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Wow. Whoa. That is some group of people. Thousands. So nice, thank you very much. That's really nice. Thank you. It's great to be at Trump Tower. It's great to be in a wonderful city, New York. And it's an honor to have everybody here. This is beyond anybody's expectations. There's been no crowd like this. And, I can tell, some of the candidates, they went in. They didn't know the air conditioner didn't work. They sweated like dogs. They didn't know the room was too big, because they didn't have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS? I don't think it's gonna happen. Our country is in serious trouble. We don't have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don't have them. When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let's say, China in a trade deal? They kill us. I beat China all the time. All the time. When did we beat Japan at anything? They send their cars over by the millions, and what do we do? When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn't exist, folks. They beat us all the time. When do we beat Mexico at the border? They're laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. But they're killing us economically. The US has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems. Thank you. It's true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we're getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They're sending us not the right people. It's coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all over South and Latin America, and it's coming probably, probably, from the Middle East. But we don't know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don't know what's happening. And it's got to stop and it's got to stop fast. Islamic terrorism is eating up large portions of the Middle East. They've become rich. I'm in competition with them. They just built a hotel in Syria. Can you believe this? They built a hotel. When I have to build a hotel, I pay interest. They don't have to pay interest, because they took the oil that, when we left Iraq, I said we should've taken. So now ISIS has the oil, and what they don't have, Iran has. And in 19, and I will tell you this, and I said it very strongly, years ago, I said, and I love the military, and I want to have the strongest military that we've ever had, and we need it more now than ever. But I said, Don't hit Iraq, because you're going to totally destabilize the Middle East. Iran is going to take over the Middle East, Iran and somebody else will get the oil, and it turned out that Iran is now taking over Iraq. Think of it. Iran is taking over Iraq, and they're taking it over big league. We spent $2 trillion in Iraq, $2 trillion. We lost thousands of lives, thousands in Iraq. We have wounded soldiers, who I love, I love, they're great, all over the place, thousands and thousands of wounded soldiers. And we have nothing. We can't even go there. We have nothing. And every time we give Iraq equipment, the first time a bullet goes off in the air, they leave it. Last week, I read 2300 Humvees, these are big vehicles, were left behind for the enemy. 2000? You would say maybe two, maybe four? 2300 sophisticated vehicles, they ran, and the enemy took them. Last quarter, it was just announced our gross domestic product, a sign of strength, right? But not for us. It was below zero. Whoever heard of this? It's never below zero. Our labor participation rate was the worst since 1978. But think of it, GDP below zero, horrible labor participation rate. And our real unemployment is anywhere from 18 to 20 percent. Don't believe the 5. Don't believe it. That's right. A lot of people up there can't get jobs. They can't get jobs, because there are no jobs, because China has our jobs and Mexico has our jobs. They all have jobs. But the real number, the real number is anywhere from 18 to 19 and maybe even 21 percent, and nobody talks about it, because it's a statistic that's full of nonsense. Our enemies are getting stronger and stronger by the way, and we as a country are getting weaker. Even our nuclear arsenal doesn't work. It came out recently they have equipment that is 30 years old. They don't know if it worked. And I thought it was horrible when it was broadcast on television, because boy, does that send signals to Putin and all of the other people that look at us and they say, That is a group of people, and that is a nation that truly has no clue. They don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing. We have a disaster called the big lie: Obamacare. Obamacare. Yesterday, it came out that costs are going for people up 29, 39, 49, and even 55 percent, and deductibles are through the roof. You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high, it's virtually useless. It's virtually useless. It is a disaster. And remember the $5 billion website? $5 billion we spent on a website, and to this day it doesn't work. A $5 billion website. I have so many websites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a website. It costs me $3. $5 billion website. Well, you need somebody, because politicians are all talk, no action. Nothing's gonna get done. They will not bring us, believe me, to the promised land. They will not. As an example, I've been on the circuit making speeches, and I hear my fellow Republicans. And they're wonderful people. I like them. They all want me to support them. They don't know how to bring it about. They come up to my office. I'm meeting with three of them in the next week. And they don't know, Are you running? Are you not running? Could we have your support? What do we do? How do we do it? I like them. And I hear their speeches. And they don't talk jobs and they don't talk China. When was the last time you heard China is killing us? They're devaluing their currency to a level that you wouldn't believe. It makes it impossible for our companies to compete, impossible. They're killing us. But you don't hear that from anybody else. You don't hear it from anybody else. And I watch the speeches. I watch the speeches of these people, and they say the sun will rise, the moon will set, all sorts of wonderful things will happen. And people are saying, What's going on? I just want a job. Just get me a job. I don't need the rhetoric. I want a job. And that's what's happening. And it's going to get worse, because remember, Obamacare really kicks in in 2016, 2016. Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him, I actually would say. I have the best courses in the world, so I'd say, you what, if he wants to, I have one right next to the White House, right on the Potomac. If he'd like to play, that's fine. In fact, I'd love him to leave early and play, that would be a very good thing. But Obamacare kicks in in 2016. Really big league. It is going to be amazingly destructive. Doctors are quitting. I have a friend who's a doctor, and he said to me the other day, Donald, I never saw anything like it. I have more accountants than I have nurses. It's a disaster. My patients are beside themselves. They had a plan that was good. They have no plan now. We have to repeal Obamacare, and it can be, and, and it can be replaced with something much better for everybody. Let it be for everybody. But much better and much less expensive for people and for the government. And we can do it. So I've watched the politicians. I've dealt with them all my life. If you can't make a good deal with a politician, then there's something wrong with you. You're certainly not very good. And that's what we have representing us. They will never make America great again. They don't even have a chance. They're controlled fully, they're controlled fully by the lobbyists, by the donors, and by the special interests, fully. Yes, they control them. Hey, I have lobbyists. I have to tell you. I have lobbyists that can produce anything for me. They're great. But you know what? it won't happen. It won't happen. Because we have to stop doing things for some people, but for this country, it's destroying our country. We have to stop, and it has to stop now. Now, our country needs, our country needs a truly great leader, and we need a truly great leader now. We need a leader that wrote The Art of the Deal. We need a leader that can bring back our jobs, can bring back our manufacturing, can bring back our military, can take care of our vets. Our vets have been abandoned. And we also need a cheerleader. You know, when President Obama was elected, I said, Well, the one thing, I think he'll do well. I think he'll be a great cheerleader for the country. I think he'd be a great spirit. He was vibrant. He was young. I really thought that he would be a great cheerleader. He's not a leader. That's true. You're right about that. But he wasn't a cheerleader. He's actually a negative force. He's been a negative force. He wasn't a cheerleader; he was the opposite. We need somebody that can take the brand of the United States and make it great again. It's not great again. We need, we need somebody, we need somebody that literally will take this country and make it great again. We can do that. And, I will tell you, I love my life. I have a wonderful family. They're saying, Dad, you're going to do something that's going to be so tough. You know, all of my life, I've heard that a truly successful person, a really, really successful person and even modestly successful cannot run for public office. Just can't happen. And yet that's the kind of mindset that you need to make this country great again. So ladies and gentlemen. I am officially running. for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again. It can happen. Our country has tremendous potential. We have tremendous people. We have people that aren't working. We have people that have no incentive to work. But they're going to have incentive to work, because the greatest social program is a job. And they'll be proud, and they'll love it, and they'll make much more than they would've ever made, and they'll be, they'll be doing so well, and we're going to be thriving as a country, thriving. It can happen. I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. I tell you that. I'll bring back our jobs from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places. I'll bring back our jobs, and I'll bring back our money. Right now, think of this: We owe China $1 trillion. We owe Japan more than that. So they come in, they take our jobs, they take our money, and then they loan us back the money, and we pay them in interest, and then the dollar goes up so their deal's even better. How stupid are our leaders? How stupid are these politicians to allow this to happen? How stupid are they? I'm going to tell you, thank you. I'm going to tell you a couple of stories about trade, because I'm totally against the trade bill for a number of reasons. Number one, the people negotiating don't have a clue. Our president doesn't have a clue. He's a bad negotiator. He's the one that did Bergdahl. We get Bergdahl, they get five killer terrorists that everybody wanted over there. We get Bergdahl. We get a traitor. We get a no good traitor, and they get the five people that they wanted for years, and those people are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us. That's the negotiator we have. Take a look at the deal he's making with Iran. He makes that deal, Israel maybe won't exist very long. It's a disaster, and we have to protect Israel. But. So we need people, I'm a free trader. But the problem with free trade is you need really talented people to negotiate for you. If you don't have talented people, if you don't have great leadership, if you don't have people that know business, not just a political hack that got the job because he made a contribution to a campaign, which is the way all jobs, just about, are gotten, free trade terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people, but we have people that are stupid. We have people that aren't smart. And we have people that are controlled by special interests. And it's just not going to work. So, here's a couple of stories happened recently. A friend of mine is a great manufacturer. And, you know, China comes over and they dump all their stuff, and I buy it. I buy it, because, frankly, I have an obligation to buy it, because they devalue their currency so brilliantly, they just did it recently, and nobody thought they could do it again. But with all our problems with Russia, with all our problems with everything, everything, they got away with it again. And it's impossible for our people here to compete. So I want to tell you this story. A friend of mine who's a great manufacturer, calls me up a few weeks ago. He's very upset. I said, What's your problem? He said, You know, I make great product. And I said, I know. I know that because I buy the product. He said, I can't get it into China. They won't accept it. I sent a boat over and they actually sent it back. They talked about environmental, they talked about all sorts of crap that had nothing to do with it. I said, Oh, wait a minute, that's terrible. Does anyone know this? He said, Yeah, they do it all the time with other people. I said, They send it back? Yeah. So I finally got it over there and they charged me a big tariff. They're not supposed to be doing that. I told them. Now, they do charge you tariff on trucks, when we send trucks and other things over there. Ask Boeing. They wanted Boeing's secrets. They wanted their patents and all their secrets before they agreed to buy planes from Boeing. Hey, I'm not saying they're stupid. I like China. I sell apartments for, I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them? I own a big chunk of the Bank of America Building at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, that I got from China in a war. Very valuable. I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower. I love China. People say, Oh, you don't like China? No, I love them. But their leaders are much smarter than our leaders, and we can't sustain ourself with that. There's too much, it's like, it's like take the New England Patriots and Tom Brady and have them play your high school football team. That's the difference between China's leaders and our leaders. They are ripping us. We are rebuilding China. We're rebuilding many countries. China, you go there now, roads, bridges, schools, you never saw anything like it. They have bridges that make the George Washington Bridge look like small potatoes. And they're all over the place. We have all the cards, but we don't know how to use them. We don't even know that we have the cards, because our leaders don't understand the game. We could turn off that spigot by charging them tax until they behave properly. Now they're going militarily. They're building a military island in the middle of the South China sea. A military island. Now, our country could never do that because we'd have to get environmental clearance, and the environmentalist wouldn't let our country, we would never build in an ocean. They built it in about one year, this massive military port. They're building up their military to a point that is very scary. You have a problem with ISIS. You have a bigger problem with China. And, in my opinion, the new China, believe it or not, in terms of trade, is Mexico. So this man tells me about the manufacturing. I say, That's a terrible story. I hate to hear it. But I have another one, Ford. So Mexico takes a company, a car company that was going to build in Tennessee, rips it out. Everybody thought the deal was dead. Reported it in the Wall Street Journal recently. Everybody thought it was a done deal. It's going in and that's going to be it, going into Tennessee. Great state, great people. All of a sudden, at the last moment, this big car manufacturer, foreign, announces they're not going to Tennessee. They're gonna spend their $1 billion in Mexico instead. Not good. Now, Ford announces a few weeks ago that Ford is going to build a $2 billion car and truck and parts manufacturing plant in Mexico. $2 billion, it's going to be one of the largest in the world. Ford. Good company. So I announced that I'm running for president. I would.. one of the early things I would do, probably before I even got in, and I wouldn't even use, you know, I have, I know the smartest negotiators in the world. I know the good ones. I know the bad ones. I know the overrated ones. You get a lot of them that are overrated. They're not good. They think they are. They get good stories, because the newspapers get buffaloed. But they're not good. But I know the negotiators in the world, and I put them one for each country. Believe me, folks. We will do very, very well, very, very well. But I wouldn't even waste my time with this one. I would call up the head of Ford, who I know. If I was president, I'd say, Congratulations. I understand that you're building a nice $2 billion car factory in Mexico and that you're going to take your cars and sell them to the United States zero tax, just flow them across the border. And you say to yourself, How does that help us, right? How does that help us? Where is that good? It's not. So I would say, Congratulations. That's the good news. Let me give you the bad news. Every car and every truck and every part manufactured in this plant that comes across the border, we're going to charge you a 35 percent tax, and that tax is going to be paid simultaneously with the transaction, and that's it. Now, here's what is going to happen. If it's not me in the position, it's one of these politicians that we're running against, you know, the 400 people that we're. And here's what's going to happen. They're not so stupid. They know it's not a good thing, and they may even be upset by it. But then they're going to get a call from the donors or probably from the lobbyist for Ford and say, You can't do that to Ford, because Ford takes care of me and I take care of you, and you can't do that to Ford. And guess what? No problem. They're going to build in Mexico. They're going to take away thousands of jobs. It's very bad for us. So under President Trump, here's what would happen: The head of Ford will call me back, I would say within an hour after I told them the bad news. But it could be he'd want to be cool, and he'll wait until the next day. You know, they want to be a little cool. And he'll say, Please, please, please. He'll beg for a little while, and I'll say, No interest. Then he'll call all sorts of political people, and I'll say, Sorry, fellas. No interest, because I don't need anybody's money. It's nice. I don't need anybody's money. I'm using my own money. I'm not using the lobbyists. I'm not using donors. I don't care. I'm really rich. I. And by the way, I'm not even saying that's the kind of mindset, that's the kind of thinking you need for this country. So, because we got to make the country rich. It sounds crass. Somebody said, Oh, that's crass. It's not crass. We got $18 trillion in debt. We got nothing but problems. We got a military that needs equipment all over the place. We got nuclear weapons that are obsolete. We've got nothing. We've got Social Security that's going to be destroyed if somebody like me doesn't bring money into the country. All these other people want to cut the hell out of it. I'm not going to cut it at all; I'm going to bring money in, and we're going to save it. But here's what's going to happen: After I'm called by 30 friends of mine who contributed to different campaigns, after I'm called by all of the special interests and by the, the donors and by the lobbyists, and they have zero chance at convincing me, zero, I'll get a call the next day from the head of Ford. He'll say. Please reconsider, I'll say no. He'll say, Mr. President, we've decided to move the plant back to the United States, and we're not going to build it in Mexico. That's it. They have no choice. They have no choice. There are hundreds of things like that. I'll give you another example. Saudi Arabia, they make $1 billion a day. $1 billion a day. I love the Saudis. Many are in this building. They make a billion dollars a day. Whenever they have problems, we send over the ships. We say we're gonna protect. What are we doing? They've got nothing but money. If the right person asked them, they'd pay a fortune. They wouldn't be there except for us. And believe me, you look at the border with Yemen. You remember Obama a year ago, Yemen was a great victory. Two weeks later, the place was blown up. Everybody got out, and they kept our equipment. They always keep our equipment. We ought to send used equipment, right? They always keep our equipment. We ought to send some real junk, because, frankly, it would be, we ought to send our surplus. We're always losing this gorgeous brand new stuff. But look at that border with Saudi Arabia. Do you really think that these people are interested in Yemen? Saudi Arabia without us is gone. They're gone. And I'm the one that made all of the right predictions about Iraq. You know, all of these politicians that I'm running against now, it's so nice to say I'm running as opposed to if I run, if I run. I'm running. But all of these politicians that I'm running against now, they're trying to disassociate. I mean, you looked at Bush, it took him five days to answer the question on Iraq. He couldn't answer the question. He didn't know. I said, Is he intelligent? Then I looked at Rubio. He was unable to answer the question, is Iraq a good thing or bad thing? He didn't know. He couldn't answer the question. How are these people gonna lead us? How are we gonna, how are we gonna go back and make it great again? We can't. They don't have a clue. They can't lead us. They can't. They can't even answer simple questions. It was terrible. But Saudi Arabia is in big, big trouble. Now, thanks to fracking and other things, the oil is all over the place. And I used to say it, there are ships at sea, and this was during the worst crisis, that were loaded up with oil, and the cartel kept the price up, because, again, they were smarter than our leaders. They were smarter than our leaders. There is so much wealth out there that can make our country so rich again, and therefore make it great again. Because we need money. We're dying. We're dying. We need money. We have to do it. And we need the right people. So Ford will come back. They'll all come back. And I will say this, this is going to be an election, in my opinion, that's based on competence. Somebody said, thank you, darlin'. Somebody said to me the other day, a reporter, a very nice reporter, But, Mr. Trump, you're not a nice person. That's true. But actually I am. I think I am a nice person. People that know me, like me. Does my family like me? I think so, right. Look at my family. I'm proud of my family. By the way, speaking of my family, Melania, Barron, Kai, Donnie, Don, Vanessa, Tiffany, Evanka did a great job. Did she do a great job? Great. Jared, Laura and Eric, I'm very proud of my family. They're a great family. So the reporter said to me the other day, But, Mr. Trump, you're not a nice person. How can you get people to vote for you? I said, I don't know. I said, I think that number one, I am a nice person. I give a lot of money away to charities and other things. I think I'm actually a very nice person. But, I said, This is going to be an election that's based on competence, because people are tired of these nice people. And they're tired of being ripped off by everybody in the world. And they're tired of spending more money on education than any nation in the world per capita, than any nation in the world, and we are 26th in the world, 25 countries are better than us in education. And some of them are like third world countries. But we're becoming a third word country, because of our infrastructure, our airports, our roads, everything. So one of the things I did, and I said, you know what I'll do. I'll do it. Because a lot of people said, He'll never run. Number one, he won't want to give up his lifestyle. They're right about that, but I'm doing it. Number two, I'm a private company, so nobody knows what I'm worth. And the one thing is that when you run, you have to announce and certify to all sorts of governmental authorities your net worth. So I said, That's OK. I'm proud of my net worth. I've done an amazing job. I started off, thank you, I started off in a small office with my father in Brooklyn and Queens, and my father said, and I love my father. I learned so much. He was a great negotiator. I learned so much just sitting at his feet playing with blocks listening to him negotiate with subcontractors. But I learned a lot. But he used to say, Donald, don't go into Manhattan. That's the big leagues. We don't know anything about that. Don't do it. I said, I gotta go into Manhattan. I gotta build those big buildings. I gotta do it, Dad. I've gotta do it. And after four or five years in Brooklyn, I ventured into Manhattan and did a lot of great deals, the Grand Hyatt Hotel. I was responsible for the convention center on the west side. I did a lot of great deals, and I did them early and young. And now I'm building all over the world, and I love what I'm doing. But they all said, a lot of the pundits on television, Well, Donald will never run, and one of the main reasons is he's private and he's probably not as successful as everybody thinks. So I said to myself, you know, nobody's ever going to know unless I run, because I'm really proud of my success. I really am. I've employed, I've employed tens of thousands of people over my lifetime. That means medical. That means education. That means everything. So a large accounting firm and my accountants have been working for months, because it's big and complex, and they've put together a statement, a financial statement, just a summary. But everything will be filed eventually with the government, and we don't use extensions or anything. We'll be filing it right on time. We don't need anything. And it was even reported incorrectly yesterday, because they said, He had assets of $9 billion. So I said, No, that's the wrong number. That's the wrong number. Not assets. So they put together this. And before I say it, I have to say this. I made it the old fashioned way. It's real estate. You know, it's real estate. It's labor, and it's unions good and some bad and lots of people that aren't in unions, and it's all over the place and building all over the world. And I have assets, big accounting firm, one of the most highly respected, 9 billion 240 million dollars. And I have liabilities of about $500 million. That's long term debt, very low interest rates. In fact, one of the big banks came to me and said, Donald, you don't have enough borrowings. Could we loan you $4 billion? I said, I don't need it. I don't want it. And I've been there. I don't want it. But in two seconds, they give me whatever I wanted. So I have a total net worth, and now with the increase, it'll be well over $10 billion. But here, a total net worth of net worth, not assets, not, a net worth, after all debt, after all expenses, the greatest assets, Trump Tower, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, Bank of America building in San Francisco, 40 Wall Street, sometimes referred to as the Trump building right opposite the New York, many other places all over the world. So the total is $873754000. Now I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that to brag, because you know what? I don't have to brag. I don't have to, believe it or not. I'm doing that to say that that's the kind of thinking our country needs. We need that thinking. We have the opposite thinking. We have losers. We have losers. We have people that don't have it. We have people that are morally corrupt. We have people that are selling this country down the drain. So I put together this statement, and the only reason I'm telling you about it today is because we really do have to get going, because if we have another three or four years, you know, we're at $8 trillion now. We're soon going to be at $20 trillion. According to the economists, who I'm not big believers in, but, nevertheless, this is what they're saying, that $24 trillion, we're very close, that's the point of no return. $24 trillion. We will be there soon. That's when we become Greece. That's when we become a country that's unsalvageable. And we're gonna be there very soon. We're gonna be there very soon. So, just to sum up, I would do various things very quickly. I would repeal and replace the big lie, Obamacare. I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words. Nobody would be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump. Nobody. I will find, within our military, I will find the General Patton or I will find General MacArthur, I will find the right guy. I will find the guy that's going to take that military and make it really work. Nobody, nobody will be pushing us around. I will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. And we won't be using a man like Secretary Kerry that has absolutely no concept of negotiation, who's making a horrible and laughable deal, who's just being tapped along as they make weapons right now, and then goes into a bicycle race at 72 years old, and falls and breaks his leg. I won't be doing that. And I promise I will never be in a bicycle race. That I can tell you. I will immediately terminate President Obama's illegal executive order on immigration, immediately. Fully support and back up the Second Amendment. Now, it's very interesting. Today I heard it. Through stupidity, in a very, very hard core prison, interestingly named Clinton, two vicious murderers, two vicious people escaped, and nobody knows where they are. And a woman was on television this morning, and she said, You know, Mr. Trump, and she was telling other people, and I actually called her, and she said, You know, Mr. Trump, I always was against guns. I didn't want guns. And now since this happened, it's up in the prison area, my husband and I are finally in agreement, because he wanted the guns. We now have a gun on every table. We're ready to start shooting. I said, Very interesting. So protect the Second Amendment. End, end Common Core. Common Core should, it is a disaster. Bush is totally in favor of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favor of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it. We have to end education has to be local. Rebuild the country's infrastructure. Nobody can do that like me. Believe me. It will be done on time, on budget, way below cost, way below what anyone ever thought. I look at the roads being built all over the country, and I say I can build those things for one third. What they do is unbelievable, how bad. You know, we're building on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Old Post Office, we're converting it into one of the world's great hotels. It's gonna be the best hotel in Washington, DC We got it from the General Services Administration in Washington. The Obama administration. We got it. It was the most highly sought after, or one of them, but I think the most highly sought after project in the history of General Services. We got it. People were shocked, Trump got it. Well, I got it for two reasons. Number one, we're really good. Number two, we had a really good plan. And I'll add in the third, we had a great financial statement. Because the General Services, who are terrific people, by the way, and talented people, they wanted to do a great job. And they wanted to make sure it got built. So we have to rebuild our infrastructure, our bridges, our roadways, our airports. You come into La Guardia Airport, it's like we're in a third world country. You look at the patches and the 40 year old floor. They throw down asphalt, and they throw. You look at these airports, we are like a third world country. And I come in from China and I come in from Qatar and I come in from different places, and they have the most incredible airports in the world. You come to back to this country and you have LAX, disaster. You have all of these disastrous airports. We have to rebuild our infrastructure. Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it. Get rid of the fraud. Get rid of the waste and abuse, but save it. People have been paying it for years. And now many of these candidates want to cut it. You save it by making the United States, by making us rich again, by taking back all of the money that's being lost. Renegotiate our foreign trade deals. Reduce our $18 trillion in debt, because, believe me, we're in a bubble. We have artificially low interest rates. We have a stock market that, frankly, has been good to me, but I still hate to see what's happening. We have a stock market that is so bloated. Be careful of a bubble because what you've seen in the past might be small potatoes compared to what happens. So be very, very careful. And strengthen our military and take care of our vets. So, so important. Sadly, the American dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and we will make America great again. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. That's so nice. Isn't he a great guy. He doesn't get a fair press; he doesn't get it. It's just not fair. And I have to tell you I'm here, and very strongly here, because I have great respect for Steve King and have great respect likewise for Citizens United, David and everybody, and tremendous resect for the Tea Party. Also, also the people of Iowa. They have something in common. Hard working people. They want to work, they want to make the country great. I love the people of Iowa. So that's the way it is. Very simple. With that said, our country is really headed in the wrong direction with a president who is doing an absolutely terrible job. The world is collapsing around us, and many of the problems we've caused. Our president is either grossly incompetent, a word that more and more people are using, and I think I was the first to use it, or he has a completely different agenda than you want to know about, which could be possible. In any event, Washington is broken, and our country is in serious trouble and total disarray. Very simple. Politicians are all talk, no action. They are all talk and no action. And it's constant; it never ends. And I'm a conservative, actually very conservative, and I'm a Republican. And I'm very disappointed by our Republican politicians. Because they let the president get away with absolute murder. You see always, oh we're going to do this, we're going to,. Nothing ever happens; nothing ever happens. You look at Obamacare. A total catastrophe and by the way it really kicks in in 2016 and it is going to be a disaster. People are closing up shops. Doctors are quitting the business. I have a friend of mine who's a doctor, a very good doctor, a very successful guy. He said, I have more accountants than I have patients. And he needs because it is so complicated and so terrible and he's never had that before and he's going to close up his business. And he was very successful guy. But it's happening more and more. Look at Obamacare with a $5 billion website. I have many websites, many, many websites. They're all over the place. But for $10, okay? Now everything about Obamacare was a lie. It was a filthy lie. And when you think about it, lies, I mean are they prosecuted? Does anyone do anything? And what are the Republican politicians doing about it? He lied about the doctor, he lied about every aspect. You can keep your plan. And you've all heard that hundreds of times. That's like the real estate location, location. I don't even say it anymore because everybody goes location, location. But you have heard this about Obamacare. And it's disgraceful. It's a big, fat, horrible lie. Your deductibles are going through the roof. You're not going to get, unless you're hit by an army tank, you're not going to get coverage. And people that had plans that they loved, that they really loved, don't have those plans anymore. So it's a real, real disaster. And somebody has to repeal and replace Obamacare. And they have to do it fast and not just talk about it. Now, we have to build a fence. And it's got to be a beauty. Who can build better than Trump? I build; it's what I do. I build; I build nice fences, but I build great buildings. Fences are easy, believe me. I saw the other day on television people just walking across the border. They're walking. The military is standing there holding guns and people are just walking right in front, coming into our country. It is so terrible. It is so unfair. It is so incompetent. And we don't have the best coming in. We have people that are criminals, we have people that are crooks. You can certainly have terrorists. You can certainly have Islamic terrorists. You can have anything coming across the border. We don't do anything about it. So I would say that if I run and if I win, I would certainly start by building a very, very powerful border. Again, the politicians talk about it and they do nothing about it. Benghazi. Oh, Benghazi, Benghazi. Everything is Benghazi. What happens? Nothing. IRS, e mails. I get sued all the time, okay. I run a big business. You know I've always said it's very, very hard for a person who is very successful. I have done so many deals. Almost all of them have been tremendously successful. You'll see that when I file my statements. I mean you will see; you will be very proud of me, okay. But I've always said, and I said it strongly, it's very hard for somebody that does tremendous numbers of deals to run for politics, run for political office, any office, let alone president. Because you've done so much; you've beaten so many people; you've created so many, Look, Obama, what did he do? No deal. He never did a deal. He did one deal. A house. And if you did that house you'd be in jail right now, okay. He got away with murder. But I can tell you, e mails. IRS, the e mails, thousands of them, they were lost; they were lost. If you were in my world you would know that e mails can't be lost; they can't be lost. So why aren't our politicians finding out where those e mails are? They talk about executive orders and they talk about immigration and they talk about oh well we have to stop the border; that's the end of it. Believe me if I did something you would have a border that would be great. But they talk about it. And then you have a president that does an executive order. Nobody even heard of an executive order. He does it to let people come in and nobody does anything about executive orders. Why didn't they go to court and ask for declaratory judgment, which is something that when you know somebody is going to go after you and when it's in writing, and he's been saying it for a long time; he said, I'm going to approve this and that, why didn't our Republicans go in and get a declaratory judgment from the courts because you could have started the process six months earlier. Instead they have a weak lawsuit, that probably the time it's finished, I know so much about this, six, seven, eight years from now everyone's going to forget about it. We'll be into a different mode, and our country will be further destroyed. So we have to do something. Jobs. China. I mean I've made so much money fighting against the Chinese. One of the best deals I ever did was against the Chinese, and they respect me for it. And I know them. And they say, we can't believe what we're getting away with. We can't believe how stupid your leaders are. They tell me that. Now they don't know I'm going to go and make a speech about it, but why not. But they tell me that. And by the way, especially for the folks here that sell so much, goods, I mean the goods you sell are incredible; I don't know if you've been watching what's happening with the devaluations of so many countries. The Euro, China is going crazy with the devaluation. I never thought that they'd have the guts to do what they're doing. They are devaluing down to nothing. And what it's going to do is make it impossible for you to sell your product; it's going make it impossible for you to compete. And they're getting away with it. And they wouldn't have even done it two years ago, but now they feel we're so weak and we have so many different problems all over the world that they can do it. But you watch this devaluation of all of it. I mean the Euro, China, Mexico; everybody is devaluing. And when you hear the dollar is getting stronger, it sounds good. You know it's one of those things, sounds good. Be very careful. Be very careful. Because we're just going to lose more and more business to these foreign countries that really know what they are doing. They have it set. Don't forget another thing. China became the number one economic power a year ago. That was unthinkable; to think that that was going to happen. It was absolutely unthinkable. So it happened and it's very, very sad. Now we spent $2 trillion in Iraq. We got nothing. They don't even respect us; they don't even care about us. Until they started getting their ass kicked, and call, oh please come back and help us. We want you out; then all of the sudden a new group forms, ISIS. By the way, you know how they formed. They took the oil. And for those of you that know and love Donald Trump, there are some of you, have I been saying for four years, keep the oil. So now ISIS has the oil. And the stuff that ISIS doesn't have, Iran is going to take. So we get nothing. We have $2 trillion and we have thousands of lives lost, thousands, and we have, what do we have. I mean I walk down the streets of New York and I see so many wounded warriors, incredible people. And we have to help those people, we have to help our vets, we have to help our military, we have to build our military. But, and we have to do it fast; we have to do it fast. We have incompetent people. They put people in charge that have no clue what they're doing. It needs money. We have to make our country rich again so we do that, so we can save Social Security. because I'm not a cutter; I'll probably be the only Republican that does not want to cut Social Security. I'm not a cutter of Social Security; I want to make the country rich so that Social Security can be afforded, and Medicare and Medicaid. Get rid of the waste, get rid of the fraud, but you deserve your Social Security; you've been paying your Security. And like, I like Congressman Ryan, I like a lot of the people that are talking about you know cutting Social Security, and by the way the Democrats are eating your lunch on this issue. It's an issue that you're not going to win; you've got to make the country rich again and strong again so that you can afford it, and so you can afford military, and all of the other things. Now, we have a game changer now, and the game changer is nuclear weapons. We really do have to get strong, and we have to get strong fast. We can't let Iran get a nuclear weapon. We can't do it. Can't do it. We cannot let that happen. You know in the old days, I would have said 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 30 years ago, pull out and let them fight each other. Here we are in Syria. We're fighting people that want to overturn Syria. Think of this. We're fighting ISIS, but ISIS wants to overturn the government. Maybe you let them fight for a little while and then you take out the one that remains, okay. But think of it; think of it. ISIS is fighting them and we are bombing the hell out of them, but we want Syria to fall. There are so many things; there are so many things. But the one game changer that we have to be careful with, that we never really had to think about too much before, other than a cetain number of years ago, is the nuclear. Nuclear today, it's not like soldiers in uniforms shooting rifles. You can take out the East Coast of this country, you can take out large sections of the Midwest, you can take out things that were unthinkable. The power. And we have to be in a position where that never, ever, ever, every happens. We've never had this before. We have a situation in Afghanistan; we're spending tremendous amounts of money there. We're trying to do the right thing. We have leadership, again, no leadership respects us. You know, leadership of other places never respect stupid people, okay, that's one thing you're going to find. The same thing is happening there. And I never knew that Afghanistan until a year ago or so, Afghanistan has tremendous wealth in minerals, different, not the oil, but minerals. And we're fighting here, and on the other side of the mountain China is taking out all the minerals. They're taking it out. Trillion of dollars and millions of dollars of minerals. So we're fighting here and they are taking it out, looking at us and saying thank you very much sucker. It's really, really crazy. So we have to rebuild quickly our infrastructure of this country. If we don't, The other day in Ohio a bridge collapsed. Bridges are collapsing all over the country. The reports on bridges and the like are unbelievable, what's happening with our infrastructure. I go to Saudi Arabia, I go to Dubai; I am doing big jobs in Dubai. I go to various different places. I go to China. They are building a bridge on every corner. They have bridges that make the George Washington Bridge like small time stuff. They're building the most incredible things you have ever seen. They are building airports in Qatar, which they like to say cutter but I've always said Qatar so I'll keep it Qatar what the hell. But they're building, they're building an airport and have just completed an airport the likes of which you have never seen, in Dubai an airport the likes of which you have never seen. And then I come back to LaGuardia where the runways have potholes. The place is falling apart. You go into the main terminal and they have a terraza floor that's so old it's falling apart. And they have a hole in it, and they replace it with asphalt. So you have a white terraza floor and they put asphalt all over the place. This is inside, not outside. And I just left Dubai where they have the most incredible thing you've ever seen. In fact my pilot said oh Mr. Trump this is such an honor. I said it's not an honor; they're just smart. But you look at LAX, and you look at Kennedy Airport, and you look at our airports generally, you look at our roadways where they're crumbling. You look at all of the things that are bad, I'll give you an example. And this isn't part of what I was going to say, but I ride down the highways and somebody makes those guard rails. You know the guard rails. The ones that sort of go like this that are always bent, rusted and horrible. Did you ever see more than like 20 feet which isn't corroded, or bent or the heat, if it gets too hot, it just crushes. Now they've been selling this thing for 25 years. Why doesn't someone stop them and get something that works. Because they don't know; they don't know what's happening. Somebody made a lot of money on that. They don't know what is happening. So we have to make our country great again. We have to rebuild our country. And we have a long way to go. We are just in such serious trouble because we owe so much money. Now we owe it to the Chinese, a lot of it. We owe it to other countries. They're the ones that hold the debt. And then we give them money. We have countries that we owe money to and yet we're giving them subsidies. I just ordered thousands of television sets and between LG and Samsung and I mean you know, No American company comes to see and comes to bid. It's South Korea, and whenever they have a problem we send the battleships, we send the destroyers, we send our airplanes, we're going to protect them. What are we doing; why aren't they paying us? Why aren't they paying us; what are we doing? I order thousands and thousands of sets all the time, for some reason it's South Korea. You know whether it's China, South Korea, but in this case televisions, South Korea. Why aren't they doing something to justify what is going on? Now, we have a very important election coming up. We have a presidential election coming up. And we have some good people. Nobody like Trump of course, but these are minor details. We have some good people. It' can't be Mitt because Mitt ran and failed. He failed. I mean I liked him. Look, like him, dislike him, the 47 percent statement that he made, that's not going away. The Romneycare from Massachusetts, that's not going away. What do you think they're going to say oh we won't bring that up this time. It's not fair because it was a long t, That doesn't work. But more importantly, he choked. Something happened to him in the last month. He had that election won. And let me tell you something. That election, sort of like a dealmaker that can't close the deal. I know many of those guys; they get it up to the one yard line, they go ah, ah I can't close it. Or a golfer that can't sink the three footer to win the tournament. And there are many of them. Most people are like that; I mean most people are like that. You can't give somebody another chance, because actually I think this election is tougher to win than beating a failed president. I really do. I think beating Obama would have been a much easier one than the one that's coming up, which is sad to say but true. So you can't have Romney. He choked. You can't have Bush. The last thing we need is another Bush. Now I made that statement very strongly, and now every one says the last thing, You know they copied it. I'll be accused of copying the statement; that's the bad thing. But I said it. I was the one that said it first, and I mean it. The last thing we need is another Bush. Now, he's totally in favor of Common Core; that's a disaster, that's bad, it should be local and all of that. But he's totally in favor of Common Core. He's very, very weak on immigration. Don't forget, remember his statement, they come for love. I say, what? Come for love? You've got these people coming, half of them are criminals. They're coming for love? They're coming for a lot of other reasons, and it's not love. And when he runs, you got to remember his brother really gave us Obama. I was never a big fan, but his brother gave us Obama. because Abraham Lincoln coming home back from the dead could not have won the election because it was going so badly and the economy was just absolutely in shambles that last couple of months. And then he appointed Justice Roberts. And Jeb wanted Justice Roberts. And Justice Roberts basically approved Obamacare in a shocking decision that nobody believes. So you can't have Jeb Bush. And he's going to lose aside from that; he's not going to win. So Mitt and, you just can't have those two. That's it. That's it. It's so simple. So just in summing up and I just wrote a few of these little points down because it's very important. And I watch these teleprompters, and by the way I think any president candidate that runs should not be allowed to use a teleprompter, because we got one that uses teleprompters. And people say, oh he is so quick on his feet. He is reading it. I mean give me a break. Everything is read. You don't really test the mettle of a man or a woman unless they can get up on stage and talk. And that's what we ended up getting, the king of teleprompters. But, so when I look at these things here I say you know what, it's so much easier, it would be so nice, just bah, pa, bah, pa, bah, bing, bing, bing. No problems, get off stage, everybody falls asleep and that's the end of that. But we have to do something about these teleprompters. But in looking at these situations, I built an incredible company. And you'll see that. An incredible company; a wonderful company. I employ thousands of people and I love doing what I'm doing. And in a certain way, I wish I weren't doing this, but our country is in such trouble and would be so easy to fix. We have such great potential. So if I run for president and if I win, I would totally succeed in: creating jobs; defeating ISIS and stopping the Islamic terrorists, and you have to do that; reducing the budget deficit, so important, have to do it; securing our Southern border, and I mean seriously securing it; stopping nuclear weapons in Iran and elsewhere; saving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, without cutting it down to the bone because it's not fair to people that have been paying for their whole lives and other people and it's not fair to future people coming up, and we can do it; repealing Obamacare and replacing it with something far better for the people, and far less expensive, both for the people and for the country. And believe me there are plans that are so much better for everybody. And everybody can be covered. I'm not saying leave 50 percent of the people out. Everybody can be c, This plan is just a basic disaster. Nobody knows. As bad as the website was, this is how bad the plan itself is; fixing our country's infrastructure, our bridges, our schools, our highways, our airports. And that, I can tell you, nobody is close to Trump. I just got the best hotel in North America. I'm building, which is sort of interesting, think of this one. I'm building one of the great hotels of the world on Pennsylvania Avenue, right opposite the White House, between the White House and Congress. Right on Penn., The Old Post Office site, and I got it from Obama. Do you believe that? And everybody wanted it. So, I can't believe it myself. But it's going to be fantastic; and so many other things. I know what needs to be done to make America great again. We can make this country great again. The potential is enormous. And I am serious thinking of running for president because I can do the job. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Beautiful. Thank you. We have so many problems in this country. We'll talk about a few of them. And we'll celebrate because ultimately, we're going to have victory. We're going to have victory. This is a movement that's happening. I had a lawyer come up to see me a little while ago that said Mr. Trump, I've been doing this for 35 years and never seen what happened here. I got a call from a writer from The New York Times. I have great respect for The New York Times. And called up, I know. I hear that. OK. It's a good story, not a bad story. And he said could I ask you a question? I said what? Very powerful writer, actually. He said how does it feel? How does what feel? He said what you've done has never ever been done before. You've dominated. You have taken over the polls. You know, on television, on FOX and CNN, they call it all Trump all the time. Can you believe it? All trump all the time. And by the way, their ratings are through the roof. If they weren't, they wouldn't put me on. I'll be honest. It's a simple formula in entertainment and television. If you get good ratings, if you get good ratings and these aren't good, these are monster, then you're going to be in all the time even if you have nothing to say. If you come up with a cure for a major, major, horrendous disease and if you don't get ratings, they don't bother even reporting it. It's very simple business. It's very simple. So we've gone on, we've had a lot of fun and now it's time to really start because this is going to happen, I'm telling you, I'm not going anymore. Somebody said today. We're not going anywhere. We are not going anywhere. Somebody said today you've done so well, you don't have to go any further. I said are you crazy? You know what? The writer the Times told me, he said it's been amazing what you've done. I said but I haven't won. We haven't won anything. What if I won? I'm having fun and all, but I haven't won. There's been no victory. He said it doesn't matter. What you've done is incredible. You have won. I said you're wrong, unless I win it's been a waste of time for me, I'll be honest. A total waste of time. I really mean that, too. We should have won, thank you, he said you will win. We should have won last time. Mitt Romney let us down. I mean, he let us down. He let us down. You know, one of the things that I'm really happy about, I'm surging, they said. Can you believe this one? I'm surging with women. Can you believe it? I have such respect for women. I cherish women. I'm going to take such good care of women's health care issues, you won't even believe it, but I'm surging with women. One of the things coming out, I'm watching television and they said Trump is surging with women. I said really? That's amazing. You know, it's incredible. I'll make like statements because, you know, Carly is giving me a little bit of a hard time even though her poll numbers are horrible. She's the one. She was another one. She is surging. Ben is, everybody is surging but me. Hilary is not surging, I tell you that. They are not saying, thank you. Hilary is not surging. Look, I like Carly and I like Ben and I like many of the people that I'm running against. I mean, many of these people are terrific people, but nobody is going to be able to do the job that I'm going to do. Nobody. They won't. They won't. Don't forget, I love these people in back of me. But they won't. I mean, what I do is I do deals. I deal. I have tremendous energy, tremendous to a point where it's almost ridiculous when you think about it. But we need somebody with great energy, with great passion, with great deal making skills. And we need a closer. We need closers. We don't have closers. We just don't have closers. And honestly, they are not deal people. I'll tell you they are good at raising money for their packs or whatever they holding. Probably, they are not supposed to do that but most of them are doing anyway. It's illegal as hell, but I think they are doing it anyway. You notice they have money in the pack but they don't have hard money, but the pack has given them, I say what is going on over here? How come I can't talk to anybody? And again, I have to tell you this, and I want to have your opinion. So I'm self funding I told you. But if I took hundreds of millions, I tell you what, I could have $200 million so fast. If I took that, would you people object if I promise not to do anything from the people I took it from? No? I had a group in Iowa, actually, they were much more vocal about this one issue. And they stood up, no, no, the place, I mean, I realize how important it is, putting your own money in because I'm telling people that Jeb, nice guy, really a nice guy. Jeb is more popular than one person I know. But all of them. I don't want to go through the names. They have money put up in packs or hard money, wherever the money is, believe me, I was the king. I was the king. You know, I was the white haired, no, blonde haired, let's say blonde. But, I was the blonde head. I was perfect. I was the ultimate. I was the ultimate sort of insider. I put up money. They loved me. But then when I said I'm running, they all looked at me like the RNC, Reince is a great guy but it took him a little while because they looked at me like you're not supposed to be doing that. You're supposed to be putting up money. And if you need something in two years, three years, five years, they will do whatever you want. And what happened is I know the system I think better than anybody. I know the tax system. Look, taxes. Who knows better than me? We're going to reduce taxes. We're going to make the hedge fund, any hedge fund guys it would be mostly, you got good seats. Are there any hedge fund guys in this room? If there are, you should probably leave right now. But I have a friend in the hedge fund business, not really a friend. Not actually a nice guy, but it be goof representing us, I will tell you. Because by the time I finish he might not have much of a hedge fund. But I said what did you make last year? He said about $250 million. This is serious. I said, oh, that's a lot of money. What did you pay in taxes? He goes, Don, practically nothing. That was a couple years ago. I never forgot it. The other day he calls me up because he heard me talk about hedge fund guys are going to pay up. And he call up the other day. I was only kidding, you know, when I said that or sort of it. He doesn't know what to do. The truth is they will do just fine. They will do just fine because we'll make the country so successful, they will end up doing better. They will end up doing better. They will end up doing better. But we got to lower taxes for a lot of people. Corporations paying far too much, far too much, middle income people are being decimated, they are being decimated. I mean, we have a group of 200 guys but the middle income in this country is being decimated and we're going to change it. We're going to change it. So I'll be announcing over the next three or so weeks, I'll be announcing, I think a great tax plan. I know the tax code. I know everything about it, probably as well as anybody, there is, right? And we are going to be doing something that's going to be really pro, growth, really reduction in taxes. We're going to get the $2 trillion that's in other countries, we're going to get it back. No, we're going to get it back. And you know, you have corporate inversion. Does anybody know what that means? You know, in the old days people might leave New York for Texas or they may go from New Jersey to Florida or whatever. It's not that way anymore. Now they go from this country to other countries, and they go for two reasons, lower taxes, lower labor, but lower taxes. You have countries that want to charge them nothing. So they take these companies and these guys, they make a fortune, they have no real loyalty in many cases. They have no real loyalty to the United States. They want to show good profit and loss. So they take and go to another country. And all of a sudden their numbers look good. And they can't bring their money back in. And by the way for two and a half, three years, I have seen every politician agrees we should lower the tax on bringing money because it's so onerous that nobody in this room would bring that money back. Everybody says it for two and a half years, Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, everybody, they can't make a deal. They can't make a deal. We have a government that's really messed up because we don't have a leader at the top. A right leader could get it done. The right leader will get it done and you will see numbers like you've never seen before. I actually believe that and we're in trouble. You know, I've made the statement and I've said this before, the American dream is dead but I'm going to make it bigger and better and stronger than ever before. I made that statement. And I'll tell you what happens and it happens a lot. The other day I went home and I said to my wife, what's wrong? Oh, darling, you were very tough. What? What did I do? Of course, it's live television. She said you said the American dream is dead. I said no, I said the American dream is dead but I'm going to make it bigger and better and stronger than ever before. She said no, you didn't. You just said it's dead. So I turn on television, it's wonderful to record this and see it ten hours later. I turn on television and me standing in this big crowd, the American dream is dead. I said, oh. Again, the dishonest media. I went ballistic. I was so angry. But the American dream is going to be better. I tell you what? We can make it better than ever before. We can do, I mean, we're in Texas. We can do things with oil and gas that will be unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Try sending your oil outside of the boundaries of the United States. How ridiculous. And we're sitting on top because of technology, we can be the number one energy producer in the world right here in the United States. But we have our laws, we have everything is wrong. And I have so many friends in the energy business, they are great people, they are working, they are not as rich as they were about two months ago, but these are minor details. They will be fine. But we can do things with energy that will be so, so incredible, which is great for Texas but great for the country. It's great for the country. Now, China, Japan, true, you can't be upset with China or Japan or Mexico. Can't be upset with anyone. You know, when I announced for the presidency, it was very interesting what happened. I made a beautiful speech. I thought it was wonderful. Everything was fine. A week and a half later, they attacked me. In other words they went to. And then they lied. They made it up. I'm talking about illegal immigration. And I brought up a subject called illegal immigration. And I just saw back stage some of the families who were decimated. Their families were decimated, their sons, their daughters killed by illegal immigrants and it's a massive problem. We have to stop illegal immigration. We have to do it. We have to do it. Have to do it. And when I hear some of the people that I'm running against, including the Democrats, we have to build a wall, folks. We have to build a wall. And a wall works. All you have to do is go to Israel and say how is your wall working? Walls work. And I want people to come into the country but I want them to be legal and go through the process. I want them to come in. I want to have a big beautiful door but they have to be legal. They have to be. And if they are not going to be, they can't come in. And I'll tell you what, the first thing we do, you know, people realize, you look at crime in Chicago, you look at crime in so many different places and you see gangs. Many of these gang members are illegal immigrants. They are rough dudes. They will be out of here so freaking fast, And I think a lot of these countries send them in here because they don't want them. What do they want them in prison for 40 years? Look, look, whether it's any country, their leaders are smarter than our leaders. They are more cunning. They are tougher. They are better. And we take them, Kate in San Francisco, this magnificent young woman shot in the back by a guy sent over here probably pushed over, who knows, but he was an illegal immigrant came over, went to San Francisco. We have to end this sanction wary cities crap fast, fast. So he admits he's guilty. Now he's got a lawyer. Oh, he didn't really know. He wasn't aiming there. It was a ricochet, blah, blah, blah. It's disgusting what's happening to our country. We are a dumping ground for the rest of the world. We are a dumping ground. And let me tell you something, the whole subject of anchor babies, did you hear that character from one of the networks? Anchor babies, just really not a nice term. I said what would you do, what would you say? And it gives me like a 12 word definition. I said no, we'll have to use anchor baby. But I don't mean to be disrespectful, but when a man has a problem and he's got his wife or his girlfriend and they move her over to the border for one day, has the baby on the other side of the border, our side, now that baby is a citizen of our country for however long the baby lives, hopefully a long, it's wrong. It's wrong. And by the way, by the way, the law doesn't call that. That's not what the law says and people are finding out now that I'm right. We didn't say that somebody can be pregnant for nine months, come across the border, have a baby and now it's ours and we have to take care of the baby forever. It doesn't say that. It does not say it. So we have to straighten out, we have to straighten out our act. We're going to have a great country. We're going to have a great border. We're going to have a border that's a real border. You people are suffering. I'm in New York but from New York, too. They are all over the place. We want people to be in our country legally. Legally. And we want great people, too. We want people of achievement. If you go to Harvard or Stanford or the Wharton school of finance or any of these schools or Yale and you're the top in your close, you graduate and want to stay in the United States and have your career here, you can't. They throw you out. They put you back in China, they send you back to Mexico. They said those are the people, we need those people. We need them in Silicon Valley. We need in Manhattan. We need them in Dallas. We need them. Why are we throwing them out? They want to be in this country and we throw them out. So we have so many things we can do. So many things we can do. Now I'll give you the little thing that happened the other day. Made a speech on behalf of the tea party. And by the way, the tea party people are fantastic people. They are fantastic people. They love the country so much and you talk about people that get decimated, they just get decimated by the media. These are fantastic people. They love this country. These are the people that we want. But I look at what's going on and I look at what's happening and I made a speech in Washington the other day for the tea party and your senator, too, Senator Cruz who happens to be a good guy. Good guy. Now if he comes out and attacks me on Wednesday night, I will take it back immediately. OK? But he is a good guy. So I'm standing there and the capital building has a massive scaffolding around it, right? Have you seen it? Massive. I said man that's a big deal. As a real estate guy, the thing I do best is build. Hey, wouldn't it be good to have the president that knows how to build? Like I'm so good at it. Infrastructures, roads, airports, highways, I could do it for a fraction. You know, I'm building the old post office on Pennsylvania Avenue under budget ahead schedule, can you believe that? And I got it from the Obama administration and everyone else wanted it, which I still haven't figured out but it's going to be a great hotel. But they are doing the capital building and it has got massive, massive scaffolding. And we are having in 2016, you know, we're going to have a thing called like an election and they say that this massive scaffolding. I heard this the other day from a construction firm that this massive scaffolding, they want to have it for the inauguration, wouldn't that be nice for me? But they want to have all the scaffolding down but they can't do the work because they don't have enough time. They have so much time. What are they doing, caulking, pointing, fixing, structure, what the hell are they doing? It is not a big deal. So they are going to take all of the scaffolding down, paying millions to do that, millions and then after the inauguration, they are going to put it back up again and pay millions of dollars. Do you believe that? Right? Now I say do it simpler, get them to work faster. Do you agree? I like the idea. No, no. I like the idea of the scaffolding being down when they are swearing me in, I do. I don't want to see all the scaffolding all over the place. I want to see that beautiful, I want to see it. I love it. Such a beautiful building. But you know what? I told them, I said why don't you just move faster? Work faster. Get it done. So you take it down and you don't have to put it up. They said we never thought of that. Believe it? But they are going to take it down. They are going to take it down. So they are going to take it down and put it back up. Can you believe this? So let me tell you. I'm going to save my first money for the United States. If I win, I will let the scaffolding stay up, OK? All right? I'll let it stay up. We'll save millions of dollars. So in the pictures, they will have some scaffolding. They can probably no a days do something with that. So in the pictures we'll have scaffolding. So not if I win, stand up, what did you say? Not if you win, when you win. So a story I tell is a friend of mine who is a big manufacturer, great guy. Can't do business with China. Can't get his stuff in there. He calls me, he's depressed. He says to me, Donald, I can't deal with China and he's a good guy, does great stuff, better than they do. I can't sell it. They don't take it. Finally take it and charge a massive tax. A massive tax. Another friend of mine recently, he bought an airplane, a rich guy. Bought like for these people here. They probably all have, but a really good plane. Our country is being drained. Our jobs are being stolen by all these countries, not just them all of them. What would president Trump do? President trump? Trump, trump, trump. What would president Trump do? So I'd call the head of Ford or whatever company. But I'd call the head of Ford. I'd say congratulations. I understand you're building a massive plant in Mexico and you're taking a lot of jobs away from us in Michigan and other places. I don't like that. I don't like it. I just don't like it. And he will say, well, Mr. President, it's wonderful, wonderful for the economy. It's great. It's wonderful. Whose economy? Not for our economy. We lose on everything. We lose on jobs. We lose on money. We lose on everything. So what I'd say is the following, I don't want you to do that. And if you do it, you're not going to have any cars coming across the border unless you pay 35 percent tax. That's it. No, that's it. And they are going to say, they are going to say to me, Mr. President, please, please, please. Now, I guarantee you, let's say I make this call at 9:00 in the morning. By 5:00 in the afternoon I think the deal is done, they move back to the United States. It may take a half a day longer. May be 12:00 the following day, but I guarantee you, so they will, what will happen is I'll be called by lobbyists but not giving me money. I won't take it. So I turned down $5 million last week, $5 million. So I said I can't take it. You know, I go like this. I just close my eyes. You know, it's really sort of not natural to me to turn down money. Does that make, but I turn it down because once I know the game. Once they give you, you sort of owe them, right? You know. How can you tell a guy, you know, you gave me $5 million and helped me get elected and I'm going to hurt you with client. So, what happens, I would say, is that I will get a call from the head of Ford, and he'll say Mr. Trump, you're doing the wrong thing. I'd say, no, no, that's fine. Just do it. Just do what I say. Do what I say. And I guarantee you after I tell all the lobbyists, special interest and people that donate to everybody else but me because I won't take their money, after I tell them all no within a short period of time they will call up and they'll say, Mr. President we decided to move our plant back to the United States, sir. This is going to happen. That's what is going to happen. So, just a couple of more points and you know, it's depressing, isn't it depressing? You know, we're together, we love each other, but it's like depressing if you think about it. Because it doesn't end. I could stand up here all night long, I could tell you stories, they are all depressing. But the good news is, they can all be remedied. Every one of them. They can be remedied. So, Iran deal, Iran deal. They did not read that great book, where is that book? The Art of the Deal. They did not read it. Secretary of State Kerry, he actually may go down as worst than , because he made this deal. He may be the worst. He may top her because this deal is the all time worst. We're giving them 1, think of this, we're actually giving them $150 billion. Now think of it. Think of it. We don't have the right to inspect. We have to wait 24 days but before the clock starts ticking, we have to go through this whole process. I mean they could build their nuclear whatever, distribute and then have plenty of time leftover to clean the place up. So, you have a 24 day period, not anytime, anywhere, which is what it should be. Think of another thing. They have one instance where in a very major area, they self inspect. Now, can you believe this? They do their own inspections. They do their own inspections. And another thing, look, having a good deal, we should have doubled the sanctions, let , wait for another month or two. They would have come and we would have a deal like you've ever seen. We have our chief negotiators, Secretary Kerry at 73 years old goes into a bicycle race. Think of it. He's wearing the whole gear of helmet, he's like , he thinks he's in a bicycle race. He's actually in a race. It wasn't just casual, I could understand that. This is a guy that's in a bicycle race. 73 years old, all the gear, falls, breaks his leg in the middle of our thing. Takes two weeks off, goes back with crutches. The people from Iran say, what a shmuck. Can you believe this? But this is who we negotiate with. Now, think of this, it's embarrassing. Isn't it like embarrassing? How do you , I swear to you if I'm elected as president, I will never go into a bicycle race, I swear. So, but you know, one of the things. But I know the toughest guys in the world. Toughest smartest , I know people that are great. I know people that are overrated, won't use them. I know people that you never heard of better than all of them. I know the toughest guys and the smartest guys in the world. Carl Icahn called me. Carl Icahn is a great guy, very successful. If I put Carl Icahn in charge of trade with China, believe me, believe me, we do great. And, you know, believe me, instead of the people that we have that are political hacks, you know who is negotiating for us? Political hacks, political hacks. I asked for some numbers today before I came here. I said what's the United States trade deficit with China, Japan, and Mexico? Now, listen to these numbers. With China last year, we had a trade deficit of $343 billion. $343 billion. That's gone on for many years. A business that's no good. What do you do, you close it up, you start all over? You forget it. $343 billion. With Japan we're doing much better. It's only $67 billion. I call it that we're losing. Okay? Trade deficit. $67 billion. They send us so much, we send them practically nothing. Now, here is the beauty, Mexico. So Mexico, again, I love the people of Mexico. I respect the leaders. But they are too sharp. They are too good. So everyone said they won't build a wall because I said I'm going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it, right? Right? And all of these weak politicians, they are weak people. They are weak, weak people. They won't pay for it. I watch it on television. The idiots like Karl Rove. He said Mexico is going to pay for the wall. George Will, Mexico won't pay. Okay, think of this. First of all, there is going to be a wall. This isn't one of those deals where they jump over it, they go to Home Depot, buy a ladder, jump over the wall. This is a Trump wall. This is a Trump wall. This is a real wall. You know, you know, the Great Wall of China is 13000 miles. It was built 2000 years ago. It was actually built over a long period of time, but it started 2000 , it's a long time. So 13000 miles. What we're talking about is 2000 miles, but less, maybe 1000 because you'll have a lot of territory where you don't need it. You have natural barricades, you have some walls that were built that are OK. Although, I'd like to be nice in uniform. You know, if I ever put my name on it, I want a gorgeous wall. You know. The Trump wall, that would be a beautiful wall. That's why I have to make it beautiful because some day when I'm gone, they are going to name that wall after Trump, I think. But I listened to these guys, and they say, how stupid , I listened to them today. Some politicians said Trump will never be able to afford the wall. We can't afford it. It's too expensive. It's peanuts. It's peanuts. It's nothing. And Mexico is going to pay. Now, here is the Mexico number, right? Let's say the wall cost $4 billion. You know, they say $10 billion. That means $4 billion if you know what you're doing and the $4 billion will be much bigger, much better, much stronger than the $10 billion. Believe me. Oh, do I know how to build? Greatest. One of the greats. So, let's say it costs $4 or $5 billion. Our trade deficit with Mexico is $53 billion. So four or five billion is peanuts. It's peanuts. Mexico is going to pay and they will be happy. They will be happy. Now, look, if you have some dumb politician negotiating, I agree they won't pay, but when you have Trump negotiating for you on your behalf, they will pay. 100 percent. 100 percent. They're with him all the time, the people that did it. They never said, Hey, boss, uh, we're closing up the George Washington Bridge. No, they never said that, they're talking about the weather? Right? So he knew about it, he knew about it. Totally knew about it. He's got a very friendly group of people over there.. Look, it's called life, you gotta be smart in life. I would say there's less than 1 percent chance. It could be, but I doubt it. He knew about it. They mentioned it. They didn't mention at one of their meetings? I think they had breakfast like every day or every other day. They didn't say, 'Chris, tonight we're closing up the George Washington Bridge because the mayor of a certain area is against you' Oh, OK, they didn't mention it. Nobody believes it. No. 2: Nine downgrades of the state. Nine downgrades, it's a disaster, their property over there. The taxes are through, I'll use an expression: coming out of my ears, OK? Tremendous taxes over there. You had nine downgrades. You had Christie, you know, so friendly with President Obama during the flood. I actually called. I said, Let me ask you, is he going to vote for Obama?' I thought he was going to vote for Obama. I don't know, I thought he possibly did. Romney? I was very disappointed. One of the reasons I was disappointed is he called Christie and they had dinner right after the election. If Christie did that to me, I would have never spoken to him again. I woulda never done it. And he knows it is wrong. He is going to say, no, no, no, we don't want that, Ford. We don't want you to go. We are going to charge you of tax because, you know, the way you do it, you charge a tax. And then he is going to be hit by his lobbyists. They give him millions. He has $135, $140 million. I don't want anything. I don't want money. I'm just taking little small contributions for people. The woman said $7. And I was so, with a beautiful letter. It's amazing. I like that because that's like an investment. That adds up to the fuel for the plane for a trip to Iowa, OK? It all does, but who cares? I don't want that because I don't want to be controlled. Last week, you heard me say this. I turned down $5 million by a big lobbyist. Not a bad person. You know, a tough guy. Not a bad person. But when he gives me $5, he's not doing that because he thinks I have beautiful hair. It's not that bad. And it is my hair. Is it my hair? It is. It is actually. People don't know that. I proved that, you know, in Alabama. It was really hot. It was rainy. I took off my hat and everybody said it is really his hair. It's weird. I don't have to do that tonight. Sort of nice. But you know, so we would go over and the lobbyists would say, no, no, we gave you millions of dollars, Mr. President. And you owe it to Ford. Let. You have the lobbyists. You have. And after about ten minutes he is going to say I can't really do that. They really helped me in my campaign. With me, they're going to call me because I know all these guys. But they never did anything because I don't want money. I turned the money down. I turned down so much money. I feel like such a stupid person. No, it's true. First time in my life I feel stupid. Guys are giving me, offering me millions. Don, I would like to give you million. Wait, I'm telling you, $5 million. I could have it right now and I turn them down. I go back and say, do you think I'm doing the right thing? How about , I will just take a vote. How about if I take all these money and promise, I swear to you, that I won't do anything for these people. What about that? No? That's what I thought. I feel so stupid. But you know what? That's the way it has to be. Because I think one of the things they like about me is they don't, nobody is going to buy me. Nobody is going to buy me. All right. So after about ten minutes, Bush goes out and he says, all right, you can build your plant. Build it. I'm sorry. Please, I dare me. I mean, it was so terrible that I even thought about doing that, you know, because you contributed money. OK. Me, different. I'll call him up and say I have to go. I don't want you in Mexico. I love Mexico. I love the Mexican people. I have thousands have Mexican people that have worked for me over the years and even to this day. I mean, I love the Hispanics. The spirit. I love them. They are incredible people. But we have leaders that can't compete with their leaders. Their leaders are too smart. So I would say to the head of Ford, sorry. You will pay tax. Every car and every truck and every part that comes across that southern border, you're going to pay a 35 percent tax. OK? That's what's going to happen. And this is too easy. I don't need any of the killers. I'm going to use them anyway. But this is too easy. This is like forget it. This is taking candy from that beautiful little baby, OK. So easy. So what happens is they're going to say, no, no, no, and they're going to have people call me. But these are people that I didn't take any money, I didn't take anything. I don't want their money. So they are going to have people call me. And I'm going to say get out of here. And if I know them, they'll be friends of mine, maybe. I'll say I'm not interested. And I would say, let's say this whole process starts at 12:00 noon. I would say by 4:00 in the afternoon, the head of Ford will call me and say Mr. President, we've decided to build in the United States. That will happen. OK? That will happen. If they're really tough, they'll wait until the next day. But I guarantee you by 5:00 the next day, they're back. And that's great. That's what we need. We need jobs. We can't keep giving out our jobs. You know, college debt. I go all over and I see the vets are mistreated in this country so badly. Believe me. You know, they did a poll. I'm like the most popular person with the vets. You know, I built the Vietnam memorial in downtown Manhattan, OK. And the vets like me a lot. And they did a poll and people were shocked. Why would you be shocked? Because I'm going to take care of the vets. The other one, college. College debt. It is out of control. And I go around and I see students. And by the way, you see what's happening with the college? I mean, you talk about like what they're doing. The prices of these colleges. The way they're rapidly raising. And students are borrowing money from different people but also from the government. It is the thing that the government makes money on, college students. No, it's true. They're making a lot of money on college debt. And the big thing we need is jobs. And students come up to me and they say, Mr. Trump, I'm borrowed and I can't even, I don't know how I'll ever pay it off. This is somebody that is a junior or a senior in college. And it is almost like they have no hope. To me, it is one of the saddest things I've seen in making the rounds. College students, college debt. And they say, and then I apply for jobs. One was telling me from a very good college. Actually a college in Iowa where I was, a great college. And they were saying, you know, I worked hard. I became a great student. I just became one of the top students in my college. And I can't get a job, he said. And a lot of them can't get jobs. So now they have the debt and they can't get jobs because China has our jobs and Japan has our jobs and so many other places have our jobs. We don't have jobs. So they get out and there is no place to go and they don't know what to do. We're going to solve the problem because we're going to bring back the jobs from China and we are going to bring back the jobs from Japan. And we're going to be fair. But if you look at the deficit, the trade deficit that we have with China, it is astronomical. People have said how are going to balance the budget? How about like making some good deals with China and Japan? Look at the trade deficits. I was in Los Angeles two weeks ago. I saw ships that were so big. I've never seen anything like it with cars from Japan. They're pouring off. We sell them, actually, you sell them some beef, right? This is one of the beneficiaries, beef. But honestly, if you ever look at the difference, the numbers here, it is so crazy. We send wheat. They send cars. That's all going to change. And we're going to have great relationships with these people. And you know, the amazing thing, every country in the world, thinks the United States is represent by stupid people, and they're right, of course. No, they're wrong. Very stupid people. And every country in the world, I mean, every country in the world, everybody makes money. And the funny things is we don't get along with anybody. Think of it. Here we have deals that are all bad and everybody hates us. I just came in. And I'm watching on television. That we're really in a very bad place with Russia. Now, we're working on the Ukraine and I think that is fine, but why isn't Europe sort of like leading that whole charge? Why do we always leading? We're working on the Ukraine. I think that's terrible and all that stuff. We've got a lot of problems. We're sending an f,22, brand new, gorgeous. And we have fighters, our best military people are going over there. And we're worried about the Ukraine. I think Ukraine is great. I think we should worry about the Ukraine. But you know, Germany is over there. Germany is far richer than we are. Germany has made a fortune. We protect Germany for no money, OK. We protect South Korea for no money. So Germany is over there, right? And they're not worried about it. But Obama is talking about the Ukraine. Germany said let these dopey people take care of us. And all the European countries. So we are sending our fighters. Now in North Korea, you have a situation where, you know, he's raring his head again. I just were had 4000 sets for. And 4000, that's a lot of sets. They're all made in South Korea. They don't make them in Iowa. I wish. Does anyone make television sets? They don't make them in Iowa. They don't make them anywhere in this country. So I ordered 4000. Samsung, it is LG, it is all of them. Right? They're all from South Korea. Sony is from Japan. Their sets aren't as good anymore, but that's OK. But they're good sets. They are great. I paid a fortune. Enough saying, they make a fortune. Look at the deficit that we have that South Korea. I love South Korea. I love all these countries. But why is it that we protect them? So this guy raises his head. Nuclear this, I'm going to wipe them out. We immediately send, we have 28000 troops over there which is nothing compared to the million that they have in North Korea, a big army. OK. They don't pay us anything. What are we doing? And you know what? Somebody said that's not nice. You're asking them to pay. How can we police? We're watching the Ukraine, we are watching South Korea, we are watching Germany, we are watching Japan. We protect Japan. We have a treaty with Japan. If Japan gets attacked, we have to immediately go to their aid. OK? If we get attacked, Japan doesn't have to help us. That's a fair deal. No, no, that's the kind of deals we make. They have nothing. Don't worry about it. But if they get attacks, we have to go to Japan. Did you ever fly, that's a long flight. So we need smart people. And we can straighten this country out. We can make this country so, we can make it better than ever. We can make it better than ever. Saudi Arabia, I love Saudi Arabia. The people are very nice to me. They buy my apartments, you wouldn't believe it. It's true. They'll pay me anything. They have nothing but money. They have nothing but money. I have a beautiful plane. All of a sudden it doesn't look so good when I look at some of their planes. I'm jealous. It's terrible. I'm jealous. No, but Saudi Arabia, they make a billion dollars a day. In all fairness, that was before the, you know, oil went down. But now, let's say it is a half a billion. That's pretty good. You make a half billion a day. We protect them. We get nothing. And every time, if you think in Yemen those folks are after Yemen, then you ought to leave the room right now because you are not very smart. Yemen, did you ever see the border? It never ends. It is a straight line. It never ends. And you know what is on the other side, Saudi Arabia? The oil. If you think they are stopping at Yemen, they're looking for the oil. Don't forget I'm the one, the most militaristic person. I would build a military so strong, so powerful, so incredible, nobody would ever use it. Nobody would ever, we would never have to use it. I would have the best everything. You know, we have a military where we give to the allies, our allies. We give it to the wrong allies, by the way. You know that. We give it to the wrong allies. We don't give to the Kurds. We give to people. One bullet shot in the air, 2300 humvees, the best in the world. So I heard they left. And one day they abandoned 2300. I said no, no, no, you mean 23. You mean three. You mean two. You can't leave 2300. They abandoned 2300 armor plated, the best in the world humvees, 2300. Because one shot was fired in the air. These are the people we're helping. These are the people we're helping. And now the enemy has the humvees armor plated. And we have the ones where the non armored plated and our wounded warriors who are the greatest people we have in this country. They are the greatest. The greatest. And our soldiers aren't protected. And the enemy is because they have these great vehicles that they took. And that's just the humvees. You can go on to everywhere. They have the best equipment. So we have to get smart. And we have to know what we're doing. And I would build, I'm telling you. I am so into it. But in 2000, and Ann Coulter knows this. In 2004, as much as I am into the military, which I love and respect. I'm a huge fan of General Patton. I'm a huge fan of General Douglas MacArthur. To this day, he has the highest marks, I'm a person I believe in like marks and students and education. I think it is great. General Douglas MacArthur to this day has the highest rates in the history of west point. That means something. Nice thing. And we have to do something and we have to do it fast. We have to get the generals that are great. There was a general, I won't use his name, but he's leaving. And they said to him the other day about ISIS on television, what do you think about ISIS? Can we beat them? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. It's going to be very hard to beat ISIS. And I said to myself can you imagine George Patton saying, oh, it would be hard? He would have them knocked out in three days and say where do I go from here? Where? Where? General Douglas MacArthur getting out with his corn cob pipe right out of the airplane looking out over the land that he just took. Can you imagine him? First of all they wouldn't go on television. They're too busy fighting. They want to win. They are too busy winning. We don't have winners anymore. We don't have winners in this country. But we're going to turn it around. We are going to have winners. Now, speaking of winners, this is so important. We all know about trade. We've covered it. It is horrendous. I'm going to get the greatest negotiations. We're going to make great trades. We're going to make a lot of money. We are going to be great. Everyone is going to love us, OK? We have, they're going to love us. So you know, funny before, in Business Week magazine, again, they had a story a while ago. The ten things the Chinese most want. Now, who is tougher, the Chinese on me? I love them and I respect them. I just hate what they do to. But who is tougher than me? The ten things, one of the ten things was anything Trump. Apartments, anything. Anything Trump. I say how could that be possible? Because maybe they respect me or maybe they respect us. I don't know. But anything Trump. OK. So we're going to be respected. We are going to be really respected. We shouldn't to go to Iraq. We did. We made a mistake. But we went out. We should have kept the oil. And you would have ISIS believe. You wouldn't have. Now, people say that's such a harsh statement. She said take oil? Who the hell has the oil? The Iraqi government is totally corrupt. ISIS is, just formed out of Iraq. So we shouldn't have gone in. And then the way Obama got out was a total catastrophe. And then I say total catastrophe. And I said, Reuters, 2004, July. I said don't go in because if you do that in Iraq, and I'm one that likes to be, like I love the strength of military. You have to use it in the right location. If you do that, you're going to allow Iran to take over because you are going to decapitate. They would two powers that were equal. They fight. They would go ten feet, ten feet, ten feet, then they rest. This goes on for decades. They go ten, ten, right? Am I right? So we decapitate one of them. Now, Iran is as we speak, meeting with Iraq to take over the country. And you know who is getting the oil, most of the oil? The stuff that ISIS doesn't have? China. Do you know that China is getting so much oil? Do you know what we get? Nothing. Thousands of lives. Wounded warriors who I love all over. $2 trillion, we have nothing. In Afghanistan, which a lot of people don't know not, it is very rich in minerals. We're fighting in Afghanistan and they have very amazing mountains and ridges. We are fighting in Afghanistan over the years. And on the other side of the mountain, they have massive excavation equipment from China. They're taking out all the minerals as we fight. We need people that are smart. We have people that don't get it. Look at the deal we have with Iran. Look at this deal. It is going to, in my opinion, lead to an arm race the likes of which there has never been. Countries are going to line up for nukes. You are going to have perhaps nuclear proliferation. You are going to see things that you have never seen take place in a short period of time. This is the deal that just the other day, it was determines after months. Did you ever see a deal take so long? The deal has been going on forever. They had our prisoners. We never asked for our prisoners. How about that? Having a deal is good. But we should have doubled and tripled up the sanctions and negotiate from strengths. We could have done it so easily. Instead we have Kerry that goes on bicycle races. He's 73 years old. 73 years old! And I said it the last time I spoke. I swear I will never enter a bicycle race if I'm president. I swear. I swear! He's in a bicycle race. He falls. He breaks his leg. This is our chief negotiator. He is walking in. They're looking at him like what smock this is. I watched actually on Charlie Rose. I watched the chief negotiator being interviewed by Charlie. And after five minutes, I tweeted @realDonaldTrump. I tweeted. I said this guy is too smart for Kerry. I was right. So we didn't get the prisoners. And you know what the excuse was? We didn't ask for them. We didn't want to make the deal too complicated. Think of it. They're fighting us in Yemen. We didn't ask anything about Yemen. Like don't fight us. We have a 24 day wait period. So if we think they're doing nuclear, we have to wait 24 days. But see, that's not the worst part. The worst part is the clock start ticking. It could be months. We have to notify. There is whole process. I mean, they could build, shoot and build a couple more shoot. And by that time we still wouldn't be in there checking. Like I can just see them sweeping the floor and painting it battle shipment gray. You know, when I was with my father in Brooklyn, I used paint the Roger's battleship gray. I would always like. You know what I mean by battleship gray? Shiny battleship gray. I can see them doing it. So what we're doing is crazy. So you have that. And then beauty of all and you heard it two days ago. After years, we just found out that they're going to do in the most important section, they're going to do their own inspections. Did you hear this? Iran. They are going to do their own inspections. Did you hear about this? With some of these guys didn't hear? Where the hell have you been for the last three days? Look at these guys. They're smart guys. Three days ago I heard it. Nobody knew. They are going to self inspect. It is so unbelievable that you just can't even talk about it. And here is another part. We're going to give them $150 billion plus. And even if the deal isn't approved, they get that. In other words, they get that regardless. You know, when I do a deal, when I buy something, I pay them when I guy product, right? Whatever it is. I buy a building. I buy a business. I pay them. I put up a deposit and, right? But I pay them when the deal closes. We're paying them even if the deal doesn't happen. I've never heard of this before. I don't know who came one this idea. It must have been Kerry. No, it must have been. Because I don't think the Iranians. You know, the Iranians, Persians are great negotiators. They are natural great negotiators. I don't believe they would have thought of this because it is so crazy. No, it's true. They wouldn't have actually said, let's do this because it is so far out. Who would have ever think of it? They get $150 billion plus, plus, even if the deal is voted down and the deal doesn't happen which the deal will probably happen because we have a lot of weak people that are going to approve that deal just like they approved Obamacare. You know, you elected people who would knock out Obamacare. They got to Washington. Something happened. I promise it is not going to happen to me. Something happens in Washington. They get elected. They're really going to do a job. They are all. We're going to end Obamacare. We're going to fight. We are going to end this horrible thing with the $5 billion Web site that doesn't work to this day, by the way, $5 billion. I have about 40 websites that cost me $3 and they work. So we're going to end Obamacare. You probably elected some of them of they go to Washington. I don't know. There is something about Washington. They look at the beautiful buildings, these beautiful halls. And all of a sudden, they become impotent. Is that an appropriate word? I think so. They become just, it doesn't work. Put those two together. Something happens to them. And all of a sudden they're not fighters. I think they're so impressed. They show their wives. Look where I'm working. I'm working in Congress. Of course I have to vote for Obamacare. Isn't it wonderful? Look what I am doing. But they got elected to knock it out. What happened to these people? What happened? So something happens when people get elected and go to Washington. The beauty of Washington. I'm building as you know, the old post office. Can you imagine? President Obama is in charge of government services who are tremendous people, by the way. They really are. They are very talented people. That's because they chose me. If they didn't choose me, I probably wonderful say that. But they are talented. They are great people. Now, we're doing a great hotel, one of the greatest hotels. I think it will be one of the greatest hotels anywhere in the world. But think of it. Everybody wanted it. One of the most sought after pieces of property right smack on Pennsylvania between Congress and the White House. Best location. You know, for the real estate people, they notice that any time you get a post office, it's good. You know, the post office was always there first. I have the old post office in Washington, DC So it is being converted to Trump international. It is going to be great. And just think of that. I got it from the Obama administration. To this day, I say, are you sure we got that? I tell you. But we're doing a great job. And here's the thing. We are head of , think of this. Compare this to government. We're way ahead of schedule. And we're under budget. Did you ever hear that before? You don't hear that. So we have a great country. We have a country with tremendous potential. The potentials here are people. We have great people. We have problems all over the place, but they're problem that's can be solved. We have to incentivize people. We have to give people spirit. When President Obama was elected, one thing I thought would happen, I really thought he would be a unifier. You look at Baltimore, you look at Ferguson, you look at St. Louis the other night, you look at Chicago, you look at so many different places, and you look at what's happening with the African American youth. It has never been in worse shape. Never. You look at what's happening with so many other aspects of our country. And there's a racial divide, there is a divide, period. There's hatred all over the country. I've never seen it like this. We have to unify the country. We have to spiritize the country. We have to create jobs. We have to do a tremendous amount of work. But it can be done quickly. I will say this. If the right person is not elected, come next year, I don't know if it can be brought back again no matter how confident and capable the person is. It is going to be too far down the line. No, it is going to be too far down the line. So just in closing, and you know, normally I would do questions. But this has been such a good time and everyone has heard such a brilliant speech. And you know, I was with Elton John. Anybody like Elton John? And a lot of times, like he'll do this last song. And it is so great. It is so unbelievable. The place is standing and roaring and going incredible. And then they'll be like, they'll come back for like three more, right? And the three are not as good as the last one. And people go, let's get out of here. So you know, you like to leave on a high note. And I just like to say this is a great audience. But I have, thank you. I love you too. Thank you. But you know, I have a statement. I say it all the time. And I told the story once before. And it is that the American dream is dead. But I'm going to make it bigger and better and stronger than before. Right? Good. But I got home one night. And my wife said that was such a terrible thing you said. It was all over television. And the problem I have with television, look. They're all live. What do I do? Every night I'm on live television. I suppose to make speeches. How do you make the same speech? I'm trying to change it up. But every night, CNN, FOX, NBC, everybody. Look at them. They're all live. It's not fair. No, no. These other guys, they go around, they make a speech in front of 21 people. Nobody cares. They make the , they read the same speech. They have Teleprompters. I say we should outlaw Teleprompters for anybody, right? For anybody, for anybody running for president. You how easy that would be? Instead of this. I'm working my ass off. OK? Instead of this I can just stand up. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much, it's wonderful to be in Iowa. You know, everybody is going to fall sleep and half an hour we leave. No mistakes. No problems. But I walk in but they are always live, these guys. I think we are going, let's start canceling them a little bit. And by the way, they're getting phenomenal ratings. That's why they're live. They're getting phenomenal ratings. And you know, the old days, when I was with the Apprentice, they paid me a lot of money. They don't pay me anything. You know, for the debate, we had 24 million people. Now, normally there would be like two million people, right? When you say two million if they are lucky. They had 24. I won't take credit for but believe me, 100 percent it's me, 100 percent. It's true. It's true. So the ratings came out. They were so big and so, it was the biggest rating in the history of cable television or something like that. And you know, I was a little obvious, but that is OK. So it happens. I'm saying to myself well, if it's not me, I should go to CNN. They're doing the next debate. And I should I say that Jeff Zucker, a great guy, Jeff, I'm going to do the debate but I want $10 million for charity. American cancer society, AIDS research. We'll pick ten great, a million. Otherwise I'm not going to the debate. And honestly, I think they would pay me. I do. I'm, 100 percent for charity. But it might not look right, I don't know, Ann. I'm going to have to think about it. I sort of like it. Does anybody like that idea? Then we go to Roger Ailes. He is a great guy at FOX and we say Roger, you know, they did so great at CNN. You did so great at FOX. Let's make it like 12, 15, 18, all for charity. But I'm thinking about it, I am thinking about it, believe me. So I go home, my wife says to me, you know, what are you doing? What are you doing? It was a horrible thing you said. I said, why? What did I say? You said the American dream is dead. I said, I didn't say that. I turned on the television. TiVo is wonderful. I turn it on and they have it cut. It is the American dream is dead. Cut. I said, what a terrible statement. But what I do say, and I say it all the time, the American dream is to a large extent, it is in trouble, but we're going to make it bigger and better and stronger than ever before. And, and we are going to win the nomination, and we are going to get the greatest people that have ever represented, we'll get the smartest, toughest, best people to represent us against the world. And we are going to make our country so great again, you're going to be so proud of it. And it is an honor to be with you tonight, and I really look forward to being with you for many, many years to come. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Donald Trump finishing a speech in Dubuque, Iowa. It lasted more than 50 minutes, walking off to Twisted Sister, We're not Going to Take It, the theme song there. Hello, everyone. I'm John Berman, sitting in for Anderson tonight. What a night it was in Dubuque, where in addition to this 50 plus minute speech, Donald Trump also gave a news conference, and man, were there fireworks there. Univision anchor Jorge Ramos got bounced, thrown out of the room, then invited back. There were more shots as well from Mr. Trump aimed at Jeb Bush. A lot to talk about tonight, so let's bring in our panel. Amanda Carpenter, former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz. Republican strategist Alex Castellanos. Republican consultant and former top Trump campaign adviser, Roger Stone, and CNN political commentator Peter Beinart, who also teaches journalism and political science at the City University of New York and is a contributing editor for Atlantic Media. Amanda, let me start with you, let's start on the speech. We have a lot to go over tonight, including Jorge Ramos getting thrown out of the news conference. But let's start with the speech. 50 minutes, hit a lot of subjects. Another way to say it is it was rambling. He talked about Iran, he talked about immigration, he talked about the economy, he talked about China and he talked about The Apprentice. What struck you? Thank you very much. I see these beautiful teleprompters. Believe me, I'm not using them. You know I said if you run for president you should not be allowed to use teleprompters. Get these things out of here. I was watching Hillary making a speech and it was outside. And they were dead, dark, big. They weren't even like this. These are clears. I can almost see right through them, but, which really is disturbing. Is that disturbing to the audience, wouldn't you think? But hers, because it was outside, were black, and they were twice the size. I said what kind of a speech is that? That's not a speech. Most importantly, I brought my Bible. Okay? And, you know, it's First Presbyterian Church, Jamaica. And this was written by my mother with my name, with, it was a long time ago, with my name, with my address, with everything. In case I lost it, somebody would return it. You know, in the old days, if you lost something, they returned it; today a little bit less so. But I saw this and I said I have to bring it and just show it, because it brings back so many memories. It's really an honor to be here. And, you know, David is a fantastic guy. He's done an amazing job. And we had some big news today with Boehner. And, you know, I've been saying for a long time, and I was just telling, actually, David, who said, by the way, I'm not a politician and I'm not politically correct. And I think that's a great thing. I just am so tired. I'm so tired of the political, I love this guy over here. Thank you. I'm so tired of the time and the effort of all of this. We don't have time. We have a country that's in such danger and such trouble. To be politically correct, every word is measured. And I can do it. I went to great schools. I went to an Ivy League school. So easy to do it. But who wants to do it? We have to get to business. I mean, we have to just get back to business. But we're going to have a very interesting period of time. And maybe it starts today, because Speaker Boehner, you know, some people like him on a personal basis. Do people like him on a personal basis? Anybody? You know, we want to see, we want to see the job being done properly. We want to see, we want people that are going to get it done. And I don't understand. They get elected. They're full of vim and vigor. They're going to change things. They're going to get rid of Obamacare. They're going to do all of these things. They come down to these magnificent vaulted ceilings that you see all over Washington. And what happens? They become different people. They become different people. They come out and they don't do it. And I will say, you know, for the groups that want to take what they say is a harsh tone, I wrote The Art of the Deal. And I will tell you, The Art of the Deal, if they would have read it, some of, and I'm talking about the Republicans. We know where the Democrats are coming from. But we are so disappointed in the Republican establishment, because if they stuck together, in all fairness, you have a certain group of 10 percent, 12 percent of Republicans that are out there fighting, fighting. But when the other side, which is Obama and the Democrats, when they hear that they're not going to win and they have no support, there's no way, from The Art of the Deal, there's no way that they can possibly win, that the Republicans can win. So they're out there. They're left hanging so many different times. If they actually were unified, if they were brought together and unified, and you said four very important things that you're going to take very, very strong, harsh measures, you're going to win, because nobody's going to, in 50 years from now, in 100 years from now, in two years from now, and even next month, nobody's going to be talking about the speaker. Nobody's going to be talking about any of the, they're going to be saying let's say something very important. The government shut down. They're blaming the president, folks. They're blaming the president. And, you know, it's sort of interesting. When you hear the Democrats, they're very, very good, very, very good. They go, oh, we want the government to shut down. We want it to shut down. That would be so great if it shut down. It would be so wonderful if it shut down. And the Republicans say, oh, they want it to shut down. Oh, that would be bad. We're playing right into their hands. These people are babies. Do you remember when they said they want to impeach, do you remember, no, they're babies. They're babies. Do you remember when they said they wanted to impeach, a small group wanted to impeach Obama? Right? Remember? And then the Democrats said, no, no, we want him to be impeached. We want him to be impeached. Please impeach him. It would be so good for him. It will make him look so good. And he'll get all of his points out. It'll be wonderful. Do you really think they want him to be impeached? So the Republicans come back. I was just telling the folks backstage, the Republicans come back. Oh, we don't want to do that because he wants to be. Who wants to be impeached? Oh, it's so sad. I mean, you know, like, you have this clown, Marco Rubio. I've been so nice to him. I've been so nice. I've been so nice. And then, no, but he's in favor of immigration, and he has been. He has been. It was the gang of eight. And you remember the gang of eight. It was terrible. And then he went down in the polls. And you have to stay. You know what? If you believe in something, you have to be true to yourself. You have to be. You have to be. But it was the gang of eight and it was really, really, you talk about weak on immigration; nobody weaker. And all of a sudden he goes down in the polls and all of a sudden he starts changing his tone. But you never really change your tone. You remember that. And also, when you're elected senator, you have to go and vote. It's so important. You can't say I can't vote. And he's got the worst record. And he hit me. And I said why is he doing that? And sometimes the Republicans do it more than anybody because they want to sort of catch on. They want to get into the publicity cycle. And all you're doing is hurting yourselves. I mean, it's a bad thing. All you're doing is hurting yourselves. Now, we have so many people that can be and should be attacked. We have a president that is extremely bad for everything that the folks in this room stand for, I mean, extremely bad. You know, freedom of religion, so important. We just don't see it. You know, you take a look at a thing like the Iran deal. We talk freedom of religion, look at the Iran, how long is this whole thing going to last when we have incompetent people, grossly incompetent people negotiating these vital deals like that deal where 24 days and all, I don't have to go over all of the many problems with the deal. Even Israel, Israel is in such trouble with this deal. And you know in that deal probably it says, and nobody even understands what says, which is a problem, but probably if Israel ever attacked Iran, we're supposed to come to their defense. Do we know that? Nobody's able to tell us what is going on with respect to that. If Israel has to, because at some point something might happen. The deal is horrible. The deal is horrible, from any standpoint. And we have to do something. And I can say it's going to have to be renegotiated. You know, I've made a living of buying bad, I love bad deals, because you buy them cheap, do you understand that? You buy them cheap. I love horrible contracts. I love buying, I bought them from friends of mine. I buy a horrible, horrible contract. The poor guy is dying with it. He's getting killed. I buy it cheap. I then go and fight like hell and make it a great contract. Sometimes you chapter it, some, you do lots of different things, whatever you have to do. And you make it a great contract. That contract, that agreement has to be changed. We have no choice, because if it isn't you're going to have nuclear proliferation, it's already happening. You're going to have potentially the destruction of Israel. It has to be changed. One of the things in that contract that I cannot believe, we're giving them $150 billion. Right? No, we're giving them $150 billion of which they're going to use, and already are using, they're ordering missiles from Russia. They're doing things that probably and definitely we can't allow them to do. But they're doing it. We cannot allow the incompetence that we've had going on in this country. We just can't, we have to use our greatest negotiations. We have to use our smartest people. We use political hacks, they're all political hacks. They're negotiating deals that they should, they have no right doing it. Take a look at another thing, one thing, and, look, nuclear's so important, but you have four prisoners. One of them's over there because he's a Christian. He's over in jail because he's a Christian. Now, at the beginning of the negotiation, by the way, it used to be three at the beginning, now it's four. But you say very simply before you start, fellas, and by the way I have to say, to the women, it's all fellas over there. They haven't figured out that women are smarter than men. They haven't figured this out yet. A little detail. They'll figure. It'll take another 150 years, but they'll figure it. You say, fellas, you got to give us back our prisoners. You got to do it. You got to do it. No, you got to do it. You got to give us back our prisoners. Now, they went to Kerry who is, you know, broke his leg playing, this guy's in a bicycle race, can you believe it? He's in a bicycle race. He's got the hat. He's got the emblem. I said, what's he doing? He as actually in a race. It wasn't just like let's get a little exercise. Breaks his leg. This is our negotiator, all right? So he walks in, he walks in with crutches. And they say, what the hell is with this guy? Is he crazy? We have to very simply, as an example, that example. You walk in at the beginning, not the end, not the end. You say, fellas, before we start, you have four prisoners. You don't want them. We do. It would send a great signal to the American people. It'll make the deal much easier. You'll make another deal. It'll make it much easier. You got to give us back. If they say no, you take a walk because you know you're not going to get anything. You take a walk. You take a walk. And I guarantee you, I guarantee you, as sure as you're sitting there, that within a short period of time they call back, you have your prisoners, you have them. But here's the worst, it isn't even, and you need the right messenger. If I'm the messenger, you get those prisoners back. I tell you what, I tell you what, I'll make this statement. If I get elected president, before I ever get to office, I guarantee you they will be back, I guarantee 100 percent. A hundred, that's a hundred percent. But you need the right messenger. And in the case of the prisoners, they never even asked. Can you believe it? They said, both Obama and Kerry said we didn't want to complicate the negotiations. No, no, I mean, this was really a statement. We don't want to complicate. So it's time. I'm a business man. I made a tremendous amount of money, a tremendous amount. It's ridiculous. I mean, I don't even believe it myself. You want to know the truth? I don't even believe it. I'm self funding, I don't want to have the lobbyists and the special interests put money into my campaign. I'm turning down, by the way, I'm turning down millions of dollars. I've turned down millions and millions of dollars. I actually feel foolish because it's so anti me. It' so, like, it's not me. But I turn down millions and millions. And yet, you know, I was in Iowa two weeks ago. And I had a great audience. We had a, we've had just such great people and great crowds. And I said to the people, do you mind if I take millions of dollars? I promise you I won't do anything for the people giving me the money? Do you mind? And they all stood up and they said no, no, no. It was really important. I didn't know it was going to be that important. Anyway, I think self funding's great. I'm the only one that's self funding. Everyone else, believe me, whether it's Bush, who by the way, along with Rubio, but whether it's Bush or anybody in favor of common core. I mean, I think of it. Now, you talk from a Christian standpoint. You want local school representation. You want local. Common Core is a disaster. But you people that really are tough and smart. You look at another thing, trade. That's what I'm, oh, I'm going to do so good. I always say I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. That I tell you. That I tell you. You know, people say, and actually, CNN did a poll and I come out so high on that, on the economy. And by the way, like much, much higher, not even close. I come out the highest by far on that. And leadership, I come out high on leadership. And I come out high on really other categories. Then I say, if I'm so high in all these categories, why do we even have to have an election, right? Why? Why? But a woman stood up, because I didn't sue, you know, the one thing I was a little weak on, people were not sure I was a nice person. And I am. I am. I am. I am, I'm a giving person. I believe in God. I believe in the Bible. I'm a Christian. I'm, you know, I have a lot of reasons. I love, I love people. But the woman stood up. She said, Mr. Trump, I'm a big fan of yours and I'm going to vote for you, but I don't know if you're nice enough to get elected. I said, I really think I'm a nice person, but let me tell you something: I really think this is going to be an election based on competence. We need now competence. And we have to have something. We, we need help. We owe China $1 trillion. Think of it. They suck our money out, they take our jobs, they do everything, and we owe them money. How does that work? Not so good. No, we owe them. Supposed to be the other way around, right? Japan. We owe them the exact same amount, $1 trillion. They sell us cars, biggest boats you've ever seen coming into the harbors. You've never seen boats, I've never seen ships like this. They're loaded, loaded with cars. So they send millions of cars over here. We sell them beef, beef. They don't want it. Half the time they send it back. They want to send it back. The farmers over there don't want it. So we take it back. That's not good beef by the time you get it back. I said the other day, no, no, I say it's aged; now they call it Kobe beef and we sell it for more money, you know, it's one of the,. But, but you look at the imbalance, the US trade, I mean, look at, look at the US trade. China, almost $400 billion a year we lose. Japan, $75 billion a year. Mexico, they all say the fence. First of all, we are going to build a wall, and it's going to be a real wall, OK? If people like it or don't, we're going to build a wall. And it's going to have a big, beautiful door, and people are coming to come into the country, but they're going to come in legally. They're going to come into the country legally. And when people graduate number one in their class from Harvard and Yale, we don't send them out. And they want to stay in the country. You know, there was a case the other day I read about where somebody, a great student at a great school, couldn't stay. From India, couldn't stay in the country, no matter what. And they forced him out. And he founded a company a few years ago in India, 5000 employees, one of the most successful companies, an unbelievable job. We could have had him here, and we force them out. Silicon Valley needs people. We all need people. But we force these incredible people that have been in our system for years, we force them out. They graduate, boom, get out. So we've got to be smart. We've got to be tough. We can't allow our veterans to be treated the way they're treated. They're treated horribly. They're treated horribly. And our military? If I win, we're going to make our military so big, so strong, so powerful nobody will ever mess with us, folks. We are really in serious trouble. You have, you have Putin the other day, not so long ago, saying, you know, they better be careful, we have nuclear missiles. I've never heard, you know, coming from Russia. But you have North Korea, you have so many other places. I brought up recently, you know, during the debate, anybody watch the debate, by any chance? How did I do? How did I do? Right? I won every single poll, and yet these media people, oh, Donald Trump didn't, I won every poll. I won Drudge. I love Drudge. I love Drudge. But I won Drudge. I won Time magazine. I won every single poll, Slate, places I never even heard of. I won every poll. Then I turn on the television and even, I think the Fox poll had me at second, and they, they wouldn't say it. They wouldn't tell. They wouldn't say I was in second. Other polls, they said I did great. Then I'm listening to some of the pundits. I won't use their name, because actually some of them are getting better, you know, as I get higher and higher. We're doing great. In fact, with Evangelicals in Iowa, just came out, I'm number one at 29 percent, substantially ahead of anyone else. I'm happy about that. You know why? That's the reason. That's the reason. But, but we have to be careful, as Christians. The progressives are pushing, the progressives are pushing to an extent that, if we're not careful, we're going to have some big problems, and even bigger than we have right now. Look, we need people that can support us. We need people that are strong and smart and can back us. The word Christmas, I love Christmas. I love Christmas. You go to stores now, you don't see the word Christmas. It says Happy Holidays all over. I say, where's Christmas? I tell my wife: don't go to those stores. I want to see Christmas. No, I want to see Christmas. And you know, other people can have their holidays, no. But Christmas is Christmas. I want to see Merry Christmas. Remember the expression Merry Christmas? You don't see it anymore. You're going to see it if I get elected, I can tell you right now. I can tell you right now. So I just want to thank you for the, it's been an amazing group of people. You've been amazing. And to have such a fantastic room. But I just want to thank everybody. You know, I got into this and everyone said, there's no way he'll ever do it, he's got this wonderful company, he's got, I do. I have a wonderful life. But I see what's happening. I see what's happening with the country. I see so many things going wrong, so many things that are caused really by incompetence, that can be straightened out. We can straighten it out fairly quickly. I will tell you if we don't stop it now, however, it's going to be, at some point it's going to be too late. You're not going to be able to turn it. You're not going to be able to turn it. But I got in and they said, you know, he'll never do it. So I did it. They all said, oh, he did it. Then they'll say, he'll never file, like, form A, which is basically a single page where you're signing your life away. I signed it. I signed form A. They said, oh, I don't believe it. Then they said he'll never put in his financials because maybe he's not as big financially as everybody thinks. I put in my, almost a hundred pages, like the biggest ever filed by far, by far, and I had it ahead of, but you know, they said, oh, he'll ask for all the extensions. And you had some of the politicians asking for extensions and they were one page. I put it in ahead of schedule, and it turned out the company was much bigger than anybody thought, much stronger. It was, it's an amazing company, right? So they said, this guy might be running. Then I go with the polls, and the polls go up just like the Evangelicals in Iowa. The polls, I start, bing, bing, bing, bing. And every single two or three weeks, when the polls come out, they said, well, now he's reached his cap. I started at 6 percent. It went to 9 percent. It went to 12 percent. It was like a rocket ship, right? You've seen it. I mean, I'm not telling you anything. And, and it went to 20 percent and it went to 22 percent. Then it went, and then the other day, in a Fox poll, it went up 2 percent. And I'm killing everybody. And they say, other people are surging, Trump is staying still. But I'm up! I went up. I didn't stay still. I went up 2 points, right, a big two points. And I had another one where I'm 33 percent, 33 percent, and the next one I think was like 12 percent or 15 percent, and they don't want to report it. They don't put the poll out. I said, why aren't you putting the poll out? Well, we don't like that poll. This is a great poll. It's a great poll. And they wouldn't put it out. So, you know, I get angry at these things, because you know what I like? I like fairness. Somebody said, do you have thin skin? I don't. If I'm wrong about something, I don't mind, the media can do whatever they want. But I have thin skin when I'm right about something when I know they're doing a number on all of us, because when I ran, and the reason I ran is because I want to make this country great again. And we're going to do it. We're going to do it. And we're going to do it a lot faster and a lot better than anybody thinks is possible. And I just want to thank everybody. You're special people and I love you all. And this is the key. Thank you all. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. I guarantee you that young woman who just got taken out after interrupting us three times, I guarantee the cameras will be on her. I guarantee. It's disgusting, disgusting. So we're taking about the media, and by the way some of the media's terrific. But most of it, seventy percent, seventy five percent is absolute dishonest, absolute scum. Remember that scum! They're totally dishonest people. I had one the other day where I finished a speech and they said, Oh, Trump was interrupted and he left early. Like, uh, I spoke for forty five, fifty minutes. I then answered question, questions. And then I went around to you know, everybody knew it was false. Amazingly there's a media group that calls the media. And the next day they did the most beautiful story about what a lie it was from NBC. She's back there little Katy she's back there. What a lie it was, no, what a lie, Katy Tur, what a lie it was from NBC to have written that, it was a total lie. And they did a story where they, I didn't know they had a group like this, where they actually criticized the media and they said it was a total lie. And I love you, I love you, I love you. And then other people pick it up, you know it's NBC so somebody picks it up. Third rate reporter, remember that, third rate, third. It's possible. It's possible. Look, my whole campaign is about honesty. We have a problem. People said, Oh, that's not politically correct, what he said about surveillance. But we have to have some surveillance. You had to see the whole speech. It was so good. That was when Carson went down. That was the thing that totally took him down. In Iowa, big audience. No, that may have been the beginning of the end but my speech is when he really began to go down. I talked about his book and in his book he says he has pathological disease. I mean, he actually says it. There's no cure for it. I compared it to a child molester because there is no cure for child molesting, other than , well, you know. Nobody. Then I talked about taking the lock at his friend's face, taking a hammer to his mother's head. Then about the belt. You didn't see the whole speech. That's the problem with what I did and won't do again. You saw what I said and it was fine. You have to see the whole speech to understand. I started talking about it and explaining, and then I showed how it doesn't work that way. I moved over and took the belt, demonstrated what I meant. People there got it. What they do, the dishonest press does, is one second of me playing with my belt. People go, What the fuck is he doing? They don't know it was about the knife going into the belt. They haven't seen the whole speech and what I was saying about how a belt doesn't stop a knife. I was showing a knife, a knife going into a belt isn't stopped by the belt. So, if you watch the speech, it took down Carson. That was the beginning of the end for Carson. I figured I had to do it. You know the expression in golf: Johnny, he's just hanging around. The guy was just hanging around. I couldn't understand it. He was just hanging around. It's fine when you put them both in. You can't put in just the one. That's only fair. I'm a deal guy. I've been winning all of my life. Like this property. I bought it six, seven years ago. I bought it for a steal. Eight hundred acres on the Potomac River. I bought it for nothing. I could sell it for anything. I'm not selling, but I could sell it for anything. My whole life is about winning. I always win. I win at golf. I'm a club champion many times at different clubs. I win at golf. I can sink the three footer on the 18th hole when others can't. My whole life is about winning. I don't lose often. I almost never lose. In Massachusetts, I'm at 48 percent. You know why? Tom Brady said Trump's the greatest. He says it to anyone who asks him. You know, it's hard for a guy like him to say that. When you're a football player, you don't want to be taking sides in campaigns and having the Hillary Clinton people now say you're not as good as Bart Starr. You understand. So Tom Brady is great. Hey, look. I went through a depression, a real estate depression that was massive in 1990. The last one I made a lot of money because I was a buyer , like I bought this at the bottom of the market. I can tell , I'm so good at real estate, I've made billions of dollars. Tell me the day you bought the property and I'll tell you if you made a good deal. I made such a mistake with Chuck Todd because I told such a truthful , he asked me would I ever get out? I thought, Huh? I'm leading in all of the polls. Would you ever get out? I said, Look, if for some reason that I wasn't leading in the polls, that I wasn't getting the acclaim or the biggest audiences , and I'm getting the biggest crowds by far, much bigger than Bernie Sanders ever had. Nobody reports that, but anyway. We had 12000 people in Sarasota at 12 o'clock on a Saturday. Last night, we had a group in Manassas, they were so packed in. They couldn't get them in. You saw. So, I said to Chuck, honestly, if I'm down and not getting crowds, if I was down in the polls. I'm a believer in the polls by the way. Rarely do you see a poll that's very far off. Let me just say That interview was a couple of months ago. If I see that I'm not going to win, I'd get out. I'm not a masochist. I go home and I see my wife. She's always a good critic. She says, That was a great answer. Other people say the same. He hated it. I said, What's wrong? The only one who hated it was Corey. He was going like, Oh shit. But I quickly understood why. He was right. The next day, the headlines: Trump may leave race. He's a good guy, really good guy. Say hello to him for me, will you? You know, his best golf story ever was about Mike Donald, who almost won the 1990 US Open. He was leading the US Open going into the final hole. He was an early starter. A rabbit. In other words, he was a good golfer who never made $10, who was on the tour for 10 years. Leading the US Open. Had a great final round but he was in the middle of the pack. Two hours to go and everyone said he was going to win the US Open. He wasn't supposed to win the US Open because he was a rabbit. Jack Nicklaus, all the others, they're the kind of guys who usually win. So he's in the clubhouse, leading the US Open, everyone's doing great, watching it on TV. And then Hale Irwin goes crazy on the course. You remember? Irwin goes to the 18th hole, he's one down to Mike Donald, who no one had ever heard of. And Hale Irwin sinks a 97 foot putt. That was the one where he ran around the green. Now Irwin has the privilege of playing Donald in a playoff the following day. A full 18 hole playoff. Hale Irwin, naturally, wins because the other guy never wins. The champion always wins. Bamberger did one of the greatest stories ever on that. The next day they show Mike Donald, two pictures. One has him on Sunday and Monday, Mike Donald playing to thousands of people up and down the fairway, 20 rows deep, as he walks up the 18th hole at the US Open. Pictures. The next day, he doesn't win, he's seen walking up a fairway, nobody there, no money, his wife carrying the bag. If he had won, it'd have been a life changing experience. But he didn't win. Those pictures, famous, I remember them. A thing like that is always a possibility. It's never happened because I've been having this for a long time. I write a book, it becomes the Number One selling business book of all time. The Art of the Deal. All of my books have done well. The current book does well I don't even have time to promote it. Have I spent 10 minutes promoting it? I didn't take three weeks off, going all over the place to promote it. You sell thousands of books a day if you do that. So the book, the show. The Apprentice had some great run, it was the Number One show. What a lot of people don't realize is that I gave up a lot to do this not just deals but a two hour primetime television show for another two years. Don't kid yourself. I've always been there. In school, I was always successful. In life, I was always successful. My father was a successful real estate developer and he was a very tough man but a good man. My father would always praise me. He always thought I was the smartest person. He said to one of the big magazines that everything he touches turns to gold. At a very young age. So I don't know. It's the thing that number one, it's my hair. Number two, what don't people really understand? Those are the two questions I always get. Number one, my hair is real. It's me. I've seen these old pictures, I combed it the same way. Okay. I have a friend, Bill Zanker, who's a very smart guy. He said, If you didn't go through those difficulties in the early 1990s, when the press was just tearing you apart, you wouldn't be nearly as big as you are now. Again, I never went bankrupt, but I went through a lot, owed billions and billions of dollars. The press loved it, they were killing me, not talking about other people. I said to him, That's wrong. He said, No. If you didn't fight through it and become bigger than ever, you'd never be as big as you are now. Interesting thought. That's his feeling. I'm not sure if I agree. But you understand what he's saying. It showed a human something. Tell your son I think I'm a very nice person who gets along very well with people. I'm very loyal, to a fault. My wife said, You're too nice too long and then when you go bad, then you're too bad. Then she said, You get too vicious and you never forgive. You put up with too much too long. You get screwed by somebody. You're too nice, and then you flip, it's too long, too nasty, too horrible. Wow. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. We start by paying our great respects to Pearl Harbor. We don't want that stuff. We don't want World Trade Centers. We don't want that ever happen to us again. It's not going to happen to us again. So I want to thank everybody for being here. It's a great honor. They have thousands of people outside and sometimes they'll say Would you like to wait about an hour until they all come in? But we can't get them in anyways so what difference there. We all got lucky. We're together tonight. Thank you. So we have a lot of big news today. To me, very big was CNN just came out with a new poll about an hour ago and Iowa, great, great state, and in Iowa, Trump 33 percent. Beating everybody by a lot. You have Cruz at 20 percent and Carson at 16 percent and going down and Rubio at 11 percent and Bush at 4 percent. But it's Trump at 33 percent. It just came out. It's Iowa, we love Iowa. By the way, great ship named after Iowa too. I've been on that one too. A really great one. The other big poll that came out just two days ago was the national poll. Trump 36 percent and then I won't even mention the other numbers because they're so low. You know, when you have so many people running, we had 17 and then they started to drop. Ding. Bing. I love it. I love it. And you'll be losing a lot over the next little while. I would imagine. I don't know. When somebody's down at zero I would think that eventually they'll drop out. The only difference is there's nothing to pick up if there is zero. What do you pick up? So anyways you'll be seeing that. One of the things I think that's so important because to me very important in the same poll, which is the big national CNN poll, on the economy, so important, Trump 55 percent. Everyone else nothing. On the budget, I'm really good at these things, economy, budgets. I sort of expected this. On the budget, Trump, this is with 15 people remaining, Trump 51 percent. Everyone else bing. Oh, here's one that I started and I took a lot of heat. I took a lot of heat. Sort of like the one we're talking about today. I guess you've heard a little bit about it. But I've taken a lot of heat on this one. Illegal immigration. Now, had I not brought that up in Trump Tower in June when I announced that I was going to run for president, which takes courage to run for president, believe me. You know, all of my life, I've heard that if you're a successful person, especially if you have very success, you've done a lot of things, a lot of deals, a lot of everything, you can't run for president. And yet, that's the kind of mindset and thinking this country needs. We're being run by people that don't know what they're doing. Very sad. On illegal immigration, Trump 48 percent. That's with 15 people. Everyone else, no good. On a thing called ISIS, oh, don't worry. We'll have plenty, we'll talk a lot about ISIS. Can you believe it? Here we have generals. They go on television and talk. They do all talk. You people, a lot of military people here. Who's military here? All right, I love you. By the way, speaking of it, we're going to make our military so strong, so powerful, so great, nobody's ever going to mess with us again. Nobody. They're never going to mess with us. You know in many ways, it's the cheapest thing we can do. The cheapest thing. Instead of fighting these wars that we don't know what we're doing and we have leaders that are afraid to do anything, we're going to make it so great, so strong that people, gosh, they're not messing. They're not messing. And we're going to take care of our great vets, our wounded warriors. We're going to take care of them. Because they, thank you, they are not being taken care of. We have illegal immigrants that are taken care of better than our incredible veterans and it's not going to happen any longer. Not going to happen. Not going to happen. So with ISIS, Trump 46 percent. Can you imagine that? With all of these characters running. On foreign policy, Trump way up. And you know, in theory you could say Well, maybe it's not my thing. But people want to see strong, they want to see strength, they want to see protection, they want to be protected. And that's it. I watched last night and I watched the president truly that didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know why he was there. He refuses to use the term radical Islamic terrorism. He refuses to use the term. I don't even know if he knows what the hell is going on. I really don't. And then we're looking at Hillary Clinton. Honestly, I know Hillary. It's just going to be an extension of Obama. I think maybe worse. She's got no strength. She's got no stamina. Remember that. You don't need a president with no strength or stamina when we're being ripped off on trade, we're being ripped off on Obamacare, which is going to be repealed and replaced by something really good. When our soldiers aren't being taken care of, when our military is never been like it is today. One of the generals was on television, as usual, saying that we're the least prepared now than anytime that he's ever seen it and he's been there a long time retiring. That's how we are. In the most dangerous world we've ever had because of the power of weapons, we have people that don't know, they don't, I'm telling you. I watch them. I watch these generals being interviewed. Do you think Gen. George Patton would be interviewed? , They'd be interviewed after total and complete victory. Gen. Douglas MacArthur. They're not big for interviews. You know, they shoot first, they talk later. These guys, and I don't think we'll have to. You know, just so you understand, Bush, Bush, he said yesterday he was being interviewed, he said that he was talking about me. He was saying the nicest things about me. Of course, he says he'll be elected. He's at what 3 percent? Right? No, but he said some things and I was like, I said Who says that about an opponent? You don't say those things. You'll find out what he said. But he said very nice things. But, if you look at what happens where he is upset with me because he says the tone, the tone, of Donald Trump is not nice. And I say it all the time. We have people whose heads are being chopped off in the Middle East because they're Christian and for other reasons. They're being dumped and drowned in steel cages. And we talk about my tone. Hillary said the same thing. Mr. Trump's tone is not nice. These people are living in a different planet. Different planet. And remember what I said about Hillary. We need somebody who's strong. We need somebody with incredible energy but incredible intelligence and all of those things. You know, I know a lot of tough people but they're not smart. That's no good. They're easy. We need tough. We need smart. We need like every character. We are so far behind the eight ball in this country. We owe $19 trillion. The budget they signed two weeks ago is going to make it $21 trillion. It's a, think of it. Trillion. Trillion. Trillion dollars. Who the hell ever heard of the word 10 years ago? There was no such word. We owe $21 trillion in the very near future. We're really in trouble. We have to rebuild our country. We have to rebuild our infrastructure. We have to rebuild our military. And yet, we do deals with China where there's a trade imbalance of over $400 billion a year in their favor, by the way, in case you had any question. Japan, they send their cars by the millions. $70 billion a year imbalance. That's like a loss. You look at Mexico. We're going to build a wall. It will be a real wall. It will be a real wall. Gonna happen. It's gonna happen. The people I'm dealing with, and you know, I really focus on Hillary later because I have to get through these 15 people. You know, there's 15 of us. I had Perry came at me strong; he went down. I had Gov. Walker, nice guy, he went down. Every guy that attacks me so far they've all gone down. We've got to keep it that way, right? I mean, Lindsey Graham. He's at zero. He's at zero. Zero. Let me ask you a question. I don't get Lindsey Graham. I don't get him, He's literally at zero. You see him. And he keeps talking. He gets so much television. I mean, he's on television all the time and he doesn't go up. He's at zero, folks. His ideas are so bad. I'm more militaristic than him. But I know how to win; he doesn't. He just wants to attack everything. He doesn't know where the hell, ha ha. And he always sits with John McCain. It's like they're the Bobbsey twins. They're always sitting together. No, it's true. Do you ever notice? Sometimes I want to see him by himself. He's always sitting with John McCain, who's fine. I'm not knocking it. But you got to know what to do. Now me, I was against the war in Iraq. So everyone says, you have the right temperament, I have a great temperament. But you've got to attack. If you've got to do something, you've got to know what you're doing. I said if you attack Iraq and you wipe it out, Iran is going to take over the entire Middle East because you're going to ruin the balance. It was so simple to me. And actually they sent a group from the White House to see me because I got so much publicity, so much publicity that they sent a group from the White House to see Mr. Trump. I said, Fellas, you're going to have Iran take over the Middle East and that's what's happening. And Iran's going to take over Iraq as sure as you're sitting there. And by the way, Iraq, with the second largest oil reserves anywhere in the world. We lost of thousands of lives. We have wounded warriors all over the place. $2 trillion. We have nothing. We got nothing. We have absolutely nothing. And we left. And we have a president, we shouldn't have been there but then we shouldn't have left the way we left. You know, the funny thing is I look at Democrats and liberals and conservatives and Republicans, wouldn't it be good all of us if we can get together and really make our country great again? Is that what we want to do? I'll bet you that if I spoke to that young woman, that quickly I really think I can convince her that we're all in this together, folks. We want to have a strong country. Right? But you know, if you think about it and you'll have some that can never be satisfied no matter what. They're just troublemakers, et cetera, et cetera. But most people aren't and they believe something. And I have some very smart friends don't agree with me; they agree with the other side. But I really believe that if you took it about making America great, we have to be strong, we have to be vigilant, and if we're not vigilant, that was the same person. I've got to tell you, so far, the security is not doing a great job in here, I'll tell you that. That was the same person. You can do very nice but why don't you get her out because honestly it's inappropriate. So security, strengthen yourself up. See, our country has this kind of security. That's the problem we have, Treat her very nicely please but she should now be taken out. Same person. One person. It's one person. They let her out. They gave her a second chance and the same thing happens. But you would think that everybody we're all on the same basket that everybody every single person, So you would think that if we could get together, we'd all be in the same boat. Now, last night we all saw and we witnessed something that I thought was highly inappropriate. In fact, I tweeted Is that all there is? about the president's speech and I wrote something today that I think is very, very salient, very important, and probably not politically correct but I don't care. I don't care. You know, we had a situation in California very recently where somebody was making bombs in an apartment. The mother saw them. The mother didn't notice anything wrong. I watched the sister being interviewed. Believe me, in my opinion, she was lying like crazy. I watched that interview. Oh, my brother was such a wonderful guy. I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know. And I watched the next door neighbor saying, Oh, well we didn't report them because we didn't want to racially profile or we didn't want to profile. Give me a break. Give me a break. We're like the stupid country in so many different ways. It's so, can you imagine what our great leaders of the past would have said with the kind of crap that's happening with us? They didn't want to report them because they thought it was profiling. Okay, they saw bombs. They saw, you know, the pipe bombs only this wasn't to build a bathroom. When a bomb is this long, can't put too many of them together for a bathroom, right? And we thought they maybe but we didn't want to racially profile. Oh, okay, you're okay, you're innocent. Or how about where the families and the girlfriends and the wives and everything and they go back to World Trade Center, the worst, worse than Pearl Harbor because with the World Trade Center they were killing innocent civilians. At least while it was a dirty, rotten sneak attack, at least they were, but while it was an attack, at least it was military. But this was an attack on the World Trade Center. So, what's happened is we're out of control. We have no idea who's coming into our country. We have no idea if they love us or if they hate us. We have no idea if they want to bomb us. We have no idea what's going on. And then I looked at poll numbers and I don't mean polls where I'm winning; those numbers I like looking at. These numbers I hated to look at. And it's very, very sad. I'll go after some of the numbers. 25 percent of those polled and this was from the Center for Security Policy, very highly respected group of people who I know actually. This is people living in this country. 25 percent of those polled agreed that violence against Americans is justified as Muslims. 25 percent. 51 percent of the Muslims living in this country, by the way, I have friends that are Muslims; they're great people. But they know we have a problem. They know we have a real problem. Because something's going on, and we can't put up with it, folks. We can't put up with it. 51 percent, 51 percent highly respected number of polling groups want to be governed according to Sharia. You know what Sharia is. So I wrote this out. The mainstream media wants to surrender the Constitution. The mainstream media, these people back here. They're the worst. They are so dishonest. No, no, they're so dishonest. They are so dishonest. I mean, I have one from NBC, a reporter from NBC, and actually another one from CBS, they actually in Columbus, Ohio, I had a tremendous crowd like 10000 people. It was a love fest. It went on for a long time. Everybody stayed right until the end. I had one of the politicians, Kasich, who is just getting, he's a horrible debater, He made a statement that Oh, they left after 10 minutes. Now, the press was there. They saw it. Nobody said it was a lie. It was a total lie. In fact, I had more people at the end than I had at the beginning. Nobody's leaving. Nobody's leaving here except for the one person that was screaming. So, we asked the press to report that it was a total lie and they didn't want to do that because it's not their thing to do. You know, we get the biggest crowds. They don't want to show this crowd tonight. They're not going to show all the people outside trying to get in. They don't do that. They have the cameras right in my face. I say fan the crowd just to show, look at all the people over here. It's a record in the history of this ship. But they don't show it. They don't show it. No, no. And I say fan it and they never ever fan it. I say fan the crowd and they never fan it. And yet, I guarantee you that that young woman that just got taken out after interrupting us three times, I guarantee the cameras will be on her. I guarantee. It's disgusting. Disgusting. , And by the way, some of the media's terrific but most of it 70 percent, 75 percent is absolute dishonest, absolute scum. Remember that. Scum. Scum. They're totally dishonest people. I had one the other day where I finished the speech and they said Oh, Trump was interrupted and he left early. I spoke for like 45, 50 minutes. I then answered questions and then I went around, you know, everybody knew it was false. Amazingly, there's a media group that calls the media and the next day they did the most beautiful story about what a lie it was from NBC. She's back there. Little Katie. She's back there. What a lie it was. No, what a lie, Katie Tur, what a lie it was from NBC to have written that. It was a total lie. And they did a story where they, I didn't know they had a group like this where they actually criticized the media. And they said it was a total lie. And I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. And then other people pick it up. You know it's NBC so somebody picks it up. Third rate reporter. Remember that. Third rate. Third rate. So I said here the mainstream media wants to surrender our Constitution and our constitutional rights. And I don't want that. I want ISIS to surrender. Okay? I want ISIS to surrender. Very simple. It's very simple. So here's what happened. It's been a little controversial. It's been a great day because the poll numbers are through the roof. I like that. But I have more, I wish we could call, is there any way we could call the election tomorrow? Wouldn't you love that? Now they're coming at us in full force. They're coming, not coming at me. They're coming at all of us. They're coming at all of us. Because you know, we have a noisy majority. They used to call it the quiet majority. People are fed up. They're fed up with incompetence. They're fed up with stupid leaders. They're fed up with stupid people. They are fed up with stupid people, where our president makes a deal for Sergeant Bergdahl, a dirty, rotten, no good traitor who, think of it. They knew he was a traitor because a general and a colonel went to see his group. Six people were killed looking for him. Okay? Six people were killed. Young. Unbelievable. I watched the parents on television. I've seen the parents. But I watched the parents on television devastated, will never be the same. They left to try to bring them back. He left. He deserted. You know, in the old days when we were strong country it would be boom, gone. It was called desertion. Now I heard the other day they won't even do anything to him. Can you believe it? They think he's going to get away with nothing. He's going to have nothing. So he left. Oh, they treated him pretty rough though. He got in there, he said, I shouldn't have done this. This isn't working out the way I thought. Anyways, so we get him back and here's the deal we made. We get a dirty, no good traitor. Six people killed, They get five of their greatest killers that they've been after, after, think of it for six years. In fact, I hear nine years. So they get these, right now have gone, they're out in the battlefield, trying to kill everybody in front of them including you folks, I'd hate to tell you. So we get Bergdahl and they get five of the killers that they've wanted for many years. That's the way we do it. The Iran deal. We gave them $150 billion. It's called amateur night. We gave them $150 billion. 24 days, 24 days, we think there's something wrong, 24 days we have to wait but it's much longer than that because there's a whole process before the clock starts ticking. So it could be forever. But the best is where they have the right to self inspect. Are you doing nuclear weapons over there? Oh, we'll inspect tomorrow. Oh no, we're not doing nuclear weapons. You know, the Persians are great negotiators. Always have been. And somebody would say that's profiling. Trust me, they're great negotiators. And Kerry is a horrible negotiator and Obama is a horrible negotiator. Horrible. He's a horrible negotiator. These people are horrible. I always Obama would be a unifier. I never thought of him as being like a divider because I said You know what? I don't think he's going to be a good president. I backed McCain; he lost by the way. And you know, I don't blame McCain for losing because a lot of bad things will happen; it was a tough one. But I backed McCain; he lost. I backed Romney; he should have won but he sort of went away on vacation or something the last month and he lost. And I said, This time I'm going to do it myself. We're not going to lose. We're not going to lose. We're not losing. And the recent Fox poll that just came out has me beating Hillary very easily one on one. I love that. That's so important. So, we put out a statement today. We watched this. And it's impossible to watch this gross incompetence but I watched last night. And we put out a statement a little while ago and these people are going crazy, Shall I read you the statement? Donald J. Trump is calling for, now, you've got to listen to this because this is pretty heavy stuff and it's common sense and we have to do it. Remember the poll numbers. 25 percent, 51 percent. Remember the poll numbers. So remember this. So listen. Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. We have no choice. We have no choice. We have no choice. According to Pew Research, among others, there is a great hatred toward Americans by large segments of the Muslim population. Most recently, a poll from Center for Security Policy released data showing 25 percent of those polled agreed that violence against Americans, these are people that are here by the way, people that are here, 25 percent not 1 percent. By the way, 1 percent would be unacceptable. 1 percent is unacceptable. 25 percent of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as part, think of that, as part of the global jihad. They want to change your religion. I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so. Not going to happen. As part of the global jihad. And 51 percent of those polled agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Sharia. You know what Sharia is. 51 percent. Sharia authorizes, now look, this is, I mean, it's terrible. Sharia authorizes such atrocities as murders against non believers who won't convert, beheadings, and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to Americans especially women. I mean, you look, especially women. Tough stuff. And we have a president that won't even mention the term and you're talking about numbers like this. Mr. Trump stated without looking at the various polling data, it's obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension, Where the hatred comes from and why, we'll have to determine. We'll have to figure it out. We have to figure it out. We can't live like this. It's going to get worse and worse. You're going to have more World Trade Centers. It's going to get worse and worse folks. We could be politically correct and we can be stupid but it's going to get worse and worse. Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victim of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad. These are people only believe in jihad. They don't want our system. They don't want our system and have no sense of reason or respect for human life. They have no respect for human life. So they have no respect for human life. So we have to do something. Now, we can be weak. We can be ineffective. We can be foolish. So prior to Paris, which was a disaster, which by the way if some of the people in those places where it was slaughter, absolute slaughter, had guns, you wouldn't have had the carnage that you had in Paris. You wouldn't had that carnage. If they had guns, you wouldn't had that carnage. So important the Second Amendment. We have to preserve it and cherish it. And we can't let these weak leaders diminish it. If they had guns in Paris, if five people in that room, Paris and France has probably the toughest gun laws anywhere in the world and it was like target practice. Come over here. Boom! Come over here. Boom! People are sitting by the hundreds and many others are going to be dying. They're sitting in the hospital in many cases waiting to die. Now, the same thing a few days ago in California. No guns. We didn't have guns. The bad guys had the guns. And these young people, and I tell the press you've got to stop calling them masterminds, these are dirty, rotten scums. These aren't masterminds. Remember the guy in Paris with the big dirty hat? Remember the guy in Paris, the mastermind. I was watching all the networks. I won't mention who but some of them disgusted me. The mastermind is on the loose. And we have kids that are watching the Internet and they want to be masterminds and then you wonder why do we lose all these kids, they go over there. They're young. They're impressionable. They go over there and they want to join ISIS. And we have our anchors, I think I got them mostly stopped. Did you notice that? I don't hear it too much. But they say the young mastermind. Oh, he's brilliant. Young man, he's brilliant. I don't even he's got a high IQ, In Paris, I call him the guy with the dirty filthy hat. Okay? Not a smart guy. A dummy. Puts people in there, mastermind, bing, bing, bing, it's like shooting everybody. You've got to be a mastermind. So the press has to be responsible. They're not being responsible because we're losing a lot of people because of the Internet. And we have to do something. We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them. Maybe in certain areas closing that Internet up in some way. Somebody will Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech. These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people. We've got to maybe do something with the Internet because they are recruiting by the thousands. They're leaving our country. And then when they come back, we take them back. Oh, come on back. Where were you? I was fighting for ISIS. Oh, come on back. Go home. Enjoy yourself. When they leave our country and they go to fight for ISIS or any of the other groups, they never come back. They never can come back. They never can come back. They can never, ever, ever come back. It's over. How about that? And now that they've become radicalized, they're totally radicalized. And how about the woman? She was in Pakistan then Saudi Arabia. She comes in on an engagement deal and she radicalized the guy. Probably a guy who couldn't get women. I don't know what the hell his problem is. It's probably the first women he's ever had. I don't know what was going on. But he became radicalized quickly. Notice how easy it is? He becomes radicalized and then they go on a spree. Folks, those days are over. Those days are over. We have to be tough. We have to be smart. We have to be vigilant. Yes, we have to look at mosques and we have to respect mosques. But yes, we have to look at mosques. We have no choice. We have to see what's happening because something is happening in there. Man, there's anger. There's anger. And we have to know about it. We can't be these people that are sitting back like in the World Trade Center, like so many different things. We can't be people that knew what was going on two weeks ago in California, probably for months they knew what was going on and they didn't want to tell anybody. We can't be that. We have to be strong. When we see violations, you have to report those violations and quickly. Don't worry about profiling. I promise I will defend you from profiling. I promise. So when I started this whole quest, I mean, who knew it was going to turn into this? It's been an amazing thing. No matter where I go, I have tremendous crowds, packed crowds, packed. We went to Dallas, 20000 people in Dallas. 25000 people. Mobile, Alabama, 35000 people. Here, every time I come to South Carolina, every time I go to North Carolina, every time I go to Iowa, New Hampshire, Virginia, wherever I go, Florida, we have crowds that are maxed. The only problem we have is the size of the room, thousands of people outside trying to get in. Usually I do a double. I go talk to them for a while, which I wouldn't say I exactly love doing after the first one. But there is an unbelievable love in these rooms, all the same. I love you too. I love you, Thank you. Thank you. I love you too. There's an unbelievable love in all of these places, Oklahoma, 20000 people standing in a park on quick notice. There's an unbelievable love. And there's an unbelievable love of the country. We want to see good things. We don't want to be bad people. We don't want to be tough and nasty. We believe in the Constitution more than anybody. But we can't let people use and abuse our rights. We can't let people kill us. They want to kill us. They want to destroy us. We can't let it happen. We just can't let it happen. And I have a friend who's a very, very successful man, and I went to one event, he came with me. We had 24000 people. And this guy's a real tough cookie. He's a great financial guy. One of the guys I'd definitely use to negotiate with Japan, China. Believe me, you're going to be in good shape when that happens. We won't have these characters. You know, this whole thing with all of these guys. By the way, I'm the only one that's self funding my campaign. Everyone else is controlled. Only one. I'm the only one. Only one. I'm self funding my campaign. And these other guys. You know, they're getting millions and millions of dollars from people I know. I have one guy came and wanted to give me a lot of money. I said, Honestly, I can't take it. I don't want to do. I can't take it, which is very sort of like for me to not take money, my whole life I've been taking money. Now I'm sort of like what am I doing? But came in and I said, So what are you going to do? I don't want your money. And he said, I got to go someplace else. They're like gamblers. They're like gamblers. But I said, You like me best. I like you best but I'm going to go someplace else. Because they want to be part, they want to, , Let me tell you, who is more than me? I gave millions to these guys. Nobody knows the system better than me. I knew it from the other side. Don't forget, I was the fair haired boy. I was like the establishment. They'd all come to me, and I'd give them all money I write checks sometimes to Senators whatever the max, bing, bing, bing. I used to say Senators, don't come to my office. Anybody that's a US Senator that calls me, we'll send you a campaign contribution. But you know what? I'll tell you something. In the end, the people that gives these millions of dollars to these horrible, corrupt PACS, they're corrupt, they totally control Bush and Rubio and I won't say Cruz because he's been very nice to me. Nah, he's been nice. He's got to hit me first. Once he hits me, I promise you. I promise you. No, I've been nice to Christie but he really hit me today. Chris Christie. I mean, I don't know. He's a friend of mine but he's not doing well in the polls and he really, really hit me today. He hated this and yet he said anybody could come. You've got to look at some of the statements from the past. But he really hit me on the whole thing that we have to stop the Muslims until we find out what's going on. Does that make sense by the way? Until we find out. And he talked about, that's inexperience and you know in other words he has experience right? But that's the statement of an inexperienced man, About we have to stop people that want to kill us from coming in. Does that sound like inexperienced? So Chris, who's a friend of mine, he hit me hard. And I said I got to hit him at least once. So I won't do this a lot. Look, here's the story. The George Washington Bridge. He knew about it. Hey, how do you have breakfast with people everyday of your lives, they're closing up the largest bridge in the world, the biggest in the United States, traffic flowing during rush hour. People couldn't get across for 6, 7 hours. Ambulances, fire trucks. They're with him all the time, the people that did it. They never said, Hey boss, we're closing up the George Washington Bridge tonight. No, they never said that. They're talking about the weather, right? He knew about it. He knew about it. Totally knew about it. He's a got a very friendly group of people over there that they don't think so. But I don't know. It's called life. You've got to be smart in life. I would say there's less than 1 percent chance. It could be but I doubt it. He knew about it. They didn't mention at one of their meetings? I think they had breakfast like everyday or every other day. They'd just say, Chris, tonight we're closing up the George Washington Bridge because the mayor a certain area is against you. Oh, okay. They didn't mention? Nobody believes that. Number two. Nine downgrades of the state. Nine downgrades. It's a disaster. I have property over there, the taxes are through, I'll use an expression, coming out of my ears, okay? Tremendous taxes over there. You had nine downgrades. You had Christie, you know, so friendly with President Obama during the flood. I actually called. I said, Let me ask you. Is he going to vote for Obama? I thought he was going to vote for Obama. I don't know. I think he possibly did. And Romney I was very disappointed. One of the reasons I was disappointed was he called Christie and had dinner right after the election. If Christie did that to me, I would have never spoken to him again. I would have never done it. So when Chris talks about, when he talks about lack of experience, I built this incredible company. I filed papers where everyone said Wow, that is unbelievable. I would have probably filed them even when I didn't run because I built a great, great company. Tremendous cash. Tremendous assets. Tremendous net worth. Very little debt. Unbelievable cash flow. And I filed. Everybody said Number one, he won't run. And I ran. I took a deep breath and I said, Let's go to my wife and we came down that escalator. Right, the famous escalators. Hopefully in many years that will be a very famous scene because we will have turned around our country and that will be a positive note, okay? But then they said, Oh, well he announced. So these talking heads, most of whom are not even smart people, believe me. Then they'd say well, they went to Ivy League college. So did I go to Ivy League college. They went to this. Most of them didn't go to Ivy League colleges by the way but they say they're brilliant. One's brilliant because he wears glasses, you know? Like Perry. Remember Perry? We don't like him. But what happens is they say Well, he'll never file form A. That's basically where you sign your life away. I filed form A. Then they said, Well, he'll never sign his financial statement because maybe he's not as rich as everybody thinks. Then they said, And if he does, he'll ask for many, many delays because you're entitled to 45 day delays, delays, and you can delay it until forever. And they'll delay it until after the election. I said, No so I filed it ahead of schedule. And what happened? Remember? They went down. They couldn't believe it. It was much, much, much better than anybody ever envisioned. I built a great company and the reason, honestly worth billions and billions of dollars. Remember that, low debt, great cash flow, and the greatest assets, Doral, Trump Tower, the Trump Building, big chunk of the Bank of America building in San Francisco, 1290 Avenue, land all over, land on the Potomac, land all over. In North Carolina, I have a great piece of property. Trump National Golf Club. Some of you know it. Great, right at the best location. And what happens? What happens? So I filed and everyone said Oh, I can't believe it. Then they said Well, maybe he won't do so well with the polls. And you know, before I went, people never believed I was going to run. They never thought I was going to run. And I told the story the other night for really the first real time. But my wife said to me You know if you run you will win. Don't you? She's very smart. I said, What do you mean? She said, If you don't run, you're never going to poll before. Nobody believes you're going to run. So if they do polls like they did these early polls, they weren't great before I announced. She said, No, the only way you're going to get a poll number is you've got to announce. Nobody believes even though they say, even though they say you're running, it doesn't matter. Nobody believes you're running. So I said, All right. I'm getting these lousy early numbers and I'm saying, I don't know. I don't want to run and find out it doesn't work. I don't want to be embarrassed like Lindsey Graham and all these guys who have nothing. It's true. It's true. So I said, All right. Let's take it. So we go down on the escalator. You know what I did? You remember I took a deep breath because I'm telling you and you know what I'm talking about the press down there look like the Academy Awards. There were so many cameras. I have never seen anything like it. The entire atrium of Trump Tower was packed with cameras and press. And I just said, Let's go to my wife. Thank you very much, everybody. You just like me because my daughter happens to be Jewish. Right? She has a great husband, Jared, and I'll tell you what Ivanka could not be happier and she's very proud. The only bad news, I can't get her on Saturday. I call and I call. I can't speak to my daughter anymore on Saturdays. But that's okay. It's an honor to be with you. You know, I've devoted so much time over my life to Israel, and the other politicians they can talk but believe me they haven't done what I've done. I've received many, many awards. I was the Grand Marshal of the Israeli Day Parade at a very dangerous time when people said, Don't do it. Don't do it. I walked up Fifth Avenue. I'm looking up for lots of trouble. But I said, No way am I not going to do it. And it was a rough time as you know. It was 2004, and it was a tremendously successful parade. Maybe their most successful parade that they ever had. So, I'm in a different position than the other candidates because I'm the one candidate I don't want any of your money; I want your support but I don't want your money. I'm self funding my campaign. It's been an amazing experience for me because I have very little money invested so far. I thought by this time I'd have about 30 million in ads and I have none although I took a small radio commercial the other day in Iowa. But we have virtually no money in invested in ads or advertising. And I think you as business people will feel pretty good about this and respect it. At first, I was embarassed by that. I said, You know, I think we're going to have spend money just to spend money but it's not really like a good thing to do because I am in first place by a lot. It's not even close. Every single poll, every single state. The numbers just came in three minutes ago in New Hampshire, the PPP poll, Trump at 27%, the next one is 13%, 10%, 9%, 8%, 5%, and the rest are off the board. They have to drop out pretty soon I guess, right? Most of importantly, favorability, no, I still like the top number the most but favorability is now at 50% to 39%, which is good, and I beat Hillary in the Fox poll as you see very easily 46% to 41%. That's ultimately the most important. And you know, I've been a tremendous fan and I've been a tremendous contributor. I've given a lot of money recently to Hatzalah, $100000, emergency response. They do a fantastic job. And my father, Fred, was always a big supporter. So I grew up in that environment. I grew up in Brooklyn, Queens, and Israel was always very paramount in our mind. In fact, I've been sometimes criticized because I received so many awards from Jewish groups, and they look at my wall. It's loaded up. But now the Christians are catching up, I have to tell you. My Christians are liking me a lot lately and they've been great. They have been great. So, Obama is the worst thing that's ever happened to Israel. The worst. The worst. And when I see great friends of mine who are very, very pro Israel, very, I mean, they love Israel. They love it with passion, and they're having fundraisers for Obama. I said, What are you doing? And it's almost like they answer me and they say, We don't know. He comes to New York. We don't know. We don't know. I said he's a disaster. I really believe the Iran deal. Look, I'm a negotiator like you folks. We're negotiators. We don't build gas stations in the middle of, as you know, Afghanistan for $43 million, can you imagine this? A small gas station,$43 million, and then they used the wrong kind of terminal because they don't sell that type of gas. Okay? $43 million for a gas station. How many think they could have done it for less? Would you raise your hands please? But I look at Obama, I look at that deal where we gave to Iran $150 billion. They don't need to develop nuclear weapons; they can buy them. They can buy them. It's true. Why do they have to develop them? They can buy them. We gave them $150 billion. They go out and in terms of, you know, surveillance, they have the right to self inspect. How about that? On their major, most dangerous they can self inspect. We're going to let them self inspect. And then you have of course the 24 days and the 24 days we're all good with contracts don't start until such and such happens. It could be forever before you ever go into inspect. And we don't even get our prisoners back. And now they want to start a negotiation to get the prisoners back and they want 19 people for our three. They don't want to give us our four. You know we have four. But they only want to talk three. Now, that should have been negotiated right at the beginning, three years ago. And maybe better than any audience, I mean, the people in this room understand what I'm saying. It should have been you walk in, by the way, did you ever see a negotiation take so long? And we conceded on every single. We didn't win anything. We didn't win anything. But that should have been with our prisoners, day one, whatever it is years ago, we have to get our prisoners back. You don't want them. We need them. It will make us look better. Both everybody is going to like us more. With the American public, any deal that we strike, it's going to look good. And you say that. We have to get our prisoners back. Day one. They're going to say, No, we're not giving. And we're going to say, Bye bye. Bye! Call us when you're ready. And then we go out and double up and triple up the sanctions. I guarantee you within 48 hours they're calling, begging us to come back to the table and you have your prisoners back. It's so easy. Now, the president, you saw that, and John Kerry, who is probably the worst negotiator I've ever seen. No, he's the worst negotiator I've ever seen. He did not read The Art of the Deal, folks, I can tell you that. Now, he's one of the few. He's one of the, biggest selling of all time business book of all time, he didn't read it. And Obama definitely didn't read it. Obama, ayeyeye. Oh. But they said, this is hard to believe but this is what they said, a lot of press back there so I have to say everything exactly correct because if I don't I end up with a, they said we didn't want to complicate the negotiations by asking for the prisoners. It's really complicated. We want our prisoners back. Oh, so complicated. They said they didn't want to complicate, so now, we're going to end up making a new deal probably at some point. I'd tell you this, look I'll just tell you this: If I win, before I take office, I guarantee you those prisoners are going to be back. They're going to be back, I guarantee you. They're going to be back. Now, our president doesn't want to use the term, we had another event, which probably was, the one yesterday, probably was related. It always happens but it probably was. When I heard about it, I figured maybe not. But it turns out probably was related, radical Islamic terrorism. And I'll tell you what, we have a president that refuses to use the term. He refuses to say. There's something going on with him that we don't know about. Now, as far as Hillary's concerned, she's going to go with what he wants. She shouldn't be allowed to run. What she did is criminal with the emails. She shouldn't be allowed to run. She's going to have to follow his line because she's on a thread. You know, look, in real life, his Attorney General, his US Attorney, his Attorney General. So his Attorney General is going to listen to him in my opinion. I think it's very dishonest what's going on with our government. General David Petraeus was given a life changing sentence. Other people have been sent to jail. Petraeus was, you know, essentially, look, I don't want to get into it with the poor guy. What he went, for nothing, compared to what she did for nothing, for 5% of what she did. And Obama, I mean, she can't go against him because only does boom she gets indicted. That's the end of it. That's the end of it. So when you see Hillary backing up virtually everything he says, and he's got control of her. I mean, it's just total control. But I'll tell you what, she shouldn't be allowed to run. What she did was a criminal act. And remember this, this is a six year, you have a six year statute of limitations. So she's fighting for her life. If she doesn't become president, she could have a real problem. Does that make any sense to anybody? Does that make sense to anybody? Because what she did was just wrong. Okay? And you know she's been involved in corruption her whole life, whether it's Whitewater. I mean, her whole life is corruption. She was a horrible Secretary of State. She did a horrible job other than traveled a lot. She traveled a lot, nothing ever got done. The whole, the world blew up around her. It blew up. 500 to 600 calls and emails and everything from our ambassador asking for help and she didn't respond. The truth is she doesn't have the strength or the energy. She responded to her friends. You know the friends we're talking about. Some of those friends are, you know, sort of an interesting friend going on there. But she responded, yeah, you get that, right? A lot of people don't get that. But she responded to a friend, but she doesn't respond to an ambassador that's asking for help. Hundreds, hundreds of requests and she doesn't respond. Now, remember this, I go every night to someplace. I mean, yesterday I was in Manassas, Virginia, we had an unbelievable crowd. The other day I was in Florida, we had 12000 people in Sarasota at 12 pm with the football games going on. 12000 people. The convention center held 5000. So we had thousands outside. I made a speech outside. I made two speeches. I said, You can't get me a larger convention center so I can do one speech? My people said, No, this is the biggest one. We set a record, a big record. We set a record everywhere. We beat the record of Elton John. It's true. Elton John. I'm no longer competing with politicians. I'm competing with the musical talent. One of the great musicians said You get the largest crowds of any single human being on Earth without a guitar meaning who doesn't count on music. So it's true, we've had tremendous response. We've had incredible response. I think you know if you look at what's going on and I think based on the response, based on the polls, again I don't want your money therefore you're probably not going to support me because stupidly you want to give money. Trump doesn't want money therefore we can't, even though he's better than all these guys, even though he's going to do more for Israel than anybody else, even though Bibi Netanyahu asked me to do a commercial for him and I did and he won his race, so I was very happy about that. But he asked me to do a commercial. And they said I was the only celebrity. I don't know if that's, but they said I'm the only celebrity. I don't know. I'm not a celebrity. See now I'm a politician. I'm so embarrassed by that term. You know, my how life I've been a business, I've been a developer. I've employed tens of thousands of people over my lifetime. I have unbelievable statements and unbelievable company. A lot of people said, Oh, he'll never file. This you'll get a kick out of. He'll never run because he'll never want to file various papers. And then he'll never file this and that and then you'd have to sign your life away. The first paper, we all know about first papers. You sign your life away. That's the end of it. He did it. Then they said, Well, he'll never sign and he'll never file his financials because who knows, maybe he's not as rich as people think. So I filed my financials, almost 100 pages. The biggest ever filed by the federal elections. And everybody said, Oh my, it's much bigger and much stronger and holy mackeral, look at these numbers! If I didn't run, I'd probably would have filed anyways because you know I built a great company and I like to brag about it whenever possible. It's true. Some of the greatest assets, Doral, you know, Doral and Turnberry in Scotland and Trump Tower and many buildings in Manhattan. Just many, Bank of America building in San Francisco with a great partner and so many other buildings and things And the reason I bring that up is because that's the kind of thinking we need. And I don't bring it up as braggadocio. I bring it up because that's the kind of thinking we need in this country to bring us back. We have people that don't know the first thing about the word negotiation. I can take anybody in this office, believe me, and they're better than Obama and they're better than Kerry and they're better than the foolish people, the foolish people. It's so embarrassing when you see what happens. Sergeant Bergdahl, all right? Sergeant Bergdahl, we get a traitor; they get five of the greatest killers that they've wanted for nine years. You know, the deal was five for one. And they knew he was a traitor before we made the deal. You know about Sergeant Bergdahl. He deserted. Six people were killed trying to get him back. They were looking for him. The general and the colonel went to see all those people, they said, No, he deserted. He was a traitor. And we still made the deal. So we get a traitor. We can give him back. Do you want to renegotiate deals? Some of us will renegotiate deals. I would say about 99,is there anybody that doesn't renegotiate deals in this room? This room negotiates so I want to renegotiate, perhaps more than any room than I've ever spoken. Maybe more. It's okay. I've been called on that a couple of times too. But the fact is I want to renegotiate that deal. I want to drop him right smack in the middle of where he came from. The hell, they can have him even if we don't get the five guys back because that's not going to happen because you know where they are right now? They're right now all in the battlefield fighting us and trying to kill us and kill anybody that gets in. So they get their five guys that they've wanted for nine years they've wanted them and we get a dirty rotten traitor. But that's the way our people negotiate. They're stupid people. Okay? They're stupid people. It's very sad. It's very sad. So I'll just tell you that I'm going to win. I am. I'm going to win. I mean, unless something happens, you know, walk across the street, the wrong thing happens. But I'll tell you what, I have a great secret service. Here's a nice one, you're number one, they give you a secret service. I never saw so many people, talented people, great people. But I believe I'm going to win. I really have just a great feeling about it. And you know, my life has been about winning. I've won, and my life has been about winning, and that's what I want to do for the country. And if people say about my company and deals and you can do this deal or that deal, I have no interest. It's like the other day, Ivanka, she's doing so great. Dad, we can buy this wonderful office building and I said, Honey, who cares? How can you talk to me about such trivial things, Ivanka? It's amazing. See? Now I'm dealing in trillions. I've never heard of trillions before. You know, with this, we owe $19 trillion. We just signed a budget that's so bad and the Republicans, you know, we know where the Democrats are coming from. But these Republican politicians, they go to Washington and they're going to end Obamacare, which I'm going to do by the way, I'm ending, I'm terminating, it's going to be repealed and replaced with something much better. But they go to Washington and they're going to do this and they're going to do budgets, like I heard the guy before We're going to work in the budget. It's all about that. What happens is they're going to do budgets like we're going to do this and that and I tell this story, then they walk into the Capitol Building, which is magnificent, and they look up Darling, oh my, look at those columns, look at the ceiling, look at the angels. Oh, look at these magnificent floors. They've never seen anything like it. We've arrived. This is incredible. And then they become mainstream. We'll vote on Obamacare. Yes, I vote. They don't want to leave. They lose all of their courage. I want to use a nice word because otherwise they'd get reported for foul language. They lose all of their courage and they've let us down. That won't happen with me. So, again, you're not going to support me even though you know I'm the best thing that could ever happen to Israel and I'll be that. I know why you're not going to support me and you know you're not going to support me because I don't want your money. Isn't it crazy? No, it's true. You know, if I wanted to have your money, I think I'd have a damn good chance and I think I'd get more money than anybody else. Do you know the money I have turned down? This has not been my life turning down money. Guys want to give me millions. I would have made, poor Jeb Bush, I mean, this poor guy with his low energy. It's sad. No, it's sad. I came up with that term, it became so defining. It's like having it on his forehead I am low energy. No, no, it's sad. He raised $125 million, which means he's controlled totally, totally controlled by the people that gave him the money. That's why you don't want to give me money, okay? But that's okay. You want to control your own politician. That's fine. Good. Fine. Think about that, folks. Don't worry about it. I understand. Hey, five months ago, I was with you. Who's better than me? Who is better than me? I gave $350000 to the Republican Governors Association. I never even gotten a letter of thank you. It's true. $350000. I didn't receive one letter, not one letter from one governor. Stupid. The good thing is I don't give any, why would I give any more? You don't get a thank you letter. Politicians, remember this, politicians forget, politicians generally aren't competent, and the one thing they are good at is getting elected and that's what you're going to end up having. But I would love your support but I don't want your money. I appreciate it. Now, let's take some questions. Okay? Good. I was telling some of the folks backstage, I never ever thought we'd do this well this fast. This has been so incredible. What's happened all over. What's happened in Iowa. It's been really incredible. We've had some amazing results and they continue to come in. Got a little shake up in Iowa. I don't know what's going on. Somebody said Are you going straight to New Hampshire? Now, I love New Hampshire. We've got great numbers. 38 to 12. That's good. But we fell a little behind in Iowa, and some people are saying how can it be. And I come out and I was just telling a group we have the biggest crowds, we have the most enthusiastic crowds. Everybody said and it's very true. I mean, look at this. Somebody else would come, they'd have like 50 people and they wouldn't need this room. Believe me. But everybody said without question in every poll, this isn't just here, that the people that are with Trump are with Trump. They don't go anywhere. They're staying. It's true. I see it. I see it. And we've seen it. You know, a couple of times I say Well, that could be the end. Then they do something and I'm 10 points up. It's the craziest thing, right? But we'll take it. But they say the people are with, we have the most loyal people by far. Everybody says it. The other thing they say is for leadership, number one. Very important, right? Don't you think? Leadership. I mean, when leadership is number one, they say on the economy without question number one and by a lot. So you know it's great. I thought I'd talk a little bit and I want to take some questions. You know, we can do a little question and answer. Right? We have all these cameras going back here. And you know, it's always tough when you're on live television all the time. Look, we have 10 topics. Right? How many topics? 10? How many different ways can you talk about the 10 topics? The bottom line is we want results. We want to get it done. But when you're on live television all the time all those people back there and the cameras are on and then you're talking about immigration and you're talking about the wall because we're going to have a wall and we're going to stop illegal immigration. But we talk about trade and we talk about repealing Obamacare. And we talk about all the things that we talk about. But you know, you have these points and we could talk about them in different forms, in different ways and give different examples. But in the end, it's really about results. Isn't it? It's really about results. And you can only talk about the same subjects on live television so many different ways. I talk about industry. I talk about commerce. I talk about how we're losing our jobs to all of these different countries. And I give different examples. But it's still going to be a certain number of subjects. I talk about Second Amendment. I talk about Fourteenth Amendment. We talk about amendments. You know, that Second Amendment, they want to take it away from you. They really want to do things and it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. At least with me it's not going to happen. That I can tell you. So I said today you know we'll talk for a little while but I want to do some questions and answers. I want you people to excite me for a change. Is that okay? I want to be excited. And so we're going to have some fun. We're going to do that. A few things, I want to bring up a few new subjects. So, immigration, we're going to be doing a very strong number. It's killing us. It's killing us. And it's bad for the economy. It's bad for, all of this illegal immigration. And I have to tell you legal, you come in and we're going to have a good time and you're going to be there and you're going to do great, and visas, maybe work, maybe there are cases where you need people in and we'll do something, we're not going to hurt our economy in any way, shape or form. We're going to make our economy much, much stronger. But we're also going to get jobs for people that are here. People with us. We're going to get jobs. We're going to get jobs. But the illegal immigration, you know, I did this and I made my determination, I took a deep breath. Because I'll tell you what, it takes courage to say I'm going to run for president. It really does, especially in my case where I have a great business and I love my business. I love doing it. I may never even see it. I mean, I own some of the great properties in the world. Doral in Miami. I may never see it again Turnberry in Scotland, one of the greatest homes of the British Open and all of that. I may never see it again. All of these incredible places that I have. But more than that, it takes courage because when you do it, you're putting yourself out there beyond anything that anybody's done and it even takes courage for a politician to do it. Now at some point some of these guys have to leave. Don't we agree? It's getting ridiculous. Because like tomorrow night we're having a debate, and I wish we had more time for the debate. Not in terms of three hours because who wants three hours? You know, I could stand up for 20 hours if I had to but who wants to watch that long? Hillary's debate essentially lasted for an hour and a half and I was, oh, it was, you couldn't watch it. You have Hillary against a socialist/communist. And honestly, he's not going to win. Just so you understand, He's not going to win and neither is she Well, she's being totally protected because in theory she shouldn't even be allowed to run. She's being protected. It's a tough game and it's a nasty game but she's being totally protected. But she's going to beat him and you still have one more of these guys. O'Malley. So he'll be out quickly, I guess. I don't know what's he doing. What do they do when they have zero? They have zero. And I wouldn't say it against our folks. But they've treated me, some of the zeroes have treated me so nastily, right? Because they want to start controversy and they want to try pick up some points. And you know what? I'm not going to even mention names. Usually I do. I love doing it. But everybody that's hit me so far has gone down. They've gone down. And they've gone down bigly. And a couple of the ones and zeroes, they're the ones that hit the hardest. I mean, they're like desperate people. But they hit. One of them has a zero with an arrow pointing to the left. That means less than zero. And I don't understand. What does it mean? I assume it's a typo but maybe not. But when you look at the things that are happening with our country, the trade situation with not just China, I talk about China all the time because that's the main abuser, that's the biggest abuser. The numbers are astronomical. Almost $400 billion a year in terms of imbalance. Think of it,$400 billion a year. And they send stuff over here but we can't send stuff over there. They tax us. Big tax. A friend of mine can't get stuff over there. The tax is so big. Big tax. Somebody bought an airplane in China here. Can't get it over there. Spoiled guy. Rich guy. Bought a beautiful plane. Can't get it over there because the tax is so massive that he's now selling in this country because China won't let him have the plane and he has to pay a tax. I won't even tell you what the tax is. It's so astronomical that I don't even believe them myself. So I'm not going to say it because those guys will say Well, he was wrong. All I can tell you is it's a massive tax. Like you don't buy planes here because if you do, you won't be able to get them back in. And here, we accept all of their products. So we have almost a $400 billion trade imbalance with China. We have a $70 billion trade imbalance with Japan. We have a, you know, with all that's going on in the South China Sea and you look where we have a destroyer, a relatively small ship, over there, I don't know if I'd want to be the captain of that ship right now. But they're being sort of mocked and scorned and a lot of bad things can happen. But you know, we have an agreement with Japan and I love Japan. I love China. I love all these people. But their leaders are killing us because they're smarter, sharper, more cunning. The leaders of Mexico are killing us at the border and in trade. They're taking so many of our companies. Even Nabisco, my Oreos, they're taking Nabisco. Right? I'm never eating Oreos. I tell it all the time. They had some Oreos before on the plane and I said I don't want to touch them. Bring them back. I yelled out to bring them back. But I'm not happy. They're leaving Chicago and they're moving their big plant to Mexico. So when you see this happening, we have to stop it. And I'm not going to beat around the bush and Oh, let's talk and let's be nice and let's say, Nobody can do it like I do it. Nobody. Honestly, nobody. We can, I'm not saying I'm perfect because I'm not perfect. Nobody's perfect Now, nobody's perfect. But I'll tell you when it comes to that stuff I'm really, there's nobody better. Carl Icahn endorsed me the other day. He's one of the great traders, one of the great dealmakers. He says Trump, Trump. And he's not somebody that just do it. He wants somebody that knows what they're doing. He understand. You talk about corporate inversions and all of the things that have been going on. Corporate inversions. You know, many of the companies in this country have trillions of dollars cumulatively. They think $2 trillion overseas right now. They can't get it in. And everybody agrees that we should bring it in. The Democrats and the Republicans. They've agreed for years. They can't make a deal because they have no leader. It's not like Oh gee, we disagree on Obamacare. Or we disagree on something else. Although I must tell you many of the Democrats that I speak to because I'm friendly with all of them. I'm friendly with like Republicans. I get a long with everybody. You know, everybody says Oh, you won't be a unifier. I'll be the greatest unifier of all. Why is Obama a unifier? But I will tell you many of the Democrats who voted for Obamacare would never have done it now and were lied to 28 times. Right? You can keep your doctor, keep your plan, keep your this, everything's going to be great. Turned out to be a total lie. 28 different times that they know of and they wouldn't have done it. But when you look at what's happening with corporations and the highest tax, we pay the highest tax anywhere in the world of any country, but they have trillions of dollars overseas. And these are great companies in many cases. They have thousands of employees. They can't get their money back. And the reason is bureaucracy. It's very hard. And also big reason the tax is too high. They don't want to bring $1 million back and pay $300000 or $350000 tax. They'd rather leave it over there. And if they bring it back, they'll be using it to invest in our country. I mean, a lot of good things will happen. I happen to believe it's more than $2 trillion. But here's the thing and I use it because it's so incredible. Here's the thing. It's not controversial. It's not like you have the Republicans here and you have, everybody agrees. They've agreed you know that for 2, 3 years. They can't make a deal. And now what's happening and this will be the next great story is companies are leaving the United States, two reasons, lower taxes but also to get their money. They've got billions of dollars overseas. They're leaving our country in order to get their money and in order to pay lower tax. And you're talking about one company I know of, I don't know how much they've written about it, but you're talking about 6000 jobs just one company. You're talking about potentially thousands of companies. And I say it, in the old days, they'd leave New York. People would move down and companies would move down to Florida or they'd move to Texas or they'd leave New Jersey, where taxes are quite high, and they'd move to another location. Right? Now, they leave our country and they go to other countries. That's what's happened. In the world of the Internet and the world of very fast jets, it's a different world out there. And there's no loyalty. They're paid a lot of money to make a lot of money for their shareholders and some of them are actually foreign; they'd like to move back to these countries. They bring in executives that are from Ireland, from other places. And they don't mind. They don't have loyalty to the United States. So my plan, my tax plan, is something I'm very proud of. We're going to solve corporate inversion. I'll tell you what, we will have that money back, if I get elected president, that money will be back so fast your head will spin. Nobody else will be able to do it. Nobody. Honestly, nobody else even knows about it. The other candidates, most of them don't even know about it. It's not their wheelhouse. Okay? It's not their thing. It's not their thing. Their thing is getting reelected. That's what they're good at. They get reelected. And they make promises and they're all talk and they're no action. And the same things happen with these politicians. It's always the same. So we have so many different things and what I've done with our tax plan, which something I'm very proud of, we've brought it down to a few groups. Because right now, you have to go out, people who aren't doing well go out and hire companies to help them with their tax plans. They'll pay $500, $1000 because it's so complicated. And we're going to make it nice and simple. And we're getting rid of carried interest, which is something that a lot of rich hedge fund guys love. But we're getting rid of it. They don't love me so much anymore. But I don't care. And we're getting rid of a lot of things. So we're going to have a nice simple tax return. Somebody said Oh, why isn't everybody paying? You know, 40%,a big percentage, will not pay any tax at all. People that are doing badly. They said, well, I won't use the candidates' name because I don't want to insult any candidate when they can't defend themselves. They said We want everybody to pay at least something. And I said, I agree. Here's the problem. From the standpoint of bookkeeping, from the standpoint of bureaucracy, you're talking about millions and millions of returns. You're talking about building the IRS even bigger and it's a monster. And I could cut it down way down. And the money that you're talking about is far less than the administrative costs. So I said, I agree. Except for one thing from a practical standpoint, it's too much. Most of these people aren't paying anyway. What I want to do is bring our jobs back from China, bring our jobs back from Mexico, bring fairness to our deals as an example with Japan. I was in Los Angeles. Ships, the biggest ships you've ever seen. Cars are pouring off into this country. Made in Japan. We give them practically nothing. The balance is so bad. The imbalance is so bad. And then we have all the strikes. See, what our people don't know and only somebody that wrote The Art of the Deal or does this stuff. It's natural. It's like a great athlete. Like a Jack Nicklaus. He was always able to sink that putt. Right? You know, he's just better. And you have athletes, very few, but there are some people that have a certain ability. A lot of people don't even know we have all the power. We have all the power in China. You know, we owe right now China and Japan equally $1,think of this, trillion. $1 trillion. Think of this. They take our business and in the case of Japan, mostly cars. But they take our business. They take our jobs. Factories close down all over the place. And we owe them money. Right? It's a magic act. For them not for us. For us it's a horror show. It's going to end. It's going to end. And people like Carl Icahn and the people like the best negotiators, I know the best negotiators in the world. Some I think are horrible people. I'll be honest with you. I don't care. Do you care if they're horrible people? Who cares? Now, Carl happens to be actually a very nice guy but he's a brilliant negotiator and a tough cookie and he's built a fortune. He doesn't want money. He doesn't want to say, Oh, give me $200000 a year in government money. He wants to do it. He's proud to do it. He wants to help the country. And it's so easy for him. For instance, if I say Carl, do me a favor. The trade deal we have with China is so unfair we're losing $400 billion a year. Carl, do me a favor. Make it fair. I don't have to give him a big speech. I don't have to give him a big speech. I mean, I can tell you that within a very, very short period of time, things will straighten out. I mean, things will straighten out and it's going to be our benefit. But think of it, if we're losing that kind of money, that imbalance. It's an imbalance. Some people will say That's not really a loss. It is a loss. If we have that kind of imbalance and suppose you brought it back to zero or even if we lost $100 billion a year, that's a lot of money. Believe me, I couldn't sleep. If I brought it to $100 billion a year, get rid of me in four years, all right? But suppose we brought it back to $100 billion or we brought it back to zero, do you know what that means to this country? Do you know the kind of money you're talking about? Then jobs will start coming back, lots of good things would happen. Lots of great things would happen. And maybe our babies who have all these toys all over the place, maybe they'll have 75% and maybe they'll like them better. Maybe they'll be better. And they'll be manufactured here. Whenever I order television sets, I ordered thousands and thousands of television sets a year for different jobs. And whenever I order them, they all come from South Korea. They make all the television, other than Sony but Sony has sort of lost its way a little bit. Sony is Japan. But South Korea, LG, Samsung. I don't get bids from American. I'd love to. I'd love to. George Will said there's a company in South Carolina that makes television. I said where are they? I'd like to have a good name too by the way. It's important. You know, when somebody's paying you a fortune for a hotel room, it's nice to see a good name. Right? Do we agree? Well, it's a company in South Carolina but they don't make them there; they assemble them. They'll order parts that come in and they'll assemble them. But much different. But I'd love it if we made them. But you take South Korea. We defend South Korea for essentially nothing. You have the maniac over in North Korea that nobody ever talks about by the way. Now, he really has nuclear weapons and we don't talk about him. We made the worst deal ever made with Iran. Right? The worst. These are the people that represent, these people are incompetent. Or stupid. Somebody said, You shouldn't say stupid. It's not nice. But it's true. They're stupid. I think. I mean, I think. Unless I don't know is there something going on that we don't know about? Think of it. Point after point, we lost. We lost everything. We've given them $150 billion. Hard to believe. They don't have to develop, I was telling somebody they don't have to develop nuclear weapon; they can buy it. What the hell why should they develop it? They can buy it. And now all of a sudden they're going into Syria. They got so much money. They're a terrorist state. They're going into all of these different places. We're fighting them in Yemen and yet we're making a deal with them. So why don't you say Hey, Yemen out? Our prisoners, I want them back. I want them back. I don't want them over there. I want them back. And all we have to do, very simple, is if you have the right messenger. I'm the right messenger. You know, I've gotten to a point where I have to be braggadocious. It's terrible. Right? Because I can't be so nice and say We can all do a wonderful job. People can't do those kind of stuff. For instance, the wall. I said, I guarantee you that we're going to build a wall. It's going to be a real wall. We're going to have people come through and they're going to come through legally. Or they're going to come through with visas, which is a safe way, if we need it. And we want people to come through. I want people to come through. I don't want to say no. But we have at least 11 million, you know, the scary thing is nobody has any idea how many. You know, we've been hearing that number for years. You know, like 11 million. We have no idea. I spoke to one of the top people. They have no idea. Might be 5 million. Might also be 32 million. Could be $50 million But we have to get them out. We have to, look, it's harsh. Dwight Eisenhower, we all like Dwight. Right? Remember the expression. Right? I go remember he got elected,I like Ike. How could he be bad? All right? And I think he was a nicer general than MacArthur and Patton. And I like Ike as a president but I love Patton and I love General MacArthur. I love them. And we're going to find ourselves a Patton and we're going to find ourselves because we have a lot of smart guys in our military and women. We're going to find ourselves a Patton. But we're going to find a Patton and we're going to find a MacArthur. And I'm really good at that. We're going to find great people. And I've told this story where I watched these generals go on television, they shouldn't be on television. They shouldn't be talking. You know? They shouldn't be talking. They should be doing. And they asked a certain general, I'm not going to insult him. It was like a month and a half ago. On a show. A talk show. I said here's general so and so, one of the top, top, top people. I said what's he doing on television? And he's saying Well, ISIS is very tough. You know, they spread out. By the way, they took the oil that I said take. Remember I said Take the oil? Always take the oil! They're being funded by the oil that I said take. I don't want their damned oil. But you know what? It turned out to be another benefit of having it. Take the oil. And we didn't do it. We shouldn't have been in Iraq in the first place. And I said that in 2003. Shouldn't have been there. We totally destabilized the Middle East. We totally blew it. But we were there. Then Obama announces because he's so predictable We are leaving on a certain date in a year. Right? I couldn't believe. I was sitting there thinking Did he really say that? He said We will have all troops out by a certain date. Right? Did he say that? I said No, no, tell me please. Oh, you know what another one I got high marks on from every poll? Military. They think I'll be the best in the military because they say I, you know, I always say I'll be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. I will. But everybody knows that, especially God. Everybody knows that. But you know what I'll be? I'll be the great at the military. I'll be so good. And I'll know when, and I'll build our military so strong, so tough, so incredible, nobody's going to mess around. We're never going to have to use it. We're never going to have to use it. And I'm going to take care of our vets. Believe me, they're our greatest people and our vets are not being treated as well as illegal immigrants. I'm going to take care of our vets. So go back. So the world is unpredictable. I made a business deal a year ago. And the guy, oh, I beat him so badly. Aye, it was so beautiful. It was a beautiful thing. It was like a picture. For me, it was like a picture. That's my own problem. I guess. But to me it's like a painting when you could do something like that. So I made this deal and it was great. And they called. They did a story on me recently and it was a nice story. And I said, I hope they don't call this guy. They ended up calling this guy What do you think about Trump? And he said but in a respectful way, he said He won because he was so damn unpredictable. We don't know what the hell he was going to do. That's a positive. That's a positive. I mean, if you're a poker player and you're predictable, you're not going home with much money. Okay? But it was really, I said, That's not nice what he said. First, I said That's not nice. I'm unpredictable. Then I said, Wait a minute. He meant that as a compliment. And I called him. I said, What did you mean by that? He said I think that's the greatest compliment I can pay. We could not figure you out. You came at us from 15 different angles. So with Obama, when he announces that we're leaving Iraq on a certain date, we shouldn't have been there but once you announced the bad guys, you know how they say the surge worked? You know why the surge worked? You know why? Because the bad guys all moved back. They said, Hey, what do we have to get killed for? I mean, these people don't mind being killed, can you believe it? But they said If we don't have to, let's not. So they moved back. And they said, Hey, they're leaving in, What was the date? Do you remember the date? Specific date to the day. We will have all troops out. I'm a great president. So the bad guys, meaning the opponents, whatever you want to call them, they just said, Oh, you're leaving in a year. Going to have all the troops out. Let's go back. Why do we have to be shot at for the next year? And what do we have to do because if we do well maybe he'll change his mind and stay. So let's let him think he has this great victory with the surge. Right? The surge worked! What happened was that everybody pulled back. They said, Let's wait. Now we leave because of a lack of leadership. We leave and boom it comes apart. That's what happened. That was the surge. Everybody talk so much,Oh, the surge was so great. The surge was great because everybody knew, they knew what was happening. They knew it was going to happen. They knew we were leaving even through Bush. I mean, honestly, they knew we were leaving. They were fed up. So they pulled back and they said, Let's get them out. Everybody wanted to leave. Now, I would have done it differently. Even if I wanted to leave and I might or I might not. I won't even say. People say, Mr. Trump, what's your attitude on ISIS? When will you attack them? Where? I say You know, I don't want to talk, I have a real chance of winning. I don't want to tell you what my attitude. I want them to guess. I don't really want to tell you. I mean, the one bad thing about our system, we have a system that got flaws. Let's face it. Hey, look at our leadership, it's got flaws. But you know the one bad thing? When I gave that answer, they say, although some people, I see it here, some people say We love that. We love that. But when I give that answer, some people say Oh, Trump doesn't know. He doesn't know. He didn't give an answer as to exactly what he's going to do. Exactly what he's going to do. And I know exactly what I'm going to do and eventually after I was asked the question by 10 different reporters, all of whom are here tonight by the way, I said, You know, here's the problem. If I don't give the answer, I'm not going to win because they write so incredibly negatively. So if I don't give the answer, I'm not going to win. They're going to say Trump wouldn't give us the answer. They don't know it's unpredictability. They don't know it's strategy. And I said for a period of time like a month, I said I don't want to tell you because I actually have a chance because from the time I announced, I've been on the top of the polls, almost at the top. You know, we're doing well. Iowa, will you get your numbers up please? Would you get these numbers up? I promise you I would do such a good job. First of all, I am a great Christian and I am. I am. Remember that. And I do well with the evangelicals. But the evangelicals left me down a little bit just last month. I don't know what I did. But I am a great Christian. I'm a believer and I believe in the Bible. And I even brought my Bible a month ago to a group signed by my mother, Mary, and with the address and the date, I won't tell you what date it was because possibly you'd think I'm younger than that. But she didn't want anybody taking my Bible because that was very important to her. So cute. She has the address, has the date. But I said to myself, You know, By the way, before I forget, will you get the numbers up Iowa please? This is ridiculous. I mean, what is my competition? In all fairness, in all fairness, what is my competition? Do you think these guys, I'm not going to say Carson, I'm not going to say Rubio, who really is way down, I mean, I am second. It's not like it's terrible. But I don't like being second. Second is terrible to me. But do you think that Ben is going to go to China? These guys are fierce. Like they'd come into your office. I've made many deals with China. I've had great victories in terms of deals with China. They come into your office. There's no Hello. How are you? It's a wonderful day. They come in,We want deal. There's no games. I do this for a living. I'm really good at it, folks. Really good. And you know, when you talk about energy, I'll tell you one thing, everybody agrees, oh, do I have energy. Oh. I toss and turn thinking about how I'm going to make the best deal for you folks. I'll be tossing and turning. I will be tossing and turning. You're going to have so many deals that is so good for you. We're going to have numbers are going to be so good. I always joke you may get tired of them but then I always take that back because nobody gets tired of winning. We don't win anymore. You know, think about it. Do we win at all? Ever? We lose with the military. ISIS beats us. Everybody. We lose with trade. When are we going to come back and say, We beat China on a deal? When are we going to come back, We beat Japan? Do you know that everybody said Oh, Japan. They have so power over us. They have so much power because we owe them $1 trillion and they send all those cars. They have no power. If we ever say, Listen, if you're not going to treat us fairly, we don't want your cars anymore, they'd go out of business, folks, they're gone. Same thing with China. China is not even doing that well. But they just lowered, they just devalued their currency. The biggest in two decades. And the reason they did it, they could never thought but we have so many other problems that they felt, Oh wow, we can get away with this and it's going to make it impossible. Did you see the results yesterday of Caterpillar Tractor? Horrible. Because they're not getting stuff out because everybody, Japan and China in particular, is devaluing their currency. That's their number one weapon. And the stupid trade deal that we're making doesn't even cover it. That's their number one weapon and the trade that we're making doesn't cover it. So I only say this and you know what? People might say It's terrible. He's a terrible person, a terrible human being. But I'm going to vote for him anyways. Okay, that's fine. I'm actually a nice person. I always say this, nobody can do this stuff better than me. And I know all the guys I'm running against. They're wonderful people. Some of them I really like. But who cares? I was talking to one of the candidates the other day. I was talking about corporate inversions and they didn't even know what the hell I was talking. They had no idea. It's not their thing. And unless we stop all of the things that are going with other countries and unless we make great trade deals, we're being eaten alive. That's why when you look at the phony numbers, we have 100 million people in our workforce that aren't working. Our real unemployment rate is probably 30%. It's not 5%. That was done for politicians so they'd look good. It's not 5%. How can you have 5% when you have 100 million people? You look for a job. If you're a young guy, that handsome young guy with the red hair, right therebut if he comes out and he goes into the workforce and he looks for a job and he goes through college and does well and then he can't get a job and when he gives up because at some point after months you give up, they essentially consider you employed. It's the most ridiculous thing. We have a tremendous, tens of millions of people in that position. They can't find jobs. They're good people. They want to work. They can't. But it's not reflected in the real numbers because the politicians want to look good. So let me just before we talk some questions, I'm going to talk about something I've never really talked about it onstage but we should talk about it. It's called Super PACs. It's one of the great scams of all time. It's one of the great scams. So we sent out, I think I had, and it's not me. People set them up. And I don't know. Maybe they're setting up for my benefit. Let's take me. A guy sees me, likes me, sets up a Super PAC. I don't talk to him. I don't do anything. I think we had either 9 or 5 or 11. We don't even know. They're all over the place. Trump, Trump, one of them called The Art of the Deal PAC after the book. They have all these PACs. And the money comes in. And what do they do with the money? I don't know. And we aren't supposed to call them or anything. Okay. So, we wrote a letter, a legal letter, to I think either 9 or 11 last week saying we don't want their money, send it back because again, what do they do with it? If some guy that's having a hard time all of a sudden has $2 million sitting in a Super PAC, do you think he's going to take ads for Trump? Maybe and maybe not. So we sent them a, it's a scam, Super PACs, a scam. It's a disgrace that we have. A disgrace. And I'll tell you I read a number with, as an example, with Ben. Ben is paying 70 to almost 80 cents on the dollar to raise money. So when you read he has all this money, he's paying a lot of money and that's not reflected yet. So when you hear they raised $20 million, they're paying, now think of it, who pays, the number I actually heard was 79 but you know these guys will check them so I'm telling you it may be off but you all know it's a lot. I think they said, 79 cents on the dollar. Think of it. To raise the money, they take 79 cents before they get to use the money for what it was supposed to be. Somebody is making a fortune. I know in Romney's campaign, a couple of guys walked away with millions and millions of dollars. Millions. They became rich raising money. It's better than being a real estate broker. For the people and real estate brokers, they take these massive percentages of the money they raise. It's a scam. It's a scam. Now, in Ben's case, his Super PAC is running Iowa. And let me tell you, the people that are running that Super PAC, even if it comes in small donations, those are the real bosses. Those are the bosses. In the case of Jeb Bush, you're not supposed to deal with these Super PACs. Okay? So, it was in the Wall Street Journal the other day. He has a Super PAC fundraiser or something in a hotel and right next to it, he had his campaign ballroom. Did you read that? Two ballrooms. One here, one here, right next to each other by coincidence, of course. They're not supposed to be coordination. They're not supposed to be talking. They're right next to each other. And that's nothing compared to what some are doing. It's a scam and it should be stopped. And it's unfair to somebody like me that is spending my own money. And what happened and I haven't talked about this before but I'm seeing what's going on. It's horrible what's going on. What happened is the last time they had the Super PACs, I actually think there was sort of a wall. You know, they called it the wall. And this is a wall too. Won't be as good as the one I'm going to build but it's a wall. But it was a wall and they didn't deal. I mean, even though like Bush has a friend of his running his Super PAC, I'm sure they never talk. I'm sure. What do you think the chances are that they talk? 100% or 99%? 100%. I'd say 100%. I'd say 100%. Only a foolish person would say 99%. But whatever. They're not supposed to. But they put a friend in there. They put other people in there. They put whoever. And that's the way it works. And in some cases, I hear in Ben's case, I hear in other cases, they're literally running. I mean, had Walker done this in all fairness because he had money in the Super PAC but he had no money in his campaign and he was unable to figure out this is what they're all doing. That's why he's out of the race because he couldn't figure it out. The whole thing with Super PACs is a horrible, horrible scam. So I sent letters last week to as many as we could find. They're all over the place. We want you to close the Super PAC. We want nothing to do with it. We don't want to get advertisements. We don't want any of the money. Go home and ideally give the money back. They don't even have to give the money back from what I understand. They can keep it. They'll probably if they actually raised money for me, they'll say What a horrible thing he just said. I think we're going to support somebody else. They could do that. But the Super PACs have total control over the people running for office. Total. Nothing over me. Nothing. I feel it's very unfair. I feel it's a very unfair situation. Now, if they want, they could have full disclosure and everything. But what are they doing with this whole thing? And I think it makes dishonest people out of people that might be honest. But the Super PACs are controlling your candidates, some more than others. Some are unbelievable. And what the press should really do is take a look at how much money is left. When you read that Ben raised $1, how much is left after he pays all of the consultants and all of these people, how much is left to spend in the campaign. You'll be amazed. I mean, it's so little. Bush, it's the same thing. And I'll go over, there are other names. I know every one of them. But it's a horrible thing that's taking place. And again, last cycle, at least they went through the motions. Now, they're not even going through the motions. They're not even going through. And just remember when I have to negotiate with companies to keep them in this country so they build jobs here and they build their plants here and their factories here and they do all of the things here, when I have to do that, you know, John Deere, I paid them tens of millions of dollars. You can even check. I said to John Deere, I want an endorsement. I don't know if they'll give me an endorsement. I'll tell you if they don't they're not so smart. I guarantee no other person gave John Deere, I mean, I bought probably more than $10 million worth of John Deere equipments. I love it. You know why? Iowa. Iowa. I love it. I love it. When we can. By the way, it's a great company. It's a great company. But I buy a lot of stuff from John Deere because I have a lot of big developments that really require John Deere type equipment. I don't have to buy it from them. I could buy it from others. But I want to steer it to them when I can. But we have to do something to clean up this political mess because it's crooked stuff. It's crooked stuff. And it's got to stop. And it's very unfair to people who go out and do it the way you're supposed to do it, including me. I think I'm the only one that's self funding. I'm the only one putting up my own money, other than, I know it's precious, people write in to or whatever and they send me checks like $20. I keep saying the woman for $7, $50, $100. I don't want their money. But if you send it back it's totally insulting. I mean, they always write letters too. They write these beautiful letters,Mr. Trump, I can't afford much and I know you don't need it but I'm sending $50 because that's so important what you're saying about the country. It's beautiful. I mean, I've seen such beautiful letters. And if I send it back, there's no letter I can write that's not going to be insulting to those people, really. Dear Mr. So and So or Mrs. So and So, I don't need your money and thanks a lot but we're going to do it ourselves. If I got that back, I'd say Who the hell does he think he is? So we take that and it's something that I think is important. So I always preface it by saying I don't consider that funding but I'm self funding my campaign and I'm getting ready to put up millions, millions. And something I'm very proud of that I think it's great and it's you know really great, it hasn't gotten very much publicity, hasn't gotten much publicity, but I have spent less money than any other candidate. Okay? By far. I think. I don't know, probably a couple of guys that have nothing so they just go around. But I was told that I spend less. And I have the best results because in most polls I'm number one. Now, until Iowa came along, I said every poll, and then Iowa, what the hell are you people doing to me? You know? You know? I'm telling you. They said, Why don't you skip Iowa? They told me that. Everybody said Skip Iowa. All of the political geniuses. A man just interviewed me back there, great reporter. He's actually a great reporter. Of course, if he writes a bad story, I won't say that. But he is. He's a great reporter. And he said, Would you ever think of maybe skipping Iowa going right to New Hampshire? And then you'd go to South Carolina where I'm leading by massive, yeah, you've got to see the rallies there. They're incredible. But you'd go to New Hampshire. You'd go to South Carolina. You go to Nevada. You go to the SCC. I said I can't do that because I have such an unbelievable relationship with the people from Iowa that I think we're going to win. I really do. I believe it. I believe it. And I don't want to skip Iowa. I think we're going to do well. I think we're going to do great with evangelicals. I think a lot of things are going to come out over the next period of time that are not going to be so good for our opponents, honestly, and I think I'm going to do great with the evangelicals because I am the real deal. I will tell you that. I'm the real deal. So I told these political pros, you know, I hate to say it but the last long number of elections on the Republican circuit, the person that won Iowa did not get the nomination. Okay? I want to take away some of your muster. You understand that. So could we do, and please do me a favor? Let me win Iowa. And then I'm going to win, I'm telling you we're going to win New Hampshire, and we're going to win South Carolina. A great poll just came out on North Carolina just a little while. A PPP poll. It was great. Some of you saw that. But great poll. But we're going to go on and we're going to win. We're going to win. And actually, one of the pundits, because you have some smart pundits and some very, very dumb pundits. A lot of pundits said He'll never run. He's not going to run. They're still trying to recover. But one of the very smart one says If Trump wins Iowa, it's over. It's interesting because it will go right through because everywhere else is so great. And I thought it was good here. Come on. Okay, so that's the end of that. But I want to tell you, will you, I refuse to say Get your asses in gear. I will not say that. I will not say it. I will not say it because I don't want to use anything that's even a little bit off. So will you please do me a favor and work with my people and go out on Feb. 1stand vote and give us a victory? And if I win Iowa, we're going to run the whole table and we are going to make such great deals and we're going to have such a great military and we're going to take care of our health care without that crazy Obamacare that's a nightmare. So, I'm sticking with you people. I'm going to spend money here. I have a great team over here. And I will tell you I'm going to spend a lot of time here and I really want to win Iowa and I think we should and it's so important. And you know, it's about time that Iowa could have a victory and let that person go onto a total victory. Okay? Not like over the last, right? So, I love you all. I mean, we're having fun. But I love you all. But I do mean it. I'm going to stay here. We're going to work really hard. When I heard the poll today, they said What are you going to do? I said, I'm going to work harder in Iowa. I'm not leaving Iowa. I'm not leaving Iowa. Now, if I lose Iowa, I will never speak to you people again. That I can tell you. Okay, let's do a couple of questions. Right? Come on. So, we're going to be discussing something so important for our country, for our economy, and for getting us all working again and working well again. It's a tax reform that I think will make America strong and great again. Too few Americans are working. Too many jobs are being shipped overseas. And too many middle income families cannot make ends meet. This plan directly meets these challenges and the challenges also of business. It will provide major tax relief for middle income and for most other Americans. There will be a major tax reduction. It will simplify the tax code. It will grow the American economy at a level it hasn't seen for decades. And all of this does not add to our debt or our deficit. But I will also be discussing some of that at the end because we have to make much better deals, we have to negotiate much harder, and we've got to make our economy strong. Changes for individuals will be at levels that you haven't seen in a long time. We're going to cut the individual rates from 7 brackets to 4. Simplification. 25%, 20%, 10%, and 0%. If you're single and earn less than $25000 per year or married and jointly earn less than $50000,so, very important. If you're single and earn less than $25000 or married and jointly earn less than $50000, you'll not pay any income tax, nothing. This eliminates very strongly and quickly the marriage penalty. Very unfair penalty. It eliminates the AMT, which is the alternative minimum tax. It ends the death tax. It's a double taxation. A lot of families go through hell over the death tax. It reduces or eliminates most of the deductions and loopholes available to special interests or to the very rich, in other words, it's going to cost me a fortune, which is actually true, while preserving charitable giving and mortagage interest deductions. Very importantly. It ends the current tax treatment of carried interest. Those are the hedge fund folks that I've been talking about for quite a while. They make a lot of money. Carried interest. So it ends the current tax treatment of carried interest through speculative partnerships that do not grow businesses or create jobs and are not risking their own capital. Changes for business, now, so important, because it's all about business. It's all about jobs. We have 93 million people in this country that are in serious trouble, that want to work; they can't work. So for business, no business of any size from a Fortune 500 company to a mom and pop shop to a freelancer living from gig to gig will pay more than 15% of their business income in taxes. Big reduction. A one time deemed repatriation of corporate cash held overseas at significantly discount which coming back at a significantly discount,10%. So it comes back discounted at a 10% tax rate and ends the deferral of taxes on corporate income earned abroad. Now, it's called corporate inversion. It's a huge subject. I've been watching politicians now for years, all talk, no action politicians. I've been watching them for years talking about bringing this money back. The number is probably $2 trillion. Everybody agrees it should come back, Republicans, Democrats, everybody. They can't make a deal. They don't know how to go about making a deal. The reason companies aren't bringing it back is the tax is onerous. It doesn't make sense to bring it back. And in fact, many companies are leaving the United States. They're leaving our shores to go and collect their money. They're going actually moving out of the United States for two reasons, the taxes are too high and because they have tremendous amounts of money that they can't bring back into this country when everybody wants them to bring it back in. It's called leadership. We will have that money brought back in. As an example, I have millions of dollars overseas. I can't bring it back into this country. We filed papers. We've been doing this for a year and a half. We can't get it back in. So the money stays in other countries and that's what happens. Not good for us. The level of leadership that we need to get things like this done is so important. But this is something, and I've been watching it for a long time, everybody agrees to. We also reduce or eliminate some business loopholes, many of them actually, and deductions made unnecessary or redundant by the new lower tax rate on business income. The tax rate now is so low that a lot of these deductions which are complicated, which don't make sense, and which are unfair are gone. And we phase in a reasonable cap on the deductability of the business interest expense. So we are going to give you, we have a very complex set of papers that actually if you know business is not so complex. And we're going to hand them out right now to the press. And I think you'll see we have an amazing code. It will be simple. It will be easy. It will be fair. It's graduated. As you get up in income, you pay a little more. Some of the very unfair deductions that certain people have been given who make a lot of money will not be available any longer. But I actually believe they'll do better because I think the economy will grow. It will grow rapidly. And we'll have something very special. Now, with all of that being said and before we take some questions, we have to cut the costs of what's going on in this country. If you look at what we're doing and the money we're spending. I read where a washer, you know what a washer is? Nuts, bolts, and washer, to send from one state to another, it was a 19 set washer and it cost $900000 and some odd dollars to send it from here to there. And there are many examples. Hammers that cost $800 that you can buy in the store for a tiny amount of money. We will run this country properly. There is so much money to be saved. We're reducing taxes but at the same time if I win, if I become President, we will be able to cut so much money and have a better country. We won't be losing anything other than we'll be balancing budgets and getting them where they should be. So, this is a plan that's simple, that's a major reduction. I think people are going to be very happy. We've already had some very good reviews. I did the plan with some of the leading scholars and economists and tax experts that there are in this country. They love it; they say Why hasn't this been done before? And this is my wheelhouse. That's what I do well. The economy is what I do well. Whenever they do polls, I always come out way above everybody else on the economy and on leadership, by the way, but I won't say that. So, if anybody has, thank you. That's amazing. That's some of the press was actually clapping. I've never saw, I don't think I've ever seen that before. All right. Why don't we take some questions from the press? We're doing really well. Iowa's been amazing. It's been amazing. We're doing so well and I love this place and I'm back here all the time and I'm going to be here a lot in January. You're going to be so sick of me. You'll probably say, We can't give the caucus, just forget it. We can't stand the guy any more. No, you're going to like me and we're going to be back and we're going to do a great job for you. Most importantly, we're going to get to that office and we're going to do the right thing. We're going to do the right thing. So, a few things. A lot so much has happened. You know, when we first came out, we were all talking together. And we were talking border security, which we're just doing so great with the border security. We're going to build a wall. Mexico's going to pay for the wall. We all know that. But we're going to have security. And the drugs are going to stop and the people that are going to come into the country but they're going to come into the country they're going to be legal, they're coming in legally, and that's the way. That's the way. And it affects Iowa so much. So we were talking about. So we were talking about that. We were talking about repealing Obamacare. Boom. It's going to be repealed. It's going to be replaced. I don't know if you've been seeing what's happening but Obamacare is a total disaster. It's dying of its own weight. And by 2017, meaning he'll be playing golf and I'll be working very hard. But 2017 instead you're not getting the people signed up. There's been a lot of talk about it and a lot of stories about it. Obamacare's dead but we'll terminate it quicker than that. And we will come up with something that will be so good, so much better. Premiums are going through the roof. Deductibles are so high that unless you're close to death, you'll never going to get to use. And even then I don't think you're going to get to use it really. So, we're going to take care of that. And by the way, we have a lot of good people. We have ethanol. Nobody is really we have the ethanol where are the ethanol people? Right? I was here a month ago and I met with them all and they do a fantastic job. I toured the plants and they do a fantastic job but it's so important. And it's another form of let's stay away from OPEC and let's stay away from that Middle East stuff. It's so important Actually what I don't understand because the one guy that's doing pretty good with me in Iowa is Ted Cruz and he's a nice guy. I mean, everything I say he agrees with me. No matter what I say. I was going to do one really wild but he agrees. But with the ethanol, really, he's got to come a long way because he's right now for the oil. But I understand it. Oil pays him a lot of money. He's got to be for oil, right? The oil companies give him a lot of money. But I'm with you. I'm with everybody. Look, I'm self funding. I have no oil company. I have no special interest. I have no lobbyist that want me and you know, they're representing countries that are ripping off the country, they're representing companies that are ripping off our country. All I do is I'm going to be working for you folks. We're going to do this thing together. We're going to make America so great again and maybe better than ever before. So important. So when we first started, I talked about China how they're ripping us and Japan and Mexico. Mexico both at the border and in trade. They're taking so many of our companies. Nabisco's moving there with their big plant. Ford is moving there with a big plant. They took a big plant away from Tennessee a great state they took it away at the last moment. I'm not going to let that stuff. We're going to do what we have to do, okay? But I talked about that and I talk about it a lot. The fact is that about 2 weeks ago with Paris, I'm speaking a little bit differently now. Believe me, I can take care of China in my back pocket. That's easy for me. That's what I do. And we have all the cards. A lot of people don't know. You know, these politicians they don't understand we have the cards. You know, with China, our people pay tax. They pay no tax. It's not supposed to be that way. They call it a tariff because it sounds better. But we'll take care of that. We'll take care of all of that. What happened is with Paris, there's a different mindset. And when the polls came out last week, my numbers went way up because people felt more secure with me. Now, maybe it had to do who knows why? Who knows? But my poll numbers went up. And do you ever notice whenever there's something that I do that's proper but controversial, they'd say Oh, now he's gone. That's it. That's the end. I won't go over all of the different things because maybe you'll change your minds. But they'd say, That's it. It's over. And then they'd come in, Sir, your poll number went up 9 points this week. I said, They did? Because I have to do what's right. I have to do what's right. And you know what? If I don't make it, I don't make it. I have a good life. We all hopefully have a good life. I have a great family, nice people, wonderful people. They love me. I think. I hope. I think. But I have a great family and I built a great business. There's such spirit There's such spirit no matter where I go. You know, I go to Dallas. We have 20000. 35000 people in Mobile, Alabama. 20000 people in Oklahoma. Wherever we go in Iowa, we have these crowds. You know this is supposed to be for like a record. It is big and yet it feels intimate. It feels good So I changed a couple of weeks ago. When I saw Paris I changed. And a big, big part of what I'm doing now is safety and security and smartness and smartness. Sort of interesting. You know, the slogan is Make America Great Again and I'm adding Make America Great Again and Safe Again because we don't feel safe anymore. And the problem we have now that we've never had to this extent is the power of weaponry. It's the power. It's the tremendous power. You know, 100 years ago, I would have said Let's not go. I said Don't go there anyway. And I said it strongly Don't go. You're going to destabilize the Middle East. But the fact is right now, we're going to have to do things because we have some really, really sick degenerates. And the press look at all those cameras going all live, all you know, nobody else has cameras like this. They can make a speech 100 times they make a speech, nobody cares. Look at this. And don't worry, they never pan the crowd. You know, they never; they have me. That's why I'm walking around. I figured I'll walk around maybe they'll get the crowd. They never pan the crowd. I tell them Pan the crowd, they never do. I had a crowd 7000 people last week. More. 7000 people and in a confined space. They had 3000 people outside that couldn't get in. My wife says, Darling, the speech was excellent. Did you have many people there? I said What? She said, Well, they never leave your face. They keep it purposely. But I'll tell you the cameras may be a little screwed up where you can't move them, right? But every time there's a protester Well, I'm protesting and it can be in the back lefthand corner of the room, the cameras swoop over there. It's true. It's true. It's true. No, I used to think they couldn't move. You know, maybe there's something with the crazy computers. You know, in the old days everything was better right? The car seats. You'd sit in your car and you want to move forward and back, you press a button. Bing, bing. Now, you have to open up things, press a computer, takes you 15 minutes. Well, the same thing I figured with cameras. I didn't think they moved. I figured they were fixed for certain reasons. And then I saw a protester and those cameras were bent in positions like you wouldn't believe possible. So, they're very dishonest people. What can I say? Not all of them but most of them. I'll tell you, you have one of the most dishonest right here in your backyard. The Des Moines Register is the worst. They are the worst. The worst. No, they're very dishonest. You have some reporter named Jacobs. She is the worst. She will write so it's such misrepresentation. And so I don't care. I mean, who cares? So I'm saying it right in their backyard. They're failing anyway. They probably won't be in business in two years. I think they're losing a fortune. I think. You know, it's funny. Every time the Des Moines Register does a poll, I always do badly. I'm only doing this so they don't sue me but I don't mind if they do. I hope they sue me because they don't have enough money to sue me. That's the good thing. But I believe and I may be wrong in fact, I'll say I'm sure I'm wrong but it's my opinion that they don't do it properly because you know they poll like 300 or 400 people. I'll explain it You know, if they lose 20 people in the pocket. Oh, Trump? Oh, forget that one. Forget that one. Now, I don't know that they do that. Do you do that, Des Moines Register? But every time I have a Des Moines Register poll, I do poorly. I also do poorly with the Bloomberg polls. I don't know why. But we had a great poll come in CNN last couple of days where we're leading I think by 13 points in Iowa. In Iowa. And then we have another coming where we're doing well. But I think Des Moines Register has somebody says it's coming out sometime. I'll just tell you, watch Trump disappears! I think we're going to do so well. I think we're actually going to even do better. You know, we're leading in most of the poll. We're leading in every poll. Except Iowa there was one poll there was one poll, Monmouth I'd never even heard Monmouth. What the hell is Monmouth? What is Monmouth? Explain it. I don't like Monmouth. You know why I don't like it? Because they always treat me badly also. But I only like polls that treat me well. But we're doing so well. Nationwide, we're leading every poll by tremendous. We just had one in Georgia 44%. 44%. Think of that. That's 44% with 15 people. I'd take 44% if we had three people. I don't think I'd take it if we had two people but I think I'd take if we had three. But 44%. CBS came out as you know, you probably saw that, New York Times two days ago and we're at 35% to a small number. We're killing everybody in every poll. Just one little outlier here. Again, I'm sure when Des Moines comes out it'll be a negative because I don't believe that poll. But we are going to win. And I'll tell you what. Honestly, Iowa is so important to me. I could say, Oh, let's not do I am an evangelical. I am a Christian. I'm a Presbyterian. I'm a Presbyterian. I love Billy Graham. Franklin Graham came out with the most beautiful statements. Franklin Graham. He was so incredible. He came out I don't know if you all saw the statements he came out with about Trump He was so incredible. Franklin Graham was amazing, the son of Billy Graham, who was, you know, there's nobody, nobody that I've ever seen Billy Graham was unbelievable. If anybody's gone to his crusades, they were incredible. But so I think we're going to do we're doing really well with the evangelicals And by the way and again, I do like Ted Cruz but not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba in all fairness. It's true. Not a lot come out. But I like him nevertheless. I think we're going to do great and we are doing great with evangelicals. We're doing great with the Tea Party, leading with the Tea Party. And we're doing fantastic with all the young and middle. We're doing great with everybody. And so it's very important for me to win Iowa. Now, I could put less pressure on myself and I could say, Oh, I don't care about Iowa. I don't care. But I do care. I do care so much about it. That's why we're here all the time. And then the lies happened. You know, when I was using Iowa, they lied so much. I said, The people of Iowa can't be that stupid or the people of the country can't. I'm trying to make a point, right? So I said, The people of the country can't be that stupid. Well, they cut the country out so it's referring to Iowa. I love you people. Remember that. Remember that. I was talking about something, and I won't even mention what I'm talking about because the guy I'm talking about and was actually a very good guy. But I will say this. We want to win Iowa so bad. Because if I win Iowa, I think we'd run the table. I really do. I think we'd run the table. We'd go right through. Because we're leading big in New Hampshire every poll. Big. Big in New Hampshire. Christie got an endorsement from this crazy newspaper up there. It's the weirdest deal I've ever seen. And you know the paper that was in his state called up and said, Are you sure about that? Nobody ever called us. They can't believe it. And we can get into that but it's irrelevant. But we're leading New Hampshire big. We're leading in South Carolina like monstrous numbers. We're leading Nevada. We're leading in Texas. We're leading everywhere. We're leading big in Florida. Now, you have Rubio nice guy, by the way. You have Rubio and he is a nice guy but you've got to vote. When people put you in a position to be a Senator, you've got to go and vote. You can't be the number one person that doesn't vote in the Senate. You've got to say, Hey, I'm a young guy. I want to go and vote. You should stay there a little longer. He's a good guy. Stay there, go in, vote, create a nice record. But I don't know. How's he doing in Iowa? Not too good. Right? He's not doing well. How's Rubio doing? Not good. I mean, it seems like a two person race right now and it's an important race to me. So I just want to let you know it's very important. So with all of that, if we win Iowa, a lot of people say we'd just go through. I think we'll win virtually every state in the Union and it's over quickly. Over quickly. What about the Republican establishment? The establishment's got a problem, you know. It's sort of like the fighters. You know, the great champions. Sometimes they'll go into the hometown of a guy they're fighting and they'll say, You know, we'd never want to get a decision. We go for the knockout. The knockout is the knockout. Because you get a lot of bad decisions. I know a lot about the world of sports, believe me, and they go into a hometown to fight and it's a decision and they say, Uh, we're in a problem and they'd lose the fight that they won. The only way they win the fight definitely knock out. So, if we win Iowa, I think we're going to win everything after that. So I think it's going to show how important Iowa is. I'll pledge this to Iowa. Even if I lose, I'll pledge it, okay? I don't think I've ever said that in my life. If we go and win, Iowa's staying right where it is in the chain. It's not moving. You know, there's a big move to move Iowa into a much further back position by the establishment. Folks, I win it's not happening, okay? You're staying right here because it's great. It's great. You've been paying into Social Security and Medicare, by the way. Let's put them in. Because Medicare does work. With both, you have tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse. We're going to take care of that. Okay? But we're not going to cut your Social Security and we're not cutting your Medicare. We're going to take jobs back from all these countries that are ripping us off. We're going to become a wealthy country again. And we're going to be able to save your Social Security. I can't believe this number but I read it over who is the man that told me the number over 6 million people I can't believe it are aged 112 and over are getting Social Security But I heard it. I read it. A tremendous like 6 million people are getting Social Security. They're dead. Meaning somebody else is picking up The press is going to have to check it because what do I know? But can you imagine, we have 6 million now, we know there's not 6 million, there may be one. But there's not 6 million. Anybody in this room 112 or over? Because if they are, I want to shake your hand. But so 6 million over 112 years old picking up Social Security and that's the beginning. So there's tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse. What we're going to do is we're going to save Medicare. We're going to save Social Security. We're not going to raise the age or we're not going to do all the things that everyone else is talking about doing. They're all talking about doing it, and you don't have to. We're going to bring our jobs back. We're going to make our economy incredible again. My tax proposal, which is in, and a great detail in terms of policy and it's gotten tremendous reviews from a lot of people, a lot of great groups. But we are going to cut taxes tremendously for the middle class and for businesses because our middle class is being decimated. And when that happens, you're going to see an economy that takes off. We're going to get rid of a lot of that debt, if not all of it. But we're going to get rid of it you know, we're at $19 trillion going t $21 trillion right. You know, if you go back eight or nine years, trillion wasn't even a word anybody knew and now it's like routine. So we are going to save your Social Security without cuts. We're going to bring the economy back. We're going to make ourselves rich again. A woman said to me in New Hampshire recently, she said, Mr. Trump, I'm voting for you. I love you. But it's very crude when you say you're going to make our country rich again. I said, I know it's crude. It sounds bad. But many things I say are crude. It sounds bad. But we can't make our country great again unless we make our country rich again. We can't let everybody in the world rip us off. Remember, we built China. The money they took out of country, we rebuilt China. You go there, they have bridges all over the they have bridges like the George Washington Bridge. Maybe I shouldn't mention that particular bridge. But like bigger like the George Washington Bridge. Only a few people got that one; that's okay. But they have bridges going up. We have rebuilt China. They've taken our jobs. They've taken our base. They've taken our manufacturing all over the place. They've taken our money. They've taken our money. Not going to happen anymore folks. Not going to happen anymore. Not going to happen. I know the great business people. We have the greatest business people in the world. Guys like Carl Icahn. He calls me, Donald, I want to help. I want to help. The smartest people call. We're not going to use the special interest guy a donor. We use donors to negotiate with China because he gave some guy like, you know, whoever it might be. Because again, I'm the only one that's self funding my campaign. Everybody else isn't. These guys when these guys give money to politicians to a large extent they own those politicians. They will do whatever the hell the special interests and the donors want. That's not going to happen with me. So, Social Security we're saving it. Medicare we're saving it. We're going to make our country rich. Okay? Thank you, sweetheart. Yeah, it's called the statute of limitations, right? And you know it's a six year year statute. Maybe five but it's probably six. But it's a six year statute. Yeah, you have to look at it. Look, Hillary Clinton you know this story. It's a crime. She committed a crime. Now, perhaps perhaps somebody, you know, we have to have a fair Justice Department and perhaps we'll have some really good Attorney General that's going to say Well, you know. Look, we want to be fair to everybody. Okay? Including Hillary Clinton. But she committed a crime in my opinion. Now, she shouldn't be allowed to run. She's being protected absolutely. I have little doubt that they're going to find anything. But they've already found it. I mean, you watch television. You have all these big scholars, these lawyers, Yes, she violated section so and so. Just one after another. I mean, actually violated many, many laws, not just like a little one here. Many laws. You mentioned General Petraeus. His life was destroyed over 5% of what Hillary Clinton did. Over nothing. So I think she's going to be their nominee definitely. The only question is whether or not she'll be allowed to run. She's being protected by the Democrats. She's being protected by the President. And that's why why do you think she's going along with these insane policies of his? Okay? I mean, she goes along with everything. I don't even honestly in all fairness to her, I don't think she believes it. But I think she's afraid he's going to say, Listen, I don't like her anymore. Go take care of her. I'm going to get somebody else. I'm telling you. So, the question is statute of limitations. It's a five year statute of limitations. She's got a problem. She's got a problem. In one way, she's running for her life because I know one thing, if she wins that's the end of that. Right? But if she loses she could have a very serious problem. Well, I said right at the beginning. We're going to build a wall that's going to be a real wall. That's going to be a real wall. It's not going to be you see that ceiling? That ceiling is nothing compared to the wall. And we can build it and we can build it right. And it will be strong and powerful and as beautiful as a wall is going to look. It's got to be beautiful because someday they're going to name it the Trump Wall. I know that. It's going to happen. Going to happen. And it's going to work. And walls do work. You know, they wanted to build a wall here 20 years ago. You know they couldn't get environmental impact statements. That's just shows you. China is building in the South China Sea massive military bases. Right? Why? They're not supposed to. They have no respect for Obama or our country. They're not supposed to be doing that. And you could get them to stop just by saying We're not doing business with you anymore. Their whole economy would you don't have to go to war. It's economics. The whole country would collapse in two seconds. Believe me. We have such power and we don't know it. But they're building massive now, they had little islands. They put the biggest escavators, not Caterpillars. I think they're using Komatsu from Japan They have these massive escavators, and I said to a friend of mine who's Chinese from China very rich guy, very successful guy, paid me a fortune for an apartment so I happen to like him, okay? I said jokingly How long did it take them to do these massive islands they're building right out of the sea? Boom, those shovels go in, take out everything. How long did it take you to get the environmental impact statements? He laughed. He said, What are you kidding me? Nothing. They say We will build there. About two seconds later, you have escavators digging. So we had a problem with environmental look, I've won many environmental awards. I'm a big believer especially in clean air and clean water. I'm a big believer. Just so you know. Big. And I've gotten so many awards for the environment. So I understand the environment; I've won many, many awards. But when you look at how we're impinged and hurt. But the wall was stopped because they couldn't get an environmental impact statement among other things. They couldn't get an environmental impact statement. Now, there was probably a snail or a turtle or a snake or something. You were ruining the habitat of a rattlesnake. I don't know. But they actually had people a lot of people people that now would be against it but they wanted to build a wall and years ago they couldn't get it done. You know, I said bomb the oil, right? I've been saying that for three years. Now finally they started after Paris they started bombing the oil. I've been saying it for years. You know one of the reasons we didn't bomb the oil? Obama didn't want to hurt the environment. Now, I heard that and I thought somebody was kidding. I thought a comedian was saying it. It turned out to be true. He didn't want the flames and everything going into the atmosphere. This is the way we fight today. I'm telling you, folks, we're being led by stupid people. We're being led by stupid people. I've been saying not really bomb I've been saying take the oil. I didn't want to go into Iraq. But once we were there, I said Look, we shouldn't have been there. But then when we left, we left the wrong way. First of all, we have a president who told them a date. We're going to leave on such and such a date. What was it like 18 months later? So the enemy all of sudden said, Wow, because don't believe it. They don't want to be killed. Okay? They don't want to be killed. So the enemy said They're going to leave on a certain date? So they pulled back, the date comes, and now you see what happened. It's a disaster and Iran is taking over Iraq. So anyway, I couldn't believe it when they said that. When we said to our 50 soldiers two weeks ago and our president gets up and announces We are sending 50 soldiers. Okay, first of all, he thinks it's a good press announcement. It's not. 50 soldiers that's not a lot even though they're the elite. But those 50 soldiers because of that announcement have a target on their heart. They have a target on their heart. Why does he have to say that for? Why can't he let 50 soldiers go there quietly, stealth, stealth? Why can't he just do that? Why can't he do that? Those 50 soldiers are in grave danger today because of that, and they probably don't even know that but everybody is looking for them and that's the way it is. We have people that don't know what they're doing. We used to have General MacArthur Douglas MacArthur General George Patton. I mean, these were real people. These were real people. Today, we have generals that go on talk shows I saw a general the other day on a talk show. He said and this was serious and he's a good man. They're good men. But you've got to lead these men. Even the generals have to have some power over them. He said, We are in the worst shape in terms of preparedness that we've been in in decades. And this is the time when we have to be in the best shape because the world wants to kill us. And he said we are in the worst shape we've been in many, many decades. Now, number one, he shouldn't be saying that because you're telling the enemy that and the enemy feels embolden when they hear that. Right? We shouldn't be saying it. We shouldn't be saying it. I mean, even if it's true, you don't say it. You get it fixed and you do the opposite. One thing I'm going to do I'll tell you, I'm going to build our military so big and so strong and so powerful so powerful that nobody is going to mess with us. Nobody is going to mess with us. You know in many ways, it's the cheapest thing you can do. Everyone is toying with us right now. It's the cheapest thing you can do. The absolute cheapest thing you can do. We have to be much tougher. We have to be much stronger than we've been. We have people that knows what's going on. You take a look at just the attack in California the other day. There were numerous people, including the mother, that knew what was going on. They saw pipe bombs sitting all over the floor. They saw ammunition all over the place. They knew exactly what was going on. When you saw the World Trade Center go, people were putting to planes that were friends, families, girlfriends, and they were put into the planes, and they were sent back for the most part to Saudi Arabia. They knew what was going on. They went home and they wanted to watch their boyfriends on television. I would be very, very firm with families. And frankly that will make people think because they may not care much about their lives but they do care, believe it or not, about their families lives. It's a great honor. I want to thank Simon and Schuster, one of the most magnificent publishers. For years and years, I've heard about Simon and Schuster's being a fabulous, I was going to say the Rolls Royce, I was going to say the Harvard or the Yale, but they really are a great one. And I want to thank you very much. You've given us such tremendous support. And we did this quickly and I think we did it very effectively. It's been an incredible experience. We wrote a book and the title, Crippled America, is very tough but unfortunately we have to do what we have to do and I think one of the reasons we've been doing so well in the campaign is because we tell it like it is. We tell the truth. And America is crippled. We owe $17 trillion and now $18 trillion and now it's actually very soon going to be $19 trillion in debt. We have a military that doesn't have proper instruction from leadership. We don't know what we're doing. We're losing all over the world with trade deals. Every country, no matter what country you talk about, you can just pick a name out of a hat, they're beating us in trade. And we can't go on like this any longer. It's impossible to go on like this any longer. I always mention as an example Sergeant Bergdahl, a traitor. We get Sergeant Bergdahl; they get five of the people they wanted and they wanted badly. And that's not the way it's going to work anymore. So we write about it in the book. We tell lots of different stories of lots of different things. And I think it's going to be very instructional, very important. To me, it was instructional. When I did The Art of the Deal, I think one of the reasons it was so successful is that it was largely instructional. Even today when I speak, so many people hold up the book The Art of the Deal and the other books we've done. So this is one that probably not since the Art of the Deal, I have to tell this to Louise and Simon and Schuster, have I worked so hard on a book and it was in a confined period of time. We wanted to get it out really, really quickly so that it pertain to what's going on right now. It's a moment of time. And we got it done. And David did a fantastic job. And all of my people did a great job. They helped me so much because we are doing a couple of other things right now. So this was not easy getting this in. But we see by the lines, the lines go down to Park Avenue. They've been forming since last night and I'm going to be signing books starting at 12 pm We're doing a couple of interviews and then we're signing books starting at 12 pm and that'll be very exciting for me. But we have fans that have bought the book and they just bought it and some have been online now for 12 and 14 hours. I don't know how they're doing this but they do it. They find a way. Well, I think it's a different book. You know, we just had polls come out today from Iowa where I'm leading. You saw the new poll from Iowa. You saw the new poll in New Hampshire where I'm leading big. A poll just came out in Florida where I'm leading big. Georgia, Texas. I mean, all over the place. And I think you know look we're doing well. And if you add Ben and myself we're beating everybody by a lot. That seems to be the big story that we're beating, they call it the establishment. It's called really the failed establishment because the establishment has let us down. But I don't know. I don't know how his book is doing. Well, I think my book is very hard hitting. His is a different kind of book and he's a different kind of a person. My book is very hard hitting. It says it like it is. And based on what Simon and Schusters just told me, it's selling like hotcakes. So we'll see. We're very different people. We have very different qualities and we are extremely different. And I'm different from all of the other candidates. Look, nobody can negotiate trade deals like me. We are going to take the $400 billion a year that we're losing with China, that's going to be turned around. The $75 billion a year that we're short on with Japan. The $50 billion a year that we lost to Mexico. And that's right, there will be a wall built. It will go up. It will be built. And people will come into the country legally. So I mean, much different than, you're look at Marco Rubio, very, very weak on illegal immigration. You look at Ben and he's very weak on immigration and he wants to get rid of Medicare. I mean, Ben wants to get rid of Medicare. You can't get rid of Medicare. It'd be a horrible thing to get rid of. It actually works. You get rid of the fraud, waste, and abuse. It works. So when a man is weak on immigration and wants to get rid of Medicare, I don't know how he stays here. No, I think that really Marco is overrated. And frankly had Bush been a better messenger, he has the better message. I mean, if that was me delivering that message it would have been a much different story because he hasn't been able to, Marco doesn't show up to the United States Senate. He's representing the people of Florida, which by the way that poll just came out today and I'm way up in Florida over everybody. But Marco is a sitting Senator and he doesn't show up for the people of Florida, and I don't think he should be doing that. Now, Bush gave a very weak message. I agree with that. It was poorly delivered. But the facts are on Bush's side and ultimately I think Marco's going to be hurt very badly. And if you look at Mr. Singer, you have to see where Mr. Singer is coming from and when you see where he's coming from, I think people are going to say, Whoa, we didn't know that. But look at Marco's stance on illegal immigration. It's really trouble for him. I don't see how he can win. Marco Rubio's personal finances are discredited. All you have to do is look at his credit card. I mean, he is a disaster with his credit cards. And I'll tell you what, I love Florida. I'm in Florida all the time. And for years, I've been hearing that his credit cards are disaster. I would think that when you take a look at it, you would find that. But his credit card debt and his problems with credit card and what he did when he was running the party apparatus with credit cards, I've heard about it for years. You'll have to find out. Well, he has a very bad record of finances if you look at what happened with his houses, with his, you know, he certainly lives above his means. There's no question about that. I'll tell you what. On the debates, it's very interesting. Because I don't really care that much. I want a room. I want a podium. And let's get going. Because I don't really care that much. But a lot of the people that are candidates who I respect, many of them, not all of them, but I respect many of them, they felt it was very unfair because Hillary Clinton was given all soft balls. I mean, she wasn't asked one tough question. They didn't talk about her foundation. They didn't talk about any of the problems. They didn't talk about the emails. When the email problem came up, Bernie Sanders lost his whole campaign. I mean, what he did was so stupid from his standpoint. In order to get a one minute soundbite of some applause, he gave up the emails. That was end of his campaign. First of all, people aren't going to his rallies anymore. He's finished. So unless something happens to her with respect to the emails, she'll easily be the candidate. But I will say this: She only got softballs. That's all she got. And if you look at the way we were treated, it wasn't the same way. With that being said, I don't really care. Well, I think the Republicans actually are doing a pretty good job overall. They coalesced at that last debate because I mean, it really started with me. The guy asked me a question. I think Harwood is probably finished as a credible reporter. He's a disaster. And he was, it was such as horribly put question and so obvious. And the Republicans coalesced around each other. It was actually pretty beautiful when you think about it. And all we want to do is to be treated fairly. But with me, I don't care that much. Just give me a podium. What I would say is this: The networks have made a fortune because of me, not because of anybody else. You know, they were saying that the last cycle, they had 2 million and 1 million people and the networks didn't even want to broadcast it because nobody watched. Okay? Nobody wanted to watch. Now, they have 25 million people, 24 million people, 23 million people and 16 million people. I mean, give me a break. So somebody said, How did they get there? And actually Variety and Hollywood Reporter, who do report this stuff pretty well, much better than the political press, they said solely for one reason, it was Trump. I'll take the credit. But I'll tell you what I also want. I think that Wounded Warriors and our veterans should be given some of the enormous profits being made on these debates, enormous profits, by the way beyond anything they've ever envisioned. CNN was going to get $2000 for a 30 second ad. They ended up getting $250000. So they went from $2000 to $250000 for a 30 second ad. The networks and the cable are making a fortune, and I think they should give some of the profits to the Wounded Warriors and the veterans. That's what I want. I'm giving them away. I'm giving the profits of my book, I'm giving them away to a lot of different, including the vets. I have been amazing with respect to the hiring of women. This building was built as the head person who was fantastic by a woman and that was at a time when you didn't see that in the construction trades. I mean, it was totally unique. I have many, many executives upstairs and in different buildings that I have that are women. Many, a proportion that's close to 50%. Might even be over 50% if I analyze it. And they get paid a lot of money, in many cases more than men doing the same job. So women have always appreciated that about me. I've been in terms of employment really a standout and I've been honored for doing so well with women. What Jeb Bush was saying at the last debate? I don't know. But he didn't say it well. I like Telemundo by the way. I like it better than Univision. I'm suing Univision for $500 million. Because the country is doing so poorly. It's a very accurate title because the country is doing so poorly. That's good. They're going to have some demonstrations. Oh, good because it'll get even higher ratings if they do that. I think it's fine. I think they should demonstrate. Ratings will go even higher than they are going to be. It's going to be one of the highest rated shows ever. And they're very excited about it. And I have a great relationship, as you know from Telemundo, with the Hispanics. You've treated me actually very fairly. Won the poll recently in Nevada. Won other polls. And in Nevada, I think I got 37% and leading everybody. So I have a great relationship with the Hispanics. I have working for me thousands right now, thousands of Hispanics. I've had tens of thousands of people over the year working for me. I'm a job machine. I'm a job machine. And one of the things that does come out in every single poll and every single survey is that nobody for the economy nobody is even close. I'm two, three, and you see that, two, three, four, five times greater than anybody else. And you'd almost say like it's about the jobs, it's about the economy. Then how's anybody going to beat Trump in all fairness? But I've had a great relationship with the workers. I've had a great relationship with jobs. And I've had an amazing relationship with the Hispanics. And I predict that I'm going to win the Hispanic vote. I think I'm going to win the Hispanic vote. I predict, yeah, I think I'm going to get the nomination and I will win the White House. I think beating Hillary Clinton is going to be easy because her record is so bad. That's the question I like. How am I preparing for my SNL? Well, I'm meeting with Lorne Michaels in a little while. Afterwards, we're going to sign, I guess got thousands of people on line but we're going to sign and then later on this evening I'm meeting with Lorne Michaels and the whole staff and we'll start the preparation. We'll pick our skits. Am I nervous? Not too nervous. Not too nervous. But we're going to do a good job and we're going have a fantastic show. We're all going to have a lot of fun. My Jeb impression? No, I don't want to do that. I don't like showing a person sleeping at the podium. Tom is asking Can Jeb make a comeback? I think it's going to be very hard. Very hard. Not about money. I just think, you know, I came up with the energy. And I just think we need tremendous energy because we need a person that has tremendous personal energy to get us back on track. You can't do that when you don't have that. I think Marco is highly overrated. Highly overrated. He doesn't have it and all you have to do is look at his stance on things. Jeb, he lacks the quality that you need. We're talking about everybody in the world is ripping us off. You need a very strong person with tremendous energy. Thank you very much folks, I'll take the job. But and it's so important. And by the way, Ben Carson does not have that energy. We need somebody with tremendous energy to straighten out the military, to straighten out ISIS, to straighten out our horrible trade deals, to terminate Obamacare and come up with something far better for far less money. You need somebody with tremendous personal energy as President. We have a president right now that doesn't have energy. I mean, you think Obama has energy? He has no energy. And he's been a horrible president. We need somebody with great personal energy as a leader so that we can make great deals with other countries and do well in every other respect. And certainly Jeb does not have that energy in my opinion. Well, we just went over that. Honestly, we just went over that. And it's only going to make it harder. You're going to see what we're going to do. You're going to see. But the whole thing with anchor babies, I turned out to be right. A person has a baby, lives in Mexico or lives in Asia or lives in many different place, has a baby, walks across the border, has the baby here. Now, we're responsible for that person for the next 85 years. I don't think so. And by the way, I was right, they were wrong. The 14th Amendment does not give them clearance on that. And if you wanted to do that in Mexico or if you wanted to do that in almost any other country where you have a baby in that country and that country has that person for 85 years including all of the costs of that person, they would laugh you right out of the country. You would be laughed out of the country so fast. So, that turned out, I was 100% right. We'll have to worry about that. We're going to take care of it, and it's going to be done in a very humane way. But we're going to bring back our country and we're going to have a wall and Mexico's going to pay for the wall and you know why they're going to pay? And I have great relationships with Mexico and phenomenal relationships with the Mexican people. Phenomenal. And they buy apartments from me; they work for me by the thousands, by the thousands. Phenomenal relationships. But let me just tell you we lose so much money with Mexico in terms of trade imbalance, $45 billion last year. Plus, we give Mexico billions and billions of dollars. They will pay for the wall. And it will be very interesting. And you know what? People are going to come into this country but they're going to come in legally. A lot of European countries are going to build walls to stop the immigration. Well, walls work. All you have to do is ask Israel. Walls work if it's properly constructed. Not the walls that these characters, these politicians that we have running our country who are a disgrace, all talk, no action politicians, they build a wall this big, they drive cars right through it. Walls work. All you have to do is go and see Israel. They will tell you that walls work. We need pomp and circumstance. Our country has no spirit. Our country has no gravitas. Our country doesn't feel good about itself. And the primary reason is we have no victories. I mean, where have we had a victory? Where have we had a victory in trade? Where have we had a victory as an example this horrible deal that was signed with Iran where we've given them $150 billion and we lose everything. We lose everything. It's a laughing stock. Worst deal. Worst contract I've ever seen drawn. We have no victories. And I do write about it. We need some pomp and circumstance. We need spirit. We need a cheerleader. I thought seven years ago when Obama got elected, the one thing I thought that he would be a great cheerleader for this country. He's not. He's been a great divider for the country. He's been one of the great dividers of all time. I'm not saying dress. It has nothing to do with dress. It has to do with the fact that what he says is very divisive. He has been a great divider for this country, and that should not have happened. I'll go anyway they want. I don't care too much about the debates. Look, I'm the one that gets all the nasty questions anyway. Nobody else gets the really nasty questions. In a certain way, maybe they're defending me although I will tell you they're not doing it for that reason. I think it's irrelevant. I just, I like the debates. I've had the debates. I've done well in the debates. As you know, every single poll said I won all three debates. Now, I don't know if I did or not but I certainly didn't do badly. But every single poll says, even CNBC's poll said I won the debate. So I like the debates. I think they're good for me. But we have to be treated a little bit fairly. As an example, Hillary Clinton, no tough questions. I mean, why didn't they ask about Bill? Why didn't they ask about all of the different things. No tough questions. Now, that was staged by the Democrats. And frankly, they did a very smart thing in the way they staged it. Well, we're going to stage something properly also. But as far as I'm concerned, I really don't care that much. I just want a debate. I think debating is a good thing. It's healthy. Gets everything into the open. But you don't want people like Harwood that read a question, blah, blah, blah, that he wrote, that he carefully wrote. He thought he was such, his career, in my opinion, his career is probably ruined or certainly threatened. He could ask about anything you want. I mean, you have to ask about anything you want. Hillary had only softballs. All night long. It was like this, Here, Hillary, hit this one out of the park. Are you from Russia? All right. I think our relationship with Russia will be very good. Vladimir Putin was on 60 Minutes with me three weeks ago. Right? Putin. And they have one of the highest ratings they've had in a long time. So I'm going to give him total credit. But we will have a very good relationship I think with Russia. Now, maybe we won't. But I believe we will have a very good relationship with Russia. I believe that I will have a very good relationship with Putin. Well, I think there are a lot of economic issues. We didn't talk about trade. We didn't talk about devaluations. Right? We didn't talk about corporate inversions, which by the way, none of the other candidates, they don't even know what it means. But we didn't talk about corporate inversions where companies are leaving our country, massive companies, because they can't get their money back and because they get lower taxes elsewhere. So they're leaving and they're taking their jobs with them. The corporate inversion syndrome is a very important thing to be talking about. These were all things that weren't talked about at the debate. Instead, they talked about fantasy football. I mean, it was a big question, fantasy football. I'm saying what about corporate inversions? $2 trillion at least. I think it's probably twice that number is in other countries wanting to come back and because our system is so corrupt and terrible, they can't get the money back to invest in this country. So they don't talk about corporate inversions at the debates. They talk about fantasy football. Those are the few. I was against the war in Iraq. You know, it was very early on. I'll give it to you. Yeah, I have it upstairs Well, you know, you have to understand, I was a developer. A lot of people didn't care about my view in 2003 and 2004. But there was a Reuters article taken from a magazine about my stance in 2004, I believe, in July of 2004 and it talked about my stance on how I felt about Iraq. And I said very strongly exactly what happened. I said you will destabilize the Middle East and when you destabilize the Middle East, Iran will take over Iraq. That's exactly what's happening. And they will take over the oil reserves, which are among the largest in the world, and in addition other bad things will happen. The other bad things are ISIS. I said that in 2004 and that was an article that was taken from a magazine which was previous to that. I've felt that for a long time. Do I think that it's time for some of the other Republicans in the race that registering zero, in a couple of places they have a zero with an arrow pointing left, which I assume is a mistake because that's less than zero. I assume that's not happening. Do I think it's time to have some of the other Republican candidates drop out? Yes. There are too many people. Well, I don't want to get personal but you can look at the poll numbers. Look, if a person is campaigning for four or five months and they're at 0% or 1% or 2%, they should get out. Like, you know, look at me. I go to Florida and look at the numbers that just came out in Florida. 37%? Georgia. I mean, those are real numbers. These numbers that these people have, and I often ask myself. I asked Mark yesterday, What are they doing? Do they do this for their brand? Because I happen to think it's very bad for their brand. I think Scott Walker did a good thing. I think the way Walker, he saw it wasn't happening, wasn't going to happen and he just got out quickly. You know, he was favored. Don't forget. You know. That was before Trump was going to happen. Right? But he was favored for a period of time. Favored. Walker. Gov. Walker. They thought he was going to win. What happened is he got out. I think the way he got out was great. I think he did a really smart thing for himself. And frankly, other people should get out because I would like to personally have more time to talk about the problems of the United States and more importantly how we can solve the problems. So it's a great question. People should get out. Ivanka. Oh, they just said one of the biggest applause lines, it's true, I get is when I talk about my daughter Ivanka. She was just at Fortune Magazine for like something like Woman of the Year which is great. But Ivanka is going to be very involved and Melania is going to be very involved very soon. They're going to be coming out very soon. Oh, Ivanka is going to Iowa. When are you going to Iowa? Very soon. I would say, I don't see threats. I mean, whatever it is I have to do. Mark is saying What are the top threats to your candidacy? Who knows? I mean, you're in the crazy world of politics. People change their minds. I'm going to make America great again. Nobody else is going to be able to do that. I'm going to do it. I'm going to make it in my opinion better than ever before, and I think that's awfully tough to compete with. And one of the reasons that in my book I actually put financials in there, I showed some of the developments that, I have many, many more because you can only, Simon and Schuster, you actually kept me to eight or nine pages. Right? And there are four or five in a page. But I show some of the great developments that I have done that are so successful and so incredible and so financially good, I show my financial statement from a year and a half, two years ago. Now it's even better but we didn't have that certified yet. So I do that not in a braggadocious way. I do that because that's the kind of thinking our country needs right now. We are run by people that are incompetent. We are run by people who in so many words, I hate to use the word stupid but you have to use that word. Unless they have bad intentions which I don't believe they do. But we are run by incompetent people. We have incompetent leadership. There are so many things. Like I mentioned corporate inversion. The Democrats want the money to come back. Who doesn't? The Republicans want the money to come back. For three years, the Democrats have said we want the money to come back. For three years, the Democrats and the Republicans agree 100%. You have a vast majority. Maybe everybody. For three years. Guess what? They haven't done anything. Right? They can't even get along when they agree. So here's the thing where we can take trillions of dollars, bring it back to this country, rebuild big parts of our country with it, companies can spend that money in our country, we have everybody agrees it should be done for years and they can't do it. That's a part of the problem. No, they all agree. They all agree. They just didn't want to go through the unfair questions because they weren't questions; they were statements. You see, they were asking, they were giving statements in a sarcastic, disgusting way. And by the way, I think Becky is terrific and I think Carl is terrific. But I think John Harwood is not very good at what he does. But I think Becky Quick is a terrific person. I think Carl is a terrific person. But I will tell you John Harwood was a disgrace to CNBC. The question is should the Fed raise rates? They are not raising them because Obama has asked them not to raise them. In my opinion, he wants to get out of office because we are in a bubble and when those rates are raised, a lot of bad things are going to happen or potentially going to happen. And in my opinion, Janet Yellen is highly political and she's not raising rates for a very specific reason because Obama told her not to because he wants to be out playing golf in a year from now and he wants to be doing other things and he doesn't want to see a big bubble burst during his administration. Janet Yellen should have raised the rates. She's not doing it because the Obama administration and the president doesn't want her to. And if she does it, you see what happens every time there's even a thought of raising them just a little bit. And one of the problems that we have is our currency right now is not competitive with other currencies. Because if you look at the devaluations of China, of Japan, of many, many different countries, they're making it impossible for our companies to compete with them because we don't have leaders that know how to say to China, Don't do that. Don't do that. Because if you do that, we're going to put a big fat tax on you. Don't do that. And you know what? If you said that, they wouldn't do it. If you have the right messenger I'm really focused on one very big election, one very important election, and there are some pretty good elections. I'm not watching any of them in particular. I'll be watching them on Tuesday night. But I'll be out there; we'll be out voting. But the election that I'm watching is the election for the presidency of the United States. That is going to be in my opinion this will be truly one of the most important elections we've ever had in this country. We're so far behind. And we cannot go another four years with incompetent leadership. That's a good question. Okay. So, Simon and Schuster came up to me. They wanted to do a book. They wanted to do on success and how do you do this and how do you build it and that's what the book is largely about but we talked so much about the country. And I said, I'll do it but we have to talk about the country. What happened is they sent this incredible photographer up to do a book cover, do to a picture. And he did some greatphotos. I'm smiling. I'm happy. I look good. Everything was fine. And then he took one where I wasn't like really thinking about a photo and then it turned out to be a nasty picture. And then the book was written and the title was given and the only really terrible picture I had was that one. It's a terrible, horrible, nasty picture. But when you're talking about Crippled America and you're talking about all of the problems we have, I can't have a big smiley face up there. So that's how we picked it. We picked the worst photo taken of me. I would have loved to have a beautiful smiling picture but somehow that doesn't go with the title of the book or frankly the content of the book, and actually Simon and Schuster agreed with me. Okay? Are the other Republicans afraid to debate? Well, some of them should be. Autism has become an epidemic. 25 years ago, 35 years ago, you look at the statistics. Not even close. It has gotten totally out of control. I am totally in favor of vaccines but I want smaller doses over a longer period of time. Because you take a baby in, and I've seen it and I've seen it and I had my children taken care of over a long period of time, over a two or three year period of time, same exact amount. But you take this little beautiful baby and you pump, I mean, it looks just like it's meant for a horse not for a child. And we've had so many instances, people that work for me just the other day, two years old, two and a half years old, a child, a beautiful child, went to have the vaccine and came back and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic. I only say, I'm in favor of vaccines. Do them over a longer period of time. Same amount but just in little sections. And I think you're going to have, I think you're going to see a big impact on autism. Speaking for myself, I'm okay with it. I think there's a certain, I know people that frankly there's no impact on their life whatsoever. There are many people. I would almost say leave it up to them. But I would be willing to check it off and say I will not get Social Security As a policy, I would almost leave it up to the people. Don't forget, they pay in and they pay in and maybe do well and maybe some people want it. But the fact is that there are people that truly don't need it and there are many people that do need it very, very badly. And I would be willing to write mine off 100%. If I become President, we will do something really special. We will make this country greater than ever before. We'll have more jobs. We'll have more of everything. We were discussing disease. We were discussing all sorts of things tonight, many of which will just be words. It'll just pass on. I don't want to say politicians all talk, no action, but a lot of what we talked about is words and it'll be forgotten very quickly. If I'm President, many of the things that we discussed tonight will not be forgotten. We'll find solutions and the world will respect us. They will respect us like never before. And it will actually be a friendlier world. And I have to say it's a great honor to be here tonight. I understand and I'm meeting with people that are terrific people. But I have to say something because it's about judgment. I am the only person on this dais, the only person, that fought very, very hard against us, and I wasn't a sitting politician, going into Iraq. Because I said going into Iraq, that was in 2003, you can check it out. I'll give you 25 different stories. In fact, a delegation was sent to my office this evening because I was so vocal about it. I'm a very militaristic person but you have to know when to use the military. I'm the only person up here that fought against going into Iraq. I would like and I think it's very important, I think it's important because it's about judgment. It's about judgment. I didn't want to go into Iraq and I fought it because what I said is you're going to destabilize the Middle East and that's what happened. Well, I heard Hugh Hewitt, nice man, he apologized because he actually said that we had a misunderstanding and he said today that Donald Trump is maybe the best interview there is anywhere that he's ever done. Now or unless he was just saying that on CNN to be nice but he did say that. And we had a legitimate misunderstanding in terms of his pronunciation of a word. But I would say, well, I think it was. And he actually said that. Did you say that? Okay, so I will say this though you was giving me name after name, Arab name, Arab name, Arab name, and there are few people anywhere, anywhere that would have known those names. I think he was reading them off a sheet. And frankly I will have and I told him I will have the finest team that anybody's put together and we will solve a lot of problems. You know, right now, they know a lot and look at what's happening. The world is blowing up around us. We will have great teams and great people. You have to understand I am not sitting in the United States Senate with by the way the worst voting record there is today. Number one, I am not sitting in the United States Senate. I'm a businessman doing business transactions. I will know more about this and as you've said that was very acceptable, and when you listen to that whole interview it was a great interview. You said it; I didn't. I will know more about the problems of this world by the time I sit, and you look at what's going on in this world right now by people that supposedly know, this world is a mess. Well, I think the thing about the flat tax, I know it very well, that I don't like is if you make $200 million, you're paying 10%, you're paying very little relatively to somebody that's making $50000 a year and has to hire H&R Block to do it because it's so complicated. One thing I'll say to Ben is that we've had a graduated tax system for many years. So it's not a socialistic thing. What I'd like to do is, and I'll be putting it into plan in about two weeks and I think people are going to like it. It's a major reduction in taxes. It's a major reduction for the middle class. The hedge fund guys won't like me as much as they like me right now. I know them all but they'll pay more. I know people that are making a tremendous amount of money and paying virtually no tax and I think it's unfair. I've made over $10 billion. I had a casino company. Caesar's just filed for bankruptcy. Chris will tell you, it's not Chris's fault either. But almost everybody in Atlantic City is either in trouble or I've filed for bankruptcy, Atlantic City is a disaster and I did great in Atlantic City. I knew when to get out. My timing was great and I got a lot of credit for it. Many of the great business people that you know, and Carl Icahn's going to work with me on making great deals to this country, but whether it's Carl or so many others that we read about all the time, they have used the laws of the land Let me just explain. The head of the Yale Business School Jeffrey Sonnenfeld wrote a paper recently. One of the worst tenures for a CEO that he has ever seen ranked one of the top 20 in the history of business. The company is a disaster and continues to be a disaster. They still haven't recovered. In fact, today on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, they fired another 25000 or 30000 people saying we still haven't recovered from the catastrophe. When Carly says the revenues went up that's because she bought Compaq. It was a terrible deal and it really to the destruction of the company. Now, one of the company before that was Lucent. Carly was at Lucent before that, and Lucent turned out to be a catastrophe also. So I only say this: She can't run any of my companies. That I can tell you. Well, first of all, the 14th Amendment says very, very clearly to a lot of great legal scholars, not television scholars but legal scholars that it is wrong. It can be corrected with an act of Congress, probably doesn't even need that. A woman gets pregnant. She's nine months. She walks across the border. She has the baby in the United States and we take care of the baby for 85 years. I don't think so. And by the way, Mexico and almost every other country anywhere in the world doesn't have that. We're the only ones dumb enough, stupid enough to have it. And people, and by the way, this is not just with respect to Mexico. They're coming from Asia to have babies here and all of a sudden, we have to take care of the babies for the life of the baby. The 14th Amendment, it reads properly. You can go and it's probably going to have to check and go through a process of court, probably ends up at the Supreme Court. But there are a lot of legal scholars that say that is not correct. And in my opinion, it makes absolutely no, we're the only country, one of the only countries, we're going to take care of those babies for 70, 75, 80, 90 years. I don't think so. I agree 100% by the way with Carly on the fact that the Democrats do not want to solve this problem for the obvious reasons. They do not. But I believe that a reading of the 14th Amendment allows you to have an interpretation where this is not legal and where it can't be done. I've seen both sides but some of the greatest scholars agree with me without having to go through Congress. But if you do go through Congress, you can absolutely solve the problem. Well, I think it's wonderful and all but I did it a little half heartedly but I do mean it to a large extent. We have a country where to assimilate, you have to speak English. And I think that where he was and the way it came out didn't sound great to me. We have to have assimilation to have a country. We have to have assimilation. I'm not the first one to say this. We have many people over the years for many, many years saying the same thing. This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish. This is a reporter, not a high school kid, by the way. First of all, I want to build a wall, a wall that works. So important and it's a big part part of it. Second of all, we have a lot of really bad dudes in this country from outside and I think Chris knows that maybe as well as anybody. They go, if I get elected, first day they're gone. Gangs all over the place. Chicago, Baltimore, no matter where you live. We have a country based on laws. I will make sure those laws are adhered to. These are illegal immigrants. I don't think you'd even be asking this question if I didn't run. Because when I ran and I brought this up at my opening marks at Trump Tower, I took heat like nobody has taken heat in a long time. And then they found out with the killing of Kate from San Francisco and so many other crimes, they found that I was right. And most people, many people apologized to me. I don't think you'd even be talking about illegal immigration if it weren't for me. So, we have a country of laws. They're going to go out and they'll come back if they deserve to come back. If they've had a bad record, if they've been arrested, if they've been in jail, they're never coming back. We're going to have a country again. Right now we don't have a country, we don't have a border, and we're going to do something about it and it can be done with proper management and it can be done with heart. I think it's a terrible statement. I think it's going to haunt him absolutely. He came back later he said he misspoke. There was no question because I heard when he said the statement I was watching and he said the statement and I said Wow, I can't believe it. I will take care of women. I respect women. I will take care of women. One thing we will say and I would like to get back to the Iran situation. We're talking about Iran. The agreement was terrible. It was incompetent. I'd never seen anything like it. One of the worst contracts of any kind I've ever seen. And nobody ever mentions North Korea where you have this maniac sitting there and he actually has nuclear weapons. And somebody better start thinking about North Korea and perhaps a couple of other places but certainly North Korea. We're talking about Iran. They're bad actors. Bad things are going to happen. But in the meantime you have somebody right now in North Korea who's got nuclear weapons and who is saying almost every other week, I'm ready to use them and we don't even mention them. Number one, I wouldn't have drawn the line but once he drew it, he had no choice but to go across. They do bear some responsibility but I think he'd probably didn't do it not for that reason. Somehow he just doesn't have courage. There's something missing from our president. Had he crossed the line and really gone in with force and had done something to Assad, if he had gone in there with tremendous force, you wouldn't have millions of people displaced all over the world. I think they had a responsibility. Absolutely. I think we have three of them here. I think they had a responsibility. So, number one, they have to respect you. He has absolutely no respect for President Obama. Zero. Syria is a mess. You look at what's going on with ISIS in there. Now, look at this. We're fighting ISIS. ISIS wants to fight Syria. Why are we fighting ISIS in Syria? Let them fight each other and pick up the remnants. I would talk to him. I would get along with him. I believe, and I maybe wrong in which case I'd probably have to take a different path, but I would get along with a lot of the world leaders that this country is not getting along with. We don't get along with China. We don't get along with the heads of Mexico. We don't get along with anybody and yet at the same time they rip us left and right. They take advantage of us economically and in every other way. We get along with nobody. I would get along I think with Putin and I would get along with others. And we will have a much more stable, stable, world. I believe that I will get along, we will do between that, Ukraine, all of the other problems. We won't have the kind of problems that our country has right now with Russia and many other nations. Well, first of all, Rand Paul shouldn't even be on this stage. He's number 11. He's got 1% in the polls. And how he got up here, there's far too many people anyway. As far as temperament and we all know that. As far as temperament, I think I have a great temperament. I've built a phenomenal business with incredible iconic assets, one of the really truly great real estate businesses. And I may be an entertainer because I've had tremendous success with number one best sellers all over the place with the Apprentice and everything else I've done. But I will tell you this what I am far and away greater than an entertainer is a businessman and that's the kind of mindset that this country needs to bring it back. Because we owe $19 trillion right now. $19 trillion. And you need this kind of thinking to bring our country back. And believe me, my temperament is very good, very calm. But we will be respected outside of this country. We are not respected now. I've actually been in politics all my life although I've been on that side as opposed to this side. I've now a politician for about three months. Obviously I'm doing pretty well. I'm number one in every poll by a lot. But the qualification is that I've dealt with people all over the world, been successful all over the world. Everything I've done virtually has been a tremendous success. When markets changed, when things turned, I heard Gov. Pataki who by the way was a failed governor in New York. A very seriously failure. He wouldn't be elected dog catcher right now. I heard what he had to say and I will tell you this: Atlantic City, I made a tremendous amount of money in Atlantic City. I left seven years ago. I've gotten great credit for my timing. And that's what I'm about. I'm a businessman. Did really well. Really well. And Jeb, what I want to do is to put that ability into this country to make our country rich again. And I can do that and I'm not sure that anybody else in the group will be able to do that. I'm Donald Trump. I wrote the Art of the Deal. I say not in a braggadocious way I've made billions and billions of dollars dealing with people all of the world. And I want to put whatever that talent is to work for this country so we have great trade deals, we make our country rich again, we make it great again, we build up our military, we take care of our vets, we get rid of Obamacare, and we have a great life all together. Thank you. Boy, oh, boy. I didn't expect that. You know, Joe Arends and the group called and they said Would you come over and speak? I'm here for a certain reason. You know, it's called tomorrow night. So I got here and they asked a couple of days ago if it would possible to come over and say a few words. An endorsement from your group with so many veterans, hundreds of thousands of veterans, I really appreciate that, Joe. I did not expect that. I didn't expect it. I didn't ask for it. I will say this: I am with the veterans 100%. They're our greatest people. They're being treated terribly. Not only the number of deaths, which are obviously, that's what's going on is incredible. But as of two weeks ago on Wednesday, the vets had the longest wait in the history of the Veterans Administration. You go in to see a doctor, you wait for days, for days. And it's not going to happen. Not going to happen. If I win, believe me, it's not going to happen. And one of the things I thought I'd do and I'd stress so strongly, the veterans hospitals, obviously they have problems. They're not properly run. And when you have to wait long hours and long days and then in some cases have the doctor say I'm sorry. I'm going on vacation, believe me, it doesn't get much worse than that. So we're going to create a whole new system. We're going to take this system apart. And if they're not doing the job, the veterans are going to go to private doctors, private hospitals, public hospitals, and we're going to reimburse those doctors and those hospitals. And you're going to get the greatest service of any veterans in any country because you deserve it. And that's going to be broken down into something that's going to be very special. Right now, and you know it, we have illegal immigrants that are treated better by far than our veterans. It's not going to happen anymore. It's not going to happen. So, Joe, I just really appreciate it. So unexpected. To be here is an honor. They don't build ships like this anymore, folks. You know? We don't do them this way anymore. I actually said what about recommissioning, look at this thing. The largest guns in the world. The most powerful guns. I learned about the Iowa. By the way, Iowa is a great place for a lot of reasons. You know? We have been treated so well in the state of Iowa. It's been incredible. Number one on the polls and we love those people. They're great. So this is a great ship and that's a great state. I just want to say that we're going to come out with some plans in a very short time. We're going to be building up our military. We're going to make our military so big and so strong and so great. And it will be so powerful that I don't think we're going to ever have to use it. Nobody's going to mess with us. That I can tell you. And we're going to have a President who's respected by Putin, who's respected by Iran. You know, let's talk about for two seconds, let's talk about the Iran deal. Now, Obama and his people call him the Supreme Leader of Iran. Obama talks about the Supreme Leader. Well, I'm not calling him a Supreme Leader. But he said the other day that after this rip off deal is completed, he will never touch, do business with the United States again. We're finished with the United States. They're taking $150 billion. They're getting a deal that's going to go right into nuclear weapons much sooner than you think. They're going to self police, think about that one, they are going to go and self police. They've got the 24 day, they have 24 day provisions. And by the way, what people don't understand, the 24 day provision doesn't start, you know this, right? It doesn't start for a long time before you even get to it. The clock is ticking. It can take forever. We may never get it there. It is one of the dumbest deals and one of the weakest contracts I've ever seen of any kind. So, we are going to do things and this country right. We're not going to sign deals where we have four prisoners over there and there's still there and we don't even ask for them. One of them is there because he's a Christian. We have a writer. We have, the whole thing is absolutely insane. You know, they asked the President, and they asked Secretary of State Kerry who maybe, you know, I've been saying Hillary Clinton is the worst Secretary of State in the history of this country. Right? All right. I've been saying it. But it's possible, the world blew up around her. It blew up. Just blew up. The whole world is like a different place. It's possible that because of this deal made by Secretary Kerry who has absolutely no clue how to negotiate, it may that he's going to supersede. And I understand that he may want to run for President. He has no chance like she has no chance. So we're going to see what happens. We have many problems in our country. One of them is immigration. Now, I took a tremendous hit when I brought up illegal immigration when I announced I was running for President. And for two weeks, I said, you know, Rush Limbaugh, he's a great guy, he said He has suffered more incoming, meaning the press, than anybody I've seen. So what happened is you have now found out what illegal immigration is all about and I am so happy that I'm the one that brought it to the fore because believe me, it's a big problem. It is a big problem. So you remember for about two weeks, I said, Boy this is tougher than I thought running for President. And then you found out there's tremendous crime. There's tremendous drugs pouring across the border. Tremendous. Beyond. Going to Chicago, going to New York, going to LA, going all over our country. So the drugs pour in and the money pours out. Not a good deal. We get the drugs, they get the money. The drug cartels are going wild. They cannot believe how stupid our government is. They are making a fortune. The drugs come in. The money goes out daily. And I saw it because I was on the border. I was there. And we saw it. And everybody sees it everyday. And we have the kind of people that can do something about it but we have no leadership. None. None whatsoever. So, we're going to build a wall and Mexico's going to pay for the wall, believe me. You know, a lot of politicians have said Oh, they're not going to pay. They don't know anything about, they never read the Art of the Deal, first of all. So here's the story. So here's the story. I said the other day to one of my people What is the United State's trade deficit with Mexico, Japan, and China? So let's start with China. Almost $400 billion a year. Now, if you have a company where you're losing $400 billion, you've got to do something very fast. We don't. We've been losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year frankly for decades. Not going to happen anymore. Not going to happen anymore. With Japan where their massive ships floating right here and they drop off the cars, right? They drop off thousands and thousands and thousands of cars, millions of cars, and we sell them beef. We sell them beef. And they don't want it because their farmers don't want our beef. They protest and they send it back. All right? It's not going to happen that way anymore. Now, with Mexico, and I love Mexico. I have many, many people, many, many people from Mexico that work with me and they work for me and they buy my apartments. Same with China. I have so many people. They pay me millions and millions. What am I supposed to hate China because they gave me millions of dollars to buy an apartment? I don't think so. I had the largest bank in the world as a tenant. It's from China. Bigger than any bank in this country by many times. They're from China. The problem that we have is that the leaders of Mexico, Japan, and China and every other country that we do business with, they're smarter, more cunning, sharper than our leaders. I love free trade. The concept is great. But you need smart people. I have the smartest people in this country lined up. I know the smartest. I have Carl Icahn. I have the best business leaders and they all want to do it. They're wealthy because they make good deals like me. I make good deals. You know, it's a talent. It's a talent. You can't be a politician. Look, I'm fighting some very nice people. Very nice. Even though I'm leading in the polls. But they're very nice people. But they're never going to do anything with these countries. They're never going to be able to do it. It's an instinct. It's something that's special. They don't have it. Believe me, they don't have it. It's just going to be more of the same. So, we are going to make our country so great. We are going to make it strong. We are going to make it powerful. We're going to rebuild the military. We're going to make it so strong. We are going to take care of our veterans. And in the end, in the end, I want you people to look around and look at each other because this is going to be a special day. The other week, two weeks ago in Mobile, Alabama, 31000 people showed up in a rainy rough day. 31000 people came to see us speak and we're talking about making America great again. Last night in Dallas at the American Airlines Center, 20000 people, the basketball arena of the Mavericks. 20000 people showed up and I want to tell you, it was a love fest. Everybody, think of it, 20000 people, there wasn't one heckler in the whole room. I kept saying, There's got to be one. There was a word, two words that used to be used a lot called silent majority. They stopped using them. The silent majority, believe me, is back and I think we can use it somewhat different. I don't think we have to call it a silent majority anymore because they're not silent. People are not silent. They're disgusted with our incompetent politicians. They're disgusted with the people that are giving our country away. They're disgusted when they tell the border patrol agents who are good people and can do the job. They're disgusted when they're allowed people to just walk right in front of them and they're standing there helpless and people just pour into the country. They're disgusted when a woman who's nine months pregnant, walks across the border, has a baby, and you have to take care of that baby for the next 85 years. They're disgusted by what's happening to our country. And you're going to look around and you're going to remember who the people are that are here because we're doing something special. This is a movement. We're going to make our country great again. Believe me, we will make our country great again. I love you all. Thank you very much. Thank you very much everybody. It's such an honor. I was called by Sen. Ted Cruz a few days ago and he said, Do you think we can get a really good crowd out here to protest this incompetent deal? And I said, Boy, can we get a crowd. And that was three days ago and look what shows up and I want to thank you. I want to thank you. So, I've been doing deals for a long time. I've been making lots of wonderful deals, great deals. That's what I do. Never, ever, ever in my life have I seen any transaction so incompetently negotiated as our deal with Iran. And I mean, never. Now, Ted and everybody else have gone through all of the details and we can talk about the 24 days, which is ridiculous. We can talk about the $150 billion, which by the way they get even if the deal isn't approved. They get it just for going to the table. We can talk about the fact that we have four wonderful people over there and frankly they're never going to come back with this group. And I'll say this: If I win the presidency, I guarantee you that those four prisoners are back in our country before I even take office. I guarantee that. They will be back before I ever take office because they know that's what has to happen. Okay? They know it. And if they don't know it, I'm telling them right now. So, I have a story that just came out an hour ago and as President Obama calls him very routinely, he calls him the Supreme Leader. Our President is calling the person who is really the boss in Iran Supreme Leader and I look at people shaking their head; they can't believe it. But it just came out a little while ago, he said Israel will not exist in 25 years. Think of that. He just said this. He also said very strongly, very, very strongly that This is the end of our dealings with the United States. We want nothing more to do with them. We're not going to do anything right here. We made this deal. It's a phenomenal deal. We're not going to deal with the United States anymore. And that's what he just said and this was a very short period of time ago. So, they rip us off. They take our money. They make us look like fools. And now they're back to being who they really are. They don't want Israel to survive. They will not let Israel survive with incompetent leadership like we have right now. Israel will not survive. And then when it's all done or they think it's all done, they come out with these unbelievable nasty statements that Israel won't be around in 25 years and that we will have no dealings and we will have no further dealings with the United States. Now, the people that we were negotiating with and were working on the sanctions, with including and as an example Russia who is selling tremendous missiles to Iran. You know that. Ballistic missiles being sold. All of these countries, all of these countries, are going to do business with Iran. They're going to make lots of money and lots of other things with Iran. And we're going to do, and we're going to get nothing. Nothing. We are led by very, very stupid people. Very, very stupid people. We cannot let it continue. We are a country that owes $19 trillion. We lose everywhere. We lose militarily. We can't beat ISIS. Give me a break! We can't beat anybody. Our vets are being treated horribly. It will change. We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with winning. Believe me. I agree. You'll never get bored of winning. We'd never get bored. We are going to turn this country around. We are going to start winning big league on trade, militarily. We're going to build up our military. We're going to have such a strong military that nobody, nobody, is going to mess with us. We're not going to have to use it. I really, really this tremendous crowd. We are going to make America great again! Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you all for being here. This is some turnout. My great honor. The Chairman just left as you probably know and he's been extremely fair. The RNC has been absolutely terrific over the last two month period. And as you know, that's what I've wanted. I wanted fairness. I don't have to be treated any differently than anybody else. I just wanted fairness from the Republican Party. We're leading in every single poll. A new poll came out today where we're over 30%. We've actually hit numbers as high as 35% and 40%. And frankly, I've felt that the absolute best way to win and to beat the Democrats and very easily I think beat the Democrats no matter who it may be whether it's Hillary or anybody else and I think maybe Hillary is going to have a very hard time frankly with what's happening getting to the starting gate, the best way for the Republicans to win is if I win the nomination and go directly against whoever they happen to put up. And for that reason, I have signed the pledge. So I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party and the conservative principles for which it stands and we will go out and we will fight hard and we will win. We will win. And most importantly, we will make our country great again because that's what it's all about. We have to make our country great again. This is a self funded campaign. We have our heart in it. We have our soul in it. I don't need money and I don't want money. And this is going to be a campaign like I think no other. I'm not controlled by lobbyists. I'm not controlled by anybody. I'm controlled by the people of the country in order to make our country great again. Yeah, I got nothing. I really got nothing. The question was what did I get for signing the pledge? Absolutely nothing. Other than the assurance that I would be treated fairly. And I've seen that over the last two months. They really have been very fair. No, I have no intention of changing my mind. Well, I think the big thing that's changed is, and it's been obvious to all, number one, after I announced, we went up like a rocket ship. Nobody thought I was going to run and they said Oh, he won't run and he won't put in his papers. And he wouldn't do all of this. I did that. The papers in terms of the company turned out to be spectacular. It's a great company. I built a great company. And all of the other papers have turned out to be very well received. And I think the thing that's changed is the fact that I went to number one place very quickly after I signed and after I in this building notified everybody that I'd be running for President. So I think the biggest thing is that I went early to number one and the RNC has treated me with great respect. So that was very important. No, I see no circumstances under which I would tear up that pledge. Well, you don't have to be met when you're at 2%. It's one of those things. That's the way life works. And I like Gov. Chris Christie, by the way. Well, the Chairman asked if he could come up. You saw him. He was here a little while ago. And I was greatly honored that he did come up frankly. Well, I think that when you get right down to it, we're a nation that speaks English and I think that while we're in this nation, we should be speaking English. And that's how assimilation takes. And that's how, I mean, whether people like it or not that's how we assimilate and that's how we go on to that next phase and that next stage. And that's how people that don't speak, and I'm not just talking about Spanish; I'm talking about from various parts of the world, that's how they will become successful and do great. So I think it's more appropriate to be speaking English. Well, one of the things I want to do and I feel very strongly it's a country based on borders and our country is based on laws. And when people come into the country illegally, we should not allow that. And this is not from South America. This is not from Mexico. This is from all over the world. When people come illegally, we cannot allow that. And I want people to come legally. I want very much to take care of our border because our southern border is a total mess. That's been proven. And interestingly, a couple of months ago when I announced, I made some very strong statements about the crime and the problems that were happening and I've been proven right. And many of the people in this audience actually have apologized to me, which I very much appreciate. Of course, they haven't done it publicly but these are minor details but someday they will. The fact is that we are a nation that wants and needs borders. We're a nation that wants and needs and is based on laws. And we will make sure that that takes place. With that being said, I want people to come into our country legally. I want to have a big, fat beautiful open door. I want people of great talent to come in for Silicon Valley. I want engineers. I want physicists. I want people with great talent to come into the United States. When people graduate from college, you can be number one in your class at Harvard or number one at Yale or the Wharton School of Finance or Princeton or Stanford. And immediately if you're not a citizen of the United States, you get thrown out of the country. We want those people to stay. We want people of great talent to be in the United States to work here and ultimately to become a citizen. I don't know enough about it to comment on it. Was she jailed? I really don't know much about it. That's absolutely false. I win at golf. I win at golf. That I can tell you. Well, I understand how the system works maybe better than anybody. I understand the political system and I understand also very much a system for coming in for illegal immigrants. Don't forget if I didn't bring up the subject of illegal immigration, you wouldn't be asking the question. Nobody would be even talking about immigration. And immigration and in particular illegal immigration has become a very big factor. Now, a lot of bad things have happened with respect to crime since I brought it up. But if I didn't bring it up, immigration would not even be a subject that we're talking about and it happens to be a very important subject. I have to say this: It can also be a very positive subject because I believe so strongly in immigration and I just, we have to stop illegal immigration and we have to look forward to great immigration done in a legal manner. But if I didn't bring it up, nobody would be talking about it. Well, there is gridlock in Congress right now and that's because there's no leadership at the top. You have to be able to lead. You have to be able to get people into your office. You have to get people go to them. Any way you want to do it. But you have to be able to lead. There is no leadership at the top. Signing executive orders it not the way our country was supposed to be run. I don't want to talk about that. It's inappropriate. Tom Brady? Well, Tom Brady is a very good friend of mine. He's a great guy. For those of you who don't know him, he's a very honorable and an honest guy and a truly great athlete. He is really a very good friend of mine. And I just spoke to him a little while ago. He's so thrilled and so happy. Tom Brady, I think what they've done is terrible. And he's been exonerated as I understand it because I just heard about it. But I'm very happy for Tom. As far as the Commissioner is concerned, they're having a rough year. Let's face it. They're having a very rough year. Well, in Europe they have tremendous problems with people going in and storming. And it's a huge humanitarian problem. And I just say this. This United States has tremendous problems of their own. We have infrastructure that we have to fix. We have bridges and roads and tunnels and everything is falling apart. Our nation's in such trouble. That's why being a builder and a great builder and a very successful builder I think will greatly help. But we have so many of our own problems including the border, including the wall, which we will get built, including all of the things we have, health care, which is a mess. You know, if you look at Obamacare, the premiums have gone up 45%, 50%, 55%. People are saying This is turning out to be a disaster. Deductibles are through the roof. The deductibles on Obamacare it's through the roof. So we have a lot of problems. We have to take care of our vets. We have to build up our military. Just the other day, Gen. Ray Ordierno said that the Army is in the worst shape in its history in terms of preparedness. Now, for them to be in bad shape with the way we are and with the world hating us, and you look at Hillary Clinton, and I've said she's the worst Secretary of State in the history of this country. Now, in all fairness, because of the agreement that's about to be finalized with Iran, John Kerry may very well take her place. I think that agreement is a disaster for this country, for Israel, for the Middle East. It's going to lead to nuclear proliferation, the 24 day clause, everything about it. We don't even get our prisoners back. You say who negotiates a thing like that? That won't happen, I can guarantee you, with a President Trump. You'll see it later. Yeah. They don't want to hear it. I would say very simply I just want to be treated like everybody else. You see, I was always the fair hair boy. I was a big contributor. Nobody knows the system. But I was on the other side. And I was the elite. I was the fair hair person. Once I ran, all of a sudden I was a little bit of an outsider. I became an outsider because I was running. Because I wasn't supposed to run. I'm this businessman that people have given me great credit as being a great businessman. But I'm not supposed to be running for office. The fact is that our country is being killed on trade by China, by Japan, by Mexico both at the border and on trade. And I'm not knocking those countries. Their leaders are much, much smarter than our leaders. They are absolutely killing us. China, taking our jobs, taking our money, taking our base. And think of this: We owe China $1 trillion and we're paying them interest. We owe Japan with all of the cars coming in the same amount, $1 trillion. Now, that's like a magic act. They send the cars in, they take our jobs, they do everything, and we owe them money. That's not going to happen with me. Well, Jeb Bush is a very nice man. I'll be honest. I think he's a very nice person. I think he's a very low energy person and I don't think that's what the country needs. I hear he's going to spend a lot of money on negative ads on me. And honestly, look, he's getting the money from special interests. He's getting the money from lobbyists and his donors. And they're making him do it because he's crashing in the polls. So I don't know what's going to happen if he spends $20 million or $25 million on negative ads, I don't know. I know that my life will continue. I just don't know. I mean nobody's ever spent money on ads against me. But he probably has to do that although it would not be the way I've done. You know, one of the things I'm most honored about is that so far everybody that's attacked me has gone down the tubes. You have Lindsey Graham attacked me. He was at 3%. Now he's at zero. You have Perry attacked me. Now he's getting out of the race. He was at 4% or 5%. Now he's getting out of the race. He was at zero. Everybody, Rand Paul attacked me. I see the last poll, the Monmouth poll that just came out today where I'm leading by double figures and Rand Paul is down to less than 2% and he attacked me. Now, Jeb Bush also just went down in the Monmouth poll very big. So I don't know. Are they going to spend, he's going to spend lobbyist money and special interest money. Remember this, they have total control over Jeb and Hillary and everybody else that takes that money. Nobody knows the system better than me. They have total control. You understand it very well because you've been covering it for a long time. Those people that are putting up those millions of dollars have total control over your candidate. I will tell you this: Nobody's putting up millions of dollars for me. I'm putting up my own money. In fact, I feel a little bit foolish. People are offering me millions and millions of dollars. You know, when you're in first place, you can collect so much money and I keep turning them down. I feel like, am I a fool? I feel very foolish. And when I was in Iowa last week, I said What do you think? Can I take, One man offered me, a big lobbyist, offered $5 million for my campaign. I said to the crowd in Iowa, great crowd, 4000 people, I said Can I take it? And would you believe I'm not going to do anything? I promise you. I swear to you I won't do anything. And they all stood up and said No, no, don't take it. The fact is I'm the only self funder. I'm putting up my own money. I know there have been some super PACs, 5 or 6 super PACs, where people are forming super PACs for Trump. I have nothing to do with them. As you know, you're not allowed to have anything to do with them. So I don't know what they're going to do. Hopefully, if they're going to do something it's going to be nice. But I don't know anything about them. But just in a nutshell, I'm funding my own campaign. Nobody else's. When people advertise, and I hope the voters can see this. Every negative ad they see about me is paid for by lobbyists and special interests. So just remember that. Our country could be doing much better. We have deficits that are enormous. We have all bad trade agreements. We have an Army that the heads said is not prepared. We have a military that needs help and especially in these times. We have nuclear weapons that you look at 60 Minutes they don't even work. Okay? If anybody saw that report. The phones don't work. They're 40 years old. They have wires that are no good. Nothing works. Our country doesn't work. Everybody wins except us. We need victories in this country. We don't have victories any more. Our country will be great again, but right now our country has major problems. I think it's great that Carly Fiorina in the debate. I was in favor of her being, I think she should be in the debate. I don't like the fact that there are 11 people now as I understand it. They're not getting rid of Rand Paul or somebody. But I think they should because there's too many people. Because when you have 11, you're not getting to hear me and you're not getting to hear other people talking and I think that's too bad. I think 11 is a lot of people. But I was very happy that she got into the debate because frankly she deserves to be in the debate. I think maybe Joe Biden inclined not to get in the race. I think it's going to depend on what happens with Hillary Clinton. A lot of people think that she will not be able to make it legally from a criminal standpoint to the starting gate. I don't know that to be true. But I think it depends on what happens with her. I think if she gets out, he will get in. I think if she stays in, he might not. Who knows? Oh, he's not supposed to be here because he was here, he was up in my office and he got the pledge and we're very happy about that. We don't want anything, and I told him. I said, I don't know if it's appropriate Reince for you to be here because I don't want anything, You know, you guys will end up saying he's endorsing Trump. So I suggested frankly that I'm fine with him not being here because I don't want anybody to think he's endorsing. As far as Jeb is concerned, I watched him this morning on television and it's a little bit sad. Don't forget. He was supposed to win. And he just doesn't have the energy. But what he does have is a lot of money that was given to him again by special interests, donors, and lobbyists. And I just hope that if he spends money on ads, which he may not, if I were him, I'd spend money on positive ads about himself. Because if he knocks me, assuming people leave and maybe they're at a point where they're not going to leave because they're fed up with what's happening in this country, but I think they're going to go to people other than Jeb. I don't know. Right now, I'm interested in jobs. One thing, one of the groups, it was actually CNN. I shouldn't say that. But they did a very massive poll and I came out number one in leadership, number one on the economy, number one in jobs producing. And I don't mean by number one. I mean like number one by many, many times. And I am so intent on putting people back to work in this country. You know, we have 93 million people that are not in the workforce right now. 93 million. When they give up looking for a job, they take them off of the stats. They take them off the statistics. We have 93 million people. We have 50 million people between poverty levels and welfare and all. Our country can be great again. We have to put people back to work. Would I bring my children into the administration? I will tell you they are very capable. The answer is probably not. But having them in would be very good. They're very, very capable children. The second part I won't bother asking you. It's no longer pertinent. Kanye West? You know what? I'll never say bad about him. You know why? Because he loves Trump. He loves Trump. He goes around saying Trump is my all time hero. He says it to everybody. So, Kanye West, I love him. Now, maybe in a few years I'll have to run against him. I don't know. So I'll take that back. But he's been so nice to me. You people have sort of seen because I've been a counter puncher. I only hit people when they hit me. Only. And Kanye West has been so great. I would never say bad about him because he says such nice things about me. No, my supporters are really supporting me because I'm very competent, because they know that I'm not going to let China rip us off. I'm not going to let Japan rip us off. Japan is devaluing their yen. Very hard for Caterpillar and other companies to compete against Komatsu, their big tractor maker, and others. We're not going to let this happen anymore. They do, you talk about a trade imbalance. They have in Japan the biggest ships you've ever seen pouring cars into Los Angeles, pouring them in. I've never seen anything like it. We send them beef and they don't even want it. It's going to end and they're going to like us. In this building, I have the largest bank in the world. Right up these elevators. It's a bank from China. By far the biggest bank in the world. I get along great with China. I get along great with Japan. I get along great with Mexico. I love the people. I love the people of Mexico. I love the Hispanics. I have thousands of Hispanics right now working for me. Over the years, I have employed tens of thousands of Hispanics, many from Mexico. I have unbelievably great relationships. And in the package that we gave you, you'll see there's a poll and I'm number one with Hispanics. You saw that. Number one with Hispanics. So, look, for our country to be great, we have to be able to make great deals. We're going to be great to the vets. We're going to be terrific. Our military is going to be unbelievable. All of these things, we're going to get rid of Obamacare and come up with something that's much better and much less expensive. We're going to get rid of it. We're going to repeal it. It's going to be out. Should have been out a long time ago. Should have never happened. But we are going to take care of our country and we are going to bring back jobs and we're going to bring back wealth to the United States so we can afford to save Social Security, which I'll save without cuts, so that we can afford to do the kind of things that we have to do to make America great again. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. And here is your pledge. You know it's a bubble waiting to explode, and I've been saying that for a long time. I've been saying what they're doing in China is a bubble waiting to explode. And just remember something, when it's a bubblewe can't be brought down by that bubble. They've done things that caused it. We can't be brought down by that bubble. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to tell you a story about Nashville. You're not even going to believe it. But it's a very personal story. It's a very special place to me for a very special reason. But maybe more importantly, we have an incredible woman with us. She's 92 years old. We don't talk about age but she's 92. And she looks magnificent. And her name is Beada and she's become very famous. You know who Beada is, right? Beada, where are you Beada? Look at her. So beautiful. So, she just registered to vote for the first time in her life. She hasn't seen anybody that really did it to her. And for the first time in her life she just registered to vote and she's going to vote for Trump. I think, right? Thank you, darling. I really appreciate it. You know, she's become so famous. She's on television all over the world now. I have to be nervous even talking to her, you're so famous. It's great. Beada, thank you very much. I really appreciate it and everybody appreciates it. Because there is a big, big growing like leaps and bounds silent majority out there and we're going to take this country back and we're going to make this country so great again and so strong again. Well, I just want to tell you about Nashville. So, years ago, many years ago, like I hate to say 40 but I won't say 40 but close to 40, I came to Nashville. Did you ever hear of a company called Genesco? Genesco. Right? So, they were based in Nashville, Tennessee, and they owned the Bonwit Teller department store chain. And I was a young guy and I came from Brooklyn in Queens, and I wanted to go into Manhattan. And I went into Manhattan and I did the Grand Hyatt Hotel and I did some other things that were good. But the thing I wanted more than anything was Fifth Avenue between 57th and 56th Street, which is called the Tiffany Location right next to Tiffany. And that's what I wanted. I wanted that piece of property so badly. I shouldn't say that because you're not supposed to want things like that so badly. God will get angry at me, right? But I wanted it so badly and the company that owned it was Genesco based in Nashville, Tennessee. And I came in and I came to Nashville, and I met with the heads of Genesco who were really great people actually. And they were having a lot of difficulties. There were a lot of fighting and a lot of everything. And I convinced them to sell me the land and the building. And I bought the Bonwit Teller store Fifth Avenue from 57th to 56th street surrounding Tiffany. I bought all the air rights and then ultimately I bought the air rights from Tiffany and I built Trump Tower. And to this day it's one of the great buildings of the world and it's one of the great successes. And I love country music and I went to the Grand Ole Opry while I was here. And I just had such an incredible experience. And when it came down to speaking because we could speak at a lot of places, you know, when you're leading in every poll, they sort of want you. When you're not leading in the polls, like so many of these guys, they don't want you at all. And we'll talk about the polls in a second. But I had a lot of choices for this morning, and I guess I could have also gone and played golf like the President does all the time, right? But I decided let's do this. And I really chose Nashville because the experience is one of my, it's not my biggest deal but in terms of a deal it's so important and it's been such a great, from the day I built it it was a home run. And it all really took place because of Nashville, Tennessee. So, I really, it's an honor to be with you folks, I can tell you. Real honor. So, coming over I heard and I watched television, you know, they have all these cameras back there and they're live. And I guess we're live on CNN, we're live on so many different things. It's always difficult. You know, when you're always live, you've got to change up your speech. You can't make the speech over and over The other candidates don't get covered live ever, except for the debate. So you know, they had 24 million people on the debate. Now they think when the new numbers come out they'll be even substantially higher than that. So I would've said they would have had a million or two. So I say they have 24 million people. And I say, well now the second debate, which is on CNN, that was on Fox, maybe I should ask for a lot of money and give the money to charity. Does that make sense? All to charity. All to charity. When I said that to the writers at Time Magazine, they were nice enough to put me on the cover with actually a nice story. And I said, you know, and I sort of thought I said it off the record but they put it in Time Magazine. So now, maybe should I ask for charity, maybe a nice Nashville charity and American Cancer Society and AIDS research, so many of this, there's so many good, Alzheimer's, you know, there's so many things going on. Maybe I should ask for a lot of money or I'm not showing up. You know, it's interesting. So they'll get 2 million, a million to 2 million people at the debates. You know, they've been doing them for a long time. They don't do great, especially the early Republican debate. Like you know the expression, it draws flies? That's what it draws. So this was one of the biggest shows in the history of cable television. I think it might have been the biggest in terms of political in the history of cable television. Naturally I took full credit for it, which in all fairness I should. I should. So bottom line I think I might ask for a lot of money for charity but you know. But I did say is it a little hokey if I do that? Maybe it's not so nice. So what do you think? Should I do it or not? Maybe not. I don't know. Here's the thing. If I don't do it, CNN just makes a lot of money. I don't care about CNN. Honestly. No, they're going to make a lot of money. They just shut off their camera. They're actually very nice. But they're going to make a lot of money and, you know, it's something we should consider. So we'll all consider it together. But coming over today, I saw that they were having the illegal immigrants come in and somebody mentioned the term the DREAMERs having to do with children and, you know, the dreams of children. And these are people who come over to the country and they're DREAMERs. And I said, What about our children? Why can't our children that are in the country, why can't they be the dreamers? Nobody ever talks about that. No, no, nobody ever talks about that. You know, we talk about the DREAMERs, we talk about illegal immigrants, who by the way are treated better than our vets. You know, our vets are incredible. No, no, the illegal immigrants in many casesare treated better than our veterans who are the greatest people we have, our wounded warriors are, these are the greatest people we have. And another thing nice about being able to make speeches without having to hire some guy to write and keep writing and reading it and put a teleprompter then say, Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Nashville, it's wonderful, you know, is that I can sort of be very current. Okay? I can be very, very current. I can talk about what's happening. This morning on the television, they had a whole story about the Veterans Administration and the hospitals how people are waiting on lines to get in. These are our veterans. These are the people that got hurt fighting for us. Maybe we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them, to be honest with you. I mean, that's possible too. They had a story this morning on Fox, on CNN and a number of them where the veterans are just treated terribly and they showed a desk where there's supposed to be people behind this desk and they showed this desk and there's nobody there. And the veterans, I don't know, probably some of you saw it, the veterans are saying Where are the people? And then, they said, What happened? And they said, This happens all the time. There was not even, nobody even there! And two weeks ago on Wednesday, they had the longest wait in the history, in the history of the Veterans Administration for people wanting to see a doctor. When I go to a doctor, if I have to wait like 9 minutes, I'm like Get me, I'd go crazy. It's true. Remember the old days when the doctor used to come to your house? Right? Beada remembers that. You'd have a cold. The doctor would come over carrying a little bag like this big, beautiful little bag, being at the top. And he'd come over to your house, check you out, fine. Those days don't exist anymore. You know, we're in age of Obamacare where nothing exists. By the way, we will repeal and replace Obamacare. That I can tell you. That I can tell you. But, so two weeks ago Wednesday, the longest wait in the history of the Veterans Administration. So that if you go to the doctor's office, men and women are waiting four days, three days, one was five days. One case was five days or six days, finally got to see the doctor and the doctor excused himself because he was going on vacation. Now, you think about that. Can you imagine waiting even a day or a half a day? But these people are waiting four, five days. So the wait's now the longest in history and that's the way we're treating our greatest people and that's not right and we're going to change that. We're going to change that. We have right now, and people don't know this. You know, they see these phony statistics put out by politicians basically. All talk, no action politicians. And I mean on both sides in all fairness. You know, I'm a Republican. I'm a conservative. But I'm just as angry with the Republicans because they go to Washington, something happens, they become weak. You know, they go to Washington, We're going to stop Obamacare. We're going to stop this. We're going to do this. We're going to do that. Then they walk into these magnificent buildings with those incredible vaulted ceilings, and they go Oh, I made it, darling, I made it. I vote for you. I vote for you. I vote for Obamacare expansions. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'm in Washington. It's amazing. Isn't it amazing? Don't you agree? I won't happen to me, I promise. And if it does, you can let me know about it. But it won't. I promise. I promise. But you know, they show those phony statistics where we're 5% unemployment. 5%. The real number. You know, I actually saw a number it could be 42%, okay, believe it or not. But when you think about it, we have 93 million people that are right now out of the labor force. 93 million people. Of the 93 many of these people want jobs. And they quit looking. So if you're looking for a job and you can't find it and you stop for a while, you know, after a while you sort of like It's not happening. It's not going to happen. I don't know what they do. But they stop. They are considered statistically employed. Okay? So, we have 93 million people out of the labor force. I mean, think about it. It's hard to believe. We have 50 million people in poverty. These are very new numbers. 50 million people in poverty. Taking our money. Japan's taking our money. Mexico is beating us at the border and on trade. By the way, they're killing us on trade. You know that. In fact, you just lost a big car plant to Mexico in Tennessee. Remember? Recently front page Wall Street Journal. A plant that you were going to have You know this is a movement, folks. This is not like maybe even about me. I don't want it to be about me. This is about common sense. It's about doing the right thing. One of the things that came out in the poll, which was really amazing. Some of the polls, I mean, hey, in Iowa, we're leading big. Those are great people. We just left Iowa. We had such an amazing evening. 4000 people in a room that never had that many people and it was a happening. We just left Alabama, which was unbelievable. 31000 people in a stadium, and it was supposed to pour. And it did. It poured the minute my speech, that's like luck. That's from God. The minute the speech was over, we got it and it poured. We had 31000 people and it was the most unbelievable. And the poll just came out in Alabama, leading big in Alabama. Leading big in Iowa. Leading tremendously big in New Hampshire. Great people. Leading really big in New Hampshire. Leading big in Florida. How about Florida? I have a governor. We have a low energy governor and we have a Senator and we're leading big in Florida. How do you do that when you have a Senator who's sitting, you have a governor who's been there for eight years and Trump, ? I love Florida and I'm there a lot. What could be in Florida? Great weather. You have great weather but Florida has great weather. Big advantage. But you know, I'm leading big in Florida. But one of the polls came out because in South Carolina and North Carolina, I'm leading really big. And in South Carolina, a poll came out and we had a statement that my level of popularity or favorability, you know, I'm the only one that can get a poll and it comes out and these guys in the back with all those red lights on will say, I think I had one poll where I'm 41%, almost 41%, can you imagine? 