Donald Trump (00:00):
You ready?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yes, sir.
Donald Trump (00:11):
Everybody ready?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Victor, are you ready?
Donald Trump (00:16):
Okay, we're all set.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Mike, are we ready? Chris, we're ready?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Yep, we're good.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (00:25):
Is he hot?
Speaker 6 (00:25):
You're good, sir.
Donald Trump (00:29):
I assume we're on and everybody sees us. I see you. A lot of great looking faces. Am I correct? Everybody's on, right? If you are, wave. If you're not, you can leave and go have turkey. Good, I think everyone's waving. Thank you very much. And I'm honored to speak with so many incredible members of the US military and to wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving. Before we begin, I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation at the terrorist attack yesterday in our nation's capital in which a savage monster gunned down two service members in the West Virginia National Guard who were deployed as part of the DC task force, which has done such an incredible job. Until yesterday we literally had no incidents for many months. It was the safest place imaginable, and this is a different kind of crime. This is a really bad crime. Millions of Americans are praying for those heroes and their families.
(01:29)
And I must unfortunately tell you that just seconds before I went on, right now, I heard that Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we're talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person, started service in June of 2023, outstanding in every way, she's just passed away. She's no longer with us. She's looking down at us right now. Her parents are with her. It's just happened. She was savagely attacked. She's dead. She's not with us. Incredible person. Outstanding in every single way in every department. That's horrible. As you know the other young man is fighting for his life. He's in very bad shape. He's fighting for his life and hopefully we'll get better news with respect to him. And the monster that did this is also in serious condition, but we won't even talk about him. As you may know, DHS has confirmed that the suspect is an Afghan national flown here by the previous administration who was such a bad administration. And I have a picture of a plane. This is what it looked like when they came in. It was total bedlam. Do you remember that period of time? Total bedlam.
(03:03)
People crammed onto the plane and the toughest, meanest, most capable physically got on the plane, not the people that we were looking for or that they wanted to bring in. Here's a picture for you. Just take a look at that plane. Standing on top of each other and sitting on top of each other. This is what we had under the Biden administration. That whole thing should have never, ever happened. They should have left from a different base. They should have left from Bagram, as you know, and it would have been a much different story, but they didn't do that. And this was just a route, just a terrible situation. This heinous atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country. For the most part, we don't want them. They come in illegally. They have a lot of problems. Their countries force them in because their countries are smart. They don't want them. Let's give them to the Americans to take care of.
(04:09)
They come out of jails in many cases, mental institutions, they're gang members, they're drug dealers. We don't want them. Many of the service members on this call today are engaged in crucial aspects of that mission. And to each and every one of you, I just want to thank you so much, incredible people. You make this sacrifice like few others understand. A lot of them don't even understand it. And you're keeping America safe and free. Our military is strong. My first term, I rebuilt our military, all aspects of our military. And in Afghanistan we actually gave up a big chunk, but relatively, as much as it seemed like it's small compared to what we bought and to what we have and to what we're buying. We're spending over a trillion dollars this year on our military. We have our military, the best in the world. We make the best equipment in the world and we have the best people in the world. Joining us this evening are six units deployed across our hemisphere representing every branch of the United States Armed Forces. First, I want to thank the members of Army's legendary 101st Airborne Division.
(05:22)
No, I've heard about that since I was a little boy. The Screaming Eagles calling in from Fort Huachuca, Arizona. And you're led by Major General David Gardner, a real tough cookie and great general. I appreciate it General Gardner. The 101st has done an outstanding job leading the task force, joint task force at our southern border. And we have nobody coming in. They're not coming in. Under Biden, they were coming in by the millions. Now we have nobody coming in. We have a strong border. Nobody talks about it anymore. I'm not given credit for anything, just like you guys are not given credit for anything. We do the greatest job, but that's all right. They don't talk about the border anymore because you know why? Nobody comes in. We had nine months now where we had nobody coming in, zero. And this is being fed… This is the people that do this, they tend to be on the Left. They'd love to say millions of people came in through Trump and they actually said nobody. Even I find that hard to believe, but they literally are saying nobody came in.
(06:32)
And I hope people appreciate the job that you've done and the job that we've all done, but we're stopping the invasion of our country. We stopped it cold. And if you remember, Biden said, "I need new legislation." You didn't need legislation. I didn't get legislation. What you needed was a new president. With your help we now have the most secure border in American history. It's the single most secure border in American history, so I just want to thank you. And the 101st, I want to thank you very much. The job you've done is amazing, working with all of our great people. We also have the men and women of the US Navy serving as part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group under Captain Christopher Farricker. And they're onboard the USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean Sea. Working right by their side, our members of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit led by Colonel Tom Trimble. Thank you very much. Wave to me because I can see you then. Let's see. Hey, you are handsome people.
(07:32)
They're beautiful looking people. Thank you. Like Central Care, I could put you in a movie right this second, the three of you. And I think we'd have a top grossing movie. You don't have people like you in Hollywood. Part of the 22nd MEU is also serving in Puerto Rico, the 3rd battalion, Sixth Marines, Devil Dogs, led by Major Ross Gilchrist. Where is Major? Hello, Major. Another Central… Is everybody Central casting? It's like they're all handsome, tough guys. I don't know what's going on here. But the Navy Marine Corps team is currently helping to defend our country, protect our interests and decimate, literally decimate terrorists. The job you've done is incredible. I also want to thank you for your amazing work to quickly deliver lifesaving aid to Jamaica in the aftermath of the recent hurricane, which was devastating. Thank you very much, appreciate it. Major and everybody, appreciate it. Next up are the airmen serving with one of the most feared bomber forces in the world, the US Air Force's Seventh Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas under the auspices and leadership of Colonel Seth Spanier.
