Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
September 30, 2026
The President. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
And so we remember—we're going to do something a little special. We're going to open those doors, and you'll be the first people of consequence to ever step on the new ballroom floor. Whoa. Good, right?
So that will be exciting. So we'll wait till the end. We have some things to say.
And if you don't mind, what I'm going to do before we talk about the incredible Hispanics—you know, there's lots of different names. "Latinos," they call them. So many different names—[laughter]—but I've used "Hispanics," and I got elected, and I got a big majority of your votes, so I'm going to keep using the same—the same word.
And I have so many friends here. Amazing.
But before we do that and before we go outside—and I think you'll really get an example of incredible construction. It's an incredible structure that's half finished. We're ahead of schedule. Under budget, ahead of schedule. When have you last heard that from a government?
Iraq/Withdrawal of U.S. Military Personnel
But I wanted to announce something that I'm also very proud of. Today I'm pleased to announce that the last American forces are leaving Iraq. It's been a long time with very bad decision-making that got us involved in this quagmire in the first place. It was a quagmire. Many, many years it lasted. But soon, that part of history will be over.
This is a great day for America. And importantly, we leave with Iraq having a wonderful new Prime Minister, Ali al-Zaydi. Fantastic guy, friend of mine, and somebody I supported from the very beginning and I fully endorsed. He was running for election. He wasn't given even a chance, and I endorsed him and politicked for him a little bit, and he ended up winning in a virtual landslide, beating somebody that was not a good person, in my opinion.
So I'm very proud of him, and hopefully, he's going to do a fantastic job. But he won the election, and it was very unexpected. It was a very big thing, and he did so in landslide order.
Launched in 2003 under the Presidency of George W. Bush and continued under the administration of Barack Hussein Obama—have you heard of him?—[laughter]—in 2014 and then further continued under Sleepy Joe Biden—[laughter]—Operation Inherent Resolve, which is what they called it, ends in 2026 under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump. We're getting the hell out of there.
So this day is a victory for the United States. It's a victory for Iraq and a decisive victory over ISIS, which has been completely decimated, which is the reason we went in there in the first place. I decimated them and took them out in my first administration. So I don't know what took them so long to be making the announcement that I'm making today, but it was all about ISIS at the time.
It should have never been allowed to form. It did form. We took it out. Others weren't able to do so.
But that's just a very big thing. And just to go on just a little bit about it, I have to make some comparisons. Unlike Afghanistan, where much military equipment and everything else was left
behind and 13 warriors lie dead—I knew the families of those incredible young people. Got to know them very well over the last couple of years. What happened to those—to their children should never have been allowed to happen.
With many badly wounded. So many badly—48 were so badly wounded. They never get mentioned. I mention them all the time. Badly wounded. No legs, in some cases—arms, face.
This orderly departure of coalition forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base marks the end of a very expensive excursion into hell. And, again, we took all of our equipment. I said, "Take a little longer. Take every one." We left all of the equipment, if you remember, in Afghanistan.
Everything was left behind. We left. I said, "I want every screw taken." [Laughter] "If there's a screw lying on the ground, take it. If we have a canvas tent, take it." We took everything.
I set a clear mission, gave our commanders the tools to finish it, and refused to let a temporary presence become a permanent one. A lot of people wanted us to be permanently there. I had a choice to stay or to leave and felt, without question, that it was time for America to go home.
Prime Minister—[applause]. Prime Minister al-Zaydi is outstanding and will hopefully be able to handle things very well. We came to fight a caliphate, and there is no longer a caliphate, so we are going home, indeed.
Now, as a comparison, we have been in that war for 23 years, lost more than 4,500 great American soldiers, and had over 31,000 injured, some very badly. Plus, hundreds of civilian contractors were killed.
So think of that: 23 years, 4,500 dead soldiers, 31,000 badly injured. And that doesn't include contractors that were—many killed.
Venezuela/Oil Supply and Refining
By comparison, in our war with Venezuela, some—a place you're very familiar with, by the
way.
Audience member. Yes!
The President. Did we do a good job in Venezuela, huh? That's right. I'm speaking to the
right group. I'm speaking to the right group.
But by comparison, in our war with Venezuela, we lost zero soldiers. And you know, I don't know if you know, but we went into a major fort—a major military complex with thousands of—thousands of soldiers. We went in with 201 great, talented, brilliant, tough people. We lost zero. Accomplished our mission of getting the number-one state sponsor of terror. He was the number one. Rated number one. We took him out. He was locked behind iron doors. Those iron doors came down in seconds. It was—you've got to see this to—you wouldn't believe it. And the war lasted for exactly 148 minutes. [Laughter] The fake news doesn't talk about that.
And Venezuela has now been, you know, great. We—we're helping the people become rich again. We're—the big oil companies are moving in. We've taken out many, many times the cost of the war in oil, and getting along really well. Really, really well. And the country's coming back, and the people have a smile on their face. They see what's happening. The money is pouring in. And we opened it up for travel.
Some of you are Venezuelan.
Audience member. Yes!
The President. I know in Doral—Doral is, they call, "Little Venezuela." I love Doral. Love Doral Country Club. [Laughter]
But it's "Little Venezuela," and it's a great area. It's an amazing area with the most amazing—and, as you know—and, as you know, we now have flights going into Venezuela. Who thought—who would have thought that was going to be happening anytime soon? You have full flights going in.
But think of it. So it's 148 minutes as opposed to 23 years. We lost nobody, and we had—have complete—a total military victory.
U.S. Military Operations in Iran
Likewise, in Iran, we have been there for 6 months, with 18 killed. By the way, one is too many.
Audience member. Amen.
The President. But they lost 4,500. We lost 18. And we have—very soon—you'll see things happening very soon.
