TRANSCRIPT: Donald Trump’s Speech At MAGA North Carolina Rally

You did, actually.

Well, I want to thank you all very much. You are the reason we’re able to be here and that you have a safe state and a great state. Thank you all very much. That’s some group of people for endorsements, too. Every group virtually in the country, law enforcement endorsed us.

Thanks, Mark. Good luck, Mark. He’ll win. He’s got to win. He’s a good man.

Political Allies

I want to thank also members of Congress, Richard Hudson and Byron Donalds, two warriors, two great people, two unbelievable. Where’s Byron? Thank you very much. Where’s Byron? Oh, look at him over there. He knows how to get attention. Look at that guy. He’s been my friend for a long time. Thank you for everything, Byron.

Congressional candidate Mark Harris. Hi, Mark. Good going, Mark. Good numbers. Brad Knott and Addison McDowell. They’re all going to be winners very soon. Young, good-looking people. Thank you very much.

The State House Speaker, Tim Moore. Where is Tim? Oh, he’s nice and safe back there. Oh, hello, Tim. I appreciate it, Tim. And Neal Jackson, State Rep. Neal Jackson. Thank you very much, Neal.

RNC Chairman Michael Whatley. What a job he’s doing. And North Carolina GOP Chairman Jason Simmons, who’s been a friend of ours for a long time. Where’s Jason? Nice, tall character right here. Thank you very much, Jason.

Military Support

And somebody that’s been with me from day one, a real general. You know, we have the real generals, and we have the fake, woke generals that did so poorly in Afghanistan, should have all been fired. But this is a real general, Keith Kellogg. Right, Keith?

It’s good to see you, Keith. He’s been with me from before day one, right? He said, “That guy should run. We got to get him to run.” I like those guys. They were here before I ran. You know, there’s quite a few of them, too.

Women Supporters

We have the front row Joes. You know that? And very importantly, we have the most magnificent women. First time. You know, we have — they travel all over the country to be with us for rallies. Close to a couple of hundred rallies. I don’t know what their husbands are doing about this. This is a little crazy.

Look how beautiful. And they’re from North Carolina. And for a change, they don’t have to travel so far, right? How far are you from here? Two hours is nothing. It’s a pretty big state, actually. Thank you very much, as always. You are special, special people. Great women. They love our country.

Job Numbers Controversy

Before we begin, I want to address the massive scandal around the revised job numbers that were just announced this morning. A little while ago, just before I came up, I got to see them. And it really isn’t a revision. It’s a total lie. Total lie. There’s never been any revision like this.

They wanted it to come out after the election, but somehow it got leaked. It got leaked. Government leaks, too. The Harris-Biden administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating job statistics to hide the true extent of the economic ruin that they’ve inflicted on America.

The new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the administration padded the numbers with an extra – listen to this one – 818,000 jobs that don’t exist. So they said they existed, and they never did exist. They built them up so that they could say, what a wonderful job they’re doing. We’ve never had numbers like this.

They don’t exist. They thought they could do it sometime after – you know, we have an election coming up very quickly. But they wanted this to come out after November 5th, when it wouldn’t have meant so much. But it came out a little early, so there’s a patriot in there someplace, right?

Economic Concerns

The real numbers are much worse than that. And Comrade Kamala – you know, she’s comrade – the most radical left person ever to run for a high political office in our country. Gets another four years, millions of jobs, and it’ll vanish overnight. She gets four more years, you’re going to see jobs vanish.

Millions and millions will vanish, and inflation will completely destroy our country. We’ll have inflation worse than they’ve given us. You know, when I gave it to them, I had virtually no inflation, and now their number is up to 22, 23 percent. But their real number is probably 40 to 50 percent because a lot of the things in their numbers aren’t included.

I saw another one where the FBI releases crime statistics, and they weren’t that bad. And then they left out little things like New York, Chicago. They left out various areas, and that wasn’t so good. Your life savings will be totally wiped out.

And if you put somebody like that in there with him, how about him? How about him? She’ll destroy our country just like she destroyed San Francisco, just like she destroyed California. With a Trump victory, we will once again have the greatest economy in history.

Vision for America

We’re going to do things that are going to make us so great so fast. We’re going to bring it back. We’re going to make America strong again. We’re going to make America great again. It’s going to be fantastic. It’s going to be fantastic. So I just want to thank you very much for your support because I’ve always had fantastic support from you. Thank you. [U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!]

We have a job to do. You know, we have a job to do. We had some very good polls this morning, despite their charade. I call it the party, the Democrats’ party. You know, five people in Chicago were killed in the last little while since that charade that they have going on.

They mentioned my name, I think, 271 times. They mentioned the economy, like, 12 times. They mentioned the border, maybe none. They don’t talk about the border. Our great borders doesn’t talk about the border. But they mentioned me more than any other category. I’m now a category.

They had me down today as a category. That’s all they talk about. Trump! We’ve driven them crazy. They have Trump derangement syndrome. We’ve driven them crazy, and they should be driven crazy. They’ve done a terrible job for our country in every single way. There’s not a thing they’ve done well except cheat and lie. They lie about stats.

No, they lied about the crime numbers. The crime numbers didn’t look bad. Then they found out that many of the worst places weren’t included in the numbers. And that was done by the FBI, which is sad.

Reflections on Past Achievements

Four years ago, our country was strong and respected like never before. Our allies admired us. Our enemies feared us because everyone knew that as an American president, I was all about putting America first. That’s true.

Under my leadership, we rebuilt the United States military, created Space Force, and we made our allies pay their fair share and their fair dues. You know, we went to NATO, and we said, you’re not paying. You got to pay. If you remember, President Bush would go, and he’d make a speech. Obama would go, he’d make a speech. They all made speeches. This one didn’t even make a speech, this last one.

But I went, I said, nobody’s paying. You got to pay. And they did, paid hundreds of billions of dollars. They said, “Well, does that mean you won’t support us if we don’t pay?” I said, “That’s what it means.”

