Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yes, yeah, I'm trying to make it-
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
President Donald Trump (12:15):
Thank you very much. They've done a fantastic job. Even the microphone works well, that's good. Wow. Well, I'd like to just thank everybody for the incredible job they've done. I love this state. As you know, Ron and I have had a really great relationship for a long time. We had a little off-period for a couple of days, but it didn't last long, it didn't last long, and a lot of respect for each other. And it's a great honor to be deep in Florida, the Florida Everglades, to open America's newest migrant detention center. It's incredibly built, and you're seeing that yourself. That's why I said, "Let the press join us on our walk so that they can see what's happening."
(13:02)
It's known as Alligator Alcatraz, which is very appropriate, because I looked outside and that's not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon. But very soon, this facility will house some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet. We're surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland, and the only way out is really deportation, and a lot of these people are self-deporting back to their country where they came from. Quite a few, we're amazed at, actually, the number. We took the FEMA money that Joe Biden allocated to pay for the free luxury hotel rooms where he was paying hundreds of millions of dollars in New York City and we used it to build this project, and [inaudible 00:13:46] was just a little fraction of that money.
(13:47)
The money they spent on that project, I happen to know the real estate developer, he never really made that much, but he became very wealthy. With luxury, he didn't do well. With people that are not exactly luxury, he's made a fortune. I want to thank Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, and Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, and Florida Attorney General, James Uthmeier. Where is James? Where is he? You do a very good job. I hear good things, I hear good things about you from Ron too. No, you really do. He's even a good-looking guy. That guy's got a future, huh? Good job, James. I hear you're really, really fantastic, worked hard. You were in the construction business for a few days, right? Huh? Congratulations for all the hard work and to make this facility possible, it's amazing.
(14:40)
Thanks as well to Florida Agriculture Commissioner, Wilton Simpson. Where is Wilton? Where are you? Hi, Wilton. It's been a long time. Thank Congressman Byron Donalds. Where's Byron? Hi, Byron. How are you? Good. Florida Speaker of the House, Daniel Perez. Daniel? Daniel, thank you, Daniel. You didn't want to sit up here with us, Daniel? Executive Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie. Hi, Kevin. Good job. Acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons. Todd, great job. And Senator Joe Gruters, he is a great guy. Where is Joe? We love Joe.
Senator Joe Gruters (15:32):
Thank you, Mr. President.
President Donald Trump (15:33):
Thank you very much.
Senator Joe Gruters (15:33):
We love you. Welcome home.
President Donald Trump (15:33):
Thank you, Joe. Joe is great. With the help of those incredible border patrol agents, we now have the lowest level of daily border crossings ever recorded. As you know, last month, the month of May, it just got released two days ago, the number of illegal aliens into the United States was zero, zero. Even I find that hard to believe, somebody must've gotten in, I think. I don't know, but they say zero. And the people that count them are radical left Democrats, so when a radical left Democrat tells me it's zero, I believe him.
(16:10)
But there's still much work to do. In the four years before he took office, Joe Biden allowed 21 million people, that's a minimum, I think it was much higher than that, illegal aliens to invade our country. He invaded our country just like a military would invade. It's tougher because they don't wear uniforms, you don't know who they are. More than the populations of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix and Philadelphia combined, that's what came into our country, from prisons, from mental institutions, from street gangs, drug dealers, disgusting. This enormous country-destroying invasion has swamped communities nationwide with massive crime, crippling costs and burdens far beyond what any nation could withstand, no nation could withstand what we did, and we're in the process of doing it. But we have some great people doing it now, and you see them up here with me. I'd call it an unforced era. It's sort of like men and women's sports, it's sort of like transgender for everybody. How could they have done this to our country? And we're never going to forget it.
(17:20)
Last year, 15% of all the hotel rooms in New York City were used to house illegal aliens at costs at… They never got for luxury. They never got this much for luxury people coming in from the wealthiest places on Earth. They made more money with the illegal immigrants, with many rooms costing more than $300 a night, six times the rent of a typical American family. In Denver, Colorado, the city was forced to cut $10 million from its police and fire department budget as part of a $90 million plan to house illegal aliens, and it's a population that's growing and growing and destroying Denver and growing, and again, it's destroying Denver and it's destroying many other cities too. Likewise, one of the city's largest hospital systems is drowning in unpaid medical bills, unpaid in the billions, after their emergency rooms were flooded with tens of thousands of illegals, leading to the closure of critical services. And these are really critical services, they can't even keep them open for American patients. The American patients were treated worse than any illegal immigrant.
(18:34)
In Los Angeles, one in every four students in the public school system is from a household headed by an illegal, and most of them don't speak English. So they were in a school system and they don't have interpreters, they don't have anything, they don't speak English, what a mess, what mess. Unforced era. All these people allowed to come in. The United States is now spending $78 billion a year on translation, think of that, $78 billion a year on translation, and smaller numbers on special education programs for non-English speakers in our public schools. So $78 billion, I think that's not a mistake, I would say million dollars maybe, hundreds of thousands of dollars, $78 billion, Joe, on translators and non-English speaking work? Federal government, the Justice Department, it's more than twice the cost of maintaining the United States Justice Department what we're spending on translation and other things to help.
(19:36)
In total, the average illegal alien costs American taxpayers an estimated $70,000, that's each, $70,000. I think that number's even low. If you care about balancing the budget, the single most impactful step we can take is to fully reverse the Biden migration invasion, one of the worst invasions we've ever had. We've never had an invasion like this. We've had invasions, but we've taken care of them. We've never had an invasion like this, and it's with us, and we have some very bad people out there looking to do big harm.
(20:10)
That's why the one Big Beautiful Bill includes funding for 3,000 new border patrol offices and 10,000 new ICE agents, and I've gotten to know the border patrol and ICE very well. Unlike Kamala, she was the border czar, but she never saw the border, she never made one phone call, she was some border czar, she would've been some president. Probably would've been slightly better than Biden though. I had to run against both of them. The one guy, it's like a fighter, you knock out the one guy who's doing badly, then they put somebody else in. But fortunately, she was a stiff also. Otherwise, I would've been very angry, I would've been extremely angry.
(20:48)
The heroes of ICE will also help round up and remove members of the savage drug cartels which are coming back into our country. We got them out, now some of them came back in, we just got them out again, and that's going to be a vicious cycle. But these are foreign gangs here, horrendous people, killers, that have infiltrated our territory, including eight which we have designated as foreign terrorist organizations, which gives us a lot more power for speed in getting them out much easier. And we had a great court victory, as you know, on Friday that allows us to do what we have to do from the Supreme Court of the United States. In five months, my administration has already arrested over 2,700 members of the murderous Venezuelan gang, known as Tren de Aragua, including a pack of these sadistic animals arrested last month with over 280 guns, and these are guns of the latest caliber, these are guns that were made over the last period of less than a year, getting brand new guns, the latest and the greatest.
(21:54)
Every day, our brave law enforcement officers are hunting down and deporting migrant criminals who have committed
President Donald Trump (22:00):
… heinous crimes including more than 13,000 murderers, 11,888 to be exact, but I'd probably say the 13,000 is right also. Think of it, 11,888, and more than half of them, they committed more than one murder. So Ron, many of them are out of here already, but it's a hell of a number to be confronted with.
(22:25)
Just this year, ICE agents in Miami have apprehended illegals with arrests for murder, kidnapping, rape, child sexual abuse, and arson. People of the worst order. We're getting these monsters out of the United States, out of Florida, out of all the places that they're in.
(22:44)
And on January 20th, I signed an executive order empowering governors and state police to be deputized to enforce federal immigration laws. And Ron's already taken advantage of it. It's a tremendous advantage for the states. Most of them are doing it. Actually, the blue states tend not to do it. Even a couple of them have, though.
(23:06)
And I want to express my tremendous thanks to the State of Florida for embracing this opportunity and being a true partner. They've worked so well with the federal government. It's been just a beautiful, beautiful partnership.
(23:20)
So Ron, I'd like to thank you personally. You are my friend, and you'll always be my friend. And we may have some skirmishes even in the future, I doubt it, but we'll always come back because we have blood that seems to match pretty well. We have a relationship that's been a very strong one for a long period of time, and I appreciate it. Very much appreciate it.
(23:44)
And also, Secretary Noem, I'd like to have you say a few words. You have been unbelievable, the job you've done. You and our favorite person, Tom, Tom Homan, have done, and your whole staff, because it's a lot of people. And Tom acknowledges it all the time. He respects you so much, he respects the staff that you both built, and you're really doing one of the great jobs, and it was great that you could work with Ron in Florida so well, build such a great facility. So please say a few words. Thank you very much.
Secretary Noem (24:13):
Thank you. I don't know if this will work. Well, thank you, Mr. President. First of all, I want to thank you for putting the safety and the security of the American people first, and the way that you never lose focus on making sure that America stays our priority and that the families that live here, get the chance to grow up, and to raise their children in communities that are safe and that give them an opportunity to pursue the American dream.
(24:39)
This facility here is a fantastic representation of what can happen when all of government works together and when it's accountable to the taxpayers and to the citizens that live here. The President signed an executive order that allowed us to build partnerships with states and with local law enforcement officers, which is exactly how things should function in this country. More power, more authority given to people locally so that they can take control of their own destiny.
(25:06)
And so we have already been working under the 287(g) program to deputize law enforcement officers, whether they be state highway patrol, local sheriff's departments, and all of our states, and allow them to go out with our ICE officers, our border patrol officers, and make sure that we're getting the worst of the worst off of the streets.
(25:24)
We also recognize that as we've been doing that and returning people back to their home countries, that we need detention facilities. We need beds to put them in place so that they can have their due process before they return home. And this facility is exactly what I want every single governor in this country to consider doing with us.
(25:42)
What happened to start this conversation was that a young man named Jimmy Percival in my office, my general counsel, who came from Florida and used to work here, called up the Attorney General and the governor and said, "Hey, what do you think about partnering with us on a detention facility that we could put in place that would allow us to bring individuals there?"
(26:03)
There's an airstrip close by. You guys volunteered the assets that you have and the connections that you have, and worked with Kevin extensively so that we could come here, have their due process given, and return them home to their countries. And in eight days, this facility has been stood up.
(26:19)
And I want everybody to recognize the detention facilities that ICE adheres to is a higher standard than is required at state levels, at local department of corrections facilities, sheriff's offices. This is a state-of-the-art facility. Air-conditioned, isolated, though, for security purposes, which is very helpful, and I appreciate so many people being willing to work together to make a project like this happen.
(26:43)
Right here in this location, we'll have about 3000 beds. A other location will have another 2000 beds that will allow us to bring individuals across the country that we are bringing in and incarcerating for violating our laws and immediately get them out of the country as soon as we possibly can. It's exactly what we need to be perpetuating in other states.
(27:05)
And what I would say is I want all of you to notice these flyers that we've got is that everybody who sees these flyers or anybody who sees these news clips should know, you can still go home on your own. You can self-deport. If you go on the CBP home app and Go Home Now, you will get the chance to come back to the United States legally. You will get the chance to come back and do it the right way. If you don't, you may end up here, and you may end up here and being processed, deported out of this country, and never get the chance to come back. That is the consequences of breaking the law in the United States of America.
(27:39)
Listen, our job is to uphold the law. This is a country of laws. We have a border now, and because we have a president that cares and recognizes that we need to be a nation of borders and a nation that upholds the law. If you break the law, there's consequences. We will deport you and you will never get to be a United States citizen. You'll never even get to come back here and work and to pursue the American dream. But if you decide you want to go home now, go home, and we'll help facilitate it. We'll buy your plane ticket, we'll get you there.
(28:07)
In fact, I just got back from Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras. Those countries are excited to get their citizens home. They're setting up programs to loan them money to buy houses when they get there, help them with food assistance, get their children educated, scholarships. They want their citizens that are living here in the United States illegally to come home and to be a part of their economy and help their countries grow, so this is a win-win for everyone.
(28:33)
And I just want to end, Mr. President, by thanking our law enforcement officers, by thanking our ICE officers and our border patrol officers for what they do every day. They are out on the streets, and violence against them has increased over 500% since Trump has gone back into the White House because he's upholding the law and because a bunch of liberals, socialists, and Marxists are out there lying about what President Trump is doing.
(29:01)
President Trump is upholding freedom by what he is doing: the freedom to live safely in this country and to do things legally and to have justice. And because those liberals, and I'm calling out you, CNN. I'm calling you out because you lie every single day about what these operations are. We are going after murderers and rapists and traffickers and drug dealers and getting them off the streets and getting them out of this country because Joe Biden let the worst of the worst come in here.
(29:29)
The other day I was talking to some marshals that have been partnering with ICE. They said that they had detained a cannibal and put him on a plane to take him home. And while they had him in his seat, he started to eat himself, and they had to get him off and get him medical attention.
(29:42)
These are the kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America that we're trying to target and get out of our country because they are so deranged, they don't belong here. And they shouldn't be walking the streets with our children, and they shouldn't be living in the communities with our families who just want to grow up, go to job, raise their children to grow up and get a job and to live the American dream.
(30:05)
So thank you to all of our law enforcement officers, those in our military that have been helping, our National Guard. Thank you to Governor DeSantis for stepping up and being an example to other governors. I hope my phone rings off the hook from governors calling and saying, "How can we do what Florida just did? How can we do exactly what they did?"
(30:24)
Because we need this Big Beautiful Bill. We absolutely have to have this Big Beautiful Bill that has the funding so that we can continue this operation and we can get those bad criminals off of our streets and have the officers to do it so that when they go out on an operation, somebody's got their back. Somebody's got their back, they can do it safely, and they can go home to their families at night too. So this bill needs to pass through Congress so we have the resources at the Department of Homeland Security to make sure that our homeland truly is secure.
(30:55)
And Mr. President, thank you for Stephen Miller. I just want to thank you for him. This guy calls me night and day and tells me all of his wise advice and wisdom, but he's a rockstar because he loves this country and he's passionate about making sure that nobody is prioritized over an American citizen. We love everybody. We do. We love everybody.
President Donald Trump (31:18):
Not everybody.
Secretary Noem (31:19):
Well-
President Donald Trump (31:21):
A lot of people.
Secretary Noem (31:21):
But-
President Donald Trump (31:21):
Not everybody.
Secretary Noem (31:22):
… we shouldn't be putting people illegally above citizens. We should be making sure that we do things right, and that's what America has always stood for, and we're an example to the rest of the world because we do it right.
(31:32)
So Mr. President, you surround yourself with great people, and I think that's because everybody wants to work for the greatest president that the United States has ever had, and that's President Donald J. Trump. So, thank you, sir.
President Donald Trump (31:44):
Thank you very much, Kristi. That's so nice.
Secretary Noem (31:44):
Thank you [inaudible 00:31:45].
