Trump Remarks at Turning Point’s AmericaFest 2024 (Transcript)

And with Franklin Graham, please, sir – he says, “Please, sir, please don’t use foul language. You speak so beautifully. You can do just as well” – actually, it doesn’t work quite as well, but that’s okay. It’s just emphasis. But when they said, essentially, “It’s none of your business,” that was a Trump vote. And they had the highest numbers of people that said that because they don’t trust the press, et cetera. And we had the highest numbers.

And that’s why the polls were – showed us winning, but not winning in a landslide like we did. And we sort of knew that was going to happen. We could tell by the rally signs. Look at this. Here we won. There’s no reason except celebration, but that’s not a bad reason, is it? And look at the crowd. They have 7,000 or 8,000 people standing outside. They can’t get in. Would anybody like to give up their seat, please? Huh? You know, doing this for years, I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone say, “Yes, yes, I’ll give it up.” Just one person, nobody.

Democratic Opposition and Victory

The Democrats and the media said the Turning Point could never run a ground game. They weren’t experienced. They didn’t know Charlie, right? But when the ballots came in, the other side really didn’t know what the hell hit them. They got hit hard. And that victory was such an outstanding one, such a big one. And the other side now — and we don’t want this. We want people to be happy and healthy. But they did. They lost their confidence. If you watch television now, they’re all befuddled. They don’t know what the hell happened. They’re befuddled, to use quite a nice word that my mother used to use years ago, talking about somebody that’s a mess. But they did. They lost their confidence.

And hopefully, they’ll lose it for a long time and then come over to our side, because we want to — we want to have them. We want to have them. And we’re going to have some inauguration on the 20th. We’re going to have something. It’s going to be great. It’s going to be great.

Voter Demographics and Shifts

But something happened also in the election. All 50 states shifted toward the Republican Party, every single one of them. And together, we won the largest share of African American voters of any Republican in modern history. Actually, in history. We won more Hispanic American votes than any Republican ever. And we won the vote. We won the Latino men. Who is a Latino man? Do we have any Latino men? You’re not a Latino man. Very beautiful woman, but a man you are not. Of course, nowadays, who the hell knows? But we won the Hispanic — I call Hispanic. I always said, “Do you like Latino or Hispanic?”

Let’s go. Let’s do a free poll. Who likes to be called Latino? Okay. That’s what’s always happening. Listen to this. Who likes to be called Hispanic? All right. Not as good as usual. But we won half of all voters aged 18 to 29. There’s never been anything like that. We won by 36 young people. And we got the highest share of youth vote of any Republican ever before in history.

Youth Support and Social Media

And we had great people. You know, my son Barron said, “Dad, you got to see this one, that one, this one.” He likes Joe Rogan a lot, too. He said, “You got to see Joe Rogan. Dad, you got to do an interview with these people.” And he has a sort of a feel for young people. I guess that’s a nice thing to have when you’re young. But he has a feel for it. And it was amazing. So we got the highest vote ever for a Republican candidate. We won by 36 points with young people. That never happens. A Republican loses by 36 or 40.

So I’m going to have to start thinking about TikTok. I think we’re going to have to start thinking. Because, you know, we did go on TikTok. And we had a great response. We had billions of views, billions and billions of views. They brought me a chart. And it was a record. And it was so beautiful to see. And as I looked at it, I said, “Maybe we got to keep this sucker around a little while.” Who wants to?

Border Security and Sheriff Joe

Oh, look, I see Sheriff Joe. Sheriff Joe, could we use you on the border? Stand up. Sheriff Joe. Look at that. He had no problems with the border. If you could straighten your border out in two minutes, we’ll put Sheriff Joe over there. And you’re looking good, Joe. You’re looking good. And we miss your wife, right? Your great wife. She’s up there proud as hell of you. But he had no border problems. You didn’t have any border problems. And we’ll do that very shortly for you.

We’re going to have you have a governor that doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. You have people. You have people that don’t know what they’re doing. And we’re going to change it because your border is a disaster. Your border is a disaster, what’s going on. And you just have a few days to wait. We’re going to be fully operational, I would say, by about 2 o’clock on the 20th. 20th of January.

Future Outlook and International Affairs

With your help, we gain 23 points with voters under the age of even 25. Think of that. We gain 23 points. And in the election of 2024, our movement not only won a mandate, but we built new American majorities all over the place and will define our country’s future. I believe it’s going to define our country’s future for generations to come. That’s going to happen.

You know, there’s some people called up that are great people, actually. Great business leaders called. A lot of them. And some of them weren’t exactly on my side, but they’re on my side now. But they said there’s a light over not only the country right now, but over the entire world. And it is happening. And we want to get some of these — we want to get some of these wars that would have never happened, like Russia, Ukraine would have never happened. Israel would have never been attacked. Would have never happened. We wouldn’t have inflation. We wouldn’t have had that Afghanistan horror show, that horrible, horrible — the way we left, leaving billions of dollars of equipment behind and 13 soldiers.

And, you know, nobody ever mentions — and I mention because I love them and they’re all watching right now — 48 soldiers that were horrifically injured. Nobody ever — they lived and they don’t talk about them, but these are incredible warriors that were hurt so badly with the legs and the arms and the face, and hurt so badly. Forty-eight. Forty-eight of them.

