Proclamation on American Heart Month, 2020

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2020  AMERICAN HEART MONTH, 2020 - - - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION      As the leading cause of death for both men and women nationwide, heart disease devastates hundreds of thousands of families every year.  During American Heart Month, we pause to remember the lives lost to heart disease and the families who mourn, and we reaffirm our commitment to preventing and treating this terrible disease that inflicts immeasurable pain and suffering.      Evidence-based research has identified several critical risk factors that contribute to heart disease, including elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, physical inactivity, excess body weight, high salt intake, smoking, age, and family history.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about half of all Americans have at least one of three key risk factors:  high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, or a history of smoking.  While some risk factors are unchangeable, most are avoidable with behavior modification and lifestyle changes like eating a healthy diet, moderating alcohol consumption, exercising regularly, and avoiding smoking.  Making small, incremental changes and creating healthier habits can lead to life-saving benefits.  We must all take decisive action to control our cardiovascular health and support and motivate friends and family members in their efforts to curb unhealthy behaviors.  Community groups, educators, and fitness and healthcare professionals can also provide guidance, support, accountability, and encouragement on the journey to better health.      American innovation and medical advancements continue to improve treatment options for those who have experienced heart disease.  Medical procedures to treat heart conditions are more precise, using less invasive techniques with fewer complications and faster recovery times.  Additionally, we have developed medications to more effectively treat high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes, all conditions that contribute to an increased risk of heart disease.  We also commend the dedicated healthcare professionals, physical therapists, counselors, volunteers, and educators who make a positive impact in the lives of those battling heart disease and undergoing cardiac rehabilitation.      Every year, millions of Americans suffer from the healthcare costs, physical disabilities, and premature death caused by cardiovascular diseases and conditions.  We can -- and must -- work to save lives and reverse the somber statistics and cruel grip that heart disease has on our Nation's families.  Thanks to scientific research, medical advances, and healthy lifestyle choices, much of the power to combat this disease is within our grasp.  During American Heart Month, I urge all men and women to prioritize their health and to take the necessary measures to lead a heart-healthy lifestyle.      In acknowledgement of the importance of the ongoing fight against cardiovascular disease, the Congress, by Joint Resolution approved on December 30, 1963, as amended (36 U.S.C. 101), has requested that the President issue an annual proclamation designating February as American Heart Month.      NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim February 2020 as American Heart Month, and I invite all Americans to participate in National Wear Red Day on February 7, 2020.  I also invite the Governors of the States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, officials of other areas subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and the American people to join me in recognizing and reaffirming our commitment to fighting cardiovascular disease.      IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fourth.                              DONALD J. TRUMP

Remarks by President Trump at the White House Summit on Human Trafficking: The 20th Anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2020 REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP AT THE WHITE HOUSE SUMMIT ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING: THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION ACT OF 2000 East Room   12:21 P.M. EST      THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you very much.  Please.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  And I want to thank you all for being here as we mark the 20th anniversary of Trafficking Victims Protection Act.  Very important.      Twenty years ago, this nation took a historic step to protect the victims of this form of modern-day slavery here in the United States and all around the world.  My administration is 100 percent committed to eradicating human trafficking from the Earth.      I am pleased to be joined this afternoon by Vice President Mike Pence and the members of my Cabinet: Attorney General William Barr; Secretary Gene Scalia -- hello, Gene; Secretary Alex Azar, who is very busy -- and I'm going to see you in a little while, right?  Unfortunately, for this -- in this case. Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, great job with those numbers.  Great job, Chad.  Deputy Secretary Stephen Biegun.  Hi, Stephen.      And thanks also to Representatives Chris Smith, Ann Wagner, Michael McCaul, and Chip Roy for being with us.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)      And we have a lot of great senators that wanted to be here so desperately, but I said, "Just stay where you are and do you job, please."  (Laughter.)      We also have with us Ambassadors Callista Gingrich -- hi, Callista.  (Applause.)  Sam Brownback and John Richmond.  Thank you all very much.  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)       And Director of the FBI, Christopher Wray.  Christopher.  Thank you, Chris.  (Applause.)  And we have Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr -- very active.  Thank you very much, Chris.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)  And Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.  Thank you.  Thank you, Ashley.  Thank you, Ashley.  (Applause.)      Florida Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Núñez.  (Applause.)  And First Lady of Texas, Cecilia Abbott.  (Applause.)  I just saw your husband, by the way.  I just saw your great husband.  Great gentleman.      And North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest.  Thank you very much.  Thank you, Dan.  Great.  (Applause.)      And I am especially grateful to Ivanka for her unwavering efforts.  She has taken this under her wing.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  Thank you, honey.      Ivanka has been a champion for administrative and legislative actions to combat human trafficking.  And a true heart -- she has -- this issue has been so important to her.  This, and making sure people are ready to work.  And she has now created over 15 million jobs for the people of our country -- one of the reasons our unemployment numbers are the best ever.  Fifteen million.  (Applause.)      And I would say that this issue may be closest to her heart because of the level of evil that you would never believe is even possible in a modern age.  The level of evil is incredible.      So I just want to thank Ivanka for -- for both of the things that you are really focused on.  Thank you very much, honey.  I appreciate it.  (Applause.)  Fifteen million jobs.  It was going to be 500,000.  "Daddy, I think we can do 500,000.”  Within about a week, she broke that, and now she is up 15 million jobs.  It's a fantastic thing.  (Applause.)  I'm not -- I'm not surprised, Mike.  We're not surprised.      We are also honored to have with us several extraordinary survivors of human trafficking.  And I want to thank you all for being here.  And you'll come up when we sign, and it's going to be my great honor to say hello and shake your hand.  And your courage really inspires us all.  I want to just let you know that.      As the men and women in this room know, human trafficking is a problem everywhere -- a worldwide problem.  Human trafficking is worse than ever before, and that’s because of the Internet.  I've heard from Bill Barr, and I've heard from others, that the Internet has caused lots of good things to happen and lots of really bad things.  And this is probably the worst of the bad things.  And it's an incredible thing.      An estimated 25 million people around the world today are being held captive, manipulated, and abused by human traffickers.      In 2018 alone, the National Human Trafficking Hotline identified over 23,000 human trafficking victims in the United States.  Sixty-five percent of these victims were women.  More than one in five were children.  Human traffickers prey on their most vulnerable citizens and people.   They're vicious.  They're violent.      My administration is fighting these monsters, persecuting and prosecuting them, and locking them away for a very, very long time.  We've had a tremendous track record -- the best track record in a long time.      We are dismantling the criminal organizations that make largescale human trafficking possible.  In my first month in office, I instructed federal agencies to go out and just do what you have to do.  All federal departments are doing what they do to identify and destroy these groups.  And we are destroying a lot of them.  Unfortunately, they come back very quickly in a different form.      In 2018, the Department of Justice shut down the leading site for online sex trafficking.  The DOJ prosecuted a number of violent crimes.  That now is a record number.  In the last three years, ICE has arrested over 5,000 human traffickers.  And I want to thank ICE.  They have been incredible.  These are great, great people.  (Applause.)  Great.  Great people.  