Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2025
December 19, 2025
The President. Oh, thank you very much. This was just a little—a little quick stop that we made yesterday. "Let's go to North Carolina. We want to go to North Carolina."
And what a crowd. Thank you very much. We appreciate—we'll never—there'll never be anything like this. You know, you say, "Let's go to North Carolina," and we get this great crowd—outside, you have people. It's crazy.
We're having a great time. And you know, these ladies right here? They're—they've been to, I think, over 200 rallies, but I'm not going to say. And this time, I made it easy, because they come from North Carolina. They didn't have to travel. Today they traveled about a half an hour, right? Isn't that nice? Instead of traveling all over the country. They're unbelievable.
And you look better than you've ever looked, and I'm not allowed to say that. You know, if you say that—if you say a woman looks beautiful—which you do—it's the end of your political career. [Laughter] But I don't care. You look beautiful.
Well, I'm thrilled to be back in this incredible State with so many proud, hard-working American patriots, which is what you are. And let me begin by wishing each and every one of you a very merry Christmas.
Remember, they didn't want to say merry Christmas when I first started? Twenty-sixteen, "We don't want to say 'merry Christmas,'" they said. I said, "No, we're going to bring back Christmas." And they don't say that anymore. They don't want to say it, but they don't talk about it anymore because they got shellacked. [Laughter]
We're here tonight to celebrate 11 incredible months. It's been the most successful first year of any President in the history of our country. It's true. It has been. Isn't that a big statement? But it's a statement that you read all over the place.
I mean, who could have done better? I don't think anybody could have done better than us—not me, than us. We're all—we're in this together.
Since my Inauguration, we've created more than 53,000 North Carolina jobs, including 8,000 North Carolina construction jobs. More than 150,000 North Carolina residents have been lifted off of food stamps. They're very happy about that.
And after your horrible hurricane, which produced more water damage than any hurricane in history, the Democrats let you down. They really did. Remember, they wouldn't do anything?
Remember? They wouldn't go to your community—they wouldn't do anything. You had to wait till January 20, when I took office, that we really knocked the hell out of it. Remember?
Soon as I took office—I got in on January 20, and I—first thing I did was made North Carolina phone calls, and we did a hell of a job. Did a hell of a job. You'd still be sitting in the mud if I didn't get elected. You would be. People were sitting in the mud.
But I helped rebuild your State, and I didn't get any help from the Democrats—not your Governor, not your man that's running, by the way, for Senate against Michael Whatley, who's phenomenal. Michael Whatley is incredible. Your previous Governor was a disaster. He's also a radical-left person, by the way. He's radical left. You don't want him. He doesn't represent you. You just—and look at the crime. Look at what's going on with all the crime here, the slitting throats and stuff. I didn't—I never saw that with you. Now, all of a sudden, that's what we see.
You've got to get Michael Whatley. It's going to be so important. He was so great. Don't forget: I took Michael, and I put him as the head of the party because he did so great. We won the State all three times, and it was like a rock. He didn't allow cheating in the second time.
I watched all these States—boom, boom—we're leading. People went to sleep. It was over.
Then they dropped ballots all—they cheated like hell.
The only good thing is, this is a far better term than it would have been had I done it the more traditional way. It really is. It's a more powerful term. It's a more powerful term.
And the biggest news of all is, yesterday, it was announced that inflation is far lower than anybody expected—I told you—beating every one of the 61 forecasts from the so-called geniuses, the experts. We're the geniuses, not them. [Laughter] We now have the lowest core inflation since March of 2021, and we're just getting started. It's unbelievable.
And that's despite taking in billions and billions and billions—hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. Remember, they said, "Oh, the tariffs will cause inflation." They just came out with the best inflation report we've had in years. And lots of cash too.
In fact, 1776, right? One thousand seven hundred and seventy-six dollars goes to our military.
You know, it was $1,775, and that was the number. You know, that was just a lump—I said, you know, "If we add $1, we've got $1,776." Somebody said, "That's genius." [Laughter] I said, "Well, I'm smart." [Laughter] I said, for $1—and I'll get these ladies that are loaded with money to pay for it from North Carolina. Their husbands can write a check in 2 seconds, take care of it.
No, think of it: For $1 more. They said, "I can't believe we didn't think of that."
Only hours ago, I left a meeting at the White House where we cut the cost of prescription drugs by 300, 400, 500, and even 600 percent. And I'm doing what no politician of either party has ever done before: standing up to the special interests and demanding lower prices for the American people. That's what we're doing.
You know, it's called favored nations. And nations all over the world were screwing us. We would have prices that were 10 times higher than the prices they were charging in London and in Paris and all over. All over the world, we had the highest prices for drugs because we had politicians that wouldn't—I did it at the beginning, in the first. But then we had a thing called—you know what happened—COVID. And it was sort of hard to go after France and Italy, say, "Listen, on top of all your COVID all over the place, with everyone dying, we want you to pay a lot of money for drugs." You can't do it.
But we did it, and we—nobody's ever even thought of doing it before. I've negotiated and really did it directly with 17 of the world's largest drug companies, as well as foreign nations that were taking advantage of your country for decades—many decades.
For years, Americans have been paying the highest drug prices anywhere in the world, by far—10 times more sometimes, 15 times more—while other countries pay drastically less for the exact same drug made in the exact same plant in the exact same country. But, under my most favored nation—you know what that means; that's a legal term—drug pricing Executive order I just—that I just signed a couple of months ago and is now being implemented, we have declared that the United States will now pay the same price as the lowest price of any country anywhere in the world.
And we should—honestly, this is the biggest thing to happen in medicine, I think——
Audience member. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. ——since the founding of our country.
Audience members. U.S.A.!
The President. You know—I don't mind. Go ahead. [Laughter]
They actually have a great location. You know, we've had people that look so good behind me that some of them went to Hollywood—[laughter]—and actually did very well. [Laughter] You know?
See, they may have a better location, but nobody's going to Hollywood. They can only see the back of your head. Look at all the television. Look at all those cameras. It's crazy.
But we did something nobody's ever done before. Nobody's tried. Nobody thought they could do it. Don't forget, the bigger—the drug companies turned out to really do the right thing, and they really did. But—and they were there at the White House today. You saw them. Some of the biggest companies in the world were there. The rest of them are coming next week.
But the big problem was foreign countries. They would have to take their drug and raise it from $10 to $20 to $30, maybe to $100, maybe 10 times more. But it really doesn't work that way, because the world is a bigger place than the U.S., and so you're not going to have to raise it that much, but you have to raise it.
And they always said—for 50 years, they say, "Let the United States pay." And, for 50 years, the United States got screwed because we were paying so much more. A drug that was selling for $10 in London sells for $130—that's 13 times more—in New York. Thirteen times more. So $10 in London, $130 in New York.
And now that drug will go up for the other country from $10 to only $20 or maybe $30, and it will come down for the United States of America to $20 from $130. Think of that. Think of that. That's the biggest price reduction you—when you talk about cutting prices—cutting costs and cutting prices, you talk about affordability.
You know, the Democrats, they're the ones that got us into the mess. They're the ones that caused the high prices. And then they come out and they look at those fake news people back there. [Laughter] They go, "This election is about affordability." They go, "Let's talk about it." "No, I'd rather not talk about it," because they can't. They're the ones that caused—they caused the highest inflation in the history of our country, which led to the highest prices in the history of our country. I inherited the mess. I got the prices down, and they're going down still further.
Look at gasoline. A lot of areas now in our country: $1.99 a gallon. Right? It cost these ladies from North—these beautiful friends of mine from North Carolina, it cost them, like, one-third to get here than it would have cost under Sleepy Joe Biden. Right? If you drive. You—this time, you can drive. It's the first time you didn't have to take an airplane.
But we had nine blockbuster agreements—we had nine of them—with the big drug companies just today. The rest are coming over the next couple of weeks. But the first dramatic drug discounts will be available to all Americans starting on January at a thing called TrumpRx.gov—TrumpRx.gov.
But this is the biggest thing ever to happen on drug prices, pharmaceutical prices. And it will also tremendously return—it's going to reduce the cost of health care, because health care is probably 50 percent about drugs, right? Your drugs are coming down at levels that nobody ever thought was possible.
This achievement alone should win us the midterms. You know, if we did nothing else—I said today—I said: "You know, you're talking about, like, this massive reduction in drug prices that affects everybody: older people, younger people, middle-aged people, sick people, well
people. It's not just, like, patients. It's everybody." It can never happen. Nobody would ever have done this. It was very hard to do.
