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Donald Trump
45th and 47th U.S. President, US Executive Branch & The Trump Organization

Full Trump rally in South Carolina: Praises Graham, blasts Democrats before 2026 midterm elections

📅 Aug 21, 2026 USA TODAY 69 MIN 33281 VIEWS 92 SEGMENTS · 5 SPEAKERS
Donald Trump's Myrtle Beach rally lasted for over an hour, with the president praising his endorsed candidate for Senate Darline Graham while blasting Democrats from other states ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The latest on Trump's approval rating: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p... Sign up for our newsletter for the day's top stories, from sports to movies to politics to world events: https://profile.usatoday.com/newslett...

What Donald Trump said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Trump rallied in Myrtle Beach for Republican Senate runoff candidate Darlene Graham, whom he endorsed. He praised her late brother Lindsey Graham and predicted she would win the August 25 runoff. He touted his administration's achievements: ending immigration, cutting taxes, lowering drug prices by up to 90%, and building the economy with $19.2 trillion in investments. He cited record manufacturing construction, lower crime rates, and a strong stock market. He warned Democrats would reverse these gains, impose socialism, and impeach him. He urged voters to treat the midterms as if he were on the ballot, emphasizing the need to protect the border, tax cuts, Second Amendment, and prevent any men in women's sports. He confirmed plans for a new White House ballroom, honoring Lindsey Graham by naming Joint Base Charleston after him, and highlighted South Carolina's port export record.

Key takeaways

  1. Trump endorsed Darlene Graham for Senate and urged voters to support her in the August 25 runoff, framing it as honoring Lindsey Graham.
  2. Trump claimed $19.2 trillion in investments in the U.S. due to tariffs, with record car plant construction.
  3. He said crime is down 78% in Washington D.C., 80% in Memphis, and 79% in New Orleans after his interventions.
  4. Trump announced he would play the best golfer in Myrtle Beach if Darlene Graham wins the election.
  5. He stated the White House ballroom construction is under budget and ahead of schedule.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
$19.2 trillion Investments in the U.S. due to tariffs metric 13:26
78% Crime reduction in Washington D.C. metric 34:31
80% Crime reduction in Memphis metric 34:31
79% Crime reduction in New Orleans after Mardi Gras intervention metric 34:31
90% Prescription drug price reductions metric 1:04:29
$360 million Defense spending for Joint Base Charleston in current year commitment 53:12
25 million Number of people who entered the U.S. under Biden administration metric 35:14
1,200 miles Wall built during his first term metric 21:24

Chapters

  1. 0:00Opening and hello to Myrtle Beach
  2. 2:25Endorsement of Darlene Graham
  3. 3:40Supreme Court ruling on ballroom
  4. 5:32Roadway project funding
  5. 7:17Economic achievements and inflation
  6. 13:26Tariffs and manufacturing
  7. 17:49Midterm election warnings
  8. 24:05Democrats and communism
  9. 38:41Darlene Graham's qualifications
  10. 52:30Crime reduction and military spending

Questions asked in this interview

2
  1. 46:22We love President Trump in South Carolina, don't we?
  2. 58:03Oh, of course we're not. You know why?
Donald Trump 0:00 ↗
Thank you. Thank you. And I want to say a very special hello to Myrtle Beach, the home of 90 great golf courses. We're going to bring a lot of get everybody down to play. We're going to get them all. Everybody come on down and play golf. You have to make a lot of money now. And you have great everything down here. But you do, you're known for incredible golf courses. And so I want everyone to come down and use them. And I want you to make a lot of money when they do.
And I'll make you a deal that if Darlene wins, I'll come down and play the best golfer in Myrtle Beach in a match. And we'll see who wins. I will play the best golfer down here. At least if they're not on the tour. If they're on the tour, forget it.
And I want to say a very, very special hello to the great state of South Carolina because I won this state with the highest vote count ever in the history of the state all three times.
And but Henry McMaster, I have to say, did very well also. Where's Henry? There he is. He did very well. He's been with me from day one. Right, Henry?
And I want to just let you know I'm thrilled to be back with thousands of hardworking, God-fearing, true, unbelievable American patriots. That's where you are. Front row Joe.
We have front row Joe's all over the place. We have the ladies from North Carolina. That's okay. Right over there. They've been to 252 rallies. I can't believe it. I don't know how their husband puts up with it. They have these nice husbands, but I don't see them with you tonight. Thank you very much. It's been an honor. We've had a role from 2016, right? From 2016. So many rallies. And we love them. And we love our front row Joe. They always get front row. I don't know how they do it.
And I want to say hello to a very special person that's with us tonight, Darlene.
