Palm Beach County Convention Center
West Palm Beach, Florida
5:23 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. Thank you everybody. What a group. What a group. (Applause.) What a group. I also want to thank a true American legend, and a beloved national hero, Rush Limbaugh. Thank you, Rush. (Applause.)
You know, I don’t know if you know it or not: He’s got like 39 million people listening. He’s been — from day one, he’s been so incredible. Good times, bad times, he doesn’t waver because he’s tough as hell. He makes like — they tell me he makes like $50 million a year. And it may be — that may be on the low side. So if anybody wants to be a nice conservative talk show host, it’s not a bad living. I will say. (Applause.)
But I have to say, he’s a very unique guy and he’s a great man and he’s been a great friend. So thank you to Rush. Thank you. (Applause.)
And let me begin by wishing you a beautiful — look, do you remember this? Do you remember they were trying to take “Christmas” out of Christmas? Do you remember?
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: They didn’t want to let you say “Merry Christmas.” You would go around, you’d see department stores that have everything — red, snow, beautiful ribbons, bows. Everything was there, but they wouldn’t say “Merry Christmas.” They’re all saying “Merry Christmas” again. You remember? (Applause.)
I went through that, during the campaign: “They going to say Merry Christmas again.” And they are. That’s the least of it, too, because we got a lot of things that they’re doing that they weren’t doing. And we got to keep the country — we got to keep what we’re doing.
Please sit down. We got to keep — (applause) — we have plenty of time. It’s a Saturday night.
See, if I were Sleepy Joe, I’d say, “It’s a Saturday night in Ohio. We have plenty of time.” (Laughter.) And he wouldn’t say it that way. They’d say, “No, no, we’re in Florida. We’re in Florida.” He’s only done that about four times, where: “It’s a Saturday night. It’s great to be in Delaware.” “No, we’re Iowa.” “Oh. Oh.” (Applause.)
You know, if you’re speaking and you do that, it’s over. You can’t make — you could be Winston Churchill and the speech is no good. Once you do that, it’s over and he does it a lot. There’s something going on up there. (Laughter.)
And there’s something going on with the rest of them. I mean, they want to take away everything. They want to destroy what we’ve built.
But I’m thrilled to be here tonight with thousands of proud, patriotic young Americans at Turning Point USA Student Action Summit. (Applause.) Incredible, the job that Charlie’s done.
You’re the fearless young leaders and warriors who stare down the hatred of the radical left and bravely fight for our liberty, our values, and our God-given freedom. (Applause.)
Each of you is a fighter on the frontlines of defending our way of life. And I am profoundly grateful to all of you. The whole country is.
And by the way, your crowds are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. (Applause.) I see on television, where Charlie had a deal going on where they had 4- or 5,000 people standing outside. I get a little angry because that’s supposed to be only me. (Laughter.)
But they had thousands of people on one of the colleges where they couldn’t get in, and you have that. You have that. We’re sort of different. We don’t do it quite the other — you know, we do the nice way. But the truth is, you’re tougher. You’re smarter. You’re far more elite.
Don’t you love it when they say “the elite”? They’re referring to the others — “the elite.” No, no, you’re the elite. (Applause.) The elite.
But I want to congratulate my friend, Charlie Kirk — (applause) — for mobilizing students on more than 1,500 high school and college campuses all across the country. Amazing. (Applause.)
And I see my son Don is standing with Charlie. They like each other. (Applause.) And Kimberly, did Don speak? Did you speak, Don? Because I heard — did you speak?
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Tomorrow!
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, tomorrow? Oh, I — I’m going to come. (Applause.) Oh, I want to put pressure on him. You got to see how they handle it. I’ll sit there and I’ll say, “Come on, let’s go. Let’s go.” (Laughter.)
No, people love him. They love him. They love him. He’s a good — he’s a good young guy. He’s a little — I’m a little prejudiced. You know, he’s my son. But he’s a good guy, and he loves this country a lot. And he loves you. So thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you, Kimberly. Great job, Kimberly.
The radical left doesn’t stand a chance against young conservatives who put America first. We’re putting America first. You know, we weren’t — (applause) — America was not considered — these people, what they were doing to our country was just unbelievable. We’re putting America first.
And you know what? Other leaders should put their country first. Why not? What are you going to do, put it second? Put it ninth? (Laughter.)
They should — I tell them. Because it sounds very insulting when you say, “We put America first.” I say, “Do you know what? You should put your country first, too.” But if we put America first, and they put their country first, we win every single time. (Applause.)
And we’re joined by a man that I’ve gotten to know and respect. And he’s highly, highly — this is a very capable person who has really developed a voice that you rarely develop as such a young person, and so new to this whole crazy political game. But I’m new too, Dan Crenshaw. I’m new too. (Applause.) Where is Dan Crenshaw? Where is he? Where is Dan?
You are great. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Dan. What a voice he’s developed. What a voice. Thank you, Dan. He did it quickly. Some guys are in Congress there — they have 40 years, they don’t have your voice. Thank you. And I don’t mean the voice, speaking; I mean people listening to what you say. Thank you very much. Great job. (Applause.)
And, by the way, I have to say, while Dan is here: What kind of great support did we have from those incredible congressmen and women this week? (Applause.) They got up and they spoke and they were fantastic.
And I guess the vote was like 196, or something, to nothing. We had three Democrats coming to our side. So we have to say it was a bipartisan vote. (Laughter.) You call that bipartisan? Hey, no Republican went to their side. We had like 195, Dan, to nothing, right? Something like that — 195 to nothing. You don’t see that. You don’t see that. What a great group of people.
Come here, Dan. What do you have? (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you, Trump! (Applause.)
(Representative Crenshaw gives President Trump a piece of paper.)
THE PRESIDENT: I said, “This better be good, Dan.” (Laughter.) That took a long time. (Laughter.) I said, “Dan, what the hell is it?” He said, “It’s a no vote on impeachment day.” That was a no vote. (Applause.) I’ll save that, Dan. I’ll save that, Dan. (Applause.)
Well, we had a lot of no votes. And the Senate now is — how about that deal, where they had nothing? There’s no crime. There’s no nothing. How do you impeach? You had no crime. Even their people said there was no crime. In fact, there’s no impeachment. There’s no — their own lawyers said there’s no impeachment. What are we doing here? (Applause.) The world is watching.
Crazy Nancy. She’s crazy. (Laughter.) No, no, so now she says — you know, she has no case. She has no case. So let’s not submit it. That’s good, right? That’s good. But you know what? So unfair. It’s so unfair. She has no case. Did they look bad? They got up — the same thing, the Constitution. They are violating the Constitution totally. Totally. (Applause.) They’re violating the Constitution.
In the meantime, our polls have gone through the roof. (Applause.) And the Senate, like the House — we’ve done great work together. You know, today, with the judges. Last week, we did 13 judges — 13 extra. (Applause.) We’re going to talk about it in a second.
