FULL SPEECH: President Trump participates in Small Business Summit

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:02][music] [applause] [applause] Well, we have a great group of people outside. I just looked at their wares and it's beautiful stuff. Made in America. It's great. Great stuff. Please sit down.

[00:00:32]I'm thrilled to be with you and welcome you to the most fabulous place, the White House. There's nothing nothing quite like it. People come from all over the world. King and Queen were just here and they looked and they said, "This place is just amazing." When uh they came into the Oval Office, they said, "This is something." And they've seen some very nice places. They've seen some have great rooms, but it is a very special place as we celebrate National Small Business Week. So, let me begin by saying congratulations to the small business people of the year from all 50 states. It's a big deal. It's a big deal and you can be proud of yourself. Our country is made up of a lot of small businesses and that ends up being a really big business.

[00:01:23]As small business owners and operators, the people in this room represent the 36 million small businesses who create 40% of all economic activity in the United States. Think of that a uh group of people added together. You're essentially the most important factor business-wise in the whole in the whole country. And this country is leading the whole world. We are now that I can tell you by a lot. You're the lifeblood of the American economy. And with your help, we're truly making America great again. It's we're doing record record business. We have uh stock market that hit even with this uh military operation. Call it whatever you want. We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. We hit all new highs and I said we have to take care of business because we can't let that happen. So we did a little detour and it's working out very nicely.

[00:02:18]They have no navy. They have no air force. They have no anti-aircraft equipment. They have no radar. They have no nothing. They have no leaders actually. The leaders the leaders happen to be gone also. But uh can't let them have a nuclear weapon or you're going to have you'd have problems like nobody would believe. and it's going very well.

[00:02:41]We're also pleased to be joined this afternoon by Secretary of Energy Chris Chris Wright who's been amazing. Where's Chris? Except we were everybody was wrong. They thought that energy would be at $300, right? $300 a barrel and it's uh like at a hundred uh and I think going down and I I see it going down very substantially when this is over, Chris. I think I think very rapidly too at levels that you've never seen because there's there's a lot of energy out there of ships all over the world that are loaded up with it. They can't do much with it because they got uh kidnapped by a pretty evil place, but we're taking care of it. We have administrator Kelly Laughler is incredible and uh it's the head of the Small Business Administration. We're thinking about a name change, but I don't know. It's still pretty good.

[00:03:35]pretty good name. And I always say it's the small business is a giant business because when you add up your whole department, that's not a small business.

[00:03:43]That's a really big business. The biggest under the last administration and their radical left allies in Congress. Small businesses were brutally crushed by the worst inflation in American history. We had the worst inflation under Biden that we've ever had. And I always say I always like to correct because if I don't correct then the papers the the media goes crazy. He made a mistake. Well the official number is 48 years. I say the worst in history is because I don't believe the 48 years.

[00:04:12]I say it was worse than that. But in many ways 48 years sounds worse than in history. I don't know why but it was 48 years or worse. It was a Biden inflation. They had this is what I inherited and now we had it down where just prior to the war the inflation was 1.4% and for three months over three month four month period took me a little while to get it down from the levels it reached Biden added $6 trillion worth of new regulations and created an estimated 356 hours of paperwork every year for small businesses. You know what that means better than anybody.

[00:04:54]means no good. Their policies punish hardworking citizens and our policies protect you and reward you. And also we have something else that I think is good for your businesses. We are respected all over the world now again as a country. We were laughed at. We were a joke. We were a total joke. Right, Rick?

[00:05:14]I see Rick, my television star over here. He's been with us from the beginning, haven't you? Like maybe from the first speech. Long time, right?

[00:05:22]Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, I think we're doing good for you, Rick.

[00:05:26]Right. And you're doing good when you shop.

[00:05:30]>> And I know you're doing good on the television camera, so that's that's maybe more.

[00:05:35]>> Oh, that's good. That's great. Thank you. Last summer, I proudly signed the great big beautiful bill, the largest tax cuts in the history of our country and boosting millions of small businesses. [applause] boosting millions of small businesses.

[00:05:58]We passed no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on social security for our seniors. That's big stuff. And we add that to the package that we approved in my first term. We had the best financial years in the history of our country my first term. And I think we're going to blow them away this term.

[00:06:17]You know, in this term, we have $18 trillion being invested in our country.

[00:06:22]And if uh you look at the last administration, they had less than $1 trillion for four years. We have $18 trillion during 11 month. The 12th month hasn't come in yet in terms of the uh the numbers, but in 11 months, $18 trillion investments. We have auto plants being built all over the country, AI plants. We're doing and we're leading China in AI. And I'm going to go see President Xi in two weeks. I look forward to that. But I'll say I'm leading. We have [laughter] we have friendly we have very friendly competition.

[00:06:55]But uh it'll be actually it'll be a very important trip. We provided 100% expensing and bonus depreciation which is tremendous. One of the the biggest things that you have I mean it's uh people have no idea how big that is.

[00:07:10]businesses do so that businesses can deduct 100% of the cost of new facilities, equipment and capital investment in the first year. It used to take 38 years of deduction. Now you get it done in one, you can take one so you can expand. I think that's what made us so successful in the first term and now we have it for a 10-year period. So you have it for a while. I really was going to make it for a one-year period. That would mean you spend all your money immediately. Now unfortunately I gave you too much time. I was sort of against that. I said, "Let's do it for a shorter period of time." But we did it. It's the right thing. And this way when I get out of office in, let's say, eight or nine years from now, I'll be able to use it. I'll be able to use it for [applause] myself.

[00:08:00]And to ensure that you and your family can keep your businesses in the family, we virtually eliminated the unfair estate tax or debt tax for farmers and for small businesses. So, you know, often times you build I mean I just met some incredible people. They're beautiful businesses, small businesses.

[00:08:19]They want to have their children. Those businesses were all long-term. It was the father was there, right? We're just talking about with the beautiful pretzels. I said, "Pretzels? Oh, those look good. I wanted to take some right now, but I didn't want to be rude and rip rip your bag apart.

[00:08:35]But, uh, the businesses were they've been in business for a long time, almost every one of them. And, uh, you pass away, you want to have your children take over your business. They work in your business and they got hit with the state tax or we call it the death tax, but we call it both. Does it same thing.

