The funny things you run across in White House transcripts. This is the same one in which alien DNA is mentioned, which falls into the category of shocking but not surprising, but this one is surprising:
[President Trump]: Today, I’m proud to announce one of the most important deals in the history of U.S. pharmaceutical industries. My administration has reached a historic agreement with a great American company — you remember this company; it’s called — from the good, old camera age, the old days — to begin producing critical pharmaceutical ingredients. It’s called Kodak. And it’s going to be right here in America.
So I want to congratulate the people in Kodak. They’ve been working very hard. Members of my administration are present in Rochester right now — Rochester, New York — a good place. And they’re trying to finalize this groundbreaking deal, and they will be announcing this deal. …
With this new agreement, my administration is using the Defense Production Act to provide a $765 million loan to support the launch of Kodak Pharmaceuticals. It’s a great name, when you think of it. Such a great name. It was one of the great brands in the world. Then people went digital, and Kodak didn’t follow. But now, under very extraordinary leadership, they are following and they’re doing something that’s a different field, and it’s a field that they’ve really hired some of the best people in the world to be taking care of that company and watching that company — watching over it. But it’s a breakthrough in bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States.
Given the corruption of the Trump Administration, I have to wonder if Kodak’s using a kick-back scheme to get a needed injection of money.
For the record, Eastman Kodak (KODK) is up more than 300% today as I write this.
And, remember, especially for younger readers, for Trump’s generation, Kodak is a hallowed, iconic name, and there was widespread shock when Kodak imploded due to the advent of digital photography. In that sense, this may simply be Trump’s way of trying to return to the past.
Or maybe he invested in Kodak just prior to this announcement.
Or maybe, just maybe, Eastman Kodak has the capability to do what they’re being asked to do. Old style photography manufacturing did involve a certain amount of chemical expertise, after all. And, honestly, I hope that’s the case here.
But I won’t be surprised if we see Trump in court over this deal, either as President or personally.
