RUSH: The Drive-By Media, the legacy media, the mainstream media, the Democrat Party all said that it was not possible for economic growth to ever be above the best it was under Obama, which was 1.8 to 2%. Obama had one outlier quarter a little over three, but those were extraneous circumstances there. Obama’s GDP average 1.8 to 2% on the upside, and everybody said, “It can’t possibly get any better than that, and it’s foolish to think so. It’s a new day in America, and those days of rabid capitalistic economic growth are over.”
Just like Obama and the media said the jobs that we’ve lost, manufacturing, otherwise, would never, ever, be coming back. Obama goes out to Elkhart, Indiana, telling people in the campaign year of 2016 not to think of their jobs coming back, that Trump’s lying to them about it, asking (impression), “What’s he gonna do? Wave a magic wand? What’s the policy? How’s he gonna do it? Ain’t gonna happen! I don’t want you all, uh, uh, with false hopes out there.”
Well, we got an economic growth now sustained of 4.2% and climbing. The stock markets approaching a new record high because Donaldus Trump last night, the deadline that he had set. We have a new trade deal with Canada to be added into the deal already reached with Mexico. It is what gets rid of NAFTA, just as he said he would do, just as he promised on the campaign trail. The new name of this thing is the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
Trump has been speaking about this for the last half hour outside the Oval Orifice, and he’s in a fine, fine mood, as is everybody gathered there. It is a major, major achievement. Again, it is something that the Democrat opposition (which includes, of course, the media) all said could not happen. “It couldn’t be done. It was a waste of time to try,” as they said, scratching their heads, “Why does Trump care about trade deals anyway?” And they’ve never understood the Trump voter caring about trade deals.
They’ve never understand the connection made and maintains with voters on trade.
And it’s not just NAFTA; it’s any number of other things. Jared Kushner has come in for a lot of credit on this deal, which means he’s gonna be in the crosshairs right along with Brett Kavanaugh, about whom we will get to in due course. But the NAFTA news is gonna be buried, which is one of the reasons why Trump is spending so much time talking about it, giving the Drive-By Media a tough time in ignoring it.
But for Trump it’s electoral politics in addition to making America great again, as he defines it, something he promised, something he claimed could be done, that would be done, and it has been done, and it is to the benefit of people that voted… Well, to the benefit of millions and millions of Americans in countless numbers of ways, and he’s making sure that as many people as possible are made aware of this. It had to kill the Washington Post to write about this.
Headline: “Canada Agrees to Join Trade Accord with U.S. and Mexico, Sending New NAFTA Deal to Congress.” So we’re renegotiating NAFTA. Canada… Canada, which said they wanted no part of it? They asked in at the last moment! “Hey, hey, don’t forget us! Can we be part of this, too?” Trump said, “Come on in.” A reporter just asked Trump, “Does this mean the end of tariffs?” Trump said (summarized), “Hell, no, it doesn’t mean the end of tariffs.
“If the European Union continues to send unfair trade deal related products into the United States, we’re gonna slap tariffs on it. Remember how the Drive-Bys and the Democrats said that slapping tariffs on Chinese goods was gonna provoke the ChiComs? It couldn’t possibly be good! It might mean the end of whatever arrangement we’re making with the North Koreans. It might destroy existing good relations with the ChiComs!
Breaking news! “China to Cut Import Tariffs on Wide Range of Products. China [the ChiComs] will cut import tariffs on textile products and metals, including steel products, to 8.4% down from 11.5%, effective Nov. 1, the [ChiCom] finance ministry said on Sunday. Beijing has pledged to take steps to increase imports” that means products from us “this year amid rising tension with some of its biggest trading partners, such as the United States.”
Bottom line, Trump said he was gonna do X, Y, and Z and A, B, and C in trade, and if we started A, B, and C, I think he’s pretty much closing in on C. He has rebuilt the economy, he has created new jobs; his economic policies have. The elimination of onerous regulations, which is an ongoing thing, continues to show vast benefits for every ordinary American who makes this country work. And it’s something he said could be done that only he could do and in fact, he was the only one that thought it was necessary to do, and it’s now done.
Here is the president today at the White House Rose Garden. We have three sound bites….
THE PRESIDENT: I have long contended that NAFTA was perhaps the worst trade deal ever made. Since NAFTA’s adoption the United States racked up trade deficits totaling more than $2 trillion, and it’s a much higher number than that. With Canada and Mexico it lost vast amounts of money and lost 4.1 million manufacturing jobs and one in four auto jobs. It’s about 25% of our auto jobs, even more than that. Throughout the campaign I promised to renegotiate NAFTA, and today we have kept that promise.
RUSH: For the last half hour, the president… Maybe even longer than that, maybe 45 minutes. You know, an extended statement, he only recently started taking questions. I’ll tell you what Trump is doing here, which is something that I’ve long advocated. He wasn’t just announcing the deal got done. He was teaching why it was important, including to the Drive-By Media, who, for the most part, are clueless, don’t understand capitalism, think that it’s a big, bad, meany.
Trump is taking the occasion of all this attention to actually explain how trade works and how the United States has been victimized over the course of many, many years because of American leadership believing, “Well, you know, we’re the superior in the world. We’re the richest. We can afford to take it in the shorts now and then if it promotes good relations with our allies,” and Trump stood up and said, “There’s no reason we should have our back pockets picked.
“There’s no reason that we should just let people have whatever they want from our treasury. There’s no reason we should feel guilty about being powerful and wealthy. It doesn’t mean because we are so much wealthier and powerful, that those who are not have dibs on what we’ve produced. Those days are over. That way of thinking is over.”
He went through the whole process of explaining how trade works, why it is important, how the United States was getting the shaft. But more importantly, why it matters to ordinary, everyday people and their jobs and their careers, including farmers and a number of other type people about whom Washington thinks not very often and thinks very little. It’s been a masterful performance.
There is no question that Trump not only knows what he’s talking about, he is the architect of what he’s talking about, and he can run rings around people in discussing the process and in discussing the substance and the details of this new agreement. It puts anybody else that’s ever tried this to shame. Everybody that has the chance to listen to this is gonna understand exactly why it was important what happened, why it happened, and why we benefit, and why that’s good.
You know, teaching as well as announcing is fundamental. I believe that’s why the Republican Congress 1994 actually squandered its majority after a while, it’s because they stopped teaching what they were doing and why as they did it. They made the fatal mistake of believing that the Republican victory in 1994 meant somehow that a majority of the country had overnight turned conservative. So when they began to announce this cut, that cut, this reform, that reform, a lot of people didn’t know what they were talking about, got scared to death.
That lesson has been learned by none other than Donaldus Trump. Here’s the next bite. Trump saying it is a privilege to trade with us. This kind of thinking, we haven’t seen. We’ve seen thinking, both parties, who believe that it’s up to us to earn the respect of others. It’s up to us to show them that we don’t intend them any harm. It’s up to us. And Trump’s turning this 180 degrees around, said it’s a privilege to trade with us. We’re the world economy. We’re the future of the world economy. We’re the future of the world freedom and liberty. The days of America as the world’s piggybank are over.
THE PRESIDENT: This deal will also impose new standards requiring at least 75% of every automobile to be made in North America in order to qualify for the privilege of free access to our markets. It’s a privilege for them to do business with us, and I’m not talking about Mexico-Canada. I’m talking about everybody, everybody. It’s a privilege for China to do business with us. It’s a privilege for the European Union — who has treated us very badly, but that’s coming along — to do business with us. Japan, every country. It’s a privilege for them to come in and attack the piggybank.
RUSH: Yeah. It’s a privilege to come in now — and, as I say, folks, it’s a new way of seeing ourselves and our country without the need to make excuses, without the need to apologize. We really haven’t seen this. You know, you can see evidence and signs of this in our own culture of the achieved and the accomplished somehow feel the need to apologize for it or to downplay it, as some sort of new definition of humility, rather than having it used as a teachable moment, as something inspiring.
As Trump points out, we want every country making their country great. We want every country putting their country first. We want everybody doing it that way. That’s the whole point, for everybody to do better, but not by piggy banking the United States, by doing it on their own. These kinds of things are just… They’re foreign to the United Nations types, diplomatic types. Here’s the final bite. Don’t forget who told you this was not possible. Do not forget. It was Barack Hussein O who said none of this could be done.
THE PRESIDENT: If you remember, the previous administration said, “We’re not gonna have manufacturing jobs anymore,”” essentially. We’re not gonna have…? We’re not gonna make things anymore?” “No.” Just the opposite. We’re gonna be a manufacturing powerhouse and allow us to reclaim a supply chain that has been offshored to the world because of unfair trade issues.
RUSH: So there you have it. It’s not a sexy subject. NAFTA never was. I mean, it commanded a lot of attention. You know, it was very controversial when it was ratified in the early into the mid-1990s. But in terms of being a subject, if cable news announced they’re gonna do two or three panels tonight on NAFTA due to the trade deal, they’re not gonna have a lot of people tune in. It’s just wait of the world.
So Trump is making sure with this extended event in the Rose Garden today that people get its importance. In terms of its importance as an election issue, it’s crucial. It is… I wouldn’t say crucial. But it’s very important in terms of Trump being able to say to his voters, “Stick with me. I told you I was gonna do this. I told you it could be done, and I told you the United States was gonna come out as the champion in the subject of world trade. Don’t doubt me.”
And, in that sense, it’s confidence-inspiring that Trump — left alone in the Oval Office, free and in charge to be who he is — will mean a bunch of great things happening for the country. This can be parlayed into any number of campaign ads for the upcoming midterms, because it’s gonna be about a lot of things, not just the Kavanaugh nomination and other things. This is gonna be a fundamental aspect in terms of turning out the Trump base.