Remarks at the Oakland Country Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner in Novi, Michigan

TRUMP: Thank you very much, Lisa [McClain]. It's great to be back in Michigan. We love Michigan, with the amazing patriots of Oakland County [cheers and applause]. And tonight I'm deeply honored to receive the Oakland County GOP's Man of the Decade award for the second time [cheers and applause]. Second time wow. Almost 10 years, to this day, ago it was a great honor. In 2013 I received it and I remember I got up and I said, how come you're allowing them to take away your car business? What did I know, right? But I was right about that. But, uhh, it's really an honor to be with you.

I want to thank Oakland County Republican Party Chairman Vance Patrick [cheers and applause]. Great guy, great guy. I also want to recognize Michigan State senators Jim Runestad and Jonathan Lindsey [cheers and applause]. They're great people. Thank them from my – from the bottom of my heart, they gave us a beautiful endorsement. We appreciate that.

Michael and so many of my friends are sitting right out there. Thank you very much. Michigan GOP chairwoman Kristina Karamo [cheers and applause]. Kristina Karamo is – she's a hard worker. She's working very hard. She wants to keep this – as a very honest election, not easy to do.

One of the great senators, one of the most powerful people, by the way, an incredible football coach. He was an incredible football coach and now he's an incredible senator, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama [cheers and applause]. Where's Tommy? Tommy! He's an incredible man. Thank you. And they love them in Alabama. They love them all over the country.

Somebody that really put up a good fight for it, very, very hard for governor, Tudor Dixon [cheers and applause]. Where's Tudor? She's a terrific person and she fought hard. A friend of all of ours, in a very well-known person, in Michigan, he's a great restaurateur, Mark Zarkin [cheers and applause]. Thank you very much, Mark. It was a fantastic job. Food is very good, Mark. We could use him in a lot of our cities all over the country, if we could get a little younger version. He doesn't mind when I say that. I said what this city needs is a young Rudy Giuliani and he's here [cheers and applause]. Where is he? Where is Rudy? Rudy, you're fantastic Rudy. Greatest mayor in the history of New York.

And also our friends with the Dominican Fathers and Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, they're with us tonight [cheers and applause]. They've been with us right from the beginning. They're here someplace. Thank you. And thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Right from the beginning.

And by the way, you see Biden now, the real Biden, on religion. He's not in favor of religion. He can talk all he wants, but what they've done to Catholics and what they've done to Evangelicals, what they've done to everybody is a disgrace. So, the sisters got it long before anybody else, and we appreciate it. Thank you [cheers and applause]. Thank you all of you for being here. It's a great honor.

For seven years, all of us have been fighting side by side to rescue our country from the sinister forces who truly hate our country and want to destroy it. And now we are approaching the most important battle of our lives. This is the most important election we've ever had, without question. On November 5th, 2024, we are going to stand up to the Marxists, the Communists, the Fascists and the Globalists, and we're gonna win. We're gonna win [cheers and applause]. We're gonna win big. We're going to evict Crooked Joe Biden from the White House. You notice I took the word away, I, I retired the word from Crooked Hillary Clinton because I felt that Joe Biden needed it much more. He's Crooked Joe. We're going to finish what we started and we will make America great again [cheers and applause]. We will.

For decades, the globalist vultures in Washington viciously betrayed Michigan workers and families like nobody can even believe, and they threw open our borders, plundering your factories and shipping your jobs to foreign lands, sometimes to lands that you've never even heard of. Michigan lost nearly 40% of all manufacturing jobs. Everything. After the NAFTA catastrophe and China's entrance into the World Trade Organization.

Yeah, sit down everybody here [gestures toward crowd]. Sit down. I'm excited to be here also. Sit down. We'll, we'll be with you for a little while, sit down and enjoy it. I think everybody's great. Great. I'm very honored by the fact you stand, but, you sit down. Thank you.

But after years of cruel sellouts by past leaders, you finally got a president who put Michigan 1st and put America first, it took a long time. And just as I promised, I saved the US auto industry from total destruction. And I talked about it 10 years ago, 12 years ago I talked about it for a long time. What they've done, they've taken almost 50% of manufacturing ability and brought it into other countries, other countries are making cars now at a level that nobody can believe.

I ended the disaster known as NAFTA, the worst trade deal ever made, and replaced it with the best trade deal ever made, the USMCA. That's Mexico and Canada. The USMCA is creating 10s of thousands of jobs in the United States, and it's just been amazing the way it's worked. In fact, the jobs are so strong here that Mexico and Canada wanna renegotiate the deal. Isn't that nice? Tommy Tuberville says, isn't that nice because we have had bad deals, every single one.

But with tough new requirements to ensure more cars are made in American factories by American workers, and it's happening right here in Michigan. And this had nothing to do with the Democrats, they're going to end it. They want every car to be all electric, except you don't make all-electric cars too much. You know who does? China. China makes them. The deal was so good that Mexico and Canada, now, as I said, are working very diligently to destroy that deal and replace it with a deal that's very much in their favor. Don't do it, Biden administration. Don't do it.

