The former president took to the stage on Thursday night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
It was his first speech after last weekend’s attempted assassination.
Earlier this week, Trump said he had rewritten his speech to focus on calls for national unity. “Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.”
In this annotated transcript, political correspondent Jack Horgan-Jones picks out the key moments and messages, highlighted in yellow.
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Thank you very much. Thank you very, very much. And thank you, Dana. Thank you, Kid Rock, sometimes referred to as “Bob.” And thank you, Lee, right from the beginning, thank you very much. What a talent. What a beautiful, beautiful song. Thank you.
Friends, delegates and fellow citizens. I stand before you this evening with a message of confidence, strength and hope. Four months from now, we will have an incredible victory, and we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country.
Together, we will launch a new era of safety, prosperity and freedom for citizens of every race, religion, colour and creed.
The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart.
I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America. So tonight, with faith and devotion, I proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And we will do it right. We’re going to do it right.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: The former President had said that he had to entirely redraft the speech after he was shot, and this was, as promised, a most un-Trump like opener - an appeal to unity across racial and political divides. Noticeably, after a survival which has been openly attributed to divine intervention, Trump’s speech riffed on religion a lot; this was evident early on, but he went back to God time and again.]
Let me begin this evening by expressing my gratitude to the American people for your outpouring of love and support following the assassination attempt at my rally on Saturday.
As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life. So many people have asked me what happened. “Tell us what happened, please.” And therefore, I will tell you exactly what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s actually too painful to tell.
It was a warm, beautiful day in the early evening in Butler Township in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Music was loudly playing, and the campaign was doing really well. I went to the stage and the crowd was cheering wildly. Everybody was happy. I began speaking very strongly, powerfully and happily. Because I was discussing the great job my administration did on immigration at the southern border. We were very proud of it.
Behind me, and to the right, was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership. The numbers were absolutely amazing. In order to see the chart, I started to, like this, turn to my right, and was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I’m very lucky I didn’t do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard. On my right ear. I said to myself, “Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.”
And moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down. My hand was covered with blood. Just absolutely blood all over the place. I immediately knew it was very serious. That we were under attack. And in one movement proceeded to drop to the ground. Bullets were continuing to fly as very brave Secret Service agents rushed to the stage. And they really did. They rushed to the stage.
These are great people at great risk, I will tell you, and pounced on top of me so that I would be protected. There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet in a certain way I felt very safe because I had God on my side. I felt that.
The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together. The most incredible aspect of what took place on that terrible evening, in the fading sun, was actually seen later. In almost all cases, as you probably know. And when even a single bullet is fired, just a single bullet, and we had many bullets that were being fired, crowds run for the exits or stampede. But not in this case. It was very unusual.
This massive crowd of tens of thousands of people stood by and didn’t move an inch. In fact, many of them bravely but automatically stood up, looking for where the sniper would be.
They knew immediately that it was a sniper. And then began pointing at him. You can see that if you look at the group behind me. That was just a small group compared to what was in front.
Nobody ran and, by not stampeding, many lives were saved. But that isn’t the reason that they didn’t move. The reason is that they knew I was in very serious trouble. They saw it. They saw me go down. They saw the blood, and thought, actually most did, that I was dead.
They knew it was a shot to the head. They saw the blood. And there’s an interesting statistic. The ears are the bloodiest part. If something happens with the ears they bleed more than any other part of the body. For whatever reason the doctors told me that.
And I said, “Why is there so much blood?”
He said, “It’s the ears, they bleed more.”
So we learned something. But they just —
They just, this beautiful crowd, they didn’t want to leave me. They knew I was in trouble. They didn’t want to leave me. And you can see that love written all over their faces. True. Incredible people. They’re incredible people. Bullets were flying over us, yet I felt serene.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: His account of the shooting was intense, revealing and unique. Trump often relates things from the first person, usually threaded with braggadacio and self-praise, but the almost childish storybook tone he took at times while relating how he was nearly killed revealed perhaps a little of his terror at his own mortality. His account of raising his fist, delivering the “fight, fight, fight” message was remarkable. He also foregrounded the response of his crowd; the bond between Trump and his base has been strengthened again by the failed assassination.]
But now the Secret Service agents were putting themselves in peril. They were in very dangerous territory.
Bullets were flying right over them, missing them by a very small amount of inches. And then it all stopped. Our Secret Service sniper, from a much greater distance and with only one bullet used, took the assassin’s life. Took him out.
I’m not supposed to be here tonight. Not supposed to be here.
[Crowd chants “Yes, you are.”]
Thank you. But I’m not. And I’ll tell you. I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.
And watching the reports over the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment. Probably was. When I rose, surrounded by Secret Service, the crowd was confused because they thought I was dead. And there was great, great sorrow. I could see that on their faces as I looked out. They didn’t know I was looking out; they thought it was over.
But I could see it and I wanted to do something to let them know I was OK. I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousands of people that were breathlessly waiting and started shouting, “Fight, fight, fight.”
Thank you.
Once my clenched fist went up, and it was high into the air, you’ve all seen that, the crowd realized I was OK and roared with pride for our country like no crowd I have ever heard before. Never heard anything like it.
For the rest of my life, I will be grateful for the love shown by that giant audience of patriots that stood bravely on that fateful evening in Pennsylvania. Tragically, the shooter claimed the life of one of our fellow Americans: Corey Comperatore. Unbelievable person, everybody tells me. Unbelievable.
And seriously wounded two other great warriors. Spoke to them today: David Dutch and James Copenhaver. Two great people. I also spoke to all three families of these tremendous people.
Our love and prayers are with them and always will be. We’re never going to forget them. They came for a great rally. They were serious Trumpsters, I want to tell you. They were serious Trumpsters and still are. But Corey, unfortunately, we have to use the past tense.
He was incredible. Yeah. He was a highly respected former fire chief. Respected by everybody. Was accompanied by his wife, Helen. Incredible woman. I spoke to her today. Devastated. And two precious daughters. He lost his life selflessly acting as a human shield to protect them from flying bullets. He went right over the top of them and was hit. What a fine man he was.
I want to thank the fire department and the family for sending his helmet, his outfit and it was just something, and they’re going to do something very special when they get it.
But we did something which cannot match what happened. Not even close. But I am very proud to say that over the past few days we’ve raised $6.3 million. For the families of David, James and Corey. Including from a friend of mine just — called up, he sent me a check, right here, just got it. One million dollars. From Dan Newlin, thank you, Dan.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: Trump spoke at length, and quite sincerely, about the death of Corey Comperatore and the injured. He strangely dipped into how much money had been raised for the family. There was a deeply weird moment when he seemed to kiss the firefighter’s helmet, which had been hung on stage, mouthing to someone “It’s his!”]
And again, when speaking to the family, I told them, I said, “Well, I’m going to be sending a lot of money, but it can’t compensate.”
They all said the same thing: “You’re right, sir; we appreciate so much what you’re doing, but nothing can take the place, in the case of Corey.” And the other two. By the way, they were very, very seriously injured. But now they’re doing very well. They’re going to be OK. They’re going to be doing very well. They’re warriors.
