Remarks at White House Reception for Republican Members of Congress

The President. Well, thank you very much. This is a celebration—in front of a lot of our good friends. And we've been celebrating, in a certain way, every night at about 4 in the morning, when I had to call you and say, "You've got to vote for us." [Laughter]

The Speaker would call, and he'd say, "Please, please get him to vote." I said, "It's 4 in the morning." And everybody took the call, and just about everybody voted. And it's an amazing thing—so amazing that I just signed, and it was really helped a lot by our big, beautiful deal that we just did—the "Big Beautiful Bill," as we call it.

But I just signed the largest trade deal in history—I think maybe the largest deal in history—with Japan. And that was done with Japan. They had their top people here, and we worked on it long and hard, and it's a great deal for everybody. I always say, it has to be great for everybody. It's a great deal. A lot different from the deals in the past, I can tell you that.

But we're doing really well as a country. We're strong. We have a lot of money flowing in. The tariffs are kicked in better than anybody, other than me and a few of the people in the room, thought could happen—Howard and Scott.

And I just want to thank you. You've been unbelievable allies, because you're really allies. That's what you've been. And we appreciate it.

Some you—some were very difficult—[laughter]—but you got there, and some were a little bit—they had a little confidence, and they—they came in early, and we appreciate—we just appreciate everybody.

But we're gathered tonight to celebrate 6 months of incredible achievements by one of the most successful House majorities in American history. That's what it's been. Right?

Despite having an incredibly narrow margin—and you know that. We had a little bit—we had, actually, one period, Speaker, where we had one. In other words, we had a majority of one. Then we took a few good victories with some little elections that took place, couple of other things happened, and we ended up with seven.

But we had one, and the Speaker said to me, "You know, we're one heart attack away from losing the majority." [Laughter] We don't want to be there.

And I think the results of what we're doing together will give us a tremendous midterm. We're going to work together very hard. We're going to make all those robocalls for you, and we're going to—we're going to pick it up, and we're going to really—we're going to increase—I think we should increase by a lot.

But despite this incredibly narrow margin that you've already fulfilled—think of this—more promises than any Congress in generations. There's been no Congress—and we've had some even where we were up quite a bit, but there's been no Congress like this Congress, in terms of achievement, that people can even think of.

Now, we have to take world wars out. We can take a couple of things out. But basically, there's been—there's never been anything like this. And we did this with very small majorities.

And I want to thank John Thune also because the Senate has been—and all of the people in the Senate, because they've been terrific also, working with Mike and everybody.

But I especially, tonight, want to thank Speaker Johnson for doing a job that I think—few could have done. I think he'll go down—and I—I think he's got a long way to go. He's going to go down as one of the greatest speakers at any time in history.

And, you know—and I say this—you needed a very precise personality to get these voters. [Laughter] If you had somebody that was just a little bit off, you were going to lose 20 votes. And you couldn't lose any. So I just want to thank you. Everybody believes that too, Mike. Thank you very much. Great job.

And Kelly is here. Hi, Kelly. Hi, Kelly.

Also, a man of great courage: Steve Scalise. He's our majority leader. No, I've told this story so many times, but he was very brave. I saw him in the worst of times. I was there at his hospital, late at night, with his incredible wife. And we thought Steve was not with us—he was going to be a goner. And he was tough.

And I actually think you look better now than you did then if you want to—[laughter]—you look better now than you did before this horrible thing happened. So whatever the hell you're doing, you're going to have to let us know. All right? But he's great.

And another guy who I've really gotten to like—and usually this doesn't happen, because I used to have little arguments. I'd say: "Boy, he's a tough guy. He's a nasty, tough guy." And then I realized how talented he was, how good he was. And we got to be, I think, really good friends. Tom Emmer. He's incredible, actually.

But his wife—oh, there she is. But—but she liked me. And she said: "You know, you're—you don't understand my husband. He's really"—and she turned out to be right. His greatest asset. Thank you both for being—that's so nice. Thank you. She's incredible.

And every other Member of Congress that's with us. We have almost, pretty much, a full contingent. Some of you have your spouses. And we appreciate—and that's why we appreciate what you've had to go through. These were late nights—and a lot of them too. We had a lot of them. We had—if we turned off the phones at 3:30 in the morning, we weren't working very hard. [Laughter] It was really something. So I just want to thank you all.

