Photo of Donald Trump

Remarks at a “Make America Great Again” Rally in Wheeling, West Virginia

September 29, 2018

[music: John Denver, "Take Me Home, Country Roads"]

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, West Virginia. Hello. [applause]

What a great song. How good is that song? [applause]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: I am thrilled to be back in this incredible state with thousands of hardworking American patriots. Thank you. [applause]

Thank you. Thank you.

The people of West Virginia love our country. They honor our history. And they always respect our great American flag. Right? [applause]

And this is a truly amazing time for our nation. Our economy is booming like never before. Remember? I told you. [applause]

And by the way, your state is booming like never before. [applause]

Poverty is plummeting. Our stock market is soaring, reached its all-time high, by the way, in history, which I view as jobs, jobs, jobs. [applause]

All-time high. And our great coal miners are back to work. They're back to work. [applause]

A lot of people said that wasn't going to happen. You're back to work. Not only back to work, they're opening up mines all over the place. We're opening up steel mills. [applause]

And the steel mills need metallurgic coal. And those coal miners are working. And the steel workers are working. And our whole country is working.

We're taking care of our veterans, and our military will soon be more powerful than ever before. [applause]

America is winning again. [applause]

And America is respected again. [applause]

I just left the United Nations. Believe me, they respect us now, again. They all respect us.

And what are we doing? We're putting America first, finally. [applause]

But a lot of what we've done --some people could say all of what we've done--is at stake in November. Always fragile. We are just five weeks away from one of the most important congressional elections in our lifetime.

This is one of the big, big--in other words--that's true. I'm not running, but I'm really running. That's why I'm all over the place, fighting for great candidates. I'm fighting for great candidates. [applause]

You see what's going on. You see this horrible, horrible radical group of Democrats. You see it happening right now. [booing]

And they're determined to take back power by using any means necessary. You see the meanness, the nastiness. They don't care who they hurt, who they have to run over in order to get power and control. That's what they want, is power and control. We're not going to give it to them. We're going to keep it running the way it's been running. [applause]

While Republicans are fighting every day for jobs, safety, opportunity, lack of crime. With them, it's crime, open borders. They've been on a mission to resist and obstruct and destroy. And you see that over the last four days. You see it. [booing]

It's up to each of you, with your precious vote--it is that. You know, in 2016, we had the same thing happening. The same thing. People are going to be very, very surprised.

When you win the presidency, in theory you're not supposed to do great in the midterms. But nobody's ever had a presidency like this. Because I won the presidency. . . [applause]

Thank you.

So, I won the presidency, which is really we won the presidency. And. . . [applause]. . . and we have the greatest economy that this nation has ever seen, jobs and everything else.

So, we won and we have so many things happening that are so good. So, we should do well in the midterms. I can't imagine not, but you have to get--don't be complacent.

The one thing that could happen, and the beautiful think that's going on over the last few days in the Senate, when you see the anger, when you see people that are angry and mean and nasty and untruthful, when you look at releases and leaks. And then they say, "Oh, I didn't do it. I didn't do it."

Remember, Dianne Feinstein. [booing]

"Did you leak?" Remember her answer. "Did you leak the document?"

"Uh, uh. What?" [laughter]

No. Uh, no. I didn't leak. Well, wait one minute. Did we leak? Oh, oh. No. No, we didn't leak it. We didn’t leak it. [applause]

I'll tell you what, that was really bad body language. Who knows. Maybe she didn't, but that was the worst body language I've ever seen.

The entire nation has witnessed the shameless conduct of the Democrat Party. [booing]

They're willing to throw away every standard of decency, justice, fairness, and due process to get their way. They don't care how they get it. You see it happening before your eyes. I think it's actually an incredible thing that's happening. And I just hope you don't sit home, because bad things will happen if you sit home. [applause]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

So, now, the story will be--one wacko. The story will be tomorrow a major protest greets Donald Trump in the great state of West Virginia. [booing]

One person.

He or she, I couldn't tell from the back--let's say it was she--was very easy to get out. Right?

But this week, America also saw something else. On Thursday, the American people saw the brilliant and really incredible character, quality, and courage of our nominee for the United States Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Good. [applause]

Good. A vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh is a vote to confirm one of the most accomplished legal minds of our time, a jurist with a sterling record of public service. Do you know, for 10 years--he's a young guy.

But for 10 years they've been talking about him. Longer than that. I didn't know him, but I've heard about him a lot, because they were all saying he should be on the United States Supreme Court. That's why I put him up. And I will tell you--I will tell you, I will tell you, he has suffered the meanness, the anger.

Now, West Virginia – they did a poll. It just came out. Over all total support for Judge Kavanaugh, 58 percent. [applause]

Total opposed, 28 percent. So, it's 58 percent, 28 percent opposed. That's pretty good, right? I think that's good. That's West Virginia. Republican, 81 percent versus 8 percent. But, that we expect.

Wow. Women, 52 percent to 35 percent. [applause]

That's not bad. Men, West Virginia, 65 percent to 21 percent. That's good, right? One. Hey. It's a poll. But we love those polls, don't we? I love polls. Only when they're good. When they're not good, I don't talk about them.

But they do a lot of--see, there's the fake news media. They do a lot of. . . [booing]. . .they do a lot of phony polls. They do a lot of phony polls. They do a lot of polls, they call them suppression polls. They make them bad, although our polls now are good. They're good because we're doing a lot of good work.

But they make them bad, so you go to a movie instead of voting. You say, "Well, you know, Alice let's go to a movie. Then we'll come home and watch the returns."

Well, I'll tell you what. In 2016, nobody went to a movie. Nobody. I think the movie theaters were very empty that night, don't you think? So, some great things are happening.