But we have a nation that's been virtually destroyed. Their economy is no good. They have 300 percent-plus inflation. Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their antiaircraft equipment is gone. The last week in the Hormuz Strait, which we have almost total control—I would say total, but every once in a while, they'll drop a mine in there and disrupt things a little bit.
But we have virtually total control of the Hormuz Strait. And, in fact, in the last 3 days, more oil has come out of the Hormuz Strait than at any time in the history of the Hormuz Strait. I'm not just talking about—I'm not talking about since the war; I'm saying at any time in history. It's been——
Audience member. Because of you, Mr. Trump!
The President. It's been pent up. So we don't—you know, the fake news doesn't like talking about it. But I like talking about it.
Audience member. Latinos for Trump!
The President. But think of it. So we have a war that was over in 148 minutes. We have another one where we're 6 months in. And we have—you know, their military is totally wiped out. And we're going to have that war won very quickly, one way or the other. They'll either be one way or the other.
Does everyone know what that means? [Laughter] I don't know. I'm not sure that Sean Duffy knows. I'm looking at Sean and Rachel. And your sister is here too, Rachel. I hear—oh, there she—oh, I don't know. Who's more beautiful? I can't tell. [Laughter]
You know, you're not allowed to talk—as a politician, you're not allowed to talk about the beauty of a woman because it's the immediate end—[laughter]—of your political career. But you're both very beautiful—[laughter]—so—and I hear you're doing a fantastic job as Ambassador. That's what I do hear. So congratulations.
No, Sean has been incredible. Transportation. He's been incredible. He knows exactly what's happening, and he inherited a real mess. He's has 50-year-old equipment landing planes, and how you're doing it as well as you're doing it is amazing.
But we're—one of the things we're doing is, we're doing a completely new system. All the best equipment in the world, even the replacement of some of the towers that are so old, they're almost falling—falling down. The air control towers.
But all of the air traffic control equipment is going to be the best in the world soon. It'll take a little while, but by the end of this administration—so less than 2½ years.
Sad. When I think about that, I said, "That's getting quick." [Laughter]
But nobody could do what we did in an administration that I—we've the—we have the best of everything. We have the best—you know, we have the greatest—
If you look at the real, the big, the powerful economy—we have the greatest economy in the history of our country by far. We have $21 trillion being invested in this country, as an example, which is a record for any country by a lot, by five times.
And if you look at the Biden administration, in 4 years they had half a trillion. We have $21 trillion in 15 months. Think of that. Twenty-one trillion. It's a little different. A little bit different. No, we're doing great.
We don't—if—what we're doing poorly in: We're not getting the word out. I mean, we're just not getting it.
That's why I'm going to be making—I thought I was finished campaigning—[laughter]—but in order to help Republicans—because we need the votes. We have to have the votes. Otherwise, we'll have these lunatics with the open borders.
Illegal Immigration
We'll have the open-border lunatics. They'll open the borders. They'll let the prisoners from every—I'm not talking about only South America; I'm talking about from all over the world.
They'll let the lunatics in.
Every prison—I mean, all over the world. Prisons from the Congo, in Africa, from all over the world, they emptied their prisons into our country.
And we've gotten them mostly out. Big, big focus on the bad ones, the worst. "The worst of the worst," as we call them. But we've gotten thousands of murderers out of our country. Some we had to put in jail. Thousands. Murderers, drug lords—we have them all. They emptied their mental institutions.
And I would have done the same thing if I was in charge of any of the countries. Any country. When I heard that we had open borders—nobody even checking. Just—people just walk. You saw. Twenty-five million people walked across the border into our country, and many of those people were not people that you would want in this country.
And frankly, it's the hardest job that I've had. The hardest job, because they'll say you're too tough or you're too soft. Get tougher. Get softer. No matter what you do, it's always tough.
But we have—we've been very strong. And for the last 17 months, Rachel, we had zero people—I mean, think of that—were able to come into the country illegally.
And we have people coming in. We have people coming in, but we have them coming in through a legal process. Legally—we have them coming in legally.
National Hispanic Heritage Month
So I'm thrilled to welcome you. Now we'll get back to Hispanics. Okay? You want—[Laughter]. But the Hispanics—what I just said about being out of a place where probably shouldn't have gone was so good. You know what happened? They fired everybody. They took everybody in Iraq. They fired the soldiers. They fired the generals. They fired the police. They fired everybody in the home office or the equivalent of the—they had nobody. So they have Iraq, and they had nobody to run it. And you know what happened? ISIS formed. The generals and all
of the police that all got fired—everybody was fired in that country. Everybody. They had nobody. They'd call in; nobody would answer the phones. It was a mess.
And we do it a lot differently. We learn from the stupidity of what they did there. But ISIS formed out of all those people that got fired so stupidly.
But I'm thrilled to welcome you to the great White House, where I spend a lot of time fixing it and making it better. It was falling down. [Laughter] I hate to say it.
I refuse to say, "The White House was a dump," but I'll tell you, it was in bad shape. [Laughter] You know, like, on the exterior of the White House, you have these beautiful moldings and florals, and everything was beautiful. And you'd have a window in between and a molding here, but the molding here was missing, or the molding here was falling down to the ground about 30 years ago. It was never replaced. So you'd have a half a molding and a molding, or you'd have no molding and a full mold. [Laughter] And I fix it, because I do that stuff well.
You know what I do? They do a fiberglass copy from the one that's existing, because it's hard to ever compete with it. And then you take that and you form it, and you'd put plaster—exterior plaster into it, and you'd put it up. And now, lo and behold, you have two moldings, and then you paint it. [Laughter] And then you paint it.
And I'd say 20 percent of the building—the front. I don't know if you walked through the front, but the front was terrible. It had massive, gaping wounds all over the place. Hadn't been—nobody touched it for literally a couple of hundred years. It was in very, very—in other words, it was in bad shape. You know, I came here, like, 18 years ago, and I said, "Man, this place is in bad shape." And it was.