But we’re doing like no other party has done in the first, think of it, less than three years, and what we’ve done. Last night was so exciting, with the National Defense bill. The greatest military ever. Ever. (Applause.) New jets, new ships, new rockets, new missiles. (Applause.) All made in the USA, folks. Made in the USA. (Applause.)
But as we near the end of another extraordinary year, we celebrate America’s incredible comeback, and that’s what it is. Our country was down. We were depressed. We were depleted. Our military was so, so down and so out. I mean, I could tell you stories, and I won’t tell you because it’s embarrassing to tell you, but we’ve rebuilt it.
Two and a half trillion dollars. Somebody said, “Well, that’s bad for the budget.” Let me tell you about budgets: I’m a big budget person, but when it comes to the military, there is no budget. There is no budget. (Applause.) There’s no budget when it comes to the military.
Somebody says, “Well, we’re doing really badly in the war. We don’t have enough ammunition. But we’re losing the war. But you know, we had a good budget last year.” No, it’s — you have people that think that way. You know, it doesn’t work that way. We’re so powerful, militarily, now, especially at the end of another six months.
This stuff is all pouring in: brand-new jets, the most incredible stealth jets, the F-35 fighters, the F-18, the F-16s, the — (applause) — nobody has ever seen what we’re doing. Ships, submarines — I won’t even tell you about the submarine. The most powerful ships in the world. The most powerful boats. The most powerful weapon in the world is our submarines, and they’re under construction. And we just hope to God that we never have to use them. (Applause.) We hope that we never have to use them, and we do.
And the way we won’t have to use them is if the power is so great that nobody’s ever going to say, “Gee…” You know, we learned that a long time ago. We learned that in high school. We learned it in grade school, right? But we will have — and we have now overwhelming power, and just hope we don’t have to use it.
Our economy is booming. (Applause.) Wages are rising. Crime is falling. Poverty is plummeting. And our nation is stronger and more powerful right now than it has ever been before. (Applause.)
And we’ve achieved more in this month alone than almost any President has achieved in eight years in office, if you think about it — if you think what we’ve done. (Applause.) We reached an agreement to replace one of the worst trade deals in the history of the world: NAFTA. (Applause.)
Remember when all the companies were leaving our country, Charlie, and they were going to Mexico and a couple of other places, frankly? But they were leaving, leaving us with no jobs, no income, empty factories all over the country. You go to Ohio, you go to New England — you saw that. It was like a empty — everything was gone. NAFTA.
Remember a certain man said it was that “sucking” feeling? You know what that — do you remember who said that? It was that —
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Ross Perot!
THE PRESIDENT: Right. He’s a student. It was Ross Perot. He said it’s got that “sucking” feeling. All of our jobs, all of our companies were being sucked out of our country.
We’re replacing NAFTA and the NAFTA disaster with the brand-new USMCA, which is an incredible deal. (Applause.) Except to globalists. You know, you have some globalists that don’t like it. You know why? Because they think it’s okay when a company closes its doors and opens up in Mexico or another country. They think it’s okay, as long as there’s a company someplace.
I say, “No, no, I want the companies to build our products here.” (Applause.) Okay? We don’t need those deals. I mean, these are people that — they’re called globalists. Anybody a globalist here? I don’t know, you know.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: We tried that. Not too many globalists, I don’t think, in this room. I think, frankly, once they understand what’s happening, there aren’t too many globalists, period.
But the only one that would be opposed — and I think NAFTA passed by a number that was incredible. There were only, what? Forty-one votes against it? And people, for a trade deal, that’s almost impossible. We got labor support. We got support, and the farmers are going to do so well. And what it does — (applause).
And I asked for one thing, I said, “Look, I want to make it very prohibitively expensive for a company to leave our country, go to another country” — let me be nice — “go to another country…” You know, 32 percent of our car industry has gone to Mexico over the last 20 years. Can you imagine? 32 percent. And it was heading there. They going to have all of it. And that’s about the end, folks. That’s about the end. (Applause.)
So we’re saving the American auto industry, keep — creating — and, very importantly, creating countless number of American
jobs, and opening vast new opportunities for America’s farmers, growers, and manufacturers. (Applause.)
For years, politicians came and went, promising to replace NAFTA. Remember that? All the time. It’s probably why I’m here. Probably.
I was honored about 10 years ago — long before I thought of coming down that beautiful escalator with our great future First Lady. (Applause.) But NAFTA is probably — I used to go — I just used to say — I was honored in Michigan. I just left Michigan. (Applause.) We just had — they had me “Man of the Year” in Michigan. (Applause.)
And I made a speech and a lot of people were shaken up. They said, “Why are you allowing this to happen? Mexico is taking all of your car companies and so is Canada.” Canada sells us tremendous numbers of cars that they didn’t used to sell. “Why are you letting this happen?” And it was a rough speech. But the truth is, that was the way I felt, and I’ve never changed. I’ve never changed. And the new USMCA stops that. (Applause.)
But the politicians, they talked about it, but they never did anything about it. Absolutely nothing. And they just kept selling America out.
But where other administrations failed, we delivered. So I guess we had, Don, 385 — or something like that — to 41. Something like that.
Oh, there’s Laura Ingraham. How good is Laura? Come here, Laura. (Applause.) How good is Laura? You know, now the CNN — (applause) — the CNN cameras — all the cameras just turned off. That’s okay. (Laughter.) They don’t want to promote Laura. She’s got — what a job she does. And, by the way, look, it’s still always about the ratings. Her ratings are through the roof. Congratulations. Through the roof. (Applause.) She’s great. She’s great. Great person, too.
We also took the toughest-ever action against China. And as a result — (applause) — we just achieved a breakthrough on the trade deal and we’ll be signing it very shortly. They’re already buying billions and billions of dollars of products — agricultural products. (Applause.)
I spoke to President Xi yesterday. And you know, he’s also coming down — and clamping down, Laura, on fentanyl. I said you got to do that: fentanyl coming out of China. (Applause.) They’re clamping down, and they’re clamping down strongly. That’s a big thing. It came out of China and it hasn’t been — hasn’t been good. It’s been terrible, actually. And I said, “You got to do that.” And they have been doing it. They’ve been going very strongly against it. We’ve had a big — it’s had a big impact.
Yesterday I signed into law the largest-ever investment in our military — 700 — it’s $738 billion. And I also officially created the sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, the Space Force. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
THE PRESIDENT: And I’ll tell you — you know, I’d go, and a lot of times — a lot of times, I’ll say something, and you’re like a poll. You’re like a free poll for me, okay? (Laughter.) It’s true. I’d ask questions like, “What do you like better for this campaign? ‘MAGA’ — ‘Make America Great Again,’” which we always like. We’re never — (applause) — “or ‘Keep America Great.’” (Applause.) And it’s very surprising.
