Remarks at a "Make America Great Again" Rally in Sunrise, Florida

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

The President. [The President walks the stage and tosses out "Make America Great Again" red hats to the crowd.]

Wow. Wow. Man, this is a big place.

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

The President. Thank you very much and thank you to Vice President Mike Pence, he's doing a fantastic job and thank you to the great state of Florida. Thank you. So less than one year from now I will join voters across the Sunshine State, my home [cheers and applause]. As we head to the polls, and together we will win back the House, we will hold the Senate and we will keep that beautiful, beautiful White House. We will keep it. [applause]

You know we just set another stockbrocket [sic]. You saw that right. The stock market just hit another all time in history high, meaning 401Ks and jobs. Everybody's getting rich, and I'm working my ass off that I can tell you. Before you leave the arena, make sure that you register to vote. We can't take any chances we're doing great in Florida.

As you know, you have a great governor, we're very happy with Ron he's doing a fantastic job—[applause]—but make sure you registered to vote as we gather together for Thanksgiving. You know some people want to change the name Thanksgiving [booing]. They don't want to use the term Thanksgiving, and that was true also with Christmas, but now everybody's using Christmas again Remember I said that—[applause]—but now we're going to have to do a little work on Thanksgiving, people have different ideas. Why it shouldn't be called Thanksgiving, but everybody in this room I know, loves the name Thanksgiving and we're not changing it. [applause]

But Americans have so much to be thankful for the economy is booming, wages are rising, crime is falling, poverty is plummeting, confidence is soaring and America is Stronger than ever before—[cheers and applause]—we've created six point seven million new jobs, including 600,000 jobs right here in the great state of Florida—[applause]—we're protecting American workers taking care of our amazing veterans--by the way you know the veterans for years and years and years I was like you I was a civilian, I love my life, my life was so much simpler. [laughter]

It was so nice and soft and easy. You build a building, and you have fun, but I'd always see you turn on the news--you read in the paper about our veterans being mistreated. They were doing such a poor job. You don't hear that anymore. Do you—

Crowd. No [The crowd responds while The President continues to talk.]

The President. —you don't hear that anymore. Our veterans for the first time are taken care of to a level that has never happened in our country before—[cheers and applause]—and maybe most importantly right now with the world the way it is. We are rebuilding the awesome power of the United States military. [applause].

2.5 trillion dollars and everything is made right here in the USA. That's good. We make the greatest equipment in the world and a few weeks ago, U.S special Forces brought the world's number one terrorist to justice. The bloodthirsty savage known as al-Baghdadi is dead [Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi], finally. [cheers and applause] [The President pauses while members of the crowd are shouting.]

The President. And just this week I stuck up for three great warriors against the deep state. [cheers and applause]

And you know what I'm talking about. I had so many people say, "Sir, I don't think you should do that." People have to be able to fight--these are great warriors. They can't think, "Gee whiz, if I make a mistake, do I go for it?" You do that. I mean you know what they were doing. They wanted to put him in jail for 25 years. [booing]

One young man was in jail for seven years. He had 16 more years to go, and I want to tell you when you look at what they did to that man. You would have been very proud at what we ended up doing. He came out. He hugged his parents; it was a beautiful—[applause]—beautiful thing. We gave him a pardon because we're going to take care of our warriors and I will always stick up for our great fighters.

People can sit there in air conditioned offices and complain, but you know what, doesn't matter to me whatsoever, they're out on that field and they're doing a job for us like nobody else anywhere in the world can do—[applause]—and the fact is America is winning again and America is respected again—[cheers and applause].

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

The President. —but while we're creating jobs and killing terrorists and taking care of our borders really setting records--now you see what's going on and the wall is happening. It's getting built rapidly and that's a real wall. [applause]

The radical Left Democrats are trying to rip our nation apart [booing]. First, it was the Russia hoax, total hoax [booing]. It was a failed overthrow attempt and the biggest fraud in the history of our country, and then you look at the Mueller deal. You remember that mess—[booing] —they had nothing.

Two years they spent $45 million dollars and the real cost is many times that number, and now the same maniacs are pushing the deranged "impeach him." You think of this--impeachment, impeachment— [booing]— a witch hunt the same as before and they're pushing that impeachment witch hunt and a lot of bad things happening to them because you see what's happening in the polls.

Everybody said, "That's really bullshit,"—[applause]— everybody!

Crowd. [chanting] Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!

The President. Now the fake news back there—[booing]—they're going to say the President came, they will never talk about the crowd. You know one of the Democrats yesterday had a rally. Two people showed up, two, two, two people [laughing]. They give us no credit. If somebody has a rally like a thousand people, they'll say, "So-and-so had a rally, it was packed. They had a thousand people."

If we have a rally with 50,000 people they don't talk about it—[cheers and applause]—and I don't know much about this stadium. But I can tell you it's big and you go outside and there are a lot of people outside that can't get in [applause]. Right?

But the lies of the Democrats are being exposed. Their schemes are unraveling--their crimes--and that's what it is, crimes. Did you ever hear this guy corrupt politician, Schiff? He made up my statement—[booing]—to the Ukrainian President. He made it up. These are crooked people, but their crimes are being revealed and their sinister plans are failing at a level that nobody thought even me possible [applause].

The radical Democrats are trying to overturn the last election because they know that they cannot win the next election is very simple [applause]. You know when I started this—

Crowd. [chanting] Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! [The President turns around and points to the crowd].

The President. —you know when I started this. I said we're going to do this, we're going to do that. We're going to do--it didn't mean anything. You know it's just like another guy trying to get elected. You know they're all trying so hard, but it's tough. It's not easy. It's not. You know when a guy goes out and they want to get people. Nobody shows--it's true. It's not easy, but when I started this--no no they haven't--that's normal. This is not normal. Do you think this is normal? [laughter]

Can I be honest in front of those fakers back there, some of the most corrupt people in the world? [booing] I will tell you in front of these guys and they're fake and they're corrupt, but I will tell you this in front of the media. Let me just say this has never happened before. We go out. We never have an empty seat and all I say is, let's go to Florida. Just get me the biggest to arena. It doesn't matter where, let's go to Wisconsin, let's go to Michigan, let's go to Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, let's go anywhere Michigan—[cheers and applause]—and all I say is it doesn't matter just get me the biggest arena and we get these massive arenas like this one and they're packed and we put big screens outside so people can see, and it happens because there's something happening in our country, like has never ever been seen before [applause].

In the twisted world view of the Washington very sick Democrats, it was totally fine when Crooked Hillary Clinton—[booing]—ran her outrageous pay for play schemes out of the State Department and then she deleted 33,000 emails after receiving a subpoena from Congress, that was standard play.

Crowd. [chanting] Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!

The President. But when I have a perfect phone call--I use that--it's a perfect call, it was. There was a woman today being interviewed, they were talking to women who voted for Trump and they were trying to find. No. No, no [cheers]. No, they were trying to find it's one of those crazy networks. You know the ones I'm talking about and they couldn't find the right--so, they got these 10 women and they were all for Trump, but they wanted to say. I voted for Trump but I won't do it again. They all said they said so who's voting for Trump ten hands, but right, no, no, I know it's incredible. What's happening, it's incredible, they actually said--and I shouldn't say this because they'll bring it up, but we have the greatest base in the history of politics. That's my opinion. [cheers and applause]

You're the smartest. They don't like to say that about hey. I went to great colleges. You went to great schools or colleges you people as successful as how they like to try and demean always best well this, and that, let me tell you we're winning you're, smarter, you're, better, looking you're sharper, and they call themselves elite.

But if they're elite then we're the super elite—[applause]—they talk about these people that are elite that you know that are running. I mean. Have you been watching these debates? What's elite about that? What's the elite, there's nothing elite, but we're doing great we're going to have a tremendous victory, but when I have a perfect call think of it, 33 what they get away with and don't forget.

I came to Washington having been there for a very, very few times in my life, so I say, look at this and I'm riding down Pennsylvania Avenue and I pass a hotel that I built beautiful and I said to the first lady who is doing a fantastic job—[cheers and applause]—so I think I might have been in Washington 17 times in my life and I'm riding down, and I look at the first lady and I say Melania, "Do you believe it? I'm President look. I'm President, can you believe it?" [applause]

And I say I never saw so many motorcycles and I never saw so many police cars and we're going so fast in the opposite direction. It's not supposed to go that way at I'm saying this is cool we can get used to this. This is OK, but I was thinking to myself when I said that I said, look so I get elected and I beat the Bush dynasty [cheers]. I get elected and I beat and again with no experience I didn't have experience. I have tremendous world experience, but I didn't have political experience, right? So, I get elected and we beat the Clinton dynasty, right—[cheers and applause]—and then we beat Barack Hussein Obama and whatever the hell dynasty that is. [cheers and applause]

So, we have 24 years of people putting people in office. So, we have tens of thousands of people and some are very nice, but I get stuck with a lot of people that I don't want. Tens of thousands and I'll tell you we're getting it right. We have a great cabinet, we're doing things that no President has ever done before, and you've got to be very, very happy. You've got to be very, very happy. [applause]

Because we have done more already, and hopefully we have, I'll say this to drive them crazy. Hopefully we have at least another five years to go. At least [applause]. Because you know they think, you know he's not leaving don't you, he's not leaving.

Really, we have done much more than I promised if you look at the tax cuts, if you look at the military, if you look at the V.A., if you look at right to try right to try, how good is that right to try. Things that for years and years and years they've been trying to get past, but when I have a perfect phone call with all of the horrible things that they've done with the President of Ukraine, they try to claim that it's an impeachable offense and one of the women said this morning. Excuse me, I'm voting for Trump. I happen to read the transcript of his phone call and he did absolutely nothing wrong and I'm voting can you imagine they take this perfect call and they want to impeach your President and you know what here's the good news we have more support in the Republican Party, Kevin McCarthy, Meadows, I'm going to introduce a couple of 'em [sic]. Jim Jordan, great champion wrestler.

You got a couple of 'em [sic] here. I'm going to save their names. Steve Scalise who's been incredible, so many. Elise? How's, Elise doing? Right, new star. No, no, it's incredible! Devin Nunes! How good has he been? Huh? Devin [applause]. And so many more. I don't want to get into it, but I tell you what a lot of stars are being made and I was just told backstage our poll numbers are through the roof, because people don't like watching a scam. They don't like watching it. They don't like watching. They've got a sick puppy, shifty Schiff [Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA)], he's sick—[booing]—and they don't like seeing what's happened and a lot of Democrats are saying--one of them was in a today in Detroit I believe and she's like a "D" in Democrat 30. That means in other words--that's not one that we're going to work too hard to get, but you never know what happens right and she came out and said, essentially, "Hey, I'm not here to impeach the President."

But what they're really saying is they don't like the position they're in and they're going to like it less and less, and we're going to take it right up to November 3rd, 2020, we're going to take back the House [applause]. We're going to take it back. So, the President of Ukraine declared that there was no pressure put on me. Now he's the only one that matters, there was no pressure.

