Transcript: President Trump Delivers Remarks in Clive – Jan. 27, 2026 

Totally closed. And America is respected all over the world like they’ve never been respected. One year. I thought it would take us two years. I guess I’m following in the great path of John Deere. We got the chairman of John Deere here. Chairman and CEO. That’s pretty good. I even signed a John Deere hat for him. I said, “I’m going to put this in the museum.” I said, “That’s good.” No, it’s a great company. Great company. And you just said you’re opening up two massive plants because of tariffs. You’re opening up one in North Carolina, one someplace else. And you’re expanding all over the place. You’re doing a great job. I bought a lot of John Deere stuff. I bought a lot of John Deere. It’s a great company. It’s an honor to have you. Thank you very much.

I’ve never had one year turnaround of any country in history in terms of the speed. I really thought it would take us two or three years to do what we’re doing. You know, we have the greatest, the number one country anywhere in history in the world, anywhere in history for investment coming into the country. And it’s amazing. And it’s because of tariffs. And it’s also because of the fact that we had such a tremendous November 5th. That November 5th brought spirit back to our country. Came back.

Military and Law Enforcement Recruitment

You know, one thing I think which is so important is. If you remember a year and a half ago, we couldn’t get people to enlist in the military. Any of them. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, any of them. The Coast Guard, Space Force. I love Space Force. We couldn’t get them. And even police departments, they couldn’t get anybody with a uniform that represented the country. You couldn’t get them. And today we have the single greatest recruitment numbers in the history of our military. The police forces are loaded. The police forces are loaded. Law enforcement is loaded up. And everybody wants to be a policeman, a fireman. They want to be. They want to be in the military. Any branch. I mean, we literally they couldn’t get them a year and a half ago. Nobody wanted to be in the military. Now everybody wants to be in the military. It’s an amazing thing that’s happened. An amazing turnaround. And all because we have a president who does something very simple. He puts America first. Right? Right? Thank you.

Tax Relief Initiatives

So under my leadership, economic growth is exploding to numbers unheard of. They’ve never had them before, and times, and now — and we’re just getting started. You know, the great, big, beautiful bill, which is no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our seniors. Do we have any seniors in here? Do we have any seniors in here? One of the fake news said he did that because he doesn’t want to pay tax on his Social Security.

Don’t you believe — that’s what I never thought of. These are sick — these are sick people. But despite the fact that we’ve just really started, just kicking in — because we inherited such a horrible situation with all of the high prices and the inflation and everything else. And, by the way, the open borders — we had millions and — everything you see today wouldn’t happen. They opened the borders. But we had a 5.4 percent. And since the election, the stock market has set 52 all-time highs, adding $9 trillion in value to your savings, retirement account, and 401Ks.

So, 401K people — I mean, of which you got a lot of people. Does anybody have a 401K in the audience? A lot of people. So you’re setting records, right? The highest it’s ever been. They say, this — you know the good stock market. They say, “Well, this stock market — you know, they can’t get — they just try so hard. This stock market doesn’t affect the middle class.” I say, it does. What about a 401K? What about all the other things? What about the fact that they’re making more salary than they’ve ever made? But the stock market is the highest.

How is John Deere stock doing? Great? All-time high? It’s all-time. Everyone — I don’t have to even ask the question. I mean, I made a lot of people rich. Me, I just keep working. I made a lot of people rich. I made a lot of people rich that I don’t even like. I got a lot of people that I don’t like at all, and I’ve made them — I’ve doubled their net worth.

Record Investment Commitments

But after four years in which Biden got less than $1 trillion in new investment — think of it. He took in substantially less in four years than $1 trillion. We secured commitments for a record-breaking plus $18 trillion. So, in one year, we did over $18 trillion, and he did less than $1 trillion.

Just over one year ago, under Sleepy Joe Biden and the radical-left lunatics, we were a dead country. We were a dead country. I’ll tell you, one year ago — a little more than one year ago, we were a dead country. The King of Saudi Arabia told me that. You’ve heard me say it. He said it better than anybody else. He said, “You know, I can’t believe it. A couple of months ago — a few months ago — he said, a year ago, you were a dead country. Now you’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. I can’t believe it.”

John Deere Excavator Factory Announcement

And today, I’m pleased to announce one more historic investment. The great American company that we just talked about is doing so much. I have to give — I have to give it, really. I buy so much equipment from so many of the people in the — you know, we have a lot of very successful companies in here. But I know it’s a very — a very special deal because John Deere is doing $70 million in factory in North Carolina. It’s brand new. The best in the world. And I think it’s going to pay off very, very big. And if it doesn’t, I have nothing to do with it. But if it does, I’m going to take — I’m going to take full credit.

