Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
June 23, 2026
The President. Hello, Pennsylvania. I won this place so much. We won.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. Thank you.
Well, I'm thrilled to be back in this incredible Commonwealth with the proud, hard-working patriots of Lehigh Valley. Lehigh Valley.
And I'm also proud to say I won this State in a landslide. We won it by so much.
And remember, I had the—a couple of little statements. "Too big to rig." Make it too big to rig, because these people cheat like hell. [Laughter] They cheat like hell, but we won it by a lot.
And maybe we should run again. Should we run one more time, huh? [Laughter] I'd like to do that. I'd like to do that.
But I got more votes than any candidate in the history of Pennsylvania. Can you believe that, Bo? You would have gotten more.
And today, I'm especially honored to be here in the place that builds some of the toughest vehicles on the road, Mack Trucks. Mack Trucks is doing a great job.
We have all of the Mack people. The chairman. We have the whole group of—here—all the leaders, the big guys. They're building—they're trying to get a contract for 15,000 trucks. Fifteen thousand. I said, "That's a lot." I said: "How many are you looking for? Ten? Fifteen?" "No, 15,000, sir." That's a lot of trucks.
For more than 100 years, this legendary company has been making trucks right here in Eastern Pennsylvania, building the heavy-duty machinery that keeps our economy rolling, our factories moving, and our industries roaring all across the Nation.
And you are the men and women who put your pride and spirit into those beautiful words stamped on every Mack Truck that said "Made in the U.S.A." It's made in the U.S.A.
And I want to especially thank the president of Mack Trucks, Stephen Roy, who I just met, who is a great guy, a great patriot. Very Republican too, which I like. [Laughter] He's a very strong Republican.
Stephen. Where are you, Stephen? Stephen.
We've got to get a certain very talented Congressman reelected. You know that. We've got to get him. Where are you? Where are you, Mr. Congressman? We've got to get you back in.
Thank you. And thank you, Stephen.
But our very special thanks to every single worker at this fantastic factory. The job you're doing here is incredible.
And I know you're applying for a big one, and we'll see how that goes. We'll have to call up some people and see if it's good. If your price is right—is your price right, Stephen? I don't know. Maybe we'll get it down a little bit. We'll get it down. [Laughter] Fifteen thousand trucks, that's a lot of trucks, but that's what this is all about. It's greatness.
You built this country, and you are the ones who are making America great again. We're the hottest country in the world.
For decades, the workers of this Commonwealth watched globalist politicians let other countries rip you off and close your factories, rob your jobs, take them away to foreign land. And then I came along. We stopped it very quickly.
Then we had a rigged election. Then we had a rigged election, but they were so stupid, they kept everything going a little bit for us. And what we've done in the last year and a half, nobody has ever seen anything like it.
They put America first—they put China first, they put illegal aliens first, and everybody else first but you. But we put you first by a lot.
But at long last, you finally have a President who is putting workers first, putting Pennsylvania first, and putting America first. We're doing that, and we're doing it like nobody's ever seen before.
And starting on my first day back in office—and this goes all the way back to 2016 too, but right from a year and a half ago—nobody has ever seen anything like this. We're the hottest country anywhere in the world by a lot. But I stood up to the trade cheaters—they're cheaters—and abusers and violators of the world like no President has ever stood up before.
And now I'm standing up again because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, if that's okay.
And we're doing quite well.
I placed 50-percent tariffs on foreign copper, aluminum, and steel so they couldn't come in and steal your jobs, and sometimes even more than 100-percent tariffs. They weren't going to come in from foreign lands and steal your jobs. If they wanted to come in, they'd pay 100 percent, they'd pay 200 percent, they'd pay—I don't care what it is. They're not going to steal your jobs.
Okay? And they stopped.
And right now we have more factories being built—and I mean car factories, AI factories, factories of every type—than we've ever had in the history of our country by three times.
That's because they didn't want to pay the tariff. How don't you pay a tariff? You build your factory here and you hire American workers. It's quite simple, actually.
But, as you know, I placed a 25-percent tariff on foreign automobiles and, very importantly, imposed a 25-percent tariff on medium- and heavy-duty trucks so that Mack Truck could do very well with its factory in Pennsylvania.
But all American roads will be filled with American trucks very shortly. Very few people are able to compete with us anymore. They used to rip us off. It was like we were a bunch of babies.
American labor worked with us too. I just met the head of your unions, and they've been terrific. They work with us, and they're fair. They treated us good. Maybe we can negotiate a little bit tougher.
Where the hell are the union guys? Those guys are great. They're great. There they are. I want to just say hello. We've got to make sure you vote for our Congressman here. I'm not doing this for my health. [Laughter] Right?
Meuser. We even have Meuser here. That's right.
Within a single year of taking office, I slashed trade deficit with China by the largest amount in the history of trade. And we, by the way, have the biggest trade deficit cut in the history of our country: 67 percent.
Think of this. We had a trade deficit. We cut our trade deficit. If you do—if you're a President and you cut it by 1 percent, they say, "Oh, you're doing a great job." Two percent, you're a genius. I cut it by 67 percent.
That's why you have all of these factories being built. They'll soon be opening. They're already opening. But when those factories are opening, I don't know what you're going to do. You're going to negotiate very good salaries—that, I can tell you—because they need you. In many ways, they need you more than you need them.
American exports to the rest of the world are up by $150 billion. You hear that, Bo? That's not bad. You've got to wrestle a long way to make that kind—Bo is going to have to win a lot of tournaments to have to make that money.
Think of it: $150 billion up. We never had that. We always have losses. We take in much more than we send out. Now we're up $150 billion.
And that's nothing, because when all these factories are opening up, Mr. Senator—another great one. What a great Senator you have. Did you fight hard? David. David, did you fight hard? He was with me, I think, at every stop. I said, "Where the hell is David?" "He's right there, sir." And he's working hard, and he's a great guy. And he's working very hard for you.
But a short time ago, we were a dead country. We were laughed at all over the world. We were a dead country. People were laughing. They were saying, "What the hell happened to that country?"
The King of Saudi Arabia said it 2 years ago. I was over there. He said, "You know, sir, 2 years ago, you were a dead country, and now you're the hottest country anywhere in the world." It's true, and we're hotter now than we were then.
He then proceeded to announce that he's investing $2 trillion in our country, along with Qatar, along with U.A.E. Bahrain is investing. Kuwait is investing. But countries from all over the world—they're all investing in the United States.
Two years ago, they wouldn't even think of it. They thought we were finished.
When I went to China 2 weeks ago, I met with President Xi, and we greeted each other, and he looked at me, and he said, "Man, do you move fast." Because they thought they had us, but now it's really the opposite. We are doing numbers that nobody has ever seen before. So, it's great. It's great. We had a great meeting.
But as you know, we just achieved a historic peace agreement with Iran to end the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz. And by the way, yesterday, 19 million barrels of oil flowed out of the Strait of Hormuz, a very beautiful place. That's the most oil in the history of the Strait. No—it's never been any—you've never seen anything like that. It's called an "oil gusher."
And most importantly, we are ensuring one thing, very importantly, because this is why I did it. I did it for this reason. Ninety-nine percent for this: Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
And they've agreed to that.
But remember, this wasn't easy. We had 47 years' worth of Presidents and other people, other countries too—we're not the only one—that never did anything. They were the bully of the Middle East, and now we're leaving Iran with no navy, no air force, no anti-aircraft, no missile capability, no nuclear program. We're leaving them without any nuclear capacity, and they've agreed to that.
And we're getting along quite well. Although, if you read the fake news, you'd never know.
Think of it. The fake news. They have no army, they have no navy, they have no air force, they have no anti-aircraft. We can fly over Tehran just at will. Nobody going to do anything to us. And then I read the fake news that they're doing quite well. They're not doing quite well. [Laughter]
Audience members. Boo!
