Remarks at the White House Easter Egg Roll

Well, thank you very much, everybody. And a very happy Easter to everyone.

It was a beautiful day yesterday, and it's a beautiful day today. We don't have to worry about sunburn, but we—looks like it's not going to be raining. It's going to be really something special. Forty thousand—forty-two thousand people are expected all throughout the day, and it's an honor to have you.

I just signed an Executive order putting the flags of our country, all of them—all Federal flags and State flags at half-mast in honor of Pope Francis. So he was a good man, worked hard. He—he loved the world, and it's an honor to do that.

I want to thank everybody for being here. This is some band. I've heard this band, actually, indirectly for 4 years and very directly now for 4½, and I like the direct method even better. But the Marine Corps Band is very, very special. Thank you very much. What a great job. Thank you. Thank you.

I also want to thank the National Park Service, the job they do, and making everything so beautiful and spiffy. And I'm very difficult when it comes to that, I will tell you. Very, very difficult. And I say they have done an incredible job. You just have to look around and see.

And I just want to give a special thank you to our great First Lady who organized this entire event. She worked very, very hard on it. She worked very hard. I said, "What are you doing?" She said, "I'm working on the egg roll." I said, "That sounds like a lot of fun," and we're going to have a lot of fun in just a couple of minutes.

But again, our country is doing very well. Our—we had the highest number of recruits, enlistments that we've had in, I think, 28 or 29 years, and I'm sure we're going to actually beat that number. It's all happened. Since November 5, it's all happened.

Enrollment in the military is that a record, and enrollment in the police force, fire forces, and all of the different law enforcement groups we have—we're setting records. And 6 months ago, we couldn't get anybody, and now we're setting records. That's sort of testament to what's happening in terms of the spirit of our country. We love our country, and it's been something very, very special.

And speaking of special, Easter is special, and it's one of our favorite days. It's one of our favorite periods of time. We're honoring Jesus Christ, and we're going to honor Jesus Christ very powerfully throughout our lives, all throughout our lives. Not just now, all throughout our lives.

We're bringing religion back in America. We're bringing a lot of things back, but religion is coming back to America. That's why you see the kind of numbers that you're seeing—the spirit and the kind of numbers that you're seeing.

So we're going to come down and join you right now, but I just want to wish everybody, once again, happy Easter. And enjoy your lives. We're going to have a great 4 years.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.