They're tough, they're brave, and they love our country.      Overseas, we have also seen historic prog- -- really, progress, incredible progress working with us and using our intelligence with them.      When I took office, ISIS controlled over 20,000 square miles of territory and perpetrated some of the most heinous forms of human trafficking anywhere in the world.  As you know, we've totally defeated the ISIS caliphate in Syria, in Iraq.  And it's 100 percent.      We have thousands and thousands of prisoners -- ISIS prisoners.  And it's really been something that's been rather incredible.  And we did that rather quickly, because when we came in, as an administration, it was all over.  And we have 100 percent of the caliphate.  They're bloodthirsty.  They're horrible.      The founder and leader, al-Baghdadi, who was trying to rebuild ISIS, is now dead.  We got him and that was a big thing.  (Applause.)  That was a big thing, and not an easy thing.  He was hiding and they've been after him for 15 years, but we got him.      My administration is putting unprecedented pressure on traffickers at home and abroad, and we are freeing innocent victims at every single turn.      I was proud to be the first Commander-in-Chief to attend a meeting of the President’s Interagency Task Force established by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.  In November, I was also the first President to sign an executive order to establish a Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives.  (Applause.)  Just signed it.  And this has a very special focus on women and girls.  That’s an incredible thing that’s been happening, but we just signed it.      I’ve signed nine pieces of bipartisan legislation aimed specifically at combatting human trafficking domestically and around the globe.      And in 2018, I signed legislation strengthening the Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign, which unified the Department’s fight against this crisis and -- increasing public awareness every single day.  We have signed more legislation on human trafficking, by far, than any other administration has even thought about.  We enacted bills.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  And we'll do what's necessary.  We will do exactly what’s necessary.  There's nothing more horrible than this.       We enacted bills to fight sex trafficking, increase support for survivors, and raise the standards by which we judge whether other countries are meeting their duty to fight human trafficking.  And you have countries that talk and they talk.  They're like politicians in Washington.  (Laughter.)  They keep talking; they do nothing about it.  They do nothing about it.      And we spend a lot of money on these other countries.  And we're not sending it, and we let them know,ver if they're not going to be doing their job.  They don’t -- in some cases, probably -- want to do their job, and that’s a pretty bad thing.      We have authorized $430 million to fight sex and labor trafficking.  And with the help of the State Department, I have held foreign governments accountable for failing to address human trafficking by imposing restrictions on foreign assistance -- and very powerful restrictions.  (Applause.)      I’ve also prioritized increasing funding for anti-trafficking efforts in my 2021 budget, allocating $70 million towards enhanced prosecutions and -- at the Department of Justice.  We are spending $123 million towards supporting state and local efforts. (Applause.)      And this is all new funding, and these funds will directly benefit those on the frontlines who are tasked with bringing down the perpetrators of this terrible crime.  So the kind of money we're talking about now is far greater than what you've had in the past.      And let them give the people that worked so hard in this administration credit because they've wanted to do it more than the people in any other preceding administration.  And you can read what you want, you can say what you want, but nobody has done more than what we've been doing on human trafficking.  (Applause.)      So today, on the last day of this year’s National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, I will take another very decisive action.  In a few moments, I will sign an executive order targeting human trafficking and child exploitation all across our country.  This order -- (applause).      And this is a very big one: This order will build on an incredible work that -- and, really, the unbelievable work that so many of the people in this room have been doing, and all of the work that has been done and increasingly is being done.      You wouldn’t believe the level -- the level of enthusiasm that people working on this issue have.  I wor- -- I have many issues: economic -- we have all different issues.  I have never seen such enthusiasm for a single issue as I have for human trafficking.  (Applause.)      And I have to say, that starts with Bill Barr and Chris Wray, the FBI.  It starts with all of the people in law enforcement.  So important.  And it's something that people really do appreciate.      So they collect and they coordinate.  They share vital law enforcement and intelligence information with other places all over the world, and -- very, very important.  And we have made a tremendous impact.  The problem is it's so massive.  It's so many people.  It's so many countries.  But we've had a tremendous impact.      It will be posted online along with a comprehensive list of government resources, all of the things that we do, and where to go to find out about what's happening.      This order expands prevention education programs, promotes housing opportunities for survivors, and prioritizes the removal of child sexual abuse material from the Internet. (Applause.)      And furthermore, it takes the vital step of designating a full-time position here at the White House dedicated solely to combating human trafficking, so people know how important it is.  (Applause.)      The United States government continues to work with the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, in consultation with industry, on a set, voluntary principle.  We have a -- a set of voluntary principles to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse.  And the level of detail, the kind of things that they're putting in -- nobody has ever seen anything like this before.      The people that are working on it do it with incredible heart and love, and they want something to happen.  They don't want to be wasting time like people have been wasting for many years.  Even people in this position, they've been wasting time and not a lot of money, I have to tell you.  They haven't spent -- as you know, they haven't been spending a lot of money.  We’re now spending a lot of money.      We look forward to launching these principles in the coming months.  We will not rest until we've stopped every last human trafficker and liberated every last survivor.  (Applause.)      So I'm now pleased to introduce an incredible survivor, and the newest member of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human trafficking, Bella Hounakey.  Hi, Bella.  (Applause.)      MS. HOUNAKEY:  Good afternoon, my name is Bella Hounakey.  Thank you, President Trump, Ms. Ivanka Trump, and the White House for organizing this important event.  It is truly a great honor to be here to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.      At age 13, I was brought into this country.  I survived trafficking, along with 19 other girls.  Afterwards, I was placed in foster care, but this negative experience in my past should not wholly define who I am today.  (Applause.)  Today, I am a college graduate.  Today, I am an American citizen.  (Applause.)  And today, I stand before you as the newest member of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking. (Applause.)      The Council is composed of survivor leaders who bring their experience and expertise to advise and provide recommendations to the President's Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking Persons.      We represent a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences and we're sincerely grateful to this administration for appointing our current (inaudible) members to support federal government efforts to prevent and improve trafficking programs and policies.      We view the existence of this council as a victory for trafficking survivors in the federal government.  This council is a model for survivor empowerment and survivor-centered approaches that other countries, states, and localities may learn from and adapt.      This council shows in real and tangible ways how survivors can positively impact and inform anti-trafficking efforts at the highest levels of government.      To truly be survivor-centered and informed means to not only prioritize survivors’ needs or wishes and service delivery, it must also include meaningful collaboration with survivors to inform the design and implementation of the very policies and programs that affect them.  No survivors should ever be viewed by their trafficking or lived experiences alone.      We acknowledge the great strides the federal government has made in the last 20 years to combat trafficking, as well as that of other stakeholders.  We look forward to continuing to advise and collaborate with the task force to realize the goals of the TVPA, and we encourage all of you to view our 2020 annual report, which will be released this April.      Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today.  And to end, I would like to share a statement and a quote from our council's chair, the Honorable Judge Lung, Robert:      This is to the victims and survivors out there: It's never been your fault, no matter what.  So let go of that toxic shame; it doesn't belong to you.  You are never too old, too lost, or too broken to begin healing today.       Hope is key, and even if it starts out as small as a mustard seed, nurture hope -- it'll save you.       And most importantly, you are not alone.  You're not alone.  You're not alone.       Thank you and God bless America.  (Applause.)      THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Incredible.  (Applause.)  Mr. President, Attorney General Barr, members of the council, Ivanka, Cabinet Secretaries, members of our diplomatic corps, including Ambassador Gingrich, distinguished members of Congress who've worked on this issue for so many years with such heart and compassion, members of the law enforcement community and faith leaders, and most especially, Bella and the courageous survivors who joined us here today: It is an honor to be with you on this historic day.  (Applause.)      As the President reflected, we're here to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.      As the President has made clear, from his heart, we have a President who knows human trafficking is not only an unconscionable evil, but an epidemic in the world today.  And the United States of America will confront it as never before.  (Applause.)      Mr. President, as you said in your proclamation marking this past month, that human trafficking “is an affront to humanity."  And you’ve taken decisive action to bring human traffickers to justice, their victims to safety, and to help survivors walk the difficult road to recovery.      Like no President before you, you’ve made it a priority to target transnational criminal organizations that have victimized thousands of innocent people on both sides of our borders.      I know the President and I are grateful for the efforts of all of those gathered here today for your compassion, for shining light in the darkness, and bringing the justice and determination of the American people to this cause.      But permit me to add one more voice of appreciation to a member of this administration who has probably articulated the President's message on this issue with more compassion and more determination than anyone else in the history of this moment.  Would you join me in thanking Ivanka Trump one more time for her extraordinary leadership on human trafficking?  (Applause.)      Mr. President, the order you're about to sign will impact the federal response across our government and empower the agencies so well represented here to have even more tools to combat the scourge of human trafficking.  It will improve the way law enforcement and federal agencies gather information.  It will also make it easier for the American people to partner with this administration and with law enforcement in combatting human trafficking.      It will empower faith-based organizations to provide victims and survivors with more compassionate care.      And with more and more young people around America engaged in this issue, Mr. President, by your order today, you will give younger Americans, especially, the ability on the Internet to identify the signs of trafficking, what dangers to avoid, and how to break free if they've been victimized.  (Applause.)       Our founding documents attest that we believe that every person is endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  And today, with a compassionate determination of all of those gathered here, Mr. President, you again show the American people's commitment to the justice and dignity and worth of every person, and we thank you for your leadership and compassion.  (Applause.)      THE PRESIDENT:  So, Mike, thank you very much.  And I just want to congratulate everybody in this room.      What I'd like to do is maybe ask some of our folks that are so involved to come up and the survivors to come up.  We will sign and we will say hello to everybody.      And again, it's an honor to be with you today.  Thank you very much.  This is a big moment.  Thank you.  (Applause.)      (The executive order is signed.)  (Applause.)                           END                12:45 P.M. EST

On-the-Record Press Call on an Executive Order Ensuring Safe and Lawful E-Commerce

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2020

ON-THE-RECORD PRESS CALL BY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR TRADE AND MANUFACTURING POLICY PETER NAVARRO ON AN EXECUTIVE ORDER ENSURING SAFE AND LAWFUL E-COMMERCE Via Teleconference   4:16 P.M. EST      MR. CANTRELL:  Good afternoon, everyone.  And thank you for joining this on-the-record briefing call on the President's executive order to Ensure Safe and Lawful E-Commerce.  This briefing will be conducted by Assistant to the President for Trade and Manufacturing Policy, Peter Navarro.      Both Mr. Navarro's opening remarks and answers to your questions will be on the record.  All information is embargoed until the conclusion of this call.      And with that, I'll turn it over to Peter.      MR. NAVARRO:  Thank you, Austin.  What I'd like to do for you this afternoon is tell you about the executive order that was signed today in the Oval and what its relation is to the action plan that the Department of Health and -- the Department of Homeland Security released last Friday.      The executive order was signed today in the Oval, in the afternoon, with Secretary Wolf, present along with Commissioner Morgan, General Counsel of the USTR Joe Barloon, Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway, and Jim Carroll, the Director of ONDCP.      And when you write about this, you may want to think about this order as working hand in glove, or tongue in groove, with the actions that were set forth last week in the executive -- in the report issued by Homeland Security.      So what I'm going to do is first describe some of the big-picture problems, how it relates to the China phase one agreement and how it relates to the Section 321 de minimis exemption, and then go over the executive order in some detail to explain in layman's terms what it actually does.      The interesting thing here is that this is another example of promises made, promises kept.  Candidate Trump promised in his June 2016 jobs plan speech outside of Pittsburgh that he would put an end to the theft of hundreds of billions of dollars of our intellectual property that China steals from America each year.  The recently signed phase one trade deal provides a framework to do just that.      Counterfeiting is the purest expression of intellectual property theft.  And much of the counterfeit trafficking we are observing today is facilitated by e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Alibaba, E-Bay, Shopify, JD.com, and WalMart.com.      Back in April, this whole effort to combat trafficking began with an executive order that the President signed directing DHS to come up with a coordinated strategy.  The problem we have now is that when Americans shop online, they should have the expectation of privacy, safety, and confidence in their e-commerce platforms and online sellers that they engage with.  Instead, Americans are just getting ripped off.      Today, when people shop online in what they think is the safety of their homes and on their favorite e-commerce platforms, they have an unacceptably high risk of being defrauded or even harmed by everything from contaminated infant formula, inferior child car seats, exploding batteries, and dangerous electronics, to deadly substances like fentanyl which can appear in fake prescription opioids.  Put simply, what’s being sold on the Internet these days aren’t goods in a lot of cases -- they’re "bads.”      This crisis is not about any one e-commerce platform.  This is about e-commerce platforms as a class playing by a different set of rules that simultaneously hammer brick-and-mortar retailers, defraud consumers, steal American jobs, and rip off intellectual property rights holders.      If you were to design a system to supercharge counterfeit trafficking, destroy American jobs, and defraud the American consumer, you could do no better than the intricate and shadowy networks of e-commerce.      Under current lax interpretations of existing rules and laws, e-commerce platforms face virtually no liability for their counterfeit trafficking.   Today, virtually immune from the kind of laws and liabilities that govern bricks-and-mortar retail, e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Shopify, Alibaba, e-Bay, JD.com, WalMart.com, and a constellation of lesser players provide the digital hubs that perniciously interconnect vast cadres of online third-party counterfeiters and social media enablers, like Instagram, to American consumers.      One perverse incentive here is that the e-commerce platforms often have higher profit margins on counterfeits than trusted brands, so bad things are incentivized and predictably happen.      E-commerce platforms like Amazon, Alibaba, JD.com, and Shopify also are the great enablers of counterfeit trafficking.  Within days that a new American innovation appears for sale on the web, counterfeit -- counterfeiters in places like China can set up competing websites offering knockoffs made with inferior materials at a third of the cost and sold at half the cost.  As soon as you put up a new innovation for sale on the Internet, it’s likely to be copied.  This is an important point: The smaller the business, the more vulnerable it is because it doesn’t have the monitoring and legal resources to fight back.      E-commerce hubs like Amazon, Alibaba, Shopify, and WalMart.com are putting most of the burden of monitoring counterfeit trafficking on American intellectual property rights holders rather than taking any effective responsibility.  As a further blow to informed consumer choice, the e-commerce platforms are not required by law to provide country-of-origin labeling on their websites, and most have steadfastly refused to do so voluntarily.      The current situation is the ultimate whack-a-mole on steroids.  There’s no way these counterfeit moles, operating offshore, can ever be whacked unless the Amazons and Alibabas and Shopifys of this world either voluntarily step up to the plate or are held fully accountable by the government.      This also is an important point: E-commerce platforms like Amazon, e-Bay, and Alibaba claim they're spending considerable time and money battling counterfeit trafficking, but their expenditures amount to little more than a few grains of sand on a huge beach of tainted profits they are creaming from the counterfeit trade.      The American public is tired of e-commerce lobbyists being quoted in news stories about all the time and money they are expending to stop counterfeit trafficking.  It’s just empty rhetoric and propaganda as this crisis in e-commerce continues to grow exponentially.      Every major e-commerce platform should today pledge and promise to stringently implement the set of best practices identified in the DHS action plan, and voluntarily assume far more responsibility for the poisons they are purveying.  If they don’t, DHS will take steps to ensure that they do.      DHS will attack this problem head on.  The tools of enforcement, as outlined in the historic DHS action plan, include new bonding requirements on high-risk importers, civil fines and penalties, debarment and suspension of bad actors, enhanced inspection of non-compliant posts, and mechanisms to close the so-called border town fulfillment shell game and Section 321 loophole.      It's also critical to move payment processors and banks onshore, within reach of the law.  It’s a gaping e-commerce hole.      Let me talk just a little now about the Section 321 de minimis exemption and how it has become an open invitation to counterfeit trafficking.      The Section 321 de minimis exception -- exemption and its lax inspection requirements is the poster child for unintended consequences.  Instead of facilitating global trade, it has helped enable both counterfeit trafficking and the illegal evasion of customs duties.      As the DHS action plan notes, quote: “This reduced level of scrutiny is an open invitation to exploit Section 321 rules to transport and distribute counterfeits.”  Unquote.      You not only lose the tariffs, you also see this contraband come in virtually uninspected.      Under the current system, bulk cargo comes in from China to a U.S. port, moves in bulk across the border to a fulfillment center in Mexico or Canada, and then finds its way into the U.S. postal and express mail delivery systems as small Section 321 packages, designed to avoid both tariffs and, in the case of counterfeits, rigorous inspection.  It’s a scam costing the U.S. Treasury billions while inflicting great harm on American consumers and workers.          These border fulfillment centers are in part designed to game the Section 321 de minimis system, but they blatantly break the spirit of the "one package per day" rule, as well as the prohibition on forwarding a single order in separate lots to secure the Section 321 benefit.      This is a problem that needs to be fixed.  It’s surprising it has taken this long, but this President is attacking it in "Trump Time," which is to say as soon as possible.      All of the bad actors in e-commerce who have been taking a free ride on the pocketbooks of consumers and the innovation of IP rights holders are officially on notice that this administration is taking the strongest steps to stop counterfeit trafficking in its tracks.      Let me move now to talk a little bit about how the effort today -- this executive order -- and the companion DHS action plan fit into the broader context of the China phase one deal and the problem of counterfeiting.      In anticipation of a possible deal addressing intellectual property theft, the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy worked very closely with Customs and Border Protection over the last year to initiate Operation Mega Flex, which began last summer.      It’s a monthly “look under the hood” of thousands of additional packages arriving by air at ports of entry like LAX, Kennedy Airport, and other destinations, and it's designed to closely monitor counterfeit trafficking from China.      In the “blitzes” conducted thus far, customs agents have found so-called “discrepancies” in as much as 10 percent or more of the packages arriving from China and Hong Kong by air.  Roughly a third of the discrepancies are counterfeit products.      The rest are things like contraband, such as fake driver's licenses, automatic -- illegal automatic weapons parts.  You have all sorts of agricultural violations, including the attempt to smuggle pork infected with the African Swine Flu into this country, a problem that could infect the American farms and be disastrous.      Here's an important point: An acceptable rate of customs discrepancies for counterfeit products and other contraband, such as fentanyl or gun silencers, coming in from countries like China should be well under 1 percent.  Right now, we are seeing 10 times that rate or higher through Operation Mega Flex.      We're talking about over 100,000 packages a day coming into the U.S. from China that can defraud, harm, or even kill Americans.  We get roughly a hundred mil- -- excuse me, we get roughly a million packages per day from China.      Under the phase one China deal, over the next six months, we expect to see a quick and dramatic reduction in the rates of counterfeits and other contraband, such as fentanyl, coming into America from China.  Absent such a quick and sustained reduction in China’s IP theft, the phase one deal will be enforced accordingly.      The Trump administration is also going to hold both the counterfeit traffickers in China and the counterfeit enablers, like Amazon and Alibaba and Shopify, accountable for the great harm they are doing to American consumers, manufacturers, and workers.      Let me turn now to the executive order and break that down for you to explain in layman's terms what it actually does.      It begins with section one, which is simply a statement of policy which highlights the need to protect consumers, intellectual property right holders, business and workers from counterfeit goods, narcotics like fentanyl and other contraband.      The two sections -- section two and three -- are designed to target bad actors and remove them from the Importer of Record Program, which is a privilege that helps facilitate imports into the United States.      Section two directs CBP to prevent freighters who flout U.S. law from participating in the Importer of Record Program.      Section three directs CBP to take steps to make sure these traders don’t try to come in the back door by changing their name, address, or corporate forum.  It also directs CBP to consider taking more drastic measures if needed.      Section four is effectively a démarche to foreign postal services.  It directs the State Department, working with the postal service, to put the world on notice that the U.S. is taking a stand against those who ship fentanyl, counterfeit goods, and other contraband into the U.S.  It directs CBP to work with these postal services to come up with ways that we can get the foreign post to work with us to solve the problems.      The section five is a very, very important part of this executive order and it dovetails with Operation Mega Flex.  The section directs CBP to come up with criteria that international posts should need.  If the posts consistently fail to meet these standards, CBP will target their goods for inspection and could take more drastic measures, such as blocking all shipments from those posts.      The direction is to develop an international mail noncompliance method based on relevant factors, formulate an overall compliance for each international post, and then use that score to help prevent contraband from coming into the U.S.      CBP is directed to take into account not just the rates of trafficking of counterfeit goods, but also whether we are receiving narcotics such as fentanyl and other contraband.  And you can see, if you look at Operation Mega Flex, that that is basically the foundation of a noncompliance score because we already have about six months of data now, which tell us what the rates of discrepancies are coming in from China.  And we also have a very detailed analysis of the kinds of things we're getting.      As I said earlier, you've got the usual suspects and fake Rolex watches and fake electronics and things like that, but you also got more exotic things like gun silencers and fake driver's licenses and pork infected with African Swine Flu.      In section five, the Secretary is directed to update the compliance scores on a quarterly basis and determine a minimum threshold compliance score for each quarter, and deem anyone noncompliant if the international post scores below that threshold in the quarter.      Now, here's what's important: If we have a case where an international post continues to fail to meet the minimum threshold, Homeland Security, working with CBP, is fully empowered to take measures to protect the U.S. from shipments from those international posts and they’re allowed to take whatever measures they deem necessary to do that.          So this is a very important part of the executive order.  The -- section six is likewise important.  It basically directs the Attorney General, within 60 days, to assign appropriate resources to ensure that federal prosecutors accord a high priority to prosecuting offenses related to import violations.          The problem now is that is not the case.  And given what we’re seeing coming in in our Operation Mega Flexes, which we also call “blitzes,” it’s absolutely critical that we invoke the long arm of the law here to its full extent.      So let me stop there and see what kind of questions you have, and hopefully I can provide an answer or two.          Q    Hi.  This is Mara Lee from International Trade Today.  I had a question.  You talk a lot about foreign posts, but you don’t say anything about express shippers.  Are they not part of the problem?      And also when you talk about goods coming in at bulk at the port, then being trucked to Canada or to Mexico to come across one by one to consumers under de minimis, are those not coming in to U.S. ports where there’s an opportunity for --          MR. NAVARRO:  Hang on.  Hang on.  Hang on.  Hang on.  Let’s do this: Let me take the first question and then you can state the second question.          Q    Sure.           MR. NAVARRO:  So your first question is -- relates to the different express mail consigners versus the international post.  So interestingly enough, if you look at the discrepancy rates that we see, we’re actually seeing discrepancies at the express mail consigners as well.  This is not statistically significant but DHL Cincinnati has kind of stood out as an outlier among the express mail consigners, relative to, say, FedEx in Indianapolis or Memphis, or UPS in Louisville.      So the answer to your question is: We see this as a problem that we’re going to need the cooperation of both the international post, as well as the express mail consigners.      Now, what’s your second question, ma’am?      Q    You mentioned the problem of people violating the spirit of Section 321 by bringing goods in in bulk to the port, then moving them to a Canadian warehouse and sending packages to consumers out of that warehouse.  Are those goods that are being imported coming into a U.S. port?  Doesn’t CBP have an opportunity to inspect at that point?      MR. NAVARRO:  All right, so first of all, I think it’s -- it’s an open question as whether these border town fulfillment centers are violating the spirit or actually the letter of the law.  I mean, if you look at the letter of the law, what it says is you can’t benefit from this 321 exemption if you break up large lots into small, for the purpose of evading the rule.  And that’s what they’re doing.      So just on that alone, it’s clear that one could argue that they’re violating the law.  So that’s number one.      What they do is -- what they appear to be doing is sending packages over in small lots.  They just drive them across the border in small lots and take them to the post office or UPS and send them under 321.  And they are able to do that under the rules of border crossings and it’s pretty interesting.      I mean, there’s -- I wish I actually had this in front of me now, but there’s a -- if you go on Mr. Google there, there’s actually an interesting memo from somebody who explains how to game the system, taking advantage of the existing rules.      All right, next question.      Q    Yes, hi.  Eric Poders -- the North Shore Voice, out of Chicago.  I'm working on a little investigation here, and I was curious: Are you aware of the business practices and banking practices of the former GE Capital, which is now running under the umbrella of Synchrony Bank, and their international operations, running offshore, I guess, call centers, if you can, in other countries, and people using skimming devices on gas stations, specifically -- like, you know, on the islands where you put your card in and swipe it, not utilizing --      MR. NAVARRO:  All right, let me stop you there.  No, I'm not, so let's go on to the next question.      Q    Hey, this is Jason Miller from Federal News Network.  Appreciate the call.  I had another minutiae question that maybe you won't be able to answer, so let me just give it a try.  First of all, the e-commerce platforms, as you describe it -- Amazon, Walmart, Alibaba, et cetera -- the General Services Administration currently is trying to create an e-commerce platform for government based on these kind of commercial best practices.      How will this EO affect or, if you will, influence that e-commerce platform?  Because in the EO, as you said, it potentially could be -- companies could face suspension and debarment, which means they would not be eligible to bid.  And we've seen -- for instance, Walmart and Amazon, as two examples, are already interested in bidding on this procurement.      So I know it's a little bit of minutiae, but if you're able to maybe talk broadly about suspension and debarment?      MR. NAVARRO:  Well, the only value add I can give here is to refer you to the DHS action plan that was released last Friday.  It's well worth a look at the best practices that we are strongly recommending for e-commerce platforms.  And I think it's worth spending just a minute on these things.      One of the problems right now is a lot of these platforms don’t have comprehensive terms of service agreements so that if somebody does something wrong, they can immediately take them down and get them out of the system.  There's absolutely awful vetting, in many cases, of the third-party sellers, to the point where maybe they don’t look at them much at all, or even if they look at them, they don’t bother to see how many aliases they're operating under.  They're just -- it's almost as if they don’t want to know.      Limitations on high-risk products: I mean, it's -- the airbags, infant formula -- these are some of the things that have been shown to have very risk of counterfeiting.  And if you've got it on your site and you don’t take the appropriate steps, that's just crazy.  You have the notice, takedown, and shutdown procedures.      You know, one of the most important things that Amazon could do tomorrow to show good faith to the American people would be to begin identifying country of origin on their websites.  This is a tremendous disadvantage to bricks-and-mortar retailers.  If you go onto a brick-and-mortar retail store, you will see the country of origin clearly on the label.  And if you get a counterfeit, you can sue them.  You can do neither with Amazon.      And Amazon has steadfastly refused to put that kind of information on their websites, and my judgment borders on the criminal for them to do that because they -- on the one hand, they say that they want to crack down on this stuff; on the other hand, they do not provide consumers with the appropriate information to solve the problem.      MR. CANTRELL:  Great.  Thank you, Operator.  This will now conclude our call.  Again, the entire call was on the record.  As always direct all further questions to the White House Press Office.  Thank you, everyone, and have a great weekend.                               END                 5:35 P.M. EST

Background Press Briefing by a Senior Administration Official to Preview the President's State of the Union Address

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2020  BACKGROUND PRESS BRIEFING BY A SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL TO PREVIEW THE PRESIDENT'S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS James S. Brady Press Briefing Room   2:15 P.M. EST      MR. DEERE:  Hi, everybody.  Good afternoon.  Thank you all for being here.  I know it's a busy news day.  I'm going to lay out --      Q    (Inaudible.)      MR. DEERE:  It's always a busy news day around here.  (Laughter.)      I'm going to lay out a few ground rules.  First, just a reminder, this is off camera.  It is an on-background briefing regarding the President's State of the Union Address, which is scheduled for Tuesday, February 4th.      The briefing is embargoed until the conclusion.  The briefing will be conducted by [senior administration official], who you have heard from in years past, as well, on this topic.  He should be listed as a "senior administration official" in your reports.      [Senior administration official] will outline the themes of the speech, key messages, what the American people can take away from it.  You should not expect [senior administration official] to go into color on process or specific policy items during today's briefing, but we do want you to be able to preview the President's remarks.      With that, I will turn it over to [senior administration official].      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Hi, everyone.  So, I'll give you a topline, issues that will be talked about in the speech, a few key insights, talk about tone, and then take your questions.      I know there's a lot going on, so I'll try to be as brief as I can.      The topline: President Trump is looking forward to delivering his third State of the Union Address and his fourth address to a Joint Session of Congress next Tuesday.      The theme of the State of the Union is: "The Great American Comeback."  In his address, the President will lay out a vision of relentless optimism.  He will encourage Congress to work with him to continue to building an inclusive economy where the least well-off are making some of the fastest gains and where people of every background are finding new opportunities.      The President will expand on the themes he developed in his Davos speech earlier this month and put forward an agenda focused squarely on the needs of working families, addressing issues that affect American's quality of life and laying out solutions with can-do optimism in the face of unjustified pessimism we are hearing from some in Congress.      Now, I'll tell you about five areas -- you'll certainly hear about five issues, five buckets, you might say.      So the one first is the blue-collar boom.  The President will report on how the strong economy is lifting up Americans everywhere.  The President will address the importance to the economy of the new trade agreement with China and the USMCA, explain the results we are seeing from Opportunity Zones, and celebrate America’s energy revolution that has led to energy independence.      Second large issue: supporting and promoting working families.  The President will address a range of issues facing working families, from ensuring that every child can get a great education, to supporting America’s parents as they manage the demands of working jobs while raising children.  He will call on Congress to empower parents with school choice.      The President will highlight his support for paid family leave and expanding access to affordable childcare.  He will celebrate the administration’s workforce training initiative such as the Pledge to the American Worker.      Third, lowering the cost of healthcare for American families.  The President will call on Congress to support the administration’s many efforts to lower the cost of healthcare while continuing to provide the highest standards of care in the world with access to the most innovative cures and medical breakthroughs.  He will contrast his vision with radical proposals being floated on the left.  Clearly, socialism is a rising force in the Democratic Party with very specific designs on our healthcare system.  And the President will build on last year’s address and present a sharp difference.      The President will emphasize the importance of lowering the cost of prescription drugs.  He will also address many of the concerns, everyday concerns, that families face confronting the healthcare system: surprise medical billing, transparency, price and quality information, accountability, and flexibility to choose the plan and the doctor that is right for them.      Fourth: a safe and legal immigration system.  The President will talk about the incredible progress we have made in securing the southern border.  He will also take head-on one of the most significant threats to public safety: sanctuary cities.      Fifth, and finally: protecting America's national security.  The President will update Congress on diplomatic and military efforts around the world.      So, a few key insights into what people will, I think -- what the speech will communicate, what people can take away:  Today's middle class boom is also a blue-collar boom.  America is strong once again.  President Trump has kept his promises.  President Trump is totally focused on creating a better future for working families.      And then, finally, I'd share that American strength and resolve is the best strategy for keeping Americans safe and protecting American interests.  I think it's fair to say the speech will celebrate American economic and military strength and present an optimistic vision of America's future.      I can also preview now -- traditionally, we have guests in the gallery, and there are two I can preview right now that are going to be there on Tuesday.  I think on Monday we'll be able preview some more.      So the first is a gentleman, Tony Rankins.      Q    How do you spell it?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  R-A-N-K-I-N-S.  Tony Rankins.  I'll give you a little -- a brief bio on him.  After serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, Tony Rankins suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and became addicted to drugs.  He lost his job and his family, served several prison sentences, and ended up living out of his car.  A company called Our Investments helped train Tony in carpentry, painting, brick work, and other construction trades.  Today he lives and works in an Opportunity Zone in Cincinnati, Ohio -- an Opportunity Zone which made our investments possible in Cincinnati, Ohio.  And his new job has helped him overcome drug addiction and reunite with his family.      Second guest: Deputy Chief Raul Ortiz has helped protect America's homeland security for nearly three decades.      Q    Can you just give us the spelling on --            SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Sure thing.  Sure.  Ortiz -- last name: O-R-T-I-Z.  Raul: R-A-U-L.      Prior to joining U.S. Border Patrol, Ortiz served in the United States Army.  In 1991, he joined the U.S. Border Patrol and served as an agent in the San Diego and Del Rio area.      In 2013, Ortiz was appointed as Deputy Chief Patrol Agent at Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector.  In 2019, he became chief patrol agent of the Del Rio sector, which made him responsible for all Border Patrol operations in 41 Texas counties -- more than 48,000 square miles of operational area and 210 miles of border between the U.S. and Mexico.      He has performed all his duties with distinction and excellence.  Ortiz's awards include two meritorious honor awards from the Department of State, the Certificate of Achievement from the state of Texas, and the Superior Civilian Service Medal, which is the Department of Defense's third-highest civilian honor.      And actually, this very week, Ortiz was promoted to Deputy Chief of U.S. Border Patrol, the second in command of 22,000 Border Patrol agents and professional staff.      The Acting Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Mark Morgan called Deputy Chief Ortiz an "agent's agent" who, quote, "epitomizes the core values of U.S. Customs and Border Protection."      And with that, I'll take questions.      Q    Hey, the President, when he delivers the State of the Union, will either have been in the middle of an impeachment trial, towards the end, it will have just concluded -- whatever.  Impeachment is going to be a factor here.  Will he -- is it safe to assume he will address it?  Will he?  What will his message be?  And how will he address sitting in front of the Chamber that just either had him on trial or wrapped it up?        SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  What I do -- it's never safe to assume anything, so I'm not previewing what the President is going to say about that today.  Clearly there's a lot going on, but I'm not going to preview --      Q    Will he say something, though?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I'm not going to get ahead of what the President will say.      Q    Thanks.  Last year, the President spoke just after Democrats gained control of Congress, and he warned them, "If there's going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war… and investigation…This doesn't work that way."  And he said, "The only thing that could stop (inaudible)" was ridiculous partisan investigations.      Is there going to be any sort of ultimatum laid down this year, or any kind of reference to Congress's oversight efforts or the now -- just about to be concluded impeachment investigation?  I mean, is he going to maybe ask for a truce, perhaps?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Right.  Well, you know, I'm up here to help you, sort of, get a broad sense of what is going to be in the speech.  And so there's certain things I've been asked to preview.  I certainly haven't been asked to preview exactly what that would look like -- if it's going to be entertained at all.      I would say, speaking to, sort of, the spirit of your question, I mean, if you're sort of wondering what the tone -- I think the speech is going to have a very optimistic tone.  And the last three years should give a good indication of, you know, I think how the President views the State of the Union moment for talking about the future and presenting an optimistic vision.  So --      Q    It seems like there's a heavy dose of the economy here, can we just ask you a few, if you don't mind: Is the President going to address debts and deficit?  Is he going to address entitlement spending?  Is he going to address tax cuts?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I'm not going to address any of those things.  I mean, I'm giving you a preview.  He's going to talk about the accomplishments, he's going to talk a lot about the economy, he's going to talk about building an inclusive economy where people have opportunities.  But I'm not going to preview what he's going to say about any of those issues.      Q    Should he touch upon them, though, at least?  Should we expect to hear those talked about?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Sure --      Q    What can we expect to hear from the President on the issue of healthcare specifically?  Is there going to be any new initiatives rolled out?  Should we expect something, or should we wait for him just to lay out some basic guidelines going into this coming election?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, as in past years, this address will have specific calls to Congress to act in certain areas.      I would say if you were looking at the weighting of issues, I think healthcare certainly is a key part of the speech, and I think you can expect very deliberate, or -- excuse me, not deliberate -- very specific requests for the Congress to do certain things on healthcare.      Q    And just to follow up on Hallie's question -- we're obviously not operating in a vacuum here.  Impeachment -- we think the President will have just moved past that.  What's the tone of the speech as it relates to this moment, coming out of what has been this contentious period for the President?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well I would again say, if you look at the past three years -- I mean, last year, we were just coming off of a government shutdown.  And nevertheless, I think last year could be -- I think was widely seen by independents and others as a very optimistic, forward-looking speech, a visionary speech.  I think this will be an optimistic speech.      And, you know, without previewing -- you know, no speech is ever final until it's delivered, so it's not as if this is in a vacuum pack until Tuesday.  But I think the President will be focused on, you know, the interests of the American people.  And in that spirit, I think he's going to give a positive, forward-looking vision.      Q    I'm just wondering, broadly, which foreign policy points he might touch on, particularly China trade and the Middle East peace plan.          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  As you noticed, I didn't give a lot on the national security section, but if you look at the last several years of the Joint Session speeches, the State of the Union speeches, you'll see that he does a fair bit of going through areas of the world.  But I won't preview anything in particular.      Q    Just following up on the foreign policy question, can you address Iran specifically?  I know you're not going to get ahead of the content, but again, going back to the question of tone, what tone can you expect to hear from him as it relates to Iran, which is arguably been one of his biggest foreign policy challenges this year?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I think it's fair to say "determined" -- you know, "forceful," "strong."  Those would be good adjectives.      Q    I'm not asking you to get into the details, because I'm sure you won't, but will there be any big-ticket policy items that he will unveil on Tuesday night?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Often depends on one person's interpretation of "big ticket," but I think, you know, very important in terms of his agenda -- yes.  I mean --      Q    Just along those same lines --          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Did I already call on you?      Q    You did.          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Oh, you asked me to spell, sorry.  Go ahead.  (Laughter.)      Q    Along those same lines that John just asked, will he, kind of, give an outline of what he would expect for a second term if he were to win?  Should we expect that?  And what kind of items will he (inaudible)?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, he's going to -- he's going to call on the Congress, working with him on several things.      In terms of a second-term agenda, I mean, some things take time.  So I think things that he's calling for this year, if they don't happen, he'll continue to call for them.      I'll come next to you.      Q    As we see it right now, we don't all know whether the impeachment vote will happen before or after the speech -- sort of like a choose-your-own-adventure thing, two forks in a road.  Are you guys committed to -- is he going to give the same speech no matter what, or are you preparing contingencies based on the calendar?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I wouldn't call it contingencies.  I mean, I've been here a couple years here and things -- events always happen, and so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for the speech to evolve before it's delivered.  So it wouldn't be anything different than any other significant --      Q    Right, but at this point, given this is such a big choose-you-own-adventure moment, have you guys written blocks of the speech in case the vote happens or blocks the speech in case it's still pending?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, I don't want to get into the process, but the President is always adaptable to speak to the moment and what's required, and we're fleet of foot to be able to do that.      Q    Thank you.      Q    You said me next.          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Oh, sorry.  Yes.  I did say you.  Sorry.      Q    Just a reminder.  (Laughs.)          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.  (Laughs.)          Q    This very much seems like a campaign rally speech that the President is directing toward his supporters.  In order to address the other half of the country during this moment of extreme division in the country, will the President talk about unity like he has in the past?  And how will you get around the criticism that follows after, that he's just reading from a prompter and doesn’t really want to unify the country?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, I take issue with your characterization that he only speaks to one part of the country.      In terms of the blue-collar boom, I mean, for example, more minorities and women got jobs last year than otherwise.  The 72 percent, I think, of women got jobs in the last year.  The greatest wage gains are for people at the lower -- lower end of the income area.      The focus on jobs and opportunity training with the Pledge to American Workers covers all ranges of people in society.      So I think that it's unifying because -- I think the speech will be unifying in part because the President is focused on opportunity for all Americans.  So I would strongly disagree --      Q    But is he going to acknowledge that other half that doesn't have any faith in him right now?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, the President is focused entirely on helping all Americans rise in this economy.  And if you read the Davos speech, you'll see, in mind-numbing detail, the economic indicators that he's doing that.  He's doing that with passion because he believes that his job is to put the American people first and American workers and American families.      Way in the back.      Q    Yeah.  Thank you.  Given that this is number four, this will be the first time the President has done one of these while there are people in the Chamber who are wanting to replace him as President.  How does the President feel about that?  Will he mention any of those people or allude to them in any way?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I won't preview if he's going to call anybody out because I -- but I think the President will be entirely comfortable with that.  I think -- yeah, I'll just -- I'll just say that.      Have I called on --      Q    Right here.          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yes.      Q    Is there any chance that if the vote hasn't happened yet, that the date of this changes?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  That is beyond anything that I would be able to address.      Q    And can I ask one more question?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Sure.      Q    Has anyone outside the White House helped the President craft this speech?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  The President talks to lots of people, and certainly, you know, I wouldn't give you any specific information about anyone who's outside the White House crafting a speech.          Q    Jeff Mason.      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.      Q    Will there be any legislative proposals in the speech?  And a follow-up on -- I think maybe Blake asked about tax cuts.  The President has previewed that he wants to do a tax cut 2.0.  Can we not assume that that's something that he'll talk about on Tuesday?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, I wouldn't make any assumptions, but I didn't preview that and I don't -- there are a lot of things I haven't previewed, but I don't want to un-preview them.  So --      Q    And with regard to legislative -- and with regard to legislative proposals, will there be any legislative proposals in the speech?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, as I mentioned, like in years past, he will have calls for the Congress to do certain things.      I think they call --      Q    Thank you very much.          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.      Q    Will the President address about the North Korea nuclear issues or Korean Peninsula in his speech?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  No comment on, you know -- I'm not going to address it or preview that.  And, you know, in years past, he's addressed the North Korean situation.  So --      Way in the back.  Gentleman way in the back.  Yeah.  You.      Q    Which of the President's proposals do you expect Democrats to stand and applaud?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I think there could be a couple.      Q    Which ones?          SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I'll come back to you, one second.      Q    Thank you very much, sir.  What are we expecting as far as small businesses are concerned?  Because they are the ones, in general, to create jobs?  And also, middle class -- what are we expecting from the President?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, as I mentioned, he'll talk about how the economic policy that he has pursued has lifted up the middle class and especially blue-collar workers.  He'll talk about the manufacturing jobs, I expect, that have been created.  He'll talk about how the tax cuts have helped small businesses.  He'll talk about how the energy revolution has really lifted everybody up in terms of, you know, lower gasoline prices, lower energy prices.      Q    Thanks a lot.  Last year, one of those rare instances of bipartisan applause was when the President said that America will never be a socialist country.  Do you see a return to that theme at all in the speech?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, all I will say to that is that, as I said in the topline, you know, he's going to build off what he said last year and present some contrasts, especially when it comes to healthcare.  So --      Q    Will he acknowledge that -- will he mention the fact that this is an election year and acknowledge how difficult it is to get things done in presidential election years?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  No comment on what he’ll say about that.  I mean, I'm not going to preview anything he'll say about (inaudible).      Q    Well, will he specifically mention, "Hey, I know it's an election year"?