FULL TRANSCRIPT: Trump Town Hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania 

I said, what are we doing here? So we get the hell out. But, you know, I had a talk with the Taliban and we didn’t lose one soldier in 18 months until this catastrophe happened when they took over.

But, you know, one of the things we, aside from everything else, we left, we spent billions of dollars years ago to build a big airbase. And you knew that one from your own time.

KRISTI NOEM: Yes, I did.

DONALD TRUMP: A big one, a really good one, powerful runways, long runways. And you know what happened, I’ll tell you, they gave it up. And it was one hour away from where China built, forget about Afghanistan, one hour away from where China builds its nuclear weapons. Would have been very nice to have. And China now occupies that airbase. So it’s terrible. It’s terrible.

KRISTI NOEM: It is. Mr. President, as you can see, we’ve got a lot of American patriots here tonight who want to ask you some questions.

DONALD TRUMP: Good.

KRISTI NOEM: If you don’t mind, we’ll move into that portion of the town hall tonight. Let’s go to our first question. Our first question is going to be from a man named Reid. And Reid, I’m not certain where you are.

DONALD TRUMP: Where’s Reid? There he is. Hi, Reid.

KRISTI NOEM: There he is, over there.

DONALD TRUMP: Nice looking guy.

KRISTI NOEM: Reid, I believe you’re a Navy SEAL, correct?

REID: No.

KRISTI NOEM: No. Okay, I got that wrong. All right, thank you very much.

Housing Affordability

AUDIENCE QUESTION: Good evening, Mr. President. My name is Reid. I’m a single father and Iraq War veteran. I dream of owning a home for me and my son, but mortgage rates under the Biden-Harris administration have made that impossible. What can you do to help make homeownership affordable again?

DONALD TRUMP: All right, good. It’s a great question. And a lot of people have this question. First of all, it’s too expensive to build the homes, and they’re building them, and they cost a fortune. And 30% of the cost in some locations is the cost of, like, planning and certificates and all a lot of nonsense they do. They make you go through hell. It takes years to get them, zoning approvals, all of the approvals you need. We’re going to get rid of a lot of that.

But most importantly, we’re going to get interest rates brought way down. You know, we had interest rates at 2%, and now they’re 10%, and you can’t get the money. We had 2%, and there was plenty of money for everybody. And, you know, I call the home part of the American dream. We’re going to create the American dream for young people and for older people, too, by the way. We’re not going to forget.

I mean, I happen to be a very young man, but we’re not going to forget the older people. We’re not going to forget the older people. By the way, no tax on Social Security benefits for the older people. I guess, you know, somebody said, oh, he’s got a conflict of interest because he benefits by that. I’ll give mine up if you want. I’d save tax. But no, we’re going to do that for the older people. That’s a big deal because you’ve been eaten alive with inflation.

And all I’m doing is getting you back to even. I think when we do that, we’re probably just getting you, you know, you have fixed income and you went up numbers like 30, 40, 50, depending on what they include. You know, they like to say it was a 20 percent increase. It wasn’t. It was 30, 40 and 50, depending on what they want to include. So we’re going to do that.

But Reid, getting back to you, we’re going to drill, baby drill. We’re going to have so much energy and we’re going to bring prices down because, you know, your prices are up. Don’t forget the damage is done. We have the worst president and the worst vice president in the history of our country by far. Let me tell you, she is worse than him. And he’s actually I didn’t think I’d ever say this about anybody. She’s actually you take a look at. She’s more dangerous than him, but he’s actually smarter than her. I never thought I’d say that. I never thought I’d say that.

But look, we’re going to get it down. We’re going to drill. We’re going to get the energy down when the energy comes down. Prices are going to come down. All of that prices, because, you know, when they say, oh, although they had very bad inflation numbers last month, you saw that very, very bad inflation numbers, despite the big you know, they did this big drop, probably too big a drop. I’m not going to get into that. But we’re going to get the prices down because the damage has been done. If we had no inflation now, such damage has been done.

The highest, in my opinion, the biggest inflation in the history of our country. They didn’t include a lot of the bad numbers. I’ll give you an example on housing and on different things like crime statistics are fake. They were fake statistics. They didn’t include some cities that were really bad. So the crime looked like it was just bad as opposed to being horrific jobs. Eight hundred and eighteen thousand fake jobs they added. And they padded the job numbers a couple of months ago so that they’d look better on jobs. Eight hundred and eighteen. They were fake. They were fraudulent jobs. And they thought that announced the real numbers after the election.

But we had a whistleblower or somebody that let it out. So they cheated us on 18. Think of that. Eight hundred and eighteen thousand jobs. They cheated. You know, usually when you have those numbers, it’s nine thousand jobs of it. This is almost a million jobs off. It’s not even possible.

So we’re going to bring things and Reid, you’re going to buy that house and you’re going to pay two and a half, 3 percent interest. And you’re going to say, I love this guy because interest rates read will follow as the energy goes down. And I made another commitment. I made it over the last month. I’ve been making it. We have more liquid gold under our feet than Saudi Arabia, than Russia, than any other country. I’m going to bring down your energy costs 50 percent in the first year. Five. Fifty percent. And I better do it because I’m all over the place thing. I’m going to have problems if I don’t get it done.

But we have all the capacity to do it. Nobody else can make that statement. We have so much energy. We don’t even use it. We get energy from Venezuela. They don’t have good oil. You know, they have tar. They have tar that you have to liquefy. And you know where they do it in Houston, Texas, because that’s where we have the plant. It’s the only plant in the world that can do it. We do it in Houston. So for the environmentalists out there, this is not a pretty picture, what flows into the air, right?

But we’re going to use our beautiful liquid gold. And when we get everything else down, houses, everything’s going to come. It’s going to be beautiful. You’re going to have a house. Just wait a little while. Give me a little while. Let me get in. One year from January 20th, we will have your energy prices cut in half all over the country.

KRISTI NOEM: Thank you. And Mr. President, in reference to Reid and his family, he’s not in a unique situation. Sixty-five percent of Americans today cannot buy a home. That has dramatically changed under the Biden-Harris administration. And Kamala Harris has embraced the policies that made homeownership disappear and disappear and take away that opportunity from Reid and his family and 65 percent of Americans today.

Listen, the American dream is still to own your own home. And now that is not possible because of what they’ve embraced. And you talk about liquid gold. If any state understands liquid gold and American energy, it’s Pennsylvania.

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. The Commonwealth. Make sure. Make sure, you know. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

By the way, this is a really great governor, very successful governor. She read some of the numbers. And I thought she would, because why not? Nobody else will do it, but I will. I did it fast. She’s my friend. So you did it beautifully, too. She has done a fantastic job as governor.

And I will say this. I went to school here. You never. I just want to. I just want to forewarn her because I’ve seen it happen. And it’s career threatening. Don’t ever call it a state. It’s a Commonwealth.

And I was saying, oh, I’ve been learned as somebody because a lot of innocent lambs have come up and they start talking to the people of Pennsylvania. I love you people. I know you so well. I’m here all the time. I’m here all the time. I went to school here. I went to the Wharton School, the great Wharton School of Finance. And they were great. It’s a great place. It’s a great place. But I went to college here. So never, ever even think. I watched one man crash and burn. He kept calling it the state. I kept saying it’s a Commonwealth. And by the time the evening, I think his political career ended there.

Special Guests

KRISTI NOEM: Sir, tonight we have some special guests in the audience. We have a Gold Star family that is with us tonight. Mary and Charles Strange are here. Where are they?

DONALD TRUMP: Where are they?

KRISTI NOEM: Oh, here they are, sir. They’re behind us over here to the left.

DONALD TRUMP: Oh, come on up here.

Gold Star Family

KRISTI NOEM: Come on. They lost their son, Michael. Come on up. Come on up here.

DONALD TRUMP: It’s a little harder to get up since I got shot. They’ve made it more difficult. Perhaps that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

KRISTI NOEM: Sir, they lost their son, Michael. Did you want to say anything?

DONALD TRUMP: Under Obama is right. Under Obama. Please, on behalf of your son.

AUDIENCE: I would ask, Mr. President, my son was killed August 6, 2011, with 29 other men. It was the biggest loss of life in the Iraq and Afghan war. It was the biggest loss of life in a single day in the history of America. Twenty-two of them men were Navy Special Warfare. To this day, we still haven’t gotten any answers. I was wondering, I’m begging you, we would like a congressional hearing.

DONALD TRUMP: So here’s what we’re going to do. In the first week, let me have a, not the first day. I made a lot of promises in the first day. We’re going to drill, baby, drill. We’re going to close up the border. We’re going to do a lot in the first day. In the first week, we will set up a commission. We’re going to find out, because so many people in your same position, they want to know what happened. Why did it happen to their son or daughter? And we’re going to do that within the first week. So you get ready to come over to the White House, okay?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you, Mr. President. I’ve got to say one more thing. I want to let America know, June 2017, President Trump and his wife had me and my wife bring 20 gold stars to the White House. Him and his wife stayed the whole time. They had food, drinks. They did a candle ceremony for us. President Trump stood up every time, saluted the gold star parents.

