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CNN Live Event/Special
Former President Donald Trump Speaks On The Final Night Of The Republican National Convention. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired July 18, 2024 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
(APPLAUSE)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's going to be a great vice president. He's going to be great. He'll be with this country and with this movement. Greatest movement in the history of our country. Make America Great Again. When they criticize it, they say, we're going to try and stop MAGA. I said, MAGA is Make America Great Again. What are you going to stop? There's nothing to stop.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Then they say, oh, that's right. It's very tough to fight it. And all of the people that did try and fight it have failed. But he's going to be with us for a long time. And it was an honor to select him. Great, great student at Yale. His wife was a great student at Yale. They met at Yale. These are two smart people.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: So, J.D., you're going to be doing this for a long time. Enjoy the ride.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And a very special thank you to the extraordinary people of Milwaukee and the great state of --
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: -- oh, there they are. There they are. That's -- you are so easy to spot. And Green Bay is going to have a good team this year, right?
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They're going to have a good team. They're going to have a good team. Most of the audience doesn't like it, but it's true. You're going to have a very good team this year. And by the way, Wisconsin, we are spending over $250 million here creating jobs and other economic development all over the place. So, I hope you will remember this in November and give us your vote. I am trying to buy your vote.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I'll be honest about that.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I promise we will make Wisconsin great again. We're going to make it.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you, Mr. Governor. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm here tonight to lay out a vision for the whole nation. To every citizen, whether you're a young or old man or woman, Democrat, Republican, or independent, Black or White, Asian or Hispanic, I extend to you a hand of loyalty and of friendship. Together, we will lead America to new heights of greatness like the world has never seen before. We were right there in the first term. We got hit with COVID. We did a great job. Nobody knew what it was, but nobody has ever seen an economy pre-COVID.
And then we handed over a stock market that was substantially higher than just prior to COVID. Coming in, did a great job. Never got credit for that. We got credit for the war and defeating ISIS and so many things, the great economy, the biggest tax cuts ever, the biggest regulation cuts ever, the creation of Space Force, the rebuilding of our military. We did so much.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We did so much. Right to try. Right to try is a big deal. We got right to try. They were trying to get that for 52 years. Somebody is terminally ill. And hopefully, there's nobody in this audience. But it does happen a lot. They're terminally ill and they can't use our new space-age drugs and other things.
But we are way ahead. We have the greatest doctors in the world, the greatest laboratories in the world, and you can't do it. They've been trying to get that approved for 52 years. Wasn't that easy? The insurance companies didn't want to do it. They didn't want the risk. The labs didn't want to do it because if it didn't work, people are pretty far down the line toward death. They didn't want to do it. The doctors didn't want to have it on their records, so I got everybody into an office. Fifty-two years they tried. Sounds simple, but it's not.
And I got them to agree that somebody that needs it will, instead of going to Asia or Europe or someplace, or if you have no money going home and dying, just die. We got them to sign an agreement, agree to it, where they're not going to sue anybody. They're going to get all of this stuff. They're going to get it really fast. And what has happened is we're saving thousands and thousands of lives. It's incredible.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Right to try. (APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: It's a great feeling. Under our leadership, the United States will be respected again. No nation will question our power. No enemy will doubt our might. Our borders will be totally secure. Our economy will soar.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We will return law and order to our streets, patriotism to our schools. And importantly, we will restore peace, stability, and harmony all throughout the world.
(APPLAUSE)
[23:05:00]
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TRUMP: But to achieve this future, we must first rescue our nation from failed and even incompetent leadership. We have totally incompetent leadership. This will be the most important election in the history of our country. Under the current administration, we are indeed a nation in decline. We have an inflation crisis that is making life unaffordable, ravaging the incomes of working and low-income families, and crushing, just simply crushing our people like never before. They've never seen anything like it.
We also have an illegal immigration crisis, and it's taking place right now as we sit here in this beautiful arena. It's a massive invasion at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease, and destruction to communities all across our land. Nobody has ever seen anything like it.
Then there is an international crisis, the likes of which the world has seldom been part of. Nobody can believe what's happening. War is now raging in Europe and the Middle East. A growing specter of conflict hangs over Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, and all of Asia. And our planet is teetering on the edge of World War III. And this will be a war like no other war because of weaponry. The weapons are no longer army tanks going back and forth shooting at each other. These weapons are obliteration. It's time for a change. This administration can't come close to solving the problems.
We're dealing with very tough, very fierce people. They're fierce people. And we don't have fierce people. We have people that are a lot less than fierce, except when it comes to cheating on elections and a couple of other things. Then they're fierce. Then they're fierce.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: So, tonight, I make this pledge to the great people of America. I will end the devastating inflation crisis immediately, bring down interest rates, and lower the cost of energy.
