00:00I just think you've done a fantastic job, and we're going to go around the room. We'll go quickly, but we're going to go around the room, and we'll start with Pete, and you'll tell us about some of the achievements, and some of you have achievements that are so big, I don't want you to go through the whole thing, because we're not done, but we'll start with Pete, and then if you want, we'll take some questions at the end. Please, Pete.
00:20Well, thank you, Mr. President. As you said, it has been a historic year at the Department of War. Recruiting and retention over this year are at the most historic levels our country has ever seen. I had a chance to be on an aircraft carrier destroyer over Thanksgiving. The spirit in our ranks since the election under President Trump is unprecedented. I've never seen anything like it as a soldier myself in uniform, and I know a lot of you feel the same way.
00:45We've ripped out the DEI and the political correctness. It's all merit-based at the department. We're getting back to basics. Accountability, training, readiness, lethality, and that's reviving that spirit.
00:58Mr. President, we're rebuilding the military, historic investments. I just took briefings on the Golden Dome and F-47, next-generation capabilities that are going to make sure that for generations to come, America has the most powerful, most capable, most lethal military in the world, which you have rebuilt once,
01:14and we're rebuilding again. And then we're reestablishing deterrence and credibility. If you look at what happened, we deal with every day the outcome of what happened in Afghanistan, the debacle under Joe Biden. We just dealt with it in the streets of Washington, D.C., with those two National Guardsmen.
01:29And then what happened on October 7th with Hamas, what happened in Ukraine, a war that never would have started under President Trump, we're having to rebuild that. So whether it's freedom of navigation and taking the fight to the Houthis, whether it's Midnight Hammer, those beautiful B2s going 37 hours back and forth, undetected,
01:44delivering with precision, and Iran not getting nuclear capabilities, Europe and NATO stepping up to 5%, locking down our southwest border. It's been an honor to work with Christy and Tom and everyone else down there to lock it to zero, operational control of our border.
01:59And then it's getting after and going after narco terrorists and designated terrorist organizations in our own hemisphere. As I've said, and I'll say again, we've only just begun striking narco boats and putting narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they've been poisoning the American people.
02:18And Joe Biden tried to approach it with kid gloves and allowed them to come across the border. Cartels take over community, 20 million people, hundreds of thousands of Americans poisoned.
02:29And President Trump said, no, we're taking the gloves off. We're taking the fight to these designated terror organizations. And that's exactly what we're doing. So we're stopping the drugs. We're striking the boats.
02:38We're defeating narco terrorists. And we're standing. You may say one thing that drugs coming in through the sea by sea are down 91%. And I don't know who the 9% is.
02:51I'm not sure either, sir. But down 91% by sea.
02:54We've had a bit of a pause because it's hard to find boats to strike right now, which is the entire point, right? Deterrence has to matter, not arrest and hand over and then do it again. The rinse and repeat approach of previous administrations.
03:09This is meant to get after that approach. And I will just end by saying, as President Trump always has our back, we always have the back of our commanders who are making decisions in difficult situations.
03:20And we do in this case and all these strikes. They're making judgment calls, ensuring that they defend the American people. They've done the right things. We'll keep doing that. And we have their backs, Mr. President.
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