I had to say that. I got a lot of heat for that. People, the fake news. Oh, that’s a lot of fake news. No, the fake news gave me a hard time for that. The fake news was saying, what a terrible thing to say to our allies. Our allies weren’t paying. And I said, you got to pay. We were paying for everybody. So they take advantage of us on trade, and then we also pay for their military. That somehow doesn’t work.

So they had to pay. They paid hundreds of billions of dollars. But I said to them, “No, that means I will not protect you. I will not protect you.” They said, “Sir, if we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?” Used to be Soviet Union, now Russia. “Will you protect us?” I said, “Are you paid?”

“No, let’s assume we’re not paid.” Then you’re delinquent, right? “Well, yes.” That’s an old real estate term. You’re delinquent. “Yes.” No, we will not protect you. The press went crazy. Then I said, and you know what? If I would have said the other way, they would have never paid. Hundreds of billions were sent in to NATO.

Foreign Policy Accomplishments

But we defeated ISIS. We killed the world’s top terrorists. We secured our borders. We achieved energy independence. We stood up to China. We protected Israel. We made peace in the Middle East with the Abraham Accords. And more, more, more, we did things like nobody ever heard of. And we brought our troops mostly back home.

We didn’t start any wars for 79 years, it was before. We didn’t start wars 79, 80 years. Everybody said, “Oh, he’s going to start wars with his attitude.” No, my attitude kept us out of wars.

I stopped wars with phone calls. Russia should have never happened with Ukraine. Would have never happened if I were president. Would have never happened. There was no talk of that. Would have never, ever happened with Putin. Would have never happened. And Israel, October 7th, would have never happened.

Iran would have never done that. They had very little money at that point. Now they’re rich as hell. But Biden allowed that to happen.

Criticism of Current Administration

And Kamala, where’s Biden? What happened to Biden? Where is he? He’s on a beach. He’s on a beach. You know, he’s got somebody that thinks he looks great in a bathing suit. He likes to go to a beach. How do you leave here and go on a beach?

You can’t do it. There are things you just don’t do. People don’t want to see you in a bathing suit. Walks badly. It’s hard to walk in the sand. You know, he has a hard time lifting his feet through the sand. And then he grabs the chair. The chair is meant for old people to lift and young kids to lift.

Like, you know, four-year-old kids, right? And he can’t lift it. He needs a little help. The whole thing is crazy.

How we ever got that is crazy. And what happened to our country with inflation and with disrespect from all over the world and all these wars are starting all over the place. And we’re very close to a third world war.

And don’t kid yourself, because they’re laughing. But they’re not laughing too much. They’re a little worried about a certain person winning the election. We had some very good polls today. And if that happens, you’re not going to have any third world wars.

Trump’s Presidency and Global Safety

Every American was safer under President Trump. In fact, the entire world was safer when I sat behind that beautiful Resolute desk in the Oval Office. You know, I heard the other day, for the first time, I heard Biden say, “the beautiful Resolute desk.” He never said that before.

They copy me. When I say we’re a nation in decline, guys are copying me. Then they say they shouldn’t say that, but they thought the words were beautiful. But they copy me all the time.

In that case, it was Republicans that were copying me because they happened to be right, so I don’t mind if a Republican copies me. Any of you guys want to copy me? But it’s a sad thing to have to say, but they copy me. The Resolute desk, he never mentioned that. He doesn’t even know what the hell the Resolute desk is.

Afghanistan Withdrawal Criticism

Exactly three years ago this month, the weakness and incompetence of Kamala Harris and crooked Joe Biden delivered the most humiliating event in the history of our country and one of the biggest military disasters in the history of the world, as far as I’m concerned. No one will ever forget the horrifying images of their catastrophic retreat from Afghanistan. Desperate Afghans fell to their deaths from the wheels of U.S. cargo planes that were 3,000 feet up in the air.

Bloodthirsty terrorists poured out of the prisons after Biden and Harris surrendered Bagram, one of the largest air military bases anywhere in the world. We spent billions and billions of dollars building it many years ago. And, you know, it was important to keep it.

I was never leaving that. I would have been out faster than them. I said, that’s up. We were there for 20, almost 21 years. And I said, what are we doing? What are we doing here? And we had no soldiers killed for 18 months while I was there because they knew, don’t play around with our soldiers. They were killing them. They were killing them under Obama.

Criticism of Obama

Did you see Barack Hussein Obama last night? Take little shots. He was taking shots at your president. And so was Michelle. You know, they always say, “Sure, please stick to policy. Don’t get personal.” And yet they’re getting personal all night long, these people.

Do I still have to stick to policy? Sir, you must stick to policy. You’ll win it on the border. You’ll win it with inflation. You’ll win it with your great military that you built, that they gave away $85 billion worth of it in Afghanistan. Sir, you’re going to win it on crime. The crime is running through the streets like never before.

Trump’s Policies and Achievements

You’re going to win it on all of these things, and maybe especially, I think two things, the economy, inflation, because I view them together, what they’ve done to inflation. And they close it with energy, what they did with energy is so stupid. If we were there, our energy, we would be so dominant all over the world right now. We were already energy independent. I made you energy independent.

But we would be energy dominant. We’d be paying back debt. We’d be reducing your taxes still further. We gave you the largest tax cuts ever.

And a lot of good things were going to happen. But now we’re just going to have to sort of call it a delay of four years. But these people don’t have any idea what they’re doing.

Afghanistan Casualties and Equipment Loss

You had 13 heroic U.S. service members were tragically and needlessly killed. I got to know a lot of the relatives, friends, and mothers and fathers of those 13 people. Forty-five others were horrifically wounded, and $85 billion worth of the best military equipment anywhere in the world was handed over to these people. In fact, Afghanistan is now one of the largest arms merchants anywhere in the world.

Did you know that? They’re selling our equipment at tremendous prices. They’re selling our beautiful. We had 70,000 armored trucks, many of them armored. Armored trucks and vehicles. Think of this. We had 700,000 rifles and guns. Seven. I actually say, what the hell did they need so many for? 700,000 rifles and guns.

