- 5 months ago
In the Oval Office on Monday, President Trump hosted gold star families and signed a commemoration of the Abbey Gate Attack.
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00:00showed up in like four hours we're listening to music all night long and
00:03they were all crying because they lost their loved ones but
00:06it's a lot of it's four years it's a four-year anniversary
00:11so we're signing a proclamation honoring them and honoring you and honoring
00:17your loved one and so sad and so unnecessary and you know what people
00:25don't know there were a lot of other people killed from the other side I
00:28called that you know people killed and the people that we also contact are we
00:35have like 32 maybe more but approximately 32 who lost their arms and
00:40their legs and your kids didn't make it they made it but boy they got to go
00:46through hell and we have 32 at a minimum 32 and then yet hundreds of people killed
00:52overall you had hundreds of people killed that day that was a rough day we had 13
00:57of our great ones right yes and somehow this this group is just we get together
01:02every once in a while so I just want to thank you we're four years now into this
01:07nightmare we're just a nightmare I think that that date also helped start the war
01:12with Putin and Ukraine because he saw how incompetent our military was under Biden
01:19and under Millie and all these dopes these dopey people and that's not our
01:23military you see what our military is now we knock the hell out of people if we
01:27have to or we settle because they don't want to play games with us but I just
01:31want to say I'm I'm really honored to be with you again and we'll be with with
01:35each other for a long time and your loved ones are looking down and they're very
01:40proud this is the new and improved oval office we had an oval office which was
01:46still the oval office so I don't want to disrespect it but now it's very special
01:50you see what's happened and everyone loves it it's all the real the real deal
01:5524 karat gold and people come from all over and I do believe they're serious
02:02they're not rolling their eyes you know the roller of the eyes but we don't have
02:06any of them and we brought the pictures up they were in the ball so the pictures
02:11of some of our great presidents a lot of them and they were in the vaults for over a
02:16hundred years in many cases and they were just they're beautiful pictures
02:20works of art Lincoln Lincoln Washington Thomas Jefferson Andrew Jackson that's
02:26Monroe of the Monroe document all mostly great presidents we have a couple of none
02:34here Benjamin Franklin not a president but we figured he'd make the cut
02:40discovered electricity a couple of other things but we have a lot of great
02:47presidents but think of it they've been down there there's George Washington the
02:50big one and they've been down there for in some cases much more than a hundred
02:55years and we brought them out I went through the vaults myself I spent hours
02:58down there looking that's in between Russia Ukraine China all the other stuff we
03:05do it I want to thank Doug Collins for being here the secretary who's done an
03:09unbelievable job thank you very much and JD thank you very much you've been
03:13fantastic and all of the others Pete good we did a little thing with Pete about
03:18secretary of war today and it seemed to be well received we'll do it a couple of
03:22more times and if everyone likes it we'll make that change Pete you'll you'll
03:26decide but I just want to thank everybody for being here very special to
03:31me a very special day four years is a very special time and now it's lightening up
03:36but it'll never be really light but there are some great souls that are
03:42looking down on you right now and they're very proud of their parents and
03:46brothers and sisters and but moms and dads especially that's what I seem to have
03:51dealt with mostly it's a tough there's nothing tougher so thank you very much in
03:56the media I want to thank you because you've been very respectful of this group of
03:59people and they deserve it they went through hell for no reason it should have
04:03ever happened and I'm going to sign the proclamation now and we will have our
04:08we will have a very special proclamation done and completed okay
04:16oh that's a good one that's our good one we rate them I don't put them under the auto pen I don't say
04:32have the auto pen sign it right we don't do that I don't know how anybody's allowed to do that
04:39they actually weren't good one right yes a couple of good questions today it's been
04:48very fair actually okay you have any questions on this subject please mr.