A Golden Age for America

And we love you. You’re listening, and we love you. We’re not forgetting you. And for all of us standing before you today, I can proudly proclaim that the golden age of America is upon us. It’s going to be a golden age. It’s going to be a golden age. There’s a spirit that we have now that we didn’t have just a short while ago. Sadly, we didn’t have.

Who the hell can have a spirit? Watching women get beat up in a boxing ring? I don’t think that’s spirit, right? We’re going to end that one quick. We’re going to end it very quickly. We’re going to end that one very quickly.

Economic Achievements

Since the election, the stock market has broken one record after another. The biggest gain of stock market after an election in history. That’s a good sign. In a single month, small business optimism soared 41 points, which is a record. That’s a record. Bitcoin has surged to an all-time record high of $108,000. Congratulations. Congratulations.

And just last week, in an overwhelming statement of confidence in our leadership, the CEO of SoftBank, a very highly respected man in Asia, Masayoshi Son, you probably saw it announced, that he will be investing. And only because I won the election, he made that clear, only because he has confidence in the United States between $100 billion and $200 billion. And he’s going to be investing. Equal to about 100,000 jobs, at least.

And all over the world, people are investing now. They’re starting the investments, and it’s going to be a beautiful thing with the jobs. But they’re calling it the Trump effect because even before taking office, we’re already bringing in the jobs and opportunity and safety and common sense back to the USA. We’re bringing common sense back. Maybe that’s the most important thing. I think common sense is the most important thing, not only are we seeing it at home, but we’re seeing it abroad as well.

International Relations and Trade

The European Union is suddenly talking about buying vast quantities of natural American, beautiful natural gas. It’s beautiful, and it’s very inexpensive. It’s a lot less expensive than windmills all over the place. A lot less expensive.

But I’ve informed Mexico and Canada that they will have to step up and stop the illegal aliens and illegal drugs from pouring into our country. Have to stop. And that goes for the European Union, and it goes for many other places. The European Union has treated us very, very badly. We have hundreds of billions of dollars worth of deficits. They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our agricultural product. But we take theirs.

And they’ve got to be careful. They can’t treat us that way. They’re not going to be treating us that way for long. That I can tell you. Because we’re not going to let them turn the United States into a dumping ground. We’re not going to let it happen.

We pay Canada in subsidies and deficits over $150 billion a year. And you say, “Why are we doing that? Why are we paying Canada $150 billion?” Essentially, we’re paying Canada. And we love Canada. I have so many friends here. I love Canada. I love it. But why are we spending $150 billion on Canada? Yet Canada allows people and drugs to flood in through our northern border.

You know, we have a northern border that’s not doing so well either. Likewise, people are coming in from Mexico in numbers that have never, ever been seen before. We had 21 million people come in over the past four years. Think of that, 21 million people. And you see a lot of these people should not be here. They come from mental institutions and prisons from all over the world, not just South America.

Hundreds of thousands more are racing to get across before January 20th. You see it. And I was very strong with Mexico. I spoke to the new president, who is lovely, wonderful woman, and President Sheinbaum. Wonderful woman, actually. But I said, “You can’t do this to our country. We’re not going to take it anymore. You can’t do it.” But I’ve informed Mexico that it just cannot continue. We’re not going to let it continue.

The Drug Crisis

The United States has lost 300,000 people a year. Think of that. I don’t know. I mean, how many people? Everybody you meet said, “I lost my daughter, I lost my son to drugs, to fentanyl.” Mostly to fentanyl, but to drugs. Families are being destroyed, and we’re going to stop it. We’re not going to let that happen.

And we’re also going to be doing something that’s, I think, going to help a lot. We’re going to do very big advertising campaigns, just like a campaign for running for president. We spend a lot of money, but it’ll be a very small amount of money, relatively. We’re going to advertise how bad drugs are for you, how bad they are. They ruin your look. They ruin your face. They ruin your skin and ruin your teeth. If you want to have horrible teeth, take a lot of fentanyl. If you want to have skin that looks so terrible, take fentanyl. We’re going to show what these drugs are doing to you. Nobody’s done that before, and we’re going to do it.

And that is, it’s going to be like running a political campaign, just like running for president, just like we just did. We have some pretty good heads, right? Well, we explained what these people have done and how they’re destroying our country. I mean, who would leave? Who would let millions of people pour in from prisons and jails and mental institutions?

And I always say, in state asylums, you know, the press gave me a hard time because sometimes they’d use the word, a name, Hannibal Lecter. They said, “Why does he mention Hannibal Lecter? That has nothing to do with it. Why would he?” I mean, are they stupid? The fact is that we don’t want Hannibal Lecter. You know what that is? Silence of the Lambs. We don’t want Hannibal Lecter, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, in our country, do we?

