President Donald Trump
- Thank you very much, everybody. We have some very interesting news. Kevin Clinesmith, a corrupt FBI attorney who falsified FISA warrants in James Comey’s very corrupt FBI, is expected to plead guilty. You probably heard that. It just came out. So that’s just the beginning, I would imagine, because what happened should never happen again. So, he is pleading guilty. Terrible thing. Terrible thing. The fact is they spied on my campaign and they got caught. And you’ll be hearing more.
- Today, the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy released a new report on how my administration has harnessed the full power of the Defense Production Act to achieve the greatest industrial mobilization since World War Two, in our fight against the China virus.
- New factories, businesses, and laboratories are being built all over America to match our nation’s demand for personal protective equipment, pharmaceuticals, drugs, testing supplies, therapeutics, and vaccines. It’s been incredible what we’ve been able to do in a very short period of time. We’re helping other countries also because we’ve been really — we’ve been doing it at a level that nobody has ever seen before.
- It was just announced, a little while ago, industrial production rose for the third straight month. It’s a big thing. Factory output was up 3.4 percent this month after a 5.7 increase last month. Those are getting to be record numbers. And manufacturing capacity utilization is now up to almost 70 percent. So we’re coming back very strong. We should have a very good third quarter. We should have an unbelievably good next year. Next year, if we don’t mess it up with somebody that has no idea what they’re doing, could be a fantastic year.
- My Administration has exercised the authority under the Defense Production Act to a number — and related authorities — at a — 78 times, dispersing over $3.5 billion to speed the development and manufacturing of essential materials. So, put it a little bit differently: The administration has exercised the authority under the Defense Production Act and related authorities 78 times. That’s a lot, Peter, right? It’s a big number: 78 times. It came in very handy. A lot of times we just mentioned it and they did what we asked them to do. Dispersing over $3.5 billion to speed the development and manufacturing of essential materials.
- I’ve used the DPA more comprehensively than any President in history. There was a time when the media would say, “Why aren’t you using it? Why aren’t you using it?” Well, we have used it a lot, where necessary. Only where necessary. For the most part, we’ve had tremendous cooperation.
- By invoking the DPA, we mobilized the extraordinary productive might of General Motors to manufacture ventilators. GM repurposed the Kokomo, Indiana, plant in just 17 days — an all-time record — and has now produced over 21,000 ventilators.
- We’re also working with Ford Motor Company and General Electric to produce over 30,000 ventilators a month in Michigan. They’ve done a great job. Our nation is now the king of ventilators. I say that: the king of ventilators. We’re sending them all over the world and helping a lot of countries that could never have ventilators. And it’s — really, I guess we’re looking to produce over 200,000 ventilators by the end of the year. Those are some numbers. So we’re helping a lot of countries.
- In April, I directed 3M to increase its manufacturing of N95 masks. By May, they had increased production by over a million masks a day. Think of that: They increased production of masks by over one million a day. 3M is now manufacturing an additional 39 million masks a month. We also worked with Honeywell to open factories in Arizona and Rhode Island. They’re now producing over 20 million masks a month.
- By the end of the year, domestic U.S. manufacturing will have produced over 1 billion N95 respirators, and all of them are made right here in the USA. That’s a big difference from the past.
- Overall, we’ve increased N95 mask production by 400 million masks a year. Now, the media might say, “Why not 500? Why not 600?” Nobody has seen numbers like this ever.
- We delivered more than $75 million in support to Puritan Medical in Maine. I was up there. I was — as you remember, we had a tremendous visit and tremendous throngs of people along the roads on the way to Puritan Medical. Puritan has a doubled their production of testing swabs from 20 million to 40 million per month. They’re doing a fantastic job, and so is Maine.
- I’ve also used the DPA to fight price gouging and hoarding. My administration located and seized over half a million pieces of hoarded personal protective equipment, including 299,000 pairs of medical-grade gloves, 192,000 N95 respirators, and 130,000 surgical masks. That’s hoarding.
- My Administration’s decisive actions have yielded truly incredible results. People have done an incredible job. We’ve replenished the Strategic National Stockpile that was very badly depleted when we took office and totally neglected in the last administration.
- Since the start of the pandemic, we have tripled the number of N95 masks on hand to over 40 million, tripled the number of gowns to over 15 million, and quadrupled the number of ventilators to 69,000.
- By September, the Strategic National Stockpile inventory is on track to contain over 300,000 — excuse me, 300 million N95 respirators and surgical masks, over 4.5 billion gloves, and over 190,000 ventilators. That’s far more than we’ve done before. It’s not even close.
- As we talk about the economy, we continue to restore America’s industrial might. We’re bringing jobs to the USA. We understand that the economic health is critical — very critical to public health. We’ll be discussing next week some of the outstanding numbers we have, compared to any other country. There is no country even close when you look at what we’ve done compared to them on the stand- — from the standpoint of the economy and also during — even during the period of the China virus.
- In the last three months, we’ve added an average of 100,000 jobs every single day. We’ve also added over 620,000 manufacturing jobs in the past three months. That’s despite people saying, “You can’t do manufacturing jobs anymore.” You’d “need a magic wand,” they said, but they were wrong. Weekly jobless claims just fell below 1 million for the first time in a long time.
- I’m pleased to announce that as part of Operation Warp Speed, the federal government will be partnering with McKesson Corporation — great company, which is a major medical supplier — to rapidly distribute a China-virus vaccine as soon as one is approved — fully approved. They’re in stage three trials. We have many of them going along different passes. Also many different companies doing them — very, very incredible companies.
- We currently have three candidates in phase three clinical trials and are on pace to have more than 100 million doses of a vaccine ready before the end of the year and 500 million doses very shortly thereafter. And we’re ready, logistically, to distribute them. Our military is ready. We have a great general who’s in charge. That’s what he does, is he distributes things — usually it’s people and weapons, tanks — but in this case, it’s a vaccine or a therapeutic, as it may be.
- We continue to actively monitor the virus, executing our strategy to protect the vulnerable and prevent hospital overcrowding. As of today, hospitalizations continue to be very stable, and we will be watching always very carefully. Remain vigilant.
- We ask every citizen to practice good hygiene, socially distance, wear a mask when distancing is not possible, and to protect the elderly. Always protect the elderly.
- Now we’ll take a few questions if you’d like.
Topics covered in the answer and question portion of the briefing can be found here: August 14 Briefing