[00:08:53]And, uh, they couldn't afford it. They went out, they take the business, they mortgage it up to pay the tax and they end up losing the business. They end up going bankrupt. They end up uh in many cases committing suicide. We have a lot of that. You have a lot, especially farms, you know, they want to be on that farm. They don't want to lose their farm. And it's land rich and cash poor and they go out and they borrow and borrow and keep borrowing. We ended that. No more estate taxes on farms and small businesses. So, I hope everyone's appreciative of it. Now, if you don't like your children, it doesn't mean anything.

[00:09:28]But if you do like to leave them to somebody that you love, then it's a big deal for them. You have other problems, but for them, it's a big deal. And I want to thank say thanks to these tax cuts. 12 million American small businesses got an average tax cut of over $7,000. And our pass through deduction alone is delivering an average of $4,600 in savings to 8 million entrepreneurs and is projected to generate $750 billion in economic growth for the country. Uh so many it's very really amazing. I see it on the uh television. I don't call this fake news because this is real fake news. But uh when when you look at some of the things that have taken place, we don't get covered correctly. But in terms of the truth, we uh we're having 5,000 6,000 7,000 10,000 11,000 with no tax on tips and no tax on social security, no tax on overtime and people are making sometimes 11 I mean I've seen it just where they're asking people virtually on the street, how's it doing? And everyone's surprised, 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 have people that make an extra 78 $9,000 a year between the no tax on tips. No tax on overtime is a big one. It's a big one. But the no tax on tip tips was great. I won I won the uh [applause] [applause] you know typically I don't know I don't know why I can't imagine people voting for the other side with their policies and everything beyond this long beyond this. We won Nevada by a lot and typically Democrats win that state and no tax on tips. A lot of people getting tips in Nevada. So, it had a big impact on people and and much bigger than they thought. And they're just now starting to realize how big and and how really wonderful the great big beautiful I call it the great big beautiful bill is because we we really it's it should be called the great big beautiful tax cut bill be and regulation cut bill uh we put everything in four years if we didn't pass another bill which won't happen because you always want to keep going but everything was put into this one bill that's why it's called the great big beautiful bill And one of the one of the things that happened is we were going to do it over 17 different bills. And I said, "Let's give it a shot. Put everything in one bill." And thank goodness we did it because the Democrats don't approve anything. They don't. You can have the best thing it can be for security. Look at the security. They want to defund ICE. They want to defund our incredible border patrol. They want to essentially they want to defund the police, but they don't want to say it. It's crazy what's going on. So, we put it all at the beginning. We have a little honeymoon period, a tiny little honeymoon period in this case. So, we got it all approved late at night. It got approved. And this was really done as a 4year bill, Kelly.

[00:12:36]You know that very well. You were a big part of it. And we got it done. And everybody was surprised. They thought we had to do it in little tranches. I don't know that we would have gotten the little trenches done. There was so much in here that people had to approve it.

[00:12:50]And if we would have done it individually, I'm not sure it would have gotten done. Plenty of those individual elements would not have gotten done. And almost as important as the tax cuts, we've slashed a record number of job crushing regulations. That includes for you. And that includes tremendous numbers of environmental regulations which stopped your businesses, but they didn't do anything. And they had no impact. If anything, they made the environment worse. But we eliminated 129 old regulations for every new one that was approved. It was supposed to be one in 10 and it's turning out to be 129. So for every regulation, think of that 129.

[00:13:30]We lose them. We get rid of them. It was supposed to be 1 and 10. We would have been happy with we did one in 12. We we started off one and seven with my last administration. We got it up to about 1 in 12. Now I see we have a one in 129.

[00:13:45]So we're getting rid of 129 nonsense regulations for every new one that we pass. And thanks to these progrowth policies, our economy is roaring and factory construction is is way up.

[00:13:57]Consumer confidence is way up. Business investment is more than triple compared to that of just a short time ago and before I took office. Nobody can believe it. And nobody can believe the $18 trillion number that we gave you because it's a record for any country, not just here for any country. A lot of that had to do with November 5th, but a lot of it had to do with tariffs. We charge tariffs to companies when they come in.

[00:14:24]A couple of you were just saying to me that you're getting hurt by China and other countries making a product that's not as good, but it's less money because of the fact that there were no guards, no safeties for you. and we've changed a lot of it. Some some have said you've you've absolutely saved our business, but uh because of the use of tariffs, we have all this money because if they come in and build a business here, if they build their plant here, there are no tariffs. Uh jobless claims just hit the lowest level since 1969.

[00:14:55]And more Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country. So, we have more people working today. [applause] That's a beautiful That's a beautiful I mean what could be better than that? You say like somebody was saying, "Oh, will AI take our jobs?"

[00:15:13]Well, we have a lot of AI up. They said, "It's going to take jobs." They said, "Well, you're probably right. Maybe a little bit, but it's going to create a lot of jobs." And did you know that more people are working in the United States right now than ever before? They said, "No, is that true?" Really? That goes That's the end of that argument. And a lot of good things are happening. And leading in AI is very important because that's a tremendously big industry and we want to be able to lead. Primarily it's China but others other countries are very much active in it. Also under the last administration one in four new jobs was a government job but since my inauguration 100% think of that 100% of all new jobs have been in the private sector. 100%. We cut a lot of [applause] And two of the three new jobs have been in small businesses. But I I just want to say so think of that 100% of new jobs are in the private sector.

[00:16:14]Now to do that, we cut tremendous numbers of governmental jobs. And I feel sorry for everyone and I, you know, it's a hard thing to do. Many of those people voted for me, but now they like me because they went out, they got private sector jobs that they like better and it's paying them sometimes two and three times more money. So, it's worked out the right way. But you have to do that.

[00:16:37]You can't just keep I mean, we had jobs, we had government jobs where you'd have uh 10 people doing the job of one person and it just it's you you can't make America great that way. So we we did it the uh the hard way, but the correct way. The correct way. Big difference, right, Kell? You see it. It's nobody's ever seen anything quite like it. And it it was especially working here. It's tough because, you know, this is the home of federal jobs. I wouldn't say I got tremendous. I mean, you know, we won the election in a landslide. We got we won all seven swing states. We did all the things that you've heard so many times with counties counties which is a big count that's why you see the map is all red practically when you look at it we won 86% of the counties in the country but uh here is a little bit different but now if you look at those people some of them have left uh and by the way speaking of that Washington DC which was very unsafe a year ago a little more than a year ago is now one of the safest cities in the United >> [applause] >> So, we had to cut the jobs because we were way bloated with federal jobs. And you know, I could make I could with one swipe of the pen, I could say, "Let's have no employment and I'll hire a million people or two million people." I say, "We just hired a million people and we have absolutely no employment." And that's what they would do. They'd have bad numbers coming up. So they'd hire a couple of hundred thousand people and the numbers would look okay. With me, it's the exact opposite. We terminate a lot of federal jobs that are unnecessary and they don't like me for doing it, but a year later they like me because they end up having a much better job oftenimes in a place where they'd much rather live. You know, they go to the place that they want to go. They're not stuck in Washington or someplace else.

[00:18:35]and uh they do much better. And in the end, I mean, I've had a lot of people come up, they say, "I was so angry at you, but now I'm making sometimes two or three times the money in a job that I really like." So, you got to do what you have to do. You have to politically, I don't know that it's good, bad, or indifferent. I think it's probably bad, maybe politically, but uh in the meantime, I'm in the White House, so maybe it's good. A lot of times, a lot of times, [applause] you know, as you probably heard, the the fake news media treats me very, very badly. 93% of the stories I get are bad.

[00:19:12]And yet, I won in a landslide. How do you win all seven swing states when you get only bad press? It's fake press.

[00:19:17]They give me fake polls. They tell me about polls or this, you know, it's it's interesting. did a poll on the war with Iran and they said only 32% of the people like it. Well, I don't like it and I don't like war at all, but we're equipped better than we have the greatest military in the world. You saw what happened with Venezuela. You see what happens with everything. But they said 32% of the people are against President Trump. Well, when you explain it like is it okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon? It wouldn't be 32%. But even if you said that, there'd be a 32% because the polls are fake. I mean, they're totally fake. And when you take a look at what's really going on, the other day I made a speech in a great Florida senior citizens community and I made another one at the Kravis Center, two in one day. It was wonderful. I go out, I make a speech, then I say, "All right, let's go home." Sir, you're making another speech and this one's in front of the richest people in the world. I went from an unbelievable group of seniors. Now, of course, I'm not a senior. I'm far younger than you. It's true. I feel like I feel the same as I felt 50 years ago. I don't know.

[00:20:28]There'll be there'll be a period of time when I don't tell you that. They'll speak I'm honest. I'll say it's not looking good. I have to be careful. If I said as an example, I'm not feeling well. Can they put on Donald Trump is not feeling well because they'll just they won't know that I'm using that. It's just a reference point.

[00:20:47]Then they'll say, "Listen to this." And I'll say, "I'm not feeling well." Well, someday I might say that to you and you'll be the first to know. Actually, I won't have to say it because you'll be able to see it just like you did in the last administration.

[00:21:03]You know, one of the things I said is that we should have, in my opinion, anybody running for president or vice president should take a cognitive test.

[00:21:12]And no president has ever taken one except me. I've taken three of them and I've aced each one. One in the first administration, two over here. And whenever they get a little sassy like, does he still have it? Does he still have what it takes? I say, all right, I'll take another one. And they are hard. There are many people in this room I know that are smart. They're not going to ace him. There are many people standing back there, the fake news. I'd like to have them. You know the first question is very easy and they always show the first question is you have a lion, a bear, an alligator and a what's another good a squirrel. Okay, which is the squirrel.

[00:21:56]So they show that question and then the first four or five questions are they get a little more difficult. By the time you get to the middle they're tough. 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 do what Gavin Newsome said if you saw him. He said, "Everybody in here is stupid and he's stupid." When he I think it was the worst political interview I've ever seen. He said he's stupid. He's dumb. He gets bad marks on everything. He can't read a speech. And uh nobody wants to report that. It was the worst. But I won't say that because I think everyone in this room is brilliant. But nobody's going to get all 30 questions correct. Nobody. Because when you get to those last questions, they're pretty hard. You got to be pretty sharp. But every time, so I've taken three. No president, think of this, has ever taken one. How do you think Biden would have done? I don't think he might not have gotten that first question right [laughter] anyway. And Obama would have done poorly. I they they would have done very poorly, but I think you should have it.

[00:22:59]Uh as soon as they said that, they say it's unconstitutional.

[00:23:03]And I said, why? They say it's unconstitutional to give a cognitive test like that. But Rick, I do it anytime they start getting a little sassy. And you know, it quiets them down for almost a year when they hear the result. One doctor said, "It's the first time I've ever seen anyone get all questions right." That's a doctor who does this stuff for a living. And I did it three times. So, I don't know. I think I'm done with those days. I'm tired of taking that test. You know, you sit before a group of doctors and they ask you questions. I said to Ronnie Jackson, he was original, right? First time. I said, "So, what do you think, Ronnie?" They call me, they call me a genius who's going to destroy the country. Then they said, "He's a genius who's taken over the entire world." And they said, "He's a total This guy is so stupid." And then so whenever I hear that one, I said, "Let's take the cognitive test." But uh I really think it would be a great thing if you could do that. They say it's not constitutional, but I think it would be good. And I can tell you a lot of the people that run these small businesses, you could take the cognitive test and you could do a lot better than some of the people that we talk about. But I really believe it. I think it's so important for our country. We have to make sure we have the right people leading this country. like we have a war right now and went to like what six weeks. They said, "What's taking so long?" We were in Vietnam 19 years.

[00:24:30]We're in Iraq for many years, 10 years, 12 years. We were in all these different wars. Korea, seven years. Uh I won't even mention World War II. That's a big baby. But you have the wrong person up here. You'll be in You'll be in World War II. As sure as you're sitting there, you have the wrong person up there. It's nasty and tricky. It's tricky out there.

[00:24:53]We have to have We have to have the right people and they have to be sharp and they have to be smart because one thing about your businesses, small businesses are great, but if you don't have the platform, meaning the country, meaning the right principles, the right everything. Our country is booming now despite the fact that we're in a I call it a mini war because that's all they are. They don't have a navy anymore.

[00:25:15]Think of it. They had 159 chips. How many do they have left, Kelly? Out of 159. Take a guess. She's very smart.

[00:25:23]Zero.

[00:25:25]159 chips. In the first two weeks, 159 chips. I actually got very upset. I said, "How quality were the ships?" They were very good. I said, "Why didn't you just take the ship? Why do you have to send it to the bottom of the sea? We could have had we could have had, let's say, out of the 159. We could have taken 59. We would had 59." But they like they'd rather blow them up than save them. I would have preferred saving them, but these are minor details. But one of the one of the small business owners who can tell us firsthand how our tax cuts are boosting revenue is someone you may have heard and I made mention of the fact he has been with me. I don't know, maybe he doesn't like me or maybe he loves me. I think I'd rather be liked than loved by him. although he is a very handsome man I would say but he's somebody that we all know and I really I think he's a fantastic guy and he has he's been to so many rallies so many speeches and I I love being able to introduce him because he's a champion he's a winner you know 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 Rick 5% of the shows make it 2% of the shows make it pretty good 1% of the shows make it so it's very risky to do a a television show because and I did The Apprentice and that was one of the greatest hits of a long time.

[00:26:47]>> But you did you did your show and I've uh I've just always admired I I admire people that will go against the odds and when you do a television show you're going because very very few of them make it and you made it big. So I'd like to have Rick Harrison come up. It's a gold silver pawn shop in Las Vegas [applause] and you know his show very well and thank you.

[00:27:14][applause] All right. Um you know usually I have like announcement rallies and they give you like three minutes notice and I can't come up with a speech and later like literally just told me a couple hours ago to take a little speaking. Uh I just want to say he's amazing. He's done so much. I mean, so much for all of us. I mean, the backbone of this country is small business, plain and simple. And the last guy in office, all he, you know, all we heard was is that we were the evil people. We were the bad people.

[00:27:46]Everything else like that. We don't pay our fair share, whatever that's supposed to be. Um, and he made it tough. And this guy, the big beautiful bill, absolutely amazing. You know what I mean? God bless you for let me letting me get 100% appreciation. It really helps out. Um, and uh, all I can say is this is literally I mean I'm a history buff and I know a lot about this White House thing and everything. Literally, he's going to go down as maybe the best president ever. I love this guy.

[00:28:12][applause] >> Wow. I'm glad we didn't tell you because actually that was much better than when you're fully prepared.

[00:28:27]>> When he comes up fully prepared. No, that was great. Thank you very much. And uh very special guy. Thank you. Very nice. One of the strongest. And by the way, right behind him, see this? I call it, you call it a room. This is the biggest room in the White House. Not big enough to have anything. We had the king here. We had like 102 people and we could have had 2,000 people literally.

[00:28:51]But this is I call it a knockout panel.

[00:28:54]You see, some people would say, "Oh, that's a curtain. Underneath that curtain is a window. outside of that window is the new ballroom. So, I said, >> "Yeah, >> I'll leave. I'll get out of here and I'll let you guys if you want to see a beautiful structure going up, complex, safe, uh, things that could never happen like happened a week ago. That was a pretty bad situation. You can't have a thousand units over the ballroom with an entrance right next to where you are for a lot of reasons. So, uh, if you want, we're going to open that up. I think later on you'll open it up. let the people take a look and it would be pretty good. Not as exciting as looking at oil wells like Chris gets to do all day long. Right. And speaking of that, we're doing well in Venezuela, right?

[00:29:37]It's working good.

[00:29:38]>> Yes, we are, Mr. President.

[00:29:40]>> Yes, we are.

[00:29:40]>> That was good. That war took us approximately 48 minutes.

[00:29:45]And actually, [applause] and we have [applause] and we have a great relationship. And you know what they I heard the other day that the people of Venezuela are really happy. They're seeing things happen that they haven't seen in 20 years. They're working and they're they're uh there's a spirit in Venezuela that they haven't had in many many years. And the big companies are coming in now and they're building these giant rigs because there's a lot of oil in Venez other other things too and a lot of great people. And we have people in charge that are doing a fantastic job and they're working with you and you are doing a fantastic job. So, thank you very much. Good job. Proud of you.

[00:30:26][applause] The people of Venezuela are very thankful for your proud and bold leadership to change the trajectory of their lives.

[00:30:42][applause] This was so good. I said, "You better come up."

[00:30:49]>> No, no. I I want to say as you engage with the people of Venezuela and the businesses, I will tell you that President Trump is incredibly popular with the people of Venezuela. It's a nation of 30 million people going the wrong way for 25 years. and a bold leadership of this president changed the trajectory of that country. Changing the futures of all those people wanting millions of Venezuelans abroad to go back to that country. American businesses are stamping stampeding in to invest in that country. 25 years trying everything going the wrong way. His bold leadership and creative thinking changed the game. Thank you, Mr. President.

[00:31:29][applause] >> [applause] >> Thank you. We have we have a great relationship. We have hundreds of millions of barrels of oil coming out of Venezuela going to Houston and different places to have it refined. And we're sort of it's almost really a partnership. The man you just heard speaking, Chris, has been uh he wasn't my choice. Uh he was I had somebody else for department of energy a fantastic man Doug Bergam and I said I want you to head up energy says you know there's one person better than me better than anybody said who the hell is that Chris right I said who's Chris right tell me and he's like the number one guy in the whole world at this subject and I said well let's talk to him I don't know he probably makes a lot of money if he's doing that and he was he's taken one of the largest salary cuts in history, I'll tell you without question. But he's done a fantastic job with These are the people we have. We have great people.

[00:32:32]Doug is great. He was the governor of North Dakota, ran a incredible state, was very successful in business. He started with a small business. He sold it for a billion dollars to Microsoft.

[00:32:43]And uh he he wanted to do what Trump did. He said, "I want to be a business guy, and now I want to run. I made a lot of money. I want to run." So Doug Burger ran, and he became a great governor for eight years. He was term limited and uh I saw him at a session and speaking session and sort of a debating session.

[00:33:00]I thought he was great and I said I if if I win I'm going to get that guy in and he's now heading up uh he's now the largest landlord in the world I guess you could say right Department of Interior and he's been fantastic but he wanted Chris to be energy. So he's got all the power of the energy but he doesn't have the land. Doug has none of the power of he, but he has the land.

[00:33:23]So, I merged them. It's a friendly merger. We don't have any papers. They just get along together, right? And we've I think today we've announced we're drilling more oil by far than we ever have in the history of our country.

