Trump begins his tax-cut-touting speech with his usual lie, falsely saying for the seventh time that no president since Reagan has managed to pass a tax cut.
! Trump: "From the day I took the oath of office, I've been fighting to drain the swamp. And sometimes it may not look like it, but believe me, we are draining the swamp."
Trump boasts of low unemployment in general and for African-Americans and Hispanics. "Remember I used to say at rallies, what do you have to lose? Guess what: what do you have to lose."
Trump jokingly muses about allowing presidents to serve for 16 years, criticizes newspapers for saying "he's got despotic tendencies" the last time he talked about this, clarifies "I'm not looking to do it."
Trump uses an outdated number on wage growth, wrongly saying it's the fastest in over a decade. He misleadingly says "we're now an exporter of energy" (the U.S. has exported for decades, is still not a net exporter). He wrongly suggests Chrysler's Michigan investment is shocking.
Trump brainstorms about what to call the bonuses given to workers after the tax cut: "We can't say it's a gift because they're workers. We can't say it's a tax because it's not a tax."
Trump starts telling a story about how we used to hear the phrase "Made in the USA" 30 years ago, then says he won't go further back because he doesn't want to date himself, then says, "40 years ago, 50 years ago."
Trump touts the accelerating growth in manufacturing jobs, which is some legitimate good news for him: bloomberg.com/view/articles/…
Trump to a truck driver: "Very importantly, the roads are getting a lot better. Do you notice?"
We're now hearing from workers who say they've benefited from the tax cuts. Trump is calling them up and they are praising and thanking him,.
Only in America: a plumber thanks Trump, says he faced big doctor bills after his baby needed neonatal intensive care, but "then our company, Universal Plumbing, came to us and gave all the employees thousand-dollar tax cuts. And with those we were able to pay our doctor bills."
"That's beautiful," the president says of this story about the plumber who didn't know if he could pay for his baby's health care until his boss gave him an unexpected bonus.
Trump says there has been a lot of progress in negotiations to reduce China's trade barriers. He says he thinks Xi likes him very much.
Trump has finished. No real news out of that.
