Transcript: Trump Remarks At ‘Salute to America’ Event In Iowa – July 3, 2025

No tax on overtime. And no tax on Social Security for our great seniors. Right? Front Row Joe. We got a lot of Front Row Joes here. That’s very nice. Thank you. Thank you.

And we have Mr. Walsh. Someday, I’m buying that suit. I’m telling you. I like that suit. I’ll walk up one day, I’ll be dressed like a wall, just like you. I think he’s come to about 200 rallies, and that means you like us. And I think he’s a very successful guy, too. Believe it or not. He’s a top accountant. Can you believe this, that he comes to rallies? He likes the rallies. Front Row Joes, they’re all successful. But this is what they do for entertainment. But now it’s not entertainment. We’ve saved our country. We’ve got the hottest country anywhere in the world, as said by many, many leaders of other countries.

And we will ignite trillions of dollars in economic growth, increase take-home pay for the typical family by more than $10,000 a year. And very importantly, for Iowa, this bill rescues over 2 billion family farms from the so-called estate tax, or the death tax. In other words, before Trump, you were losing farms to the banks. Before Trump, you were losing the farms like nobody’s ever seen before. You love your children. You don’t feel so well. You passed away. You leave everything to your children, and they have to pay a big estate tax, or a death tax, as we call it. And they couldn’t do it.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They go out and borrow money, and all of a sudden, the bank is foreclosing on the farm. Not going to happen. You have no more estate tax. You have no more death tax to pay. Now, that’s if you love your children. If you don’t love your children, it doesn’t matter. Just forget about what I said. It’s not going to help. But if you love them, or if you love somebody that you’re leaving it to, think of that. No death tax. No estate tax. No going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker. And in some cases, guy locks and bad people. But they took away a lot of families. They destroyed a lot of families. But we did the opposite. So, just remember, to me, it’s so important. And it was mostly important for places like we’re at right now. It’s really — I’m so proud of it.

At the same time, this bill cuts $1.5 trillion in spending. So, wasteful spending is being cut by $1.5 trillion. And I got to tell you, I want to thank Republican congressmen and women because what they did is incredible last night. And the Senate, the Republican Senate, we got — not — with all of the things we did, with the tax cuts and rebuilding our military, not one Democrat voted for us. And I think we used it in the campaign that’s coming up, the midterms, because we got to beat them. But all of the — all of the things that we’ve given, and they wouldn’t vote, only because they hate Trump. But I hate them, too. You know that? So, it’s sort of the — I hate — I really do. I hate them. I cannot stand them because I really believe they hate our country. You want to know the truth?

Immigration and Border Security

But it kicks illegal aliens off of Medicaid and food stamps and allows us to hire 3,000 new Border Patrol agents and 10,000 new ICE agents. And they are great, the Border Patrol and ICE, to carry out the largest deportation operation in the history of our country. And — and I don’t like saying that. I don’t like saying that. But we have a country. We have a country to run. And we have so many people coming in that shouldn’t be here. And they did. They came in from prisons, and they came in from drugs and gangs and drug lords — the worst in the world. They came in from mental institutions. They emptied mental institutions into our wonderful country. And I know exactly what’s going on in Iowa. You had some horrible crime in Iowa caused by illegal aliens. But we’re getting them the hell out of here. We have no choice.

Military Defense and Iran Response

And our great, big, beautiful bill that will build the Golden Dome-Mithville Defense Shield. We’re going to have the best year. And you saw that just the other day, where the missiles are being shot down one after another. You know, they called me to tell me they have to take a shot at us. This was Iran. Very respectful. That means they respect us. Because we dropped 14 bombs. They said, “We’d like to take 14 shots at you.” I said, “Go ahead. I understand.” They said where they’re doing. I said, “Good.” We emptied out the fort. It was a beautiful military base in Qatar who treated us really fantastically well. And they said, “Sir, 1 o’clock okay?” I said, “It was fine. We could make it later.” And we had nobody but four gunners. We had four — they call them gunners. And they shoot the Patriots. They shoot the missiles up. It’s hard to believe.

So, all of a sudden, they said, “We’re ready.” And they were a little nervous about doing it, I want to tell you. Can you imagine? They were nice enough — this is Iran — to call me and tell me that they would like to shoot me at 14 times. So, they want to shoot us. And I said, “Go ahead.” And they shot 14 high-grade, very fast missiles. Every single one of them was shot down routinely by these four unbelievable gunners. And they did their job, and that was the end of that. But the big thing was the attack on their nuclear facilities, what those people did. And, you know, they’re going to be in Washington tomorrow at the White House, and we’re going to be celebrating. We took not only the pilots, but the people that flew the other planes, but also the mechanics that had these planes going for 37 hours without a stop.

You know, we had — it was so far away. We had 52 tankers. Think of that. Fifty-two that’s loaded up with oil. I wouldn’t want to fly one of those suckers over at random. I say, “What happens if they got at?” “Well, sir, that’s a tough situation. It’s not a pretty sight,” but they were unbelievable. Fifty-two tankers to load them up. They followed the planes in, and they never had to stop for fuel. They went 37 hours, actually. And how incredible. What equipment. What equipment. And, you know, China, Russia, they were all watching. Everybody was watching. We have the greatest equipment anywhere in the world. We have the greatest people anywhere in the world. And we have the strongest military anywhere in the world.

Infrastructure and Air Traffic Control

But we’re going to fully modernize our air traffic control system and expand school choice and, really, so much more. By the way, the air traffic control — you probably don’t have that problem here. You have planes land like they — but in some congested areas. You saw what happened with the helicopter and the plane and a lot of other things. If we had great equipment — and we should have had. It was all set up to go. And then Biden canceled the order when he came in. But he canceled a lot of orders because he didn’t know what the hell he was dealing with. There’s a case that would have never happened. Bells would have gone off. Whistles would have gone off. Everything would have gone off. It would have never happened.