[00:33:37]More oil and gas by far. And this was just said, but this took place almost from the beginning, right? We got it started very, very early. So, you're doing a great job, Douglas. Right. And we're also very happy with Doug because he's doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much, Chris. Appreciate it.

[00:33:53][applause] So, one of one of the strongest effects of our tax cuts and tariffs is the Trump manufacturing boom is what they're calling it because that's what we have.

[00:34:07]We have never had anything like what's happening now. And when I talk about again the $18 trillion that's coming in and building places and as we speak, American companies are ordering core capital goods for factory construction and operation expansion. And you saw the construction numbers. Now the plants will be opening over the next period of time pretty soon. But you know we just got started and these plants are going to be opening right now. the the big number is the construction jobs in the country are going through the roof and ultimately when the plants open then you're going to have manufacturing jobs because right now the plants many of them haven't opened but they're under construction when when you see the final numbers you're not could even believe what you are seeing because there's never been any construction boom of factories like we have right now what we lost our car industry we lost 54% of our car industry to Canada Mexico Japan and South Korea, other countries, 54% over the years, over a period of probably 30, 35 years. And they're all coming back. They're all coming back.

[00:35:15]And they're coming back at levels that has never been seen before. It's pretty amazing. Well, you see, you you'll see it. It can't be disguised by our friends that would I guess I don't know. I see so many of them smiling, having a good time that I actually think they probably like us. I think their bosses say treat Trump as badly as you possibly can. But they had so many good faces and and so many they are a lot of professionals there. But it's the highest rate in over four decades. And under four years of the Biden administration, real wages for manufacturing workers fell. It fell $840.

[00:35:55]Under one year of Trump, wages for factory workers, manufacturing factory workers increased by $2,500.

[00:36:06]So, think of that. Under Biden, it fell $840.

[00:36:10]And under Trump, it went up $2,500.

[00:36:13]That's quite a difference. and [applause] u and and as I said, you haven't seen the real effect because these factories are being built right now. When they open, you're going to see numbers that are much greater than that. And a lot of these government workers, government workers, good people, and you know, I don't blame them for liking what they had, but they're going to all be in the system, and they're going to be making double and triple what they were making in government. we have a country again because you can't have a country that works where you have uh literally 10 people to do one job. You can't have it.

[00:36:51]You can't you can't have a great country. Earlier this year, I visited Costa Steel in Rome, Georgia. Before I took office, China and other countries were taking more of our industry all the time, just more and more. And KOSA was hit very hard. Their core business dropped from two shifts to six days a week. And uh the two shifts were during my administration by the way, but now is down to uh a very and then ultimately is down to one shift operating three days and it was going down to one day and they expected to go out of business.

[00:37:24]There was no stopping it. And now thanks to the tax cuts and the steel tariffs that I put on, Coast is thriving like never before. I just heard from them and they're they're at now full shifts, two full shifts, six days a week and they may go to a third shift round the clock.

[00:37:44]Think of that round the clock. They've never had that before. And they have the backlog of seven months long of things that they're building. Steel products, great. And they said, I was with the gentleman that owns the company. They thought it was going out of business and now he's he said now I have a great business and just a period of literally a year and a half. It's uh we thought we thought we couldn't stop it. And he said all of my friends up and down the line they have different businesses, factories, big businesses, but they all thought they were going out of business and now they're all doing better than they've ever done before. And they've gone from employing in this case cost 50 people to 125 people. And the 50 people is going down to about 14 or 15. And now they're at 125 and they're looking for additional people to work. And uh I want to thank their president, Andrew Seville, who I think maybe is here.

[00:38:37]Andrew, are you here? So, where are you, Andrew?

[00:38:41][applause] >> You want to say something?

[00:38:44]He was he so got you just he really understood what was happening. And I think it'll be nice. You weren't supposed to speak, so I hope you're not nervous.

[00:38:54][laughter] Thank you very much. The most thing that took us right to the top was your tariffs. And I think everybody in here that runs a small business, the tariffs had an effect on you one way or another.

[00:39:07]And that has just taken us all the jobs that were going to China, you brought them back. And it really took us to the next level. [applause] And we were honored to have you come down to our company. So, thank you for having me back here. I wasn't prepared to speak, so I'm gonna get off the stage. Thank you. [applause] When you know, you know what? It's there's a little truth to that, Rick. You when you sometimes you don't think you're going to introduce somebody, you know, they're in the audience, but they don't know.

[00:39:45]And they end up doing better because they speak from the heart. They have no choice. They can't think about all night long, what am I going to say? And then you get up and you bore the No, it's very good.

[00:39:56]>> How about your mouth?

[00:39:57]>> You speak from the heart and that's that's true. Tariffs were a very big part. We had an unfortunate ruling out of the Supreme Court. But the good news is I'm able to do it a different way.

[00:40:08]They said use the other way. There was no reason for that. It was terrible.

[00:40:11]Actually terrible. But uh it will have no impact other than I hate to pay people back tariffs. 159 billion dollars. I have to pay him back when a little half sentence any money taken in to this point does not have to be paid back. We would have saved 159 billion and I cannot figure it out. How could anybody do that? But they did it. Uh we have uh other ways of tariffing as you know we're already doing it. Uh and actually they're more tested, they're stronger, a little bit more complex. I like to keep it as simple as possible.

[00:40:48]Uh and in many ways they'll be better.

[00:40:50]It'll be better. I just want you not to think that because of that decision, we don't do the tariffs will actually be higher. It's turning out they're going to be end up being higher. But it's made our country rich, really rich. And uh it's like Andrew said, I mean, we without them, there would be nothing we could do to save your nothing. It's the greatest word. Remember, I used to say it's my favorite word in the dictionary, the word tariff. And then the fake news got on me. They said, "Well, what about God? What about your wife? What about your family? What about So they were just killing me because I said it's my favorite word. I said, "All right, it's my fifth favorite word." [laughter] So it's my fifth favorite word, but because of tariffs and you know the proper use of tariffs, you have to use them in a certain way. But you know, we've been ripped off in this I've been talking about for years. We've been ripped off in this country for decades.

[00:41:42]We lost our car industry. Think of it.

[00:41:45]There's a person here making utensils, beautiful forks and knives and things.

