Remarks by President Trump at Turning Point USA’s Teen Student Action Summit 2019
Marriott Marquis Washington
Washington, D.C.
11:34 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
THE PRESIDENT: So, let’s have a good time, right? (Applause.) Let’s have a good time.
I’m excited to be here today with thousands of proud, young American patriots. You’re great people. You’re great people. (Applause.) You’re the future. You’re the future.
On behalf of my entire administration, thank you to everyone at Turning Point USA’s Teen Student Action Summit. What a group. (Applause.) What a group. They don’t realize there’s more of you than there is of them. They just haven’t figured that out yet. (Applause.) They’ll understand. They’ll figure it out someday. They’re still trying to figure out what the hell happened. What happened? (Applause.) How did this happen?
You’ve come to our nation’s capital from cities and towns across America. You’ve given up a big part of your summer, which many young people are not willing to do, and we understand that too. But what you’re doing is fun and it’s important. So important.
You’ve paid and paved your own way to get here. And, in some cases, it wasn’t easy. And you’ve done it for all of us. You’ve done it for one simple reason: You are loyal to our nation, you are devoted to your fellow citizens, and you will always put America first. (Applause.)
I want to thank my great friend — and he’s a young friend; he’s a pretty young guy — Charlie Kirk. (Applause.) I said, “How old are you, Charlie?” He’s a young one. He gave me a number; I won’t say. But he’s younger than he even looks. But I want to thank Charlie. He’s an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He’s done an amazing job. He’s done something that is just incredible for somebody, really, of his age. You need tremendous talent to do what he’s done, building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. And I want to thank you, really, Charlie. Incredible job. (Applause.)
The young leaders here today are part of a movement unlike anything in the history of our nation. There’s never been anything like this. And the fake news doesn’t even talk about it because —
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: No, but when I say it, they don’t correct me. They don’t say, “Oh, he gets a Pinocchio.” They can’t because it’s true. It’s true. You know, they can find fault with anything, but they never — they never talk about that because we won. You know, there have been some pretty good movements. And they won New Hampshire, or they won a state someplace. (Laughter.) But they didn’t win the whole ballgame.
And you saw what we won, and you could see it; we could feel it. We knew it was going to happen because it’s a movement about reclaiming your future, rebuilding your country, and restoring your destiny, and renewing the values that are the true source of American greatness. We lost those values, and we’re getting them back rapidly. We’re getting them back rapidly.
Just backstage, a gentleman — very rich gentleman, in this case — came up, sitting in one these rows, I assume. Yeah. There he is. He said, “Sir, thank you for saving our country.” (Applause.) I said, “Thank you very much.” And, you know, I said, “Thank you very much.” And I looked at Charlie and I said, “Charlie do you have any idea how many people say that?”
I gave the commencement address at the Air Force Academy recently, and at Annapolis the year before. (Applause.) And they said, “Sir, would you like to shake the hands of all the cadets?” I said, “How many are there?” “One thousand one hundred.” I said, “Yeah, that sounds okay.” (Applause.) I say, “Do other Presidents do it?” “Yes, they do.” “Do all of them?” “Yeah, they do.”
What they didn’t say is they start and then they peter out and they go back. Because it’s — it’s tough. It was really hot. That sun was beaming down. And I’m just one hand. And some of these guys are great athletes. And some of the women — they had some women in the class that were — their hands were very strong, okay? (Laughter.) And they’re all shaking. And, you know, they’re a little nervous, maybe; they’re meeting the President. They’re shaking strongly and — “Sir.” But, you know, with shaking 1,100 hands and saluting. We’re saluting, shaking, turning, spinning. They’re coming at all different directions. (Laughter.) I felt like a great fighter pilot. (Laughter.)
But I stood up there for the whole thing. I said, “There’s no way that other Presidents have done that.” He said, “No, no, they do it but they leave after about 50 or 60 people.” I said, “Why didn’t you tell me that?” But I’m glad I did it. (Laughter.) But I did the same thing — I did the same thing at Annapolis the year before. Great place. Just great. (Applause.) And I shook the hands of, I think, 1,011 at Annapolis. And it’s really something great.
But so many of these young, incredible people — they’re like you — so many of these young, incredible people, they come, “Sir, thank you for saving America.” “Sir, thank you for saving America.” “Sir, thank you for saving our country.” So many of them — it’s not rehearsed; it’s just — that’s what they feel.
And you know what? Somebody had to do what I did. It’s not pleasant. We have a deep state. We have bad people. We have sick people.
I watched, just this morning, this Tlaib — Tlaib.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: From Michigan, right? It’s a great state. We won Michigan. There is no way she stands for the values of the people of Michigan.
But I watched her this morning; she vicious. She’s like a crazed lunatic. She’s screaming. This is before she got into Congress. Who elected her? She’s screaming like a total lunatic at one of our rallies. It’s like I’m giving a little rally, and she starts screaming. And this was — this is not a sane person, folks, when you look at that. (Laughter.) And this is what we’re up against. You have some of that.
Now, the Democrats, I guess, are forced to embrace her. And I called it “AOC Plus 3.” Okay? AOC — “AOC Plus 3.” (Applause.) Not that AOC is a bargain, because she’s not. I mean, she’s no bargain. Look, I mean, I — we’ll go into it at some point. I’ll tell you all about AOC. I got more on AOC. (Applause.) AOC. AOC.
But it’s — you know, what’s going on with that Party having to embrace them. And your other friend from an incredible state, right? A state that I’m going to win: Minnesota. You know that one, right? (Applause.) And you know why I’m going to win the state? Because of her. I almost won it last time. We came within just about a point. That’s a very — because Minnesota is a very hard one for a Republican to win. And when we almost won it — one more night — I wanted to go there one more time. I said, “I’m telling you, “We’re going to win Minnesota.”
You know who thought I was going to win Minnesota? You know who thought I was going to win Michigan and Wisconsin and North Carolina? Bill Clinton. He was telling everybody, “You better be careful.” He told people — from what I hear, he said, “The one you don’t want to run against is Trump.” And they would say, “Why? Oh, no, that’s good. We want to run against…” “No, no, you don’t.” You know, I actually knew him pretty well. We got along very well until I decided to run for office. (Laughter.) We actually got along.
But they didn’t want to listen to him. But he was the only one with the instinct the rest didn’t have. So he came back and he said, “You know he’s doing very well in Michigan. You could have a problem.” They said, “No, don’t worry about Michigan. We haven’t lost Michigan in decades.” And he came back, he said, “You know…” — he was in Wisconsin or something — but he said he hears that I’m doing well in Wisconsin. They say, “Forget it. A Republican can’t win Wisconsin.” And then we won Wisconsin. Then he came back — (applause) — he came back.
And I say this with a certain old-time affection because I had a very good relationship with him before doing this. You know, now it’s a little harder for him to have a good relationship. But he said, “You don’t want to run against Trump. Don’t run against Trump.” And they were saying, “No, no, that’s okay. We like that.”
Remember, President Obama, “He will not win. He will not win.”
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Liar!
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, this is — he goes, “Liar.” (Laughter.) That’s — yeah. (Applause.) Hey, did Obama get a Pinocchio? That’s right, Obama said, “He will not win. He will not be your President.” The anger was unbelievable. You know, what? He’s right. He was a liar. Did you give Obama a Pinocchio, Washington Post? He said, “He will not win.” (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: These papers — these papers are so bad.
So yesterday we had a story in one of the papers that I thought was good but they’re really not, you know, when you analyze it. There’s almost not too many of them that are. The wall. We’re building a lot of wall. But we — (applause) — well, let me just finish. But there are areas where they have walls that are falling down, walls that are in such bad shape. We’re trying to renovate as much as we can.
And we have a provision: We can renovate but we can’t build new. So we’re taking all these areas. And generally speaking, when you have an old wall that’s falling down, it’s in a better location for a wall. That’s why they had it there in the first place as opposed to an area that’s empty. You know, typically that will be true.
So these walls are old, they’re crumbling, they’re of no use. They’re falling down. So we rip it up, build brand new foundations, pour brand new, beautiful footings, and take a wall that’s two or three feet high, mostly laying on the ground, some of it only for cars – you know, to stop cars from cars from coming across. Just a metal spike.
So we’d rip it out; it would take about a minute. And we’d put in deep foundations seven feet deep, and we put in 30-foot bollards, and they’re loaded up with concrete. Because inside, you know, I like doing — one of the reasons they said, “But you said you’re going to build a concrete wall.” So actually, inside the steel we have — so we have both. We have steel and we have concrete. (Applause.)
And I was saving that for later because the only thing they could do is, “He’s building a steel wall. It’s not concrete.” “Oh, sorry about that, folks.” (Laughter.) You know. And you do have to have vision. It’s very important. You know, it’s — you can’t just have a blank wall. You have to have vision. It’s much better for the security to have the vision.
Anyway, so we’re building the wall. So they come out with saying, “Donald Trump has built almost no wall.” What a lie that is. And we’re building — (applause) — we’re building 50 miles here, 50 miles there. Fifty — all in the right locations, because there used to be walls but then we had to take them down.
In some cases, if they’re good enough, we’ll renovate it because we can do it for a lot less money. But generally, some of these walls are worthless. I mean, literally, you just drive right over them. They’re laying down on their side.
They gave me no credit. But if you read the story, they’ll say, “While he has renovated a lot of wall…” Well, that’s not even a renovation, let’s face it. That’s a brand new wall. It’s all brand new wall. It just shows you how dishonest this fake news is. And this is what we have to deal with. This is really what we have to deal with. But get used to it. Many of you are going to be in politics. Just get used to it, okay? Get used to it.
Together — is this true? — we believe in the American Constitution and we believe judges should interpret our Constitution as written. You’ll be seeing this. (Applause.) We believe in religious liberty, the right to free speech, and the right to keep and bear arms. (Applause.) Second Amendment. What a group.
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
THE PRESIDENT: Look, look. Look, they are in the process of trying to take your arms away. You have the Second Amendment. They will —
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: They will do damage to the Second Amendment the likes of which nobody even thought of. That’s where they’re coming from. Just remember I said it. Hopefully they never get the chance. And that’s why the election coming up — I always said this is the most important election — 2016 — most important election that we’ve ever had. And it was certainly the coolest. That’s for sure. (Applause.) But it was, I believe, the most important election because our country was going wrong. It was going wrong.
And when you see all the incredible numbers coming up and all the success that we’re having, and all the fact that we’re respected all over the world. We have a really good man who’s going to be the Prime Minister of the UK now, Boris Johnson. (Applause.) Good man. He’s tough and he’s smart. They’re saying “Britain Trump.” They call him “Britain Trump.” And people are saying, “That’s a good thing.” They like me over there. That’s what they wanted. That’s what they need. (Applause.) That’s what they need. He’ll get it done. Boris is good. He’s going to do a good job.
I think Nigel is someplace in this audience. Where is Nigel? Where is he? Nigel Farage. He’s here someplace. I saw him. I said, “What is he doing here? He’s a little older than most of you.” Where is he? Nigel. Nigel. I’ll tell you what: He got 32 percent of the vote from nowhere, over in UK. Nigel — thank you, Nigel. (Applause.)
I said, “What’s Nigel doing here?” He’s a little older than you folks, but he did a great job. And I know he’s going to work well with Boris. They’re going to do some tremendous things.
But we believe in the American Dream and not a socialist nightmare that these people are trying to put on our shoulders. (Applause.)
And we know that strong nations must have strong borders. And we’re building a strong border against so much. You have no idea. Every time I announce, as an example, a section of wall, I get lawsuits. They sue me. You know who sues me? Congressmen. Congressmen. I get sued by Nancy Pelosi. We won that suit. Can you believe it? I won that. I won that. (Applause.)
We won a couple of them. But we have suits on the border. We had one judge — they always sue in the Ninth Circuit. You know what that means, right? They sue in the Ninth Circuit, which is sort of like an automatic victory. Although we did win one last week in the Ninth Circuit. Nobody can even believe it. Can you — you know what’s happening, right? Do you know what’s happening?
So, as of today — this is so important. There are those that say it’s the most important. I would say war and peace and security — that’s the most important. But they say the most important thing a President can do is the selection of Supreme Court justices, right? (Applause.) Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. We have two. Already, we have two. Some have gone a long time, and they haven’t had many. And they haven’t had any, in some cases. So we have two already. And they’re great, and they’re good.
But, you know, what people don’t talk about: I’ve just signed the 124th federal district judge — federal judges — under me. (Applause.) And within a couple of months, I’ll be up to 147. Think of that: 147. Because, normally, when you become President, you go in and you say, “Do I have any judges to appoint?” “No.” You know, they’re all — because it’s such an important thing.
Because these district judges — they’re the ones who do the trials. I mean, this is big stuff. And then you have Court of Appeals judges. Then you have the Supreme Court judges.
So we have two in the Supreme Court. We have many appeals court judges — many — that we’ll have appointed. The courts are a whole different thing.
But I was up to — I will be up to 147, not including the 2 Supreme Court justices. Now, percentage-wise, I blow everybody away except one person. One person I’ll never beat. You know who the one person is?
AUDIENCE: George Washington!
THE PRESIDENT: Who?
AUDIENCE: George Washington!
