Remarks at a "Keep America Great" Rally in Cincinnati, Ohio

[music:  Lee Greenwood: God Bless the USA]

Crowd:  USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:  Thank you all. Thank you very much. Thank you to Vice President Mike Pence, and hello Cincinnati. [cheering]

You know, I used to work in Cincinnati, a place called Swifton Village. You know what that is? Swifton Village? It was good and it worked out well, and it gives you confidence when things work out well at a young age. And look what happened to all of us, right? Look what happened. Look what happened.

But I was watching the so-called debate last night, [booing] and I also watched the night before that was long, long television. And the Democrats spent more time attacking Barack Obama than they did attacking me practically. [laughter and cheering] And this morning, that’s all the fake news was talking about. [booing] It’s all they were talking about.

That wasn’t pretty. No, we’re doing good. It’s great to be back in the state that I love. I love this state. Very special. [cheering] Very, very special, on the banks of the beautiful Ohio River with the hardworking patriots of the American heartland. Thank you, Ohio. We love you, Ohio. [cheering]

So, we’ve got thousands of people standing outside, and I asked the officials can we sneak some up along the aisles? Can they sit on the stairs? But I’ll tell you what, this is some crowd, some turnout. We’ve sold tens of thousands of tickets. And, you know what the sale price is? We keep it nice and low. We keep it nice and low. [cheering] 

But, there never has been a movement like this. This is a movement the likes of which they’ve never seen before, maybe anywhere, but certainly in this country.  They’ve never seen anything like this before. You came from the mountains and the valleys and the rivers, and you came for . . .  I mean, look, from wherever you came from. There were a lot of you.

And, they showed up on election day.  I’ll never forget, a wonderful congressman from Tennessee. They have early voting.  And one of the earliest places, great state, Tennessee.  And he said, he was in Pennsylvania with me, great state. And he said, “You know, sir, I’ve been doing this for a long time, but I’ve never seen people like this show up for early voting. People that haven’t voted in a long time because they didn’t see anybody they wanted to vote for.” Said, “I’ve never seen it. They have Trump banners, and Trump hats, and Trump buttons. I’ve never seen.” . [cheering]

True.  And this great congressman said, “I don’t know, sir, but I can tell you one thing. If the rest of the country is voting like Tennessee is voting, you’re gonna win by a lot.” And, we won, and we won by a lot. [cheering] We won by a lot.

Our nation is stronger today than ever before. [cheering] We have the number one economy on earth. No economy is so strong.  [cheering]

We’re rebuilding the awesome might of the United States military, and soon it will be stronger, relatively speaking, than at any time in our history. And when we took over, it was depleted. [cheering] We took over a depleted military. It’s not depleted anymore, I can tell you that.

Our spirit is strong. Our stride is back, and our stand is clear. We are finally putting America first. It’s about time. [cheering]

CROWD:  USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA.

THE PRESIDENT:  We’ve created six million new jobs since election day. Nobody would’ve thought that was possible. More than seven million Americans have been lifted off of food stamps. [cheering] And they’re happy. They’re happy. One hundred and twenty-three thousand more Ohio workers are employed today than when I was elected. Think of that number. [cheering] And, right now, Ohio is the most successful it’s ever been in the history of our country. Thank you. Congratulations, Ohio. [cheering]

Stand up, Mike. And, you have a good governor. I want to tell you that. Good job. Mike.

Unemployment has reached the lowest rate in over half a century.  And unemployment for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans have all reached the lowest rates ever recorded. [cheering]

While Republicans are working every day to build up our country, the rage-filled Democrat Party is trying to tear America apart.  [booing] The Democrat Party is now being led by four left wing extremists who reject everything that we hold dear. [booing]

No one has paid a higher price for the far left’s destructive agenda than Americans living in our nation’s inner cities. They have paid a dear price. You see what’s happening, You see our inner cities, we spend billions and billions and billions for years and years and years, and it’s stolen money and it’s wasted money and it’s a shame. [booing]

For decades, these communities have been run exclusively by Democrat politicians, and it’s been total one-party control of the inner cities. For a hundred years, it’s been one party control and look at ‘em. We can name one after another, but I won’t do that.  Because I don’t want to be controversial. [laughter] We want no controversy. [cheering]

The Democrat record is one of neglect and corruption and decay. Total decay. The Democrats have tax and regulated jobs and opportunity out of these cities and out of existence. They’ve squeezed the blood out of ‘em.

Left wing mayors and city councils have opposed school choice, trapping children and failing in government schools left and right. So many of these mayors right now, you know where they are? They’re in jail, that’s where they are. [cheering]

Republicans believe that every parent has the right to send their children to the school of their choice.  [cheering]

But the greatest betrayal committed by the Democrats is their support for open borders. [booing] And these open borders would overwhelm schools and hospitals, drain public services, and flood communities with poisonous drugs. 

It’s tough enough, and I want to thank, by the way, the country of Mexico. They’ve got 21,000 soldiers on the border right now. [cheering] I’m starting to like Mexico a lot. They do a lot more for us than the Democrats do, right? A lot more, a lot more. [cheering]

And, the numbers are way down. You’ll see that. Way, way down. Democrat lawmakers care more about illegal aliens than they care about their own constituents. They put foreign citizens before American citizens. We’re not gonna do that. [booing]

Five hundred and seventy-two people were murdered in Chicago last year.  

[Speech interrupted by demonstrators shouting and holding banners "Immigrants Built America" and “Chinga la Migra”;  The President walks away from the podium to gesture toward the demonstrators. ]  [Crowd booing and cheering as demonstrators are removed.  Interruption takes over three minutes.]

CROWD:  USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA.

THE PRESIDENT: [aside, off-mic] Democrat mayor? Democrat mayor.  Democrat? [ back on-mic] You must have a Democrat mayor. Do you have a Democrat mayor? [booing and cheering] Come on, law enforcement. Democrat mayor. [chanting and cheering]

CROWD:  USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA.  [booing]  [cheering as demonstrators are removed]

THE PRESIDENT:  Cincinnati, do you have a Democrat mayor?

Well, that’s what happens. You see, there are thousands of people outside, and I said, “I agree. . .”  You know, we set a new record tonight at this arena. [cheering] But we could get a few more on the floors, a few more up here.  We could get--and they’re outside where it’s a hundred degrees out, and they weren’t able to let us do it. And I said, “Is that run by the Democrats?” The answer is yes. I said [inaudible]. So, you got a lot of hot people outside, but we broke the all-time record. [cheering]

So, . . . the homicide rate in Baltimore is significantly higher than El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala. I believe it’s higher than . . . give me, give me a place that you think is pretty bad. Give me a place. The guy says Afghanistan. I believe it’s higher than Afghanistan.  In our country, think of that. I believe, we’ll check the numbers and if we’re wrong, they will tell us tomorrow. It’ll be headlines. Trump exaggerated. I do believe the rate is higher than Afghanistan, yet Democrats, and they’ve run it for many years, want to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on illegal migrants instead of supporting their own struggling communities. No good, no good. [booing]

The conditions in Nancy Pelosi’s once great city of San Francisco are deplorable. [booing] They’re deplorable. Do you remember the word deplorable?  Do you remember when Hillary used the word deplorable? She used two words. She used deplorable and irredeemable, right? [booing]

And only being a politician for a few years. I said what a terrible mistake that she used the word irredeemable, but it turned out to be deplorable. Deplorable was not a good day for Hillary. Crooked Hillary. She is a crooked one.  Crooked. Crooked. She is crooked.

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

THE PRESIDENT:  Nearly half of all the homeless people living in the streets in America happen to live in the state of California. What they are doing to our beautiful California is a disgrace to our country. It’s a shame.  The world is looking at it. Look at Los Angeles, with the tents and the horrible, horrible, disgusting conditions. Look at San Francisco. Look at some of your other cities, and then you have a Governor  . . .  You have a Governor that invites the whole world to come into California. “We’ll pay for your healthcare.  We’ll pay for. . . ”

And then you wonder why so many people are coming up. They’re coming up because we’re the hottest economic country in the world, but they’re also coming up because you have people like that Governor say, “Come on up. We’ll give you healthcare. Come.” Who wouldn’t come up? Who wouldn’t come up? How crazy is this? How crazy is this? Schools, healthcare.

Today, I’ve a simple proposal for Democrat leaders to support legislation to end illegal migration, and we will use the vast savings to rebuild our inner cities. That’s the way we should be doing it. [cheering] That’s what we should be doing.

And by the way, you know, they keep talking about, ”Oh, the voters, the voters, the voters.” They want all sorts of security. What about a thing called voter ID? Voter identification? [cheering]  Rob Portman, please work on that, Rob Portman. You have a great Senator. Would you please start working on that? You see the response. Every place I go, Rob. Please, Rob. Voter ID. They give you everything they can give you except like voter ID and the things that matter.

Republicans believe that a nation must care for its own citizens first.  Our pledge to America’s workers has secured commitments to train more than 12 million Americans for the jobs of tomorrow. You know who’s working very hard on that? You probably never heard of her. Ivanka Trump. [cheering] She’s working very hard. She gave up a lot. She had a very easy life, but she loves doing it. She’s got over, I think, now 12 million people. They’re teaching them the great companies of our country, they’re teaching people how to do it, and it’s an incredible thing to watch.

To give former prisoners a second chance at life, we passed groundbreaking criminal justice reform that nobody could’ve passed except us. [cheering]  President Obama tried, a lot of ‘em tried, they couldn’t get it passed. I got it passed with a lot of help from liberals and conservatives, and a lot of help. And, the biggest beneficiary is the African-American community. Biggest beneficiary. Right?  [cheering]

And, something which a lot of people don’t talk about, but we doubled the child tax credit. Doubled it. And our tax plan also created nearly 9,000 opportunity zones--hottest thing going--providing massive new incentives for investment in job creation in distressed communities.