See this room? We had this room redone. Look. Beautiful.
If you would have looked at this room—some of you; not everybody sees it—but some of you would have seen a big scar right in the somebody hit it with a—looked like they hit it with a hammer, but they hit it with something in fixing up for whatever.
This was our ballroom. A very small space. We had the President of China here the other day. It was a great meeting, but we could only have about 125 people. That's not really a ballroom. That's a cocktail area, wouldn't you say? [Laughter] That's really meant for cocktails.
But we fixed—I spent a lot of effort and not a lot of money, relatively speaking. But the press would say, "Why does he spend so much time fixing?" First of all, it's very little time for me. And, second of all, for me, that's—for a lot of people, it's turmoil in their mind. For me, it relaxes me, actually. [Laughter] I do it easily. That's what I've done my whole life. And I've made this building more beautiful than it's ever been.
And remember, this building—because I do get criticized. "Oh, he spends money fixing the White House. Why is he"—well, the building was in bad shape. The plaster was falling off the exterior walls. The plaster was falling off the interior walls too. And we made it like this. We made it all beautiful. It's, like—it's almost complete.
But I have an obligation. I'm President. Somebody had to do it, and—you have to fix, because—you know, first of all, I love doing it, because that's what I did my whole life. But I love doing it.
And, second of all, I'm really good at it, and I do it for the right price. [Laughter] Like that big, beautiful building that you're going to see. You'll be the first ones. The Hispanics will be the first. First to—the Hispanics. The Hispanics plus Sean Duffy. [Laughter] He's not Hispanic, to the best of my knowledge. [Laughter]
But no, you'll be the first. It's—you're going to love it. You're going to love it. In fact, you're going to say: "Get this speech over with. We want to go outside." [Laughter] But you're going to see something that's great.
But I have an obligation. The White House is a symbol of our country. Maybe, in my opinion, you know, you could say the Capitol, certainly, and—but maybe more than anything else, the White House is a symbol.
When you have a White House where the walls on the outside are broken, cracked, in horrible condition, and you have somebody that's really good at fixing them—I know the right people. We've had some tremendous talent involved in this little situation. And it's not even a big money thing. It's just a thing you have to do.
And many of these things took place 30, 40, 50 years ago. They'd have a massive hole in the wall from getting hit by something—car doors. You had to see the cars—where cars come out.
The wall was like—nobody ever fixed it.
And I have an obligation because this is a symbol of our country. This is a symbol. And if you look up and you see the beautiful White House—and you see a massive crack in the columns—and there were many of them—big cracks where stone had literally fallen out. And you know what they'd do? They'd paint it. They'd paint it. So you'd have a nice crack, and it would be painted. [Laughter]
So I felt I had it. And you'll—when you leave today, you'll take a look and you'll see something that I don't get but I don't get credit for anything. But—a-—and I don't really want credit.
You know, I'm the only one—I'm the only President—they say they think George Washington maybe—but I'm the only President that donated his salary. I don't get——they pay me $550,000 a year. And, in my first term, I donated it, and I don't think I ever got a story about it.
Now, I tell you one thing: if I said I donated it and I didn't, I'd be killed. [Laughter] But in my second term, I donated it too. And you know what I donated it here? To fixing the White House. I donated the salary into the White House Preservation—it's called White House Preservation Fund.
And if I don't say it, nobody else will. And surprisingly, because we've had wealthy president—FDR was wealthy. Kennedy was wealthy. A lot of people were sort of wealthy. Some were very wealthy.
George Washington was a very wealthy person, but the only one they say may have done that was George Washington. But the records are not there. But they say they think George Washington worked for $1. You're not allowed to donate it. You have to work for $1, so I get actually $1 to be specific. [Laughter] I'm not allowed to do it. I have to get something by law, so I take $1. But I'm very proud to do it. And I'm very proud the job we've done. We've done a job.
But I've done a very bad job of explaining—I saw Rachel talking about it. I've done a very bad job of explaining how good the country is doing. We're doing better than any country in the world economically. You're going to see Europe. Europe's a mess. Other countries are not doing as well. Even President Xi. First thing he said to me, "Wow, you've done a good job." He said that in Chinese, by the way. [Laughter] [Inaudible]
That's—I think that's about the best description I can say. But he knows.
But I'm thrilled to have you at the White House celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month. That's what we're here for. That's what we're here for.
See, now today—and I said that a little late in the speech, but I pardon myself. But I think getting out of Iraq is a very big deal. But the press will say tomorrow, "He rambled for 20 minutes"—[laughter]—"about unrelated subjects to Hispanics." It's actually very related because it's good for our country. Very good.
They'll say: "He didn't get to the Hispanic Heritage Month for over 15 minutes. How terrible.
He's terrible." That's crazy. These people are crazy. [Laughter]
But we honor the countless Hispanic American patriots throughout our history who have been among the greatest champions of faith, family, and our God-given freedoms. You really are—you're amazing.
And I'm a politician that got the most—for a Republican, got the most, but almost for anybody—got the most Hispanic votes of anybody—[inaudible].
I got a call from the Governor of Texas—who's a good guy—and he said—during, actually, all the elections. But I won all of the Hispanic cities. He said, "You won everything along the border of Mexico—every single." Think of that. And that's never happened before. Nobody's done it. And it's mostly Hispanic. It's 85, 90 percent Hispanic.
So I love you too. You know the truth is you're—you probably can't—you're not supposed to generalize, but I do. [Laughter] You're hard-working people. You're smart as hell. You're energetic. Sometimes too energetic, I might add. [Laughter] A little bit too—[laughter]—right? Sean knows that. A little bit too energetic.
But you're incredible people, and I've loved you right from the beginning. I loved you for many years before I ever decided to do this political thing, and you've liked me from the beginning because the numbers are incredible. And I appreciate it.
And you also know when I build a wall, I'm building a wall to keep bad people out. And you want those bad people kept out more than anybody.
