” So, I said, “That’s okay. We’ll take $12 billion out of our tariff money,” which was many billions more than that, that China paid. Never paid us 10 cents, by the way, before that. Before Trump, they never paid anything.
I said, “We’ll take $12 billion out of the tens of billions of dollars that we took in, and we’re going to give it to the farmers.” And you distributed that money. And, Zippy, I think you were shocked because you’ve never seen anything like it. Otherwise, these farmers wouldn’t have been in business.
So we took $12 million and we gave it to the farmers. We said thank you very much to China. “Thank you very much, China.” And then, the next year, I said, “Sonny, what’s the number?” And we called Zippy; we called some of the other people. We determined it was $16 billion that the farmers were targeted — $16 billion, by China. So I took $16 billion out of the tariffs, which were many, many billions of — tens of billions more than that. We gave it to the farmers, right?
And this year, the same thing. It’s been pretty amazing. And the farmers are doing fine. One of them said, “I do better this way.” But you know what? They don’t want to do better that way. They just want a level playing field. But we took care of our farmers. Right? And ranchers.
{snip}
.
Thank you, Robert. That was great. Appreciate it.
David Hickman is a vegetable grower who runs Dublin Farms in Virginia. His potatoes will be among the produce distributed to local food banks through the Farmers to Families program. And, David, please come up and say a few words.
Hi, David.
MR. HICKMAN: Thank you, Mr. President. I’m David Hickman, with Dublin Farms in Horntown, Virginia. We are a fifth-generation operation. We produce fresh market potatoes — redskins, yellows, whites. This program is going to help tremendously with the movement of potatoes this summer.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: It’s a beautiful business. Beautiful way to live.
MR. HICKMAN: We appreciate what you’re doing for us.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Great job. He gave me a little education on potatoes. That’s interesting. I wonder if the media enjoyed that. (Laughter.) I don’t think so, but that’s okay.
MR. HICKMAN: Come by. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: I might. Be careful. I might. I’ll be there. We’re going to — we’re going after Virginia, with your crazy governor. We’re going after Virginia. (Laughter.) They want to take your Second Amendment away. You know that, right? You’ll have nobody guarding your potatoes.
{snip}
Thank you very much. I’m going over to Capitol Hill.
END 12:07 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump on Supporting our Nation’s Farmers, Ranchers, and Food Supply Chain
LAND & AGRICULTURE
Issued on: May 19, 2020
Roosevelt Room
11:33 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: We’re here this morning to announce dramatic action to support our nation’s farmers, ranchers, and growers as we work to safely re-open America. And it’s happening very fast — much faster and with much better numbers than anybody would have thought.
I want to begin by expressing our profound gratitude to everyone here today, and the farmers and producers across the country, who have kept our nation fed and nourished as we have battled the invisible enemy. It is an invisible enemy. It’s tough, but we’re going to win, and we’re going to win very big.
But we can never forget all of the people that have been left behind, that have died for some reason that should have never happened. It should’ve never happened. You know that. I know that. And the people that caused the problem, they know that too. It’s too bad.
You remind us once again that the American farmer is the backbone of our country. And they’re really a great friend of mine, and I appreciate all the support. And I know they appreciate our support.
We’re glad to be joined by Secretary Sonny Perdue, along with Ivanka, who has been working closely with Sonny to deliver this vital assistance for farmers and needy families. I’m also grateful to the President of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Zippy Duvall. Thank you very much. Thank you and thank you. Zippy, thank you. The President of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Marty Smith. Marty, thank you. Marty. And several of our great agricultural producers. It’s nice to meet all of you. It’s really good to meet you.
Zippy, you doing okay?
MR. DUVALL: Doing great.
THE PRESIDENT: You got my condolences, I hope? Right?
MR. DUVALL: Yes, sir. I did. Thank you so much.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Zippy was married to a great woman, and for
purposes of the record, you still are. You always will be, right? She was a great person.
MR. DUVALL: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, no, she was a great person.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: No, but we eliminated that horrible death tax, and most of the kids — many of the kids lost the farm. They go borrow to pay the tax and then they ended up losing the farms, right? You don’t have to pay that tax anymore. I think that’s one of the reasons the farmers like me, I guess. But hopefully that’s not the only reason.
