➡ The President is proud of his administration’s efforts to grow the economy and balance the budget. He also discusses the possibility of merging the United States Postal Service with the Commerce Department to improve its efficiency. He addresses concerns about his administration’s actions and assures that they are working to eliminate waste and fraud. Lastly, he talks about international relations, including trade with the European Union and conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

➡ The speaker praises a person named Cash, stating that he is highly respected and might become one of the best in his field. The speaker also mentions that Apple is planning to invest a significant amount of money in the United States. Additionally, the speaker discusses issues with the Postal Service and the potential for a minerals agreement with Ukraine. Lastly, the speaker briefly comments on upcoming elections in Germany.

Thank you very much. Today I’m honored to swear in our next Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Howard Letnick. I’ve known him a long time. He’s a great guy. I want to just congratulate Howard and Allison and Kyle, Brandon, Casey, Ryan, and your entire family. Wonderful family. Beautiful family. Howard’s one of the most experienced and talented business leaders of our time. It’s an amazing job on Wall Street and far beyond, but more importantly he’s a patriot who loves our country and has shown tremendous courage and strength throughout his career. Howard began at the famed Cantor Fitzgerald in 1983 and by the age of 29 he rose to become the president and CEO and one of the hottest firms on Wall Street.

Much like myself, Howard should not be here today. On September 11th, 2001 Howard’s company was at its absolute height doing unbelievable, dominating Wall Street and stocks and bonds and trading from its headquarters on the 101st to the 105th floor. He had the top three or four floors of the World Trade Center, the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and every day Howard got up and went to work early. He’d always go in and he’d go to work early and he’d be there six o’clock in the morning and as you know the the hit was around 845 or something like that so he would have been there on almost any day other than what this because his wife was very angry at him because he wouldn’t deliver his child to school.

She said you never take, who is the child? Let me see where’s the child? The little you saved your father’s life. You saved your father’s life. Should hold that against, you’re gonna leave him more than the other kids, right? So he took, he took, what is your first name? Kyle. He took Kyle. Kyle, congratulations. Nice job. But he took Kyle, that one day to school after years he finally said okay I’ll do it and that’s the only time so he was actually riding down the West Side Highway and he saw the plane hit and it’s an amazing of the rest of his sister and your brother was in there too I think right then it was just a terrible it’s a big story every single Cantor Fitzgerald employee who was at work that day lost their lives which was almost a hundred percent of the company and Howard lost more than 650 friends because they were all friends and a really well unified just highly respected company a lot of talent in that company but the employees loved ones including his brother and best friend and most people would have been defeated they would have probably gone on to not too much but Howard rebuilt the company step by step and as he did it he gave a tremendous amount of the profits and other things to the families of his colleagues who were killed in the World Trade Center on that horrible day and it showed something about Howard that’s really incredible his resilience it’s a very few people could have done even thought of doing it but his resilience and tenacity have earned him the respect and admiration of everyone in the financial world but more importantly Howard understands from personal experience why we put America first because we love our families we love our fellow citizens and we love our country so much and he really loves this country and I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think so and he’s got so many friends in New York and Wall Street and elsewhere and he has just really he’s a relationship person and they’re always the best and he’s well he’s the best at it as Secretary of Commerce Howard will work tirelessly to protect our workers and our wealth and grow our economy into the strongest and the history of the world you know when he rebuilt the company it actually became much bigger and much stronger than the original company which is almost impossible to do it became hotter than even the original can of Fitzgerald but he’s going to be unmatched as an emissary working to get jobs and investments and his favorite word and I’m going to move him down to fourth favorite word first is family love God not necessarily that order by the way I think let’s put God first all right we’ll put God first you know why because we don’t want to take any chances that’s why but I did that once I said I put I put tariff is my favorite word well and the fake news went out and they really got me I’ll tell you they said what about God family relationship couple of words and I said you’re right and so I made it now my fourth favorite word and Howard I think is you’ll go along with me number four maybe even number five or six but he’s he really understands something about business and we have been called by so many companies yesterday we had Tim Cook of Apple and who’s going to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the country because of what we’re doing and we have many many companies to too many to even mention they’re coming roaring back into this country and it’ll take maybe a little time but not that much time you can see things that you’ve never seen before at a level that you’ve never seen before and Howard’s going to lead that charge and help oversee the tariff and trade agenda along with many other things will soon impose reciprocal tariffs because that means they charge us we charge them very simple whatever a company or a country such as let’s say India or China or any of them whatever they charge we want to be fair so reciprocal reciprocal meaning they charge us we charge them we haven’t done that we’ve never done that we were getting ready to do it until covert hit we had the greatest economy in the history of the world and we were just getting started but the tariffing and gonna be very interesting Howard’s gonna be in charge of it and I think you’re gonna see jobs and money flowing into the country like never has been seen before as we reduce inflation unleash energy bring down cause bring back manufacturing and lead the world and innovation families will flourish and opportunity to will skyrocket we will skyrocket like people haven’t seen it’s gonna be a really big thing and I wouldn’t feel the same confidence if I didn’t have this man on my left and even though he spent a little bit of his time in life as a Democrat from New York I’m okay with it because I knew him during his Democrat days and that’s okay but I just want to say that he is gonna help very strongly make America wealthy again make America great again and there’s nobody that can do the job better so mr.