But what it is, is an excavator factory, as I understand it. And it’s going to be the only excavator factory — in other words, excavators. We all know — I love those excavators. Believe it or not, I know a lot about them. We don’t make them here. This is going to be the only excavator, entirely, made in the United States of America. That’s what I say. That’s great. I love it. I love it. It’s great. And they’ll all come. I hate to tell you, but they’re all going to be coming, too. You can have some competition, but you’ll be ahead of them.

If congressional Democrats had their way this year, we’d, right now, be facing the largest tax hike.

So they wanted to give you — this is what I was running against — the largest tax hike in the history of our country. I wanted to give you the largest tax cut in the history of our country. And if they won this country, it would be cratering right now. It would be cratering.

Regulatory Reform and Job Growth

So I’ve cut a record number of job-killing regulations — the reason our job numbers are so good. And remember this, I’ve cut hundreds of thousands of federal jobs. Now, if I didn’t do that, our numbers would be even more through the roof. Or I could get them. You know what they do? In order to have decent numbers, they hire a million people. You hire a million people, all of a sudden, you’re down to 3.5 percent. We don’t do that. We get rid of that job. We have 10 jobs for every — you have 10 people for every job.

And they are all now — and they hated me. They hated me. Now they love me. You know why? They all got jobs in the private sector, making twice as much money as they made from the federal government. Sometimes much more than that. So a year ago, they hated me, and now they love me.

But it includes dozens of burdensome regulations that were crushing our amazing farmers. We love our farmers. We won this thing. I think I’m at 97 percent with farmers. Well, who the hell is voting for Kamala?

Reflecting on the Campaign

You know, it was a crazy election because we were doing great against Biden. Our whole — nobody even knew who the hell Kamala was. All they knew is she was the Border Czar. We had millions of people pouring through, and she was the Border Czar. So I like that. But I will tell you, the amazing — we didn’t know much about her. And, you know, when you’re running a campaign, you’re focused on the person you rank. And so we’re running against Sleepy Joe Biden. Crooked — I call him Crooked Joe, Sleepy Joe. They’re both accurate.

And we’re running against him. All of a sudden — and he’s way down in the polls, down by a lot. And all of a sudden, they take him out and they put a new — this is like — I told Dana White the other night, it’s like taking a fighter, putting him in. He’s getting the hell beat out of him. You take him out, and you put a new fighter in. I said, “that’s not fair.” But that’s what happened to me. The stuff that happened to me can only happen to me.

Protecting Farmers and Agriculture

But I repealed the Biden’s EPA ridiculous water restrictions to keep federal bureaucrats off your land and out of your business. That was a big one. That was a big one. I terminated the so-called diesel exhaust fluid requirement. You know what that is? Saving family farmers more than $1 billion a year. And we’re going to do a lot more.

We’re going to do something on tractors. You know, they never took the — we did it with cars. We took all that nonsense off the cars. You couldn’t start your car. You’d have to go to MIT to get somebody to fix your car, with all the crap they had on it, in order to save a quarter of a glass to this much little, tiny bit of gas. These people are crazy. And I’m going to do that, I think, for tractors, too, because we’re going to get the tractors back there. Where you don’t have to be a PhD in order to start your tractor, in order to keep the environment clean. So much nonsense. I think it’s — it makes the environment dirty, actually.

Electric Vehicle Mandate and Ethanol

And they — very importantly, on day one, I kept my promise to the people of Iowa and abolished the insane electric vehicle mandate, which would have obligated you to go out and buy an electric car, but it would have obliterated a thing called ethanol. Does — do you like ethanol? Is it big?

A lot of people are asking me about ethanol. I don’t know. I don’t know. Do you want me to do something with ethanol? Maybe.

After years of the United States getting ripped off by other countries on trade, I’m standing up for the workers and the farmers of our country like no other President has ever — no other President has done this. I mean, no other President has done this. I could’ve had an easy presidency. I’d probably have this little piece of ear back, you know? Could have. And I wouldn’t have to listen to lunatics like this up there. I wouldn’t have to listen. And then I was —

Audience Members: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

Thank you. Boy, they’re good here. Do we love our law enforcement? They work very quickly.

Slashing the Trade Deficit

But under Sleepy Joe, we had the largest trade deficit in world history. But in one year, I’ve slashed our gaping trade deficit by a staggering 77 percent. How about that? What about that? That’s pretty good, right? Seventy-seven. Nobody has ever seen that. You know, if you slash your trade deficit by 1 percent, you’re like a genius. They say, “oh, he’s very electable.” He’s not so electable. I did 77.

Historic Drug Price Reduction

I did something else — favored nations on drugs. We now will — we now are paying the lowest price anywhere in the world for drugs. In other words, we’re matching favored nations. It’s called most favored nations. Every other President tried for it. They didn’t try very hard. They didn’t get anything. I got it done. I got all the nations to agree. You think that was easy? I said, “if you don’t agree, we’re going to put tariffs on you.” They said, “we agree. We agree.”

