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

[Music: Bad Company, All Right Now]

The Vice President. Well hello, Toledo! [cheers and applause] It is great to be back in the Buckeye State. [cheers and applause] But I'm here for one reason, and one reason only. And that is that Ohio and America need four more years of President Donald Trump in the White House. [cheers and applause]

Crowd. [chanting] Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

The Vice President. You know, like all of you, I'm here because I stand with President Donald Trump. [cheers and applause] When this president stands up for American jobs and American workers, I stand with President Donald Trump. [cheers and applause] When this president stands up for faith and freedom and the American flag, I stand with President Donald Trump. [cheers and applause] And when this president, as Commander-in-chief, takes decisive action to defend American lives, we stand with President Donald Trump. [cheers and applause]

Crowd. [chanting] USA! USA! USA! USA!

The Vice President. You know, what began four years ago has grown into a movement. [cheers and applause] A movement of everyday Americans from every walk of life. Here in Ohio, you believed we could be strong again. You believed we could be prosperous again. Ohio said "yes" to President Donald Trump in 2016, and I know Ohio is going to say "yes" to four more years of President Donald Trump in 2020. [cheers and applause]

You know, when you think of the last three years, you gotta admit: it's been three years of action. It's been three years of results. It's been three years of promises made and promises kept, and we're just getting started, Ohio. [cheers and applause] I mean, think about it. President Trump promised to rebuild our military. And this president has signed the largest increase in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan. [cheers and applause] Under this Commander-in-chief, we've made the strongest military in the history of the world stronger still. [cheers and applause] And with that renewed American strength, we've taken the fight against radical Islamic terrorists on our terms, on their soil. [cheers and applause]

You now, where the last administration sent pallets of cash to terrorists in Iran—[booing]—under this president we got out of the Iran Nuclear Deal. [cheers and applause] And when one American life was lost at the hands of Iranian-backed militias just a few short weeks ago, President Trump launched the first air strikes against Iranian-backed militias in 10 years. [cheers and applause] And when militants stormed our embassy in Baghdad, President Trump sent in the Marines, secured our embassy, and this president said, "No more Benghazis!" [cheers and applause]

And when American lives were threatened by the most dangerous terrorist in the world, President Donald Trump took action, and Qasem Soleimani is gone. [cheers and applause] And in the wake of that attack, Iran responded, but thanks to the professionalism of our military, we suffered no American casualties and Iran appears to be standing down. [cheers and applause] That's what leadership looks like, that's the leadership of President Donald Trump. [cheers and applause]

Now the president said yesterday, in his words, "The United States is always ready to embrace peace with all who seek it." But under this president, America will always seek peace through strength. [cheers and applause]

So we've rebuilt our military, but to ensure American dominance on land and sea and air and space, President Trump launched the first new branch of our armed forces in 70 years. The United States Space Force has arrived. [cheers and applause]

Crowd. [chanting] USA! USA! USA! USA!

The Vice President. But this president also knows that national security starts with border security. [cheers and applause] And under his leadership we've made historic investments in border security. Apprehensions on our southern border are down by 70% and we've already started to build that wall. [cheers and applause]

Crowd. [chanting] Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall!

The Vice President. Oh, we're building it. And this president and our administration has stood strong for the men and women who serve on the thin blue line, and on this National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, let's say "thank you" to all who serve and protect. [cheers and applause] And to support the rule of law, President Trump has already appointed more than 180 principles conservatives to our courts at every level, and I'm here to tell you: they're all men and women who'll uphold all the God-given liberties enshrined in our Constitution, like the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, and the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. [cheers and applause] It's true.

And I couldn't be more proud to serve as vice president to the most pro-life president in American history. [cheers and applause] So it's about security, it's about liberty, it's about our values, and under the leadership of President Donald Trump, it's about jobs, jobs, jobs. [cheers and applause] From the first day of this administration, President Trump promised to revive the American economy. He went straight to work. We cut taxes across the board, we rolled back red tape at historic levels, we unleashed American energy and fought for free and fair trade, and the American economy is booming. [cheers and applause]

Since Election Day 2016, businesses large and small across this country have created more than seven million good-paying jobs, including almost 95,000 jobs right here in the Buckeye State. [cheers and applause] Unemployment is at a 50-year low, the stock market is soaring, and more Americans are working today than ever before. And the truth is, thanks to President Trump's leadership and the strong support of Ohio's conservatives in Congress, we've made America great again. [cheers and applause]

But to keep America great, we need you to decide right here and right now that Ohio is going to vote for four more years of President Donald Trump in the White House. [cheers and applause]

Crowd. [chanting] Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

The Vice President. And four more years means more jobs. Four more years means more judges. Four more years means more support for our troops. [cheers and applause] And it's gonna take at least four more years to drain that swamp. [cheers and applause] You know, the choice in this election couldn't be clearer. The stakes couldn't be higher. Today we have a president who loves this country, who stands by our military, our workers, and our freedom. He never quits, he never backs down. He believes in you and fights for you every single day. [cheers and applause] And the contrast is, today's Democratic party's been taken over by radical leftists—[booing]—who want higher taxes, open borders, late-term abortion, and socialist policies that would crush this economy. And worst of all, after a sham investigation, those do-nothing Democrats in Congress actually voted to impeach our president. [booing] They rushed their partisan impeachment through the House, remember, they said it was urgent. And now Nancy Pelosi's been sitting on those articles of impeachment for almost a month. [shouting] It's a disgrace.

You know, the truth is, Democrats are trying to run down this president, because they know they can't run against this president. [cheers and applause] They're trying to impeach President Trump because they know they can't defeat President Trump in November of 2020. [cheers and applause] You know, while House Democrats have their say in December, Senate Republicans are gonna have their say real soon. [shouting] And come this November, the American people are gonna have our say—[shouting]—when we vote to send President Trump back to the White House for four more years. [cheers and applause]

You know ... For all we've accomplished despite three years of non-stop resistance, I can tell you first-hand, I'm with him just about every day, and I can tell you: men and women of Toledo, President Trump has never stopped fighting for you. And now it's our turn to fight for him. [cheers and applause] It's on. We need you to keep bringing your enthusiasm. Keep voicing your support, tell your neighbors and friends all that we've accomplished under the leadership of this president.

And in these divided times, as this election year begins, I encourage you to have faith. Have faith in this president, whose drive and vision have made America great again. [cheers and applause] Have faith in our fellow Americans, who know we can make America and Ohio greater than ever before. [cheers and applause] And lastly, as this election year begins, have that other kind of faith as well. If we put our trust in Him who has ever guided the destiny of this last great hope of Earth, that He will yet bless Ohio and America beyond anything we could ask or imagine, for in the words of your state motto, the people of Ohio know, "With God all things are possible." [cheers and applause]

Ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you President Donald Trump is the real deal. He's a man who says what he means and means what he says. He gets up every day and fights to keep the promises he made to the American people, and I know that with your continued support, with our strong allies in Congress and in your State House, and with God's help, we're gonna deliver a great victory for the American people straight through the state of Ohio. We're gonna keep on winning. We're gonna keep America safe, and we're gonna keep America strong, and we're gonna reelect President Donald Trump for four more years and keep America great. [cheers and applause]

But you don't have to take my word for it, for now it is my high honor—[cheers and applause]—and distinct privilege to introduce to you my friend, and the 45th President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump. [cheers and applause]

[Music: Lee Greenwood, "God Bless the U.S.A."]

Crowd. [chanting] USA! USA! USA! USA!

