Photo of Donald Trump

Remarks at a "Make America Great Again" Rally in Biloxi, Mississippi

November 26, 2018

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, thank you. Wow, this is great. Look, snow. I didn't know what was going on. This is—I said, you sure this is indoor? That beautiful snow looks so real.

That's the end of my suit. That's the end of the hair for tonight. That's OK. I love Mississippi, and I love being with you in Mississippi. Thank you very much. Thank you. [applause]

Thank you. It's a beautiful place. This is a big—this is a big, beautiful arena, and they have thousands of people outside, and this place is packed. There's nothing like a Trump rally. Do we agree? Nothing like a Trump rally. [applause]

I'm thrilled to be here with the great people of Mississippi. You are the men and women that make America truly great, and thank you. Thank you. [applause]

Thank you. Tomorrow we need the people of Mississippi to go to the polls and elect Cindy Hyde-Smith so that we can continue doing what we're doing, which is, frankly, unprecedented. What's happening is unprecedented.

Look, what's the simple two words? It's called America first. America first. It's about time. [applause]

It's about time. Under Republican leadership, America is winning again, America is respected again. We are respected like at no time before. And I can tell you, I'm meeting constantly with foreign leaders, and they walk in, and they say, Mr. President, it's incredible what's happened with your country in such a short period of time. America is respected again. [applause]

We've unleashed the greatest economic comeback in American history. More Americans are working today than ever before. Think of that. Today, right now, more Americans are working in our country than at any time before. So that's a big thing. That's a big thing. [applause]

We've created 4.5 million new jobs, and we've lifted 4.3 million Americans off of food stamps. [applause]

The unemployment rate just hit the lowest level in more than 50 years. And here in Mississippi, the unemployment rate has hit its lowest level of all time. Congratulations, Mississippi. [applause]

African-American unemployment has reached the lowest rate ever recorded. African-American youth unemployment has reached the lowest rate ever recorded. And African-American poverty is at an all-time low. [applause]

Remember what I used to say, what the hell do you have to lose, right? Well, we produced. And we're going to continue to produce.

Republicans passed a massive tax cut for Mississippi families. We eliminated a record number of job-killing regulations. And America is now the number-one producer of energy on the planet Earth. Not even close. [applause]

And that took place pretty quickly, didn't it? We are taking care of our veterans, and our military will soon be more powerful than it has ever been before. [applause]

And because of that incredible power, hopefully we will never have to use it, right?

But to protect these amazing achievements, Mississippi must defend our Senate Republican majority. You know, we had a fantastic evening and day very recently, the midterms. We got very little credit from the fake news media. [booing]

Very little credit. They talked about the House, but the people I campaigned for in the House, which was very few, I can't—look, I'm one person. But the people I campaigned, like in Kentucky, Andy Barr, and so many others, they won. But the people I campaigned for, generally governor of Georgia, governor of Florida, governor of Ohio, Tennessee, senator, great new senator from Tennessee. Indiana, North Dakota, Missouri, Florida, and many, many others. We got very little credit. But we actually—if we win tomorrow, we go 53 to 47. And nobody can believe it. [applause]

53 to 47, they're not happy. The fake news is not happy about those numbers. But that really does—that gives us very much of a breather. And for those of you that study politics, when the sitting president picks up a seat, let alone like we've done, that's considered a big deal, for whatever reason. For whatever reason.

But I used to say, I think that's going to happen. And I have to tell you, we had three seats, even four seats that were so close, we almost won in areas that a lot of people say don't bother contesting. We almost won in four states that a lot of people said don't bother, you can't win. I said, let's give it a shot.

And I'll tell you, a little—a little tricky business going on. But let's give them the benefit of a doubt, right?

If you let Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, and Chuck Schumer . . . win the Mississippi Senate seat, they will try to erase all of our gains, reverse all of our progress, and impose—and you know this—they want to impose their extreme job-killing agenda. [booing]

And I just said, you just set your all-time record in Mississippi for jobs. It can disappear quickly with the wrong leadership. We don't want that to happen.

So if you want more jobs, less crime, strong borders—how are we doing on the borders? [applause]

Then you only have one choice tomorrow: You must vote Republican.

We are honored tonight to be joined by several really terrific Mississippi Republican leaders. And we'll start with a friend of mine, he has been so incredible. Seven months ago, he took me around to see things, and then he showed me something that he's maybe the most proud of all of, the African American Museum. Phil Bryant put his guts and his life and his blood into it.

Number one, it's doing fantastically. But number two, I loved it, and he did a fantastic job. He is a great governor, Governor Phil Bryant. Where is Phil? Come here, Phil. [applause]

Come here, Phil. Come on up here, Phil. We have to get him up here, right? Great governor.

MISSISSIPPI GOVERNOR PHIL BRYANT: Thank you so much. Are we having a great night tonight? [applause]

Are we proud to have Donald J. Trump in the house? [applause]

You are here, he is here to help elect Cindy Hyde-Smith and make America great again. God bless you, Mississippi. Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks, Phil. Thank you, Phil. Great job.

Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves. Lieutenant Governor, where is our lieutenant governor? Where is he? Where is he? Thank you, Tate. A man who's been spectacular, the job he's done. Everyone's talking about it, U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst. Mike? Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Mike.

A very good friend of mine, he's always there, he's always available, and he is very smart. He loves the people of Mississippi. He loves the people of our country, Senator Roger Wicker. Roger? Thank you, Roger. Great job. [applause]

And a man that did so well recently, it will go down for a long time, you're going to be seeing those words. They were beautiful words. And they were needed very desperately at that time. Brett Kavanaugh was being treated very unfairly, very, very unfairly. And Lindsey Graham got up, and he hit a chord that you hit very rarely in the world of politics or anything else. He said things that were said not only so well, the meaning of what he said really changed the course of that event, and now we have a great, great Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Lindsey Graham. Lindsey, thank you, Lindsey. Thank you. [applause]

Thank you, Lindsey. He really did. That was very special.

We're all here tonight to support an amazing leader and a tremendous champion for this great state, a woman who went to Washington. She's been there for now a short period of time as your senator, but she is respected by all. Some long-term senators, they've been down there, they told me this is a woman that gets it. She's smart, she's tough, and she loves you. Cindy Hyde-Smith, we have to get her in. Cindy. Come up, Cindy. Come up. [applause]

Cindy is working every day to rebuild our military, to fix our trade deals, and to deliver for our workers and our farmers and the families of Mississippi. She produces like few produce. This is a very, very special person. Come, Cindy.

Cindy defied the Democrat smear machine—and that's what it was—by proudly voting Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. And her vote was so important. And we just want to thank Cindy Hyde-Smith. You've got to go out tomorrow and vote. We need her. We need her badly. Thank you, Cindy.

SENATOR CINDY HYDE-SMITH: Thank you, Mr. President. I tell you, isn't it great to have the President of the United States here in Mississippi? [applause]

What a great crowd we have tonight for you. I'll tell you, you know, in the beginning, I said, this campaign, this election, it's not about me. It's about the people of Mississippi. It's about what you believe in and what you care about: Lower taxes, less regulations, supporting our military, supporting our veterans, supporting our law enforcement, protecting the life of the unborn. [applause]

That's it. It is about standing firm on the Second Amendment rights all day long. [applause]

You know, I think that I have given you one reason why I can ask for your vote tonight. That's because I have worked very hard for you, and you can count on me when it comes to your conservative values. [applause]

You know, other than being the wife to Michael and the mother to Anna-Michael Smith, this is the highest honor of my earthly life, as serving as your U.S. senator and I want you to know, I have so much gratitude for Governor Phil Bryant for appointing me. Thank you, Governor. [applause]

But tomorrow is very important. It is so much at stake. It is such a critical election tomorrow. We have got to go out. What's on the ballot tomorrow is not just my name, Cindy Hyde-Smith. It is your conservative values. That's what's on the ballot tomorrow. [applause]

I asked every Mississippian, please contact everybody. Contact...

CROWD MEMBER: [Inaudible]

HYDE-SMITH: Thank you. Contact your friends, your relatives, your coworkers. Remind everybody tomorrow's Election Day, folks. We've got to get out and vote tomorrow. [applause]

Thank you for this opportunity. And I want to continue to serve you as your United States senator.

Thank you so much, Mississippi. [applause]

THE PRESIDENT: Get out tomorrow and vote for Cindy. She'll never let you down.

The future of the American judicial system is at the center of tomorrow's election. So important. It's a choice between judges who follow the rule of law and judges who follow the radical resistance. That's what it is. Obstructionists.

Cindy's opponent, Mike Espy, opposed Brett Kavanaugh. [booing]

He's not had a great career, folks. Check it out. Democrats want activist judges who will rewrite our laws, undermine our democracy, and substitute their own far-left politics for the plane and very beautiful meaning of our Constitution. That's what they want to do.

A vote for Espy is a vote for the Democrat agenda of socialism and open borders. [booing]

Espy supported one of the largest tax increases, you know this, in American history. He cosponsored legislation providing late-term abortion on demand. And he sponsored legislation to provide free government health care to illegal aliens at your expense. [booing]

Congratulations. Congratulations, Mississippi. Mississippi deserves a senator who shares your values and will fight for your values, and that senator is Cindy Hyde-Smith. [applause]

Now, also at stake in tomorrow's election are your Medicare benefits. That's a big deal. Democrats want to raid Medicare to fund socialism. It won't last long. Republicans will protect Medicare for our great seniors who have earned it and, by the way, who have paid for it, just in case we forget. [applause]

And Republicans will always protect Americans with pre-existing conditions. [applause]

Democrats will also destroy your health care by inviting caravan after caravan after caravan of illegal aliens . . . to violate our borders, overwhelming our communities, and bankrupting our treasury. [booing]

You look at what's happening on our border and you see people coming up by the thousands. And frankly, if we didn't show them strength and a strong border—and nobody's shown a stronger border—if we didn't do that, you would have hundreds of thousands of people pouring into our country.

We are doing a job, and we will continue to do a job. We are doing what's right. [applause]

CROWD: Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall!

THE PRESIDENT: So the wall has started, very, very substantially. In fact, you saw the other day the wall stopped everybody and it was only the section that's now under construction. They breached it, but only momentarily. It didn't take long. [applause]

Momentarily. That was called a very momentary breach.

I'll tell you what, how good is our border enforcement, ICE, our border patrols, our local police, and our military doing? [applause]

And you see what our military has already done to existing walls. They made them very unfriendly looking, wouldn't you say? Climbing those walls would be a very painful experience right now.

Republicans are committed to halting this incursion and defending the sovereign borders of the United States. We are sending a simple message to the lawless caravans and to the illegal trespassers marching forward our border. It's very simple, turn back now, go back home. We will not let you in. We are not going to let you in. Turn back now. [applause]

Illegal immigration is also deeply unfair to American workers, including African-American workers. People don't realize what happens. My administration will always put the citizens of our country first. The policies of open borders are a threat to every community.

Since I took office, ICE agents have arrested over 235,000 aliens with criminal records. Can you believe that, 235,000? [applause]

That's a lot. And by the way, they want to get rid of ICE, can you believe it? These are tough, strong, brilliant people that also happen to love our country. And I don't want that job, and you don't want it. And you don't want it. And you don't want it. And you might take it right there. He might—this guy, I think you could qualify.