And you know what happened when they went to the voting booth or, unfortunately, they signed their mail-in ballot, but we got by it. We got to change all of that stuff. We got to have great, fair, confident elections. But when they went into the booth or they signed their ballot, they said, “Hannibal Lecter, that’s a bad guy. We don’t want him here.” They knew that. They didn’t like that. They didn’t like that I used them because it’s a good – it’s a very good example. It’s like incredible, incredible what they do. We need borders. We need fair elections. And we need a free and fair press. And we’re going to try getting all of them.

The Panama Canal Issue

As another example of the things we’re doing and looking at, it’s such a terrible thing is happening. The Panama Canal is considered a vital national asset for the United States of America due to its critical role of American economy, the whole world economy, and also national security. The Panama Canal – has anyone ever heard of the Panama Canal? Huh? Because we’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we’re being ripped off everywhere else.

A secure – he just said, “Take it back.” Is that a good idea? Where do you come from, sir? He doesn’t come from Panama. Huh? Yeah, good. A secure Panama Canal is crucial for U.S. commerce and rapid deployment of the Navy from the Atlantic all the way to the Pacific. It’s an incredible thing and drastically cuts shipping times down to U.S. ports by days and even weeks.

The United States is the number-one user of the Panama Canal, with over 72 percent of all transits heading to or from U.S. ports. Think of that. So we built it. We’re the ones that use it. They gave it away. Considered one of the – really, one of the great wonders of the world.

The Panama Canal opened for business 110 years ago and was built at huge cost to the United States. And it really is big when you consider the lives and the treasure, the equivalent of $1.2 trillion today. You don’t hear those numbers. Thirty-eight thousand American men – almost all men – they went there to be construction workers and dig. They were diggers. And they were brave. Thirty-eight thousand men died from infected mosquitoes in the jungles of Panama during the construction period. Think of that. We lost 38,000 men.

Teddy Roosevelt was President of the United States at the time of its building and understood the strength of naval power and trade. When President Jimmy Carter foolishly gave it away – gave it away for $1, $1 – during his term in office, it was solely for Panama to manage and not for China or any other country to manage. You see what’s going on there? China. It was likewise not given for Panama to charge the United States, its Navy, and its corporations doing business within our country exorbitant prices and rates of passage, which they do. They charge us like – like it’s a disgrace.

Our Navy and commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama, I say very foolishly, by the United States. This complete ripoff of our country will immediately stop. It’s going to stop.

The United States has a big invested interest in the secure, efficient, and reliable operation of the Panama Canal, and that was always understood when they gave it to Panama. Can you believe that? We would never have done it if we thought what’s happening now can happen, and we would never, and we will never, ever let it fall into the wrong hands. But it’s falling into the wrong hands.

It was not given for the benefit of others by a token of cooperation, but it was given to Panama and to the people of Panama, but it has provisions. You’ve got to treat us fairly, and they haven’t treated us fairly. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America in full, quickly, and without question. I’m not going to stand for it. So to the officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly.

Historical Context and President McKinley

William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, was, because of the vast sums of money that he brought into our country, the person, really, who got us the money that President Theodore Roosevelt used to build the Panama Canal and a lot of other things, McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president. They took his name off Mount McKinley, right? That’s what they do to people. Now, he was a great president, a very good president at a minimum.

He was a very good businessman. He was a businessman, then a governor, a very successful businessman, and then he ran for president, and he won. And he was able to use business principles, and he was a strong believer in tariffs. And we were actually probably wealthiest of any time, relatively speaking, at any point in the history of our country.

In the 1890s, we were so wealthy, we had commissions set up, what to do with all the money that we were taking in. We had no income tax. We only had tariffs. I consider that to be the most beautiful word in the dictionary.

But President McKinley was the president that was responsible for creating a vast sum of money in the United States that Teddy Roosevelt then spent. So let’s say they were both excellent presidents, but McKinley did that, and that’s one of the reasons that we’re going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley, because I think he deserves it. I think he deserves it. There are lots of things we can name, but I think he deserves it.

That was not very gracious to somebody that did a good job. And as you know, he was assassinated. He was assassinated.

Future Plans and Cabinet Nominations

We have accomplished so much in just 47 days since the election, but that’s only the beginning of what we will achieve together as the 47th president of the United States of America.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve nominated an all-star cabinet of some of the most fearless, determined, and brilliant individuals ever to step forward for public office. And we’re getting great reviews, I have to say. They’re all doing well. And we’re getting fantastic reviews on the people that we chose.

It’s we chose, because I wouldn’t choose them if I didn’t think you liked them. I’m not putting – I don’t have that kind of courage. You liked every one of them, and everybody – I mean, people are amazed at the quality. Our Secretary Scott of the Treasury was – his central casting.

Cabinet Appointments and Military Strength

The whole group. It woke us out of our military to restore the unquestioned strength and fighting spirit of the American Armed Forces. I have appointed Pete Hegseth to be our next Secretary of Defense. He’s going to be great.

You know, I’ve interviewed with him a lot on Fox. And all he ever wanted to talk about was the military, including when we were on. He’d talk about the military. He’d talk about how unfairly our soldiers were treated. Can I give a pardon to this one or that one who was treated so unfairly? They teach them to be fighting machines, and then when they fight, they want to put them in jail for 35 years. And he was very strong on that. That’s all he wanted to talk about, really, and it just seemed so natural to me.

