Remarks transcript, Sep 10, 2026 (Donald Trump)

Thank you. Wow. This is a very nice place, Charlotte. A good job. [ Laughter ] What a good job. Your parents are so proud of you. They're beaming. I don't know if they're beaming about me, but they're beaming about you. I could see it.

But I'm thrilled to be here at the National Medal of Honor Museum. It's got a great reputation already all over the world, but it's very special—for all of us, but it's very special for me to be here. It's an American treasure devoted to the best and bravest warriors of our country, and frankly, it's really the best they've ever produced: the 3,536 recipients of the congressional Medal of Honor. And, as you probably heard, we have a few more coming your way. Very brave people.

Since opening last year, this museum has already welcomed over 100,000 visitors. I want to thank the chair of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation, and she's a respected woman all over. She's got great genetics, I have to tell you. [ Laughter ] Great genetics. She's got great blood. I'm a big blood person. I believe in blood. [ Laughter ] You don't get better than those two. You don't get better than those two, Charlotte.

So I just want to thank you for the great job you've done.

And I want to thank Jerry. He's been a friend of mine for a long time. I refuse to say how long because you're going to say we're old people. I don't want to do that, Jerry. [ Laughter ] We want to be young, Jerry, right?

And I want to thank Gene. She's a phenomenal woman, respected all over the planet, frankly. Thank you very much, Gene.

It's a great honor to be with you and your family and the board of directors. Thank you.

And thanks as well to Speaker Mike Johnson. Is he around here someplace? Where is our—oh, I love my Speaker. He gets more approved with a majority of two than any man. And it's really a majority of one because one always votes—there's something wrong with him. He's cuckoo. [ Laughter ] He always votes against us. It doesn't matter. It could be voter ID; he'll vote against. But—so we have really a majority of one, maybe two. But he's a fantastic guy—Mike—and he's a friend of mine. Mike Johnson.

And Senator Jim Justice. He's been my friend long before he ran for office. Where's Big Jim? He's the biggest Senator in the history of the Senate. [ Laughter ] He could play for the Cowboys right now, offensive line only. I think offensive line. But he's been my friend for a long time.

And another friend of mine, a guy who I was really friendly with, and then we got into a scuffle because we were running against each other. And we got along so long. I mean, the press was asking, "Will you two guys ever fight?" I said, "Don't worry, it will happen." [ Laughter ] But right now, we get along, and we—remember that, Ted? We got along so well, long into the campaign. He was tough.

And then we started fighting. We fought like hell. Took about 2 years to recuperate, and he's been my very dear friend. And he's been with me on everything, and I'm with him on everything. And we ran together, and we had the greatest victories, right? The greatest victories.

And we have to do that again for Ken. We said last night—I said: "Ken, I don't want to embarrass you, but I don't agree with a lot of things. But you're the greatest attorney general we've ever had." And that alone should carry him. I said: "I'm not sure if I like your look. I'm not sure if I like the way you dress. I don't like the way you talk. But you're the greatest attorney general." So therefore, that's the only thing that matters, Jerry, right? He's the best attorney general in the country.

And we have the wall because of him. We have so much because of him. We have the best numbers in terms of what happened in illegal immigrants pouring into your country and your State. And he's done such a great job, so I think it's going to work out very well.

We had a great night last night. After I'm finished here, we're going back over to the arena, and the interim—they've never done it. We had the midterm convention. They've never had it.

Nobody knew what the hell I was talking about. I said: "You know, everyone talks about the midterms, but we never have a convention. Why don't we try having a convention?" We immediately picked this. I would have used a stadium, but I was a little bit concerned about filling that one up. The one last night, we packed it. That was packed.

And we'll be back a lot. It's a special place. Dallas is special. Texas is special.

So I want to thank Ted Cruz, and I want to thank Representatives Blake Moore, John McGuire, Mike Kennedy, Warren Davidson—all great people—Bruce Westerman, and Roger Williams.

A very, very brave guy, Roger is. They came at him pretty strong, right, Roger? And you—you looked them in the eye. But pretty tough cookie and a good guy. Been my friend for a long time.

We're also pleased to be joined by the mayor of Arlington, Texas, Jim Ross. Thank you, Jim. Doing a good job.

And Texas State Senator Phil King.

And the Consul General of a place called Qatar. It's a little under siege right now, but you're going to be just fine. Don't worry about it. You're going to be perfect. And of course, we're privileged to have with us 15 of the 65 living recipients of the congressional Medal of Honor.

You know, I've never said this. I told Jerry a long time ago: A thing I really want is I want for myself a congressional Medal of Honor. And I've studied it, and I will give it to myself. I have no problem, but I'm not allowed to. [ Laughter ] Can you believe it? It's the one thing I'm not allowed to do. I would give myself—so it would make it instead of 15, we'd have 16, but I'm not allowed to do that.

No, you know the sad part about saying that to all of that—look at all that fake news back there. [ Laughter ] But the sad part is that they'll now go and they'll say, "Donald Trump wanted the congressional Medal of Honor." They don't say that I kid.

One thing in the world of politics: You can't be sarcastic. You can't have any fun. You can't do anything that you think is cute, because they'd—so tonight the story will be that Donald Trump wants the congressional Medal of Honor for himself. [ Laughter ] I'm only kidding. [ Laughter ]

Actually, I'm not kidding. I would like to—[ laughter ]. I can think of no other thing. We have the civilian version, which is the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and that's—I don't know, it's a very, very powerful thing. But when I see the recipients of the congressional Medal—those that are living. Many are dead. They died, and they died in battle. Some of the battles—I read inscriptions of what took place. The level of bravery is incredible.

The nice part about the Presidential Medal of Honor is, the people are in good health. In other words, they get it because they won at sports or they won at something, but they don't have to get shot, and they don't have to go through the trauma that you people have gone through—because what you've gone through is incredible. The bravery inspires us all.

This year, we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of our Nation's founding, and it's only because of courageous patriots like those honored at this museum—this incredible—I have to say, you know, Charlotte is too modest. This was rated—and I read it in a magazine 2 weeks ago when I heard I was coming. They say it's the best—I think the best new—most beautiful new museum built in this country in many, many years. That's a big—it's a big statement.

But—and that's a tribute to you and your group and your directors and your architect, who's excellent, by the way. I know him very well from New York. He did some of the great—he did some great buildings.

But America has endured the 2½ centuries, and we've done it well. And I will just say, speaking—bringing it right up to the present, our country is right now very strong. We have over $2.1 trillion being invested in our country. No—nobody, no country ever, ever—no matter where, no matter what country—has ever even come close to that. We have $21 trillion—close to $21 trillion, actually. And it's coming in at levels that nobody's ever seen before. That number will be changing next month, and we could even hit $24-, $25 trillion.

That's even a lot of money for Jerry. Right, Jerry? That's a lot of money. [ Laughter ] That's a lot of football players. [ Laughter ]

But—and that's what's happening, is—you know, we went years without building a car plant in the United States. Now we're building many, many car plants. Toyota just announced they're leaving Mexico. We have many of the others. General Motors just announced a massive plant. Ford, the same thing. It's actually amazing what's happening. Honda's coming in. They're all coming in.

And I say they're coming in because of what used to—I used to say it's my favorite word, but I don't say that anymore—you've heard that story—because the press just kills me. I said, "My favorite word is 'tariff.'" And they said: "What about your wife? What about your family? What about 'God'? What about 'religion'? He's a terrible human being when 'tariff' is his favorite." So I made it my fifth-favorite word, and now I'm okay. [ Laughter ]

But the numbers that we're taking in are incredible because when you come in and you build your plant in the United States, including in Arlington, in Texas, in—anywhere you want in the United States, there is no tariff. So, rather than paying 25, 50, 100—sometimes I go crazy, go 250—rather than doing that or rather than saying, "We don't want to trade with you because your country's taking advantage of us"—like, we have a country a little bit to the north which has been taking advantage of us for many years. But rather than doing that, we just—we do something, and it just worked out so well. The numbers are—nobody's ever seen anything like it.

Now, just so you understand, other countries have done this to us for years, and that's why they were successful. But we've never had a period of time where we have this kind of investment, this kind of building—the building projects. Hundreds and hundreds of factories and plants are being built, and other things are being built all over the country.

And very shortly, though—exciting for me—I'll sign into law the Hershel "Woody" Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act—that's a long name, but—[ laughter ]—that's a very long name. [ Laughter ] But it's an important name—authorizing the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation to establish a brandnew monument in Washington, DC, which is now one of the safest cities.

By the way, our Capital 2 years ago was one of the most unsafe cities in the country. Now it's one of the safest cities in the country. That's the way it should be. Our National Guard was unbelievable. We don't play games anymore.

And we've cleaned it. It's spotless. We got rid of all the graffiti over monuments that haven't been touched in 40, 50, 60, years—monuments, fountains, everything we have—it's amazing. We did 82 of them, Jerry. We took care of 82 of them. I showed you the bridge, the Arlington Memorial Bridge. Your daughter wanted to have that bridge for herself so she could do some—I said: "I'm sorry. I think this one's taken." Right? [ Laughter ] That's why I'm glad we had the little—but we're going to find you an even better location. Okay?

But we had 82 monuments and statues and fountains that we've made—I mean, taken them from horrible-looking, in all cases—horrible red graffiti, red and green. They like red and green. And some of it seeps into this beautiful limestone and marble. And you think that was easy getting it out? It wasn't. But we—those—some of those things are looking so beautiful, more beautiful than when they were built many years ago.

And in terms of crime, the crime rate's way down. It's down to a level that's one of the safer cities. But we removed over 5,000 criminals. Many of them came through the open-border policy of Sleepy Joe Biden. Had open border for the world to come in. Let everybody come into our country. They emptied their jails. They emptied all of their mental institutions into our country. And you know, Texas was right at the forefront of this disaster.

But they had a person interviewed the other day on a television—one of the network news programs, and the person said, "We lived in hell 2 years ago." They were on the border. And this person—a beautiful man and wife, sort of, like, 40 years old. And they were living in hell. And he said: "When President Trump got elected, it all changed. It's like we live in a different place now."

We were being accosted. We were being run over by people pouring across—dangerous people too, in many cases, pouring across the border.

And now, we haven't seen anybody in a year and a half. It's been pretty amazing, Ted, what we've done on the border. And it's my honor. It brought your State back.

But all that can disappear very quickly. You put a Talafreako in or you put any one of these people in, these—these people that don't know what the hell they're doing. And even if they do—you know, some are very smart. They're radical left. They have crazy policies. Some are not smart at all. But he would be a disaster for this country.

So we are dedicating all of the receipts of our—all of the money that we're taking—there's a lot of additional money. And money—even today, I got so many calls of people that heard I was going to be here. They say, "We want to make a contribution." So you're going to have a lot of money pouring in.

I don't know, Charlotte, you probably don't need it but——

No, we'll take it.

Do you need it? Okay. Then I'll—[ laughter ]—then I'm going to have them send it. Okay? They've got plenty.

But this monument——

Thank you.

——this is a monument now, I think—will be entirely funded by private donations and located in the heart of our Nation's Capital near the Lincoln Memorial. We will find you an even better local—I know the location you're talking about. Just happens to be taken. But we're going to find you an even better location. I think I have an idea that you'll like even better.

I got very familiar with the land. I like real estate. I got very familiar with DC land. [ Laughter ]

But the bill creating this beautiful new monument is named for one of the most beloved Medal of Honor recipients: the late, great Woody Williams. When he died, Woody was the last surviving recipient from World War II. He had one of the most dangerous jobs of war, and that's operating a flamethrower. They say it's one of the most dangerous jobs. Very dangerous for the people on the other end too, I can tell you. [ Laughter ]

But it's—I'm going to have to ask somebody why. But they say it's, like, an unbelievable—unbelievably important, unbelievably dangerous.

In the battle of Iwo Jima, he carved a path to American victory—literally carved a path so soldiers could get in and win—through a deadly gauntlet of enemy strongholds. And back and forth he went. He just kept going back and forth. They said, "Woody, take it easy." "No, no, I can't. I have to clear the path."

And one machinegun nest after another he knocked out, and he did it for hours and hours. People said they've never seen anything quite like it.

Out of the 300 flamethrower operators—you had 300 flamethrower operators on Iwo Jima—they had a casualty rate of substantially over 90 percent. So, like I said, it's dangerous. And Woody was one of the few who survived, but he survived with a lot of trauma.

We're joined today by Woody's family—great family. Thank you for all being here as we sign this bill honoring Woody and more than 3,500 other true American patriots.

Would you stand up, please, Woody's family? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Great. And see, that's also good genetics. You know? I was saying to Charlotte you have good genetics too.

History is made of the biographies of brave, and America trusts every warrior to answer with courage. And when duty calls, they're there. These people are there. They're there faster than probably any of us in this room would want to be there, except for the Medal of Honor winners, of which we have some of the best.

But those honored in this museum did more than answer the call. They stormed into hellfire and crushed America's enemies. They had bravery like few people could even think of having.

They carried the wounded out of battle on their own backs. They carried them back and forth. I have stories that, as I—you know, I had the honor of giving out a lot of Medal of Honors. And some of the stories, I'm reading them. I'm reading—I like to be a little prepared, so I'd study it a little bit before I went up there and discussed it. And I said, "Boy, these people are brave."

But they gave their bodies as shields for their brothers-in-arms. They stood in the way of bullets, purposely—just standing just like this and taking bullets. And it's amazing. These are amazing——

I see why Charlotte's so committed to it. You know, because it's just—you just don't meet people like this.

They stood tall when their country needed heroes, and we will remember them all for what they did. That's all the people in this room and all of those great Medal of Honor winners that are no longer with us.

With this museum and a new monument in Washington, DC, America will never ever forget what they did and what they risked and how much they risked, what they've meant to their families and what they've meant to our country.

And I want to thank you all once again. And I really want to congratulate Charlotte Jones and the entire Jones family for their incredible dedication to the museum.

And also—I know it was very important to Charlotte. She's got a board of directors, and I know some of them from a different life. And you have a very fine board of directors, I must say—a very good one. And I'm just very proud of—you know, Jerry Jones has been somebody that I've known so long, and I just have such great respect for him. And Gene is an incredible woman, respected by everybody. That's a family—this is a family that's very, very special. So it's an honor for me to be here with you.

And great—I wasn't supposed to be doing this today, Jerry, because I am busy as hell. [ Laughter ] But when they called, I said: "I got to just—forget about this. Okay? And I'm going to do this."

So Charlotte's going to come up. She's going to say a few more words, and I'm going to then receive—I think you're getting—somebody said, "Trump is receiving an honor." I'll take it. [ Laughter ] Maybe it's the congressional Medal of Honor. All right? [ Laughter ]

And I just want to let you know that we'll go back to Washington. We're going to get you all set up. We're going to get you the best site in all of Washington. I think our Speaker may be very instrumental in that too. Right, Mike?

Yes, sir.

And when the Speaker talks, everybody listens.

So, Charlotte, come on up. Thank you.

Some of the men are going to flank you.

Okay. Good. Come on in, fellas.

Yes, we'll take it.

Come on, Jim.

[ Inaudible ]—don't move too fast.

He's got the good size for the team, Jerry. I don't know. [ Laughter ] I'm not sure about the movement. Huh? A great guy. Good.

You ready, Charlotte?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

And, Mr. President, thank you again for being at the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas, today to sign this very special piece of legislation.

But before you depart, I would like to make a special presentation.

So I'm excited to share with everyone here the incredible news that you have graciously agreed to become one of our honorary directors. We are thrilled to add you to the amazing bipartisan group of Commanders in Chief.

Thank you so much, Mr. President. Yes.

And, finally, I am happy to now present you our foundation's Champion of Honor award. This is with sincere appreciation and gratitude.

The National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation recognizes President Donald J. Trump as a champion of honor for his unwavering commitment to preserving and sharing the legacies of the Medal of Honor recipients; his tireless effort to ensure the Medal of Honor and those who received it are celebrated nationally; and for his unconditional support of the Hershel "Woody" Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act, ensuring recipients of our Nation's highest decoration for valor in combat are permanently recognized on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to all of us joining today. We ask that you please remain in your seats until the President has departed the building.

Thank you, Mr. President. We appreciate you being here.