Remarks at a "Make America Great Again" Rally in Pensacola, Florida

The President. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

The President. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. And if you think this crowd is big, you should see right now what's outside. Congratulations.

Hello, Pensacola! What a place. Right here on the Emerald Coast, right? The Emerald Coast, in the great State of Florida, where we had a tremendous victory. Didn't we? Come on. We are joined by many, many people in the military and great American patriots. Thank you very much.

When you remember the campaign, I said, let me begin by wishing each and every one of you a very merry Christmas, right? And I can think of no better Christmas present for the American people than giving you a massive tax cut. That's what's happening. And your Senate and your House, hopefully very shortly, will have those approvals, those hands will go up, and you're going to be paying a lot less tax. So congratulations—I hope. They've got to vote, and I think they will.

I can't wait to sign that tax cut, great for so many, but great for the middle class. We're going to put it into law. We're going to cap off an incredible first year in office. There's been no first year like this or at least just about no. I think the answer is no, but I have to be very accurate because of the fake news back there.

Audience members. Trump! Trump! Trump!

The President. Thank you.

In our campaign for the Presidency, we defied the pundits, the politicians, and the special interests, because ours was a movement of the people, and it really was. It was a movement of you. It was a movement of the people. It was a movement to make America great again. And it's happening. That's happening.

And by the way, how are your 401(k)s doing? Not too bad, right? Over the weekend, I was in New York City, and I love to say hello to our folks in uniform, whether it's the military, whether it's law enforcement. And we had people backstage, and I always want to take my time. And a man comes up. He was a police officer in New York City. The first time anyone said this to me, he said: "Mr. President, I want to thank you. My family thinks I'm a financial genius. My 401(k) is up 39 percent in 9 months."

I think it's going to be very hard for somebody to beat us in a few years. Can you imagine? Now we're only talking about a few years. All you have to say is: With us, it goes up; with them, it goes down. And that's the end of the election, right?

Everyone is doing well, and it's going to be a lot better. We're going to do better and better. We are going to make our country great again, and we are looking at our country now as America first—America first.

Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! Audience member. Pensacola loves you!

The President. So tonight we're going to speak straight to the American people and cut right through the fake news media—right through. Right through. Right through. We're going to speak the plain truth and, really, the truth that you just want to hear and you have to hear. They don't want to hear.

But—and by the way, did you see all the corrections the media has been making? They're saying, "Sorry, we've made a"—they've been doing that all year. They never apologized. Maybe that comes with being the President. I don't know. I don't know. They've been apologizing left and right. They took this fraudster from ABC, they suspended him for a month. They should have fired him for what he wrote.

He drove the stock market down 350 points in minutes. Which, by the way, tells you they really liked me, right? When you think of it. And you know what he costs people? And I said to everybody, get yourself a lawyer and sue ABC News. Sue them. Sue them. And then, CNN apologized just a little while ago. They apologized—oh, thank you, CNN. Thank you so much. [Laughter] You should have been apologizing for the last 2 years. True. True. What a group. What a group.

But since the election—and they're not going to argue with this—we've created 2.2 million new jobs. Factories are coming back to our country. You know we have factories pouring back into our country? You ever think you'd hear that? I used to tell you that's going to happen. See, now there's consequences when companies close up their factories, move to another country, make a product, and sell it right through. They have consequences now. And by the way, those consequences are getting very steep, and they're going up. There's no more of that stuff. There's no more.

In November alone—you saw this today—we added 228,000 jobs. I watched these anchors this morning. They were devastated. [Laughter] Did you see—[laughter]—oh, what's going on? And honestly, we have a long way to go. We're going to do much better than this—and I've been saying it—including another 33,000 new jobs in manufacturing. Wait until you hear that, right?

Hispanic unemployment is the lowest ever recorded. Any Hispanics here? Any Hispanics? Any Hispanics? You guys were great. Remember they weren't going to vote for me because I'm going to build the wall? But they want the wall too. They want security. Oh, we're going to have the wall, don't worry. [Laughter]

Audience members. Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall!

The President. No, they want security. How about the Cuban population in Miami? Well, we have Cubans here tonight. Good. Was the number 86 percent in favor of Trump? A tremendous percentage. Total unemployment is now at a 17-year low. Think about it. Not bad. Not bad after 10 months. It's only going to get better.

Listen to this one. This is, to me, maybe one of the most important, because it's all psychological to a large extent, and that's what creates greatness. Consumer confidence is at a 17-year high. Think of that. It was not like that in your last administration.

Economic growth last quarter surged to 3.3 percent. You know it. You know where it was, right? When we started, you know where it was. Dingo! [Laughter] Three-point-three percent, and it's going a lot higher. You know, I used to hear: "You'll never hit 3, you'll never hit 2½ . You figure maybe 2.3, 2.4." If we didn't have the hurricanes last quarter, we would have hit 4 percent and everybody back there would have said that's impossible. We had a little—a couple of hurricanes. You heard about it, right? You heard about it?

The stock market is hitting an alltime high record for another—and think of this—86 times since election day. Eighty-six times it hit a record. Eighty-six times. And we're going to keep it going. And then, you look at all of the money you folks are making. Oh, I wish I could take 10 or 15 percent, but I think you're not going to do that, right? [Laughter] You're not going to do that?