We had goggles, brand-new, right out of the box. You know, they didn’t fight at night because they never had goggles, right? Good fighters. They never had goggles. Now they have brand-new goggles, all left by the Biden-Harris administration. Gave them billions and billions of dollars. Just gave it to them.

And now they sell that equipment because they don’t need 700,000 rifles. They need 20,000. Little difference. They don’t need 70,000 vehicles. They need 500 vehicles. You have to ask yourself, who bought all that stuff in the first place? Who bought it all?

Criticism of Current Administration

How disgusted we’re all when we see, all of us are, when we see three days ago when we viewed their parade, our military equipment running down the middle of their main avenue, brand-new, beautiful, armor-plated trucks, tanks, and vehicles, running down the middle, and they’re all celebrating because we have stupid people running our government, and she’ll be worse than Biden because he wasn’t really a believer, but she’s a radical left believer.

She ruined San Francisco. She ruined California. And if she gets in, our country doesn’t have a chance. This calamity is on comrade Kamala Harris’s shoulders. I think her name will be comrade because I think that’s the most accurate name. You know, I’ve been looking for a name. People are saying, “Sir, don’t do it.”

You know all my names. They’ve all worked. They’ve all been very successful. And I really didn’t find one with her. Sir, she’s a woman. I said, so is Hillary Clinton. I called her Crooked Hillary, so nobody complained about that, right? Mr. Governor, nobody complained about that. No, I called her Crooked Hillary. I call people names. I call crazy Nancy Pelosi crazy because she is. She’s nuts.

Criticism of Biden

You know, Biden is really angry. You know, he’s very angry. He was so angry the other night. He’s like seething. You ever see a guy make a speech? He has such anger and so uncomfortable, just shouting. But he’s terrible. He’s just terrible. Should have never been there. We all know that. Should have never been there.

What they’ve done to this country is incredible. But she bragged that she would be the last person in the room, and she was. She was the last person in the room with Biden when the two of them decided to pull the troops out of Afghanistan. And by the way, pulling them out was absolutely right.

Trump’s Afghanistan Strategy

I was going to do it. I’m the one that got the soldiers down to 5,000 people. I was going to do it, but we were going to get out last. You pull the soldiers out first. You let the soldiers stay last. And the head of the Taliban respected me. Abdul, I had conversations with him. After my conversations, not one soldier in 18 months was killed, but you pull the soldiers out last.

Milley and these guys. You know, we have great generals, but Milley and Mattis and these guys, they didn’t know what they were. I call them television generals. The television generals are no good, but the generals that defeated ISIS, for me, were great. We have a great military. But she had the final vote. She had the final say, and she was all for it.

You take the soldiers out. If I took that young person right there, about five or six years old, beautiful young person, and if I said, I gave little details, like about 30 seconds worth of details, would you take the military out first or last? Sure, I’d take the military out last. But they took it out first. And then we left hostages. We left all of the equipment. We left everything.

Criticism of China’s Presence in Afghanistan

And we left Bagram, and now China is occupying Bagram. Bagram being one hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. Wouldn’t it have been nice to have our big, fat, beautiful base? It was probably built there for that reason. But China, one hour away, and now China is occupying that massive, big base. Some of the biggest runways in the world. They could hold heavier loads than any runways in the world.

Trump’s Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan

Under my leadership, we were getting out of Afghanistan, but we were going to get out with dignity, pride, and with strength. When I left office, we had not lost a single service member in the combat in Afghanistan in more than 18 months. And then we had that horrible day where we lost so many, and so many were so badly hurt arms, legs gone, face just obliterated.

We lost so many great people that day. Nobody talks about the people that were so badly injured. They never mention them. I always mention them.

Global Perception of America Under Trump

All over the world, our adversaries knew that America was not to be trifled with when I was your Commander-in-Chief. But, and you know, it’s very interesting. If you look at Hungary, Hungary, very strong country, very strong leader. Viktor Orban, he said, the only thing that’s going to save the whole world is Trump has to be President again.

We had no problems. We had no problems. He said, we had no problems. I don’t use the term, but he did. He said, China was afraid of him. Russia was afraid of him. They always said, oh, I was so friendly to Russia. I’m the one that stopped the Russian pipeline called Nord Stream 2.

Nobody ever, the biggest development they ever had to feed oil all over Europe. I stopped it. And then Biden comes in and he gives them everything. He gave them the pipeline. They built the pipeline, but I stopped it. Putin said, “That’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to us.” I said, “I’m sorry, I have to do it.” And he approves it right away.

And then they say, Trump was not strong on Russia. I think they got it wrong. Putin actually said, if you weren’t strong, I’d like to find out how bad would you be if you were strong, because you were brutal. But, you know, I got along with him. It’s good to get along with these countries. I got along with China. That wouldn’t have happened what’s happening right now.

Global Conflicts and Trump’s Foreign Policy

They’re planning an attack on Taiwan. There’s no question about that. That wouldn’t have happened. Wasn’t going to happen. They knew that you weren’t allowed to do that. Putin would have never gone into Ukraine. Israel would have never been attacked. It’s a sad, sad situation. So many people are dead. So many people are gone. So many cities, you look at Ukraine, those cities are just wiped off the face of the earth.

They’re outside of Kiev and a couple of others that basically just flattened. Far more people dead than they let you know. It’s like your numbers that were released fraudulently today. Far more people dead in that war than anybody would know. When those big buildings come tumbling down, hit with rockets, so ridiculous. There’s nothing left. It’s so ridiculous.

But since the Afghanistan catastrophe, it’s been open season on America and our allies. I really believe that the Afghan disaster, what happened, the stupidity and the way we pulled out and the bedlam and all of that, it would have been very smooth. We were going to get out with strength and dignity.

But when Putin saw that, he said, wow, those people don’t know what they’re doing. They’re overrated. And he went in and the same thing happened with Iran. Iran was not going to play with us. And now Iran is a rich nation. They have $300 billion. They had no money. And in three and a half years, they made $300 billion.

