Daily Download on the latest news and top issues of the day.
Eleven days from the Inauguration Day, on a very cold New York morning around 9 A.M. Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks were already at the Trump Tower. At 9:27 A.M., Gary Cohn, the Goldman Sachs executive who Trump tapped as director of his National Economic Council, arrived at Trump’s Manhattan residence.
Today, President-elect has met with Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group. In a brief appearance in front of the press pool at noon, President-elect Trump said: “We had a great meeting. Jack Ma is a great, great entrepreneur, one of the best in the world. And he loves this country and he loves China.”
President-elect said that he had a great meeting with Ma and that they are going to create 1 million jobs for Americans: “You all just saw what happened with Fiat, where they’re going to build a massive plant in the United States, in Michigan, and we’re very happy and Jack and I are going to do some great things. Small business, right?”
Ma has confirmed that the meeting with President-elect Trump focused on small business and young people, specifically on supporting 1 million small business in MidWest selling agriculture products, wine, fruits etc. ” We are helping America small business selling their products via Alibaba platform to China and Asia, we are big in Asia”, said Ma. He referred to President-elect Trump as being very smart and he dismissed any potential conflict with China. He insisted that going forward, “China and US relations should be strengthened and more friendly”.
Shortly after Ma left Trump Tower, President-elect Trump reappeared in front of the press pool this time with a French business magnate, CEO of LVMH Bernard Arnault.
Trump introduced Arnault as one of the greatest men who love America. “They’re going to do some wonderful things in this country.” By wonderful things, President-elect referred to the creation of a lot of new jobs.
Arnault affirmed that he was considering expanding his factories to include possibly two others in the U.S., maybe in North Carolina, and possibly in the midwest.
For the Transition Team, this will be a big week on the Capitol Hill expecting numerous confirmations of nominations. Jeff Sessions and John Kelly are expected to be confirmed tomorrow. Addressing the question if he had any concerns and what his expectations are regarding confirmations, President-elect Trump said:
“Confirmation is going great. I think they’ll all pass. I think every nomination will be — they’re all at the highest level. Jack was even saying, they are the absolute highest level. I think they’re going to do very well.”
We will resume with our Daily Download tomorrow.