DONALD TRUMP: That was both a celebration, a remembrance. It had all emotion, right? They were happy. They were sad. They were devastated. But they remembered their beautiful boy, right? Their beautiful boy. And we’re not going to forget. We’re going to find out what happened. We’re going to do that within the first week. And you have my word. Okay?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you, President Trump. Thank you, President Trump.

KRISTI NOEM: Thank you. Mr. President. Marion, Charles’ daughter, Rachel, is also here tonight. She is Michael’s sister. So thank you, Rachel, for coming tonight, too. And God bless you and your family. Thank you for your service and your sacrifice.

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you, darling. Yes. Thank you, honey. That’s tough stuff.

KRISTI NOEM: It is. Thank you for your commitment to us.

DONALD TRUMP: And like what we were discussing in Afghanistan with the 13 family members, I feel that bad things happened, stupid things happened, and you hate for that to be, and it’s your son or your daughter. They deserve answers. There’s no reason. It should have never happened in Afghanistan. I can tell you that. The 13 that died. And, you know, they don’t mention there were many people wounded, too. And I mean seriously wounded with the legs and the arms and the face. And we’re going to give them everything they want. I’ve gotten to know those families.

KRISTI NOEM: Thank you, sir. Sir, our next question tonight is from Angelina, who I believe is right here. If you want to come forward, Angelina.

Economic Concerns and Immigration

AUDIENCE QUESTION: Hi. Good evening, Mr. President.

DONALD TRUMP: Let me stand up for you. Go ahead.

AUDIENCE QUESTION: My name’s Angelina, and I was raised in a Philadelphia Democrat household, a union household. As a mother of a blended family, my top issues are the same issues that face all Americans. Illegal immigration hurts black Americans. And dangerous cities hurt black Americans. Like my fellow Americans, my grocery bill has not gone down. Everything is still so very expensive. What steps will your administration take to help American families suffering from this inflation?

DONALD TRUMP: So, you know, it’s such a great question in the sense that people don’t think of grocery. You know, it sounds like not such an important word when you talk about homes and everything else, right? But more people tell me about grocery bills, where the price of bacon, the price of lettuce, the price of tomatoes, they tell me. And we’re going to do a lot of things.

You know, our farmers aren’t being treated properly. And we had a deal with China, and it was a great deal. I never mentioned it because once COVID came in, I said that was a bridge too far because I had a great relationship with President Xi. And he’s a fierce man, and he’s a man that likes China. And I understand that. But we had a deal, and he was perfect on that deal. $50 billion he was going to buy. We were doing numbers like you wouldn’t believe for the farmer.

But the farmers are very badly hurt, the farmers in this country. We’re going to get them straightened out. We’re going to get your prices down. But you asked another question about safety and also about black population jobs and Hispanic population, in particular those two.

So when millions of people pour into our country, they’re having a devastating effect on black families and Hispanic families more than any others. I think it’s going to spread to a lot of other places. I think it’s going to spread to unions. I think unions are going to have a big problem because, you know, employers are just not going to pay the price.

And it’s a very bad thing that’s happening. So they’re coming in, many are coming in from jails and prisons and mental institutions and stay-in asylums. That’s like, you know, a step above, right, a stay-in asylum. And whenever I go, Hannibal Lecter, you know what I’m talking about.

They always go to the fake news. That’s a lot of fake news back there, too. They always mention, you know, it’s a way of demeaning. They’ll just say, Hannibal Lecter, why would he mention? Why? Because he was a sick puppy. And we have sick puppies coming into our country. I figure that’s better than wasting a lot of words. You just say, Hannibal Lecter, we don’t want him. But they always sort of say, why would he say that? I do it for a lot of reasons, but I do it because we are allowing some very bad people into our country, and they’re coming as terrorists. You know, you saw the other day, last month, they had the record number of terrorists.

I had a month, and I love Border Patrol. You see, they gave me a full endorsement two days ago. The Border Patrol, and they’re great. And, you know, they want to do their job. They don’t want to let these people come in. They look at them. They can tell. They can look at somebody, say good, bad.

They say what’s coming into our country now, it’s having a huge negative impact on black families and on Hispanic families, and ultimately on everybody. And we’re going to close that border so tight, it’s going to be closed. And I said, the two things I’m going to do, first, we’re going to close that border, and people are going to come in. You want people to come in. We need people to come in. People are going to come into our country legally. You know, it’s so unfair. You have people that are waiting on a system, on a line, and they’ve been waiting on this line, you know, how long, for years, 10 years, 12 years, and they study, and they take tests, and then people come.

I actually say, why don’t you just come on across. I tell people that. It’s terrible, right? I said, go out. You’re incredible. They say, what can I do to speed up the process? I say, you know what, go to the southern border. I’ll see you on the other side.

