President Trump begins day #2 in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum.

The U.S. Delegation includes: Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin; Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross; Labor Secretary, Eugene Scalia; Transportation Secretary, Elaine Chao; U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer; Under Secretary for Growth, Energy and Environment (DoS), Keith Krach; Asst to the President, Ivanka Trump; Asst. to the President, Jared Kushner; and Asst. to the President / Deputy for Policy Coordination, Christopher Liddell.

Schedule below:

♦ 3:05am EST / 9:05am Local – THE PRESIDENT departs the hotel Location en route to Davos Congress Centre, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 3:15am EST / 9:15am Local – THE PRESIDENT arrives at Davos Congress Centre, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 3:20am EST / 9:20am Local – THE PRESIDENT has breakfast with American Chief Executive Officers and Business Leaders, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 4:50am EST / 10:50am Local – THE PRESIDENT participates in a bilateral meeting with the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 5:30am EST / 11:30am Local – THE PRESIDENT participates in a bilateral meeting with Dr. Barham Salih the President of the Republic of Iraq, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 6:05am EST / 12:05pm Local – THE PRESIDENT departs Davos Congress Centre en route to InterContinental Davos Landing Zone, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 6:15am EST / 12:15pm Local – THE PRESIDENT arrives at InterContinental Davos Landing Zone, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 6:25am EST / 12:25pm Local – THE PRESIDENT departs Davos, Switzerland, en route to Zurich, Switzerland, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 7:10am EST / 1:10pm Local – THE PRESIDENT arrives at Zurich Airport, Zurich, Switzerland

♦ 7:20am EST / 1:20pm Local – THE PRESIDENT departs Zurich, Switzerland, en route to Washington, D.C., Davos, Switzerland

♦ 4:50pm EST – THE PRESIDENT arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Joint Base Andrews

♦ 5:00pm EST – THE PRESIDENT departs Joint Base Andrews en route to the White House, Joint Base Andrews

♦ 5:10pm EST – THE PRESIDENT arrives at the White House, South Lawn, Washington DC

~ Day Two Concludes ~

President Trump and the U.S. delegation participate in a dinner during the Davos, World Economic Forum, with international business leaders. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. And a man who is highly respected and a great — formerly great athlete, at least — (laughter) — in my opinion, he’s a great athlete. Johnny, please. Go ahead.

MR. INFANTINO: Thanks. Do I stand or do I sit?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Whoa, I like that. (Laughter.) (A soccer ball is presented.)

You can stand or sit.

MR. INFANTINO: I stand. I stand. I stand.

I brought this ball, dear President, ladies and gentlemen, just to remind everyone what the real priorities of life are — (laughter) — for certainly billions of people all around the world.

So, if I have a couple of minutes, you might wonder why the President of FIFA is introducing the President of the United States of America tonight. But, actually, it’s not that far away. I’ve been told, President, by somebody of your staff — I don’t say who — that today I am the second-most important man in Davos. (Laughter.) That’s obviously not true. (Laughter.) You are all much more important, but it’s nice to hear.

On the other side, there are at least three main reasons why it is the right thing that the President of FIFA tonight is introducing the President of the United States.

The first one is the power of football — or soccer, as you call it in North America. Soccer is much more than a game; you all know it. It’s — 4 billion people watched the World Cup, the last World Cup. It’s 1.2 billion people around the world who watched the last women’s World Cup, won by the United States. Congratulations for that.

It is $200 billion generated all over the world in a year. It is 1.5 million jobs created in Russia for the last World Cup in 2018. It’s much more than that, though, because it is more than just economy; it gives joy and it gives hope to millions and millions of people all over the world.

And that’s what we have to do: We have to give joy and hope. We have to give optimism. And there is this good thing about football that when you win a game, you are in a good mood; when you lose a game, you’re in a bad mood, but just for a little while. Then you concentrate on the next game that you want to win. And that’s the first reason.

The second reason is the United States and soccer. And I have to inform you that the United States is on the verge of becoming the soccer power in the world. You don’t know it yet, but it’s coming faster than you think. We will organize the World Cup — the FIFA World Cup — in 2026, in North America. And President Trump has been in this venture from the very beginning. He wanted it to be organized, together with Canada and Mexico, in prelude of the great trade agreement that you just signed last week. So, soccer is in advance of trade as well.

And if — I don’t know, in Italy, 250,000 jobs are created with soccer. In Spain, 185,000 jobs. In the U.S., President, in a view of the World Cup 2026, we have to create at least 1 million jobs for American citizens involved in soccer.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.

MR. INFANTINO: And the third reason, President, is yourself. President Trump is definitely a sportsman. I am lucky enough in my life to come across some of the most talented athletes in soccer. And President Trump is made of the same sort of fiber. He is a competitor. He wants to compete, he wants to win. He wants to show who is the best.

He says actually what many think, but more importantly, he does, then, what he says. And this brings — and you mentioned this morning, President — this brings the American Dream to reality. Now, the American Dream is something that not only Americans need to have. The American Dream is something that we all need to have — all those who love soccer, the 4 billion people around the world. We all need to dream this dream. And I’m sure that with your help, President, with your contribution and with the contribution of all of you here, we’ll make sure the American Dream becomes a reality not only in America, as we have seen, but all over the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States of America. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much, Johnny. Thank you.

So, this is great, and we appreciate this. This is a very beautiful, good-looking ball. (Laughter.) (Inaudible.)

It’s an honor to be involved with bringing the World Cup to the United States. I was involved as President-elect and even a little bit before that. But they called and they said, “Could you help?” And through yourself and your people, you chose the United States. And we’re also bringing some games to Mexico and bringing some games to Canada. And that’ll be tremendous. But I really appreciate it.

And I appreciate your steadfast movement. You just didn’t stop. You wanted to have it there, and I wanted to have it there, and we really did it before we came to office. Before I got into office, we did that one. But it’s going to be very exciting. You know, we have the Olympics coming — which I was very involved in — in ’28. So between the World Cup and the Olympics, that’s going to be very exciting. We have plenty of other good things.

But I want to thank you very much. You’ve been my great friend, and it’s an honor.

MR. INFANTINO: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Around the table tonight, we have the greatest businessmen in the world — names that I know very well but faces that I know very well, usually from looking at business publications for many years. And I thought what we’d do is just quickly go around the room, and you could introduce yourself and the name of your company. These people, we keep them down to a minimum. We could have had hundreds and hundreds, but we kept it down to a minimum, out of respect for you.

But I thought you may go down and just introduce yourselves and where you’re from, a little bit about your company. Or, if you want to say something, this is a great time to promote what you want to promote. (Laughter.)

And you have been terrific. Congratulations. We’ll start with you. Thank you, Patrice.

MR. MOTSEPE: Thank you. We do business in 50 countries. I had the honor of being one of the hundred greatest business minds, Forbes.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right.

MR. MOTSEPE: And it’s a great honor to be with you. And all I wanted to say is that Africa loves America. Africa loves you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. That’s an honor. Thank you.

MR. MOTSEPE: And it’s very, very important. We want America to do well. We want you to do well. And the success of America is a success of the rest of the world.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

MR. MOTSEPE: We are in mining, financial services, property, real estate, technology. Very diversified. It’s a great honor to be here. Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You’ve done a great job. Thank you very much.

MR. MOTSEPE: Thank you, President.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Please. Please.

MR. PILLAY: Mr. President, thank you for the invitation. I’m Dilhan Pillay. I’m the CEO of Temasek International. It’s owned by the Singapore government, but it’s run independently. We have some $235 billion of assets. Our companies that we control have about $100 billion of revenue, and we operate all over the world. The United States has been the largest recipient of our capital in the last five years. Since we opened up an office in the U.S. — we now have three offices in the U.S. — and we will continue to be largest (inaudible) company, primarily in (inaudible) of innovation (inaudible) in U.S.

So we continue to look toward investing in the United States, primarily through (inaudible).

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And that’s one of the reasons I’m here. Billions and billions of dollars is now coming back to the United States, and auto companies that made commitments that they’ll be announcing. But billions of dollars is coming back to the United States. We appreciate that. Thank you.

Please. Larry? You know — we all know Larry. Larry Kudlow.

MR. KUDLOW: I’m Larry Kudlow, Director of the National Economic Council, and has the great honor to work for President Trump.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you, Larry. Great job. How’s the economy going? Okay?

MR. KUDLOW: Pretty darn good, sir. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay. He gave us the right answer. Please.

MR. EKHOLM: So I’m Börje Ekholm, Ericsson. And it’s all about 5G. And this is a 5G phone, with a commercial network in Switzerland with our equipment. So Swisscom is one of the first that launched globally. Of course, United States is our biggest market —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.

MR. EKHOLM: — most important market. And what I would wish for is that the United States leads the development of 5G. That requires a couple of things.

So if I can bring that up, and —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Go ahead, please.

MR. EKHOLM: Spectrum — freeing up the C-Band really quickly; it’s going to be critical. Permitting processes still takes two years. Networks running out of capacity — it happens globally; it happens here as well. It happens everywhere. And then, permitting process is a real restriction.

And the last one is actually the lack of power (inaudible). We need to really invest in building the capabilities to actually roll out the network.

When that happens, we will have — the United States will have a strong platform for innovation in 5G. And 5G, as the President well knows, is a consumer play, but it’s also an enterprise platform.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And a military play, too. Very important, militarily.

So, Ericsson has done a great job with 5G. And we’re working with your company, as you know. We’re bringing down the time periods. And spectrum, we’re opening it up. We have Department of State, we have Commerce, and we have the military. So we’re opening it all up. So we’ll be — we’re in very good shape.

I think we’re far advanced, much further than people understand. We got off to a very late start before I got here. But once I got here, we’ve really caught up. So thank you very much. Congratulations. Great company.

MR. EKHOLM: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

MR. EKHOLM: We’re opening the factory in Texas very shortly.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Oh, good. (Laughter.) I heard that. That’s great. That’s great.

MR. EKHOLM: (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ll see you at the opening.

MR. AL MAHMOUD: Mr. President, my name is Mansoor Al Mahmoud, the CEO of QIA. We invest for the future generation, for a time beyond the hydrocarbon era. We have been investing in the U.S. Eighty percent of our pipeline goes to the U.S. market because the economy is doing very well.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Great.

MR. AL MAHMOUD: So we’re hoping that we build a portfolio in a global basis.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s great. So you’ve made about 80 percent since I took office. So you happy to — (laughter) — you’re very happy.

MR. AL MAHMOUD: Oh, yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He’s invested here. And if he invested badly, he’s about 80 percent up. That’s if you’ve done badly, and I know you never do badly. (Laughter.) Okay, thank you.

MR. YOSHIDA: My name is Ken Yoshida, from Sony. This year is 60th anniversary where — after we started business in United States, and 50 years’ anniversary of listing on New York Stock Exchange. So we have a quite a long history in the United States.

One more thing is, I’ve been the CEO of this company 21 months. And this month, I was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Abe. And that’s going to be my first time. And I believe, Mr. President, you have met him face to face probably 15 times.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: A lot.

MR. YOSHIDA: So good (inaudible) are very important for us. Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, he is a great gentleman doing a great job. Thank you very much.

MR. SURI: Mr. President, good evening. I’m Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia. We’re a 155-year-old company. We have about $25 billion in value. We also do 5G, and so U.S. is our strongest market. We have about 11,000 people there. That’s one of our largest countries, by way of head count. We do a lot of research and development in California, in Chicago. And, of course, we have the famed Bell Labs — Nokia Bell Labs in New Jersey as well.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And you’re doing very well and advanced with 5G, so that’s really great.

MR. SURI: Yes, absolutely. Yes.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And we’re giving you a lot of business.

MR. SURI: You are, indeed.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you.

MR. LIDDELL: Sir, Chris Liddell. I have the honor to serve the President as Deputy Chief of Staff. Thank you.

AMBASSADOR MCMULLEN: I am Ed McMullen, and I have the great honor to be the President’s Ambassador to Switzerland and to Liechtenstein.

DR. REINHARDT: Good evening, Mr. President. My name is Joerg Reinhardt. I’m the chairman of Novartis. We are active in more than 100 countries in the world, but our biggest footprint is in the U.S. We have around 15,000 people in the U.S. and a number of production plants.

We made, just recently, a number of acquisitions. And we are probably one of the more innovative companies in the pharmaceutical field. And we are happy to say that gene therapy and cell therapy — two really new technologies — were first approved in the U.S., and we are happy to continue to bring real innovation to American people.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: A lot of great progress being made, I know that. Thank you very much.

DR. REINHARDT: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Keep those prices down, please. (Laughter.)

MR. BASTAKI: Good evening, Mr. President. My name is Farouk Bastaki. I’m the head of Kuwait Investment Authority. We started — we have the oldest sovereign wealth fund in the world; it started in 1953. And since then, we’ve been investing in the United States, and we’ve been doing very well. So thank you very much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, thank you very much. And you know what they can do? They can bring out the dinner, we’ll keep going, and if the press would like to have dinner, we’ll serve you after we’re finished. (Laughter.)

