Statement Triage

Well, thank you very much, everybody.

It's really an honor.

Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance, First Lady of the United States.

This July 4th, we will mark two and a half centuries of liberty and triumph, progress and freedom, in the most incredible and exceptional nation ever to exist on the face of the Earth.

We're going to do better and better and better.

Thank you.

But we will always allow people to come in legally, people that will love our country and will work hard to maintain our country.

We're going to do both.

Nobody can believe what they're watching.

People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much.

And I say no, no, no, you're going to win again.

You're going to win big; you're going to win bigger than ever.

And to prove that point—to prove that point, here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud.

Go ahead.

So they stood there and they weren't about to say no, because I've never seen a goaltender play as well as goalie, Connor Hellebuyck.

So I want to thank you all.

Thank you very much.

We're going to do a good job in Los Angeles.

And this year, and I must say, I got them both.

Thank you, Scott, Millie Kate.

Thank you.

And I'd like to have the military aid to please come down and take care of the service, military aid.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

That is the debt we owe to the heroes who came before us and that is the promise we must keep to America for our 250th year.

Thank you, Republicans.

But we held strong and with the Great Big, Beautiful Bill, we gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors.

Recently in Pennsylvania, I met Megan Hemhauser, a devoted mom who home schools her children—beautiful, two children—during the day while waiting tables at night as her husband works overtime operating very heavy equipment.

Megan, please stand up.

Thank you.

Thank you, Megan.

They're great people.

He said, well, I just sat in my dorm in school, and I made computers and I'd sell them to people.

And I just kept selling and selling and selling and pretty amazing story.

So, I congratulate him on that, but I really thank him and Susan, as well as others like Brad Gerstner a very tremendous guy.

Thank you, Brad.

It's popular.

I'm so proud of them.

I'm so proud of the people that got it started.

I used these tariffs, took in hundreds of billions of dollars to make great deals for our country, both economically and on a national security basis.

Leading to a solution that will be even stronger than before.

Congressional action will not be necessary.

And as time goes by, I believe the tariffs, paid for by foreign countries, will, like in the past, substantially replace the modern-day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love.

I love America.

From trade to health care, from energy to immigration, everything was stolen and rigged in order to drain the wealth out of the productive hardworking people who make our country great, who make our country run.

They knew it.

Madam Secretary, thank you.

Nobody can believe when they see the kind of numbers and especially energy, when they see energy going down to numbers like that.

They cannot believe it.

That's why I introduced the great health care plan.

I want to stop all payments to big insurance companies and instead, give that money directly to the people so they can buy their own health care, which will be better health care at a much lower cost.

Costs we're going to go way up and that's what happened.

They tried.

So in my first year of the second term, should be my third term, but strange things happen.

Catherine, we are all praying for you and you're going to be a great mom.

Codify it anyway.

Thank you.

They can build their own power plants as part of their factory, so that no one's prices will go up, and in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for the community and very substantially down.

They're going to produce their own electricity.

It will ensure the company's ability to get electricity while at the same time, lowering prices of electricity for you and could be very substantial for all of your cities and towns.

You're going to see some good things happen over the next number of years.

Corporations are doing just fine, Rachel, thank you very much.

And under this administration, we will always protect Social Security and Medicare.

We will always protect Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.

To remedy this gross disparity, I am announcing that next year, my administration will give these often forgotten American workers, great people, the people that built our country, access to the same type of retirement plan offered to every federal worker.

I can't believe.

I can't believe it.

Doubt it.

I'm very impressed.

Thank you.

I'm very impressed.

This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation, and we are working on it like you wouldn't believe.

So, tonight, although started four months ago, I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great Vice President, JD Vance.

We'll balance our budget.

We will take care of this problem.

We're going to take care of this problem.

Delilah, please, you are a great inspiration.

Please stand up.

Thank you, Delilah.

That's why tonight I'm calling on Congress to pass what we will call the Delilah Law, barring any state from granting commercial driver's licenses to illegal aliens.

It was terrible, hard to believe actually.

Thank you very much, Jacqueline.

Thank you.

Trump and our great Republican patriots in Congress.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Nobody's getting paid; it's a shame.

Isn't that a shame?

You should be ashamed of yourself, not standing up.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

They're blocking the removal of these people out of our country and you should be ashamed of yourself.

It's rampant.

It's very simple, all voters must show voter ID.

All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote.

And even the new communist mayor of New York City, I think he's a nice guy, actually, speak to him a lot.

Both Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly agree on the policy that we just enunciated and Congress should unite and enact this common sense, country-saving legislation right now and it should be before anything else happens.

Hard to believe, isn't it?

Sage and Michelle, please stand up.

And thank you for your great bravery and who can believe that we're even speaking about things like this.

But surely, we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents will.

Who would believe that we've been talking about that.

We must ban it and we must ban it immediately.

Amazing. boy, oh boy.

No one cares more about protecting America's youth than our wonderful First Lady, now a movie star.

She's a movie star, can you believe it?

I get none.

Tonight, we welcome two young people whose lives reflect the First Lady's impact, Cierra Burns and Everest Nevermont.

Thank you both.

And Melania, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Erika, please stand.

Thank you, Erika, been through a lot.

We love religion and we love bringing it back and it's coming back at levels that nobody actually thought possible.

It's really a beautiful thing to see.

Above all, unleashing America's promise requires keeping our communities safe.

She died instantly.

Mrs. Zarutska, tonight, I promise you we will ensure justice for your magnificent daughter Iryna.

They were so proud of her.

And we are honored to be joined by her wonderful parents.

She was a great person.

So sorry, thank you very much.

A great young lady.

He's going to make it.

She said sir, he will be OK.

Amazing, actually.

He's got a little work to do, but he's doing great.

Thanks, Andrew.

Thank you very much.

So, Andrew, while you're up, now I'm going to ask a highly respected General James Seward to present Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolf and the great family of Sarah Beckstrom with the award created by our late great president, George Washington himself.

We love you all.

Love you.

Isn't it funny?

They're sick people.

Thank you, Steve.

Thank you, Jared.

Thank you, Marco.

People like you.

And he said, it's an honor that they feel that way, right, Marco?

You have done a great job, great secretary of state.

I think he'll go down as the best ever.

Can you believe that?

It was an amazing period of time and they came back.

And believe it or not, Hamas worked along with Israel and they dug and they dug and they dug.

Tough job.

So thank you both very much.

Great job.

As President, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must.

But this is some terrible people.

They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.

And no nation should ever doubt America's resolve.

We're going to continue to do so.

We have to be strong, because hopefully we will seldom have to use this great power that we built together.

It's going to—I said we're going to figure that out.

And we love our military; we love our law enforcement.

We love our firemen, you know the firemen don't get mentioned enough.

We love our firemen.

They couldn't believe—they all watched; they saw what happened.

No, it's a great fighting force.

I'm so proud of it.

Enrique, please come down.

Thank you, Enrique.

Not too good.

Well, thank you very much, Eric and Amy, great to get to know you.

And 10 of Eric's fellow warriors from that incredible night of victory will also be receiving medals at a private ceremony that will soon be held at the White House, and Eric, you'll be there.

Thank you.

Thank you, Eric.

Royce, please stand up and I will ask the First Lady of the United States to present Captain Royce Williams with his Congressional Medal of Honor.

Gilroy said, thank you, Eric.

But if they ever open up that law, I will be there with you someday.

And that's a big thing and it's an honor to be in the same room with you.

Thank you both, very much, Eric, thank you.

Thank you.

Everything our nation has done, everything we have achieved has been the work of those few great lifetimes.

And then we launched mankind into the stars on rockets powered by sheer American will and unyielding American pride.

We wired the globe with our ingenuity, we captivated the planet with American culture, and now we are pioneering the next great American breakthroughs that will change the entire world.

For years, they were forgotten, betrayed and cast aside, but that great betrayal is over and they will never be forgotten again because when the world needs courage, daring vision and inspiration, it is still turning to America.

And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder and more glorious than ever before.

Thank you.

God bless you and God bless America.

Second lady of the United States.

Members of Congress and my fellow Americans, our nation is back, bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before.

Less than five months from now, our country will celebrate an epic milestone in American history, the 250th anniversary of our glorious American independence.

And you've seen nothing yet.

This is the golden age of America.

But tonight, after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before and a turnaround for the ages.

It is indeed a turnaround for the ages.

And we will never go back to where we were just a very short time ago.

We're not going back today.

Our military and police are stacked and America is respected again, perhaps like never before.

Year 1900, in fact substantially before my wonderful father—I had a wonderful father, Fred—before he was born, substantially before he was born.

That's a long time ago.

He wouldn't like me to say that.

But that's a long time ago.

And low interest rates will solve the Biden created housing problem, while at the same time protecting the values of those people who already own a house that really feel rich for the first time in their lives.

We want to protect those values; we want to keep those values up.

And we are going to keep it that way.

Think of that, one year—boosting pensions, 401(k)s and retirement accounts for the millions and millions of Americans are all gaining.

Everybody's up, way up.

And when I say less, substantially less.

What a difference a president makes.

A short time ago we were a dead country, now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world, the hottest.

It's getting bigger and bigger and stronger.

And for all of these reasons, I say tonight, members of Congress, the state of our Union is strong.

Our country is winning again.

In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it.

We can't take it anymore.

We're not used to winning in our country.

Until you came along, we were just always losing, but now we're winning too much.

The men's gold medal Olympic hockey team, come on in.

That's the first time I've ever seen them get up.

And actually, not all of them did get up.

But they beat a fantastic Canadian team in overtime, as everybody saw—as did the American women who will soon be coming to the White House.

They were in the Oval Office before and I just want to say a second, very big congratulations to Team USA.

But I have to say that—and I told them this and we took a vote of the team.

I said, anybody votes no, I'm not doing it.

Think of it, 46 shots on goal.

And I asked him, the one shot, the one where you put your stick in the back and it hit the neck of your stick and bounced off, do you practice that, or was that a little lucky?

He refused to answer that question.

But I just want to tell you that the members of this great hockey squad will be very happy to hear based on their vote and my vote, and in this case, my vote was more important, that I will soon be presenting Connor with our highest civilian honor, which we will be given and which has been given to many athletes over the years.

But when I say many, not too many, like 12.

Great athletes have gotten that, very great, the best and I thought he deserved it.

And I did take a vote, every single one of them.

I said, I'm not giving it if anybody says no.

And every single one of them rapidly put up their hand.

What a special job you did, what special champions you are.

I got them in my first term and I was disappointed because I didn't think I'd be the president when this happened.

So this will be a year to celebrate our country and the heroes who have kept it free, men like Buddy Taggart.

So Buddy, you're a brave man and we salute you.

Even in times of challenge, setback and immense heartache, the spirit of 1776 has always shown through very brightly.

You all remember that one.

Nobody knew where he came from.

People watched Scott from a distance and they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

The winds were blowing, the rain was pouring, everything was going and that rapid water, nobody's ever seen anything like it.

They said, wow, that's something.

Tonight, Scott and Millie Kate are here together, reunited for the very first time.

And Petty Officer Ruskin, I'm pleased to inform you that I am now awarding you the Legion of Merit for extraordinary heroism, which is what it was, extraordinary heroism.

Take care of that very important service.

From 1776 to today, every generation of Americans has stepped forward to defend life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

And they really doing it for the next generation, but now it's our turn.

Together, we're building a nation where every child has the chance to reach higher and go further, where government answers to the people, not the powerful and where the interests of hardworking American citizens are always our first and ultimate concern.

They wanted large scale tax increases to hurt the people instead.

We're fighting for you, Megan.

We're fighting for you, Megan.

Under our bill parents like Megan can also activate their children's brand-new Trump Accounts and I didn't name it.

I didn't name it.

I did not name that.

Nobody believes me, but I did not name it.

It was named by a very tall man sitting right there in the third row.

Nice man, a good man.

Tax free investment accounts for every American child.

This is something that's so special and has taken off and gone through the roof.

That's called the American Dream.

He sold a lot of computers, a lot of those laptops.

He was behind it right from the beginning, Brad Gerstner.

Think of it, how much money is that for somebody that started with nothing?

Over $100,000, could be much more than that.

To make this investment in our children's future go to TrumpAccounts.gov, TrumpAccounts.gov.

And a lot of people are doing it.

That setting every record in the book.

They knew what was going to—what it was going to take.

Now it's just taken off.

Everything was working well.

They were ripping us so badly, you all know that.

Everybody knows it, even the Democrats know it, they just don't want to say it.

And yet these countries are now happy and so are we.

We made deals, the deals are all done and they're happy.

They're not making money like they used to but we're making a lot of money.

They got it really wrong.

And then just four days ago, an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court, it just came down.

It came down, very unfortunate ruling.

Right, Scott?

Knowing that the legal power that I as president have to make a new deal could be far worse for them.

And therefore, they will continue to work along the same successful path that we had negotiated before the Supreme Court's unfortunate involvement.

So, despite the disappointing ruling, these powerful country saving, it's saving our country the kind of money we're taking in, peace protecting.

I wouldn't have been able to settle them without them.

Will remain in place under fully approved and tested alternative legal statutes and they have been tested for a long time.

They're a little more complex, but they're actually probably better.

It's already time tested and approved.

Moving forward, factories, jobs, investment and trillions and trillions of dollars will continue pouring into the United States of America because we finally have a president who puts America first.

I put America first.

For decades, before I came along, we had the exact opposite.

Under Biden and his corrupt partners in Congress and beyond, it reached a breaking point with the Green New Scam, open borders for everyone.

They came into our country; you allowed that to happen.

Now the same people in this chamber who voted for those disasters suddenly used the word affordability, a word—they just used it.

Somebody gave it to them, knowing full well that they caused and created the increased prices that all of our citizens had to endure.

You caused that problem; you caused that problem.

They knew their statements were a lie.

They knew their statements were a dirty, rotten, lie.

Our policies are rapidly ending them.

We are doing really well.

Those prices are plummeting downward.

Just hold on a little while, we're getting it down.

And soon you will see numbers that few people would think were possible to achieve just a short time ago.

It's like another big tax cut.

It was meant for the insurance companies, not for the people.

In addition, my plan requires maximum price transparency.

That's a big deal.

Sounds so simple, so big.

And I did that in my first term and the Democrats immediately terminated it with full knowledge that they were doing a very bad thing for the people.

And now I'm bringing them way down on health care and everything else.

I'm also ending the wildly inflated cost of prescription drugs like has never happened before.

Most didn't try, actually, but they tried.

They said they tried.

They couldn't do it.

They didn't even come close.

They were all talk and no action, but I got it done.

That's a big achievement.

And I didn't name that one either, by the way.

And here tonight is the very first customer ever to get that big discount, and it is big, Catherine Rayner.

So now I'm calling on Congress to codify my Most Favored Nation program into law.

Now the one thing I'm not sure it matters because it's going to be very hard for somebody that comes along after me to say, let's raise drug prices by 700 or 800 percent.

But John and Mike, if you don't mind, codify it anyway.

They may do it.

Many Americans are also concerned that energy demand from AI data centers could unfairly drive up their electric utility bills.

Tonight, I'm pleased to announce that I have negotiated the new Ratepayer Protection Pledge.

You know what that is.

We're telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs.

We have an old grid.

It could never handle the kind of numbers, the amount of electricity that's needed.

So I'm telling them they can build their own plant.

Another pillar of the American dream that has been under attack is homeownership.

With us tonight is Rachel Wiggins, a mom of two from Houston.

She was devastated.

And now I'm asking Congress to make that ban permanent because homes for people—really, that's what we want.

We want homes for people, not for corporations.

Good luck with your home.

You'll get one soon.

We're also working to make it easier for Americans to save for retirement.

They are not protecting it for our seniors.

That's a lot of money.

We will match your contribution with up to $1,000 each year, as we ensure that all Americans can profit from a rising stock market.

Let's also ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information.

They stood up for that.

Did Nancy Pelosi stand up, if she's here?

Pass the Stop Insider Trading Act without delay.

I wasn't sure if anybody, even on this side, was going to applaud for that.

But when it comes to the corruption that is plundering—really, it's plundering America.

We have all the information and, in actuality, the number is much higher than that.

And California, Massachusetts, Maine, and many other states are even worse.

He'll get it done and, if we're able to find enough of that fraud, we will actually have a balanced budget overnight.

It'll go very quickly.

That's the kind of money you're talking about.

Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the USA.

And it is the American people who pay the price in higher medical bills, car insurance rates, rent, taxes and perhaps most importantly crime.

We are not playing games.

And she's here this evening with her dad Marcus, a fantastic man.

People came into our country—how we allowed this to happen with our open borders.

These are the Angel Moms and Families that for decades our government betrayed and our media totally ignored, totally.

We don't want them.

We can never forget that many in this room not only allowed the border invasion to happen before I got involved, but indeed they would do it all over again if they ever had the chance.

If they ever got elected, they would open up those borders to some of the worst criminals anywhere in the world.

The only thing standing between Americans and a wide-open border right now is President Donald J.

It's all cut off.

It's all cut off.

Two points we lost on GDP, which probably made them quite happy actually.

Tonight, I'm demanding the full and immediate restoration of all funding for the border security, homeland security of the United States and also for helping people clean up their snow.

We have no money because of the Democrats, and it would be nice—we'd love to give you a hand at cleaning it up, but you gave no money.

So, you have to think about it.

We have, in case you didn't know, a pretty large snowstorm out there.

One of the great things about the State of the Union is how it gives Americans the chance to see clearly what their Representatives really believe.

So, tonight, I'm inviting every legislator to join with my administration in reaffirming a fundamental principle.

If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support.

The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.

That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens, in many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country.

And perhaps most importantly, I'm asking you to approve the Save America Act to stop illegal aliens and others who are unpermitted persons from voting in our sacred American elections.

And no more crooked mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military or travel, none.

Bad policy, but nice guy.

Just said they want people to shovel snow.

They got hit hard.

Wants them to shovel snow.

But if you apply for that job, you need to show two original forms of ID and a Social Security card.

Yet, they don't want identification for the greatest privilege of them all, voting in America.

No, it's no good, no good.

And the reason they don't want to do it, why would anybody not want voter ID?

One reason, because they want to cheat.

There's only one reason.

They make up all excuses.

They say it's racist.

They come up with things.

You almost say, what imagination they have.

They want to cheat, they have cheated and their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat and we're going to stop it.

We have to stop it, John.

And here is one more opportunity to show common sense in government.

In the gallery tonight are Sage Blair and her mother, Michelle.

Fifteen years ago, if somebody was up here and said that, they'd say, what's wrong with him?

Look, nobody stands up.

These people are crazy.

I'm telling you, they're crazy.

We're lucky we have a country with people like this.

Democrats are destroying our country, but we've stopped it just in the nick of time, didn't we?

Who would have believed that?

It's a tremendous, really, a tremendous thing that happened and had a lot of bipartisan support.

She gets much better bipartisan support than I do.

She gets a lot.

Someday you're going to have to tell me how you did that.

I know how hard you worked on it.

I'm very proud to say that during my time in office, both the first four years and in particular this last year, there has been a tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity and belief in God, tremendous renewal.

This is especially true among young people, and a big part of that has—had to do with my great friend Charlie Kirk, a great guy, great man.

His wonderful wife Erika is with us tonight.

In Charlie's memory, we must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God, and we must totally reject political violence of any kind.

We have made incredible strides, yet dangerous repeat offenders continue to be released by pro-crime Democrat politicians again and again.

We are honored to be joined tonight by a woman who's been through hell, Anya Zarutska.

In 2022, she and her beautiful daughter—so beautiful, what a beautiful young woman.

And by the way, what's going on with Charlotte?

How do you not stand?

How do you not stand?

I'm asking this Congress to pass tough legislation to ensure that violent and dangerous repeat offenders are put behind bars and, importantly, that they stay there.

They don't like to hear that.

One of the sick people.

She was doing so well.

He traveled here because he didn't like people wearing our uniform, he was sick and deranged.

Shouldn't have been in our country.

Gary and Evalea, your daughter was a true American patriot, and she will be greatly missed.

I saw reports on her; they've never seen anything like it.

I saw reports that were like perfect.

She was perfect.

They weren't even given a chance, except his wonderful mother named Melody who I spoke to the same night, and she was so positive.

I've never seen anything like it.

I mean he was given almost no chance.

She said I have no doubt, sir, he's going to be OK.

Everybody is praying.

The doctors didn't understand what she was saying and, after looking at the results of the damage done, neither did I.

She was so strong and conclusive that even Andrew's great father felt she didn't really understand the gravity of the situation, but she turned out to be right.

Right, Melody?

She turned out to be right.

I said where does this woman come from?

She's the most positive person I've ever met.

Nice to see—he's a good-looking guy.

Nice to see you.

It's called the Purple Heart.

We're proudly restoring safety for Americans at home and we are also restoring security for Americans abroad.

Our country has never been stronger.

Cambodia and Thailand.

Pakistan and India, would have been a nuclear war.

It's just about there.

And I want to thank Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for your help.

And I also want to thank the man they report to, Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

And some of the Democrats are now saying, I can't believe we approved that guy.

Nobody thought it was possible.

Nobody thought that was possible.

Both living and dead.

And those parents who had a dead son, their boy, they'd always tell me their boy, they wanted him as much as though he were living.

But I said those last 20 are going to be tough.

We got them back.

It's a tough, it's a tough thing to do, going through bodies all over, passing up 100 bodies sometimes for each one that they found.

And they finally got it back to 27.

And then Steve and Jared, they got it back to 28.

They found all 28.

Nobody thought that was possible, but we did it.

And I remember the family of the 28th.

They were so grieved, but they were so happy, as happy as it's possible, possible to be.

They had their boy back.

The mother said, sir, we have our boy back.

What a period of time that was, but we got them all back.

I did that during my first term, had a huge impact.

We wiped it out and they want to start all over again.

And are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions.

We are in negotiations with them.

They want to make a deal, but we haven't heard those secret words, we will never have a nuclear weapon.

My preference, my preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy.

We have no choice.

It's really called peace through strength and it's been very, very effective.

And getting that 5 percent was something which everyone said would never be done, could not happen.

We got it really easily with one meeting and a big difference between 2 percent that's not paid.

We were paying the freight of many of them.

Very few were paid out.

Now 5 percent then they're paid.

This is so exciting.

You know, they put it on my desk.

We got the money from tariffs and other things, a lot of money we have.

We have much more money than people understand, have to rebuild that program a little bit, but it won't take long.

But we got the money and it was $1,775 and they wanted my approval.

And I said what's the number. $1,775.

I said, wait a minute, for one more dollar we can have 1776.

I never asked anybody if we could afford it.

One more dollar, I said $1,776.

And I said that's good.

And I'll tell you what, our military—that was four months ago, our military, I never see a person in the military that doesn't thank me for it.

So, we're honored to do it.

They deserve it and we call it $1,776, It was great.

We're also restoring American security and dominance in the Western Hemisphere, acting to secure our national interests and defend our country from violence, drugs, terrorism and foreign interference.

You probably noticed that.

We very seriously damaged their fishing industry also.

Nobody wants to go fishing anymore.

You saw that yesterday.

In January, elite American warriors carried out one of the most complex spectacular feats of military competence and power in world history.

No one's seen anything like it.