I had countries laughing at me. I said, "Listen, you're going to have to double and triple your drug prices." They said—France, as an example, U.K., European Union—they said, "You must be kidding." They've had low prices for years. The drug companies would go, "Could you pay more?" "No, no. Charge the United"—they wanted—the drug companies, in all fairness—to charge the United States of America.
And they made up all sorts of crap. "Well, research and development." I said, "Well, what about research and development? Why aren't they paying also for research?" "Well, it just never worked that way." They used to use—remember?—research and development. That's why we pay more. And I say: "12 times more. Why?" "For research and development." It was all a con job.
But I'd say to the head of France, as an example, "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to double or triple your prices for drugs." "No, no, no, we will not do that." "Oh, yes, you will." I said, "Yes, you will." [Laughter] Under—"no, no, no, we will not do that. Of course, we will not. I can't do that." I said, "Yes, you will." "No, I won't." "Yes, you will." [Laughter]
And he said, "Why do you have such certainty?" I said, "Because if you don't do it, I'm going to charge you a 25-percent tariff on everything you sell into America." And I said—because that was really the sticking point. They just wouldn't do it. They told the drug companies for years: "We're not doing it. We're keeping that pill at $10. We're not going to raise it." And the drug companies said, "Well, you know, it's unfair. I mean, they're paying—they're paying 10 times more, sometimes 15 times more." "That's okay. Let them pay more." We're not paying more than—the prices were stuck for years.
And no President did anything about it. Sleepy Joe Biden didn't know he was alive. [Laughter] The last thing he cared about. The last thing he cared about was this. He didn't care about anything. He just wanted to make it through. [Laughter] But they cheated. They—look, he was surrounded by radical left.
Hey, did you see, on Mar-a-Lago—did you see how corrupt that was now? It's all come out.
Wow. It's all come out. It's some life. It's all come out. They were totally corrupt, radical-left lunatics. Not stupid people, by the way—he was, but the people that really ran the country and that really ran the autopen, they were not stupid.
But think about what we've done. Under the Trump administration, America will not be ripped off any longer. So can you imagine? These countries—and when I told you the example before, from $10 to $20, you know, that doesn't sound like much. But it's a doubling of the price. You're—you know, that's a doubling of the price. And if it went to 30 or 35 or 40, you know, that's still a doubling, tripling, or quadrupling of the price.
But I said: "A 25-percent tariff. It's much more money than what you're talking about." So they would say to me, every—all countries, you know, obviously, they said no at the beginning, and they would have told a normal President no, and that would have been the end of the conversation. So they said no to me, and I said, "No, no, you'll do it, a hundred percent." They said: "What's wrong with this? A hundred percent?" I said, "100 percent that you're going to do it."
The one asked me: "Why are you so certain? Why would you say that I would quadruple the price of drugs in France?"—or someplace. I said, "Because, if you don't, we're going to charge you a 25-percent tariff. That tariff is worth five times more money than you're talking about." And there was dead silence on the phone.
And then when the gentleman, Emmanuel—he's a wonderful guy. [Laughter] When he spoke, he said, "You have a deal." [Laughter] "You have a deal." He's a nice guy too.
But you can't blame him. You know, this has been 40, 50 years. You can't blame him.
But there was the same conversation with everybody. "No, no, no, we can't do that. No, no, I don't—I cannot double the price of my drugs." I said, "No, no, maybe triple or quadruple." [Laughter] But it's still much lower than we were playing—paying—you know, we were paying a number that was crazy: 13, 14 times more.
As President, I'm also taking on the gigantic health insurance companies that have gotten rich on billions of dollars of government subsidies, and I want the money to go directly to the people. I want the money to be paid directly to the people so that they can buy their own health insurance, which will give far better benefits at much lower costs.
By the way, what I told you about buying the drugs at this massive dollar discount, it's like—from where it is, that's going to have a huge impact on the cost of health care.
The current "Unaffordable Care Act," commonly known as Barack Hussein Obamacare——
Audience members. Boo!
The President. ——was created to make insurance companies rich.
Audience member. Get rid of it! [Laughter]
The President. It was bad health care at much too high a cost. And you see now that the steep increase in premiums that's being demanded by the Democrats—it was never any good, Obamacare. It was done for the benefit of insurance companies, which totally control the Democrats.
That's why you could have a strike on January 30. You could have another shutdown, because the Democrats are totally in the hands of—they're totally controlled by the insurance companies—big, wealthy companies.
Again, I want the money to go directly to the people so you can buy your own health care.
And you'll get much better health care at a much lower price. And the only losers will be the insurance companies that have gotten rich.
How about these companies? Some of them have gone up 1,400 percent—their stock prices.
One, I think, went up 1,700 percent. How many people have ever bought a stock that went up 1,700 percent?
And it's—and you know, think of it. They've taken in billions and billions of dollars. And the Democrat Party is also just—you know, it's—look, I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do, because I don't know how anybody beats us when we say that we want the money to go to the people so you can buy your own health care. How can it ever be better than that?
I wanted to do that at the beginning, in 2016, but the politicians told me, "Sir, you"—don't worry, I—you know, I was a little bit inexperienced. I had never did this—I've never done this before. Now I'm quite experienced. I've seen things that nobody would have thought possible.
But I said then—I said, "Why do we have this crazy Obamacare?" Or, as we call it, the "Unaffordable"—isn't that a great name? The Affordable Care Act, they call it the—I call it the "Unaffordable Care Act." I should get credit. That's a good one. What's better: that or fake news? That or Pocahontas? That—[laughter]. I can't use the names that I used on the Republicans to gain access to the election, but we had some good names, didn't we?
But I think the "Unaffordable Care Act" is pretty good. The "UCA," right? You know, they keep talking about the ACA. Think of that: Instead of the ACA, we call it the UCA. "The UCA"—they say, "What is that?" "The Unaffordable Care Act." It is unaffordable, but it was always no good. But now it's really gone—with time, it gets worse. Now it's going to be hit big.
Remember, I didn't do this. This is Obamacare. This is Obamacare. This isn't Trump.
But you don't need it, because the—let the money not go to the insurance companies. The problem is, the Democrats will shut down the Government because they are totally beholden—I don't love that word, but they're beholden—"i-n"—to—they're beholden to the insurance companies. So I don't know what they can do about it, but you know, they'll probably close down the government.
It's so simple: The money should go to the people; the people should then take all of this money and buy the best health care there is. And there'll be a lot of money left over. Right?
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. But they'll not be happy, but that's okay with me, because you, the hardworking citizens and—finally, you're going to have great health care at the right price. So you're going to have it.
Although, today I did suggest one thing, because when I was watching these big drug companies get up and talk about things, they were giving free medicine and—I mean, they couldn't have been nicer. They couldn't have been better. And they were, you know, giving us a hard time a while ago, but it worked out good.
I said: "You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to call these insurance companies." Fat cats. They are fat cats. "I'm going to call the insurance companies, and I'm going to set up a meeting with them—all of them—and maybe I'll have the same luck that we had with the health companies—with the pharmaceuticals and the drug companies that we had."
So, rather than just saying we're not going to deal, maybe they'll give us a deal, like cut the price by 50 percent. And maybe then it starts to make sense. So I'm going to meet with them.
Who knows? Who knows?
And I'll either meet in Florida—I'm going to Florida. I'll either meet in Florida—because I work all the time—so I'll either meet in Florida or I'll meet in Washington the first week after—right after we all come back to—going to our wonderful jobs.
And I'll sit down with—it's, like, 12, 13 people. You know, it's basically these big, monster companies. Thirteen—fourteen, if I want to be generous. Get 14 people in a room, and let's see what happens. Maybe they'll surprise us. But maybe we'll ask them for a 50-percent cut, and maybe they'll give it. You know, you never know.
You saw what happened with the drug companies. They want to give—they're giving free drugs to every—I mean, they've been unbelievable. But they do love our country.
And I probably think the insurance company guys love our country. They just felt they were dealing with stupid people, so you can't really blame them. [Laughter]
Over the past 11 months, we have brought more positive change to Washington than any administration in the history of our country. That's true. And there's never been anything like it.
