REMARKS

Remarks by President Trump in a Fox News Virtual Town Hall
Issued on: May 4, 2020

Lincoln Memorial
Washington, D.C.

May 3, 2020
7:14 P.M. EDT

Q Welcome back to our Fox News Virtual Town Hall: “America Together. Returning to Work.” Here tonight, live from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., we are joined now by President Donald Trump.

Good to see you, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you both, very much. We never had a more beautiful set than this, did we?

Q (Laughs.) That’s right.

Q It’s amazing.

Q Thanks for doing this.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

Q This is a little different than our last town hall in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

THE PRESIDENT: That’s true. That was a beauty.

{snip}

Q On that note, let’s hear from our first video questioner. This is Shana Cruz (ph) from Cullman, Alabama.

VIEWER: Mr. President, my name is Shana Cruz and I’m a single mother from Alabama. I lived paycheck to paycheck before the virus, but then I lost my job in March. I haven’t received a stimulus payment or anything from unemployment. I’m behind on every bill, about to be evicted from my home, and I’ve had to rely on donations in order to feed my children. I feel frustrated and I feel scared not knowing where to turn or what to do. What advice do you have for me and others in my situation? Is there more help coming?

THE PRESIDENT: Number one, there’s more help coming. We have really no choice, because incredible people like this are — you know, it’s not — it’s not your fault. I mean, just remember that it’s not your fault. And there is more help coming. There has to be. And we want to get it to a point, when we open, we’re not going to lose businesses and therefore, more importantly, frankly, we’re not going to lose the jobs that run the businesses.

So a case like that is an exact — you know, it’s really — that’s the reason why we have to do more. And we’re going to do more, and everybody wants to do more. It’s really — it’s actually, on that aspect of it, it’s very bipartisan.

So the answer is: Yes, we’re going to do more. And you’re going to have your job. You’re going to get another job or you’re going to get a better job. You’ll get a job where you make more money, frankly, and I think that’s going to happen.

I think we’re going to have an incredible following year. We’re going to go into a transition in the third quarter, and we’re going to see things happening that look good. I really believe that. I have a good feel for this stuff. I’ve done it for a long time. We built the greatest economy in the world. The greatest economy, frankly, Bret — and you can correct me if you’d like, but you can’t because it’s fact — the greatest economy that the world has ever seen.

And then, one day they said, “Sir, we’re going to have to close it.” I said, “What are you talking about, closing it?” Nobody ever heard that. We’re going have to close it. And we did the right thing. We saved — I think we saved millions of lives, but now we have to get it back open, and we have to get it back open safely but as quickly as possible.

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT: We think we’re going to have a vaccine by the end of this year. And we’re pushing very hard. You know, we’re building supply lines. Now, we don’t even have the final vaccine. Johnson & Johnson — if you look at — Johnson & Johnson is doing it. We have — many companies are, I think, close because I meet with the heads of them and I find it a very interesting subject because it’s so important.

But I think we’ll have a vaccine by the end of the year. We’re also pushing it. Look, we’re doing things at the FDA that’s never happened before. We’re getting approval so fast. Like, as an example, with Gilead on the new remdesivir, that’s going to be — that’s — that’s a game changer because it’s a 31 percent step. It’s a step. It’s a 31 percent step, and then they’ll be at 50 percent.

Like AIDS, what’s happened with AIDS: We had AIDS; it was a scourge all over the world. It was — you were dead. It was a death certificate. And then, all of a sudden, they came up with some — and now we have — we will be AIDS-free within eight years. We started 10 years. Should have started in the previous administration; they did nothing. It started —

Q So, Mr. President, you —

THE PRESIDENT: — at my administration. Ten years and now it’s at eight.

Q — the FDA has approved this, remdesivir.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

{snip}

Q You did talk a lot about hydroxychloroquine for a while.

THE PRESIDENT: I do. And I still do.

Q And there were some studies that came out that questioned the cardiac tie —

THE PRESIDENT: No, look —

Q — but you stopped talking about it.

THE PRESIDENT: One study. One study. But there was studies that came out that say it’s very good too.

