Transcript: President Trump Signs an Executive Order, Mar. 31, 2026

Very nice. Now girls won’t have to get beat up in the boxing ring like they did last time. If you saw those fights too, people that transitioned beat the hell out of everyone, out of other people, women. It was not a pretty sight to watch.

So I worked very hard with the Olympic Committee, and we were able to get that out. So the Olympics will not have men in women’s sports. But these are the things that they vote on, and that’s why we’re having a problem with them.

Remarks on Immigration and Public Safety

They don’t want ICE because they don’t want people to be taken out of our country that are murderers, that are drug dealers, and that are people from mental institutions. They’re criminally insane. These are not nice people. And it’s amazing — I just, it’s not even believable. If you go back twelve, thirteen, fifteen, twenty years, that we even have to bring up a subject like there will be no transgender mutilation. We don’t want any transgender mutilation of our children. We don’t want to have people pouring into our country from other countries all over the world where prisons are opened up.

All over the world, they’re opened up, and they pour into our country. Murderers. 11,888 murderers. Think of that. We got many of them out.

And by the way, Washington DC just set a new record for safety. I’m sure you know that because, Peter, when you walk down the street, you’re not mugged lately. But it’s a very safe city now. We took great pains to make it that way, but it actually happened pretty quickly. Within three months, it was good. Within four months, it was very good. Within five months, it was great. Now it’s better than it ever was. And so Washington DC is now considered a very, very safe city. We removed almost 4,000 people, just so you understand.

You know, an interesting stat is that two percent of the people create more than ninety percent of the crime. And the good thing about that is when you get rid of two percent, it’s not that many. You don’t have a lot of crime.

Remarks on New Orleans and Other Cities

But Washington DC, we’re very proud of. We’re very proud of Memphis, Tennessee, and Louisiana. New Orleans is unbelievable. They just finished their Mardi Gras. They had the safest Mardi Gras in fifty-eight years. The governor just called me. Jeff Landry just called me. He said it’s the safest Mardi Gras in fifty-eight years because of us.

And really, Chicago should call and say we’d like help. New York should call. They’ve had a lot of problems and want help. Los Angeles should call and probably will. I think they have to. Now we’re going to have to do something when it comes World Cup time, and we’re going to have to force ourselves upon them, which we have the right to do because we don’t want to have any crime. We don’t want to have any problems for the Olympics and the World Cup, and even for 250.

Signing the Executive Order

So with all of that, I’m very happy to be signing the voter integrity order, and I think it’s going to be really great. So if you don’t mind, I will take some time, and I’ll make this signature absolutely perfect. So it looks very good. So far, so good. Okay. So that’s a big deal. Very proud of it.

And I think — I don’t know how it can be challenged. You’ll probably challenge it. You may say, to find a rogue judge. You get a lot of rogue judges. Very bad, bad people, very bad judges. But that’s the only way that can be changed, and hopefully we’ll win on appeal if it is. But I don’t see how anybody can challenge it. I don’t see how they can challenge it. And remember, it’s about voter integrity. We want to have honest voting in our country. Because if you don’t have honest voting, you can’t have, really, a nation. If you want to know the truth, Howard, I’ll give that to you.

Q&A with Reporters

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Do you have any questions, please?

REPORTER: Mr. President, as you know, there’s issues right now with DHS not being funded. Coast Guard is one of them, which is very important, especially with things going on in the Strait of Hormuz and here in our own country. You have the power to transfer control from the Department of Homeland Security to the Navy. Are you considering doing that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. I have a lot of powers to do things, and we use the powers where appropriate. Sometimes you don’t have to use those powers. You know, they’re a little severe. And then people accuse me of being a king. You see, the king — this is the new one. They’ve been trying for a long time, including four years where I was out of office watching how badly this country was run.

But they’ve been trying for a long time. You know what they really are doing is they want to have people coming into our country. They want to have open borders. They want to have criminals coming into our country. They want to have people unchecked, unvetted, coming into our country that you can look at them and say, this is not good. And that’s what happened. They allowed 25 million people into our country. Many of those people were criminals. Many of them were drug dealers and murderers and people that were let out of mental institutions, prison populations in some countries.

The Congo — almost its entire prison population was allowed to come into the United States of America. The Congo. Many of the countries in South America, they emptied their prisons out into our country. This was under Biden, and nobody could tell me that’s a good thing. And yet, they haven’t changed their ways because if they ever took power, they would open up the borders and they would let people pour in and destroy our country. So I have many powers, but I don’t have to use them. Only in severe cases.

REPORTER: Mr. President, thank you. If you were able to sign the executive order to pay the TSA agents, why not do the same for FEMA and other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, FEMA is different because FEMA — I really believe that it’s fine, but I think it’s very inefficient. I think, you know, we have smart governors. And one way to tell whether or not they’re smart is how well they do. FEMA is a very expensive way of trying to put out a problem.

But what I’d rather do is let the states do it and help them financially, but let the states do it. In other words, you’ll have a hurricane in Florida, and people will come from Alaska. They haven’t been to Florida. By the time they get used to it, you know, the problem can be solved. So I’ve never been a big fan of FEMA. I like to keep it local. I like to see governors and neighboring states help each other as opposed to FEMA. FEMA is very expensive, and it really doesn’t get the job done.

You know, North Carolina — they did a terrible job until I became elected a second time and I went and, you know, we had that tremendous water flow. There was a water hurricane, the likes of which nobody has seen. Land areas that never had lakes, all of a sudden had lakes that you couldn’t even get to. And actually, we were helped by Elon Musk with the communication, with his great communication system that worked very well. We were very lucky. Saved a lot of lives. But no, we’ve got to do things right. And if we don’t do them right, we shouldn’t do them at all.

REPORTER: Thank you, President Trump. After you said today that the Iran war began soon, the stock market closed much higher. Do you have thoughts on that? And also, a judge just ordered you to stop construction of the ballroom. Are you planning to stop?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’ll appeal that. But it’s not — I don’t know. Basically, he’s saying I need congressional approval. Congressional approval. And he’s so wrong. This is being financed privately. It’s a donation that’s being given by companies, very rich companies, very rich people, so that for 150 years, they’ve wanted a ballroom here. We’re going to have the finest ballroom, I believe, anywhere in the world. And he said we need congressional approval.

Well, they don’t get congressional approval from the White House. When they do things, they don’t — especially when we didn’t ask for any tax money. We have no taxpayer putting up ten cents. And I see right here, I just wrote it out. He said we need congressional approval. Well, we’ve built many things at the White House over the years. They don’t get congressional approval when they build in the White House. It’s totally separate. And especially when it’s a donation.

I mean, the ballroom is a donation. It’s gotten great reviews. People love it. And presidents for 150 years have wanted this ballroom to be built. Because when we have President Xi or other presidents or prime ministers coming, we don’t have a big room.

The White House Ballroom Construction and Congressional Approval

We have East Room, which is very small. And he said we need congressional approval. He also said, but this is positive for us, I’m allowed — that meaning, we are allowed to continue building as necessary. Let’s see. What is that?

To cover the safety and security of the White House and its grounds. So it says here very carefully the safety and security have to be protected of the White House grounds. Well, that’s what we’re doing because everything’s bulletproof glass, etcetera, etcetera, including the ballroom. And then it goes, construction and all of the things necessary. It says personal safety of the president and his staff are a part of that.

So it talks about that we’re allowed to continue building. In other words, he put an order on, and even that, he gave fourteen days. We don’t need it because that’s what we’re doing. He’s allowed to continue building as necessary. And when it talks about the safety and security of the White House and its grounds.

So just so you know, wrote some of the thing down. We have a drone proof roof, and it talks about the president and his staff. Well, we don’t have a lot of bulletproof glass. The White House was built a long time ago. This has the highest level of — in fact, they call this — graph this, grass this — the glass, it’s bulletproof and it’s ballistic proof.

It’s very thick. It’s like that. And it’s going forty five feet high, and every window is covered, every door is covered. The roof is drone proof. We have secure air handling systems.