So normally, most candidates like, you know, the people that don’t know too much — they’ll go and do a — they’d hire a pollster. The pollster goes to about 92 people. (Laughter.) Then they wonder why the polls are wrong. “How come the polls were wrong?”
In my case, they do a poll and then they add 10 or 12 percent now to it. They’ve learned that. Took them a little while to figure that one out. But you know what? I do it. And I say — look, I have these room full of incredible people — I say, “What do you like better?”
Now, I’m a little superstitious. I’ll never give up “Make America Great Again.” I can’t do that, Dan, right? (Applause.) I can’t do it, Dan. So I’m never going to do that. So we’ll have it.
But I was thinking, we have the highest stock market in the history of our country, by far. (Applause.) One hundred and thirty-five times, since I’m President — which is less than three years. Substantially — well, you know, it’s January 20th. That’s a long way away, meaning not too long. But think of it: One hundred and thirty-five times, we broke a record. We had a stock market record. And that to me is not a stock market record. It’s a record for 401(k)s. It’s a record of people owning stock. It’s a record of jobs, jobs, jobs. (Applause.)
So we have this great country. Our military is rebuilt. We’ve never done better than we’re doing right now and our country is respected again. And I said, “Well, wait a minute. If I say ‘Make America Great Again,’ that’s like we’re continuing.” We just set the record in the history of our country.
Hey, excuse me, African American — Terrence — African American — they all know him. (Applause.) African American unemployment is at the lowest level it’s ever been. (Applause.) Hispanic American employ- — right? Right? (Applause.) Hispanic American unemployment: lowest level ever. Asian American: lowest level ever. (Applause.)
By the way, women. Women. Women. (Applause.) I failed you. I failed you — lowest level in 71 years. I’m sorry. I failed. (Applause.) But, remember this, you’re going to have — very soon, you’re going to have “historic.” Lowest in 71 years.
African American. Hispanic American. Asian American.
So, and poverty levels are the best numbers they’ve ever been for African American, for Hispanic American. (Applause.) For young African Americans, our numbers on employment are the best they’ve ever been. So, I mean, we’ve done great.
So I’m saying, “Make America Great Again.” Well, we’ve already made it. We’ve had such an impact. So, in a way, it’s sort of competed with the real message — right? — of what we’re trying to do. So I said, “You know, how about the” — and I didn’t pay millions of dollars for this.
Remember, Hillary? She came up with a phrase; it was a disaster. They paid millions, then she had to change it one day into the campaign because I attacked it. I said — remember, I said, “See it’s all about her.” They changed it. They paid a guy millions of dollars. He walked away — retired. (Laughter.) I like to make it up myself.
But “Keep America Great,” right? “Keep America Great.” (Applause.) So, let’s have a poll. Ready? We’ll go first “MAGA.” And “Keep America Great” — I didn’t like it. It was “KAG.” But KAG is now becoming cool, right? KAG. KAG. (Applause.) It’s okay.
So let’s have a quick poll. You ready? But I see a lot of these “Keep America Great” hats. Stand up, sir. Look at that beautiful hat. (Applause.) Got the higher front. Gives you an extra couple of inches. That’s not too bad, right? (Laughter.) Got that high front. Got big letters.
But “Keep America Great.” “Make America…” Okay, ready? Who wants to keep “Make America Great Again”? (Applause.) See? Who wants to have “Keep America Great”? (Applause.) I’m telling you. I’m telling you.
No, it’s an amazing thing. One more shot at it. Who wants “Make America Great Again”? (Applause.) Who wants “Keep America Great”? (Applause.)
Okay, so I’ve done that like 10 times with audiences — and smart audiences. This is my poll. Thank you. You just saved me a million dollars. (Laughter.)
But I’ve done that like 10 times with big audiences, right? And every single time, it’s “Keep America Great.” Now, at the same time, none of us want to lose “MAGA.” So Kimberly, Don, Charlie, all of you people, let’s do both, okay? Let’s do both. (Applause.) Because if you’re superstitious — because, look, let’s face it, when we came in, and when we started that campaign, like four years — even more than four years ago — “Make America Great”, that was probably the greatest phrase in the history of politics. Really, right? (Applause.)
So I’m a loyalist. I don’t take things and just throw it to the side. But the truth is, our country is doing better than ever before. We’re so respected again. Leaders come in from other countries — prime ministers, presidents, kings, queens, dictators, in some cases — they just don’t know they’re dictators — (laughter) — or our people don’t either — but they come in and they say, “Congratulations. What you’ve done is amazing.” They’re talking about all of us. And you know what? It is.
But we’ll keep both. We’re going to probably be focusing a little bit more on “Keep America Great,” but we’re going to keep both.
This week, we confirmed 13 more highly qualified, brilliant federal judges to interpret the law as written — (applause) — bringing the total to 187 federal judges right now. One hundred and eighty-seven, right? (Applause.) Including two great Supreme Court justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. (Applause.)
You know, I was going around — yesterday, I heard about this, we just got 13 more. I think it might even be 15 yesterday. But they always say judges are the most important thing a President can do. And I disagree, I think defense — okay, you got to have a country, right? (Laughter.) So I always think defense and all of that. But judges are right up there — probably, maybe number two. And maybe — I mean, people say it’s the single-most important thing you do: judges, and especially, obviously, Supreme Court justices.
So we have a number that can never be surpassed. We could have more than 50 percent of the judges in the United States. And one of the things that helped us so much is that President Obama left us 142 federal judges. Think of that. Who would think that’s possible? One hundred and forty-two federal judges. So we want to thank you very much, President Obama. Thank you. (Applause.)
I mean, normally, when you leave office, you leave none. You leave none. That position is so power- — it’s so important for the future of the country. I said to a gentleman — I came in, I said — by the way, first day — “How many judges do I have to appoint?” “Sir, you have 142.” I said, “You have to be kidding.” (Laughter.) Right? You understand that, Dan. Can you believe he gave us 142? And I think now — I thought it was going to be — we’d be up to 182 by the end of the year. I was expecting to be at 182. Yesterday, we hit 187. Can you believe that? (Applause.) Pretty amazing.
And when the left-wing arsonists came for Judge Kavanaugh, we refused to back down and he refused to back down. (Applause.) And that’s what they are.
This week, I also signed legislation delivering record funding for our nation’s amazing historically black colleges and universities. (Applause.) We secured full funding for our bold campaign to end the AIDS epidemic in America. (Applause.) Who would have thought that could have been done? And to top it off, this week, the Dow Jones broke all of those records. (Applause.)
The fact is, America is winning again. America is respected again. We’re respected like never before, I can tell you that. (Applause.)
