Remarks at a Bill Signing Ceremony and an Exchange With Reporters

The President. Thank you very much. We have some Executive orders that we're going to be signing right now that are very important.

They are really redoes from some horrible mistakes made by Biden and his group, and we're changing them back so that we can lead a normal life, a good life. And they're actually very important. And from the standpoint of lifestyle, they're very important.

So I'd ask Will to maybe explain them, and we'll ask some of our Congressmen and Senators to say a few words, please.

White House Staff Secretary William O. Scharf. Yes, Mr. President. As you said, we have four bills for your attention today. These are bills that have been passed by Congress.

In the closing days of the Biden administration, they pushed through a large number of rules and regulations that really hurt ordinary Americans, including in their own homes. So the first of these is H.J.R. 20. This is a bill that repeals Biden-era regulations relating to consumer water heaters, consumer gas-fired water heaters.

The President. Who was in charge of this one?

Representative Brian T. Jack. This is Gary and myself, sir. Gary Palmer sponsored it, but this bill specifically saves a factory in my district. Three hundred Georgians will continue to have their jobs as soon as you sign that.

Representative Gary J. Palmer. Mr. President, this rule was issued on Christmas Eve, thinking that we wouldn't be keeping up with what the Biden administration was doing, but we moved quickly to get this—[inaudible].

The President. And this was on gas heaters?

Rep. Palmer. This—banning natural-gas——

The President. Isn't that ridiculous?

Rep. Palmer. ——tankless water heaters.

The President. And how were you supposed to get your heat, then, through electric? [Laughter] Through electric? Yes. Was that basically it?

Rep. Jack. Yes, sir.

Rep. Palmer. Basically.

The President. Electric heat, which isn't as good. Crazy.

[At this point, the President signed a bill titled, "Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title 5, United States Code, of the Rule Submitted by the Department of Energy Relating to 'Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Gas-Fired Instantaneous Water Heaters.'"]

Here, Gary, hold that up. Brian, hold that up. You guys were great.

Rep. Palmer. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. No sense. Just no sense. But in addition to that, you have a lot of workers that lose their job, right?

Rep. Jack. Yes, sir.

Rep. Palmer. That's right.

Rep. Jack. Three hundred workers——

The President. Crazy.

Rep. Jack. ——saved because of you.

The President. Good. Thank you. It's an honor.

[The President gestured toward a missile defense model displayed in the Oval Office.]

There's the Golden Dome, by the way, if you're interested. [Laughter] There's the Golden Dome. It will save all your lives someday, maybe.

Okay. Good. Thanks, Brian. You hold it up.

Rep. Jack. Yes, sir.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Next, Mr. President, we have House Joint Resolution 24. This is the same basic idea, but this relates to walk-in coolers and freezers and other refrigeration devices. Again, a last-minute Biden-era regulation that hits ordinary Americans hard where it hurts.

The President. And what did they do?

Staff Secretary Scharf. They put in——

Representative Stephanie I. Bice. Increased——

Staff Secretary Scharf. Sorry, you can speak to this——

Rep. Bice. Yes, they increased the energy efficiency——

Staff Secretary Scharf. ——better than I can.

Rep. Bice. ——requirements for walk-ins, coolers, and freezers and, therefore, putting an undue burden on businesses across the country. Everything from restaurants to pharmacies, you know, hospitals were all going to be impacted.

The President. To a point where it didn't work. In other words, they made the restrictions so strong that it didn't work, right?

Rep. Bice. And it was going to cost them so much money to actually meet the energy efficiency standards, which didn't really save much money. So this is going to actually help our small businesses across the country, Mr. President.

The President. Good.

[The President signed a bill titled, "Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title 5, United States Code, of the Rule Submitted by the Department of Energy Relating to 'Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Walk-In Coolers and Walk-In Freezers.'"]

Senator Ashely B. Moody. Many manufacturers would have had to close, stop lines, shut down entire lines of businesses. And I just want to say, rescinding these—this was done days before. Days before you took office, they pushed through these regulations. They didn't think about the cost to businesses. They didn't put American interests first. They didn't put American businesses first.

I am so grateful we finally have a President who is not only walking back these insane burdensome regulations that are ultimately going to cost us Americans and American businesses, but that you are thinking about the next generation.

And as we're leading into Mother's Day, some of us are trying to parent and serve this country at the same time. [Laughter]

Rep. Bice. Amen.

Sen. Moody. Thank you for welcoming my son, who is 15——

The President. That's beautiful.

Sen. Moody. ——with his mother serving, watching what we're doing for him and generations to come. You are making this country stronger for them. Thank you.

The President. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good luck, right? Take care of your mom.

Okay. Let me have that.

Rep. Bice. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Do you want to hold up that up too, so you can——

Rep. Bice. Thank you.

The President. That's a big one, isn't it? Huh? Common sense. It's all about common sense, right?

Okay. Will, go ahead.

Staff Secretary Scharf. Next, sir, this is House Joint Resolution 42. Again, this is a rescission of a Biden-era regulation, in this case relating to energy conservation standards for household appliances and certain consumer products.

Is this yours?

Senator Jon A. Husted. Yes.

Representative Craig Goldman. It's his.

[The President signed a bill titled, "Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title 5, United States Code, of the Rule Submitted by the Department of Energy relating to 'Energy Conservation Program for Appliance Standards: Certification Requirements, Labeling Requirements, and Enforcement Provisions for Certain Consumer Products and Commercial Equipment.'"]

The President. That's a good one. I know who's over there. I know who did this. [Laughter]

Explain that, please.

Sen. Husted. Sure. Look, this is helping fight inflation, because the cost of your—the burden on appliance manufacturers is going to drive up the cost of them producing household products, which means that when you go buy a washer, a dryer, any appliance, it was going to drive up the cost for consumers. It reduces consumer choice.

But, in the bottom line, we've been trying to fight inflation. This fights inflation.

The President. Yes.

Sen. Husted. This helps takes the cost out of producing these products that Americans need every day. And when you think, when you add all this up, it's one regulation here, one regulation there—they always say it's de minimis, but when you add it all up, it costs a lot to American consumers. And this is fighting back. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. And it's not as good.

Sen. Husted. And it's not as good.

The President. Not nearly as good, not nearly as efficient, and more costly. Other than that, it's wonderful. [Laughter]

Sen. Husted. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Great job. Thank you very much.

Sen. Husted. Yes.

The President. Great. Fantastic.

Okay.

Staff Secretary Scharf. And lastly, sir, we have house Joint Resolution 75. Again, this is a rescission of a Biden-era regulation, in this case relating to energy standards for commercial refrigerators, freezers, and refrigerator-freezers.

The President. Do you have the sink one in here? The sinks and the——

Staff Secretary Scharf. That's——

The President. ——showerheads and everything?

Staff Secretary Scharf. That—we have an Executive order on that coming for you later, sir. Yes, sir.

The President. That's coming when?

Staff Secretary Scharf. Later this afternoon.

The President. Okay. Good. You to be around later this afternoon, everybody? [Laughter]

Good. Sinks and showerheads——

[The President signed a bill titled, "Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title 5, United States Code, of the Rule Submitted by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy Relating to 'Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Commercial Refrigerators, Freezers, and Refrigerator-Freezers.'"]

——where you buy a home and you have a new showerhead, and you don't get any water. The water doesn't come out of the sink. The water comes out of nowhere. What a shame. What a ridiculous waste.

Okay. Let me do this. Come here. Who's responsible for this one?

Rep. Goldman. This is mine, Mr. President.

The President. Oh, good man here.

Rep. Goldman. Yes, sir.

The President. Okay.

Rep. Goldman. Thank you.

The President. You want to discuss that?

Rep. Goldman. Yes, sir. This would have—this was a Government regulation that we have now repealed—thank you very much, Mr. President—that now saves the—the American taxpayers—I was getting ready to say "the Texas taxpayer"—them too—[laughter]—but the American taxpayer, because who would have ultimately paid the price on a—Government mandate and a Government regulation? The people of America.

So you've just saved the American taxpayer money. So thank you very much.

The President. That's fantastic. Thank you. It's a great job.

Okay. Any questions on this?

[Several reporters began asking questions at once.]

Baseline Tariff Rate

Q. Mr. President, Karoline said today that the 10-percent baseline tariff on all countries is here to stay——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——even after the deals are done. Does that mean that countries offering zero tariffs won't get reciprocity?

