Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
September 2, 2026
Well, thank you very much. Nice place.
You used to have to stand on very, very soggy earth, and we replaced it with a very similar stone to what the White House is, and it's become quite a place. It's become a place that's just very festive and nice. And we're celebrating the great success of our country, and we have so many events here. We also have news conferences. We used to have news conferences, and the women would leave with their shoes like this. Their shoes were destroyed, and the men's shoes were destroyed also; they just didn't want to show it. [Laughter] But it's been great.
And outside, as you see, we just completed what I think is the most beautiful helipad anywhere in the world. I think most of you have seen it. It's so beautiful that I didn't even get sued. You know? They came over—[laughter]—the radical left came over, they looked, and they said, "That's beautiful." They couldn't believe it, actually.
But we needed it. For many, many years, they wanted a helipad, and we built the best helipad people have—nobody's ever seen one like that. Done with the military.
And right behind you is the ballroom military complex, and it's really something special. And when that's opened, we're going to have some great—they've wanted that for 150 years. They've wanted, I can tell you—the military for a hundred, but the Presidents have wanted it for a long time.
As an example, on September 24, we have President Xi coming, of China, and he'll come in, and we have a grand total of about 98 seats in the White House, and we have about 2,000 people. If we had that ballroom open, we could have—we could handle it.
But—so it's going to be very tough. It's going to be very, very tough to handle that one, but we'll work it out. But we only have—we have less than a hundred seats, and he's very—he's an outstanding guy, and a lot of people would like to be there. I'd like to have them.
So we'll see how that all works out. Everybody's fighting for tickets.
And then they called from China that they'd like about 60 for their people. I said, "That's a lot." [Laughter] I said, "We're arguing over seats." But we won't have that—in a year from now, we won't have that problem anymore.
But tonight I'm thrilled to welcome some of the incredible Members of Congress who have helped our Republican majorities deliver the historic victories for the American people. They've done so great. And now you're going to help defeat the "Dumocrat" Communists this November. That's what they are. They're—their policies are so dumb, and it's so horrible.
And you know what we can do? Sit down, just relax. You know? Just relax. It's—very honored that you stand up like that for so long. Biggest people in the country, most powerful people in the country, and you stand.
I was going to keep you standing for a little longer. What the hell? [Laughter] But you know what? Sit down. Sit down, and enjoy it.
But a very special thanks to a great Speaker—truly great Speaker, Mike Johnson. Thank you, Mike. And a man who's doing a phenomenal job as Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance. Got a lot on his plate. Got a lot of fraud investigations.
Eliot Ness, I say—he looks like Eliot Ness standing there with about 15 central-casting-type people behind them. I said, "That's a scary group," but you're doing well. You're finding—he's finding billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud—hundreds of billions or millions. You can say it any way you want, but it's a lot.
Certainly, there are hundreds of billions that have been stolen, and we're finding a lot of it in many places that you would not really think it's possible. Some States that you would think it wasn't so bad, but it's bad. But if you look at California, if you look at Minnesota, if you look at Maine—who would think Maine? You know, you think of Maine as this wonderful, very innocent place. Maine is bad. They're all bad.
And many members of my Cabinet are here, along with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a brave man. And Majority Whip—friend of mine—Tom Emmer. Tom. Thanks, Tom. Great guy. Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain. You were so good on television the other day. I watched. She was ripping it. RNC Chairman Joe Gruters, who's been doing a great job.
Our great Chief of Staff of the—this—right now she's the chief of the country, and she's doing a phenomenal job—Susie Wiles. You're looking great. We have great people.
And a man that I think is going to be just outstanding, a real star: Todd Blanche. You know, we have to say. You better be. [Laughter] We're counting on you to be a star. This whole group and this whole country is.
I also want to thank Senator Bernie Moreno—he's doing an amazing job; and Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Mike Carey, Nick Begich, Tom Barrett, Mike Lawler, Zach Nunn, Scott Perry, John James, Derrick Van Orden, Brad Finstad, Bryan Steil, Ryan Mackenzie, Maria Salazar, Jim Jordan—great wrestler, by the way. Undefeated in high school. That's pretty tough, right? [Laughter] And did quite well in college too, right?—Gabe Evans, Ashley Hinson, Mike Collins, Rob Bresnahan, Tom Kean, Jen Kiggans, Eli Crane, Anna Paulina Luna, Jeff Crank, Rob Wittman, Andy Biggs, Bill Huizenga, Claudia Tenney, Tom Tiffany, and Mike Turner. There's a lot of talent there. You've got a lot of—I wanted to stop at just about every one and congratulate you because most of you have won very big races. Look at Tom Tiffany, as an example. It's really big stuff.
And—but I didn't feel we have the time. We want to—[laughter]—we want to eat and get the hell home, right, Jim? [Laughter]
But I want to thank you for all the hard work during this very important season, and I will be with you 100 percent all the way to November.