And, you know, I went to NATO and they weren’t carrying their way. They weren’t putting up the money. The press didn’t want to talk about it. But there — oh, that’s a lot of press back there. The fake news, yeah.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: It’s a lot of press. It’s always a lot of press. You know, with these guys, you can speak for weeks; if you make one little statement, they go after you. Because you know why? They’re fake news. You’re right. (Applause.)
But we are together, all of us — and you are such an important part of it. And a number of you will probably be here someday standing in this same position. (Applause.) I mean, it’s where a great group of people are going to come, but we’re saving the Republic.
But there’s still much to be done. You know, we have to win this election. (Applause.) That was the most important election and I’ll always — look, it’ll always be — how exciting was that night, right? Right? (Applause.) How exciting was that?
Remember that great evening in November of 2016? That night — and everybody was saying, “We don’t think he’s going make it.” They were so happy. “We don’t think he’s going to make it. It’s going to be a short evening for Donald Trump.” They didn’t call me “President Trump.” “Going to be a short evening.”
Because remember? The exit polls weren’t good. Do you know why they weren’t good? Did you know? Because people would walk out — they’d walk out of the voting booth, “Who are you voting for?” “It’s none of your business.” (Applause.) And they had like 35 percent of the people said that. So they didn’t count that. They didn’t know that 100 percent of the people who said that voted for us, right? So they didn’t count it. (Applause.)
But we’re in a battle of survival of this nation. We really are. When you look at these people talk, with their Green New Deal. But I don’t want to knock it now, if you don’t mind. I don’t want to knock it. I knocked — I knocked the hell out of Pocahontas. I got her down. (Applause.) I don’t want to — too early. It’s too early. They can change. I don’t want say “the Green New Deal.” I think it’s a wonderful thing. I do want to think about it. I want to study it closely. (Laughter.) I want to see whether or not we should ever use airplanes again. (Laughter.)
How about the senator from Hawaii? Nasty. Nasty. Horrible. Gee, what she says — what she says is so mean and angry. She’s not the smartest person on the planet. (Laughter.) She wants the Green New Deal, and then they informed her that that does not include airplanes. And you’re the senator from Hawaii. So they said, “What are you going to do?” And then they talked about building a train to Hawaii, can you believe it? (Laughter.)
No, no, she wants it, even though you can’t — you’ll never get to Hawaii again. Say goodbye to Hawaii. No, it’s crazy, isn’t it, though?
But I don’t want to knock it. All of these things have to be st- — it’s too soon. It’s too soon. Let it go. Let — let it seed. Like — just like our great agenda has to seed like a tree. It has to seed. Let the Green New Deal seed. (Laughter.) And then about two months before the campaign ends, I will rip that sucker like you have — (applause). We’ll let it seed, the Green New Deal. (Applause.)
We’ll have an economy based on wind. I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. I’ve studied it better than anybody I know. It’s very expensive. They’re made in China and Germany mostly — very few made here, almost none. But they’re manufactured tremendous — if you’re into this — tremendous fumes. Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint — fumes are spewing into the air. Right? Spewing. Whether it’s in China, Germany, it’s going into the air. It’s our air, their air, everything — right?
So they make these things and then they put them up. And if you own a house within vision of some of these monsters, your house is worth 50 percent of the price. They’re noisy. They kill the birds. You want to see a bird graveyard? You just go. Take a look. A bird graveyard. Go under a windmill someday. You’ll see more birds than you’ve ever seen ever in your life. (Laughter.)
You know, in California, they were killing the bald eagle. If you shoot a bald eagle, they want to put you in jail for 10 years. A windmill will kill many bald eagles. It’s true.
And you know what? After a certain number, they make you turn the windmill off. That’s true, by the way. This is — they make you turn it off after you — and yet, if you killed one they put you in jail. That’s okay. But why is it okay for these windmills to destroy the bird population? And that’s what they’re doing.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Because they’re idiots!
THE PRESIDENT: (Laughs.) This is a conservative group, Dan. (Applause.) No, but it’s true. Am I right? (Applause.)
I’ll tell you another thing about windmills. And I’m not — look, I like all forms of energy. And I think (inaudible) — really, they’re okay in industrial areas. Like you have an industrial plant, you put up a windmill — you know, et cetera, et cetera.
I’ve seen the most beautiful fields, farms, fields — most gorgeous things you’ve ever seen, and then you have these ugly things going up. And sometimes they’re made by different companies. You know, I’m like a perfectionist; I really built good stuff. And so you’ll see like a few windmills made by one company: General Electric. And then you’ll see a few made by Siemens, and you’ll see a few made by some other guy that doesn’t have 10 cents, so it looks like a — so you see all these windows, they’re all different shades of color. They’re like sort of white, but one is like an orange-white. (Laughter.) It’s my favorite color: orange. (Applause.)
No, but — and you see these magnificent fields, and they’re owned — and you know what they don’t tell you about windmills? After 10 years, they look like hell. You know, they start to get tired, old. You got to replace them. A lot of times, people don’t replace them. They need massive subsidy from the government in order to make it. It’s really a terrible thing.
And what they want to do is they want to get rid of all petroleum product. That means you basically won’t have any factories in the United States.
So tell me though, how are you going to win Texas when you say, “We’re going to get rid of all petroleum,” right? (Applause.) If you win — how about this guy, Beto? Beto. He was a beauty.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: Beto came out — he’s from Texas. He came out against religion, he came out against guns, and he came out against energy — oil, right? So he’s against oil, guns, and the Bible. Abraham Lincoln can’t win with that platform in Texas. I can tell you, right? (Laughter and applause.)
No, we’re doing it right. We’re doing it right. And you know, our numbers, environmentally, right now are better than they’ve ever been before, just so you know, because I’m an environmentalist. I am. (Applause.) I want the cleanest water on the planet. I want the cleanest air anywhere — crystal-clean water. I want perfectly clean air. And we have the best numbers right now that we’ve ever had, meaning in the last 40 years. (Applause.) I assume the numbers a couple of hundred years ago were better because we didn’t have anything. So, over the last 40 years — we’re in very good shape.
The coming months will decide whether our country will be governed by a corrupt, failed, and far-left ruling class or whether we will govern our country. Will it be governed of and by the American people? That’s what we’re talking about. (Applause.)
On every front, the extreme leftists — and they are leftists —
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, if you want to drive them crazy go, “16 more years.” (Applause.) “Sixteen more years.”
You know, you heard me say though — there’s this whackjob on television, and he’s sitting down interviewing a guest, and he’s a crazed lunatic. These people — we have driven them crazy. I — you know, at first, I didn’t really like the term “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” I didn’t. But it is — it’s true. People actually go see psychiatrists. And all we’re trying to do is make our country better. I just — is there anything wrong with that? (Applause.) You know, it’s crazy. Think of it.
We want great education. We want low taxes. We want a strong military. We want homes. We want low mortgage rates. What are we doing that bad? What are we doing? And yet they have Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s crazy. It’s so crazy, but it’s going to all work out.
But, you know, this guy is sitting down — he’s interviewing a guest and he’s saying, “You know, he’s going to win, don’t you? He’s going to win.” Just a couple of months ago: “He’s going to win.” The guest says, “No, we’re going to fight very hard. We have a good chance. No, no, we’re going to fight very…” “No, no, he’s going to win, and in four years he’s not leaving.” (Laughter.) “He’s never leaving. I’m telling you, he’s never…” And I thought he was kidding. You know, he’s a comedian, I guess. I don’t know, he’s nothing. (Laughter.) But the guy is a zero. But he’s going — he’s going, “No, no he’s never leaving.”
And I started thinking, and the guy really believes that, okay? So from now on, start yelling, “16 more years.” You’re going to drive them crazy. (Applause.) You’ll drive them crazy.
On every front, the extreme leftists who control so much of the media, which is — I can’t say “totally corrupt,” but I’ll say “almost totally corrupt.” And you see it now more than you’ve ever seen it. And you know, I see it better than you because I’m involved. In other words, we call up and we say, “That story is wrong. Would you please make a correction?” And they say, “No.” We say, “But the story is wrong.” They say, “We don’t care.” They don’t care. These people are really corrupt and dishonest, okay? And it’s a shame.
And we have some great journalists. We have some great people. But the level of the media corruptness — and you know, it would be so great for our country if they, in fact, were straight and honest, but they’re really not. And nobody can — I can’t tell you how bad it is. (Applause.)
The Washington swamp — and nobody knew how bad that was either. We used the word “swamp.” It thought it was okay. We’d wipe it out. These people are crazy. (Laughter.) They’re vicious. They’re totally out of control, but we’re knocking them down pretty good right now. (Applause.)
They’re waging war on the values and principles that have always defined America. They’re trying to silence, censor, and punish anyone who dissents from their oppressive ideology. You know that. They want to hound conservatives. You see what they do. You see what they do — the reporter who was beat up, but so many others.
But they only go after people that aren’t fighters. They only go after the non-fighters. I could tell you some stories. They don’t go after — they don’t go after the tough ones. We have the toughest people, but our toughest people don’t need to do that and hopefully they never will. Hopefully, they never will. But we have incredible people. But they always go after people that are non-fighters, people that are not going to do anything bad, other than they’ll write or they’ll put down their feelings. And they just decimate them. And they have to be careful, because you can’t do that. You can’t do that.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Where’s Hunter?
THE PRESIDENT: They want to — where is Hunter, by the way? Where is Hunter? (Applause.) Where is he? Where is Hunter? Here’s a guy who made no money, then all of a sudden he’s making a fortune. And I watch as Biden is being interviewed: “While this claim is totally unsubstantiated…” No, it’s not. And when Biden got up and made the quid pro quo, the likes of which I’ve never seen before — right? They’re not going to get the billion dollars — a billion dollars — unless they get rid of the prosecutor. You see it? Everybody saw that, Dan.
And if you say it, they say, “Oh, it’s terrible what he said.” You see the debate where they practically apologized? “I’m sorry, sir, for having to ask you, because while it’s totally unsubstantiated…” — and then they talk about his son. Here’s a guy who made no money, had no energy experience, no nothing, and he’s making millions.
But, you know, forget about Ukraine; how about when he went to China? Okay. And he walks away with $1.5 billion to manage.
And I went to the biggest guys on Wall Street — the smartest, the biggest — guys you all know of. I said, “Let me ask you a question: Is that possible?” “No, we can’t do it.” And these are the smartest guys — most respected. They have, you know, many trillions — billions of dollars of funds that they manage. “No, it’s not possible. Not with China. They don’t do that.” He gets $1.5 billion.
And then if you say — oh, by the way, that’s not all. Other countries are now coming out. And it only took place when this guy became the Vice President. Oh, I hope he wins because he will never ever be able to answer these questions. Okay? Ever. The fake news can do whatever they want to do. He will never ever be able to answer why a guy who was making absolutely no money is making millions and millions of dollars a year on companies that — there are those that they say they were corrupt.
But they want to blame all of us. And I’ll tell you what, what we’ve done is we’ve kept our country solid and grounded. That’s what we’re doing. (Applause.) We’re doing a very important service. We’re performing a very, very important service for the future of our country. I can tell you, Charlie Kirk and the whole group, very important. (Applause.)
Because the radical left socialists, or in many cases — I hate to say this — beyond socialists. You know what the next word is, right? Beyond —
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Communists!
THE PRESIDENT: (Laughs.) You guys — I won’t say it. If I say it, even if I —
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Communists!
THE PRESIDENT: I’ll retweet it. (Laughter and applause.) He goes — I won’t say it, there’s too many cameras.
You know, I said to Charlie, last time I spoke, I said, “Let’s not have any press, so we can have…” — but you know what? There’s always press. There’s always press. There’s even people here with a cell phone. You think you’re doing us favors, and you’re not doing us any favors. But there’s always press.
But, no, I won’t say that comment. I can imagine, what most of you are thinking. But anyway — he’s going, “Come on, please.” (Laughter.)
But they want to ban believers — you know, that — from the public square. They want to indoctrinate children with a far-left ideology in our schools. You see what’s going on in the schools: Kids come home and they tell their parents, “What the hell is happening here?” No, no, it really is true. It’s a problem, and it’s a problem that has to be taken care of.
The Democrat Party is trying to shred our Constitution, tear down our history, erase the nation’s borders. They don’t want to have any borders. By the way, didn’t you love the fact that I got funding for wall? We’re building it anyway. I — you know, didn’t matter. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall!
THE PRESIDENT: We’re building it anyway. You know, the only thing more popular — then there’s Space Force. You know, I do — go back to polling, right? So I would say “Space Force,” and everybody went crazy all the time. The first time I mentioned it, like a year and a half ago, I said, “Someday we’re going to have a Space Force.” The place goes crazy, probably Star Wars people or something. Who the hell knows? (Applause.)
No, but the place went crazy. I said “Hey there’s something to that.” And I’m not doing this for political reasons; we need that. That’s the next frontier. But the only thing more popular always is the wall, and it’s being built. (Applause.) But now we have funding.
And you know, it’s funny. I got that one through, as part of the defense bill, because you know what? The Democrats don’t like the issue anymore, because they know we’re right. When you see what’s happening over there, they know we’re right. They sort of let that one sail through. They got tired of that wall fight. That wall fight was not good for them, politically, I can tell you, right? So we’ve built almost 100 miles already. It’s going up rapidly, and it’s the real deal. (Applause.)
So do you remember when they always used to call themselves the “Democratic Party”? It sounded better, right? The Democratic — everybody — you, me, everybody. You know, the Democratic Party — no, no it’s not. It’s the “Democrat Party.” Doesn’t sound as good; that’s why I use it. It’s not as good for speech. I hate it, you know, in a way, because I’m saying the “Democrat Party.” The “Democratic Party” sounds better, but we’re not here to make them look great, right? (Applause.)
And you know, Schumer — Cryin’ Chuck? This guy — no, this guy gets angry at people when they say the “Democrat Party,” because it doesn’t — you know, it doesn’t go. They should probably change the name; I’ll give them a little free idea. But they call it, the “Democratic Party,” but it’s actually the “Democrat Party.” So let’s call them the “Democrat Party.” That’s what I do. I don’t like it, because in a speech it’s not as beautiful. They’ll say, “We didn’t like Trump’s speech.”
You know, it’s a funny thing: They never talk about my speaking ability, and yet I’ve never had an empty seat. I’m trying to figure it out. It’s true. (Applause.) No, it’s true. I don’t know how you figure that out. We’ve never had — from the time we came down.
But — but, think of it: So we call it the “Democrat Party.” It doesn’t flow the same way, but that’s okay.
But their radical judges invent laws that Congress never passed. What we’ve gone through with immigration is terrible. These judges come up, and they want to set immigration from a certain area — let’s say — well, okay — how about the Ninth Circuit? Do you know that, as of —
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: — next week — do you know that we’re going to be even on the Ninth Circuit? This was a disaster. (Applause.) We put a lot of judges on the Ninth Circuit. A lot of those judges that we mentioned are on the Ninth Circuit. But they have these radical judges and radical prosecutors. They ignore the laws that they don’t like. And their unbelievably, crazy partisans seek to nullify elections they didn’t win. Remember that we won an election? And I’ll tell you what, it’s never been so much in the fore- — not only did we win the election, we had an Electoral College landslide. Okay? It was a landslide. (Applause.)
And when all else fails, they pursue an illegal, unconstitutional, and hyper-partisan impeachment. They go with the impeachment thing.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: Some of these extremists may call themselves Democrats, but they really don’t believe in democracy. They can’t. They can’t believe in democracy.
Generations of patriots before us didn’t work — look, we had people — they want to work. We have people now that maybe it just doesn’t work for them. But generations of patriots before us did not work, fight, and sacrifice so that we could surrender our country to a raging left-wing mob. And that’s what’s happening. (Applause.)
While they want to punish America, we will fight to preserve America. And that’s what we’re doing. And you’re doing it incredibly well. Together we’ll stand up to socialists. We will defend our nation — the greatest and most glorious republic in the history of this world. (Applause.)
And you know what? The best is yet to come. You know that, right? (Applause.)
Each of you is coming of age at a critical moment in our country’s history. And your spirit is so unbelievable. Your spirit through thick and thin has been unbelievable. The level of excitement in the Republican Party today is greater, in my opinion, than it’s ever been in the history of the Republican Party. I really believe that. (Applause.) Never been this way.
In fact, they have polls — “enthusiasm polls,” they call them — that have us at a level that we’ve never been at before. The Democrats always had the edge on that. We are higher than them. We have more enthusiasm. They are cutting themselves up. They don’t know if they’re down the middle, if they’re far left. They’re fighting with each other. And that’s okay with us. But you know what? After we win the election, let’s see if we can put everybody together, because it would really be a great thing. Let’s see if we can put everybody together. (Applause.)
But we have to win the election. And I think we have to win the election big. And you know what — what does bring together? Two things: Bad things — really bad things happen, and people come together — and really good things. And let’s do it the good way.
We’re doing so well as a country. People are doing so well that I think it’s going to bring people together. It’s starting to bring people together, believe it or not. (Applause.)
We’re facing an opposition willing to use totalitarian methods to get their way, and you see it. Think of what the Democrats and their deep state allies have been caught doing. They spied on my campaign. So you know, we have a reason to be angry, folks. It’s not — we have a reason to be angry. They spied on my campaign.
And I said it two years ago. I said it two and a half, three years ago. But now, it’s come out: They spied on my campaign. If this were reversed, you would have had people in jail for years already. Years. (Applause.) They defrauded the FISA court. The FISA court is highly respected. They totally defrauded. The FISA court. They concealed exculpatory evidence. They knew, a few days into the Russian witch hunt, that it was nothing. It didn’t exist.
Did you see the other day? Crooked Hillary came out. Did you see the other day? She said that Jill Stein — Jill Stein, from the Greeny Party — she said Jill Stein was a Russian agent. Now, I don’t know, Jill Stein. I’m sure she’s a fine woman. But I know she’s not a Russian agent.
Then she said Tulsi Gabbard is a weapon of Russia. And they lost also credibility, because we know that Tulsi Gabbard — and I give her respect. She didn’t vote the other day. I give her a lot of respect — (applause) — because she knew it was wrong. She took a pass. But I don’t know her. But I know one thing: She is not an agent of Russia.
Now what they said about me three years ago — took me two and half years ago — two and a half years of phony, horrible hits, where they hurt a lot of people. They hurt a lot of innocent people. Two and a half years. But then, when they said Jill Stein — they mean it, too.
They even said it about Louie Gohmert. You know Louie Gohmert of Texas — the congressman of Texas? (Applause.) The difference is he’s such a tough guy, he started screaming at them. He made a statement. It was like a perfect statement. He made a statement, and they start screaming, “He’s an agent of Russia.” These people have gone crazy, okay? They’ve gone crazy.
They perpetrated the Russia hoax — the biggest lie ever told to the American public — and they encouraged an unelected group of bureaucrats to thwart the will of the American voters. Our opponents have spent every waking minute of the last three years trying to overthrow the election of 2016, and, at a minimum, to sabotage the election of 2020. That’s not going to happen. We’re not going let it happen. (Applause.)
And if it did happen and if they were successful, they will destroy this country. Remember that: They will destroy this country. And that’s why it’s more important than ever to drain the swamp, and we’re doing that. (Applause.)
Despite everything the failed ruling class has thrown at us — and don’t forget, when I came here, I didn’t have great experience. I mean, I learned quickly. I’ve been a very good spokesman. Have I done well as a spokesman? (Applause.) But — but, we went through eight years of Clinton, eight years of Bush, eight years of Obama.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: So we have Bush and Clinton and Obama. So I — that’s 24 years. That’s a lot of people they put in. They put in. They put in. It’s thousands and thousands of people, and they fight you. And we have Republicans, frankly, that are worse. These Never Trumpers. You have Never-Trumper Republicans.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: In some cases, they’re worse than the Obama and the Clinton people. They’re Never Trumpers. These are the dumbest human beings on Earth, okay? (Applause.) They’re the dumbest human beings.
We give them the judges. We give them the great military. We give them low taxes. We had the greatest tax cut in the history of our country. We give them all of these things, right? And they just hate me.
