Remarks to the Independent Community Bankers Association

May 1, 2017

Wow, wow, look at that. [Applause] Oh boy, oh boy. They love Dodd-Frank, don't they? They love it. [Laughter] Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Very nice. Sit down, please. Beautiful hats. [Laughter]

Well, thanks, Mike Pence. And Mike has been so great, and he's on your side, believe me. He's on everybody's side.

It's a pleasure to welcome the community bankers to the White House today. I want to, in particular, thank Cam Fine. Cam Fine. Cam—stand up, Cam Fine. Pretty well-known guy too, huh? [Laughter] Congratulations, Cam, for leading the Independent Community Bankers of America. And thank you for all being here today. Very, very special.

It's also a very special place, isn't it? When they say, how about coming to the White House, usually about 130 percent—we try and find, who are the extras that are coming? We always have to be careful. But it's a great place.

I also want to thank our Small Business Administrator, Linda McMahon. Where's Linda? Is she around someplace? Linda McMahon. Yes, thank you. Where? Thanks, Linda, for joining us today. She's doing an incredible job helping small businesses just like you. Or, some of you, I know you, you're not that small. I hate to tell you, you're not small. A lot of people would like to be small, right, Cam? They'd like to be small like these small-business people. But they're great people, employ a lot of people, and what they do through community development is amazing.

Community banks are the backbone of small business in America. Many of you are the reason that young families can purchase their first homes, farmers can buy their next tractor, and entrepreneurs can open up their first business, creating many, many new jobs in our country. So true—community banks. Over half of the small business and loans going to small business—and it's really a substantial number higher than that—come from their community banker. You provide critical access to capital, especially for the rural communities.

That's why, in the first 100 days, I have taken action to roll back burdensome regulations that undermine community banks, especially—I know you're going to be very disappointed at this—Dodd-Frank, right? [Applause] No, it's out of control.

And by the way, not only for community banks, for banks period. We can take community out of that one, right? [Laughter] No, Dodd-Frank, we're working on that right now and you'll see a very big difference, because you want to get out and make our country work properly.

I've directed my administration to provide regulatory reform and relief so that those rules don't shut down community banks—which have been shutting down—and small businesses and put them on a competitive disadvantage against the larger institutions. That's what it's done. It's really made you and given you such a tremendous competitive disadvantage. I have friends that are community bankers, and they've gone through hell over the last long period of time. It's really a much longer period of time than people would understand.

I've also directed Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to review damaging Dodd-Frank regulations that encourage risky behavior from Wall Street. Everybody knows what that means. We're also working to achieve tax reform and dramatically lower taxes on businesses and the middle class. We're proposing one of the largest tax cuts in history, even larger than that of President Ronald Reagan. Our tax cut is bigger. [Applause] Bigger.

My administration is committed to working with each and every one of you to help Americans achieve their financial dreams so that—look, we're all here for the same thing. You know, we have a statement. It's really—I like it much better than even your hat—it says, "Make America Great Again," and that's what we all want, right? We want to all make it great again, and that's what's going to happen.

So I want to thank you all for being here. Very, very special people. You do a very, very special job, and the community really understands it. I know community bankers are the most popular person in their community, and they've built communities, and they've really been so badly hurt over the last number of years.

So we're going to change that. We're going to change regulations. We're going to give the incentives back, and you're going to grow and thrive and prosper. And maybe even more importantly, you're going to have businesses all over the country growing and thriving and prospering.

So I want to thank you for being here. It's a great honor. And you will see things happening like you've never seen before. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:01 p.m. in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Vice President Michael R. Pence; and Camden R. Fine, president and chief executive officer, Independent Community Bankers of America.