And I’ll tell you what: I’ve had three calls in the last three days, four days, of people that took it, and they’re giving it credit for saving their lives. And other state — you know, other countries are using it, and they’re — they’re going — they’re bragging about it. You look at their numbers.

Here’s — here’s what we’ve been reduced to in this country: The Democrats, the radical left, whatever you want, would rather see people — I’m going to be very nice. I’m not going to say “die.” I’m going to say would rather see people not get well because they think I’m going to get credit if, you know, hydroxychloroquine works. And I don’t want the cre- — I don’t care about it. I have nothing to do with it, by the way. Everyone said I own the company. I’ve nothing to do with hydroxychloroquine, other than, if it worked, it would be great. It would be so good for our na- — because it would save people.

But, you know, we’ve had some very good — you look at — there are certain countries that swear by it. They have a much lower number. You know the countries I’m talking about.

Q But you’re putting your real chips on the vaccine being fast.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I think we’re going to have a vaccine by the end of the year. Now, the doctors would say, “Well, you shouldn’t say that.” I’ll say what I think. I’ve met with the heads of the big companies. These are great companies. Yeah, I think we’re going to have a vaccine much sooner rather than later. I think it will be — I think that will be done. I would rather have, frankly, therapeutic, meaning something to make people better. If not a cure, at least a therapeutic.

And, you know, that — look, we started the other day with Gilead. I really think so. But we’re going to have other things, and it could be that hydroxy is going to be — we don’t lose anything with hydroxy. It’s been out there. Bret, it’s been out there for so many years. Then they start doing the false reports: It’s making peo- — it’s — it’s been used for numerous things for many years. People aren’t dying from it. But they would rather —

Q Obviously, doctors are involved there and they —

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, they don’t want to see a good result, and that’s very sad.

Q Let me ask — there are some questions that deal with looking back. Leslie is one of them. Leslie Caulfield from New Jersey has our next question for the President.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay.

VIEWER: President Trump, it’s been widely reported that the threat of the coronavirus was included in your daily intelligence briefings for weeks prior to the first confirmed case in the U.S. Can you please explain to us why you did not act sooner to prepare this country for this pandemic?

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, I love the question, actually, because what I did is I — way early, I closed our country to China. Nancy Pelosi was, a month later, saying, “It’s going to pass.” Everybody — even Tony Fauci was saying, “It’s going to pass, not going to be a big deal.” Schumer was talking about all sorts of things. This is long after I closed the country.

They called me a racist. They said “xenophobic.” Biden said, “He was xenophobic.” Biden has now written a letter of apology because I did the right thing. I saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

Okay. She’s asking me the question about intelligence. I have the head of the intelligence agencies here today. And here’s the exact thing. And we have it; it’s going to be released tomorrow or the next day, but I released it today.

On January 23rd, I was told that there could be a virus coming in, but it was of no really import. In other words, it wasn’t, “Oh, we’ve going to do something. We got to do something.” It was a brief conversation, and it was only on January 23rd. Shortly thereafter, I closed down the country to China. And we had 20 people, 21 people in the room. I was the only one that wanted to close it down. Very good people in the room, very well meaning.

But take a look. On, I think it was, February 26, Nancy Pelosi is, “Let’s dance in the streets of Chinatown” to show that it’s not going to hurt us. In other words, I’m not blaming her for it, but nobody thought this was going to happen. But on January — it’s such an important question to me because they think that months earlier we were told about this and we should have done something about it.

China didn’t even know for a period of time. It got out. China should have stopped it, but China — they didn’t know and they wouldn’t let us in. We wanted to go into China. They didn’t want us to go in because they didn’t want to have us see it. Maybe they were worried about competence. Maybe they were worried about something else.

But the question is good, and here’s the final answer: The intelligence agencies told me on the 23rd. Shortly thereafter, I closed down the country, but I didn’t do it because of what they said. Because they said it very matter of factly it was not a big deal. And the intelligence agencies, which have now — now, because before they weren’t — which are now very competently run with some great people and some great people coming. The intelligence agencies will tell you that tomorrow.

Q So when you did stop travel in from China —

THE PRESIDENT: I did.

Q — about 40,000 people came back to this country.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

Q You said —

THE PRESIDENT: They were American citizens, by the way.

Q But you said they were tested? Who tested them and where?

{snip}

Q Our next question for the President comes from Clearwater, Florida. Here it is.

VIEWER: Thank you for taking our question, Mr. President. I’m Mary Rose.

VIEWER: And I’m Mark. And we own Rosemark Grips. We’re a small business in Florida that makes golf putter grips. We do not qualify for the Payroll Protection Program because we do all the work ourselves. We don’t have any payroll employees. We’re wondering if there’s something in the works that will help us out as we have numerous bills that still need to be paid and do not qualify for current programs that are out there.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I love your business. And both — I can speak for Bret — we could both use a nice putter grip, and that would be nice. But I don’t know about you, Bret — I haven’t played golf in a long time.

{snip}

Q I mean, how do you stimulate demand?

THE PRESIDENT: The greatest thing we can do is get rid of the virus, because then everything comes back together. Then every — you don’t need stimulus once that’s happening. Now, what is happening is the stim- — you know, we’re talking about 3 trillion, not just 2 trillion. Three trillion. It could even go to six. And we’re going to have a tremendous year next year because of what we’re doing and laying the seeds.

You know, we’re talking 30 million jobs that we’ve saved. Thirty million jobs. That’s unheard of. In addition, we saved the airlines. We saved others.

You know, one thing happened on Friday that was very big. Boeing, a great company; then they had the problem that people know — a different problem. And then they end up with this, where their sales are cut so badly because of this, which is, by the way, also happening in Europe, as you know, with their competitor. No airplanes. They floated a bond issue. Borrowed money very, very successfully at a good rate on Friday. That’s a big step.
The markets are there. The markets are open. I believe it was $30 billion. So the markets are there. That’s a big step. We didn’t have to do anything with Boeing. They went out to the markets, and they were able to borrow a lot of money. And it’s going to be a great company again.

But we’ve done that with the airlines. The airlines, Bret, were having the best year they’ve ever had — ever, in their history. And then we had to — we had to turn off the airlines. We had to turn off everything. And we did the right thing, but we never want to have to do it again.

Q Let’s go to Carolyn Perkins. She’s a retired nurse and an elementary school guidance counselor. And here is her comment/question.

VIEWER: President Trump, my husband and I thank you, your family, and your staff for your great dedication to our country. We pray for you every day. The question I have is about your manner of presentation. Why do you use descriptive words that could be classified as bullying? And why do you not directly answer the questions asked by the press but instead speak of past successes and generally ramble?

The USA needs you. Please let go of those behaviors that are turning people away from you. Please hold on to your wonderful attributes that make you our great leader and let go of other characteristics that do not serve you.

THE PRESIDENT: Good.

Q She’s a school teacher.

THE PRESIDENT: I think I like that question. I’m not sure, but I think I like that question. I appreciate it. I appreciate the prayers, too, very much.

Look, I am greeted with a hostile press the likes of which no president has ever seen. The closest would be that gentleman right up there. They always said Lincoln — nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse. You’re there. You see those press conferences. They come at me with questions that are disgraceful. To be honest, disgraceful. Their manner of presentation and their words.

And I feel that if I was kind to them, I’d be — I’d be walked off the stage. I mean, they come at you with the most horrible, horrendous, biased questions. And you see it. Ninety-four or ninety-five percent of the press is hostile. And yet, if you look in Florida today, we had hundreds and hundreds of boats going up and down the Intracoastal: “Trump. Trump.” We have tremendous support.

But the media is — they might as well be in the Democrat Party. And why? I don’t know. We fixed our military. We fixed the vet. You know, if you look at the VA — you take a look at what’s going on with our vets: They have Choice now, and we have Accountability. We’re able to get rid of people that don’t treat our vets well. They’ve — they’ve been trying to do that for 44 years. And because of civil service in the unions, you couldn’t do it.

The biggest thing is Choice. We’ve — we have done — it’s Choice, where if a vet can’t see a doctor quickly, they go outside, they get a doctor, they get fixed up, we pay the bill, instead of waiting for five weeks, seven weeks. Look at how well these things are running.

We’ve rebuilt our military. We’ve done — we had the greatest tax cut — biggest tax cut in history. All of the things we’ve done, and yet we have a very hostile press. And you understand that. Maybe you’re not going to say it or admit it, and maybe you shouldn’t. But nobody has ever seen anything like this.
So I really appreciate the question. And I — I very much appreciate the sentiment behind the question. But I’m standing up there, and instead of asking me a normal question — the level of anger and hatred. I’ll look at them and I’ll say, “What’s your problem? What is your problem?”

You know, I believe we’ve done more than any president in the history of our country in the first three years, three and a half years. I really believe that. When you look — even if you look — Space Force. Space Force. Also take a look at terrorism. Al Baghdadi, we killed him. Soleimani, we killed him. We killed the worst terrorists in the world. We got rid of ISIS for — you know, we took over 100 percent of the caliphate. When I took it over, the caliphate was all over the place. Obama had failed.

Q But do you think the election will come down to a referendum on how you handled this crisis?

THE PRESIDENT: No, but it’s going to be a factor.

Q Do you think it’s bigger than that?

THE PRESIDENT: No. I think the election is going to come down to — I hope it does because we’ve done a great job.
We had no ventilators. We had no testing. We had nothing. I had — I inherited empty — empty — no ammunition. Our military was bad. We’ve rebuilt our military — $1.5 trillion. We have the best military, by far, in the world. It’s rebuilt. It’s either all new or the equipment is coming in, which is great.

But you know what? Also, medically: We had empty cupboards. The cupboards — I say, the cupboards were empty. We have an incredible testing. We have the best testing system, right now, in the world. We also make all the ventilators.

I spent the weekend at Camp David speaking to — and a prior couple of days — speaking to heads of other countries that are desperate from — for ventilators. And we now have so many ventilators. You know, a month ago, that’s all they were talking about was ventilators. The team of people that did this job was incredible. It was probably the biggest mobilization since World War Two.

Q Mr. President, the governors credit you for the ventilators across the board. You mentioned the Democrats and leaving the cupboards bare from the previous administration.

You’re not surprised to hear that the former Vice President, Joe Biden, pushes back against that. He tweeted just the other day: “We left a playbook. He ignored it. We created an office to prepare for pandemics. He gutted it. We had CDC officials in China to detect and contain the outbreaks. He pulled them out. Trump can try and shift blame all he wants, but the fact is his actions left us unprepared.”

Your response to that?

THE PRESIDENT: First of all, Joe Biden didn’t write that. That was written from a young man that got very good grades, at a very good school. That was not written by him, I promise you that.

Joe Biden, just so you know, when I closed our borders to China, I did the China ban. I didn’t want to do that. I did something that nobody wanted to do. Joe Biden said, “He’s xenophobic. He’s a racist.” They called me racist, and I saved hundreds of thousands of lives. And he actually apologized with a letter on a Friday night saying, “He made the right move.” It wasn’t well played by the press, but he said I made the right move.

No, if we would have listened to Joe Biden — look how badly they did on swine flu, the H1N1, which he calls the opposite. H1 — it’s H1N1, swine flu. Look how badly they did on that. Look how badly they’ve done on so many other things.

I mean, the place — our military was a mess. Our — just about everything was a mess. Look at what they did in the Middle East, what’s gone on in the Middle East. And in all fairness on the Middle East, I look at the previous administration for getting us in because that was the single worst decision made in this country’s history. The single worst — getting into the Middle East.

Just so you understand, we’ve spent $8 trillion in the Middle East. What do we have for it? What do we have for it? And things are moving very nicely in the other direction.

{snip}

VIEWER: Mr. President, if you’re elected to a second term, what’s your plan to be more fiscally responsible to either reduce or eliminate the deficit in response to increased federal spending for the coronavirus stimulus packages?

THE PRESIDENT: So we have billions of dollars coming in right now from other countries. We have money coming in. People are paying now for military protection. People are paying for other things.

