Remarks transcript, Sep 4, 2026 (Donald Trump)

So let me ask you: If I decide to go up to your part of the—your neck of the woods, so to speak—right?—and I say I want to take a lovely walk in this beautiful farm country, in this beautiful area, but I don't want a gun because they don't let me have guns and things like that, do people actually walk around without guns to protect themselves up there? [ Laughter ]

Yes, and then bad things happen.

Yes. I'm not walking around without a gun. [ Laughter ] It's a good reason. It's a good reason. Second Amendment. But it's a good reason.

What about you? I mean, if I want to take a walk, do you have the problem with the wolves, too?

We're in southern Wisconsin, Muscoda. Not——

That's good. I like——

Not too many Mexican gray wolves up there.

I like Wisconsin. [ Laughter ]

Maybe someday——

And we won——

——if we don't prevent it.

——Wisconsin by a lot. I like Wisconsin. [ Laughter ]

Arizona.

Sir.

Do they walk around without guns?

The people who are from Arizona do not walk anywhere without a gun, sir.

But other people—innocent people walking around, and they can get in bad shape, right?

Yes, sir.

It's very dangerous.

Not only wolves. There's other things in Arizona too.

What other—what else you have?

Well, we have a lot of crime coming across the border. You've slowed that down quite a bit.

Not "quite a bit."

Hundred percent.

Much more than "quite a"—we've——

Yes, sir.

We've stopped it.

Yes.

We've stopped it.

You know they've had zero illegal aliens come through the border in the last 14 months? Zero.

That's awesome.

But what you had is unbelievable. That was really a problem. Huh?

Sir, he's also had a major problem with solar.

Well, he has the remnants of what—from Biden, though. You still have that, and we're getting most of them out. We're taking them out.

Well, there's a lot of them that Katie Hobbs is protecting, and it's hard to get those out.

We have to fight her all the time. She's bad news. We have to fight her all the time.

And they have the sanctuary city stuff. They're protecting rapists. They're protecting murderers. It's incredible. Yes, it's a problem.

Sir, she's also trying to take his ranch by putting solar panels on it——

For what?

——Casey.

Katie Hobbs has—I ranch on State ground that I lease. It's been in my family for over 100 years. Katie Hobbs has offered those lands up to solar development companies, and if it had—

So you have a nice, big 10-mile-by-10-mile——

Huge.

——solar piece of black plastic. Right?

If it had not been for your Secretary of Agriculture, I would already be gone, sir. She's managed to hold them off. Not permanently, but if it hadn't been for her, I would not be a rancher anymore.

Mr. President, I want to thank you. You've been one of the most pro-farmer/rancher Presidents I've ever seen in my lifetime——

What do you mean "one of the most"? [ Laughter ]

The most.

But the liberal left——

Huh? I don't think one.

We've been attacked by the "green new deal," by eminent domain lawfare, by Meatless Mondays. That's really—I don't think we've been——

Well, I ended the "green new deal" at least, right?

Thank you very much, sir.

We ended that nonsense. The "green new deal"—can you believe it? It's all a hoax.

Emissions on cow burps. [ Laughter ]

That was like Russia, Russia, Russia—a total hoax.

Yes.

Anyway. But things are a lot better now, right?

Much better, sir.

Okay. Well, they're going to be better after today. A lot better.

So I want to now ask some of our great people—they're going to get up and say a few words. Joe Thomas, who was a great NFL champion player. I wouldn't want to play him in football. I can tell you that. I'd play golf against him, but—[ laughter ]——

You'd kill me in golf.

But I wouldn't want to play him in football. But Joe is going to say a few words, and then we'll have Secretary Rollins sign—come up and speak, and then I'm going to sign two Executive orders that are going to be very earthshaking from the standpoint of positivity for our ranchers and for our farmers, who I love. I love them. They're great people. They built our nation. They fed our Nation. They built our Nation, and we're going to take care of them.

Okay. Please, Joe, go ahead.

Thanks, Mr. President. On behalf of rural America, farmers, and ranchers, we just want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to come in here today, tell our story, bring issues that are important to us that are affecting our livelihood and our ability to continue raising the best, healthiest beef on planet Earth, which is product-of-the-U.S.A. cattle—born, raised, and processed right here; helping us have the opportunity to select competitive prices with different processing to be able to keep the amazing beef that we're raising close to the farm—as close to home as possible; to feed the most nutritious protein on planet Earth, which is beef, to those communities that are in need.

And you have a big—how many—how many head do you have?

We've got a couple thousand in Wisconsin. Hoping to be bigger.

How long were you in the NFL?

Eleven years.

Eleven years. That's a lot.

I feel it. Yes. [ Laughter ] It feels a lot.

You look pretty good. You look pretty good.

Hall of Famer.

Yes.

And you were a great basketball player, right?

I was. I was.

Like, great?

Not at the pro level.

Well, you know, they're going to have a child, and they have children who are very tall. [ Laughter ] They're very tall. I don't have to look at them. I don't have to even think. They're tall and handsome and beautiful.

Brooke, do you want to say a few words?

Yes, sir. Thank you, and thanks to all these incredible ranchers from all over the country.

You mentioned in your remarks that 2023 was a really, really bad year, and there are a lot of reasons for that.

That was a Biden year, not a Trump year. [ Laughter ]

That's right. You mentioned we lost almost $90 billion in the farm economy. There are a lot of reasons for that. The cost of inputs went up around 40 percent for our farmers during those 4 years. But also, there was not one new trade deal in 4 years. We lost $50 billion in markets around the world just for our farmers.

So what you have done—and this administration all on deck—to reverse that trend: 20 new trade deals. We've cut that agricultural trade deficit in half. We're having record exports around the world: corn, tree nuts, dairy, wheat. Everything is just—it's turning around. Inputs are coming down.

Fertilizer—we're down 60 percent from Biden-era highs in fertilizer, and no one thought that was possible, especially with the Strait of Hormuz. But with the energy independence agenda, it has allowed these farmers to continue farming when a lot of countries around the world are not because of the fertilizer issue, just to name a few.

But today we're here to talk about ranching in America. In the last 45 years, since 1980, we've lost 600,000 ranchers in this country. We cannot continue freedom in America without those who feed and fuel us.

And so today this signal to our ranchers, the signal to rural America, but really the signal to the world is that American ranching and American farmers are back.

And I just couldn't be more proud. You're signing these two EOs today with four major pieces in them. On Monday, I was in Nebraska announcing another slate of pro-rancher, big, big, big changes to—to the way we do policy in Washington for our ranchers and farmers. And then, a year ago, we started this process of making sure there's more competition and that our ranchers could thrive.

Amanda is a sixth-generation South Dakotan rancher, but Joe is a first-generation Wisconsin rancher. We have to protect this way of life for the future—for the first gens but also for the seventh, eighth, and ninth generation.

So, sir, I just—we're just so grateful. Thank you.

And your charts that you're holding? How about taking a look at them.

Yes, you know me and my charts.

Well, it's interesting, and this actually is really—this is—this chart talks about how we've lost all of our ranchers—as I mentioned, 660,000 since 1980. But this is a testimony to the extraordinary ranchers, the ingenuity, the innovation. We do beef better in America than anywhere in the world. So what this red line shows is that while we've lost all these ranchers, we've retained a lot and that we've been able to continue to keep up, at least with the production of beef.

But while we're talking about that, one other thing the President and I talk about quite a bit is the cost of food, and I know that has been a major part of the conversations in the last year or so. And I think what's really important—we talk about 2023 just being a catastrophic year for farmers and ranchers. One thing: That was the year that we began to import more food for the first time under Joe Biden. Again, freedom if you can't feed yourself.

But in the last year—food went up 25 percent in those 4 years under Biden. In just the last year and a half, every category of food has gone down, except a couple of outliers. What we're trying to solve today is the cattle herd low, so we've already begun to see beef come down.

But these numbers are amazing. Of course, we know eggs are down 90 percent. Chicken breasts are down. Pork is down. Other great proteins are down for the great American families. So I believe all really good news for our families, for our ranchers, for our rural communities, and for all of America.

So eggs are down 90 percent. If you remember, during my first news conference—the day after we won, actually—the eggs were up four or five times what they were a short time before. People were screaming at me about the eggs—the egg prices.

And we brought them way down, right?

Mm-hmm, 90 percent. Yes, it's remarkable.

Down to where they were when I—during my administration. They went up during the Biden administration unbelievably. So you have a lot of cost reductions, and the beef is coming down too.

That's right.

Beef is starting to come down. It's trending very strongly down too. So it's good.

We inherited these high prices. We inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country, and—from the Biden administration—and the prices are coming down, not only of food, but just about of everything else. It's been amazing.

And today they announced 162,000 jobs—new jobs, which was about five times more than the projection. And sadly, I said, "Oh, the number is doing so good, the country is doing so well." Watch, the stock market will go down because we have good numbers. Because everyone—every time you have good numbers, the stock market goes down. When you have bad numbers, it goes up because of the stupidity of the way they think about inflation.

And growth does not cause inflation. Stupidity causes inflation. [ Laughter ] And we have to change our ways, because we had fantastic job numbers today, and stock market should go up.

You know, 25 years ago, when you announced good numbers, the stock market went up because you had a better credit. Your company—your country, or your company, I guess you could say, if it was a company, but it's a country.

When we announce great job numbers, 162,000, that's like four or five times more than what they thought, but—the projections by the great geniuses. But when you announce great numbers, your numbers should—your—everything should go up. It shouldn't go down. It's always the reverse. For 25 years, it's been that way because of inflation.

And, again, success does not cause inflation. Stupidity causes inflation.

So, hopefully, we get a change, when we have a day like this, where the numbers are phenomenal, so much better than anyone thought possible.

And you've seen nothing yet. I mean, with those factories—we're building more factories and plants in the United States today than at any time in the history of our country. We have over $20 trillion reinvested in this country, which is more than at any time times five. Where there's never been any time in the history of our—

And the reason we do it is because of our trade policies, tariffs, and other reasons, other things, and also the threat that if a country doesn't treat us fairly, we're not going to trade with that country anymore.

So we had great numbers today. Unbelievable numbers coming out. And really, our—you know, we should have a GDP of—we should be allowed to have a GDP of 12, 13, 14, 15, instead of 2, 3, and 4 all the time.

And under this administration, we are doing so well. We could have a growth—we could have a GDP that would break every single record. But you have to be smart. When we have great numbers, the stock market should go up; it should not go down.

So do you have any questions?

Mr. President, on the job numbers today——

Go ahead, please.

Mr. President, the Vice President said yesterday that he would not describe the conflict with Iran as a war, but the U.S. resumed strikes for the first time in recent weeks. Can you explain to the American people, if this is not a war, what exactly is it?

Well, I tell you what: A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing.

We did Venezuela, and we did this. In Venezuela, we lost nobody. In this we lost 18 people. And in Vietnam, you lost 100,000 people. And in other conflicts, you lost tens of thousands of people.

I would say that it's intermittent. You know, we do intermittent strikes. So I under—I heard what he said, and it was interesting because I think that there's a lot of truth to it. We're not fighting right now. There's no fighting.

We're taking out a lot of oil. We control the Hormuz Strait. We control it very strongly. We did a hit on certain areas around the Hormuz Strait. We took out their radar, as you know. You know that very well. We took out some aircraft. We took out some other things that protect—for them, used to protect the Hormuz Strait when they had it under very tight control. But now we control it, and we're taking out—last night, we took a lot of boats. A lot of ships came through. And they come through every day.

So I can understand what he's saying. It's a military conflict, but it's very intermittent. I could see somebody not calling it a war.

Yes, please.

But it certainly doesn't feel like small potatoes, Mr. President. Eighteen people have died in this.

Yes.

It certainly doesn't feel like small potatoes. Eighteen service members have died. We're seeing record-long deployments. You initially said this would last——

Record long. Wait. Why is it record long? So——

Well, the 82d Airborne is now——

How long were we in Vietnam?

——going to be extended to a year.

How long were we in Vietnam?

We're seeing record——

No, no. How long were we in Vietnam?

The U.S. Abraham Lincoln was out for more than——

We're in 5 months now.

——250 days at sea.

We've been—and you know what we did in 5 months? They're not going to have a nuclear weapon. That's what we did. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, because if they did, you probably wouldn't be standing here very long. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. We've stopped them from having——

We may hit Pickaxe very soon because—if there was anything going on with Pickaxe. But because of—because of all of the things——

You know, we're leading in space now by a lot. When I first took over in my first term, we were a distant third to Russia and to China. We're leading in space.

We know every—everybody that's moving at Pickaxe. We know everybody that's moving everywhere, all over Iran.

And if anything goes bad, we hit them. We hit them hard. But we've been in there for 5 months, and in 5 months, what did we do? We stopped them from having a nuclear weapon.

If we didn't go in there, you wouldn't have Israel right now. You wouldn't have the Middle East. And they probably would go at European cities and our cities next. But we stopped them from having a nuclear weapon in 5 months.

So are you ready to declare victory and walk away?

And you know what? We lost 18 souls—18 great souls. I was there to greet the families of those people at Dover, and they're great. I got very friendly with some of the families. They were incredible families.

But—and one is too much. But in Vietnam, we lost tens of thousands of people. In Afghanistan, we lost a lot. Sleepy Joe Biden lost 13 just by standing at an airport, in an airport that they shouldn't have been in because they should have used Bagram, not the local, little airport right in the middle of a city. They lost 13. But they lost 78 people in terms of their arms, their legs, their face was just wiped out. You don't mention that. You don't mention that.

What we've done is amazing. We took over Venezuela, and we have essentially taken over Iran.

Now, we—there's been no shooting for days. Before the hit that we gave them the other night to wipe out their—they had radar. They had very sophisticated—they brought in radar because we knocked it out once. Now we knocked it out twice. Now we don't notice any activity. I think they're tired of putting it in and getting blown.

But the Strait of Hormuz is taking a lot of ships. We're getting a lot of ships out of there. A lot of oil is coming out of the Strait. There are no mines whatsoever. We have no mines. You know why? We took out all the mines. They had some mines. We took them all with our minesweepers. They go underwater. Nobody can see them. The best in the world.

So we're doing a great job, and we will—I would say it's a military conflict. If you want, some people could call it a war—I don't think it matters what you call it. What matters is the fact that we have had tremendous success. We stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon.