Trump speaks at small business summit

[0:32] house establishing a producer bridge for timing guidance. We are here in the east room. Again, [0:37] this is CNN pool at the White House establishing a producer bridge. If you're in the east room, [0:42] I will effort all timing guides if I can get. In the meantime, you should see our shots on [0:47] pool three and pool four. The lines if you're not actively at the bridge. Look at their wares, [38:08] and it's beautiful stuff. Made in America. It's great, great stuff. Please sit down. I'm thrilled [38:18] to be with you and welcome you to the most fabulous place the White House is. Nothing, [38:24] nothing quite like it. People come from all over the world. King and Queen were just here, [38:29] and they looked, and they said, this place is just amazing. When they came into the Oval Office, [38:36] they said, this is something. And they've seen some very nice places. They've seen some great rooms, [38:42] but it is a very special place as we celebrate National Small Business Week. So let me begin [38:50] by saying congratulations to the small business people of the year from all 50 states. It's a big [38:57] deal. It's a big deal, and you can be proud of yourself. Our country is made up of a lot of small [39:03] businesses, and that ends up being a really big business. As small business owners and operators, [39:10] the people in this room represent the 36 million small businesses who create 40 percent of all economic [39:16] activity in the United States. Think of that. A group of people added together. You're essentially [39:24] the most important factor business-wise in the whole country, and this country is leading the whole world. [39:31] We are now, and I can tell you by a lot. You're the lifeblood of the American economy, and with your help, [39:39] we're truly making America great again. We're doing record business. We have a stock market that hit, [39:47] even with this military operation, call it whatever you want. We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. [39:55] We hit all new highs, and I said, we have to take care of business because we can't let that happen. [39:59] So we did a little detour, and it's working out very nicely. They have no navy. They have no air force. [40:05] They have no anti-aircraft equipment. They have no radar. They have no nothing. They have no leaders, [40:12] actually. The leaders, the leaders happen to be gone also, but can't let them have a nuclear weapon, [40:20] where you can have, you have problems like nobody would believe, and it's going very well. [40:26] We're also pleased to be joined this afternoon by Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, who's been amazing. [40:33] Where's Chris? Except we were, everybody was wrong. They thought that energy would be at $300, [40:40] right? $300 a barrel, and it's like at 100. And I think going down, and I see it going down very [40:49] substantially when this is over, Chris, and I think very rapidly, too, at levels that you've never seen, [40:55] because there's a lot of energy out there. They have ships all over the world that are loaded up with it. [41:00] They can't do much with it, because they got kidnapped by a pretty evil place, but we're taking [41:08] care of it. We have Administrator Kelly Loeffler, who's incredible, and he's the head of the Small [41:15] Business Administration. We're thinking about a name change, but it's still a pretty good name. [41:21] And I always say it's the small business is a giant business, because when you add up your whole [41:26] department, that's not a small business. That's a really big business, the biggest. [41:31] Under the last administration and their radical left allies in Congress, small businesses were brutally [41:36] crushed by the worst inflation in American history. We had the worst inflation under Biden [41:42] that we've ever had, and I always say, I always like to correct, because if I don't correct, then the [41:48] papers, the media goes crazy. He made a mistake. Well, the official number is 48 years. I say the [41:55] worst in history because I don't believe the 48 years. I say it was worse than that. But in many ways, [42:00] 48 years sounds worse than in history. I don't know why, but it was 48 years or worse. It was a Biden [42:09] inflation. They had this is what I inherited. And now we had it down where just prior to the war, [42:15] the inflation was 1.4 percent. And for three months, over three months, four month period, [42:22] took me a little while to get it down from the levels it reached. Biden added $6 trillion worth of [42:29] new regulations and created an estimated 356 hours of paperwork every year for small businesses. You [42:37] know what that means better than anybody's means no good. Their policies punish hardworking citizens, [42:43] and our policies protect you and reward you. And also, we happen to have something else that I think [42:49] is good for your businesses. We are respected all over the world now, again, as a country. We were left [42:55] at, we were a joke. We were a total joke. Right, Rick? I see Rick, my television star over here. He's been with [43:02] us from the beginning, haven't you? Like, maybe from the first speech. Long time, right? Thank you. [43:08] Thank you very much. Well, I think we're doing good for you, Rick, right? And you're doing good? [43:12] Will you shop? Oh, everything's good. I know you're doing good on the television camera, [43:17] so that's maybe more. Ah, that's good. That's great. Thank you, Rick. Last summer, [43:23] I proudly signed the great, big, beautiful bill, the largest tax cuts in the history of our country, [43:30] and boosting millions of small businesses. Boosting millions of small businesses, we passed no tax on [43:44] tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our seniors. That's big stuff. And we add [43:52] that to the package that we approved in my first term. We had the best financial years in the history [43:58] of our country in my first term, and I think we're going to blow them away this term. You know, [44:02] in this term, we have $18 trillion being invested in our country. And if you look at the last [44:09] administration, they had less than $1 trillion for four years. We have $18 trillion during 11 months. [44:15] The 12th month hasn't come in yet in terms of the numbers. But in 11 months, $18 trillion investments. [44:22] We have auto plants being built all over the country, AI plants. We're doing, and we're leading [44:28] China in AI. And I'm going to go see President Xi in two weeks. I look forward to that, but I'll say, [44:33] I'm leading. We have friendly, we have very friendly competition. But it'll be actually, [44:42] it'll be a very important trip. We provided 100% expensing and bonus appreciation, which is tremendous. [44:50] One of the biggest things that you have. I mean, it's, people have no idea how big that is, [44:54] the businesses do. So that businesses can deduct 100% of the cost of new facilities, equipment, [45:01] and capital investment in the first year. It used to take 38 years of deduction. Now you get it done [45:06] in one. You can take one, so you can expand. I think that's what made us so successful in the [45:12] first term. And now we have it for a 10-year period. So you have it for a while. I really was going to [45:16] make it for a one-year period. That would mean you spend all your money immediately. Now, unfortunately, [45:21] I gave you too much time. I was sort of against that. I said, let's do it for a shorter period of time. [45:26] But we did it. It's the right thing. And this way, when I get out of office in, let's say, [45:33] eight or nine years from now, I'll be able to use it. I'll be able to use it. And to ensure that you [45:47] and your family can keep your businesses in the family, we virtually eliminated the unfair estate [45:53] tax or debt tax for farmers and for small businesses. So, you know, oftentimes you build, [45:59] I mean, I just met some incredible people. They're beautiful businesses, small businesses. [46:03] They want to have their children. Those businesses were all long-term. It was, [46:08] the father was there, right? We're just talking about with the beautiful pretzels. I said, [46:12] pretzels, oh, those look good. I want to take some right now, but I didn't want to be rude and rip, [46:17] rip your bag apart. But the businesses were, they've been in business for a long time, [46:24] almost every one of them. And