But a vote for Judge Kavanaugh is also a vote to reject the ruthless and outrageous tactics of the Democrat [sic] Party, mean obstructionist, mean resistance. For the last 18 months, Democrats have spent every minute trying to overturn the results of the last election. We had one of the great --. . . [booing] . . .we had one of the great--every day, it's like a job. It's like part of your job description. Get up and fight them. Get up and fight them. [applause]

They try and shut down our government. They're holding up 360 men and women who want to work for the government. They're not approving them. And they're highly qualified. And they're not even called nominees. They're not even controversial. These are people--they're--this--you know, the word slow walking? They're slow walking.

So, you have people trying to get in. They left their jobs. And Schumer and all of the groups that you read about. . . [booing] . . .are not allowing these people to come into government. And I'm not even talking about people with a certain view. I'm talking about people that are noncontroversial, including judges. They just go maximum 30 days, 30 days. If somebody's going to be approved, has to be approved, they take them. We're up to 360 people, and it's been that way. The longest in the history of our country. Think of it. By far. And the most people in there--you have the longest and the most people.

Honestly, the Democrats are a disgrace. They are. They're a disgrace. [applause]

And the number one enabler of the Democrats is the fake news media, right back there. Thank you. [applause]

CROWD: CNN SUCKS! CNN SUCKS! CNN SUCKS!

THE PRESIDENT: And they really do. They stoke the fires of resentment and chaos. They report incorrect news. They report phony news. And, you know, when I say--when I say and come out with very, very strong statements about media, I'm talking about the fake news media. They are truly an enemy of the people, the fake news, enemy of the people. They really are. They are so bad. [applause]

You don't even get it. You'd think they'd like low taxes. You'd think they'd like a strong military. No crime, strong borders. They don't. They don't.

This November 6th, you have a chance to reject these disgraceful political hacks. But you can only do it--you've got to vote Republican. I mean, we have good people. [applause]

I want to get along with them, but it's impossible in many ways. It's just really tough, because they're so far left. They have been taken so far left, where Pocahontas is now considered a conservative. . . [laughter] . . . in the Democrat Party. She's like a conservative person. Pocahontas. Elizabeth Warren. She's considered like a conservative person. These people are--they've gone crazy. They've gone loco.

We're joined today by many terrific Republican leaders, including a friend of mine. And I have to tell you, Big Jim, he's the biggest human being I think I've ever seen. Big Jim Justice. Do we like him? He's our great governor. [applause]

Highest--listen. This is West Virginia. Highest ever first quarter surplus, history of West Virg--$120.5 billion above estimate. Revenue growth by month, July, up 24.1, 14.9, 16.5. Total revenue growth for West Virginia, up 18 percent.

Thank you, President Trump. Thank you. [applause]

JIM JUSTICE: I'll be short. I'll be short and sweet.

Nobody can love this man more than I. Except you, maybe. [applause]

What he's done for West Virginia is off the charts. Now, we've got to step up to the-- to the plate. We've got to step up. We've got to deliver him Patrick Morrisey. We've to deliver him--we have to deliver him an absolute solid Republican congress.

Come on now. Get behind him. God bless all of you. [applause]

THE PRESIDENT: Big Jim. That's a big man. And he's doing a great job. He really is. He's doing a great job.

But look at these numbers. Hey, Jim, for July, up 24.1 percent, revenue growth. Man. [applause]

Think of that. I'll tell you--look, you people, you know, you were great to me. We won this state by 42 points. Do you know what 42 points is? [applause]

And that's--in all fairness it's not, like, an independent. That's against a Democrat. We won by 42 points. You took me in. You took me in. But I produced. I produced. [applause]

I produced.

These are great people. And they love not only the beautiful clean coal. They love lots of other things that we're doing well. West Virginia's back, a lot faster than even I thought it could happen. You know it. I get hugged backstage by miners. These guys are massive guys that grab me.

I say, "How would you like to make computer widgets?"

"Nope. We want to dig coal." Right? [applause]

They have no interest in little delicate computer parts.

So, we also have with us the Secretary of State, Mac Warner. Thanks, Mac. [applause]

Great job. A man who I hope you can support because he's been terrific. Really did a great job as a congressman, and he's going to the Supreme Court. He's going to be a Justice, Evan Jenkins. Thank you, Evan. You've got to go out and vote for him. [applause]

A woman that everybody respects, she is running against a total wacko. No, I've seen this person. And you can't have that person in Congress. That person is stone cold crazy. [laughter]

A person that you know very well, and everybody in West Virginia loves Carol Miller. Carol. [applause]

Pennsylvania--thank you. Good luck, Carol. I think you're in great shape, from what I hear. I hope so.

Pennsylvania State Senator Guy Reschenthaler. Guy. [applause]

Thank you. Thanks, Guy. We're also thrilled to be joined by Ohio Congressman, a friend of mine from day one. He supported Trump when it wasn't as fashionable. Right at the beginning, he didn't go through nine candidates and then say, "Oh, man. Finally, I'm going to support this guy."

We had a couple of them. They never tell me that now. They said, "I supported you from the beginning." This guy really did. Bill Johnson. [applause]

Bill Johnson. Right across the water.

And Congressman David McKinley. [applause]

Where is David? Great job, David. We like David, right? I like David. Thank you. Thank you, fellows.

Also joining us is Brooke County, West Virginia native, a good friend of mine and somebody who truly knows about winning. This guy's a real winner. Coach Lou Holtz.

Coach. Great guy. He's a great coach, but he's a great guy, too.

Finally, I'm honored to introduce the person we are all here to support, the next senator from the great state of West Virginia, somebody that's going to give us a vote for what we want every single time. There won't be any question about it. Patrick Morrisey. [applause]

Patrick, please come up. Patrick.