We had just a great victory with Lindsey Graham, who we miss dearly. But his sister, Darline, had a fantastic victory against a good person, by the way—against a very talented politician and a very good person. And she had a big win.
And we had a big win with the Governor in Oklahoma that was supposed to not be possible—going against somebody who was very tough. And I happened to endorse him, and he won. So that was a big win, a little bit of a surprise. But he's going to be a fantastic Governor.
And so many of the people I called out right here, you had such great victories. In some cases, where you're leaving us in Congress and going on to Governorships and other things. And I just want to congratulate you. It's a great group of people.
But all the way to November 3 and beyond, we're going to be helping you. I'm going to be going around and doing a lot of speeches. I think I helped Darline quite a bit. We went down to South Carolina, made a speech, and it worked.
And Bernie Moreno was saying I—I helped him a little while ago. It was the worst weather I think I've ever experienced outside of maybe a hurricane that we had in Florida one time, which was pretty bad. But I was speaking for him just before the election. He was a little bit down. As Bernie said, a little bit—like, you know, 10 points. [Laughter]
And I went—and, Bernie, it's true—I went up to the speaker, and it was blowing so hard—so hard that, actually—you know, for years I had to suffer with people saying, "He wears a wig." I don't wear a wig. But that night, they found out I did not wear a wig because, if you did, it was not going to be on your head very long. That was the worst I've ever seen.
And as I was walking up to the podium, the teleprompters, all set with a beautiful speech, they blew off the stage. Jim remembers. They blew off the stage, and they were 50 yards—like a half a football field—down. They were gone as I walked up.
And I said, "Here I am." It was, like, a Friday night and said, "Here we are in this beautiful place." It's the worst weather I've ever experienced during a speech. But I made the speech. I guess it was a good speech because he ended up winning by like 10 points. [Laughter] He won by a lot. Somebody that a lot of people thought wouldn't lose. And that man's running again, and you have another great candidate, right?
So our Husted man is going to do good, I think. I hope he's going to do good. Hope he does as good as you, Bernie, but you did a great job.
Because, you know, the endorsements are wonderful and everything, but you still have to produce. If the person can't produce, it doesn't mean so much.
But I want to thank you for all your hard work during this very important season. I'll be with you 100 percent.
We're going to do something like I did for myself in the last Presidential election. Four months out, I said: "Okay. No days off." If I didn't make four or five speeches a day, it was very bad, and I just went around and really campaigned hard. I have no day—for 140, 120 days, and 20 days before that. But the real—I just said: "For four months, there'll be no pleasure. I'm not going to go out and play golf. I'm not going to do anything. All I'm going to do is work, work, work and fight, fight, fight and win, win, win. You know, but I'm going to fight hard." And I did.
And I went for 120 days, three, four, five speeches a day, and we did many rallies. And, you know, rallies are big. We have 25-, 30,000, 50,000. We had one at 79,000, 82,000. We had big rallies.
And when you do that, you know, my biggest thing: Will the voice hold out? Because you do that many rallies, and sometimes I'd do three a day. And in the last week, I was doing three, four rallies a day—big ones. And in the last 2 days, I did five one day and four or five the next day. And then, I said, "All right, that's it."
And, you know, my opponent—by that time, Joe had gotten out. He was losing very substantially, and he got out. Just like a fighter. You're in a fight with somebody, and you're winning the fight quite easily and by a lot, and they take him out, and they give you a new fighter. I asked Dana White about that. They take him out. "Let's give him a new fighter. This guy's not doing too well."
So they put somebody else in. This can only happen to me. So, I had to beat two people.
Joe—he didn't work out too well. And then we had a big debate, and it was a very famous debate, as it turned out. But it didn't—look, I was—nobody can believe the whole thing. The whole thing was crazy.
But then they decided to put another candidate, and they put Kamala. And I told you, I worked for 120 days, for 4 months, and we put out a schedule. And the schedule says where you're going to be. And, you know, it's about 4 weeks in advance, but it's a schedule. I'm going to do this, this, this, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 1 o'clock, 1:30, 2:45. I'm going to be at all these different places. It was crazy.
And she put out her schedule, and half the days were empty. It said, "Off, off, off," and then she'd have one little speech, off, off, off.
And I said: "What the hell's going on? Am I missing something here? She's not working." She did very little. And I learned: In politics, you have to work.
So what I'm going to do—I'm doing this for the Speaker. I'm doing it for John Thune. I'm doing it for Steve. I'm doing it for our great chairman. Thank you, Joe. But we're—I'm doing it for the legendary Jim Jordan. We've got to win for Jim. Got to keep you in the same position.
I'm going to take the final 30 days, and maybe a little bit more than that, because it's all about 35 races. You know, some of you guys are—are leading by so much. Please don't make me go to your area. If you're leading by 40 points and you've been there for 25 years—like the Speaker. He leads by 42 points, and he has it made. Please don't ask me to come to your area and make a speech, right?
But I'm going to go to every one of those 35 places, and we're going to see if we can get everyone elected. You know, I think it's worked.
Then we're going to do the tele—we're going to do the tele–town halls. They're fantastic. They work amazingly, and we speak, and we can do 7 or 8 of them, 10 of them, maybe, a night.
And we're going to really work hard. So we're going to take that little—that final 30 days. You don't want to go too much before that because people forget. But we're going to take that final 30 days, Mr. Speaker. So I'm relying on you guys to give me some names where I say is either tied or you're winning by a little bit or you're losing by a little bit. In some cases, you can be losing by a lot, and we'll bring you over the line.
But mostly, it's if you're close, and we'll get—I think we'll get all those people elected. But I'm going to have to work.
I'm going to go up to Alaska for Dan Sullivan. Think of it. They have a man named Dan Sullivan running against him—the Democrats. I think, Todd, you have a legal case on that. They sued to be—it's—how crazy.
So they have somebody running, and then they found a man who never was political before, never ran, never thought about running, and they—his name was Dan Sullivan. So, he's running in the race against Dan Sullivan, and he actually got 2½ or 3 points in the race, and he qualified for the final.
So let's say he takes 2 or 3 points away. That's the difference between winning and losing.
It should be illegal. I don't know how the judges are ruling it, but it really is terrible. This guy knew nothing. All he knew is, his name was Dan Sullivan. He barely knew that. But he has the same name as—as a very good Senator that we have for Alaska.
So I'm going to go to Alaska, and I won it by a lot—by a real lot. And I'm going to, you know, hopefully, get Dan.
And we're going to go to Texas and work for Ken Paxton, who's a great guy. I mean—so Ken Paxton—you might not like the way he dresses. And I say this. It's so insulting to him, but I might as well say it. You might not want—like the way he looks. You might not love his look.
You might not love his television interviews. But he was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps. He was one of the best in the entire country. And that speaks a lot louder than the suit he's wearing that doesn't look so great or than anything, frankly.
He was maybe the best attorney—and everybody admits it: He was a great attorney general in Texas. And he's running against Talacreepo, and this guy was—you know, he has that name for a reason. He's a—he's terrible. He's radical left. Now he says he loves meat. You know what he does? He eats meat, and he goes outside, and he throws up all over the place. [Laughter] Because, in Texas, if you don't eat meat, you're in deep trouble. It's not a good thing not to be able to eat meat.
He was wearing a mask 6 months ago. He had a mask on. When somebody's wearing a mask 6 months ago, you're in deep trouble, right, Pete?
You did a good job last night in Iran, by the way. You knocked the hell out of them. Very good.
We're winning that one very big, by the way, in case you haven't noticed. We have to say it because the press hates to say it.
Although, even the Times said that Iran's not looking too good lately. That was a shocker when they said that. You know?
They don't have a navy. They don't have an air force. They don't have any aircraft. Anything having to do with aircraft or ships, they're all at the bottom of the sea or at the bottom of a runway. Their leaders are gone. All of their technology is gone. Their weapons are largely gone. Other than that, they're doing quite well. [Laughter.]
Their economy is totally shot. Their economy is the worst anywhere in the world, they said this morning. They have close to 300-percent inflation. Their money is valueless.
And the Times used to say, "They're doing quite well." No, they're not doing well at all, and so it's just—just a question of time. Just a question of time.
And we're doing that not for any other reason, I mean—or at least 99 percent—we're doing it to help the Middle East. We're doing it to help Israel. We're doing it to help ourselves because, after they annihilate Israel, which they would have done very gladly, and then the Middle East, then they come after Europe, and they come after some of our cities before we put them away.
Because it could take out a couple of cities before we put them—we would put them away, but—but we're doing really well with Iran. And I want to thank Pete and all those people. They're doing—that was great. We were on the phone late last night, and it really went—we luck—we knocked out a lot.
You know, we now control the Hormuz Strait, and we have many boats going through that every day, every night. Many, many boats loaded up with oil.
And so far—I don't want to speak too bravely, too foolishly—but so far, they've done very little to be able to stop it. We're going to keep it that way.
In 19 months, we've achieved more than any administration in the history of our country. This is the best start to a Presidency in terms of production that we've ever had in this country.
The stock market has hit 80 alltime record highs in just a year and a half. Think of that. So it's hit 80 alltime record highs since the election.
American exports are at the alltime high. So exporting—that's a good thing because you're making it and you're exporting it. We're manufacturing things, in other words, again. So they're at the highest they've ever been—exports. That's—think of that. That's a big one.
And a very big one also is today we have more Americans working than at any time in the history of our country. I mean, there are a couple of sound bites, but that one on exports—because nobody thought that would be possible.
So I've been saying $19.2 trillion is coming in, for the last few months. We just got a new 2 months added on. Now it's over $20 trillion is being invested in our country. There's no country in history that's ever even been close. It's four or five times greater than any country, and they're building factories all over, in Ohio, in Texas, in every place. Everybody that's sitting here is having factories built where it wasn't even thinkable. There's never been anything like it, what's happening in our country.
Our border is secure. Remember I got maybe elected, partially—certainly partially because of the border. We had millions of people—25 million people in 4 years under Sleepy Joe Biden.
And we had Kamala, who was the border czar—she never called the Border Patrol. They said, "How many times have you spoken to the border patrol?" She tried to get away with saying, "Oh, a couple." Turned out she never called. They actually interjected she never called and she never went to the border. Other than that, she did quite a good job with the border.
We had 25 million people pour into our country, unchecked and unvetted. People that were drug lords, people that were from other—from prisons and from mental institutions. Murderers—11,888 murderers, half of whom killed more than one person. These people were pouring into our country. Just walked in, no checking, no nothing. And we're getting them out. We've gotten a lot of them out. It's the hardest thing.
You know, we solved—we inherited the biggest inflation in the history of our country—and they say 48 years—you know, the press—which is very nice. They're here. The press says 48 years. It's not "the history." I'll take either one. Forty-eight years. I don't know, Todd. I think I like 48 years better. It actually sounds better. Jim, it sounds better, right? It's more specific.
When you say "in history," nobody knows what that—but when you say "48 years," you say—because I was really—you know, questioned. They—"He said that the inflation was the worst inflation in the history of our country, and he misrepresented. It's 48 years." Oh, okay. I'll take that. [Laughter] I said I'll accept that.
But our border is secure. We have—and you see the numbers, and these are made by people leaning Democrat. They do the charts. In the last 15 months, we had zero—hard to believe, actually. You know, you say it—you think it's almost impossible because we had 25 million people come in in 4 months, people that, in many cases, should not be here. But we had zero people come in in the last—zero. It sounds crazy. In the last 15 months, we've had zero people. And they don't come up anymore because they know they're not going to get through.
But we do accept people if they come in legally, because we want people, but they have to come in legally, and they have to be proud to be an American. They have to love our country. They can't come into our country and hate our country. Like, we have some politicians who are like that. They got into our country, and they hate our country, and they got in here illegally, and they hate our country. And we don't want that, whether they're politicians or people with regular jobs.
But the job numbers are way up. The crime numbers are way down. You've been seeing the reports. We have the lowest crime we've had in 125 years. We have the lowest murder rate in 125 years—the year 1900. Think of it.
And factories are opening. Our military is more powerful. I built the military in my first term. We're using it now. We took over Venezuela, and we've paid for the war about 54 times already. Think of it. When was the last time you heard that? And Venezuela has been great, and
they're doing great. We're doing great. We're both making massive amounts of money, and we're working very well with Venezuela.
But that was an attack. We took Maduro, who was the worst person, just about, on Earth, at the time. And we have some pretty bad ones too. We took him out. His wife also—she was a big leader too. And they're going to be going to trial, and they're being charged with very serious crimes.
In addition to one that I don't think they have been charged, but maybe they will be, and that's that they emptied their jails out into the United States of America. That's Tren de Aragua and all of these people poured in from Venezuela.
But now Venezuela is doing better than it's done in many years. And ExxonMobil and Chevron and—I think Chevron announced today they're going to spend $18 billion on rebuilding the entire infrastructure for their oil sections, and we're taking out millions of barrels a week of oil. It's going to Houston, it's going to Louisiana—going to different places. And it's been amazing, actually. It's been really amazing.
So, if we simply compare the voting records, Republicans should win in a landslide. You know, we did something yesterday, and that's drug pricing. Favored nations. Called "most favored nation." They've been trying to do it for 40 years, but no Republican tried very hard. No—no President tried very hard.
But "most favored nations" means we're going to pay the lowest price anywhere in the world. So the United States—we're paying the highest price for medicine anywhere in the world. Nobody close. And I got the drug companies, and I said, "We're not going to do it any longer." And I was rough with them, but they agreed. But they didn't care because they knew that the nations would never agree because you'd have to get France and Germany and all of these different company—countries to agree.
And I spoke to President Macron. I spoke to all of them. Everyone. I spoke to all of them.
And we talked to them like other Presidents should have.
So, in, as an example, the United Kingdom, we had a very, very—think of this—a very, very serious problem. The United Kingdom would pay 10 cents for a pill, and we'd pay $2 for the same pill—or for the fat drug, as I say.
You know, a friend of mine—very, very heavy. [Laughter] He's a very obese person. I said, "You're an extremely obese person." [Laughter] But he's a brilliant guy. He's a Wall Street guy. He's a brutal, brutal man, but smart as hell. But he's got a serious weight problem.
And he called me up. And he's from New York. He's one of the top guys on Wall Street.
He's begging me, because I've told this story a couple of times, not to mention his name because I'll destroy his reputation. But he's tough as hell, and he's smart, vicious, wild. These are the people we have to deal with when you're President.