04:53president yes the defense secretary has ordered a review of Afghanistan
04:58withdrawal that is ongoing I'm curious if you have any update on that review and
05:03then for the families I know that there was frustration with previous
05:07investigations on Capitol Hill are you satisfied with the speed of this
05:11investigation thus far Pete do you want to answer that yes sir on behalf of
05:17this beautiful group on behalf of these families on behalf of your loved ones who
05:21fought for our nation America deserves answers as far as what happened in
05:25Afghanistan the military needs to answer for what happened in Afghanistan so
05:29upon the president's direction immediately we initiated an investigation which
05:34showed that there needed an even deeper dive so Sean Parnell our Pentagon spokesman
05:38who himself is an Afghanistan veteran is leading this effort it's a top priority
05:42for us we're getting access to all documents necessary why decisions were made why
05:47they weren't made why certain force protection measures were ignored again
05:51there's never been accountability for this it's something that Joe Biden allowed to
05:55happen that never should have happened anybody who any objective observer knows
05:59that's not how you leave a country and certainly these families know better than
06:02anyone else these families deserve answers we're going to be honest about it we're
06:06going to get to the bottom of it Sean Parnell and Afghanistan vet is leading it
06:09and we're doing it on behalf of the American people so I would anticipate middle of
06:132026 that's how thorough of review we're doing hopefully a little bit sooner but
06:18we're going into everything to get an understanding of what happened so we
06:22remember these great 13 souls but we also remember the people that were so badly
06:28injured our soldiers 32 of them approximately and we're in contact with them always also but they
06:36lost arms and legs and their faces were blown to pieces and they're incredible and they they suffer with
06:42it and so we understand that it should have never happened should have never been allowed
06:47to have happened and they were in the wrong the wrong place Bagram was the place to be big massive airfield
06:55with hundreds of acres surrounding it nobody could get near it and who would not have done that but we had a
07:02bunch of incompetent people running our country so we are going to talk for a little while we'll talk about
07:11people that I've gotten to know the sons and daughters and others that died and and there
07:17were hundreds of people that died that hundreds from many from the other side needless thing also
07:22they did nothing to hurt anybody but that was it that was a terrible day and I think it was the worst day
07:30and in many ways the most embarrassing day in the history of our country and yet at the same time we
07:36learned so much that it's you know we call it a big lesson it won't happen again a thing like that can
07:43never be allowed to happen again Doug would you like to say something please you've been so fantastic at the
07:48beginning I appreciate it thank you Mr. President for these families here I think you express the the
07:53nation's grief of what happened and we saw that just a tragic mistake that was there someone who has been in the
07:58military I was in Iraq and others with Afghanistan when you saw that withdrawal but what you've suffered went
08:02through and for those that you've mentioned Mr. President who are injured who took the VA the
08:07Department of Defense we're taking care of those folks and we're going to continue to do so at your
08:11direction but with the families it's just one of those times it's a place that never goes away
08:15but I know from this president is he's made a commitment that that memory will not be forgotten
08:19and the cabinet understands that and our American people understand that because of what you've done
08:23this is actually our biggest gathering today so you must have heard oval office and you said I want to get there
08:28to do with Trump in the oval office but it is and it is a special place but this is our biggest gathering in terms of the
08:36numbers everybody here because there was always be you know somebody couldn't be everybody's here and that's that's a great honor I think it's a great
08:43honor JD do you want to say a couple of words please oh sir I just echo what you said we're so honored to have all of you here I know that
08:49days like today can't make the hurt go away but hopefully four years on we can start to
08:54remember with fondness and with a little bit of joy the people that were taken from us we're so proud of
08:59you we're so proud of your loved ones for giving their life for our country and I think importantly
09:03today this is a rectification of a wrong the fact that the president united states lost your loved ones
09:10through incompetence but never acknowledged it in your government never actually put pen to paper to
09:15say we're grateful for your sacrifice we correct that wrong today and we're to keep on fighting to understand
09:20as pete said what happened so it never happens to another family again but god love you all god bless
09:25you we're so thrilled to have you here in the people's oval office thank you and I don't think
09:30I don't think they ever heard from uh biden or anybody did they ever you never speak nobody ever even
09:35called it's a terrible thing we suffered through for four years so needlessly yes ma'am I wanted to ask
09:42about veterans and I wanted to say I'm so sorry for all of your loss and I know we've covered it in the
09:46media but I can't imagine what you all have been through and thank you for being here
09:49I wanted to ask just on behalf of those veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and we talked
09:55about this in the oval previously about making sure care for those for example exposed to burn
09:59pits while serving making sure that they have the care are you considering maybe a streamlined service
10:04like the world trade center health care program and maybe the veterans secretary can comment too
