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Trump's Remarks in Roundtable Discussion with Industry Executives on Reopening; May 29, 2020
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump in Roundtable Discussion with Industry Executives on Reopening
ECONOMY & JOBS
Issued on: May 30, 2020
State Dining Room
May 29, 2020
4:54 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. I want to express our nation’s deepest condolences and most heartfelt sympathies to the family of George Floyd. A terrible event. Terrible, terrible thing that happened.
{snip}
ship
I’m pleased to welcome American industry leaders to the White House as we continue to safely reopen America. We’re glad to be joined by Geoff Ballotti of Wyndham Hotel and Resorts. Wyndham Hotels have been really a terrific company over the years. Brian Goldner of Hasbro; David Hoffmann of Dunkin’ Brands; Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines. Really good jobs they’ve done. Rodney McMullen of Kroger. Thanks, Rodney. Oscar Munoz of United. Thank you, Oscar. United Airlines. Brad Smith of Microsoft. That stock has done very well, I will say. Great job. Great job. Sonia Syngal of Gap. And — thank you very much.
Also with us are Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin and Secretary of Labor Gene Scalia.
{snip}
We had the greatest economy in history of any country, not just ours. The greatest in history. We had the best employment numbers that we’ve ever had. We’ve had the best numbers in every way, whether it’s the biggest tax cuts, the greatest regulation cuts of any president. Nobody has even come close.
We’ve rebuilt our military. We have the strongest military we’ve ever had. New equipment coming in all the time; a lot of it already arrived. And very importantly, all made in the USA. And so many other things.
You look at what we’ve done for the vets with Choice and Accountability — the combination. They weren’t able to get that done for over 40 years. And we got them both approved. Right to Try, got it approved. We’ve done so much, and then we had to turn it all off in order to be in a position where we are right now.
Numbers were estimated to be two million deaths, one and a half million deaths, maybe one million, but it could have been over two million and maybe substantially over. Unfortunately, one is too many. It should’ve been stopped. It could’ve been stopped in China. It should’ve been stopped in China, but it didn’t stop. And the world got infected, and it’s very sad — a very sad thing. But we turned off the greatest economy ever, and we turned it off very quickly, very rapidly. We banned people coming in from China early — very early. In fact, most people said, “Don’t do it.” Even a month later, they were saying, “You shouldn’t have done it.” And we turned out to be right.
{snip}
DR. BIRX:
{snip}
No one intends to infect others; they just don’t know they’re infected themselves. And so, working with states and governors and mayors to really set up those testing sites has really been extraordinary. And having a testing available at that level — I think we’re about 350-, 400,000 tests today. We’re up to having tested 5 percent of every American in less than two months.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s fantastic. That’s great. I wish the press would report it. But someday they will. Someday they’re going to do that. Thank you very much, Deborah. I appreciate it. A lot of progress has been made. Great job you’re doing. Thank you.
Please.
MR. GOLDNER: Hi, Mr. President. I’m Brian Goldner with Hasbro. And thank you for your leadership and for working closely with the private sector to reopen the American economy. You may know that Hasbro is a nearly 100-year-old, Rhode Island-based play and entertainment company with brands like Monopoly, Transformers, Play-Doh, Peppa Pig, and Nerf. And it’s really an honor to be here today.
It’s also an incredible honor to see how our brands are resonating with consumers. More people getting together and connecting and playing with games and brands like Play-Doh as they spend time together. We were talking as we were coming together today just how people are making new connections. And we’re very excited about that. And then the reopening of the economy.
And I also have to thank you for the partnership that we’ve had over time with Director Kudlow, and it’s great to get the support that we’ve seen from Secretary Mnuchin as well.
You know, from health screenings, to interactive handbooks, safe return to the office, safe social distancing, staggering shifts in our warehouses and factory floors, we are safely reopening U.S. businesses.
If we could go to the next slide.
We’ve worked closely with governors in our region — the Rhode Island governor, Raimondo, and the Massachusetts governor Baker — to design safe reopening guidelines. I’m especially proud of our Hasbro safety folks and operations. We’ve set a standard in our factories and warehouse operations across the country for consumer goods manufacturers. In fact, we’re training other consumer goods manufacturers to help them open safely in the U.S., from Massachusetts to Texas.
So, again, I’m very pleased to be here. I’m very proud of our employees. They’re all very excited about getting back to work. And we’ve been working all along. And as our factories closed down during certain times over the last few months, our teams came together to make face shields in our factories — 50,000 a week — to give —
THE PRESIDENT: That’s right.
