Remarks on Health Technology Improvement Efforts

The President. Thank you very much. Please.

Well, this is very exciting, and we have a lot of great people here, and we've been looking forward to this day. But we sort of look forward to every day because we have a lot of surprises, most of which are good.

National Economy/Trade Negotiations/Artificial Intelligence/Tariffs/Inflation

Today you saw GDP was much higher than anticipated. And, Scott, good job. Scott Bessent has been working, just got back from a little excursion and a meeting with China in Europe, and that went well.

We've done very well with the EU deal. It's a very big deal—I guess, they say, the biggest trade deal ever made, by far. Probably is.

Just completed Japan and many other countries, and hundreds of billions of dollars is flowing into our country. We've never seen anything even close. And that's not me saying it, that's everybody saying it, and it's going to be something really, really very special.

Maybe even more importantly, factories for AI and for cars and for lots of other things are being built in this country or planned to be built—very shortly, they'll be starting—and where they need great amounts of energy, like for AI. They're going to be—I've given them approval, and Lee Zeldin has given them very fast approval to build their own electric powering plants, and they'll build them with the factory so we don't have to worry about an ancient grid and all of the other problems, the obstacles people thought we were going to have that would make it impossible.

And we're leading AI by a lot. And I think people are very impressed with our country, as they said—the King of Saudi Arabia and various leaders and just about every leader I can even imagine. We were in the Middle East and Qatar, U.A.E., Saudi Arabia. They said, "One year ago, your country was dead, and today, you have the hottest country anywhere in the world." And that's true.

So I congratulate everybody in the room that's helped, but we're doing a good job together.

I'd like to begin by saying a few words about the unbelievable kind of numbers that we've been putting up. And, as I said, we—the number of 3 percent, the pace in the second quarter, we smashed all expectations. They thought it would be maybe a little bit less than 2. And it was 3, a little bit more than 3.

Consumer spending is up, business investment is way up, domestic manufacturing is way up, real disposable family income is up, and personal savings are up. Other than that, we're not doing so great. [Laughter]

We have the hottest country, and I'll tell you, it's a great—we're having a lot of fun with it.

At the same time, we dramatically slashed Government spending for the second quarter in a row—down nearly 4 percent, which people were surprised at. We're doing a lot of cutting also.

The private sector has boomed, with nearly 600,000 jobs added—way above expectations—while we have reduced the Federal workforce by 70,000 jobs. So these are private jobs that are coming back to our country. Federal jobs are being cut.

Critics said that our tariffs would hurt the economy, but the data shows the exact opposite, and the exact opposite is happening. The U.S. Treasury has taken in $150 billion from tariffs, and we'll be adding about $200 billion next month, for totals that nobody's ever seen before, frankly. And foreign imports were down 30 percent in the second quarter, while the domestic auto production surged by a stunning 36 percent.

How about that number, Dr. Oz, right? That's good. That's good. We want to do that with your patients too.

Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz. That's right. [Laughter]

The President. We'll be very—we'll have a very healthy—we're going to have a very healthy country.

At the same time, inflation continues to fall faster than expectations. And for the fifth consecutive month, core inflation was lower than predicted, substantially.

This is truly the dawn of the golden age of America. That's what we're in. We want to keep it that way.

Health Technology Improvement Efforts

This afternoon, we're gathered to announce another historic victory for the American people—very important one. Today the dream of easily transportable electronic medical records finally becomes a reality.

I want to thank Secretary Scott Bessent; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for joining us; as well as administrator of the Centers for Medicine [Medicare; White House correction] and Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet Oz—all friends of mine; White House AI and crypto czar, David Sacks; and Acting Administrator of DOGE Amy Gleason. All here.

And we have various great senators here. Senator Rounds, Senator Cassidy, thank you very much—very much for being here and helping out.

I also want to thank representatives from Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, OpenAI, Anthropic, Epic, Oracle, Athena Health, Noom. And that's not a bad group of people. Wow. And they're the top people. We don't play games. You know, when you invite people to the White House, the top ones join. That's a big net worth sitting in this room right now. Boy, oh, boy. We better make sure the room is nice and safe. [Laughter] There's half our—the net worth of our country.

I'm also grateful to be joined by many—numerous Congressmen. I'm not going to name you, if you don't mind. [Laughter] I'll probably never get their vote again, but it's too many. Thank you very much for being here. The Congress has been great.

Senators have been great, and the Congress men and women have been great. We just passed the most important, I think—look, I can't say "most important," but it's certainly one of the most—but the most consequential and the largest bill in the history of Congress. And the—I call it the "Great Big Beautiful Bill." We call it different names, but it all means the same thing.

For decades, America's health care networks have been overdue for a high-tech upgrade, and that's what we're doing. The existing systems are often slow, costly, and incompatible with one another, but with today's announcement, we take a major step to bring health care into the digital age—something that is absolutely vital; we've got to do it—moving from clipboards and fax machines into a new era of convenience, profitability, and speed and, frankly, better health for people.

Under the leadership of Administrator Oz, we're officially launching the CMS Digital Health Tech Ecosystem to give health care providers, insurers, and software companies the tools they need to empower Americans with a 21st-century experience on health.

The key breakthrough we've made is getting many of the biggest names in the health care and technology to agree to agree to industry-wide standards for electronic medical records. All of those great companies that you just heard have gotten together with this group of very brilliant people.

I think—I don't know who's more brilliant: them or them. [Laughter] I don't know. Could be them. I hate to tell you. [Laughter] It could very well be them. But I don't know. I'm going to take my team.

But the key breakthrough we've made is getting many of the biggest names in health care and technology to agree to that real—those standards of electronic medical records that we talk about and you've heard about for so many years, and now it's happening.

This will allow patients to easily transmit information from one doctor to another, even if they're different networks and using different recordkeeping systems. No matter what system they use, they're all transferable.

The new standards will also make it simple for patients to access their own personal health records. I don't want to see mine, please. I don't want to see—[laughter]—I don't know about you. They have all sorts of things. "Sir, they can tell you exactly what your problem is going to be in six years. We can do it." You know, they have all these different things. I don't know if they work or not, but I didn't want to hear it. [Laughter] I didn't want to hear it. If I've got a problem, I don't want to know about it right now.

But it is amazing what they're doing. I don't know. Does it actually work? Can they do that?

Administrator Oz. Yes.

The President. All right. Well, then I'm glad I said I don't want to know. [Laughter]

But thanks to this announcement, health care providers across the country will also finally be able to kill the clipboard. It's an expression that's used—capital—with a capital "C": "Kill the Clipboard." Instead of filling out the same tedious paperwork at every medical appointment, patients will simply be able to grant their doctors access to their records at the push of a button. Just a button, and you're all set, and all the information the doctor needs will be immediately transmitted.

The system will be entirely opt-in, and there will be no centralized Government-run database, which everyone is always concerned about. I'm less concerned than anybody. I say, "Whatever it is, it is." But people are very, very concerned about the personal records. They want to keep them very quiet, and that's their choice. I think it's a great thing, because it will be. It will be absolutely quiet.

Instead, doctors and patients will always remain in control. The benefits to millions of Americans will be enormous. We will save time, we will save money, and, most importantly, we'll save lives. It's just going to make people live longer and be a lot healthier. I think that's really what you're looking to do.

And now I'd like to ask Secretary Kennedy to say a few words, followed by David Sacks, Dr. Oz, and Amy Gleason. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

And I just want to begin by making a comment that is irrelevant to what we're gathered here today to talk about. But I've been coming to this building for 65 years, and I have to say that it has never looked better.