When I took office, the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership was set to slaughter US automakers. It was slaughtering them. It was going to be a disaster. I stopped it. I vetoed it. I stopped it in its tracks. Every worker and supplier at, Ford, GM, and Chrysler would have been crushed. They would have been out of business. It would have taken 'em out of business. Nobody understood it. Now they understood it. Joe Biden and 'Ron De Sanctimonious' [Ron DeSantis] were both all in favor of it. But we stopped it cold. If I hadn't, you wouldn't have any auto production in Michigan. Just as I promised, the people of Michigan I withdrew from – it's called TPP. Nice name TPP. I withdrew on day one. I totally renegotiated Obama and Biden's horrendous Korea trade deal. One of the worst trade deals. But I renegotiated it. It would've flooded our market with foreign pickup trucks and cars, decimating your industry. I ended it, and I made it into a great deal. It's now a great deal for you.

I also placed historic tariffs on all foreign aluminum and foreign steel, which saved your steel industry [cheers and applause]. Otherwise you wouldn't even – you wouldn't even have a steel industry. And if you don't have steel, you don't have a country. Like borders, like elections, you gotta have real elections. We don't have real elections. We have fake elections.

I stood up to China like no administration has ever done before, bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into our treasury from China, when no other President had gotten them to pay even 10 cents. China never gave us anything except lip service. And when China targeted our farmers, which they did viciously and violently, I said to our Secretary of Agriculture, what's the damage that they did over the years? It was $28 million. So I gave our farmers $28 billion from China. I got it from China straight out of the tariffs [cheers and applause]. The China was bad, $28 billion to our farmers. That's why when they say, how are you doing in Iowa, how are you doing in Nebraska? I said there's no way the farmers are voting against me. I got them $28 billion. But you never know. Do you accept – we just had a poll come out of Iowa where I'm leading by 47% [cheers and applause]. So I'd have to – I'd have to lose pretty quickly. Now we're doing great in Iowa, we're doing great all over.

Ron DeSantis opposed my China tariffs very strongly, and simply put, he sided with the communists in China, while I fought for workers in America, and successfully fought. Successfully like nobody has ever fought, so successfully. No president has fought harder either for Michigan than I have. No president has ever fought harder [cheers and applause]. I saw what was happening from day one. And sadly, none has betrayed Michigan more than Crooked Joe Biden. He's betrayed your state, because he's allowing people to take away your jobs at a level that nobody's ever seen before. You'll see it over the next couple of years. Right now, you're not feeling it as much because of what we did, but you'll see it.

For three years Biden and his radical left allies have waged war on American auto workers like nobody has witnessed to this extent before, in his ridiculous crusade to force everyone into electric cars. And by the way, they have a place. Right now they're selling at about 5%. They have a place. They want them to sell at 100%. But we don't have the goods to make 'em. You know who has the goods? China has the goods. China has the countries and controls the countries with what they need for the batteries.

But you know we have more than anybody else, including Saudi Arabia and Russia? We have liquid gold right under our feet [cheers and applause]. Biden has doubled the CAFE standards costing automakers an estimated $200 billion, and that number is going up. And sending car prices skyrocketing and killing thousands and thousands of US auto jobs. In addition to which you can't produce because you can't get the chips, and you can't have your supply chain, it's a disaster. The whole country is a mess.

Biden is a catastrophe for Michigan and his environmental extremism is heartless, and disloyal, and horrible for the American worker. And you're starting to see it. Driven by his ridiculous regulations, electric cars will kill more than half of US auto jobs and decimate the suppliers, they're being decimated already. Decimate the suppliers. And it's going to decimate your jobs and it's going to decimate more than anybody else, the state of Michigan, it's gonna be decimation, it's gonna be at a level that, uhh, that people can't even imagine. Meanwhile, the cars don't go far. The range is even worse in the winter. The materials are all made in China, and it takes so much energy to produce the batteries that electric cars don't even break even environmentally, for at least 5 to 10 years, they'll never break even. It's a catastrophe waiting to happen. And if somebody wants an electric car I'm all for it. But you should be able to have a choice of many different versions of automation and automobiles [cheers and applause]. It's crazy what they're doing.

You know, in California they're talking about all electric cars, and yet they're having blackouts all summer long. We have no electricity, now they want to go all electric. And you know, some people want to be able to drive more than an hour and a half. The governor of your state is now giving away hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars [booing] of Michigan taxpayer money to Chinese companies, and one in particular owned, called Gotion, to build batteries in Michigan. Now it sounds good, but the money is going to Chinese companies, and then they're gonna leave, they're gonna – planning to leave. You watch. They'll take our money and then they'll say bye bye, you stupid fools. That's good for China, but it's bad for America. It's bad for Michigan and it's very bad for the unions, you know, I'm somebody that gets along with the unions. Actually, the top people are so in love with Democrats because they go to parties together and all. But the people that are in the Union, they love me.

You know, when I approved the Keystone Pipeline, I met the pipeline workers and they were all for me [cheers and applause]. They were all for me. But their leader was against me. He was for Joe Biden. And this was the biggest pipeline, one of the biggest pipelines in the world. 50,000 jobs, and on day one, they terminated the Keystone Pipeline. So I wonder how that man did, he didn't do too well. The head of the union was a – it was a disaster. But, you know, the Union workers support me far more than they support Democrats [cheers and applause]. And they're great people, and they're talented people, and they've been treated very badly and their leadership – they pay their dues and everything – and their leadership has treated union workers very, very badly, very unfairly.

This maniacal push for all-electric cars is killing the United States, killing Michigan, is a total boom for China, and it's because Biden is being paid off we just found out yesterday. He's being paid off by China. He's been paid millions and millions of dollars in bribes. They're bribing him and all of those people, see these people, they don't want to talk about it [points at media in the back]. I just saw a camera go off right now. They don't want to hear about it. Even though it's 100%. The reason that this is happening, and the reason that all of these things are taking place with China and there's no retribution, is because he's being paid off.

And you know who likes all electric cars is the – you know the companies that doing the best with all electric cars, do you know who it is? They're tow truck companies [cheers and applause]. Those tow truck – and I love them too. I love them too. I probably won't get their vote, but I'll get everybody else's vote – no the tow truck companies, 'cuz they don't know where the hell to charge their car, they're in the middle of the country, 'oh, my God, what do I do? Where's the charger?' You're not gonna fight [inaudible] – and you know who – you know who boosts up the charger huh? Do you know who does it? Oil and gas, and coal, that's the one that boosts the charger [cheers and applause]. The whole thing is crazy. This country has gone crazy.

You know, I said recently at a speech, I thought it was quite clever so far, nobody's really mentioned it, 'cuz if I'm clever, they don't like talking about it. Although we've been getting quite good reviews. We did a good one last night. Got a lotta good reviews, and the polls are the reviews because we're leading by so much. But, you know, I said the other day, we're like April Fools Day. Everything's the opposite. They want open borders so that people can flood our country. They come from insane asylums. They come from mental institutions. They cme from prisons. They come from all sorts of places. We don't even know who they are, we don't even know what countries they're coming from. That's April Fools. Who wants an open border? We want people to come into our country.

Rudy understands that better than anybody, but they have to come in legally. The job you [Rudy Giuliani] did in New York was so amazing you don't get enough credit for it [cheers and applause]. They want high – that's very impressive Rudy, by the way. They want high interest rates. They want high taxes, they want to quadruple your taxes. Now that's April fools. Who ever heard – you know when I was growing up, every politician would say we are going to lower your taxes. They say we are going to raise your taxes.

And, and they don't – you know, look. They also want no voter ID because they want to cheat on elections. They don't want same day voting. They don't want paper ballots. They never want any of that stuff because they want to cheat on elections, right? It's April Fools, who wants that? Who wants to cheat – even 82% of Democrats want voter ID. They want voter ID. We want one day elections. We want all paper ballots. We have to get back to it [cheers and applause].

You know in France, in France, they recently had an election, and they used to have mail ends and they gave it up because it was so corrupt. 'Cuz once it, you know, it goes through everything, some people get 7-8 ballots, but France gave it up and they had an election and they had 36 million people vote. At 10 o'clock everybody knew who won. It was a one day election. It was paper ballots. It was voter ID. They had a winner, they had a loser and that was the end of it [cheers and applause]. So crazy what's happening to our country. It's like April Fools everybody. No voter ID, open borders. It's all crazy. High interest rates, high taxes.

Within hours of my inauguration, I will cancel every Biden policy that is brutalizing Michigan auto workers [cheers and applause]. You know, it's amazing, when I was in the White House, I'd meet with a lot of the heads of the unions and they loved me. I said there's no way – we'd have lunch, I'd have five or six of them at a time, sometimes one or two. And they loved me. I said there's no way – and then they go and they announce that they're gonna support this guy that doesn't even know where the hell he is. He has no idea. And I said I can't understand it, but we get the votes because the people understand it, the people understand.

But I'll roll back Biden's ridiculous cafe standard, stop the assault on the internal combustion engine, which is what you do here. Unleash American energy and save 10s of thousands of Michigan jobs from destruction, because you are heading toward a fall like nobody's ever seen before. And that's with this crazy policy they have for all electric. Under Biden, we have record high trade deficits, also known in my opinion, as losses. We lose a fortune to China, to Japan, to all these countries.

I renegotiated many of the deals the rest of them were under consideration, but we made new deals with South Korea, with Japan, we made an unbelievable trade deal with China. They buy $50 billion worth of our product that they weren't buying. They didn't wanna buy anything. The number was supposed to be 15 billion. And I said to my people, did you say 50 billion or 15? They said, Sir, we said 15. I said make it 50. And we got it [cheers and applause]. And it was great for manufacturers and great for farmers. But now I understand under the Biden administration, they're not living up to their agreement. Why should they? They have the goods on Biden. You understand that, right? They have the goods. He's not gonna do anything.

For this reason, I will also pass landmark legislation to be known as the 'Trump Reciprocal Trade Act', [cheers and applause] so that if China, or India, or any country, hits us with a 100, 200, or even 300% tax or tariff – the numbers are unbelievable, how unfair it is. Anything like that, we will immediately, on all-American goods, we will immediately hit them with tariffs and taxes that are exactly the same [cheers and applause]. So if they charge us 100%, we charge them 100%. You know, it's funny, I, I spoke to a senator that's not really – a senator who's not really into business. He said, so explain this to me. You're saying that if, let's say India – and they really [inaudible] a very big number on us. Like Modi very much, love the Indian people, but boy, do they take advantage of us on trade. So I said – so if India charges us 100% for a motorcycle, Harley-Davidson – they're building plants now in India because they can't get them in because the tax is so high. It's so high, the tariff is just a disaster. So he said if India charges us 100, we charge them 100, right? Is that what you're saying? I go that's what I'm saying. He goes, you got my vote. You got my vote [cheers and applause]. But there are senators that won't approve it and there are people that won't approve it.

I had one senator from Pennsylvania, he left he couldn't have won for dog catcher, frankly. He's gone. He was a disaster. Toomey [Patrick]. He was beautiful. I'd say, so listen, China's charging us 150% tax on something, is it OK if I charge them 100? No, Sir, that's not free trade. I said well, but they're charging us. So let me ask you this, could I charge 100? They're charging us 150. Senator, could I charge 100? No, Sir. We want free and fair trade, Sir. I said this is not free and fair, this is – Could I charge him 50? No, Sir, you couldn't. Could I charge him 25 or even 10%, like beggars? Could I be a beggar? You give us – you charge us 150, we're going to charge you 10%. I was just doing it just to find out. He said no, Sir, it's not free and fair trade. Well, he's out of office now, Toomey, because he was stupid [cheers and applause]. He was stupid. He was horrible. That guy was horrible. He fought me on every damn thing. I would not give him an endorsement. I wouldn't give him – you know, our endorsement goes to 98, 99%.

Lisa got my endorsement. I can tell you that. 99%. When we endorsed – close to 99% of the people that we endorse – when I wouldn't endorse him and he decided to retire, I've decided to leave office now. No, these people, I don't know where the hell you find them, Tommy Tuberville, I don't know how you find them. Just out of curious if China's charging us 100%, can we charge them 100% Tommy Tuberville? Yes, we got one vote. That's why they love him in Alabama.

But it's no wonder the swamp is getting truly desperate as they see us leading very big in the polls. I'm leading very, very big in the polls [cheers and applause]. In this week's, just came out, Big Village poll, we lead the field by 41 points. Very nice. 56 to – 15 for de Sanctimonious. He's doing good. He's falling like a rock. People are getting to know him. They know he's got no personality. Gotta have a little personality. Not much, but a little.

And uhh, we're leading big in a recent CBS poll, which does not like me, we have 61% and the Republicans are down to 11 or 12 or something. And in the new Harvard-Harris poll, doesn't love me, we're up by 45 points, leading 45 points. And it's been really amazing. In New Hampshire, we have a 47% lead over to de Sanctimonious. The reason I call him that is he was dead in the water, couldn't have gotten elected, he came begging for my endorsement. I gave him the endorsement. He won. Then they said, would you run against the President? He said, I have no comment. I said, that means he's running! This guy, we get him elected then he says, yes, I'd run. I don't know. They say loyalty doesn't matter in this business. What do you think, Rudy? I think loyalty matters a lot [cheers and applause]. I think it matters alot.

But we're leading Biden by a lot in that same Harvard Harris poll, Trump leads Biden 45 to 39. All other Republican candidates are losing to Biden, which is hard to believe to be honest with you. This young man right here, sitting in the front, is uhh, 'bout 12 years old, he should be leading by 40 or 50 points. Any, anybody should be leading. It's horrible. Look, it was a rigged election. That's the only way they can win.

These incredible poll numbers are one of the main reasons the Marxist left is weaponizing the criminal justice system to try and stop us. If I wasn't running, or if I was doing badly in the polls, all of this investigation bullshit would stop immediately [cheers and applause]. Stop immediately.

And I did nothing wrong. It's under the Presidential Records Act. I did nothing wrong with the Clinton Socks case, which is just a reaffirmation of the Presidential Records Act, we did nothing. You know what the Clinton Socks case is? That's where Clinton, President Clinton, took out tapes and things of foreign leaders, very big deal, and he put him in his socks, and they found it in his sock drawer. So they call it the – and the judge, respected judge, ruled that he had the absolute right to have those things. And this was an affirmation. These were very, very big, that was a big deal at the time. The judge ruled in his favor.

Two weeks ago, Joe Biden ordered his top political opponent to be arrested. That's me. I never learned about being arrested at the Wharton School of Finance. They didn't, they didn't have a class, they didn't have a class on arrest. We learned other things, we learned finance and things. We didn't learn about arrest. But arrested on fake and fabricated charges right in the middle of a presidential election in which Biden is losing by a lot, can you imagine that? Sir, you're gonna be arrested today. You're winning by 20 points. You're gonna be arrested today.

This is a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time, which began as I came down with our great future, then future, First Lady who people love [cheers and applause]. People love her. We came down the golden escalator in Trump Tower. Its primary purpose is a thing called election interference, but we will not let that happen. They did it in 2020. They're not doing it again. We're not gonna allow it to happen [cheers and applause]. Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of honor and a badge of courage [cheers and applause]. Consider it [inaudible].

