Remarks by President Trump and Vice President Vance After Inaugural Swearing-In Ceremony
01/21/25
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release January 20, 2025
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP
AND VICE PRESIDENT VANCE
AFTER INAUGURAL SWEARING-IN CEREMONY
U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C.
1:23 P.M. EST
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all so much for being here. And was that a hell of a speech or what? That was — man. (Applause.) That was a good way to start it off.
You know, I didn’t know exactly what the president would put in that speech, and I — I hoped to myself that he wasn’t ho- — going to hold back. And, sir, you didn’t hold back. That was a hell of a way to start the next four years. (Applause.)
But I — I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart — and I know I speak for the president and for all of us — thank you, thank you, thank you for making this possible. We love you, we wouldn’t be here without you, and we’re going to make America great again together for the next four years. (Applause.)
And the last — the last thing I’ll say is, you know, having stood outside for about five minutes to wave goodbye to the Bidens, thank God we moved that thing indoors, because it was a beautiful ceremony and it was cold as hell outside.
So, sir, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: No, he’s right. I looked — I said, “Oh, look at this beautiful, sunny day. We blew it. We blew it.” And then, I went outside, and we were freezing. You would have been very unhappy. The sun was very deceptive, I will tell you. It is cold out.
And I’m sort of saying, “You know, that was so beautiful today. Maybe they should do it there every four years.” Does that make sense? I don’t know. Because, you know, the outdoor thing is really good, but it gets a little cold around this time of the year, as some people have noticed. And a lot of times, they suffer through it.
There was no suffering in that room. It was 72 degrees. It was perfect, with the best ac- — the best acoustics, I think, I’ve ever heard in a room. This is not so bad either.
But I just want to say, you’re a younger, far more beautiful audience than I just spoke to. (Applause.) And I want to keep it off the record. I want to keep that off the record, because I don’t want to have all those big shots up there — I don’t want them thinking — you’re more powerful than them, you look better than them, and I love you. (Laughter and applause.)
Now, we just had a great time. We just had a great day. This was amazing. You know, when you think we took a –- a journey — I mentioned in the speech, a lot of people said that was not a journey that was possible, and it was indeed possible. I didn’t really know too much about what they were saying when they said that, but a lot of people felt it.
And we hooked up with JD very early. I watched JD over a period of time. I endorsed him in Ohio. He was a great — a great senator and very, very smart. The only one smarter than him was his wife. That was — (laughter) — I would have chosen her, but somehow the line of — the line of succession didn’t work that way, right? (Laughter.)
But, no, she’s great, and he’s great. This is a great, beautiful couple and an unbelievable career. I just said to him, “You are very upwardly mobile” — because he hasn’t been doing it that long, but he picked it up so quickly.
Remember, the first week was a little bit like the fake news was hitting him really hard? And I said, “Oh, this may be tough.” But after that, it was smooth sailing for him. He took on everybody. He took on the — the meanest — (applause) — I don’t want to use the word “corrupt,” because we’re into a new system, so let’s wait until the corruption begins, because it will. But he took on some pretty mean people, and he handled it well.
I want to also congratulate Mike Johnson for the job that he’s doing. (Applause.) Steve, we — we gave him a majority of almost nothing. And then, I said, to make it tougher on him, “Let me take two or three of the people,” right? (Laughter.) I said, “He’ll only have to suffer with that for about three months.”
How are they doing, by the way? Are they —
SPEAKER JOHNSON: They’re doing great.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that moving along?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Totally unified, sir. Totally. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: He’s –- he’s — I said, “Do you mind if I take this one, that one, and a couple of others?” It’s — he didn’t mind. He can handle it.
No, he’s a man that’s liked by everybody. I’ve never met a man like this. You’ve got 2- — how many is it? — 219 or 220 or som- —
SPEAKER JOHNSON: 220.
THE PRESIDENT: 220. And of the 220, 219 really like him. I noticed he got one negative vote once about two weeks ago. But I think even 220 like him, if you want to know the truth, and that’s very unusual.
I know a lot of nice guys in Congress, and they have 35 people that hate them. So, if you have 35 people that hate you, and you only have one or two or three votes — you’ll have five, I think. But that’s — that’s going to be like — you know, the good news is, when we get to that five number, it’s going to feel like a massive majority.
