Donald J. Trump praises C-SPAN’s unbiased coverage while touting a $12B farm aid package, blaming Biden’s inflation and energy restrictions for 150K farm closures and $8B in annual interest hikes. His administration secured $40B in Chinese soybean purchases and eased estate taxes, which he claims drove farmer suicides, while Brooke Rollins confirms $11B bridge payments by February 28, 2026, targeting soaring fertilizer (+36%), labor (+47%), and interest costs (+73%). Trump also slams the EU’s deforestation rules and vaccine mandates, proposing tariffs on foreign rice imports to protect U.S. farmers—though his blue slip attacks reveal deeper partisan judicial battles, exposing how Senate norms stifle Republican appointments. The episode underscores his trade-focused agenda amid economic strain and regulatory clashes. [Automatically generated summary]
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During a White House meeting with several cabinet secretaries and food producers, President Trump announced a $12 billion federal aid package for farmers as part of an effort to lighten the effects of some of the administration's tariff policies.
During the hour-long meeting, President Trump and others also fielded questions on agricultural policy.
We had three states in the last two days reported by our energy group, a group of very strong energy people who said we hit $1.99 a gallon in three different states.
And it's an amazing accomplishment because the gasoline prices are coming down.
When gasoline comes down, everything is such a big category that when gasoline comes down, sort of everything sort of follows.
But we inherited a mess.
Affordability, but you can call it affordability or anything you want.
But the Democrats caused the affordability problem, and we're the ones that are fixing it.
So it's a very simple statement.
They caused it, we're fixing it.
And they have a tendency to just say this election is based on affordability.
And nobody questions them, John.
You know, nobody says, oh, well, what do you mean by that?
But they just say the word.
They never said anything else because they caused the problem, but we're fixing the problem.
And we're pleased to be joined today by many of the wonderful members of the farming community, as well as the Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins.
As well as Representative Austin Scott, who's been wearing this right from the beginning.
Thank you, Austin.
Good job.
I'm delighted to announce this afternoon that the United States will be taking a small portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars we receive in tariffs.
We are making a lot of money from countries that took advantage of us for years.
They took advantage of us.
Like, nobody's ever seen our deficits are way down because of tariffs.
I guess because of the election, because without the election, you wouldn't have tariffs.
You'd be sitting here losing your shirt.
But we're taking in billions.
We're really taking in trillions of dollars if you think about it, Scott, because the real numbers, you know, when you think of all the money being poured into the country for new auto plants and all of the other things, AI.
So what we're doing is we're taking a relatively small portion of that, and we're going to be giving and providing it to the farmers in economic assistance, and we love our farmers.
And as you know, the farmers like me, because based on voting trends, you could call it voting trends or anything else, but they're great people.
They're the backbone of our country.
So we're going to use that money to provide $12 billion in economic assistance to American farmers.
This relief will provide much needed certainty to farmers as they get this year's harvest to market and look ahead to next year's crops.
And it'll help them continue their efforts to lower food prices for American families.
And again, we inherited something that we inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country.
And we're taking care of it.
Farmers are an indispensable national asset, part of the backbone of America.
I've always felt it so strongly.
They're so important.
Unfortunately, under sleepy Joe Biden, he's a sleepy guy.
Our farmers were crushed by the worst inflation in modern history and crippling restrictions on energy, water, and countless other necessities for farmers.
And what they did to the farmer in terms of putting the brakes on was just absolutely unacceptable.
In my first term, we had an agricultural trade surplus by a lot.
We had a big surplus, meaning that we were exporting American agricultural products all over the world, making a net profit, and in many cases, a very substantial profit.
He came in and ruined it.
Biden turned that surplus into a gaping agricultural deficit that continues to this day, but we're knocking it down.
It's starting to go very good.
In fact, China, as you know, is buying a tremendous amount of soybeans.
And the number, I spoke with President Xi recently, very recently, and I think he's going to do even more than he promised to do.
So I think the relationship is a very good one.
I think he's going to do more than he promised to do.