Essentially, I'm being indicted for you. And I believe the 'you' is more than 200 million people that love our country [cheers and applause]. I believe that strongly. Never forget our enemies want to stop us because we are the ones, and the only ones, who can stop them. We're the only ones that can stop them. They want to stop us. They'll do anything they can. You know, they're vicious. If they would apply the same genius to making our country great, we would have no problem. I probably wouldn't have even run, but they don't. They want to destroy our country. Nobody can understand it. Nobody can understand why. If these corrupt persecutions succeed, they will complete their takeover of this country and they will destroy your way of life and the United States of America forever, it will be forever destroyed. It will never be able to come back from that. That's why this is the most important election we've ever had. They want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom [cheers and applause]. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

And I had such a nice life before. This was – I had the greatest life. But you know what? I would do it again. A lot of people say, would you do it again? I said absolutely because this country has such potential. We're gonna make this country greater than ever before, absolutely. They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. I'm never gonna let them silence you. And in the end, they're not after me, they're after you. And I just happen to be standing in the way. But we're not going to let anything happen to you that's bad.

And we've got to start with this election, it's coming up fast. Think of it, little more than six months. We're having the primary start in Iowa, go to New Hampshire – now they changed it, you know, they start differently. They want to change it. I think that's probably gonna hurt them badly, but hopefully it's not gonna make any difference because we're gonna win this thing so big. You know, the way you stop the cheating is to win it so big that they can't cheat [cheers and applause]. They can't create that many ballots, that many fake ballots. That's the way you really stop it. Then we'll make our elections fair again.

Joe Biden is the most corrupt president in the history of our country, and there's no doubt about that. The Biden corruption scandal is 100 times bigger than Watergate, yet the mainstream media doesn't even report the fact that Joe Biden has illegally taken millions and millions of dollars from China, Ukraine, and many other countries. Many other countries, and you can't read it. You see the story, and you know it's happening and it's all over the Internet, but you can't read anything about it in mainstream media. And you go to ABC, CBS, NBC. You'd go to the mainstream, the big ones, if they're big I don't know, who the hell watches them now. 'Cuz they have no credibility, you know, they've lost credibility so badly. CNN, nobody's watching CNN anymore. Because it's fake news. Wasn't that a great term that we came up with years ago? Fake news, fake news. They are fake news [points to back of room]. There's a lot of them back there. Hello.

But Joe Biden is compromised. Can you believe that it was just announced – this is, to me, one of the hardest of all – that military installations are currently being built in Cuba, just 90 miles off our coast, and Biden isn't doing anything about it. He's not saying – he can't because they've been paying him off, and they know how they've been paying him off, they will reveal that and that'll be the end of his presidency. I think even the fake news won't be able to cover that one up, but maybe they can. But he's basically said, OK – he's saying nothing. Said OK.

What that means for our great Cuban population in Miami, where we won incredibly – and by the way, I don't know if you know this or not, Tommy, but I got more than a million votes more in Florida than de Sanctimonious. God nobody wants to talk about that [cheers and applause]. More than a million votes more. But what it means for our great Cuban population in Miami, Florida and the rest of the United States is that they will never see Cuba again. It's gone. When China occupies Cuba, the Cuban Americans who love Cuba, they wanna go back. They wanna be there. They wanna be with their loved ones. They wanna be there. They're never gonna be able to go back. We had it where they were ready to make a deal. It was gonna be open. That's why I got the Bay of Pigs award, recently. They gave me the Bay of Pigs because nobody's done more for opening up Cuba to our great people [cheers and applause]. That whole thing was ending. And now China goes in, now China goes in, and Biden doesn't even say anything about it. So I guess he's not gonna do too well with the Miami vote, the Cuban vote, the Venezuelan vote. Unless they get back in, in which case I will inform China that they have 48 hours to get any military and spy equipment out of Cuba, or we will drop the hammer and there will be tariffs and taxes unlike anything they've ever seen. And they paid hundreds of billions of dollars while I was president.

That's why they didn't want me as president. Those tariffs are killing us, Sir. I said you've been killing us for 30 years. Biden wants to do nothing. Because he can't do it. Together in four incredible years under our administration, we delivered the largest tax cuts and regulatory cuts, our regulations, I think was bigger even and more important, Rudy, than the tax cuts. It created the greatest economy in history. We built the greatest economy in history [cheers and applause]. And a lot of it was the regulation cuts and the tax cuts. And those two things go hand in hand. We achieved energy independence and energy dominance was just around the corner [cheers and applause]. We had gasoline prices, for your car, of $1.87 a gallon. We had times when it was even lower than that. And now it goes up to five and six and seven. It's going to start going up again. We filled up the strategic reserves. And they emptied it out so that they could keep the price of gasoline cheap before an election. That's supposed to be used for much more important things than that, like military and security.

We created the most secure border in U.S. history, built nearly 500 miles of border wall, got Mexico to give us, free of charge, 28,000 soldiers. You know why he did that? I said you have to give us soldiers while we're building the wall. No, no, no, no, no, we can't do that. And I really like the President of Mexico. He's a socialist, but that's alright. Can't have everything. But I do like him. But I said you have to give us 28,000 soldiers. They thought I was crazy when I said that.