And we also have Secretary Scott Bessent. We just—he's over—is Scott here someplace? I think so. Scott. Thank you very much, Scott.

And we just—we just came in from the Oval Office, where a few people got to watch the negotiation with Japan. It was interesting. Doug Burgum, I think, might be here someplace. Doug. Hi, Doug.

And I said to the Japanese trade representatives—and these were the top people. We concluded the one deal, Doug, and now we're going to conclude another one because they're forming a joint venture with us at—in Alaska, as you know, for the LNG. So I said we'll all do that together with Chris. Is Chris here? I don't know. Chris Wright.

If you could set that up, Doug, it would be great. But they're all set to make that deal now, so I think it's good.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas J. Burgum. Good.

The President. This was really the one they had to make. And we're going to make a deal with Japan on the LNG in Alaska, right?

Secretary Burgum. Yes.

The President. Okay. Thank you very much.

And Howard Lutnick, who was terrific. He was terrific. Howard. He'll never go back into private industry again, because he's seen numbers that are so big. This deal is, they say, the biggest deal ever made—biggest deal ever made. And we have Europe coming in tomorrow and the next day, and we have some other ones coming in. We're doing things that have never been done in this country before, and our country is becoming very rich again, and that's the way it should be. They're not taking advantage of us. And it's very good.

But Howard will never go back into private. [Laughter] You know, he had a big company. But the biggest deal you've ever made is, like, a quarter of a line of the deal we just left, right? [Laughter] So it's a little tough.

Scott Turner is here, who's terrific. Scott, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Scott. Good job. Good job, Scott. Thank you very much. In fact, Scott, come here. Come here. I want to just—I'm going to have Scott say grace. Give a little prayer. Yes?

I hope the television stays on. You know, they have a tendency to turn off. But I think that's good. What do you think, Brian? Yes?

Come on, Scott. And nobody does it like this man. He's better at this than he is at housing, but he's good at housing. [Laughter]

That's great, Scott. Thank you, man.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development E. Scott Turner. How are you, sir?

The President. I'm good.

Secretary Turner. Good.

The President. Thank you very much.

Secretary Turner. Hi, everyone.

Audience members. Hi.

Secretary Turner. Thank you, Mr. President. We're so grateful for you and grateful for your sacrifice and for your heart for people, your heart for this country, your heart to do what's right no matter what.

The President. Thank you, Scott.

Secretary Turner. And I'm so grateful that the Lord called us to be together for such a time as this. And so I really appreciate you. And I know I could speak for everyone out here that you are a tremendous leader, and we thank God for you.

And we thank God for the First Lady——

The President. Thank you.

Secretary Turner. ——and your family and everything that you've gone through for this country. And we're proud to stand with you.

The President. Thank you, Scott. Thank you, man. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

You want to say a prayer?

Secretary Turner. Yes, sir.

Okay, let's pray.

Father in Heaven, we thank you. We're so grateful that we have this time to stand in your presence. Father God, we are at the White House, Father God, the most powerful place in the land. And, Father, we thank you that President Trump allows us to take this take time and go before the throne of Heaven and give you reverence. You are the king of kings and the lord of lords. And, Jesus, we thank you. We thank you that you love us so much.

[At this point, Secretary Turner continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

And, Lord, I pray that you bless our President. God, everything he puts his hands to, we pray you will bless it. Strengthen him. Father, give him wisdom like never before. Open his eyes to see like he's never seen and his ears to hear your sweet, small voice in the midnight hour. Lord, let him know that it is well with his soul.

In Jesus' name, amen.

The President. Good job. [Inaudible]

That's beautiful. Thank you, Scott. That's beautiful. Thank you very much. So nice.

So we also want to thank Linda McMahon, who's right now—where are you, Linda? She's out negotiating with a lot of different people. What a great Cabinet member and person. And she's working on bringing education back to the States where it belongs and lots of other things—like, how come Harvard got $5 billion in the last year and half or 2 years? Five billion they got.

Linda said, "You know, they—you're not going to be happy." "What?" "Harvard is getting billions and billions of dollars, and they're not spending it nicely, and they've very discriminatory and lots of other things." And she's got a tough judge. She got a judge that would typically not be with us, but I don't want to say that, because you never know what happens. But we'll win that case. Ultimately, we're going to win it. No decision made yet, but she's in the middle of a lot of things.

But, Linda, you have been unbelievable. Thank you very much. Great job you've done.

And I said hello to Chris Wright. Chris is the most talented person. Doug actually said that. I offered Doug Department of Energy. "No," he said, "I have somebody better." He's never said that in his whole life about anybody, Mary. [Laughter] He's never said that about anybody. But he said, "Chris Wright is so incredible."

And he has turned—he's the number-one guy in the oil industry, and he left for—I won't even tell you the money he was making. It was crazy money. But he knew that, and he wanted this. And he's—he and Doug have done an incredible job. And thank you, Chris, very much.

And Doug Collins. Where's Doug Collins? Doug Collins. What a great guy he's been. What a great guy.

At the VA, right now, you have a 92 percent approval rating. That's not bad. Let's see if you can get it up a little bit. [Laughter] Who are the 8 percent, right?

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas A. Collins. We'll work on it.

The President. But he's working on it. He is working on it. He's incredible. What a job. Thank you, Doug. What a great job you're doing. Appreciate it.

As well as EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Where's Lee? This guy—people don't know. He was a great lawyer—like, top of the line—and then he became a congressman in a race that he had no chance to win. He won and was the Congressman, like, for 6 years or something and was highly respected.

And then, he took a shot at running for Governor of New York, even though people said it was almost impossible to even think about. And he almost won. He came so close. Almost won. And I appointed him as the environmental czar—or he's our environment czar.

And what a job. Secretary, on the Cabinet. He's got everything. And the job he's been doing is incredible, because we have $16 trillion so far invested in our country. We've never had anything even close. And this is just, really, in the last 4 months, not 6 months. That's when it all—that's when we started accepting things and getting things going and getting them rocking, rolling.

And Lee is getting the permits for people so fast. You know, the biggest problem they had is, we can't build if you're not going to give us the permits or if it's going to take 9 years to get a permit and then get rejected. You know, they'd wait 9, 10, 12 years. They'd do environmental impact statements. And at the end of 12 years, they'd get a rejection—three to two, you know. [Laughter] They gave their lives to it.

We don't do that anymore. He's—he does it within weeks, and we really appreciate Lee. He's got an incredible staff, and we appreciate the job he's done. He's an unbelievable guy.

OMB Director Russ Vought. There's—nobody knows the finances of this country and the waste, fraud, and abuse better than Russell. So, Russell, I want to thank you for doing such a great job. You're really in there fighting and really was a big help during this whole situation that we had, Tom—right?—with Russ, when we had to know the numbers. There's nobody that knows them better. He lives with them.

Director of national intelligence—oh, where's Tulsi? She's, like, hotter than everybody. She's the hottest one in the room right now because she found out—we're—certainly, we—I think we knew it before, in all fairness, Tulsi.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Yes.

The President. But now you have certainty. She has all the documents. She has everything that you need. And she found out that Barack Hussein Obama led a group of people, and they cheated in the elections, and they cheated without question.

It's not even a—would you say there's even a little question there, Tulsi? She says, "No." And you found things that nobody thought we'd ever find. And very happy and very honored to have you with us. She's, right now, by far—Speaker, she's hotter than you right now, Speaker. [Laughter] She's the hottest person in the room right now, Speaker.

So, Tulsi, great job. And I know you have a lot more coming. She told me, "You've seen nothing yet." So I heard those rumors about you, but now I know they're true, so we're very proud of you, Tulsi.

They cheated so badly, and ultimately, it led to loss in 2020, and it shouldn't have been a loss. It was a big victory. We won by a lot. We had to do it again. But if I thought we lost, I would never have run again. And this is a far more consequential election than it would have been if we did. That's the only thing I can say in favor of it.

But we can't ever let that happen again to our country. Look at what happened in terms of inflation, in terms of so many things, but most importantly, maybe, in terms of allowing millions and millions of people into our country that we shouldn't have. We shouldn't have these people in our country, and the levels of violence and things that we're seeing are so bad. And we're getting them out. And Tom Homan and Kristi have done an incredible job, and—but we're getting them out.

But this should have never happened. It was, like, just a terrible unforced error. The only thing that I can't figure out—I always like to figure the other side. Why would they do this? Why would they allow people to come into our country from all over the world—not just South America but from Venezuela—but from all over the world, they came, and they came by hundreds of thousands—in some cases, hundreds of thousands a day.

When you look at some of these, they break down gates. We built hundreds of miles of wall. They didn't break down the wall, but anything there wasn't a wall. They were able to break it down. And they came in, though, by the millions. And we're going to be paying a price for this. And we are paying a price. It's almost—it's all-consuming, and we have to get 11,888 murderers. Many of them murdered more than one person, and they're in here. And some are already gone. We've gotten them out.

Some we don't—we can't get out. We want to put them in jails because we're afraid they'll come back. They're so violent. And they used to say, "No, no, these are"—the illegal immigrants, they said, "are very kind people." Remember that? They used to say: "They're kind. They don't commit crimes."

No, they make our criminals look like extremely nice people, and we have to get them out. And it's a big job, but we're doing it, and step by step.

And last month, as you know, in June, we had zero people come through the border, right? Zero people come through the border. So we're doing a real job.

But what we found out is so terrible: that Obama and a group of thugs cheated on the elections. They cheated violently, viciously on the elections. They're violent people. They're vicious, horrible—these are vicious, horrible people, and we can't let this happen.

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, a Cabinet member—and a great person. Hi, Kelly. And she has done a job. You know, I always say, "Small business"—I used to say it with somebody else that happened to be—Linda, you happened to be there. I said, "It's small business, but it's actually the biggest business there is," right? Probably there is. When you add it up—all those little, small loans, you add them up, it's the biggest bank there is.

But, Kelly, you're doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much. Don't do a better job than Linda. That would be terrible. Linda had the job before you. She was so great. But don't beat her, because Linda would be very upset about that. Actually, she'd be happy. I think you'd be happy about it. Right, Linda?

Secretary of Education Linda E. McMahon. Absolutely.

The President. That's the way Linda is.

I want to also express our gratitude to all of the—just the wonderful friends and, mostly, spouses, but the wonderful friends that we have here. This is sort of just a great period of time for the country, and it's a great period of time for the Republican Party.

I also want to wish Congresswoman—a truly beautiful woman—Mary Miller and her husband—her handsome husband—this is, like, a—I'd like to use them on the front page of an advertisement for people that come to a hotel or something. [Laughter] But they're, like, a perfect—I think they're a perfect couple.

Mary Miller, I'd like to thank you and wish you a lot with your husband Chris, and a very happy 45th wedding anniversary. Wow. Wow. It's a beautiful couple with beautiful children and grandchildren. Good. Keep it going. Keep it going.

And Mary is very respected, too, Chris. You know that. She's doing——

Audience member. Yes, she is.

The President. She's doing a fantastic job. Beautiful woman.

And happy birthday to Representative Robert Aderholt. Where is Robert? Robert, happy anniversary—happy anniversary, Robert. Happy birthday. Happy birthday.

So we have an anniversary and we have a birthday today. Anybody else having a birthday or anything? [Laughter]

Robert, great job you're doing. Thank you very much.

Representative Robert B. Aderholt. Thank you.

The President. We appreciate it very much.

Rep. Aderholt. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Time and time again, the House Republican majority has defied the odds to deliver win after win for the American people.

They were giving us very small odds of doing this bill. In fact, we were originally breaking it up into seven, and then six, and then about three and two. And then, ultimately, we said one, and I had it—a little different name. I had "One Great Big Beautiful Bill," but Steve said, "That's too much. That's a little too much. Let's take the word 'great' out."

But it is great. It was a little tougher to say, a little too long, but we took the word "great" out. But it's—it is one—really one incredible situation that we passed.

And people said that we'll do a number of bills, and it'll be much easier. Typically, that's the way. Except the problem was, you had some where, for the good of the country, you had to do certain things, but it wouldn't necessarily mean you were going to get the votes, but you needed it for the good of the country.

But the "Big Beautiful Bill"—the beauty is that it had something in it—and a lot—for everyone, including the people in this room that had a vote.