The President. Well, thank you very much. Vice President Mike Pence, great job you're doing. And hello, Toledo! We love Toledo. [cheers and applause] You remember, I was here a lot. You remember 2016, what a year that was, right? [cheers and applause] And 2020 is going to be even better, no doubt. [cheers and applause] But I'm thrilled to hold the first rally of 2020 right here in the great state of Ohio. [cheers and applause] And as we begin the new year, our economy is booming, wages are soaring, workers are thriving, and America's future has never, ever looked brighter, ever. [cheers and applause] We're the envy of every country in the world. We've created seven million brand-new jobs since our election. [cheers and applause] And we will soon be replacing the disaster known as NAFTA with the incredible brand-new USMCA, the historic victory for Ohio farmers, workers, and manufacturers, but really a great victory for the United States. It's an incredible agreement. [cheers and applause]

You remember I came and I'd talk about ... I'd always talk about how bad our trade deals are. We did a brand new one with Korea. So now we have South Korea, we just finished a big one, 40 billion dollars with Japan. On January 15, we're signing a monster, a big beautiful monster, 40 to 50 billion dollars to our farmers. Our farmers will be taking in, I keep saying, "Go buy larger tractors. Go buy larger tractors." I said there's no way, I don't know if you know this story, my people wanted 20 billion to purchase, right? Twenty billion, 20, that's a lot money, that's a lot of corn, 20 billion dollars, and I said, "Make it 50. China's very big." And they said, "Okay." They said, "Sir, the farmers can't produce that much." I said, "Let the farmers tell me that. Tell them to go out and, remember, and buy a bigger what? Tractor, buy a bigger tractor." You'll produce it.

So 40 to 50 billion dollars of agriculture product and the manufacturers and the car companies, and we brought a lot of car companies into Ohio, you know that. A lot of them are coming in. A lot of them have already been brought in. They're coming in from Japan, they're coming in from all over the world. This is where they wanna be. They wanna be in the United States. This is where the action is. They're all coming back. I used to go around and talk about how everyone's leaving. They were all leaving. A lot of you were victims of that leaving. These companies would leave, they'd go to Mexico, they'd go to Canada, they'd close up, they'd buy from China. Now they're all coming back, new ones, old ones, they're all coming back, and many are coming right here to Ohio. [cheers and applause] And just in case you didn't know it, Ohio just had the best year, economically, in the history of your state. That's not bad, that's not bad. [cheers and applause] And this year's going to be even better, and maybe much better.

But weeks ago, I signed the largest ever investment in the United States military, 738 billion dollars, and we created the sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces, the Space Force, and everybody's excited about that. [cheers and applause]

Crowd Member. We love you!

Crowd. [chanting] USA! USA! USA! USA!

The President. After years and years of devastating defense cuts, we have fully rebuilt the United States military. Some of it's still coming in. We have everything. We've got new planes, we've got new rockets, new missiles, we've got new everything, and it's either here or coming in, 2.5 trillion dollars in new investments. So our military is now stronger and more powerful than ever before. [cheers and applause] And, if you remember, three years ago when I took over, we were depleted. Our military was totally depleted.

And by the way, speaking of our military, have we taken care of our vets with Choice, Choice. [cheers and applause] With Choice. That was a big thing. You know, I used to go around and the VA was a terrible situation. People would wait weeks. He's right, he said, "Yes, it was." You don't hear too much about that anymore, do you notice? Choice and Accountability, you know what Accountability is? For 44 years, they tried to get Accountability. That's somebody bad, works for the VA, you couldn't fire them. You couldn't fire them. They could be sadistic, they could be thieves, they could be whatever they were, you couldn't get rid of them. We got Accountability approved, and now we say, "You're fired, get out." We get somebody that's good. [cheers and applause]

Forty-four years—[cheers and applause]—and maybe most importantly of all is Choice, VA, Veterans' Choice. So you now wait in line, and a lot of times you'd wait in line for four, five, six weeks you couldn't see a doctor. Now you don't have to wait. You go out to a private doctor, you get yourself taken care of, we pay the bill. What a difference it's made. What a difference it's made. [cheers and applause] You know, when I was a little bit newer to this game ... [booing]

Crowd. [chanting] USA! USA! USA! USA! [shouting]

The President. That's okay, they got it, they got it. They go home to mommy. Going home to mommy. They're going home to mommy. It's a beautiful sight. [cheers and applause] Thank you, security. Do we love law enforcement, by the way? [cheers and applause]

So with the VA, I used to go around saying, "Why don't they do that? Why don't these people, why don't they go to a private doctor and work something out?" And I thought it was a brilliant plan. I said, "I'm telling you, I am such a smart guy." I said, "This is the most brilliant thing ever." And I went back to my people and I said, "You know, I have an idea. A veteran's sick, they can't get the kind of service they need, or they need a certain kind of doctor, I have an idea, such a great idea. You're gonna go out, private, you're gonna pick up a doctor, you're going to get yourself fixed up. We're going to pay the bill, right?" And you know what happened? And I said, "How, how brilliant is that?" They said, "Sir, we've been working on that for 48 years, but we've never been able to get it approved."

So I was very, very disillusioned, but you know what I'm good at? Getting things approved. And we got it approved. [cheers and applause] So we signed that 11 months ago, and what a difference that's made in terms of your lines and in terms of people's health. People would wait online for weeks, and some people weren't very sick and they'd end up being terminally ill. They couldn't get to see a doctor. Now they go out, they get a doctor, we take care of them. We take care of our vets. [cheers and applause]

So we're using this great power not to pursue conflict, but to really preserve, and I mean in the true sense of the word, preserve peace. We have this tremendous military, and you know what that is? That's really a great fighting force, but I hope we never have to use it. I really do. You saw an example, you saw an example of that a couple of days ago. So we seek friends, not enemies, but if you dare to threaten our citizens, you do so at your own grave peril. [cheers and applause] We've never had, we've never had a military, what we have now, we've never had anything like it. You know, we were looking at planes that were old and tired, 50, 60-year-old planes. You've heard the story, the grandfather flew them, the son flew them, the current wonderful person flew them, the whole family flew them. Those are all gone now, folks. Those are all gone.

In October of last year, U.S. Special Operations Forces executed a daring nighttime raid that killed the bloodthirsty founder and leader of ISIS. The animal known as al-Baghdadi is dead. [cheers and applause] And the entire ISIS caliphate is destroyed, and his terrorist empire, and he was indeed a monster, has been totally demolished. We killed thousands and thousands of ISIS warriors, fighters, and we have thousands of them right now locked up where they should be. Nobody has ever done what we've done in three years. [cheers and applause] And I'll say this, when we took it over, it was a mess. We did it in a short period of time, but when we took it over, it was not good. And last week, the United States once again took the bold and decisive action to save American lives and deliver American justice. And you know what I'm talking about. [cheers and applause]

For years, the sadistic mass murderer, Qasem Soleimani, planned and executed attacks against American targets, killing and wounding thousands of U.S. service members and many, many thousands, and even hundreds of thousands, of other people. As the leader of Iran's terrorist Quds Force, Soleimani spread death, destruction, and mayhem across the Middle East and far beyond. He ordered the violent assault on the American embassy in Baghdad. And you saw this was the anti-Benghazi. We got there very quickly. [cheers and applause] We got there very quickly. This is the exact opposite, we did it exactly the opposite of Benghazi, where they got there so late, all they saw when they got there days later were burning embers from days before. That's all they saw.