If it was Jim Smith, President of the United States, they’ll say he’s the greatest President that ever lived. But with me, they can’t get over it. But there, fortunately, aren’t too many of them left. But they are sick people. There’s no question about it.
But despite crooked leadership at the top of the FBI — they were crooked. There were dirty cops at the top. FBI: great people. But at the top of the FBI, you had dirty cops. Deep state sabotage. Eighteen angry Democrat prosecutors. These were all put in there to destroy us. Think of what we did. You heard Rush. Think of what we did. Think of what we’ve — where we’ve come, how vicious it was. They had 13 angry Democrats that were smart, vicious, evil — and it built up to 18. They had 49 FBI agents, thousands of subpoenas, hundreds of people, and they found nothing. There’s nobody in this room that could have gone through that and found nothing. I really mean that, too. It’s incredible. They found nothing. How clean am I? No, think of that. (Applause.)
But endless congressional investigations — but think of it. Hundreds of people, interviewing everybody that I — and they found nothing. The Mueller report came out; it was a total dud. After two and a half years, they have a baseless impeachment, millions of pages of fake-news propaganda — because the news was totally on their side. It’s a Democrat — it’s part of the Democrat Party. It’s a wing; the media is a wing of the Democrat Party.
And all of the Washington powers — they were all arrayed against us. They’re losing. We’re winning. And we’re succeeding in our mission to make America great again. (Applause.)
And just in closing: Look, there has never been a better time to be young and to be American. (Applause.) Your future and the future of our nation is unlimited.
We’ve created more than 7 million jobs since the election, including 266,000 new jobs last month alone. (Applause.) For everyone graduating into the workforce this year, there are now more job openings than jobseekers for the first time in the history of our country. (Applause.)
Young people like you have seen their wages rise by more than 10 percent since the election, a number that has not been surpassed. Median household incomes are the highest in the history of our country. Real household take-home pay gains will reach up to $10,000 a year. Never happened. Under President Obama, it was $975 for eight years. Right? Median income. Under President Obama: $975. Under President Bush, it was $450. Under President — and that’s eight years, eight years — $450, $975. Right? Three years — but really, less — two and a half years, when the numbers came out. Under President Trump, per family, more than $10,000. That’s why the economy is so good. (Applause.)
Unemployment among young Americans has reached a 63-year low. (Applause.) And I just want to tell you — look, I am so proud of what we’ve done with the employment numbers. I am so proud of what we’ve done with African American and Hispanic American numbers. (Applause.) When you look at the unemployment rate for youth, and you look at the fact — for youth, so important — remember, three, four years ago they couldn’t — there was no work. Now it’s the lowest they’ve ever had.
So while our opponents have abandoned African Americans — and they have; they’ve abandoned. You know what they do, Terrence? They come up and, before the election, they start courting the African American. The election is over and then they leave them. We did just the opposite. What we’ve done for Hispanic, for African American, for minorities — what we’ve done is unprecedented. It’s unprecedented.
And you remember my phrase — you remember the phrase, right? “What do you have to lose?” Remember that? I was reading stats, and the stats were terrible: highest crime rate, highest this, worst income, worst this, worst edu- — I’m reading these stats. There were 10 of them, and I looked at the audience; it was largely African American. I say, “Vote for me. What the hell do you have to lose?” Remember? Right? (Applause.)
And some of my people didn’t like it, but I said, “I have to say it, because it’s true.” And they did vote for me and we won the race. And now we’re setting records. And I’m so proud of those records that we’re setting with African American at every category, and with Hispanic American and Asian American. (Applause.)
Every day, we’re welcoming more and more people to our movement from every background — traditional Democrats, independent, union members. You see the way we’re growing. And we’re growing untraditionally. We’re taking in workers now. We’re taking in people that had great jobs and didn’t have them any longer because the fools that ran our country we’re letting these companies leave. And they were leaving, and everybody was out of work. But we’re not doing that anymore. So we’ve changed the system. And the Republican Party is growing like nobody’s ever seen before. And you’re going to see that.
And remember: We did well in the ‘18 election. I wasn’t able to go out — other than Andy Barr and a couple of people, I wasn’t able to go out and work for the House members because I had to win the Senate. And we picked up two seats and nobody talks — we picked up two Senate seats; we got up to 53. And nobody ever talks about that. And it’s the Senate that has to confirm the judges.
But the other thing is, a lot of the voters said, “But he’s not on the ballot. Trump isn’t on the ballot. We’re not going to vote.” I wish they would, but they didn’t. That’s what they say. They said, “He’s not on the ballot.” But I’m on the ballot this time, and I think we’re going to have numbers that are going to be record-setting numbers. We’re going to have record-setting numbers. (Applause.)
We passed massive tax cuts to bring back jobs and factories home from other countries. We’ve cut a record number of job-killing regulation. We ended the war on American energy. And the United States is now the number-one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world, by far. (Applause.)
While the socialist left is trying to take away the doctors and healthcare plans Americans know and love — you know they’re trying to take away your plan. Medicare for All: Do you know how bad that is?
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: I’m fighting to let you keep your doctor, keep your plan at lower cost. You look at what’s happening, how we’re doing it — we want all Americans to have great healthcare at a price that they can afford. And for the first time in half a century, we’ve lowered the price of prescription drugs. First time — 50 years. (Applause.)
Through our Pledge to American Workers, private sector partners have pledged to provide training and career opportunity for 14 million Americans — where private companies teach these people that did not have work. They couldn’t get a job. They’re being taught what to do, how to do it, how to use computers. Government can’t do that. Fourteen million people are in those programs and they’re working today. (Applause.)
After years of rebuilding foreign countries, we are finally rebuilding our country. That’s what it’s all about. (Applause.)
And thanks to our tireless efforts to secure our southern border, illegal crossings are down 75 percent since May. And we have ended catch and release. (Applause.) We have cracked down on illegal welfare abuse. (Applause.) We have massively reduced asylum fraud. (Applause.) We have achieved record prosecutions of chronic immigration violators. And the southern border wall is going up at a much faster rate than anybody thought possible. (Applause.)
One of the gravest dangers we face is the menace of a thing called “sanctuary cities.”
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: The far left’s embrace of sanctuary cities demonstrates their scorn and disdain for everyday Americans. Sanctuary cities deliberately release dangerous criminal aliens out of their jails and right onto our city streets.
I want to commend Florida and its terrific new governor, Ron DeSantis, for banning sanctuary cities. (Applause.)
And our very tough and very patriotic ICE agents are now removing countless dangerous gang members, drug smugglers. Look, you take a look at what’s going on with the drug smugglers. And we are sending MS-13 out of our country by the thousands. (Applause.) We’re getting rid of criminal aliens from Florida communities. We’re sending them back home, and we will not let them back in. They’re not coming back in. We’re taking them far away. (Applause.)
