Photo of Donald Trump

Remarks at a “Make America Great Again” Rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

August 02, 2018

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Pennsylvania. Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause]

I'm thrilled to be back in the state that gave us American independence. . . [applause] . . . American steel, which is coming back very strongly. . . [applause] . . . and generations of hard-working American patriots just like you. It's great to be here. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

We live in a truly incredible country and this is an incredible time. You see what's happening? We are respected again. We are respected again. [applause]

Our economy is soaring, our jobs are booming, factories are pouring back into our country. They're coming from all over the world. We're defending our workers. We're protecting our Constitution. [applause]

We're crushing the terrorists. [applause]

We're taking care of our vets. We love our vets. Love our vets. [applause]

Our military is stronger than ever before, $700 billion. [applause]

And the forgotten men and women of the United States are forgotten no more. [applause]

So, I just watched last night our great vice president, Mike Pence. [applause]

He traveled all the way to Hawaii, 12 hours--said that was OK; it wouldn't've mattered if it was 50 hours--to meet the remains and greet the families of the American heroes who gave their lives in Korea. [applause]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: Our fallen warriors are finally coming home to lay at rest in American soil. [applause]

A long time. It's been a long time.

CROWD MEMBER: Thank you, Mr. President!

THE PRESIDENT: We are honored to be joined tonight by your state's Republican nominee for governor. A great guy, somebody I know well. He is going to be one hell of a governor. He's tough. He's smart. Scott Wagner.

Scott! [applause]

And I also want to recognize your terrific Republican candidates for Congress, John Shren. . . [applause] . . . Dan Moser. . . [applause] . . . John Joyce, and a man that was there right from the beginning. He heard I was going to be running. He said, "You've got to go with Trump." A man named Tom Marino, and he was a good friend and is a good friend of Lou. They love each other. Tom Marino right from the beginning.

I also want to thank Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Val DiGiorgio. Val, thank you. [applause]

And David, thank you, and all of those people. David, you do some job on television, I want to tell you, David.

And we did a great job. You know, Pennsylvania, for years and years they talked about Pennsylvania will be won by the Republicans, right? It always got away. Nobody knew what happened. It always got away. But we won the state of Pennsylvania, you remember? Remember? [applause]

Remember that incredible night in November. Remember that incredible night. [applause]

And you remember that we were way up in Pennsylvania and there was only 2 percent of the vote left. And we were way up. If I lost every vote, we would've won the state of Pennsylvania. And the fake news refused to call it, right? They refused to call it. [booing]

We waited for hours. We were at 98 percent. I said, "What's going on? I want to win with the state of Pennsylvania." And then some interesting things happened before they called. They just refused. They said, "Donald Trump has won the great state of Wisconsin." Right? They said, "Donald Trump has won, for the first time in many years, both of them, the great state of Michigan," and you people didn't get the privilege of taking us over the top. Next time. Next time. [applause]

They wouldn't call it. I kept saying, "Why aren't they calling Pennsylvania?" Remember, an hour, two hours, so long, 98 percent and they wouldn't call it.

Well, they were suffering that night. That was suffering. [applause]

I remember a nice man--I actually like him. He's very talented--with a big chart, and all that red--it started getting red Republican. It started getting red. That chart red, red, red. The little--little tiny dot of blue along the ocean. [laughter]

Little blue over here around the Los Angeles area, that whole thing was red. And he's going, "Ohh," his hands start shaking. "Look, oh my God, another state came. Oh my God, what's this?" Fake news! [applause]

You know what you call them, right? Suppression polls, right? Suppression. They give you phony polls so that you say, "You know what darling? We have an election tonight. But Trump won't win because the polls are so bad. But let's go to a movie and then we'll come home, and we'll watch his defeat."

There's only one problem: Nobody believed them, and everybody went out to vote. Right? Everybody went out. [applause]

And they turned on the television and they said, "Darling, he's winning. Look, he just won Florida, just won North Carolina. He just won South Carolina." We had--that was something. Was that an exciting night? [applause]

That was an excite--one of the world's most.

You know, they kept saying, "The state of Texas," which I thought--every rally I went to was like this. And by the way, you think this is a big crowd? Go outside and take a look. Go outside. [applause]

But I kept--I'd go to Texas, and I said, "Boy, are we popular in Texas." [booing]

All right, get him out. Get him out. Get him out of here! [booing]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: So, getting back to Texas--so for two and a half months, I hear "Texas is in play." That means it's so close that it's going to be all night long before we find out who wins the state of Texas. And I couldn't understand it. And they said, "Utah is in play." I couldn't understand it. Go to Utah. Great people, incredible people.

And then we come to election night.

Now, I figured it's going to be close in Texas because I believed those people. No longer. But I believed. [booing]

So it hits 8 o'clock, and they go, like, two seconds after 8:00. "Donald Trump has won the state of Texas. Donald Trump has won the state of Utah." [applause]

And we won by so much.

And I said to my people, somewhat innocently, "What was that all about?" They said, "Sir, it's suppression. If they convince people through the polls, people don't go out to vote."

But I really mean it, our people went out to vote. And no better instance than the state of Pennsylvania. No better. [applause]

And I want to introduce a very special man, because he's been a friend of mine from the beginning. He's been with me. He said, "You're going to win. You're going to win." He's a great political person. He's a leader. He's running against somebody who's so overrated.

I mean, this guy--you know, I was telling a little story on Bob Casey. I've been there. [booing]

I've been--I have to do this before we introduce Lou.

CROWD: Lou!

THE PRESIDENT: So I've been in Washington now for more than a year and a half. [applause]

I hardly--I mean, honestly, I'm not sure I ever met Bob Casey. I've never met him.