Very simply, the one big, beautiful bill would deliver the strongest border on Earth, the strongest economy on Earth, the strongest military on Earth, and ensure the United States of America will remain the strongest country anywhere on this beautiful planet of ours.

America’s Transformation and Global Respect

A hundred and sixty-five days into the Trump administration, America is on a winning streak like, frankly, nobody’s ever seen before in the history of the presidency. I said — they said, “You know, sir, you’re going to go down as one of the greatest Presidents ever.” I said, “Really?” No, I said, “Really?” I said, “Better than Washington?” They said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Better than Honest Abe Lincoln?” They said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “I like this guy that said that. That’s a smart guy. He’s up for a big promotion right now.”

But just a few months ago, our country was cold as ice. We were laughed at all over the world. We were laughed at. Think of it. A year ago, we were laughed at. We were a bunch of clowns. They were laughing at our President. They were laughing at everything having to do with our country. I was in Saudi Arabia. I was in Qatar. I was in UAE. Great leaders — strong, powerful. Very rich leaders, too, by the way. But great leaders, very smart people. And they said to me — the king of Saudi Arabia, but the three said the same thing, essentially. They said, “You know, a year ago, we thought your country was finished. We thought it was dead. Dead. Horrible word. Dead.” And they were right. The country was close to death.

And he said, “And you know what? You’ve been in there” — at that time, it was four and a half months. It was a couple of months ago. He said, “Right now, you’re in the hottest country anywhere in the world. There’s no country in the world. You’re talked about all over the world. You got the hottest, smartest, sharpest country.” And by the way, look at our stock market. We’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars on tariffs with no inflation. And today, we just set another record — the highest stock market in history. No inflation. And one of the great economists from the Wharton School of Finance, who I happen to go, he apologized. He says, “You know, I think Trump outsmarted us all.” And yesterday was the poll, and out of 77 economists, I came in second. I want to find the guy that came in first. Somebody came in first. Can you believe it? But we said what was going to happen,

Remember, I came in my first week, the fake news, those guys right there, look at all of them, wow, that’s a lot of fake, no, but we like them. It just shows you, when you can get every story, 100% of the stories, no matter what you do that’s good, they make it as bad as possible. And then you win in the landslide, there’s something, there’s something wrong. But the fake news hit me with eggs, remember, first week, four days, eggs are through the roof. I said, I just got here, what’s going on with eggs, tell me. I didn’t hear about it. They’re up five times higher than they should be. They were going through the roof. But they were blaming me, I said, I just got here.

And within two months, our great Secretary of Agriculture, who I think is with us tonight, Brooke, where is, oh, look at you. Brooke, she is here. She flew all the way from, she comes from Texas, but I think she likes Iowa maybe even better. Look at her. You did a good job with groceries and with eggs, I will tell you, it’s true. They said, we have them this time, finally. It took an egg to get me, but that didn’t happen either. Now they’re down to a normal price, and people are ordering like crazy.

Economic and Border Achievements

But inflation is dead, 401ks and retirement accounts just hit an all-time record high. Did I hear what I think I heard? But we’ve achieved the lowest level of illegal border crossings in U.S. history, zero illegal. Think of it, we had zero. And as I said, and I’ll say it again, I love it because I have never seen any country suffer. No country has ever. There’s never, don’t worry, it’s only fireworks, I hope. Famous last words. My famous last words, Trump said, don’t worry, it’s only fireworks. You always have to think positive. I didn’t like that sound either.

But last month, American-born workers gained 830,000 new jobs a record. That’s American-born. While the illegal aliens lost 340,000. And we don’t want bad for them, but look, we have a country to run, and we want to have them come in and we want to have them help our farmers.

Working with Farmers on Immigration

You know, you probably saw I got myself into a little trouble because I said, I don’t want to take people away from the farmers. And we’re going to do something I think that’s going to be good because we want all the criminals out. Everybody agrees that we’re finding the criminals, the murderers, the drug dealers. We’re getting them the hell out of here. But the farmers, some of the farmers, many of you sitting right here, I have four friends right in the fifth row. But some of the farmers, you know, they’ve had people working for them for years. And we’re going to do something. We’re working with Christie. And we’re going to do something that we’re going to sort of put the farmers in charge.

And if somebody, if a farmer has been with one of these people that works so hard, they bend over all day. We don’t have too many people can do that. But they work very hard and they know them very well. And some of the farmers are literally, you know, cry when they see this happen. If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people, in some way, Christie, I think we’re going to have to just say that’s going to be good, right? You know, we’re going to be good with it. Because we don’t want to do it where we take all of the workers off the farms. We want the farms to do great like they’re doing right now.

So Christie Norm has done a fantastic job. And Tom Holman. And we’re working on legislation right now. Susie, right? We’re working on legislation right now where farmers, look, they know better. They work with them for years. We had cases that were not here, but just even over the years, where people have worked for a farm or a farm for 14, 15 years, and they get thrown out pretty viciously. And we can’t do it. We’ve got to work with the farmers. And people that have hotels and leisure properties, too. We’re going to work with them, and we’re going to work very strong and smart. And we’re going to put you in charge. We’re going to make you responsible. And I think that that’s going to make a lot of people happy.