He used to call me "Donny." Now he calls me "President." He'd say, "Donny." Now he calls me "President." I'm shocked he does that, actually. That shows respect. But he said, "You know, Mr. President, I was in London, and I paid $86 for Ozempic, and in New York, I pay a hundred and—I pay $1,300 for the same thing." That's a lot. That's a big difference. And I had it checked out. It comes from the same factory. It comes from the same place. And then I have some other fat drugs. I said, "Are you taking this stuff?" "Yes." I said: "It's not working. You look like shit." You know? [Laughter] I said, "It's not working." But he got me going.
And I said, "It's enough," because he's very smart. And he said, "Why am I paying $87 in London?" He was in London and paying $1,300 in New York, and—because the system was
rigged. They said we have to pay for research and development. Jim, they had all sorts of things, you know.
So I got the drug companies in, and I said, "That's enough for this stuff," and they agreed.
But they knew that the countries would never agree.
But then I got the countries, and I spoke to Emmanuel Macron—nice guy—and I said, "Emmanuel, you're going to have to triple the price of your prescription drugs." "No, no, no, Donald. I will not do that." I said: "Yes, you will, Emmanuel. You have to triple the price because we're paying, like, $130 for a pill, and you're paying $10. You're going to have to make it 20." Because the world is a bigger place, so it's not exactly. In other words, you can go up a little bit. But they had to go—they had to double their prices, sometimes triple their prices.
So I said, "Emmanuel, you're going to have to go up to—maybe the $10 is going to have to go up to $30 or even $40." "No, no, no, we will not do that." I said, "Yes, you will, Emmanuel, 100 percent. A hundred percent. Because if you don't, I'm going to put a tariff on you of 100 percent of all your wines and champagnes that come into the United States." And he said: "Donald, Donald, I would be delighted to do it. Please don't do that to me." [Laughter]
And I did that with 10 countries, and Susie was there. Every one of them—right, Susie?—every one of those countries said, "No way." And by the time I finished with them on the phone—I'm not bragging. I'm just saying somebody else should have done this. They all agreed to do it.
And we got 500, 600, 700—depending on the way—or you could say it somewhat differently. If you say it a certain way, it's 500, 600, 700 percent reduction. But if you say it another way, we reduced our prescription drugs by 60, 70, or 80 percent.
The fake news likes it better that way because when I say 5-, 600 percent—it depends on the way you phrase the statement. Because it is 5-, 600 percent, if you phrase it a certain way.
But a simpler way is to say we reduced prescription medicine by 60, 70, 80 percent. Never happened again. Will never happen—it will never happen again.
There's—nobody's ever seen anything like it, and it was just a very small story in the newspapers. I think it's one of the biggest things ever happen to medicine, and I think every one of you people should talk about it.
Favored nations. We cut your drug prices down by 60, 70, 80, 90 percent—and, again, 400, 500, 600 percent, if you want to use a little different phraseology.
And Lee Zeldin—by the way, I'm looking at you, Lee. You're my star. Environmental—stand up. He approves factories. Lee approves a factory. It used to take 25 years. He gets it done in 2 weeks. Two weeks. He reduced it from 25 years to 2 to 3 weeks. And if it's nuclear, he gives it 3 weeks, right? [Laughter] He's done a great job. No, I just see you sitting there smiling. He's the greatest guy. He could be an MVP.
J.D., what do you think? He's—could be an MVP, right?
And you've done great. Thank you. The job you've done is unbelievable.
So we got it done, and—and I really think—because you're all running, and we're all running against—I see Lawler—Mr. SALT back there. He's great. Watch him on television. I just look at him. I think of a salt shaker. [Laughter] I don't even know if people know what the hell he's talking about. He talks about SALT reduction. They think you're talking about salt from a grocery store, but he did. He got—he did a great thing for New Yorkers. Phenomenal thing. And I think it's showing up in your polls. You're doing very well.
But just think of what we did just on that one alone. All the money coming in, all the factories being built—all the jobs—record jobs, record everything. All the things I say, it's all happening.
But if you take just the drug prices coming down—favored nations. So we went from the highest price in the world to the lowest price in the world. I say this for these cameras that are rolling because people have to understand it because they don't want to write about it.
Like, we had a news conference 2 days ago, and I explained it, and even the reporters were dumbfounded. "How is that possible?" And then you see a little story on page A16 when it should be the headline in every newspaper all over the world and all over the country.
So every single Democrat voted against no tax on tips. We got no tax on tips. We got no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our great seniors.
They voted against voter ID. They voted against proof of citizenship. Now, the reason they vote against voter ID—photo voter ID, because I want to be able to tell the difference between Jim Jordan and, let's say, Tim Scott, okay? [Laughter] And if I see a photo, generally speaking, I'll be able to see the difference. Two good guys, but I want to be able to see if—let's put it this way: If Tim Scott came in and he said, "Here's my picture," and he gives me a picture of Jim Jordan, I say, "He's not going to qualify to vote." So we want photo ID.
And the only reason the Democrats don't want to do it—one reason: They want to cheat.
There's no other reason. Now, they have all sorts of things. They say: "Oh, it's highly discriminatory. It's"—they come up with—you got to say, they're pretty good. They come up with crap. It's unbelievable. "It's discriminatory to have voter identification."
You know, when we had the convention not so long ago, friend of mine came over—and he actually is a Democrat, if you can believe it, but he's a friend of mine. I'm sure he voted for me. But he had the biggest identification card I've ever seen. He had, like, a chain, and the thing was like this—like he was a prisoner, a murderer. You know where they put the picture up, the number?
And he had more stats about himself. He had his picture. He had everything. I don't know.
They might have even had his Social Security number. But they had that because he's a Democrat going into the Democrat National Convention, like, 18 months ago. And he came over, and he had the card. I said, "What do you do with that thing? It's massive. Are you strong enough to even carry it around your neck?"
And yet, they do that. And you go to a grocery store, you need identification. You have a license. The only thing they don't want you to have identification is voting. And the reason is because they cheat, and they want to continue cheating. And frankly, with their horrible policy of, like, all of the things that they have—open borders, men playing in women's sports—that's still raging. I thought we killed that at the Supreme Court. Mr. Attorney General, I really thought we won that. I guess we won a partial.
But I saw Markey—Senator Markey—I'm glad Markey won over Moulton. I couldn't stand Moulton. I really couldn't. I mean, Markey, I wouldn't say, loves Trump, but Moulton was so bad. And—and it was nice to see Markey won in a landslide.
But I saw Markey, during a debate saying, "Yes, I want men to play in women's sports." So, they're still really into that, and I hope they continue because it's got to be about a 99-1. You know, they say it's an 80-20 issue. I think it's really a 99-to-1 issue. I know the Speaker—our great Speaker wants them to continue onward.
So I said to him—I said: "Mike, let's tell our guys, 'Don't even talk about it until about a week or two before the election, because if they ever change, it's not good.'"
But they want transgender for everybody. They want the sexual mutilization of your children. It's hard to believe. Can you imagine standing up 20 years ago, right here, and saying: "We don't want men to play in women's sports. We don't want you to do the transgender mutilization of our children. We don't want open borders so the entire world can pour into our country."
If we would have—20 years ago, probably even 15 years ago, been right here saying those things, they'd have the person removed for being insane. "Why is he saying these stupid things?" But now it's a part of our system, I guess.
But they voted against proof of citizenship, and they voted in favor of so many different things that are so crazy. And that's when I came up with the name "Dumocrat," because it's the dumbest stuff I've ever seen—like the transgender, like the men and women's sports, like the open borders, like hundreds of other things that are so bad.
And then I said, "Well, if you replace the 'e' with a 'u', instead of 'Democrat,' you have 'Dumocrat.'" And most people don't know that "dumb" has a "b" at the end. You know, they think it's d-u-m. [Laughter] And that's okay.
So it's a one-letter change. And you go: "No more 'e.' You just put a 'd' ['u'; White House correction],' and you've got a 'Dumocrat.'" And that's because their policy's so bad.
But you have unbelievable things to run—run for. And that's how—when I spoke for Darline—and we miss our good old Lindsey. He was great. He was a great politician, actually. He could actually make deals for me with Democrats. He could go up to a Democrat, make a deal.
Very few other people could do that.
But when you talk about these things, which is what I talked about in South Carolina, everybody voted for her. She picked up 50 points and beat a professional politician—a very good politician.
But they created the worst border in U.S. history, and we turned it into the strongest border.
So we have the best—we took—in a period of 90 days, I took the southern border—it was the worst in history. I believe it was the worst in the history of the world. There's never been a border that allowed 25 million—I don't care if it was a third-world or a fourth-world—a fourth-world country, there's never been a border where millions of people just walked into a country and took it over.
So we had the worst border in history, maybe in the world, and we turned it into the best border anywhere—anywhere that we've ever had. And probably—certainly one of the best borders in the world.
They defunded the police. They want defunding the police. One thing I've learned about—because I haven't been doing this too long—10 years. You know, a lot of these Congressmen have been Congressmen for 25, 30 years, a lot longer than me.
So I'm surprised, because one of the things I learned about politicians is: Whatever their first thought, that's where they're going, because I've seen them—they come out with all this terrible stuff. Like, I'm watching A.O.C. She's saying, "I was only kidding about the things I used to say." I see others say the same thing because they're not electable with those. But they'll go back to those things.
So they'll go back to defund the police.
We achieved the largest drop in violent crime. We achieved all of these great statistics, and those are the things you have to talk about.
