'It's A Sacred Place': Donald Trump Sings Praises Of Oval Office

Forbes Breaking News

In a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Donald Trump spoke about the history of the Oval Office.

Transcript

00:00Did you go to LaFalle?

00:01I was going to ask about McKinley, one of your favorite presidents.

00:04Well, McKinley was a great president who never got credit.

00:07In fact, they changed the name of Mount McKinley,

00:11and I changed it back because he should have been.

00:14The people of Ohio were very — he was the governor of Ohio.

00:17The people of Ohio were very happy when I did that, I heard.

00:21They were very insulted.

00:22They took the name of Mount McKinley off.

00:24That was done by Obama a little while ago,

00:27and I had to change it back. I changed it back.

00:31He actually was a great president.

00:33He was a president — he was the tariff, the most —

00:37I guess, since me. I think I'm going to outdo him.

00:40But he was a tariff president.

00:41He believed that other countries should pay for the privilege

00:44of coming into our country and taking our jobs

00:48and taking our treasure.

00:50That's the way he explained it.

00:51They took our jobs and they took our treasure,

00:53and for that they should pay.

00:55And he made them pay, and he built a tremendous fortune.

00:59In fact, in 1887, they had —

01:01the Great Tariff Committee was set up in 1887

01:04because our country had so much money,

01:07we didn't know what to do with it.

01:09And they set up a committee of, as they called them, elites —

01:12a term that we have to change,

01:14because I think a lot of the people that are elites aren't elite.

01:17I think the people that aren't elite are elite,

01:19so we're going to have to maybe switch that around somehow.

01:21But they had a committee that was set up to spend the money,

01:25because it was such a large amount of money.

01:27At that time, it was — nobody had seen anything like it.

01:30And it all came in from tariffs, and people didn't pay tax.

01:34There was no income tax system.

01:35I told you, that went — that came back in 1913.

01:39That came back and lived well for a while,

01:44and then you had the Great Depression.

01:46And then, later, they brought — they tried to bring back tariffs,

01:51but the whole thing was — you know, this was after the Depression.

01:55That was one of the great misconceptions,

01:57as people like to say, oh, but it was during the — no.

02:00The — we went — the country had a Great Depression.

02:03And then, after the Depression, as after — long after it started,

02:07they brought back tariffs to see if they could save it.

02:10But it took them, really, 25 years.

02:13Wouldn't you say about 25 years to get out of the Great Depression?

02:17A lot of people don't understand that.

02:19But I thought it would be interesting for you to get a little view of this room.

02:22This is a very important room, very powerful room, great room.

02:25And we've done similar, but even beyond this, in the Oval Office.

02:29We brought back pictures of some of the great presidents.

02:33Many of them were in the vaults for over a hundred years.

02:36Originals, all. Beautiful, beautiful things.

02:39And rather than sitting in a vault downstairs for 128 years,

02:45I thought we should display that.

02:47And we did that, I think, in a really good way.

02:49We've gotten very high marks. But it's interesting.

02:52People walk into that room, and they look around the room.

02:54They don't even want to talk to me. They wanted — they could —

02:56they could look at it for hours. It's funny.

03:00When people come into the Oval Office, it's such an incredible —

03:03it's a sacred place. When people come into the Oval,

03:06from the biggest people in the world —

03:08the presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens —

03:13one case, at least — queens, and the biggest business people in the world.

03:19They walk into that office, and they always say,

03:22they say, there's no place like this in the whole world, in terms of the power.

03:28I mean, it's beautiful and all, but there are other beautiful offices.

03:31You have businessmen that have offices that are, you know,

03:34full floors of office buildings, floor-to-ceiling glass.

03:38And they walk in there, and they say,

03:40there's no place like this anywhere in the world. There's no place.

03:43And, you know, it's what it represents maybe more than the physicality of the room itself.

03:49So it's an honor to have you all, media.

03:51And there's no place like this, except for it.

03:52And it's an honor to have you all.

03:53And all of us are here.

03:57But we don't have to do that, except for the family members.

04:01So, I think we've heard that.

04:02So there's a place like this, or you mean in our family members.

04:05So, you know, we can be a place like this.

04:08If you live, you might want to go into battle,

04:09you'll be in battle.

04:10And if you're in battle, you're in battle, you're in battle.

04:12You're in battle.

04:13You're in battle.

04:14I'm in battle.

04:15You really want to go into battle.

04:16I don't know.

04:17I'm in battle.

04:18You're in battle.

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