Now, serious radical right people, who I also happen to like a lot, they may not be quite as happy, but they’ll understand, won’t they? Do you think so? Madam Secretary, look at you with the white hat on. Do you think they’ll understand that? You’re the one that brought this whole situation up. Brooke Rollins brought it up, and she said, so we have a little problem. The farmers are losing a lot of people. And we figured it out, and we have some great stuff being written. And let the farmers be responsible. And then if the farmers don’t do a good job, we’ll throw them the hell out of the country. We’ll let the guys. We’ll let the illegals stay, and we’ll throw the farmer the hell out. Okay? Get ready, farmer. I’m telling you.

But violence. Okay, so the fake news will write that. Donald Trump will throw farmers out of our country. They will write it. Because whenever I’m sarcastic, you know, you can’t be sarcastic as a politician. Well, of me. You can’t be of yourself. So I want to say, I was only kidding. No, no, the fake news will write it. Donald Trump wants all farmers thrown the hell out of our country. The audience booed the hell out of them. There was no boo. No, they’re fake news. That’s why nobody watches them anymore.

Crime Reduction and Military Success

Violent crime is plummeting, and we’re on track to reach the lowest murder rate ever recorded by the year, the end of this year. It looks like we’re doing way, way, way, way good. And that’s knowing that we have a lot of people in the country that we didn’t have in the country four or five years ago. I mean, we have a lot of people that they allowed into the country that are serious criminals. A lot of them are on their way out, however.

Iran’s nuclear enrichment has been obliterated. Remember when CNN said it wasn’t obliterated. It was maybe damaged or damaged badly, but obliterated is too strong a word. No, it was obliterated. That’s now been proven. The Atomic Energy Commission’s everything has been obliterated. And they were trying to demean me by saying that, but they were really demeaning those great pilots and people and mechanics that got those planes over there and were able to shoot from high up in the air going very, very fast with potentially a lot of things being shot at them and hit every single one, every single.

They’re trying to demean me, but to me they were demeaning them. And they got out of the plane, and they said, What the hell? We hit every single target. They know better than anybody. But now that’s been proven. It’s CNN fake news and scammers that work for them, scam writers that work for them. But we understand it, and we fight it back. And a lot of people say, Sure, don’t criticize it because they’re beneath you. No, they’re not beneath me. Nobody’s beneath me. You’ve got to put it, otherwise people don’t understand. If you don’t say something about it, you’ve got to say it. These people did one of the greatest military hits and maneuvers in the history of our country, and I want them to be appreciated for it.

So they’re coming to the White House tomorrow night, and I’m signing the bill with the Speaker of the House. And, by the way, Mike Johnson did a great job. John Thune did a great job. Everybody. This whole two weeks has been incredible, hasn’t it? You know, when you think of all of the victories. We stopped five nations from going to war, and somebody else will get the Nobel Peace Prize for their writing about Donald Trump. A professor at some school that you’ve never heard of has received

PRESIDENT TRUMP: the Nobel Prize for his writing about Donald Trump and what Donald Trump did. I say, What about me? I don’t get it. But that’s one of those things. But think of it. We stopped India and Pakistan. We stopped Kosovo and Serbia. They’ve been fighting for a long time. And a lot of it was trade. I said, You’re not going to trade with us if you’re going to go to war. And India and Pakistan was very big for a different reason. They have little things called nuclear weapons. You would have had, pretty soon, a nuclear war. We stopped that.

In Africa, you look at what was going on in the Congo with Rwanda. That war was going on for 30 years. 30 years. And we stopped it. And it was vicious. Six million people killed. And it was a bad one. It was killed and killed badly. You know what a machete is? You don’t want to know. And we just did a really great job. And then, of course, you top it off with the hit, the perfect hit, in Iran, where they were talking awfully badly. You know, death to America, death to Israel. They were talking awfully badly. And they’re not talking badly anymore, to be honest with you. And we might even meet with them and see if they want to meet. They want to meet. And we’ll see if we can do something. They want to meet. I think they want to meet very badly.

NATO Alliance and Ambassador Whitaker

But our allies have agreed to pay over a trillion dollars a year for our defense. You know what happened in NATO? In fact, we have our ambassador to NATO here. Where’s our ambassador? You know that guy? In Iowa, they know him. Big Matt. Matt Whitaker. We have Matt Whitaker from Iowa. I wasn’t going to hire him. And then I said, Matt, you come from Iowa, don’t you? Yes, sir, I do. Okay, you’re hired. Anybody comes from Iowa, I hire.

Military Enlistment Records

And every branch of the U.S. military is setting records for new enlistments. You know, remember a year ago, it was embarrassing. They couldn’t get anybody to go into the military. They couldn’t get anybody to go into the police or fire departments. They couldn’t get anybody to go into government. And now we just set a record, a new record. enlistments in every single branch of the military and in all police forces.

One year, one year ago, I remember saying to our great First Lady, I said, you know, First Lady — I call her First Lady because it makes me feel good — First Lady, isn’t it terrible? You’re saying goodnight, First Lady, my darling. Because it reminds me that I’m President. That’s why. Now, I said, First Lady, it’s terrible. Nobody wants to join our military force. And, you know, that was very demeaning to the people that are in there that have been in there for a long time doing a good job. And then all of a sudden, we get elected and there’s a spirit in the country and we start doing well. We have victory after victory and so many different things, especially economically. We’re doing so good. We have hundreds of billions of dollars flowing in from other countries. We have plants being built all over. I mean, a little less here because you have enough when you farm.

Trade Victories for Iowa Farmers

Oh, by the way, but I did get beef and I got ethanol into Europe. You saw that. You saw that. United Kingdom, they didn’t want to do it. You know, they never took our beef and they never took our ethanol. And we said, got to do it. And they did. And they were great. We made a wonderful trade deal with them. But we’re doing that all over. Is ethanol very important still for Iowa? Is it still? Yes. Anyway, so they’ve taken it in the United Kingdom and beef. They never took it because they want to do their own. You know, they have a lot of farms and a lot of farmers and they want to do their own, but they took it and it’s going to be great. You’re going to do. I’ll tell you what the farmers here are going to do incredibly.

Plus, we have tariffs on a lot of this stuff that was coming in and absolutely killing you where they have different, different forms of vegetation coming in at prices that were very, very bad for you. And a lot of it comes in because they want to put you out of business and then they want to raise the prices. And we’re not letting that happen to the farmers and to Iowa, to Nebraska and Wisconsin and all these other places that have been so good.

And in breaking news just yesterday, we reached a historic trade agreement with Vietnam to open their markets to American exports with zero tariffs. They get zero tariffs. And you’re going to be giving them vast amounts of farm product, including beef, pork, poultry, dairy and pure Iowa ethanol. You’re going to be given all of those, all of those products.

America’s Golden Age

And the fact is, I could go on and on, but the fact is really strong and it’s stronger than it’s ever been and stronger than I’ve ever seen. The golden age of America is upon us. This is a golden age. This is such a beautiful, such a beautiful term, the golden age. And I couldn’t have even said it in my first term. I’m telling you, this is going to blow the first term away. And we did great. We got great marks in the first term, and this is going to blow it away.

America’s 250th Birthday Celebration

This incredible national resurgence is happening just in time for one of the biggest events in the history of our country. Exactly one year from tomorrow, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s founding with a birthday party, the likes of which you have never seen before. Two years ago, I came to Iowa and promised that the festivities would begin right here at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. And tonight, here I am. Okay? Promise is kept. Promise is kept. It’s an honor, too. It’s an honor because you’ve been with me from the beginning. Thank you very much. No, it is an honor. You’ve been with me from the beginning.

Without doubt, in fact, I had some moments when I said maybe they might not. You know, fake stories were put out there like I don’t like corn. I don’t like corn. I love corn. I just love it. But they give you fake news. They said, You think that’s going to hurt me in Iowa? My numbers went up. No, I don’t know. I can’t figure you people out.

This evening, we’re officially launching America 250, an enormous yearlong nationwide celebration of our heritage. It’s really also a celebration of our flag, our great American flag and our glorious American freedom. Did anybody see the beautiful flag I put up in front of the White House? Right. Everyone’s liking it. Everyone’s liking it. I actually put two up. I put one in the front and one in the back. I didn’t want to go too crazy. I thought that would be enough. They’re about as big as you can get. We’re proud of it.

The Great American State Fair

We will be announcing many more details in the weeks to come. But there are just some of the things that we have planned. And I have to say first, in honor of the wonderful tradition of fairgrounds like this one, this is a great fairground. As you know, I’ve been here before. We will be orchestrating what we’re calling the Great American State Fair, and it will start right here in Iowa. So we’re starting it off in Iowa. Now we’re starting it off in your great fairgrounds, and we’re going to have a big crowd just like we do tonight. That’s a big crowd. I can’t even see the end of it. So thank you back there. I’d like to move the press back so they could see better.

But the Great American State Fair will bring America 250 programming to fairgrounds across the country, culminating in a giant patriotic festival next summer on the National Mall, featuring exhibits from all 50 states that all 50 states are excited. And I was excited. You know, when I did the 250, there was nothing I could do. It was 250. It was 250. So I can’t say that was my baby. The country happened to be 250 years old. But what I did do is during my first term, I got the Olympics and I got the great soccer. You know that whole deal, right? I got we call it soccer. They call it football. I got them both. I got the Olympics. First they

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I got the Olympics. Then I got it. I was president, and I said, “You know, it’s this game. It’s this game. I got the World Cup and I have the Olympics,” and I did it. And you have no idea. President Obama didn’t want to make a call to the Olympics. You know why? Because he went to Switzerland or wherever, and he said, “You know, if a president goes to get the Olympics, you have to have a deal. You have to be chosen.” He went there and he came in fourth, so he hated them, I guess, and he was unwilling to make a call.

And they called me up. Democrats called me up, actually, from Los Angeles. And I said, “I’ll do it.” I made the call, and I couldn’t get the people off the phone because it was so starved for love. There’s nobody would call her from. Anyway, we made a deal. I got the Olympics. Then we got the World Cup with Johnny. We got the World Cup, and I got both. And I looked at my people. I said, “Isn’t it this game? I got these two, but it wasn’t in the next four years. It was right after that in the one after that,” and I got the Olympics. I got the World Cup, and we also have to fifty. So it’s a pretty wild term.

But I got these two things that are incredible. Nobody else could have done it. I’m telling you, everybody wanted it. Nobody could have done it. And I said, “And I won’t be president because I’ll be president for four more years, but it won’t be.” And then they cheated and rigged the election. They rigged. You know, they don’t even turn off the cameras when I say that now, because now they know it’s true, too. But they knew it was true before. Remember, the cameras used to immediately turn off. You see all those beautiful red lights go off. Now I can say whatever I want because they know it’s true. But they knew it was true before. It’s fake news. That’s what they call it.

Overcoming Opposition and Criminal Attacks

But you know what? This term is much more consequential than if I had done it the more traditional way. This was slightly harder. Believe me, it’s slightly more dangerous because they’re criminals on the other side that tried to put your president in jail and went after him, just like they do in third world countries. And we all beat him together. We beat him because our level of popularity was so high. And it was high because I explained the situation. When these thugs came around, I explained it to the people. And fortunately, I was able to be on a lot of television, a lot of I did whatever you had to do. I had to explain it. Then they say, “Wow, that’s fake stuff.” It was fake. They’re a bunch of bad people. But we kicked their ass and we’re going to continue to do well. And I appreciate it.

And there was nobody more loyal than Mr. Kaufman, who’s fantastic. And Iowa and his son, who is maybe more fair. Where the hell is he? Where? Stand up. Where’s your boy? His son is better than him. I’m telling you. And he doesn’t mind. I have a lot of fathers would be very insulted if I said that. But they’re bad people. He’s a great guy. He’s got a son who’s fantastic. You know that. I think he’s probably here someplace. Where is he? He’s better looking than you, too. Good. Thank you. Great job. Nobody more loyal than the people of Iowa during that period of time when we had to show our stuff.

Restoring Fort Bragg and Army’s 250th Anniversary

But we just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the army at Fort Bragg. You know, they changed the name and we changed it back to Fort Bragg. The people of North Carolina came up. They said, “Sir, we want to really have the name of Fort Bragg back.” Everybody was saying that they kept calling it Fort Bragg. I changed it back. You know, these radical left lunatics changed the name of Fort Bragg. So we won World War Two. We won World War One. We won other wars. We want everything from Fort Bragg and other places that we’re also changing many of them back. And then we decide to change name. Now, I tell people, you know, it’s incredible. We’re the only people. We win two world wars from a place, and then we say, “Let’s change the name.” So we change it back, and the people are very happy in North Carolina right now.

And we just celebrated because the two fifty was for the army was one year earlier than the which makes sense. You know, we had a little army. We did well, and now we have a nation. So it was one year earlier than the nation itself. And we had a beautiful parade in Washington, D.C. The other day it was fantastic. You know, it was amazing because it was so the weather was so overcast that it looks so bad. And a week before they said, “Oh, it’s going to rain.” I said, “Oh, man, we’re bringing all these army tanks. We’re bringing all these people, these men and women. They’re going to march down Fifth Avenue or wherever. This is terrible. It’s going to rain.”

Weather Predictions and Climate Change Commentary

And then in the day we woke up. Rain is projected all night long. Heavy. Oh, I’m saying I’ll get my hair soaking wet. My hair’s going to be soaking wet. I’ll be. I’ll be. I’ll be crazy. I say, “I’ll say, You know, this is terrible. It’s going to rain one o’clock in the afternoon.” The thing was at eight in the evening. One o’clock rain is forecast at levels you haven’t seen before. I said, “Oh, this is.” And so the generals told me, “Sir, we could change it. But this is the army. We’re sort of used to bad weather.” I said, “No, don’t change it. I’ll wear a rain coat and I’ll wear a big fat hat so I don’t get totally drenched. I’ll be okay. I’m such a tough cookie.”

And then what happens? We get there and there’s no rain. We go one hour, two hours, three hours of watching these great guys marching down Fifth Avenue. It never rained. And then I thought to myself, global warming. They’re telling us what’s going to happen in two hundred and fifty years to our planet. But they can’t tell us it’s going to rain three hours before the event. In two hundred and fifty years from now, the planet’s going to burn up or freeze up. And, you know, remember when they said they called it global warming, then global cooling. They had all different things. Now they just changed it to climate change because there’s a climate change you can’t miss. How’s it doing? Climate change. Every time if it’s cold, if it’s hot, if it’s rainy, if it’s sunny, if it’s too crazy, we have climate change.

But think of it. They’re telling you what’s going to happen a hundred years. The oceans are going to rise a quarter of an inch and everyone’s going to be wiped out. No, you’re going to have more ocean floor property if that happens. It’s okay. Not the worst. And think of it with all of the nuclear weapons. Remember Biden, he always used to say, “It is an existential threat. It’s an existential threat.” He loves the word existential. “It’s an existential threat.” That is, I don’t know, climate change. Remember that always? That’s dangerous, too, because they’re going to take that sentence. And they’re going to say, “He couldn’t say existential.” So you can’t imitate people either.

Remember I used to imitate Biden couldn’t get off the stage or walk into walls? And I called my wife, because it’s always on television, interesting. I said, “How was it, baby? How good was that? We had 44,000 people. Nobody else could do it. I have to brag a little bit, you know, because what the hell. It’s a little truth to that. But I brag a little bit. I say, How good was I?” “You were really good, but you know, what happened? You couldn’t get off the stage.” I said, “No, I was imitating Biden.” “No, well, that’s not the way it showed up. They showed you hitting walls, bunking your head on walls.” So even like the word existential, when I imitate him saying it, tonight it’s going to be on CNN. “He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t say the word.” These are seriously sick people.

Upcoming Military Celebrations and Space Force

But now, this fall, we’re also going to be celebrating 250 birthdays of the United States Navy and the United States Marines. They’re awful. And I’m a little prejudiced. And one of them is going to be really great. It’s called Space Force, because that was

PRESIDENT TRUMP: My baby. Remember they wanted to terminate it. First year of Biden’s administration, they wanted to terminate Space Force, and the military wouldn’t let them. And it’s turned out to be one of the most important there is. I was very proud of that Space Force, and they’re doing great.

In addition, just as I promised five years ago tonight at my speech at Mount Rushmore, where a certain governor at that time, who’s now our Homeland Security Chief, Kristi Noem. Kristi Noem, stand up, Kristi. Now I don’t have to introduce you later. You know, I hired Tom Homan for the border, and I said, “Tom, I want you to give me who’d be the best to be the Secretary of Homeland Security,” which is essentially his boss. He said, “Kristi Noem, sir.” I said, “Kristi Noem? You got to be kidding. She’s a great person. She’s smart, but, I mean, is she tough enough?” “She’s the toughest person around.” And she is. She’s tough as hell. I’ve learned. I’ll tell you, a lot of bad people have learned that. She’s done a fantastic job. Thank you. Thank you.

National Garden of American Heroes

But we’re going to be officially opening the National Garden of American Heroes, a vast outdoor park featuring statues of the greatest Americans who ever lived. You know, they took down a lot of our statues. They took down statues of some of the greatest people that we’ve ever had living. I stopped them from taking down Thomas Jefferson. They wanted to take the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. They wanted to rip the hell out of the statue inside. You can imagine who they were going to put up. “Let’s get rid of Thomas Jefferson.” So we stopped them. We signed a law. Do you remember that night? It was crazy.

And they were marching toward the Jefferson Memorial, and I took out an old bill from 1909, and it was a bill that if you so much as touch—old, because today they don’t do these things. They don’t do it like they used to. Today you could never get a passage that if you so much as touch a monument or a statue, you go to jail for a ten-year period. No anything. So they were marching down there, and in the middle of their march, I gave a news conference. I said, “Anybody that touches—and I’m sorry—immediately goes to jail for a ten-year period.” That march broke up so quickly you’ve never seen. They said, “It’s a miracle. What happened?” I signed a little bill that said you go to jail for a ten-year period. It was a great thing. It was an old bill that wasn’t used. In fact, I don’t know. I hope we don’t have to use it again.

But they’re learning that, you know, we saved Los Angeles. If we didn’t send in the National Guard, I would have sent in the military if they needed it. But if we didn’t send in the National Guard, Los Angeles would have been burned down to the ground just like half of their houses were burned down to the ground because they didn’t give water that they had plenty of.

I’m pleased to report that the one big beautiful bill includes full funding for those statues, and we’re going to do statues to our greatest Americans, and we’re going to let the people choose who they—oh, you better excuse me. No, I’m only kidding. I should take myself out. I think I should take myself out, Suzy. Our great chief of staff, the first woman chief of staff. Can you believe it? Suzy Wiles. Stand up, Suzy. And that beautiful exterior. Don’t let it fool you. She’s rough and tough. She got rated the most powerful woman anywhere in the world. She can take out a country with a mere phone call, which is true. Actually, it’s very true in her case. And she’s done a great job. We’re doing okay, Suzy? Looking good. We had a good two weeks, right? This was had to be the best two weeks. Has anybody ever had a better two weeks than this?

The Patriot Games and Health Initiatives

Next, to bring back to our people together, through the power of sports, America 250 will also host a brand new first-of-its-kind youth athletes. It’s a competition known as the Patriot Games, and it features top high school athletes from all 50 states. It’s going to be great. And this phenomenal patriotic sporting event will be nationally televised, and it will be led by our great Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He’s really doing it. He’s great, and he’s a little different, right? We needed somebody different.

You know, autism. You go back, I guess, 18 years, 10,000, think of this, out of 10,000 people, okay, 10,000 people, and I’ll go a little different way, right now, out of 10,000 people, 18 people don’t have, they’re safe, 18 people. We have a statistic on autism that’s the worst I’ve ever seen, and he’s going to change it. He’s going to change it. It used to be 20 years ago, you just didn’t have it, and now it’s numbers that are unbelievable, unbelievable, where the numbers are so bad, it’s got to be artificially induced, and we’re going to find out what it is, and when, we’re going to find it out as soon as possible. I mean, if you think about it, the numbers have increased by 200-fold, and that’s really something, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it. That’s a terrible situation.

Energy Leadership and National Parks

Likewise, under the leadership of Secretary Burgum, who’s here right now, who’s the great governor of North Carolina, great governor of North Dakota, where is he? Where is he? Mr. Secretary, and he’s in charge of energy plus a lot of land. He’s the biggest landlord, I guess, in the world, but he was the great governor of North Dakota. And he was very special in so many ways. He became an energy expert, and he came to me, and I said, “I want you to be the head of energy.” He said, “No, we have one man that’s better than me,” and that was Chris, right? And put him in charge, and we merged the two, and he’s got all the land with all the oil, and the other one has all the expertise to get the oil out of the land. And Chris is doing great, and you’re doing great, Doug, and I appreciate it, and say hello to Catherine and everybody. You’re doing a great job. We have a great Cabinet.

So, every one of our national park, battlefields, and historic sites are going to have special events in honor of America 250. And I even think we’re going to have a UFC fight. We’re going to have — does anybody watch UFC? The Great Day in the World? We’re going to have a UFC fight. We’re going to have a UFC fight — think of this — on the grounds of the White House. We have a lot of land there. We’re going to build a little — Dana is going to do it. Dana is great, one of a kind. We’re going to have a UFC fight, championship fight, full fight, like 20, 25,000 people. And we’re going to do that as part of 250 also. We’re going to have some incredible events, some professional events, some amateur events. But the UFC fight is going to be a big deal, too.

And to fund improvements and enhanced experiences across the park system for this anniversary, I’ve just signed an executive order to raise entrance fees for foreign tourists while keeping prices low for Americans. And we’re going to do that. The National Parks will be about America first. We’re going to take it America first for the National Parks.

America’s Greatest Year Ahead

And these are just a few of the many programs, initiatives, celebrations that we’ll renew for our national pride. We’re going to have great pride. I think we do have great pride. I think we have more pride and more spirit in our country right now than we’ve had in 50 years.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

And together, we’re going to ensure that America’s 250th anniversary is the single greatest year in the history of our country. We want to have a lot of great things. A lot of the things that Bobby and Health and Human Services have been doing are going to come up during that period of time. And we’re going to come up with a lot of tremendous things for health and safety. And economically, we’re going to have the strongest country anywhere in the world. And the bill that we just got approved today was — think of that — all of those votes, two negative votes, but we had no Democrats. Two negative votes in the Republicans out of all that.