$300 billion they have right now. They made it all in three and a half years. They had none when I left. And we would have made a fair deal with them. They can’t have a nuclear weapon, very simple. You can’t have a nuclear weapon. Other than that, we want you to have great lives. But I do hear they’re after me, but, you know, that’s the way it is.

Trump’s Global Vision

Look, I’m here for you, and I’m here even for the world. We want to stop world wars because the equipment is so devastating now. A world war is obliteration. We can’t have a world war.

Every dictator, tyrant, and terrorist on the planet knows that they can get away with murder under Kamala and Crooked Joe. Kidnappers are getting millions and millions of dollars, now they’re getting billions. They’re getting billions. What did you get for the four people that we released? Sure, they got $6 billion. What is $6 billion? Does anyone know what that means, $6 billion? They got $6 billion.

People get kidnapped, and, you know, they ask for, like, how about $1,000? How about $500? They got $6 billion from these idiots. And you know what happens? When that happens, a lot of people are going to get kidnapped because they say we’re dealing with stupid people. A lot of people.

Trump’s Hostage Negotiations

We got 59 people that were hostage, some in North Korea. That’s about as tough as it gets. We got people out without paying for anything. We never gave money. We didn’t want to give money. If we gave money, all they do is they go around kidnapping everybody.

These people give. Not only do they give $6 billion, they got the Prince of Death out. He’s the number-one arms merchant in the world. Russia got him as part of one of the deals. The number-one arms merchant in the world. And we got a couple of people. But, you know, why were they there? And why did they do what they did?

Criticism of Current Administration’s Policies

But they got some of the most criminal, the toughest, meanest criminals anywhere in the world. On top of that, we paid them billions and billions of dollars. We’re run by very stupid people. I’d like to use a different word. I’d like to use a much more sophisticated word, but there’s no word I can think of. Incompetent. How about incompetent?

European Conflict

As a result, peace in Europe has been shattered by the largest European land war since the fall of Nazi Germany. This is the largest war there’s been, and this war is going to escalate and escalate. When, if, but when? You have to always say if, you know, because they cheat. I would say when if they didn’t cheat.

But they cheat. That’s the one thing. They’re great at cheating in elections. If we win, I’ll get that thing settled before I take the office. I’ll get it settled as President-elect. I’ll get that war stopped. With Russia. Yeah, we’ll get that stopped.

Ukraine and Russia, we’re going to get it stopped, and quickly. It’ll be done before I get to office. It would not have happened if I was President. It wasn’t going to happen.

Middle East Conflict

In the Middle East, the Jewish people have suffered the worst atrocities and deadliest attacks since the Holocaust. There’s no question about that. The United States has been forced to abandon more embassies under Comrade Kamala than at any time in our history. We’re just, and we’re running out.

It’s not like we’re leaving. We’re being run out of these embassies that cost us hundreds of millions of dollars to build. You got to see these embassies in the middle of nowhere in a country you’ve never even heard of. They spent $900 million to build an embassy. The whole thing is crazy.

World War III Concerns

The world is on fire, and Kamala and Biden have marched us to the brink of World War III. That’s what we’re in. I think, General, you would probably agree. You’re one of the experts, I would think, right? I don’t even talk to you about that lately. It’s so out of control, I don’t even have to bother. I just say, look, take a look.

But one of the great experts, and we’re on the brink. That’s why this November, Americans are going to tell Kamala Harris, “Kamala, that we’ve had enough. We can’t take it anymore. You’re doing a terrible job. Comrade Harris, you’re fired. Get out of here. You’re fired. You’re no good. You’re fired. Get them out of here.”

Criticism of Harris’s Policies

All you have to do is take a look at San Francisco. Look at the job she did. She had one policy. If you steal less than $1,000, basically $950 to be exact. I want to be accurate for purposes of reporters. The fake news media, they want accuracy. They don’t have to be accurate, but we have to be accurate.

But if you steal less than $950, they basically leave you alone. So I have guys going in, robbing stores with a calculator. Let’s see, this is $100. Did you notice? This is not going to happen in North Carolina, I don’t think. Let’s see, that’s $100. That’s $59. Bing, bing, bing, bing. Stop, stop, stop. We don’t want to go over nine-fifths. They walk out with it. Nobody does a thing.

Trump’s Vision for America

Starting the moment I lift my hand from the Bible after taking the oath of office, I will move to restore America to maximum strength and return the world to peace. We’re going to return the world to peace. And mostly I can do it with a telephone call.

You know, we don’t have to send troops. I can do it with a telephone call. You go to war with another country that’s friendly to us or even not friendly to us, you’re not going to do business in the United States, and we’re going to charge you 100 percent tariffs.

And all of a sudden, the president or prime minister or dictator or whoever the hell is running the country says to me, “Sir, we won’t go to war.” I talked this world out of a lot of wars with telephone calls. We don’t have to send in the troops.

Military Rebuild

One of my most urgent priorities will be to quickly rebuild the readiness and spirit of the United States Armed Forces. And we had it built. We rebuilt it. We rebuilt the whole military, but it was decimated under this group of stupid people. You know, we had so much. When I came in, we had no ammunition.

Did you know that? Remember? I used to talk about it. And I said, if it’s true, which it was, why would you say that? We had people on television. “Well, the United States has no ammunition.” You know, some things you just keep to yourself, right? Do you remember I used to, from North Carolina, do you remember I used to talk about that all the time?

Those are my best witnesses, those ladies. There’s about 40 of them. They’re all over the place. And they’re always perfectly coiffed and perfectly dressed. They’re beautiful, and they’re great. But, no, I used to talk all the time. If you have no bullets, I can ask this group of leaders. You don’t talk about it, but you get the bullets really fast, right?

So, within a year, I had so much that our warehouses were stocked to the gills. We never had so much. I bought so much, missiles, everything. I rebuilt our military, but that’s been all dissipated now again because we give it away to everybody and for nothing.

Foreign Aid Criticism

I mean, they don’t do anything for us. We don’t get anything. We don’t even get a pledge that we’ll pay you back someday if we have the money. How about that? Pay you back someday if we have the money.