And I'm sure I did. I shook his hand. But I'm not sure.

Now, his father was a good man; knew him a little bit. But we're dealing with a totally different person. I don't think--I don't know this man. He's a Senator. They're a hundred senators. I don't know him.

CROWD MEMBER: Obstructionist.

THE PRESIDENT: No, he's not an obstructionist. He's worse. He will do whatever Schumer, Pelosi and the new star. . . [booing] . . . and the new star of the Democrat Party tells him to do. You know who the new star? You know who that new leader is? Maxine Waters. [booing]

Very low IQ low. Low IQ.

No, no, Maxine Waters is like--she's like their new star.

But I want to introduce somebody that really is a star. He's smart. He's strong. He loves this state. People are just starting to know him, but I've known him for a long time. And you know, when he wants something for Pennsylvania, he is brutal. He's brutal.

So if you would, Lou Barletta, please come out. Lou Barletta. Lou Barletta. [applause] Lou Barletta.

LOU BARLETTA: Thank you. Thank you.

This is amazing. This is just amazing.

You know, I never, ever thought in my life that I would ever become a politician. I never thought that I would become a mayor. I never thought that I would become a congressman. But never in my wildest dreams did I ever believe that the President of the United States would come to my home area to help me win an election for the United States Senate. [applause]

Thank you. Thank you. I'm grateful and humbled by that.

You know, the economy is soaring under President Trump's economy. It is soaring. [applause]

The market--the market is up over 20 percent. Unemployment's at 4 percent. Black unemployment's at an all-time low. Hispanic unemployment's at an all-time low. Women's unemployment's at an all-time low. Small-business confidence is an all-time high. Consumer confidence is at an all-time high. There are more jobs now than people who are unemployed. [applause]

ISIS--ISIS is practically gone. North Korea's at the table. The wall is being built.

Why would we ever stop that? [applause]

We're not tired of winning, Mr. President. We're not tired of winning.

CROWD: Lou!

BARLETTA: But I want to tell you who wants to stop that. Bob Casey wants to stop that. He has become one of the most liberal senators in Washington. [booing]

He is leading the resistance and obstruction to President Trump's agenda. He is so radical. He is so radical now, that he said no to no matter who President Trump nominated for the Supreme Court. It didn't matter. He said no before he even mentioned who it was.

He gave us Obamacare. He supports sanctuary cities. He wants to take--take away your tax cuts. [booing]

He no longer represents the values of people here in Pennsylvania.

Now listen: This seat is very important. It's very important because we want to keep that economy going. We want to--we want to once again show our law enforcement and first responders the respect they deserve. [applause]

We want to--we want to take care of our vets. We want to honor our military. We want to secure our borders. We want to put an end to illegal immigration once and for all. [applause]

And we want to--and we want to take a knee to play and stand for the flag. [applause]

So I need everybody here. I need everybody here and everybody watching to help, help me help President Trump drain the swamp and make America great again. Thank you! [applause]

CROWD: Lou! [applause]

THE PRESIDENT: He did a good job. So long, folks. What do I have to do? Bye. [laughter]

So, Lou--you don't Lou, some people. They don't know him well. I've known him well for a long time.

All I had to do--I wanted him to get this position to run. I said, "All I have to do is introduce Lou Barletta to the public a little bit," because he's known in his area, his district, he's like a legend. He was a great mayor, a great congressman. [applause]

But the state didn't know him really as much. And tonight, they all know him.

This guy is a dynamo. He's incredible.

And I have to say you're dealing, on the other side, with the exact opposite. Lou mentioned some of the things, but when you think about Justice Gorsuch, you don't do better than that. You don't do better than that. [applause]

And Casey voted against him. And now we have somebody that's extraordinary, as you know, Judge Kavanaugh. [applause]

Yale College, Yale Law School, top, top student, top of everything. They predicted 15 years ago, when he was with a lot of other talented people, someday he'd be a Supreme Court judge.

And you know what? I think Casey doesn't even want to meet with him. You know why?

'Cause Schumer, Pelosi and Maxine Waters told him not to meet. [booing]

So he was no, and probably will be no. And maybe after tonight he'll vote yes, but I doubt it. Because his bosses are telling him what to do.

And they always have; not the father but the son, yes.

So they have no on Kavanaugh, no on Gorsuch, no on massive tax cuts. In fact, Casey and the group, they want to end the tax cuts and increase your taxes. Somehow that doesn't play well. Somehow. [booing]

Somehow that doesn't play too well.

And you know what else he was no on? The biggest thing that only really the business people in this room fully appreciate, he was no on regulation cutting.

We had regulations that made it impossible to do business in this country. Highways would take 21 years to get approved. We have it down to two years, and it's going to be one year very shortly. Very shortly. [applause]

And you know what? We want clean, beautiful water. We want crystal clear air. We want our air to be the best. It is; right now, it's the best it's ever been.

But you don't have to go through 97 different approvals over a 20-year period. And we may reject plenty, but we're going to reject them in a year and they can go on to do something else. We're not going to take them down the line 20, 21 years and then you have a 3-to-2 vote against the project where people work their entire lives to get it approved. So we've gotten rid of massive amounts of regulation. [applause]

Bob Casey. Bob Casey was joining President Obama. . . [booing] . . . and his horrible attacks on our clean coal industry. Bob Casey was making it absolutely impossible for the miners.

And Lou Barletta was fighting on behalf of our miners, our mines, our companies, and our beautiful Pennsylvania clean coal. [applause]

And Lou won, and so did I, and so did you.

