759. Reporter: “How many layoffs have you authorized?”
Trump: “It will be Democrat oriented because, you know, they started this thing… It will be a lot. These are largely people that the Democrats want and many of them will be fired.”
760. Trump: “Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the World, that they want to impose Export Controls on each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China. Nobody has ever seen anything like this but, essentially, it would “clog” the Markets, and make life difficult for virtually every Country in the World, especially for China. We have been contacted by other Countries who are extremely angry at this great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere. Our relationship with China over the past six months has been a very good one, thereby making this move on Trade an even more surprising one. I have always felt that they’ve been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right! There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World “captive,” but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time, starting with the “Magnets” and, other Elements that they have quietly amassed into somewhat of a Monopoly position, a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least. But the U.S. has Monopoly positions also, much stronger and more far reaching than China’s. I have just not chosen to use them, there was never a reason for me to do so - UNTIL NOW! The letter they sent is many pages long, and details, with great specificity, each and every Element that they want to withhold from other Nations. Things that were routine are no longer routine at all. I have not spoken to President Xi because there was no reason to do so. This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the Leaders of the Free World. I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so. The Chinese letters were especially inappropriate in that this was the Day that, after three thousand years of bedlam and fighting, there is PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. I wonder if that timing was coincidental? Dependent on what China says about the hostile “order” that they have just put out, I will be forced, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their move. For every Element that they have been able to monopolize, we have two. I never thought it would come to this but perhaps, as with all things, the time has come. Ultimately, though potentially painful, it will be a very good thing, in the end, for the U.S.A. One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America. There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
761. Trump: “We’re heading to Chicago, because we want to save Chicago. Do you know they had over 4,000 people killed in Chicago over a short-- 4,000 people. And I have to watch this slob of a governor stand up and say, ‘Well, everything is okay.’”
762. Trump: “Portland, Oregon, I mean -- every time I look at that place it’s burning down. There are fires all over the place. When a store -- there are very few of them left -- but when a store owner rebuilds a store they build it out of plywood. They don’t put up storefronts anymore. They just put wood up.”
763. Trump: Priztker was thrown out of his family’s business like a dog. I know the family well. Now, he’s a governor.
764. Trump: As an example one particular drug that’s hot, very hot. 654% on inhalers… They will be averaging 654% reduction in price. Can you believe it?
765. Trump: “Furthermore AstraZeneca will invest $50 billion into the United States or the next five years for research and development”
766. Trump: “AI is based on information. I hope they’re right about information. I don’t know. You’ve gotta make a lot of money to-- there’s gotta be a lot of information out there, but that seems to be pretty hot. We’re leading the world on information on AI.”
767. Bondi: “We’ve been living through a horrific cycle of political violence in this country ... night after night antifa wrecks havoc on the streets of our cities. In Minnesota, a gunman murdered a state lawmaker and her husband.”
768. Mike Johnson: “This hate America rally that they have coming up for October 18? The antifa crowd, the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists, they’re all gonna gather on the Mall. It is an outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes ... all this has gotta come to an end.”
769. It has just been learned that China has taken an extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade in sending an extremely hostile letter to the World, stating that they were going to, effective November 1st, 2025, impose large scale Export Controls on virtually every product they make, and some not even made by them. This affects ALL Countries, without exception, and was obviously a plan devised by them years ago. It is absolutely unheard of in International Trade, and a moral disgrace in dealing with other Nations. Based on the fact that China has taken this unprecedented position, and speaking only for the U.S.A., and not other Nations who were similarly threatened, starting November 1st, 2025 (or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China), the United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying. Also on November 1st, we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software. It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
770. Trump: “We’ve gotten prices way down for groceries. Oil especially. Today we broke 60 a barrel. We think the oil is going to be under 2 a gallon very soon.”
771. Hegseth: “At the President’s direction, the Department of War is establishing a new counter-narcotics Joint Task Force in the @SOUTHCOM area of responsibility to crush the cartels, stop the poison, and keep America safe. The message is clear: if you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will stop you cold.”
[749]
