President Trump called-in to Sean Hannity’s TV show tonight to discuss his perspective on the Robert Mueller testimony and current DC events.

The second quarter Gross Domestic Product growth result will be released tomorrow.  The Q2 GDP growth rate is historically the worst quarter of the year.  A growth rate higher than 1.5 percent will be a strong indicator the U.S. economy remains on track for a cumulative year of around three percent.

In the latest economic releases the orders for durable goods “unexpectedly” jumped in June [2 percent], again indicating the overall strength of the U.S. economy and strong consumer purchasing.  Additionally the trade in goods deficit “unexpectedly” declined 1.2 percent in June as more manufacturers “surprisingly” shift production back to the U.S, and domestic consumers are “unexpectedly” loyal to USA.

Every economic indicator is positive, and each series of released data shows the U.S. economy is increasingly strong.  Despite the empirical data, media reporting on economic forecasts continue to convey a negative slant disconnected from what is happening.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New orders for key U.S.-made capital goods surged in June, suggesting some improvement in business investment, but economic growth is still expected to have slowed sharply in the second quarter amid weaker exports and a smaller inventory build.

Still, the longest U.S. economic expansion on record remains supported by a strong labor market. Other data on Thursday showed the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a three-month low last week.

The economy has been hurt by the U.S.-China trade war and slowing growth overseas. These factors are expected to encourage the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next Wednesday for the first time in a decade.

The Commerce Department said orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, jumped 1.9% last month after rising 0.3% in May.

Orders for these so-called core capital goods in June increased across the board, with demand for machinery rising by the most in nearly 1-1/2 years. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast core capital goods orders would gain 0.2% in June.

“The stronger-than-expected orders are a positive sign that business investment and manufacturing sector activity have not weakened substantially further following softness earlier in the year,” said Veronica Clark, an economist at Citi in New York.

Core capital goods orders rose 1.9% on a year-on-year basis. Core capital goods shipments, which are used to calculate equipment spending in the government’s gross domestic product measurement, increased 0.6% in June after advancing 0.5% in the prior month.

[…] Overall orders for durable goods, items ranging from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last three years or more, increased 2.0% in June, the most since August 2018, after declining 2.3% in the prior month. Unfilled orders fell for a second straight month. (read more)

President Trump has tweeted support for an American artist A$AP Rocky after Swedish authorities file formal charges which may result in a two-year prison term.

It seems remarkable that a street fight, which did appear to be validly self defense, could result in such a serious situation for this young American musician. President Trump has attempted to help the artist who remains in detention, and expresses disappointment in the status.

ABC News – Rapper A$AP Rocky was charged with assault in Sweden on Thursday over a brawl in the streets of Stockholm on June 30, according to prosecutors.

“I have today commenced criminal proceedings against the three individuals suspected of assault causing actual bodily harm, having come to the conclusion that the events in question constitute a crime and despite claims of self-defence and provocation,” said public prosecutor Daniel Suneson, of the City Public Prosecution Office in Stockholm.

“In reaching this conclusion, I have studied the videos made available to the inquiry,” he added. “It is worth noting that I have had access to a greater amount of material than that which has previously been available on the internet. In addition to video material, the injured party’s statements have been supported by witness statements.”

The rapper’s Swedish attorney Slobodan Jovicic reiterated his argument that his client was acting in self defense and told ABC News on Thursday that while the decision to charge him was “expected,” A$AP Rocky is in “disbelief” and feeling “very disappointed because now it is black and white.”

[…] The trial will take place July 30 and Aug. 1 and 2, the prosecutor’s office said. Suneson added that those who were injured in the fight will testify and that new footage of the assault will be played in court as well. Cameras are not allowed in court. A$AP Rocky faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison if found guilty. (more)

The U.S. worker initiative is one of the least discussed success stories in the landscape of MAGAnomics.  At the heart of the program is a new-era retraining program through a partnership between private companies and the education sector.  There are programs ongoing throughout the nation and it really is a remarkable success.

UPDATE: Video Added

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[White House] Today, President Trump, Vice President Pence, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump and members of the Cabinet will host an event at the White House with workers and CEOs to celebrate the one year anniversary since the launch of the Pledge to America’s Workers.

Over the course of the last year, Ivanka Trump has spearheaded a call-to-action for States and the private sector to create new education and training opportunities to better serve the American worker and encourage private investment in workforce development. On the first day of this month, President Trump signed a proclamation for Pledge to America’s Workers Month, 2019 and over the past few weeks Administration officials have crisscrossed the country to more than 17 cities to encourage this critical workforce development investment.

The White House is thrilled to announce that since President Trump signed the Executive Order, more than 300 companies and organizations have signed the Pledge, contributing to over 12 MILLION new opportunities for American students and workers over the next five years. Included in that is a huge commitment announced by NAM today that they have signed the Pledge to offer training opportunities to 1.2 Million American workers.

The celebration event is a culmination of the year-long effort, intended to highlight workers’ stories and the role of the private sector in workforce development. Employees and CEOs of companies from around the country that have signed the Pledge to America’s Workers will be in attendance. Members of Congress and local legislators will also be participating in the event.

“Our mission is straightforward: to ensure inclusive growth and opportunity in our booming economy by creating pathways for all Americans, regardless of age or background, to acquiring the skills needed to secure and retain high-paying jobs,” said Ivanka Trump, Advisor to the President.

By the Numbers – As of July 25, 2019:
NEWS: Total # of Pledges (individuals impacted) – 12,730,505
-Total # of Companies/Associations – 335
-Total # of States – 35 states + the District of Columbia
-Total # of Governors – 37 Governors
-Total # of Countries – 12 countries + USA

{LINK}

Beautiful weather today in Virginia as President Trump and Vice President Pence participate in a military honors welcoming ceremony at the Pentagon to celebrate America’s new Secretary of Defense, Mark T. Esper.  [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much to our great Vice President, and thank you to all of the extraordinary patriots here at the United States Department of Defense, the world’s largest building. I’ve heard for many years, the world’s largest building. And it’s under great leadership.

Your devotion, strength, and courage keep America safe, strong, and free. It’s because of you that the United States military is the most powerful fighting force on the face of the Earth.

I want to express our gratitude to the Old Guard and to all of the service members in today’s review for their extraordinary commitment to excellence and their unwavering loyalty to our nation. It is the greatest honor of my life to serve as your Commander-in-Chief.

Let me also recognize the incredible U.S. Navy Sea Chanters and the band for that beautiful rendition of our National Anthem. It was really beautiful, and thank you very much. Fantastic job. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you.

We’re gathered here today to celebrate the swearing-in of America’s new Secretary of Defense, Mark T. Esper. Secretary Esper, your lifetime of noble service has prepared you for this immense responsibility. And that’s what it is: immense responsibility.

On behalf of our entire country, thank you and congratulations. Congratulations. (Applause.)

I have no doubt — I know you well — that you will thrive in the performance of your duties and make all Americans — everybody in this great country — all Americans very, very proud. They’re right now very proud, but they’re going to be even more so as time goes by. People love our country more than ever, and our country is respected again. Remember that.

I’m delighted that many members of your family could be here for this special occasion, including your wonderful wife Leah, your mother Polly, and your children Luke and Katherine. Thank you. Thank you very much. Congratulations to a great family. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Great family.

Also joining us are Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan, Acting Administrator Chris Pilkerton, Director Dan Coats, representatives Kay Granger, John Rice Carter, and many members of the diplomatic corps.

With us, as well, are many distinguished military leaders: Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Paul Selva. Where is Paul? Paul? Paul.

Acting Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy. Ryan? Hi, Ryan. Stand up, Ryan. You’re doing a great job. (Applause.) You’re filling big shoes, Ryan.

Acting Secretary of the Air Force Matthew Donovan. Thank you very much. Thank you, Secretary. (Applause.)

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly. Thank you, Thomas. Great. (Applause.)

Army Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley. Mark? Thank you, Mark. (Applause.) Congratulations to Mark.

Coast Guard Commandant, Admiral Karl Shultz. Thank you, Admiral. (Applause.)

Marine Corps Commandant, General David Berger. General, thank you very much. (Applause.) Air Force Chief of Staff, General David Goldfein. General, thank you very much. (Applause.)  And Chief of Naval Operations Admiral, John Richardson. Thank you all. Thank you, Admiral. (Applause.)

Over many decades, in times of war and peace, Mark Esper has answered the call of duty. He’s never failed. He hails from Uniontown, Pennsylvania — the hometown of his personal hero, the legendary former Secretary of Defense and a great one, George Marshall.

Mark attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. Graduated in 1986, receiving a commission in the infantry.

Soon, he earned his tab — Ranger Tab — and fought with the famed 101st Airborne Division in the Gulf War. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Combat Infantryman Badge for his service. Brave guy. They all told me he was a brave guy. I knew that anyway.

In total, Mark served in our nation’s military for 21 years. He completed his final active-duty assignment right here at the Pentagon on the Army staff and then returned six years later as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy.

Over his career, Mark has advanced our national security in a variety of other government and private sector roles. He has worked in both houses of Congress, advising lawmakers. I can see he had some talent because he won — was it 98 to what? No, you got 90, right? Can you believe this? I don’t believe it. I heard a “Ninety.” Ninety to eight, right? (Applause.) I don’t know. I haven’t heard that sound in a long time, Mark. (Laughter.) Now I’m worried. Ninety to eight. Wow.

He served as Vice President of Raytheon. Along the way, Mark earned a master’s degree at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a PhD at George Washington University.

In 2017, Mark was sworn in as Secretary of the United States Army, a position in which he earned universal admiration and respect. Tremendous respect.

At the Department of Defense, Secretary Esper will work with more than 2 million service members and hundreds of thousands of civilian employees all dedicated to one critical mission: the defense of the nation and of this great nation’s people.

I have absolute confidence that Mark will ensure that our incredible military is fully prepared to deter conflict and to defeat any foe. No enemy can match the awesome might of the American Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and the United States Marines.

We had a budget approved when I first came in. Billions and billions of dollars more than it was previously, in the previous administration: $700 billion. Then I went to $716 billion. And I won’t even tell you what this one is. I can only tell you it’s even more. Because we have rebuilt things that nobody ever even thought of rebuilding. We’ve added the greatest planes in the world, the greatest missiles in the world. We’ve upgraded our nuclear very, very powerfully, including new. We never want to have to use it. Pray to God that we never have to use it. But we have the best in the world in every aspect of military.

The sight of American warriors brings solace into the hearts of our friends and strikes fear into the hearts of our enemies. Our military today is more powerful, by far, than ever before. And three years ago, we could not have said that, could we, Mark?

We’re giving our warfighters the tools they need to fight and win with overwhelming force. After years and years of budget cuts and all of the things that they’ve been doing to set us back with our military, we have more than made up for all of it.

We’re building new tanks and ships and submarines and planes and missile systems to ensure that our warriors operate with unrivaled capability in conflict. Any battlefield will be a battlefield on which we win.

We have given our service members their largest pay raise in nearly a decade. And under this administration, we have faced the challenge of our time with clear eyes, fresh thinking, and bold determination.

Our first priority is always the safety and sovereignty of our nation and our citizens. Here at home, we have deployed military forces to confront the grave national security crisis on our southern border. And I want to thank all of the great military leaders for the help you’ve given us on our southern border.

And, as you know, Mexico has now deployed 21,000 troops, which is something they’ve never done before. And they’ve been a tremendous help. Tremendous difference in the numbers — very rapidly. And we want to thank the country of Mexico and the President.

No nation can be safe or secure that fails to control its borders. In Syria and Iraq, thanks to the bravery of our warriors and their allies, the ISIS territorial caliphate has been 100 percent and just absolutely destroyed. And we did it in a very quick moment of time. As soon as I said, “I want to do it and I want to do it fast,” our military kicked in and it happened very, very quickly.

Today, we stand not far from where terrorists attacked the Pentagon on 9/11, claiming 184 precious lives. We will never forget the immortal sacrifice of those American patriots. We vow to do whatever it takes to protect our homeland, to safeguard our people from the threat of radical Islamic terrorism, and to preserve American freedom.

Around the world, America faces new threats and strategic rivals, it seems like all the time. We have met this competition with unmatched confidence, purpose, and resolve. We talk to all of them and they talk to us with great, great respect. They respect our country so much more than they have for many, many decades. Right now, they respect us more than they have in many, many years. And it’s only going to get more so.

We are ensuring American dominance across every warfighting domain — land, air, sea, cyber, and now space. That is why, under Secretary Esper’s leadership, we will — as Mike and Mark have already said, but it’s so exciting to say. And whenever I make a speech, people start going wild. They stand up and they clap, and I can’t sit them down. And I have to wait because I say, “We’re launching the United States Space Force.” They go absolutely wild. They understand that’s where it’s going to be at. And we’re going to be there, and we’re going to be there in every way that you can.

As we aim ever higher, I know the men and women of this department will never let up and never rest easy. Together, we will fulfill our sacred mission to protect the greatest nation in the history of the world: the United States of America. With unyielding strength, we will defend our country, we will defend our people, and we will proudly defend our great American flag.

Secretary Esper, congratulations again to you and your family. This is an incredible day in the life and fabled history of the United States.

Secretary of Defense, do you ever see that, looking into — do you ever see that one? As I watch all of these great men and women — you’re going to do a great job, I have no doubt. Absolutely no doubt. (Applause.) No doubt.

We cannot wait to see all that you will achieve for our nation as the new Secretary of Defense. I want to thank everybody for being here. Very special people. God bless you. God bless our military. And God bless America.

Thank you very much everybody. (Applause.) Thank you.

END TRANSCRIPT –  12:10 P.M. EDT

Chopper pressers are the best pressers. President Trump stopped to talk to the assembled media as he departed from the South Lawn. The majority of questions and comments surround the Mueller testimony.  [Video and Transcript Below]

UPDATE: Transcript Added

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[Transcript] – Q Mr. President, what’s your reaction to the testimony?

THE PRESIDENT: So we had a very good day today. The Republican Party, our country — there was no defense of what Robert Mueller was trying to defend, in all fairness to Robert Mueller. Whether his performance was a bad one or a good one, I think everybody understands that. I think everybody understands what’s going on.

There was no defense for this ridiculous hoax, this witch hunt that’s been going on for a long time — pretty much from the time I came down on the escalator with our First Lady. And it’s a disgrace what happened. But I think today proved a lot to everybody. In fact, some of my biggest opponents wrote things today that I wouldn’t have believed they would have written, and I appreciate that they did that.

This has been a very bad thing for our country. And despite everything we’ve been through, it’s been an incredible two and half years for our country. The administration, our President — me — we’ve done a great job. We’ve got the strongest stock market, the best unemployment numbers, the most number of people ever working in the history of our country right now — almost 160 million. Our military has been rebuilt and getting even stronger.

We’ve done a great job, and we’ve done it under this terrible, phony cloud. A phony cloud; that’s all it was. And they should be ashamed of themselves. Absolutely ashamed. And you know who knew it was a phony cloud more than anyone else? It was Schiff and Nadler and Schumer and Pelosi — every one of them. They all knew it was phony stuff.

And if you look at the polls, the polls are showing it maybe more than anybody else or anything else. And I’ve had my best polls, and I don’t say why. But people see what’s gone on in our country with this whole thing. I’ve been going through it for three years — for three years — all the nonsense.

So this was a very big day for our country. This was a very big day for the Republican Party. And you could say it was a great day for me, but I don’t even like to say that. It’s great.

I’ll tell you what: I very much appreciate those incredible warriors that you watched today on television — Republicans — that defended something, and defended something very powerful, very important. Because they were really defending our country. More than anything else, they were defending our country. But they were warriors, and they’ve been warriors for a long time.

And everybody knew it was a hoax, especially the Democrats. I wish we could be a fly on the wall in those rooms where the Democrats would go in and talk before and after meetings, and they’d be laughing and smiling and say, “Can you believe that we’re getting away with this?” But, in the end, they didn’t get away with it.

Yeah.

Q Mr. President, Robert Mueller specifically testified that he did not exonerate you. Why do you continue to say that he does?

THE PRESIDENT: So, there is no such a thing. He didn’t have the right to exonerate. And, you know, it’s very interesting: People mention exoneration. That was something where he totally folded because he never had the right to exonerate. And it was covered very well by Congressman Turner and put to a conclusion.

We were — if you take a look at not only the report, beyond the report, take a look at not what he said but what he was forced to say. And even your networks and your network and your network and your net- — every one of these networks, they put up their hands. You know, we had a couple of cases with — actually, we had about six cases where they asked our people, our representatives’ television networks, “Please, don’t come in tonight. We’re not going to be doing much on it.” And the reason they’re not: because it’s over.

Go ahead.

Q Mr. President, sir, do you regret, sir — two questions for you. Are you concerned you could be indicted out of office? And do you regret talking so much about WikiLeaks, given Robert Mueller called that problematic?

THE PRESIDENT: So, WikiLeaks is a hoax, just like everything else. And all of those problems having to do with crime were the biggest hoax of all. It was a witch hunt. A total witch hunt. And when you saw Robert Mueller’s statement, the earlier statement, and then he did a recap, he did a correction later on in the afternoon. And you know what that correction was, and you still asked the question. Do you know why? Because you’re fake news. And you’re one of the most.

And let me just tell you, the fact that you even asked that question, you’re fake news. Because you know what? He totally corrected himself in the afternoon. And you know that just as well as anybody.

Kaitlan. Kaitlan.

Q He said your written answers were not “generally truthful.” What was not truthful in your written answers to the Special Counsel?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know whose answers weren’t. I guess his answers weren’t. Because if you look, the whole report — you take a look at what they did: Some of the things that he didn’t even know about; some of the things he didn’t even know what was going on.

But you know, in the end, what he did, he actually, probably, came through for himself. The performance was obviously not very good. He had a lot of problems. But what he showed more than anything else is that this whole thing has been three years of embarrassment and waste of time for our country. And you know what? The Democrats thought they could win an election like this. I think they hurt themselves very badly for 2020.

Q Did Donald Trump, Jr. — did your son, Donald Trump, Jr., speak with Robert Mueller?

THE PRESIDENT: Did I what?

Q Did your son, Donald Trump, Jr., speak with Robert Mueller?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. I really don’t know.

Q How do you not know?

THE PRESIDENT: I never — I don’t know.

Yeah, go ahead.

Q Mr. President, are you concerned about what was said —

THE PRESIDENT: I mean, frankly, whether or not he did, it wouldn’t matter to me —

Q How would you not know?

THE PRESIDENT: — because he did nothing wrong. He did nothing wrong.

Q But how would you not know?

THE PRESIDENT: Because it’s so unimportant. It was always a very unimportant meeting. It was only important to the fake news.

Go ahead.

Q Mueller said you could be charged once you leave office.

THE PRESIDENT: No, he didn’t say that.

Q Yes, he did.

THE PRESIDENT: Again, you’re fake news. And you’re right at the top of the list, also.

Let me just tell you —

Q That is what he said, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: — go back to what — it’s not what he said. Read his correction.

Q That was not his correction. His correction was about exonerating you.

THE PRESIDENT: Read his correction.

Q It was about exonerating you. That was not about if you could be charged after you leave office.

THE PRESIDENT: If you read his correction, you’ll find out. That’s why people don’t deal with you because you’re not an honest reporter.

John.

Q Mr. President, do you believe that — there are some Democrats who are saying that Mueller’s testimony today could form the basis for an impeachment investigation? What do you say in response?

THE PRESIDENT: They are devastated. The Democrats lost so big today. Their party is in shambles right now. They’ve got the Squad leading their party. They are a mess — where even you take a look at scribe and you take a look at so many of the people that were the most outspoken, and they say this was a devastating day for the Democrats. And you know it, John, and everybody else knows it. This was devastating day for the Democrats.

Q Are you concerned, Mr. President, that after you leave office, you could be indicted?

THE PRESIDENT: No, no. A very dumb and very unfair question.

Q Why is that?

THE PRESIDENT: Because if you look at his correction, he took that totally out of play. He made his decision based on the facts, not based on some rule. So you shouldn’t even ask that question because you know it’s a phony.

Go ahead.

Q Do you think the Democrats are trying to (inaudible) and keep (inaudible)?

THE PRESIDENT: The Democrats had nothing, and now they have less than nothing. And I think they’re going to lose the 2020 election very big, including congressional seats, because of the path that they chose.

Now, who knows where it goes. From what I hear, they’re giving up. But I just say, I know them too well. They’ll never give up. They’ll go back into the room and they’ll try and figure something out. This whole thing has been — honestly, it’s been collusion. It’s been collusion with the media. It’s been collusion with other countries. This has been a disaster for the Democrats, and I think we’re going to win bigger than ever.

Now, I’m — I’m going to West Virginia, one of the great states. A state that’s doing — if you look at percentage up, I think it’s number one or number two in the country. And nobody would have believed that. West Virginia is doing great. So, I’m going to West Virginia.

We did have a big case today. You know, we won the asylum case in Washington which, frankly, you should be asking about that because that’s the real deal.

I can’t believe how nice you are today. Go ahead, give me a question.

Q Thank you. My question, Mr. President, is: Do you believe that even though he backed away from it, that you, after you leave office, could face indictment for obstruction?

THE PRESIDENT: No, because we did nothing wrong. The answer is very simple. Nothing was done wrong. This was all a big hoax. And if you look at it today, nothing was done wrong.

Now, I believe what you’re going to find — you’re going to find a lot of things that were done very wrong. But that’s going on now. That’s something you haven’t been writing about, and that has to do with the other side’s — that has to do with a thing called “investigate the investigators.” Let’s see what happens. That’s going to be very interesting.

Q Do you think Robert Mueller did a good job in this investigation? Where are you at on that now?

THE PRESIDENT: Look, I think Robert Mueller did a horrible job, both today and with respect to the investigation. But in all fairness to Robert Mueller, he had nothing to work with. You know, you can be a builder, but if they don’t give you the right materials, you’re not going to build a very good building.

Robert Mueller had no material. He had nothing to work with. So, obviously, he did very poorly today. I don’t think there’s anybody — even among the fakers, I don’t think there’s anybody who would say he did well. I looked at your people; they’re saying it was devastating for the Democrats.

And even, I will tell you, the two most nauseous and nauseating networks — whose ratings have both gone down, way down — even they said this was a really bad day for the Democrats.

So, Robert Mueller did a poor job. But in all fairness to him, he had nothing to work with.

David.

Q Mr. President, do you regret not talking to Mueller now that you’ve seen him in action?

THE PRESIDENT: Look, I saw what he did to people — how he ruined people’s lives because they didn’t remember a date or something very minor. He ruined people’s lives.

The Democrats, they took people and they destroyed their lives. They went bankrupt because they couldn’t afford the legal fees, and they were good people — many, many people.

So when you ask me that question, all they have to do is — see how nice this weather is? If I made a mistake and said I was talking to the media and it was a little bit rainy, a little bit overcast, they’d say, “Well, we have to do — he lied.”

Let me tell you, I’ve seen what they’ve done to people. I’ve seen how they’ve destroyed people like General Flynn and so many others — what they’ve done to people. No, I did the right thing.

Q You said Mueller did a “horrible job.” (Inaudible) about the report today. Why is that?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, Mueller had no material. Sure. Mueller had no material to work with, and he did a horrible job. Obviously, his presentation was way off. But that’s okay. It didn’t matter. He had no material. There was nothing done wrong. In fact, things were done right. There was nothing done wrong.

And certainly — I mean, look, I read the papers and I read the press and I read the Internet, and if you see what’s going on the Internet, if you listen to the Internet, this was one of the worst performances in the history of our country. So, you know that. You know that very well.

But I don’t think anybody could have done a good performance. He had no material. It was a fake set of facts that the Democrats used — and others — to try and do really an illegal overthrow. But we’re going to find out about that.

Q On the asylum ruling, what does this mean for your plans going forward?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, the asylum is a big —

Q And what are you going to do about Guatemala?

THE PRESIDENT: Say it?

Q What are you going to do about Guatemala?

THE PRESIDENT: So, the asylum is a very big ruling. That was a tremendous ruling today. We appreciate it. We respect the courts very much. That helps us very much at the border. The numbers are way down at the border, which is a good thing. Apprehensions are way down because Mexico has now 22,000 soldiers. And they’re — they mean business because they know what happens; the alternative is not good for them.

It’s also good for Mexico, what they’re doing, because the cartels have been running all of the border for years and years. And Mexico is saying — and the President is saying, “We got to clean it up.” So they’ve got 21,000 soldiers. They’ll probably put up more.

But this ruling today on asylum is a tremendous ruling.

Q What are you going to do about Guatemala? Guatemala. What are you going to do about Guatemala?

THE PRESIDENT: So, Guatemala gave us their word. We were going to sign a safe third agreement and then, all of a sudden, they backed up. They said it was their supreme court. I don’t believe that. But they use their supreme court as the reason they didn’t want to do it.

So we’ll either do tariffs or we’ll do something. We’re looking at something very severe with respect to Guatemala. I’ve already cut all payments; I did that a year ago. I cut all payments going to Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. We used to send them $500 million for nothing. For nothing. They didn’t do anything except set up caravans.

So, Guatemala we’re going to take care of and it won’t even be tough. We’re going to do — we’re looking at a couple of different things. One of the things very heavy is, as you know, Mexico has put 6,000 people on that border.

Q Mr. President, what do you say at the — Robert Mueller, he said that he — that lying from your inves- —

THE PRESIDENT: Let me just tell you something.

Q — Mr. President, he says that lying —

THE PRESIDENT: I know, you’re always — you always have a question.

Q — he says that lying — he said that lying by White House aides and campaign aides —

THE PRESIDENT: You mean my White House aides lied?

Q They said that your White House —

THE PRESIDENT: What about his aides? What about — what about Mueller’s aides?

Q He said that White House aides and campaign aides lied and that your answers were generally untruthful. What do you say to that? He’s accusing you and your campaign of lying.

THE PRESIDENT: He didn’t say that at all. You’re untruthful when you ask —

Q He specifically said, “generally untruthful.”

THE PRESIDENT: You are untruthful. When you ask that question —

Q He completely said that.

THE PRESIDENT: When you ask that question, you’re untruthful. And you know who —

Q But quoting, “generally untruthful.”

THE PRESIDENT: — else is untruthful? You know who else is untruthful? His aides. And Weissmann was untruthful. And Weissmann got caught just like he did with Arthur Andersen, where he lost in the Supreme Court nine to nothing. His aides were very untruthful. And they put Mueller —

Q But were your aides lying and impeding the investigation, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: — and they put Mueller — not at all. They put Mueller in a very bad positon. His aides put him in a very bad position.

And if you were ever truthful, you’d be able to write the truth.

Q Mr. President, have you called Boris Johnson? Have you called Boris Johnson?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I haven’t. No, but I’m very happy. I haven’t called Boris but I’m happy that he won. I’m very, very happy.

Q (Inaudible) indictment for Strzok and Page and the investigators that you are referring to?

THE PRESIDENT: So what happened with Strzok and Page, meaning the two lovers, it’s a disgrace because they had a lot of text messages, and Mueller illegally deleted those text messages. And they didn’t get too much into that because he forgo; he didn’t really know; he didn’t know too much. He didn’t know anything.

But Strzok and Page were texting. Don’t forget, they were the ones with the “just in case she should lose, we’re going to have an insurance policy.” This is the same Strzok and Page. So that was a very, very bad situation. What they did and what Mueller did — he deleted their text messages back and forth, probably thousands of them. That’s a serious problem. They shouldn’t have been allowed to do it.

Q How did Mueller affect the 2020 election? How did Mueller affect the 2020 election?

THE PRESIDENT: I think it’s going to help us because everyone sees now that this thing has been going on for so long. In all fairness to Mueller, this has gone on long before Mueller. This has gone on from sometime after we came down the escalator and I got great poll numbers. Because from the beginning, I was leading. And this really took place sometime right after we came down the escalator — the First Lady and myself. And I will tell you something: I think it’s going to have a huge negative impact on 2020 for the Democrats.

END TRANSCRIPT – 4:42 P.M EDT

This is funny.  No, really, it is actually funny.  Yesterday the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised its outlook of the global economy.  If you read the IMF prior “dire forecast” from July 17th –yes, only a week ago– you’ll discover the humor aspect.

The IMF is now upgrading their forecast of U.S. economic growth; and admitting -in essence- that President Trump’s America-First agenda is relocating global wealth back to the primary host nation known as the U.S.A.   The increase in their forecast isn’t a small increase, it is essentially adding .3 percent (from 2.3% to 2.6%) or $60 billion more.

However, you’d have to go through two-thirds of the Reuters press coverage of the IMF release; and plow through a littany of doom and gloom; before you found this obscure reference: “The IMF raised its forecast for U.S. economic growth to 2.6% in 2019, but left its 2020 forecast for 1.9% growth unchanged.”   Apparently the economic team at Reuters has a sad… harrumph!

Even the Washington Post, despite their earnest efforts, couldn’t actually put a negative spin on the new IMF projection:

(WaPo) The U.S. economy is growing even more rapidly than initially thought, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday, though it warned that President Trump’s trade war could slow momentum.

The U.S. economy is on track to expand by 2.6 percent this year, the IMF predicted, up from its April forecast of 2.3 percent growth. The increase is largely the result of a better-than-expected start to the year and the Federal Reserve signaling it is likely to lower interest rates.

“The revision to 2019 growth reflects stronger-than-anticipated first quarter performance,” the IMF wrote in its World Economic Outlook, adding that the Fed’s “dovish tilt” has “helped markets regain their poise.”

Last year, the U.S. economy grew at nearly 3 percent. The White House forecasts the nation will hit that level again, but the vast majority of independent economists predicts that growth will cool as the stimulus from the tax cuts begin to wear off. If the IMF projection is correct, it would still be a strong year. (read more)

OK…. So the IMF, which is euro-centric, increases the projected U.S. economic growth for 2019 to 2.6 percent.  They then go on to warn everyone else, that globally the world economy is in a position of weakening, or shrinking etc; and you won’t be surprised at the reason for their negative global forecast.  Of course it’s horrible Trump and his strategic trade reset that’s to blame.   Grumble, grumble, grumble.

However, let me just remain focused on the U.S. growth projection for a moment….  We already know the 2018 U.S. GDP result was +3.1 percent.  So it is worth looking back to 2017 and see what the IMF was projecting for the U.S. in 2018 to see their rate of accuracy:

July 24, 2017 – “The IMF now projects the U.S. economy will grow at a rate of 2.1 percent in both 2017 and 2018, it said in its July update to the World Economic Outlook. In its previous estimate issued in April, the organization predicted the U.S. economy would grow at 2.3 percent in 2017 and 2.5 percent in 2018.

“Over the next two years, U.S. growth should remain above its longer-run potential growth rate. But we have reduced our forecasts for both 2017 and 2018 to 2.1 percent because near-term U.S. fiscal policy looks less likely to be expansionary than we believed in April,” wrote Maurice Obstfeld, the IMF’s chief economist.” (link)

Whoopsie!

The IMF projected 2018 U.S. growth at 2.1% and the actual result was U.S. growth at 3.1%.

Not only did the IMF miss that projection ball-park, they missed the city and state where the ball-park was located.  Missing a forecast for the worlds largest economy ($20 Trillion) by a full percentage point is like a geography expert standing on the equator and pointing North to identify the location of the South Pole.  Yes, it is that ridiculous.

All of that said, the strength of the U.S. economy, and specifically the focused growth that is happening ONLY because U.S. President Donald Trump is directing our economy, is entirely an outcome of Trump policy that reverses decades of neglectful stewardship by  prior politicians who controlled trade and economic policy.

What they did was purposeful.

Indeed, these MAGAnomic results are a big part of the reason why the globalists hate him.

In the bigger picture this is why President Trump is the most transformative economic President in the last 75 years.   The post-WWII Marshall Plan was set up to allow Europe and Asia to place tariffs on exported American industrial products.  Those tariffs were used by the EU and Japan to rebuild their infrastructure after a devastating war.  However, there was never a built in mechanism to end the tariffs…. until President Trump came along and said: “it’s over”!

After about 20 years (+/-), say 1970 to be fair, the EU and Japan received enough money to rebuild.  But instead of ending the one-way payment system, Asia and the EU sought to keep going and build their economies larger than the U.S.  Additionally, the U.S. was carrying the cost of protecting the EU (via NATO) and Japan with our military.   The EU and Japan didn’t need to spend a dime on defense because the U.S. essentially took over that role.   But that military role, just like the tariffs, never ended.  Again, until Trump.

The U.S. economy was the host for around 50 years of parasitic wealth exfiltration, or as most would say “distribution”.  [Note I use the term *exfiltration* because it better highlights that American citizens paid higher prices for stuff, and paid higher taxes within the overall economic scheme, than was needed.]

President Trump is the first and only president who said: “enough”, and prior politicians who didn’t stop the process were “stupid” etc. etc.  Obviously, he is 100% correct.

For the past 30 years the U.S. was a sucker to keep letting the process remain in place while we lost our manufacturing base to overseas incentives.  The investment process from Wall Street (removal of Glass-Stegal) only made the process much more severe and faster.  Wall Street was now investing in companies whose best bet (higher profit return) was to pour money overseas.  This process created the “Rust Belt”, and damn near destroyed the aggregate manufacturing industry.

Fast forward to 2017 through today, and President Trump is now engaged in a massive and multidimensional effort to re-balance the entire global wealth dynamic.  By putting tariffs on foreign imports he has counterbalanced the never-ending Marshal Plan trade program and demanded renegotiation(s).  Trump’s goal is reciprocity; however, the EU and Asia, specifically China, don’t want to give up a decades-long multi-generational advantage.  This is part of the fight.

One could argue that China’s rise happened inside this period, and as a consequence they have no comprehension of an economic history without the institutional advantages.  They’ve never competed with the U.S. under any terms of equivelence or fairness; they’ve only ever known the advantages.  Combine that with the Chinese communist mindset and you get the extreme severity of their position.

So yeah, there’s going to be pain – for them; massive economic pain – as the process of reestablishing a fair trading system is rebuilt.  This dynamic is the essence of reciprocity that benefits Main Street USA.  Unfortunately, putting ‘America First’ is now also against the interests of the multinationals on Wall Street; so President Trump has to fight adverse economic opponents on multiple fronts…. and their purchased mercenary army we know as DC politicians.

No-one, ever, could take on all these interests.  Think about it…  The EU, Asia, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, China, Russia, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Iran, U.S. Congress, Democrats, U.S. Senate, Wall Street, the Big Club, Lobbyists, Hollywood, Corporate Media (foreign and domestic), and the ankle-biters in Never Trump…. All of these financial interests are aligned against Main Street USA and against President Trump.

Name one individual who could take them on simultaneously and still be winning, bigly.

They say he’s one man.  They say they have him outnumbered.  Yet somehow, as unreal as it seems, he’s the one who appears to have them surrounded.

Incredible.

Lord knows we can’t spare this man.

He fights!

.

…. And why we will keep on winning.

Generation Z is absolutely the generation to absorb the truthfulness, purpose and benefit of President Donald John Trump.  Gen-Z are also some of his strongest supporters.

Earlier today President Donald Trump delivered rally-style remarks at the Turning Point USA’s Teen Student Action Summit.  President Trump discussed a number of topics including “The Squad,” Prime Minister-elect Boris Johnson’s victory in the UK and the corrupt Robert Mueller testifying before Congress. [Video and Transcript]

.

[Transcript] – 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.

These are the values that unite everyone in this room. These are the values that inspire hundreds of thousands of Turning Point USA members at more than 1,400 college and high school campuses in all 50 states. It’s incredible what’s been done with Turning Point and the job Charlie and everybody — I’ve met all of the people backstage just a little while ago. These are people that love our country. It’s amazing what they’ve done — the job they’ve done. And in a pretty short period of time.

And I was telling Charlie, too — and I said it before — remember, you are not in the minority. Most people are with you. There is a young woman today — I saw her on a beauty pageant — and she has conservative values.

And the pageant, which used she used to compete against my pageant. Mine did much better, but that’s okay. (Applause.) I had the Miss Universe. This is a different company. But I sold it. I figured, when you run for office — I sold it to IMG. Great company. You know, when you won — worked out a very nice deal, too.

But when you run for office, owning a beauty pageant is not the greatest idea. Do we agree? (Laughter.) Owning the Miss Universe and Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, by the way, was not exactly good with, maybe, running for President. So we sold it to IMG.

But what they did to this young lady was terrible. And because — and she was on “Fox & Friends” this morning, wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, which was pretty cool. (Applause.) Which was pretty cool.

Each of you is coming of age at a time of unlimited possibility. It’s true. Better than I think, ever before. We have the hottest economy on the planet Earth. (Applause.)

And I was elected — we’ve created more than 6 million new jobs. More than 7 million Americans have been lifted off of food stamps. Think of that. (Applause.) Unemployment for young Americans, age 16 to 19, has reached the lowest rate in over half a century. (Applause.) The unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans have all reached their lowest levels ever recorded. (Applause.) Wages are rising and they’re growing fastest for blue-collar workers. Isn’t that great, though? (Applause.) People don’t talk about that. Young people have seen their wages rise by more than 10 percent. That’s a lot. Quickly, too.

Our economic revival is incredible. And it’s incredible news for everyone graduating from college or joining the workforce. This is the best time in the history of our country for young people like yourself to join the workforce because America is thriving, America is booming, and America is winning again and winning like never before. It’s never been winning like this. (Applause.)

And we did it through a lot of hard work. It’s not luck. I will tell you, if our opponent — if my opponent won, instead of having record stock markets and record employment numbers, you would have been in, in my opinion, a major recession, if not a depression. You would have gone down like a rock. Look what happened right after the election. The stock market was like a rocket ship because of enthusiasm. People wanted to have us win. It’s not me; it’s us. It’s all of us. It’s a movement. It’s us. And the market went up. (Applause.)

We cut a record number of job-killing regulations. We passed historic tax cuts so that our industries can compete and win against anyone in the world.

We are revising decades of ruinous trade deals that ravaged our communities and pillaged our factories. We were sending companies out of country — great companies. They were leaving us — going to Mexico, going to China, going to so many other places. The deals we made were the dumbest deals in the history of this world. It was unbelievable. Sixty thousand factories and plants and businesses closed up. Think of it: Sixty thousand. You would say, “How is that possible?” You’d get a map, you take 60,000 — you would say it’s impossible.

Sixty-thousand factories, plants, companies destroyed. Not destroyed — they went a different way. They were given no incentives to stay here. Some of the dumbest legislation ever passed — NAFTA.

The World — the World Trade Organization has been a horrible thing for us. That’s what built China. That, and the fact that our former Presidents did nothing about the fact that China was making hundreds of billions of dollars a year. And I guess they didn’t see it. I mean, 25 years, they didn’t see it. But we see it. And right now, they’re paying us billions and billions of dollars, folks. (Applause.) Billions. And they want to — they want to make a deal badly. And we’ll see whether or not we make a deal. We’ll see. We’ll see.

But our farmers are being helped. I said to our Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue — you know, because the — China, very smart. I don’t blame them. Look, I’m not blaming them. I blame our past leaders for allowing it to happen. I’m not blaming China. We should have done that to them. I blame our past leaders. I said that to President Xi of China. I said it. But I said to Sonny Perdue, “So, Sonny, they’re targeting us.” They said. They actually took ads in the Des Moines Register, anti-Trump —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Iowa loves you!

THE PRESIDENT: I love Iowa, too. She says, “Iowa loves you.” I love Iowa. Well, ethanol is doing pretty well in Iowa too, right?

But — but, they took ads in the Iowa papers and it was anti-Trump ads, right? And then they stopped buying a lot of the product — almost everything. They stopped buying from our farmers because they knew that was my strength. The whole middle of the country is red. You saw that in that clip. That clip was fantastic. (Applause.) By the way, Charlie, that clip was so good, I would have rather seen it a second time and I could have come on a little bit later. I like it. But, that clip was great.

But you see what — the whole center is all bright red, meaning Republican. All red. And there’s — those little edges are blue. And so they targeted the red. Nobody said China is stupid. And they said, “We’re not going to buy product.” And, essentially, they really closed it up.

So we’re taking in billions of dollars in tariffs from China. They never gave us 10 cents. And I said to my Secretary of Agriculture — Sonny Perdue, who is great — I said, “Sonny, what’s the biggest year that we’ve ever had with China? How much money did they spend in the United States?” “Sir, I’ll get back to you.” He gets back to me the next day: “Sir, $16 billion.” I say, “All right. We’ll take $16 billion out of our tariffs” — which are many times that amount that they’re paying us in tariffs. They never paid us 10 cents.

“We’ll take $16 billion out” — that’s the highest they’ve ever paid — “and we’ll use that toward the farmers and distribute it. This way, nobody gets hurt.” (Applause.) And no other President is doing that for the farmers, or no other President is going to save the miners and save energy. You know, we’re the number-one producer of energy now in the world? (Applause.) And when I came, it was heading in the wrong direction. It was heading in a very bad direction. Right now, we’re bigger than Russia and bigger than Saudi Arabia and bigger than anybody. (Applause.)

And we know that our first duty and our one true allegiance is to the American nation and to the American citizen — the USA. Loyalty to our people is our guiding light, it’s our North Star, and our unwavering conviction.

We have secured record funding to build up awesome might for the United States Military because we know the best way to prevent conflict is to be prepared for it. So, you know, when you’re strong, strong, strong, it’s okay. They’re going to leave you alone. They’ll say, “Let’s pass.”

We had a depleted military. We built up our military. We had jets that were so old, they didn’t fly. We had a large percentage of jets — fighter jets — that were out. We had an old Navy. We’re building brand new submarines, brand new ships. We’re building tremendous F-35s, F-18s. (Applause.) We’re building a military the likes of which even we have never had because we have to. New missiles. We make the greatest equipment in the world.

We’re — I hate to mention this word, but we’re renewing and renovating our nuclear arsenal like never before. And hopefully — hope — (applause) — and we hope to God — we hope to God that we never have to use it. That’s what I say. “We hope to God we never have to use it.” (Applause.) But we have to have it ready. We have to have it as a — horrible — to me, the most horrible alternative that can happen is that. But we have nuclear the likes of which has — nobody has ever had like we have. And all pray that we never have to use it.

Our agenda is pro-worker and pro-family. We’re making childcare more affordable, expanding access to vocational education — so important. (Applause.) And our pledge to America’s workers had secured commitments to provide more than 9 million apprenticeships and job opportunities for industries all over the — the country. We’re helping people get jobs. We’re helping Walmart and so many companies. They went out — all out. They went all out.

And they’re working — and they’re working with a person you may have heard of, perhaps not: Ivanka Trump. She loves this. (Applause.) She loves it. She loves it.

I’ll tell you, she didn’t need it. She loves it. More than anything, that’s what she loves. Because she says, “We’re providing so many jobs and they’re training people.” And you know, the government can’t really train them. When you go into these big companies — the Caterpillars and all of these — you got to, sort of, be trained by the people that do it — the complexity, the aerospace. Lockheed Martin has been great. Boeing has been great. (Applause.) There are so many.

And they can train much better than the government. The government really wouldn’t know where to begin. So they’re training. We’re going to have close to 10 million very shortly. And Ivanka really has done an incredible job on that, so. (Applause.)

I might as well give her credit because the media will never give her credit. So, she’s my daughter; I’ll give her credit. But it’s true. And you know what? If she didn’t do a good job, I don’t know that I’d say that, but I wouldn’t be talking about her. That I can tell you. I wouldn’t. I just — I’d probably just fluff over it. She’s done an incredible job.

There’s truly never been a better time to be young and American. There’s never been a better time. (Applause.) Because our future is the brightest that it’s ever been.

A new poll only — you got to hear this. How about this whole witch hunt that’s going on? Should I talk about it for a second?

AUDIENCE: Yeah!

THE PRESIDENT: The Russian witch hunt, okay?

AUDIENCE: Booo —

THE PRESIDENT: First of all, it’s very bad for our country. Makes it very hard to deal with Russia. And we should be able — they’re a nuclear power. They have a big country. And we should be able to deal with them without having this artificial stuff. But think of it: Only 11 percent, in a new poll, favor the starting of this ridiculous impeachment hearings that are going on. You hear about it.

So I said this morning — I said — I wrote it out. I said, “Let’s see…” — because I’m watching. It goes on for years and years. No collusion, no obstruction. “Oh, that’s not good enough. Let’s go more.” Forty million dollars, interview 500 people — they got nothing.

I could find something — I could take anybody in this audience. Give me $40 million. Give me unlimited FBI, unlimited interviews, unlimited — they interviewed 500 people. Listen to this: Two thousand five hundred subpoenas. They did everything. Their collusion; no collusion. They have no collusion. (Applause.)

Then I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as President. But I don’t even talk about that because they did a report and there was no obstruction. After looking at it, our great Attorney General read it. He’s a total professional. He said, “There’s nothing here. There’s no obstruction.” So they referenced, “No obstruction.” So you have no collusion, no obstruction, and yet it goes on.

And they think this is helping them. I personally think it’s hurting them. A lot of people think it’s very bad for them. But it just goes on. But I wrote something out this morning on a thing called Twitter. (Applause.) Whether we like it or not, it is a good way — it is a good way of getting the word out. Because I saw Mueller is testifying tomorrow, again. How many times? Two — two and a half years. And, actually, it started practically from the time I came down on the escalator.

They said, “You know, he’s got good numbers. We better start looking at him right away. Maybe he’s dealing with a foreign country.” I’m saying, “What are you talking about?” Listen to this. So I wrote this out this morning. I said, on Twitter, “Well, let’s see: We have the best economy in history.” And it used to be, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Right? It’s the economy — nothing else. “It’s the economy, stupid.”

So we have the best economy in history, the best employment numbers in history. The most people working — almost 160 million — in the history of our country. The most people working. That’s a big number. So we have the best economy, best unemployment numbers, most people working.

On Thursday, we had the highest stock market in the history of our country. (Applause.) And a lot of you with 401(k)s — and that’s not a rich-people thing. The people that own that stock are people with 401(k)s and everything else. We have the best stock market in the history of our country. We just got the biggest tax and regulation cuts in the history of our country.

We got rid of the individual mandate from Obamacare, which was the worst part of Obamacare. (Applause.) We got perhaps the biggest site — energy site — in the world approved in Alaska, called ANWR. Nobody could do it. From Ronald Reagan to present, they said, “We can’t do it.” We got ANWR approved.

We have the best and newest military that we’ve ever had, almost totally rebuilt from the depleted military that I inherited two and a half years ago. Our military was totally depleted from these ridiculous, endless wars.

So we have the best, newest military in history, and the VA — you don’t hear any problems anymore, do you? Remember? You’d hear so many problems. (Applause.)

We have the best VA in history, and I got Choice so that — that’s one of the big things that’s working — so that if a person has to wait for three weeks, four weeks, five weeks — can you imagine you go to a doctor and they say, “Come back in six weeks?” People were coming back — they were sick, and they were coming back and they were terminal. They could’ve been saved. They were waiting so long.

So I got Choice. You go out. If you have to wait, you go out and you see a doctor. We pay the bill. Okay? We actually — the least important thing is we save money. That’s the least important thing, in that case, but we do save money. But we also have a very happy VA. They love it.

Those are just a few of those things. So we have all of this: the best economy, best market, best military, best VA, best everything, and much, much more. And then I see, in this statement this morning, “Gee, let’s impeach the President.” (Laughter.) I mean, you figured these people have gone totally crazy. They’ve gone totally crazy. (Applause.) It is sort of nuts. It’s true. I guess that was a Clinton statement, right? “It’s the economy, stupid.” Was that Clinton?

But it’s about — you know — but it’s not everything about the economy. It’s not everything. A lot of other things. But, you know, we have — we’re like at the top of every single thing that we do, when you think our military and you look at — and let me tell you something I didn’t put: We are respected as a country again. They respect us. (Applause.) Because other countries have been ripping us off so badly, and some of the worst offenders are our so-called allies. They rip us off on trade.

European Union is worse to us on trade than China, okay? Nobody would think that. You know, a lot of us come from European Union. We come from Europe — our grandparents, our great-grandparents. So you think, “Oh, isn’t that nice?” Except, they kill us — the European Union. It was formed in order to beat us economically, and yet we protect them with NATO. So they rip us off on trade, and we protect them with military.

But here’s the problem with the protection: They’re not paying their bills. So the United States — I got $100 billion more in the last two years — $100 billion. I got them to pay. I said, “You got to pay.” (Applause.) Nobody else has ever done that.

It’s like this. It was like this with every other President. President Obama would go meet them, he’d talk nice — you know. I don’t know, to me, not so nice. Some people would say, “Oh, isn’t it (inaudible) a wonderful speech?” I said, “No, I fell asleep during that speech.” (Laughter and applause.) “I fell asleep. I don’t get it. I don’t get it.” And he never got crowds like we get, that I can tell you. Huh? (Applause.) So we got to be doing something right.

But think of this. So they weren’t paying their bills. So we’re paying for close to 100 percent of NATO. So here’s the story: They rip us off on trade. They have trade barriers that make it impossible for certain groups, like farmers and others, to go in. They rip us on trade, and then we protect them and they rip us on that too. And they don’t pay their bills. Other than that, it’s a wonderful deal.

So we’re getting it straightened out, folks. We’re getting it straightened out. Somebody said, “President Obama is much more popular in Germany than Donald Trump.” Well, he should be. He should be. (Laughter and applause.) Because Germany is the biggest offender. They don’t pay. They’re paying 1 percent; we’re paying 4.3 percent of a much bigger GDP. Germany doesn’t want to pay. They’re supposed to pay 2 percent. They’re paying 1 percent. And I say, “You got to pay, Angela. You got to pay, Angela. Please pay, Angela.”

And then they say, “Who do you like better: Obama or President Trump?” “Oh, I like President Obama. He was a nice…” Look, if I start getting good poll numbers over there, I’m not doing my job, okay? That’s the way it is. (Applause.) It’s true. I’m not doing my job. But they still like me. And I have a good relationship and a great relationship with some.

But somehow, even in this era of unprecedented prosperity and peace, the timeless traditions and values that make the American Dream possible are under attack like no one has ever seen before. These people have lost all control. And even the Democrats — they’re Left, but now they’re getting dragged into a radical Left position. I can’t imagine who’s doing that. But they’re being dragged — they’re being dragged radical Left with these people that I believe — honestly, I believe they hate our country. Okay? I believe they hate our country. (Applause.)

And it’s true. When I watch this maniac Tlaib screaming and shouting — and this was before she was a congressperson. Can you believe it? But screaming and shouting — out of control. And then you see, they have now another clip where she’s even worse. This is representing us? This is not what we want representing us, I don’t think. And I think it’s why we’re going to have a tremendous victory in 2020. These people are crazy. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: And, you know, when I have one of the others — I guess this is Cortez. You know, I said, “I’m not going…” “Sir, her name is Alexandria.” (Laughter.) And the guy couldn’t figure out her second name. It was so funny. I’m being interviewed by one of — “Her — her name is Alexandra. Um, wait a minute. Wait a minute, sir.” (Laughter.) Okay. He never got it out. He never found his notes.

I said, “That’s okay.” I told him, “Just call her ‘Cortez.’” Because I don’t have time to call her by the whole name. It’s too long. It’s true. You know, you’re doing an interview. (Laughter and applause.)

But she called our country and our people “garbage.”

AUDIENCE: Booo —

THE PRESIDENT: She said “garbage.” That’s worse than “deplorable.” Remember “deplorable”? Oh, yes, you do. Huh? Remember Hillary? “The deplorables.” She actually said a word that was worse. She said “deplorables.” And what was the second word? Go ahead.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Irredeemables!

THE PRESIDENT: Irredeemables. That’s right. She said, “irredeemable.” She said —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Lock her up!

THE PRESIDENT: (Laughs.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Lock her up!

THE PRESIDENT: Ooh —

AUDIENCE: Booo —

THE PRESIDENT: She said “deplorables” and “irredeemables.” And when she said it, I said, “Boy, that ‘irredeemables’ is really a bad…” Well, that was not the one. You never know in politics, right? This is a tough business. You say a word and you’re gone. One wrong word. You can make 20 great speeches. Brilliant. They say, “He’s great. The greatest orator. The greatest orator of our times. He’s the great.” One word and you’re gone. Except for Trump — (applause) — because we represent you. Because we represent you.

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you.

No, but it’s true. It’s a tough business. One word and you’re gone. It’s an incredible kind of a profession to have. It’s a very — that’s why they’re scared. You know, they go around — they’re petrified. They’re petrified that they’re going to insult 15 people and lose an election.

By calling out these four people, the “squad.”

AUDIENCE: Booo —

THE PRESIDENT: By calling them out — because we don’t like when they talk about “evil Jews.” We don’t like when they say horrible things about Israel. They say — they say — you know, people are opposed to Israel and they can express what their opposition. But when they say it with venom hatred and language that nobody would use — nobody would use — it’s incredible. And then you don’t have the Democrats fighting for Israel, and they end up passing things that have nothing to do with what the original problem was. You saw that.

So I don’t know what they’re going to do. I don’t know. They have a big problem, because they have others than these four. I could name another 20 right now without looking at a note. I could name another 20 that I think are, in many way ways, worse. They’re worse. They’re not in this group. But they’re worse than this group, and they’re Democrats. And at some point, we will be naming them if you don’t mind, because we want to get the word out. We have to get the word out. (Applause.)

As conservatives, we’re grateful for the great heritage that we have, the heritage of being an American. So important to all of us. We know that America is the most just and virtuous republic ever conceived. I mean, we fight for other countries. I was with other countries two weeks ago, and we had the G20. And I’m talking to different people: “Who do you fight for?” “Just our country.” Who do you fight for?” “Just our country. “Who do you fight for?” And we fight for all these countries, and it costs us a fortune. And some of the countries are wealthy.

By the way, I’ve gone to all of them and said they have to now pay for their military. Okay? If you don’t mind that, okay? (Applause.) They haven’t done it.

I mean, we’re fighting for countries that are so wealthy, some have nothing but cash. Nobody ever asks them, “Why aren’t you paying us for this? Why aren’t you reimbursing us for the cost?” But we now ask those questions.

On the Straits — so we get very little oil from the Straits anymore. In fact, yesterday was very interesting. They said, “It’s very interesting there are no USA tankers here. They’re all from China, from Japan.” China gets 65 percent of their oil from the Straits, right? Japan gets 25 percent. Other countries get a lot.

And I said, “So let me ask you just a really stupid question.” We hardly use it. We’re getting 10 percent, only because we sort of feel an obligation to do it. We don’t need it. We have — we’ve become an exporter. Can you believe it? We’re an exporter now. We don’t need it. (Applause.) And yet we’re the ones that for many, many decades, we’re the ones that policed it. We never got reimbursed. We police it for all these other countries.

And I said, a while ago, I said, “Why are we policing for China? Very rich. For Japan? Very rich. For all these others?” And we’re policing also for countries, some of whom we’re very friendly with, like Saudi Arabia and others — UAE, others too. But why are we doing it without getting — why do we have our ships there and we’re putting our ships in the site?

And we did shoot down their drone the other day. You know, it’s funny, for religious people, they lie a lot. They lie a lot. (Applause.) You can see it laying right down on the bottom of that beautiful bed of water. (Laughter.) No, they said, “They never shot down a drone.” And then they say about, “We have captured 17 American spies.” I say, “No, no that’s…” First thing I did, I call up the CIA — true — “Sir, totally false.” “Okay.” By the way, totally false. But they make up stories. I just say, for religious people, they lie a lot. (Laughter and applause.)

We know the story of America is the story of good defeating evil. We protect so many people, and in some cases we shouldn’t have been doing it. It’s right overcoming wrong, and it’s freedom smashing tyranny. Americans are the patriots who threw off an empire, won an independence, settled the Wild West, ended slavery, secured civil rights, pushed the boundaries of science, vanquished the Nazis, brought communism to its knees, and put a man on the moon many, many years ago, right? (Applause.) And we will become the first nation to land astronauts on Mars, where they will proudly plant a very beautiful American flag. (Applause.)

Yet despite all we have achieved — despite the glory and grandeur of our nation — the radical Left has nothing but contempt for America’s heritage. And I’m talking about the radical Left among us. I’m not talking about the radical Left that are looking over failed countries, like Venezuela and others. I’m talking about the radical Left among us.

They see our history as a source of shame; our traditions and our victories as relics to be replaced; our values as obstacles to be removed; our citizens as subjects to be controlled; and America as a menace to be constrained. That’s what they see. That’s what they see.

The agenda of the radical Left is one of division, discord, and demolition. You know, when I see her running and ranting and screaming like a total lunatic — this is what we’re dealing with, okay? You can never have a country with values like that. Just look at it. There’s no reasoning. The language she uses. I mean, she was throwing a certain F-bomb, right? Do we know the F? (Laughter.) She was throwing that out about the presidency and about the President. And it’s just such a sad thing to see, how low have we gone.

The far-left has one fundamental objective and that’s the objective of power — the power to control you, the power to control your family, and the power to destroy the foundations of our great republic. But we will not let them. It will never happen. It will never happen. (Applause.) It will never happen.

And they’re right now destroying themselves and they’re going after everything. They’re doing things that nobody can believe. The people that I’m looking — they said, “Who’s your toughest opponent?” I said, “So far, I dream about — I dream about these people that I’m looking at.” There is no Winston Churchill in the midst. There is nobody that we look at. But you have to be very careful. Socialism is not as easy to beat as you think.

When you’re wealthy and you’re doing record stocks and you have 401(k)s, and you have all of the things that you have, and everybody is doing well, and somebody comes along and says, “We’re going to give you free everything. Everything is going to be free. Oh, by the way, we’re going to raise your taxes to 75 percent.” But they don’t mean that because it can’t nearly pay 95 percent, and that won’t pay for it either. Won’t even come close.

“We’re going to do the Green New Deal,” which is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard, okay? It’s crazy. But don’t kid yourself. Not as easy — when I’m up there on the debate, all alone with some maniac that they chose — (laughter) — and that maniac is saying, “We’re going to do this for you. We’re going to do that for you. We’re going to give you everything. We’re going to give you — everybody gets a free Rolls-Royce” — (laughter) — “every family. And we’re going to take better care of illegal immigrants than we take care of our citizens.” They tell you that.

AUDIENCE: Booo —

THE PRESIDENT: And when they’re saying all of this stuff, and then those illegals get out and vote — because they vote anyway. Don’t kid yourself, those numbers in California and numerous other states, they’re rigged. You got people voting that shouldn’t be voting. (Applause.) They vote many times, not just twice, not just three times. They vote — it’s like a circle. They come back; they put a new hat on. They come back; they put a new shirt. And in many cases, they don’t even do that. You know what’s going on. It’s a rigged deal.

For example, the radical Left is waging an unprecedented assault on the rule of law in America. They are. They want to eliminate our borders and totally abolish ICE. And now they want to abolish a thing called “Homeland Security.”

AUDIENCE: Booo —

THE PRESIDENT: That means going on airplanes without any security. That means doing all of the things that you do, and you appreciate it, but you don’t even see what’s going on. But they now want to abolish Homeland. They started off with ICE. And let me tell you, these ICE people are great patriots. That’s a tough job. (Applause.) They go into these MS-13 gangs and, you know, even your local law enforcement — and we love our law enforcement. We love our law enforcement. (Applause.)

But these gangs are mean, they’re tough, they deal in a medieval style. They cut people up medieval-style because it’s more painful. These are sick people. We don’t want them. We’re taking them out by the thousands, out of our country. By the thousands. (Applause.)

So with raging anger, ignorance and malice, the far-left has slandered, libeled, and smeared our law enforcement heroes. They just go after our law enforcement; it’s so sad to see. They’re so respected and yet they don’t know it because all they do is they see the negativity put on by the media.

But the American people forcefully reject these hate-filled attacks. And that’s what they do. They’re hate-filled, and they are indeed attacks on our very brave public servants. Americans will always stand with the courageous men and women of ICE and Border Patrol and law enforcement. Always. (Applause.)

The hard-left is also waging war against freedom of speech. The greatest threat to this radical Left agenda is the truth. And the problem is, we’re not getting the truth from the media, for the most part. Some, yes. But for the most part, we don’t get the truth.

I can tell you stories where I’ll do something — and let’s say it’s good; they’ll make it look bad. Let’s say it’s great, things that you can’t look bad; you can’t — they’ll make it look okay.

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced a new and broad review of on-line tech companies to investigate if their activity is violating antitrust laws.   The DOJ announcement explains: “Review Focuses on Practices that Create or Maintain Structural Impediments to Greater Competition and User Benefits.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, “The new antitrust inquiry … could ratchet up the already considerable regulatory pressures facing the top U.S. tech firms. The review is designed to go above and beyond recent plans for scrutinizing the tech sector that were crafted by the department and the Federal Trade Commission.”

Full Press Release: The Department of Justice announced today that the Department’s Antitrust Division is reviewing whether and how market-leading online platforms have achieved market power and are engaging in practices that have reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers.