Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
May 22, 2026
The President. Well, thank you very much, everybody.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. Thank you very much.
They said the weather was going to hold us back. No weather is holding us back. This—we wouldn't have missed this. This is great.
And I want to thank Jaxson Dart. This is going to be a future Hall of Famer in my book.
Thank you. Thank you, Jaxson. Great. He's right—lot of talent.
And a very special hello to a place that I really do love. It's called New York. We've got to straighten this place out.
But I'm thrilled to be back in this incredible State with the proud, hard-working patriots of—did you ever hear of Rockland County? Rockland County.
So I was born and raised in New York State, and my heart has always been here. I love this place. And we've got to straighten it out. We've got to get it back. We've got to get it back. We're not going to let this happen, and we're sending a lot of money your way. We're going to see—we're going to get it back, but we need talent.
That's why we have some of the people that you see right here. We have a lot of talent—a lot of political talent.
From the beginning, this was a symbol of American excellence and American grit and, really, the American dream.
And New Yorkers are people who built Wall Street into the world's financial capital; who turned Broadway into the heart of American culture and entertainment; who dug the Erie Canal—you know what the Erie Canal is—it's big stuff; and launched a thousand innovations that built, really, the middle class. The middle class of our country. You really built the country.
Unfortunately, in recent years, this State has been held back by bad policies, bad politicians, and foolish, radical-left idiocy. It's crazy what's going on.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. But under the Trump administration, we're doing everything we can to bring New York back and bigger, better, stronger than ever before.
And I'll introduce him in a second, but you have a guy named Bruce Blakeman. Let me just tell you, he's a friend of mine for a long time. He won in landslides in Nassau County. I—you know, Nassau County, it's all Democrat. He's a Republican, and he won in landslides. And he just had the biggest election in the history of Nassau County as a Republican. Nobody—and he's very conservative, by the way. [Laughter] I don't want to scare you.
He's right here. Bruce, I'm going to introduce you in a second. You'd better get ready, Bruce.
Audience members. Bruce!
The President. He's going to win. He's going to win.
You know, when he ran—years ago, he ran in Nassau. They said: "You've got to be kidding.
It doesn't happen. No Republican wins in Nassau." And he ran, and he won.
And you'd better watch yourself. You'd better watch yourself, Kathy. You've got a race. Got a big race.
So we're going to start turning New York around. I'm going to work with Bruce. I'm going to work with the whole group in New York. We're going to work with Mike. Mike Lawler is fantastic. He's fantastic. He is a fantastic—I call him "Mr. SALT." He didn't stop. He wouldn't stop. He was driving us crazy, "We have to get SALT. We have to get SALT back." And he got it back. And he's a terrific guy. And you're lucky to have him.
I'll tell you, he loves you. He loves this place. Mike. Great. Great, Mike. It's—terrible things are happening. However, we have to take the good with the bad.
Companies are leaving. Rich people are leaving. People that pay a lot of money—all these rich companies—big, fat, beautiful companies, they have jobs and they have money, and they're taking—they're leaving. And nobody is stopping them from leaving.
New York can never—if we don't stop this—and I'm for you, and I'm helping you in Washington much more than I'm supposed to be helping you. I—believe me.
New York can never be the same if it's losing its tax base, and the people that pay 85 percent of the taxes are leaving, and we're taking in illegal immigrants. Oh, they're wonderful people and all, but they're not paying any—they're taking your money. Ai, yai, yai.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. They're taking your money.
The people that pay 85 to 90 percent of your taxes are leaving. And you know, when they go, they never come back. They never come back. Nobody calls them. Nobody does anything. Nobody talks to them. Nobody says: "Please don't leave. We'll give you a tax rebate. We'll do anything. Don't leave."
But they're leaving. They're going to Florida. They're going to Tennessee. They're going to Texas. They're going to South Carolina and North Carolina. They're going all over the place, but they're leaving, and we can't let it happen.
It's a great place. We can't—Bruce will stop it. Mike will stop it. They're all going to stop it.
They'll bring them back.
On top of that, the streets are dirty. The crime is out of control.
We have a family here that's so incredible. Really, two families. We have somebody else.
We're giving him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, something we've never done for this reason. But the mother is here of a great young man, and we're going to give him a very special honor.
The illegal aliens are all over the place. The people are getting shot left and right. The elections are rigged.
They don't have voter ID. They don't have proof of citizenship. Think of it. We want to get the SAVE America Act passed now.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. Think of the SAVE America Act. It's voter ID. Who's against voter ID? You ever see the Democrat National Convention? I call it the "Dumocrat." Dumocrat. They're Dumocrats. But you ever see it? They have cards on them for the Democrat National
Convention—cards, like, bigger than your chest: name, address, everything you want to know about a person. They might even have a Social Security number on there. [Laughter] They have—that's to get into their convention.
But for voting, you're allowed to go in. Right? It's horrible.
So it's voter ID. It's proof—a little thing called proof of citizenship. And it's—mail-in voting is a disaster.
If you have military, if you're going to be away, if you're not feeling well, if you're in any way disabled—absolutely, we have it. We'll be very generous. But generally, you've got to go and vote. Otherwise, it's a rigged system.
And that, in a nutshell, is the SAVE America Act. Not very complicated. Think of it: voter ID—think of it: voter ID, proof of citizenship, and mail-in ballots are gone except if you need it.
Now, I added two best-ofs. No men playing in women's sports. Has nothing to do with it. No men.
Like, I'm looking at Jaxson. I'd like to know: Is there any woman in the audience that thinks they can tackle that guy? Because I'd like to meet you. [Laughter] I'd like to shake your hand. I don't know.
Jaxson, you think you could play against women okay? Do you think you'd have any problem? I don't think so. But don't get involved, Jaxson. Don't get—he—don't get involved, Jaxson. Don't answer that question.
No, I'm looking at the legs on him. He's this beautiful guy. He's got legs like tree trunks. [Laughter] This is not a good thing for women. This would not be good. No, it's no good.
And we don't want open borders where prisoners pour in from other countries. All over the world, they pour in. We don't want open borders. We don't want sanctuary cities where you have sanctuary for criminals. We don't want transgender mutilization of your children, if that's okay. We don't want it.
But you know, I looked at a story—I read a story yesterday where the pharmacies—they're going out of business. They have glass all over the place. You want toothpaste, you have to open up—you have to get a clerk to open up the thing, and they open, and they hand them a toothpaste. And in the meantime, other people are waiting to steal it.
They've got a guy—they were saying a guy—right here, Mr. Lutnick said—Mr. Lutnick, he's a rich guy. But he was in a store, and he noticed when he was in a drug store, the people were with duffle bags. They're putting crap in a duffle bag and walking. And the clerk says, "You're not supposed to be doing that." And the kid said, "The hell with you." Walks out. And if the clerk does anything at all, they arrest the clerk. How screwed up is our country?
How the hell do you make your money if you've got to open up glass—expensive glass to give somebody a toothbrush or to give somebody some toothpaste? That does not sound like a good—that does not sound like a good business model. So you have empty stores.
The whole thing—we've got to change it. Now, the way you stop that—you know how you stop that? You come down hard on those people hard. Hard.
In 1 day, you'd solve that problem all over the country. You just come down so hard that they never forget it and they'll never do it again. They'll never do it again. It's horrible. What's happening is horrible.
And it's all in the blue cities. You know, it's all blue. The 25 worst cities are blue.
Blue means Dumocrat. Dumocrat. [Laughter] That's a new name I came up with. You've never heard. I was thinking about this character we have in the House. His name is Hakeem Jeffries.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. And he's a low-IQ person. Very low IQ. And I watched what he was saying and what—the horrible things he was saying. And I said, "He's a dumb guy." I said, "Wait a minute, he's a Dumocrat." That's how I got the name.
You take the "e" out. You don't use the "b." A lot of people don't know "dumb" has a "b" in it, actually. You don't need it. You discard the "b." But you take the "e" out and you replace it with a "u." They're Dum—they are Dumocrats. You know why? Because their policies are dumb. Their policies are very dumb. All of their policies.
Did you see they did an autopsy on why they lost the election? And they said: You lost the election because of Trump, primarily. But other than Trump, you lost the election because you had crappy candidates and you had bad policy and they didn't know how to speak properly and they weren't smart people and various other reasons.
They spent $10 million for the autopsy. It was called an "autopsy." And they had typos.
Jaxson, they had typos in every other sentence. They had misspelled words. They had commas in the wrong location—they gave them $10 million for the autopsy. I could have given him the autopsy without any charge at all. I said, "You had one candidate named Sleepy Joe Biden." [Laughter]
What's a better name: "Sleepy Joe Biden" or "Crooked Joe Biden"? Ready? Who likes "Sleepy Joe Biden"? [Applause]
Who likes "Crooked Joe Biden"? [Applause]
About—pretty similar. [Laughter] They're both pretty good. Who likes "Crooked Hillary"? Oh, she's good. Anyway.
But you know, we have another problem, because we have the great law enforcement—I met a lot of your law enforcement back there. They're incredible. But law enforcement—I love them. I got 99 percent of law enforcement vote. Can you believe it? And we're trying to figure out—we're trying to figure out who were the 1 percent. [Laughter] We want to figure out who the hell were the 1 percent. Who would vote for Kamala? Who would vote for Sleepy Joe?
Audience members. Boo!
The President. But even the police are leaving. They're going to Florida, Tennessee, Texas. They're going all over the place where they put them—really, where they give them respect. The respect—they have our respect. They have everybody in this room's respect.
But it's this radical turnaround. And we'd better do it fast because we're not going to have a New York left, and we've got to have New York left. And you really can.
Guys like Mike Lawler, guys like Bruce Blakeman—you put them in, they'll turn it around.
Bruce will go down to Florida, and he'll talk to all those companies that are leaving. You'll get them to come back. He's going to get them back. [Laughter] It's not easy. It's a lot easier to stop them from leaving, don't you think, Bruce?
So—but it's a campaign that I promised that I would cut taxes.
I had a big, beautiful campaign. We won in a landslide. We won every swing State. We won by millions of votes. We won the Electoral College in a fortune.
But we had another thing that we won: 86 percent of the counties in America. Think of it. That's why the map is all red except for two blue stripes. And those were rigged, by the way. They were rigged on the—they were rigged. We had rigged elections.
But I cut your taxes and cut the taxes on workers; families; small business, who are the soul of the State. And I made special promises that I would save you thousands of dollars a year by — and we did that—your State and local tax deductions. And what did we save? Your SALT deduction. We brought it back. Mr. SALT. Mr. SALT. Where's your hat, Mike? He's got a hat calling himself "Mr. SALT." There it is. It's beautiful. I bet it's—I think I'll take one of them.
But he did. He didn't stop. This guy was a pain in the ass. He was terrible. [Laughter] He didn't stop. But he did. You're lucky to have him in this community. That, I can tell you.
And—you had some good help from Republicans, right? Good help from Republicans.
But with the help of your great Congressman, we—it's what happened. We got your taxes cut not only from the standpoint of SALT, but your taxes were cut, your take-home pay has soared, and all of the other things that we did, when you look at what we've done.
And my motto was: "Promises made, promises kept."
And here in Rockland County, the typical owner—you know, your typical homeowner loses over $15,000 each year alone because of your State taxes. They're going to cut your State taxes in half—in more than half. They're going to—they will do things that you won't believe. And you know, the bottom line is the State itself will make more money than it made before.
I did it. I cut tremendous amounts of taxes in my first term. We had the greatest, most successful economy in history. And by the way, we're blowing it away in this term.
So today we just—an amazing thing happened. They said, "It couldn't happen for 4 years." An amazing thing: the Dow Jones hit 50,702. And the S&P is way over 7,000.
So these were two things that said—they said, "He won't be able to do"—when I first got elected, they said: "He won't be able to do that. There's no way he's going to be able to do that in his first term," which is my first term of numerous terms.
By the way, you know we're a three-term President. We just don't want the results. We don't want—we won three times, but we only want the results of the first and the third.
Audience members. Four more years! [Laughter]
The President. I know.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. We have a hat. The hat says: "Four More Years." It drives the radical-left lunatics crazy. [Laughter]
But we did all of the different things, and we've saved you from $10- to $40,000 a year, the people in Rockland.
On average, over 1 million New Yorkers claimed the deduction this year. You're able to write off nearly $22,000 on average, putting thousands of dollars back in your pockets.
And these are all Republican tax cuts. The Democrats voted against every one of these tax cuts. Every one. They voted, as an example, in favor of open borders. They voted against the border. They voted against the wall. They voted against——
Audience members. Boo!
The President. They voted against the sanity of—when we talk about men playing in women's sports. I'll tell you how ridiculous it is. That's why I love having Jaxson, because it's so easy. I just say, "How would you like to play against him?"
But we have even better, Jaxson. We have a weight lifter. He was a failed male weightlifter. And then he decided to—he decided to transition to the other side. And they had a major, major contest, an Olympic tryout. And they had a young woman who was really good. She was one of the greatest ever. And she could lift 204 pounds over her head.
And the record stood for 17 years, Jaxson. Seventeen years. And she was going to break the record. It was a big record, but she was going to break it. And they took an eighth of an ounce and they put it on one side, and they took an eighth of an ounce and they put it on the other side. And her parents were right where you are.
You beautiful parents, right? Are you parents? Yes. Even if you weren't, I'll say you are. [Laughter] Not her. Good job you did. Good job, Mom.
And they had this beautiful young weightlifter. Female. Real female. Real. [Laughter] This was a real female. So she had an eighth of an ounce, an eighth of an ounce. She had, like, 208 pounds, and she was going to do it. And her parents were so proud. Her father knew she couldn't do it, but the mother—thought she would. [Laughter] That's typical mother. The father was sort of not so sure. He loved his daughter, but he wasn't sure.
And she bent over and she lifted that sucker. And she pulled it up and she was getting close.
And she could barely—and the mother was screaming—"Come on, darling, you can do it." Seventeen years it stood. "Come on, darling, you can do it." And she got the—and she got it up to here, Jaxson.
[At this point, the President mimicked holding a barbell.]
She—[Laughter]—she was almost—"Come on, darling," the mother. The father was almost bored because he knows she's not going to do it. [Laughter] And the mother is screaming, "Come on, darling! I love you so much." "Mom, I love you. I love you." And she couldn't do it. Boom. It dropped.
[The President mimicked dropping a barbell.]
And then, in steps this young transitioned person. You know, I've gotten very good with the words. It took me a long time. I used to get criticized. He was a transitioned person, and he stepped up.
Now, he was a failed—lowest of the low for the male weightlifters. And he stood over that weight. He looked at it.
[The President mimicked lifting a barbell.]
[Laughter] He could have done it four or five times. You know, he could—he broke the record by over a hundred pounds.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. Isn't this ridiculous? Isn't this——Do you want to hear the swimming story or not? Audience members. Yes!
The President. You know, my wife, the great First Lady, number one—[applause]—number-one movie. You believe it? I don't like that. I don't like success for people in the family. [Laughter] No, you can only have—remember this—one star in a family. It doesn't work with two. [Laughter]
No, she did a movie. Number-one movie. You saw that. Then it went streaming. The new thing—streaming. It was number-one streaming.
But she says: "Darling, please. You speak so beautifully. Would you do me a favor? Don't do the swimming story. Don't do the weightlifting story. It's so damn un-Presidential. And also, darling, when you're leaving and they have that song"—the gay national anthem, if you remember. [Laughter] That's why I did so well with the gay vote, I think, because of that song. I did great with the gay vote—better than any Republican has ever done by far.
But my wife, the First Lady, very elegant woman—that's why people love—the women went to see that movie 15 times.
Okay, ready? She said: "Darling, don't dance. Okay? It's not Presidential. Don't do the weightlifting thing. It doesn't look good. Don't do the swimming thing."
So I'll do the swimming thing too. [Laughter] All right. I'll do the swimming.
No, a young Olympian, very beautiful Olympian swimmer. And, you know, it's sort of like the pyramid. All the great people, they swim against each other from the time they're 5 years old. You know, it just works that way. They're better, whether it's golfers or players, baseball, football, football players—you were great when you were 4 years old. You could throw a ball better than anybody else. But the truth is, it always works that way.
And this young woman looking for the Olympics. And she knows all the girls on the right and all the girls on the left. And she stands, and she's so proud. She wants to qualify. And she's really a champion swimmer.
And she looks to the left—you've heard this story—and she sees six girls, and she knows every one of them. She looks over there, you know: "Great. That's good. Hi. Hi. How you doing?" She hates them because, you know, they're competitors. But she says hi.
Then she looks to the right, and she sees six people, and she knows five of them, but there's a person just on her right who's gigantic. [Laughter] It's a gigantic person. And she's looking up at him—at her. Excuse me. [Laughter] That could be the end of my political career. [Laughter] That could be.
You cannot do that. You cannot—you cannot say "looking up at him," because—so, she's looking up at her. "Oh, my gosh. He's so—she's so big. I've never seen anybody"—and he has a wingspan sort of the size of Shaquille O'Neal.
Audience member. [Inaudible]
Audience members. Boo!
The President. Ah, go home to mom. Go home to mom. Go home to mom.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. Take him home to mommy. He's going to be in trouble. You know, what he doesn't say is his mom is watching on television right now, and she's loving it.
Anyway. So you have this person, and you know what happened. The story is very, very famous, actually, that she was very severely injured. You know what injured her? Windburn, because he went by her so fast—[laughter]—that she got tremendous windburn in the pool.
And then he finished up the race, and he rested while the other girls came in. And it was a very sad event, a very sad occasion.
But to think that we actually—15 years ago, 20 years ago, could you imagine saying, "We will not allow men to play in women's sports"? Could you imagine saying that transition—can you imagine saying, "We will not allow the mutilization of your children"? If you said that, they'd say, "What's wrong with that person? Why are they talking that way?"
Today, you have to say it, because they do allow in certain places still—we've cut a lot of it out, most of it—they allow the mutilization of your children. And we don't allow that stuff, and we're going to get it the hell out of here.
Whatever happened to that guy? It's so quick. I don't know. I tell people: "Please, don't do it. It's dangerous." To do it at—to do it in this crowd is not a good thing. You don't want to do it in Trump crowds.
I've had very little—do you remember, originally, I used to have a lot of that? You know, the first couple of months, I'd have people screaming, and they learned it's just not a good thing to do. [Laughter] It's not good. It's sort of dangerous. And of course, I like things that aren't dangerous. I don't like to see people get whacked. I don't like it. [Laughter] So don't do it.
But we used to have it all the time. My first month or two—oh, boy. Guys would start screaming, "We hate you"—and then, all of a sudden, it got less and less. Now it never happens. That's the first time it's happened in a long time. That's the first time it's happened in a long time.
If the Dumocrats gain power, they'll take these deductions and tax cuts away. They'll raise your taxes, and they'll—
I'll tell you what: We want to—all my life, I went through life watching politics. I love politics. Always watched it. I never thought I'd be a politician. Could you believe? I'm a politician. I hate—I hate the sound of it.
But—but remember—although, I had a good night the other night. Right? We knocked out a bad Senator from Louisiana. We knocked out Massie, a horrible—one of the worst Republican Congressmen ever. We knocked out somebody in Georgia: Raffensperger. We knocked him out. We knocked out everybody.
We were 38-and-oh. Thirty—think of that: 38-and-oh. Who's 38-and-oh? I haven't—we haven't lost one in years, if you want to know the truth.
We have—let me tell you, we have "Make America Great" here. MAGA. We have a movement the likes of which this country has never seen.
And you know, it's a movement based on common sense. It's not that it's conservative. It's conservative maybe, but it's a movement based on common sense.
We want strong borders. We want good education. We want low taxes. We also—we want a strong military.
How good is our military, right? And we're doing very well, by the way.
Well, first of all, Venezuela was unbelievable. Right? Now, Iran. Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Everything is gone. Their leaders are gone.
And if you read the fake news, you'd think they're doing just fine. They're not doing just fine. [Laughter] They want to settle so badly.
We have the greatest military.
I just got back from China. President Xi—good man, good man. And I'll get killed for saying that. They'll say, "Oh, he called President Xi a good man."
Well, we had an amazing time. But even he had to say, "Your military is unbelievable." This is the head of China.
We have built—I built the greatest military my first 4 years, and I didn't know I was going to be using it this much, but we're using it. And we're—there's nobody like our equipment. There's nobody like the stuff we produce. But most importantly, there's nobody like our military men and women. There's nobody.
But all my life, I've watched—all my life, I've watched politicians. And until this last 8 or 9 years—they have Trump derangement syndrome. They're all screwed up. Their wires are all mixed up, the Dumocrats.
And they always used to say that "We will lower your"—everybody. Republican, Democrat—every—"We will lower your taxes. We're going to lower, lower, lower your taxes." Now, they don't do that. They say, "We will raise your taxes." The Democrats, they want to raise your taxes.
Never forget, not a single Democrat in Congress voted to raise the SALT deduction. Mike Lawler and all of his friends sitting up here fought them, and they voted against it.
And by voting against the "Great Big Beautiful Bill," one of the greatest pieces of legislation—probably the biggest ever passed, because we put everything in 4 years. That was my idea. I said: "Let's add everything, because these people are crazy. We might not get another chance at it." We added everything into that. That's 4 years' worth of legislation. That's why we call it the "Great Big Beautiful Bill."
No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for the seniors.
The Democrats voted for open borders. They voted for open borders. And if they get in, you're going to have open borders again. You're going to have millions of people coming in.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. They voted for men in women's sports.
They voted against the largest ever investment in school choice. Everybody wants school choice.
And they voted against making interest payments on your auto loans tax deductible—that's what you have—if it's made in America.
So—oh, we have another little disturbance back there. Hello. Hello, everybody. That's okay. It's already cleared up. What are you doing back there to these people? Boy, does that get cleared up fast? The guy raises his hand, starts screaming something, and within about two seconds, it's over. [Laughter] I don't know. What happened to him? Don't hurt him. Don't hurt him. Don't hurt him.
I do that for legal reasons. This way, I can say—[laughter]—no, it's a great thing to say, "Do not hurt him under any circumstances," and now I can say, "I'm innocent."
They voted against the Trump Accounts, which provide automatic contributions of a thousand dollars for every newborn child, so they end up being quite wealthy.
And our record tax cuts are projected to raise incomes for New Yorkers by over $8,000, Mike, on average. We're going to boost household take-home pay for you, for the people in the room, over $12,000 and protect more than 405,000 New York jobs.
And we got to protect the jobs. We can't let that happen. I just say it again and again and again. You can't let these companies go. It's easy to say, "Oh, we don't like the companies." They're the ones that supply you with the money and the jobs and everything else. You got to cherish those companies here. Whether you like them or not, you got to.
Last month, the IRS issued the largest average tax refunds to New Yorkers in New York history. Think of it. You got back the biggest—you got back the biggest refund that you've ever had. And that's all over the country, by the way.
But I was with the King of Saudi Arabia 2 years ago, and he's investing over $2 trillion here. We have $18 trillion coming in. But he said—he said—and you might have heard it. Just a short time ago, he said: "Mr. President, it's amazing. Two years ago, you were a dead country. Dead.
We never thought anything was going to happen that could be good for your country. You were a dead country with a leader that was a not-smart person," I'm going to say. "You were a dead country, and today you're the hottest country anywhere in the world."
It's true. We're the hottest country. Respected by everybody. We're respected by everybody. The stock market has just set 68 times during my short, little bit more than a year. Sixty-
eight days we hit all-time record highs.
And since the election, adding $9 trillion in value to your savings and retirement accounts, 401(k)s. Your 401(k)s—does anybody have a 401(k)? Well, your people are going to vote for me, then. There's no way—will anybody with a 401(k) vote against Trump?
Audience members. No!
The President. Thank you. [Laughter] It's always risky to ask that question. Sometimes they say, "Yes, they're right"—it could be a very dangerous way.
But since I took office, the typical 401(k) is up more than $30,000.
And I've created 300,000 jobs in the last 2 months, smashing all expectations. Remember this: Right now more people are working in the United States than at any time ever before by far, by a big number.
And in 16 months, we've lifted nearly 5 million Americans off of food stamps. Five million. And thanks to my strong tariff policy—now, I get into a lot of trouble with tariffs because—
you remember when I first came out? I love tariffs. And I said: "I love tariffs. It's my favorite
word in the whole dictionary. I love the word 'tariff.'" [Laughter]
And the fake news—look at all of them back there. That's a lot of fake news.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. That's a lot of fake news. They're all over the place. They're all over—look, they're up here. [Laughter] I've got more fake news—you know, they hate me, but, boy, do they cover me.
But I said, "My favorite word in the dictionary is 'tariff.'" And they got after me. They said: "He's a horrible human being. What about family? What about God? What about religion? What about love?" So now I say, "It's my fifth-favorite word," and I get away. [Laughter] And I'm okay.
But because of tariffs, we brought numbers into this country that don't—in other words, if you make your product outside of the United States, to get it in here, you have to pay a big tariff. So what do they do? They build their factory in the United States. And that's what they're doing. That's what they're doing.
And even New York, with your bad policies—we have people coming here. I'm trying to get them to come to New York.
We've also cut our gaping trade deficit by—okay, if you cut a trade deficit by 1 percent, a half of a percent, you're a genius. I've cut it by 59 percent. One year. That's because of tariffs, because the money we're—being made.
Is that right, Mr. Lutnick? Secretary of Commerce is here. Looks good. Looks handsome. Reasonably—he doesn't look like Jaxson. I'd rather look like Jaxson. I'll take Jaxson any day. [Laughter]
Under our leadership, factory construction is up, new residential construction is way up, and consumer spending is way up.
American companies are ordering core capital goods to expand their operations at the highest rate in the history of our country.
And last year, General Motors announced a new manufacturing investment of a billion dollars in Upstate New York to produce V8 engines, which they never would've done here. They were all made in Germany and other countries. Now they're making them here, because if they don't, they have to pay a big penalty. And they're stamping them, at my instruction, "Made in the U.S.A." Made in the U.S.A. We're bringing it back.
Chobani is building a $1.2 billion dairy plant in Rome, New York, the largest investment in the history of the company. Big company.
And Micron—boy, Micron is great. They're investing hundreds of millions. In fact, it'll be—probably, could be very close, by the time they finish out, over $100 billion in Clay, New York. Anybody come from Clay? You will be there when you go up and look for a job, let me tell you. [Laughter]
My administration and our allies in Congress are also fighting every single day to lower the cost of living.
So I got into office. I won the election in a landslide. And I go—I have a news conference.
Thank God. I mean, not to brag, but if I didn't win the election, we were dead. The welfare was tripling, and the business was leaving, and the $18 trillion would have been $18 trillion to the negative instead of the positive. This—we would have been a dead country. We would've been finished. I—it's true.
We ended Joe Biden's insane electric vehicle mandate. That's where they wanted everybody to buy an electric car.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. And as I told Elon, "I love electric cars, but, Elon, it's not for everybody." [Laughter] You know, if we would build the charging booths—right?—it would cost the country
$4 trillion. No country could afford that. Four trillion—you ever get an electric car and you suddenly get nervous because, you know, your thing is down a little bit? Friends of mine tell me the story: It's down a little bit, getting close and you're looking, "What about a charging station?" You know, this is an hour before it runs out. Where's a charger? And then you see it. It's a sign, and it says "Charging station," an arrow pointing to the right, "92 miles." You're not—[laughter]—and you limp in, if you make it at all.
No, we love electric cars. I have to say that because of Elon. But I love electric cars. [Laughter] They're lovely, lovely vehicles.
But I said, "I don't want—not everybody wants to have an electric car." And I ended that whole nonsense. By 2030, you were going to all have electric cars? I don't think so.
How about California? They have electric cars. They can't—they don't have enough electricity to turn on your air conditioners. They have brownouts, and now everybody is going to have an electric car.
That's one of the worst Governors in the country, by the way, that guy.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. But he took himself—did you hear? He announced he's taken himself out of the race. He called himself a dumb person. He got very low board scores. Everything he's done is tough, and he can't read a speech. He can't read a speech. So—I don't read too many speeches either. I'd be better off if I did. [Laughter]
But he can't read a speech. But he called himself a dumb person. And when you do that, I say it ends it, but a friend of mine, very good at politics, say, "Don't worry, people forget about it." I don't know. I don't think you can forget.
I thought it was the worst—he did this during an interview. I thought it was the worst interview by a professional politician in the history of our country.
Because Gavin, I think, is—when he says he's stupid—he said he's stupid. But remember—but he said he's smarter than the people in the room. And then he got sued for being a racist.
Okay? [Laughter] And I guess he probably is a racist, but he said he was a stupid person.
You'll never hear me call myself a—I am the smartest guy you're ever going to meet. It's true. And don't you want to have a smart person as President? You know, you want to have a smart person.
In fact, I took the cognitive test—I'm the only one. You know, they call me—originally, they said: "He's brilliant. He wants to take over the entire country." Then they said: "No, no. He wants the world. He doesn't want the country. That's why he's in Iran. That's why he's in"—by the way, how did we do in Venezuela? Not bad. That's why—[inaudible]. You know, we've taken out so much oil in Venezuela, we paid for the cost of the war about 25 times over. When did you hear that last? [Laughter] You know, it's a one-way street.
But no, no, the doctor—I said, "Doctor, let me ask you a question." They called me genius, and that didn't work. Then they said, "He's totally brilliant, he's a vicious dictator who wants to take over." That didn't work. And then they called me this, and then they said—they hit me with a bad one—"He's a dumb person." D-u-m, not the "b." "He's a dumb person." It's enough. Most people don't know it has a "b." "He's a dumb person."
I said: "Doctor, I don't mind being called a brilliant, total-tyrant dictator, but I don't want to be called dumb. What do I do, Doctor? Is there some kind of a test I can take?" He said, "Actually, sir, there is. It's a cognitive test." I said, "How many presidents have taken it?" "None." You know this story. "No people have taken it."
I said: "Well, is it good or bad? Is it tough?" "It's a tough test. It starts off easy; it gets very, very tough." I said, "Well, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take that test, I think, Doctor, because I do good on tests. I'm going to take that test, and let's see how we do."
He said, "Here's the problem, sir. If you do badly on the test, it's going to be reported, because it's Walter Reed Medical Hospital. It's a military hospital. It's sort of public."
So you have five doctors sitting there, and they're all—"If you do badly on it, sir"—and you could do badly, because, you know, the questions are very easy at the beginning, then pretty easy,
then pretty hard. By the time you get to the end, they're—not a lot of people in the room can get them, believe me. I said, "Well, it will be public, won't it? It'll be embarrassment, but let's do it." This was in my first term.
I took it, and I aced it. And they had very—they had tough questions.
So the first question was: "You have a bear, a snake, an elephant, and a horse. Name the horse." That's the horse.
The second question is a little—and then it goes—so, the New York Times does a story to show the test that I just aced, and they only use the first question. They didn't go into the other questions. They didn't go in.
But toward the end, like, they had a question, like, "Pick a number, sir, any number." "Okay.
Two hundred and three." "Multiply times 9, divide by 2, add on 1,324, subtract 1,292. Sir, multiply it out one more time by 19. What is the answer, sir?" And I got it right. You know?
And the one doctor said: "I've been doing this test for 20 years. I've never seen anybody ace it." So then what happened? That was in my first term. And that quieted people down. That was good. And then what happened? I did it twice in my second term. So I've taken it, and I've aced it all three times, I'll tell you, because it is a positive thing. You know, it's positive. Nice to be smart.
But remember, I said—and I made the statement, "All Presidents and Vice Presidential candidates should be forced to take a cognitive test and a test on intelligence." And I said it loud.
Obama couldn't do well on it. Biden wouldn't even get the first question. I don't think he'd get the first. [Laughter] "Which is the bear? Which is the horse?" No, would he get?
You know, I have a friend, he's very good politically, but he has a test. He owns, like, stores—little stores. He's not super rich. In fact, he's not even rich, but he's got—he makes a living, as the expression goes. But I knew him a long time.
I like to keep my old friends. I like to do, really, much better than them. I don't like friends that become very successful. [Laughter] I like people that are just okay. Even if they're terrible, I like that too.
I hate—like, when I have lunch with somebody that's really, really successful, I hate it because he or she is bragging about how great they are, and I hate that, when they do that, because they stop me from talking about the fact that I became President.
But I have a friend, and he said, "You know, I have a simple test for a politician. I own stores. I'm really good at it. It's not a complex business. And I say, 'How would a President do running my store while I'm away on vacation?'" He said, "I take one store, not three or four, and I say my busiest one, on Queens Boulevard." Queens. He said, "I take a store, and I say, 'How would he be?'"
And I said, "So what's the answer?" He said: "You would drive it into one of the largest retail empires in the world. Biden wouldn't be able to run the store for one evening. One evening, it would be a disaster"—he said: "I give people tests. I put people in my store. I say, 'How do you think they'd do?'" And I said—he said Biden wouldn't be able to run a store.
We can never let that happen again to our country. We can never let it happen again. What he's done to our country is unacceptable. And a lot of bad things.
We had inflation, but we've got that down. By the way, the oil prices are going to tumble as soon as I finish up with Iran. Tumble. Poom.
I was in Iowa, and we had it down to $1.85 a gallon in Iowa. But we had it down around the
$2 point, and then I said, "Well, Lutnick, we're going to have to take a trip to"—we've got Scott Bessent. We've got all of them.
I said, "We just hit 50,000 on the Dow." And I said—that's a record, highest ever. I said, "Sorry to do this to you, but we're going to have to journey down to the Middle East." They said, "Why?" I said, "Because Iran is going to have a nuclear weapon if we don't stop them." And I said, "We're going to have to do it."
And we have stopped them. They're not going to ever have a nuclear weapon. They're never going to have a nuclear weapon.
And we'll have that over with soon. It will be over with soon, and you're going to see numbers like you've never seen, both on the upside and also in terms of costs. You're going to see costs go down.
But you know, the Democrats are the ones that caused all the costs. And they were the ones—they were the ones that caused—when I took over, they caused—I mean, the prices were through the roof. I told you before: The inflation was the highest ever. The costs were high. And think of it. They'd constantly come out: "The cost. The cost." They would constantly come out with the word "affordability." I said, "They're the ones that caused the problem."
I'm in the office 2 days—I mean, they are the greatest bullshit artists. Ready? [Laughter] I'm in the office 2 days, and the costs have gone through the roof under 4 years of Sleepy Joe or Crooked Joe—or both—Biden. Right?
And I hear these Democrats from all over the place going "affordability." They're the ones that caused it. I didn't cause it.
Remember the eggs? My first news conference, 2 or 3 days in, they said, "What are you going to do?" These people—these corrupt press. They're corrupt. They're corrupt. They know it. They're corrupt.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. They're totally corrupt. They were saying, "What are you going to do about the cost of eggs?" I said, "What's the problem with eggs?" They said, "They've gone up four times." I said, "I just got here." [Laughter] Right? "I just got here."
They're the greatest bullshit artists, I'm telling you. They said, "Trump has driven up the cost of eggs." "I just got here. I'm sorry."
And within 3 months, our great Secretary of Agriculture has driven them down to the lowest point they've been in a long time. We've got them all down.
Now, we'll get our energy down. The only thing that has your prices—look, energy is a big ballgame. That's the big one. And we're going to get that down. It'll get down to where it was, maybe even get down lower. But we had it down to a number that was so good, they hadn't seen it in—since my first term, actually. [Laughter]
But we terminated the "green new scam," including the so-called efficiency rule on water heaters, stoves, washers, dryers, light bulbs, saving Americans on average $3,250.
And yesterday we eliminated a truly awful Biden regulation on refrigerators and air conditioners that drove the cost of food, even in grocery stores where they have freezers. It was called the refrigerant. And according to these lunatics, the refrigerant, which we've had for 40 years, is going to drive people into a state of frenzy. There's nothing wrong with the refrigerant, other than sometimes it makes your food too cold.
Its alternative costs about twice as much, and it doesn't cool your food at all. Everyone that has it practically has gone bankrupt because their food has rotted.
So we ended the antirefrigerant movement in this country. You will now be able to purchase an air conditioner that actually gives you cold air. It's nice, isn't it? [Laughter]
And as you may know, here in New York I'm fighting relentlessly to end the scourge of congestion pricing, where Kathy Hochul—you know, I have to tell you this, though: She calls me up a lot, and she can check my phone records. It says "Buffalo, New York." She calls me up a lot. I immediately know it's her, because I do have friends in Buffalo, but they haven't called me too much lately. [Laughter]
It says "Buffalo," and she said: "Hi, Mr. President, it's Kathy. Hi. Hi. Could you help me here? Could you help me there? And we're having a little problem getting this, and we're trying to get that. Could you give me a little hand?" I say, "Kathy, you're always killing me. Why the hell would I give you"—"Well, I just thought I'd try. Okay. Thank you very much." [Laughter]
And the next day she goes out, "We must stop Donald Trump." It's crazy. Trump derangement syndrome. You know, she's a very—I don't want to say anything negative. She's a very nice woman, but she's—she is never going to take you to the promised land, ever. There will never be a promised land with Kathy.
So we're also taking historic actions to make it easier to afford a home, and I signed an Executive order banning large Wall Street investment firms from buying up all of the single-family homes all over the country.
And I also directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—and we happen to have the head of Fannie Mae. And where is Mr. Pulte? Right here. Pulte. He's done a great job, that guy. See, these people know you. You're becoming very famous.
But he's done a good job. But I've instructed him to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds, bringing interest rates plummeting down much lower than they would have normally been. And we're going to get the rates down. Rates are coming down with the energy. You watch what's going to happen.
I had a rotten head of the Fed, and now I have a great head of the Fed. Today Kevin Warsh—Kevin was just sworn in today. He's great. He's going to be great.
And now Congress is on the cusp of passing the most important piece of housing legislation in a generation. But to be honest with you, housing is all about interest rates. I know more about housing than anybody in history. No President has ever done—I built a lot of housing.
And they can pass all the bills they want. It's about interest rates. You get the interest rates down, everybody is going to be very, very happy. We're going to get it down very quickly.
I support the bill that passed the House this week. Congressman Lawler has helped now.
And it's called the House and Senate—it's a House and Senate housing bill, and it's coming together, and hopefully, they'll get it done.
But I will say this, Mike, again: It's about interest rates. It's all about interest rates. We get the interest rates down, the housing—you're going to look like a genius. [Laughter]
Perhaps most importantly, we've made tremendous strides to bring down the crushing cost of health care. Under my most-favored-nation agreement that nobody wants to write about—and it's the biggest—because we went from the highest price in the entire world to the lowest price in the entire world. And I can't get the fake news to write about it. I think that alone should win the midterms. That alone should win them.
It's called most favored nations. In other words, we pay the lowest price of any nation in the world. So we're right now paying many times higher. We're paying sometimes 10, 12 times higher than other nations.
Like, the fat drug: $87 in London, $1,300 in New York City. And a friend of mine, who's very fat, called me. [Laughter] He said, "President, President." He's crude as hell. He's crude and very smart, highly neurotic. We all know people like that: very smart, but highly neurotic. [Laughter] And he was in London, and he's a rich guy, made a lot of money, but he knows the cost of medicine that he takes—probably more than that he takes, this guy. He's begging me not to tell his name because he's actually become quite famous. I tell this story often.
So he calls me up; he goes, "President." He used to call me Donny. "Donny." Now he calls me "Mr. President." He said, "President, I'm in London. I just paid $87 for the fat drug." He said, "It's a fat shot." I said, "What is it? Ozempic?" He said: "I don't know what the hell it is. It's supposed to"—I said, "It's not working on you, Charles." [Laughter] Not working at all. It hasn't worked, but he knows the price.
He goes: "I paid $87. And in New York, for—2 weeks ago, I bought the same damn thing for $1,300." And it really made an—I mean, look, I've been watching this for a long time. I was very proud to have reduced, in my first term—third year—drugs have always gone up for 28 years, and I got it to a point where it went down one-eighth of a point. And I was so proud of myself, I called a news conference. I said: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to let you know that drugs have gone down in our country for the first time in 28 years. They've gone down by one-eighth of a point." I was so proud.
Now they're down by 80 percent, 90 percent. 80, 90 percent, and the fake news doesn't want to write about it. And you could even say 400, 500, 600, or 700 percent, depending on the way you ask the question.
But here today is a local family that has benefited greatly from our policies, especially our historic tax cuts in the "Great Big Beautiful Bill." Kathy Kennedy is a retired special education teacher from Orangetown, and this year she saved more than almost $3,000 on her taxes thanks to the SALT deduction. And congratulations to Kathy.
Kathy, do you want to come up here? Come on up here, Kathy. Wow. Wow. Hi, guys.
Orangetown, NY, resident Kathy Kennedy. I just want to express my sincere gratitude to President Trump for supporting the tax rebates and working alongside our local lawmakers to make our county stronger, safer, and more affordable for families. These efforts create opportunities for our children to remain here, build their futures, invest in our communities, and continue to contribute to the place we proudly call home: Rockland County, New York.
The President. Good job. Go ahead. Get up there.
Participant. Good afternoon, everybody. I love seeing all the beautiful patriotism out there today.
But, Mr. President, we wanted to take a moment to sincerely thank you for the policies that you've put in place, and they're making a major difference for families like mine. Yes. [Laughter] As a father, a small-business owner, a home inspector, a real estate investor, changes to the SALT tax deductions and things like the Trump Accounts for children have made a meaningful difference in our lives.
Because of those policies, we're able to keep more money that we work so hard for and invest it into our future instead of simply getting by. We were able to take that money that we
saved and invest it directly back into our home inspection business and a land investing business, two businesses that are giving us the opportunity to create something lasting for our children and the communities that we serve. [Applause] Thank you.
And more important than the financial side, entrepreneurship is giving us more freedom—freedom to spend more time together as a family, freedom to build a future on our own terms, and freedom to be there for the moments that are most important with our children.
Mr. Trump, we just wanted you to know that there's hard-working American families out there who are benefiting from all that you're doing. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, and God bless America.
The President. Thank you, everybody. Great job. Thank you.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. Thank you very much. Great job. A budding politician. I can see that.
I also want to call up the man who fought so hard, harder than anybody else, for the SALT deduction, and he's really become a friend of mine. He's a warrior. He's a warrior. Fights like hell. And he fights, really, for you. That's what he's doing.
And, Mike Lawler, Congressman, come on up.
Representative Michael V. Lawler. Thank you, Mr. President. It is great to have you here in Rockland County, New York!
Now, Mr. President, you moved Rockland County further to the right than any county in New York in 2024, gaining 14 points and becoming the first Republican to win Rockland County as a Presidential candidate in over 20 years.
And on behalf of the people of the 17th Congressional District, I want to thank you for working with me to deliver a big win by lifting the cap on SALT. Over 90 percent of my constituents were able to fully deduct their State and local taxes, and I thank you for fulfilling that commitment.
The President. Thank you. Great job. He's done a great job. Thank you, Mike. Amazing.
We're pleased also to be joined by the Secretary of Commerce. He's a big man, a very successful guy. And I said, "That's the guy I want for Commerce," and he's done a fantastic job.
And, Howard, do you want to say one thing fast? Could you speak fast? Come on, let's—get up here, Howard. Come on. He's great. Done a great job. Howard Lutnick.
Secretary of Commerce Howard W. Lutnick. My favorite number: $18 trillion. President Trump is bringing in more jobs, more investment, and more factories, and more production than anybody ever dreamed. And it is an honor to run the Secretary—be the Secretary of Commerce for the greatest President of all of our lifetimes, Donald Trump.
The President. And I won't ask him to speak, and I introduced him because he's been incredible: the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Bill, thank you very much. Bill Pulte.
Along with some absolute warriors: State Assemblyman Mike LiPetri. Mike, thank you.
Thank you, Mike. Great job. Great job.
State Senator Peter Oberacker. Peter. Thank you, Peter. Great.
Cofounder and CEO of Sticker Mule, Anthony Constantino. And county executive—wait a minute. Anthony first. Before I get to this county executive, I got to give him—where's Anthony? Hi, Anthony. Thank you. Good job.
And the county executive of Nassau County. Okay. I'm telling you, I said before, Nassau County—it's not possible to get a man of common sense, a man who is Republican and conservative, elected. He's won it in record fashion. It was the biggest upset in New York politics, probably 6, 7 years ago, when he first ran—seven. And I remember, I said: "That's not possible. Bruce won?" And then he won again. Then he won again in record. Now that he's there, it's record. And that county is doing unbelievable.
He's running for Governor. He's your Republican nominee. He's your conservative nominee.
He's your conservative nominee, and he is an unbelievable man, and he will turn this place around so fast.
And I promise one thing: When he calls, the President of the United States will answer, and we're going to help him. Come on up here, Bruce. Come here. Bruce Blakeman, everybody.
Bruce Blakeman.
County Executive Bruce Blakeman of Nassau County, NY. Come on, Hudson Valley, let's hear it for President Donald J. Trump. Come on! Louder!
The greatest president in my lifetime. We will save New York as President Trump has saved America, because we will fight, fight, fight!
The President. You watch what happens.
So—and he really is. He's a special man, very talented person. A great executive. That's what you need. You have people that have no idea what's happening.
We're also joined by Alison Crowther, the mother of Welles Crowther, who you know about—the man in the red bandana—a 24-year-old volunteer firefighter and equities trader, a wonderful guy, had a perfect life right here in Rockland County. You all know who he is. He was a legend, and he's become a legend who heroically gave his life on 9/11 to save 18 people from the World Trade Center.
And I see his mother is here. And I'm pleased to tell his mother and everybody else—come on up here, just for a second—that, today, at the request of Bruce and Mike and some of the political—great political people we have—that we are approaching the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, a dark day that will live in infamy, we are posthumously awarding Welles the Presidential Medal of Freedom—which is the highest award—that's the highest award outside of the congressional Medal of Honor. And those are the two biggies, and Welles has one of them.
And I just want to congratulate his great mother in doing a phenomenal job in raising that young man. Boy, what bravery. He saved those people and became a legend, in a sense. Nobody else would have done what he did. So he's going to be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Thank you.
Nyack, NY, resident Alison R. Crowther. Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. President, for this huge honor. I want to thank Rachel Ducci, who's in the audience here, who started this whole process, and, of course, Mike Lawler, who has been a huge support in moving it forward.
I didn't come prepared for remarks, so I just want to say: To me, it's such a beautiful thing that, even 25 years later, Welles's light still shines brightly.
I—come—I travel—thank you. Thank you. I travel around the country—and I've even been to Amman, Jordan—talking about Welles's story and his legacy and his example of courage,
fearlessness—he was, even from a little boy—and his pure humanity that day, saving so many lives.
And it's just an example that, as I travel and speak to children, they're tremendously moved and inspired by this to be better people. And I see this over and over. It's a beautiful thing.
So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I'm also very blessed with my two daughters, their wonderful husbands, and six grandchildren, who are my family now. They're—they can stand up. [Laughter] They're right over there.
So I guess I just realized early on that I couldn't pick up a weapon and go fight the bad guys myself, but the weapon I had was to work to bring good into the world. And that's what I continue to try to do every day. And I'm blessed that we were able to find—learn Welles's story, which was actually Memorial weekend of 2002 when we finally uncovered the story, thanks to the New York Times.
So thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. We are truly blessed and so honored to remember Welles this way.
Thank you.
The President. Well, thank you very much. That's a great story. Right here from Rockland.
They grow them heroic here, don't they, huh? We know that.
And we're also truly honored to be joined by some of the very special people—the family of Sheridan Gorman. You know Sheridan.
And her father is a great friend of one of my people, Dan Scavino, who's done very well.
He's become quite known in the world of politics. Dan is great. But his father is a friend of Dan, so it affects us maybe a little more than it would normally. But it was terrible.
Two months ago, this beautiful, beautiful 18-year-old college student from Yorktown, New York, right across the Hudson River, was walking in a park in Chicago when she was gunned down by an illegal alien monster in cold blood. Nobody knows even why this happened.
This savage animal, who stole Sheridan's life, entered illegally from Venezuela and was released into our country by Crooked Joe Biden and that whole Biden administration of thieves and criminals.
He was then arrested and released again by Dumocrat Governor J.B. Pritzker, a terrible Governor. Has no idea what's going on in the sanctuary city of Chicago.
Sanctuary cities protect criminals. They're a sanctuary for criminals, not for people like you, like us.
To Sheridan's mother Jessica, her father Thomas, and her sister Madelon, her cousin Lilla, we grieve this terrible loss. And our prayers are with you.
And I'd like you to meet this family. This family is amazing. And the reason I do that, it just hit the—it hit the strings. It was—this incredible, beautiful girl, to be so savagely hurt, ultimately killed.
And so, could I ask your parents and sister, cousin to come up, please?
"Angel" sister Madelon Gorman. Thank you, Mr. President. I have to say, you are just so funny. My family has laughed more, smiled more than we have—like, in the past hour than we have since March, 19th. It's been such a gift. Thank you.
"Angel" mother Jessica Gorman. Hi. Sorry. We prepared some words, but first I just want to thank President Trump and Michael Lawler and all of the legislators that believe and protect and are champions for our American children.
My name is Jessica Gorman, and Mother's Day was just 2 weeks ago. For most mothers, it meant flowers, cards, and phone calls or children coming home. For me, it was heartache and tears because on March 19, my beautiful daughter, Sheridan Grace Gorman, was murdered in cold blood.
[Ms. Gorman continued her remarks, concluding as follows.]
I see you. I hear you. And I need you to please hear me. Remember Sheridan's face.
Remember her light. Remember the life she should have lived. And then stand with us, not only in grief, but in action.
Forget political party. Vote with your heart. Support leaders like President Trump, like Michael Lawler. Please, please support leaders and policies that protect your child and mine, because a city and a State or a country that does not protect its children has lost its way. And together we must be brave enough to demand that it find its way back. Thank you.
"Angel" father Thomas Gorman. My name is Tom Gorman. I'm not a politician. I'm not a public speaker. I'm a father of—whose daughter was murdered by an illegal immigrant.
I'm a husband who had to hold his wife on Mother's Day when she asked the question no mother should ever have to ask. Through tears, Jess looked at Maddy and me and asked: Am I still the mother of two? There's no answer big enough for that pain. No words, no comfort, no way to give back what was stolen from our family.
[Mr. Gorman continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]
So do not just feel sorry for us. Instead, remember Sheridan's name, and stand with us.
Demand that leaders who enforce our laws, secure our borders, cooperate with law enforcement, and put innocent American families first.
Sheridan should have come home, and because she did not, we will spend the rest of our lives fighting so that someone else's daughter can.
Parents out there, give your kids a big hug, tell them how much you love them. Thank you very much.
The President. Wow. It's crazy. It's crazy, right? If we had a border—we didn't have open borders. He came through open borders. Nobody checked him. Totally unvetted. Terrible person. An animal. Should have never happened.
Just yesterday, New York State passed a budget packed with provisions to obstruct Federal immigration enforcement and keep this a deadly sanctuary State. Just passed yesterday. It's hard to believe.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. So, Bruce, hopefully, you'll get that unpassed very quickly. It's—it's terrible.
As we speak, the radical-left "Dumocrats" in the House and Senate are blocking passage of legislation to ban sanctuary jurisdictions. We want to have that banned. We don't want them.
They bring in criminals of the worst type: murderers, drug dealers, prisoners escaped from foreign prisons, put in our country by foreign countries because they don't want them.
But with your support and Congressman Lawler—and, Bruce, you're going to do fantastic.
You're going to be the next Governor. I'm telling you. No—who's going to take this? Bruce Blakeman.
We'll stop fighting for Sheridan's—we're going to be fighting for Sheridan's memory. We're going to be fighting. You just can't forget it. I looked at her. I said, "Such a beautiful young kid." I said—I saw it in the papers. Front page of every paper. How do you explain that to parents?
How do you explain it to anybody?
And we'll abolish deadly sanctuary cities in New York and across the Nation once and for all. We're getting rid of a lot of them.
And we now have the strongest border in the history of our country by far. The strongest.
Starting on day one of my administration, we took the most dangerous, unsafe, violent, and open border in the world—anywhere in the world. I don't think there's any place in the world where 25 million people cross. You could go into a third world country; they don't have borders like that.
And created something that was incredible, because we did it without Congress, without the help of Congress.
You remember Joe Biden? "I can't get legislation passed." I didn't have legislation. I came in, and I told Border Patrol and ICE—I said, "Close the border." And within 30 days—we had zero illegal aliens admitted into the United States in the last 12 months. Zero. Zero.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Incredible people.
You built the—you people built this country. Remember that. You built it. Nobody else.
We also passed the largest ever investment in ICE and Border Patrol, because they're really heroes. You know, they get mangled up and spit on by politicians that don't have the guts to get up in the morning. Democrats all. Really, Democrats all. You look at the stats, it's all—everything is blue. The blue States.
With their help, in 2025 we achieved the largest drop in the murder rate ever recorded from 1900. A hundred and twenty-five years. The year nine—and that's with a lot of people. We got a lot out. We have a lot to take out. That's with a lot of people that aren't supposed to be here.
We cut the flow of fentanyl across our border by 59 percent, which is unheard of.
And we cut the flow of fentanyl and drugs into our country by the ocean and the sea—in other words, coming in by water; by ocean and sea—by 97 percent. Boom. Boom.
We made the largest ever investment in the U.S. military. And we're going to have $1.5 trillion invested. And, boy, isn't it great that we have the greatest military in the world right now? Isn't it great?
And with not only Venezuela, but with Operation Epic Fury, our warriors are ensuring that the world's number-one state sponsor of terror, Iran—number-one state sponsor of terror. They send their money all over the world to create problems. Never going to happen. And they're never going to have a nuclear weapon, and they know that. They know that.
And America is winning again. America is respected again, perhaps like never before. But we're just getting started.
With the help of our Republican majorities in Congress, we will crush violent crime. We will impose harsh new penalties for dangerous repeat offenders. We will crack down on Marxist
prosecutors and rogue judges that are no good for our country. They're disgraceful. And we will end no-cash bail. This is where it began.
And we will pass what we call the "Great Health Care Plan"—the Great Health Care Plan—to stop all payments to big insurance companies. The Government pays the big insurance companies—totally control—the Democrats totally control them, and they're totally controlled by the companies themselves.
And we're going to give the money not to the big insurance companies. We're going to give the health care money directly to the people so they can buy their own health care, they can make sure that they get better. You'll get better—you'll get far better health care than you have right now, because the "Unaffordable Care Act," that's called Obamacare, the "Unaffordable Care Act" is terrible. It's always been terrible.
You'll buy your own health care. The money will go directly to you. And you'll have a lot of money left over. You'll have much better health care.
And we'll stop the radical-left's rampant looting of your taxpayers' dollars, and we'll win the war on fraud. And you see that. It's led by our great Vice President, J.D. Vance.
You see what's going on. It's looking good. You see what's going on out there? All those good-looking guys up there? They're out there, and they're out—they're—what they're doing is fantastic. They've caught so much fraud.
They're in Minnesota. They're in California. They're going to be everywhere.
And J.D. and the group are doing a fantastic job. We're finding billions and billions of dollars of fraud—medical fraud. Dr. Oz is doing phenomenally well. Dr. Oz. Bobby. We love Bobby.
And we will always protect our Second Amendment. We will defend religious liberty. We will support our police. We will pass the SAVE America Act to protect our sacred American election.
And all voters must show voter ID. All voters must provide proof of citizenship. And there will be no more mail-in ballot scams, especially in places just like this where it's so rampant, except for illness, disability, military deployment, or travel. We'll be very generous in that regard, but we have to stop it.
There's no country in the world that has mail-in ballots like we do. No country in the world.
You know why? Because it's inherently corrupt.
And we will also enshrine in permanent law no men in women's sports and no transgender surgery for our children.
And together, with the help of patriots throughout New York State, New York, and right here—I love this place—and all across our land and all across our country, we will make America powerful again. We're respected again like never before.
We will make America wealthy again. We're right on our way to doing that. We will make America healthy again. You know what that's all about. MAHA. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Get out and vote in the midterms. Thank you. Thank you, Mike and Bruce. Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody.
NOTE: The President spoke at 3:41 p.m. at Rockland Community College. In his remarks, he referred to Jaxson C. Dart, quarterback, National Football League's New York Giants; Gov. Kathleen M. Hochul of New York; 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton; Vice President Kamala D. Harris, in her capacity as the 2024 Democratic Presidential nominee; former National Basketball Association player Shaquille O'Neal; Sen. William M. Cassidy; Rep. Thomas H. Massie; Georgia Secretary of State Bradford J. Raffensperger; King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia; Elon R. Musk, chief executive officer, Tesla; Gov. Gavin C. Newsom of California; former Chairman of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors Jerome H. Powell; Jose Medina, suspect in the shooting of Sheridan Gorman, a Loyola University Chicago student who was killed in Chicago, IL, on March 19; White House Deputy Chief of Staff Daniel J. Scavino; Lilla Zeevalk, cousin of Ms. Gorman; Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz; and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He also referred to S. 1383. Ms. Crowther referred to her daughters Paige Charbonneau and Honor Fagan and sons-in-law Austin Charbonneau and Richard Fagan, Jr. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on May 24
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Suffern, NY, remarks on national economy. Locations: Suffern, NY.
Names: Bessent, Scott K.H.; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Blakeman, Bruce; Cassidy, William M.; Constantino, Anthony; Crowther, Alison R.; Dart, Jaxson; Gorman, Jessica; Gorman, Madelon; Gorman, Thomas; Harris, Kamala D.; Hochul, Kathleen C.; Jeffries, Hakeem S.; Kennedy, Kathy; Kennedy, Robert F., Jr.; Lawler, Michael V.; LiPetri, Mike; Lutnick, Howard W.; Massie, Thomas H.; Medina, Jose; Musk, Elon R.; Newsom, Gavin C.; Obama, Barack; Oberacker, Peter; O'Neal, Shaquille; Oz, Mehmet; Powell, Jerome H.; Pritzker, Jay R. "J.B."; Pulte, William J.; Raffensperger, Bradford J.; Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, King; Scavino, Daniel J.; Trump, Melania; Vance, James D. "J.D."; Warsh, Kevin M.; Xi Jinping; Zeevalk, Lilla.
Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; Border security; California, Governor; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid; China, President; Citizenship; Commercial refrigeration regulations; Economic improvement; Egg prices; Election security and integrity, strengthening efforts; Electric and hybrid vehicles, promotion efforts; Energy efficiency and weatherization, homes and buildings; Federal Housing Finance Agency; Federal Reserve System; Fraud enforcement, strengthening efforts; Health insurance, access and availability; Homeownership, access and affordability; House minority leader; Illegal drugs, interdiction efforts; Illegal immigration; Illinois, Governor; Inflation; Interest rates; Iran, U.S. military operations; Job creation and growth; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; Mortgage rates, stabilization efforts; New York, Governor; News media, fairness and accuracy; Prescription drug costs, reduction efforts; Presidential Medal of Freedom; Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act; Saudi Arabia, King; Secretary of Commerce; Secretary of Health and Human Services; Secretary of the Treasury; Sports, efforts to restrict transgender participation; Stock market; Suspected drug-trafficking vessels, U.S. airstrikes in Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific; Tariffs; Tax Code reform; Transgender athletes, efforts to restrict participation; Trump Accounts, children's savings program; U.S. Border Patrol;
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; U.S. military readiness, improvement efforts; Venezuela, U.S. military capture and exfiltration of President Maduro; Vice President; White House Deputy Chief of Staff.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600362.