Remarks on Signing an Executive Order on Unlocking Cures for Pediatric Cancer With Artificial Intelligence and an Exchange With Reporters

The President. Thank you very much. Great to have you again. We've seen you a couple of times today.

But I'm thrilled to sign a very historic Executive order to massively accelerate pediatric cancer research and harness the extraordinary potential of artificial intelligence to fight this terrible disease.

We're going to hook up the artificial intelligence with all of the other things that we have at hand, and we're going to come for answers. And these young children, who are just really—some are absolutely better, and others are getting better. You're all going to be better very soon, so they won't even need it, I don't believe.

I want to thank Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who we see a lot of lately. You've been doing—you've been a lot—you've been really active, haven't you?

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Busy. Yes. [Laughter]

The President. He's been very active.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who is so fantastic. And I guess we reached a deal with Harvard today, so we'll see how that—all you have to do is paper it, right, Linda?

Secretary of Education Linda E. McMahon. Yes, sir.

The President. Paper it out. It will be great though. It's going to have to have to do with something that's very important to everybody.

CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, Director of the National Institute of Health Jay Bhattacharya.

Is that good, Jay? That's pretty good, right?

National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya. It was perfect.

The President. I'm getting better at it. [Laughter]

Secretary McMahon. That's perfect.

The President. I'm getting better.

Science and Technology Adviser Michael Kratsios.

AI and crypto czar, David Sacks. You're doing great, David.

As well as a friend of mine, Stephanie McMahon, and her incredible husband Triple H. You all know Triple H. I'm not going to fight that guy. [Laughter] He's one of the greatest.

I also want to thank all of the brave young people who are with us today, and they've gone through a lot, but it's really coming—it's coming out very good.

And I just gave them a beautiful coin, and we're going to save that coin, right? A beautiful coin.

In 2019, I was proud to launch the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative. And I think Stephanie was a big factor—right, Linda? She was a big factor as to what we're doing right now.

Secretary McMahon. Absolutely.

The President. Which invested $50 million a year into pediatric cancer research. And today, in line with recommendations made by Secretary Kennedy and the MAHA Commission, we're doubling that investment, adding another $50 million to Childhood Cancer Data Initiative. We're doing that immediately.

And we have a lot of money coming in with the tariffs. We've never had money like this coming in. We're a rich country again. We were a dead country one year ago, and now we're the richest country—we're hot. We're a hot country.

So it's an honor to do that. In honor of all of you, we're doing that. Okay?

With this order, I'm also directing the Federal Government to fully utilize artificial intelligence to supercharge pediatric cancer research. It's pretty amazing what's happening.

For years, we've been amassing data about childhood cancer, but until now, we've been unable to fully exploit this trove of information and apply it to practical medicine.

Using cutting-edge AI, we will empower our scientists and researchers to discover new treatments, cures, and prevention strategies. AI can also make groundbreaking trials and therapies. And it will all—it's just going to be so accessible to everybody, families all across the country. So it's going to be amazing. What's happening is amazing.

And we have more AI. We're leading in AI. We're leading China by a lot. We're leading everybody by a lot. They're creating their own energy. We let them build their own energy plant because we don't have the energy—nobody does—to feed them—the amount of energy—just the AI needs coming into this country is double what we have right now. So we're letting them go out and create their own energy plants and their own electricity, and they're doing it. We're giving them permits to build electric plants. They're becoming sort of a utility.

Maybe they'll do better with being a utility. Who knows? They'll do better with being a utility than they will being AI. What do you think of the chances of that, David? I hope I'm wrong about that, or they made a bad bet, right? [Laughter]

So, anyway—but I want to just say that we're going to defeat childhood cancer once and for all.

And I'd like to ask Stephanie to say a few words. She's a very special person and very, very much involved in this.

Thank you very much.

Steph.

Secretary McMahon. Step. Step up here.

The President. Right here is good.

World Wrestling Entertainment Chief Brand Officer, Chairwoman, and Co–Chief Executive Officer Stephanie McMahon. My mother is making me step further up. [Laughter]

The President. That's right. Your mother, she'll do that.

Ms. McMahon. Well, Mr. President, thank you very much. You've already acknowledged this incredible team here. And all of these people standing behind me were inspired by the story of a little boy named Connor Michalek. He was a little boy who didn't want to hug me because he gave choke-out hugs. He booed his favorite nurse when she came to give his chemo. And he always worried about his dad, because his dad was Connor's best friend.

Connor was a WWE fan who I met after one of our big events, the Royal Rumble. You could tell he was sick. He had a big scar that was running up the back of his neck and a lump on his head, but you would never know it from his personality.

[At this point, Ms. McMahon continued her remarks, concluding as follows.]

This Executive order makes kids with cancer the first focus of AI innovation across health care in America. If there is one thing in the world that could bring us together, please let it be our children, because I can almost guarantee: If your child was diagnosed with cancer, you wouldn't care what party their doctor belonged to. You would just want the best. And President Trump is doing just that, enabling that every child with cancer gets the best care possible, and we couldn't be more grateful.

The President. Thank you, Stephanie.

Ms. McMahon. Thank you, sir.

The President. Great job. Thank you very much. She's done that before, hasn't she? [Laughter] Great job.

Bobby, please.

Secretary Kennedy. Today President Trump signed an Executive order that makes an historic promise: We will harness America's innovation in artificial intelligence to find cures for pediatric cancer.

We stand here today because of Stephanie McMahon Levesque—never wavered in her 11-year commitment to give every child a future free of cancer. She proves that one person's courage can change what is possible.

Cancer is now the leading cause of chronic disease-related death in children, and its incident has risen by more than 40 percent since 1975. We cannot accept that. We must act with urgency.

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

For too long, families have fought childhood cancer while our systems lagged behind. President Trump, thank you for your leadership in changing all that. This Executive order is about action, unlocking cures, empowering families, and giving every child the chance to grow up healthy and strong.

With American innovation and leadership, we can make our children healthy again.

The President. Bobby, do they know why there's quite an increase that's taken place over the last number of years? Do they know why that—do they have any idea why that's happening?

Secretary Kennedy. We are doing that research, and Jay Bhattacharya can talk about that. We're doing that research now for the first time. We're focusing on that—in particular, colon cancers and these cancers that have suddenly—that never affected children before and suddenly are epidemic in our children. And we're going to find the causes—their environmental causes. We're going to identify them and work to eliminate them.

The President. Good. Thanks. Thanks, Bobby.

Jay, go ahead, please.

Director Bhattacharya. Well, thank you, everyone. Thank you, President Trump, for signing this historic Executive order directing your administration to use advanced artificial intelligence technologies to cure childhood cancer. By signing this Executive order, the administration is advancing the NIH Childhood Cancer Data Initiative for the Coordinated Pediatric, Adolescent, and Young Adult Rare Cancer [Initiative; White House correction], first launched under President Trump's direction in 2019.

When I was a young medical student in the 1990s, I had the privilege of spending a month in a pediatric cancer ward treating children with cancer, and I have to say it was the most difficult month of my life. I left for home every day in tears. Watching little children cope with a deadly disease is hard. They should be playing with their friends, going to school, living their best lives. But instead, they bravely face cancer. These are the bravest kids I've ever met.

[Director Bhattacharya continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

This is not about collecting data alone. It's about giving families hope. Today we commit to taking this work to the next level. With this Executive order that President Trump is signing, we're building a future where every child's data contributes to faster diagnosis, artificial intelligence to help us uncover faster, more precise treatments, improve quality of life, and better survival.

And finally, let me extend my sincere congratulations and gratitude to President Trump for his leadership and vision in giving us this opportunity to make America healthy again, to rigorously push the boundary of science and bring hope to millions of families.

Thank you.

The President. Thank you very much, Jay. Very nice. Appreciate it.

Director Kratsios, please.

Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael J.K. Kratsios. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Secretary Kennedy, for your leadership on this issue. I am thrilled that our MAHA strategy prioritizes utilizing AI in the fight against cancer and that this executive order is putting a priority to this action.

Thank you for your commitment, Mr. President, to the United States for maintaining its global leadership in artificial intelligence across models, data sets, applications, and to issue an AI action plan to do just that. Your foresight in the first term, leading you to establish the CCDI to gather, harness, and share data on childhood cancers has positioned us today to leverage AI in a way we could never imagine before. With America's pioneering models, American researchers now have the best tools in the world to turn the CCDI data into the building blocks of lifechanging breakthroughs.

So I and my team at OSTP are thrilled to partner with our teams at HHS and NIH and with David to empower the development of gold standard applications for the pediatric cancer research and to play our very small part in trying to protect the health and happiness of America's children.

The President. Thank you very much.

Director Kratsios. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Good.

David, please.

Chairman of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology David O. Sacks. Thank you, sir. Well, first of all, I just want to thank Stephanie McMahon and Paul Levesque for helping to bring us all together here. You know, for years they played villains on TV, but they're actually very nice people in real life. [Laughter] And—but it's because of your passion that we're all here today, so thank you for that.

And thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership on this. First of all, you did have the—the foresight to create this childhood cancer database way back in 2019, and that's what—what's going to power the AI. It's going to give us the data to find all the patterns in.

The other thing you've done is you've made it your policy of this administration to support innovation, to support infrastructure, to support energy. And because of that, we have an AI boom going on right now: 3.8 percent growth rate in the last quarter in GDP, and a big part of that is because of the AI boom that you've unleashed.

So thank you, sir for doing that. And I think that we can see today that this AI boom is not just going to be about dollars and cents, but about saving lives as well. We're going to get some miraculous cures out of this.

So thank you to everyone who's here today.

The President. Thank you very much. Good job.

And we just had a meeting, and Oz was at the meeting and really was a dominant factor, along with Bobby. And maybe you could just say a couple of words about our past meeting, where we're going to be lowering drug prices by 50, 100, 200, even 500 percent, even 1,000. We have 1,000 percent also. We have one coming up next week—a big one—1,000 percent reduction in price.

Do you want to give just a couple of words on that, Oz?

Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz. It's a historic day. For the first time, we've had the magnitude of give from the pharmaceutical industry. One of their leading lights, Albert Bourla, and his company, Pfizer, agreed something the President has been pushing on since his first term, and he's been calling me quite frequently on speed dial over this term to make sure that Secretary Kennedy and I would seriously engage industry.

They have agreed to several important concessions. First, we will have most-favored-nation drug pricing in this country for everyone on Medicaid. So our most vulnerable populations will not be forced to pay three times or more—five, six, seven times more for the exact same pills in the same bottles as it costs in other countries. That will make it a lot easier for Governors to manage their budgets and shows, again, a distinct passion that the President helps—has for helping people who are most vulnerable.

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

So I think it was the right thing for the company, the right thing for the policies of this administration, which is a pretty cool place to work. But most importantly, it's the right thing for the American people.

The President. Thank you very much. And maybe we'll just finish it off with Linda, because she's been such an incredible Cabinet member and done such a good job.

Maybe you want to say something about your unbelievable daughter and son-in-law, because they've worked very hard on this.

Secretary McMahon. Well, thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to do that. I don't think that, you know, any mother could be any more proud of all of the efforts that Stephanie has made in support also of Paul.

Stephanie first talked about this 10 or 11 years ago after little Connor. And I remember one of the things that she said to me was: "I really would like to somehow convene the people and the scientists who think outside of the box, because research is done in very standard terms. You do this, you do this, and yes, you have to do that." But she said, "I really would like to tap into some of the most creative and inventive minds in the country to be able to look at research differently for pediatric cancer."

And she did that. It took her about 10 years, and she kept tapping in and calling people, being pretty relentless about it, driven herself by a mother's heart. And I couldn't be any more proud of the work she's done. I'm happy to stand by and be a supportive mom and be very proud of her today.

The President. Thanks. Good job you're doing. Thank you very much, Linda.

Okay. Any questions, please?

Potential Lapse in Federal Government Appropriations/Tariff Revenue

Q. Mr. President, as we inch closer to a Government shutdown, this morning, you said you might do a lot of layoffs. If DOGE is already reducing the Federal workforce, why is it necessary to link more Federal jobs cut to a shutdown?

The President. Well, the Democrats want to shut it down, so when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs. So we'd be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected. And the Democrats—they're going to be Democrats.

As you know, we—this country, no country can afford to pay for illegal immigration, health care for everybody that comes into the country, and that's what they're insisting. And obviously, I have an obligation to not accept that. That would affect everybody.

You know, when I see what we're doing with AI and all the plants that are opening up in the country, $17 trillion is coming in. If you compare that to Biden, Biden had, in 4 years, less than a trillion. We have $17 trillion—more than that. Much—I think it's going to be much more than that, David, by the end of this year, I think it's going to be far over that. It's a record. It's already a record in eight months. It's a record by a lot.

And so we're doing well as a country, so the last thing we want to do is shut it down. But a lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn't want, and they'd be Democrat things. But they want open borders. They want men playing in women's sports. They want transgender for everybody. They never stop.

But they don't learn. We won an election in a landslide. They just don't learn.

So we have no choice. I have to do that for the—for the country.

Yes.

Harvard University/Vocational and Technical Career Training/Domestic Manufacturing Investment

Q. You mentioned a deal with Harvard, Mr. President. What is that deal? Will they be paying the administration anything?

The President. Well, we're in the process of getting very close, and Linda is finishing up the final details, and they'd be paying about $500 million. And they'll be operating trade schools. They're going to be teaching people how to do AI and lots of other things—engines, lots of things. You know, we need people in trade schools.

I remember when I went to school, I had some people that weren't particularly good students, but they could take a motor or an engine apart blindfolded and put it back blindfolded. But they weren't too good at other things, and they ended up—many of them ended up doing better than the people that were.

So trade schools are very important, and we've lost trade schools. We used to have a lot of trade schools in this country. We don't have them anymore.

We have tremendous plants opening, and we want to have people at top level for those plants, whether it's AI or whether it's automotive plants. You know, we have many automobile companies opening up plants in the United States. They're all coming back for two reasons: tariffs, and I think they liked November 5. You know, they liked the person that was chosen.

And they're moving in from Canada. They're moving in from Mexico. They're coming in from all over the world. China is coming. They're all coming. And that way, they avoid paying tariffs. So, you know, they're coming for that reason.

So, by opening up trade school—because we're going to need employees. We're going to need people with skill. And I think I can say, Linda, you feel the same way. By opening up trade school—this would be a giant trade school, series of trade schools. It would be run by Harvard.

Now, this is something that we're close to finalizing. We haven't done it yet. But they'd put up $500 million. Interest and everything else would go to that account, meaning go to the trade school. And you know, that's a big investment in trade school done by very smart people, and then their sins are forgiven. So we have a good chance of getting that closed.

Yes, please.

The President's Accomplishments in Office/Prescription Drug Costs

Q. Mr. President Trump, thank you. I've been looking at this chart that you showed us earlier, since we left the Oval Office earlier. U.S. prices for brand drugs are 422-percent higher than in comparable countries. You know, I'm young, maybe I'm inexperienced, but I think a lot of Americans are wondering: How did we even get here, being one of the biggest buyers of drugs?

The President. We got here by incompetent people sitting behind this desk. You had a lot of incompetent period—people. I did it—as you know, I did—I started it in, you know, my first term.

We rebuilt the military. We got the largest tax cuts in history. We did all these things, and we had the best economy in the history of our country during my first term. And by the way, this is blowing it away, based on what we're seeing.

But we got it by having people allow that to happen. And, as you know, I started the process, but then when COVID came, we focused on COVID, not on this. And I said, if I ever go back—if I ever go back and do it again, I'm going to make this a primary thing, because other countries are paying a fraction of what we pay for the same exact drug, same exact pharmaceutical, everything.

And I said, "No, that's not right." And the drug companies actually came along. You know, don't forget, they make $30-, $40-, $50 million a year, these people. They're very smart. And they had a lot of people convinced that, you know, that's the way it has to be. They talked about research and development—we had to pay. I said: "Well, why isn't Germany paying? Why aren't other countries paying?" And they always had a good answer, but it got to a point where I didn't like the answer anymore, and I said, "We have to do this." And we did it.

The team that we have with Oz and Bobby and Chris and all of the people that we had working on it. And I must tell you, Marty has been a big—wherever you might be, Marty.

Administrator Oz. Marty is here.

Commissioner of Food and Drugs Martin A. Makary. Right here.

The President. But Marty has been a big——

Commissioner Makary. Thank you, sir.

The President. ——a big factor.

We have a great team. There's never been a medical team like this. And I said, "Let's go do it." And then I just—I did, as Oz said, I would bug them every single day, every week, because I said we have to have—I mean, why should we be paying 10 times what another country is paying? And that was just an excuse—you know, research and development. "We do research and development."

So now we're going to be paying whatever the lowest price is. We're going to be paying that price. So it's a great thing.

But there won't be anything that can have the impact on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. Anything where you need pharmaceuticals, medicines, the numbers are going to come way down. Even Obamacare, which is terrible. It's not been good, as you know. It's a weak form of health care, but it will be better because the medicine is going to come in at a very low price.

Yes, please.

Cancer Research and Prevention Efforts/Federal Law Enforcement Support in U.S. Cities

Q. Yes, Mr. President. It seems like every time you assemble your MAHA team and your Cabinet members behind here in regards to health issues, it just keeps getting powerful. And I look at these young kids there——

The President. Yes.

Q. ——and the weight that is on the world right now that you can lift by what you're doing. I've often said, "Trump could cure cancer, and people would still criticize him."

The President. That's true. [Laughter]

Q. And it's true. What is your message to America that this potentially could bring us all together, get us on the same page, and have unity? And I'd like to see if some of the kids or the parents have what it means to you to see President Trump get involved with this.

The President. Well, we've made tremendous strides in cancer research, far more than anyone has done. And we have the greatest minds, the greatest people working on it. And childhood—you know, they call it childhood cancer. It's a very specific thing, and we've really made a lot of progress.

I think something that's going to allow us to make a lot of progress is the money we're saving on pharmaceuticals. We'll be saving 500, 600, 1,000 percent. Nobody has ever heard of that.

I told the story—you were here before—that when I was in the previous administration, my first term, I was so proud of myself because I'm the first President in 28 years that cut drug prices from beginning to end. So they went down—I think it was one-eighth of a percent or one-quarter of 1 percent, and I was so proud of that, Oz. I thought that was great. Now I'm cutting them 500 percent.

And I will say this: Politically speaking, the people understand. Otherwise, I wouldn't have won in a landslide. You know, I get 97 percent bad press, and I won in a landslide, which show-—tells you the press has no credibility.

But I will say that what we've done has been a great tribute to the people that's standing behind me, in different forms: Linda in Education, different, but what she's doing in Education—she's sending education back to the States. That's a big move. The States—like, you know, you go back to Indiana, Iowa—you know, I would say 40 States will be great. Forty-five will be—you know, the 5 percent of them will be pretty good.

And then you're going to have a Gavin Newscum and some other people that aren't going to do a good job. But you know, we'll help them out. I want to help them out.

And we're going to have safe cities again. We're going to—very safe. We're going to be going to Chicago pretty soon, because a friend of mine, a guy—great guy, the head of the Union Pacific—he said: "Sir, you have to save Chicago. It's going bad. It's going bad fast, and it's a great city." He's right—it's a great city. I know it very well. And we have to save Chicago.

So we're going to Memphis, Tennessee, right now. We've had a home run in DC. You can walk out.

Brian [Brian Glenn, Real America's Voice], you got mugged here a long time ago.

Q. Yes, sir.

The President. And your mugger must have felt some pain, because you're a tough cookie.

Q. Well, he had a gun, and I wish I would have had Triple H with me as well. [Laughter] I could have taken——

The President. If he had a gun, all you can do is say, "Thank you very much."

Q. Triple H is the secret weapon.

The President. Yes, no, but it's—everybody here, I mean, you were here in the room when I said to the reporters, "Who got mugged in the last year?" And, like, half of the people raised their hand. Now, if you said, "Who got mugged over the last 60 days?" Nobody. Nobody. No killing, no nothing.

And the restaurants are booming. The town is booming. It's clean. You know, the National Guard actually went out and started cleaning all the crap out of the parks. The tents are knocked down. We had one that—you said it was a blue tent, and you said it was a communist tent, right? See, we're going to have a communist mayor of New York. So, you know, let's see how that works out.

Protest Activity Near the White House Campus/Cancer Research and Prevention Efforts

Q. And I've gotten a lot of feedback on that. Everyone is very appreciative of you removing that tent. A lot of people.

The President. Yes. You told me about a blue tent. And I said, "It's not—it can't be there, because we knocked them down." But this was a very highly sophisticated group of people that had permits and all the other thing. Well, their permit expired. We knocked it down. It took, what, 24 hours? Less, maybe?

Q. Yes, sir.

The President. So I appreciate you telling me that.

No, we have a great thing going. The country is doing incredible. We are a hot country. The hottest. We're the hottest country in the world right now.

Q. Do the parents or the kids have anything they'd like to say?

The President. Yes, that's a great question. Would you like to say something?

Shepherdstown, WV, resident Joshua Armstrong. I would.

The President. That's a good comment right there. It's the best comment you've made in a long time.

Mr. Armstrong. Mr. President, good evening. I'm Josh Armstrong. My name is Josh Armstrong. I'm from West Virginia, and I'm the father of this amazingly brave and resilient little 6-year-old, Laurel. Laurel was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 2 years old, just before her third birthday, and we went on to watch as she spent months in the hospital fighting for her life, as she received blood transfusions and platelet transfusions, as she fought off one potentially fatal infection after another.

We watched as her body swelled and became painful from steroids and then as it became frail and weak from chemotherapy. And we watched and we wondered why there aren't better treatments available, and we wondered what might happen if she doesn't get the drugs she needed. And we wondered: Why isn't anybody doing more?

