President Trump visits Gastonia for Michael Whatley Senate race rally | Sept. 16, 2026

economy in history. We have over $21 trillion being invested in this country, which is five times more than we've ever had before. So, they're raising that only for political reasons. So, that's a raise against Mr. President, what would you say? What phase are we in in the Iran war right now? How would you describe what phase of the war we are in?

Well, hopefully we're toward the end of the war. They want to make a deal. We'll see how that works out. They're very much wanting to make Iran is very much wanting to make. What have you heard from them recently, sir? Have you heard them from them directly or through intermediaries? Mr. President, how many trades?

For instance, if we lose $50 billion a year with eight countries and we say we're not going to trade with you, well, we don't lose $50 million for Canada. It's a whole different Canada is a terrible trade and if they do that, if I think it's at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs force stop trading with Europe on many things. So if they do that and Europe does that with a bad intention, if it's a good intention that's not, if it's a bad intention we'll put very heavy tariffs as the war is so important which is which is a possibility why is it so important for you to have money for.

Well, it's a very easy question to answer because it's a mess. It's lost the Kennedy Center for many years, tens of millions of dollars, even hundreds of millions of dollars, a cruiser peninsula and many of the places like that, you know, like all various places throughout the country. A lot of money for need to go and fix it. I'm the one capable of fixing it and then have to subsidize it for years to come because you were losing with Kennedy, they were losing hundreds of millions of dollars and sometimes hundreds of millions before I got involved. So for the Trump administration to get involved and to take that on long term and to carry it or to raise money to carry it. I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition because frankly if we don't do that it's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down. It's in very very bad shape. Very dangerous. You see steel falling down. You see plaster falling off ceilings. You see a lot of dangers. It's been very badly maintained for 45 years.

Why do they have your name doesn't go on that building? I'd like to be able to save it, but it's going to take a lot of subsidy into the future. And for us as an administration to want to do that, I think the admin the Trump administration should be recognized. Why does it have to have your name out there? That's.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the 45th and the 47th President of the United States, President Donald J. Trump. that I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that fight to me. And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today. Cuz there ain't no doubt I love this land. God bless the USA.

From the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee, across the plains of Texas. From sea to shining sea. From Detroit down to Houston and New York to LA, where there's pride in every American heart. And it's time we stand and say that I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today. Cuz there ain't no doubt I love this land. God bless the USA.

And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still. I love this land. God bless you. USA.

Well, hello North Carolina. Special place. This is a special place. I love it. I love it. We're going to elect Michael Watley. That's what we're going to do. But I'm thrilled to be back in this incredible and beautiful state with thousands of proud, hardworking American patriots. You're incredible. You built this country.

So, I won this state six times, including the primary, six times. And in 2024, we got more votes than any candidate in North Carolina history. That's not bad. That's not bad. And we won those record-setting victories with the help of a man named Michael Watley. He was incredible. You know, who is the chairman of the Republican party along with Laura Trump, who's great and she's gone on to television stardom now. Can you believe this? I said, Laura, you got to get She loves the state. She was born here. But what a team. Those two were the best team there were. In fact, I said to everybody, anybody that would listen, I said, 'When I win this thing, I'm going to take that guy from North Carolina, make him the head of the Republican party,' which is exactly what I did.

And he was fantastic. He Nobody better in the whole country. I had my choice of the whole country. I chose Michael Watley. But with your vote in this election, we're going to defeat the murderer and criminal protector. He's a murderer protector. The man who made North Carolina the talk of our country. The whole country was talking about it for its violent crime, the radical left Democrat Roy Cooper on November 3rd. He's terrible.

No, he's a murderer protector. And he let out 3,500 murderers and criminals. And we're going to elect one of the greatest men that I've ever worked with in government, Michael Watley, to go and become your United States Senator.

So, nobody used to think of North Carolina as a dangerous state, criminally dangerous. It was like North Carolina, it was beautiful. It was apple pie, right? And now it's one of the most violent and one of the worst in the whole nation. And it all started with Cooper. And you have a lousy governor right now, too. But it started it started with Cooper.

