Remarks at the American Cornerstone Institute Founders Dinner in Mount Vernon, Virginia

The President. I love that song. I love Ben too, or I wouldn't be here.

I had a thing tonight. As I said, Ben is being honored. And I just got back from Europe, as you know, and we had a great time. But I've been doing this for 4 nights in a row, and they do it very well, as you probably notice. It's great.

But I never thought—you know, Ben was expecting a call that I wouldn't be coming tonight. But I never even thought of that. But I did try and get out of the tuxedo, I will say—[laughter]—because I'm getting ready, and I'm just about set to go, and they say, "Sir, you know it's black tie tonight." I said, "You've got to be kidding." [Laughter] So I said, "Do you think Ben would mind if I showed up in other than black tie?" They said, "He'd be fine with it, sir." I said, "No, he's a man that I respect too much to do that." So I put the damn tuxedo on, and here we are. [Laughter] That's true. Very special.

So I'm thrilled to be here with so many friends and distinguished guests who support the phenomenal organization, the American Cornerstone Institute, dedicated to life, liberty, community, and faith. And that's Ben and Candy, frankly. Incredible family.

I especially want to thank the extraordinary patriot, American Cornerstone founder, Dr. Ben Carson. We know him as Ben, but he's doctor. He's a great doctor. One of the best.

And especially, I'd like to thank Candy, because I've known Candy for a long time, and she's the rock behind that man. She's the rock. Wherever you are, Candy—I know you're there. These lights are brutal, but that's okay. I know you're out there, Candy, and we love you.

And there's—there you are. Thank you.

They're rough lights tonight, Candy. They wanted to do this. They wanted to do a little torture on Trump. "Let's put those lights right in his eyes." [Laughter]

But I also want to wish Ben a very happy birthday—I won't ask how many years—because we don't like talking about that—and personally congratulate the recipient of this year's ACI Founders Award to Susie Wiles. Susie. Where is Susie? There you are.

Not only is Susie the first female White House Chief of Staff—that's really surprising. I thought there'd be, like, a few. None. But it's in history. She's the first. She's also the best. I will tell you that; she's the best. She makes problems go away.

Now, when I say that, I'll knock on wood, because I don't want—[laughter]—she makes problems go away. You know, she's the most powerful woman anywhere in the world, they said. I read that today someplace, Susie. You're the most—she—one phone call, and countries can disappear. [Laughter] But she's not that type of a person. But she is—I believe she is the most powerful woman in the world. That's pretty good, right?

We're also delighted to be joined by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, and there's nobody better than Chris. Chris. Thank you, Chris. He's great. What a combination those two are. I'll tell you, between Chris and Doug, what a combination. It's unbelievable.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner. Thank you, Scott. Thank you. By the way, a strong recommendation of Ben. He said—you know, Ben did such a great job with that, and I would have given it to Ben, but Ben said: "I've had it. I want other things to do." But—and he's gone on to some very important things. But he said, "The best guy is Scott Turner." And I said that's okay with me. Right, Scott? And he's been fantastic.

A friend of mine for a long time, Ambassador to NATO, Matt Whitaker. Hey, Matt, they have to stop buying oil from Russia, Matt. [Laughter] Will you talk to those—will you talk to them, please?

U.S. Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Matthew G. Whitaker. [Inaudible] I will.

The President. The Europeans are buying oil from Russia. It's not supposed to happen, right? Matt won't let it happen much longer. But that's not good.

CMS Administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz. Oz? Where's Oz? How are we doing on favored nations, Oz?

Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz. Next week!

The President. Next week, okay. Favored nations. We're going to be reducing drug prices down to a level that nobody—not by 20 percent, 30 percent—by like 1,000 percent. Because, you know, we're paying sometimes 10 times more than other nations, and we're not doing it anymore. It's been going on for a long time. That was a deal with drug companies and nations, how to take advantage of the United States.

You're going to see the biggest cuts in drug prices, which is going to be great for every aspect—Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, everything. It's going to have numbers—I mean, we're going to literally be cutting prices by 500 percent, 600 percent. Drugs that sell for $88 in London are selling for $130.

You know, and think of it: $1,300 for—I call it the "fat killer." I don't know if it works or not—[laughter]—but it didn't work for a friend of mine who called me. He said—he's a very successful guy, seriously obese. Seriously. Highly neurotic, but a brilliant businessman. You need those qualities sometimes, you know? And he calls me up. He used to call me "Donny." "Donny." Now he calls me "President." So he's come a long way. [Laughter]

But he was in a hotel and he was in London, and he sent down for, I guess, it's Ozempic, which we call the "fat drug." And he lives in New York in a beautiful apartment. Extremely crude individual. He doesn't mind me saying that—[laughter]—as long as I don't tell his name, because we know a lot of people like him, though: very successful, fat—[laughter]—neurotic. All the ingredients you need for success, right?

And he said, "President, you know, I'm—this is crazy." It doesn't affect him anything, but "this is crazy." He said, "I—in New York, I pay $1,300 for this thing, and here I paid $88." I said, "What is it?" "You lose weight." I said, "Didn't work on you." [Laughter] Didn't work.