And on behalf of myself and all the parents that have watched and wondered, we'd like to say that what you're doing today gives parents like me and children like Laurel the one thing that we most desperately need, and that's hope.

The President. And Laurel is doing well?

Mr. Armstrong. And Laurel is—I'm happy to say Laurel is in remission today.

The President. That's good. She looks so beautiful—[inaudible].

Mr. Armstrong. Thank you. She's beautiful.

The President. You feeling good, Laurel?

Mr. Armstrong. That's for you.

Because of this bill, doctors are going to be able to get better treatments faster to patients like Laurel. And because of you making children like her, real children, not cases or statistics with children like Laurel and all of these children here today, we have that hope, and we are so proud that you're standing with children with cancer and you're making it a national priority.

The President. That's very nice.

Mr. Armstrong. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. We're with you all the way.

How about you, back there, Dad?

Pensacola, FL, resident Jeff Hendrix. Actually, I'd like my daughter to speak. Can we let her speak?

The President. Oh, I like that much better.

Mr. Hendrix. Carolyn would like to speak.

The President. That's pretty good. I'd like you to speak.

Pediatric bone cancer survivor Carolyn Hendrix. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Carolyn Hendrix. When I was 4 years old, I was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a pediatric bone cancer. Eleven years later, I'm now 16 years old, and I'm doing great.

What you're doing today, Mr. President, means that kids like me will get better options and so much more help for the future. This will help doctors use technology to find cures faster, match patients to trials more quickly, and give our families more control over our health. For kids, every day counts. This order shows that our lives matter enough to be first in line for innovation.

On behalf of children and young adults with cancer, those still fighting and those in remission like me, and families who wish that they had more time together: Thank you for making us a national priority.

Mr. President, because of actions like this, kids like me have the chance to grow up, to chase our dreams, and to live full lives, and that is the greatest gift anyone could ever give.

The President. Wow, that was so beautiful. Your father could not have done that like you did. [Laughter] You did a good job. You did us a big service, Father.

Mr. Hendrix. Yes, sir.

The President. That's great.

Where did you learn how to speak like that?

Ms. Hendrix. I've done lots of speeches for childhood cancer over the last few years, and I'm also in a theater program, so that helps a lot.

The President. That's good. Well, good. That's a great job.

Would anybody like to say something? Would anybody? Would you like to say something, honey?

Leukemia patient Ailani Myers. Yes. I'm Ailani Myers, and I'm 9 years old, and I was—I had a blood cancer called leukemia when I was only 2 years old. I had to get treated at seven different hospitals across this country, and I had to have two bone marrow transplants from—one from my dad and one from my mom. And I had to spend many days and the nights in the hospital, getting pokies and yucky medicine. And me and my parents were very worried, and I had to go through those seven different hospitals to find the best treatment that can make me better.

And thank you, Mr. President, for making everything happen today so kids like me and Laurel, we can still be living today and speaking.

The President. Wow. They do it better than any of us have done it. We're doing lousy. We'll do it—we're not doing so well today. They're doing so good. That was fantastic. Thank you.

And you're feeling good now?

Ms. Myers. Yes.

The President. Are you all better? You're pretty close, right?

Ms. Myers. Yes.

The President. Yes, I hear you're going to do good.

Anybody like to say something?

Yes, sir. Go ahead.

Brain cancer survivor Jimmy Spagnolo. I've had a brain tumor since I was four months. Now I'm off brain—I'm off all medicines. I'm a cancer survivor. I've had a brain tumor since I was four months, and I'm doing great. I'm 15 now, and I'm going to 10th grade.

The President. And you're going to be a football player, offensive lineman. [Laughter]

Well, you look fantastic.

How about somebody else? I love hearing this. I love hearing you talk, because you talk better than any of us. Right, Jay?

Mr. Spagnolo. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Well, I want to thank you all for being here. Amazing.

Mr. Spagnolo. We wouldn't miss this.

The President. Well, thank you. But you know, we're going to—we're doing a lot for you, and we're going to—you're all going to be better very soon. I don't think you're going to need any of the help that we're giving. It's going to be for the future. But I want to thank you for being with us.

And I'm going to bring them back to a room. We have a room where we have lots of hats and things in the back. And we're going to—would you like to go back, and we'll pick some nice presents?

Participants. Yes!

The President. We'll get rid of the wonderful people of the media. Do you like the media? They're nice, right? [Laughter] They have good days, right? They do. Actually, they do.

Thank you very much. That's beautiful.

And thank you. We're not going to top that, so I want to just thank you all very much. Thank you.