Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2018

March 22, 2018

Turning Point USA Founder and Executive Director Charlie Kirk. So, thank you, Mr.

President.

The President. Nice group.

China-U.S. Trade/U.S. Foreign Policy

Mr. Kirk. This is a great audience of millennial leaders from all across the country. So thank you for taking the time to address us today.

So this morning you signed some very historicâyou know, a historic piece of regulation against China. And they've been stealing our jobs for many years now, and the critics have said that, you know, this will trigger a trade war. I like to say we've been in a trade war for 40 years. So youââ

The President. And losing.

Mr. Kirk. That's right. That's correct. [Laughter] So thank you for what you're doing to stand up for the American worker. Would you like to comment on that and what it meansââ

The President. Well, it was an honor, actually, doing it. We had a great news conference a little while ago. And it's section 301. It's a very complex pile of words. But honestly, it's very simple. And the simplicity is what makes it beautiful.

Now, I have to tell you, they're coming back. Over the last year, we are bringing jobs back. As of about 2 weeks ago, 153 million jobs. It's the highest number of jobs we've ever had in our country. So it is coming back.

But we're losing $375 billion with China. It could be $504 billion, depending on the way you count. A lot of different ways of counting. But no matter how you count, it's bad.

And we're doing something that will be the start of making trade with China more fair.

We're so far down. And our Presidents, franklyâour past Presidentsâshould never have allowed this to happen. This has been many, many years. It's sort of like the Middle East. How did that happen? And other things. How did all of these things happen? And North Koreaâ how did this happen, where it got so bad? I shouldn't be the one negotiating North Korea. This should have been done years ago, Charlie. This should have been done by somebody before they were in the position that they're in right now.

But we got stuck with a lot of beauties, but we'll fix them. [Laughter] We'll fix them.

The President's Accomplishments/Vocational Education/Tax Reform

Mr. Kirk. I would like to say, if a Democrat President accomplished one-tenth of what you've done over the last year, they would say it's historic and it's unbelievable. And so, what you've done for the American people to change the trajectory and save this country and our generation is quite phenomenal.

So let's talk about tax reform. The Democrats call it "crumbs." A thousand dollars is not crumbs to the young people in this room. It's the biggest middle class tax cut in American history, but it's also the biggest young personâessentially, the millennialâtax cut. So talk about the amazing economic benefits that we're seeing thanks to the tax cut package that you championed and you successfully got through Congress.

The President. Okay, Charlie. And a couple of things: The individual mandate was knocked out. By itself, that would be a big bill. Knocking out theâ[applause]. This is for Obamacare, where you have the privilege of paying a lot of money so that you don't have to buy bad health care. Okay? And we got it knocked out. That was a big thing.

And ANWR, we have that approved, which is tremendous in terms of one of the great energy reservoirs in the world. And they've been working on it. Reagan tried. Bush tried. Every President was trying to get it approved, and we got it approved. And that was part of our bill.

And then, of course, we have the tremendous tax cuts for people. And I guess if you think about it, millennials starting out, tremendousâyou have a tremendous advantage now over what you had. You're going to pay less taxes. You have far more incentive. You're going to have a lot more money left in your paycheck to spend. And that's part of the beauty. And we're seeing it, and we're seeing the numbers.

And you know, we were at about 1.2 percent GDP. We've now hit 3 and another 3 and a

3.2. And we'll see what this next quarter is. That could be a good quarter.

Our businesses are flourishing. Jobs areânow, people are going to have choice. And that's choice of jobs. You know, before, they wereâif they got one job, they'd stay there even if they didn't like it because they had no alternative. Now, people are going out, and they're looking at five, six, seven jobs, and they're making a choice. So that really works out.

But young people coming out of college, coming out of even high school. We're trying a very big push for vocational schools. I like the name vocational school, where somebody is good at fixing motors. I remember I'd be in school, in lower schools, and I'd be doing a test. And there would be somebody on my right who was not too good. [Laughter] This was not a great student. This was not going to be Einstein, academically. Okay? [Laughter] And yet that person could fix an engine or a motor soâhe was incredible. Blind folded. And by the way, that's what he liked. And that's probablyâI don't know, we lost trackâbut it's probably what he ended up doing. But he had a great ability at that, far greater than me or far greater than other people.