President Donald Trump (31:45):
Thank you. Thank you very much. And I have to say that when Kristi's name was put before me by Tom Homan, by the way, because I wanted him for the border, and somehow I thought that was going to be good in that sort, but he didn't want the upper job. And I said, "Who do you recommend?" "Kristi Noem." And I said, "Oh, are you kidding? She's great, but she's such a fine, elegant person." He said, "Sir, she's tough as hell." I said, "Are you sure?" You are tough as hell, I tell you. And you do it in a very nice way, but you are.
(32:20)
If you ever saw her ride a horse, she rides that horse like she should be in the rodeo. She's an unbelievable horse person, and you've done a fantastic job, and Steve Miller would even agree to that. And he likes nobody, by the way.
Secretary Noem (32:35):
I know.
President Donald Trump (32:36):
I don't think he likes anybody. And another one we like is Ron. And Ron, would you say a few words, please?
Ron DeSantis (32:41):
Sure. Well thank you, Mr. President, and welcome back to Florida, and I think this is the first time you've been back since the events of a couple of weeks. So just let me say, as somebody that was serving on active duty in Iraq back in the day, we witnessed the number of our troops that were killed or wounded by the Iranians. We know that they're a militant Islamic regime that was hell-bent on getting nuclear weapons, and under Joe Biden, they were about to get nuclear weapons.
President Donald Trump (33:06):
[inaudible 00:33:08].
Ron DeSantis (33:07):
And because of your strong actions, those dreams and those ambitions have been reduced to rubble. And I thank you, I know a lot of veterans thank you, and people in Florida really thank you for stepping up and really making a tough but strong decision. I think we're much safer as a result of that.
(33:24)
Now, on the immigration, I think President Trump's election represented the chance for us to finally solve this illegal immigration and border problem once and for all. I knew he was going to do the border, although he did it very quickly and very thoroughly. I think that no one can say that that's been anything but a spectacular success.
(33:46)
But then we have the issue of Biden let in how many millions of people, and you had millions that had been in over decades previous to that. You can't have a country if you don't have respect for the rule of law. You can't have a country if foreigners get to decide who comes in. No, we the American people, make that decision who's allowed or not allowed to come into our country. We've seen Europe be overrun by open borders, so we're not going to let that happen here.
(34:12)
So when the President got elected, I knew that the States had an important role to play in facilitating this really, really historic mission. We're the only state in America, Florida, that requires full cooperation with ICE from all state and local law enforcement entities.
(34:32)
And what is the net result of that? We have these agreements for these 287(g) task force with sheriff's departments, police departments, state agencies, and it's really instrumental in rounding up a lot of really bad people who shouldn't be here. If you look at the number of those full-blown 287(g) agreements that have been executed around the country, the State of Florida accounts for 60% of those. If you look at the number of immigration arrests of illegal aliens on any given day, the arrests happening in Florida constitute between 15 and 20% nationwide.
(35:09)
So we're all in on this because we understand how important it is to our citizens. It crowds schools, it crowds medical, it crowds housing. Yes, you have illegal alien crime as well, and people want the problem solved. And the only way we're going to solve it is if states like Florida step up and help the President and help Secretary Noem get the job done.
(35:29)
Now, this facility here was really in response to us working with DHS and ICE from the time the President got sworn in, and the number-one thing they kept coming back to was Biden decimated the agency. I mean, let's just be clear. You could have illegals in Florida, Biden would just release them. Even when they had notices or they had orders to be removed, Biden wouldn't send them back. So their interior enforcement collapsed under Biden, so they're building it back up, but they're like, "We need detention space in order to be able to bring about more deportations." And so what we have here can hold 3000 now. We have 2000 facility up at Camp Blanding that we're going to be open, which is our National Guard site, but think about what you have here. They come here, say they already or have been ordered to be deported. You drive them 2000 feet to the runway, and then they're gone. It's a one-stop shop, and this airport that's been here for a long time is the perfectly secure location. It's going to make a big difference.
(36:27)
And let me just thank everyone who was involved. We got the call from DHS a little bit more than a week ago, and here we are eight days later with this facility open, and as soon as Air Force One departs, it'll be swept and it'll be open for business to be able to do. But our goal here is to process them and be able to effectuate their return to their home country.
(36:50)
This is the opposite of what they were doing in New York by just putting them up in a hotel and then just letting them stay there indefinitely. No. We want to be able to send back. And when you walk into the processing, the President and I, Secretary Noem, Kevin Guthrie, walk through that initial intake, the first thing you see is information on how to go home on your own.
(37:11)
Why would you want to come through Alligator Alcatraz if you can just go home on your own? I think a lot of people are going to make that decision. So you're going to have a lot of deportations that are going to be done by the administration, but I think you're going to have a lot of voluntary as well.
(37:26)
So this is a force multiplier for the President's efforts. I would just say and echo what Secretary Noem says: there is no reason why other states can't be doing. And I know Louisiana, Texas, a couple of them, but I mean, if only the red states did this, they would be able to expand their capacity by tens of thousands, maybe 50, 100 thousand on a given day. That's how you really start to make a difference.
(37:51)
And so we're proud to be able to partner with the Trump administration on that. Mr. President, thanks for coming down. I think you highlighting this is going to move the needle in a big way throughout the country, and I think it's going to help all of us achieve the really big results that I think our voters want to see.
President Donald Trump (38:07):
Thank you. Great job. [inaudible 00:38:12].
Kevin Guthrie (38:12):
Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity. My name is Kevin Guthrie. I'm the executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and I'd also like to thank President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Noem, for joining us here today, and for their continued support.
(38:26)
I want to thank first by thanking the man to my right, and that's Governor Ron DeSantis whose bold leadership and swift action made this project possible. Make no mistake: this facility would not be standing here without the President, the secretary, and the governor's vision and determination to uphold the rule of law.
(38:45)
Florida is and will always be a law-and-order state. Even before the President took office, the governor made it clear that illegal immigration would not be tolerated in the State of Florida. When the President and the secretary asked Florida to help, the governor empowered our state and private partners to work collaboratively and deliver real results on a rapid timeline.
(39:08)
The Florida Division of Emergency Management is best known for leading the nation in hurricane response and other natural disasters. We understand how to act fast without bureaucracy in the face of any emergency. Our teams built roads in eight hours, bridges in three days, base camps in 72 hours, and full causeways in two weeks. Getting things done quickly, efficiently, and correctly is at the core of our mission. We simply just want to be the best at what we do in the nation.
(39:41)
When the governor called me, we answered, and we were proud to bring our logistical expertise to the table. We know how to set up base camps for guardsmen, first responders, linemen, volunteers, and other aid sources, and distribute that in a matter of days before a storm. We were able to translate this knowledge to what we did here at Alligator Alcatraz. Florida has put the best teams together who check their individual logos and egos at the door to get this done. Not just for you, governor, but Mr. President, for you as well.
(40:16)
There are over 13 different vendors that came together to get this solved in eight days, truly a whole of private sector partnership to get that done. Behind you on these boards, in only eight days, we have built a fully compliant detention facility with a detainee capacity of up to 3000 people with room for additional capacity if you asked us to do so.
(40:38)
The detention facility includes over 158,000 square feet of housing and is a fully aluminum frame structure rated for winds of 110 miles an hour or a high-end Category 2 for those people that don't think that we're taking that into consideration. This is Florida, by the way.
(40:54)
Power supply is fully redundant with backup generators in place. We've put a staff village here on site with the capacity of 1000. Our services are a hot meal three times a day, 24/7 medical facility, pharmacy, air conditioning, access to indoor and outdoor rec yards, legal and clergy support services, laundry. Our security element is over 200 security cameras throughout the facility. More than 28,000 feet of barbed wire, 400-plus security personnel to include 200 men and women, soldiers, and airmen underneath Major General John Haas's command as the Adjutant General of Florida. And it's all surrounded, as you pointed out, Mr. President, by 10 miles of beautiful Florida Everglades.