The President. These people right there. Look at all of them. Whoa.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. Whoa. Whoa. That's a lot of press.
That's almost as much press as Bo had at the White House last week when he knocked out his opponent in the first round. Right? I think you had more. Bo had more press.
But the Iran economy has been crushed, and their defense industrial base has been damaged so severely that it will take them many years to rebuild. Many, many years.
And now we're trying to work out a deal that's fair, and we also want to work out a deal. You know, the stock market hit a new high today again. And oil, for the first time in months,
hit—think of it—$70 a barrel. So we got a 70. That equates to a very low price. Oil is going to come charging down.
And with oil comes everything else, because I inherited from these "Dumocrats"—you know, they're "Dumocrats." I changed the "E" for "U." It's very simple: "Dumocrats." I don't know why I didn't think of that 9 years ago. I just thought of it about a month ago.
They're "Dumocrats" because their policies are so dumb. Men in women's sports.
You know, Bo is with one of the great champions, Tony. Tony, could you have taken most women in the heavyweight champ—he was the heavyweight champion of the world. You think you would have had trouble with a woman of approximately your size? Be hard to find a woman of your size, but—[laughter]—if we did, I think you would have been okay.
What do you think, Bo? Could he have handled it? I think so.
What about you, Bo? Could you handle a woman of approximately—you're what?—182 or something. Think there's a 182-pounder that could give you a little tussle? I don't think so. [Laughter] I don't think so.
He's such a nice guy. He's saying: "No. No. Not really." [Laughter] I don't think so.
When she looked at those ears of Bo—when she looked at those ears, she'll say, "I'll take a pass." [Laughter] She'll say, "I'm not going to fight that guy."
The average price of gasoline nationwide is down 60 cents a gallon just from a short while
ago.
And remember this, remember this: We had to make this detour. We had to go to Iran. You
can't let them blow up the Middle East and then us, if that's possible. We would have gotten them before, but they would have blown up Israel. They would have blown up the entire Middle East. You can't let that. You want to see a bad economy? That's a bad economy.
So—but remember that our oil in the middle of this conflict was less than it was for Sleepy Joe Biden. And this—and we're putting out a fire.
Biden, Clinton, Bush, all of them. Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?
Audience members. Boo!
The President. Have you heard of Barack Hussein Obama—none of them did anything. Obama gave them $1.7 billion in green cash—remember?—on a 747. They flew over piles of cash—$1.7 billion. Gave them hundreds of billions of dollars and thought they could bribe them into peace.
No, the only thing they understand is what these guys in the front row understand—is the hammer. Because if you look at what we did to their nuclear capacity with those beautiful B–2 bombers, that was truly a hammer. In fact, we named it a hammer: Operation Hammer.
But our economy is ready to soar to levels the world has not seen before. I believe that, David. I think it's going to levels that nobody's ever seen before. All these factories are being built, and they're going to be occupied, and they're hiring people now. And it's going to be something very beautiful.
I don't know who's going to follow me, but remember that I was the one that did it. Okay? Somebody's going to walk into office and they're going to have the most successful country in history, and they're going to be bragging what a great job they did, and we did it.
In 4 long years of the Crooked Joe Biden administration, they got less than $1 trillion of new investments.
So think of it. Crooked Joe——
What do you like better: Sleepy Joe or Crooked Joe? Ready? Sleepy Joe. [Applause]
Crooked Joe. [Applause]
I'm surprised. I like Sleepy Joe better, but Crooked Joe. They're both good. I use them both.
But in less than 1 year—so, they did much less than $1 trillion of investment from outside the world—much less than $1 trillion. We just have the final—we had 11 months at 18, but we just got the final: $19.1 trillion in 12 months. Can you believe that? Investment from all over the globe.
And since the election, the stock market has set 73 alltime records. In other words—yes, sit down. We've got plenty of time here. [Laughter] It's an honor that you're all standing——
Oh, look who we have. The Wall. Stand up, Wall. Look at this guy. Oh, I'm going to get a suit just like that guy. He—I'll bet he's been to 200 rallies. Him and—where are my gals—oh, look at my guys, Front Row Joes. I've got these Front Row Joes. And where are the women from North Carolina? They're here. They travel all over the world. I don't know what the hell's with their husbands.
These beautiful women from North Carolina, they travel all over. They went to 200 rallies.
How many rallies have Front Row Joes gone to? Hundreds. Every one.
And then—it was very sad. My last rally, I said, "I may never see you again." Right? And then we won the election in a landslide. And who the hell do I see? I see my Front Row Joes. So, I'm happy about that.
Thank you. What a group. We had some group. We'd be all over the place. And when they didn't make the front row, it was very demeaning to them. They were not happy, right? But the Front Row—they became, actually, very famous—Front Row Joes.
And the typical 401(k), as you know, is up almost $30,000 in—it was 12 months. It was 13 months. It's up 44 percent. Think of that: up 44 percent. Because, you know, as goes the stock market, so goes a lot of your own wealth.
And I tell about this police officer. I met a police officer—first term, similar thing, but now the numbers are even more.
I met—I was in New York. I met a great police officer, New York Finest. And he said, "Sir, I want to thank you." I said, "For what?" He said, "My wife didn't think much of me, very much. We were having marital difficulty, actually. She thought I was nothing. I'm a police officer. I'm a tough guy." I looked at him. The muscles were all over the place. He didn't suffer from that. But she thought maybe that muscle——
[At this point, the President pointed to his head.]
——wasn't so good because he was always losing money in the stock market.
And he said, "Sir, in the last year and a half, my 401(k) is up 74 percent, sir, and she thinks I'm Warren Buffett. She thinks I'm a supergenius."
I said, "How are you getting along with her?" He said, "Well, I'm not so sure I like her anymore, but that's a"—[laughter]—I won't tell you that. I refuse to say that. He's getting along just fine.
But a lot of people have come up to me, David, and they thanked us. 401(k)s, you know, the stock market.
Who has a 401(k) here? Yes, look. A lot of people.
More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country, and we've created over 32 now—think of this—32,000 new jobs just starting in Pennsylvania alone.
David, you have to get credit for that.
And in the last few months alone, we've added 2,600 Pennsylvania manufacturing jobs, and that number is going to go much, much higher as the factories start to open, because right here in Lehigh Valley, Eli Lilly has just announced—great company, by the way; drug company—a $3.5 billion investment in a brandnew state-of-the-art manufacturing facility right down the road that's going to create over a thousand jobs, just that one.
Nokia is investing $30 million to expand its semiconductor testing and packaging operations.
Thousands of jobs. And B. Braun has announced a $20 million expansion of its medical device manufacturing operation in Allentown. I love Allentown.
I love any place that votes for me, which is the entire State of Pennsylvania. The entire Commonwealth.
Never make the mistake of using the word "State." Although, I'm not sure that people care.
But the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania voted for us at levels that nobody's ever seen before, David. And you too. And we're proud of you, because you had guts.
This man had guts. He lost one time to a tough candidate; then he did it again to a tougher candidate. And I tell him: If he didn't win, his wife, who's a beautiful woman, would have left him. I'm telling you. [Laughter] Dina. She would have left him. So he had great courage doing it a second time.
He was a very successful guy. He ran—stand up, David. She would have left. I was so worried, because he's a friend of mine, and he was—that was a tough race. You know, he's running against a guy—24 years. And his father was in for, like, 30 years. That's a long time, and
he had to beat him, knowing the pressure. That's called pressure, knowing his wife was gone if he didn't make it. She was gone 100 percent.
But she—he's married, actually, to a terrific woman. She probably would have stayed. I'm not 10- percent sure. [Laughter]
And last year, I saved a great American company, U.S. Steel, and we're keeping its headquarters in Pennsylvania, where it belongs. And $17 billion has been invested by a great company in saving U.S. Steel. They were gone. I think they were closed up, and they were ready to go. And now they're building factories like nobody's ever seen. They're expanding the operations and building a couple of brand-new steel plants.