You know, bad things happen in the air if you have bad people. We have bio defense all over. We have secure telecommunications and communications all over. We have bomb shelters that we’re building. We have a hospital and very major medical facilities that we’re building.

We have all of these things. So that’s called, I’m allowed to continue building as necessary. So think of that, for the safety of the president. So we have all these things. So on that, we’re okay.

Where he’s totally wrong — and he made, you know, a statement that’s fine — but where we’re at, I’ll give you an example. You have right here three hundred to four hundred million dollars depending on finishes. If I use very expensive marble, if I use very expensive wall coatings, if I — I could bring it up to four hundred. Otherwise, we’re right now ahead of schedule.

We’re under budget. But depending on finishes, from three hundred to four hundred million dollars are being given by great people, people that you all know. Rich people, rich companies, big companies. They wanted to see this built because every president, literally, for a hundred and fifty years has needed a space like this. Many of you have gone to the tent when we have a president of a big country or somebody being honored of great distinction, and they sit in a tent and if it rains, you get soaked because the grass gets wet here very fast.

It’s a very wet area. They used to call it a wetland, but I guess they don’t do that for the White House, but it’s essentially a wetland. And when it rains, you’re in trouble. The water can go up to three to four inches over their shoes. That’s not a good feeling for — but who was Prince Charles, who will be — who was — who will be here next, couple of weeks, is King Charles, who’s a great guy.

We don’t want him to sit in a pool of water. And they’ve been wanting this for a hundred — think of it, a hundred and fifty years — and we’re building it, and it’s covered perfectly. What’s not covered perfectly is the fact that the judge said we need congressional approval. Many things have been built in the White House. They haven’t gotten congressional approval, especially when the money is being not put up by the taxpayer.

The taxpayer is not putting up a dime. This building was necessary for many years. By the fact that I’ve built many ballrooms and I’ve built many things and I know how to build. I’m not building the Federal Reserve where the guy is spending $4 billion for a tiny little building. $4 billion for the Federal Reserve building. That contractor is going to be one of the richest men anywhere in the world after he finishes the Federal Reserve.

The man is totally incompetent. Jerome, too late, Powell. He’s totally incompetent, and he’s got to get out of office pretty fast. He’s doing a bad job, but he’s also done a bad job in shepherding the construction in that building. Do you know they ripped down a part of that building, and it was a nice — they say it’s one of the nicest buildings in Washington. They ripped it down.

So we feel — and we don’t feel, we know — that congressional approval is not necessary to put up a ballroom. And many things have been built on the site. They’ve never gotten congressional approval. And especially when the money is all put up — this is all donations by people that love our country, that love the White House, and that feel it was very necessary.

Q&A: Iran, Gas Prices, and the Strait of Hormuz

REPORTER: Mr. President, a couple of questions for you on Iran, but first one that affects Americans here at home — gas prices. Today, they hit four dollars.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: At four dollars. Yeah. And we have a country that’s not going to be throwing a nuclear weapon at us in six —

REPORTER: But Americans are feeling the effects in the interim at this time.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Feeling a lot safer. What is the plan to bring them back down? All I have to do is leave Iran, and we’ll be doing that very soon. And they’ll come tumbling down, and stock prices were up today almost to a record because they know two things. Number one, we have a safe country.

We had to take a little detour because we had a madman named Khomeini who sadly is no longer with us. And we had regime change already. We’ve knocked out one regime, then we knocked out the second regime. Now we have a group of people that are very different. They’re much more reasonable, I think, much less radicalized.

It’s a — we’ve had regime change. We’re dealing with people that are much more rational, and it’s amazing what we’ve done. We had to make a little detour. So when the stock market broke all records just a few weeks ago, when it hit fifty thousand on the Dow, seven thousand on the S&P, I said to the American people, it’s time that we make a little detour because we have a madman that wants a nuclear weapon. And if we did not come out with a B-2 bomber, we would have a nuclear weapon right now. It would have been used before today, and you may not be standing there asking that question. Okay?

