Remarks at a "Make America Great Again" Rally in Washington Township, Michigan

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Hello Michigan, hello Michigan! I love this state and I love the people of this state and thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

You know you may have heard I was invited to another event tonight--the White House Correspondents Dinner. [booing]

But I'd much rather be in Washington, Michigan than in Washington DC right now that I could tell you. Great people. Thank you for that incredible support. And by the way, if you want to see a lot of people go outside. We could have filled this place up probably five or six times. You see what's going on. Thank you. This is a beautiful building but I said couldn't you have gotten one larger? That would be nice right? But you know the expression "you're inside so you made it" good real estate good job.

Tonight we're especially honored to be joined by your really great friend of mine, and a great Attorney General, the next governor of Michigan, Bill Schuette. Where's Bill, where's Bill? All right Bill whatever the hell he is. Bill Schuette.

We also welcome members of Congress Paul Mitchel, Jack Burkman, and John Mullin, where are they? Thank you fellas. These are great people. And I want to thank Chris McNally and the Total Sports Park team for hosting us tonight thank you. [applause]

I wish you could have given us a larger arena but what are you gonna do right? Thank you fellas.

Finally we have to thank a very special person in all of our lives because he shouted out Melania, that's true, that's true, because our amazing chairwoman the Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel--she's done some job, and if you remember she ran the state of Michigan and who won the state of Michigan after decades? [applause]

I remember that night you know been a long time since the Republicans won Michigan and they said "Donald Trump has won the state of Michigan remember that? [applause]

And we won a lot of other states. Also that was some night, so I want to thank Ronna for the great job that she really has done. She's done it right from the--literally right from the beginning in fact when we needed somebody over at the RNC I said get that woman that ran Michigan.

We need to elect more Republicans so we can protect our cities, defend our borders, grow our economy, and continue to make America great again. [applause]

And that's what we're doing we're doing, we're doing some job, and we're all doing it together but you see what's happening with regulations with massive tax cuts with the judges we're appointing--we're appointing judges like I guess never before has anything happened like what we're doing on great conservative Republican judges. We're setting records and by the time we finish I think we will have the all-time record. You have no idea how important that is. And then of course we have Justice Gorsuch who's been fantastic. He has been fantastic. Everyone here tonight is united by the same timeless American values. We defend our Constitution. We support the rule of law, and we support the heroes of law enforcement. [applause]

We have pride in our history and respect for our great American flag. [applause]

We defend our flag and we honor our flag, and if others honored our flag they'd be a lot better off wouldn't they? Wouldn't they be a lot better off? We put our hands on our hearts for the pledge of allegiance, and we do that proudly. And we stand for the national anthem. [applause]

We believe that a strong nation must have strong borders. [applause]

CROWD: Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall!

THE PRESIDENT: Are you watching that mess that's going on right now with the caravan coming up? [booing]

Are you watching this? And our laws are so weak. They're so pathetic, given to us by Democrats, there's so pathetic. [booing]

Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer--and let me tell you we've gotten Mexico to work with us on stopping a lot of what's pouring in, but we have the worst laws anywhere in the world. We don't have borders. We're gonna build the wall. We're getting it. We've already started. I don't know if you've seen. You know it's funny--so San Diego, they're being just overrun. Great place, but they're being overrun by people pouring in so they're begging us for a wall.

So we have the money. It's all funded in San Diego and those people really want it, and I said let's not do it there let's let them put pressure on Governor Jerry Brown. Moonbeam--Moonbeam. So we started the wall and it's being built in San Diego--beautiful job--they're doing a great job. And they said you know we stopped that wall all the people in San Diego is gonna put a lot of pressure. And I said well let's see about that. So I said how much would it cost to stop the wall. "Sir it will cost seven million in extras." I can't pay the extras, I hate extras. Right so we're building the wall but San Diego--San Diego wants the wall that's going up and honestly, seriously they would have put a lot of pressure in California if you look at what's going on with sanctuary cities--now all over California especially. California-- the home of sanctuary cities--the home of sanctuary cities. But do you see what's going on where areas, big areas --they don't want sanctuary cities they want to be safe. They don't them. So we've started--we have 1.6 billion dollars and this last budget--just so you understand we had to fund our military folks. We got-- we got seven hundred-- our military was depleted, and it was in trouble. And now we're ordering brand new airplanes. We're ordering brand new everything. We got seven hundred billion dollars approved and next year we got seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars approved for our military. We had to do it. We had to do it. [applause]

And General Mad Dog Mattis could not be happier, that I'll tell ya, could not be happier. I said to him yesterday I said, "General do you think we really needed this much?"

"We needed it, Sir, we needed it. We really did we needed it."

So by doing that the Democrats don't care about our military. They don't--they don't care and they don't care about our borders , and I don't think they care much about crime because if you look at it MS-13--they pour through--everybody pours through, and they want it. They want it.

And by the way we are getting rid of MS-13 in record numbers. Okay record-numbers. [applause]

The liberal politicians who support criminal aliens, and they support them over--far over--American citizens. Nancy Pelosi and her gang--they've got to be voted out of office, they've got to be voted out of office. [applause]

And you have a senator in Michigan, Senator Debbie Stabenow. [booing]

She voted against Kate's Law. She voted against tax cuts. She votes against borders. She wants people to flow into the country, and you people just keep putting her back again and again and again. [booing]

It's your fault, so you got to get to the poll. And we have some great people running--the primary is going to be over with soon, but we have some great people and honestly if you want the borders to be secure if you want to keep those big tax--how have you done with the tax cuts by the way? OK? [applause]

And not only the tax cuts. The jobs that have been created. The jobs--unemployment let me tell you, our country is doing great. You know the stock market which is not really the all-time indicator, because the country is actually doing much better than the stock market--but the stock market is up almost 35 percent since the election. But the country's doing actually even better though. [applause]

You know what bothers the stock market? I would have been up 60% but I have to do things. You know what I have to do? I can't let other countries take advantage of us, okay? I can't. So we're doing trade deals and a lot of these folks in Washington--"please don't do that! " I said wait a minute we have a horrible deal on this one on that one I won't even mention.

CROWD MEMBER: We love you Trump!

THE PRESIDENT: I love you too. [applause]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: So we have to renegotiate these deals. If you look at China, last year with China--and look he's been of great help. President Xi. He's a friend of mine but he likes China, I like the USA but he's a friend of mine. But you know what he's been a great help on the border with North Korea and a lot of good things are happening there. A lot of good things. [applause]

I'm not gonna give you what's going to actually happen because we don't really know, but I'll tell you one thing. We're not playing games and I remember you know-- it was very rough three four months ago.

CROWD: Nobel! Nobel! Nobel!

THE PRESIDENT: That's very nice thank you. That's very nice. Nobel. I just want to get the job done. So, if we would've--if we would've said where we are today from three of four months ago--remember what they were saying? "He's going to get us into nuclear war," they were saying. No, strength is going to keep us out of nuclear war, not going to get us in. [applause]

So we're doing very well. I spoke to the president this morning of South Korea for a long time. They just had a very good meeting. He gives us tremendous cre--he gives us all the credit. I mean he--as president Moon of South Korea.

You know it started with the Olympics because you know frankly the Olympics was not going to have a lot of people. And all of a sudden North Korea called in and said "You know we'd love to participate in the Olympics." Everyone said "excuse me?" But that was a good thing, it was a great thing. And they went from having a real potential disaster. You know they worked on it for 15 years to make it great. And they did a great job. South Korea did a great job but they didn't have people. Who's going to go? All of a sudden they had a tremendous Olympics. Very very successful.

And we are doing things that are good. I think we'll have a meeting over the next three of four weeks. It'll be a very important meeting .The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula of North Korea. De-nuke. De-nuke. And we'll see how it goes. And again, whatever happens happens. Look--I may go in and it might not work out. Then I leave.

I will not be a John Kerry who makes that horrible Iran Deal. Horrible. One of the worst deals--I mean how do you make a deal like that? 150 billion dollars. 1.8 billion dollars in cash--you know what that is? And you know what they got? They got nothing. They got nothing. So we're gonna have hopefully a very successful negotiation over the next three or four weeks and uh--we'll be doing the world a big favor. We'll be doing the world a big favor. Let's see how it goes. I think we'll do fine. I think we'll do just fine. [applause]

I had one of the fake news groups this morning. [booing]

Now they were saying, "What do you think of President Trump had to do with it?" I'll tell you what, like how about everything. [applause]

And even President Moon says that and he's been great and--and I'll tell you what. It's going to be an interesting period of time we had an interesting thing happen over the last few days.

Senator John Tester of a really great place, Montana who voted by the way in favor of sanctuary cities, who's weakened the border, didn't vote for tax cuts. He took a gentleman who is a truly high-quality human being and what they said about him--what they said about this great American doctor Ronnie Jackson. An admiral in the Navy. He served three presidents. President Obama said he was fantastic, President Bush said he was fantastic, I say he's fantasti-- this is a high quality individual like they would love in Montana. And Tester started throwing out things that he's heard. Well I know things about Tester that I could say too. [applause]

And if I said 'em, he'd never be elected again. [applause]

And it was said because I watched Doctor Jackson--Admiral--Admiral Jackson. Both a doctor and an admiral. High quality. But I watched him and I suggested it because we're taking care of our vets. You know we've done a great job with our vets. We have accountability approved. [applause]

We're getting choice approved.

And I pulled it because I didn't like the choice . .. the choice wasn't good enough. What they were going to--I could've had it already. We could've had it in the last budget but it wasn't good enough. We're getting choice which is a big deal. That's gonna be game changing. And by the way, I have five great people that wanna run the VA. We have great people but I'll tell you what John Tester did to this man is a disgrace.

Admiral Jackson started studying and he was working so hard. I suggested it to him. You know he--war hero, a leader, a great - -you know he's a great admiral. A great, great guy. 50 years old and he started studying and then he started getting hit with vicious rumors. Vicious. And the Secret Service told me just coming in "Sir we checked out all of those things. Sir, they're not true. They're not true."

So they try and destroy a man. Well they're doing it with us. They're trying, their damndest but they're having a little--I want to thank by the way the House Intelligence Committee. They do it with us too. Russian collusion. You know, I guarantee you I'm tougher on Russia. Nobody ever thought--In fact, have you heard about the lawyer? For a year a woman lawyer she was like, "Oh I know nothing know nothing." Now all of a sudden she's supposedly is involved with government --You know why? If she did that because Putin and the group said, "You know this Trump is killing us. Why don't you say that you're involved with government so that we can go and make their life in the United States even more chaotic?" Look at what's happened. Look at how these politicians have fallen for this junk. Russian collusion, give me a break. [booing]

I'll--I'll tell you the only collusion is the Democrats colluded with the Russians and the Democrats colluded with lots of other people. Take a look at the intelligence agencies. And what about hey--and what about Comey? Did you watch him in the interviews? Uh--uh--uh. What about Comey? What about Comey? How about that? So Comey--how about this guy Comey? [booing]

He said the other night the fake dirty dossier. He said the other night on Fox. He said very strongly, "No, I didn't know that it was paid for by the Democrats and Hillary Clinton." He didn't know. He didn't know. [booing]

How about that? They start something based on a document that was paid for by the DNC and Hillary Clinton. [booing]

Honestly folks let me tell you. Let me tell you. It's a disgrace. We gotta get back down to business. It's a disgrace what's going on in our country and they did that--they did that to Admiral Jackson. They're doing it to a lot of people. Innuendo.