Trump’s Personal Anecdotes

You know, I sponsor athletes sometimes if I see somebody that I like in sports. I sponsor some golfers. Usually doesn’t typically work out. I don’t know if you know. It’s like a 5,000 to one shot. But I’m good at that stuff, and I can see talent. And I’ll give them a few thousand dollars. I’ll give them $50,000. I’ll say, “You know, you’re really good. You could make it. Why aren’t you trying out for the tour?”

“Sir, I have no money. I have to give lessons. I have no money.” He said, “You’re too good to give lessons. You can be a tour player.” “Sir, I don’t have any money.” I say, “Here’s $50,000, and here’s the deal. If you do well, you pay me back with no interest. Just good luck. If you don’t do well, which you probably won’t, because it’s very hard, they say the worst is a boxer.”

If you sponsor a boxer, they’re all great. They’re winning all their fights. And then they turn professional, and they go in. And this goes with the UFC, run by Dana White, one of the greats of all time, which has really taken over for boxing. But it’s the same thing. And people sponsor people, and they get what they get.

Rally Incident

But the worst is that. What’s wrong? Oh. A doctor, please. It is very hot here, I notice. It’s very hot. And a lot of the people waited for days to get here, so I understand it. Take your time, doctor. Take your time. Thank you. Captain America! Take your time, please. Thank you. Thank you.

[Audience: We love you! We love you! We love you! We love you! We love you! We love you! We love you! We love you! We love you! We love you! We love you! We love you! We love you. We love you. We love you….]

Thank you very much. You know, they come two days, three days early, and it’s a lot of stress. We lose them. The only ones we don’t lose are Front Row Joes. I don’t know what they have going. They have something going here, Governor. Thank you very much. Thanks, Doctor.

Military Leadership Criticism

But America is blessed with the greatest military in the world. Our men and women in uniform have been betrayed by radical left politicians and some generals. And at the top, they’re woke. They’re woke. We don’t want woke generals. We want generals that know how to win, and we have them. We proved that when we wiped out ISIS, didn’t we? Proved it.

Sure, it’ll take five years. We did it in three weeks. I think we did it in three weeks. We have the greatest military in the world, but you need the great leaders. Otherwise, your military will – can never be great.

Afghanistan Accountability

Everywhere I go, soldiers and veterans tell me how angry they are that not one person has been held accountable for the Afghanistan catastrophe. He never fired anybody. You know, I fire a lot of people when they don’t do a good job. Then they come back and write books. You know, they hate you, but that’s okay. When you don’t fire people, they never write books, you know.

But I fired a lot of people. I wasn’t happy with their service. I wasn’t happy with the job they did, and I fire them. I let them go. I’m working for you. I’m not doing this for myself. But when you fire them, they always come back with something. And now nobody’s ever been in the position where, you know, they get offered all sorts of money from the fake news and everything else, and fame.

Media Criticism

“We’re going to make you famous. All you have to do is make up some stories about Trump.” But people don’t seem to care. It’s phony stuff – phony, horrible. They’re lightweights. They’re terrible people.

Trump’s Washington Experience

You know, when I came, don’t forget, I didn’t know anybody in Washington. I’m President of the United States. I’m going down Pennsylvania Avenue with the biggest load of military and police and motorcycles and everything you’ve ever seen. And I didn’t know anybody. I said to my wife, “I don’t know a lot of people, but the people I know, I got recommendations from a lot of good people, well-meaning people.” Some were good. Most were great. But we had some bad ones, too.

But now I know them all in Washington. I know the good ones, the weak ones, guys like this. I know the weak ones and the bad ones in general. We know the dumb ones and the smart ones, don’t we? We know them all.

Accountability for Afghanistan

But the voters will hold Kamala and Joe accountable for this November when I take office. And they’re going to be held accountable for what they’ve done to this country. Right? Thank you.

I will ask for the resignations of every single senior military official who touched the Afghanistan disaster. I want their resignations immediately. And I want them on the desk in the Oval Office, the Resolute Desk. I want them on at 12 o’clock, Inauguration Day, everybody involved with that disaster.

When you have a disaster so stupid as that, that caused us such problems, you don’t know what that’s done to the reputation of our country, the Afghanistan disaster.

This housecleaning will be a signal to the entire world and the American military and everybody else. They want people to be held accountable for failure and incompetence, and it’s just not acceptable that something like that could happen.

Military Equipment Criticism

These are fighters. They fight with broken, old, obsolete weapons and knives. We have F-16s, we have F-35s, F-32s. And we were knocking the hell out of them, just knocking the hell out of them. It was easy. But I said, what the hell are we doing this for? Let’s get the hell out of there.

We were getting out with such strength, they were so happy they couldn’t believe it. And then these people came in, and it’s horrible to even think about what happened. And countries all over the world lost respect for us because of Afghanistan. We demand success and we demand victory. We want victory from our soldiers and from everybody else.

Criticism of Harris’s Ideology

Under Comrade Kamala Harris — and I call her that because there’s never been — she’s a Marxist, okay? I was saying, do you think she’s a Marxist or a communist? The people that really study this stuff, they weren’t able to tell me. They said it could be all the way, it could be communist, but she’s damn close. They said it was definitely one or the other, but they couldn’t actually tell me. Was it communist or Marxist? Sure, it’s one or the other. We’re not sure. We’ll figure it out.

Military Social Experiments

But under Comrade Kamala, our military has been abused for radical social experiments. From day one, I will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our U.S. armed forces. We’re taking it out. Our warriors should be focused on defeating America’s enemies, not figuring out their genders.

By that time, hopefully, they know their genders. Marxist ideologies have no place in combat. Think of it. They go in and they decide, oh, is it going to change my gender? No, no. We want them to know their gender when they go in. You have no idea the disruption that that has caused, and the fake news refuses to report it.

Military Policy Changes

You know, when I did a ban, I went to a lot of good generals. I said, I’m not going to tell you names. Just tell me, is it the right thing or the wrong thing? The wrong thing, sir. It’s the wrong thing. And I had unanimous support. And then we did it. I didn’t do it. Other people did it. They reversed me as soon as they got in, like, almost the first day. I didn’t do it. But they allowed things to happen to our military that’s just not right.

If you want to have a sex change or a social justice seminar, then you can do it somewhere else, but you’re not going to do it in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Space Force, or the United States Marines. Sorry. You’re not going to do it there.

The military brass that led these absurd and insulting initiatives will likewise be removed, and they will no longer be in command. They’re going to be gone, gone so fast.

COVID Vaccine Mandate

Kamala and Crooked Joe purged 8,000 service members from our military for refusing their COVID vaccine mandate. They refused to do it. We didn’t want a mandate. With a mandate, you can’t — you just can’t do that.

I will rehire every patriot who was fired from the military with an apology and with back pay. They will get their back pay and an apology from our government.

Hopefully, they have great jobs right now, and they’re making a lot of money. But if they want to come back in, they get an apology, and we sign them up, and they get their back pay.

Military Morale and Recruitment

Should have never happened. The mandate stuff should have never happened. Thanks to Comrade Kamala and Joe Biden, morale in our military is now so low that almost every single branch is suffering a major recruitment and retention crisis. You know that.

Upon taking office, I will begin the largest peacetime recruitment drive in the history of the armed forces. We have to fill our armed forces with great people, but they don’t have spirit now. There’s no spirit.

Used to bring — other soldiers would bring their friends in. Now that doesn’t happen. Almost never happens. The sense of spirit, pride, and prestige will soon come roaring back and reach levels never seen before. We’re going to make it so hot that I’m going to want to resign and join the military.

I don’t know what rank I would start at. I guess I started private. I don’t know. What rank would I have to start at, General? I have to start pretty low. He said, you’ll start at the top. All right, then I’ll stay here. That’s very good. You’ll start at the top. He knows what to say.

Military Strength and Strategy

America’s military must always be unrivaled and unbeatable. I mean, I see reports coming out where they do studies and they said, under these circumstances, we’ll lose a war to China. Number one, if it’s true, why are we saying it? And number two, it shouldn’t be true, should it, huh? It shouldn’t be true. It’s not going to happen.

Why would they release a report like that for China to read? We’re vulnerable here. She said they’re idiots. That’s a good word, too. Who’s the woman that said that? Stan, please. Who said that? That’s very good.

No, it’s true. She says they’re idiots. Now, they released a report talking about all of the vulnerable areas. We need more of this. We need more of that. We’re weak here. We’re weak there. I don’t know who does this report. Why would you release a report like that?

Criticism of Current Administration’s Military Policies

So after years, that’s like saying we have no ammunition. Ladies and gentlemen, we have no ammunition at the time. With the United States of America — you know why? We gave it all up to Ukraine and various other places. We gave them everything. Empty our warehouses of all of our ammunition. Let’s give it to people free of charge.

Free of charge. It costs billions. Free of charge. Everything is always free of charge. So after years of horrific depletion with the comrade sending our missiles and airplanes, ammunition to other countries, I will make a historic investment in rebuilding the U.S. Armed Forces. I did that once before, but I have to do it again because they’ve depleted it, just like they’ve depleted the strategic oil reserves.

Strategic Oil Reserves

You know, we have the strategic — in all due respect, it’s not for filling up your car so that you have four cents a gallon less and that you vote for Crooked Joe. It’s not meant for that. It’s meant for war. It’s meant for tragedy. It’s meant for real stuff.

It’s at the lowest point today in its history. We almost have nothing left. And we had it at a level that was such a beautiful thing to see.

Military Funding and Technology

We will increase funding, but at the same time, the days of blank checks for the weapon systems over the past are over. I tell you what we will build, though. We’re going to build a great Iron Dome over our country so that we don’t have to get hit. We give it to other countries. We help Israel and other countries.

And Ronald Reagan wanted it many years ago, as you know, but it didn’t — we didn’t really have the technology then. He was right, but we didn’t have the right technology. Today, we have unbelievable technology. And you know, we have other countries that have it.

This country should have it. And we’re going to make it right here, and we’re going to make it in other of our great places. But a lot of it is going to come right out of your state. It’s time to create the arsenal of the 21st century.

We need that. We need aggressively shifting funding to keep America on the cutting edge, investing heavily in drones and robotics and artificial intelligence and hypersonics.

You know, hypersonics — these are missiles that go seven times faster than a fast, ordinary missile. Seven times faster. So fast that, for the most part, you can’t shut them down and you can’t shoot them down. They’re going at levels of speed that nobody thought was possible.

Technology Theft Allegations

You know, that was our technology that was stolen by Russia. And Russia has them. And I started them very quickly. But somebody gave Russia, years ago, before me, all of our plans and specs for hypersonic missiles, and they built them, and we didn’t. He said, Bill Clinton. He could be.

It might have been — in all fairness, it might have been a little after Bill Clinton. I used to like Bill Clinton, can you believe it? It could have been Barack Hussein Obama, perhaps, we should ask him. Now, he was very nasty last night.

Personal vs. Policy Debate

I try and be nice to people, you know, but it’s a little tough when they get personal. Please, again, remember — please, sir, don’t get personal. Talk about policy. Let me ask you about that.

We’re going to do a free poll. Here are the two questions. Should I get personal? Should I not get personal? Ready? Should I get personal? Should I not get personal? I don’t know.

My advisers are fired. No, we’d rather keep it on policy. But sometimes it’s hard when you’re attacked from all ends. I mean, they want to put you in jail for nothing, for nothing, for cases that the legal scholars all over the country have said there is no case, and they want to put you in jail.

Comparison to Hillary Clinton

And I could have done that to Hillary Clinton. I could have put her in jail. She turned away subpoenas, and she damaged stuff, and she wouldn’t give things. After a subpoena was sent, after, from the United States Congress, I said to myself, we want to bring the country together.

Wouldn’t it be terrible to put the wife of the President of the United States in jail? Wouldn’t it be terrible? And then I come out, and they do it to me. And there’s no feeling as, wouldn’t it be terrible?