We wi- — you could be really nasty to a couple of them, at least. You know? (Laughter.)
So, it’s going to feel like hitting your head on the wall and stopping. It feels so good to stop. But he’s done a fantastic job.
And Steve Scalise is — he’s our hero, because, you know, I was with him — (applause). You talk about being shot. I was with him. He got some bad ones. And his incredible wife — and she really loves him. You know? You never know about that.
I’ve been with other people that were doing poorly, and the wife is, like, looking at her watch. She can’t get out of the hospital fast enough. (Laughter.) “How’s he doing?” “Oh, yeah, I don’t know. He’s all right.” (Laughter.)
That woman was a mess. She was crying and crying. “No, they’re going to take him. They’re going to take him.”
I told Steve when he finally woke up — it was a while, too. The doctor told me it was the most blood he — they’ve ever transfused in any patient. They’ve never done anything like it. And here he is, the picture of strength, right? And he’s been a great friend of mine — (applause) — right? — with a family — because of the family.
And what a job you did. It worked out pretty much — pretty much better than we even thought, right?
And I did have a couple of things, you know, to say that were extremely controversial. And between JD and Melania and anybody else that heard — “Please, sir, it’s such a beautiful unifying speech. Please, sir, don’t say these things.” (Laughter.) I said, “I’m telling you, it’s going to play great.” (Laughter.)
They say, “You’re right. For this group of people, it’s going to play great.” (Laughter.) You’re the only ones I hurt by not — oh, but we had some beauties, didn’t we, Melania? She said, “Sir” — calls me “sir” when she’s angry. (Laughter.) No, no, I’m only kidding. I better say I’m only kidding, or the press is going to pick that one up loud and clear. (Laughter.)
No, but she said, “No, I — I think it’s — it would be terrible. It’s such a nice speech. I think it’s — you know, it all depends on your delivery.”
How was the delivery? Was it good? (Applause.)
But she said, “It’s such a beautiful — such a beautiful speech, you can’t put things in there that you were going to put in.”
And I — I was going to talk about the J6 hostages, but you’ll be happy because, you know, it’s action, not words, that count. And you’re going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages. (Applause.) See a lot of action.
And I was going to talk about the things that Joe did today with the pardons of people that were very, very guilty of very bad crimes, like the Unselect Committee of political thugs, where —
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: — they literally — I mean, what they did is they destroyed and deleted all of the information, all of the hearings — practically not a thing left. They deleted all the information on Nancy Pelosi having turned down the offer of 10,000 soldiers. You wouldn’t have needed 10,000. You could have had 500, and they would have stopped. Because we may have a million people that day. The people that were there — you don’t see any photographs, but we have a lot of great photos. But you don’t see those photographs. They don’t put them in. They show the people at the Capitol.
But I was talking about that. I was going to talk about that. They said, “Please don’t bring that up right now. You can bring it up tomorrow.” I said, “How about now in front of the very” — (laughter) — “I’ll bring it up right now.” (Applause.)
You know, this little time delay is good because we’re getting great reviews on the speech. Now, watch, they’ll take the speech. They’ll say, “I didn’t like it because he left there and he talked to people.” But we’re giving you a little more information than we gave upstairs.
But, no, they pardoned a lot of people. They pardoned — before we even get to today, they pardoned — what is it? — 33 murderers — absolute murderers, the worst murderers. You know, when you get the death sentence in the United States, you have to be bad, because they don’t give it much. And he pardoned almost everybody having a death sentence.
And if you went through the crimes that were committed, you wouldn’t even believe them — the level of violence, the people that were killed, the innocence of people that were killed and children killed by these people. And he pardoned them, for whatever reason. He spared them. And — but they didn’t spare the people that they killed.
And, you know, who knows what happens in the future? It’s one of the worst, because a lot of times they let them out early after that. You know, they say you’re going to be in for life, but then, all of a sudden, they get let out for good behavior, and then they go on a rampage. You know, it’s one of those little things, right?
But I was going to talk about that. But I was really going to talk about the — the level of — you know, what’s going on. Why are we doing this? Why are we trying to help a guy like Milley? Why are we doing Milley? He was pardoned. What he said — terrible, what he said.
Why are we helping some of the people? Why are we helping Liz Cheney? I mean, Liz Cheney is a disaster. She’s a crying lunatic.
And Crying — Crying Adam Kinzinger. He’s a super crier. I never saw the guy not crying. He’s always crying. (Laughter.) I looked at him — I remember years ago, he was actually on my side. And then, one day — you know, when you don’t want to kill people in wars, they turn against you.
Liz Cheney hated the concept of — of not going to war with everybody. “Let’s kill everybody. Let’s spend a lot of money on military equipment.” You know where her father works, right?
And — but what she did was incredible. Think of it. They destroyed and deleted all of that information that went on for almost two years against Trump. And the reason they did — because it was all false, like the person that said I tried to strangle a Secret Service agent that’s one of the toughest human beings I think I’ve ever seen.
I actually had a friend say, “Please don’t change that, sir. You are the coolest sucker in history.” Remember, she said I put my hands around his neck, and — because he wouldn’t go to the Capitol? Made-up fiction. And I was rebuffed.
And the guy on the right is a massive weightlifter, probably stronger than me. Do you think he’s stronger than me, honey? You know who I’m talking. (Laughter.) Possibly stronger than me. Slightly younger than me, like -- I won’t say how many years because I don’t want to talk about that, but a lot of years.
But I had a friend that said, “Why are you disputing that story? That’s the coolest story I’ve ever heard” -- that I would attack a karate champion -- (laughter); get slightly rebuffed; and then throw my arms around a guy with a neck about this big. (Laughter.) Even though there are bars -- you know, there are bars. You can't really do that anyway. So — so, I wanted to talk about that, but all of that stuff got deleted. And the reason it got deleted is they were all caught in lies. You know, Secret Service testified, and they said, “It didn’t happen.” Actually, the two guys were very embarrassed. They’re suffering, because their friends are saying, “Did Trump really do that to you?” (Laughter.) But they gained a whole new respect for me.
But it was just make-believe stuff. There were a lot of make-believe stories made up.
So, rather than suffer the wrath — like the story with Nancy Pelosi. I offered her 10,000 soldiers. She knows it. She admitted it on a tape that her daughter made. She’s a videographer or whatever you call her, which I’m glad she is. Oh, she can’t be in good stead with Nancy. But Nancy said it was my responsibility. As she’s leaving the Capitol, she said it was — and it was. She’s in charge of security at the Capitol.
But I offered them up to 10,000 soldiers — even more. One time, I said, “More. As many as you need.” But you needed 4- or 500 — 4- or 5-. You — 10,000, that would be more than the number of people there by a lot. But we offered her 10,000. Think of it: 10,000 soldiers. In other words, J6 wouldn’t be J6. There would have been no J6.
But she rebuffed them. She didn’t like it. No, she didn’t like it. Maybe she wanted that to happen. But she’s guilty as hell, and now we would have to go through the process, because they destroyed all evidence. They deleted everything. There’s virtually nothing left.
The other fake story — and so many other fake stories — and many people came out on our side, and those people now — we got to find them. There’s nothing left.
So, that’s a criminal offense. If that were a civil case, it would be a criminal offense. If that were — if that happened civilly, where you did that, it would be a criminal offense.
So, I decided I’m not going to make this speech complicated. I’m going to make it beautiful. I’m going to make it a unifying speech. And then, when they said, “We have a —
a group of people that are serious Trump fans,” I said, “This is the time to tell those stories.” (Laughter and applause.) He knows. He knows.
But seriously, I’d like to — I think it was a tremendous success. I think we’re very lucky we put it inside, because it is really cold. We just went to — to the helicopter, out of respect. It’s something that’s taken place for a long time. I guess it’s as old as helicopters. You used to get into a stagecoach. Now you get into a helicopter. Times change. (Laughter.)
But it’s pretty — pretty old custom, and it’s a beautiful custom, actually. It’s a beautiful custom. I wish we could have had a — a better relationship. I wish we could have had a better relationship between Republicans and Democrats.
