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Did Donald Trump say, speaking of the Keystone XL pipeline extension:

I want it built, but I want a piece of the profits.

This claim was made in this Facebook post by Friends of the Earth.

Oddthinking
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Daniel R Hicks
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    The problem with quotes without context is you cannot tell their level of seriousness or sarcasm. – LCIII Feb 10 '17 at 19:11
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    From the articles in the answer below, it appears that by "I want a piece of the profits" he means a piece of the profits for the U.S. via tax, not for him personally, which I would guess is what is implied in the original claim. – Reinstate Monica -- notmaynard Feb 10 '17 at 19:18
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    In context, it was pretty clear that he meant that he wanted the United States to get a bigger share of the profits than Canada was previously offering. It was another version of the Trump theme that we had made lots of bad deals with other countries and that he could make better deals for the United States. – David Schwartz Feb 10 '17 at 20:34
  • I added a link to the post you referred to. – Reinstate Monica -- notmaynard Feb 10 '17 at 20:43

1 Answers1

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A google search of the phrase will show you that he did indeed say it during a campaign speech on energy policy in North Dakota on May 26, 2016. Multiple sources have quoted it, i.e. this piece from Bloomberg:

Donald Trump is convinced the Keystone XL oil pipeline he revived with an executive order on Jan. 24 will gush money. “I want it built, but I want a piece of the profits,” he said last year at a campaign stop in North Dakota. “That’s how we’re going to make our country rich again.”

It was also reported by the CBC:

"I would absolutely approve it, 100 per cent, but I would want a better deal. I want it built, but I want a piece of the profits," Trump said. "That's how we're going to make our country rich again."

It certainly sounds like Trump wants a cut from TransCanada, something that's likely to be difficult under NAFTA.

Here is more focused coverage of the actual speech from Reuters.

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rougon
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  • The QA here is: "Did Trump mean 'himself personally' or 'the USA'?". This is a non-answer, as it utterly fails to address or even mention the question. It's useful of you to have dug up more accurate quotes and sources - you should edit those into the *question* above. If you have an answer to the question ("Did Trump mean 'himself personally' or 'the USA'?") go ahead and put in an answer. – Fattie Feb 11 '17 at 15:01
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    @JoeBlow Where do you see that question ("Did Trump mean 'himself personally' or 'the USA'?") being asked? That seems like an implication, not a question. – rougon Feb 11 '17 at 15:44
  • Hey rougon. It's precisely what the "Friends of the Earth" facebook post in question literally says. (I mean, if you're saying the question on thois page should literally paste in some of the facebook post in question ("Trump is ALREADY planning to destroy the environment to enrich himself and his cronies."), rather than just have the link to the facebook post in question - sure.) – Fattie Feb 11 '17 at 15:47
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    @JoeBlow a) the actual link wasn't posted when the question was asked, b) I tried to answer the question as asked ("Did Donald Trump say..."), not guess what the OP wanted me to answer. That's my understanding of policy here. – rougon Feb 11 '17 at 15:52
  • rougon .. "the actual link wasn't posted when the question was asked" Ah, fair enough. Then the whole page is a shambles beyond belief. Unfortunately I can't really remove my comments since, in some sense, one can only address the here and now. ie, what I say is correct no the face of it; I'm sorry if your efforts were totally screwed-ver by someone completely changing the question :/ – Fattie Feb 11 '17 at 15:55
  • I've just realize the question was fortunately closed, anyway - so it's all moot. Cheers. – Fattie Feb 11 '17 at 15:56
  • Trying to decipher what Trump _meant_ is an exercise in futility. Trump himself can't even do that. Proving that he said the thing is sufficient. People can take away their own conclusions about what he meant. – aroth Jun 04 '18 at 10:29