(08:52)
Colonel, where are you, Colonel? Colonel, let's see here. You're right there. Thank you, Colonel. All of you are the backbone of America and you really are the backbone of America's air power. And in recent weeks, you've been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers of which there are many. Of course, there aren't too many coming in by sea anymore, if you probably notice that, from sending their poisons into the United States where they kill hundreds of thousands of people a year. But we're going to take care of that situation. We're already doing a lot. We've almost stopped, it's about 85% stopped by sea. You probably noticed that people aren't wanting to be delivering by sea and we'll be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but that's going to start very soon. We warned them, "Stop sending poison to our country." We also have the 18th Space Defense Squadron at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, headed by Captain Ryan Weber. Captain, where are you, Captain? Thank you very much, Captain. Great job. Every day you maintain American dominance on the high frontier.
(10:05)
You're the guardians of one of the most important domains we have to protect, and you make us very, very proud of the job you do, Captain. Thank you. Finally, we have the great men of the Coast Guard, and I have to tell you, there are a lot of women in the Coast Guard now too and we're happy about that. United States Coast Guard aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Forest Rednar with Lieutenant Commander Alexis Wilde. Alexis, where are you? Hi, Alexis. Alexis Wilde at the helm. And I'm told that just last month, the Forest Rednar intercepted a boat with lots and lots of illegal aliens off the coast of California. It was loaded and then turned them over to the customs and border patrol, and they did it so professionally. The people were very, very impressed with the job you did, Commander, so thank you very much. It was a great job. And thank you for defending our maritime borders with skill and with pride and the job you do, amazing. I want to thank all of you again for your amazing service to our country.
(11:12)
God bless our warriors. God bless our heroes from West Virginia National Guard Water Group. I love West Virginia. And I want to wish everybody a very happy Thanksgiving. We have a country that we could be very proud of. I was with the king of Saudi Arabia and he said, "You know, sir, last year you had a country that was a dead country. We thought it was dead and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world." And it's true. And we're going to be having close to $20 trillion invested. That's record setting by 10 times. Nobody's ever had anything like it. We're building plants, we're building factories, auto factories, AI plants, the whole thing with artificial intelligence. I don't know the word. I've never liked the word artificial. I don't know what artificials are. I think they ought to change the name. I've always said that's a lousy name to have artificial anything, but it's a big business and we're building more. We're leading China by a lot. We're leading everybody by a lot.
(12:13)
We make the best military equipment in the world and they're ordering it at numbers that nobody's ever seen before, but we're doing better than we've ever done before. We have the stock markets just hit for the 48th time, an all time high during the nine months that I've been here, a little more than nine months now. And so we have the hottest stock market ever. That's a big thing for 401(k)s and all of the millions of people with jobs and 401(k)s, everybody participates in that. But it's 48 times in a little bit less than 10 months, 48 times we hit an all time high. And I think we're going to continue because when these factories that we're building from all over the world, they're coming because of tariffs. I think because of November 5th, the election result, but because
Donald Trump (13:00):
… because of tariffs and we're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars like we've never done before. And some of that's going to go back in the form of a sort of dividend to our people. But much of it's going to go toward reducing debt. And what it really goes for, and even better than the money we're taking in, is the fact that nobody's attacking our companies and taking them out, stealing them like they've been for many years. Because if they do that, they have to pay a tariff as they make products and sell them into our country. So we made deals with Japan, we made deals with South Korea, we made deals with the European Union where they pay us hundreds of billions of dollars and they participate. They're now building plants. Honda is building plants and they're all… every car company from all over the world virtually is building plants now in the United States because they don't want to pay the tariffs.
(13:53)
So there's never been anything quite like it. It's been amazing. So we're taking in, think of it, hundreds of billions next year it'll be a trillion dollars or more, but we're taking in all this money at the same time, protecting our country and we're respected again. They actually respect us and they made the deals. I mean, they respect us, but they pay us as an example. Japan is $650 billion, South Korea, $350 billion, European Union, $950 billion. And they are building plants now in the United States because they don't want to pay tariffs. So this is one of the biggest things economically that's never happened. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. And over the next couple of years, I think we'll substantially be cutting and maybe cutting out completely, but we'll be cutting income tax, could be almost completely cutting it because the money we're taking in is going to be so large.
(14:49)
And yet other countries who have been ripping us off for many, many years and many years they've just been ripping us to shreds China. We've taken 600, 700 billion a year, rebuild their military. And now we have a fair deal with China. We had just met with presidency. We have a great relationship, we have a fair deal. We take in a lot of money in the form of tariffs. But so many, even our friends, I mean European Union, they're our friends, Japan, they're our friends. South Korea's our friends, they're now paying us hundreds of billions of dollars and they're also paying tariffs to come in. We're not paying tariffs to go in there. By the way, they're paying tariffs, but we're not. So that's a total reversal. But we are benefiting like they used to benefit against us, but we're benefiting even more. So I just want to thank everybody for making all of this possible.