I remember Cooper was your governor when you had Helene, the what they call it the the biggest water hurricane. It was all water and it was brutal. And I was here the following day. You remember that? But Cooper did nothing. He did nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it took me, it took a few months because it we were winning an election. And as soon as I got here on January 20th, your nation and your your whole nation, but your state started to heal from Helene. It was one of the worst hurricanes. Not in terms of a lot of things, but in terms of water, I think it has the record. Everything areas that never saw water became literally islands. They were separated by just tremendous amounts. Nobody's ever seen anything like it.

And I have to tell you, Elon Musk, I called up. I said, 'They all want Starlink. Elon, you couldn't get it.' And I said, 'You got to do me a favor. Send me Starlink.' And he sent hundreds of phones over Starlink. And that was what got remember cuz people, you had islands. All of a sudden, you had islands out there and they were separated by vast amounts of water. You couldn't leave them. People were had no communication. I did. I called Elon and they wanted to get them. you couldn't get them. And I called him and he gave he gave us immediately a tremendous boost by getting that. But Michael Watley is the one that carried it forward. What do you have? A bad guy or a good guy over there.

Huh? Where is he? Who is he? Show it to me. Show him. Let me see his face. Oh. Oh, it's a she. Hello. She She's going home to mama. Who's watching right now? Her mother is watching right now on television, furious at the daughter. She's going to walk. She's going to get the hell spoken out of her. I won't say.

But and the worst offenders are the ones that Cooper released, including D. Carlos Brown Jr. who slashed Arena Zeritzka in the neck. Nobody saw anything like that. I think it's maybe one of the most violent crimes we've ever seen. And if you let it run a little bit on television, I didn't want to do it, but if you let it run, you see one of the worst things you've ever seen. And he was released out of jail. He was released by Cooper, your governor. And many others were released, too. 3,500 were released, but this was one of them. And yet others that they say, I don't know how anybody can be as bad, but they say there is just as bad.

But in this election, I'm asking you to pretend I'm on the ballot just one more time. I said that the other night. I said that the other night because when I'm on the ticket, I'm not bragging, but when I'm on the ticket, Republicans have always done really well. They go out, they vote, everybody gets elected. Everybody gets elected when I'm on, but I just want you to go out and pretend I'm on the ticket because essentially I am. We got to win this election. If we don't, all of those things that we got you from no tax on tips and no tax on social security for our great seniors and no tax on overtime, the overtime, no tax. I don't know which is the most important to you. A lot of people like no tax on social security for our seniors, but they're all good. They're all going

to go away. All of the things that we've done, the strongest border in the history of our country, it's all going to go away. If we lose, you're going to lose your border. You're going to lose your tax cuts. You're going to lose your wealth. And our country is going to go through hell. And we're going to be a laughing stock all over the world, just as we were two years ago. We were a laughing stock all over the world. So on election day, November 3rd, vote to defeat the Democrats. You know, I made the name change. I don't know what happened.

I call them Democrats because their policies are so dumb. All you do is take the E, you replace it with a U and nobody knows that there's a B. Nobody knows there's a B and dumb. They think it's DUM. So just think that I say it's a one-letter change. But they're Democrats because the worst policy: open borders, transgender for everybody, men playing in women's sports.

But you're going to go and you're going to crush the communists. And that's what they are. They're communists. Remember I said at the State of the Union, we will not be a socialist nation. I was right. They're going for communist nation. They're going right down to the bottom of the barrel. For the people of North Carolina, this election is about safety and bad management, like what he did, like what Cooper did. In the whole term that I was in, four years plus a year and a half, there has never been worse management of a storm or hurricane than Cooper in North Carolina. That's the worst anybody's ever seen.

And you're not going to have him go because he doesn't represent your values. And I know you better than you know you, I think. I believe. But his handling of the hurricane, the problem didn't get fixed until, and remember that, you go back and check your history books. It didn't get fixed until January 20th. That's when I came in. And the first phone call I got, as soon as I got to the Oval Office, I said, "Oh, was Michael Watley." He said, "President, do me a favor. They didn't do anything on... I mean, you people were living, they were living outside. They're living in mud. Terrible." The first call I get, I'm walking into the sir. Michael Watley's on the phone. I said, "What the hell does he want? Give me a break. What is it? My sir, you have to come down immediately to North Carolina. You got to because Cooper didn't do anything. He just left it. Remember the houses if they had a Trump sign, which is almost all of them, that they wouldn't touch him." Remember that? That was Cooper. If it had Trump on it, you wouldn't touch him. They wouldn't touch him. It was they were told if it has a Trump sign, you know, vote for Trump and all that stuff. They were still up, don't touch him. And they didn't. But Watley calls me, says you have to get down here, sir, and you have. And I did, right, Michael? I did. And if it wasn't for you that call, maybe you'd still be living in mud. I'm not sure. But it was Michael Watley that got me to move my ass, Michael.

That's why sometimes I don't like him. He's too aggressive. He actually, you know, I'm looking at him. He looks like such a nice man. He's not really that nice. He's a very effective man. He is a real ball breaker, let me tell you. But he's great. Look, in terms of representation, which is what we care about, that's the guy you want. And he knows it. And he's strong on crime, strong on your economic world. He's fighting all the time. Everything he wants is really common sense and good for you. And borders. Nobody's stronger on borders than you are, McGee. So, I just want to thank you for the great job you've done. I hope they appreciate it. I hope they appreciate it.

And he's standing next to a man that's represented me in the past and he was a great lawyer, like great, great lawyer. And Todd Blanche is now the Attorney General of the United States of America. And he's the best. He'll go down. A little early yet. Hard to say. It's a little early yet, but you know, he got approved a couple of months ago, but so far, you're doing great. And I think he's going to go down. I know a lot of them. He'll go down as the greatest Attorney General in the history of our country. I believe that at a very important time. At a very important time because there are a lot of bad people out there. So for years, pro-crime politicians like Roy Cooper have tried to bully you into silence while they turned your cities into blood-soaked killing fields, flooded your communities with migrant criminals, destroyed your schools with gangs and drugs, and filled your streets with lawlessness, filth, and squalor. You think Joe Biden could say that? I don't think so.

Think he could say that? No, he couldn't say that. What we went through for four years. Think of it. Yet a guy couldn't sign his signature. Would you please sign here, sir? Yeah. I'll send out to an auto pen. But those days are over. They're over. President Trump and the Republicans in Congress are making America safe again. We're never going back to the disaster we had just two years ago. And right here in Charlotte, you've seen the deadly consequences of weak, cowardly sellouts to the radical left like Cooper. He was a... he's radical left. You know, he tries to pretend he's a moderate. He's not. He's a radical left weak person. That's why just don't forget, don't forget Helene. Lovely name, but not a lovely hurricane. Last year, a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful 23-year-old woman, a young, beautiful girl named Arena Zeritzka was riding home on a train in Charlotte after fleeing war-torn Ukraine. It was... she was petrified of Ukraine. But you know what? When she got on that train, I watched that so many times. When she got on that train, she was petrified to be on that train. She didn't want to be. She went there, she crawled up in the seat. She just wanted to hide. She was more scared being on that train in North Carolina than she was being in Ukraine with all the missiles and bombs. But she didn't know that sitting behind her on the train was a deranged lunatic, a dangerous monster with 14 prior arrests for violent crimes who set his bloodthirsty eyes on her. Right from the beginning, you saw the guy. I mean, the tape is honestly, it's terrible. That animal stood up, grabbed her around the neck, and slashed a knife right through her neck. And most people don't see the whole thing. I never... I did it once, and I wish I didn't, but they don't. They turn it off and, you know, frankly, the networks say, "Don't even put it on. You can't put it on." Most violent thing I've ever seen, I think. Murdering her on that metro train where she died terrified and all alone. And she knew what was happening. It was a slice. And she's looking up and she said, "What happened?" And she was dead shortly thereafter. The animal who murdered Arena Zerutka should never have been on your streets after 14 arrests. He should have been locked up for many, many years. But Roy Cooper released him. He said, "No, let's release him." Under Cooper and the Democrats' no-cash-bail policy, that monster and countless others were set loose to prey on the people of North Carolina. That's why I mean I know North Carolina so well. So much crime here, national. I mean it's on the national news. In North Carolina somebody was stabbed to death. In North Carolina somebody was shot. And I keep saying what's going on with North Carolina. It's your governors. It's your governors. But it's Cooper. Cooper was really bad. As Governor, Roy Cooper also cut a deal with radical activists to release, as I said, 3,500 inmates, some of the worst criminals in the nation, into North Carolina. They came out of the prisons, including savage criminals, hundreds of child predators, dozens of killers, murderers, and people serving life sentences. He released them. And you could take a look at some of the mug shots. I don't know if you have a video, if you can see a video around here someplace.

Yeah, these are all mostly murderers and people of violent crime. Those inmates who Roy Cooper released have since murdered 25 people, raped 99, and committed more than almost a thousand felonies. He released these people. This is just a small group of them. I think you have a few lists if you'd like to see some of the rest. Now to a disturbing crime on a commuter train in North Carolina.

The brutal murder of a Ukrainian refugee is raising questions about why the suspect was not behind bars. Why was he out on the street? Why was this person free? Why was he free to roam the streets? Today I signed an executive order to establish the North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity and Criminal Justice. Thousands of inmates will be released early. 3,500 inmates. 3,500 inmates. Governor Cooper's administration saying that they'll fast-track the early release of 3,500 prisoners. It involves pre-trial release, fees, and fines. He's got 14 arrests. A judge released him without bail in January. But the question is which prisoners who have committed violent crimes are a part of that conversation. Task force is just the beginning. And I'm committed to making sure we see real progress.

So that's what you get and you see it. But there are many people like that terrible guy, that terrible, terrible person. You have many of them released by Roy Cooper. They're all over the streets. That's why you're reading about North Carolina all the time. You know, it's amazing. We cleaned out Washington, D.C. and I learned something. 2%. Think of it. 2% of the people create 91% of the crime. You can handle that. Think of it, 2%. And we now have Washington, which was one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the United States. It was a violent, dangerous city. We removed 5,000 animals, but it was a dangerous, violent city. We removed 5,000 of them. And Washington, D.C. is now one of the safest cities in the United States, our capital of America. And Todd Blanche had a lot to do with it. We think of it though, how great that is, because if it was 25%... it was 2% of the people create 91% of the crime. We can handle that and we did, got 5,000 of them out. We have almost no crime. People can't even believe it. Now it's clean. It's beautiful. The parks are up. The tents are all taken away from the parks. People are going there in record numbers. The restaurants are all open. The restaurants are closing. You couldn't go to a restaurant. It was too dangerous. And now people go into the restaurants like nothing. Years ago in Massachusetts, there was a governor named Dukakis. Michael Dukakis, you remember, who had a very substantial lead for president. He was going to win easily, but he allowed a man named Willie Horton out of jail. Willie Horton was a bad guy. Really bad guy. Same thing as this. Same exact thing. And on his first day out, he raped and murdered, raped and murdered again and again. And he ended up killing three women. Overnight, Dukakis took a rousing lead of 15 points and lost the election in a landslide because of that one advertisement. They put it on just like we're putting this on because we have to make sure that Michael Watley gets into office. Not this guy. Got to make sure. But remember that overnight he had like a 15, 16, 17. It was over. The race was over and he ended up losing the race because of that one incident because he allowed a dirty rotten killer to come out and rape and kill. And he did it a lot. He was a bad one. Same as what you have over here. Same exact same thing. But in a way, this is worse because Dukakis let Willie Horton out, but Cooper let the Carlos Brown out, plus 3,500 other hardened and dangerous criminals. Dukakis didn't do that. He let Willie Horton and a couple other people out. But this guy, this governor, when he was governor, he let out 3,500 people, many of them murderers. You can either vote for Roy Cooper to set loose criminals who rape and murder your children and your population, or you can vote for Michael Watley to protect and defend your children and your population.