So you’ll have a pill that cost $10, as an example, cost $10 in London, cost $130 in Des Moines, and now it’s going to cost $20. Think of it. You’ll go from $130 down to $20. It’s the biggest price reduction of prescription drugs in history. And it’s going to have a huge impact on your healthcare, too. I was very proud of it.

And, you know, the fake news? I can’t get them to talk about it. Think of it. I got the biggest price reduction in history on drugs, pharmaceuticals. I can’t get these guys to talk about it. It was page, like, 22 in the New York Times. A little story. I just got the biggest. I can’t believe it. If a Democrat got a half a point down, this is, like, hundreds of percent. Depending on the way you want to calculate it, you could say it’s an 80 percent reduction, or you could say it’s a 1,000 percent reduction. You could say whatever you want, but it’s the biggest reduction in history by many, many times.

I did something because we were subsidizing the entire world. We were paying 10 times, in many cases, more money than the rest of the world. And I said it wasn’t fair, and I got it done. And everyone said you can. They said, “you’ll never get other countries to agree.” They said, you know, I said, “yes, I will.” They said, “you’ll never get the other countries to agree.” I got the drug companies. That was not easy, I want to tell you, but that was not so bad. But they even told me, “we’ll agree to it, but you’ll never get the other countries.” They said, “100 percent, I will.” Why wouldn’t I get them?

And I called Macron of France. I said, “you got to double the price of your drugs.” He said, “no, no, no, I will not do that.” What was the story with his glasses the other day? What the hell was that all about? But anyway, but I got them all. I don’t want to go into a long story. Bottom line, I said, “I’m going to increase tariffs by 25. I’m going to charge you 25 percent tariff if you don’t do it.” They said, “we will do it. We would be. Why don’t you ask? We’d love to do it.”

So I got something done that no other President could have gotten done, and no other President. I don’t even think they tried. You want to know the truth. You think Biden was thinking about it? He just was thinking about how the hell to get off the stage. Remember, the guy could never find it. You have so many ways you can jump off the front if it really gets — you got stairs all over the place. The guy could never find his way off the stage. This was not a good sign.

Trade Deals and Agricultural Wins

But I’ve made new fair trade deals with countries covering half of all U.S. trade. You do know they’re paid agitators, right? They’re paid. They get paid. You know, do you ever see their signs? You know, we used to have protests, and you’d have guys making a sign in a basement. These are all paid agitators. That’s all they are. They get paid to go and — they don’t even know what — when they interview them, why are you here? I don’t know. They have no idea. They’re paid insurrectionists, really, in some cases. They’re sickos.

But I’ve made new fair trade deals with countries covering half of all U.S. trade, scoring giant wins for the farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers like no other President has ever done. That’s why I got such a tremendous vote from the farmers. And I love you, too. I do love you, too.

So Japan will now allow the United States to supply up to 100 percent of automobile ethanol — automotive ethanol — and import large amounts of aviation biofuels from the United States. That’s great for you. That was part of the deal that we made. The United Kingdom will import nearly $1 billion of ethanol. That’s part of their deal. Australia is allowing American beef into its market for the first time in more than 20 years. Did you know that? And beef is doing great. And we got to get the prices down a little bit, and they’re starting to come down, pretty much.

China has agreed to purchase over $40 billion of U.S.-grown soybeans. You know that. You’re selling them. They’re selling them. And I went to President Xi, and he’s upping it. I mean, he’s — it’s $40 billion. The European Union will dramatically increase purchases of American pork, dairy, and soybean oil. They never did that before. They’re all doing things that they never did before because you have a certain President that’s a little bit different from the Presidents that you had before.

And nations from Cambodia to Thailand to the Philippines and Indonesia are eliminating all trade barriers to agricultural products. Your agricultural products had trade barriers that didn’t allow them to be sold in countries that are now saying, oh, please, we’d love to accept your product. So that’s great. It’s going to be — you’re going to see it’s starting to kick in now for the farmers.

Farm Relief and Economic Recovery

And to further help our farmers recover from the — really, a catastrophe of the Biden years. What a period of years that we had. We had a country that was just dead. We had a country that was just not respected by anybody. We had a guy who didn’t know where the hell he was. Do you think he worried about his farmer at night? No. He just wanted to go to sleep. This is what we had. This is what we had in our fake election.

We recently issued $12 billion in farm relief. We gave them far — because you were screwed by other countries. I said, how much is the number to our great Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins? She’s doing a great job. I said, Brooke, what’s the number? And she said, $12 billion. And I wrote a check for $12 billion because we have so much money from the tariffs coming in. So you couldn’t have done that before. We’re a rich country now. I hope we win that Supreme Court case. You know, we have people that are China-oriented.

They have people from — literally, very China-oriented and foreign-country-oriented trying to stop that. But we’ll get it done one way or the other. We’re going to do — if we have to do it a different way, we’ll do it. But we’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. We’re doing amazing. Nobody can even believe it. Foreign countries cannot believe what’s happened. They’re studying us, but it won’t work.

E15 Fuel Support Promise

But I’m also working hard to expand your markets domestically and in the campaign. I promise to support E15 all year round. Yes. Yes. Should I do it, Kauffman? Should I do it? I did. I promised E15 all year round if I get elected. And I want to let you know — and we’ll start right now — I was going to put out a statement a week ago. I said, “Hold it. I’m coming to Iowa to make a speech. I’m not going to put out a truth. I’m not going to put — I want to be there in person to tell them, the people of Iowa, to know that I am trusting Speaker Mike Johnson, who’s great, and Leader John Thune, who’s great.” That’s House and Senate. To find a deal that works, we’ve got it. For farmers, consumers, and refiners, including small- and mid-sized refiners — in other words, to get E15 approved.

And they’re working on it. They’re very close to getting it done. So I just wanted to let you know that. Right? Okay? And China will be sending me a bill very shortly, supporting year-round E15, to my desk very quickly. And I will sign it without delay. Okay?

The Importance of the Midterm Elections

I hope you remember us for the midterms. You know, the worst thing about the midterms is the fact that, no matter what happens, the people that win the presidency — you win the presidency — even if you’re a good President — we’ve — I think we had the best first year of any President ever, maybe, they say. But even if you haven’t a great — it’s like, in the last 50 years, they’ve won it twice. Can you believe it? If something happens, there’s a screw turns with the voters. So even if it’s a Democrat or Republican, whoever wins the presidency has a hard time with the midterm.

If we lose the midterms, you’ll lose so many of the things that we’re talking about, so many of the assets that we’re talking about, so many of the tax cuts that we’re talking about. And it would lead to very bad things. We got to win the midterms. I mean, I’m here because I love Iowa, but I’m here because we’re starting the campaign to win the midterms. We got to win the midterms. That means Senate, and it means House. Got to win them.

It’s crazy. You know, you’d think it would be like a 50-50 deal or something. It’s like, for some reason, and this is Democrat, too. Democrat wins the presidency. For some reason, they lose the midterms. Now, maybe they don’t campaign as hard because they’ve came. I don’t know. But I campaign hard. We got to we got to win the midterms. So remember that you got to get out and you got to vote. The midterms are very important. We’re going to we’re going to really work hard on winning the midterms.

We have great candidates. Again, Senate and House. We have great candidates. We got to win them. And we have candidates that rule with common sense, not this craziness. You know, we’re not going to be supporting transgender for all men, men and women’s sports. Open borders. Open borders.

The worst is open borders, because, you know, the — I take care of things, and, you know, inflation — I had it beat very quickly and all. But this open border thing, you know, it’s a lot of work. You’re taking criminals in that they allowed into our country where the jails are opened up. Remember? The jails, the prisons all over. From all over the world, they’re opened up. The Congo, all over South America.

Venezuela, they opened up their jails. We got to get them out. I mean, it’s really, really — we can never forget what that group of morons did to this country. We can never forget. And we’ve got to win the midterms. That’s why we’ve got to win the midterms.

Making America Affordable Again

PRESIDENT TRUMP: As we bring trillions of dollars pouring into our country from overseas, we’re also making America affordable again, a problem caused totally by the crooked Joe Biden administration. I mean, you know, I inherited this problem. They say, prices are too high. I just took over. They said, I’ll never forget. I come here. I’m in three days. I have a news conference three days into my administration. “What about the price of eggs? They’ve gone up, like, five times more.” I said, “I just got here. I didn’t know about it. I’m sorry.” And we got eggs down very quickly. Remember?

But I was standing there. I’m so happy. I just won. I thought the press was going to be so nice. And some lunatic right there, actually. “What about the price of eggs? Eggs have gone up.” I said, “Tell me — give me a little — because I don’t know — I just got here. I’m sorry.” But I fixed it. Now I fixed it pretty much all. But it’s going to go down even further.

No, but they caused the problem. And then they came up — you know, it’s a word that they came up with — “affordability.” Every time you hear the word, remember, they’re the ones that caused the problem. And the first time you heard about it, it was like a few months ago. “This election is all about affordability.” Well, they’re the ones that caused the problem. But nobody knows that. You know, people forget. So they say, “Oh, affordability. Let’s vote for the Democrats.” It’s no — affordability. They caused tremendous price increases. It was caused by the worst inflation we’ve ever had. And they come up with this word, “affordability.”

And I saw it even — although you’re not hearing it so much anymore. You know why? Because the prices are coming down so much. They don’t want it to be an election based on lower prices. But we’re bringing down the lower — I like that term better. It’s the lower prices. We’re bringing them down. But we inherited the highest prices in the history of our country, and we’ve rapidly brought them down. And that’s what we want to do.

Did you ever see them when they’re being interviewed? “This will be an election on affordability.” And I say that — but they never talk about it after. That’s all they say. They just say, “affordability.” But they never do anything, Mr. Chairman. Right? They never say — they don’t talk about what do they mean. So everyone says, you know, look, you people are doing a lot of things. You’re not into politics that much, although you like it. You like Trump. But you’re not into politics. But you’re not going to go back and examine. All you know is, “Oh, therefore, I guess that means they did a good job.” They almost destroyed our country. They were pricing you out.

Gasoline Prices and Economic Relief

PRESIDENT TRUMP: When gasoline is at $4.50, and now it’s at $1 — I was told — you know, I was saying $1.99 today in Iowa. I was told that it was $1.85 that hit a gallon in Iowa. And, you know, that’s like a massive tax cut. That’s actually like a massive tax cut.

So the Biden nightmare cost a typical American family $34,000 in four years. But after one year of Trump, real wages are already up more than $2,000. Think of it. That’s a $5,000 swing. Much faster. Wages have gone up much, much faster. Think of this than inflation. With him, it was just the opposite. Wages in the United States in the last year have gone up. And remember, the first part of the year — actually, you could say almost the first year — I was fixing the country from the horror show that we inherited.

Grocery prices, airfares, hotels, car payments, and rent prices have all come down, and they’ve come down very fast. And thanks to our tax cuts, millions of Americans will soon receive record-setting tax refunds, an average of more than $1,000. Think of that. $1,000 compared to last year. $1,000 just in what you’re going to save with some of the tax cuts. And that number goes up exponentially over the course of four years. So it’s — I mean, it’s amazing. It’s called the great, big, beautiful bill.

You know, one other thing that they get — you get — that I thought was so great, I came up with it. You know, very rich people get deductions. Middle-income people don’t get deductions. They never have deductions. I said, why is it that when a rich person buys something, they get a deduction in interest, but when somebody that’s working like hell, they don’t get it, they want to buy a car? And I said, why can’t somebody buying a car — in America, only if it’s made in America. If it’s made in some other country, we have no interest.

So I got it approved in the great, big, beautiful bill. You get a full tax deduction against your income tax. You get a full tax deduction. Think of it. If you purchase a car in America, if you borrow money, the interest that you’re paying on that borrowed money is a full deduction for your tax purposes. And that’s a tremendous deal. And you know what? It’s also great for the car companies, because the car companies are going to be making a lot more cars that nobody — they couldn’t believe it. And I got it passed. So just remember me as you take those deductions, please. The king of deductions. No, but it was always unfair the way a lot of people — the way a lot of people got treated. You take that deduction.

Tax Cuts Benefiting Service Workers

One of those who will be seeing a big benefit, thanks to our tax cuts, is Erika Pirtle. Where’s Erika? Is she here? Erika? Where is Erika? Where is she? Oh, she’s so beautiful. I’m not allowed to say that anymore. If I say a woman is beautiful, that’s the end of your political career, you know? But she is beautiful. How are you? Congratulations. What a good story.

She’s the general manager at Whiskey River Bar in Ankeny, Iowa, which, as you know, I visited strongly a couple of times in the campaign. And Erika has been able to hire many new employees, and they’re each going to be taking home thousands and thousands of dollars extra because of the no tax on tips. And she’s got a lot more people wanting to work for her, too, because of that no tax on tips. That’s just one of many. How’s that working out, Erika? Good? You want to come up and say a few words? Come on up, Erika. You want to come on up.

And while she’s coming up, also with us is Judy Waldron from Davenport. Judy works part-time as a bartender, and her husband, Chris, is an electrician who works hours on overtime each week. Their family is going to save thousands of dollars on no tax on overtime and no tax on tips, which they’ll use to prepare for retirement. I want to thank you, Judy. Where’s Judy? Where’s — come here. Where’s Judy? Come on up, Judy. Get up here. Come on up. They’re totally unprepared for this, but what the hell, right? Say a few words.

ERIKA PIRTLE : Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, President Trump. No tax on tips is huge for everyone in the service industry. Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Congratulations. Thank you.

JUDY WALDRON: I would just like to say the same thing. Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, honey. Good luck. I refuse to say they’re beautiful. I refuse. But they’re beautiful. Do all people look like that in Iowa? I don’t think so. Thank you both. Congratulations, too. Great. That’s great.