(APPLAUSE) TRUMP: We will drill, baby, drill.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Can you believe what they're doing? But by doing that, we will lead a large-scale decline in prices. Prices will start to come down. Energy raised it. They took our energy policies and destroyed them. Then they immediately went back to them. But by that time, so much was lost. But we will do it at levels that nobody has ever seen before. We'll end lots of different things. We'll start paying off debt and start lowering taxes even further. We gave you the largest tax cut.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We'll do it more. You know, people don't realize I brought taxes way down, way, way down. And yet, we took in more revenues the following year than we did when the tax rate was much higher. Most people said, how did you do that? Because it was incentive. Everybody was coming to the country. They were bringing back billions and billions of dollars into our country. The companies made it impossible to bring it back.
The tax rate was too high and the legal complications were far too great. I changed both of them. And hundreds of billions of dollars by Apple and so many other companies were brought back into our nation. We had an economy the likes of which nobody, no nation had ever seen. China, we were beating them at levels that were incredible.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And they know it. They know it. We'll do it again, but we'll do it even better. I will end the illegal immigration crisis by closing our border and finishing the wall, most of which I've already built.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: On the wall, we were dealing with a very difficult Congress. And I said, oh, that's okay, we won't go to Congress. I call it an invasion. We gave our military almost $800 billion. I said, I'm going to take a little of that money because this is an invasion. We built -- most of the wall is already built. And we built it through using the funds because what's more -- what's better than that? We have to stop the invasion into our country that's killing hundreds of thousands of people a year. We're not going to let that happen.
(APPLAUSE)
[23:10:00]
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I will end every single international crisis that the current administration has created, including the horrible war with Russia and Ukraine, which would have never happened if I was president. And the war caused by the attack on Israel, which would have never happened if I was president. Iran was broke. Iran had no money. Now, Iran has $250 billion. They made it all over the last two and a half years. They were broke. I watched the other day on a show called "Deface the Nation." Has anyone seen it?
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: And they had a congressman who was a Democrat say, well, whether you like him or not, Iran was broke dealing with Trump. I told China and other countries, if you buy from Iran, we will not let you do any business in this country, and we will put tariffs on every product you do send in of 100% or more.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And they said to me, well, I think that's about it. They weren't going to buy any oil. And they were ready to make a deal. Iran was going to make a deal with us. And then we had that horrible, horrible result that we'll never let happen again. The election result, we're never going to let that happen again. They used COVID to cheat.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We're never going to let it happen again. And they took off all the sanctions, and they did everything possible for Iran. And now, Iran is very close to having a nuclear weapon, which would have never happened. This is a shame, what this administration, the damage that this administration has done.
And I say it often, if you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States, think of it, the 10 worst, added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done. Only going to use the term once, Biden. I'm not going to use the name anymore. Just one time. The damage that he has done to this country is unthinkable. It's unthinkable.
Together, we will restore vision, strength, competence, and we're going to have a thing called common sense making most of our decisions, actually. It's all common sense.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Just a few short years ago, under my presidency, we had the most secure border and best economy in the history of our country, in the history of the world. We had the greatest economy in the history of the world. We had never done anything like it. We were beating every country, including China, by leaps and bounds. Nobody had seen anything like it. We had no inflation. Soaring incomes were going. Nobody can believe it. You can't believe what happened four years ago is happening now in reverse. And the world was at peace.
Inflation has been a killer for our country. No matter what you make it, it doesn't matter because inflation is eating you alive. People that were putting away money, they were making great wages, the highest they've ever made, but they were putting away a lot of money. Now, they are just being destroyed. They're not putting away anything. They're barely living. They're going into savings accounts. They're taking out their money to live because of inflation. Inflation, remember, it's called a country buster.
You can go back to Germany from 100 years ago. You can go back to any country that suffered great inflation. We've suffered the worst inflation we've ever had. But go back and see what has happened to those countries. We've had the worst inflation we've ever had under this person. But in less than four years, our opponents have turned incredible success into unparalleled tragedy and failure. It has been a tremendous failure.
Today, our cities are flooded with illegal aliens. Americans are being squeezed out of the labor force and their jobs are taken. By the way, you know who's taking the jobs, the jobs that are created? One hundred and seven percent of those jobs are taken by illegal aliens. And you know who's being hurt the most by millions of people pouring into our country? The Black population and the Hispanic population because they're taking the jobs from our Black population, our Hispanic population, and they're also taking them from unions. The unions are suffering because of it.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Blacks for Trump!
TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you. I like you, too. Thank you very much. Inflation has wiped out the life savings of our citizens and forced the middle class into a state of depression and despair. That's what it is. It's despair and depression. We cannot and will not let this continue. Less than four years ago, we were a great nation, and we will soon be a great nation again. We're going to be a great nation again.
(APPLAUSE)
[23:15:00]
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you. With proper leadership, every disaster we are now enduring will be fixed, and it will be fixed very, very quickly. So, tonight, whether you've supported me in the past or not, I hope you will support me in the future because I will bring back the American dream. That's what we're going to do. You don't even hear about the American Dream anymore.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: With great humility, I am asking you to be excited about the future of our country. Be excited. Be excited.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And, by the way, the news reports, oh, look at all of those big networks. Look at them. They're all here. But every one of them has said this could be the most organized, best run, and most enthusiastic convention of either party that they have ever seen, every single one. (APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: And it's true. It's true. And there's love in the room. There's great love in the room. So, I better finish strong. Otherwise, we'll blow it, and we can't let that happen. Now, this was great. All of the great people that spoke, and everybody hit a home run. I mean, there's not one that I can think of where I said, oh, gee, that wasn't great. Every single person.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: I refuse to be the only one. Don't do that to me. They're already getting ready. See, I gave them an idea.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Now, we had a -- this was a great convention. This was -- I think we're actually going to go home and miss it. You know, usually, with a -- first of all, look at these crowds. You'd never have this at a convention. Look at these crowds.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Love. It's about love. This week, the entire Republican Party has formally adopted an agenda for America's renewal. And you saw that agenda. And it's very short compared to the long, boring, meaningless agendas of the past, including the Democrats. They write these things that are hundreds of pages long, and they never read them after they're done.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: In their case, fortunately, they don't read them because --
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: -- they're pretty bad. It's a series of bold promises that we will swiftly implement when you give us a republican House. And, Mr. Speaker, thank you very much.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We have our great speaker of the House with us tonight. Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: A republican Senate, we have many senators here. And send me back to our beautiful White House just a few short months from now. We're talking about just months. It can't come fast enough. We have to get it done. First, we must get economic relief to our citizens. Starting on day one, we will drive down prices and make America affordable again. We have to make it affordable. It's not affordable.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: People can't live like this. Under this administration, our current administration, groceries are up 57%, gasoline is up 60 and 70%, mortgage rates have quadrupled. And the fact is, it doesn't matter what they are because you can't get the money anywhere. You can't buy houses. Young people can't get any financing to buy a house. The total household costs have increased an average of $28,000 per family under this administration.
Republicans have a plan to bring down prices and bring them down very, very rapidly. By slashing energy costs, we will, in turn, reduce the cost of transportation, manufacturing, and all household goods. So much starts with energy. And remember, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country by far.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We are a nation that has the opportunity to make an absolute fortune with its energy. We have it, and China does it. Under the Trump administration just three and a half years ago, we were energy independent. But soon, we will actually be better than that. We will be energy dominant and supply not only ourselves --
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: -- but we will supply the rest of the world with numbers that nobody has ever seen.
[23:20:00]
TRUMP: And we will reduce our debt $36 trillion. We will start reducing that. And we will also reduce your taxes still further. Next -- and by the way, they want to raise your taxes four times. Think of it. In all my life, I grew up watching politicians. I always loved politics, I guess. I was on the other side. I'd watch politics. And they were always talking about, we will give you a tax cut, we will give you a tax cut. My whole life, I was watching, I will give you a tax cut. Right, Mr. Congressman? That's all they talked about.
This is the only administration that said, we're going to raise your taxes by four times what you're paying now. And people are supposed to vote for them? I've never heard it.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: You're paying too much. We're going to reduce your taxes still further. We gave you the biggest one. As I said, we're going to give you more, and it's going to lead to tremendous growth. We want growth in our country. That's what's going to pay off our debt.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING) TRUMP: And next, we will end the ridiculous and actually incredible waste of taxpayer dollars that is fueling the inflation crisis. They spent trillions of dollars on things having to do with the Green New Scam. It's a scam. And that has caused tremendous inflationary pressures in addition to the cost of energy. And all of the trillions of dollars that are sitting there not yet spent, we will redirect that money for important projects like roads, bridges, dams, and we will not allow it to be spent on meaningless Green New Scam ideas.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: And I will end the electric vehicle mandate on day one --
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: -- thereby saving the U.S. auto industry from complete obliteration, which is happening right now, and saving U.S. customers thousands and thousands of dollars per car. And right now, as we speak, large factories just started are being built across the border in Mexico. So, with all the other things happening on our border. And they're being built by China to make cars and to sell them into our country, no tax, no anything. The United Auto Workers ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen. And the leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And every single auto worker, union and non-union, should be voting for Donald Trump because we're going to bring back car manufacturing, and we're going to bring it back fast.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: They're building some of the largest auto plants anywhere in the world. Think of it. In the world, we're going to bring it back, we're going to make them. We don't mind that happening, but those plants are going to be built in the United States and our people are going to man those plants.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And if they don't agree with us, we'll put a tariff of approximately 100 to 200% on each car, and they will be unsellable in the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We have long been taken advantage of by other countries. And think of it, oftentimes, these other countries are considered so- called allies. They've taken advantage of us for years. We lose jobs, we lose revenue, and they gain everything and wipe out our businesses, wipe out our people. I stopped it. For four years, I stopped it. And we're really ready to make changes like nobody had seen before. And remember, USMCA, I got rid of NAFTA, the worst trade deal ever made, and replaced it with USMCA which is, they say, the best trade deal ever made.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Actually, probably the best trade deal was the deal I made with China, where they buy $50 billion worth of our product. They were buying nothing. They buy $50 billion worth. They had to. But I don't even talk about it because of COVID. I don't even mention it, frankly, because of what happened with the China virus.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: We will not let countries come in, take our jobs, and plunder our nation. They come and do that. They plunder our nation. The way they will sell their product in America is to build it in America. Very simple. Build it in America and only in America.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD: USA! USA! USA!