He said it all different ways. There was no pressure, they don't even know what they're talking about. It's a scam. It's a hoax. The Ukrainian foreign minister stated--and I quote, "Ambassador Sondland did not tell us and certainly did not tell me about a connection between the assistance and the investigation," never told him. "I have never had a direct link between investigations and security assistance." Ok, what that means. You know what it means. It means we did zero. We did nothing wrong nothing. We did nothing wrong. A great senator from Wisconsin Ron Johnson, a supporter of us from day one, he's a great guy. Of Ukraine he said, who met privately with and he met with President Zelensky, and he said at no time during that meeting was there any mention by the President?

Well, you know what I'm talking about right. At no time was there any mention or anything that we're feeling that they were feeling any pressure in return for military aid. It's the craziest thing. They took this. Look here's what happened. They were devastated by what happened with this Mueller witch hunt deal and then Mueller testified.

How did he do what he testified? How did he do? It wasn't too good, but they were devastated. They say this is a disaster. Now they say, give us anything, we'll impeach him. Let him go to the refrigerator and pick an orange will go to [sic], from Florida. Yeah. Pick an orange from Florida, we're going to impeach him. We'll impeach him, but during the time period and issue the U.S. government officials held many meetings with Ukraine and never once, never did Ukraine or the officials say anything

that was wrong.

And then all of a sudden, I'm hearing about a phone call and then fortunately they had transcribers. Hey how about if I didn't trans [sic] with these lowlifes that talk how about if we didn't have a transcribe. So, all I'm saying I don't want to go into too long, but all I'm saying is that it's a terrible hoax.

Last week Sondland testified that I told him quote, "What do you want from Ukraine?" I said, "I want nothing!" This is the quote. "I want no quid pro quo. I want nothing, tell President Zelensky to do the right thing, to do what he ran on." That's what he said. Ok—[cheers and applause]—and everybody knows this. Everybody knows. There's a lot of people heard shifty make up a story where he actually made up what I said, but these are the facts. The case closed. Game over. Turn off the television as soon as he said that it was like--turn off the television, so we're going to keep going. I've had Republicans come up to me, "Sir, can we keep this sucker going a little bit longer? We've never seen anything like it with the polls." I said, let's get it over with, but you know what we're stuck with dealing with very, very sick and corrupt people. That's what it is.

The failed Washington establishment is trying to stop me because I'm fighting for you and because we're winning it's very simple— [applause]—they're attacking me, because I'm exposing a rigged system that enriched itself at your expense and I'm restoring government of, by, and for the people. [applause]

And if you want to see what corruption looks like, then take a look, no further than slow sleepy, Joe [booing]. I don't know what's going on with Joe. When sleepy Joe was in charge of Ukraine policy, his son, I call him, "Where is he? Where's Hunter? Where is he? What happened to Hunter? Where's Hunter? His son received millions and millions of dollars from a Ukrainian energy company without a great re [sic]--you know the reputation of that company, despite knowing absolutely nothing about energy.

What business are you in sir? [The President points to a Crowd Member].

Crowd Member. The bail bonds business.

The President. The mailbox business? Oh, bail bond. Whoa, that's, that's good [laughter]. You know Hunter Biden? Do you know sleepy Joe? [laughter and applause]. Bail bond. [cheers and applause]. So, did you ever work on energy before? You know more about energy--he said, "No"—then Hunter, you know much more, and despite being thrown out of the Navy for lots of different reasons, we won't even go into it. He made no money, zero, nothing and then all of a sudden, his father becomes Vice President and he's making millions and millions, and then he goes to China, where, by the way, we're getting very close to a very good deal and we don't make it that's fine—[applause]—but we're getting very close. Obviously, Hunter is dealing with different people than I'm dealing with in China because after 10 minutes, he walked away first fund with $1.5 billion.

I will tell you, I said to everybody, these are different people that I'm dealing with in China. They got much softer. That was when his father was Vice President and now, they're finding other countries likewise. I will tell you something, the fake news doesn't want to bring it up. They protect everybody. [booing]

The Democrats, the Democrats on stage don't bring it up. You notice they never bring it up, but if he should make it it'll be brought up for about 75 percent of the time that we're debating, because nobody ever got away with a scam like that all right. Nobody. But day after day we're exposing the depravity, dishonesty and sickness of the corrupt Washington establishment, and let me tell you they're rough they're dirty players. They come at you from every side. They're coming at me from New York, they're coming at me from New Jersey, they're coming at me from every democratic state like nobody's ever seen, Rush Limbaugh said and Sean Hannity—[applause]— that he doesn't know a man or woman in the world that could take the crap that President Trump is taking. And I understand that. I understand that. [applause]

And at the same time be a great President, because nobody in the first three years of a presidency has done what we've done. Nobody, nobody, that's very important, but with your help, we're going to complete the mission and we are draining the swamp indeed. On Election Day 2020, the crazy Democrats are going down in a landslide and that landslide is going to start right here in the great state of Florida. [cheers and applause]

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

The President. Thank you. So, here's something that you just read about, right. We like these updated stories, don't we? Don't we like, like something that happened a few days ago. We talk, who else does this? Most people they took, and they read, and ughh, you know everybody falls asleep. Nobody comes. "Casey darling how was he?" About somebody else hopefully. It was so boring. It was so boring, and you know I always say, being Presidential is so easy, "Ladies and gentlemen,"—[laughter]—thank you, thank you. But it's so easy. Doing what I do is tough. Not tough on me because I sort of like it. You gotta like it, if you don't love what you're doing, forget it. It's not going to work, but I do I do like it and what we're doing together has never been done before never been done. But I like telling these like stories that appened a little while ago.

They don't have to put them in speeches then you read stuff and people fall asleep and on Saturday you saw what happened. The White House physician called me and said, "Sir you're home today. If I want it," meaning me, "I could do some of the physical." You know in January we go for the physical. I never took physicals before now every year supposed to take a physical, but it's important. It's good, right? It's good. "Because January is a very busy month for you, sir." I said, "You're right. So, what do you want to do?" I said, "OK, let's go." So, we went to Walter Reed Medical Center, fantastic place, incredible doctors, and I was there for just a short while. I visited a family of a soldier being operated on incredible family, as his son was in serious condition, and I stayed with him for a little while I toured the hospital, I took a little part of my physical, so I don't have to take it in January, very simple and I got back into the motorcade, the car. Where we have many, many cars and trucks and ambulances, unfortunately, and lots of different things right. We also have like a bus or whatever the hell carries these crazy people—[laughter]—and the press follows me wherever I go, unfortunately. You know the old days I could sneak out and go someplace today. These people are crazy.

So, so the press is everybody's there. We start it's like a beautiful thing if you like lots of cars and lots of action, but the press is following me, so I hadn't even gotten back to the White House and that stupid corrupt horrible CNN—[booing]—whose ratings are terrible by the way and others and others and others whose ratings--by the way CNN's ratings, are terrible.

Oops. Look their light just went off—[cheers and applause]—the light just went off. I shouldn't do it, I shouldn't do it cause we lose a small audience when that happens—[laughter]—no but they report it. So here I am so.

Crowd. [chanting] CNN sucks! CNN sucks! CNN sucks! CNN sucks!

The President. So, I'm there for a very routine little simple physical and by the way, if there's something wrong, I gotta tell ya [sic]. I want to tell you about it because it's very big stuff, but I was there just to save a little time in January. I feel great hey. Hey, let me tell you, if I didn't feel great, I wouldn't be ranting and raving to twenty-one, twenty-two thousand people with lots of people outside. [applause]. I can tell you.

So, I get back in and now it's a short drive. We arrive at the White House and I heard that they said it came out in the media, including some of the very, very dishonest people that are here tonight--look at that. It's like the Academy Awards used to be, used to be. You know the Academy Awards was big until they started hitting us. Now, they've gone down the tubes. But it's like the Academy Awards used to be look at all those lights back there.

But I'm getting out of the car and somebody said, "Sir, are you okay?" I said "Yeah. What's that all about?" I go a few feet further and another security. "Sir, sir are you okay, sir?" I said, "Yeah, I'm fine. What's, what's going on?" Nobody's ever asked me that you know normally I walk--these are the greatest peoples, the military, the secret service they're the greatest people right—[applause]—but they don't ever say, "Sir, are you okay?" And I could see he was like troubled he likes me. You know? Then I walk another few feet, "Sir. I hope you're, okay, sir?" I said, "What the hell's going on?" [laughter] And then they said I had a massive heart attack, nothing to joke about, but they said I had a massive heart attack. I had a heart attack, and it wasn't true. They knew it wasn't true. They were with me. If you had a heart attack, you don't leave the hospital shortly after you get there.

You stay in the hospital for a little while, like about six weeks maybe. So, we had the people call doesn't mean anything because they're totally corrupt people, and they said it's untrue, so they brought it down from a massive, unbelievable heart attack. You know it's very dangerous for them to do cause the world believe it or not, the rest of the world and the leaders like and respect your President. We don't want to hear this and I like them—[applause]—it's very sad.

So that instead, they brought it down a notch. They said he went into the hospital and it's true I didn't wear a tie. Why would I wear a tie if the first thing they do is say, "Take off your shirt, sir, and show us that gorgeous chest." [laughter]

So, we oughta [garbled]. We've never seen a chest quite like it [laughter]. No but seriously, why would I put on? I mean I put the tie on and then were there in 20 minutes. I take it off for the physical, but they said he wasn't wearing a tie, which is pretty unusual for me honestly, I should have worn to tie. Maybe it's not their fault, you never apologize, but they said he wasn't wearing a tie.

This is a sign of a massive heart attack [laughter]. But we called up and our people did a good job. Screaming, "He's fine. There was nothing happened." They didn't believe it. They brought it down to tremendous chest pains, he had chest pains. One of them said there were tremendous, ah [sic] tremendous, the only one that didn't know it was me, I'm the only one. And then they said like a little bit later he's staying over in the hospital, but they knew I came back.

They were with me [laughter]. They were with me, they saw me get into the car, they saw us leave and they said I stayed at the great Walter Reed Hospital. So, we said no the chest pains aren't true, but they kept on reporting it. We couldn't get 'em to stop because they're corrupt, crooked and we don't have freedom of the press. We have a very dishonest press. We have a very dishonest press. [booing]

So, then on Monday I flew to Texas, the great state of Texas, and I opened up an Apple computer plant. They make the new beautiful Mac whatever and I met with Tim Cook and did lots of work and it's a long flight and I got back many hours later. It was late at night, and I said you know what I just set a record because yesterday or the day before they said I had a massive heart attack and now, a day later, I'm travelling to Texas to open up this big plant.

I don't know not too many people have ever done that one before. So, I just want to tell you that so much, as an example, we had a great two weeks watching these crooked politicians, not giving us due process not giving us lawyers not giving us the right to speak and destroying their witnesses, it fell apart. Those were their witnesses. We weren't allowed any rights we had for the first time in the history of our country. We had virtually no rights no due process and, despite that, we won, but if you read the crooked New York Times, if you read The Washington Post, which is just a horrible paper, you know we don't have it anywhere in D.C. anymore.

We don't deliver it, we don't give it we used to buy it, we don't do it and in fact I ended it in the nation because I want them to get correct news, not fake news but they're bad people. So, what happens? What happens? Is, we go out, we win for the people, we keep winning. We won these last two weeks so solidly, but if you pick up the New York Times, if you pick up this crazy Washington Post, you would have no idea we won, but you know who knew it? The people knew it and that's why and that's why they don't want to have this. They don't want to see it go on. It probably will because the people are nuts they're nuts, and I really think probably it's a good thing for us as a party because I think it's going to just walk us right through that election, which is going to take place already in western UA [garbled].

So, we're thrilled to be joined tonight by many terrific Republican leaders and I want to just have 'EM run up on the stage, but their stars and their warriors just like those three guys we helped out. These are warriors in a different way, but they're up there and they're fighting for your President and they're fighting for your country and they love the state of Florida.

Congressman Matt Gaetz, come on up, Matt. A man I just watched last night on television. He was fantastic. Congressman Michael Waltz. Come on up, Michael—[applause]—get up here. Billy Posey, a great guy and a great fighter. Billy come up. Come up, Billy. Gus Bilirakis, guys come on up guys and a man who is an incredibly brave guy, a friend of mine. Somebody that's done a fantastic job, loves his state, Brian Mast. Brian. [applause]

I want to introduce attorney general and a friend of all of ours who ran a great campaign won easily, despite a lot of crooked stuff, going on with those voting machines, folks, a lot of bad stuff going on with those voting machines, Attorney General Ashley Moody come on up, Ashley—[applause]—and by the way, a friend of mine, a great woman, a great person, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi—[applause]—come up Pam. Come up, Pam.

Florida, CFO Jimmy Patronis. Jimmy come up. And Lieutenant Governor and somebody that really has become a star in this state, Jeanette Nunez come up, Jeanette [applause]. Incredible people. And somebody that's one of the most popular governors anywhere in the country—[applause]—and—[applause]—true. He better not be more popular in Florida than me, I'm never going to talk, but here's a quick story. Wait, wait, here's a quick one. Here's a quick story. [applause]

True. But here's a quick story. I shouldn't say it cause, ya [sic] know, I don't want to say this but what the hell, right. So, you know, Ron's been a friend of mine for a long time. He was a congressman. Did an incredible job always protecting me from the Russia witch hunt beyond [garbled], with these guys, with Matt and everybody, he'd be on there. And I always thought Ron was a little heavy, right? I did [laughter]. I thought he was a little overweight. That's okay, we all have our problems, didn't matter. But people liked him. He ran an incredible race, remember that was an incredible race. And then he ran against the Democrat. Who is supposed to be unbeatable. He got beaten badly and, and now this is one of the most popular governors, but I always thought Ron was a little bit heavy and then one day I'm with him and I pat him on the shoulder, and I go, "Whoa, that's strong! That's a lot of muscle there." My hand didn't sink in like it does with a lot of people, and then I see him without a shirt one day and this guy is strong and he's not fat.

That's all power. That's all muscle. I want to tell you that, and I said Ron you're one of the few I say it to don't walk around with a jacket all the time, take it off. People are going to see the real Ron, but he's a great guy he's a tough guy, he's a brilliant guy, and he's our governor and I'm very proud. When we got involved with Ron, a lot of people were saying, "Do you think he can make it?" I said, "He's going to make it because he's a champ, he's a winner," and I want you to say a few words, Ron. Thank you.

Governor Ron DeSantis. Thank you. Great to be with you all, and let me just say, Mr. President, given your change of registration welcome home to Florida—[applause]—and why not come to Florida, we have one of the lowest tax burdens of any state in the country [applause]. You see some of these states that are going bankrupt. We have over a $5 billion in reserves with our budget—[applause]—and I see some of these cities and states with lawlessness.

When I came into office, I was proud to sign a bill banning sanctuary cities in the state of Florida [applause]. With your support, we are in the process of eliminating Common Core—[applause]—and as soon as I came into office, I was able to replace on our state supreme court three liberal justices with three conservative constitutionalists—[applause]—and I got to thank the President for his support of Florida. I mean I'm kind of excited that he's here, but I tell you I'm really excited to have Melania as a Florida resident [applause]. I think in Florida we're lucky to have my beautiful wife to be, I think, the best first lady of all the 50 states, I'm just saying, but now not only do we have Casey, who does a great job, but we also have Melania as a Florida resident. So, we're really lucky in that regard in Florida, but let me tell you about the President.

When we had a hurricane hit northwest Florida, a lot of people had forgotten about that. Those folks were really, really in dire straits. I went up to the Oval Office and even though a lot of people told them "Don't do anything just let it go," he was right there standing behind the people of northwest Florida.

He has helped rejuvenate that area, he saved Tyndall Air Force base it's going to come back bigger than ever, very important for our military.

When we were trying to get Floridians access to cheaper prescription drugs, we had an avenue to let people buy 'em [sic] in Canada cause it's about a third of the price a lot of times and everyone said, "No, you can't do it. You can't do it." I went out and met with the President. He said, "No, no, no, we're doing it," and so they're in the process of putting that through right now.

President Trump has stood with our communities in south Florida. Cuban Americans, Venezuelan Americans, to stand for freedom—[applause]—in this hemisphere and stand against the dictatorships in places like Caracas and Havana, and the President has stood we're one of the most military and veteran friendly states in the country.

He has stood by our veterans and he has stood by our military. And so, our success in Florida, obviously, we've got a lot of great people in this state, but we have a President who not only understands Florida. He supports what we're doing here. I got him bug him now about maybe locating the Space Command in Florida—[applause]—at some point.

Um, I know the Air Force doesn't want it, but you know he makes his own decisions as we've seen so, so, thank you, Mr. President, for being a good friend to Florida, and God bless you. God bless Florida, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you. [cheers and applause]

The President. [The President shakes hands with members onstage as they exit.]

Great people and I'll say, thanks to Republican policies, we have the hottest economy anywhere in the world that it's not even close. Unemployment has reached its lowest level in more than 51 years. In the last 12 months, Florida has seen the second largest payroll increase of any state in the nation. People are making money, African-American unemployment has again just reached its lowest rate ever recorded in the history of our country. [applause]

Hispanic American and Asian American unemployment have also recently achieved their lowest levels at any time in the history of our country. African American poverty has reached an all-time historic low [applause]. Wages are rising fast, and blue-collar Florida workers saw their wages grow nearly 4.5 percent in just the last 12 months.

People are finally starting to see, for 21 years they were going backwards. People would work--21 years ago when I was running so that's twenty-four years ago. People would have a tre-tremendous problems. They would make more money many, many years ago decades ago. Then they were making three years ago, and they'd have two and three jobs.

That's not happening anymore. You can go and choose your job if you don't like what you're doing, if you don't like, if you're not having a good time getting up in the morning, all you do is find a new job and you'll get more money, most likely. You've never been so suc [sic]. You have never been successful like you've been right now.

Never, never even close, and this state has never had this success and by the way you had a great governor previous to Ron, Rick Scott who's now your senator, he's fantastic. And Marco Rubio a great guy, we have two great guys, Marco and Rick, two great guys. They love this state. The median income under President Bush rose four hundred dollars over an eight-year period, now think of this. So, eight years four hundred dollars under President Obama, it rose nine hundred and seventy-five dollars over an eight-year period. So, you have four hundred eight-years, nine seventy-five eight-years and under Trump in less than three years it rose $5,000 [applause]. But, but that's $5,000, but now you can add to the five thousand from tax cuts, regulatory cuts and energy savings.

You know we're the number one in the world. We can add another $5,000. So, it's four hundred dollars, it's 975. Eight years, eight years, and less than three years $10,000 median income, nobody's going to beat that, nobody's going to beat that and we're going to keep it going. We have tremendous untapped potential.

We ended the last administration's war on American energy. The United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world [applause]. The Democrats want to close it up. I don't know what they're going to use I guess little, tiny windmills, they don't like the big ones. They kill too many birds and we're reversing decades of ruinous trade policies that demolished one in four and the number is actually now greater than that. When they look back Florida manufacturing jobs, remember you need a magic wand, you're never going to bring back. That was President Obama. You need a magic wand after the twin disasters of NAFTA horrible. One of the worst trade deals ever made, and China's entrance into the WTO, the World Trade Organization. For years, bought and paid for politicians took money from special interests to ship your jobs to other countries.

Their campaign coffers got full, and the lives of hardworking Americans were destroyed. You know what happened, all these companies left. They left you with the jobs. They left you with nothing, but you're having the greatest year in Florida, you're having the greatest year in the country that we've ever had before. [applause]

A doctor please, doctor in the house? Doctor in the house, please, thank you. Thank you very much. Are you, okay? [The President points to a crowd member.] You look like a tough guy to me I'll tell you. Thank you. Get a little water, get him a little water, or something. You know, in the old days we used to share water. Today that doesn't happen so much no, remember we'd share.

But our administration has done things that people haven't seen for a long time, maybe ever no more putting our country second, third, twentieth, thirtieth, we put America first now we put it first. Thanks to our steel towers, steel mills are now firing back up across our nation they're doing fantastically well, including a brand new $240 million investment in Polk County good place, Florida, Polk County.

We're replacing the NAFTA catastrophe. If Nancy Pelosi will ever sign it—[booing]—and send it we're waiting for months, no U.S. embassy, a U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, an incredible agreement, everybody wants it. The Democrats want it. She doesn't want to give the people of our country a victory. So, I don't know. Maybe she'll put it all she has to do is move it forward, every one's going to vote for it a lot of people, but it's one of the greatest deals ever and you know at a certain point, Canada and Mexico they've been waiting for many months.

They're going to say, you know what let's forget about it, she got to sign it, everybody wants it. She's got to put our country first got to put our country first, because it's a tremendous win for Florida farmers and all farmers, for growers and ranchers from all over our country. Yet she and the Democrats they just have done nothing they're doing nothing, folks. They're doing nothing, oh it's a terrible thing, it's a terrible thing. So, Congresswoman Mucarsel-Powell, where is she, is she here? I'd love to see her.

And Congresswoman Shalala? You know the—[booing]—I know her well, New York they're here in Florida, for you got to get Nancy to put it out. Congresswomen just get her to put it up, Nancy's on track to go down as the single worst and least productive Speaker of the house in the history of our country. [applause]

Before my election, our leaders used the great American middle class as a piggy bank to fund their delusional global projects. It's all over the globe. Remember this, I'm President of the United States, I'm not President of the world. They decimated American manufacturing to promote economic growth in foreign countries.

They used our military to defend immensely wealthy nations, subsidizing their welfare states with your money. They spent trillions and trillions of dollars on wars in the Middle East. By the way you see what's happening, we're winning and pulling them back and pulling them back a lot of false reporting. Today they said, we are doing great, we defeated ISIS just so you understand that we defeated 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate, but when we see them forming, we go in and get 'em our military is unsurpassed, but they did this while our cities at home fell into decay and disrepair, we spent $8 trillion in the Middle East and what we want to fix a road or a highway or a school. It's not easy to get the money, but we're getting it done anyway. After years of rebuilding other nations, we are finally rebuilding our nation. It's about time. [cheers and applause]

We are finally putting America. First. Past leaders transform faraway nations into blood-soaked war zones. Then they demanded that Americans accept unlimited migration from those same terror afflicted regions. We don't want to do that [booing]. We don't want to do that and we're not doing that. As President, I will not allow our immigration system to be used against us. I will not allow political correctness to put our families in danger and our communities at risk. We won't do it. [applause]

To protect our people from these great threats abroad. I implemented the travel ban and I just heard today by the fake news that the travel ban failed in court, but it didn't it won in the Supreme Court. They said it failed and they said that, but you know what they meant in an earlier court, it lost.

They didn't say that it won at the Supreme Court. But how is that won? He, they said he lost in court on the travel ban and that's right in the early court and then I lost at the appellate division. And then I won at the United States Supreme Court. So, we have a travel ban, but they didn't say they didn't say that—[applause]—they forgot to tell you the last part, so we're keeping terrorists, we're keeping criminals and violent extremists the hell out of our country, we're keeping 'em out and we're doing great on the border.

We're doing great on the border or no issue have Democrat politicians become more dangerous than immigration. The Democratic Party wants open borders, which is a betrayal of every mother and father—[booing]—who wants deadly drugs to be kept out of their community. They want open borders. I mean figure this one.

They want sanctuary cities, let the criminals go in, they want open borders, let everybody pour into our country, no matter who they are, and they want one other thing higher taxes. I don't understand it. You know all my life. I grew up. I'd be watching, and I always had this great interest in politics, fortunately for you, but I always had this great interest and I'd say, "Gee, you can lower taxes. That's great! That's good!"

The Democrats want to raise taxes, have open borders and have sanctuary cities. To me, I don't think that plays about what the heck do I know. They want to raise your taxes and the threat is to every child whose school is under siege from these horrible gangs that they would allow in. Like MS-13, we have taken thousands and thousands of MS-13 gang members, the hell out of our country and brought them back to where they came from. [applause]

In the Republican Party we believe that all Americans, including millions of wonderful legal immigrants, are entitled to an immigration system that puts their needs first. We want to come first, we want to let people in you know the big door that I used to talk--we want a big door, but people have to come in legally and they have to come in through merit have to come in through—[applause]—but thanks to our tireless efforts to secure the border, Border Patrol, ICE, law enforcement, incredible people, illegal crossings are down 70 percent since May. And the wall is going up faster than anybody ever would have thought and that wasn't easy getting that it wasn't easy. [applause]

You had a whole party. The Democrats would give me anything any money didn't matter billions and billions for anything except the wall. Even though five years ago they all wanted the wall, the only reason they didn't want the wall is because I wanted it and I made a terrible mistake. I never admit it, they always say I never apologize for a mistake, but I did, I should have said we will not build a wall and they would have demanded that we build a wall, right? If I would have said we're never going to build a wall, they would have said, "We're gonna build a wall." So, I made a mistake, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?

And we're removing illegal border crossers from Central America at a pace that's never been done before. During my first two years in office--are you okay? [The President points to a crowd member.] Okay. Doctor, please. Doctor? Thank you. Thank you, he's strong. Thank you very much. Doctor, thank you. Thank you, fellas, great. [applause]

Don't forget, these people have been standing for like two and a half days. It's a lot. That's a lot! Thank you! You go ahead, come on back if you're feeling well, okay. That's the man I asked the question to before and he gave me a good answer. You come on back when he's feeling, yeah go ahead, fellas. You come back when you're feeling better. Okay. Come back. Tough guy. Thank you. [applause] That's great. That's great. Thank you, firefighters. Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause]

What a great job you're right on the ball, people, thank you, bring him back as soon as he feels good. During my first two years in office, Border Patrol sees 7,000 more pounds of deadly drugs than in the last two years of the Obama administration. Seizures of heroin were up 40 percent. The far-left embrace of sanctuary cities demonstrates their scorn and disdain for everyday Americans.

Sanctuary cities have adopted a policy now of lawless anarchy aimed at innocent civilians. They deliberately release dangerous criminals onto our streets out of our jails. It's crazy, republicans believe our cities should be sanctuaries for law abiding Americans not for criminal aliens [applause]. In the Democrat Presidential debate, every single Democrat candidate raised their hand and pledged to give illegal aliens free healthcare, courtesy of you, the American taxpayer. [booing]

They all raised their hand. I couldn't believe it. I will never allow Democrats in Washington to take away your health care and give it to illegal immigrants [applause]. The Democrat Party is determined to launch a government takeover of health care that would take away your doctor, eviscerate Medicare and put every single senior citizen at risk.

Republicans will always safeguard Medicare for our cherished seniors [applause]. Always. We will strongly protect patients with preexisting conditions, and we will protect your preexisting physicians, how about that. Which the Democrats are not going to be doing.

Thanks to our tireless effort to lower the price of prescription drugs. Drug prices have declined in our country for the first time in more than 50 years. Think of that, but as we're working closely with your governor to bring drug prices down even more here in Florida, and other states if they want it and they all will want it. And it's what Ron said, we're allowing your state to buy the identical drug oftentimes made in the same factory from other countries where the prices are 50, 60 and 70 percent lower.

Can you imagine this? That's because our system is all screwed up. So, I say go to Canada, buy 'em and it'll change watch what happens, watch what happens with the drugs, but I'm giving Florida and I'm giving some other states we're giving Florida, though the right to go and buy at a much lower price—[applause]—virtually every top Democrat also supports late term abortion ripping babies straight from the mother's womb right up until the moment of birth. [booing]

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, socialism and blatant corruption. The Republican Party is the party of the American worker, the American family, the American dream and remember this the Republican Party is the party of Abraham Lincoln. We forget. Abraham Lincoln, and I've always heard that the most important thing a President can do is the appointment of judges. I say maybe the military, because without the military we're not so interested in judges, right. So, I think maybe the military, but we've done a great job with that totally rebuild.

But we have appointed more than one hundred and sixty federal judges, including Court of Appeal judges to interpret the Constitution as written and we'll soon have one hundred and eighty-two, which will be a record. We are strongly protecting our environment because we want America to have the cleanest air and the cleanest water anywhere on earth.

Here in Florida, just as I promised, we have delivered over a half a billion dollars to fix Lake Okeechobee—[applause]—remember that I kept saying we're going to do it. Gave you actually much more than $500 million and we've had it fixed. We fixed the Herbert Hoover Dike, and we restored the ecosystems in the Florida Everglades. It's been incredible and we did that altogether. They've been talking about doing it for years. They didn't do anything, it's all almost finished. It's finished in some cases, but almost finished and all the money has been gotten for Florida.

I also signed legislation authorizing $100 million to fight red tide and other toxic algae that damages our coastal areas—[applause]—and now Ron's got the money that he wants. So, he'll get it straightened out, a hundred million dollars. Together we will preserve Florida's majestic natural beauty for every generation to come. And that's what we're doing. We're investing over $2 trillion. Think of it. It would be up to two and a half trillion dollars in our military, including nearly $200 million for military installations from Eglin Air Force Base on the panhandle.

I love that panhandle, wow, remember during the election that great election night, right, election night 2016 we're out there remember that, was that one of the greatest evenings ever, right—[applause]—and Florida was coming inside of even with doing well a little ahead of schedule and doing well in Florida was the first really big state and we're going along and everything's all right, we're pretty even with crooked Hillary, and then all of a sudden, we hit a thing called the Panhandle.

It was like a rocket ship the panhandle and we take care of the panhandle. We love the panhandle. We also spend a lot of money on McDill Air Force Base in Tampa a lot in Panama City, we're building big, beautiful ships for our incredible coast guard what they've done for your hurricanes and in the case of Texas, Puerto Rico.

This state will also be playing a critical role in the sixth branch of the U.S. military. The Space Force [applause]. The Democrats are trying to stop it, they're trying to stop it, but I think we're in pretty good shape. We need it. That's the new frontier. You look at China, you look at Russia, you look at some of these countries, it's about space. We have to have it we're behind and we don't want to be behind we'll never be behind again, like that, Space Force. Brand new. I withdrew from the horrible one sided Iran nuclear deal, I recognize Israel's true capital and open the American embassy in Jerusalem—[cheers and applause]—and we have recognized Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights have been trying to get that done for 52 years, they've been working on Jerusalem and the embassy and the capital. For many, many Presidents, everybody said we're going to do it during the campaign. We're going to do it, we're going to do it never got done. In fact, we have a man with us tonight, the ambassador to Israel, Ambassador David Friedman. [applause]

Did I do a good job for Israel, David? Great ambassador, great success story. Here in the Western Hemisphere, we are confronting the brutal menace of communism and socialism. We are proudly supporting the great people of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua in their righteous struggle for freedom. You know that [applause]. And to those who would try to impose the horrors of socialism on our country, I say again tonight America will never be a socialist country. [cheers and applause]

This election is a choice between turning back to the path of American decline, we were declining. We were not respected. I can tell you that we were not respected. Everybody took advantage of our country and you see what's happening. We were for sale. This gentleman just said we were for sale, we're not for sale anymore—[applause]— but now we're continuing forward to a future of American strength and dominance. If you look at the dominance, look at what we're doing nobody ever thought they were going to see this, and American prosperity. It's a choice between whether our country will be ruled by the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and you've been watching. You know what I'm talking about. You think it's easy they've been entrenched for a long time, some very bad, some very bad people or whether we will be ruled by the American people. [applause]

For years and 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 incredible people of Florida. Thank you very much [applause]. 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. They don't want to approve loopholes. They don't want to approve anything. They want people to pour into our country, and many of those people are very bad people. With the help of our governor and our great congressmen and senators, we will fight to give school choice to every child in America who needs it [applause].

We will enact trade deals they're coming along great. We just finished our big deal with Japan. We just did our deal with South Korea. They were so bad, those deals--and we made them into great deals, fair deals and if they don't want to make the deals, I say, that's, okay, we're just going to tariff your product that pours into our country like they do to us, but we are encouraging 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 within 10 years. Can you believe it? We can do that. We now have the science to do it. And it could have been started before my administration, but they didn't do that, but I did it think of that who would have thought that was possible when they told me about that a year and a half ago, I said I didn't know that and the doctors came in, they said no, that's what we can do we're going to end the AIDS epidemic within 10 years. Think of that.

We will chart a new era of discovery in space and someday soon we will land an American astronaut on the surface of Mars. That's what we're shooting for [applause]. NASA is doing a great job and we have some private rich guys they love rocket ships. So, we say, go ahead, Elon, we say, go ahead, Elon, play your games. Go ahead. You can use our property just pay us some nice rent, please.

We will defend privacy, free speech, free assembly, 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 beautiful country as one America. We support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

We stand with the incredible heroes of law enforcement—[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. We believe that children should be taught to love our country, honor our history and to always respect our great American flag—[applause]—and we will always live by the words, and nobody will take those words away like they try to do with so many things.

Nobody of our national motto--In God, We Trust—[applause]—nobody's taking it away. We stand on the shoulders of American Patriots who cross the oceans, settled the continent, tame the wilderness, revolutionized industry, pioneered science, won two World Wars, defeated fascism and communism, landed men on the moon and made America the greatest nation in the history of the world and we are making it greater than ever before. [cheers and applause]

Proud citizen, like you, helped build this country and together we are taking back our country and we're taking it back from some very bad people. 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. [applause]

We are one movement, one people, one family and one glorious nation, under God [applause]. Our beautiful America is thriving like never before and, ladies and gentlemen, the best is yet to come. [applause]

True. True. We will together make America wealthy again. That's happening. We will make America strong again. That's happened. We will make America proud again. That's happening and has happened. We will make America safe again, and we will make America great again. Thank you, Florida. Thank you very much. [cheers and applause]

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