So with the help of many friends in this room, 2 years ago we won more votes from the Hispanic Americans than any Republican President in history, and we won more than almost anybody that's ever run for office. And it was a great—I mean, it was a great thing.
The polls had it totally wrong. They said, "He'll do fairly well, but probably not too well with Hispanics." Because, you know—and we did well. We had supporters like my friend Bob over here, who was great. Nobody better, right? You doing good?
Goya Foods, Inc., Chief Executive Officer and President Robert Unanue. Thank you for bringing back the land of opportunity. It was lost, but you brought us back.
The President. Thank you.
Mr. Unanue. Also, thank you, freedom—for the freedom of over 147,000 children who were trafficked during the last administration. [Inaudible]
The President. We're getting them back. We're getting—there were 350,000 missing children. Can you believe it? We got a lot of them back. We're working hard on it, Bob.
So Bob owns Goya, which is food—nice food. [Laughter] In fact, I recommend it every time I want something from a can. I say, "Goya"—[laughter]. But he was, like, one of my earliest people, and he took a lot of heat, a lot of stupid heat. And it was terrible. He suffered, and he never took—he didn't say: "I'm sorry. I'd like to apologize." He didn't even think about it. He even got—more and more.
And then people saw what was happening. I made him rich. His sales tripled. [Laughter] Right? And then they—he thought he'd be out of business. They said: "We are going to boycott
Goya. We are going to never buy it." And you know what? It's amazing. And his sales went through the roof, and your company is—what do I get out of it? What do I get? [Laughter] I want to know.
So you know what I get out of it? A great man benefits, as he should, for really risking his whole—really risking his whole—and whenever they make the product, I say that's the one I want to get it from. But you have been great, and I—right from the beginning, when it wasn't so pleasurable to do, right? He took a little heat.
Mr. Unanue. Right.
The Hispanic community is the most exploited community in trafficking, and you stood for life. [Inaudible]
The President. The most exploited, yes.
Mr. Unanue. You saved 147,000 children out of 500,000——
The President. Yeas.
Mr. Unanue. ——across the board. And now——
The President. And we're getting a lot of them back too, but—you know, a lot of them are coming back.
Mr. Unanue. [Inaudible]—on the way. And they're just waiting for us to fail, but we cannot fail. You are the leader of the greatest country in the world, that—and you are a world leader, and we thank you for bringing back the land of opportunity and bringing back—[inaudible].
The President. Not bad. I'll tell you—Rachel, he's gotten even better. [Laughter]
No, he had such courage. I said, "I wonder when he's going to say, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'" [Laughter] He never apologized. But then, when he saw what was happening, you couldn't buy his product. I mean, it flew. [Laughter]
So we love you. We had another one: Jaxson. You know, Jaxson Dart. He's a little hurt right now. Good quarterback. But he endorsed Trump so heavily, and he took a little heat from a rather liberal group of people in the NFL—the people that put on the halftime shows. You know? [Laughter] I don't get those halftime shows, but whatever.
So Jaxson Dart, who's a great, talented, handsome guy—very handsome guy. And he loved Trump. And he would, like—he wanted to introduce me at a big rally. I had a big rally, thousands of people. He got up, and he said nice things, and—"Here's Trump." And he took a lot of heat.
And then, the next day, his jersey was the number-one-selling jersey in the NFL. [Laughter] Isn't that great?
And I just want him to get better because we love him. He got hurt. It's a dangerous game.
They made it a little less dangerous with that ridiculous kickoff rule, but we won't talk about that. [Laughter] Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
Audience members. Yes.
The President. I can't watch it. [Laughter]
But in honor of the tremendous faith represented in this community, I want to start by asking two people who have been with me since the very beginning: Pastors Pasqual and Norma Oberbazo [Urrabazo; White House correction], two incredible people from Nevada, to come up and lead us in prayer. These were people that—that liked me from the—you know, the people I like the most are the ones that liked me from the beginning—[laughter]—which is most of you. I think everybody—I think that includes everybody.
But these people got it, and we appreciate you being here. Please come up.
Pastor Norma Urrabazo of International Church of Las Vegas in Las Vegas, NV. Mr.
President, we are so honored to be here. Really, not just us, but all of us Latinos that are here to celebrate the great things that God has done. And we remember meeting you for the first time during the first campaign when Jenny Korn challenged us: Gather the Latino church, gather the Latino leaders in Las Vegas. And when we did that, it was a historic event. Come on. And nothing's been the same since.
And so we are so grateful for the great things that God has done and—and for the great things that the Lord is going to continue to do in our nation. So I want you to just join me as we pray for the Latino community and for our president. Okay?
So Father, we thank you for your presence that's already in this place. Lord, as we stand together, united, one voice, one purpose, we boldly decree and declare a commanded blessing of unshakable unity, strength, and favor over our communities and our families, our leadership, and everything that we own.
Father, we decree the blessings of God that has been commanded over our businesses, education, ministries, and the work of our hands. Let it be known that the seeds of faith, hard work, and resilience planted by generations before us are yielding a harvest of unprecedented influence and prosperity today.
When we walk in unity, this commanded blessing releases life, prosperity, and a breakthrough for the next generation so that what we have extended will multiply and will be secured. We declare that everything we set our hands to will prosper. And together, we will continue to strengthen and build the fabric of this great nation.
[At this point, Ms. Urrabazo spoke in Spanish; no translation was provided.]
Pastor Pasqual Urrabazo of International Church of Las Vegas in Las Vegas, NV. Let's just continue in prayer real quickly.
Father, we just thank you. We thank you for President Trump. Father, you have led him like 2 Corinthians 2:14 says. It goes: "We give you thanks, Lord, who you lead us in triumph through your Son, Jesus Christ." And you have led President Trump through triumph to bring America back.