So now, I ask that we observe a moment of silence in honor of our friend Corey. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for others. This is the spirit that forged America in her darkest hours. And this is the love that will lead America back to the summit of human achievement and greatness. This what we need.
Despite such a heinous attack, we unite this evening, more determined than ever. I am more determined than ever and so are you. So is everybody in this room.
[Crowd chants, “We love Trump.”]
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: There was a gear-shift once he covered unity and the shooting, and reverted to a low-cal version of classic Trumpism. Much of the speech seemed like he had been too mollified by concern for him after the shooting to hit the high notes of divisiveness that are a core part of his style. This speech may be less galvanising of his base that has thrived on division.]
Thank you. Thank you very much. Our resolve is unbroken and our purpose is unchanged, to deliver a government that serves the American people better than ever before. Nothing will stop me in this mission, because our vision is righteous and our cause is pure.
No matter what obstacle comes our way, we will not break. We will not bend. We will not back down and I will never stop fighting for you, your family and our magnificent country. Never.
And everything I have to give with all of the energy and fight in my heart and soul, I pledge to our nation tonight. Thank you very much. I pledge that to our nation. We’re going to turn our nation around and we’re going to do it very quickly. Thank you.
This election should be about the issues facing our country and how to make America successful, safe, free and great again.
In an age when our politics too often divide us, now is the time to remember that we are all fellow citizens — we are one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
And we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement, which is what’s been happening in our country lately, at a level that nobody has ever seen before. In that spirit, the Democrat party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy. Especially since that is not true. In fact, I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.
And very big news, as you probably just read. On Monday, a major ruling was handed down from a highly respected federal judge in Florida, Aileen Cannon, finding that the prosecutor and the fake documents case against me were totally unconstitutional, and the entire case was thrown out of court. With all of that publicity — thrown out of court. If Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these partisan witch hunts, which I’ve been going through for approximately eight years. And they should do that without delay and allow an election to proceed that is worthy of our people. We’re going to win it anyway. But worthy of our people.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: There was much playing of the hits, mentioning that the judiciary that exonerates him is right and good and smart, and those who pursue him are stooges of the Democrats who themselves are the threat to US democracy. The alignment between Trump personally and the nation is striking: attacking Trump is attacking America.]
On this journey, I am deeply honored to be joined by my amazing wife, Melania. And, Melania, thank you very much. You also did something really beautiful, a letter to America calling for national unity. And it really took the Republican Party by surprise, I will tell you; it was beautiful. In fact, some very serious people said that we should take that letter and put it as part of the Republican platform. That would be an honor, wouldn’t it? Right? Mr. congressman? But it captivated so many, so …
I also want to thank my entire family — Don and Kimberly, Ivanka and Jared, Eric and Lara, Tiffany and Michael, Barron, we love our Barron. And of course, my 10 wonderful grandchildren.
You saw a few of them up there on my lap before. And how good was Dana? Was Dana good? I mean, wasn’t he good? You know, he was on probably the only vacation he’s had in about — maybe ever. Because he works. But about 10 years, with his wife — very far away. I won’t tell you where, but very, very far away, beautiful place.
And my people called and he said, “Yeah, I won’t be able to do it. This is many, many years. I promised my wife. I can’t do it.” And they came and they said, “Dana won’t be able to do it.” Because he was my first, second and third choice. I said, “Well, you know, that’s too bad.” But I understand, he’s away and it’s good. It’s good for him. And that was it. About 30 minutes later, she came back in: “Sir, Dana just called; he’s going to do it.” And his wife, she said, “You can’t turn him down. You just can’t do it. You have to go.” That’s a good wife.
So he got in a plane, he got here a little while ago. Now he’s going to get on the plane in a little while and he’s going to go back home to his wife. But they’re great. And I just want to thank her and him and their whole family because that’s not easy.
And Kid Rock, same thing. Called, he said, “I want to be a part of it.” I want to be a part, because, you know, Kid does this great song. Big, big monster song. I had no idea. You know, he became a friend of mine over the last 10 years. And, uh, he’s amazing. Everyone loves him.
I didn’t even know how big he was. You know, he has rallies. Thirty-five, 40,000 people he gets, every time he goes out. I think he’s making so much money he doesn’t know what the hell to do with it, you want to know ...
And then we have my other friend, and I’ve known him so long and we took that song and it was a big success. But we made that. I saw a chart of great songs to America. That was No. 1 on the chart recently. No. 1, so. That’s Lee Greenwood, very special, beautiful person. He’s a beautiful man.
But they all wanted to be here. They called … And how about the Hulkster? How good was he? You see that? Where is he? Boy, oh boy.
You know, they may call it, they may call that entertainment. I know about entertainment, but when he used to lift a 350-pound man over his shoulders and then bench press him two rows into the audience, I say maybe entertainment, but he is one strong son of a gun, I tell you. I watched it many times. There aren’t a lot of entertainers that could do that, right? You were fantastic. Thank you very much.
Followed by … Eric? What was that all about? Boy, that was good. I didn’t want to really come up here.
But he was so great. And he’s such a good young man. He went through a lot of trouble, and Don, last night, was incredible. They went through so much trouble. They got subpoenaed more than any people probably in the history of the United States. Every week they get another subpoena from the Democrats. Crazy Nancy Pelosi, the whole thing. Just boom, boom, boom.
They’ve got to stop that because they’re destroying our country. We have to work on making America great again, not on beating people. And we won. We beat them in all. We beat them on the impeachments. We beat them on the indictments. We beat them. But the time that you have to spend, the time that you have to spend. If they would devote that genius to helping our country, we’d have a much stronger and better country.
And Jason. The biggest star in country music. Jason, thank you for being here. Jason, thank you very much. Jason Aldean, he’s good. I like his wife even better, by the way. She’s here. Thank you, Jason.
But I’m thrilled to have a new friend and partner fighting by my side: the next vice president of the United States, the current senator from Ohio, J.D. Vance, and his incredible wife, Usha.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: Trump likes when celebrities not only endorse him, but fawn over him. It’s well known that in Trump’s inner circle, obsequiousness gets you a long way? Hulk Hogan for Secretary of State? Kid Rock on the Supreme Court? Dana White the White House Counsel? JD Vance appears to be a hit already. He should be wary of stealing Trump’s thunder.]
He’s going to be a great vice president, he’s going to be great. He’ll be with this country and with this movement. Greatest movement in the history of our country. Make America Great Again. When they criticize it, they say, “We’re going to try and stop MAGA.” MAGA is “Make America Great Again.” What are you going to stop? There’s nothing to stop. Then they say, “Oh, that’s right.” It’s very tough to fight it.
And all of the people that did try and fight it have failed, but he’s going to be with us for a long time, and it was an honor to select him. Great, great student at Yale. His wife was a student at Yale; they met at Yale. These are two smart people. So J.D., you’re going to be doing this for a long time; enjoy the ride.