And I also said you have to give us remain in Mexico. Nobody comes into our country. They have to remain in Mexico. And Title 42, that's having to do with sickness, as you know. We just don't want sick people that are going to come in and affect our country. And catch and release, you have to end it. But I said, we need all these things, and the woman at the State Department said, Sir, they'll never do this. I've been doing this for 25 years, Sir. They will never do it. She was actually very good, but she was so used to being turned down. I said ohh, they'll do it 100%, 100%. What do you mean, 100%, Sir? They're never gonna do that. Why would they give us free soldiers? You'll see. So the top person in Mexico outside of the president, El presidente, great guy. But the top person came in, he sat down, I said here's what we need. We need 28,000 soldiers free of charge because you're letting all these people pour into our country and we're building the wall, and we need them immediately, free of charge. He laughed at me. Then I said we need the other things that we just went over. We need no more catch and release. I'm not doing – we're gonna catch, and we're gonna release them into your country, not into our country [cheers and applause]. And we need stay in Mexico. We need – I gave him a list of 10 different things, all of which are impossible. And he said, Sir, you must be – why would we? We're not going to do that. I said yes you are, 100%. I told him 100%, you're going to do it. No, no, we're not going to do it, Sir. He said here's what's happening. And I had right in front of me an executive order that if you don't do it, we're gonna charge you 25% tariff and taxes on all of your cars and every other thing that you sell into the United States of America [cheers and applause]. You took the business away, now you're going to pay a big tax, and I'm ready to sign it.

And this was a Friday. I said, this goes into effect Monday morning at 9 o'clock, and I'm being nice by saying 9 because I was going to say, why didn't you make it 7. But they didn't do that. Goes into effect Monday morning at 9 o'clock, Sir. I'm sure you wouldn't do that. I said no, 100%, I'm gonna do it. Sir uhh, do you mind if I leave the room for a few minutes? I'd like to make a phone call. He came back about 5 minutes later Sir, we would be honored to allow you to do all of the things. We would be honored. This would be, this would be a great honor for us.

Well, I had many of those things. We got everything. The woman at the State Department who – she was, and she was, she was good. But she was turned down. She said I've been turned down for 20, 25 years for asking for that stuff, and you got everything. And I said 100%, we're gonna get everything. So they gave us 28,000 soldiers free.

And you know what? If they didn't, we would have made a lot of money on the tariffs because, frankly, there should be tariffs, because they took our business out of Michigan. They put it into Mexico and then they sell cars to our country, just like you used to sell cars to our country. But they took 32% of our automobile manufacturing business out of our country, much of it, most of it came from Michigan right here, this wonderful place. And I said, you know what? We're going to make a fortune if you say no to me, but he came back within 5 minutes. But I've done that with many, many phone calls. I wish they could have all been taped and recorded.

I had Macron [Emmanuel, President of France] call up and our people came to me, said, you know, France wants to charge us a massive tax, if you're an American company doing business in France. They want to charge us a very big tax. I said they can't do that. So I gave it to Mnuchin [Steven, Trump's Secretary of the Treasury] and some people, I said, call up, tell them I'm not doing it. They called up. They came back a week later. They said, Sir, they're doing it. It's already been passed, by their, their so-called legislature. I said, no, they're not going to do it. Give it another couple of days and go back and try it. They came back, they said no. So I called up Emmanuel Macron, and nice guy, but he's a wise guy, but he's a nice man, but he's a wise guy. Hey, look these people are all at the top of their game. Our guy wasn't at the top of his game 40 years ago, okay?

But these people, Macron. And say what you want, President Xi [President of China]. They said, the fake news, is President Xi, a smart man? I said no, he's a brilliant man. And he controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. How dare he say he's brilliant? You're not allowed to say that. You're not allowed to say it.

But I said, to Macron, I said let me call him. Emmanuel, how are you? It's nice to talk to you. Emmanuel, here's the story. I understand you're gonna charge American business. Ohh yes, Donald, I am. I was going to charge American business. Yes. And we've been doing this for a long time. Yes, we have decided to charge American businesses a tax. The tax is like 25%. And I don't want that to happen. That's unfair. And we don't charge them. I said, uhh, well, I don't want you to do it, Emmanuel. But Donald, we have to. It's already been passed and we will be signing legislation next week. I said here's the story, Emmanuel. If you charge us that tax, I will charge you 100% taxes and tariffs on all wine and champagne coming into the United States and that starts tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock, I got the seven [cheers and applause]. No, no, no, he said. You cannot do that. That is very unfair. Can you believe it? That's unfair. They can charge us with – this is the way because they've been dealing with stupid people for 40 years.

These deals are the stupidest deals. NAFTA is the stupidest deal I've ever – everyone said there's no way he can get that terminated and a new deal. I got it terminated, from great people in the Senate and great people in the House. We got it terminated, because you had to have it terminated in the House and the Senate. We gotta terminated. I signed the termination and I replaced it with USMCA.