We eliminated crushing Washington regulations, kept our promise on ethanol, and replaced and negotiated our badly broken trade deals to finally give you a fair and level playing field. When China unfairly targeted our farmers, we provided $28 million [billion] in direct assistance. And it came from China, not from our government. And you know that happened, and they paid for it. We didn’t pay. You know, they have this misconception; they like to say this as much as possible.
China devalued their currency in order to pay it. We didn’t pay it. And what we did is we helped — I went to Sonny — we had $12 billion two years ago, we had $16 billion last year, and this year you’ll be hearing about what we’re doing because it’s very substantial.
And through the Paycheck Protection Program, we have approved billions of dollars in relief to farmers as part of our unprecedented coronavirus relief efforts. So the Paycheck has been a fantastic success, as you know.
{snip}
No other President has done this, Zippy. I’ll tell you, you can go back to Abraham Lincoln and there’s no President that’s treated the farmers like Trump. I don’t know, I hear we’re doing well with the farmers, but I can’t imagine — I want to find out who wouldn’t be — who wouldn’t be with Trump, right? But it’s an honor to do it, actually. It’s an honor. They’re great people. These are great, great people.
{snip}
We’re very self-sufficient, and we’re becoming more and more self-sufficient. Probably one of the reasons I got elected.
Sign-ups will begin on May 26th through your local Farm Service Agency offices. You got to go sign up to pick it up, to get the money. And we’ll start issuing payments within one week of receiving application. So that’s a lot of money. You’re talking about a total of $16 billion plus $3 billion.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Great job.
You know, the farmers were targeted by China when we started negotiating tough with China. And what I did is we’ve taken in tens of billions of dollars of tariffs. Sonny was very aware of this because he had to distribute the money to the farmers. I said, “Sonny, we’ve taken in a lot of money. How much did the farmers lose?” This was two years ago. They were targeted for an amount. “What do you think the impact?” He said, “$12 billion.” So, I said, “That’s okay. We’ll take $12 billion out of our tariff money,” which was many billions more than that, that China paid. Never paid us 10 cents, by the way, before that. Before Trump, they never paid anything.
I said, “We’ll take $12 billion out of the tens of billions of dollars that we took in, and we’re going to give it to the farmers.” And you distributed that money. And, Zippy, I think you were shocked because you’ve never seen anything like it. Otherwise, these farmers wouldn’t have been in business.
So we took $12 million and we gave it to the farmers. We said thank you very much to China. “Thank you very much, China.” And then, the next year, I said, “Sonny, what’s the number?” And we called Zippy; we called some of the other people. We determined it was $16 billion that the farmers were targeted — $16 billion, by China. So I took $16 billion out of the tariffs, which were many, many billions of — tens of billions more than that. We gave it to the farmers, right?
And this year, the same thing. It’s been pretty amazing. And the farmers are doing fine. One of them said, “I do better this way.” But you know what? They don’t want to do better that way. They just want a level playing field. But we took care of our farmers. Right? And ranchers.
{snip}
.
Thank you, Robert. That was great. Appreciate it.
David Hickman is a vegetable grower who runs Dublin Farms in Virginia. His potatoes will be among the produce distributed to local food banks through the Farmers to Families program. And, David, please come up and say a few words.
Hi, David.
MR. HICKMAN: Thank you, Mr. President. I’m David Hickman, with Dublin Farms in Horntown, Virginia. We are a fifth-generation operation. We produce fresh market potatoes — redskins, yellows, whites. This program is going to help tremendously with the movement of potatoes this summer.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: It’s a beautiful business. Beautiful way to live.
MR. HICKMAN: We appreciate what you’re doing for us.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Great job. He gave me a little education on potatoes. That’s interesting. I wonder if the media enjoyed that. (Laughter.) I don’t think so, but that’s okay.
MR. HICKMAN: Come by. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: I might. Be careful. I might. I’ll be there. We’re going to — we’re going after Virginia, with your crazy governor. We’re going after Virginia. (Laughter.) They want to take your Second Amendment away. You know that, right? You’ll have nobody guarding your potatoes.
{snip}
Thank you very much. I’m going over to Capitol Hill.
END 12:07 P.M. EDT