And a very special thank you to the extraordinary people of Milwaukee and the great state of — oh, there they are. There they are, that’s — You are so easy to spot. And Green Bay’s going to have a good team this year, right? They’re going to have a good team. They’re going to have a good team. Most of the audience doesn’t like it, but it’s true. You’re going to have a very good team this year.
And by the way, Wisconsin, we are spending over $250 million here, creating jobs and other economic … development all over the place. So I hope you will remember this in November and give us your vote. I am trying to buy your vote. I’ll be honest about that. And I promise we will make Wisconsin great again. We’re going to make this ... Thank you. Mr. governor, thank you very much. Thank you.
I am here tonight to lay out a vision for the whole nation. To every citizen, whether you’re a young or old, man or woman, Democrat, Republican or Independent, Black or white, Asian or Hispanic, I extend to you a hand of loyalty and of friendship.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: Trump made appeals across racial divides before harping on core themes: incompetent rivals, the destitution of the American economic and spiritual heartlands, the threat of illegal migration, and the simplicity of foreign and domestic policies, all anchored in a strongman’s view of the world.]
Together, we will lead America to new heights of greatness like the world has never seen before.
We were right there in the first term. We got hit with Covid. We did a great job. Nobody knew what it was. But nobody’s ever seen an economy pre-Covid, and then we handed over a stock market that was substantially higher than just prior to Covid. Coming in, did a great job. Never got credit for that. We got credit for the war and defeating ISIS and so many things. The great economy. The biggest tax cuts ever. The biggest regulation cuts ever. The creation of Space Force, the rebuilding of our military. We did so much. We do so much.
Right to Try, Right to Try is a big deal. We’ve got Right to Try. They were trying to get that for 52 years. Somebody’s terminally ill. And hopefully there’s nobody in this audience, but it does happen, a lot. They’re terminally ill and they can’t use our new space-age drugs and other things that we are way ahead with. We have the greatest doctors in the world. The greatest laboratories in the world, and you can’t do it. They’ve been trying to get that approved for 52 years, wasn’t that easy. The insurance companies didn’t want to do it. They didn’t want the risk. The labs didn’t want to do it because if it didn’t work, people are pretty far down the line toward death. They didn’t want to do it. The doctors didn’t want to have it on their record.
So I got everybody into an office — 52 years, they tried. Sounds simple, but it’s not. And I got them to agree that somebody that needs it will, instead of going to Asia or Europe or some place, or if you have no money, going home and dying — just die — we got them to sign an agreement. They agreed to it, where they’re not going to sue anybody. They can get all of this stuff. They’re going to get it really fast, and what’s happened is we’re saving thousands and thousands of lives. It’s incredible. Right to Try. It’s … great feeling.
Under our leadership, the United States will be respected again. No nation will question our power. No enemy will doubt our might. Our borders will be totally secure. Our economy will soar. We will return law and order to our streets, patriotism to our schools, and importantly, we will restore peace, stability and harmony all throughout the world.
But to achieve this future, we must first rescue our nation from failed and even incompetent leadership. We have totally incompetent leadership. This will be the most important election in the history of our country.
Under the current administration, we are indeed a nation in decline.
We have an inflation crisis that is making life unaffordable, ravaging the incomes of working and low-income families, and crushing, just simply crushing our people like never before. They’ve never seen anything like it.
We also have an illegal immigration crisis, and it’s taking place right now, as we sit here in this beautiful arena. It’s a massive invasion at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease, and destruction to communities all across our land. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.
Then there is an international crisis, the likes of which the world has seldom been part of. Nobody can believe what’s happening. War is now raging in Europe and the Middle East, a growing specter of conflict hangs over Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, and all of Asia, and our planet is teetering on the edge of World War III, and this will be a war like no other war because of weaponry. The weapons are no longer army tanks going back and forth, shooting at each other. These weapons are obliteration.
It’s time for a change. This administration can’t come close to solving the problems. We’re dealing with very tough, very fierce people. They’re fierce people. And we don’t have fierce people. We have people that are a lot less than fierce, except when it comes to cheating on elections and a couple of other things, then they’re fierce. Then they’re fierce.
So tonight, I make this pledge to the great people of America.
I will end the devastating inflation crisis immediately, bring down interest rates and lower the cost of energy . We will drill, baby, drill. Can you believe what they’re doing?
But by doing that, we will lead a large-scale decline in prices. Prices will start to come down.
Energy… Raised it, they took our energy policies and destroyed them. Then they immediately went back to them, but by that time, so much was lost. But we will do it at levels that nobody’s ever seen before, and we’ll end lots of different things. We’ll start paying off debt and start lowering taxes even further. We gave you the largest tax cut. We’ll do it more.
Now, people don’t realize, I brought taxes way down, way, way down. And yet we took in more revenues the following year than we did when the tax rate was much higher. Most people said, how did you do that? Because it was incentive. Everybody was coming to the country, they were bringing back billions and billions of dollars into our country. The companies made it impossible to bring it back. The tax rate was too high and the legal complications were far too great. I changed both of them, and hundreds of billions of dollars by Apple and so many other companies would work back into our nation, and we had an economy the likes of which nobody, no nation had ever seen. China, we were beating them at levels that were incredible. And they know it. They know it. We’ll do it again, but we’ll do it even better.
I will end the illegal immigration crisis by closing our border and finishing the wall, most of which I’ve already built.
On the wall, we were dealing with a very difficult Congress and I said, “Oh, that’s OK. We won’t go to Congress.” I call it an “invasion.” We gave our military almost $800 billion. I said, “I’m going to take a little of that money, because this is an ‘invasion.’” And we built — Most of the wall is already built, and we built it through using the funds, because what’s more, what’s better than that? We have to stop the invasion into our country that’s killing hundreds of thousands of people a year. We’re not going to let that happen.
I will end every single international crisis that the current administration has created, including the horrible war with Russia and Ukraine, which would have never happened if I was president. And the war caused by the attack on Israel, which would never have happened if I was president. Iran was broke. Iran had no money. Now Iran has $250 billion. They made it all over the last two and a half years. They were broke.
I watched the other day on a show called “Deface the Nation,” has anyone seen it? And they had a congressman who was a Democrat say, Well, whether you like him or not, Iran was broke dealing with Trump. I told China and other countries, “If you buy from Iran, we will not let you do any business in this country, and we will put tariffs on every product you do send in of 100 percent or more.” And they said to me, Well, I think that’s about it. They weren’t going to buy any oil. And they were ready to make a deal. Iran was going to make a deal with us.
And then we had that horrible, horrible result that we’ll never let happen again. The election result. We’re never going to let that happen again. They used Covid to cheat. We’re never going to let it happen again.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: He made just one full mention of the stolen election, one of the most potent parts of Trump’s refreshed, post 2020 foundation myth-making. He was much more focused on immigration, spending long minutes describing the threat from violent drug gangs.]
And they took off all the sanctions, and they did everything possible for Iran and now Iran is very close to having a nuclear weapon, which would have never happened.
This is a shame, what this administration, the damage that this administration has done. And I say it often. If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States. Think of it. The 10 worst.
Added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done. Only going to use the term once. Biden. I’m not going to use the name anymore. Just one time. The damage that he’s done to this country is unthinkable. It’s unthinkable.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: Only one mention by name of Biden, and he steered clear of jibes or name-calling. If Biden stays in the race, it will be interesting to see how long Trump can suppress the schoolyard bully elements of his campaigning style. His instincts only trend in one direction here.]
Together, we will restore vision, strength, competence and we’re going to have a thing called common sense making most of our decisions actually. It’s all common sense.
Just a few short years ago under my presidency, we had the most secure border and the best economy in the history of our country, in the history of the world. We had the greatest economy in the history of the world. We had never done anything like it. We were beating every country, including China, by leaps and bounds. Nobody had seen anything like it.
We had no inflation, soaring incomes, we’re going —
Nobody’s —
Nobody can believe it. You can’t believe what happened four years ago is happening now in reverse.
And the world was at peace. Inflation has been a killer for our country. No matter what you’re making, it doesn’t matter because inflation is eating you alive. People that were putting away money, they were making great wages. The highest they’ve ever made. But they were putting away a lot of money. Now they are just being destroyed. They’re not putting away anything. They’re barely living. They’re going into saving accounts. They’re taking out their money to live because of inflation.
Inflation, remember, it’s called a country buster. You can go back to Germany from 100 years ago. You can go back to any country that’s suffered great inflation. We’ve suffered the worst inflation we’ve ever had. But go back and see what’s happened to those countries. We’ve had the worst inflation we’ve ever had under this person.
But in less than four years, our opponents have turned incredible success into unparalleled tragedy and failure. It’s been a tremendous failure.
Today, our cities are flooded with illegal aliens. Americans are being squeezed out of the labor force and their jobs are taken. By the way, you know who’s taking the jobs, the jobs that are created? One hundred and seven percent of those jobs are taken by illegal aliens.
And you know who’s being hurt the most by millions of people pouring into our country? The Black population and the Hispanic population. Because they’re taking the jobs from our Black population, our Hispanic population. And they’re also taking them from unions. The unions are suffering because of it.
Thank you. Thank you. I like you too. Thank you very much.
Inflation has wiped out the life savings of our citizens, and forced the middle class into a state of depression and despair. That’s what it is. It’s despair and depression.
We cannot, and will not, let this continue. Less than four years ago, we were a great nation, and we will soon be a great nation again. We’re going to be a great nation again. Thank you.
With proper leadership, every disaster we are now enduring will be fixed — and it will be fixed very, very quickly.
So tonight, whether you’ve supported me in the past or not, I hope you will support me in the future, because I will bring back the American dream. That’s what we’re going to do. You don’t even hear about the American dream anymore.
With great humility, I am asking you to be excited about the future of our country. Be excited. Be excited.
And by the way, the news reports. All, look at all of those big networks. Look at them. They’re all here. But everyone one of them has said this could be the most organized, best run and most enthusiastic convention of either party that they’ve ever seen. Every single one.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: Again Trump comes to a pet subject: the lying, deceptive news media. You can feel the room warm to it, with brief boos echoing around the room. But Trump’s form is different and instead he is citing praise for his campaign from the press. There’s love in the room, he says.]
And it’s true. It’s true. And there’s love in the room. There’s great love in the room.
So I’d better finish strong.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: He was about halfway through.]
Otherwise, we’ll blow it, and we can’t let that happen. No, this was great. All of the great people that spoke and everybody hit a home run. I mean, there’s not one that I can think of where I said, “Oh, gee, that wasn’t great.” Every single person. I refuse to be the only one. Don’t do that to me. They’re already getting ready. See, I gave them an idea.
No, we had a, this was a great convention. This was —
I think we’re actually going to go home and miss it. You know usually with a —
First of all, look at these crowds. You’d never have this at a convention. Look at these crowds. Love, it’s about love.
This week, the entire Republican Party has formally adopted an agenda for America’s renewal. And you saw that agenda, and it’s very short compared to the long, boring, meaningless agendas of the past. Including the Democrats. They write these things that are hundreds of pages long and they never read them after they’re done. In their case, fortunately they don’t read them because they’re pretty bad.
It’s a series of bold promises that we will swiftly implement when you give us a Republican House. And Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. We have our great speaker of the House with us tonight. Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. Thank you.
A Republican Senate. We have many senators here. And send me back to our beautiful White House just a few short months from now. We’re talking about just months. It can’t come fast enough. We have to get it done.
First, we must get economic relief to our citizens. Starting on Day 1, we will drive down prices and make America affordable again. We have to make it affordable. It’s not affordable. People can’t live like this.
Under this administration, our current administration, groceries are up 57 percent, gasoline is up 60 and 70 percent, mortgage rates have quadrupled, and the fact is it doesn’t matter what they are because you can’t get the money anyway. Can’t buy houses. Young people can’t get any financing to buy a house. The total household costs have increased an average of $28,000 per family under this administration.
Republicans have a plan to bring down prices, and bring them down very, very rapidly. By slashing energy costs, we will in turn reduce the cost of transportation, manufacturing and all household goods. So much starts with energy. And remember, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country by far. We are a nation that has the opportunity to make an absolute fortune with its energy. We have it and China doesn’t. Under the Trump administration just three and a half years ago, we were energy independent. But soon we will actually be better than that. We will be energy dominant and supply not only ourselves, but we will supply the rest of the world.
With numbers that nobody has ever seen and we will reduce our debt, $36 trillion. We will start reducing that. And we will also reduce your taxes still further. Next, and by the way they want to raise your taxes four times. Think of it. And all my life I grew up watching politicians. I always loved politics, I guess. I was on the other side. I’d watch the — and they were always talking about we will give you a tax cut, we will give you a tax cut. My whole life I was watching I will give you a tax cut, right Mr. Congressman? That’s all they talked about. This is the only administration that said we’re going to raise your taxes by four times what you’re paying now. And people are supposed to vote for them? I’ve never heard it. You’re paying too much, we’re going to reduce your taxes still further. We gave you the biggest one, as I said. We’re going to give you more and it’s going to lead to tremendous growth. We want growth in our country. That’s what’s going to pay off our debt.
And next, we will end the ridiculous and actually incredible waste of taxpayer dollars that is fueling the inflation crisis. They’ve spent trillions of dollars of things having to do with the Green New Scam. It’s a scam. And that has caused tremendous inflationary pressures in addition to the cost of energy.
And all of the trillions of dollars that are sitting there not yet spent, we will redirect that money for important projects like roads, bridges, dams and we will not allow it to be spent on the meaningless Green New scam ideas.
And I will end the electric vehicle mandate on day one. Thereby saving the U.S. auto industry from complete obliteration, which is happening right now and saving U.S. customers thousands and thousands of dollars per car.
And right now as we speak, large factories, just started, are being built across the border in Mexico. So, with all the other things happening at our border, and they’re being built by China to make cars and to sell them into our country, no tax, no anything. The United Autoworkers ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen and the leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately and every single autoworker, union and nonunion, should be voting for Donald Trump because we’re going to bring back car manufacturing and we’re going to bring it back fast.
They are building some of the largest auto plants anywhere in the world. Think of it. In the world. And we are going to bring it back. We’re going to make them. We don’t mind the —
We don’t mind it happening but plants will be built in the United States and our people are going to man those plants. And if they don’t agree with us, we’ll put a tariff of approximately 100 to 200 percent on each car and they will be unsellable in the United States.
We have long been taken advantage of by other countries. And think of it, oftentimes these other countries are considered so-called allies. They’ve taken advantage of us for years.
We lose jobs. We lose revenue and they gain everything and wipe out our businesses, wipe out our people. I stopped it for four years, I stopped it. And we’re really ready to make changes like nobody had seen before. And remember, U.S.M.C.A. I got rid of NAFTA the worst trade deal ever made and replaced it with U.S.M.C.A. which is, they say, the best trade deal ever made. Actually, probably the best trade deal was the deal I made with China where they buy $50 billion of our product. They were buying nothing. They buy $50 billion worth. They had to but I don’t even talk about it because of Covid. I don’t even mention it frankly because of what happened with the China virus.
We will not let countries come in, take our jobs, and plunder our nation. They come and do that. They plunder our nation.
The way they will sell their product in America is to build it in America, very simple. Build it in America and only in America. And this very simple formula, and congress has to go along with us and they will. This very simple formula will create massive numbers of jobs. We will take over the auto industry again and many many, hundreds of thousands of jobs, we lost so many jobs over the years.
If you go back 20, 25 years they’ve stolen, going to China and Mexico, about 68 percent of our auto industry. Manufacturing jobs. We’re going to get them all back. We’re going to get them all back, every single one of them.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: Protectionism, the deception of America and its duping by overseas actors ... all classic Trumpism. A populist appeal to voters, foregrounding what threatens them, is sustained by the idea that only he can protect them from it.]
At the center of our plan for economic relief are massive tax cuts for workers that include something else that stood out to be very popular actually. Here it’s very popular. In this building and all those hotels that are so nice, I’m staying in a nice one. It’s called no tax on tips. No tax on tips. No tax on tips.
And I got that by having dinner recently in Nevada where we’re leading by about 14 points.
Hello. I’ll see you there very soon, everybody.
And we were having dinner at a beautiful restaurant in the Trump building on the Strip. And it’s a great building and the waitress comes over.
“How’s everything going?”
Really nice person.
“How’s everything going?”
“Oh sir, it’s so tough. The government is after me all the time on tips, tips, tips.”
I said, “Well, they give you cash, would they be able to find them?”
And she said, “Actually,” and I didn’t know this, very little cash is given. It’s all put right on the check. And they come in and they take so much of our money it’s just ridiculous. And they don’t believe anything we say. They’ve just hired, as you know, 88,000 agents to go after them even more.
And I said, “This shows the level of—”
You know, most people who go out they hire consultants.
They pay them of dollars.
But I said to her, “Let me just ask you a question. Would you be happy if you had no tax on tips?”
She said, “What a great idea.”
I got my information from a very smart waitress. That’s better than spending millions of dollars. And everybody, everybody loves it. Waitresses and caddies and drivers and everybody. It’s a large, large group of people that are being hurt badly. They make money, let them keep their money.
I am going to protect Social Security and Medicare. Democrats are going to destroy Social Security and Medicare because all of these people, by the millions, they’re coming in. They’re going to be on Social Security and Medicare and other things and you’re not able to afford it. They are destroying your Social Security and your Medicare.
Under my plan, incomes will skyrocket, inflation will vanish completely, jobs will come roaring back, and the middle class will prosper like never, ever before and we’re going to do it very rapidly.
But no hope or dream we have for America can succeed unless we stop the illegal immigrant invasion. The worst that’s ever been seen anywhere in the world. There’s never been an invasion anywhere. Third world countries would fight with sticks and stones not to let this happen. The invasion at our southern border, we will stop it and we will stop it quickly. You heard Tom Homan yesterday. Tom Homan, put him in charge and just sit back and watch. Brandon Judd, a border patrol, he’s incredible. These guys they, you know, they, they really their job is a lot easier if they don’t have to do anything but they want to. They’re patriots.
Brandon Judd. Border Patrol. ICE. ICE goes out. You have to see what ICE does with M.S. 13. You have, these, these are probably the worst gang and ICE goes in there. And I know a lot of people in these rows here. And they’re very tough people. But they don’t want to do this job. They’ll go into a pack of M.S. 13 killers. They’re the worst, probably the worst gangs in the world. We have thousands of them. I moved thousands and thousands out in my four years. We moved them out. And it was a pleasure, but ICE would go right into a pack of these killers. And you see fist flying, you see everything flying and they take them. They put them in a paddy wagon. They take them back and they get them out of our country. And the other countries weren’t accepting them back. And I called up and I said tell them that we’re not giving them economic aid any more. And the next day I got calls from all these countries that were terminated. Billions of dollars we spend on economic aid to countries that does us frankly no good. And the next day I was called by everybody, I couldn’t take all the calls.
“Sir, sir, what’s the problem?”
I said, “You won’t take your killers back that you sent in caravans into America. You won’t take them back.”
“Well sir, if you’d like us to, we would give very serious consideration to doing that.”
In 24 hours, they were being taken back. For years and years when I first came in, they said President Obama tried to get them to go back and they wouldn’t accept them. They’d put planes on the runway so you couldn’t land the plane. They’d close the roads so you couldn’t take the buses; they’d all have to turn back.
As soon as they said no more economic aid of any kind to any country that does that, they called back and they said, “Sir, it would be our great honor to take M.S. 13. We love them very much. We love them very much, sir. We’ll take them back.”
At the heart of the Republican platform is our pledge to end this border nightmare, and fully restore the sacred and sovereign borders of the United States of America. And we’re going to do that on Day 1. That means two things on Day 1, right? Drill, baby, drill and close our borders.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: This again is red meat to the base. The question is whether he actually has to evolve or elevate his pitch given the strength of his position, or is he now in cruise control?]
And by the way, and I think everybody as a Republican, as a patriot in this. Less than four years ago, I handed this administration the strongest border in American history. But you can see on the chart that saved my life. That was the chart that saved my life. I said, “Look at, I’m so proud of it.” I think it’s one of the greatest — it was done by the Border Patrol — one of the greatest charts I’ve ever seen. It showed everything, just like that. You know the chart. Oh, there it is. That’s pretty good. Wow.
Last time I put up that chart I never really got to look at it. But without that chart, I would not be here today. Never got to look at it. I said, “You’ve got to see this chart.” I was so proud of it. But by the time I got to there. I never got to see it that day. But I’m seeing it now and I was very proud.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: He really liked the chart. He likes it even more now. Who knew a somewhat busy and poorly designed PowerPoint slide would attain such providential status.]
If you look at the arrow on the bottom, that’s the lowest level, the one on the bottom, heavy red arrow, that’s the lowest level of illegal immigrants ever to come into our country in recorded history. Right there. Right there. And that was my last week in office. And then you see what happened after I left. Look at the rest. And if you go out a little bit further, it’s getting to be a little bit old, but I love it anyway right, but you can go much higher with those numbers.
Look what happened right after that. The invasion began. We had the opposite. We stopped the invasion. But the invasion we stopped was peanuts by comparison to what happened after I left. Look at what happened after I left. They took over our country.
We ended all catch-and-release. We shut down asylum fraud. We stopped human trafficking and forged historic agreements to keep illegal aliens on foreign soil. We want them to stay on their soil.
Under the Trump administration, if you came in illegally, you were apprehended immediately and you were deported. You went right back.
The current administration terminated every single one of those great Trump policies that I put in place to seal the border. I wanted a sealed border. Again, come in but come in legally. You know how unfair it is? So many people, hundreds of thousands of people have been working for years to come into our country. And now they see these people pour into our country at levels that are unprecedented. So unfair. And we’re not going to do it. We’re not going to stand for it.
They suspended wall construction, ended “Remain in Mexico.” We had a policy, “Remain in Mexico.” You think that was easy to get from the Mexican government? But I said, “You must give it to us. If you don’t give it to us, there will be repercussions.” And they gave it to us, but not easy.
Canceled our Safe Third agreements, demolished Title 42, implemented nationwide catch-and-release. That’s catch-and-release where we catch them and release them into our country. I had we catch them and release them into Mexico. There’s a slight difference. And took 93, this is the previous administration, 93 executive actions to throw open our border to the world. The entire world is pouring into our country because of this very foolish administration.
The greatest invasion in history is taking place right here in our country. They are coming in from every corner of the earth, not just from South America, but from Africa, Asia, Middle East. They’re coming from everywhere. They’re coming at levels that we’ve never seen before. It is an invasion indeed, and this administration does absolutely nothing to stop them.
They’re coming from prisons. They’re coming from jails. They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums. I, you know the press is always on because I say this. Has anyone seen “The Silence of the Lambs”? The late, great Hannibal Lecter. He’d love to have you for dinner. That’s insane asylums. They’re emptying out their insane asylums. And terrorists at numbers that we’ve never seen before. Bad things are going to happen.
Meanwhile, our crime rate is going up, while crime statistics all over the world are going down. Because they’re taking their criminals and they’re putting them into our country. A certain country, and I happen to like the president of that country very much, but he’s been getting great publicity because he’s a wonderful shepherd of the country.
He says how well the country’s doing because their crime rate is down. And he said he’s training all of these rough people. They’re rough, rough, rough. He’s training them. And I’ve been reading about this for two years. I think, “Oh that’s wonderful, let’s take a look at it.” But then I realize he’s not training them; he’s sending all of his criminals, his drug dealers, his people that are in jails, he’s sending them all to the United States. And he’s different in that he doesn’t say that.
He’s trying to convince everybody what a wonderful job he does in running the country. Well, he doesn’t do a wonderful job. And by the way, if I ran one of the countries, many countries, many, many countries from all over, I would be worse than any of them. I would have had the place totally emptied out already.
But we have become a dumping ground for the world, which is laughing at us. They think we’re stupid. And they can’t believe that they’re getting away with what they’re getting away with, but they’re not going to be getting away with it for long. That’s what I can tell you.
In Venezuela, Caracas, high crime, high crime. Caracas, Venezuela, really a dangerous place. But not anymore, because in Venezuela, crime is down 72 percent. In fact, if they would ever in this election, I hate to even say that, we will have our next Republican convention in Venezuela because it will be safe. Our cities, our cities will be so unsafe we won’t be able, we will not be able to have it there.
In El Salvador, murders are down 70 percent. Why are they down? Now, he would have you convinced that because he’s trained murderers to be wonderful people, no. They’re down because they’re sending their murderers to the United States of America. This is going to be very bad. And bad things are going to happen.
And you’re seeing all the time. That’s why, to keep our family safe, the Republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country. Even larger than that of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, from many years ago. You know, he was a moderate but he believed very strongly in borders. He had the largest deportation operation we’ve ever had.
Just recently, I spoke to the grieving mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, a wonderful woman. A precious 12 year-old girl from Houston who last month was tied up, assaulted and strangled to death after walking to the convenience store just a block away from her house. Her body was dumped near the side of the road in a shallow creek, found by some onlookers who couldn’t believe what they had witnessed. Charged with Jocelyn’s heinous murder, two illegal aliens from Venezuela who came across our border, were in custody and were then released into the country by this horrible, horrible administration that we have right now.
I also met recently with the heartbroken mother and sister of Rachel Morin. Rachel was a 37-year-old mom of five beautiful children who was brutally raped and murdered while out on a run. She wanted to keep herself in good shape. It was very important to her. She was murdered. The monster responsible first killed another woman in El Salvador before he was let into America by the White House. This White House let them in. He then attacked a 9-year-old girl and her mother in a home invasion in Los Angeles before murdering Rachel in Maryland. Traveled all throughout the country, doing tremendous damage. Rachel’s mother will never be the same. I spent time with her. She will never be the same.
I’ve also met with the wonderful family of Laken Riley, the brilliant 22-year-old nursing student. She was so proud of being first in her class, who was out for a run on the campus of the University of Georgia when she was assaulted, beaten and horrifically killed. Yet another American life was stolen by a criminal alien set free by this administration. These were incredible people we’re talking about. These were incredible people who died.
Tonight, America, this is my vow. I will not let these killers and criminals into our country. I will keep our sons and daughters safe.
As we bring security to our streets, we will help bring stability to the world.
I was the first president in modern times to start no new wars. You know, we were the toughest. We were the most respected. And you saw this. Hungary, strong country. Run by a very powerful, tough leader. He’s a tough guy. The press doesn’t like him because he’s tough. And he came out recently. They were asking him at an interview: The whole world is exploding, what’s happening, what’s going on. Viktor Orban, prime minister of Hungary, very tough man. He said, “I don’t want people coming into my country and blowing up our shopping centers and killing people.”
But they said to him, “Tell us, what’s going wrong? What’s happening? What is it?”
He said, “There’s only one way you’re going to solve it. You got to bring President Trump back to the United States because he kept everybody at bay.”
True. He used a word I wouldn’t use because I can’t use that word. Because you’d say it was braggadocious. The press would say, “He was a braggart.” I am not a braggart.
But Viktor Orban said it. He said “Russia was afraid of him. China was afraid of him. Everybody was afraid of him. Nothing was going to happen.”
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: Praise for Orban was not, Twitter says, on the teleprompter. He later riffed on how much he likes Kim Jong Un. This section, dour and blood-soaked, again returned to core Trumpism.]