When I took office last January, I inherited a mess, and very simply, I am fixing it. Joe Biden gave us the worst inflation in the history of our country. A lot of people say—you know, the fake news says: "It's not the worst in history. It's the worst in 48 years." Oh, okay. Sorry.
[Laughter] No, they do. They say 48 years is okay, but when I say "history," they go crazy. That's one I let them win. I say, "I'm sorry," apologize.
I like that hat: 47. It's nice, actually. Beautiful. Nice thread. Gold thread. I watched that myself. "I want gold thread, not mustard-colored," you know? [Laughter]
No, they give you—a lot of times they sell you mustard color. It costs them a lot less. We don't accept those hats. When you have a mustard-colored thread, don't accept it. [Laughter]
But it caused the prices to be higher than ever before, making it—really, life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans.
Our border was open, and our country was being invaded by an army of 25 million people.
Many came from prisons and jails, mental institutions and insane asylums. You know the difference between a prison and a jail? A prison is more severe, right? You know the difference between a mental institution and an insane asylum? An insane asylum is more severe. They came from both.
They were drug dealers, gang members, and over 13,000 murderers, more than 50 percent of whom killed more than one person. Think of that. They killed more than one. A lot of them said, "Oh, I didn't mean," but you know, when you kill more than once, get them the hell out of our country.
How about—how about that incident with that horrible monster that killed the young, beautiful girl from Ukraine? The animal. And to think we'll get—have—we'll have him in trials for years, and he'll get some nice liberal lawyer, and they'll—will say, "Oh, well, he had a bad day." Yes, he had a bad day. He slit her throat.
We had men playing in women's sports, transgender for everybody, crime at record levels, the worst trade deals ever made, and our country was laughed at from all over the world. But they're not laughing anymore.
One year ago, our country was dead. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world because we finally have a President who puts America first.
Thank you.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. The last administration and their allies in Congress looted our Treasury for trillions of dollars, driving up prices on everything at unprecedented levels.
How about the new thing in Minnesota with the Somalians? They stole—now it came out—the great U.S. attorney up there, they came out—think of this—$9 billion, and they think that's just the beginning. They stole—think of it: In their country, they live on nothing—they had nothing. They come here, and they steal $9 billion. Are we stupid? I mean, how do we allow that to happen?
Ilhan Omar should be sent out of our country. She should be—she should not be allowed to be a Congresswoman. She married her brother, either to stay or to get him into the country. And yesterday, she, I guess, made up a story. She said the police attacked her son. They stopped a car, and they—and the police said: "We never attacked him. We never stopped him." It was a made-up story.
She's a con person. She's full of con. She's just a zero. She should get—you ought to get her the hell out of our country. That's what you ought to do.
She made up a story that the police stopped her son's car and they harassed the hell out of him. It turned out to be a fake story. It never—they—there was no stoppage of his car, and there was no harassment.
But think of that: In Minnesota, this beautiful place—once beautiful. I don't call it beautiful.
You've got a Governor who's a stupid person and a corrupt—he's corrupt and stupid. But he allowed this to go on. He allowed this to go on. Everybody knew it was going on. But what nobody knew is over $9 billion. And the people of Minnesota are not happy.
And you know who's running for Governor? Mike Lindell. Do we like Mike Lindell? That man suffered. That man suffered. He—what he did—what he went through because he knew the election was rigged—and he did it—he didn't—I mean, he just did it as a citizen. Mike Lindell.
I'll tell you what: Every time I introduced him, he got the biggest hand. I hope he does great.
He deserves to do great. That man suffered. These people went after him. They went after his company. They did that with me too, but at least I knew what I was getting into. He was just a guy that said: "Jeez, this election was so crooked. It was so rigged." He fought like hell.
That guy deserves to be Governor of Minnesota, I'll tell you right now. He's a great guy too. But I'm bringing the prices down, and I'm bringing them down fast. You know that.
As I saw the other day and as I showed to people the other day—I made a speech. It was very well received. You know, we had one problem. I put up these gorgeous charts, and it says "chart." And I'm sort of talking about the chart. You're reading into a piece of glass. I've got no audience. I've got just people—very hostile people waiting around. And I'm reading into a piece of glass for 22 minutes, and I talk about the chart. The networks didn't put up the charts. Only Fox put up the charts. Fox put them up, in all fairness.
When we get angry at Fox, we have to remember that. They put up the charts. So you could start putting them up now if you want. [Laughter] But we put up these beautiful charts that were very—[laughter]—look at them.
But I very much like the chart from Butler, PA. I like that much better. That's my all-time favorite chart. You know, that's a great chart. They're all great charts, but I'll never like a chart like that chart I put up in Butler. Just take a look at the chart right here. That was a good chart. I love that chart so much. I sleep with that chart. [Laughter]
Audience member. We love you, Trump!
The President. But this is okay. There'll never be a great chart for me. It's only the one.
Compared to Butler, the—all charts stink. [Laughter] But look at that chart. Look at the kind of Biden price increases and Trump price increases. Look at that. They're all Biden. We're bringing the prices down. Look at that chart. NBC and CBS and ABC Fake News. They're fake news—oops, that camera just went off. Sorry about that.
Every time I mention that, the camera—you know, you see the red light back there—bing—you see it go off. [Laughter] ABC Fake News. I think ABC is the worst. Believe it or not, George Slopadopolous, he paid me about $16 million. You have George Slopadopolous. I heard Chris Christie lost his job. They fired Chris Christie—[laughter]—and they have a great young woman taking his place, who happens to be Hispanic and happens to be phenomenal. She's going to do a great job.
But they fired Chris Christie. And guess—you know why? He wanted to eat all the time. [Laughter] No, they fired him. He was bad news.
But I'd say ABC is the worst of the networks. I would then say NBC is horrible. I mean, just horrible. They had this guy on—this fake guy, the fake Senator. I call him the fake Senator, from
a place called Georgia, right? And he was talking about all the, you know, things. He says he's a church leader. You know, it's funny, if you go on as a church leader, they talk about church and state, right? He's allowed to talk about—he said, "I'm going back to my church and I'm going to pray this morning. I'm going to talk about all these issues." If a Republican said that, they'd start screaming, "Church and state." They don't scream. But NBC is really bad.
And CBS—I mean, I love the new owners of CBS. Something happens to them, though. "60 Minutes" has treated me worse under the new ownership than—they just keep treating me—they just keep hitting me. It's crazy.
And then you have Marjorie Traitor Brown, I call her, because green turns to brown under stress. So I call her Traitor Brown, which I don't like doing, because two words is too much. Two out of three. We're changing two. Marjorie Taylor Greene; I'm going Marjorie Traitor Brown. So I have to trade—and a lot of people don't understand two words is too much to change.
I actually like Marjorie Taylor Brown better, but everyone says Marjorie Traitor Greene is good. But they're all good. But what the hell happened to her? She was—must have been a stone-cold liberal. She's on CNN now all the time. Can you believe it? And it was only because I couldn't call her back.
You know, I have 218, -19—it changes all—but we have 200-and-some-odd Congress men and women. I have 53 Senators. I have 212 countries. I've got a family. It's nice to talk to my family too. You can't call a President every single day, and then when the President doesn't call you back, she goes around saying: "He doesn't call me back. He just"—I said, "Marjorie, I can't call you back. I got two"—I say: "Marjorie, I just can't call you back. I'm sorry." And I wouldn't call her back, and she goes on to a rant. "He won't call me back anymore." Sorry about that.
You know, you can only go so far. You know, once a month, once every week or 2 weeks, but you can't—you know, highly neurotic—her, not me. But I'm neurotic too. [Laughter] I think I'm probably very neurotic too. I always say, "Controlled neurosis is good." Being neurotic, no good. But if it's controlled, that's okay. Gives you some energy. [Laughter]
But what the hell happened to Marjorie Traitor Greene? It's unbelievable. But she dropped out because I wasn't going to endorse her, and the person I would have endorsed was going to kill her in the polls. So she dropped out. And then they talk about how brave she is. No, brave would be to stay. And, you know, it's one of those things. But she dropped out.
I can't believe it that—that people can change so much. But you can't go from being a strong conservative to a stone-cold liberal, unless you were lying. You know? You can't do that. I mean, you can stop liking somebody, or you can say, "I don't"—"She's fake."
Look, Front Row Joe. What are you doing in the second row? What happened to you? Well, you're in the front row. That's good. That's Front Row Joe.