(41:35)
Contingencies, as with all state correctional facilities, we have a hurricane plan. We will not wait for a Cat 2. We will follow our normal evacuation procedures as we do for any other facility statewide in our great state of Florida. We have on-site fire and EMS resources so that we don't burden the locals with any type of response.
(41:59)
All in all, sir, this has been a perfect state logistics exercise for this hurricane season. Everything we did here in the last eight days, God forbid if we have a hurricane, we're going to do it again. This was a dress rehearsal for us, and we are ready, willing, and able to support you, sir, the governor, secretary, and everything that you need us to do. Just a week ago, it was a taxiway and a runway, and now, it's a fully-functioning facility. We are happy to support you, Mr. President, governor, secretary.
President Donald Trump (42:28):
Fantastic. Thank you. [inaudible 00:42:36], please.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
Ah, there we go. First of all, Mr. President, we all have to thank you for your leadership and for the mandate that the American people gave you to finally secure our borders and to deport criminal illegal aliens and long-standing illegal aliens out of the United States. That is a mandate given to you by the American people. I know Secretary Noem, Stephen Miller, Governor DeSantis, myself, on behalf of the other members of Congress in the Senate, and of course, here in Florida, we are behind you 100% in that mission.
(43:19)
To the governor, I really appreciate you and commend you for your leadership on this, taking swift, decisive action to building this facility. One of the things that has occurred because of the work you did earlier this year with the legislature is that our sheriffs are out there every single day. They are arresting these criminal aliens in our streets, and they're seeing some backlog in their jails.
(43:41)
So this facility primarily goes to address some of that backlog and then to help us fulfill the mission that the President has led us to. So, governor, thank you for your leadership and thank you for your decisive action on this. It really does mean a lot to all the people of Florida. It's of course the people of the 19th Congressional District.
(43:59)
Secretary Noem, I
Speaker 3 (44:00):
I mean, what can I say? The president's right, you're double tough. So we appreciate all your leadership. You and Tom Ripa have been doing a great job, and I'm actually going back to DC after this because we have to vote on one Big Beautiful Bill in the House. We have to get that to the president's desk so we can get you the resources that you need to fulfill the mission that the American people have asked us to do.
(44:21)
I totally agree with what Mr. Guthrie has said. This is a logistical marvel when something like this occurs. We've seen Florida Department of Emergency Management answer the bell time and time again. The governor has said, we need to accomplish this, accomplish this, and DEM gets that job done. And we had a side conversation about, I know there were some concerns. People were like, well, what happens if a hurricane comes? What happens if this happens? And I looked at Kevin Guthrie and I said, "You already have a plan, don't you?" And he goes, "Of course we have a plan. You know that we do." This is what Florida does, Mr. President. And so I want to commend you for your leadership in your vision on this. Governor, thank you for all that you've done with your vision and determination. Secretary Noem, we're going to get the bill done so you get the resources you need. See you, sir.
Donald Trump (45:10):
Thank you very much.
Audience (45:10):
[inaudible 00:45:11] Big Beautiful Bill.
Donald Trump (45:13):
Oh, thank you. Wow, thank you. I am waiting, listening to these wonderful words and they are music to my ears, but I was also wondering how are we doing? I know this is prime time. It shows that I care about you because I'm here and I probably should be there, but we do care. Thank you very much. James, please. We're all happy now, James.
James (45:37):
Yeah, well, I can speak on behalf of all of our sheriffs, state law enforcement, our police chiefs. We are going to continue to make arrests our pedals to the metal as many as we can. We want to fill this place up. The governor and Kevin have shown they can build bridges in three days, so why not some detention facilities? Hopefully there's more to come. And you really were the inspiration for this. We like the idea of reopening the original Alcatraz. I don't know if that can happen or not, but we thought, "Hey, we've got our own natural Alcatraz in the middle of the Everglades. Great runway, great, great perimeter, so let's make it happen." In Florida, we walk the walk and we will deliver for all of you. Thank you.
Donald Trump (46:16):
Well, I heard you were responsible for the locational pick and you cannot have picked a better location. I said, "Whoever the hell made this choice…" I know you're taking a little heat from some environmental groups, but I take it all the time and that's an honor. But I heard you were very responsible for that choice and that was a big choice. Thank you very much. Great job, James. Thank you. Do you want to finish over here and then we'll go over here and we'll go back and celebrate the Big Beautiful Bill that just got passed. You sure that's right? Right, Brian?
Brian (46:45):
Yes, yes.
Donald Trump (46:45):
All right. Wow. Good. He's doing a good job.
Speaker 4 (46:51):
Mr. President, first of all, I just want to say how grateful we are that you're back here in your home state of Florida. You've been doing an amazing job, not only at our border, but around the world, keeping this country safe-
Donald Trump (47:02):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
… and Americans, we are grateful for your leadership.
Donald Trump (47:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (47:06):
God had a plan for us and it was Donald Trump, so thank you for that. As a member of the Immigration Board and as the Commissioner of Agriculture of this state, I've been happy to help lead with the governor and the rest of the cabinet on this issue. We're very proud. Secretary Noem is here today and others to represent not only the United States in our efforts to make this commitment to keep our citizens safe, but we're going to continue in Florida to remove the barriers to have your vision come true of a safe United States. We're going to get these illegal criminals out of this state, and we really appreciate you and your leadership in this effort. So thank you for being here today.
Donald Trump (47:47):
Thank you very much. You're doing a great job too. Thank you.
Joe Gruters (47:51):
Thank you, Mr. President. Joe Gruters, state senator. I'm a member of your Homeland Security Advisory Council, your vice chairman. Thank you for that appointment and thank you for coming back to Florida and everything that you do every single day you were delivering on the promises that you promised to us at all the events you've done throughout the years, but specifically this last campaign. You deserve all the credit for everything and you were surrounding yourself with incredible people like Secretary Noem, Stephen Miller, and just like your Big Beautiful Bill here in Florida. There was a lot of commotion about our immigration bill and we had three B's in that: beds, badges and bad guys. And this goes right along with our beds and the resources.
(48:32)
And I give the governor, Ron DeSantis, a lot of credit for stepping up and making sure that we all work together because at the end of the day, even if sometimes there are skirmishes, as a result of the back and forth, we ended up with a better bill and we all win. And what we're doing here in Florida hopefully will happen all across the country. Your leadership is amazing. Keep up the great work and just know that Florida loves President Donald J. Trump.
Donald Trump (49:01):
Thank you very much, Joe. Appreciate it for a long time. Appreciate it. By the way, Okeechobee is something that we did together also, and that was a lot of money spent. I hope it was well spent. I know we did a Rolls Royce job, but it's a lot of money that we spent out there together. And how is it going?
Ron DeSantis (49:19):
You can delegate that to us because we move faster than the Army Corps, so we will finish that reservoir. If you delegate it to us, I'll get it done and much quicker.
Donald Trump (49:30):
Oh, I would do that. Let me ask myself permission. Permission granted, go ahead and get the thing, get it complete. You want to do that?
Ron DeSantis (49:38):
All right, we're going to go talk to the Army Corps, then, after this.
Donald Trump (49:42):
You can move faster actually. Please.