PATRICK MORRISSEY: Well, thank you, President Donald Trump. Thank you, Governor Justice. Thanks to this amazing crowd for this very warm welcome. [applause]

Now, I'll tell ya this guy really is making America great again. And we know--huh? And we know he's also making West Virginia great again. [applause]

Now, for far too long, Barack Obama,. . . [booing] . . .yeah, Hillary Clinton,. . . [booing] . . .and Washington liberal Joe Manchin. . . [booing] . . .all of these individuals, and the coastal elites, they abandoned our West Virginia values. They practiced political correctness. They advanced liberal policies. They didn't put America first. No?

But fortunately for all of us there was one candidate, one man willing to fight back against political correctness, and put America first, Donald J. Trump. [applause]

This election, West Virginia has a very big decision to make. You could go back to the values of those who abandoned West Virginia, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or Joe Manchin. [booing]

Or you can stand with someone who puts you first, America first, and West Virginia first. [applause]

The stakes in this election couldn't be higher. And the differences between myself and my opponent, dishonest Washington liberal Joe Manchin they couldn't be sharper. Guys, you have a choice. If you vote for Patrick Morrisey, you'll be electing a conservative fighter with a record of results who will advance the Trump jobs agenda. [applause]

A vote for dishonest Washington liberal Joe Manchin, huh. . . [booing] . . .yeah, hang on. You're going to be empowering that same group of radical, liberal obstructionists, the one you saw in the Senate circus this past week. [booing]

Now, dishonest Washington liberal Joe Manchin--hah. Joe's gotta go. Amen, brother. [applause]

Yup? Now, dishonest Washington liberal Joe Manchin has a history of abandoning West Virginia. He abandoned your gun rights, supporting Obama's radical gun control. [booing]

He abandoned your values on life, backing Planned Parenthood. [booing]

He abandoned your paychecks when he said, "No," to the Trump tax cuts. [booing]

He abandons you when he supports amnesty, and when he opposed Trump's border wall. [booing]

But, we're going to build that wall. We're going to build that wall. [applause]

But it gets worse. Joe Manchin supported Hillary Clinton even after--hang on. Even after she made clear she wanted to take away our coal, our oil, and our gas jobs. Shame on Joe Manchin. [booing]

And that's why liberal Joe's got to go. [applause]

Huh? Now, when I'm in the Senate, we're going to have a different approach. We're going to put West Virginia first. [applause]

We're going to fight against all those unlawful and illegal regulations that hold back job creators, like the one I defeated as your Attorney General, and the ones that President Trump is withdrawing. We're going to ignite the economy even more. We'll supercharge West Virginia, when we make the Trump tax cuts permanent. [applause]

And we're going to re-empower the people of the state of West Virginia with term limits to hold Washington's politicians accountable. [applause]

We'll stop the funding of Planned Parenthood, and we'll take--yeah, we will. And we're going to take back our West Virginia values and un--end the grun-grabs [?] by the liberals in Washington. [applause]

And, not insignificantly, we'll all stand for the national anthem. [applause]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

MORRISEY: Pretty good. But I need your help. We're getting a lot of support from President Trump. In fact, because of his last trip, we're basically even in the polls. But we have a lot more work to do against the wily ways of these Washington politicians.

I need you to get involved. I need you to volunteer. I need you to go on-line at patrickmorrisey.com, and donate, and help me close the gap against the liberal ATM machine of Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin. [applause]

For--this race will likely decide the balance of power in the Senate. And. . .

CROWD:: [inaudible]

MORRISEY: Amen, brother. But remember, those radicals in Washington, Schumer, Pelosi, Maxine Waters,. . . [booing] . . .and Joe Manchin--boo, yes. They don't want to see our President succeed. They want to obstruct, just like they did this week against Judge Kavanaugh. [booing]

Ladies and gentlemen, we must confirm Judge Kavanaugh. [applause]

It's time to join our team today, because Joe's got to go. [applause]

He's got to go. And it's my honor to stand with President Trump to fight for you. We, unlike Joe Manchin, Hillary Clinton, and the radical liberals, will never abandon our American and our West Virginia values.

And the one thing you'll know is that, together, this team, we're going to continue making America great again. And we'll make West Virginia great again.

Thank you very much. God bless you. [applause]

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Wow. Good job, Patrick. Thank you, Patrick.

Remember this. A vote for Patrick Morrisey is a vote to stand up for West Virginia values, right? A vote for Morrisey is a vote for me, and for our agenda to make America great again. Or, as we will soon start saying, Keep America Great. Right? Keep America Great. [applause]

Keep America Great. That'll be our new theme very soon. I don't know. I don't want to switch yet. It's a little too soon. We're not even into two years, right? Make America Great Again. I can't use it in 2020. We can't because by that time, if we go even, like, half of what we've done--so, we're going to have to--the new will be Keep America Great. [applause]

Right. This is a very important election. It will decide which party controls the United States Senate. A Democrat-controlled Senate will try to take away your Second Amendment. They're going to take it away. [booing]

They want to take over American healthcare, and destroy it. [booing]

They want to make us Venezuela. That's what they want to do. [booing]

You'll have Venezuela, a big version. Erase America's borders. You know, we fight for borders, but we--hey, by the way, see the signs "Finish The Wall." That’s good. “Finish the Wall.” We are in the process. [applause]

It's got another $1.6 billion. I want to get more, but it's coming. It's coming. We've built a lot of wall already, and fixed a lot of wall. But we're getting it.

It's not the easiest thing, because the Democrats know it's a thing we really want. It's very much of a signature, great--a big part of what we talk about. They get in the way. I know it for a fact.

