Remarks transcript, Jun 23, 2026 (Donald Trump)

Hello, Pennsylvania. I won this place so much. We won.

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Thank you.

Well, I'm thrilled to be back in this incredible Commonwealth with the proud, hard-working patriots of Lehigh Valley. Lehigh Valley.

And I'm also proud to say I won this State in a landslide. We won it by so much.

And remember, I had the—a couple of little statements. "Too big to rig." Make it too big to rig, because these people cheat like hell. [ Laughter ] They cheat like hell, but we won it by a lot.

And maybe we should run again. Should we run one more time, huh? [ Laughter ] I'd like to do that. I'd like to do that.

But I got more votes than any candidate in the history of Pennsylvania. Can you believe that, Bo? You would have gotten more.

And today, I'm especially honored to be here in the place that builds some of the toughest vehicles on the road, Mack Trucks. Mack Trucks is doing a great job.

We have all of the Mack people. The chairman. We have the whole group of—here—all the leaders, the big guys. They're building—they're trying to get a contract for 15,000 trucks. Fifteen thousand. I said, "That's a lot." I said: "How many are you looking for? Ten? Fifteen?" "No, 15,000, sir." That's a lot of trucks.

For more than 100 years, this legendary company has been making trucks right here in Eastern Pennsylvania, building the heavy-duty machinery that keeps our economy rolling, our factories moving, and our industries roaring all across the Nation.

And you are the men and women who put your pride and spirit into those beautiful words stamped on every Mack Truck that said "Made in the U.S.A." It's made in the U.S.A.

And I want to especially thank the president of Mack Trucks, Stephen Roy, who I just met, who is a great guy, a great patriot. Very Republican too, which I like. [ Laughter ] He's a very strong Republican.

Stephen. Where are you, Stephen? Stephen.

We've got to get a certain very talented Congressman reelected. You know that. We've got to get him. Where are you? Where are you, Mr. Congressman? We've got to get you back in.

Thank you. And thank you, Stephen.

But our very special thanks to every single worker at this fantastic factory. The job you're doing here is incredible.

And I know you're applying for a big one, and we'll see how that goes. We'll have to call up some people and see if it's good. If your price is right—is your price right, Stephen? I don't know. Maybe we'll get it down a little bit. We'll get it down. [ Laughter ] Fifteen thousand trucks, that's a lot of trucks, but that's what this is all about. It's greatness.

You built this country, and you are the ones who are making America great again. We're the hottest country in the world.

For decades, the workers of this Commonwealth watched globalist politicians let other countries rip you off and close your factories, rob your jobs, take them away to foreign land. And then I came along. We stopped it very quickly.

Then we had a rigged election. Then we had a rigged election, but they were so stupid, they kept everything going a little bit for us. And what we've done in the last year and a half, nobody has ever seen anything like it.

They put America first—they put China first, they put illegal aliens first, and everybody else first but you. But we put you first by a lot.

But at long last, you finally have a President who is putting workers first, putting Pennsylvania first, and putting America first. We're doing that, and we're doing it like nobody's ever seen before.

And starting on my first day back in office—and this goes all the way back to 2016 too, but right from a year and a half ago—nobody has ever seen anything like this. We're the hottest country anywhere in the world by a lot. But I stood up to the trade cheaters—they're cheaters—and abusers and violators of the world like no President has ever stood up before.

And now I'm standing up again because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, if that's okay. And we're doing quite well.

I placed 50-percent tariffs on foreign copper, aluminum, and steel so they couldn't come in and steal your jobs, and sometimes even more than 100-percent tariffs. They weren't going to come in from foreign lands and steal your jobs. If they wanted to come in, they'd pay 100 percent, they'd pay 200 percent, they'd pay—I don't care what it is. They're not going to steal your jobs. Okay? And they stopped.

And right now we have more factories being built—and I mean car factories, AI factories, factories of every type—than we've ever had in the history of our country by three times.

