Photo of Donald Trump

Remarks at a "Make America Great Again" Rally in Houston, Texas

October 22, 2018

THE PRESIDENT: Do we have a great country or what? [applause]

Great country. Hello, Houston. I'm thrilled to be back. Well, you treated me very well during a certain election two years ago. With all my friends from the Lone Star State, a special, special place, thank you very much for being here. This is some record crowd. [applause]

And they just told me we broke the record, but we could really break it if we could get all the people that are outside in here. We'd break it by three times. [applause]

But it's true what they say: Everything in Texas is just bigger. Right? It's bigger. [applause]

In just 15 days, the people of Texas are going to re-elect a man who has become a really good friend of mine. You know, we had our little difficulties, right? But actually, if you remember, the beginning, it was a love-fest. And they kept saying, the fake news back here, they kept saying. . . [booing]

Remember they kept saying, well, when is it going to break up? And it's day, don't worry, it'll break up. We actually had a rally in Washington, D.C., together. And nobody could believe it. They said, what's going on? What are you doing? But we had the rally together.

And then we said, you know, it's time. That's what has to happen. And it got nasty. And then it ended. And I'll tell you what, nobody has helped me more with your tax cuts, with your regulation, with all of the things that we're doing, including military and our vets, then Senator Ted Cruz. Nobody. [applause]

He defended your jobs. He defended your borders. And we are defending that border, by the way, in case you haven't noticed. We are defending that border. [applause]

He defends your families. He defends your faith. And we are defending together, with a lot of other great Republicans, your freedom. [applause]

Now, early voting is now underway. So get out there and vote. It is underway as we speak. If you'd like to leave now, go ahead. Anybody want to leave, go vote, come back. Get behind about 50,000 people outside. Who we love. And we put big screens out for them. Let's wave to them. Wave![applause]

But I will say, you got a better location. Your location's better. And Ted is leading the Congress in Congress for more tax cuts. In fact, I just left Kevin Brady. By the way, how good is Kevin Brady? [applause]

He's here. We're going to be putting in a 10 percent tax cut for middle-income families. It's going to be put in next week, 10 percent tax cut. Kevin Brady is working on it. We've been working on it for a few months, a 10 percent brand-new—and that is in addition to the big tax cuts that you've already gotten.

But this one is for middle income. This is—no business. Business is now good. They're coming back. The jobs are coming back. The plants and factories are coming back like never before. They're all coming back. This is for middle-income people, all middle-income people, a big tax, 10 percent. We'll be putting it in next week. [applause]

Now, if the Democrats take over—I can't speak, I'm sorry. Instead of a tax cut, you're going to have a big, beautiful tax raise. You don't want that. [booing]

You know, explain that to me. They're for open borders, which means crime, and for massive tax cuts. They're against law enforcement, they're totally against ICE and law enforcement. They're against your military, and they're not good to your vets. How do you win on that platform? No, how do you win?[booing]

So we're doing again—we've done the biggest regulation cuts in the history of our country. And I'm only here for almost two years, actually quite a bit less than two years, if you think about it. We have another three months. And we've already done more tax cuts—and we have already done—biggest tax cut, but we've done more regulation cuts than any other president in history, and that's four years, eight years, 12 years. [applause]

And what we're doing—we want people to come into our country. We have a 3.7 percent unemployment. It's the lowest it's been in more than 50 years. But they have to come in legally, and they have to come in through merit. Through merit. [applause]

CROWD: Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall!

THE PRESIDENT: That's happening. We need it.

CROWD: Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall!

THE PRESIDENT: So we started the wall. They've got $1.6 billion. We got another $1.6 billion. We have a third $1.6 billion. I want to do it fast. And, you know, what's happening right now, as a large group of people—they call it a caravan. [booing]

Do you know how the caravan started? Does everybody know what this means? I think the Democrats had something to do with it. And now they're saying, I think we made a big mistake. Because people are seeing how bad it is, how pathetic it is, how bad our laws are, they made a big mistake. So as the caravan—and, look, that is an assault on our country. [applause]

That's an assault. And in that caravan you have some very bad people. You have some very bad people. And we can't let that happen to our country. And it's not.

And I was just talking to your great governor and senators and you were talking about your attorney general, who I'm going to be introducing in a second. But I'm talking to a lot of your people, and they're going to form a wall, a different kind of wall, until we get the other one built. We need a wall built fast. Fast. [applause]

We have to protect our borders. We don't have borders, we don't have a country. We have to protect our borders.

And Ted, you probably saw, did a beautiful job in staring down an angry left-wing mob in our recent Supreme Court battle victory. Whatever you want to call it. [applause]

He was great. And thanks to Ted, and our other great Republicans, because we had no help from the other side, as you know, we now have a brand-new member of the United States Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh. [applause]

And also, this is such an honor, because, you know, you've had many presidents. They never get to put a justice on the Supreme Court. They've been there for a long time. Think of this. This is the story of our lives. I've been there less than two years, and I have two of them, because we also have. . . [applause] . . . a fantastic new justice in Neil Gorsuch. We had him just approved. He was just confirmed. And we have a record number of circuit court judges for the time that we've been in office. [applause]

And that we fully expect to go to the all-time record. And percentagewise, it's right up there, and we've only been here a short—OK, ready? Here's the question. Percentagewise, who has more justices, federal judges appointed, percentwise than any other president? Who is it? No, more. Who—who appointed the highest percentage of judges?

No, no, no, it wasn't Hillary Clinton. No, she didn't make it, remember? She didn't make it. No, you know who it is? You'll never guess. It's called George Washington. And we're after George Washington. So a very big thing. No, George Washington, why? Because he just started. He did 100 percent. Nobody's ever going to break that record. Nobody's ever going to break the record of George Washington. [applause]

Good, old George. He never told a lie. That's what they say. George Washington, right? He never told a lie. But he did 100 percent of the judges. We'll never beat that record. But we're getting close.

What the radical Democrats did to Justice Kavanaugh and his beautiful family. . . [booing] . . . is a national disgrace. They were on a ruthless mission to obstruct, resist, delay, demolish, and destroy, which is all they know how to do. The fact is, they're lousy politicians, they have horrible policy, but they stick together. That's one good thing, they stick together. The only thing they have. They always stick together.

Other than that, doesn't work out. Other than that, they're not doing too well.

If you want the fake news media to finally investigate. . . [booing]

By the way, by the way. . .

CROWD: CNN sucks! CNN sucks! CNN sucks! CNN sucks! CNN sucks! CNN sucks! CNN sucks! CNN sucks! CNN sucks!

THE PRESIDENT: Don't worry. I don't like them either, OK? But look at this. Look. Just look. So here we are, we're doing a rally for Ted, and it's great, we have a lot of people. Look how many made it. This is like—it's like—this is the Academy Awards, which actually has gone down the tubes. I think we do much better. Look how many. [applause]

Look how many. Look at them. [applause]

Do you recognize many of those happy faces back there? I know every one of them. I know every one of them. And 15 percent of them are great. [laughter]

Every one. I know every one. But if you the fake news to finally investigate Hillary Clinton, we'll just have. . . [applause]

Man.

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

THE PRESIDENT: I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. So if you want them to investigate, we'll just have to nominate Hillary Clinton to the United States Supreme Court. How do you like that? [booing]

Right? Let's see how she does. If Judge Kavanaugh had to go through what he went through—and there is—he's a fine man—can you imagine Hillary up there? That would take three to four years of questions. [laughter]

At stake in this election is whether we continue the extraordinary prosperity that we've all achieved or whether we let the radical Democrat mob take a giant wrecking ball and destroy our country and our economy. [booing]

The unemployment rate just fell to the lowest level in more than 50 years. Five-oh. [applause]

Here's one that's hard to beat, because the number of Americans working at this moment—think of it—at this—working, working, working—the number of Americans working has just reached the highest in the history of our country. All-time high. [applause]

We have eliminated a record number of job-killing regulations. That's one of the reasons our companies are all coming back. Republicans passed the biggest tax cut and reform in history with massive tax cuts for the middle class. And now we're adding 10 percent to those numbers. [applause]

We've saved your family farms, ranches, and small businesses from the estate tax, also known as the death tax. [applause]

So most of you love your children. Some of you don't. [laughter]

But the ones who don't, don't listen to me, because this won't matter, because you're not going to leave it anyway. And if you don't love your children, and if your children didn't treat you good, don't leave them anything. [laughter]

Give it to charity or somebody else. But for those of you that really would like your small businesses, your farms, your ranches left to your children instead of now having your children go out when you kick the bucket, a sad day, and about two or three days later, they're happy as hell. No, forget it. [laughter]

Instead of have them—instead on having them go out and borrow a tremendous amount of money to pay the estate tax, they don't have to borrow anything. There's no tax. There's no tax. [applause]

So you'll be able to—to me, that's a very important thing. Nobody even talks about it. That was in our—that was in our tax cuts. So a lot of small business, a lot of farms, ranches, and there will be no tax. So that's great for your children. Only if you love them. Only if you love them. Anybody in here does not love their child? Anybody?

CROWD MEMBER: Yeah!

THE PRESIDENT: A couple of you. Two people. That's not bad. My administration also ended the horrible war on American energy, something you people know a lot about. [applause]

He withdrew the United States from the very unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord, which was putting us out of business. [applause]

On day one, I approved the Keystone and the Dakota Access pipeline, 48,000 jobs, day one. Day one. [applause]

Think of that, day one. They spent years and years trying to get these pipelines built. And by the way, we're speeding up the approval process by a factor of 10 for your pipelines that you desperately need in Texas to get the oil to its destination. [applause]

We're speeding it up. I've heard so much. With Texas leading the way, think of this one, the United States is now—this happened over the last very short period of time—the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas anywhere in the world. Thank you. [applause]

That's pretty good. That's big stuff. We're the number-one energy producer in the world. Who would think that? And we're going to get those pipelines approved very rapidly. I called the heads of agencies. I say, get them approved. And, you know what, if there's a problem, we let them know about the problem immediately. We don't take them 20 years down the road and then say we can't approve it. We let them know immediately. There won't be a problem.

For the first time in more than 60 years, America is a net exporter of natural gas. [applause]

And here's good news for Texas. Good news for Texas. Because just today, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that her country will now purchase massive amounts of LNG, which is great news for your state. [applause]

And I told all of the European nations, it's not fair. We have all these horrible trade imbalances. They take such advantage. They're not taking advantage anymore, folks. Under Republican leadership, America is winning again, America is respected again, because we are putting America first. [applause]

We're putting America first. It hasn't happened in a lot of decades. We're putting them first. We're taking care of ourselves for a change, folks. [applause]

Thank you. I like that guy, but not that much. Not that much. But radical Democrats want to turn back the clock (inaudible) rule of corrupt power-hungry globalists. You know what a globalist is, right? You know what a globalist is?[booing]

A globalist is a person that wants the globe to do well, frankly, not caring about our country so much. And you know what? We can't have that. You know, they have a word. It sort of became old-fashioned. It's called a nationalist. And I say, really, we're not supposed to use that word. You know what I am? I'm a nationalist, OK? I'm a nationalist. [applause]

Nationalist. Nothing—use that word. Use that word.

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

THE PRESIDENT: They reported yesterday that Donald Trump is very unpopular with foreign nations (ph). He's one of the most unpopular presidents in the history of polling. And I said—no, I said, of course I'm unpopular with foreign nations, because we're not letting them rip us off anymore, folks, OK?[applause]

They meant it to be bad. When the fake news—they meant it to be bad. Donald Trump, very unpopular with other nations. And you know what I had? It was 70 percent against and 30 percent for. I said, who is the 30 percent? Why would they ever want to vote for him?

Because, honestly, we're treating everybody good. We're helping people. We're protecting people. But, you know, when we protect with our military, the greatest in the world, and now it's a lot better than it's ever been because of what we're doing. . . [applause]

We have to be reimbursed for that protection. We have to be reimbursed. We're protecting the wealthiest nations in the world. And we're subsidizing them. And then they beat us on trade. They take advantage of us. So those days are over. You're seeing it, it's happening fast. Happening fast. [applause]

The most unpopular president. Think of that. Most unpopular president. But I'm one of the most popular presidents in this country, and that's good. That's just good. [applause]

In our country. A couple of polls came out today that were very good. And they didn't want to put them on. They didn't want to announce them. And they paid for the polls. We have a new poll out. Let me see. Oh, let's get to another subject.

Fake news. [booing]

The Democrats want to replace freedom with socialism. [booing]

They want to replace Texas values with Nancy Pelosi values. [booing]

And they want to replace the rule of law with the rule of the mob. That's what is happening. [booing]

And the Democrats would rather destroy American communities than defend America's borders. Not going to let it happen. Got to vote for Ted Cruz. [applause]

Democrats—the Democrats are a big risk to the American family, and our country cannot afford to take those kind of risks. We can't. This will be the election of the caravan, Kavanaugh, law and order, tax cuts, and common sense. That's what it is, common sense. [applause]

Ted's opponent in this race is a stone-cold phony named Robert Francis O'Rourke, sometimes referred to as Beto. [booing]

And he pretends to be a moderate, but he's actually a radical open-borders left-winger. That's what he is. [booing]

And I know Texas well. Don't forget, they tried to convince you on Election Night that Texas is in play. I kept hearing—I'd go to a thing, and I'd have—remember the lines I'd have for the speeches? Would have lines like it is tonight. I hate to tell you, I think the lines are bigger tonight than they were two years—you know why? Because I produced. I produced. [applause]

Because I produced. No, the lines are bigger tonight. And it's easier. You know, two years ago, two-and-a-half years ago, I'd have to get up and say, we will give you tax cuts, we will cut regulations. But it was all words. Now I've produced, so this is easy. This is easy. [applause]

In fact, some of those guys—and they don't question it—will say that I produced more than I promised, which is true. Which is true, actually.

But O'Rourke voted against your tax cuts and he went against Texas oil workers with the job-killing regulations and taxes that were really, really hurting those jobs and those companies. O'Rourke supports a socialist takeover of health care. You're going to triple your taxes and it won't be enough. And it will be lousy health care. [booing]

You'll end up waiting for five weeks to see a doctor. And I heard Ted say just before I went on, but to me this is a beauty, because I don't know of anybody that's earned this rating. He got an F from the NRA, one of the few.

You know—you know what an F means? An F means he wants to take away your guns, OK? That's what it means. I never even heard of an F. I never heard. Louie, did you ever hear of an F? I never heard.

Do we love Louie? Do we love Louie? Look at him. Louie Gohmert. I don't know what Louie's rating is, but I would assume it's about, what, an A-plus, right? A-plus-plus. Louie. I love people that are gutsy—they have guts. He has guts.

It's up there. They defend you. And they defend your Second Amendment. And if Ted doesn't win, your Second Amendment is going to be in trouble. Big trouble. Remember that.

O'Rourke voted against the border wall, oh, that's a good thing to—he voted against Kate's law. And he voted for Obama amnesty, amnesty, Obama amnesty. [booing]

O'Rourke even voted to shield MS-13 gang members from deportation. He doesn't want to deport them. He says they're people. They're people. They carve you up with a knife, but they're people. O'Rourke voted in favor of sanctuary cities that result in the death of countless Americans.

Today's Democrat Party would rather protect criminal aliens than American citizens, which is why the Democrats must be voted out of office. We need more Republican votes. [applause]

A vote for a Democrat this November is a vote to surrender Congress to Nancy Pelosi, crying Chuck Schumer, the great Maxine Waters, that's a beauty. Maxine Waters. [booing]

Did you get that one? You get that? Maxine. She's going to be in charge of your finances. Maxine. [booing]

Good old Maxine. Low IQ individual. [laughter]

Low IQ. How about this one? Senator Dianne Feinstein. [booing]

The mayor who did one of the worst jobs of any mayor, other than the guy running for governor in Florida. He was a horrible mayor, too. Cory Booker. He destroyed what he did. He was so bad running Newark. [booing]

And a sad thing happened last week. Because Elizabeth Warren was exposed as being a total fraud. And I can no longer call her Pocahontas, because she has no Indian blood! I can't call her. . . [applause]

I can't call her Pocahontas. She doesn't qualify. She has—I've been saying for a long time. I've been saying it for a year-and-a-half, I said I have more Indian blood than she has, and I have none. I have none. But I have more than she has.

But I can't use the name Pocahontas anymore. But if you don't mind, I will anyway. Is that OK? We got to keep her down. [applause]

But in this election, the people of Texas are going to make a giant and beautiful stand. [applause]

You're going to elect a Republican House. And even they're having a little problem. They're getting a little nervous, right? Remember, about a month ago, right, they were talking about this blue wave. Oh. [booing]

You don't hear about the blue wave. You're not hearing so much. The blue wave is being dissipated a little bit. I don't hear them talking—are you guys still talking about the blue wave? [booing]

The blue wave, that's coming, right? Blue wave. You don't hear about it too much. Let me tell you, you got to get out and vote. Because you know what happens? The party that has the presidency—I don't know why. I guess you get a little sedate, I guess you get a little something. Who knows? You lose something. I don't know. But I think two times since the Great Depression, it was a positive.

But nobody ever had the condition of having produced the greatest economy in the history of our country, right?[applause]

Nobody. So I don't understand, why would we lose the House? But historically—so history is against us, but the facts are all with us. So I think we're going to do well. You have to get out and vote. Early voting, remember. But I think we're going to do great with the House and we're going to do fantastic with the Senate so that we can keep making America great again. [applause]

And, you know, we're going to be changing. I love that—I hate to—OK, let me ask your advice, right? Texas, you're smart, you're tough. So we have make America great again. I think it has to be the greatest slogan in the history of politics, right?[applause]

Make America great again. What did she have? Some stupid slogan like stay together. [laughter]

Remember—and then when I knocked it—or wasn't it like stay with me? And then I got up, and I said, see, that's all she can talk about is herself. So they paid a million dollars for that slogan and she changed it the next morning because it was a disaster. Stay with me. They didn't do that. They decided not to.

So here's what happened. Make America great again. But now we're running—we're doing good. We've come so—you know, we've created $11.7 trillion. And, remember, we're hitting China hard. We're hitting everybody hard. We're doing these trade deals. So we're doing this. When they all kick in, you'll see numbers like you wouldn't believe. But we've created $11.7 trillion. Other countries, China, you've never seen this before with China. Remember, it was always China's doing so great, China, China, everything's China. I said, what about us? Well, we're down. We're not down anymore, folks! We're way up. Way up. [applause]

We're way up. Way up.

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

THE PRESIDENT: And, by the way, I want China to do well, but they went down 32 percent over the last six months and we went way up. And since our election, we've gone up almost 50 percent. Think of it, $11.7 trillion we created. China has lost about $20 trillion. We want them to be happy, we want them to do well, but they have to treat us fairly. They haven't treated us fairly. And they will. They have a wonderful, great leader, President Xi, and they will.

The choice in November could not be more clear. Democrats produce mobs. Republicans produce jobs. Right?[applause]

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

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. It's a great state. These are great people.

And did we ever help you—hey, did, honestly, you know we were here a lot. Did we help you with that lousy hurricane that you suffered through? That sucker was brutal. [applause]

That was brutal. I never saw anything like it. It kept coming in. It was taunting us. Have you ever been taunted? It was taunting. It would come in and you'd say, oh, great, now it's—then it goes out, it reloads, it comes in. Then it dumps. Then it goes out. Then it comes—three times. And I'm paying for that. I'm saying, is this thing ever going to stop? Will it just go away? That was a brutal—that was a brutal hurricane.

And you know who was fantastic? The United States Coast Guard. [applause]

You know, because that was a very big deal, and there was a lot of water. And I don't know who in this room did it, but these guys with the little boats, they think they have this great boat, OK? Where do these people come from? They want to go out and they want to go into the hurricane to show their wife how great they are? And then they get out and they say, oh, my god, I'm dead.

And I asked one of the Coast Guard guys, I said, so let me ask you a question. When they go out—by the way, the Coast Guard, hard to believe, they saved in Texas more than any other place. Florida had a bad one, but it wasn't the same kind. In Texas, the United States Coast Guard saved 16,000 lives. Think of what that is. Think of what that is. [applause]

And I said to a couple of the top guys—these are great people. I said, let me ask you a question. When these boats, what happens? He said, well, they want to go out, they want to sort of play at the edge. But there was no edge to this big monster. And it gobbled them up. And these guys are going through it.

I said, how big is a thing like that? You have great equipment, you have the greatest boats. They said, sir, we have the best boats in the world, but we hit that thing wrong, we don't have a chance. These are great boats. He said, we go down just like everybody else. And they would ride the crest. They call it ride the crest. They'd back up. They'd let it go by. They'd come in. They'd save a lot of people. They'd go back out. Then it came back out. The Coast Guard, their brand has appreciated more than any brand in this country, the United States Coast Guard. We have to say it. They did a great job. [applause]

And next time, all you guys and gals, when there's a hurricane, do me a favor. Don't take your boat out. Just get out of town for a little while. That was a brutal period of time. But you did incredibly. And you really—FEMA was great. Law enforcement was great. First responders were great. The military. But the Coast Guard represented the military. Incredible.

So we were honored to be joined this evening by many great Republican leaders. Here tonight is a man who is incredible. He is a man with tremendous spirit. He asked me for more money than any human being has ever asked for. I got to tell you—first, his name happens to be Governor Greg Abbott. Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?[applause]

Where is Greg? Where is he? He's the greatest guy. Where is he? I think he's—there are a lot of people in this room. But, you know, Greg, I just took pictures with him backstage. I think—do we like him more than Trump? Yes, right? No, yes, I do. I like him more than Trump.

But he called me up. And we have just given billions and billions of dollars to the state of Texas. And he goes, Mr. President, could I ask you one small question? "What?" He said, sir, we'd like to build a dam, and it's not very much money, but it would really help us for the next hurricane. It would keep the waters out of Houston. You know where he's talking about right?

And he said it was just a small favor, but if I could, I'd like to ask you for that money. I said, Greg, how much is it? This—how many—$35 billion, $40 billion? I said, Greg, how much is it? Sir, it's only $10 billion. I said, wait a minute. Say it again. It's only—listen to this—it's only $10 billion with a B. I said, Greg, that's the most expensive dam I've ever heard of.

But I'll tell you, he loves Texas. He's here some place. He loves Texas. He loves Texas. [applause]

He loves the people of Texas. And he's a great man. And he did a fantastic job under a lot of pressure. That hurricane was pressure. And you got all A's and A-pluses. Everybody did, the responders, FEMA, the governor, and the lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick. Dan?[applause]

Finally, I see them. They're over here. It's hard, when you have 22,000 people in a room, it's hard to fire one person. It's hard to find one person even when he's tall.

And another tall guy, who is an incredible senator, he represents you so well. He's always fighting for you. And he was the one that asked Dianne Feinstein, did you leak? Remember? And she went, oh. So he was the one. He said, looks over to her, remember? During the hearings? Those horrible hearings, where they were so nasty and horrible, to a great gentleman who's going to go down as one of our greatest Supreme Court justices ever?

He goes out and he goes—he's on the committee. And he goes, did you leak? And she went, oh, what, no, no, no, I don't—wait a minute, let me check. Did we leak? No, you—no, we didn't leak. Oh. No. That was the worst body language. She was so guilty of leaking. She leaked.

John Cornyn was great. He was great during the hearings. [applause]

Stand up, John. You know, it was a surprise. You surprised her, right? She didn't know what the hell happened, John. You surprised her with that beautiful Texas accent. Thank you, John. Great job. Always a great job, not just there. Always a great job.

And you have an attorney general who doesn't stop. He's tough, he's smart, he collects more money for this state. He loves the state. Ken Paxton, thank you, Ken. Great job. Doing a great job, Ken. [applause]

We're working closely with your state leaders in the recovery effort following the devastation of Harvey. We continue to work. It doesn't go so quickly, although in this case went very fast. And we're never going to rest until that hurricane is totally out of our sight, our vision, everything's fixed, and it's very close to being finalized. But we'll never rest until every last brick, every piece of asphalt and concrete, everything is perfecto. Right? [applause]

And if we did rest, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and Ken Paxton and Dan—I love Dan, what a great guy, thank you—they will not let me rest, will you? They'll never let me rest.

We stand ready to help Texas respond to the storms that are continuing to cause flooding throughout the region. And we're doing things to alleviate some of those storms. I don't know that we're going to do the one that the governor asked for, but that could be. That could. I said, would you name it the "Trump Dam," please? Name it the "Trump Dam." [applause]

It's beautiful, it's big and expensive. I want—no, I'm only kidding. I did not ask him that. Tomorrow would be headline, Trump demands name on the dam.

I also want to recognize your outstanding Republican Congressman, including Chairman Kevin Brady, what a guy. Where is he? [applause]

What a guy. You talk about help with taxes. And so, Kevin, we're putting in next week the 10 percent reduction in middle-income taxes, right, next week? OK. [applause]

He promised in front of 22,000 people. I don't need that. He promised to me. That's good. Thank you, Kevin. What a great job. Great man.

Congressman Bill Flores, thank you, Bill. Great job. Congressman John Conner. Get out and vote for Bill and John. [applause]

A friend of mine, you don't have to vote for him, actually, because he's so far ahead—I'm sure he loves me saying this—you don't have to vote for him. Just—all these other—got to vote for them. Can't take—but you don't have to vote for this guy. He is leading by, like, 60 points. He's leading by—but, you know what, do me a favor. Because I don't want to have a depressed man on my shoulders. Go out and vote for him anyway, because he is outstanding. He's a winner. He's a champion. He's a warrior. Louie Gohmert. [applause]

Louie. Hey, Louie, should they bother voting or is it just over? You want them to vote, right, Louie? I think we'll have—go out and vote for Louie. [applause]

Another congressman who's been so helpful, Ted Poe. Ted, thank you, Poe. [applause]

Congressman Pete Olson. Thank you, Pete. Great job. [applause]

Congressman Randy Weber. Thank you. Great job, Randy. Thank you, Randy. You got great people in this state, by the way. These are great people.

Congressman Brian Babin. [applause]

Congressman John Culberson, who's a great guy. [applause]

He's a great guy. Get out and vote for John. He's got a lot of money being poured against him. Get out and vote for John. Get out and vote for Pete Sessions. Pete Sessions is a fantastic congressman. They're pouring money in that race. He's still leading, and John's leading, but get out.

Louie, don't worry. John, Pete, you have to.

Jodey Arrington, Jodey? [applause]

Jodey has done a great job. And Congressman Michael Cloud, thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael. Great job, Michael. Great job. [applause]

These are great people. Great patriots, people that love Texas. If you don't want to be saying the words Speaker Nancy Pelosi. . . [booing] . . . that's not good—for the next two years, then you need to go out and vote for these tremendous Republican lawmakers. They are tremendous. Thank you, fellas. Thank you. Thank you, fellas. Thank you, Louie. Thank you, Louie. [applause]

This election is about protecting the sacred values we all share and the values that Texas Republicans are fighting for each and every day. We believe in the right to free speech, the right to religious liberty, and we believe in the right to keep and bear arms. [applause]

We believe in law and order, and we cherish the incredible men and women of law enforcement. [applause]

We believe that judges should always interpret the Constitution as written. We believe that schools should teach our children to be proud of their country and to respect our great American flag. [applause]

We kneel in prayer and we proudly stand for our national anthem and our American flag. [applause]

We know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the true center of American life. So true. And above all else, we know this. In America, we don't worship government. We worship God. [applause]

These are the values that unite people all across the great state of Texas. In this election, you can send a message to the radical Democrats, don't mess with Texas. [applause]

Vote for Ted Cruz and vote Republican. A future under Democratic mob rule would be a total catastrophe. Democrats in Congress have already signed up for a socialist takeover of health care that would eliminate the private insurance of more than 15 million Texans. The Democrat plan would destroy Medicare and terminate Medicare Advantage for 1.4 million Texas seniors who depend on it.

Republicans want to protect Medicare for our great seniors who have earned it and who have paid for it for a long time. [applause]

And Republicans will always protect Americans with pre-existing conditions. We protect you. Pre-existing conditions. Right?[applause]

The Democrat plan to destroy American health care includes free health care and education to illegal aliens paid for by you, thank you very much, the American taxpayer. [booing]

And they absolutely demand—and that's happening—they want to demand to vote. They want to be able to vote. They want to be able to vote. Oh, don't worry about it. They want to be able to vote.

The illegals—and by the way, I hate to tell you, you go to California, you go—they vote anyway. They vote anyway. And they're not supposed to. And every time I say it, the fake news says, oh, they said—they got so many people voting legally in this country, it's a disgrace, OK? It's a disgrace.

Voter ID, folks. Voter ID. Voter ID. [applause]

You got to put your voter ID—you do it on everything. The only thing you don't have to do it for is when you vote. Not going to be that way. Voter ID.

Republicans believe we should protect public benefits for truly needy Americans, not for illegal aliens. [applause]

As we speak, the Democrat Party is openly encouraging millions of illegal aliens to break our laws, violate our borders, and overwhelm our nation. That's what's happening. The Democrats have launched an assault on the sovereignty of our country, the security of our nation, and the safety of every single American.

The crisis on our border right now as we speak is the sole result of Democrat laws and activists, Democrat judges that prevent us from returning illegal aliens from Central America and all over the world. It's called catch and release. [booing]

You know what catch and release is, right? You got these great people from Border Patrol. These are great people, ICE, Border Patrol. These are incredible people. Tough job. They catch them and then they release them. And they say you have to come back for a court case. They just put their foot over immediately. They touch our land. You have to come back in two years for a court case.

Well, number one, they never come back. Three percent. And I don't believe the three. We release them into our country, because that's what the Democrats want. And then a lot of bad things happen when that happens.

The Democrats don't care what their extremist immigration agenda will do to your neighborhoods, to your hospitals, or to your schools. They don't care that the mass illegal immigration will totally bankrupt our country, because all the Democrats care about is regaining power, no matter how they have to go about doing it. All the witch hunts, no matter what they do, they just want to gain power. But we're not going to let them gain power. [booing]

And that's why the Democrats all support catch and release. That's why they support visa lottery. You know what visa lottery? Countries put name in a batch and you pick them. You pick them. You keep picking them. And then then you got nothing but problems, because you think those countries are putting their finest? I don't think so. It's a great way to dispose of their problems. Visa lottery.

And then you have chain migration. A guy comes in, as an example, West Side Highway in Manhattan. That's where I am. Beautiful park, beautiful highway. This animal is driving a car down and he decides he's going to make a right, right into the park where everyone is working out, exercising, running, bicycling. And he knocks everything down, including kills eight people. And badly wounds—you ever notice they never talk about the people that are wounded, where they lose their arms, and their legs, and their lives can never be the same? They never talk. They say eight people died. They don't talk about the 12 people that lost something so important.

These are people that are in a park where they go to exercise so they can be in perfect shape. And they go home months later without their legs, without their arms. Because this animal going at a very fast speed just decided he's going to make a right into the park and run people over.

So he has 22 people that came in, because he's here. So he's here. It's called chain, a chain, nice name, chain migration. He's here. His mother comes with him, his father then comes, his uncle, his aunt, his brother, his nephew, his sister, 22 people. No jobs. Just 22 people. [booing]

No more chain migration. No more chain migration. [applause]

That's why the Democrats want to give illegal aliens free welfare and the right to vote. That's why Democrats want to abolish ICE. The casualties of the Democrats' open border crusade—and you're going to see it over the next two weeks—I'm stuck with it. I want to change it. But we have a tiny, tiny majority. I need the votes. We don't have enough votes.

As an example, with the Senate, we need 60 votes. But we have 51. We have a tiny majority. We need 60 votes. So they don't allow us to do it. They're killing and hurting innocent Americans.

Democrat immigration policies allow poisonous drugs and MS-13 to pour into our country. And Democrat sanctuary cities release violent criminals from jail and straight into your neighborhoods. Republicans believe our country should be a sanctuary for law-abiding Americans, not for criminal aliens. [applause]

Common sense. Common sense. The Republican Party will always stand proudly with the heroes of ICE. These are tough people, by the way. They're great Americans, but you don't want their job. They go into the—they call them nests, MS-13, killers. They don't like using guns because it's too quick. They like cutting people up, slicing them, killing them, like they did to two beautiful, lovely young girls going back home from school, killing them, slicing them. They didn't want the guns.

These are evil people. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. He said it. These are—that's right. They're animals. They're animals. [applause]

So, you know, when I see—in Long Island, I grew up in—near Long Island, and I know every town out there. These are great towns. They have been great towns. For some reason, a lot of the MS-13 went out to Long Island. And I've been hearing from friends of mine.

And we send ICE in. We put ICE in there and it's like you liberate—it's like a war. You liberate the town. And those people are clapping and screaming. And these guys in ICE, they walk right into those nests, and they're tougher and smarter than MS-13. And MS-13 respects them, because none of you guys want that job. I don't want that job. Maybe Louie Gohmert will take it. I don't know.

But I don't want that job. I don't want that job. But, no, seriously, these are heroes. And they go in and they take them and they throw them into the paddy wagon, then get them the hell out of our country. We've removed thousands, thousands of them. They came in through the wonderful Obama administration. We removed thousands and thousands of these people.

And the towns are liberated. And you see the people, they're clapping from their window. I'm telling you, it's like a war. It's like a war zone. These are great towns, great places, but ICE—we have to cherish ICE and Border Patrol and law enforcement. And, yeah, and we're getting the wall finished, because it's a very important element of what we need. [applause]

Even the Democrats are seeing it. I got a call today, I said, you know, we really do need the wall. When he sees those people pouring up, you've got to have a wall. If you want to secure our borders, support our law enforcement, and stop catch-and-release and all of the other things I just spoke about, go out and vote Republican. Do it now or do it on November 6th.

If you want America to endure as a sovereign, independent nation, go out and vote Republican. And if you want high-paying jobs, rising wages, and a booming economy, then go out and vote Republican. [applause]

In less than two years' time, we have created over 4.2 million new jobs and lifted over 4 million Americans off of food stamps. They said that was impossible. [applause]

We've added 600,000 new manufacturing jobs. Remember the previous administration? I won't be specific, but let's say the head of the previous administration—does anybody know who I'm talking about? Remember he said, you can't have manufacturing jobs in this country. You'd need a magic wand, remember the famous—well, I guess we found the magic wand. [applause]

The best jobs there are. The best jobs there are. And manufacturing confidence just today hit an all-time high in the history of our country. [applause]

Economic growth last quarter reached 4.2 percent. Remember, 4.1 percent, then elevated to 4.2 percent. They said that wouldn't happen for years. And we have another great one coming up.

And we have an interest rate climate. We don't have a climate where you had zero interest rates. Give me zero interest rates for a little while, you want to see numbers. But we're being conservative.

Hispanic American median household income—Hispanic Americans—think of it—median income reached an all-time high. Hispanic American poverty has reached an all-time low. And Hispanic American homeownership recently hit its highest rate in much more than a decade. [applause]

African American, Hispanic American, Asian American unemployment has reached the lowest level ever recorded in our country's history. [applause]

And women's unemployment just fell to 3.6 percent, the lowest rate in 65 years. [applause]

Earlier this month, I announced that we are replacing the horrible NAFTA deal with an incredible brand-new US-Mexico-Canada agreement, the USMCA. [applause]

And that's a great deal. Our farmers are happy. Our manufacturers are happy. You're not going to have companies leaving for other countries. Very important part of the deal.

I said, I don't want our companies moving to other countries, firing all their people, making the product, and then putting it in with no tax and selling it back to our people. Not going to happen. That deal totally takes care of it. Not going to happen. No more. No more. [applause]

We lost 35 percent of our automobile business in a short period of time. NAFTA was a disaster. That's why I refuse—they wanted to call it NAFTA II. I said, I don't want the name NAFTA. It's so shaded with what we did. It's a great deal. Bob Lighthizer, so many people worked so hard on that.

We've taken the toughest ever action to crack down on China's abusive trade practices. We've also made a deal with South Korea, the new trade deal, it's a great deal for our farmers, our manufacturers, everybody.

We've taken bold action to reduce the price of prescription drugs. Americans should not be forced to subsidize lower drug prices in foreign countries while paying the highest drug prices ever in the history of this world. [applause]

We've gone through the process. It's a statutory process. I'm very soon finished with it. Drug prices will soon be plunging. Watch. [applause]

Secretary Azar, great job. To help critically ill patients get life-saving treatments, we just passed right to try. Do you know what that is? That's a person who's very sick, they're terminally ill, they want hope. They want to be able and get something. We have the greatest—the greatest medical people in the world by far. We have the greatest things—they're looking. They're under research.

And what happened is people would be told they're terminally ill. They have a big problem. And if we had a drug or we had treatment that gave great hope, that looked promising, we couldn't even come close to letting them use it. And for 44 years, they've been trying to get this done, where if somebody is really sick, terminally ill, and we have something in the pipeline that looks really good. We got to let them use it, and that's called right to try, because I know people, they traveled all over the world looking for—looking for hope. They were looking for hope.

And now they sign a simple document and they go out and they get it. And by the way, this we signed three months ago. We have had tremendous results already.

And, you know, one of the other things, John, because John was very much involved and Ted, one of the things it really is, it's the ultimate test if you think about it. It's the ultimate test. But it was very hard to get approved. We got it approved. It's done, right to try. I hope nobody has to use it. I hope nobody has to use it, OK? Stay away.

But you know what, if you're really sick and they have something in the pipeline, that's good. You never had a chance. Now you get it, very routinely. [applause]

And we obtained $6 billion to fight the opioid epidemic, which is a big problem. And with Ted, I'll tell you, he was incredible. With Ted's help, we repealed the core of Obamacare, the individual mandate penalty that everybody hated. And it's gone. Everybody hated it. [applause]

And we passed veteran's choice, giving our veterans the right to see a private doctor, instead of waiting on line for one month, two months, three months, four months. And having a simple illness corrected, you'd have people that stand in line so long they would have a simple problem, and by the time they got to see a doctor, they were terminally ill. Terminally ill. So now they have to wait on line. These are our great people. If our veterans have to wait online, they go out and they see a private doctor. We pay the bill. And we get them fixed up. [applause]

And we also passed for the veterans the V.A. accountability law to ensure that anyone who mistreats our veterans will be accountable. In other words, Jim, get out of here. You're fired. Get out. You couldn't fire these people. You couldn't get them out. They could be sadists. They could be thieves. They could do whatever they wanted to do. You couldn't fire them.

And for our military, we secured $700 billion and $716 billion to fully rebuild the United States military. And we are getting other countries to pay up and pay their fair share for our military protection, including NATO, where I asked to recover billions and billions of dollars.

In just two years, I've asked NATO, you've got to pay up. We're protecting—you got to pay. They weren't paying. Close to $100 billion a year, we got it. That they pay. We don't pay. They pay. We're protecting them. We're protecting them. And that's great, but they got to pay.

At my direction, the Pentagon is now working to create the sixth branch of the American armed forces, the Space Force. So important. So important. I'm telling you, right, John? Cornyn will get that through. See the way people love it. It's so important. It's where it's at. It's really where it's at.

To keep America safe from terrorism, we have put in place the travel ban. Remember that? Recently upheld by the United States Supreme Court. Remember that? You'll never get it approved, Mr. President. Let's give it a shot. We just had it approved by the United States Supreme Court. [applause]

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

Together, we have made extraordinary progress, but we are just getting started. If you vote to elect a Republican House and a Republican Senate, we will continue to cut your taxes, cut your regulations, raise your incomes, help your jobs, take care of your medical problems. We will protect Medicare and Social Security. The Democrats will never be able to do it. We will defend the Second Amendment, and we will continue to confirm great judges who will abide by our laws and our Constitution. [applause]

We will fully secure our border. We will pass "Kate's Law." We will stop sanctuary cities. We will stop visa lottery. We will end chain migration. And we will keep the criminal drug dealers, predators, and terrorists the hell out of our country. [applause]

We will lift millions of our citizens from welfare to work, from dependence to independence, and from poverty to prosperity. [applause]

For years you watched as your leaders apologized for America. They apologized. Now you have a president who is standing up for America, and we are standing up for the great state of Texas. [applause]

But to continue this incredible momentum, to protect your state and your country, you need to elect a Republican House and a Republican Senate. And you need to vote for Ted Cruz. He's a terrific, great senator. [applause]

Loyal citizens like you helped to build this country, and together we are taking back our country, returning power to you, the American people. That's what happened. [applause]

That was the greatest movement in the history of our country, what's happened. Look at this as an example. A president would come to Texas and if they had 300 or 400 people in a conference room in a hotel, it would be considered a success. We had over 100,000 people want to come here today. Over a hundred. [applause]

The greatest movement in the history of our country. And it's your movement much more that it's my movement. I'm just laying it out. I'm telling it like it is.

From Houston to Austin, from Dallas to El Paso, from the Red River to the Rio Grande, this state was settled by some of the toughest men and strongest women ever to walk the face of the Earth. [applause]

This is the state where William Travis, James Bowie, and Davy Crockett made their last stand at the Alamo. [applause]

This is the state where a small band of patriots at the Battle of Gonzales, armed with a single cannon, stared down a foreign army and declared, "Come and take it."[applause]

Come and take it, they said. Come and take it. Come on up. Come on up and take it. Come on. Oh, what happened? You didn't want to take it?

And Texas is the state where generations of farmers and ranchers and oil workers and pioneers built a life and a home with their own two hands. They didn't have a lot of money, they didn't have a lot of luxury, but they all had one thing in common: They loved their families, they loved their country, and they loved their God. [applause]

These courageous Texas patriots did not shed their blood, sweat, and tears so that we could sit at home while others try to erase their legacy, tear down our history, and destroy our proud American heritage.

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, and win, and going to keep on winning. [applause]

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

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

We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. And together 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, Texas. Thank you.

NOTE: President Trump spoke at the Toyota Center, Houston, Texas.  He was introduced by Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

This transcript was prepared for the American Presidency Project by Carla Cernat.

Donald J. Trump, Remarks at a "Make America Great Again" Rally in Houston, Texas Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/332454

Simple Search of Our Archives