The whole world was at peace, and now the world is blowing up around us. All of these things you read about were not going to happen.
Under President Bush, Russia invaded Georgia. Under President Obama, Russia took Crimea. Under the current administration, Russia is after all of Ukraine. Under President Trump, Russia took nothing.
We defeated 100 percent of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, something that was said to take “five years, sir, it’ll take five years, sir.” We did it in a matter of a couple months. We have a great military. Our military is not woke. It’s just some of the fools on top that are woke.
I got along very well, North Korea, Kim Jung Un. I got along very well with him. The press hated when I said that.
“How could you get along with him?”
Well, you know, it’s nice to get along with someone who has a lot of nuclear weapons or otherwise. See, in the old days, you’d say that’s a wonderful thing. Now they say, “How can you possibly do that?”
But no, I got along with him and we stopped the missile launches from North Korea. Now, North Korea is acting up again. But when we get back, I get along with him. He’d like to see me back too. I think he misses me, if you want to know the truth.
Our opponents inherited a world at peace and turned it into a planet of war. We’re in a planet of war. Look at that attack on Israel. Look at what’s happening with Ukraine. The cities are just bombed out. How can people live like that, where buildings, massive buildings are falling to the ground.
It began to unravel with the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the worst humiliation in the history of our country. We have never had a humiliation like that. Thirteen heroic U.S. service members were tragically and needlessly killed. Forty-five others were horrifically wounded. Nobody ever talks about that. No arms, no legs, face explosions. Horrifically, horrifically wounded. And by the way, we have a man in this room who is running for the U.S. Senate from a great state, Nevada, named Sam Brown, who paid the ultimate price. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Sam. Thank you. He paid the biggest price probably ever paid by anybody that is running for office, and I think he is going to do great. He’s running against a person that is not good, not respected. A total lightweight.
But Sam, I think, paid really —
We were talking about it with some of the senators that are working so hard for Sam. But he paid the biggest price of any senator ever to run for the Senate. I don’t think anybody has ever, what he did. He’s a real hero, a really great person. And he’s running and I hope that everybody gets out and votes for Sam Brown.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: By the final quarter of the speech Trump was rambling. In addition to this maladroit reference to “face explosions” in a section where he praised Nevada Senate candidate Sam Brown, who received disfiguring facial burns from an IED in Afghanistan, he later talked about how thanks to Israel’s Iron Dome system “a missile was badly wounded”.]
And we also left behind $85 billion dollars’ worth of military equipment, along with many American citizens were left behind. Many, many American citizens.
Emboldened by that disaster, Russia invaded Ukraine. They saw this group of people that were incompetent. We took the soldiers out first, no, no. We’re going to take the soldiers out second. If they would have followed my plan; we had a great plan. But the plan only kicked in if they did everything perfectly, and they weren’t doing things perfectly. So we said it doesn’t kick in. You know, 18 months in Afghanistan, we didn’t have one — they were killing them left and right, snipers. And I spoke to the head of the Taliban. You’ve heard this story. Abdul, still there. Still the head of the Taliban. The press got on me, “Why would you speak to him?” I said, “Because that’s where the killing is.” I don’t have to speak to somebody that has nothing to do with it.
And I told him: “Don’t ever do that. Don’t ever do that again. Don’t ever, ever do that again, you’re going to stop.” Because during the Obama administration, many great people and soldiers, a lot of soldiers, were being killed from long distance. I said, “If you keep doing that, you’re going to be hit harder than anybody has ever been hit by a country before.” And he said, “I understand, Your Excellency.” He called me “Your Excellency.” I wonder if he calls the other guy “Your Excellency.” I doubt it.
The other guy gave him everything. I mean, what kind of a deal was that? He walked out, gave him everything. You know that right now Afghanistan is one of the largest sellers of weapons in the world? They’re selling the brand-new, beautiful weapons that we gave them.
But think of it. He actually said to me, “But why, but why, do you show me a picture of my home?”
I said, “You’ll have to ask your people or one of your wives.”
But he could figure it out. And for 18 months we had not one attack on an American soldier by the Taliban. Eighteen months. And then we had that horrible day where soldiers were killed. I was not there because of a ridiculous election. But we had that horrible attack.
And they also gave up Bagram, one of the biggest bases anywhere in the world, air bases, anywhere in the world. The longest runways, most powerful hardened, thickened runways.
We gave it up. And I liked it not because of Afghanistan, I liked it because of China. It’s one hour away from where China makes their nuclear weapons. And you know who has it now? China has it now.
We were keeping that, and now China is likewise circling Taiwan, and Russian warships and nuclear submarines are operating 60 miles off the coast in Cuba. Do you know that? The press refuses to write about it. If that were me running this country and we had nuclear submarines in Cuba, I will tell you that headlines every day would be “What’s Wrong With Our President?”. You don’t even hear this. You’re not hearing about this. Russia has nuclear submarines and warships 60 miles away, Mr. Congressman. From Miami, by the way, happens to be here. Correct? In Cuba. That would not be stood for if it were somebody else. They don’t want to mention it, but now maybe they will.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: There wasn’t a huge amount of Russia in the speech, and no mention of Putin by name. He didn’t pretend the war wasn’t happening, but there was no real outright condemndation of the invasion. This was more about framing Russia as another actor that could only be controlled by Trump.]
And to the entire world, I tell you this, we want our hostages back — and they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price.
With our victory in November, the years of war, weakness and chaos will be over.
I don’t have wars. I had no wars, other than ISIS, which I defeated, but that was a war that was started. We had no wars. I could stop wars with a telephone call. I could stop wars with just a telephone call. It properly stated it would never start. We will replenish our military and build an iron dome missile defense system to ensure that no enemy can strike our homeland.
And this great iron dome will be built entirely in the U.S.A. We’re going to build it in the U.S.A. And Wisconsin, Wisconsin, just like I gave you that massive ship contract, and you’re doing a very nice job, governor, right? Thank you, governor. And they’re doing a great job. In fact, I had a little design change and we gave them a tremendous for, essentially, what we used to call destroyers. These are now the most beautiful. They look like yachts.
I said, “We have to take the bow, and we have to make it a little nicer, and a little point at the top instead of a flat nose.” And the people at the shipyards said, “This guy sort of knows what he’s doing.” We had the most beautiful ships, right, governor? And everybody sitting over there? And it was a big contract that everybody wanted. I gave it to Wisconsin, but we’re going to have a lot of that built right here in the state of Wisconsin and all other states.
Israel has an Iron Dome. They have a missile defense system. Three hundred forty-two missiles were shot into Israel, and only one got through a little bit. It was badly wounded, it fell to the ground, but most of them are — And Ronald Reagan wanted this many years ago, but we really didn’t have the technology many years ago. Remember, they called it starship, spaceship, anything to mock him. But he was a very good president, very, very good.
But now we have unbelievable technology. And why should other countries have this, and we don’t? No, no, we’re going to build an iron dome over our country, and we’re going to be sure that nothing can come and harm our people. And again, from an economic development standpoint, I’m going to make it all right here. No more sending it out to other countries in order to help. It’s America first, America first.
We will unleash the power of American innovation, and as we do, we will soon be on the verge of finding the cures to cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and many other diseases. We’re going to get to the bottom of it. You remember this gentleman that I don’t want to mention, other than one time I had to, because when you say “the 10 worst,” I had to do it. I didn’t want anybody to be confused.
But this man said we’re going to find a cure to cancer; nothing happened. We’re going to get to the cure for cancer and Alzheimer’s and so many other things. We’re so close to doing something great. But we need a leader that will let it be done.
We will not have men playing in women’s sports. That will end immediately.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: This was the only overt reference to a culture war issue in a speech that leaned into Trump’s long-time preoccupations around trade and didn’t mention abortion.]
And we will restore and renovate our nation’s once-great cities, making them safe, clean and beautiful again. And that includes our nation’s capital, which is a horrible killing field. So many things — they leave from Wisconsin, they go to look at the Washington Monument, they end up getting stabbed, killed or shot. We will be, very soon, very proud of our capital again, Washington, D.C.
America’s on the cusp of a new golden age, but we will have the courage to seize it. We’re going to take it, we’re going to make it a current — I mean, we’re going to bring this into a golden age like never seen before. Remember this: China wants to do it, Japan wants to do it. All of these countries want to do it.
We have to produce massive amounts of energy. If we’re going to produce the new — if you look at some of the things that have been done, and some of the things that we’re going to do. But A.I. needs tremendous — literally, twice the electricity that’s available now in our country, can you imagine? But instead we’re spending places where they recharge electric cars.
They built eight chargers at a certain location, toward the Midwest. Eight chargers for $9 billion? Think of them as a tank for filling up your gas. Think of it. They spent $9 billion on eight chargers, three of which didn’t work. And if you are going to do this all over our country, this crazy electric Band-Aid. If you’re going to do this … And by the way, I’m all for electric. They have their application. But if somebody wants to buy a gas-powered car, gasoline-powered car, or a hybrid, they’re going to be able to do it. And we’re going to make that change on Day 1.
So, to conclude, just a few short days ago, my journey with you nearly ended. We know that. And yet, here we are tonight, all gathered together, talking about the future, promise and a total renewal of a thing we love very much. It’s called America.
We live in a world of miracles. None of us knows God’s plan, or where life’s adventure will take us. I want to thank Franklin Graham for being here tonight; he’s an outstanding man. He wrote me a note recently; I have a lot of respect for him. “Sir, I love your storytelling, I think it’s great, in front of these big rallies, but, sir, please do me one favor. It won’t make any difference. Please. Don’t use any foul language.”
I was a little embarrassed, I said. He said, “It won’t make any difference.” Actually, it does, the story’s not quite as good, but I’ve been very good. The story is not quite as good, to be honest.
I’ve got to have a little talk with Franklin, but he was great. He’s a great gentleman, his father was so incredible, Billy Graham. My father used to love taking me to see Billy Graham. My father would take me to see Billy Graham at Yankee Stadium. He had the biggest rallies you’ve ever seen. He was a good rally guy, too.
But he’d get up and he was a fantastic guy. My father loved Billy Graham. But I love Franklin Graham, I think Franklin’s been fantastic. And I’m trying, I’m just working so hard to adhere to his note to me. I’m working hard on it, Franklin.
But if the events of last Saturday make anything clear, it is that every single moment we have on Earth is a gift from God. We have to make the most of every day for the people and for the country that we love.
The attacker in Pennsylvania wanted to stop our movement, but the truth is, the movement has never been about me. It has always been about you. It’s your movement. It’s the biggest movement in the history of our country by far. It can’t be stopped. It can’t be stopped. It has always been about the hardworking, patriotic citizens of America.
For too long, our nation has settled for too little. We settled for too little. We’ve given everything to other nations, to other people. You have been told to lower your expectations and to accept less for your families.
I am here tonight with the opposite message: Your expectations are not big enough. They’re not big enough. It is time to start expecting and demanding the best leadership in the world, leadership that is bold, dynamic, relentless and fearless. We can do that.
We are Americans. Ambition is our heritage. Greatness is our birthright.
But as long as our energies are spent fighting each other, our destiny will remain out of reach. And that’s not acceptable. We must instead take that energy and use it to realize our country’s true potential — and write our own thrilling chapter of the American story. We can do it together. We will unite. We are going to come together and success will bring us together.
It is a story of love, sacrifice and so many other things. And remember the word: Devotion. It’s unmatched devotion. Our American ancestors crossed the Delaware, survived the icy winter at Valley Forge and defeated a mighty empire to establish our cherished republic.
They fought so hard, they lost so many. They pushed thousands and thousands of miles across a dangerous frontier, taming the wilderness to build a life and a magnificent home for their family. They packed their families into covered wagons, trekked across hazardous trails. Scaled towering mountains and braved rivers and rapids to stake their claim on the wide-open, new and very beautiful frontier. When our way of life was threatened, American patriots marched onto the battlefield, raced into enemy strongholds and stared down death — and stared down those enemies — to keep alive the flame of freedom. At Yorktown, Gettysburg, and Midway, they joined the roll call of immortal heroes. So many — just so many heroes, so many great, great people. And we have to cherish those people. We can’t forget those people. We have to cherish those people.
And building monuments to those great people is a good thing, not a bad thing. They saved our country. No challenge was too much. No hardship was too great. No enemy was too fierce. Together, these patriots soldiered on and endured, and they prevailed. Because they had faith in each other, faith in their country, and above all, they had faith in their God.
Just like our ancestors, we must now come together, rise above past differences. Any disagreements have to be put aside, and go forward united as one people, one nation, pledging allegiance to one great, beautiful — I think it’s so beautiful — American flag.
Tonight, I ask for your partnership, for your support and I am humbly asking for your vote. I want your vote. We’re going to make our country great again. Every day, I will strive to honor the trust you have placed in me, and I will never, ever let you down. I promise that. I will never let you down.
To all of the forgotten men and women who have been neglected, abandoned and left behind, you will be forgotten no longer. We will press forward, and together, we will win, win, win.
Win, win, win, win, win, win.
Nothing will sway us. Nothing will slow us. And no one will ever stop us.
No matter what dangers come our way, no matter what obstacles lie in our path, we will keep striving toward our shared and glorious destiny — and we will not fail. We will not fail.
Together, we will save this country, we will restore the republic, and we will usher in the rich and wonderful tomorrows that our people so truly deserve.
America’s future will be bigger, better, bolder, brighter, happier, stronger, freer, greater and more united than ever before.
And quite simply put, we will very quickly make America great again.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Wisconsin. God bless you, God bless you, Wisconsin, and God bless the United States of America, our great country. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
[Jack Horgan-Jones writes: At the conclusion of the speech, Trump returned to the unifying notes he struck at the start, but it did feel like he was substantially less interested in them than at the start. There’s a novelty there, but a sense also that it doesn’t chime with his instincts.]
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