you pass away. You want to have your children take over your business. [46:30] They work in your business. And they got hit with the state tax, or we call it the death tax, [46:35] but we call it both. It does the same thing. And they couldn't afford it. They went out, [46:40] they take the business, they mortgage it up to pay the tax, and they end up losing the business. They [46:45] end up going bankrupt. They end up, in many cases, committing suicide. We have a lot of that. You have [46:51] a lot, especially farms. You know, they want to be on that farm. They don't want to lose their farm. [46:56] And it's land rich and cash poor. And they go out and they borrow and borrow and keep borrowing. [47:03] We ended that. No more estate taxes on farms and small businesses. So I hope everyone's [47:08] appreciative of it. Now, if you don't like your children, it doesn't mean anything. [47:12] But if you do like to leave them to somebody that you love, then it's a big deal for them. [47:17] You have other problems. But for them, it's a big deal. And I want to say thanks to these tax cuts. [47:26] 12 million American small businesses got an average tax cut of over $7,000. And our pass-through [47:32] deduction alone is delivering an average of $4,600 in savings to 8 million entrepreneurs and is [47:40] projected to generate $750 billion in economic growth for the country. It's very, really amazing. I see [47:48] it on the television. I don't call this fake news because this is real fake news. But when you look [47:55] at some of the things that have taken place, we don't get covered correctly. But in terms of the truth, [48:01] we're having $5,000, $6,000, $7,000, $10,000, $11,000 with no tax on tips and no tax on social [48:10] security, no tax on overtime. And people are making sometimes 11. I mean, I've seen it just [48:16] where they're asking people virtually on the street, how is it doing? And everyone's surprised, [48:21] including me. I didn't know it was going to be as much. But I knew it was going to be a lot. But you [48:26] have people that make an extra $7,000, $8,000, $9,000 a year between the no tax on tips. No tax on [48:33] overtime is a big one. It's a big one. But the no tax on tips was great. I won the [48:39] So typically, I don't know why. I can't imagine people voting for the other side with their policies [48:50] and everything beyond this, long beyond this. But we won Nevada by a lot. And typically, Democrats [48:57] win that state. And no tax on tips. A lot of people getting tips in Nevada. So it had a big [49:04] impact on people and much bigger than they thought. And they're just now starting to realize how big [49:10] and how really wonderful the great, big, beautiful, I call it the great, big, beautiful bill is because [49:14] we really, it should be called the great, big, beautiful tax cut bill and regulation cut bill. [49:22] We put everything in four years. If we didn't pass another bill, which won't happen because you [49:29] always want to keep going. But everything was put into this one bill. That's why it's called the great, [49:34] big, beautiful bill. And one of the, one of the things that happened is we were going to do it over [49:40] 17 different bills. And I said, let's give it a shot. Put everything in one bill. And thank goodness, [49:47] we did it. Because the Democrats don't approve anything. They don't, you can have the best thing. [49:53] It can be for security. Look at the security. They wanted to fund ICE. They wanted to fund [49:58] our incredible border patrol. They wanted, essentially, they wanted to fund the police, [50:04] but they don't want to say, it's crazy what's going on. So we put it all at the beginning. [50:09] We have a little honeymoon period, a tiny little honeymoon period in this case. So we got it all approved. [50:14] And late at night, it got approved. And this was really done as a four-year bill, Kelly. You know [50:21] that very well. You were a big part of it. And we got it done. And everybody was surprised. They [50:26] thought we had to do it in little trenches. I don't know that we would have gotten the little [50:29] trenches done. There was so much in here that people had to approve it. And if we would have done [50:36] it individually, I'm not sure it would have gotten done. Plenty of those individual elements would not [50:41] have gotten done. And almost as important as the tax cuts, we've slashed a record number of job [50:46] crushing regulations. That includes you. And that includes tremendous numbers of environmental [50:52] regulations, which stopped your businesses, but they didn't do anything. And they had no impact. [50:57] If anything, they made the environment worse. But we eliminated 129 old regulations for every new one [51:03] that was approved. It was supposed to be 1 in 10. And it's turning out to be 129. So for every regulation, [51:12] think of that, 129. We lose them. We get rid of them. It was supposed to be 1 in 10. We would have been [51:18] happy with it. We did 1 in 12. We started off 1 in 7. With my last administration, we got it up to [51:25] about 1 in 12. Now I see we have 1 in 129. So we're getting rid of 129 nonsense regulations for every [51:34] new one that we pass. And thanks to these pro-growth policies, our economy is roaring. And factory [51:40] construction is way up. Consumer confidence is way up. Business investment is more than triple compared [51:48] to that of just a short time ago. And before I took office, nobody can believe it. And nobody can [51:54] believe the $18 trillion number that we gave you. Because it's a record for any country, [51:59] not just here. It's for any country. And a lot of that had to do with November 5th. But a lot of it [52:03] had to do with tariffs. We charge tariffs to companies. When they come in, a couple of you were just [52:10] saying to me that you're getting hurt by China and other countries making a product that's not as good, [52:16] but it's less money because of the fact that there were no guards, no safeties for you. And we've [52:22] changed a lot of it. Some have said you've absolutely saved our business. But because of the use of [52:28] tariffs, we have all this money. Because if they come in and build a business here, if they build [52:32] their plant here, there are no tariffs. Jobless claims just hit the lowest level since 1969. [52:40] And more Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country. So we have more [52:45] people working today. That's so beautiful. I mean, what could be better than that? You say, [52:55] like somebody who's saying, oh, will AI take our jobs? Well, we have a lot of AI up. Is it going to [53:00] take jobs? I said, well, you're probably right. Maybe a little bit, but it's going to create a lot [53:04] of jobs. And did you know that more people are working in the United States right now than ever [53:09] before? They said, no, is that true, really? That goes, that's the end of that argument. And a lot of [53:14] good things are happening. And leading in AI is very important because that's a tremendously big [53:20] industry. And we want to be able to lead. Primarily it's China, but others, other countries are very [53:25] much active in it also. Under the last administration, one in four new jobs was a government job. But [53:32] since my inauguration, 100 percent, think of that, 100 percent of all new jobs have been in the private [53:40] sector, 100 percent. And two of the three new jobs have been in small businesses. But I just want to [53:53] say, so think of that, 100 percent of new jobs are in the private sector. Now, to do that, we cut [54:01] tremendous numbers of governmental jobs. And I feel sorry for everyone. And I, you know, it's a hard [54:08] thing to do. Many of those people voted for me, but now they like me because they went out, they got [54:13] private sector jobs that they like better. And it's paying them sometimes two and three times more [54:17] money. So it's worked out the right way. But you have to do that. You can't just keep, I mean, we had [54:23] jobs, we had government jobs where you'd have 10 people doing the job of one person. And it just, [54:30] it's, you can't make America great that way. So we, we did it the, the hard way, but the correct way, [54:39] the correct way, big difference, right, Cal? You see it. Nobody's ever seen anything quite like it. [54:45] And it, it was especially working here. It's tough because, you know, this is the home of federal [54:52] jobs. I wouldn't say I've got tremendous. I mean, you know, we won the election in a landslide. We got, [54:59] we won all seven swing states. We did all the things that you've heard so many times with counties, [55:04] counties, which is a big count. That's why you see the map is all red, practically. When you look at it, [55:09] we won 86% of the counties in the country. But here's a little bit different. But now if you look [55:15] at those people, some of them have left. And by the way, speaking of that, Washington DC, which was [55:22] very unsafe a year ago, a little more than a year ago, is now one of the safest cities in the United [55:28] States. So we had to cut the jobs because we were way bloated with federal jobs. And, you know, I could make, [55:41] I could with one swipe of the pen, I could say, let's have no employment. And I'll hire a million [55:45] people or 2 million people. I say, we just hired a million people. And we have absolutely no [55:50] employment. And that's what they would do. They'd have bad numbers coming up. So they'd hire a couple [55:55] of hundred thousand people. And the numbers would look okay. With me, it's the exact opposite. We [56:01] terminate a lot of federal jobs that are unnecessary. And they don't like me for doing it. But a year later, [56:08] they like me because they end up having a much better job, oftentimes in a place where they'd [56:13] much rather live. You know, they go to the place that they want to go. They're not stuck in [56:18] Washington or someplace else. And they do much better. And in the end, I mean, I've had a lot of [56:24] people come up. They say, I was so angry at you, but now I'm making sometimes two or three times the [56:29] money in a job that I really like. So you got to do what you have to do. You have to politically, [56:35] I don't know if it's good, bad, or indifferent. I think it's probably bad, maybe politically. But [56:40] in the meantime, I'm in the White House, so maybe it's good. A lot of times, a lot of times, [56:45] as you probably heard, the fake news media treats me very, very badly. 93% of the stories I get are bad. [56:56] And yet I won in a landslide. How do you win all seven swing states when you get only bad press? [57:01] It's fake press. They give me fake polls. They tell me about polls and this. You know, it's [57:06] it's interesting. They did a poll on the war with Iran. And they said only 32% of the people like it. [57:14] Well, I don't like it. And I don't like war at all. But we're equipped better than we have the greatest [57:19] military in the world. You saw what happened with Venezuela. You see what happens with everything. [57:23] But they said 32% of the people are against President Trump. Well, when you explain it, [57:29] like, is it okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon? It wouldn't be 32%. But even if you said that, [57:37] they'd be at 32% because the polls are fake. I mean, they're totally fake. And when you take a look [57:43] at what's really going on, the other day, I made a speech in a great Florida senior citizens community. [57:50] And I made another one at the Kravitz Center, two in one day. It was wonderful. I go out and make a [57:54] speech. Then I say, all right, let's go home. Sir, you're making another speech. And this one's in front [58:00] of the richest people in the world. I went from an unbelievable group of seniors. Now, [58:05] of course, I'm not a senior. I'm far younger than you. It's true. I feel like, [58:10] I feel the same as I felt 50 years ago. I don't know. There'll be a period of time when I don't [58:15] tell you that. They'll speak, because I'm honest. I'll say, it's not looking good. I have to be careful. [58:20] If I said, as an example, I'm not feeling well. They put on, Donald Trump is not feeling well, [58:27] because they'll just, they won't know that I'm using that. It's just a reference point. And they'll [58:32] say, listen to this. I'll say, I'm not feeling well. Well, someday I might say that to you, [58:39] and you'll be the first to know. Actually, I won't have to say it, because you'll be able to see it, [58:43] just like you did in the last administration. You know, one of the things I said is that we should [58:51] have, in my opinion, anybody running for president or vice president should take a cognitive test. [58:57] And no president has ever taken one, except me. I've taken three of them, [59:03] and I've aced each one. One in the first administration, two over here. And whenever [59:09] they get a little sassy, like, does he still have it? Does he still have what it takes? [59:14] I say, all right, I'll take another one. And they are hard. There are many people in this room, [59:18] I know, that are smart. They're not going to ace them. There are many people standing back there, [59:22] the fake news. I'd like to have them. You know, the first question is very easy. And they always [59:28] show the first question is, you have a lion, a bear, an alligator, and a, what's another good? A [59:36] squirrel. Okay, which is the squirrel? So they show that question. And then the first four or five [59:44] questions are, they get a little more difficult. By the time you get to the middle, they're tough. [59:49] By the time you get to the end, I don't want to be insulting, but there won't be, I'm not going to [59:53] do what Gavin Newsom said, you saw him. He said, everybody in here is stupid, and he's stupid. When [59:59] he's, I think it was the worst political interview I've ever seen. He said, he's stupid, he's dumb, [1:00:05] he gets bad marks on everything, he can't read a speech. And nobody wants to report that. It was the [1:00:11] worst. But I won't say that, because I think everyone in this room is brilliant. But nobody's going to get [1:00:17] all 30 questions correct. Nobody. Because when you get to those last questions, they're pretty [1:00:23] hard. You got to be pretty sharp. But every time, so I've taken three. No president, think of this, [1:00:29] has ever taken one. How do you think Biden would have done? I don't think, he might not have gotten [1:00:35] that first question right. Anyway. And Obama would have done poorly. They would have done very poorly. [1:00:42] But I think you should have it. As soon as they said that, they say, it's unconstitutional. And I [1:00:48] said, why? They say it's unconstitutional to give a cognitive test like that. But Rick, I do it. Anytime [1:00:55] they start getting a little sassy. And you know, it quiets them down for almost a year, when they hear [1:00:59] the result. One doctor said, it's the first time I've ever seen anyone get oral questions right. That's a [1:01:07] doctor who does this stuff for a living. And I did it three times. So, I don't know. I think I'm done [1:01:12] with those days. I'm tired of taking that test. You know, you sit before a group of doctors and they [1:01:17] ask you questions. I said to Ronnie Jackson, he was original, right? First time. I said, [1:01:24] so what do you think, Ronnie? They call me, they call me a genius who's going to destroy the country. [1:01:30] Then they said, he's a genius who's taken over the entire world. [1:01:34] And they said, he's a total moron. This guy is so stupid. [1:01:38] And then, so whenever I hear that one, I say, let's take the cognitive test. [1:01:42] But I really think it would be a great thing if you could do that. They say it's not constitutional, [1:01:49] but I think it would be good. And I can tell you, a lot of the people that run these small businesses, [1:01:54] you could take the cognitive test and you could do a lot better than some of the people that we talk [1:01:58] about. But I really believe it. I think it's so important for our country. We have to make sure we have [1:02:02] the right people leading this country. Like, we have a war right now. And we're to like, what, [1:02:10] six weeks? They said, what's taking so long? We were in Vietnam 19 years. We're in Iraq for many years, [1:02:18] 10 years, 12 years. We're in all these different wars. Korea has seven years. I won't even mention [1:02:25] World War II. That's a big baby. But you had the wrong person up here. You'll be in, [1:02:30] you'll be in World War III. As sure as you're sitting there, you have the wrong person up there. [1:02:35] It's nasty and tricky. It's tricky out there. We have to have, we have to have the right people. [1:02:40] And they have to be sharp. And they have to be smart. Because one thing about your business, [1:02:44] the small businesses are great. But if you don't have the platform, meaning the country, [1:02:49] meaning the right principles, the right everything, our country's booming now, despite the fact that we're [1:02:54] in a, I call it a mini war, because that's all they are. They don't have a Navy anymore. Think of it. [1:03:00] They had 159 ships. How many do they have left, Kelly? Out of 159, take your guess. She's very smart. [1:03:08] Zero. 159 ships. In the first two weeks, 159 ships. I actually got very upset. I said, [1:03:16] how quality were the ships? They were very good. I said, why didn't you just take the ship? [1:03:20] Why do you have to send it to the bottom of the sea? We could have had, we could have had, [1:03:24] let's say out of the 159, we could have taken 59. We would have had 59. But they like, [1:03:30] they'd rather blow them up than save them. I would have preferred saving them. But these are minor [1:03:34] details. But one of the, one of the small business owners who can tell us firsthand how our tax cuts [1:03:42] are boosting revenue is someone you may have heard. And I made mention of the fact he has been with me. [1:03:48] I don't know. Maybe he doesn't like me. Or maybe he loves me. I think I'd rather be liked than loved [1:03:54] by him. Although he is a very handsome man, I would say. But he's somebody that we all know. And I really, [1:04:00] I think he's a fantastic guy. And he has, he's been to so many rallies, so many speeches. And I, [1:04:06] I love being able to introduce him because he's a champion. He's a winner. You know, [1:04:10] to go on television and to make it, he made it big. But to go on television, I don't know if you know this, [1:04:16] Rick, five percent of the shows make it. Two percent of the shows make it pretty good. One [1:04:21] percent of the shows make it. So it's very risky to do a television show because, and I did The [1:04:27] Apprentice and that was one of the greatest hits of a long time. But you did, you did your show and [1:04:34] I've, I've just always admired. I admire people that will go against the odds. And when you do a [1:04:41] television show, you're going to, because very, very few of them make it. And you made it big. [1:04:46] So I'd like to have Rick Harrison come up. It's a gold, silver pawn shop in Las Vegas. And you know [1:04:53] his show very well. Thank you. You know, usually I like to announce them at rallies and they give me [1:05:09] like three minutes notice and I can't come up with a speech and later, like literally just told me a [1:05:12] couple hours ago to take a little speaking. Uh, I just want to say he's amazing. He's done so much, [1:05:18] I mean, so much for all of us. I mean, the backbone of this country is small business, [1:05:22] plain and simple. And, uh, the last guy at office, all he, you know, all we heard was is that we were [1:05:28] the evil people. We were the bad people, everything else like that. We don't pay our fair share, [1:05:33] whatever that's supposed to be. Um, and he made it tough. And this guy, the big, beautiful bill, [1:05:38] absolutely amazing. You know what I mean? God bless you for letting me, letting me get 100% [1:05:43] appreciation. It really helps out. Um, and, uh, all I can say is this is literally, I mean, [1:05:49] I'm a history buff and I know a lot about this white house thing and everything. [1:05:52] Literally he's going to go down as maybe the best president ever. I love this guy. [1:05:55] I'm glad we didn't tell you because actually that was much better than when you're fully prepared. [1:06:11] When he comes up fully prepared. No, that was great. Thank you very much. [1:06:16] And, uh, very special guy. Thank you. Very nice. [1:06:20] One of the strongest and by the way, right behind me, see this. I call it, you call it a room. [1:06:26] This is the biggest room in the white house. Not big enough to have anything. We had the king here. [1:06:30] We had like 102 people and we could have had 2000 people literally, but this is, [1:06:37] I call it a knockout panel. You see, some people would say, oh, there's a curtain underneath that [1:06:42] curtain is a window outside of that window is the new ballroom. So I said, I'll leave, [1:06:48] I'll get out of here and I'll let you guys, if you want to see a beautiful structure going up, [1:06:53] complex, safe, uh, things that could never happen like happened a week ago. That was a pretty bad [1:07:02] situation. You can't have a thousand units over the ballroom with an entrance right next to where you [1:07:06] are for a lot of reasons. So, uh, if you want, we're going to open that up. I think later on, [1:07:11] you'll open it up and let the people take a look and it would be pretty good. Not as exciting as [1:07:15] looking at oil wells like Chris gets to do all day long, right? And speaking of that, [1:07:20] we're doing well in Venezuela, right? It's working good. Yes, we are. That war took us [1:07:26] approximately 48 minutes. And actually, we have a great relationship. And you know what? [1:07:39] I heard the other day that the people of Venezuela are really happy. They're seeing things happen that [1:07:44] they haven't seen in 20 years. They're working and they're, they're, uh, there's a spirit in Venezuela [1:07:50] that they haven't had in many, many years. And the big companies are coming in now and they're [1:07:55] building these giant rings because it's a lot of oil and a lot of other, other things too, [1:08:00] and a lot of great people. And we have people in charge that are doing a fantastic job and [1:08:05] they're working with you and you are doing a fantastic job. So thank you very much, Rick. Good [1:08:09] job. Proud of you. [1:08:20] ...croud and bold leadership to change the trajectory of their lives. [1:08:24] No, no. I want to say, as you engage with the people of Venezuela and the businesses, [1:08:38] I will tell you that President Trump is incredibly popular with the people of Venezuela. It's a nation [1:08:44] of 30 million people going the wrong way for 25 years. And a bold leadership of this president [1:08:52] changed the trajectory of that country, changing the futures of all those people, [1:08:56] wanting millions of Venezuelans abroad to go back to that country. American businesses are stampeding, [1:09:02] stampeding in to invest in that country. 25 years trying everything going the wrong way. [1:09:08] His bold leadership and creative thinking changed the game. Thank you, Mr. President. [1:09:12] It's a great relationship. We have hundreds of millions of barrels of oil coming out of Venezuela, [1:09:27] going to use it in different places to have it refined. And we're sort of, it's almost really a [1:09:33] partnership. The man you just heard speaking, Chris, has been, he wasn't my choice. He was, [1:09:41] I had somebody else for him, Department of Energy, a fantastic man, Doug Burgum. And I said, [1:09:48] I want you to head up energy. He says, you know, there's one person better than me, better than [1:09:52] anybody. I said, who the hell is that? Chris Wright. I said, who's Chris Wright? Tell me. And he's like [1:09:58] the number one guy in the whole world at this subject. And I said, well, let's talk to him. [1:10:04] I don't know. He probably makes a lot of money if he's doing that. And he was. He's taken one of [1:10:09] the largest salary cuts in history, I'll tell you, without question. But he's done a fantastic job. [1:10:15] These are the people we have. We have great people. Doug is great. He was the governor of North Dakota, [1:10:20] ran an incredible state. He was very successful in business. He started with a small business. He sold it [1:10:25] for a billion dollars to Microsoft. And he wanted to do what Trump did. He said, I want to be a [1:10:31] business guy. And now I want to run. I made a lot of money. I want to run. So Doug Burgum ran. And [1:10:36] he became a great governor for eight years. He was term limited. And I saw him at a session, [1:10:43] speaking session and sort of a debating session. I thought he was great. And I said, if I win, [1:10:48] I'm going to get that guy in. And he's now heading up. He's now the largest landlord in the world, [1:10:54] all the guys you could say, right? Department of Interior. And he's been fantastic. But he wanted [1:10:58] Chris to be energy. So he's got all the power of the energy, but he doesn't have the land. [1:11:03] Doug has none of the power of him, but he has the land. So I merged them. It's a friendly merger. [1:11:10] We don't have any papers. They just get along together, right? And we've, I think today we've [1:11:15] announced we're drilling more oil by far than we ever have in the history of our country. More oil and gas [1:11:23] by far. And this was just said, but this took place almost from the beginning. We got it started [1:11:30] very, very early. So you're doing a great job, Doug was right. And we're also very happy with Doug, [1:11:35] because he's doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much, Chris. Appreciate it. [1:11:38] So the strongest effects of our tax cuts and tariffs is the Trump manufacturing boom, [1:11:50] is what they're calling it, because that's all we have. We have never had anything like what's [1:11:54] happening now. And when I talk about, again, the 18 trillion dollars, that's coming in [1:11:58] and building places. And as we speak, American companies are ordering core capital goods for [1:12:05] factory construction and operation expansion. And you saw the construction numbers. Now, [1:12:10] the plans will be opening over the next period of time pretty soon, but we just got started. And these [1:12:17] plans are going to be opening. Right now, the big numbers, the construction jobs in the country are [1:12:21] going through the roof. And ultimately, when the plants open, then you're going to have [1:12:25] manufacturing jobs, because right now, the plants, many of them haven't opened, but they're under [1:12:30] construction. When you see the final numbers, you're not going to even believe what you are seeing, [1:12:35] because there's never been any construction boom of factories like we have right now. We lost our car [1:12:41] industry. We lost 54 percent of our car industry to Canada, Mexico, Germany, Japan, South Korea, [1:12:50] other countries, 54 percent over the years, over a period of probably 30, 35 years. [1:12:57] And they're all coming back. They're all coming back. And they're coming back [1:13:01] at levels that has never been seen before. It's pretty amazing. When you see, you'll see it. [1:13:06] It can't be disguised by our friends that would, I guess, I don't know. I see so many of them smiling, [1:13:14] having a good time, that I actually think they're probably like us. I think their bosses say, [1:13:19] treat Trump as badly as you possibly can. But they had so many good faces. And so many, [1:13:25] they are a lot of professionals there. But it's the highest rate in over four decades. [1:13:30] And under four years of the Biden administration, real wages for manufacturing workers fell. It fell [1:13:37] $840. Under one year of Trump, wages for factory workers, manufacturing factory workers, increased [1:13:47] by $2,500. So think of that. Under Biden, it fell $840. And under Trump, it went up $2,500. That's quite [1:13:59] a difference. And as I said, if you haven't seen the real effect, because these factories are being [1:14:09] built right now, when they open, you're going to see numbers that are much greater than that. And a [1:14:15] lot of these government workers, government workers, good people, and, you know, I don't blame them for [1:14:20] liking what they have. But they're going to all be in this system. And they're going to be making double [1:14:24] and triple what they were making in government. And we have a country again. Because you can't have [1:14:29] a country that works where you have literally 10 people to do one job. You can't have a great country. [1:14:38] Earlier this year, I visited Costa Steel in Rome, Georgia, before I took office. China and other [1:14:43] countries were taking more of our industry all the time, just more and more. And Costa was hit very [1:14:49] hard. Their core business dropped from two shifts to six days a week. And the two shifts were during my [1:14:56] administration, by the way. But now is down to a very, and then ultimately is down to one shift [1:15:05] operating three days. And it was going down to one day. And they expected to go out of business. There [1:15:09] was no stopping it. And now, thanks to the tax cuts and the steel tariffs that I put on, Costa is [1:15:17] thriving like never before. I just heard from them. And they're at now full shifts, two full shifts, [1:15:24] six days a week, and they may go to a third shift. Round the clock. Think of that. Round the clock. [1:15:31] They've never had that before. And they have the backlog of seven months long of things that they're [1:15:37] building. Steel products, great. And they said that I was with the gentleman that owns the company. [1:15:42] He thought he was going out of business. And now he said, now I have a great business in just a period of [1:15:47] literally a year and a half. We thought we couldn't stop it. And he said, all of my friends up and down [1:15:55] the line, they have different businesses, factories, big businesses. But they all thought they were going [1:16:00] out of business. And now they're all doing better than they've ever done before. And they've gone from [1:16:04] employing, in this case, Costa, 50 people to 125 people. And the 50 people is going down to about 14 [1:16:11] or 15. And now they're at 125. And they're looking for additional people to work. And I want to thank [1:16:18] their president, Andrew Seville, who I think maybe is here. Andrew, are you here someplace? [1:16:23] Andrew Seville, where are you, Andrew? [1:16:25] Andrew Seville, I'm sure God just really understood what was happening. And I think it'd be nice. [1:16:35] You weren't supposed to speak, so I hope you're not nervous. Thank you very much. [1:16:41] The most thing that took us right to the top was your tariffs. And I think everybody in here that [1:16:47] runs a small business, the tariffs had an effect on you one way or another. And that has just taken [1:16:53] us all the jobs that were going to China. You brought them back, and it really took us to the [1:16:58] next level. And we were honored to have you come down to our company. So thank you for having me back [1:17:10] here. I wasn't prepared to speak, so I'm going to get off the stage. Thank you. [1:17:14] There's a little truth to that, right? When you, sometimes you don't think you're going to introduce [1:17:27] somebody. You know they're in the audience, but they don't know. And they end up doing better [1:17:31] because they speak from the heart. They have no choice. They can't think about all night long. [1:17:36] What am I going to say? And then you get up and you bore the press. No, it's very good. [1:17:42] You speak from the heart. And that's true. Tariffs were a very big part. We had an unfortunate ruling [1:17:48] out of the Supreme Court. But the good news is I'm able to do it a different way. They said use [1:17:53] the other way. There was no reason for that. It was terrible. Actually terrible, but it will have [1:17:59] no impact other than I hate to pay people back. Tariffs, $159 billion. I have to pay them back when [1:18:07] a little half sentence, any money taken in to this point does not have to be paid back. We would have [1:18:15] saved $159 billion. And I cannot figure it out. How could anybody do that? But they did it. [1:18:21] We have other ways of tariffing. As you know, we're already doing it. [1:18:27] And actually, they're more tested. They're stronger. A little bit more complex. I like to keep it as [1:18:32] simple as possible. And in many ways, they'll be better. It'll be better. I just want you not to [1:18:37] think that because of that decision, we don't do it. The tariffs will actually be higher. It's turning [1:18:41] out. They're going to end up being higher. But it's made our country rich, really rich. [1:18:47] And it's like Andrew said, I mean, without them, there would be nothing we could do to save your [1:18:53] country. Nothing. It's the greatest word. Remember, I used to say it's my favorite word in the dictionary, [1:18:58] the word tariff. And then the fake news got on me. They said, well, what about God? What about your [1:19:04] wife? What about your family? Whatever. So they were just killing me because I said, [1:19:09] it's my favorite word. I said, all right, it's my fifth favorite word. [1:19:13] So it's my fifth favorite word. But because of tariffs and, you know, the proper use of tariffs, [1:19:19] you have to use them in a certain way. But, you know, we've been ripped off in this. I've been [1:19:23] talking about it for years. We've been ripped off in this country for decades. And we lost our car [1:19:28] industry. Think of it. There's a person here making utensils, beautiful forks and knives and things. [1:19:34] Where is that person who's around here? So, and he was telling me, he said, China's coming in and [1:19:40] they're ripping us. And we have a tariff. It's 25 percent, but it's not enough because, [1:19:46] you know, they have certain advantages that you're not going to have. But the advantage you have is [1:19:52] you have a higher quality product. And I'm going to be able to take care of that very easily, [1:19:57] you know, just by putting it up. You'll have you'll be treated fairly. It's just really tough. And it's [1:20:03] amazing you've done as well as you've done. But you did that because of the quality of your product. [1:20:08] We have such quality. North Carolina, if you take a look, I'm going to put tremendous tariffs on. [1:20:14] That process has already started. It takes me longer now because of the Supreme Court decision. [1:20:18] They have to go through a process. It's ridiculous. But we don't like it. We like to do what's right [1:20:24] and get it done instead of having to do a report which is going to come out and say the exact same thing [1:20:30] that everyone knows. But you can tell the people in North Carolina that, you know, [1:20:34] we used to have a great furniture business. I built a lot of hotels and a lot of different [1:20:38] buildings where I need furniture. I would go to North Carolina. These were great artists. And [1:20:43] China essentially put them out of business because we never, we didn't have a president that was [1:20:48] willing to do it. Happened before my term. They'd been out of business for a long. I used to go down [1:20:53] there and see these people. They were artists with wood. I'd say, I'd like to make the handle a little bit [1:20:58] slimmer. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. It's like, it was like magic. And we lost that whole thing. [1:21:05] You can see it's coming back because we're putting tariffs on furniture where you'll be able to more [1:21:10] than compete. We're going to protect, we have to protect our businesses. Same thing with you and [1:21:14] the utensil business. Your stuff is so beautiful, but it's very tough when you're competing against [1:21:20] something that is cheap. And, you know, because of the lack of protection that you've been given, [1:21:26] it just puts you out of business. So you actually said, thank you for the tariffs. But the tariffs [1:21:31] really aren't high enough, in my opinion, in that particular thing. But with the furniture, [1:21:35] we're going to bring all the furniture back to North Carolina. And you're going to see, [1:21:40] it'll be as robust as it was 25, 30 years ago. The greatest furniture people in the world. [1:21:48] And they got stolen. They really didn't take them. They found people in China that could do it. [1:21:54] And all those people got put out of jobs. And their kids have that same ability. And [1:21:59] you watch what happens, how good it is in North Carolina. Because I've been, [1:22:03] I've had to go through a process to get that approved. But now it's proved. And [1:22:08] you're going to be, again, the furniture capital of the world. Because nobody can do that quality. [1:22:12] And I know the quality. I buy a lot of things from China. And because I was forced to. You know, [1:22:17] when I was in the hotel business, I was forced to buy from China because of pricing. Because of [1:22:23] pricing. And because of, for other reasons. What I wasn't getting was the kind of quality that we [1:22:28] were getting here. And now you'll have a combination of both. So you can let that be known. I don't know [1:22:33] if that's breaking news or not for these people. But to me, it's very important. I've been wanting to do [1:22:38] it for a long time. And now my administration is also committed to ensuring that American small [1:22:49] businesses have access to the credit and capital that they need under Administrator Loeffler, who's [1:22:56] phenomenal. She's got a great husband, Jeff. And he's a friend of mine. And he's a very successful [1:23:09] man. And he's a great man. And he's got a great wife. And I'm so happy getting her in this position. [1:23:15] She replaced a woman who is a very legendary woman, Linda McMahon, who's now in education. [1:23:20] She's doing a great job. She's moving education back to the States where it belongs. [1:23:26] But last year, Kelly, our Small Business Administration issued $7 billion in loans to 11,000 new [1:23:35] startups, as well as $1.3 billion in loans to 3,000 veteran-owned small businesses. [1:23:42] And $3.2 billion. They're a big business, you know. That's why I say, how can we call it small business? [1:23:47] $3.2 billion to American manufacturers helping restore those beautiful words made in the USA, [1:23:55] where we're using them more and more. We have things being made here that nobody thought [1:23:59] it was even possible for it to come back, like you'll see in North Carolina with the furniture. [1:24:03] It'll come back very, very rapidly. So Kelly, I'd like to ask you to say a few words, please. [1:24:08] Mr. President, first of all, you are the most pro-growth, pro-small business president [1:24:21] in American history. Thank you. It's such an honor to join you here at the White House to recognize [1:24:31] National Small Business Week. And you're the greatest commander-in-chief ever, but also one of [1:24:38] America's greatest businessmen and small businesses know that. They see that this administration is [1:24:44] shifting power and capital from fraudsters and Washington bureaucrats back to Main Street job [1:24:52] creators, just like we have gathered in this room today. Fair trade, deregulation, and the working [1:24:58] family tax cuts and the one big beautiful bill. They are powering real opportunity that I see all over [1:25:04] as I travel this country, especially after four crushing years of biodynamics and decades of shipping [1:25:13] our jobs and our industries overseas, hollowing out our local communities. That is ending. [1:25:20] As I travel the country each week, and Mr. President, I've traveled with you from Iowa's [1:25:25] machine-shed restaurant to Georgia's Kusa Steel Factory, America First policies are restoring the [1:25:32] American dream on Main Street to new heights. At generational businesses like Jimmy's famous [1:25:38] seafood, at industrial innovators like Prince Manufacturing in Georgia, and Blue Patriot in [1:25:45] Nebraska who are building big beautiful new buildings thanks to the working family tax cuts. [1:25:51] Today, 98 percent of U.S. manufacturers are small businesses. They're a critical part of securing our [1:25:58] supply chains, and while they contribute to national strength across all kinds of industries from [1:26:06] energy to agriculture to defense and aerospace. America's big manufacturers rely on these producers [1:26:13] and their skilled workers, and that's why President Trump's economic agenda means Made in America is [1:26:19] coming back, and it's coming back fast. Now, at the Trump SBA, we're helping to fuel that growth. [1:26:34] As the most free enterprise agency in the federal government, in 2025 alone, we guaranteed a record [1:26:42] 45 billion dollars in lending to 85,000 small businesses through local banks. That's an all-time [1:26:49] record at the SBA, and we did it with 53 percent fewer staff at the agency. Capital is driving the job [1:27:04] creation that you see. Record small business formation. This year, record small business formation, [1:27:11] and growth in communities all across America. It's such an honor to highlight the award winners that are [1:27:17] here today, and the vital role of hard-working small businesses that do their jobs every single day. [1:27:25] They are America's backbone. From our farms and restaurants, to our construction companies, [1:27:30] our manufacturers, and our trucking companies. Thank you, Mr. President, for recognizing that small business [1:27:37] is big business. 250 years ago, our founding fathers were also entrepreneurs, small businessmen. [1:27:45] With the America First agenda, that legacy continues. America is open for business again. Thank you, Mr. President. [1:27:53] I just want to sort of end by, I'll give you a little common sense business. A lot of you run your business [1:28:12] for a couple of reasons. Talent, brilliance in many cases, but also common sense. And I'll give you just [1:28:20] one little anecdote. We have a beautiful, potentially beautiful, built in 1922, it's a long time ago, [1:28:27] reflecting pond in between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. It's the long, it's 2,500 [1:28:36] feet long. That's taller than, I think, any building in the world. That would be if you lay it sideways. [1:28:43] It's two Empire State buildings, more than that. And very wide, 167 feet. And for years, they wanted to [1:28:51] fix it, rebuild it. It's granite. The stone is good. Granite's great. But it was leaking because it's [1:28:58] little pieces of granite. Very, very expensive when they did it. But it always leaked from the day they [1:29:02] built it. And 19, think of that, 1922, and it leaked and leaked badly. And they've looked at fixing it for [1:29:12] decades, really fixing it. And it wasn't working. It was too expensive. And the final price we got fairly [1:29:20] recently was to fix it is $350 million, because they were going to take the granite out. And they [1:29:26] were going to replace it with new granite, new stone, tighter joints, all that. It was going to take [1:29:33] three and a half years. And I heard about it. And I called Doug Burgum and I said, Doug, what do you [1:29:38] think? I built a lot of swimming pools, hundreds of swimming pools at different times. I said, let me [1:29:46] look at that surface. So it's granite. So granite is virtually indestructible, but it was filthy dirty. [1:29:52] It started because I called because it was so dirty. It was disgusting. People called me and [1:29:57] they'd say, you know, it's a shame. I'm looking at the Washington Monument and this thing is terrible. [1:30:02] The water is dirty and there's cartons of stuff in it and everything is just so horrible. [1:30:09] And I said, well, that's terrible. We can't have that. I actually had secret service. I said, [1:30:13] drive over there. I want to see it. Sir, we won't be able to. I said, just do it. [1:30:17] And when it was terrible, I looked at it terrible. So think of that. So it was going to cost 350 [1:30:24] million because we're going to take the granite out, put new granite and think, you know, [1:30:28] consider it like as tall as the tallest building in the world, if not taller and laying on the side. [1:30:34] And I said, well, that's terrible. 350 million. It's going to take three and a half years, [1:30:40] three and a half years. It'll be it. And you know, three and a half years means five years, [1:30:44] 350 million dollars means 500 million dollars to fix it. And I said, you know, [1:30:50] I built all these swimming pools and they're phenomenal. They're 20 years. I have one up the [1:30:55] road where it's a great club on the Potomac River. And I bought it up at 20 something, 21 years ago, [1:31:03] and I built that beautiful Olympic sized pool. And I asked the other day, I said, how good is the pool? [1:31:07] Oh, it's beautiful. Sir, I looked at it. It looks like it's brand new. It was done 20 years ago. [1:31:12] So I have some very good contractors, some good one or two in particular. And I said, [1:31:17] the two of the, actually the three best, I said, do me a favor, fellas, go take a look at the [1:31:23] reflecting pool that sits in between Lincoln and Washington, the beautiful, what should be beautiful, [1:31:29] reflecting pool. And one of them who came back was really, I would say the best, but they're all good. [1:31:36] He came back, he said, what an exciting job, sir. And I said, so how long would it take you to [1:31:43] redo it? He said, well, we have to fix the surface a little bit, create something good and solid [1:31:49] underneath. That'll take about a week. And let's say it'll take me to put the new material. Now, [1:31:58] the swimming pool is good. But he said, sir, I'd get commercial grade. What is that? He said, [1:32:03] that's much stronger, much heavier, meant for commercial. It actually looks better. It's more [1:32:11] expensive, sir. I said, that's okay. I said, how much will it cost? I think we can do it for about [1:32:17] a million nine. So he said, what color would you like, sir? And I said, well, you know, that beautiful [1:32:26] color that we have in Florida. He said, this is in Florida, sir. We don't have that green blue [1:32:32] around here. We have blue water. But he gave me a choice of 50 colors. Now I'm going crazy. I'm saying [1:32:38] now think of it, if we put the granite, you know what your color is? It was gray. It was gray, [1:32:44] not a good looking color. So even if you did it, it's not good. So he said, we'll do a beautiful job. [1:32:51] I think that I'd like to recommend a color that I've used before. It's beautiful. What's it called? [1:32:58] It's called American flag blue. I said, that's the color I want. A better color than American flag. [1:33:11] We had a gray, disgusting dirty. It showed all the dirt. It showed all the everything. So we, [1:33:18] we finished it about two, three days ago. They ripped the hell, you know, they roughed the surface. [1:33:25] They left all everything there. The demolition was, of course, $60 million to take the stone [1:33:31] and put new stone in. So we cleaned it. We steam cleaned it. We sandblasted it. We pebble blasted, [1:33:37] you know, pebble blasting. That's a serious sandblast. That's really, because it's granite. It's so [1:33:43] strong. We roughed the stone, so it's a good surface. Got it immaculate and it's beautiful. [1:33:49] But it still has the lines in between. You can have leaks all over the place. [1:33:52] And we filled in some areas. And the work started a few days ago. And I wanted to go today. I said, [1:34:00] let me see these small business people. And then I want to go over and see the contractors [1:34:04] to see how they're doing. But Secret Service was not thrilled. [1:34:08] They were not thrilled to be standing in the middle of a pool with lots of buildings looking down. [1:34:12] You know, we have to be a little conscious of that, right? Chris, you'll have a new boss someday. [1:34:18] I don't know if you'd like that. So here's the story, just in a nutshell. For a much better job, [1:34:28] 1.9 million, one week. Because I don't call the, you know, actually the Parks Department did a great [1:34:36] job. They cleaned. They had a lot of men cleaning. They're scrubbing the scum off years and years of [1:34:43] decay and bacteria and everything else. You can think it was terrible, actually. [1:34:48] It was worse than the people would tell me. They'd say how bad it looked. It was much worse. [1:34:52] The Parks Department did a fantastic job. They got it down to the surface and [1:34:56] these guys came in and made the surface really, really good. And now the beautiful, [1:35:01] the fun starts and they're putting it down. So, ready? 1.9 million versus 350 million dollars. [1:35:09] Blue color, American flag blue, as opposed to gray, right? Water's not gray, but it's one of those [1:35:26] things. And instead of three and a half years, instead of three and a half years, it's one week. [1:35:35] So, think of that. One week, so everybody would say, well, yeah, but you can't compare this. Yeah, [1:35:41] you can. It's much better. It's a much better job. This will last for at least 50 years and you'll never [1:35:46] have a leak. It's very strong. You couldn't, if you had a knife, I don't want to give anybody ideas. [1:35:51] If you had a knife, you can't even cut it. So strong, so powerful. It's like powerful rubber. [1:35:57] It is beautiful. Sealed. And I looked at just one of the little pieces that they did to finish. [1:36:03] It's like a piece of glass. Beautiful color, beautiful everything. You could never get [1:36:07] anything like that. And just think of it. So for a tiny fraction of the cost and a tiny fraction of [1:36:15] the time, we end up with the most beautiful thing that you'll ever see. And I look so forward to that [1:36:20] opening up. And it's sort of a business thing. It's a common sense thing. First thing I thought of [1:36:25] when I heard 350 million dollars, because I'm the one that said, let's get it done. But they had done [1:36:30] studies for years because they wanted to get it done. Never got done. Probably so expensive, [1:36:34] they couldn't afford to do it, really. But there's a thing common sense, right? Swimming pool. [1:36:39] We said, well, swimming pool looks so beautiful. Wouldn't that be nice? So for a tiny fraction of [1:36:45] the time, a tiny fraction of the cost, we end up with a much better product. And this is what you [1:36:52] people do with small businesses all the time. It's what Kelly does in running this. She comes to me a lot [1:36:57] of times with ideas for less money. It's a better, it's a better job. So I just, I thought I'd tell you that, [1:37:04] because this just happened. This just happened. If you go down, if you'd like to see them doing it, [1:37:09] on your way back home, take a trip down to the reflecting pond, or they go at the reflecting pool. [1:37:15] Some people call it the reflecting lake, but the word reflecting is always a part of it. [1:37:20] They call it different things, but reflecting is always a part. [1:37:24] Last but not least, we have someone who is helping us lead the revival in American [1:37:29] manufacturing this year's national small business person of the year. I want to hire him. How big is [1:37:35] this business? I want to get in. Mark LaMaccha, and he's a fantastic guy, and he's the owner of [1:37:43] Hometown Products, a metal casting and 3D printing company near Youngstown, Ohio. It's amazing what he's [1:37:49] done. In 2008, the company was nearing bankruptcy. It looked like it couldn't be saved, but that's when [1:37:55] Mark patented a system to boost productivity at the company by more than 400 percent. Mark would [1:38:01] like to use you in government. If you could use that system in government, that would be very nice. [1:38:08] He transformed Hometown into a pioneer in 3D printing, and he's leading everybody. Then today, [1:38:14] they're North America's leading producer of 3D printed sand cores and molds, which is a big business. [1:38:20] And Mark, we're here to honor you today. And if you could come up, we're going to give you a little [1:38:25] subject. Mr. President and Administrator Loeffler, I would like to thank you for the opportunity and [1:38:58] the privilege to represent the 36 million small business people, to be an ambassador for the [1:39:05] largest part of our economy. And I would like to thank you from the Hometown Products industrial [1:39:11] athletes team that I have the privilege of serving every day as their head coach. But even more, [1:39:18] I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for restarting and rebooting our economy. And manufacturing [1:39:25] used to be 38 percent of our economy, and it's down to nine percent. And I know that you love America, [1:39:31] and I know that you want to restart that. In the last three months, the PMI index has gone up [1:39:39] three months in a row because of that restart. We have 10 percent increase in hiring, and we'll be [1:39:47] able to buy more of those million-dollar printers that we're able to print the fight, fight, fight, [1:39:55] Trump statue that was involved. [1:39:57] I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for loving America. And, you know, [1:40:12] manufacturing is my favorite sport. So let's make America manufacture again. [1:40:18] The President Biden's great company. You've done a fantastic job with it. Thank you very much. And [1:40:34] you're right, we lost our manufacturing business. And I used to listen to President Obama say, [1:40:40] you'll never get manufacturing back. It's the biggest business in the world if you get it back. [1:40:44] And we're heading to that. I think we'll be higher than at any time fairly soon when these places open. [1:40:50] I think we'll be higher than at any time in the history of our country. And we used to be a [1:40:54] manufacturing capital. We were the manufacturing capital of the world. And then it got taken away. [1:41:02] It went to — the chips went to Taiwan. And all they had to do was say, if you sell your product back [1:41:07] into the country, there's going to be 100 percent tariff, and nobody would have left. And, you know, [1:41:12] I made an investment, Intel chipmaker, the biggest in the world, and then it got taken away because of bad [1:41:19] politics, actually. It was the politicians. The President — no President protected that industry. [1:41:25] So all of a sudden, you have this superpower over in Taiwan. But they're coming back. As you know, [1:41:31] we have the biggest companies coming into — they're pouring into this country. They know that [1:41:35] the tariffs go to a certain extent, and then they go up, up, up as we go. But I will — I will say that [1:41:41] it's so sad to see what's happened, but it makes me so happy to say we're bringing it back. And [1:41:47] as sure as you're sitting there — I mean, these are companies that are fully committed. They're [1:41:51] many under construction. They're on their way. And when I look at what happened to our country — I used [1:41:56] to make speeches as a private person. I was — I always loved politics, but I never thought I'd be doing [1:42:02] this. But as a private person doing well, I used to just marvel at the fact that the car companies were [1:42:08] leaving Detroit and leaving our country at levels. It was just — I mean, I said, [1:42:12] you're not going to have any cars soon if you don't do something. And all they had to do is say, [1:42:17] you can leave our country. You can have lots of fun building your cars. But if you think you're [1:42:22] going to sell it back into our country for no cost, you're wrong. But nobody said that. Not one [1:42:31] president — even presidents I liked — but they were bad on trade. You've never had a good president on [1:42:37] trade. And now you do. And we're bringing them back at levels never seen before. So we're going to [1:42:43] have something. And as far as small business is concerned, you are really the driver. I love that [1:42:49] story because that's the kind of story that half of the people — I'm not sure about all of them. [1:42:53] I'm not sure about Rick, but most of the people in this room would have thought of that. They would [1:42:58] have said, well, what about surfacing that stone, that existing stone? But it's just, you know, [1:43:03] one example. It's such a great one because it's massive amounts of money and time and a disaster [1:43:10] of construction for years. They'll be building and building and building. A mess. What common sense [1:43:16] is all about. And you people more than anything — I know you all indirectly. If I don't know you, [1:43:22] I still know you. But the fact is, it's common sense. And if you didn't have common sense, [1:43:28] you would not have a good business and you wouldn't have a good small business, big business or any other [1:43:32] business. So I just want to congratulate — Mark, I want to congratulate. That's a great tribute, [1:43:37] really. You've done an amazing job. But I want to congratulate everybody in the room. You're [1:43:41] fantastic people. And we are really — this is the golden age of America. I really believe it. [1:43:48] Last year, we were scoffed at. I tell the story often that the king of Saudi Arabia, a year and a [1:43:55] half ago when I was over there, he said, you know, America was a dead country. We didn't think it would be [1:44:02] investing. We didn't think it would be appropriate to invest there. We were a dead country. And now, [1:44:07] president, you have the hottest country anywhere in the world. That was seven or eight months ago. [1:44:12] We're a lot hotter than we were then. We had to do this little excursion. But the excursion is — the stock [1:44:17] market's higher now than it was when I — I assumed the market would be down 25 percent. And that was worth it [1:44:23] to get rid of lunatics that would have nuclear weapons that could wipe out countries with the push of a [1:44:31] button. You can't do that. So I had to do it, because it should have been done 47 years. It [1:44:37] should have been done by many presidents or other countries. It should have been done a long time [1:44:43] ago. But we're doing it, and we have no choice, and I'm very proud to be doing it. But the amazing [1:44:47] thing — I thought we'd be down 20, 25 percent. I thought the market would be down — the market's at [1:44:52] new highs despite all of it. And so the market is genius, and they see what's happening, and they get it. [1:44:59] But I just want to say it's an honor to be with you, and keep going. Small businesses — some of [1:45:06] your small businesses, like yours, are going to be large businesses very soon. And it's an honor to [1:45:11] be with you, Kelly and Chris and all of the people that work with me. What a great job you do. We [1:45:16] appreciate it. Thank you very much.