It’s so unfair. But we’re going to have them come in legally. You have to see what they have to do. They take tests on, you know, who was the first one here? What date was this? What is 1776 mean? All this stuff. And these other people are coming in, and they’re affecting the school systems, and they’re affecting the hospital system.

I mean, if you take a look at what’s going on in Springfield, Ohio, a town of 50,000 people, they’ve just added 32,000 people, illegal immigrants, and we’re not going to put up with it, and we’re going to take care of you. Costs are going to come down, and you’re not going to have a problem with, because the biggest problem, and I’m hearing it from black people, and to a lesser extent right now, but it’ll be the same, Hispanic people. And I’ll tell you what, our poll numbers have gone through the roof with black and Hispanic have gone through the roof. And I like that. I like that. I like that.

So we’re going to take care of it. You will be, I’ll tell you, if everything works out, if everybody gets out and votes on January 5th, or before, you know, it used to be you’d have a date. Today you can vote two months before, probably three months after. They don’t know what the hell they’re doing. But we’re going to straighten it all out. We’re going to straighten that out, too. We’re going to straighten our election process out, too. That’s going to be important to us. So thank you very much, darling. We’re going to get it straight.

KRISTI NOEM: Thank you, Angelina. Mr. President, we had in the last year over 800,000 Americans lose their jobs in this country. But 1.2 non-citizens took those jobs. They’re filling the jobs that Americans could have to provide for their families. And Kamala Harris has been in charge of this border. She is the one who has been the border czar who has facilitated this invasion.

I’ve always called it an invasion and a war zone down there because we see the criminals and the terrorists coming across.

DONALD TRUMP: It is an invasion like we’ve never seen before. And, you know, if it was an invasion of people that deserve to come in or that will love the country, will be great, you know, she used to go around saying, they don’t commit crime. Have you seen the gang from Venezuela, what they’ve done in Aurora, Colorado?

KRISTI NOEM: But it’s only a few, according to Martha Raddatz. It’s only a few. Oh, it’s just a few apartments.

DONALD TRUMP: And by the way, it’s hundreds all over the country. And they’re like me, they’re in the real estate business, but they take it over with rifles. They take it over with a level of sophistication because you know a lot about guns from where you come and you like it. And I’m a big protector of the Second Amendment we’ve gotten totally endorsed. And if you think that’s easy, it’s not easy.

But the NRA gave me total endorsement. I assume you got total endorsement. And we have no choice. We have to have it. I mean, especially when you have, you know, it’s amazing. These radical left lunatics, they want everybody to come into our country. Many of those people are criminals. And then they want to also take your guns away simultaneously.

They don’t want your guns, but they want them to come in. So you need it for protection. You know, if somebody knows that you have a gun in your house, they say, let’s go after somebody else. People put signs that are this gun, or we have, some of them actually spell the kind of a gun they have. We have an AK-47 inside. And people say, you know what, let’s just, and I knew about an AK-47 from a few weeks ago. And the AR-15, I know about that one too. I know a lot.

But you know what? You have a lot of bad people out there and you can’t, you know, just can’t be a one-way street. I’ll tell you one thing, because she wants to take your guns away. If you take them away, the bad guys are not giving them up.

That’s the only thing. I don’t think the good people are giving them up either. You want to know the truth. But the bad guys, the bad guys are not giving up their guns. That’s the only thing I know for certain, right?

KRISTI NOEM: It’s true. It’s true. Your, J.D. Vance did a fantastic job on Sunday morning calling out the fake news.

DONALD TRUMP: Yes.

KRISTI NOEM: For how they’re trying to diminish the devastation that’s going on in some of these communities and Kamala Harris has facilitated losing 300,000 children as well since she’s been in charge of the border. I always say that they’re not missing children, that they are trafficked and kidnapped and murdered children because they’ve come across that border and we have no idea where those children are and we know how devastating it is, what’s happening to their lives right now with what she’s facilitating.

DONALD TRUMP: I think that, you know, all bad numbers. We have a lot of bad numbers. There’s so much bad happened in this administration. It’s disgraceful. You know, as an example, there’d be no war with Russia and Ukraine. There’s no way. I get along very well with Putin. I fully understand what’s happening. It was the apple of his eye. He used to talk about it. But I said, you’re not going in. And he wasn’t going in.

It’s only because of Biden. He looked at this guy. He can’t even believe it. But the same with Ukraine. I got along very well with Zelensky. Very well. In fact, he came to New York two weeks ago. He came to see me. And I got along very well with him. I’m going to negotiate that thing out. That is now a death trap. You have cities that are all down. Those gorgeous golden domes, those magnificent domes are laying on their side, all busted up after, I don’t know, they’re a thousand years old or something. The heritage, what’s happened there. But many more people are killed than they’re reporting. They knocked down, that was my business, they have apartment houses that are really, they’re like three blocks, city blocks long. Not that tall, but pretty tall. And they are big. And they knock it down with a missile. And they say two people were slightly injured.

No, a lot of people, the number of people dying in the Ukraine-Russia war is a far greater number than anybody knows. And Biden has done nothing about it. He hasn’t even spoken to Putin in over a year. Known nothing about it. And this is a war that has to end, and we’re going to get that war ended. I’m going to try, and I think I can, get it ended as president-elect. In other words, before I even take over the White House. Got to stop the people from dying.

They said to me, well, whose side are you on? I was interviewed by fake news, CNN, you know, fake news. Uh-oh, their camera just went off. Their camera just went off. No, no. Their camera just went off. Okay, it always happens. Whenever I point to them, immediately they turn up because they know it.

But I was, Kaitlan Collins, a nice person, but Kaitlan Collins is interviewing me, and she said, well, whose side are you on? I said, it’s not a question of sides. I want people to stop dying, that’s all. I want people to stop dying. And you know, it was a very interesting thing because it was the CNN, it was like this, a smaller room, much smaller. This is a big room. This is a very big room, but it was a much smaller room. But they had all people in there from CNN. Within the first five minutes, they were totally on my side because it’s common sense, and we’re now the party of common sense. I say it. We’re conservative. But we’re the party of common sense.

We need walls. We want good education. We want low interest rates. We want to be able to buy a house. We want jobs. And you know what? We want a strong military. I rebuilt our entire military, and we want a strong military. And ideally, a strong military that we don’t have to use. Isn’t that even better? We’ll have a strong military. If we don’t have to use it, that’s even better.

KRISTI NOEM: I love it. I love it. So, Mr. President, let’s get back to our questions. We have Yanni, who’s waiting to ask you a question, has been waiting a long time. Yanni, welcome.

Small Business Concerns

KRISTI NOEM: Just give them one second. Here they come. Right behind you.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you. Thank you for being here today, Mr. President.

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: To answer questions from all the voters of Pennsylvania and just to work hard and show support. I appreciate that.

I’m a small business owner in Lansdale. I have a small breakfast, lunch, restaurant, coffee corner. And to be honest, Mr. President, I really am praying for you to get in there and change the policies Ever since the gas prices started spiking, I noticed literally everything started spiking from deliveries to services, goods, even maintenance, overall maintenance. Everything just spiked up and it’s really hurting small businesses, small business owners and those who work within them. So my question is, what’s your plan to help bring common sense back and help small businesses that got destroyed by Democrats after COVID and the Biden administration?

DONALD TRUMP: So, Greg, because small businesses are actually bigger than big businesses when you add them all up and it’s very important and sounds like yours. I would love your food. I can tell by looking at it. I think I’d like to go over there if I am. If I’m over there, I’m going to stop it. The fact is that, you know, they want to get away from gas. And I have friends. They’re into the cooking world. I’m not. I just like to eat. But they’re into the cooking. And I don’t know how you feel. It sounds like you. They feel that you really gas is much better than the electric for cooking. Right. And they have this thing about, you know, they want to put gas out of business. Right. No gas.

You know, the amazing thing. We don’t have electric in this country, but we have all the gas you can use. We have all that. We have oil and gas. That’s what we have. And even the cars, if you look, they want to go with all electric cars. California is having blackouts every week. Brack brownouts, blackouts. And then they come up with rules and regulation to go to all electric. But they can’t even supply what they have. It’s so nuts. We’re going to get number one, your utility. Because you heard me said before, your cars will be down and we’re getting rid of all the elect. If you want electric, great. And if you want gas, great. The only thing you can’t have is a hydrogen car. Right. You heard me say that. Right. Because you know what happens?

If you have a new car, they say it’s great, but it’s got one problem. You know what the problem is? Every once in a while, one will blow up. And if it does blow up and you happen to be inside of it, you’re in bad luck because you’re not recognizable. Do you know that? It’s the new thing. Hydrogen. I said, no, thank you. I don’t want it. I don’t want. They call the wife. That’s not my husband. Oh, yes, it is. It’s no good. So if we get your energy costs, your energy costs will be down by 50 percent. Your interest is going to come down and people are going to start to make. Not only you. People have more money to go to your restaurant. You’re going to have a great business. And, you know, during COVID, I was the one that worked out the loans. I don’t know if you got one, but everybody, so many people got millions of small businesses. And Linda McMahon was the head of Small Business Administration, which was a big business. But she was the head and she was phenomenal. Linda McMahon was phenomenal.