So I think we have a country that understands that. I see CNN did a poll, and they talked about voters or MAGA voters, and my poll came out at a hundred percent. Nobody covers that poll. They had another poll where it’s at ninety two percent approval. I think that the people understand it.

We’ll be leaving very soon. And if France or some other country wants to get oil or gas, they’ll go up through the Strait of Hormuz. They’ll go right up there, and they’ll be able to fend for themselves. I think it’ll be very safe, actually, but we have nothing to do with that. What happens with the strait, we’re not going to have anything to do with, because these countries — China — China will go up and they’ll fuel up their beautiful ships and they’ll leave and they’ll take care of themselves. There’s no reason for us to do it.

We hit them hard. We got rid of a lot of the radicalized lunatics along the strait. But if they want something — but I would say that within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three, we’re hitting them very hard. Last night, we knocked out tremendous amounts of missile making facilities. We — as you probably read or wrote —

REPORTER: Will the US be gone or done with the war?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Excuse me? Pardon me — pardon me interrupting.

REPORTER: Will the US be gone or done with the war?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think within two or three weeks. Not three weeks. If it is —

REPORTER: We’ll leave?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because there’s no reason for us to do this. Look, the problem with this strait — a guy can take a mine, drop it in the water, and say, oh, it’s unsafe. It’s not like you’re taking out an army or you’re taking out a country. They can drop it. Or you can take a machine gun from the shore and shoot a few bogeys at a ship or maybe an over the shoulder missile, small missiles. That’s not for us. That’ll be for France. That’ll be for whoever’s using the strait. But I think when we leave, probably that’s all cleared up.

Today, I heard tremendous numbers of ships were sailing through. We’re negotiating with them right now. They’ve been — again, we have had regime change. Now, regime change was not one of the things I had as a goal. I had one goal — they will have no nuclear weapon — and that goal has been attained. They will not have nuclear weapons, but we’re finishing the job.

And I think within maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer to do the job, but we want to knock out every single thing they have. Now it’s possible that we’ll make a deal before that because we’ll hit bridges, and we’ve hit some — we’ll hit some bridges, a couple of nice bridges in mind. But if they come to the table, that’ll be good. But it doesn’t matter whether they come or not. We’ve set them back.

It’ll take fifteen to twenty years for them to rebuild what we’ve done to them. They have no navy. They have no military. They have no air force. They have no telecommunications. They have no anti aircraft systems. They have no leaders. You know, their leaders are all gone. That’s why we have regime change. We have nice new leaders.

Q&A: Drone Threats and White House Security

REPORTER: Thank you, President Trump. You talked about how the ballroom needs to have a drone proof roof. There have been drone swarms flying over sensitive military installations in the US over the last couple of weeks. The reports are they don’t look commercial and they can’t be jammed. Is this another country’s military?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t think so. We have a great system. Do you notice that over the last four or five days, you haven’t seen very many drone hits? We have some unbelievable anti drone weaponry that’s incredible. But you want to have — like, for instance, the ballroom. We have a very powerful steel, very steel roof with other things in it. And you want to have, if you’re building a building for security — like, just like his judge’s opinion — you have to have security for the president and his staff.

You need heavy ceilings. You need seriously thick bulletproof ballistic glass, and we have that. Other buildings don’t. Modern, fairly modern buildings don’t have that. They have roofs that are weak and they have regular glass windows.

REPORTER: There was this incident down at Barksdale, though, where apparently a whole swarm of drones for a couple of hours was over the flight line. There’s a lot of really important planes down there. How concerned are you that this is some other country just staking out?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. I know about it. They’ve checked that out, and they’ve gotten to the bottom of it. You know, you have a lot of people now that fly these things all over the place, and we’re coming down very hard on them. But we’re able to take them out. Militarily, we’re able to take them out very easily.

And a new thing is lasers. You know, the lasers are becoming very, very effective. You hit a drone and it melts in air. It’s a beautiful thing to see. If it’s coming at you, having a laser is a very nice thing. But we have — there are methods of defending against — I mean, the advantage from a standpoint of defense is they don’t go very fast relative to an F-22, that plane right over there. They go very slow. They could also be shot out of the air by high quality aircraft, which we have more than anybody ever had.

REPORTER: There was a viral video this week — I don’t know if you saw it — of army helicopters hovering near Kid Rock’s house in Nashville. Did you see that video?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: See it now, but I’m sure they had a good time.

REPORTER: Well, the army just said the crews of these helicopters have been suspended. What do you think of that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, it depends. They probably shouldn’t have been doing it. Yes. You’re not supposed to be playing games. But I take a look at it — they like Kid Rock. I like Kid Rock. Maybe they were trying to defend him. I don’t know.

Q&A: Iran Deal and Direct Communications

REPORTER: Does Iran have to make a deal for the US to end its operation in Iran? And have you spoken directly to anyone in Iran?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: To make a deal? No. Yeah. I’ve spoken to a lot of people. It’s a new regime. They are much more accessible. They are — you know, they said, “We have a present for you, Mr. President, out of respect.” And they said, wait — we answer the question. You’re a fresh person. You know? We’ve had a lot of problems with you, haven’t —

REPORTER: No. You asked me a question.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. They don’t have to make a deal with me. When we feel that they are, for a long period of time, put into the stone ages and they won’t be able to come up with a nuclear weapon, then we’ll leave. Whether we have a deal or not, irrelevant.

Iran Nuclear Deal and Threats

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Now it’s possible that we’ll have a deal because they want to make a deal. They want to make a deal more than I want to make a deal. But in a fairly short period of time, we’ll be finished. They will not be able to do a nuclear weapon for years. And when they already, maybe in a long time from now, able to do a nuclear weapon, you’ll have a president that will be like me and that he will go there and he’ll knock the hell out of them again because they cannot have a nuclear weapon.

They are very radicalized people. They’re very sick leaderships. And I will say though that the leadership we’re dealing with now, the new regime because we have a new regime, and the new regime is much better than the past.

Iranian Threats Against US Companies

REPORTER: Honestly Mr. President, the Iranian government threatened a bunch of US companies today in the region, Google, Apple.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: With what? What did they threaten him with? BB guns?

REPORTER: Well, that’s a question. Threaten? My question for you is, are you — is the US talking to the companies?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You made a — say what did they threaten him with? I don’t know. Cody, tell me. How did they threaten him?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well, all I know is that they threatened him, sir.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: What does that mean? Fair enough. They said something nasty. You have — are you — is the government in touch with these companies? Are you helping to backstop them? You don’t even know what the threat was. What was the threat? I haven’t heard it. What was the threat?

REPORTER: Iran’s IRGC issues a warning that they will target eighteen US technology companies if the US continues targeted assassinations of Iranian leaders beginning on April first. Those companies including Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: People are dead already.

Trump Presidential Library

REPORTER: Yeah, Peter? I got one. Your son Eric posted a photo of what will be the Trump presidential library. It’s a huge skyscraper. Is that — is that all a library? What else is going in there?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, it’s a library. It’s a museum or library. It’s a presidential, but I wouldn’t start until I’m out of office. I don’t believe in building libraries or museums. It’s really like the Barack Hussein Obama one in Chicago, in not a good location, and it’s a very unattractive building that’s seriously late and seriously over budget. I think you’re going to see a great one here, and it’ll go up on time, on budget, best location in Miami. Best — they say it’s the best block in Miami, and the state will work with —

REPORTER: Will people live in the floors?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. It’s going to be most likely a hotel. You know, this concept could be office, but it’s most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby, which is going to be a trick.

Supreme Court and Birthright Citizenship

REPORTER: And I — the Supreme Court tomorrow is going to hear arguments about your executive order trying to get rid of birthright citizenship. And I’m going —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You’re going to go to the Supreme Court tomorrow?