Todd (49:49):
Si, just first on behalf of the men and women of I.C.E., we just want to thank you for allowing us to do our job again. Your vision, and I'm Secretary Noem's leadership. This is what the American people want and I hope that you see great results of what we're doing out there every day are getting the worst, the worst out of our communities. Because of you and Secretary Noem, I have the privilege to lead one of the most premier and the finest law enforcement agencies that we do have in the United States. And the men and women of HSI and ERO Miami do incredible work like you highlighted. And with the governor and the state of Florida, the partnership in Florida has been amazing. The 287G program is only going to help us to identify all those known got-aways and get the worst of the worst out of the neighborhoods. And through our Homeland Security Task Force, we are going to make America safe again. So thank you very much to both you and the secretary.
Donald Trump (50:37):
Thank you, Todd. Great job. Really great job you're doing. Thank you. Please.
Garrett Ripa (50:45):
Good morning, Mr. President.
Donald Trump (50:46):
Hi.
Garrett Ripa (50:47):
Thank you so much for coming again. As Garrett Ripa, I'm the field office director for ICRO here for the Miami Field Office. Incredible collaborative work we've been doing together, working with the state, working with our local partners. And again, just the 287G is going to open up that aperture and allow us to get those bad hombres off the street and get them into this facility and we're looking forward to it. And again, just appreciate all your support.
Donald Trump (51:09):
Thank you. Always thank you. You've always been so great. Thank you very much. Please.
Andres Blanco (51:17):
Good afternoon, Mr. President. On behalf of Air Marine Operations, my name is Andres Blanco. I'm the executive director for Southeast Region. AMO continues to execute and support your executive orders. Air Marine Operations brings a unique capability, both the air and the maritime domains. And in partnership with our border patrol, OFO officers and ORO, we continue to conduct effective operations both interior along the border and along the maritime approaches.
Donald Trump (51:44):
Thank you very much. Good job.
Jose Figueroa (51:49):
Good afternoon, Mr. President Jose Figueroa. I am the acting special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations here in South Florida. And our office covers from Key West to Fort Pierce. Tremendous collaboration here with the state and our federal partners. HSI is conducting criminal investigations into TDA and [inaudible 00:52:08] that are involved in human smuggling sex trafficking of minors. And we'll continue that effort with your support. Governor DeSantis, thank you very much for this facility. Looking forward to continue the great work. Thank you.
Donald Trump (52:20):
Thank you very much. Steve, would you like to say something? Our star.
Steve (52:25):
Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to say on a personal note, getting to watch what you've done over the last five months to deliver on a 50-year hope and dream of the American people to secure the border. When President Trump came into office on January 20th, the United States had endured the largest wave of illegal immigration in human history, not just American history, human history. And within just a few days, president Trump, through his strength, leadership, diplomacy, and vision, achieved the most secure border anyone in the world has ever seen. When we recently went overseas to the NATO summit, I had senior staff in foreign governments come up to me and ask me how he achieved the Trump miracle on his border and could that be replicated in their countries. For individuals who don't work in this space, to have zero successful illegal entries in an entire month should be an impossible achievement.
(53:25)
There is a 2000-mile border with one of the poorest countries in the world, and you have open travel from 150 countries into Central America and South America. There are 2 billion people in the world that would economically benefit from illegally coming to United States. And through the deployment of the military, through the deployment of novel legal and diplomatic tools, through the building of physical infrastructure, through the empowering of I.C.E. and border patrol and the entire federal law enforcement apparatus, president Trump achieved absolute border of security. And now once this legislation has passed, he will be able to make that with those resources permanent. Watching what you've done, sir, has been one of the honors of a lifetime. I'm proud to be able to play any role in it and what President Trump is going to achieve next with the resources in this bill will make America safer, stronger, freer, more sovereign, and more prosperous than it has ever been before. Thank you, sir.
Donald Trump (54:22):
Thank you, Steve. Thank you. And the bill is going to be great for Iran. It's going to be great for Florida. There's a lot of set-asides for Florida, some of the things that you wanted, you wanted to do. And so it's great news to hear that it was approved. Do you want to take a few questions, Ron? We'll take a few questions from this.
(54:43)
Yeah, please go ahead. Yeah.
Audience (54:45):
Thank you, Mr. President. Given the likelihood of the one Big Beautiful Bill passing and we look forward to the success of this facility here, how many more facilities like this do you feel that the country needs in order to enact your agenda of mass deportations?
Donald Trump (55:03):
Well, I think we'd like to see them in many states. Really many states. This one, I know Ron's doing a second one, at least a second one, and probably a couple of more. And at some point they might morph into a system where you're going to keep it for a long time. It's not that far away from jails that take years to build and money is spent and wasted. Like the railway that they have in California, they cost like 40 times more than it was supposed to cost. The same things happens with prisons. You look at this in a short period of time, Ron, James and some of the people that really worked on it along with our people, and they did this in less than a week. And you look at it, it's incredible. The incredible thing is picking the site because the site was one of the most natural sites. It might be as good as the real Alcatraz site. It could be. Well, that's a spooky one too, isn't it? That's a tough site.
(55:59)
So I really think it could last as long as they want to have it. I mean, you may morph this into your prison system, frankly, which I know you always need unfortunately. I'd like to say a little controversial, but I couldn't care less. We have a lot of bad criminals that came into this country and they came in stupidly. It was an unforced era. It was an incompetent president that allowed it to happen. It was an auto pen maybe that allowed it to happen and it did happen. But we also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time. People that whack people over the head with a baseball bat from behind when they're not looking and kill them. People that knife you when you're walking down the street. They're not new to our country. They're old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too, you want to know the truth. So maybe they'll be the next job that we'll work on together.
(56:48)
But I think getting them out, we forget about them. We had some bad accidents in New York and they're had accidents. They were done very much in purpose. People being pushed into a subway just before it arrives, going 40 miles an hour and they're 10 feet away from where the thing is to get pushed right into the face of the subway train, get whacked and killed. And these are sick people. I'd like to get them out of here too.
Audience (57:12):
President!
Donald Trump (57:15):
Yeah, please go ahead. White shirt, glasses.
Julio Rosas (57:21):
Julio Rosas, Blaze Media, sir. A couple months ago I ran into former DHS Secretary Mayorkas and I asked him a couple questions about his disastrous handling of the border. He didn't like my questions, but the number one question that I heard from people in responding to my video was, why hasn't he been arrested yet? Obviously you guys are cleaning up the mess that was made deliberately for the past four years. And so people want accountability. It's great to see that the border is secured and it's great to see the state-level cooperation, but I guess I would ask you why hasn't he hasn't been held accountable or anybody really?
Donald Trump (57:57):
Well, pardons were given out to many people, and they shouldn't have been given out. Like the unselected Committee of Political Thugs was given a pardon because they destroyed all of the information from two years of hearings and they should be arrested, but they were given pardons. Was he given a pardon, Mayorkas? Was he not?
Julio Rosas (58:14):
I don't believe so, sir.
Donald Trump (58:15):
Well, I take a look at that one because what he did is it's beyond incompetent. Something had to be [inaudible 00:58:20]. Now with that being said, he took orders from other people and he was really doing the orders. And you could say he was very loyal to them because it must've been very hard for him to stand up and sit up and talk about what he allowed to happen to this country and be serious about it. So he was given orders if he wasn't given a pardon, I could see looking at that. Why don't you take a look at it, [inaudible 00:58:42].
Secretary Noem (58:41):
He was was impeachded.
Donald Trump (58:44):
He was impeached. But yeah, it was just a fake impeachment. It was a fake impeachment. Why don't you take a look at it? I think he was so bad. They were all so bad. Look, it was the worst president of the history of our country. We've had some bad ones, but he was the worst president. But somebody told Mayorkas to do that and he followed orders. But that doesn't necessarily hold him harmless. So take a look at it. Very good question actually. Thank you.
Audience (59:08):
Mr. President!
Donald Trump (59:09):
Yeah, please go ahead.
Audience (59:16):
Mr. President, you and the secretary have both said that many people have self-deported since you came back into office. How many is many and has the rate gone up? How do you see the tempo of that moving forward going on?
Secretary Noem (59:34):
We have had several hundred thousand, but also we have many that have self-deported. Not even using the CBP home app. When I have gone to these other countries to negotiate security agreements and information sharing on criminals who's coming and going into their countries, they report that hundreds of thousands have come home that weren't on our radar, that they are coming home on their own and self-deporting because they want the chance to be able to go back to America someday. So we believe it's over a million, possibly more than that. I'm asking all of those countries for their information on what they have of individuals that may have returned home, that they have taking advantage of their programs to help them become a part of their civilization again too. So we know it's over a million, but we have to… I'm getting more information and that number will grow.
Donald Trump (01:00:20):
If they don't leave, they never get the chance to come back if we have to take them out and we will. They'll go out, but they never get a chance to come back the other way. We actually make it a little bit easier for them to come back. Okay. Thank you. Good question. Thank you.
Audience (01:00:38):
The bill is now passed in the Senate, but we are already hearing from some Republicans in the house who say they cannot get on board with the changes that were made to the bill in the Senate. What is your message to those holdouts?
Donald Trump (01:00:48):
Well, I just heard that about the Senate and the bill just passed and it tells you there's something for everyone. I mean, it's a great bill. There is something for everyone, and I think it's going to go very nicely in the House. Actually. I think it will be easier in the House than it was in the Senate.
Audience (01:01:04):
And just to be clear on the Medicaid cuts you've promised not to cut Medicaid said this is all just targeting waste, fraud, and abuse. Are you saying that the estimated 11.8 million people who could lose their health coverage, that is all waste, fraud and abuse?
Donald Trump (01:01:19):
No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying it's going to be a very much smaller number than that. And that number will be waste, fraud and abuse. And if you look, they took a much more liberal stance on the Medicaid situation than they could have. They had a tough stance and a weak stance. They took not a very strong stance on that to start off. And it's waste, fraud and abuse and everybody wants that covered.
Audience (01:01:41):
What number is that? What analysis are you seeing?
Donald Trump (01:01:43):
I'm not seeing a number, but I know it's much less than the number you gave and we really were very, very cognizant… Three things. Social security, we're going to take care of it beautifully, Medicare and Medicaid, and we are going to save it whereas the Democrats are going to… You won't have it. They will destroy Medicare and Medicaid and they have to because their numbers don't work. So it's not going to happen. They're the ones that have destroyed, they have made it so bad already. They're going to make it a lot worse. But now we'll be in charge. So we are going to have no problem with Medicaid or Medicare or Social Security. Thank you.
Audience (01:02:21):
Mr. President!
Donald Trump (01:02:21):
Yeah.
Clare Gault (01:02:22):
Clare Gault with Wink News in Fort Myers, what is your direction to I.C.E. when it comes to arresting farmworkers here illegally? Other workers in industries that are pretty critical to Florida's economy?
Donald Trump (01:02:32):
Well, we're very much cognizant of that. And as you know, I won the farmers by 92% and I'm not going to be abandoning my farmers. We were strong on the voters, but we're also strong for the farmers and for others in the hotel industry, et cetera. We have similar situations, and Kristi and I, and we'll be working with Ron and a lot of the states, we're going to work something where the farmers can be responsible for some of the people that have been. They have people around for 10, 15 years that they know very well. We're going to put them responsible and we're going to issue a form of a card or document, and the farmer is going to be responsible for these people. They're not going to have citizenship, but they'll be working. They'll be paying taxes. We need to get our farmers, the people they need, otherwise our farmers aren't going to be able to do their land.
(01:03:17)
It was tried once before many, many years ago where there was a very strong guy and he got everybody out and every farm almost in the country, but every farm in California, every farm in Iowa, almost all the farms went bankrupt. They had nobody to work. And we don't want to have that situation. So we're going to work it. We're going to put our farmers and others in charge of the people that they have under them. They know the people, and I think it's going to work out really well. We're going to take care of our farmer, but we're going to get the criminals out. Okay? Yeah, go ahead please.
Audience (01:03:50):
Thank you, Mr. President, how do you respond to critics who fear that a 3,000 bed detention center and the waste that that could produce will pollute the surrounding federal protected land, including land that both administrations have invested billions of dollars in restoring?
Donald Trump (01:04:05):
Well, I was one of those that invested billions of dollars and hundreds of millions of dollars right here in the Everglades and the Meadowlands too in New York. If you look at what we did up there, speaking of the Meadowlands, a lot of places like this, but this is a very unique one. One thing I'll say about this land, we'll be gone a million years and this land is still going to be here. It's not going to be much different. You'll have the water moccasins, you'll have the alligators. You may not have people, but you're going to have all those animals, they're going to be around. And you got plenty of them out here. I think it was a brilliant choice. And I think almost anybody in his or her right mind would say this was a brilliant choice. I give the governor a lot of credit for using this piece of land.
(01:04:49)
And in addition to that, it's on top of something that was already developed. It's an airport. You have the runways. It's already been developed, so it's not like you're dropping dirt right into the… There was zero movement of that. That was done many years ago because the airport's very old, but it was an abandoned airport. And frankly, it's like perfect. And you can do expansion on this site substantially without doing anything. So the people, I heard them complaining about the Everglades. I don't think you've done anything to the Everglades. I think you're just enhancing it. This was already here. How long has the airport been here?
Ron DeSantis (01:05:30):
Decades.
Donald Trump (01:05:31):
Many decades.
Ron DeSantis (01:05:32):
And they have, Kevin, all these guys have a waste plan. The wastewater gets trucked out, potable water gets… Literally, they have, even our DOT has put things up in case there's any seepage, which we don't. So you are literally doing this on concrete that's already here. So I don't think those are valid and even good-faith criticisms because it's not going to impact the Everglades at all. President's been a champion. We've been a champion,
Ron DeSantis (01:06:00):
… And really change the game in Florida on it. I think it's just people don't want to see illegal immigrants deported and that's their ideology and they have a right to that, but illegal immigration's unpopular, so they know that they're going to have less effect. They're going to try, oh, well, no, it's just about the Everglades. But really I think a lot of those people, they just don't want to see illegals deported because if you actually hear everyone's here, you obviously know there's zero land that's being disturbed.
Donald Trump (01:06:29):
Well, when we talk about popularity though, I will say I ran on the issue of illegals and we have to get them out and I won 82% on that issue. I think that they may not like certain aspects of it, but ultimately they do not want them in their country and if this is a part of a use.
(01:06:46)
I think from an environmental standpoint, it's incredible. In fact, when we landed that very big heavy plane today, they came out and checked it fairly… I think they want the president to be able to land on a piece of concrete that's not going to go six feet underground. They checked it. They came back and they said, this thing is really solid, so it's been there a long time. It's going to be here a long time and it was a great choice of a site. Thank you. Yes, please, Brian, go ahead.
Brian (01:07:13):
Yes, sir. The people of Syria were recently seen on the streets waving American flags, chanting Trump, Trump, Trump. They're so appreciative of the economic sanctions that was lifted on that country, giving them a little bit of hope for prosperity. You want to comment on that?
Donald Trump (01:07:29):
Well, they're great people and the man that is leading them has a reputation and he was the head of some pretty tough organizations and a lot of people criticized me for that. I said, well, what are we going to do? Take him out of a day school, a country day school? It's going to be by nature, I would think, Ron, they'll be pretty tough and he is pretty tough.
(01:07:49)
I think, I met him. Spent a lot of time with him. Good guy. I took off the sanctions because if I didn't do that, they wouldn't have had a chance and Syria has a chance. The people are great. They work hard, they're very smart. Used to be a place of professionals, accountants and lawyers and doctors and high academic credentials in that part of the world and I think it's going to work out great. I took off the sanctions and they were very appreciative. They were shocked, but they were very appreciative. We're giving them a chance at survival. With the sanctions, it couldn't have worked. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (01:08:21):
Mr. President, your beloved New York City, your beloved New York City may well be led by a communist soon, Zohran Mamdani. Who in his nomination speech said he will defy ICE and will not allow ICE to arrest criminal aliens in New York City. Your message to communist, Zohran Mamdani.
Donald Trump (01:08:41):
Then we'll have to arrest him. Look, we don't need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I'm going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation. We send him money, we send him all the things that he needs to run a government. By the way, they get already, they get about three times what you get, Ron. If you look at the per capita, Florida gets one-third of what New York gets in terms of the numbers. What don't you give us those numbers, because that's what we should send him.
Ron DeSantis (01:09:10):
Yeah. Sometimes people say Florida gets more because they count social security recipients, but that's not money to the state. Those are seniors that live here. If they move to North Carolina, you could count it there, so it has no interaction with the state government. They get more on the city and state governments than we get.
Donald Trump (01:09:25):
Right, substantially. We're going to be watching that very carefully and a lot of people are saying, he's here illegally. We're going to look at everything. Ideally he's going to turn out to be much less than a communist, but right now he's a communist. That's not a socialist.
(01:09:41)
I've always said, we will not have socialism in this country in the speeches. I said, well, what? They skipped socialism and you got a lot of them like that. You see AOC, she's out there with her bad IQ. She's out there ranting and raving about how wonderful he is and look, so far he is winning. He still has a race to win, but so far he is winning and he has an advantage as a Democrat in New York City. I was there a long time ago and it was a long time since the Republican won the city.
(01:10:09)
But you would think that a Republican would be able to win or you have a good independent running. Mayor Adams, who's a very good person. I helped him out a little bit. He had a problem and he was unfairly hurt over this question. He made a statement to the effect that this is terrible. New York City can't have all these immigrants come in and he was indicted the following day. I said, that was a phony indictment and it was a phony indictment. That was a Biden indictment. I said, don't feel bad. I got indicted five times every time you opened your mouth. That was a bad group. That was a very dangerous group I will tell you. These were not nice people. That was the only thing they could do. They had no policy, they had no skill, they had no anything, but they were very good at that. They were vicious, vicious, horrible people. Thank you very much. Yeah, please go ahead.
Ana Giaritelli (01:10:57):
Ana Giaritelli with the Washington Examiner. Governor DeSantis has proposed using National Guard, deputizing them as immigration judges to get through this massive backlog of people in the immigration court. Would you be open to that?
Donald Trump (01:11:11):
Yes, he has my approval. That wasn't too hard to get, was it Ron? He didn't even have to ask me. You didn't even need James to ask me. He has my approval, okay? I also like what he is doing in Okeechobee. He has my approval for that too. I don't know how we work that out, but we'll work it out.
Ron DeSantis (01:11:28):
We'll follow up.
Donald Trump (01:11:30):
Go ahead, please.
Jake Stofan (01:11:35):
President Trump, Jake Stofan with Action News Jax from up in Jacksonville. There's some talk about a facility similar to this up in Camp Blanding. Has that been approved by DHS? If not, what's the timeline? When could we see ground break on that?
Donald Trump (01:11:49):
Well, I'll ask Ron or James to talk about it. Do you want to mention that, James?
James (01:11:54):
The overarching plan, I think the secretary has said she supports the whole plan so you guys are going to keep going.
Kevin Guthrie (01:12:02):
Mr. President, just specifically the response for proposals is out for that today. It closes, I can't even remember what day of the week it is, but it closes on Wednesday at five o'clock. Then we will do notice to proceed so I would say right after our wonderful Independence Day, we will be starting construction there at that facility.
James (01:12:21):
You going to have another big runway there too.
Donald Trump (01:12:23):
That's great. Wow, I love these runways. It's very convenient I must say. Having a runway is a nice thing. Today you don't get runways approved. I will tell you, it's tough to get a runway. Although in the age of Trump, you get them approved fast.
(01:12:37)
We're approving massive electrical bins, whether you call them bins, but big electrical facilities for all of the factories and the AI that's coming in. They're going to build their own electric. They're going to be made into electrical providers. They're going to have a lot left over. They'll put it into the grid. I think they're going to end up doing so much. They'll put it into the grid, won't even cost anything from their standpoint so we have a lot of that happening.
(01:13:02)
We get approvals fast, but I was just saying runways are hard to get, but we'll get them now. But in the past, I would say over the past 30, 40 years when you can get a runway, that was considered gold. Okay, please, go ahead. Go ahead. Sure. Okay, go ahead. Yes.
Laverne McGee (01:13:27):
President Trump, Laverne McGee, News Six Orlando. You fulfilled several campaign promises along with the help of Governor Ron DeSantis. What is the next campaign promise that you plan to fulfill to the American people?
Donald Trump (01:13:45):
We have turned this country around in less than six months. When I was away and I was telling Ron, I was telling some others, I've said it a little publicly I guess. I met a lot of very important people. The King of Saudi Arabia, I was there two weeks ago. Qatar, the leader of Qatar who's great and the leader of UAE, who's great. These are very substantial people, very smart people and good people.
(01:14:12)
All three of them said essentially the same thing, along with many other people because I just left NATO. NATO is going to, we took it up to 5%. Nobody can believe that one, Ron. That would be a hard one. Nobody believes that what happened to NATO. Over a trillion dollars a year from like nothing. It was an honor.
(01:14:28)
Every leader said that a year ago this country was dead. They had no confidence in the United, they really felt it was a dead country and some bad things were going to happen. They used the term it was a dead country and now they said, you have the hottest country anywhere in the world. We're the hottest country in the world right now and we turned it around fast. I thought it would take longer than this. We turned it around fast.
(01:14:51)
Some of it was psychology and we had to know how good we were but others was getting rid of rules, regulations, and all of the things that I got rid of already. I signed more executive orders than anybody in history times like three or four. Just one I got rid of the other night. You buy a house, they have a faucet in the house, Joe, and the faucet, the water doesn't come out. They have a restrictor. In areas where you have so much water they don't know what to do with it. You have a shower, you think it's not working, it is working. The water's dripping out and that's no good for me. I like that hair nice and wet. You have to stand in the shower for 20 minutes before you get the soap out of your hair.
(01:15:39)
I put a thing in and it sounds funny, but it's really not. It's horrible. When you wash your hands, you turn on the faucet, no water comes out, you washing, water barely comes out. This was done by crazy people. I wrote it all off and got it approved in Congress so that they can't just change it because I did it in my first term, everyone was so happy. Then one of the first things that Biden did when he came back is he put the restriction on showers, toilets, and sinks. Put the restriction, and washing machine.
(01:16:09)
Washing machine, they give you a quarter of this bottle to do your clothing and people needed 10 of these bottles. The people came to me from Whirlpool, they said, we can't make a machine that's competitive. We can't make a machine there. It doesn't work. Why? They don't let us use water. Do you have any problems with water? No, we have so much, we don't know what to do with it. It comes down from heaven. I approved all of that. The washing machines, the whole thing.