THE PRESIDENT: George Washington. He’s got 100 percent. George Washington. (Applause.)
But we’re going to have a tremendous percentage. And after six more years, it’ll go to a level that nobody will even be close. (Applause.)
But George Washington is hard to beat because he put in 100 percent. He was there first, so he had (inaudible). (Laughter.) But I have many more than George Washington. Remember that. George Washington didn’t put in too many, but he had certainly the highest percentage. He’ll never — that will be a record that will never be broken.
We believe that every young American should love our country, honor our history, and always respect what? Our great American flag. (Applause.)
How about the Betsy Ross? You know, isn’t that terrible, where they’re trying to take your heritage away from you like that? Isn’t that terrible?
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: Isn’t that terrible? And then you see the picture of President Obama with the same exact flag up. He should have taken it down. Why didn’t he take it down? It’s, really, very unfair what they do. They try and demean and belittle, and they’re very good at it. They’re better at that than they are at politics. They’re better than that than they are at policy.
Look at their policy. They want open borders, which means crime, which means drug —
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: — drugs and human trafficking, which is a phenomena that you would think is thousands of years old, and that would have been their prime. No, their prime is now because of the Internet. Women — mostly women — are being trafficked. And they go not only in this country, all over the world. It’s never been like this before. Human trafficking — they snatch women and they traffic women and they sell women.
And we can’t get the Democrats to even give us a modicum of the money we need at the border, especially for the wall. I’m taking money from here and there and there and there. Let’s take it from here. We have all these different sources coming from all over the place because they won’t approve it.
And five years ago, they all wanted it. Six years ago, seven years ago, they all voted for it. They never got it built, but they all voted for it. And today, they make it so tough. You have to see. I’m doing everything I can. And we’re doing well with it. But there should just be one nice, fat sum where I can get the best four or five contractors — not worry about “I gave it out, but I have a lawsuit. And if the lawsuit happens, I have to undo it.”
How do you give a contract out where you have a contractor and he’s going to build 67 miles of wall — we have one case — but we’re being sued, our funding source, because we’re taking it from a certain area? And so we’re being sued. So we have to wait for the suit. I mean, how would you like to be building like this? It’s not good. It’s not good.
But we’re getting it done anyway. But they should say, “It’s not working without the wall.” You got to have — when they bum-rush you — they did that last week; they rushed in, a tremendous, large number of people. By the way, you know why they’re coming up, right? Because we have created the strongest economy in the history of our country. So they’re coming up because they want a piece of the economy. (Applause.) They’re not coming up for safety and this and that.
Do you ever see these people? They fly their flag. They come up from Guatemala — who, by the way, went back on their word to us. They were all set to sign a safe third agreement, and then today, or yesterday, they announced they can’t do it because they got a supreme court ruling — their supreme court. Right? They got a — in other words, they didn’t want to sign it.
So they’re supposed to sign what’s called a safe third. That’s a good thing for us, okay? That’s all I have to tell you. And they went back. So we’re going to do either tariffs or we’re going to do a form of tax, or we’re going to use our ban. You know, we — people don’t realize we won the ban.
You know, I saw one of the journalists — we’ll call him — who happens to be back there, I believe. One of — look at those cameras. Isn’t that terrible, or good or whatever?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Fake news!
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: Look at all those cameras. Wouldn’t it be great if they told the truth? (Applause.) They have such a low credibility. They started off very high, and then I ran and their credibility is so low you wouldn’t believe it. But that’s okay. But wouldn’t it be nice if they — think of it — think of it: What would be — what would be if we had an honest — I don’t want a media that’s for me or — I just want an honest media.
So we have our best poll numbers today that we’ve ever had. Can you imagine how good our poll numbers — with all the things that we’ve done — how good our numbers would be if we had just a fair media?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: One hundred percent!
THE PRESIDENT: Because they can take any — (laughs) — he goes, “A hundred percent.” (Applause.) Who said that? Stand up. Huh? Yeah. He goes, “One hundred percent.” And, you know, what? I like your long hair. It’s very nice, actually. (Applause.) Good. Thank you. Thank you. That’s funny.
So, above all else, we know this: That, in America, we don’t worship government, we worship God. (Applause.) Right? (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: One squad under God! One squad under God! One squad under God!
THE PRESIDENT: No, I’m not disavowing that. They’d like me — “Would you disavow that?” No, thank you. (Laughter and applause.) The squad. No, it’s very good. Very true.
CONTINUE READING PLEASE CLICK HERE