But it's getting better and better. Your pensions are getting bigger and bigger. Your pension funds, all of those things are happening, and wait until you see what we're doing—tax cuts—but wait until you see what we're doing with health care. Wait until you see. You're going to be happy. Not the Obamacare nightmare. Not Obamacare nightmare. It's not that nightmare, where your premiums—your premiums are a disaster, right? They're a disaster. Now, we have it going—you watch.

We have some very good things happening with respect to health care, and the taxes are a part of it. And you'll see what happens. Right after taxes, you're going to see what happens. Because with taxes, something great is going to get announced. We're getting rid of the individual mandate. That individual mandate, where you pay a lot of money for the privilege of not having to have insurance or health care. [Laughter] So you pay for the privilege of not getting taken care of. Isn't that a wonderful thing? And we're going to repeal it.

Since the election, we've created more than $5 trillion in new economic wealth, just in the stock market alone. We're not including real estate and other values. Five trillion dollars. And we are finally rebuilding our country, defending our citizens, and fighting for our great American workers.

We're putting America first by renegotiating trade deals. We're renegotiating NAFTA. We're renegotiating our horrendous deal with South Korea. I kept you out of the TPP, which would have been a total disaster for you and for everybody else.

And we're making individual deals with these countries. You know, when you get tied into 12 countries or 22 countries or 18 countries, you're stuck. It's a spider web. But it's like this: If you have 16 good ones and two bad ones, as an example, you can't do it; you can't get out. When you have a deal, one-on-one, nice, simple deal. We have a deal with Japan, or we have a deal with South Korea, or we have a deal with whoever it may be, if they don't treat us right, we send them what's called a letter of termination. [Applause] See?

These people always say, oh—they're saying, "Oh, TPP." You have all these countries tied in. You can't terminate. You're tied into all the good ones.

Audience member. [Inaudible]

The President. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

So you can't do what you have to do. So you send out a letter of termination, you give them a 60-day notice or a 30-day notice or even a 6-month notice. They then come back, because we're the big piggybank that everybody loves robbing. The whole world robs it. So they then come back, and they say, can we negotiate? And we make a better deal than we had in the first place, right? But you can't do that when you have many countries tied in. You can't. I call it a spider's web. There's a lot of Washington lobbyists, bureaucrats, politicians who don't want to see things change. They've made a fortune. Areas around Washington, DC, are the richest areas in this country. You saw it the other night; a list came out. We have five areas that are among the richest areas in the country. That's because everybody is making a fortune, and people outside of that area are paying for the money they're making. We're not going to have it.

They like things the way they used to be. They don't like it so much now, although, I must tell you, they're doing well also. They're doing well also. Their stocks are going up. I don't know if there's anything I can do to prevent it for those people. [Laughter] But they call themselves the Resistance. You ever see these signs? "Resist. Resist." [Laughter]

I love these guys. Look at these guys: "Blacks for Trump." I love you. I love you. I love you. By the way, now that you bring it up: Black home ownership just hit the highest level it's ever been in the history of our country. Congratulations.

Oh, these resisters resist. Hillary resisted. And you know what happened? She lost the election in a landslide. But you know what they're really resisting? [Laughter] They're resisting the will of the American people. That's what they're resisting. [Laughter]

Audience members. Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!

The President. Look, it's being proven we have a rigged system. Doesn't happen so easy. But this system, there's going to be a lot of changes. This is a rigged system. This is a sick system from the inside. And you know, there's no country like our country, but we have a lot of sickness in some of our institutions. And we're working very hard. We've got a lot of them straightened out, but we do have—we really do—we have a rigged system in this country, and we have to change it. Terrible. Terrible.

They're resisting progress, they're resisting change, because the only thing they really care about is protecting what they've been able to do, which is really control the country and not to your benefit.

By the way, wages starting to go up. First time in 20 years, starting to go up. That's all going to happen. That's all going to happen. That's all going to happen. That's just a part of what's going on.

But I'm going to do something better than that. We're going to have choice. Now, we have choice in education now. We're starting that, right? And I thought of it the other day. We're going to have choice in jobs so that you don't have one job and hang on, even though you don't like it. You're going to have choice, where you can take five jobs, six jobs, seven jobs, pick the one you like at the most money. That's what's starting to happen, because the jobs are coming in. That's what's starting to happen.

Thanks to General Mattis and the military leaders and the allies—[applause]—"Mad Dog." "Mad Dog" Mattis. Mad Dog Mattis. Thanks to Mad Dog Mattis that we have great military leaders. ISIS is being dealt one brutal defeat after another. You see it. Not only are we defeating these killers. These savage killers—horrible, horrible—you don't even want to say people. These are savage killers over there. But we sure as hell don't want them to come over here. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

You know, they come back to some countries, and they come in, and we're making it a very difficult process. We had such weakness. They go out, kill people. Then, they come back, and they go back home to mom and dad. [Laughter] Okay? Before they went nutso and start over here, we're making it very difficult. You see what's being happened. We're watching every single one.

We have thousands of people right now under surveillance. Oh, surveillance—that sounds familiar. That sounds familiar. [Laughter] Remember when I suggested something like that? Everyone said, "Trump, why is he saying?"—well, it turned out I was right about that one, wasn't I?

America is being respected again abroad, and we are taking care of our citizens at home. And we're going to have safety, and we've got a lot more now. We're getting rid of the MS-13 animals. We're going to have safety again because America is more than just a place on a map. America is a nation, America is a family, America is ours to love and to cherish and to protect and to take care of, and that's what we're doing. We're going to take care of this country for our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. And we're not going to let people come into our country who are going to destroy our country.

Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

The President. And that may or may not be politically correct, but honestly, I don't care. We have to do the right thing. We have to do the right thing. Our agenda is profamily, propolice, proworker, and 100 percent pro-American. That's what our agenda is.

That's why I recently withdrew the United States from the United Nations plan for global governance of immigration and refugee policy. No borders. It's a no-borders plan. They have a plan: no borders. I heard about it recently. I said, what are you talking about "no borders"? No borders? No borders. Everybody can come in. If you don't mind, I've rejected that plan. Is that okay? [Applause] Okay?

I told them not only do we want no borders, we want the strongest borders you've ever seen. We're going to have such borders. We'll have borders on top of borders. America is a sovereign country. We set our immigration rules. We don't listen to foreign bureaucrats. We don't listen to other countries telling us how we should be running our immigration, thank you very much.

We're also getting smart and tough on trade. I've been talking about this for a long time. It's one of the reasons I'm here, one of the reasons I'm President. We are renegotiating the disastrous trade agreements of NAFTA, of South Korea, of so many others. We are making great deals. And we're going to, hopefully, keep NAFTA, but there's a chance we won't. And that's okay. That's okay. How many factories have left for Mexico? How many factories?

Audience members. Too many!

The President. So we right now have a trade deficit with Mexico of $71 billion, and that doesn't include all the drugs that pour in over the border, because we don't have a wall, et cetera. Okay? Seventy-one billion dollars. Seventy-one billion. So we have—think of it—we have a trade deficit with Mexico of $71 billion.

We have a pretty good trade deficit with Canada. They were saying we have a surplus with Canada. I said no. And I like the Prime Minister very much, Prime Minister Trudeau. Nice guy, good guy.

Audience members. Boo!

The President. No, I like him. But we had a meeting. He said, "No, no, you have a trade surplus." I said, no, we don't. He said, "No, no, you have a trade surplus." I said, "Mr. Prime Minister, we do not." He said, "How do you know?" I said, "Because we don't have a surplus with anybody." We have the worst deals. He said, "I'm telling you that Canada has a deficit with the United States." I told my people—in front of a lot of people—I said, go out and check. And he was right. Except he forgot two categories: lumber, timber, and energy. Other than that, he was right. [Laughter] When you add them altogether, we actually have a $17 billion deficit with Canada, right? So he forgot a couple of categories that he didn't want to mention. [Laughter]

I heard it with other countries too. Just got back from Asia. I brought back $300 billion worth of deals. [Applause] Worth of deals. And that number is going to go a lot higher, and these are numbers that are going to produce a lot of jobs in our country, and that's what we have to be doing.

We are going to end the theft of American intellectual property, crack down on China's trade abuses, and confront countries that cheat, of which many of them are in that category, sadly. We will buy back our country. We will take back our country. We will make those great trade deals, and we will have unbelievable amounts of jobs created and factories created.

And we will do what other countries do: We will start buying American. We want to buy our products. And we will start hiring American, and we will stay American and be proud of it. And that's what's happening more and more. And that's why I see all those red hats and those white hats. Love those hats.

That is why one of my very first acts as President was to withdraw the United States from the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership. Had to do it. We've also canceled the one job-killing regulation that you see after another—one after another—beating the mark of any previous President.

Now, we have—there was a great article in the Wall Street Journal the other day, full page, that in the history of our country, nobody—nobody even close—and these are longer terms than 10 months—that in 10 months I've done more on knocking out regulations than any other President in our history. You know who was right up there? Honest Abe Lincoln. Can you believe it? He was a regulation cutter. Can you believe it? Abe Lincoln was a regulation cutter. Who would have known that? I said, you mean I beat Abraham Lincoln? That's pretty good for 10 months. I don't know if regulation sounds so glamourous, but I can tell you it's very important. [Laughter]

But we have a lot of others. We have statutory requirements, where you have to give a 90-day notice and another 90-day notice. Then, you have a cooling offer. Then, you have to give a 30-day notice before—they're all in the works. And you're going to see a lot more cutting of regulation. But we've done more than any other President, and it's not even close. And we haven't even started.

And as promised—and I used to come out here—I've been here three times. I love it. I just keep coming back. I just keep coming back. Oh, boy, oh, boy. I'll tell you, when we were doing well during that beautiful election night, when we were doing well all over Florida, I said, "Was the Pensacola area included yet?" [Laughter] And they said, "No." I said: "Guess what? We just won that election." [Applause] That's right.

And, as promised, remember, I announced that I would withdraw America, the United States, from the horrible for us, good for other countries—it's great for other countries—from the horrible Paris climate accord. It costs us a fortune. So China doesn't start until around 2030, I think. [Laughter] Russia doesn't have to go back to, like, a recent date. They go back to somewhere in the 1990s, which was a high pollution time. Other countries we end up giving money to. This would have been one of the great catastrophes. And I could come back into the deal at a much better price. They'd love me back in.

I could come back into the Paris accord. And I like the people. I really like Emmanuel. I like so many of the people involved. But I could come back. It's like—I don't get it. I don't see it. I want clean air. I want crystal clear and clean water. I want things that they won't have. And I don't want to pay the kind of numbers that you're talking about.

If we stayed with those numbers, we would have had to close factories and businesses in order to qualify by 2025. Can you imagine? "Ladies and gentlemen, we're violating the accord." In the meantime, some of those countries are spewing stuff out that you wouldn't believe. And we would be closing up. Now, we could maybe change the deal, but then we'd get sued by all the groups that sue. You know, in China—they don't sue China. Nobody sues. With us, they sue.

I approved, immediately after we took office, the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. Okay. Forty-eight thousand jobs. We've lifted the restrictions on American energy, including shale, oil, natural gas, and clean beautiful coal of which we have a thousand years of supply. And we're putting miners back to work. Did you see West Virginia? I love West Virginia. West Virginia. I love West Virginia.

So, West Virginia, people were saying, "Oh, trouble—coal will never come back." In the meantime, they're buying it in Vietnam from us. The President of Vietnam said that is the finest coal we've ever purchased. They're buying it from us. So, West Virginia, the numbers just out—great Governor of West Virginia—numbers just come out. West Virginia had the biggest percentage increase in GDP of any State in our Union, except for Texas—it was second. How's that? How's that? And they said, "Oh, coal will never come back." Now we're opening up mines and we're drilling, and we're doing all sorts of things. And the windmills are wonderful, but you know, when the wind doesn't blow, they really do cause problems. [Laughter] "We have no energy this week." Well, hopefully, the wind will start blowing pretty soon. [Laughter]

We are pursuing American energy dominance. And by the end of this year, we will be totally self-sufficient. We will be major exporters of energy. We will take in massive amounts of money. We will start paying off our $20 trillion in debt.

My administration is also leading the charge to rebuild our military, right? Our military.

Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

The President. We're supporting our troops and their wonderful military families, including those right here in the cradle of naval aviation—[applause]—the home of the legendary Blue Angels. People don't realize that. By the way, can those people fly or what? How about Naval Air Station Pensacola? Good place, right? [Applause] Right?

And it's really time—this isn't a Republican thing or a Democratic thing or anything—it's time for Democrats in Congress to drop the threats of shutdowns of Government and support a clean appropriations bill that fully supports and funds our military. We don't—we can't play games anymore. We can't play games. And don't forget, we make the greatest missiles, the greatest military equipment anywhere in the world. Nobody is close.

And what does it also mean? And to me, it's secondary in this case. But what does it also mean? Jobs. Jobs. But we are building our military stronger. And by the time I decide to go off into the wild blue yonder, you are going to have the strongest military this country has ever had by far.

It's wrong and dangerous for congressional Democrats to hold troop funding hostage for amnesty, letting people pour into our country. We don't know who they are. We don't know where they come from. You saw what happened with beautiful Kate Steinle. This guy, he said he didn't know it was a gun. Oh, he didn't know. Oh, he didn't know. He didn't know it was a gun. That's his new line.

Do you notice the Federal Government came in and brought another suit against him, right? We'll come in. That was a total miscarriage of justice. He didn't know it was a gun.

The real changes that we're facing are the drugs and the gangs pouring into our country; the millions of people overstaying their visas; chain migration that costs taxpayers billions and billions of dollars; and sanctuary cities that set free violent criminal aliens all over our country and protect them.

Audience members. Boo!

The President. People come in and they're not necessarily good, like the man that ran over—the animal that ran over—many people in New York City the other day. You saw that. Two months ago. He runs over people, goes on a beautiful—I know it so well—the West Side Highway. I know it so well. So beautiful. People running, jogging, trying to get in shape. He killed many people, ran them over. Chain migration.

According to chain migration, he may have as many as 22 to 24 people that came in with him—his grandfather, his grandmother, his mother, his father, his brothers, his sisters. We have to end chain migration. We have to end chain migration.

I mean, you go to Kate, who was such a beautiful young American woman, killed on a pier in San Francisco in the prime of her life. She was killed by this guy, an illegal alien who had been deported five times and convicted seven times of felonies.

Audience member. Get him out of here!

The President. And I guess they weren't allowed to mention this in court. They weren't allowed to mention.

Audience member. [Inaudible]

The President. Don't worry, we're right in there.

But he was roaming free to threaten innocent Americans like Kate because of our porous borders and because San Francisco is a sanctuary city.

Audience members. Boo!

The President. In other words, a city run by politicians who would rather protect criminal aliens than American citizens.

I mean, let me give you another example. The city of Chicago. What the hell is going on in Chicago? There are those that say that Afghanistan is safer than Chicago, okay? What is going on? You know what's wrong with Chicago? Weak ineffective politicians. Democrats that don't want to force restrictions and don't—and by the way, Chicago, for those of you that are going to say "guns, guns"—Chicago has the toughest gun laws in the United States, okay? Just in case you were thinking about—you know, they immediately say, "Oh, you've got to take away." Well, Chicago has the toughest gun laws in the United States. So we're asking Democrats in Congress to cease their obstruction and do the right thing: End sanctuary cities. Stop the carnage. Save the innocent lives.

We've also begun the process of building the wall on the southern border. And we are empowering our immigration officers to do their job, and they're doing a great job. ICE and Border Patrol agents are working so hard, and they endorsed us for the election. I say "us" because it's really not me. It's us, all together. It's us. It's us. We're a group—a big group—a big, beautiful group. I'll tell—all you have to do is look around here.

Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

The President. Just look around. [Laughter]

Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

The President. I just said, just look around, and the first I see is that big beautiful "Merry Christmas" sign. I mean, can you believe it? Remember I told you 2 years ago, when we started, I said—and it was summer—but I said, you know, we're going to say the merry Christmas, but let me just tell you, the department stores, right, they had the beautiful red walls, they had snowflakes all over the place, they had everything. Only one thing missing: the words "Merry Christmas." They're using those words again. Do you notice? They're using those words again.

But, one by one, we're finding the illegal alien drug dealers, the gang members, the thieves, the criminals, and the killers preying on our children, preying on everybody. And we are throwing them the hell out of our country, or we're putting them in prison. And because our borders now are strong, as they should be—and they're going to get much stronger—we will not let these people back in.

It's time for Congress to adopt a pro-American immigration agenda. Every Member of Congress should be asked where they stand on these issues: blocking funds to sanctuary cities. I don't want to give sanctuary cities money. Passing Kate's Law to put repeat offenders behind bars for a long period of time. Increasing the number of ICE officers, who are fantastic, and Border Patrol officers, so we can dismantle vile criminal gangs, like, as I said, MS-13 animals. Ensuring that new immigrants to our country are financially self-sufficient and will not be on welfare the day they come in. And as I said, ending chain migration. We want a system that is merit based; they come in on merit. They don't come in—a lottery system. How about the lottery system, folks? You see that?

Audience members. Boo!

The President. That's the guy in New York City. The lottery system where they put names in a bin. You know, you think these countries are legit when they do their lottery system. So what they do, I would say—but more than just say—they take their worst, and they put them in the bin. And then, when they pick the lottery, they have the real worst in their hands. "Oh, here they go." And we end up getting them. No more lottery system. We're going to end that. We've already started the process.

We want people coming into our country who love our people, support our economy, and embrace our values. It's time to get our priorities straight. This guy is screaming, "We want Roy Moore." He's right. [Laughter]

Democrats in Congress want open borders, higher taxes, and Government-run health care that doesn't work—costs a fortune, doesn't work. They're soft on crime, and they want to suffocate our economy with socialist-style regulation, raise your taxes through the sky. They don't want to vote for our tax cuts because they want the exact—they want tax increases. That's why we need a Republican in the House. We need a Republican in the Senate. We need more of them.

And by the way, just so I can satisfy this gentleman out there. How many people here are from the great State of Alabama? [Applause] Whoa. Well, I have to say this. Look, we have to be fair. So did you see what happened today? You know the yearbook? Did you see that? There was a little mistake made. She started writing things in the yearbook. Oh, what are we going to do? Gloria Allred, anytime you see her, you know something is going wrong. [Laughter]

We cannot afford—this country—the future of this country cannot afford to lose a seat in the very, very close United States Senate. We can't afford it, folks. We can't. We can't afford to have a liberal Democrat who is completely controlled by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. We can't do it. Can't do it.

Audience members. Boo!

The President. His name is Jones, and he's their total puppet. And everybody knows it. He will never, ever vote for us. We need somebody in that Senate seat who will vote for our "Make America Great Again" agenda, which involves—[applause]—which involves tough on crime, strong on borders, strong on immigration. We want great people coming into our country. Building the wall, strengthening our military, continuing our great fight for our veterans—I love our veterans. We—right? We love our veterans. We want conservative judges like Judge Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. Doing a great job too. We want people that are going to protect your gun rights; great trade deals instead of the horrible deals. And we want jobs, jobs, jobs. So get out and vote for Roy Moore. Do it. Do it. Do it.

Working with Republicans in Congress, we've already signed 88 pieces of legislation. We get no credit. They always say, "Well, you know, President Trump really needs this tax bill because he hasn't passed any legislation." Well, so far, in 10 months, we've passed more during this period of time than any other President in the history of our country, and the second—let's call runner-up—is Harry Truman was second.

So we passed all of this including—including—the long-awaited Veterans Accountability Act. You know what that is, right? David Shulkin, our Secretary, he's done a great job. The VA was a mess. So many parts of our country. Hey, they left me with North Korea. They left me with a mess in the Middle East. They left me with Afghanistan, which is—was a disaster. We're making a lot of progress in Afghanistan, just like we have with getting ISIS out of Iraq, getting ISIS out of Syria, knocking the hell out of them. They left me with a mess. But we're cleaning up the mess. We're cleaning it up. And with time, we'll have it spinning like a top.

For decades, veterans have asked for a law to hold corrupt and incompetent employees at the VA accountable. But it never happened. Then, we got it done. This piece of legislation, for decades they've wanted. You couldn't fire anybody at the VA. If they were sadists, if they were horrible people, if they wouldn't show up to work, you couldn't fire anybody. Now we look at them, they're no good, we say: "You're fired. Get out of here!"

And I must tell you, I can't believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger bombed so badly on "The Apprentice." My poor, beautiful show. [Laughter] Oh, it was so successful. We get a big movie star, and he can't pull it off. We are respecting Americans' heroes and rebuilding America's standing. All over the world, they're respecting us again. When I came into office, we inherited all of these problems all around the globe. Years of America projecting weakness, not going over the redline. If we went over the redline, you wouldn't have had Russia and Iran going into Syria. But you know what? He said, you're never going to do it; don't ever violate the redline. They violated the redline. He did nothing. So Russia went in and Iran went in. But you know what? We had 59 missiles, and they used gas, and we said you can't do that. And we hit—our great military—from ships 700 miles away, 59 missiles and 59 perfect hits.

Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

The President. And we've stopped apologizing for America, and we have started defending the reputation of the United States—finally.

Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

The President. To prevent Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon, I recently declined to certify the disaster known as the Iran nuclear deal. A total disaster. How about that deal? How about that deal? We give them $150 billion, right? We give them $150 billion, but here's the thing—smaller money, but think of this: We give them $1.8 billion in cash. I mean, like green. In fact, it was so much cash that they had to go to other countries also, because we didn't have enough cash in Washington, DC. They loaded up planes with cash. Can you believe the Presidency has that kind of power? I don't want to ever try it. No, but can you believe that the Presidency has the power to send bushel loads of cash to Iran? Probably for hostages—probably—$1.8 billion probably for hostages. So sad. We don't do that. We don't do that anymore.

As part of a campaign of maximum pressure on the vile dictatorship of North Korea, we have imposed the toughest ever sanctions passed by the United Nations Security Council. And we have a lot of other sanctions, but, you know, I don't that sanctions are going to work with him. We've got to give it a shot. You know, we'll see. Who knows. I just tell you folks, you're in good hands; that's all I can say. That's all I can say.

And I've strengthened our relationships with America's allies and asked other NATO members to pay their fair share. And now the money is pouring in. The money is pouring in. Remember I went to NATO a year ago? And these fake people back here, they were saying, "Donald Trump's performance at NATO was unacceptable." You know why? You know why they said it? Because I told the people of NATO, standing right behind me—while they were standing behind me—they've been delinquent. They haven't been paying. I said, you've got to pay, you've got to pay. You've got to pay. And now they've taken in because of that. And I guess I implied, if you don't pay, we're out of there. Right? And I took more heat from the press. They said, "Donald Trump was rude to our allies." Well, they're rude to us when they don't pay. [Applause] Right? They're rude to us.

So we'll have a nation that doesn't pay. Then, their nation gets frisky with whoever. Russia? So we have a nation that doesn't pay, the nation gets aggressive. We end up in World War III for somebody that doesn't even pay. You think they think we're geniuses? [Laughter]

So here's what's happened. [Laughter] In the last short period of time, Stoltenberg—who's the head of NATO—he's my biggest fan in the whole world, because he couldn't get anybody to pay. [Laughter] We've taken in $11 billion extra. And going into 2020 or 2021, we will have taken in $33 billion extra, and they aren't even doing what they should be doing, just so you understand. It's terrible the way our country has been disrespected. But we will be disrespected no longer, okay?

Now, tomorrow morning you'll see from these fakers back there, "Donald Trump again disrespects NATO." I don't disrespect NATO. I think NATO is wonderful. But you know what? We're paying for 80 percent of NATO. Could be higher. They say 72 percent. So we're paying for 80 percent of NATO. Now, I can only tell you one thing: It helps them a hell of a lot more than it helps us, okay? And they should pay. Germany is paying 1 percent. We're paying 4 percent. Explain that one to me, right? And Germany has unsustainable cash flow. I read a report. Their cash flow is unsustainable. So I said to Angela—I said, "Angela, send a little of that cash flow our way." And she said, but Donald—because we're protecting them—we have 40,000 soldiers in Germany. Nobody even knows that. I said, "Angela, let us have some." She said, "Donald, the German people wouldn't be happy with that." I said: "Well, you know what? The American people aren't happy with the way we have it now." Okay? The American people aren't happy.

And at home, we're restoring the rule of law. We're interpreting the Constitution as written, defending the Second Amendment. You'll keep your guns. And protecting religious liberty. We are protecting religious liberty. And we're getting rid of the Johnson Amendment.

We've stopped the Government's attacks on our Judeo-Christian values, because we know that families and churches, not Government officials, know best how to create a strong and loving community. We know that. Getting rid of the Johnson Amendment, study that up, that's a big thing. That's a big thing. A lot of people are very, very happy about that. We know that parents, not bureaucrats, know best how to raise their children and to nurture their children. And above else, we know this: America doesn't worship Government, we worship God.

All of us here tonight are united by the same values. We love our country, and we are proud of our history. We are so proud of this country. We honor our heritage, and we treasure our freedom. We support our incredible men and women of law enforcement. We believe the United States military is the greatest force for justice in the history of the world, and we are going to take care of it, and we are going to properly fund it. And we are going to have the finest weapons. Because when we do all of that, we are much, much safer and far less likely to have to use them. It's amazing how that works, isn't it?

We believe that every American should stand for the national anthem.

Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

The President. And we proudly pledge allegiance to one Nation, under God. Our rights come from our Creator, and no earthly force can ever take those rights away, and they never will. That is why my administration is taking power back from global bureaucrats and returning that power back to the American people. And you see it all the time. You see it economically, you see it at the church, you see it in every different way. We don't sing a global anthem. Our troops don't wear a foreign uniform. And we will never surrender our rights to international tribunals. We won't do that.

We proudly sing "The Star Spangled Banner." Our brave troops fight and die for the red, white, and blue. And we protect and preserve the American Constitution that we cherish. I've said it so often that my job is not to be President of the world, my job is to be President of the United States of America. Yet, there are powerful forces in Washington trying to sabotage our movement. These are bad people. These are very, very bad and evil people. They know who they are. These are the people who made their money, their names, their careers, their power off the corrupt and broken system. And they liked it the other way. So they will do anything at any time, and they'll never stop. But you know what? We're stopping them. You're seeing that right now. You're seeing that right now. We're stopping them. It's corrupt, it's rigged, and we're stopping them.

They will lie and leak and smear, because they don't want to accept the results of an election where we won by a landslide. Do you remember? "There is no way for Donald Trump to get 270." We heard that for week after week. What they're doing is the fake news. It's called suppression. Just like they give the fake polls. I call it fake news, fake polls. A poll came out today on CNN—such a fake. A poll came out—they'll have to apologize for that one—another one came out that was through the roof, but it wasn't on CNN.

But I will tell you, look, look, we need honesty. We need some love in the country. I'd love to bring both sides together if that's possible. There's a lot of hatred out there, but I would love to be able to bring both sides together.

But remember this: The same failed voices in Washington who opposed our movement right from the beginning are the same people who have undermined the credibility of our Government institutions. They're the same ones who gave us one terrible trade deal after another and one foreign policy blunder and disaster after another with no accountability and no apology.

The Washington insiders who oppose our movement are the same people who sacrificed our sovereignty, our wealth, our borders. Look at our country: We owe $20 trillion. Think of it. We have spent, as of 2 months ago, almost $7 trillion in the Middle East. And you know what we have? We have nothing. It's worse than it was 17 years ago when they started. These are the people that fight us.

And if I want to fix up the roads in this country, they say, "Oh, well, we don't want to spend money for that; it's a tiny fraction." We could have, with that $7 trillion—not billion—$7 trillion we could have rebuilt our country three times over.

They've had their chance at running this country, and they failed. So I think I speak for everyone here tonight, and I appreciate you being here, especially in numbers where you can't even get into the corners. [Applause]. When I proudly say—you know the beautiful thing? I was telling some of my friends backstage, the amazing thing about this and all the people that couldn't get in: When an election is over, they tell me—what do I know, I wasn't a—I've been a politician for a little more than 2 years, so what do I know? Although I'm doing a good job I guess, right? I'm President. I'm President.

But—[applause]—but it's, sort of, incredible. You look at everybody, you see everybody. You see the love in the room, and you see what's going on with everything, and you say to yourself, this is truly a country that respects. They say that when you don't have an election, the election is over; there's no competition, there's no nothing. Although, we always have the deep seats inside. But it's over. They say you can't draw a crowd. In other words, when an election ends, you can't draw flies, they say. Look at this place. Look at this place. I'll never forget, on the trail, I'd go, we'd have 20,000, 25,000.

We went to Mobile, Alabama we had 49,000 people. We went to Michigan the night of the election. I got there, started speaking at 12:30 in the evening. That means it was already election day. We had 32,000 people there. Michigan hadn't been won in many, many years by a Republican. Hillary Clinton went there in an emergency because she was told, that day, that she was doing badly in Michigan. She went there; she had a crowd of, like, 600 people. I had 32,000 people at 1 o'clock in the morning. I said: "Why are we not going to win? Why are we not going to win?" And we won.

We went to Wisconsin—hasn't been won in many, many years. You remember that? We went to Wisconsin, hadn't been won in many, many years. She decided not to go. Thank you very much, Hillary. [Laughter] I guess the Russians advised her not to go. You know—[inaudible]. But she decided not to go. And her husband supposedly said: "You'd better go to Wisconsin. You'd better go to Michigan. I don't like what I'm seeing. I was in Michigan, and I was driving down the street, and they have a Trump-Pence sign on every single lawn all the way to the arena. You'd better go there." And she said, "No, no, no, my"—bunch of dummies—they're a bunch of dummies.

You know, I don't get credit for one thing. It always bothered me: I spent a tiny fraction of what she spent, and we won. You know, in the old days, if you spend less and you win, that's a good thing. Over here, you don't get any credit for it. We spent 25 or 30 percent. She was at what number? Two-point-two billion, I understand. Two-point-two billion. Do you think those consultants made a couple of bucks on that election? [Laughter] Didn't she spend $12.4 million on a dossier that was a total phony, right?

Audience members. Boo!

The President. Twelve-point-four million. Boy.

So we spent a tiny fraction. Think of it. A tiny fraction of the money, and we won. But we won because of people like you. [Applause] Because of people like you. And I'll tell you what: If the Democrats had won that election, instead of being up 39 points in your 401(k)s, you'd be down 50 percent from election day, I'm telling you. Because it was ready to go down the tubes, I will tell you that.

Audience member. [Inaudible]—Trump!

The President. Thank you, man.

So we don't need the advice from the Washington swamp. We need to drain the swamp, and we're going to do it, and we are doing it. That's why I don't really care about all the bitter attacks, all the phony stuff going on. Big media, special interests, phonies all. They're not here to protect you. They are only here to preserve and to protect themselves. And you're finding that out.

I had a great life before I did this. Oh, think of where I'd be right now if I didn't do this. I'd be very happy, believe me. But I wanted to do it, and I wanted to give back, and I saw what was happening. And I've always been good at doing the money thing. I saw what was happening to our country, and it wasn't good. It wasn't good.

I took this job on behalf of the forgotten men and women of our country. But guess what? They are forgotten no more. No more. People came out of areas—you know, they didn't think you existed. You know that, right? Remember? And do you remember the word "deplorable"? How brilliant was that? I was watching her with that speech, and she was reading a teleprompter, yet, and she said "deplorables." And I said, "Huh, that's not nice." [Laughter] She's talking about a lot of people. Little did I know, I was right. That thing blew up. That was one of the reasons she lost. And now we're all proud deplorables. We're proud deplorables. Very proud. Your voice will never ever be ignored again. They're all going to be coming after you for every election from now on in this country. You will never be ignored again. Your dreams are my dreams, your hopes are my hopes, and your future is what I'm fighting for each and every day.

We're just getting started. We're on the verge of passing that wonderful, beautiful tax cut. It's the biggest in the history of our country. It doubles the amount of income taxed at the rate of zero. It lowers tax rate. It expands the child—you know that—the child tax credit so broadly. It provides relief from the estate tax, also known as the death tax. It cuts small-business taxes. It reduces the corporate rate, very importantly, from 35 percent—which is the highest in the industrialized world—all the way down to 20 percent. You're going to have new companies coming in. You're going to have jobs, jobs, jobs.

And it brings corporate money from overseas back where it belongs. And we're talking about possibly in excess of $4 trillion that we can finally bring back.

The typical family of four earning $75,000 will see an income tax cut of up to $2,000, cutting their tax bill in half. People don't know it, and they don't want to report it. These people don't want to report it.

Our business tax cut is expected to raise annual income for the typical household by more than $4,000. They don't want to tell you that. They don't want to tell you that. Fake news. Our plan means more companies will move to America, stay in America, and hire in America. We want every American to know the dignity of work, the pride of a paycheck, and the satisfaction of a job well done.

The Democrats in Washington want to grow our welfare rolls that you're going to pay for. They want to grow all sorts of things that you don't even want to think about. I want to grow our employment rolls with great jobs, well-paying jobs, jobs of dignity, jobs where people love waking up in the morning and going to work. And that's happening.

So we're going to lift our people from welfare to work, from dependence to independence, and from poverty to prosperity. We will restore hope to our struggling rural communities and to our inner cities where we're making progress. We're making progress. We will build new roads and bridges and tunnels and highways all throughout our land. Factories will come roaring back to life. New works of iron and steel will be forged from fire and from spark and from our country. And they will be made with American muscle, American hands, and most importantly, American heart.

And these creations will be branded with a very simple, but very beautiful phrase: Made in the U.S.A. We have it in our power to build this future together: a future of patriotism, prosperity, and pride. We all share one home and one glorious destiny. And whether we are young or old—I feel very young—do you feel young? I feel young. Whether we are from the city or the country, and whether we are Black or Brown or White, you've heard it before: We all bleed the same red blood. We all salute the same great American flag. And we are all made by the same Almighty God.

We are the nation that dug out the Panama Canal, won two world wars, put a man on the Moon, and brought communism to its knees. As long as we have the courage of our convictions and the strength to see them through, then there is no goal beyond our reach. As long as we are true to our values, loyal to our citizens, and faithful to our God, then we will not fail. This is your land. This is your home. And it's your voice that matters the most. So speak up, be heard, and fight, fight, fight: for the change you've been waiting for your entire life, for the change that you already see happening. Our revolution didn't end on November 8. That was just the beginning.

Audience members. Trump! Trump! Trump!

The President. The greatest adventure still lies ahead. Never give in, never give up, never back down, and never, ever stop dreaming. Because we are Americans and the future belongs to us. The future belongs to all of you.

So with American pride swelling in our hearts, and American courage stirring in our souls, I say these words tonight: Together we will indeed make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America safe again. And put it all together and what do we have? We will make America great again.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless America. Thank you, everybody.