So many people tell me about her that she was one of the best secretaries. But Linda McMahon was in charge and they loaned millions of billions of dollars out to people with small businesses. And it was the greatest investment we made. It stopped us from going into a 1929 depression, which is exactly what we would have had. And she did a fantastic. She did. She did a fantastic job. We’re going to get your cost way down.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you.

KRISTI NOEM: Thank you. Mr. President, in my state, I always tell people it’s hot in the summer, it’s cold in the winter, and it’s a long ways to drive anywhere. Which I think a lot of Americans are experiencing that no matter what, you’re energy dependent. And since Joe Biden has been in the White House and Kamala Harris has supported every single one of his policies, did you hear her on The View? Did you hear her say she wouldn’t change a thing from what Joe Biden has done? It has cost the average American family $4,500 just in energy costs.

DONALD TRUMP: Just in energy costs. Hold it, please. Doctor, please. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We have incredible people that come here hours before and a little hot. And so we they’re there with us all the way. We got to respect them. And you take your time, doctor. Take your time. Thank you very much.

We always have great doctors in the audience. I’ve never had too much of a problem. Look at the quality of care we have. It’s incredible when you think that. These people, first responders. Our first responders are amazing the way they can do things so beautifully and quickly. Thank you. We’ll get it taken care of fast.

A lot of it’s pretty easy to take care of. Hardest thing is going to be the border, though, in terms of the people that have been let in. The people that have been let into this country, what they’re doing. Where do they come from? What what are they doing? What’s their thought process when they allow a thing like that to happen? Let’s wait till they take care of this incredible person who I guarantee is a great patriot. I guarantee it. Everybody in this room is a patriot. Thank you. Some problems. Some problems. That looks a little bad. That looks a little bit bad. That looks a little bit bad. Yeah.

Don’t worry, we’ll extend for a little time. OK, we’re not going to lose. We just want to make sure they’re fine. This is a little bit of a tough one, I think. A little tough. All right. You know, while we’re waiting. So we had a beautiful evening and I don’t know if they could get this song up quickly. But if they could work really quickly backstage while we’re waiting. Ave Maria. We had Ave Maria the other day in Butler, Pennsylvania. And Butler. We had one hundred and one thousand people. It was the most celebration. Cory. I call Cory the firefighter, the chief. He was great. And if they could play Ave Maria, if you can get it, Justin, let’s go. If you can. A little quick notice.

We love that band. We love that band. It’s so beautiful there. Listen to that. It’s nice. He’s going to be OK. We have nice music. We’re together. Not bad. Not bad. Right. So beautiful.

KRISTI NOEM: Thank you, Mr. President.

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you, everybody. Very much. For your patience.

KRISTI NOEM: Yes. We’ll be praying for him.

DONALD TRUMP: Yep.

KRISTI NOEM: Thank you, sir. Sir, as we talk about how things have gotten harder under this administration and how Kamala Harris’s policies have been so dangerous for the American people, there’s someone here tonight who wanted an opportunity to ask you a question. Her name is Heather. And, Heather, would you please stand? She’s right here. And she is so thrilled to be talking to you tonight, Mr. President.

Border Security and Immigration

AUDIENCE QUESTION: Good evening, President Trump. My name is Heather. And I was a registered Democrat for most of my life. But not anymore.

DONALD TRUMP: She’s a registered.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes. I saw the light. I no longer identify with the Democratic Party. They put criminals and foreign enemies ahead of American citizens. The border is the issue of this election because if we can’t secure the border, we won’t have a country. We know that you’re going to finish the wall. But how are you going to handle the deportation of criminals?

DONALD TRUMP: So, if you’ve watched any of our last rallies, we have a criminal aliens act of 1798. That’s a long time ago. And it gives the president tremendous power to do what has to be done to secure our country. And you’re right. You know, so if you look at the polls, it says that the number one issue is the economy.

Number two is inflation. Let’s even put them together. And number three is the border. I disagree. I think I agree. I do agree with you. The number one issue this country has.

[Interruption due to medical incident]

DONALD TRUMP: The president is wondering. Thank you very much. Take your time, doctor. It’s going to be good. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Thank you folks. Thank you, all the incredible people who have supported this party. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I love you guys. I love you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Open the door. I wish we could open those doors to outside. Yeah, take your time, doctor. For security reasons, they can’t, but you know what? I should just open them because anybody comes through those doors, you know what’s going to happen to them.