I was a—and I've spent some time in the—[laughter]. I've spent some time in the Oval Office, which really has—it's been transformed. And I was looking at a picture of the Oval Office the other day, when I was there, when I was a kid with my uncle. And, you know, it was an extraordinary—it's always extraordinary to go into that sacred space. But I have to say that it looked kind of drab in the pictures. And they're black-and-white pictures, but it looked drab. And it looks the opposite of drab today.

And I think—I know all these portraits—I hope you get a chance to look at them when you go out there—that they were handpicked by the President. And many of them hijacked from other agencies that were trying to keep them. I——

The President. That's right.

Secretary Kennedy. But I mean, you know, my uncle, my aunt Jackie, who were deeply committed to design, to beauty, and who understood that it's important to have our public buildings be beautiful, because it inspires us. It elevates the human spirit. It's one of the—it is a template and it's a—it's an example, an exemplar for democracy. The releasing through freedoms of the creativity of the human spirit.

And this building, of all buildings, should look beautiful. And under your stewardship, it looks extraordinary today. So thank you, Mr. President, for that.

A couple of—about a—3 weeks ago, I met with the Indonesian Health Minister. And Indonesia today is regarded as the highest flourishing nation on Earth. Since 1990, it has increased the lifespan of its women by 8 years, of its men by 9 years. There is no country that has a record like that.

And there are two major innovations that allowed them to achieve that extraordinary outcome, and one of those was to disincentivize people from eating processed foods. You are paid not to eat processed foods, and you are penalized for eating processed foods.

The other innovation that really transformed Indonesia was allowing people control of their individual health records. On the—he showed me the app that they use that everybody in Indonesia has. And it shows your height, your weight, your blood type, your BMI, your cardiac markers, your diabetes markers, your cholesterol, and any kind of individualized treatments that you've had.

[Secretary Kennedy continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

So I want to thank you for your leadership, for allowing this to happen. And with your leadership, we're going to make America healthy again.

Now I want to introduce my friend, my colleague, the crypto czar, the Acting Administrator of DOGE, David Sacks.

The President. Great job, Bobby.

Chairman of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology David O. Sacks. Thank you, Secretary Kennedy.

I recently got a text message from a friend whose wife has been suffering from a chronic illness for something like a decade, and they've been trying to figure out what it is. They've never been able to figure it out. And I just want to read this to you right off my phone.

He said: "I uploaded my wife's blood work into"—one of our leading AI engines—"on Friday. It essentially diagnosed her as having a rare genetic defect that causes bone marrow failure. It's caused every single thing that's happened to her. She has every single symptom. It started at exactly the same age of presentation. It's 10 people out of 1 million. There's absolutely no way this is not it."

So, wow. That was—it's really an incredible example of what AI is already able to do just today, and we're just getting started. And this was one person putting his wife's data in, you know, one of our consumer AI apps, and he's already been able to get that diagnosis, and that's going to help them tremendously.

[Chairman Sacks continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

And this is, you know, all due to your leadership and President Trump's leadership to put American—the American people's health care needs first.

And I remember, Dr. Oz—he was one of the first people to call me after—during the transition, when the President announced that I'd be AI czar, because he wanted to ask me about how AI could better be used in health care. So kudos to you, Dr. Oz. Your passion is really incredible.

And kudos to you, Secretary Kennedy—your passion as well. And I remember, a couple of years ago, I was a big fan of Bobby Kennedy when he was running as a Democrat. And I remember thinking——

Secretary Kennedy. And he gave a lot more money to President Trump, just so you know. [Laughter]

Chairman Sacks. Well, I remember—I remember thinking, there was this one problem with Bobby Kennedy: He's not a Republican. But thanks to President Trump, I think we fixed that. So—[laughter].

And I think that, you know, getting people like Dr. Oz and—and Bobby Kennedy into the administration is a testament to President Trump and the talent that he's able to attract and pull together and the partnerships that he's able to forge, because these are people who could be doing other things. So it's really a testament to the great talent that President Trump always attracts around him.

[Chairman Sacks continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

Just last week, you announced a major AI action plan with hundreds of billions of dollars of new investment in AI infrastructure and also getting red tape out of the way so that we can be the leading country in AI. And it's these lifesaving applications that are going to be built on top of all of that infrastructure.

So thank you for your leadership in making the United States the number one country in AI.

The President. Thank you.

Chair Sacks. Thank you, sir.

Administrator Oz. David, thank you.

Chair Sacks. And now, Doc—Dr. Oz can take it from here.

Administrator Oz. Mr. President, today we are making American health technology remarkably great again. We've always been at the leadership—David is right, I called him early on after the President offered me the position, and him as well, and we began brainstorming on this.

Secretary Kennedy, from day one, appreciated the crisis that we're in and how we needed to address it. So today is a remarkably important day—one that you will remember, I believe, for years to come for three reasons. Yes, it is the 60th birthday of Medicare and Medicaid. The first patient, by the way, was Harry S. Truman, although Lyndon Johnson signed the legislation 60 years ago today, not far from here.

It is not just the ability to bring 60 of the top incumbents and insurgents in health technology, hospital systems, insurance companies, electronic medical record companies, AI companies—the big players—you're all here, and we appreciate that very much—but, Mr. President, you used the power to convene. That's fundamentally what I think the President has been able to offer us.

[Administrator Oz continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

We are building a robust and safe—I emphasize that—safe system. It's going to protect the data better than we could have imagined. We're going to be able to accomplish goals that all of us wished from day one that would be in place. These pledges are now confirmed. They're signed in public. And you have, therefore, empowered Americans to own their property, which is their medical records.

Let me introduce Amy Gleason. She is acting director of DOGE, U.S. Digital Service as well, and was actually the brilliant woman who pulled together the pieces of this puzzle with so many members of the audience.

Amy Gleason.

U.S. DOGE Service Acting Administrator Amy Gleason. Good afternoon. First, I would like to thank President Trump for his leadership in this area and Secretary Kennedy and Administrator Oz for driving this work with clarity and urgency.

I would also like to thank my colleagues, who have been instrumental to this, and we have worked a lot of late nights and hard times on this, and I—it would not have been possible without them.

I want to start today with my daughter Morgan, who is here in the audience. If you'd please stand up. I am so inspired and energized by your strength every day.

[Acting Administrator Gleason continued her remarks, concluding as follows.]

They're doing this through modern data sharing networks that removes the burden on patients and providers and makes it available in real time, using modern identity, just like when you check in at the airport. These honor patient privacy and transparency, and most importantly, it's a movement to work together to remove the friction that's holding us back, because access to information shouldn't be a luxury. It should be a standard.

So, for all the Morgans out there, come join this movement with us at CMS.gov. Let's kill the clipboard and ax the facts. Let's help make health tech great again, or in this case, maybe it's for the first time. [Laughter]

Thank you, President Trump.

The President. Great job. Great.

Thank you very much. That was great.

And hello. You look very, very healthy to me. [Laughter] You look really great.

So, just—I want to thank all of the companies that are here. These are big names, great—great people. And now you're doing something that's so important for our country—really, for the world. It's beyond our country, I suspect. It's really for the world.

So just keep it up. And you've hit new highs almost virtually every day for the last few months, and that makes your job probably a little bit easy—easier. You're under very little stress. [Laughter] But someday, you might have a little bit, but you're not going to have much. I think we're really going to great heights.

But I just want to thank everybody: political people and the teachers and the companies and all of our Cabinet. And I even see Newt. Do I see Newt?

Administrator Oz. Yes. Right there.

The President. I see Newt. Look at him. He's such a handsome man. [Laughter]

Administrator Oz. He is.

The President. He's a healthy man. We don't have to do any tests on him. [Laughter] But good to see you, Newt.

But I just want to thank everybody. This is a very big undertaking, and it's a very serious undertaking. It's going to make a lot of people lead a much better life.

Thank you all very much for coming. Appreciate it. Thank you.