But, Father, we pray at this moment in the name of Jesus Christ——
Audience member. Amen!
Mr. Urrabazo. ——where the Sprit of the Lord—there is freedom. And we thank you for President Trump. We ask you, Lord, in this hour that you would increase the spirit of wisdom in his life with revelation in the name of Jesus Christ.
And, President Trump, I ask the Lord, right now, to anoint you with a fresh anointing oil, that—so you can move this—this Nation forward in the name of Jesus Christ.
And as you move it—this nation forward, we all decree, as a Hispanic community—the church, all faith—we decree right now that the Lord strengthen you with might by the power of His Holy Spirit in your inner being and to guide you and protect you and your family.
So we just bless you, and we say the word of the Lord over your life is "Yes" and "Amen."
The President. Thank you. I got to meet them years ago, and we were looking for a church. It was Sunday. And we went into this place, and it was rocking. [Laughter] And we went there a
few times when we were around. But it was great. They had two great people there. Such unbelievable spirit in that church, and you need spirit in a church.
So thank you very much. Thank you for your support.
We're also honored to be joined on this occasion by the highest ranking Hispanic American in the history of our country. And he's a man who everyone is just—they've fallen in love with him. He's very special. His next job—I guess it's not really next. It's just continuing. [Laughter] But watch what he does with Cuba. Watch what he does with Cuba.
But regardless, Hispanic, American, or no matter who he deals with—anybody all over the world—he's a master. And I just want to ask Marco Rubio to come up and say—Marco, come on up. Say a few words.
And I think Jeanette—where is Jeanette? Is your wife here?
Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio. She had to leave.
The President. [Inaudible]
Secretary Rubio. Not leave me. She had to leave to the airport a while ago.
The President. Okay, because I would have her up in about 2 minutes. She is fan—she's been—she has been a great—representative.
Please, Marco. Thanks.
Secretary Rubio. Well, I won't—but thank you, Mr. President, for hosting this event. [Secretary Rubio spoke in Spanish; no translation was provided.]
The—all I would say is—Hispanic Americans, we are Americans. We love this country. We
—and we love it because so many of us either know firsthand or through our parents or grandparents what life is like in other countries. And so we know how special this country is.
It's the place that gave us freedom. It's the place that gave us opportunity. It's the place that's given our parents, our grandparents, and many of you the chance not just to do well in life, but to do the most important thing any of us ever want, and that is to leave our children better off than ourselves.
That is what makes America special. That's why we love it. That's why we're passionate about it. That is our heritage in this country.
We are proud to be Americans, and I'm proud to be here and to serve under you, Mr.
President.
The President. Thank you.
Secretary Rubio. Thank you. Thank you.
The President. So how did he do? Good, right? He's an unbelievable man. Really amazing.
Thank you, Marco.
I want to also recognize a man I just spoke of briefly, but he's doing a fantastic job. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, who's great. Thank you, Sean.
His wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, who's a big television star, if you watch. I watch—I try and watch. That's the blessing of TiVo. I can watch no matter what. [Laughter] But she's a—Saturday, Sunday, and all during the week—she's a big star. Great. Really talented.
I mean, she's talented because she happens to have a great personality. So I don't know. Is that talent? I guess that's called talent, right? [Laughter] She has an unbelievable personality—and she loves the people in this room. And she loves our country.
Along with U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Leah Campos. Thank you very much, Leah. Your—you're doing so well. You're doing so well. Everyone's talking about it.
I asked the head of the Dominican Republic: Would he like to have a change? You know, some people are not happy with their Ambassador.
He said, "Please don't even think about it, sir." So that means you're doing good. [Laughter] And he's a great guy too, by the way.
Ambassadors also from all over the United States, from Latin—all over from Latin America, we appreciate you being here. It's been very special.
Thanks as well to former president of Goya—that's Bob, who we introduced. And he's—I can't explain how——
Audience member. Medal of Freedom! The President. ——how incredible he is. Ooh.
Wow, that's—I'm going to think about that. That's very good.
Wow, did you hear that, Bob? Yes, that—he deserves it. No, the heat he took for all the wrong reasons. [Laughter] He is a great guy. I'm going to the—I'm going to think about that. Okay? I am.
Also, former Treasurer of the United States Jovita Carranza. Where's Jovita? Jovita. She was great. She did a great job at everything she ever did with us—right?—right from the beginning.
Thank you, honey.
My friend Mercedes—Mercedes Schlapp. Where are you, Mercedes? Wow, you look so good. She's another one. She's incredible. And—I watch her on television. I say, "Boy, she fights like hell for us." Thank you, Mercedes. What a great job. What a great job. Thank you, honey.
Appreciate having you.
The director of the White House Faith Office—this is the first time—we offered—
Audience member. Jenny!
The President. ——we opened up.
Audience members. Jenny! Jenny! Jenny!
The President. No, you know, we opened up—the first time ever, because there's not a lot of space here. We don't have a lot of space, but we opened up a space office. Okay? But it's a space office based on faith, and we put Jenny involved and Paula involved. And Jenny Korn has done a fantastic job, and Paula White has done a—but we only got 92 percent of the vote. So let me ask you—[Laughter]—from people of faith—I don't know. You mean Kamala got 8 percent? I don't believe it. I don't believe that, Jenny. I—that's a crooked election. It's a crooked—fake.
Thank you, Jenny. You do a great job.
Throughout 250 glorious years of American freedom, Hispanic Americans have built incredible businesses, founded great churches, pioneered new industries, strengthened our communities, served our Nation in uniform, and helped expand the American dream for all of our citizens. And they all respect you. They respect you a lot.
And under the Trump administration, that American dream is back and it's bigger and better than ever before. It's—we—I think the American dream now is reaching the highest ever.
We did very well in the first administration. You know, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country in the first administration, despite COVID. And we did a very good job in COVID. Had no—Operation Warp Speed is considered one of the great miracles of—in political history, believe it or not. Nobody talks about it, but we did a great—but we had the most successful—from an economic standpoint.
Do you know, after—when I handed over the reins—unfortunately, with the rigged election, I handed over the reins to Joe Biden—things changed rapidly.
But we gave you the highest stock market in history when we left. You had the highest stock market in history, the highest 401(k)s. And now, by the way, you're getting blown away because what we have now is actually much higher. And I think this is—we are prone to, I think, supersede the numbers that we had in the first term by perhaps double, maybe even triple. The numbers are incredible. Nobody's ever seen—you know, I was watching one of the big business shows. And a man was on, and he said, "The best numbers I've ever seen."
We're ready. We're building more plants, more equipment, car factories. All of our health care companies are coming back, pharmaceutical companies. They were all in different countries.
They're all coming back because of tariffs. I said: "That's all right. You get 12 months. If after 12 months you're not back, 10-percent tariff." That's not bad because it takes a while to build. They're big—big, you know, deals. I said: "Now, after 2 years, it's 50 percent. After 3 years, it's 250 percent. In other words, get your ass moving and build the plant." [Laughter]
And it's very simple, right? Sean's watched it. He can't believe it. Sean's watched it.
And we have numbers coming back that nobody's ever seen. Eli Lilly's building billions of dollars of plants. Merck, Pfizer—all great companies. They're all building billions—
You know, because we were exposed during—during COVID. We learned a lot during COVID. We had nobody that made our medicine. Our medicine was made in all different countries. Mostly China, but also in Ireland and—but we—didn't—we made almost none of it. We'll soon be making a hundred percent of it, and it's really fantastic.
And it's nice to have my friend with me. You've been with me right from the beginning, right?
Audience member. Day one.
The President. He's another great one and a great—I watch you on television a lot.
Whenever I get a chance, I watch you, and I want to—very special. This is a very special guy. And there's so many, I'm—I hate to do this, because now I have all these people, they're angry at me. But you really are, and I appreciate it. Right from the beginning. I think day one. Thank you very much.
Since I took office, we've created more than 1 million new private sector jobs, and Americans are working today. So you have more Americans working today than—I mean, this is a—I mean, there are certain stats that are just good. So there are, by a lot, more Americans working today than at any time in the history of our country. You can't, you know—that's a stat, but nobody knows it. That's why I'm doing it myself. That's why I'm doing it myself, Rachel. Can you believe it? I'm going out because nobody's selling it. I'm doing—we're doing an extremely poor job of promotion and an extremely great job of running the country. So I think you're probably better off with that, but we'll get the word out. It should not be hard.
Employment for Hispanic Americans is expanding rapidly, and the number of Hispanics in the tech roles has increased by 30 percent in the last year. And you're going to make a lot of money because you get that stuff. [Laughter] You're smart. You're very smart. And we don't want to generalize, but you guys happen to be smart. Okay? You've maybe heard it before.
But we have the lowest poverty level in the history of our country. The best number on poverty, which is the lowest level, in the history of our country. We have the highest level of individual wealth—meaning a person's wealth individually—for the entire country. The highest level that we've ever had.
And as I said, we have the most jobs that we've ever had, by far. And that number is going to be expanding exponentially. It's going to be expanding at a level that—when these factories that we're building—more than we've ever built.
We're building more car plants. Toyota just announced they're building a massive plant. They're leaving Mexico. We have now, I think, under construction probably 97 car plants. We had none. For 48 years, we had none. We were so stupidly run. They allowed other countries to make our cars and sell them to us. They came from Japan. They came from South Korea. They came from Mexico. They came from Canada.
Canada take—has taken advantage of us for so many years. The worst of any country. They took advantage of—I love the Canadian people. So many friends. Wayne Gretzky, I love. "The Great One." [Laughter] I love him and his incredible wife. I love the Canadian people, but the leaders have taken advantage of our stupid leadership for many, many years. They felt emboldened. They charge our farmers 400-percent tariffs, and they act like they're totally innocent. They're not.
They were very bad, but now they're being taught a little lesson. In fact, we just named a certain lake, Lake America. You—[laughter]. Ontario—so Lake Ontario is now named Lake—and it actually passed. You know, I don't know if you know it. It actually—
But I think even cooler than that was the Gulf of—I hated to do this to the Mexicans. We love the Mexican. [Laughter] But the Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America. Is that okay? Gulf—[laughter]. There could be a few people in the room that don't love that one, but what the hell? [Laughter]
So, since the election, the U.S. stock markets have set 80 alltime record highs—think of that—in a short period of time. In 4 long years of Sleepy Joe Biden, they got less than $1 trillion—think of that—much less, about 500, about half.
Under the Trump administration—so we're at $21 trillion, and that number is expanding. And that's over a 15—this is over a 15-month period, the number came out. So it's $21 trillion. That's five times higher than the highest record of any country in history. I mean, this—these are numbers that no—these are numbers that nobody's ever had.
And as you heard me say numerous times, I say—because it was so powerful. It was given to me by the King of Saudi Arabia. It was given to me by other leaders, and essentially, it was—they all sort of said the same thing: Two years ago, our country was dead, and today, we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. That's true.
Millions of Hispanic American families and small businesses have thousands and thousands of extra dollars in their pocket thanks to the largest tax cuts in American history. I did this, by the way, in my first term, and I did it in my second term. And this one, thanks to the "Great Big Beautiful Bill," has been amazing. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors.
And we're just mailing you—I said, "Why don't we wait till after the election?" They said: "No, sir. Let's do it now." We're just mailing you—I was going to make it subject to—we're just mailing you about 60 billion dollars' worth of funds that we had left over from a previous administration that did not manage their funds properly.