But the Democrats wreaked and wrecked the economy. What they did to our economy was so bad. We inherited the worst economy, one of them in history, outside of 1929, which was seriously bad. We would have ended up in 1929. We would have been—instead of having the hottest country anywhere in the world, we would have been a 1929 economy. We would have been—we would have been in a depression. Instead of having $20 trillion invested in our country, we would have had $10 trillion being taken out, and our welfare would have doubled and tripled, and you would have had a bankrupt country. That was going to happen, 100 percent.
But our Republican majorities rebuilt the economy with me, with the largest tax cuts, the largest regulation cuts, and the largest spending cuts in the history of our country.
And I did it in our first. We had a tremendous first term, and tremendous—we had the best economy. When I left, we had the highest stock market in the history up until that point. Now we have the highest stock market virtually every day, but we had the most—the highest, and then we had the most favored. And we had all of these things.
And with the war on fraud, which is headed up by J.D.—and I'm telling you, he's doing an amazing job, and he loves it, because it's so unfair. They're stealing. I mean, I saw the other day a nurse—a nurse—looked fine, didn't look like the brightest bulb. She stole $100 million. Not a million, not $200,000, not $50. She stole $100 million. And they caught her because she was driving a brandnew Ferrari that cost a million bucks, and they said, "That's a little extravagant for a nurse." They were trying to figure—and they caught her.
It's unbelievable. The fraud is unbelievable. And I think we have to give that back to the States, by the way. We have to give things like the learning center—the "Learing," right?—the "Learing" centers. The Federal Government runs this stuff. We shouldn't be. We should be running our military and running a com—but the States have to run all of that stuff, and you'll cut it down by 75 percent, and it will be run better. But the States have to be giving it back, just like we gave back education.
Just like we gave back—I said to Linda McMahon—she's—I don't know if she's here. She's fantastic. Linda McMahon. I said, "Linda, we've got to bring education back to the States." And I don't want to say whether or not you have to go to Congress or not. I won't say that.
But education is now back in the States. And if you had to go to Congress, you wouldn't get it. Even though it's one of those things—what are they? I said: "If you do it, what are they going to do? They're going to say you have to send it back?" And the States all wanted it, and the States are now largely running education. Linda McMahon has done a great bow—job. And you have buildings in Washington empty all over the place. Department of Education. They're empty buildings. They'll be sold.
Our country is respected again. We're respected like never before. I go to meetings, and everyone stands up. They didn't stand up for our last President. They didn't care about him. They didn't care. They laughed at him. But our country is respected again.
And when President Xi comes in 2 weeks, he respects America now. He didn't respect us. He laughed at us. He thought we were a bunch of fools.
So, with your help, we'll continue to create and keep this incredible success going. We'll defeat the Democrat Communists. And that's what they are, they're Communists. These aren't Socialists.
You know, I make the speech, and I say, "We will never be a socialist country." I was—did the State of the Union. "We will never be a socialist country." And I was right. They want to be a communist country. They skipped socialism. They were supposed to hit socialism and then go
communist, Mike, but they skipped socialism. They went right down to the bottom, and the bottom is communism, and it's never worked under different names. But it's never worked.
And we'll send true American patriots to the United States Senate, to the House of Representatives, to Governors' mansions, and all over the country. Because with what we've done in just a short period of time—a year and a half—nobody's ever seen it before. There's never been anything like it. And all you have to do is talk about it, and you're going to win, and you're going to win big.
So I want to thank you all. I thank the media for staying. It was very nice, being so quiet.
They're not screaming questions at me as I speak. But they're very good. They've been very good lately. And the reason they're good is, they can't believe—the media has gained respect for us.
They cannot believe what we've done.
And it started with a "Great Big Beautiful Bill" and all the things—all the goodies we've got there. That was 17 different bills all put into one. And Mike and myself and John Thune and some others got together, and said, "Let's see if we could get it all up front." And if we didn't, we would be really stymied because it would be very hard. We would have gotten the first—we've got the first one done. That was the "Great Big Beautiful Bill." That was 4 years' worth of goodies. But now we're going for a lot more.
So, if you bring the points up that I just discussed, I think you're going to have tremendous success. It's lower taxes. It's all of those things that are so good. It's really—you know what it really is, more than anything else? It's common sense. Because to be a good politician, you don't have to be conservative, liberal, or anything else. You have to have common sense. It's all about common sense, and you people really have it, and you have an opportunity.
And you know, in theory and over the years, the one thing we have against us: For some reason, Presidents, when—whether they're Democrat or Republican, when they win, they never lose—win the midterms. Two out of 50 years. Now, that's actually 2 out of 25—because it's 2, but it's 50 years. There's been two victories. And if you go back 100 years, it's four victories. It's another two. So there's something psychologically in people's head that we don't vote for whoever—this is whether you're Democrat or Republican. We don't vote for the person's party that wins the Presidency, even if you're a great President.