As you know, I’m putting taxes on other countries where they’ve taken advantage of us — especially, by the way, China. China never gave 10 cents to our country. They ripped off our country for many, many — and I’ve told this to President Xi directly, in a nice manner and in a not-so-nice manner. I get along with him. Should have done something different on this.

But we made an incredible trade deal. We have tens of billions of dollars pouring in. President Obama and Joe Biden didn’t do anything. China just had a field day with our country. And then you look at his son walking out with a billion and a half dollars. Give me a break on that.

And I can go back to President Bush, and I can go back before President Bush too. China ripped this country off for many, many decades, and I stopped it. Then, of course, you had this horror show coming in: the — the plague. It came in. So now it’s a different story.

But we’ve taken in billions. And what have I done with it? I’ve given some of the monies — because they were targeted by China — to the farmers and to the ranchers: $12 billion dollars two years ago, $16 billion last year, and we have a lot this year. And we, by the way, have many times those numbers leftover from all the money we’re making from China. That never happened before.

Q But you have $25 trillion in debt, as of today —

THE PRESIDENT: That’s right.

Q — and there’s more on the burner —

THE PRESIDENT: That’s right.

Q — that’s possibly coming down the pipe.

THE PRESIDENT: That’s right.

Q What’s the number that’s too much when you get to —

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re going to cut — no, we’re going to cut back very substantially. Plus, we’re going to have great growth. This country is going to grow like crazy as soon as we get it going, and we’re going to start making our products here.

Hey, Bret, you’ve known me for a long time. I’ve been talking about this for a long time. It’s one of the reasons — I would say border security, the military, and trade. These are the three primary reasons I got elected. This is a very big thing for me.

I made a deal — Japan is now paying us $40 billion. They weren’t paying us. They weren’t doing anything. They were selling us — they were selling us cars. We wouldn’t do anything to tax them, but we couldn’t sell cars in Japan. Japan — we did a deal for $40 billion — $40 billion a year.

Look at South Korea. We did the deal in South Korea. Mexico, Canada — USMCA. The NATO — the — the NAFTA deal was so horrible. It was so horrible.

But I said a word just now: NATO. My biggest fan in the whole world is the Secretary General of NATO, Stoltenberg. Great man. Great gentleman. He said nobody has ever done, for NATO, what I’ve done. We got $150 billion. The money that they’re paying — other countries, they weren’t paying. We were paying for 100 percent of NATO. And now, other countries are putting up.

I went to them, I said, “Listen, you’re going to either pay, or we’re not going to be…” — why would we be protecting all of these countries? Twenty-eight countries total. Why would we be protecting? “You’re not even paying your bills. You’re delinquent.” Well, they’re putting up $150 billion a year, and it’s going up to 400 billion, and no other president has ever done anything like that.

{snip}

Q So let’s go to our next question for you all from Phil Tulkoff. He’s the president of Tulkoff Food Products, which is a family company. Been in business for over 90 years. They have got four locations — South Carolina, Georgia, Oregon, and Tennessee. And here is Phil’s question.

VIEWER: For my firm, the current tariffs add up to almost $60,000 in monthly additional costs for my operations. Lifting these tariffs would help us speed the recovery for many of us by allowing those funds to be used to hire workers, invest in equipment, and recoup some of the cash we’ve spent to weather the current economic situation. Would you consider permanently or even temporarily reducing or eliminating those tariffs?

THE PRESIDENT: So, Phil, we’re looking at the different things, but you have to remember, I’ve taken those tariffs and given a lot of them to the farmers, and farmers that would have been really forced out of business by China when they were targeted. Because China never had to target us because China was ripping our country off.

We were losing $500 billion a year to China for years. And 300 billion, 200 billion, 544 billion — 544 billion a few years ago. And — and what I’m doing is — and what I’ve done is taken a lot of money out of China, and I’ve given it back to Phil and other people, because I’ve given it back to the — not all of it, because we’ve had — we had so much. So much money came in from China. But we gave, as I said, 12 billion two years ago; 16 billion; and this year, we have 19 billion that we’re distributing to the farmers. Nobody has ever done that. No president has ever done that.

Q But Phil is obviously bringing in supplies from China that he’s getting — he’s paying tariffs on. Would you encourage him to try to find —

THE PRESIDENT: Well, he is.

Q — other countries to buy those things from?

THE PRESIDENT: He is. But you know what they’re also getting? They’re getting big payments. The farmers are getting big payments. And, by the way, they are the most incredible people. They don’t even want the payments. You know what they say to me? Some — something that almost no other group — and I can say practically no other group. They want a level playing field.

We had a meeting with them, with Mike, and they came in and I said, “We’re going to give you this.” They said, “Sir, honestly, we don’t want anything. We just want a level playing field.” Because for 18 years — really, it’s longer than that — they’ve been taken advantage of not only by China, by everybody, including Canada, including many, many countries that you wouldn’t even think.

So the farmers now, with the new USMCA and all of the other things — and as far as Phil, I understand it. But we’re giving billions and billions of that money to the farmers, and have a lot of money that goes back into the Treasury. And Steve is the proud recipient, from the standpoint of the Treasury.

Q But are you considering new tariffs on China as sort of a punishment for their handling of the virus?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it’s the ultimate punishment, I will tell you that. I don’t like —

Q You had experts look at —

THE PRESIDENT: Again, I don’t like to tell you what I — because, you know, we’re all playing a very complicated game of chess or poker. Name whatever you want to name, but it’s not checkers — that, I can tell you. We have a very complicated game going.

Our country was being ripped off by every nation in the world. And now we have made unbelievable strides. Unfortunately, then we get hit by this whole situation. But we have done so well. We have taken in so much money.

Going before the virus, China had the worst year they had in 67 years. That’s a reason. And I’m not happy about that, but what it does is it says they were taking us for a ride, like nobody in history —

Q Right, but to Phil’s point, is that Americans —

THE PRESIDENT: — has ever done any — at any time.

Q He’s saying Americans feel it. Experts said just your mention of that helped drive the markets down Thursday and Friday.

THE PRESIDENT: Uh —

Q But I’m just wondering if you’re really seriously thinking about it.

THE PRESIDENT: Look, tariffs, at a minimum, are the greatest negotiating tool that we have ever devised that were never used for negotiation. President Xi only made the deal with us. They — they’re going to buy 250 billion. Now, we’re going to have to see what’s going on because of what happened. This was done, you know, months before the — the virus. But we’re getting — going to buy $250 billion worth of our product. Two hundred and fifty billion. They didn’t buy two cents. They didn’t want to buy from us. They took advantage of our country.

Now they have to buy, and if they don’t buy, we’ll terminate the deal. Very simple. But by using the tariffs, that’s the only reason. The one thing that he said: “We must get rid of tariffs.” I say, we’re not going to get rid of tariffs. You got to treat our country with respect. You’ve been ripping off our country for many years. The World Trade Organization has ripped off this country. That’s when China became an economic power.

And, by the way, you have World Trade and you have World Health. The World Health Organization has been a disaster. Everything they said was wrong, and they’re China-centric. All they do is they agree with China, whatever China wants to do.

So our country — perhaps foolishly, in retrospect — has been paying $450 million a year to the World Health Organization. And China has been paying $38 million a year, but they were more political than all of our leaders previous. So we’ll see what I do with that. I’m going to have to make a decision on that.

But we’re not happy because what they did — what World Health did, they missed every single call. Who would want to put up with it?

{snip}

Q You told John Roberts the other day —

THE PRESIDENT: — it came from China.

Q — that you saw evidence that gave you a high confidence that the virus came from the Wuhan lab.

THE PRESIDENT: We’re going to be given —

Q Not that it was created there, perhaps, but that it came from there.

THE PRESIDENT: At the right time, we’re going to be given —

Q Can you illuminate any more about that?

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, we’re going to be given a very strong report as to exactly what we think happened, and I think it’ll be very conclusive.

Q Is there any suggestion that it was anything nefarious or that it was just a mistake?

THE PRESIDENT: So I think they made — personally, I think they made a horrible mistake and they didn’t want to admit it. We wanted to go in. They didn’t want us there. Even World Health wanted to go in. They were admitted, but much later — you know, not immediately. And my opinion is they made a mistake. They tried to cover it. They tried to put it out. It’s like a fire. You know, it’s really like trying to put out a fire. They couldn’t put out the fire.

What they really treated the world badly on: They stopped people going into China, but they didn’t stop people going into the USA and all over the world. So you could fly out of Wuhan, where the primary problem was, all of the problems, essentially. Also where the lab is. But you could fly out of Wuhan and you could go to different parts of the world, but you couldn’t go to Beijing, and you couldn’t go to any place in China. So what’s that all about?

In other words, they knew they had a problem. I think they were embarrassed by the problem. Very embarrassed. And the — you know, the case could be made. They said, “Hey, look, this is going to have a huge impact on China, and we might as well let the rest of the world. Because the last people they want — we’ve had a great year against China, prior to the virus coming.

And I told you, 67 or so years, the worst economy they’ve had. Worse they’ve — almost on record that they’ve ever had because of my negotiations and because I taxed them on the product that they brought in. And, by the way, they paid for that tax. It wasn’t our people. They paid for that tax. They devalued their currency.

But here’s the thing: They allowed this to go into our country. They allowed it to go into other countries all over the —

Q Does it change how you feel about President Xi? Does it change your relationship with him?

THE PRESIDENT: Look, I finished a trade deal that everybody said would be impossible to get. And not only a trade deal; it was a great deal for this country. But that was done months before the virus came.

I’m not going to say anything. I had a very good relationship. He’s a strong man, he’s a tough man, but I have a very good relationship with him. But this should never have happened. This should never have happened. This virus should not have spread all over the world. They should have put it out. They should have let us and other people in other countries go in and put it out, because people knew it was happening.

{snip}

Q We have another question about the situation, getting people back to work in the U.S. Air travel, 95 percent down from a year ago, according to the TSA. Our next question coming from an aircraft technician in Texas.

VIEWER: Hi, I’m Joe from Arlington, Texas. I work for a major airline. How can we ensure the health and safety of our passengers? And, Mr. President, what advice will you give future presidents to prevent this from happening to our country again?

THE PRESIDENT: I love that second question. I just love it.

But you probably — your airline was probably saved by us. Because Steve and all of the people we have — we, you know, chose the smartest people on Wall Street to help us. Who else is better than these people? That’s what they do.

And, by the way, they’re working for a very tiny fee. Because I said, “I don’t want to pay them a lot of money for doing this.” We’re giving them money to save the airlines. I’m not looking to make them rich. They’re rich enough. So, I said, “We’re going to get the best people. Pay them some costs, but pay them very little.” I hope you kept doing that, Steve. Right?

SECRETARY MNUCHIN: I did, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: I hope. I’m going to check you. Anyway.

But we have the smartest people. We saved the airlines. We saved the airlines with 50 — 25 and 25 billion dollars. So, it’s $50 billion, which is a very small price to pay. They were having the best — the best year ever.

{snip}

the time. But in terms of death, Bret, we’re at the lower level — the lowest level predicted, and we might not even hit that. It may be lower than that. And sadly, that’s all we can do.

Q We’re going to take a quick break, and our virtual town hall will continue right after this. Stay with us.

(Commercial break begins.)

(Commercial break ends.)

Q Welcome back, everybody, to our Fox News Virtual Town Hall, live here at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Secretary — Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are with us this evening. And we’re going to do a lightning round of questions. Some short answers and some short questions, as well.

But I want to start with you, President Trump. We’re six months away from the election today. A different world than when we were all together in Scranton.

THE PRESIDENT: Very different. Right.

Q What kind of GDP, what kind of employment number do you think you’re going to need to get the support of the American people in November?

THE PRESIDENT: Our country was sailing. I would tell people — I would say, you know, “Can this continue?” We were doing the greatest ever. The greatest economy in the history of any country. Blowing away everybody, including China. And then we had to close it. And my ambition is very quickly to get us back to where we were. And I think we can do that very, very quickly. Not if a Democrat comes in and raises taxes. They want to raise everybody’s taxes. We’re doing the opposite. And the payroll tax cut is very important for getting people back to work.

What I want to do is: Number one, we’re getting rid of the virus. We have to do it. We’re working with the governors. We’re getting rid of the virus. But we’ve got to put our country back to work. All those people out there that are protesting, they’re — they’re right. They want to go back to work. We want to go back to work quickly but safely. And that’s what’s happening.

And then, next year, I think we’re going to have a great economic year. We’re going to get our jobs back. And I’ll go a step further: We have a transition third quarter. We’re going to have a very good fourth quarter. We’re going to have a great next year.

{snip}

Q Mr. Vice President, you went to the Mayo Clinic. You didn’t wear a mask. Your critics jumped on you for that. Then you went to GM. You did wear a mask. Was that a concession to the critics, or are you sending mixed signals there?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, from early on, the CDC has made it clear that you wear a mask to prevent you from conveying the coronavirus to other people. And since the President and I are in the unique positions we’re in, we’re tested often. I didn’t think —

Q We should point out that we’re tested as well. That’s why we’re here without a mask as well.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes, that’s right. Well, I didn’t think it was necessary. But I should’ve worn the mask at the Mayo Clinic. And I wore it when I visited the ventilator plant in Indiana. And I think it’s a — it really is a statement about the American people, the way people have been willing to step forward, practice social distancing, wear masks in settings where they can’t do that.

And I just have to tell you that I couldn’t be more grateful to see the way the American people responded. First, the President called for “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” and then “30 Days to Slow the Spread.” And this was a great hardship on families and on businesses large and small. But the American people did it. It’s made an immense difference. I believe it’s saved thousands of lives. And as we go forward, as we continue to practice those principles, all of us together, I know we’ll get through this.

Q So, you were asked to speak at the West Point graduation. There’s been some pushback on that. Tammy Duckworth, a veteran, said it would be reckless.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, they’re a Democrat. A Democrat.

Q So, are you going to do it? And do you think that it’s worth the risk for those families and cadets?

THE PRESIDENT: There’s no risk. Are you ready? They wanted me to speak. I didn’t want to speak. I — you know, I love West Point. I grew up near it. My school — and you know where I went to high school was right near West Point. New York Military Academy. So it was a mini West Point. Very mini.

But West Point is this incredible thing, incredible place. I love it. I know it well because, you know, I spent a lot of time at West Point. They wanted me to come and speak. Then they changed the date. I believe it’s June 13th. And it’s my honor to speak, but I didn’t want to necessarily do it. What they’re doing is they’re coming back a little bit early. They’re going to be fully tested. There’s — they’re going to be very, very spread apart.

I said, “I want their families to be there.” You know, Mike made the commencement address. I did it last year at —

Q Air Force.

THE PRESIDENT: — the Air Force Academy. Mike did it this year. There were no parents in a big stadium, and they were very spread apart, and it was fine. But they asked me to do it, and I agreed. The generals asked me, would I please do it. You know, I’m the President of the United States. They wanted to have it. The cadets all wanted it.

Q They would love to have you there.

Mr. President, last thing: What do you tell your kids and grandkids about COVID-19, about this time? What do you tell them?

THE PRESIDENT: I sat down with my son. I sat down with my grandchildren. I said, “A terrible thing has happened. It’s a thing that we’ve never experienced.” I said, “I guess, you could go back, over 100 years, and you could go to 1917 and we experienced it, but Europe experienced it much worse. It could have been 100 million people died.” But I said, “Something has happened, but we’re going to be strong, and we’re going to get out of it, and our country is going to be bigger and better and stronger than ever before.”

Q President Trump, Vice President Pence, Secretary Mnuchin, thank you very much for your time. It’s a real honor to be here tonight.

Q Thank you all. Great to have you with us. An honor to have all of you all here tonight.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It’s good to be with you.

THE PRESIDENT: My honor. Thank you.

Q And thank you for our viewers at home for watching. I’ll be back here on Fox tomorrow, 6:00 p.m. Eastern for a “Special Report.”

Q And I will see you tomorrow night at 7 o’clock Eastern with “The Story.” Goodnight, everybody.

END

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