Subject: Fwd: Travel pool 7/more Dreamplex and lid
From: White House Press Office<[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 24 May 2016 07:35:40 -0500

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Nakamura, David" <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>>
Date: May 24, 2016 at 7:28:43 PM GMT+7
To: "Barnes, Desiree N. N. EOP/WHO" <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>>
Subject: Travel pool 7/more Dreamplex and lid

Obama interviewed the entrepreneurs for about 20 minutes before they turned the tables and asked him some questions. The first was, "When you were a kid did you dream of becoming president one day?'

The president responded: "No. Some people, they had a very clear vision for themselves. I was not as well organized as all of you when I was young. It wasn't until i was in college that i began to develop a sense of wanting to make a difference and even then i didn't know how i might do it. I was actually very skeptical of politics. I thought politicians were not always looking out for the people, too often they were looking out for themselves. I worked in communities trying to hold politicians accountable. The first job I did was in the non profit sector. Not until I finished law school did I think I might be interested in politics. I went law school with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman; he was much smarter than me. Not until I came out of law school did I think I might run for office some day."

Obama then said young people today are more sophisticated and the internet has allowed more ideas to reach them when thinking about their careers and lives and what they can do. He said young people now not thinking they'll work 30-40 years in same job "because the economy is just changing so quickly."

He said a rule in Silicon Valley is that if you haven't failed, you're probably not a good entrepreneur because "the first idea you have is not going to work. You have to be resilient and learn from your failures."

The other woman asked whether Malia could visit Vietnam, but Potus chuckled and noted she's nearly 18 and implied she no longer listens to him: "If you want her to come to Vietnam, I shouldn't be the one to tell her. You should tell her."

Obama said the world is interconnected more than every and easier for entrepreneurs with good ideas to aim globally. He then was asked about the TPP and he said he's confident it will pass and gave a long answer about the benefits of the deal. He said past deals and outflows of jobs to China and Mexico gave impression that trade deals are bad for US economy but he emphasized that the US economy gained a lot of jobs in other sectors and trade deals are on positive a benefit. He said some people remain skeptical because of past deals but overall the American public supports such deals.
"The good news is the majority of Americans still believe in trade. The bad news is politics in the United States is not always, how should I put it, reasonable. That's the word I want. but I'm confident we're going to get it done. In past negotiations on trade deals, even though there was a lot of opposition at end of the day we get it don."

"Nothing's easy in Washington these days. But despite the lack of cooperation in Congress, I seem to be able to get a lot of things done anyways. It could be easier. I would have a lot less gray hair if Congress was working effectively." He gave shouts out to Congressmen  Castro and O'Rourke who were among the crowd and joined him on the trip.

After the session, the motorcade drove a couple miles to the Potus hotel and we have a lid.
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