We've had some good ones. We haven't—none—we've had no great ones until I came along. I'm only kidding. [Laughter] Trying to be low-key about it, but you know I want to be—if I don't say I'm only kidding, there'll be a headline. Headline: "He's a terrible human being." [Laughter]
But no, we are, though. We're doing a job like nobody's ever done before. But whether you're a good President or a great President, you lose the midterms. We're going to turn that around because there's no reason for it. There is no reason.
And I'm going to get—many of you people are running, and I'll be at every one of your State, your cities—wherever it is that you're running. And I'm really going to be, in particular, interested in Congress and the Senate. I love you Governors, but good luck. You know, if you happen to be in the audience, we'll give you a shout-out. But we have to put Congressmen and - women and we have to put Senators in office, and we have to keep the ones that are there. We have to keep them. And we're going to do that.
And I just want to thank you all. It's an honor. It's an honor to be with you. It's a very special group of people. And you're champions, you're winners, and you've got the right side. You've got the right—you're on the right side.
And we're going to keep this country—it's the hottest country in the world. We're going to keep it that way.
Thank you very much, everybody.
NOTE: The President spoke at 7:09 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to South Carolina Republican senatorial candidates Sen. Darline Graham Nordone and Rep. Ralph W. Norman, Jr.; Oklahoma Republican gubernatorial candidates Michael P. Mazzei State Attorney General Gentner Drummond; Ohio Democratic senatorial candidate former Sen.
Sherrod Brown; Ohio Republican senatorial candidate Sen. Jon A. Husted; former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.; Dana F. White, Jr., president and chief executive officer, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC); former Vice President Kamala D. Harris, in her capacity as the 2024 Democratic Presidential nominee; Senate Majority Leader John R. Thune; Alaska Republican senatorial candidate Daniel S. Sullivan; Alaska senatorial candidate Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr., an unaffiliated challenger on the general-election ballot; Texas Republican senatorial candidate State Attorney General W. Kenneth Paxton, Jr.; Texas Democratic senatorial candidate James D. Talarico; Secretary of War Peter B. Hegseth; former President Nicolás Maduro Moros of Venezuela, who was captured, along with his wife Cilia Flores, in a U.S. military operation in Caracas, Venezuela, on January 3 and exfiltrated to the U.S. for criminal processing in New York City; President Emmanuel Macron of France; Sen. Timothy E. Scott; Massachusetts Democratic senatorial candidates Sen. Edward J. Markey and Rep. Seth Moulton; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; and Las Vegas, NV, nurse practitioner Marizel Yukee, who was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on September 3.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Rose Garden Club dinner. Locations: Washington, DC.
Names: Barrett, Tom; Begich, Nick; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Biggs, Andrew S.; Blanche, Todd W.; Bresnahan, Rob; Brown, Sherrod; Carey, Mike; Collins, Mike, Jr.; Crane, Eli; Crank, Jeff; Drummond, Gentner; Emmer, Thomas E., Jr.; Evans, Gabe; Finstad, Brad; Flores, Cilia; Graham Nordone, Darline; Gruters, Joe; Harris, Kamala D.; Hegseth, Peter B.; Hinson, Ashley E.; Huizenga, Bill; Husted, Jon A.; James, John; Johnson, J. Michael; Jordan, James D.; Kean, Tom; Kiggans, Jen; Lawler, Michael V.; Luna, Anna Paulina; Mackenzie, Ryan; Macron, Emmanuel; Maduro Moros, Nicolas; Markey, Edward J.; Mazzei, Michael P.; McClain, Lisa C.; McMahon, Linda E.; Miller-Meeks, Mariannette J.; Moreno, Bernie; Moulton, Seth; Norman, Ralph W., Jr.; Nunn, Zachary M.; Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria; Paxton, W. Kenneth, Jr.; Perry, Scott G.; Salazar, Maria E.; Scott, Timothy E.; Steil, Bryan G.; Sullivan, Daniel J., Jr.; Sullivan, Daniel S.; Talarico, James D.; Tenney, Claudia; Thune, John R.; Tiffany, Thomas P.; Turner, Michael R.; Van Orden, Derrick F.; Vance, James D. "J.D."; White, Dana F., Jr.; Wiles, Susan; Wittman, Rob; Xi Jinping; Yukee, Marizel; Zeldin, Lee M.
Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; 2026 midterm elections; Attorney General; Border security; China, President; Department of Education, proposed closure; Economic improvement; Election security and integrity, strengthening efforts; Environmental permitting process, improvement efforts; Environmental Protection Agency; France, President; Fraud enforcement, strengthening efforts; Illegal immigration; Inflation; Iran, commercial transit through Strait of Hormuz; Iran,
U.S. military operations; Prescription drug costs, reduction efforts; Republican National Committee; Rose Garden Club; Secretary of Education; Secretary of War; Senate majority leader; Speaker of the House of Representatives; Stock market; Tax Code reform; Venezuela, oil supply and refining; Venezuela, U.S. military capture and exfiltration of President Maduro; Vice President; White House Ballroom construction project; White House Chief of Staff; White House helipad construction project.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600574.