Including those charged or convicted of more than 100,000 assaults and nearly 4,000 murders. And we're getting MS-13 out. We're taking them out by the thousands and shipping them the hell out of here. [applause]

We're getting them out. In the state of Texas alone, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, between 2011 and 2018, more than 663,000 crimes were committed by illegal immigrants. You know, you hear these stories about, oh, they don't commit crimes. We commit crimes, they don't commit crimes. Always it's us. No, no, it doesn't work that way. It's fake news. It's fake news. [booing]

Just recently, an illegal alien released by a sanctuary city in New Jersey was charged with a triple homicide in another state. In just one operation alone, our ICE officers arrested 355 MS-13 gang members on Long Island and in the New York City area. [applause]

Of those, nearly half were present in the country because they took advantage of the Democrat-backed loophole granting entry to unaccompanied alien minors. Welcome to the United States.

Yet Democrats want to abolish ICE. They want to turn America into one giant sanctuary city for violent criminals and MS-13 and other gang killers. No, thank you. No, thank you. No, thank you.

Republicans believe America should be a sanctuary for law-abiding citizens, not criminal aliens. [applause]

Every single day, we are finding the illegal alien gang members and predators and we are either throwing them the hell out of here, putting them in jail, or just plain getting them out of our country as nicely as possible. [applause]

Tomorrow's election is about safety, and tomorrow's election is about prosperity. For decades, Washington politicians allowed foreign countries to plunder our jobs, shutter our factories, and decimate our industries. I've been talking about it for 20 years.

When I was in the private sector—I can't believe I'm not in the private sector. Now they call me a politician. I'm a politician. I can't stand it. They said he's a political person. But I've only had one race, and look at the result. Here we are. [applause]

And we're only going to have one more race, and hopefully that result will be even better, because we produced. [applause]

Trillions of dollars were ripped from our nation and redistributed all across the globe. We've distributed money, and we've distributed our wealth. It's been ripped away from us. It's been taken and given to China and given to Japan and given to South Korea and given to South America and given to everybody all over the world. It's been given to everybody but us.

We racked up $4.5 trillion in trade deficits with China since they entered the WTO. That's the World Trade Organization, which other than NAFTA is probably the worst trade deal any country has ever entered, and we entered it, and that's what built China into the power, but now we're the big power. We're far more powerful. And that's the way we're going to keep it. [applause]

We had an annual trade deficit...

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: We had an annual trade deficit—listen to this. Who made these deals? Who made them? Almost $800 billion a year we lose on trade. We're stopping that. We're turning that. We just made a great new deal with Canada, with Mexico.

But of course, they have to treat us fairly. Otherwise we'll just tax their product when it comes in. You know that. You know that. You know that. You know what I'm talking about. Entire nations were rebuilt at the expense of America's middle class and, frankly, at the expense of America's business. This massive transfer of wealth represented the greatest jobs theft in the history of the world. Greatest jobs theft.

And you know what? I don't blame China. And I don't blame these other countries. I blame the leaders of the United States that allowed this to happen. Why shouldn't the other countries try and make these great deals that they've made?

I told President Xi, I mean, it's over, I said it's over, but I don't blame you. I don't blame you at all. I wish we had people that did the same thing in reverse, but we didn't have those people, unfortunately.

Here in Mississippi, you lost 4 out of 10 manufacturing jobs in the last 20 years alone. But those days are over. That's why you're doing so well now, and you do have a great, great governor, I have to say that. [applause]

America's economic surrender ended the day that I took the oath of office. It ended. And you know what? It really was. Through stupidity, it was an economic surrender. Economic surrender. Why we allowed it to happen, how we allowed it to happen, why these politicians didn't do their job, it's a disgrace.

So we're not going to be taken advantage of anymore. Under my administration, we've created 600,000 brand-new manufacturing jobs that people said could never come back to our country. [applause]

Right? Remember the previous administration? Remember the previous administration said, oh, manufacturing jobs, that will never happen. I kept saying, what's he talking about? Manufacturing, we got to make things, right? They said manufacturing jobs would never come back. You'd need a magic wand. Well, we found the magic wand. [applause]

And they're great jobs. They're high-paying jobs. They're brilliant jobs. They're important jobs. Look at what's happened to our steel industry. Our steel industry a year ago was dead, and now it's one of the most vibrant anywhere in the world, because we stopped the steel dumping and we put a big tax on—when they steel dump, they can dump all they want, but they pay 25 percent on everything they dump, and our steel now is doing great. Our industry has come back. [applause]

We have steel mills being built all over the country. Nobody saw anything like it ever before. Although 50 years ago, they did well, but for many, many years, nobody's seen anything like it. Last month alone, we added more than 1,000 manufacturing jobs each and every day last month. [applause]

We're cracking down on countries that cheat and placing tariffs on countries that unfairly subsidized their goods and dump them into our markets like they were doing with steel. They can dump all they want. I want them to dump a lot. But, you know, number one, what they dump isn't very good, in terms of making high-quality steel. When you need structural steel and other kinds of great steel, you don't want to buy that dumped crap. You want quality stuff.

But we're making a lot of money. We're making a lot of money. They're paying—they're paying a lot. [applause]

They want to dump, it's OK. Dump all you want. You're going to pay a lot. That money is flowing right into our treasury, and so are the jobs. Jobs, jobs. We've never saw anything like it. The steel industry, we're very proud of it.

We're replacing the NAFTA disaster with a brand-new U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement. It's called the USMCA, like the song, YMCA, right? The USMCA is a tremendous victory for Mississippi farmers, manufacturers, and autoworkers. Tremendous. It's a tremendous deal for us.

And you know, one of the things in that deal, you're not going to have companies moving to Mexico and Canada. I told them, that's one thing we can't do. Not going to happen under that deal. No incentive to move, none, whatsoever.

After years of rebuilding foreign countries, we are finally rebuilding our country, and we are doing it with American aluminum, and we are doing it with American steel. [applause]

We have taken bold action to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. Drug prices are starting to come down. Drug companies, a number of months ago, were going to raise their prices. I actually called up the heads of Pfizer and Novartis and others. I said you can't do that. You can't raise your prices. And you know what they did? They brought them down, they didn't raise them. And that's when I realized being the president of the United States is a very powerful position. [applause]

Of course, I guarantee any other president wouldn't be calling up the drug companies and telling them not to raise their price. And right here in Mississippi, we have opened up new affordable health care plans that are almost 60 percent cheaper than the disaster known as Obamacare. [applause]

And to help critically ill patients get life-saving treatments, we passed something that I'm very proud of. It's called Right to Try. Right to Try. Hopefully nobody in this room is going to need it for a long time, but right to try is we have the greatest medicines and doctors in the world, and we never let anybody touch it until it was approved. And it would take many years to get it approved.

And these people in many cases are terminally ill. And what we did is we made it possible for them to have it. You know—you all know friends, if they had no money, they'd stay home. There was no hope. If they had money, they would go to Asia, they'd go to South America, they'd go to Europe looking for something.

We have some incredible drugs and potential cures in the pipeline. Now they sign a quick paper and they have the right to try. And we've had unbelievable success with some of these drugs. [applause]

It sounds simple, but years and years they've tried to pass it, and they never got it passed. We also passed veterans choice, giving our great veterans the right to see a private doctor instead of waiting in line for two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, forever. [applause]

And the landmark V.A. accountability law to ensure anyone who mistreats our great veterans will be accountable. We'll look at them and we'll say, get the hell out of here, you're fired, get out. [applause]

These are a lot of the things we've passed. We could go on. I mean, I have a list, literally, that's four pages long. But I don't want to bore you. We'd just go point after point after point. This has never happened. Nobody has ever done so much in the first two years of a presidency as this administration. Nobody. Nobody. [applause]

We also just secured $716 billion to fully rebuild the United States military, and we gave our great warriors their largest pay raise in more than 10 years. [applause]

And at my direction, the Pentagon is now working to create the sixth branch of the American armed forces. It's called the Space Force. Very important. Very, very important. [applause]

I withdrew the United States from the horrible, one-sided Iran nuclear deal, which was a disaster. And we have recognized the capital of Israel and opened the American Embassy in Jerusalem. [applause]

Together, we've made unbelievable progress and we are just getting started. But we need every last Republican vote in the U.S. Senate. We need 53. We want to get to that 53 number. They don't believe it, but they don't want to talk about it, but that's OK. We have to get 53 to 47. That will be a wonderful, wonderful day. So tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow is a big day.

Only with a strong Senate GOP majority can we defend your tax cuts, defend your Second Amendment, protect your Medicare and Social Security, and confirm judges who will interpret the Constitution exactly as written. [applause]

With your support, we will fight every day to secure the border, stop illegal immigration, pass Kate's Law, end sanctuary cities, end chain migration, cancel the ridiculous visa lottery, and keep the criminal drug dealers and terrorists the hell out of our country. [applause]

We will lift millions more of our citizens from welfare to work, dependence to independence, and poverty to prosperity. For years and years, you watched as your leaders apologized for America. Now you have a president who is standing up for America and proud of America. [applause]

We are standing up for your values. We are standing up for Mississippi. We are proudly standing up for our great national anthem. [applause]

So I am asking every citizen from every party, community, background, race, color, creed, religion, for your support tomorrow, Cindy Hyde-Smith. [applause]

I need the great people of Mississippi to send a message to cryin' Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, the radical Democrats, by electing Cindy. We want Cindy tomorrow.

This is the greatest political movement in the history of our country. It is. It is. I say it often, they never even challenge me. They hate like hell not to. They challenge things, they challenge everything, every word you say. But this is the greatest political movement in the history of our country. There's nothing like this. Nothing like this has ever happened.

And you still have deep state, but one by one, we're getting them out. You have deep state bad people. You have a lot of phony stuff going on. But you know what? One by one, we're winning. We're winning, winning, winning.

Now, there's never been a movement like this. It's a movement about making government work for the people and answer to the people. It's about reclaiming America's dignity and reawakening America's pride. It's about building a brighter future for every man, woman and child all across this magnificent land. It's about respecting our country. And it's about coming together as one united American family. [applause]

We stand on the shoulders of courageous American patriots who secured our independence, linked the railroads, built the highways, dug out the great Panama Canal, went to world wars, put satellites into space, and landed an American astronaut on the face of the moon, and today landed a rocket on Mars. [applause]

Our ancestors defeated fascism, vanquished communism, delivered millions into freedom, and built the single greatest country and the most powerful military in the history of the world. We are Americans, and there is no mountain we can't climb, no obstacle we can't reach, and no dream we cannot achieve. [applause]

Generations of brave Americans did not shed their blood, sweat, and tears so that we could sit home while others tried to erase their legacy and destroy our very proud American heritage. [applause]

For the sake of our freedom and for the sake of our children, we are going to work, we are going to fight, and we are going to win, win, win, win.

CROWD: Win! Win! Win!

THE PRESIDENT: We will not bend. We will not break. We will not yield. We will never give in. We will never give up. We will never back down. We will never surrender. And we will always fight on to victory. [applause]

We are one people and one nation and one glorious American destiny. We all share the same home. We all share the same heart. We all salute the same flag. And we are all made by the same Almighty God. [applause]

And together with the incredible people of Mississippi, we will make America wealthy again, we will make America strong again, we will make America safe again, and we will make America great again.

Thank you, Mississippi. Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

NOTE: The Presidents spoke at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi, Mississippi.  Also speaking were Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, candidate for reelection and Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant.

This transcript was prepared for the American Presidency Project by Matthew Danaher.

Donald J. Trump (1st Term), Remarks at a "Make America Great Again" Rally in Biloxi, Mississippi Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/332472

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