REPORTER: — I do believe.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And just sit there and listen. Because I have listened to this argument for so long, and this is not about Chinese billionaires or billionaires from other countries who all of a sudden have seventy-five children or fifty-nine children in one case or ten children becoming American citizens. This was about slaves. And if you take a look, slaves — we’re talking about slaves from the Civil War. And if you take a look at when it was filed, all of this legislation, all of this — everything having to do with birthright citizenship, it was at the end of the Civil War.

The reason was it had to do with the babies of slaves and the protection of the babies of slaves. It didn’t have to do with the protection of multimillionaires and billionaires wanting to have their children get an American citizenship. It is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s been so badly handled by legal people over the years. If you look at the original birthright citizenship papers, they all happened right after the Civil War. The reason was it had to do with the babies of slaves.

And hopefully, it’s going to say — because our country is being scammed. We’re getting all of these people. They’re selling the rights to them. People are making a big living, getting hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars from bringing people in and saying, “Congratulations. Your whole family is going to be a citizen of the United States of America.” That’s not what it was for. It wasn’t for billionaires bringing people in or family in. It was for the children of slaves.

And what you really have to do — and I don’t think the lawyers talk about it as much — look at when the Civil War ended and look at the date of when this was enacted.

REPORTER: Have you ever been to the Supreme Court before? Is this going to be the first time going to the Supreme Court?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. Once before? The opening of the Supreme Court in the last administration?

REPORTER: And which justices will you be listening for most closely?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I love a few of them. I don’t like some others. And, you know, you say what you want, but you’d have the ones that were appointed by Barack Hussein Obama and Biden. I don’t care how good your case is. You can have the greatest case ever. They’re going to rule against you. They always do. And it’s not supposed to be that way.

Now the Republicans tend to be very different. They want to show how honorable they are. So a man can appoint them and they can rule against him. “It’s so proud of him. We’re so proud we ruled against Trump. We’re so proud. We’re above it.” There are those that say that’s wonderful, and there are those that say they’re so stupid.

But the Democrats never fail at one thing. When Barack Hussein Obama or when Biden appoints somebody, they go along that line. You can have the greatest case in history and almost — I guess I have to say almost. Maybe I don’t have to say it — almost without fail, those people, four of them, sometimes five of them, but four of them will vote against you. You don’t have a chance. You don’t have a chance. And that’s not what the court system is.

Now the Republican appointees tend to go — and this has been long before me. This has been for many years. Some people would call it stupidity. Some people would say they’re right in doing it. And I don’t mind being right, but the other side almost never does it. Almost. I think you could find maybe a couple of instances. Almost never does.

When a Democrat appoints a judge — and I’m talking about judges, not just justices — you go before some of these Democrat judges in Washington DC and you don’t have a chance. That’s why I gave pardons to hundreds of people that were so badly treated having to do with J6.

The SAVE America Act and Voter ID

REPORTER: On the SAVE America Act, Mr. President, do you still think it’s going to pass?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t know. It’s — it’s the craziest thing. The Democrats are totally against it. Again, they’re — I think maybe you would have Fetterman, who I have a lot of respect for. But the Democrats are unified against it, and you need Democrat votes unless you do something smart called the filibuster, terminate the filibuster, which they should do. Republicans should do that, but there are a couple of Republicans that maybe they’re not so smart because the Democrats will do it in the first day in office, maybe the first hour. It’s a question, will it be the first hour or the first day?

So who can — who can believe that a person — you can’t even get it to the floor — that a person wouldn’t vote for — think of it — for citizenship proof of citizenship for voter identification. And we also added one. We added mail-in ballots. Mail-in ballots with exceptions for the military, for people that are sick, people that are traveling, for the disabled. We have very generous exceptions.

But who would believe that that would be possible not to get those things to vote for? And then we added best of Trump. We added no men and women’s sports — different subject — but we added that, and we said no transgender mutilation of our children. These are all ninety, ninety-five, maybe ninety-eight in some cases, maybe ninety-nine in terms of — if you — those first two.

If you talk about the first two, I think — you know, I think — I think in ninety-eight, ninety-nine percent, voter identification. Right? Wouldn’t you think — don’t you think it’s nice with picture? Wouldn’t you think it’s nice — when the Democrats had their convention, I remember it so well, you had to have identification to get into the arena, and they had a card that was bigger than most of their chests. And it had everything. It had their picture. It had — and if you didn’t have that card, they threw you away.