"But what are you talking"—he said: "It's $88 in London. It's $1,300 in New York." And while that money doesn't bother this guy at all—he's got a lot of money—but the concept bothers him. You know, like what the hell is going on? And we've all known it's been a secret. Dr. Oz is in charge, and he's a smart, tough guy, and I hope he's going to do the job on it, because it's done. The deal is done.

And the drug companies—and they've been for years, for 20 years—this has been going on for many years, decades. And basically, the United States has been paying for the cost of drugs of other nations, and it's not going on any longer. I called the drug companies. I called one of the best. I won't use the name because he's actually a high-quality guy. Makes about $40 million a year, all cash. And the reason is that they've been able to sell this crap for 40 years. I mean, can you—who the hell can sell that?

And for years, they've been saying: "Well, you know, we have to pay for research and development. We have to do this. We have to do that." That's 2 percent, 1 percent, but why aren't other countries paying for research and development anyway?

And in the end, I said: "Look, we're not doing it anymore. We want favored nations. I want the same price as other nations pay, which is far lower than ours." And I told them the story of my heavy friend, because it was so poignant the way this guy—you know, as a good businessman, he really hit me with it. And I knew it. And—but they—they have such incredible lines. That's why they're so highly paid. They were able to get away with it.

And this one particular man, one of the biggest, he said, "Sir, you're right." We had a debate for 30 minutes, and I was killing him. He couldn't even—he couldn't respond to it. You know, how—why am—why are we paying 10 times more than another country? Right next door, we have a country—people go there every month or 2 months to go buy drugs—rich people—because it's such a ridiculous thing.

And I said they're successful, and they get paid all that money because anybody that could sell this is damn good. They're amazing executives, actually.

And this guy really did something that was good. He held up his hands, he said—half an hour—he said: "Sir, I can't do this anymore. I can't sell it anymore. We've got to do something about it. It's very unfair to the United States." Isn't that great? Isn't that—it took them a long time. You know, it took them about 25 years. [Laughter] Took them a long time. And we're not going to do that anymore.

And if the nations give us a hard time, we're going to tariff them for the difference. Because, you know, the nations got very—all over the world. It's the world. I'm talking about the entire world.

So what's going to happen, Oz, is they're going to go up a little bit, because the world is bigger than us, a little bit—like a lot. But it's the world, and it's us. So they're going to go up a little bit; we're going to come down a lot. And it's going to equalize. It's going to be a beautiful thing to watch. It's called favored nations. And we're going to be paying the price that the lowest nation is paying.

And we're going to be getting drugs that would cost $80—someplace else, and we're paying 10 times that amount. I mean, they have one pill where it's $8 for the pill, and we're paying $79 for the same pill. And that's not even the worst example.

So we have—Dr. Oz is in charge of it, and I put him in charge because he's a very smart guy and a great businessman. Went to a wonderful school called the University of Pennsylvania. Congratulations, Oz. Great place. Great place. I like it too. But I don't know, are they—are we coming after them too? I suspect so. [Laughter]

I wonder how much Harvard is going to end up paying us, right? It's going to be a lot of money. Going to be a lot. Columbia agreed to $200 million. Others have agreed to massive—you know, what they've done has been terrible.

But he went to a great school, where I went. And this is going to be earth-shattering. This is not like, you know, we're reducing it.

I just—one quick story on this, because it's so important, it's so big. It's going to be incredible for every one of our different programs, especially Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security. Everything. Everything.

But just—you know, if you look at it—I've been looking at this for years. And in the end of my first term, I was so proud. I was so foolish and proud because I was the first President in 32 years who actually brought drug prices down. So I brought them down from—for the year.

So the first time that this has happened in—I think it was 32—it was a long time—where the drug started out at x and they went down during the course of the year. So, after a 12-month period. And I was so proud of myself, I called a news conference. I said: "Ladies and gentlemen, I want to let you know that this is the first time this has happened in the history of our country. For 32 years, I guess, but maybe longer than that. I'm proud to announce that drug prices for the year have gone down." And the people stood up—you know, the fake news couldn't care less, and they didn't get much of a charge out of it. But a couple of people went like this——

[At this point, the President clapped slowly.]

——because I announced the amount. It was one quarter of 1 percent. I was so proud.

But now I'm going to bring them down 1,300 percent. Think of this. A thousand percent, 500 percent, 200 percent. Whatever. Different. And I'm really proud of that.

But at the time, I thought it was wonderful. I actually did something that wasn't done. I think it was just a tiny little cut, but it was something at the time. But after getting to know the system—the system is quite a system, and it's run by very brilliant people on the other side. And we're not going to let that happen anymore. We're not going to be the hospital for the rest of the world. We're going to take care of our country first, and we're going to help other countries also, and other places.

We have a lot of money coming in because of tariffs. You know, we have a lot of money coming in because of tariffs. If it wasn't for tariffs, we would have a big problem. But fortunately, we've been able to stop other—stop the world from taking advantage of us through their use of tariffs. Right? Sort of interesting.

But also here is FDA Commissioner—he's going to be working with Oz on this—Marty Makary, who's fantastic, who's done amazing. He's done great. Thank you. He's done great. He's really amazing. And they're really working on it. With Bobby, they're working on it.