[00:41:49]Where is that person around here? So, stand out. So, and and he was telling me that China's coming in and they're ripping us and and we have a tariff. is 25% but it's not enough because uh you know they have certain advantages that you're not going to have and but they did the advantage you have is you have a higher quality product and I'm going to be able to take care of that very easily you know just by putting it up you'll have uh you'll be treated fairly it's just really tough and it's amazing you've done as well as you've done but you did that because of the quality of your product we have such quality North Carolina if you take a look I'm gonna put tremendous tariffs It's that process has already started.

[00:42:30]It takes me longer now because of the Supreme Court decision to have to go through a process. It's ridiculous. But uh we don't like it. I would like to do what's right and get it done instead of having to do a report which is going to come out and say the exact same thing that everyone knows. But you can tell the people in North Carolina that uh you know we used to have a great furniture business. I built a lot of hotels and a lot of different buildings where I need furniture. I would go to North Carolina.

[00:42:56]These were great artists and China essentially put them out of business because we never we didn't have a president that was willing to do it.

[00:43:04]Happened before my my term. They've been out of business for a long I used to go down there and see these people were they were artists with wood. I'd say I'd like to make the handle a little bit slimmer. Ding ding ding ding ding. It's like it was like magic. And we lost that whole thing. You can see it's coming back because we're putting tariffs on furniture where you'll be able to more than compete. We're going to protect. We have to protect our businesses. Same thing with you in the utensil business.

[00:43:31]Your your stuff is so beautiful. But it's very tough when you're competing against something that is cheap and you know because of the lack of protection that you've been given, it just puts you out of business. So you actually said thank you for the tariffs, but the tariffs really aren't high enough in my opinion in that particular thing. But with the furniture, we're going to bring all the furniture back to North Carolina, and you're going to see uh it'll be as robust as it was 25, 30 years ago. The greatest furniture people in the in the world, and they got stolen. They really didn't take them.

[00:44:07]They found people in China that could do it. And all those people got put out of jobs. And their their kids have that same ability. and you watch what happens, how good it is in North Carolina because I've been I've had to go through a process to get that approved. But now it's proved and uh you're going to be again the furniture capital of the world because nobody can do that quality and I know the quality.

[00:44:28]I buy a lot of things from China and because I was forced to, you know, when I was in the hotel business, I was forced to buy from China because of pricing because of pricing and because of for other reasons. What I wasn't getting was the kind of quality that we were getting here and now you'll have a combination of both. So you can let that be known. I don't know if that's breaking news or not for these people, but uh to me it's very important. I've been wanting to do it for a long time and now we [applause] have I love North Carolina. My administration's also committed to ensuring that American small businesses have access to the credit and capital that they need under Administrator Laughler who's phenomenal.

[00:45:13]>> [applause] >> She's [applause] she's got a great husband, Jeff, and he's a friend of mine and he's a very successful man and he's a great man and he's got a great wife and I'm so happy getting her in this position. She replaced a woman who is a very legendary woman, Linda McMahon, who's now in education. She's doing a great job.

[00:45:36]She's moving education back to the states where it belongs.

[00:45:41][applause] But last year, Kelly, our Small Business Administration issued 7 billion in loans to 11,000 new startups, as well as $1.3 billion in loans to 3,000 veteranowned small businesses and $3.2 billion. Yeah, big business, you know. That's why I say, how can we call it small business?

[00:46:03]$3.2 $2 billion to American manufacturers helping restore those beautiful words, made in the USA. Well, we're using them more and more. We have things being made here that nobody thought it was even possible for it to come back. Like you'll see in North Carolina with the furniture, it'll come back very, very rapidly. So, Kelly, I'd like to ask you to say a few words, please. [applause] >> Thank you, Mr. President. First of all, you are the most progrowth, pro small business president in American history.

[00:46:38]Thank you. [applause] It's such an honor to join you here at the White House to recognize National Small Business Week. And you're the greatest commander and chief ever, but also one of America's greatest businessmen. And small businesses know that. They see that this administration is shifting power and capital from fraudsters and Washington bureaucrats back to main street job creators just like we have gathered in this room today. Fair trade, deregulation, and the working family tax cuts and the one big beautiful bill. They are powering real opportunity that I see all over as I travel this country, especially after four crushing years of biodnomics and dep decades of shipping our jobs and our industries overseas, hollowing out our local communities that is ending. As I travel the country each week, and Mr. President, I've traveled with you from Iowa's machine shed restaurant to Georgia's Kusa Steel factory. America first policies are restoring the American dream on Main Street to new heights. At generational businesses like Jimmy's Famous Seafood at industrial innovators like Prince Manufacturing in Georgia and Blue Patriot in Nebraska who are building big, beautiful new buildings thanks to the working family tax cuts. Today, 98% of US manufacturers are small businesses. They're a critical part of securing our supply chains. And while they contribute to national strength across all kinds of en industries from energy to agriculture to defense and aerospace, America's big manufacturers rely on these producers and their skilled workers. And that's why President Trump's economic agenda means made in America is coming back. And it's coming back fast. [applause] >> [applause] >> Now, at the Trump SBA, we're helping to fuel that growth as the most free enterprise agency in the federal government. In 2025 alone, we guaranteed a record 45 billion dollar in lending to 85,000 small businesses through local banks. That's an all-time record at the SBA. And we did it with 53% fewer staff at the agency. [applause] That capital is driving the job creation that you see. Record small business formation this year. Record small business formation and growth in communities all across America. It's such an honor to highlight the award winners that are here today and the vital role of hard-working small businesses that do their jobs every single day. They are America's backbone.

[00:49:42]From our farms and restaurants to our construction companies and our manufacturers and our trucking companies. Thank you, Mr. President, for recognizing that small business is big business. 250 years ago, our founding fathers were also entrepreneurs. small businessmen. With the America First agenda, that legacy continues. America is open for business again. Thank you, Mr. President. [applause] That's a great job. I just want [applause] to serve everybody. I'll give you a little uh common sense business.

[00:50:23]So a lot of you run your business uh for a couple of reasons. Talent, brilliance in many cases, but also common sense and uh I'll give you just one little anecdote. We have a beautiful potentially beautiful built in 1922.

[00:50:41]It's a long time ago. Reflecting pond in between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. It's the long It's 2,500 ft long. That's taller than I think any building in the world. Uh that would be if you lay it sideways. It's two Empire State buildings, more than that, and very wide, 167 ft. And for years, they've wanted to fix it, rebuild it. It's granite. The stone is good.

[00:51:10]Granite's great, but it was leaking because it's little pieces of granite.

[00:51:15]Very, very expensive when they did it.

[00:51:16]But it always leaked from the day they built it in 19. Think of that 1922 and it leaked and leaked badly and uh they've looked at fixing it for decades really fixing it and it wasn't working.

[00:51:31]It was too expensive and the final price we got fairly recently was to fix it is $350 million because they were going to take the granite out and they were going to replace it with new granite, new stone, tighter joints, all that. It was going to take three and a half years.

[00:51:50]And I heard about it and I called Doug Bergam and I said, "Doug, what do you think? I built a lot of swimming pools, hundreds of swimming pools at different times." I said, "Let me look at that surface." So it's granite. So granite is virtually indestructible, but it was filthy dirty. It started because I called because it was so dirty. It was disgusting. People call me and they say, you know, it's a shame. I'm looking at the Washington Monument and this thing is terrible. The water is just is dirty.

[00:52:19]There's cartons of stuff in it and everything is just so horrible. And I said, "Wow, that's terrible. We can't have that." And I I actually had Secret Service. They said, "Drive over there. I want to see it, sir. We won't be able to do." I said, "Just do it." And I It was terrible. I looked at it. Terrible. So, think of that. So, it was going to cost 350 million. So, we're going to take the granite out, put new granite and think, you know, consider it like as tall as the tallest building in the world, if not dollar and laying on its side. And I said, "Wow, that's terrible. 350 million. It's going to take three and a half years. Three and a half years.

[00:52:56]It'll be it." And, you know, three and a half years means five years. $350 million means $500 million to fix it.

[00:53:05]And I said, you know, I built all these swimming pools and they're phenomenal.

[00:53:09]20 years. I have one up the road where it's a great club on the Ptoac River.

[00:53:14]And I bought it up at 20 something, 21 years ago, and I built a beautiful Olympic size pool. And I asked the other day, I said, "How good is the pool?"

[00:53:23]"Oh, it's beautiful, sir." I looked at it looks like it's brand new. Was done 20 years ago. So, I have uh some very good contractors, some good one or two in particular. And I said to the actually the three best, I said, "Do me a favor, fellas.

[00:53:38]Go take a look at the reflecting pool that sits in between Lincoln and Washington, the beautiful, what should be beautiful, reflecting pool." And one of them who came back, who's really, I would say, the best, but they're all good. He came back, he said, "What an exciting job, sir." I said, "So, how long would it take you to redo it?"

[00:53:59]He said, 'Well, we have to fix the surface a little bit, create something good and solid underneath. That'll take about a week and and let's say it'll take me to put the new material. Now, the swimming pool's good, but he said, "Sir, I'd get commercial grade. What is that?" He said, "That's much stronger, much heavier, meant for commercial. Uh, it actually looks better. It's more expensive, sir." I said, "That's okay."

[00:54:29]They said, "How much will it cost?" I think we can do it for about a million nine.

[00:54:35]So, he said, "What color would you like, sir?" And I said, "Well, you know that beautiful color that we have in Florida." She He said, "This is in Florida, sir. We don't have that green blue around here. We have blue water.

[00:54:49]But uh he gave me a choice of 50 colors.

[00:54:52]Now I'm going crazy. I'm saying now think of it. If we put the granite, you know what your color is? It was gray. It was gray. Not a good-look color. So even if you did it, it's not good. So I said, "We'll do a beautiful job. I think that uh I'd like to recommend a color that I've used before. Uh it's beautiful.

[00:55:12]What's it called?" It's called American flag blue. I said, "That's the color I want." So I [applause] said, "How can I how can you have a better color than American flag?" We had a gray, disgusting, dirty. It showed all the dirt. It showed all the everything. So we we finished it about uh two three days ago. They ripped the hell, you know, they roughened the surface. They left all everything there. The demolition would have cost $60 million to take the stone out and put new stone in. So we cleaned it, we steam cleaned it, we sand blasted it, we pebble blasted. You know what pebble blasting?

[00:55:54]That's a serious sand blast. That's really because it's granite. It's so strong. We roughen the stone so it's a good surface. Got an immaculate. It's beautiful. And but it still has the lines in between. You can have leaks all over the place. And we filled in some areas. And the work started a few days ago and I wanted to go today. I said, "Let me see these small business people and then I want to go over and see the contractors to see how they're doing."

[00:56:20]But uh Secret Service was not thrilled.

[00:56:24]They were not thrilled to be standing in the middle of a pool with lots of buildings looking down. You know, we have to be a little conscious of that, right, Chris? You'll have a new boss someday. And I don't know if you'd like that. So uh so here's the story just in a nutshell for a much better job 1.9 million one week because I don't call the you know actually the parks department did a great job they cleaned out a lot of men cleaning the scrubbing the scum off years and years of decay and bacteria and everything else you can think it was terrible actually it was worse than the people would tell me they say how bad.

[00:57:06]It looked it was much worse. The parks department did a fantastic job. They got it down to the surface and these guys came in and made the surface really, really good. And now the beautiful the fun starts and they're putting it down.

[00:57:19]So, ready? 1.9 million versus $350 million.

[00:57:25][applause] Tom, a great beautiful blue color. American flag blue as opposed to gray, right?

[00:57:38]Water is not gray, but it's one of those things. And instead of three and a half years, instead of three and a half years, it's one week. So, think of that.

[00:57:51]One week. Don't everybody say, "Well, yeah, but you can't repair this." Yeah, you can't. It's much better. It's a much better job. This will last for at least 50 years, and you'll never have a leak.

[00:58:01]It's very strong. You couldn't if you had a knife. I don't want to give anybody ideas. If you had a knife, you can't even cut it. So strong. So powerful. It's like powerful rubber. It is beautiful. Sealed. And I looked at just one of the little pieces that they did the finish. It's like a piece of glass. Beautiful color, beautiful everything. You could never get any anything like that. And just think of it. So for a tiny fraction of the cost and a tiny fraction of the time, we end up with the most beautiful thing that you'll ever see. And I look so forward to that opening up. And it's sort of a business thing. It's common sense thing.

[00:58:39]First thing I thought of when I heard $350 million because I'm the one that said, "Let's get it done." But they had done studies for years because they wanted to get it done. Never got done.