They're up to over $17 billion, which is a lot more than they even told us, they—because they—they've fallen in love with this Commonwealth. They've fallen in love with your whole area. The people—I think they've fallen in love with the people more than anything else, is what they told me, because they've done more than they said they would.
And thanks to our great Republican majorities in Congress, last Fourth of July, I proudly signed the largest tax cuts in American history. We gave you the biggest tax cuts in American history. Not bad. Not bad. We delivered no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great Pennsylvania seniors. No tax.
And our tax cuts are projected to boost take-home pay for Pennsylvanians by an average of more than $10,000 a year per household. Think of that. Not bad. That alone should win us the midterms. We've got to win the—Meuser, we got to win the midterm—Meuser is another great guy. Stand up, Meuser. Been with me forever.
He was thinking about running for Governor. I think he would have won, but he was thinking about running for Governor, and I said: "I want you to stay in Congress. I want you to stay in." And we appreciate it. You've done a great job.
But always remember, every single "Dumocrat" in Congress voted against our tax cuts. So, think of it, every—all of those tax cuts and many more. They want to raise your taxes, not lower them. They voted against tax cuts.
You know, all my life, I've sort of been political in that I found it very interesting. I was a very successful real estate person, but I love watching politics. And my whole life, I've watched politicians say: "We will cut your taxes. We will cut." I never heard—these people say, "We will raise your taxes."
This country has gotten very strange politically, especially with all the communists that are up for election. You know, you have communists. These aren't socialists. These are communists.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. And they're all up.
How about the guy in Maine? He's got——
Audience members. Boo!
The President. He's got the Nazi stickers, he's got the whole deal, and they're trying to say that's a—so, for 8 years, 10 years, they said, "Trump is a Nazi." Now they can't say that anymore, because they have a guy with a tattoo on his chest. [Laughter] It's unbelievable.
But they voted against no tax on Social Security. They voted against no tax on tips. They voted against no tax on overtime. And if they got into office, you will have all of those taxes and all of the—all of that money that you're saving, including the big savings on Social Security—it's
going to all be terminated. You're going to have to start paying again. They want to pay it. I don't know what's wrong with these people.
They voted in favor of the estate tax—or the death tax—on your farms and your businesses.
You know, farmers and small-business people, they love their children. If they love them, it's great. Most of the people love them. Some can't stand—I know people that can't stand their kids. They're not going to leave them 10 cents. But if you love your child, you want to leave your farm, especially farm—these farmers, they—it's borne in them somehow. They want to have their children in the farm.
The children don't want to leave, but sometimes they're land rich and cash poor. You know?
I've known that expression too. I've oftentimes been land rich and cash poor. It's not a good period of time.
And you die and you have an estate, and they tax you at 40, 50, 60 percent, and they end up losing their farm, losing their small business. And in many cases—you don't read about this—they commit suicide. They actually go out and commit suicide because they're forced off their farm by a bank. They have to go out and borrow money from a bank. And they're forced to go out, borrow the money, they're unable to pay the loan, and the bank—even if it's a nice bank, they give them a chance, they give them another chance, and then they ultimately foreclose, they lose everything, and, in many cases, they commit suicide.
And I said, "We're not going to have that crap go on." So you have no estate tax to pay on your small farm, small business—on your farms, your businesses. And you can—if you love your children, you can leave your farm or your small business to your child, and they're not going to lose it.
If you don't love your children, then don't listen to what I'm saying, because it doesn't matter.
You should—if you don't like them, don't leave them anything. The hell with them. They probably deserve it. [Laughter]
But think of it. The "Dumocrats" voted against the border wall. The border wall gave us the safest border. We have the safest border now in the history of the country.
They voted against voter ID. You know why they voted against voter ID? Because they want to cheat. There's only one reason, Mr. Wall, right? They——
Audience member. They want to cheat!
The President. Correct. Correct.
Where do I get that suit? I'm—one day—I don't know if it's very Presidential—I'm going to walk up in a suit with the design of the wall on it. I don't know. What do you think?
I already have a lot—you know, I have a very elegant wife, and she says: "Darling, please, please don't dance. It's not Presidential." I said, "But the people love it when I dance up here." And she said, "Please, please—the men in women's sports—please don't do the weightlifting thing, and don't do the swimming thing."
You know, the weightlifter, where he goes up, and the record stood for years and years and years, and this young lady, she's trying out for the Olympics, and she's going to do it. And the record stood for 19 years, and they put an eighth of an ounce on one side, an eighth of an ounce on the other.
They have to understand, Melania, who's now a movie star—she got the number-one—can you believe, she hit big with her movie. That's not good. There can only be one star in a family. Please remember that. [Laughter]
But they put a little eighth, like a feather, on one side—a little bit, just to break the record.
The parents are sitting right there, where Big Bo is.
He's a nasty guy. That punch he threw, ai yai yai. Got to be very nice to Bo. I've got to be very nice. Got to make sure he's never angry at me.
But she said—her parents are right there in the front, and they're so proud. The father's not so proud, because he knows she's not going to do it, because she's a woman. It's a lot of weight. The mother, though, is screaming: "Darling, I love you! Do it!"
And she gets over the weights, and she stands there, and then she gets them. And she gets them. And the mother's screaming, "Darling—I love you, darling." And the father's looking, saying, "She has no chance." And she's like this. You've seen. "Ah! Ah! Ah!"
[The President mimicked pressing a barbell with difficulty then dropping it.] Drops them. And she's, like, devastated for the rest of her life.
And then a guy comes along who transitioned. That's the term. I've gotten very good at that term. Yes, I used to take a lot of heat for my definition of the movement over. But he transitioned. He was a poor—very poor, bottom-of-the-line male weightlifter, but now he's a female weightlifter. And he looked at the amount—I think it was, like, 210 pounds or something like that, but that's a lot for a woman but not that much for a man. You could do it with one hand.
And he goes—looks down at the weight.
[The President mimicked pressing a barbell very quickly.]
[Laughter] Did it—I think he did a few things for emphasis. And he won the medal. And everyone said, "Oh, isn't that wonderful?"
Are we crazy? Men should not be able to participate in women's sports. Right?
That's a 99-percent issue. Do you ever hear the fake news, they say, "That's an 80/20 issue." No, it's not. It's 99/1. [Laughter]
You know, I've been doing politics now for 10 years—not that long, considering I've been—I've won 3 elections. You know, it's really not, but—[laughter]—we did great in the second one. It was a rigged deal. But pretty short. But with all of that, in all of the time I spent speaking to people, they say: "Sir, could you cut taxes on this? Could you get me a tax deduction on a car loan?" I did that. By the way, I did that.
If you buy—if you borrow money to buy a car, you get a deal. All these thing—they asked me for hundreds of things. Not once did anyone ever come up to me and say: "Sir, please, this is so vital. You have to be able to have men play in women's sports. Please, sir, could you pull that off?" I've never had anyone ask me for that.
So I say it's a 99-to-1 issue, not 80/20. The fake news back there, they say, "Oh, that's a tight issue." But I don't like talking about it because I want them to continue on with that. I want them to continue on with the—you know, they're in favor of the mutilization of your child for transgender purposes—the mutilization of your child.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. And I would say, politically, it's a very good thing to run against a person that's in favor of that kind of stuff.
So we let them—we don't bring it up during off-political seasons, but we have a political season coming up, and they'll be doing all of that nonsense, and they're going to lose a lot of elections.
And now, if you look at New York, we have all Communists running. They're all excited.
They're going to win their primaries. But I can't imagine they can beat a normal Republican. So I think it's a good thing, Meuser.
What do you think? I think it's a good thing. Wouldn't you like to run against somebody like
that?
Well, Shapiro is not that much better, to be honest with you. But I won't say——
Audience members. Boo!
The President. They're all being forced—a guy like Shapiro, he's going to be forced to the
left; otherwise, he's not going to get the nomination.
But they voted against proof of citizenship. Think of it. We'd like to have proof of citizenship. You walk into the voting booth. "Would it be okay, sir, if I looked at your"—"How dare you ask me for my citizenship?"
You know, in California, if you ask that question to a voter, you are criminally liable. In other words, they can put you in jail. If you say, "Sir, do you have proof of citizenship," they put you in jail if they ask that question. You're not allowed to ask that.
Did you know that? It's the craziest thing I've ever seen going on.
Hey, did they screw the kid, Pratt? Boy. He's leading, and, all of a sudden, he's lost. And it was sort of interesting. The election—you ever see an election where they're 2½ weeks in, an election that takes weeks to count the votes? But after the evening, it looked like he was going to win or certainly be in the runoff. And then I started hearing rumors as the days went by—days and days went by, that Pratt is fading. He's fad—I said, "They rigged the election." And then, lo and behold, he didn't qualify, even though he was so far up, and the third-place person that—it was almost impossible, and he didn't qualify.
And then it started happening with the next candidate, Steve Hilton, who's running for Governor. He was up in front, just about leading. No problem. And, all of a sudden, about 4 or 5 days after—this is after the election's over—they said, "Steve Hilton is starting to lose votes." I said, "Here we go again."
And I called up the U.S. attorney in California. They said: "We're going to have a number in the next week. Next week." I called up the very powerful, very good U.S. attorney in California, and I said: "Do me a favor. Take a look. They're trying to steal that election too."
I guess they called up. They said, "This is the U.S. attorney calling"—we have your great
U.S. attorney here today, by the way, and your assistant U.S. attorney. They're doing great. David, thank you.
But—so, over the next week, he was definitely going to lose. But the U.S. attorney called. "We want to check your votes." About an hour after the call, "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Hilton has won." So the—had I not made that call, Steve Hilton would right now be looking—watching the election from home.
So I don't know. You know, he would have a great chance, but the election is totally rigged.
California is totally rigged, all mail-in ballots. It's a disgrace.
We got to pass the SAVE America Act. Okay? We got to pass it. We got to pass SAVE America. You, McGee. Thank—look at these guys. These—what love.
A friend of mine is a very big real estate developer, but he's got a problem with speaking in front of crowds. He chokes. You know, he chokes like a dog. He said, "How do you do it?" I say:
"It's easy because there's so much love in the room. There's so much unbelievable love, it's easy to do." You know?
No, he's got this tremendous fear of speaking. He said—the guy's a major player—most of you have heard of him—and he's a killer. He destroys people for a living—financially, not physically—financial. Physically, he can't—he can barely walk. He's a basket case. But he's—up here, he's very smart. And he destroys people. He's very rich, but he can't get up in front of a crowd and talk.
I said, "What's wrong with you?" He said: "I don't know. I have a fear of crowds." Do you believe it?
All sorts of people—you know, a lot of people want to do what I did. A lot of people—well, David did it. David was very successful, but he's a great speaker.
But a lot of people, they say: "Well, Trump became President from being a very successful businessman. He ran. He became President. I want to do it too." And that's when they find out that they might have the flaw of speaking. Or even worse is a terrible past. You know, the past will come out to haunt you. It's not an easy thing to do, but I love it.
You know, I say it's real easy to do when you have people that love you. I guarantee—who here voted for Trump? Yes.
Who didn't—this is dangerous, so don't raise your hand and think you're going to be cute, because you might be in big problem. Then they'll blame me for causing problems.
Who did not vote for Trump?
Young man, he wants to be—he's a young man. He thinks he's being cute, as he gets pounded on.
No, he just said: "No, I did. I was the first"—he said, "I'm the first in line." But the "Dumocrats" voted in favor of Iran having a nuclear weapon, and they voted against military spending, but I overrode that.
Let me tell you, if the "Dumocrats" get in, your 15,000 trucks that Mr. Roy is looking to get are dead. They're not going to have 15,000. They're not going to have 15 trucks. They'll be back to the number I originally guessed, right? Fifth—"how many are you making, 15?" Fifteen thousand trucks will be down to nothing—zero—and they'll make you put electric on it. You know, electric, so that when you're in the middle of a jungle someplace and you need a charge, "Where is my charging booth?"
Audience members. Boo!
The President. As opposed to carrying a nice tank of diesel on your back, throwing it in, and taking off, right? "Where's my charging booth," they'll be saying.
They created the strongest—we created the strongest military in history, and you see that with Venezuela. Venezuela, a 1-day operation, like—great. Good army.
And now we're making a lot of money with Venezuela, and Venezuela is doing great also.
We have a—it's a happy country now. But it took us exactly 48 minutes to win that war.
We have the greatest military in the world. Forty-eight minutes, and we've paid for the cost of the war—wait till you hear this—28 times already—more, but 28 times.
So the cost of the war, we've already—because we have—we've brought millions of barrels of oil out, and we're getting along great.
The people running it, they're our people. They're great people. And the people are happy in the country. They have smiles. They were miserable. They were starving. But they have a lot of oil under that ground. You know how you find oil in Venezuela? Just look at the ground. You'll see oil bubbling up. They have so much oil, they don't know what to do with it. But they had a bad system.
They're making more money now for the country than they've ever made before, and we're making a lot of money too.
But also, Iran. We knocked them out. One week, it was, essentially, militarily over. A much bigger country, 91 million people, and much different ideology. The ideology of the Muslims is slightly different than the ideology of the Catholics. We have the Catholics and the Muslims—slightly different.
But Venezuela has been great, and Iran has been great. I mean, you know, if Iran's reasonable, if they're smart—otherwise, we'll have to finish the job, which will take about—maybe less than a week. But they're going to be okay, I think. They're going to do what they have to do, because we want to have it done.
But they voted against lower energy prices—the "Dumocrats" did—and then they went on to create the highest energy prices that we've ever had in the history of our country—people don't realize that—much higher than ours during a war.
They had the highest inflation in history. The highest inflation in history. They say 48 years, but that's sort of history, as far as I'm concerned. And they were absolutely terrible on affordability.
Remember, I got here—my first day, the fake news is screaming at me, "What about affordability?" I'm only here one day. Remember, eggs were up about five times higher than they ever were? And we have—prices coming down right now at levels that you've never seen. And now with oil crashing, you're going to see something really amazing.
And to top everything else, they let 25 million people into our country, many of them criminals and thugs and people from mental institutions and drug dealers.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. They even let 11,888 murderers into our country—murderers, 11,888—more than 50 percent of which have killed more than one person. And I've gotten the worst of them out. We've gotten them out—Tom Homan and our whole group of people.
But the "Dumocrats" want open borders, and they want them all to come back in. You can imagine that.
The people of this Commonwealth will never let that happen again. What they allowed to happen to our country, we can never allow to happen again.
As an example, the war with Russia and Ukraine would have never ever started if I were President. We can never let elections get rigged again.
But we're pleased to be joined today by one of those Pennsylvanians who's benefiting from the historic tax cuts: Sergeant Sam Elias with the Bethlehem Police Department, who's a great guy. [Applause] Ooh, they know him.
Sam works the night patrol so that he can help his wife take care of their six beautiful children during the day, and I'm told their youngest is named "Melania." Can you believe that? They named Melania—where did you come up with that one?—after our great First Lady. So, Sam is taking home thousands of dollars extra because of no tax on overtime.
And, Sam, do you want to come up and say a few words? Come on up. Come on up, Sam.
Bethlehem Police Department Sergeant Sam Elias. Thank you for all you do.
The President. Good-looking guy.
Sgt. Elias. Thank you.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to express my appreciation to President Trump, Congressman Ryan Mackenzie, and the entire White House administration.
As a father of six children in a single-income household, I can tell you the Working Families Tax Cuts is a policy that helps my family. Hard work should pay off, not get punished with higher taxes.
No tax on overtime, no tax on tips means more money in the pockets of working Americans.
For my family, these savings have translated to what was once a trip—a day trip to the park is now an overnight stay at the Jersey Shore.
[Sgt. Elias continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]
Additionally, thank you to President Trump and your entire administration. After more than 50 years, the Lebanese people finally have an American ally who advocates for a sovereign and independent Lebanon governed by the Lebanese people.
The President. That's right. Sgt. Elias. Thank you for that. The President. That's right.
Sgt. Elias. Mr. President, you have the support of almost 20 million Lebanese people worldwide.
Leadership is more than a title. It's action. I'm grateful for the actions coming from President Trump and Congressman Ryan Mackenzie.
Your actions have prioritized the American dream: less taxes, safer communities, and America-first policies.
I thank you, President Trump. Happy belated birthday, and happy birthday to the United States of America.
Thank you, and God bless.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. Thank you very—you know, I was looking at all these pages. I said: "Oh, we're in trouble. Look." [Laughter] This—but you know what? That was good. That was a good job. I was a little worried when I saw the pages after page. Huh? Very good. Great job.
Sam, where's your father? Hello, Pop. How are you? Got a good boy. Got a good boy. Yes.
We're taking care of your people.
So our administration is also delivering one historic win after another for another group that works a lot of overtime, and that's our great autoworkers. We have a lot of autoworkers in here today.
But just as I promised the UAW workers—and we did great with them. You know, Republicans, I don't know, for whatever reason, they don't do like I do.
But in the campaign, I ended Biden's insane electric vehicle mandate. That crazy mandate, which meant that, in a short while, all cars had to be all electric, and many of them would be built in China and others in foreign countries all over the world.
That's what was going to happen, and I stopped that. I ended it my first week in office. I ran on it.
And you know what? If you like electric cars, I think that's great. I wouldn't say Elon was thrilled with what I did, but he understood that.
But if you like electric cars, I think it's great, but you have to have the right to buy a regular—I mean, we have more gasoline than any country anywhere in the world. If you want to have gas, if you want to have a hybrid, you can have whatever the hell you want, including electric.
But I terminated Biden's disastrous fuel emission standards that would have crushed Mack Trucks. Your—Mr. Roy, your company would be crushed if I didn't do that. You would have been—you wouldn't be bidding on anything, neither would anybody else.
It was the most insane environmental regulations ever conceived of by man. It was totally unreasonable and ridiculous. And you can sell trucks for much less money that are now much better trucks that work. That actually work.
And we made interest on auto loans fully tax deductible, but only if you buy a car that is made in the U.S.A. Otherwise, we're not interested. Otherwise, we're not interested.
And I saved the auto manufacturing business in America. We have more auto plants being built today than we've had in 60 years, and I think maybe ever, and bigger and better.
They had one, a big one, in a certain State that I love also. I love a lot of places. And they took out this old plant, but it was big. And I said, "Did you redo it yet?" They said: "We're not redoing it. We're ripping down and building a brandnew one, a beauty." You know the one I'm talking about, David.
But we're pleased to be joined today by Pat McHugh—a Marine Corps veteran, a great guy—who spent 28 years with Mack Trucks. And he leads the cab assembly and serves as new product line launch leader. It's a big deal.
And Pat's grandfather worked here, his dad worked here, and now his son is working here and doing well. And they know how important it is to keep manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania.
Pat, say a few words please.
Mack Trucks employee Patrick McHugh, Jr. Thank you, Mr. President.
Wow. Good afternoon, Mr. President. It is a profound honor and privilege to have you here us—with us today to help celebrate the upcoming 250th birthday of our America and, most recently, our 125th anniversary of building Mack trucks.
My name is Patrick McHugh, Jr., and I am a proud Marine Corps veteran. In addition to that, though, I am an even prouder Mack Truck employee.
Standing here with me today is my father and my son, both Mack Truck workers. Together, they have a combined 78 years working experience building the greatest trucks on Earth. You can say Mack trucks runs in our blood.
At Mack Trucks, we work hard to build the trucks that help build America, and we are proud that those trucks are built in the United States of America. Along with our UAW colleagues, we're open for business, and we're producing the best-quality trucks we ever have.
On behalf of our entire team, we warmly welcome you to our plant, Mr. President, home of the finest trucks in America, built by the most skilled and dedicated workforce in the trucking industry.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
Mr. McHugh. So, Mr. President, I want to say thank you for choosing to highlight Mack Trucks on your visit today, and thank you for supporting our American workforce.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The President. Well, thank you, Pat. That's a good family. That's a great family. Great people. They're proud of your company.
I want to also thank two people, very special people, because I know them and I know what they do, and it's not easy, but they've done a great job: David Durgin and Timothy Hertzog of the UAW committee. Where are you guys? Thank you. Thank you very much.
They do a good job representing you. Ease up just a little bit so they can get the contract.
Okay? [Laughter] Just a little bit. [Laughter] Thank you, fellas. Get this Congressman elected; that's what you got to do.
But we're pleased to be joined also by Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling. Keith. Where are you, Keith? Where's Keith? Hi, Keith. Good job.
Is he treating you guys good? Is he all right? He better treat you good.
A very special guy, somebody that everybody wanted. I have to tell you: Everybody wanted him. He's some person. He was actually an astronaut. He went out, he made a lot of money because he's smart, and he's now the NASA Administrator. You saw that rocket, 2 months ago, up and go around the moon in record levels—the furthest any ship has ever flown—and come back. And he's working very heavily on the Moon. But what he's done with NASA is amazing, and he's a very special person and a brilliant one: Jared Isaacman. Jared, thank you. Good job.
Good job. Great job.
As well as—you know, I introduced him a little bit only by the name "David," because he knows me and I know him by David. But David McCormick is your Senator, and he's a brilliant person, brilliant businessman. And he loves the Commonwealth. He loves Pennsylvania, and this is where he wanted to be. And he had a rough—I told you, he had a rough fight. This is a rough beating, like 24 years—and a father for 24 years. I don't know. I said: "I don't know. Are you sure you know what you're doing, David?" But you won, and you won easily.
And I'll tell you what: You have a great Senator, one of the best in the country. So, I just want to thank you very much, David. Thank you.
And four warriors for Pennsylvania in Congress—these are warriors: Lloyd Smucker is here.
Lloyd, thank you. Thank you. John Joyce is here. John, thank you.
Dan Meuser is here. Thank you.
And these guys are all in good shape, but we've got to get Ryan Mackenzie elected. We got to get Ryan. I'm not here for them; I'm here for him. We got to get Ryan elected. Run up here, Ryan. Fast. Nobody wants to hear you. Come on. Just run up. Nobody wants to hear you, Ryan.
Do what David did. He'd go up for 1 minute. "Thank you very much, everybody. It's nice to be here. See you." And everybody thought he was the greatest speaker. Right?
Okay. Say a few words.
Representative Ryan Mackenzie. Absolutely.
Well, Mr. President, I can't thank you enough for coming here to the Lehigh Valley, highlighting the great men and women of Mack Trucks, doing all the work that you do in Washington, DC, for our veterans, our first responders, and everybody across this country to continue to maintain America as the greatest country in the world.
You are the President that is fighting for all Americans. Thank you for being here, sir. Thank you, sir.
This is a great job. Thank you for being here, sir.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. That's great. Wow. That's great. He learned something from you, David, huh?
That's great.
We also have one of the greatest writers anywhere in the country, who knows more about the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I think, than anybody. It's a—she's a terrific person.
Right from the beginning, she said, "Trump is going to win." Therefore, I like her. [Laughter] She said, "Trump is going to win" in 2015. In fact, she wrote an article in 2014. She said, "This guy, Trump, should run." I hadn't thought too much about it. I was having a lot of fun putting up buildings. But she was very early on.