But maybe more importantly, because of the trillions of dollars that we're taking in in tariffs and in new business, if we are successful in winning the House and the Senate, which is very important—I hope you can believe that I'm running. You know, they like to say, "Oh, nobody wants him." Well, everybody that has me wins. [Laughter] We lose 40 percent when I don't run. When I run, we had a tremendous success.
I was talking to a very prominent person in 2020, where we had a terrible election situation, but because of the fact that I was running, we won 50 seats extra. Nobody could understand it. I understood it. We won the 50 seats because I was running and because I helped.
And the one person said two things: Number one: "You won the race. It shows you won the race." But more importantly, he said, "You worked harder for the Senators and for the Congressmen than you worked for yourself." And I'm going to do that again. That's why, as of 2 days from now, I'm going to be making a tour.
And you know, I did it when I ran for President. Four months out from the election, I said: "I'm not taking any days off. I'm going to be working from—literally, 20 hours a day, and all I want to do is make speeches and go to States and fight for Republicans and fight for common sense." And I did that. And it was 120 days.
And, like, I enjoy playing golf and other things. I said, "Nope, no golf." Don't—I didn't play.
My game went to hell after that, by the way. [Laughter] I said I could pick it up right away. I stood on the tee. I said, "Where am I?" I didn't even know where the hell I was. [Laughter] But—no, but no golf, no sports—no nothing. Everything—because golf could be perceived as pleasure, and I don't want that to be perceived. So I didn't do any of that. Didn't go to any club because if I went to one—I own many clubs all over the country, all over the world. But if I went to a club, they'd say: "He's playing golf. He's enjoying himself."
You have 120 days, 4 months out, and I—never worked that hard. I was going—the reporters—even the reporters back there, a lot of reporters, they say, "We've never seen that before."
And we'd put in a chart, and the chart would give you your weekly activity, and every slot was filled, Bob. Every single slot was filled.
And when Kamala—because, you know, Biden was so far down that they gave her—this never happened to anybody either. I'm beating somebody by a lot. The debate worked out very well. But I'm beating somebody by a lot, and they replace that person with another person. I didn't even know who the hell she was. Everyone's saying, "Who is she?" She was the Vice President.
Nobody knew who—well, they knew the first name. They didn't know her last name.
I'll bet most people in this room don't know her last name. They think of Kamala. Nobody knows her last name. [Laughter]
They said, "Vice President Harris," and everyone said, "Who the hell is that?" [Laughter] But, anyway, they put her in. Think of it.
Audience member. [Inaudible]
The President. [Laughter] That's right. That's very funny. [Laughter] Got some wise guys in this—do I see Max? Max, wow. Max. This is a big deal. Here's a man, started off with less than a dollar, and now he's worth billions, $2 billion.
Audience member. Two dollars.
The President. Two dollars, yes. [Laughter]
He's fantastic—he's—he—and he did it through this. Number one, this. [The President pointed to his head.]
It's always that, number one. But he did it through hard work. That's nice that you're here.
That's—how's Doral doing and Miami? Good?
Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, Inc., President and Owner Maximo Alvarez. I don't care how Doral goes. You're the best President we ever had—[inaudible].
The President. Oh, I love him. Good to see you, Max.
He loves this country. I'll tell you, he worked hard, and he's one of the most successful people. He's a fantastic man. And he's another one, he's been with me from the beginning also. You got—
Mr. Alvarez. Make sure you go vote in November—[inaudible].
The President. You've got to vote. That's right. You've got to vote. You've got to vote.
You've got to just think, because even if you don't like somebody so much, it's—it doesn't matter. It's a vote for good things. You know? It's hard to explain that.
But you may not love your Congressperson, your senator, but it's a road—like in Michigan. Are you going to vote for a guy who's a Communist? It's ridiculous. And that vote counts just like another vote. And you get a couple of those—those votes, and you'll end up with open borders where millions of people and, you know—and the people that come in are really people that—I know the leaders of all the South American—I guess I sort of know the leaders of —almost all the countries. They're very smart. At a minimum, they're very street smart. And they send people in.
If I ran Venezuela, if I ran any country, I would do exactly the same thing that Maduro did. He emptied his prisons. Almost all countries—when I heard we had open borders—they emptied their prisons, and they emptied their mental institutions, and they got rid of their drug dealers.
They just sent them into our country. It was crazy.
And I said, as soon as I heard—I didn't believe open borders, but as soon as I heard it, I said, "Wow, that's crazy."
So I just want to ask you to get out and vote.
We have special thanks to so many people in this room. I'm not going to get into it. I just want to tell you, you're an unbelievable, special group of people. You've been with me right from the beginning.
I want to thank Gabriel Vitela. Where's Gabriel? Where are you, Gabriel? Are you doing okay? Do you want to come up, Gabriel?
Lubbock's One Guy From Italy restaurant owner Gabriel Vitela. Sure.
The President. Okay. Come up just for a second. These people want to get out and see the — Gabriel, they want to get out and see the ballroom. [Laughter] But I want to have him because he's been special. Please.
Mr. Vitela. Isn't America the most amazing country in the world? It's unbelievable. A Hispanic man that owns an Italian restaurant—[laughter]—married to a White woman from
Lubbock, Texas, getting to speak at the White House and getting to meet the most powerful man in the world.
I want to give all honor and glory to my Lord, Jesus Christ, who makes all things possible. I have to admit, I'm a little bit nervous. Most of the times, when I speak to people, I'm asking them if they want a side of ranch or a side of marinara. [Laughter]
But I've spent most of my life in restaurants. I've waited tables, I've bartended, and I have the privilege of employing great people, great people who work just as hard as I once did. So, when we talk about no tax on tips and overtime, I don't see numbers. I see hard-working moms and dads that are trying to buy groceries, that are paying light bills, and they're trying to give their children a better life than they had.
Mr. President, thank you for remembering each of those hard-working Americans that work so hard for every dollar they've earned.
God bless you.
The President. I'm coming to your restaurant. I'm going to come to your restaurant.