[00:58:48]Probably so expensive they couldn't afford to do it really. But uh there's a thing common sense, right? We said, "Well, swimming pool will look so beautiful. Wouldn't that be nice?" So, for a tiny fraction of the time, a tiny fraction of the cost, we end up with a much better product. And this is what you people do with small businesses all the time. It's what Kelly does in running this. She comes to me a lot of times with ideas for less money. It's a better It's a better job. So, I just uh I thought I'd tell you that because this just happened. This just happened. If you go down, if you'd like to see them doing it on your way back home, take a trip down to the reflecting pond or they go at it the reflecting pool. Some people call it the reflecting lake, but the word reflecting is always a part of it. They call it different things, but reflecting is always a part. Uh, last but not least, we have someone who is helping us lead the revival in American manufacturing. This year's national small business person of the year. I want to hire him. How big is this business? I want to get in. Mark Lamancha. And he's a fantastic guy. And he's the owner of Hometown Products, a metal casting and 3D printing company near Youngstown, Ohio. I hear it's amazing what he's done. In 2008, the company was nearing bankruptcy. It looked like it couldn't be saved, but that's when Mark patented a system to boost productivity at the company by more than 400%. Mark would like to use you in government. How would you if you could use that system in government that would be very nice. He transformed Humptown into a pioneer in 3D printing and he's leading everybody. Then today they're North America's leading producer of 3D printed sand cores and molds which is a big business. And Mark, we're here to honor you today. And if you could come up, we're going to give you a little something. [applause] >> [applause] >> I want to get one of them for myself.

[01:00:58][laughter] >> Mr. President and Administrator Leler, I would like to thank you for the opportunity and the privilege to represent the 36 million small business people to be an ambassador for the largest part of our economy. And I would like to thank you from the Hometown Products Industrial Athletes team that I have the privilege of serving every day as their head coach. But even more, I would like to thank you, Mr. president for restarting and rebooting our economy. And manufacturing used to be 38% of our economy and it's down to 9%.

[01:01:45]And I know that you love America and I know that you want to restart that. You know, in the last three months, the PMI index has gone up three months in a row because of that restart. We have 10% increase in hiring and we'll be able to buy more of those million-dollar printers that we're able to print the fight fight Trump statue that was in.

[01:02:14][applause] [applause] So I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for loving America and you know manufacturing is my favorite sport.

[01:02:30]So let's make America America manufactured again.

[01:02:35][applause] >> That's a great job. I heard it's a great company. Done a fantastic job with it.

[01:02:48]Thank you very much. And uh you're right. We lost our manufacturing business and I used to listen to President Obama say you'll never get manufacturing back. It's the biggest business in the world if you get it back and we're heading to that. I think we'll be higher than at any time fairly soon uh when these places open. I think we'll be higher than at any time in the history of our country. And we used to be a manufacturing uh capital. We were the manufacturing capital of the world and then it got taken away. uh it went to the ships went to Taiwan and all they had to do is say if you sell your product back into the country there's going to be 100% tariff and nobody would have left and you know I made a investment intel chipmaker the biggest in the world and then it got taken away because of bad politics actually because the politicians the presidents no president protected that industry so all of a sudden you have this superpower over in Taiwan but they're coming back as you know we the biggest companies coming into they're pouring into this country.

[01:03:49]They know that the tariffs go to a certain extent and then they go up up up as we go. But uh I will I will say that uh it's so sad to see what's happened, but it makes me so happy to say we're bringing it back. And as sure as you're sitting there, I mean these are companies that have fully committed.

[01:04:06]There are many under construction.

[01:04:08]They're on their way. And when I look at what happened to our country, I used to make speeches as a private person. And I was I always loved politics, but I never thought I'd be doing this. But as a private person doing well, I used to just marvel at the fact that the car companies were leaving Detroit and leaving our country at levels. It was just I mean, I said, "You're not going to have any cars soon if you don't do something." And all they had to do is say, "You can leave our country. You can have lots of fun building your cars, but if you think you're going to sell it back into our country for no cost, you're wrong." But nobody said that. Not one president, even presidents I liked, but they were bad on trade. You've never had a good president on trade. And now you do. And we're bringing them back at levels never seen before. So, we're going to have something. And as far as small business is concerned, uh, you are really the driver. I love that story because that's the kind of story that half of the people, I'm not sure about all of them, I'm not sure about Rick, but most of the people in this room would have thought of that. They would have said, "Well, what about put surfacing that stone, that existing stone, but it's just, you know, one example. It's such a great one because it's massive amounts of money and time, a disaster of construction for years.

[01:05:27]They'll be building and building and building a mess." Uh, what common sense is all about. And you people more than anything I know you all indirectly if I don't know you I still know you but the fact is it's it's common sense and if you didn't have common sense you would not have a good business and you wouldn't have a good small business big business or any other business. So, uh, I just want to congratulate Mark. I want to congratulate. It's a great tribute.

[01:05:52]Really, you've done an amazing job. But I want to congratulate everybody in the room. You're fantastic people. And, uh, we are really, this is the golden age of America. I really believe it. Last year, we were scoffed at. I told I tell the story often that the king of Saudi Arabia a year a year and a half ago when I was over there, he said, you know, America was a dead country. We didn't think we'd be investing. We didn't think it'd be appropriate to invest there. We were a dead country. And now, president, you have the hottest country anywhere in the world. That was seven or eight months ago. We're a lot hotter than we were then. We had to do this little excursion. But the excursion is the stock market's higher now than it was when I I assumed the market would be down 25%. And that was worth it to get rid of lunatics that would have nuclear weapons that can wipe out countries with the push of a button. You can't do that.

[01:06:48]So I had to do it because it should have been done 47 years. It should have been done by many presidents or other countries. Should have been done a long time ago. But we're doing it and we have no choice and I'm very proud to be doing it. But the amazing thing I thought we'd be down 20 25%. I thought the market would be down. the market's at new highs despite all of it. And so the market is genius and they see what's happening and they get it. But I just want to say it's an honor to be with you and uh keep going. Small businesses, your some of your small businesses like yours are going to be large businesses very soon.

[01:07:25]And it's an honor to be with you and Kelly and Chris and all of the people that work with me. What a great job you do. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> Mr. Mr. Iran violate the ceasefire. Did Iran violate the ceasefire? Mr. Do you think the ceasefire will hold?