00:00We're marshalling every resource we have to make America safer and stronger and more prosperous than ever before.
00:06And I'm very bullish on the prospects of doing that.
00:09We must do this because we know those hostile to the West and to our shared values
00:15are engaging in increasingly sophisticated forms of subversion and espionage.
00:21We see China, Russia, and Iran grow more aggressive and emboldened
00:25as they intensify their efforts to exert economic, political, and military influence around the world.
00:32We see a callous disregard for basic human rights, new provocations,
00:37and even the theft of intellectual property on a scale like we have never seen before.
00:43Clearly, President Trump is taking seriously the modern and dynamic threats that China and Russia pose to our global security,
00:49especially in focus the last few days as it relates to the Arctic.
00:53And while we can have thoughtful debate among our friends about how best to counter these threats,
01:00we all certainly agree they must be countered.
01:04We ignore these threats at our peril.
01:06And I want to hasten to express our gratitude to the UK and to all of you
01:09for joining us in some of our most recent actions to deter these hostile regimes,
01:14including the recent seizure of a black market vessel seeking to circumvent oil sanctions.
01:19That was a big help to us.
01:21That kind of open dialogue and partnership is a great example of how we can work together
01:25to ensure our collective defense around the world.
01:28It is an objective and obvious truth that a strong America is good for the entire world,
01:35and a strong UK is as well.
01:39At the same time, it's also obvious that we have to take care of our own houses, so to speak,
01:43before we take care of the neighborhood.
01:44And let's be honest, among friends here and both of our nations,
01:49there is a need today to fortify our houses against internal challenges as well.
01:54In the West, if we make an honest assessment, we must acknowledge that our long-term prosperity
01:59and security are currently being undermined by, let's call it a crisis of self-doubt.
02:04But it's been developing now for years.
02:08Elite institutions today tell the young and impressionable that our story is one of oppression
02:12and hypocrisy and failure.
02:16Our brightest minds are too often taught to view our history only through the lens of its sins.
02:21And we see the work of international organizations and transnational bodies
02:26hinder the very spirit of creativity and industriousness and daring that our nations were built upon.
02:34We have faced this in America just as you have here,
02:38a truly menacing skepticism towards history and our national institutions.
02:42And it's even come to the point where even great heroes like Sir Winston Churchill
02:48are questioned for their legacy.
02:49What has taken hold is a mindset that defines itself not by what it loves and seeks to preserve,
02:56but instead by what it condemns and seeks to tear down.
03:00And this growing disaffection we see, particularly among our younger citizens,
03:03is a serious threat to the health of both our nations.
03:07If the next generation is never exposed to the deeper wisdom of the Western world
03:13or the enduring tradition of the British Parliament
03:16or the genius of America's model of Republican self-government,
03:20then why would they feel any obligation to defend or preserve them?
03:25Fortunately, history teaches us an important lesson.
03:29Just over half a century after American independence,
03:32our country faced a moment of reckoning.
03:34It was 1838, and for the first time in our short history,
03:38America's founding fathers, the men who had led us
03:40through the turbulent years of our young nation,
03:43were no longer there to guide us.
03:46A growing disregard for the rule of law had taken hold at that time,
03:49and the cries of mob rule threatened every part of our country.
03:52A young legislator at that time,
03:54concerned by what he saw as America's deteriorating regard for its past,
04:00charged his countrymen with an important choice.
04:02Would they uphold their duty and preserve the blessings
04:06for which their fathers pledged their lives,
04:08their fortunes, and their sacred honor?
04:10Or would they continue on the path of decline and self-destruction?
04:14The answer was simple, he said.
04:16This experiment in liberty could not survive
04:19unless the principles enshrined in the Declaration
04:22and institutionalized in our Constitution
04:24became their shared civic faith.
04:28That rising statement, he was just 28 years old at the time,
04:31would one day become president,
04:33and he would be called to confront
04:35the greatest stress test of the American experiment yet.
04:39His likeness stands just a few feet away from here,
04:41where we're gathered today, watching over Parliament Square.
04:45Abraham Lincoln, of course, wisely understood
04:47that the philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation
04:50is the philosophy of government in the next.
04:53He knew that our national renewal would not come from repudiating our past,
04:59but rather from renewing and recommitting to our best principles,
05:04to appealing to the better angels of our nature.
05:09The struggle of Lincoln's time shows us
05:11that though America may be 250 years old,
05:13the question of how best to steward this grand experiment
05:16has always been with us.
05:18And age-old questions require age-old wisdom.
05:22In the West today, we see faith in our foundations
05:25and our shared inheritance weakening.
05:28And what we have to do
05:29is channel the wisdom of our predecessors
05:32to chart our own renewal.
05:35So what does renewal require?
05:37Just a few things.
05:38Well, first, it requires remembrance.
05:40This is a biblical admonition, in fact.
05:42We're to remember our blessings
05:44and from where we came.
05:45And the great British philosopher G.K. Chesterton warned,
05:50every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.
05:55Things like the dignity of the individual,
05:57the stabilizing role of the family,
05:59the human yearning for meaning and purpose,
06:01and the indispensable relationship
06:03between freedom and virtue.
06:06In short, we have to remember our foundations.
06:09And we have to describe what they are
06:11because the generation behind us
06:13seems not to understand this.
06:16As Chesterton observed,
06:17America was founded on a creed
06:19that was set forth, he said,
06:21with dogmatic and theological lucidity
06:23in the second paragraph
06:25of the Declaration of Independence.
06:27We hold these truths to be self-evident,
06:29that all men are created equal,
06:31endowed by their creator
06:32with certain inalienable rights,
06:34that among these are the rights to life,
06:36liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
06:37That profound acknowledgement of obvious and undeniable truth
06:42shook the foundations of Western democracy
06:44and with it the course of human history.
06:47Our founders recognized that all of us
06:49are made in the image of God.
06:51And because of that,
06:53every single person has inestimable dignity and value.
06:57And our value is not related in any way
06:59to the color of our skin
07:00or what town or village we hail from,
07:03what our talents are, etc.
07:05Our value is inherent
07:06because it is given to us by our creator.
07:10We built an entire nation upon that premise.
07:14And just as our citizens are endowed
07:15with God-given and unalienable rights,
07:17all nations and all people
07:19should adhere to the obvious laws of nature
07:21and of nature's God,
07:22as our documents say.
07:23In his farewell address,
07:25the father of our country, George Washington,
07:26gave all of his advice
07:27that echoes down through his countrymen,
07:30even today.
07:31And echoes down through the generations
07:33in reminding us
07:34how we would keep this republic,
07:36how we would keep this grand experiment
07:37in self-government.
07:39And he said famously,
07:40of all the dispositions and habits
07:42which lead to political prosperity,
07:45religion and morality
07:46are indispensable supports.
07:48And John Adams was our second president,
07:51and he said famously,
07:52our constitution is made only
07:53for a moral and religious people.
07:55It is wholly inadequate
07:56to the government of any other.
07:59The late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
08:01put it even more simply.
08:03Freedom, she said,
08:04will destroy itself
08:05if it has no purpose.
08:08Lady Thatcher,
08:09just like our founders,
08:10understood that free societies
08:11that lacked a shared moral
08:13and civic foundation
08:14inevitably turn elsewhere to compensate.
08:22The late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
08:24You
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