Speech transcript, Sep 9, 2026 (Donald Trump)

And oil was low. I was in Iowa. The oil was at $1.85 a gallon for cars. There was another one, $1.95, but I saw that last one, $1.85. We were doing great.

I called them all into the office. I said: "Fellas, I hate to do this to you. We have the best records we've ever had, but we have a country that's 2, maybe 3 weeks away from having a nuclear weapon, and it's the state sponsor of terror all over the world. Considered just about the most evil country. We cannot let them have a nuclear weapon."

And a couple of them, including Scott, who's a great financial guy—"Sir, is there any time we could do it later, maybe, sir?" [ Laughter ] "You think you could hold off in this a little bit, sir?"

I said: "No, because if we don't hit them now, they're going to have a nuclear weapon within 1 month." You know, the places we bombed would have been turned into nuclear weapons. I call it nuclear dust right now, but the nuclear dust can get very violent. And we hit them really hard. We did an amazing job.

Those B–2 bombers came in from Missouri—from Missouri, the home of Eric Schmitt. Came in from—from the great State of Missouri. They flew for 37 hours back and forth. They refueled four times up in the air. And they bombed the hell out of them, and they knocked them out.

And we may have to do it—there's another place called Pickaxe Mountain, another nice place. We may have to give them a shot there too because somebody said there was a little movement at the site.

We don't need much. We see everything. You know, because of Space Force—which was my baby, I have to say the first term—we can see everything. We can see the tag on their coat.

Mohamed Al-Fayed—[ laughter ]—says Mohamed. It's never Mohamed—it's never Mohamed Jones, Mohamed Smith. [ Laughter ] Mohamed Alizuri. And it says right on his tag. We can read it from space. Can you believe this? Thousands of miles away, and we're reading somebody's—we know exactly what's going on.

But we notice there's a little activity at Pickaxe. I would advise Iran not to get cute because we will have to hit them very hard. We have no choice, right? We have no choice.

Does anybody here think that Iran should have a nuclear weapon? Anybody?

No!

Who feels Iran should not have a nuclear weapon?

You know, it happens to me all the time. Guys come up: "You know, I wish you didn't do the war in Iran. Gasoline's up, bah-bah-bah-bah."

And I say, "Well, let me ask you just"—smart people. "Let me ask you"—not too many of them, by the way—[ laughter ]—"let me ask you one question: Can Iran have a nuclear weapon?" "Absolutely not." Well, then I'm right. Then, I win.

Okay, because, you know, for 51 years—they always say 47—but you know, I've been saying that for 4 years. [ Laughter ] For 51 years, people have been trying to—and other Presidents have been trying to talk them out of it, but they don't understand talk—these people. They don't understand. They only understand one thing, and that's—they're getting plenty of it.

Between our Venezuelan oil deal, all of our new mineral deals, trillions and trillions of dollars that were taken in with my most favorite word, but now I moved it to fifth place. You know that, right? [ Laughter ]

Because the press—for the few people that haven't heard this story—"tariff." I said, "'Tariff' is my favorite word in the whole dictionary." My favorite. I love the word.

And I said that at one of the big rallies I had a while ago. "'Tariffs' are my favorite word. It's going to make America rich." It's making us much richer than we ever thought. But we're taking in trillions of dollars. Okay.

But I said, "'Tariff' is my favorite word." And the fake news went crazy. They said, "What about 'love'? What about 'wife'? What about 'God,' 'religion,' 'family'?"

So I moved "tariff" down to fifth. [ Laughter ] And now I'm okay. Now, I'm okay. They've been leaving me alone. Oh, they hit me hard. They hit me hard. They said: "'Tariff'? What about 'religion'?" So I moved it to fifth, and now they've been pretty good. I'm surprised they didn't move me deeper. [ Laughter ]

But trillions of dollars in tariff revenue have come in, and record investments from foreign countries and our enormous new equity stakes in major companies. I did something. I'm getting killed for it.

Intel—Intel is a good—really good company. But what happened is stupid Presidents allowed the chip business to leave our country and go to Taiwan. And—stupid. All they had to do is put tariffs on. They wouldn't have left.