That's because they didn't want to pay the tariff. How don't you pay a tariff? You build your factory here and you hire American workers. It's quite simple, actually.

But, as you know, I placed a 25-percent tariff on foreign automobiles and, very importantly, imposed a 25-percent tariff on medium- and heavy-duty trucks so that Mack Truck could do very well with its factory in Pennsylvania.

But all American roads will be filled with American trucks very shortly. Very few people are able to compete with us anymore. They used to rip us off. It was like we were a bunch of babies.

American labor worked with us too. I just met the head of your unions, and they've been terrific. They work with us, and they're fair. They treated us good. Maybe we can negotiate a little bit tougher.

Where the hell are the union guys? Those guys are great. They're great. There they are. I want to just say hello. We've got to make sure you vote for our Congressman here. I'm not doing this for my health. [ Laughter ] Right?

Meuser. We even have Meuser here. That's right.

Within a single year of taking office, I slashed trade deficit with China by the largest amount in the history of trade. And we, by the way, have the biggest trade deficit cut in the history of our country: 67 percent.

Think of this. We had a trade deficit. We cut our trade deficit. If you do—if you're a President and you cut it by 1 percent, they say, "Oh, you're doing a great job." Two percent, you're a genius. I cut it by 67 percent.

That's why you have all of these factories being built. They'll soon be opening. They're already opening. But when those factories are opening, I don't know what you're going to do. You're going to negotiate very good salaries—that, I can tell you—because they need you. In many ways, they need you more than you need them.

American exports to the rest of the world are up by $150 billion. You hear that, Bo? That's not bad. You've got to wrestle a long way to make that kind—Bo is going to have to win a lot of tournaments to have to make that money.

Think of it: $150 billion up. We never had that. We always have losses. We take in much more than we send out. Now we're up $150 billion.

And that's nothing, because when all these factories are opening up, Mr. Senator—another great one. What a great Senator you have. Did you fight hard? David. David, did you fight hard? He was with me, I think, at every stop. I said, "Where the hell is David?" "He's right there, sir." And he's working hard, and he's a great guy. And he's working very hard for you.

But a short time ago, we were a dead country. We were laughed at all over the world. We were a dead country. People were laughing. They were saying, "What the hell happened to that country?"

The King of Saudi Arabia said it 2 years ago. I was over there. He said, "You know, sir, 2 years ago, you were a dead country, and now you're the hottest country anywhere in the world." It's true, and we're hotter now than we were then.

He then proceeded to announce that he's investing $2 trillion in our country, along with Qatar, along with U.A.E. Bahrain is investing. Kuwait is investing. But countries from all over the world—they're all investing in the United States.

Two years ago, they wouldn't even think of it. They thought we were finished.

When I went to China 2 weeks ago, I met with President Xi, and we greeted each other, and he looked at me, and he said, "Man, do you move fast." Because they thought they had us, but now it's really the opposite. We are doing numbers that nobody has ever seen before. So, it's great. It's great. We had a great meeting.

But as you know, we just achieved a historic peace agreement with Iran to end the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz. And by the way, yesterday, 19 million barrels of oil flowed out of the Strait of Hormuz, a very beautiful place. That's the most oil in the history of the Strait. No—it's never been any—you've never seen anything like that. It's called an "oil gusher."

And most importantly, we are ensuring one thing, very importantly, because this is why I did it. I did it for this reason. Ninety-nine percent for this: Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. And they've agreed to that.

But remember, this wasn't easy. We had 47 years' worth of Presidents and other people, other countries too—we're not the only one—that never did anything. They were the bully of the Middle East, and now we're leaving Iran with no navy, no air force, no anti-aircraft, no missile capability, no nuclear program. We're leaving them without any nuclear capacity, and they've agreed to that.

And we're getting along quite well. Although, if you read the fake news, you'd never know.

Think of it. The fake news. They have no army, they have no navy, they have no air force, they have no anti-aircraft. We can fly over Tehran just at will. Nobody going to do anything to us. And then I read the fake news that they're doing quite well. They're not doing quite well. [ Laughter ]

Boo!