41%. There's 17 people. So I'm at 41% with 17 people and they said Trump's at 41% but look, you can't even hear it. You know, Trump says bleh. Nobody knows what they just said. But there are some people that don't like him. It's unbelievable. I'm the only one that wins these polls and I get negative publicity. No, it's incredible. The press, ayeyayay. Well, yesterday, you might have seen me. I was in South Carolina. I made a speech. I had to bring it up. The New York Times to me is a big deal. You know, I'm from New York. Very liberal paper but that's okay. You know, not everybody could be like us. But it's still the New York Times. Right? We have to admit, still the New York Times. And I'm on the front page a lot on the New York Times, and to be on the front page of the New York Times is a big deal. But yesterday or two days ago, they had story about me and they had some low level Hispanic commentator. Low level guy. This one didn't like me. By the way, I think I'm going to win the Hispanic vote and I think, you know, in Nevada, I won the Hispanic poll. They love me. I love the Hispanic people. Incredible energy. Incredible people. I love the people. I have so many, I have thousands that work for me and thousands and thousands over the years and have worked for me. They're great people. And I said, I'm going to win. And a lot of the Hispanics that are here legally, they don't want people coming in illegally. You know it's true. It's true. So there's this poll that comes out. I think it was in South Carolina where we're way up and Lindsey at 4% and he's the Senator. I'm at 30%. So I wrote him a note, Congratulations. I'm only beating you in your home state by 26 points. So anyways, who cares. But they did something that nobody reported. They say, Oh but do people like Trump? By the way, this election is not going to be like. I think I'm a nice person. I love people. I want to help people. Women's health issues to me are very important. To Jeb Bush it wasn't important because he didn't want to fund them. And then he said, Oh, I misspoke. But you know, I really want to be a nice person and I am a nice person. But I think it's actually going to be an election based on competence. We're tired of being like the patsy for everybody. I really do. I think it's time. But in the poll, this was the Monmouth poll. Big poll. In another act of political magic, Trump managed to flip his favorability rating from negative, nobody wrote this by the way. Nobody said it. Nobody reported it. From negative to positive. This is an exact quote. I have like this photographic memory so I don't need, but I want to be sure because if I used the word the incorrectly, they'll say, He didn't, Favorability rating from negative to positive in one poll during the span of a month. A feat that Monmouth University's Patrick Murray's highly respected pollster called astounding. Called it astounding. Nobody else wrote about it. That defies any rule in presidential politics that I've ever seen, said this highly respected man. Murray, the director of the polling institute, said he flipped it from 20% to 52% in one month and he said that he's never seen that before. And you know what? That's because people have heard me and they say You're such a nice person. No, they want, they say he's a man, I've made a tremendous amount of money. I've had tremendous success. And I don't say that braggingly. That's the kind of thinking we need in the country. I mean, whatever it is. But to me, that statement was more important than actually literally killing everybody in the poll. We were much, much higher, more than double everybody. And we are more than double everybody. You saw the Quinnipiac just came out and that was an amazing poll. I was the same thing. Much, much higher, double and triple and quadruple many of these candidates. And the reason is people in this country are smart. They don't believe a lot of what they see in the media because if you believe these people, you know, why are they doing this? I mean, why are they even saying it? You'd think that if somebody's good for the country, and I'll be great for the country because I'm going to make great deals for our country. We don't win anymore. Our country doesn't win anymore. You'd think somebody, even a liberal person or a Democrat liberal and I mean, really liberal. Somebody who's going to make the country, why are they knocking it? Why are they knocking? Why do they fight? You'd think they'd say Let's do it. It's good. It's good for all of us. Because our country is in trouble. We owe now $19 trillion. You know, I've been saying $18 trillion for a while now. But now it starts to go up quickly. And by the way, when Obamacare kicks in, which is really kicking in 2016, you want to see bad deficits? You want to see it go up? You're going to really see it go up because that has a huge negative impact not only on jobs but on the deficit itself because of the costs. And it's no good. Have you noticed, and you've seen it yourself, the premiums have gone through the roof? Right? The deductibility, unless you're close to death, you're never going to use it. You can't use it because the deductibility is so high. But the premiums are up 30%, 40%, and 50% and more. It's a disaster. And on top of that, it's going to cost the country a fortune. So it's not only costing you a lot of money, it's going to cost the country a fortune. So we have to do something about it. And we have to do something importantly about it. But when I see the people on television and I have to tell you I won't mention names, some of them when they hear my name, I was talking, we have a great reporter today from the Wall Street Journal with us. Okay? Who came down. And she actually said Some of them when they hear your name it looks like they're a boiler waiting to explode. It's true. Now, number one, they look bad because they said, do you remember the beginning? Like three, four months ago. They said, He's a clown. He's a clown. Just having fun. You know, I went to a great school. I did great. I did, everything was great. I came out. I made a fortune, which I want to use the brain for you, but I made a fortune. I then did a book called The Art of the Deal and many bestsellers. The Art of the Deal being probably the best selling business book of all time. Who has read The Art of the Deal? Yeah, most people. Most everybody. I jokingly say but I mean it, the Bible tops it by a long way. I say that. I say that. Said it the first time in Iowa. People liked that. But it's true. Nothing tops the Bible. But the Art of the Deal, great success. Many books, bestsellers. Many, many bestsellers. Then I do The Apprentice. I've never done television. I do The Apprentice. It's one of the most successful shows ever on television by the way. And NBC renewed the Apprentice. You know that. Right? For me. They came up to my office, the head of Comcast, great guy, I won't use names. Just say Steve. No, honestly he's a great guy. One of the best in the country. He came up with the heads of NBC six months ago and they said, Donald, we're renewing The Apprentice. Please, you'll have to do, you have to do it. I said, Honestly, Steve, I'm running for President. I want to make our country great again. I want to make, And they didn't believe me. And I said it four times. They didn't believe me. Nobody believed that I was going to run. Nobody. My wife didn't even believe me, but now she does. But she actually said If you actually say you're going to run, you're going to do great because people like you. She actually said They'd love you but I don't want to brag. But she said, If you actually run, not you may run, you may not run, who knows? But she said If you actually say, So the NBC guys come up, terrific people. I mean, honestly I had a great relationship with NBC for 12 years. We had many, many, you know number ones and The Apprentice continues to do great. You know, last season you know how well it did. So they wanted to renew it for many, many shows. In fact, Mark Burnett called up. You know Mark Burnett. He did Survivor, Apprentice. So Mark Burnett, who's a great guy, he calls up and he goes I don't believe it. You're not taking a renewal. The word is renewal. I said, That's right, Mark. I'm going to run for President. No, no, no, you have to, nobody doesn't take a renewal. It's unheard of in primetime television. Two hours primetime. Are you crazy? I said, Mark, I have to do this. I've done so well in this country. I have to do it. We can save our country. We can save our country. So anyways, the bottom line, NBC renewed it. I told them I'm not doing it, and then they finally believed me when I actually announced. They don't like me anymore. It's amazing. They do not like me. But it's too bad. Too bad. Well, thank you. You know, the funny thing about The Apprentice, there have been 15 copies of The Apprentice. Every single one of them failed. So then a reporter said to me, Why do you think that is? I said Because I'm special. And I was kidding. I was doing it sarcastically, I mean, I sort of meant it to be honest, right? But I was sort of kidding. And they wrote it and I hated the way it looked in writing. You know, it sounds good when you say it but oh it looks so bad in writing. But so I had a great experience. So here I am, great schools, great brain, great success, built a great company, do The Apprentice, tremendous success. When I did The Apprentice, a certain critic said It will never be successful because you know to have a big hit, a really a number one hit, you have to, and you remember that first season it had one of the highest ratings ever. The finale of The Apprentice? Aye! Remember with the great Bill Rancic. Remember how that was? Incredible. But to have a great success, you have to have women. And I'll never forget, I saved the article. Right? Like Harry Truman saved it where it said, Truman loses and he actually won. Remember? But I saved this article. They said Trump can never succeed on television because why would women want to watch Donald Trump? And I said, Am I so bad? Am I so bad? Tell me, am I so bad? And it turned out that women were the biggest base. I mean, those were the ones that liked. So you know I saved those things. But no matter how you cut it, we can do something so incredible. And honestly, it's going to be hard. It's going to be a lot of work. It's going to be a lot of time. I wouldn't leave the White House. You know, Obama always leaves the White House. Think of it. You're elected President. You're in the White House. Why would you want to leave? I think I'd maybe never leave! How cool is that? He leaves to go to some place and go fundraisers. I'll try, I don't know maybe there's some rules against it. So maybe I can't. But I'll do the fundraisers in the White House. He and his wife left, I think one was doing the Ellen show another was doing another show right next door in Burbank, California. They left a couple of hours difference. One took Air Force One; one took a beautiful Boeing 757. Two planes. A little bit different timing going to the same location, going to the same airport to do different shows. And I say why? Why aren't they flying at least the same plane? Now, I know what those suckers cost because I happen to have one of them right? So I know what it costs to operate these planes. More importantly, the time and the energy. But I would have said Ellen or I would have said whoever was doing the show, Let's do it from the White House. This way, I take a half and hour, I go back, I don't spend any money of the taxpayers. And you know the funny thing is that whoever the host is would like it better. We're doing our show live from the White House or something. So we don't pay any money. We don't have to fuel up Air Force One, which costs you, do you ever see what it costs to travel in these things? With hundreds and hundreds of security and you're closing down Burbank, California. I mean, every time Obama comes to Manhattan to do a fundraiser, which is often, I say What's going on? You can't move. They closed down all the streets. They closed down the city. And he could do it from like Washington. In fact, he could do it in my new hotel that I'm buying which is only a couple of blocks. It's true. I'm building this incredible hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and it's going to be incredible. The Old Post Office. And I actually got it from the Obama administration, which is hard to believe. People say What's going on? How did Trump get it? One of the most heavily sought after buildings in the history of the General Services Administration, which owned it. You know, they're the ones that made the decision. And I got it and we're building this phenomenal hotel, Trump International Hotel, right on Pennsylvania Avenue directly between Congress and the White House. Right? It's going to open just in time, and by the way, listen to this one. We're under budget and ahead of schedule. Do you ever hear that from government? Way under budget. So we're actually going to be opening and it'll be great. But he can use my hotel. I'll let him use it free. You just come in, use it, go back to the White House. But you don't have to do that. But you'd say to yourself why, you know, it's a mindset. But more importantly even in the travel, we have so many things that we have to do to straighten out our country. You don't want to waste time. You've got to do this. You've got to make deals. I've got the greatest deal makers in the world lined up to make deals for us. Carl Icahn, incredible guy. Right? Incredible guy. Great deal maker. I've got some of the greatest deal makers in the world. They're all calling me too. They said You didn't ask me. I have these guys calling me up, the best in the world. Now, I know the best. I also know guys that are overrated. I know guys that you haven't heard of that honestly are phenomenal. I know a lot that you have heard of that aren't really that good, that are overrated in my opinion. But they're the best in the world. And they're calling me. They don't want money. They're worth billions of dollars. But when I put, let's say, Carl Icahn and I'll say Carl, do me a favor. Handle China. We're going to make a great deal. No, no, we're going to make a great deal because that's what happens. You know, that's what happens. So, we're going to take back our trade. If you look at China, if you look at Japan, I was in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. I saw ships, the biggest ships I've ever seen with cars pouring our, pouring out one after another, made in Japan, very nice. Everything's nice. Except that it doesn't help us. When does it help us? When does it help us? We sell them beef. Beef. And then they don't want it. Because you know, do you ever see what's going on over there? We sell the beef and it goes over there and it's very perishable. So by the time it gets over there, then they turn it over We don't want it. They have cars coming from these massive, massive ships. Massive. And they just pour off the ships. And I say, What are we doing? How stupid are we? No tax, no nothing. And I'm a free trader. I believe in free trade. I have to say. But I have to be fair trade. When you look at Japan, they take in money up here and we give them money down here. We get nothing by comparison. It's like peanuts. Balance it out, fellows. Balance it out. Got to balance it. A friend of mine is a great manufacturer. As you know, China has, it's probably the greatest theft in the history of the United States what China has done to us. They've taken our money. They've taken our jobs. They've taken everything. They've taken so much. And they're creating a bubble and you know interestingly we're so intertwined that now the bubble could take us down if it explodes, which at some point it might. And we've got to be smart. I made so much money dealing with China. I made hundreds of millions, probably billions, dealing with China. The Bank of America building in San Francisco, I own a big chunk of that, which nobody knows. Nobody knows. You know, all these guys come to Forbes. Oh, Trump's worth only $5 billion or $4 billion. Or whatever. He's only worth $5 billion. It's like a bankrupt magazine. They don't even know my numbers. They said, Well, we haven't been able to look at about 400 of his companies. So I filed. Interestingly, they said He'll never run. He'll never run. Then I announced. Then they said, Oh, he'll never file his form whatever. That's a single page where basically you're signing your life away and it has to be done within 14 days of the announcement. I signed my form. And they said, Well, he'll never ever put in his financials. And you have like 90 days or something. And they said, He'll ask for extensions but he'll never show because he's probably not as rich as people think. But actually I'm much richer and I put in my financials, it's true. It's true. And Forbes and another group said, No, no, we don't know what these companies are. I put in these massive financials, and you know, I was so proud. I might have filed if I wasn't going to run. I wanted to show people. I wanted to brag. It's such a great company I've built. So they said, He'll never put in his financials. I put in the financials. And everybody, they're much bigger. It's a much bigger, you know, very little debt, tremendous value. And really great assets. Iconic assets. You know, iconic. Doral, Turnberry in Scotland. I mean, I have some of the greatest real estates in the world. And I'm very proud of it. But they say, He'll never file. He'll never file. Then they see all these companies. And you know, they have boxes. And because it wasn't really meant for somebody like me, and they have these little boxes. They say, Is it worth or does he make $1 million, from $1 million to $5 million, from $5 million to $10 million, from $10 million to $20 million? The last box is $50 million or more. $50 million or more. So like I have a lot of buildings that are worth much more than that. I have a lot of assets that are worth much more than that. So it says $50 million or more. So I checked many of them. I don't know how many. I think there's 23 of them. Can you believe it? So I checked like, I don't know, I think it's 23. I could be wrong. Oh, they'll kill me if I'm wrong. But I'm not sure. But I think it's like 23 boxes. $50 million or more. So you know when some of these guys do to try and always marginalize you? They added up 23 50s. Now, some of the 50s are worth a billion. Some of them are worth more than a billion. So it says $50 million or more, I go 50. So they'll take $50 million for a building that might be worth a billion and honestly much more. And they add them up and they say Well, he's worth $3 billion. It's really, this is the press. And they have no clue. Those statements aren't really meant for me, it's not meant for a guy like me. But with all of that the statements were so good. They're so good. They're so good. And you know, one of the things I'm doing and last night was incredible. We had an amazing event in Massachusetts. Right? Oh, look at this, we have a wit what the hell are you doing in Nashville? What are you doing? Anyway, so here I am. I spent millions of dollars during the course on jet fuel. Okay? Like a lot of money on jets. But somebody puts up a sign $100 to go to this thing. I didn't know who did it. But somebody puts up a sign. So all over the place, I'm spending millions of dollars. I'm turning down millions. I don't want your money. I don't want your money. Somebody puts a sign up talking about $100 contribution, which you didn't have to make. But they put it up. It's all over CNN. Trump is asking for $100. I fly my plane some place it costs me a fortune. The fuel. The $100. The money that I raised last night, which says it all it goes towards paying off like the expense or something. The guy that had it is a great guy, Ernie. A great guy. Really successful guy. You know him, right? Ernie. He'll sell you a car any day of the week, right? And you know the guy is, like 2000 people showed up. Let him get a little deferment of the roast beef or whatever the hell they're serving. So they put up a sign. I don't want the money. I might like $4 or $5 million. That's hard to turn down. But the hundred dollars times some people and we let the vets there, we let most of the people I think came in free. And I end up with this big story, Trump accepting contributions. I can't believe it. I got so angry at my people. Because somebody put up a sign saying $100. And honestly, first of all, it's like peanuts. It doesn't mean anything. But they used to it to try and marginalize. They always do. They always do. The bottom line is I am self funding my campaign. I'm self funding. I don't want to have anybody giving. I don't need money. Now, with that being said, the small money comes in and it's not a lot of money but it's great money. Like Beada might send me some money. Beada will send me some money. But a woman sent me $7 with a beautiful letter from Georgia. Another person sent me $12. Small money. And some sent me $1000. But it doesn't amount to a lot. But that I do like coming in because they invest in the campaign. How do I take the $7 check, right, and send it back to the person who sent it to me from Georgia? Dear So and So, I'm sorry I don't really want your money. How do you write a letter like that? I want them to invest in it. You know, but they're not going to tell me not to do this or not to do that for China because they are lobbyists for China and they gave me $5 million. I had a big lobbyist asked me to have, he wanted to give me $5 million for my campaign. I turned him down. I turned him down. And then I see this story on CNN last night. It was disgusting. That look there's a sign, $100! Somebody does a sign. It actually was a beautiful sign if you want to know the truth. It was so beautiful. It was beautifully done. And they're doing this big thing about all day long last night about, I said we had this incredible event and they destroyed it by trying to marginalize. And that's the press. That's the media. Yeah, the criminal media. I mean, there's truth to it. No, because a lot of times they know it's wrong. But I just want to tell you so important to me and last night it was such an incredible event. It had to be a record for a house. The guy got a beautiful house, got a big lawn, put up a tent. But we had 2000 people. It had to be a record. The spirit in that group, the spirit in Alabama, the spirit was so incredible. The spirit in our last meeting in Iowa. Don't forget. When I went to Iowa and you know what I love? I'm leading with Tea Party. Big. I love Tea Party. I love the Tea Party. Tea Party people, stand up and take a bow. You have not been treated fairly. No, you haven't been treated fairly. You have not been treated fairly. You know, people talk about the Tea Party and you talk about marginalizing, at least I have a microphone where I can fight back. You people don't. The Tea Party people are incredible people. These are people that work hard and they love the country and then they just get beat up all the time by the media. It's disgusting. And you will be surprised how big you are. You don't know how big you are. You don't know the power that you have. I mean it. You don't know the power that you have. The Tea Party and you can call it anything that you want. I don't care about names. But the Tea Party has tremendous power. I talked silent majority. But the silent majority is more than Tea Party. It's Democrats. It's poor people. It's rich people. It's everybody. It's evangelicals. One of the things that made me so happy, I'm a protestant. I'm a presbyterian. Right?, is that I had a recent poll and they did a beautiful, like these polls are great. You know, guys like Jeb Bush and Hillary, they hire pollsters. They pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars. What do you have to do that for? Every week they come out with a new poll. Right? Hey, I'm rich. I could hire a hundred poll. I don't want to waste money. You know, why should I pay? I know in one caselike $150000 a month. And you know, then they're arrogant guys. They think they're hot stuff and they tell the candidates what to say. You've got to say this. You've got to be politically correct. No way. I don't have time to be political. No, it's true. It's true. I don't have time to be political. You know, it takes a lot of time to be politically correct. You saw the anchor baby thing. Did you see that with where I'm on? And somebody fromit's the same network, CNN again, he said, You know the name anchor baby is very insulting? I said, What would you call it? And he gave me like nine words. A baby of illegal immigrant who was brought to the country to this and that. I said, How can I say that? It's too long. It's anchor baby. And then Bush, Jeb. Jeb Bush gets caught because he is such a nice person. Honestly. If you want a nice person, honestly you should vote for Jeb. The country is going to go to hell but we won't talk of that. No, no, but if you want a nice person. So Jeb has a memo that he signed of basically a politically correct memo. You know, don't say this, don't say that. All these things. Pages of stuff. But one of the things, Never use the term 'anchor baby'. So all of a sudden, he's using the term anchor baby just last week. And with me, when I use it nobody criticizes me. They expect me. They gave up. Okay? With him, they killed him. They just killed him. It didn't stop. And then he blamed it on the Asians. He said, you know, did you see that? And then the New York Times did an editorial How dare you attack the Asians? So he wanted to steer away from the Hispanics. He said, Well, you know, the Asians come in and they also have anchor babies. And now the Asians all hate him. It's true. But the Asians love me and I love them. I love them. So he has a memo and he signs the memo and it says, a couple of years ago, Don't use this term, and now he's using it because he has to. Because baby, you know, think of it. Think of it. I want to build a wall. Okay? So easy. So easy. When this clown, Jose Reyes or whatever the hell his name, no, he's a baseball player. Ramos. Actually Jose Reyes is a baseball player. He's a nice baseball player. But when Ramos got up the other day screaming and ranting and going crazy and I had all these reporters. Actually, the reporters were mostly on my side because they all had their hand up but this guy starts screaming. So I even had liberal people from CBS, I actually said to the CBS guy Yes? and this guy stands up and starts screaming. So when he, and I actually got a lot of credit for the way we handled him. I didn't do anything like, I didn't do anything. Except for the Times. And that's what I alluded to before. The Times said, Donald Trump railed at him and screamed at him. I didn't scream at him. But he was screaming at me. And much worse than that, they said I wore a toupee. Can you believe it? I don't wear a toupee, and I proved it, I won't bring anybody up. I won't bring anybody up. But I don't. But think of it. I'm in the front page of the New York Times and in the first sentence in the first paragraph has this announcer, this Hispanic announcer that nobody ever heard of, saying they called him something which means he wears a toupee. And I don't. So, I'm on the front page of the New York Times. I can't even talk about it. I'm embarrassed to talk about it. But they also said, I was essentially screaming at this guy from Univision, who I happen to be suing for $500 million. They didn't mention that. They also didn't mention that his daughter works for Hillary Clinton. Did you know that? His daughter works for Hillary Clinton. Oh, you didn't know that. Oh. No, they didn't mention that. No, no. They said I was wearing a toupee and I was screaming but they didn't. No, he's screaming at me. So we very nicely, and then we let him come back and we actually had a nice talk. He actually seemed like a nice guy after he calmed down a little bit. You know, he's a very emotional man. But, he said, You can't build a wall because you can't do it. So, 2000 years ago in China, we always get back to China, 2000 years ago, the Great Wall of China, oh, we'd like to have a wall. This is a serious wall. Okay? This is a wall you don't go through so easy. They built a wall 2000 years ago that's 13000 miles. Think of that. That's a big wall. That's serious wall, right? This was 2000 years ago. I mean, it took them like 500 years to build it so you know, I got to be a little bit, you know, took a long time. But 13000 miles that's a long time. They had no tractors. They didn't have Caterpillars. Of course, today, we use Komatsus because they're made in Japan and you could buy them cheaper. How stupid is that? Because they devalued the yen so much and people are buying Komatsus instead of Caterpillars. Caterpillar's stock is down. It's terrible. We'll change that around. Believe me. Believe me. But, they build this wall. Now, we have really 15, I would say, look we have 2000 miles as opposed to 13000. But you don't need it on all of it because some you have natural landscaping, some you have a lot of places. And actually 10 years ago, everybody wanted the wall built. Hillary wanted it built. But they couldn't. Because I'm a great builder. What I do best is build. I'm not a rendering guy. I do the building and then do the rendering. A lot of these guys come in with renderings and it never gets built. Does that make sense to anybody? I'm the opposite. I get it built. So, one of the reasons it couldn't get built is because they couldn't get an approved environmental impact study. Do you believe this? No, no, they had certain snail doggers and different things. They couldn't get it. They could not get an environmental impact study approved to build a wall. And they're killing people. We have illegal immigrants. You see that with Kate in San Francisco. You see it with Jamiel. You see it with so many people. Last night in Massachusetts I met some unbelievable families that have been devastated by illegal immigrants. They come into this country and kill members of their family. Last week in California, a 66 year old veteran, a female, a veteran, 66, got raped, sodomized, tortured, and killed. Raped, sodomized, tortured, and killed. 66 years old. By an illegal immigrant that they caught, that they caught luckily. But this is what we have. We have stupid people in our government and we have people pouring across the border. And you know what? We have great border patrol people. I went there. You probably saw that. That's why the hat is so successful. The white one, right? But I went there, everybody wants to buy the hat. Now they like the white one. Then two weeks later, I wore the red one. The white one didn't sell so well. The red one sells. Crazy thing. But I went to the border and I got to know the people and I saw people, and you know it's rough stuff, it's rough stuff. And when I first came in and when I first did my opening statement that I was running for President, I talked about illegal immigration. I was killed by the press. Rush Limbaugh, who I think is a terrific guy, said Trump has received more incoming than any human being I've ever seen. Then he goes and has a news conference and I think he's going to apologize and he doubles down. I got credit. I got credit. No, they thought I was going to apologize. And I don't mind apologizing but I have to make a mistake to apologize and I was right. No, I was right. So for two weeks, as Rush said, I took incoming. In fact that was my first two weeks. I said Is it going to be like this for the next year and a half? I don't know if I can make it. It was brutal. Now, many of those people that talked that way, many of those people, they've apologized to me. Everybody says I'm right. And only because of me is everybody talking about illegal immigration. They wouldn't even be talking about it. They wouldn't even be talking about it. And we're going to build a wall and we're going to get, you know, the gang members in Baltimore and in Chicago and these are some tough dudes. They're going to be out so fast. One of the first thing I'm going to do is get rid of those gang members. We're going to be, you know, you look at what's going on with Baltimore, you look at what's going on in Chicago and Ferguson and St. Louis the other night. We are going to get rid of those gang members so fast your head will spin. You know, we can be very tough. I just met your cops outside. Those police are tough cookies. Those guys, we need law and order. We need law and order. I mean, they allowed, in one night, that first night in Baltimore, they allowed that city to be destroyed. And they set it back 35 years. One night. Because the police were not allowed to protect people. They weren't allowed to protect people. We have incredible law enforcement in this country and we have to be, the head of the police in Chicago is a person I know. Originally from New York. He's a phenomenal guy. He can stop things if they're allowed to stop them. He can stop it. Believe me. We have some incredible people. But we have to be tough. We have to be smart. You know, I know you're going to have some bad apples. You're going to have problems. I see some of the things. You did too and it's disgusting and it's horrible. But that's such a tiny percentage. The problem is the good work doesn't get shown on television. All of the good work, which is 99%. I mean, the good work with the police. It's 99%. That one little thing. And it's horrible. I agree. I hated some of the things. I don't have to go into them. But you know the same ones because you were sick when you looked at some of them just like I was. But we need law and order. We need our police. They're great people. They do a phenomenal job. They're right now afraid of doing anything. They're afraid. I mean, I know cities. I won't mention names but I know cities where police are afraid to even talk to people because they want to be able to retire and have their pension; they don't want to be thrown off the police force. And then you wonder why there's crimes in our cities. So we need a whole new mindset. We have to build up our military. We have to make our military so strong. We have to make our military so powerful and so strong that we never have to use it. We never have to use it. We also have to focus on what we have, look, Ukraine. I want Ukraine to be healthy, vibrant and good. But Ukraine is near Germany and all of these European countries. We're now sending F-22s. That's the newest fighters. The best in the world. We're sending fighters every, Where's Germany? Where are all these European countries? It affects them. It affects them. And we want to stand alongside of them. I agree. But why are we leading the fight? Putin hates us. He hates Obama. He doesn't hate us. I think he'd like me. I'd get along great with him I think if you want to know the truth. No, he has no respect for our President and our President doesn't like him in all fairness. They don't have good chemistry to put it mildly, would you say. But I'd get along with these people. Think of it. Every country is ripping us off. Even Russia is ripping us off because in the Iran deal, which is going to go down as one of the worst deals ever, Russia is a big beneficiary because they're going to sell Iran missiles with the money we give to Iran. Think of that. So one of the biggest beneficiaries is Russia. Okay? But think of it. So, Ukraine, let's take a few of these things and then I'm getting the hell out of here; I'm going back to New York. Do you mind? Maybe I'll go to the Grand Ole Opry tonight. Can I do that? I'd actually rather, I love, by the way, this is not a politician speaking. Believe me. I hope. I love country music. I love it. Hey, Trace Adkins, right? And who else won on The Apprentice? Who else? John Rich. My kids love those two guys. John Rich. And who else? Who did really well? Clint Black. Right? Clint Black. He did great. And my Trace, how good is Trace, okay? You know, Trace came onto The Apprentice. And I said, Who the hell is he? Who is he? I didn't know who Trace was. I'd never heard of him. And he wasn't a big name. And he came on, just to show you how important this show is and his record or album or whatever you call it nowit went to number one. And then he came to me the next yearbut Trace came to me and he goes, you know, at certain awards show, I won't mention the name, but he said Last year, I couldn't get into the show and this year I'm hosting it, Mr. Trump, all because of you. Nice, right? I know, nice. But those three guys, they're great and they're just fantastic people. But we've got to make our country so strong. We have to make our country rich again. A person came up and said, Oh, that's not nice. What's not nice? They said rich, you know, to say we're going to make our country rich. We can't make our country great if we're going to be poor. We're a debtor nation. We owe $19 trillion. China, think of this, China we owe $1 trillion to. So they come in, they take our jobs, they take our money, they take our base, they take our manufacturing and we owe them $1 trillion. How do you do that? That's like a magic act. Right? It's true. Japan sells us cars by the millions. They make a fortune. They come in, they sell us cars by the millions. And we owe them the exact same amount. We owe them $1 trillion. How come if they're selling us cars we owe them money? Think of it. Put on your business. See? I have a natural instinct for this stuff. Right? You know? Right? If we buy all these cars, why do we owe them money? But we owe them because they take all our money that they make and they buy our bonds. And we're paying interests on them and we owe them money. So, it'll change. It can change. It's not even going to be hard. People don't realize. See, Obama never read the Art of the Deal. People don't realize. Oh, and somebody said Sharon. It was Sharon. Where's Sharon? She gave me such a hard time. Where's Sharon? Where the hell is she? You could have both Sharons stand up actually. Where are they? Both of them. Sharon is great. Oh, did they go after her. She took a lot of incoming. Sharon, did you take a lot of incoming? I think so. Right? Thank you, darling. So, we are going to do something that if I get elected, and again they said I'll never run and now. One guy said, John McLaughlin, you ever watch the McLaughlin Report? I like him. And one of the people on the little group said Donald Trump is a great businessman but he'll never make it as a President. He'll never get elected. He'll never make it. And John McLaughlin, this crusty guy who I like; I don't know him. I never met him, I don't think. But I like. He's sitting there and he goes, and he got angry, he goes Why wouldn't he make it? You tell me why. He's been a tremendous success in everything he's done. I go all over the world. I see him name. I see his name all over. He's a great success. And he said, I think this is the word, He's a man of great achievement. Why wouldn't he make it? And I thought it was so nice and the other guy just sort of shut up. You know, because you need somebody of great achievement. You need, I've produced tens of thousands of jobs over the year. I don't have to worry about Obamacare. I take such good care of my employees. I have thousands of employees. I take good care of them. We have great plans. My employees are lucky. They hit the lotto, okay? But I take great care, education and health care, and my people are very happy. But I've done this for a long time, and I've seen ups and downs. I've seen market crashes. I've seen friends of mine go bankrupt. You've never seen, I've never gone bankrupt. By the way, I've used the laws to my advantage and companies. I buy a company. I throw it into a chapter. I negotiate with banks. I kill. You know. And then they say Trump goes bankrupt. These people, they don't have any, Now, when other people do that, when a Carl does it, I mean, they do it all the time. They use it all the time. It's called using your head. It's called using the laws. Actually I did a good job didn't I at the debate when Chris Matthews so angrily said, I do what every other great businessman does. I buy a company, you know, it's one company was sort of interesting. A friend of mine had it. Good guy. And the banks were just killing him. They were mean. And banks can be mean, right? You've got to teach them how to behave, right? So this guy was just getting beaten. And I did him a favor and I called up the banks. And I said Do me this, do this, do this, do that. They said, We won't do that. No, we won't do that. I said, You're making a mistake. Anyways, it's sort of a little bit complicated. I bought it. Immediately, I called them back and said, Don't do this. I threw it into a chapter. And they come out with the story Trump files bankruptcy. Can you believe it? I negotiated it to hell. What I did to that bank, ayeyeye. They see me walking down the street and they go Hey, hey, hey. But then I'm good at that stuff, you know? I'm really good at that stuff. But you have to use the laws to your advantage. No, no, you have to use it to your advantage. Atlantic City. You know, you look at Atlantic City. Caesar's went bankrupt. Whoever heard of Caesar's? Caesar's filed Chapter 11. Nobody cares. Everybody in Atlantic City. I had the good sense seven years ago and actually the financial media gives me great credit because I have a vision for things. I said, Don't go into Iraq even though I'm a very militaristic person. I said Don't go into Iraq and they shouldn't have because I said you're going to destabilize the Middle East. So what did we get, $2 trillion. Thousands of deaths. Thousands. Like 5000. Wounded warriors who I love all over the place. We can't even go there. Iran is taking over Iraq. With the money that we're giving them, they're going to take off and they're going to get the oil, they're going to get everything. The oil they don't get ISIS is getting. What do we get? Nothing. We get nothing. We got far less than nothing. So I had vision in 2004, Reuters, actually it was before that but they wrote a story. Trump says don't do Iraq. Now, I'm much more militaristic than Bush, even the brother. But you got to know where to use it and when. You got to use. So with Atlantic City, seven years ago, I got out. That's called vision. I should get credit for vision. And again, this isn't bragging. Normally, I wouldn't say this but I need your fricking votes. Do you understand that? Do you understand that? I mean, normally I wouldn't. So I got great credit. I got out. But most of the places in Atlantic City are either in trouble or they're bankrupt. They went bankrupt. But I made a lot of money in Atlantic City. I had a great time in Atlantic City but they asked me a nasty question, I gave a great answer. I thought. So I think I solved it. Listen, we are going to do things that are going to make you so proud if I win. We are going to have victories again. We are going to win. In fact, last night in front of the audience and I've never said this before. Last night in front of the audience I said we're going to have so many victories. And then I said we're going to win here. We're going to win on trade. We're going to win militarily in terms of not having wars but just having such great strength that nobody's going to play with us. Nobody's going to mess with us. Okay? Nobody. And we're going to have victories. So many victories that are going to be coming out. In fact, you might get tired of victories. You may not want anymore. And everyone stood up and said No, no, no, we want to keep winning. If I win, we will have victories all over. We will win on trade. We will win on health care. We will win on everything. I will protect your Social Security without cuts. I will protect your Medicare and your Medicaid. We are going to have something that's so special. And you know, my whole fame is and I'll say it once. We will make America truly great again. And thank you very much. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much! Wow. Wow, wow, wow! Unbelievable! Unbelievable! Thank you. Oh, that's so beautiful. You know, now I know how the great Billy Graham felt because this is the same feeling. We love Billy Graham. We love Billy Graham. You know, this all started, we had a hotel and we were going to have 250 or 300 people. And the hotel was great. They called and said, Something's happening here. We can't hold this. This is crazy, what's going on. And then we went to the convention center and they could have 10000 people and we're all set and we're excited. And the next day they said, Too many people. We can't put them in. So we came here. We came here. You know, today if you noticed, we have a stock market not doing so well. We have a country not doing so well. We've been saying it for a long time. We have politicians other than the few politicians that are with us tonight, well, exclude them. But we have politicians that don't have a clue. They're all talk; they're no action. What's happening to this country is disgraceful. And you know, when I announced I was running for President, I brought up the subject of illegal immigration. And I took a lot of heat, that, I can tell you. Rush Limbaugh actually said incoming, He got more incoming than anybody I've ever seen. And two weeks later, everybody was apologizing to me. They saw that I was right. Between what happened in San Francisco to incredible Kate and her family is such an incredible family, Jamiel Shaw, and so many people have been so badly hurt. The other day in California last week, a woman 66 years old, a veteran, was killed, raped, sodomized, tortured, and killed by an illegal immigrant. We have to do it. We have to do something. We have to do something. You know, if it rains, I'll take off my hat and I'll prove once and for all that it's mine, okay? The people that built this country. That's what we have here. I mean, the people that built the country. Great people. So we'll start with a little talk on the illegal immigration, what's going on. We're going to stop it. We're going to build a wall and it's going to be. You know, it's amazing. The politicians 10 years ago, 15 years ago, they all wanted a wall. But it never went. It never happened. Because somebody didn't want it. Probably a lobbyist. You know, all these guys like Bush and like Hillary Clinton, they're all taken care of, I don't know if you know, it's true. No, but when Hillary has $60 million and when Jeb Bush who's totally in favor of Common Core, weak on immigration, right? Very weak on immigration. Wants to let people come in. Although now, he is using anchor baby. You know, he put out a memo, You cannot use anchor baby. Now, because I used it, he's using it. Politicians. But when they have, in his case, $114 million, in Hillary's case, she's got $60 million. Now, I don't know that she's going to make it to the game. What do you think? I'm not sure that she's making it to the game. Some bad things came out today. You know, those classified, you know the word classified. You know, they've destroyed Gen. Petraeus over less and nothing seems to be happening here. So it will be very interesting to see what happens ultimately. But, we have right now and I just got these numbers today. I said What are they? 7% of all of the births in this country are illegal immigrants. Okay? Can't afford it. And they're supposed to stay. Now, I turned out to be right. The 14th Amendment. You know, I had these guys, You can't change the 14th Amendment. It will take so long. On that I agree. But you know what? An act of Congress, the 14th Amendment, I was right on it. You can do something with it and you can do something fast. You can do something fast. So we have 300000 babies a year. 300000 that you have to take care of. We all have to take care of. And you know, in the case of other countries including Mexico, they don't do that. It doesn't work that way. You don't walk over the border for one day and all of a sudden we have another American citizen. It doesn't work that way. Mexico doesn't do it. Other places don't do it. Very few places do it. We're the only place just about that's stupid enough to do it. So, I decided to run, I've gotten an amazing reception. I have to say, has this been crazy? I mean, it's been wild. I'm a non politician. The other day, I served jury duty. Right? I told you, they had occupation. I refused to put down politician. But I will say this: We have a great politician here. We have a man here who really have been, he's the one person I sought his counsel because he's been so spot on, he's so highly respected. Has anybody ever heard of Sen. Jeff Sessions? He was so great. Such a help. So, I go around and I see so many people and I've been treated so well by the people. And you know, we're leading in every poll. We're leading in just about every state, including Alabama. Big. We're leading in Florida. Could you believe it? We're leading big in Florida. And you know, it's really amazing. I said, Well Florida, I love Florida. It's a great place, right? Right. But Florida, we have a governor and we have a sitting Senator and I'm killing them. How do you explain that? Obviously they're not doing a very good job because that shouldn't be happening. But we're winning in Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas. And then, nationally, we're just absolutely way ahead of everybody else. In fact, you know, if this were another country, we could maybe call for an expedited election. Right? I would love that. Can we do that? Can we do that? I'd like to have the election tomorrow. I don't want to wait. So, the reason that I think we see this receptivity is that I know the game better than anybody. I've been on the other side. You know, I was totally establishment. Was handingmillions of dollars to these characters all the time, right? I was like the fair haired boy. Do I look fair haired? But I know the game. I mean, I understand it. And so many people have come up, lobbyists. I said I don't want money from lobbyists. But recently, last week, a man comes up who's a good guy. I know him. I said I don't want your money. I don't want your money because I don't know maybe I'll rethink it. Should I rethink it? Take it. You know what I should do? How about this? How about if I take his money but in the end, I screw him and don't do anything for him. Is that okay? Can I do that? You know, because I built a great business and I felt sort of stupid. I say I don't want your money. Can I take it please? I promise I won't do anything for him. I told him, I said, You know, I don't want your money because in two years when you come to see me about something I'm not doing it unless it's good and unless it's going to make America great again. Right? Right? But I'm going to have to rethink it. I think I'm going to rethink that because I think I should take a lot of money, are we allowed to give it to charity or something? I don't know. Just take it. Just take it. So what happens is these guys come up and I'm lucky. You know, everybody said he's never going to run. Okay? You know that. Right? And my wife actually said, You know, if you, she knows me pretty well and she also sees the reaction and for a long time whether it's Trump, The Art of the Deal, which Obama and Kerry obviously did not read when they did this crazy deal with Iran. Oh, look, the Art of the Deal. Give me that book. I love that book. You know, I said the other day and it sort of played pretty well that is my second, help her over here, give me that book. There's always the Art of the Deal and that's the real one; that's the original. That's when they use real paper right? You know, I said the other day because so many people they carry around the Art of the Deal because they're begging, they're begging their politicians Please, please read the Art of the Deal when you negotiate with China and with Japan and with Mexico and with Vietnam and with Saudi Arabia and with everybody. You know, right now we have a problem where North Korea's getting frisky. Right? Now, recently I ordered 4000 television sets. I'd like to order them from here. Like the hats made in America. Can you believe it? I was able to find a guy. I had to do that because you know these hats are hot as a pistol. You know that. And they're made in America. And I'm going to give you your book. Believe me, I haven't forgotten about you. But they're made in America. But the other day and now I see today it's sort of pretty hot on the news that our very dear friend North Korea is acting a little bit rambunctious again. So, I ordered 4000 television sets from South Korea, whether it's Samsung or Sharp or LG or any of them. They're all made in South Korea. I paid a fortune and they're wonderful. And they're wonderful people. They're making a fortune. We don't, do we have anybody who makes television sets in this country? I almost like don't think so, right? So they're mostly made, other than Sony, which has lost its way, prices are too high, but they're mostly made in South Korea. So now I see North Korea is acting up. So I see that we are sending ships and we're getting our troops ready. We have 28000 troops over there. And we're getting ready just in case. We're going to fight, we're going to protect. We get nothing. We get nothing. What do we get? We get nothing. Saudi Arabia, and I get along great with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much. But you know, Saudi Arabia makes $1 billion a day. A day. That's, in all fairness, that's before the oil went down a little bit. But that's okay. These are minor details. But, let's say they were, let's say they're making a half a billion a day. That's not so bad, right? We get nothing. And they wouldn't be there without our protection. Even Germany, Germany's a power. Who has a Mercedes Benz? Anybody? A lot of people. They're a power. They pay us nothing. We defend the whole world. All you have to do, and we want to be nice. Somebody said, Oh, that's like the mafia defense. I said, Don't worry about it, okay? The mafia's not so stupid. All right? They said, That's terrible to ask for money. No, they said it. They said that's terrible. How can you possibly ask for money to defend a country? I mean, tell me, tell me, how crazy are we? Now, we're sending our ships, we're sending our everything. We got, I'll tell you what. Those 28000 troops that we have right now on the border between North and South Korea. That's dangerous territory. They're in harm's way. They're in harm's way. And we get nothing. We get nothing. Other than they're a good competitor. I mean, they compete with us. They take our trade. We lose a fortune with them. We lose a fortune with China. We defend Japan. You know, we have an agreement with Japan where if somebody attacks Japan, we have to come to their rescue. But if we get attacked, Japan doesn't have to help us. Do you think that's a good deal? That's sort of like Sgt. Bergdahl. Has anybody heard of Sgt. Bergdahl? The traitor. No, no, the traitor. I call President Obama the five for one President. We get Sgt. Bergdahl, a traitor, who by the way six people at least that we know of, six people were killed trying to get this guy back. Six people, they went after him. They wanted to get him back. So we get Sgt. Bergdahl and they get five people that they desperately wanted for years that are right now back on the battlefield trying to kill everybody including us. How stupid are we? How stupid are we? And you know, the reason we have crowds, and no matter where I go, the other night, we're in New Hampshire, we had some, New Hampshire was so incredible. The crowd. You saw it. You know, every time I go on television it's got to be live. It's live. I said, Oh, can I have a rest please? Tonight it's live on Fox. Who likes Fox? I like Fox. It's live on CNN. Who likes CNN? And it's live on MSNBC. Well, they're still working. But I said, How come it always has to be live? Why can't they just cover me like anybody else where they go the next day and they show a little clip? Every time I speak, it has to be live. It's ridiculous. But it's okay. Right? We have to suffer with it. But look, the reason I have this really incredible enthusiasm, and I really appreciate you especially with this weather and this heat and everything else, but the reason I have it is because I do know what I'm doing. And I don't say that in a braggadocious way. You people are looking for somebody that knows what he's doing. Whatever it is. I said it the other night, my second favorite book of all time, what's my first favorite book? The Bible. The Bible. And as much as I love the Art of the Deal, it's not even close. We'd take the Bible all the way, right? So, I was saying. So they said I wasn't going to run. And everybody said, Oh, he's never going to run. Never going to run. He's just having fun. Just a good time. His brand, Like I care about my brand. At this point, my brand, I mean, I lose gutless Macy's because I said about illegal immigration. They dropped my brand. They're not supposed to be, they're gutless. They're all gutless. I have to sue Univision. Univision, my poor Miss Universe people, these beautiful women, some are girls, but beautiful women and I get dropped. Think of it. You have these magnificent women who worked all their life to be in the Miss USA contest and the Miss, and two weeks before the contest, NBC and Univision dropped because they thought my tone was a little bit strong. And it turned out I was right. So here's the good news. I sued them both. And I mean, in the case of Univision, I sued them for $500 million. I want that money. I want that money. So I actually put it on the other day, Miss USA, I put it on because it was only fair to the people. And we had it in a small network and it was fun. But who would do that? All because they want to be so politically correct. They actually called and said, Oh, we'll get it back on soon. We'll get it back on soon. You know, in a case of a couple, they said Trump loses NASCAR. It was all over the world. A friend of mine called. You know, because I opened with a strong statement, meaning illegal immigration, we've got to solve the problem. So all over. One day it was NASCAR. Trump loses NASCAR. I said, I don't have a deal with NASCAR. It turned out that I lost NASCAR, you know what they did? They rented a ballroom at Trump Doral. Can you believe it? That was my loss. They had a ballroom. And by the way, I kept their deposit and rented it to somebody else. The next day, I didn't even know I had a deal with them. It turned out they had in one of my places. They're out. The next day ESPN severs ties with Trump. It's all over the world. ESPN, I have friends that called me. He's a great business. Oh, it's too bad about what happened to ESPN. You know what it was? A golf outing at one of my courses in Los Angeles. Can you believe it? This was my big deal. And this was all over the world. I mean, the press. I don't know. Maybe they didn't get it. Maybe they don't get it. I was very disappointed though with Macy's. You know, shirts and ties. It's not a big deal. But they heard they were going to be three pickets in front of the store and they called Oh, we're going to have pickets. We're going to have pickets. I said, Look, in two hours they'll be gone. Believe me, they'll go for lunch. They won't come back. Don't worry about it. It's true. But they said, Oh this is so bad. Can we sever ties? I said, I don't care, sever ties. I don't wear ties so much any more, you know. I didn't like the ties that much anyway. You know why? Because they were made in China. It always drove me nuts. True. But they were good. They were good. But I just hate gutless people. And so the reason that we're getting this receptivity, which is like this all over the place, is because I filed papers and they said I'm never going to run. Then they said I'm not going to sign the big document, which is a one page document which basically you're giving your life away and I signed. And then they said Oh, I can't believe it. The pundits, you know, they get paid a half a million dollars a year to sit there and make jerks out of themselves, right? Call them pundits. Some are great. Some are really incompetent. I could the ones but they're starting to get nicer to me so I think I can't. But what happens is they said He'll never file his financials. He'll never file because he's probably not as rich as people think. I said, Actually, one of the reasons I want to run is because I want to file my financials because they're so good. Because it's true. It's true. So I have like about 102 pages or 98 pages of stuff and they have all these boxes over $50 million, over $50 million. And I filed my financials and they were phenomenal. They were phenomenal. Much better. And people realized, and it was a net worth, and this is not bragging. I'm going to tell you why. Over $10 billion. That's good, right? Very little debt. Very little debt. In fact, to show you how stupid these people, it has a line for income and the income was like I think it's over $400 million a year. Is that good? My son is here. Look at Eric. He could live on that. It says a line, income and it's like, you know, varies with different things. But basically over $400 million a year. Is there anybody that would not want to make that much money in one year here? Well, with it comes responsibility but I will tell you this. The reason people like what I'm saying is because I want to put that energy, whatever the hell kind of energy it is, I don't know if it's screwed up, if it's good, if it's genius, if it's whatever it is, I know how to do things. And I'm not going to do, I don't care about, you know, we're building a great building on Pennsylvania Avenue, right opposite, between, as you know, the White House and the Old Post Office. You know in real estate business slogan, Always get the post office because they were there first. I got the old post office in Washington, DC And I got it from the Obama administration. Can you believe that? Now, that's call dealmaking. One of the most sought after buildings in the history of the General Services Administration and I got it. And you know what? They did the right thing because we're doing a great job and we had a great statement. They wanted to make sure it gets done. And it will be opening, and here's a little story. It's now under budget and ahead of schedule. Do you ever hear that from government? And we just finished Doral and lot of great jobs. And my son is here, Eric Trump. And Ivanka. Has anybody ever heard of Ivanka? And I'll let them run it. I'm not going to let them do any big deals. Just relax, Eric. Just relax. Calm it. But you know what? I won't care about that company. My whole energy, who cares? We do a building. It doesn't mean anything. My whole energy, my whole being is going to be to make our country rich and to make our country great again. And I mean, it's my primary, it's my aptitude. I've always had an aptitude for making money. Some people would say That's nice. One person said, Mr. Trump, that's very crass. I said, Why? You said you were going to make the country rich. That's very crass. I said, You have to understand in order to make our country great, I have to make it rich again. We're a debtor nation. He agreed. So I will devote 1000%. I couldn't care less about the Old Post Office. I couldn't care less about any of our stuff. My kids are very good. They're going to run it very nicely. And I just want to make this country so great. And that's what's going to happen. And that's what's going to happen. In Alabama, US Steel, big closure. Or essentially a closure. And I said, Why? What happened? And I went around. And I said, Anybody work there? No, I don't think so. I hope not. But big closure. And one of the reasons is China is dumping so much steel into the United States and other countries also. But China, I love that sign. Look at that, huh? Wow. Wow. Oh, that's true So China is dumping tremendous amounts of steel into our country. The government is subsidizing it. It's almost like they want us to just die. And they have no respect for us. And again, like Saudi Arabia, like Japan, I get along with them great. You know, the largest bank in the world is one of my buildings. They pay me rent. They buy apartments. They spend so much money. Am I going to dislike them? I love them. The problem is and I say it all the time. Their leaders are really smart. They're really cunning. They're really sharp. And we have dummies. Right? We have dummies. We have dummies. We have people that don't have a clue and I don't know. You know, some people say they're bad people. Well, I don't think they're bad people. I think they're incompetent people. A lot of people think they're bad. I don't think they're bad. I think they're incompetent. So you look at China and what they've done. And you know, last week and I said this and I've been saying bubble for a long time. You've been hearing it. Last week, they devalued their currency and we're having a lot of hard times because of what they did. And when I hear devaluation of the Chinese currency, you know the word, the sucking action. That's a sucking like the vacuum cleaner. I hear the sucking action. Two things happen. Two things get sucked out of us. Our jobs and our money. Now, think of it. China sells us our product, takes our jobs, takes our base, does our manufacturing for us, and we owe them $1 trillion. That's like a magic act. I call it the magic act in reverse. We owe them money. Japan, and Japan is back. They have Abe, who's the new prime minister. And Abe is really smart. I mean, he's smart. I met him one time. He's sharp. He's negotiating against Carolyn Kennedy. Carolyn. And I was watching 60 Minutes, I'll give you guys a plug, I was watching 60 Minutes and they're doing a feature on Carolyn Kennedy and she's very nice. You know why I like her? Because Ivanka Trump likes her. My daughter likes, anybody that my daughter likes, right? Anybody my daughter likes, we love Ivanka. So, what happens is that they're doing a feature and they said How did you become Ambassador to Japan? And with Japan, the Ambassador is a very important position because we negotiate. You know, you need somebody sharp. We need a killer. Right? A smart killer, not a dumb killer because there are plenty of dumb killers too. You need somebody sharp. So they said How did you get the Ambassadorship? She said, Well, and this is pretty close. You can check it out. Well, I don't know. I wanted a job and I had nothing to do. So I went to the White House and I said, 'Could I have a job? Do you have anything for me to do? And they said, How would you like to be Ambassador to Japan? And she said, Really? She said, I'll do it. She couldn't believe she got it. And then they showed the rest of the show as her being wined and dined by Abe and all of these killers. Wined and dined. She's being feted at dinner, at this, and lunches and breakfast. She'll do anything they want. Anything. So I have the smartest, toughest, meanest, in many cases, the most horrible human beings on Earth. I know them all. They're killers. They're negotiators. Some are nice people. Very few. Some are nice people. But I will put the meanest, smartest, we have the best in the world. We don't use them. We use political hacks, diplomats. We use people that don't have any business ability. We use people that have never done a job. You know, like as an example, Carl Icahn, did anyone ever hear of Carl? He's an unbelievably brilliant tough businessman. So I called him. I had dinner with him two nights ago. I said, You know, Carl, I'm doing pretty well. I'm leading every poll. He said, You're doing great. He can't believe it either. And I said, If I ever get there, I want you to oversee the negotiations with China and Japan. I'll do it. I'll do it. He's like I'll do it. Remember when I said somebody has blood come out of her eyes with hatred? Right? Well, he had blood coming out of it; he will do it. He is an unbelievable negotiator. An unbelievable negotiator. And I know others. I know the best. I know the worst. I know the ones that are overrated. I know the ones that you've never heard about or read about that are better than all of them. But Carl's one of the greats. I mean, he's very famous. He's very rich. And he would love to do it. He'd love to give back. And he knows what's happening. They're ripping us. So they send their stuff over here. And actually, somebody the other day said What China has done to the United States is the greatest single theft in the history of the world. Isn't is an interesting statement? We've rebuilt China. We've rebuilt China. So you know we have free trade. The problem with free trade is when you have free trade, very important, you need competent leaders. That's the one problem with free trade. I like free trade. I'm a free trader. The problem is you need great negotiators, great leaders. We don't have that. So we're getting killed by everybody. I use these three or four countries. We don't make good deals. Everybody's killing us. So we will have unbelievable deals. A friend of mine is a manufacturer, and he's trying to do business with China. And what he's going, and he's a great manufacturer. Makes great products. Better than what they did. They don't want him sending his stuff. And he calls me and he goes, You know, it's impossible to do business. I can't get my product, they're dumping stuff over here, comes in by the ship load. He said, It's impossible. I can't get my product, Finally gets a product in there and they charge him a massive tax which they call a tariff because it sounds a little more sophisticated, right? And he calls me. And he goes, It's impossible to do business with China. Boeing does business with China. And they want all of their intel. They want all of their copyrights. They want everything. Otherwise, we're not buying planes. And they're now building big factories, I don't blame China. I mean, I respect them. Not angry at them. I'm angry at our leaders for being so stupid. I'm not angry at China. And Mexico is the same thing. You know, Mexico is the new China. The other day, Nabisco, Nabisco. Oreos. Right? Oreos. I love Oreos. I'll never eat them again. Okay? I'll never eat them again. No, Nabisco closes a plant. They just announced a couple of days ago in Chicago. And they're moving the plant to Mexico. Now, why? Why? Why? Have you heard? My favorite story is with Ford So Ford, great company. They're building a $2 billion car factory in Mexico. Now, they're closing up places all over the United States. They're building this massive factory in Mexico. So I went to this great school. I was actually, you know, I was totally still am really smart. I went to this great place, the Wharton School of Finance, hardest school to get into. Even then it was hard to get into. The hardest. But I went to this great business school and I get business. And I fully understand. Really good at this stuff. So they're building a $2 billion plant. They're going to close up factories in the United States. They're going to go and build this plant, they're going to sell cars, they're going to sell them back to us, they're going to sell them. Where does that help us? Tell me. Explain. Explain. There's no tax. There's no nothing. There's no nothing. So we're closing plants here. They're building this massive plant in Mexico. Another plant. Also another big foreign car company. There was a plant being built. It was all set to get started. They were going to announce it in Tennessee. You read about it. And this was a couple of months ago. Wall Street Journal. All set to get started. All of a sudden, Mexico took it away. And now it's not going to be built in Tennessee. It's going to be built in Mexico. So Ford is building a plant. I give myself this position. And I say Let's assume that somebody else becomes President. Wouldn't that be horrible? Wouldn't that be horrible? So let's assume somebody else becomes President. Let's assume a very low energy person, very, very low energy. So low energy that every time you watch him, you fall asleep. Yeah, Hillary too. So let's say Jeb becomes President. Not good. Not good. First thing's that's going to happen, like I said, your school's going to hell. People flow over, but forget about that. So let's say that Jeb doesn't want this plant build. So they're going to call him, the head of Ford, and they're going to say, Mr. President, we want to build it. He'll say, Well, we don't want it built. The next day or the next hour, he's going to get a call from the lobbyists and the special interests and his donors and they're going to say, Hey Jeb, we gave you $8 million of your $120 million that you raised. We gave you $8 million. We want that thing done. You can't do that to our people. Oh, well, okay, I'll approve it. It's going to get done. Okay? The plant will get built and that would be it. Now, let's take Trump as President. Okay, is that better? Here's the simple question: Who would you rather have negotiating with China, Japan, Mexico, any other? Trump or Bush? Actually, ah, what a group. What a group. Well, you know, it's sort of interesting. CNN does this big report that came out last week that I was leading in the poll. So it's a poll. And everybody says why don't I have a pollster. What the hell do I need a pollster? Everyday I wake up there's another poll. Right? You know, they pay these guys like $100000 a month and they can't function because unless they go and have it vetted with their pollster, they can't talk. And I say, Why do I need a pollster when everyday there's a new poll and they give like 30 pages? I don't have to get a pollster. What the hell do I need it? But CNN did this very expensive, very well done poll. It's only well done because I was leading by a lot. And they had leadership. I was way ahead of everybody. They had actually I was very good in, you know the thing I'll be great atand I'll do very well at it, military. I am the toughest guy. I will rebuild our military. It will be so strong, so powerful and so great. It will be so powerful and so great that we'll never have to use it. Nobody's going to mess with us, folks. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody's going to mess with us. So, I look at the various things to do with our country. And by the way, one of them, boy, we're going to take care of our vets. Right? Right? They did a poll but they did a poll on like who's one of the most popular with the vets? I was the most popular person. They like me. And I love them. Because you know why? Because for 35 years, these Senators and these, other than Jeff, of course. I take Jeff. But these Senators, these Congressmen, these people in Washington, including Presidents, they have done nothing for the vets. They have done nothing. And we're going to take care of our vets. But so they do this poll, and in the poll, I scored really high marks on almost everything other than, they thought I wasn't a nice person. They said who's the nicest and I was pretty low on that part. And I'm a nice person. But who cares? A woman came up to me and she said, I'm not choosing, you're not nice enough to be President. I said, You know what? This is not going to be an election based on a nice person. It's going to be based on a competent person. We're tired of the nice people. So, I won on the economy. I won on jobs. I won on leadership by massive numbers. Like massive. You've seen it. I won on all these categories. I said, Why do we need an election? We don't need an election. These are such important categories. But I have had an amazing experience because from the time I announced almost, other than the first week. That was a rough week. They were hitting me. But the press, which is by the way largely very dishonest. I have to say this. The political media, I actually think that the political media is less popular than Congress. Can you believe it? And Congress has almost no rating. And in all fairness, because look at all those cameras. They're all live and they're trying to shut off the camera right now. But you know what? They're all live. And so many live cameras. But I will say this. The media is very dishonest but there is a certain group that are fantastic people and every once in a while I'll get an honest story and I love it. I cherish those stories. They're not often. But I cherish those stories. They really started treating me much better. Don't forget, when I first ran, I said you know it's amazing. Went to a great school. Excellent student. Smart guy. My uncle was a professor at MIT who was a smart guy. You know, good smart guy. Good family. Do we believe in the gene thing? I mean, I do. Right? You know, I do But then I went out and built a tremendous fortune and great company. I did the Art of the Deal and many books that were bestsellers. The Art of the Deal is one of the biggest selling, maybe the biggest selling, business book of all time. I did The Apprentice. We love The Apprentice. Tremendous. NBC hates me. You know, NBC hates me because they renewed The Apprentice and I said, Excuse me, I'm not doing it. I'm running for President. I'm going to make the country great again. They actually came up to my office and the top people, great people from NBC, and they said, Please, please. They said We had already renewed the show. They had sold most of the advertising. They renewed the show. I said I'm going to run and I'm going to make our country great I'm hired. You're hired! So, I look at the landscape of our country. I look at where we're going. I look at where we've been. We've had a horrible number of years. A horrible number of years. We can't beat ISIS. I watched the general the other day on television, who's just retiring, which is fortunate. How do you think we'll do against ISIS? Oh, I don't know. It's going to be very tough. Can you believe this? General George Patton, General Douglas MacArthur are spinning in their graves as you listen to this. They're spinning in their graves. He talks about a hard time. And I look at what's going on with the landscape and I get to meet all of the people that I've met over the last period of time and I want to tell you it's been amazing. It's been really amazing. And I want to finish up with a couple of little points. One of them is the Ford deal. Right? Israel, I love Israel. The bottom line on Ford, I love this story because, so when I get the call, I say, No, no, no. You're going to build in the United States. They're going to say No, we don't want to do that. I say, Let me tell you, sir, you're going to build in the United States. And I will be called by people but I will not have any of their money so I don't care. And they're going say, and I'll call them in and I'll say, Listen, here's the story. You're building $2 billion in Mexico. We're going to charge you a tremendous little 35% tax. 35%. And that tax is going to be for every car and every part and every truck that comes into the United States. And here's what's going to happen, as sure as you're standing or sitting, they're going to come back to me the following day. I would say the following afternoon. Let's say 12And I don't need Carl Icahn. This one is too easy. And they're going to come back and they're going say, Mr. President, what you're doing to us is terrible. We will build in the United States. We will build the plant in the United States. 100%. And I'll say the same thing to Nabisco. It doesn't help us. It doesn't help us. When you look at what's going where Nabisco is closing and so many places are closing, when you look at the kind of money that these countries are making and I'm naming a few, I mean, so many countries, we don't have anything left. We're running on fumes. We're running on fumes. There's nothing here. When you look at what happens, they're so much sharper, they're so much smarter, and we're not going to have a country left. We need to have our borders. We need to make great deals. You know, the man in the back just shouted Israel. How would you like to be Israel right now? They relied on us. They're a voice of sanity. They're great people. And we have a deal that is so incompetent, so bad. Think of the deal. We make a deal. Our chief negotiator goes into a bicycle race at 73 years old. He falls, he breaks his leg. That was the good part of our deal. That was the only thing that happened. No, think of it. And I told people last week as I told this last week, I swear to you I will never, ever ride a bicycle at least in a race but I won't ride one anyways. But we have new thing that just came up in the deal. We know all about the 24 day period, right? But the 24 day period, that doesn't start, that clock doesn't start ticking for a long time. For a long time. So that could be forever. So if they're doing something, believe me, by the time we get there, But there's the all time great. First of all, why aren't they giving us back our prisoners? And second, can you believe this? And second of all, the other day it was determined that Iran in a very important section, maybe the most important, right?, is going to do their own policing. They are going to police and they are going to tell us We swear we're not building anything. It's so sad. It's so sad. Obamacare, we are going to repeal and replace Obamacare. We are going to come up with a plan and there are so many different ways. You know, you don't know this because you don't think of Obama this way. Do you know who the biggest beneficiaries of Obamacare are? The insurance companies. The insurance companies. Remember I told you special interests and lobbyists, the insurance companies love it. We can have such great plans if we'd get rid of the artificial lines around every state. I have a huge company, and when I negotiate, I like get one group. They don't, you can't negotiate. Some of the people that own businesses know what I'm talking about. The insurance companies are so protected, they're making a fortune. We're going to end that. We're going to make it so competitive. We're going to get rid of the artificial barriers. You're going to get such great plans. And Obamacare, I mean, you look at what's happening with your premiums. I mean, look at this. Look at what's happening. Just take a look at what's happening to the deductibles. They're so high, it's impossible. It's impossible. Trade, we're going to fix it. Health care, we're going to fix it. Women's health issues, we're going to fix it. My wife came up to me the other day and she said It's really sad because people don't understand how you cherish women. I will protect women. It's so important to me. So important. And I heard some of the other candidates, Jeb and some of the others the other day, saying we're not going to fund various women's health issues. Can you believe this? I said, That's the end of his election. Women, I don't think, like that too much. Do we agree? And he said, we're not going to fund women's health issues. A few hours later, he came back and he said he misspoke. Oh, okay. He misspoke. But women's health issues, so important. We're going to end up taking our country. We are going to make it so strong, so powerful, so loved by people again, so loved. You know, one of the problems that we have and you don't see it tonight but you see it is the tremendous lack of spirit. And I actually thought that President Obama, the one thing, he was inexperienced, he never produced a job. Lots of other things. But I actually thought that he would be a great, a really great cheerleader for the country when he was elected. I thought that he would. And he's really turned out to be a great divider as opposed to a great unifier. Really had. And you look at Baltimore, you look at Ferguson, you look at St. Louis last night over the last week, you look at all of the things that are happening. We're sitting on powder kegs. There's no spirit. There's no jobs. There's no anything. We are going to take this country. I am going to be the greatest jobs President that God ever created. I will tell you that. I will tell you. You are going to be so proud. You know, I oftentimes say the American dream is dead but I'm going to make it bigger and stronger and more powerful than ever before. And that's what's going to happen. I am going to make this country bigger and stronger and better. And you're going to love it and you're going to love your President. And we're going to turn this place around and you're going to be so proud. And you know our whole theme is make America great again. We are going to make America better than it's ever been and we're going to love doing it and we're going to have fun doing it. And I just want to thank everybody because this has been really, really special. Thank you. Thank you very much! Thank you very much. Thank you. It's a great honor to be here. Thank you Well, it's just, it's going to be very exciting for the kids and I know that the kids are going to go up. We have quite a few children who are going to take rides today. So, where are the children? Get them over here. That's great. I love children. I love Iowa. Great place. I've really developed a relationship with it, and it's an amazing place. Well, I've been doing it. You know, I've been here many times, as you know. And we have a great staff with the whole place. I mean, Chuck and everybody. So I've really been doing it. And actually the venues have gotten larger and larger because we've really gotten some tremendous crowds. We're doing record breaking crowds. And I'm so honored when I saw the recent polls with Iowa, leading by a lot. But we have actually, and we started with the smaller venues and we've gotten bigger and bigger. The crowds have gotten to be enormous actually. I would still do that if it was appropriate. I love my kids. Come here, kids. Does anybody want to take a ride? Looks nice, right? They're going to have a great time. It's a great experience. I do. I have jury duty. Can you believe this? I look forward to it, actually. I have no expectation. I just hope they're innocent. Whoever it is, I hope they're innocent. Well, she's got a lot of problems with the email situation. It's a big problem. If you look at Gen. Petraeus, he had just a tiny fraction of what she's got going and they destroyed his life virtually. So I think she's got some very big problems. I wish her luck but I think she's got some big problems. It would look that way to me. I don't know. I always say you're innocent until proven guilty. But certainly it would look that way. It looks very serious as far as Hillary's concerned. I hope that's not what happens to her but certainly the facts aren't looking for her right now. And if you look at Gen. Petraeus, what he went through on a much lesser level, is I think it's going to be very tough for her. I don't even want to talk about that question. That's a very serious question. And hopefully, you would never have to use a nuclear weapon. Hopefully. But we have to be prepared. Look, the world hates us, probably never like this before. And we have to build up our military. We have to take care of our vets. And we have to have the finest armament. We have to have the finest military and equipment anywhere in the world by a factor of 10. We have to be protected. We have to be so tough and so strong and so smart that nobody will ever mess with us. I'd say hello. Well, we've done so well because people hear my message. We're being ripped off by everybody in the world whether it's China, or Japan, Mexico, both at the border and in trade in the case of Mexico. Mexico is sort of becoming the new China in terms of trade. So many companies, just yesterday I read where Nabisco, Nabisco is moving to Mexico. I mean, give me a break. So we have to reverse that. We need jobs in our country. We don't have to worry about other countries. We're going to take jobs back from China, Japan. We're going to make our country great again. And that to me is going to be the challenge. And we're going to do it and it's not going to be that difficult. I spoke with Carl Icahn. He's a friend of mine. He's a great negotiator. He will help us. All of the best negotiators, we have the best business people in the world in this country. They'll all help us. And believe me, when I get the right people negotiating with the right countries, we will come out on top every single time. And that's what we need. Well, Jeb Bush is a puppet to his donors. There's no question about it. He's got lobbyists. I know that. He's got lobbyists and you know he made statements over the last couple of days that are incredible trying to justify the war in Iraq. Can't be justified. And then he said skin in the game. I don't know if you saw his recent statement. He said the United States has to prove to Iraq that we have skin in the game. We've spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives lost, wounded warriors who I love all over the place, and he said we have to prove that we have skin in the game. I think it maybe one of the dumbest statements I've ever heard. Skin in the game. We don't have to prove anything. First of all, the Iraqi officials are a bunch of crooks, if there's even an Iraq which I don't think there is. Iran is taking over Iraq. It was one of the dumbest things ever. And I think what happened because I understand psychology, I think his brother probably said Hey, you're killing me. That was his war and he looks very bad. So Jeb Bush tried to push back. But when he said we have to prove to Iraq that we have skin in the game and we've lost all of those lives and all of that money, I think he should apologize to the families of the people. I was one of the greats. But now I'm on the different side. I know how the system works better than anybody. Many of the people that gave to Jeb and to Hillary and to everybody else, they're friends of mine or enemies of mine but they're people I know. These are not people that are doing it because they like the color of his hair, believe me. These are highly sophisticated killers. And when they give $5 million or $2 million or $1 million to Jeb, they have him just like a puppet. He'll do whatever they want. He's their puppet. Believe me. And with me, I had yesterday a lobbyist called me up. It's a friend of mine. Good guy. Smart as hell. He's, for his client, I don't blame him. He said, Donald, I want to put $5 million into your campaign. I said, I don't need it. I don't want it. He said, No, no, I want to put $5 million in. I said, I don't want it because when you come back to me in two years and you want help for a company you're representing or a country that you're representing, I'm going to do the right thing for the people of the United States and I don't want to have to insult you. So honestly, I appreciate it. I don't want your $5 million. I'm turning down so much money. But if he put it up, I'd feel obligated because I'm a loyal person just like Jeb Bush. Jeb Bush and all of them. I'm not just talking about Jeb Bush. Hillary too. Believe me. Nobody played the game better than I did. I know the game from the other side and that's the way it works. Nobody else will do the job that I will do. I will bring back jobs. I will strengthen our military. I'll take care of our vets. I'll get rid of Obamacare, which is by the way a catastrophe. Look at what's happening with your, no, look what's happening. Look what's happening. The cost of your insurance is going through the roof. Look what's happening. It's terrible. I will take care of people. And I will be better to women. It's another thing. I heard with Jeb, women's health issues he didn't want to fund. Then he goes back two, three hours later and he said oh he misspoke. He misspoke? I will be so great to women. I cherish women, and the women haven't been take care of properly. When I hear somebody like Jeb Bush talking about we're not going to fund, then he comes back because you know his pollsters said You made a mistake. You have to go back and take it back. But he doesn't mean it from the heart. Well, you're going to have to be very forceful action. Very, very forceful action. You cannot let Iran, let me just tell you this, nor can Israel. Israel was sold out by Kerry and Obama. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. You can't have it. When they march down the streets saying Death to Israel, Death to the United States. You can't let it happen. It will not happen. Believe me, it will not happen here. It's irrelevant. Well, you saw I make $400 million a year. So what difference does it make? What I want to do is I want to make the country great. That's all I want to do. That's much more important. My businesses have been so successful. My children are my executives who will run that easily. I won't even think about, I won't even care about it. My sole focus will be taking that brain that built a great business with some of the great assets of the world. I have some of the great assets, Turnberry in Scotland, Doral in Miami, I have some of the greatest assets in the world. Best locations in Manhattan. Trump Tower, 57th and Fifth. That's what I do. That whole, whatever it is, whatever kind of a brain that is will be used to making our country rich again. Trade deals, great trade deals. Making our country rich. And then making it great. We can't make it great unless we make it rich. We have to bring back the money. We're a debtor nation. We owe $19 trillion. So, my whole focus will be this country and making it great. I would do that, yeah, if I had to. Yes, I do. I have the exceptions and I've been open about that. I don't think I've made mistakes. I mean, every time somebody says I made a mistake, they do the polls and my number goes up. So I guess I haven't made any mistakes. Look, when I said Mexico is sending, I was talking about illegal immigration. The people understood it even though the press didn't want them to. My numbers went up. When I talked about John McCain, I was saying how bad he's treated the veterans because the veterans are treated badly. Then they do a poll. Who do you like better, to the veterans, John McCain or Trump? And I swamped him in the poll. The veterans like me better because they know I'll take care of them. He hasn't taken, after 30 years, he hasn't taken care of them. And this last thing with Fox. I mean, I love Roger Ailes. But all you have to do is ask Roger Ailes Who won? So I don't think I made any mistakes. I'm sure I will at some point. But so far, you would have to say Has it worked out badly? Right? That one I haven't heard. That won't happen. She's fantastic though. I'm going to do a lot of things. Almost everything. You want to know what things am I going to do different for this country? Almost everything because that's what has to happen. Everything we do is wrong. The military, we're not taking care of the military. Not taking care of our vets. We're not taking care of our country. We're not taking care of our finances. We're not taking care of our trade deals. When was the last time you saw this country have a victory? We don't have victories. We don't have victories against China in trade. China just devalued their currency. That's the sucking sound. You know what that is? That means jobs and money coming out of our country. What they did with that devaluation, the biggest devaluation they've had in two decades. They're killing us. They won't be doing it when I'm watching. And I think our people have no idea what's happening This is absolutely unbelievable. Thank you everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you. So this began as 500 people in a ballroom in Phoenix. And the hotel called us up and they said, Please don't do it here. We're going to be swamped. It's going to destroy the building. It's been amazing. And outside, sadly, we have thousands of people that can't get in. So you know real estate. You know real estate. I want to thank everybody. You know, last night, and a lot of you saw it on television, it was actually carried live, we had an amazing event and a very sad event. And yet, very beautiful. Because the word is getting out that we have to stop illegal immigration. We have to. We have to. We have a situation that's absolutely out of control. We have incompetent politicians, not only the President. I mean, right here in your own state, you have John McCain. I just hate to see when people don't have common sense, don't have an understanding of what's going on, or perhaps don't want to know. Maybe it's campaign contributions. Maybe it's special interest. Maybe it's lobbyists. But for some reason, some people don't get it and I don't think they'll be in office much longer. I really mean that. We are going to make this country so great again. We are going to work so hard. And I will say this: When we had our event last night, I saw hardened veteran reporters who were crying. You had to see this. People that I've known for a long time that I don't even like, they're not good people. How are you doing back there? And one in particular, tears are streaming down his face and I'm saying, I don't believe what I'm seeing. I didn't think he had a tear in him. And some of the people that spoke were absolutely amazing. One, their child was killed by an illegal immigrant, shouldn't have been here. And this began for me, it's very interesting because when I started and when I announced, don't forget, everybody said, He's never going to run. Right? Then they said very strongly, you know, these are very knowledgeable people; they don't know anything. Then they said, He'll never file his FEC paper. I filed that two weeks ago. They said, Oh, wow. Then they said, He'll never file his financials because he's not as rich as people think. And they get filed during this week. And by the way, some of the other candidates will not be filing from what I hear. Okay? And when they filed, the number is actually much higher than anybody ever knew. And I'm not saying that to brag. I'm only saying that because that is the kind of thinking our country needs. We need thinking where trade deals with China, with Japan, with India, with everybody. We're getting ripped. We're being taken apart piece by piece, slowly. Slowly. China laughs at us. They laugh at our stupidity. They laugh at our incompetent politicians. They have geniuses negotiating for them. We have people who don't have a clue; they don't have a clue. Mexico, and by the way. Officially, and I've only said this about 200 times but it never gets reported. I love the Mexican people. I love the spirit of the Mexican people. I love them. Many, many people from Mexico, legal. They went in the old fashioned way. They're legal. Many, many people from Mexico work for me. And over the years, thousands of people, Hispanics, have worked for me. And many, many work for me now by thousands. They're incredible people. By the way, nobody ever says that. Nobody ever says that. They always cut that out. And I'll go a step further. I respect Mexico greatly as a country. But the problem we have is that their leaders are much smarter, sharper, and more cunning than our leaders, and they're killing us at the border and they're killing us in trade. They're killing us. And every once in a while I'll see a rally and it's put up by the Mexican government in my opinion. People come in. They're so perfect. They're like central casting. And you know how long the rallies last? Like about 12 minutes. They go home. But when you do, I've said this often. It's very, very hard for a very successful person, and I've heard it from the time I was a little boy, to run for President or even political office. And I find it and I have headlines everyday. ESPN drops Trump. A friend of mine in Paris called. Oh Don, it's too bad about ESPN. You know what they were doing? They rented my golf club for a day. They put up a big deposit. I took their deposit. And then I rented it to somebody else. I made two for the price of one. No, it's true. Then the next day all over the world, NASCAR drops Trump. NASCAR. NASCAR. And then friends of mine call up from Europe. Headlines, NASCAR. Don, it's too bad about NASCAR. I feel so, You know what that one was? They rented a banquet hall at Trump National Doral in Miami for one evening. I took their deposit, I took their deposit. And you know what? I just rented it for much more money than they were paying. So it's two for the price of one. You know, I may make money running for President. It's very interesting. Then all over the place, I hear Macy's. Now, Macy's hurts because the head of Macy's I thought was a great friend of mine, Terry Lundgren. Nice guy. He called me up, and I'm in New Hampshire and I'm getting ready to go on to make a speech. Sort of interesting. It's like 6:30 in the evening, and I get a call from Terry Lundgren of Macy's. And the speech is packed. It was a house. It was supposed to be in the house. They didn't have enough room. They had 300, 400 people and they never thought this was going to happen. They thought there were going to be 30 like this. This is a little larger but the same thing proportionally. So my phone rings, my cell phone, and it's Terry Lundgren of Macy's. And the man on stage is getting ready to introduce me. And he said, And you know, we have Donald Trump, the American dream and blah, blah, blah, blah, everything. And my phone rings during the introduction. I'm going to be going up there like in a minute. And he goes, Donald, hi. He's like my best friend. I said, Terry, what's your problem? He said, You're very controversial. He said, and I'm supposed to be going up. I'm supposed to make a speech. I got all these people. And by the way, cameras, just like all these cameras, you have all these cameras, we're on live television all over the place like we are now. And he said, Donald, I had calls from Hispanic people saying they're going to boycott Macy's. I don't know what to do. I said, Terry, be tough. They'll be gone. One day, one day. Now, this is a man I played golf with. I'm with him all the time. I mean, really was, was, was, you understand, because I don't forget things He said to me, Please, please, Donald. Can I cut you? It's not a big deal. I'm selling ties. And honestly, you know what? They were made in China so I didn't care that much. I was like screw it. So I'm walking up the stairs to make a speech and I have Lundgren saying I'd like to cut you because he's going to get some bad publicity, he thinks. And I walked upstairs and he said, And now the American dream. And I'm still talking to Lundgren, and it's like a minute and a half before I walk on stage. People said, What happened? And I made a good speech. No notes. No nothing. And everybody was happy. And I just got cut from Macy's. And here's the bottom line on Macy's. Thousands and thousands of people are cutting up their Macy's credit card. Thousands. Then I get a call from NBC. Now, let me tell you about NBC. No, no, I got to tell you. Hey, look, I love the people at NBC. We had a tremendous success with The Apprentice. And they renewed The Apprentice. See? I give up a lot. You're going to see how much money I made with The Apprentice come Wednesday or Thursday when I do my filing. Seriously. It's a very lucrative, you know, it's great when you have a big television show. It's like, you know, you're a movie star; you get a lot of money. Right? Not that much but a lot. But you're going to see very impressive numbers. So NBC calls me, We'd like to see you. Now, they don't care about inclusion. They were talking about inclusion. You know, they write their press release. So, I read this and I say, This is incredible. But they called me and a couple of months ago the head of NBC comes to see me. And the head of NBC's boss, I don't want to mention names because they're really good people. They're friends of mine although I'll probably never speak to them again either. And you know, the head of NBC's boss, that's Comcast because they own NBC. So I get a call, the head of reality for NBC, the head president of NBC, and the head of everything, the head of Comcast. And they come to see me a number of months ago, Please do The Apprentice. Please. They won't deny it. They won't deny it. I said, I can't. I want to make America great again. I've done The Apprentice now for 12 years and it's a great show. For 12 years. There have 14 or 15 copies of The Apprentice. Every one have failed. Every single one. I mean, I could give you names but I don't want to embarrass people. Nah, give you a couple of names. No, nice people. Mark Cuban did one called The Benefactor. It was a disaster. Richard Branson did one. Great guy but it didn't work out. Tommy Hilfiger, who I love. A tenant in my building. Great guy. Didn't work out. Hiltons did one. Martha Stewart did one for us. Did one for Mark Burnett and Donald Trump. Martha Stewart. She'd just got out of the can. No, it's true. She's hot as a pistol. You know, they showed her coming out. You know, she's got the whole thing with the whole outfit that she's wearing. The whole thing. I said, What a great idea. So we actually did The Apprentice done by us. It wasn't even a copy. It was called The Apprentice. Within a couple of shows it was over. It was over. So I must have something, right? I must have. So here's the story. NBC sees this. I mean, they're smart people. So NBC comes to my office and they want me to do The Apprentice so badly. And what do I do? I said, I can't. I'm going to run for President. And I said, Because of equal time, Now, you know what equal time. Such a stupid law. Obama can go on television all day long and be President and run for office. But if I have a television show, what happens is everybody running for office would have to be able to do The Apprentice. Equal time. So you'll have a good guy named Rick Santorum. You'll have all these guys. You'll have somebody who used to head up Lehman Brothers, the governor from Ohio. Headed up Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers almost took down the world. He was a managing partner. I think he's a nice man. I don't know. But I know if you're the managing partner of Lehman Brothers, Lehman Brothers almost, you're not looking too good. You know. But all of these guys, they would have to be given two hours in primetime television on Monday or Sunday night. I don't think so. So they came to my office and they said, We'd like you to do it. So important. And by the way, they renewed The Apprentice. It was really very interesting because a lot of people said, Well, how could, at the upfront, they announced The Apprentice, which is good because I always want to be loved, you know? Like when I went on dates, if a woman dropped me, which happened often, I would always like to say or at least in my own mind that I dropped her. Does that make sense? So what happened, makes me feel better. So they renewed The Apprentice and I said I'm not going to do it because I'm going to run for President. They didn't believe me. I said, Why won't you believe me? Why would you give up a primetime show? Mark Burnett calls from, a great guy. Survivor, Apprentice. Great guy. He really is a wonderful guy and a friend of mine. He calls me, he goes, Donald, they're giving you an extension. Nobody turns down an extension. He said, I've never heard of it before. I said, Mark, I'm going to run for President. Nobody believed me. Then I run. And the guys, they're in my office and they said Run and then by September, we'll do something. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? And I said, well if I don't do well, I would have done that. You know, why not? You know, if I'm not doing well, if it's obvious I'm, there's a problem. We just went to number one in the polls. So, NBC went nuts. They renewed their show and they don't have their star and everybody else failed with similar shows. And they're angry at me. So again, don't believe the inclusion. They've got Rev. Al Sharpton working for them. Okay? He's actually not a bad guy. He's a con man. You'd have to understand it. Rev. Al is a con man. You know, tells people I'm going to picket you if you don't give. I mean, this guy is a con man. But I've known him for 20 years. He's fine. You've got to understand who you're dealing with. They've got lying Brian Williams. He's okay. They sent me the most beautiful present a couple of months ago. Hundreds of, I shouldn't say the name because I deal with all of them, but in this case, Titleist. They sent me hundreds and hundreds of Titleist golf balls. Top of the line. They sent them to me. Card, From your friends at NBC. A short time later, they say He's not inclusive, me. I'm more inclusive than anybody. More inclusive than anybody. I then get a call. Univision. Now, Univision controls and by the way, believe me. Univision has a certain power. Now, I didn't know much about Univision. I thought they were very wealthy. They're actually not wealthy at all. They're highly over levered. They've got like, I think, $10 billion in debt. They have to do an IPO. Now, how stupid is this? They could have waited a couple of weeks, done their IPO, and be done. Instead, they do it early. They couldn't do it fast enough because you know why? In my opinion, it's only my opinion, the Mexican government totally tells Univision, it's about 80% of their market, totally tells Univision what to do. Totally. So the Mexican government is not happy with me, to put it mildly. But again, I respect Mexico but their leaders are too smart for our leaders because we have stupid leaders. Okay? And I'll tell you, just between you, just between this little bit of a group, thank you very much So the Mexican government does not care about the border nearly as much as they care about the bad trade deals that the United States is making with Mexico. That's really what it's all about. That's really what it's all about. So, I just sued Univision for $500 million. With all of that being said, we have to be strong. We have to take our country back. We have to run the country properly. So, I'm going to bring up a man who's a great man. He's a great, great guy. I saw him the other day on television. Don't worry. It's okay. You can shout. I wonder if the Mexican government sent them over here; I think so. Because I'm telling you, I tell about the bad deals that this country is making. Mexico, I respect the country. They're taking our jobs. They're taking our manufacturing. They're taking our money. They're taking everything, and they're killing us on the border. And Mexico does not like it. So remember this. Don't worry. We'll take our country back very soon. Very soon. So the other day, you know it's funny, I got a great review for a speech, including my opening speech when I announced I'm running for President. It wasn't until five days later that people started saying, Oh he said something, What they don't say is they cut it in the middle of the sentence. They cut it. Because those people, many of them, not all, some are great, but many of them are very dishonest people, meaning the press. Very dishonest. Very dishonest. I'll give you one quick example because I want to bring somebody up for a second who's fantastic. But I'll give you one quick example. I say, and it's fairly standards because I believe it strongly, The American dream is dead but I'm going to make it bigger and stronger and better than ever before. Right? Right? So and I say it usually once during a speech, every once in a while. You know, I don't use teleprompters like the President and I speak from the heart. So I say The American dream is dead but I'm going to make it, it's standard, bigger, better, and stronger. Okay, so now I go home and my wife says to me, Darling, that was such a tough statement. What? I turned on the television. The American dream is dead. Period. Cut. I said, Oh, what a horrible statement. They are so dishonest. They are so dishonest. You know, what I usually do because if you really love this country, you have a very, very hard convincing people what you're doing is right and that you're really smart. And like a lot of us are really smart. I'm like really smart. Went to the Wharton School of Finance. Even then a long time ago, like the hardest or one of the hardest schools to get into. Did well at the school. Came out, made a fortune. Wrote a book called The Art of the Deal. Did everybody read The Art of the Deal? They say the number one selling business book of all time, which I agree, but I'll say one of them because if I'm slightly off by two copies, they'll say Oh, Trump exaggerated. Wrote many bestsellers. Many. I think 12. So I did a lot of things. But The Art of the Deal was like the number one selling business book of all time. Great. Then I do The Apprentice, became this tremendous hit. NBC was desperate to have it. Forget it. Now, they can put somebody else that lasts. Okay. So ready? And then I hear like Donald Trump doesn't deserve to be on the same stage with some failed Senators, failed governor or something. It's sort of amazing, isn't it? Isn't it amazing? And the poll just came out and I'm tied with Jeb Bush. And I said, Oh that's too bad. How can I be tied with this guy? He's terrible! He's weak on immigration. You know, the sanctuary cities. Did you know that he had five of them in Florida while he was governor? Can believe this? I didn't know that, I just, five of them. He's totally in favor of Common Core, meaning your children in Phoenix and other places are going to be educated by bureaucrats from Washington, who for the most part just want to pick up a check. Give me break. And he's in favor. I don't see him as a factor and I know it's the Bush name, which you know has gotten us into lots of wars. I mean, in all fairness, not the greatest. But Jeb Bush, I don't get it. So when they said, Mr. Trump, you're in first place. Oh that's good. You're tied with Jeb Bush. I said, That's not good. How can I be tied with this guy? But I'll tell you what, I'm going to bring up a man to just a few words. His son was viciously and violently shot by an illegal immigrant. His son was a star athlete, a star student. He applied to Stanford and many great colleges. He would have been, he could have gone anywhere. And I met Jamiel on television about a week ago. I see this guy. He's mentioning my name. I said, Oh no, not again because I figured he's killing me like everybody else. Right? My wife said, No, I think he's saying some really good things. I said, I doubt it. You know, they're hitting me left, right. I said, I doubt it. But I turned it up and he said, The only man that's sticking up for us is Donald Trump. This guy is great, and we were at the news conference with his mother and his sister yesterday and it was one of the most incredible things. So I'd like to introduce to speak a little bit about his son and how incredible his son was and how his son should be here with us. I mean, his son should be alive and he should be in one of the great colleges and he should be maybe someday in the NFL. But he won't be because an illegal immigrant shot him violently. And this guy is the best guy. He's become my friend. He's been with me for a few days. And just say a few words about your boy. By the way, Jamiel's sister is here too and she told me the story that when Jamiel saw the boy, saw the boy laying on the sidewalk dead, this incredible young man with such a future, Jamiel laid down on the sidewalk and started pounding the sidewalk with his hand and badly damaged his hand. Badly, badly. He couldn't understand it. He couldn't believe it. Just an amazing guy. I mean, just an amazing guy. And he wasn't being heard. He wasn't being heard. And the only reason I heard him was because he was talking on a show and he was mentioning how badly they've all been treated. And then you have in San Francisco, a beautiful young woman, Kate, and killed by somebody that just pleaded innocent. First pleaded guilty. Now he has a good lawyer and went into court and pleaded innocent. And they'll be playing around with him for about 15 years in court and probably he'll get off too. It's a horrible thing that's going on with our country. And these are two people that should be alive. And these are people that shouldn't have been in this country. They flow in like water. And I love legal immigration. I love it. I love it. I think it's great. My wife is a legal immigrant. I mean, she went through a whole long process. It's not easy, and we should maybe make it easier and faster, which I think is fine. And we'll have great people come in, and we'll have them come in from all countries, Mexico, everybody, every place. These are great people. And you know, one of the things that I've seen, because this has been an amazing week, and you know, it's been like an incredible week because I thought I was going to be the jobs person because every poll, CNN did a poll the other day, I'm killing everybody on jobs. I'm killing everybody on leadership. You know, it's like funny. You know, I went through these different categories, the only thing I'm not killing, a lot of people don't like me. I said what difference does it make. This is about competence. Somebody said, You win on leadership by far. You win on absolute economic, financial, anything having to do with the economy. You're like lapping the field. Much, much higher than anybody else. But they said, but a lot of people don't know whether or not they like you. I'm actually a nice person. But I actually said if I'm winning in all these categories, why are we even going through primaries? Hillary Clinton is going to be a horrible President. It's horrible. If she even wins her own primary, which I don't know. And by the way, just so you understand, even then press will say This crowd today blows away anything that Bernie Sanders is having. That I could tell you. But if you think about it, Hillary Clinton was the worst Secretary of State in the history of our country. The worst. The world blew up around her. Our enemies are a disaster and they hate us more. Our friends are all gone. They're all gone. They're all sort of like, we don't get along with anybody. Everybody is ripping us off, whether it's Russia or China. You know what we've done? For 20 years, I've heard the worst thing that could happen would be if Russia or China start uniting. We united them because we did things that were very onerous, because Obama doesn't like Putin and Putin doesn't respect or like Obama. And all of a sudden, Russia and China now are doing all sorts of things together. So we've driven them together and I've always heard that's a disaster, and it is a disaster. We have driven them. So, Hillary Clinton was the worst. Now, tell me something, why? Just tell me why would she be a good President? She'd be terrible. Who would you rather have negotiating a deal, a trade deal, with anybody? Trump or Hillary? Well, we have to get there first. So, who would you rather have negotiating a really good deal with Mexico, China, Japan? Trump or Jeb Bush? So, when I started, I really thought it would be, you know, a long slog, and I was okay with it. I didn't think that the immigration thing would take on a life like it has. I made some very tough statements about people flowing through because that's one of the things to make our country great again we have to create borders, otherwise we don't have a country. So it's one of many things. And I've been very strong. It's one of many things. We have to make great trade deals and all. So I said strong borders, one of the things. I said trade deals. Who would do better? I'll tell you what. I know the greatest negotiators in the world. Some are horrible people; horrible human beings. Who cares? Some Wall Street guys, they're brutal, they're miserable. You wouldn't want to go out to dinner, they're terrible people. I love them. I know the best. I know people that are totally overrated. They're not good like they think and like the press thinks. I know people that you never heard of that are better than all of them. I would take one, put him in charge of Japan. Good luck. You know who's our primary representative right now? Caroline Kennedy. You know how she got the job? 60 Minutes, she went to the White House. She said I'd love to have a job. I have nothing to do. They said, How would you like to be the Ambassador to Japan? She goes, Really? And Abe from Japan, who's a killer, he's great. He's already knocking the hell out of the yen, by the way, which makes it even more impossible for us to compete. And he's wining and dining her, and I watch it all the time, wining and dining and just doing a number on our country. A friend of mine is a great excavator. That's what he does. He digs foundations. He digs lots of dirt, Earth. But he's a great excavator. Big. And he always bought Caterpillar. And he calls me up recently and he goes, I'm a little depressed. Why? I just put in a big order for machinery, for excavating equipment. I said, Oh, that's good. Did you buy Caterpillar? No, I bought Komatsu. I said, You bought Komatsu? It's fine. I mean, it's a well known brand. I said, You bought Komatsu. Why? He said, Because Japan has so devalued the yen, brilliant, smart, these are smart people, that it made it impossible. So he ordered Komatsu instead of Caterpillar. This is happening all over the place. Today, in the Wall Street Journal, big story, Ford going to build tremendous plants all over the place overseas. Ford, by the way, speaking of Mexico. Again, I respect them. I wish we had smart people. Ford is building a $2 billion plant. Whoever heard of this? $2 billion in Mexico! So, I'm saying to myself, That's not good. And in addition to that in Tennessee, a big plant, $1 billion, was going to be built in Tennessee. Wall Street Journal. And all of a sudden at the last moment they decide to go to Mexico. It's going to be build down in Mexico by a big German car company. And Tennessee is great and the people were good. They all thought they had it, and at the last moment, it goes to Mexico. So I said to myself, Wow, $2 billion. And they're going to make cars and trucks and parts, and they're going to send them into the United States, no tax, no nothing. Now, I told you, I went to the Wharton School of Finance. I was like, I'm like a really smart person. My uncle, Dr. John Trump, was at MIT, one of the smartest people. Great engineer. Great, like you know, smart. Right? For many years he was at MIT. And I'm saying to myself, Where does this help us for Ford to build a plant in Mexico and then sell, without tax, no tax? All that means is one thing, that we don't build a plant in the United States, whether it's in Phoenix or anywhere, because it's being built in Mexico. So I said to myself, Okay, Jeb Bush is President and he knows this is the wrong thing. Right now, we have Obama. He won't call. He doesn't even call to get our hostages back from Iran. Here we are in the middle of a deal and he doesn't call about that. One sentence, I'd say, Before we start, we've got to get those people back. Used to be three, now it's four. Get those people back. They'd be back the next hour. We need the right messenger. The Iran deal is a disaster. The Iran deal is a disaster. They are begging. Our chief negotiator at 73 is in a bicycle race. He falls and breaks his leg. This is the mentality we have. So I said, What would Jeb Bush do? You're right. Benghazi. Another Benghazi. To hear our politicians, John McCain, two days, Oh, Benghazi! You don't hear about it anymore. Hillary Clinton with the emails, Oh the emails!, two days. I'm more disappointed in the Republicans in many ways. They talk and talk and talk. So, Jeb Bush, let's say he's President, ay, ay, ay, so let's say Jeb Bush is President. He knows it's no good to have a $2 billion plant built right near our country. How does it help us, right? So here's what happens. He knows it's no good. He'll have a little pressure. Don't let the plant be built. And he might even say, Don't let the plant be built. Might even call the head of Ford. The plant's not going to be built. And then the next day, he'll be called by special interests that supported him, his lobbyists who push him around like a piece of candy, or his donors who have stock in Ford. And they'll say, You can't do that. I helped you. You can't hurt them. You just can't do it. He folds in about two seconds. So let me say Trump is President. Let me say Trump. So I don't need anybody's money. Actually, people are setting up PACs all over the place. I don't care. If they want to give it to me, I'll take it. Okay? But I don't need money. I don't want money. So I'm doing my own. You'll see that on Thursday or whatever the hell day I file. You'll see I did really well. Much better than anyone ever thought. Just the opposite. So here's the story. So Trump is President. So I get a call from the head of Ford and I'll say, You got to build in the United States. Sorry. He'll say, But Mr. President, really, we don't want, I'll say, Here's the story. Number one, congratulations on your new plant in Mexico. And number two, we're going to charge you 35% for every car, truck, and part you send over. And here's what would happen, here's what would happen. Now, this isn't like 99% sure. This is 100%. In fact, you know the negotiators, the killers that I told you about, these bad people? I wouldn't even bother calling them because this is too easy. I can just do this like, you know, with a couple of phones. So here's what would happen with Trump. I will get some calls. He will say Mr. President, this is terrible. Please! Please! Sorry, can't do anything. Sorry, I don't care. I want you to build here. I want jobs in the United States. So, they would go and they'd call up the lobbyists. Hey, I hire lobbyists. I have lobbyists all over the place. They're great. I want something, go do this. I know the system better than anybody. I'm a donor. Somebody said, Oh, you gave to the Democrats. Of course, I give to them. I give to everybody. I want to get everything done. Everybody loves me. Everybody loves, I give to everybody. Now, in a lot of ways, that's very bad because you know what? That's bad for the country. You know it's bad. But that's the way it works. But I give to everybody; they all love me. They don't love me so much anymore by the way, I have to tell you. But here's what happens. He'll call. I'd say he folds sometimes prior to 5 pm in the evening. But he could be tough and he may last 'till 12 pm the following day. And he'll say Please and five guys will call me that are friends of mine and, you know, who I couldn't care less. I'd say, No, you don't understand. I want that plant built in the United States. I want jobs in the United States. Now, this is just one of many deals. And here's what happens. I wold probably get a call the first day but maybe the second day because they're tough negotiators. And he'll say, Mr. President, would you reconsider? I'd say No. He'll say, Mr. President, we've decided to build the plant in Phoenix. Okay? It's so simple. It's so simple. We have totally incompetent people. Now, some people say they're bad people. I don't think they're that smart to be bad people. Honestly, I mean, a lot of people get angry when I say I don't think they're bad; I think they're stupid; I think they're incompetent. So we've got to take our country back. We've got to get rid of Obamacare. We've got to repeal it and replace it with something good. And we have to take care, and I know this doesn't sound very conservative, we've got to take care of everybody, not just the people up here. We've got to take care of everybody. Okay? Get used to it, conservatives. I love you, conservatives. Get used to it. Let's take care of everybody, please? And by the way, Obamacare doesn't. And if you look at the premiums, the premiums are going through the roof. The deductibles, frankly, you have to get hit with a Komatsu tractor in order to use them, they're so high. We can do it. You get rid of state lines. You put it out. You'll have great care for much less money. The country will spend much less, and we will take care of those people that can't do it. We have to, we have to, we have to! We have to build up our military. I'm in the real estate business, as many of you have heard. You'll see that in a couple of days, by the way. I'm in the real estate business and all the time I get listings of bases for sale, a naval, an army base, a marine. There are all these bases. I said How many bases are there? All the time I'm getting these listings for bases. I said, What are we doing? We are hated throughout the world. China is building in the South China Sea islands. We can't do that because we would not be able to get an environmental impact statement. Can you believe? We'd go through 25 years of being sued by the environmentalist. And by the way, I'd hate to say this. I've been given many, many environmental awards. I get a lot of environmental awards. But we have to take back the heart of our country. We have to do something special. We have to bring back, and let me tell you, in bringing back our military, in bringing back our military, we have to do something else. We have to take care of our veterans because our veterans are treated like their third class citizens and they are the greatest. Now, if you remember a few days ago, Bush was asked the simplest question Was Iraq a good thing or a bad thing? He couldn't give an answer. Took him five days before he said it was bad. Now, think of this. Think of this. Five days. How can you have a guy like that negotiating for you? Five days it took him and finally he said it was bad. Okay? He could have done it in the first three seconds. But it took him five days. And if you think about it, we spent $2 trillion, lost thousands of lives, thousands. We have wounded warriors who I love all over the place. All over. Amazing, I mean, amazing people. So we have wounded warriors all over. We got nothing. And today, Iraq is meeting with Iran to do some kind of merger. So in 2004, in Reuters, anyone from Reuters back there? I'm sure they are. There's an article in July of 2004: Trump said don't invade Iraq. Now, I am more for the military and I am the most militaristic person in this room. I would have a military that's so strong that we would never have to use it because people would say No way we're messing with them. No way we're messing with them. And I'd get along with Putin and I'd get along with China. You know, China, largest bank in the world is in China. They're my tenant. I just renewed their lease. Who speaks worse about China than me? No, I do it out of respect. But China, they just renewed their lease. We would never move to a build other than your building. They love it. But it's called respect. It's called respect. They respect smart things, smart people, smart deals. They have no respect for our country. So with Bush, if you people go with Bush, you're going to lose. I'll tell you one other thing and we're going to wrap it up now, but I'll tell you something. And this will be surprising to a lot of people. Thousands and thousands of people work for me. Tens of thousands. I've give tens of thousands, I've taken care of education, for families. I've taken care of health care at the highest level. I didn't even have to worry about Obamacare because my people do better. My people got lucky but I got lucky too, they're great people. But ISIS will be in such trouble. Oh. ISIS. ISIS, believe me, they will be in such trouble. You know the problem, have to say this. So we're fighting wars and we're backing all these stupid people that, honestly, I don't say they're stupid. They don't care. Like the Iraqis. They don't, they have no love for the country. The leadership, there is no leadership but let's assume there is, they're all thieves. They're all terrible people. 100% corrupt. So we send to one of our so called allies 2300 Humvees. Now, think of it. Normally, you'd send like three. How many are here? We send three. They're armor plated Humvees. You can imagine what they cost. They don't even report because it's probably so high that it's another scandal like the $500 billion website for Obamacare, which never worked and still doesn't work. So we send 2300 Humvees. One bullet is fired in the air, and the people we gave the Humvees to flee and the enemy takes them over. And they're better than the ones that our boys and women have. Because they were the best, they're gone in one day. Remember Yemen, how we had the victory? The big victory? It turned out to be a false victory because a few months later it was gone. If you think that those people, if you think that they want Yemen, take a look at a map with that long beautiful border along Saudi Arabia. They want the oil. Do you remember what I said, and I get a lot of credit for this. They said, He's the one guy, and I'm a very militaristic guy, but he's the one guy that said don't do Iraq because you'll destabilize it and then Iran will take over and then somebody else worse than than Saddam Hussein will take over the rest. ISIS, hey, Saddam Hussein was never as bad as these people. These people are brutal. They're chopping off everybody's heads, especially if you happen to be Christian. They chop off your head. They dunk people with a cage. Did you see that? They dunk them and drown them. These people make Saddam Hussein look like a choir boy. Okay? And I said this in 2004. Okay, now Bush goes in and he makes a mistake. And then Obama, frankly, we might as well have stayed there, but he made a mistake too. And I said, Keep the oil. Do you remember that? And everyone said, You can't keep the oil. This is a sovereign country. You can't keep the oil. I said, Keep the oil. We're in there now. You blew it. You shouldn't have gone in. And every other candidate is fleeing. They're all trying to say, Well, they didn't know. There was intelligence that said this. They all said Do it. I'm the only one that said no. I'm the only one that said No. Keep the oil, I said. I've been saying this for two, three years. Don't leave. Keep the oil. Because if you don't get it, Iran will get it or somebody else is going to get it. Iran is taking it and ISIS has it. And ISIS now is building a hotel in Iraq. They're competing with me. Can you believe it? They're renovating this building; they're building a hotel. They're wealthy. They have the oil. And I said, Keep it. And great criticism. Trump says keep the oil. Well, that's a sovereign country. Isn't it a horrible thing to say? These are stupid people we have leading us. So ISIS, believe me, I would take them out so fast, it would be, have to do it, have to do it. See, I think they overplayed their hand. I actually think they made a big mistake. When they started, like you take James Foley. So great. Such a great guy. I got to know his parents. I met the parents; they're very interesting They did the beheading and then they've done other, I said, You know, they're making a big mistake, ISIS, because if they wouldn't have done and if they wouldn't keep doing, we wouldn't have cared. We could have been gone. But you can't, not when you see what they're doing, you can't. Had they not done those things, the level of violence, we're like living in Medieval times. You know, when you hear of Medieval time, you always think we were all civilized. It's a jungle. It's horrible out there. But when they started doing the beheadings, they really, I think they made a mistake but not with Obama because he's weak and he's ineffective and he's not respected. Not respected. So here's the problem. Here's the kind of deals we make: James Foley is dead. Great guy. Amazing guy. Amazing parents. We have Sergeant Bergdahl, a traitor. So we negotiate for Sergeant Bergdahl, a no good traitor. Six people were killed trying to find him. Six young in this case men went out to try to get him; six of them never came back. Six people died and we have Sergeant Bergdahl. And here's our deal. This is just like the stupid deal that we're making with Iran on nuclear. This is just like everything else we do, the deals we make with China, the deals we make with Mexico. We don't know what we're doing. So we get Bergdahl, a no good traitor. Frankly, I'd renegotiate deals every once in a while. Not too often but I'd send him back, and if they don't want him, send him back anyways. I want to renegotiate that. They get five killers that are right now back on the battlefield, trying to kill everybody, including the people in this room. And these were the five people that they most wanted. So I call Obama the five for one President. Who would make that deal? Now, I don't think it's because he's a bad person. Who would make a deal like this? But these are the same deals that we make with all of these countries. When I look at Japan, I just go over from Los Angeles. We had a tremendous crowd there too. We had a tremendous crowd. And we had a big one in Las Vegas this morning. But when I look at these massive boats, I've never seen boats like this, the biggest boats with cars coming from Japan. And then we can't sell corn. We can't sell beef. It's peanuts. We can't sell beef. So we do about 20% to their 100%. So I said it in an idea on the way over. I said, Tell Japan that's okay. Everything's fine. We're going to cut your orders down to 20%. Let it match. Let it match. Simple deal. Simple deal. And I had another idea that's also very simple. When Mexico, and you remember when Fidel Castro took over, the opened his prisons and he sent everybody over to the United States and we accepted them and it was hell. We didn't send them back. We accepted them. In a much, much, much more sophisticated way, Mexico is doing that to us because why would they want to have a prisoner like these two horrible people that hurt so badly, destroyed, but hurt so badly the Shaw family and Kate's family. Why would they want to have them in jail for 40 years, paying for it? So I had an idea. The one with Kate came over five times. In my opinion, he was pushed out by Mexico. They don't want him. They don't want to take care of him. Why would they want to take care of him? And believe me, Univision, which I'm suing by the way for $500 million because they broke the contract, but Univision is doing the work of the Mexican government. And I don't blame them actually. I respect Mexico. I don't blame the Mexican government. I just wish our people were smart. Like they're really smart doing that. They're sending them to us and we're either putting them in jails or letting them go free, which is even worse. But we have to do something. So, I have an idea. I said every time an illegal comes to this country through the border because Mexico was pushing them over, remember that. And by the way, unbelievable people are coming. A lot of people that are illegal are great people. Just let's get it straight, they don't want to give it straight because the press are liars. They're terrible people. They're terrible people. Terrible. Not all of them but many of them. So here's an idea. So, Mexico is sending them. And by the way, they're coming from all over the world including the Middle East. Why not? Come on in. We're stupid. We'll take care of you. We'll pay. Get sick, we'll take care of your hospitalization. What kind of a plan do you want? So I had an idea. I think it's good. Every time Mexico really intelligently sends people over, we charge Mexico $100000 for every person they send over. Now, they make so much money that that's peanuts. It's not a lot. Could have made it much higher but I'm nice. I'm in a good mood today. We charge Mexico $100000 for every person. You'll see that it'll start to stop because that starts to add up. It starts to add up. We have to secure our borders. We have to do something to take back our country. I mean, don't kid yourself folks, what took place today, even by the dishonest press, what took place today is being seen all over the world. Look at all those cameras back there. This is being seen all over the world. People know. You know, it's a term I haven't heard for years but I was thinking about it. It's a term that I haven't heard for years but I really think it applies now more than maybe ever before and that's the term the silent majority. Have you all heard that? You don't hear it. When people start cutting up their credit cards at Macy's and won't go to Macy's anymore, when all of these things, and that's a big story but nobody wants to write it. That's fine. I don't care about me. But when you see the kind of power that the silent majority has and the silent majority is a problem. They want to go out. They want to lead a good life. They want to work hard. They want to have their family. They don't want to be involved in coming here and waiting on a line for hours and hours and coming in and listening to Trump. But the silent majority is back, and we're going to take the country back. And we are going to make America great again! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! I'm really honored to be with you. Thank you very much. It's an honor and a pleasure to be with you here today, exciting times for us in terms of the future of our country. We face extraordinary challenges but also some real opportunities, and that's what I wanted to talk about today. In fact, I wanted to announce a couple of policy initiatives today I haven't discussed before, so I actually put it in writing, and the good news is I finally was able to retrieve them from my email system. Anyway, thank you so much. I'm really honored to be here with you today, with all of you who are motivated to participate in the public square because of our values. And this is important, because we've always had this debate about, well, what role should faith play in your life, and what role should faith play in politics. That's a silly debate. For starters, our country was founded on a spiritual principle, on the idea that every human being has rights that are given to you by God, not, not by your government, not by the king. It was a revolutionary idea. And second, as a Christian, I am taught from the earliest days of my life that I'm supposed to model Jesus Christ, God made man, and that means I'm supposed to care for the less fortunate. That's supposed to mean that I'm supposed to try to be humble, that there's strength in weakness, that the meek shall inherit the earth, that my job is to care in love for my fellow man because there's never been a person who God didn't love. And so people better hope that my faith influences the way we govern, because these are important values. And unfortunately, they're eroding in our country. And I'm honored to be able to run for president. It's an extraordinary opportunity and one that I'm grateful for the blessing to be able to do. It's been over five months now since we started this campaign, and you know, at virtually every event that we do, I'll meet someone or I'll see something that reminds me of my parents, even here today, for my father worked a banquet bartender in rooms just like this, and he did that job well into his 70s. Many of you probably know this by now, but both my parents were born on the island of Cuba to poor families. And they were born into a society like most, if not almost every place outside of America, where their future largely depended on what their parents did. My mother was one of seven sisters who was born to a father who, because he was disabled by polio as a child, he struggled his whole life to find and keep jobs that allowed him to provide for his children. My father actually had it even tougher. His mother died when he was only nine. And the day after her funeral, at nine years of age, he had to go work in the streets of Havana with his father. He had to leave school. He would never go back to school, and he would work for the next 70 years of his life. After my parents were married in Cuba, they wanted something better for themselves and their own children. And so in 1956 they came to America, to the one place on earth where people like them could have a chance. And their early years in America were not easy either. But you know that in time they found good jobs. My father worked, as I said, as a bartender. And my mother had all kinds of jobs. She was a cashier. She was a maid. She was a stock clerk at KMart. They earned enough money to buy a home and raise a family and retire with security. And even though their jobs often required them to leave home before dawn and come back after bedtime, they were able to be there in the most important moments of their children's lives, to provide for our needs and to teach us the values that we needed to be successful. When I tell that story, I'm often reminded by people that I don't come from privilege. And the truth is if by privilege they mean wealth and power, that's true. I didn't inherit any money from my parents. But I nonetheless believe that I actually do come from extraordinary privilege, because I'm a citizen of the single greatest nation in all of human history, a nation founded on the fundamental belief that every person has a god given right to go as far as their talent and their work will take them; a nation who says to us that even the son of a bartender and a maid could have the same dreams and the same opportunities as someone who is born into wealth and into power. But I was also privileged because I was raised with something that's become increasingly rare. I was raised in a stable home by a mother and a father, a man and a woman who were married who loved each other, who loved their children, who were an active presence in our life, and who raised me and us to believe that if we lived with the right values and with the faith in an almighty God, there was nothing that we could not accomplish. Today that American dream that my family achieved is slipping out of reach for far too many. Our economy has fundamentally transformed since my parents' time. In fact, it's very different than the one I grew up in. Rapid advances in technology have replaced old jobs with new ones, and globalization has forced us into competition with dozens of other nations for jobs and innovation. And yet while our economy is transforming, our government policies are not. We have unfortunately a political class in this country that refuses to toss out its old and outdated ways of thinking when it comes to our economy, the way of thinking that says we need guardians in government to protect us from ourselves, that to help someone climb up the economic ladder, we have to pull someone else down, and that government, not the family, is the most important institution in society. Our outdated leaders fail to recognize the changes that it will take to seize the promise of this new economy. And as a result, that promise is passing us by. Today businesses are dying faster than they are forming. The cost of everyday life is soaring while wages remain the same. And too many parents feel as if the longer and harder they work, the further they and their children are falling behind. I want to be clear about something. Even with our many challenges, America is still the best equipped nation on the planet to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of this new century. Ask yourself this: Is there any country on earth you would rather be? Is there any country you would trade places with? Or here's another way to think about it: When was the last time that you read about a boatload of American refugees arriving on the shores of another country? So America is still special. But recent years have proven that our exceptionalism is not self sustaining, that we didn't become special by accident, and we aren't going to stay that way without effort. We're not going to stay that way by looking to the same leaders and the same ideas that have led us to this point. I believe what the American people are looking for at this moment in our history is clear. They are looking for leaders who understand the changes that have occurred in our economy, who understand the unique challenges that are facing our families in this century, who will come here to this city and fight the status quo that is holding us back, and in its place offer clear alternatives for the future. Now, the political class sees this sentiment and they try to make sense of it all. But they can't, because never before, certainly in my lifetime, has the political class of our country, or the mainstream media that covers them, for that matter, been more out of touch with the American people than they are right now. Look at the deal with Iran, which is basically just a series of concessions to an enemy of the United States. The American people realize how bad the deal is. They oppose it by an overwhelming two to one margin. And yet Washington still can't and won't stop it. And the issues like this are numerous. They're so big. They're so consequential. These issues are so generational that people cannot help but ask, how can it be, how can it be that we sent a Republican majority to Congress and yet they're still not able to stop our country from sliding in the wrong direction? And we'll see how things progress. Just a few minutes ago Speaker Boehner announced that he will be resigning. And with all due respect to people that serve in government, it is important at this moment with respect to him and the service that he's provided to our country, it's not about him or anybody else and I'm not here today to bash anyone, but the time has come to turn the page. The time has come to turn the page and allow a new generation of leadership in this country. And that extends to the White House and the presidency as well. And that's why, after just four and a half years in the Senate, I decided that I would run for president, because I realized that none of the problems I got elected to solve are going to be solved if we keep promoting the same people to higher and higher ranks within our government. Here's the simple truth: To set a new precedent in Washington, we need a new president in Washington. We need a president who understands that this economic transformation we've undergone is a perfect chance to embrace and reinvigorate the free enterprise economy, not to abandon it; a president who will fight Washington's special interests in both parties, not be coopted by them; who will take clear and even unpopular positions to confront the greatest threats to our nation. And most of all, what we need is a president who, on their first day in office, will put the left hand on the Bible and their right hand in the air and promise to uphold the entire Constitution, including the right of religious liberty, including the right to bear arms, and including the god given and inalienable right to life. Sadly, it's been almost eight years since we had a president like that. But if I have the opportunity to serve in the highest office in the land, I promise you that I will live by that creed and I will live by that pledge, because when I'm president I will empower our people rather than our government. And I will do that by recognizing that you cannot have a strong people without strong families. The truth is that what happens in our house, in your house, what happens in my house, is, more often than not, just as important for the future of our country, if not more so, than what happens in the White House. But too often, especially in recent years, Washington has tried to compete with the family rather than support it. In fact, it's tried to redefine family. It's persecuted and now even prosecuted those who do not agree with the new direction that those seek to take us. It has punished marriage, the foundation of family life, by taxing married couples more than singles. It has made it harder for parents to keep what they earn and it has challenged the values and supplanted the faith organizations that have provided the centuries of empowerment to our people. I have a plan to reform our government in a way that empowers families to thrive in the modern economy. And a major component of this will be reforms to family leave policy that I'd like to introduce for the first time here today. Now, I said a moment ago that one of the reasons why I'm so privileged is that I was born to two parents who were married and who were able to be a constant presence in our lives. This was an extraordinary and enormous advantage for me growing up. And that's why now, as a parent, I struggle with the demands of public life, the public life that I've chosen. It pains me every time that I have to miss a volleyball game or a football game or a field trip, even though I know that I'm doing this for them. And this struggle is not unique to me. It's a problem that almost every parent in America faces today. And the reason this hurts is because we know the greatest gift parents can give their children is the time we spend together, the values that only parents can teach, the love only parents can provide, the encouragement only parents can offer. And it cannot come via text or cellphone calls sometimes, at least not completely. It has to come through time spent together. And that's why one of the greatest threats to family today is that there are too many Americans who have to choose between being there for their children in times of great need or meeting the basic financial needs of their family. And like so many fundamental problems, this one can be traced back in part to the outdated policies from Washington, DC Our current law mandates that employees offer 12 weeks of unpaid leave to workers with certain family or medical issues, like a newborn child in need of care, an elderly parent with declining health or a personal health crisis. But this has proven insufficient because taking unpaid leave is simply not a viable financial option for many American. Now, most of our current leaders, including Hillary Clinton, stick to this outdated way of thinking. They say that the only way to solve this problem is the way they think we can solve every problem: raise taxes, grow government, and place crippling requirements on private companies. I don't need to tell anyone here why that wouldn't work. It's the same reason Obamacare hasn't worked. Our policies should help workers, not cost them their jobs. And I believe we can fix this problem by creatively applying our free enterprise principles in a way that encourages businesses to choose to offer more family paid leave. To do this, we should provide a limited 25 percent, non refundable tax credit to any business that offers between four and 12 weeks of paid leave. For instance, if you're offered $1600 in paid leave for four weeks while you take care of your newborn child, which would be the equivalent of about $10 an hour, your employer could claim a tax credit of $400. This won't solve every scheduling conflict between work and family life. No policy can do that. But it will help ensure that our people don't have to sit behind a desk while the most profound moments of their lives pass them by. And it will help our businesses expand and create new jobs by allowing them to keep more of their money rather than send it to be wasted here in Washington. Conservatives, by the way, are already fighting hard on this issue. Senator Deb Fischer has been a leader on family leave reform and I'm glad to join her in her efforts as one way to address the problem. Now, unfortunately, our current president prefers not to sign legislation that's common sense. So these efforts will likely be something that we will need to take up if, God willing, I'm president. Doing so will be a step towards reclaiming the American dream in this century, but it will only be one step. Of course, people cannot be concerned about family leave if they don't have a good paying job to take leave from. So we need our next president to recognize an important fact that no one in Washington today seems to understand: Politicians don't create jobs. The American people create jobs. We need a president and we need leaders at every level of government who stop placing our people's faith in our government and start placing our government's faith in our people. So one way we'll know that I've done the right things as president, is that by the end of my term we won't be talking that much about Washington. We'll be too busy discussing the extraordinary achievements of everyday Americans. By the year 2020, this is what I hope we will be able to say: That we made our business tax code globally competitive, that we repealed and replaced Obamacare, that we placed a cap on regulations, and that we made our country the best place in the world to create jobs, and that as a result our people are creating thousands of businesses, millions of new high paying jobs, and their innovations are once again driving the progress of the world. In the year 2020, we want to be able to say that we reformed our higher education system, we made it more affordable and more accessible to every American. And as a result, our people are earning degrees that empower them to move from jobs that pay $10 an hour to jobs that pay $70000 a year, that millions are beginning to emerge from the shadow of student loan debt, and that high schoolers are graduating with certifications to immediately enter good paying careers. In the year 2020, I want to be able to say that we've secured our borders first, that we've reformed our legal immigration system so that people come to this country based on what they can contribute to our economy, on the basis of whether they want to become an American, not simply live in America, not whether they have a family member living here. And that we've done what we needed to do to save Social Security and Medicare without having to make any changes for people currently on it. And that as a result of these changes, our people are growing our economy at a historic rate, our deficits are finally beginning to dwindle, and the national debt is being brought under control so that it no longer is threatening to take away everything that makes our country so special. In the year 2020, I want to be able to say that we have defended religious liberty. That we have supported, that we have worked hard to support the right of our people not just to hold traditional views, but to exercise them, to express them. That we've reformed the tax code to encourage marriage rather than punishing it. And that we made it easier for parents to afford the cost of raising their children, and that as a result our families have found financial security, that they're raising strong children with strong values, and that they're instilling in their kids all the hope in the future of America that our parents instilled in us. That's what I want to be able to talk about in 2020, the accomplishments of our people, not of Washington. But there's one more important point that needs to be made, one that transcends policy and politics altogether. No candidate for president can claim to stand on the side of our people if they do not believe that every person has a right to exist. And that's why the issue of right to live is more than political or policy related. It is not a political issue, it is a human rights issue. It is a definitional issue about what kind of country we want to be. In a world where life is increasingly not valued, where people are summarily discarded, America must stand for the belief that all life is worthy of protection, because all life comes from God. And so by the year 2020, I hope we will be able to say that abortions after 20 weeks are illegal, that no taxpayer money is used to fund abortions here or abroad, and that Planned Parenthood doesn't receive a penny from the federal government. So let me just close, my time is up, and so let me just close by saying this: For many of us, for me, for most of you who that were born and raised in this country, it's sometimes easy to forget how special America is, because this is all we've ever known. But I had one more blessing. I was raised by people who knew how special America was because they knew what it was like to lose a country, because they knew what life was like outside this country, because they understood how different America was from the rest of the world. My parents, my grandfather, they taught me by word and by deed that what makes America great is not that we have more rich people than anybody else, every country has rich people. What makes America great is that the dreams that are impossible everywhere else are possible here. And why is that? Well, it's because of the choices that the people before us made. Almost every other country in the world chose to have a government run their economy. In those countries, people who can influence the government, they're the ones that keep winning, and everybody else stays the same. The employee never becomes the employer. The small business can never compete with a big business. And no matter how hard your parents work or how many sacrifices they made, if you weren't born into the right family in those countries, there is only so far you can go. But the Americans before us chose something very different. They chose individual liberty. They chose limited government that exists to protect our rights, not to decide them or to grant them. And yet there are still people in American politics, sadly in both parties, who cling to the belief that America is better off adopting the economic policies of the countries that people come here to get away from. Now, look, this is a free society. People have a right to believe whatever they want. But I don't have that option. You see, I'm just a generation removed from a very different life. My parents came here with virtually nothing, no knowledge of English at the time, no money, no friends. The only thing they had was the strong determination to provide their children all the opportunities they themselves never had. And in America they were never rich or wealthy or influential, but their hard work opened doors for their children that had closed for them. Everything that I've accomplished, everything I will ever accomplish, I owe to God, to my parents' sacrifices, and to the United States of America. For me, my parents' story is the essence of the American Dream. It's a story that's rare in the world, but so common here. Because the truth is, it's all our stories. Here in this nation, we are all but a generation or two removed from someone who made our future the purpose of their lives. And so now it is our turn. This election is a generational choice about what kind of country, what kind of America we are going to leave for our children, and what kind of country we will be in the 21st century. The final verdict on our generation is going to be written by Americans who have not yet been born. Let us make sure that they write that we made the right choice, that in the early years of this century, faced with troubling and uncertain times, there were those who believed that the great American story had run its course, but we did not agree. Fear did not lead us to abandon our liberty. We fought for and held onto those things that made us exceptional. And because we did, there was still one place on Earth where the individual was more important than the state. There was still one place on Earth where where you come from does not determine how far you get to go. Because we made the right choice, because we did, we didn't just restore the American Dream, we expanded it and extended it to reach more families and more people than ever before. And because we did, for at least one generation more the American miracle lived on. After months of deliberation and prayer about the future of our country, I have come here tonight to make an announcement on how I believe I can best serve her. I chose to make this announcement at the Freedom Tower because it is a symbol of our nation's identity as the land of opportunity. And I am more confident than ever that despite our troubles, we have it within our power to make our time another American Century. In this very room five decades ago, tens of thousands of Cuban exiles began their new lives in America. Their story is part of the larger story of the American miracle. How, united by a common faith in their God given right to go as far as their talent and work would take them, a collection of immigrants and exiles, former slaves and refugees, became one people, and together built the freest and most prosperous nation ever. For almost all of human history, power and wealth belonged only to a select few. Most people who have ever lived were trapped by the circumstances of their birth, destined to live the life their parents had. But America is different. Here, we are the children and grandchildren of people who refused to accept this. Both of my parents were born to poor families in Cuba. After his mother died when he was nine, my father left school to go work. My mother was one of seven girls raised by a disabled father who struggled to provide for his family. When they were young, my parents had big dreams for themselves. But because they were not born into wealth or power, their future was destined to be defined by their past. So in 1956 they came here, to the one place on earth where the aspirations of people like them could be more than just dreams. My father became a bartender. My mother a cashier, a maid and a Kmart stock clerk. They never made it big. But they were successful. Two immigrants with little money or education found stable jobs, owned a home, retired with security and gave all four of their children a life far better than their own. My parents achieved what came to be known as the American Dream. But now, too many Americans are starting to doubt whether achieving that dream is still possible: Hard working families living paycheck to paycheck, one unexpected expense away from disaster Young Americans, unable to start a career, a business or a family, because they owe thousands in student loans for degrees that did not lead to jobs And small business owners, left to struggle under the weight of more taxes, more regulations and more government. Why is this happening in a country that for over two centuries has been defined by equality of opportunity? Because while our people and economy are pushing the boundaries of the 21st century, too many of our leaders and their ideas are stuck in the twentieth century. They are busy looking backward, so they do not see how jobs and prosperity today depend on our ability to compete in a global economy. So our leaders put us at a disadvantage by taxing, borrowing and regulating like it's 1999. They look for solutions in yesterday, so they don't see that good paying modern jobs require different skills and more education than the past. They blindly support an outdated higher education system that is too expensive and inaccessible to those who need it most. And they have forgotten that when America fails to lead, global chaos inevitably follows, so they appease our enemies, betray our allies and weaken our military. At the turn of the 19th century, a generation of Americans harnessed the power of the Industrial Age and transformed this country into the leading economy in the world. And the 20th century became the American Century. Now, the time has come for our generation to lead the way toward a new American Century. If we reform our tax code, reduce regulations, control spending, modernize our immigration laws and repeal and replace Obamacare, the American people will create millions of better paying modern jobs. If we create a 21st century system of higher education that provides working Americans the chance to acquire the skills they need, that no longer graduates students with mountains of debt and degrees that do not lead to jobs, and that graduates more students from high school ready to work, then our people will be prepared to seize their opportunities in the new economy. If we remember that family, not government, is the most important institution in society, that all life deserves protection, and that all parents deserve to choose the education that's right for their children, then we will have a strong people and a strong nation. And if America accepts the mantle of global leadership, by abandoning this administration's dangerous concessions to Iran, and its hostility to Israel; by reversing the hollowing out of our military; by giving our men and women in uniform the resources, care and gratitude they deserve; by no longer being passive in the face of Chinese and Russian aggression; and by ending the near total disregard for the erosion of democracy and human rights around the world; then our nation will be safer, the world more stable, and our people more prosperous. This election is not just about what laws we will pass. It is a generational choice about what kind of country we will be. Just yesterday, a leader from yesterday began a campaign for President by promising to take us back to yesterday. But yesterday is over, and we are never going back. We Americans are proud of our history, but our country has always been about the future. Before us now is the opportunity to author the greatest chapter yet in the amazing story of America. We can't do that by going back to the leaders and ideas of the past. We must change the decisions we are making by changing the people who are making them. That is why today, grounded by the lessons of our history, and inspired by the promise of our future, I announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America. My candidacy might seem improbable to some watching from abroad. In many countries, the highest office in the land is reserved for the rich and powerful. But I live in an exceptional country where even the son of a bartender and a maid can have the same dreams and the same future as those who come from power and privilege. I recognize the challenges of this campaign, and the demands of the office I seek. But in this endeavor as in all things, I find comfort in the ancient command to, Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. I have heard some suggest that I should step aside and wait my turn. But I cannot. Because I believe our very identity as an exceptional nation is at stake, and I can make a difference as President. I am humbled by the realization that America doesn't owe me anything; but I have a debt to America I must try to repay. This isn't just the country where I was born; America is the place that changed my family's history. I regret my father did not live to see this day in person. He used to tell me all the time: En este pais, ustedes van a poder lograr todas las cosas que nosotros no pudimos. In this country, you will achieve all the things we never could. On days when I am tired or discouraged, I remember the sound of his keys jingling at the front door of our home, often well past midnight, as he returned from another long day at work. When I was younger, I didn't fully appreciate all he did for us, but now as my own children grow older, I fully understand. My father was grateful for the work he had, but that was not the life he wanted for his children. He wanted all the dreams he once had for himself to come true for us. He wanted all the doors that closed for him to be open for me. My father stood behind a small portable bar in the back of a room for all those years, so that tonight I could stand behind this podium in the front of this room. That journey, from behind that bar to behind this podium, is the essence of the American Dream. Whether or not we remain a special country will depend on whether that journey is still possible for those trying to make it now: The single mother who works long hours for little pay so her children don't have to struggle the way she has The student who takes two buses before dawn to attend a better school halfway across town The workers in our hotel kitchens, the landscaping crews in our neighborhoods, the late night janitorial staff that clean our offices and the bartenders who tonight are standing in the back of a room somewhere If their American Dreams become impossible, we will have become just another country. But if they succeed, the 21st Century will be another American Century. This will be the message of my campaign and the purpose of my presidency. To succeed on this journey, I will need your prayers, your support, and ultimately, your vote. Tonight I am asking you to take that first step with me, by joining us. My wife Jeanette and my four children are here tonight. The next 19 months will take me far from home. I will miss watching Amanda run track, Daniella play volleyball, Anthony play football and Dominick play soccer. But I have chosen this course because this election is about them. Theirs is the most important generation in American history. If we can capture the promise of this new century they will be the freest and most prosperous Americans ever. But if we fail, they will be the first generation of Americans to inherit a country worse off than the one left for their parents. The final verdict on our generation will be written by Americans not yet born. Let us make sure they record that we made the right choice. That in the early years of this century, faced with a rapidly changing and uncertain world, our generation rose to face the great challenges of our time. And because we did, there was still one place in the world where who you come from does not determine how far you can go. Because we did, the American miracle lived on. And because we did, our children and theirs lived in a new American Century. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you all very much. I always feel welcome at Miami Dade College. This is a place that welcomes everyone with their hearts set on the future, a place where hope leads to achievement, and striving leads to success. For all of us, it is just the place to be in the campaign that begins today. We are 17 months from the time for choosing. The stakes for America's future are about as great as they come. Our prosperity and our security are in the balance. So is opportunity, in this nation where every life matters and everyone has the right to rise. Already, the choice is taking shape. The party now in the White House is planning a no suspense primary, for a no change election. To hold onto power. To slog on with the same agenda under another name: That's our opponents' call to action this time around. That's all they've got left. And you and I know that America deserves better. They have offered a progressive agenda that includes everything but progress. They are responsible for the slowest economic recovery ever, the biggest debt increases ever, a massive tax increase on the middle class, the relentless buildup of the regulatory state, and the swift, mindless drawdown of a military that was generations in the making. I, for one, am not eager to see what another four years would look like under that kind of leadership. The presidency should not be passed on from one liberal to the next. So, here's what it comes down to. Our country is on a very bad course. And the question is: What are we going to do about it? The question for me is: What am I going to do about it? And I have decided. I am a candidate for president of the United States. We will take command of our future once again in this country. We will lift our sights again, make opportunity common again, get events in the world moving our way again. We will take Washington, the static capital of this dynamic country, out of the business of causing problems. We will get back on the side of free enterprise and free people. I know we can fix this. Because I've done it. Here, in this great and diverse state that looks so much like America. So many challenges could be overcome if we just get this economy growing at full strength. There is not a reason in the world why we cannot grow at a rate of four percent a year. And that will be my goal as president, four percent growth, and the 19 million new jobs that come with it Economic growth that makes a difference for hard working men and women, who don't need reminding that the economy is more than the stock market. Growth that lifts up the middle class, all the families who haven't gotten a raise in 15 years. Growth that makes a difference for everyone. It's possible. It can be done. We made Florida number one in job creation and number one in small business creation. 1 million new jobs, 4 percent growth, higher family income, eight balanced budgets, and tax cuts eight years in a row that saved our people and businesses 19 billion dollars. All this plus a bond upgrade to Triple A compared to the sorry downgrade of America's credit in these years. That was the commitment, and that is the record that turned this state around. I also used my veto power to protect our taxpayers from needless spending. And if I am elected president, I'll show Congress how that's done. Leaders have to think big, and we've got a tax code filled with small time thinking and self interested politics. What swarms of lobbyists have done, we can undo with a vastly simpler system, clearing out special favors for the few reducing rates for all. What the IRS, EPA, and entire bureaucracy have done with overregulation, we can undo by act of Congress and order of the president. Federal regulation has gone far past the consent of the governed. It is time to start making rules for the rule makers. When we get serious about limited government, we can pursue the great and worthy goals that America has gone too long without. We can build our future on solvency instead of borrowed money. We can honor our commitments on the strength of fiscal integrity. With North American resources and American ingenuity, we can finally achieve energy security for this nation, and with presidential leadership, we can make it happen within five years. If we do all of this, if we do it relentlessly, and if we do it right, we will make the United States of America an economic superpower like no other. We will also challenge the culture that has made lobbying the premier growth industry in the nation's capital. The rest of the country struggles under big government, while comfortable, complacent interest groups in Washington have been thriving on it. A self serving attitude can take hold in any capital, just as it once did in Tallahassee. I was a governor who refused to accept that as the normal or right way of conducting the people's business. I will not accept it as the standard in Washington. We don't need another president who merely holds the top spot among the pampered elites of Washington. We need a president willing to challenge and disrupt the whole culture in our nation's capital. I will be that president because I was a reforming governor, not just another member of the club. There's no passing off responsibility when you're a governor, no blending into the legislative crowd or filing an amendment and calling that success. As our whole nation has learned since 2008, executive experience is another term for preparation, and there is no substitute for that. We are not going to clean up the mess in Washington by electing the people who either helped create it or have proven incapable of fixing it. In government, if we get a few big things right, we can make life better for millions of people, especially for kids in public schools. Think of what we all watched not long ago in Baltimore where so many young adults are walking around with no vision of a life beyond the life they know. It's a tragedy played out over and over and over again. After we reformed education in Florida, low income student achievement improved here more than in any other state. We stopped processing kids along as if we didn't care, because we do care, and you don't show that by counting out anyone's child. You give them all a chance. Here's what I believe. When a school is just another dead end, every parent should have the right to send their child to a better school, public, private, or charter. Every school should have high standards, and the federal government should have nothing to do with setting them. Nationwide, if I am president, we will take the power of choice away from the unions and bureaucrats and give it back to parents. We made sure of something else in Florida, that children with developmental challenges got schooling and caring attention, just like every other girl and boy. We didn't leave them last in line. We put them first in line because they are not a problem. They are a priority. That is always our first and best instinct in this nation filled with charitable hearts. Yet these have been rough years for religious charities and their right of conscience. And the leading Democratic candidate recently hinted of more trouble to come. Secretary Clinton insists that when the progressive agenda encounters religious beliefs to the contrary those beliefs, quote, have to be changed. That's what she said, and I guess we should at least thank her for the warning. The most galling example is the shabby treatment of the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Christian charity that dared to voice objections of conscience to Obamacare. The next president needs to make it clear that great charities like the Little Sisters of the Poor need no federal instruction in doing the right thing. It comes down to a choice between the Little Sisters and Big Brother, and I'm going with the Sisters. It's still a mystery to me why, in these violent times, the president a few months ago thought it relevant at a prayer breakfast to bring up the Crusades. Americans don't need lectures on the Middle Ages when we are dealing abroad with modern horrors committed by fanatics. From the beginning, our president and his foreign policy team have been so eager to be the history makers that they have failed to be the peacemakers. With their phone it in foreign policy, the Obama Clinton Kerry team is leaving a legacy of crises uncontained, violence unopposed, enemies unnamed, friends undefended, and alliances unraveling. This supposedly risk averse administration is also running us straight in the direction of the greatest risk of all, military inferiority. It will go on automatically until a president steps in to rebuild our armed forces and take care of our troops and our veterans. They have my word, I will do it. We keep dependable friends in this world by being dependable ourselves. I will rebuild our vital friendships. That starts by standing with the brave, democratic State of Israel. American led alliances need rebuilding too, and better judgment is called for in relations far and near. Ninety miles to our south, there is talk of a state visit by our outgoing president. But we don't need a glorified tourist to go to Havana in support of a failed Cuba. We need an American president to go to Havana in solidarity with a free Cuban people, and I am ready to be that president. Great things like that can really happen. And in this country of ours, the most improbable things can happen. Take that from a guy who met his first president on the day he was born, and his second on the day he was brought home from the hospital. The person who handled both introductions is here today. She's watching what I say, and frankly, with all these reporters around, I'm watching what she says. Please say hello to my wonderful Mom, Barbara Bush. Long before the world knew my parents' names, I knew I was blessed to be their son. And they didn't mind at all that I found my own path. It led from Texas to Miami by way of Mexico. In 1971, 8 years before then candidate Ronald Reagan said that we should stop thinking of our neighbors as foreigners, I was ahead of my time in cross border outreach. Across a plaza, I saw a girl. She spoke only a little English. My Spanish was okay but not that great. With some intensive study, we got that barrier out of the way in a hurry. In the short version, it has been a gracious walk through the years with the former Columba Garnica de Gallo. Whatever else I might or might not have going for me, I've got the quiet joy of a man who can say that the most wonderful friend he has in the world is his own wife. And together, we had the not so quiet joy of raising three children who have brought us nothing but happiness and pride: George, Noelle, and Jeb. The boys have also brought us more Bushes, their wives, Mandi and Sandra, and our grandchildren Georgia, Prescott, Vivian, and Jack. Campaigns aren't easy, and they're not supposed to be. And I know that there are good people running for president. Quite a few, in fact. And not a one of us deserves the job by right of resume, party, seniority, family, or family narrative. It's nobody's turn. It's everybody's test, and it's wide open, exactly as a contest for president should be. The outcome is entirely up to you, the voters. It is entirely up to me to earn the nomination of my party and then to take our case all across this great and diverse nation. As a candidate, I intend to let everyone hear my message, including the many who can express their love of country in a different language: Ayúdenos en tener una campaña que les da la bienvenida. Trabajen con nosotros por los valores que compartimos y para un gran futuro que es nuestro para construir para nosotros y nuestros hijos. Júntense a nuestra causa de oportunidad para todos, a la causa de todos que aman la libertad y a la causa noble de los Estados Unidos de América. In any language, my message will be an optimistic one because I am certain that we can make the decades just ahead the greatest time ever to be alive in this world. That chance, that hope requires the best that is in us, and I will give it my all. I will campaign as I would serve, going everywhere, speaking to everyone, keeping my word, facing the issues without flinching, and staying true to what I believe. I will take nothing and no one for granted. I will run with heart. I will run to win. It begins here and now. And I'm asking for your vote. Thank you. God Bless You. Thank you very much. It's good to be with all of you, and I appreciate the kind hospitality of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. I bring greetings from the wonderful guy who is still very proud to have been Ronald Reagan's vice president. A competition turned into friendship, and the better my Dad got to know Ronald Reagan, the more he admired and loved him. On my way here this afternoon, I made a call to Nancy Reagan, to thank her for this honor and let her know how much we all love her. Seven elections have come and gone since the Reagan name was last on the ballot. Yet in many ways, that name, and the qualities it brings to mind, is still the standard. A leader of clarity and resolve, not given to idle words, it was President Reagan who took command of events, rebuilt America's strength, and moved the world toward peace. Strategically and morally, he conceded nothing to America's enemies. He believed that the Cold War could be won, not just endlessly managed, and in the end he put an age of conflict behind us. They don't always give out peace prizes for that, but peace is what Ronald Reagan left behind, and that is the legacy of a good and great man. In our time as well, it is strength, and will, and clarity of purpose that make all the difference. Good things happen when America is engaged with friends and allies, alert to danger, and resolved to deal with threats, before they become catastrophes. We've seen in recent years how critical each one of these principles is to our security, because when it counted most, they were missing. To really grasp what the next president will face, we have to look candidly at a few policies that have gone very wrong in these years above all, in what we used to call the global war on terror. Despite elaborate efforts by the administration to avoid even calling it by name, one of the very gravest threats we face today comes from radical Islamic terrorists. The terrorists are possessed by the same violent ideology that gave us 9/11, and they are on the offensive and gaining ground. It is not true, and was wishful thinking by the Administration to claim, that the tide of war is receding. The reality is that radical Islam has been spreading like a pandemic, across the Middle East, throughout Africa and to parts of Asia, even in the nations of the West, finding recruits in Europe and the United States. Here's another stark reality: Seven years ago, the long awaited jihadist caliphate existed only in the fevered imagination of the terrorists. Today, the radicals' caliphate exists as an actual place, occupying a stretch of land larger than Indiana. ISIS, a genocidal terrorist army, controls large parts of two countries, and is gaining influence in others. And yet well into this nightmare, President Obama's administration, by its own admission, has no strategy to stop it. In place of one, they are pursuing a minimalist approach of incremental escalation. The results have been a creeping US involvement, without any strategic results, the worst of both worlds. A year of limited strikes and other half measures has made little discernible difference in the sum total of the ISIS danger. A halting, ineffective effort against them has only emboldened these terrorists, leaving the pandemic unchecked. Mosul, Fallujah, Ramadi, and other cities that American and allied troops died to liberate, are now under the black flag of ISIS. Inside the caliphate, non believers are forced to convert, and those who do not, can expect a horrible fate. A special hatred is reserved for Christians and other religious minorities. In the Middle East today, we are witnessing a mass persecution and exodus of the followers of Jesus Christ. Nor is any allowance made for adherents of Islam found lacking in zeal by ISIS, which has filled mass graves with innocent Muslims. Potential recruits of ISIS, ready for their own taste of violence, can even follow it all on social media. It's a time when mass murderers have Twitter handles, Facebook and Instagram pages, using these to add a veneer of glamor to their exploits. We need to work with the owners of the relevant companies, and give careful thought to how we address this problem. Among followers worldwide, ISIS is hailed as the strong horse, the glorious cleanser and restorer of Islam, and that word is getting out on Western based social media. This helps explain the spread of ISIS and the terrorist pandemic in the Middle East and beyond, including thousands recruited from Europe, and more than a hundred from America, giving us ISIS terrorists with Western passports. The Islamic State and its followers are an asymmetric threat needing just one big strike to inflict devastation. What we are facing in ISIS and its ideology is, to borrow a phrase, the focus of evil in the modern world. And civilized nations everywhere, especially those with power, have a duty to oppose and defeat this enemy. No leader or policymaker involved will claim to have gotten everything right in the region, Iraq especially. Yet in a long experience that includes failures of intelligence and military setbacks, one moment stands out in memory as the turning point we had all been waiting for. And that was the surge of military and diplomatic operations that turned events toward victory. It was a success, brilliant, heroic, and costly. And this nation will never forget the courage and sacrifice that made it all possible. So why was the success of the surge followed by a withdrawal from Iraq, leaving not even the residual force that commanders and the joint chiefs knew was necessary? That premature withdrawal was the fatal error, creating the void that ISIS moved in to fill, and that Iran has exploited to the full as well. ISIS grew while the United States disengaged from the Middle East and ignored the threat. And where was Secretary of State Clinton in all of this? Like the president himself, she had opposed the surge, then joined in claiming credit for its success, then stood by as that hard won victory by American and allied forces was thrown away. In all her record setting travels, she stopped by Iraq exactly one time. Who can seriously argue that America and our friends are safer today than in 2009, when the President and Secretary Clinton, the storied team of rivals, took office? So eager to be the history makers, they failed to be the peacemakers. It was a case of blind haste to get out, and to call the tragic consequences somebody else's problem. Rushing away from danger can be every bit as unwise as rushing into danger, and the costs have been grievous. All of that is in the past; it cannot be undone. Another terrible miscalculation, unfolding right now, is a different story. That would be the Obama Clinton Kerry policy of treating the mullahs in Iran as a stabilizing force in the region when in fact they are deceitful dictators causing nothing but instability. Whenever bad things happen in the Middle East, from Israel's borders to the shores of Yemen, the influence of the mullahs is rarely far from the scene. Here is a regime that supports terrorism, threatens to destroy Israel, has for years been trying to develop nuclear weapons, routinely commits human rights violations, was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops in Iraq, and even now is unlawfully detaining American citizens. Iran, its ally Assad, its terrorist proxy Hizballah, and the sectarian militias it sponsors have fueled the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, that have helped give rise to ISIS. Yet the president's deal with Iran confronts none of these problems. And least of all does it prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. In fact the deal prepares the way for that capability. With the lifting of sanctions, the deal also frees up more than 100 billion dollars for Iran's security services to use as they wish. In effect, the primary investors in a violent, radical Middle East have just received a new round of funding, courtesy of the United States and the United Nations. And, this is President Obama's idea of a diplomatic triumph. It is a deal unwise in the extreme, with a regime that is untrustworthy in the extreme. It should be rejected by the Congress of the United States of America. If the Congress does not reject this deal, then the damage must be undone by the next president, and it will be my intention to begin that process immediately. Knowing what has gone wrong, however, is not the same as knowing how to set it right. The threat of global jihad, and of the Islamic State in particular, requires all the strength, unity, and confidence that only American leadership can provide. Radical Islam is a threat we are entirely capable of overcoming, and I will be unyielding in that cause should I be elected President of the United States. We should pursue the clear and unequivocal objective of throwing back the barbarians of ISIS, and helping the millions in the region who want to live in peace. Instead of simply reacting to each new move the terrorists choose to make, we will use every advantage we have to take the offensive, to keep it, and to prevail. In all of this, the United States must engage with friends and allies, and lead again in that vital region. Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the most populous Arab country and the wealthiest, are important partners of the United States. Those relationships have been badly mishandled by this administration. Both countries are key to a better coordinated regional effort against terrorism. We need to restore trust, and work more closely with them against common threats. We have very capable partners, likewise, in the United Arab Emirates, who are willing and able to take the fight to the extremists. We have a moderate and quite formidable leader in King Abdullah of Jordan. We have an ally in the new democratic government in Tunisia, and a fragile democracy in Lebanon, nations that are both under assault by radicals and terrorists. Across the region, responsible governments need no persuading of what the moment requires. It requires action, coordination, and American leadership to bring it all together. My strategy meets the unique circumstances in each of the two countries, Iraq and Syria, in which ISIS now has territory. And let's start with Iraq, and the five broad actions I would take as president to help remove the threat from that country. First, we must support the Iraqi forces, which right now have the will to win, but not the means. As matters stand, the United States has been helping to reconstitute Iraqi security services and to aid the Kurdish peshmerga. We need to broaden and expedite our efforts to help ensure Iraqis rebuild their security sector, not only to win against ISIS, but to break free of Iranian influence. And that effort should also involve even greater engagement with the Sunni tribes, whose fighting units served side by side with Americans to defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq and were then disbanded by the Maliki government. Second, we must give these forces the consistent advantage of American air power, to cover their operations and to strike with fierce precision. The strategy has to include forward air controllers, whose skill and accuracy would severely hinder the enemy's freedom of movement. This would greatly improve the ability of fighter aircraft and Apache attack helicopters to provide necessary close air support to local ground forces. ISIS fighters try blending into the civilian landscape. Our spotters on the ground will enable us to hit them hard, and rarely miss. Third, we must make better use of the limited forces we have by giving them a greater range of action. Right now, we have around 3500 soldiers and marines in Iraq, and more may well be needed. We do not need, and our friends do not ask for, a major commitment of American combat forces. But we do need to convey that we are serious, that we are determined to help local forces take back their country. Our unrivaled warfighters know that it is simply not enough to dispense advice and training to local forces, then send them on their way and hope for the best. Canadian troops are already embedded in Iraqi units to very good effect. Our soldiers and marines need the go ahead to do that as well, to help our partners outthink and outmaneuver the enemy. Fourth, we should provide more support to the Kurds, giving them decisive military power against ISIS. In Iraq's Kurdish region, we have loyal friends and brave and skilled fighters. If I am commander in chief, the United States will make certain that the Kurds have everything they need to win. And finally, our strategy in Iraq has to restart the serious diplomatic efforts that can help that country move in the right direction. Only Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds can decide if they will live together and share power and resources in a way that will serve their interests, assuring the survival of their country. But these partners have to know that while the United States is there in measure, we are also there in earnest and for the long haul. They will come through for their country, but they've got to be certain that we have their back. Now, the situation in Syria is quite different from the one in Iraq. In some ways, it is even more complex because we have no large, cohesive force to work with. And here, too, we have seen what ruin and suffering can follow when America doesn't lead. Of 23 million Syrians, about 11 million have been displaced or fled the country altogether. More than two hundred thousand people have so far been killed in the mayhem. The regime of Bashar Al-Assad is deploying every ruthless means to stay in power. Long brutalized by that regime, now under assault from ISIS, Syrian moderates want to fight against both enemies, and they view the regime as the greater evil. It's a sorrowful picture when you think back on how it could have been avoided. Exactly four years ago, we heard words that still hang in the air of the Middle East, when President Obama declared that the time has come for President Assad to step aside. Then, three years ago, came another pronouncement, that any use of chemical weapons by Assad would be a red line, inviting tough consequences for the regime. If the choice was between silence and these idle, grandiose words, it would have been better to say nothing at all. What followed is that Assad used those weapons, again and again, and there were no serious consequences whatsoever. Having lost our credibility on such an epic scale, it is hard to get it back. But we had better try, because the longer we do nothing, the more dangerous the situation becomes, and the more directly our friends and our interests are threatened. Our ultimate goal in Syria is to defeat ISIS and to achieve long term political stability in that country. Defeating ISIS requires defeating Assad, but we have to make sure that his regime is not replaced by something as bad or worse. The last thing we need in Syria is a repeat of Libya, with its planless aftermath, where the end of a dictatorship was only the beginning of more terrorist violence, including the death of 4 Americans in Benghazi. Syria will need a stable government, and a transition free of more sectarian bloodletting will depend on the credible moderate forces we help unite and build up today. To that end, my strategy would bring American influence to bear in four all important areas of action. First, a coordinated, international effort is essential to give Syria's moderate forces the upper hand. As it is, the Qataris, the Turks, the Saudis, and others have been supporting fighting groups in Syria. But these groups are not always working to common purpose. And if there's anything that moderate forces in Syria cannot afford right now, it's confusion and disunity. Under my strategy, the aim would be to draw the moderates together and back them up, as one force. And we should back that force up all the way through, not just in taking the fight to the enemy, but in helping them to form a stable, moderate government once ISIS is defeated and Assad is gone. It's a tough, complicated diplomatic and military proposition, even more so than the current situation in Iraq. But it can be done. We saw in the Iraq surge how Islamic moderates can be pulled away from extremist forces. And the strategic elements in both cases are the same, we have to support local forces, and we must stay true to our word. Second, we have to expand and vastly improve the recruitment and training of Syrian forces fighting ISIS. At the moment, too many in Syria doubt that they can count on us, which explains why our recruiting and training have basically come to nothing. When a five hundred million dollar program gets you 54 recruits, you know the plan's not working out. The reality is, our recruitment efforts have been failing in Syria because we are not respected anymore as a reliable actor in the region. And we have to change that impression with the kind of clear, consistent, and credible action that every nation should expect from the United States of America. Third, we must over time establish multiple safe zones in Syria. It's a measure of progress that we have joined with the Turks to create a small, ISIS free zone in the northern part of the country. But we need to go beyond well this, by establishing safe zones to protect Syrians not only from ISIS, but also from Assad. Fourth, we and our partners should declare a no fly zone in Syria, and then work to expand that zone to prevent more crimes by the regime. Enforce that no fly zone, and we'll stop the regime's bombing raids that kill helpless civilians. It could also keep Iranian flights from resupplying the regime, Hizballah, and other bad actors. A no fly zone is a critical strategic step to cut off Assad, counter Iranian influence, keep the pressure on for a settlement, and prevent more needless death in a country that has seen so much of it. When we talk about no fly zones in Syria, precision airstrikes in Iraq, or any projection of military power to meet or deter threats, all of this assumes that such power is there when we need it. Yet here as well, the shortsightedness of the present administration will leave a cost. We are in the seventh year of a significant dismantling of our own military, in almost inverse proportion to the threats that are multiplying. And I assure you: the day that I become president will be the day that we turn this around and begin rebuilding the armed forces of the United States of America. A winning strategy against the Islamic State, or against any threat to ourselves and our friends, depends ultimately on the military strength that underwrites American influence. Let that slip away, and what would America be in world affairs, except one more well intentioned voice at the United Nations? In any effort of ours to overcome violence and secure peace, a winning strategy depends on maintaining unequaled strength, and we can never take it for granted. I might add that this includes strength among our intelligence services, military and civilian. No men and women receive so little credit for doing so much to track dangers and keep us safe. These skilled and brave Americans can be sure of this: If I become commander in chief, they will receive the tools they need and the gratitude, respect, and support they deserve. A good many people who serve in our military and intelligence agencies are at mid career. And I venture to guess that for quite a few of them, their calling has something to do with their coming of age in the Reagan years. Yet any nostalgia for that time has to recall, not only a falling wall and collapsing evil empire, but also the fear, and tension, and dead serious challenges that could all have played out so very differently. From the distance of decades, even the greatest successes in security and foreign policy can look almost inevitable. Of course, nothing had to happen as it did. Weariness with conflict ran pretty deep back then, along with despair of ever getting past it. But then along came, one formidable figure, who would not accept that way of thinking, and he was the one who mattered the most. It's that way for us too, in having to deal with long conflicts and serious threats that are again on the offensive. And in living up to our responsibilities, we can always use a little more of the Reagan spirit. rejecting with contempt the idea that conflict must be endless, or that the spread of danger and violence is inevitable. It is not. For generations, American led alliances, American diplomacy, and American credibility deterred aggression and defended the peace. This is the way forward in our time as well, led by a president who is resolute, as I will be, in the defeat of radical Islamic terrorism wherever it appears. We can protect our people, put adversaries back in retreat, get things moving our way again, and win back the momentum for freedom's cause. In all of this, let us never forget that in fighting evil, we are doing good, in stopping the merciless, we are delivering justice, and in destroying the violent, we are defending the innocent. This is the work that America is in this world to do. Let us meet that duty with confidence, faith, and resolve. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you New Jersey. Thank you. And thank you to Livingston. You know lots of people have asked me over the course of last week, why here? Why here? Because everything started here for me. Everything started here for me. The confidence. The education. The friends. The family. And the love that I've always felt for and from this community. When I decided to make this announcement, there wasn't any choice. I had to come home and Livingston is home for me. And I want to thank Sheila Goldclang, a dear friend of mine and my mom's and a wonderful representative of this town for welcoming us here today. And I want to thank my friend Lynn Groney. Now, listen, this is very much you some of you might be confused. You know, it may be that you thought she was being booed by her high school classmates. She was not. For reasons that I will not explain, Lynn's nickname in high school was the juice. Hence, it's not a boo, it's the juice. And Lynn, thank you for being here. I'm also here, because this is where my family raised me. You'll hear a lot, and have heard a lot from me about my mother and father. All of us know that for good and for bad, where we come from is our parents. And so you heard both Sheila and Lynn today. I'm here in Livingston because all those years ago, my mother and father became the first of either of their families to leave the city of Newark to come here and make this home for us. My mom isn't with us today, but I feel here. And my dad is with us today and I'm really really privileged to have him. They raised my brother and I and brought us here to Livingston when we were four years old and two years old. And then our sister Dawn joined us a few years later. And this is where we grew up. These were the fields we played on. These are the playgrounds we played on. This is the school we built our friends with and learned with. And up until I left to share a room with Mary Pat, I shared a room with Todd the entire time. It was a smooth transition. And my sister Dawn and Todd are as big a part of today as anybody else and they're both here today and I thank them. Everyone thinks I'm the politician in the family. We did a coin flip when we got married. I called tails. Tails never fails so I'm the guy who ran. But the politician just as good as me in the family is the woman that I met all those years ago at the University of Delaware. From a family of ten people. People say why aren't you shy in a crowd, I say you should see the family I married into. My wife has been an indispensable part of everything that I've done with my life over the last thirty years and she is largely responsible for the four amazing people that you see standing with her. And ever since I've been governor, I've been happy to use the veto at home too. And so far so good I have not been overridden there either. So I'm glad they're here today and for Andrew and Sarah and Patrick and Bridget, I couldn't be prouder of four children than I am of them. I told you that my parents moved to Livingston and they moved to Livingston to make this part of their fulfillment of their dream. Of their version of the American dream. They both lost their fathers at a young age and were raised by extraordinarily strong women under really difficult circumstances. My dad, one of the best students of his high school class, admitted to Columbia University. Because his father passed away, he couldn't go. He didn't have the money. He went to work and got drafted into the army and came home. And went to work at the Breyer's Ice cream plant in Newark, NJ. And then decided after he met my mom that it was time for him to make more with his life and he went to school at night at Rutgers for six years while working at those jobs during the day so he could get his degree in accounting and my mother, one of the proudest pictures she ever had was the one she called one of our first family pictures. It was my mom and dad on the day that my dad graduated Rutgers in June of 1962. It was the first person in either one of their families to get a college degree and it was the first family picture because she was 6 months pregnant with me. And the smiles on both of their faces that day were indicative of not what they had accomplished, but what they saw coming ahead of them. Their smiles were about the fact that they thought that nothing was out of reach for them now. They had each other, they were building a family, they worked together, and then with the help of both of those strong women the, they gave them five thousand dollars each, probably all the money they had in the world, to put a down payment on a house in this town to give their children a chance to take the dream they had started to build and to make it even bigger and even better. So I not only think about my mom and dad today, I think about my two grandmothers. Women who raised children largely on their own. Women who knew how to work and who knew that hard work would deliver something for their children. And I know that both of them are watching down today and that part of today is a fulfillment of their dream too. And I'm thinking about both of them. One of the things my mother used to say all the time was Christopher if you work hard enough, you can be anything. She said God's given you so many gifts, if you just work hard enough, you can be anything. And that story is proof. It's proof. Parents who came from nearly nothing, except for that hard work. Parents who brought little to their marriage except for their love for each other and that hard work. And that hard work not only produced a great life for me and my brother and my sister, but think about how amazing this country is that one generation removed from the guy who was working on the floor of the plant of the Breyer's Ice Cream plant, his son is the two term governor of the state where he was born and raised. See, that's not only what my parents have done for me but what that's what New Jersey has done for us. See this place, this place that represents the most ethnically diverse state in the country. The most densely populated state in the country. We're all different and we're on top of each other like you're on top of each other in this gym. And what has come from that, what has come from that is the absolute belief that not only can all of us achieve whatever dream we want to achieve, because of the place where we live and the opportunities that it gives us, but not only can we do it together, but we have to do it together. We have no choice but to work together, this country needs to work together again, not against each other. When I became governor six years ago, we had a state that was in economic calamity and an eleven billion dollar deficient on a twenty nine billion dollar budget. A state that had taxes and fees raised on it one hundred and fifteen times in the eight years before I became governor. A state that no longer believed that any one person could make a difference in the lives of the people of this state so we rolled up our sleeves and we went to work. And we balanced six budgets in a row. We've refused to raise taxes on the people of this state for six years. We made the hard decisions that had to be made to improve our education system, we reformed tenure for the first time in 110 years. We made the difficult decisions to reform pension and health benefits and we continue that fight today. We have stood together against each and every person, every cynic who said why are you wasting your time the state is not governable. The last six years we proved not only can you govern this state, you can lead it to a better day and that's what we've done together. And now we face a country. We face a country that's not angry. When I hear the media say that our country is angry, I know they're wrong. The last year I went to thirty seven different states across this country in one year and I met people in every corner of America. And they are not angry. Americans are not angry, Americans are filled with anxiety. They're filled with anxiety because they look to Washington DC and they see a government that not only doesn't work anymore, it doesn't even talk to each other anymore. It doesn't even try to pretend to work anymore. We have a president in the oval office who ignores the congress and a congress that ignores the president. We need a Washington DC that remembers you went there to work for us not the other way around. And both parties. Both parties have failed our country. Both parties have stood in the corner and held their breath and waited to get their own way. And both parties have lead us to believe that in America, a country that was built on compromise, that somehow now compromise is a dirty word. If Washington and Adams and Jefferson believed compromise was a dirty word, we'd still be under the crown of England. And this, this dysfunction, this lack of leadership, has lead to an economy that is weak and hasn't recovered the way it should. It's lead to an educational system that has us 27th in the industrialized world in Math and 24th in science. It's lead us, it's lead us to weak leadership around the world where our friends no longer trust us and our adversaries no longer fear us. This weakness and indecisiveness in the oval office has sent a wave of anxiety through our country, but I'm hear to tell you that anxiety can be swept away by strong leadership and decisiveness to lead America again. We just need to have the courage to choose. We just need to have the courage to stand up and say enough. We need to have the courage to course a new path for America. America knows that new path, it knows where it needs to go and it must start with this. We must tell each other the truth about the problems we have and about the difficulty of the solutions, but if we tell each other the truth everybody, if we recognize the truth and hard decisions today will lead to growth and opportunity tomorrow for every American in this country. What are those truths? What are those truths? We have to acknowledge that the government isn't working anymore for us. We have to acknowledge that and say it out loud and we have to acknowledge that it is the fault of our bickering leaders in Washington DC who no longer listen to us and no longer know that they're supposed to be serving us. We need to acknowledge that all of that anxiety and those failures are not the end, they're the beginning. The beginning of what we can do together. What we need to decide is that we can make a difference. That we can stand up and make a difference in this country. You see, that's why I love the job that I have. That's why I love my job as governor because kids ask me all the time. The forth graders that come to statehouse every week, they ask me.. the two questions that are always asked. One, what's your favorite color? Always. Second, they always ask me what's your best part of your job. And I always tell them it's that I wake up every morning knowing that I have an opportunity to do something great. I don't do something great every day, I'm human. But every morning I wake up with an opportunity to do something great. That's why this job is a great job and that's why President of the United States is an even greater job for an even greater number of people. I have spent the last thirteen years of my life as US Attorney and governor of this state fighting for fairness and justice and opportunity for the people of the state of New Jersey. That fight has not made me more weary, it has made me stronger and I am now ready to fight for the people of the United States of America. America is tired of handwringing and indecisiveness and weakness in the oval office. We need to have strength and decision making and authority back in the oval office and that is why today I am proud to announce my candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States of America. And now, as Livingston New Jersey turns it's gaze to the rest of America today, what do we see and what do we have to confront? We need a campaign of big ideas and hard truths and real opportunity for the America people. We need to fix a broken entitlement system that is bankrupting our country. We have candidates that say we cannot confront, because if we do we'll be lying and stealing from the American people. Let me fill everyone else in, the lying and stealing has already happened. The horse is already out of the barn. We've got to get it back in and you can only do it by force. We need to get our economy growing again at four percent or greater and the reason we do is because we have to make this once again the country that my mother and father told me it was. That as hard as you work, that's as hard and high as you'll rise. That's not the case anymore, we can't honestly look at our children and say that to them. Because we have an economy that is weak and doesn't present them with the same opportunities that Mary Pat and I were presented with in the mid 1980s when we graduated from college. When we graduated from college, we weren't worried about finding a job, we were worried about picking which job was the best for us. We didn't worry about whether we were going to be successful; we knew if we worked hard we were going to be successful. This country and it's leadership owes the same thing to my children and yours I'm ready to give it to you. We need a tax system. We need a tax system that's simplified and won't put CPA's like my dad out of business. We need to get the government off the back of our people and businesses with regulations and we need to encourage businesses to invest in America again, not overseas. Invest in our country and our people. And in a world that is as dangerous. As dangerous as frightening as I've seen it in my lifetime, there is only one indispensable force for good in the world. And it is a strong, unequivocal, America, that will lead the world and not be afraid to tell our friends we'll be with you no matter what. And to tell our adversaries that there are limits to your conduct and America will enforce the limits to that conduct. Well, here it comes. After seven years. After seven years, I heard the President of the United States say the other day that the world respects America more because of his leadership. This convinces me, this convinces me. This is the final confirmation that President Obama lives in his own world, not in our world. And the fact is this. After seven years of a weak and feckless foreign policy, run by Barack Obama, we'd better not turn it over to his second mate Hilary Clinton. In the end. In the end, everybody, leadership matters. It matters for our country, and American leadership matters for the world. But if we're going to lead, we have to stop worrying about being loved and start caring about being respected again at home and around the world. I am not running for president of the United States as a surrogate for being prom king of America. I am not looking to be the most popular guy who looks in your eyes every day and tries to figure out what you want to hear, say it and then turning around and doing something else. When I stand up on a stage like this in front of all of you there is one thing you will know for sure, I mean what I say and I say what I mean and that's what America needs right now. And unlike some people who offer themselves for the presidency in 2016, you're not going to have to wonder whether I can do it or not. In New Jersey as governor, I've stood up against economic calamity and unprecedented natural disaster. We have brought ourselves together, we have pushed back that economic calamity and we are recovering from that natural disaster and that's because we've lead and we've worked together to do it. As governor, I've proven that you can stand up and fight the most powerful special interest this state has to have and stand up and stop them, but at the same time reach across the aisle to our friends in the democratic party and say if you have a good idea I'm willing to work with you because that's what our country needs. And as governor, I've never wavered for telling you the truth as I see it and then acting to make sure that know that is the truth as I believe it in my heart. You know, as a candidate for president, I want to promise you just a few things. First, a campaign without spin, without pandering or focus group tested answers. You're going to get what I think whether you like it or not or whether it makes you cringe every once and a while or not. A campaign when I'm asked a question, I'm going to give the answer to the question that's asked, not the answer that my political consultants told me to give back stage. A campaign that every day will not worry about what is popular, but what is right. Because what is right is what will fix America, not what's popular. A campaign that believes. That believes in an America that is great as the hopes and dreams that we want every one of our children to have. Not a campaign that tears people down, but a campaign that rebuilds America to the place where you and I grew up and where we want our children to grow up in again and where we want free people around the world to grow up in in their countries as well, that's what America's always stood for and that's what this campaign will stand for. And all the signs say "Telling it like it is," but there's a reason for that. We are going to tell it like it is today so that we can create greater opportunities for every American tomorrow. The truth will set us free, every body. All the years, all 52 years that I've spent in this state with our people have prepared me for this moment. We have no idea where and how this journey will end. But we know that it's only in this country, only in America, where someone like me could have the opportunity to seek the highest office the world has to offer. Only in America, could all of you believe that your voices and your efforts can make a difference and change a country as big and vast and powerful as this one. Only in America, only in America have we seen time after time after time, the truth of the words that one person can make a difference. You see, the reason that's true is because it's the only thing that's ever made a difference in the history of the world. One person, reaching out to another to change their circumstance and to improve the lot of their children and grandchildren. I don't see the presidency, for any other reason than because I believe in my heart that I am ready to work with you to restore America to it's rightful place in the world and to restore the American dream to each one of our children if they live in Livingston, Mendham, Newark or Camden. Paterson or Jersey City. No matter where they live across this country, we need to make sure that every one of children believes that their president who not only speaks to them, but who hears them, who hears them and understands that their voices is what makes any American president great. If you give me the privilege to be your president, I will wake up every day, not only with my heart strong and my mind sharp, but with my ears open and my arms open. To welcome the American people no matter what party, no matter what race or creed or color to make sure that you know that this is your country too. We are going to go and win this election and I love each and every one of you. Thank you. I have a message, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. We have come to take our country back. We have come to take our country back from the special interests that use Washington as their personal piggy bank, the special interests that are more concerned with their personal welfare than the general welfare. The Washington machine that gobbles up our freedoms and invades every nook and cranny of our lives must be stopped. Less than five years ago I stood just down the road in home town in Bowling Green and said those same words. I wasn't supposed to win, no one thought I would. Some people asked me, then why are you running? The answer is the same now as it was then. I have a vision for America. I want to be part of a return to prosperity, a true economic boom that lists all Americans, a return to a government restrained by the Constitution. A return to privacy, opportunity, liberty. Too often when Republicans have won we have squandered our victory by becoming part of the Washington machine. That's not who I am. That's not why I ran for office the first time just a few years ago. The truth is, I love my life as a small town doctor. Every day I woke up, I felt lucky to be able to do the things I loved. More importantly, I was blessed to be able to do things that made a difference in people's lives. Take the Quiz: Who Said It: Ron or Rand Paul? I never could have done any of this, though, without the help of my parents who are here today. I'd like you to join me and thank my mother and dad. With my parents' help, I was able to make it through long years of medical training to become an eye surgeon. For me there is nothing that compares with helping someone see better. Last August I was privileged to travel to Guatemala on a medical mission trip together with a team of surgeons from across the US. We operated on more than 200 people who were blind or nearly blind from cataracts. I was grateful to be able to put my scrubs back on, peer into the oculars of the microscope, and focus on the task at hand, to take a surgical approach to fix a problem. One day in Guatemala, a man arrived and told me that I'd operated on his wife the day before. His wife could see clearly for the first time in years, and she had begged him to get on the bus, travel the winding roads and come back to our surgery center. He too was nearly blind from hardened cataracts. After his surgery, the next day, his wife sat next to me. As I unveiled the patch from his eyes, it was a powerful emotional moment for me to see them looking at each other clearly for the first time years to see the face they loved again. As I saw the joy in their eyes, I thought, This is why I became a doctor. In that moment, I also remembered my grandmother, who inspired me to become an eye surgeon. She spent hours with me as a kid. We would sort through her old coin collection, looking for wheat pennies and Indian heads. But as her vision began to fail, I became her eyes to inspect the faintness of the mint marks on the old weather worn coins. I went with my grandmother to the ophthalmologist as she had her corneas replaced. I was also with her when she received the sad news that macular generation had done irreparable harm to her eyes. My hope my hope that my grandmother would see again made me want to become an eye surgeon, to make a difference in people's lives. I've been fortunate. I've been able to enjoy the American Dream. I worry, though, that the opportunity and hope are slipping away for our sons and daughters. As I watch our once great economy collapse under mounting spending and debt, I think, What kind of America will our grandchildren see? It seems to me that both parties and the entire political system are to blame. Big government and debt doubled under a Republican administration. And it's now tripling under Barack Obama's watch. President Obama is on course to add more debt than all of the previous presidents combined. We borrow a million dollars a minute. This vast accumulation of debt threatens not just our economy, but our security. We can wake up now and do the right thing. Quit spending money we don't have. This message of liberty is for all Americans, Americans from all walks of life. The message of liberty, opportunity and justice is for all Americans, whether you wear a suit, a uniform or overalls, whether you're white or black, rich or poor. In order to restore America, one thing is for certain, though: We cannot, we must not dilute our message or give up on our principles. If we nominate a candidate who is simply Democrat Light, what's the point? Why bother? We need to boldly proclaim our vision for America. We need to go boldly forth under the banner of liberty that clutches the Constitution in one hand and the Bill of Rights in the other. Washington is horribly broken. I fear it can't be fixed from within. We the people must rise up and demand action. Congress will never balance the budget unless you force them to do so. Congress has an abysmal record with balancing anything. Our only recourse is to force Congress to balance the budget with a constitutional amendment. I have been to Washington, and let me tell you, there is no monopoly on knowledge there. I ran for office because we have too many career politicians. I believe it now more than ever. We limit the President to two terms. It's about time we limit the terms of Congress! I want to reform Washington. I want common sense rules that will break the logjam in Congress. That's why I introduced a Read the Bills Act. The bills are thousands of pages long. And no one reads them. They are often plopped on our desks only a few hours before a vote. I've proposed something truly extraordinary, Let's read the bills, every page! The bills are 1000 pages long and no one reads them. They are often plopped on our desk with only a few hours before a vote, so I propose something truly extraordinary. Let's read the bills every day. From the time I was a very young boy I was taught to love and appreciate America. Love of liberty pulses in my veins not because we have beautiful mountains or white sand beaches, although we do, and not because of our abundance of resources. It's more visceral than that. Our great nation was founded upon the extraordinary notion that government should be restrained and freedom should be maximized. America, to me, is that beacon. We are unique among the nations that our, that our country stands for freedom. Freedom nurtured our country from a rebellious group of colonies into the world's greatest nation. When tyranny threatened the world America led the way to rid the world of Nazis and fascist regimes. Resolutely we stood decade after decade against Communism, the engine of capitalism finally winning out against the sputtering, incompetent engine of socialism. We won the Cold War. America and freedom are so intertwined that people literally are dying to come here. The freedom we have fostered in America have unleashed genius and advancement like never before. Yet our great nation still needs new ideas and new answers to old problems. From an early age I worked. I taught swimming lessons, I mowed lawns, I did landscaping, I put roofs on houses, I painted houses. I never saw work though as punishment. Who always gave me a sense of who I am. Self esteem cant be given; it must be earned. Work is not punishment; work is the reward. Two of my sons work minimum wage jobs while they go to college. I am proud of them as I see them realize the value of hard work. I can see their self esteem grow as they cash their paychecks. I have a vision for America where everyone who wants to work will have a job. Many Americans though are being left behind. The reward of work seems beyond their grasp. Under the watch of both parties, the poor seem to get poorer and the rich get richer. Trillion dollar government stimulus packages has only widened the income gap. Politically connected crones get taxpayer dollars by the hundreds of millions and poor families across America continue to suffer. I have a different vision, an ambitious vision, an ambitious vision, a vision that will offer opportunity to all Americans, especially those who have been left behind. My plan includes economic freedom zones to allow impoverished areas like Detroit, West Louisville, Eastern Kentucky to prosper by leaving more money in the pockets of the people who live there. Can you imagine what a billion dollar stimulus could do for Detroit or for Appalachia? I'm convinced that most Americans want to work. I want to free up the great engine of American prosperity. I want to see millions of Americans back at work. In my vision for America, we'll bring back manufacturing jobs that pay well. How? We'll dramatically lower the tax on American companies that wish to bring their profits home. More than $2 trillion in American profit currently sits overseas. In my vision for America, new highways and bridges will be built across the country, not by raising your taxes, but by lowering the tax to bring this American profit home. Even in this polarized Congress, we have a chance of passing this. I say let's bring $2 trillion home to America, let's bring it home now. Liberal policies have failed our inner cities. Let's just get the facts straight. They have failed our inner cities. Our schools are not equal, and the poverty gap continues to widen. Martin Luther King spoke of two Americas. He described them as two starkly different American experiences that exist side by side. In one in America, people experience the opportunity of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In the other America, people experience a daily ugliness that dashes hope and leaves only the fatigue of despair. Although I was born into the America that experiences and believes in opportunity, my trips to Detroit, to Appalachia, to Chicago have revealed what I call an undercurrent of unease. It's time for a new way, a way predicated on justice, opportunity and freedom. Those of us who have enjoyed the American dream must break down the wall that separates us from the other America. I want all our children to have the same opportunities that I had. We need to stop limiting kids in poor neighborhoods to failing public schools and offer them school choice. It won't happen, though, unless we realize that we can't borrow our way to prosperity. Currently some $3 trillion comes into the US Treasury. Couldn't the country just survive on $3 trillion? I propose we do something extraordinary. Let's just spend what comes in. In my vision for America, freedom and prosperity at home can only be achieved if we defend against enemies who are dead set on attacking us. Without question we must defend ourselves and American interests from our enemies, but until we name the enemy, we can't win the war. The enemy is radical Islam. You can't get around it. And not only will I name the enemy, I will do whatever it takes to defend America from these haters of mankind. We need a national defense robust enough to defend against all attack, modern enough to deter all enemies, and nimble enough to defend our vital interests. But we also need a foreign policy that protects American interests and encourages stability, not chaos. At home, conservatives understand that government is the problem, not the solution. Conservatives should not succumb, though, to the notion that a government inept at home will somehow succeed in building nations abroad. I envision an America with a national defense unparalleled, undefeatable and unencumbered by overseas nation building. I envision a national defense that promotes, as Reagan put it, peace through strength. I believe in applying Reagan's approach to foreign policy to the Iran issue. Successful negotiations with untrustworthy adversaries are only achieved from a position of strength. We've brought Iran to the table through sanctions that I voted for. Now we must stay strong. That's why I've cosponsored legislation that ensures that any deal between the US and Iran must be approved by Congress. Not, not only is that good policy, it's the law. It concerns me that the Iranians have a different interpretation of the agreement. They're putting out statement that say completely the opposite of what we're saying. It concerns me that we may attempt, or the president may attempt, to unilaterally and prematurely halt sanctions. I will oppose any deal that does not end Iran's nuclear ambitions and have strong verification measures. And I will insist that the final version be brought before Congress. The difference between President Obama and myself, he seems to think you can negotiate from a position of weakness. Yet everyone needs to realize that negotiations are not inherently bad. The trust verify is required in any negotiation, but then our goal always should be and always is peace, not war. We must realize, though, that we do not project strength by borrowing money from China to send it to Pakistan. Let's quit building bridges in foreign countries and use that money to build some bridges here at home. It angers me to see mobs burning our flag and chanting Death to America in countries that receive millions of dollars in our foreign aid. I say it must end. I say not one penny more to these haters of America. To defend our country, we do need to gather intelligence on the enemy. But when the intelligence director is not punished for lying under oath, how are we to trust our government agencies? Warrantless searches of Americans' phones and computer records are un American and a threat to our civil liberties. I say that your phone records are yours. I say the phone records of law abiding citizens are none of their damn business. Is this where we light up the phones? The president created this vast dragnet by executive order. And as president on day one, I will immediately end this unconstitutional surveillance. I believe we can have liberty and security and I will not compromise your liberty for a false sense of security, not now, not ever. We must defend ourselves, but we must never give up who we are as a people. We must never diminish the Bill of Rights as we fight this long war against evil. We must believe in our founding documents. We must protect economic and personal liberty again. America has much greatness left in her. We are still exceptional and we are still a beacon for the world. We will thrive when we believe in ourselves again. I see an America strong enough to deter foreign aggression, yet wise enough to avoid unnecessary intervention. I see an America where criminal justice is applied equally and any law that disproportionately incarcerates people of color is repealed. I see an America with a restrained IRS that cannot target, cannot harass American citizens for their political or religious beliefs. I see our big cities once again shining and beckoning with creativity and ingenuity, with American companies offering American jobs. With your help, this message will ring from coast to coast, a message of liberty, justice and personal responsibility. Today begins the journey to take America back. To rescue a great country now adrift, join me as together we seek a new vision for America. Today I announce with God's help, with the help of liberty lovers everywhere, that I am putting myself forward as a candidate for president of the United States of America. Can you believe we had trouble getting, or the Democrats had trouble getting God into the platform? Sounds like there wasn't much dissension out here on the vote, though. You may have heard there was a little girl, and she wanted a hundred dollars, and she said she'd do good things with it. So she wrote a letter. She said, dear God, I'd like a hundred dollars. The postmaster got it, and he said, I don't know what to do with it. So he sent it to the president. And the president said, well, that's cute. And he said to his secretary, send the little girl $5; she'll appreciate that. So the little girl got it and was, like, five bucks. But her parents told her, always write a thank you. And so she did. She said, dear God, thanks for the five bucks, but next time, don't send it through Washington; they stole 95 percent of it. We are now in the midst of an election that pits one party against another. But I often tell people political parties are empty vessels unless we imbue them with values. Republicans must first decide and clearly explain who we are before we can ask to take charge of the country. Today we are here to talk about what we believe those values should be. I'm a Christian, a husband and a father. I'm faithful to my wife and my family. I try to be good at all those things, though, of course, we all fall short of perfection in our lives. I try to adhere to the tenets of God's word in the New Testament. I take seriously my oath to defend the Constitution. And I try to fight for truth and my values regardless of the political outcome, regardless of how popular or unpopular they may be. Dostoevsky wrote that I did not arrive at my hosanna through childlike faith, but through a fiery furnace of doubt. My faith has never been easy for me, never been easy to talk about and never been without obstacles. I do not and cannot wear my religion on my sleeve. I am a Christian but not always a good one. I'm not completely free of doubts. I struggle to understand man's inhumanity to man. I struggle to understand the horrible tragedies that war inflicts on our young men and women. And I've always had trouble grappling with the tragedies that I've encountered in medicine. As a medical student and as a physician, I struggled and struggle with inexplicable disease, terminal tumors in children. When bad things happen to good people, when bad things happen to innocent people, when Mrs. Jones presents with pancreatic cancer, I don't always know what to say or what to think. You can see it in her eyes. She knows what the diagnosis ultimately means. How do you explain something so unjust and inexplicable to her? My first patient as a medical student on the surgical service was a beautiful young woman who unfortunately presented with metastatic melanoma to her ovaries. She didn't die during my time caring for her, but I knew enough to know that her time was limited. And I struggled to understand her tragedy and how tragedy could occur in a world that has purpose and design. Like most doctors or like most people, really, I struggle with sometimes caring too much and sometimes caring too little. I struggle to understand how evil individuals sometimes reap earthly rewards and saintly heroes are martyred by their fellow man. When I read All Quiet on the Western Front, I recoiled at the horror of war. When I read of the merciless and relentless charges from one trench to another and the utter carnage, I wondered whose grand design is this. When I read Silent Night, the story of Christmas, of the Christmas Eve armistice, I marveled at men who found goodness so profound that it overcame hatred. I was awestruck by soldiers who put down their arms to sing Christmas carols with the enemy and came out of their trenches to play soccer and exchange small gifts. I was amazed at men who were so transformed by the moment that they were left unable to fight and had to be transferred away from the front lines. This is from World War I. I realize, though, that the Christmas armistice was an anomaly and that millions died in World War I and World War II and all the 20th century wars, despite the fact that few, in any, of the soldiers involved knew enough of their foe to want to kill them or befriend them. I'm not a pacifist, but I do think it unacceptable not to hate war. I'm dismissive of those who champion war as sport and show no reluctance to engage in war. Any leader who shows glee or eagerness for war should not be leading any nation. I believe truly great leaders are reluctant to go to war and try mightily to avoid war. Though I detest violence, I could kill someone who injured or threatened my family. Though I hate war, I could commit a nation to war, but only reluctantly and constitutionally and after great deliberation. I believe that though some would find this a contradiction in terms that there is a such thing as a Christian or just theory of war, that a just war is a war of self defense. At the same time I'm conflicted. I don't believe Jesus would have killed anyone or condoned killing, perhaps not even in self defense. I'm conflicted. The coarsening of our culture towards violent death has more consequences than even war. Tragically, this same culture has led to the death of 50 million unborn children in the last 40 years. I don't think a civilization can long endure that does not have respect for all human life, born and not yet born. We have a great many problems in this country to solve. But I believe there will come a time when we are all judged on whether or not we took a stand in defense of all life from the moment of conception until our last natural breath. As a teenager, I gave my first public speech in my church. I wasn't very good. I hope I'm getting better. I would think at the time I was awful. My hands shook. My heart pounded. I don't think I'm a natural with this. I thought to myself, I can't do this. But somehow I did. And because I wanted to talk about things that were important, I persisted. I chided my church as a senior in high school for not seeming to care about the not yet born, for looking the other way and for not taking a stand on life. One thing I promise you and I promise my constituents in Kentucky is, I will always take a stand for life. Though I believe in limited powers for the federal government, I believe, as our founders did, that primary among these powers and duties is the protection of life, that government cannot protect liberty if it does not first protect life. Ultimately, , ultimately, as Christians, our message should be a message of hope. We need leadership who can find hope and optimism amidst the fiscal crisis we face. We need leaders who can transform the coldness of austerity into the warm embrace of prosperity. We need leaders who can extol the American dream, who are proud of America, who will convince us to believe in ourselves again. We must embrace the values of life, liberty and prosperity that will lead this country back to greatness. And we should do so proudly as Christians. I agree with Ralph Reed, who often states that the First Amendment is here to keep government out of religion, but not to keep religious people out of government. Our success in this battle will be measured in many ways. Do we stand for principles in our battles? Do we stand with leaders and politicians who embody our principles? And finally and most importantly, do we keep our humanity and our values intact as we fight the good fight? Ultimately, our success in life is measured in man's humanity toward man. I'm not asking you to love man in the abstract. I'm not asking you to love someone else's neighbor. I'm saying that what is important is to love your neighbor, but even more importantly, but even more importantly, to love the people close to you. Success or happiness or whatever you want to call it is in the particulars. It's not in the abstract. It's sitting right next to you. Loving a man or woman in particular might find you happiness. Your interactions with those you know, with those you love is where you should look. In that realm I believe may lie the key to success and the key to happiness while we're here on earth. For me, my serendipity, my discovery happened not in any lab, not in medicine, not in politics. I didn't discover the cure for some horrible disease. I haven't yet solved the world's problems in politics, but just wait, I'm trying. But once upon a time I did come serendipitously upon a girl at an oyster roast, a girl who makes every achievement I might have or not have important. No matter where you are, what your path is, what path you choose, don't lose track of what are the important things. The important things are the people you know, the shared experiences of the ones you love. And all that ultimately matters, as you chart your course, as we all try to chart our course in life, is how you treat the people around you, particularly those closest to you. All else in life ultimately withers and fades. Each of us today must examine what is important in your life. For me, it can be summed up in a dedication from my book that I wrote, and this dedication was for my wife: What are the important things? Scratch my head, silence enough to hear my watch tick. Time, have I time to even consider what are the important things? Even when I sit still, I sit still in a hurry. But beyond, between and above all else, you, the girl, my wife, my love, can and do complete all syllogisms my circular brain can create. For me, you are the important things. For us, as a nation, as a people, we need to decide what are the important things. They're not all in politics. They're not all here in present that we can fully understand them. I think there is crisis in our country. It's not just a fiscal crisis. I think it's a moral crisis. I think it's a spiritual crisis. I don't think the answer is in any politician. I don't think the answer is in any particular law. I think the answer really is that we need to somehow find our way back to God, find our way back. And I think we find that by taking the time from our busy lives, from everything around us, taking the time to reflect what are the important things. I hope we will find that out, I hope we will reflect, and I hope we will find spiritual renewal as a country and a people. Today I want to talk with you about the promise of America. Imagine your parents when they were children. Imagine a little girl growing up in Wilmington, Delaware during World War II, the daughter of Irish and Italian Catholic family, working class. Her uncle ran numbers in Wilmington. She grew up with dozens of cousins because her mom was the second youngest of 17 kids. She had a difficult father, a man who drank far too much, and frankly didn't think that women should be educated. And yet this young girl, pretty and shy, was driven, was bright, was inquisitive, and she became the first person in her family ever to go to college. In 1956, my mom, Eleanor, graduated from Rice University with a degree in math and became a pioneering computer programmer in the 1950s and 1960s. Imagine a teenage boy, not much younger than many of you here today, growing up in Cuba. Jet black hair, skinny as a rail. Involved in student council, and yet Cuba was not at a peaceful time. The dictator, Batista, was corrupt, he was oppressive. And this teenage boy joins a revolution. He joins a revolution against Batista, he begins fighting with other teenagers to free Cuba from the dictator. This boy at age 17 finds himself thrown in prison, finds himself tortured, beaten. And then at age 18, he flees Cuba, he comes to America. Imagine for a second the hope that was in his heart as he rode that ferry boat across to Key West, and got on a Greyhound bus to head to Austin, Texas to begin working, washing dishes, making 50 cents an hour, coming to the one land on earth that has welcomed so many millions. When my dad came to America in 1957, he could not have imagined what lay in store for him. Imagine a young married couple, living together in the 1970s, neither one of them has a personal relationship with Jesus. They have a little boy and they are both drinking far too much. They are living a fast life. When I was three, my father decided to leave my mother and me. We were living in Calgary at the time, he got on a plane and he flew back to Texas, and he decided he didn't want to be married anymore and he didn't want to be a father to his 3 year old son. And yet when he was in Houston, a friend, a colleague from the oil and gas business invited him to a Bible study, invited him to Clay Road Baptist Church, and there my father gave his life to Jesus Christ. And God transformed his heart. And he drove to the airport, he bough a plane ticket, and he flew back to be with my mother and me. There are people who wonder if faith is real. I can tell you, in my family there's not a second of doubt, because were it not for the transformative love of Jesus Christ, I would have been saved and I would have been raised by a single mom without my father in the household. Imagine another little girl living in Africa, in Kenya and Nigeria. That's a diverse crowd. Playing with kids, they spoke Swahili, she spoke English. Coming back to California. Where her parents who had been missionaries in Africa raised her on the Central Coast. She starts a small business when she's in grade school baking bread. She calls it Heidi's Bakery. She and her brother compete baking bread. They bake thousands of loaves of bread and go to the local apple orchard where they sell the bread to people coming to pick apples. She goes on to a career in business, excelling and rising to the highest pinnacles, and then Heidi becomes my wife and my very best friend in the world. Heidi becomes an incredible mom to our two precious little girls, Caroline and Catherine, the joys and loves of our life. Imagine another teenage boy being raised in Houston, hearing stories from his dad about prison and torture in Cuba, hearing stories about how fragile liberty is, beginning to study the United States Constitution, learning about the incredible protections we have in this country that protect the god given liberty of every American. Experiencing challenges at home. In the 1980s, oil prices crater and his parents business go bankrupt. Heading off to school over a thousand miles away from home, in a place where he knew nobody, where he was alone and scared, and his parents going through bankruptcy meant there was no financial support at home, so at the age of 17, he went to get two jobs to help pay his way through school. He took over $100000 in school loans, loans I suspect a lot of ya'll can relate to, loans that I'll point out I just paid off a few years ago. These are all of our stories. These are who we are as Americans. And yet, for so many Americans, the promise of America seems more and more distant. What is the promise of America? The idea that, the revolutionary idea that this country was founded upon, which is that our rights don't come from man. They come from God Almighty. And that the purpose of the Constitution, as Thomas Jefferson put it, is to serve as chains to bind the mischief of government. The incredible opportunity of the American dream, what has enabled millions of people from all over the world to come to America with nothing and to achieve anything. And then the American exceptionalism that has made this nation a clarion voice for freedom in the world, a shining city on a hill. That's the promise of America. That is what makes this nation an indispensable nation, a unique nation in the history of the world. And yet, so many fear that that promise is today unattainable. So many fear it is slipping away from our hands. I want to talk to you this morning about reigniting the promise of America: 240 years ago on this very day, a 38 year old lawyer named Patrick Henry stood up just a hundred miles from here in Richmond, Virginia and said, Give me liberty or give me death. I want to ask each of you to imagine, imagine millions of courageous conservatives, all across America, rising up together to say in unison we demand our liberty. Today, roughly half of born again Christians aren't voting. They're staying home. Imagine instead millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values. Today millions of young people are scared, worried about the future, worried about what the future will hold. Imagine millions of young people coming together and standing together, saying we will stand for liberty. Think just how different the world would be. Imagine instead of economic stagnation, booming economic growth. Instead of small businesses going out of business in record numbers, imagine small businesses growing and prospering. Imagine young people coming out of school with four, five, six job offers. Imagine innovation thriving on the Internet as government regulators and tax collectors are kept at bay and more and more opportunity is created. Imagine America finally becoming energy self sufficient as millions and millions of high paying jobs are created. Five years ago today, the president signed Obamacare into law. Within hours, Liberty University went to court filing a lawsuit to stop that failed law. Instead of the joblessness, instead of the millions forced into part time work, instead of the millions who've lost their health insurance, lost their doctors, have faced skyrocketing health insurance premiums, imagine in 2017 a new president signing legislation repealing every word of Obamacare. Imagine health care reform that keeps government out of the way between you and your doctor and that makes health insurance personal and portable and affordable. Instead of a tax code that crushes innovation, that imposes burdens on families struggling to make ends met, imagine a simple flat tax that lets every American fill out his or her taxes on a postcard. Imagine abolishing the IRS. Instead of the lawlessness and the president's unconstitutional executive amnesty, imagine a president that finally, finally, finally secures the borders. And imagine a legal immigration system that welcomes and celebrates those who come to achieve the American dream. Instead of a federal government that wages an assault on our religious liberty, that goes after Hobby Lobby, that goes after the Little Sisters of the Poor, that goes after Liberty University, imagine a federal government that stands for the First Amendment rights of every American. Instead of a federal government that works to undermine our values, imagine a federal government that works to defend the sanctity of human life and to uphold the sacrament of marriage. Instead of a government that works to undermine our Second Amendment rights, that seeks to ban our ammunition imagine a federal government that protects the right to keep and bear arms of all law abiding Americans. Instead of a government that seizes your emails and your cell phones, imagine a federal government that protected the privacy rights of every American. Instead of a federal government that seeks to dictate school curriculum through Common Core imagine repealing every word of Common Core. Imagine embracing school choice as the civil rights issue of the next generation that every single child, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of wealth or ZIP Code, every child in America has the right to a quality education. And that's true from all of the above, whether is public schools, or charter schools, or private schools, or Christian schools, or parochial schools, or home schools, every child. Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister Netanyahu, imagine a president who stands unapologetically with the nation of Israel. Instead of a president who seeks to go to the United Nations to end run Congress and the American people imagine a president who says I will honor the Constitution, and under no circumstances will Iran be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon. Imagine a president who says We will stand up and defeat radical Islamic terrorism and we will call it by its name. Now, all of these seem difficult, indeed to some they may seem unimaginable, and yet if you look in the history of our country, imagine it's 1775, and you and I were sitting there in Richmond listening to Patrick Henry say give me liberty or give me death. Imagine it's 1776 and we were watching the 54 signers of the Declaration of Independence stand together and pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to igniting the promise of America. Imagine it was 1777 and we were watching General Washington as he lost battle, after battle, after battle in the freezing cold as his soldiers with no shoes were dying, fighting for freedom against the most powerful army in the world. That, too, seemed unimaginable. Imagine it's 1933 and we were listening to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tell America at a time of crushing depression, at a time of a gathering storm abroad, that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Imagine it's 1979 and you and I were listening to Ronald Reagan. And he was telling us that we would cut the top marginal tax rates from 70 percent all the way down to 28 percent, that we would go from crushing stagnation to booming economic growth, to millions being lifted out of poverty and into prosperity abundance. That the very day that he was sworn in, our hostages who were languishing in Iran would be released. And that within a decade we would win the Cold War and tear the Berlin Wall to the ground. That would have seemed unimaginable, and yet, with the grace of God, that's exactly what happened. From the dawn of this country, at every stage America has enjoyed God's providential blessing. Over and over again, when we face impossible odds, the American people rose to the challenge. You know, compared to that, repealing Obamacare and abolishing the IRS ain't all that tough. The power of the American people when we rise up and stand for liberty knows no bounds. If you're ready to join a grassroots army across this nation, coming together and standing for liberty, I'm going to ask you to break a rule here today and to take out your cell phones, and to text the word constitution to the number 33733. You can also text imagine. We're versatile. Once again, text constitution to 33733. God's blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation, and I believe God isn't done with America yet. I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America, and that is why today I am announcing that I'm running for president of the United States. It is a time for truth. It is a time for liberty. It is a time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States. I am honored to stand with each and every one of you courageous conservatives as we come together to reclaim the promise of America, to reclaim the mandate, the hope and opportunity for our children and our children's children. We stand together for liberty. This is our fight. The answer will not come from Washington. It will come only from the men and women across this country, from men and women, from people of faith, from lovers of liberty, from people who respect the Constitution. It will only come as it has come at every other time of challenge in this country, when the American people stand together and say we will get back to the principles that have made this country great. We will get back and restore that shining city on a hill that is the United States of America. God bless the Values Voter Summitso I gotta ask, what are these things? Is Barack Obama coming? Let me say thank you to my friend Jim Bridenstine. What an incredible, powerful, fighting conservative. There's an ancient Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. These are interesting times. Yesterday, Pope Francis was in Washington. Wonderful to welcome him here. I have to say, the press conference was a little awkward because every time the reporters addressed a question to your Holiness, Barack Obama answered. And then today, the President of China, President Xi is in town. Media all across the world are reporting on this historic meeting of the world's most powerful communist, and the president of China. How many of y'all have watched the Republican debates? How fantastic is it that we have such an array of young, charismatic, talented, principled leaders stepping forward to lead this party and this country? And what a contrast with the Democrats. I'm pretty sure the first Democratic debate is going to consist of Hillary Clinton and the Chipotle clerk. It is amazing to watch the Democrats as they keep moving their debates. First it was going to be August. Then it was going to be September, then it was October. They may move it to 2017. In a few months, we may see the first presidential debate in Leavenworth. If they can project a rainbow on the White House, maybe they can put bars on the windows. I'll tell you, it's not widely know, they had planned to have an earlier Democratic debate. The problem was, the debate invitation was emailed to Hillary. I am so honored to be back with so many friends today. I want to say, my friend Tony Perkins, the Family Research Council, does incredible work in this country. You want to talk about a strong, principled conservative, who scares the living daylights out of Washington, but I have to tell you, Tony doesn't scare Washington nearly as much as the men and women gathered in this ballroom. You want to know how much each of you terrify Washington? Yesterday, John Boehner was Speaker of the House. Y'all come to town, and somehow that changes. My only request, is can you come more often? Tony, we need to schedule these weekly. Once a week. Listen, every one of us, we know our country is in crisis. We know that this isn't a typical time in politics. We're bankrupting our kids and grandkids. Our Constitutional rights are under assault, each and every day from Washington. As America has receded from leadership in the world, it is making the world a much more dangerous place, but I want to come to you this morning with a word of hope and encouragement and exhortation all across this country, the American people are waking up, and I'll tell you today, help is on the way. I want to ask everyone here to look forward, look forward to January 2017. If I am elected president, let me tell you what I'll do on the first day in office. The first thing I intend to do is rescind every single illegal and unconstitutional Executive Action. The president tells us he has a phone and he has a pen, well you live by the pen, you die by the pen. My pen has got an eraser. Sadly, the corruption's not been limited to the White House. It has extended across every agency of the federal government, and the second thing I intend to do on my first day in office is to instruct the Department of Justice to open an investigation into Planned Parenthood and these horrible videos, and to prosecute any and all criminal conduct by that organization. The administration of justice should be blind to party or ideology. The only fidelity of the Department of Justice should be to the laws and the Constitution of the United States of America. The third thing I intend to do on the first day in office is to instruct the Department of Justice and the IRS, and every other federal agency that the persecution of religious liberty ends TODAY! That means that every service man and woman can worship the Lord God Almighty, with all of his heart, mind and soul, and his Commanding Officer has nothing to say about it. That means the Little Sisters of the Poor, who Pope Francis visited this week, will find that the case against them has been dismissed. You know, Kim Davis is here. Just a couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit Kim in a Kentucky jailhouse. Now six months, a year ago, if I had come and said that a Christian woman was going to be thrown in jail, locked up in jail for living her faith, the media would have dismissed me as a nutcase. That's where we are today. Kim and I embraced, and I told her, I said 'Kim, thank you. You are inspiring millions across this country by standing for your faith.' The Book of Acts tells us that when Paul and Cyrus were in jail that God brought an earthquake and broke open the jail cell. What I told Kim is that you are being lifted up in prayer by millions of believers across America, and across the world. You may have thought you were alone in that jail cell, but you didn't understand how crowded it was. And I'll tell you Kim's very simple response. She smiled and pointed up and said 'to God be the glory.' The fourth thing I intend to do on the first day in office, is to rip to shreds, this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal. The single greatest national security threat facing America is the threat of a nuclear Iran. I gotta tell you, I can't wait to stand on a debate stage next to Hillary Clinton, and to make very clear to the American people, if you vote for Hillary Clinton, you are voting for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. If you vote for me, under no circumstances will a nation led by a theocratic Ayatollah, who chants Death to America, under no circumstances will Iran be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. If the Ayatollah doesn't understand that, we may have to introduce him to his seventy two virgins. The fifth thing I intend to do on the first day of office is begin the process of moving the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Jerusalem. That's Day One! There are 365 days in a year. Four years in a presidential term. Four years in a second term. By the end of eight years, this ballroom is going to be a whole lot bigger. By the end of eight years there's going to be a whole of reporters and journalists who check themselves into therapy. In the days that follow, I will go to Congress and we will repeal every word of Obamacare. In the days that follow I will instruct the federal Department of Education, which should be abolished, that Common Core ends today. In the days that follow, we will honor our military. We will honor the commitments made to our Soldiers and Sailors, and Airmen and Marines, and we will protect our service members right to keep and bear arms and defend themselves. That means, the next time a jihadist walks into a recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, he's going to encounter the business end of firearms wielded by a dozen Marines. In the days that follow, we finally, finally, finally secure the borders and end sanctuary cities. We will stop the indefensible practice of releasing violent criminal illegal aliens. We will pass Kate's Law. In the days that follow, we will take on the EPA and the CFPB, and the alphabet soup of government agencies that strangle small businesses, and we will unleash booming economic growth. In the days that follow, I will go to Congress and we will pass fundamental tax reform and we will pass a simple flat tax where every American can fill out his or her taxes on post card. When we do that, we should abolish the IRS. Some of you may be thinking, that makes common sense to me. Live within your means. Don't bankrupt our kids and grandkids. Follow the Constitution. But can we do it? Can it be done? Scripture tells us there is nothing new under the sun. I think where we are today is very, very much like the late 1970s. Same failed economic policies. Same misery. Stagnation and malaise. The same feckless and naive foreign policies. In fact, the exact same countries: Russia and Iran, openly laughing at, and mocking, the President of the United States. Why is it that analogy gives me so much hope and optimism? Because we know how that story ended. All across this country, millions of men and women rose up and became the Reagan Revolution. It didn't come from Washington. Washington despised Ronald Reagan. By the way, if you see a candidate that Washington embraces, run and hide. It turned this country around, and I'm here to tell you the same thing is happening again. All over this country, millions of men and women are waking up. Do you know that since this campaign has started, out of seventeen Republican candidates, you know which campaign raised the most hard money? WE DID! To date, over 300000 contributions. People all over the country coming to TedCruz. The people are waking up. Let me tell you what Washington wants. Washington wants us divided. Washington wants Conservatives split: a chunk of Evangelicals here, a chunk of Conservatives over here, a chunk of Libertarians over here, a chunk of Tea Party folks over here. That's how, if we are splintered that a moderate establishment candidate runs up the middle with 23 percent of the vote, steals the nomination and then loses to Hillary Clinton in the General Election. You know what, we've seen that movie before. I'm not interested in going to see Rocky 19. We have a simple task before us. If Conservatives unit, we win. I'm here to ask each and every one of you to stand. Stand in your faith, stand in your principles. Come together. How do we turn this country around? Just like in 1980, we rise up as We The People, and we say 'we will defend this last, best hope for mankind, this shining city on a hill, that is the United States of America.' Thank you. Alright. We have limited time. Thank you. Well thank you so much for that warm welcome. This of course is my wonderful wife Candy, who is also a Detroiter. Even though we are both from Detroit, we had to go to New Haven to meet each other. But, but Candy has been by my side now for 40 years. And is my best friend, and we do everything together. She even learned how to play pool because she knew I was a good pool player. And, you know she actually wins sometimes. But, most of the times, most of the times I beat her. But I should be careful because there are some media in here and their headline will be Carson admits he beats his wife, you know. But, if you guys wouldn't mind sitting down, so that I can introduce our sons. My oldest son, Murray and his wife Lerone are right here. Stand up, please. Murray is an engineer and Lerone is an analyst for a polling company. And my middle son BJ and his wife Merlin are right here, Ben, Jr And, BJ is an entrepreneur and Merlin owns a company that does placements and they do a lot of things, they own a lot of stuff. Very cool. And then my youngest son, Royce is right here. His wife is at home with the baby. Royce is a CPA, and they all three got married in 2011. That's right, yeah. Now, I have introduced my family. You say, well who are you? I'll tell you. I'm Ben Carson, and I'm a candidate for President of the United States. Thank you. Thank you. Now, America remains a place of dreams and a lot of people are down on our nation. And they want to point out all of the bad things that have happened here. But, have you ever noticed that there's a lot of people trying to get in here and not a lot of people trying to escape? You know, it says something, and it was a place of dreams for my mother. My mother came from a very large rural family in Tennessee and was shuffled from home to home. She always had a desire for education. But, she was never able to get beyond the third grade. And she married at age 13 with the hope of escaping a desperate situation. She and my father moved here to Detroit, and he worked in a factory. In fact, I remember one Christmas being right here in this auditorium, sitting right over there with, for GM employees they had a Christmas program for the kids. But, some years later, my mother discovered that he was a bigamist and had another family. And of course, that occasioned the divorce and you know she only had a third grade education. And consequently, we were thrown into a situation of dire poverty. And she still maintained that dream of education, but now it was for us, more so than for herself. We moved in with her older sister and brother in law in Boston. Typical tenement. Large, multifamily dwelling. Boarded up windows and doors, sirens, gangs, murders. Both of our older cousins, who we adored, were killed. I remember when our favorite drug dealer was killed. Vinnie Bostonbarrows He drove a blue Cadillac. You know, they used to bring us candy, so we liked to see the drug dealers. But, the rats and the roaches. You know, in the more upscale areas, they called them water bugs, but we knew what they were. But my mother was out working extraordinarily hard. Two, sometimes three, jobs at a time, as a domestic. Trying to stay off of welfare. And the reason for that was she noticed that most of the people she saw go on welfare never came off of it. And she didn't want to be dependent. She wanted us also to be independent, and she decided she would work as long and as hard as necessary, leaving at 5:00 in the morning, getting back after midnight, day after day after day, doing what other people didn't want to do to try and maintain her independence. And she was very thrifty. I mean she would drive a car until it wouldn't make a sound. And then she would go and collect all of her dimes and nickels and quarters and buy a new car. And people would say, how does that woman afford a new car? But, she knew how to manage money. And I am fond of saying if my mother were Secretary of the Treasury, we would not be in a deficit situation. And you know, there are many people who are critical of me because they say Carson wants to get rid of all the safety nets and welfare programs, even though he must've benefited from them. This is a blatant lie. I have no desire to get rid of safety nets for people who need them. I have a strong desire to get rid of programs that create dependency in able bodied people. And we're not doing people a favor when we pat them on the head and say, there, there, you poor little thing, we're going to take care of all you needs; you don't have to worry about anything. You know who else says stuff like that? Socialists. And their programs always end up looking the same. They want to take care of people from cradle to grave. But, they want to be involved in every aspect of their lives. And they want most of their earnings. But, they say it'll be a utopia and nobody will have to worry. The problem is all of those societies end up looking the same, with a small group of elites at the top controlling everything, a rapidly diminishing middle class, and a vastly expanded dependent class. That was not the intention for this country. This country was envisioned by individuals who wanted everything to be surrounding the people. Of, for, and by the people. Not, of, for, and by the government. And the government was to respond to the will of the people, not the people to the will of the government. We've allowed the whole thing to be turned upside down. And I'm not an antigovernment person by any stretch of the imagination. I think the government, as described in our Constitution, is wonderful. But, now we've gone far beyond what our Constitution describes, and we've begun to just allow it to expand based on what the political class wants, because they like to increase their power and their dominion over the people, and I think it's time for the people to rise up and take the government back. Now, the political class won't like me saying stuff like that. I'll tell you a secret. The political class comes from both parties and it comes from all over the place, okay. And It includes, unfortunately, even the media now. You know, the media, the press, is the only business in America that is protected by our Constitution. You have to ask yourself a question. Why were they the only ones protected? It was because our founders envisioned a press that was on the side of the people, not a press that was on the side of the Democrats or the Republicans or the Federalists or the Anti-Federalists. And this is a direct appeal to media. You guys have an almost sacred position in a true democracy. Please don't abuse it. You know, my mother's dream was for us to move back to Detroit and we eventually were able to do that, but I was a terrible student and my brother was a terrible student, and she didn't know what to do. So she prayed. She asked God for wisdom. And you know what? You don't have to have a PhD to talk to God. You just have to have faith. And God gave her the wisdom. At least in her opinion. My brother and I didn't think it was that wise. Turning off the TV and making us read books and submit to her written book reports which she couldn't read. But you know it didn't matter, because, because it worked. That was the key. As I started reading those books, which I really didn't want to and I started reading about people of accomplishment, I began to recognize that the person who has the most to do with what happens in your life is you. It's not somebody else. And you don't have to be dependent on the good graces of somebody else. You can do it on your own if you have a normal brain and you're willing to work and you're willing to have that can do attitude. You've got to remember it was the can do attitude that allowed this nation to rise so quickly. Because we had people who didn't stop when there was an obstacle. That's how those early settlers were able to move from one sea to the other sea across a rugged and hostile terrain. They knew how to do things. And there were many communities that were separated from other communities by hundreds of miles, but they thrived. Why did they thrive? Because people were willing to work together, to work with each other. If a farmer got injured, everybody else harvested his crops. If somebody got killed, everybody else pitched in to take care of their families. That's who we are. We, Americans, we take care of each other. That's why we're called the United States of America. And what we have done is we've allowed the purveyors of division to become rampant in our society and to create friction and fear in our society. People are afraid to stand up for what they believe in because they don't want to be called a name. They don't want an IRS audit. They don't want their jobs messed with or their families messed with. But isn't it time for us to think about the people who came before us? And what they were willing to do, so that we could be free. Nathan Hale, a teenage rebel, caught by the British, ready to be executed, he said my only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country. A couple of nights ago, I was in Mobile, Alabama, and there were several World War II veterans there in uniform. And I took pictures with all of them. And they were thanking me for being courageous enough to do what I'm doing now. But I said, no, it's you who we must thank. We think about all of those brave men and women who sacrificed life and limb over the years so that we could be free. And we dare not soil their efforts by being timid now and not standing up for what we believe. You have to recognize that one of the rules oin Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, is you make the majority believe that what they believe is no longer relevant and no intelligent person thinks that way and the way you believe is the only way intelligent people believe. And that way they'll keep silent. Because I'll tell you something. They don't care if you don't believe what they believe, as long as you keep your mouth shut. And that's what we have to start doing. We have to start opening our mouths for the values and principles of America. And, I got to tell you something. I'm not politically correct, and I'm probably never going to be politically correct because I'm not a politician. I don't want to be a politician, because, politicians do what is politically expedient, and I want to do what is right. We have to think about that once again in our country. You know, this past couple of weeks, there's been a great deal of turmoil in Baltimore, where I spent 36 years of my life. And we see the turmoil in our cities all over our nation. We need to start thinking about how do we get to the bottom of this issue? You see, I believe that the real issue here is that people are losing hope and they don't feel that life is going to be good for them no matter what happens. So when an opportunity comes to loot, to riot, to get mine, they take it, not believing that there is a much better way to get the things that they desire. Now, interestingly enough, many of these people buy hook, line, and sinker, the idea that our economy is getting much better and that you know the unemployment rate is down to 5%. You know what? If the unemployment rate was down to 5%, our economy would be humming, okay. But obviously, it's not. And it's one of the reasons that our founders said that our freedom and our way of life is dependent upon a well informed and educated populace. Because, what you have to know is that you can make the unemployment rate anything you want it to be based on what numbers you include and what numbers you exclude. So you have to look at the labor force participation rate, which is the number of people eligible to work who are actually working. That number has been steadily going down since 2009 and is now at a 37 year low. Unless you understand those kinds of things, it's eminently possible for slick politicians and biased media to convince you that everything is wonderful when your eyes tell you something different. And I'm saying to people around this nation right now, stop being loyal to a party or to a man and use your brain to think for yourself. That is really the key to us as a nation becoming successful again. Not allowing ourselves to be manipulated by people who think that they are the kingmakers, who think that they are the rulers of thought. They are not the rulers of thought. We, the people are the rulers of thought in this nation. We get to determine what kind of nation we have; other people cannot dictate that for us. We never allow anybody to take that right away from us. And do that when we submit to silliness. You know for instance the majority of Americans were opposed to the so called "Affordable Care Act," and they just rammed it down our throats and say that this is the way it's going to be and if you don't like it, too bad. That was never supposed to be the way that this country was designed. And if we accept it, it will continue that way and it will get worse. And we have to get the right people in place. We need, not only to take the executive branch in 2016, and when I say we, I'm not talking Republicans, I'm talking about anybody who has common sense, you know. We have to have another wave election and bring in people with common sense, who actually love our nation and are willing to work for our nation and are more concerned about the next generation than the next election. That's what's going to help us. We also are going to have to concentrate on fixing the broken economy. Eightteen plus trillion dollars in national debt. And we have representatives who applaud themselves if the deficit doesn't go up as much this quarter as it did last quarter. You know they are completely out to lunch. We have got to drive that thing back down. It's crazy. But it's our responsibility. You need to know who your representatives are. And you need to know how they voted, not how they said they voted. And if they voted to keep raising that debt ceiling, to keep compromising the future of our children and our grandchildren, you need to throw them out of office. $18 trillion dollars. Think about what that means. If you tried to pay that back in a rate of $10 million a day, it would take you over five thousand years. And we're putting that on the backs of people coming behind us. This will be the first year that the national debt exceeds the GDP. Economists will tell you that when the debt to GDP ratio reaches 90%, at that point economic slowdown is inevitable. And you know we've been doing this for a while now. From 1850 to 2000, our economy grew at a rate of 3% at least, even during wars. From 2001 until 2014, it grew at a rate of 1%. That seems to be the new norm. And you probably saw the headlines recently in the last quarter. it grew at like 0%. This is not good. I don't care how anybody tries to spin it. And this is what happens when you have a GDP to debt ratio of 103, which is what we have now. This is what we have got to fix; we've got to fix that immediately because we cannot continue along that pathway. It will have dire consequences in the long run. And I will be giving an in-depth economic speech in weeks and months to come with a lot of details about things that have to be done. But, we need to fix it; we can't just talk about it. And how do we fix it? Well, recognize that we have the most dynamic economic engine the world has ever known right here in America, and we need to use it again. We can't work it when we wrap it in chains and fetters of regulations and new regulations that come out all the time. It doesn't work, it doesn't work when you have high taxation rates, which are absurd. We have the highest corporate tax rates in the world. And yet we sit there or at least some of our officials and they wonder why people do work overseas. Well they obviously don't understand business. People don't go into business to support the government; they go into business to make money. So we have to obviously, we obviously have to create an environment that is conducive to them making money. And you know that means lowering that corporate tax rate, making it competitive and if we were really smart, we would do another big stimulus. You're saying what? What did he just say? Well, remember that big billion dollar stimulus that we were supposed to have at the beginning of the Obama administration? Whatever happened to that? But, but I know where we could get a really big stimulus. There's $2 trillion dollars of offshore money because they won't bring it back because it will be taxed at 35%. What if we give them a tax holiday and let them bring it back, repatriate that money? It won't cost us a dime. That's the kind of thing we have to start thinking about. Think about, you know if you go to the financial advisor and you know you're in trouble, they'll tell you, they'll ask you four questions. What do you own and what do you owe? Well, we owe a lot. It's not just the $18 trillion; it's the $211 trillion in unfunded mandates as well. But, what do we own? We own a lot, also. I mean, just in terms of land and the mineral rights for it, are probably at least $50 trillion. We own dams. We own levees. We own railroads. The government owns 900000 buildings, 77000 of which are being not utilized or underutilized. Think about that. And at the same time, the government is leasing over 500 million square feet from the private sector, using your taxpayer money. It is totally horrendous when you look under the hood, you just want to shut it back down. I mean it is that bad. But, I want to tell you what we're going to do if God ordains that we end up in the White House. I'm going tell you what we are going to do. We are going to change the government into something that looks more like a well run business than a behemoth of inefficiency. And when I say we, I am talking about our team. When I started this endeavor, I am familiar with a man who has started over 30 companies, is extraordinarily successful. And I asked him to put together the rest of the team in order to be able to do this. His name is Terry Giles. Terry, where are you? Right there. Now that we are transitioning from, you know, an exploratory committee, I've asked Terry if he would take the lead in helping to select the people who will be able, who have had enormous experience with business and with making things work, so that we can transition our government from this inefficient thing that we have into something that really works and something that works the way it's supposed to, according to our Constitution. We also have a great team. We have our, let's see, who do we have? We have our chairman, which is Barry Bennett, who never wears a tie but you'll get used to seeing him, and he does a terrific job. And, we have our director of communications, Doug Watts, who does wear a tie. And we have our treasurer and finance director, Logan Delaney. And we have our national spokesperson, Deana Bass. And we're going to be doing different things than you've seen before because it's not political as I've said before. And there are people who say, but you can't do this, you don't have any experience. Let me tell you something. I don't have a lot of experience busting budgets and doing the kinds of things that I've gotten us into all the trouble that we're in now, but I do have a lot of experience in solving problems, complex surgical problems that have never been done by anybody before. I do have experience, I do have corporate board experience with 18 years with Kellogg, and 16 years with Costco, as well as a biotech company. Candy and I do have experience starting a national nonprofit scholars fund. Nine out of 10 of those fail. Ours is thriving in all 50 states and has won several national awards. So, the point being that you can gain experience in other ways. It doesn't have to be just in politics. I can name a lot of people in politics who've been there all their lives and you probably wouldn't want them to polish your shoe. So you know we need to be smart enough to think for ourselves, to listen for ourselves, and in terms of a pedigree that we need, And you know something, I have to tell you, everybody's been telling me, are you ready for this. They're going to come after you with everything under the sun. They're going to look through every record you have; they're going to try to say you are a horrible doctor, you know everything that you can possibly imagine. I know that. That's the way they are. I expect that. It's ok. Don't worry, just listen to what's being said. I'm not even asking everybody to vote for me. I'm just asking people to listen to what I'm saying and listen to what politicians are saying and make an intelligent decision based on your intellect. Because the real pedigree that we need to help to heal this country, to revive this country. Someone who believes in our Constitution and is willing to put it on the top shelf. Someone who believes in their fellow man and loves this nation and is compassionate. Somebody who believes in what we have learned since we were in kindergarten. And that is, that we are one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. God Bless you and God Bless the United States of America. Thank you so much. Well, Candy and I are absolutely delighted to be here, Candy's out there somewhere. You know I always feel so welcome when I come to Iowa, because there are so many people here who actually have common sense, and that is not something that is ubiquitous throughout our land. But you know there's a lot of things that I could talk about in my 20 minutes. Obviously I'm not going to cover all of them, and somebody's gonna say but you didn't cover, Look 20 minutes is a finite period time, but I do want to talk about education, because education is so incredibly important, and it made the difference in my life. It is the great divide in our country. Anybody who gets a good education can write their own ticket. It doesn't matter what their ethnicity is or what their background is and we have to start emphasizing that concept again, that can do attitude that really helped America to propel itself to the pinnacle so fast. You know I was a terrible student. I was one of those people known as the safety net. No one ever had to worry about getting the lowest mark on a test as long as I was there, you know. I took care of that, you know, and I tried to act like it didn't bother me when they all laughed and called me dummy, but it did. Not enough to make study, but it did bother me. I was still into going home and playing basketball, baseball, football, anything. But you know my mother, who is really the hero in my life, she was one of two dozen children, got married at age 13, and she and my father moved from rural Tennessee to Detroit. He was a factory worker. Some years later she discovered he was a bigamist. She only had third grade education herself. The responsibility of trying to raise two young sons by themselves. But I'll tell you, interesting thing about my mother. She never became a victim; she never felt sorry for herself, and that's a good thing. The problem is she never felt sorry for us either, so. There was never any excuse that we could give it was good enough. She would always say, do you have a brain? And if the answer is yes then you could have thought your way out of it. And you know what, I ask that same question of us today in America. Do we have a brain? Do we have the ability to think logically to solve the multiple problems that we have? You know my mother prayed and asked God to give her wisdom. What could she do? And you know that's the wonderful thing about God; you don't have to have a PhD to talk to him; you just have to have faith. And you know what? He gave it to her. He gave here the wisdom, at least in her opinion; my brother and I didn't think it was wise at all, turning off the TV and making us read books. I mean what kind of wisdom is that. As far as we were concerned it was child abuse. And then we have to submit to her written book reports, two apiece each week, which she could read but we didn't know that. She'd put little check marks, highlights, underlines, and I was not a happy camper, I've got to tell you. But you know you had to do it; back in those days had to do what your parents told you. There was no social psychologist saying let the kid express themselves, you know, and I mean don't you find it interesting today how government tries to insert itself into everything They want to tell you how to take care of your children, what you should feed them, how you should discipline them; everything about them. You know what? I would be happy to accept the advice of the government if they were doing everything perfectly, but it seems they can't even run their own house. How are they going run your house? You know, this is the problem. Well at any rate there I was reading those books, but interestingly as I started reading about people of great accomplishment I began to notice something they all seem to have in common, that vision, and that willingness to work hard. And I began to understand that the person who has the most to do with what happens to you in life is you. It's not somebody else. It's not the environment. And at that point, at that point I stopped listening to the naysayers and people who were saying the system is stacked against you, and these people are against you. I didn't have time for them. I was going use that time instead to look at all the incredible opportunities that existed for a young man in inner city Detroit. And there were a lot of things, but you had to go out and do them; they didn't just fall into your lap. And it made a big difference, and I started reading and within the space of a year and a half, I want from the bottom of the class to the top of the class much to the consternation of all those people who used to laugh and call me dummy. Who were now coming to me and saying Benny, Benny, Benny, how do you work this problem? And I would say, sit at my feet youngster while I instruct you. I was perhaps a little obnoxious, but it sure felt good to say that to those turkeys. But you know you think about human brain and what it is capable of, and we need to start putting more emphasis on that once again. We need to be looking at ways that we educate our populace. We look at all the failed schools in some of our inner cities, and yet in the same inner cities you see private schools and charter schools and home schools where people are doing great and high graduation rates and college matriculation rates. So why in the world aren't we trying to get everybody involved in the things that work and get rid of the things that don't work? Because we have special interest groups, and that is the problem, a big problem with our nation today: special interest groups. And there should only be one special interest group and that is that people in the United States of America, and once we understand that, once we understand that, we can do so much better. You know it was interesting that when Alexis de Tocqueville came to America to study our nation because Europeans were so fascinated as to why we were doing so well, he had this big two volume analysis. At the end he concluded that America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. And he was right on target, because as we begin to throw away all of our values, and all of our principles and we forget who we are, we will go from being great to being nothing, and we have to fight that. Now, one of the other issues I want to touch on, immigration. You know we have laws in place. Common sense works great. We already have laws that demonstrate how a person becomes an American citizen. We don't have to relitigate that. If we do we relitigate it, it needs to be done by the proper branch of government, which is Congress. It is not by the president; it is not by the Supreme Court. Do we have an illegal immigration problem? Can we fix it? Of course we can. First of all, you have to realize that that there wouldn't be people coming here if there wasn't a magnet drawing them in here. You have to reverse the polarity of the magnet. You have to get rid of all the things that are drawing them in here. including employment. If you employ a person who is illegal, instead getting a pass from the government you should get a criminal activity on your record because it's a crime. And you have to seal the border. Do we have the ability to seal a border? Of course we do; we just don't have will to seal the border. And I think whoever wins in 2016 I'm pretty sure it's going be a Republican. I think they should make it their goal to seal that border within a year. And you know these are common sense kinds of things. Now where's the compassion you say? There are millions of people here illegally who have to hide in the shadows. I don't think they should have to hide in the shadows. We look to the north of us and we see Canada. They have a very well formulated guest worker program. People get registered appropriately, they come, they work, they pay taxes, they go back home. There's a place nobody has to hide in the shadows. I think we could do something like that, but it has to have some stipulations. We shouldn't offer jobs unless Americans won't take them, number one. And number two, in order to get a guest worker permit you have to apply for it from outside of America. You can't be here, okay, because you shouldn't get an advantage for breaking the law. So you leave. It still allows people tothey can easily go and do that, and they probably have an advantage because they know people who want to employ themthey may have established a good work recordand that person can offer them a job and they can come back in and they can take it and they can pay taxes like everybody else in this country pays taxes. And until we can learn how to think that way we're not going win this argument, but when we do it by the law we integrate compassion, but we do, we use our common sense, that's what will make America work once again. Now what about the waste and the fraud. There's a lot waste and fraud in our country right now. I'll give you an example. Medicaid. We spend 400 billion dollars a year on Medicaid. About a quarter of Americans benefit from Medicaid. Now what does that come outa quarter of a million Americans, about 80 million Americans. Do the math. It comes out to about five thousand dollars per Medicaid recipient. Now you've heard about concierge practices, the boutique practices for people who are well off. They average about two to three thousand dollars a year. That means for the most part we could have boutique practices for these people if we didn't waste so much money. Think about what I'm talking about here, and that's why I'm talking about a revamping of the system, but it is imperative that the Republicans embrace a simple, effective system that puts people and their health care providers in charge the health care, and that in turn brings the health care system into the free market systemthat's what controls price and that's what controls quality. We do not need the government controlling our health care, and that's why, that's why I have been such a vehement opposer of Obamacare. Even if it worked I would oppose it. It doesn't. But even if it did I would oppose it. Why would I oppose it? Because I don't believe in taking the most important thing a person has which is their health, their health care, and putting it in the hands of the government because if they have control of the most important thing you have, it's not long before they have control of your whole life and that fundamentally changes America, and we don't want that. And I'm a big believer in waste not, want not. You know I remember my, my mother, you know she worked two, three jobs at a time, extremely hard, because she didn't want to be on welfare. And she only had a third grade education but she noticed that most people who went on welfare never came off it so she just didn't want to go on it in the first place. So she struggled; she worked hard. Occasionally she accepted some assistance, but for the most part was able to stay off of it because she was creative. She would go to the Good Will and buy a pair of pants that had a big hole in the kneesand this was back when that wasn't fashionableand buy a couple of patches and put them on there, and people would be saying where'd you get those jeans? And you know she would go out, take us to the country on a Sunday, and knock on a farmer's door, can we pick four bushels of your apples, corn, beans, three for you and one for us. They always like that deal. She would bring that?it home, can them. She really could stretch moneyshe understood the value of moneyand in fact I'm certain that if my mother were the Secretary of the Treasury we would not be in a deficit situation right now. But a big part of our problem right now is that the government is just too big and they're wasteful, and they don't care what they do with our money. I remember once I was doing a consulting job for the government some years back and and in terms of my fee they said charge anything you want, anything you want. Doesn't matter. I imagine this goes on all the time and it's problematic. You know, you can go back to 2010 and you take income and everybody who makes $69000 and abovethe middle class and above, $5 trillion. A lot of money. The federal budget that year, $3 trillion. Sixty percent of everything the middle class and above makes just to run the federal government. Who thinks that's fair? I don't see a single hand. That is absolutely absurd. It means the government is much too big. There's one well known politician who said you can't cut one penny or it'll be a disaster. Anybody know who that was? Yeah, Nancy Pelosi. Why I mean. That's crazy. So my suggestion is that we cut down on the size of government by attrition. You know thousands of government employees retire every year. Don't replace them. You do that for about four or five years and all the sudden you've got the government down to a reasonable size and people have real jobs. They're not stumbling over each other doing the same thing. Then they don't have time to stick their big noses in everybody's business. You know. And then this this this national debt, $18 trillion and rising, rising at a rate of $500 million a day. Think about that. That's ridiculous. It is compromising the quality of life for everybody who comes after us, and that's what I'm concerned about. My whole career has been spent trying to preserve life, trying to enhance life of children, and now here I was ready to retire, sit back and relax and enjoy life, and then I look out there and I see this monster called the national debt which is threatening the life and quality of those coming behind us. That's why I can't sit down and watch that happen, and I hope none of us is able to sit down and watch that happen. We are going to have to deal with it through economic development. We grow our way out of it; we'll never cut our way out of it, but that does mean that we need to cut, cut down the size of the government, develop the federal government. We need to use our natural resources. God has blessed this country with enormous natural resources. We're the number one producer of oil now on three percent of the land. What would happen if we open up the land? The federal government has no business owning all this land. This is crazy, you know. And all the natural gas we have, and now we have the ability to liquefy natural gas, which means we can export it. And we have all these archaic energy exportation rules that date back to the seventies. We need update those, and we used to use those energy resources not only to enhance our economic position, to pay down our debt, but also to put Putin back in his little box, you know. But you know what my life has been surrounded, taking care of children and that drives a lot of what I do. You know no one should ever be surprised to know that I am pro life because if I spent so many hours trying to figure out how to save people's lives why would I be in favor of people obliterating people's lives? Why would anybody be in favor of that? And in closing I have to tell you, we today enjoy our freedom because there were those who preceded us who were brave. They were not afraid. We have to have courage once again in this country. We cannot allow the progressives to shut us up through political correctness and through all the things that they do. And if they want to act like third graders and call us names, let them. But the fact of the matter is we have a job to do and we need to realize that freedom is not free. You have to fight for freedom every single day. And the next time you sing our National Anthem and you're looking at that flag and you get to the end of that first stanza and it says the land of the free and the home of the brave, please remember that it is impossible to be free if you're not brave. Thank you and God Bless. Well, listen, standing here with me, of course, are the people who I've dedicated my life to: My sweet daughters, Emma and Reese Kasich. You know, I remember when they were born, remember that, sweetie? I kept saying to the doctor, How's it going, you know, and he's trying to deliver two, and finally, he looks at me square in the eye, and he said, Can you shut up? I'm a little busy right now. And they came out, and I could hold them in the palm of my hand. It was so sweet. And so I, along with Karen, have dedicated our lives to giving them a better life than we were able to ever get from our parents. And you know what? They're doing fantastic. Emma and Reese Kasich. And my wife, pray for her. She's married to me, OK? From the very tips of my toes to the top of my head, I just love my wife so much. Such a greater partner and such a great lady. So I want to tell you that it's this whole business of the American Dream, isn't it, that we can all work to make sure that next generation is going to be in a position of greater strength than what we received. And I get my inspiration from the people who came before me. And I want to tell you about a few of the ones that inspire me. I'd like to start with my uncle Steve. Uncle Steve was a tough guy, you know, the son of a coal miner. Rough and gruff and tell it like it is. And he found himself at Iwo Jima, and he looked around during that battle and he saw a lot of people dying. Uncle Steve was not a church going man, but in the middle of all the violence and the blood and the death, he said to God, if you will take me off this island, I will go to church every day for the rest of my life. And he did. And he did. And Uncle Steve When Uncle Steve came home from the war, the brothers all slept in the same room; they didn't have a lot. And Uncle George told me that he would have nightmares and he would speak in Japanese. And he told his brothers never wake me, never wake me from that nightmare because I don't what will happen. Let me sleep and wake up on my own. And Uncle George, he's here today, he's right over here. He's 89 years old. I so love my Uncle George. He's the patriarch of our family. Well, Uncle George was in the infantry, and he was scheduled to take a boat from England to Belgium. But the division he was in couldn't all fit in the boat, so they asked Uncle George to wait until the next day. Well that boat left England on its way to Belgium, and a submarine launched a torpedo and sunk that boat and everyone on it perished. The next day, Uncle George took another boat and he landed in France. And he fought with great honor and he returned home and became a guidance counselor and guided young people for the next 38 years of his life. What a man. You know, when my father in law, we call him Popsy, grandfather, joined the Marines at the age of 17; wanted to serve his country. But I guess most important, my mom and dad. You know, Mom was, well, she was a visionary. Didn't get the education; you know, her mother could barely speak English, but boy, was she smart. And if you think I have opinions, you never met my mom. And my father was the mailman. They called him John the Mailman. And when we laid my mother and father to rest, there were countless numbers of people who came and said John the Mailman, he watched out for all of us. And they gave up so much, didn't take, I wished they'd have spent more on themselves, but they just, no matter what you told them, they weren't doing to do it because it was all about the next generation. And they are the ones that have inspired me. And all of you that are here today, you're the same way, aren't you? You've got those people who did so much for you who are your heroes. And they don't have to be famous, they're just people you love and that you admire. That American Dream that is pivotal for the future for our country, but I have to tell you there are a lot of people in America today who are not sure that that American Dream is possible, that that American Dream is alive. And I can understand their concerns. You know, when I was a kid, you went out and you got a job and you worked at that job your entire lifetime. You got your health care, you got your retirement and everything was good. Today, you could be a 51 year old man and one day after serving and doing everything the right way, somebody walks into your office and says, I'm sorry, but we don't need you anymore. Can you imagine that conversation? Could you imagine that dad when he is driving home or that mom when she is driving home? They lose confidence. They wonder what their future is. Can they get another job? Can they support their family? Will anybody be there to help them? Or how about moms and dads today? They send their kids to college, many of these young people ringing up massive amounts of debt trying to get an education and they are living in the attic and Mom and Dad are wondering, will they get a job? Will they pay their bills? What kind of a future are they going to have? Or, at the same time, we can also think about what all of us fear greatly and that is the problems of bad health. Can I afford those expensive drugs that I need to survive? What is it going to cost me to get treatment, just not for myself but for one of the loved ones in my family? Will I be bankrupted and lose everything I have, everything I've worked for? It's a real fear. Or the fear of the tsunami of drugs, it's everywhere, isn't it? The kids that are here and there are many of them, don't do drugs, don't put that big 1000 pound pack on your back and keep you from your God given purpose. But all moms and dads worry that those drugs are going to wash away our own neighborhoods and maybe wash away our children. And how about those that struggle to make ends meet? There are some people just say, oh, well, just work harder or pull yourself up by your bootstraps. I believe in all that. Some people just don't have the fortune that many of us have. And they struggle. They struggle for a whole lifetime and they worry, that can they rise? Can they, can they pull the rest of their family members up the ladder, the promise of America? And they worry about it. Or how about if you are a member of the minority community, an African American? You wonder. The system, I think, sometimes doesn't just work for me but sometimes I feel like that system works against me. And you think about the troubles that many of our African Americans still face today in a world where we have worked to provide equal rights and opportunities. Sometimes they are not so sure and I don't blame them. Or how about all of us? We pick up the paper. It's Chattanooga, it's Fort Hood, it's ISIS. Are we safe? Are we going to be safe to go to the mall? Are we safe to leave our homes? These are the worries that many Americans have. But I have to tell you, as serious as these are, and they are very serious, we have had a lot worse, much worse in this country. Think about it, the civil war. You remember reading about it? I mean, it's not just neighbors fighting against neighbors, but it was even family members, kin fighting against one another and killing one another on a battlefield right in America. How about the racial violence that we experienced in this country? The early days of television when they put the dogs and the gas and the batons on people of another color. Or the world wars, where many in our families never came home, leaving widows and children without a dad. Or the Depression, the Depression. Ask your grandfather, ask your mom and dad about that depression. My father used to say that he would go down to the store and get some food for the family and the guy would say, We'll put it on your bill. There was no bill. That's what it took for America to get through the Depression. And you all remember that crystal clear morning and the horror we felt on 9/11. But guess what? We've always got through it, because the testing is what makes you stronger. It's the challenges that make you better. I have lived through them, and I have become stronger for them, and America has become stronger for them. And here's how we've done it: by staying together. Not by dividing each other but by staying together with our eyes on the horizon, with our eyes on the horizon, about the future. We have a little town in Ohio called Wilmington. They followed that formula. Let me tell you about these folks. They played by the rules, worked every day, highly productive, teamwork, and one day, an employer said, We're leaving. We're out of here. And thousands of people, thousands of hardworking, God fearing people like your neighbors, went from getting a paycheck on a Friday afternoon to visiting a food pantry so they could feed their kids. I was down there in 2010 after this earthquake, economic earthquake hit Wilmington. We had a campaign bus. My wife was with me. We walked through that food pantry. We looked at the people and preachers and civil servants and leaders and caregivers. They were at the food pantry, but they hadn't lost any hope, because they had their eyes on the horizon. We got back on the bus, I will never forget it as long as I live, we got back on, on the bus, and I said, Folks, do you understand, some of them had been with me for a long time, so they got it. But some of the others were rookies. I said, Do you understand what we are doing here? This isn't a political campaign. And by the way, either will this be. This is not a political campaign. Did you see those people? Did you see the tears in their eyes? Did you see them hugging their children? Did you see them not hopeless? We're going to join in, and we're going to help them, because it is our job and our mission as human beings, as children of God, to work with them, to lift them. And guess what? And guess what? And in Wilmington today, the sun's coming up. I told them that the sun would come up again. It hasn't reached its zenith, but the sun is rising, and the sun is going to rise to the zenith in America again. I promise you, it will happen. Listen, you know, you know, you know who does this? See, it's you and me. See, it's teachers and preachers and moms and dads, doctors, construction workers, like that sweet man in Brown County that saw his family washed away over the weekend, keep him in your prayers, police and firemen and people like my dad, the mailman, John the mailman, because we are the glue, we are the glue that holds our country together. How about, as for me, as for me, look, I'm just trying to do my best, OK? I came here to Ohio State. I found myself on the 19th floor of one of the towers. You could hit it with a stone from here. I had 15 roommates. The place was 23 floors high. The tower next door, the same size. Ohio State can be a pretty intimidating place, OK. It's big. It is a big place. And I left my dorm room, went down to the first floor and I walked just right down the path to Ohio Stadium. And it was a time when you could actually walk in that stadium, they didn't have that one end closed in. And I walked into that stadium, I swear this happened, and I walked right to the 50 yard line. There was no one in the stadium that day, and I looked around. All of those seats, those big structures that were there and I thought to myself either this place is going to take me down or I'm going to take it down. One way or the other, it was going to be, you know, either it was going to be me or it was going to be a place, kids, because you'll face it someday, to help me move forward. You know, it's amazing, I'm back here today. You could throw a stone and hit that stadium or you could hit that dormitory so many years later, and guess what? I am here to ask you for your prayers, for your support, for your efforts because I have decided to run for president of the United States. You know, they, they ask you all the time like it's a trick question or something, you know, well why do you want to do this. I mean, it's like they're going to catch you, right? I mean, I mean, if you can't answer that question, you ought to be back at the 50 yard line at Ohio Stadium wondering about your future. I do this because, well, first of all, we're not born to serve others. Think about this, I want you to think about this. If we're not born to serve others, what were we born to do? I do this for my family, of course, for my sweet family, for my neighbors, Molly, for my friends of many, many, many years, many of whom are working with me today 30, 40 years later. I really do it for everyone. And I have to humbly tell you, and I mean humbly tell you, that I believe I do have the skills and I have the experience I have the experience and the testing, the testing which shapes you and prepares you for the most important job in the world. And I believe I know how to work and help restore this great United States. And I have to tell you, it's a daunting challenge. I was just at Wendy's on Saturday up here on Hudson Avenue, and the two wonderful African American fellows were there. And I walked in, I was standing behind them, and one said to the other one, I don't know what I believe what I'm seeing, but I think that's Governor Kasich standing behind me. And he said you better run. Do you know what meant to me? Two African American guys, one with a knee, a brace on his knee and another one with a cane. And I said well, you know, people are going to have a lot more money than I am, and they looked at me and they said but you've got statistics, you've got statistics. So some are going to ask, as they always have, why do you think you can do this. You know, all of my life, people have told me you can't do something, OK? And I'll tell you why. It's because I do believe in the power of very big idea, big bold ideas. In 1976, I went out to the convention in Kansas City and not only worked for Ronald Reagan, but I worked with Ronald Reagan and I got to travel with Ronald Reagan. Yes, I actually knew the guy, OK, the real guy, not from the history book. He lost at that convention. I had been managing, I think, five states for him at that convention. I mean, you talk about lightning striking me. I was 24 years old. I walked in; they were one man short and said, could you manage five states for the governor? I had no idea what they were saying. I said, of course I could. OK? I had no idea about it. Well, he lost, as you know. And I was there when he met with his closest advisers. And he said we've lost the battle. We hadn't lost any war because we will all be back. And I'm going to fix America with all of your help. And of course, he did and it further cemented my notion that big ideas, big ideas change the world. Big ideas change the world. So I came back, I came back here to Ohio and I was all charged up and I was working as an aide. And I came back and I remember meeting with one of my buddies. And I said, you know, I think I'm going to just run for the state senate and beat that guy we had been watching. And I remember he was drinking something and it fell on the floor when I told him that. People, look, I was 24 years old. I had no relatives that lived in the state. I didn't really know anybody, but I had a big idea. And you know what we did? We went out and we got moms and dads, a lot of moms who went door to door and rang doorbells. And the weekend before the election one of the local newspapers said, he is a fine young man but he has no chance to win. Well, I won that election with the help of the army of volunteers. I went on to chair the health committee, where I learned to work across the aisle because the House was run by Democrats and that is where I learned that policy is far more important than politics, ideology or any of the other nonsense we see. You know, they said it couldn't be done. We proved them wrong. And then at the ripe old age of 30 I decided I'm going to run for Congress. My mother and father are like, Johnny, what are you doing now? OK? Well, they said I couldn't win. I was too young. And by the way, I was, I was going to run against an incumbent in 1982; it's like the worst year. We lost 26 Republican seats that year. I was going to run against a guy, a guy who got one of his degrees from Harvard. That's when I knew I had an edge. Clearly he couldn't have gotten into Ohio State. And I knew I had an edge. And in 1982 I was the only Republican in America to defeat an incumbent Democrat all across this country. And guess what? Here is the irony. I got to go to Washington and work with President Ronald Reagan. You know? They said, they said it couldn't be done and we proved them wrong again. And then I got down to Washington and got on a, the Armed Services Committee, where I served for 18 years on national security. And I was there just the blink of an eye and I discovered that these hammers and screwdrivers had cost thousands of dollars. And it was taking the resources from the people that needed it who were serving in the military. We were wasting money. And I said we need to clean this up. And they're like, No, come on. It's the Pentagon. You can't, you, forget about it. It can't happen. Well, we passed some legislation and we made things right. We saved money. We improved the system. And we helped the military. They said it couldn't be done and we proved them wrong again. Let me be clear. Our military must be improved. We need to, we need to We need to cut the bureaucracy, and we need to strengthen our services. Now, I'm a person, I'm person that doesn't like to spend a lot of money. But in this case, national security climbs to the very top of the heap, because we must be strong, and we must assume our role as leaders of the world. So six years after I got to Congress, I got on the budget committee. And I remember going to those first few meetings, Bob. I mean, it was, like, terrible, and I was complaining. I was up right here at a gas station in Westerville, and I'm saying, These people don't want to do anything. And some guy walked around the pump, and he looked me square in the eye. He said, Things are so bad, what are you going to do about them? So I flew down to Washington, I met with my staff, about six of them, and I said, You know, I think, I think we should just write a budget for the United States of America. And they said, Well, there's, like, 100 people at the White House working on a budget and probably 50 up here, and we only have six. And I said, I know, we're overstaffed, but we stay out of our way, we'll be able to get this done. And we wrote a budget for the United States of America. And why? Everybody knows me as a budget guy. It's not about numbers; it's about vision, it's about values, and we do not have the right as grownups to ring up debts to suit ourselves and pass them onto the next generation. We don't have that right. 10 years of my life I worked at this. My first budget was 405 to 30. I had the 30. My staff was depressed. I thought we were doing pretty well. That's how I was. Well, we just kept at it and kept at it and kept at it. And you heard my great friend, John Sununu, by the way, one of the smart, he's a wonderful, wonderful man. If John Sununu had not come to me and told me he was going to help me in New Hampshire, I wouldn't have done this. I, I've just got to tell you. He is remarkable, and we did it together. And the politicians didn't care about, they, they didn't care about anything, about being reelected; they cared about fixing America, Pat. They cared about getting the budget balanced and getting the economy going. You know what? They said it couldn't be done. They said it was too big, too hard, too much politics, and we proved them wrong again, and we balanced that federal budget. We balanced it. You want job creation, you balance the books. Am I right? You balance the books. And if I'm president, or maybe I should say when I am president I will promise you, I will promise you that my top priority will get this country on a path to fiscal independence, strength, and we will rebuild the economy of this country, because creating jobs is our highest moral purpose, and we will move to get that done. And by the way, by the way, how about a little balanced budget amendment to the Constitution so Congress will start doing its job? So I left. You know, I, I, I left Washington and had a great time. You, you know, I was, worked at Lehman Brothers and learned about businesses, and I went to Fox News, where, as you know, I was a giant television star. And I had a great time. But you know, I, I had a calling. It was like, here's kind of how it went. Didn't hear anything, but it was clear to me. You've had an amazing life. You got a lot of skills. You're going back. You're going back. And I sensed it when I was on a trip and I came back and called my friends together and said, I guess we got to do this, and they, you know, a lot of people, the doubters, they said, Well, you know, you haven't been in politics for 10 years, in a decade. You have never run state wide, and we haven't defeated an incumbent in 36 years in Ohio. Incumbents don't lose. So we put together a vision, we put together a team. They said it couldn't be done and we proved them wrong again. And then we took over the reins. But, you know, we didn't go unprepared. We knew what we wanted to do, because I'm going to tell you, if I'm president, I know what we need to do, OK? There's no confusion about that. I know what needs to be done. I have been there at all levels, OK. When we came in here, $8 billion in the hole, a loss of 350000 jobs, $0 in the rainy day fund. One guy said that he game them a dollar just to double the rainy day fund. A lot of hopelessness here, particularly among the poor and minorities. People said maybe Ohio's best days are behind them. I thought that was just a bunch of baloney. And I said not only will we get this budget balanced, but we'll cut taxes, and they were like, are you kidding me? There's no way we can do that. So we went to work. And we didn't have to slash, we didn't have to really slash things, we just had to use a 21st century formula. Improve things, innovate them, make a better product at a lower price. You know, let Mom and Dad stay in their home rather than being forced in a nursing home, let them stay in their own home where they'll be healthier and happier. And if we have to knock down the special interests to get it done, so be it. And that's what we did. Now today, four and a-half years later, $8 billion in the hole, $2 billion surplus. A loss of 350000 jobs, a gain of 350000 jobs. And tax cuts, tax cuts of $5 billion, the largest in the country. And as I hope you all know, economic growth is not an end unto itself. If you're drug addicted, we're going to try to rehab you and get you on your feet. If you're mentally ill, prison is no place for you. Some treatment and some help is where you need to be. If you're the working poor, we're going to give you an opportunity to take a pay raise and not bang you over the head because you're trying to get ahead. Well, we're changing that system. If you have an autistic son or daughter, for most of them, they can get insurance, and we'll work to make sure all of them have it. For the developmentally disabled, they're made in God's image. They have a right to rise, they have to be successful. And with all this, with all this, they said it couldn't be done. And guess what? We proved them wrong again. And I'm going to take what we've learned here in the heartland, that band of brothers and sisters that I work with every day, and we are going to take the lessons of the heartland and straighten out Washington, DC and fix our country. Well, and you know, now they're going to say, got a lot of them back here, they're going to say well, you know, nice guy or good guy or whatever they, or not a good guy, whatever they're going to say, OK. I don't know if he can win. But with you, and you, sweetheart, OK; can you paint signs? And with, and with all of you, together, we'll prove them wrong again, won't we? We'll prove them wrong again. Thank you. So our team, you know, we'll tame the bureaucracy, we'll restore some common sense. Mary Taylor has the Common Sense Initiative; get rid of all those stupid rules. Well, we'll do that in Washington. How about putting some people in the government that understand job creators and respect them rather than beating them down? How, how about that for an idea? How about some common sense and make America stronger militarily? But folks, here's the thing that I want to say to you, and I said this at my inaugural. Some people think they just don't matter in this. Do you know how wrong that is? You know, we got this Holocaust Memorial, and there's a line etched that says, If you save one life, you've changed the world. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? If you save one life, you changed the world. And the Lord will record what you've done for another in the Book of Life. Now, we've got some values that we need to think about that can bring us together. Because folks, we're a divided country, but we can fix it. I'll tell you what I think some of them are: personal responsibility. God ate, or, The dog ate my homework, went out in the fifth grade, OK? Here's the thing. We own our lives. I mean, if you're hurting, we'll help you. You know, my mother used to say, my mother used to say that it is a sin not to help somebody who needs help but it's equally a sin to continue to help somebody who needs to learn how to help themselves. Personal responsibility needs to be restored in our country. Teach our children. Resilience. Everybody doesn't get a trophy just for showing up, folks. You know what resilience is? It's getting knocked down, and I have been knocked down so many times. But getting knocked down's not the problem. It's refusing to get up. We need to teach our kids, teach our children about resilience and remind ourselves that you're 51 years old, and you lost your job. You're going to come back stronger and better, and we'll help you. Empathy, this one is so important. I just would ask you to think. Put yourself in the shoes of another person. We're so quick to make judgments today in our country. Don't walk so, so, so fast. You know, yesterday, I was coming downtown, and, and there was a lady, and she was older, and she had a cane, and she was barely walking. She was putting one foot in front of another. I wanted to stop and just hug her, encourage her. People who have not been dealt, dealt the best hand in life, yeah, we want to hold them accountable, but the Lord wants our hearts to reach out to those that don't have what we have. I mean, that shouldn't be hard for America. That's who we are. When people have studied our country, they have talked about our compassion, and we need to bring it back. Empathy, don't be so quick to judge. Me, too, OK? Me, too. And then teamwork. I know Tom Moe is up here. You know, one time, he, you know, he used to run the veterans. I call it the great arc of life. The man goes in the military, he sits in the Hanoi Hilton, beaten all the time in a tiny little cell, he comes home, and I put him in charge of the veterans. I mean, this was the arc, the beautiful arc of what's right. Tom had a little code. I don't know where he is right now. Here he is right here. He tapped out a code that kept them all together, and it was team that carried them through the most difficult times. Uncle George, it was team that helped you to be successful, wasn't it? The Vietnam veterans and Iraqi veterans and the Afghanistan veterans, we do best. Or the Depression, when we all hung together. Teamwork, team, they're not the enemy; they're part of our team. We can disagree. They're our team. And then family, huh? Look at these families here. It's the building block of America. It's the building block of our culture. Let's recognize it. And of course, faith. And faith is real simple for me. It's about the dos, not about the don'ts. And what it's really about is God didn't put us on this Earth just to take of ourselves, He put us on this Earth to make things a little bit better because we live here. And so there are some that are going to try to divide us; we see about it all the time. You know forget it. I don't pay any attention to that kind of nonsense. At the end of the day, it's about being together. Because, you know, it says We the People. And by the way, if you think that I or anybody who becomes president or a big shot, we don't, we don't move America. Oh, we do our part if we have courage and intelligence, but it's all of us in the neighborhoods, in the families across the country. We're the strength and the glue. Don't, please, please, please don't lose sight of it. As for me, I'm just a flawed man, a flawed man trying to honor God's blessings in my life. I just, I don't even understand it. He's been very good to me. And I want you to know that I will do my very best to serve you because you are in my mind's eye. Who are you? Get up every day, go to work, work hard, follow the rules, come home, spend time with your family and at night, you go to bed and say your prayers for your family, for your neighbors and for our nation. And folks, as it has been said many times, the light of a city on a hill cannot be hidden. The light of a city on a hill cannot be hidden. America is that city and you are that light. As we have seen earlier this evening, the roots of the Republican Party lie in the belief in the power and dignity of the individual. We believe that America should be run from the bottom up, not the top down. We believe that true greatness comes from everyday American heroes, from Lance Armstrong who overcame cancer and pedaled his way into the hearts of all Americans to Albert Lexie, an ordinary shoeshine man who donated over $40000 in tip money to a children's hospital. We believe America works best when it is run from our families and our communities to the top. Nothing better illustrates those Republican principles than George W. Bush's economic program. First and foremost, we believe in tax cuts. For me, tax cuts are more than just numbers; they are a real moral issue. Every time we cut taxes we make government less important and people across the country more important. Tax cuts give us the power and the resources to fix the problems we face everyday in our own families and within our communities. Today in America, the government taxes people more just because they are married. This is wrong and we will end it. People work a lifetime to build a business or a family farm. Then the government takes it away when they die. This death tax is wrong and we will end it. Our senior citizens are punished for working longer and contributing more to our nation. This policy makes no sense and we will end it. George W. Bush has demonstrated real courage and real leadership for standing up to the Washington elite. He has proposed a bold plan to save and strengthen Social Security. Everyone in America understands the power of the economy. Everyone in America knows that investing in this economy will help save social security. The Liberal elite does not trust us to build our own retirement. But you and I know that through voluntary personal retirement accounts we can create wealth and personal security for ourselves and our families in our most important years. This is yet another example of our bottom up philosophy. And finally, nothing represents the power of the individual more than the opportunities of the Internet and the New Economy. It's the Internet and the New Economy that have unleashed individual creativity and potential. It has created more wealth, more broadly for more people than any era in human history. We are going to live longer, we are going to communicate faster, and we are going to work smarter. But most important, we are going to lift our economy to brand new heights. The only thing that can stand in the way of this remarkable progress is intrusive government. And we will not let it happen. Tax cuts, saving and strengthening Social Security, expanding our New Economy, and running America from the bottom up. This is the excitement of the 21st Century. This is our program. This is our vision. But America's greatest assets can only be realized if we protect the principle of opportunity for every single American. My parents taught me that through hard work and education, you could achieve anything. Our bottom up approach will guarantee this opportunity. My parents also told me to care for and help others. By doing this we will improve the lives of the next generation represented by my 6 month old daughters, Emma and Reese. This is the American Dream. This is what George W. Bush is all about. last Friday in Paris it was made obvious to the world yet again that there is an enormous chasm between the worldview of civilized people and the worldview of those who committed these acts of horror. We believe that life has value and meaning. They see no value even in their own lives, let alone others. We believe that different views and ideas should be respected and these make us stronger. They believe the answer to disagreement is death. We believe men and women are equal. They believe women are property. We live in the light of God's love for all creation. They pervert and hijack one of the world's principle religions. We live in the modern world, a world of free expression, a world of science, of respect for individual rights and liberties. They live in a darkness, devoid of even the basic understanding of humanity. We forget these differences, it's at our peril. Unless we want to see the bloodshed of Paris visited here in America and in the streets of our allies' capitols we need to get serious immediately about dealing with this threat. There can be no negotiating and no delay with this darkness. We must simply defeat it. We cannot wait on a resolution to the Syrian crisis to begin dealing with ISIS. I'm not convinced that the agreement achieved in Vienna several days ago on the future of Syria will be implemented on the announced schedule or, frankly, any schedule. And I doubt it will lead to any certainty over serious future leadership. A ceasefire is supposed to occur within six months and elections within 18, paving the way for a potential political transition in Syria. I believe these are empty promises. What is more, with ISIS having directly threatened the US homeland we can't afford to wait, we must act now. We must invoke Article Five, the Mutual Defense Clause of the North American Treaty and bring NATO together to assist our ally France in its defense. I agree with President Hollande that Friday's attacks were an act of war by ISIS on France and therefore they were an attack on America and every other NATO member state. NATO came to our aid after 9/11. NATO must now do so again for France. We must be swift. We must be decisive. And we must be absolute. We must intensify international intelligence cooperation by identifying, exchanging information on tracking, and if necessary arresting the thousands of foreign volunteers currently fighting with ISIS who then later return to their home countries. End to end communications encryption technology is increasingly leaving our intelligence agencies in the dark. We must develop new signals intelligence methods to illuminate these targets technologically, and of course we must also invest more in human intelligence assets with which to penetrate and neutralize these terrorist groups. Our signals intelligence and human intelligence, they do not exist separate from one another. They accent and complement one another and every effort should be made to leverage each for the other's benefit. We also need to reassess our domestic counterterrorism resources to ensure that our joint FBI/CIA counterterrorism taskforces have the personnel they need to track potential domestic terrorists. We must provide far more support to the Kurds both in Syria and Iraq. The Kurds who are fighting to defend their homeland fight like tigers and they are one of the few groups friendly to the United States who really have shown that they know how to take the fight to ISIS. We must arm them much more, much more generously than we have done so far. Turkey has legitimate concerns about arming the Kurdish YPK in Syria. We must work to address their concerns as we assist on addressing a threat to the vital national interests of America and the rest of the world. We must create safe havens protected by No Fly Zones. I first called for No Fly Zones early last month in order to relieve the suffering of Syrian refugees and reduce their need to travel to Europe. These sanctuaries should be located on the Turkish and on the Jordanian borders. Our Jordanian and Kurdish allies should provide protection for them on the ground while the United States provides protection from the air. We must arrest human traffickers, prosecute them, put them in jail, and confiscate their ill gotten gains. We must create an international coalition to defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq. We must join with our NATO allies and importantly with allies in the region as well. That would be the Turks, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Gulf states, the Saudis to organize an international coalition to defeat ISIS on the ground in its heartland. Experience of course has shown that an air campaign on its own is not enough. We must be more forceful in the battle of ideas. US public diplomacy and international broadcasting have lost their focus on the case for Western values and ideals and effectively countering our opponents' propaganda and disinformation. I will consolidate them into a new agency that has a clear mandate, to promote the core Judeo Christian Western values that we and our friends and allies share, the values of human rights, the values of Democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of association. And it should focus on four critical targets, the Middle East, China, Iran, and Russia. Sophisticated strategies will be developed to communicate with each of these hard target countries. The challenge posed by ISIS in Syria and Iraq is a symptom of a broader weakness in America's national security policy. Failing to advance our values in the battle of ideas, not doing so against a threat such as ISIS or in places such as Syria and Iraq is interpreted by other opponents around the world as weakness. The administration's desire for an Iran nuclear deal at any cost is another example, and weakness invites challenges and attacks of the kind that we have seen from nations that do not share our values such as China and Russia. By invading Georgia, annexing Crimea, fomenting a murderous proxy war in Eastern Ukraine, mounting provocative patrols, and building out its base structure in both Kaliningrad and Belarus, Russia has once again become a threat to European security. Russia's leadership today does not respect the basic tenets of international order, namely territorial integrity and the rule of law. Those are basic values of international relations and Russia's failure to respect them is simply not compatible with constructive relations with the West. We must work together with our European allies to defend a free Ukraine. That includes training and arming Ukrainian forces with the weapons that they have asked for and which Congress has already approved. It also means focusing on the defense of new NATO member states on the front lines with Russia, such as Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. NATO must be vigilant and protective of its easternmost member states who live every day in Russia's shadow. We must focus on supplying and equipping them in achieving interoperability, jointly committing to higher defense spending targets, repositioning existing US forces in Europe onto their eastern borders, increasing cooperation with Finland and Sweden and building a new strong integrated air defense system on NATO's eastern border. We must also learn the lessons of Crimea and develop and exercise contingency plans for dealing with future Russian provocations. You know, there are no such things as little green men or volunteers. Any such combatants will be treated as what they are, an attacking Russian army. If they reappear I will take US forces in Europe and around the world to heighten combat readiness in order to be able to intervene in support of our friends and our allies. While Russia's actions are forcing us to take tough measures to achieve peace through strength and safeguard our friends and our allies, I will make it clear that the door to negotiations remains open. I am confident that by sitting and talking together with our allies, Russia and America, that we can forge a new European security architecture that accommodates their interests without damaging those of NATO member states. The same is true for our relationship with China. The weakness we have shown toward Russia is really no different than that we have shown towards China. Its efforts to control the South China Sea and seabed resources to which it is not entitled are blatant violations of international rules and norms. These are boldfaced efforts to do nothing more than bully its neighbors. Because of those efforts, we must now stand by our Western Pacific allies who rightfully feel threatened by China's belligerence. That means working with our regional allies to significantly increase our military presence in the region, to ensure freedom of navigation for the 5 trillion in annual trade that passes through the Western Pacific. We must forward deploy our Pacific Combat Commander to Guam in stationing additional Air Force and Marine Corps units in the Western Pacific. We should increase joint Western Pacific freedom of navigation and submarine patrols. We should conduct regular regional amphibious landing exercises. We should help our Japanese allies defend their territorial waters by installing seabed acoustic sensor systems, anti-ship missiles, rocket launch torpedoes, and mine laying equipment through their southern island chain. To deal with the nuclear threat posed by North Korea I will work with South Korea and our other regional allies to revitalize allies' counter proliferation activities and to build ballistic missile defenses. The US does not seek confrontation with China. We should remain open to working responsibly with our allies and with China as an equal stakeholder. Together we should be able to forge innovative solutions and institutions that respect and accommodate the national security interests of all Pacific powers. The same mistakes in judgement and strategy that have let terrorism flourish in recent years and wrongly signal weakness to Russia and China are found throughout American national security policy right now, and it all comes down to this: We have not led, because leadership has not been a priority we have been content to let the tools of leadership are military and our alliance relations grow weak and frayed. We have even hesitated to express and live by the values at the core of who we are. It's time for change before it's too late. We must rebuild our nation's sorely neglected military from the bottom up. This doesn't mean that like some we rush to fund every General's wish list. Instead we must assess our combined allied capabilities and identify the needs and gaps in dealing with threats that we face in each region of the world. This means being strategic about rebuilding our military, matching it to the threats that we face and complementing the capabilities of our allies. We must also be more careful in how we spend our military dollars, especially on weapons systems. We can make our dollars go further and get our troops the equipment they need faster by rewarding on target cost estimates, insisting on extensive prototyping, incentivizing contractors and program managers to be ahead of schedule and under budget, using off the shelf technology as much as we can, and putting in place high threshold criteria for design changes. Likewise, we must ensure that scarce resources reach those who need them most, and those would be our fighting men and women. By streamlining the Pentagon bureaucracy, defining performance standards, and holding our defense civilian workforce to them, providing greater flexibility both to hire the talent we need and part company with consistent underperformers. And we must recognize that cyberspace is a battlefield as well that demands our attention and resources. This has not been the federal government's strength and we must not shy away from turning to the private sector for much needed help to protect ourselves and to take the battle to the enemy. We can and we must take out of the resources that our enemies use to wage war online. Not only do we need strong, decisive, multilateral agreements to respond to anyone that attacks our governments and our private sector and our allies but we need an aggressive strategy to go after the cyber resources of our enemies. Not only does this eliminate threats, but of course it also deters future attacks. We have let ourselves fall too far behind in this arena. Rebuilding our military is no easy task. We know it will be expensive, and it cannot be done without first making sure that we have a strong economy. No one understood this as well as President Ronald Reagan. I have proposed an economic revival plan that will provide the growth we need to be strong, strong economically but also strong militarily. Importantly, we need to balance our budget and we need to stop adding to our national debt. What leverage do we have in dealing with other nations if they are the ones loaning us money for our out of control spending? Relationships with our allies are critical to all we must do going forward. Friends like those in Europe have been ignored. Friends like Israel have been abused. We need to repair the damage. There is strength in numbers, strength in consensus, and by acting in concert with our allies by sharing intelligence, by working together in international bodies we can more effectively advance our interests and we can keep Americans safe. As we rebuild our military we should consult with our allies to assess their military needs and their strengths, and of course we also should expect them to pull their weight. And nothing about being an ally means you will not advance your own interests. An exclusive diet of going it alone, that's unsustainable, but America must always reserve the right to take its own actions and lead. Our allied relationships are rooted in shared values such as respect for human life, freedom of thought, expression, and religion, equality and the right of every person, every person to have the chance to learn, grow, and achieve. These are handed down to us by our Judeo Christian tradition which has guided our civilization for centuries, yet it is fair to say that at times we seem to have forgotten them or have become afraid to stand up and proclaim them. If we don't know what we believe how do we know what we want from life? How do we set goals for our families, our communities, or our nations? If we let ourselves begin to drift, so afraid to offend anyone that we're afraid even to say what we think is right, we put our futures in peril. In this vacuum of values is it any wonder that we see bright, educated young people abandoning the West for the meaning they think they see in the extremist cause? Values are a compass that can help us individually and as a society navigate personal challenges in an increasingly complex and dangerous world. We need to rediscover them. We need to recommit ourselves to them with passion and without apology. This is not our battle alone. We should join with those moderate Muslims who have condemned the attack on Paris and who see through the lie of extremism. We must encourage them and join with them to speak with one voice so that the world's young people understand what is a lie, what is true, what is darkness, and what is light and life. Finally, a word about how I see America's role in the world. There seems to be a fear today to call America exceptional. I believe America is exceptional. It is simply a statement of the obvious. We are exceptional because of our uniqueness. America is not a language or ethnic group or religion. We are the melting pot of every people in the world, so when Paris hurts we hurt, when Ukraine hurts we hurt, and conversely when those places hurt and we don't act the world is weaker and so are we. Throughout all of our history America has never been afraid to fight for our values and ideas. Oh yeah, it's okay that sometimes we argue. That's just part of it. The fact that we have disagreements is part of how we live, but at each moment of crisis we have united as a nation, at each moment we came together in common cause, at each moment we united the civilized world, and of course we came out stronger because of it. This is that moment. It's not someone else's job, nor is it our job alone. It is in the hands of each of us and our allies to realize that we can change the world, we can fix this, we can make America and the world a safer place to ensure that our children and grandchildren can live to fulfill their dreams and ours. Thank you Thank you. Well thank you very much. Candy and I are delighted to be here. And I will just get right into it, because I don't have a whole lot of time. And we're going to want to leave a little time to answer some questions. You know, why did I write this book? And America is such a great place, and I am so glad that I was born here. You know, I have traveled to 57 different countries, gotten to know lots of people and a lot of other ways of life. But this remains the place that is the land of dreams. And I know a lot of people like to criticize our nation, and demonize it, and say it's responsible for a lot of horrible things. And yet I see a lot of people trying to get in here, and not a lot of people trying to get out. So I'm not sure that that really is all that legitimate, to be honest with you. But, you know, growing up in poverty, with a lot of disadvantages, the thing that was really great is I was still able to focus on my dream of becoming a doctor. It was the only thing I ever wanted to do. I skipped right by policeman and fireman and went straight to doctor. And, you know, I loved anything that had to do with medicine. I even liked going to the doctor's office. And I would gladly sacrifice a shot just to be able to smell those alcohol swabs, you know, it was so cool. And on through the whole process, were there a lot of hurdles along the way? Absolutely, tremendous hurdles along the way. But, nevertheless, it was still possible to realize that dream. And I want to make sure that that continues to be the case. And one of the reasons that it was possible is because we have a system that did everything possible to create fairness, even when there were people in the system who did not want to be fair. And that's why it is so important that we must preserve our Constitution. Virtually all Americans know that we have a Constitution. But how many people actually know what's in it? And how many people actually know what's behind it? And, of course, it is the mechanism that guarantees our liberties and that provides the guidelines for the restraint of government. Because our founders recognized that it was the natural tendency of government to grow and to invade every aspect of your life and to try to control your life. That's what people do. And that's what they wanted to avoid by doing this. And that's why it's so important that we understand it. You know, in 1831, when Alexis DeTuddville came to America to study our great country, because the Europeans were just so flabbergasted that this fledgling nation, barely 50 years old, was already competing with them on virtually every level, he was going to really dissect it and see what was going on. But one of the things that really impressed him was how educated the people were. You know, anybody finishing the second grade was completely literate. He could find a mountain man on the outskirts of society and the guy could read the newspaper and could tell him how our government worked. And nowadays, we don't seem to emphasize, you know, civics and things like that in school anymore. And I'm sure some of you have seen some of those man on the street interview situations, where they go out and ask just really basic questions, and people have no clue what you're talking about. And you know, they think, you know, you say, Well who's the first President, and they say, Reagan? I mean they have no idea. And it's funny, but it's so sad, because our founders, and particularly Franklin and Jefferson, emphasized education, and they emphasized being informed. And they said, Our system of government and our freedoms are dependent on a well informed and educated populace, because they recognized that, if the people were not well informed, that they would be easy to manipulate. And all it would take was dishonest politicians and a complicit news media and off you would go into another direction very, very quickly. Now, I'll tell you right off the bat, before I go any further, I'm not politically correct. I will not be politically correct. And that's one of the reasons that a lot of the people in the press don't like me. But it's okay, because you know, what I really love is this country. I don't necessarily care whether the press likes me or not. And therefore, I'm not going to conform to all their little requirements. Like people ask me all the time, Well why don't you just do this and do this? And then they won't say bad things about you. Because this is America, that's why I'm not going to do that. And I never will do that. But I want to touch on some of the aspects of America that I touched on in the book, like the balance of powers, the check and balance system, the separation of powers. I believe this is so vitally important. And it was a touch of genius by our founders because they recognized that each branch, Executive, Judicial and Legislative would want to maintain their power. And therefore, they would push back against excesses in the other branches. And that works extraordinarily well in a government like we have when they all are exercising their power appropriately. Unfortunately, we have a legislative branch that really acts more like a peanut gallery. You know, they sort of sit there and watch what the others do, sometimes complain about it, but really don't offer any resistance, because they're afraid somebody might blame them. News flash, they're going to get blamed anyway. So what they really ought to be thinking about is how do they get involved and be more proactive? You know, case in point, I think about the recent decision by the Supreme Court on gay marriage. Now first of all, let me just say, I have nothing against gay people whatsoever. I know a lot of people don't believe that because we live in a society now where, if you don't accept their entire agenda, then you're a homophobe. But, you know, I personally believe that any two people, regardless of sexual orientation or anything else, have the right to associate together. If they want to have a legal contract drawn up which allows them to share property, have hospital visitation rights, do whatever they want, absolutely. I don't have any problem with that. That's the kind of country that this was designed to be, live and let live. Not impose your values on everybody else. And that's the problem. But with the Supreme Court ruling that changes essentially the definition of marriage, it doesn't take into consideration the implications of that. If you change it for one group, why won't you change it for the next? What defense do you have against the next group? You're going to say, We can only change it this one time. We're never going to change it again? Well that wouldn't be very fair. So why change it in the first place? It's been working very well for thousands of years. And that's what happens when people go in and start tinkering with things without thinking about the implications of it. And the legislative branch, however, I would have thought would have been already prepared with legislation in case the Supreme Court came down with that decision, to make sure we preserve the rights, the religious rights of everybody. Not everybody agrees with their new definition of marriage. And it's a conviction and a religious conviction. And they need to make sure that they protect people's religious rights. They bring Johnny Come Lately, but I call upon Congress to do that now, because there are people who are losing their jobs, their livelihood. And it's not fair. That's not what America was supposed to be. But, unless all the branches of government are functioning the right way, these are the kinds of things that happen, because there will be overreach by any of the branches, because they're composed of people and people are not perfect. But that's why we have the counterbalance in order to be able to rectify the situation, because one group may not take into consideration the ramifications of what they are doing. Also, the Constitution indicates that, you know, civil issues really should be dealt with at the local level, at the state level. There was a reason for that. It was because the legislators and the judiciary at the local level are subject to the will of the people. The people vote them in, the people vote them out. And our founders felt that the people should be the ones who determine how things worked and the standards by which they lived. When you take those issues and you bump them up to a level where the people making the decisions have no obligation whatsoever to the people, then you wind up with an oligarchy type government. That was not what the founders intended for America. So we are somehow going to have to look into ways to rebalance that, because if we continue down that pathway, you can see how virtually everything that they intended will be upset. We don't want that to happen. The Preamble to the Constitution talks about the role of the government in terms of promoting the general welfare. That doesn't mean that we want to put everybody on welfare. That's not what the general welfare is. It means that, when we do things, we want to do them in a way that they benefit the entire society. And it is very important, you know, that we take care, that we make sure that everybody is taken care of in an appropriate way. But, when I say we, that does not necessarily mean the federal government. You know, I get criticized sometimes, inappropriately by the way, by people who say, Carson grew up very poor. He must have benefited from some government programs. And now he wants to withdraw all the safety nets. Well this is nothing but a blatant lie by people who need to characterize me as heartless. They love to do that. They love to say, Carson is insensitive, and he's heartless, and he hates people, because they need that narrative. That's the only way that it can be acceptable, because I'm—I don't fit into their general description. You know, a black people who is a conservative? They can't quite deal with that. Who talks about self reliance, and that you're not dependent on them? Oh how could you possibly say such heresy? So, you know, it's necessary to demonize individuals like that. And I understand that. And I'm actually willing to fight with them. I will continue to fight with them. But I'm fighting for something even greater. And that is, I'm fighting for the people of the United States, because you see, we have very, very smart and very, very capable people in our nation who would be extremely good leaders, but they say, Why would I get into that cesspool and be attacked and have my family attacked and have people going through every aspect of my life and trying to demonize me? And people don't want to do that. Well, I am going to fight that fight for them. And if I am successful, I expect that maybe a lot more of the people in our country who are not professional politicians will say, You know what? He did it. I'm going to do it too. And I think we'll be much better off as a country when we once again understand that this country is for everybody and not for a specific political class. But as far as the whole safety net argument is concerned, my mother worked extraordinarily hard, three jobs at a time, leaving the house before five in the morning, getting back after midnight, because she didn't want to be dependent. And she occasionally accepted some aid. But, for the most part, was able to stay off of it. And she refused to be a victim. And she refused to let us be victims. And it wasn't that she didn't recognize that there were problems out there. But she chose to focus on other things. And she would say to us, If you walk into an auditorium full of bigoted, racist people, she said, You don't have a problem, they have a problem. She said, Because when you walk in there, they're all going to cringe and wonder if you're going to sit next to them. Whereas you can sit anywhere you want. And you know, that's kind of the way that I have chosen to lead my life. Have there been obstacles? Of course. Have there been racist people around? Of course there have. But I said, that's their problem. I've got some very important things that I need to do. So I can get wrapped up in their problem, or I can do the important things. Not everybody chooses to lead their life that way, and that's fine. But that's the way that I chose to lead mine. And it works pretty well, if I do say so myself. Having said that, I am very concerned about the downtrodden people in our society. And I do believe we have a responsibility to take care of them. But when I say we, I'm talking about we the people. I'm talking about the private sector. I'm not talking about the government. You know, the government has been taking this on really since Woodrow Wilson, but it kept increasing. By the time we got to Lyndon Johnson and the war on poverty, it was, hey, we're the savior, we're going to take care of you guys. We're going to solve all these problems. Well here we are, all these years later, $19 trillion dollars later, did we solve the problem? We have ten times more people on food stamps, more people in poverty, welfare, broken homes, out of wedlock births, crime, incarceration, everything that was supposed to be better is not only worse, it's much worse. So I'm not going to sit here and demonize the government for doing that, but I'm saying, isn't it time to wake up and start thinking about another way to do things, rather than driving ourselves into debt without solving the problem? And that is a tremendous responsibility of the government as well, to remain solvent, because you are the guardian of the people's future. I mean how can we enjoy the liberties and have our posterity, enjoy the liberties if they are overloaded with debt? $18 ½ trillion dollars, the national debt? Think about that. To pay that back at $10 million a day, it would take you over 5000 years. That's absurd. And we're putting that on the backs of our young people. And now, here we are, sitting here saying, oh, let's increase the debt some more. Let's raise the debt ceiling some more. Did it ever maybe occur to us that there's another way? I mean there are 4 million federal employees. I would offer that that's too many. And there are 645 federal agencies and sub-agencies, all of whom have budgets. This is absurd. And we've had people saying, If you cut the budget by one penny, it will be a disaster. Nancy Pelosi. You know, I mean, this is absolutely absurd, okay. But we must think about the children. And that really is the main reason that I've gotten into the fray here, as a pediatric neurosurgeon, my whole professional career centered on the children and on the future for the children. And what we had to do to improve quality of life for them. How can we in good conscience continue this charade of responsibility knowing what we are doing to their future? If I had time, I would really get into the fiscal gap and all the implications of that, and what the implications of the debt is on the Fed, and how they're irresponsibly printing money, and how the low interest rates are hurting the poor and the middle class because, you know, putting money into a savings account or buying bonds doesn't help them. The only people who can really make money are people who can have a risk tolerance which allows them to go into the stock market. And I would talk about the regulations and how every single regulation costs money in terms of goods and services, and how those are the things that are really impacting the middle class and the poor people. It doesn't matter for wealthy people if a bar of soap goes up ten cents, but it matters a lot for the middle class and for poor people. You think about that regulatory burden and who it is really hurting. You know, it goes on and on and on. When we're promoting the general welfare, those are the kinds of things we have to be thinking about. We have to be thinking about mechanisms for allowing the downtrodden in our society to escape from dependency and move up into the fabric of success in our country. And we have to understand that we only have 330 million people. Sounds like a lot, but China has over a billion, India has over a billion. We need to get the bang for the buck out of all of our people. We need to be thinking about policies that allow all of our people to rise and stop all this silly class warfare stuff. And we can get immediate, immediate stimulus by thinking about the over $2 trillion dollars that exist overseas right now. We need to bring that money back. I can remember many an afternoon sitting around the Board table at Kellogg or Costco, talking about the money overseas, and what we were going to do with it, and how we would love to bring it back in order to build another factory or do something else. But the corporate tax rates were too high. Well, what if we had a six month hiatus on those corporate taxes overseas, let that money be repatriated. I've been talking about this for several months. And we wouldn't— it wouldn't cost them anything to repatriate it. We would only request or require that 10 percent of it be used in enterprise zones that are set up in our major cities or to provide employment for people who are unemployed or on welfare. You want to talk about an incredible stimulus that didn't cost the taxpayers one penny, that would be the biggest stimulus probably since FDR's New Deal. That's low hanging fruit. It's low hanging fruit. And you know, that's what we've got to do, deal with this low hanging fruit. The other thing is, it gets business and industry once again thinking about how do we invest in the people around us? This is what we used to do, before the government started taking over everything, because Americans are very generous people. You think about the early America, and you had these communities all over the place, in many cases separated by hundreds of miles. How did they survive, and how did they thrive? Because at harvest time, if a farmer was up in an apple tree picking apples and fell out and broke his leg, everybody else pitched in and harvested his crops. If somebody got killed, everybody else pitched in and took care of their family. That's who we are. When there's disaster in the world, who is always on the front line? It's us. So let's utilize that and recognize that we are our brother's keeper, and it is our duty to take care of the indigent, it is not the duty of the government. And if we learn that And then, another important aspect of our government is to provide for the common defense. Now I could talk about this for a long time. But simply to allow our military to deteriorate the way it has, to fail to take care of our veterans to the point where we have 22 to 23 suicides every day, it makes absolutely no sense. To leave our electric grid unprotected, it needs to be hardened. We need to have several layers of alternative energy. You know, this is criminal what we're doing, because we are so vulnerable. And, you know, we need to really beef up our cyber capabilities. And I'll tell you, under a Carson administration, if another country attacks us with a cyber attack, they're going to get hit so hard, it's going to take them a long time to recover. We can't sit around and let people do stuff and just say, You're bad. I don't like you, you know. We can't do that. And, you know, we have to understand. We also need to reinvigorate our space program. I think it is a crime that we have moved away from that. Think about all the inventions, the innovation that came out of that. Your cell phone, so many things. And the important thing is, in the future, he who controls space controls the earth. We cannot be tardy to that when there are others who are working very hard in order to conquer that area. And then, the last area I just wanted to mention briefly, and I could really go on for quite a while on this one, but there is only one business in America that is protected by the Constitution. And that is the press. And there was a reason for that. It was because the press was supposed to be an ally of the people. And they were supposed to expose and inform the people in a nonpartisan way. When they become partisan, which they are, they distort the system as it was supposed to work. And they allow the side that they pick to get away with all kinds of things. And I think there's still hope for the press. I think it is possible that some of them will recognize that it's almost a sacred obligation that they have to the people to be honest. Now you know, just in the last week, in my own case, they take something that I say about the shootings in Oregon, and don't put the part in where I was answering the question, don't put the question in, just give the response, and say, See, he's being critical of the people. I mean the good thing is that a lot of the people in America are onto them and understand what they're trying to do. And that's one of the reasons we're doing well. And it seems like the more they attack me, the better we do, because people expect that, you know. And last week, I'm leaving a press conference, getting ready to get on a bus, and the reporter says, Can you tell me what you're going to do about hurricanes? I said, Goodbye. I don't know. The next day, Carson wants to be President, has no idea what to do about hurricanes, you know. This is the level of insincerity that we see. And it really is kind of embarrassing to see that. And it happens on the other side, too. It's not just on one side, you know. I was doing an interview with Wolf Blitzer yesterday, and he was asking about renewal of the Voting Rights Act. And of course I want renewal of the Voting Rights Act, or at least an aspect of it that protects all Americans' rights to vote. But it's a much longer conversation about what needs to be done to it before it is renewed. It was something based on conditions 50 or 60 years ago. A lot of things have changed since that time. We certainly don't want to empower the Department of Justice to do some of the things that the Holder Justice Department did based on that bill. So everything needs to be looked at in its context. And when news media pick one word or one phrase and they run with it and they try to characterize people like that, I got to tell you guys, that's why people don't trust you anymore. I mean you're down there with used car salesmen. And, you know, we should. So what is it going to take to save our country? Courage. It's going to take courage by all of us, including the press. And we have to begin to think about those who come behind us. Because what would have happened to us if those who preceded us were little chicken livers? What if they weren't willing to take risk? What if on D-Day our soldiers invading the beaches of Normandy had seen their colleagues being cut down, 100 bodies laying in the sand, 1000 bodies laying in the sand? What if they had been frightened and turned back? Well I guarantee you, they were frightened. But they didn't turn back. They stepped over the bodies of their colleagues, knowing in many cases that they would never see their homeland or their loved ones again. And they stormed those Axis troops. And they took that beach, and they died. Why did they do that? They didn't do it for themselves, they did it for you, and they did it for me. And now it's our turn. And what are we willing to do for our children and for our grandchildren? Are we willing to stand up? Or are we afraid that somebody is going to call us a nasty name, or that we're going to get an IRS audit, or that somebody is going to mess with our job? You know, we have a lot less to lose than they did. And the people who were always telling me, Hang in there, don't let them get to you, believe me, do not worry about it, because the stakes are much too high. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much, and thank you very much to the folks at the Press Club for having me, and good morning. Look, today I want to put aside my own political mission, my own campaign just for a moment. I want to talk about something more important than myself or any single candidate. The idea of America is slipping away from us. What do I mean by that? We're on the path towards socialism. In America today, we've got over $18 trillion of debt, Planned Parenthood is dismembering and selling babies across the country. The idea of America is slipping away from us. That is the context for what I want to talk about today. Yet, there was a great opportunity for us to get our country back. There is a hunger to get America back. I see it in the polls, I see it in people's eyes, in the early states. You see it all around us. People are hungry and eager to get the idea of America back. I believe our country is ready for it. The liberalism, the incompetence of the Obama Administration have brought us to the edge. The idea of America is slipping away. The people can see it and they're demanding radical change. They're demanding that we get back on the path to greatness. The American people have a massive appetite for a rebirth, a massive appetite for making America great again. That is the context and the reason for my remarks today. I want to start by saying I like the idea of Donald Trump. I like the idea of an outsider. I like the idea of somebody willing to say the things you're not supposed to say. I like the idea of somebody going after the DC political class. The reality is they are full of foolishness and nonsense. Donald Trump's diagnosis is exactly right. The political class is the problem. The problem is Donald Trump's prescription is exactly wrong. His diagnosis on the political class is right, his prescription is wrong. His prescription is that he is the solution. Donald Trump's not the solution. The problem is that Donald Trump himself is full of foolishness and nonsense as well. Now look, I'll start by saying I like the idea of Donald Trump and I like the show. I like the Donald Trump act and show. It's a lot of fun, it's entertainment. I laughed when he went on live TV and gave our Lindsey Graham's cell phone number. I thought it was pretty entertaining when he said that audiences were falling asleep at Jeb Bush's rallies. I thought it was great when he gave helicopter rides to kids at the Iowa State Fair. It's been a lot of fun. But here's the problem: Donald Trump is not a serious candidate. He's a narcissist. He's an egomaniac. The only thing he believes in is himself. The reality is that I want to say what everybody is thinking about Donald Trump but afraid to say. Everybody knows this is true. This shouldn't be new. The idea of the Donald Trump act is great. The reality of Donald Trump, however, is absurd. He's non serious. He's a carnival act. Here's the truth about Donald Trump. Donald Trump is shallow. He has no understanding of policy. He is full of bluster. He has no substance. He lacks the intellectual curiosity to even learn. You can't argue policy with this guy. The only thing that Donald Trump believes in is himself. Look, he tells us that his healthcare plan's going to be fabulous. He tells us his tax plan will be really, really terrific. He is shallow, there is no substance. He doesn't know anything about policy. He has no idea what he's talking about. He makes it up on the fly. He doesn't believe in limited government. He has told us that. Over and over from his belief in socialized medicine to his desire for tax increases. He has told us over and over that he's got no problem with big, top down style government. The only government he's got with DC today, he has no problem with big top down style government. His only problem is he's not the one running it today. Donald Trump's not against big government, he's just against the folks that happen to be running it. Donald Trump is for Donald Trump. He believes in nothing other than himself. Look, he's not a liberal, he's not a moderate, he's not a conservative. He's not a Democrat, he's not a Republican, he's not an independent. Donald Trump is for Donald Trump. He's not for anything, he's not against anything. Issues don't mean anything to him. Policies, ideals, they're not important to him, he is for Donald. Donald Trump is a narcissist and he's an egomaniac. Now, that may sound like a serious charge to make. But it is something that everybody knows to be true. He knows it, too, he celebrates it. He says Kanye West is great. Why is Kanye West great? Well, because Kanye West likes Trump. So therefore, Kanye West is great. He's an entertaining narcissist, but he's still a narcissist. Like all narcissist, Donald Trump is insecure and weak. He's afraid of being exposed. That's why he tells us always and constantly how big and strong and wealthy he is. Look, we all know that, we've all met people like Donald Trump who continue to tell us how insignificant everybody else is. We know that only a very weak and small person needs to constantly tell us how strong and powerful they are. Donald Trump believes he is the answer to every question. Donald Trump is dangerous, but not in the way you think. The reality is we have an incredible opportunity to turn our country around and the question for conservatives is this: are we going to rely and trust proven conservative principles or are we going to turn to a man who believes in nothing but himself? And that is the most essential question we've got to answer right now. Are we going to miss this great opportunity? Are we going to apply conservative principles, or do we trust a man who believes in nothing but himself? That's what makes Donald Trump so dangerous. Many people think he's dangerous, they say, Well, you wouldn't want somebody like that with such a hot head with his fingers on the nuclear codes. And yeah, that's certainly true. That's not the real danger. The real danger is that ironically Donald Trump could destroy America's chance to be great again. And as conservatives, we must not miss this golden opportunity. The Democratic Party has terribly, incredibly screwed things up. Look, they've run our country into the ground. They're destroying our economy, they've screwed up our foreign policy. We're about to allow Iran to become a nuclear power. They're running their weakest candidate who's running the weakest possible campaign. They are giving us this election on a sliver platter. But if we blow this opportunity, we may never get it again. And this election's not just about the Republican Party or about conservatives, it is about saving our country. It is about rescuing the idea of America, making America great again. Donald Trump is not a serious act. He is not a serious person. Look, it's all just an act, it's all just a solo show. The joke's on us. He's laughing all the way to the bank or the polling station. P. T. Barnum was never more right than right now. Now, you may have recently heard and seen that Donald Trump said that the Bible was his favorite book. Yet when asked, he couldn't even name a specific or a single Bible verse that was important to him, that had an impact on him. Well, do you know why? Well, it's clear, Donald Trump's never read the Bible. The reason we know he's never read the Bible, he's not in the Bible. Folks, Donald Trump is not a serious person. This is a carnival act. These are serious times for our country. The Democrats have practically gift wrapped this election for us. The whole thing is set up for us to win. Now, we are flirting with nominating a non serious, unstable, substance free candidate. We cannot send this narcissist, we cannot nominate this egomaniac. Nominating Donald Trump is a certain way for us to ruin our opportunity to make America great again. Look, the silly summer season is over. It's time to get serious about saving our country. It's time to send Donald Trump back to reality TV. It's time to tell him, Look, you've been great. You've been great for ratings. It's been great fun. You've been almost as good as Don Rickles. The show's been a blast. And he was right when he borrowed Ronald Reagan's theme saying that we need to make America great again. We do need to make America great again. We do need to fire everybody in Washington. We do, in fact, need to get rid of political correctness. All of that is true. We can make America great again. But we will not do that by putting an unserious and unstable narcissist in the White House. Our country is worth saving. This is our time to save it. The conservative cause deserves more than a power hungry shark. He eats whatever is in front of him. Sooner or later, we will be his next meal. This is our moment, this is our time. We can win right now, or we can be the biggest fools of all time and put our faith not in our principles but in an egomaniacal madman who has no principles. If we nominate him, he will self destruct in a general election. He may be the greatest gift, the last that Hillary Clinton actually has. But even worse, if you're a conservative, even if he were to win, it doesn't matter. He believes in nothing. We have no idea what he would actually do in the White House. Folks it is time to get serious about making America great again. It is time for Donald Trump to take the ride down the elevator. It is time for us to tell him, Donald, you are fired. It is time to tell him we will not put an egomaniacal, unserious person in the White House. We need to put a committed conservative in the White House, one who will make our country great again, who will ignore the professional political class in Washington, D. C. Donald Trump's campaign is not about making America great again, it's about making Donald Trump great. Look, obviously I think I'm the right man for this job. But the voters will make that decision. America is ready for a politically incorrect, committed conservative candidate. If I haven't been clear, I think the Donald Trump show's been entertaining, I've enjoyed him as a reality TV show star, but just because a lot of people like watching Kim Kardashian, we wouldn't put her in the White House, either. He is an unserious, unstable, narcissistic egomaniac. It is time for us to put a serious, committed conservative. Let's make America great again. It starts by firing Donald Trump. Thank you, and I'll look forward to taking your questions. Thank you all very much. My new phone. Yeah, I went with the iPhone, so I'm sure their stock will, the number is not part of the speech. To the Press Club, thanks a ton. A real in-depth analysis of will be had tomorrow on the steps of the capitol when Trump and Cruz speak, but I'll bore you between now and then with what I think. I think I am lucky to be here to talk about something so important to so many distinguished people who jealously guard the First Amendment. It is in your care. Use it wisely. And I don't give many written speeches, but this is too important. I can't think of a thing I am, that I have done in the Senate more important than what this week and maybe next will behold. President Obama's deal with Iran could only be reached through a long series of mistakes and miscalculation. His biggest mistake of all was disassociate Iran's destabilizing behavior from their nuclear ambitions. By separating the two Obama opened up funding for the war machine of the world's greatest sponsor of terror. This was a strategic blunder for the ages. As to Israel, this deal empowers their chief antagonist with more money, more weapons, and a pathway to a bomb. To my Democratic colleagues who say this agreement saves Israel and secures its future I could not disagree more strongly. Every single major political party in Israel, not just Likud, opposes this deal because they know it gives the Ayatollah the ability to make his chants of death to Israel a reality. If this agreement does not dramatically change it could very well become a death sentence for the state of Israel. I believe the Ayatollah is compelled by its religious beliefs to do three things: Purify its religion, destroy the one and only Jewish state, and attack democracies like ours. There is no place in the Ayatollah's world for religious tolerance, peaceful dissent, or the selection of leaders by the people. Some of the collateral damage from Obama's fixation with the deal, with an Iranian deal at any cost has been the unchecked provocations of Russia and China. In the face of Russian intervention in Ukraine and its support for Assad or China's aggression against its neighbors President Obama has refused to push back, because he needs Moscow and Beijing in order to reach a deal with Iran. As a result, the losers of this deal include American businesses and government officials who have been cyberattacked by China, the good people of Ukraine, the overwhelming majority of Syrians who have had to suffer under Assad's oppression, all because Obama has been unwilling to counter these provocations in a forceful manner for fear of jeopardizing his agreement. The biggest losers of all are the Iranian people themselves, those who years for freedom and to see the end of oppression by the Ayatollah and his henchmen. This agreement empowers the Ayatollah, makes it far more difficult for the Iranian people to unshackle themselves from this oppressive religious theocracy. When the history of these times has been written unfortunately I believe it will be said that President Obama was a weak opponent of evil and a poor champion of freedom. His nuclear deal with Iran is the great miscalculation of his Presidency. In an administration marked by failing policies here at home and around the world, this deal will prove to be his most consequential failure. He went to the negotiating table without understanding who he was dealing with and he went to the table as a weakened President who has long been broadcasting to our enemies and the world at large that they will not be confronted. Having disastrously and permanently withdrawn from Iraq, drawing red lines in Syria and then backing down, and making it crystal clear that a military option was not really on the table, he set the stage for negotiation with Iran that could only go one way. Just as Obama's position of weakness was crystal clear, it should also have been very clear in what kind of adversary we were dealing with. Iran has been run by a radical, fanatical regime for over three and a half decades. Their nuclear ambitions, their hatred for the US and Israel, their support for terror, their religious fanaticism are all well known. Even if President Obama entered office without understanding this regime, history had given him a crash course in 2009. Two years before the Arab Spring broke out the people of Iran began to revolt against their tyrannical government. The Ayatollah had rigged the Presidential election and the people of Iran knew it. Within hours of the announcement of the stolen election hundreds of thousands of Iranians poured into the streets, demanding nothing more than their democratic rights. This green revolution, as it was called, made up of political and religious moderates, young, women, workers, and anyone who wanted a better life all stood up to peacefully but forcefully demand a new kind of Iran. The reaction of the Ayatollah was swift, barbaric. Dozens were killed in cold blood and hundreds more were jailed, many of whom were tortured and tried in sham trials. At this point Iran had reached a crossroads. Either this green revolution would succeed in bringing about real change in Tehran or the radical Islamic government would succeed in squashing this movement. The United States was at a crossroads too. President Obama had a clear choice, stand with the people of Iran or remain on the sidelines during the brutal crackdown. At this pivotal moment President Obama chose to remain on the sidelines. The religious Nazis running Iran faced no consequences for their actions. The people of Iran received no support. Without the support of the world's greatest democracy their effort was doomed. The Ayatollah and his henchman, the Revolutionary Guard, killed, jailed, or terrified into silence every Iranian moderate. In the six years since there has been no sign of that resistance. Their crackdown was complete. The cost of protest clearly too high. What happened in 2009 helped sharpen the world's focus on this fanatical regime. In the years following those of us who had long understood the threat from Iran redoubled our efforts to step up the pressure. The US Congress put the screws to the Iranian government, cutting off access to global markets, especially Western financial institutions. Our allies followed our lead. We painstakingly built an international consensus on Iran. I helped to lead this effort because I believed then and I believe now that the single greatest threat to our security as a nation is the prospect of a nuclear Iran. Iran in turn felt the deep pain inflicted by the united approach to sanctions and agreed to come to the negotiating table. This was a critical moment. We had backed Iran into a corner. What we needed then more than ever was a tough American President, someone who wanted a deal but not so badly they would take a bad one, a President who credibly put all options on the table so that Iran knew we meant business, a President who laid out negotiating objectives and stuck to them, a President who without a shred of doubt would do whatever it took to defend America. But that is not the President we had. We had a President who projected weakness and clearly didn't understand who he was dealing with, but believe me they knew exactly who they were dealing with. They saw President Obama's weakness and they took every possible advantage of it. While John Kerry was giving away the farm at the negotiating table his own State Department was writing report detailing Iran's terror campaign throughout the Mideast. This report outlined very clearly the money, arms, and training Iran was providing to terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas who attacked the state of Israel. In the case of Hezbollah holds the government in Lebanon hostage. While the Obama administration was giving away our ability to dismantle Iran's nuclear program Iran was propping up Bashar Al-Assad, prolonging the Syrian conflict, giving rise to ISIL, the world's most devastating humanitarian crisis unfolds before our eyes. While our negotiators were giving up on any time anywhere inspections Iran was destabilizing Iraq, reviving sectarian tensions with a Shiite militia, paving the way for ISIL to move in and undo the gains made by American troops. While President Obama was backing down from every single negotiating objective he had laid out Iran was taking down the government of Yemen through their proxies the Hudis. They toppled this pro US government and crippled our ability to monitor Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In short, Iran set the entire Middle East on fire, taking over four Arab capitals and creating conditions for the most devastating and sophisticated attacks against our homeland, all while negotiating with the Obama administration. And what did they get at the end of that negotiation? A deal that gives them a nuclear bomb, a missile to deliver it, and the money to pay for it. The disastrous failings of this agreement are well known by now. It gives the Ayatollah immediate cash infusion of 100 billion dollars without any requirement that changes behavior. It allows the Iranians, even if they abide by the agreement, to arrive at a threshold of being a nuclear arms state in just a few short years. And of course we now all know they will not abide by this agreement. They have constantly lied and cheated from day one about their nuclear weapons program and at the end of the day the verification systems in this agreement are little more than a joke. This agreement lifts bans on ballistic missiles and conventional weapons and the launch of this deal hinges on a secret deal between the IAEA and Iran regarding the possible military dimensions of their program. So far Congress and the American people have been barred from seeing this agreement, but we know at the very least, thanks to the press, it leaves inspections in the hands of the Iranians themselves. Today the Senate begins its debate on this deal. I have spent every day since this deal analyzing it, talking with experts in the region, and trying to make the case to the American people as to why this is so dangerous. I will continue making the case on the Senate floor, encouraging my Democratic colleagues to put our security above politics. Regardless how the vote goes, the fight for a better deal will not end. I am leading the effort to impose additional sanctions on the Iranian regime until all of our hostages are released, including Jason. I will support re imposing the current sanctions before they expire at the end of 2016. I will also block funding for the IAEA until they come clean about their side deal with Iran. I will not let up until we change course, force Iran back to the table, and get a better deal. President Obama says that our choice is between this deal and war. He says that there is no better deal to be had. He is half right. There is no better deal to be had from a President who negotiates from weakness, but the right President will get the right deal. As President I will say to the Iranians you can have a peaceful nuclear energy program, you can have sanctions relief, but first you will completely dismantle your nuclear weapons program, you will abandon your support for terror, you will submit to inspections any time anywhere so that we know you are not cheating, and you will not get a penny of sanctions relief or one more bullet until we know you have complied and you have changed your behavior. That is the deal. If you reject those terms and walk away that is your choice. If Iran tries to break out they will be stopped. To achieve this better deal I will work with the Congress to impose new sanctions that will put off limits American banking system to any company that would do business with Iran. I believe having the choice between the Iranian economy and the American banking system would create tremendous leverage that I would use wisely. I am running for President because this is the deal we need. It is the only deal that will secure our nation, protect our closest allies like Israel, and assure our Arab allies that they do not need to pursue nuclear weapons on their own. President Obama can't get this deal. He has neither the will nor the understanding of the Mideast, but I do. I have spent months on the ground through dozens of trips to the region as a Senator and a member of the United States Air Force. I know the key players. More important, they know me. As President I will get us a better deal and do what it takes to make sure Iran never achieves the ability to hit us at home. Thank you very much. Thank you. It was 99 years ago, on the 15th day of May, 1916, at a Courthouse in Waco, Texas, there was a mentally disabled 17 year old boy. His name was Jesse Washington. He was convicted of raping and murdering the wife of his employer. He pled guilty, and he was sentenced to death. But Jesse died no ordinary death, because he was black. After the death sentence was issued, Jesse was dragged out of the McLennan County Courthouse, into a crowd of hundreds. And thanks to the advent of this new technology called the telephone, word spread rather quickly to what was about to happen. And soon there were 15000 people watching Jesse Washington be tortured, to be mutilated, to be tied to a tree. Someone lit a fire under Jesse and raised him up in the air. Jesse tried to climb up the chains to keep from being consumed by that fire. Someone started cutting his fingers off, so that he could not climb that chain. One man castrated him. Another used a pole to prevent him from pulling himself away from the fire. There was a prominent local photographer who took pictures of Jesse's charred remains and sold them as souvenirs on a postcard. Even today, we Texans struggle to talk about what happened to Jesse Washington. We don't want to believe that our great state could ever have been the scene of such unimaginable horror. But it is an episode in our history that we cannot ignore. It is an episode that we have an obligation to transcend. Now we made a lot of progress since 1916. A half a century ago, Republicans and Democrats came together to finally enshrine into law the principle that all of us, regardless of race, color, of national origin, are created equal. Shedrich Willis, he was a slave. This was before the Civil War. He had been bought and sold on the Courthouse steps of McLennan County, Texas, the same courthouse where Jesse Washington would later be drugged down and brought to death. When I was the Governor of Texas, I had the proud distinction of appointing Willis, Shedrich Willis's great great great grandson to be the first African American Justice on the Texas Supreme Court. In 2004, I appointed Wallace to be the Supreme Court's first Chief Justice. You see, there are tens of thousands of stories like Wallace Jefferson's. When it comes to race, America is a better and more tolerant and more welcoming place than it's ever been before. We're a country with Hispanic CEOs, with Asian billionaires, with a black President. So why is it, today, so many black families feel left behind? Why is it that a quarter of African Americans live below the poverty line, even after the impact of federal programs like food stamps and housing subsidies? The supplemental poverty rate for African Americans is nearly double the rate for other Americans. Democrats have long had the opportunity to govern the African American communities. It is time for black families to hold them accountable for the results. And I'm here to tell you that it's Republicans, not Democrats, who are truly offering black Americans the hope for a better life for themselves and their children. I'm proud to live in a country that has an African American President. But President Obama cannot be proud of the fact that the prevalence of black poverty has actually increased under his leadership. We cannot dismiss the historical legacy of slavery, nor its role in causing the problem of black poverty. And because slavery and segregation were sanctioned by government, there is a role for government policy in addressing their lasting effects. But the specific policies, advanced by the President and his allies on the left, amount to little more than throwing money at the problem and walking away. We spend $450 billion a year on Medicaid. And yet health outcomes for those on Medicaid are no better than those who have no health insurance at all. Instead of reforming Medicaid, the President expanded it under Obamacare. In the cities where left wing solutions have been tried over and over again, places like Detroit and Chicago and Baltimore, African Americans are moving out. And they're moving to cities like Houston and Dallas. Listen, as Americans, I think we are all—we're all united by certain aspirations. We want access to opportunity. We want good schools for our kids. We want to live in safe neighborhoods. We want to live in cities and states where housing and college and everyday expenses are affordable. We want to all experience the American dream. From 2005 to 2007 more African Americans moved to Texas than all but one other state, that state being Georgia. Now many were coming from blue states, like New York and Illinois and California. Many came from Louisiana, where they had lost their homes due to Hurricane Katrina. But each one of those new residents were welcomed to Texas with open arms. They came to a state with a booming economy. We kept taxes low, regulations low. We kept frivolous lawsuits to a minimum. We worked hard to educate every child. Now let me be clear, we have not eliminated black poverty in Texas. But we have made meaningful progress. In New York, the supplemental poverty rate for blacks is 26 percent. In California, it is 30 percent. In Washington, DC it is 33 percent. In Texas, it is just 20 percent. And here is how it happened. We curtailed frivolous lawsuits and unreasonable regulations. It's far cheaper to do business in Dallas or Houston than it is in Baltimore or in Detroit. And those lower costs, they get passed down to consumers, especially low income consumers in the form of lower prices. There's a lot of talk in Washington about inequality, income inequality. But there is a lot less talk about the inequality that arises from the high cost of everyday life. In blue state coastal cities you have these strict zoning laws, environmental regulations that have prevented buildings from expanding the housing supply. And that may be great for the venture capitalist who wants to keep a nice view of San Francisco Bay. But it's not so great for the single mother working two jobs in order to pay rent and still put food on the table for her kids. It's not just about how many dollars you earn, though there are still pretty substantial opportunities for that in the State of Texas. It's also about how far each dollar that you do earn can take you. After you've paid your taxes, you've paid your rent, your tuition, your grocery bills. In too many parts of this country, black students are trapped in failing schools, where union bosses look out after themselves at the expense of the kids. And this matters, because kids who graduate from high school typically make 50 percent more than those who don't. In Texas, we made sure that the kids came first. Texas high school graduation rates were 27th in the nation in 2002. In 2013, they were the 2nd highest in America. Our most recent graduation rate for African Americans, number one in this country, 13 percentage points higher than the national average. That matters. We also found a way to reduce crime, while we're also keeping kids out of jail. In 2014 Texas had the lowest crime rate since 1968. And, at the same time, we closed three prisons and reformed our sentencing laws. Too many prisons—or I should say too many Texans were going to prison for nonviolent drug offenses. And, once they got out of prison, many of them found they couldn't get a job because they had a criminal record. I'm pretty sure nobody in here gets confused that Texas is a soft on crime place. But I also believe, like Texans believe, in consequences for criminal behavior, but I also believe in second chances and human redemption, because that too is part of the American story. Americans who suffer from an addiction need help. They don't need moral condemnation. By treating alcohol and drug abuse as a disease, we've given Texans who have experienced a run in with the law the help that they need, the rehabilitation that many seek. And now, many of those individuals are living in recovery. They're engaged in saving the lives of others who are trapped in addiction. You see, the human soul yearns to be free, free from the chains of addiction, free from the chains of poverty. I'm running for President because I want to make life better for all people, even those that don't vote Republican. I know Republicans have much to do to earn the trust of African Americans. Blacks know that Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964 ran against Lyndon Johnson, who was a champion for Civil Rights. They know that Barry Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He felt parts of it were unconstitutional. States supporting segregation in the south, they cited states' rights as a justification for keeping blacks from the voting booth and the dinner table. As you know, I am an ardent believer in the 10th Amendment, which was ratified in 1791, as part of our Bill of Rights. The 10th Amendment says that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved for the states respectively, or the individual. I know that state governments are more accountable to you than the federal government. But I'm also an ardent believer in the 14th Amendment, which says that no state shall deny any person in its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. There has been, and there will continue to be an important and a legitimate role for the federal government in enforcing Civil Rights. Too often, we Republicans, me included, have emphasized our message on the 10th Amendment but not our message on the 14th. An Amendment, it bears reminding, that was one of the great contributions of Republican party to American life, second only to the abolition of slavery. For too long, we Republicans have been content to lose the black vote, because we found we didn't need it to win. But, when we gave up trying to win the support of African Americans, we lost our moral legitimacy as the party of Lincoln, as the party of equal opportunity for all. It's time for us, once again, to reclaim our heritage as the only party in our country founded on the principle of freedom for African Americans. We know what Democrats will propose in 2016, the same thing, the same things that Democrats have proposed for decades, more government spending on more government programs. And there is a proper and an important role for government assistance in keeping people on their feet. But few Presidents have done more to expand government assistance than President Obama. Today we spend nearly one trillion dollars a year on means tested antipoverty programs. And yet, black poverty remains stagnant. Here is what I have seen in my time in public office. The best welfare program in America is a job. There is a fundamental reason why Democratic policies have failed to cure poverty, is because the only true cure for poverty is a job. And Democratic policies have made it too hard for the poor to find a job. Just this week, the President announced new regulations for overtime pay that will make it costlier for companies to hire full time employees. Companies are going to respond to this by hiring fewer people, simply because money doesn't grow on trees. So my first priority as President of this country will be to reignite the engine of economic growth by reforming the tax code, requiring federal agencies to adhere to strict regulatory budgets. A growing economy will give those at the bottom of the ladder more opportunities to climb, just like we did in Texas. Many poor Americans want to leave welfare. They want to rejoin the workforce. But, because of taxes and regulations, it often makes more economic sense to stay on welfare than to take that full time job. Furthermore, federal programs impose a one size fits all approach to fighting poverty. You think about this, in California, you may be substantially more in need for money to pay for the cost of housing, because of the high cost of housing in that state. In Massachusetts, it may be the cost of vocational school that you're more interested in. Instead, we force the poor to enroll in these separate programs for housing assistance and for Pell grants. If I'm elected President, I'm going to send Congress a welfare reform bill that will take the money that we already spend on non healthcare related anti poverty programs, and split them into two parts. The first part will be an expanded and reformed version of the Earned Income Tax Credit, so that anyone with a job can live above the poverty level. The second part will consist of a block grant so that states can care and put into place that safety net for their population in a manner that best serves their citizens. As I mentioned earlier, one of the most important things that we did in Texas while I was Governor was to reform our drug related sentencing laws, so that nonviolent offenders could stay out of prison. As Texans got smarter about policing and crime prevention, we came to appreciate the importance of keeping promising young people out of prison. Just imagine how hard it is to get a job if you've got a criminal record. We're working to stop the intergenerational cycle of incarceration, where grandchildren meet their grandparents behind prison bars. We can reform the federal sentencing laws just as we've done at the state level, to ensure more young people have a real shot at life. And we can do so while keeping our low income communities safe from crime as well. We all know, we all know we have to improve our schools. This is an area where President Obama had some substantial potential, but he caved into the demands of the labor unions. It is a fallacy to assume that the vastly different student populations across this country can be adequately educated with a one size fits all mentality in policy. We need to empower state lawmakers, the school boards, the parents to implement policies that address the specific needs of their students, and to keep those schools accountable and efficient. You know, enterprising charter school teachers, like Eva Moskowitz up in New York, you know, they should be able to replicate their astounding success all across this country without the interference of the federal government. And we also have to attack this challenge that we have with the exorbitant price of a college education today. One of the biggest barriers today into entering into the middle class, whether you're black or otherwise, is the high cost of a college degree. A four year degree at the typical private university in this country costs $170000. Now compare that to the medium home price in this country, is $205000. We are literally asking poor students to mortgage their future in order to gain a college degree. And that has to end. It must end. In Texas, I challenged our state universities to offer a four year college degree for less than $10000. Now many thought that that would be impossible. You just couldn't drive tuition and fees that low. But today, there are 13 Texas universities that have reached that target. We're on the cusp of an online revolution in higher education, but only if the federal government rolls back the rules that make it almost impossible for students to gain accreditation for a Bachelors Degree achieved from online instruction. Furthermore, just as with college tuition, we have to reduce the cost of living for those who need every dollar to be stretched as far as it can go. Federal regulations, like Obamacare's employer mandate, they are driving up the cost of hiring new workers. That means that companies are hiring fewer people. It also means that the price of basic consumer goods are going up. Earlier this year, the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimated that the federal regulations cost American businesses as much as $1 trillion dollars per year. That's nearly $15000 per household in this country. When you add state regulations to it, the problem just gets even worse. I will suggest to you, if we'll do five things, if we create jobs, if we incentivize work, if we keep nonviolent drug offenders out of prison, if we reform our schools, and we reduce the cost of living, we will have done more for African Americans than the last three Democrat administrations combined. At the American Cemetery in Normandy, above Omaha Beach, there are 9387 American soldiers buried, in row after orderly row. If ever proof were needed that we fought for a cause and not a conquest, an American General once said, It could be found in these cemeteries. Here was our only conquest, all we asked was enough soil in which to bury our gallant dead. Some of those gallant dead in that cemetery were sons of a United States President. But most were ordinary Americans, simply doing what their country had asked them to do. Some of the graves don't even have names. They simply are marked Here rests, in honored glory, a comrade in arms known but to God. Some of the most compelling graves at Normandy are for African Americans who served in segregated regiments, like Willie Collins for the 490th Port Battalion. Willie Collins made the ultimate sacrifice for America, despite the fact that America didn't always treat him the way he deserved. Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and Sergeant Willie Collins grew up in very different circumstances. See Ted's ancestors had a Coat of Arms. Willie's ancestors came here in chains. But Ted and Willie, they joined—joined themselves together. With this commitment that every generation of Americans have embraced, the promise of leaving America and the world a better place than they found it, of ensuring a better future for the children and grandchildren of those to come. I am a beneficiary of the sacrifices of Sergeant Collins and General Roosevelt and so many others known only to God. I grew up in this place called Paint Creek. When I was young, we had an outhouse. Mama bathed us on the front porch in a number 2 wash tub. We attended Paint Creek School. Some of our teachers literally lived on that campus. Their profession was literally their lives. And they inspired me. And I can assure you that none of them knew, had any idea that they would be educating a future Captain in the United States Air Force, and certainly not a future Governor of Texas. They've got a motto at the Paint Creek School that summarizes the endless possibilities for its students. It says, No dream too tall for a school so small. Many people today don't feel that their lives are filled with that endless possibilities anymore. Americans entering adulthood today have good reason to fear it will be harder for them to earn a living, to buy a home, to pay off their debts as their parents did. But, if there is one thing that we can learn from Willie Collins and the millions like him, from the tragedy of Jesse Washington and the triumph of Wallace Jefferson, it's that America has overcome far greater obstacles than the ones that we face today. Willie Collins died in the belief that America could become a better country than the one that he left home to serve, and he was right. It's up to us to be worthy of the country that Willie Collins' generation gave us. It's up to us to leave our country better off than we found it. America has never been perfect. No country composed of imperfect beings ever could be. But there is no country that has achieved more than the United States of America. And with new leadership, and with durable reforms, America can be stronger, more prosperous than it's ever been before. America can be this incredibly exceptional place, where nothing in life is guaranteed, but where we all have equal opportunity to build a better life for ourselves, for our children, and for our children's children. Thank you and God bless you. It's a long way from a little brick rent house on 2nd street in Hope, AR to the White House. But here in this small town called Hope, I was raised to believe that where a person started didn't mean that's where he had to stop. I always believed a kid could go from Hope to Higher Ground. Like a lot of Americans, I grew up in a small town far removed from the power, the money, and the influence that runs the country. But power and money and political influence have left a lot of Americans lagging behind. They work hard, lift heavy things and sweat through their clothes grinding out a living, but they can't seem to get ahead or in some cases, even stay even. My parents were like that. My Dad wasn't an educated man, but he was a smart man. He and my mother didn't have much, but they had honesty to the bone, and taught me the basic lesson of life that I was to do unto others as I would have others do unto me. It was here in Hope that I learned how to swim, how to ride a bike, how to read, how to work, and how to play fair. I learned the difference between right and wrong. I learned that God loves me as much as He loves anyone, but that He doesn't love some more than others. I learned about America. In Miss Mary's Kindergarten and Brookwood Elementary School, I learned the pledge of allegiance, the Lord's Prayer, and Preamble to the Constitution. We prayed at the start of each day and before lunch. I learned that this exceptional country could only be explained by the Providence of God. I learned how to handle a firearm and a fishing pole and spent many hours with both. I got my first BB gun at age five a Daisy model 25 that I still have and that's in mint condition. I learned the basic rules of gun safety and never thought of using a firearm to murder someone. I ran trotlines all night at Bois D' Arc Lake with my Dad and Grandfather to catch catfish that we'd freeze and live off of for weeks. It was here I was baptized in the Garrett Memorial Baptist Church after accepting Jesus in a Vacation Bible School when I was ten years old. I truly went from Hope to Higher Ground. It was here that I met the girl who would become my wife of 41 years and give me three hildren and share what will soon be five grandchildren. We knew each other from elementary school and started dating our senior year of high school. It was here that I got a job at KXAR Radio at age 14 that would not only pay my way through school, but give me the opportunity to be mentored by Haskell Jones, the station manager and one of the few Republicans in the entire county. It was here that I became the first male in my family lineage to graduate from high school at the same campus that stands today and from here that I went on to college at Ouachita Baptist University. And it was here that I first ran for elected office when I ran for Student Council in Hope Junior High School. So it seems perfectly fitting that it would be here that I announce that I am a candidate for President of the United States of America. Eight years ago, a young, untested, inexperienced, and virtually unknown freshman Senator made great speeches about Hope and Change. But eight years later, our debt has more than doubled, America's leadership in the world has evaporated, and the country is more polarized than ever in my lifetime. 93 million Americans don't have jobs, and many who do have seen the full time job with benefits they once had become two part time jobs with no benefits. We were promised hope, but it was just talk, now we need the kind of change that really could get America from Hope to Higher Ground. Veterans who kept their promises to America and kept us free wait for months for our country to keep its promises to veterans for basic health care and assistance to cope with the scars of wars we sent them to fight. Our veterans should be getting the first fruits of our treasury not the leftovers. If I'm President, our veterans won't be left on the streets and in waiting rooms to rot, but will be treated with the dignity they have earned and deserve. When I meet men with an American Legion cap or one that says veteran, I try never to fail in saying thank you for giving me my freedom! But we owe them more than a pat on the back. We need to take them from Hope to higher ground. Washington is more dysfunctional than ever and has become so beholden to the donor class who fills the campaign coffers that it ignores the fact that one in four American families are paying more than half their income for housing. Home ownership is at the lowest level in decades and young people with heavy student debt aren't likely to afford their first home for a while. Our federal policies for affordable housing aren't designed to protect families, but to protect bureaucrats. A record number of people are enrolled in government operated help programs like food stamps, not because they want to be in poverty, but because they are part of the bottom earning 90% of American workers whose wages have been stagnant for 40 years. The war on poverty hasn't ended poverty; it's prolonged it. I don't judge the success of government by how many people are on assistance, but by how many people have good jobs and don't need government assistance. And we don't create good jobs for Americans by entering into unbalanced trade deals that forego Congressional scrutiny and looking the other way as the law is ignored so we can import low wage labor, undercut American workers, and drive wages lower than the Dead Sea. I governed in a state that was the most lopsided and partisan in the country no Republican Governor had more Democrats and fewer Republicans. I challenged the deeply entrenched political machine that ran this state. It was tough sledding, but I learned how to govern and how to lead, and even in that environment we passed 94 tax cuts, rebuilt our road system, saw dramatic improvements in student test scores, and fought the corruption of the good ol' boy system so working class people would be given a fair shake. And we saw family income increase by 50% during my tenure. Some propose that to save safety nets like Medicare and Social Security, we need to chop off the payouts for the people who have faithfully had their paychecks and pockets picked by the politicians promising that their money would be waiting for them when they were old and sick. You were forced to pay for Social Security and Medicare for 50 years. The government grabs money from our paychecks and says it will be waiting for us when we turn 65. If Congress wants to take away someone's retirement, let them end their own Congressional pensions not your Social Security. As President, I promise you will get what you paid for! How can anyone ever trust government again if they steal from us and lie to us? It didn't help when Congress took $700 Billion out of Medicare to pay for Obamacare. And instead of helping families find affordable health care, we created a monster that forces us to buy coverage we don't want, don't need, and can't afford. And imagine members of Congress boasting they will fight to repeal Obamacare and then turning around and signing up for it. Real health care reform will focus on prevention and cures rather than costly intervention. Hope comes from finding cures for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's the same way we once lined up at the courthouse in the 50's and took our vaccines and eradicated polio. Cures could give real hope to families who hear a dreaded diagnosis and are sentenced to a slow and agonizing death. Alzheimer's Disease alone will cost well over $1 trillion by 2050. Focusing on cures instead of treatment saves money, lives, and families. I remember President Kennedy telling us we'd send a man to the moon and bring him home within the decade. President Kennedy didn't live to see that come true, but I did, and it made me believe America could do anything it set its mind to. As President, I'd launch a curative approach to health care and save money and lives not government programs. We face real threats from radical jihadism in the form of savage groups like ISIS and state terrorists like Iran, but we put more pressure on our ally Israel to cease building bedrooms for their families in Judea and Samaria than we do on Iran for building a bomb. Dealing with radicals who chant death to America and who fund bombs and rockets to murder civilians in Israel is nonsense. But when I hear the current President say he wants Christians to get off their high horse so we can make nice with radical jihadists, I wonder if he could watch a western from the fifties and be able to figure out who the good guys and bad guys are! As President, I promise you that we will no longer merely try to CONTAIN jihadism; we will CONQUER it! We will deal with jihadis just as we would deal with deadly snakes. And let there be no doubtIsrael will knowas will the worldthat we are their trusted friend, and the Ayatollahs of Iran will know that hell will freeze over before they ever get a nuclear weapon! And I will never, ever apologize for America! We face not only the threats from terrorism, but also the threat of new kinds of dangers, from a cyber war that could shut down major financial markets to threats of an electromagnetic pulse from an exploded device that could fry the electrical grid and take the country back to the Stone Age in a matter of minutes. Waiting until it happens is too late. But we've lost our way morally. We have witnessed the slaughter of over 55 million babies in the name of choice, and are now threatening the foundation of religious liberty by criminalizing Christianity in demanding that we abandon Biblical principles of natural marriage. Many of our politicians have surrendered to the false god of judicial supremacy, which would allow black robed and unelected judges the power to make law and enforce it upending the equality of our three branches of government and the separation of powers so very central to our Constitution. The Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being, and they can't overturn the laws of nature or of nature's God. Government in Washington is dysfunctional because it's become the roach motel people go in, but they never come out. As President I'll fight for Term limits on all 3 branches of government. That would help return us to the Founders dream that serving the public would be a temporary duty not a lucrative career with generous pensions and paychecks not available to the people who pay for them. And if someone is elected to an office, then give the taxpayers what they're paying for and what you said you wanted. If you live off the government payroll and want to run for an office other than the one you're elected to, then have the integrity and decency to resign the one you don't want and pursue the one you decided you'd rather have. As President, I would take seriously the 10th amendment and actually abide by it. Power was never intended to be so concentrated at the federal level. Our Constitution was explicitly clear about keeping the federal government small so it could focus on some simple things like providing a military and securing our borders. There are things being done at the federal level that should have been left in the hands of the states or even better, the families. There is no Constitutional authority to dictate education from the federal government. Why even have a federal department of education? It has flunked and it needs to be expelled. Education policy should be set by states, local school boards, and best of all, by the moms and dads of the children. Common sense tells us the best government is the most local and the most limited. We've supersized the federal bureaucracy, but we've downsized the military and left our borders open and uncontrolled. We need to address the immigration issue, but not with amnesty, but start by taking control of our own borders. But we ought to get on our knees every night and thank God we still live in a country people are trying to break into, instead of one they are trying to break out of. I'm running for President because I know that there is a difference between making a speech and making government accountable to the people who pay for it. You can't spend money you don't have or borrow money you can't afford to pay back. The federal government ought to live by the rules YOU have to live by and they should function under a balanced budget law like I had to every year I was a Governor. And I don't want to hear politicians talk about tinkering with the tax code and making little adjustments that still let powerful Washington interests pick the winners and losers. We can never create prosperity for working people, grow our economy out of the bottomless pit of debt, and move America back to the greatest economy on earth if we punish productivity and subsidize reckless irresponsibility. The man I met at a machine shop in New Hampshire told me of how he started working a double shift to help his daughter pay for grad school. He naturally figured that if he worked 16 hours a day instead of 8, he'd bring home twice the pay. But he found out that the money he worked for on that second shift put him in a new tax bracket and the government got more of it than he did. It's not that our tax system is punishing the richest people in America they can afford accountants and lawyers who will find a way to protect them. It's the people working for wages who can't get ahead if the government penalizes them for trying to do better. As President, I'll work to pass the Fair Tax, which would no longer penalize people's work, their savings, their investments, or their good stewardship. And it would be the end of big government bailouts and most importantly, we finally rid ourselves of the biggest bully in America, the IRS. The IRS would disappear and April 15 would be just another beautiful spring day. The struggle for many families isn't helped when the government solution is fighting over what the MINIMUM wage should be. It's a race to the bottom to figure out what the government determines the least you can make. We need to be promoting the MAXIMUM wage, which is set by the worker who is willing to avail himself or herself of training for a job that pays a maximum amount. We will never break the cycle of poverty by pushing people to their minimum wage, but by empowering them to reach their maximum wage. That is how we take people from Hope to Higher Ground! This country has to do three things to stay free: Feed itself, Fuel itself, and Fight for itself. Our farmers and ranchers provide our food and fiber and we need to keep them from being regulated out of business; we have enough energy resources under our feet to bring affordable energy to America and become the largest exporter so that Americans prosper in developing the energy and aren't impoverished by paying for it when produced by a Saudi Sheik or a Russian robber baron. And we need to be able to fight for ourselves by bringing manufacturing back to our communities where we make our own planes, tanks, bullets and bombs. The journey that begins in Hope today can lead this nation to Higher Ground, but I can't do it without people being my partnersmany who have never been involved in politics before now. I never have been and won't be the favorite candidate of those in the Washington to Wall Street corridor of power. I will be funded and fueled not by the billionaires, but by working people across America who will find out that $15 and $25 a month contributions can take us from Hope to Higher Ground. If you want to give a million dollars, please do it, but most can't. But I will ask you to give something in the name of your children and grandchildren. I've walked away from my own income to do this, so I'm not asking you for a sacrifice I'm not willing to make. I don't have a global foundation or a taxpayer funded paycheck to live off of. I don't come from a family Dynasty, but a working family. I grew up blue collar and not blue blood. I ask you to join with me today not just so I can be President, but so we can preserve this great Republic and that someday YOUR children and grandchildren can still go from Hope to Higher Ground. I still remember when my Dad took me to the dedication of the newly constructed Bois D' Arc Lake, just a few miles from here, now named for Dr. Lester Sitzes, my best friend since 3rd grade. I was eight years old and he said, Son, the Governor is coming to dedicate the new lake and I'm going to take you there to hear him make a talk, because you might live your whole life and never get to meet a Governor in person. Had my Dad lived four months longer, he would have seen me do more than MEET a Governor. He would have seen me become the 44th Governor of my state. I always wished he could have been there and maybe spend the night in the Governor's Mansion, a place he never thought he'd get close to. I always wanted to feel that he did see that moment from the best seat in the house! And I hope he's able to watch in January of 2017, when that bashful little kid from the orange brick rent house on 2nd Street is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. And with your help and God's, we will make that journey from Hope to Higher Ground. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. It's great to be back in Iowa. It's great to be back here at this theater where believe it or not the sweater vest was born. I don't know if you know that or not. The first time I wore a sweater vest was when Citizens United hosted an event here with Mike Huckabee, and I guess I gave a good speech. So they really thought it was the sweater vest, not me. Typical. The press would never give me credit; they gave it to the vest. But It's great to be back and see so many friends and meet some new friends. I have been asked over and over and over one question since I have been here. I get it almost every person, same question over and over again. And I'm going to end the suspense, and I'm going to announce that Bella is doing great. Karen and I want to thank each and every one of you, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, for all of your prayers through the election when we were dealing with Bella and her health issues and all of them since. We felt them, and as you'll find out soon, Karen and I are publishing a book about raising Bella. It's called "Bella's Gift," because she is. And we are publishing that; it's coming out in a couple of weeks. And you will find out how, how your prayers were answered so many times through that time and what it's like raising a child who has a severe disability and the challenges and the blessings it is. So I just want to let you know that Karen and I wrote the book jointly. We divided it evenly. We were going to write it together, and after an hour or so we figured that isn't probably going to work out too well. I have a very strongas you know, you know Karen. She's a very strong and principled woman. She has very strong opinions on things. And look, we dealt with this issue differently. And so we decided to divide the book evenly. She has 11 chapters. I have seven, and. Right. So look forward to that. I am obviously nostalgic here. Three years ago, after you got to know me and Karen and the kids, you heard me tell a story over at the Stoney Creek Inn in Johnston on Caucus Night, on a very wild and crazy Caucus Night I might add. And I shared a story about a young teenage boy; as a young teenage boy I knelt at the side of my grandfather's casket. He was a coal miner. I remember being at eye level and seeing just his hands, these strong, thick meaty hands, that dug coal until he was 72 years of age. And I remember sharing with you that as I sat there and I reflected on it, that those were the hands of an immigrant who came to this country after the first World War and brought his children later. That dug freedom for me. And it's a story that each of you, all Americans have, of somebody, your ancestor, who created the opportunity for you to be an American, to be a person who could pursue the American Dream, because you're standing on someone's shoulders. You know that wasn't what the campaign was always about. It became that, by going to, oh a few dozen Pizza Ranches in Iowa and several Meat and Threes. Now some of you don't know what Meat and Threes are, but if you're in South Carolina, you know what a Meat and Three is. And having town hall meetings and talking to the decent, hard working people of this country, the patriots who care deeply and are deeply concerned about this country and its direction right now. They're concerned about whether that American Dream, and that Dream was what? To work hard, sacrifice, to leave America and your family better than you found it, right? That is what the American Dream is. And a lot of people believe in America today that that Dream has slipped away. Now I can spend the rest of this speech easily detailing why President Obama and his middle class economics have failed, failed miserably. I can be haranguing on Obamacare and his tax increases and his government excess, all of those things. But what does that get us? How many people do we convince that they should vote for us by simply criticizing what the president does? That's their game. They won elections that way, they won the last election that way in 2012. It was divide, criticize, blame, not take responsibility for anything. That's their shtick. And what a horrible price they paid to win. This country, now we look at it, the 1% versus the 99%, black versus white, Anglo versus Hispanic, business versus labor. Americans feel the division and we're sick of it. We need to do better. We need to do better because America deserves better. They deserve a group, a party, a movement that is for policies that provide opportunity for every one to reach that American Dream and a message that unifies us. You're going to hear a lot of folks come in here today and you'll be privileged to a lot of people coming through Iowa. That's the blessing of Iowa. You will. But look for that message. Mike Lee is right. Look for that message that could bring us together. Because as good as it feels to hear the bad stuff, as good as it feels to beat up on the other side for the damage they've done to this country, and it's been substantial, I know through my own personal relationships that pointing the finger and condemning somebody doesn't win you a whole lot of arguments, and more importantly it doesn't bring us together. So today I want to share with you. I want to share with you a vision forward, a vision forward that can unite us, that I deeply believe in. It's a vision that says that we can restore the American Dream and it's not a different thing from what Republicans have stood for before. In fact it's additive. Because have been and we must be the party of growth and opportunity. We must be the party that says we want lower taxes, limited and responsible government, less regulation. We need to be the party that goes out and says that we're for fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets. All those things are right, but they're not enough. They're not enough. We need to be pro growth, but we also need to be pro worker. We need to be on the side of the American worker. Why? One of our favorite sayings I know that you hear Republicans say all the time, is a rising tide lifts all boats. And that is true unless your boat has a hole in it. Ladies and gentlemen, look at America today. Look at those who of the 70 percent of Americans don't have a college degree and many of them don't have a high school degree. Substance abuse, family breakdown, there's a lot of Americans who are out there who are seeking employment who want the American Dream, but they have holes in their boats. And so when you go out and talk about how we're going to raise the tide, how we're going to grow this economy and they see stagnant wages, declining median income and the lack of a ladder of advancement, they don't feel better; they feel like they're sinking deeper underneath the water. We have to be the party that says we understand what you're feeling. We understand what you're thinking. We understand the problems, and put forth a message that targets specifically not how we can help the economy but how we can help you and you and you. And we do it in a way that isn't divisive but it's unifying. How do we do it? It's actually pretty easy. It's actually pretty easy. First it starts with education. If you look at the 70 percent of Americans who don't have a college education, have limited skills, we need to make sure that we have opportunities for people to get those skills. We also need to look at why people are failing in schools and not getting those basic skills to be able to survive. Why? Because we have a top down government run education system that is failing our children. We need less Common Core and more common sense if we're going to make America a great and educated country We, What's the common sense? Talk to any teacher, and administrator and they'll tell you the same thing. The biggest key in determining the success of a child in school is the parents' involvement with that child in the school. So what does Common Core say? Stay out parents, we got this. The federal, the state, whatever it is, the folks, the elites, we're going to determine what's best for your child. When the schools and the elites should be saying we're failing and we need you parents to come in because we know by having you here your child's going to do better. The elites are doing just the opposite. We can fix, Look, I'm the, Karen and I home schooled our children. Is it hard? Thank you, thank her, not me; thank her. Was it harder? Sure, it's harder. Oh but what a blessing to be intimately involved in your children's education. That's the challenge. The path that we're going to lead forward here is not going to be easy. But it's going to be one that makes sense. It makes sense. That we need to restore and rebuild the American family. I don't know if you saw the statistic. Just this past week, America hit a milestone. For the first time in the history of our country more children are growing up without two parents than are growing up with two parents in the home. First time. Now 54 percent, and the number keeps dropping and keeps dropping and keeps dropping. And if you look at all the studies, what do all the studies say? It's about income inequality and the reason people are suffering. The Obama Administration wanted to make this a really big deal. The 1 percent and 99 percent. This was going to be the mantra for the last campaign in 2014. But it turned out that the biggest reason for income inequality is the breakdown of the family. What are we doing? Where do you hear us? You say you want to appeal to minorities and Hispanics. Where do you ever hear us talking about the family and the importance of strengthening the family, of doing things to stop government from getting in the way of people to get married and encouraging and supporting parents who have children, stay together and raise those children. That's not to be critical of anybody else, but it's to say that government shouldn't be an obstacle. When I was in Wisconsin during the campaign in 2012 I was told that if you were unmarried and had two children and you were making $15000 a year as a single mom, you got $38000 in welfare benefits. If you got married, you'd lose them all. Government is a barrier. We need to get government out of the way and help families be restored in America so children and they can have a better life and a better future. And if we're going to reform welfare then we need to reform all welfare and that means corporate welfare. We can't be the ones who are for bailouts, we can't be the ones who are for sweet deals for corporations if we're going to ask people to sacrifice and struggle and rise in our society. We've got to be for reducing both and eliminating both of those types of welfare. That's fair. You want to show that you're relating to the folks who are working in America, then we have to go out and prove it. We have to go out and show that we are for manufacturing jobs coming back to this country. In July of 2011 I went down to Winegard in Burlington and I launched my manufacturing initiative. That's what we talked about. All over this country. President Obama waved the red flag saying manufacturing jobs are gone. No, they're not. They're gone only because Washington makes manufacturers uncompetitive in the world market. If we can restore the manufacturing center of this country, if we can create the opportunity to make things so people with skills can learn the skills to work, to make things and to have quality jobs that pay good benefits, we've now created hope again. We've created a path forward for those who feel there is no path. We need to do that through energy, reducing energy prices and keeping them stable as well as construction. We need to be the party of the worker. Why? Well, it's good politics. You know, what percentage of American workers own their own business? Less than ten. So when we go out, as we have for many years and talk about entrepreneurs and businesses, we're talking about 10 percent of the public, and then we wonder why we don't win. We don't win because too many people don't think we care about them. We got to show them not just by saying we do, by having policies and a message where at they can see it and they can feel it in us. There's another issue, and this is one that Steve King has been I think impaled upon many times, but it's so important for American workers. I have a little quiz for you. Since 2000 there have been six million net new jobs created in America; six million net new jobs since 2000. How many of those net new jobs are held by people who were not born in this country? All of them. All of them. There are fewer Americans working today who were born in this country than there were in the year 2000 in spite of 17 million more in the workforce. And so when people say well we have to do something about the border and we have to do something about illegal immigration, they are right. We do. We have to secure the border. I was just down in Arizona talking to folks and it's horrendous the things that are going on on the border from national security perspective as well as what the president is doing. But we also have a problem with legal immigration. Legal immigration is at an all time high. There have been more people legally coming into this country in the last 20 years than any 20 year period in American history. We are approaching percentagewise the highest level of immigrants that we've ever had in America. Almost 14 percent now. It was 14 at the end of the great wave in 1920. There are more people not born in this country than have ever been in the history of this country, and it's affecting American workers. Why? Because the vast majority of the people coming into this country come in under chain immigration and they are unskilled. We all know there's not a huge growing number of jobs for unskilled laborers and as a result wages stagnate, median income comes down. We need to stand for an immigration policy that puts Americans first and American workers first. And this isn't an anti immigrant; I am for legal immigration. But in 1920 after 40 years of a great wave the Congress passed a bill because they were up to 14 percent of the workforce and it was having an effect on their labor markets. And so what the Congress did is pass the Immigration Act of 1921 and three years later 1924. And you know what they passed by? Unanimous in the House. One vote against the Senate on the first one and nine on the second. It was a bipartisan issue because even during the progressive era, which this was the tail end of, Republicans and Democrats put you first. Because for America to be a great country, a country that people want to come to, we have to be a strong country, and that means for everybody, skilled and unskilled worker alike. And so Steve is right, we need to step forward with an immigration policy, but we need to do so in the context of standing strong with American workers. Finally, there's an issue that in the 22 or 23 debates that were held in the last election cycle, I think there was one debate on this subject and maybe one or two questions at most during the debates and that was national security. Remember the war was over, Bin Laden was dead, Al-Qaeda was defeated, terrorism was gone. No well excuse me, extremism; can't say terrorism, extremism was gone. And what's happened since? We have seen the impact of isolationism. We have seen the impact of weakness on the part, and indecision on the part of an American president, an inexperienced, raw American president who had ideologies that didn't face reality. Ladies and gentlemen in this election cycle, we need to be looking for someone who has that experience, who has been tested and understands. I spent 16 years in the House and Senate, eight of those on the Senate Armed Services Committee. I heard Mike Lee said to be able to have someone who can stand up to their party when they're wrong. Twice I authored bills, once on Syria, to put sanctions on Syria. And President Bush opposed me for a year and a half, fought me for bringing the bill up, but eventually not only did he not fight me, he signed the bill. Because he saw eventually what I saw, which was Assad was a rogue regime that had to be constrained. Iran was next. We had an Iranian nuclear sanctions bill back in 2005 when most people thought Iran didn't even have a nuclear weapon and wasn't even trying. And the president, not this president but the last one, wanted to negotiate with Iran. I said don't negotiate. You can't negotiate with people who don't keep their promises. You can't negotiate with folks who have a theological end to their public policy. Again the administration opposed me. In fact there was a vote on the floor of the United States Senate and Condi Rice sent a letter, saying vote against Iranian sanctions on their nuclear program. I went forward with the vote of which Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden all voted no, against me, and six months later it passed unanimously. Leadership matters. Understanding the threat and being willing to have the courage to identify the threat. There's a lot of talk now about radical Islam and whether its extremism or terrorism. Let me tell you what it is. And I'll quote from a speech I gave in 2006 which I handed to President Bush saying he had to stop using the term terrorism because terrorism is a tactic; it is not an ideology. And if we're going to be honest with the American public and honest with the world and have the ability to confront this evil of radical Islam, then we have to name it what it is. That was 2006 and I laid that speech and I said, Mr. President, we're not going to win this war, no matter how many guns we have and how much we fight if Islam does not confront the cancer within and we don't identify that cancer and fight against it. Experience, knowledge, courage, on national security, the area where the president has the most purview, those are the things that are necessary. How do I know that? Well I was in Israel just a few months ago. In fact I took some Iowans. Bob vander Plaats came along. Simon Conway from WHO. Cary Gordon from Sioux City. And we met with senior Israeli officials. I had one of them pull me aside and say this to me. Senator, he said, please, please understand. You need to elect a president that is ready for war. That means a president who understands, understands all of the capabilities we have and understands the most important capability is the strength of America, in our military, in our diplomacy and yes, in the president of the United States. Ladies and gentlemen I don't envy your charge. I've been here many times as you know, and you had a tough time last time around. You made a very good decision by the way. Albeit somewhat delayed. You made a good decision and you're going to have to do that again. And I just want to encourage you. You do a great job. Iowans, as you see here from this crowd, the media notices. You take your job seriously and you should. The last time around everyone told you no, no, don't pick this person; this person has no chance. And you said well I think we're going to just vote for the best person that we believe has the best chance, not who Washington and New York thinks will have the best chance. You are serious people when this comes to this and this is a serious time. I just would say I agree with Chuck Grassley and Terry Branstad and all the others who say that it is well worth the mileage and the sleep to go to all 99 counties in Iowa. And if any one of these other guys wants a travelogue, I'll be happy to share it with them. Thank you very much and God Bless you. Thank you so much. What an amazing feeling to be up here with the folks who have made it possible for me. You know I would start with my family, and so I am. I just want to thank Karen, my sweetheart, all of my kids, for all of the sacrifices they made so we could be here today. I love you more than words. God bless you. Thank you so much. As you can see, we brought a little special gift up; she wanted to meet you. And that's our sweet daughter Bella, who just turned seven years old a couple of weeks ago. Bella also requested that she could go play during the speech. So we're going to let her go. Now I know this stage looks densely populated with our family, but we are actually still missing one member of our family and that is our son Daniel, who just last week, went to field training in the Air Force down in Alabama. Daniel, I am proud of you. Thank you. And, I also have to thank Penn United Technologies. We have disrupted this entire place for a week. God Bless you Bill, Becky, and everybody, thank you. And I just want to thank all of you for being here, for taking time out of your work and your schedule. And for many of you, there are people from 32 states that are here tonight. so I just want to thank you for being here. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a piece of coal. This is where my American story started. My grandfather, Pietro, was a coal miner who brought my Dad, 7 year old Aldo, from fascist Italy. Like millions of other Americans, he didn't come for this. He came for freedom. My dad grew up in a coal town, actually a company town, during the Depression, without indoor plumbing. It took a war to get him out of the coal town, off to the Pacific, then the GI Bill to college. And then to a Veterans Hospital in West Virginia. It's there he met a wonderful nurse, Catherine Dughi, who is my mom. Mom is 96. She shouldn't be here today, but I just want to say hello to my mom, who I know is watching. They took me on a voyage at seven years of age from West Virginia to Butler, Pennsylvania. We lived on the VA post in World War II government apartments surrounded by our nation's veterans. Most of my friends though, their dads worked in the mills and the mines. They got off shift and coached us in sports and in life. They were the generation of God fearing people who built this country and at the same time, were the foundation of the country. In the late 70's, like many of you, we saw the economic devastation here in Southwestern Pennsylvania and across this country, particularly in manufacturing, as a result of the excesses and indifference of big labor, big government, and yes, big business. Here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, the epicenter, we lost over 100000 jobs in what seemed to be overnight. That has to and did leave a mark on all of us. Afterwards, big government and big business told our workers that times have changed, American workers could no longer compete with low foreign wages and that those jobs were gone forever. Well, what about those politicians? For all those years, what did they do? What did they do for communities across this area and across this country and in small town America? They had no plan, and they provided no hope. And to that, I say, no longer. As Middle America is hollowing out, we can't sit idly by as big government politicians make it harder for our workers and then turn around and blame them for losing jobs overseas. Working families don't need another President tied to big government or big money. And today is the day, today is the day we are going to begin to fight back. I am proud to stand here among you and for you, the American workers who have sacrificed so much, to announce that I am running for President of the United States. I'll offer a bold vision for America, one that's clear and conservative, that has plans to reform and has a proven track record that I have in my time in service. Step one in taking back America, step one, let's scrap the corrupt federal tax code and the IRS that goes with it. It's time to give America a simple, fair, flat tax. It will create millions of good paying jobs. It will rebuild our factories, and it will increase take home pay for workers in America. Powered by the shale revolution and the renewable revolution. Powered by those two revolutions, we have regained the title of the world leader in energy production. With low cost energy and our bold plan, I promise you we will regain the title of a leader in world manufacturing. And that's not all. We will shrink government, we will reduce spending, we will revoke every executive order and regulation, yeah. We will revoke every executive order and regulation that costs American jobs. From day one, we will work to bring back America and put Americans back to work. American workers deserve a shot at these jobs. Over the last 20 years, we've brought into this country, legally and illegally, 35 million mostly unskilled workers. And the result, over that same period of time, workers' wages have flat lined. Hillary Clinton and big business, they have called for a massive influx in unskilled labor. Business does it because they want to control costs. Hillary does it, well, she just wants votes. Their priorities are profits and power. My priority is you, the American worker. You don't believe me, don't take my word for it. Yesterday, the largest pro worker immigration group just published a survey that showed that only one candidate got an "A" standing behind American workers, and he's standing here today. We can create jobs, but as we've all seen America can't succeed unless we strengthen the first economy, the American family. It's time we have a President who sees the struggle of working families in America not as an opportunity to divide us along race or class, but as a chance to unite us around the ideal that every child in America deserves her birthright, to be raised by her parents in a healthy home. Stronger families and more jobs will result in better schools. But our children, well, they deserve and education customized, customized, to maximize their potential. The first step in the process is joining me to drive a stake in the heart of Common Core. I can't forget about the other people that I grew up with out at the VA in Butler, our wounded warriors. I saw the price of freedom. I saw the cost of failed political leadership. The Obama Clinton team, they don't understand that peace comes through strength. But, when I see our heroic veterans dying, waiting in line at the VA, because these very same leaders don't care enough to give them what they've earned, the best medical care in the world., I say join me, take back America, and help these veterans. As you've seen, Commander in Chief is not an entry level position. And the White House is the last place for on the job training. It's critical that both our allies and our friends know what to expect from our next President. Last month, i was featured in an online magazine. That's usually a good thing. But in this case, the online magazine was the magazine of the Islamic state, ISIS. Under the headline, under the headline "in the words of our enemy," was my picture and a quote. "After 12 years of legislating and warning about the gathering storm of radical Islam, they know who I am and I know who they are." In that article, I described who they are and how to defeat them. And ladies and gentlemen, if I'm the next President, we will defeat them. Finally, we must take back America from those who seek to deny us our god given rights of life and liberty. As President, I will stand for the principle that every life matters, the poor, the disabled, and the unborn. I will also fight for the freedom for you to believe what you are called to believe, not just in your places of worship, but outside of your places of worship too. Karen and I have learned a lot in our life and if there's one thing we've learned, man is limited and God is not. There is much we can do. But first, we need to pray for the same kind of great awakening that inspired and provided our founding to come to this country to heal our land. Now if you watch any of these announcements here coming up this week, you are going to see a lot of folks saying what they're going to do. That's what they do. But how do you know who to trust? Well, you look at their record. I went to Washington and said I was going to fight corruption. And I delivered. I went to end welfare, to reduce poverty, and to put people back to work. And I delivered. I went to give patients control over their health care through Health Saving Accounts. And I delivered. I went to end partial birth abortion. And I delivered. I went to impose sanctions on Syria and Iran to protect the state of Israel and this country. And I delivered. And I went to cut taxes and promised never to raise them. And I delivered. Our record of standing for you and standing up against big government is clear. 92% conservative voting record. How does someone like that get elected in the Mon Valley of Pittsburgh, in one of the most Democratic areas of the state? How does someone with a conservative voting record get elected twice to the state of Pennsylvania, where there's over a million more registered Democrats than Republicans? Because I stood for you and against big government in Washington DC. Fighting in those races, both here in Southwestern Pennsylvania and across Pennsylvania, I know what it's like to be an underdog. Four years ago, well, no one gave us much of a chance. But we won 11 states. We got four million votes. And it's not just because I stood for something. It's because I stood for someone, the American worker. I promised then as I promise you now, I will take money and power out of Washington and put it back where our Constitution says it belongs, in the people who earned it. The last race, we changed the debate. This race, with your help, and God's Grace, we can change this nation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Gill. Thank you so much for being here. You know, I've been here to every single Value Voter Summit. And, you know, one of the things, I was in Iowa the other day, in Osceola, Iowa. Of course, all of you have been there, right? And I was introduced by Chuck Grassley. And Chuck got up and sort of hemmed and hawed a little bit about what to say. And he said, well, let me just say this: The one thing I can say about Rick Santorum is I've known him for 20 years and he hasn't changed a bit. You know, I think that's about as high a compliment as you can get in this town of Washington, DC, right? We just had someone step down today who, in my opinion, changed a bit and it's probably time for him to have stepped down to start a new chapter here in Washington, DC I come here every year and I talk to you to thank you, to thank you for standing up and bringing to this city the issues that are at the core of the problems in this country. America is never going to be a great country if we're a country that kills our children in the womb, ever. We are never going to be blessed by God if we're a country that kills our children in the womb. We are never going to be a great country if we allow for the destruction of the American family that's what's happened over the past 50 years. And thank you for coming here and for standing for truth, standing for what you know is right and best for this country. You know, we have a lot of candidates for president who will come up here on stage. And they'll rile you up and talk to you about all the things that they're going to do. But here's the best way to determine whether you can trust the person who's coming before you. Look at their record. Look at what they've accomplished. Look at what they've fought for. Look at what they have paid a price for. I came to Washington, DC, and I'll have to be honest with you, I wasn't a pro, I was pro life, but I wasn't' a pro life warrior. It was only in a situation that's similar to what's happening here with Planned Parenthood, when we were made aware of this issue called partial birth abortion, this horrific procedure. I know about this procedure. I was on CNN the other day and we were talking about, I was talking with Chris Cuomo, not always a fun, necessarily, thing to do. And we were talking about the Planned Parenthood videos, and I said: Not only should we defund Planned Parenthood, we should be prosecuting Planned Parenthood. And he got very upset with me. Said, what do you mean? He said, what laws have they broken? I said, well, the procedures that we saw described in these videos I know very well, because they were partial birth abortions. And he says, well, OK, but, you know, how do you know that that's against the law? I said, because I wrote the law. I know that it's against the law. We have been fighting these battles, I have been standing in the forefront for year after year after year fighting the battles on life. And we see right now that we have people in Congress, we have people even in the leadership of our party who, when given the opportunity to raise up an issue and focus America's attention on the horror of abortion, they retreat and refuse to fight. They think they can't win the battle, so they give up before it's even fought. Ladies and gentleman, there are a lot of people going to come up here and ask you for your support, and they're going to tell you that they're with you. Here's what I would say, have you been disappointed enough by people who promise you things and don't deliver? Have you seen folks that you thought were with you, and then you realize when it got tough they weren't willing to get into the trenches and fight? And here's what I would say. You know one person in this race who is always willing to fight for live, always willing to fight for the family. Every major piece of pro life legislation that's passed in the last 20 years I was the author of and I led the fight on the floor of the Senate. And I didn't come from a safe state, , I didn't come from a safe state where you can easily vote that way, much less lead that way. Well, a lot of people come up here and tell you they're for marriage, but you know what? Ten of the 14 Republican candidates have said this: Oh, well, it's the law of the land. It's time to move on. Really? We have a United States Supreme Court that, according to several of the justice on that court in the dissent, acted unconstitutionally. Oh, it's time to move on when the court acts unconstitutionally? We have a United States Supreme Court who has directly assaulted the First Amendment of our Constitution. And 10 of the 14 candidates say, oh, it's time to move on. We have a United States Supreme Court that says marriage has nothing to do with children, , that marriage is about adults. And 10 out of the 14 Republican candidates say it's time to move on. If you're not willing to fight for the Constitution, for the First Amendment, and for the American family, why are you running for president as a Republican? Tell you a little story. Four years ago I was in one of these meetings with all these big donors in New York. And they had gone through all the Republican candidates, I was the last one that they had. And I sat down with them and they were interviewing me like they had all the other Republican candidates. And they asked me a question on abortion. I answered it. They asked a second question on abortion. I answered it. Then they asked a third question on abortion. I said, wait a minute. I said, you've had all the other Republican candidates up here. I said, why are you asking me, I mean, excuse me, have you asked any of the other candidates about abortion? Silence. And one of them said, no. I said, well, wait a minute. They all have the same positions I do. They all say they're pro life. I said, but you asked not any of them one question, you've asked me three? I said, why are you asking me questions and not them? And the answer was, because we know you mean it. You want a fighter you can trust, then go with a fighter you trusted, who was there. On marriage, I hear a lot of people talk about marriage now. I said, four of the Republicans have said they're going to fight for marriage. But when I was in the United States Senate, I stepped out on the issue of marriage way before anybody else, even before they started to approve gay marriages in the courts. I criticized the Supreme Court. I said we needed to pass a federal marriage amendment. Republicans and Democrats alike said, called me all sorts of names. You're just trying to pick on these people. We don't need to deal with this. There's no issue here. There's no problem here. I said, we'll have gay marriage within 10 years. I said this 11 years ago and I was wrong. I missed by a year. But we drafted an amendment to the Constitution and I forced a vote on the floor of the United States Senate. And let me tell you, in the rooms outside of the view of the public, I was getting beaten up. Why are you forcing us to vote on this thing? We're going to look like haters and bigots. So all these folks who come here, some of them today who stood here and talked about how they're for you, behind closed doors were kicking my, well, you know. We forced that vote. And guess what? It's the only vote that's ever been taken. When I left, so did the effort to make marriage between one man and one woman in the Congress. You want someone who's going to fight for you? Look at their track record. Look what they fought for. Look what they lost over. And look how successful they are. You want someone you can trust, like you could trust Ronald Reagan in 1980 that when he came into office he was going to stand up against the evil of communism and defeat them? Then look at their record. The greatest threat to a country today overseas is a threat of radical Islamic terrorism. Ten years ago, you know, I have a lot of people come up here and say, we need to name the enemy. We need to go after who the enemy is. I encourage you to go back and look at a speech I gave 10 year ago at the National Press Club, in which I said: We need to identify the enemy and call them who they are. And I didn't just give speeches. Iran, we put nuclear sanctions on Iran 12 years ago. I authored that bill that put the nuclear sanctions on Iran. And for 12 years, I've been talking here in this country, on the floor of the Senate, across this country afterwards, talking about the threat of not just radical Islam but, in the case of Iran, what I apocalyptic Islam, Islam that is about bringing about the end of the world, because that's what they believe. How many times does America have to pay the lesson of not listening to what desperates say they want to do and not believing them? We have a regime in Iran that says they want to bring about the end of the world to bring about their return of their savior, called the Mahdi. And we just gave them the opportunity to have a nuclear weapon. That, ladies and gentlemen, is suicidal. And that, ladies and gentlemen, will not happen if you elect me president of the United States. Day one, day one, I know all these people say, oh, you can't tear this up and you can't do this. Let me tell you what you can do. When the president of the United States doesn't have the guts to bring a deal to the Congress for ratification it's his deal, not our deal, and it won't be our deal when I become president of the United States. I will tell the Iranians simply this, and they know I mean it. I wrote an op ed last year about this negotiation, and the Iranian government responded to it. They know who I am. Last year, excuse me, in April of this year, I was in ISIS Magazine. It was the centerfold. It was a nice picture, nicer than I usually get in most of the mainstream media around you; tells you how far gone they are. And next to it was a quote underneath the headline in the words of our enemies was my picture and my quote defining, describing who they were. I know who they are and they know who I am. No other presidential candidate has been in ISIS Magazine. We can't risk any misperception. When the next president raises his hand, our enemies have to know who they're dealing with and our friends have to know who they're dealing with. I will stand with Israel. I will stand with our allies. And I will defeat radical Islam. Ladies and gentlemen, if we're going to win this election we have to take actually some of the words of what Pope Francis was talking about yesterday. He was talking about the poor, the workers, the people who are being left behind in society. All of the things he talks about is all focused on the idea that there's an unequal distribution. There's environmentalism that is, environmental waste that's hurting the poor. And here in America we see the middle of America hollowing out. I announced from a factory floor in western Pennsylvania. The reason I did was because I know who the Republican Party is. I know who the conservative movement is in this country. They're not Wall Street. They're not people who live in the big homes in the Hamptons. They don't vote for us anymore. Who votes for us are people who love this country, who want an opportunity to rise, who believe in faith and family and opportunity, and are looking for a party. They're looking for a movement who cares and talks about them. And ladies and gentlemen, let's just be honest. We haven't done a very good job of that. And as a result, if you look at the last election, millions of Americans who didn't want to vote for Barack Obama just stayed home in Pennsylvania and Ohio and Michigan and all the states where, if we want to win this presidency, we've got to. We've got to attract those votes. That's why I announced from a factory floor and said that I would pledge to make America the number one manufacturer in the world again. You want to solve global warming? Get all those jobs from China that pollute unlimitedly. Bring them back to America, where we have cleaner energy and clean things, and we will create jobs and reduce global climate. And another way that we need to put this framework of being strong for American workers is on immigration. When you think of the word immigration, most people, when you hear the word immigration, you think, oh, well, I think of that illegal person, and what are we going to do about them? Why? Because many Republicans and all Democrats have decided that's how we should frame this debate. The debate should be framed about what we're going to do about illegal immigrants in this country instead of what every other policy debate in America is framed around. You finish this sentence. Every policy we pass in America should be in the best interest of — There you go. But not immigration. Immigration is about the people who broke the law, not the people who are obeying the law. Why do we let them do this, ladies and gentlemen? Why do we even have our candidates up here let them do this? A majority of the people in this race, ladies and gentlemen, are not good on the issue of immigration. Oh, they'll talk about how tough they're going to be; secure the border. Look, let's just, let's just do a given. Everybody's for securing the border. But that's not it. That's a start. But as long as you continue to have the magnets here, the border is only part of your problem. And the magnet is, number one, the belief that there's going to be amnesty. Now, you have a lot of people get up here and talk about how tough they are. But they actually support amnesty. The speaker who was just here before me running for president, he'll tell you how tough he is. But when he was in the Senate, he's in the Senate, he offered an amendment to allow people to stay in this country indefinitely. Now, for me that's amnesty. We have to have a policy that says that we are going to make sure that everyone who broke the law in this country is, in an orderly fashion, returned to their country of origin and have to come in like everybody else in this country, legally. And for those who say it can't be done, half of the illegal immigrants in this country are here on visa overstays. We know who they are. We know where they are. All we have to do is what we aren't doing right now, which is tell them to go home and return to their country of origin. But it's not just illegal immigration. The place which is really harming the American worker, 90 percent, 70 to 90 percent of the workers who come to this country, both legally and illegally, are wage earners. That's why you see the angst in America about this issue of immigration. That's why it's caught on so much. Why? Because people realize that when you bring in 35 million people over the last 20 years, more than any other 20 year period in American history, and the vast majority of them are wage earners, fairly low skilled, that it's going to have an impact on American wage earners. And that's why they're frustrated. And they don't see either political party talking about them. And it's not just illegal. It's both legal and illegal. We're bringing in more legal immigrants in this country than ever in the history of our country, over a million a year. There's only one candidate in this race who suggested that we eliminate a couple of worker, a couple of immigration categories and reduce the number of immigrations by 25 percent. Focus on making sure that we create a better opportunity for working men and women to get good paying wages. Why? Because in the last 20 year period of time wages have gone up less than a nickel an hour per year. American workers know. American workers know that the policies of this country, the immigration policies, are hurting. And no one has talked about it yet. Almost every single person in this race is for more legal immigration. Some want to double it, including the senators who spoke here this morning. Some want to take some categories and increase them by 500 percent, like some of the senators who spoke here this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, there are big differences. You have to make a decision here, and it's a tough one. Who are you going to support? Who are you going to trust? Who has the right vision to be able to capture the voters that we need in order to win? When I was a little girl my mother who was my Sunday school teacher that year gave me and the rest of her Sunday school class a little plaque, and it said: What you are is God's gift to you. What you make it yourself is your gift to God. I didn't feel very gifted as a child, but I went on to college and I graduated with a degree in medieval history and philosophy. That's right all dressed up and nowhere to go. So with apologies to every lawyer here, I went off to law school. I hated it. I quit after a single semester. And so to earn a living I went back to doing full time what I had done part time to put myself through school. I was a secretary, and I was hired by a little nine person real estate firm to type and file and answer the phones. I have traveled and lived all over the world and I know that is still true in 2015 that it is only in the United States of America that a young woman can start as a secretary and become the chief executive officer of the largest technology company in the world. That is only possible in the United States of America because you see our founders knew what my mother taught me. All of us have god given gifts. Everyone has potential and our founders believed that here everyone has the right to fulfil their potential. Now I know how proud all of you were the other night to see your Senator Joni Ernst stand up and deliver the response to President Obama's State of the Union. Immediately after her response, EMILY's Listthe pro abortion women's groupEmily's List described Senator Ernst, a mother, a soldier, a sitting Senator as window dressing. Let us talk please about who is waging a war on women. The next morning, the very next morning Valerie Jarrett was on TV and she was talking about equal pay for equal work. I was on the same program and I asked Ms. Jarrett why there was a wage gap between men and women in President Obama's White House as measured by the very numbers that he has used to politicize the issue. And I asked her further why, if she was so concerned about equal pay for equal work, why the White House was not tackling the seniority system, which is in place in every federal government bureaucracy and every union shop. The seniority system which does not reward performance or merit or hard work, but rewards instead time in grade; the seniority system which disadvantages women. It is this hypocrisy, the hypocrisy of liberals that enrages me most. While President Obama urges us in his State of the Union to invest in infrastructure, he is unwilling still to support the Keystone XL pipeline. And while the Administration cheers when seven million people sign up for Obamacare, they ignore completely that more than that have lost their coverage or no longer have as good coverage as they once had. Liberals will decry crony capitalism but then they pile on the rules and the regs in Dodd Frank and the result as we know is that 10 banks too big to fail have become five banks too big to fail, and meanwhile community banksthe places where family owned businesses and families and small business owners get their creditcommunity banks are struggling. They are struggling because community banks, like small and family owned businesses, aren't big enough, aren't powerful enough to hire all the accountants and the lawyers and the lobbyists to understand all these rules and regs or to influence them. Liberals call us the party of big business, but then they continue to increase the burden and the complexity of taxes and regulations until only the big and the powerful and the wealthy and the well connected can survive. I ran a big business. I didn't like the regs, but I could handle them. I could hire accountants and lawyers. That little nine person firm that I started out in. They can't handle it And so now for the first time in US history we are destroying more small businesses then we are forming and that is terrible. Because when small business is crushed, and it is being crushed all across this country by big government. Small business is the engine of economic growth of this country. It creates two thirds of the new jobs and employs half our people. Small business is being crushed because only big business can handle big government. I once lived in the state of California; my husband and I moved back home to Virginia three years ago. But in the state of California, that's a state as you well know where liberals have been in charge for a very long time. And the result, the highest poverty rates in the country. Income inequality is soaring. The devastation and exodus of the middle class. The worst business climate in the nation. And in California liberals expend enormous energy to protect frogs and fish and yes even flies. And it is on the issue of life that the hypocrisy of liberals is at its most breathtaking. Liberals believe that flies are worth protecting, but the life of an unborn child is not. The platform of the Democratic Party, the platform of the Democratic Party asserts the right to an abortion it any point in a pregnancy for any reason. And there are now people in the Democratic Party pushing to allow these abortions to be performed by non doctors. Barbara Boxer once commented that a life is only a life when it leaves the hospital. We know that science supports those of us who believe in the sanctity of life. When I married my husband Frank thirty years ago, I learned that his mother had been told to abort him because her life was in danger. But she was a woman of deep faith and great courage and so she bore him. She spent a year in the hospital after his birth. But her son, my husband, was the joy of her life and he is the rock of mine. And I have thought very often how different my life would have been if my mother in law had made a different choice. A woman, any woman, who faces a difficult choice or a prenatal diagnosis, this woman deserves our empathy and our support, never our judgment or our condemnation. She knows she will face difficulty and struggle, but none of us can predict the future. None of us can predict the struggles we are going to face. I know this, I know this, having watched our younger daughter Lori consumed by the demons of addiction which ultimately took her life. I know from my own battle with cancer that sometimes the greatest blessings in life come from times of struggle, and that the quality of a life is measured in love and in moments of grace and in positive contribution. I know that everyone has god given gifts and every life has potential. We know what separates liberals from conservatives. We know as conservatives that no one of us is better than any other one of us. Liberals don't believe that; liberals actually think that some are better than others, some are smarter than others, and so some are gonna have to take care of others or decide for others. We know, we know that work, work brings dignity and family brings purpose and faith brings meaning to our lives. We know. We know that every person has the capacity, has the desire to live a life of dignity and purpose and meaning. And yet despite these clear differences we get frustrated when these clear differences don't seem to translate into a different direction. Government has gotten bigger under Obama that is true. But government has grown year after year after year under both Republicans and Democrats for fifty years I serve as the chairman of a Christian based organization called Opportunity International. We have lent over six billion dollars to people in desperate poverty so that they could build better lives for themselves and their families starting with loans of a hundred and fifty dollars. Today I can deliver al loan to a woman in Malawi over a cell phone and yet a veteran returning from the battlefield with grievous wounds, a veteran must spend months filling out paperwork and then spend many more months waiting for a bureaucrat to check that paperwork and determine that this veteran has, deserves the benefits that they've already earned. And then they have to wait months more to be treated. We can't tinker around the edges of this problem anymore, but knowing that that problem has existed for decades and that's just one of the problems of our government. The Veterans Administration has been a problem for decades, knowing that these problems have existed for all this time. The sad truth is that legislators from both parties declared victory, not when they were able to guarantee a veteran the care that they have earned; they declared victory when they did something that they should have done a long time ago. They passed a bill allowing senior VA executives to be fired if they weren't doing their jobs. Really, really is this the best we can do? The majority of Americans and the majority of women to agree that abortion after five months for any reason at all is extreme and yet politics apparently intervened to prevent the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act from being brought to the floor for a vote. This is disappointing because what it says is that once again politics has triumphed over principle and expediency has triumphed over courage. This is not leadership of the House. I am reminded, I am reminded of the difference between management and leadership. Between managers and leaders. You see managers do the best they can within existing constraints and conditions, within the system. Leaders change constraint and conditions. Leaders see possibilities, and leaders mobilize others to seize possibilities. Leaders do not accept what is broken simply because it has always been that way. You know in every profession there's a hazard, there's a hazard that you're so consumed by your profession that you don't see anything else and so you start to lose perspective; your judgment is clouded. You cannot see the forest for this trees. You cannot see the principle for the politics. You cannot recognize the dysfunction all around you. In business people can become obsessed, for example, with making the quarterly numbers and maybe fail in that environment to see the long term investments that need to be made or they violate ethics or the law to make the numbers. In politics, people can become obsessed with the back and forth, with the tactical advantage, with the vote in front of them, with the press coverage about them. They fail to see the principle at stake or what is truly broken in our system. People who have been in and around government and politics for their entire lives may no longer be able to see the truth. Our government must be fundamentally reformed. The system has to be changed. Our politics can no longer tinker on the edges, because you see and you know this, the bureaucratic monster that our government has become is not simply inefficient or ineffective or corrupt. The truth now is that our government's size, its complexity, its cost and its power over our lives now work against the interests of the people. The potential of America is being crushed by the weight of government of America. Only citizens, only citizens like you and me can see what must be done, and this will take courage and common sense. It will take character and it will take commitment. Ours was always intended to be a citizen government. Our founders actually never envisioned a professional political class. They envisioned that people, that leaders would emerge from agriculture or commerce and would serve their nation when she called them to do so. To accomplish fundamental reform will take an understanding of the technology that is driving this century and changing our world. It will require an understanding how the economy actually works. It will require an understanding, a knowledge of how bureaucracies function and how real change can be accomplished. Fundamental reform will take a return to the values that have always been the bedrock of this nation. We must understand our role in the world, which is to lead, and the nature of our allies and especially the nature of our adversaries. Like Hillary Clinton, I too have traveled hundreds and thousands of miles around the globe, but unlike her I've actually accomplished something. You see Mrs. Clinton, flying is not an accomplishment, it is an activity. I have met Vladimir Putin and I know that it takes far more than a gimmicky red reset button to halt his ambition. Having done business in over 80 countries, having served as the chairman of the External Advisory Board at the Central Intelligence Agency for several years, I know that China and North Korea and Russia are state sponsors of cyber warfare. I know that China has a strategy to steal our intellectual property I know Bibi Netanyahu, and I know that when he warns us that Iran is a threat to our nation and to his own that we must listen. And unlike Hillary Clinton I know what difference it makes that our American ambassador and three other brave Americans were killed in a deliberate terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11 in Libya. And apparently unlike Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama I know our response must be more forceful than the arrest of a single individual one year later. I am a conservative because after a lifetime of experience in all kinds of places and in all kinds of environments, I still know that our principles work better to unlock the potential in others, and I also know that this is the highest calling of leadership. I have had the great privilege to travel all across this nation and all across the state of Iowa and I sense a deep disquiet. Americans fear we are losing something and they know we are missing something. We fear we are losing the essence of who we are, we fear we are losing that uniquely American sense of limitless possibility for ourselves, for our children, for our grandchildren. But all of our nation's wounds are self inflicted. All of our problems can be solved. Every American can leave a live a life of dignity and purpose and meaning. We have everything we need to make this time the greatest time in America's history. What is required now is citizenship and leadership and so let us together rise to meet the challenges that confront us. Let us together truly reform our government and our politics Let us together restore the promise of this, the greatest nation the world has ever known. Thank you for having me here tonight. In his farewell address, President Reagan said: Don't be afraid to see what you see. I have always believed the role of a leader is to see the truth, speak the truth and act on the truth. I am here tonight to speak about what I see and to describe how I am prepared to act. I see a world in dire need of American leadership. I see President Obama and Secretary Clinton always speaking in terms of ambivalence and shades of gray, offering false choices and raising the shadow of doubt about our will to lead. The next President of the United States must reestablish our leadership—she must speak with clarity, accept that some things are black and white and act with courage. She must be prepared to challenge the status quo and change the way things are—whether in Washington or around the world. The world is a more tragic and dangerous place when America is not leading. Terrorists are on the march. Nearly 45000 people are driven from their homes each day. Last week, four marines and a Navy officer were murdered here at home by a radicalized terrorist. Human trafficking is on the rise. Christians across the globe are persecuted. Women are denied the most basic rights. Girls live in fear of being mutilated, raped, or bought and sold as sex slaves. We tweet save our girls, but Boko Haram continues on a murderous rampage of kidnapping, pillaging and horrors we can barely imagine. President Obama has richly rewarded the bad behavior of Cuba, Russia, Syria, Iran and China, and Mrs. Clinton has signaled her approval. It is really quite simple. When you reward bad behavior, you get more of it. President Obama has negotiated a deal with an Iran that has repeatedly violated agreements, killed and wounded thousands of Americans, and flat out lied about every nuclear facility they have built over the last three decades. He has negotiated with a state that refuses to release American prisoners. And for what? Yesterday we learned that the Iranian regime has decided that in fact inspectors will have no access to their military facilities—never mind 24 days' notice, just no access. Period. Perhaps this is the content of the secret deal between Iran and the IAEA? In Russia, Secretary Clinton told us that she could reset our relationship there—a policy that has utterly failed. I've met Vladimir Putin. He craves power. He will not be stopped by a gimmicky red button. Putin's ambition continues to grow, unchecked. When President Obama warned Assad not to cross a red line, Assad took this as an invitation, not an admonition. This administration's blind eye to aggression has become a black eye for America. When we do not stand with our allies nor confront our adversaries, our friends lose courage and our enemies press forward. I know you are outraged. Sick of a professional political class that lectures and harangues —and never actually says anything at all. You know empty promises and bumper sticker rhetoric solve nothing. For too long we have had too many speeches and too few results. The American people deserve an honest leader. Who will own up to the difficulties of the job in front of her—and who has a track record of leadership, accomplishment, and challenging the status quo. As you are all aware, I am not a member of the professional political class. But I do have extensive national security and foreign policy experience. I have served as the Chairman of the CIA's External Advisory Board and I have advised Secretaries of State and Defense as well as the NSA and Department of Homeland Security. I have done so with the highest civilian security clearances. I have led a company doing business in 170 countries. I have advised governments and done charitable work in their nations. I have met with and gotten to know many leaders around the world. They know me, respect me and, most importantly, they trust me as a woman of action and of my word. As President, I will not wait until things have reached the crisis level. And I will not shy away from the most important challenges facing our world today. Because without American leadership, we face two choices: regional hegemons who challenge America or global chaos. Here's what I will do as Commander in Chief. First, we must have the strongest military on the face of the planet and everyone has to know it. This will take both an investment in our military and a reform of the Defense Department. We must fix what's called the tooth to tail ratios. Tooth to tail ratios are measured regularly in the Defense Department. Tooth—tip of the spear, our fighting men and women, the weapons systems and the technology they require to fight and win. Tail, bureaucracy—much too large for what we need to defend our nation. In fact, our tooth to tail ratios are as bad right now as they have ever been. So it's not just throwing more money at the problem. It's investing the money as well as our intellect and our imagination in the right places—tooth—and reducing the amount spent on a bureaucracy in need of reform— tail. President Obama announces the lay off of 40000 troops in response to sequester cuts. Professional politicians have engaged in such brinksmanship which brought us the sequester. While everyone decries it, no one has fixed it. We must reinvest in our military. The next President of the United States, like Ronald Reagan, will need to rebuild our military capability. Morale of our armed forces is low. We need a Commander in Chief who will unabashedly celebrate their honor, courage, and sacrifice. I was recently on the phone with Leif Babin, a decorated former Navy SEAL who has received a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. We talked about the battle of Ramadi and what our men and women are capable of. We have the bravest and strongest fighting force the world has ever seen. It's time we act like it. They deserve a Commander in Chief with a strategy for victory over there and they deserve a government that fulfills its promises when they get home. And so we must care for those who have served us. We need to overhaul the VA from top to bottom. It is a stain on our nation's honor. Technology can do amazing things but our veterans are still waiting far too long for the benefits they earned. And we haven't heard a lot from the political class in Washington about the VA since it dropped out of the headlines, but I can assure you it is still broken. And I will assure you that the political class in Washington that hasn't fixed it for decades, isn't going to fix it unless we elect someone who knows how to challenge the status quo and change bureaucracies. On my first day in the Oval Office, I will make two phone calls. The first will be to my friend Bibi Netanyahu. I will reassure him that the United States will always stand with the State of Israel. My second call will be to the Supreme Leader of Iran. He might not take the call, but he will get the message. I will tell him: new deal. Unless and until Iran opens itself to full and unfettered inspections of all nuclear and military facilities, we are going to make it very hard for Iran to move money around the global financial system. US companies should not be profiting off of this murderous regime. The next President of the United States will have a lot to do with whether Apple and McDonald's are doing business in Tehran. These two calls are also signals that the United States is back in the leadership business. I will not call Vladimir Putin. We have talked way too much to him. But he too will get the message. We must rebuild our Sixth Fleet. We must conduct military exercises in the Baltic States. President Obama unilaterally and inexplicably withdrew our missile defense programs in Poland—I will rebuild them. We learn more about atrocities committed by ISIS every day. Christians are being crucified. Children are used as body shields for jihadi soldiers. Muslims are killed for being the wrong type of Muslim. Women and girls are subject to systematic rape. In order to defeat ISIS, we must be willing to call it what it is: Islamic extremism. When 21 Coptic Christians were beheaded on the beaches of Egypt, it was the President of Egypt, President Al Sisi—a very brave and pious Muslim—who went into Cairo to visit with the most powerful imams and told them that Islam was in need of a religious revolution. He knew that they must condemn radical Islam and call it what it is: a cancer at the heart of their religion. We have to know what we're up against if we are to defeat it. I, like President Obama, will hold a Camp David summit, but not to talk our allies into a bad deal with Iran to cement my legacy. Instead, I will discuss with our Arab allies how we can support them in their fight against ISIS. They know this is their fight but they must see leadership and resolve and support from us. We will arm the Kurds as they have been requesting for three long years. I will provide King Abdullah, a fine man, with the bombs and materiel he has requested—instead of putting him in a position to turn to China for help. I will share intelligence with the Egyptians as they have requested. The Kurds, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, and the Saudis are fighting ISIS on the ground as we speak. I will make a promise to our friends in the Middle East to train their troops to fight ISIS—and I will keep that promise. President Obama told us his administration would spend $500 million to train 3000 troops within the next year. We've trained 60. That's simply unacceptable. And what do we see now? ISIS is gaining traction. The FBI now tells us they are more dangerous than al Qaeda. Secretary Clinton and President Obama declared victory in Iraq in 2011 and withdrew. They watched while ISIS grew, and a growing crisis is now spiraling out of control. Here is another truth that we must see and speak and act upon. China is our rising adversary. The Chinese people have tolerated repression, corruption, pollution, and sub standard safety in return for economic growth and an escape from poverty. And we have been an important engine of that growth. This gives us real leverage. We have the ability to impact their economy and change their calculation. China is using their economic might to rewrite the global order. They are now the world's largest purchaser of oil. They loan money to developing nations to build roads and other critical infrastructure—but they are not doing it for goodwill. China wants these countries' natural resources. We are not giving these countries a viable alternative. China has quickly built an international banking institution to rival the World Bank. China is building their economic power and will wield it ruthlessly. We are a nation founded on entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity, and open markets. Our prosperity is boundless. The Chinese people are willing to tolerate an oppressive regime in exchange for growth—but in fact this lack of freedom will ultimately limit their growth. There are cracks in the façade already. Just a few weeks ago, we saw their stock market in free fall and another 8 point plunge over night. The Chinese government is trying to prop up their markets, but this is not a lasting solution. Our next president must realize this opportunity and respond with confidence, using the tools we have here at home. For example, the Chinese, like the Iranians and the Russians, engage in draconian internet censorship. As Reagan once torn down a physical wall, we must tear down these cyber barriers to the free exchange of information. China has moved aggressively into the South China Sea, building islands in the middle of the ocean so that they can build military bases on top of these islands. This is a gateway that moves $5 trillion worth of trade every year. China cannot be permitted to control this gateway. Our current President largely created this situation. In 2012, President Obama brokered a deal between the Philippines and China to withdraw from a disputed portion of the South China Sea together—and China violated that agreement. We stood by as the Chinese went from testing the waters to jumping all the way in. We must push back against rising Chinese aggression. We should work with Vietnam and the Philippines to improve their surveillance capabilities to deter the Chinese. We should conduct military exercises with our Filipino friends. We must tell China—if you declare an Air Defense Identification Zone over the South China Sea, we will not recognize it. We will not comply. Even this will not be enough. The Chinese are continuing to expand and improve their nuclear arsenal. They are working hard to develop satellite and other technologies to counter our weapons advantage. They have long worried about our nuclear advantage and are now taking this opportunity to quietly build up their own arsenal and erode our position. We should help our Australian friends obtain military capabilities that they need and want. We should support the Japanese efforts to expand their forces. We must stand beside our allies. They will grow more resolute and stand up to those who seek to shift the balance of power. The Chinese steal our intellectual property with impunity and engage in state sponsored cyberterrorism. The Chinese government has stolen the personal information of over 20 million Americans. We've known that the Chinese were seeking to infiltrate our networks for over a decade. We've also known about the vulnerabilities in those networks. And yet, once again, the government bureaucracy was too bloated and inept to act and the political classes were too complacent to stop it. Having obtained the highest security clearances available to a civilian, I know the Chinese now possess all my personal information. This is more than a bureaucratic failing. The Chinese now possess incredibly valuable intelligence information. The answer from the political class is to demand the resignation of the head of OPM. But what has been done to protect us from future cyberattacks? Has anything changed? The political class moved on as soon as the outrage subsided and the bureaucracy continues to lumber along. And let's not forget our former Secretary of State told us her private server was protected from hacking because she had two Secret Service agents guarding it. We weren't worried about your server being stolen, Mrs. Clinton. We were worried about it being hacked. Or worse, used as a back door to hack into the State Department system, which is exactly what appears to have happened at OPM. The next President must understand technology. She must understand both how to use it to harness the power of our citizenry to challenge the status quo of Washington and to protect and defend our nation. As Mrs. Clinton now runs for President, she likes to talk about her support of human rights, women's rights and democracy. Her actions conflict with her words. During her first trip to Asia as Secretary in February 2009, she told us we couldn't let human rights get in the way of our other goals. China responded. They cracked down on American companies, charitable organizations and free speech. They have thrown Nobel Peace Prize winners in jail. Trafficking and domestic violence continue. Forced abortions and death by exposure have ended the lives of countless millions and millions of female infants. Repressive regimes elsewhere in the world took notice as well. Mrs. Clinton personally gave the Russians a reset button, just as the human rights situation in that country took a drastic turn for the worse. In Iran, when the Green Movement demonstrated against the murderous Ahmadinejad regime, she went silent. China, Russia, Iran, and terrorist groups such as ISIS—these are the big human rights tests of our time. Women and girls are systematically targeted, subjugated, murdered, raped and sold into bondage. It is the height of hypocrisy for Hillary Clinton to run for President as a champion of women's rights when her record as Secretary of State is this dismal. Our ideals are a light that shines in the very darkest corners of the world. Today, without American leadership, we have too many dark corners. I see our nation at a crossroads. Margaret Thatcher—a woman I admire greatly—once said that she was not content to manage the decline of a great nation. Neither am I. I am prepared to lead the resurgence of a great nation. I—like all of you—am deeply proud of our extraordinary nation and grateful to be an American. This gratitude and pride is called patriotism. It is one of the greatest things about our country and our enemies hate it. In 2013, Vladimir Putin wrote in an op ed to the New York Times that our patriotism is dangerous. Just two weeks ago, as we negotiated with Iran, the Supreme Leader denounced our people as the ultimate embodiment of arrogance. Tyrants know that our patriotism, our principles, and our policies enable us to be a leader on the global stage. Today, Americans sense danger at home and abroad. People all over the world know the fundamentals of freedom and human dignity are threatened. And when we abandon an ally or embolden an adversary, it reverberates throughout the world, and as we tragically know, those ripples can too easily land on our shores. We need a President who will see and speak and act on the truth. We need a President who knows that some things are black and white and who will be a clear eyed advocate for policies formed by principles, not by polls and politics. We need a President who will reassure our allies that we are a friend who can be trusted and who will show our adversaries that we will not be bullied or intimidated. We must nominate and elect a president who proudly accepts the mantel of leadership that a weary world is eager for us to wear. I know what such leadership requires. I will recognize dangers with eyes wide open but will also embrace with open arms the enormous opportunities and potential of these amazing times. I am prepared to be a President who will lead the resurgence of this great nation, here at home and around the world. Thank you and may God continue to bless our extraordinary nation. Thank you. It's great to be in Tampa with so many friends. Today, we begin a four day trip across Florida, South Carolina, and New Hampshire to tell the Florida story. The story of a big, diverse state, shaped by conservative, results oriented leadership. Reforming government. Disrupting the status quo. Challenging the special interests. Restoring opportunity. Refusing to compromise in the defense of freedom. Lifting people up, not tearing them down. Standing up for everyone. Our story is about action. Doing, not just talking. Listening, not just lecturing. That is my story. And I'm so grateful and honored to have had the opportunity to lead this great state as your governor. Last year, I decided that I wanted to share my story with people across the country. So, I wrote a book. Well really, I didn't write it. Not in a traditional sense. I emailed it! They used to call me the e governor. For eight years, I gave out my email address to anyone who wanted to talk to me. And email they did! People across the state told me their stories. Sometimes they asked questions. Sometimes they asked for help. One lady asked me to get a raccoon out of her attic, and I got my team right on it! But Floridians always gave me their opinions. And man, they didn't hold back. So, I listened. I tried to answer every email. It wasn't something I could have predicted at the start of my time in office, but this 8 year conversation with Florida shaped my governorship. So, in writing my book, I used my email exchanges to tell the Florida story. To tell about the work to turn one of America's largest states into an economic engine where people could live, work and raise their family in safety and security With huge promise for the future and free from the heavy hand of government. That is what my book is about. That is why I am running for the Presidency of the United States. You see, America is in a time of testing, at home and abroad. People are frustrated. People are worried about what the future holds for our nation. And I share that sentiment with them. Our economy has suffered its slowest recovery since the Great Depression. One in ten able bodied Americans can't find full time work, or have given up looking altogether. One in seven Americans lives in poverty. One in five children is on food stamps. Barack Obama has given us two trillion dollars of new taxes, but still managed to grow the national debt by eight trillion, placing an immoral burden on working families and the next generation. The world is in turmoil, as America withdraws from its responsibilities. ISIS has declared a Caliphate the size of Indiana. In Syria and Iraq, they are indiscriminately killing moderate Muslims, Christians, Western journalists anyone who stands in the way of their fanatic ideology. Red lines get crossed without consequence, unleashing a humanitarian crisis as four million Syrian refugees flee their native land. Vladimir Putin is siding with the brutal Syrian dictator; sending weapons systems to Iran; and continuing to defy the Western world in Ukraine. All the while, our President has negotiated an agreement that gives legitimacy to Tehran and does nothing to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. For the first time in the history of Israel, its greatest existential threat has been created by its greatest ally. The 2016 election arrives at the juncture of our failures abroad, and restlessness at home. And soon, Americans will once again enter a time for choosing A chance to set a new course for the country. As you may have heard, last week, I was in Colorado for the third Republican presidential debate. If you watched the debate, you probably came away thinking this election is about sound bitesor fantasy footballor which candidate can interrupt the loudest. I'm here to tell you it's not. This election is not about a set of personalities. It's about a set of principles. It is about leadership. It is about the right vision to lead America through turbulent waters, after two terms of a divider in chief who has sliced and diced the electorate by class, income, grievance and creed. So the choice we face is whether to summon the courage to give rise to an era of new possibility or to indulge this new age of cynicism. For all his promise, perhaps President Obama's greatest accomplishment is that of creating competing pessimisms. Members of his own party are left explaining how two percent growth, massive debt, and increasing global isolation are really the best we can do. They speak in delusional terms about containing ISIS; about trusting the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism; about how the presence of Russian soldiers on Syrian soil doesn't underscore the president's empty words and total inaction. It's not working. And all President Obama has left is the politics of divide and conquer. Signing lawless executive orders that ignore the Constitution and launching partisan attacks, such as comparing his critics to Iranian hard liners. Americans have had enough of our president's many strawman arguments. And, of a front running candidate who blames a vast right wing conspiracy instead of taking personal responsibility, and who declares roughly half the country is her enemy. If Secretary Clinton has her way, the next four years will be like the last eight: gridlock, grievance, division, demonization. This is the only way they know how to win. On the issue of immigration, they have written a script for Republicans, filled with grievance and resentment. Frankly, the last thing they want is a Republican challenger who takes them out of their comfort zone of forced indignation and PC platitudes. But let me be clear: I'm not stepping into the role of angry agitator that they have created for us, because it's not what's in my heart. It is not true to the conservative cause. And, in the end, that role is just a bit part in the story of another conservative loss and another liberal victory. That's their plan, and I'm not going to play along. But I fear the President has already succeeded in setting the trap for our party, bringing a new pessimism on the right. Some people on the debate stage talked of a country that was once great, but now is in dramatic decline. They say our best days are behind us. I acknowledge the difficulties and challenges we face. But I reject this kind of thinking. Not because I don't understand it, but because I know it is not true. There is an important place in our politics for righteous indignation. But anger that leads to resentment without delivering results will take us down a path to perdition. I believe America's best days are not behind us, but squarely in front of us. If we elect the right leadership. And as your President, I will fight every day with a reformer's heart. I will lead. And I will tear down the barriers that keep Americans from rising up and realizing their god given potential. I will do so keenly aware of the problems that give rise to the deep frustration all of us share frustration over a porous border workers' wages remaining stagnant and an ever shrinking pie for families living paycheck to paycheck. This won't be solved with more talk. The answer isn't sending someone from one side of the capital city to the other. The solution won't be found in someone who has never demonstrated the capacity to implement conservative ideas. And you can't just tell Congress You're Fired and go to a commercial break. You have to bring people together to solve problems. The challenges we face as a nation are too great to roll the dice on another presidential experiment. To trust the rhetoric of reform over a record of reform. After seven years of incompetence, corruption and gridlock in Washington, we need a president who can fix it. I can fix it. After seven years of historic cuts to our militarya foreign policy based on leading from behindthe emboldening of our enemies and the isolation of our allieswe need a president who fixes America's standing abroad. I can fix it. After seven years of massive deficits, historic debt, and a president who vetoes defense spending because he wants more reckless spending, we need a president who fixes our budgetary mess. I can fix it. I know I can fix itbecause I've done it. In Florida, we showed how strong, hands on leadership could make a difference in the lives of people. I gave out my email address because I wanted Floridians to know that their governor cared about them and wanted to help solve their problems. I remember emailing with an honor student named Kirsty Edwards who couldn't pass the FCAT to graduate because of her disability. We listened and changed the law so Kirsty could get her high school diploma and go onto graduate from college. I remember emailing with single moms like Tina Calloway who needed help collecting child support from absent fathers. Their calls for assistance motivated us to increase child support collection by 90 percent. And I remember emailing with teachers like Alleen Miller who joined our cause of improving schools, even though their union pressured them to fight us every step of the way. I went to Tallahassee as an agent of change. I turned the political culture of Tallahassee upside down. I'm putting The Beltway on notice. I'll turn Washington upside down too. We took on the teachers union to make Florida a national leader in parental choice and school accountability. We took on the public employee union to shrink the size of the state bureaucracy by 11 percent. We took on trial lawyers to rein in frivolous lawsuits and make our business climate more conducive to small business growth. And we took on big spending politicians from both parties to balance eight budgets and cut taxes eight years in a row by a total of $19 billion. By the way, I vetoed 2500 line items, eliminating more than $2 billion of pork barrel spending. My good friend and the Speaker of the House, John Thrasher, reacted by calling me Veto Corleone. That was not meant as a term of endearment at the time, but I wear it as a badge of honor today. The story of my governorship was one of using conservative principles to provide people with opportunity to improve their lives. I governed on the premise that there are no second class citizens. No second rate dreams. In America, every citizen is an asset. Every life matters. And every American has a right to rise to their god given potential. If you want a president who maintains the status quo, I am not your candidate. But if you want fundamental conservative reformreform that can be found in the record, not just the rhetoricthen I ask for your support. Our times are difficult, but not nearly as difficult as what Lincoln faced when he took office what FDR faced on December 8th of 1941. We have long been blessed with a benevolent presidency. Leaders who turned both our highest hopes and our worst fears into dramatic, lasting change that left the world a better place. Leaders who held the nation's highest office with humility. Who went on bended knee before God, asking His help in carrying out orders that would determine the fate of millions. It was Lincoln who spoke at his second Inauguration a few weeks before the end of the war soothing words of healing and hope, With malice toward none, with charity for all. With firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in If Lincoln were alive today, imagine the foolishness he would have to suffer. Advisers telling him to shave his beard. Cable pundits telling him to lose the top hat. Opposition researchers calling him a five time loser before the age of 50. I have gotten a lot of advice lately myselfmore than enough. Some is stylistic. Take off the suit coat. Ditch the glasses. Get rid of the purple striped tie. Man, I like that tie. Some advice is more strategic. Nail that zinger. Be angrier. Hide your inner wonk. But I have learned two important things from my time serving the people of Florida: One, I can't be someone I'm not. And, two, getting things done isn't about yelling into a camera, or regurgitating sound bites free of substance. The campaign trail is littered with candidates disguised as television critics. Politicians echoing poll tested pabulum. But leadership is something far different. It's not about telling people what they want to hear, but what they must hear. It's not about saying the right thing, but doing the right thing. And it's not about tearing people down, but about bringing people together. I will do everything in my power to win this race, but there are some things I am not willing to do: I will not compromise my principles, I will not trade in an optimistic outlook to put on the cloak of an angry agitator. And I will not make anyone feel small so I can feel big. Americans are looking for a president, not a pundita leader and not a protester. For seven years we have been led by a cynic in chief. It is time we elected a Commander in chief. A president who knows leadership involves summoning the will and creativity to solve tomorrow's challenges and seize tomorrow's opportunities. I am running this campaign on my own terms. And let me tell you something: when the dust clears, and the delegates are counted, we will win this campaign. I will be true to myself, optimistic and inclusive. I will win appealing to our better angels, and not our greatest fears. And I will win with a message that welcomes all and includes all, because I will be a president who fights for all. Join me in this journey. Fight with me as we work to fundamentally change the culture of Washington. Let us seek to redeem the promise of a fledgling Republic formed well over 200 years ago. A land full of endless promise and limitless possibility for all so blessed to be called Americans. The future is in our hands. Let us seize it together with faith, hope and trust. In ourselves. In one another. In the God who made us and guides us. Thank you. God bless America. Thank you for coming here today. I have come to New Hampshire today to talk about the challenges we're facing as a country. Through its unwillingness to address our biggest challenges in an honest way, the Obama Administration has put us on a perilous course for both our short term and long term futures. It is time to tell the truth about what we need to do in order to solve our problems and put our country back on the path to greater prosperity. One of those challenges is the unrestrained growth of government spending on entitlements. In the short term, it is growing the deficit and slowly but surely taking over all of government. In the long term, it will steal our children's future and bankrupt our nation. Meanwhile, our leaders in Washington are not telling people the truth. Washington is still not dealing with the problem. Washington is afraid to have an honest conversation about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid with the people of our country. I am not. Washington refuses to acknowledge that we have a crisis on our hands. We need to force them to acknowledge the crisis and fix it. And unless we deal with this crisis, the young people of this country will get poorer; the disparity between young and old, the working middle class and the retired will grow even larger. Our economy will grow even weaker. Our debt will skyrocket. Considering entitlements and interest make up almost 70% of the budget and the Obama Administration has run up the debt to a record $18 trillion, you'd think we'd be having a more robust, honest debate about them. Yet, most politicians in Washington stay as far away from this issue as they can. Democrats believe entitlements are a sacred cow that cannot be honestly discussed, perpetuating a dangerous fantasy to the American people—that these programs will always be there, even if we do nothing. They are wrong. Let me be clear. The changes I propose today would not affect seniors currently in these programs or seniors approaching retirement. Let me repeat that: these changes will not affect you, but will save these programs for your grandchildren. Anyone who tells you differently is simply not telling you the truth. We should and we must ensure that Social Security and Medicare exist to prevent our seniors from falling into poverty. The truth is that the majority of our seniors who need these programs have spent their lives working hard, providing for their families and living within their means. They have earned the right to live out their later years without the fear of poverty. But I am also here to tell you that the fairness we seek must be broad and must be earned. This fairness must cover our hard working taxpayers footing the bills today and must include reforming these programs to ensure their existence today and for future generations. This is a conversation Washington politicians don't have because they do not believe the American people have the appetite for hard truths. Once again, they underestimate our people. Americans not only deserve fairness, they deserve the honesty of their leaders. The concept of fairness, which underpinned the rationale for creating these programs in the first place, is being turned on its head. Consider this: In 1960, when John F. Kennedy was elected President, 26% of the federal budget was spent on payments to individuals. Today, that number is 71%. That is incredible. Why has it happened? In the last 25 years, while our economy has grown by over 200%, Medicare has grown by 539%. Medicaid and related programs have grown by well over 800%. They are 9 times as big as they were 25 years ago and the US economy is only 3 times as big. This is not sustainable. You know it. I know it. The American people know it. But professional politicians in Washington refuse to lead and are putting our future at risk. When these programs were enacted, too many senior citizens lived in poverty. The good news is that we have made progress over the years on that problem. Now, however, we have a new problem: as of 2011 over 20% of children in America live in poverty. We spend over 56% of the income per every worker on seniors, while spending only 8% on children. I believe the grandmothers and grandfathers of America would be appalled to know this. Not only does this inaction drive more children into poverty, if we do not deal with this crisis now, these programs which have helped to prevent poverty for America's elderly today, will be bankrupt and gone for the very people who are paying for them, our hard working, young American middle class. The 65 and over population will increase by 102% between 2011 and 2050, while the working age population will increase by just 17% over that same period. As the elderly population rises, the number of workers who pay into Social Security is dropping. By 2030, there will be about two workers per retiree, down from 3 workers in 2000. Just let that fact settle in for a minute. So let's have a conversation. Why do we have Social Security? Why do we have Medicare? We have them because we believe as a country that we should not let aging Americans fall into poverty after a lifetime of work. We believe that our seniors should not fear that they will be unable to make any ends meet as they grow older. This is a promise worth keeping. Now let's talk about how we do that today and not in the context of when these programs were first created back in 1935 and 1965. It is about fairness among and between American generations. And it is about telling all Americans the truth, and without delay. If you believe we should keep this promise, as I do, that all Americans should have access to the economic security these programs provide, then that costs money. Do we want to confront this by enacting backbreaking tax increases on our middle class, the size of which this country has never seen? Do we want to risk the breaking of this promise to our future seniors through further delay and inaction? Do we want to destroy our country's future prospects because of a mountain of debt we can't manage? I reject all of those alternatives. So how do we really fix the problem and not just get the usual set of political talking points? I've put together a 12 point proposal to start a conversation about how we reform these programs. None of these points would undermine our commitment to care for those most in need. None would destroy the retirement security of older Americans. But together, they would take over one trillion dollars from the growing pile of rapidly amassing government benefits, and start us on the road to making these programs solvent for generations in the future. I'm going to talk about the biggest pieces of this proposal first, starting with Social Security. Again, why do we have Social Security? It's there so our seniors, after a lifetime of hard work, don't fall into poverty. Which means it should be there for those who need it. Now, the problem is that Social Security is, of course, the largest entitlement. In fact, it is the largest federal program, with projected spending of $896 billion in the current fiscal year. While it is not growing as fast as Medicaid or Medicare, it is slowly working its way to insolvency, which the actuaries say will come in the early 2030s, less than 20 years from now. Social Security will come under increasing stress as the number of workers relative to the number of beneficiaries continues to shrink. As it is, Social Security in the coming decades will pay out a trillion more in benefits than it collects in taxes. Like that for Medicare, the fiscal picture for Social Security has been affected pretty dramatically by increases in life expectancy over time. This is a good thing. Americans are living longer. This is something to celebrate but, at the same time, we can't ignore the real effect that has on Social Security. So how do we react to this? We should remember that Social Security should be retirement insurance. I'm suggesting that Americans pay into this system throughout the course of their life knowing that it will be there if they need it to support them. So that seniors will not grow old in back breaking poverty. But if you are fortunate enough not to need it, you will have paid into a system that will continue to help Americans who need it most. That is what we have always done for each other through private charity and good government. This is fair and it is what we must continue to do by changing Social Security. Let's ask ourselves an honest question: do we really believe that the wealthiest Americans need to take from younger, hard working Americans to receive what, for most of them, is a modest monthly Social Security check? I propose a modest means test that only affects those with non Social Security income of over $80000 per year, and phases out Social Security payments entirely for those that have $200000 a year of other income. This would affect less than 2 percent of all recipients, but would contribute to the overall health of the system and recognize that the wealthiest among us don't need this benefit when it comes at such great cost to our fiscal health and the opportunity to future generations. We should apply the same concept to Medicare. Medicare, which provides healthcare for senior citizens, is not growing as fast as Medicaid, but it is larger, in terms of federal government spending, at least as of today. Now as everyone knows, most Americans have paid money through payroll taxes to help pay for this health coverage in their later years. But there is a problem: the payroll taxes and receipts the government collects today cover only about half of the gross cost of Medicare benefits and, according to CBO, that proportion will shrink to about a third over the next 25 years. The share of GDP devoted to Medicare has grown sharply since its enactment 50 years ago, and the share of the population enrolled in Medicare has continued to grow. Today it stands at 16%, but that number will go up with an aging population. So again, I ask the question. Why do we have Medicare? We have Medicare to give our seniors access to health care and to stop them from falling into poverty in the process. Let's keep it simple, if you can afford to pay more for your health benefits you should and if you can't, you should not. Fairness for seniors who need it. Fairness to middle class Americans paying for it today. Medicare is already means tested to a certain extent, with the 25% of the true premium cost that seniors pay for part B and part D rising on a sliding scale starting at incomes above $85000 all the way up to 80% cost sharing for those with incomes above $214000. We should expand the sliding scale that already exists. Seniors with an $85000 a year income will pay 40% of premium costs and increasing it to 90% above $196000 a year. This increased means testing should apply to Medicare Part D, the drug prescription program, as well. Over the last few years, the prescription drug program has become more expensive than it first was as Democrats in the Senate acted to close the donut hole. Higher cost shares for wealthier older Americans in part D can help address that growing cost. Now, additionally, Americans are living longer and more productive lives today than at any point in our history. This development is an overwhelmingly positive one for our nation and our economy and the retirement system must be adjusted to reflect these new gains in longevity. When Medicare was enacted, a man's life expectancy in the United States was about 67 years old, and that for a woman was 73. Today, life expectancy in this country is 79 for a man and 82 for a woman. We need to raise the retirement age for Social Security. I'm proposing we raise the age to 69, gradually implementing this change starting in 2022 and increasing the retirement age by 2 months each year until it reaches 69. I also believe we need to raise the early retirement age at a similar pace, raising it by 2 months per year until it reaches 64 from the current level of 62. Which means we should do the same for Medicare. We should raise eligibility age at a manageable pace of one month per year, so that by 2040 it would be 67 years old, and by 2064 would be 69 years old. Raising the eligibility age, slowly so that people can plan for it, has another advantage. It encourages seniors to remain in the workforce. With life expectancy rising and both work conditions and general health of older Americans increasing over time, raising the retirement age makes sense, and it also encourages productive senior citizens to remain in the workforce. A widely quoted study conducted some years ago by experts at the RAND Corporation found that the proportion of older Americans who can perform the simple tasks of everyday life has risen significantly over time. This is a good thing. I believe in the dignity of work, and America needs a larger labor force to help our growth. So we should encourage work, and like many of the proposals I will make today, this is a pro work change. We should take an additional positive step to encourage remaining in the workforce. Let's encourage work by reducing taxes for working seniors through eliminating their payroll tax. Seniors who keep working past the age of 62 have paid their fair share to the government and shouldn't have to keep paying payroll taxes for Social Security when it won't really significantly increase the benefits they receive. By the way, economists estimate that this payroll tax cut for those over 62 would contribute to labor supply growth and therefore GDP growth in the US. This growth would offset much of the lost revenues from the tax cut. Next, let's discuss Medicaid. It should be no surprise that Medicaid is the fastest growing federal entitlement, and the most problematic. It is on a path to bankrupt not only the federal government, but the states as well. Its span is massive, now covering over 72 million Americans. Like many government programs, it is operated devoid of common sense. Too much care is delivered in the emergency room, the most expensive place. In most states, there is no co pay and no deductible. So, as in much of American health care, there is no incentive for the patient to worry about costs or rationally use health care resources. And I can tell you this, as a governor, the federal government sets rules, and has a tedious and time consuming process for any innovation by the states. It is unduly complex and frustrating. As a bipartisan panel of governors recently wrote, in discussing Medicaid: Too often, policies adopted at the national level, though they may have been well intended, result in federal over reach and trigger unintended and undesired consequences. How do we change this and still protect our neediest citizens? The federal government should administer Medicaid by sending the states a fixed amount per enrollee. The per capita cap could be different for each category of Medicaid recipient, the elderly, disabled, children, and non elderly non disabled adults. And the cap amount could be allowed to grow, with the inflation rate, each year. This approach takes into account growth in population or in costs and, even with the per enrollee cost growing at the inflation rate, this approach, according to the CBO, would reduce the deficit by well over a half a trillion dollars over the next ten years. What else do we need to do? It's also time to make the process of a state like mine getting a Medicaid waiver simpler, less time consuming, and repeatable. As things stand now, governors and their states walk on eggshells for over a year or more while waivers to do perfectly rational things are debated by bureaucrats in Washington. We should have templates for waivers that have worked in one state to make them easy to approve in another. The process should be much more clear, transparent, and quick. Another entitlement program that is also on the verge of bankruptcy is the Social Security disability insurance program. The share of working age Americans collecting disability has doubled in the last twenty years, from 2% to 4%. The disability rolls have increased by over 1 million just since January 2009, to more than 11 million people. This is up from just 2 million in 1986. The Social Security disability trust fund, without action by congress, is scheduled to run out of money next year, in 2016. President Obama proposes to reallocate hundreds of billions of dollars of Social Security payroll tax retirement revenues to the disability trust fund with no strings attached, but I believe we should use this moment to reform the system and incentivize getting back to work. In the Netherlands, before a worker can go on disability they must first work with their employer to create a rehabilitation plan, and they must act on it. The Dutch also provide a tax break for those employers who keep the disabled on the job. This simple reform has had an effect. Holland has disability rates similar to ours, but these reforms have had the effect of reducing the flow of new disability beneficiaries by 60% in 6 years. We should encourage those who truly are able to work to get back to work. Let's increase the requirements on the number of years in which an applicant has worked in recent years, speed up the time which a determination about whether someone is eligible for disability is made and the time in which a beneficiary must return to work if their injury is only temporary. At the same time we should encourage vocational rehab, wage subsidies and preventive care services to keep an individual working with additional support. Beyond these concepts, I also believe we must take these additional steps in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid: We need to more accurately measure inflation, while giving seniors 85 or older added protection. Social Security growth should be based on the true growth in the cost of living. To provide added protection for the elderly who are most impacted by fluctuations in consumer prices, a one time 5 percent increase in monthly benefits will be provided to all beneficiaries when they reach the age of 85. For Medicare, the rules for cost sharing deductibles, caps on coverage, and co pays, are all over the map. There are different types of deductibles and cost sharing depending on the type of service provided and where it is provided. We should do exactly what the bipartisan Simpson Bowles report, a report which President Obama ignored -proposed. Simplify all this by having a uniform single annual deductible of $550, a uniform coinsurance rate of 20%, 5% cost sharing above out of pocket expenses of $5500 in a year, and a hard cap of $7500 a year in cost sharing. This makes sense to me. It is simpler. It will save money. We should do it. · Over 65% of Medicaid spending goes to the elderly and disabled. One of the biggest cost drivers in the program is spending on those who are dual eligible, that is, eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare. Right now, Medicare provides the basic health care coverage for this population and Medicaid is used to fund co pays, contributions, and gaps in Medicare. I'm proposing if a recipient is going to receive Medicaid for this purpose, then they must receive Medicare coverage through a managed care organization. My state does this, and it saves money. And it is not a partisan issue. California requires the same thing. This should be our national policy. We should take the simple step of requiring a small co pay for Medicaid recipients, something on the order of $10 for a doctor or clinic visit, and $20 for a hospital visit, at least for those Medicaid recipients with incomes above the poverty level. This will encourage better decisions by patients for both their health and the costs of their benefits. We must introduce some economics into the decision making process. And it is only fair, as most Americans have a co pay requirement in their private plans. These proposals do not answer every question; they don't represent everything we can do, but they are much more than anyone has been willing to do in Washington and they begin to tell our people the truth. They protect those most in need, while being fair to those who are not. They are bipartisan and they are eminently doable. Today. Together, just taking these dozen steps will save over $1 trillion in the next decade. The costs of not tackling this problem are staggering, and threatening most of all to the young St. Anselm's students in this room. First of all, no action will guarantee that the big safety net and retirement programs, Social Security, Medicare, and others, will be bankrupt and insolvent by the time you retire. Second, no action will mean that the taxes you pay will do nothing but pay benefits to others and that those taxes will skyrocket to crushing levels. Every other national priority will be sacrificed, our economic growth will grind to a complete halt and our national security will be put at even graver risk. Already, our national defense has been hollowed out by years of underinvestment. A bipartisan group of experts last year published a sobering report and continues to sound the alarm. The navy has gone from 600 ships to being on a path to 260. The air force is flying today the smallest and oldest force of combat aircraft it has ever flown. In the face of underfunding and sequester, the number of active duty forces in the army is shrinking to 1990s levels, and only a handful of army brigades are ready for crisis response. This decline in defense, in the face of projected massive deficits and fiscal imbalance, and despite a world that remains full of challenges and threats, is what the Harvard economic historian Niall Ferguson has called the fatal arithmetic of imperial decline. And if we don't get our finances in order as a country, long term decline will inevitably be our fate. President Obama has left us a debtor nation. In his short time in office, he has almost doubled the national debt, increasing it by over $8 trillion. To the extent he and the Congress have been able to reach small agreements on fiscal matters, they have generally focused on the part of the budget which is not the problem, so called domestic discretionary spending, which is only 15% of the budget this year. And in any event, this part of the budget has only grown at roughly the inflation rate plus 1% for the last 25 years. In other words, it has grown at less than the rate of the US economy. One more thing that is important to note here. There is no question that America would be better off with a market oriented, more flexible, more pro consumer choice health care system than the one that was jammed down our throats by this President. Obamacare does not and cannot work for America. If the facts I have outlined today prove anything, I believe they prove that we do not need and cannot afford an additional Washington controlled entitlement program—which is exactly what Obamacare is today. The trouble is that while the Courts and the Congress debate and decide whether Obamacare can stand as it is or can be repealed and replaced, the growth of the entitlement beast continues unabated. In fact, in many ways it is turbo charged by Obamacare. I will have more to say on Obamacare in the weeks and months ahead. And I will address it in the same direct and specific way I have addressed Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid with all of you today. You see, we need to recognize that solving our biggest problems, like the growth of entitlements, can be done, but only with real leadership that tells the truth to the very people we aspire to lead. When I took over as governor of New Jersey, my predecessor Jon Corzine had left us a mess. Record deficits. The highest top tax rates and overall tax burden in the country. Schools that were failing. Liabilities that were unaddressed and out of control. People said New Jersey could never be turned around, but we took action. Cut 230 programs in the first year, and over 800 in the second year. And balanced six budgets in a row, without raising taxes. In fact, I vetoed every tax increase the democratic legislature ever sent me. Reformed pension and health care benefits to reduce the burden on taxpayers by over $120 billion over 30 years. Reformed teacher tenure for the first time in a century so that ineffective teachers can actually be removed from our children's classrooms. Capped property taxes. And so far, we have added 175000 private sector jobs in New Jersey, while shrinking the cost of government and state government employment by over 85000 employees in 5 years. It wasn't easy, and we're far from finished. But New Jersey has begun to turn around, and we're growing, not shrinking. It won't be easy to turn around the fiscal mess that Barack Obama has left us either. He has avoided the tough decisions. Imagine that the straightforward discussion I've had with you today, President Obama has been afraid to have with you for the last eight years, from the day he declared for president in February of 2007 to this very day. Is that real leadership for America? It is not. It is typical of the timid and failed leadership of Barack Obama. It will take time to put in place all the measures we need to fully tap America's potential. But there is no time like the present to get started. Strong, decisive and honest leadership matters for America. It is only when governors, and presidents, and concerned citizens, decide to step up and take action that we can solve our problems. Problems won't get solved if we wait for others to solve them, or if we are afraid to confront what we know to be true. Today, we know this: our entitlement system is out of control. Its growth is not sustainable. And inaction threatens the economic health of every generation that will follow us. So let's confront this problem head on. Let's take the steps we can take today, and resolve to do even more tomorrow. Let's come together for a better America, and not sit idly by while our prospects fade and our divisions grow. I know some in both political parties will criticize these ideas. Some will surrender to the divisiveness, the fear mongering and the scare tactics that are generously served on the political menu in Washington, DC every day. They will flip flop from previous stands to curry favor; they will pretend that change will lead to peril. My fellow Americans, peril is already here and it has been caused by our refusal to change, not by honestly embracing the real change that brings fairness to every generation. These are the truths you all know in your gut, I want to give voice to those common sense truths you already know. Here's what you'll learn about me. I have been talking about the growth of entitlements as a big problem, at both the state and federal levels, for a number of years. Not because it is politically popular, but because it is true. And because it will affect everything we can do as a country to make this century the second American century. I will not pander. I will not flip flop. I am not afraid to tell you the truth as I see it. I want to help lead a national conversation that rewards truth over pandering; that rewards innovation over the timidity of the status quo; that honors the power of our history over the fear of failure. That's what leadership is all about. And that is why I am so pleased that you let me join you today here in New Hampshire to talk about our future. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America. My mother was a smoker. She smoked her whole life. She was addicted to nicotine. She started when she was 16 years old, which was 1948. But by the time 1964 came, the Surgeon General's report came out, and she was in her mid-30s, she knew that smoking was bad for you. And I tell you I watched her as a kid growing up. She tried everything she could to quit. She had the gum, the patches, and hypnosis. She tried everything. She couldn't quit. Now, when she turned 71, a little after that, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. No one came to me and said, "Don't treat her, because she got what she deserved." We know that lung cancer was caused by the smoking. We know it was. But no one came to me and said, "Hey, listen. Your mother was dumb. She started smoking when she was 16. Then after we told her it was bad for her, she kept doing it. So we're not going to give her chemotherapy. We're not going to give her radiation. We're not going to give her any of that stuff. You know why? Because she's getting what she deserves." No one said that. No one said that about someone who had cancer. Yet somehow, if it's heroin or cocaine or alcohol, we say, "They decided it. They're getting what they deserved." I'm pro life. And I think that if you're pro life, that means you've got to be pro life for the whole life, not just for the nine months they're in the womb, all right? It's easy. It's easy to be pro life for the nine months they're in the womb. They haven't done anything to disappoint us yet, all right? They're perfect in there. But when they get out, that's when it gets tough. The 16 year old teenage girl on the floor of the county lockup addicted to heroin, I'm pro life for her too. Her life is just as much a precious gift from God as the one in the womb. And we need to start thinking that way as a party and as a people, and the president needs to say those things. I'm going to give you a second example. I'm a recovering lawyer. Thank you. I went to law school. And for any of you who went to law school, if anybody here is a lawyer too, you can admit it privately if you want later too, but the people that you're closest to from law school are those people who are in your first year study group. First year, when you're nervous as heck, you don't know. You don't know what is up and what's down. Are you going to make it or not make it? You have this small group of people that everybody puts together. There were eight of us in my group, and we studied together, and you get to see everybody at their absolute worst. These are your best friends in law school. One of the guys that was in my study group gave me his profile. We went to law school at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. He came from an Ivy League school to Seton Hall. He was the smartest of all of us. He became an editor of the Law Review. He was the first one of us who got a job out of school. He got at a big prominent law firm in our state. He's making more money than any of the rest of us. He married an incredibly beautiful woman who's a doctor. They have three gorgeous daughters, one cuter, happier, and more talented than the next. He was the first one among us to become a partner at his law firm. He brought a great house. He had a great car, and worse yet, he was really good looking and in perfect shape. The guy used to run 10, 12 miles a week every week. We loved him, but we hated him, because the guy had everything, right? He was running one day in his normal routine. He hurt his back running. He was in his early 40s and was not giving into age. He was running his normal time, and he hurt his back. He went to the doctor, because he was having trouble working, really hurt. The doctor said, "Listen, we're going to give you some treatment or whatever, but in the meantime, just to help you get through, we're going to give you Percocet to help numb the pain." Well, about a year later, I get a call from his wife. She said, "He's addicted to these painkillers, and he won't listen. I kicked him out of the house, and he's living at his parent's house. You guys need to go and have an intervention with him. Those friends from law school need to go and get him to go to rehab." We all went over there. We had an intervention with him, and it started a 10 year odyssey of him being in and out of rehab. During that period of time, she divorced him. He lost his rights to see his girls. He lost his license to practice law. He lost his driver's license. He lost his home. He bought himself a condo, and she kicked him out. He lost that. He lost all the money, spent all the money that he had saved, and he spent it through most of his retirement. When a year and half ago on a Sunday morning, Mary, Pat, and I got the call that we'd been dreading forever, that they found him dead in a motel room with an empty bottle of Percocet and an empty quart of Vodka, 52 years old. By every measure that we define success in this country, this guy had it. Great looking guy, well educated, great career, plenty of money, beautiful loving wife, beautiful children, great house, he had everything. He's a drug addict, and he couldn't get help, and he's dead. When I sat there as the governor of New Jersey at his funeral, and looked across the pew at this three daughters sobbing, because their dad is gone, there, but before the grace of God, go I. It can happen to anyone. And so we need to start treating people in this country, not jailing them. We need to give them the tools they need to recover, because every life is precious, every life is an individual gift from God. We have to stop judging, and start giving them the tools they need to get better. I come before you, as required by the state constitution, to report on the condition of our state. The state of our state continues to get better. New Jersey is better off than it was last year at this time, and it is certainly far better off than it was just five years ago. While many first years of a second term show a hangover from the campaign and its partisanship, we have fought through that tradition and have real accomplishments to show for that action in 2014. In a year with plenty of politics from some overly partisan corners of this chamber, New Jersey has made progress, growing our economy, creating jobs, reforming our criminal justice system, and improving some of our most challenged cities, like Camden. We've done it because a majority of us care more about our state and New Jersey's middle class than we do about scoring partisan political points. Since last January, the total number of people employed in New Jersey has grown by over 90000, and the number of unemployed has dropped by nearly 30000. We recorded our 5th consecutive year of private sector job growth, and the unemployment rate continues to steadily go down. We have attracted and retained companies, from Subaru USA to the Philadelphia 76ers to Sandoz. We have grown our economy and more people are working, supporting their families and knowing the power of going to work every day in New Jersey today than one year ago. We have done this while holding the line on government spending and government employment. We also extended the successful cap on a key driver of property tax growth. And we passed real criminal justice reform in New Jersey. This bipartisan reform of the bail system keeps violent offenders off the streets and gives non violent offenders who often sit in jail because they can't afford bail a chance to reclaim their lives. This is good for public safety. This is good for families. This is good for New Jersey. Now, despite this progress Despite so much evidence of an improving New Jersey It has become fashionable in some quarters to run down our state. I get it: that's politics. But let's be clear. Our growth in this past year has been part of a trend. A trend that began five years ago. It is easy to forget where we were and how far we have come. Five years ago, our unemployment rate was 9%. Over 440000 New Jerseyans were out of work. Today, the unemployment rate is 6%. We have cut unemployment by over one third in the last 5 years. And we have created over 150000 private sector jobs in New Jersey in five short years. Five years ago, we faced massive consecutive budget deficits,$2 billion for fiscal year 2010 and a projected $11 billion the next year, on a budget of only $29 billion. We fixed it by making hard choices; the way middle class families in New Jersey have to do it in their homes. Today, we have balanced five budgets in a row. And we will balance a sixth this year. And we didn't do it the Washington way, by raising taxes. We did it by cutting spending, shrinking government, and fundamentally reforming the way government operates. This administration believes today, and has always believed, that New Jersey and America, will be a better place for middle class families by shrinking the size of government. Back then, state spending had grown by 56% in the years from 2001 to 2008. Today discretionary spending in our state's budget is $2 billion below its level in fiscal year 2008. Back then, the size of government was out of control. Today, the number of state government employees is 6000 lower than it was five years ago. Back then, New Jersey's highest in the nation property taxes had increased more than 70% in ten years. We averaged a 7% growth in property taxes per year. Today, we have had four years of less than 2% annual property tax growth. Now it's because of the property tax cap we passed together in 2011 is working. This is a bipartisan achievement. We also came together this year to extend the reforms of interest arbitration awards. This act has continued to make property tax control possible. In these past five years, we have delivered needed tax relief to small businesses. The $2 billion small business tax relief package that we continue to phase in is improving New Jersey's business climate and making our state more competitive. That approach is explicit in the sweeping, bipartisan changes we've made to New Jersey's economic incentive programs. I want to congratulate you: we have streamlined these incentives. And we have better targeted them to areas of our state that need investment most. And the verdict is in, and the early returns from the economic opportunity act show that it is working to attract and retain businesses. In total, our pro growth policies and streamlined economic development efforts have brought in over $12 billion of new public and private investment in New Jersey in these last five years. The fact is that, the deeper they look, the more businesses like what they see. From Forbes media to VF Sportswear From Wenner Bread to Bayer Health Care Companies have chosen New Jersey as a home for expansion. We have assets that many other states just cannot match. A highly educated work force A world class transportation network Proximity to large markets The shore. New Jersey has so many attractions. We are America's number two state in biotechnology Number four in per capita income Number three in the use of solar power And in the top ten in data centers. The results of this past year's survey by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association said it best. "Overall", the BIA said, "our members believe the state is continuing to move in the right direction. Things are looking good for small business in 2015." Now, I know that many of you in this room believe that income tax increases are the way to go. So yes, sometimes we will simply have to disagree. I have vetoed four income tax increases passed by this body. And make no mistake I will veto any more income tax increases that come before me. And I will do it for one simple reason, the higher our taxes are, the fewer people and businesses will come to New Jersey and the more who will consider leaving. Raising taxes is the old Trenton way, and it didn't work. Taxes were raised 115 times in the eight years before 2010. People and businesses in turn didn't support them and left our state. Between 2004 and 2008 the departure of wealth, investment, and income was staggering, some $70 billion left the state. We have begun a new direction and we need to go further, not reverse course. Because despite all our progress, we have more to do. We have to open our ears and listen to our people. Open our eyes and see what is happening around us. New Jersey just lost Mercedes Benz USA to the state of Georgia. Mercedes, in New Jersey since the early 1970's, is leaving for a very simple reason, it costs less to do business in Georgia than it does in New Jersey. Don't take my word for it, the leaders of Mercedes said it themselves. Economic incentive laws help, but lower taxes are better. We will not win the fight to keep and create good paying jobs for our middle class families in New Jersey unless we lower taxes. Yet I cannot make this a reality alone. It is you, and only you, the State Legislature, who can lower taxes further and make New Jersey more prosperous for our middle class families and their children. I urge the legislature today to open your eyes and ears to the lessons of Mercedes and to act now to lower taxes and prevent another such departure. We have also done much in the past five years to reform our education system. For the first time in 100 years, we came together to reform tenure, so that failing teachers can be removed from the classroom. For the first time, we brought the concept of performance based pay to schools in our largest city, Newark, so that we can pay the best teachers more. We've reformed and re energized public education in Camden under the leadership of Paymon Rouhanifard, a cooperative school advisory board and a supportive mayor and council. We have expanded charter schools. And together we have enacted urban hope legislation to create renaissance schools in our highest risk districts. Finally, for four years in a row, we've provided a record amount in aid to our public schools, over $11 billion in the current fiscal year. But on this, we cannot and should not rest. More school reform is needed. And a great first step would be to pass the opportunity scholarship act, to give parents a choice of a school that meets their child's needs. Let's give families an alternative to chronically failing neighborhood schools. Let's keep driving for better outcomes. Let's give parents and students more choice. At its heart, education is about realizing the potential of every individual. In these past two years, you've joined me in applying this principle to those who face special challenges in life, including the disease of drug addiction. In this last year, we expanded the mandatory drug court program you helped me enact into four new counties, building on those in which courts were established immediately after the law's enactment in 2013. I have a simple view of this. Drug addiction is a disease. It can happen to anyone, from any station in life. And it can be treated. Most importantly, every life is an individual gift from god and no life is disposable. We have an obligation to help people reclaim their lives. And if we have the tools to help those with this disease to save their own lives, we should use them. Requiring mandatory treatment instead of prison for non violent drug offenders is only one step, but an important one. Treatment is the path to saving lives, and for as long as I am governor of New Jersey, treatment will be mandatory in our system and I will not yield. I am proud that in these last two years we've also launched a program to integrate employment services with treatment, so that we can help those with drug addiction not only get clean but get back to work. I am proud that together we enacted an overdose protection law to provide legal protection to people and especially to health care professionals who are trying to help. I am proud that we are trying to help non violent offenders get access to college through the NJ STEP program. And today, I would like to announce our next steps in helping those battling the disease of drug addiction by improving the way we deliver these services. Right now there are numerous federal, state, and county government programs, providers, and nonprofit partners, who fund and deliver some form of adult addiction services. How to access those services can be difficult and overwhelming when confronted with the unintended bureaucracy of options. Contacting multiple agencies and trying to identify the right treatment is challenging enough, but even more so for individuals in crisis. If we are able to make it easier for individuals battling addiction and their loved ones to access the right services at the right time, we can save lives. This year, our administration will launch the first phase of a reform effort to make all of these services available from a single point of entry. There is no "wrong door" in this approach. Those faced with addiction will be able to make one phone call to access available services and resources anywhere in the state. Just one phone call to provide real time information, assess available treatment options, and connect them to the help they need right then and there. This is how good government is supposed to work. By coordinating all of our programs and services across state government that are designed to help those dealing with addiction allows us to maximize our resources, ensure dollars are not going to waste, and get real time information from our partners across the state. Just one phone call to connect with someone who can walk an individual through the options that best work for their recovery process. It's the smart way to make sure we don't have people stuck in a system utilizing services that don't actually work for them. Once this reform is underway, we will extend this same concept to those adults with mental illness. Planning for this has already begun. This coordinated approach builds on our commitment to rethink how government services are delivered so that we are being smarter, more efficient, and more targeted. Going back to 2010, we put in place a model to better connect populations most in need of assistance with the kind of care they actually need, whether seniors, people with disabilities, or adults with substance abuse or mental illness. We reformed the state's Medicaid program and created an innovative system that gives senior citizens and people with disabilities easier access to care and greater choice. Our whole emphasis has been to deliver the right level of service to the right person, in the right place. As a result, we've increased and improved the options of assistance and care provided in a home setting and in the community, while reducing our reliance on more traditional institutional care, whether in nursing homes or developmental centers. This approach has worked under Medicaid, improving services and holding down costs for seniors, those with developmental disabilities, and for all eligible citizens and families. Under my administration, New Jersey's Medicaid spending growth on these groups has trailed the national average, and has been cited as the second lowest in the region. We are also taking this model directly to our communities. Last fall we created the facing addiction task force, a 12 member team chaired by Pastor Joe Carter of Newark's New Hope Baptist Church and co chaired by former Governor Jim Mcgreevey to fight drug addiction by ending the stigma and focusing on treatment and prevention. I thank them for their willingness to step up and lead this fight. They have come forward with a one stop model for connecting comprehensive services to ex offenders battling addiction as they leave incarceration or drug court and reenter society. This is just smart government. By helping an individual connect the dots from treatment to temporary housing to employment and training services, we are helping them lay their own foundation for a successful re entry into society. In Newark, Paterson, Atlantic City, Toms River, Trenton, and Jersey City, a single physical location will be run by a non profit organization in coordination with our administration, local officials, and community partners. By directly connecting those who have suffered from addiction to the services they need at a most critical juncture, we are helping them avoid a cycle of dependency by transitioning them from government services to the workplace. This doesn't just reduce long term service costs to the state, but is the best way to ensure they become hopeful, happy, and productive members of our society. Now, of all the long term challenges we face, one of the largest and most immediate is our obligation to provide pension and health benefits for state and local employees. This is not just a New Jersey problem. This is a national problem. States across the country are struggling to fund critical programs because pension and health costs are eating up taxpayer dollars. We first took the lead to try and solve this problem in 2011 when a republican governor and a democratic legislature came together to go up against the entrenched special interests. It was hard. It was loud. It was the right thing to do. Together we defied the conventional wisdom and enacted historic reforms that reduce the cost to taxpayers by over $120 billion over the next three decades. This was a huge first step. Today, the health of the pension system is stronger than it was five years ago. In fact, gains have totaled over $35 billion, which is way above projections, thanks to our sound management and smart investment strategy. But the fact is that while we have been making up ground, the pension fund is underfunded because of poor decisions by governors and legislatures of both parties, over decades, not years. These sins of the past have made the system unaffordable. But we do not have the luxury to ignore this problem. We know this because even as our administration has contributed more money to the system than any in history, it is not enough. The pension fund's problem is a long term one. And it is related to every other program in state government. Right now the $90 billion unfunded liability for pensions and health benefits is three times the size of the annual state budget. Think of this way, in order to close the current shortfall in just the pension system alone every family in New Jersey would have to write a check for $12000. That is the nature of long term entitlements which grow faster than the economy, and in that regard our problem here in New Jersey is not that different from Washington's entitlement problem. For all of these reasons, last summer I appointed a bipartisan commission of experts, a pension and health benefits task force, to make recommendations for tackling the twin problems of pension and health benefit costs. I asked them to think outside the box, and they are hard at work. I thank the members of the commission, led by Tom Healy, a former assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, on their efforts and willingness to tackle this pressing issue. A long term solution and sustainable future for our pension and health benefit plans are difficult but worthy things to achieve. We took a historic first step in 2011. Let's make 2015 the year we finish the job. Now coming out of the last recession, America remains a country ill at ease. America's economy is growing, but it is not growing enough. New Jersey's economy is growing, but it is not growing enough. Last week's jobs report was good, but real wages declined. The economy is simply not as strong as it could be, or as it should be. We are a nation beset by anxiety. It is understandable. Economic growth is low by post war recovery standards. America's leadership in the world is called into question because of a pattern of indecision and inconsistency. During this time of uncertainty it seems our leaders in Washington would rather stoke division for their own political gain. And this culture of divisiveness and distrust has seeped into our communities and our neighborhoods. As I traveled the country over the last year, this anxiety was the most palpable emotion I saw and felt. I saw it on the streets of Chicago and felt it in the suburbs of Maryland. I heard it from farmers in Kansas and from teachers in Colorado. I felt it from veterans in Maine and from workers in Arkansas. But the wisest words came from an 82 year old woman in Florida. She grabbed my hand and asked me a simple, but powerful question: "What's happened to our country? We used to control events. Now events control us." But right here, in this great state, we have the tools to get back on track. We know that, time and again, economic growth has delivered the most good for the most people. And we know that the policies of lower taxes and less intrusive government have created higher economic growth and better paying jobs for our middle class. We know that a commitment to education at every level is another key to a better tomorrow. We just have to have the courage to fix those schools we know aren't working and to empower principals, teachers, parents, and students to reach for the sky; and the wisdom to invest in the schools, colleges, and universities that can take us there. We know that our ability to make these investments in education, infrastructure, our cities and our communities is dependent on our willingness to control the smothering costs of entitlements. We know these things as a people, yet too often in the past our leaders have failed to act on them and the result is a sense of drift. Let me be clear. We need to address this anxiety head on. We need to renew the spirit and the hopes of our state, our country and our people. A renewal of our commitment to the hard working families who are the backbone of our state. A renewal of our commitment to the simple belief that our people deserve better than a bloated national government that imposes costs on our states which suffocate our people. A renewal of our commitment to the ideal, and the hard work to make it happen,that New Jersey's best days can lie ahead. That we don't have to accept anything less. A renewal of our commitment to the belief that New Jersey and its people deserve better from us, those they have chosen to lead. We need a New Jersey renewal and an American renewal. I renew my commitment to New Jersey today to make the lives of our citizens more prosperous, more healthy, better educated and truly optimistic. So that when we stand here in one year, our today will be better than our yesterdays and our tomorrow will be filled with real opportunity. We may argue from time to time over the best means to get things done. That's the nature of public debate and I will always be willing to engage in it with you. But our goal, together, should be to make sure that New Jersey remains one place where a better life is possible, for us, for our children, and for their children, through determination, hard work, and a commitment to the greater good. There is no better example of what we can achieve if we put aside party and pettiness than the results we are seeing in Camden. A city devoid of hope five years ago A city riddled with violent crime five years ago A city beset by a corrupt and ineffective government five years ago A school system that failed Camden's families almost every day just five short years ago. Then an outstanding leader stepped forward for mayor. A county government stepped in to lead boldly. And I asked all of you to support a new vision for Camden. Did we just throw money at the problem as has been done before? No. We demanded partnership and accountability and we are getting results. Through the economic opportunity act of 2013 a city that has suffered from divestment for decades is now seeing a new tomorrow. $600 million of private investment in Camden in the last year alone. In a city suffering from epidemic crime, we acted boldly. We terminated the city police department and, partnering with the county, put a new metro division on the streets with 400 officers for the same price we were paying for 260. The results? Murder down 51%. Firearm assaults down by 1/3. All violent crime down 22%. Police are working with neighborhood groups to bring calm and peace across the city. In Camden schools, we partnered with the local groups to bring new leadership to the schools and a renewed accountability to the classroom. The Urban Hope Act has expanded opportunity and new schools are being built once again in Camden in a public/ private partnership. Hope and optimism are up,fear of failure is down. In Camden's downtown, a new medical school and new investment by Rutgers University is helping to bring bright new citizens to Camden's neighborhoods. No one could have believed it was possible five years ago. Today, it is happening because we put action and results ahead of politics, partisanship and a shared failed history. So this year, let us recommit to action, To creating the conditions for growth To preparing our children for a better future To addressing our long term problems And to valuing every life. That is our job as public servants. And that should be our common agenda for the year ahead. I believe in a New Jersey renewal which can help lead to an American renewal both in every individual home and in homes around the world. I pray today that you will join me in that renewal as so many of you in this chamber and in this state have done before over the last five years. I am proud to be your governor and I will never stop fighting for our New Jersey renewal. God bless the great state of Iowa. I want to thank each and every one of you for being here. I want to thank Citizens United and my good friend Steve King for putting this on. You know Steve and I spent all week in Washington, DC so it is great to be back in America. We're living in remarkable times. Just a couple of weeks ago, walking down the hall of the Capitol, I ran into a janitor carrying a screwdriver, who was coming to change the sign on Harry Reid's door. And Iowa played a big part in that by sending us Joni Ernst. And I for one sure am glad that we have a farmer as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Today is the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's passing. Churchill stood as a lion in winter, a voice against the darkness that was sweeping the globe. And I'll tell you 50 years later we are facing threats every bit as ominous. And today, like then, we need the clarity of thought and voice and action that Churchill provided. One of the very first acts President Obama did upon being elected was sending Churchill's bust back to the UK, and I think that foreshadowed everything that was to come the next six years. Now I'll tell you I'm very happy that here with me today is my wife Heidi. Heidi is an incredible mom, she's a fantastic businesswoman, and she is my very best friend in the entire world. And you know we're blessed to have two little girls at home. Caroline who's six, Catherine who's four. And I'll tell you Heidi and I are here for the same reason that all of y'all are here. Because we look at what's happening in this country and we fear for our children; we fear for our grandchildren. So what I want to talk to you about today is reigniting the miracle of America. This country was built on an extraordinary miracle. The miracle of America began with a revolutionary idea, which is that our rights, they don't come from government, they come from God Almighty. And the Constitution, it serves as Jefferson said, as chains to bind the mischief of government. This country was built on incredible opportunity that if you're a single mom waiting tables you can do anything; if you're a teenage immigrant washing dishes you can do anything. There's been no country in the history of the world that has allowed so many millions with nothing to come and seek the unlimited dreams of their potential. And third, the miracle of America has been American exceptionalism, that we are the indispensable nation, a voice, a clarion voice for freedom and we will back down to no face of tyranny. Now how do we bring that back. How do we reignite the miracle of America? It is the most important cause that unifies us together and Iowa believes in the miracle of America. Number one we champion jobs and economic growth and opportunity. We bring back and environment where small businesses are growing. are creating opportunity; we get the senseless obstacles from Washington out of the way. That means tax reform and regulatory reform. It means sending the locusts of the EPA back to Washington. I was once out in West Texas and I said, you know the thing about folks from the EPA is unlike locusts you can't use pesticide against them, and an old farmer looked at me and said, wanna bet? And the most important regulatory reform we can do is we need to repeal every word of Obamacare. We need tax reform. And the most important tax reform we can do is we need to abolish the IRS. We need a simple flat tax that's fair, that every American can fill out his or her taxes on a post card. There are 110000 employees at the IRS. We need to padlock that building and put every one of those 110000 on our Southern border. Now I say that somewhat tongue in cheek, but think about it for a second. Imagine you had traveled thousands of miles through Central America, through the heat. You're swimming across the Rio Grande, and the first thing you see is 110000 IRS agents. You'd turn around and go home too. The second key to reigniting the miracle of America is we need to defend our constitutional rights. Every single one of them. The First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Fourth, the Fifth, the Tenth Amendment. You know no liberty has been more under assault in recent years than religious liberty. Whether it is the federal government going after Hobby Lobby, a Christian company, or going after the Little Sisters of the Poor. And by the way, here's a real good rule of thumb: if you're litigating against nuns, as the Obama administration is, you've probably done something wrong. You know I'm sorry to say one of the most graphic threats to religious liberty occurred in my home town of Houston, where the City of Houston subpoenad five pastors and demanded of those pastors hand over your sermons, hand over your sermon notes. Now let me tell you a story that's going to lift up your hearts. When that happened, that Wednesday, I decided we were going to try to bring together a group of pastors to have a rally in defense of religious liberty. So Heidi and I, we're members of First Baptist in Houston, we called our pastor, Pastor Greg Mott. And I said Pastor, you've seen what's happened with the subpoenas. He said, oh yeah Ted, I've been praying about it all morning. And I said well listen, we want to hold a rally; we want to bring pastors together; we want to do it tomorrow, Thursday at 11 am. And I wanted to ask you, can we do it at the church; would you be willing to host it at the church? And Pastor Greg begins laughing. And he said, you know Ted, God sometimes moves in ways we cannot understand long before we have any awareness of it. He said a month ago, God put it on my heart to begin praying for our city, and a month ago he said, I reached out to pastors across the city of Houston and invited them to come to my office to pray for our city. He said we have 50 pastors from around the city coming to my office tomorrow at 10 am. I'll tell you it took both our breaths away. And so the next morning I joined those pastors at 10 am; we spent an hour on our knees in prayer for the city. We then went down to a rally with over 50 pastors from across racial lines, across ethnic lines, across denominational lines. Heck, we even had First Baptists and Second Baptists. And that ain't easy. And we stood in that rally together and we said, Caeser has no jurisdiction over the pulpit. And when you subpoena one pastor, you subpoena every pastor. Now I'll tell you believers all over Texas, all over the country lifted up the situation. Conservatives spoke out, and the heat and pressure was so great that the city folded under and withdrew the subpoena. We've got to defend our constitutional liberties. And third, we need to restore America's leadership in the world. Over the past six years we have seen the fruits of the Obama Clinton foreign policy of receding from leadership in the world. Leading from behind doesn't work. Just a couple of weeks ago we were horrified at the terrorist attack in the streets of Paris, and then horrified again when over 40 world leaders came in solidarity and yet missing from that rally, graphically, was the United States of America. You cannot fight and win a war on radical Islamic terrorism if you're unwilling to utter the words radical Islamic terrorism. I would note that the depraved men who flew the planes into the twin towers and the Pentagon and to that field in Pennsylvania, they weren't a bunch of ticked off Presbyterians. I think some of the Presbyterians like that. And you know Paris also illustrates that a big ocean doesn't mean we're protected from radical Islamic terrorism. It's one of the reasons I've joined with Steve King and Chuck Grassley to introduce the Expatriate Terrorist Act that says that if an American takes up arms with ISIS, he forfeits his or her citizenship. Now Iowa, Iowa plays a unique and special role in the political process. The men and women gathered here today and across the state, you have a responsibility that you take very seriously to scrutinize any candidate for national office, to look them in the eyes and to hold them to account. I've got to say a lot of people have the reaction: I don't trust politicians. And that's worth applauding because I agree with it. You know in a Republican primary every candidate's going to come in front of you and say, I'm the most conservative guy to ever live. Gosh darn it, hoo diddly, I'm conservative. Well you know what, talk is cheap. The word tells them you shall know them by their fruit. And one of the most important roles that the men and women in this room, the men and women in Iowa will play is to look each candidate in the eye and say, don't talk, show me. If you say you support liberty, show me where you stood up and fought for it. If you say you support religious liberty, show me where you stood up and fought for it. If you say you oppose Obamacare, show me where you stood up and fought against it. If you say you oppose the president's unconstitutional executive amnesty, show me where you stood up and fought. If you say you support life and you support marriage, show me where you stood up and fought. If you say you'll stand up to the Washington establishment, the career politicians of both parties that have gotten us in this mess, show me where you've stood up and fought. If you say you oppose Common Core, show me where you've stood up and fought. And if you say you stand with our friend and ally the nation of Israel, show me where you've stood up and fought. Together, we need to reassemble the Reagan coalition. We need to unify, we need to bring together conservatives and evangelicals and libertarians and Republican women and Reagan Democrats and young people. We need to bring together a coalition of Americans who want to believe again in the miracle of America. Now some might say, this is hard; this is really hard. The media tells us it can't be done. The media says give up, abandon hope, go on home. But you know each of us has seen miracles every day. We've seen miracles in our own lives, in our own families. Many of y'all here know my father, Pastor Rafael Cruz. My dad has been my hero my entire life. When he fled Cuba as a teenager with nothing after being imprisoned and tortured he was full of hope and opportunity. But let me tell you a different aspect of his story you may not have heard. Which is he and my mother moved to Canada in the oil and gas business. The Canucks in the room they're giving us some love. And I'll tell you, when I was born, when I was a little boy neither of my parents knew Christ. Both of them were living fast lives, both of them were drinking too much. And when I was three years old my dad decided he didn't want to be married any more. He didn't want to be a dad to his three year old son. So my father got on a plane and he flew back to Houston. And back in Houston he was working in the oil and gas business when a friend and colleague invited him to a Bible study and invited him to Clay Road Baptist Church. And he gave his life to Jesus. And it transformed his heart and he went to the airport and he bought a plane ticket and he flew back to Calgary, and he flew back to my mother and he flew back to me. You know some people ask if faith is real. I can tell you first hand in my family and my life if it were not for the redeeming love, if it were not for faith in Jesus Christ I would have been raised by a single mom without the love of my father in the household. Men and women all throughout here have experienced miracles just like that in our lives, transforming. The Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Compared to that the challenges we face in this country are nothing. From the beginning of this country, God's providential blessing has been on the United States of America. When we stood up against the mightiest army on the face of the Earth and won a revolution as a rag tag bunch of colonists, it was only with God's blessing that we did so. When we survived the horrible Civil War that ripped us apart to expunge the original sin of slavery, it was only with God's blessing that we came back and were stitched together as a nation. When we stood with Winston Churchill to defeat the Nazis and the scourge of evil, it was only with God's blessing that we saved freedom on this planet. And when President Reagan stood before the Brandenberg Gate and said Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall, it was only with God's grace and blessing that we won the Cold War. We have done it before over and over again, and we can do it again. We can come together. And the answer, the reason I am hopeful, the reason I am optimistic is because of each and every one of you. The answer is the grassroots, is the American people. We are working to build a grassroots army all across this country. The answer will not come from Washington; it will only come from the American people. So I would ask every one of you that has your cell phone, I would ask you on your cell phone to text the word "Constitution" to the number 33733. I'm going to give you that again. The word "Constitution" to the number 33733. What we're working to do is to bring together that same coalition of men and women across Iowa, across this country to say we do not accept losing this country. We will together reignite the miracle of America; we will together bring back that shining city on a hill that is the United States of America. Thank you and God bless you. Thank you. I'll actually be 44 in about three weeks, but I feel 45, so it must be all the airplane travel. Thank you for having me. It is actually an honor to be here. Before I stood here a moment ago, we were discussing the long history of this organization and some of the people that have spoken here in the past, and so it's an honor to be included now in that list. No matter what happens from here on out, I'll always be on that list, and it's an honor to be with you. I do want to talk to you about the future of our country. I do want to talk to you about the 21st century. And I want to talk to you about it by reminding you, first of all, of who America has been for the last two centuries. Probably the best way to do that is to remember that for almost all of human history, the vast majority of people that have ever lived were trapped by the circumstances of their birth. In essence, they lived in societies where their future was dependent on what their parents did before them, no matter how hard they worked, or how much they tried. My parents lived like that. They were born to poor families in Cuba. They had no connections to wealth or to power, and so in search of a better life they came to America in 1956. Here in America, they never became rich and they never became famous, yet they lived meaningful and successful lives, because they found stable jobs, because they were able to retire with dignity, and because they were able to leave all four of their children better off than themselves. So why was that possible? How did two people, born into poor families with very limited education, how were they able to achieve a life better than the one they were born into? And the answer is, because they had the blessing of being able to live in America during the American century. Our identity as a land of equal opportunity actually began in our founding the Declaration of Independence that says that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator, not by their government, not by their laws, not by their Constitution, by their creator, with the right to life, and to liberty, and to pursue happiness. And then in the early years of the 19th century a still developing America had to make a choice. It could either embrace the promise of the future, it could embrace industrialization, or it could be left behind by history. And that generation of Americans, at the turn of the 19th century, they embraced industrialization, with all of its promise and with all of its disruptions. And less than 100 years later, America was the single most powerful economy on the planet. The 20th century became the American century, a century with an economy that gave birth to what we now know as the American dream, and a century where not once, but twice, this great nation was called upon to help the world save it from evil. But now, in the early years of this new century, a growing number of people are starting to doubt whether we're still that kind of country. And the reason why they feel that way is because of the way their lives are being led. There are families that are working as hard as they ever have, sometimes at the same jobs they've had forever, but they're living paycheck to paycheck, one unexpected expense away from disaster. There are young couples and entrepreneurs who are trying to start a business out of the spare bedroom of their home, but they can't deal with the government rules and the regulations and the evisceration of small banks and lack of access to capital. There are students who did everything that we told them they needed to do to succeed. We told them, Go to college. Get a degree, and they did that, and now they've graduated with a mountain of student loan debt, and degrees that do not lead to jobs. And around the world every single day the news says that evil is winning and America seems less capable than ever of doing anything to stop it. Why is this happening? It is not, as some believe, the inevitable decline of a once great nation. It is not, as some believe, the normal course of history, that we were once on top, and now we are destined to decline like the great nations before us. That is not what's happening. What is happening is the direct result of our leaders; of leaders who are both trapped in the past when it comes to economic policies, but have also forgotten fundamental and timeless truths about the nature of the world. Today, we face a fundamental economic transformation, bigger and faster than the Industrial Revolution was in the 19th century. Because of globalization, jobs and prosperity are directly tied to our ability to compete internationally, and yet we have leaders that continue to want to tax us and regulate us and borrow us into an uncompetitive position, and today America is not as globally competitive as it should be. Because of technology and automation, the nature of work has changed. Many of the jobs that once sustained our middle class are now done by machines, or they've gone overseas, or they don't pay what they once did in comparison to the cost of living. But we have outdated leaders that want to continue to pour money into an outdated 20th century higher education system that costs too much and leaves too many of our people unprepared to compete in the 21st century economy. And despite all of these changes that are going on economically, there are still fundamental truths that apply, and one of them is that the price of a lack of American leadership is global chaos and danger. And so now, just as we did two centuries ago, our nation stands at a hinge moment in our history, where we must decide once again, do we want to embrace the future or be left behind by history? We cannot embrace this future led by people who are trapped in yesterday. The ideas of the 20th century, even the ones that worked back then, sometimes don't work anymore, and the bad ideas of the 20th century are disastrous in the 21st. Turning the page is what we need to do as a nation and as a society, and it begins by putting in place policies that make us globally competitive again, with a very simple goal: we want America to be the best place in the world to work, to start a business, or to invent things. And that's why we need regulatory reform. That's why we need tax reform. That's why we need to repeal the disastrous healthcare law, and that's why we need to bring our debt under control. If we do those four things, if we do those four things, we will once again be globally competitive. We will once again be the best place in the world to invest and innovate and create jobs and opportunity for other people. The second thing we have to do is we must reform our outdated system of higher education. For starters, we have to start graduating people from high school ready to work as welders, as plumbers, as machinists. These are important trades that we have shortages of. These are good paying jobs, and somehow our society has stigmatized them, and we no longer prepare 16, 17, and 18 year olds to enter the workplace immediately or soon thereafter. We need to create flexibility for working parents and working families to be able to go back to school and acquire a degree or a certificate that allows them to improve their employment opportunities, so that the receptionist at a law firm can become a paralegal, so that the home health aide making $9 an hour can become a dental hygienist making $60000 a year. The problem is if you have to work full time and raise a family today, you can't drop everything and go to a traditional school for two to four years. You need flexible programs that are cost effective, affordable, and allow you to study online, on weekends, and on your own pace. We also need to reform traditional higher education. There will always be a place for the traditional college degree, but we cannot continue to graduate people with a mountain of debt and degrees that do not lead to jobs, which is why I've proposed a bipartisan bill that says, straightforward, before you take out a student loan, that school has to tell you how much people make when they graduate with that degree from that school, so people can decide whether it's worth borrowing $20000 or $30000 or $40000 to pursue a particular degree. And yet as we embrace all of these opportunities and change our policies for this new era, we still have to understand the fundamental truth about global evens, and the fundamental truth is that there is no replacement for America on the world stage. When America gives up its leadership role in the world, chaos inevitably follows, and that's what we see everywhere in the world today. Only America can rally our Asian allies in the Asia Pacific region to confront China's blatant efforts to basically gain control of the most important shipping lane in the world, the South China Sea. Only America can reinvigorate NATO to prevent Vladimir Putin from re drawing the map of Europe in the aftermath of the Cold War. Only America can work with our allies in the Middle East to confront both Iran's ambitions, and also the rise of radical jihad, and only America can provide the support that Israel needs in order to survive as a peaceful Jewish state. Today, in the absence of that leadership, all of those regions of the world find themselves in chaos. Today in the 21st century global leadership isn't just about national security anymore; it's also about prosperity. Because you and I are 4 percent of the world's population. We Americans are 4 to 5 percent of the world's population. There is only so much prosperity we can create if all we do is sell things to each other. We need there to be millions of people on this planet that can afford to buy the services we offer, the goods we manufacture, and the products we invent, but you cannot have global prosperity without global stability, and you cannot have global stability without strong American leadership. So I guess the way I would wrap this up is by reminding us now that for over two centuries, every generation of Americans has had to answer a very fundamental question: what kind of country do you want America to be? And for over two centuries, facing difficult and different challenges, each generation has said, We want America to remain special. Now the time has come for this generation of Americans to answer the exact same question. In the face of these rapid and disruptive changes, we are called to confront the challenges, and to embrace the opportunities of this exciting new era. We should be proud of our history, but yesterday is over, and it is never going to come back. Before us now is the exciting opportunity to usher in the greatest chapter in the story of America. For if we do the things that I've outlined, if we become globally competitive again, if we equip our people with the skills they need for the 21st century, if we once again re exercise American leadership on the global stage, the 21st century won't just be as good as the 20th century, it will be better. The American dream won't just survive, it'll reach more people and change more lives. And this 21st century will also be an American century. If we fail, we will be the first Americans to leave the next generation worse off. It reminds me, you asked about the state of this election. Well, I believe with all my heart that this next election will not simply be a choice about what political party will govern the country, or what laws we're going to pass. I believe this next election is a generational choice about the very identity of our nation. I entered this race with no sense of entitlement to the office of the presidency. On the contrary, America doesn't owe me anything, but I have a debt to America that I will never ever be able to repay. America isn't just the country I was born in; it's literally the nation that changed the history of my family. After his mother died, when he was nine years old, my father went to work in the streets of Havana with his father, and he would work for the next 70 years of his life. My mother was one of seven girls raised by a disabled father who always struggled to provide for his children. When my parents were young, they had dreams too, but because they were born into poor families with no political connections, those dreams never had a chance. So they came here, to the one place on earth where their dreams could have the opportunity to turn into reality. Here in America, my father became a bartender. My mother was a maid. She was a stock clerk at K Mart. She was a cashier. As I told you at the outset, they never made it big. They were never rich. They were never famous, but they were successful, because they achieved what has come to be known as the American dream. And they didn't just live in America. My parents became Americans. My mother said she realized that she had become an American on that horrible day in November of 1963, when President Kennedy was killed and she wept, because her president had been slain. My grandfather, who was born in 1899 before there were even airplanes in the sky, told me once when I was a boy that he knew he had become an American on that night in 1969 when on television he watched a man step foot on the moon. And he thought to himself, We Americans, we can do anything. For my father, it probably wasn't one moment. I think for my father it was the realization that just a few decades removed from poverty and despair, he was able, he, an immigrant, with little education or money, was able to have a stable job, own a home, retire with security, and make possible for his children all the things that were never possible for him. My point is that whether we are Americans by birth or Americans by choice, every single one of us has a debt to this country we will never be able to repay, because every single one of us inherited from those who came before us an exceptional nation. And now the time has come for this generation of Americans to do its part, not just to achieve the American dream for ourselves, but to make it possible for those who are trying to do for their children what our parents did for us. For the single mother who sacrifices and struggles so that her children will never have to go through what she did. For the workers on the late shift who go to school after they get out of work because they want a better life for themselves and for their families. For the young couple who's trying to start a business out of the spare bedroom of their home. In their hands is the future of our country. Because if their dreams become impossible, we have just become another country, no different, no better, and no longer special. But if their dreams are alive, then the 21st century will be the greatest era in our history. It will also be an American century. And I hope that we will take up the calling of our time, because if we do, future generations will look back at us and say that like those who came before us, we did our part, and because we did, because we did, the American miracle lived on. Because we did, the 21st century was also an American century, and because we did, we left for our children what Americans always leave for their children, the single greatest nation in the history of the world. Thank you for the chance to talk to you about this. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you very much.