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Home » FULL TRANSCRIPT: Trump Press Conference in California

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Trump Press Conference in California

Read here the full transcript of former president Donald Trump’s news conference at his golf club outside of Los Angeles, California on Friday, September 13, 2024.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

Thank you. Thank you very much. Before we begin, I’d like to introduce the mayor of Rancho Palos Verdes, who’s been a very popular mayor. He’s done a fantastic job. And he’s really something very special: John Cruikshank. And he’ll say a few words.

About two miles up the road, they’re having some problems with slides into a thing called the Pacific Ocean. And a lot of people would like to hear about it and what the mayor is doing to get it remedied. And he’ll take care of it. So, John, please.

John Cruikshank: “Well, I was only expecting to come speak with the president today, and he’s gracious enough to invite me to speak to you all, which is an important moment for the city of Rancho Palos Verdes. In 2002, the Trump Golf Course opened up here, and they’ve been a great business here in our community. As the president mentioned, our city has been having a lot of issues with a landslide that’s less than a mile from here. We have about 600 homes, several thousand residents that have been affected. They’ve lost power, gas, and it’s been moving at an unprecedented rate for the last couple of years because of the rain.

We believe we can solve the problem, but we really need the assistance of the state of California and the federal government. We have solutions out there for that, but the problem is bigger than the city of Rancho Palos Verdes. And so it’s important that we get the attention and the help of the people of California and of the federal government. So I’m here to thank the president for having me here today. Obviously, I’m a tiny bit nervous. This is a very big deal. Thank you.”

So anyhow, we very much appreciate you all being here, and of course, I know you’re here for the president, but covering what’s going on in our city is really important, and it’s meant a lot to our community of 42,000 people. So thank you so much.

But you have a lot of people living over there, and I think John would like to see the help of the state government and the federal government, and so far, they’re missing in action. Okay? Thank you. Thank you very much.

Trump National Los Angeles

This is Trump National Los Angeles, and it’s been a tremendous success for a long time. I guess Lily would be 18 or 19 years, I think, right? And I built it. I have a little bit of a motto, but we never have to advertise because it’s always loaded up with golfers. Very good golfers. It’s a world championship course. It fronts on the Pacific Ocean, as you can see. Actually fronts, you know, most – very few courses front on the Pacific Ocean. There’s Pebble Beach and there’s some others, but I always say I have the ocean, Pebble Beach has the bay. The ocean’s better than the bay.

And this course is one of the best courses anywhere in the world, and it’s done really well and we’ve had a lot of fun with it, so it’s been great. It’s a major property, as you can imagine. We do also lots of weddings and lots of events, and in the ballroom right behind you. And people get married literally on a nightly basis, looking over the Pacific Ocean. So we have something that’s very special. We’re proud of it.

Landslides and Public Safety

Well, thank you all for being here. Before we begin, I want to express my support for all of the families affected by the landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes. The slides are – something can be taken care of. This area is very solid. But you go down – a couple of miles down, you’ll see something that’s pretty amazing. The mountain is moving and it can be stopped, but they need some help from the government, so I hope they get the help, and I’m sure John will have the help. And I want to thank the mayor for the great job he’s doing. I tell that to the people, what a great job he’s doing.

I just met with the mayor and especially want to salute all of the public safety and emergency personnel who are working down the road, as well as the utility workers who are fighting to restore service to local residents. It’s another thing when you live along the coast. Sometimes that happens. It’s a little bit more difficult, but when they fix it, it’s – there’s nothing like it. There really is nothing like it.

Criticism of California’s Leadership

I want to say in California, with a very simple message for the American people, we cannot allow Comrade Kamala Harris and the communist left to do to America what they did to California. The state of California is a mess with people leaving, and nothing is going to stop them. They’re going to other states. Some are going to other countries. But what they’ve done, Gavin Newsom and Kamala – and I want to say Kamala more so – she destroyed San Francisco and she destroyed the state.

When you look at the kind of destruction that’s taken place, it’s all man-made or woman-made destruction too. It’s things that should have never happened. But we’re not going to let that happen with four more years of her in the White House. Because if you have what happened to this country as what they allowed to happen in California and San Francisco, one of the great cities of the world 15 years ago, and today it’s not in a very good position, to put it mildly, and this state, which is probably the best piece of real estate in the world, this state, you have the sunshine, you have the ocean, you have everything, you have the perfect weather, the best weather, and they’ve hurt it so badly, so badly.

Decades ago, San Francisco was known as one of the most beautiful cities anywhere in the world.