[23:25:00]
TRUMP: And this very simple formula, and Congress has to go along with us, and they will, this very simple formula. We will create massive numbers of jobs. We will take over the auto industry again and many, many hundreds of thousands of jobs. We lost so many jobs over the years. If you go back 20, 25 years, they've stolen, going to China and Mexico, about 68% of our auto industry manufacturing jobs. We're going to get them all back. We're going to get them all back, every one of them.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: At the center of our plan for economic relief are massive tax cuts for workers that include something else that has turned out to be very popular, actually. Here, it's very popular. This building and all those hotels that I saw that are so nice, I'm staying in a nice one, it is called no tax on tips. No tax on tips. No tax on tips.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
CROWD: No tax on tips! No tax on tips! No tax on tips!
TRUMP: I got that by having dinner recently in Nevada, where we're leading by about 14 points. (CHEERING)
TRUMP: Hello. I'll see you there very soon, everybody. And we're having dinner at a beautiful restaurant in the Trump Building on The Strip, and it's a great building. And the waitress comes over. How's everything going? Really nice person. How's everything? Oh, sir, it's so tough. The government is after me all the time on tips, tips, tips. I said, well, they give you cash. Would they be able to find them? She said, actually, I didn't know this. She said, very little cash is given. It's all put right on the check. And they come in and they take so much of our money.
It's just ridiculous. They don't believe anything we say. And they've just hired, as you know, 88,000 agents to go after them even more.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: And I said, this shows the level of my -- you know, most people who are out there hire consultants. They're paying millions of dollars. But I said to her, let me just ask you a question, would you be happy if you had no tax on tips? She said, what a great idea. I got my information from a very smart waitress. That's better than spending millions of dollars.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: And everybody -- everybody loves it. Waitresses and caddies and drivers and everybody. It's a large, large group of people that are being really hurt badly. They make money, let them keep their money.
I'm going to protect Social Security and Medicare. Democrats are going to destroy Social Security and Medicare because all of these people, by the millions they're coming in, they're going to be on Social Security and Medicare and other things. And you're not able to afford it. They are destroying your Social Security and your Medicare.
Under my plan, incomes will skyrocket, inflation will vanish completely, jobs will come roaring back, and the middle class will prosper like never, ever before, and we're going to do it very rapidly.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But no hope or dream we have for America can succeed unless we stop the illegal immigrant invasion, the worst that has ever been seen anywhere in the world. There's never been an invasion like this anywhere. Third-world countries would fight with sticks and stones not to let this happen. The invasion at our southern border, we will stop it and we will stop it quickly. You heard Tom Homan yesterday. Tom Homan, put him in charge and just sit back and watch.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Brandon Judd of Border Patrol, he's incredible. These guys, you know, they -- really, their job is a lot easier if they don't have to do anything, but they want to. They're patriots. Brandon Judd, Border Patrol.
ICE. ICE goes out. You have to see what ICE does with MS-13. You have -- these are probably the worst gang, and ICE goes in there. And I know a lot of people in these rows here, and they're very tough people, but they don't want to do this job. They'll go into a pack of MS-13 killers. They're the worst -- probably the worst gangs in the world. We have thousands of them. I moved thousands and thousands out in my four years. We moved them out, and it was a pleasure.
But ICE would go right into a pack of these killers. And you see fists flying, you see everything flying, and then they take them. They put them in a paddy wagon. They take them back and they get them out of our country. And the other countries weren't accepting them back. And I called up and I said, tell them that we're not giving them economic aid anymore. And the next day, I got calls from all of these countries that were terminated.
[23:30:00]
TRUMP: Billions of dollars we spent on economic aid to countries that does us, frankly, no good. And the next day, I was called by everybody. I couldn't take all the calls. Sir, sir, what's the problem? I said, you won't take your killers back that you sent in caravans into America. You won't take them back. Well, sir, if you'd like us to, we would give very serious consideration to doing that. And within 24 hours, they were being taken back.
For years and years, when I first came in, they said President Obama tried to get them to go back and they wouldn't accept them. They'd put planes on the runway so you couldn't leave the plane. They'd close the roads so you couldn't take the buses. It'd all have to turn back. As soon as I said no more economic aid of any kind to any country that does that, they called back and they said, sir, it would be our great honor to take MS-13. We love them very much.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: We love them very much, sir. We'll take them back. At the heart of the republican platform is our pledge to end this border nightmare and fully restore the sacred and sovereign borders of the United States of America, and we're going to do that on day one.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: That means two things on day one, right? Drill, baby, drill, and close our borders.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING) TRUMP: And by the way, and I think everybody as a Republican and as a patriot in this room, and most Democrats, we want people to come into our country, but they have to come into our country legally.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Legally. Less than four years ago, I handed this administration the strongest border in American history. But you can see on the chart that saved my life, that was the chart that saved my life, I said, look at it, I'm so proud of it, I think it's one of the greatest, it was done by the Border Patrol. One of the greatest charts I've ever seen. It showed everything just like that. You know the chart. Oh, there it is. That's pretty good. Wow! Last time I put up that chart, I never really got to look at it.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But without that chart, I would not be here today.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Never got to look at it. I said, you got to see this chart. I was so proud of it. And by the time I got to -- there. I never got to see it that day. But I'm seeing it now, and I was very proud. If you look at the arrow in the bottom, that's the lowest level. The one on the bottom, heavy red arrow. That's the lowest level of illegal immigrants ever to come into our country in recorded history. Right there.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And that was my last week in office. And then you see what happened after I left. Look at the rest. And if you go out a little bit further, it's getting to be a little bit old, but I love it anyway, right? But you can go much higher with those numbers. Look what happened. Right after that, the invasion began. We had the opposite. We stopped the invasion. But the invasion that we stopped was peanuts by comparison to what happened after I left. Look at what happened after I left. They took over our country.
We ended all catch and release. We shut down asylum fraud. We stopped human trafficking and forged historic agreements to keep illegal aliens on foreign soil. We want them to stay on their soil. Under the Trump administration, if you came in illegally, you were apprehended immediately, and you were deported. You went right back.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: The current administration terminated every single one of those great Trump policies that I put in place to seal the border. I wanted to seal the border. Again, come in, but come in legally. You know how unfair it is? So many people, hundreds of thousands of people, have been working for years to come into our country, and now they see these people pour into our country at levels that are unprecedented. It's so unfair. And we're not going to do it. We're not going to stand for it.
They suspended wall construction, end it. Remain in Mexico. We had a policy, remain in Mexico. You think that was easy to get from the Mexican government? But I said, you must give it to us. If you don't give it to us, there will be repercussions. And they gave it to us, but not easy. Cancelled our safe agreements, demolished Title 42, implemented nationwide catch-and-release. That's catch-and-release where we catch them and release them into our country.
[23:35:01]
TRUMP: I had -- we catch them and release them into Mexico. There's a slight difference.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And took 93 -- this is the previous administration, 93 executive actions to throw open our border to the world. The entire world is pouring into our country because of this very foolish administration. The greatest invasion in history is taking place right here in our country. They are coming in from every corner of the Earth, not just from South America, but from Africa, Asia, the Middle East. They're coming from everywhere. They're coming at levels that we've never seen before.
It is an invasion indeed. And this administration does absolutely nothing to stop them. They're coming from prisons. They're coming from jails. They're coming from mental institutions and insane asylums. I say -- you know, the press is always on me because I say this. Has anyone seen "Silence of the Lambs?"
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: The late great Hannibal Lecter.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: He'd love to have you for dinner.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: That's insane asylums. They're emptying out their insane asylums. And terrorists are coming in at numbers that we've never seen before. Bad things are going to happen. Meanwhile, our crime rate is going up while crime statistics all over the world are going down because they're taking their criminals and they're putting them into our country, a certain country.
And I happen to like the president of that country very much, but he has been getting great publicity because he's a wonderful shepherd of the country. He says how well the country is doing because their crime rate is down. And he said he's training all of these rough people. They're rough, rough, rough. He's training them.
And I've been reading about this for two years. I think, oh, that's wonderful. Let's take a look at it. But then I realized he's not training them. He's sending all of his criminals, his drug dealers, his people that are in jails. He's sending them all to the United States. And he's different in that he doesn't say that. He's trying to convince everybody what a wonderful job he does in running the country. Well, he doesn't do a wonderful job.