Because Darlene is somebody I've known for a long time. I asked her to do this. I said, "Darlene, you got to do it." Because everyone loves her. Everyone respects her. I've known her through Lindsay. I've known her for a long. I think Lindsay respected Darlene more than any other person he knows, including me. That does not make me happy. I'm not happy about that. I'm not happy about that. But one of those things. But with your help this November, we're going to stop the radical left Democrat communists here in South Carolina and all across the nation. And we're going to elect Senator Darlene Graeme to fight fight fight for South Carolina and to always put America first. She only knows how to put America first. She will be somebody you're going to be very proud. You vote for her, you're going to be very proud of that vote. The first step is winning the runoff election this Tuesday. You have to get out August 25th. You have to get out and vote. And we need every South Carolina patriot to go to the polls and vote for Darlene Graeme, if you would.
And the polls are open 7 a.m. to 700 p.m. So on Tuesday, get out and vote. You got to get out to find your polling place. Swamptheoteusa.com. swamptheoteusa.com. They have all the information if you need it. Most of you don't. But I'm in a very good mood tonight. I didn't mention this to Darlene because today we just learned that the big decision of the United States Supreme Court came down and the military ballroom this beautiful magnificent complex being built on the hallowed grounds of our cherished White House which is so vital for national security will be it's going to be the greatest of its kind anywhere that's ever been built. And it's something that presidents have wanted to be built for over 150 years. You know, we have a tiny little room right now. It's been that way for years. It's called East Room and it seats 88 people. And as an example, in two weeks, President Xi of China is coming and I wish we had a ballroom, but in a very short period of time, in a year from now, you'll have one of the greatest anywhere in the world. Then the military is being taken care of because of the military component for drones and for missiles and for bulletproof glass and for all of the things that you've needed. The military's wanted this done for a hundred years and presidents have wanted it done for 150 years. So I just want to thank the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice and we have a ruling that it's proceed. When they say proceed, I think that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Nothing's easy today.
And our construction is under budget and ahead of schedule. I always build under budget and ahead of schedule. And we build more beautiful than anybody else. And we're going to get that highway built for you, too, by the way. We're going to get that built. It's all ready to be funded. It's coming out of Washington. And it's coming out of Washington and it's all ready to be finalized and funded. And I have to tell you, Russell Fry has been fantastic in getting it done. He's been great.
And Russell Fry endorsed Darlene. Where is Russell? Are you here, Russell? Stand up. Russell, he's been my friend from day one.
People ask me, who's the best one to run for a certain seat? because we've won this place in such crowds and such numbers. But they say, "Who'd be the best to replace a certain gentleman who wasn't very good?" And everybody said, "There's a young man named Russell Fry." Right, Russell? And I put you up and it was like magic. I hope we have the same result with Darlene and I think we will. But Russell has been so fantastic and we're going to get your tremendous roadway project done. It's all funded. It's all ready to go. Okay.
And thank you for all that support in every way. And with your support and Darlene fighting to go with South Carolina and the Senate, we're going to make sure that she gets there. We will continue to make America safer, stronger, and wealthier than ever before. We're going to make America greater than ever before. And we brought it to a level that it's never seen before.
So less than two years ago, sleepy Joe Biden, have you heard of him? And the radical left Democrats handed us a complete and total affordability and security disaster. Remember affordability? I got in. We won by a lot in a landslide. We won everything. We won everything. We won all seven swing states. We won the popular vote by a lot. We won the counties, 87% of the counties in the country. Nobody's ever done that before. We won by a lot. But I got in, I had my first press conference. Look at all those press back there. I had my first press conference and they started screaming the word affordability. I said, I've only been here for one day. And they started screaming about front row Joe's know this about eggs. Egg prices were up four or five times higher than they were a year before. And I said, I just got here. I'm here one day and I got eggs down to lower than when they were in my first term and they were low. And other things are coming down. And beef is now coming down very rapidly. You see that? And as soon as we're finished with the Islamic Republic of Iran, as soon as we're finished, oil is going to be down at lower than it was even just a little while ago. We had it down to for your cars. We had it down to a hundred. Think of this. I went to Iowa. Love Iowa. And one gas station had it at $1.95 a gallon. and another one had it at 185. And then I went to meet with my people back in the White House the following day. I was in Iowa to make a speech. I laughed. I went and I said, "You know, I hate to do this to you because the country was booming." By the way, the stock market is much higher now than it was then. But, you know, and your 401ks are much higher now than it was then. But with all the good news, I said, I hate to do this, but we're going to have to take a little detour down to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and we're going to have to put out the nuclear weapon stuff because they're going to have a nuclear weapon, and we cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Well, you'll see some very bad things.
So, we went down and we stopped them. They'll never have a nuclear weapon. They want to make a deal so badly. We don't even know if we want because I view the Strait of Hormuz as an American territory right now. It's an American territory.
But Biden created the worst inflation in 48 years, the worst trade deficit in world history and open borders allowing millions and millions of people to pour in from all over the globe, including from prisons and jails. They came from prisons and jails from other countries. from mental institutions and insane asylums, from drug dealers and 11,888 murderers, stone cold murderers, most of whom killed more than one person. These people were allowed to flow into our country. Murderers. Think of it. They emptied their jails, including Venezuela. I now love Venezuela. We're making billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela. We're getting along great with Venezuela. That was, by the way, nobody likes to talk about that. That was one day. One day everybody said, "Oh, it's going to be long as one day." And actually, in a certain way, a little different, but certain way, we're doing equally as well with Iran. The fake news just doesn't want to report it that way. But they are now coming around because there's not much they can say. When a country doesn't have any longer a navy, an air force, radar, technical equipment, manufacturing, their leaders are gone. Their second set of leaders are gone. Parts of their third set of the leaders are gone. In fact, it's actually one of my biggest problems. I don't know who the hell to deal with. It's a problem. It's the only country in the world where nobody wants to be president. They say, "Who wants to be president?" Oh, no. I don't want to be president. So, it's a little bit of a problem. They gave us the This is Biden. Didn't know what the hell he was doing. They gave us the transgender mutilization of your children. They gave us men playing in women's sports. Doesn't work.
My wife hates when I do that. She says, "It's so unpreent, darling." I said, "I won in a landslide." No, she said she doesn't like when I do the swimming routine or the weightlifting routine. I said, "Darling, I won in a landslide. It's okay." And she hates when I dance to that great to the gay national anthem. That's what it is. It's called the gay national anthem. You know, I got the highest gay vote in the history of politics for a Republican. And and I played the gay national anthem. So, you know, what can I tell? I'll take it. We're going to take it. We got the highest of everything.
But men playing in women's sports, they gave us open borders. Anybody could come in. The whole world was laughing at us. They were laughing at us like we're a bunch of dumb fools. But they're not laughing anymore. They don't laugh at us anymore.
And starting the day that I took the oath of office, we ended the migrant invasion of our country. It was an invasion just like an army. We sealed our borders shut and began sending vicious illegal alien criminals back home and we've got a lot of them out of here and the rest are going very rapidly.
We imposed historic tariffs on foreign goods. The tariffs were making a fortune with tariffs. And what it's really doing, even more than that, all these companies are now coming and building in the United States. $19.2 trillion is being invested right now in the United States. More than any country at any time by many, many times.
You know, I said for years I've said it because other countries were doing it to us, but nobody can do it like we're doing it. But I said the other day, and I said it many times, and you've heard it many, many times. I said tariffs. It's my all-time favorite word. I love tariffs. I love the word. It's made us rich as hell.
But it's really brought, you know why? Because if a country is sending, let's say, a car in here, I say, "You got to pay 25% tariff," they say, "Well, we can't do that." I said, "That's okay. You don't have to do it. Come over here and build your cars in the United States." And that's what they're doing in South Carolina. You have record, you have record manufacturing and auto plants being built right now in the United States and in South Carolina. You're doing great. I said, "That's okay. you just come in and build your product here, whether it's a car or anything else. And we've never had anything like it. You know, we went 40 years without building a car factory. And now we're building more car plants and factories than we ever have in the history of our country. Can you believe it?"
But I said, Darlene, I said, "My favorite word is tariff." And those people back there, the fake news, they killed me. They went after me. No, they went after me. They said tariff is his favorite word. What about God? What about religion? What about your wife, your children? What about family? So, I made tariff my fifth favorite. And now I have no problem with the media. I have no problem anymore with the media. Tariff is my fifth favorite word.
And last month, inflation dropped at the fastest rate in many years. And more Americans are working today than at any point in the history of our country right now today. And and you haven't seen anything yet because they're working today, but the factories are being built. So the construction jobs are through the roof because they're building all of these plants, factories, hundreds of them all over the country, thousands of them.
Except for the fake polls out there. My poll numbers are great. No, they have such fake polls. So, we have the greatest economy in our history. Now, some people haven't seen it yet, but they will because the job numbers are so good. They will. But we have the greatest poll numbers that I've ever had. We have the greatest economy that I've ever had. We had one of the greatest economies in history in my first term. This is blowing it away. But then I'll see a poll and they'll say Trump is at 44% on the economy. How could it be at 44? We have more people working now than ever before and I'm at 44%. No, no, I'm at 30 points. Maybe I'm I should be at 100% on the economy, but you're going to see it in a short period of time. And the prices are all coming down. John McLaclin, the great pollster, he's one of the greats, just told me that if you ran today, nobody could come close to you. Nobody be would be within 20 points. I believe that's right. Likewise, a great Tony Fabriio, a great pollster, he said the same thing. He said, "Nobody could come close to beating you." Unfortunately, we have little rule in regulation that says you're not allowed to run. If they'd like to change that, I'll be very happy. But look at the rallies. Look at what we have today. You You have thousands of people standing outside. Can't get in. They're standing outside and we're not even really running, but we are running because we have to get Darlene and other people elected. So, we are running.
And the problem that we have is they say that Trump does great when he's on the ballot, but when he's not on the ballot, his people don't come and they don't vote for senators, congressmen, and other Republicans. and that these people, they're running. They're great. But if Trump isn't actually on the ballot, so what I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot. Just come and vote. It's so important.
So just say that I'm on the ballot one more time. You got to say it. And you got to come out and vote because if we lose, you're going to lose your border. You're going to lose your tax cuts. You're going to lose everything that we've done. We've gotten the biggest tax cuts in history. Think about no tax on tips. No tax on social security for our seniors. No tax on overtime. All of that's going to be gone. Your taxes are going to go up. Your pay is going to go down. Your jobs are going to be lost. They're going to end up closing up. Your businesses are going to flee just like they did years ago. They're going to flee our country.
I'm going to be impeached. They're going to impeach me. They have no idea why. I saw today a congressman said on one of the shows, we're going to impeach President Trump. We're going to impeach. Oh, really? Why? The person was asking neutral commentator for a change. I like neutral commentators. Oh, I see. You're going to impeach him. Why? Well, I don't know. I don't know.
That's all right. That person's going home to mom going to get scolded cuz mom is voting for us. You know, mom is voting.
But I said, you're going to lose all of your tax breaks. You're going to lose everything. So, you have to get out of vote. No, they're going to do it. They're going to impeach. But did you see it this morning? This congressman, it's a big story. He's on. We're going to impeach President Trump. Why are you going to impeach him? The commentator, uh why are you going to impeach him? What has he done wrong? Um I I don't know. I don't know. We're working on it. We're looking at different things. I have The guy had no idea. It's a disgusting thing. So, you're going to lose everything. I'm going to have to go through impeachment. These are lunatics. These are people that are vicious, violent, that weaponize the justice system, the justice department, and they want to destroy our country. They want to see that our country fail. They want our country to fail and we can't let that happen. You have to get out and vote in the midterms.
One other thing, and you know, they know Darlene because Lindsay was so prominent. He was so amazing. But they know how great she is and they want Darlene to lose and the election and they want really I hate to tell you this Darlene they want Darlene to lose because of me. If I would support somebody else in fact Darlene I'll do that if you'd like me to because you know when I fought for the wall we ended up building 1,200 miles of wall. I used to say we will build a wall. You remember I would come down here we will build the wall. the wall has been and we built the wall. We built a lot of wall. We built the whole thing. But I said we will build the wall. It took me two years a little bit slow sometimes. If I would have said we will not build the wall, they would have given me all the money I want. So Darlene, I'll say I do not want Darlene to win. No, they don't want her to win because they know how good and they think that it hurts MAGA. It hurts and MAGA is If you look at the Republican party, the Republican party is mega. It's like, you know, I watched another commentator say the Republican party is only 70% maggot. Let me tell you, the Republican party, I think the real Republican party is 100% make America great.
But they're only fighting Darlene because they want me to lose, which isn't fair. But I'm doing this to honor Lindsay. I'm doing this to honor Lindsay. It's why I'm here. I don't have to be here on a Friday. I don't have to be here. Although I must say I love it. And now that I am here, we got plenty of time to talk, right? We got plenty of time. So Darlene, we got to win that race. And we appreciate that you're doing it. I asked her to do it. She didn't. She was very happy. Henry appointed her because she was a perfect appointment for the to serve out the term. And I said, "Henry, she should really run. She's fantastic. We all know it." And I said, "Darlene," I called her. I said, "Darlene, I'd love to see you run beyond the five months that you're serving. And you've already made an impact in the Senate. You know that everybody respects you. Everybody listens to you." So, I asked her to run and I think she's going to do phenomenally. I really think it's amazing.
She loves our military. She loves things that have to do with greatness for America. So, the Democrats hate our country. They're communists. They're radical left lunatics. And frankly, they're in many cases horrible, horrible people. Do you remember as crooked Hillary Clinton? Remember crooked Hillary Clint? She said, Do you remember when she said they're deplorable and irredeemable, right? Remember the word deplorable? That was a killer. That was the end of his that was the end of her election. And it's amazing because I heard her say that. I heard I was watching her. I said, "Wow, that's tough." She said, "They're deplorable and irredeemable." And I said, "The word irredeemable is not going to be accepted." Well, actually, that was accepted, but deplorable wasn't. So, you know, I think irredeemable is worse.
But she was deplorable and what they're doing is deplorable. And we have to make the midterm elections too big to rig. Very simple. Too big to rig. like we did my elect.
And I upheld my ultimate promise and that's I made our country great again. We made our country great in a much shorter period of time than anybody thought and we can never let it go back to where it was just two years ago. Our country is a laughing sock all over the world. Two years ago, our country was dead. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world. Everybody will tell you anywhere in the world.
And under our leadership, America is winning again. America is respected again like it has never been respected before. I can tell you they respect your president. They laughed at your president. They respect this president. But now the radical left Democrats, I call them Democrats because their policy is so dumb. Think of it. men in women's sports, open borders for the entire world to pour into, totally unchecked, unvetted. Think of it, the transgender nonsense like everybody, your children should be mutilated in a ch. Do you ever can you believe these things? And I don't talk about it too much until we get right before an election because I don't want them to change because anybody that believes in defunding the police and all these they want to defund the police and they want to. Anybody that believes in this stuff cannot win an election. So I always tell the Republicans, don't talk about it because they'll change. Do it one week, two weeks before the election. And that's where we are. We're a week before the election. So we're talking about it, Darlene.
But the radical left Democrats want to destroy all the progress that we made and bring back their nationwide nightmare of open borders, of sanctuary cities, of massive tax hikes, crippling energy restrictions, ruinous inflation, the highest ever, the highest at a minimum in 48 years, racist DEI mandates, and defunding the police. But Senator Darlene Graeme and the people of South Carolina are not going to let that happen, right? We're not going to let it happen.
For four long years of Biden, you saw the radical Democrat agenda in action. And we're never going back. We can't go back. We can never do that again. That was close to the end of our country. I'll tell you what, had I not won, and this isn't about me, but had I not won, our country was ruined. We would have never been able to come back. Welfare was doubling, welfare was set to triple, and our business was going down the tubes. The companies were all leaving. Now, these big companies are all coming into our country. And that to me means two things. Money for our country, taxes, and jobs. Jobs. It really means a lot of jobs. Remember what I say and I'll say it again and again.
There are more people working today in the United States of America than at any time in the history of our country. And I have to be telling the truth because those fake news reporters, if I exaggerate, if I'm wrong by one person, one person, they're going to say, "This was terrible. He exact." I've learned I say it so straight. Sometimes I won't even say certain things if if I'm not sure. We have more people working today than at any time in the history of our country. And we're going to get out in the midterms. And we're not going to let them steal this election. And we have people laughing at America as they were just two years ago. We're not going to let that happen. We're not going to let people laugh at us anymore. We're the smart country now, not the dumb country. We were a dumb, stupid country led by a very, very stupid person who wasn't leading. I mean, they had some radical left lunatics leading. He was not leading. And state after state, the Democrat party is now running the most extreme, unhinged anti-American candidates in the history of our country, their party has gone full-on communist. Do you remember at the State of the Union, Tim Scott was there? Baraso was there. Senator Baraso, a great senator. I don't know what the hell you're doing so far. Where's Baraso? Look at him. He's a great senator. Not from these parts, but he likes these parts and he likes Tim Scott. But they were there and I said at the State of the Union, "Our country will never be a socialist country." Right.
Will never be. Well, and and thank you.
No, I said our country will never be a socialist country. And I was 100% right. It's gone communist. Okay. So they skipped, Tim, they skipped socialism. They read they went like this. Forget socialism. They've gone head-on communist. Not socialist. In fact, we're looking for some socialists. Are there any around, please? No. They've gone communist. But we're not going to let that happen. That I can tell you. It's never worked in a thousand years with different names. Lots of different names. It's never worked once. In Florida, three days ago, Democrats nominated an official member of the Marxist Democrat Socialists of America Party for the US Senate. This is the easiest race that I've ever seen. We have a great candidate, as you know, and I I'm going to call her. I'm going to say this. There's actually pressure on her because when you have somebody that bad running against you, you actually have pressure. You got to win by a lot. But she's going to do fantastic. A group that stands for This is a group that stands for eliminating the United States Senate, replacing the presidency and the Supreme Court of the United States. And I'm happy with the Supreme Court today. Very happy. Okay. Defunding and abolishing the police. Amnesty for all illegals, including murderers and all other criminals, including ending our military, enacting reparations for a very small group of people, and of course, immediately abolishing all prisons, and ending terminating police. Other than that, I think they're quite reasonable.
Crime, squalor, and filth will take over our country. And you know, I said it last week for the first time with all the campaigning. I said this last week. I said, you know, I've watched some of these blue states run by radical left like this guy in in Chicago in Illinois, the governor Pritsker. It's amazing what happens. It all becomes I'm a very clean person, you know. I like to clean my hands as much as possible and all this. I don't like paper in the ground. I like everything nice and clean like we did with Washington DC. You can ask the senators. Washington DC was almost the crime capital of the United States. Can you imagine? We took out over 5,000 career
Criminals and everything is clean. Our monuments are clean. We took 82 monuments, fountains, beautiful. Everything's so beautiful. They had graffiti. So many of them didn't work for 35 years. And Washington is beautiful. And more importantly, it's very safe. We changed the grass on a lot of the parks. The homeless are no longer there in the tents. They were all over the place. The homeless are no longer there.
Terrible. I did that all in a year. In one year, we did it. You know, a restaurant tour. They were all losing their restaurants. Nobody was going to restaurants. Now, you can't get a restaurant in Washington DC. And for those people that want to go out and eat, you're lucky if you can even get into it. It's the hottest. It's become one of the hottest cities in the entire United States. And isn't that nice? It's the capital of our nation. It's clean. It's safe. It's beautiful. And I want to thank our National Guard who did a phenomenal job.
Told you, you can't get into a restaurant, Tim. Right, John? You can't get into a restaurant. That's a bad thing. You want to go to a restaurant, you can't get in. Before you could get in, and then somebody would walk in and hold up the whole restaurant, stick them up. It's hard to believe. They don't do that anymore in Washington.
No. Crime is down 78%. Think of that. Crime in Memphis is way down. And I got a call from the governor, good governor, and he said, 'Could you come and do something?' It's down 80%. Crime in New Orleans, they just had Mardi Gras. The governor, great guy, Jeff Landry. He said, 'President, we need help. We have Mardi Gras.' This is two, three months ago. He said, 'We have Mardi Gras. This place is a crime fest.' And I sent in the National Guard and some great experts. And they had the safest Mardi Gras they've ever had. Crime is down 79%. This is after five months.
And I could do the same thing for New York, for Chicago, and LA. All they have to do is call me. It would be easy. Terrible what's gone on in Illinois. But in Michigan, the Democrat nominee for Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, admitted openly that he wants to pack the Supreme Court with 23 far-left justices to shred the Constitution of the United States. His sister, very close relationship, celebrated the terrorist slaughter of babies on October 7th. His mother worked for an organization that gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to a gentleman named Osama bin Laden. Have you heard of him? Knocked down the World Trade Center. She gave him a lot of money and he recently campaigned with a communist fanatic who says that America deserved 911. We deserved it, right? We deserved all that death destruction. In Texas, the Democrat nominee for Senate said he hates Christianity and that the Ten Commandments are a form of fascism. The Ten Commandments are fascism. He is a disaster. That guy, that guy is a disaster. And just last week, the entire Democrat National Committee voted to abolish ICE, meaning the official Democrat party platform now is on top of everything else. They want to do that. I mean, they want to end all enforcement. They want to end law and order in our country. They want to make it worse than it was. When I took over, our border was being overrun by millions and millions of people. Ultimately, 25 million people throughout the four-year period came into our country. They want to make it easier.
Was that a good thing? Was that good or bad? I think she said Trump Nation. I like that. I like that. I like that. Leave her alone. Don't do it. She said Trump Nation. That's okay. Trump Nation's okay. I wasn't sure. You never know what they're saying nowadays, do you? Front row Joe.
But communism is the single greatest threat to our country in history, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, 911. And that's why we're going to crush the radical Democrats at the ballot box this November. And we're going to defeat communism in America once and for all. We're going to defeat it. It's never worked. It's dirty. It's filthy. It's unhappy. Did you ever see a happy communist? You ever see a communist laugh? I never saw it. I've known communists. They don't laugh. They're very unhappy people. WE WANT TO BE HAPPY.
With your vote for Darlene on Tuesday, we are going to send a message straight to the Democrat party headquarters in Washington. We're going to tell them that we will never abolish ICE. We will never surrender our Constitution. And we will never allow our country to even think about being a communist or even a socialist country. We're not going to let it happen.
Darlene Graham has devoted her entire life to the people of the state just like her brother. He was so that's all he talked about was South Carolina. He was driving me crazy. I love the people. Yet I got higher votes than him. Explain that to he loved this state. For years, Darlene led an important state agency with 130 employees, and she ran it impeccably and a $90 million budget. She served on the South Carolina Workforce Development Board, which was legendary to help working families. And when her beloved brother Lindsey passed away unexpectedly, so unex I can't believe he's not here even, I went to her and I said, 'You got to run, Darlene.' And with your support, Darlene will defend common sense in our nation's capital. She'll fight for lower taxes, bigger paychecks, no amnesty for illegal aliens, and she'll always protect your Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms.
And Darlene more than anything else because her brother was very much about the world. It was very much about the world. He really had it right, but he really was. He focused very much on that. That's good. That's fine. But she's more about affordability. She's about what we have, how much a loaf of bread is going to cost, how much beef is going to cost. Beef is coming down rapidly, by the way. But she was very much about affordability. I think more so than Lindsey, much more so. He had some unbelievable things going, but he was really about foreign nations not hurting our country. He was about Iran not having a nuclear weapon. He felt so strongly. Look, if that ever happened, if they ever did, they'd use it. They'd wipe out Israel immediately. They'd wipe out the Middle East. And you don't think they'd be coming here? You'd say, 'Which city is next?' We're not going to let that happen. We already we have them. Those B2 bombers a year ago, they ended that hope.
But as much as anybody in the Senate and maybe more, Darlene will support our military. I spoke to her two days ago and what she really wants to do is support our military and make sure they're taken care of because, you know, the Democrats take care of illegal aliens. They give them the best hotel rooms in the country. As our military sat outside, remember during Biden, our military veterans were sitting outside on a freezing sidewalk in New York and the illegal aliens were upstairs in hotel suites being paid thousands of dollars a night to that hotel while our veterans were outside. And she brought that up to me and I think it's something she's never I think it's something she's never forgotten.
It was terrible. And we ended that very rapidly. The Democrat who Darlene is running to defeat is a far-left political hack who supports transgender for everybody and believes in telling confused children they're trapped in the wrong body. By the way, do you notice how that's changing now? In fact, hospitals now are doing reverse surgery at my order. They're doing reverse surgery. Nobody ever heard about it.
Darlene is also a anti-gun. Think of it. She's going to be protecting a thing called your second amendment, which is so important and it's under siege. And Darlene, I can use your help because I want to tell you, I've been protecting it for 10 years. And every time there's an incident, it starts over and over again. I protected your second amendment. Nobody else could have protected it like I did. And I worked with John and with Tim Tim Scott and many others. We had great Republican senators in all fairness on the Second Amendment. But it's not easy. And Darlene's going to help us with the Second Amendment. And we need the help. If you put that other person in, if you put that Democrat in, she will be fighting. Look, it's going to be a vote to get rid of your guns. Can't do it. Can't do it. And I'm not talking about the enjoyment aspect of it, and that's important, but you have to be able to defend yourself against lunatics.
So, in a nutshell, you have to defeat the Democrats and elect Darlene Graham. Now, if you don't mind, because you heard her, I was on a plane coming here. Could I ask Darlene to come up for a second? Do you mind? Darlene, please come up. Thank you.
Darlene Graham 44:09 ↗
Thank you. And thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for your endorsement. It has meant the world to me. Thank you for your support. Thank you for coming to South Carolina. This is MAGA country, right? Yes. Absolutely. And Mr. President, I want to thank you for that beautiful eulogy you gave at Lindsey's service. That meant the world to me. It was beautiful, y'all. If you didn't hear it. And his friendship with Lindsey meant so much to Lindsey. You were one of his closest friends. I hope you know that. And you will forever be part of the Graham family for that.
And I met with the president a few weeks ago in the Oval Office. And I left that office knowing that he is going to work. He works every single day all day long so hard for this country. It is amazing. And Mr. President, I am proud to stand with you to work hard for this country and to work for this great state of South Carolina every single day.
You know, Mr. President, Joe Biden just about ruined our country. He opened the borders and let people flood in here, terrorists and illegals. And you saved our country and I want to thank you for that.
So again, thank you so much for coming to South Carolina. We love President Trump in South Carolina, don't we? Yes, we do. This is Trump country. Yeah. USA. USA. USA. USA.
Donald Trump 46:59 ↗
Got a nice way about her. You know, you're all standing up for her. You didn't stand up for me. What's going on? I'm angry. I don't like this. I'm upset with Darlene. Thank you, darling. Great job. It's a lot of love. Thank you, Darl.
With Darlene's help in the Senate, we're going to continue to build on the most successful 19 months of any administration in American history. We've had the best first year and a half of any president in history. There's not been anybody that's done what we've done in terms of our military, in terms of tax cuts. You know, the Democrats want to raise your taxes. All my life I've watched politicians and all my life I watched them say, 'We will cut your taxes. We will cut taxes. We will lower your...' These people say, 'We're going to raise your taxes.' And people go and vote for them. I don't get it. I don't get it. But in great news for South Carolina workers and the Port of Charleston, it was recently announced that American exports have skyrocketed to the highest level in American history. That's your port that we helped so much.
And that Henry is already asking me for more money. Let's make it a little deeper. Do you mind, sir? Oh, yeah. Great. Thank you, Henry. I appreciate it. But Henry was after money. He's always after money for the state. But he always gets it. I always give it to him. Likewise, manufacturing is booming at the fastest pace in many, many years here and all over our nation. In all fairness, the stock market has set 80 all-time highs since our election. So, we've been in for a year and a half. Think of that.
And the typical 401k is up by nearly $40,000 since I took office, setting records day after day. It's at the highest level. 401ks are at the highest level in history. And with the help of our Republican majorities in Congress last year, I proudly signed the great big beautiful bill delivering the largest tax cuts in American history. We gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security for our great seniors.
And we also made interest on car loans 100% tax deductible, but only if you buy a car that's made in the USA, if that's okay.
That's our border. That's our border. That's our border. Haven't done that in a long time. Right. Haven't done that in a long time. So true. So that's our border. People are coming in. They're murderers. They're not going to change. They're not going to change. Nothing you can do to change them. They were born killers and we're not keeping them in our country. They're getting out. We're bringing them out. And thank you, ICE. And thank you, Border Patrol. And thank you, law enforcement.
And if you want millions of migrant criminals sent into your communities to loot and maim and rob and pillage and kill, vote for the radical left Democrats. They will fulfill your needs. If you want to get the migrant criminals out of your communities, you have to vote Republican. We're doing it rapidly. We're making up all of that the horror that was allowed. You know, they gave us the worst inflation in 48 years in history as far as I'm concerned and all of these things. I've already solved that. Mostly solved it. It'll be soon solved. When the fuel comes down, it's going to come rocketing down. But I've already said the worst thing they did to us is allowed 25 million people into our country. That was so bad, so evil, many of them so bad. And these countries forced them out. You know, the countries didn't want them. Even the ones that didn't have prison records, they were, you will see, largely on welfare. They didn't work. There were problems. These countries are smart. I know the leaders. I know all of them very street wise. By the way, I want to do one thing if I could interject because sitting next to Darlene is a very handsome man. It's her husband and her family is here. And I want to just I have to ask you, please stand up. Would you please stand up? What a great guy. Great. Great. Look at the family. Great people.
That's like from a postcard. In my old days, I'd grab that family and use them in an ad for a hotel and say, 'Do you mind taking an ad, Darlene? I want to use you people for an ad. What a beautiful family.' And I have to I have to mention that it's so good that your family is so supportive because without that it doesn't work. Thank you very much. You're doing it for the country. Thank you. Thank you. Great.
Last year under my leadership we achieved the largest drop in murder. Think of that ever. Ever. The largest murder rate drop ever recorded to the lowest level in 125 years since the year 1900. 125 years. And we're making America safe again at home and strong again on the world stage. Everyone's respecting us. And thanks to Republicans in Congress, we're making the largest ever investment in the United States armed forces by far. And these guys are helping a lot. And I built our military during my first term and we're using it now.
But the late great Senator Lindsey Graham was always one of the fiercest defenders of the United States military. There is nobody nobody that fought for our military like Lindsey. And I'm proud to say that we officially named Joint Base Charleston in his honor. That's a big deal. That's a big deal and he really deserves it. You see things named after people sometimes you say, 'What's that all about?' He deserves it. So, we're delivering Joint Base Lindsey Graham. Nearly $360 million in this year's defense spending. That's good for your state also. And millions more are going to be spent on the Marines at Beaufort and Parris Island. With Darlene as your senator, those bases will be part of the bedrock of American military dominance for decades and decades to come. And I'm so proud of what we're able to do so easily with Lindsey. You know, name changes on bases is a big deal. Takes many, many years, right? This one took a week. That's how much he deserved it. So, congratulations to the entire family. Darlene, great. We miss him.
And we're pleased also to be joined tonight by many great South Carolina patriots, including just about my first endorsement in the great state of South Carolina. He was the lieutenant governor at the time. And you had a governor that I didn't like too much and she endorsed somebody else and I said that's strange because I was always very good to her but we had a lieutenant governor named Henry McMaster and Peg Peg is a part of Henry McMaster and he said I endorse the guy named Donald Trump who's running he's going to be a great president and I want to just ask and you have been a great you have been an unbelievable able governor and I want to thank Henry McMaster. Thank you, Henry. Please.
And by the way, he was the first. There were a few Republicans that are good, but he was the first one. He kept your state totally open during COVID. Okay, that's pretty good. He turned out to be right. He turned out to be right, Darlene. Right. These other guys, they closed up the states. The states will never actually recover. Mostly blue states in all fairness.
With us also is Senator Tim Scott and Senator John Barrasso. Would you come up? Come on up. And and I want to ask Russell Fry to come up. Come up, Russell. Come up here. What the hell? It's Friday night. What are we going to do? Let's have a good time, right?
John Barrasso 56:26 ↗
Is South Carolina. Donald J. Trump country. Oh, now this is South Carolina. And when we say we love President Trump, we say it loud and we say it proud. Is this Donald Trump country? Oh yeah. We love a president who closes our borders. We love a president who cuts our taxes. And we love a president who keeps Americans safe.
Mr. President, I told these folks earlier that Wyoming and South Carolina are folks states filled with conservative people who love Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States. And I told them that you and Darlene in Wyoming follow what we call the cowboy code. You live each day with courage. You take pride in your work and you do what needs to be done every day for the people of this great country. And for this we are very very grateful.

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Trump, D. (2026, August 21). Full Trump rally in South Carolina: Praises Graham, blasts Democrats before 2026 midterm elections [Interview transcript]. USA TODAY. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1245654/

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Donald Trump. "Full Trump rally in South Carolina: Praises Graham, blasts Democrats before 2026 midterm elections." USA TODAY, 21 Aug. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1245654/.

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@misc{trump2026_1245654,
  author       = {Donald Trump},
  title        = {Full Trump rally in South Carolina: Praises Graham, blasts Democrats before 2026 midterm elections},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, USA TODAY. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {aug},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1245654/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}