So I just—I think it was an incredible decision that we made pretty early on, right? We had a lot of people that were skeptical, Mike, about doing the one. They said, "It's just not possible to get it passed." And I think it actually turned out to be the biggest advantage, because everybody had something in it. No matter who you were, you could go back and say, "Look what we got." "Oh, well, that's okay." So it really—it really worked out well.

You passed the Laken Riley Act. You passed the HALT Fentanyl Act. That's big stuff.

You know, we are—we are tariffing countries that are sending us fentanyl and working with fentanyl. And sadly, we're taking in billions and billions of dollars. But we don't want to take in billions for that. We want them to stop, and they will.

With the help of our great First Lady, you passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act. That's a big thing. And you—it was a bipartisan—that was very—I think I'll ask her to get involved in more acts. [Laughter] That was, like, a very—a real bipartisan—not where you had two—you had a lot of Democrats vote for that one. That's a beautiful thing, though.

Horrible things that take place on the internet, and they destroy children, and children do bad things to themselves, including—you know what the word is—suicide. And it really broke her heart to see it so often, so much. And TAKE IT DOWN, we take it off the internet. They do things that are so bad, and it was a great thing that you did. Bipartisan.

On July 3d, you passed the "One Big Beautiful Bill," and that's going to go down, I think, as one of the most monumental achievements ever in congressional history.

In one historic package, we delivered the largest tax cut in American history, the largest spending cut in American history, and the largest border security investment in American history. And we got no tax on tips. Think of it: No tax on Social Security. We have no tax on overtime. It's just been—there's never been anything like it.

And when you explain it—you know, because the Democrats are out there saying, "Death." That's all they're—[laughter]—they're giving a—they—you know, the word "manufactured"? They manufactured—the word they use is "death." That's the only thing they're good at. That's the only thing.

So they have "death." [Laughter] And when we get out and sell—the opposite. It gives us life. It gives the country life. It gives—you could look at Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security—gives it life. It means it's going to be here. They're going to be here. They wouldn't be here—I don't think we'd have a country. You want to know the truth? If we didn't win this election, I don't think we'd even have a country.

But we've achieved more in 6 months than the—most administrations have achieved during their 4 years or even 8 years. We've achieved more in 6 months than most administrations have achieved, whether it's 4 years or 8 years, which is pretty incredible.

And when I was in Saudi Arabia, we took back $5.1 trillion. We went to Qatar. We went to Saudi Arabia and U.A.E. Great leaders, all three. And—great. They were great. And they invested—when I say "took it back," I mean, took it back in terms of an investment in the country—$5.1 trillion—with a "t"—trillion dollars.

And the king of Saudi Arabia looked at me. He says: "You know what? One year ago, America was dead. Your country was dead." He said, "And now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world." That's a big statement, and that was 2 months ago. But he said, "You went from a dead country"—which is pretty hard to hear that, but it's true. I mean, think of it.

We had a dead country. We had an embarrassment. You—all over the world, they were laughing at us like we were a bunch of fools. We had a dead country. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. There's no country even close to being as hot.

And those great representatives of Japan that a few of you, including the Speaker, got to see in action—smart and sharp—and they said the same thing. They said, "Look, you have the hottest country in the world."

So, since I took office, the NASDAQ and the S&P 500—and they just did it again today—have set more than a dozen record highs. Core inflation is way down, below 2 percent. Think of that. And gas prices are the lowest they've been in many, many years.

You know, it's interesting. I watch the Democrats, and they get on these shows: "Well, prices are up. Energy is up. Gasoline is through the roof. Food and groceries are up." It—they lie.

One guy even said eggs are up, and we reduced it by about five times. Think of it: eggs. Because when I first got here, the first week, they hit me. The fake news back there, they hit me. [Laughter]

The first week, they're screaming at me, "Eggs are through the roof. What are you going to do?" I said, "This isn't my problem. This was—Biden did this, not Trump." But they were screaming at me. I said, "Just give me a chance"—and I will say, our Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke, did a great job. Brooke Rollins, she did a great job. She's here too. Thank you, Brooke.