Foreign leaders, I won't tell you who, called me and they said very impressive, very good.

This is a different fighting force than we had years ago when we fought to tie.

Look at Space Force.

Space force is my baby because we did that.

My baby's becoming so important.

And this was an absolutely colossal victory for the security of the United States.

And it also opens up a bright new beginning for the people of Venezuela.

They really did suffer.

With us tonight is Alejandro Gonzalez.

Alejandro feared she would never see her uncle again.

She feared for her own life also.

We brought him over to celebrate his freedom with you in person.

Have a good time.

Nice to have you back, Enrique.

It was very dangerous.

They knew we were coming; they were all set.

A big, beautiful, powerful helicopter, it was a massive Chinook carrying, as you can imagine, many, many American warfighters.

Wearing the dog tags his wife Amy had blessed with holy water before he left, she knew it was going to be a rough one.

Eric steered the Chinook under the cover of night and descended swiftly upon Maduros' heavily protected military fortress.

This was a major military installation protected by thousands of soldiers and guarded by Russian and Chinese military technology.

How did that work out?

And yet, despite the fact that the use of his legs was vital to a successful helicopter flight—legs are the most important part of flying a helicopter—to deliver the many commandos who would capture and detain Maduro was the only thing Eric was thinking about.

Then even as he was gushing blood, which was flowing back down the aisle—a helicopter lands at a steep angle—the machine gun stood right in front of him.

They were right in front of him, two machine gunners, who escaped the wrath of the previous planes.

Chief Warrant Officer Slover is still recovering from his serious wounds, but I'm thrilled to say that he is here tonight with his wife Amy.

Eric and Amy, come on in.

So we have a surprise for Eric and Amy.

In recognition of Eric's actions above and beyond the call of duty, I would now like to ask General Jonathan Braga to present Chief Warrant Officer Slover with our nation's highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor.

I met with them and with a lot of their fellow warriors at Fort Bragg recently.

Everybody wanted it changed back too.

That's a big one.

Tonight, We've celebrated many truly extraordinary American patriots, but there is one last living legend to honor before we go.

He didn't even want to tell his wife, but the legend grew and grew.

But tonight, at 100 years old, this brave Navy captain is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

He was a legend long before this evening.

I've always wanted the Congressional Medal of Honor, but I was informed, I'm not allowed to give it to myself and I wouldn't know why I'd be taking it.

But, you know, that's our highest honor, Congressional Medal of Honor.

250 years is a long time in the life of a nation, but in another sense, it's really a mere moment in the eye of history.

Thomas Jefferson drew his last breath.

Just a single long human lifespan separates the giants who declared and won our independence from the heroes who stand among us tonight.

In those brief chapters, Americans built this nation from 13 humble colonies into the pinnacle of human civilization and human freedom, the strongest, wealthiest, most powerful, most successful nation in all of history, Americans ventured out across the daunting and dangerous continent.

We carved paths through an unforgiving wilderness, settled a boundless frontier and tamed the beautiful but very, very dangerous wild West.

From empty marshes and wide-open plains, we raised up the world's greatest cities.

Together, we mastered the world's mightiest industries, shattered history's monstrous tyrannies, and we liberated millions from the chains of fascism, Communism, oppression and terror.

Americans lifted humanity into the skies on the wings of aluminum and steel.

All of this and so much more is the enduring legacy, unmatched glory of the hardworking patriots who built and defended this country and who still carry the hopes and freedoms on all of humanity's backs.

And when God needs a nation to work his miracles, He knows exactly who to ask.

There is no challenge Americans cannot overcome, no frontier too vast for us to conquer, no dream too bold for us to chase, no horizon too distant for us to claim.

For our destiny is written by the hand of Providence and these first 250 years were just the beginning.

From the rugged border towns of Texas to the heartland villages of Michigan.

From the sun kissed shores of Florida to the endless fields of the Dakotas.

And from the historic streets of Philadelphia to right here in our nation's capital, Washington DC, the Golden Age of America is upon us.

The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended; it still continues because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot.