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The White House • June 20, 2019 President Trump hosts Canada’s Justin Trudeau at the White House A day after Mexico’s 114-4 landslide vote to become the first country to ratify the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Washington today. In addition to meeting with President Donald J. Trump at the White House, the Prime Minister encouraged Congress to make USMCA a bipartisan priority. “We’ve worked hard to build a great trade deal that’s good for Canadian workers, good for American workers, good for Mexican workers as well,” Prime Minister Trudeau said. “This is just a really great opportunity for us to continue to work and to develop and to build on the closest alliance in the world, between Canada and the United States.” Share: President Trump welcomes Prime Minister Trudeau  President Trump said the new deal, which would replace the 25-year-old NAFTA, is a win for everybody. “It’s great for the farmers, manufacturers . . . It’s great for unions,” he said. It also puts all of North America on the same economic team. “In a trade sense, we’re competing with the European Union. We’re competing with China. It gives us a bigger dialogue. It gives us a much bigger platform.” Outside of Washington, momentum is growing for USMCA. Today, Congressional leaders from both parties received a letter signed by a majority of the nation’s Governors, calling for swift passage of the deal. “Nearly 25 years after the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, it is time to update our trade policies,” they write. Former Democratic leaders have been vocal in their support for USMCA, as well. “Consider how USMCA would boost wages for workers in the auto industry, which supports over 7 million U.S. jobs,” former Vermont Governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean says. “It also makes it easier for Mexican workers to form unions and collectively bargain . . . thereby making it less attractive for U.S. companies to shift production and operations to our southern neighbor.” The bottom line: “This deal has the strongest labor provisions of any U.S. trade agreement in history,” Dean says. “I really believe that Nancy Pelosi and the House will approve it,” President Trump told reporters from the Oval Office today. “I think the Senate will approve it rapidly.” President Trump is making the U.S.–Canada partnership stronger than ever. 🎬 President Trump: “We’ve come a long way” on USMCA Video of the day: Ivanka Trump visits Charlotte This week, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump traveled with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to the Siemens Charlotte Energy Hub in North Carolina, where they learned more about the company’s world-class apprenticeship program. Over the past year, Ms. Trump has traveled across the country, highlighting the programs that help reskill American workers for the jobs of tomorrow. Under President Trump’s Pledge to America’s Workers, which launched last summer, more than 9 million such workforce development opportunities have been created in the United States. Siemens USA alone has pledged 75,000 of those. Photo of the Day Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead President Donald J. Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pose for a photo in the West Wing Lobby entrance of the White House | June 20, 2019  The White House • June 19, 2019 Ronald Reagan’s famed economist, Art Laffer, receives Medal of Freedom from President Trump In 1974, America’s confidence was rattled. Two million Americans joined the unemployment lines that year alone, while inflation soared to a stunning 11 percent. The consensus in Washington—on both sides of the aisle—was that raising taxes and growing government could help our country crawl its way to prosperity. A young economist named Dr. Arthur Laffer challenged that status quo—and in doing so sparked an economic revolution that changed history. 🎬 Watch: President Trump awards economist Arthur Laffer the Medal of Freedom Known as the “Father of Supply-Side Economics,” Dr. Laffer’s work has brought millions out of poverty and on track toward a better life. Today, President Donald J. Trump recognized that legacy by presenting Dr. Laffer with America’s highest civilian honor. Forty-five years ago, at a now-legendary dinner with Ford White House officials Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, Dr. Laffer pulled out his napkin and drew a small graph. With the now-famous “Laffer Curve,” he illustrated how when tax rates creep too high, people stop spending and investing—leading to less growth and, paradoxically, lower tax revenues. On the other hand, at a certain point on the curve, lower tax rates help spur investment, economic growth, and even government tax receipts. Seem obvious? It is today—for most conservatives, at least. But in 1974, the “Laffer Curve” was economic heresy. Prominent leaders and academics dismissed it out of hand as “insanity” and “completely off the wall.” Dr. Laffer would go on to prove them all wrong. The Reagan Revolution, beginning in 1980, would see Dr. Laffer’s ideas take center stage as he helped shape President Ronald Reagan’s low-tax, pro-growth working-class agenda. He played vital roles in both the 1981 and 1986 tax cut laws, which ultimately chopped the top marginal rate for individuals from 70 percent to 28 percent. The rest, as we know, is history. After years of dreaded “stagflation,” the U.S. economy skyrocketed. More than 12 million new jobs were created. Inflation collapsed. GDP soared by nearly 30 percent. Since the 1980s, more than 30 countries have adopted similar tax cuts and reforms. As a result, Dr. Laffer’s policies have helped lift nearly a billion people out of poverty. Not a bad legacy to start with a sketch on a napkin. Video of the day: The USNS Comfort deploys on a mission of compassion At the Port of Miami yesterday, Vice President Mike Pence gave special thanks to the crew of the USNS Comfort before they embarked on a lifesaving mission to Latin America. “The generosity and the compassion and the care of the American people for the struggling people of Venezuela will set sail again aboard the USNS Comfort,” he said. Under the oppressive Maduro regime, more than 4 million Venezuelans have fled their homeland, many in desperate need of medical care. During the next five months, the USNS Comfort will make stops in 13 partner nations to assist these displaced people. The ship itself brings significant medical capabilities to the region, including one of the largest trauma facilities in all of the United States Navy. “On behalf of your Commander-in-Chief: You're embarking on a vital mission, and we're grateful for your service,” the Vice President said. In photos: Vice President Pence tours the USNS Comfort Photo of the Day Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian President Donald J. Trump presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to economist Arthur B. Laffer in the Oval Office | June 19, 2019 Mexico Becomes First Country to Approve USMCA “Mexico’s Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of approving the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, a deal that would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement,” Zachary Halaschak reports in the Washington Examiner. “The measure passed with a 114-4 vote, bringing the agreement one step closer to fruition . . . Canada has already introduced legislation through its parliament to ratify the agreement and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to lobby Democrats to support the USMCA during his visit to Washington, D.C., this week.” Click here to read more. “Last month, 144,000 people were arrested at our southern border. Many of these people were not trying to escape the Border Patrol, but were turning themselves in. Why? Because our asylum process is laughably easy to take advantage of,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) writes in Fox News. “House Democrats remain silent on the issue, leaving Americans with only one impression: that they don’t actually want the asylum crisis to be solved; that they don’t want illegal immigration to end; that they don’t want to improve the conditions migrants are held in.” “Breaking the law must have consequences,” writes National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd in Fox News. Our immigration laws are no exception—and whenever they’ve gone unenforced, criminals have historically exploited the loopholes. Consider this example: “In the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector during the early 2000s, the United States Attorney's office implemented a [500 lb.] ‘threshold’ on the prosecution of marijuana smugglers,” Judd writes. So what did the smugglers do? “Oftentimes the loads would be exactly 499 pounds.” “There’s too much at stake for our farmers to let this opportunity pass by. USMCA will expand economic opportunity in the heartland,” Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL) writes in the Washington Examiner. “However, as things stand, USMCA is being held hostage by career politicians in Washington who are hell-bent on preventing President Trump from getting a win. A delay in approval of this agreement will hit the wallets of family farms in Illinois and across the country.” “President Trump values his opinion, just as President Ronald Reagan did throughout the 1980s. On Wednesday, Art Laffer, 78, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, at the White House,” Fox Business reports. “A champion of low taxes and tax cuts, he has earned a reputation that has made him one of America’s most noted economic advisers to several U.S. presidents.”