We got there very early. We saw what was happening. I saw what was happening, and I said, "What's that all about?" And that was going to be another Benghazi. Had they broken through the final panels of glass, they were breaking and breaking it, had they gotten through, we would have had either hundreds of dead people or hundreds of hostages. That wasn't going to happen. And I called up our great generals, I said, "Get them over there now." [cheers and applause] And one of our leaders, one of our really admired people, said, "Sir, we'll have them there tomorrow." I said, "Nope, get in the planes right now, have them there immediately," and they got there immediately. [cheers and applause] Fortunately. [cheers and applause]

But he directed the recent rocket strikes that wounded four American service members, badly wounded, and killed an American citizen. That was just before we happened to hit him. Soleimani was actively planning new attacks and he was looking very seriously at our embassies, and not just the embassy in Baghdad. But we stopped him, and we stopped him quickly and we stopped him cold. [cheers and applause] So at my direction, the United States military eliminated Qasem Soleimani and ended his rampage through not only that part of the world, but much bigger parts of the world, he was all over. He was a bad guy, he was a bloodthirsty terror and he's no longer a terror, he's dead. [cheers and applause]

And yet, now I see the radical left Democrats have expressed outrage over the termination—[booing]—of this horrible terrorist. [booing] And you know, instead they should be outraged by Soleimani's savage crimes and the fact that his countless victims were denied justice for so long. You know, he was the king of the roadside bomb. You know of the roadside bomb, and then they got bigger, and he'd send them over to Afghanistan and Iraq. And when you see our friends and our great wounded warriors and our great warriors, when you see them without their legs, or without an arm, and with so much damage, it's most likely that he caused that damage, because that's what he liked. He loved planting the roadside bomb. So now he's gone, and that's a good thing. [cheers and applause]

Bernie Sanders, crazy Bernie—[booing]—has condemned the U.S. military strike on Soleimani, the world's top terrorist, think of it, the world's top terrorist, and we're having people like Nancy Pelosi, that's a real genius—[booing, shouting]—do you believe that one? Nancy, Nervous Nancy. [shouting] But here's a guy who slaughtered and butchered civilians all over, and military, whoever was in his way, and we have Bernie and Nancy Pelosi, we have them all, they're all trying to say, "How dare you take him out that way? You should get permission from Congress. You should come in and tell us what you wanna do. You should come in and tell us so that we can call up the fake news that's back there and we can leak it." [shouting, cheers and applause] That's a lot of corruption back there, folks. [cheers and applause]

No, but think, seriously, so they want me ... So these are split-second decisions. You have to make a decision. So they don't want me to make that decision. They want me to call up, maybe go over there, let me go over to Congress, or come on over to the White House, let's talk about it. "When can you make it?" "Well, I won't be able to make it today, sir, how about, let's say in a couple of days?" "Oh, sure, come on over." No, we got a call, we heard where he was, we knew the way he was getting there, and we had to make a decision. We didn't have time to call up Nancy, who is not operating with a full deck. [cheers and applause] No, they want us to call, can you imagine calling crooked Adam Schiff? He's so crooked. [booing] He's so crooked. Shifty Schiff and say, "Gee, Adam, how are you doing? Listen, we have the world's number one terrorist, killed thousands and thousands of people. We'd like to set up a meeting so we can discuss his execution. Would you be willing to meet?" "Well, I won't be able to make it this week." "Well, you know, he's traveling fast. We got him lined up, Adam, you little pencil-neck." [cheers and applause] Nine inches. He buys the smallest shirt collar you can get, and it's loose. [laughter] "Now come on, Adam, we gotta meet faster, Adam. We got him lined up, we gotta take this guy out. We're not going to have another shot at him maybe ever again." "But, but I can't make it now because I'm trying to impeach Trump, I'm trying to impeach, even though he did nothing wrong."

By the way, did you see, I did nothing wrong. They don't even know what in the hell is going on. In fact, it's so weak, she doesn't wanna put in the articles, it's so weak. They're so pathetic. They're so pathetic. So they want us to call them. Now, Schiff is a big leaker, you know. He leaks to crazy CNN. See with the little red light on over there. [booing]

Not too many people are watching CNN. But he leaks. So he'll say, "You know, off the record, I gotta hurry up because everyone's watching me in the hallway on my cell phone, off the record, they've got the number one terrorist in the world, Soleimani, and they're gonna get him, they're going to take him out in the next 10 minutes. Please, don't tell anybody I told you." "We have breaking news, President Trump within the next 20, 25 minutes, looks to be taking out terrorist General Soleimani. He's gonna do it. It should be happening in about the next 20 minutes, 19, 18, 17." Then we get back to the battlefield, "How'd you do, fellas?" "I don't know, sir, he disappeared. I don't know what happened to him." They want us to, they want us to tell them so that they can leak it to their friends in the corrupt media. [booing]

You gotta say though, that's a lot of media, right? That's the way the Academy Awards used to look when it was successful. Then they started hitting us all the time and it became unsuccessful. I love it, I love it, actually. [cheers and applause] Oh, they have some bad ones here tonight. They have some really bad ones, some real sick ones. They have one good one, by the way, one good one. [cheers and applause] They have one good one, a bunch of bad ones. Very, very dishonest people and we have some great ones, too.

We have some great journalists, great reporters. But you've got a tremendous number of dishonest media people like I have never seen in my life before. They write things that they know are wrong. They write, if you watched for the last three years, think of it, and then they get Pulitzer Prizes, but it turned out to be all wrong. How do you do that? They get Pulitzer Prizes for being wrong. The Pulitzer Prize doesn't mean a thing. It doesn't mean a thing.

I mean, I'm gonna tell you about the Nobel Peace Prize. I'll tell you about that. I made a deal. I saved a country. And I just heard that the head of that country is now getting the Nobel Peace Prize for saving the country. I said, "Did I have something to do with it?" Yeah, but you know, that's the way it is. As long as we know, that's all that matters. [cheers and applause] I saved a big war. I saved a couple of them. But under my administration, we will never make excuses for America's enemies, we will never hesitate in defending American lives, and we will never stop working to defeat radical Islamic terrorism, never. [cheers and applause] And nobody's done it like we've done it. And it's we, it's we. It's not me, it's we. It's a whole movement.

There has, by the way, never been a movement like this. You know, outside, I don't know what this place holds, it's like 10, 11,000 people, right? Outside you have thousands and thousands of people that wanna get in. There's never been a movement like this. There's never been a movement like this. [cheers and applause] And I'll tell you, maybe I'm wrong, but this is bigger than it was in 2016, because—[cheers and applause]—because in 2016 I said what we're going to do, but now I've completed more promises than I've made. I mean, I've actually completed more than I made. [cheers and applause] Right?

Crowd. [chanting] Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

The President. Like, as an example, many of you were here, look at all those beautiful red hats, "keep America great," that's good. [cheers and applause] But I never talked about, did you ever hear me prior to the election talk about Space Force? I never talked about it. We did Space Force, but did we ever speak about it? No. There were many things that we've done that we never spoke about, right? Right to Try, you know about Right to Try, right? They've been trying to get it for 44 years, Right to Try. That's people that are very sick, terminally ill, and they can't get medicine that possibly works. And very well, we have the greatest labs and the greatest doctors in the world, the greatest scientists in the world, we have the greatest medicines in the world.

If they have something that they're pretty sure is gonna work but is going to take another six years, I brought those times way back, by the way, way down, but they would travel to Asia, they would travel to Europe, they would travel all over the world to try and get a cure, because we wouldn't sell them the medicine because we didn't want to take a chance on making the people sick. I said, "Wait a minute, they're gonna die. They're going to die." "Well, sir, we can't take the liability." I said, "Then we'll draw up a statement assessing all liability, taking all liability away from the country, away from the insurance companies, away from the healthcare companies, away from the doctors." [cheers and applause]

And with the great help of a lot of incredible Republicans, and we had some Democrats help us, we passed Right to Try, and you have to see how this has worked. Some people are being, many people are being saved. And you know, the drug companies didn't like it because they didn't wanna take people that sick, because they didn't want it on their charts. I said, "I understand that. We won't include that. We'll have a separate list over here." They said, "Oh, would you do that?" I said, "Yeah, I'll do that, I'll do that." [shouting]

But I didn't talk about Right to Try. I never said I was gonna get that done, we got it done. That was a tough one to get done. It sounds simple, but it was tough. There's nothing easy in this country. You know, they said to me, a friend of mine the other day, "Who's the toughest country to deal with, President?" He used to call me Donald. I've known this guy for a long time. I'd like to say 20 years, but it's much more than that. I just don't wanna tell you how long, it's too long. And I said, "Call me Donald. You've always called me Donald." "I can't." He calls me Mr. President. I've known this guy forever. He used to call me, "Hey, Don, let's go out to dinner." You know before, he'd go, "Hey, let's go out to dinner." Now he goes, "Mr. President, sir, how are you?" Right? How are you? But what we've done, and he said, he told me, "What you've done, we've never seen anything like it."

So many people are saying that. We are all together doing something, not only in terms of the election, not only in terms of what we're doing right now. Don't forget, it's a long way to the election. You know, we have what, 10 months? That's a long way. This is my first stop of the year, first major stop of the year. [cheers and applause] This is it. And we start.

By the way, let's do one of those polls right now, do you mind? Is there anything more fun than a Trump rally? Here we are. If there anything more ... [cheers and applause] So we have the greatest phrase of all time, "make America great again," and in all due respect, I'll never end ... I'm a little superstitious. I'll never end it, "make America great again," but I see all those hats. I see all those hats, changing it a little bit, but "make America great again."

I said, you know, today, we just hit the highest stock price in the history of our country. So your 401(k)s—[cheers and applause]—so your 401(k)s are at records, your stocks are great, but what it really means to me is jobs, more importantly than anything else. We have the best jobs, the best everything, right? We just hit ... I can't really say, "make America great again."

Our military is rebuilt, two-and-a-half trillion. Our military is rebuilt. We're doing great numbers. Economically, our country is the strongest it's ever been. You have factories moving back into Ohio. You never saw anything like it, right? You had your best year. So when I say "make America great again," what that sort of means is like, we didn't get there, but we did get there.

So now, I have a new theme. It's called "keep America great." "Keep America great." [cheers and applause] Now, I'm a very loyal person, and I am concerned about changing the theme because "make America great again" I think was the greatest political campaign in history. [cheers and applause] I mean, Crooked Hillary spent—[booing]—three or four times more money than us, right.

Crooked Hillary, wait, crooked ... We should lock her up, I'll tell you. Crooked Hillary spent three or four times more. So I wanna be a little bit ... I have to say, that was a great campaign, and I don't wanna change it. I don't want to have this incredible 2016, then go with something, and if something ever happened, this country will go to hell, oh, I hate to see ...

You know the stocks I'm talking about, records? You'll have records this way, you're gonna have records. Get used to it, because if that happened, you will see things happen that aren't good. But I have to now say, do I wanna change the greatest theme in political history, "make America great again, with "keep America great," right? [cheers and applause]

So, let's take a little applause, right? We'll go "make America great again," you'll clap if you want that. Then we go, "keep America great," you'd clap if you like that. Okay, are you ready? First, "make America great again." [cheers and applause] Ready? "Keep America great." [cheers and applause]

Crowd. [chanting] USA! USA! USA! USA!

The President. You know, that, I call that a free poll. That's better than a poll. Do you ever see these crazy polls that come out? We're doing great in the polls, by the way. Remember, I used to come out and talk about the polls? We'll start doing that very soon. We're doing great in the polls, but this is like a free poll.

Somebody else would go out, they have all this money that they raised, and they give somebody a million dollars, and they'll ask 200 people that question. And then they'll say, "Well, 'make America great again' is better," but I will tell you, I haven't heard one thing where that was true. With all of these ... I would have said, instinctively, "make America great again" could not be beaten. I've probably done this 10 times. I have never had it win. It's "keep America great," and that's what we're doing, but we're gonna use both. We're gonna use both. [cheers and applause]

We're going to use both, because there's no way that I'm gonna jettison "make America great again," right? There's no way. We're gonna use both, but this hat is a hot seller. We're selling that hat like nobody's ever sold a hat before, I will say. Oh, it's great. Good. "Keep America great." So we're gonna use both, but "keep America great." That's probably gonna be the dominant theme.

For eight years, the Obama administration enabled and emboldened—[booing]—the Iranian regime. They gave Iran 150 billion dollars, including 1.7 billion dollars—[booing]—in hard, cold cash. Can you imagine? No, no, can you imagine? 1.7, 1.8 billion dollars in cash? [shouting]

So the foolish Iran Nuclear Deal financed Iranian aggression while allowing a quick path to nuclear breakout, that's what it did. And by the way, it expires so soon. They can have nuclear weapons. They're not, as I said before, they will not have nuclear weapons. [cheers and applause]

By subsidizing Iran's malign conduct, the last administration was leading the world down the path of war. We are restoring our world to the path of peace, peace through strength, peace through strength. [cheers and applause] And our country's doing great, and I think something's gonna happen that's gonna be good. You know, we've sanctioned the hell out of Iran, and we just put more on them yesterday.

They hit us with 16 missiles, and I said, "How many?" We were ready to go. We were ready to go. I said, "How many? How many died? How many were wounded?" "Sir, none." None? [cheers and applause] Pretty good warning system, none. "How many were hurt? How many were ... ?" "None, sir." So, we didn't do anything. We were ready. We were ready. Not that I wanted to, but we were ready. You have no idea. A lot of people got very lucky.

We're thrilled to be joined tonight by many great Republican leaders, a man who has helped me right from the beginning, a very special guy, Representative Bill Johnson, Bill. Where is Bill? Thank you, Bill. [cheers and applause] Thank you, Bill. Great job, great job, and his fellow friends, Jim Jordan, [cheers and applause] We really like Jim... .

We have a lot of your congressmen right now in Congress. They said, "Sir, should we come with you?" I said, "No, stay back and vote." They're voting on some pretty important stuff, right? But, we were able to get Bill. We thank you, Bill, very much, great job, great warrior. Thank you, Bill. [cheers and applause]

Ohio Lieutenant Governor, Jon Husted. Thank you, Jon. Thank you, Jon. [cheers and applause] Thank you, Jon. Great job. State Treasurer, Robert Sprague. Thank you, Robert. [cheers and applause] And you have a lot more money in the bank right now, Robert, as Treasurer, right, than you ever did?

Ohio Supreme Court Justice, Judy French. Thank you, Judy. Great job. [cheers and applause] State Senate President, a man highly respected, Larry Obhof. Thank you, Larry. [cheers and applause]

And, a woman who really has become a great friend of mine. She took over this party. We fought like hell. We had some other people that had their mind on taking over the party, but they never had a chance against Jane Timken, Jane. [cheers and applause]

And, the man who is in charge of my campaign in Ohio, I had a choice of five people. I said, "I like this guy's name." I don't know why. His name is Bob Paduchik. Why do I like his name? [cheers and applause] And I said "Bob, how are we doing?" He said, "You're gonna win big, sir."

Because, you know, you keep hearing, you cannot win unless you win the great state of Ohio. That's these guys [points to media]. [cheers and applause] And once, I was leading Ohio by a lot in the poll. They never say that anymore. It's terrible. They were saying it when they thought I wasn't gonna win, but we were ahead right from the beginning.

But Bob was incredible, he did a fantastic job. And Bob, I'd call him up. I'd say, "Bob, we don't have the Governor, we don't have the head of the Republican Party." You know, it's a minor problem, when you're running as a Republican, and he punked out on us, right, this guy? "We don't have any ..." He said, "Sir, you have the people." I said, well, what happens ... [cheers and applause] ...he was cool.

I said, "So Bob, let me ask you, just out of curiosity, I don't have these people. The leaders are not with us. Is that good or bad?" He said, "Sir, it's great. You just went up three points." You believe this, by not having ... And he said, "Don't worry, sir, you're gonna win," and we won by a lot. Now, I understand we're up by a lot more than we ever thought possible. But Bob was fantastic. Thank you, Bob. [cheers and applause]

And thanks to Republican leadership work, but can you believe this? I have a 95% approval rating. Can you believe it? [cheers and applause] You know who second is? We do, we do, we do. Do you know who second is? Ronald Reagan at 87%, Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan's two. [cheers and applause]

Then, one of these characters back there, they put me in a contest with the late great Abraham Lincoln, right? So who do you like better, Trump or Abraham Lincoln? I said Abraham Lincoln ...

Crowd. [chanting] Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!