secretary of commerce I just welcome you aboard there’s nothing you can do so big is this there’s no deal you can do this bigger every deal that’s why you can never go back into business because it seems like small potatoes no matter how big it is including even can’t if it’s Gerald it’s all small potatoes compared to what we’re doing now so it’s a great honor to have you and your family aboard thank you very much and thank you very much in particular thank you very much so first I’d like to thank you President Trump it it is the greatest honor to work for you to be with you to carry your name your leadership and your flag throughout the world the press has no idea who the gentleman to my left is they portray him in all sorts of ways but I know him as the smartest most thoughtful and most intuitive person I’ve ever met and it is really it’s amazing to be in this room and to work for him I have to my right my friend JD Vance was kind enough even to introduce me to the Senate and he gave me the greatest compliment he called me a good dude so I have really the most wonderful family have my wife Allison we’ve been married for 30 years and I always when I come home because I come home late at night I walk in the door and I yell hello greatest wife she’s just an amazing girl my four children Kyle who you know has saved my life so now this is gonna cost me dearly my son Brandon my daughter Casey my son Ryan and my sister Edie my two brothers-in-law Gary and Rick my sister-in-law Abby I mean this is as beautiful a day as you could have the opportunity that the Trump administration is going to bring to America is so extraordinary you know people think the Golden Age is a statement it’s like saying MAGA make America great again this is the greatest country on earth it is such a great country that we can take care of citizens and give them their social security we can take care of everyone and give them their Medicaid but we’re going to get rid of so much waste fraud and abuse we’re not gonna hurt anybody but we’re gonna get rid of it and then we are gonna grow this economy in a way that people have never seen and under the Trump administration my goal and I’m happy to wear it on my shoulders is we are going to balance the budget of the United States of America because Donald Trump understands global business it’s the first time you put in that chair the greatest businessman in the United States of America and I just for one I have to tell you I cannot be more proud to serve my great friend and the greatest president in America Donald J Trump so now we get to swear Howard in now we’re we need the actual sign the Commission first okay mr.

president signed the Commission first I can’t see how do you like the new look is one of seven but the resolute desk is being renovated All right, now Howard, come next to your beautiful wife and your beautiful family here. Put your hand on the Bible, raise your right hand and repeat after me. I Howard Lutnick do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation, without any mental reservation, or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

So help you God. So help me God. Congratulations Mr. Secretary. Thank you very much. Mr. President, there are reports that you are considering merging the United States Postal Service with the Commerce Department. Can you elaborate on something? Well, we want to have a post office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money. And we’re thinking about doing that and it will be a form of a merger, but it will remain the Postal Service and I think it will operate a lot better than it has been over the years. It’s been just a tremendous loser for this country.

