*Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2018 *

**Remarks at the Republican National Committee Winter Meeting **

*February 1, 2018 *

Thank you, everybody. Wow. Well, you know, Ronna and I, we won Michigan together. So I said, I think we have to keep her. And now look at the job she's doing. What a job. Thanks, Ronna. What a job. That's true, they're setting records. But we're going to set another kind of record, and that's making our great country so great again, so much better than it ever was: our military; our immigration situation, I think it has a chance.

You know, the Democrats are AWOL. They're missing in action. We're saying, where are they? We have a proposal; we never hear from them. Because I don't think they want to solve the DACA problem. I think they want to talk about it. I think they want to obstruct. You know, the name is "Resist." That's the name of their movement. "Resist." That's all they do is resist. I don't know if they're good at it. They can't be too good at it, because we're passing a lot of things—[*laughter*]—so I wouldn't say their resistance is extremely successful.

The thing I'm most proud about: We passed the biggest, the most beautiful tax cut and reform that anybody has seen. And included in that—included in that—is the individual mandate repeal. That's where you pay a fortune in order not to have to pay for health insurance. [*Laughter*] Think of that one. In other words, you go and you don't have so much, because you're in this middle group. And you can't really buy health insurance or health care, so you write a big, beautiful check, you take a lot of money for the privilege of not paying. And you get nothing. You think that's a fair deal? We repealed it, folks. We repealed it.

And ANWR—you know, I heard so much about ANWR over the years. They've been trying to get ANWR, Alaska. They've been trying to get it passed for 40 years. And I didn't think it was so big. I, you know—I said, what's the big deal? [*Laughter*] And then, a friend of mine called, who's in that business, energy. He said, "You know, they've been trying to pass it for 42 years. Ronald Reagan tried and failed. Everybody tried and failed. And I hear you're going to get it passed." This is just a little part of our bill. It's one of the big finds in the world: oil and gas. And as soon as I heard that, I said, you know, I love this ANWR; this is big stuff. I love it. So it's great.

But we just had—did anybody not see the State of the Union? [*Laughter*] Because even the haters back there gave us good reviews on that one. [*Laughter*] It's hard for them to do it; they came up with fake polls. You know, they had fake polls. But the fake polls were even good. [*Laughter*] And they said, "What are we going to do?" Took them a couple of hours to figure, before they went negative, you know. They got calls from the bosses: "You can't say that about Trump. You can't say good." [*Laughter*]

But it's been—we've had an incredible time. And just about everybody—and I recognize so many people—but just about everybody in this room has been here from the beginning of this incredible journey. And you know we have a few terms. It's always going to be "Make America Great Again." That's always going to be our baby. That's always going to be our baby.

But we also have "America first." We're putting America first. We're putting it over other countries. And I always say—because it's an arrogant statement—I say to them, you've got to put your company and country first. But we are putting our country and our companies, our jobs, we're putting them first. No longer are we going to countries to help them, and we have our own problems. It's not going to happen.

And we have new trade deals coming up. We're renegotiating NAFTA. We'll see what happens. Can't get much worse. We lose $71 billion a year with Mexico. I wouldn't say it gets much worse than that. But we're renegotiating trade deals. We have a lot of them. A lot of them are, frankly, quite quiet right now. And I might as well keep them that way. And the one thing we know, even though as I've asked them to get out of here—[*laughter*]—they're leaving—bye. Bye, everybody.

[*At this point, the press was escorted out of the room. The President continued his remarks as follows.*]

Isn't it incredible? Sometimes, I see the press. It's so bad to me, I say, how did we ever win? [*Laughter*] Right? How did we win? I said to my wife, nobody—nobody gets press bad like this. And we won. Can you imagine how well we'd do if we got good press? It's true. I don't know. Maybe we wouldn't do as well. Maybe we wouldn't do as well. Who knows? You never really know about that. But step by step.

And I'll tell you, the beautiful thing—and I was saying it today—I was in West Virginia, a great State—and at the Greenbrier. Who's from West Virginia? Good. I love West Virginia. Good. I love that. We only won by, what was it, 43 points, right? [*Laughter*] I said, was that an Independent? They said, no, it's Hillary. I said, really? Forty-three points. I never heard of 43 points. But West Virginia was one of our best. But——

[*The President continued his remarks, and no transcript was provided.*]

NOTE: The President spoke at 8:20 p.m. at the Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C. In his remarks, he referred to Ronna McDaniel, chair, Republican National Committee, who introduced the President; and 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton. A portion of these remarks could not be verified because the audio was incomplete.

*Categories:* Addresses and Remarks : Republican National Committee, winter meeting*.*

*Locations: *Washington, DC.

*Names:* Clinton, Hillary Rodham; McDaniel, Ronna*.*

*Subjects:* Alaska : Arctic Nation Wildlife Refuge (ANWR); Armed Forces, U.S. : Funding; Commerce, international : Free and fair trade; Commerce, international : North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); Communications : News media :: Accuracy and fairness; District of Columbia : Republican Party event; Elections : 2016 Presidential and congressional elections; Energy : Domestic production, promotion efforts; Health and medical care : Individual insurance mandate, tax penalty; Immigration and naturalization : Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, review; Immigration and naturalization : Reform; Mexico : Trade with U.S.; Republican Party : Republican National Committee; Taxation : Tax Code, reform.

*DCPD Number:* DCPD201800069.