POTUS is talking about when he met with them (before that) as candidate Trump. He determined by his previous meetings with them, that most churches were being treated unfairly (if not harshly and illegally under the Obama Admin.) due to the 1954 Johnson Act.
POTUS Trump has said that he before that he "repealed" the Johnson Act, which is technically not true, as that would take an act of Congress. The MSM therefore, portrays this as one of "the many lies Trump has told".
As it would require an act of Congress, POTUS Trump signed an E.O. that effectively muzzled the I.R.S. from meddling with churches with unnecessary audits, threats of 501(c)3 status revocation, changes to their property tax, etc.
So POTUS didn't "repeal" the Johnson Act, but removed the teeth and defanged the I.R.S. from any actions…for now. We can hope that after the 2020 election, POTUS will insist that a unified House and Senate repeal the 65 year old Act.
I can't say whether this type of I.R.S. harassment was worse under Obama or Clinton. Both used the I.R.S. to persecute churches. But during the Clinton Admin. there were countless cases across the Nation where small "home churches" were being threatened with legal action under the guise of City Codes (U.C.C./Uniform Commercial Codes).
Bad enough to sick the I.R.S. on people of faith, let alone use the Uniform Commercial Code and the Universal Postal Union against the "Strawman" people - who were using their fictional character's address as a place for followers of Christ to commune.