REMARKS

Remarks by President Trump in Cabinet Meeting
HEALTHCARE

Issued on: May 19, 2020

East Room

3:12 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, everybody. Please. So, welcome to our Cabinet meeting. And every member of my Cabinet is working tirelessly to defeat the invisible enemy. That should have never happened to our country. It should have never happened to the world. It’s a disgrace. It could have been stopped at the source, but they decided not to do that.

But we’re going to safely reopen our country and our economy, and it’s happening very rapidly. And it’s happening, interestingly, where numbers are actually going down; you look at Florida, the state of Florida. Done a great job. You look at Georgia, you look at others — they’re open. And some are doing extremely well, far beyond what people thought.

And the numbers are going down. The numbers that we have been talking about for the last two months, they’re actually going down. So it’s really terrific.

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The pandemic has shown once again the vital importance of economic independence and bringing supply chains back from China and other countries. I probably got elected — one of the primary reasons was that. “Make America Great Again,” “America First” — call it whatever you want. But we went way out of bounds; we build a car and we go to 12 countries to build a car. I want to build a car from one country: We make the parts.

To achieve this goal, we’ve slashed red tape and bureaucracy and unleashed the largest industrial mobilization since World War Two, especially when it comes to big things like a ventilator. It’s a very big, clumsy, highly sophisticated product. And we have now assembly lines. We’re the talk of the world. We’re supplying them to other countries. We’re helping other countries that are going through this plague and they’re never going to be able to do ventilators.

So we are — it’s really been an incredible thing what’s happened. It’s the biggest mobilization since World War Two. And we’re fighting for the livelihoods of American workers, and we must continue to cut through every piece of red tape that stands in our way. And that’s why this is such an exciting meeting — beyond being a Cabinet meeting, which is always good — because with millions of Americans forced out of work by the virus, it’s more important than ever to remove burdens that destroy American jobs.

In a few minutes, I will sign an executive order instructing federal agencies to use any and all authority to waive, suspend, and eliminate unnecessary regulations that impede economic recovery. And we want to leave it that way. We want to leave it that way. In some cases, we won’t be able to, but in other cases, we will.

And you’ve heard me say many times — I’ve said and I’ve said it very strongly that regulations — we’ve done more regulation cutting than any President in history, whether they’re there for four years, eight years, or, in one case, more. We’ve done more regulation cutting — I don’t mean just in a year or two years. I mean in the three and a half years that we’ve been here, we’ve cut far more regulations by a factor of a lot than any other administration, any other presidency. So that’s really something.

I’m directing agencies to review the hundreds of regulations we’ve already suspended in response to the virus and make these suspensions permanent where possible. I’m also instructing agencies to use the emergency authorities to speed up regulation cuts or new rules that will create jobs and prosperity and get rid of unnecessary rules and regulations.

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Today we had a really great article by Rich Lowry, who talked about the tremendous job that we’ve done in terms of the task force, in terms of the coronavirus, and getting things going and getting people what they need — whether it’s ventilators, testing, or many other things. And I

appreciated that article very much because there’s been a very false narrative. People have no idea what an incredible job the people in federal government have done. And that includes generals and admirals and lots of others.

So I want to thank Mike Pence for the great job you’ve done, Mike. And, please, say a few words.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Mr. President. And I think everyone around this Cabinet knows that, from the first day of this administration, you’ve made it clear that you have no higher priority than the safety and security of the American people.

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But it’s not just been a health of the American people that’s been challenged, Mr. President. As you rightly observed, businesses large and small who have had to shutter their operations — we heard from restaurant owners earlier this week. And with the great work of our Secretary of the Treasury and your leadership, Mr. President, $188 billion in loans have been approved to small businesses, nearly $583 million have been awarded through community health centers to all 50 states. We have been there at the point of the need for businesses large and small. We have been there for vulnerable populations. And at your direction, Mr. President, we’ll continue to lean forward in that fight.

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So, Mr. President, you charged the White House Coronavirus Task Force to have one mission and that was save lives, to have one team and that was to forge relationships all across the country. And because of your leadership, because of the great work of this Cabinet, because of governors around the country, but mostly because of our incredible healthcare workers and the cooperation of the American people, we’ve slowed the spread, we’ve flattened the curve, and we are reopening America.

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SECRETARY CARSON: Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. President.

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Based on our work and analysis, the Revitalization Council is identifying diverse policy approaches in areas including housing, education, technology, broadband, workforce, entrepreneurship, health, and long-term community development. And under your leadership, this administration has shined a light on the forgotten men and women whose job prospects and health disparities are often hidden in the shadows.

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SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Thank you, Mr. President.

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The good news is that, under your leadership, we’ve built a path forward so that we can have safe reopening. We have the surveillance tools. We have the testing tools. We have the containment methodologies and resources. We are developing therapeutics, and we’re developing vaccines. So we have the strategy and the recipe to support the safe reopening of our economy. And for the sake of Americans’ health and wellbeing, we’ve got to support this and move ahead with safe reopening.

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ACTING SECRETARY WOLF: That’s absolutely right. Again, at the — at your leadership, the task force leadership, we continue to make progress on that border. Thank you.

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MR. MEADOWS: Thank you, Mr. President. Obviously, your work and the work of this Cabinet on behalf of the American people is very evident. It’s critical that we make sure that Americans are healthy, safe, secure, and prosperous. And because of the work of everyone around this table, and, more importantly, your leadership, we’re setting the example of how not only to tackle one of the most difficult, silent killers that we’ve ever faced in our history, but also how to come out of that more united.

And because of your executive order today, we are not only ready to reopen our com- — country, but we’re open for business once again. So I thank you for your leadership. And it’s an honor to serve you and the people of this great country.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Mark. You’re doing really — really well. Appreciate it.

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT: Good, Mike. Thanks. Great job.

I’d like to maybe ask Scott Turner to finish. He’s somebody who’s young and strong and powerful. And he’s done an incredible job with Opportunity Zones and other things. And maybe you could finish it off. And we could take a couple of questions from the media if you’d like.

But, Scott, make the media so crazed — (laughter) — that they say, “Boy, are they doing a great job.” (Laughter.)

MR. TURNER: Well, thank you, Mr. President for the — is this on? Okay. Thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership, and Secretary Carson and Mr. Vice President. Thank you all.

And, you know, I was sitting here listening to all the remarks and what’s going on, and I’m very encouraged. And I was reminded of my time from playing peewee football, all the way to the NFL. And one of the greatest times that we had was the huddle.

The last time I was with you all was last summer. We had traveled to 21 cities in 12 weeks, and you all encouraged me greatly. And so we finished by traveling to over 60 cities with the Opportunity Zone and the council. And much fruit came about in America because of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council.

And many of you, your staff members and your teams from your agencies have been tremendous, and that has been a great team effort. Not one man, not one person; it’s been a great team that’s brought much fruit because of Opportunity Zones in America to the people inside the distressed communities.

And I’m so humbled by that. But we have a lot of work to do. Our resolve is still the same. Our spirit is the same. Our fortitude is even stronger.

The President has refocused the council, so our vision is broader. And because of that, we will not quit.

And I want to thank all of you for your leadership. Thank you for your vision. Thank you for your encouragement.

But back to the huddle. In the huddle, it was time to refocus. It was a time to reset and to encourage one another. “I know you got beat on that play, but you won’t get beat on the next one. And we have you. We have your back.” We were a team. The enemy was on the other side of the ball.

In America, we are a team. The enemy is COVID. And I want to remind everybody in the room and everybody listening in America: We’re all one team. This is the huddle today. We’re encouraging each other. We have each other’s back. We know to anticipate what’s happening on the next play. We have a great game plan. We got great leadership. All around the room, it’s a tremendous team and it’s called the United States of America. COVID will get whooped. (Laughter.) It will. But it’s going to take all of us.

And I say that, Mr. President, because this is a blessing to me to be in this huddle. But when we say, “Ready? Break,” the enemy better look out because we’re going to be victorious against the enemy and have long-term sustainability and a generational vision for America. So, long after we’re gone, the people that come behind us will be blessed. So I want you all to be encouraged.

And I want thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Dr. Carson and Mr. Vice President, and all of you for your leadership. And I’m encouraged to be here. So thank you. (Applause.)

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Okay, any questions? Please. Yes. Steve, go ahead.

Q When you say you feel “differently” now about the China trade deal, could you amplify on that a little bit?

THE PRESIDENT: No, it just seems to mean less to me, because, you know, we did this great deal with China — they have to buy billions and billions of dollars of product, farm product and other product, and it was very exciting. One of the biggest deals ever made. Actually, not as big as the USMCA, which surprises people. But it could have been bigger over a period of time, because the potential there is just beginning, in a sense. And it was very exciting.