Legal Victories and Biden Comparisons

But we won the big case in Florida. That was totally won. And Biden didn’t. You know, Biden documents, I had the Presidential Records Act, I had a right to do whatever I wanted to do. That was passed in, like, 1978. But Biden didn’t have a right to do it because he wasn’t President. He was there for 50 years. He took stuff.

And the ruling was basically, he’s guilty as hell, but he’s got no memory. He’s a nice man with no memory. Actually, they’re wrong. He’s not a nice man, and he has no memory.

He’s not a nice man at all because he started weaponization. And weaponization is a double prong that can come back to haunt them, too. It’s a terrible thing for our country, I can tell you. A terrible thing for our country.

We need a dramatic increase in research. We need a very dramatic increase in development. And in so doing, we will create countless American jobs, including jobs right here in a place called North Carolina. Do we love North Carolina?

Personal Anecdotes

Laura Trump is from North Carolina. She named her daughter Carolina. The wife of Eric, I now say that he’s the husband of Laura, which he’s great. He’s great, and it’s a great couple, but she loves this place. She just loves it. She’s here all the time. And you know, she comes, and we love her, too. She’s amazing.

She’s got great talent, and she, along with Michael Whatley, are running the Republican National Committee and doing a great job. You know, a lot of times when you do that, they’ll say, oh, family, let me say, this is not a job that somebody — this is a tough job. And our primary focus is not to get out the vote. It’s to make sure they don’t cheat, because we have all the votes you need.

Campaign Support

You can see it. Every house along the way has signs, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Vance, Trump, Vance. And by the way, Vance is doing a great job. Vance is doing a great job. Vance is doing a great job. Look at that beautiful red Vance. No, but these signs are all over the place. I see it everywhere.

No matter where in Florida, they’re all over. Because people want to see common sense. You know, we’re the party of common sense. It’s not conservative, liberal. They don’t want to be called liberal in where they want to use progressive. We’re progressive. Progressive. I think liberal is more appropriate.

Progressive is such a beautiful word, right? You know, progressive. Progressive means go forward. They don’t go forward.

Foreign Policy and World Peace

As we rapidly rebuild American deterrence, we will quickly restore peace and stability in our country, but all over the world. We’ll make our country a much safer place. We’re in grave danger of a war, a third world war, I tell you, before I even arrive at the Oval Office. And as I said, we’re going to do things that are going to be shocking to people.

But what I’m going to do more than anything else, I’m going to get things in line and we’re going to prevent that World War III. And if you look at what’s going on with Ukraine and Russia, if you look at it now, there’s an incursion into Russia. Then there’ll be another incursion the other way. And then all of a sudden, bad things will start to happen.

They’re already starting. By contrast, if Comrade Kamala wins this November, World War III is virtually guaranteed to happen. Everything she touches, she destroys. Everything that she’s touched, you look at her life.

Criticism of Kamala Harris

She was district attorney in San Francisco. The place went to hell. It was the best city in the world, probably, 15, 18 years ago, 20 years ago. Maybe in the whole world, it was one of the best cities in the world.

Then she becomes the attorney general of the state of California. That place went to hell. It was helped by Gavin Newscombe. It was helped. Newscombe helped. But she did a — she was terrible. And it’s crime-ridden, and it’s — I mean, you can’t walk down the sidewalk anymore. That’s just unbelievable, what’s happened to that state.

So sad. Best weather, beautiful ocean, beautiful — everything is good, but they’ve just let it go to hell. And she was — and she’s going to do the same thing to the United States. And when she says, I’ll let you frack, her whole career, she said, no fracking, Pennsylvania in particular.

No, because they get tremendous wealth from fracking. They’re going to be stopped. A hundred percent, they’re going to be stopped. She just changed her view a few months ago.

Harris’s Presidential Campaign

You got to see. You know, she ran against Biden. There were 22 people running. She was the first to leave. She quit because she went down like that. And she was the first one out. She never made it to the first state in the primary. She never made it to Iowa.

Never made it to Iowa. She didn’t get one vote. And she still hasn’t gotten one vote. And she won’t have one vote. Think of it.

Criticism of Biden

Biden. I’m not a fan of Biden. I think he was terrible. A terrible president. What he did to our country — you look at him with the planes and the stairs and the falling all over the place, and he had no idea what the hell was happening. He couldn’t find his way off the stage. A stair here, a stair there, a stair — got stairs all over the place.

When he’d finish his speech, I’d look around, where am I? His speeches lasted. The nice part — it was good in the hot sun because they lasted for about two minutes and he could go home. But nobody would come anyway.

Comparison of Harris and Biden

But we can’t let her — she’s much worse. Much worse than him, actually, because she’s actually more radical. He never believed it. He just did it for votes.

I don’t know why you’d get votes by having open borders. You know, she wants open borders. If she became President in four years, he’d have 60 to 70 million people from all over the world. And it’s not just South America.

And remember, they’re releasing them from their jails and their prisons. They’re coming out of jails and prisons and mental institutions and insane asylums. And we have hundreds and probably thousands of terrorists that have come into our country. We probably have a few here.

Welcome. Welcome. But we probably have a few here. And she’s all for it.

Border Wall and Immigration

And now she’s saying — and you see what she’s saying — well, the wall was largely built. We were adding space onto the wall. We built hundreds of miles of wall. I actually took it because Congress gave us a hard time, and the Democrats were brutal.

We had 11 lawsuits, and we won all 11. But I took it out of the military. I called it an invasion of our country. It was an invasion. And we built hundreds of miles of wall. And then I was going to do 200 extra. We ordered it. It was there.

And we had that rotten, horrible election — that horrible election — where we did much better than we did the first time. And bad things happened. And all of a sudden, I hear that they want to have open borders. And I thought they were kidding.

Who the hell wants open borders? And then they said, we’ll give you healthcare. You know, now they’re saying all about how they’re getting tough on the borders and how they were tough, except they have a couple of problems. Do you know that we flew in a million people — airplanes — over the top of the border?