Plus, he had a great education, went to Princeton and Harvard, was a tremendous student. And he’s a very vibrant, strong guy. I think he’s going to be great. To make our intelligence community respected even more. I don’t even think the word even is right because we had some bad years with these people. But we’re going to do something. We’re going to stop looking at all of these horrible foreign wars that we’ve gotten ourselves through stupidity. We’re in wars in countries that nobody ever even heard of before.

And we’re going to be smart. We’re going to be guided by strength, and we’re going to have peace through strength like we had. I had no wars other than I wiped out ISIS. We wiped out ISIS in a small fraction. They said it was going to take five years. It took four weeks. We have a great military. Not the ones you see on television, the real generals.

But I’ve nominated Tulsi Gabbard as our Director of National Intelligence. And to be our next Secretary of Health and Human Services, I decided, look, something’s going on here. When you look at, like, autism from 25 years ago, and you look at it now, something’s going on. And I nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Think of it. Think of this. Twenty-five years ago, autism, one in 10,000 children. Today, it’s one in 36 children. Is something wrong? I think so. And Robert and I and all of it, we’re going to figure it out.

But did you have your numbers like that? Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong. Likewise, there’s been a 25 percent increase in childhood cancer and a staggering increase in chronic diseases. So, together, we’re going to make America healthy again. We’re going to make America healthy again. Something’s happening. Something bad is happening.

Law Enforcement and Justice

And with the weaponization of law enforcement to restore fair, equal, and impartial justice, we will have an outstanding new Attorney General in Pam Bondi. She’s fantastic. She is fantastic. Known her a long time.

And I’m very pleased to report that Christopher Wray is on his way out. He’s resigned. He will soon be replaced by our next FBI director, somebody who I think is going to be one of the greatest, maybe the greatest director of them all, Kash Patel. I campaigned on an agenda of delivering profound change to Washington.

And last month, the American people voted for change like they’d never voted before and in overwhelming numbers, numbers that nobody saw coming. I saw coming. I think we all saw coming. When you went to the rallies, you saw that. We’d have, like we had in New Jersey, 107,000 people. And they’d go out the next day and they’d have 30 people, maybe 40 if they were lucky. And then I heard how it was going to be a close race. I said, why is that? Why is that? I don’t quite get that.

But now the Republican Senate majority is working very hard to confirm my nominees, and we appreciate it. And with the help of this dream team cabinet, and we have so many others I won’t bother mentioning, you know every one of them, we’re going to embark on the most exciting and successful period of reform and renewal in all of American history. We’re going to do something that’s going to be really, really special. You’re going to be so happy.

Campaign Promises and Foreign Policy

And as you know, I made a series of big day one promises in my campaign. You know them just as well as I do. And 29 days from now, I intend to keep those promises to the American people. And just as we did four years ago, my administration will live by the motto, promises made, promises kept. We did keep our promises. And there’s a new hat. There’s a brand new hat that’s out. I saw it yesterday, the first time, and it’s selling like hotcakes. It says, “Trump was right about everything.” And I don’t want to brag, but we were right about just about everything, including foreign policy, these crazy wars that we’re in.

One of the things I want to do, and quickly, and President Putin said that he wants to meet with me as soon as possible. So we have to wait for this, but we have to end that war. That war is a horrible, horrible — that the soldiers, the number of soldiers being killed, it’s a flat plain, and the bullets are going, and there’s powerful bullets, powerful guns. And the only thing that’s going to stop them is the human body. They go dead flat land. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Millions of soldiers have died now, millions. And we’re seeing numbers that are just crazy.

Got to stop it. It’s ridiculous. Would have never happened if I was President. That war would have never happened. And October 7th, Israel would have never happened either. So much — our country would be so different, and the world would be so different. But it’s not. So we have to make it great. We’re going to make it great. We’re going to do it as quickly as we can.

Immigration and Border Security

On my first day back in the Oval Office, I will sign a historic slate of executive orders to close our border to illegal aliens and stop the invasion of our country. And on that same day, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than that of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. And as part of Operation Aurora — you know all about Aurora, how horrible that’s been — every single foreign gang and illegal alien member, all of this criminal network operating on American soil, will be dismantled, deported, and destroyed. Got to get them out. Think of it.

They sent their gang members to us. Busload after busload. We had an open border. Their gang members, their drug dealers, their drug addicts, people that were sick, people that were healthy and strong. What the hell was that? You get the little yips up here every once in a while. I wonder why. That was a strange sound. Heard some very strange sounds.

Every foreign gang member will be expelled, and I will immediately designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. We’re going to do it immediately. And we’ll unleash the full power of federal law enforcement, ICE, Border Patrol. How good is — by the way, how good is Tom Holman, right? He’s phenomenal. I’ve known him a long time. I’ll bet you Sheriff Joe likes Tom Holman, right? Sheriff Joe, yes? Yep. He goes, yep.

The DEA, the FBI, the intelligence community, and financial sanctions to remove the migrant gangs and criminals that are killing and raping and maiming our citizens. We’re going to get them out. We’re going to get them out. We’re going to get them out fast. We have no choice. We have no choice, by the way. I don’t want to do that, but we have no choice.

The last thing I want to do could have been so much easier. The election wasn’t rigged. We could have been — it would have been a much different thing. But this will show something. This is going to show how we do it and how good we are. You know, we showed how the opposite philosophy runs a country, and it wasn’t good. They had an approval rating today of 14 percent. Nobody’s ever heard — nobody’s ever had an approval rating of 14. That’s the lowest approval rating, and we’re going to have a very high — in fact, we already have a very high approval rating. We’re way up. Way, way, way up. Higher than almost anybody. Higher than anybody has at this point.

We will end the occupation, and January 20th will truly be Liberation Day in America. Is that okay? Liberation Day. And this great liberation will be in honor of all of the victims of migrant crime and all of the angel moms and angel dads who have lost their really incredible kids that — you know, they’re going around for years and years, and I talk to them all the time. I know so many of them, and many of them are here. And we can just say, “We love you. We’re with you.” They had so little help from the politicians on the other side.

Patty Morin’s Story

We’re joined today by Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, who you know all about, a beautiful mother of five who was murdered by an illegal alien monster who entered our country under the open-border policies of the Biden administration. Your borders are always not too good. Your borders are — that was not Tom Homan, I can tell you. But, Patty, those days are over, and they will soon be over. I hope we’re just not going to have — how can you say never again? But we’re going to have as few as possible. It’s going to be rough, and it’s going to be rough on the ones that do that kind of damage to you and to our country. Where is Patty? Is she here someplace?

I just want to thank her. Hi, Patty. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Do you want to come up for a second, Patty? Huh? Do you want to come up? She’s — I had lunch with Patty, and she suffered. She suffered greatly. I said, “Let me help you with your eyes,” because I want to help her with her eyes. She has an eye situation that can be fixed with some medical help. Many of them can’t be fixed. I said, “Patty, get your eyes taken care of. I’ll take care of it. Just get it done.” I hope you got it done. Did you have them done yet? Did you have it done yet, Patty? Huh?

Just get them done, okay? Okay. Good. She’s going to get them done in January. Good. Thank you. Thank you.

[Patty Morin speaks]

PATTY MORIN: The first time I met President Trump in person, he invited us to lunch, my attorney and I. And to be honest, I didn’t do anything. I just sat there. I didn’t really speak, because I wanted to watch the man and listen to what he had to say and what his conversation was like, because I knew he wasn’t a politician, but I knew that he had been president before, and I wanted to see if he was a real, authentic man who actually cared for the American people.

And so I watched him. I watched how he interacted. I also watched how much his staff really respected him and how much his staff loved working for him. But the thing that changed the way that I looked at him as a person was I realized that he was a dad, that he was a grandfather, and when you spoke to him, you could see in his eyes that he genuinely cared about his fellow human beings.

But the thing I appreciate the most is that he heard the cries of a mother, and he cared. And he made a promise that he was going to protect us and that he was going to help us. And that’s all you can ask from your president, but also just from a fellow human being. And so I personally, I am so honored to know this man. And so think of you as his friend. Thank you.

[Trump resumes speaking]

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much. He’s been through hell. Who wouldn’t be? I mean, so many people, so many – I call them angel moms, and they are – they go through hell. And many of them say it doesn’t get any better, but we have to hope it does get better.

Border Patrol and Security

Also with us is a very special guy, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, Paul Perez. He’s incredible. He’s doing a fantastic job, and he wants to do the job right. Hey, Paul, come on up here, Paul, quick. Quickly.

Paul, in one month, the Patriots of Border Patrol will once again have a president who will back you and will have you, and we’re going to work together, as we have done in the past. You know, we had the safest border in the history of our country. And you remember the famous sign that I pulled down? That sign was about how good the border was. I haven’t used that sign much lately. Well, we won, so I guess I don’t have to use it, but we really do have to use it because the fact is that we have to have strong, safe borders, and we have to have men like this and women who are doing an unbelievable job.

I’ve gotten to know a lot of them. I’ll tell you what, they’re tougher than I am. I don’t want to mess with them, right? But this man has done, as the head, and also replacing a very good guy. We know that, right? And he’s going to have a good life, I hope he’s going to, because he was a very special guy, and you’re a very special guy. Say a few words, please, Paul.

[Paul Perez speaks]

PAUL PEREZ: I mean, we’re back. America is back. The strength and security that Donald Trump brings to the White House is what we’ve needed. He’s done it before. He’s going to do it again. We’re going to make all of these communities safe. And like Tom Holman said, if you’re not going to help, get the hell out of the way. Donald Trump is by far the best president in the history of this country, and he’s going to show everybody exactly why. Thank you.

[Trump resumes speaking]

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much, Paul, and everybody, and Brendan, Judd, all of the people. They do such an incredible job.

We’re also pleased to be joined by a man who just also – we really did well in Texas, and I heard Ted’s speech. And he can come up and speak more of me once, or he can just – you know, Ted’s going to be going to a big event in a little while. Where’s Ted Cruz? Is he here? He’s here someplace? Ted? Ted? Oh, he’s in trouble. No, he was – he was here. Oh. Oh, good. He’s not in trouble.

[Ted Cruz speaks]

TED CRUZ: Keep Texas, Texas. Amen. And I’ve got to say, this election has given President Donald J. Trump, a Republican Senate and a Republican House, a clear mandate to deliver on our promises.

One month from today, President Trump will secure the border. We are going to bring back jobs. We are going to lower prices. We are going to protect American families. We are going to put criminals in jail. We are going to keep our kids safe. We are going to end foreign wars with victory. And I’ll tell you, Mr. President, the results of this election – seven battleground states, you won all seven. The people elected a Republican Senate and a Republican House to have your back, and we are going to deliver results.

And if I could speak parochially for a minute, one of the most consequential things that happened in this race in Texas – you won profoundly in Texas, and both you and I won a majority of Hispanic votes in the great state of Texas. That is unprecedented. That is generational change, and it demonstrates that we are going to protect our nation. We are going to bring our country back, and we are going to make America great again.

Trump’s Response and Acknowledgments

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you. He’s a great – he’s actually a great guy. Was really out there working – oh, I’m so glad he was here. Oh, that was – That was an amazing moment. But we want to thank him. He had a great race and did a fantastic job against, like, 250 million spent against him. But Texas was very special, and it will remain very special. It’s doing really – excellent people. Great people. And the governor is doing a fantastic job in Texas. The senator, Dan Patrick, everybody is doing. Attorney General.

Also, I want to bring up, if I could, or just say hello to him. He’s on the outskirts. He’s got a lot of people in this room. You’ve got a lot more people outside than you have in the room. The RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, who was so fantastic in what he did with Laura. The two of them were so great. There’s Michael. Come on up, Michael. Come here. This guy did some job.

Michael Whatley’s Speech

MICHAEL WHATLEY: Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. It takes three things to win in a battleground state. Number one, you’ve got to get out the vote. Number two, you’ve got to protect the ballot. And number three, you have to have a great candidate who runs a great race. The people in this room helped us get out the vote. They helped us protect the ballot. We would not have been able to win all those battleground states without you. But when it comes to having a great candidate who runs a great race, there is simply nobody better, ever, than the 45th and now 47th President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump.

Trump’s Acknowledgments of Supporters

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much. He really has. He really has. And Lara has done an incredible job. What a pleasure. They were fighting. They had so many lawyers. They were fighting the enemy like you wouldn’t believe. I mentioned Tom Holman, but especially he’s going to do so well.

A friend of mine who I haven’t seen in a little while, Matt Gaetz, is here. Where’s Matt? He’s around here someplace. Matt Gaetz. He’s got a big career set up. And I just want to say hello to Matt.

And Arizona GOP Chair, Gina Swoboda. Wow. She’s — she is very — Gina? Where’s Gina? Because we’re going to be backing Gina to run again. There she is. Gina? Gina, are you going to run again? Yes? Because if you do, you have my endorsement. So that should be good. Thank you. Thank you, though. Great job you’ve done.

A great professional golfer, a friend of mine. He’s really a good golfer. Tom Pernice is here someplace. Tom, wherever you may be. Hello, Tom. Don’t play him in golf. Play him in other things, but not golf.

Trish Duggan is here, who is just a fantastic — where is Trish? She’s one of my great friends. Thank you very much. Has she helped? Trish has helped us so — at a level that very few people can even dream of. So I want to thank you very much. Trish Duggan, please. Thanks. Where’s Trish? Thank you, Trish.

I think I see Kari Lake. Is that Kari Lake? Yes. Hi, Kari. Stand up, Kari. Hi. Hi. Good job. Worked hard. That was — she’s a good — a good woman. And she’s going to be doing something very big. Maybe bigger. It’s a big one that you have. So good luck with it. You’re going to do well. Going to turn that around like nobody ever saw before. So thank you very much for accepting it.

Sergio Gor, a friend of mine who’s doing a fabulous job. Leave a comment. Leave a comment. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. He’s doing a fabulous job leading the presidential personnel. He’s really working hard. Where’s Sergio? Is he around here someplace? Sergio, where is he? Hi, Sergio. Good job you’re doing. We have some big announcements over the next few days too — big ones.

A great actor has been with us for a long time, when it wasn’t fashionable. Rob Schneider. Rob. He was here with a few of his friends when it wasn’t quite as fashionable, right, Rob? But you were here. Thank you very much. Great job you’re doing too.

Karen Robson. Where is Karen? Karen is here. And she’s — are you here? Running for governor? She’s going to be running for governor. Where’s Karen? Hi, Karen. Hello, Karen. Are you running for governor? I think so, Karen, because if you do, you’re going to have my support, okay? You’re going to have my support.

A man that is very non-controversial, a very unique — he really is a unique person, but he doesn’t like controversy. His name is Steve Bannon. Has anyone ever heard of Steve? Where’s Steve? Hello. Hi, Steve. A big, powerful voice he’s got. His show is phenomenal. War Room. And thank you, Steve. There’s nobody like Steve. Thank you very much, Steve.