MR. GOLDNER: — to healthcare workers. And we’ve made good use of those factories. And we’re now happy to see them back up and running. And so thank you again. And thank you for your leadership.
THE PRESIDENT: Great job, Brian. That’s really great.
MR. GOLDNER: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: We appreciate that too. Thank you very much.
MR. HOFFMANN: Hi. Thank you, Mr. President. And great to be here. Thank you to the team — your leadership team as well. And look, I’m here representing our great franchisees for both brands, Dunkin’ and Baskin. I don’t think a lot of people realize that we’re 100 percent franchised, and so big brand names powered by small, independent business owners.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it’s going away, but I think we’ll have vaccines, and I think we’re going to have therapeutics, and maybe even beyond that. Maybe a cure. And it won’t be in the long distance. So I — I really think that’s going to be helpful. And regardless, it’s going away, but that would certainly speed up the process. So we appreciate it, Geoff. Thank you very much.
Gene?
SECRETARY SCALIA: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for bringing together so many great companies — different companies, different sectors of the economy that have — some that have been affected really very different ways during the pandemic: some able to stay open, some really having great difficulty doing it.
But one thing we’ve heard today, and we had conversations earlier before the meeting got underway: I think all of them are very, very focused on safety — safety of their customers, safety of their employees. I don’t think there’s been a time when American businesses have been as focused on safety as — as they are right now. And that’s a great thing for bringing customers back, bringing workers back.
It’s — it’s been a focus of ours at the Labor Department, actually, since January. We’ve tried to help American workers through this crisis in so many different ways. But as early as January, we were helping providing guidance, guidelines to businesses. We’ve now put out guidelines to 16 different specific industries on how they can reopen safely.
We’ll continue to do that so that companies understand what’s expected of them, can have confidence in what they need to do, and — and same for workers. And — and we’re mindful that not every company is going to focus the right way on these things. So we’ll continue to respond to employee concerns, complaints as they come in.
As Larry and Kevin said, Mr. President, we — we’ve turned a corner. We put out unemployment numbers yesterday showing that, for the first time since February, the number of people on unemployment dropped. And — and that’s — that’s great that the number filing is still much higher than we want.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a — that’s a good sign. That’s a good sign, isn’t it?
SECRETARY SCALIA: We — we’ve turned the corner, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
SECRETARY SCALIA: And — and we’ll get back there to that extraordinary economy that you built so recently, and we’re going to do it safely.
{snip}
Q It’s obviously been a long day for a lot of Americans. But I’d like to give you an opportunity to address some of your tweets from this morning. You tweeted, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” How would you know that phrase and not know its racially charged history?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’ve heard that phrase for a long time. I don’t know where it came from or where it originated. I view that phrase as —
Q In 1967, the Miami Police Chief used it —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t know. I’ve also heard from many other places. But I’ve heard it for a long time, as most people have. And frankly, it means when there’s looting, people get shot and they die. And if you look at what happened last night, and the night before, you see that. It’s very common. And that’s the way that was meant, and that’s the way I think it was supposed to be meant. But I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know where it originated. I wouldn’t know a thing like that.
But I will say it’s very accurate in the sense that when you do have looting, like you had last night, people often get shot and they die. And that’s not good. And we don’t want that to happen.
Yeah, please.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. In the past, you’ve criticized NFL players for their protests against police brutality. Given what we’ve seen with George Floyd and what we saw with the delays in the case of Ahmaud Arbery, does that change your views around those NFL protests?
And also, given that you had a message for those in the streets in Minneapolis, do you have a statement to make about the police that are involved in such police brutality incidents?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I didn’t like what I saw at all. I thought it was a terrible thing, a terrible picture. I think that it’s — it’s sad in so many ways, from the standpoint of the family. When you look at George Floyd and his family, and you see what that’s done to them, just — just a terrible thing. It’s — he was in tremendous pain, obviously, and couldn’t breathe. It was very obvious to anybody that watched it. It was a very, very sad thing for me to see that.
We also know that most policemen — you see the great job they do; they do a fantastic job — but this was a terrible insult to police and to policemen. And I know the Justice Department will — as you know, it’s a local — local case. But I know the Justice Department is also looking at it very strongly.
Q And does that change your views around, like, the NFL protests?
THE PRESIDENT: Say it again? I can’t —
Q Does that change your views around the NFL protests on this issue? They were peaceful protests. Does that change your mind — your stance on that at all?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, it should be a peaceful protest. I think, really, the — in memory of George Floyd, I think it should be peaceful. It’s — it’s terrible.
They — I spoke with his family today. Terrific people. I think it’s so bad for the memory when you see a thing like that going on. And hopefully that won’t happen tonight.
And, as you know, the National Guard has arrived, and they’re there. But hopefully everything will be very different tonight. Last night was very sad on many different levels.
{snip}
Q Yeah, Mr. President, do you believe that there’s a problem with police brutality in America? And if you do, what — what would you do about it?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that police brutality certainly is something that we’ve been hearing about, reading about, studying — I have — for many years. And we all have to say, and I think most people would admit, that most of the policemen and women that I’ve seen have been outstanding.
When you have something like this happen, you really — you look at it, and you just say, “How does a thing like that happen?” Because it just seems so bad to watch.
But our police have been very outstanding. Our crime rates are way down right now in this country. And — way down. The police have done a great job. Something like this happens and you really say, “That’s so — that’s so bad in so many different ways and — and so unfortunate.”
Q You see the — the rate —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, please. Go ahead.
Q Yes, Mr. President, it certainly seems like you’re sympathetic to some of the frustration expressed by the protesters last night. I want to ask you: First off, do you think there were good people out protesting in Minneapolis last night? And also —
THE PRESIDENT: Did you say were they — say it. Were there good people?
Q Were — were there good people among the protesters?
And then also, more broadly, what is your message to black Americans and others who just are really frustrated and saddened to see another video of a black man being killed in police custody?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, certainly there were a lot of different people, and they were good people too. And they were protesting, and they were protesting for the right reason. They were protesting in honor of a man, George Floyd, where something happened that shouldn’t have happened.
My opinion, from what I’ve seen: Certainly something happened that shouldn’t have happened. And, yeah, you had a lot of people out there that were protesting out of sorrow.
And then you had people that got out of control — some people. And they did a very — I think they did a great disservice to their state and to their city and to — to, really, our country, what they did last night.
And we brought in the National Guard today and they’re there, and that won’t happen again. It can’t happen again. We can never let that happen again. That was run by the mayor of a city, and it got — in all fairness to him, he was in a tough position, but I don’t think they were very well prepared. But we brought in the National Guard. They’ll be very prepared tonight.
Thank you all very much. Thank you, please. Thank you.
END
5:49 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump in Roundtable Discussion with Industry Executives on Reopening
ECONOMY & JOBS
Issued on: May 30, 2020
State Dining Room
May 29, 2020
4:54 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. I want to express our nation’s deepest condolences and most heartfelt sympathies to the family of George Floyd. A terrible event. Terrible, terrible thing that happened.
{snip}
ship
I’m pleased to welcome American industry leaders to the White House as we continue to safely reopen America. We’re glad to be joined by Geoff Ballotti of Wyndham Hotel and Resorts. Wyndham Hotels have been really a terrific company over the years. Brian Goldner of Hasbro; David Hoffmann of Dunkin’ Brands; Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines. Really good jobs they’ve done. Rodney McMullen of Kroger. Thanks, Rodney. Oscar Munoz of United. Thank you, Oscar. United Airlines. Brad Smith of Microsoft. That stock has done very well, I will say. Great job. Great job. Sonia Syngal of Gap. And — thank you very much.
Also with us are Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin and Secretary of Labor Gene Scalia.
{snip}
We had the greatest economy in history of any country, not just ours. The greatest in history. We had the best employment numbers that we’ve ever had. We’ve had the best numbers in every way, whether it’s the biggest tax cuts, the greatest regulation cuts of any president. Nobody has even come close.
We’ve rebuilt our military. We have the strongest military we’ve ever had. New equipment coming in all the time; a lot of it already arrived. And very importantly, all made in the USA. And so many other things.
You look at what we’ve done for the vets with Choice and Accountability — the combination. They weren’t able to get that done for over 40 years. And we got them both approved. Right to Try, got it approved. We’ve done so much, and then we had to turn it all off in order to be in a position where we are right now.
Numbers were estimated to be two million deaths, one and a half million deaths, maybe one million, but it could have been over two million and maybe substantially over. Unfortunately, one is too many. It should’ve been stopped. It could’ve been stopped in China. It should’ve been stopped in China, but it didn’t stop. And the world got infected, and it’s very sad — a very sad thing. But we turned off the greatest economy ever, and we turned it off very quickly, very rapidly. We banned people coming in from China early — very early. In fact, most people said, “Don’t do it.” Even a month later, they were saying, “You shouldn’t have done it.” And we turned out to be right.
{snip}
DR. BIRX:
{snip}
No one intends to infect others; they just don’t know they’re infected themselves. And so, working with states and governors and mayors to really set up those testing sites has really been extraordinary. And having a testing available at that level — I think we’re about 350-, 400,000 tests today. We’re up to having tested 5 percent of every American in less than two months.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s fantastic. That’s great. I wish the press would report it. But someday they will. Someday they’re going to do that. Thank you very much, Deborah. I appreciate it. A lot of progress has been made. Great job you’re doing. Thank you.
Please.
MR. GOLDNER: Hi, Mr. President. I’m Brian Goldner with Hasbro. And thank you for your leadership and for working closely with the private sector to reopen the American economy. You may know that Hasbro is a nearly 100-year-old, Rhode Island-based play and entertainment company with brands like Monopoly, Transformers, Play-Doh, Peppa Pig, and Nerf. And it’s really an honor to be here today.
It’s also an incredible honor to see how our brands are resonating with consumers. More people getting together and connecting and playing with games and brands like Play-Doh as they spend time together. We were talking as we were coming together today just how people are making new connections. And we’re very excited about that. And then the reopening of the economy.
And I also have to thank you for the partnership that we’ve had over time with Director Kudlow, and it’s great to get the support that we’ve seen from Secretary Mnuchin as well.
You know, from health screenings, to interactive handbooks, safe return to the office, safe social distancing, staggering shifts in our warehouses and factory floors, we are safely reopening U.S. businesses.
If we could go to the next slide.
We’ve worked closely with governors in our region — the Rhode Island governor, Raimondo, and the Massachusetts governor Baker — to design safe reopening guidelines. I’m especially proud of our Hasbro safety folks and operations. We’ve set a standard in our factories and warehouse operations across the country for consumer goods manufacturers. In fact, we’re training other consumer goods manufacturers to help them open safely in the U.S., from Massachusetts to Texas.
So, again, I’m very pleased to be here. I’m very proud of our employees. They’re all very excited about getting back to work. And we’ve been working all along. And as our factories closed down during certain times over the last few months, our teams came together to make face shields in our factories — 50,000 a week — to give —
THE PRESIDENT: That’s right.
MR. GOLDNER: — to healthcare workers. And we’ve made good use of those factories. And we’re now happy to see them back up and running. And so thank you again. And thank you for your leadership.
THE PRESIDENT: Great job, Brian. That’s really great.
MR. GOLDNER: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: We appreciate that too. Thank you very much.
MR. HOFFMANN: Hi. Thank you, Mr. President. And great to be here. Thank you to the team — your leadership team as well. And look, I’m here representing our great franchisees for both brands, Dunkin’ and Baskin. I don’t think a lot of people realize that we’re 100 percent franchised, and so big brand names powered by small, independent business owners.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it’s going away, but I think we’ll have vaccines, and I think we’re going to have therapeutics, and maybe even beyond that. Maybe a cure. And it won’t be in the long distance. So I — I really think that’s going to be helpful. And regardless, it’s going away, but that would certainly speed up the process. So we appreciate it, Geoff. Thank you very much.
Gene?
SECRETARY SCALIA: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for bringing together so many great companies — different companies, different sectors of the economy that have — some that have been affected really very different ways during the pandemic: some able to stay open, some really having great difficulty doing it.
But one thing we’ve heard today, and we had conversations earlier before the meeting got underway: I think all of them are very, very focused on safety — safety of their customers, safety of their employees. I don’t think there’s been a time when American businesses have been as focused on safety as — as they are right now. And that’s a great thing for bringing customers back, bringing workers back.
It’s — it’s been a focus of ours at the Labor Department, actually, since January. We’ve tried to help American workers through this crisis in so many different ways. But as early as January, we were helping providing guidance, guidelines to businesses. We’ve now put out guidelines to 16 different specific industries on how they can reopen safely.
We’ll continue to do that so that companies understand what’s expected of them, can have confidence in what they need to do, and — and same for workers. And — and we’re mindful that not every company is going to focus the right way on these things. So we’ll continue to respond to employee concerns, complaints as they come in.
As Larry and Kevin said, Mr. President, we — we’ve turned a corner. We put out unemployment numbers yesterday showing that, for the first time since February, the number of people on unemployment dropped. And — and that’s — that’s great that the number filing is still much higher than we want.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a — that’s a good sign. That’s a good sign, isn’t it?
SECRETARY SCALIA: We — we’ve turned the corner, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
SECRETARY SCALIA: And — and we’ll get back there to that extraordinary economy that you built so recently, and we’re going to do it safely.
{snip}
Q It’s obviously been a long day for a lot of Americans. But I’d like to give you an opportunity to address some of your tweets from this morning. You tweeted, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” How would you know that phrase and not know its racially charged history?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’ve heard that phrase for a long time. I don’t know where it came from or where it originated. I view that phrase as —
Q In 1967, the Miami Police Chief used it —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t know. I’ve also heard from many other places. But I’ve heard it for a long time, as most people have. And frankly, it means when there’s looting, people get shot and they die. And if you look at what happened last night, and the night before, you see that. It’s very common. And that’s the way that was meant, and that’s the way I think it was supposed to be meant. But I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know where it originated. I wouldn’t know a thing like that.
But I will say it’s very accurate in the sense that when you do have looting, like you had last night, people often get shot and they die. And that’s not good. And we don’t want that to happen.
Yeah, please.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. In the past, you’ve criticized NFL players for their protests against police brutality. Given what we’ve seen with George Floyd and what we saw with the delays in the case of Ahmaud Arbery, does that change your views around those NFL protests?
And also, given that you had a message for those in the streets in Minneapolis, do you have a statement to make about the police that are involved in such police brutality incidents?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I didn’t like what I saw at all. I thought it was a terrible thing, a terrible picture. I think that it’s — it’s sad in so many ways, from the standpoint of the family. When you look at George Floyd and his family, and you see what that’s done to them, just — just a terrible thing. It’s — he was in tremendous pain, obviously, and couldn’t breathe. It was very obvious to anybody that watched it. It was a very, very sad thing for me to see that.
We also know that most policemen — you see the great job they do; they do a fantastic job — but this was a terrible insult to police and to policemen. And I know the Justice Department will — as you know, it’s a local — local case. But I know the Justice Department is also looking at it very strongly.
Q And does that change your views around, like, the NFL protests?
THE PRESIDENT: Say it again? I can’t —
Q Does that change your views around the NFL protests on this issue? They were peaceful protests. Does that change your mind — your stance on that at all?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, it should be a peaceful protest. I think, really, the — in memory of George Floyd, I think it should be peaceful. It’s — it’s terrible.
They — I spoke with his family today. Terrific people. I think it’s so bad for the memory when you see a thing like that going on. And hopefully that won’t happen tonight.
And, as you know, the National Guard has arrived, and they’re there. But hopefully everything will be very different tonight. Last night was very sad on many different levels.
{snip}
Q Yeah, Mr. President, do you believe that there’s a problem with police brutality in America? And if you do, what — what would you do about it?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that police brutality certainly is something that we’ve been hearing about, reading about, studying — I have — for many years. And we all have to say, and I think most people would admit, that most of the policemen and women that I’ve seen have been outstanding.
When you have something like this happen, you really — you look at it, and you just say, “How does a thing like that happen?” Because it just seems so bad to watch.
But our police have been very outstanding. Our crime rates are way down right now in this country. And — way down. The police have done a great job. Something like this happens and you really say, “That’s so — that’s so bad in so many different ways and — and so unfortunate.”
Q You see the — the rate —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, please. Go ahead.
Q Yes, Mr. President, it certainly seems like you’re sympathetic to some of the frustration expressed by the protesters last night. I want to ask you: First off, do you think there were good people out protesting in Minneapolis last night? And also —
THE PRESIDENT: Did you say were they — say it. Were there good people?
Q Were — were there good people among the protesters?
And then also, more broadly, what is your message to black Americans and others who just are really frustrated and saddened to see another video of a black man being killed in police custody?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, certainly there were a lot of different people, and they were good people too. And they were protesting, and they were protesting for the right reason. They were protesting in honor of a man, George Floyd, where something happened that shouldn’t have happened.
My opinion, from what I’ve seen: Certainly something happened that shouldn’t have happened. And, yeah, you had a lot of people out there that were protesting out of sorrow.
And then you had people that got out of control — some people. And they did a very — I think they did a great disservice to their state and to their city and to — to, really, our country, what they did last night.
And we brought in the National Guard today and they’re there, and that won’t happen again. It can’t happen again. We can never let that happen again. That was run by the mayor of a city, and it got — in all fairness to him, he was in a tough position, but I don’t think they were very well prepared. But we brought in the National Guard. They’ll be very prepared tonight.
Thank you all very much. Thank you, please. Thank you.
END
5:49 P.M. EDT
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