Bobby is so noncontroversial. I wish we could get somebody who's a little bit more exciting in there. [Laughter]

And—but no—but they're doing something. And I think we have—frankly, that's a big announcement. I think we have a bigger announcement coming, I hope, on Monday, Marty. It's enough. We have to announce. We have to make the announcement, it's so big. We can't let people keep doing this. It's—I don't want to wait any longer. We don't need anything more. And if it's wrong, it's right—it's not going to be wrong, but if it is wrong, it's fine. We have to do it.

Because we're going to have an announcement on autism on Monday. Got to be Monday. I don't want to do it Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And I think it's going to be a very important announcement. I think it's going to be one of the most important things that we will do, because what's happened with autism—do you know that if you go back 15 years—15 years, maybe a little bit longer—it was 1 in 10,000 children had autism?

Bobby told me—I—it's hard to believe that this is correct, that as of recently it was 1 in 10 boys. Is that pretty correct, Marty and Oz? One in 10.

Audience member. One in 12.

The President. One in 12. Think of it: 1 in 10,000. Before that, it was 1 in 20,000. But it was 1 in 10,000, let's say, 16, 17 years ago, and now it's 1 in 12, boys. And girls are slightly higher. Not much, but they're slightly higher. It's so horrible. It's so horrible. And I think we have the answer, and I think it's going to be very strongly given, and we're going to do it on Monday. I'd like to do it tomorrow.

We—tomorrow, we're honoring a great—a great man, however: Charlie Kirk. We're honoring somebody that's been with us—right from the beginning. Right from the beginning, he's been with me.

He had an army, and he was so—he loved what we were doing so much. He was such a great guy. He'd say, "President, could you come tomorrow and make a speech?" I said, "Tomorrow?" I said: "Charlie, I'm President. I mean, you've got to give me a little notice." [Laughter] He said, "Well, would it be possible? They'd love to see you." Usually, I tried to do it too. He was unbelievable. He had a—just an army of young people. They loved him so much. I mean, they're devastated right now. Everybody is devastated.

So we're going tomorrow, and I'm going to be flying in and we're going to say some little words, but there are no words to really describe what happened. Should never have happened to him. He's a good person. There was—nobody deserves that, but he—he really didn't deserve that.

I want to also thank Representatives Beth Van Duyne and Rich McCormick very much. And Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. Thank you very much, Jason. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. Talking about other law enforcement people in Virginia. You know that, right?

I had one that was endorsed so strongly by two Democrat Senators that I said, "I don't want that person." [Laughter] You know? When you get too strong an endorsement from the Democrats and not very strong from the Republicans, you say, "There's something I don't like about it." Does that make sense to anybody? Who knows. But we've got to follow our instincts, right?

And a very good friend of mine, Bob Unanue, who is—who is just a great—he's a popular guy. I'll tell you, I heard backstage, they—and Bob is going to be getting a big award very soon from me, and I'm really looking forward to that, and I'm going to announce it over the next week or so, but it's very important. And you know, he was incredible.

He—right in the middle of the heat, when we were going—they were going after—they wanted to impeach Trump, which they did twice, failed both times. They wanted to indict Trump. They did that, too, five times. They wanted to do everything. And this guy was right there, and he was Hispanic, to put it nicely. He was Hispanic. And he didn't care. He was with me all the way, weren't you? You were with me all the way. All the way, Bob. You never wavered.

Neither did Ben. Neither did—and neither did a lot of people in this room.

But they were throwing these fake charges out, these radical-left charges, these lunatics. And Bob was there, and it was very tough. They said they were going to destroy his business, and they tried, and his sales tripled. [Laughter] He became rich. Can you believe it? His sales tripled because everybody started buying Goya.

Even now, I had Goya last night in the refrigerator. I chose not to have it, but these are minor details. No, I buy it. Can you believe it? Because it reminds me of you. [Laughter]

He was a brave guy. But I'm going to be announcing an award next week that's going to be great—quite something. And it's in honor of your courage, pure and simple, because you showed great courage.

You know, we won this Hispanic—we did so well with Hispanics. There's never been anything like it. On the Republican side, there's never been anything even close. We won Miami. We won so many different places. And the entire borderline with Mexico and Texas, we won.

I got a call from the Governor. "Do you know, sir, you won every single area on the border of Texas? All Hispanic. Eighty-eight percent, 92 percent. All these towns." And said: "You won every one. That's the first time that's happened since Reconstruction." I said, "Define 'Reconstruction.' Are you talking about the Civil War?" He said: "Yes." You know, it was a little different. I've never heard—that's a term that's a little different. I wanted accuracy.

So the Civil War, first time. And we won. But it's because of Bob and people like Bob. And we love you, Bob, and you were great. And thank you very much. And Ben loves you too, I know that. So we're going to have a big award for you.

But as you know, we're here this evening at George Washington's beautiful Mount Vernon, as I've just returned from the magnificent United Kingdom with King Charles and Camilla and the whole group. They're—what a group. They're great people. They're great people. And they really laid it out. They said, "There's never been"—and don't forget, they're really honoring the country—"There has never been anything"—and they did it for me a number of years ago. It's the first time they've done it twice for a President. That's because it wasn't consecutive.

Now, we actually know it was consecutive—okay?—if we want to be accurate about it. We want to be accurate.

Audience member. Four more years!

The President. I'll be called—well, I'll be called a three-termer. But the only problem is, I want to be three terms, but I don't want the results of the second term. Okay? I don't want anything to do with people pouring into our country totally unchecked and—a big problem, but we're getting them out. We have no choice. As a country, we have no choice. We're doing better than we've ever done as a country, I believe.

But a lot has changed since the days of President Washington and King George III. But I think that the father of our country would be very pleased and proud to see America strong and respected again. We're very respected again.

And I saw that because, you know, I would say the United Kingdom—there's nobody that can do the pomp and ceremony like them. Don't we agree? Although, tonight is a very beautiful evening, but I've got to be honest here. [Laughter]

[The President looked up at the ceiling.]

Nice tent. It's a nice tent. [Laughter] I like that building that's 1,400 years old slightly better.

Did you see that, the table? It was, like, 100 yards—like a length of a football field—in a ballroom that was like this. It was the most—they opened the doors, and I said, "I've never seen anything like this." But this is a close second. [Laughter]

I didn't see any poles holding the ceiling up. [Laughter] Let's see. No, this is beautiful. It's beautiful because of the people.

And we had—by the way, everybody was there. Every big business leader. That was really—that was an amazing event, but it was respect for the country. It was the biggest event they've ever done of its kind, and it's never been anything even close. It was——

Audience member. Because of you, Mr. President!

The President. Thank you. I like that guy. I don't know who the hell he is. [Laughter] I know he's all man. Who is that? Stand up. Look at this guy. I don't know who the hell he is. I like him.

Audience member. Because of you!

The President. Thank you. I like that voice. I like that voice. Thank you very much.

But there could be no more appropriate place hosting the gathering, because American Cornerstone Institute exists to defend and promote the fundamental values and principles of the American founding. Those are the ideals that our movement and our administration are defending each and every day, and now our country is thriving like never before. We are, actually. We're thriving.

You know, the King of Saudi Arabia said to me when I was over there, "You know, sir, one year ago, you were a dead country." He actually said—he was—that's such a tough one. It's tough, but it's true. We were a dead country. We were going to be a noncountry. And now we've got the hottest country anywhere in the world. There's no country as hot as we are.

Under all 4 years of Biden, only $1 trillion of new investment came into the United States. So that's 4 years, 1 trillion. It's a little less than that. Under 8 months of Trump, we've already secured commitments of $17 trillion coming in. Think of it. And if you take the good years that we've had, it's just a small fraction. Think of it. We have—it's going to be more than $17 trillion for the year. And this is—you know, essentially, we're talking about, up till that point, 8 months, $17 trillion.

There's never been any country that's done anything like that. There's never been. And it's largely because of two things: November 5, the election—Presidential election; but of equal and maybe greater importance, though—I guess the ultimate is, if I didn't win, you wouldn't be doing this—but the tariffs are bringing the money in at levels that we've never seen before. It's made us—it's made us a rich country, and it's made us a powerful country.

Because of tariffs and trade, we've been able to stop seven different wars. Think of it. Because I say, "Well, then you're not going to trade with us anymore if you don't fix yourself up."

The stock market has just set another record. I think it's 48 times during this short period of time we've reached new highs. And mortgage rates, despite a totally incompetent Fed Chairman, "Too Late"—I call him "Too Late"—Jerome "Too Late" Powell. Total—he's an incompetent guy. "But he lowered the other day"—lowered after—too late. T-o-o late.

But mortgage rates still have hit a 3-year low despite a Fed that should have much lower than he is. But mortgage rates, despite that—think of it. And the country is doing so well. When the stock market hits new highs—it just hit, on Friday, the highest it's ever been. We're getting very close to a 50,000 mark on the Dow. That's pretty big, right? Look at all you happy people.

I wouldn't want to be in the room if it were the opposite. You would—you—first of all, the room wouldn't be here. I probably wouldn't be here. And Ben wouldn't be here either. [Laughter] We'd all be sitting at home commiserating, right?

But we have—think of it: Friday, we hit the highest stock price we've ever had, on all three indexes.

The Americans are spending the least amount of their disposable income on gasoline since—it's about 20 years—for 20 years. We're spending—and we're—we have the number down. I think we're going to be breaking $2 a gallon for gasoline.

Previous administrations slashed the number of new oil and gas leases by 95 percent. Think of that. The administration "Bidened"—"Bidened." The autopen. Remember? When in doubt, just give it to the guy operating—the guy who operated the autopen was President of the United States, and he said he only spoke to Biden twice, and that was only about how's the weather. So therefore, it's illegal, because you're not allowed to do that. You shouldn't use an autopen anyway.

You know, when I sign something about somebody is made a general or somebody is made a secretary of something—other than Oz, who doesn't care so much about formality—[laughter]—but I think it's nice to actually have a signature other than an autopen.

I think the only one he actually signed was Hunter's—you know, Hunter's pardon was actually signed by him. You know how you can tell? It was like chicken scratch. My father used to—my father—"You want a real signature." This was like chicken scratch, like a little thing. The autopen looked much better.

But you don't do that. You know, you have an obligation. They put these big, beautiful, oftentimes magnificent pieces of very expensive paper—very, very particularly expensive paper, and a beautiful paper and—and you sign it. And you know, nobody wants to see—you can tell. I can tell an autopen immediately. There's usually two little pinholes, you know? You know what that's from? Pulling the paper. When you see the pinholes, you know it's not too original, unless somebody is using two pins to pull it across.

But the autopen is a—is a fraud. It's a fraud. They had people like Lisa Monaco. They had people like Weissmann, who wasn't in the administration, but he was pulling her shots. Andrew Weissmann. Bad—bad people. These are bad people. They had bad people running our country. That's why they allowed all these people to pour into our country totally unchecked and unvetted. They know it wasn't good. But for some reason, they hate our country, the Democrats.

But I think we're going to have—what we have to do is, we have to win the midterms. I don't know why, but when you're President, rarely do you win. I don't know why. We're having one of the greatest Presidencies ever. We had a great 4 years, but this is going to blow everything away. And they're saying, it's—some say, actually, it's the most successful Presidency so far ever in the history of our country. That should mean we win the midterms.

But they've had other successful Presidents—they've had other successful Presidents, and they lose the midterms. It's a very small percentage that win. There's something psychological going on there maybe.

But, you know, we don't want to see things destroyed. What we've done is so incredible. We have to get out. We have to win the midterms.

We should win them. It's just somehow there's—nobody can—they've talked to psychiatrists. They've talked to everything. [Laughter] Why is it that almost automatically whoever is President loses the midterm? It should be the opposite. If we have a successful administration—and I really believe—look at what we're going to be announcing over the next couple of days medically, as we said. You'll see what's going to happen on Monday. But between that and favored nations and all the other things we've done, I mean, we should be—we should blow everybody away. But I don't know. But I think we will. I mean, I think we will. All we can do is have a real big success, and then you have to get everybody out and vote.

And thank you also—Jim DeMint is here someplace. I want to thank—he's been a great—great gentleman, great Senator. Beautiful wife. Thank you, Jim, for being here. Thank you both for being here.

The Trump administration has a different policy on energy. And, you know, you've been hearing it because I made a lot of speeches. I made a lot of speeches. I didn't take any days off. A hundred and twenty days. When I was 120 days out, I didn't take any vacations. I didn't take any days off. I went 120 days. I made speeches and did rallies and did everything. And all you heard was, "Drill, baby, drill. We're going to drill, baby, drill." And we did. And we've got—now we're double just about anybody else, and we're really bringing it down. And we want to—that will automatically stop the war with Russia and Ukraine. You get the prices down a little bit more, that's going to stop it.

I'm very disappointed in President Putin. But, you know, they're losing—they're killing 5,000 people a week plus. Anywhere from 5- to 7,000 people a week are dying for no reason whatsoever.

We've removed an estimated 100,000 unnecessary bureaucrats from the Federal Government. We're cutting historic numbers of job-killing regulations.

And 2 months ago, I signed the largest working class tax cut in American history into law. It includes no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security. That's big stuff.

We have to explain the "Big Beautiful Bill." I call it the "Great Big Beautiful Bill." It's unbelievable for middle class. It's unbelievable for low income. It's unbelievable for everybody. It's really unbelievable for producing jobs.

On the world stage, we're once again putting America first, and that's what we do. We put America—we'll help others, but we have to put America first, exactly as George Washington would have wanted. He would have voted for us, George Washington.

We had a man who rated me the number-three President of all time. He said only superseded by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. And the host of the show said, "Oh, are you in trouble. Trump is going to be so angry at you when he hears that he's number three." But we'll take that. I don't know how many have done that. He actually said, "George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Donald J. Trump." I said, "I like that guy very much." You know who he is.

On the world stage, we're once again doing things, and we're just respected at, I think, a level that we've never been respected before. We're forging peace agreements and we're stopping wars.

So we stopped wars between India-Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia. And Thailand—I'll tell you, Thailand was—they were going at it hot and heavy. And these were wars that were not stoppable, most of them.

Armenia and Azerbaijan going on for years. They came to my office, the two leaders, two great guys. One was there 22 years; one was there 7. And they both said during the entire term of their office all they did was kill people on the other side. And now they're sitting in my office, and they're at the Oval Office. It's pretty wide. They had one over here, one over there.

And slowly, over the course of about an hour, they came close. And at the end of an hour, we were hugging each other and holding hands. It was an amazing thing. And we settled that war. That was not settleable, as the expression goes.

Cambodia and Armenia. It was just starting, and it was a bad one. Think of that.

We have—let's see, Cambodia, Armenia. We have Kosovo-Serbia, Israel-Iran, Egypt-Ethiopia. That's a beauty. They built a little dam in Ethiopia that's, like, the largest dam in the world, and it affects water going to the Nile. Would you say that's a problem? I would say that's a big problem.

So, with all of these things that we've done—think of India and Pakistan. Think of that. And you know how I stopped that? With trade. They want to trade. And I have great respect for both leaders.

But when you take a look at all of these wars that we've stopped, and they said—so, think—just look at that: India- Pakistan, Thailand-Cambodia, Armenia-Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Congo. Right? We stopped all of them. And 60 percent of them were stopped because of trade. Like with India, I said, "Look, we're not going to do any trade if you're going to fight." And they have nuclear weapons. They stopped.

And then I was told that, "If you can stop Russia and Ukraine, you should get the Nobel Prize." I said: "Well, what about the seven others? I should get a Nobel Prize for each one." No, they said, "But if you stop"—think of that—"But if you stop Russia and Ukraine, sir, you should be able to get the Nobel"—I said, "I stopped seven wars." That's one war, and that's a big one. But all of these—actually, that was the one I thought would be easiest war, because I have a good relationship with President Putin. Disappointed in him, but I do. I thought that would be the easiest one, but we'll get it done one way or the other.

But I also obliterated Iran's nuclear hopes by totally annihilating their enriched uranium. And I'll tell you what, the—those planes, those beautiful B–2 bombers, those beautiful—we call them "wings." We just ordered 20 more of them, the updated version. They—we don't need an updated; just give me the same one. The job those pilots did. They flew for 37 hours back and forth. They had a refuel. We had 52 tankers, big tankers. How would you like to be flying a tanker, knowing that if you get hit by a little bullet, that's—not good things happen to those tankers? Those people are brave.

When I met the tanker guys—I had them to the office. We had the pilots, a lot of the pilots, and even the mechanics. I said I want the mechanics. But I said to the tanker guys, "How do you like flying around with hundreds of thousands of gasoline in that big thing?" But they're brave people. They're brave people.

But there was no stopping. They went. They flew—it was about 17 hours one way. And then they hit at the dark of night, with no Moon—it was dead—and every single one of those bombs hit its targets. It was absolutely amazing. And they were—they're heroes.

And when the pilots went in—they came into the office, and I met them, and they're all great-looking guys. They look like Tom Cruise. Actually, they look like Tom Cruise. But they're all great-looking guys. I would have said Tom Cruise, but you know, he called me about something recently. He was such a nice guy. I'm not going to say. I'll just say he's a hell of a looking guy. But these people are great.

But they said: "Sir, you know what? For 22 years, we practiced this mission. Us and our predecessors, we practiced it three to four times every single year for 22 years, and you're the only President that had the courage to let us go and do our thing." It's very interesting, right? I didn't know that.

But we stopped the flood of illegal aliens stampeding across our borders, and for 4 months in a row, the numbers of illegals admitted into the United States is zero. It's zero. Even I find that—I find that hard to believe. But it's made up by very—a liberal think tank, and I'll take it. But it's zero. It's just about zero. Hard to believe, right?

If you look back a year, 2 years, there was millions of people coming across our border from mental institutions, from prisons—drug dealers, gangs—the toughest gangs anywhere in the world. They came from all over.

We designated Tren de Aragua, MS–13, and the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which nobody else did. And we're hitting them, as you probably noticed, very hard.

And we're blowing the Venezuelan narcoterrorists—we're blowing them the hell out of the water. Every time you see a boat—thousands of people die from the cargo in that boat. Thousands of people die. And then the radical left say, "Oh, this is not nice." Well, thousands of people are dying because of those boatloads of drugs—fentanyl and a lot of other drugs.

We're restoring law and order to our cities and towns, including our Nation's Capital, Washington, DC, where you can now go out to have dinner. That's right. Here we are. You can now—how—what is the difference? I rode—I was at a deal today, and I'm in the car, and I said, "Ride me right through Washington. I want to go right"—the parks were groomed. There was no trash. There were no tents. We had no tent cities. We had—it was clean. The—it's going to look even better in 6 months to a year. We're going to change the medians that are rotted. We're going to get rid of the little potholes.

But even it looked—Susie, it looked beautiful. It was so different. Nice weather, nice day. The grass was grown. I—some of the grass I'm not going to have to change. I thought I was going to replace the grass all over. This grass looked good. It looked so good.

And you know, we actually had soldiers—you saw them; we didn't tell them to do this, because we don't want to tell them—they were picking up trash. Did you see that? They were picking up trash.

The National Guard, these great military people, the job they did has been unbelievable.

And then, you know, the—this is a tough argument for them. I would say this is tough—tougher than men playing in women's sports and transgender from—for everybody—you know, transgender for everybody. But the men playing in women's sports is tough. But you know, the open borders is a tough one.

But the best argument is crime. This is the—oh, oh, oh, would I like to be running. Would I like to run crime. We don't like crime, and the Democrats obviously love it. How about that? They like crime. We don't. That's all you have to say. A sign: "They like crime. We don't."

I don't think it's possible to lose an election. I think that's—they were talking—said today, "They better be careful. This is a Trump trap. It's an 80/20 issue." No, it's a 99 to 1 issue. And we don't know the one person. We can't find that one person, Chris. He's working for Chris in the oil wells. We don't know.

But what we've done in Washington, we're so proud of it. We took it over. It was—and you know what? I don't want to insult anybody, but it was horrible. One of the worst. It was horrible. And within 12 days, it was a safe city. And within 22 days, it was really safe. And a couple of days later, I actually went and walked right down the middle of the street, and I had no fear, because—we took 1,600 criminals, hardened criminals, people—I think they were born to be criminals. These were seriously bad people. We got them out of here. We brought them back to different countries, got them the hell out. They can't come back. We're never letting them come back.

But we're restoring law and order. Now we're going to Memphis, Tennessee. It's another place that's—right? Are you happy about that?

How about the liberals though? You know, they call themselves "progressives." I think liberal is a better term. Progressive is such a beautiful word. But it's—you know, now they say, "We're progressive." They're actually regressive. This is not progressive.

But how about the liberals, where they're going, "We don't want to have military people in town." If you had your choice of not having military people, but being shot, drugged out, beat to hell, and raped as a woman, would you rather have a couple of soldiers around so that doesn't happen? I think so. I think so.

And these soldiers are not necessarily politically correct. They're very strong people, and we want very strong soldiers. I think that's okay to say.

You know, we have a very different country than we had 2 years ago. We have a country that wants to see results. We have a country that's now based on merit, thanks to the Supreme Court. We have a country that's based on merit. And our country was built on merit. It wasn't built on woke nonsense.

And we now have soldiers that are soldiers. And we have people that—everything is based on merit. Every single—including getting into a college. If you have good marks, you get in. If you don't have good marks, you don't get in.

We're restoring law and order to our cities and towns at levels that nobody has ever seen. And wait till you see. And I must say, our next one is a place called Chicago. We're going to go into Chicago. And we've already—you know, the FBI has been there for 6 months, and—you know, and just getting prepared. And just the fact that they've been there for a little while, we've got it down a little bit, but it's going to come down a whole lot. Chicago is going to be a very safe city.

I was with the head of the Union Pacific Railroad. Great guy. He started off as a low-level railroader, as he called himself, and he ends up being chairman of the company. And I said: "What do you think? Tell me. What"—he was in my office on something. And I said: "What do you think? What are the best cities?" He said: "Sir, you have to save Chicago. It's a great city." And the way he said it, "You have to save Chicago," I mean, it was terrible, because we were going to wait a little longer.

You know, we have a Governor that doesn't—he thinks if 11 people get shot over a weekend, that's good. Okay? He thinks—and die. Eleven people last weekend murdered over the weekend. Thirty-two were shot. Over 100 were shot at. People don't even talk about that. And then we have a Governor that says: "We're doing well. We don't need the military." No, they need it.

We're going to clean up Chicago. We're going to start that pretty soon. But we're going to do Memphis. We're doing them one by one. And we're not going to let it go back, either. We're not going to just leave and let it go back. We're going to make sure they stay proper.

But if you—I'm so happy that—you know, most of you are in Washington a lot. That's why you're here. But Washington, DC, is a safe—incredible, safe place. And it went from one of the most violent, unsafe cities in the country where, on average, they were losing a person—they were having one, two, three people get shot every weekend. People come in from Iowa. They come in from Indiana. They come—their kids are coming, and the kid ends up being shot, and they send them back in a coffin. That's not happening anymore. We have a safe city.

The scum is gone. And I'll tell you, it's—it's going to get—I don't know how much better it can get. They said, "We're down 87 percent"—crime. I said: "Really? What are—who are the 13 percent? Tell me." Nobody can find the 13 percent. No, you go and have dinner. The people at the restaurants now are—they were closing up. Very few people went to restaurants because even to go to the restaurant was dangerous, because guys would walk in with guns and rob everybody. It ain't happening anymore. You have a safe city. A hundred percent safe city.

I want to thank the National Guard and all of those Federal law enforcement people that have surged Washington, are now surging Memphis right now as we speak. By the way, we're getting calls over the internet. We're getting statements: "Sir, thank you so much. I live in Memphis. It's so beautiful. There's so many people outside. Everybody is cheering the soldiers. They're cheering. Thank you so much, sir." But we're making America safe again.

And just to conclude, I signed an Executive order to slash Federal funding for any school that pushes transgender insanity onto our youth—which I promised during the campaign.

We also banned the chemical and surgical mutilation of children. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Let's say 15 or 20 years ago, you're a politician, and you say, "We've banned the chemical and surgical mutilation of your children." Could you imagine having to make a statement like that? People would say, "What the hell is he talking about?" Right? Can you imagine that, Chris? You make a statement that you're going to not mutilate their children? Who would think that? But different times.

Well, we've banned it. We don't let that happen.

As you know, we've—very strong. It's—everyone is now, just about—we're just about there. It's—it's hard to believe it was hard to do.

Here's another one. Could you imagine saying this 20 years ago, 10 years ago? We got men out of women's sports. Isn't that nice? Isn't that nice? You ever see the weightlifter?

[The President pretended to lift weights.]

The weightlifter. You break a record by 114 pounds. You know, a record that stood for 18 years got broken by 114 pounds. [Laughter] You know, the whole thing is crazy. These people are crazy.

And we're going to have a hard time extending, because no matter what—if they got every dream, every single thing that they ever wanted, which are all bad things—nobody would want them; non-commonsense things—they won't extend anything. They won't vote. You won't get a single vote.

The only thing—I do respect them for one thing: They stick together. But their policies are so bad and so sick. And they're afraid to be individuals. They just go with whatever the party tells them to go. And it's all this stuff that's—you can't get elected with it.

So we had a great vote in the House. The Republicans voted good, to extend. But the Senate, we need 60 votes. We have 53 Senators. So, you know, you're going to have—we have a problem, because these people are crazy. The Democrats, they've gone—they have a serious case of what's known as—which is actually a disease, I think. They're going to put it down—are they going to list that, Dr. Oz? Are they going to list—you know what I'm talking about, right? Trump derangement syndrome. [Laughter] Is that—why don't we list that on Wednesday? Let's do the more important ones first. No, it's a serious disease. It's a mental disorder. Trump derangement——

Audience member. TDS! TDS!

The President. [Laughter] Yes, that's right.

It's—no, it's a mental disorder. Trump derangement syndrome. And they've got it in levels that's never—that have never been seen before. But that's good. That means we're doing the right thing.

I made it the official policy of the United States Government that there are only two genders—I think Jim DeMint will like this—men and female. Are you okay with that, Jim? I don't know. I think Jim is very upset about that. Who the hell can be upset?

We got rid of the sinister Johnson Amendment so that pastors can speak the truth. Not only pastors; people of religion can speak the truth, everything in their heart.

I also ended the weaponization of law enforcement against religious believers, as you know, and pardoned the pro-life activists thrown in jail by the very angry, mean Biden. You know, Biden was always a mean guy, but never a smart guy. You know, even—you go back 30 years ago, 40 years ago, he was a stupid guy, but he was always a mean son of a bitch. You know? [Laughter] How's it working? Not working too well for him right now, is it? So, when you start feeling sorry for him, remember, he was a bad guy.

And I created the first-ever Department of Justice Task Force To Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. And we're bringing religion back to our country. Religion is coming back to our country, because you can't be a great nation if you don't have religion. I really believe that. Got to—there's got to be something we're doing this for.

And to support parents' rights, we're also fighting very hard for school choice. We just got it in the great State of Texas, with the Governor and Lieutenant Governor. And we've created a massive tax credit for school choice scholarship so that you can send your child to a school that shares your values. It's a big thing, school choice.

I want to congratulate the American Cornerstone Institute—very important—on the Little Patriots Program. That's a great program, which is devoted to ensuring that young people are taught to love America as much as we do. We love America, or we wouldn't be here tonight. I wouldn't—certainly wouldn't be in a tuxedo tonight. [Laughter]

And, as you know, next year we'll be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American founding. Two hundred and fifty years. It doesn't seem so long when you have William the Conqueror—I said, "Windsor Castle, when was it built?" "Sir, around 990." I'd say, "Nine hundred and"—let's see, trying to figure that one out. Nine hundred and ninety.

So it's like—you know, it's, like, really old. You know, I thought the White House—[laughter]—I thought the White House was old. So the White House—the White House is 1799. Okay, that's pretty old, right? But 990, it's—but—and the name of the king at the time was William the Conqueror. I said, "That's the coolest name I've ever heard." [Laughter] William the Conqueror. And he built this massive, massive castle, and he was known for winning wars. It's very interesting. In fact, I asked King Charles, "Why don't we call you Charles the Conqueror?" He said, "No, I don't think so." [Laughter] "I don't think so." But he's a great guy, and he's doing a great job, an unbelievable job.

But the 250th anniversary, we're in it, and it's something we're going to have a year that few people have seen before.

With the help of the incredible men and women, like those here tonight—and everybody here is excited about it—we're ensuring that when that anniversary does come, our country will be a very strong, proud country. We're not going to have Afghanistan events, the most embarrassing event in the history of our country.

Our people will be proud. Our communities will be safe. Our culture will be thriving. We'll be respected all over the world. We are right now. No, we—I said it before: We're the hottest country anywhere in the world. And America will be freer, greater, and more successful than ever before.

And remember that we also have the Olympics. You know, we have the Olympics, and we have the World Cup. And you know, I got both of them. I was very proud to get both of them. I got them both.

And then what happened is I said—you know, as I got them, I got Gianni from the World Cup. He's great. The head guy, he's a great guy. And the Olympics, I dealt with the people, because Obama wouldn't do it. You know, he went there, and he came in fourth place, and he was very angry at them, so he wouldn't talk.

And actually, Democrats called up, "Would you speak to the people in Brussels?" Wherever they were. And I did. It was like—I couldn't get them off the phone because they wouldn't—nobody would speak to them from our country. I thought getting the Olympics was important. We got the Olympics. We got the World Cup.

But, as I got them, I realized that they wouldn't be in my term, because, you know, they're usually 8 years out, 10 years out, 6 years out. And my term was coming up, and I thought I'd win the election quite easily—which I did. I ended up winning it—[laughter]—by a lot. By a lot. Actually, they don't even fight. You know, the cameras used to turn off. "How dare you say that?" But now they don't. They say—even the—even the crazy ones, they say, "Well, he's actually right."

But—but I said it's funny how God can make things end up. And I said: "Boy, I'll tell you, it's unbelievable. I got the Olympics, pure and simple. I got the World Cup because the head person is a great friend of mine. I got the World Cup and the Olympics, and it's—I'm not going to be president when we have them." And look what happened. They screwed me on the second election, and I got it in the third. And lo and behold, we not only have the 250th, we have the Olympics and the World Cup. So you never know how things are going to turn out.

But I want to thank everybody for being here. I want to congratulate American Cornerstone Institute. It's been amazing the job that Ben has done.

And I have one final thing to say, and this is maybe outside of what I said medically. And watch what's going to happen next week. But outside of that, this is the most important. And he's a part of the medical too, because he's truly a great doctor.

But we are going to be presenting Dr. Ben Carson with the highest civilian award and honor in our country. It's the civilian version of the Medal of Honor, which is our highest military award. It's the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And we're going to have a ceremony at the White House honoring Dr. Ben Carson. The Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Congratulations, Ben. Congratulations.

And, everybody, thank you very much. We much appreciate it.

Congratulations, Ben. He didn't know this. He didn't know it. I hope he's happy.

Thank you very much, everybody. Have a good time. Thank you. Thank you.