Remarks by President Trump After Meeting with Patients and Medical Professionals

University Medical Center

Las Vegas, Nevada

11:53 A.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT: Hey, everybody. I just got done and I just met some of the most amazing people. We met patients that were absolutely terribly wounded. And the doctors, the nurses, all of the people at the hospital have done a job that’s indescribable. And they were full the night that it happened, before it happened, and they found room for many people. How many people came in, Doctor?

DR. FILDES: We had 100 come in and we admitted 50.

THE PRESIDENT: What I saw today is just an incredible tribute to professionalism, and what they have done is incredible. And you never want to see it again, that I can tell you. And the patients, the bravery — some were very, very badly wounded, and they were badly wounded because they refused to leave. They wanted to help others because they saw people going down all over.

And it’s an incredible thing to see. There’s tremendous bravery. The police department, incredible. The people themselves, incredible. People leaving ambulances to have somebody else go because they thought they were hurt even more so. The professionalism of the doctors and the medical staffs at this hospital and at other hospitals — you were saying how the coordination that you had with other hospitals –

DR. FILDES: The community covered everything. They did a perfect job.

THE PRESIDENT: John, say a few words to the press.

DR. FILDES: We couldn’t be more proud of the community response. Every hospital took serious patients. Everybody took care of them well. And we’ve exercised our disaster plan in Las Vegas, and it was rolled out flawlessly.

THE PRESIDENT: I have to tell you, it makes you very proud to be an American when you see the job that they’ve done. And people that would not be around today are up there and they’ll be leaving the hospital in a week or two weeks, or five weeks, and in some cases, even in a few days.

MR. FILDES: In a few hours.

THE PRESIDENT: It’s amazing. One in a few hours. And you would never have believed that.

So I just want to congratulate everybody. It’s incredible. Incredible what you’ve done. We met quite a few people. And, believe me, they are very lucky to be here.

Q What message do you have for them, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think the only message I can say is that we’re with you 100 percent. We are — in fact, I invited a lot of them over to the White House. I said, if you’re ever in Washington, come on over to the Oval Office. (Laughter.) And they’re all saying, “We want to do it. How do we do it?” And believe me, I’ll be there for them.

But the message that I have is: We have a great country and we are there for you. And they’re there for us.

Q Mr. President, do you think (inaudible) a gun violence problem?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re not going to talk about that today. We won’t talk about that.

Q Any indication of a motive, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: Not yet, and we’re looking. I can tell you, it’s a very sick man. He was a very demented person. We haven’t seen that yet, but you will know very soon if we find something. We’re looking very, very hard.

I’m actually going over to the police department, who likewise, Doctor, been incredible.

DR. FILDES: Unbelievable.

THE PRESIDENT: The fact that they were able to locate that zone and get in there — they say 11 minutes — whatever it was, it kept him busy and he stopped firing because he knew they were coming into that door at some point. And I think they did an incredible job.

The professionalism has just been amazing. So I want to thank you all. And we’re now going over to the police headquarters.

And, doctors, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Fantastic. Thank you.

Q Mr. President, any response to Rex Tillerson’s comments –

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. I’m very honored by his comments. It was fake news. It was a totally phony story.

Thank you very much. It was made up. It was made up by NBC. They just made it up.

Thank you all. Thank you.

Q Do you have confidence in him?

THE PRESIDENT: Total confidence in Rex. I have total confidence.

Thank you very much, everybody.

END

                               11:57 A.M. PDT