President Donald Trump on Friday delivered an infrastructure speech in which he displayed what he said was a $29 million, 70-pound environmental report that state officials paid for to get an 18-mile roadway approved, highlighting the hurdles and paperwork that builders face to start major projects.
Trump spoke at the Department of Transportation to conclude a weeklong promotion for his $1 trillion infrastructure plan. The president argued that Americans face bureaucratic challenges and burdensome regulations to get projects approved, arguing for a simpler, streamlined process.
To illustrate his point, Trump said he met with state officials responsible for managing infrastructure construction before his speech. One official from Maryland told him about the work that was required to approve the building of a road just 18 miles long.
"They spent $29 million for an environmental report weighing 70 pounds and costing $24,000 per page," Trump said.
"And I said, do me a favor, I'm going to make a speech in a little while. Do you mind if I take that and show it?" he said. "So I'm going to show it."
Trump then crossed the stage to where three thick binders sat stacked on top of each other. He raised one of the three hefty binders in the air, showed it to the audience, flipped through its pages, and then dumped it on the ground, causing a loud thud.
"Nobody's gonna read it," Trump said, rifling through the second binder and then dropping it, too.
Some members of the audience could be heard laughing as Trump dropped the binders.
Trump then flipped through the third binder before returning to the podium.
"So they spent millions and millions of dollars—when I said how long has this short roadway been talked about, the gentleman said, 'Well, if you say 20 years, you're safe,'" Trump said.