President Trump Full Remarks at White House Correspondents' Dinner

Well, that was very beautiful but this has not been an easy evening. All these awards. Do I have a say toward those awards? But it's great to be back at a place they know very well because I built it. And I'm very proud of it because I built it for $2.9 billion less than the Federal Reserve building, which is a lot smaller, by the way. Figure that one out. But I am delighted to be here at the White House Correspondents' Dinner facing people. A lot of people I like. Some I don't like at all but I respect most of them. I must say you do a great job, amazing job, and it's an honor. As I said three months ago, the show must go on. We were backstage and we just wanted to have it go on whether it was 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, it didn't matter, but it made much more sense to do it the way we're doing it and we had a great news conference at the White House. It was a hell of an evening, I can tell you that. Won't soon be forgotten and I think a lot was learned in that evening. A tremendous amount about security and the dangers of what we all do. But just like my presidency, the second time is always better. Always better and the third time will be better yet. I'm only kidding.

From the earliest moments after the attack on our dinner last April, I knew something had to be done. It was an assault on our democracy itself. A very serious situation. Many of you were there with me and some showed extreme bravery like Pete Hegseth. Steve Miller, Tom Homan. They were standing on tables while most of you were under the tables. But I saw every one of them that were standing up on those tables. I didn't know if they were brave, if they were smart, if they were stupid as hell, but they were on those tables in some cases and there were a lot of different feelings going on in the room at that moment. But after hearing the gunshots, many people yelled 'Get down! Get down.' Which caused Nicki Minaj to start twerking, do you believe it? Get down, get down. She's the only one who really understood what that meant. Quite an evening. But tonight we come together to answer that heinous attack with unwavering resolve, every one of us here this evening to show that in America we do not yield to political violence. Can't do it. So in this country we believe in freedom of speech. We settle our differences not with bullets but with open and vigorous debate and no deranged loser with a gun will ever change that. We can't let that ever happen. A lot of very dangerous people out there. I want to express my gratitude to the incredible men and women who put themselves on the line every day to protect my family, myself and all presidents and lots of others. The United States Secret Service. I appreciate it very much. Sean and all the group. Thank you. Amazing job. In recent months they've repeatedly responded to threats with speed and professionalism and extraordinary courage and there is no better example than Officer Victor Gonzalez who you just met. It was amazing. What he did was amazing. When the would-be assassin charged the checkpoint — he was fast. When you looked at that, you had to look at it about 10 times before you really saw what was going on. He was quick. Nasty. The gun made him nasty, actually, but Officer Gonzalez engaged the attacker without hesitation and took a bullet to the chest after his bulletproof vest fortunately was on, saved his life and Victor did not even want to go to the hospital for a checkup. We wanted him to do it. We insisted but he didn't want to go. But to Officer Gonzalez, Secret Service, Metropolitan Police, law enforcement generally and even all the military surrounding the room tonight, we salute you and thank you with all of our hearts. Thank you very much, great job. Great job. Great job.

These are great people. So this evening we're picking up right where we left off so let's have a little bit of fun. I said what do we do here? Is this supposed to be fun? Am I supposed to be serious, am I supposed to be a comedian? I guess they said maybe a little bit of everything. I know one thing, I could never have done the speech that I had ready just a short while — oh, that was going to be a goody. I was so psyched, I was going to rip people. I don't know, just something changed that. Really for the better but I just wouldn't want to do that but we'll do a little ripping if you don't mind. But it is true, it's how do we handle it? It's going to be a different kind of evening and it is. And in many ways it's a more beautiful evening. Everyone is looking really good tonight and I know it's not easy finding shoes to match your bulletproof vest. Many people would rather die than look 20 pounds heavier, you know, that right? They put one on me. I said are you sure? I'm not wearing this. You look exactly 20. Sir, it's about 21 pounds. I said not good but I want to thank the outgoing president of the White House Correspondents' Dinner Association. She wouldn't admit it and she should not admit it but we sort of became friendly. In times of stress on occasion you became friendly. I have a lot of respect for Weija. We went through a little bit of a war together. It turned out pretty good. It turned out pretty good because of a lot of good people. They stopped a tragedy. So I want to thank you very much. And Weija worked extremely hard to ensure this dinner was rescheduled and I want to thank her family. I just met her children, husband, parents. What an MVP family. It's really great. Thank you all very much for putting up with us and let me also thank the incoming president, Jackie. She can be nasty. She looks so beautiful but she can be so nasty. How can that happen? But she just got married to a very successful congressman, a very good congressman. I'd like to have a couple of more votes for her but that's OK. On occasion, shows a little bit of independence, we don't like that. But no, he's a very professional guy and he loves our country but that's a big thing. I just see what takes place — we're talking about what takes place to be in the position that you're leaving and that Jackie is coming into. It's a lot of work. A lot of friendships, a lot of talents. And so Jackie — and congratulations are also in order for our favorite White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt who just had her second child. You and your husband. She's great. She's done a fantastic job. We all love her. She's done a fantastic job. She's another one. She can be nasty. Sometimes she has no choice. But Karoline may have one of the hardest jobs in the White House. She has to deal with all of you all of the time and you can be difficult, you can be very, very difficult people but I'm probably being a little bit oversensitive. Sometimes I really do think that some of you don't like me. In fact, I read a report, I get 93% negative publicity. I said how the hell did I win the election by so much? Think of it. I don't think that's true. I don't believe it's 93. In the 80's maybe but not 93. But this place is the — really the largest group of Trump Derangement Syndrome people ever put together at one time I suspect. Some of you are lucky that our last dinner was cut short because I had brought with me what would possibly have been considered I'm telling you, I had something. I was going to go after you. I feel so badly doing this. It's going to be such a letdown. But your lives were really in danger the last time for an opposite reason but on the plus side your careers were saved and question a — we really do. We have a complete and total — I love the words complete and total. They said it means almost the same thing. I said it doesn't matter when you say it. It's called emphasis but everyone is now really warming up the new White House military center, drone port and highly protected ballroom. We have a ballroom, the windows are this thick. I said to the people if a bullet hits, what happens? Nothing. Nothing, it bounces right off, sir. This is the greatest bulletproof glass. They said AK-47. It's supposed to be a big one. I don't know so much about the guns, my sons know a lot. I know it's big. I said what can happen? If I make a speech and hear that pinging sound on the window, what would I do? Sir, leave the room right away but you're going to be safe. We're building something that's going to be amazing and in light of what we went through, I think people understand it. It's going to be amazing. One of the biggest drone ports anywhere in the world on the roof protecting that White House, the ballroom. It's supposed to be a top military secret, what's underneath but you have to reveal you're building an unbelievable situation downstairs with room after room of very complex stuff. It was the military's dream to have it built. I wanted to have a ballroom because for 150 rooms they wanted it and then the generals came to see me and they said, sir, this gives us an opportunity to do something unbelievable. Never happen again. It's very hard to build under the White House. It's very fragile. All a little different construction standards, frankly and this is an opportunity for us to build something very powerful. I said let's keep it secret. They said no, no, we're telling you, sir, let's keep it secret. And then we reveal every room, everybody — we told the people that did the room they're not good people. We told them you're being very unpatriotic when you bring a suit like this but it's moving fast. We're ahead of schedule, we're right on budget and it's going to be something I think like no country has. I just visited China. They have this magnificent room. The great room. They call it the great room. It's a great room but what we have, there won't be anything like it. It's going to be fantastic and with all the things going along with it for safety and security. Our future presidents — I'm only going to be using it for about six months. Assuming it gets done right on time. They said he's building it for his — that was far more complex what we did downstairs than what we do upstairs. We're very proud of it. It's going to be amazing. And I think — I was just telling the whole group sitting at the table, we were talking about it. It's White House Correspondents so I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to use that it's going to be very large and beautiful and safe and that's what you need. So I was thrilled to see that after witnessing the attack, even Democrat Senator John Fetterman told his fellow Democrats to drop the Trump Derangement Syndrome and build the White House ballroom but it's something much more than that. I predict you're going to end up using it and a lot of people will and they'll be as safe as you can possibly be but despite everything that happened at the previous dinner and all the dangers involved, I am told that this is still the hottest ticket in town. This ticket, to get into tonight, because it's a smaller room, a beautiful room.

See those beautiful chandeliers? I can tell you everything about them if you'd like to know. See the beautiful capital above? Those chandeliers are brass. I'm looking at them wondering — you know, I sold this building and they're doing a nice job. Nice people. But I'm looking at it saying I wonder if I could walk out with those chandeliers? They're very special. I won't mention the fact that they're Czech crystal because I want everything made here but they are Czech crystal and they're very beautiful. And the wall — Waldorf people are doing a beautiful job. I was getting a little bit angry but I was very proud of this building. This building was hot. Recognize the lobby floor. 82,000 square feet. For those in the real estate business, 82,000 square feet. That's a major floor. That thing was packed every single night. Mostly Republicans I would say but it was packed every single night. It almost brings back memories but I left town and I have just had nothing but good experiences and this might be the best experience of all, having all of these incredible people in this room. It's a great feeling, frankly. It's a great feeling. Thank you. But tonight's event is even crazier than the last time. In fact, it's so successful that I've been informed by CBS News's David Elson, who's going to do a — he's the owner. He bought it, spent a lot of money and he's going to make I think fantastic changes and keep some of the great stuff going but next year they're going to call it the Trump White House Correspondents Dinner. He told me that and I like that very much. He changed the name of it. It's going to be so hot, just like our country is hot. We were hot, by the way. To be honest, it's just about the only way they're going to ever get me back here. I hope that everyone finally got to enjoy their entire very delicious beef tenderloin. It was very special beef and I want you all to know that Bobby Kennedy is right here. Personally ran over the cow in his car. And he cut it up and brought it here for you to eat tonight so it's very fresh and Bobby also suggested an appetizer featuring his favorite cut of male raccoon road kill but we drew the line at that. We said no, we're not going to do that. We're not doing that. We love Bobby, I tell you. He's a piece of work. He is fun but he's a very different kind of a person but he has what it takes and he's smart and he loves the country and he wants people to be made to feel good. You agree with that, Bobby? He wants people to feel good and he's doing a fantastic job. Thank you, Bobby. Thank you. We can joke all we want but thank you.

A lot has happened since the last time we were all together. Last month we hosted one of the most incredible sporting events in world history at the White House. UFC Freedom 250 fight. UFC fight. When I announced that we were going to build a boxing ring right outside of the White House, I took a lot of heat. They say it was just about the most viewed fight in history. It was beautiful. So many things happened. It was supposed to rain. We were going to do it the week before and the weather was beautiful and the weather came and went and we came up to Wednesday and they said sir — invest on a Sunday night, replacing '60 Minutes,' which is nice. And unusual because usually it's Saturday night. They said, sir — this was from Wednesday on, tell me about weather. Sir, it's going to be to rain. It's going to be one of the worst storms. It's coming up the coast, it's going to hit on Sunday night. And you saw the ring we built. Dana White. And the best fighters in the world. Turned out we have had the best fights most people had seen. We were waiting for this rain to come all day long and it's coming and it's horrible and it's 8:00. We're saying we think we should — it hasn't rained yet. Maybe he should postpone it an hour or make it the next day. We didn't know what to do. It never rained. It was like 72 degrees and the rain was coming and it came right over the White House and it was like thank you very much. It went like this. And other areas were drenched a few miles away. We didn't have a drop of rain and it was absolutely one of the most incredible things anybody has ever seen. People said it was one of the most incredible nights of their lives. Just recognize before I came along if you wanted to see someone lose consciousness on the south lawn of the White House, all you had to do is ask Joe Biden a question. Remember that. Oh, you think I'm kidding. But the big fight was such an amazing success that tonight I'm especially pleased to announce that we're going to host an even bigger one right in front of the White House. Every Friday night, every Saturday night, we're going to have fights in front of the White House. No, but we do have something coming — I'm only kidding. The one thing about the press they learned, don't be sarcastic because I'm a very sarcastic person and I get sarcastic and most people know that but you have some people that will write it exactly like I say it. But we are going to have an Indy 500. Roger Penske is coming and they're going to do it all throughout Washington. The greatest drivers and cars in the world. Going down Pennsylvania Avenue, around the Capitol and Roger is incredible. He won the Indianapolis 500 20 times. Think of it. Germany, Japan, all these countries, they spend billions and billions of dollars trying to win the Indy 500 and Roger wins it — he literally won it 20 times. On the 18th time I said you know, that's amazing. I'm going to give him the Presidential Medal of Freedom and I had him up and then he won it two times since then. The guy is amazing and he lost the last one by about six inches. That's coming here. It's going to be an unbelievable event. On July 4, we were over at the Mall. It was raining, supposed to be really bad again. We had 45,000 people show up and that was a light number and I was told, sir, we're going to have to cancel the event. This was not good. It was drizzling a little bit, not raining very hard. People were calling me. Friends of mine were calling me and I got a call from Brett Baier. He said it's not raining. Then others called up and said the same thing. I said this is terrible. But there was lightning. Not big lightning but it takes just a little bit to do some big damage so they said everybody must leave. 450,000 people were forced to leave and they left and I said let me call up and find out what the hell is going on. I called up and spoke to a brilliant young man, he said don't worry, sir, we can do it in a couple of weeks. It's we can't do it in two weeks. This is the 250th birthday. I'll speak if I have to speak at 3:00 in the morning, 2:00, 1:00, I don't care. Call them all back. They're all gone. 450,000. Most of them were in cars, they were heading back to Texas and it was sad and weeks the show must go on. Very much like here, we said the same term. It's a great term, true in life. The show must go on. I put it out on Truth, the show must go on and we had, probably, 150,000 people come back. Come back up higher. Thank you. Stand up here. Tell them. More, right? It might be more but it was amazing. It was just an amazing crowd and it actually worked out better. A little like this. It worked out better than if we had done it at the normal 7:00, 8:00 time. It was incredible. We started speaking at 11:00 in the evening but tremendous numbers of people. Thousands and thousands came roaring back and it was a great evening and it was a celebration and we didn't do it the following day or two weeks later. We did it when we were supposed to do it. It was a fantastic celebration.

But I can exclusive reveal to you this evening that for the heavyweights we will have Sloppy Chris Christie, one of the sloppiest human beings you'll ever meet. Fighting I could say the governor of Chicago but they're fighting Jerry Adler. And then you have the congressman, A.O.C. plus three. Plus three friends. I watched her give that answer when she was over in university it was not a good answer. If I had given that answer I would have been out of politics. You cannot have an 18-second wait time to answer a question. It was a quite simple question. We'll have a simple rematch on an extremely simple question on a northern policy from Munich Security Conference. It was a big-time security conference and this was her first time up in terms of that. We had a sort of little preview and then Anderson Cooper is going to fight O'Donnell. I'm not a fan of his. But for years he loved it. I did so many interviews with him and he was great but he's got a little different persuasion than me in many ways. And Lawrence O'Donnell — never liked him. Never thought he — we had a contest for who had the lowest ratings and the lowest IQ on television. When I said that he has left the dumbest man on television. When you say some things, you never make a comeback. It was never like oh, gee, hey, Don, let's have dinner some night. Bette Midler and Jane Fonda held a concert to protest the first fight. They did not want to see the fight. They held an event. Three people showed up. And given the choice between seeing some of the really beat up faces of the UFC, almost everyone chose the people in the UFC between the two of them and the UFC. And what about Bruce Springsteen? What the hell happens to that guy? He looks like hell. I'm not supposed to say. I'm sure he does not like the way I look — but I know. At a recent concert, Bruce, all he did was talk politics. He ought to run for office. He made four political speeches in his three hour show. The tour has been renamed 'Bored in the USA.' He tells everyone how he hates Chris Christie and Chris Christie there again, high fiving Bruce Springsteen and Bruce Springsteen saw him and didn't lift his hand up. Chris somebody does not like you. Write them off. There are billions of people, a jerk. I've comedians get up, I have been here actually quite a few times, people do not realize and there was one time in particular one Barack Hussein Obama hosted it, do you know who that was? And he hit me hard, but he hit me with respect. I was sitting with Melania. And you had Brooklyn Decker, supermodel at the table right next, and she, I always will like her, she is married to a great tennis player, Andy, and she was at the table. Not at my table. And I have watched this clip thousands of times. I keep playing it because they think that was the evening I decided to run for president. In fact, I love the evening. I look at my wife and I said, can you believe it, all these people? That is all they are doing is talking about me. I love this dinner. It's true. And Obama was nice. It is amazing how things work out. He actually showed a picture of the White House with a big Trump on top. You know I'm sort of doing that when you think about it. Right. It was not really right — it was not really wrong. But no, he was respectful. He was good but had nothing to do with, he had nothing to do, I just decided that I wanted to make America great again. This had nothing to do with that dinner. I have gotten so many — yeah, I have gotten so many, calls and for years they have been saying, was that the moment you decided to run? Really, no. I left that night and the press was there, a lot of the same people that I see, they said, did you have a good time? Unbelievable. Some thought I did not have but I did have come up and I really, I always remember Brooklyn. She was so angry, much angrier than me. She was angry because that — he thought they were mocking me and they really were not. It was just one of those things, I had a great time but I left, and I thought I was, I was there three or four times before that. I sort of thought, wow. That dinner is really something special. And then I ran, I got elected and I thought the press treated me very very unfairly. And I don't know. I think I made the right decision because — go to maybe they were not wanted. They want to me for ratings and for love. First time that ever happened.

Was that the first time, just about because I did not go for four years because I got treated terribly by the press. In my opinion unfairly. I know unfairly because I know the facts, but I got treated unfairly. I did not go. In this year I was — by your president and all the people and they said and they said we would like to do it and I said you know what? Time goes by, time passes and you sort of you look at life a little bit differently. I said let's do it. And I did not know it was going to turn out the way it did. It turned out to be the biggest event in the history — that was by far the biggest, right? For all the wrong reasons. As I said before, a lot was learned from that evening. So much having to do with so many different things, including security. But it is an honor to do it. This is my first time. I have been to it numerous times but as president, I have not been here. And I'm glad, and I said, they said, would you do it next year? If you get really really nasty, maybe not. But we are going to be back next year. Jackie — but this year, the association decided not to have a comedian. So, they considered using Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy Fallon. These guys, they are terrible. They're terrible. Stephen Colbert. These are people without talent. You know who has talent, their agents getting them the money they get. They have no talent. But they are not comedians. They are angry, they are sick people. But the association really put on a big show and they have somebody very special. I look forward to seeing him. And so they thought about going with a professional clown for entertainment. But Adam Shifty Schiff was not available. He is known, I called them, I hate some people. I should not say this. I'm not supposed to hate. I'm supposed to love everybody but he's a terrible person. He's a liar. And I told him — call him Watermelon Head because he has the smallest head with the smallest neck. How does that big fat ugly head stand on a little pencil neck? Then I'm told even Rosie O'Donnell reached out. She really wanted to be here in order to honor me. She loves me very much. She was desperate to come back to the United States and pay her respects to Donald J. Trump. But that didn't work out unfortunately because nobody wanted her to come back. But she's one of the greatest sufferers of Trump Derangement Syndrome. She is a sick older woman I have to say. Instead we are honored to have the very talented mentalist Oz Pearlman.

Are you going to stay? Yes, I'm going to say, Iran. Don't believe the fake news. We have hit Iran very hard. Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone, 250 jets no longer. 159 boats, good boats. Why the hell didn't we keep them? All at the bottom of the sea. They have no radar, they have very few drones left despite what you see. Every once in a while they will set some things up but they do not have much left. Then by the way, they are talking to us right now. They would love to make a deal. I do not think they are ready to. I do not think it is time yet but I'm willing to listen. But they cannot have a nuclear weapon. We do not want to see Washington, D.C. or any of our cities, who, Israel or frankly the Middle East destroyed with a nuclear weapon because I know the power of nuclear weapons. I see it. I get to see it. I will not let that happen. This is all about we will not let them have a nuclear weapon.

They would use it. They would use it if they had it. But I do have one question about what happened that time because he was there. How the hell did you not see that coming? He sees everything. He's telling me about, your grandmother and your this. Why the hell didn't? We have to ask him that question when he gets up here. Of course this evening it is all about the fake news media. And your handling of writing and producing and performing, made up stories like the Academy Awards. Academy Awards used to be the, the epitome of ratings. Outside of the Super Bowl, it got the second most ratings. Now it is down in the dumps. Nobody wants to watch it anymore because they took on Trump. They hit me all night long they hit me. The winner is so and so. 'I want to talk about Donald Trump. I hate this man.' Nobody wants to hear this stuff, right Peter? Did you ever see the ratings? They used to have 48 million people and now they have two people watching. I want to personally congratulate CNN's Caitlin Collins on receiving her award. Was all about me. She should not get in the award, it was a fake that I did not mind. I said congratulations. But it was fake, no question about it but she is a young, attractive woman. She never smiles. Do you ever smile? Smile. You have a nice position. You are at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Caitlin, just smile. But we attack and I thought Caitlin had really made it big with a major new sponsorship but then I informed her that it was not her on the Bud Lite can. It was Dylan Mulvaney. And Dylan Mulvaney cost Bud Lite $35 billion in market cap. It was the worst commercial ever made by the way for those who people who want to hear that. Most people don't care but I would. I would not want to hire Dylan. They hired Dylan will veiling in the market cap has gone down by $35 million. You wrote that commercial? And then you have writer Josh Dorsey. He has been killing me for years. No, here tonight he shakes my hand, he hugged me, everything nice. He kills me. Josh is amazing. He writes more stories than any human being. There is nobody that writes more than Josh. He will write for stories about me a day, all different subjects. I had the other day, three stories and one on the, he was upset about there was one on page seven, all written by Josh. But he says -- hit the big time and he's a work horse. He is almost unhirable. The Wall Street Journal is lucky to have him. Really, it is unbelievable. He is almost unhirable.

CNN is also here. I'm very disappointed they did not bring fake Tapper because he had a rough couple years. He called me up every once in a while, I pick up my phone. I used to go to this young lady, any calls from the press? No sir. I say, oh, I'm the President of the United States. I would say, is Stephen here someplace pitted where is Stephen? He is one of the toughest human beings I've ever met. Don't ever wrestle Stephen. Let me ask you, did the press call? No, sir. You know when I was a developer I got a call every half an hour. For whatever reason I got disproportionate -- so I said, Stephen, nobody called? No, sir. Two hours later, how we doing, everybody good, anybody call? No, sir. Nope, they never call. This went on for about a week and I said Karoline, did the press call? No, sir. No calls. It is over we can I have not received a call. I said I will give the press my phone number. That was the stupidest thing I ever did. I'm getting a call every 3.7 minutes. Stephen, I do not know where the hell you have been but the press calls, I am getting ring, ring. I was with somebody said today. They said I never heard a phone ring as much. I look at the thing and usually just delete, delete. Every once in a while it'll be one of the people in this room that I like, like this one calls me on occasion. But she'll call me, hello, sir. How are you? We want to talk about some horrible subjects like a depressing subject. Jackie, I don't want to talk about it. Congratulations on your new marriage. I do not want to talk about it. But it's true. And people call me now, and so for weeks I go no calls. And I learned then that both of them, they feel that I'm doing a great job. They feel I'm above it all. And that no person, hundreds of people, no person is good enough to talk to Trump. We don't even bother telling you. That is not the way it works, Karoline. You have to let me know because sometimes I do like to speak to the press. But now I have the best system I ever had. It rings, you're much better putting your name because if there is no name I just can't do that. I pick up every once in a while, hello, I'm from Reno, Nevada, we are a startup. We're calling. The Reno Express. Do you believe I'm the President of the United States? Can I have your views on Iran? And I just hang up. I get the craziest calls. I mean, some of them, my wife that I cannot believe you do this. This is a hell of way to live. Sometimes I can straighten out stories that are going to be fake and I can make them and fake stories to a good story. I always find when you do not speak to the press you always have a bad story. When you do speak to the press you have a shot at getting a good story. Oh, look.

Look, if I were a reporter and I'm a big reporter, I work for the Daily New York Times. Do they ever come to these dinners? Big mistake. They should be here. But I get a call. I've always found that, you know, speaking to them you just do better. You do better. When you can, when you have the time. You speak to the reporter. You treat the reporter with respect. Sometimes there are reporters where it does not matter. You can be so nice to them it does not matter. You get treated unfairly. You have a lot of great reporters where you speak to them and you can get the point across and that is a good thing but some people say that Jake Tapper is a great investigative reporter in D.C. And that is why after moderating our debate, it only took him one year to break the story that Joe Biden might possibly have suffered from cognitive decline. Took him one year. He wrote a book about how great he was mentally. Not too good. Biden was very unfair to a lot of people. Joe Biden what a beat me in 2024 even though he was way behind in the polls because he was seriously ahead, she felt he was going to win because he was seriously ahead on deceased voters. He was leading in the deceased crowd and there were a lot of them. You are finding out there was a lot of them to look at the numbers that just came out yesterday. It is traditional that at least one or two potential hopefuls attend the correspondents dinner but many of them seem to have chickened out. I was disappointed that Gavin Newsom didn't show up. He should be here. But I heard that he recently said that we will lose our country if we don't fight fire with fire. To be fair, there is only thing we know about Gavin and that is that Gavin does not want to fight fire with water. What a disaster. That should have never happened.

But Gavin 'Newscom' did a career threatening, one of the worst in views of everything where he cannot read a speech, incapable of reading a speech. He's a low I.Q. person. He is smarter whoever than all of the people in the room and then he gets sued for being a racist when he said that. But he basically said he's various mental incapacities. He has difficulty in various other ailments mentally. And I'm looking at I said, this is the worst interview, I'm watching, this is the worst interview I've ever seen given by a professional politician. I've been watching politicians for a long time. Mostly on the previous side, because I've not been doing this too long. How am I doing? Not bad for the number of minutes spent. Not bad. But Gavin, so he said, that all these things in a set, anybody running against him, all they have to do is take that one interview and you cannot lose. I put out a statement that Gavin Newsom has come out and said he will not be running for president because nobody can say what he said about himself and survive. Newsom was in big trouble when he openly admitted that Kamala was smarter than him. She said, Kamala is smarter. If Kamala is smarter than somebody you do not want that person to be President of the United States of America. Between California's policies of enabling wildfires, paying drug addicts to be homeless, giving free sex changes to illegals and telling which people they are going to take away all of your money is going to be taken away. People are fleeing and they are fleeing in droves. We cannot have that in this country. It is becoming such a horrible and dangerous location that Elon and her brother are thinking about moving, they are very much in love, the video surfaced recently of Elon giving a speech referring to World War II, as World War 11. They asked her about that. She thought she got it right but I'm not surprised. She has a low -- is a low I.Q. person.

She is also very dishonest. She needs to get the hell out of our country. She should not be in our country. She calls her brother husband number one. Omar is being investigated for fraud. To revise her net worth. I was shocked to see she was worth much more than $30 million and then when the press got on her, she revised it slightly down to less than $18,000. She went from much more from $30 million to $18,000. I know Democrats and the word Dumbo-crat is something that has come into fashion. I changed the 'E' with a 'U.' I thought it was quite good but I have not gotten much better. Fake news good. Pocahontas good. I will not say lying Ted, because he on my side. I do not talk about past conquest, but we have a lot of them. I don't talk about, I have a whole table full of Republicans, they are saying don't mention my -- will you, please? We have a lot good names. But the Dumbocrats are there to destroy wealth. They have gone absolutely crazy. Gavin Newsom is not only man who really wants to run for president, he's doing a bad job running his state. You cannot have somebody like JB Pritzker who understand is not president, sadly but some people say, never use the fat word. And I don't. I do not call anybody fat. I have my own problems. Sir, in the back, don't call him a fat pig, ok? I'm sticking up for him. Don't call him, you, you cannot do that, sir. You cannot call JB Pritzker a fat pig, please. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Who is that? Does he exist? When you do that the press cannot get you because I'm defending a man who obviously has a problem. He has lost a lot of weight. I saw him recently, he lost quite a bit of weight. I do not know what the hell, he has no chance. Believe me, everything he does, the family threw him out of the business. Another potential contender sadly refused to show up tonight, we invited Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren. She's referred to poker -- to Pocahontas. I had apologized, we want you to apologize to Elizabeth Warren for calling her Pocahontas. And I ended up apologizing to the real Pocahontas but Elizabeth Warren was supposedly of Indian heritage. And then she took the test, and she only had 1024 Native American and I said you know what? I think I'm more of an Indian than she is. Prince of this is what we have to deal with, but Senator Warren did not accept our invitation to debate. I wanted to debate her in various and sundry things. And she decided not to do it. And I decided to bury the hatchet. And I said, no. As she, I will not say this next one. You want to hear this one? She wasn't high up on her totem pole. Who the hell wrote that? Jack Smith ever, he went after me for about two years. How did you do? Not too good. I'm in the White House and he's not doing as well. He's a different kind of a house, but he is a deranged human being, he's a bad prosecutor. Prosecutors are very important. A great prosecutor, a fair prosecutor but the great prosecutors are the ones that are fair. They are very important to our country but this guy was a deranged lunatic.

I saw his invitation today, he was invited because, but I put in a private text to Chuck Grassley, and -- he did certain thing and one man, he turned Palestinian. This was a man who was 100% for Israel. 100%. Chuck Schumer. He cried at the airport over illegal immigrants. They were the sickest tears. There are people throwing water at his face. Now he's a pro-Palestinian. I will send him a beautiful Palestinian outfit tomorrow. So he can greet Bibi Netanyahu when he comes to town next week. Along with the mayor who would love to meet Bibi. They are not treating Bibi well, but Chuck wanted to join us tonight but he did not want to be violating many parts of the Palestinian rules and regulations and certainly he did not violate Sharia law, his new founding. All joking aside, I do think we need term limits in Congress. Term limits are very important because I see what is happening. I see what is happening. The other day a senator I knew got a text, great guy, from his wife. Then she said, when you get home, I want to have you immediately come up the stairs and make love to me. And he said, I cannot do both. You know? In other words, can't go up the stairs and make love. Does anybody get that? That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole stupid speech that they wrote. It was the only good one, and that went down with not exactly great laughter. In other words you cannot go upstairs and make love. So, we're looking for term limits. Does anybody understand this stuff?

But I really do wonder whether the Democrats are trying to lose the midterms. In Maine, they nominated a guy with a Nazi tattoo but don't worry, Democrats, word is his replacement, he throws bottles at women. This guy is another lunatic, by the way. I think he would've done surprisingly well. Because we are in the age of Trump. Call it what you want. People can do well today. Platner, I don't know. But people do not have the guts to stick it out but it looked like he was guilty of a lot of stuff. He did not defend himself very well. In Texas the Democrats are running a candidate named James Tele-freako. Who hates guns, hates oil, hates sex, hates women, and says he is a Christian who hates Christianity. Other than that, I think his platform is quite good. And that means he's not going to do very well against Ken Paxton who hopefully in Texas is going to win but -- you know what he looks like to me? Remember Alfred E Newman. Mad Magazine. That guy is Alfred E Newman. And imagine he would win. I have all the press or in one place, I have to say that we are having an amazing load of accomplishments that the media never talks about. For example, under my administration, once feared and 12 a regime that relentlessly attacked America has been toppled. Their former leaders have been removed, and now being run by a gay dictator facing internal divisions, but I for one wish Bari Weiss all the best at CBS News. She is a wonderful woman.

Most of the press lives here in Washington, D.C., and you should be thankful for me for what my administration and I have done to make our nation's capital, was was one of the most dangerous and unsafe cities anywhere in the world one of the safest cities in the United States. Crime is down 80% and our capital is shining again. 62 monument statues, water fountains looking more beautiful. Their graffiti is all gone. The tents are moved out of the parks, the fences are all done. Our capital looks like it's really in good shape. And people coming here, people in the White House, they work in the White House, they all say young women, young guys walk up, they say, thank you, sir. Two years ago we lived in a dangerous city, city where 150 people were killed a year. And now we are, we have almost a crime free city. Our National Guard has done an incredible job and we have removed over 5000 career criminals. We remove, there is one stat I think is great, it is to me, fantastic. 2% of the people create 91% of crime. That is something you can fix and we fixed it. We moved out over 5000 career criminals out of Washington, D.C., and we have the greatest capital in the world again. It is beautiful, it is thriving. The restaurants are thriving, you cannot get into a restaurant because they did not have all the restaurants were closing. And if you even got in you felt unsafe. People were getting into Ubers and being attacked in an Uber. Not happening anymore. We have tough, smart people. And they have done a fantastic job. Washington, D.C. is safe again. You cannot get into a restaurant, the restaurants are opening up. They are opening up all over the city. They cannot get the exact opposite. They cannot get space.

But mostly I've given up on you in the media so that now I just gave up on you and I'm number one on TikTok. Did you see I'm number one, is that true? I'm number one on TikTok. How could they be so bad. 520, think of this, 425 billion views. Can you believe that Peter? Let's go, Peter. I gave up on you people. I give up on traditional press. And it obviously worked because we did win -- I mean, somebody has to be saying something good about me. But TikTok. Good old TikTok. I was able to get it sold to a group of very wealthy people, mostly Americans I am told. President Xi, a man I get along with very well, he was a hard sell for the -- a hard no. They put it together. Hundreds of billions of dollars, I called up President Xi. I said, President, look, these are American people, they are wonderful people. In fact one of them happens to own CBS, actually. I mentioned his name. These are wonderful people. And it will be a good thing? Does it mean anything? It is nothing. They love your country! We would love to see you approve the deal. And he goes, all right. That was it. It was done. We sold TikTok. Ann is a friend of mine-- he's a friend of mine. He is not contributing to problems like other people. So we get along. We made a deal but number one on TikTok. Probably why we won. But for all the trouble that you give me, you give me a lot of trouble, a lot of heart ache. I hope all of you know that I believe in the free press more than anyone in this room does. Mmm, maybe not quite. But that is why I'm proud to be the most open and transparent president in history. They call me that. Karoline. That's about it. When anybody else call me that? Peter would call me that. In my most transparent? Biden never used to answer your questions. Who is the most transparent president, Peter? Who? Who? I look at him. It is the first time he's tongue-tied. I cannot believe it. Oh, he's not going to be happy tomorrow. But you people have no idea how lucky you are when I am gone, you were all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished. It's true. When I'm not around, you will be broke. There is not going to be anybody to report on. Nobody gives a damn about anybody else.

The New York Times the other day had five stories about me. Before I got into politics, in my whole life, I had seven front-page stories. This is years of success. One was bad. I had five stories, 75 good, I had a total of seven stories on the front page. That's not bad. Now I average about three or four a day. All different topics, all bad, everything bad. But here we are. Here we are, in fact, when it finished I'm going back to the Oval Office. I have to be doing ok. But we are all doing good together. That is why tonight, to show how much I care about the press and I want to save your ratings, I am pleased to announce my intention to, and this is somewhat of a scoop, my intention to run for a fourth term as President of the United States. I will be doing that. I will build having it official. In fact, I think I have -- I won three times. Now I'm going to do it again. Thank you. I'm gonna do it. I'm getting very good at running for president. I won three times, did very well the second time, by the way. Rigged election. It is interesting when you come back and do a good job like we did and you don't care about it so much but we do have to tighten up these elections because they really are and seriously in bad shape.

On a serious note I want to say once again I want to thank you all. It is been an interesting evening. I did not really know what to expect. And it is far worse than I actually thought. You want to know the truth. But I did not know exactly what to expect. And, uh, I made a lot of friends tonight. I made a lot of good friends. Probably made some enemies, also, but it has been an experience that is something we've all shared together because we are all in this room tonight because most of us went through a period of, of trauma. From just a short while ago. And, you know, some people said they wanted to come but they were afraid and you people were not afraid to come. There were lung people that said, Jackie, they do not really they did not have the courage to come. We don't want that to happen. And I'm sure it is not going to happen. Again, I want to thank our law enforcement that keeps us safe. All law enforcement. We have the greatest people, you know, we had two years ago, we had the worst record of recruitment, as an example, the military, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, I love the Space Force. Look at all of the shooting we were able to do from space. That was my baby. But all of the branches you cannot get people to join. This was two years ago. And least weak you probably saw some of you wrote the story. We have the single best recruiting of people into our armed forces than we have ever had in history of our country. They are brimming over with great people. And that is a big statement. And that also goes for the police departments where they were having a tremendous problem recruiting. You cannot get into police department now if you looking for a job, it's very tough. And that also includes our great fire departments because people forget about them. They are unbelievable. The job they do.

So I just want to thank you. Look, we are on the cusp of something big and I call it, I'm being very serious when I say this, this is the golden age of America. We have $19.2 trillion being spent in our country. The record was China. I think it was 10 years ago, $3 trillion. Trillion is a lot. For years, -- four years, they went less than $1 trillion Hunter Biden and we have $192. Trillion and this is a period of 13 months, not even current, we were here longer than that. But that was as of reporting days. $19.2 trillion is being spent, factories are coming, Toyota just announced they will be building the biggest car plant in the world, they are leaving Mexico and coming here. Tariffs did that. Tariffs did that. And maybe November 5 did that, too. The election but our country is doing things that nobody has seen before. And it is true. We work, you heard me say this, we were a dead country two years ago. Other leaders would see me and they would say it is a miracle. President Xi told me that a few weeks ago in China, he's coming here on September I think, 24, coming in September, the end of September. That will be exciting. But he said the same thing. King of Saudi Arabia said it, all everyone said almost the same words. We thought you were a dead country. We never thought you had a chance, never make it back and then a period to per -- of one year, you made it the hottest country in the world. We all did it together. It is not me. And we do. We have the hottest country anywhere in the world and we are going to keep it going. And I just want to say, this is a room I have tremendous respect for the people in this room. Sometimes I do not feel you treat me fair. Maybe you do. I don't know. I don't feel that but sometimes you treat me fairly. And I have a lot of respect for your profession. Your profession is amazing. And I just want to thank you for having me, and it has been fun. I've met a lot of great people. And I use an expression, use it from the beginning, I did this for one reason, to make America great again and that is what is happening right before your very eyes. We have make America great again. It is going to get a lot greater. Thank you all very much. It is an honor to be with you. Thank you very much.