- 5 months ago
President Trump speaks to Republican Senators at a dinner at the White House.
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00:30This is really a celebration, because we hit a lot of home runs, and we're going to keep hitting them. And I just want to thank you. But that's what it is I said to John. John Thune has done a fantastic job. We have to say.
01:00A few people could have done what he did and what Mike Johnson did, the Speaker. And I think we've done more in three nights. I've been calling people at 2 o'clock in the morning.
01:16Sir, we have three hard no's. They said it's 2.30 in the morning. That's OK. That was an early one. And we did this for three or four nights in a row. Right, John?
01:26Between the House and the Senate, there were a few hard no's, but almost always they came through. And we got things done that few people could have gotten done.
01:35And this is like an easy night because we're here. And I just said, let's celebrate. So whoever's ever in town, come on over. And a lot of you came over, and we appreciate it.
01:47But we're here to really take a little bit of a successful bow and productive. The production that we had over the last six months was spectacular.
02:01And there's never been anything like it in terms of Republican Senate majorities in all of American history. You know that we went back very carefully and we checked.
02:16And nobody's done so much so fast. And probably you could say with so few votes. I mean, we had 53, which is not bad, but that's not easy, is it?
02:29So let me begin by congratulating all of you. It's a truly amazing group of my friends. And we have a few of our friends that were in their districts and states.
02:40And I said, don't come back, just relax. But we wanted to do this. The Senate GOP confirmed our cabinet with record speed. It was actually record speed.
02:50And now we'll go a little bit faster because maybe one of these weeks, you just hold them all back. We'll get everybody in. Right, John?
02:56But we really, we really did. We had, we have a lot of great people, a lot of really fantastic people, and they're doing a tremendous job.
03:07You stayed in session for a marathon 10 consecutive weeks. And that's the longest of any Senate in 15 years. And you held over 400 votes more than any Senate in 35 years.
03:20And they were successful votes. And just a few weeks ago, we had the biggest victory of them all when you pass the one big, beautiful bill.
03:28And I just signed it into law. And I call it the great, big, beautiful bill. But I got overridden by a couple of my people.
03:39They said, let's go out the one big. But it is really the great big. And we delivered the largest tax cut in American history, the largest spending cut in American history,
03:49the most deregulation in American history, and the largest border security investment in American history, and the biggest success on the border in American history.
03:59As you know, last month, we had, and we went from millions of people coming in,
04:09we had zero illegals coming into our country. And we're trying to get our country straightened out.
04:17And you can't do that if they're going to come in by the tens of thousands. We had zero.
04:22Now, I'm not even sure I can believe zero. But it was a very liberal group, as you know, that keeps that tabulation.
04:28And they gave us a zero, so I think we'll take it. But it certainly wasn't very much.
04:35And the one big, beautiful bill delivered on more Republican promises than any single piece of legislation that's ever been voted on before.
04:44And I want to thank Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Again, John, what you did is amazing, record-setting.
04:52And you're a good man, too. You're a very good man.
04:55The Majority Whip, John Barasso. John, thank you.
05:04What a really good man.
05:08He got along from day one, right? He knew more about the medical stuff.
05:12And I said, what do you think about this, that? You did a fantastic job, and for a long time.
05:19Republican Policy Committee Chair, Shelley Moore Capito.
05:23Shelley, thank you.
05:25Thank you, Chairman.
05:28Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Mike Crapo.
05:34Good job.
05:36You know the stuff I was calling, I was asking him some very tough questions on taxes.
05:41You always had the answer, some of which I didn't like, but that was okay.
05:45But you always had it. You know your business.
05:48Thank you, Mike. Great job.
05:49The Senate Budget Committee Chairman, a gentleman named Lindsey Graham, just took a big lead in the polls.
05:56You're leading big.
05:58That's pretty good.
05:59Lindsey Graham.
06:00And all of you. I mean, just everyone in this room is special.
06:06We've had, you're all friends, and you've just been incredible people.
06:11Because, again, getting all of these votes with, you know, well, you can't get, you can't lose two.
06:16We had a couple, you can't lose two.
06:19And we actually had it where we were down much closer than this.
06:22And we said, we're a heart attack away from losing the Senate.
06:27We were just helping everybody's going to stay good and healthy, right, John?
06:32That's right.
06:32But we were, we had some pretty close moments.
06:35But I don't think anybody's ever come close to doing this with a pretty tight majority, to put it nicely.
06:41So now we have three.
06:43And I think we have a chance in the midterms.
06:44I don't understand why they say that when you win the presidency, you always, almost automatically lose the midterms.
06:52Because nobody's had a more successful period of time than we have.
06:55So based on that, we should do great.
06:58And we'll see.
06:59But nobody's done more than we have as a group.
07:00It's not me, it's all of us together.
07:03And I'd like to thank Vice President J.D. Vance, who's here someplace.
07:12And he's been, he's been so terrific, J.D.
07:15And we appreciate it.
07:16And you helped us a lot during those late evenings over the last three nights.
07:20And you really have been tremendous.
07:24And Secretary of State Marco Rubi.
07:26This man is traveling all over the place.
07:29He's always traveling.
07:30He's going to different countries.
07:31He loves it.
07:32He's a natural.
07:33He is a natural.
07:34There's never going to be anybody better than the job you're doing right now.
07:37We appreciate it.
07:38We have some big things coming up, too.
07:44And Marco, we have some big things coming up, right?
07:46Some big things and some very positive things.
07:49And thank you very much.
07:50You're doing a fantastic job.
07:51Who would have thought we fought like, he was so tough.
07:55Ted, he was tough on that debate stand, right?
07:57And you were very tough on the debate stand, too.
08:01You guys were brutal.
08:02Who would think they're my friends?
08:04And now they're my friends.
08:06Well, they said it about Lincoln.
08:09He brought in all his enemies.
08:11Well, I don't know.
08:12They were sort of enemies.
08:13But they were very talented people.
08:15I want to tell you that.
08:16Director Russ Vogt is here.
08:20And thank you very much.
08:23And all of the wonderful spouses.
08:27The most important people here are the spouses.
08:29Without the spouses, it wouldn't work.
08:36And we want to thank you and also for the time.
08:38Because your wives and husbands, I mean, they were very busy getting home at 4.30.
08:46I can vouch for every single one of them getting home at 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock in the morning.
08:54And you're saying, darling, were you really in Congress?
08:58Were you really sitting in your nice Senate seat?
09:01I don't know.
09:02But no, they worked long and hard.
09:05And you know what?
09:06They laughed.
09:07They never complained.
09:09They never complained once.
09:11Very few of them went back.
09:12They just sit late into the night.
09:15Well, we got to this final vote.
09:16It's pretty amazing.
09:18In 2024, together, we won a mandate from the American people.
09:22We won every single swing state.
09:24And the Electoral College, 312 to 226.
09:29And it was, that was a big, that was a big.
09:32Remember they said, there is a path to 70.
09:35You have to have 70.
09:36And 270.
09:39And there's a path to 270.
09:41And yeah, the path was 312.
09:43I remember I went to Nebraska to get a half, to get a vote, a single vote.
09:48And I went there and it turned out we didn't need it.
09:51There was a certain circumstance under which that would have been a very important vote.
09:55And they were great in Nebraska, but we didn't need it.
09:58So we got 312.
10:00We won the popular vote by millions of votes.
10:02So we won counties throughout America 2,750 to 525.
10:08Think of that, 2,750 to 525.
10:12That's called a landslide.
10:14The one big, beautiful bill delivered on that mandate.
10:17And we've fulfilled so many of our promises.
10:22In fact, somebody said today, a person that's not particularly good for us said that we actually fulfilled more promises than we promised.
10:30Which is a pretty nice statement.
10:32You don't hear that very often, but it's true.
10:34By a lot, actually.
10:36And that's just the beginning.
10:37In January, we passed Senator Katie Britt's Lakin-Riley Act.
10:47And a few months ago, we passed Senator Ted Cruz's, and this was done with a very fantastic woman named Melania, right?
10:58You worked together, First Lady.
11:00And you passed the Take It Down Act, something that was very important, that actually had very good bipartisan support.
11:08Almost unanimous support.
11:10A couple of people, I won't tell you their names, but a couple of people.
11:15But that was incredible.
11:16So that was with Ted Cruz and Melania.
11:18We appreciate it, Ted.
11:19That was a great job.
11:23And just this week, we passed the Rescissions Act of 2025, slashing nearly $10 billion of waste.
11:32And I guess I could say some fraud and some abuse, but at least we can say waste.
11:37Almost $10 billion.
11:38And we have numerous other rescissions coming up, adding more, many more $10 billion to it.
11:45So we're saving a lot of money.
11:47And on Wednesday, I signed the HALT Fentanyl Act.
11:50And earlier today, I signed Senator Bill Haggerty's Genius Act.
11:54And he named it after me.
11:56And I was really...
11:57That's why I liked it.
12:06I pushed very hard because of that.
12:08But to make America the crypto capital of the world.
12:13And that's what it's become.
12:14China wanted it.
12:15A lot of countries want it.
12:17But we are so far ahead, I think nobody's going to be able to come close anymore.
12:21So I want to thank you very much.
12:22Great job.
12:23We also did something that public broadcasting, they've been looking to get it out of there
12:28for billions and billions of dollars.
12:31And very, very unfair.
12:33Very, very unfair reporting.
12:35They would...
12:35I would say they make CNN look honest.
12:38And we got rid of it, finally.
12:41We got rid of it.
12:42We got rid of billions of dollars that was wasted on that.
12:47And Ronald Reagan tried.
12:48Everybody tried.
12:49You know, everybody tried since Ronald Reagan and before.
12:53And John, we got it out.
12:54And I know it doesn't sound so nice when they hear, that's terrible.
12:57Public broadcast.
12:58It sounds so innocent.
12:59It's not innocent.
13:00It was brutal.
13:02It was brutal.
13:03Very unfair.
13:04We achieved more in six months than almost any administration could accomplish in eight years.
13:10And we're going to have a lot of good six months left.
13:13We're going to have a six and another six and another six.
13:16So we'll keep going.
13:17And we're going to really do something.
13:21Something I'm very proud of.
13:22We stopped a lot of wars.
13:24A lot of wars.
13:25And these were serious.
13:30You had India, Pakistan.
13:32That was going.
13:33In fact, planes were being shot out of the air.
13:36Five, four or five.
13:38But I think five jets were shot down, actually.
13:41And, Lindsay, that was getting worse and worse, wasn't it?
13:43That was looking like it was going to go.
13:45These are two serious nuclear countries.
13:49And they were hitting each other.
13:52You know, it seems like a new form of warfare.
13:54You saw it recently when you looked at what we did in Iran,
13:58where we knocked out the nuclear capability.
14:00Totally knocked out that.
14:01It's going to be gone for a long time.
14:03But there seems to be a hit and then another hit.
14:09A hit and another hit.
14:10It's a different thing.
14:11But India and Pakistan were going at it.
14:14And they were back and forth.
14:15And it was getting bigger and bigger.
14:17And we got it solved through trade.
14:20We said, you guys want to make a trade deal?
14:22We're not making a trade deal if you're going to be throwing around weapons
14:25and maybe nuclear weapons, both very powerful nuclear states.
14:30We did the Congo.
14:32This was going on for over 30 years.
14:35The Congo and Rwanda.
14:38And close to 7 million people were really violently killed.
14:42This was a rough one.
14:45But going on over 30 years.
14:46And we had the various representatives here last week.
14:50The presidents will be coming to sign final documents.
14:53But we got that one solved.
14:55Armenia and Azerbaijan.
14:59We worked magic there.
15:02And it's pretty close.
15:04If not, it's already done.
15:05And Gaza.
15:07We got most of the hostages back.
15:10We're going to have another 10 coming very shortly.
15:14And we hope to have that finished pretty quickly.
15:18And Steve Whitcoff has been fantastic.
15:20He's done a great job in that.
15:21And he's a very good man, good dealmaker.
15:25I said, I need a good dealmaker with a good personality.
15:29And there aren't too many of them.
15:30But Steve is.
15:31And he's done a great job.
15:32Serbia, Kosovo.
15:33They were going at it.
15:34They've gone at it for years.
15:36I guess for centuries.
15:37But they've gone at it for years.
15:39And we got that one taken care of.
15:41And Egypt and Ethiopia.
15:43As you know, they've been fighting over the dam.
15:45Ethiopia built the dam with United States money, largely.
15:49It's one of the largest dams in the world.
15:51And it has one little problem.
15:52It doesn't allow much water going into the Nile River.
15:56So you can imagine Egypt's not thrilled because they live off the Nile River.
16:01The Nile River, it's blood, it's heart, it's everything.
16:04And we think we have that one pretty well taken care of.
16:09But that was a pretty bad thing.
16:12I was watching this as it was going up.
16:15I get pictures and satellites and everything.
16:18And I'm looking at this massive dam.
16:20And I'm saying, is that going to be blocking the water to the Nile?
16:24And anyway, that should have never sort of happened the way it happened.
16:28But financed by the United States of America, the whole thing is a little crazy.
16:32But we got that solved.
16:34I think that's going to be solved pretty long term.
16:36Over the next year and a half, we'll have an incredible record to share with the American people.
16:41As long as we continue to keep our promises to the voters, Americans will continue to stand by our side.
16:48And in 2026, the Republican majority, I think, is going to be stronger in both the House and the Senate.
16:54And I really think it's going to be potentially much stronger.
16:57Look, nobody has done what you people have done, I think, ever, I can say, just about ever, in the Senate.
17:05And we did it all in six months.
17:07I think Sunday night is actually six months.
17:09So I really congratulate the people in this room.
17:13It's incredible.
17:13And, you know, I did a good job.
17:14But I couldn't have done it without you.
17:16I couldn't have done it without great leadership.
17:18And it's really terrific.
17:22And I appreciate it very much.
17:24And I guess we have a very, very simple phrase that we've done by make America great again.
17:28You know, it's as simple as it can be.
17:31And I remember our opponent, Biden, saying, we will stop America great again.
17:37I said, I want to make America great again, Joe.
17:41He said, we will stop MAGA.
17:43We will stop MAGA.
17:44I said, no, no, MAGA is a good thing.
17:47It's make America great again.
17:50But the election we had was unbelievable.
17:53The result was, you know, pretty, they say, the, you know, one of the great, one of the great
17:59elections in 129 years they're talking about.
18:02And I said, well, I don't know where the 129 years goes, but we'll take it.
18:07But I just want to thank you because without your help, we could not have done what we've done
18:12or even come close.
18:13So great job to John and everybody.
18:16We appreciate it very much.
18:17And we're going to have a good, we're going to have a good meal tonight.
18:21I said, give us the A meal, not the B or the C.
18:24And it's really a celebration of great political people, great political minds, and wonderful
18:30men and women.
18:31Thank you all very much.
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