You know in the old days when the newspapers used to write they use to put names down. Today they say "Sources have said that President Trump…" They never say who the source is! They don't have the sources. The sources don't exist in many cases. They don't have sources, and the sources in many cases don't exist. These are very dishonest people. Many of them. They are very very dishonest people. [booing]

Fake news. Very dishonest. [booing]

But you watch Comey and you watch the way he lies. And then he's got the memos. I wonder when he wrote the memos right? And then he's got the memos and he puts them up. Watch the way he lies, it's the most incredible thing.

Do you remember John Lovitz? Do you remember? The liar. Well Comey's worse. Comey's a liar and a leaker. [applause]

You know, you know. I did you a great favor when I fired this guy. I tell you. I did you a great favor. [applause]

Because when you look at what was going on at the top of the FBI, it is a disgrace and everybody in this room understands it. The lovers, the two lovers right? Lisa--Lisa and Strzok. [booing]

Lisa and Peter. The two lovers. What they said what was going on--look at how many of those top officials were fired or removed and they should be out of here. And what about the guy that took 700,000 dollars for his wife's campaign? Nobody even talks about it. Nobody even talks about it. [booing]

I'll tell you what. I--I've been talking about it for a long time. And if our justice department was doing the right thing they'd be a lot tougher right now on those people because this tremendous crime and corruption on the other side. [applause]

We need to drain the swamp. [applause]

We need to vote against guys like John Tester that can destroy a man with innuendo. And we have to be very careful with the press. Because they do the same damn thing. [applause]

We love our country. We believe our citizens deserve a government that is loyal to them in return. For too long the loyalty of Michigan workers was repaid with pure and simple betrayal. You were betrayed. For decades you were dealt one devastating blow after another. Disastrous trade deals, which I'm straightening out, and I'm not saying - hey there may be a little pain for a little while but ultimately for my farmers--I love my farmers. They're great patriots. [applause]

Don't forget the farmers have been doing lousy for 15 years let's face it. If you look at a graph it's been like this. So when I say I'm negotiating NAFTA and if they don't make a fair deal I'm terminating NAFTA and I'll make a great deal. You're going to do much better. [applause]

Or when we take on China or the European Union which has tremendous blocks. It's very hard for us to sell stuff into the European Union. It was put there to take advantage of the United States okay? So when we do . . .

CROWD MEMBER: No more!

THE PRESIDENT: You're right, not anymore. We told them that yesterday actually I said the same words. Not anymore those days are over. But, we've gotta open up these markets. It's not fair. Don't forget with China and President Xi, when he was at Ma-a-Lago six months ago, I said to him, "Would you do me a favor? Would you take our cattle?" Because you remember in 2000 they wouldn't take our cattle for whatever reason. But they didn't take cattle. After short discussion he said "I will." So the cattle is now going to China. [applause]

And plenty of other things. And he said last week at a speech he's going to start opening up China but it's not enough. It's not enough when we lose 500 billion dollars a year and that's in a trade deficit when we lose hundreds of billions of dollars in intellectual property theft. Not only China but others. We have to stop it. We can't allow this to happen. So when a certain way I call people patriots because it's short-term you may have to take some problems. Long-term, you're going to be so happy. You're going to be so happy. We're going to get it opened up but we're not doing business with these other countries right? [applause]

With the European Union last year, you know it sounds so nice, the European Union. You know why--I mean they literally did like I said--they formed to take advantage of the United States and I don't blame them. You know what? I don't blame them. I don't blame President Xi. I don't blame Prime Minister Abe of Japan. I don't blame the heads of these countries for taking advantage of us. I blame past presidents and past leaders of our country. [applause]

I was in China and I was making a speech and I was saying how bad it is. How unfairly we're treated. And I'm in front of thousands of people from China. And I could see the moon was getting dark and I have President Xi over here and I realized I was going point after point how bad it is for us and how good it is for them. They became a major power since the World Trade Organization which is a horror show for us. Horrible. And I looked--and I looked at President Xi and he's the boss. He's the guy. I said, "But it's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's the fault of the representatives of the United States who allowed you to get away with it. I don't blame you." Right? Right? [applause]

I don't blame you and it went out and that's the way I feel about--I told Abe the other day. Prime minister, great guy. They send us millions of cars. We send them wheat. And they don't take it. They don't even want it. We send them cattle. You know what they do? They charge us 50% but we send them cattle. 35% on farm products but they don't take many because their farmers don't want it. So they're not taking your products but when they send their cars over, we charge them almost nothing.

Let me give you a great example it's so simple. China. So when they send a car into the United States of which they send many including parts and you people know something about the car industry because I'm bringing it back to this state of Michigan. [applause]

So--So I'm bringing it back. And you know Chrysler is moving back to Michigan from Mexico. We saw that some of you are beneficiaries of that one. Thousands of jobs--we have many many car companies. You see what's going on? Toyota and many companies are opening up in Michigan. The cars are coming back to Michigan. The plants are coming back. They're being expanded.