And a Phoenix police officer who was shot eight times in the line of duty, Tyler Moldovan, who I just saw backstage. Where’s Tyler? Oh, he’s got to be right there. There he is. Hi, Tyler. Thank you, Tyler. Hi, Tyler. Wow. Thank you, Tyler. Eight times. Can you believe that? Think of that, eight times, and he’s looking great. Thank you very much. And to your family, beautiful wife.

Policy Promises

With the stroke of my pen, on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy. And I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high school. And we will keep men out of women’s sports. And that will likewise be done on day one. Should I do day one, day two, or day three? How about day one, right?

Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. It doesn’t sound too complicated, does it?

To rescue our economy, I will sign day one orders to end all Biden restrictions on energy production, terminate his insane electric vehicle mandate, cancel his natural gas export ban, reopen ANWR in Alaska — the biggest site, potentially, anywhere in the world — and declare a national energy emergency. And do we have great people in energy — head of energy, Chris Wright. And Doug Burgum is the interior. And they — I merged both of them. You know, the energy had no energy. It just had the right to do energy. And interior had all the energy, but it didn’t have the right to drill. So I merged them. And they’re great friends. They’re both very talented people. We’re going to have so much oil and gas and other things, you won’t know what to do with it. You’ll say, “Please, President Trump, stop. We have too much. The prices are going too low, sir.” Remember, we were $1.84 a gallon gasoline. Wouldn’t that be nice?

I will direct every Cabinet Secretary to cut 10 old regulations for every new regulation, which I did last time. We’ll be getting rid of a lot of — last time, last term, for me, we had — we did something special. We cut more regulations by four times than any other President in history, and we’re going to top that record. Some of those ridiculous regulations were immediately put back on, and they were just hurting our country. That’s why we had the best job numbers ever, because of what we did with regulation. You know, we cut taxes more than any President in history, and we cut regulations more than any President in history. And when I asked the people that run the big companies, which is more important, cutting the taxes or cutting the regulations? Every single one of them so far has said the regulations were more important for jobs and everything else. Who would think that?

But I will order federal workers to get back to the office in person or be terminated from the job immediately. And we will create the new Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk.

Clarification on Elon Musk’s Role

And no, he’s not taking the presidency. I like having smart people. You know, the — they’re on a new kick — Russia, Russia, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, all the different hoaxes. And the new one is, President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk. No, no, that’s not happening. But Elon’s done an amazing job. Isn’t it nice to have smart people that we can rely on, okay? Don’t we want that?

He’s done a great job. And I’ll tell you, he — he landed that rocket a few months ago. It landed. It’s coming down so fast — 17,000 miles an hour, he says — and coming down, it looks like it’s getting ready. And then, all of a sudden, the jets go on, it slows it down, then it’s almost stopped it. And it guides it over left, right, up, high, down. I said, what the hell is going on? Because nobody ever saw this before.

And then it has the big gantry, very expensive. It looks like it’s going to be smashed to smithereens. And then those jet engines roared from the bottom. It’s coming in this way, a little hot. And the engines — bwah — pushed it straight, it landed. And it was like you’re hugging a beautiful baby. Baby. No, not that baby.

But it was — it was the most incredible thing. And then he got into his car, and or plane, or whatever — however he went, and he went to Pennsylvania. And he stayed up there for a month and helped us to win that state, which we won by a lot. So he was really good.

And he supplied Starlink for North Carolina, where they had no form of communication. They said, “Sir, do you know Elon Musk?” Yeah. He said, “We can’t get Starlink. It’s very hard to get.” And I called Elon, we have to get some up there, you got to get some up there. And he got over 2,000 units, that’s a lot. And they flooded it with Starlink, and it was so good, it saved a lot of lives. So we want to thank him.

But no, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you. And I’m safe. You know why? He can’t be. He wasn’t born in this country. But the fake news knows that. No, he’s a great guy, and we want to have him, everybody.

So many people are in this audience that have helped, to an extent that you wouldn’t believe. But we’re going to bring transparency and accountability back to our government. And we’ll be very soon, you’re going to see it drain the swamp. We’re going to be draining that swamp at levels never seen before.

Congressional Report and Political Commentary

And I hope everybody goes home and reads the congressional report on the criminal activities of the unselect committee of political thugs, J6 committee. What they did is so illegal. And Congress has done a fantastic job on that. They just put out a report, they call it an interim report, it’s brutal. On them, not on me, on them. And it’s terrible what they’ve done. What they’ve done to this country is just absolutely terrible.

But we’ll end the left’s campaign of racial discrimination and restore equality to our land and all over our land. And you see that happening so much with the vote and the kind of vote we got. Nobody ever expected anything like that. And I’ll end all of the Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion policies across the entire federal government immediately. And at the same time, we will ban these unlawful policies from the — we’re going to ban them from the private sector as well.

In America, we believe in the merit system — the merit system. And now, because of the major decision handed down recently by the Supreme Court, our country has again gone back to the merit system. That’s what made our country great. And I want to just thank the Supreme Court because that took a great deal of courage for them to do that. And some people were surprised by it, but that’s what made us great. Merit made us great.

Military and Defense Policies

I will direct our military to begin construction of the great Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield, which will be made all in the USA, much of it right here in Arizona. You know, Ronald Reagan wanted to do it many, many years ago, but they didn’t really have the technology. It’s lucky that he didn’t because they didn’t, but they have it now and can knock a needle out of the sky.