So now with Lou on our side, we've won that war on coal and we're doing something else, because we're putting these great miners--these are great people. You know, in West Virginia, great mines, great people. I went--I said to the miners, "You remember when Hillary Clinton said 'We're going to close you up'?" Then she had to go down to Pennsyl--right? Then she had to come to Pennsylvania. [booing]

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

THE PRESIDENT: No, no, no, no.

They only want to hurt Republicans. They don't want to do anything. But you know what? It's all changing folks. It's all changing. Some things just take a little bit longer.

They only want to go after Republicans. You look at the kind of criminal actions and crime, they only want to go after the Republicans.

But Lou wants to put our miners back. And they are working. But I'll tell you what I'm really proud of now. About five months ago--it took a while to get all the statutory approvals. We're putting our steel workers back to work at clips that nobody would believe, right? [applause]

U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants. Nucor is opening up a brand new $250 million plant in Florida. Just left Florida. Did anybody like that one? Wasn't that great? [applause]

Great state of Florida.

That was another one. That was another one. They say, "The Republicans are going to have a hard time winning Florida." We won Florida quickly. They announced that one early in the night.

And we're doing better--the nice part, we're doing better in all of these states than we did on election night--much better. . . [applause] . . . despite only negative publicity, only negative stories from the fakers back there. [booing]

I go home, I see my wife. I said, "Honey, we're going to get the greatest-- I just did something so great today, you know. I just stopped missiles from being launched every two seconds in Korea." [applause]

"Baby, what I did with North Korea was great. I got along great with Chairman Kim. I got along great."

That's a good thing, not a bad thing, by the way. [applause]

I got along. "And you know what? Baby, I got the hostages back. Didn't have to pay anything." [applause]

"And you know what, honey? They're not testing any more nuclear. They haven't had a test in nine months. And you know what else? They're not sending rockets over Japan and they're not sending missiles over Japan and they're not launching missiles anymore. They haven't launched one in nine months."

I said, "Oh, the media is going to treat me, finally, so good. So good. I mean, it's going to be so great, baby. I'm looking so forward to getting up tomorrow and reading those dying papers." [laughter]

And what do I read? What do I read? So I left three months ago. What do I read? They've been working on this stuff for 75 years. Obama didn't do anything. In all fairness, other administrations did nothing.

They've been working on it for so many decades. What do I read? I left three months ago. "Donald Trump isn't moving fast enough." Would you believe? [laughter]

I'm not moving fast enough.

Oh boy, what a group. What a group.

You know another one in Helsinki, I had a great meeting with Putin. We discussed everything. I had a great meeting. [applause]

I had a great meeting. We got along really well.

By the way, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. That's a really good thing. [applause]

Now, we're being hindered by the Russian hoax. It's a hoax, OK?

I'll tell you what: Russia's very unhappy that Trump won, that I can tell you.

But I got along great with Putin. And everybody said, "Wow, that was great. That was great." A couple of hours later I started hearing these reports that, you know, they wanted me to walk up--here's a podium, they wanted me to walk up and go like this. [laughter]

They wanted me to go up and have a boxing match. I said, "Whatever happened to diplomacy?" And by the way, whatever happened to diplomacy?

You know, I used to study--not too much--diplomacy. I said, "Whatever happened to getting everything you want?"

Now, some you have to be rough, some you have to be nice. But whatever happened?

And let me tell you, if I did go up and start screaming, they would've said, "He was terrible. He was so rude. It was horrible. His performance was horrible."

Whatever happened to fair press? Whatever happened to honest reporting? [booing]

So, we had a great meeting with Russia, we had a great meeting with Putin, although they just hammered, because they really thought I was soft. Soft? I mean, I was--I was the one that let out 60 diplomats. I was the one that complained about the fact that Germany is paying billions of dollars for a ridiculous pipeline coming into Germany. They're paying billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia. I was the one that complained about it.

We had a bad conflict in the Middle East, which I hate, but we had a conflict, and a lot of people died and it was horrible. A lot of people died and I hate it. But we're going to win all the time, folks. We're going to win all the time. [applause]

But if I get along with Vladimir Putin, that's a good thing, folks, not a bad thing. Good--a good thing.

Then--then I met with NATO. Now, NATO--in all fairness, 29 countries including us, NATO has been ripping us. We've been defending Europe and they're not paying their bills. So I went in and I said, "Folks, you got to pay up. You're delinquent." They'll be paying $200 billion. It took me one hour, but it was a rough hour. [applause]

The head of NATO, Secretary General Stoltenberg, said to the press--they don't report it, they only make up stories. They only make up.

So what happened, he said, last year alone, because of what I did the previous year, we took in $44 billion more. You have to understand, this is money to guard against Russia. I wouldn't say Putin's thrilled about that. Not thrilled. 44.

Now, they will be taking in over a period--short period of years $200 billion, $200 billion.

Are you OK? Is it OK? Are they OK? You all right? We got to stick with our people that wait here for hours and hours, right? [applause]

Come on, are you OK, darling? Good.

She looks good. We got to stick with those people. Anybody in this front row, they've been here for many hours.

Thank you, darling. Thank you. [applause]

Thank you. And come back. If you want, come back after you feel a little bit better. You come back, darling, OK? Come back, all right? You come back.

Make sure she gets back. We'll bring her up here. [applause]

Beautiful. Thank you.

