Remarks to Members of the United States Coast Guard in Riviera Beach, Florida

The President. Thank you very much. It's an honor to be with you. I remember last year, same thing. I think the food is better this year. [Laughter] Maybe.

Is everyone good?

Audience members. Yes, sir.

The President. Happy Thanksgiving, to start off. I smelled the turkeys, and I smell everything, and it's great to bring it over from Mar-a-Lago. We have tremendous respect for the job you do. And I think nobody has gone up more than the Coast Guard, when you look at the hurricanes in Texas—in particular Texas—you saved so many people. But Texas and Florida, Puerto Rico, now North Carolina, South Carolina.

I mean, the job you've done is really fantastic. I think nothing has gone—if you were doing the brand, they would say this is one of the great brand increases. And I just want to congratulate you. Thousands of people saved.

Are you enjoying it down here? This is—I recognize some from last year, right? I assume you've gone up a little bit in rank, I hope, from last year? [Laughter]

But anyway, do you guys have any questions? You have any questions you'd like to ask? See. Well, we've covered it very nicely. [Laughter] That's why you always ask that last because that way nobody asks questions. [Laughter] If you start off by saying it.

But it's an honor to be with you. I know we're going to take some pictures. And 42,000 in the Coast Guard, and saved a lot of lives this year, over 4,000, I guess, they're saying. Over 4,000 just this year. That's a tremendous amount of lives that you've saved. And I know what you have to do, and I've seen it in a lot of different forms. But I've seen the waters that you have to go through, and very few people could do it. It takes special people to do it. Very, very few people could do it. The bravery and all of the genius that's necessary. And there's a genius to it.

So I just want to thank you. And enjoy the sandwiches. They look like pretty good sandwiches. They look big. I don't want one. [Laughter] They look big; like very big. You gain about 5 pounds when you eat one of them. [Laughter]

But I just want to thank you all very much. And let's go take some great pictures. And we're just celebrating the Coast Guard, because it has to be celebrated.

I made the little speech up at your Coast Guard Academy. How many people went to the Coast Guard Academy from here? Oh good. Where is all the Coast Guard Academy people? Okay, good. Now I feel better. We did the—we did a big speech up there, and we met some tremendous people. I'm surprised at—I figured this whole room would have their hands up, right? So you went to a lot of other schools. Great schools. That's good. That's really good.

It's an honor to be with all of you, and thank you very much. And let's go have some fun.