Yeah, bring out the dinner, please. Go ahead.

MR. VAN BEURDEN: Mr. President, Ben van Beurden, Royal Dutch Shell. We have been in your country for more than a century. We operate in every state of the country. At any one year, we invest, on average, $10 billion in your country. So we have a big thing going on all the time.

You visited our facility in Pennsylvania, the (inaudible) Petrochemicals Complex. And, very kindly, Mr. President, just after, Secretary Mnuchin helped out with some of the issues that we had to bring steel into the country, for which we are very grateful.

We are, of course, a player in the whole spectrum — in oil and gas, onshore, offshore, petrochemicals, but increasingly, also renewables, Mr. President — in solar, wind, and other technologies that we bring.

Maybe not well known, but we are probably the largest or definitely one of the largest (inaudible) that we bring from the United States.

[End Transcript]

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President Trump participates in the third bilateral meeting of the Davos form with Imran Khan, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. And it’s great to be with a very good friend of mine, the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

We’re going to be talking about trade and many other things. But trade is going to be of very, very paramount importance. And we’re doing more trade as it turns. And we’re working together on some borders, and we’re talking about Kashmir and the relation to what’s going on with Pakistan and India. And if we can help, we certainly will be helping. And we’ve been watching that and following it very, very closely.

But it’s an honor to be with my friend. And thank you very much. Thank you very much.

PRIME MINISTER KHAN: My pleasure. Thank you.

Well, Mr. President, good to see you again.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER KHAN: And, yes, there are issues we want to talk about. The main issue, of course, is Afghanistan because it concerns the U.S. and Pakistan. And, fortunately, we are on the same page. Both of us are interested in peace there and an orderly transition in Afghanistan with talks with Taliban and the government.

And also, of course, India. It is — it is a big issue. For us, in Pakistan, it’s a big issue. And, of course, we always hope that the U.S. will play its part in resolving it because no other country can.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. We’re going to have a good talk.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Q Mr. President, when you head out to India, will you also visit Pakistan?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re visiting right now, so we won’t really have to. But we — I wanted to say hello for both a relationship standpoint — we’ve had a great relationship — and from the standpoint of our two countries. We’re getting along very well. I would say we’ve never been closer with Pakistan than we are right now. And that’s a big statement, although I wouldn’t say at all times we were close, as a country. But we are very close right now because of the relationship that we have. So it’s very important.

Q Mr. President, are you planning on imposing auto tariffs on imports from Europe?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We expect to be able to make a deal with Europe. And if they don’t make a deal, we’ll certainly give that very strong consideration. Okay? But we expect to make a deal with Europe.

The European Union we met with, as you know, and we had a very good talk. But if we’re unable to make a deal, we will have to do something, because we’ve been treated very badly as a country for many, many years on trade.

And, of course, NATO also. If you look at what happens with NATO, we’ve — we’re spending a vast predominance of the money. We’re spending money like — for years; this has gone on for years. We’re protecting Europe and that’s fine, but they can’t do it to us on trade. So they know they have to do something. And if they’re fair, we’re not going to have a problem. Okay?

Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you. Thank you.

[Transcript End]

Prior to Davos bilat #1 President Trump holds a media availability with President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. It’s great to be with the President of the European Commission and a woman who’s highly respected, I have to say, and I hear a very tough negotiator, which is bad news for us because we’re going to talk about a big trade deal. And we’ve been talking about it for a while, and hopefully we can get something done.

But it’s a great honor, and we will be discussing other things also. But I would say trade, right now, on a deal between ourselves and essentially Europe, is something that we all want to be able to make. So, thank you very much. A great honor. Thank you.

PRESIDENT VON DER LEYEN: Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. If you would like to say —

PRESIDENT VON DER LEYEN: Thank you very much for having me here.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

PRESIDENT VON DER LEYEN: It’s a pleasure to meet you for the first time here in Davos. And I think what we never should forget that we have a long history of a common foundation —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes.

PRESIDENT VON DER LEYEN: — of a lot of business contacts, friendship, youth exchange, science, culture, since way more than 70 years. So —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right.

PRESIDENT VON DER LEYEN: — the American people and the European people are good friends, and this is what we’re going to build on. And, indeed, we have issues to discuss —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right.

PRESIDENT VON DER LEYEN: — and we will negotiate. But I’m looking forward to this relationship.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT VON DER LEYEN: Thank you so much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s very nice. Great honor. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

Q Mr. President, can you say whether you’ll introduce a motion to dismiss when the Senate trial begins?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That whole thing is a hoax. It goes nowhere because nothing happened. The only thing we’ve done is a great job. We have the strongest country in the world by far. It was going in the wrong direction. We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had in the history of our country.

And I’m in Europe today because we’re bringing a lot of other companies into our country with thousands of jobs — millions of jobs, in many cases.

So that whole thing is a total hoax. So I’m sure it’s going to work out fine. Thank you all very much.

Q How long will it last sir, do you think?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much.

[Transcript End]

President Trump traveled overnight to Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum.  [Livestream Links and Daily Schedule Below] I found it veryinteresting that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was not on the Dec. delegation list.

The U.S. Delegation includes: Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin; Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross; Labor Secretary, Eugene Scalia; Transportation Secretary, Elaine Chao; U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer; Under Secretary for Growth, Energy and Environment (DoS), Keith Krach; Asst to the President, Ivanka Trump; Asst. to the President, Jared Kushner; and Asst. to the President / Deputy for Policy Coordination, Christopher Liddell.

The 2020 Davos economic conference will be a little more important to watch this year (as it was in 2017) due to the completed U.S. Trade Agreements (S Korea, Japan, Mexico, Canada, and China) and the predicted focus for the Trump administration to pivot from Asia to the EU and U.K. for the next critical phase of the ‘America-First’ global trade reset.

There will likely be a great deal of attention upon the opening remarks by President Trump scheduled to be delivered at 5:30am ET / 11:30am Switzerland.

UPDATE: Video Added

WH Livestream Link – CBS Livestream – NBC Livestream – Alternate Livestream

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Day One Schedule:

♦ 2:25am EST / 8:25am Local – THE PRESIDENT arrives at Zurich Airport, Zurich, Switzerland

♦ 2:35am EST / 8:35am Local – THE PRESIDENT departs Zurich, Switzerland, en route to Davos, Switzerland, Zurich, Switzerland

♦ 3:20am EST / 9:20am Local – THE PRESIDENT arrives at InterContinental Davos Landing Zone, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 3:30am EST / 9:30am Local – THE PRESIDENT departs InterContinental Davos Landing Zone en route to InterContinental Davos, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 3:35am EST / 9:35am Local – THE PRESIDENT arrives at InterContinental Davos, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 5:10am EST / 11:10am Local – THE PRESIDENT departs InterContinental Davos en route to Davos Congress Centre, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 5:10am EST / 11:20am Local – THE PRESIDENT arrives at Davos Congress Centre, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 5:30am EST / 11:30am Local – THE PRESIDENT delivers opening remarks at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 6:15am EST / 12:15pm Local – THE PRESIDENT participates in a pull-aside meeting with Klaus Schwab, the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 6:35am EST / 12:35pm Local – THE PRESIDENT participates in a reception with the International Business Council, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 8:30am EST / 2:30pm Local – THE PRESIDENT participates in a bilateral meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 10:15am EST / 4:15pm Local – THE PRESIDENT participates in a bilateral meeting with Simonetta Sommaruga the President of the Swiss Confederation, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 11:20am EST / 5:20pm Local – THE PRESIDENT participates in a bilateral meeting with Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 12:30pm EST / 6:30pm Local – THE PRESIDENT participates in a dinner with Global Chief Executive Officers, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 1:50pm EST / 7:50pm Local – THE PRESIDENT departs Davos Congress Centre en route to the RON Location, Davos, Switzerland

♦ 2:00pm EST / 8:00pm Local – THE PRESIDENT arrives at the RON Location, Davos, Switzerland

~ Day One Concludes ~

Previously Announced members of the Presidential Delegation:

1. The Honorable Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury (Lead)
2. The Honorable Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce
3. The Honorable Eugene Scalia, Secretary of Labor
4. The Honorable Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation
5. The Honorable Robert Lighthizer, United States Trade Representative
6. The Honorable Keith Krach, Under Secretary for Growth, Energy and the Environment, Department of State
7. The Honorable Ivanka Trump, Assistant to the President and Advisor to the President
8. The Honorable Jared Kushner, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the President
9. The Honorable Christopher Liddell, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Coordination.

As a result of the resounding conservative victory in the U.K. election, a pending Brexit, a favorable $7.5 billion WTO ruling and USTR Lighthizer’s new $2.4 billion EU targeted tariff program against France, and the administration has significant advantages going into a trade discussion with the EU in 2020.

Team USA has the world’s strongest economy, the largest market, legally bolstered tariff authority and a quiver full of powerful economic arrows.

Meanwhile Team EU has: (1) the UK leaving; (2) severe drops in German industrial manufacturing; (3) a shrinking French economy; (4) yellow-vests in the streets; and (5) demands for greater economic autonomy from many key member states.

Overlay Germany, France and Italy large economy challenges such as: their promise to meet NATO obligations on defense spending; their attachment to the strangling Paris Climate Treaty; growing dependence on Russia for energy; looming 5G issues from German contracts with Huawei; and the EU’s collective economic position is precarious at best.

Yeah, they are all going to be paying attention.

Moments ago President Trump and Vice President Pence made an unscheduled stop to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington DC to pay their holiday respects.

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The President is scheduled to depart the White House at 6:15pm ET, for a trip to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The White House has announced the schedule for several bilateral discussions including:

• Dr. Barham Salih, President of the Republic of Iraq
• Imran Khan of Pakistan, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
• Simonetta Sommaruga, President of the Swiss Confederation
• Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
• Nechirvan Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Regional Government
• World Economic Forum Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab

Sunday evening President Donald Trump delivered a key-note speech during the American Farm Bureau National Convention.  [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to thank you very much. And thank you to our great Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue. Thank you, Sonny, very much. You’ve done a fantastic job. (Applause.) Sit down, everybody. Let’s stay for a while. Come on.

We did it. We did it. Remember? (Applause.)

They were all saying, “You’ll never get NAFTA changed.” We were stuck with one of the worst trade deals in history. “We’ll never do it. We’ll never get a deal done with China.” I’ve told everybody, “You got to buy a lot of land, and you’ve got to get much bigger tractors right now.” Because we did a great deal with China — great for our country. And hopefully, it’s great for China, too, because we’re going to sell them the greatest product you’ve ever seen, right? The greatest product you’ve ever seen. (Applause.)

But I am thrilled to be back in this incredible state of Texas. We’ve had a tremendous victory. And from what I understand, those polls are all saying we’re way higher than we were in ’16. Is that correct? That’s right, Dan. Thank you, Lieutenant Governor. My Dan. Great. Thank you very much. We’re doing good.

But this is where the people are known for being tough, and strong, and hardworking, loyal, fiercely patriotic — just like America’s incredible farmers.

My administration is fighting for the American farmer, and has been fighting for the farmer and the rancher every single day. And together, we’ve achieved something truly stunning. And, really, it was a historic number of victories — not one; we had numerous victories. A lot of them just — it sort of all came together. What good timing. I said, “Let’s see if we can get it done for this event.” Most Presidents don’t come. And when they do, they come once. This is my third time in a row, and I promise I’ll be here next year, too. (Applause.) We’ll be here next year.

In fact, a poll just came out — Wall Street Journal. It just came out. Look at this: “Farmer Approval of Trump Hits Record, Poll Shows… 83 percent of the farmers and ranchers approve of the President’s job performance.” 83 percent! (Applause.)

But, I want to know, really: Who are the 17 percent? Who are they? (Laughter.) Who the hell are the 17 percent? (Laughter.) Anybody in here from the 17 percent? Don’t raise your hand; it may be dangerous. (Laughter.) That’s pretty good, right?

But, on Wednesday, after two years of hard-fought negotiations, where the farmers and ranchers stood with me all the way — they knew we had to do it. It wasn’t done by other administrations. They didn’t want to do it because it was nasty. We signed a groundbreaking trade agreement with China. (Applause.)

Under this landmark agreement, China will now be purchasing $40- to $50 billion of American agricultural products every single year, tripling our agricultural exports to China.

You know, we had a deal: It was done at $20 [billion] — $20 billion — the most they ever purchased, according to Sonny Perdue. I said, “Sonny, we have to help the farmer because they were targeted.” And I’m not saying I blame China. You know, they want to win; we want to win. We all want to win, right? We like to win.

How is your team doing today, by the way? I don’t know. How is it going? (Applause.) Are they doing okay? We’ll soon find out. I said, “This is wonderful thing. I come to…” Look at this place; it’s packed. It’s sold out. Look at the crowd. It’s sold out. (Applause.) And you have a — you have a game with the team, known as “Texas.” But we’ll see how it does. Let’s — this is right now. This is the thing we have to focus on.

