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Dow Plunges 2nd Straight Day; Trump Economy Speech in Ohio. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired February 05, 2018 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:18] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Any moment, President Trump will be touting the tax law and the economy at a manufacturing plant in Ohio. You see the scene there. We'll bring you his comments live. After Republicans pass the law, this particular corporation gave $1,000 bonuses to employees which is why the president is there today.

Also, right now, the Dow plunging for the second straight day down 1,000 points since Friday, down 540 right now. The president is obviously taking credit for the Dow's success for the past year. So far, hasn't said anything on this particular drop.

Joining me now is Richard Quest, CNN business correspondent and CNN Money editor-at-large. And Rana Foroohar, CNN global economics analyst and global business columnist and associate editor for "The Financial Times."

Richard, the Dow continuing to go down. What's going on?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN MONEY EDITOR-AT-LARGE: The Dow is now off 6 percent from its all-time high a couple weeks ago. We are off 1200 points. As you can see here, we are in the low points of the day. We are getting into the part of the day that becomes rather tricky, when traders don't want to go long overnight so they'll start to square the books. I would not be surprised to see some acceleration in the last hour of that.

Why is it happening today? Why not two weeks ago? Why not in two weeks' time? It's the ideas of inflation, the idea of rising interest rates, and that which has gone up fast is now coming down fast, too.

COOPER: Let's listen in on President Trump in Ohio.

[14:33:49]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: (In progress) -- a man that you know very well, who has done an amazing job and great job in helping with us the massive tax cuts that are helping everybody so much. And everyone has fallen in love with it. I'll tell you, Rob Portman -- he knows his stuff. Thank you, Rob. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

A terrific guy, a friend of mine from day one, and he's been behind me from day one, Jim Renacci. Jim. Jim, thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Jim has been a great friend of mine.

Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor; Secretary of State Jon Husted.

(APPLAUSE)

And another great friend of ours, Brad Wenstrup, couldn't be here. He's Army reserve duty. That's OK, right?

(APPLAUSE)

That's a good excuse. That's the only excuse we'd accept. Great guy.

I want to thank you all, and I want to thank Jeff Norris and everyone here at Sheffer Corporation for hosting us at this really incredible facility. We just toured it. I love equipment and I love workers. You have them both. But it's really some wonderful place.

TRUMP: I'm here in the beautiful Cincinnati. I'll tell you, you know, I was here -- I worked here for a long time. People don't know. Most people don't know -- Swifton Village -- long time ago. Really? You know Swifton? Came here a long time ago.

I had a great success with my father -- it was a young success. And, you know, if I didn't have a success, maybe I would have gone and just been something else -- who knows. But I spent a lot of time in this state and a lot of time in Cincinnati, and I love it.

And what I really want to do -- and come here and give something very big back -- and that's tax cuts. I signed into law -- your paychecks are going way up.

(APPLAUSE)

Your taxes are going way down. And, right now, for the first time in a long time -- and you've seen it -- factories are coming back. Everything is coming back. They all want to be where the action is. America is once again open for business. All right?

(APPLAUSE)

We've already created nearly 2.6 million jobs since the election, including more than 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing. We love manufacturing. Those are real jobs, not the other kind where they talk; there's nothing there. We're bringing back those four magnificent words: made in the USA.

(APPLAUSE)

We'll count "USA" as one word -- is that OK? I've said (ph) -- have to think about that one.

Unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low -- think of that. I mean, just think of that.

(APPLAUSE)

And, something that I've been talking about for two years -- campaigning, and everyone said, "You'll never do it" -- after years of wage stagnation, wages -- so what happened two days ago and a month ago -- wages are now, for the first time in many years, rising.

(APPLAUSE)

In fact, more companies are pursuing pay increases right now than at any time in the last long period of time -- they actually say, "in the 21st century." Can you imagine that? It's amazing what people with some good ideas can do. It's amazing what we've all done together.

This has been an incredible journey, but it's happening even faster. And wait until you see GDP over the next year or two. Wait until you see what happens to our country. Because people can feel it. Billions and billions of dollars are being poured back into the United States.

At the center of America's resurgence are the massive tax cuts that we just passed before Christmas. You remember two things -- number one, I said, "We're going to be saying Christmas again," and, number two, I said I was going to give you a Christmas present.

(APPLAUSE)

And I don't know if you remember -- I was going to sign it around January 5th, and then I heard one of the hating groups on television -- "He promised a Christmas present."

Now, here's a thing that hasn't been done in a long time -- many years -- really, never done to this extent. You include ANWR, which is tremendous energy potential, and you include getting rid of our individual mandate -- the worst thing there is in Obamacare, which really leads to the repeal of Obamacare. When you look at those things -- there hasn't been anything -- but I said, "I want to give them a great Christmas present."

So, January 5th -- so I heard them saying, "He didn't make it with the Christmas" -- so, I said, "You know what, move that bill up a few days. We'll move it (ph)." And it was rather inconvenient for a lot of people -- I said, "We have to sign it." So we signed it just before Christmas. Better, right? Better.

(APPLAUSE)

Otherwise, I would've been hearing -- Rob (ph) -- "He did not fulfill his campaign obligation or promise," right? So, now they can't say -- it's just one more thing we checked off the list. But it is the biggest tax cut and reform in American history.

And at the heart of our plan is tremendous relief for working families and for small businesses. A typical family of four earning $75,000 will see an income tax cut of a more than $2,000 a year -- and you're already seeing it -- slashing their income tax bill in half. (APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We nearly doubled the standard deduction, meaning the first $24,000 earned by a married couple will be 100 percent tax-free. Not bad.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And we have doubled the Child Tax Credit. That was compliments very much of Ivanka Trump. She would press us, right, Rob (ph)? She would press us.

(APPLAUSE)

Pretty amazing. But we got it done. Not easy. And we had -- by the way, we had no Democrats. We had nobody, not one. Including your other Senator -- voted against it. No, he voted against it. I don't care, Republican, Democrat (ph), they voted against it.

And, if they ever got in, and if they ever took over, your taxes would go way up and you'd see some bad things happening. So it wouldn't be good, that I can tell you. Would not be good.

When I signed the tax cut, six weeks ago, it set off a tidal wave of good news that continues to grow every single day. Before the ink was dry, companies were announcing thousands and thousands of new jobs and enormous investments to their workers.

Apple announced a $350 billion investment in America. And when I heard it, I said, "No, they mean $350 million." Because I've been saying to the head of Apple -- good guy, Tim Cook -- from the beginning, as soon as I first met him, I said, "Tim, it's not complete until you start building plants in our great states. Otherwise, when you build them where you're building them, I'm not interested. You got to build them."

And, believe me, the reason it's happening is because of what we did. But I heard the number -- I heard "350," And I figured it was $350 million dollars. That's a big plant. You know, $350 million is big. Even for your great company, it's big.

So I figured they're going to build a big, beautiful plant someplace. Then they came to me, they said, "Sir, it's not $350 million. It's $350 billion," right?

(APPLAUSE)

That's a big number. I would have been happy with the $350 million, but, you know, it's -- I like this number slightly better. And they're going to do incredible things. They're going to build plants. They're going to build a tremendous campus. They're going to hire 20,000 people.

Mobil just announced a fantastic $50 billion investment. If you look at that -- ExxonMobil, fantastic. Fiat Chrysler announced 2,500 jobs are coming back to Detroit -- to Motor City -- 2,500, 2,500. And do you know where they're coming from? Mexico.

(APPLAUSE)

No, think of it. Nothing against Mexico. We are renegotiating NAFTA, I can tell you that. We are renegotiating. I've been telling you that for a long time. I've been -- either you renegotiate, or you terminate. But we're renegotiating. We'll see what happens.

But Chrysler leaving Mexico, coming back to Motor City with a massive plant -- I mean, you haven't heard that in -- how many years would you say, Rob (ph) -- 30, 25? We're reversing it.

And many other companies are coming back. And many other car companies are coming back. And a lot of them, which is of most interest to you, are coming back to Ohio.

(APPLAUSE)

They're coming back here. Right here. And right here, in Cincinnati, on this very beautiful factory floor, the Sheffer Corporation announced that every single worker was getting a $1,000 tax cut bonus. You're so generous. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Congratulations, everybody. That's good.

Hardworking, patriotic Americans like you are what make this country run and run like no other. But we took away all of that pride and all of that incentive, and we were losing so many of our companies, and we were losing so many jobs.

And how long have I been talking about this? Ten, 15, 20 years -- I've been talking -- you know, some of you have heard me saying this as a private businessman. "We're losing all of our jobs. We're losing our companies."

They're coming back. It's your grit, it's your pride and your determination to do the job right. It's the foundation of American strength and the key to America's future.

But you know, you can work hard, but if you don't have the right leader, setting the right tone, in all fair (ph) -- I'm not even saying -- I'm non-braggadocious (ph).

But, if I don't set a tone, like "You're not going to keep taking our jobs. You're not going to keep doing what you're doing" -- and wait until you see what's happening over the next two or three months, with what we're doing to countries that have treated us so unfairly.

TRUMP: In many cases, so-called "friendly countries" -- I don't call them friendly -- I don't call them friendly -- but it's all changing. And those companies are coming back and those jobs are coming back.

So you are among more than 3 million Americans who have received a tax cut bonus because of the tax cuts that we just signed into law. Everywhere I go, I love to hear what people plan to do with the money. So I thought we could take a few minutes to hear from some of your co- workers -- you know who I'm talking about, right? I assume you like these people.

(LAUGHTER)

I assume it's central casting. Right, boss?

Tyler Berkshire -- do you know him? Joined Sheffer Corporation through an apprenticeship -- come on up here, Tyler -- six years ago, and now he is a machinist, and a talented one.

(APPLAUSE)

They like him. OK. Nice to be loved. It's nice to be loved. I'd figure they'd only send popular ones up here, you know? The unpopular ones -- don't worry, you don't have to worry about.

In addition to his $1,000 bonus, his paychecks are bigger because he's paying less taxes. Tyler, you're up here. I'm going to give you a chance, like maybe 30 seconds or less...

(LAUGHTER)

... to explain what you're going to do with all that extra money -- in this case, over $1,000. Excuse me.

(APPLAUSE)

BERKSHIRE: Thank you, Mr. President. And with the tax cut and the bonus, I will be trying to save up money to start a family and eventually get a bigger house, so.

TRUMP: I like that idea.

(APPLAUSE)

BERKSHIRE: And I appreciate all your hard work that you've been putting in and all your -- Rob Portman and everybody else. So, just wanted to say thank you.

TRUMP: I appreciate it, Tyler. That's beautiful.

(APPLAUSE)

That's beautiful, Tyler. Thank you, Tyler. Beautiful job. Thank you, Tyler. That's a good guy right there, Jim (ph). I think he'll probably be very supportive of you.

(LAUGHTER)

I think everybody's going to be supportive. We need people that are going to do a great job and keep us in the right direction. You know?

(APPLAUSE) We need them badly, too, or it all goes back to where it was, and worse. But did we catch them in the act, or what? You know what I'm -- did we catch them in the act? They are very embarrassed. They never thought they were going to get caught. We caught them. Hey, we caught them. It's so much fun. We're like the great sleuth.

Dina Spoletti (ph) is also with us. Where's Dina (ph)? She joined Sheffer -- come on up, Dina (ph) -- in 2012 as a customer service rep and has climbed her way all the way up to become a manager.

(APPLAUSE)

Dina's (ph) looking at a tax cut of $1,500, and that's on top of her $1,000 that Sheffer's already giving her. So that's $2,500-plus. What are you going to do with that money, Dina (ph)? How are you?

(CROSSTALK)

(UNKNOWN): Thank you for being here.

TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you.

(UNKNOWN): When they asked me what this would mean to my family, really, what it means to my family is the same that it means to all hardworking American families right now who are reaping the benefits of your tax cuts. It means that we'll have more money in the bank, more money to make ends meet.

Personally, for my family, my husband, Tim (ph), and I are in the process of buying a home, and in the fall, both of my kids, Katie (ph) and Matthew (ph), will be going to college. So we'll be using that money. That'll be like a bonus we receive -- thank you, Sheffer -- a one-time bonus. But it'll be an ongoing bonus in our paycheck every week, and it'll just help us make ends meet.

So thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Wow, great job. Thank you. Beautiful. I'm glad she's not running against you, Jim (ph). That's very good. Thank you very much. She's doing a great job? Good.

Like Tyler and Dina (ph), millions of workers are thrilled to have more money to save for their children's college, or to fix their home, or put aside money for a rainy day.

But, believe it or not, Nancy Pelosi and those in Congress who want to raise your taxes -- they want to raise your taxes -- they don't want to give the money to the military, where we need it -- you know, without the military, we might not be here...

(APPLAUSE)

... or we might not be here for long, believe me (ph) -- believe us all. (APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Nancy Pelosi -- what she's doing to this country -- and she's gone so far left, and Schumer's gone so far left -- I look forward to running against them. We've got to do well in '18, and I know we're going to do great in '20. But I think we're going to do well in '18.

(APPLAUSE)

I think we're going to do well in '18. I think we're going to do very well. They have gone left. They want to raise your taxes.

You know, I figure we're safe. Historically, when you win the presidency, you know the story. Just, for whatever reason it is -- and I think I figured it out. Nobody really has been able to explain it properly.

I think I figured -- the party wins the presidency, and now, the people are happy, and you see tax cuts, in this case, or whatever that party has got (ph). But you see the big tax cuts. You see what we're doing. Jobs are coming back. And the people that voted for us become complacent, a little bit. They're happy.

And it's only two years between '16 and '20 (sic), and such -- it's such a short time. So the people are happy. And they don't get out, and they don't vote like they should. Maybe they go to a movie in '18. None of you are going to a movie, I hope, right?

So what happens is they sort of take it for granted. They sit back, and then they get clobbered, because the other people are desperate, and they get out, and they have more energy.

But I think, because of what we've done, because of the tremendous success we've had -- I have a feeling that we're going to do incredibly well in '18. And -- and I have to say this: History's not on our side, but it's not because of that word, "complacency." You win the presidency, and you take it easy, and then they come and surprise you in the midterms. They call them the midterms.

We've got to get out there and win, or they're going to take -- and I say it -- a -- Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer -- they want to raise your taxes. They don't want to give the money to the military, which we have to, because our military, because of Obama -- and even beyond Obama -- it's depleted. It's in bad shape, and we're going to build it stronger than it ever was before. We've already started. We've already started.

(APPLAUSE)

So that's what happens, and that's what happens in mid-terms. But we're not going to let it happen to us. I mean, it's -- traditionally, that's what goes on.

(UNKNOWN): They never met Donald Trump.

TRUMP: I love that person, whoever -- where is he? I love -- I knew I liked that man. I saw him standing. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Well, we're going to be in there fighting, because we don't want that tradition to go. We want to have tremendous success. We want to get Jim in, and we want to get a lot of other people in. But we have to have tremendous -- we have to have tremendous success. And, if we don't, we're just foolish.

We can't -- I know we're going to do great in '20, because, by that time -- see, what happens is, if you did badly in '18, now you're all angry again, and you're going, "Why (ph)," and now '20 comes along. But we want to do great in '18, and we're going to do really well in '20. That's when we go again and we keep this great journey going, OK?

(APPLAUSE)

So start thinking about -- start thinking about '18. Start thinking about November. Start finding out exactly that little slot. You're not going to a restaurant -- although you could. You could go and vote and go to a restaurant. But that's what happens, and we're not going to let that happen to us.

In addition to the bonuses created by our tax cuts, economists estimate that our business tax cut will raise the income of a typical family by an average of $4,000.

(APPLAUSE)

So Nancy Pelosi, again, said, "That's crumbs." Well, she's a rich woman who lives in a big, beautiful house in California who wants to give all of your money away, and she talked about crumbs.

And I really think her statement about crumbs -- because you're getting thousands and thousands of dollars, and you're getting it every year. So I think her statement, "crumbs," will be equivalent -- and I said this the other day for the first time -- when I first heard the word "deplorable," I thought it was a bad thing. But I had no idea it was not going to be good for our opponent.

It was not good, because, about two days after she said it, I go to a rally, and everyone's wearing shirts: "I am a deplorable." "We're all deplorables." I said, "What's going on with the word 'deplorable,' Rob (ph)?"

You know, we had that, right? It just went pretty wild. It was not a good day for her, and I think this is not a good day for Nancy Pelosi. She's our secret weapon.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: No, she's our secret -- I just hope they don't change her. There are a lot of people that want to run her out. She's -- she's really out there, and I'm supposed to make a deal with her.

You know, the other day -- did anybody happen to see the State of the Union address? OK.

(APPLAUSE)

So I got good marks. But I said, you have the lowest black unemployment in the history of our country. It was like -- it was a game. You know, they play games. They were told, "Don't even make a facial movement."

And I'm talking about -- you have the lowest Hispanic unemployment in the history of our country. This isn't me -- said -- this is the charts, the polls. We have the lowest in the history of our country. Dead silence -- not a smile.

In fact, there was one guy (ph) -- when I said the lowest African- American unemployment, he was sort of clapping -- like, who was that guy? He's a nice guy. I think he's a Reverend, and he was -- I wouldn't say it was exactly a rousing -- but he was putting his hands together.

And I want to find out who he is. I'm going to send him a letter of thank you. And he was probably severely reprimanded -- don't you think, Rob? I think so -- because he was the only one.

So that means they would rather see Trump do badly, OK, than our country do well. That's what it means. It's very selfish. And it got to a point where I really didn't even want to look too much, during the speech, over to that side, because honestly, it was bad energy. That was bad energy.

You're up there, you've got half the room going totally crazy, wild, they loved everything. They want to do something great for our country. And you have the other side, even on positive news -- really positive news like that, they were like death. And un-American -- un- American. Somebody said treasonous -- I mean -- yeah, I guess, why not?

(APPLAUSE)

Can we call that treason? Why not. I mean, they certainly didn't seem to love our country very much.

But you look at that and it's really very, very sad. So we have to keep it going, because this country is turning, and it's turning much faster. And I said I'm going to do it, but it's happening faster than I thought.

And a big part of it is the fact that the companies kicked in, because nobody saw that. AT&T came in. Another one came in. Another one -- Comcast -- the -- so many companies kicked in hundreds -- now it's going to be -- end up being thousands of companies. This company, too. It's a little smaller than AT&T, but we'll take it.

(LAUGHTER)

For the people in this room, it's much more important than AT&T, right? (APPLAUSE)

But great companies like this -- many -- and that's -- honestly, we said, come February 1st, nobody's going to beat it (ph), because you're going to get your checks and you're going to see you have more money, because they're taking a lot less taxes out of your check. And I just don't think that anybody can beat it.

And Senator Brown voted against us and fought us like crazy, OK? Just remember that -- he voted against you. Just, when you go in there, he voted against you. Not good. Not good.

So we've gone from being one of the highest taxed countries anywhere in the world to being one of the most competitive, because, when our workers have a level playing field, which they didn't have, they can compete and win against anyone in the world -- and that goes for our companies.

But we were forcing our companies out. Now, we're bringing our companies back in, and if they don't want to come in, that's OK, but they're not going to be so happy. Believe me. And I told you that a long time ago. It's not like the old days.

And, when our workers win, who really wins?

[14:59:18] COOPER: President Trump speaking in a manufacturing plant in Cincinnati, Ohio, speaking about the tax cuts. He brought up several -- he brought up two workers to tout what they were going to be doing with the $1,000 bonus that they had been given by their employer.

Joining us right now is CNN political director, David Chalian, also Rana Foroohar, CNN global economics analyst. Also, she's a global business columnist and associate editor of "The Financial Times."

Rana, got to look at the Dow right now. Down 753 points. What is going on?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMICS ANALYST: You know, it's really counterintuitive, Anderson. One of the reason the Dow is down is that wages are up. You might ask, why is that? It should be a great thing that people are getting wage hikes finally after many, many years. Well, the markets actually don't like wage hikes because that means that interest rates are probably going to go up at some stage, the Fed is going to need to raise them to get ahead of inflation, and the markets don't like that. So we're having this sort of strange disconnect right now --