So I raised 44 billion last year. And, you know--I don't know if you know, NATO funding was going down. And they said, our other presidents--I won't be particular. Of course, you're only dealing with, like, let's say three people. We won't go back any further than that--they would come, they would make a speech, they'd say, "Could you please pay a little more money? Thank you very much. Well, good luck, everybody." They'd leave; nobody would pay. [laughter]

The next one would come, "You know NATO, they don't pay any money. We're defending Europe. They don't pay any money. Could you please pay a little bit more money? Thank you very much, everybody. It's been wonderful meeting you. Thank you very much, Luxembourg. Thank you very much." They don't pay.

The next one comes, same thing.

And I came I said, "Fellas, you're delinquent, you got to pay. You got to pay." [applause]

And one of the leaders said, Well, Mr. President, could I ask you a question? If we don't pay, what are you going to do about it?" I said, "Do you want protection or not? Do you want protection or not?" [applause]

So I said to my wife, "You know, I just raised, like, a couple of hundred billion dollars and it was like so easy. It was so easy." I said, "Honey, wait'll you see the press I get on this it’s going to be great. It's going to be great!"

And here's what the fake news said. . . [booing]

Go on.

They said, "Donald Trump, our president, was extremely rude to presidents and prime ministers" and in a couple of cases dictators, but that's all right. But "Donald Trump was very rude."

They don't talk about the money I raised. I was rude.

And I wasn't. Actually I have a better relationship with every one of them than any other president has had, every one. [applause]

And they respect us again. They respect us again.

So NATO is very well-funded. These countries are starting to pay up. You got to pay up, folks. You got to pay up.

You know, we went through the entire room and the last gentlemen, a prime minister, said, "You know, we're all saying how wonderful everything is, but I don't think the president of the United States is happy. Nobody's talking about that." And he looked at me and said, "President," this before they made the commitment, he said, "President, are you happy?" To me.

I said, "No. Thank you for bringing it up." This is after they went through 28 people. I said "Thank you very much for bringing it up."

And this gentleman--and maybe they'll find a transcript--he said, "We got to make the president happy."

I said "The only way I'm going to be happy is you got to pay your bills, folks. You got to pay your bills." [applause]

Because the United States is not going to continue to spend our money, our sweat, our tears, our blood on people that aren't.

And you know, I don't know if you know it, and I said to them as a room, I said, "Look, I'm all for NATO. One thing I know is that NATO, which protects Europe, is better for Europe than it is for the United States. We're way far away."

You know, you'll listen to some of the generals, "Sir, they are an ally. We must protect them." And they're a long way away.

I'm all for NATO. You know why? Because now the money is pouring in.

And they said I treated them badly and I didn't. I have such a great relationship. So I'm very proud of it.

So when I woke up, I said, "This is going to be great. Finally, finally I'm going to get great press. This is going to be great." And I got hammered by even NATO.

So NATO's in great shape. Our country's in great shape. We're so strong again, so strong. We are so strong. [applause]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: Shall I give you one more of those crazy stories? This was on the trip. So one more? [applause]

So, I have great respect for the U.K., United Kingdom. Great respect. People call it Britain. They call it Great Britain. They call it--they used to call it England, different parts. But the U.K., great respect.

And I was asked to have tea with the queen, who is incredible, by the way. Incredible. [applause]

So I was hearing--I had landed and I'm on the grounds and I'm waiting with the king's and with the queen's guards. Wonderful people. I'm waiting. So I was about 15 minutes early and I'm

waiting with my wife. And that's fine. Hey, it's the queen right? We can wait. But I'm a little early.

So I then go up and meet the queen and she is fantastic. We then go up and we have tea. And I didn't know this, it was supposed to last for 15 minutes, but it lasted for, like, an hour because we got along. We got along. [applause]

And she liked our first lady and our first lady liked her. And I won't talk about conversation because you're not supposed to. Unless you want to hear. No, I'm only kidding.

But we got along fantastically well and the time went by. You know, like, sometimes if you like somebody you get along, good chemistry, the time goes by. So we were there for about an hour.

So here's the story. I got there--remember, I got there early and the queen's guards waited with me. Waited. In fact, we took a helicopter.

See all these Secret Service guys? They're not late. They're not--they're not, like, late. [applause]

They don't believe in being late. They believe--they're incredible. They believe in being early, not late.

One of them said to me, "Sir, we weren't late."

So here was the story by the fake news, "The president was 15 minutes late for the queen." Wrong. [booing]

And then here's the rest of the story. No, here's the rest. Here's the rest of the story.

So, they said I was late, when I was actually early, number one.

Number two, I guess the meeting was scheduled for 15 minutes and it lasted for almost an hour. "The president overstayed."

So, I was late and I overstayed. And honestly folks it was such a beautiful, beautiful visit and afternoon. But they can make anything bad because they are the fake, fake, disgusting news. [booing]

All right, let's get back to some boring subjects like Bob Casey. [laughter]

So Bob Casey--boy, isn't that boring after these wonderful--and I'm now going to talk about Bob Casey, I'll start falling asleep.

Don't fall asleep as we talk about Sleeping Bob. [laughter]

Sleeping Bob, hah. [applause]

That's it, Sleeping Bob. That's it. [applause]

That's it. Sleeping Bob.

So Bob Casey--Bob Casey is for open borders. [booing]

In other words--look, folks--hey, folks, I went to school in Pennsylvania. I went to a great school in Philadelphia. Great. The best. I went to the best school. And you wouldn't believe it, but I was a very good student. These people would never tell you that.

But, you know, I know the people of Pennsylvania very well. And they are not for super-liberal Democrats. They're just not. Unless maybe the world has changed.

But Bob Casey wants open borders, which means crime. It means crime. You see this. He wants people to pour in, and if they pour in by the millions, that's, I guess, OK. I don't get it.

CROWD: Lou!