And as Commander-in-Chief, I will restore the proud and historic names of our great military bases like Fort Bragg. We’re going to get them back. And WOKE has to stop because, along with everything else that’s destroying our country, we’re going to stop WOKE. WOKE. WOKE is bullshit.

As an example, in addition to the military bases, I understand they want to now rename 14 ships. We’re going to rename them. Some of these ships have had a great and glorious past. They want to take the name off and put another name down. I don’t know. I can imagine whose name they’re going to put up. It’s not going to happen with me. It’s not happening with me, I can promise you.

Vision for the Future

The actions I have described today are just a small preview of the common-sense revolution — because that’s what I call it, a common-sense revolution that’s coming soon to America, to a theater near you, right? But it’s coming to you through your President, Donald J. Trump. The people have given us their trust, and in return, we’re going to give them the best day one, the biggest first week, and the most extraordinary first 100 days of any President in American history.

And in conclusion, on January 20th, the United States will turn the page forever on four long, horrible years of failure, incompetence, national decline, and we will inaugurate a new era of peace, prosperity, and national greatness. It’s going to be — national greatness will be something very, very special. And you could use a little of that because you haven’t seen any of it in four years. What’s happened to our country is so sad.

We’re going to cut your taxes, end inflation, slash your prices, raise your wages, and bring thousands of factories roaring back to America, and right back here to Arizona, because — because when I agreed to do this — and I had to do it for Charlie, because he’s special. But I said, Charlie, I’ll do it, but this has to be also a real tribute to Arizona, because they gave us such a big win. And I said, I’ll get in my plane at 4:45 in the morning, and I’ll fly here. But we have to really acknowledge and take care of the people of Arizona, because you were fantastic. And I just want to thank you for that big win — not an easy win.

And we’re going to build American, we’re going to buy American, and we will hire American. I will end the war in Ukraine. I will stop the chaos in the Middle East. And I will prevent, I promise, World War III — and we’re very close to World War III.

Law Enforcement and Crime

We will crush violent crime. We’re going to stop violent crime. We’re going to have to be tough. Please get ready. You’re going to have to be tough. We can’t let this happen. Our cities are crumbling. We give our police the support, protection, resources, and respect they so dearly deserve.

And I rebuilt our entire military at a level that it had never been. Unfortunately, we gave a big chunk of it to Afghanistan. You believe that one? What a terrible thing. But we will, again, rebuild those sections of our military that have been so badly hurt. Because we give so much of it away.

You know, when I came in the last time, we had no ammunition. Can you believe it? This is — I was greeted with a general, “Sir, we’re very low, almost no ammunition.” They said, “Keep it quiet. Let’s not let the enemy know that.” That doesn’t sound too good. Steve Bannon would say, that’s not a good thing. No ammunition is not good. Right, Steve? And I built so much ammunition so fast. You guys have never seen anything like it. We give a lot of our ammunition away, as you know. And we have to take care of ourselves, we have to protect ourselves. And we have to make our country great. We just can’t keep doing what we’re doing, especially when these wars never had to start. They never had to start.

Urban Renewal and Education

We will rebuild our once-great cities, including our capital in Washington, D.C., making them safe, clean, and beautiful again. And we’ll do it quickly. We’ll teach our children to love our country, to honor our history, and to always respect our great American flag. We will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our schools. And we’re going to get it out of our schools very fast.

I will defend religious liberty, I will restore free speech, and I will defend the right to keep and bear arms. And after years of building up foreign nations, defending foreign borders, and protecting foreign lands, we are finally going to build up our country, defend our borders, and protect our citizens. We’re going to protect our citizens.

Immigration and National Identity

And we will stop illegal immigration once and for all. It’s going to stop. You’re not going to have an invasion of our country any longer. That will stop in just a few very short weeks. We will not be occupied. We will not be overrun. We will not be conquered. We will be a free and proud nation again, a nation led by competent people, a nation that we can be proud of. We’re going to be so proud of our nation. We already are. It’s already happened. Remember what I said, there’s new light all over the world, not just here, all over the world.

Everyone will prosper, every family will thrive, and every day will be filled with opportunity and hope, and will be filled with a thing called the American Dream. Get up the American Dream board. For the past nine years, you and I fought side by side against the most sinister and corrupt forces on Earth. And in our magnificent victory on November 5th, you showed them once and for all that this nation does not belong to them. This nation belongs to you. That’s what happened. It was hardworking patriots like you who built this country. And in 2024, it was hardworking patriots like you who turned out and voted and saved our country. That’s what happened.

Closing Remarks

After all we have been through together, we now stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. We’re going to make these the four greatest years in the history of our country. With your help, we will restore America’s promise. We will rebuild the nation that we love, and we will do it very, very fast. That’s what we want.

We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. We will never give in. We will never give up. We will never back down. And we will never, ever, ever, ever surrender. Together we will fight, fight, fight, and we will win, win, win. We’re going to win a lot.

And together 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 very much. And thank you, Arizona. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. Thank you.

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