Republican Congressional Support and Cabinet Introductions

So, I want to thank those great Republicans that voted to get it in. You know, we could only lose three if we lost three. If we lost three, trouble. And we didn’t lose three. We lost two. And I’m sure if I needed the two, I could have gotten them too. But we’re pleased to be joined tonight by many friends who will help make that possible, including — and I introduced Doug Burgum already from North Dakota and just a great — he was really one of the best. Was he a better governor than you? Would you say, Christy, was he better than you? I don’t know. Because they were neighbors, you know? You had North Dakota, you had South Dakota.

Brooke Rollins. Thank you, Brooke. Great job. She’s now the Agricultural Secretary. Christy Noem, great governor also. But she’s doing a — I don’t know. Do you like this better than being governor? Don’t say. Don’t say. They love you in this state. Don’t say.

Maybe the most important guy in this whole place. You know, a lot of projects have stopped using environmental stuff. A lot of projects have stopped. They used it as a weapon, the radical left and others. They used it as a weapon. This man is the greatest. He’s doing a job that’s incredible. Doug would tell you that. Everybody will tell you that. Lee Zeldin. He’s the head of the EPA. It’s the Environmental Protection Agency. And he’s the head of it. Great guy. He was a great politician, a tremendous congressman. He ran for governor of New York, which is tough. And he almost won. I’m glad he didn’t win. Actually, I wouldn’t have you right there. And I said, Lee, a nuclear power plant will give you one week to get me the approval. So — but he’s been done great. And we — you know, we have factories, and we have plants all over the world right now, and they’re being built, and they’re going up.

Iowa Leadership Recognition

Also, Governor Tim Reynolds from Iowa. Thank you, Tim. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. And Lieutenant Governor Chris Corner. Where’s Chris? Chris Corner. Thank you, Chris, very much. Great job. We have Senator Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst. Chuck! Hi, Chuck. Wow. That’s great. He’s doing great, too. He’s — boy, he’s got more energy than all of us. And where’s Joni? Is Joni here? Hi, Joni. Very good. Good job. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Joni.

And you have members of Congress — Ashley Hinson, Marionette Milametz, Zach Nunn, Randy Feenstra. Good group. We flew in together, and, boy, they were nice. I love — they were so happy at that victory today, weren’t you? Randy, thank you very much. Thank you very much. That was great. We had a good flight.

We have an ambassador who’s been my friend for a long time, Monica Crowley. She was — I heard her speak. I thought she did really well. Thank you, Monica. And you know Matt Whitaker, a man from Iowa. Ambassador to NATO. We also had a person — I have to give her credit — Brenna Bird, Attorney General. Brenna. She came out, and she endorsed me very early, and I appreciate it. Where’s Brenna? Where is — hi, Brenna. She came out. She endorsed me. I said, thank you very much. Who the hell is that? She’s great.

Former State Senator Brad Zahn. Oh, my man. There he is. I haven’t seen you. He was the first man in the entire country that endorsed me, right? Not just from Iowa. He endorsed me three months before I ran. He said, that guy from New York should run. So, I want to thank you. Really great. You’re looking good, too. He’s like the Marlboro Man, you know? It looks like the Marlboro Man. Handsome guy.

Iowa Speaker Pat Grassley. Pat, thank you very much, Pat. Nice to see you, Pat. Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver. Thank you, Jack. Thank you, Jack. Iowa House Majority Leader-elect Bobby Kaufman. Thank you, Bobby. Great future. Great future. A friend of mine, Dan Newland, who’s the most generous human being. He gives away — he hears somebody is in trouble. He hears somebody is in trouble, and he goes wild, and he’s just a very good guy. And Jeff Kaufman, the head of your party here. So, come on, stand up, Jeff. You can stand up. Thank you, Jeff. Great job. And Jeff was with me right from the beginning. When I was complaining about things, I’d call him. He’d do it sometimes. He was better as I started winning, winning, winning. Right? But Jeff has been great. He’s a great leader. Thank you very much, Jeff, for being here.

And I have to say that Lee Greenwood has been unbelievable. That song — where is Lee? Is he around here? That song — it’s the hottest song of its kind. Number one of its kind. You know, it’s a certain genre. But thank you, Lee, very much. Real great song and great talent.

Honoring Veterans and Faith Leaders

This Independence Day, let’s also give a very special thanks to every veteran and military service member here tonight for their outstanding devotion to our country. And I also want to thank — and thank you, fellas. Stand up, fellas. Look at them. They’re in good shape. Thank you very much. Wow. That’s a lot of veterans. Thank you very much. What an honor.

I also want to thank a large group of Iowa pastors and faith leaders for their beautiful prayers, including Pastors Joshua Kent, Tammy Hall, Joseph Hall, Corrine Sturtz, Maureen Pratchett, Izzy Pratchett, Dan McCoy, Rose Kessler, Michael DeJong, Jose Rodriguez, the ministry leaders, Virginia, Calegary, Sarah Kent. And thanks also to Bob Vander Plaats. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Stand up. You’re the people we want to listen to. Stand up. Thank you. There they are. Look at that group. I want to be with them. They have the real power. They have more power than all of us. Thank you. You’ve been so good and so supportive. We were supported with the evangelicals, 89 percent. And we’re looking for the other 11 percent. We don’t believe it.

As we prepare to celebrate two and a half centuries of freedom, I’m inviting America’s great religious communities to pray for our nation and for our people. From the beginning, this has always been a country sustained and strengthened by prayer. So important. If we bring religion back stronger, you’re going to see everything get better and better and better. You’re going to see it get better and better. So as we chart our course toward the — In the next 250 years, let us rededicate ourselves to one nation under God, right?