You ok?  [gestures toward audience?]  Take your time. Take your time. Doctor? Doctor in the house, please? Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, doctor. Thank you. [cheering] Don’t forget, it’s a hundred degrees in here. That person’s been standing there for almost a day if you think about it. A lot of you, so I appreciate it. And you know what? They’ll come back. They’ll get a little something and they’ll come right back because there’s never been anything like this. There’s never been anything, right? [cheering] Never been. Thank you. Incredible.

We established more than 300 opportunity zones in Ohio alone, and these are really working out incredibly well. Nationwide, nearly eight million African-Americans live in opportunity zones, but every Democrat voted against them. Every single Democrat, because they vote as a block. It’s the only thing they do good. They stick together. Their policies, no good. They’re lousy politicians, but they stick together like glue. It’s the only thing they have. [booing ]That’s the only thing they have going.

Democrats deliver poverty for their constituents and privilege for themselves. Republicans deliver jobs, safety and opportunity for all Americans. [cheering]

We’re thrilled to be joined tonight by many terrific Republican leaders, and we’ll start off with a man who had a very, very tough race for governor. A lot of people choke. They choke like dogs. They can’t breathe, aw. They can’t breathe. This guy was running against a so-called star  . . . [pause for another demonstrator;  President turns back on podium facing disturbance with hands on hips. [booing and cheering]]

CROWD:  USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA.

THE PRESIDENT: So, that’s two protesters, and tomorrow night the headline will be, Protesters, Protesters. You know what happened to the second one? He looked at the guy in front of him and he said, “Ah, I’m out of here. Bye.” [cheers and applause]  That’s the way it works, that’s the way it works, I guess. Too bad.

But, a man who really has done a fantastic job, he campaigned so hard, and this was a star right from the fields of the great Pocahontas who’s now lying and cheating her way to the presidency, if possible. She’s trying to win, remember? She defrauded people with her credentials. She said she was Indian.  And I said that I have more Indian blood than she does, and I have none. I’m sorry.

And we drove her crazy. And, we drove her crazy. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. And she went out and she had a blood test done, and it came out 1 thousand and twenty-fourth. He said, “Somewhere back there, hundreds of years ago, there may have been an Indian. Or it may have been a statistical error because it was so small.” Which, it was. Anyway, but the guy was like from her group. You wouldn’t be very happy right now, and we have a man that campaigned so hard, relentless. I came in, we did a rally where we had people like this. It was packed the day before the election and Mike DeWine won that election. And he won it easily. [cheers and applause] Mike Dewine.

We have a man who’s running for governor of Kentucky again. And he’s done an incredible job. And you know, did you ever hear, sometimes you could do such a good job that not everybody appreciates it? But they had a lot of problems with pensions and a lot of tremendous problems that a normal governor would never have been able to correct. But when you correct it, you make yourself a little bit less popular. But he had no choice, and they had no choice. It’s a great, great state, and he has turned out to be a great, great governor. Matt Bevin. [cheers and applause] And he’s running in November.  And because I like him so much, Matt get a nice big arena ready, we’re gonna do a rally for you.

And a man whose fantastic son is here tonight who I just met, incredible. When I ran with him, he was down. I said, “Rob Portman’s down,” and then about four weeks later he was up by like 24 points. I said, “What the Hell did you do?” And you know what he did? He does a great job. That’s what he did. Senator Rob Portman. Great guy.

And we have a few guys that, these are warriors. A couple of them you saw the other day, they were questioning Bob Mueller. That was a beauty. He was sharp, wasn’t he? He was sharp as a tack.  And Steve Chabot and Brad Wenstrup, and Warren Davidson and Andy Barr and a man named Greg Pence who happens to be a brother of somebody I know very well. They have been with us through thick and thin, and it has been mostly really good times because what we’ve done, no other Administration in the first two and a half years in history has done. [cheers and applause] Thank you fellas. Great job.

A couple of them gave a grilling. They gave a grilling. All they had to do is mention the facts and it was over.

And also, the auditor of the great state of Ohio, a man whose job I made much easier because you have money pouring in. You have companies pouring in. Keith Faber. How is it Keith? The numbers are good, Keith. Numbers are good, right? Yeah. The numbers are good.

Ohio Senate President, Larry Obhof. Larry, thank you. Great job. Nice tie. I like Larry’s tie.

And you have a couple of, uh, people that are very, very powerful. I hear that office and I shudder, Ohio Supreme Court justices, Sharon Kennedy and Judy French. Thank you. [cheers and applause] And please don’t recuse yourself because I gave you a nice welcome, should I ever be before you. I love judges. When they see you for about two seconds and then you say, oh, that judge should be fair. And then they say, “I’d like to recuse myself because 29 years ago I met Donald Trump.” I’d never have been in  . . .  

We’ve been doing very well in the courts, by the way. Have you seen? We’ve been winning a lot of cases, a lot of cases. We really have.

We really have, and we’ve now appointed 148, think of this, federal judges, 148, we’re going to soon have within about two months, Mitch McConnell, the Senate, Rob Portman has helped so much. We’ll soon be, listened to this: 179. Percentage wise, it’s the second most. We will never be number one. Sadly we’ll never be number one. So percentage wise, nobody’s ever seen anything like it.

