President Trump: ‘No citizen will be forgotten’

The day he took office, President Donald J. Trump made a promise to the American people. “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now.”

For years, our government didn’t operate that way. Washington put its own interests and grand plans above the basic, everyday needs of our citizens. Outside the Beltway, “a different reality exists,” President Trump said on Inauguration Day—children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted-out factories scattered across our heartland, and crime and drugs rooted in too many of our communities.

Today, President Trump took another major step toward reversing that decline and restoring the American Dream for all.

Speaking from the Cabinet Room, the President kicked off the inaugural meeting of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, which will lead the Administration’s effort to renew hope and dignity in distressed parts of our country. Scott Turner, a former NFL player and state legislator, will oversee the Council’s work.

“This is very close to my heart,” Turner said.

Fifty-two million Americans live in economically distressed communities. Despite the historic streak of job creation and wage growth under President Trump, these areas are often plagued by high poverty levels, failing schools, and a scarcity of jobs. To reverse their fortunes, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act created massive incentives for investment in these places, creating jobs and opportunities where they are needed the most.

The early returns are incredible in these “Opportunity Zones,” which cover 8,700 communities across all 50 states. Property sale prices have soared more than 20 percentannually in these zones, building wealth for the people who live there and encouraging more economic activity in the process.

The new Council, under Turner’s leadership, will build on this success. “Our actions will directly improve the lives of countless low-income Americans,” President Trump said today. “Together we can lift up every forgotten community.”

The Trump tax cut boom, by the numbers

Watch: Meet Scott Turner, who will lead the Opportunity Zone charge

Video of the day: Smugglers push children through barbed wire barrier

On December 18, U.S. Border Patrol captured footage of human smugglers pushing family units through an old, barbed-wire section of border fencing near Yuma, Arizona. The image of children being forced along in this journey speaks louder than any words can.

This is the crisis Congressional Democrats and their media allies don’t want you to see—and the one President Trump is fighting to end.