But, on Thursday of this week, we made a really historic — once again, the Senate passed — because this is in addition to China — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to replace the catastrophe, the disaster known as “NAFTA.” I’ve been complaining about it for many years. Our jobs left. Our factories closed. Our companies left, opened up. They made product. They sold it into the United States — no tax, no nothing.

We have just the opposite right now. It’s very painful if they want to do that. It’s very hard for them to do that, economically. The “USMCA,” as we call it, will massively boost exports for farmers, ranchers, growers, and agricultural producers from North to South, and from sea to shining sea. It also has tremendous impacts on manufacturers and all of the other things — good for everybody. But we won’t bother; we only care about the farmers today, and the ranchers. Right? So we don’t have to talk about the manufacturers. (Applause.)

But it’s fantastic for manufacturing and lots of other things. And our manufacturing numbers are fantastic. You see that. Remember? Manufacturing. Phil, you remember? “There’s no more manufacturing.” And then we have almost 600,000 jobs. They said, the last administration, “You’d need a magic wand to bring back manufacturing.” So I guess we found the magic wand. (Applause.) We found the magic wand.

Joining us today are a few of your strongest allies in Washington who helped make these achievements possible. Senators Pat Roberts and Cindy Hyde-Smith — where are they? (Applause.) Please. Please. Pat and Cindy Hyde. I’ll tell you: These are two people that love the farmer.

And Pat — I mean, every time I get a call — Pat. That meant like, “Come on. Come on, President. Let’s go, President.” But what a great career you’ve had. What an unbelievable number of election victories you’ve had. We’d love to keep you for a long time, but I don’t think we can talk about him out of it at this point. But, Pat, thank you very much. And Cindy Hyde-Smith, you have a done a fantastic job representing everybody, but representing the farmers and ranchers. Thank you very much. And, Pat, thank you very much. Great job. (Applause.)

And Representatives Randy Weber, Roger Williams, and John Carter. Please stand up. Warriors — they’re warriors. (Applause.)

And also, three friends of mine — Texas leaders at the highest level — Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. Please stand up. Please stand up. (Applause.) That’s great. Hi, Sid.

I remember 2016 — the election. And the fake news — these people back here — (laughter) — they were going — they were saying, “Trump — going to have a hard time winning Texas.” And we came. We made speeches, Sid. Remember? We’d have 25-, 30,000 people standing on line. Can’t get in. And I said, “Why am I going to have a hard time with Texas?”

And I remember, Sid Miller — I didn’t know Sid. But he was big, and he had the big, beautiful cowboy hat on. I love that hat. I wish we could wear them in Washington or New York because I would be the biggest buyer of that hat. (Laughter.) I just don’t know if it would play there, but I’ll wear them in Texas, I’ll tell you.

But Sid was sitting there with that hat on, and he looked great. And he said, “I don’t know about you, and I don’t know where you’re getting this information about a close race in Texas, but there’s going to be nothing close about this race in Texas. Trump is going to win this race by so much, you’re not going to believe it.” That’s exactly what happened.

So, thank you very much. I didn’t know Sid. He just said, “Trump is going to win by a lot.” And ever since then, I’ve liked Sid a lot, and you turned out to be right. Right, Sid? Thank you very much. Great job. (Applause.) Great job.

I also want to take a moment to send our love and support to the President of the American Farm Bureau — a great guy — Zippy Duvall. Sadly, Zippy’s wonderful wife — a tremendous woman, married for 40 years — Bonnie — passed away last night. And we want Zippy and his entire family to know we are keeping them in our thoughts and prayers. And he was a very — it was a very special relationship, and I just want to wish the family well. And, Zippy, we’re with you 100 percent — 100 percent. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

So, I’m truly honored to be addressing the Farm Bureau’s annual convention for my third straight year. My administration understands that if we want to stand up for America, we must stand up for American farmers. So important. Incredible people. (Applause.) If we want America to thrive and grow, then we must ensure that America’s farms flourish and prosper. And that’s what we’re doing. You feed our people, you fuel our nation, you sustain our land, you uphold our values, and you preserve our cherished American way of life. We want our products made, grown, and raised right here in the USA — and that’s what’s happening. (Applause.)

I hope you all remember that, before I took office, American agriculture was being crushed by an onslaught of massive taxes; crippling regulations; burdensome federal mandates — you know about that. I released it. I released it all. And horrendous trade deals. And they were horrendous indeed. I actually used to say, “Who the hell would have negotiated a deal like this?”

When I ran for President, I vowed to use every power at my disposal to protect American farmers and restore the full strength of American agriculture. I promised that I would always have your back. And unlike the politicians who came before me — they talked a lot; they did nothing for you — I kept my promise. (Applause.)

Under the previous administration, net farm income plummeted by more than 20 percent. Under my administration — and, remember, these trade deals haven’t even really kicked in yet. I told China, a couple of months ago, “Do me a favor. We’re going to make a deal. Start buying. Start buying.” And they did. Not as much as I wanted, but they did. They wanted to wait until they got the signed agreement. Now we have the signed agreement. But they started buying. But it’s also Japan. It’s also other countries. But net farm income has gone up by more than $30 billion dollars –- an increase of nearly 50 percent in just three years. Remember that. (Applause.) And the big stuff is yet to come. The big numbers, in my opinion, are yet to come.

We are fixing problems and cleaning up messes that others have neglected for decades. They’ve treated you very unfairly. They’ve treated you very foolishly. Frankly, they’ve treated you stupidly — stupidly — to put our great farmers in this position. We are winning for our farmers, and we winning like never before. (Applause.)

And don’t forget: When I ran, I said, “We’re going to do this stuff. We’re going to do it.” But it was just words. “We’re going to do it.” Everybody said, “We’re going to do things.” But I did it. We got it done. And this is the time; I couldn’t say it last year. Last year, I said, “Hey…” You know, you were being targeted by China, in all fairness. You were being targeted. They stopped buying, purposely. Then I put the big tariffs on. Then I gave you a lot of the money, out of the tariffs. We had a lot of money left over, but we gave you — Sonny told you — $16 billion, and $12 billion the year before. And that made you do very well.

But, you know, the farmers came to me. They said, “We don’t want anything. We just want a level playing field.” And you have now even more than a level playing field. (Applause.)

The deal with China will tear down market barriers and pry open vast new markets for American beef, pork, poultry, seafood, soybeans, rice, dairy, infant formula, animal feed, biotechnology, and much, much more.

This is an incredible success for our entire country, and it was your fortitude, your perseverance, and your devotion that made it all possible. And I have to tell you, another benefit, and a very big benefit, is we now perhaps have the best relationship that we’ve had with China in many, many years. And China respects us now. They didn’t respect us. They couldn’t believe they were getting away with what they were getting away with. (Applause.)