Tremendous amounts of money are being lost. And we think we can do something that will be very good and keep it a very similar way. But whether it’s a merger or just using some of the very talented people that we have elsewhere so it doesn’t lose so much, it’s losing a tremendous amount. Mr. President, some members of Congress in red districts are facing pushback from voters in town halls. We know that Americans voted for you on the immigration and the economy, but these voters say they’re angry and frustrated by these firings. They don’t like the work of Elon Musk and these other actions.

What do you say to them? Who do you work for? I work for ABC News, sir. Who? ABC News. No wonder. Let me just tell you that I have today the highest poll numbers I’ve ever had. I have today the highest poll numbers of any Republican president ever. We haven’t even checked the Democrats, but that’s what I was just told. And they like the job that we’re doing. They like the job that Elon’s doing. He’s doing something that a lot of people wouldn’t have the courage to do. We want to streamline our country.

We want to streamline. Because you know why? Because we want our country to survive and thrive. And we’re finding billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse. Billions. And I mean numbers like you wouldn’t believe. And we haven’t even started yet. So it’s actually just the opposite. We’ve polled it, and people are thrilled. They can’t even believe it’s happening. And it won’t affect many people. It’ll only affect the people that get caught stealing. The waste, fraud, and abuse is at a level like nobody’s ever seen. It’s been going on for years. And all you have to do is look at the social security roles.

Look at some of the things. Look at where the money is going. The Attorney General is looking into something. Environmental protection. $20 billion. And it’s out and out fraud. So I think the people are very happy. Mr. President, I want to ask you about this week. The Secretary spent four hours with the European Union trade representatives. The European Union signaled that they would lower tariffs and do a trade deal with the United States. Yeah, the European Union wants to come back. They’ve treated us very badly. And the European Union wants to lower their tariffs because of the fact we were paying fortunate tariffs.

We couldn’t sell a car there. We couldn’t sell our farm products there. They wouldn’t take anything. Now, all of a sudden, they’re being very nice. And that’s going to happen with a lot of others too. The European Union is wanting to lower its barriers at very low levels. They want to now bring their car number, which was extremely high, down to 2.5 percent, which is the same thing that we charge. That’s reciprocal. See, that’s what is happening, reciprocal. And I think it’s a big start in the right direction with the European Union. Mr. President, President Zelensky of Ukraine is a dictator.

Do you think that President Putin of Russia is also a dictator? I think that President Putin and President Zelensky are going to have to get together because, you know what, we want to stop killing millions of people. You have young soldiers being killed. If you saw the pictures that I saw of the battlefield from satellite, you’ve never seen any pictures like that. Soldiers are being killed by the thousands of week, thousands of soldiers a week. As we speak, they’re being killed. That’s why I want to see a ceasefire and I want to get the deal done.

I think we have a chance to get the deal done. How to make sure that Russia wanted to do it. It’s a war that would have never happened if I was President, but it did happen, so I got stuck with it and I want to stop people from being killed. You know, it doesn’t affect the United States very much. It’s on the other side of the ocean. It does affect Europe. And we put in three times more money. We’re in for $300 billion. They’re in for $100 billion. And, you know, Europe is also doing it in the form of a loan.

Biden just gave him money. There was no loan. There was no security. There was no anything. So we’re going to either sign a deal or there’s going to be a lot of problems with them. So we’re going to sign a deal to get security because we have to do that. We’re spending our treasure. They’re spending their blood. They are. And they’re very brave and, you know, in every way you can imagine. But we are spending our treasure on some country that’s very, very far away. And it’s okay, but we have to be treated the same as Europe is being treated.

Europe gets their money back. Europe is basically giving nothing because they get it back in the form of a loan. And it’s a guaranteed loan. We don’t get our money back, and we’re losing. I mean, we don’t want to do that anymore. So we’re signing an agreement, hopefully, in the next fairly short period of time that will assure us that we’ll get $400 or $500 billion back. We’re in there for $300 billion. Now, one other thing. Europe is at $100. We’re at $300. We think it has to equalize. In other words, they have to come up with more money because it has a big effect on Europe.

It doesn’t have much of an effect on us because we have a big, beautiful ocean in between. But it does affect. And Biden should have never gotten us into this mess. We had an incompetent president who got us into a mess. But we’re going to get you out of it. The same thing in the Middle East. We’re going to have some good news in the Middle East. What happened yesterday, the sight of those babies was not acceptable to anybody. Nobody has seen anything like it. Mr. President, there’s a report out of France that you’re going to Moscow on May 9th to join President Putin.

And then if I could, sir, just ask you about cash. We’ll tell who’s going to be sworn in soon as you’re FBI director. Talk to us about your reaction to him getting sworn in and the fact that many agents across the country are concerned that they will be fired in mass for simply just doing their job. No, I think the agents are very happy about cash. In fact, the agents led the charge for cash. One of the reasons I loved cash and wanted to put him in is because of the respect the agents had for him.

I think he’s going to be, I think he’ll go down as the best ever at that position. And it turned out he was very easy to get approved. You know, I was not sure. He’s a tough guy, strong guy. He has his opinions. And I wasn’t sure. He turned out to be very, he went very smoothly. I don’t know if he’s in the room now. He’s going to be in the room very shortly. Where is Elsa? I’m saying the right thing. I can’t speak too badly about him. I better be careful. I will say this about cash.

And Howard understands this. One of the reasons I wanted him is because the agents love this guy and they respect this guy and this is what they wanted. And even somebody like Trey Gowdy who’s a very good guy, but known as somewhat of a moderate person, he came out and he came out with a statement that was so incredible. He said cash is an incredible person. People don’t realize it. When he said that, there was no doubt left. It was really a big statement made by somebody that’s respected and on the moderate side.

And I will tell you, I think cash is going to go down as maybe the best ever when it’s all said and done. I’m glad he’s willing to do it. Thank you. You said he wanted to take care of Apple? You said he was going to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in specific projects that he’s focused on. Yeah, all over the country. All over the country. He doesn’t want to pay tariffs and he’s going to start building. But very big numbers. You have to speak to him. I assume they’re going to announce it at some point.

But very big numbers. He was here yesterday, I met with him at length, and Apple is coming here with tremendous dollars. They’re going to be spending a lot of money in the United States, more than they’ve ever spent by a factor of probably 10. Do you have any other questions? Do you have any other questions? You were reporting that you were sending a member later to counter digital service taxes. Will you speak? I mean, what are you doing, reading it? Can’t you just say it without having to read it? My question? Yeah.

Oh, sure. Bloomberg were reporting that you’re expected to sign parents or memo later on parents on digital taxes. Is there any idea how high you might go with the term? We are going to be doing that. Digital, what they’re doing to us in other countries is terrible with digital, so we’ll be announcing that. Are we signing it maybe today? And we’ll be. So we’ll talk about that in a little while. Mr. President, will you put the Secretary in charge of the Postal Service? He’s going to look at it. He’s got a great business instinct, which is what we need.

And he’ll be looking at it, and we think we can turn it around, but it is the Postal Service. I mean, we’re leading the Postal Service, but we’re losing so much money with the Postal Service, and we don’t want to lose that kind of money. So the Secretary and some others that have talent, that kind of talent, will be looking at it. So you want the minerals agreement with Ukraine, Mr. President? What? How close are you to striking a minerals deal with Ukraine? I think we’re pretty close. I think they want it, and they feel good about it, and it’s a significant, it’s a big deal, but they want it, and it keeps us in that country, and they’re very happy about it.

But we get our money back. This should have been signed long before we went in. This should have been signed by Biden, if Biden didn’t know too much about what he was doing. The war should have never happened, number one. When it did happen, it could have been settled the first week or two weeks. After that, it got bad. It got really bad. But it should have been, it should have never happened, and it should have been settled, and it could have been settled very easily at the beginning. Now it’s tougher, but we’ll get it set.

On the January. Germany has elections on Sunday. What are your thoughts? What do you expect to happen in the elections on Sunday? Who has elections? Germany. Germany. I wish them luck. We got our own front. Thank you, Price. Thank you, Price. Thank you, Price. [tr:trw].

See more of The White House on their Public Channel and the MPN The White House channel.