They said, "We can't." We'll get things that are actually military, $700 billion and $716 billion. We get that. A wall is a tiny thing by comparison, but they want to fight that wall for political purposes.

But we're building it, and I love the signs. Finish It. We'll get it finished. [applause]

They want to kill--and this will happen, as sure as you're standing or sitting. I don't know who has a better seat. You? Or you? I don't know. [applause]

This is a guarantee. Your coal mines and your miners are working. They will kill West Virginia coal. That's a guarantee. [booing]

And they want to turn our federal courts into the political arm of the Democrat resistance. You see it. You see it. [booing]

Now, Joe Manchin voted no on tax cuts for American families. He just voted no. What are you going to say? He voted no on removing Obama's job-killing regulations.

By the way, we've cut more regulations. That's why you have all these jobs, record-setting jobs. More regulations than any president ever in the history of our country. That's pretty good. [applause]

That's pretty good. And we haven't been there for two years. But time is flying, isn't it? Time is flying. But we've cut more than any administration, whether it was four years, eight years, or in one case much more than that. We've cut more.

Joe also voted no on repealing and replacing Obamacare, which we almost had done, but I'll be nice now. We couldn't get a single Democrat vote. If we did, we would have killed it, and we would have had great healthcare.

But we're giving you a lot of great healthcare anyway. If you look at the plans we're coming out with, they're great. And we got rid of the individual mandate, the worst part of Obama. [applause]

And Joe voted yes on something that not too many people in this room liked. Mass amnesty. Mass amnesty. [booing]

Joe refused to stand up to the Democrat resistance, the radical open-border Dems, Pelosi and their new de facto leader, the legendary Maxine Waters. [booing]

The Democrat Party will stop at nothing to run your lives, run down your values, and ransack our nation's wealth. We've never done like this. They will turn it around, make it bad so fast.

Getting money for the military was so tough. And to do that, we had to give them money for things that we don't want, we would never want. But now we have our military rebuilding. We've taken care of our military. We've ordered . . . [applause] . . .massive numbers of fighter jets and planes, ships, rockets, and missiles. We make the greatest military equipment in the world. We have ordered so much that other countries look at us and they say, "Ah, let's forget about them." That's what we want. We don't want wars.

But the only way you don't have wars, if you have a military that's what we're doing. We're in the process of building the strongest military we've ever had by far. [applause]

The new platform of the Democrat Party--you notice I say Democrat Party. I hate the way it sounds. That's why I say it, because it's really their name, you know. It's not the Democratic Party. It's--doesn't it sound it flows nicer? The Democratic Party. But, you know, the real name is the Democrat [sic] Party. I hate the way it sounds, and that's why I use it, but it's the real name.

The Democrat Party--so, when you see Democratic Party, it's wrong. There's no name, Democratic Party. That's a great name. They should probably change their name, if you think about it. Then I'd call them the Democratic Party.

The Democrat Party is radical socialism, Venezuela, and open borders. It's now called, to me, you've never heard this before, the party of crime. The party of crime. That's what it is.

And to pay for their socialism, which is going to destroy our country, Democrats want to raid Medicare and destroy Social Security. That's what's going to happen.

Democrats want to completely destroy Medicare with so-called Medicare for All. Yeah, for about two months, before the country goes out of business. Robbing our seniors of the benefits they paid into for their entire lives, giving it to people that don't deserve it. Giving it, by the way, to illegal aliens who come in to our country. OK? [booing]

Republicans want to protect Medicare for our great seniors who have earned it, and paid for it. And I will always fight for and always protect patients with pre-existing conditions. I--you have to do it. You have to do it. [applause]

Some people think that's not a Republican thing to do. I don't care. And I'll tell you what. All of the Republicans are coming in to that position now. All of them. And we'll do it the right way, too. [applause]

Pre-existing conditions are safe, OK? Just remember that. Pre-existing--tell that to the fake news media when they write. Fakers. The fakers.

But we all have a good time. You know, they're going to all endorse me for the next election. Have you heard? Because if they don't--and if, for some reason, I didn't win, every single media outlet goes bankrupt. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if they had to cover crazy Bernie? Who the hell is going to watch? [laughter]

Or any of them. How about Cory Booker? Did you watch the performance? [booing]

He ran Newark, New Jersey, into the ground. And now he wants to be president, right? What was the moment he said he had?

CROWD: [indistinct shouts]

THE PRESIDENT: I don't think so. I think we'd take Kirk Douglas at his prime, do we agree? [applause]

I think we do. No, he ran Newark into the ground. Now he's out there acting--"Oh, it's a wonderful, great. Oh, I dream of these people every night." [laughter]

The only thing I worry about is that some total unknown that nobody every heard of comes along. But, you know what? Honestly? With what we've done on jobs, on our country and our military, we're going to talk about our veterans, what we've done.

What, what--look at--in your case, energy. Energy. Look at what we've done on energy. With every--who the hell can beat us? I mean, who can beat us? [applause]

Who can beat us?

One of these people said recently, and they hated to say it, but that Trump has actually fulfilled more promises than he promised. It's true. Look what we're doing. [applause]

4.2 percent GDP. Every point is $3.5 trillion and 10 million jobs. And when I took it over, our country was headed south. We were going down. We were going down. You'd be--instead of 4.2, you'd be at 4.2 negative. Negative 4.2. That's the way we were headed.

Perhaps nothing is more dangerous than the Democrats' push to abolish very brave people that work for us and that love us and that take care of us, called ICE. [applause]

They want to abolish immigration enforcement entirely. And they want no borders. They want no borders. Let everybody just pour in to our country. [booing]

And you got some bad dudes coming in, but they're not coming in with us. We have set records on arrests at the borders. Nobody even close. [applause]

And that's without the wall in those sections where we haven't been able to get the money because the Democrats won't approve it.