We believe our country should be a sanctuary for law-abiding Americans, not for criminal aliens. (Applause.) The open-borders agenda of the radical left causes profound harm to poor, working-class Americans. Their extreme policies overcrowd schools and hospitals. They drain vital public resources, deplete healthcare dollars, and place enormous burdens on taxpayers of every background. It also brings them to our country. If they didn’t get it, we wouldn’t have millions of people trying to get in.
By one estimate, illegal immigration costs Americans more than $200 billion every single year. When it comes to setting immigration policy, we always remember this sacred truth: Our first duty and our one true allegiance is to you, the American citizen. (Applause.)
Throughout the Western Hemisphere, we are facing down the evil forces of communism and socialism. I’ve taken historic actions to confront the brutal regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. (Applause.) And we stand with the people of those nations and their righteous struggle for freedom. (Applause.)
To those who would try to impose the horrors of socialism on our country, I say to you again tonight: America will never be a socialist country. (Applause.) Right? Never.
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
THE PRESIDENT: We will always defend our beloved Constitution. In the face of belligerent left trying to crush organized religion, we are standing strong for religious liberty. (Applause.)
We are protecting the conscious — you know this — and the rights of doctors, teachers, nurses, and groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor. And we are fighting for the lives of the unborn. (Applause.)
We are also firmly protecting the Second Amendment and your right to keep and bear arms, and it is under siege. (Applause.) It is under siege, but we are protecting. Don’t worry.
In addition, we’re safeguarding your First Amendment right to free speech, including online and on campus. And Charlie Kirk knows that very well. (Applause.) I’ve issued a historic executive order, stating that any college that refuses to let you — meaning you, but anybody — speak, stands to lose billions and billions of taxpayer dollar. (Applause.)
We give them all of this money, and then they don’t let you speak. Well, we just ended that. (Applause.)
I also took — we call it “bold action,” but let’s just call it “action” — this month to confront anti-Semitism on the college campus. (Applause.) Our message to these universalities is simple: If you want to accept federal funding, you must reject anti-Semitic hate and hate of all kinds. (Applause.)
Few Americans know more about oppressive tactics of the radical left than conservatives on college campuses with what you’ve been through, especially the intrepid young men and women of Turning Point USA. (Applause.)
With us today is Laura Schoeck, a student at North Carolina State University, who was violently attacked by Antifa thugs while promoting a Turning Point event on campus. Where is she? Is she around here someplace? Where are you?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: She’s back here!
THE PRESIDENT: Where — is that you? Oh, hi. (Laughter.) Good. You okay? You good? She’s good. She’s tough. (Applause.)
Despite these vicious tactics, Laura’s event was so popular that they had to turn away almost 1,000 people. (Applause.) So, Laura — come up here, Laura. Please tell us what happened. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Laura! Laura! Laura!
MS. SCHOECK: Thank you, President Trump. What an honor it is to be up here. As you know, I go to NC State, where our friend, Lara Trump, went. (Applause.) Members of Antifa and other socialist groups violently attacked Jack Bishop — Dan Bishop — Congressman Bishop’s son, as well as pulled people’s hair — even my hair — and mocked people for their medical conditions. But at the end of the day, we have a responsibility. Us Turning Point USA members have a duty to stand up for what is right and continue to fight for freedom. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Laura. Great job.
So earlier this year, at Binghamton University, a few conservative students were promoting an event featuring the renowned economist at Art Laf- — does an- — where — is Art Laffer here? Art Laffer. Where is Art? You know, we gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Everybody loves Art Laffer. (Applause.)
They were surrounded by hundreds of radicals, screaming at them in vile terms. On the day the event — and this was incredible — occurred, a mob flooded the place wearing masks and red armbands, and acting tough. Take the mask off, take their jackets off — you’ll see the arms are about this big. (Laughter.) They swing clubs. They swing bats. They swing everything.
One brave freshman student who faced them down is with us tonight: Lacey Kestecher. Where’s Lacey? Lacey, come up. Lacey, come up. (Applause.) Come up, Lacey. Come up, Lacey.
And by the way, what President gives you this kind of time? (Applause.) Does any other President? I said to Charlie: Could I give you the “B” or the “C” or the “D” or maybe even the “F” job? The “F” job, you know what that is? I stay up here for about a minute. I say, “Hi, everybody,” and I’m gone. He said, “Could you give us the ‘A’ job?” We’re giving you the “A” job. We’re giving you a lot of time. (Applause.)
Lacey!
MS. KESTECHER: Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
THE PRESIDENT: Congratulations.
MS. KESTECHER: Thank you so much, Mr. President. So what a lot of these protesters — these leftist tyrants, ultimately — what they didn’t know about me is I do jiu jitsu. (Applause.) So even though they’re protesting me, they don’t really know that I’m just standing there completely calm, while they’re going off unhinged, ultimately.
Really what we need to do is we need to bring back freedom of speech on our campuses. (Applause.) We cannot let these radical leftists continue to suppress our speech. Given that we’re at a Turning Point event, we all have the God-given right to express our point of view, and to be able to have our inalienable rights. (Applause.) We cannot let our individual freedoms, in terms of liberty, be unhinged by these leftist liberals, who are going to try and shut us down.
We need to fight back together. We need to come together. We are America. We’re conservatives. We need to join as one and fight back against this nation of liberals who are trying to suppress people like me and you. (Applause.)
God bless you guys, and thank you so much, Mr. Trump.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Lacey. That was a great job.
Every young person in this room has a vital role to play in the never-ending mission of defending the America we love. The future of our nation depends on the courage and devotion of its young people. It depends on all of you.
Conservatives and patriots cannot and must not surrender our cherished institutions and culture to the radical, America-hating left. We must have the heart, which we have, and the tenacity, which we have, to preserve them, protect them, and reclaim them. Our nation badly needs more young people like those here tonight to study up, work hard, and then go into government, go into journalism, go into media, go into teaching, and, yes, go into academia, and retake these institutions, rebuild our culture, and take back our country. (Applause.)
In everything you do, wherever life takes you, each of you must be a proud voice of our great nation. (Applause.) You must be a powerful fighter for liberty. You must be a confident champion of justice. And you must never lose faith in our values, our nation, our destiny, and in our grace, and the glory of Almighty God. (Applause.)
With your help, we are making our nation safer, and stronger, and wealthier, and prouder, and greater than ever before. And as I look around in this big, beautiful, very full room of brilliant young people — a couple of older ones that I know, but we won’t even talk about them. (Laughter.) They’re good people, but you had your chance. (Laughter.)
But I have to tell you, you have great people in this room. You have our great future leaders in this room. And you are going to have an incredible life, but you’re going to do very, very important things. And there can be nothing more important than protecting our great country.
Thank you very much. It’s been an honor. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you, Charlie.
END 6:40 P.M. EST