And, by the way, if I ran one of the countries, many countries, many, many countries from all over, I would be worse than any of them. I would have had the place totally emptied out already.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But we've become a dumping ground for the rest of the world, which is laughing at us. They think we're stupid. And they can't believe that they're getting away with what they're getting away with, but they're not going to be getting away with it for long. That's what I can tell you.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: In Venezuela, Caracas, high crime, high crime. Caracas, Venezuela. Really a dangerous place. But not anymore. Because in Venezuela, crime is down 72%. In fact, if they would ever win this election, I hate to even say that, we will have our next republican convention in Venezuela because it will be safe.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Our cities -- our cities will be so unsafe, we won't be able. We will not be able to have it there. In El Salvador, murders are down by 70%. Why are they down? Now, he would have you convinced that because he has trained murderers to be wonderful people. No. They're down because they're sending their murderers to the United States of America. This is going to be very bad. And bad things are going to happen, and you're seeing it happen all the time. That's why to keep our families safe, the republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Even larger than that of President Dwight D. Eisenhower from many years ago. You know, he was a moderate, but he believed very strongly in borders. He had the largest deportation operation we've ever had.
Just recently, I spoke to the grieving mother of Jocelyn Nungary, a wonderful woman. A precious 12-year-old girl from Houston who last month was tied up, assaulted, and strangled to death after walking to the convenience store just a block away from her house. Her body was dumped near the side of the road in a shallow creek, found by some onlookers who couldn't believe what they had witnessed. Charged with Jocelyn's heinous murder are two illegal aliens from Venezuela who came across our border, were in custody, and were then released into the country by this horrible, horrible administration that we have right now.
[23:40:04]
TRUMP: I also met recently with the heartbroken mother and sister of Rachel Morin. Rachel was a 37-year-old mom of five beautiful children who was brutally raped and murdered while out on a run. She wanted to keep herself in good shape. It was very important to her. She was murdered. The monster responsible first killed another woman in El Salvador before he was led into America by the White House. This White House let them in. He then attacked a 9-year-old girl and her mother in a home invasion in Los Angeles before murdering Rachel in Maryland. Traveled all throughout the country, doing tremendous damage. Rachel's mother will never be the same. I spent time with her. She will never be the same.
I've also met with the wonderful family of Laken Riley, the brilliant 22-year-old nursing student. She was so proud of being first in her class, who was out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia when she was assaulted, beaten, and horrifically killed. Yet another American life was stolen by a criminal alien set free by this administration. These were incredible people we're talking about. These were incredible people who died.
Tonight, America, this is my vow. I will not let these killers and criminals into our country.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: I will keep our sons and daughters safe. As we bring security to our streets, we will help bring stability to the world. I was the first president in modern times to start no new wars. You know, we were the toughest, we were the most respected.
And you saw this. Hungary, strong country run by a very powerful, tough leader. He's a tough guy. The press doesn't like him because he's tough. And he came out recently. They were asking him at an interview. The whole world is exploding. What's happening? What's going on? Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, very tough man.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: He said, I don't want people coming into my country and blowing up our shopping centers and killing people. But they said to him, tell us what's going wrong? What's happening? What is it? He said, there's only one way you're going to solve it. You got to bring President Trump back to the United States because he kept everybody at bay.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: He used a word I wouldn't use because I can't use that word, because you'd say it was braggadocious. The press would say he was a braggart. I'm not a braggart. But Viktor Orban said it. He said Russia was afraid of him. China was afraid of him. Everybody was afraid of him. Nothing was going to happen. The whole world was at peace. And now, the world is blowing up around us. All of these things that you read about were not going to happen.
Under President Bush, Russia invaded Georgia. Under President Obama, Russia took Crimea. Under the current administration, Russia is after all of Ukraine. Under President Trump, Russia took nothing.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: We defeated 100% of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, something that was said to take five years, sir. It'll take five years, sir. We did it in a matter of a couple of months. We have a great military. Our military is not a woke. It's just some of the fools on top that are woke.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: I got along very well. North Korea, Kim Jong-un, I got along very well with them. The press hated when I said that. How could you get along with them? Well, you know, it's nice to get along when somebody who has a lot of nuclear weapons or otherwise, isn't it? See, in the old days, they'd say, that's a wonderful thing. Now they say, how could you possibly do that? But no, I got along with them, and we stopped the missile launches from North Korea. Now, North Korea is acting up again. But when we get back, I get along with them. He'd like to see me back, too. I think he misses me, if you want to know the truth.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Our opponents inherited a world at peace and turned it into a planet of war.
[23:45:02]
TRUMP: We're in a planet of war. Look at that attack on Israel. Look at what's happening with Ukraine. The cities are just bombed out. How can people live like that where buildings, massive buildings are falling to the ground? It began to unravel with the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the worst humiliation in the history of our country. We have never had a humiliation like that. Thirteen heroic U.S. service members were tragically and needlessly killed. Forty-five others were horrifically wounded. Nobody ever talks about them. No arms, no legs, face explosions, horrifically, horrifically wounded. And by the way, we have a man in this room who's running for the U.S. Senate from a great state, Nevada, named Sam Brown --
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: -- who paid the ultimate price. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Sam. Thank you. He paid the biggest price probably ever paid by anybody that is running for office, and I think he's going to do great. He's running against a person that is not good, not respected, a total lightweight. But Sam, I think, paid really. We were talking about it with some of the senators that are working so hard for Sam. But he paid the biggest price of any senator ever to run for the Senate. I don't think anybody has ever heard what he did. He was a real hero, a really great person. And he's running, and I hope that everybody gets out and votes for Sam Brown.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: And we also left behind $85 billion worth of military equipment, along with many American citizens who were left behind. Many, many American citizens emboldened by that disaster Russia invaded Ukraine. They saw this group of people that were incompetent. We took the soldiers out first. No, no, we're going to take the soldiers out second. If they would have followed my plan, we had a great plan. But the plan only kicked in if they did everything perfectly. And they weren't doing things perfectly, so we said it doesn't kick in.
You know, 18 months in Afghanistan, we didn't have one soldier. They were killing them left and right, snipers. And I spoke to the head of the Taliban. You've heard this story. Abdul, still there, still the head of the Taliban. The press got on me. Why would you speak to him? I said, because that's where the killing is. I don't have to speak to somebody that has nothing to do with it.
And I told him, don't ever do that. Don't ever do that again. Don't ever, ever do that again. You've got to stop. Because during the Obama administration, many great people and soldiers, a lot of soldiers were being killed from long distance. I said, if you keep doing that, you're going to be hit harder than anybody has ever been hit by a country before.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And he said, I understand, Your Excellency. Call me Your Excellency. I wonder if he calls the other guy Your Excellency. I doubt it.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: The other guy gave him everything. I mean, what kind of a deal was that? He walked out, gave him everything. Do you know that right now, Afghanistan is one of the largest sellers of weapons in the world? They're selling the brand new, beautiful weapons that we gave them. But think of it. He actually said to me, but why, but why do you show me a picture of my home. I said, you'll have to ask your people or one of your wives.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: But he could figure it out. And for 18 months, we had not one attack on an American soldier by the Taliban. Eighteen months.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And then we had that horrible day where soldiers were killed. I was not there because of a ridiculous election. But we had that horrible attack. And they also gave up Bagram, one of the biggest bases anywhere in the world, air bases anywhere in the world. The longest runways, most powerful. Hardened, thickened runways. We gave it up. And I liked it not because of Afghanistan. I liked it because of China. It's one hour away from where China makes their nuclear weapons. And, you know, who has it now? China has it now. We were keeping that.
[23:50:00]
TRUMP: And now China is likewise circling Taiwan and Russian warships. And nuclear submarines are operating 60 miles off the coast in Cuba. Do you know that? The press refuses to write about it. If that were me running this country and we had nuclear submarines in Cuba, I will tell you that the headlines every day would be, what's wrong with our president? You don't even hear this. You're not hearing about this. Russia has nuclear submarines and warships 60 miles away.
Mr. Congressman from Miami, by the way, happens to be here. Correct? In Cuba. That would not be stood for if it were somebody else. They don't even -- they don't want to mention it. But now, maybe they will. And the entire world, I tell you this, we want our hostages back, and they better be back before I assume office --
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: -- or you will be paying a very big price --
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: With our victory in November, the years of war, weakness and chaos will be over. I don't have wars. I had no wars other than ISIS, which I defeated. But that was a war that was started. We had no wars. I could stop wars with a telephone call.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: I could stop wars with just a telephone call.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: If properly stated, it would never start. We will replenish our military and build an iron dome missile defense system to ensure that no enemy can strike our homeland. And this great iron dome will be built entirely in the USA. We're going to build it.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: The USA. And Wisconsin, Wisconsin, just like I gave you that massive ship contract, and you're doing a very nice job, governor, right? Thank you, Governor. And they're doing a great job. In fact, I had a little design change and we gave them a tremendous for essentially what we used to call destroyers. These are now the most beautiful.
They look like yachts. They said, we have to take the bow and we have to make it a little nicer and a little point at the top instead of a flat nose. And the people at the shipyard said, this guy sort of knows what he's doing. Most beautiful ships, right, governor? And everybody sitting over there. And it was a big contract that everybody wanted. I gave it to Wisconsin.
But we're going to have a lot of that built right here in the state of Wisconsin and all other states. Israel has an iron dome. They have a missile defense system. Three hundred and forty-two missiles were shot into Israel and only one got through a little bit. It was badly wounded. It fell to the ground, but most of them are.
And Ronald Reagan wanted this many years ago, but we really didn't have the technology many years ago. Remember, they called it starship, spaceship. Anything to mock him. But he was a very good president. Very, very good.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But now, we have unbelievable technology. And why should other countries have this and we don't? No, no, we're going to build an iron dome over our country and we're going to be sure that nothing can come and harm our people. And again, from an economic development standpoint, we're going to make it all right here. No more sending it out to other countries in order to help. It's America first, America first.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We will unleash the power of American innovation. And as we do, we will soon be on the verge of finding the cures to cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and many other diseases. We're going to get to the bottom of it. You remember this gentleman that I don't want to mention other than one time I had to, because when you say you're the 10 worst, I had to do it, I didn't want anybody to be confused. But this man said, we're going to find a cure to cancer. Nothing happened. We're going to get to the cure for cancer and Alzheimer's and so many other things. We're so close to doing something great.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But we need a leader that will let it be done. We will not have men playing in women's sports. That will end immediately. (APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: And we will restore and renovate our nation's once great cities, making them safe, clean, and beautiful again. And that includes our nation's capital, which is a horrible killing field. So many things. They leave from Wisconsin. They go to look at the Washington Monument. They end up getting stabbed, killed or shot.
[23:55:00]
TRUMP: We will be very soon, very proud of our capital. Again, Washington, D.C.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: America is on the cusp of a new golden age, but we will have the courage to seize it. We're going to take it. We're going to make it a current. I mean, we're going to bring this into a golden age like never seen before. Remember this. China wants to do it. Japan wants to do it. All of these countries want to do it. We have to produce massive amounts of energy if we're going to produce the new.
If you look at some of the things that have been done and some of the things that we're going to do -- but AI needs tremendous -- literally twice the electricity that's available now in our country. Can you imagine? But instead, we're spending places where they recharge electric cars. They built eight chargers at a certain location toward the Midwest. Eight charges for $9 billion. Think of them as a tank for filling up your gas. Think of it. They spent $9 billion on eight charges, three of which didn't work.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: And if you are going to do this all over our country, this crazy electric mandate, if you're going to do this -- and by the way, I'm all for electric. They have their application. But if somebody wants to buy a gas-powered car, gasoline-powered car or a hybrid, they're going to be able to do it. And we're going to make that change on day one.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: So, to conclude, just a few short days ago, my journey with you nearly ended. We know that. And yet here we are tonight, all gathered together talking about the future promise and a total renewal of a thing we love very much. It's called America. We live in a world of miracles. None of us knows God's plan or where life's adventure will take us. I want to thank Franklin Graham for being here tonight. He's an outstanding man.
(APPLAUSE) TRUMP: He wrote me a note recently. I have a lot of respect for him. Sir, I love your storytelling. I think it's great in front of these big rallies. But sir, please do me one favor. It won't make any difference. Please don't use any foul language.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: I was a little embarrassed, I said. He said it won't make any difference. Actually, it does. The story is not quite as good, but I've been very good.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: The story is not quite as good, to be honest. I've got to have a little talk with Franklin. But he was great. He's a great gentleman. His father was so incredible, Billy Graham. My father used to love taking me to see Billy Graham. My father would take me to see Billy Graham at Yankee Stadium. He had the biggest rallies you've ever seen. He was a good rally guy, too.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: But he'd get up and he was a fantastic guy. My father loved Billy Graham. But I love Franklin Graham. I think Franklin has been fantastic. And I'm trying -- I'm just working so hard to adhere to his note to me. I'm working hard on it, Franklin. But if the events of last Saturday make anything clear, it is that every single moment we have on Earth is a gift from God.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We have to make the most of every day for the people and for the country that we love. The attacker in Pennsylvania wanted to stop our movement. But the truth is the movement has never been about me. It has always been about you. It's your movement. It's the biggest movement in the history of our country by far.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: It can't be stopped. It can't be stopped. It has always been about the hardworking, patriotic citizens of America. For too long, our nation has settled for too little. We settled for too little. We've given everything to other nations, to other people. You've been told to lower your expectations and to accept less for your families. I am here tonight with the opposite message. Your expectations are not big enough. Not big enough.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: It is time to start expecting and demanding the best leadership in the world. Leadership that is bold, dynamic, relentless, and fearless. We can do that. We are Americans. Ambition is our heritage. Greatness is our birthright.
[00:00:00]
TRUMP: But as long as our energies are spent fighting each other, our destiny will remain out of reach, and that's not acceptable.