And that’s because President Obama basically was not able for about three years to get his people in, which is a shame. And I came in, I had 148 openings. I said. . . you’re supposed to have none. I said, “How many do we have?” 148. And I said, “You got to be kidding.” And we’ve all done a good job together. It’s been amazing, with Mitch and you and everybody. It’s been amazing. So we’re going to be up to, within two months, 179 federal judges. That’s in two and a half years. And what else? Two great Supreme Court judges. Great ones.

There’s only one person. I think most of you must know this. Who percentage wise has done better than me with judges? Tell me. I’ll give you a hint? He appointed 100% of the federal judges and 100% of the United States Supreme Court. George Washington. That’s one record we’re not gonna beat. But I appointed many more than him, so let’s take it that way. Many more.

I also want to introduce a friend of mine who’s done an incredible job. She’s really something, she has been incredible as a leader of the GOP. She’s the chair, and she’s my friend Jane Timken.

And a man, Bob Paduchik. You know Bob Paduchik? So Bob, I had to pick campaign manager in Ohio, and I kept hearing from the media, “You must win the state of Ohio.” I heard this over and over for like a year and a half. “You must win Ohio. You must win.” So I had to pick a campaign manager, and I picked a man named Bob Paduchik. And no matter what happened, no matter how badly we were doing, he said, “Sir, you’re going to win Ohio easily.” I said, “But Bob, we just lost the head of the GOP in Ohio. He left because you have a certain governor that asked him to leave.” Great support from the governor, a different governor than Mike by the way, slightly. So he hadta get out. So I said, “We just lost.” And Bob said, “Don’t worry about it, sir. You’re going to win. In fact, I think you just went up.”

Then we lost a couple of other people. I’d call him. I say, “Bob, I’m worried about Ohio. Very worried.” He said, “Don’t worry about it, sir. I think he just went up.” He kept saying, “You just went up.” I said to somebody, “I don’t know much about this guy, but boy, he’s the most optimistic person I’ve ever met.” True. And we had. . . he said, “Don’t worry.” We ended up winning Ohio by close to nine points, which is unheard of. So, he was right. Bob Paduchik. Bob!  [cheers and applause]

And also here tonight, I don’t know, did he do a good job? My son, Donald Jr. and Kimberly. [cheers and applause]  I hope he did a good job. Good, I heard you did. I heard you did a great job. He’s been a great help. They both have. Thank you very much. Thank you, Kimberly. Thank you very much.

Our shared Republican agenda is pro worker pro jobs, pro family pro growth and 100% pro American. [cheers and applause] We’ve eliminated a record number of job-killing regulations, giving the average American household $3,000 more to spend every single year. The previous Administration tried to shut down American energy and close up, totally, close it up, American clean, beautiful coal. That’s what they did. That didn’t work out too well, but you had a suffer. It didn’t work out well, but gotta suffer for a long time until I came along. You’re not suffering any longer.

The previous Administration, they liked windmills, you know, windmills. If a windmill is within two miles of your house, your house is practically worthless. They make noise, they’re intermittent. They kill your birds. They break down all the time. You have to replace them every 10 years because they wear out, and they cost a fortune, and they need subsidy. Other than that, they’re quite good. You don’t wanta have, you don’t want one of those windmills within vision. You hear them, they’re noisy. They’ve got a lot of problems.

No, we’re going to say with the great energy that’s powering our businesses, that’s creating so many jobs. And solar, you know what? We’ll live with solar, but solar is peanuts by comparison to what you need. But we’re going to stay the way we have it. We’ve ended the war on American energy, and we’re putting our coal miners back to work and our steelworkers back to work, and our auto companies back to work. And, you know, we’ve learned over the last three years the incredible gold that we’re sitting on top of in this country. We’re very lucky. We’re now the largest energy producer in the entire world, bigger than Soviet Union, formerly.

Remember the Soviet Union when it was all together. The Soviet Union, when it was all together before they decided we gotta call ourselves Russia. When it was all together, they wanted to be, that was always their dream to be the biggest in the world.  Then it became Russia, and you know what? They’ve done a good job with energy, and so has Saudi Arabia done a good job with energy. But we’re now bigger than Russia. We are now bigger than Saudi Arabia by far. And, I withdraw our country from the job-killing very expensive Paris Climate Accord. [cheers and applause]

Last year coal exports were up 92% compared to 2016. Ninety-two percent, do you believe that? You’re shipping it all over the world. To Vietnam. I was in Vietnam and they said, “We get coal from Ohio. We get coal from West Virginia. It’s the finest coal in the world.”

We’ve created more than 110,000 new mining jobs.  And thanks to states like Ohio the United States is now the number one producer of oil, the number one producer of natural gas, the number one everything having to do with energy. Number one. Anywhere in the world.

We’re reversing decades of calamitous trade policies that led other countries to pillage our jobs, plunder our factories, and devastate Ohio communities and communities in every state. The era of economic surrender is over! [cheers and applause]

And when you look at what they’ve done to your jobs over a period of time, NAFTA was one of the worst deals ever made and probably the worst deal. You still have empty buildings, empty factories, but now they’re getting filled up pretty fast or being knocked down for brand new ones. We have hundreds of new companies pouring into the United States.

