Photo of Donald Trump

Remarks at a "Make America Great Again" Rally in Fargo, North Dakota

June 27, 2018

[Lee Greenwood, "God Bless the U.S.A"]

CROWD: USA! USA!

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Wow. [applause]

Oh, hello, Fargo. Hi, Fargo. We love you, Fargo. [applause]

What a place. What a place. Thank you very much.

This is an honor. You know, I wish we could have had this stage back about 100 yards. You'd see how many people. This place is packed. [applause]

This place is packed. The only thing more packed is outside, trying to get in. They're having a hard time. They can't get in. It's full.

You know, we had the chance for a 24,000-seat arena. And we should have taken it. [applause]

The problem is, if we had two empty seats, we didn't quite get there, which will always happen, they will say, "He didn't fill up the arena. He didn't fill it up." Right. That's what they'll say. "He didn't fill that arena up." Twenty-four thousand seats. No, we would have filled it up very easily, in retrospect, but that's OK.

Thank you very much. [applause]

I am thrilled to be here in the great state of North Dakota with so many hard-working American patriots. Right?[applause]

And I want to congratulate—right? We want to do this. You know what I'm gonna say.

I want to congratulate the North Dakota State Bison. [applause]

I shouldn't tell you this. I shouldn't tell you this, but when I was coming out, they were talking about Bison. I said, "I thought there was an s." They said, "It is. But it's pronounced Bizon." So, we didn't want to get that wrong, right? But that is some—that is some great national championship team. That's a great group of winners. [applause]

Winners. We're honored to be joined by many of your wonderful North Dakota leaders. Your Governor, and a great guy, Doug Burgum, and his wife, First Lady of North Dakota, Kathryn Burgum. Where are you, Governor? Where are you?[applause]

Thank you, Governor. Your former Governor, Ed Schafer. Ed. [applause]

Nice guy. A friend of mine, who employs a lot of people, a very successful guy. He puts a straw in the ground and oil comes out. These big companies, they go out, they spend billions looking for oil. They don't find anything. Harold Hamm. Where's Harold? Where is Harold?[applause]

If I ever want to find oil, I'm gonna call Harold. Here's a straw, Harold.

North Dakota Republican Party Chairman, great guy, really helpful, Rick Berg. [applause]

Thank you, Rick. A man who is so incredibly helpful, to me and to you, and to everybody. A special person who works so hard. I call him all-action, no-talk, that's—don't we like that? All-action. [applause]

Senator John Hoeven. He is fantastic. [applause]

And I also want to thank Kelly Armstrong, who's running for Congress. He's gonna win. And Kelly, thank you very much. [applause]

Thank you. Good guy. We also have a couple of big supporters. Do you ever see this guy with the pillows on Fox?[applause]

MyPillow guy. Mike Liddell. Where is Mike?[applause]

He is the greatest. I have never seen so many ads for so long. And you know what? I think he gets them for, like, peanuts. First of all, he does make a great product. Great pillows. I actually use them, believe it or not. [applause]

But he's been—he's been a supporter from day one. And I said, "You know, I want you to be my ad buyer." Because I guarantee you, he makes great deals. So, I haven't asked him yet. Will you be my ad buyer, please, Mike?[applause]

The MyPillow guy. Thank you. And he's been with us right from the beginning. Along with a lot of other folks, actually. We've had a great journey together, and we are making progress like nobody thought possible.

Finally, the person we are all here tonight to support, a special person, an incredible person, the next United States Senator from the great state of North Dakota, Kevin Cramer. Kevin, come out. [applause]

Good guy. [applause]

KEVIN CRAMER: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.

All I can say is, Mr. President, on behalf of all of the thousands of people in this arena, and the tens of thousands outside of this arena, who live in flyover country, thank you for not forgetting us. [applause]

And for all the farmers, and the manufacturers, and the families, and the energy workers, thank you for rolling back all of those regulations so they can not only keep their jobs but create more jobs. [applause]

And, Mr. President, on behalf of the middle-class working families represented in this room and throughout the heartland, thank you for cutting their taxes, so they can keep more of their hard-earned money right here. [applause]

And, Mr. President, on behalf of the most vulnerable, forgotten people, the unborn babies, thank you for standing for life. [applause]

Thank you. [applause]

And on these very important North Dakota values, you'll never have to wonder where I'll be, because I'll always be with them and with you, 100 percent of the time.

Thank you. God bless you. Welcome to North Dakota. [applause]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: I have got to tell you, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. He did good. He loves you. I will tell you that. He loves this state, loves the people. And we need Kevin Cramer to replace liberal Democrat Heidi Heitkamp in the Senate. Gonna happen. [applause]

It's gonna happen.

When Heidi ran for office, she promised to be an independent vote for the people of North Dakota. Instead, she went to Washington and immediately joined Chuck. You know who Chuck is. And Nancy. [booing]

And now they have a new leader. Who's the new leader?

CROWD: Maxine!

Maxine Waters is their new leader. [booing]

Maxine Waters. I think she's taking over. You know, they say, Trump’s . . . I never believed I was taking over the Republican Party. They say that to cause problems. [applause]

But Maxine Waters is taking over the Democrat Party, so.

Heidi voted no on the Obamacare repeal. And, by the way, it was done. It was done. Unfortunately, she wouldn't vote. And another person didn't vote. We had it done.

Another person campaigned for eight years. "Repeal and replace." And we were a little surprised when the thumb went down. But we're doing very well. You see what's happening. We're coming up with incredible plans. We've gotten rid of the individual mandate, which is terrible. [applause]

It's been gutted. But remember this. Individual mandate, where you have the privilege of paying a lot of money for the second privilege of not having to pay for not getting health care. What kind of a deal is that? So, you pay in order to not to have to pay, because you don't want the health care because it was no good anyway.

So, we have, though our Secretary of Labor, Alex Acosta, we just came out with the association plan, which is phenomenal. Millions and millions of people are signing up. And we're coming out with another plan with Alex Azar. We are coming out with that plan in two weeks. We are coming out with so many health care plans. It is so much better than anything you've ever seen before. [applause]

Competitive. [applause]

And Obamacare is essentially dead. [applause]

I would have been happier with a nice yes vote instead of a no vote, but that's OK. We're doing great. And probably we wouldn't have come up with these two other plans. And it's actually three, now, other plans if we didn't.

You know, sometimes you work under pressure, and you do better, right? I think most of the people in this room, under pressure, you end up doing better. There are those people. We want to know those people.

Heidi voted no on our massive tax cuts for North Dakota families. She voted "no." [booing]

Not one Democrat voted to cut your taxes. And the other day Nancy Pelosi said we have to raise your taxes. What's that all about? She wants to raise your taxes.

Heidi voted no on legislation to stop late term abortions. [booing]

Heidi voted in favor of the deadly, very, very dangerous, horrible sanctuary cities. [booing]

You need a senator who doesn't just talk like they're from North Dakota but votes like they're from North Dakota. That's what you need. And that is Kevin Cramer. [applause]

So, a vote for any Democrat is November is a vote for Schumer, Pelosi, and Maxine. [booing]

Maxine. She's a beauty. [laughter]

I mean, she practically was telling people the other day to assault. Can you imagine if I said the things she said?

"We demand that he immediately drop out of the race." Can you imagine, seriously, if I said that, or somebody else said that? Horrible, what she said.

Now they want to censure her. Let's see where that goes, folks. [laughter]

Her own party was talking about censure. Let's see where that goes.

Heidi was also against us from the very beginning of the travel ban, a common-sense policy to improve our vetting and our national security. And I'm proud to report that, just yesterday, the Supreme Court upheld the travel ban. . . and our authority to keep America safe. [applause]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: And, by the way—by the way, a lot of media back here. [booing]

If crooked Hillary would have won this election, and if she came here, which is about a zero percent change, after the election . . . she'd have 200 people in a conference room in a small hotel. [laughter]

You know, the saddest thing, we, I, we're making them rich. They never had ratings like this. You know, when the NFL is down 20 percent, it's the flag. But it's also the fact that everybody is watching us on the different cable networks. [applause]

Because, frankly, they find this more exciting than the NFL, and a hell of a lot more dangerous, right?[applause]

And is there any better place to be on a nice, beautiful evening in North Dakota than at a Trump rally, right? We're having a good time. [applause]

And I wish those cameras would circle the room to see how many thousands of people are here, because, you know, on the screen I look—and all you see are those few beautiful, wonderful people—I don't know who the hell I—but you've got a nice group over there. I know you have Mike and some others. They're gonna be so famous.

But you see, like, that little group. That's all you see on camera.

Would you please circle the room for the few honest . . . Please circle. [applause]

CROWD: Trump! Trump! Trump! USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: No, I just looked at the screen, and I said to my people, "How many people are here?" They said, "Six thousand in the arena, but we're gonna be—have to, unfortunately, walk 15,000 or 18,000 people that couldn't get in."

I said, "You've got to be kidding, because on the screen it looks like there's exactly 30 people. What the hell is this? [laughter]

The late, great, Cecil B. DeMille would not have set it up this way, I will tell you.

The travel ban ruling underscores just how critical it is to confirm judges who will support our Constitution, our great, great Constitution. [applause]

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a very special guy, also just announced a little while ago his retirement from the United States Supreme Court. [applause]

Great man. And I'm very honored that he chose to do it during my term in office, because he felt confident in me to make the right choice and carry on his great legacy. That's why he did it. [applause]

And I'd like to take a moment to show our great appreciation for Justice Kennedy's lifetime of distinguished service. Terrific man. Service to our nation, and to the cause of liberty. We were thrilled to appoint one of Kennedy's former clerks to the Supreme Court. Did you ever hear of Justice Neil Gorsuch?[applause]

He's doing great. He's a star. And Justice Kennedy is a star. And we appreciate it. We really have to take our hats off to Justice Kennedy. Thank you very much. [applause]

And remember this. So, we have a pick to come up. We have to pick a great one. We have to pick one that's gonna be there for 40 years, 45 years.

CROWD: Yeah.

THE PRESIDENT: We need intellect. We need so many things to go. You know, there's so many elements go into the making of a great Justice of the Supreme Court. You've got to hit every one of them.

Heidi will vote no to any pick we make for the Supreme Court. She will be told to do so.

Now, maybe, because of this, she'll be forced to vote yes. Who knows? But I will tell you she'll vote no the day after the election on everything. Justice Kennedy's retirement makes the issue of Senate control one of the vital issues of our time. The most important thing we can do.

Democrats want judges who will rewrite the Constitution any way they want to do it, and take away your Second Amendment, erase your borders, throw open the jailhouse doors and destroy your freedoms. [booing]

We must elect more Republicans. We have to do that. [applause]

And the problem is, in the Senate, we have 51. We don't have enough. We lose one. If somebody gets a bad cold, let's assume they come in for a cold, but let's assume it's worse than that. It's a very tough situation. We need more Republicans, especially in the Senate. We have to hold the House, and maybe even increase it. And I think we'll be able to do it.

They keep talking about this blue wave. Their blue wave is really sputtering pretty badly. The red wave is happening. Just look what happened last night. [applause]

Famous people. Oh, they're gonna be so famous tomorrow.

"You were in that little group of people behind the president." Yeah. They're gonna be famous people, those people. You have a better location, but they're gonna be famous. [applause]

Republicans want strong borders and no crime. Very simple. Not complex. Democrats want open borders and crime, crime, crime happens automatically when you have those open borders. [booing]

The Democrats want to let the country be overrun. Just take a look at what's going on. Everybody comes in, including the vile gang, MS-13, which Nancy Pelosi has gone out and wants to protect, OK? We don't want to protect them.

Do you remember two weeks ago, you remember that. Republicans love our military. They love our vets and our police. The Democrats are always fighting against funding for the military, and funding for law enforcement. [applause]

Figure that one out.

Democrats are now launching vicious smears against our incredible ICE officers and our Border Patrol agents. Every single day the men and women of ICE and the CBP work long hours in the most dangerous conditions you can imagine, to defend our families, and to defend our communities, and to defend our borders, and defend us. [applause]

And I'll tell you what. You know, far fewer people are coming through, as much as I complain, coming through our southern border. And now it's getting worse because we have so much opportunity here. We have done so well.

And we want people to come into our country. But we want them to come into our country based on merit. Merit. Not picked out of a jar.

And we're sending MS-13 out by the thousands. By the thousands. We're liberating towns in Long Island. [applause]

We are sending MS-13 out. You know, our ICE officers, they're tough. I have got to say it. It's not nice. But they're mean. But they have heart. But they go into these towns, in Long Island. I grew up in Long Island, right next to Long Island.

And these are towns that I know all my life. They're being liberated, like a foreign power has taken over the towns. Our ICE goes in there. They grab 'em by the neck. They throw 'em in the paddy wagon. We get 'em the hell out of our country. [applause]

And the Democrats are constantly complaining that we're too rough on ICE. Do you believe it? Do you see what they do? Bing, bing. Right? You see what they're doing? No, but do you see what they're doing?

They don't need guns. They like knives, because knives are much more painful. They cut people up in small pieces. Beautiful young women, walking home from school. And the Democrats complain that we're treating them too rough.

We're getting them the hell out, as I said, by the thousands. Right?[applause]

Just days ago, a brave border agent was shot multiple times while protecting our border. Every day, border agents are keeping drugs, crime, and gangs from entering our country.

We're gonna get that wall built. We've already started it. $1.6 billion. We're getting the wall built. [applause]

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

THE PRESIDENT: It's already begun, and it's beautiful. [applause]

And I'll tell you what, they may not want to talk about it in California, but those people in San Diego are very happy with Donald Trump. I'm building that wall, and they are so happy. [applause]

They are so happy. In recent days, we've heard of shameless attacks on these courageous law enforcement officers. Extremist Democrat politicians have called for the complete elimination of ICE. "We don't want ICE anymore."

You know what would happen to parts of our country? It would be overrun with the worst criminal elements you have ever seen. Left-wing activists are trying to block ICE officers from doing their jobs, and publicly posting their home addresses, putting these incredible people and their families in harm's way. [booing]

These radical Democrat protesters, they really want anarchy. But the only response they will find from our government is very strong law and order. [applause]

We will not tolerate attacks on our law enforcement. We will protect our law enforcement, like they protect us. [applause]

We will always stand proudly with our brave heroes of ICE, the Border Patrol, the sheriffs, the police, yes, the firemen. The firemen sometimes are under attack, if you can believe it. The firemen. These are great people. And we have their backs. [applause]

Thanks to Republican leadership, America is winning again, and America is being respected again all over the world. We're respected again. [applause]

All over the world, we're respected again. You know, all those red hats and the white hats, Make America Great Again. [applause]

Right? Make America Great Again. And that's what we're doing. And what are we going—what are we gonna say in two and a half years for the next campaign? It's called Keep America Great, exclamation point. Exclamation point. Keep America Great![applause]

We gained $7 trillion in value, trillion with a "t". Trillion. [applause]

I have wealthy friends, like Harold Hamm. They don't even know what a trillion represents. I say, "Harold, how many billion are in a trillion?" And I'm not sure that Harold could answer that.

But I'll tell you what. We've gained tremendous worth, economic worth, and other worth, more important worth. We're respected again, we're putting America first, we're making great trade deals. [applause]

$7 trillion. Think of what that is. And people don't realize this. And we're gonna get along with China. And we're gonna get along with the European Union, which has barriers from our farmers and our people, selling product into the European Union.

Last year, with the European Union, and we love the European Union. We love the countries of the European Union. But the European Union, of course, was set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank, right? And you know what, we can't let that happen.

Last year, with the European Union, we lost $151 billion on trade. We had a trade deficit of $151 billion, because they send the Mercedes in. They send the BMWs in. They send their products in. We send things to them, they say, "No, thank you. We don't take your product."

That's not the way it works. And for all those free traders out there, that's not free trade. That's stupid trade. [laughter]

That's stupid trade. [applause]

So—so, I said to them, as the great Harold Hamm would say, because to him it's a natural thing, to some of the people in here it's a nat—because I know some of the people. They're great business people.

I said to them, very simply, "Look. If you treat us that way, and if you don't take down your barriers"—they call them trade—you know what they call them. Non-monetary barriers. They're barriers. Just like charging a big tariff, they charge us many times tariff.

If we send them a car which they don't want, and they practically don't take, but on the assumption it got through, they charge us many, many times what we charge them. And I said, "Look. If you're not gonna treat us fairly, if you're not gonna treat our workers, our companies, our farmers fairly, if you're not gonna take our farm products like we take your farm products, then we're gonna tax all of those beautiful Mercedes Benzes that are coming in, and we're gonna tax BMWs that are coming in” . . . and we're already taxing, through tariffs, their steel and their aluminum. And, by the way, do you see what's happening with our steel industry in the last four months? It's booming again, folks. It's booming. [applause]

United States Steel is opening up six plants through expansion and new—I was in South Carolina the other night where, by the way, a great candidate won very easily. You know, our track record is extraordinarily good, right? That's why I'm here, for Kevin, that's why. [applause]

That's why I'm here. But they just announced the day I get there, they have a steel company called Georgetown. It's been closed for four years. They announced the day before I got to South Carolina that Georgetown Steel is reopening and hiring 600 people. [applause]

Not so complicated.

We put tariffs on solar panels because China was flooding the market and it wasn't good stuff. We had 32 plants. Two were open and they were barely breathing. They were mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. We put a 30 percent tax on solar panels coming into the United States.

Now, those two plants are doing great. And they're talking about opening at least 10, 11, or 12, and they'll probably have them all open very soon. And they're gonna make high quality panels. And a lot of jobs. [applause]

Same thing with washing machines. Sounds sort of tacky. Washing machines. Big business. They were dumping, different countries—I don't even want to tell you this country because I actually like this country, but, you know, they all—sometimes our worst enemies are our so-called friends or allies, right?

But they were dumping washing machines. We put a big tariff on, 30 percent. We're now making washing machines back in our country.

But what else are we doing? Think of it. Just think, because you never hear this from the fake news. [laughter]

What else are we doing? No, what else? We're creating jobs, number one. And we're taking in billions and billions of dollars into our coffers. [applause]

You know, there was a time—there was a time when we had tariffs, because you had presidents like President McKinley and Roosevelt and others. Roosevelt, one . . . who liked the idea of foreign countries, when they come in and want to take our wealth, they have to pay for it. They don't take it. On top of everything else, so they take our wealth, and we even protect them with our military. We protect everybody. So, we get it every which way.

So, we want to just tell those people, number one, we created a lot of jobs. Number two, what's happening is we're taking in billions and billions—look at the steel. We have a 25 percent tariff. We're taking in billions of dollars, creating jobs, and—and, you know what? Even if it wasn't perfect, we need a steel industry. We were gonna have no steel plants. [applause]

If something ever happened—if something ever happened, you know what I'm talking about, and we needed steel to make that something, we wouldn't be able to make steel. We need—you know, there are some industries, steel and aluminum, we have got to have it.

So, we have jobs, we have a vibrant industry, in a short—the head of United States Steel called me the other day. And he said, "Mr. President, I'd like to thank you. I have never seen anything like it. We haven't opened up a new plant in 32 years. And now we're opening up seven of them. [applause]

"Six of them extensions. [applause]

"We're gonna build a new one."[applause]

And that's just one company.

The Heritage Foundation reported that in just the first 500 days of our presidency—not my presidency. It's our presidency, let's face it. [applause]

It's not my presidency. You're the one that did it. You're the one that did it. Although I've been a good student.

I told John, and I told the whole group. We had a whole group of politicians before. And, you know, some of them have been congressmen, like, for 25, 30 years. And they're asking me questions about politics. I said, "I've only been doing this for two and half years. Don't ask me a question like that." [laughter]

But we've been good students, haven't we, altogether? Haven't we been good students?[applause]

But the Heritage Foundation came out with a report, and this was as of two months ago. We've already implemented 64 percent of our top agenda items. And that's at a much faster pace than even Ronald Reagan. That's pretty good, right?[applause]

And you don't hear this from the fake news. We've created 3.4 million new jobs since election day, 3.4. [applause]

Unemployment—think of this one. Unemployment claims are at a 45-year low, and it's gonna 63, I believe, probably, next month. African-American unemployment is at its lowest level in the history of our country. [applause]

Hispanic-American unemployment also is at the lowest point in the history of our country. [applause]

Unemployment among women, women . . . remember, we were gonna do so poorly with women. Look at all the women here tonight. Women for Trump. [applause]

They never take those cameras off my face. Look at all the women.

Remember we were gonna do so poorly with women. We did great with the women. If—I wouldn't be standing . . . [applause]

My wife told me, she said, "You're gonna do great with the women." It's hard to believe it, though, with the kind of press we get. Do you agree? But, you know what? They are so smart. And when they hear those numbers, they're happy.

And when you hear the numbers—I used to go into arenas, and I'd read the horrible statistics on crime and education, and how badly people are being treated in Hispanic communities, in African-American communities. And you remember, I'd go and I'd say, "You've been voting for Democrats for 100 years. You have these horrible"— look at my friends, right there. [applause]

Great guys. [applause]

My friends. Thank you.

"You've had these horrible, horrible statistics for years on crime and the educational abuse, and all of the things." And I went in, and I'm reading them, point after point, and I'm seeing, and I'm—I looked out at the audience. For 100 years they were with Democrats. The Democrats felt they had automatic votes.

And I said to them, "What the hell do you have to lose? Vote for me. What do you have to lose?[applause]

"What do you have to lose?"[applause]

And I came off the stage. I'll never forget it. The first time I just said it. I just said it. I didn't care. I—honestly, I want to say what's right. I don't care.

I came off the stage and my political people said, "Sir, that's a horrible thing." What's a horrible thing?

"When you say, 'what the hell do you have to lose?' That's a horrible thing."

I said, "But it's true. What the hell do you have to lose?" And now, I just said African-American unemployment is at the lowest level in history. [applause]

Very, very good. Thank you, man. Thank you. Thank you, man. Thank you very much. Thank you.

So, we keep going, and we keep striving. And when it's all over, nobody's done the job that we've all done. Wages are rising.

You know, for those of you that were with the campaign, which I think was probably about 130 percent of you . . . you would hear me talking about wages. Where a person would have a job 21 years ago, 19 years ago from two years, where we were doing the campaign. And they made more money 19 years ago, relatively speaking, by far, than they made two years ago. And, actually, one year ago.

Their wages were going along, and they had one job. And now they'd have two and three jobs. They'd be working much harder and making much less money. And now, for the first time in 22 years, wages are rising again. [applause]

And even more importantly than that is, you have a choice of jobs. It's like the V.A. We approved choice. They've been trying to do it for 45 years. Choice. [applause]

You have choice in a job. But the vets—and you have great vets in North Dakota. Vets, vets, vets. [applause]

So, remember, I used to say about the vets—and I wasn't a great student of the vets, but I'd read where the vets would be online for 13 days, 18 days, three weeks, seven days. And they'd start off, and they wouldn't be in bad shape. And sometimes it would take so long before seeing a doctor that they would be terminally ill. Things that could have been taken care of.

And I said, without knowing anything—I thought it was the most brilliant policy I've ever heard. I said, "Why don't they just go to a doctor, local, that's looking for the business, that would be a very good doctor. We'll specify certain great doctors. Go to a doctor. Be taken care of. And we will pay the bill, and it will be much less expensive, and you'll be all set, right?" Right?[applause]

And I thought that was so brilliant. I said, "Oh, I am so smart. I am the smartest person." My uncle was a great professor at MIT for 40 years. Can you believe? Forty years. I said, "But I'm smarter than him. I'm smarter than anybody."

And you know what? I'll tell you. I came in, and I said that to a group of people that are professionals and have been working with the vets for a long time. They said, "Yeah, we know about that. We've been trying to get it for 30 years. We couldn't get it approved."

So, I was so disappointed, because I thought it was my idea. But I'll tell you what I was good at. [laughter]

I was good at getting it done. We got it done. I signed it. That's what I was good at. [applause]

I got it done. We got it done.

They'd been trying to get it done for 40 years. I was so disappointed. I thought it was my idea. That's the only problem. I thought it was my idea.

And, you know, we have another thing. Accountability with the vets. The V.A.—there was no accountability. You'd have people that were protected, whether it was civil service unions, who cares. They were protected. You couldn't fire them.

They could be sadists, and we had sadists. Sick people. We had people that would steal and rob. We had a lot of bad people. We had people that didn't work hard. And there was no accountability. For 40 years they tried to get the V.A. Accountability Act passed. I got it passed. And now, you look at the guy that did it, and you say, "Jim Smith, you've done a hell of a lousy job. You're late, and you don't treat our vets right. Jim, I'm sorry, you're fired. Get out of here."[applause]

Right? Right?[applause]

"Jim, you're fired."

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: So, those two things for the—I just approved them. The accountability was a couple of months ago. And John helped so much. I'll tell you. John helped so much. [applause]

He was a leader. Thank you. He was a leader on both.

And everybody said you couldn't get accountability done. I said, "Why?" Too much power, too many unions, too many people that just don't want it done. You had people in Arizona that robbed $300,000 and they could—they agreed. Everybody agreed. They robbed the money. They couldn't fire the people.

So now you have—accountability is done. And I think even more important—I'm not sure. But even more important, V.A. choice. So now you go see a doctor when you have to wait on line. OK?[applause]

Optimism among America's great manufacturers has hit 95 percent, the highest number by far in the history of the survey, which is a very old survey. We have eliminated record numbers of job-killing regulations. [applause]

I think maybe as important as the tax cuts are the regulations. Our country was choking. And let me tell you, if our opponent, our wonderful opponent . . .

CROWD: Lock her up!

THE PRESIDENT: . . . when is she gonna get over it?[applause]

When does she get over it?

CROWD: Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!

THE PRESIDENT: Oy, when do they get over it? But, you know, it is pretty amazing. Point after point, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. Oh, she's OK. [applause]

And then they go after us for a Russian hoax. It's a witch hunt hoax. It's—isn't it incredible, when you talk about a double standard? When you talk about a double standard. And nobody even looks at her. Nobody even looks, I don't think, unless we're gonna be surprised some day. Well, we'll see how that works out.

But I'll tell you what. What's happened is somewhat of a miracle because we weren't expected to win. But every time I'd go out, we'd have crowds like this. We went to Michigan. We went to Wisconsin. We went to places that haven't been done. I think Wisconsin was 1952. Dwight Eisenhower. And we won Wisconsin. [applause]

And Wisconsin, I went there, and I said, "I think we're gonna win this state." And people said to me, "Oh, sir. It won't happen." I said, "Why? Look at the crowds we're getting. Look at the people. Look at the signs outside of the house. Look at the signs."

I heard, and maybe it's not so, that Bill Clinton, President Bill Clinton, went back, and he went through Michigan. And he said, "You'd better get some people out to Michigan, because there's a Trump-Pence sign on every house. You'd better get people out."

And they said, "Oh, no. Our statistics show that Michigan cannot be won by the Republicans."

Well, let me tell you what's happened. Car plants are moving into Michigan. Jobs are moving into Michigan. Michigan's very happy with your president. [applause]

They should have listened to Bill Clinton. They should have listened.

And we just had our highest poll numbers. And I watch these fakers back there, and they'll be talking. [booing]

Well, you saw the polls that came out—I don't know if this is true. You know, a year and a half ago, they said I was an interloper. How bad is that? An interloper. And now they say, and you will admit, a thing comes out, a big poll, and a couple of polls. A number of polls that, "He's the most powerful, most popular, Republican in the history of the party." And a little while ago I was an interloper. [applause]

They came out "more popular than" a man I like, Ronald Reagan. Well—but think of it. You go from interloper—that's a horrible term, right? I was just doing my thing. I'm not an interloper.

But we have tremendous—look at the people. We endorsed Dan Donovan. He was behind. We endorsed him. He won by, like, 24 points or something last night, in Staten Island, New York, and New York generally. Dan Donovan, Congressman.

Last night we had a great evening because we watched that television and we were winning left and right. They didn't know what the hell happened. And one of my biggest critics, a slovenly man named Joe Crowley, got his ass kicked. . . by a young woman who had a lot of energy. She had a lot of energy. I guess he didn't see it. They couldn't find him. He spent a lot of money. He actually had a lot of money left over. Everyone is pouring a fortune because they figure—and he was gonna take Nancy Pelosi's place.

And I was so disappointed, because I want to keep Nancy Pelosi right where she is, with Maxine Waters. I want to keep Nancy Pelosi. Please, I want to make a plea to my Democrat friends. Please, please, please don't remove Nancy Pelosi. She should be where she is. [applause]

And please keep Maxine Waters on the air, as your face and your mouthpiece for the Democrat Party. Please. [applause]

Maxine and Nancy. So, I was disappointed in a way when he got beaten, because he was gonna take her place, I think. Now, he's just looking at us and saying, "Darling, what happened?" Politics is a mean game, isn't it? It's a mean—it's a fleeting game.

Six months ago, Republicans passed the biggest tax cuts and reform in American history.

CROWD: Thank you. [applause]

THE PRESIDENT: Our plan doubled the child tax credit, thank you to Ivanka Trump. [applause]

She wanted that so badly. She really got to be a pest. "Dad, you've got to get child tax credit."

I said, "Darling, nobody knows what it is."

She said, "The women know, Dad. The women know."[applause]

My daughter and my wife, Melania, they love—they love the women. And the women love them. [applause]

The women love them. And the men love them.

Child tax credits. People don't talk about it that much. It's very substantial. And you know we got it for you.

We slashed taxes for working families, most of them in half, and saved our family farms and our small businesses by eliminating the estate tax in almost all cases. It's known as the death tax. And now, when you leave your small business or your farm, you leave it to your children. Your children don't go—have to back). They don't go to the bank, borrow money, and end up losing the farm or losing the business. [applause]

Thank Kevin and John and the whole group, they helped us a lot. And guess what. Heidi voted against it. OK? She voted against it. [booing]

Heidi voted against it. And she's always gonna vote against it. And by the way, she may give us a couple of quickie votes, you know, before the election. She might, because she has no choice. But the day after that election, she's voting party line, 100 percent.

More than 100 utility companies nationwide have slashed prices for customers, saving them and this country much more than $3 billion, which goes and reduces your electric and utility bill. [applause]

Heidi and every single Democrat voted against our tax cuts. We're also fixing the disastrous trade deals that have plundered our wealth, gutted our communities, undermined our great farmers, taken our jobs. We are gonna make trade fair and reciprocal. Reciprocal. You know what that is. They do it to us. We do it to them.

And we are placing very big tariffs on some of these countries, because they have tariffs on us. It's incredible. I wonder where these people come from. Even politicians.

So, we'll have a country. It doesn't matter. I can almost name any of them. They have massive tariffs on our people, on our workers, on our farmers, on our country, on our companies. So, we say we're gonna put tariffs on them. And I'll actually have politicians and other people come to me. "Oh, please. We want free trade." How is it free trade?

I'll give you an example. China. If we make a car and sell it into China, they charge us a 25 percent tax. That's what it is. Twenty-five percent.

When they make a car and sell it into the United States, and there are a lot of them, we charge them the grand total of 2.5 percent, and they don't pay that. [booing]

And then when I want to raise the game and play the game of poker, a game that we can't lose, I'll get even politicians, mostly Democrats, but even a couple of Republicans. They'll say, "We want free trade."

That's not free trade. That's not fair trade. It is so ridiculous. Just play the game for a little while. It's a game we can't lose.

You know, I've said a couple of times, when we're $500 billion down, they say, "Trump is starting a trade war." I say no. The trade war ended a long time ago, and the United States lost because our leaders didn't take care of our people and our companies. [applause]

So, we're not starting a trade war, but we'll finish it. And you know what? In the end, you know what's gonna happen. And it's already happening. Already happening.

They're gonna come to us, and they're gonna say, "Hey, let's work it out." And we're gonna work it out. It's very simple. But remember—it is. It's the art of the deal, but anybody can do the deal. There are a lot of people. This one doesn't get much simpler.

Remember, it's true. When you're $500 billion down, you can't lose. You already lost. But now we're gonna start winning. Or at least we're gonna make it fair. It doesn't even have to—we've got to make it fair. [applause]

And the fact that we've had presidents and we've had leaders that worked for those presidents, negotiators, trade reps, who were missing in action. They weren't doing their job.

You know, I was dealt a lot of bad hands. I was given North Korea where, frankly, we were very close to gonna war. You could have lost 30 million people, 50 million people. Seoul is 30 miles off the border. They have what they call cannons, like howitzers. They have cannons, thousands of them, pointed.

I had the meeting. We had a great relationship. We had a great chemistry together. The fake news was so upset when I said we had a good relationship. We had a good chemistry. They said, "That's a horrible thing." No, no. It's a good thing. Getting along with countries, getting along with China, getting along with Russia, getting along with these countries is a good thing. It's not a bad thing. Not a bad thing. [applause]

And so, we have things cooking now. You're gonna be so happy. But when people rush it—you know, it's like rushing the turkey out of the stove. It's not gonna be as good. The women can tell me, and some of the men. See, today I have to be politically correct. [laughter]

See, in the old days—in the old days I would have never—I just would have said, "Oh, I don't want to. It's too hokey." But it's true. Some of the men can tell me, too. Right? Some of the men.

But here's what we do. The more they rush, the worse it's gonna be. The longer we take, the better. Your farmers, your people are gonna be great.

You know, John—I'll tell you, John and Kevin gave me something. They just told me this. Canadian wheat markets consistently discriminate against the United States' wheat by grading it as feed. Do you know what that means? They know what it means. I don't know what the hell it means. I just know it's a bad deal. [laughter][applause]

But it's true. Canada charges us on dairy products a tariff of 275 percent, for you farmers in here. Two hundred. That's like saying, "We don't want your dairy products." It's no good.

That's like saying, "We don't want North Dakota, Wisconsin, New York State. We don't want you there." 275 percent. And I actually hear that's an old number. They raised it a number of months ago to 300 percent. How horrible is that?

And then Justin gets up. He said, "We fought World War I, we fought World War II," all true, "together." All true. We love Canada. But they're taking advantage of us. We can't let that happen. We can't let it happen.

The era of global freeloading and taking advantage of the United States is over. It's just over. [applause]

We're also restoring American security by rebuilding our military. We've secured a historic $700 billion. Just got it approved. $700 billion. We're rebuilding our military. And next year, already approved, $716 billion. We're rebuilding our military. It will be bigger and stronger than ever before. And hopefully we will never have to use it, because when it's bigger and stronger, you tend not to have to use it, OK?[applause]

And in addition to that, we got $6 billion for drugs and fighting opioid abuse. [applause]

$6 billion.

We believe in peace. But it's got to be peace through strength, not weakness. Peace through strength. And I've directed the Pentagon to begin the process of creating a sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces, called the Space Force. The Space Force. [applause]

Space Force. Because space is the new frontier. And I'm not just talking about gonna up to the moon and gonna Mars. And I want the rich guys—you know, we have rich guys. They love these rockets. I said, "Lease them the land. Charge them a lot. They'll . . . "—they just want to send rockets.

But I look at it, with Bezos, with Elon Musk, they all love rockets. I said, "That's OK. Let's do it." Let them send a rocket up to Mars. Let's be the first. I hope they go fast. Let's help them. Let's make it really good for them. And if they do it, we're gonna claim it on behalf of the United States, OK?[applause]

We'll give them no credit. Let them spend the money. I think it's great. But I have a lot of military guys. And space, from a military standpoint, is really the new frontier. So, we're gonna have a Space Force.

Every day we are keeping our promises. But to keep this momentum going, we need Kevin Cramer in the Senate. [applause]

All of us tonight are united by the same tireless values. We have pride in our history, respect for our great, beautiful, wonderful American flag, right?[applause]

We put our hands on our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance. And we proudly stand for our national anthem. Right? Proudly stand. [applause]

In everything we do, we are standing up for our citizens. We are standing up for America, and we are standing up for North Dakota. Thank you. [applause]

The forgotten men and women of our country are forgotten no more. No more. They don't know where they all came from.

And by the way, our people, they call it the base, they used to say it's 35. Then they said it's 40. Then they said it's 42. Then they have these polls go—we're driving them crazy. Now they say it's over 50 percent

And then they said—some great people. They said, "Any time Trump gets a poll, add 12 to it."[applause]

Really. And did you ever notice—I hate it. I meet these people. They call them the elite. These people. I look at them. I say, "That's elite?"

We got more money. We got more brains. We got better houses, apartments. We got nicer boats. We're smarter than they are. And they say, "The elite."

We're the elite. You're the elite. [applause]

We're the elite. So, I said the other day, "Let's keep calling these people." And look, let's face it. They've been stone cold losers, the elite. The elite.

So, let's let them keep calling themselves the elite. But we're gonna call ourselves—and remember, you are indeed. You work harder, but you are indeed smarter than them. Let's call ourselves from now on the super-elite. We're the super-elite. [applause]

We are the super-elite.

You are the people who farm the prairies, tame the badlands, and squeeze oil out of rock. Ugh. You celebrate your heritage, and you live life proudly under the big beautiful skies. And you have the big beautiful skies out here.

Loyal citizens like you helped rebuild this country and together we are taking back our country, returning power to the everyday, smart, brilliant, wonderful, hard-working American people. [applause]

We are standing on the shoulders of the American patriots who settled the frontier, scaled the Rockies, and won the American west. These are great, incredible, strong tough, tough people. This state was forged by pioneer men and women who braved the cold and tamed the wilderness to build a home on the plains and a life for their families. And it's been an incredible life.

These North Dakota pioneers were tough as hell and they were strong and they were smart. [applause]

And they all had one thing in common. They loved their families. They loved their countries, and they loved their God. [applause]

They never gave up and they never, ever, gave in. And neither will we.

We will never stop fighting for our country, our families, and we will never, ever, stop fighting for our freedom. [applause]

As long as we are proud of who we are and what we are fighting for, we will never ever fail. With your help, with your voice, with your vote, we will win, win, win. [applause]

Like we're doing. Remember how I started. This country, our country, our flag, we are respected again. All over the world they're talking about us. Leaders from all over the world, they call me, or they come to the Oval Office, and they say, "Congratulations, Mr. President, on the incredible job with the economy, the incredible job you're doing with your country. The fact that your country is respected again, congratulations, Mr. President."[applause]

Because we are Americans, and our hearts bleed red, white, and blue. [applause]

We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. [applause]

And together, we will make America wealthy again. We will, and are, making America strong again. We will make America safe again. [applause]

Look at our military. We will make our great, great America stronger, and more powerful, than ever before. [applause]

We will make America loving again. Loving. Love it. We're gonna come together. And we will make America great again. [applause]

Thank you. Thank you, North Dakota. Go out and get Kevin Cramer in there—thank you, Kevin.

Thank you, everybody. Thank you, North Dakota. It's a great honor. Thank you. [applause]

[music: The Rolling Stones, "You Can't Always Get What You Want."]

The President spoke at Sheels Arena at Fargo, North Dakota.  Also speaking was member of the US House of Representatives Kevin Cramer (ND), candidate for the U.S. Senate.

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 Fargo, North Dakota Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/332468

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