Transcript - Remarks: Donald Trump - Meeting with Business Leaders - January 23, 2017 | Factba.se

Donald Trump

00:00:00 - 00:00:07 (7 sec)

Thank you very much, everybody. This is really our first official meeting.

Donald Trump

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

And, Andrew, it's nice to have you set everything up so well. And I hear your company's doing well.

Unidentified Male

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

Thank you, Mr. President.

Donald Trump

00:00:13 - 00:00:35 (22 sec)

And I really do -- I appreciate -- we'll get to know each other very well. We'll have these meetings every -- whenever you need them, actually, but I would say every quarter perhaps. You could say monthly, but then all of a sudden, monthly becomes repetitive, as we know. Sounds good, but then you have to do it and it's like -- gets a little repetitive. But I would say probably on a quarterly basis.

Donald Trump

00:00:35 - 00:00:49 (14 sec)

You are great people. You have done an amazing job and the biggest in the world, and this is a worldwide meeting. And what we want to do is bring manufacturing back to our country. Vice President Pence, good morning, is...

Mike Pence

00:00:49 - 00:00:51 (2 sec)

Good morning, Mr. President.

Donald Trump

00:00:51 - 00:01:15 (24 sec)

... is very much involved with me on that. It's one of my most important subjects. It's what the people wanted. It's one of the reasons I'm sitting here instead of somebody else sitting here. And I think it's something I'm good at. We've already had a big impact and I want to thank Mark and Ford because you've been great. I think that -- I think Maryland is going to be terrific. We're gonna find out soon, right? [Laughter]

Donald Trump

00:01:15 - 00:01:38 (23 sec)

That's Lockheed Martin and we're gonna -- I think we're going to have a tremendous amount of business coming back. If you read today's papers, you'll see what's happening with -- with four or five different companies that announced that they feel much differently. Foxconn is gonna spend a tremendous amount of money on building a massive plant and probably more than one.

Donald Trump

00:01:38 - 00:02:05 (27 sec)

So that's what we want. We want people -- we want to start making our products again and we don't want to bring them in, we want to make them here. And that doesn't mean we don't trade, because we do trade. But we want to make our products here. And if you look at some of the original great people that ran this country, you will see that they felt very strongly about that [Inaudible] make you products and we're going to start making our products.

Donald Trump

00:02:05 - 00:02:24 (19 sec)

And there will be advantages to companies that do indeed make their products here. So we've seen it. It's going to get -- it's gonna get -- it's gonna be wave. You watch, it's gonna be a wave. And I've always said, by the time you put them in these massive ships or airplanes and fly them and -- I think it's gonna be cheaper.

Donald Trump

00:02:24 - 00:03:05 (41 sec)

Now, what we're doing is we are going to be cutting taxes massively for both the middle class and for companies, and that's massively. We're trying to get it down to anywhere from 15 to 20 percent, and it's now 35 percent but it's probably more 38 percent than it is 35, wouldn't you say? That's a big thing. A bigger thing, and that surprised me, is the fact that we're gonna be cutting regulation massively. Now, we're gonna have regulation and it'll be just as strong and just as good and just as protective of the people as the regulation we have right now.

Donald Trump

00:03:05 - 00:03:21 (16 sec)

The problem with the regulation that we have right now is that you can't do anything. You can't -- I have people that tell me they have more people working on regulations than they have doing product and it's out of control. It's gotten out of control.

Donald Trump

00:03:21 - 00:03:55 (34 sec)

I'm a very big person when it comes to the environment. I have received awards on the environment. But some of that stuff makes it impossible to get anything built. It takes years and years. You know, you can look at some examples. I read one recently where a man has been trying to build a factory for many, many years and his vote was going to be fairly soon and he gave up because he wasn't going to win the vote. Spent millions and millions of dollars, actually ruined his life and we can't have this.

Donald Trump

00:03:55 - 00:04:23 (28 sec)

So when somebody wants to put up a factory, it's gonna be expedited. And you have to go through the process, but it's gonna be expedited and we're gonna take care of the environment, we're gonna take care of safety and all of the other things we have to take care of, but you're gonna get such great service. There will be no country that's going to be faster, better, more fair and at the same time protecting the people of the country, whether it's safety or so many other reasons [Inaudible].

Donald Trump

00:04:23 - 00:04:51 (28 sec)

We think we can cut regulations by 75 percent, maybe more. But by 75 percent. Have in a certain way better protections, but when you want to expand your plant or when Mark wants to come in and build a big massive plant or when Dell wants to come in and do something monstrous and special, you're gonna have your approvals really fast.

Unidentied Male

00:04:51 - 00:04:53 (2 sec)

Thank you, sir.

Donald Trump

00:04:53 - 00:05:21 (28 sec)

And the one thing that surprised me that I want to hear what you have to say, but the one thing that surprised me going around and meeting with a lot of the people at this table and meeting with a lot of the small-business owners, if I gave them a choice of this massive tax decrease that we're giving for business -- for everybody, but for business, or the cutting down of regulation, if I took a vote, I think the regulation wins 100 percent.

Donald Trump

00:05:21 - 00:05:37 (16 sec)

Now, in one case, it's hard dollars, and the other case, it's regulation. You would think that the regulations would have no chance. It's -- it's -- I've never seen anything like it; virtually everybody is happier with regulation than even coming to taxes.

Donald Trump

00:05:37 - 00:06:11 (34 sec)

So the regulations are going to be cut massively and the taxes are going to be cut way down. So you're gonna have now incentive, incentive to build. The one thing I do have to warn you about, when you have a company here, you have a plant here. It's going to be in Indiana or it's in Ohio or it's in Michigan or it's in North Carolina or Pennsylvania. Anywhere in this country, when it decides -- when you decide, if you decide to close it and you no longer will have a real reason because your taxes are gonna be lower.

Donald Trump

00:06:11 - 00:06:47 (36 sec)

And by the way, if you go to another state, that's it, that's great. If you can go from Ohio to Indiana or from Indiana to Ohio, that's fine. See, you have 50 great, wonderful governors to negotiate with. So it's not like we're taking away competition. But if you go to another country and you decide that you're gonna close and get rid of 2,000 people or 5,000 people, I tell you United Technologies was an example with Carrier and I got involved, you know, two years after they announced. So in all fairness, that was tough.

Donald Trump

00:06:47 - 00:07:02 (15 sec)

But United Technologies was terrific and they brought back many of those jobs. But if that happens, we are going to be imposing a very major border tax on the product when it comes in ,which I think is fair, which is fair.

Donald Trump

00:07:02 - 00:07:20 (18 sec)

So a company that wants to fire all of its people in the United States and build some factory someplace else and then thinks that that product is gonna just flow across the border into the United States, that's not gonna happen. They're gonna have a tax to pay, a border tax -- substantial border tax.

Donald Trump

00:07:20 - 00:07:53 (33 sec)

Now, some people would say that's not free trade, but we don't have free trade now because we're the only one that makes it easy to come into the country. If you look at China, if you look at many other countries [Inaudible], but many other countries, they can't believe what we do. So we take in things free, and yet, if you wanna take a plant or you wanna do something, you wanna sell something into China and other countries, it's very, very hard. In some cases, it's impossible. They won't even take your product.

Donald Trump

00:07:53 - 00:08:07 (14 sec)

But when they do take your product, they charge a lot of tax. So I don't call that free trade. What we want is fair trade, fair trade. And we're gonna treat countries fairly, but they have to treat us fairly.

Donald Trump

00:08:07 - 00:08:32 (25 sec)

And if they're gonna charge tax to our countries -- if as an example, we sell a car into Japan and they do things to us that make it impossible to sell cars in Japan, and yet, they sell cars into us and they come in like by the hundreds of thousands on the biggest ships I've ever seen, we have to all talk about that. It's not fair, it's not fair.

Donald Trump

00:00:00 - 00:00:00 (0 sec)

Never was, I just can't believe it took so long for somebody to [Inaudible]. So that's the only thing I will tell you. So essentially, I'm talking about no tax because if you stay here, there's no tax. Some people say, Oh

Donald Trump

00:08:55 - 00:09:09 (14 sec)

And many other countries have great people. I mean, we all have great people, OK? This isn't that kind of a competition, everybody has great people. But if we're gonna fire people and build a product outside, not gonna happen. So what -- thank you.