Having a good relationship with China is good — and Russia, is good; and many other countries, is a good thing. But we don’t people taking advantage of us.

For years, China stole trade secrets from American agri-businesses, and plundered our intellectual property, illicitly subsidized grain procedures, and installed one barrier after another to block out our farmers and to block out our ranchers.

When my administration confronted these abusive and destructive trade practices, China targeted American agriculture for retaliation. They even took ads, saying what a bad person I was. But the farmers — only some of them believe that. And those people have come all the way back, too.

To defend our farmers, I authorized $28 billion dollars. And we’re getting that money, Sonny, to the small farmers also. There were some statements — big farmers — no, we get them to the small farmers. We get them to everybody — big farmers, small farmers. And we have a formula that I think has been working out, Sonny, very well. If it’s not, call me directly, and I’ll call Sonny and give him hell, okay? (Laughter.)

But we’re getting it to the small farmers, the big farmers, and everybody. And that’s a lot of money. And I am delighted to report that the final installment of all of those billions of dollars of that money will be coming very quickly, Sonny, I guess. Is that a correct statement? Yes? Thanks. You never backed down — (applause). Unless you don’t want it, because you’re making so much money now. If anybody would like to give it up, please raise your hand. (Laughter.)

You stayed in the fight. You protected our economy and our security. And, together, we all together — we prevailed. You were always with me. You never even thought of giving up. And we got it done. And there were times when, you know, the — the media was trying to cause trouble. They’d come into Iowa. “Isn’t it terrible with the practices and the trade.” And the farmers would say, “No, the President is doing the right thing. It’s tough, but the President is doing the right thing.”

But then we started doing the big tariffs — taking in literally tens of billions of dollars. And we started giving money back. I went to Sonny Perdue. I said, “Sonny, what did China — what was the number that China did last year?” He said, “Sir, they bought $16 billion.” I said, “Oh, that’s good. What did they do the year before?” “Sir, they bought $12 billion worth of product.” I said, “Good.”

So it’s $12 billion. We gave you the $12 billion. Then, $16 billion. We gave you the $16 billion so you weren’t hurt. And now we have a position that I don’t think the farmers and ranchers have been in this position maybe ever. I don’t think so. And I think it’s going to work out good. And I think China is going to go all out to prove that the agreement that was signed is a good agreement.

And we have very, very strong stipulations in there. But that it’s a — an agreement that is a fair agreement and good for the farmer. I think they’re looking to prove that it’s going to be great for the farmer. But even bigger and better than we ever thought possible — that’s what this agreement is. It’s much bigger and much better than I ever thought we’d get.

And, frankly, there were times when I didn’t think we were going to get anything because I cancelled every meeting — how many times have you seen me cancel with the Iran deal? You didn’t see Kerry cancel ever. He just took one bad point after another bad point, and then he signed a bad agreement, and then we terminated that deal. But that’s a little different than the farmer stuff.

But you didn’t any walking. We walked from this deal a lot. And sometimes, you have to walk from a deal in order to make the right deal. And we walked from this one a lot, didn’t we? Phil was talking to me, and our great past governor. It’s sad to say that, but you have a great new governor. Right, Phil?

But we were talking about it, and he says, “You got to do what you got to do. If you can’t make the right deal, you got to walk.” It’s true. So we walked a lot. And we always got called back. “Let’s do it the way you want.”

On behalf of every American worker and family, thank you for standing strong for America. Thank you very much to the farmers and ranchers for standing with me; for saying, “The President is right. Yes, it’s tough right now, but the President is doing the right thing.” Thank you. (Applause.)

More than anything else, it proved to me that farmers love America. And I just want to tell you that America loves our farmers. Thank you. (Applause.)

Under the deal, China has agreed to spend many billions of dollars on American services, energy, and manufactured goods. China has made substantial commitments regarding the protection of American ideas, trade secrets, patents, and trademarks. China has also pledged firm action to confront pirated and counterfeit goods. Most important of all, the deal is enforceable — very, very powerfully enforceable. In fact, it was probably the thing that we negotiated the most. And rest assured, we will vigorously enforce its terms. Hopefully, we won’t have to. Hopefully, it’ll go just as we anticipate.

In a matter of days, we will achieve another tremendous victory for the American agricultural businesses, when I sign the USMCA into law. So, we just passed it in the Senate, and it was a wonderful vote, and I sign it very soon. It’s being prepared now — beautifully prepared. I’m going to Europe to talk to world leaders and to talk to business people about coming. Everybody wants to come back to America. Everybody wants to come back to the United States. We’re now where the action is. They’re all coming back.

And when I come back, we’ll have a ceremony, probably in the White House. We also may go to some of the farming communities and we’re going to sign the deal.

Under the USMCA, Canada will finally provide greater access for American dairy. You know, Canada was charging us 287 percent tariffs. Nobody knew that. Nobody knew that. I knew it. So, you basically couldn’t even deal with Canada.

But those days are gone. Our dairy exports are set to increase by more than $300 million dollars per year. Poultry exports to Canada could jump by nearly 50 percent. (Applause.) Exports of eggs to both Canada and Mexico could skyrocket by as much as 500 percent, and maybe even 1,000 percent. Very importantly, Canada will finally give fair treatment to American-grown wheat, which is a big deal to you people. What the hell do I know about it? (Applause.) I don’t know anything about it; I just know you had a problem with it.

I said to a couple of the farmers — I’d have a lot of farmers at the White House. They were incredible. I said, “What’s the big thing?” “Wheat, sir.” “Tell me about it.” And they told me about it. I’m a very quick study; I figured it out quickly. I said, “I know nothing about it, but that sounds right to me.” So we got it in the contract. (Laughter.)

The two momentous trade deals we completed last week are just the beginning of a really incredible story. Because nobody thought we’d ever get here. They’d say the deal with China would be impossible to make, and getting rid of NAFTA would be totally impossible. One of the reasons it was totally possible: It was such a bad deal for us — good for the other countries; not good for us.

We’re achieving what no administration has ever achieved before. And what do I get out it? Tell me. I get impeached! That’s what I get out of it. (Laughter.) By these radical left lunatics, I get impeached. But that’s okay, the farmers are sticking with Trump. They’re sticking with Trump. (Applause.) These people. These people. It could have been so much easier.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: In just — (laughs) — thank you very much. (Laughter.) In just the past few months, we persuaded Japan to slash tariffs on $7 billion of U.S. agricultural products. Over 90 percent of our agricultural exports to Japan will now receive preferential treatment. Nobody thought that was possible. And, in many cases, we will be completely duty free — and you’ve never heard that before. (Applause.) That’s a $40 billion deal, by the way. That’s in addition to China, and Canada, and Mexico, and South Korea.

We secured guaranteed access for American beef to the EU — European Union — a deal that will nearly triple our beef exports to Europe in the coming years. And, as you know, Europe has had tremendous barriers to us doing business with them. All those barriers are coming down. They have to come down. If they don’t come down, we’re going to have to do things that are very bad for them. (Laughter.)

No, we’ve been taken advantage of by everybody. There’s nobody that — we — we’ve been taken advantage of by everybody. Europe. Who would think Europe? Europe was, in many ways, more difficult — and is more difficult — than China. Nobody would believe that.

I was saying to Sonny and some of the people before, “Dealing with Europe, in many ways, has been worse and tougher than dealing with China.” Not fair.

We have secured record market access for U.S. rice in South Korea; it was a big one. We won tariff exemptions in Ecuador for wheat and soybeans. They were tariffing us out of business. We opened up Vietnam for American orange growers. We got Brazil to raise its quotas for purchases of our wheat and ethanol. We opened up Guatemala and Tunisia to American eggs. And in November, we ended China’s years-long ban on American poultry. You know that very well — years-long.

And part of it was: I asked. I said, “You got to do this.” They said, “But nobody has ever asked before.” I said, “But I’m asking. Thank you very much.” Nobody ever asked. Half of it, nobody asked. (Applause.)

If we harvest or herd it in the United States, I want to help you sell it all around the world. To make American agriculture even more competitive, we passed the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history, by far. And to help you keep your family farm, and keep it in the family, we virtually eliminated the deeply unfair estate tax, or “death tax.” We got rid of it for small farms, ranchers, and small businesses. (Applause.)

So, if you love your children, you can now leave your farms and your ranches and your small businesses to your children, and you don’t have to pay tax. (Applause.) If you love your children, you don’t have to pay the estate tax or the death tax. If you do not love your children, you don’t really care about that provision. (Laughter.)

Is there anybody here that does not love their children and does not want to leave their beautiful farm to their children? Anybody here? Come on, you have guts. I think farmers have a lot of guts. Come on. You mean there’s not one person that dislikes your children because they’re brats — because they’re spoiled rotten brats? (Laughter.) Okay, well, that’s a pretty good group of people. Well, that’s the farmers for you, right? That’s the farmers. (Applause.)

But think of that. You know, people were wanting to pass along their farm. And they’d pass away, and their children would take it. And then the tax people would come along, and the tax would be monumental. And the income wouldn’t be so good, but the value of the farm was a lot. And they’d go out and they’d mortgage the farm to the hilt. And within a short period of time, the banks are foreclosing on the farm, and taking the farm, and putting the farm up for sale.

You don’t have to worry about that anymore. There’s no more estate tax. There’s no more death tax on those farms. So, good. That’s good. That’s really good. (Applause.) That’s very important. That was a hard thing to get. That was hard to get by the wonderful Democrats that we have to deal with every day.

Thanks to our pro-American tax cuts, trade reforms, and regulatory reductions, America now has the hottest economy anywhere on Earth, and there’s no place even close. Everybody is coming back.

Since my election, the United States has gained more than 7 million jobs — un-thought of. If I would have said that on the campaign trail, the fake news would have gone crazy. (Applause.)

The unemployment rate is now 3.5 percent — the lowest in over 51 years, half a century. (Applause.) The African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American unemployment rates have reached the all-time historic lows — lowest in the history of our country. More Americans are working today than ever before — almost 160 million. Never even been close to that.

Under the so-called “Trump Economy,” the lowest-paid earners are reaping the biggest, fastest, and largest percentage gains. This is a blue-collar boom. Everybody is booming, frankly, but it’s a blue-collar boom. Net worth for the bottom 50 percent of wage earners has grown 15 times more under my administration. Think of that: 15 times. You know, 15 times more than under the three prior administrations.

Wages for the bottom 10 percent are rising faster than for the top 10 percent. And that’s okay for the rich people. Let somebody else enjoy life a little bit, right? Does any rich person — of which we probably have a lot in this room — any rich person have a problem with that? Please stand up. (Laughter.) I don’t think we’re going to see that person standing.

Real median household income is now at the highest level ever recorded. Think of that: highest ever recorded. You know, in the Bush administration, for eight years: $450. In the Obama administration, for eight years: $975. In the Trump administration, for less than three years: almost $10,000, when you include the tax cuts, the energy savings, and the regulation cuts. Nobody can believe it. (Applause.) Nobody can believe it. Think of that — isn’t that amazing? — $450, $975. And that’s been in eight years, eight years. And then you have less than three years — because it was done as of a few months ago — and you have almost $10,000.

To power our future, America is boldly embracing energy independence. The United States is now the number-one producer of oil and natural gas in the world, which means lower prices for farmers and consumers. And you see how the prices are: They’re stable to low. And it means America is no longer reliant on foreign nations. Isn’t that nice? (Applause.)

And we are also proudly promoting American ethanol. Chuck Grassley calls me. Joni Ernst calls me. Deb Fischer calls me. They all call — everybody. Pat calls me. Ethanol. They love ethanol. And I recently approved E-15 to be used all year round, instead of eight months. And that’s a big thing for the American farmer. We’re providing unprecedented support to ethanol — support like they’ve never had before.

Yet, the radical left in Washington wants to demolish these gains. And they, frankly, want to destroy your way of life. They are not for the farmer. They are not for our military. They are not for secure borders. They want open borders. They want sanctuary cities. Essentially, what they’re saying is, “We want crime.” And they don’t want crime, but that’s what you get when you have open borders.

And, by the way, just so you know, the wall is being built at a very rapid pace. We’re over 100 miles now. (Applause.) We think we’ll be over 400 miles by the end of next year. And shortly thereafter, we’ll have a completed wall.

And you probably also — this was a big news story. They saw people — they had to capture them. They couldn’t get over the wall. They had to send trucks and ladders and firepeople because they got stuck on the top of the wall. They couldn’t get down. Loaded up with drugs on their back.

So it’s very successful. It’s going to be very, very successful. It’s having a big impact already because we’re setting records now — what we’re doing, in terms of people coming into our country illegally.

We want them to come into our country, by the way. We want them to come in, though, through merit. We want them to come in legally. And we want them to come so they can help the farmer, just so you understand. Because I want them to be able to come in to help our farmers. (Applause.) And we’re going to give you plenty of help. Because without that, it’s very difficult.