In other words: "Taiwan, if you're going to sell chips to America, you've got to pay 100 percent. Got to pay 200 percent, 50 percent, anything." And you wouldn't have had—but they didn't do that until I came along.

What happened is, Intel became old and tired and got in trouble. And they came to see me. The head of Intel, who's a nice man, actually. And he said, "Sir, I need your help." And he said why, whatever it was. [ Laughter ] And I said, "Well, you came to the right place. I'm the only one that can help you." I was there with Scott and Howard Lutnick—our Commerce Secretary, he's doing a good job—and a couple of others.

I said, "I'm the only one that can—I'm the only one that can help you." I said, "Here's a deal. Give the United States of America 10 percent of Intel." Now think—I think it was worth like $120 billion dollars. You know, it lost its way, but it's still worth a lot of money. I say, "Give the United States of America 10 percent of Intel, and I'll get this problem solved for you."

He stood up immediately, and he said, "You have a deal." And I said, "I should have asked for more." [ Laughter ] I said to my guys, "What the hell's wrong with me?" But, anyway, I shook his hand. But that was worth $12 billion. So, in one meeting, I picked up $12 billion.

But what's happened—well, that's not even the good part, because what happened to Intel is amazing. It, like, became the number-one stock on the exchange—various exchanges, by the way.

And I don't know. I see Scott up there. He made a great speech, by the way. I see Scott. Scott, how many times has it doubled and tripled and quadrupled? What's it now, Scott? How much is it worth?

Five.

He said five times. No, it's worth, like—I think we made a $60 billion profit. Something like that. If I'm wrong, they'll say—if I'm wrong, they'll say, "Horrible." So let me lower the number just—because if I'm wrong, they'll say, "He exaggerated the number." But it went up like four or five times.

We made $50- or $60 billion in just a number of months. And it's one of the hottest stocks on the stock exchanges. Because it's numerous exchanges and more than one. And it's been amazing.

Do I get credit for it? No. [ Laughter ] Do I get credit for building a ballroom with my money? Where I've—I'm the only one. I build a ballroom. No money, no tax. I don't want tax money. I don't want anything. It's me and a bunch of patriots. They put up lots of money to build this, which is desperately needed, and it's going to be beautiful. And everyone's going to say, "Oh, thank God." No, it's going to be beautiful. Zero tax dollars for the ballroom. Zero tax dollars.

And what happens? I get criticized. It's the most incredible thing. Anybody else would do that, they'd say, "What a nice gesture." [ Laughter ]

So I'm giving you a ballroom free of charge. Okay? That's all I can tell you. And it will be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world. It will be the best. And it's, by the way, drone-proof, bulletproof, everything-proof. It's got glass this thick—6 inches thick.

It's going to be great. It's going to be a little safer than the place that we happened to have that little White House Correspondents' Dinner. You remember that? That was not the safest feeling. This is going to be great. But we give it to you tax-free, and I hope you enjoy it.

You know, the other thing is that I'm only going to get to use it a few months. It's going to be built. We're on time. We're under budget, actually, and ahead of schedule.

And I'll only get to use it. People forget. You know, they say, "He's building a ballroom for himself." No, I'll be there for a few months. [ Laughter ] It's—I'd love to have it for a long time. But they've wanted a ballroom at the White House—Presidents—for 150 years.

You know, we have the President of China coming in 2 weeks, who's—you know, I'm—I get along great with him. We have a very good—that's better. You know, it's a good thing, not a bad thing. Some people say, "Oh, it's terrible." No, it's a very good thing.

But we have, like, 101 people. We could have 2,000 people. I could have—this whole stadium would like to go there. So we're building something that's going to be the most beautiful anywhere in the world.

When I was in China, they have a building. It's called the Great Hall of China. It's a serious hall. This is a very large hall, but we're going to top it. You know, we're going to top it.

And it's going to be at the White House, and all these Presidents to come—hopefully, mostly Republicans, but Democrats also—are going to be very thankful that they have it, and it's going to be an honor to—to do it.

And I just want to say that the radical-left Democrats will not have and could not have—and this is very important because I'm getting to maybe—maybe—what will be the best part of the speech.

So, while I—because I love the weave. You know what the weave is? You talk about something, then you bring in a ballroom or you bring in an airplane or you bring an Air Force One, but you notice I always get right back to the same topic.

Now——

We love Melania!

——when I don't come back—she's great. He loves—he says, "I love Melania." She's doing a good job.

So, when someday there will be a time when I do the weave—is weave. Weave. Someday there'll be a time when I don't get back to the original subject, and then you can say "he's had it." Okay? [ Laughter ] You can say then "he's had it."

But what we're doing is because we've done so well and because our country is making so much money that only I can make this promise to you.

And here is my promise: If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate—both of them—because of our economic—tremendous economic success—like, in—in history, we've never had anything like what's happening—but because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.

Very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders or like last year when I gave our great members of the military $1,776. Remember? I gave it to our military: $1,776. Can you believe—the number was $1,775. And I said, "You know, if we had $1, we're at $1,776." Can you—I said, "Did anybody think of that?" No. [ Laughter ]

But we gave our great military $1,776, and they are thrilled. Every time I see them, they thank me. But this is what we're doing, and it was greatly appreciated.

Just like I did with the Trump Accounts for children, where young people, children—and many of them born into poverty or families with very little money or future will be potentially rich when they turn 18 or 21.

Think of it. Their family won't have much money, but the Government is putting a thousand dollars into an account for beautiful babies born. But, in many cases, they're born into poverty. They're born poor. They're born not rich, but they get a thousand dollars, and we do matching funds and all sorts of things. And Michael and Susan Dell—he put up—think of this. He put up $6,250,000,000. So far, he's the largest—anybody in the room like to challenge that number and put up a little? [ Laughter ]

So go out and buy his computers. He's a very good guy. Now they'll say, "Oh, he's making a political"—I'm not making—the guy gave us $6,250,000,000. And he did that not because he had to, because he really wanted to do it.

And children are going to turn 18 or 19 or 20 or 21. They're going to have an account. And if the market is good—like, if the market's like today, they become quite rich at a very young age, instead of having no money whatsoever. It's an amazing thing and very popular.

We have other people, by the way. We have other rich people. They took the entire State. Somebody put up the entire State of Indiana, putting up money for every child born in the entire State. Brad, thank you very much.

But the only condition on the payment of this dividend that we're going to be making—so, it's $5,000 to every adult. The only caveat I have is that the dividend that we're making must be spent in the United States of America. We don't want you—we don't want you going to Canada to spend the money. [ Laughter ] We don't want you going to China, to Germany. You've got to spend the money in the United States of America. In other words, if the Republicans win—if you win—we might not win.

The reason the Democrats can't do that is because they don't do tariffs, they don't take in money. All they know is poverty and how to ruin our country. But we're making a fortune.

So, if the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump dividend. We'll call it the Trump dividend. Congratulations. Now all we have to do—now all we have to do is win.

Under my leadership, we also made our historic most-favored-nation agreements on drug prices. Nobody thought it was possible. For decades, Americans paid the highest prices for prescription drugs anywhere in the world. We paid the highest drug prices in the world. And now, because of what I did with Bobby Kennedy, who's over there, with Dr. Oz, who's over there—stand up. Thank you. Bobby, Dr. Oz—we have a great group.

So we went from the highest prices by far in the world, and now we pay the lowest prices in the entire world for prescription drugs.

And nobody wants to write a story about it. I'm trying to get the press—I think it's one of the biggest things to happen medically, health care-wise, in history. I cannot get a story out of it. I'm trying. I'm saying, "Would you please tell the people how great I am, please?" [ Laughter ]

But I'm giving you the largest prescription drug price cuts in history, with differences of 400, 500, and even 600 percent. Think of that. And that alone should win the midterms. Honestly, if we did nothing else, that should—because everybody said—other Presidents tried and they failed. They weren't able to do it. But I would call countries. The big problem—I got the drug companies to do it. But I would call countries. The big problem—I got the drug companies to do it. But I would call —but they knew that I couldn't get it from countries.

Never got—I would call France. I would call other countries. In the case of France, I would speak to President Macron. Beautiful accent. Wonderful guy. I'd say: "Emmanuel, please, please do us a favor. You have to double or triple the drug prices in France, if you don't mind, because you're paying $10 for a pill, and we're paying $130 for the same pill." So the concept is, they'll go up somewhat, and we'll come way down, because the world is bigger than us, so it's disproportionate down.

So he said: "No, no, no, I will not do that, Donald. Why would I do a thing?" I said, "You have no choice. You're going to do it." [ Laughter ] He said, "No, no, I will not do that, Donald. You don't understand. I will not do that, Mr. President." [ Laughter ]

I said: "Yes, you will. I will tell you: You will do it because if you don't do it, I am putting a 150-percent tariff on all wines and everything else coming into the United States."

And he said, "Donald, you really can't do that." I said: "Yes, I can. I have the papers in front of me. I'm going to sign them right now." He said, "Donald, I would love to do that." [ Laughter ] So he agreed.

And I had the same conversation with about 25 other countries. I had to get their approval. Got everybody's approval. It was—whether it's wine, champagne, cars, it was always something. Everybody's got a weak spot. Remember that in life: Everybody has a weak spot. I won't tell you what my weak spot is. I refuse to say. [ Laughter ]

But, on the world stage, America is respected again like we have never been respected before, that I can tell you.

And here at home, we ended the woke madness Democrats cruelly inflicted upon America. We abolished all of the diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates across the Federal Government. We made English the official language of the United States of America.

We banned transgender ideology and critical race theory from our public schools—and ended the transgender mutilization of our children. There will be no more mutilization—which is what it was—of our children. And so importantly, will—we will not have men playing in women's sports. Won't happen.

And every single Democrat in Congress voted against our tax cuts. They voted against no tax on tips. This is every single one. It's incredible that Congress—the Senate, the House—that they were able to get this passed. They voted against no tax on tips. They voted against no tax on overtime. They voted against—a hundred percent—no tax on Social Security for our great seniors.

They want to raise your taxes on Social Security. They want to raise your taxes on tips. They want to take—they want to get rid of no tax on tips. They want to get rid of no tax on Social Security for the seniors.

They want to get rid of—think of it. The overtime now is going wild. Companies love it. The people love it. They don't have to pay tax when they work overtime. They're working the longest hours. It's great—it's like a great incentive. They want to get rid of no tax on overtime.

Every Democrat voted against funding for the border security bill. They voted against funding on everything—the wall. They voted against voter ID. They voted against proof of citizenship. They voted against funding for our military and for our vets. They voted in favor——

Boo!

They voted in favor of transgender everything—taxpayer-funded child mutilization——

Boo!

——and they voted in favor of men playing in women's sports.

Boo!

Congressional Democrats voted against the American people every single time, and now they want you to vote "yes" on handing them the majority so they can take us back. They want to take back every single thing that Republicans, through a lot of really hard work and a lot of very brilliant thinking, gave you. All of those taxes are going to go through the roof if you put in the Democrats.

On November 3, we will tell the radical-left Democrats that we will never believe you again, we are never going back to where we were just 2 years ago when our country was an embarrassment.

Our country was an embarrassment.

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

No, our country was an—we had a President that couldn't walk off the stage. [ Laughter ] You know, there's so many stairs—one here, one there, one—he'd finish the speech. We—the speeches only lasted about a minute, 'til he—[ laughter ]. "Where am I? Where?" Remember the time he walked into the wall in the back? [ Laughter ] He thought it was a stair. Couldn't sign his name in a document. Autopenned everything. Horrible.

In this election, the Democrats have nominated the most extreme and dangerous group of candidates for the House and Senate ever to seek office. These people are radical-left Communists. Many of them. Not all of them, but many of them.

In State after State, the Democrat establishment has been overthrown and replaced by crazed lunatics and radicals. They call themselves Democrat Socialists, but, actually, they're Communists. They're not Socialists. They're long beyond Socialists.

Remember during the last State of the Union? I said, "Our country will never be a socialist country." I was right. It's going to be a communist country if they win. [ Laughter ]

You know what they did? They dropped socialism. They went right for the big one. They went right for the big one. They didn't want socialism anymore.

They're crazy. They're crazy. Remember I said that during the State of the Union? I shouldn't have said it. It was very rude. [ Laughter ]

But we're handing out the Medal of Honor to a man that landed a helicopter with his leg virtually blown off in Venezuela—flawlessly landed a big Chinook. That's the double-blader. Big. Carrying many, many soldiers. Most people would have been out. He took that helicopter, landed it perfectly. We then were able to get Maduro Moros, NicolasMaduro. If we didn't land it, we would have had a big problem.

And we presented him—and others—but we presented him with the congressional Medal of Honor. Boy, did he deserve it. And they sat there—remember?—like this.

They wouldn't clap. They would—now, I have to tell you, though, at the end of that State of the Union, they were clapping for everything. You know why? People were calling them, saying, "You guys are being slaughtered tonight." [ Laughter ] They wouldn't clap. Remember the hundred-year-old soldier that I gave a special—a special reward to? Very special. The most special. They refused to clap. He was 104 years old. They refused to clap.

So some wise Democrat called them up and said: "You people are crazy. You'd better start clapping. He's making you look"—and, you know, honestly, they were clapping for everything. [ Laughter ] I could say anything. They were clapping. They were going wild. So they went from one extreme to the other. You know why? Because they're "Dumocrats." That's why. [ Laughter ]

But America has beaten communism before, and we will beat it again. We've beaten it before. The new "Democrat Communists" have even published a manifesto. Do you believe it? We have a manifesto in our country.

They vow to abolish the police. That makes a lot of sense. Abolish prisons. Abolish the United States Supreme Court. Abolish the United States Senators. We have some very unhappy Senators sitting right over there. [ Laughter ] They want to abolish ICE. They want to abolish Border Patrol.

And, Paul, you were great tonight, wherever the—you are. The head of Border Patrol. He was great.

And they want to grant full amnesty and voting rights to all illegal aliens, regardless of whether they were criminals, murderers, or any other type. Everybody gets it.

Boo!

If you were a murderer, you get to vote.

Boo!

They want to ban all oil and gas, which I would think in Texas will give Ken a very big victory. No, think of it. They want to ban oil and gas. [ Laughter ] I—We're in Texas. [ Laughter ]

I mean, this guy—Talafreako, he—this guy is terrible. [ Laughter ]

They want to defund the United States military and lower my very high standard on health care for our great vets. You know, they want to take away health care for our veterans.

Boo!

They want to steal your money for reparations——

Boo!

They want to, basically, punish you for crimes that you never committed that happened hundreds of years ago. And our country doesn't have that kind of money. They have the money for $5,000, but they don't have that kind of money. [ Laughter ] And give it to the people that hate our country. The people that hate our country are asking for it, but it's going nowhere.

And while—by the way, as long as you have Republicans, it's not even—it's, you know—you know, our party is really—we can say conservative, all that. Our party is really based on a thing called "common sense." It's all common sense. It's all common sense.

But these are people who do not care if your country is invaded by illegal immigrants, if your home is burglarized, if your parks and city streets are turned to filth and squalor and death, if your loved ones are pushed in front of a subway train in New York City or stabbed in the middle of a field in any State you want to pick. They don't care, because they hate our country. And they are Democrats. And they're very, very wrong.

On election night, we're going to prove that America does not belong to those who hate it. America belongs to those who love it.

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

One of America's—I mean, we have so many great people here tonight. It's so sad, because I'd like to mention every one of them. We have so many great Senators, so many great Congresspeople, but you can't—time.

One of the Democrats' top congressional candidates is a self-describes Marxist who says he hates family households—oh, that's nice—and wants to destroy the American way of life. These are words he used.

Another quotes Karl Marx, saying she wants to "seize the means of production" and puts the works of Communist butchers like Lenin, Stalin into every library. They want to put the books of Lenin—Len-een, as they say; Len-een—Lenin and Stalin in every library for all our young children to read and study.

These are Democrat Party's nominees to wield control over the United States Congress. If they win, the greatest legislative body in history will, for the first time ever, be controlled by a communist caucus. They'll have a caucus of 20 people, 18 people, 10 people. That's enough to control Congress.

Mike Johnson will tell you that we've got enough problems, right? [ Laughter ] We have enough—we have enough, Mike. How would you feel about having 22 Communists in your in your little group?

Boo!

Mike says, "No, please." I can't—we have—it's enough problems getting people to vote who aren't good people. We have a couple of them, but mostly they're gone-zo. We take care of our bad people. We take really good care of our good people, though.

But we're not going to let the communism happen—not here, not in America, not in our 250th year.

There's an example. In Florida, the Democrat nominee for Senate, Angie Nixon——

Boo!

No relation to Richard Nixon. [ Laughter ] I—the first thing I did, I wanted to check: Is she related at all to Richard Nixon? No—is a card-carrying member of the Democrat Socialists of America.

In Michigan—the Democrat nominee is Abdul El-Sayed——

Boo!

——who brags about the fact that he wants to pack the Supreme Court with 23 far-left lunatics, Justices.

Boo!

His sister, who's absolutely—you've got to listen to this one. His sister celebrated the terrorist slaughter of babies on October 7. She thought it was a great thing.

Boo!

His sister thought it was a great day.

His mother worked for an organization that gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to people that follow Usama bin Laden, and he campaigns with a Marxist agitator who says that America deserved 9/11. We deserved to have 3,000 people killed——

Boo!

——two massive structures brought to the ground. We deserved it, right?

Yet the Democrats want to make this extremist a U.S. Senator.

No!

And running against somebody really good. He's—fortunately, we have a man named Mike Rogers, who's great. So, on November 3, get out and vote for Mike Rogers.

Now, in North Carolina, you have a little more difficult case, because people don't quite get it, but they're going to find out. Democrats nominated Roy Cooper——

Boo!

——who worked with antipolice radicals to release thousands and thousands of dangerous criminals and murderers all over the once-safe streets and countryside of beautiful North Carolina. My daughter-in-law Lara, loves North Carolina. She comes from there.

And last year, on a train in Charlotte—you all saw it—one monster—an absolute monster—with 14 prior arrests—nothing but trouble; violent person—stood up behind a beautiful 23-year-old woman, Iryna Zarutska, and slashed a knife from behind across her neck and killed her almost instantly. Other than a look she gave up—"What happened?"—that was her last thought. It was her last look.

He was an animal, a violent killer. And everyone knew it. They all knew it. They all knew he was destined to kill. He loomed over her as the life drained from her—absolutely petrified.

You've all seen it, and you don't want to see any more than the—than the putting of the knife. If you wanted to look at something as horrific as anything you'll ever see, let that tape run. Most networks—and I give them credit for this—they wouldn't let that happen. It was violent. I—unfortunately, because of my position, I was forced to look. I did not like it. I did not like looking at—I wish I never saw it.

She died on a metro train terrified and alone. I got to meet her mother at the State of the Union. She was there. She was—it was quite a while afterwards—and the mother's—she said, "I haven't stopped crying since it took place." Never. She'll never be the same.

Roy Cooper was the Governor who released this animal into North Carolina society—and others that were——

Boo!

——and others that were almost as bad.

This happened up in Massachusetts a long time ago, when they released a violent criminal. And that man killed numerous women very quickly—raped and killed them right after being released.

And as you know, that Governor from Massachusetts was running for President. And he was leading. And as soon as that happened, he took a 10-point drop and then another 10-point drop—and then he got beat in a slaughter.

That should happen to Roy Cooper, because Roy Cooper—what he's done is worse.

Whatley! Whatley! Whatley!