But once the virus came in — once the plague, as I call it, came in, I said, “How did they let that happen? How did they let that happen?” And how come it didn’t go into other sections of China? Why did they block it from leaving Wuhan but they didn’t block it from going to the rest of the world, including the United States? Why is that? Beijing doesn’t have it; other places don’t have it. So why is it that it was blocked very effectively from leaving that area and going into China, but it went out to the rest of the world, including the United States? And why didn’t they let us go in and help them fix it? So I’m very disappointed in China.

Yeah.

Q Mr. President, can I follow?

Q Mr. President, why —

Q Just to follow up: You’ve been talking about possible retaliation for that. Are you any closer to a decision on that, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t talk about retaliation. Go ahead.

Q Mr. President, why haven’t you announced a plan to get 36 million unemployed Americans back to work? You’re overseeing historic economic despair. What’s the delay? Where’s the plan?

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I think — I think we’ve announced a plan. We’re opening up our country. Just a rude person you are. We’re opening up our country. We’re opening it up very fast. The plan is that each state is opening and it’s opening up very effectively. And when you see the numbers I think, even you will be impressed, which is pretty hard to impress you.

Yeah, go ahead. Please.

Q But, Mr. President, a lot of these jobs are —

THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. That’s enough of you.

Q — not coming back, according to these studies —

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Q Do you — so, Ford Motor Company has previously required visitors to wear masks when they visit their facilities. Do you plan to wear one when you go there on Thursday?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. It’s — I haven’t even thought of it. It depends. I mean, you know, in certain areas, I would. In certain areas, I don’t. But I will certainly look at it. It depends on what situation. Am I standing right next to everybody or am I spread out? And also, you look — you know, is something a hospital? Is it a ward? Is it — what is it exactly? I’m going to a plant. So we’ll see. Where it’s appropriate, I would do it. Certainly.

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Q The FDA has said hydroxychloroquine should not be used outside of a hospital setting or outside of a research study.

THE PRESIDENT: No, that’s not what I was told. No.

Q So can you —

THE PRESIDENT: There was a false study done where they gave it to very sick people — extremely sick people, people that were ready to die. It was given by, obviously, not friends of the administration. And the study came out. The people were ready to die. Everybody was old, had bad problems with hearts, diabetes, and everything else you can imagine. So they gave it. So, immediately, when it came out, they gave a lot of false information, just so you understand. Great studies came out of Italy on hydroxy. You know what I’m talking about, right? Right? Great studies came out. And the combination of the three.

But we had some great studies come out: Italy, France, Spain, ourselves. Many, many doxes [sic] — doctors. Many doctors came out, and they said, “It’s great.” Now, you have to go to a doctor. I have a doctor in the White House. I said, “What do you think?” And it’s just a line of defense. I’m just talking about it as a line of defense. I’m dealing with a lot of people. Look at all the people in the room. You know, I’m the President, and I’m dealing with a lot of people. And it’s a very inexpensive drug. It’s — it’s almost pennies. It’s very inexpensive. And it’s been out for close to 70 years for a couple of different things, right? Lupus and malaria and even arthritis, they say.

But I think it’s worth it as a line of defense. And I’ll stay on it for a little while longer. I’m just very curious myself. But it seems to be very safe. But that study was a phony study put out by the VA. You may want to talk about that. I mean, we could talk about that if anybody wants to. And maybe I’d ask Alex to talk about that — if you would introduce our great, talented head of the VA and let him say a couple of words.

But that was a phony study, and it’s very dangerous to do it. The fact is, people should want to help people, not to make political points. It’s really sad when they do that.

Go ahead.

SECRETARY AZAR: Yeah. So hydroxychloroquine has been approved by the FDA for decades here in the United States for the treatment of malar- — for the prevention of malaria, the treatment of lupus, the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. And the system we have here in the United States is: Once a drug has been approved and on the market, a doctor, in consultation with a patient, may use it for what we call “off-label” purposes, which are indications that are not yet proven and not yet in the label.

And this is the Right to Try President. He, for the first time, got the historic Right to Try legislation for experimental therapies, but that applies to our existing regime, which is approved products may be used in the judgment of a physician in consultation with their patient.

As the President said — and I’ll ask Secretary Wilkie to talk a bit about the VA study — there has been — there’s been some studies around the use of hydroxychloroquine later in disease progression. But we are still working on some controlled studies earlier in the disease progression to see if we can measure the effectiveness of it in preventing the replication of the virus’s spread in mild to moderate cases rather than the more serious. And that data is still pending, but —

THE PRESIDENT: And it’s got — well, it’s got very good reviews. Very good. From many, many doctors. Many, many doctors.

Secretary, please.

SECRETARY WILKIE: Thank you, Mr. President. I — and I want to clear up something that the media has not reported accurately. That was not a VA study.

THE PRESIDENT: Can you hear him? Because I think it’s important. You asked the question.

SECRETARY WILKIE: Yeah. That was not —

Q Yes. Yes, I can hear him.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you want to listen? Because I don’t even think you’re listening.

Q I can hear him.

THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead, why don’t you listen to him?

Q I am listening.

SECRETARY WILKIE: That was — that was not a VA study. Researchers took VA numbers and they did not clinically review them. They were not peer-reviewed. They did not even look at what the President just mentioned — the various comorbidities that the patients who were referenced in that study had.

I also want to echo what the Secretary of HHS said. The instructions I received from the President were very clear, and that was to preserve and protect life. Those of us who’ve had a military life — some of us around this table — we’ve been taking this drug for years. As the President mentioned, the Department of Defense and VA have been using it for 65 years. On every — any given day, VA uses 42,000 doses of this drug. And what we did, when this virus first hit us, was to use every means necessary to help preserve life.

We believed that the Congress was right, and the President signed legislation to protect life: the Right to Try. And we did this in consultation, not only with the families of those veterans, but we did this in consultation with our doctors, under FDA guidelines.

So I want to knock down the phony story that this is somehow the VA going back on what the President told us to do, which was to use every means possible to protect and preserve the lives — the lives of our veterans. And I think, as the President mentioned, we’ve seen in many cases across this country — in fact, I was on the news the day that the Governor of New York was asking you for tens of thousands of doses.

THE PRESIDENT: That’s right.

SECRETARY WILKIE: We are doing everything we can to protect the lives of our veterans. And this is one of the means that we used.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Hydroxychloroquine is used by thousands and thousands of frontline workers, so that hopefully they don’t catch this horrible disease or whatever you want to call it. It is a — a terrible virus. It’s a terrible thing. And a lot of people are taking it. A lot of doctors are taking it. A lot of people swear by it.

It’s gotten a bad reputation only because I’m promoting it. So I’m obviously a very bad promoter. If anybody else were promoting it, they’d say, “This is the greatest thing ever.” But because of me —

So, a lot of doctors swear by it; I think we can say that, Mr. Secretary. A lot of doctors think it’s great. But the one thing that is true, one way or the other way, whether you like it or not: It’s been around for 70 years. Unbelievably effective for malaria and for lupus, and probably effective for arthritis. And what has been determined is it doesn’t harm you. It’s a very powerful drug, I guess, but it doesn’t harm you.

And so I thought, as a frontline defense, possibly it would be good. And I’ve had no impact from it. I’ve now — I’ve had no — I feel the same. I haven’t changed, I don’t think, too much.

And at some point, you know, I won’t take it. Might be soon, might be in a little bit. It doesn’t — it doesn’t seem to have any impact on me. But it seems to be a extra line of defense, and it’s gotten tremendous reviews from some people, including many, many doctors all over the world.

And you should look at some of the studies. They’ve been amazing, some of the studies. But that’s up to people and it’s up — I think, strongly recommend to people with their doctor’s advice and acknowledgement. Okay?

Q Is anyone else in the Cabinet taking that regimen, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: Say it?

Q Is anyone else in your Cabinet taking hydroxychloroquine?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. I don’t know. I — that’s a personal thing as to whether or not they want to answer that question. But I think many of them would take it if they felt it was necessary.

I also had a case where we had somebody fairly close to me — a very nice, young gentleman — he tested positive.

Q Your valet?

THE PRESIDENT: And he tested positive. Plus, I deal with Mike alike — a lot, and Mike had somebody very close to him, who I also see, who tested positive. So I think — I thought, you know, from my standpoint, not a bad time to take it, because we had the combination of those — the two people. It’s two people in a very big building with a lot of people working. But — so I thought it would be appropriate, but it has had no impact, in terms of me. Okay?

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Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

END

4:21 P.M. EDT