Taking their cues from socialists like Bernie Sanders, or a fake socialist like Pocahontas — (laughter). She’s actually worse than a socialist, but she doesn’t want to admit it. But the far left, they want to massively raise your taxes, crush your — your businesses with regulations, take away your healthcare, and send bureaucrats to interfere with your property and second guess every decision that you make. They want to take it away, and they want to load you up with regulations, so you can’t live, you can’t breathe.

Left-wing politicians want to shut down oil and gas production in the United States. And if they succeed, they will cost our farmers and ranchers billions of dollars per year in royalty payments alone. But more importantly, you’re not going to be able to afford the energy that you need to run your farms. We will never let it happen. (Applause.)

There are no better stewards of our precious natural resources than the American farmers who depend on the land and the environment for their very livelihood. You love your land. You’re going to take care of your land. You don’t need some bureaucrat in Washington telling everybody what the hell to do with your land. You love your land. (Applause.)

When it comes to the environment, I will always trust a farmer over a Washington bureaucrat or a left-wing extremist. (Applause.)

To help producers expand, I signed a Farm Bill that doubles the amount you can borrow to improve your farm. You like that — that Farm Bill. And, Pat — stand up again, Pat. Boy, he was brutal in that Farm Bill. I’d get a call every two minutes from Pat. (Applause.) I’d say, “Tell him I’ll call him back next week.” Great job.

We also protected the crop insurance programs that producers rely on in times of disaster. Through fires, floods, and freezing weather, we will always support our great American farmers. You have my word. (Applause.)

We have liberated American agriculture from an avalanche of federal regulations. In the Trump administration, we know that the role of government is not to harass our citizens; it is to serve our citizens, to make life easy, and to make you hire lots of people, and have a great farm, and have tremendous success, and make lots of money, and send your children to school — be safe, be free.

Our law enforcement — we are going to protect our law enforcement just like they protect us. (Applause.)

When I took office, I issued an order requiring that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated. Instead of two for one, we have now cut more than eight for one. Nobody thought that was possible. (Applause.) As a result, the average American household will save $3,100 dollars a year, just on regulation cuts and sensible regulation.

Earlier this month, I took decisive action to slash regulatory and approval times for critical infrastructure used to transport goods and produce. Currently, environmental reviews can take 10 years or more. I’ve been through it myself. You want to build a building, and you fear it’s going to take 12 years to get permits. I say, “Twelve years?” I’ve been through it, so I understand what you go through.

But our proposals will limit the process to two years — and, in many cases, less than one year. (Applause.) And you may get rejected for environmental or safety reasons, but it’s going to go very quickly. We will soon build new roads, bridges, tunnels, highways, railways, and waterways across our land.

I terminated one of the most ridiculous regulations of all: the last administration’s disastrous Waters of the United States rule. (Applause.) Thank you. It’s gone. That was a rule that basically took your property away from you.

I’ll never forget: At the White House signing, I had probably 30, 35 people behind me — farmers and homebuilders and others — people that haven’t cried in many years. People that weren’t — some of them were so tough, they never cried. They didn’t cry when they were babies. And they were crying. (Laughter.) No, we gave them their life back.

We did it in Minnesota, with the iron ore. We opened it up. They took it away — the Obama administration. Minnesota now has the greatest fields in the world — iron ore. But we did it in a lot of ways.

But, in this case, it had such a beautiful name, right? It was so beautiful. I said, “Oh, this is disaster, but I’m going to do it because I knew it was the right thing to do.” And everybody loved it. And now you’re back in business. You’re doing what you have to do. They really took away your property, and they took away your property rights. (Applause.)

So, this rule gave bureaucrats virtually unlimited authority to regulate stock tanks, drainage ditches, and isolated ponds as navigable waterways and navigable water. You believe that? Sometimes, you’d have a puddle — a little puddle. And they’d consider that a lake. As long as I’m President, government will never micromanage America’s farmers. You’re going to micromanage your own farm, and that’s the way it should be. (Applause.)

And, today, I’m proud to announce that I am taking yet another step to protect the water rights of American farmers and ranchers. Under the previous administration, the Army Corps of Engineers proposed a new Water Supply rule that would give the federal government vast and unlimited power to restrict farmers’ access to water. That’s not a good thing. Is anybody happy with being restricted to water if you have a farm? Please stand up if you are happy about that. Because this authority rightfully belongs to the states, not the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.

That is why I am directing the Corps of Engineers to immediately withdraw the proposed rule — just submitted recently, meaning last administration — and allow states to manage their water resources based on their own needs and based on what their farmers and ranchers want. (Applause.) Water is the lifeblood of agriculture, and we will always protect your water supply. (Applause.)

Since my inauguration, we have also devoted nearly $1 billion dollars to rural broadband, connecting a quarter of a million rural households, and we’re moving at a rapid pace. The USDA will soon award another $1.1 billion, and the FCC will soon vote on a plan to direct $20 billion to rural broadband. It’s about time. You know, they take care of their cities, but they don’t take care of you. (Applause.) They take care of their cities, but not you.

In everything we do, we are putting the needs of American workers, families, and farmers first. We are putting America first. (Applause.)

The great men and women in this room are the stewards of a inheritance and a noble tradition that’s unrivaled. It’s handed down from one generation to the next, all the way back to the very beginning of our country. You take pride in your work, joy in your calling, and deep satisfaction in your vital contributions to the life and health and success of our republic.

America has always been a farming nation — founded, built, and grown by people just like you, who pour out their heart, soul, and sweat into this land; who wake up at the crack of dawn; who plow the soil, plant the seed, and tend the fields from the dawn to dusk; and do not rest until that job is beautifully, perfectly done. Does that sound familiar? I think so, right? (Applause.) It’s true. That’s the American farmer, rancher.

You embody the spirit of optimism that has always defined this magnificent country. You look at an empty field in the dead of winter, and you envision the spark of life in the peak of spring. That’s what you see. You see differently than other people.

Farmers have always been the keepers of our great American values. You champion the love of family, the dignity of work, and the glory of God. You teach your children to celebrate our nation, defend our freedom, honor our values, and to always respect and cherish our great American flag. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: With your faith, your grit, your tenacity, your talent, and your patriotism, the best days for America and the best days for America’s farmers and ranchers are yet to come.

I want to thank everybody. This has been such an incredible turnout, and I appreciate everybody for being here. We’re taking care of our farmers. We’re taking care of our ranchers. We’re taking care of our manufacturers. We’re taking care of our military and our vets. We’re taking care of our country. It’s “Make America Great Again.” It’s “Keep America Great.” It’s whatever you want to call it. We’re the greatest country anywhere in the world, and we’re taking care of you.

So thank you all very much. This is a great honor, and I’m glad we’ve been successful. We got those deals done. Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause.)

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