You have to understand. We have very small margins. You know, they say we're the majority. The majority by what? If somebody has a cold, we can't take a vote. If you have a cold, if somebody's not feeling well, we say, "Let's delay the vote for three days." We don't have a majority. It's so close. It's so close. That's why we have to get more Republicans in. We will do something that nobody's ever seen before. [applause]

The Democrat Party supports totally--they love them, sanctuary cities, where crime pours in. . . [booing] . . .and they're protected. That unleash violent predators like MS-13 into American communities, leaving innocent Americans at the mercy of--really, by the way, really ruthless animals. Really ruthless animals.

Nancy Pelosi said, "How dare he call a human being an animal?" I'm sorry, Nancy. He's an-- They don't like guns. They like to use knives because it's more painful, and it takes a long time. These are real bad people. And we're bringing them out so fast, and you know who's doing it, who's leading the charge, who loves doing it? ICE. Who the hell wants that job? ICE. ICE is doing the job, right? Right. [applause]

Go ahead. ICE is doing that job. And these are brave people. They go into towns in Long Island, where I grew up. And right next to these places. I know them all. They used to be, you'd leave your door open. You'd leave your window open. You go to sleep. Nobody thinks.

Now you--it's like a fort. And not anymore. What's happened is, they go in like they're liberating a country. It's like, this is the United States. And ICE goes in. And MS-13, they're afraid of ICE. You know why? Because ICE is much tougher than they are. That's all they fear. [applause]

And they go in, and they grab them by the necks and they throw them the hell into a paddy wagon and they take them either to jail or throw them the hell out of the country. It's very simple. [applause]

It's very simple. And they clean out towns. They clean out towns. Of truly bad people, dangerous people. You saw what happened. I got to know mothers that have daughters, fathers that have daughters, in many cases daughters, and in many cases sons. But what they do to these incredible kids, walking home from school, going home with books, to study, do homework. And they intercept them and they're horrible--it's horrible. And we're getting them out.

But we have to--the Democrats--it's like, it's like they don't even understand that there's a problem. It's incredible.

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

So, Republicans, not Democrats, they want to end ICE. They want to end a lot of things. Open borders. Can you believe it? How would you like this platform?

"We want open borders. We want high taxes. We want crime, because basically they're saying crime." So, to have crime, they have high taxes, they have open borders. "Oh, and by the way, we don't want to fund the military."

You have no idea how hard it is to get money from--for the military. It's almost impossible.

That was, like, a full-time job. But we got that money. We got a lot of money. [applause]

If the Democrats got 51 votes in the Senate, they would open our nation's borders. They would starve our law enforcement. They would starve our great law--do we love our law enforcement? Seriously. [applause]

I got a tremendous percentage of law enforcement votes. But, you know, I think I might have--do I get 100 percent? Let's say I didn't. Who the hell wouldn't vote for me from law enforcement? OK? We've done a lot. We've gotten them a lot of surplus material from the military.

You know, we had all this--we had hundreds of millions of dollars of surplus material. And our previous administration, under no circumstances did they want to give this to law enforcement because, you know, it's great equipment. It keeps the law enforcement safe, like trucks that are armored. And things like that.

So, they didn't want to give it, because they thought it presented a wrong image. I gave it. It's all out. They're all happy. [applause]

We had it. The military. We had it sitting in storage rooms all over the country, getting old and probably costing us a lot of money. We gave it out to law enforcement, and the law enforcement does like us.

If you want to secure our border, if you want to stop sanctuary cities, which even in California now, they don't want to be sanctuary cities anymore. They want out. You see it. They're rebelling in California, of all places, they're rebelling.

If you want to protect American communities from really bad, bad crime, then you need to vote Republican. Patrick Morrisey. You've got to vote Republican.

This election is about security and it's about prosperity. Here are just some of our extraordinary achievements. We've done things that nobody can believe. If I would have used these numbers during the campaign, the fake news would have said, "Oh, it's so ridiculous. It's so ridiculous. How can he say that?" I used much lower numbers and they said that.

Economic growth last quarter was 4.1, and it was just adjusted upward, 4.2 percent. And it's going much--it's going higher, folks. It's going a lot higher. [applause]

Jobless claims. That's a beauty. Jobless. Think of that. Jobless claims just fell to a nearly 50-year low. Is that good? That's good? Right? [applause]

Fifty-year low. We've created over 4 million new jobs since the election. Four million. Nobody would have said that. If I would have said, "Hey, we're going to create, in less than two years," they would have said, "You've got to be kidding."

We've list--look at this. How about this? We've lifted almost 4 million Americans off of food stamps. Wow. [applause]

Pretty good, huh? Now, number one, we're taking care of people. Number two, it doesn't cost us anything. I mean, that--4 million people, that's a lot of money it costs. We've added nearly--it will soon be 600,000 new manufacturing jobs. We weren't supposed to be adding jobs. [applause]

We weren't supposed to be adding manufacturing jobs. And I'll tell you what, the most incredible of everything is, we are doing things with manufacturing. Companies are pouring back into our country. And they're coming back into your state. They're going to Michigan. They're going to Ohio, right here. They're going to Pennsylvania and North Carolina and South Carolina.

I was with Prime Minister Abe of Japan. He's got many companies moving in. I said, "Look, we have a big deficit with you. We take care of your military, and we have a deficit. What's going on?"

He said, "We are moving many companies into the United States." And he is, and he's been. Any many coun--if you look, just take a look. Many countries are doing that. Because I don't like having deficits with every country.

And China, we're taking them on very strongly. First time ever. [applause]

Very strongly. And they either open it up to make it fair, and don't charge us what they're doing, because that's no good. Or we just don't do business with them. It's a very simple thing. [applause]

And in four months, they have gone way down. And I don't want them to go way down. I have great respect for President Xi and I have great respect for China. But they have not treated us well.

We lost, over the years, $500 billion. We'd go $250, $300, $400, $500, $525 billion. We rebuilt China. How stupid are we? No, how stupid are we? [applause]

We build a car and we send it to China, and they charge a tariff or a tax of 25 percent. They build a car and they send it to the U.S. and it's 2.5 percent, but we don't charge them. They don't have to pay. [booing]

And I said, "Why don't they have to pay at least the 2.5?" Nobody could tell me why. Nobody.

So, think of it. They charge us 25 percent, right? We charge them nothing. Other than that, it's a very fair deal. [laughter]

No, how stupid is it? How stupid is it? So, the stupid days are over, folks. I'm sorry. [applause]

I mean, I love Saudi Arabia. Their great King Salman. I spoke to him this morning, a long talk. And I said to him, "King, you've got trillions of dollars. Without us, who knows what's going to happen. Maybe you're not going to be able to keep those airplanes. Because, you know what, they'd be attacked, with us they are like, you know, safe. 'Totally safe.”

But we don't get what we should be getting. We're subsidizing their military.

I said, "Let me ask you a question. Why are we subsidizing the military of these really wealthy countries"--you know, it's one thing where a country's in deep trouble and danger, and it's a horrible thing going on, and it could be something really ugly, and, you know, hundreds of thousands, millions of people could be killed. That's worth it.

But when you have wealthy countries, like Saudi Arabia, like Japan, like South Korea, why are we subsidizing their military? They'll pay us. The problem is, nobody ever asks. Nobody ever asks. They don't ask. [applause]

I mean, with South Korea, we're paying about 60 percent of their military costs. They buy a missile system. Oh, by the way, we're doing great with North Korea. I have to tell you. [applause]

We're doing great. You know, these dishonest people back there.

So, I left, what did I do? Was I there, like, three months ago? So, for 80 years they've been working on this stuff. And for 25 years, they've been working on missiles and nuclear. You got nowhere. They wouldn't even answer our president's phone calls.

When they called, they told them, "Don't call us." And yes, I agree, the rhetoric was unbelievably harsh at the beginning. But we have a very good relationship. We were going to war with North Korea. [applause]

That was what was going to happen. Millions of people would have been killed. President Obama told me, when I sat, just before taking office, he said, "The single biggest problem this country has is North Korea." And he said he was, you know, very close to going to war. But fortunately, his time was up. [applause]

OK. His time was up. We would have been in a war. Millions of people would have been killed. I mean, you have Seoul, 30 million people, right off the border, 30 miles away. Millions of people would have been--and yes, I came in and took a very hard position, very hard position.

And you know what, now we have this great relationship. And let's see what happens. Let's see what happens. [applause]

OK? Let's see what happens. But, if you think--so, the fakers are saying, like, they don't know what to do. I got the hostages back for nothing. Obama paid $1.8 billion. You know. I got them back for nothing, right? We got the remains of our great heroes back, from many, many years. [applause]

You don't have anymore nuclear testing. In fact, they're closing up a lot of their sites. You don't have rockets going up. You don't have missiles going up. And you have people. I like Kim. He likes me. I guess that's OK. Am I allowed to say that? Am I allowed to say that? [applause]

We've come a long way since--you know the term, right? We've come a long way. But, we could have been in something. Now, I'm not saying what's going to happen. Who knows? We're going to have another meeting. Chairman Kim would like to have another meeting. We'll have a meeting.

You know what they did? The other day, on a good network, I heard one of the anchors say, "Why has President Trump given up so much?" I didn't give up anything. Really. I didn't give up anything. [applause]

What did I give up? I gave up nothing. Why have I given up a--the only thing I gave up was, I agreed to meet. Boy, we lost a lot, right? In other words, I agreed to meet. I gave up nothing.

They're just fakers. They don't know what to do. They're driving them crazy. They're loco. It's driving them crazy. [applause]

We gave up so much.

Now, Obama, with the Iran deal, gave them $150 billion and gave $1.8 billion in cash. In cash. In cash. You know how much money that is? And nobody said he gave up too much, except me. That's why I ended the deal, OK? I ended the deal. [applause]

He gave it to them in cash. Did you ever see, like, with a promotion where you have a $100 bill, you have a million dollars. It's like twice the size of this thing. That's what a million bucks and a $100 bill. Right? Twice the size of the podium. Like, exactly twice the size.

Can you imagine $1.8 billion of--where the hell do you get $1.8 billion in cash? And don't let anyone tell you it wasn't for the hostages, unless he had something--or, maybe he did have something else in mind.

So, we are doing great. That was a big, big problem. And you know the interesting? When I did it, and I was really being tough, and so was he, and we would go back and forth.

And then we fell in love, OK? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters. And they're great letters. We fell in love.

But, you know what? Now, they'll make--they'll say, "Donald Trump said they fell in love. How horrible. How horrible is that? So unpresidential." [laughter]

And I always tell you, it's so easy to be presidential. But instead of having 10,000 people outside trying to get into this packed arena, we'd have about 200 people standing right there. OK? [applause]

It's so easy to be presidential. All I have to do is--thank you very much for being here, ladies and gentlemen. [applause]

It's great to see you off--you're great Americans. Thousand points of light. Which nobody has really figured out. And--thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Hasn't that been exciting? How is West Virginia?

And in the meantime, everything's going to be dying, and your coal and everything else. No, no. We gotta keep it going the way it's going. Do we agree? Do we agree? [applause]

Get Patrick in there. We got to keep it going because we have something going that nobody's ever seen before.