But he'll never be a student, nor did he want that kind of learning, that kind of whatever you want to call it.

So we need vocational schools. Now, they call them, a lot of times, community colleges. I don't think it's an accurate definition.

We're having a lot of companies come into the United States. We need workers. And by the way, illegal immigrationâwhich will be probably one part of a question, but I'll give you the answer right nowâwe want people to come into our country, but we want them to come in based on merit. Because we're going to need these people because we have tremendous numbers of companies coming in, whether it's Chrysler leaving Mexico and coming into

Michigan or Foxconnâyou know, Foxconn is going to open up a tremendous place in Wisconsin, and we're very proud of that because that was a deal that nobody even thought was happening or could happen.

Appleâthey make a lot of the Apple productsâApple is taking $350 billion, and they're coming into our country withâbuilding here. And I said to Tim Cook a long time ago, "Tim, it's wonderful, Appleâit's niceâbut we want you to build the places here." And he said, because of our tax, because of what we've done, they're bringing inâthey're actually bringing in about $240 billion, but they're going to be investing $350 billion on new plants and a tremendous campus and lots of other things.

So it's very exciting and very exciting for millennials, very, very exciting for jobs.

Unemployment Rates Among Minorities and Women/Deregulation

Mr. Kirk. Absolutely. And Black youth unemployment at an alltime low. Latino youth unemployment at an alltime low.

The President. That's true. Alltime low, Black unemployment. I'm very proud of that. And Hispanic unemployment, alltime low. Womanâwomen unemployment, the lowest in 18 years. We're doing great. We're really doing great. And I really believe thatâI don't want to sound braggadociousâ[laughter]âbut I think that there's never been an administration that's done as much ofâas we've done in the first year.

You know, if you look at regulationsâforget about taxâI think the cutting of the regulations may be as important or more important than even the tremendous tax cuts.

Deregulation

Mr. Kirk. That's right. And you said you would get rid of one regulationâtwo regulations for every one. And I think it's now 22 for every 1, thanks to your leadership with that.

The President. Turned out to be 22 for 1.

Political Views of College Students

Mr. Kirk. That's absolutely amazing. It's amazing. And so, shifting gears for a minute here, one of the other things that you've done so successfully during your campaign and Presidency is crush political correctness. And whatâthe college network that we representâI represent an organization on 1,200 college and high school campusesâis it's harder than ever to espouse support of your Presidency and the ideas that you're fighting for. So thank you for what you're doing to help give us the courage of our convictions to fight against political correctness.

But what advice do you have for young patriots and conservatives on campus that support your agenda that are being ridiculed and silenced because of administrators that are clamping down on free speech?

The President. So, Charlie, it's a great question. I think the numbers are actually much different than people think. I think we have a lot of support. If they have one campus or two campusesâand we know what they areâit gets all the publicity. We have campuses where you have a vast majority of people that are, perhaps, like many of the people in this roomâyou could call it conservative, you call it whatever you wantâbut they're people that want free speech.

If you look at what's going on with free speech, with the superleft, with Antifa, with all of these charactersâI'll tell you what, they get a lot of publicity. But you go to the real campuses,

and you go all over the country or you go out to the Middle West, you go out even to the coast in many cases, we have a tremendous support. I would say we have majority support. I think it's highly overblown. Highly overblown.

2016 Presidential Election/News Media

Mr. Kirk. I totally agree. And we see it on the ground, and people say, "Hey, I'm a Trump supporter, I'm just not allowed to say it because of the culture that's been created by the administrators and the professors." And kind of piggybacking off of that, what you see on college campuses and the speakers being disinvited and, you know, the assault on these ideas, I think it's so important what your administration is doing for the Department of Justice to support these lawsuits to help advance this free speech movement on campus.

So, kind of talking generationally in general, this is something that I'm quite curious about, and a lot of people ask me: I consider you to be one of the most successful businesspeople in American history, and your successful Presidential run is something that all people, young people included, should look up to. What advice would you give to the 25-year-old Donald Trump, knowing what you know today? [Laughter]

The President. Don't run for President. [Laughter]

Mr. Kirk. But we're glad you did.

The President. You know, I was talking to Mercedes and Sarah walking offâyou know, the Oval Office is right across the streetâand I said, all my life I've gotten reallyâyou know, look, we all get, every once and a while, a knockâbut I got the greatest publicity. I was getting such greatâuntil I ran for office. [Laughter]

But it's beenâpeople get it. People really do get it. There is a lot of fake news out there. Nobody had any idea. And you know, I'm actually proud of the fact that I exposed it, to a large extent. Because we exposed it. It's somethingâit's an achievement.

And you have some great news. And you know, when I say, "fake," I don't mean everybody. Not every one of those many people back there. [Laughter] I just say we have shown something that a lot of people didn't really understand. If you look at approval rating, their approval rating isâsorry, folksâit's down the tubes. [Laughter] Because people have found out how dishonest it is. However, you have some great, great reporters. You have some great people in the press, people that I have tremendous respect for. And it is that way also. And that's very important. And it's also reassuring to know that, you know, that's the fact.

2016 Presidential Election/The President's Popularity/Tax Relief

Mr. Kirk. Absolutely. And your capacity to be able to fight back against the pressâand look, they say, ohâthey talk about your approval ratingsâthese are the same people that said you were going to lose in a landslide victory, and now we're supposed to believe these approval rating polls.

The President. Well, I think a lot of the polls are not real too, because there wereâa couple of them got us right, but a lot of them didn't. And lot of them purposely didn't, because, you know, they set an expectation when they give you a certain poll. People say: "Oh, gee, I think I'm not going to vote. I love Trump, but he's not going to be able to make it." So they'll go to a movie, and they'll say, "We'll go home, and we'll watch later." And they go home, and they watch, and they say, "Gee, if only we voted." But they really voted. In 2016, they came out, and they voted. There was nobody that stayed home.

And as you know, the results were far greater than the polls. Now, a lot of people just don't want to talk about it. They say, you know, we love Trump, but we don't have to talk about it. We loveâwhat do we love? We love a strong military. We like low taxes. We like all of the things that are happening now, jobs, tremendous cutting in regulation. All of the things that you see happening right now, they like that. They don't have to talk about it.

They went into the boothâand you know, look, this was the big story. People came out that nobody knew existed. And the Democrats are looking for those people right now. [Laughter] I got a tremendous number of people from the Obama administration, where they voted for ObamaâPresident Obamaâthey voted for him and they voted for me. They voted for Bernie Sandersâa lot of peopleâand I think because he was right about trade. The difference is I know how to fix the problem, not just talk about it. But he was right, and that's what we're doing. That's why we had the 301 meeting today on China.

But Bernie Sanders was very strong on saying that we're getting ripped off on trade. He happened to be right. And I got a lot of Sanders voters. Who would think that? You know, you would think I would have gotten virtually none, but many of them cameâthat was a big part of the difference between Hillary Clinton and myself.

So we have a tremendous amount of support. And it's sort of an interesting thing: Sometimes they say: "You add nine. Whatever Trump's poll number is, add nine." People don't want to talk about it. They don't want to be bothered. But when they get into the voting booth, they say, "Vote Trump."

You know, we gave a speech the other night in Pennsylvania for a very nice guy, Rick Saccone. And it wasâthe level of love in that room was incredible. We were in Pensacola, Florida a couple of weeks ago. The place was just rocking. Now, I don't know if it's transferable. They say a lot of it's not transferable. They may like me. They may vote for me. They're all saying I'm going to do great in 2020. I mean, you know, let's see what happens, right?

But I don'tâthey don't know if it's transferable. I hope it's transferable, because we have to do our agenda. We have to win in '18. We have to get the agenda. We need more Republicans.

We could also, by the way, get rid of the filibuster situation going on in the Senate. I feel very strongly about that. It would make life a lot easyâeasier. But you look at some of the votesâwe would get so many more votesâif you could work that with youthâget rid of it, because certain Senators just want to keep it. But it makes things a little bit tougher.

But I will say, we need more Republicans, and we're going to get your taxesâyou know, I don't know I you know, but we'reâI was with Kevin Brady the other day. We're starting a phase two on tax cuts. We're going to get more tax cuts and we're going to be very focused again on the middle class. We're going to get a phase-two tax cut, because it worked so well.

Nobody thought it would be like this. It worked soâthe word "crumbs" is going to be like the word "deplorable," I think, for Hillary.

2016 Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton

Mr. Kirk. Totally agree. Andââ

The President. You knowâhey, Charlie, when she said the wordâI was watching that speech, and I thought it was, you know, not very nice, but I didn't see it that bad. [Laughter]

And the next day, I'm at a speech, and women are coming in, "I'm a deplorable." The husband, "I'm a deplorable." And I say, "What's going on?" That word reallyâand it was a basicââ

Mr. Kirk. Irredeemable.

The President. It was aâthat's right. She actually said "deplorable and irredeemable." Irredeemable is probably worse. [Laughter]

Mr. Kirk. She was reading off a teleprompter.

The President. Well, the one she did last week wasn't too good either: that the woman goes and asks the husband, the son, and the male boss for approval to vote for Trump. That was not too good. [Laughter] That was not too good.

Q. And she found a way to insult both men and women. She said women can't make decisions on their own, and men are so controlling over women, they don't allow them to make decisions of their own. Only Hillary could figure out a way to possibly do that.

The President. This is not good. [Laughter]

Opioid Crisis/Border Security/California

Mr. Kirk. No. Kind of, in closing here, I know the next panel, we're going to be talking about the crisis on college campuses, but specifically talking about the opioid epidemic, which is something that has just totally devastated middle America. And I know your administration is making historic strides to help fix the issue. So can we talk a little bit about opioids and what you're doing to help with that?

The President. Yes, Charlie, so we're going to be putting $6 billion over a fairly short period of time into the opioid crisis. It's a crisis. And you have to include in that the drug crisis, period. Drugs are coming across the southern border and coming all over. That's why we will have the wall. We have $1.6 billion toward the wall and fixing up bad walls that are already up and, you know, building them new and rebuilding them. And a lot of work being done.

You know, certain communities, believe it or not, like in San Diego, they want a wall.

Nobody likes to talk about that. In fact, I said, "Don't build a wall there." They're all wanting it. And Jerry Brown, who's doing a terrible job as Governor, but you know. [Laughter] No, if you like high taxes and lots of otherâand crimeâ[laughter]âthat's your guy. [Laughter] But they go, and they talk so much about the wall. But in San Diego, as you know, there's a long stretch that is demanding the wall. So I said, okayâthey were ready to start. I said: "Don't build it.

We'll wait until we get everything approved." Because they're having a lot of pressure. They want the wall.

Look, we have to stop the drugs from coming in. So opioids are a big problem. We're going to be probablyâwe're developing potential litigation to be suing some of these companies. If we could only do a painkiller that's not so addictive. This stuff is brutal. You have a broken arm, you go to the hospital, you're there for a few days; you come out, your arm is fixed, and now you're a drug addict. [Laughter] And we've got to do something about it. It's so incredibly addictive and so quickly. And we are working here with research money. We're workingâand very stronglyâon coming up with painkillers that aren't so addictive and maybe not addictive at all. And I think that will be a big thing.

The other thing we have to do, in terms of the drug problem, is we have to be very tough on sentences. And you know, a drug dealer will kill sometimes more than 2,000 people, sometimes much more than that. Ruin families, ruin lives. And they get caught; they'll get 30

days in jail. They get a fine. And they won't even get jail. They'll get a year in jail. And yet if they kill somebodyâif they shoot somebody, if they get into a fight and somebody diesâthey put them in jail for life, or they give them the death penalty.

But these people kill thousands of people over the course of their lives through drugs. So we're going to have to get much, much tougher in terms of penalty. And if you want to stop itâyou look at certain countries where they have, as an example, the death penalty, and say, "How's your drug problem?" And they will tell you, "We don't have much of a drug problem."

So I sort ofâthere's nothing to laugh about, nothing to smile about. But when we have these blue ribbon committees composed of some very nice people, many of whom are in the officeâAlex and Alex. We have a double Alex and Ivanka. And we'll set up a niceâand Kellyanne. Has anybody ever heard of Kellyanne? Huh? [Laughter] She's becomeâI told Ivanka this morning, you can take Kellyanne and put her right into the heart of the battle to somebody who the level of hatred back there is so incredible. [Laughter] Seven in the morning, the cameras are on, the lights are on, and she's there, and she'll just take them on. You know, great courage. Really great courage. A lot of people say, "Please, please."

You know, Charlieâit's true. A lot of people say: "Please, Mr. President. Please don't put me in there." She'll say, "Where do you want me to go?" Right? It's all words. It's allâif you think about it. And here's another great warrior right here. Right, Ivanka? You are a great warrior.

Mr. Kirk. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you.

The President. Really is great.

Mr. Kirk. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. We're fighting for you, and we can't wait for the next 7 years. So thank you so much. We appreciate it.

The President. That will be great. Thank you. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:21 p.m. in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Timothy D. Cook, chief executive officer, Apple Inc.; White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp; Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders; Sen. Bernard Sanders, in his former capacity as a 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate; former 2018 congressional candidate Richard Saccone; Rep. Kevin P. Brady, in his capacity as chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means; Secretary of Labor R. Alexander Acosta; Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex M. Azar II; Assistant to the President Ivanka M. Trump; and Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway.

Categories: Addresses and Remarks : White House Generation Next Summit, panel discussion. Locations: Washington, DC.

Names: Acosta, R. Alexander; Azar, Alex M., II; Brady, Kevin P.; Brown, Edmund G. "Jerry"; Bush, George W.; Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Conway, Kellyanne; Cook, Timothy D.; Kirk, Charlie; Obama, Barack; Saccone, Richard; Sanders, Bernard; Sanders. Sarah Huckabee; Schlapp, Mercedes; Trump, Ivanka M.

Subjects: Alaska : Arctic Nation Wildlife Refuge (ANWR); Armed Forces, U.S. : Funding; Business and industry : Domestic investment, promotion efforts; California : Governor; China : Trade policy; China : Trade with U.S.; Civil rights : Freedom of speech; Commerce, international : Free and fair trade; Commerce, international : Intellectual property law,

strengthening efforts; Communications : News media :: Accuracy and fairness; Congress : House of Representatives : Ways and Means Committee; Drug abuse and trafficking : Illegal drugs, interdiction efforts; Drug abuse and trafficking : Opioid epidemic, efforts to combat; Economy, national : Improvement; Education : Vocational and technical education programs; Elections : 2018 congressional elections; Employment and unemployment : Unemployment rate; Government organization and employees : Federal regulations, review; Health and Human Services, Department of : Secretary; Health and medical care : Individual insurance mandate, tax penalty; Immigration and naturalization : Illegal immigration; Labor, Department of : Secretary; Law enforcement and crime : Capital punishment; Mexico : Border with U.S., infrastructure and security; North Korea : Nuclear weapons development; Taxation : Corporate tax rates; Taxation : Tax relief; White House Generation Next Summit; White House Office : Assistants to the President :: Assistant to the President; White House Office : Assistants to the President :: Counselor; White House Office : Assistants to the President :: Press Secretary; White House Office : Assistants to the President :: Strategic Communications, Director.

DCPD Number: DCPD201800181.