THE PRESIDENT: Lou, Lou, yeah.

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

THE PRESIDENT: Building. We're building it. We're building it. We're building it.

So, we've started the wall, $1.6 billion. We're fixing walls all over the border. And we're going to start to get very nasty over the wall.

You know, the Democrats--anything I want--and it's not even the Republicans. I don't know if they care about the--if they care about me. They're very concerned.

Anything I want, they want to oppose. You know, I just figured out how to do the wall: I'll say I don't want to build the wall and they'll insist on building it. [applause]

I just figured that out right now.

So Bob Casey doesn't mind MS-13 coming in. [booing]

These are the slicers. They slice people up and they're--and remember I called them animal and Nancy Pelosi scolded me, "How dare he call another human being an animal?" They're animals. [applause]

Bob Casey wants to fire the incredible men and women of ICE. He wants to abolish ICE, because he's weak. [booing]

And let me just tell you something. These people are so tough. And you need tough, because the only thing that MS-13 and these gangs that we're throwing the hell out of here at record numbers--we're doing a good job. [applause]

But the only thing that these gangs understand is tough. They don't understand a nice person like the gentleman in the second row. He's a nice man. I can see.

Sir, you wouldn't last two minutes talking to ICE. I hate to say it.

His wife knows I'm telling the truth. [laughter]

We need strong people.

I have a sheriff, was a great friend of mine. And he said--and he's had a problem with the MS-13 people. He said to me, "You know something, President, I really don't mind ICE comes in and does the job. I really don't want"--you know, this is tough stuff.

They want to get rid of these incredible warriors. They're warriors. We're fighting a war and we're fighting a war on drugs. They're bringing in drugs. They're bringing in lots of bad people. We're getting the hell--we're stopping it.

So we're going to be taking some very tough actions. [applause]

Going to be taking some tough actions.

I don't know if it's before the election or after the election. You know, a lot of the Republicans say--and they're good. They're good. We need more Republicans. But they're friends of mine.

They say, "President, you know?" And some of them are really tough guys. And they said, "Sir, we're better off if we wait till after."

I say, "It's better before. Let's do it before." "Sir, we're better off."

You know who thinks it should be before? Rush Limbaugh thinks it should be before. . . [applause] . . . before the election. You know who else? Sean Hannity. A lot of them. A lot of them. [applause]

Great people.

You know, a lot of people think--but a lot of great Republicans, well-meaning. I don't mean like they're well-meaning.

They say, "Look, we have the best economy ever. We're doing great. Maybe we don't want to complicate it."

And I understand it. I'm a little torn myself. I would personally prefer before, but whether it's before or after, we're either getting it or we're closing down government. We need border security. We need border security. [applause]

We got to have border security.

We got to get rid of visa--how about that?--visa, visa lottery. You know what a lottery is? You pick it out of a hat.

Now, do you think that these countries, many of whom get aid from us and then they send--remember when I did, I hate to say it, coming down the escalator, the beautiful first lady in the white dress coming down that escalator, that big, big beautiful day? [applause]

When everybody said, "Oh, he's just doing this for fun. He doesn't really mean it." Man, if I don't mean it, I hope you're telling me soon, because it's a lot of work. [laughter]

But coming down the escalator, and you remember what I said, "They're sending." Do you remember that? "They're sending."

And I mentioned words--I won't even mention them tonight because there's a lot of young people here, but I mentioned words and everybody thought it was wonderful. But then about two days later they said, "Did he say this? Did he say that?"

Guess what? What I said is peanuts compared to what turns out to be the truth. It's peanuts. [applause]

So--so, we're going to have not lottery where you pick it out. "Ladies and gentlemen, our first lottery winner." You know, they think we're playing, like, a game show. [laughter]

"Our first lottery winner. Let's see he has seven convictions for death. He's killed nine people. And we're getting him the hell out of our country and giving them to the stupid politicians that have been running the United States for many years. And we're going to send him up there because he just won the lottery. Congratulations. Congratulations. Yeah, that's a beauty."

Then you have chain migration. Chain migration. [booing]

And this was a Schumer deal. Schumer wanted this. Schumer.

You have chain migration. You know what that is? A guy comes in--stone-cold killer in many cases. A guy comes in, and then you have to bring his aunt, his uncle, his father, his grandfather, his grandparents, his third niece by a different marriage.

So, this bad guy that ran over and killed eight people on the West Side Highway in New York City--a place I know very well--driving like 80 miles an hour in a 20-mile zone. And then he said, "Hey, look, there's people. Nice people. They're relaxing. Some are jogging. Beautiful park along the Hudson River." He decides to kill them. So he makes a right turn. He killed eight and many are just decapitated. They lost arms. They lost limbs. They lost so much. They lost their life. But they lost so much.

You know, nobody ever talks about this seriously injured people. They always talk about the people that died. In some cases, those are the lucky ones. What happens with some of these people how badly injured they are, their lives are so badly destroyed.

And this animal killed eight and he wounded eight or nine. Some are still in the hospital; that was a year and a half ago.

And he came in through chain, and he has 22 relatives here that came in because he was here. He has his uncle and his aunt and he has his grandfather.

So, we have to change this and we're going to change it.

And here's the last: We have to change--we have to change a thing called catch and release. This is like for stupid people, catch and release.

Somebody walks across the border, they put their foot on there, not even two feet, just one foot. And you might as well, "Welcome to the United States, we'll never get you out of here," OK?

Remember when I said about a month ago I said, "No, I don't want to"--they want me to hire thousands of judges, thousands--can you imagine the corruption that would take place, you're hiring thousands? You go into a barber shop, "Anybody want to be a judge? We need judges." [laughter]

They want me to hire thousands. I said, "We don't need judges. We need Border Patrol. We need Border Patrol." [applause]

If you have a house and somebody goes to sleep on your lawn, you say, "Sorry, folks, get out of here." If you call the police they're going to remove--they're going to take--it's your lawn. This is our country. This is our country. Get the hell out. [applause]

And we're doing really well, but we have really bad laws. You know, we're setting record numbers in terms of positive stuff, but we just have bad laws.

So catch and release. You catch him, now you take his name and then you release him. And he's supposed to show up to a court hearing.

The problem is, there's thousands and thousands of people, we don't have enough judges, but hopefully the Justice Department will get moving on that. Hopefully. Come on, Justice Department, get us some judges over there, focus, focus.

So, they come back three or four years later but here's the problem: They never come back. They don't come back. Why the hell would they come back?

So, a very tiny percentage comes back. So, you catch a stone-cold criminal, you take his name, you see he's the criminal, you see he's bad in many cases. Catch and release. You catch him and you then release him.

And he now goes into your wonderful towns. He now comes to the wonderful state of Pennsylvania. [booing]

Catch and release, we have to end it. So we have to end catch and release.

We have to end our lottery system, and we have to end chain migration. And we have to build the wall and we're going to do it. [applause]

And Bob Casey is against every one of the things I just said. He wants the lottery system. He wants chain migration.

By the way, if you ask him why, he can't--he wants it because Schumer said to have it.

They think it's good politically. I'll tell you what, I think it's horrible politically. What do I know? But I did become president in like a year and a half. [applause]

So, we need Republicans. We need Lou Barletta. He is tough. We need Lou Barletta.

CROWD: Lou!

THE PRESIDENT: We do. He is tough.

They're liking you, Lou. They're liking you. I could have told you that a long time ago.

All you have to do is meet him. All you have to do is see him.

I hear that Bob Casey is afraid to debate Lou Barletta. He doesn't want to debate. I hear he's afraid to debate. Is that true? I hear he's afraid to debate.

Oh, I want to watch that debate. I want to be--is the president of the United States allowed to come into the debate forum, where you probably have 25 people watching, and is he allowed to sit in the front row watching Lou Barletta destroy in the debate Bob Casey? [applause]

Am I allowed to that? Because if I am, I'll be there. I'll be there.

That will be great entertainment. That'll be great entertainment.

I've seen this one before. He's tough.

So, I want to thank Republican leadership because America is winning again. [applause]

Lou said it before, but last week we announced that the U.S. economy grew at 4.1 percent last quarter. Nobody thought that was possible. [applause]

And if the Democrats got in, that number would be 1.2, it could even turn negative. It was going to go down. We were set to have--because of the regulations. It was choking. We were being choked.

Don't forget, I approved the Keystone XL pipeline and I approved the Dakota Access pipeline, 48,000 jobs in, like, my first few hours in office. [applause]

Since the election, we've added a number that nobody would have believed, and that I would have never said on the campaign trail--I wouldn't have said it, because they would have done a big number on me--3.7 million new jobs, including close to 400,000 jobs in the manufacturing world. [applause]

Remember? Remember? Remember when they said manufacturing is dead? Oh, it is? Well, who's going make things? I mean, tell me. "Manufacturing is dead," they said. We've added 400,000 incredible jobs.

And you've heard this but I'm going to say it over and over because I'm really proud of it: Remember I said, "What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose?" African-Americans and so many others, I said, "What do you have to lose? You have high crime rates. You have horrible education. You have this"--I went through a list of 10, that's what happened. And I looked and I said, "You've been totally giving your votes to Democrats. They've let you down." I said, "What the hell do you have to lose?" [applause]

And you know what? This new election and certainly the next one, where we're going to have it just "Keep America Great"--I tell you, I love those hats, but they're going to be, you know, "Make America Great Again" will morph into "Keep America Great," exclamation point. [applause]

But don't lose those hats. They'll be very valuable someday.

Make America Great Again, maybe the greatest slogan ever, right?

Ronald Reagan had one, "Let's Make America Great." I like it, but ours is better. I like ours better.

So, what happened is the African-American unemployment rate has reached the lowest level in the history of our country. [applause]

Honestly, think of that number. I really think that's hard for the Democrats to beat. I mean, think of that statement: I got the lowest number for you in the history of our country. How do you top that?

Let's say I'm running against Pocahontas or. . . [laughter] . . . or crazy Bernie. I tell you, I got to hand it to Bernie. I saw him up there the other day, that hair is getting whiter and whiter, and he's getting crazier and crazier. And I saw him, "We'll stop Donald Trump. We'll stop him."

And I looked at my wife, I said, "You know what? You got to hand it to that guy. Man, that guy, he doesn't quit."

And that's OK. Crazy Bernie, he is one crazy dude. [laughter]

So, I don't know who we're going to run against. I don't know.

But when Bernie tells how wonderful things are, think of it, he wants to raise your taxes, he wants to create massive amounts of crime, he wants to open your borders. Think of it. Just think of it.

When he goes out, and I say one thing: "African-American, Hispanic, Asian, you have the lowest level of unemployment in the history of our country," how does somebody fight that, right? How does somebody fight it, right? [applause]

How do you fight that?

Don't forget, when I was running the last time against Crooked Hillary, what happened? What happened? I had nothing like that. I said I was going to do that, but you had to take my word for it.

One of these guys said recently, "Whether you like him or not, he's actually fulfilled more promises than he made," and I have. And I have. [applause]

And I had Obamacare done except one guy at 2 o'clock in the morning went in and said. . . [booing] . . . he went thumbs down, even though he campaigned for years repeal and replace all right.

But we've done a number on Obamacare. We're coming out with tremendous health care plans. We've gotten rid of the individual mandate, the most unpopular thing probably in our country. [applause]

Gone, gone, no individual mandate, where you have the privilege to pay a fortune as a penalty in order not to pay a fortune for bad health care. Think of that. Is that a good thing? I don't think so.

We got rid of it. It's gone.

You know how many people have come up to me and said, "Thank you very much for getting rid of the individual mandate"? Sounds so nice. Isn't it a beautiful term?

The individual mandate is wonderful. See, I'm acting presidential now. The individual mandate. [laughter]

The individual mandate is a disaster; it sounds good. Like the Affordable Care Act was not affordable.

Remember when Bill Clinton got up, he said, "The problem with the Affordable Care Act is that it's not affordable"? And then you didn't hear from him for two weeks because he got the hell knocked out of him by Crooked Hillary. [applause]

For two weeks he went dead silent. They wouldn't let him out of the house. [applause]

The women's unemployment rate--I'm sorry, women, damn it--is the lowest in only 65 years, not history. Sorry. But it'll be low soon. It'll be--so it's 65 years, 65 years. But I would almost bet within two weeks or the next time this incredible statistical group is relaxed and released, I would say that probably the women will be historic also, right? Right? I think so. [applause]

But it's 65 years. I'm doing my best. 52 percent.

Oh, the women liked me, you know. [applause]

They liked me. They liked me.

I keep hearing it, but look at all those signs, the pink signs with the women. Look at that. Look at that. [applause]

The women have been great. And I think they are incredible. They have a harder job than all of us, fellows, let me tell you. The women are great.

And we did great with the women. In fact, I remember, again, on election night they said, "How the hell did this happen?" Remember, they were giving you phony numbers on that, too.

The veterans unemployment rate has reached the lowest level in 18 years and that's going to go up very rapidly. [applause]

More than 3.5 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps. [applause]

More than 4 million Americans are going to receive job training under our new workforce initiative. [applause]

Manufacturing, consumer and business confidence has reached the highest level in the history of our country. I'd say that's pretty good. [applause]

Confidence is a good thing. Having confidence--what do you think, having confidence is good, right? [applause]

If you have confidence and you know what you're doing, you can't lose.

That's a great stat, think of it, essentially business the most confident in our country. It's great.

The United States is now a net natural gas exporter for the first time in more than 60 years. [applause]

And Pennsylvania workers are leading the way. You're leading the way. I don't know if you even know that. Right? [applause]

Now that we have the best economy in the history of our country, this is the time to straighten out the worst trade deals ever made by any country on Earth at any time.

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: For generations, Pennsylvania steel and Pennsylvania coal made this state the center of the industrial world. The workers of Scranton and Bethlehem and Allentown and Wilkes-Barre were the backbone of American might. They really were the backbone of our country, the backbone of American strength and might. But the loyalty of our workers was repaid with betrayal. You were betrayed by our politicians. You were betrayed by the people that ran our country. But you're not betrayed anymore. [applause]

Pennsylvania lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs and China joined the WTO. Right now, China is not too happy with me. But I have great respect for President Xi and I have great respect for China. It's not their fault that our leaders were stupid. [applause]

For decades, our politicians ran for office pledging to crack down on unfair trade, but they never did it. But once elected, they did absolutely nothing, and our workers and our country got ripped off like no country ever before in the history of the world. We got ripped off. It was a massive, massive transfer of wealth to other countries.

The politicians just watched as other countries stole our jobs, plundered our wealth and looted the crown jewels of the American economy.

But I am not another politician. I keep my promises to the people. [applause]

I didn't need this. I didn't need this. I didn't need it. I had a very nice life. I didn't need to be--you know, I used to get, actually, good press. I didn't need this. But I love it.

I love it because we're doing things that are historic. There has never been--and even these people back here, these horrible horrendous people. . . [laughter]

Even these people back there said, "Look at this. It looks like the Academy Awards there's so many. You ever see this? Is this the Academy Awards you're doing?"

Even these people, they say probably in the history of this country, maybe in the history of the world, there has never been anything like what happened in November of '16. [applause]

Probably not. Probably never happened. Probably never happened. I really believe there's never been.

I remember watching one, and we were starting to do really well. In that last two weeks I had crowds like this everywhere, we had thousands of people outside they couldn't get in. I said, "So why are we going to lose?" Hillary would come in, she'd have 350 people. [laughter]

She'd bring in Beyonce, and then Jay-Z would get up and use language that was so bad, if I ever used that language I'd be run out of the country. They say "Trump's language is very tough." Did you ever hear Jay-Z?

And she'd bring in Bruce Springsteen and then draw crowds. . . [booing]

They were drawing crowds smaller than my crowds. And I said, "Why are we going to lose?" And you know what? We didn't.

But what happened was interesting. Because they started off by saying, "We haven't seen anything like this since Ronald Reagan." I like Ronald Reagan. [applause]

And then it got bigger and bigger and wilder and wilder, and then we won by a lot. Don't forget it was 306 to 223; that's a lot. Remember?

"There is no way"--according to fake news CNN, "There is no way for Trump to get to 270"--you got to get to 270--"there is no path"--remember the expression, ladies and gentlemen?--"There is no path for Donald Trump to get to 270." No, there wasn't, but 306 was no problem. [applause]

So, after years of rebuilding other countries, we are finally rebuilding our country. [applause]

In the numbers that were just released--the reporters didn't cover this one; to me it was maybe more important than the 4.1, because we're going to be doing a lot better than 4.1 as things go--for the first time maybe ever, the trade deficit just fell--think of that--by, for the quarter, $52 billion. Nobody reports it. [applause]

Why don't you report that? Just fell by $52 billion.

And because of our economic planning and our charging taxes, or tariffs, to all of the dumpers of steel all over our country, America's steel mills are roaring again. [applause]

Our country is being respected again, because we are finally putting America first. [applause]

We've eliminated a record number of job-crushing regulations. I withdrew the United States from the unfair and very, very expensive for our country Paris Climate Accord. So unfair. [booing]

That was another great rip-off.

Republicans just passed the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country. [applause]

And the Democrats want to lift them way up. Remember that, when you go to vote, they want to end your tax cuts and they want to lift it up so they can waste your money on a lot of nonsense. [booing]

And very importantly, we saved our family farms and our small businesses from the estate tax, also known as the death tax. [applause]

No longer the death tax. No longer will they pay the estate tax, our family farmers.

The individual mandate's gone, the penalty is gone. Through associate health plans--you know that--the association health plans are giving us and allowing Americans to join forces to buy much better health care for a fraction of the cost. And you can go cross state lines and negotiate with everybody you want to negotiate with. [applause]

We've invested a record $700 billion in our military and $716 billion next year. We're rebuilding our military with the finest planes, the finest missiles, the finest ships anywhere in the world. We had to do it. We had to do it. [applause]

And they're all made in the USA, folks. It's called jobs, too.

In that case, much less important, because there's nothing so important as protection on our military. But in this case the only time it's secondarily, it's called jobs, because all of this equipment and all of these brilliant planes--and everybody else they want to buy, all of them. We have a backlog. We make the greatest military equipment in the world. We make the greatest jets. We make the greatest ships. We make the greatest missiles. We have the anti-missile missiles that shoot down missiles many, many miles away in the sky, like a needle in a haystack. They shoot them down, hard to believe. [applause]

And we're surrounding our country with them, by the way, if you don't mind.

Remember what other countries said? "We don't want you to put defensive mishes (sic) and missiles in your country." You don't want us to put--explain that to me, please.

Remember? They used to get angry when we would put defensive missiles, anti-missile missiles in our country. And so we wouldn't do it.

No thanks. We'll put them in, if you don't mind. [applause]

And I've directed the Pentagon to begin the process of creating a sixth branch of the United States armed forces called the Space Force. Very important. [applause]

We just passed the landmark V.A. accountability law. Now if a bad government worker mistreats or neglects or steals, does anything bad to our great veterans, we turn to them and we say, "You're fired, get the hell out of here." Right? [applause]

Got to do it. Got to do it.

Maybe most importantly--that was 40 years they tried to get accountability. But even more, I wanted Veterans Choice, where if a veteran isn't properly served, if they have to wait three, four or five weeks--can you imagine yourselves, the doctor says, "Oh, that's OK. Come back in 22 days"? People that were not ill end up being terminally ill because they can't see a doctor.

So we passed--they've been trying to pass it for 40 years, we just passed--I signed it a month ago, Veterans Choice, where a veteran--our great, great veterans, if they have to wait for a long period, they go outside, they go to a private doctor and we pay the bill. [applause]

Right?

I withdrew the United States from the horrible and very expensive--and a deal that didn't work--the Iran nuclear deal. [applause]

And I hope everything's going to be fine with us and Iran. But I will tell you, they are a much different country than they were four months ago.

I also recognized the capital of Israel, and five months later we opened the American Embassy in Jerusalem. [applause]

Instead of apologizing for America, we are standing up, and we love our country, and we're saying we have a great country. We don't apologize anymore. [applause]

We're standing up for the heroes who defend America. And we're proudly standing up for our national anthem. [applause]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: With every promise we keep, every record we break, and every factory we open, we are restoring American strength and we are restoring American pride. [applause]

But to continue this incredible movement, we must elect more Republicans so we can get the votes that we need to pass these incredible programs. [applause]

And most importantly, get your friends, get your neighbors, and get out and vote for an incredible champion, an incredible winner, Lou Barletta. [applause]

CROWD: Lou!

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

This is the state where our founding fathers declared our independence, signed our Constitution and defended our God-given rights. [applause]

Proud Pennsylvania workers mined the coal, worked the railroads and forged the steel that made America into the greatest and most powerful nation in the history of our world. And now it's more powerful and richer than ever before, and it's only going to get better. [applause]

From Valley Forge to Gettysburg to Normandy, Pennsylvania patriots gave their sweat, their blood and their very lives to protect our families, our freedom and our great American flag. [applause]

We stand on the shoulders of these American patriots who knew how to work, knew how to fight and knew how to win. They knew how to win. [applause]

With your help, your voice and your vote, we are going to keep on fighting and we are going to keep on winning. We are going to win so much perhaps some of you, but not all, will get tired of winning. Anybody going to get tired of winning? [applause]

We will never give up, we will never give in, we will never back down, and we will never stop fighting for this land that we love. [applause]

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

We are one people, one family and one glorious nation under God. And together, we will make America wealthy again, we will make America strong again, we will make America safe again, and we will make America great again. [applause]

Thank you, Pennsylvania. Vote for Lou. Thank you. Vote for Lou. [applause]

NOTE: President Trump spoke at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, PA.  Also speaking on the program was U.S. Representative Lou Barletta (PA-11) who was a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

This transcript prepared for the APP by Shalla Phan.

Donald J. Trump (1st Term), Remarks at a “Make America Great Again” Rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/332441

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