You know, every foreign leader that comes to see me in the White House, which I see a lot. But every foreign leader--and I see a lot because usually they're treating us unfairly with military, meaning we're paying for their military, and I'm saying, "Why?" Because we're redoing all of that. We're not going to do it.

I said, "Saudi Arabia, you're rich. You've got to pay for your military."

"We'll take care of it. We'll be good."

"You've got to pay for your military."

"Sorry. Nobody ever asked the question." [applause]

And I have the generals--you know, it's called the military industrial complex. They're great people. They're warriors, but they're not into the world of finance. So, I say, "General, how much are they paying for this?"

And they say, "Sir, we are paying for it."

"Why?"

"Sir, we're paying because they are our allies."

I said, "Yeah, but why else?"

"Sir, trade."

I said, "Yeah, but we lost $100 billion last year on trade with this. Why are we doing this stuff?"

And people, slowly but surely--I'm telling you, big difference. And you see GDP numbers now at 4.2? When we straighten out these horrible trade deals and these horrible military deals that we have, forget it. [applause]

Off the charts. [applause]

Household income--among Hispanic Americans, has just set a new record high. Think of that. Income. Since my election, and you've heard this many times. I'm very proud of it, because I used to go around saying, "What do you have to lose? Vote for me instead of a Democrat," right?

"Vote for me, African-Americans. Hispanic-American. Asian-American unemployment have all reached the lowest levels recorded in our history. [applause]

Right? Right? The poverty rates for African Americans and Hispanic Americans, they've--it's been incredible. They've all reached their lowest levels in the history of our country. Think of it.

Now, who the hell's going to beat me? I mean, I'm saying African Americans have the lowest unemployment rate in history. Why would somebody do well? I think, as--we have Kanye West, we have a lot of support. Big Jim Brown. How about Big Jim Brown? How good was he? [applause]

If he was playing today, he'd make a trillion dollars. And he'd stand for the flag, too, I tell you. [applause]

I know him. Great. Great.

Unemployment for Americans without high school diplomas, that's a big thing, recently reached the lowest rate ever recorded. The women's unemployment rate in the United States recently reached its lowest rate in over 65 years. [applause]

This is something that's personal to you and some other states. We repealed President Obama's federal coal moratorium. We ended the coal crushing stream protection rule, which was killing your towns. So beautiful. The EPA, so-called, a killer. Clean power plants. It was a killer. It was costing this country a fortune. It was a total killer. Had such nice names, such a nice title. It put everybody out of business. And it took away our strength. It took away our wealth.

And I withdrew the United States from the job-killing, very unfair, and very, very expensive Paris Climate Accord, another wonder. [applause]

A killer. These are killers. They were putting our country out of business.

We've ended the war on beautiful clean coal. [applause]

And in just the last year, our coal exports have skyrocketed. This is exports to other countries by 60, six o, percent. Do you believe that? [applause]

The United States is now the number one energy producer in the world. That happened just recently. [applause]

A lot of money in that. We're fixing the one-sided trade deals that have stolen American jobs, drained American wealth. It's been a massive transfer of wealth out of our country. We're bringing it all back. They're all coming back. [applause]

We've reached a deal to replace the horrible NAFTA, one of the worst trade deals ever,. . . [applause] . . .with a brand-new U.S.-Mexico trade deal. And we'll see what happens with Canada, if they come along, good. They have to be fair. They have--right now they have tariffs. Over 300 percent on dairy products. That's, like, a barrier. They have to be fair.

But we've made the deal with Mexico, and it's a great deal for both countries. NAFTA was the worst deal.

Just this week I signed a groundbreaking new trade deal with South Korea that will dramatically increase exports of American made goods. I said, "You gotta open up your country," [applause]

Now, the Democrats will look at any of these deals. They won't read them. They won't know anything about them. They'll just say--I guess I'd do it if I was them, too. They'll say, "What do you think of the new deal?"

"It's no good. It's terrible."

"Oh. Have you read it?

"Uh, don't ask me that question."

These deals are unbelievable. These deals are so good for us. You're not going to have companies leaving our country, firing everybody, and then selling their product back into the United States with no taxes. Not going to happen anymore. [applause]

And thanks to our very strong position on tariffs, because I want them to negotiate with us. We've saved American aluminum and American steel companies. They are thriving. American steel is building plants all over the country. Steel workers are back. [applause]

And the miners are supplying the metallurgic coal. [applause]

We don't need foreign steel. What happens if we're in a conflict? What are we going to do, get our steel from some foreign country? "Oh, by the way, we have a . . ."-- we need steel. We need aluminum. There are certain things you need.

And we're hiring a lot of people. And you know what? Our treasury is getting loaded up with money. Because billions of dollars will be flowing in, because we charge 25 percent when they dump.

You know, when they dump steel, what they want to do is put our steel companies out of business. Then they sell us steel at prices that are so high. Nobody wants to talk about that. Nobody wants to talk about the jobs created. And nobody wants to talk about all the money that's flowing in to the coffers of the United States of America. [applause]

They don't like to talk about it. And the people that are against it are usually having cont--you know, you go to these other countries. They have companies there, too. And many of these people--"Well, we like free trade." They'll say it even to congressmen and senators.

Let me ask you a question. So, we have a country. Take India. Good relationship. They want to make a deal now because they don't want me to do what I'm going to do when I have to. So, they call us. They didn't want to make a deal with anybody else.

But I said, so, take India. So, you talk about free trade. So, let's say they charge us 60 percent tariff on a product. And for the same product, when they send it in, we charge them nothing. So, now I want to charge them 25 percent, or 20, or 10, or something. What do you think?

"That's not free trade. We don't like it."

I say, "Where are these people coming from?" So, think of it. Where are they coming from? And you have no idea how difficult it is. Where are they coming?

So, India, just to use as an example, I could give you others that are brutal, just brutal what they do to us. How they take advantage of the stupidity. We never even had people negotiating. They just do whatever they want.

But take India. So, they charge us 60 percent. Right? Sixty percent. We charge them nothing. And when I say I'm going to put a 25 percent tariff on, just to make it a little bit fairer, they say that's not free trade.

I said, "What--what are you--where do you come from?"

Remember this. A lot of the people that are fighting me on what I'm doing have ownership of companies in these other countries. Remember that, please. OK? Remember that. Or they're represented by lobbyists.

So, the steel people love me. The coal people love me. Many people love me. You know who loves me? Our country has never done better. That's who loves me. [applause]

Crazy. So, to give our workers and businesses--just in finishing up, a level playing field Republicans passed the biggest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history. [applause]

We passed something else that I love. Right to Try. You know what Right to Try is? That's where somebody's terminally ill. We have a pipeline of some of the greatest products, and we couldn't get them. We couldn't use them. Person's going to die in four months. We couldn't use them. For 45 years, they've been trying to get this passed. Not that easy. Not that easy.

I got it passed. Right to Try. Somebody's terminally ill, they can take now--they have to sign a clause and things. And they now don't have to travel to parts of the world.

We passed Veterans Choice, giving us veterans' choice. Giving our veterans the right to see a private doctor if they're standing on line for four weeks. Right? [applause]

The couldn't get it passed. This has been going on for 45 years. They couldn't get it passed. Veterans, our greatest people. These are people--any veterans here? Veterans? [applause]

It was very tough. Forty-five years they couldn't. We got it passed. So now, instead of waiting on line for three weeks and dying, in many cases, believe it or not. They start off, they're OK. They wait so long to see a doctor they end up becoming terminal. They end up dying. They now go out and see a doctor. We pay the bill. It's great. [applause]

Passed. We passed.

We also passed a landmark VA Accountability Act, so that all these bad players that were in the VA, we fire them so fast when they're bad. [applause]

We didn't have the right to fire anybody. They could do anything. I just signed legislation to completely, completely rebuild all of our military. And I told you about that. And you know what, it's so important to me. So important to me. So important.

We have tanks, we have ships, we have everything. So important. And at my direction, the Pentagon is working right now, as we speak, to create a sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces called the Space Force. Right? Space Force. [applause]

I withdrew the United States from the horrible, one-sided Iran deal, and Iran is not the same country right now, folks. And they'd better not do nuclear. They'd better not. Not the same country.

We've all recognized the true capital of Israel, recently, when I opened. . . [applause] . . . the American Embassy in Jerusalem. All right? And I've just come from a tremendously successful trip. I did a lot of trips, from the United Nations, to Saudi Arabia, to China, to U.K., European Union, all over the world. And every one of those means a lot of jobs and a lot of income coming in to our country that nobody ever did before. Nobody ever did it.

I made clear that we will never sacrifice America's sovereignty to unelected, unaccountable foreign bureaucrats. I'm not going to do it. [applause]

We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrum--you know what I'm saying. The doctrine of--let's put it this way. We love our country. [applause]

That's our doctrine. You can call it patriotism. But it's really the doctrine of we love our country. For years you watched as your leaders apologized for America. [booing]

Now, you have a president who is standing up for America. We are standing up for your values. [applause]

We are standing up for West Virginia. We are standing proudly for our national anthem. [applause]

To continue our momentum, to protect your family, your borders, your Constitution, and your country, you need to get your friends, get your family, get your coworkers, and get out and vote for Patrick Morrisey. Get out and vote Republican. [applause]

And if you aren't registered, register right now. You've got to register here. And the deadline to register is October 16th. I hate to break up this by saying that, but those are the facts. Register. October 16th.

Loyal citizens like you helped build this country. And together we are taking back our country, and returning power to where it belongs, to the American people. [applause]

This great state was built by tough pioneer men and strong pioneer women. [applause]

These brave West Virginia patriots ventured out into the wilderness and up into the mountains to build a beautiful home, a life, and a dream. 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]

True. True. We stand on the shoulders of these courageous Americans. Your ancestors did not pour out their blood, sweat, and tears so that we could sit at home while others try to erase their legacy, and destroy our proud American heritage. That's what the Democrats are trying to do with their crazy policies. [booing]

Just like the pioneers and patriots who came before us, we are going to work, we are going to fight, and we are going to win for our families, for our flag, and for our freedom. [applause]

The revolution that you began in 2016, and it was a revolution, and even these people will admit that. That was a revolution like they've never seen before. That was a revolution that was--they came from the hills, and they came from the valleys. They came from everywhere. And at the end of that evening they said, "I hate to tell you this." [laughter]

"A lot of bad things are happening tonight for the Democrats." That was one of the great evenings, not because of me, but because of you. That was one of the great evenings in the history of our country. [applause]

And it's far from over. It's only just beginning. We will not bend. We will not break. We will never give in. We will never give up. We will never back down. We will never surrender. And we will always fight on to victory, victory, victory. 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. [applause]

We will make America strong again. We will make America safe again. [applause]

And we will make America great again. [applause]

Thank you, West Virginia. Thank you. Thank you.

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

NOTE: The President spoke at the WesBanco Arena, Wheeling, West Virginia.  Also speaking at this event were West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey, candidate for the US Senate, and West Virginia Governor Jim Justice.

This transcript was prepared for the American Presidency Project by Shalla Phan.

Donald J. Trump, Remarks at a “Make America Great Again” Rally in Wheeling, West Virginia Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/332459

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