But think of what we've done. So prices are all down. I don't think there's any price—other than we have a real terrible, terrible head of the Fed. And if he brought down interest—you know, in—in Europe, the European Union, they've lowered their interest rate now 11 times, and we haven't lowered ours at all. He's a stiff. He's a knucklehead. [Laughter] And I was very nice to him at the beginning, because I know how to sell. And, you know, at a certain point, it didn't matter anymore, because the guy is just not a smart person. Shouldn't have been there.

And I blame myself, in a way, for that, but I blame—I blame Biden for extending. I was surprised that they extended him, but they did. I think they extended him because they knew how much I couldn't stand him—[laughter]—so they did it for that reason.

But—and he did lower—he did lower the rate before the election two or three times. Did y-—it's the only time he's really acted like that. But no, he's a bad job, and he's hurting people. He's hurting people that can't get houses because they don't have mortgages, and I don't know if he knows it or not. He's either evil or stupid, and either is really not acceptable. [Laughter] But he's—he's not doing a good job, and—but it will be—he's only going to be there for a short while. Not going to be there much longer.

Our deregulation efforts are saving the typical family thousands and thousands of dollars. So remember: When you're campaigning—got to remember this—prices are down, groceries are down, oil is down, energy is down, gasoline is—wah. We hit $1.99 a gallon today in five different States.

And now, in California—in California, he keeps adding taxes. You know, when you go to $7, $8—but, I mean, they just keep putting taxes on gasoline. It's crazy. I think you ought to take a look at that, Doug. It's ridiculous, what he's doing out there, and he's really hurting people a lot.

But we have—in free market, we have gasoline that's getting down to the low twos and, in some cases, even breaking that. I think you're going to end up breaking it if Doug does his job with Chris. You're going to be so—drill, baby, drill. Right, Doug? That's Doug. He really took that theme to heart. He's going wild, actually. And we'll fill up the strategic reserves.

You know, they use those—the big—these are massive cavities in earth that—down—that you wouldn't believe how big, and they took the oil out that we put in. We put in a lot, at good prices, and they took it out before the election, and it didn't really amount to that much for cars. You know, it didn't last that long, actually, because that's a big—as big as those cavities—we call them "cavities," or caves. They're incredible—salt. They're salt mines, and they have almost an unlimited capacity, but it is limited. And they were just about filled up to the top, and for the election, they—they started emptying it.

It wasn't meant for that. It was meant—it really meant for a military emergency. It wasn't meant to keep prices down so that somebody can win an election. But obviously, that didn't work.

And the blue-collar workers have already seen their largest real wage increase in 60 years—another thing you can say.

But the biggest thing you can say, and I told Mike today—I said, "Mike, there's one thing where I don't believe we can lose." So, at the end of my first term, I was so proud of myself because I worked very hard, and pharmaceuticals, drug prices, went down for the first time in 28 years. Think of that. First time in 28 years they went down. You know what they went down? One-quarter of 1 point. Little much. The line was almost straight. It was like "eee." But it went down. First time in many years—28, I think.

And I was so proud, I called a news conference to announce that drug prices have gone down for the first time in many years. And I thought it was great, but then I did something much better, and this is what you have to run on.

I have a friend who has a serious weight problem. Serious. He's brilliant but extremely heavy. I'm being nice. And he takes Ozempic, or, as they call it, "the fat drug." [Laughter] And he's a brilliant guy. He's rich, tough, highly neurotic. He's a mess. He's a total mess, but he is brilliant and rich. And he was in London, and he calls me, like, "President"—he always used to call me "Donny." Now he calls me "President." That's good. I like that better. [Laughter]

He goes: "President, what's going on? I just bought the Ozempic for $88, and in New York, I pay $1,300." Same factory. Same company that makes it. Same everything. Eighty-eight dollars to $1,300—almost—he said almost $1,300.

And I explained to him that that's the way it's been for many, many years, where people actually go to Europe in order to buy drugs. When they come back, they're loaded up. In fact, sometimes they get arrested for having so much they think they're drug addicts. They just buy months of supply, because it's sometimes one-tenth, one-eighth, one-fifth, one-half. It's a tremendous difference.

And this is for the people in this room, because this is something that nobody else can do. We're going to get the drug prices down. Not 30 or 40 percent, which would be great. Not 50 or 60. No, we're going to get them down 1,000 percent, 600 percent, 500 percent, 1,500 percent—numbers that are not even thought to be achievable—because I've used a certain talent that I have and convinced the drug companies that you have no choice.

The drug companies were selling drugs—same company—in Europe and other places based on what Europe told them to sell them at. And they said, "Let America pick up the difference," and I wouldn't let it happen. I wouldn't let it happen.

So I invoked what's called a favored nations provision so that we will pay the same price as the lowest nation anywhere in the world. And drugs will come down, like, from—as an example, $1,300 in the case I gave you. They'll come down from $1,300.

Now, in the world, they'll go up a little bit—not as much as you think, because the world is bigger than the United States in terms of population, as you probably know. But it will go up, and maybe it'll go up—instead of $88 or $90, it will go up to $110 or $120 or $140, but we're going to come down to $140. So you're going to have it coming down from $1,300 to $140, $150, $160—what difference? I mean, somewhere big. And it will be, you know, serious. It will be numbers that nobody can even imagine.

That's going to have a huge impact on Medicaid, Medicare, even Social Security. It's going to have a huge impact on everything.

So I just want you to know that. That's one of the things that you have, and they'll never be able to take it away from you.

You know, when I said "no tax on tips," Kamala got, just, killed. We won Nevada by a lot. You know, they have—99.9 percent of the people work in hotels, right? I said, "No tax on tips," and a month later, she said, "And there will be no tax on tips." And she—they got booed out of the room because they knew that was our issue. [Laughter]

So they'll try and pick up on this issue. They can't, because we did it. But they'll try anyway because they do lie terribly.

We will have reduced drug prices by 1,000 percent, by 1,100, 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 700, 600. Not 30 or 40 or 50 percent, but numbers the likes of which you've never even dreamed of before.

And we're working very hard right now to get the other countries to lift up their prices a little bit and to get the drug companies to put it to them. And if they don't, the drug companies will have a lot of problems. And they are mostly agreed to it. And if the countries don't, then—as an example, if it's Europe, I'll say: "That's okay. You're no longer allowed to sell cars in America. You're no longer allowed to have Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, or any of the other many cars." And they will say, "Oh, I love the idea of lower drug prices for America." [Laughter]

So you have to use that. You have to use that because it's—I mean, I can't think of anything that could be more powerful than that. Okay? And there's nothing more powerful than that, and we can't forget about it.

I said, "One thing I'm going to"—I said to the Speaker today—I said, "The one thing I'm going to bring up tonight"—because we have so many the congressional—the Congress men and women in the room—"but the one thing I'm going to bring up is what we did with"—we call it "favored nations."

But—so we're going to have the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world. We'll have—we'll be tied for the lowest drug price, essentially, anywhere in the world.

And you can win your election. I don't care where you come from. That helps everybody. There's no other point, I think, that can—what do you think, Mary? Do you agree?

Representative Mary E. Miller. Oh, absolutely.

The President. Okay. I agree too, Mary. You'd better agree, Mary. [Laughter] If you didn't agree—[laughter]—if you didn't agree—but no, it's an amazing thing. And nobody thought that was even possible.

We've negotiated historic trade deals with the United Kingdom, Indonesia, China. Today Japan and the Philippines—we just did the Philippines today also. A good deal.

We have stopped wars between India and Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. That was going on for 30 years. And by the way, India-Pakistan was probably going to end up in a nuclear war if they kept—you know, they had—they shot down five planes in the last attack. And it was back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And I called them, and I said: "Listen, no more trade. If you do this, you're—you're not going to be good." But they have both—they're both powerful nuclear nations, and that would have happened, and who knows where that would have ended up. And I stopped it.

Iran—you saw, we took out their entire capability of nuclear. Kosovo and Serbia—we stopped that. And a couple of others that we didn't stop a war, but we stopped what probably could have ended up in a war, and we do that on the house. It's compliments of America, okay?

Do you think Biden would do that? [Laughter] I don't think so. Do you think he ever heard of any of those countries? I don't think so. [Laughter]

I was sitting there screaming back and forth with Japan, and somebody said, "Can you imagine Biden doing this?" I don't think so. There would be no negotiation. We'd just be ripped off like we have been for—we've been ripped off so many years by friend and foe. And you know what? The friend has been worse, in many cases, than the foe. But ripped off on trade and other things.

And I'm very proud to tell you that with NATO, the European—if you look, the European countries, essentially, will be buying our equipment, paying a hundred percent on the dollar, and then they're going to distribute it to where they're going to distribute it, which is going to be to Ukraine or whatever. But they're buying it, so we're not going to have the expense of giving away—Biden gave away $350 billion worth of equipment or cash. Worse than equipment: cash. So we want to find out about that someday, I guess. Right?

But they were supposed to buy their own equipment. But I—you know, I have a feeling they didn't spend every dollar on the equipment. But they are brave. Look, they're fighting a hard fight. And we're not long—we're no longer going to be do that.

Our great companies—we make the best military equipment in the world, and our great companies are going to be selling now, and they'll be using it. So, even those people that don't want to be in the war—and I'm one of them—but even those people are saying: "Wow, that's pretty good. That's pretty good."

So they'll be able to defend themselves, and we will no longer be paying for it. And I think that's a very big thing.

So we've achieved incredible things in a very short period of time. And in polling released just last week, it was announced that the approval for congressional Democrats under Hakeem Jeffries has reached the lowest ever recorded: 19 percent.

And Republicans are doing well, and I have the best numbers I've ever had. You know, it's amazing. I watch people on television, "Well, what about Donald Trump's polling numbers?" Yes, they're the best numbers I've ever had. And with this made-up hoax that they're talking about, my numbers have gone up 4 and 5 points.

It's—they want to do anything to get us off the subject of making America great again, and we're not going to put up with it.

And remember—don't let them forget, it's so important: Obama cheated on the election.

Look, the camera just went off. [Laughter]

Obama—the red light just went off. Can you believe these people, how bad they are? Obama cheated. When they give you all nonsense—Obama cheated, and his people cheated. But he was there. They—you ever hear this? They talk about—if—if they ever even mention it, they never mention his name. Just the opposite with me. But—they only mention my name, they don't mention any of you guys.

They don't mention Tom, they don't mention Steve, they don't mention our great Speaker. They mention Trump all the time. I'd like to have them mention you. [Laughter]

But remember this: Obama cheated on the election, and we have it cold, hard, blue. And it's getting even more so, because the stuff that's coming in is not even believable. So—and you should mention that every time they give you a question that's not appropriate. Just say, "Oh, by the way, Obama cheated on the election." You'll watch the camera turn off instantly. [Laughter]

But I want to thank all of you again. Once again, this is an incredible job. It's incredible people—really incredible people. And, you know—it's very interesting—I got to know so many of you over the last 6 months, really. But so many of you—some I didn't know—but you have tremendous talent. And you have—some I spoke to too much. And I particularly like the ones I didn't have to speak to at all, Mary. [Laughter]

I didn't have to call Mary.

But in particular—but—no, but I like them all. Look, in the end, we got there. We got the vote of almost all—a couple of people that will never vote, no matter what. You know, they think it's so cool not to vote. They have no suggestions, they have no ideas, they have no nothing. They just want to vote no. I don't know why. They're not doing very well on the polls right now, by the way, I'll tell you right now.

But I want to just—if I could, for a second—because he really deserves it. Truly a spectacular person, spectacular man. I'd like to ask the speaker, Mike Johnson, to come up and say a few words.

Audience members. Mike! Mike! Mike!

Speaker of the House of Representatives J. Michael Johnson. Mr. President, I'm not going to speak long. These guys hear me talk all the time. Okay?

Audience members. Boo! [Laughter]

Speaker Johnson. [Laughter] I just want to say that we have been making history together. And we're making history because you are the visionary, bold, strong leader that America needed. The American people recognized that, they gave us a mandate, and we're delivering on it.

The exciting thing about the "Big Beautiful Bill" is America First is no longer just an agenda. It is now the law of the land, my friends.

[Speaker Johnson continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

We've got much more to do—much more to do—to deliver for the people, and we're going to do it. We thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for the celebration. Everybody here deserves it. God bless.

The President. Thank you, Mike. Fantastic guy.

Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, fellas. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.