{ "error": "", "type": "text", "title": "Remarks by President Trump in Cabinet Meeting - China", "slug": "remarks-by-president-trump-in-cabinet-meeting-china-1", "text": "
\"You read yesterday where China is down very substantially. They\u2019re having the worst year they\u2019ve had in 27 years. I don\u2019t want to have them have bad years. But we made a deal and they broke the deal on me. The deal was done. It was practically done. It was just like a very short period of time, we would\u2019ve had it finished. And they broke the deal. They decided they didn\u2019t want to do the things that they had agreed to. So I said, \u201cThat\u2019s all right.\u201d We put tariffs on. Twenty-five percent on $250 billion. It\u2019s obviously having a very negative \u2014 I don\u2019t want it to have a negative impact. Not having any impact on us other than positive, because China devalues their currency, and they\u2019re pumping money into their system. Our people aren\u2019t paying for that. There\u2019s been no inflation. There\u2019s been no nothing. Frankly, if we ever got interest rates down where they should be, and if they weren\u2019t raised so fast, you would see another, probably, 10,000 points on the Dow. We\u2019re setting records.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want to act like \u2014 it\u2019s like somebody gets a 99 on a test and they\u2019re complaining. I don\u2019t like that. But I\u2019m going to complain \u2014 (laughter) \u2014 because, frankly, we would\u2019ve done even better had we had a Federal Reserve that didn\u2019t raise interest rates so quickly. And had we had a Federal Reserve \u2014 and there are many people on the Federal Reserve. You know, we have votes. It\u2019s called votes.<\/p>\n
But if we had a Federal Reserve that didn\u2019t do quantitative tightening \u2014 they did quantitative tightening \u2014 $50 billion a month. That\u2019s a lot of money. Now they\u2019re doing $25 billion a month. Whereas, in Europe, they are pumping money into their system and they\u2019re lowering rates. In China, they are pumping money into their system and they\u2019re lowering rates very substantially. In Europe, the rates almost zero. And, in China, the rates are whatever President Xi wants. He\u2019s his own Fed. He\u2019s the Federal Reserve. He\u2019s \u2014 one man. He\u2019s the Federal Reserve. He\u2019s the President. He\u2019s everything else.<\/p>\n
But, unfortunately, what they did was not appropriate. They are supposed to be buying farm products. Let\u2019s see whether or not they do \u2014 our ag, our great farmers. But out of the tariffs, I took $16 billion to make up for the shortfall. [...]<\/p>
I said, \u201cWhat was the amount at its highest that China pumped into the farmers in the form of purchase?\u201d \u201cSixteen billion dollars.\u201d I said, \u201cThat\u2019s all right, we\u2019re taking in many, many times that in tariffs. We\u2019re going to help the farmers out.\u201d And I did that with $16 billion. It cost us nothing. Same thing as if they bought. And yet, the farmers don\u2019t even want that. They really just want to make the product and sell it. But it was just a small percentage of the tariffs that we\u2019re taking in.<\/p>\n
And we have a long way to go as far as tariffs, where China is concerned, if we want. We have another $325 billion that we can put a tariff on if we want.<\/p>\n
So we\u2019re talking to China about a deal. But I wish they didn\u2019t break the deal that we had. We had a deal where China opened up. We had a deal where there\u2019d be \u2014 intellectual property theft would be taken care of because it\u2019s estimated that they steal $300 billion worth of intellectual property a deal. Who knows. Who knows. That\u2019s what they tell me. Three hundred billion. That\u2019s a big number. How they get to that number, I\u2019ll accept it \u2014 they\u2019re experts. That\u2019s what they do. But that\u2019s a big number.<\/p>\n
You add that to the fact that, during the Obama administration, $500 billion a year was being lost to China. Five hundred billion. They did nothing. And, in all fairness, whether you go back to Bush, you go back to Clinton \u2014 you can go back a long way \u2014 the WTO. Once the World Trade Organization was formed, China became like a rocket ship.<\/p>\n
But now we\u2019re doing something about it. Now we\u2019re doing something about it. And \u2014 we\u2019re doing a lot about it. We picked up close to $20 trillion in wealth during my administration, from election. And, I have to say \u201cfrom election.\u201d Because when I got elected, the stock market \u2014 the day after, the stock market went wild. If I would not have gotten elected, you would have had a crash. So I can\u2019t give Obama credit \u2014 President Obama \u2014 credit for the tremendous gain from the day I won until January 20th, was when I took office. Because that was all attributed to the enthusiasm that we\u2019ve caused and that we\u2019ve had as a country. From the election until now, it\u2019s been extraordinary. We\u2019ve picked up $20 trillion. China has lost $20 trillion.<\/p>\n
If my opponent had won, China would right now be number one in the world. Right now, we\u2019re number one in the world, by far. We\u2019re going to keep it that way. And if you have smart people sitting in this chair, in this position, you\u2019re not going to lose. [...]<\/p>
Q Google and China? Google and China? You tweeted about it.<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Well, what we\u2019re doing with China, first of all \u2014 you know, Thiel is a friend of mine. He\u2019s a tremendous contributor. He\u2019s a big \u2014 he\u2019s a big \u2014 he spoke at our convention \u2014 at the Republican National Convention. Peter is a brilliant young man \u2014 one of the most successful people in Silicon Valley. I guess he was an original investor in some of these biggest \u2014 biggest companies, including Facebook, I understand.<\/p>\n
Yeah, he made a very strong charge. He\u2019s one of the top \u2014 maybe the top expert on all of those things. And he made a very big statement about Google. And I would like to recommend to the various agencies, including perhaps our Attorney General, who is with us, to maybe take a look. It\u2019s a big statement, when you say that, you know, Google is involved with China in not a very positive way for our country.<\/p>\n
So I think we\u2019ll all look at that. I know that our other agencies will be looking at it. And we\u2019ll see if there\u2019s any truth to it. But that\u2019s a very big statement, made by somebody who\u2019s highly respected. So we\u2019ll certainly take a look at that. [...]<\/p>
Q Update on China trade? China trade?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: We\u2019re doing well with China, but you will see whether or not we have a \u2014 we\u2019re talking to China about a deal. We\u2019ll see what happens. But we\u2019re doing very well economically because they\u2019re paying us billions and billions and billions of dollars.\"<\/p>", "quote": null, "citation": "