And what he promised to do is a lot.
So we're very happy with that.
In the last year, Biden bankruptcies rose by 55%, having to do with farms.
So farm bankruptcies under Joe Biden went up 55%.
That's not good.
But now we're once again in a position where a president is able to put farmers first.
But unfortunately, I'm the only president that does that.
On day one, I terminated the Green New scam.
Energy prices are down.
Gasoline prices are down.
We've slashed record numbers of crippling regulations.
And we're working on huge trade deals already, securing $60 billion in agricultural purchase commitments.
And, you know, Biden made none.
He didn't make any trade deals having to do with the farmers or any of it.
It's crazy.
China committed.
He was the worst president in the history of our country, by the way, in case anybody has any questions.
China committed to over $40 billion of soybean purchases, and that's a commitment.
And I asked President Xi if he could even up it.
And I think he'll do that.
I mean, not a commitment.
$40 billion is a commitment.
But the soybean farmers are quite happy.
Since my successful meeting in South Korea with President Xi, purchases have been made and soybeans are being exported out of the United States to China as we speak.
And I say that our soybeans, I told this to President Xi, our soybeans are more nutritious than competitors.
Somebody said, is that a Trump statement or is that real?
In fact, you know who asked me that question?
President Xi asked me that question.
He said, really, I had never heard of it.
And he was a food purchaser for a long time.
But that's what I hear.
And Japan agreed to $8 billion in purchases of corn, soybeans, ethanol, fertilizer, aviation, biofuel, and rice.
You know, Japan never bought rice from anybody else.
So I also proudly signed into law the largest tax cuts in history.
And the one big, beautiful bill, the monumental tax relief bill that is benefiting very, very strongly, benefiting the American farmer.
And I think also for farmers, we have, as you know, and we got this, the estate tax or the death tax, as they call it, on farmers or small businesses.
You don't have to pay it anymore.
A lot of farms, you love your children, and your children are great, and they want to be farmers, and you leave the farmer your children, and a lot of farms are sort of cash-poor, land-rich, cash-poor.
And the kids would go to the local bank or to any bank and they'd borrow money to pay the estate tax and then end up losing the farm.
They'd go bankrupt.
And a lot of death to them, you know, literally, because they love their farm and they love their business and they love that way of life.
But the estate tax is a very big thing, so you don't have estate tax.
You die, you leave your farm, or whatever.
Or small business to your children.
You don't have to pay state tax.
It seems to affect the farmer more than anybody else.
Because you can have a farm that's very valuable, and therefore you have to pay a big tax, but it's not a big value in terms of cash.
Maximizing domestic farm production is a big part of how we will make America affordable again and bring down grocery prices for American families.
And again, these are prices that we inherited.
When I left, we were doing incredible.
In four years, what they've done to this country in so many years, not even mentioning the border and the criminals allowed into our country and all of the other.
So I just want to say it's a tremendous honor being with you.
I'd now like to ask Secretary Rollins to provide some of the details, followed by Secretary Besson, Director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hasse, Senator Bozeman, Representative Scott, and then we go to a couple of the farmers' representatives, but we'll all get involved a little bit.
You can speak.
Anybody is shy to speak in front of the press, and I don't blame you if that's the case.
But farmers, Court Holland, and Merrill Kennedy will say a few words also, and then we'll have a little discussion, okay?
When we came into office, sir, when you did and you were sworn in on January the 20th, as you mentioned, not one new trade deal had been struck in four years.
The cost of inputs for our farmers, fertilizer up 36%, manual labor up 47%, interest rates up 73%.
When you combine the cost of inputs for our farmers, married to no new trade deals, and then you're facing an administration whose priorities were DEI, climate change, putting the farmer aside.
This is the way of life that preserves the American dream for the next 250 years as we celebrate the first 250 years.
So we began to go to work immediately.
What these elected officials sitting across from us did with the one big beautiful bill with a lot of help and direction from you was the largest investment in rural America in any of our lifetimes.
We will begin to see that effectuated next year in 2026 as we have fought to bring input costs down.