And I really mean it: I don't think she—I don't think there's anybody that knows more about—they used to call it the "Rust Belt." I call it the "Money Belt" now. It's gone from the Rust Belt to the Money Belt. Either one is okay. But there's nobody that knows more about it than Salena Zito. She's fantastic.
Where are you, Salena? Where are you, Salena, with your beautiful daughter? Thank you, Salena.
Salena is an incredible woman, and her daughter is following in her footsteps. She's just been so good, a very powerful writer, actually, in some of the biggest papers in the world. It's nice to have good stories on occasion—truthful stories.
Thanks as well to the president of the NRA, who's here with me, Bill Bachenberg. Bill, stand
up.
And they always give me their endorsement because I saved the Second Amendment, and
you think it's easy. On occasion, it was not easy—right, Bill?—but we did it. We did it with your help, and we're doing a couple of other things working with you and your people, but I think you've done a fantastic job.
The NRA, everybody—they really have been—they've been with me right from the beginning.
And Bill asked me would I support the national right-to-carry legislation. How do you feel about national right to carry?
That's my free poll. You know what that is? That's a free poll. I don't have to pay $300,000 to somebody that doesn't even do polling. You know, they give you phony numbers. See, those are real numbers.
National right to carry. Yes, we're working on it.
And we have a very special guest who you just saw on the highest rated fight show ever in the history of television: the UFC Freedom 250. So this guy—well, I just have to set it up a little bit, if I don't—because I'm thinking, you know, I'm a similar size. I'm actually—I weigh more
than he does, actually, so therefore I have a tremendous physical advantage over him. [Laughter] His muscles are slightly harder and slightly younger. He's a lot younger, but I think I can do it because I'm a great athlete. He knows I'm a very good golfer, and I'm much better off on the golf course against him than I am on the wrestling mat.
But he went virtually undefeated. I mean, he went 4 years—he was the top wrestler. His friend, Tony, who's a—another champion—I'll introduce you too, Tony, but these two guys were on the Penn State team. And Bo Nickal went—I mean, you couldn't defeat the guy. And then he had every medal—I guess he was a three- or four-time All-American, but then he turned pro, and he went to the UFC.
Did you find them tougher? What—[laughter]—yes, it's a little different. You know, a little different. But he's won just about everything.
But he had a big fight last week with a lot of pressure, with the White House in the background, and that—he's a guy that I like. I met him a while ago. I looked at the ears. I said, "Man, this guy is a fighter." You can tell a lot by the ears. And he told me, "No, he doesn't mind the ears." He likes them. It's almost a symbol. For great fighters, it's a symbol.
That's why I'm worried about you, Tony. You have pretty normal ears. [Laughter]
But I got to know Bo a little bit, and I've got to root for him, and I was—I almost felt like his father up there. His father is great, but I felt like his father, so I was nervous for the fight. And he was fighting somebody that Dana White—the great Dana White; he's a phenomenal guy—he said, "No, Bo has got a tough one tonight." I said: "Why? Why do you do that to him?" Because if you lose it this night—it was the biggest audience they've ever had, by far. The whole world watched it.
The people at the White House—we had 5,000 seats around the cage we built. And we had 100,000—more than 100,000 people in the park right next door, and we had the largest television audience they've ever had, by far.
I said, "Why do you have to give him such a tough opponent?" He was pretty tough.
But then it happened. So Bo is known as a great wrestler, because he was the best wrestler by far in college. Nobody could beat him, and I figured Bo would be wrestling. But no, he wasn't wrestling. He was punching. I said: "Bo, grab his legs and start wrestling. That's what you do." But he didn't do that. He didn't listen to me, and he got a shot off that was brutal.
And in the first round—right?—knocked him out. He was really knocked out. Good—a good—great fighter. The guy was a great fighter—is a great fighter.
So I just want to thank—you know, he's from Penn State. He loves Penn State. He is the NCAA wrestling champion. And just fantastic.
And his friend—and you probably know is also—I think you were roommates, right? That's a tough room. I wouldn't want to fight these two guys. "Let's go pick on those two guys." I don't think so.
But he was the heavyweight, and he lost a lot of weight. He weighed 35, 40 pounds. I asked him, "How much did you wrestle?" "About 40 pounds heavier." In other words, you want to live, right? You decide to lose it. But he was also the champion, NCAA champion, and his name is Anthony Cassar.
So come up here, fellas, because I want to just ask the audience a question. Come here.
Come here, Bo.
So here's my question. If I work out for the next couple of months, really work hard, lifting those weights that were—and really, really work—could I beat Bo or Anthony in wrestling?
You're very disloyal. [Laughter] You're very disloyal. Say a couple of words about your fight.
Mixed martial artist Bo Nickal. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Wow. What an honor to be here. I think, walking up here, I was almost as nervous as the fight, but it feels like a fight.
The President. It feels like it, right?
Mr. Nickal. Yes, it feels like it. But this is exciting. I'm grateful to be here with everybody.
So grateful to President Trump for making an event that, in my mind, never seemed possible happen: UFC Freedom 250 on the White House lawn. Unbelievable.
I don't think there are too many Presidents that have the courage to do something like that.
And, you know, just so unbelievable.
For me, both my parents were high school teachers. My dad was a wrestling coach, my grandpa was a wrestling coach, and I grew up around sports and just competing from 5 years old. And so, to be able to do something like that is a dream come true. And it's just through hard work, effort, discipline, and a lot of time in the wrestling room, a lot of time in the cage that I was able to do that.
And that's really because America is the land of opportunity. And if you set to your mind to something and you feel passionate about what you do, you can accomplish anything. And thank you.
The President. That's great.
Mr. Nickal. I want to tell—I don't want to take too much time, but I want to tell a quick story about the first time I met President Trump. It was in 2019 at the White House, and our team and I won the nationals, the NCAAs, and—at Penn State.
Audience member. We are!
Mr. Nickal. We are. [Laughter] Let's go.
And we were given the opportunity to meet President Trump, and it was really special because he took a lot of extra time to talk with us as wrestlers. I think he respected the wrestlers a lot. And I told him that when I'm done wrestling, I was going to fight. And he asked me if I needed a manager. [Laughter] And I thought that he has better things to do than that.
But really, since then, I feel like we've had a special connection that I'm extremely grateful
for.
And you know, fast-forward 7 years: I'm fighting on the White House lawn, and I turn and
look at my corner, and President Trump is right next to him.
And so it really felt—it felt to me like he was in my corner. I know that was something that was just so special, and I feel, like, just incredibly grateful.
And overall, the whole week of the experience, everything, the word that kept coming to mind and the emotion that I kept feeling was gratitude. And I'm grateful for President Trump, grateful for all my friends and family and supporters, and I'm grateful to be an American. And it's the best country on Earth.
And God bless you all.
Mixed martial artist and wrestler Anthony Cassar. How's everybody doing? This is an awesome crowd. I'll keep this really short.
It's just an honor to be here. Bo and I have been roommates since our freshman year at Penn State and never could have imagined this.
But it's an honor to support Mr. President, this great Nation, and the American workers that build the foundation of the United States of America.
So, as a small-business owner, real estate investor, I just want to thank President Trump for the "Big Beautiful Bill," all he's done for small-business owners. And most importantly, I pray that God will continue to bless him and guide him to lead this great Nation and God bless all of us.
Thank you.
The President. Two great champions. That's great. It's good to have them here too. We have a lot of champions in the audience. These are two very special people.
When you do that—I was saying to myself, you know, going into that ring and you got all these people—we had the richest and the biggest politicians. We had the biggest of everything. You couldn't get a ticket. The tickets were selling for some crazy numbers, I heard. We gave them away to everybody, but somehow, some got out.
And I was saying, "That's a tremendous amount of pressure." And you're fighting the toughest people on Earth. I mean, these are the strongest, toughest men on Earth. No women. In the crowd, but—which is nice. But these are the toughest men on Earth, and it's tremendous pressure.
And you know, the muscles—you've got the muscles. You guys, you've got the big, strong muscles. But you've got this muscle too——
[The President pointed to his head.]
——because it takes much more than just the normal muscle to win those matches. I mean, the strategy and the genius that goes into it. It is a genius. A lot of people wouldn't understand that. But there's a genius. There's a genius in sports.
But there's a great amount of courage and power that you have that a lot of other people don't have. So congratulations. Really great job. Great job. Good to have you here.
In everything we do, we are once again fighting for the people of Pennsylvania, and that includes our amazing Pennsylvania oil and gas workers. And I ended last administration's war on Pennsylvania energy, and I signed an order to drill, baby, drill. That's what we did. Right, David? And you helped.
The United States is now the number-one producer of oil and gas on Earth, larger than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined by a lot. Think of that. Who would have thought that?
We were in fourth place. Now we're larger than—and that doesn't include Venezuela.
Include Venezuela once, because it's essentially—should be included.
I also ended the war on clean, beautiful Pennsylvania coal. In fact, in my administration, you're not—because, you know, coal was dead.
China uses it. Other countries—very successful countries use it. The unsuccessful countries use wind—those beautiful windmills that blow around and round and don't do anything except cost you money. Every time it goes around, you lose $10.
You're supposed to make money with energy, not lose money. No, wind is—every country that's using wind is a disaster.
Every country that's using our beautiful substances from underground are doing very nicely.
Thank you.
But in my administration, you're not allowed to say the word "coal" without preceding that word with the words "clean, beautiful." So you say "clean, beautiful coal."
And I have Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum—who is fantastic—and Chris Wright, and they made a speech about coal, and they mentioned coal, like, 50 times in the speech. It's all about coal. And they kept saying: "Clean, beautiful coal. Clean, beautiful coal." I said: "No, no, no, that's enough. That's enough." But we're not allowed to use the word coal without saying—because what they can do with coal today is amazing. It is clean. It is beautiful. They can clean it, and it's a very powerful form of energy.
And if you look at China, they're doing—they're building 57 coal plants throughout—big, monster plants—all over their country. And then we're not supposed to do that? No, 're doing that. Clean, beautiful coal.
We've invested over $1 billion to save dozen of—dozens of coal mines. We've saved them. They were ready to close, and some had closed. And more than 100 coal power plants, including the Keystone and the Conemaugh generating stations right here in Pennsylvania, as you know, are really moving now and employing a lot of people. They were all getting ready to close up. They were essentially closed.
We're working hard to lower the cost for all consumers, and we want powerful energy.
Under my administration, the most-favored-nation agreements on drug prices that we just did are delivering the largest prescription drug price cuts in history, with numbers like 400-, 500-, and even a 600-percent reduction from where it was. Think of that. That alone should win us the midterm.
And the fake news back there refuses to talk about it because they know how good it is, because they can't produce it. They've been trying to do it for years—favored nation.
We paid the highest drug price in the world, by far, as an example for the fat drug, which Bo and Tony don't need to take, but a lot of people are taking. Who takes the fat drug? [Laughter]
So, in New York—think of it—it was costing a fortune. Many, many times. It was costing
$1,300, and in London it was $87. And a friend of mine, who's extremely fat, sloppy, but very brilliant—he's a brilliant businessman, but he's a slob. There's no question about it. [Laughter] Very neurotic person, which you need sometimes to be successful.
But he called me up. He used to call me "Donny." "Donny." Now he calls me "Mr.
President." That's a sign of great respect.
But he said, "President, I just came over here, and I bought"—I won't say Ozempic or whatever the hell it was—but "I bought the fat drug." I said, "I didn't know you used it, because it's not working." And—[laughter]—and I use him as a—he's begging me not to use his name, so I won't, but he's a very successful guy. He's actually a pretty well-known guy, brilliant business guy, worth a lot of money.
And he checked—he just—you know, he said, "Well, how come in London—I just sent out, and there I'm paying $87, and in New York I'm paying $1,300?" I said, "Because that's the way the prices are rigged." And it's rigged—the whole world is rigged against us. And I said: "But you
know what? You brought it out better than anybody could bring it out, because I've been looking at it."
They all said it was impossible to do. And I went to the drug companies, and I said: "Well, it's not going to be anymore. You're going to raise their price a little bit, you're going to lower ours a lot, because the world is bigger than us." So it really worked that way.
And they said, "Well, we'll do it." They were very unhappy, but they knew I wouldn't get it from the countries, because you had to get it from the countries.
Then I went to France. I said to a very nice man named Emmanuel Macron. I said, "Emmanuel, you've got to raise your prices on drugs." "Of course I will not do that. Why would I do that?" "Because it's unfair. We're paying 10 times more than you. And you're going to have to raise them a little bit, and we're going to drop ours a lot." He said, "No, no, I will not do that." I said, "Yes, you will." He said, "I will not do that." I said: "Yes, you will. We're putting a 100-percent tariff on all wines and champagnes coming into the United States." He said: "Yes, I will do that. I promise." [Laughter]
And I had the same conversation with Germany, with every country, with U.K. Every single one of them, within 5 minutes, agreed to do it. Nobody could believe it. And they agreed to raise their price, and we have gotten the biggest price reductions in the history of drugs, medical.
Nobody has ever seen anything like it.
So, instead of paying $1,300, you'll be paying about $175. Nobody has ever done that before. And this is on many, many drugs.
A pill that sells for $10 in London and selling for $150 in Texas or any place. It's all the same in the United States. They basically discriminated.
So, now instead of $10, it goes to $20. Because, again, the world is a big place. And we would bring ours down to $20—from, like, $150 down to $20. This is the kind of price reductions you're getting.
Go to Trump.com [TrumpRx.com; White House correction], by the way. And I didn't name it. That was Bobby Kennedy that did it with Dr. Oz. Everyone thinks I named it. I did not name it. But that site is through the roof.
And these are the biggest price reductions in the history of our country for anything having to do with drugs, prescription medicine. So that alone should win the midterms.
And there's a real chance that they would end it because they're totally controlled by these foreign countries—the Democrats, the "Dumocrats."
So, starting next week, weight loss drugs will be available for just $50—think of that—for seniors who previously had to pay $12-, $1,300, $1,400. Couldn't pay it. Think of that.
Now, they don't want to write—look, they turn the cameras off when they talk about it because they don't want good stuff for us because they don't want us to win elections. And why? I don't know. Why they want to have people pouring into our country, why they want to have high taxes, why they want to have all of these problems that took place over the last 4 years of the last administration, one of the worst administrations in history. But the other ones wouldn't be much better because they have all of these crazy policies. They've gone communist.
But just over 1 year ago, we inherited the worst border in history, but I quickly turned it into the most secure border in the history of our country, by far. Almost nobody is able to get in.
And in the past 13 months—and this is a chart kept by, generally, "Dumocrat" people. In the past 13 months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted into the United States. Think of that. Zero.
And even I find that hard to believe, but it's zero. I mean, it's—they'd love to have it be high, but it—you know, we can't do that. We have a country, and we're going to run it well.
We don't want to have prisons released into our—they—some of these countries were emptying their prisons into the United States of America through the southern border. Prisons. Prison population. Some of the countries had no prison population left. You know what that saves them? Some of them had no mental institutions. The mental institutions were taken—all of those people were taken to our southern border and allowed to just walk freely into our country under Sleepy Joe Biden and his group of thugs. They're a group of real thugs. Weaponization—that's all they're good at. Weaponization and cheating on elections.
In 2025, we achieved the largest drop in the murder rate ever recorded in the history of our country, despite the fact that we haven't gotten all of these criminals out of our country. We had the lowest since 1900. That's 125 years ago.