But I said no, no, Emmanuel, I'm sorry. He said, may I call you back? I said, you may. How long will it take you to call me back? Ohh, it will be a short – about four minutes later I get a call. He goes, uhh, Donald, we have decided that we will not put the tax on American companies [cheers and applause]. That was it. That was it.

Let me give you the bad news. The bad news is now they're putting it on under the Biden administration, and I guarantee you Joe Biden's not calling up, saying Emmanuel, what are you doing? No, he wants to go to sleep and just relax.

We appointed nearly 300 federal judges and three great Supreme Court justices [cheers and applause]. I rebuilt our United States military, we created Space force, which is a big deal, first time in 78 years Air Force was – before – first time in 78 years, since Air Force. Defeated ISIS, 100% of ISIS. And I brought our troops back home where they belong. I imposed the most powerful travel ban to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of our country. Took a lot of heat, remember that? And you know, if you think, I don't like to talk about it, but if you think for four years we didn't have a problem, did we, huh? But we have a lot of bad people coming into our country now. I was the 1st President in 70 years who didn't start a war. I didn't start a war.

Everybody said, beautiful Hillary Clinton, you know, and I don't call her crooked anymore, so I, I have a new name. Beautiful. She's a beautiful person. Beautiful Hillary. She's a beautiful woman. She said, he is going to start a war, listen to him, his personality. I said no, my personality will stop a war [cheers and applause]. And I'm the only person that can say this, I will stop World War 3 and we're very close to having World War 3 [cheers and applause]. But all of that was only the beginning.

Here are some of the rather bold agenda items that I will immediately implement when we become the 47th President of the United States. Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after I win the Presidency, I will have the war between Russia and Ukraine settled. I'll do it in 24 hours. It's not tough to do [cheers and applause]. That's easy compared to, that's easy compared to a lot of things. To stop the Marxist prosecutors who release rapists and murderers all over our country while persecuting conservatives, including me by the way, have you noticed? I will direct a completely overhauled DOJ and investigate every radical District Attorney and Attorney General in America for their illegal, racist and reverse enforcement of the law [cheers and applause]. Thank you.

I will immediately terminate every open borders policy of the Biden administration. You can come in to our country, but you have to come in legally [cheers and applause]. We want you to come in, but you have to come in legally. Other – I mean, you just take a look at other countries and what they're doing, but other countries are emptying out their prisons, insane asylums, mental institutions. They're dumping everyone, including many, many, many terrorists. The other day, they had 48 terrorists. They caught 48 terrorists coming in from the border. But that's hundreds and hundreds of these people, are coming in. They're not being caught.

Following the Eisenhower model, Dwight Eisenhower was very tough on the border, believe it or not. We will use all necessary state, local, federal and military resources to carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in America in history [cheers and applause]. Have no choice. I don't like saying it. We have no choice. Get the bad ones out early, very early. And you know, who knows who they are? Our police forces, they know they know who they are, right, Rudy? They know everyone, every town, they know the good ones, they know the gang members. They know 'em by their first names.

I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act, which most people have never heard of, to remove all known and suspected gang members, drug dealers or cartel members from the United States, ending the scourge of illegal alien gang violence forever [cheers and applause]. And I will sign a day one executive order ending automatic citizenship for the children of illegal aliens [cheers and applause]. They come into our country illegally, they have a child, congratulations, your child is now a citizen of the United States.

To save our economy from Joe Biden's inflation catastrophe and total economic disaster, I will deliver tax cuts, energy price cuts, and interest rate cuts, the likes of which you have never seen before [cheers and applause]. You know, we were ready to do that and then we got hit with the COVID, as a gift from China. We were doing so well. We were making so much money with the oil and gas, with the drilling, and I was using that money just like Saudi Arabia makes a fortune. We have more than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined. We were doing numbers that nobody had ever seen before. We were ready to start taking those numbers, giving a tax reduction. I gave the biggest in history. I was gonna give it even bigger, to middle income people. We were gonna give it even bigger. We were gonna do that, and then we were gonna start paying down our 32 billion, at the time, national debt. We were gonna make so much money. And then COVID came in and we had to change a lot of plans 'cuz that was a disaster. A gift from China. Another gift from China.

But unlike Ron de Sanctimonious, who voted to gut Medicare and Gut Social Security, and even voted to raise the retirement age to 70, which was a big raise. He wanted to do it. He voted three times to do that. He wanted to gut Social Security, and he was going to terminate or do very bad things to Medicare. And then he's supposed to get elected. You can't get elected when you do that, because the people deserve that. They worked for that. We can't take that away. There are many other things we can do, including oil and gas, where we build up our numbers. There are many, many other things we can do. We're not going to play around with Social Security, and we're not going to play around with Medicare, Medicaid [cheers and applause]. I will always protect Medicare and Social Security for our great seniors. I will always put that [inaudible].

I will immediately sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on to the lives of our children [cheers and applause].