You have talked about, and even this weekend did an executive order signed one on looking into the reason that so much of these costs have been driven up over and over.
No longer will America be held and beholden to the regime of other countries' tariff infrastructure.
Instead, we are moving our products out across the world.
Having said that, and we have been listening to the farmers for the last 10 months, 11 months, sir, that the bridge that is needed to get from the last administration and what basically happened under the last president and the last U.S. Department of Agriculture to this new golden age for farmers where instead of farming for government checks,
they can farm to feed their family and sell their products and pass it on to the next generation, that this bridge is absolutely necessary based on where we are right now.
So as the President said, we are very pleased to announce that today we are going to be effectuating an $11 billion trade, not trade, but bridge payment to our farmers.
The money will move by February 28th of 2026, but by the end of this month, so just in the next couple of weeks, every farmer that is able to apply for it will know exactly what that number looks like.
So as you are going to your lender, as you are working to ensure and understanding what you can plant for next year, you will have that number in hand.
And we will continue to talk to our farmers, continue to understand exactly what this looks like and what is necessary.
We have a final thing I'll say is, well, we're holding 1 billion back.
So today we are announcing $11 billion.
We are holding $1 billion back just to ensure that we are covering.
So today's announcement covers all of our row crops, all of our row crops, but some specialty crops and others that we are still working with to best understand where they are in the farm economy and ensure that we're making every forward-moving position that we need to.
And then finally, as we move to this new golden age for agriculture and for rural America, as we continue to fight for these farmers and ranchers, their way of life, and those that are represented here represent hundreds of thousands of farmers across this country.
Just know that this president, I have never been around anyone who every time we talk, he asks, How are my farmers?
Every single time.
So we will never stop fighting.
We will make sure that we're doing everything we can to ensure the next 250 years is just as bright, if not brighter, than the last.
And this money would not be possible without tariffs.
The tariffs are taking in, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars, and we're giving some up to the farmers because they were mistreated by other countries for, I don't know, maybe right reasons, maybe wrong reasons.
They were trying to show us something, and it's really worked out really well.
But because of the tariffs, this is possible.
The other thing I'd like to add before going to Scott, and I think it's very important, we're going to also give the tractor companies, John Deere and all of the companies that make the equipment, we're going to take off a lot of the environmental restrictions that they have on machinery.
It's ridiculous.
I know because I buy a lot of that machinery for different things.
We have a lot of big clubs with hundreds, thousands of acres.
And I buy a lot of stuff.
And you buy it, it's got so much equipment on it for the environmental, it doesn't do anything, except it makes the equipment much more expensive and much more complicated to work.
And it's not as good as the old days.
And we're going to take a lot of that nonsense off of the equipment, which is going to reduce, and we're going to do it.
And we're going to say, you're going to reduce the prices.
We're not going to do it, and they're not going to reduce it.
They're going to have to reduce their prices because farming equipment has gotten too expensive.
And a lot of the reason is because they put these environmental excesses on the equipment, which don't do a damn thing except make it complicated, make it impractical.
And you really have to be, in many cases, you need about 185 IQ to turn on a lawnmower.
So we're going to take that off, that crap off that they put on Biden mostly.
And we're going to take that off.
So that's going to make a big, that'll bring down farm the equipment prices.
And I will tell all of you here that either in person or when we are on a call with President Xi, the first thing the president asking for is more soybean purchases.
And I think President Xi is the herd President Trump.
This group represents an American way of life that has fed our nation and its spirit for hundreds of years.
You are the caretakers of the most productive agricultural country on earth.
You drive hundreds of billions of dollars in exports, support millions of jobs, and keep America's economy running strong.
And this administration is committed to keeping it that way.
By putting farmers first, President Trump is ushering in a new golden age for agriculture.
The President's $11 billion relief package for America's farmers comes at a critical time.
These direct payments will give producers the breathing room they need to market this year's harvest and plan for next season.
This serves as a liquidity bridge during a period of adjustment, supporting the strongest agricultural sector in the world.
Add this to President's success in reigning in binary inflation thanks to the administration's pro-growth policies.
Input costs like fuel, fertilizer are easing, and credit conditions are improving, interest rates are coming down, helping farmers prepare for the next harvest.
President Trump scored a massive victory for America's farmers when he secured an arrangement with President Xi and Busan to reopen China's markets to U.S. agricultural exports, especially soybeans, sorghum, and other commodities.
Under this framework, China committed to purchase at least, at least, 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans this growing season, followed by a minimum of 25 million tons annually for the next three years.
And it's not just China.
At the President's direction, Treasury, USTR, and the Department of Commerce have secured supplemental purchases of U.S. agricultural goods and major trade agreements across the world to open new markets to America's farmers.
The One Big Beautiful bill also delivered transformative benefits for America's small farmers.
It locked in full expensing for farm equipment and 100% expensing for farm structures built during the President's term.
I believe Representative Scott and a group in the House, we were originally just going to do factories, and they called us and said, you need to do farm structures too.
And the President said, we're all in.
And it extended and enhanced much-needed relief for the punishing death tax, giving family farms greater certainty as they plan for the next generation.
Mr. President, thank you for putting America first by putting your farmers first.
Through pro-growth, pro-farm agenda, you are ushering in a new golden age of American agriculture, and Treasury is proud to help in this.
And as I've looked through the incredible performance of these people that work so hard and are such important people for keeping communities alive, the thing that struck me the most, because you and I were here at the White House during COVID, is that during those terrible COVID times, farm production didn't go down.
Like these farmers, they went to work every day and they produced so much.
unidentified
But then Joe Biden came in, so we had COVID.
And farm production didn't go down.
And then Joe Biden came in and he really wrecked the farm economy.
And so during Biden's term, 150,000 farms closed, sir.
150,000 farms closed after we went through COVID and we didn't have a problem.
Now, why did we do it?
Why we were able to do that?
I'm going fast.
The first is that, do you know that expenses for farms fell 5% while we were here because of all the things that we did, expensing and everything else?
But under Joe Biden, they went up 13% because of all the regulations, energy, everything else.
But the thing that really jumped out at me the most is because you had high growth and low inflation.
Interest expense for the farm economy fell $120 million per year while you were there in the White House, but under Joe Biden it increased by $8 billion per year.
And so you wonder why it is that we need this $11 billion, maybe $12 billion to build a bridge load to America's farmers.
unidentified
It's because we know how to fix it.
But there really was a hole that was done in the previous administration.
Thank you for convening us this great announcement and all your hard work for farmers.
I think I was reading the clips.
I think yesterday you talked about, Mr. Secretary, about farmers needing certainty, which is so true.
This bridge note is one of those things that provides certainty.
I also, as I was reading that, thought to myself, the one thing that farmers can be certain of is the fact that you've got their back, and you prove that through the years in the last administration and now this.
I was giving a presentation to the Senate a while back, and I was talking about us having the cheapest, safest food supply of any place in the world.
It's not just about the farmers in rural America.
And so Marco Rubio was sitting by me prior to coming over here and becoming the great Secretary of State.
But he punched me and said, John, always remind them, he was head of the Committee on Intelligence.
He punched me, he said, always remind them, food security is national security.
So this is important for so many different reasons.
And again, I appreciate you for recognizing that, not only now, but when you were campaigning in your first election, how you treated the farmers in your first administration, and now stepping up.
So we look forward to helping you if we need some additional help, looking to Congress, we'll be there for you.
And remember, we came in and the people in the media, I'm going to be nice.
People in the media were three days into office, Izzy, right?
They're saying egg prices are up like 90% more than that.
And I said, I just got here.
I didn't know about it.
Anyway, she got those prices down to below what they were before.
She's doing a great job.
Now, beef is starting to come down, and some other things are starting to come down.
Again, we inherited these problems, but we're getting them down.
Go ahead, please.
unidentified
She's a fact-based decision-maker.
And the egg issue is where I learned about her.
She said, we're not going to use a vaccine that doesn't work.
We're going to develop a vaccine that does.
And that is 100% what it takes.
And so we have to make decisions based on facts.
And President Trump, the trade issues, I want to thank you for exposing what other countries are doing to us.
I want to mention one specifically for the benefit of Kevin and Scott.
I know I hope they're paying attention to it, but the European Union Deforestation Regulation, where they are imposing on our landowners rules that were established for Brazil, and now they're telling the American farmer what they can and can't do on their own land through this European Union deforestation regulation.
Explain that.
They are telling the American farmer that if their timber is cut and they are going to use that land for pasture land or for production agriculture, that they will not take the timber or the byproducts from the sale of that timber.
And I have talked with James a little earlier about we need to make it clear to Europe, Mr. President.
Well, just what you said to me about the European Union, and I think that's the European Union.
We have to be able to act quickly with tariffs.
We can't just go to a committee, go to a study that takes seven months and talk.
We've got to be able to act quickly.
So thank you very much.
John?
unidentified
So thank you.
I think that's the message from Farm Country is thank you very much.
You know, in the Working Family Tax Relief Act, or as my young staffers call it, OB3, there is a tremendous amount for farmers and ranchers.
You mentioned the credit as far as SD tax, which is so important.
You analyzed it just right.
But also in there, we enhanced ARC and PLC, which is a countercyclical safety net, thanks to the strong leadership of Senator Bozeman and our colleagues in the House.
We also included the Farmer Act, which was my bill to make crop insurance more affordable.
These tools will kick in next year, Mr. President, in a big, big way for our farmers.
Big time.
And people aren't even really looking at it yet, but it's going to be a very big deal.
So today is all about bridging to get there.
And I want to thank Secretary Bassett and Jameson Greer.
They're tremendous.
And they're negotiating hard out there for farmers and ranchers.
And I know it's because you're setting the tone, but this is that bridge.
And so we need to come back to Secretary Rollins.
Thank you.
Your leadership on this was vital.
And Mr. President, this, you're right, they love young farm country out there.
All you have to do is drive out and see the flags.
And whatever we need, we get through the Senate, we get through the House, we'll get it done.
I think we'll start maybe with Court Hollow.
unidentified
And you come from a place that I'm very happy with.
I hail from the great state of Iowa.
I'm surrounded here by some of the greatest farmers in the area and from across the country.
Anything from rice farmers, we've got all sorts of cotton farmers, everything.
Everything is here represented so well.
And first off, from me, I want to say thank you for this bridge payment.
It's Christmas early for farmers.
And just to kind of have an icebreaker here for the story, I've got a two-year-old little boy at home, two-year-old little boy and a four-month-old little girl.
And the other day I was reading my little boy a story at night, putting him to bed, and he said, Daddy, I don't want Santa Claus to come to our house for Christmas.
I want President Trump.
And I think, Mr. Trump, I think you brought Christmas to farmers.
With this bridge payment, we'll be able to farm another year, help us get by.
It's such an honor to be here with you.
I lost my grandfather in our hired hand in 2002 in a farming accident.
And he instilled in me at an early age to love the land, to take pride in what we do.
Farmers would love you more than anything if we could continue that.
Continue to use domestic product, use the byproducts, and even be able to export to other countries.
And so what you've done here and just having us here in the White House with you, I'm sitting beside the Secretary and all these other great individuals here, what a true honor.
And I will take pride in this meeting and I will take this home for many generations to come.
And because of what you're doing, hopefully them generations can stay on the Holo Bland Farm.
Well, thank you, first of all, for inviting me here.
And my friend, the Secretary, you have an incredible lady right here.
She really is.
Along with being a mother of three and a wife, I run my family's agribusiness, Kennedy Rice Mill, in a little town called Marie, Louisiana.
About a thousand people in the northern part of the state.
We employ around 150 people taking rice from the field to a finished product, supplying some of the largest food companies that many of you would know here domestically, but also abroad.
And my sisters and I, because there is four of us, right, I'm the youngest of four daughters, started our own rice brand a few years ago to just tell the story of American agriculture that hadn't really been told before.
But I wish I was here under better terms.
I'll tell you, I think the rice industry thanks you sincerely for what you have done for the California rice market and to Japan.
It has been monumental for our industry.
But us in the South are really struggling.
I mean, this is not just a crisis, I would say.
It's almost market dynamics that really are true in an anti-competitive nature, right?
So it follows what you sent out this weekend.
And we do believe that countries are dumping rice into this country today.
So, this is another reason I didn't mention it, but this is another reason I think that what we're moving into is a golden age for agriculture.
As Secretary Kennedy and I, and across our cabinet with the president's leadership, focusing on making America healthy again, the undergirding foundational effort in that is our agriculture industry.
So, as the new dietary guidelines come out in early January, where USDA alone spends $400 million a day on nutrition programs, that's a whole other snap, fraud, etc.
But when you think about what a market mover that is, as we begin to move the market toward more locally produced, American-made, healthier products closer to the schools, the hospitals, etc., you again begin to open up so much of the market for the great products produced by these farmers instead of ultra-processed foods out of a box.
In fact, Secretary Berkham, this cabinet is so remarkable.
Instead of just seeing each other every month, we're literally talking every day, multiples of times a day.
But our Secretary of the Interior, I, and Secretary Besson, and others, we have a whole plan in place, including the reshoring of fertilizer and the opportunity to do it in America.
Having said that, we've also, per the President's guidance, issued a directive.
These fertilizer companies, the seed companies, the equipment companies, all of the above, as our farmers have struggled year over year, these meat packing companies continue to make a lot of money hand over fist, a lot of foreign-owned companies.
So that's why the president has been very unequivocal in saying we've got to figure out why all these input costs are skyrocketing and all of our farmers are struggling, which we're going to do.
Yeah, is the default of this administration, because that's an issue I understand with root vegetables, citrus as well.
unidentified
Is the default of this administration that even if it's a little bit more expensive, homegrown, you will choose homegrown over cheaper produce abroad for the farmers?
You know, some things we can't grow because we don't have the heat.
There are some things, you know, little delicacies or maybe not such delicacies, but they grow better in warmer climates, very warm climates, actually.
But for the most part, I like homegrown.
unidentified
Mr. President, thank you.
One on this announcement and then one on foreign policy, if I may.
Are you open to tapping into tariff revenue again should farmers find they need additional relief to get to that level?
We just want to see people stop from being killed.
You know, we don't, as you know, Joe Biden gave them $350 billion.
You know, and I gave them nothing.
I gave them, well, I did give them javelins at the beginning and knocked out a hell of a lot of tax.
And Obama gave sheets.
Remember, Obama gave sheets and I gave javelins.
But no, we have a great situation going over there, except for one problem.
You've got a lot of people dying, and I want to see that stop.
So you have Ukrainian, mostly Ukrainian soldiers and Russian soldiers.
Last month, 27,000 soldiers died, mostly soldiers.
A few people from the dropping of a missile in the middle of Kiev or wherever, which is a terrible thing, but mostly soldiers.
27,000 soldiers died last month.
That's what I want to see stopped.
We, as you know, we now sell equipment to NATO at full price.
And NATO takes that equipment and probably gives it to Ukraine.
I guess they could give it to others too, but for the most part, give it to Ukraine.
And they're working with Ukraine in terms of distribution of equipment, missiles, et cetera.
But we aren't spending money.
What we are doing is spending time on a humane basis.
We want to see if we can stop the killing of 27.
It would have never happened.
This war would have never happened if the election weren't rigged.
If I were president, this war would have never happened.
unidentified
President Trump, why do you support the Paramount deal?
Can you talk a little bit about the soybean purchases?
You've talked a lot, obviously, about China's soybean purchases.
Some lawmakers from North and South Carolina have raised concern that U.S. tobacco farmers were told that China would not purchase flu-cured tobacco this year.
I would say very simply, you know, I go by a statement when people ask that question.
Remember that question was asked to Ted Kennedy, and they said, well, what are you going to do to make America great?
And he couldn't answer the question.
I have a very simple, we're going to make America greater than ever before, and we're going to do it through a series of tariffs, intelligent taxes, and incentives.
And our country has never been stronger.
We've never had anything like coming in.
We have $18 trillion coming into our country right now.
There's never been anything like it.
And if you ask me that, I'll say, I just want to keep doing what I'm doing because there's never been anything like it's happened.
Do you support it?
The most, the biggest number ever in history was $2 trillion.
And we're at $18 trillion.
This is money pouring into our country on building car plants or building AI plants.
We just want to keep doing exactly what we're doing because nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the world, not just our country.
There's never been, Scott, would you say that's right?
There's never been anything like the investments coming into America through this.
What I'm going to do is if the Democrats go along with it, which they don't want to because they want to make the insurance companies very rich, okay?
I want the money to be paid to the people to go out and buy their own health care instead of paying to the you know the insurance companies, their stock has gone up 1,700% in a short period of time.
Did you know that?
1,700.
You wish your corn went up.
But the insurance companies, stock has gone up by 1,700%, 1,800%.
They're taking in trillions of dollars.
I don't want to pay the insurance companies anything.
And I know a lot of them.
But they're owned by the Democrats.
And the Democrats have...
Obamacare is a setup to make insurance companies rich.
And I want to pay the people, and I want the people to go out and buy their own health care.
And that's what we want to do, and that's what the Republicans want to do, because Obamacare is a disaster.
And I said it five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, it was always a disaster.
It's bad health care that's too expensive for people.
And now your premiums, and you said it better than I said it, you said the Obamacare premiums are going to go up.
They're going way up.
And what I want to do is have the money.
And you know who's getting that money?
A lot of it is the insurance companies.
I want the people to get the money and go out and buy their own health care.
And everybody wants that.
Right?
unidentified
Okay.
Thank you.
Do you have any reaction on the fine that was imposed to X by the European Union?
Well, we're looking at a lot of things having to do with vaccines and with the different, I think we take like 88 different shots all wrapped up in one, one big glass of stuff like that.
And we're going to be reducing it very substantially.
It makes it impossible to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney, and it's a shame.
And the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves that they allow this to go on, because I can't appoint a U.S. attorney that's not a Democrat because they put a block on it.
So if you appoint in Virginia or in New Jersey or in California a U.S. attorney or a judge, I mean, the judge situation is ridiculous.
The only people that you can get by are Democrats because they will put a hold on it.
If I put up George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to be U.S. Attorney in New Jersey or to be U.S. Attorney in Virginia, we have Democrat senators.
They will not approve them.
And this is a gentleman's agreement that's lasted for too long.
And it doesn't make it, especially in light of what's going on today.
It means you can't appoint a Republican U.S. Attorney.
And we don't play the same game with them.
But they do.
And I hope that somebody speaks to Senator Grassley about doing something about the blue slip.
Because I'm telling you, John, I put up great people, top people, highest education, the best lawyers to be like U.S. attorney.
And both senators, it only takes one.
But if they're Democrat senators, they say, we're not going to approve it.
I had a couple of them say, why don't you appoint Democrats?
All because Senator Grassley, with his blue slip stuff, will not let anybody go by.
By the way, the Democrats have violated the blue slip provision on numerous occasions.
But we don't do it.
And what it means is I guess I just have to keep appointing people for three months and then just appoint another one, another one.
And it's a very sad situation.
We're losing tremendous, we're losing a lot of great people.
We have about seven U.S. attorneys who are not going to be able to keep their jobs much longer because of the blue slip.
Because unless I think I know why they did that, to protect their ass.
Okay, that's why they did that.
But it should be done away with.
I want to be able to appoint great, the most highly educated, the most respected people.
They can't keep their jobs because of the blue slips.
Following the White House meeting, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rowland spoke to reporters outside of the White House about the aid package for farmers and how the administration planned to fund it.