(15:43)
Without you, we don't have any defense. And boy do we have defense. We have the strongest military anywhere in the world. We make, as I said, the best equipment, but we have more importantly, we have the strongest military anywhere in the world. And you saw that with Iran, with those beautiful B-2 bombers. They totally obliterated the potential nuclear supply of Iran. And they did it in the dark of night with no moon, no light, no nothing. Early in the morning they attacked. You couldn't see a thing. And every single bomb hit its mark. Every single bomb. The Atomic Energy Commission said it was total obliteration. Remember when some of the fake news tried to say, "Well, maybe it wasn't as bad." Well, it was much worse than anybody thought. And I want to thank those pilots and all of the mechanics and all of the people that serviced and worked on the B-2 bombers, we just ordered a lot more of them.
(16:42)
And the reason we did is they were totally incredible, totally invisible. They were stealth. Nobody saw them, they knew they were coming, but they couldn't see them. And they dropped the bomb, and then one of the pilots, commander said, "Skedaddle, let's get the hell out of here." But they dropped those bombs and they loved doing it. They were so honored. They said to me when they came to the… I invited them all to the Oval Office, including the people that take care of the machines because they flew 37 hours both ways, 37 hours. And there wasn't a sputter from an engine. There wasn't a broken screw, there wasn't a problem. There wasn't a chipped piece of paint. It was a flawless mission. I want to thank General Raizin Caine for that and Pete Hegseth for that. But it was an unbelievable event. We have a country that's so respected again, but when the pilots came to see me and I gave them a medal, all of them, there were a lot of handsome people.
(17:39)
They looked like Tom Cruise actually. It was very good casting. But I liked Tom Cruise, the last of our movie stars probably. Although we're honoring Sylvester Stallone a little while at the Kennedy Center, so I'm going to put him in that same category. We have Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise, but I will tell you that they said, "For 22 years, sir, our predecessors and us wanted to make this attack. 22 years, they wanted to make this attack and they practiced it three times a year for 22 years, and no president gave them the approval to do it until you came along. Sir, we want to thank you." I said, "Did you really enjoy it?" They said, "Sir, we loved it. We loved it." And these are brave men. These are from a different place than some of the people I know who aren't courageous. We have a lot of people that aren't courageous. These people were amazing at the job they did. So with that, I'm going to ask Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Rockwood, who's a highly respected young man to speak to you. And if you have any questions, I'll answer them. Unlike Biden, he didn't take questions, but I take all the questions you want, you can ask me any damn question you want, and then we go and have a great Thanksgiving. Because I don't know about you, you probably had your dinner already, but I didn't and I know exactly what I'm going to have, turkey. Okay, I believe it's turkey. So Lieutenant Colonel, if you would, you take over. Go ahead.
Colonel Charlie Rockwood (19:10):
Yes sir. We're going to pass it over to major General David Gardner from the United States Army.
General David Gardner (19:16):
Happy Thanksgiving. President Trump, this is Major General Dave Gardner, the commander of the 101st Airborne Division and your joint task force southern border. I appreciate you saying I was tough. Everyone cheered. I assume that means they agreed with you. We are headquartered in Arizona. The service members with me today represent over 10,000 deployed along the 2000 miles of our border from San Diego to the Gulf of America. We support customs and border protection, US Border Patrol, and as you said, Mr. President, illegal aliens entering our country is at a historic low thanks to our collective efforts.
Donald Trump (19:55):
That's right.
General David Gardner (19:55):
On the screen behind me, you may be able to see some of the images of us patrolling, reinforcing a border wall. And we're doing that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including today, Thanksgiving, our soldiers, Marines, sailors, airmen, guardians and Coast Guardsmen, were able to have fantastic Thanksgiving meals and engage in traditional football games against each other. We're doing well. We all appreciate you taking some time from your family to speak with us today and thank you for your support, Mr. President and happy Thanksgiving.
Donald Trump (20:28):
Well, David, thank you very much. And one thing you said in the question or statement probably, I like a statement even better than a question, but I like that because you appreciate what we're all doing together. We're partners. But you said the Gulf of America, and there's a thing that for actually 350 years, a hundred years older than US, Mexico, it was called Gulf of Mexico. And I would say to myself, "Why are we calling it Gulf of Mexico when we have 92% of the frontage and they have…" I'm real estate person at heart, "and they have 8%." And I made that change and it was amazing. It took literally a matter of hours and it was done and nobody even, very rarely did they complain. We beat AP, Associated Press, very badly in a lawsuit. They tried to get it stopped because they're not good Americans.
(21:20)
I mean, who would want that stopped? But we beat them as you saw, we beat them very badly in a lawsuit. But other than that, I mean we had no complaints and everybody's happy with it except Mexico. I wouldn't say they're thrilled, but they'll get over it. But we now have the Gulf of America, David, the Gulf of… isn't that great? And I'm very proud of it every time I see it and now it's spoken of routinely. I saw it before. There was some event taking place down by Louisiana and they said, "We're here at the Gulf of America." They're just talking about it routinely now. They're not saying like Gulf of America and smiling, just routine. It's called now the Gulf of America. So I'm actually very glad you brought it up. That's another one of our many achievements. So thank you very much. Appreciate it.
General David Gardner (22:05):
Yes sir. Thank you Mr. President.
Donald Trump (22:06):
Great job. Please.
Colonel Charlie Rockwood (22:08):
Sir, before we go on, do you have any questions for the president?
General David Gardner (22:13):
That's fine.
Sergeant Major Anderson (22:15):
Yes. Mr. President, this is Sergeant Major Anderson. I do have one question, sir.
Donald Trump (22:19):
Yes sir.
Sergeant Major Anderson (22:20):
If you were to place a wager between the army and Navy football game, who would you put your money on, sir?
Donald Trump (22:28):
You know, David, I think you should dock him. That's a terrible question. He'll get me in so much trouble. But I'll tell you what I will do. I'll be going, one of those teams is having a spectacular year and one of them, they're both doing well, but I'll be at the game and I'm going to let you know right after the game who's going to win. That's going to be a good game and you're going to be watching it. I'd love it. That's a place where we get a lot of cheers when we go in.
(22:55)
We won the military vote in the largest number ever gotten by a president by far, despite the lies that they said about me. They make up stories of lies, they're disgusting people. But we won the military by the biggest vote in the history of our election. So I like the military, but I like the navy and I like the army a lot. And I'm going to be at the game and I don't know if you're going to be there, you're pretty far away, but we'll, I'll be thinking about that wise guy question you just asked me. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Colonel Charlie Rockwood (23:26):
All right sir. With that we're going to go over to Major Ross Gilchrist from the United States Marine Corps.
Major Ross Gilchrist (23:33):
Good evening, Mr. President, the Marines and sailors in this room from Battalion Landing Team 3/6 are ready, capable, lethal to support, readiness and lethality in support of operation Southern Spear. We're here in Camp Santiago, Puerto Rico conducting sustainment training and recently we conducted a mobile training team employing first person view attack drones, conducting two-day strikes and the first ever three night strikes in the history of the Department of War. This represents a milestone in our combat lethality, increasing the capability of the Marine Corps in the joint service. Soon we're going to prepare to support counter narcotics operations in the ground, maritime and air domains, and respond to crisis and contingency operations to provide you options, Mr. President, in support of national security objectives to protect the homeland. Marines and sailors of BLT 3/6, the Hellhounds are ready. We're the first to fight and at the tip of the spear as an expeditionary force in readiness. Thank you for your support, Mr. President. Semper Fidelis, happy Thanksgiving.
Donald Trump (24:39):
Well, thank you Ross. And you people are just amazing. I knew every move and every single thing you said. I know exactly what you did and who did it, and I want to just thank you. You were amazing. And all of the people here, border patrol, every single one of them, these are great people. ICE, ICE gets not the credit they deserve. They're unbelievable, tough, smart, and they're unbelievable patriots. So, Ross, thank you very much. You really have done a great job. We appreciate, we love working with you. Thank you.
Major Ross Gilchrist (25:12):
Thank you, Mr. President.
Colonel Charlie Rockwood (25:12):
Before we go over to the Navy, do you have any questions for the president?
Captain Chris Fieriker (25:17):
Good afternoon, sir. The only proper response to the colonel from Hort Wachuku is go Navy, beat Army.
Donald Trump (25:23):
Okay, I've got to remember that. Thank you very much. They're going to have a great game. Thank you very much.
Colonel Charlie Rockwood (25:28):
All right, sir, with that-
Captain Chris Fieriker (25:28):
Yes sir.
Colonel Charlie Rockwood (25:29):
… we're going to move over to Captain Chris Fieriker from the United States Navy.
Donald Trump (25:32):
Okay.
Captain Chris Fieriker (25:34):
Yes sir. Sir, on board here, Iwo Jima, proud commander of the US Iwo Jima Amphibious Radiance Group, along with the 22nd New Expeditionary. You already met my one brother from Central Casting, Colonel Tom Trimble, and my other brother is Colonel Rick Shuter Haley. Behind me is a few of the men and women who comprise the 10,000 sailors and Marines of our Iwo Arc team, who are currently conducting maritime patrols against
Speaker 7 (26:00):
… narcos in the Caribbean in defense of the homeland. Yes, sir, as you know that we have also besides the missions that you know about sir, we also reinforced the embassy in Haiti. We're getting engaged on a routine basis both receiving fire from some of those gang members and returning fire defending that embassy.
(26:19)
We've also opened up operations down here in the south conducting expeditionary advanced-based operations at Roosevelt Roads where Major Ross Gilchrist and the team are currently training.
(26:32)
We've also done, as you mentioned Mr. President, humanitarian support to Jamaica. We're proud to be part of this Navy Marine Corps team and being part of the defense of the homeland, sir.
Donald Trump (26:45):
Thank you. Thank you very much and really great job. Would anybody in the-
Speaker 7 (26:51):
Sir, I'd like to thank for-
Donald Trump (26:51):
Yes, go ahead, please.
Speaker 7 (26:51):
The First Lady came down to North Carolina.
Donald Trump (26:54):
Right.
Speaker 7 (26:54):
Last week and visited the Marines and Sailors at Camp Lejeune, and my wife and my daughter and my two sons were able to meet the First Lady.
Donald Trump (27:03):
That's right.
Speaker 7 (27:04):
And get a pic with her. She was truly gracious and we really appreciate the time that she spent with the the Marines and Sailors. That meant a whole lot to a whole lot of people down North Carolina, sir.
Donald Trump (27:14):
Well, thank you very much. And she had enjoyed it and she mentioned that, meeting your family. And she said, "Those people are in good shape. They're in very good shape." I don't know if she's referring to me when she says that because I don't know. That could be a little slight, but she was very impressed with everything she saw. Thank you very much.
Speaker 8 (27:31):
Sir, before we go to the Navy, Captain Farricker, do you guys have any questions for the president?
Speaker 7 (27:35):
I do have one selfish one, sir. My daughter's ninth birthday is here in a few days. I was wondering if I could get a happy birthday Catherine from you sir.
Donald Trump (27:44):
And her her first name is?
Speaker 7 (27:46):
Catherine, sir.
Donald Trump (27:47):
Well, Catherine, you have a father who's a great hero and a great man and highly respected. Happy birthday and take good care of him. Thank you.
Speaker 7 (27:56):
Thanks, sir. Appreciate it.
Donald Trump (27:57):
Say hello to her.
Speaker 8 (27:58):
All right.
Donald Trump (27:58):
Anybody? Anybody back there have a question?
Speaker 7 (28:03):
I think that's it from us here, sir. Again, appreciate your time and happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
Speaker 8 (28:07):
Happy Thanksgiving, sir.
Donald Trump (28:08):
Thank you all very much. Great. Have a great Thanksgiving. Thank you.
Speaker 8 (28:12):
Sir, with that, we're going to go over to Colonel Seth Spanier from the United States Air Force.
Seth Spanier (28:17):
Happy Thanksgiving, Mr. President. I'm Colonel Seth Spanier, 7th Bomb Wing Commander and here with me I have Lieutenant Colonel Brian Guyette, our 28th Bomb Squadron commander, and Major Joseph Spada, our 28th Bomber Generation Squadron commander. And we're here representing the 4,000 men and women stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas employing the Mighty B-1.
Speaker 9 (28:41):
Good evening, sir. The Bomb Wing hosts multiple B-1 squadrons that are responsible for everything from training the world's best combat aviators to operational test in addition to projecting strength and lethality across the globe. Recently, the Bomb Wing's Combat Squadron was forward deployed to the Indo-Pacific and the men and women that you see behind me were part of the 28th Bomb Squadron and fellow squadrons that executed operations in the Caribbean. And we're responsible for demonstrating the latent combat capability of the training squadron in addition to projecting credibility into the Caribbean on behalf of the long range strike platform the B-1B.
Donald Trump (29:29):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 9 (29:29):
It's currently off station at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
Donald Trump (29:33):
Thank you very much. And I don't know if you know, we have more planes on order in terms of dollars and planes itself and they have a new one, the F-47. And I didn't name that. It was named F-47. They think I named it. I didn't. They surprised me, but I hear it's stage six and it's at a level that nobody's ever seen before.
(29:55)
But we have more planes on order right now and things in the works than we've ever had. So from the Air Force's standpoint I know you know exactly what's in order 'cause we dealt with you and what you like. But we've never had so much, so many planes being built at one time, and we're reinvigorating everything.
(30:16)
I know the F-35's been very good. And we're working on some maintenance issues to get some of them back sooner as you know. 'Cause some of them are out. And rather than having them sit there, we're getting them fixed. Should've happened a long time ago. But we've never been in the position where we've ordered so many, and I think the Air Force has to be very happy about that.
Speaker 9 (30:40):
Yes, sir. Absolutely.
Donald Trump (30:41):
Good. Thank you. And if you have any questions, please go ahead from your group.
Speaker 11 (30:45):
Good evening Mr. President and happy Thanksgiving.
Donald Trump (30:52):
Thank you.
Speaker 11 (30:52):
I'm senior Airman Laura. I'm an Intel Analyst at the 28th Bomb Squadron. My question for you today is, what is the most memorable obstacle or hardship that you've encountered in your life and how did this shape you to be the leader you are today?
Donald Trump (31:05):
Well, that's an interesting question, but I'll tell you, in terms of obstacles would be the weaponization of government by the previous administration. That was probably the biggest obstacle. I ran. I won by a lot. I ran a second time. I won by a lot. And I ran a third time and it it was too big to rig. But the biggest was that.
(31:29)
They went after a lot of great Americans. I was one of them, and I would say weaponization by my opponent was a disgrace to our nation and I would say it was the most difficult time. And we won. And now I'm … today I'm in Florida but generally I'm in the White House, I'm in the Oval Office, so I look around and say, "Oh well, couldn't have been that bad." But it was. It was a disgrace to our nation. And it should never be allowed to happen again and it's being looked at very strongly. But it's a very interesting question.
(32:01)
I don't know that anybody's ever asked me the question that way. But if you did, I would say it was the weaponization and illegal weaponization that they used where our government attacked the President and the former President of the United States of America. And I was fighting for you, not just for myself. I was fighting for you. I was fighting for everyone that I'm looking, all of those incredible patriots that I'm looking at, but the millions of people that are listening right now and the hundreds of millions of people in our country and we fought and we won. But they're bad people. So thank you. That's a great question. Thank you very much.
Speaker 11 (32:39):
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 8 (32:40):
Sir with that-
Speaker 10 (32:41):
Sir one last one if you could throw up a chop, it's to the Mohawks. That's our squadron motto, chop.
Donald Trump (32:47):
Oh, good. I love it. Chop. We're not allowed to do that anymore. You know we're not allowed. You're not allowed to use the word Indian anymore. The only one that wants you to are the Indians, all right? I don't think you should ever change. I will never tell you to change, all right? It's great. And and they're very proud of it too by the way. Thank you all very much. Thank you.
Speaker 8 (33:08):
Sir, we're going to turn over to Captain Ryan Weber from the Space Force.
Donald Trump (33:11):
Okay.