These people right there. Look at all of them. Whoa.

Boo!

Whoa. Whoa. That's a lot of press.

That's almost as much press as Bo had at the White House last week when he knocked out his opponent in the first round. Right? I think you had more. Bo had more press.

But the Iran economy has been crushed, and their defense industrial base has been damaged so severely that it will take them many years to rebuild. Many, many years.

And now we're trying to work out a deal that's fair, and we also want to work out a deal.

You know, the stock market hit a new high today again. And oil, for the first time in months, hit—think of it—$70 a barrel. So we got a 70. That equates to a very low price. Oil is going to come charging down.

And with oil comes everything else, because I inherited from these "Dumocrats"—you know, they're "Dumocrats." I changed the "E" for "U." It's very simple: "Dumocrats." I don't know why I didn't think of that 9 years ago. I just thought of it about a month ago.

They're "Dumocrats" because their policies are so dumb. Men in women's sports.

You know, Bo is with one of the great champions, Tony. Tony, could you have taken most women in the heavyweight champ—he was the heavyweight champion of the world. You think you would have had trouble with a woman of approximately your size? Be hard to find a woman of your size, but—[ laughter ]—if we did, I think you would have been okay.

What do you think, Bo? Could he have handled it? I think so.

What about you, Bo? Could you handle a woman of approximately—you're what?—182 or something. Think there's a 182-pounder that could give you a little tussle? I don't think so. [ Laughter ] I don't think so.

He's such a nice guy. He's saying: "No. No. Not really." [ Laughter ] I don't think so.

When she looked at those ears of Bo—when she looked at those ears, she'll say, "I'll take a pass." [ Laughter ] She'll say, "I'm not going to fight that guy."

The average price of gasoline nationwide is down 60 cents a gallon just from a short while ago.

And remember this, remember this: We had to make this detour. We had to go to Iran. You can't let them blow up the Middle East and then us, if that's possible. We would have gotten them before, but they would have blown up Israel. They would have blown up the entire Middle East. You can't let that. You want to see a bad economy? That's a bad economy.

So—but remember that our oil in the middle of this conflict was less than it was for Sleepy Joe Biden. And this—and we're putting out a fire.

Biden, Clinton, Bush, all of them. Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?

Boo!

Have you heard of Barack Hussein Obama—none of them did anything. Obama gave them $1.7 billion in green cash—remember?—on a 747. They flew over piles of cash—$1.7 billion. Gave them hundreds of billions of dollars and thought they could bribe them into peace.

No, the only thing they understand is what these guys in the front row understand—is the hammer. Because if you look at what we did to their nuclear capacity with those beautiful B–2 bombers, that was truly a hammer. In fact, we named it a hammer: Operation Hammer.

But our economy is ready to soar to levels the world has not seen before. I believe that, David. I think it's going to levels that nobody's ever seen before. All these factories are being built, and they're going to be occupied, and they're hiring people now. And it's going to be something very beautiful.

I don't know who's going to follow me, but remember that I was the one that did it. Okay? Somebody's going to walk into office and they're going to have the most successful country in history, and they're going to be bragging what a great job they did, and we did it.

In 4 long years of the Crooked Joe Biden administration, they got less than $1 trillion of new investments.

So think of it. Crooked Joe——

What do you like better: Sleepy Joe or Crooked Joe? Ready?

Sleepy Joe. [ Applause ]

Crooked Joe. [ Applause ]

I'm surprised. I like Sleepy Joe better, but Crooked Joe.

They're both good. I use them both.

But in less than 1 year—so, they did much less than $1 trillion of investment from outside the world—much less than $1 trillion. We just have the final—we had 11 months at 18, but we just got the final: $19.1 trillion in 12 months. Can you believe that? Investment from all over the globe.

And since the election, the stock market has set 73 alltime records. In other words—yes, sit down. We've got plenty of time here. [ Laughter ] It's an honor that you're all standing——

Oh, look who we have. The Wall. Stand up, Wall. Look at this guy. Oh, I'm going to get a suit just like that guy. He—I'll bet he's been to 200 rallies. Him and—where are my gals—oh, look at my guys, Front Row Joes. I've got these Front Row Joes. And where are the women from North Carolina? They're here. They travel all over the world. I don't know what the hell's with their husbands.

These beautiful women from North Carolina, they travel all over. They went to 200 rallies. How many rallies have Front Row Joes gone to? Hundreds. Every one.

And then—it was very sad. My last rally, I said, "I may never see you again." Right? And then we won the election in a landslide. And who the hell do I see? I see my Front Row Joes. So, I'm happy about that.

Thank you. What a group. We had some group. We'd be all over the place. And when they didn't make the front row, it was very demeaning to them. They were not happy, right? But the Front Row—they became, actually, very famous—Front Row Joes.

And the typical 401(k), as you know, is up almost $30,000 in—it was 12 months. It was 13 months. It's up 44 percent. Think of that: up 44 percent. Because, you know, as goes the stock market, so goes a lot of your own wealth.

And I tell about this police officer. I met a police officer—first term, similar thing, but now the numbers are even more.

I met—I was in New York. I met a great police officer, New York Finest. And he said, "Sir, I want to thank you." I said, "For what?" He said, "My wife didn't think much of me, very much. We were having marital difficulty, actually. She thought I was nothing. I'm a police officer. I'm a tough guy." I looked at him. The muscles were all over the place. He didn't suffer from that. But she thought maybe that muscle——

——wasn't so good because he was always losing money in the stock market.

And he said, "Sir, in the last year and a half, my 401(k) is up 74 percent, sir, and she thinks I'm Warren Buffett. She thinks I'm a supergenius."

I said, "How are you getting along with her?" He said, "Well, I'm not so sure I like her anymore, but that's a"—[ laughter ]—I won't tell you that. I refuse to say that. He's getting along just fine.

But a lot of people have come up to me, David, and they thanked us. 401(k)s, you know, the stock market.

Who has a 401(k) here? Yes, look. A lot of people.

More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country, and we've created over 32 now—think of this—32,000 new jobs just starting in Pennsylvania alone.

David, you have to get credit for that.

And in the last few months alone, we've added 2,600 Pennsylvania manufacturing jobs, and that number is going to go much, much higher as the factories start to open, because right here in Lehigh Valley, Eli Lilly has just announced—great company, by the way; drug company—a $3.5 billion investment in a brandnew state-of-the-art manufacturing facility right down the road that's going to create over a thousand jobs, just that one.

Nokia is investing $30 million to expand its semiconductor testing and packaging operations. Thousands of jobs. And B. Braun has announced a $20 million expansion of its medical device manufacturing operation in Allentown. I love Allentown.

I love any place that votes for me, which is the entire State of Pennsylvania. The entire Commonwealth.

Never make the mistake of using the word "State." Although, I'm not sure that people care. But the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania voted for us at levels that nobody's ever seen before, David. And you too. And we're proud of you, because you had guts.

This man had guts. He lost one time to a tough candidate; then he did it again to a tougher candidate. And I tell him: If he didn't win, his wife, who's a beautiful woman, would have left him. I'm telling you. [ Laughter ] Dina. She would have left him. So he had great courage doing it a second time.

He was a very successful guy. He ran—stand up, David. She would have left. I was so worried, because he's a friend of mine, and he was—that was a tough race. You know, he's running against a guy—24 years. And his father was in for, like, 30 years. That's a long time, and he had to beat him, knowing the pressure. That's called pressure, knowing his wife was gone if he didn't make it. She was gone 100 percent.

But she—he's married, actually, to a terrific woman. She probably would have stayed. I'm not 10- percent sure. [ Laughter ]

And last year, I saved a great American company, U.S. Steel, and we're keeping its headquarters in Pennsylvania, where it belongs. And $17 billion has been invested by a great company in saving U.S. Steel. They were gone. I think they were closed up, and they were ready to go. And now they're building factories like nobody's ever seen. They're expanding the operations and building a couple of brand-new steel plants.

They're up to over $17 billion, which is a lot more than they even told us, they—because they—they've fallen in love with this Commonwealth. They've fallen in love with your whole area. The people—I think they've fallen in love with the people more than anything else, is what they told me, because they've done more than they said they would.

And thanks to our great Republican majorities in Congress, last Fourth of July, I proudly signed the largest tax cuts in American history. We gave you the biggest tax cuts in American history. Not bad. Not bad. We delivered no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great Pennsylvania seniors. No tax.

And our tax cuts are projected to boost take-home pay for Pennsylvanians by an average of more than $10,000 a year per household. Think of that. Not bad. That alone should win us the midterms. We've got to win the—Meuser, we got to win the midterm—Meuser is another great guy. Stand up, Meuser. Been with me forever.

He was thinking about running for Governor. I think he would have won, but he was thinking about running for Governor, and I said: "I want you to stay in Congress. I want you to stay in." And we appreciate it. You've done a great job.

But always remember, every single "Dumocrat" in Congress voted against our tax cuts. So, think of it, every—all of those tax cuts and many more. They want to raise your taxes, not lower them. They voted against tax cuts.

You know, all my life, I've sort of been political in that I found it very interesting. I was a very successful real estate person, but I love watching politics. And my whole life, I've watched politicians say: "We will cut your taxes. We will cut." I never heard—these people say, "We will raise your taxes."

This country has gotten very strange politically, especially with all the communists that are up for election. You know, you have communists. These aren't socialists. These are communists.

Boo!

And they're all up.

How about the guy in Maine? He's got——

Boo!

He's got the Nazi stickers, he's got the whole deal, and they're trying to say that's a—so, for 8 years, 10 years, they said, "Trump is a Nazi." Now they can't say that anymore, because they have a guy with a tattoo on his chest. [ Laughter ] It's unbelievable.

But they voted against no tax on Social Security. They voted against no tax on tips. They voted against no tax on overtime. And if they got into office, you will have all of those taxes and all of the—all of that money that you're saving, including the big savings on Social Security—it's going to all be terminated. You're going to have to start paying again. They want to pay it. I don't know what's wrong with these people.

They voted in favor of the estate tax—or the death tax—on your farms and your businesses. You know, farmers and small-business people, they love their children. If they love them, it's great. Most of the people love them. Some can't stand—I know people that can't stand their kids. They're not going to leave them 10 cents. But if you love your child, you want to leave your farm, especially farm—these farmers, they—it's borne in them somehow. They want to have their children in the farm.

The children don't want to leave, but sometimes they're land rich and cash poor. You know? I've known that expression too. I've oftentimes been land rich and cash poor. It's not a good period of time.

And you die and you have an estate, and they tax you at 40, 50, 60 percent, and they end up losing their farm, losing their small business. And in many cases—you don't read about this—they commit suicide. They actually go out and commit suicide because they're forced off their farm by a bank. They have to go out and borrow money from a bank. And they're forced to go out, borrow the money, they're unable to pay the loan, and the bank—even if it's a nice bank, they give them a chance, they give them another chance, and then they ultimately foreclose, they lose everything, and, in many cases, they commit suicide.

And I said, "We're not going to have that crap go on." So you have no estate tax to pay on your small farm, small business—on your farms, your businesses. And you can—if you love your children, you can leave your farm or your small business to your child, and they're not going to lose it.

If you don't love your children, then don't listen to what I'm saying, because it doesn't matter. You should—if you don't like them, don't leave them anything. The hell with them. They probably deserve it. [ Laughter ]

But think of it. The "Dumocrats" voted against the border wall. The border wall gave us the safest border. We have the safest border now in the history of the country.

They voted against voter ID. You know why they voted against voter ID? Because they want to cheat. There's only one reason, Mr. Wall, right? They——

They want to cheat!

Correct. Correct.

Where do I get that suit? I'm—one day—I don't know if it's very Presidential—I'm going to walk up in a suit with the design of the wall on it. I don't know. What do you think?

I already have a lot—you know, I have a very elegant wife, and she says: "Darling, please, please don't dance. It's not Presidential." I said, "But the people love it when I dance up here." And she said, "Please, please—the men in women's sports—please don't do the weightlifting thing, and don't do the swimming thing."

You know, the weightlifter, where he goes up, and the record stood for years and years and years, and this young lady, she's trying out for the Olympics, and she's going to do it. And the record stood for 19 years, and they put an eighth of an ounce on one side, an eighth of an ounce on the other.

They have to understand, Melania, who's now a movie star—she got the number-one—can you believe, she hit big with her movie. That's not good. There can only be one star in a family. Please remember that. [ Laughter ]

But they put a little eighth, like a feather, on one side—a little bit, just to break the record. The parents are sitting right there, where Big Bo is.

He's a nasty guy. That punch he threw, ai yai yai. Got to be very nice to Bo. I've got to be very nice. Got to make sure he's never angry at me.

But she said—her parents are right there in the front, and they're so proud. The father's not so proud, because he knows she's not going to do it, because she's a woman. It's a lot of weight. The mother, though, is screaming: "Darling, I love you! Do it!"

And she gets over the weights, and she stands there, and then she gets them. And she gets them. And the mother's screaming, "Darling—I love you, darling." And the father's looking, saying, "She has no chance." And she's like this. You've seen. "Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Drops them. And she's, like, devastated for the rest of her life.

And then a guy comes along who transitioned. That's the term. I've gotten very good at that term. Yes, I used to take a lot of heat for my definition of the movement over. But he transitioned. He was a poor—very poor, bottom-of-the-line male weightlifter, but now he's a female weightlifter. And he looked at the amount—I think it was, like, 210 pounds or something like that, but that's a lot for a woman but not that much for a man. You could do it with one hand.

And he goes—looks down at the weight.

[ Laughter ] Did it—I think he did a few things for emphasis. And he won the medal. And everyone said, "Oh, isn't that wonderful?"

Are we crazy? Men should not be able to participate in women's sports. Right?

That's a 99-percent issue. Do you ever hear the fake news, they say, "That's an 80/20 issue." No, it's not. It's 99/1. [ Laughter ]

You know, I've been doing politics now for 10 years—not that long, considering I've been—I've won 3 elections. You know, it's really not, but—[ laughter ]—we did great in the second one. It was a rigged deal. But pretty short. But with all of that, in all of the time I spent speaking to people, they say: "Sir, could you cut taxes on this? Could you get me a tax deduction on a car loan?" I did that. By the way, I did that.

If you buy—if you borrow money to buy a car, you get a deal. All these thing—they asked me for hundreds of things. Not once did anyone ever come up to me and say: "Sir, please, this is so vital. You have to be able to have men play in women's sports. Please, sir, could you pull that off?" I've never had anyone ask me for that.

So I say it's a 99-to-1 issue, not 80/20. The fake news back there, they say, "Oh, that's a tight issue." But I don't like talking about it because I want them to continue on with that. I want them to continue on with the—you know, they're in favor of the mutilization of your child for transgender purposes—the mutilization of your child.

Boo!

And I would say, politically, it's a very good thing to run against a person that's in favor of that kind of stuff.

So we let them—we don't bring it up during off-political seasons, but we have a political season coming up, and they'll be doing all of that nonsense, and they're going to lose a lot of elections.

And now, if you look at New York, we have all Communists running. They're all excited. They're going to win their primaries. But I can't imagine they can beat a normal Republican. So I think it's a good thing, Meuser.

What do you think? I think it's a good thing. Wouldn't you like to run against somebody like that?

Well, Shapiro is not that much better, to be honest with you. But I won't say——

Boo!