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  You know, I don’t know.  I mean, everybody knows that.  (Laughter.)  So, I don’t know if he'll make it explicit or not.      Q    In 1999, President Clinton delivered a State of the Union in the middle of impeachment.  I guess, two questions about that.  One, have you guys studied that speech at all or looked at how he dealt with it?  And also, that was a super over-the-top bipartisan, "let's talk about bipartisanship" kind of speech.  Do you expect this speech to have any sort of overtures to bipartisanship?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, I would just say that the economy doing so well, and the President's emphasis on continuing the policies that are lifting people from all walks of life -- every age, background -- that’s unifying.      I've heard the President say in a different -- in a public forum that he always thought Americans could unite around success.  And, you know, in that respect, whether certain people don’t see the President being uniting or unifying, the facts of the matter -- the facts of the economic consequences are they, in a way, they do unite because people can be united around success.      Q    Should we expect any major initiatives in the foreign policy portion of the address?  Could you talk about that without going into specifics?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, of course, this past week, the President laid out his peace plan proposal.  I don’t think we'll have anything of that magnitude in the speech, but I wouldn’t -- I didn’t preview anything, but he may -- he may talk about that to some degree.  But I think there won’t be anything, you know, certainly Earth-shattering or new with respect to foreign policy.      Q    Yes, the President just signed the USMCA in a ceremony.  No Democrats who were invited.  Is there -- are there going to be any Democrats as guests?  Is there going to be any way that he talks about the fact that things have been not very friendly between to the two parties?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I don’t know, actually, whether any -- I don’t know the party affiliation of the guests.  I would not be surprised if some of them are Democrats, but that’s just speaking about the guests.  I don’t think the President is going to address that in particular.  I don’t think he's going to be explicit about it.      Q    Is there a nexus between the Opportunity Zones and this guest, Tony Rankins?  Did something good happen to him because of the zone specifically?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I mentioned that the company is operating -- that has hired him and trained him -- is in an Opportunity Zone.      Q    What did it do for the company?  How did it help him?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  The Opportunity Zone made the company capable of doing what it's doing, and we can provide more information on that.      Way in the back.  The gentleman there in the back.      Q    Yeah.  Thank you.  The President spoke last year -- in last year's address -- about ending endless wars.  I'm wondering if he would talk about that again or speak at all about trying to bring U.S. troops home from overseas.      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I think the President has talked very consistently about that.  I won't preview what he'll say in the speech, but he has talked very consistently about that in the past.      Right here, in the front.      Q    Can we anticipate anything on coronavirus and efforts being made to make sure that this doesn’t become a bigger problem?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah, I won't preview what's going to be said.  As you know, this is a busy news day, and I think the State Department put some things out, and the CDC.  I expect, you know, people -- I mean, I know the President is closely monitoring it, and I wouldn’t be surprised between now and Tuesday there will be more that will said about that.  But I won't preview what the State of the Union will say about that because I --      Q    Thanks a lot.      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.      Q    It's been a busy week for the President.  He's had the rollout of his vision for peace in the Middle East, the USMCA, a rally last night in Iowa.  What's been the rhythm of his engagement with speechwriters this week?  How often has he been dipping into the speech?  How engaged has he been?  And when has he found time to do that?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, you know, we travel -- yesterday -- I was on travel yesterday.  Saw the President.  Spoke to the President.  You know, we hear from the President all of the time, whether we're in the room or not, by what he is saying, what he is -- you know, like the USMCA. We have a very clear idea of what the President's vision is in a lot of areas.  And then, when necessary, we ask specifically and engage.      Q    Did he veto any guests that you guys have planned?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I'm not going to get into the speechwriting process other than to say that the process begins and ends with the President.  Trust me on that.      Q    Thank you very much.  Regarding the mentioning of the U.S.-China phase one trade deal, will the President be giving more details about future steps?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I'm not going to preview what he's going to say on trade.  But -- yes.      Q    Can I just ask about timing?  Do you expect this to be a little shorter speech, a longer speech, compared to the last couple addresses?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I think comparable.  Comparable to last year's -- I mean, to the last several years.  Yes.      Q    Do you anticipate him mentioning anything of the First Lady's initiatives (inaudible)?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I would not be surprised.  In years past, the First Lady has had guests that reflect her initiative.  And I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the same this year.  As I mentioned earlier, we'll have some more people for you on Monday who will be guests in the gallery.      Q    Will he be mentioning, though, any of her initiatives?  Or there will be guests reflecting her initiatives?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I'm not going to preview that today, but on Monday we'll have some more guests.      MR. DEERE:  We'll take one last question.      Q    No, you haven’t called on me.      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I haven’t called on you.  Okay.      Q    So just back to the tone -- I'm not asking for content, but you're a speechwriter, so we're very used to his speeches now -- you know, every week or two weeks, with some very, let's say, "colorful" language, which his supporters like.  You know, just last night, we had "Adam Schiff shifting like a sweaty dog" or "sweating like a dog," or something like that.  We've got "the Democrats will end -- basically end the entire country as we know it," "ripping babies out of wombs," and so on.  Is this the type of language that will be in there, or will it be a different kind of President Trump speaking?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, I'd say very generally -- as I said, I think the tone will be optimistic.  In the past, I've sort of said if there's one word to describe his speech and vision, last year I think I said, "visionary," and another year I said, "unifying."  I think "optimism" -- "optimistic" is the adjective I would use.      You know, in Davos, he had a line in the Davos speech -- something to the effect of: This is not a time for pessimism and doubt; this is time for optimism and hope.  So I think --      Q    Will he talk about the apocalypse?  (Laughter.)      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I think it will be generally in that spirit that: This is not a time for pessimism, this is a time for optimism.      Q    You mentioned optimism and hope.  What connection do you think he might make to the perceived threat of undocumented immigrants?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, in the past, he's -- you know, he talks about immigration.  He's going to talk about success on the southern border.  I think that there have been -- illegal crossings have declined by, I believe, it's 72 percent over the last seven, eight months.  You know, the border wall is going up.  And he's going to talk about that success.  As I mentioned, he's going to talk about the challenge of sanctuary cities.      Q    You got a running time yet?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Someone asked me about the running time, and I said it will probably be comparable to last year.      Q    And just to clarify, the theme is, "The Great American Comeback: A Vision of Relentless Optimism" -- all together?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  No, no.  "The Great American Comeback."      Q    Oh, okay.      Q    And, sorry, just quickly, how many people were involved in working on the speech, would you say?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, you know, basically the whole government works on this speech because you engage in a process that it touches upon every department.      Q    Yeah, but I mean like writing it -- really involved in it.      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Well, several people.  Like I said, it begins and ends with the President.      Are we done?  (Laughter.)      MR. DEERE:  Thanks very much, everybody.  Just remember [senior administration official] is on background to a "senior administration official."  Your embargo is now lifted.  Thank you.                               END                2:45 P.M. EST