We’re not supposed to come up, but I looked at both of them and I said, get up here. We’re also pleased to be joined by Governor Kim Reynolds. Kim, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. Great. A man who’s become a real star, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Scott. He’s become a star. He’s done a real job. He knows his business. And he’s a big cutter. He cuts a lot of things. Small Business Administrator, another real star, Kelly Loeffler. Kelly. Thank you, Kelly. Thanks, Kelly. Great person. Those are great people.

Also with us are Representatives Ashley Hinson. These are people running for office. We have to vote them. Randy Feenstra. Marionette Miller-Meeks. And Zach Nunn. I want to thank you. Thank you. And I want to tell you that they’re all great and they’re all running and they should be in good shape, but you got to get out and vote. Got to get out of the road.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird. Where’s Brenna? Hi, Brenna. Boy, she was early to endorse me. She was so early, and we appreciate it. We’ll never forget that. That was great. Thanks a lot, Brenna. And you’re doing well, I hear. You’re doing great, right? Thank you. She’s running again. You got to vote for her.

Statehouse Majority Leader Bobby Kaufman. Guys, you got to move her there. Thank you, Bobby. Great job. Great family.

Recognizing Brad Zaun

Former Senate State Senate President Leader — now, I have to tell you about this guy. He endorsed me — the first person in the entire United States of America. It was a year before I even knew I was running, he endorsed me. He endorsed me because he thought I would be good. I wasn’t even thinking about running. He was so early. He was the first person in the United States — before my wife, before my kids — State Senate President. He’s a Marlboro man. He looks like the — Brad Zaun. Where’s Brad? Where are you, Brad? Come on up here. Get up here, Brad.

And state representatives Heather Hora, Derek Wulf, Brooke Boden, and many other wonderful members of the Iowa Statehouse, I want to thank you all for being here.

Brad, you got to say — look at this guy. Can you talk, Brad?

BRAD ZAUN: Well, it’s an honor to be here. And, you know, my wife is a Fox News junkie, and she loves Laura Ingraham. And I tell her — I said, enjoy every second because you are the GOAT. Promises made, promises kept. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He’s a Marlboro man, right? He can do that, do whatever he wants. He was so early. I said, who the hell is that guy in Iowa that keeps endorsing me? Thank you, Brad. We won’t forget.

Achievements in One Year

The Trump administration has done more in 12 months than most administrations achieve in four years or eight years. We’ve done a lot.

I’ve recently introduced my plan to repair the damage of the Unaffordable Care Act — the worst disaster — which now costs many families more than a mortgage. If you look, its number came out to bigger cost than a mortgage, and it’s bad healthcare. Obamacare was created to make insurance companies rich with government subsidies. I want all that money that gets paid to the insurance companies to get paid directly to the people. That’s all I want. So that you can buy better healthcare at a lower cost.

The problem is the Democrats don’t want to do that because they are owned by the insurance companies. So they say, oh, we don’t want to do that. I want the money to be paid to the people to go out and buy their own healthcare. You’ll buy much better healthcare. You have a lot of money left over.

Housing the American Dream

And I’m also making it a lot easier to buy a thing called the House of the American Dream. Last week, I signed an executive order to ban Wall Street and large institutional investors from buying up all the single-family homes in America.

Because we don’t want America to become a nation of renters, and that’s what they forced out. I mean, you have these companies. They own 5,000 houses, 20,000. One has hundreds of thousands of houses. We don’t want that. We want people to be able to buy houses. At the same time, I want to keep the value of the house very high of those people who already own a house. We’re not forgetting about them because they don’t necessarily match those two things. You know, we get the prices down. Well, what does that do? Very important to me, more important to me, is, you know, people have become rich by owning their home. We’re going to keep them nice and rich. Is that okay? You know, nobody — I’ll bet you’ve never heard that before, right? But people own a home, and for the first time, their home is a — we’re not going to bring that price down. I want to say, let them be rich.

But we’re strengthening Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that you’ve heard about. And in the last 12 months, those institutions have supported over 22,000 Iowa families in purchasing or refinancing, and saved over 3,000 Iowa families from losing their homes. We’ve come out and really helped a lot of people keep your home.

Federal Reserve and Interest Rates

And despite a bad Fed Chairman — a guy that has no — we call him too late. He’s too late. Jerome, too late, pal. He’s too late. He wasn’t too late before the Democrats on the election. Then he was too early. But he wants to keep rates as high as possible. Despite that, we’ve driven rates down. You know, when you’re really good, you can get them down despite everything, because, ultimately, it just sort of follows nature.

Mortgage interest rates are now at the lowest level in three years, and new mortgage applications are up 30 percent. By the way, when we have a great Fed Chairman — I think we’re going to have one, I’ll announce it pretty soon — you’ll see rates come down a lot. And refinancings are up 100 percent compared to the end of the Biden term. Up 100 percent.