So, and I say this because I know him. He's a great guy. He's a strong guy, though. Strong. Michael Watley is the candidate of law and order. It's all... think of this. It's bad enough with Roy Cooper where he vetoed laws to ban sanctuary cities. He vetoed laws on saying you're a sanctuary city. You know what a sanctuary city is? A sanctuary city is a place that protects criminals. And in North Carolina, you protect a lot of criminals. You don't protect your people, you protect your criminals. And this year in Greenville, a violent gang of illegal alien savages broke into a home, viciously attacked and sodomized a male victim and ripped out his fingernails one by one. He said he's never experienced anything. It was so horrible. In Fayetteville, a Haitian migrant flown in by Joe Biden, Sleepy Joe, Crooked Joe. Sleepy Joe. He's sleepy and he's crooked. I never figured out which is better. They're both true. Was arrested for stabbing to death a 77-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl, and a four-year-old girl. Killed them all viciously, violently. Roy Cooper let them out. Roy Cooper wants migrant criminals like these set loose on North Carolina streets with sanctuary city policies. Michael Watley wants them executed, arrested, or deported.

And I didn't have to do this today. I'll be... I didn't have to. The great ladies of North Carolina know that. They've traveled all over the world. They follow me. At least... At least this time. Look at them. At least you're getting younger and younger. They've been doing this for a long time. At least this time you're close. You know, when I'm in California and they're there, I say, "This is a very interesting situation. What's going on with the hubbies?" But there are a couple of hubbies back there. But what great people. We've been together for a long time, right? They were there at the beginning from 2015. Really? Because it started before 2016. And have I gotten better, worse, or the same? They say better. That's why I love them. Supposing they said not as good, but you're still okay. That's not good. Even if they said the same, I wouldn't be happy. But they've been my friends. And over here, you have front-row Joes all over the place. You got these front-row Joes. Thank you. They've attended 348 rallies. They've attended like 250, 259. Somebody tell 259. And they're all happily married. Can you believe it? Keeps them happily married. I don't know what would have happened if you did if you attended none. Who the hell knows? But it can't be better than it is. But they're great people from North Carolina.

But Michael Watley will support national legislation to end no-cash bail nationwide. You know, that's Todd where it all started. No cash bail where a person comes in, kills, you go to court, you let them out. No cash bail. Started in New York, I think, but it was picked up here and elsewhere. It's terrible. And he'll support mandatory pre-trial detention for serial offenders and severe penalties for repeat offenders. Michael will also support the death penalty for human traffickers, large-scale drug dealers, and anyone who murders a police officer. Anyone. And Michael Watley is going to ban sanctuary cities. You're not going to have a sanctuary city in this state to protect women. So a vote for Roy Cooper is a vote to give control of the U.S. Senate because that's ultimately... forget about him. He's not a leader or anything. He's got... but he's going to vote and we can't lose that vote. It's too close. They'll turn around everything. As an example, no tax on Social Security. They want to end it for your seniors. They want to end it. One vote could do it. You got to get them in. It's a vote. It's a vote. He doesn't have to be a leader. He doesn't have... It's a vote. It's another vote they have. We can't do it. It's too close. But it's a vote to give control of the U.S. Senate to the most extreme group of radicals ever to seek office. And you see some of these lunatics that are going to maybe in some cases be elected. Hard to believe, but certainly they did well in the primaries. The primaries are a different thing though at the primaries. They're communists. In state after state, Democrats have nominated communists who have vowed to defund the police, close all prisons. They want to close the prisons. I think that's a great idea. Abolish ICE, open our borders, and grant mass amnesty and voting rights to millions and millions of illegal aliens. Well, that's why they let him in. That's why they let him in because they want him to vote. That's the reason because it's the only thing you could think of. You wouldn't... they cheat so much you wouldn't think they had to do that. But they let him in because they want him to vote. You worked your entire life for everything you have. You saved your money. Followed the law. Now Roy Cooper and his band of communists want to take everything you have and give it to people who would rob your house, invade your border, shoot you, just shoot you dead. They shoot you dead. Then they go to sleep at night, wake up in the morning, and not even remember that they killed you. They couldn't care less. They're animals. They're killers. On election night, North Carolina is going to prove that America does not belong to those who hate it. America belongs to those who love it. They love it. Right. USA.

So, while the Democrat communists are trying to turn America into a crime-infested third-world country, which by the way, if I didn't win this election, this country was finished. They were finished. You know, we have more money coming into the country, over 20 trillion dollars with a T, than five times more than ever before. More than any country has had by four times. No country... it was China 10 years ago. No country's ever had anything like what's happening here. And you see it all over with the car plants being built. Everything is being built. The Trump administration is putting record numbers of dangerous offenders behind bars. I mean, I got elected partially on that. You know, we... I inherited the worst border in history twice in 2016, but in 2016 it was good by comparison to what it was. Remember Kamala? She was your borders. She was your borders. Remember, she was appointed borders. She never went to the border once and she never made one phone call to any border patrol agent. Other than that, she did quite a good job actually. What a terrible person. What a terrible job she did. Last year, we achieved the largest drop in violent crime ever recorded while the murder rate fell to the lowest level in 125 years. That's 1900. 125 years. And that's despite the fact that we have people in our country that should not be here, but we got many of them out. We got in a certain way in terms of the violent ones, I'd say we got most of them out. So, you don't have to worry too much, ladies. I hope. And since I took office, federal law enforcement has arrested an incredible 1.2 million criminals nationwide. That's a record. And we've increased federal criminal prosecutions by over 50%. That's Todd Blanche. With the help of our National Guard, we've also restored public safety to our nation's capital. And we have really done a job. Think of it. Think of it. People were petrified to go to our capital. Then they hated to see National Guard there. And these are central casting people. They're very good. You know, we did win one thing in the Supreme Court. They've treated me quite badly. Thank you. But we won one thing, merit. Everything now is based on merit. That's so because our country was built on merit. I want to thank the heroes of ICE, Border Patrol, the DOJ, the FBI, DEA, ATF, HSI, the U.S. Marshals Service, and every other branch of law enforcement helping bring crime to the lowest number in recorded history. Right. USA. Thank you very much. USA.

No, but I was going to say before. So, I didn't have to be here tonight. It's a little bit before the election, but I had a little free time if you can believe it. I said, "Let's go out. Let's get a little group together. How about this outside?" You got twice the number as you have inside. Next time, could you get a little bigger place, please? Michael, do you mind? Now, you got a lot of people outside, but I wanted to be here for Michael. I felt... And I'll be back. I'm going to come back. We got to make sure he wins. But Michael was also an incredible champion for your state when you were hit with that terrible storm. The storm, you know, a lot of people call it with Texas and Florida and all they call it from the standpoint of water the worst hurricane they've ever seen. And I've gone over it. Roy Cooper was the governor and he did absolutely nothing. He fought it. He didn't want to do anything. He didn't do a damn thing. And Michael Watley, and again, you got to remember there's two things. Crime and Helene, remember Helene. That name, such a nice name. Such a vicious, violent storm. But he was the number one advocate and I delivered. And also your Congress people were fantastic. Republican Congress people, they came and they worked with Michael as hard. I've never seen anything like it. The Democrats didn't do a damn thing. The Republican Congress people came and we got to be friends really fixing this place up. And we spent more than $2 billion in FEMA for funding. And you know, you're waiting for some additional money to take care of some of the back. And I'm going to get that to you, Michael. Now, if Michael loses, I'm not sending it. Okay. No, I'm only kidding. You're getting it. You're going to get it, Michael. So, he's been bugging me. He's been bugging me. But it's almost $3 billion for repairing roads and bridges that haven't been fixed yet by the Democrats. And we approve relief applications for almost 20,000 North Carolina small businesses. And I got to be very friendly with a lot of those small business owners because I came here three times during that period. That was a terrible period of time. One of the worst I've seen. I've seen tornadoes. I've seen her. I've seen it all. But that was one of the worst I've ever seen where people were stuck on islands. It was people that had very little water were stuck on islands and they were stuck there for a long time. We had to have helicopters and things. A lot of people did a great job. So, I'd like to ask a man that I consider to be one of the best in any country, but one of the best in our country, one of the most talented people, one of the finest people, a truly nice man, but a truly competent man. Michael Watley, please come up.