10:09but are you considering something like that to make sure because it seems like they're struggling
10:12we take care of our vets nobody loves our vets more than me and we take good care of our vets great
10:17care of our vets uh do you want to just say a couple of words about what we're doing doug please
10:22yeah i should have been through the pact act and through others with the burn pith which is
10:25something i'll be under as well we're uh streamlining following the congress direction but we're also
10:29adding more uh services we've included a lot who have been uh who applied we're also streaming on our
10:34backlog under president trump's direction also we took that backlog that was under president uh biden was
10:39up at over 260 000 we're down now mr president get to tell you that under 150 000 uh in just a little over six
10:45months so we're making sure that that what was bogged up in a bureaucratic system we're streamlining
10:49it so they get that care quicker and we're making sure that it uh is what they need and we're also
10:54doing that in our hospitals as well so they get that curve quicker and not only in our hospitals but
10:58our community as well that's been the biggest difference we're about the veteran at va not about
11:02the bureaucracy so we are making progress there and the va has a 93 approval rating it was down in the low
11:0940s uh when we did so i had pretty close to that uh in the first term we had a great first term
11:16and it was pretty close to that uh and then they took over and it went down into the 30s and 20s and
11:2240s but it went down at one point to 28 or 29 which is terrible they gave away uh choice and
11:30accountability choice meaning you have the way to as a veteran you can go and you can choose who your
11:36doctor is etc etc they gave that up and accountability is getting rid of the people that were
11:41sadists and really bad people that abused our veterans and really badly abused them and they
11:47got rid of both of them and we put them back i couldn't believe when they did it and anyway but
11:52we're now you've blown everybody away doug at 93 so we're 93 approval for our vets and uh i like that so
12:01that's good and on the department of war how do you plan to do that it requires an act of congress to
12:05rename the defense department to the department we're just going to do it i'm sure congress will
12:10go along if we need that i don't think we even need that but uh if we need that i'm sure congress will
12:15go along you know we that was the name when we were we won world war one we won world war two we won
12:23everything and uh just to me seems like just a much more appropriate the other is defense is too
12:30defensive and we want to be defensive but we want to be offensive too if we have to be so
12:36it just sounded to me better really like a better name yeah
12:40meeting with president lee of south korea did you end up talking about trade and did you reach any
12:45conclusion yeah i think we have a deal done they uh had some problems with it but we we stuck to our
12:52guns we we are going to they're going to make the deal that they agreed to make
12:57and he's a very good guy very good representative for south korea it's a very big trade deal you know
13:03it's the biggest deal they've ever made by far but it's one of the biggest deals ever made the biggest
13:07deal ever made is the one with the european nations as you know uh the uh the europe deal is the biggest
13:14deal ever made i think it's the biggest deal ever made period and uh they pay us 950 billion dollars
13:22coming into this country and lots of other things they're going to buy 750 billion dollars worth of
13:27our oil and gas and all of the other things so it's it's amazing our country is doing so well so strong
13:35now and you saw where the tariffs came in at four trillion dollars four trillion dollars and they
13:42just the cbo they just announced it uh i told them that was going to happen but they refused to give us
13:48credit for it now they're giving us credit because the money is flowing in they just found 31 billion
13:54dollars that nobody knew where it came from and they i said check the tariff shelf and they said how
14:00did you know that's where it came from well we're taking in a lot look we were abused by tariffs for
14:06many years nobody in this country got it nobody no president got it until i came along nobody got it
14:12we were abused by other countries where china i mean take a look that's what they what they did
14:19is essentially uh what i'm doing but we're doing it at a better scale and we're making up for lost
14:26time and we're also making sure a lot of these countries respect us for doing it they couldn't
14:31believe what they got away with i mean i was so i told a couple of people what do you think he said
14:36one of them a prime minister said to me i can't believe we got away with it so long
14:42just couldn't believe it i'll tell you what prime minister abi who was great of japan who was
14:48fortunately assassinated he used to say i can't believe we got away with this for so long you know
14:53they sent millions of cars in and we weren't allowed to send one car they wouldn't accept one car in
14:58japan and yet they would send millions and millions of cars into our country no tax no nothing so no we're just
15:06doing the right thing and it's uh it's making our country rich and beautiful and uh it's very
15:13important uh i felt so foolish for years watching this take place you know we did it in my first term
15:19with china we took in hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs but when kobe came back we focused
15:24on that we did a really good job but the whole world suffered with that one i was a terrible thing
15:29so we couldn't be tariffing countries and if you looked at what happened to france and spain and
15:34italy and all not going to go say by the way we want tariffs so but now we do say that and it's
15:41it's tremendous and we're respected we're the most respected we've ever been thank you very much
15:46thank you everybody i appreciate it thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you
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