REMARKS

Remarks by President Trump in Meeting with Representative Jeff Van Drew
Issued on: December 19, 2019

Oval Office
3:01 P.M. EST

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. A wise guy.

REPRESENTATIVE VAN DREW: And it kind of hurt because, for years, I have given everything that I could to my people and my district.

You know, Mr. President, you asked why I win. Truthfully, because I’m a crazy man, and when people have a problem, when they need something, when we want to help them — I have the best staff in the world, good people around me, and we do everything that we can to make it better.

And that kind of hurt, and it kind of made me think a little bit: Is this what I really want to do? Because there were other times in my life, when I thought about this. I thought about it when I did legislation. And, actually, it was in the state senate.

And I don’t know if this is going to be relatable to not, but I want to say it anyhow because I’ve always wanted to just mention this because I think it’s important, in a way. This is not — it was not a complex bill. It was not something that was, you know, very difficult to understand. It isn’t intellectually stimulating to some people. I understand. But I did two bills, and one of them — it’s unusual for New Jersey — would allow, in any public or private building, to have “In God We Trust” on the wall. And the second one was that you could fly the American flag wherever you wanted to, however you wanted to, as long as it was respectful.

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT: We’re going to do very well. We’re way up in the polls. And we’ve gone up more, I think, proportionately, than we have ever gone up, in the last two weeks. And we’re honored.

Now, I understand, they’re playing games. They don’t want to put in their articles — their ridiculous, phony, fraudulent articles. And I think they’re not allowed to do that. I hear it’s unconstitutional and a lot of other things. But they don’t want to put them in because they’re ashamed of them, because it’s a — what they’ve done is wrong and it’s bad for the country. Very, very bad for the country.

{snip}

Texas v. Johnson - Wikipedia

Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that invalidated prohibitions on desecrating the American flag enforced in 48 of the 50 states.