Exclusive — President Trump Previews Congressional Address and Pathway on Obamacare Repeal, Tax Cuts, Border Wall

Trump, Boyle, Oval-White House Photo
White House Photo

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States, previewed for Breitbart News his forthcoming Tuesday evening address to a joint session of Congress.

While technically not a State of the Union speech, the address will be in a similar vein. President Trump told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview in the Oval Office:

We’re going to be talking about healthcare. We’re going to be talking about Obamacare, and what we’re going to do about the disaster known as Obamacare, because it’s a complete and total disaster. We’re going to be talking about taxes. We’re going to be talking about the economy generally. We’re going to be talking about the military and spending money on the military, and the border. And we’ll be talking about many different subjects—and as much in a up-tone is the fact that I inherited a mess. It’s a mess, whether it’s the Middle East or it’s Obamacare—where costs are out of control—or it’s so many other things. I mean, things are much different than people thought, and people get it. We’re going to fix it. The important part is we’re going to fix it.

President Trump’s interview with Breitbart News came moments before his meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, both of whom were outside the Oval Office as Breitbart News was leaving. White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon—the former executive chairman of Breitbart News—both popped into the Oval Office during the interview. Vice President Mike Pence, a former leader in Congress of the House GOP conference before his election to the governorship of Indiana, also came into the Oval Office, just before the president.

When Breitbart News asked President Trump to detail a few specific things that he inherited that were a mess, he replied that the Middle East, North Korea, the border, and Obamacare were at the top of the list.

“The Middle East is a mess,” Trump said. “North Korea is treading on very dangerous territory. North Korea is a mess. Our border is a total disaster. Our trade deals are beyond bad—beyond bad. The result looks like they were negotiated by children. We’ll fix them. And Obamacare is just in terrible shape, with increases that go as high as 116 percent.”

Trump confirmed earlier reporting as well that he intends to push for more military spending in his budget.

What follows is a transcript of that section of President Trump’s interview with Breitbart News:

BREITBART NEWS NETWORK (BNN): “Now, you mentioned the increase in military spending for the budget. There’s reports out that there’s anywhere from a $54 billion to a $84 billion increase in military spending in the budget—“

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (POTUS): “Well, I won’t use numbers, but I want to increase our military spending significantly. We have to. Our military is depleted. Our equipment is old and tired and we’re going to have the finest military that the United States has ever had by far.”

BNN: “It seems like there is a big focus on national security—a national security budget?”

POTUS: “We’re going to have great national security. We are going to have the finest equipment, the finest military we have ever had, and it will be the finest in the world.”

President Trump also told Breitbart News that the border wall was coming along “ahead of schedule,” and that Secretary of Homeland Security Gen. John Kelly is implementing immigration reforms designed to remove bad people from the United States. He also commented on efforts to battle the Mexican drug cartels, remove criminal illegal aliens from the country, and target cartel-connected gangs like MS-13 in the wake of recent reports of their operations in recruiting Washington, D.C.-area elementary schoolers.

Here is a transcript of that part of Breitbart News’ interview with President Trump:

BNN: “Now, since you’ve been in office, I wanted to see—over the last month or so, a little more than a month now—I wanted to get your thoughts on A, putting up a wall on the border and B, enforcing our immigration laws in the interior like we’ve seen from DHS?”

POTUS: “We’re going to have a wall. The wall is ahead of schedule. We’re going to have a wall and it will be a great wall and it will stop the drugs from pouring in and destroying our youth. And it will stop people from coming in that aren’t allowed to come in. But we’re going to have a wall and it’s ahead of schedule already now, and Gen. Kelly wants it badly now and everybody wants it.”

BNN: “Also on the border front, there are transnational criminal organizations that operate in Mexico and they’re spreading drugs into the United States while also facilitating illegal immigration, human trafficking, et cetera. There are even reports recently that the cartel-connected gang MS-13 has been recruiting even in elementary schools here in Washington, D.C. Local news here reported that last week. I wanted to see what kind of actions we can expect—“

POTUS: “Well, you’ve already seen the action. Look at what Gen. Kelly has done. He’s getting the bad ones out. They’re going. We’re focused on the bad ones. But he’s getting the bad ones out and they’re moving now and they’re moving fast.”

On healthcare and tax cuts, President Trump also told Breitbart News that he plans to move “very quickly” on repealing and replacing Obamacare—and that fixing the healthcare system will happen before “very substantial” tax cuts for both the business community and ordinary people.

The following is  a transcript of that section of the interview:

BNN: “So the next thing I wanted to ask you about, obviously you mentioned healthcare and tax reform. Give us a timeline on what to expect on both of those and what kind of tax cuts to expect?”

POTUS: “Yeah, we are moving very quickly, healthcare I’m going to be talking about tomorrow night including timing. Taxes will come after the healthcare because from a budgetary standpoint it’s much cleaner and much better if you do that. But we’re moving very well both on budgetary matters and on healthcare and on tax cuts. Tax cuts will be very substantial, for business and for people.”

This is the third piece from President Trump’s exclusive Oval Office interview on Monday with Breitbart News. The first focused on Hollywood’s epic fail at the Oscars, while the second covered the New York Times and “fake news.” More will be forthcoming.

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