I don't know who's been there—the Front Row Joes or you. It's pretty close, I think. [Laughter] Very different—hey, very different types. Would you stand up, please, in the front? Just stand up? Look at these women. Look. How incredible they are. Right? Front—even Front Row Joes will admit they're very great, right? Look how beautiful they are.
They—people like you built our country. You built our country, and that's why we love you.
You built our country. The people in this room built our country.
Under Sleepy Joe Biden, car prices, gasoline prices, hotel rates, airfare, and more went up 30 to 75 percent. Now they're all coming down. We're all coming down. Take a look at that. Isn't that beautiful to look?
The same is true with groceries. The price of a Thanksgiving turkey was down by 33 percent compared to Sleepy Joe's high-priced era.
Don't forget, when you have the highest inflation in history and/or 48 years—do we think forty—and look, in terms of a speech, I think 48 years is the equivalent of history. Do we agree? Can we say it? Because they had a piece on me today in one of these fake newspapers—which are all dying; they're all going bankrupt, thank God. But they're the worst. That I misrepresented by saying "history." "It's actually 48 years." And I said, you know, that's not a bad misrepresentation, I don't think.
The price of eggs is down 82 percent since March. Do you remember—there the people are—do you remember? Fake news. Do you remember when I just got elected—it was a big thing. We won every swing State. We won the popular vote. We won by, like, 312 to 200-and-something, and, like, low 200. And we won everything. We won districts. The word "district." We won districts by 2,750 to 525. That's a slaughter.
And that's the thing, when you see everything is red, except for two little lines on the left or the right, meaning New York and California, that's the one that really is incredible. 2,750 to 525. We won everything in a slaughter. We won everything. And what a great thing it was, right?
When you can have an election that good—and they tried to rig it. Remember, we had the thing? "Too big to rig." Remember that statement? That was a big thing. They tried like hell. They gave up at about 9:02. It was too big. It was just a landslide. They couldn't do it. They cheated a lot.
But we made it too big to rig. And I appreciate you getting out. I said—the polls had us up, pretty way up. And a lot of times when that happens, you'll say, "Let's go out and watch a movie, and we'll come back and watch the President win." "No," I said: "Don't watch a movie. Go out and vote." But it was too big, so it came back. What an evening. That was—what was better?
2016 or 2024? Tell me.
Audience members. Twenty-four!
The President. I don't know, 2016 was pretty monumental. What was better? I don't know, beating Hillary was fun. [Laughter]
Well, Hillary has a much higher IQ than Kamala. I would say I think Hillary has probably 50 or 60 points higher. No, Hillary was smart. She was nasty. I wouldn't want to go home to her. [Laughter] She was nasty. Remember? Remember? She was a nasty person. I was going to use a "b" word. I said, my wife would not be happy. My wife always says, "Please, please, don't use foul language." You know who else does? Franklin Graham. He says, "President"—he says: "I love your speaking ability, President. You're a great speaker." Although nobody says it.
You know—you know, I get these big crowds, but he—did you ever see the press do a story that I'm a great speaker? They say: "Oh, he looked tired. Oh, he's this. Oh, he's that." They—yes, I mean, it's crazy. I get crowds—the biggest crowds in history of anything, not only of—of anything. They never say, "He gave a great speech tonight in front of 45,000 people." Look at some the—the crowds that we get are the biggest crowds ever. Before the election, we were getting 80—we had 117,000 people show up in New Jersey. It was a great speech. You know what they said? "He looked tired." [Laughter] I looked tired.
You can't be tired in front of 117,000 people. It's not possible. Got a lot of adrenaline. The adrenaline is pumping, right? But that's why they're fake news. That's why nobody listens to them anymore.
But remember that we slashed the yearly cost of new mortgages by $3,000. Look at the mortgage chart. We slashed them. Look at that. Look at that. Oh, boy. Look at how much you made with me and lost with that sleepy guy.
But everything now is falling, and the only things that are going up are your salaries, the stock market, and your 401(k)s. They're going up.
Do you remember when I first won in 2020—2024? And I was at my first conference. I'm 2 days in. You know, we're recovering from all the hoopla. Two days in. In fact, I took a day off. They said, "Something is wrong with the President." I said: "I just got here. There's nothing wrong with me." "Something is wrong. He took a day off." "What's wrong with the President?" Right? Every time.
Do you remember when I had 28 news conferences in a row over 28 days? Sometimes I gave two or three in 1 day. And then I took my beautiful Kai, my beautiful granddaughter, who's a very good golfer. I took her to play golf one morning, and I was in the office very quickly. "Something is wrong with the President."
Do you remember the rumor was that I had passed away? Do you remember that? [Laughter] I went 28 days in a row. I took the kid to play golf, and we play very fast. She's good, and I'm a very good golfer. And we play very fast. We play in 2 hours. We're—and I mean, I said: "Baby, I've got to get out of here. I'm sorry, honey. Enjoy your day. Go hit balls or something. I got to get out of here. I got to go to work."
And I got a call, a friend of mine. "Oh. Oh. You're okay?" And I said, "Yes, what's wrong?" I said, "I'll be back in the Oval Office in 30 minutes." "Oh." I said, "What's wrong with this guy?" Then I got another call. "Oh, you're okay." They said that I had passed away. Do you remember that? [Laughter] First day in 28 days. These people are sick.
That's why I've taken more physicals, because I think you have an obligation to, you know, report. And I hate when they put out false reports. So they put out a report that Donald Trump—so, I took a lot of physicals. And I did something no other President has ever done: I took cognitive tests. Because I know that—and by the way, not easy. You get to those last questions, those last 10, 15 questions, those—the—nobody on that stand could answer probably any of them. [Laughter] And I got them. I aced them.
And no other President has taken a cognitive—could you imagine Sleepy Joe taking a cognitive test? I don't think he'd get the first—you know, the first question is like, "What is this?" And they show a lion, a giraffe, a fish, and a hippopotamus. Right? And they say, "Which is the giraffe?" So that's the only question. But what happens is it then gets harder. I don't think Joe would have gotten the first question right. [Laughter]
Audience member. He'd say hippo! [Laughter]
The President. He would say hippo. He would—"I want the hippo." [Laughter]
But—anyway, but I've taken, now, three cognitive tests. I've got—I've aced every single one of them. And these are at—you know, this is at—they're big stuff. This is Walter Reed. You know, it's got a whole team of doctors all over the place. If you get them wrong—I said: "What do you think? Should I do it?" They said: "Well, here's the good news. The good news: If you do well, that's great." Actually, if you do well, they won't report it. If you do badly, it's going to be the biggest story in history. They said, "You know, it's possible that if you do badly, the word will leak out and you'll look very bad." I said—this was on my first test. After that, I knew that I can do very well. A smart person.
So what happens—what happens is: First test, I said, "How hard is it?" He said, "Well, after the 10th or 12th question, it gets, you know, very hard." And I said, "Well, what do you think?" They said, "Look, if you're going to do well—but if you're not going to do well, it's probable that the word will get out."
I said, "Well, let's do it anyway." And I did it, and it was actually good. For a year, they called me a very intelligent person, but then they forget. Then I did it again. I did—I aced it again. They report it. And these are doctors that I don't even know, and they report it. And then I did it a third time a few months ago, and they report it, but it's very small reporting.
But can you imagine if I—if I did badly, right? Can you imagine that, Front Row Joe?
Would I be in trouble? They'd say, "There's something wrong." But I like to do it. But I gave a perfect—I got—I had perfect health, and they reported, "His health is perfect." And they interpret that—and the fake news interprets—when the doctor says, "He's got perfect health," they go, "What does he mean by 'perfect?'"
There's something wrong with the press. These people are sick. Now, there will be a time when perhaps I won't be a hundred percent. True with all of us, right? And when that time comes, I will let you know about it. In fact, you'll probably find out about it just by watching. But that time is not now, because I feel the same that I felt for 50 years. I really do.
But we have an—you know, we—I think we have an obligation to, you know, be—at least report your health. But I—I will tell you, to me, because of what happened for four years, I really think having a cognitive test—for Presidents to take a cognitive test is very important. I think it's very important. I'm hearing that they say it's, you know, not—with Biden, they said it was not constitutional. That was the least of his problems. [Laughter]
But I think it's very important that a President or people running for President and Vice President take a cognitive test. I mean, I think it's a very important thing. I don't know. They say: "You shouldn't do that. It's unjust. It's not constitutional." They say all these things. But I do, I really believe that.
Under Trump, wages are rising much faster than inflation for the first time in many years. Think of that. Wages are rising faster than inflation. That's what it's all about, right? And we're delivering lower prices and bigger paychecks. And the wage chart that you see up there is incredible—there that, you know, NBC didn't put up and the networks didn't put up.
There are more people working today than at any time in American history. And very importantly, while tens of thousands of new jobs under Biden were government jobs—they were government jobs. I could do that right now. You saw today we had 4.5 percent inflation. That's because I'm letting go of tremendous numbers of Government workers. We're replacing them. In fact, we've reduced the Federal workforce by 270,000 jobs. That's not to be mean. That's to get them off—and they are getting jobs in the private sector, and we're helping them to get jobs. But if you have all Government jobs, we're going to be, you know, a country that—we don't want to mention names because we don't want to insult, but we're going to be a country that cannot be great.
One hundred percent—it just came out—100 percent of all jobs created since I took office have been in the private sector. The only way to make our country great. Think of that. One—think of that—100 percent of the jobs created are in the private sector.
Now, if I want to make some good numbers, I'll add 300,000 jobs. I can do it with one phone call. "Hire—each agency, hire 25,000 people today." They hire them immediately. They pour in. And the four and a half percent would be down to 2½ percent in a matter of moments. I could get it down to zero. Hire a couple of million workers. "Oh, we're—the country is booming. We're down to zero." But that's the destruction of a country. That's what Biden used to do. They used to hire 10 people for one job. They'd have 10 people—like, would look at a job and would say one person can do the job, but let's give it a break; let's do two instead of—and they'd have, like, nine people for one job, and that's really tantamount to a failed country.
In four years, the last administration secured less than $1 trillion in new investments in our country. Think of that. Four years, less than one. Four years—4 years—the whole term, less than
$1 trillion. In 10 months, I have secured a record-breaking $18 trillion, more. They gave us doom and gloom, and I'm building the Trump economic boom. It's a boom. It's a boom.
You know, these factories—auto plants, AI plants—we've never had anything like it. I ended the radical-left's war on American energy, terminated the "green new scam," and signed an order to drill, baby, drill. We're drilling. You see where gasoline is coming down. Gasoline is now substantially lower than $2.50 a gallon. And many, many places now are under $2 a gallon for gasoline.
And within the next 12 months, we will have opened 1,600 new electrical generating plants.
One thousand—that's a record all time, because, you know, we need tremendous amounts of electricity for AI and for all these plants. Electricity prices will fall very dramatically when these plants are open.
To protect North Carolina workers, we imposed 25-percent tariffs on foreign automobiles, 50-percent tariffs on foreign steel, and I approved 25-, 30-percent and 50-percent tariffs to save North Carolina's cherished furniture industry, which has been decimated by China.
You know, I used to come here a lot for one reason. I'd build hotels, and I'd build different buildings, and I'd come here to your furniture area. I used to love it. Those people were so talented. I'd buy so much furniture. And that was before politics. I did great. I did—I was very good at real estate, I will tell you.
But I used to come to North Carolina to buy furniture for lobbies or furniture for hotels. And I was here a lot. I mean, you've been decimated, but it's coming back now, because I put tariffs on—big tariffs, actually.
But I remember—I'd say to a guy, "I like that chair," you know, really, it's what I did. I would look at a chair. The arm of a chair was very important to me. I said, "I like that chair, but this arm has to be a different shape, and you've got to chisel that"—I'm a very aesthetic person, believe me, except with women. I don't care what a woman looks like. [Laughter] I used to say "beautiful." Now I don't care. Since politics, I never mention looks anymore. The most beautiful woman can walk right across. I don't even look at her anymore, because in politics, that's the sign of death. [Laughter] We don't look.
But I do look at the arm of a chair—[laughter]—and I say—I'd say to your artists—they were artists. They were artisans, you know? I'd say: "No, no, can you give a different curve? Can you do a little more carving at the end?" About —they would, right in front of me, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, like they—they were, like, geniuses.
You lost the business. It went to China and other places, but mostly to China, because they never put tariffs on, just like they didn't put them on chips, just like they didn't put them on cars. You lost 58 percent of your car industry. By the way, it's all coming back. Some of it's coming back here. It's all coming back. Because to bring a car into our country is costing 25- to 50-percent tariffs now. And they can't do it. They can't compete.
Tariff is—and I won't say it because it gets me in trouble—my favorite word. No, I won't—my fifth favorite word. Do you remember when I said, "The word 'tariff' is my favorite word in the dictionary"? Remember that? And then the fake news got me. "What about religion? What about God? What about your family? What about your wife? What about your children?" [Laughter] I said, "Oh, they got me on this one." So now tariff is my fifth favorite word. And now I'm okay. It's my fifth. Five. Now I'm okay.
But starting in the new year, the people of North Carolina will also see the dramatic results of the largest tax cuts in American history, including no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors. No tax for our seniors.
Tell me what—let's do a poll, because you know these pollsters charge a million dollars to ask a question, and then they don't even—they just write down an answer. They don't do polls. It's a total con job, these—some of these polls.
One thing I don't like about Fox is their pollster. Total fake. Their pollster is the worst.
They've been saying they're going to get rid of him for 10 years. The fake pollster. Then you have the election. You win by numbers that are, like, through the roof.
But the Fox—but Fox has been treating me good. They have great people there. Sean Hannity is great. Jesse is great. Lara is great. Greg is great. They're all great. We have great people. The morning is excellent.
Audience member. [Inaudible]
The President. Who? What?
Audience member. How about the corruption out here?
The President. What—which corruption? Where?
Audience member. [Inaudible]—law enforcement—[inaudible].
The President. Oh, yes. Well, we have to—we have to do that. We're going to take care of that. We're going to take care of corruption in our country. I mean, I was talking about Fox. [Laughter] I don't know, he's talking about corruption.
No, it's okay, because he's on our side, but he's just a little ahead of me. He's talking about corruption. I'm talking about Fox, how good the anchors are, right? [Laughter] But they are really great. They are very good. But the pollster is no good. You know? He's no good. The pollster is terrible, but we still get good numbers. But the numbers are actually much better than that.
But we're joined tonight by Heather Whitley, a bartender and server in Nashville, North Carolina, who will save over $5,000 from no tips—think of that—from no tax on tips. Heather—where are you, Heather? Are you here, Heather? Where are you? Where are you?
You want to come up? You want to come up? Come on up. She's going to save over
$5,000—no tax on tips—toward a down payment on her first home. So, Heather, congratulations. Look how amazing she is, right? Come on up. I don't know how you're going to get up that stair. You okay? Look at her. She has no problem. Somebody else would not be able to make it. Thank you, darling. Good to see you. Want to say something? Go ahead.
Nashville, NC, bartender Heather Whitley. Well, it has been a tremendous help. It's now allowed me to invest in my first home, and that is the American dream for all of us. I don't have much to say, sir.
The President. That is so good.
Ms. Whitley. Thank you so much.
The President. You said it perfectly. Thank you, darling. Thank you.
Heather, you don't realize—you said that so perfectly, because that's what it is. You're going to get a home and you're going to be happy as can be, and you are a great person. Thank you very much. You couldn't have been better. Thank you, darling.
Also with us is Austin Harding, a police officer, highly respected, a loving father from Monroe. Austin and his wife are raising a son with autism, a beautiful son. Beautiful. Beautiful person. And are passionate supporters of MAHA, and they love Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. So do I.
And with no—thank you, Austin. And with no tax on overtime, Austin will have thousands of dollars—many thousands of dollars more to help care for his wonderful son.
Last but not least, we have Carolyn and Charles Thurston, who run a successful small business providing care to senior citizens. That's great. Not only did we make their small-business tax deduction permanent, helping them to expand, but under no tax on overtime, their employees will have much higher take-home pay, and that makes their job a lot easier.
So, Carolyn and Charles, please stand, wherever you may be. Oh, that's great. Thank you. So it's going good? Going good? Good-looking couple. Thank you very much.
Another key part of our tax cuts is known as Trump Accounts. You hear about that? You put money in, and they are knocking them dead. It's great. It's Michael Dell. Dell computer. He put up $6 billion 250 million. How do you like that? He started with no money, and now he puts $6 billion-plus into the first accounts. I mean, think of that. Six billion. It's—to be exact, $6 billion 250 million. Even the second part is a lot.
And we've had a lot of great Wall Street titans and a lot of great real estate titans, they're all putting money in Trump Accounts. It's for kids. They get a certain age, and they're going to have money. It's going to double and triple. Hopefully, it will do well.
Under this new program, the Federal Government will be creating an investment savings account for every single newborn American child with $1,000 to be invested and grow over the course of their life. So they'll reach 21 years, and you know, it could be very good. They will consider themselves rich. I mean, it's a lot of money, actually.
Friends, family, employers, and loved ones will be able to add thousands more each year, like a trust fund for every American child. It's something that people have wanted to do. But honestly, I give Mr. and Mrs. Michael Dell—Dell computer—go out and buy a computer from Dell, because I'll tell you what: They really—they love the country. They're great people.
Every single Democrat in Congress voted against these incredible benefits. Every single Democrat said no, including a guy named Don Davis, right here from this district. He voted against it.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. That's why you got to vote against him. Don Davis voted against no tax on overtime. He voted against no tax on tips. And he voted for the largest tax increase in American history. He wanted the largest tax—and he's your Congressman.
So I don't know if you know him. And honestly, I'm good at politics—I never even heard of this guy. [Laughter] So he hasn't made a big impact. But he voted yes on every single Biden disaster, including massive inflation, open borders, sanctuary cities, and the "green new scam."
Don Davis betrayed North Carolina. Don Davis did nothing about the flood. He did nothing about the hurricane. I did it all with your Congressmen and with a couple of Republicans from your State that put their lives on the line to make sure this got done. And we had to wait until January 20. They wouldn't do a damn thing. People was—we-—the waters didn't recede. They were living in areas that didn't have water, and now they were surrounded by water.
And by the way, Elon Musk, with his incredible, you would call it, contraption of communication—incredible—I said, "Elon, we need 500 of those." You couldn't get them because it's been very successful. He said, "You'll have them tomorrow." Got to give him credit
for that, you know? I have my little disagreements with him. I don't believe in the mandate where everybody has to have an electric vehicle within an hour, you know? I don't—but you've got to give him credit. He really saved a lot of lives.
Here tonight are some of the warriors who, unlike Don Davis—who's a disaster; vote against him—stood up for North Carolina, including Congressmen Tim Moore and Brad Knott. Where are you guys? Hey, fellas. Come up real fast. Come on up. Come on up.
I'll tell you, these guys were—look at them. Two handsome gentlemen. Extremely different types. [Laughter] Yes, that's great.
Say hello. Say a couple of words. Thank you, man. Thank you very much.
Representative Brad Knott. Thank you, President.
The President. Appreciate it.
Rep. Knott. Well, everybody, I was with the President when he had his first trip, once he took the oath. And where did he come? North Carolina. As we gear up for the midterm cycle, where's the first State that President Trump has come? North Carolina. He knows what you know. It's the people that make this country great. It's not the government. It's not regulations. It's people just like you.
And let me just tell you this: The fight is long. It's hard. I'm new to this, and I have been amazed at how hard the President is fighting for you.
So let me just—let me say this simply and with my whole heart: Stay with us. We hear you, and we're going to keep fighting for you. Thank you so much.
Representative Tim Moore. Thank you. I guess I'll have to lower the mic, Mr. President. Let me just say—echo what Brad said. I cannot think of a better President in the history of the United States, someone who loves this country, who does so much.
Mr. President, I don't know how you do it all. You make the Energizer Bunny look slow. [Laughter] It's absolutely incredible. The leadership that this man shows, not only in our country, but on the world stage; we are finally respected around the world again, and that is not an accident.
Mr. President, North Carolina loves you. The United States loves you. Thank you for what you're doing.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A!
The President. Great job. That's a great job. Boy, oh, boy. Well, they—look, they're going to win good, but you've got to beat that other guy.
Thanks also—I want to thank somebody very special. She's the Secretary of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Where's Lori? Lori, thank you. What a job. What a job you've done.
Our friend did me a big favor when he recommended you. I was recommended by a great guy, great friend of mine, and a big fan of Lori. And he said, "I have somebody that would be great." And that was an understatement. You've been unbelievable. Thank you very much, Lori. Appreciate it.
And another one who's been incredible, got a lot of energy: Director of Federal Housing Finance Agency—he's done a phenomenal job—Mr. Bill Pulte. Bill, thank you very much. Thank you, Bill.
Also, State Senator Phil Berger. Phil, thank you. Great.
And we have a lot of political people here. I would like to introduce them all. We'll be here—but one we have to—we have to introduce, fellas, is Michael Whatley. And he was the head of the Republican Party. Before that, he was the head of your party, right here, the Republican Party. And we won. We won six in a row, three primaries in landslides, and then we went on to win the election all three times.
So we won six in a row. I've never had a loss with him. And when I won the—I mean, look, we did phenomenal. It turned out—you know, we won three times in a row, just so you understand. I don't mean here. I mean all over. We won three in a row. They might have done us a favor, but we won three in a row.
But when we got screwed in the second election, it didn't happen over—he had 601 lawyers he hired. They had lawyers at every single ballot box. And other people were cheating in other states that we won by a lot, and they were cheating. You could see it go, here we are——
[At this point, the President gestured downward with his hand.]
Pwah, pwah. Do you remember they had ballots? All of a sudden, "We just found 75,000 ballots." A total rigged deal. And by the way, you have not heard the last of that, I can tell you.
But, in this State, that didn't happen because you had a guy named Michael Whatley, and he had every box secured. He had, I think, two or three lawyers at every station, but he had over 600 lawyers. I think 600. And I said, "How many lawyers did you have?" "Six hundred and one." I said, "That's, like, genius." He was ahead of it.
And you'd watch—you know, people went to bed that night. Everyone said, "The election is over, Trump won," and then all of a sudden, they woke up in the morning, and 3 o'clock in the morning they found hundreds of thousands of votes in some of these States. It was a rigged election, but not here because of him.
And I said, "I don't know if I'm doing this again, but if I'm doing this again, I want Michael Whatley." I said, "The guy from North Carolina, I want him to head the Republican National Committee, the RNC." And he did it—he did it beautifully.
Come on up, Michael. Come up. He did it so well. And we had the big election when he worked with Lara. Now, how good is Lara? Lara Trump, who was born here, loves this State so much. She could have done very well.
By the way, I think Ted Budd is doing a very good job too, I have to tell you.
And I will say this: Thom Tillis fought with me for the Lumbee Tribe, the Lumbee. I love the Lumbee. And he was—he's really been very good. You know, we had a little dispute, but these are—you know, it's fine. He was—he's been really good. Thom has been very, very good, and I appreciate it very much. And he's been very strong on the Lumbee Tribe. And I think they're going to get out, and they're going to vote.
The Lumbees—you have some here. You have some of the leaders here. If you could, do you want to stand up, if you're there? It's really great. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Let them know we appreciate it.
We got to get every one of those 60,000 votes, or whatever, we got to get him for this guy. But the Lumbees have been great. I've been with him from the beginning. We got him across the finish line.
But I want to ask Michael to say a few words. He's just been an unbelievable warrior. And I said, "If I do this again, I'm going to get that guy in North Carolina who wouldn't let that
phony"—you know, they tried here too. They couldn't get away with it. They tried. He stopped it. He's a tough, strong guy. He's also a wonderful human being, a great—he's just a great person.
And I want to tell you, him and Lara Trump were—there's never been a better team. In fact, I said, "If you"—before he did this, I said, "If you had your choice for anybody to be your cochair, who would you pick?" He said, "I'd take Lara Trump again." Right?
Former National Republican Committee Chairman Michael Whatley. Yes, sir.
The President. You did say that. But I'd like to have Michael say—he's in a fight against a radical-left governor who did a shitty job for you. [Laughter]
And I really want you, either way—but either Governor—either Governor, because you have another Governor that's a Democrat. You know, every—virtually, I think every—every state run by a Democrat is a failure. Think of it. And now your State, with all these killings—I never heard of killings. But all of a sudden—and they came in through Biden with his open border craziness. And these are vicious people.
But I want this man to say just a few words because it's so important that he wins. You don't want to have a radical-left Senator that basically wants to have open borders, transgender for everybody, men playing in women's sports.
Michael, are you in favor of men in women's sports?
Mr. Whatley. I am not.
The President. Are you in favor of transgender for everybody?
Mr. Whatley. I am not.
The President. Are you in favor of open borders?
Mr. Whatley. No.
The President. Thank you. [Laughter] Say a few words.
Mr. Whatley. Thank you, sir.
You know, in 2015, Donald Trump came down that golden escalator, said he was going to make America great again, and he was going to do it by rebuilding our economy, restoring our borders, and making America respected around the world again. And I said, "I'm with that guy."
And we won in 2016, and we won in 2020. And thank the Lord that we won in 2024. And Donald Trump right now is serving as the most transformational President in our lifetime.
And, President Trump, my pledge to you is this: When I win this seat, when I am the next Senator from North Carolina, I am going to be a fighter every day for this great State. I am going to be a conservative champion for North Carolina. And I am going to be an ally to our great president, not just the 45th President, but the 47th President as well: Donald J. Trump.
The President. What a great guy he is. So get out and work for him. I hope you can get your group of about 70 women to go out and do it. We get all the Front Rows, and we got to win. He's just—he's a good man, and he represents your values. That, I can tell you.
But I also want to express my condolences to the people of this state and to the loved ones of NASCAR legend Greg Biffle, who perished yesterday in a tragic plane crash with his family in Statesville. I met him twice. He was just a great young man. And what a tragedy that is, with his whole family. So I just want to pay our condolences, our love, please. I'll tell you, North Carolina will never forget them. He was—and his family were incredible people.
Together, we've achieved more in less than one year than most other administrations achieved in 8 years, which is true. Most of them didn't achieve much. Within a matter of weeks, we ended the invasion of our southern border. For the past seven months, zero illegal aliens have been allowed into our country. Think of that. Zero. And that's made up by Democrats. A feat which everyone said was impossible.
Biden and the radical-left Democrats in Congress turned North Carolina into a dumping ground for tens of thousands of third-world migrants driving up your rent and your housing costs.
According to a Government report, over 60 percent of growth in the rental market came from foreign migrants, paid for by the Federal Government, by the way. Paid for by the Federal Government, you, the taxpayer.
Mass migration fueled mass inflation, but now we are fixing it, and we have record-setting deportations. And we're really focused on the bad people. We're really focused on the bad people. We have farmers who have—who are great people. They know what they're doing. But we're focused on the bad ones. We're getting the really—we're getting the murderers, the drug dealers. We're getting the ones from prisons. We're getting them the hell out of here. We're focused very strongly on that.
For the first time in 50 years, we're seeing reverse migration as migrants go back home. We're saying, "Go back home, please." And we want the bad ones to go back home, because those are the ones that cause the problem.
And think of Washington, DC. So—I mean, outside of the terrorism attack from 3 weeks ago. And by the way, that young, beautiful man is doing well. You know, they—we thought we lost both of them, and we lost one, who's looking down on us right now. But looks like he just stood up. Can you believe it? He stood up today for the first time. Two great people.
Sarah is looking down on us from Heaven. She was incredible, doing so well. But he's doing—they were both about the same. We thought we lost both of them. Hit in the same area, if you can believe it. He was hit hard. But he's—and his mother, Monica [Melody; White House correction], I spoke to her the night of. "Sir, he'll be okay." Every doctor was saying he doesn't have much of a chance. And she said: "Sir, I'm telling you, I know my boy. He's going to be fine." I can't believe it.
And literally—actually, yesterday—he stood up, and he's talking a little bit. I mean, the whole thing is incredible. The mother—I've never seen anybody—I never saw anything like it. She was so positive. She said: "I'm praying, and everybody is praying. The whole country is praying. And there's no way he's going to have any problem. He's going to be just fine." It was—it's not even that he was going to make it. It was like, "He's going to be fine." Incredible person.
In the year before my election, all net job creation was going to foreign migrants. All of it, a hundred percent. Since I took office, 100 percent of all net job creation has gone to American-born citizens.
The migrant invasion also brought massive crime. What's happening with the killings in North Carolina is indescribable. I mean, for the first time, you're in national news all the time with the killings. That's because you're run by Democrats.
Two weeks ago, an illegal alien from Honduras, who entered under Biden, walked onto a train in Charlotte with a large knife and brutally stabbed a passenger multiple times in the chest. The same savage criminal alien had previously been arrested 2 months earlier, but he was released by authorities to pillage and kill, which he did.
Also recently in this State—you saw this one; nobody could watch it—another monstrous criminal with 14 prior arrests plunged a knife into the throat of an innocent young, beautiful
girl—Ukraine; she was from Ukraine—who was sitting on a train. You could see all—she was scared to be there. You could see that, right? Everybody knows what I'm talking about. She was—she walked onto the train. She was afraid to be there.
What happened to North Carolina? You didn't have that condition. And then she was attacked from behind, violently, by this savage. No one can ever forget that look of shock and terror on the young woman's face. It happened so fast. As her murderer walked down the train car dripping with blood all over, passengers are looking at him. They're saying, "What is that?" There's blood pouring out of—from every part of him, from the knife.
For years, radical-left politicians have been releasing bloodthirsty violent offenders and criminal aliens back onto your streets. Under our leadership, we're finally getting illegal aliens and vicious felons off the streets and throwing them out of our country, or, in some cases, putting them in the toughest jails in the world, because, frankly, we don't want to let them into their country because we don't want to take a chance that these animals will come back. We're restoring law and order in America.
We just made a record investment in our military and gave every servicemember a warrior dividend of $1,776—1776.
And I'm also pleased to announce that just 2 hours ago we hit the ISIS thugs in Syria who were trying to regroup after their decimation by the Trump administration 5 years ago. We hit them hard. I ordered a massive strike on the terrorists that killed our three great patriots last week—two soldiers, one interpreter, all great people. And it was very successful. It was precision. We hit every site flawlessly, and we are restoring peace through strength. We—all over the world.
I settled eight wars in 10 months; destroyed the Iran nuclear threat; ended the war in Gaza; and got the release of hostages, both living and dead; and created peace in the Middle East. We have peace in the Middle East. First time in 3 years, peace in the Middle East.
I cut Federal funding for any school that pushes critical race theory or transgender insanity.
And we completely banned the chemical and surgical mutilation of children. Can you believe I'm standing here, 2025, talking about "I banned the surgical mutilation of children"? Could you imagine 15 years ago saying that? People would say: "This guy is crazy. What the hell is he talking"—the surgical mutilation of children. I banned it. And it's a wonderful thing I did.
But can you imagine having to even say it? Or can you imagine having to say that we are keeping men out of women's sports? Frankly, that's less important, if you want to know the truth, but it's very important. The surgical mutilation, I had to ban, and I did. I banned it.
But we're also keeping men out of women's sports. Have you seen some of these records?
Have you seen the long-distance race? One of these races go all day. They had champion women. They had some very good men. But not the champions. And one man won the race by 5 hours and 14 minutes and 12 seconds. Five hours 14 minutes. Think of that. Won the race by 5 hours. What do you do? Your parents go back home, go to sleep for a few hours, and come back and meet your daughter, and she's supposed to be thrilled? What kind of crap is that?
Or the weightlifting records, where people that never lifted a weight before are going into the women who are fighting national championships, almost Olympic championships, and they're lifting 112 pounds more and they've never done it before? Or the boxers that are getting decimated.
You saw the Olympics, where they had two people that they converted to—from men to women. They did a conversion. And the one young woman from Italy, a championship boxer, she got hit by a left jab. A left jab, for those that don't do the—it's just like a defensive punch. She got
hit. She walked to her corner, and she said: "I've never been hit like that. I quit." Then they said: "No, no, go out. You can do it." And then he gave her another left jab. That was it. And she said: "Nope. I can't do it."
It's so—it's so demeaning to women. And they don't stop. I saw the other day on one of the shows, I think "Meet the Fake Press." [Laughter] I'm pretty sure it was that stupid show. And—and they had a congressman that you all know, a Democrat, saying, "No, no, we have to allow men to play in women's sports." Where do these people come from? Or how about open borders? They're fighting for open borders.
If I didn't get elected, our country would be ruined. We would have not had a country. I'm telling you—I'm not bragging about myself. I'm saying we would not have had a country. And now we have the greatest country in the world. I'm telling you, hottest. We're the hottest.
We're restoring the name of a great President, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley in beautiful Alaska. That—they took the name off, and they named it something else. And I renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Right? That was a good one.
Well, you know, I checked—I—for all—my whole life—I don't know, I guess I didn't do it on my first term because I was the hunted. I had bigger problems. I had these animals trying to attack me at Mar-a-Lago. They went into my wife's closet. And I'll say this—number one, it's very bad, but it sounds a little strange: They looked at her drawers. [Laughter] You have drawer, and then you have drawer. They looked at both. And she's a very meticulous person, you know? Like these people, just like—she'd fit into your group very well. You'd be very happy with her.
But everything is perfect. Her undergarments—I want to use a nice—sometimes referred to as panties—[laughter]—are folded perfect, wrapped. They're, like, so perfect. I said, "That's beautiful." You know, it's a part of the world she came from. Everything was perfect. No problem. Fold, fold, fold. I think that she steams them, makes sure—[laughter]—they're just sitting.
We came home. I wasn't there when the raid took place. The raid of a popular President, a former president. She opened the drawers, and it was not that way. They were a mess. It was all over the place. And she said: "Oh, what happened? That's so terrible." But it's terrible, they went into my young boy's room.
These thugs are disgusting, and we cannot let them get away with this stuff. We have all the evidence now. We have all the evidence, and we have to do something about it. We have to do something about it. It's illegal and it's disgusting.
You know, I brought a lawsuit, and I'm winning the lawsuit. There's only one problem: I'm the one that has to settle it. In other words, I am suing, and I'm the one that's supposed to settle it. So maybe I'll give myself $1 billion and give it all to charity. Does that make sense? You know, I'll give it to charity. Do you have any nice charities? I have to settle the lawsuit. There's never been a case like this. Trump sued—I sued a long time ago, and it's doing fine. It's a suit, and now, you know, we found all this stuff.
Did you see where the FBI didn't want to do it, but the Justice Department forced them to do it? The FBI guys didn't want to do it, but they—the thugs in the DOJ wanted to do it, so I sued them, and it's—and they do say that, you know, it's never been a case like this.
"Donald Trump sues the United States of America. Donald Trump becomes President. And now Donald Trump has to settle the suit." I hereby give myself $1 billion. [Laughter] Actually, maybe I shouldn't give it to charity. Maybe I should keep the money. No? No. A lot of people say, "Do it." No, I don't want to do it.
But whatever happens, it's all going to good charities. Is that okay? It's all going to good charities. But isn't that a strange position to be in? I've got to make—I've got to make a deal. I negotiate with myself. [Laughter]
From the skyscrapers of Charlotte to the rolling hills of Asheville, from the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk to the streets of Chapel Hill, and from the factories of Hickory to the small towns and family farms across your beautiful countryside in North Carolina, we are bringing prosperity, opportunity, and pride surging back to your incredible home.
Together, we're pairing all these people together. You're coming together. You know, it's coming together like nobody has ever seen, but we're fixing 4 years of disaster and decline. The whole world was laughing at us for 4 years. They were laughing, taking advantage of us, friend and foe. And the friend was worse than the foe, in many cases. On trade, they were worse.
And we're beginning the greatest years in the history of our country. It's called the golden age of America. That's what's happening. We're right now—we were a dead country. Now we're talking about the golden age of America. Think of it. In 10 months—think of that.
So, in conclusion, tonight, after just 11 months, our border is secure, our spirit is restored, inflation is stopped, wages are up, prices are down, our nation is strong, and America is back.
And every single day of this administration, we will keep on working for the hardworking citizens of America. We will fight, fight, fight. We will win, win, win. And with your help, 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, North Carolina. God bless you all. And merry Christmas. Thank you.
NOTE: The President spoke at 8:59 p.m. at the Rocky Mount Event Center. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Joshua H. Stein of North Carolina; former Gov. Roy A. Cooper III of North Carolina, in his capacity as a North Carolina Democratic senatorial candidate; President Emmanuel Macron of France; Sen. Elizabeth A. Warren; Decarlos Brown, Jr., suspect in the fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte Area Transit System light-rail train in Charlotte, NC, on August 22; Daniel N. Rosen, U.S. attorney, District of Minnesota; Adnan Hirsi, son of Rep. Ilhan A. Omar; Gov. Timothy J. Walz of Minnesota; Michael J. Lindell, founder and chief executive officer, MyPillow; George R. Stephanopoulos, coanchor, ABC's "Good Morning America" program; former Gov. Christopher J. Christie of New Jersey, in his capacity as a political commentator for ABC News; Sen. Raphael G. Warnock; David Ellison, founder and chief executive officer, Paramount Skydance Corp., parent company of CBS; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene; San Diego, CA, resident Blake Marnell; former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her capacity as the 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee; former Vice President Kamala D. Harris, in her capacity as the 2024 Democratic Presidential nominee; W. Franklin Graham III, president and chief executive officer, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; Sean P. Hannity, host, Fox News Channel's "Hannity" program; Jesse Watters, host, Fox News Channel's "Jesse Watters Primetime" program; Laura Ingraham, host, Fox News Channel's "Ingraham Angle" program; Gregory J. Gutfeld, host, Fox News Channel's "Gutfeld!" program; Michael S. Dell, chairman and chief executive officer, Dell Technologies, and his wife Susan; Elon R. Musk, chief executive officer, SpaceX; Sean M. O'Brien, general president, International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Sens. Ted Budd and Thomas R. Tillis; Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, USAF, a member of the West Virginia National Guard, who was shot in an ambush-style attack during a patrol near the White House in Washington, DC, on November 26; Oscar Solarzano-Garcia, suspect charged in the stabbing of Kenyon Dobie on a Lynx Blue Line light rail train in Charlotte on December 5; Italian Olympic boxer Angela Carini; and Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif. He also referred to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on December 22.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Rocky Mount, NC. Locations: Rocky Mount, NC.
Names: Berger, Phil; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Biffle, Greg; Brown, Decarlos, Jr.; Budd, Ted; Carini, Angela; Chavez-DeRemer, Lori M.; Christie, Christopher J.; Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Cooper, Roy A., III; Davis, Donald; Dell, Michael S.; Dell, Susan; Dobie, Kenyon; Ellison, David; Graham, W. Franklin, III; Greene, Marjorie Taylor; Gutfeld, Gregory J.; Hannity, Sean P.; Hardin, Austin; Harris, Kamala D.; Hirsi, Adnan; Ingraham, Laura; Kennedy, Robert F., Jr.; Khelif, Imane; Knott, Brad; Lindell, Michael J.; Macron, Emmanuel; Marnell, Blake; Moore, Tim; Musk, Elon R.; O'Brien, Sean; Omar, Ilhan; Pulte, Bill; Rosen, Daniel N.; Solarzano-Garcia, Oscar; Stein, Joshua H.; Stephanopoulos, George R.; Thurston, Carolyn; Thurston, Charles; Tillis, Thomas R.; Trump, Kai M.; Trump, Lara J.; Trump, Melania; Walz, Timothy J.; Warnock, Raphael G.; Warren, Elizabeth A.; Watters, Jesse; Whatley, Michael; Whitley, Heather; Wolfe, Andrew; Wolfe, Melody.
Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; Automobiles and automobile parts, tariffs on imports into U.S.; Border security; Child savings accounts; Christmas; COVID–19 pandemic; District of Columbia, law enforcement improvement efforts; District of Columbia, shooting of National Guard servicemembers near White House; Economic improvement; Egg prices; Electricity capacity, expansion efforts; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Federal Housing Finance Agency; Federal workforce, reduction efforts; Fox News; France, President; Gasoline costs; Geographic names, efforts to restore American greatness; Health care costs and affordability; Household income and wages; Illegal immigration; Inflation; Iran, U.S. airstrikes on nuclear facilities; Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization; Israel-Hamas cease-fire agreement implementation; Job creation and growth; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; Minnesota, Governor; Minnesota, Somali immigrants; Mortgage rates; News media, fairness and accuracy; North Carolina, Governor; North Carolina, Hurricane Helene, damage and recovery efforts; North Carolina, knife attacks on light-rail commuter trains in Charlotte; North Carolina, President's visit; Oil and gas drilling, Federal oversight and regulation; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Pennsylvania, 2024 assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump in Butler; Prescription drug costs, reduction efforts; Republican National Committee; Research and development; Secretary of Health and Human Services; Secretary of Labor; Semiconductor manufacturing; Syria, death of U.S. servicemembers in Palmyra; Tariffs; Tax Code reform; Transgender athletes, efforts to restrict participation.
DCPD Number: DCPD202501214.