My first week in office, I withdrew the United States from one of the last Administration’s worst sellouts. It would have destroyed our automobile industry. It would have destroyed manufacturing in this country, and maybe that’s what President Obama meant when he said, you can’t produce manufacturing jobs anymore in the United States, because he would’ve signed Trans-Pacific Partnership and he would’ve been right. I killed it. [applause]

And by the way, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership would have destroyed the automobile industry in this country. Already the shipped down 30% of your jobs to Mexico. Under the new USMCA. That’s Mexico and Canada. We’ve gotta get them to vote on that because that’s an incredible deal. But under the new . . .  It’s going to be very hard for companies to leave you, to fire you, to go down to make their product, whatever it may be, to send it back into the United States with no tax. All we end up with is unemployment and taxes and empty buildings. So they gotta vote on the USMCA. Before I took office, foreign countries ripped us off, robbed us blind, and pushed us around, but America is not being pushed around anymore. Do you realize that? [cheers and applause]

I think I got that from working in Ohio for two summers, right?

We’ve taken the toughest ever action to stand up to China’s trade abuse, and I just announced another 10% tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese products that come into our country. [cheering] And that’s on top of the 25% that we take off $250 billion coming in from China, and don’t let them tell you, the fact is, China devalues their currency. They pour money into their system, they pour it in, and because they do that, you’re not paying for those tariffs. China’s paying for those tariffs. [applause]

For the last 20 years, China’s taken hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars out of our country, and now we’re stopping the theft of American jobs. We’re stopping the theft of so many other things happening, including intellectual property. They steal our intellectual property. And, you know, I think they want to try and make a deal with us, but I’m not sure, because the word is, I feel they want to wait until they get . . .  Oh, they’re praying. They’re praying. They would like to see a new president in a year and a half so they could continue to rip off the United States like they’ve been doing for the last 25 years. [booing]

They would love to see a guy like sleepy Joe Biden who has no clue what the hell he’s doing. They say to sleepy Joe, “Sir, Just sign right there.” “Oh, okay. I’ll sign.” We’ll be losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year to China. It has to stop, and they understand that. President Xi is good man. He’s a friend of mine. He understands it. And until such time as there is a deal, we will be taxing the hell out of China. That’s all there is. [applause]

If foreign countries don’t want to pay a tariff, I have a simple solution: make your product in America. Come on back to the United States. Come on back to Ohio. There’s no tariff. There’s no tariff. [cheers and applause]

CROWD:  USA!  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE PRESIDENT:  Thanks to steel tariffs, hundreds of thousands of tons, think of this, were dumped on our shores, and steel is like something else. It’s that quality. They were dumping garbage, they call it sand steel, they call it dirt steel. It was mixed up. It was bad stuff.  And we didn’t want to use that for our jet fighters and for our beams that hold up building. But they were dumping tremendous quantities of steel, and what was happening is the United States Steel and all of our companies were going virtually out of business, and I stopped it. I put on a 25% tariff, billions of dollars is now pouring into our Treasury and our steel companies and our steel workers are coming back. [cheers and applause]

Right here in Ohio. Nucor, a great steel company, and a steel company that’s doing great again, Nucor, has announced an $85 million upgrade in Marion. Charter Steel announced plans to build a new $150 million steel mill in Cuyahoga Heights, and Cleveland Cliffs announced a new $700 million plant in a very good place that I like a lot, Toledo. Toledo, Ohio.

And this was unthinkable, because four years ago, steel plants were closing. They weren’t expanding and they weren’t building. We’re building new plants in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, all over. Not just Ohio.

On issue after issue, Democrats have forgotten who it is that they’re supposed to represent. They forgot. I wonder why they forgot. The job of elected officials is to represent American citizens,  The radical Democrats even support deadly sanctuary cities which release dangerous criminals onto our streets. Sanctuary cities. [booing] And many of the places that have sanctuary cities and many of the people that live there, they don’t want ‘em. They don’t want ‘em. They’re dangerous and not good.

Here are just a few examples. In San Francisco, an illegal alien was arrested no fewer than 10 times in the span of less than one year for numerous counts of burglary and theft. Yet each time San Francisco defied federal authorities and set him free.  And bad things happened when they set him free. A sanctuary jurisdiction in California recently released a criminal alien from jail. The very next month, the same individual was arrested for rape.  And then beyond anything you would even believe, a horrible thing happened. But yet again, he was released back into your community.

After a sanctuary city in New Jersey released an alien charged with domestic violence, he was arrested in Missouri for the murders of three people. In the bizarre worldview of the third and hard left, they have no problem destroying the lives of innocent Americans for a single politically incorrect thought.

But they want to virtually, and you know this, you know this, they want virtual immunity for illegal aliens who have committed horrible crimes and murder. [booing]  Horrible crimes and murder. Republicans believe our cities should be a sanctuary for law abiding Americans, not criminal aliens. [cheers and applause]

And yes, we just won a big lawsuit last week. In fact, one of my lawyers for winning that lawsuit is here tonight. I gave him a little reprieve. We need a lot of lawyers in the White House. We get sued so much, so unfairly, but we’re winning those lawsuits left and right, but one of them is here. He said, “I’d love to go to a rally.” I said, ” I’m going to a place called Cincinnati, Ohio. You deserve it.” We just won the lawsuit on the wall. [cheers and applause]

Where’s Pat? We just won the lawsuit on the wall. You hear that? [applause] We’re building the wall faster and better than ever. It’s time for Democrats to end sanctuary cities and catch and release. You know what you do? You catch ‘em and then you release ‘em.  And you say, “Would you please report back in four years from now.” But only 2% come back. You know why? Because they’re not the smartest. They are not the smartest. They’re the ones we don’t want to have come back. Only 2% show up. Catch and release, we could end it immediately if the Democrats caved. So what we’re doing is something else. We’re keeping them out altogether.

We’re replacing random migration and we’re replacing the lottery system. How about the lottery system? How about lotteries? [booing] This was Chuck Schumer. You put the name in a basket. The country puts the name in a basket and you picked people out of the lottery. Well, let’s see. This one’s a murderer. This one robbed four banks. This one, I better not say. This one, another murder. Ladies and gentlemen, another murderer. Think of this. Do you think they’re going to put their great citizens--they have great citizens; they have great people like we have great people. Do you think those people are going into a lottery? No. And then we get these people coming in and we hold it against the country. The country isn’t based on that, the country, you just take a look, look at the people they put into these lotteries. It’s a disgrace. And how we’ve done this for so many years folks, how we’ve done this. It’s an immigration system that’s totally broken and we’re going to win the House, we’re going to win the Senate, we’re going to win the presidency and we’re going to do a merit-based immigration system. Merit based. [cheers and applause]

Merit based immigration. And we need that, because we have companies coming in from all over the world, and we need good workers. We need good people. We’re down to 3.5% unemployment. We need people.  But we want people to come in based on merit, not based on some lottery put in by a government. [cheers and applause]

Democrats have never been farther outside the mainstream. Liberal politicians want to eliminate private healthcare and force everyone onto the government plan. Remember the lies from the previous Administration. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Twenty-eight time, one lie after another. Twenty-eight times it was said, and it turned out to be a total lie. [booing]

My Administration is defending your right to choose the plan and doctor that is best for you. We’re offering right now plans up to 60% cheaper than Obamacare, and we will always protect patients with preexisting conditions.  Always. Always. [applause]  

Virtually every top Democrat also now supports late term abortion. [booing] And then you’ll have like a governor of Virginia, it’s not only late term abortion, it’s killing the baby after the baby is born. How about that? [booing] Think of that. Think of that. That’s why I’ve asked Congress to prohibit extreme late term abortion because Republicans believe that every child is a sacred gift from God. [cheers and applause]

Democrats are now the party of high taxes, high crime, open borders, late term abortion, and they’re the party, frankly, of socialism. [booing]

The Republican Party is the party of freedom. We’re the party of the American worker, the American family. We’re the party of the American dream. [cheers and applause]

I’m fighting for you each and every day. I had a great life. I used to get great publicity. Nobody got better publi. . .  I had such a great life. It was so easy. My great wife, the first lady, Melania, she said, [cheers and applause] . . . She said, “You know, you’ve always been a hard worker. You love to work, but your life was a lot easier in the old days.” But I love it and you know why I love it? Because we’re accomplishing so much. Nobody ever thought it would be possible to do the things we’re doing.

Even a thing like Right to Try, right? Right to Try. They’ve been trying to get that for years and years and years. That’s people that are really sick, terminally ill. They couldn’t get medicine. We have the greatest doctors, the greatest clinics, the greatest technicians in the world. They couldn’t get anything. They’d traveled to Asia if they had money. They traveled to Europe. They’d travel all over the world hoping for a cure. If they had no money they’d just go home. They’d die. They had no hope. For 44 years, they’ve been trying to get Right to Try. We are so advanced in medicine. We have a lot of things that probably work or possibly work, but we weren’t allowed legally to give that to these people that were so sick. You know why? Because they didn’t want this drug if it didn’t work to hurt the people, but the people were terminally ill. So, I got it approved, and it wasn’t easy. It was complicated. The insurance companies didn’t want to do it. The government didn’t want to do it.

The doctors didn’t want to do it. Tremendous liability. But our country didn’t want to do it. They said, “Well, if it doesn’t work, we’re going to get sued.” I say, “So they’ll sign an agreement, very strong, one page, taking all liability away from the United States, from the drug companies, from the doctors, all liability. They’re terminally ill. Let’s try it.” And you know what? It’s been a miracle. So many people have done so well. It’s great. We got it done.  [applause]

When I set about the agreement, they had these great lawyers and they said, “Gee, that’s a good idea.” They’d been working in this few years. They said, “That’s a good idea.” I said, “Yeah, it’s a good idea. How about getting you to me like in about two hours?” Right to Try. It’s a great thing. But we have so many things like that. I have lists that you wouldn’t even believe. I have lists that go on for pages of things we’ve done.

We’ve launched a historic initiative to reduce the price of prescription drugs, including a plan to allow companies to import lower cost drugs from other countries. [applause] It’s a very unfair system. Our country pays the highest prices in the world.  Last year was the first time in 51 years that drug pricing for prescription drugs actually came down. Now we’re going to bring it down by a lot. [applause] We’re going to bring it down a lot. And now . . .  So other countries . . .  

Here’s an example, Canada pays half the price for a lot of drugs that we do. So, we have a great governor in the state of Florida, Ron DeSantis.  Calls me up. Doing a great job. Ron DeSantis. He was at three, and he went to 70. that’s a pretty good increase, right? Ron DeSantis, a great governor. And he comes to me, he goes, “You know, if you buy the drugs, if we buy the drugs, because this is so botched up, we have a middleman. It’s not a good situation.”

He said, “If I could go and buy the drugs from Canada, I could save 50%.” I said, “Do it. Do it. And if you can buy them from Europe, because their system . . . ” Like, remember I used to scream when I was winning states and not getting the delegates that I was entitled to, and I’d say the system is rigged? Well, the drug system is rigged. It’s rigged. So, if we can buy the same drug made by the same pharmaceutical company from Europe or from Canada or from other places at a big deep discount, we’re doing it, and we’re giving them the right to do it. [applause] Just happened today.

And we’re doing one other thing that, believe it or not is even bigger, but you’ll be seeing that over the next two weeks. With the help of your great Senator, Rob Portman, we’ve taken bold action to confront the opioid epidemic and in Ohio, drug overdose deaths went down 22% last year, 22%. No, but think of that. Opioid, big problem, big problem. Deaths went down. Opioid deaths, 22%. Nobody writes that. Nobody talks about that. They don’t want to talk about that. Good job, Rob. Good job. Good job, Mike.

We passed VA Choice and VA Accountability on behalf of our great veterans. They’ve been trying to pass VA Choice for four decades. They couldn’t get it done. We got it done. We got it done. This is where a veteran would stand on line for three, four, five, six days, for three weeks, for five weeks. Sometimes they’re okay. By the time they see a doctor, they’re terminally ill.

And I said, “You know, I have a great idea.” Because I not been doing that this long. You know, we’ve been working with this for . . .  I’ve been thinking about it a lot. This was during the campaign. What a campaign that was, right? Was that a campaign or what? [applause]

And I came back to my people. I had experts and I said, “I have a great idea. These lines for the veterans are too long. It takes them three, four weeks sometimes to see a doctor. I have a great idea. Let’s let them go outside. Go to a private doctor. We’ll pay the bill. They’ll be fixed up all perfect ,and they can do it immediately. We’ll pay the bill.” [applause]

And I thought . . .  I said, “Man, am I smart! I am the smartest guy to think of that.” So, I went before this panel of experts that were with me working on things and I said, “How do you like that idea?” And they said, “Sir, we’ve known about it for about 40 years, but we’ve never been . . . ” I said, “Really? You’ve known about it that long?” But here’s the thing. We got it done. Nobody else could get it done. Nobody else.

And accountability. You couldn’t fire anybody. If they were treating our vets badly, you couldn’t fire them for anything. People could steal. They could be sadistic to our vets. By the way, they wouldn’t have done that in primetime to our vets. I can tell you that. They can be whatever they want. You couldn’t fire ‘em. And it was because of unions and it was because of other things. Civil Service. Very tough. You couldn’t fire anybody for almost anything. We had cases where people got . . .  They got caught stealing a lot of money, and you couldn’t fire ‘em. We got VA Accountability. Now we say, “Jim, get the hell out of here. You’re fired.” [applause]

We’re rebuilding our military. And after years of budget cuts and layoffs, the army tank plant in . . .  Do you know Lima? [“lime-a”]  You call it Lima, right? See? You know, most people call it Lima, [“leema”] but I know Lima. But you know why? Because I came here and they said, “We’re closing this plant.” I said, “What kind of a plant is it?” Remember when I was here? In Lima. And I used to say, “You mean Lima?” [leema] They said, “No, sir. It’s Lima.” [lime-a] That’s why . . .  

Because, but Lea, hey look, I’ll be honest with you because they have it wrong with the teleprompter, okay? And I would have been in big trouble. But the good news is I don’t use the teleprompter too much. If I did, you would’ve been out of here a long time ago, because it gets very boring when you do the teleprompter deal.

But in Lima, and I said, “What kind of a plant?” And I said, “Let’s go see it.” During the campaign I went to see it, and they make the incredible, the best army tank in the world.  And I couldn’t believe the complexity, the genius. I said, “Wait a minute. You close this, you’ll never be able to open it again. You can’t open this. This isn’t like a normal situation that you can open four walls and a roof. This is complicated. This is genius and you’ll never replace these men and women that work here.” I said . . .  And I didn’t know anything at the time other than I said, “You’re not closing it.” They took it off to list. They kept it open and now we’re making army tanks around the clock. [cheers and applause]

We’re investing in the future of human space flight. Americans won the race to the moon, and we will now win the race to Mars. [applause] It’s gonna be amazing. And you know, one thing I have to say also, and we’re also winning the race to great, great strategic defense and offense, not just Mars. And Mike Pence is doing a great job on that. Great job. [applause]

To protect America’s security, I withdrew the United States from the horrible Iran nuclear deal, a horrible, stupid deal. [applause] We gave Iran $150 billion. We gave Iran $1.8 billion in cash. Plane loads of cash. I wonder what they saw when those planes landed. I wonder what happened to the cash. Can you believe it? One $1.8 billion we gave them in cash. [booing]

And remember what I said, Iran is a much different country than two and a half years ago. When I took over, Iran was all over. They had 14 to 18 different sites of confliction. They were all over. And now they just want to . . .  They want a negotiated deal so badly. Iran. Iran.

I recognized Israel’s true capital and opened the American embassy in Jerusalem. [cheers and applause] And just a few months ago, we recognized the Golan Heights, you know that. That’s another one. Big one, for the security of Israel.

We also recognized the legitimate government of Venezuela and we condemn any of the socialist brutality taking place. Let’s see what happens there. Let’s see what happens.

Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country. Never, ever, ever will it be a socialist country. [cheers and applause]

No matter what label they use, a vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of our great, our beautiful, our wonderful American dream. We’re not going to let our country ever go down the route of socialism. [cheers and applause]

You must never forget that the 2020 election is about one thing. It’s about you.  I say it again. I say it all the time. Never happened before. There’s never been a movement like this. They’ve had movements. They never went . . .  They won a state. They did well in the state. We won 32 states. There’s never been anything like it. [applause] There’s never been anything like it.

But this movement is about your family and your future. And it’s about the life and the fate of your country. We begin our . . . our high . . . Look, this is a good place. Is this a great thing to do? We begin our campaign, and we’re gonna do great, Bob. Right, Bob? Bob, if we don’t do great, you’re fired, Bob. You’re fired. [laughter]

But think of it, our Ohio campaign with the best record, the best results, the best agenda, and the only positive vision for our nation’s future. And again, remember this:  Ohio is doing better today than it’s ever, ever, ever done before. It’s the best it’s ever done.

So, what’s going to do . . .  A guy like a sleepy Joe Biden is going to come in and say, “But I could do better. I could do better.” He wants to go back to sleep. [laughter]

Together we will continue unleashing the power of American enterprise so every American can reach their fullest and highest potential, tremendous potential. Our country has such tremendous potential. You know, we’ve had, the last week, we’ve had the highest stock market in the history of our country. That means 401(k)s. That means jobs. [applause] But there’s tremendous potential to go up. We have tremendous potential to go up.

With your help, we will elect a Republican Congress to create a safe, modern, fair, and lawful system of immigration. [applause] We will enact trade deals that ensure more products are proudly stamped with those four beautiful words: “Made in the USA” or “Made in America”. Either one. You can use either one. [cheers and applause] Made in America, made in the US.

We will achieve new breakthroughs in science and medicine, and I see what they’re doing. I see it. They show me the things we’re doing in our country today. There’s never been anything like it. We will be ending the AIDS epidemic shortly in America and curing childhood cancer very shortly. [applause]

We will defend privacy, free speech, religious liberty, and the right to keep and bear arms. [cheers and applause]

And just remember, with the Democrats, there is no Second Amendment. You can forget about keep and bear arms. You can forget it.  [booing]

Above all, we will never stop fighting for the values that bind us together as one America. We will never, ever stop fighting. We support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. [applause] We stand with our incredible heroes of law enforcement. [applause]

We believe in the dignity of work, and we believe in the sanctity of life. [applause] And we believe that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the true American way. [applause]

We believe that children should be taught to love our country, honor our history, and always be proud, patriotic Americans. [cheers and applause]

And we will always live by the words of our national motto, “In God We trust.” [cheers and applause]

Two days ago, I spoke at the 400th anniversary of the first representative legislature assembly at Jamestown, Virginia. It was beautiful. It was incredible. I was . . .  I must tell you; I was reminded of so many great things in our country. We have been blessed with such a remarkable and priceless heritage. We are the greatest republic on the face of the earth and we are going to keep it that way. [applause]

Every day of my presidency, we will never forget that we are Americans and the future belongs to us. The future belongs to all of you. The future belongs to the greatest movement in the history of our country. [cheers and applause]

And with your help and your devotion and your drive, we are going to keep on working. We are going to keep on fighting and we are going to keep on winning, winning, winning. [cheers and applause]

We are one people in one family, saluting one great American flag. We all share the same home. We all share the same heart. And we all share the same love of Almighty God. Together, with the great and proud people of Ohio, we are making America wealthy again. We are making America strong again. We are making America safe again. We are making America great again and with your vote in 2020 we will keep America great. Thank you, Ohio. Thank you.  [cheers and applause]

Music:  The Rolling Stones, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”