The President: Well, thank you very much.
It's a great honor to have everybody.
And some of the great people in the world of
business, many of you I know -- many of you I know
from reading all of our wonderful magazines and
business magazines, in particular.
So it's an honor to have you with us today.
Bringing manufacturing back to America, creating
high-wage jobs was one of our campaign promises and
themes, and it resonated with everybody.
It was really something what happened.
States that hadn't been won in many, many years
were -- they came over to our fold.
A lot of it had to do with the jobs, and other
reasons -- but jobs.
And I'm delivering on everything
that we've said.
In fact, people are saying they've never seen so much
happen in 30 days of a presidency.
We've delivered on a lot.
And I think Mark can explain, and Mark can
probably say some of the things we're doing for
the auto industry.
We're going to be doing for many
of the industries.
As you know, the United States lost one-third of
our manufacturing jobs since NAFTA.
That's an unbelievable number and statistic.
And 70,000 factories closed since China joined
the WTO -- 70,000 factories.
So when I used to give that statistic, I used to
talk about and I always thought it was a typo.
I said, it has to be a typo.
I tell Wilbur -- Wilbur, that can't be right --
70,000.
Think of it, 70,000 factories.
So you say, what are we doing?
My administration's policies and regulatory
reform, tax reform, trade policies will return
significant manufacturing jobs to our country.
Everything is going to be based on bringing our jobs
back, the good jobs, the real jobs.
They've left, and they're coming back.
They have to come back.
You've already seen companies such as Intel, Ford.
Mark has been great.
GM, Walmart, Amgen, Amazon, Fiat -- they came
the other day; they're going to make a tremendous
investment in the country.
Carrier and many others announced significant new
investments in the United States.
For example, Ford is doing 700 million in Michigan,
creating 700 new jobs -- is a vote of confidence.
It was actually stated a vote of confidence.
We have many other companies doing
the same thing.
Carrier, as you know -- and I got involved very
late, almost like by two years late -- but many of
the jobs that were leaving for Mexico, they're
bringing back at least 800 jobs they're
bringing back.
And they actually never got to leave.
I have no idea what they did with the plant in
Mexico, but we'll have to ask them, because it was
largely built.
General Motors is investing
$1 billion in U.S.
plants, adding or keeping 7,000 jobs.
And it's going to be investing a lot more than
that over the next fairly short period.
Lockheed Martin has -- they've just announced
1,800 new jobs, and U.S.
plants are doing a great job, and we started
negotiating with them a little bit on the F-35.
They cut their price a little bit.
Thank you very much.
She's tough.
(Laughter.)
But it worked out well I
think for everybody.
And I think I have to say this: Marillyn, you've
gotten a lot of credit, because what you did was
the right thing.
So we appreciate it.
She cut her price over $700 million, right?
By over $700 million.
You think Hillary would have asked for
$700 million?
(Laughter.)
Oh, boy, I hope you -- I assume
you wanted her to win.
But you know what?
You're going to do great and you're going to make
more planes.
It's going to work out the same, or better.
Walmart announced plans to create 10,000 jobs, and
all of those jobs are going to be in
the United States.
Sprint and SoftBank is putting in $50 billion
because of our election in the United States, over
the next four years, to create 50,000 jobs.
They've been terrific, by the way.
And we have many others.
Many of you are in the room, and you know exactly
what I'm talking about.
We have many, many other companies.
And we're very happy.
Today we have 24 CEOs from the largest manufacturing
companies in the country and even in the world.
They represent people just in this room, nearly $1
trillion of sales and 2 million employees, large
majorities of which are in the United States.
They share our commitment to bringing manufacturing
back and to create jobs in this country, which has
been the biggest part of my campaign.
I would say the border, a big part.
Military strength, big part.
And jobs, big part.
I don't want to say which is most important.
I guess we always have to say defense is maybe
the most important.
But many of you take care of our defense, you
make great products.
Nobody makes the products that we do
for our military. Nobody.
And, in fact, a couple of countries who were not
allowed to buy from us, I gave them -- hello, Jeff
-- I gave them authorization -- you can
only buy from us.
I want them to buy from us.
They were getting planes from other countries
because our -- and they're allies.
But they're going to be buying from
us from now on.
And I just want to thank all of my people.
My staff has been amazing.
Gary, as you know -- you all know Gary from
Goldman, Gary Cohn.
And we're really happy -- just paid $200 million in
tax in order to take this job, by the way.
(Laughter.)
Which is very much unlike Gary.
But he's great.
And he'll be criticized by the media because he's
getting paid $197,000.
They'll say he really wanted that money --
which he gave up.
I think he gave up -- did you give that up, Gary?
I think so.
Mr. Cohn: Yes.
Participant: It was one of those things.
The President: It was one of those things.
That's right.
(Laughter.)
I want to thank -- Wilbur has
been so fantastic.
I've known Wilbur for so long, and he's a great
guy, great negotiator, but a very fair negotiator.
And he's going to be doing things that -- the deals
we have with other
countries are unbelievably bad.
We don't have any good deals.
In fact, I'm trying to find a country where we
actually have a surplus of trade as opposed to --
everything is a deficit.
With Mexico, we have $70 billion in deficits, trade
deficits, and it's unsustainable.
We're not going to let it happen.
Can't let it happen.
We're going to have a good relationship with Mexico,
I hope.
And if we don't, we don't.
But we can't let that happen -- $70 billion
in trade deficits.
And that doesn't include the drugs that pour across
the border, like water.
So we can't let that happen.
With China, we have close to a $500-billion
trade deficit.
So we have to do something.
I spoke to the President, I spoke to many people.
We're going to work on that very, very hard, and
we're going to do things that are the
proper things to do.
But I actually said to my people: Find a country
where we actually do well.
So far, we haven't found that country.
It's just losses with everybody, and we're going
to turn that around.
I want to thank Jared Kushner, who has been so
involved in this, and all of my guys.
We have a great team.
We have a team of all-stars.
And we've been credit -- we've really been given
credit for that.
Right now, Rex, who, as you know, he's in Mexico
-- I said, that's going to be a tough trip, because
we have to be treated fairly by Mexico.
That's going to be a tough trip.
But he's over there with General Kelly, who's been
unbelievable at the border.
You see what's happening at the border.
All of a sudden for the first time we're getting
gang members out, we're getting drug lords out.
We're getting really bad dudes out of this country
and at a rate that nobody has ever seen before.
And they're the bad ones.
And it's a military operation because what has
been allowed to come into our country -- when you
see gang violence that you've read about like
never before and all of the things -- much of that
is people that are here illegally.
And they're rough and they're tough, but they're
not tough like our people.
So we're getting them out.
I thought what we could do is maybe we'll start with
Ken on my left, and we'll go around the room and
introduce yourselves to the press.
Lots of media.
One thing, we have lots of media.
How are you?
Treats me -- that's one that treats me very
nicely, one of the few. Hi.
And we'll just start around -- go around the
room and then we'll talk privately without the
press, and we're going to figure out how to bring
many, many millions of jobs more back to the
United States, okay?
Ken, go ahead.
Mr. Frazier: Thank you, Mr. President, it's good
to be here.
Ken Frazier from Merck & Co., Inc.
Mr. Fields: Thank you, Mr. President.
Mark Fields, CEO of Ford Motor Company.
Mr. Morrison: Thank you, Mr. President.
Denise Morrison from Campbell Soup Company.
The President: Good soup.
Mr. Morrison: Thank you.
Mr. Hayes: Thank you, Mr. President.
Greg Hayes from United Technologies, the parent
company of Carrier.
The President: Did you bring any more of those
jobs back from Carrier?
(Laughter.)
But one thing he did -- you know, I told
-- I said, you were given so much credit for that,
and I heard, two days ago, that you're selling far
more Carrier air conditioners than you
thought, just as a patriotic move.
People are buying Carrier because of what you did --
bringing the jobs back to Indiana.
Mr. Hayes: That's exactly right.
It's a great success.
The President: Right?
So, I said that.
I thought that was going to happen.
Good. Thank you.
Mr. Styslinger: Thank you, Mr. President.
Lee Styslinger with Altec, Inc.
Mr. Gorsky: Thank you, Mr. President.
Alex Gorsky with Johnson & Johnson.
Mr. Farr: Thank you, Mr. President.
David Farr with Emerson.
St. Louis.
Mr. Oberhelman: Doug Oberhelman, executive
chairman of Caterpillar.
We have plenty of D10s available for you.
The President: I love those D10s.
(Laughter.)
I even like the D12.
Are they still doing the D12?
Mr. Oberhelman: We're doing a D11, and we have
some of those around as well.
The President: Because the D12, I'm waiting for,
you know.
That's going to be bigger than anything ever in
history, right?
But there's nothing like what you do.
The Caterpillars are the best.
Mr. Oberhelman: Thank you.
The President: And when we raise the dollar, and we
let other people manipulate their
currencies, it's the one thing that stops you,
Doug -- right?
Mr. Oberhelman: Well, we'll take them on.
Bring them on.
The President: Right, technology.
No, but we have to give you a level playing field.
Mr. Oberhelman: We need a level playing field.
The President: We have to let other countries give
you a level playing field.
So, what a great company.
I love Caterpillar.
I've been driving them for a long time.
Mr. Oberhelman: Well, come out and see us, and we'll
put you in one.
(Laughter.)
The President: Okay, good.
I might do that soon.
Go ahead.
Mr. Kamsickas: Jim Kamsickas, Dana
Incorporated. Thank you.
Mr. Longhi: Mario Longhi, with U.S.
Steel, Mr. President.
Thank you for the opportunity.
The President: And you're going to be doing
pipelines now.
You know that, right?
We put you heavy into the pipeline business because
we approved, as you know,
the Keystone Pipeline and Dakota.
But they have to buy -- meaning, steel, so
I'll say U.S.
Steel -- but steel made in this country and pipelines
made in this country.
Mr. Longhi: 100 percent, Mr. President.
We'll be there.
The President: So the pipe is coming from the U.S.
Mr. Longhi: By the way, when you come drive
trucks, come up to Minnesota and our mines.
You're going to see us running up there.
The President: Good.
I'll do it.
I'll be out there.
Mr. Fettig: Mr. President, thank you.
Jeff Fettig, Whirlpool Corporation.
The President: Yep, good.
Ms. Hewson: Thank you, Mr. President.
Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin Corporation.
I just want to thank you for this opportunity that
we've spent this morning in the working groups, and
the opportunity to talk to you today about
generating jobs.
We're very excited about the fact that this is one
of the first actions that you want to take on.
So thank you very much.
The President: Good.
Well, thank you, and thank you for what we did.
Lot 10, we call it.
Lot 10 -- 90 planes.
It was 90 planes out of 3,000, but it was not
doing so well, and now it's doing great. Right?
Ms. Hewson: That's right, Mr. President.
The President: Okay, good.
Ms. Hewson: And we welcome you to Fort Worth to see
those aircraft on the production line.
The President: Good.
Very good.
Thank you, Marillyn.
Mr. Immelt: Mr. President, good to see you again.
Jeff Immelt with GE.
The President: Good.
Hi, Jeff.
Mr. Immelt: Great to be here.
Look forward to really working you on creating
more manufacturing jobs.
The President: Jeff actually watched me make a
hole-in-one, can you believe that?
Should you tell that story?
Mr. Immelt: We were trying to talk President Trump
into doing "The Apprentice." That was my
assignment when we owned NBC.
President Trump goes up to a par 3 on his course, he
looks to the three of us and says, "You realize of
course I'm the richest golfer in the world."
That's a comment, then gets a hole-in-one.
(Laughter.) The President: Crazy.
Mr. Immelt: I have to say, you know, I've seen the
magic before.
(Laughter.)
The President: It's so crazy that -- no,
I actually said I was the best golfer of all the
rich people -- (laughter) -- to be exact.
And then I got a hole-in-one.
Mr. Immelt: That's what you said.
The President: So, it was sort of cool.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
MR. BROWN: Thank you, Mr. President.
Bill Brown from Harris Corporation.
And thank you for coming to our headquarter
location in Melbourne, Florida twice.
Thank you.
The President: Absolutely.
Thank you.
Mr. Weeks: Wendell Weeks, Corning Incorporated.
Thank you.
Mr. Ferriola: Thank you, Mr. President.
John Ferriola, Nucor Corporation.
The President: Great.
Mr. Althoff: Thank you, Mr. President.
Don Althoff with Veresen, Inc.
Mr. Sutton: Good morning, Mr. President.
Mark Sutton, chairman and CEO of
International Paper.
The President: Great.
Bob Craft is a big fan of yours.
You know, that right?
Mr. Liembach: Thank you, Mr. President.
Keith Leimbach, CEO of LiveOps, representing the
services industry in a manufacturing form.
The President: Yes, I know.
Mr. Liembach: Let's remember to bring those
services jobs back as well.
The President: Good.
We will.
Mr. Liveris: Good morning, Mr. President.
I'm Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical.
Thank you for the opportunity, and bringing
the language of business back to the White House,
and I'm here to make chemistry sexy again.
(Laughter.)
The President: And I want to thank you
for your help.
You've been great.
Thank you, Andrew, very much.
Nobody knows Ivanka.
(Laughter.)
Mr. Thulin: Good morning,
Mr. President.
Inge Thulin, 3M.
The President: Thank you.
Reed, thank you also.
Thank you.
Say it again, please.
Mr. Thulin: Inge Thulin, 3M.
Good morning.
The President: Yes.
Great company.
Mr. Dell: Good morning, Mr. President.
Great to be back.
It's Michael Dell, with Dell Technologies.
The President: Hi, Michael.
Nice to see you.
Ms. Novakovik: Good morning, Mr. President.
Phebe Novakovic, General Dynamics.
The President: Great.
Mr. Luciano: Good morning, Mr. President.
Juan Luciano, Archer Daniels Midland.
The President: Great.
Great companies. Jared.
So, Jared, maybe I'll let you take over for a little
while, and we'll then -- we're going to then go
through the room very, very carefully.
We're going to find out how we bring
more jobs back.
And thank you to the press and the media.
We really appreciate it, and we'll see you later.
Thank you very much.