KRISTI NOEM: It looks like, sir, she’s on her feet and walking out. Let’s encourage her. Let her know you’ll be praying for her. And I know it’s really warm in here. Everybody agrees that it’s really warm in here. We’ve got a lot of people who love America. I’m going to ask that if you have a chair, maybe sit so everyone around you can sit and still see the president and ask him questions. Maybe that will help us. And we can spend a little more time.

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. Personally, I enjoy this. We lose weight. You know? No, you lose weight. We could do this. Lose four or five pounds. It’s okay with me. Kamala Harris. But some people have been waiting here for two days for this. So, you know, it’s a little bit. It’s a little bit tough. It’s a little bit tough, but they’re going to try and get those doors open. And I don’t know who’s building this is, but if they had air conditioning, do you see any air conditioning?

KRISTI NOEM: They probably can’t afford it, sir, in this economy.

DONALD TRUMP: That’s right. They don’t want to give us air conditioning. It’s too expensive. It costs too much. Anyway, but they’re both OK. They’re both. They’re both in good shape. That’s wonderful. Would anybody else like to faint? Please raise your. Let’s do it now. Please raise your hand. You know what we could do, though? If my guys could do it. How about we’ll do a little music? Let’s make this a musical fest. Oh, looky, looky. Oh, that’s great. That’s great. Because it’s nice and cool outside, right?

KRISTI NOEM: Yeah, it’s nice and cool.

DONALD TRUMP: Why don’t we do it? And I mean this if my guys can hear me. Two things. Put up the chart. My favorite chart. My all time favorite chart. And let’s listen to Pavarotti sing Ave Maria. Can you hear that? They gave me the Ave Maria with no voice.

There it is. That’s my favorite piece of paper anywhere in the world. I sleep with it every night. I kiss it. I kiss it. And you see those numbers, by the way, for those that we talked about, you know, the border, when you’re talking about the border. Look at the numbers. That was the lowest it ever was right there. That was the last day I was in office. And we’re going to get it lower than that. But we’re going to let people come in. We’re going to let people come in.

So very, very important. But there’s one of my most favorite. If I didn’t turn to the right, I wouldn’t be here with you right now. So it’s sort of a cruel world. But I was very proud of that before the fact. Now, even if it had lousy numbers, I would love that piece of paper a lot. So put on Pavarotti singing Ave Maria. Nice and loud. Turn it up louder. We want a little action here. Turn it up louder.

[Music plays]

DONALD TRUMP: Beautiful. Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into our music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right? Isn’t that beautiful, though? It’s just so beautiful. And we played that in Butler, Pennsylvania. We had a moment of silence. And then we had the bells of Notre Dame go off. And then we had a great opera singer, Christopher, who was so incredible, a great, great opera singer. That’s Pavarotti. Pavarotti, I guess, is, I actually asked Christopher, I said, your voice is incredible. How does it compare to Pavarotti? No, no, no, sir. He was the maestro. He was the greatest of them all. And this man’s voice, you all probably heard it. He was phenomenal. But he said, no, no, no, Pavarotti was the greatest. Maybe we’ll play Time to Say Goodbye when we end, OK?

KRISTI NOEM: Sounds fantastic.

DONALD TRUMP: All right? Do we want to do that?

KRISTI NOEM: Absolutely. We’ll have a little, instead of your normal, like, rock out of the place.

DONALD TRUMP: Yes. And then you’re going to say, time to go to bye. Then you’re going to go vote. We’re going to win the state. You know, if we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing.

KRISTI NOEM: Yes. That’s right. We’re going to win. We’re going to win.

DONALD TRUMP: If we win Pennsylvania, we’re going to win the whole thing, right? So it’s going to really be something. We just had some numbers coming out of Virginia, which is great. We have numbers coming out of Virginia. We win this commonwealth. We win the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We are in clover. And then we’re going to fix our country. And we’re going to fix it fast. So get that song done. Okay. Get that song ready.

And when we leave, we’re going to have a beautiful. You could just sit. By the way, when we leave, you don’t have to go so fast. You could sit and listen. We’ll play a couple of songs. Some of you will be a little warm, but that’s okay. It’s not a bad thing. And if you want, we’re going to do that. But I think it would be beautiful. Don’t you think? A little different.

KRISTI NOEM: I think it’d be amazing, sir.

DONALD TRUMP: Nice to have imagination. Isn’t that a nice idea? Nice to have imagination. Isn’t it a nice thing to have imagination? It’s like when Kamala’s teleprompter went out the other day. She was at 32 days. Did you see that?

KRISTI NOEM: I did.