Rejecting Socialist and Communist Ideologies

And as you know, recently we’ve seen some of our political system attempting to overthrow the timeless American principles and other pillars of our liberty and replace them with some of the most noxious ideas in human history, ideas that have been proven false. Members of Congress and even former presidents have been openly embracing vile creeds such as socialism, Marxism, and straight-up communism.

In New York, they’re trying to elect a communist, Zoran Mamdani, the guy who wants to defund the police, take over the stores and run the stores, and have the people hand out goods, and when everything falls apart, it always does. It always works that way. It never has worked any other way. Anarchy and dictatorships prevail. This guy is a communist at the highest level, and he wants to destroy New York. I love New York, and we’re not going to let him do that.

Generations of Americans before us did not shed their blood only so that we could surrender our country to Marxist lunatics on the eve of our 250th year. As President of the United States, I’m proclaiming here and now that America is never going to be communist in any way, shape, form, and that includes New York City. And under my administration, we’re bringing back freedom and liberty, law and order, and above all, we’re bringing back common sense, right, common sense.

Administration Actions and Policy Changes

From day one, I stopped the weaponization of government against people of faith, and we created the Department of Justice Task Force combating anti-Christian bias. And I have to tell you, Pam Bondi is doing a great job. Pam Bondi is doing a great job. Attorney General, I ended the Green News scam and terminated the insane — this is insane — the electric vehicle mandate, where everybody had to have a car that happened to be all electric in the next few short years. The mandate — some people want to have gasoline-powered, some people want to have hybrids, maybe even someday hydrogen. Right now, I don’t like it because when they blow

Executive Actions and Policy Changes

up, they don’t ever find the body. They find the body about five blocks away. That does not sound promising to me. They said, no, it’s getting better. I said, that’s okay, let somebody else use it. But we’re not going to have all electric. We’re going to have electric if people want it. Electric is great, but gasoline, people like better in many cases. But you can have whatever you want. But it’s ridiculous to mandate that everybody’s going to be driving an electric car in five years from now. So I ended it.

I signed an order to begin eliminating the federal Department of Education and send education back to the states. That means Iowa is going to run their own education. You’re going to have to run your own education. Iowa will — you know, I use you in my thoughts. I always — whenever I say, I always say Iowa and Indiana, and I’ve mentioned certain states. But you want to run your own education because you don’t want the bureaucrats in Washington doing it. And I made English the official language of our country. You would think that would be an easy one. It was not as easy as you think.

I directed the reinstatement of all patriots expelled from our military by the Biden vaccine mandate, returning them to their former rank with full back pay. And I signed executive orders to abolish critical race theory and transgender insanity from our schools and from our military. I made it official policy of the United States that there are only two genders — male and female. And if it’s okay with Iowa, we are keeping men out of women’s sports. Is that okay?

I also renamed the Gulf of Mexico — I renamed it to the Gulf of America. And we’re restoring the name of the greatest President, one of the truly great Presidents, somebody that made our country very rich, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley in Alaska.

American Values and Principles

So in conclusion, in everything we do, we’re once again defending the values, traditions and beliefs that made every generation before us so very proud to be American. You know that better than anybody in Iowa. And here in Iowa and across this land, we believe that America is an exceptional nation blessed by God. It’s really destined to be the freest, strongest, the greatest country ever to exist on the face of the Earth. And we’re going to make it that way much more so than it’s ever been.

We believe in the wisdom of our founders who declared that our rights do not come from bureaucrats in Washington. Our rights come from our Creator in heaven. That’s where our rights come from. And we reject government discrimination and so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates. They’re just about washed out the window, actually. They’re just about over with. We’re just about finished.

In this country, we believe in hard work and we believe in merit. And by the way, we’re allowed to have merit. We’re now back to being a merit-based system. We had a decision in the United States Supreme Court. Our country is now a country based on merit.

We oppose censorship, price controls, open borders, and sex changes for children. We support our troops, respect our police, and salute the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol. We cherish our Constitution, and we defend free speech, free assembly, religious liberty, and the right to keep and bear arms, Our Second America.

We take our pride in our heritage, and we want it in a beautiful heritage that we have. And we teach our children to love our country, honor our history, and always respect our great American flag. You have to respect our flag.

America’s Heritage and Heroes

From Philadelphia to Phoenix, from Gettysburg to the Golden Gate Bridge, and from factories of Detroit to the fairgrounds of Des Moines, we stand on the shoulders of heroes and legends who crossed the oceans, blazed the trails, tamed the wilderness, settled the continent, raised up those beautiful skyscrapers, and stood tall and defiant in the face of tyranny and death.

From 1776 all the way through today, American patriots have won triumph after triumph. They’ve had victory after victory and let nothing stand in the way of the USA, which we love so much. It was hardworking citizens like you who won our independence, secured our liberty, and built this country with courage, grit, and skill.

And starting right here in Iowa, such a great place, and I hope you love it, but it’s such a great place. You should love it. You should love it. You should love it. You know, sometimes you take things for granted. This is one of the really great places, but I’ve been all over. It was hardworking citizens like you who saved our country in November 2024. Think of that November 25th. Who would have thought there’d be this much of a change this fast? I didn’t even think it would happen this fast. Happened at a level that nobody even thought possible. Again, we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.

Conclusion and Call to Action

And today, with your help, America is free, America is proud, and America is sovereign once more. And this Fourth of July, our magnificent destiny is closer than ever before. We are one people, one family, and one united American nation. We will never give in. We will never give up. We will never back down, and we will never, ever, ever surrender. We will fight, fight, fight. We will win, win, win, because we are Americans, and our hearts bleed red, white, and blue.

And together, as we look forward to the 250th year of American independence, we will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America healthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again, and we will make America great again. Thank you, Iowa. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Iowa.

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