Well, the no tax on tips, I know, made your waiters and waitresses very, very happy. I often wonder which is the best: no overtime—think of it: no tax on overtime, no tax on tips, or no tax on Social Security for our seniors. And——
Audience member. All of them.
The President. They're all very good.
Audience member. All of them.
The President. I think all of them. I want to pay a little special thank you to Sara Carter. You have been unbelievable. She's our drug czar, and I watched you the other night with Sean and with some people. Sean Hannity is great. They're all great. That group is incredible: Jesse, Sean, Greg, Laura.
Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Sara Carter. They are.
The President. That's a very special group.
We have a lot of great people. You know, we don't feel we get treated well, but we do have people that treat us really well.
But you, Sara, have been fan—you know, she was a great journalist. In fact, sometimes I didn't like what she wrote. [Laughter] But I said, "She's tough." But she was right. She was usually right.
But I want to thank you, Sara. Great job you're doing. The numbers are—the numbers are down.
Director Carter. [Inaudible]—want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, Mr.
President. My mother was a Cuban immigrant who came to this country in the late 1960s, and just listening to what was being said just a moment ago, even the smallest things make the biggest difference. My mother worked so hard, so many tough jobs—cleaning, facilities, working in a factory—just so that I could have a better life and live the American dream to serve the greatest President in the history of this country.
The President. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Sara. Great job you're doing. Keep it—you're a very important one too.
So, now, just loosen up. [Laughter] But here's the thing: You're going to walk out there; we have no fencing, we have no nothing. [Laughter] But we've got a big, fat, beautiful space. Just don't get too near the edge—[laughter]—because it's a long way down.
And I'll be criticized by my people that—"life and safety." They call it "life and safe"—in fact, Sean Duffy will probably say, "I don't like what you're doing." [Laughter] But—if you like, that door is right there.
That's a door that goes to a magnificent glass tunnel—all bulletproof glass, thank you very much. [Laughter] The glass is this thick. You wouldn't believe it. And yet you can see through perfectly. Gets installed in a—over the—about 2 weeks from now, it starts going up.
So there's a tunnel going to what will be, I think, the greatest ballroom ever built. It's also a tremendous military complex with a drone port on top. It's quite the place. And you literally will be the first group ever to enter the premises.
So be very careful. Don't fall over the edge, because it's a long way down. [Laughter] And only a Hispanic could survive that fall. [Inaudible] So I'm not overly worried. I'm not overly worried.
So, again, we've got to get out and vote. You've got to spread the word—how well we're doing. Just—everybody has to. We have to turn this around.
For some reason, Presidents, Democrat or Republican, they just—they don't win the midterms. I don't know why. There's a deep psychological impact when you—for some reason.
But we should. I mean, our numbers are through the roof. We've never—the best numbers in the history of our country. We should win. So we have to get out.
The main thing I think they get—maybe they get complacent. There's something strange.
We've had good Presidents; we've had bad Presidents, but Republican or Democrat, they tend not to win—very seldom. Two times in 25 years. Think of that. It doesn't make sense.
So we're going to show them. There's no reason for it. And we have to reward all of the people that have done such a great job. The country is doing better than it's ever done.
Thank you very much. Enjoy it. Be careful. Be careful. God bless you all. God bless you all.
Thank you, Bob.
NOTE: The President spoke at 1:39 p.m. in the East Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq; 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; Rachel Campos-Duffy, cohost of Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" program and wife of Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy; President Xi Jinping of China; Gov. Gregory W. Abbott of Texas; Jaxson C. Dart, quarterback, National Football League's New York Giants; President Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona of the Dominican Republic; former White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp; White House Faith Office Director Jennifer S. Korn; Senior Adviser to the White House Faith Office Paula White-Cain; former National Hockey League center Wayne Gretzky and his wife Janet; King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia; Michigan Democratic senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed; Fox News hosts Sean P. Hannity, Jesse Watters, Gregory J. Gutfeld, and Laura Ingraham. He also referred to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization. Mr. Vitela referred to his wife Tricia.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : National Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. Locations: Washington, DC.
Names: Abbott, Gregory W.; Abinader Corona, Luis Adolfo; Alvarez, Maximo; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Bush, George W.; Campos, Leah F.; Campos-Duffy, Rachel; Carranza, Jovita; Carter, Sara; Dart, Jaxson; Duffy, Sean P.; El-Sayed, Abdul; Gretzky, Janet; Gretzky, Wayne; Harris, Kamala D.; Korn, Jennifer S.; Maduro Moros, Nicolas; Maliki, Nouri al-; Obama, Barack; Rubio, Jeanette Dousdebes; Rubio, Marco A.; Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, King; Schlapp, Mercedes; Unanue, Robert; Urrabazo, Norma; Urrabazo, Pasqual; Vitela, Gabriel; White-Cain, Paula; Xi Jinping; Zaydi, Ali Falih Kadhim al-.
Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; 2026 midterm elections; Afghanistan, withdrawal of U.S. military forces; Air traffic control system, modernization efforts; Border security; China, President; COVID–19 pandemic; Dominican Republic, President; Dominican Republic, U.S. Ambassador; Economic improvement; Geographic names, efforts to restore American greatness; Human trafficking, efforts to combat; Iran, commercial transit through Strait of Hormuz; Iran,
U.S. military operations; Iraq, Prime Minister; Iraq, withdrawal of U.S. military forces; Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; Mexico, border with U.S., infrastructure and security; National Hispanic Heritage Month; Office of National Drug Control Policy; Pharmaceutical supply chains, improvement efforts; Poverty reduction efforts; Saudi Arabia, King; Secretary of State; Secretary of Transportation; Stock market; Tariffs; Texas, Governor; Venezuela, U.S. military capture and exfiltration of President Maduro; White House Ballroom construction project; White House Faith Office; White House renovation projects.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600657.