The President. So I said, who do you like better? They say they did a poll on this. I think I remember the numbers. All I know is, we won against Abraham, Honest Abe. We won, 53 to 47. You believe that, Abraham Lincoln? I went back to the First Lady, I said, "First Lady, I just beat Abraham Lincoln in a poll." [laughter] I don't know if they had polls back then, but Abraham Lincoln. I always say I can be more presidential than any candidate that ever ran, than any president, other than maybe Abraham Lincoln when he's wearing his hat. [laughter]

But I like Abe Lincoln, but we're doing well, we have a lot of support. Do you know why? Because our country is doing so well. Our country is doing so well. [cheers and applause] And when we went out, we started, and we went right to the top of the polls. It wasn't like these folks today. They are 2%, 3%, but they're climbing.

We went right to the top from day one. We never missed center stage in the debates. Remember those great debates? We actually got high ratings. They don't get very good ratings anymore. They're like, it's like death, watching. I should watch. You know, I'm supposed to watch. It's like my job. Try and watch, watch the competition, but it's like watching death. [laughter]

Those debates are boring. They're boring. You gotta sit through those things for two or three hours. You gotta really be committed to the country to do that. I mean, you have some real beauties. You see where Pocahontas is slipping badly? [shouting] And Bernie, Bernie is going up. He's surging, Bernie's, crazy Bernie, he's surging, and Biden doesn't know the difference between Iran and Iraq. He's gotten it wrong four times. [laughter]

He goes, "When we took our shot at Iraq ..." No, no, no. They're all saying, "No, no," they're screaming, "It's Iran, Iran." "What?" And his son, right? Where's Hunter, where is Hunter? [booing]

No, I went to one of them. I said, "We have to have Where's Hunter as a witness." They said, "What do you mean, Where's Hunter?" I said, "That's his first name. I have now made his first name Where's. Where's Hunter?" Here's a guy, made no money, got thrown out of the military forces, I think the Navy, got thrown out, had no job, had no nothing, so, he went from that to making millions of dollars a year as soon as Sleepy Joe became Vice President. He made millions of dollars a year. Would anybody in this room do that for millions of ... I would. He made millions and millions of dollars a year. Ukraine took care of him.

How about China? He walked out with 1.5 billion to manage, and he never did it before. He didn't know anything about oil and gas. He was making a fortune. So, where is Hunter? Where the hell are you, Hunter? [shouting] But I'll tell you, I sort of hope it's Joe, because he will hear where's Hunter every single debate, nine times a debate. [cheers and applause] Where is Hunter?

Then, you have Buttigieg, Buttigieg, Buttigieg. Nobody, nobody can pronounce ... Nobody has any idea how the hell to say his name. What they do is they call him Mayor Pete, you know, like, Mayor Pete. Here comes Mayor Pete. Doesn't do a very good job. Alfred E. Neuman, you're alright, howdy doody, some people say, howdy doody. The problem is, a lot of people don't remember Alfred E. Neuman. Don't say that. You look much younger than that, I must say.

So you have Mayor Pete. I mean, give me a break. Can you believe Mayor Pete? This is gonna be the President of the United States? This is gonna be ... [booing] How would he be against negotiating against President Xi of China? And we just made one hell of a deal. You're going to see the numbers very soon, you know? One hell of a deal. They didn't like those tariffs. [cheers and applause]

Thanks to Republican leadership, America is winning again, and America, most importantly, is respected again, respected like never before. [cheers and applause] And you know, for years, NATO has taken advantage of the United States. We protect Europe from Russia, and the numbers have been going down for many, many years, 15 years, 18 years. The numbers is like a roller coaster down.

And I went over, and I said "Folks, you gotta pay your bills. You're delinquent. You're delinquent." And then, they don't like me. They say, "We like Obama better." They should like Obama better. Obama would go in and say, "Thank you very much for coming. We appreciate it. Bye-bye, I'm going back to Washington. I'm going back. I'll be violating the carbon footprint. I'm going to Hawaii to play golf."

I drive to play a round of golf at the course I own, it doesn't even cost them anything. He flies to Hawaii, nobody cares. If I drive 20 minutes, it's like, "Donald Trump is playing golf today. [laughter] He violates the carbon footprint," but just think of it. Think of where we've come. Think of where we've come.

A great congressman from Tennessee, they have ... It's a great state. They have early voting, very early voting, probably the earliest. He said, "I don't know. I just left, I just left Tennessee." This was in November. This was the election, 2016. He said, "I just left this incredible state of mine, I love that state. Sir, we've seen lines of people that didn't vote before, because they never were inspired to vote," and these are people that never voted.

And they had hats on, "Trump." They have pins, on "Trump," "Trump," "Trump/Pence," "Trump." They have the bands on, you know, like a Miss Universe, prom. It says, "Trump/Pence," and they've got buttons all over it. They've got shirts saying "Trump" and "Trump/Pence." I never saw anything like it. "If every state is like Tennessee, sir, I hate to tell you, you're gonna have one hell of a victory," and that's what happened, right? That's what happened. [cheers and applause]

And you did it. You did it, and I think we're gonna have bigger numbers, even bigger numbers, because I'll tell you what, we're a long way from the election. I think the crowds today are bigger than they were the day before the election last time. I really do. [cheers and applause]

You know, Elizabeth Warren, sadly referred to, she of great Indian heritage. Remember, I used to say, "I have more Indian blood in me than she has, and I have none." I turned out to be right. But, but you look at what she's doing, you look at what she's saying, the lies, the deceit, the fraud, you see it all.

We are going to do so great. It's gonna be something that's gonna be special. It's going to be for the record books. The Evangelicals called, some of the greatest pastors, ministers, preachers—[cheers and applause]—and they just called today, five of the most respected people. And they said things that were incredible. They said, "There's never been anything like this in the church that they can ..." Some of them have been doing it for 30, 40 years. They said, "We have never seen enthusiasm like we see for this president and for this presidency, all of us, like we have right now." [cheers and applause]

The great Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son, Franklin Graham, a fantastic man. He said, "Two weeks ago, my father, Billy Graham, voted for Donald Trump." Nobody ever ... No, no, nobody ... He never said that before. Billy Graham wasn't somebody that would vote and say he voted. Franklin Graham said Billy Graham, maybe the greatest of all, maybe the greatest of all time, he said "My father, Billy Graham—" who was very old at the time and in trouble, he was in trouble, he was not well, "—he voted for Donald Trump." What a great tribute that was to me. What a great tribute. Great family. [cheers and applause]

Unemployment has reached the lowest level in over 51 years. African-American, Hispanic-American, and Asian-American unemployment have all reached the lowest rates ever, ever, ever recorded. [cheers and applause] Wages are rising fast. They're going up very fast, and the biggest percentage increase, makes me happy, are for blue-collar workers. [cheers and applause] Forty million. Think of this, 40 million American families are now benefiting from the Republican child tax credit, each receiving an average of over 2,200 dollars a year. [cheers and applause]

Now, America lost ... This is hard to believe, because you think, "How could it possibly be true?" but this is what happened. Probably, it's the reason, number one reason I'm running. America lost 60,000 factories under the previous administration, 60,000. You wouldn't believe that it's possible, but I know it's true, because I've said it 50 times, and the fakers back there, they've never corrected me. [laughter] No, it's true. No, it's true. If I were slightly off, if it were, if I was off by two factories, there'd be a headline, "Donald Trump told a fib. Donald Trump gets to be a Pinocchio again."

No. Think of it, 60,000 factories, plants and factories, closed, closed. They went to Mexico. They went to China. Sixty thousand. It's not even ... Take a look at a map and put 60,000 little dots. I mean, you wouldn't believe it could be that many, but it is, it's 60,000 closed, gone. They're all coming back. They're all coming back. [cheers and applause]

And right now, just in a very short period of time, we've added 12,000 brand new factories, and many more are coming in. [cheers and applause] One of the reasons they're coming in is we've eliminated a record number of job-killing regulations, saving the average American household 3,000 dollars a year. Total income gains for median households will reach over, ready? Ten thousand dollars a family. [cheers and applause] Ten thousand dollars.

Now, under the Bush administration, the 10,000 dollars, that includes what we've done in terms of median income. I'm adding in there the tax cuts, which are tremendous, 2,400 dollars. And I'm adding the regulation cuts, and I'm adding the whole package, over 10,000 dollars. Now, under President Bush, it was 450 dollars. Under Barack Hussein Obama, it was 975 dollars. Under President Donald J. Trump, it's 10,000 dollars in three years, three. [cheers and applause]

In three years. Don't forget, President Bush, eight years, 450 dollars. President Obama, eight years, 975 dollars. President Trump, three years, not even, not even, not even, but three years, 10,000 dollars. [cheers and applause] We're going up. We're going up.

We ended the last administration's war on American energy and we ended the war on clean, beautiful coal. It's being shipped to Vietnam, it's being shipped all over the world. While every Democrat running for President wants to shut down our coal mines, we are putting our miners back to work. Indeed we must, indeed we must. [cheers and applause]

Clean coal. What they do with coal today is incredible, clean coal. With the help of energy workers right here in Ohio, the United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world by far, number one. [cheers and applause] We weren't number one.

Every top Democrat candidate has pledged to eliminate American production of oil and natural gas. How does that work, by the way? [booing] You know, there's a state known as Texas, and I won Texas by a lot, just like I won Ohio by a lot. How would you like to go into Texas and say, "By the way, we don't want your oil or natural gas anymore?"

How about that Beto? Remember he said, "I was born to be president." Anybody that says that, I said, "That's the end of his career." Remember, he had the cover of the magazine? I won't mention the magazine, sleazebag magazine. [laughter] He was born to be president, and right after that, he came tumbling down, but he's from Texas, so he was against religion, he was against oil, and he was against guns.

Abraham Lincoln could not win in Texas with that platform. That's not a good platform. It's not a good platform, but you have people that wanna shut down the oil industry. If you do that, you're gonna shut down half your businesses. It's really more than that, and the rest of them are not going to be able to pay because the cost of this energy would be so expensive. We have all forms of energy. We have every form of energy, and we are doing great, but they wanna cripple your state's economy. But the voters of Ohio will never let that happen, never gonna let it happen. [cheers and applause]

And our air and our water, right now, is cleaner than it's been in 40 years. [cheers and applause] Sadly, I can't say historic because, you know, a couple of hundred years ago, there was nobody here, right? So I assume that 2, 300 years ago was cleaner, probably. You never know, but our water and our air is as clean as it's ever been, and I took us out of that horrible Paris Accord.

I always say, "How are you doing with the Paris Accord?" "Don't ask." Saved trillions and trillions of dollars that was put in there to hurt us, in my opinion. It was put in there to hurt us. We were paying money to India. We were paying money to China. China's didn't kick in until 2030, we kicked in immediately. We had to pay money.

Russia kicked in, in 20 ... Let's see, they kicked in before. They were 1990, wait, they were 1996. That was a very dirty period of air, so they didn't have ... We kick in now, and that, it's just unacceptable. We would have spent trillions and trillions of dollars. We would have had to close up, I think, at least 25 to 30% of our businesses. Who the hell would make a deal like that, right? Who would make a deal like that? [shouting]

No, how unfair. You look at Russia. You look at China. You look at India. They all got these massive breaks. We got no breaks, and we're paying money. And I say sometimes to France, "How are the Yellow Vests working out?" Because they don't like raising their taxes and sending the money to faraway places that they'd never heard of. So, we are in good shape.

It took a certain amount of courage to do that. I said, "I'm gonna get killed on this one," and you know what? I did it, and I was applauded, because the people get it. The people know what we're doing, and they're tired of being ripped off by the rest of the world. They're tired of being ripped off by the rest of the world.

For decades, career politicians promised to defend the workers of Ohio, and then they went to Washington and voted for the same globalist policies that devastated your communities and chipped away your jobs. You know that. Better than anybody, Ohio knows that. But the betrayal of Ohio workers and U.S. workers ended the day I took the Oath of Office, and you see that because you're setting records. [cheers and applause]

I immediately canceled the Obama administration's job-killing catastrophe, which would have dealt a death blow to the United States auto industry, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It was a disaster. That was going to be worse than NAFTA. NAFTA, I always say, the world's worst deal. I think that would have been worse. It would have taken the car industry. It would have taken many of your industries. That was a setup for the United States to get fleeced.

The USMCA will save the American auto industry, and create over 100,000 new auto jobs, and our factories will not be closing and moving to other faraway lands. We'll keep them right here if that's okay. [cheers and applause] And that's going to include, because we take care of our great auto workers of Toledo, the home of Jeep. How good is Jeep? [cheers and applause]

And I've taken the toughest-ever action against China's chronic trade abuses, including tariffs on 370 billion dollars' worth of Chinese-made goods, bringing billions and billions of dollars into our Treasury. And I gave some of that money, because they were targeted, to our farmers, and our farmers did just fine. And now, the deal is done, and the other deals are done, and the farmers are doing very well. We love our farmers, and they never complain. They never complain.

You know, when they'd go, the fake news back there, they'd go and they'd talk to the farmers. "What do you think of President Trump? China is deciding not to buy anymore of this." You know what the farmers would say, "We're gonna have to suffer for a while because China and these other nations have been ripping us off for years. The president is right and we're with the president." How great are they? How great are they? [cheers and applause]

But our strong action paid off and we'll sign that terrific and fully enforceable Phase One trade deal with China. And again, we're keeping the tariffs on because we'll use that for another one. We are taking billions. Remember what I said? We're not paying for it. Because China devalued their currency and they put a lot of money into the pot. We're not paying for it. And now they're starting to say, "I guess he was right." And our trade deficit, as a result, has come, has really come substantially down. It was just in the papers today. The trade deficit has come down. As a result of our actions, steel mills all across Ohio, you know this better than I do, are roaring back to life! JSW Steel is investing five hundred million dollars in Mingo Junction. Republic Steel is reopening the Loraine Mill that they idled in 2016. Charter Steel is building a 150-million-dollar mill in Cuyahoga Heights and Nucor is investing 85 million dollars at a facility in Marion, Ohio. [cheers and applause] Think of that. Think of that.

The steel industry was dead and now it's vibrant. All told, American steel companies are currently making 13 billion dollars' worth of new investments all across our nation. Think of that. They weren't investing 10 cents. The industry was dead. Now it's vibrant. After years of rebuilding other nations, we are finally rebuilding our nation. We are finally putting America first! [cheers and applause]

But while we are creating jobs and killing terrorists, the Washington Democrats are wasting America's time with demented hoaxes and crazy witch hunts. Think of it. From the day they came down that escalator it started. Who the hell else could have taken this stuff, right? Can I get some credit for that? [cheers and applause] Most guys would have been in a corner with their thumb in their mouth saying, "Mommy, Mommy, take me home." These are bad people. The Democrat politicians we're fighting today are the same ones who took a sledgehammer to Ohio jobs in factories. They destroyed your factories. They destroyed your jobs. [booing] But they're losing and we're winning and America's comeback continues full speed ahead. [cheers and applause]

On no issue have Democrat politicians more thoroughly betrayed the American people than the issue of illegal immigration.

Crowd Member. Build a wall!

The President. Far-left radical politicians support deadly sanctuary cities and demonstrated their contempt, scorn, and disdain for everyday Americans and the American family. These jurisdictions release dangerous violent criminal aliens out of their jails and directly onto your streets where they are free to rob, attack, and kill American citizens, but we stop it. They want open borders. Can you believe it? And because of Democrats' open border policies, they want open borders. They want people flowing. Come on in. Come on in. Innocent Americans are being brutalized and murdered by illegal alien criminals. As just one example right here in Ohio, you all know about it, an illegal alien went on a deadly crime spree, attempting to rape a 14-year-old girl. Then raping and murdering a 60-year-old woman. Then shooting another woman who took a shortcut through the park and was walking with her children. And finally the police came. We love our police. And they were able to apprehend this terrible criminal.

Thanks to Democrat policies, MS-13 gang members, they're the worst, were allowed to infiltrate the country. You know, I called them animals and Nancy Pelosi said, "They're not animals. They're human beings." Take a look at what's happening to her district. Her district is one of the most disgusting, dirtiest ... it used to be one of the best in the country. Now it's a disgrace what's happened. Drug needles all over the place. The homeless they're not taking care of. Tents down major thoroughfares. What happened to San Francisco, in particular her district, and she lives in this beautiful house. [shouting] But they terrorize out citizens, including killing their victims with machetes, MS-13. They kill them with machetes. You know why? Because it's more painful than using a gun.

Federal authorities recently discovered and rounded up more than 25 MS-13 gang members in central Ohio. And they will be sent to jail or frankly, if they hold them, I don't know that they hold them, they're gonna be sent the hell back home. [cheers and applause]

Last year alone, ICE officers, who by the way are heroes. These are brave people. I don't wanna do it. You don't wanna do it. Let's see, you could do it. You could do it. You could do it. Most of you wouldn't. I mean, I've seen it. They have these people that are like killers. And our guys are here. And they run, they call them nests, you have nests. And they run in and they're swinging and punching. I say, what the hell kind of a job is that? That's what they do. They're tough people. They're great patriots. Who the hell wants to do it? They're incredible, ICE. And they get scorned and we take out thousands and thousands of MS-13 members every single year. They throw them into the back of the van and we get them the hell out of our country. [cheers and applause]

But ICE offices worked with Ohio police to remove 1,200 dangerous criminal aliens from your street, and, you know, all your streets. Do you see the difference now between what it is now? We have a problem over there? Go ahead. Take your time. Take your time. Good, thank you. Great job. Thank you. Okay these people here, unlike you up there, these people have been waiting for three days so that they could be here. I don't know. You know what? If I had to wait three days, I think I'd like your seat better. I like your seat better.

But Democrats stand for crime, corruption, and chaos. Republicans stand for law, order, and justice. That's really the way it is. [cheers and applause] We side with law enforcement, with law-abiding Americans, not law-breaking criminal aliens. We are removing these illegal criminals and gang members from our country by the thousands. We are sending them home. And we will not let them back in. And I have to tell you, a lot of things are happening. You're gonna hear about that in two seconds. Thanks to our tireless efforts to secure the border, illegal crossings are down 75% since May. [cheers and applause] We have ended catch and release. Catch and release, you know what catch and release is? We catch them. We take down their name and we release them. What kind of crap is that? [shouting] These are the policies that we inherited. You catch somebody, you take their name. Say "Please come back in three years." Right? And we release them into our country. And if you don't do that everybody gets sued. Can you believe this? We have ended catch and release.

The other one, beauty, how about the lottery? It's called VISA lottery. How about this? They put their hand ... these people are going to America. Bomb. I will not use names because I'll be accused of something if I do. [laughter] But from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, we have ... He's good. [laughter] Only in Ohio can that happen. [laughter] Who's the man that did that? Who is that guy? So anyway, but, in Honduras, in Guatemala they have, like, this lottery. Now the people, I've gotten to know the government officials. They're good. We've made some good things. They agreed to take our people back, you know, their people back. They wouldn't take them back. They'd send them here, they'd go into our country, we'd bring them back under past administrations and then after that, they'd say, "We're not taking them back. We're not taking them back. Take them the hell out of here. We're not letting you land your plane." So we have the government flying the plane all over trying to get a couple prisoners, bad people back.

Now they take them back. You know why? Because I said, "Look, if you don't take them back, we're going to put tariffs on every single thing that you sell." Now they say, "We would love to take them back. We would love to take them back. We'll take them back gladly, sir." No, they couldn't get them back. We'd take off with these absolute thugs, these gang members, and we'd bring them back and they wouldn't accept them. We couldn't land the plane. We couldn't get anything through the border. It comes through the border this way, but not that way. But now they take them back. They've been great actually. They've been really good. Now we paid them a lot of money. We paid them 500 million dollars a year. Can you believe we paid them 500 million, the three of them, El Salvador included. And I said, "Look, we're not gonna pay you any money anymore because you're not treating us right." [cheers and applause] And they've been great. They've been great. They take them back. "How many would you like us to take? We'll take as many as you want."

And here's the big thing. Ready? You read it today in the newspapers. In the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals we won't the big, big, beautiful lawsuit when they were all suing us. The wall is being built. We built it. [cheers and applause] We built already a tremendous amount. But we're releasing four billion dollars of military construction funds to build the biggest section of the wall. It's literally being signed now, it'll be under construction very shortly in a couple of weeks. And we've already built over 100 miles of wall. How about that? Hundred miles. And by the end of next year, we're gonna have a lot of the wall built. And it's already having a big impact. How about the Democrats? "Walls don't work. We want technology." I said, "What do you want to do?" They want drones. Oh, good. When people are rushing, the caravans, when they're rushing, having a drone flying around is not gonna help you too much. Okay?

Nothing like ... you know five years ago, the Democrats all wanted the wall. They just could never get it built. They didn't know how the hell to build it. I do. So we built 100 miles. I think probably more than that now. We have a lot under contract. But we won our big case just ... I woke up. They said, "Sir, we have good news. They overturned a horrible decision from the lower court. You can now fund the rest of the wall." I said, "Thank you very much." [cheers and applause] Thank you, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

But they wanna have open borders. They wanna have sanctuary cities. The radical Democrats have never been more extreme than they are right now. They are stone cold crazy. [shouting] You know, it's interesting, as I'm saying this stuff. You know, they want crime, they want chaos. I'm saying all this stuff and then I say, "Gee, now I sort of understand why they hate me." Right? But it's true. It's true. Their policies are a disaster. They're bad politicians and they have horrible policies but what they do is they stick together and then they're vicious. They're vicious, horrible people. I didn't use to say that. They're horrible people. What they do to people is a disgrace but they stick together.

Now the Republicans, thank you very much, the Republicans, my man, the Republicans, we were 196 to nothing in the House and I have a feeling the Senate's gonna be great also. One-ninety-six to nothing and we took in three Democrats. And Congressman Van Drew left their party and joined our party. But we've done things that nobody's ever done before. But the Democrats are taking their cues from socialist Bernie Sanders and that group. [booing] Omar, AOC—[booing]—, isn't she a nice woman, Tlaib. [booing] Tlaib. Boy, what a group, but they're the leaders of the party. They're really, in my opinion, the leaders. That's what happened. That's how they got into this impeachment hoax. The leaders of the party are this AOC—[booing]—Tlaib, and Omar. [booing] And Pelosi meets them and she shakes and quivers and she's very scared. But you know who the leader of your party is? All of you. You. You're the leader of your party. [cheers and applause]

But the Democrats are pushing a socialist takeover of healthcare that would strip 180 million Americans of their private insurance plans and massively raise taxes on the middle class. A lot of you have private insurance plans that you love. They're gonna take them away from you. But see, I don't like doing this too soon. I did it with Pocahontas, I came up with this great name. I came up with a lot of different stuff. I said she was a total fraud and everybody believed me and she went down. Then she started coming up and then she went down. It doesn't help me to do it a year and a half before the election. That's why, like with the Green New Deal, okay? I wanna say great things about it. Okay? I don't wanna knock it and then they say, "Oh, we're not gonna use that." I like it when they say, "No longer can you fly airplanes. No longer can you have any cows in the pasture. Right? No longer can we do anything." We can't do anything anymore. No, the Green New Deal, I love it. I think it's great. It should be debated. It should be debated.

So what we're going to do very seriously, we're gonna not talk badly about them. We're gonna say the Green ... They asked me about it the other day. A gentleman just asked me about it backstage. I said, "No it's something that has to be considered. Then about two weeks before the election I'll let you know the facts." [laughter] Because this doesn't matter. We're too far ahead of the election. The Green New Deal, that's a beauty. You know it's amazing, though. I see this congressman that's been here. He has white hair, beautiful white hair. Nope, it's not you. [laughter] And he's with AOC. And he's saying, "Yes, we have to go with the Green New Deal." And I'm saying, "Is this guy for real?" I don't know if he believes it. He's been around for 20 years in Congress. I've seen him. I know him a little bit. And he's acting like he actually believes it. But we're gonna just take our time and we're gonna relax. And about three or four ... You're gonna join some rallies about a month before, you're gonna hear the real facts. But I'm tired of talking them out of things 10 months before the election.

Bernie Sanders' healthcare plan would cost over 32 trillion dollars a year. That's more money than we make in five years. That's more money than we'll ever make. He is indeed crazy. No, no, he's ... Oh, let me take that back. No, it's a great plan that we have to consider strongly. [laughter] We have to consider his plan strongly. Now see, I'll tell you what the fake news will do. They'll take my last words, "It's a great plan. We have to consider it strongly." They'll cut everything out in the front and they'll say, "Donald Trump is in favor of Bernie Sanders' Green New Deal." [booing] They can do more with a tape than they can do with a newspaper. No, they'll do that. You'll see it. Somewhere you'll see it, "Trump supports his plan." They are sick.

Republicans will defend middle class taxpayers and the right to keep the doctor of your choice. We will protect patients with pre-existing conditions. And we will protect your pre-existing physician. [cheers and applause] You'll have your physician. Virtually every top Democrat also now supports late-term abortion, ripping babies straight from the mother's womb, right up until the moment of birth. That is why I have asked Congress to prohibit late-term abortion, because Republicans believe that every child is a sacred gift from God. [cheers and applause]

Radical Democrats are now the party of high taxes, high crime, open borders, late-term abortion, socialism, and blatant corruption. The Republican party is the party of the American worker, the American family, and the party of the American dream. We still have that American dream. [cheers and applause]

As of today, we've appointed 187 federal judges to interpret the Constitution as written. [cheers and applause] Think of that. And two great Supreme Court judges. Think of that, 187 federal and Court of Appeals judges. Think of that. Thank you, President Obama. He gave us 142 judges. Thank you. Thank you very much, President Obama. We have a record. It's a record and we will appoint many more. But we, first day, I had 142 judges, 142, I said, "How many do we have?" "Sir, you have 142." I said, "You gotta be kidding." I thought they'd say maybe none, maybe one, but certainly no more than one. They're like gold. They said, "No, sir, you have 142." I said, "You gotta be kidding. How did this happen?" President Obama, President Obama did not get that done. And by the way, Mitch helped a lot too, I have to tell you. Mitch helped a lot. [cheers and applause] He helped a lot. It wasn't so easy. Mitch McConnell.

We're aggressively combating the opioid epidemic and it's bad. In 2018, drug overdose deaths in Ohio fell by, listen to this, 22%. That's not good enough, but 22, opioid. [cheers and applause]

And as we continue rebuilding our military, we have restarted the legendary Army tank factory in Lima. [cheers and applause] And we've authorized 441 new Striker fighting combat vehicles and 453 new Abrams tanks to be built in the Buckeye State. That's a lot of tanks. [cheers and applause]

So wait, just a quick story. Okay? I'm proud of this. So they had this Army tank plant, right, in Lima. And I said "What's going on?" "They're closing it." "Oh, they are? Well, you know ..." "They're closing. They're closing everything." When I came in they wanted to close everything. So I was president-elect I think, right around at that time. And I went to Lima, I went through the factory where they make these trucks, the plant. And they make the tanks. And they make all of these armored vehicles. And I said, "These people are amazing. You could never close this. You could never re-open it again." They'd been doing this for many many decades and this factory was incredible. And I looked at the tanks they're making, they're the best in the world, right? The Abrams. They're the best in the world. I said, "Wait a minute. If you close this, we're not gonna be able ... Where are you gonna build tanks? This is the primary factory in the whole country. I think it might be the only factory in the whole country."

So they're gonna close it. What are we gonna do? Send over to China for tanks, please, send us ... "Please send us 200 tanks." "We don't wanna send you any tanks because we're gonna kick your ass." No, no. We gotta make our own tanks, right? We gotta make our own tanks. So I did something, based on my instinct, because instinct sometimes works better than anything else. Based on my instinct, I said, "You can't close this plant." I went through that plant. I spent two, three hours talking to the people that worked there. I looked at some of the hydraulic and I'm, I love the whole thing, the world of tractors, all of that stuff. I know a lot about it. And I looked at the carvings. I looked at the metal. I looked at how perfect everything was that turns around. How perfect it fit. They put it on and it would fit like within one 100th of an inch. And I said, "You're not gonna be able to do this anyplace else." I said, "And we're gonna be expanding our military. We're gonna be rebuilding. Who the hell's gonna make our tanks if you close it?" I said, "Keep it open."

I actually, it was all closed. Is anybody from Lima? Is that a true story? Right? Right? It was closed. They announced it was closed. It was all set to close. I said, "You can't close this plant." And now look, the numbers I just gave you. We're making almost 500 tanks. [cheers and applause] You could've never reopened a place like that. It's incredible. And you could've never gotten those workers. They are really skilled people and if you did it would have cost you billions and billions of dollars to do it. It wouldn't have been as good as we have. So that was something I did that I'm very proud of because I really overrode a lot of talented people that wanted to close it.

I recognized Israel's true capital and opened the American embassy in Jerusalem. [cheers and applause] And we further recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, 52 years.

For years you watched as your politicians apologized for America. Now you have a president who is standing up for America and we are standing up for the great people of Ohio, great. [cheers and applause] At stake in our present battle is the survival of the American nation. If you want your children to inherit the blessings that generations of Americans have fought and died for, and fought so hard to secure, then we must devote everything we have toward victory in 2020. We have to win. You know, we have to win. [cheers and applause] Because all of these things that we've done can be undone. And you can have a country that goes to hell very, very fast. Very, very fast.

Only this way can we save the America that we love and drain the Washington swamp once and for all. And I have seen that dirty rotten swamp better than anybody else in America. A lot of crooked people, disgusting crooked people. With your help, we will lift millions more of our citizens from welfare to work, dependence to independence, and poverty to prosperity. Together we will elect a Republican Congress to create a fair, safe, sane, and lawful system of immigration. [cheers and applause] We will enact trade deals that result in more products proudly stamped with that beautiful phrase, "Made in the USA." We will achieve new breakthroughs in science and medicine, finding new cures for childhood cancer and ending the AIDS epidemic in America. Nobody knew that. It could've been done long before I got here. They had the technology. But we're ending the AIDS epidemic in America within 10 years. Isn't that amazing? Who would've thought that's possible? Who would've thought that's possible?

We will defend privacy, free speech, religious liberty, and the right to keep and bear arms. [cheers and applause] And above all, we will never stop fighting for the sacred values that bind us together as one big beautiful America. [cheers and applause] We support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. We stand with the incredible heroes of law enforcement. [cheers and applause] We believe in the dignity of work and the sanctity of life. We believe that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the true American way. [cheers and applause] We believe that children should be taught to love our country, honor our history, and to always respect our great American flag. [cheers and applause] And we will always live by the words of our national motto, "In God We Trust." [cheers and applause]

We stand on the shoulders of generations of Ohio patriots who gave their blood, sweat, and tears for this beloved nation. From Cleveland to Cincinnati, from Dublin to Dayton, and from Columbus to Toledo, this state is the home of proud families and farmers, and miners and manufacturers, and aviators, and astronauts. [cheers and applause] Ohio is where the Wright Brothers invented the airplane and where Annie Oakley got her gun. [cheers and applause] Ohio is the state that gave us American legends and American heroes like Thomas Edison, Neil Armstrong, and the great John Glenn. [cheers and applause] Ohio is the place where strong American workers mined coal, worked the railroads, and forged the steel that made America into the greatest and most powerful nation in the history of the world. And we are making it greater than ever before. [cheers and applause]

Proud citizens like you helped build this country, and together we are taking back our country. We are returning power to you, the American people. With your help, 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 movement, one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. America is thriving like never before. And, ladies and gentlemen of Ohio, the best is yet to come. [cheers and applause] Because together, we will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again. Thank you, Toledo. Thank you. [cheers and applause]

[Music: The Rolling Stones, You Can't Always Get What You Want.]