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Home » FULL TRANSCRIPT: Trump Speaks At ‘Protecting America Initiative’ in Smithton, PA

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Trump Speaks At ‘Protecting America Initiative’ in Smithton, PA

Read here the full transcript of former President Donald Trump’s roundtable discussion event hosted by the “Protecting America Initiative” on agriculture and China in Smithton, Pennsylvania on September 23, 2024.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

Opening Remarks

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s an honor to be with you and a special group of people, the farmers. Nobody’s done for farmers what I’ve done. Unfortunately, they haven’t followed through.

We made a deal with China. It was one of my best deals that I made. I made a lot of good deals, but we made the USMCA, Mexico, Canada, which was terrific. But we had a specific deal with China where they were going to buy $50 billion worth of farm product. And it’s interesting how we got there because when the negotiation was going on, and it was a nasty negotiation, and I said to the farmers, just stick with me because we’re going to do it. They’re great negotiators. They’re not going to go that fast. Just stick with me because you never had anybody negotiating for the farmers before me as president.

And my people, I said, what are the numbers we’re talking about? And they said 15 million, 15, not 50. I said, all right. So it’s $15 billion worth of product that they were going to buy because they’ve been taking advantage of the farmers for years.

This was like a penalty to China. And I thought they said 50, not 15. So the negotiations were going along. We were getting close. I said, how are you doing with the 50 billion? No, sir, we’re close to 15. I said, what do you mean 15? You said 50. I said, no, no, I want 50. They said, that’s not what we said. We said 15. I said, that’s okay. Ask for 50. Tell them we have to have 50 billion, not 15. And I got it. The problem is, big problem, that now they don’t enforce it.

I enforced it. Every single week I’d go into the office, I’d say, how’s China doing? Because you have to live up to that commitment. I’d say, how’s China doing buying the product? Good, sir. Good. They’re doing good. And they were doing good because they knew I was watching.

I don’t think Biden is exactly watching. Do you? Does anybody think that Biden is? Let’s check it. I don’t think so. And it’s a shame. And that number is way lower than it’s supposed to be. So the first thing I do is I would probably my first call, I’m going to call up President Xi. I’m going to say you have to honor the deal you made. We made a deal. You’d buy $50 billion worth of American farm product. And I guarantee you he will buy it 100 percent. He will buy it.

Second thing I’m going to do is I’m going to say you have to give the death penalty to your fentanyl dealers who are sending fentanyl. You know, in China, they give the death penalty. They don’t have a drug problem because they give the death penalty.

But I’m going to say second thing. And this affects you also. It affects everybody. We’re losing — we’re losing hundreds of thousands of people a year comes through the southern border, now the weakest border in history. It was the best border we ever had when I was there. We built hundreds of miles of wall and everything else. And it was the best border. Now it’s the weakest. I had a handshake deal with him. It was going to happen very quickly. And then this side didn’t do anything about it.

He said and he suggested to me, anybody sends fentanyl to the United States, it’s the death penalty. They get the maximum penalty. They would have done it. And then we had an election that didn’t exactly work out too good. And it was a disgrace, frankly. And that deal went. And a lot of other bad things happened, like Russia attacking Ukraine, October 7th, inflation. A lot of bad things happened.

The horrible way we got out of Afghanistan. So many things happened that wouldn’t have happened. But it did, nevertheless. But as to the farmers, we have a deal in place that China is supposed to buy 50 billion dollars worth of our product. And they are not living up to it. And they were living up to it. And every farmer I spoke to, I spoke to a lot of them recently in Iowa, and they’re having the same problem. They’re not doing well.

They’re not doing well. They were doing great during the Trump administration. I think you would say that. Were you all? I hope you… there’s always dangerous to do. But I hope you’d say you were doing well because you’re not doing now. I’m hearing it from farmers all over the place. And one of the big reasons is they haven’t enforced the deal with China. And that deal was really a penalty deal to China because they took advantage of you for 25 years.

And it was like a penalty. And, you know, Biden and Harris, they’re never going to enforce anything. That group — that group is a disaster. It’s a disaster for our country in so many ways. But certainly the farmers are one of those ways. So I think either Rick or are you starting off, Rick? Why don’t you start?

Introduction by Rick

RICK SCOTT: Well, first of all, Mr. President, we we really appreciate you being here as part of the Protecting America Initiative. We at Protecting America Initiative see China very clearly, as we know you do. China has quietly but strategically worked against us whenever we are distracted by wars or COVID. China goes in and absolutely tries to distract the American people.

They work quietly. They go after our local and state politicians. They go after our manufacturing. And there is no question that they are looking to at some point leverage that investment and that activity.

I’ve seen it very clearly at the U.N.