President Trump Speaks on Hurricane Maria Relief Efforts Briefing
CAROLINA,
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. It was a great trip and a beautiful place. I've been to
I want to thank, in particular, some of the folks that come here where really great danger was involved, right at the beginning. I have to start with Brock. Where's Brock? Brock --
And then, all of a sudden, we said there's another one heading out to
So I want to thank you. I want to thank Elaine. Elaine, thank you very much. Fantastic -- Acting Secretary.
And to all of my people -- and I have to say,
Your governor has been -- who I didn't know; I heard very good things about him. He's not even from my party, and he started right at the beginning appreciating what we did. And he was tremendously supportive, and he knew the level of problem that you had at the beginning, before, and the level -- what happened with respect to the tremendous storms that hit your beautiful island.
And, Governor, I just want to tell you that, right from the beginning, this governor did not play politics. He didn't play it at all. He was saying it like it was, and he was giving us the highest grades. And I want to -- on behalf of our country, I want to thank you. (Applause.)
I also want to thank your congresswoman, who actually represents the largest number of people of any congressperson in
Jenniffer, do you think you could say a little bit what you said about us today? And it's not about me, it's about these incredible people, from the military to
REPRESENTATIVE GONZALEZ-COLON: Thank you, Mr. President. The first thing is that, before we were hit by Maria, we were hit by Hurricane Irma. And during that time, before the hurricane, here was
I think we never got the level of communication between the federal government and the government like never before. And we are in the path of the hurricane, so we are used to receiving hurricanes, but never before a Category 5. The amount of devastation is unheard of. But during all this time, we got the federal government by our side, doing the job of the people here, like you in the military, doing all that has been asked. All the questions and requests that the governor did, the President and his
Thank you, Mr. President, for all you've been doing for the island.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to thank you because you were really generous. And I saw those comments, and everybody saw those comments, and we really appreciate it.
And, you know, it's so important, when you have men and women that have worked so hard and so long, and many of them came from two other catastrophic hurricanes. They came from
PARTICIPANT: This is day 43.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we're going to keep them for another couple of weeks. And by that time, I think -- well -- come here. Special guy, I will tell you -- special. Really good. (Applause.)
I also -- in addition to Tom, I also want to thank
And
If you look at the -- every death is a horror. But if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here with, really, a storm that was just totally overpowering -- nobody has ever seen anything like this. What is your death count, as of this moment -- 17?
PARTICIPANT: Sixteen certified.
THE PRESIDENT: Sixteen people certified. Sixteen people versus in the thousands. You can be very proud of all of your people, all of our people working together. Sixteen versus literally thousands of people. You can be very proud. Everybody around this table and everybody watching can really be very proud of what's taken place in
I also want to pay a very special thanks to the
So I want to thank the
NAVY REPRESENTATIVE: Sir, your
So the
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. And thank you very much. And I don't have to even mention the
But on behalf of the
Now, can we also mention Army? And can we also mention some people that I really got to know and respect even more in
What a job the
And a lot of people got to see the real
Would you like to say something on behalf of your men and women?
AIR FORCE REPRESENTATIVE: Sir, I'm representing the
THE PRESIDENT: No, I know that.
AIR FORCE REPRESENTATIVE: It's been a tremendous team effort partnering with
THE PRESIDENT: And the runways now are pretty open?
AIR FORCE REPRESENTATIVE: Yes, sir. We have four major runways that are fully open and operational; flown about 700-plus strategic airlift sorties to and from OCONUS, (inaudible)
THE PRESIDENT: Amazing job. Amazing job. So amazing that we're ordering hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of new airplanes for the
AIR FORCE REPRESENTATIVE: (Inaudible) game-changing technology, awesome airplane.
THE PRESIDENT: I said, how does it do it in fights? And how do they do in fights with the F-35? They said, we do very well. You can't see it. Literally you can't see it. So it's hard to fight a plane that you can't see, right?
AIR FORCE REPRESENTATIVE: Sir, we like that.
THE PRESIDENT: But that's an expensive plane that you can't see. And as you probably heard, we cut the price very substantially -- something that other administrations would never have done, that I can tell you. So thank you very much.
Where is the
PARTICIPANT:
THE PRESIDENT: Come here, get over here. Come here, come here. On behalf of the
THE PRESIDENT: Well, in
And the
THE PRESIDENT: Hard to believe -- between the helicopters and all of them. But the
PARTICIPANT: Mr. President, we also have our Customs and Border Protection sitting up over here.
THE PRESIDENT: Say a few words. Please, say a few words. Customs and Border Protection, say a few words, please. Don't be shy.
What I would like to do -- you want to stand up? Go ahead. That's okay. Stand up. Go ahead.
PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. You did a great job. I just want to also add
Governor, would you say a few words?
I want to personally thank you, Mr. President, because over the course of the past week you have called essentially every day to make sure we have what we need, to make sure that the resources are over here.
And I want to let the people of
I just wanted to let you know that right now our forces are working so that they can deliver food and water to the people of
Now, it is a challenging time. It is a situation without precedent. But with strong leadership, with your continued support, Mr. President, with the continued support of everybody around this table, the mayors that have played a critical role in this development, our legislature that has been helpful, and all of the assets in government -- I can tell you, Mr. President, that we will not only come out of this, we will stabilize
Thank you so much.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Governor. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, everybody. And we're going to make some tours now if anybody has any questions or statements or anything. I know we have a lot of powerful people -- a lot of your heads of your
So I appreciate your support and I know you appreciate our support, because our country has really gone all out to help. And it's not only dangerous, it's expensive, it's everything. But I consider it a great honor, maybe because I know so many people from
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Okay. Thank you all. Let's go make a -- let's go see what we have. Let's go.
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