Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
May 6, 2026
The First Lady. Good afternoon, and welcome to the White House. I would like to extend warm welcome to our Vice President, J.D. Vance, and his wife, Usha. Welcome.
It is our pleasure to join today by Secretary McMahon, Mrs. Hegseth, and I'm also honored to welcome Mrs. Melody Wolfe and Lorraine Hoak.
And to my Chief of Staff, Hayley Harrison, who is preparing to welcome her second child onto the world. Hayley, you're a wonderful mother, and I wish you and your growing family all great things.
I often think about the brave people who make the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. When I went to honor the fallen servicemembers from the 103d Sustainment Command at Dover Air Force Base last March, I realized that words cannot comfort the all-consuming grief that family members, and mothers, in particular, experience. The loss is overwhelming.
Although I understand the deep pride these families feel in their loved ones' service to our great Republic, I cannot fathom the depth of their sorrow.
A mother is awestruck when the welcome—when she welcome her child into the world. After 9 months, the miracle of life creates a fascinating bond between mother and child. With each breath, day by day, this bond deepens, bringing forth emotions never felt before. Quite frankly, these are emotions understood only by women. Only a mother can carry this type of powerful connection with her child, which is also too profound for words.
This is a time of military conflict for America, and whereby we honor our selfless and valiant servicemembers regularly. Today is the day we hold their mothers in the highest regard. It is these military mothers who find themselves alone, awake in their thoughts in the darkest hours of the night. Of course, we must also remember the mothers with a spouse overseas, praying for safe return so their family can become whole once again.
At the very heart of America's strength lies the boundless love and quiet power of mothers. We are the most devoted teachers: gently nurturing empathy, inspiring dreams, and guiding our children towards goodness. We help them rise with courage when life grows difficult.
In every hug, every story read at bedtime, and every sacrifice made without complaint, mothers build the moral foundation of our families. In doing so, America's mothers help build the soul of our Nation. I pray you find enduring strength as your loved one serves in defense of our freedom.
Most know my husband as a strong Commander in Chief, but his empathy transcends the role—[laughter]—and shape a caring leader who constantly remembers each and every American soldier is someone's child.
Distinguished guests, please join me with a warm welcome for our President, Donald J. Trump.
The President. Good job. Thank you.
The First Lady. Thank you.
The President. That's good.
Thank you, honey. Great job.
So I want to thank everybody for being here. We've—have so many things to talk about, but there's nothing more important than military moms, that I can tell you. Because without you, I don't think we'd would be in this house. I don't think this house probably ever would've been built a long time ago. So important.
I want to start off by saying we—we're in—our great Vice President's right here, and we're in a—I call it a "skirmish" because that's what it is. It's a skirmish. And we're doing unbelievably well, as we did in Venezuela, where it was rapid—over in 1 day. And we're doing pretty much equally as well, I would say. Larger, but we're doing very well in Iran. It's going very smoothly, and we'll see what happens.
They want to make a deal, they want to negotiate, and I think that military mothers would want to hear that. Do you agree? I think that's appropriate. Somebody was saying, "Ooh, that's not appropriate." I think military mothers want to hear about this stuff.
And we have the greatest—and we have the greatest—we have the greatest military that we've ever had. We have the greatest military in the world by far. There's nobody even close. And I think we've displayed that.
I built the military in my first term, much of it. It was—when I inherited the military, it was like when I inherited the border. The border was a mess, and the military was a mess. A lot of you know that, because you were there to witness it. And now we have the strongest military that we've ever had. We're just getting a approval—a $1.5 trillion—to upgrade our military still further.
But when I was spending all that money in my first term—it was a great term, a very unbelievable term—we had the best—we had the best economic numbers that the country has ever had. Now we're going to blow them away. We're blowing them away right now.
But I built the military in my first term with the help of a lot of great admirals, generals, and everybody else. And I didn't know we'd be using it quite so much, but that's okay, in whatever it is. Because in the case of Iran, we're not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And we're not going to let that happen, and we won't let that happen.
And so, we're dealing with people that want to make a deal very much, and we'll see whether or not they can make a deal that's satisfactory to us. We have it very much under control.
The blockade is unbelievable. The Navy's been incredible, the job they did. It's like a—it's like a wall of steel. Nobody goes through. In particular, the Iranians, they're not getting anything through one way or the other. So, they're out of business. And we'll see whether or not they are agreeing. And if they don't agree, they'll end up agreeing shortly thereafter. [Laughter]
So, that's the way it is. And I thought you might want to have a little rundown. Now, the fake news is all happy because—[laughter]—they can hear what we had to say.
And I have to say, J.D. is doing a fantastic job. He's working with us, with him and—[applause]—him and all of the team. Marco, and we have Steve Witkoff, Jared. We have a whole group. The generals—and General Caine has been fantastic. Pete Hegseth, incredible. We have just a great group of people.
CIA, John Ratcliffe. He's great. I think Mrs. Ratcliffe is even here someplace. And are you here, Mrs. Ratcliffe? I think somebody said—yes.
But we have amazing people. We have an amazing military, and I think it's on display.
Sometimes you'd rather not have it be on display, but they're there for a purpose. And the greatest
military anywhere in the world, and the world is watching us as we do our thing. And we have the respect of the world, which we didn't have.
Two years ago, we were a laughingstock all over the world. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world in every way. So, I just want to congratulate you all because you're a big part of it.
And I want to thank you, Melania. Amazing, the job you've done. She did a little movie, and it became the number one movie. Now, you know—and I can't exaggerate, because if I did, they would be all over. "It wasn't number one. It was number two. It was number five. It"—[Laughter]. So I can't, I have to be very, very careful with it.
And then it went streaming. This is a word—a different world. I didn't even know what they were talking about. [Laughter] They said, "Oh." And it became number one streaming too. So, congratulations. That's an amazing achievement.
And most importantly, and most importantly to her, she's done an incredible job as First Lady, and she's an incredible mom. She has a little boy who's quite tall. [Laughter] He's a little boy to us, but he's quite tall, right? And he's great—Barron. And she takes great care of him, and thank you. Great mom.
Today we're honored to welcome the—to the White House a group of strong and resilient women who represent the best of our country: the amazing military mothers. So important. And we want to thank you all for being here. So many of you I know or recognize, and I want to thank you very much, because there's nothing like the White House, right? Is it the coolest?
And, by the way, right behind me, see that? You call it a window or a drape. I call it a knockout panel. [Laughter] Because, behind that—in fact, if you want to see it, I think we could work it out—but behind that window is a—and drape—in fact, the drapes are so nice, I think I'm going to leave them. [Laughter] How am I going to get a nicer something than that? But that's the entrance to the new ballroom that's being built, which will be—see.
Which everybody—which everybody likes. Especially since last Saturday evening, they like it even more—[laughter]—because it'll have a thing called security. It'll be nice. But right back there is where we're building. So, if you hear any pounding noises, the pile drivers are out.
It's already up to the first floor. But we're a little bit ahead of schedule, right on budget. But it's going to be something great. It'll be one of the most beautiful buildings of its kind anywhere in the world.
And, you know, for 150 years, Presidents have wanted a room. This is the ballroom right here. This is—and it's too small. We had the King and Queen of a lovely country, the United Kingdom. And I had—we would have had at least a thousand—everybody wanted to be here. And we had 112 people. Because this is a lovely room, but it's not big enough. It's got one—and it's been that way for many, many years. So every President has been calling.
But I was in a position, being a builder and having built many ballrooms and many other things—I'm good at ballrooms. [Laughter] And we're giving you the—I believe it's the best—it'll be the best ever built. And it will have windows that are thicker than any ballroom I've ever built. [Laughter]
I used to—I usually have glass that's about a quarter of an inch thick. This is about 6 inches thick. [Laughter] This can repel a lot of different—a lot of different weapons.
But it's going to be incredible. It's going to be—aside from being secure, it's going to be the most—I think it's going to be the most beautiful ballroom ever built. And it's something that the White House has needed, that Presidents have needed. And it's an honor to be involved. And
it's—it really has become very popular. When people see the design, they really like it. And it's been great. Gotten some great reviews.