The President. You are going to always have a baseline. I mean, there could be an exception at some point. We'll see. You know, somebody does something exceptional for us. That's always possible. But basically, you have a baseline of a minimum of 10 percent, and some of them will be much higher—40 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent—as they've been doing to us over the years.

We had a wonderful deal yesterday. We have four or five other deals coming immediately. We have many deals coming down the line. And ultimately, we're just signing the rest of them in. But we always have a baseline of 10 percent.

Wealth Tax

Q. And then, specifically on the possibility of an increase in taxes on wealthier Americans, what do you say to conservative Republicans who argue that this is an increase on small-business owners?

The President. Well, what we're doing is, we're actually—if we ever did that, it would only be—and from what I hear, people would love to do it—rich people. I would love to do it, frankly. But what we'll do is, they—you know, they'll go around saying, "Oh, this is so terrible."

What you're doing is you're giving up something up top in order to make people in the middle income and the lower income brackets save more. So it's really a redistribution, and I'm willing to do it if they want

I would love to be able to give people in a lower bracket a big break by giving up some of what I have. But I'll tell you, a lot of people say don't do it because of the fact that you have the Bush statement about "Read my lips." But he lost because of Ross Perot. He didn't lose because of that statement.

Q. And then on the SALT——

The President. But I don't think they're going to be doing it, but I actually think it's good politics to do it, where richer people give up—and it's a very small—it's like a point, but they give it up to benefit people at a lower income.

Tax Code Reform

Q. And then on SALT tax credits, Mr. President. There are some Republicans who say, "Why is it that these 45 other States should be paying taxes to alleviate the tax burden of New York"——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——"or some of these coastal States?"

The President. It's only because those States are behind—very badly behind—and those people were affected very badly.

And you know, the sad part is, oftentimes, they were affected badly because you had bad management in those States, like in California with Newsom and, you know, people. So you had some bad management.

But that's being worked on now and they may do a piece, one way or the other. It's a very complex issue, but I think it's being worked out. I think it's going to be worked—it has not been settled yet, but they'll settle it up pretty quickly.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

China-U.S. Trade

Q. Mr. President, what parameters have you given Scott Bessent on negotiating with China this weekend?

The President. We have to make a great deal for America.

Q. Are you going to be disappointed if he comes back without a deal?

The President. No, not at all, because we already made a great deal. We're not doing business with China right now.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

You know, we lost $1 trillion last year with China—$1 trillion. So, if you're not going to do business with them, you're not going to lose $1 trillion.

But we lost—I just want—I want China to do great. You know, I'm very friendly with President Xi. I have great respect for him and for China, but we can't continue to allow them to do what they did.

When I was President, they paid hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and taxes, and then Biden screwed it all up. He—what he did to this country, between the border and between all of the other problems—the wars, everything—what he did to this country should never be forgotten. But one of the things he did is the trade was so bad and so imbalanced.

So I think we're going to come back with a fair deal for both China and us.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Have you given Bessent a number of how low you're willing to go?

The President. Yes, I have.

Q. What's the number?

Q. Are you going to share that number?

The President. No. [Laughter]

Q. Eighty percent?

The President. But I put out a number today—80 percent. So we'll see how that all works out.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Russia/Ukraine

Q. Mr. President, the U.S. embassy in Kyiv is warning right now about possible Russian significant attack on Kyiv. What's your message for Putin?

The President. I have a message for both parties: Get this war ended. We're losing 5,000 soldiers a week—Russian and Ukrainian soldiers—and other people also, by the way. And I say, "Get this stupid war finished." That's my message for both of them.

Thank you very much. We'll see you in a little while.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

We'll see you in a little while. Thank you. Thank you.

Mayor Eric Adams of New York City/Immigration Enforcement Actions

Q. [Inaudible]—Mayor Adams today?

The President. He just came in to say hello.

Q. What did you discuss?

The President. Almost nothing. He came in to say hello. It was very nice. And I think he came in to thank me, frankly. I mean, I would be—I would say the primary reason.

But he was very nice. He's a nice man. But I think he actually came in to thank me.

Q. Is he complying with ICE like you like to see?

The President. You'd have to ask Tom Homan.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

U.S. Agency for International Development

Q. Do you have a reaction to—Mr. President, do you have a reaction to Bill Gates' comments yesterday that the cuts in USAID will lead to millions of deaths of children around the world?

The President. I don't know anything about his comments.

Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll see you later.