Law and Order Restored

We’re also working tirelessly to bring back a thing called law and order. You know, there was a time — So there was a time that you weren’t allowed to use the words, law and order. I like that guy. You weren’t allowed to use the term law and order. You weren’t allowed to use the term Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody. Right? Remember that 2016 I ran on? We’re going to bring back Christmas. We did. Now they’re afraid to suggest it, but we brought that back. Law and order. We need law and order. And we have the lowest crime rate now in the history of our country. That’s good. But we’ll do even better.

Southern Border Closure

And as everyone is aware, we’ve totally and completely closed the southern border with little fanfare, but tremendous success. When the southern border is closed, nobody is coming in. That’s right, nobody is able to come into our country except for those that come in legally. We want to have people come in legally. We need people to come in legally, but they have to show that they can love our country, not hate our country. They have to show that they’re not going to blow up our shopping centers, blow up our farms, kill people. They’re coming in legally, but they cannot come in unless they come in legally into our country.

And we’re letting some great people come in. They have to show that they can love our country. They have to be proud. Not like Ilhan Omar. Did you see what — did you see that wise guy? You know, she’s always talking about the Constitution provides me with the following. You know, the Constitution — she comes from a country that’s a disaster. It’s probably — it’s considered, I think, the worst — it’s not even a country. Okay? It barely has a government. I don’t think it does. They’re good at one thing — pirates.

But they don’t do that anymore. You know why? Because they get the same treatment from us as the drug dealers get. Boom, boom, boom. I don’t care what ship they’re attacking. When they attack, when we see them going in, ping, that’s the end of them. It’s amazing.

You know, I don’t know if you know, drugs coming in by water is down 97 percent. And we’re trying to find out who the other 3 percent is because we consider them the bravest people in the world. Who the hell are the 3 percent? But it’s down 97 percent, and now we’re taking them down on the land. The land is much easier than the sea. You had to do the sea first, but the sea is done.

We haven’t exactly helped the luxury fishing business, I would say. Would you like to go fishing? No, thank you. I’d rather, let’s go deep-sea fishing today. Let’s go on another boat, deep-sea fishing. Sorry about that. But it was down 97 percent. We’ve done a job. I’ll tell you, we’ve made our country respected again. The greatest military, we have the greatest military in the world. You know, I rebuilt our military in our first term, and we have the greatest military in the world.

Crime Reduction Achievements

So you read much about Minnesota, where, unbeknownst to the public, we have brought down crime very substantially in Minnesota. We’ve taken out thousands of hard criminals, hardened, vicious, horrible criminals. You don’t read about, you don’t read about things like Washington, D.C., where there is virtually no crime. And it was horrible a year and a half ago.

Memphis, Tennessee, which was a real disaster, and now it’s down, crime has dropped by 78 percent in the last two months. New Orleans, Louisiana, I was asked by the governor of Louisiana to help them with New Orleans. It was a disaster. And crime is down 54 percent in about three weeks. You don’t read about that.

And we’ve done all of this by taking thousands of criminals out of these states. We took over 2,000 people out of Washington, D.C. These were criminals. You know, if you remember, about 2 percent of the population, it’s a very simple business, 2 percent of the population causes 90 percent of the crime. So when you start decimating that 2 percent, boom, that’s why we have the current, look, it’s an amazing number, wouldn’t you think? These, you know, it’s just crime over and over and over. Two percent creates 90 percent of the crime. Isn’t that amazing? It’s not that complicated, is it?

In one year, we’ve achieved the largest drop in the murder rate in the history of our country. Drug overdose deaths are down by 21 percent, the largest drop every quarter. You’ve got to do better than me. And I’ve designated the drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Big deal.

Strong Poll Numbers and Public Support

And despite the strong efforts of the fake news media, we are starting to see the historic success reflected in tremendous polls. We have great polls. In last week’s Rasmussen poll, we’re leading among Hispanic voters. We’re leading by a lot. Nobody has ever seen a Republican lead among Hispanic voters.

You know, Hispanic voters don’t want crime. People don’t realize that. Hispanic voters want strong voters because they know what’s coming in, and they don’t want them. They’re great. They’ve been great. We did so great in the election with Hispanic voters. We did so great with black men. We did so great with white everything.

In yesterday’s RMG poll, a clear majority of Americans support our deportation policies by a margin of 10 percent. Now, I don’t know why 10 percent, because I don’t think it’s even, I mean, wouldn’t you say, like, 100 percent? Who, who the hell would be against? Maybe somebody that hates our country.

And a recent Harvard-Harris poll found that 80 percent of Americans support our unprecedented operation to deport criminal aliens.