Ryan Weber (33:13):
Good evening, Mr. President. My name is Captain Brian Weber and I'm the Commander of the 18th Space Defense Combat Squadron. Today with me I have Delta Crew. They're working the holiday swing shift right now which is led by Lieutenant Cunningham and Sergeant Jackson. We also have five orbital analysts with us today.
(33:31)
Our mission here at the 18th is Space Domain Awareness tracking everything to, in, and from space, whether that's a launch satellite reentry or maintaining the catalog 48,000 objects in space.
(33:46)
It's been a historical year for 2025. We've had over 273 space launches to this year, 174 of those being from the US, and we're just grateful for our newly operationally accepted system to lead the way for the world in space domain awareness.
Donald Trump (34:07):
Well, I know all about it because that was my baby, Space Force. I can't say I have any favorites 'cause I don't want to do that, but I'll tell you, I have a real love for space force. And as you know, I did that. We put some very good people in because we were losing to China and Russia substantially and now we're leading China and Russia substantially. And as you know, Biden came and he wanted to terminate Space Force. He thought it was funny. He thought it was so funny. The military didn't think it was funny. And he was met with a great force. And the force said you're not doing any. You're not doing this.
(34:42)
But I think it's going to go down as one of our most important. As technology goes, the things we're doing now in space are unbelievable, and I think it'll be one of the truly great things that this administration did. I did it in my last term. But we really had great people there and we're dominating space now. We're dominating it. We were losing it to both China and Russia at the time. We had no space wars.
(35:08)
So we created this incredible group of people. They came together and they created something very special. And I'm very proud of all of you for being involved. It's going to be one of the most important things I think that I've ever done. Thank you.
Ryan Weber (35:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (35:24):
Ryan, before we move on to the Coast Guard, does anybody from your team have a question for the president?
Ryan Weber (35:31):
The one question I would have sir is what do you see for the future for the Space Force? How do you expect it to grow as we build out as a branch?
Donald Trump (35:39):
Yeah, I just think it's unlimited. I think it's, in terms of technology, in terms of … The others have been here for a long time. And Air Force has been, and I could have left it in the Air Force. But I really thought it should have its own identity. And it works closely with the Air Force. But you wouldn't have had your own identity and I don't think it was working doing it that way. So we created, because of the importance we created Space Force.
(36:04)
And I think it's got unlimited growth potential and maybe at a faster level than others because they have been here, they've seeded and they're doing great. But you're a seedling, you're just at the beginning of your powers. It's going to be unlimited future, really, I feel that. And I think you agree with that. But it's going to be unlimited future, and thank you all for being involved. Very proud of you. Thank you.
Ryan Weber (36:31):
Thank you, sir. On behalf of the 18th, thank you for your support and happy Thanksgiving.
Donald Trump (36:35):
Well, you have my support totally. And you too, happy Thanksgiving. Thank you very much.
Ryan Weber (36:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (36:40):
Sir to round it out, we're going to go over to Lieutenant Commander Alex Wilde, United States Coast Guard.
Alex Wilde (36:48):
Good evening, Mr. President. Lieutenant Commander Alex Wilde, Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Cutter Forrest Rednour. We're currently patrolling the Southwest Border off of the Coast of California in support of Operation Border Trident to protect the maritime boundary. With a crew of 25, our fast response cutter has contributed into mission success in securing the border as you mentioned. Last month alone, we had three at-sea interdictions and apprehended 45 illegal aliens.
(37:14)
I'd like to recognize to my right, the boarding team and pursuit team from our most recent interdiction. To my right, Lieutenant Junior Grade Fuller, Boatswain's Mate First Class Garcia Cosby, Electrician's Mate First Class Riza, Boatswain's Mate Third Class Gerhards, and Machinery Technician Second Class Amano.
(37:35)
We've had a real nice day as you said. It's been pretty quiet on the water to be honest. Our two culinary specialists gave us a real treat today for Thanksgiving by smoking two turkeys, and this evening we'll be trying to have some trivia here on the [inaudible 00:37:48]
(37:49)
We're truly grateful for this opportunity to speak with you today.
Donald Trump (37:52):
Thank you very much. Thank you. I've loved the Coast Guard for a long time, and more than anything else, all the lives you saved in Texas and various places, all of these places that get hit by the hurricanes and all of the different, the storms, the big storms, the big water storms, as they call them, but mostly hurricanes. The jobs you do, the way you go into those seas, I wouldn't want to do it. You want to do it, but I wouldn't want to do it. And I just want to thank you for that.
(38:20)
As you know, we've ordered a lot of Coast Guard cutters, brand new, beautiful, the best machines in the world, the fastest, the best, the best maneuverability they tell me. And I said, "How's the speed and the maneuverability?" I'm a looks person. I wanted the hull to be perfect. I sort of redesigned the hull a little bit, the hulls, but we ordered a lot and we're ordering icebreakers too, that you're going to be in charge of. We have 11 of them being built right now. We had none. We only have one in the whole country. Russia has 48, and we have one. And that's just ridiculous. So, we're doing them in conjunction with
Donald Trump (39:00):
… Finland and some other people, and they make the big, they're known as the people that do it, guess 90% of the icebreakers. So they have a great expertise, but we're doing them also as a joint venture, where they're going to be built in this country. And they've already started, so we've ordered 11. You are going to build one, and the one was going to cost almost as much as the 11, and every one of the 11 is much better than the one. So that didn't sound like a good deal. So you know exactly what you're getting. You're getting the best icebreakers in the world, the top of the line. And they're going to be delivered very soon, actually. They're moving along very quickly. They're already, they're building them, and you'll end up with 11. But before we even start that, we're going to end up doing another 11 pretty soon. So you're going to have a lot of icebreakers pretty soon, which is very important, I assume. Is that important for the Coast Guard? Because if not, I'll cancel the order immediately.
Speaker 12 (39:54):
Very important, yes.
Donald Trump (39:55):
Okay, good. Then I won't cancel the order. That's good. You're going to have the best icebreakers there are. So it's really great. Very important to us. Thank you. Any other questions?
Speaker 13 (40:06):
Yes, Mr. President?
Donald Trump (40:06):
Yes.
Speaker 13 (40:07):
I'm Petty Officer [inaudible 00:40:08]. First question is, what is your true golf handicap, not according to fake news? And are you and President Biden going to play that golf match?
Donald Trump (40:17):
I'd love to. I mean, I've invited him, but he doesn't want to show up. Look, I know a lot about golf. I've won 38 club championships and I don't get to practice much. I won one last year. I won a club championship at a big club, beating a 27-year-old kid. I said, "I'm decades older than you, but," I said, "the fairway doesn't know how old you are as you walk up the middle and he's in the rough."
(40:42)
And I've been a good golfer over the years. Club championships are our majors, you know that. Most people can't play in them. We're talking about no strokes or anything else. So I'm a very low handicap and I've won 38 of them legitimately. Every one legitimately. It has to be legitimate, because you have a lot of people following you during club championships, as you know.
(41:05)
So I guess I'm very, I got to be right around scratch or better. I beat a plus three, that's three better, three below par if you look at it, for those that don't know, in the finals of the club championship last year, with all I was going through and with no practice. So I'm a good golfer, yeah, I would have to say that. I want to be honest, I have to be honest, I played with Bryson DeChambeau on his show, the Breaking 50, and we had a good time, but a lot of people thought that was a great ratings hit and we had a lot of fun. But golf is great. It's sort of a microcosm of life and you have a lot of people talk, but they can't play, like Biden. Biden can't hit a ball 30 yards. I'm telling you, I looked at his swing, he cannot hit a ball 30 yards.
(41:56)
He said he was a six handicap, he said. That was the only thing that made me angry during the debate with him. He said he was a six. I said, "You're not a six."
(42:04)
And he said, "Well, I'm an eight."
(42:05)
I said, "That was quick. I picked up two."
(42:07)
But he's not a hundred. He's not a hundred. But it's a great game and I hope you guys get to play a little bit of it, but frankly, I'm more excited about the icebreakers if you want to know the truth. So anyway, I want to thank you all. Great job, Coast Guard. Great job. We're proud of you. You're going to have the best equipment in the world, and it's coming rapidly. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Speaker 14 (42:29):
Thank you, [inaudible 00:42:30].
Speaker 15 (42:30):
So that concludes the presentations. If you have any closing remarks, that'll be it.
Donald Trump (42:34):
Well, I do have closing remarks. I just want to say how proud I am. You look at the people that we just dealt with. These are the top people in our country. These are just beautiful people inside and out. They're brave, they're smart, they're brilliant. And I just want to say it's an honor to be with you. It's an honor to be working with you. We have the strongest country we've ever had. We make the best equipment in the world. We have the best military in the world. Nobody can even come close and everybody knows it. And they respect us now again. A year ago, two years ago, four years ago, three years ago, they didn't respect us at all. They laughed at us. Nobody's laughing anymore. So I just want to thank you all very much. I'm very proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay.
Speaker 16 (43:22):
Mr. President-
Donald Trump (43:23):
We can cut that then. We can cut that. Hello.
Speaker 16 (43:27):
Hello. Good to see you. Thank you so much. Happy Thanksgiving.
Donald Trump (43:30):
Thank you. You too.
Speaker 16 (43:31):
A question about this tragic shooting in Washington, DC. US officials say that the suspect worked very closely with the CIA in Afghanistan for years, that he was vetted and the vetting came up clean.
Donald Trump (43:45):
He went cuckoo. I mean, he went nuts. And that happens too. It happens too often with these people. You see them, but look, this is how they come in. This is how they're standing on top of each other. And that's an airplane. There was no vetting or anything. They came in unvetted and we have a lot of others in this country. We're going to get them out. But they go cuckoo. Something happens to them.
Speaker 16 (44:07):
Your DOJ IG just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the US. So why do you blame the Biden administration?
Donald Trump (44:19):
Because they let them in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn't be here, and you're just asking questions, because you're a stupid person. There's a law passed that it's almost impossible not to get them out. You can't get them out once they come in. And they came in and they were unvetted. They were unchecked. There were many of them. And they came in on big planes and it was disgraceful. If you look, you'll see there was a law passed. It makes it almost impossible, not let them in, not to certify them, so to speak, once they come in.
(44:58)
And they came in and they shouldn't have come in. And frankly, the whole thing was a mess. The whole Afghanistan situation was a mess. It should have never taken place. If we're going to go out and we would've gone out, because I had everybody ready to go. We were going to go out with strength and dignity and precision, and we would've left from Bagram. And we would've kept Bagram, by the way, because of its very close relationship to China and where they make their missiles. But when you let the people come in by the thousands and thousands and thousands, they made a terrible mistake, but they were incompetent. Yeah.
Speaker 17 (45:32):
Mr. President, thank you for having us here tonight. Have you spoken with Sarah and Andrew's family?
Donald Trump (45:37):
We have a call-in a little while, actually, right after this.
Speaker 17 (45:40):
Do you plan to-
Donald Trump (45:40):
Well, the family is devastated as you can imagine. But we have spoken. I mean, my people have spoken with the family. We'll be speaking tonight, but tomorrow… You have to give them a little, they just found out about their daughter. You can't just call two seconds later.
Speaker 17 (45:56):
Of course.
Donald Trump (45:56):
It's a very, very tough situation.
Speaker 17 (45:57):
Obviously.
Donald Trump (45:59):
She was so outstanding. I mean, I just heard outstanding in every single way.
Speaker 17 (46:03):
It's in the early stages, obviously, but do you plan to attend Sarah's funeral?
Donald Trump (46:08):
I haven't thought about it yet, but it certainly is something I could conceive of. I love West Virginia. I won West Virginia by one of the biggest margins of any president anywhere. And these are great people. I love the people of West Virginia. I love the people of our country, but I haven't given it any thought, but it sounds like something I could do. Yeah, it's very raw.
Speaker 17 (46:32):
Yeah, of course. The suspect does have a wife and five children who live in Washington. Do you plan to deport them?
Donald Trump (46:40):
The suspect has?
Speaker 17 (46:41):
The suspect.
Donald Trump (46:42):
Well, we're looking at that right now. We're looking at the whole situation with family, the tragic situation. Yeah, Jeff.
Jeff (46:49):
Mr. President, are there any changes you want to make to improve safety for National Guardsmen who are being sent into these cities?
Donald Trump (46:56):
No, just I want to have more. As you know, we're sending 500 more. We had very little crime in Washington now for many months, record-setting low crime. And this happened, and I don't know how you put this on the scale of that. This is sort of different. This is a terrorism threat and this was done because they're so effective. If they weren't effective, you probably wouldn't have had this done. But this was done because the National Guard has been so effective. You went from having a tremendous amount of crime and death, killing, everything else to having none. And this happened, I assume, because it was so effective. And maybe this man was upset, because he couldn't practice crime. Who knows what his motivation was, but what he did was horrible.
Jeff (47:45):
And you've made changes for Afghani's ability to apply for asylum. Do you blame all Afghans for this one man's-
Donald Trump (47:53):
No, but we've had a lot of with Afghans, because they had a lot of them coming in on these planes. Again, I show you this picture. We had a lot of them coming in on these planes that are… Look at them, there was no check-in. They just poured into the plane. And many of these people are criminals. Many of these people are people that shouldn't be here. And many of them have been gotten out. I mean, we've gotten out a lot of the people that, we've taken a lot of matter here.
Jeff (48:20):
But many-
Donald Trump (48:21):
But they came in… Yeah. I know the old story. Many are wonderful. Yeah, I'm sure.
Jeff (48:25):
I said many are here legally though. What should they think in terms of their prospects?
Donald Trump (48:29):
Well, they can't be happy, okay? They can't be happy, because what's taking place between that? If you look at Somalia, they're taking over Minnesota and they are, we got a lot of problems with the gangs, with all of the things taking place in Minnesota. We have an incompetent governor, a dope. We have a dope governor. They can't be happy about what's going on. And if you talk about the Afghans, there's a problem, because so many bad ones came in on the planes. They just walked in. Whoever the strongest people were physically in a way. But whoever the strongest, they got on the planes, there was no check-in. They just swamped the planes, they took off. We had no idea who they were. Yeah. Do you want to ask a question behind?
Speaker 18 (49:15):
Me? Hi, sir.
Donald Trump (49:17):
Sure. Hi.
Speaker 18 (49:18):
What do the Somalians have to do with this Afghan guy who shot the National-
Donald Trump (49:21):
Nothing, but Somalians have caused a lot of trouble. They're ripping us off for a lot of money. There's a tremendous amount of money going back to Somalia. What the hell are we paying money to Somalia for? But they're ripping off our country at a level that few people have been able to see before. That's about the only thing. You talk about competence. We have Ilhan Omar, who does nothing but complain about our country and our constitution, and she comes from a country with practically, it's practically no country. It's devastated. It's crime-ridden. It's a mess. It's a disgrace. And we took their people. Tremendous. We're not taking their people anymore. We're not taking their people, and we're getting a lot of their people out, because they're nothing but trouble. Okay. Thank you very much, everybody. Go ahead.
Speaker 17 (50:09):
[inaudible 00:50:10] One question about this asylum claim that is being floated. Of course, you just detailed that this suspect was flown in under the Biden administration, but was he granted asylum under your administration?
Donald Trump (50:21):
When it comes to asylum, when they're flown in, it's very hard to get them out. No matter how you want to do it, it's very hard to get them out. But we're going to be getting them all out now. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Speaker 17 (50:31):
Thank you, Mr. President.
Jeff (50:31):
Thank you, sir.
Donald Trump (50:33):
Here, take that picture if you want it, press.
Speaker 17 (50:35):
Mr. President, what are you most thankful for this Thanksgiving?
Donald Trump (50:39):
The fact that America's great again. We've made America great again. America was a dead country. We've made America great again. Here you go.
Speaker 17 (50:46):
Thank you, Mr. President. Happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 16 (50:47):
Thank you.