DONALD TRUMP: She loses teleprompters, and you wouldn’t know that she lost it. Me lose. I always lose. You know, if you’re a politician, you can count on 5% of the time you lose a teleprompter, sometimes really badly, like in the middle of a sentence. And you say, oh, that’s a good. You got to have a good memory. If you don’t have a good memory, you can’t be much of a politician. But they go out. Sometimes if you’re outside, the wind blows them down. I had one in Ohio. We had 45 mile an hour winds. And I said, I’m going to lose these suckers. And within about the first two sentences, they were gone.

KRISTI NOEM: I remember that. I was at that rally. For Bernie Marino, who’s now doing very well, I understand, the senator.

DONALD TRUMP: So I think he’s doing very well. But we’ll listen to a couple of songs if you want. And that’s OK with me. I like it. So we’ll do that. We’ll do those songs that we had mentioned. Justin. And if Justin doesn’t get it right, he gets fired. OK.

KRISTI NOEM: Sir, I have a quote that I like a lot by John Wayne. It says, life is hard, but it’s harder when you’re stupid.

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.

KRISTI NOEM: I think that perfectly explains Kamala Harris, right? Right, sir? Now, our life has been hard because of her. But can you imagine what it’s like to wake up as Kamala Harris? How hard life must be? My goodness.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, we have to beat her. Look, we have to beat her.

KRISTI NOEM: We do.

DONALD TRUMP: She’s not for this job. Everybody knows it. Look, we’re running against not her. We’re running against a very powerful and a very corrupt machine. That’s what it is. And the same thing with Joe Biden. Joe doesn’t know where the hell he is. You know, when you talk about Biden, he got 14 million votes. He won the primary. And we had a debate. His numbers were very bad. And it looked like we were going to win. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But it looked like he was down substantially. They went to see him. And they said, you’re getting out. He said, I don’t want to get out. I won. You’re getting out.

That was the overthrow of an American president. You could call it a coup. But I don’t even call it that anymore because a lot of people say, what the hell is a coup? You can call it that. But it was really basically the overthrow of an American president. And frankly, she’s doing horribly right now. You saw 60 Minutes where they replaced her answer with another answer. She’s doing horribly.

I have a feeling he might have done better than her. Let’s see what you have to see what the end is. Maybe they would. Maybe they made a good move. But when they talk about a threat to democracy, how about where they take a candidate who won fair and square? They throw him out and they put up a woman who failed, was the first one to drop out of a field of 22 and got no votes. And this is the person we’re running against. And she is not a smart woman.

KRISTI NOEM: That’s true.

DONALD TRUMP: And we cannot. We’ve had that for four years. We’re not going to have it for another four years. We’re not going to have it.

KRISTI NOEM: Right. So we’re not going to complain about things. We’re going to fix them.

DONALD TRUMP: Right. We’re not going to complain. We’re going to fix them.

KRISTI NOEM: And you are going to fix them right here in Pennsylvania by showing up and voting for President Donald John Trump.

DONALD TRUMP: We’re going to make America great again.

KRISTI NOEM: Right. Those doors are open. That feels good.

DONALD TRUMP: It does. I feel it right now. I don’t know who’s out there trying to get in, but you know what? Doesn’t that feel nice?

KRISTI NOEM: Yes.

DONALD TRUMP: And you don’t even have this. There’s nothing like outdoors. You don’t even have the cost of an air conditioner if they have them in this beautiful factory. Anyway, go ahead, please.

KRISTI NOEM: Well, sir, do you want to play your song and then greet a few people or do you want to?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, you had said you wanted to close with a specific song.

KRISTI NOEM: Okay, let’s do a couple of questions.

DONALD TRUMP: So Justin, how about a couple of really beauties? And we’ll sit down, relax. Let me just give you the bottom line, though. We win Pennsylvania. We win this great commonwealth. We are going to win the whole ballgame. It’s such an important place. And we relate. And we are up in the polls fairly nicely. Fairly nicely. But it’s really important. And we’re going to turn this country around.

It’s the greatest movement in the history of our country. Make America great again. When Biden would go on, he used to go on. Say we will stop MAGA. We will stop. You know, remember with the purple background, the pink and purple. You look like the devil. Right. But she’s worse than him. Remember it. But they would say we’re going to stop MAGA. MAGA means make America great again. I mean, what are you going to stop? And we are indeed going to make America great again.

America has never. We’re a declining nation right now. We’re a nation in decline. And we’re not going to be in decline for long. Let me tell you, every country respected us four years ago. We were energy independent. We had everything. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. We’re going to bring it back bigger, better and stronger than ever before. Go and vote.

KRISTI NOEM: Let me hear that music, please. Everyone, let’s thank President Trump. Nice and loud. God bless you. Let’s send President Trump back to the White House. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone.

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