Beautiful airplanes. They’re flying them in. If you want to stop people, you’re not flying them in on airplanes and many other things. No, they wanted open borders.

Crime and Immigration

And we have a country that’s loaded up with many, many criminals right now. Of the worst, they emptied their jails. They emptied their jails and prisons. They emptied their mental institutions into our country, largely.

Now, they’re continuing to do it. But if you look at many of these countries that we’re talking about, frankly, who can blame them? They’re dropping their prisoners into the United States of America. They’re dropping all of these people into the United States, including their mental institution people.

Any terrorists they have, they’re dropping them into the United States. We’re taking hundreds of thousands of people that were in jail for murder. If you take a look at Venezuela, their jails are half. And I’m surprised half, because, frankly, I would have worked faster than that if I were running it.

I would have had all of them out of there by now. They go to Caracas, they take all their gang members, all of their killers, their murderers, their drug dealers. They take them, and they’re putting them into the United States. And their crime is down 72 percent.

In fact, next time, what we’ll do, instead of North Carolina, we’ll have our next little gathering in Venezuela, because it will be much safer than being in our country. If these people win, you’re not going to have any meetings, you’re not going to have anything. There’ll be chaos in our country. And we just can’t let it happen.

We can’t let it happen. We can’t let it happen. Remember, when Biden sent Kamala to Europe to stop the war in Ukraine, she met with Putin, and then three days later, he attacked. How did she do?

Criticism of Kamala Harris’s Diplomacy

She did a good job. She met with Putin to tell him, don’t do it, and three days later, he attacked. That’s when the attack started. Did you know that, General?

I should have sent you. But over a half a million, they say, are dead or wounded, but it’s a much higher number than that. And everything lies in ruin.

Election Concerns

Look, we are going to fight like hell to win this election. They are going to cheat like hell to win the election, because they have no bounds. They have no bounds. I’ve said to some Republicans once in a place called Philadelphia, which I love, I went to school in Philadelphia, but it’s suffering tremendously, like Chicago, like every Democrat-run city is suffering.

But I said, like, why do we allow them to do it? Do Republicans do what they do with the stuffing, the boxes, with all of the different things they do? Sir, we’re proud Americans. And that’s really the right thing to say. But they have no bounds.

We have to win this election. If we don’t win this election, we are in such trouble as a country. We’re in trouble right now, but you have the right guy to straighten it out. I’ll get it straightened out.

Foreign Policy Vision

We’re going to have peace through strength all over the world, like we had just a short while ago. And I just want to say, closing, it’s an honor to have served for four years. I wish we didn’t have this break.

The only thing good about the break is it shows how bad it can get, because we’ve never had a country that’s been in shape like this country is in right now. We have squalor in our streets. Our vets are disregarded, living on sidewalks in freezing cold and unbelievably hot cities all over the country. And yet we have people coming into our country that are living in luxury hotels.

Vision for America

This is what we have. We’re going to straighten out our country through common sense. We’re going to straighten out our country with the United States of America. We’re the greatest country in the world.

We’re not going to let this continue to go. We’re going to straighten it out. We’re going to make it bigger, better, stronger than ever before. We’re going to bring in business.

Trade Policy

We’re going to use tariffs to take advantage of our great strength and to, frankly, hurt countries that are hurting us and have been hurting us on trade for many, many years. Right now, China is building massive auto plants in Mexico. And they think that those plants are going to make cars and they’re going to sell them across the line for no tax, no anything, destroy what’s left in Detroit, which, frankly, compared to years ago, is very little, and South Carolina and many other places. We’re not going to let it happen.

We will charge them 150 or 200 percent tariff. And all of that investment that they made is now worthless. We’re not going to let them do that. We’re not going to let them destroy our automobile industry.

Electric Cars and Energy Policy

The United Auto Workers has a grossly incompetent man at the head. They want to make all electric cars. And Elon Musk is a friend of mine. You saw he endorsed me very strongly, and he understands that I’m right.

And I love electric cars, that they have an incredible purpose. They have an incredible purpose. They’re unbelievable what they can do, and he makes a great product. But I told him, I said, you know, before you endorse, you have to understand, we have to have gasoline-propelled cars.

Again, we have more liquid gold than anybody anywhere in the world. More than Saudi Arabia, more than Russia. We have more than anybody. We’re going to quadruple that business.

We’re going to be much bigger than both of them put together. We’re going to pay down debt. We’re going to reduce your taxes. I gave you the largest tax cut in history, the largest regulatory cut in history.

Job Creation and Economic Policy

That created all of the jobs. And when Biden talks about jobs, by the way, because they lie so much, the jobs he created, almost all of them, almost 100 percent, people say more than 100 percent, went to illegal aliens. The other, remember this, the numbers sound good because they’re called bounce-back jobs. We had a pandemic.

People were laid off. And then as soon, and this is common for ages, when a pandemic goes, you have bounce-back. The businesses, and we, had we not done what we did with money, probably some of you benefited, we would have been in a 1929-style depression. We did it just right.

The problem is, they came in, they no longer needed money. We gave them a country that was fixed. And more people died during Biden, think of that, than died during us from COVID. Many more people died during them.

Criticism of Current Administration’s Policies

But think of this, we gave them a country and they blew it because they took so much. They took trillions and trillions of money. They kept feeding it. And that’s what caused, along with their bad energy policies, that’s what caused this tremendous inflation, which is destroying the people of our country.

And frankly, it’s contagious. It’s all over the world. But we’re the ones that started it with their bad policy.

Closing Remarks

So we’re going to work very hard. We’ve got to win. We’ve got to win this state. This state is a very, very big state to win. We’ve won it twice, and we’re going to win it again.

I said to a couple of the people, I said, so let me ask you, how are we doing compared to four years ago and eight years ago? They said, sir, you’re much hotter, you’re more popular. I hope that’s true. But we won it twice.

And all I can do is pledge to you that we’re going to do a great job for North Carolina. We’re going to do a great job for the United States of America. We put America first. And we’re going to make America great again.

Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody.

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