And by the way do you remember about six years ago--I wasn't even running and they gave me an award, the Republican of the Year. I guess they probably--maybe they knew what was going to happen I don't know. I wasn't running. Long time ago. And I made a speech in Michigan thanking them for the award saying how horrible - how did you let this happen? Were all of these plants closed, moved to Mexico, they build the cars in Mexico, they sell them across the border. No tax. We lose the jobs. We lose the taxes. We lose everything. How did anybody let this happen and guess what. Not happening any more folks. It's not happening. [applause]

So now they're moving back. [applause]

Now they're moving back but let me give you an example. So China. Great people by the way, great country great leaders. But when they sell a car into the United States they pay two and a half percent tax. When we sell a car into China number one they don't want it because they have barriers. So they won't take it. But if they took it it's a 25% tax okay? So think of it. So think of it. So they have a tax that's ten times higher. Now what they say is we don't want your cars, we have a barrier but if we take 'em it's 25%. So we're two and a half - 25 - so far it doesn't sound good. But what's really bad is they say we won't take your cars, we want you to build your factories in China and build you cars there. OK. Alright. But you know what? Why are they wrong? Because now we're doing that also okay? Build you factories here if you want to sell cars in the United States. [applause]

Let 'em build them in Michigan right? Michigan. And Ohio, and Pennsylvania, you see what's happening. You see what's happening. We're really coming back. And by the way ahead of schedule. You know, I've only been here for fifteen months. We have a lot of things happening.

There has been, and I don't say this hopefully in a braggadocious--I say it as a fact. There has been even some of these people back there that this one although they try like hell. They try. But nobody in the first year of office has done what we've done. It's not me it's we. We. [applause]

The first year regulations, tax cuts, judges. You look at what we've done. Nobody's done what we've done. And you know in fact just in coming over your great congressmen are in the back of the car. You know what the Soo Locks are? The Soo Locks? [applause]

Well the Soo Locks are going to hell you know that right. And we're going to get them fixed up. We're going to get them fixed. [applause]

And for the farmers, okay. It's going to get good. And we're going to let your guest workers come in because we're going to have strong borders but we have to have your workers come in. You know the unemployment picture is so good, it's so strong that we have to let people coming in. They're going to be guest works. They're going to come in they're going to work on your farms, we're going to have the H-2B's come in, we're gonna have a lot of things happening. But then they have to go out. Then they have to go out. [applause]

But we're going to let them in because you need them. You need them. In Wisconsin, I was very instrumental in getting Foxconn to come. Friend of mine, great guy fantastic, they make a lot of the Apple iPhones and a lot of--they make almost all of--I mean they are an incredible really an incredible company. They're building a fantastic plant and it's under construction now and they're going out and they're recruiting and they're getting people and they're doing it professionally. But we need people to be able to come into our country, do your jobs, help you on the farms, and then they go out. They get a leave. Guest workers, We're gonna take care of that guess workers. Don't we agree, we have to have them. We have to have them. After years of rebuilding other countries, we're finally going to rebuild our country. OK. It's about time. [applause]

Think of it think of it. I've been saying it but the number goes up and up and up. Remember this: we have spent seven trillion with a T. Trillion dollars in the Middle East. You know we have for it? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Now we've really wiped out ISIS. There's no military like we have [applause]

And now I've asked some of the richest countries in the world--sorry folks you got to pay for this you know we're tired we don't want to pay. And we'll work with them and we'll stop the trip to the Mediterranean for the enemies. We'll do lots of things. But we gotta come home, we're gonna let people there, we're gonna have those people pay, they gotta pay, they got so much money they don't know what to do with it they're rolling in money and nobody--I've been asking them by the way I've been asking--to give you a little story I gave it the other day but nobody reports it.

So you know I said we're going to move the embassy to Jerusalem right? Right? [applause]

So a month ago they come into my office with an order --"Sir I have an order." What's the order? "Sir we're going to build the embassy. I said where? "In Jerusalem sir." Okay, good. How much? "Sir, 1 billion dollars." I said whoa whoa. And you know I had the thing half signed, you got to see this. It's signed Donald and then it stopped and then I put a big X over the Donald. "1 billion dollar sir." I said wait a minute, we're gonna spend a billion dollars building a essentially a one-story building, we're gonna spend a billion--so I called my guy the Ambassador to Israel he's named David Friedman. [applause]

Oh you know him? He was one of the biggest, smartest lawyers. A deal lawyer, one of the biggest in New York. Represented me over the years he's just an incredible lawyer. And he loves Israel, he loves our country. But he does, he is very proud of Israel very important to him. And I said you know David let's see if you can make peace but part of it is--let's see about this so--I call him I say David I'm not spending a billion dollars on an embassy. No sir you don't have to. I said what do you mean? "I think I can do it for 150 thousand dollars." [applause]

I said what? I said 150,000 dollars? He said "yeah, we have a great sight. [?] we're going to buy a site. We have a great sight the best sight. It's got a building on it, and I can take a quarter of that building and I can spend a hundred and fifty thousand dollars sir and I can build a beautiful embassy and we can have it open sir in three months." [applause]

Big difference right? Big difference. So we went from a billion dollars to 150,000 dollars. And I took the liberty of saying "David if you spend a little more than a 150,000 that's okay." So we save a bit.

Now it's temporary and it's said but it's fine, it's nice, and we get it open. At a billion, except most of us really beautiful young ones up here won't even be around to see it. Here we get it open immediately and it's opening in like a month. You've been reading about it. [applause]

So the embassy but--but it's not that look. It's opening in a month. Now in--as you know in the UK in London we had the best site in all of London. The best site. Well some genius said, "We're gonna sell the site and then we're going to take the money and build a new embassy." That sounds good right but you have to have money left over if you do that right?

So they sold the site for like, I think, and I'll check the numbers, because they'll say, "Oh he misrepresented it" but these numbers are close enough they sold the site for like 250 million they think they're geniuses. They go out and they buy a horrible location and they build a new embassy. That's the good news, the bad news is that the embassy costs over a billion dollars.

So now what do we have? We have an embassy in a lousy location, and I was supposed to cut the ribbon. I didn't do the deal. It was started by Bush and Obama. It--it was a Bush Obama special, okay. [booing]

OK. But it could have been stopped by Obama, it would have been stopped by me. So they have listened--they have, I said "what kind of a deal is that?" You sold this great sight it's the best side in London literally the best sight. They were so happy they got two hundred and fifty million dollars or whatever. But they spent all of that money plus a lot more to build a new embassy in a lousy location. So I don't know folks, we need a whole new thinking here. We need a whole new thinking. We need a whole new thinking. We're going to finally put America first okay? [applause]

Since the election we've created more than three million jobs including 300,000 new jobs in manufacturing. We love manufacturing. [applause]

By the way, they wanted me to cut the ribbon on the new embassy and I was all set and then in the end I said "I'm not going. I don't want to cut it." I said I'm not cutting that ribbon." I said "I'm not going. Alright." Hey, hopefully we'll have many years of success with that embassy. OK.

In our country, jobs are booming and confidence is soaring we're at the top of the charts and they're talking about us--all over the world they're talking about this incredible success. And believe me, if I didn't get elected, if the opposition party which I call the obstructionist party they're obstructionist it's all they're good at. If they got elected they wouldn't have cut regulations, they wouldn't have cut taxes, you would have been down to a GDP that would have been negative. You would have had a negative GDP. And wait 'till you see over the coming quarters how good it's going to be and you see what's happening. Our companies are ready to soar. They're ready to soar. [applause]

Wages for the first time are rising at the fastest pace in many many years. 18, 19, 20, years and I tell you. I always would go around and I'd say to you strongly people have jobs. They made more money 21 years ago than they make today. And in some cases they have two and three jobs. Terrible. African-American unemployment has reached the lowest level in history. In history. [applause]

Hispanic unemployment - any Hispanics in the room? Nah, not so many, that's okay. And by the way, in all fairness, Kanye West gets it, he gets it. And he saw that. When he sees that African American unemployment is the lowest in history. You know people are watching, that's a very important thing he's done for his legacy. It's a very important thing.

But Hispanic unemployment, lowest level in history. Women, female unemployment. Lowest level in 18 years. [applause]

And wages are going up for the first time in many many years. It's great. As a result of our massive tax cuts, which by the way Debbie Stabenow voted against. [booing]

And if they get in, if the Democrats get in, they're going to take the tax cuts away and they're going to raise your taxes to a much higher level than you ever thought possible. That's what they want to do so they can give the money away.

Millions of Americans are receiving large bonuses and bigger paychecks than they've ever received because they have so much money that they didn't even know they were making. You see what's happened as of February 1^st, and right after the cuts the corporations gave massive bonuses and they continue.

Here in Michigan Chrysler handed out $2,000 bonuses to 60,000 workers and announced plans for a 1 billion dollar investment in Warren, creating a minimum of 2,500 jobs. [applause]

They're now leaving other countries and they're coming back to Michigan, remember I told you that five or six years ago. They're now coming back, and they're going to come back a lot faster than you've seen. And you know what's even more important than that? Leaving. Because we don't give them the incentive to leave anymore. They used to give them the incentive to leave. We're not giving them incentive, no, we're giving them incentive to stay and to pay our people. [applause]

But to protect our families we must secure our borders and the good thing about the caravan: people are watching. People are watching. You watch how horrible--they're coming in from Honduras. They're coming in from other places. They're taking this long trek up Mexico. We want we want Mexico to help us and we have to demand it, but Mexico's going to help us. But there's still hundreds of people that out of maybe 2,000--there's still hundreds of people. And our laws are so corrupt and so stupid they call them the dumbest immigration laws anywhere on earth. If a person puts their foot over the line we have to take them into our country. We have to register them. We then have to ask them a couple of questions, lawyers are telling them what to say, how unsafe they are, and once they say that, we have to let them go to come back to court in like a year. Only one problem: they don't come back, okay that's the end. Welcome to the United States.

This is the law and we have at the border the greatest people: the Border Patrol, the ICE agents. These are great people. These are great people. And the laws are so corrupt. They're so corrupt and you know one of the reasons they do it is because the Democrats actually feel, and they're probably right, that all of these people that are pouring across are going to vote for Democrats. They're not going to vote for Republicans. They're going vote no matter what we do. They're going to vote.

So there is a theory that--they do it for that they do it for a lot of reasons. A lot of times they don't even know what they're doing. They don't even know why they're doing it. But we have to have borders and we have to have them fast. And we need security, we need the wall, we're gonna have it all.

And again, that wall has started. We got 1.6 billion. We come up again on September 28th and if we don't get border security we'll have no choice. We'll close down the country because we need border security. [applause]

So we don't have a wall but a big portion's being built. A lot of it is being fixed. We have wall that wasn't wall. We have wall with big holes in it that's old, and a lot of it is being fixed right now. And we're putting up brand new gorgeous stuff. We're building new--as I told you in San Diego and other places--but we now want to do the big job so we're going to see what happens. But we have to have border security.

The one good thing: watch the caravan watch how sad and--and terrible it is. Including for those people because they come up and the crime that they inflict on themselves and that others inflict on them. It's a horrible dangerous journey for them. For them. And they come up because they know once they get here they can walk right into our country. We have the greatest people on earth and they can't do anything because the laws are corrupt. The laws are corrupt. So we have fought to secure our border but Democrats in Congress: Nancy Pelosi, Schumer. [booing]

They've opposed us at every stop and every step. They've opposed every effort to close the loopholes, to keep the violent criminals like MS-13 the hell out of our country and to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs which are pouring into our country.

And we've done a great job and the numbers are great but you know part of the problem is people are smart. And they see how ridiculous these laws are. They know if they can get anywhere near once they touch our ground it's called welcome to the United States. How crazy is it? How crazy are we to allow this? So I will tell you the Republicans are working hard. And Debbie Stabenow is one of the leaders for weak borders and letting people in so I don't know how she gets selected. [booing]

A vote for a Democrat in November is a vote for open borders and crime. It's very simple. It's also a vote for much higher taxes. It's also a vote for--be careful of your Second Amendment, okay. Be careful be careful of you Second Amendment if they get in.

The open border policies of the Democratic Party are not just wrong, they're dangerous and they're in fact deadly. They're deadly. They make no sense. They're deadly. Their policies let gangs, some of the most vicious gangs in the world, pour into our country. They--they pour into our country. Do you know on Long Island you have gang members that are so tough that we send in these incredible ICE agents. But you know what? The ICE agents are much tougher. And they're grabbing them and I'll tell you what.

CROWD: [inaudible]

THE PRESIDENT: A doctor please, a doctor? A doctor please doctor a doctor please. Yeah take your time take your time darling. [applause]

Those are the people we love. Those are great people I tell you. [applause]

And the doctors--thank you doctor. Thank you, great job. Amazing. What people we have, what people we have.

So we have to keep going the way we're going--you know what we did was they called a miracle. I don't think it was a miracle. Do you remember on Election Day--because it was really the day before but it was 12 o'clock in the evening when I started speaking "Grand Rapids" he says Grand Rapids. And I said--and it was an unexpected stop, but I heard the opponent was going out with the president and they were going out also unexpected and they had a very small crowd. But when I heard that we left where we were we said let's go to Michigan right? Grand Rapids. [applause]

I got there at 12 o'clock in the evening remember that? And I said how's the crowd? We couldn't even get near the arena. There were 32,000 people. I finished speaking at one o'clock in the morning on election day. Remember that? You were there. 32,000 people.

Now Michigan hadn't been won in many many years and I said, "wait a minute. We had 32,000 people." I got home at 3 o'clock in the morning and I said "tell me why are we gonna lose Michigan, why?" We had 32,000 people 1 o'clock in the morning. And even beyond. Nobody left. Everybody was--we had a great time, right?

And--and I said "so why are we gonna lose Michigan?" And they said because the Republicans lose Michigan. And I said "wait a minute wait a minute I'm bringing the cars back I'm bringing the plants back I'm bringing the jobs back, we're gonna win Michigan." And we won Michigan, I think quite easily. [applause]

Alright? Remember that? I always said I made that speech, that was my last speech. I made that speech on an election day because by the time we finished it was 1 o'clock, it was election day. This November every American will face a choice. Now they say if the House doesn't make it--very important you have great congressmen. These are great people. These are great great people, thank you. But we have to keep the House because if you listen to Maxine Waters, right? [booing]

She goes around saying, "We will impeach him. "We will impeach him." Then people said, "But he hasn't done anything wrong." Oh that doesn't matter. We will impeach the president. So I don't think we're gonna have a lot of happy people if that happens I think it's gonna be a little bit tough. But she goes around and some others, "We will impeach him." It doesn't matter if you do anything right or wrong they want to do that. We got to win the House, and you know what? We're gonna win anyway. [applause]

But we're gonna win the House, we're gonna win the House. Now historically, when you win the presidency, the person that wins, the party that wins, does poorly in what they call the midterms. And the reason is I guess you take it easy a little bit right? Something happens. I guess it's 93, 94 percent of the time. This is over a long period of time. I don't know what.

You get--you know what it is? You get complacent. We cannot be complacent. We got to go out, right? We got to go out. We got to go out and we got to fight like hell and we got to win the House so we got to win the Senate and I think we're going to do great in this Senate and I think we're going to do great in the House because the economy is so good. [applause]

The economy is so good.

And because if you look at us all around the world we're respected again. We're not pushovers anymore. We're not pushovers. You saw the president of France he came in, great guy. Chancellor Merkel came in yesterday from Germany. [booing]

Now it'll all be fine. Look, again, don't blame them. Blame the people that used to stand here with much smaller crowds, but that's okay. [applause]

Claim your American Presidents and your American Representatives. But it's not happening anymore. We're respected again as a nation. We're respected. We're not the patsies anymore, we're not the pushovers anymore. [applause]

By the way speaking of not being a patsy or a pushover you ever watch Corey Lewandowski on the show--where's Corey? Corey. And David Bass?

CROWD: Corey! Corey! Corey!

THE PRESIDENT: He also had very little experience. He only ran one campaign and he won so he's won 1 for 1. Corey say a few words.

FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER COREY LEWANDOWSKI: This is Trump country. We love you Michigan, thank you for supporting Donald J Trump as your next president of the United States. Thank you very much. [applause]

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you fellas. I saw them back there they work hard and these are great people and we appreciate it they really--okay ready?

So we need more Republicans we got to get more Republicans. Because you know they say we have a majority. Well one in the Senate? Very few in the House? We need more to get it done, we're going to get it done one way or the other, but we need more. With your help we're going to elect more Republicans and we're going to deliver even more Now, again, other than health care which frankly--we got rid of the individual mandate which is the worst part of Obamacare. [applause]

We're doing association health care very soon. It's coming out over the next couple of weeks which is going to be incredible where you're going to buy great health care, highly competitive. Remember I used to talk during the debates, "Get rid of the state lines." We're getting rid of the state lines. You'll be able to go out in groups and buy great health care and a very low and competitive price. And essentially we are getting rid of Obamacare. Some people would say essentially we've gotten rid of it. [applause]

But you no longer have the individual mandate. You remember what that is. That's where you had the privilege a real--a privilege of going out and spending a lot of money so that you had the second privilege of not having to buy health care. So you paid for the privilege of not buying health care. We got rid of it in the tax cut plan. [applause]

Big thing. Big thing. That was so unconstitutional, but that was the worst part of Obamacare. We got rid of that. And you see what's going on and we're really producing-- and except for one vote. Remember the one vote? 3 o'clock in the morning, thumbs down. What a vote that was. What a vote that was. That was some vote. But despite that it's going to come out great so we've gotten rid of a lot of Obamacare we're going to get rid of the rest.

We got you the tax cuts. We want every American to know the dignity of work the pride of a paycheck and the satisfaction of a job well done. There's nothing like that. [applause]

Together we can lift millions of Americans from welfare to work. From dependence to independence. And from poverty to prosperity. [applause]

We're supporting job training and we're supporting vocational schools, right? Vocation. You know I said to the guys I said, "These community colleges they're wonderful but nobody knows really what a community college is." When I was growing up we had things called vocational schools and I'd go to a school and I'd be sitting next to a guy--I never looked at his papers because he didn't do well. And on the other side I'd have somebody not too good. But you know what? They could take an engine apart blindfolded and fix it. They could build a brick wall better than all of the guys in the class and gals together. They could do things that nobody else could do. And nobody knows what a community college is. We're going to start using--and we had this--vocational schools where you learn trades and you'll do it, and you'll love it, and you'll make much more money than anything else you can do. Right? [applause]

And those are the people we need in our country right now. We need skilled people and when people come across the border, we want to take them in, but we want to take them in based on merit. Not based on a lottery. Lottery. Lottery. We want them to come in based on skill and based on merit so they can love our country. They can help our country. They can do things for our country. Not come in based on some random lottery system. And that will happen. It's all happening. We're gonna build new bridges and airports and highways and waterways all across this magnificent land.

And you know what we're doing with your locks we're gonna start that as soon as I get back. I told you congressman write that name down for me. It's the Army Corps of Engineers. We're gonna be calling them it could be tonight depending on the time that I get back. But it might be tomorrow even though it's a Sunday. Can I call it a Sunday? Is that okay? No? Your lock, it's not working too well, right? Not working too well. Well it hasn't even been fixed in 50 years in all fairness, be nice to fix it. After spending all that money in the Middle East, can you imagine we can't fix a lock. I will get it fixed.

We're gonna put new steel into the spine of our country and breathe new life and new hope into our beautiful communities. And in everything we do in every decision we make we will stand up and breathe. We're gonna be proud. You know what. we're gonna be proud of America again. [applause]

We are going to stand up for America. And we're not going to apologize anymore for America. You know I told you before, we've done a lot we've done more than anybody in the year. We're here for 16 months and honestly it just feels like we've been here a long time together because the fight has been a long fight. But did you ever think we would have accomplished what we've accomplished in this short period of time? [applause]

You know part of the problem the country had, and one of the reasons our jobs are doing so well ,our companies are doing so well, wages are going up, because we had regulations which were staggering. It would take 20 years to get a highway or a roadway approved environmentally. It would take years and years to get the simplest permits. I got rid of those rules and regulations and by the way, we're gonna have crystal clean water. We're gonna have a beautiful clean air. We're gonna be great. We're gonna reject people if they don't have the right project, but projects aren't going to take 18 years to get approved. And then in many cases it's thumbs down after working 18 years.

Now we're gonna get it done. We're gonna stand up for places like Detroit that need help. We're gonna stand up. [applause]

And we're gonna stand up for great states like Michigan, and we've done that. his is this state where Henry Ford invented the assembly line. This is it. It's the state that gave us Motown, the Mustang, and the might of the American Midwest. It's a great style. [applause]

It is where generations of proud workers at General Motors and Chrysler and Kellogg transformed our nation. And change the entire world--we were the leader and now with the leader again and everybody is seeing it. And don't forget this: we have increased the values over the last 16 months tremendously. We are almost twice the size of the next largest economy. Remember that. Don't forget that. Don't forget that. And we're going to be growing very fast. It's time to look past the old divisions, tired thinking. The stale debates of the past have finally come together as one nation under God. One nation under God. [applause]

We are one people with one home. And one great American destiny. Remember what I said? They're looking at us all over the world. When Chancellor Merkel came in to see me she said, "Congratulations Mr. President, what you've done is incredible with your economy." When the president of France came in to see me, President Macron, wonderful guy Emmanuel. We like shaking each other's hand. Now he's a great guy and she's terrific, but you know what she's for Germany he's for France. I'm for the USA okay? Does that make sense? [applause]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: But when Emmanuel came in, and when Angela came in, they said amazing congratulations. What we've done in a short period of time is incredible.

So regulations. We've cut more regulations in this 15 to 16 months than any other president has cut in four years, eight years, or as you know, FDR, in one case sixteen years. And it's not even close.

We inherit the legacy of the great Americans who constructed the railroads, tamed the frontiers, built the highways, carved out the Panama Canal, and put a man on the face of the Moon. And by the way excuse me, do you see how our space program is going? A little different. And we're letting those rich guys that like rockets go ahead, use our property, pay a sub-rent, go ahead. You can use Cape Canaveral, you just pay us rent, and spend that money. Pretty amazing right? Where the engine can--you know wasn't going up that was great but how about where the engines come down? They come down, they come down, they land so they can use them again. That looks like a uh, futuristic beautiful stuff. We have reinvigorated our space program to a level that nobody thought possible in this short period of time. NASA is back. NASA is back. [applause]

And Mars is waiting for us, you know they're great. Hey, you know what it is it's great, it's science important very important militarily folks. Very important. We now again--we have the best military we now again we have the best military in the world. We're going to have a military the likes of which nobody has ever had the best that we've ever had by far. And these are the times when you want to have a very powerful military. You don't want to have to use, it but you have to have it. We stand on the shoulders of patriots who poured out their sweat and blood and tears for our country, for our flag, and for our God. As long as we are proud of who we are and what we're fighting for there is nothing beyond our reach. There's nothing. Look what happened to us, right? Here we are, look what happened to us.

You know a poll came out the other day Rasmussen I was at 51% and then they said you don't read about that you never hear them talking. You watch this fake CNN--well the polls--do you ever notice they're always--you ever notice CNN. Well you know he's not very popular they were saying that before the last election victory and now we're much higher than that. But they said 51% and then somebody, some genius analyst said but he's got at least 10% of the people that don't want to say they're voting for him and you know what I say to that? "We'll take them anyway whatever it takes." [applause]

I don't know--I don't know if it's an insult or not, but you know what we love those people because those people came out in the last election and they said, "Don't talk to us." We'd like to know how you're voting. "Don't talk to me." They go in. Trump. They come out. Remember the exit polls? The exit polls. They come out - "Who did you vote for?" None of your business. 100 percent those people are for Trump. We love those people. We love them. [applause]

We love those people. You know there was a mayor of a certain city.

CROWD: [inaudible chanting]

THE PRESIDENT: By the way, by the way, by the way. Is this better than that phony Washington White House Correspondents Dinner? Is this more fun? [applause]

I could be up there tonight smiling like I love where they're hitting you shot after shot. These people they hate your guts--shot--and then I'm supposed to--and you know you get a spot and if you don't smile they'll say, "He was terrible he couldn't take it." And if you do smile they'll say, "What was he smiling about?"

We are proud to be Americans and the future belongs to us. The future belong--remember that. The future belongs to us. The future belongs to all of you. This is our moment. We've never had a moment like this. The economy is raging, our military is strong and getting stronger. Every single day we're ordering the greatest equipment in the world. We make the greatest military equipment in the world. Look at what happened in Syria. Boom boom bing. [applause]

You know after the attack, we had to do that. People cannot use gas. Frankly they shouldn't use anything. But they can't drop the gas, and it was gas. But you know when we did it do you remember, it came out, "Oh they hit 23 of our missiles." Then they said, "We shot 43, and they hit 43 of our missiles." We shot about a hundred and ten. And how many did they hit? None. Zero, none. You know how many of our missiles hit their target? 100% 100%. [applause]

And the British and the French were great. Great team. It's a great team. But this is our chance. We've never had a chance like this. We're taking our country back. You have no many--you have just no idea. So many people come up to me, "Thank you sir thank you." I say for what? For what? "You're taking our country back." It's true. So many people they say thank you sir. I always say for what? They say, "Sir you're taking our country back," and it's true. We're all taking our country back. [applause]

You know in the great state of Tennessee, a congressman, a wonderful guy came up to me they have very early voting--this was before the election. They have early voting and came up to me and the voting had just started. And I was in Pennsylvania making a speech. He's a friend of a Pennsylvania Congressman and they were together in Pennsylvania and he comes up to me goes --I wasn't president then we were campaigning --he said--the election had just started. So with the early voting he says to me, "You know Mr. Trump, he called me, he goes, "I don't know what's happening in the rest of the country but Tennessee early voting, I have been doing this stuff for 25 years, and I've never seen anything like it. People that are great Americans but they never voted before because they never had anybody that they wanted to vote for. They work hard. They pay taxes. They're coming out of the hills and out of the valley. They've got the red caps on they've got the Make America Great on. They've got the Trump on, and I don't know what's happening. But if every place is like Tennessee, you're gonna win this election Mr. Trump. True. So true. [applause]

He said, I've never seen anything like it." And you know what well higher now than we were on election day. We're higher now because now people are seeing the results. It's actually easier because people are actually seeing the result--before I said, "I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, we're gonna get a tax cut, we're gonna get rid of the individual mandate, we're going to do all these things: judges, regulations." Now I've done it. [applause]

Somebody from the news. I won't call it in this case fake news because he turns out to be right said, "Trump is one of the only people ever that actually accomplished more than he promised." And it's true. I accomplished I'm a politician I guess. But I accomplished more than I promised and I'm doing it for you.

Our great journey together is just beginning. So with love in our hearts and hope in our souls, I say these words again. You've heard them before, you've liked them before, we can't say them too much. Because together we will make America strong again. Together we will make America wealthy again. Together we will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again! Thank you everybody. [applause]