And we cut the flow of fentanyl across our border by 56 percent. That's a big number. And we cut the flow of illegal drugs coming in by water, coming in by ocean or sea. We cut it by 97 percent. Ninety-seven. Ninety-seven percent. It was—it's very drastic, but people aren't traveling that way too much anymore. [Laughter]
What we—what we're able—we have the most powerful—I built the military in my first term. We used it in my second term more than I thought, but we have no choice. We have no choice.
But think of it. We cut fentanyl. For years, they've been interdicting. They've been grabbing boats, bringing them in, putting them in court. They go out. By the same night, they're back sending drugs by the ocean, by the Gulf, by the sea.
And now it's down 97 percent. And we're looking for the 3 percent, because I think those 3 percent are more brave than Bo Nickal was any day. The 3 percent of the people that are willing to get into a boat to deliver drugs now, they are the bravest people perhaps anywhere in the world. [Laughter] But it won't happen long.
But what we've done is amazing. Our military—we have the greatest military in the world.
We have the greatest law enforcement in the world.
And we have the highest number of recruiting. So, a year and a half ago, it was headlines: Nobody wanted to join the military, the Army, Navy, Marines. Nobody wanted to join any of them—Air Force, Space Force—I love Space Force—Coast Guard. Nobody wanted to join any of the military. They had tremendous recruitment problems.
And even—it carried over to the police. You have great police here—the police and the fire departments. Nobody wanted to do anything with the name "America," anything with a uniform.
And today, we have the highest recruitment, the most successful recruitment. Every single slot is filled. And that includes they want to be policemen and they want to be firemen and - women.
So we went from the least successful in our history, David, to the most successful in the history in terms of recruitment. We was—it was very embarrassing a year and a half ago, 2 years ago.
And it all happened from November 5. That's when we won the election. From November 5 on, everybody wants to be a soldier; everybody wants to be in the Army, the Navy, the Marines. They want to fly the jets in the Air Force. The Coast Guard is hot, your—everything is hot. And, of course, Air Force.
You know, I started Air Force [Space Force; White House correction]. That was a part of the Air Force. The Space Force was part of the Air Force. I said: "No, it's got to be separate. Got to do its own thing." And it's become——
So we were in third place 4 or 5 years ago, and I put it in. We were losing to China and to Russia, and now we're totally ahead of both of them, like at numbers that they can't believe.
Space Force is going to end up being one of your most important.
To stop the massive theft of taxpayer dollars, including millions of illegals, we've launched the war on fraud, led by our great Vice President, J.D. Vance. He's doing a great job. Doing a great job. Smart guy.
We ended Medicaid for illegal immigrants, and we redirected $50 billion to make the largest investment in rural health in the history of our country—hospitals and everything else in the rural areas.
And, with the help of our Republican majorities in Congress, we will defend our jobs, our factories, our safety, and we will defend our borders like never before. We will crush violent crime, impose harsh new penalties on dangerous repeat offenders that shouldn't be in our country, crack down on Marxist prosecutors and judges, and we will immediately end the most dangerous thing that's ever been put into our country, from the standpoint of law enforcement. It's called no-cash bail. You kill someone, you go to the judge, they let you out. Then you kill somebody in the afternoon. It's crazy. That was the beginning of crime.
We will pass the Great Health Care Plan to stop all payments to big insurance companies and give the money directly to the people so they can buy their own health care, which will be much better care at a much lower cost.
And we will pass the SAVE America Act to protect our sacred American elections. And in the SAVE America Act—it's very simple—all voters must show a photo voter ID. Very nice. "May we see a picture, please?" All voters must provide proof of citizenship. And there will be no mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military deployment, or travel.
And we will also, in that same bill, enshrine in permanent law no men in women's sports—and no transgender surgery for our children.
So, together, with the help of patriots throughout Pennsylvania and all across the land, we will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America healthy again. All happening. It's all happening. 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. Thank you, Pennsylvania.
NOTE: The President spoke at 2:50 p.m. at the Mack Trucks Lehigh Valley Operations manufacturing facility. In his remarks, he referred to King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia; mixed martial artist Kyle Daukaus, who fought in a bout with Mr. Nickal at the White House on June 14; former Presidents William J. Clinton and George W. Bush; San Diego, CA, resident Blake Marnell; Warren E. Buffett, chairman and former chief executive officer, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.; Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz, in his former capacity as the 2022 Pennsylvania Republican senatorial candidate; 2024 Pennsylvania Democratic senatorial candidate Sen. Robert P. Casey, Jr.; Maine Democratic senatorial candidate Graham C. Platner; Gov. Joshua D. Shapiro of Pennsylvania; Los Angeles, CA, mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt; First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bilal A. Essayli; U.S. Attorney David Metcalf and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Hines of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; White House Border Czar Thomas D. Homan;
Elon R. Musk, cofounder and chief executive officer, Tesla; author and Washington Examiner reporter Salena Zito and her daughter Shannon Venditti; Dana F. White, Jr., president and chief executive officer, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC); and President Emmanuel Macron of France. He also referred to S. 1383. Mr. Nickal referred to his parents Jason and Sandy.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Affordability, remarks in Macungie, PA. Locations: Macungie, PA.
Names: Bachenberg, Bill; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Blake, Marnell; Buffett, Warren E.; Burgum, Douglas J.; Bush, George W.; Casey, Robert P., Jr.; Cassar, Anthony; Clinton, William J.; Daukaus, Kyle; Durgin, David; Elias, Sam; Essayli, Bilal A.; Hertzog, Timothy; Hilton, Steve; Hines, Derek; Homan, Thomas D.; Joyce, John P.; Kennedy, Robert F., Jr.; Mackenzie, Ryan; Macron, Emmanuel; McCormick, David; McCormick, Dina Powell; McHugh, Patrick, Jr.; McHugh, Patrick, Sr.; Metcalf, David; Meuser, Daniel P.; Musk, Elon R.; Nickal, Bo; Obama, Barack; Oz, Mehmet; Platner, Graham C.; Pratt, Spencer; Roy, Stephen; Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, King ; Shapiro, Joshua D.; Sonderling, Keith; Trump, Melania; Vance, James D."J.D."; Venditti, Shannon; White, Dana F., Jr.; Wright, Christopher A.; Xi Jinping; Zito, Salena.
Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; 2026 midterm elections; Acting Secretary of Labor; Affordability concerns; Armed Forces, U.S., recruitment efforts; Automobile industry, strengthening efforts; Automobiles and automobile parts, tariffs on imports into U.S.; Border security; California, gubernatorial election; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; China, President; China, trade with U.S.; Coal-based energy production, expansion efforts; Egg prices; Election security and integrity, strengthening efforts; Electric and hybrid vehicles, promotion efforts; Firearm rights; Foreign nations, investment and business ventures in U.S.; France : President; Gasoline costs; Health insurance, access and availability; Illegal drugs, interdiction efforts; Illegal immigration; Inflation; Iran, cease-fire agreement with U.S.; Iran, commercial transit through Strait of Hormuz; Iran, nuclear weapons development; Iran, U.S. airstrikes on nuclear facilities; Iran, U.S. military operations; Isaacman, Jared; Job creation and growth; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; Medicare and Medicaid programs; Mixed martial arts; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); News media, fairness and accuracy; Oil and natural gas, domestic production; Oil markets and prices; Pennsylvania, Governor; Pennsylvania, President's visit; Prescription drug costs, reduction efforts; Qatar, investment and business ventures in U.S.; Rural health care access and infrastructure, improvement efforts; Russia, conflict in Ukraine; Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act; Saudi Arabia, King; Secretary of Energy; Secretary of Health and Human Services; Secretary of the Interior; 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; U.S. Space Force; Ukraine, Russian invasion and airstrikes; Ultimate Fighting Championship; United Auto Workers; Venezuela, oil supply and refining; Venezuela, U.S. military capture and exfiltration of President Maduro; Vice President; White House Border Czar.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600423.