I was with Senator Schumer. I said, “Chuck, I think it’s time we all start getting along a little bit because it doesn’t make sense.” I mean, we literally never get a Democrat vote. They never get a Republican vote, almost. And — although, there is a bill coming up very shortly that we have a lot of Democrat votes on it. That’s going to be a very beautiful bill. We’re going to have a deciding, I would say, within a week or so, I think. And it’s going to be a very good bill. You all know what I’m talking about.
So, I just want to thank you all for being here. You have been our fans from day one, all of these — look at all these people all over. (Applause.) You’ve been our fans.
This has been — this has been a — there’s never been anything like it. There’s never been anything like it. This has been a movement like no movement ever in history, for probably any country, let alone this country.
You know, if somebody is running for president and if they go out and they announce they’re going to Arizona, they’re going to Nevada, they’re going to someplace, if you have 200 or 300 people, that would be standard. Ronald Reagan would go out — I mean, outside of the last couple of days, where people get a little excited. But even then, you have a couple of thousand people.
But if you’re going to go someplace, any place — any one of the swing states, any one of the other states — I mean, the — how about the non-swing states? We won Alabama by 48 points. We won Tennessee by massive numbers. (Applause.) Wyoming, we won by numbers that are — nobody has ever seen numbers like that. (Applause.)
And, you know, places like California, we did great. But, you know, when they send out, like, 38 million ballots and nobody knows where the hell they’re sending them, and then they come pouring back, the whole thing — you know, they passed a law in California that if you work in an election bureau and if you so much as ask for a voter ID — if you say, “Sir, ma’am, could I please look at your voter ID,” they have the right to put you in jail. You’re a criminal. Can you believe that?
There’s only one reason that happens. They want to cheat. So, they had it where voter ID wasn’t accepted.
But now, if you even ask for — this is seriously a bill that was just signed. It passed in — in their legislature, and it was signed.
And I think when we get things cleaned up and we get back to a little bit of normalcy, I’m going to ask the speaker to really get involved, because I think we would have won the state of California because, you know, if you look at — my numbers with Hispanic were at 56 percent. And we were winning — we won the Texas border that had never been won. As the governor said — he’s doing a good job, the governor, by the way, of Texas. But as the governor said, it hasn’t —
AUDIENCE MEMBER: He’s right there!
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, did I get lucky? (Laughter and applause.) Did I get lucky? Supposing I said, “You know, he’s not here, but the governor of Texas has done a terrible job.” Wow, look at you. (Applause.) You mean, we couldn’t get you up in the front row? I’ll tell you.
Supposing I said, “JD, the governor of Texas is not doing his job.”
You heard what I said? See, I didn’t know you were there. I said he’s doing — (laughter) — he’s doing a great job. He’s doing a phenomenal job. But now you’re going to have a partner that’s going to work with you, because you didn’t have — (applause) — not only didn’t he have a partner, he had people selling your wall, right?
We have a fence structure that we worked on — the governor worked on with me. And I didn’t love it, to be honest with you. I wanted a nice precast concrete, you know, 40, 50 feet high, like a — beautiful — could have been a T shape, Y shape. I — I love construction.
I wanted that sucker to go up maybe 50, 60 feet. It would have looked beautiful — a nice Y shape.
And they said, “The problem is, sir, they’d climb that like a rabbit.” I said, “What do you mean? No way.” And they brought some of these guys out. They climbed it like — and the other thing is, you hit it with acid and the thing will disintegrate. You know, they have things for concrete.
So, they needed very hardened steel, very special steel. And then, they did 7,000-pound concrete inside that steel –inside that steel. And then they have a rebar that’s the toughest steel made, very hard to cut. So, this is why very little is cut, and it’s — right? And then they put a anti-climb panel on top.
I hated it. I said, “It’s so unattractive.” (Laughter.) And — and I said, “Why would that work? I don’t believe it works.” And I went to watch. The Border Patrol gave a display. We had actually two sets of climbers: the guys that climb up walls with drugs on their back — I mean, they got, like, 60, 70 pounds of drug, and they go as fast as you can walk. They go bup, bup, bup. Or we have Mount Everest-type climbers. And honestly, the drug guys were much better. I couldn’t — (laughter). The drug guys blew them away, right?
But it’s true, the anti-climb panel, they couldn’t get around it. They just couldn’t win it. You didn’t have it. So sometimes you sacrifice beauty for efficiency, and we did.
So, we built this wall, and we had — we built over 500 miles of wall. That’s why we had such good numbers, the famous chart that came down. Very thankfully, the chart that came down — am I right, Governor? — had I not looked over there, I’m not speaking right now. You might be speaking here, you want to know the truth. You, JD — got a lot of great people in this party.
But it was — I got very lucky, but we had the best numbers we’ve ever had. But I bought — you know what happens is, when you fill it up, it’s like water. You fill it up. Now we have 571 miles of wall. And they would always say, you know, when we renovated a wall — so, there’d be, like, a piece of plywood sitting there for 60 years or a two-by-four sitting for 60 years on the ground and rotting because, you know — and they’ll say, “You didn’t build a new wall.”
Here we’re building 50 feet up in the air in 30-feet sections, 50-foot sections, all steel, all concrete, all everything, and all —
By the way, they don’t even want me to say this, but what the hell. It doesn’t take long (inaudible) — they’re all wired for all of the equipment. We put wires in everything so they can easily wire for all the different types of equipment. So, if there’s a doubt, we have a wire. Whenever we just — look, you just find the wires all over the place up top so we could just hook it up. We don’t have to have wires on the outside, which wouldn’t do too well, right?
So, anyway — so, we built an extra 200 miles of wall, and the governor wanted to buy it. He tried to buy it, and they wouldn’t sell it to him. He wanted to put it up himself. Could have done — been done in three to four weeks, 200 more miles. Because when you do it now, they just keep going further out, further out, further out, and getting around. So, we did an extra 200 miles, and it’s — it was all bought, and they announced that they’re not going to put it up.
And that’s when I realized they wanted open borders, and that’s when I realized that people are going to come pouring through the wall like nobody has ever seen before. But you’ve seen it. A lot of you are here because of that.
I made it my number one issue. They all said inflation was the number one issue. I said, “I disagree. I think people coming into our country from prisons and from mental institutions is a bigger issue for the people that I know.” And I made it my number one.
I talked about inflation too. But, you know, how many times can you say that an apple has doubled in cost? I’d say it, and I’d hit it hard, but then I’d go back to the fact that we don’t want criminals coming into our country. We don’t want the jails of every country in the world, virtually, being deposited into the United States.
And that man had to suffer with it. And he did an unbelievable job. I’ll tell you, he was a very popular governor, but now he’s like an unbeatable governor because of your border policies. He was fantastic, and — (applause) — he really was. So, Governor Abbott, he’s a great — he’s a great man, a great leader.
And — but it did make him very — more — did you do it — you didn’t do that for politics. You did it because you wanted to do the right thing. But I’ll tell you, it sure as hell worked for politics too. It’s self-preservation. That’s right. (Laughs.)
But — no, because the people are demanding it. The people of Texas are demanding it. The people are demanding it all over.
So, anyway — so, we built it, and they wouldn’t let us use it. They wouldn’t let the governor use it. And other governors, they wouldn’t let them use it. But he was the leader of the pack and did a great job.
And then, we heard, about a month ago, that not only wouldn’t they let us use it, they were selling it — they were going to sell it for five cents on the dollar. Now, five cents on the dollar then — but today, it would cost more than twice as much to build, because we bought it, like, six years ago, and it was just sitting on the ground. And that does not do well for the whole thing.
But it was just sitting on the ground. And I heard about it, and I called the governor, and I called a lot of people — your attorney general. And here’s the story. They were going to buy it — and these are great businesspeople. They were going to buy it for five cents on the dollar or less, and they were calling us up, “We’ll sell it to you for 200 cents on the dollar.” In other words, it will cost you twice as much. So, it’s 200 cents on the dollar.
I said, “Can somebody explain that to a judge?” I mean, how corrupt is that? You think they’d say, “Maybe we’ll sell it to you for 20 cents, 30 cents,” but not 200 cents.
So, they were going to buy something for five cents, and they were going to sell it to us for a fortune. They were going to make — it would be — they’d have it down that — in Fortune magazine, they’d put it at the deal of the year. Okay? You buy something like that.
But it was so corrupt and so horrible, and when we told that to the administration, they didn’t care. They just kept going forward. They couldn’t care less. And they kept going forward. They knew that they were trying to sell it back to us.
They would have sold it back to us. You would have ended up buying it, your — would have paid probably 50, 60 cents. Who knows? But they were going to use it for scrap metal, but then they made a much better deal. And they could just buy it and sell it to us for 15, 20 times what they paid. Twenty times — think of it — like, 20 times what they paid.
And we wouldn’t let it happen. And the governor, with his attorney general, Ken Paxton, they made a fantastic — they’re — a good lawyer. He’s pre- — he’s pushed around pretty good by people, right? I said, “You got that — you got a great attorney general.” They said, “Leave him alone.” He was with me. And — but Ken and the governor went to court, and a judge actually became incensed and — and actually called for an investigation, how could a thing like this happen.
So, he stopped it. So, we’re waiting to put that wall up. And now that you have a new president, that wall will go up so fast. (Applause.) The governor will complain, “Sir — this is Greg Abbott, sir. Please, the wall is going up too fast. Please don’t do that.”
You know the story about winning? “No, no, we’re going to win too much. We’re winning too much. Please, let’s stop.” People always love that one. We’ll do this with the wall.
Governor Abbott calls, “Sir, the wall is going up too fast. We can’t take it. We just can’t take it.”
No, I think you’ll be very happy if the wall goes up too fast, right? But we’ll get that, dude, and we’ll work with you on that.
But it was a great decision by a great Texas judge, right? And it was beautiful — beautiful to watch. We — he stopped them right in their track. I mean, they were literally loading the stuff onto trucks. It was terrible. Hone- — honestly, it was terrible. And he wouldn’t take it.
So, I’m so glad I mentioned that they have a really good governor in Texas, not — and I swear, I didn’t know he was here. (Laughter.) I swear to you. I — it sounds like a setup. I didn’t know you were there. And I — did I get lucky? I said the right thing. (Laughter.)
Because there were — have been moments when I wasn’t so happy with him. You know? But not too many, I can tell you that.
So, anyway, it’s good to see you, too, Governor. Great.
But I just want to thank everybody. You’ve been incredible. I recognize so many of you. It’s so crazy.
But this has been a long journey. This was a journey that started in 2015. Probably started 20 years before that. People used to say, “Are you going to run for president? Are you going to run, run, run?” And I always said, “No, no, no, I don’t want” — and then one day I said, “Let’s give it a shot.” (Laughter.)
And what I talked about then was the border too. I think it probably was the number one issue for me. Back in 2015, 2016, I talked about the border. And now I talked about the border, but this border is much worse.
We fixed the border. It was totally fixed. There was nothing to talk about.
In 2020 — and, by the way, that election was totally rigged, but these are the — that’s okay. (Laughter.) It was a rigged election. (Applause.)
You know the only thing good about it? It showed how bad they are. It showed how incompetent. And — and, frankly, historically, this is a much bigger event, if that would have gone like it should have.
The only — the bad thing about it is some bad things happened, like a lot of people in our country that wouldn’t be in our country right now. So, you know, that’s a — that’s the bad part.
But I will say that it started in 2015, and right from the beginning, we re- — went to the top. The — day one, they announced Trump, and Trump went to number one and stayed there for the whole primary. And then, we took on Hillary. She didn’t look too happy today. (Laughter.) We took on Hillary, a very nice person. But we took on Hillary, and we defeated Hillary.
And then, we did much better the second time in 2020. You know, we got millions more votes. We got millions — like 10, 12 million more votes than we did the first time. No president has ever gotten that many more votes. I got, like, 9 million more than anybody else had ever gotten.
And they said we lost. And because of that, I said to Melania, “What do you think?” And she said, “You want to do this again?” (Laughter.) And — and had I — had we lost and had I felt we lost, I wouldn’t do it again, because that’s like the ultimate poll, right? But I knew how well we did.
And this time, we — we made it too big to rig. It was so big. They tried. They tried. They tried like hell. (Applause.) But — they tried. They tried to do it. And around 9:02, they gave up. Last time, they did bad things. This time, they just said, “Just” —
You know, I don’t know if you saw, Mr. Speaker, in Washington. They had placards. They were all set to march. They thought it would be closer. A gentleman asked me — a very respected gentleman asked me yesterday, “How come the polls were so wrong? They showed you winning, but not in a landslide.”
I said, “Because people that are true Trumpers are so angry at the whole polling system and abou- — and — and at the writers, the fake news, that they don’t want to talk to anybody.”
So, when you call somebody from Trump, “Who are you voting for,” they say, “It’s none of your business. I’m not telling you.” And that was probably 40 percent of the people they called. So, they would discard that one, and they didn’t show that.
And then when the election happened, you know, the vote came, and it was much different, much higher than — we’re going to win. But they thought — they really thought — they couldn’t believe it. The one man said it. I mean, it was so much higher. We won all seven swing states. We won the popular vote by millions of votes, which is hard for a Republican.
I’ll tell you who came through. The unions came through. The autoworkers were great. The Teamsters were great. The firemen were great. I think every — almost every union was great. The only one that weren’t great, although he — Sean was great and — and the Teamsters, the head of the — Sean O’Brien, the head of the Teamsters, was fantastic.
But, generally speaking, the head of the union was against Trump. But the union would be with us for, like, 80, 85 percent. Look what we did with the autoworkers in Michigan. Look what we did with the Teamsters. The Teamsters were unbelievable. They were a solid Democrat vote, and they voted for Trump.
So, we had a great experience. This has been — now we have to go to work and get it done, because we have to do something that’s going to be great. (Applause.) We’re going to turn our country around, and we’re going to turn it around fast.
And I think this was a better speech than the one I made upstairs. Okay? (Applause.) I think this was better, JD.
I think this was much better. And I got to see my friend.
So, Governor, take care of yourself. You call me. We’ll start working. You know what that means with him: He’s going to be calling me tomorrow morning at about 6:00. (Laughter.) And I said, “How about next week?”
No, you call me and we’re going to get it started real fast. We’ll really help you a lot. You’ve done a fantastic job protecting something, which is — it’s not supposed to be for the states. And amazing job you’ve done. Thank you very much.
And I want to thank everybody, and I have a first lady who has been incredible. (Applause.) I was — she’s been incredible.
I shouldn’t say this. I’m going to get hell when I say this, but her feet are absolutely aching. You know, those heels. (Laughter.) And we thought we were leaving, we were going home. “Sir, would you be able to go down and say hello to some of your other fans that are here?” I said, “Oh, I didn’t know that. Wow.”
Did you get to see pretty clearly the picture, I hope? Good. (Applause.) That’s good. Because you wouldn’t want to make the same sw- — speech again, right?
But she said, “Darling, I love you so much, but my feet are killing me.” (Laughter.) I said, “Honey, let me just see how far it is.” I asked the person. “Oh, not that long, maybe 4- or 500 yards.” That’s five football fields. (Laughter.) And I said, “Can you make it?” She said, “We’re going to make it. No matter what, we’re going to make it, because you have to go.” (Applause.) Right? Right?
And then, we went out to the helicopter, though, just prior to this, and said goodbye. And — it’s a custom. And the wind is blowing like crazy, and with the hat that she’s wearing, she almost blew away. We almost lost our fir- — (laughter) —
THE FIRST LADY: Thank you for (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: She was being elevated off the ground. She almost blew away.
No. So, we all appreciate it because you — she’s been a great first lady — a beautiful and a great first lady. (Applause.) And they love our first lady.
You know, JD, whenever I make a speech, I see, hundreds of times, “We love our first lady. We love” — and they do, and they should. She’s great.
So, I just want to thank you. Thank you very much. I just want to thank everybody.
And I felt that — I said to JD, “Should we give them the A treatment, the B treatment, the C, the D, or the F?” You know what the F is? “Hello, everybody. Thank you for being here. Bye-bye.” (Laughter.)
I gave you the A-plus treatment. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you all.
Thank you, Governor. Thank you all very much. Appreciate it. (Applause.)
END 1:56 P.M. EST