And here's something, it's not even believable that we have to say this. Who would ever think – only a sick country can think this way. I will keep men out of women's sports [cheers and applause]. No, can you imagine having to say that? You see these records, weightlifting records that stood for 18 years, 18 years, and now they're being broken by like 100 lbs. They used to put a little tiny, a quarter of an ounce and a quarter of an ounce on these barbells, and a young woman would get up, and she's a great champion and she's going to lift that 212 pounds over her head. Her mother and father are there, her husband's there. They're so proud of. They put a quarter of an ounce on each side, a little quarter, little quarter, little thing, little – 18 years it stood. 18 years. And she got up and she's so proud. Her parents are there and, and she gets up [mimics weightlifting] Ah. Ohh. Ohh. Mom, Dad I can't do it. I can't. Then this guy comes along. Have you lifted before? No, I haven't, really. Well, you're gonna have to lift this weight over your head. He said that's all right. I should be able to do it. He goes like this [mimics weightlifting]. Then he said, how about adding a hundred pounds to it. This is a disgrace to women, what's happening. Disgrace.

The other one I tell, and I tell it very strongly, the swimmers and the swimmers records are being decimated. But the young woman who was standing there, she was gonna break that record. It stood for 12 years. And she was a great athlete, great swimmer. She was gonna break – and she looks down. She sees the same people that she's been swimming against for 10 years. You know, they tend to be, all the cream comes to the top. She looks over, she sees the four people on her left. She looks over, she sees 5 people and then she looks up. Whoa, that guy's big whoa. Man, I never saw her before. And the gun goes off. And this young lady was badly injured, as you know, because I've told this before, she suffered from wind burn, because this guy went by her so fast that the wind was devastating. Hopefully she'll be recovered. This guy looked like a slightly smaller version of 'Wilt the Stilt' Chamberlain. Biggest wingspan she'd ever seen. No, we can't do that. This is crazy and it's so demeaning to women in women's sports. They've come so far [cheers and applause]. So demeaning. Who would think we even have to talk about it?

And who would think that we have to talk about the fact that I will sign a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states? [cheers and applause]. Now, who would think that? Child sexual mutilation? Can you imagine 10 or 15 years ago, you'd have to say that, nobody would think child sexual mutilation. We're gonna to stop it. It's unbelievable. And there are people that don't want you to stop it, that's the more incredible part. There's a lobby out there that's powerful as hell. I mean, they're trying to destroy our country.

In addition, I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate from kindergarten all the way through college [cheers and applause]. As I announced this month, to continue my long record of standing up to Big Pharma, I will establish a special presidential Commission, which I had before.

We were doing so well. Big Pharma hated me. You know how you can tell? Take a look at how much money they gave me and take a look at how much money they gave to the Democrats. They hated me. And the FDA hated me 'cuz nobody ever pushed the FDA like I did. I said, why do you have to wait seven years, eight years, to get something that's working really well? Why do you have to wait? Very bureaucratic. They hated me.

A special Presidential Commission to investigate what is causing the decades long increase in childhood diseases, autoimmune disorders, autism, obesity, infertility and other chronic health problems. Why is this happening at this level?

Just as I did four years – for four years, I did this. I will fully uphold the Second Amendment. I will uphold the Second amendment [cheers and applause]. I've had support from every gun group. And that hasn't been that easy. That hasn't been that easy. There's a big lobby against, but I held so strong. Sometimes it wasn't the easiest thing. I will fully uphold and protect your Second Amendment.

I will defend innocent life. Nobody did what I've done for innocent life. Nobody even came close. I will bring back free speech in America, and that is what we must do to restore our country to greatness. The USA is a mess. It's a total mess. Our economy is crashing, inflation is out of control.

China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have formed together, in menacing and destructive coalition. Not even believable that Russia and China would be together. They're natural enemies because of their land, they're natural. Joe Biden and Obama pushed them together. No reason for it. Amazing that it happened, but now they're together and it is menacing. Our currency is crashing and will soon no longer be the world's standard, which will be the greatest defeat that we've had in 200 years. If that happens, we become a complete third-world nation.

And if you look at our airports today, and you look at all of the problems we have at the border and with our elections, we are indeed a third-world nation. But I won't let these things happen with me, ot even a chance. Just like Russia, as I said, would never, ever have even thought about going into Ukraine. And I talked about Putin, he understood the consequences. And China, would not have even given a thought about raiding Taiwan. And that's right now all they think about. If you took the five worst presidents in the history of the United States and added them up, they would not have done near the destruction to our country as Joe Biden and the Biden administration have done, they wouldn't have [cheers and applause].

We are a failing nation. We are a nation in decline. And now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement. It's totally corrupt and we will never let it happen. This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the war mongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the communists, and Marxists and fascists, and we will throw off the sick political class that hates our country [cheers and applause]. We will route the fake news media, and we will defeat Crooked Joe Biden. We will liberate America from these villains once and for all [cheers and applause].

The great silent majority is rising like never before. And under our leadership, the forgotten man and woman, will be forgotten no longer. We will make sure that our great, wonderful, beautiful, forgotten men and women, will not be forgotten any longer. With your help, with your love, and your vote, we will win Michigan and we will make America great again [cheers and applause]. Thank you. God bless you. God bless Michigan and God Bless America. Thank you everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you [cheers and applause].