In New York City recently, with a big snowstorm, Mayor Adams — he called out for people to shovel snow, but you had to give identification with picture. If you didn’t have — and it wasn’t one identification. You had to have two. So to shovel snow in New York City, you need identification double with picture. But to vote, which is maybe our most cherished thing, you don’t need.

They don’t want voter ID, the Democrats, because they want to cheat. The problem is we need their votes. In order to get it, you need their votes. And, look, they know their policy is so bad. They know that if they gave those votes, they might never win another election. So they’re fighting like hell. Which reason — they’re actually fighting for their survival because their policy — the Republicans have great policy, smart policy, strong borders, low interest rates, low taxes. We just gave you the largest tax cut in history. All these great policies — you know, we want a strong military.

Military Strength and Iran

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Look at our military. We have the strongest military. Look what happened in Venezuela. It was so incredible. People said the greatest military maneuver they’ve ever seen. Look what’s happening in Iran. We’re just — I mean, we’re totally unchecked. Everything’s been bombed out. They have no anti-aircraft protection. They have no nothing. They don’t have anything.

Look at our military. The Democrats don’t want that. And when I read the fake New York Times, you take a look at it, it’s like, “Oh, they’re putting up a good fight.” They’re not putting up a fight. They’re not even shooting at us. We have planes. Planes are just ruling this guy. We have airplanes.

Those two. Those two. We have airplane. Nice. Right? Lincoln with a little modern touch. The great Benjamin Franklin with a little modern touch. But think of it, they are roaming the skies over Iran. They’re not even being shot at because their equipment’s been totally decimated. They have nothing to shoot. They have no navy. They have no anything.

And just think about this. They have no navy. They have no military. They have no nothing. They’re losing. They admit they’re losing. They’re begging to make a deal.

Media Credibility and Closing Remarks

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And if you read the fake New York Times, a corrupt newspaper where I’m suing them and I think I should do very well. But you would almost think, who’s winning? It’s so fraudulent.

But just to finish up with the New York Times, if you read the New York Times prior to my election victory — clearly the first one and the second one too. I won three times. I won three times convincingly. But let’s go to the third victory. If you read the New York Times, you would say, “Oh, Trump’s going to lose.” But I won in a landslide. I won the popular vote. I won the electoral college in a massive number. Massive. I won the counties. Eighty-six percent of the counties I won. All of these different things — winning the popular vote for Republicans, you know, pretty amazing.

But if you read the New York Times for months and months and months, you’re hearing, “Oh, Trump. He’s doing so badly.” We have to straighten out our media. The reason their circulation is way down — The New York Times circulation, you know, has gone way down. Washington Post is almost extinct. The papers that are being dishonest — papers generally — people don’t believe the media.

And to finish, I got ninety-three percent bad publicity. Some people say ninety-seven, but between ninety-three and ninety-seven. A person that gets ninety-seven percent of bad stories — maybe Caroline’s doing a poor job. I don’t know. She’s my represent — you’re doing a terrible job. Should we keep her? I think we’ll keep her.

But I get ninety-three to ninety-seven percent bad press, fake press, all fake. I won in a landslide. When you get ninety-three to ninety-seven bad stories, bad press, and you win in a landslide, you know what that says? People don’t believe the press. And when people don’t believe the press, that’s a very bad thing for our country.

And when you look at, let’s say, The New York Times or The Washington Post, their stories are so fake. Wall Street Journal too, a lot of bad stories. I don’t know what happened to them, but they’re bad. Their circulation went way down, Wall Street Journal. I don’t know if you saw the numbers that came out yesterday. New York Times, way down. Wall Street Journal, way down. Washington Post, number one, way down. Because people don’t believe them anymore.

And until they get — it’s not the paper. It’s not the big. It’s that they have no credibility anymore, which is a very sad thing for our country. Thank you very much, everybody.

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