(01:16:34)
The dishwashers, that was the other one. They give you like this much water right up to there to do your dishes so people, you know what they do? They keep pressing the button. They end up doing the dishes 10 times. They end up using more water than you would've used if you did it right in the first place so all of that stuff has been written off.
(01:16:49)
It sounds crazy, it's little things. The straw. I let you go back to a plastic straw. The other, I was tired of having straws melt in my mouth. It wasn't working. The paper wasn't working too well. These are little things that I did.
(01:17:05)
Then we have the big things. We have the biggest things and that has to do with some of the subjects we're talking now. I think the things we're talking about now are the biggest because if you don't have borders in this country, borders and good elections and we're working on that next. There's some bills coming in that's going to make sure that you're a citizen. That people aren't counted in the voting when they were here and they're here as illegals and they're criminals in many cases and they give them a count and you end up with extra congressmen. We're going to work on that. We're going to straighten that out next. That's going to be easy compared to what we were doing, but we did the big things too.
(01:17:39)
Little things like that, a straw. Little things like a washing machine with no water. People go out, they spend all their money on a washing machine, the damn thing doesn't work. You can't use the water. Then you go to your sink and that doesn't work either. You're stuck. You know what you do? You have dirty plates the next day. That's it and we solved so many common-sense problems and they weren't easy. There are people that really believe in this stuff. Most states have so much water, they don't know what to do with it. Look at North Carolina. I mean they had a lot of water and they have to get restrictors on their kitchen faucet. We're very proud of the things we did and we're going to do a lot more of them. Yeah, please go ahead. Guys in good shape.
Eric Balney (01:18:23):
Hey, it's Eric Balney. How you doing, sir? Something we've talked about for, I'd say better part of 20 years. I think it's something near and dear to your heart, energy security. Under Joe Biden, average price of oil for the four years was about $79 a barrel. He drained the SPR halfway down, promised to replenish it, never did.
Donald Trump (01:18:43):
Right.
Eric Balney (01:18:43):
Under you, first term, $53 average price for four years. Biden was $78 for eight years. It was never refilled. The question is now it's $64 or so.
Donald Trump (01:18:56):
Coming down rapidly.
Eric Balney (01:18:57):
Coming down and what a great opportunity to fix another one of Joe Biden's problems and one of the things he broke in America, giving us the energy security of an emergency SPR.
Donald Trump (01:19:08):
Sure.
Eric Balney (01:19:09):
Maybe even go beyond and fill it to a billion barrels this time at a much cheaper price. Thoughts on the energy sector.
Donald Trump (01:19:16):
It holds 77 million barrels and we had it up to the top, if you remember. I was proud of that. I made a deal to buy it at the lowest price of oil. Was good deal, good instinct. We filled it up and when he came in, he started using it to keep oil prices down because he blew our energy policy out.
(01:19:34)
Energy is what caused, energy and his bad spending is what caused inflation. Now we have no inflation. Gasoline just hit $1.99 today in five states. $1.99, isn't that a nice sound? It was up to $4 and going up to five, six and seven. California was $7.70. We just hit in five states, $1.99, $1.98 and it's coming down to that level so that'll be a big thing. One of the reasons the prices and costs are going down when you go to the supermarket, because I said I was going to get costs down, we're getting the cost down. Food is coming down.
(01:20:09)
When I came out, my first week, if you remember, I had a lunatic reporter screaming at me saying eggs are going through the roof. What are you going to do about eggs? I said, I just got here. I didn't know anything about eggs. I had to call you. I said, look, I just got here. Tell me the problem. Well, they're doubled in price and they're going to be five or six times higher. They were right actually. I said, let me work on it and now we have eggs down to the same numbers as it was when I first came in.
(01:20:35)
You know we lowered the cost of groceries? A simple word like that. Groceries. It was almost a strange word. I hadn't heard the word in so long, but what could be more beautiful than the word grocery? We have the prices way down.
(01:20:48)
We have the energy way down. Energy brought the groceries down if you want to know the truth. We think we're going to get it lower and we're going to fill up the national, it's called the Strategic National Reserves. I had it topped out and this guy would use them every time before the election. He'd use them whenever they had an election. It was artificial.
(01:21:07)
Believe it or not, as big as that are tens of hundreds of millions of barrels of oil all filled up at low prices, but it was really meant for wars and it wasn't meant for keeping your prices down during a holiday so that somebody could get elected. But they used it and they didn't bring it, the only mistake you made, they didn't bring it a little down. They brought it right down to the bottom. The thing is practically empty. They never filled it up. They never spent 10 cents in filling it up and we'll do that. When the market is right, we'll fill it up. I want to fill it up when the market's right. Thank you. How about one more question. Okay, please. In the back.
Danamarie McNicholl (01:21:45):
Danamarie McNicholl, Fox News Channel. Mr. President, is there an expected timeframe that detainees will spend here? Days, weeks, months? Does that have anything to do with the immigration judges you just spoke about being trained and staffed here?
Donald Trump (01:21:58):
When you say, what was the first part of your question?
Danamarie McNicholl (01:22:01):
Is there a specific timeframe you expect the detainees to spend here? Days, weeks, months?
Donald Trump (01:22:07):
In Florida?
Danamarie McNicholl (01:22:08):
Yes, here at Alligator Alcatraz.
Donald Trump (01:22:09):
I'm going to spend a lot. Look, this is my home state. I love it. I love your government. I love all the people around. These are all friends of mine. They know him very well. I mean, I'm not surprised that they do so well. They're great people. Ron has been a friend of mine for a long time. I feel very comfortable in the state. I'll spend a lot of time here.
(01:22:29)
For four years I've got to be in Washington and I'm okay with it because I love the White House. I even fix up the little Oval Office. I make it, it's like a diamond. It's beautiful, it's so beautiful. It wasn't maintained properly, I will tell you that. Even when it wasn't, it was still the Oval Office so it meant a lot.
(01:22:46)
I'll spend as much time as I can here. My vacation is generally here because it's convenient. I live in Palm Beach, it's my home and I have a very nice little place, nice little cottage to stay at. We have a lot of fun and I'm a big contributor to Florida. I pay a lot of tax and a lot of people move from New York and I don't know what New York is going to do. A lot of people move to Florida from New York and it was for a lot of reasons, but one of them was taxes. The taxes are so high in New York, they're leaving. I don't know what New York's going to do about that because some of the biggest, wealthiest people and some of the people that pay the most taxes of any people anywhere in the world for that matter, they're moving to Florida and other places so we're going to have to help some of these states out, I think. Thank you very much. I'll be here as much as I can. Very nice question.
(01:23:34)
With that, I'd like to just end by saying I want to thank Ron and James and all of the people that have done such a great job, all of your staff, really fantastic work. It really started with site selection. You can do a great job, but if you have the wrong site in real estate, you have the wrong site, you're dead. This was a great site selection despite what you may read in the environmental press. Good job.
(01:23:58)
This was an honor for Christie and myself and Steve and all of our people to be here. I also appreciate the media. They've treated us very fairly over the last few weeks. I've been treated very nicely and it's so unusual. I'm not used to it, but we've gotten great accolades. Brian, I want to thank you for calling out because I was waiting here. I knew the vote was taking place and I'm answering questions, so I want to thank you very much and say hello to our friend and I will see a lot of you. Thank you very much. We're going to make America great again. Thank you very much. Thank you.
