Transcript - Interview: Donald Trump Sits For an Interview With Sarah Mock of RFD-TV - August 28, 2018 | Factba.se

Sarah Mock

00:00:00 - 00:00:13 (13 sec)

Mr. President, thank you so much for having us here in the Diplomatic Reception room of the White House. It's a pleasure to join you today. We want to jump right in you made a big announcement yesterday that was very exciting for rural America. You announced the U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement.

Donald Trump

00:00:13 - 00:00:13 (1 sec)

Sarah Mock

00:00:13 - 00:00:17 (4 sec)

Could you just tell us a little bit about what farmers and ranchers can expect to see in that agreement?

Donald Trump

00:00:17 - 00:00:33 (15 sec)

Well, for one thing, we're going to get rid of barriers and we're going to open up markets, and it's going to be a great thing for farmers. And farmers were really at the top of my list, because I think they've been treated very unfairly for many years, including by NAFTA, but very unfairly for many years, because they have barriers.

Donald Trump

00:00:33 - 00:00:50 (17 sec)

You look at what's going on with Canada, where they get charged almost a 300 percent tariff to send dairy products in, and I was witnessing that. I saw that. I love the farmers. They supported me, and I always told them we're going to get this done one way or the other, and it's going to be good for the farmers.

Donald Trump

00:00:50 - 00:01:13 (24 sec)

We also help them a little bit, as you know, through our great Secretary Perdue and to the tune of four billion so far, because we want to help. They deserve help, because they were targeted by China, and probably others, but now it's all coming back and it's coming back strongly, and I said just stick with me for a little while, and we're a little ahead of schedule.

Donald Trump

00:01:13 - 00:01:29 (16 sec)

In Mexico, the deal is signed and it's going to open up Mexico even more, and it'll be far better than NAFTA, and we're working on the European Union also, where they have very very strong trade barriers up with the farmers can't get their product in, and we're working on Canada.

Donald Trump

00:01:29 - 00:02:05 (36 sec)

Canada, we just said look, if you don't do something about these barriers that you have in these tremendous tariffs that you have for our farmers and others then we're not going to be making a deal, we're just going to tariff you coming back in, because Canada has been very rough on our farmers, and you go to Wisconsin, you go to Iowa, you go to Upstate New York and different places where you have very big farm communities. They've been treated very I would say in a rough manner by Canada, and hopefully that'll end. We have meetings today with Canada.

Donald Trump

00:02:05 - 00:02:20 (14 sec)

They came down to see us about trying to get into the deal right now. We're not letting anyone else in the deal because of the fact that we want to make sure our farmers are properly taken care of and if they're not going to be properly taken care of, we're not going to do the deal.

Sarah Mock

00:02:20 - 00:02:28 (8 sec)

Well, and Mexico, of course was a big part of this, and you talked yesterday at your press conference that Mexico is also going to look into buying more agricultural products.

Donald Trump

00:02:28 - 00:02:28 (0 sec)

Sarah Mock

00:02:28 - 00:02:40 (12 sec)

And, of course they also -- I'm curious, are you planning to, steel and aluminum tariffs have caused them to apply some tariffs to U.S. farmers. Any chance... plans to take those down now that an agreement has been reached?

Donald Trump

00:02:40 - 00:02:54 (14 sec)

Well, an amazing thing has happened Sarah. Our steel industry was dead. It was going to go out of existence, and you know, we need steel, if you think about it from a military standpoint, from any other standpoint, we need -- from a defense standpoint, we need steel.

Donald Trump

00:02:54 - 00:03:23 (29 sec)

I put tariffs on for steel and for aluminum our steel mills are booming. It's probably the biggest expansion industry and the country right now. The steel is booming. We're making steel again and I will tell you that prices are going to start to come down because, as an example, U.S. Steel opened up six plants. They're spending billions of dollars ,other companies are spending hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars and steel has become one of the hottest industries right now. That's a beautiful thing.

Donald Trump

00:03:23 - 00:03:51 (28 sec)

So we have to remember that I would say that automatically tariffs are going to start coming off products that we send to other places. There's only a small amount of farm products that are affected by the tariffs having to do with steel, but we're very proud of what's happened with the -- and even the farmers will ,you know, ultimately, if we need it for defense we needed it for, and we have to have a steel. You can't -- there are some industries you can frankly do without.

Donald Trump

00:03:51 - 00:04:09 (18 sec)

This country has to have steel and it has to have aluminum. We needed for so many different things, but we do need it for our military. We have to be able to buy it. We can't buy everything from China or other places, but I think you're going to see a tremendous opening up of the markets for the farmers. That was very important to me.

Sarah Mock

00:04:09 - 00:04:28 (19 sec)

Absolutely. So many farmers, of course of always have also been very much the tip of the spear when it comes to China. They've been -- they've been hurting a lot of ways, and your Administration announced yesterday the trade aid package at the USDA. Could you just -- what's your message to farmers who were facing five years of declining prices but... and, and now China is penalizing them even further?

Donald Trump

00:04:28 - 00:04:51 (24 sec)

Right, well when I ran, as you remember and I've always said if you'd go from election day five years back take soybeans. It's dropped in half. That had nothing to do with me. So it came down, and I guess you figure you would know this better than anybody, but 15 years of declines in terms of farmers. They've had 15 years straight years in terms of decline.

Donald Trump

00:04:51 - 00:05:15 (23 sec)

Part of the reason is that we they're very highly tariffed in Canada and other places and they also have other types of barriers. I call tariffs a barrier to a certain extent, but they have other types of barriers. I think the farmers are going to do fantastically well. We're opening up markets that they never had before. China has -- we have a trade deficit with China the likes of which nobody's ever even conceived of before.

Donald Trump

00:05:15 - 00:05:41 (26 sec)

It'll be at least $375 billion. Somebody had to do something now. The farmers -- there are big barriers, big tariffs. I opened it up for cattle, as you know, I got that done for beef, and a lot of good things are going to happen. You know, this doesn't happen overnight. You can't just go in and say China's been hitting our country very very hard for a long period of time for many many years.

Donald Trump

00:05:41 - 00:06:15 (34 sec)

Actually, it would be more than a decade, and really probably, if you look, at least 25 years, and they've been taken out billions and billions of dollars and I've said in my campaign we have to stop. We can't let this continue and the Chinese have -- well, then they're going to go after our farmers because they know I love the farmers and the farmers love me. I mean, you look at the vote and all I'm saying is that look at what happened with Mexico. We've taken down barriers. We've opened it up. We've expanded the market. They're going to now buy much more from our farmers.

Donald Trump

00:06:15 - 00:06:47 (31 sec)

They are agreeing to buy much more farm product from our farming areas, and with China it's going to be the same thing, and I will say this: I've heard soybean prices to starting to move up, and a lot of other prices are starting to move up, and that's way ahead of schedule, and I'm really happy about it. But I view the farmers really great patriots. They really great patriots, they understand it and there will be a little pain. It could be that that pain is going to end much sooner than we think.

Donald Trump

00:06:47 - 00:07:12 (25 sec)

That's why I'm glad that we did the deal with Mexico and I have a feeling we'll probably be able to do a deal with Canada. But only if they treat our farmers well. And China, that's the big one, and we're doing well. Our country is up $10 trillion and China's down $20 trillion, and -- just in the last number of months, and I want China to do well, but they have to treat us fairly.

Sarah Mock

00:07:12 - 00:07:19 (6 sec)

I'm curious as well. RFD-TV is hosting a rural town hall next week on the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Donald Trump

00:07:19 - 00:07:19 (0 sec)

Sarah Mock

00:07:19 - 00:07:28 (9 sec)

Farmers who are losing markets elsewhere are very interested to hear what your Administration plans to do on E-15 year-round, and kind of the ethanol question. Any updates for them on that?

Donald Trump

00:07:28 - 00:07:45 (17 sec)

Well, you know, I've been very loyal to ethanol, as you probably know and they've been terrific people. I -- they back to me, and for Iowa in primarily, if you really look, it's Iowa and a couple of other great places, and they were all for me, and I've been very loyal, and I'm going to be making some statements on that very soon.

Donald Trump

00:07:45 - 00:08:18 (33 sec)

We're working very hard on the ethanol situation. It's very complex, because as you take care of ethanol something else gets hurt, you know all about that, but I've been very good for ethanol, and they're talking about moving it up to 15%, and they're talking about 12 months as opposed to much less than that, as you know, and I'm looking at both of those situations. I've been dealing with Senator Grassley and Senator Joni Ernst and they're terrific people, and I think we're going to come to a very good solution for the farmers.

Sarah Mock

00:08:18 - 00:08:21 (3 sec)

Kind of related to that. Rural infrastructure is obviously a key issue for folks --

Donald Trump

00:08:21 - 00:08:21 (0 sec)

Sarah Mock

00:08:21 - 00:08:31 (10 sec)

-- whether it's roads and bridges or schools and hospitals, rural communities across the states are hurting. Any update on -- we talk -- we heard about an infrastructure package last year. Any update on where that might be?

Donald Trump

00:08:31 - 00:08:57 (25 sec)

Yeah, right after the election, we're going to start on it right. Now, the Democrats are obstructionist. All they want to do is obstruct and that's what they do. They don't have good policy. I don't know if they're good politicians. I would say maybe not. But the fact is all they do is obstruct and you know, their... their whole big slogan is resist. Ours is make America great again. Theirs is resist. We're going to be doing something very dramatic right after the election.

Sarah Mock

00:08:57 - 00:09:07 (10 sec)

Absolutely. Well, Mr. President, I want to thank you again for inviting us here to the White House, and on behalf of everyone in rural America, thank you so much for your attention to just these issues that are so important to folks around the country.

Donald Trump

00:09:07 - 00:09:12 (5 sec)

Well, I love Rural America, you know, they were with me and I'm with them all the way. A hundred percent.

Sarah Mock

00:09:12 - 00:09:13 (1 sec)

Thank you so much.

Donald Trump

00:09:13 - 00:09:14 (1 sec)

Thank you. Thank you Sarah.