Also with us is Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, my friend who's done such a fantastic job, wherever you are, Linda. Hi, Linda. She's great. What a job. Along with Jennifer Hegseth. Jennifer. Hi, Jennifer. He's doing some job, I'll tell you. He's doing a job.
You know, he stood up—he was the only one—he was standing up in the ballroom the other day in the event—the White House—we call it—they call it the White House Dinner. You know, they were saying, "Can you use"—well, when you use that term, I guess you probably can use it, but we had a little dinner the other night, and your husband was standing on the top of a table.
Everyone else was under the table. [Laughter] So, that's what we want of our Secretary of War, right? We want somebody—
But he was standing on top of the table. Everyone else was under the damn table. Anyway, he's doing a fantastic job. He and the general—those are great news conferences. We like them. They work very well together, I can tell you.
The wife of Pete Hegseth. And well, say hello to Pete.
Michele Ratcliffe. Michele. Where is Michele? I think she's here someplace. Michele.
And—the wife of CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
And Jacquie Emmer. Jacquie, you are so great. Jacquie—I know Jacquie, well because her husband and I—we didn't know each other. We fought. You know, in politics, you can fight. [Laughter] And then when we got to know each other, we love each other, right?
But she always liked Trump. [Laughter] And she convinced her husband, who's a big power in the House. She convinced her husband that Trump was much better than he thought. [Laughter] And I remember you. I like you. Now I really like him. He's an incredible—[laughter]—but I like you more, and I'm always—because you were there long before him.
Right? But, Jacquie, you're great. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.
And, as you know, Tom Emmer is the House Majority Whip. And he is a fantastic person. Real leader. Comes from an interesting place—a place that's under investigation by our great Vice President. They're finding a lot. And Tom Emmer was one of the biggest complainers about what was going on in Minnesota and lots of other places.
I also want to say a special thank you to the many moms among our fantastic military aides and social aides who support us here at the White House. They've been incredible. All of you have been so incredible, and I want to thank you very much for being with us today. It's beautiful.
The women in this room have sacrificed for our country in countless ways. Among you are veterans and active duty servicemembers, proud spouses, and the parents of those who serve in uniform—amazing people—the most amazing people.
Many of you have missed cherished moments, and you really have. You've spent so much time taking care of the ones you love. You've missed holidays, birthday parties, graduations, or even a child's first words.
Others have moved more times than anybody can even count. And I don't know if you love doing it or not, but you get very good at it. [Laughter] You have the way. You know the way.
You know the way to do it.
But you do it all because you love America, you love our country. And this week, as we prepare to celebrate Mother's Day, we take this opportunity on behalf of all of us to say thank you very much for the incredible job. You do it with love, so it's not—I don't think—there's no such thing as a job if you love it, but we'll call it a job nevertheless.
The job you do is incredible, and everybody respects you so much. You have no idea. So, I just want to thank you all, and thank you all for being here.
Joining us is someone who knows the incredible sacrifice of service: Brittany Stevenson from Camp Lejeune. That's a hell of a camp. [Laughter] That's beyond a camp. Word—the word "camp"—I don't know. [Laughter] It doesn't look like a camp to me. [Laughter]
Her parents were both marines. And in 1983, her dad survived the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut. We talk about that even to this day. That was something. Brittany loved the Marines so much that she married a Marine herself, and—the love of her life, Taylor.
Over 15 years, her family has moved 10 homes—10 different homes and been assigned to 6 duty stations from all over the world. And now her daughter Ava is part of the Marine Corps Junior ROTC program and wants to become a marine as well.
So, Brittany, your family is a definition of "Semper Fi" and "Always Faithful." And I want to thank you. Where are you? Where are you? Please stand up.
Would you like to come up and say—come here, Brittany. Come here. Come on. [Laughter]
Marine Corps spouse Brittany Stevenson. Oh, gosh. Thank you. I'm not really sure what to say, but this is such an honor and a privilege to be here. I'm truly touched to represent my family, the Marine Corps, Camp Lejeune, and military moms and spouses like you all. So, thank you.
The President. Great. Great job.
Ms. Stevenson. Thank you so much.
The President. Thank you. Good job.
She had no idea she was going to be doing that. [Laughter] But I looked at her. I said: "She looks so great, I'm going to get her up here, right?" [Laughter] That was beautiful. Thank you very much.
As Melania mentioned, we are also honored to be joined by a military mother who sacrificed far more than most. That's Melody Wolfe. And, you know, I love the name Melody, because for a long time—you know they have spell-correct and word-correct on these crazy machines that we use to put out truths, or—they used to be called "tweets." And every time I wrote "Melania," it would correct to "Melody." [Laughter] So I'd do thing—and I very fast. Very fast. [Laughter]
[At this point, the President mimicked typing.]
Ba, la, la, la, la. And I'd talk about her, and I'd say: "And Melania is fantastic, and happy Mother's Day, Melania. Our great First Lady, Melania." But it would spell-correct and word-correct to "Melody." [Laughter]
And sometimes I wouldn't proofread it, and I'd say, "Hmm." And I would get just absolute decimated. These people would decimate—[laughter]. They said: "He didn't know the name of his wife. He keeps calling her"—and I said: "What the hell is wrong with this machine?" [Laughter] I didn't know about that little feature, but I got that corrected eventually. You know who corrected? The military. I said: "Come here. You got to correct this. You're killing me." I took more abuse. She's been called "Melody" a lot. [Laughter] Anyway. I had to explain it to you this way. I stood up here to explain it to you. [Laughter] I apologize.
Last year, Melody's 24-year-old son, Andrew Wolfe of West Virginia National Guard, was on patrol in Washington, DC, helping to restore law and order to our capital city. And I spoke to her. This woman is amazing. Along with her [his; White House correction] comrade, Specialist
Sarah Beckstrom—who is—just—was a fantastic person. He was ambushed by a terrorist and shot in the head. A violent, horrible person did this. Nobody thought Andrew was going to make it.
But Melody told me—and I called her that evening in the hospital—"Sir, I have no doubt—the doctor's said he won't be making it." And, as you know, Sarah passed away also from a shot to the head by these people—these horrible, horrible people.
But Melody was the one person—in fact, Melody's husband, who's great—he didn't feel the same way. But she said: "I have no doubt, sir. I'm telling you, he's going to be fine. Don't worry about it. He's going to be fine." I never saw anything—it was really a—pretty amazing. And she was right.
A week went by. Another week went by. I'd call. I'd say, "How's he doing?" "Sir, he's doing really well." And the doctors would say, "I think he maybe will make it." And she turned out to be right. It was sort of a miracle, actually. And I've never seen—you know, they talk about the power of positive thinking. I've never seen anything like this one. J.D., you wouldn't believe it.
He had no chance—I'm telling you—and she willed it. And now, it's really something very special that I think—I hear he's just doing fantastic. It was a Bible verse from the Book of Isaiah: "Do not fear, for I am with you."
With God's help, Andrew has made a really incredible recovery. It's hard to believe it. And during my State of the Union Address, we were privileged to award him the Purple Heart. This was a real Purple Heart. This was a terrible thing that happened.
And, Melody—where are you, Melody? There you are. Hi. I haven't seen you in a little while. But it's true, the story, right? [Laughter] You were the only one—you know that you were the only one. She was so positive. I don't think she heard anybody else.
And your husband's doing okay? And he feels much better about it.
Military mother Melody Wolfe. Oh, yes.
The President. He was not feeling too good—I think you should—do you want to say something about your boy and how—come on up here, Melody.
No, it's an amazing—it's such an amazing story. Such an amazing story. Come.
Ms. Wolfe. Thank you.
The President. We went through a couple of bad nights together, right?
Ms. Wolfe. Yes. I first want to say that we had the Nation behind us at a time when nobody thought our boy would make it. He was 24 years old. He was a young man on the streets of DC. A shot to the left part of his brain.
We have a strong faith in God, and God is what brought our son through this. He gave us an amazing backing. He gave us amazing doctors. He gave us amazing nurses, a—and our community—our Nation and our community, our—just all of the support, and the support of the White House medical staff.
The President. Incredible.
Ms. Wolfe. Anything that our son needed was met. We are just truly thankful.
And he—we're a little over 5 months. He came home from the hospital April 2, and he is now enjoying being home. He's getting back into playing golf. He loves cornhole, as you know. [Laughter]
The President. Oh.
Ms. Wolfe. Yes.
The President. That's right.
Ms. Wolfe. He loves doing so many activities. And so we're truly blessed that we're able to get him into some outpatient care closer to home. We do have another surgery coming up in September. And just recovery, in my—it's my understanding that will happen for quite some time. But I have no doubt that he will be a hundred percent back to Andrew within a few years: independent, driving, being a young bachelor again. So——
The President. Great.
Ms. Wolfe. Thank you so much.
The President. That's great. I'm so proud of you. Thank you.
Ms. Wolfe. I really want you to know, I pray for you every night.
The President. Wow.
Ms. Wolfe. Every night.
The President. That's nice of you. Incredible. That's incredible. That's incredible.
Nobody really can understand it, but I was with the general—who is fantastic, right?—and he said: "Not much of a chance, maybe no chance." I mean, I hate to say it even, but "no chance." They all said the same thing.
And she said: "No, God is with him. I'm telling you, President, God is with him. He's going to be okay." And I get reports that he's amazing, right? So congratulations. Thank you very much. It's—you taught us all something. Appreciate it.
Also joining us is an outstanding active-duty Air Force mom, Lieutenant Colonel Amanda Collazzo. She's an MQ–9 Reaper drone pilot—whoa, that's pretty good—[laughter]—an evaluator, a weapons officer, and desk officer at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. She has traveled to 20 countries, flown over 7,000 hours, and eliminated many high-value targets. She's a great, great talent, they say.
Our military is strong again, and as Amanda says to herself, and we are—as a nation, we are really respected again. She said that. And it's true. So, Amanda, thank you very much. Where are you, Amanda? Where are you? Where's—come on up here, Amanda. I got to do this.
You know, they're not—they're not expecting to, but they're doing very well. [Laughter] Come on up. That's great.
Lieutenant Colonel Amanda Collazzo, USAF. Thank you so much.
The President. Thank you very much. Thank you. Please.
Lt. Col. Collazzo. Well, thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Melania, for hosting this event. Thank you, Cindy, for inviting me out here.
I just want to say I'm proud to be an American. I am proud to serve our Nation in the world's greatest air force. Thank you for all of the moms out here and for your spouses, your kids, yourselves. So thank you all. And happy Mother's Day.
The President. Wow. That was very good. She's very sharp, isn't she? [Laughter] She'll be running for office someday. [Laughter] Huh? Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
As Commander in Chief, I will always support our great servicemembers and their families. We've invested a record-setting trillion, and now it's up to $1.5 trillion, and all built in the U.S.A., by the way. All right? So it's a lot of jobs too. You know?
Some people said I did it for that. Actually, I didn't. I did it for the military. But it's a byproduct. We have tremendous numbers of very talented people building all of the things that we do.
And we make the best equipment anywhere in the world by far. They're all ordering it for us. In fact, the—I've given a special edict that the defense companies who have the best equipment—they're not making it fast enough. And now they're all building plants all over the place. I said: "You're not allowed to buy back stock anymore." I told some of these people that are making millions and millions of dollars: "You've got to reduce your salary. I'm going to reduce your salary. You're going to put it into weapons." And it's been incredible, the spirit we have.
And they're building—some of them are building six, seven plants right now to make the Patriots and the Tomahawks. Tomahawks are unbelievable. Patriots, unbelievable.
We had—recently, we had 111 missiles shot at one of our very valuable objects—something called an aircraft carrier. Think of this: 111 missiles—high-range, high-quality speed missiles.
Very high, very fast, very top-of-the-line—111. Out of 111 missiles shot at a—you know, well, it used to be—you'd like to say a billion-dollar boat. Now they're about $18 billion. They're very expensive. But 111 coming at them at 3,500 miles an hour. All 111 were shot down and didn't even get close to the ship. And they're all laying at the bottom of the ocean, along with the Iranian navy. They're all laying very nicely under the water.
But think of that. Five years ago, a thing like that would've been impossible. Ten years ago, it's not even thinkable. Ronald Reagan actually thought of the concept—they called it "Star Wars," but it wasn't a concept that anybody thought would ever work.
But you know, you have these things coming at you, and we have the Patriots. The Patriots are the best of them, and we have other things also. But it's—when you think you hit a hundred percent of the missiles coming at it—it's not like: "Oh, let's let a couple get through. It's not that bad." One gets through, it's problems.
So we can do things today, and no other country has anything like that. They don't have anything with the power, with the strength, and with the—you know, it's accuracy, really. It's accuracy. Got to hit—it's like hitting a needle in a haystack, they were saying. And yet they do it every time. It's pretty amazing.
And we have the most talented people operating that equipment. For that, you have to be high-IQ and you have to have no choke, because you have about 12 seconds to make a decision and take the aim. And you have to be very good mathematically. You have to know what you're doing. You have to be very smart.
You have to see the education, the schools—they go to the best schools in the world. Some of them come out of—I know I called up a couple. I said, "Where did you go to school?" "I went to MIT." "Oh, good. That's good." [Laughter] So, it's—you know, we have a—it's a very different—frankly, it's a very different military, in many ways.
But we have invested a record-setting amount of dollars, and the U.S. Armed Forces is now stronger than it's ever been. And we're getting stronger and getting stronger, and it's so important. Every branch is setting records in recruitment.
And I'm very proud of the Space Force because that was a branch that—a new one that came up, and we were losing to Russia and to China in space. And we had it as part of the Air Force, but it wasn't really thought of—you know, once it's part of something.
And we put a great general in charge, and the Space Force is now leading the other countries—China, Russia, and there is no fourth really—and leading them by—we saw numbers the other day—leading—we're leading in space by so much. It's—we're never going to be caught. So, I'm very proud of Space Force.
First time that that's taken place—a new force. The last one was the Air Force, and this is—that was 78 years ago. So this is brandnew, and we're very proud of it. It's turned out to be—I think it's going to be one of our most important as time goes by. A lot of the things that you see—a lot of the accuracy of the weapons is caused because of what we created with Space Force, so we're very proud of that.
But every branch is setting records in recruitment. When—last year, if you remember before I came to office—actually, after the election it started picking up rapidly, to be honest with you. November 5, we had a little election. We did quite well. We won every swing State. We won the popular vote. We won everything. We won 87 percent of the counties. We won it all. But I will tell you, right after that election, it started.
But before that, we had the worst recruiting in the history of our country. People didn't want to be in the Armed Services. They also—they didn't want to be police. They didn't want to be firemen. They didn't want to be anything with a uniform representing our country. And it was the lowest number we've ever had.
And I can say very confidently that at this moment, we have the highest recruitment, the most successful recruitment for the military: Army, Navy—the Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Space Force, all of it. We have the highest recruitment, the best recruitment that we've ever had. We have lines of people wanting to get in. We're taking people based on their fitness and their quality. We're taking—you wouldn't believe what a—the difference it is.
And Washington, DC, as an example—and the—that's why it's so sad when Melody comes up and talks about that one event because, you know, the numbers in Washington, DC, are so incredible. The numbers have gone down from—we had a place that was so, so unsafe—our great capital—and now it's considered one of the safest cities anywhere in the United States.
We went to Memphis, and Memphis was a killing field practically. And now it's down. The numbers are down—crime—80 percent in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Governor called up. Jeff Landry. He said: "Sir, we have the Mardi Gras coming up, and we have a lot of crime in this city. Can you do something?"
And we put our people there, mostly National Guard, but whatever's necessary. And we have—crime was down 79 percent after 2½, 3 months.
And, by the way, if they had the brains in Chicago, they'd ask us to go there. We'll solve the problem for them very quickly. We'd go to San Francisco very quickly. San Francisco would be so easy for us. We'd go to New York and help them out. We'd love to help them out, and we'd get crime numbers down 70 percent, 80 percent, 90 percent in a matter of months.
We took it in—DC was really bad. I don't want to go into the numbers in terms of using the word "murder," but it was really bad. And it's gone from that to being—we're down 92 percent. And actually, I'm trying to figure out, you know, the 8 percent, who they are. One of the things we done—we did, and some people like it, but the numbers are—the numbers speak for themselves.
If you really get down, you see drug traffic coming into our country is way down. And by sea—by sea, by ocean, by the water. You know, a lot of people say: "What do you mean by sea? Is it 'see' like vision?" "No, it's 'sea,' s-e-a." But it's down 97 percent. Think of it: 97 percent.
For years, they'd grab a boat, and they'd bring them in, and they'd see a judge, and they let him out and the next day he's back in his country, bringing more drugs in. It—nothing worked. They were down nothing. Get worse, worse, worse.
Down 97 percent, and we're trying to figure who the 3 percent are, because we consider them to be maybe the bravest people anywhere in the world. You look at those boats—pewm, pewm. And you feel terribly except for one thing. Those boats—25,000 people die from just a couple of those boats—think of it—from drugs. Ruin families, ruin every—and when you see that, you say, "Thank you very much."
But drugs coming in by sea are down 97 percent. And now we've started the land force, which is much easier. And you'll hear some complaints from some people in—like representatives from Mexico and other places. But if they're not going to do the job, we're going to do the job. And they understand that.
So that's sort of the easy one by comparison to the sea. We had to do the sea first. You had no idea how much came in by water. And very little, almost nothing, is coming in right now.
They don't want to do that anymore.
But no one should ever doubt the resolve of America's military moms. They're incredible. From the start of our Republic down to today, our Nation's been strengthened by the love and devotion and the commitment of incredible women—these are really incredible—you are really incredible women—who've served our country, supported our troops, and poured out their care and compassion for this Nation that we all love.
So I just want to thank everybody, and happy Mother's Day. And God bless you all. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
Iran/Disposition of Nuclear Material
Q. Mr. President, can you tell us what you think about the—extracting the uranium from Iran?
The President. Oh, yes. We're going to get it.
Q. How will you get it, sir?
The President. We're going to get it.
NOTE: The President spoke at approximately 12:55 p.m. in the East Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio; U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steven C. Witkoff; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. J. Daniel Caine, USAF; King Charles III and Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom; Rahmanullah Lakanwal, suspected gunman in the shooting of West Virginia National Guard members Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, USA, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, USAF, who was wounded, in an ambush-style attack during a patrol near the White House in Washington, DC, on November 26, 2025; Jason Wolfe, father of Staff Sgt. Wolfe; and former U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. Raymond, USSF (Ret.). He also referred to his son-in-law, U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Jared C. Kushner. The First Lady referred to Lorraine Hoak, grandmother of Staff Sgt. Wolfe.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Military mothers, White House celebration; Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, White House.
Locations: Washington, DC
Names: Caine, J. Daniel; Camilla, Queen; Charles III, King; Collazzo, Amanda ; Emmer, Jacqueline; Emmer, Thomas E., Jr.; Hegseth, Jennifer; Hegseth, Peter B.; Kushner, Jared C.;
Lakanwal, Rahmanullah; Landry, Jeffrey M.; McMahon, Linda E.; Ratcliffe, John L.; Ratcliffe, Michele; Ratcliffe, Michele A.; Raymond, John W.; Rubio, Marco A.; Stevenson, Brittany; Stevenson, Taylor; Trump, Barron W.; Trump, Melania; Vance, James D. "J.D."; Witkoff, Steven C.; Wolfe, Andrew; Wolfe, Jason; Wolfe, Melody.
Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; Border security; Central Intelligence Agency; District of Columbia, shooting of National Guard servicemembers near White House; Illegal drugs, interdiction efforts; Iran, diplomatic engagement with U.S.; Iran, U.S. military operations; Job creation and growth; Joint Chiefs of Staff; Louisiana, Governor; Louisiana, law enforcement improvement efforts in New Orleans; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; Military families; Mother's Day; Secretary of Education; Secretary of State; Secretary of War; U.S. military readiness, improvement efforts; U.S. servicemembers, service and dedication; U.S. Space Force; U.S. Special Envoy for Peace; U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions; United Kingdom, King; United Kingdom, Queen; Vice President; White House Ballroom construction project.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600317.