In other words, 80 percent — that’s more like it — of the people support our operation to remove really dangerous, bad people out of our country. And in a Reuters poll that just came out, Republicans are leading on the economy by a lot and leading on immigration by a lot, and the crime, they’re leading by a real lot, by almost — I guess almost 20 points. And in real clear politics-average net approval, the Republican Party is more than 10 points more popular than Democrats. And I don’t even understand that. How can you — 10 points is considered a lot. But to me, I mean, how is it 10 points? Well, we’ve done all these things. They’ve done only destroying our country. They are destroying — they would destroy — I’m telling you, if Kamala won, or any of them — I think Gavin Newsom is worse because, I mean, he’s destroyed California. If they won — if they win, that group, that ideology wins, you will be Venezuela on steroids. And I’ve said it for years. And you know it. They will destroy our country. The country would have been destroyed already.

Rebuilding the Military

We’re fully rebuilding the U.S. military with more than $1 trillion we’re spending on the military. And in June, we obliterated Iran’s nuclear capacity in Operation Midnight Hammer. You saw that. People have been waiting for 22 years to do that. And we were right at the end. They were about a month away from having a nuclear weapon. We had to do it. And just — and, by the way, there’s another beautiful Armada floating beautifully toward Iran right now. So we’ll see. I hope — I hope they make a deal. I hope they make a deal. They should have made a deal the first time they’d have a country.

Military Operations in Venezuela

And just weeks ago, in a spectacular operation in Venezuela, we brought the outlaw dictator Nicolas Maduro to face American justice. In one of the most brilliant, lethal, quick — they’ve never seen violent operations ever seen, military operations ever seen. Nobody was killed. Not on their side. A lot of people — unfortunately, I have to say, a lot. We went into a very big, powerful military base with a group of unbelievable, talented, patriotic people that love our country. You couldn’t hold them back. You know, the weather was off for three nights. It was not good, so I delayed it. I delayed it. I delayed it. The next night, it was okay, but not great. I said, “General, let’s —” “Sir, they’re ready to go, sir. They’re okay.” I said, “but the weather’s a little bad.” They said, “sir, they’re ready to go.” I said, “God bless you, General.” And boy, did they do a job.

America is Back

Joe Biden and his allies, in conclusion, in Congress, did everything they could to destroy our country, but they failed. And today, after just one year since my second inauguration — you know, we have a new hat. It’s called “America is Back.” America is back. Our border is secure. Our spirit is restored. Inflation is stopped. Incomes are up. Prices are down. Our economy is roaring. Our workers are thriving. And our country is winning again, winning like never before. We’ve never had a period of time like this. You’ve never had a period of time.

I just left a great group of people from Iowa, and half of them were crying as they talked to me. I don’t think they were crying because I’m doing a bad job. You know, in theory, you’d cry if you do a bad — they were crying because I’ve done a good job. “Sir —” they said, “sir, you’ve brought our country back.” Crying, crying. One woman was fantastic. She grabbed me and she put her head right there, and her tears are pouring all over my beautiful suit. I figured I’d get it. And I checked it out, and there was a lot of makeup all over. I said, “what the hell am I going to do? I could get myself in trouble.” No, but she was crying.

And I said, “Don’t cry. Be happy. Be happy.” With the help of the incredible people of Iowa, we’re repairing four long years of disaster and decline, and we’re beginning what will be known as the greatest years in the history of our country. I believe that, too. We are entering a period that will be called the Golden Age of America. That’s what’s happening.

So, together, with all of you—and you were with me from the beginning, all three times we won by a lot. I don’t know if you remember, but before I got involved, this was really a Democrat state. You know that. I don’t want to bring it up. And then I came along, and it wasn’t Democrat very long. And our great chairman did such a good job. Boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. You could do anything. I’ve offered him—come to Washington. Come to Washington. Take any position. But he likes it. He just doesn’t want to leave. I think he just wants to stay in Iowa. I don’t blame you. But you are fantastic.

But we won all three times by a lot. But this used to—until we came along, this used to be a Democrat state. And then we turned it. Barack Hussein Obama, have you heard of him? He won both times. Didn’t he win both? He won twice. You know, Barack Hussein Obama, wonderful President. Really brought people together, didn’t he? But Barack Obama won twice, you know, until everyone said, well, Iowa—you know, they had this down as not winnable. And we won in a landslide. Three times we won in a landslide.

Closing Remarks

So—Together with all of you, the citizens from all across this incredible, beautiful land, we will make America powerful again. Oh, we’ve done it. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America healthy again. That’s happening. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And most importantly, we will make America great again.

Thank you, Iowa. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Related Posts

• Transcript: President Trump Hosts a Cabinet Meeting, Jul. 31, 2026
• Transcript: President Trump’s Remarks at Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Funeral
• Transcript: Trump’s Michigan Rally Speech Ahead of Midterm Elections
• Transcript of Nick Fuentes Interview ft. Hunter Biden – Channel 5
• Transcript: Trump Remarks at White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner