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00:00This is a very nice place, Charlotte. Good job. What a good job. Your parents are so proud of you.
00:07They're beaming. I don't know if they're beaming about me, but they're beaming about you. I could
00:12see it. But I'm thrilled to be here at the National Medal of Honor Museum. It's got a
00:19great reputation already all over the world, but it's very special for all of us. But it's very
00:25special for me to be here. It's an American treasure devoted to the best and bravest warriors
00:31of our country. And frankly, it's really the best they've ever produced. The 3,536 recipients
00:43of the Congressional Medal of Honor. And as you probably heard, we have a few more coming
00:48your way. Very brave people. Since opening last year, this museum has already welcomed
00:55over 100,000 visitors. I want to thank the chair of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation.
01:04And she's a respected woman all over. She's got great genetics, I have to tell you. Great
01:09genetics. She's got great blood. I'm a big blood person. I believe in blood. And you don't get
01:15better than those two. You don't get better than those two, Charlotte. So I just want to
01:20thank you for the great job you've done. And I want to thank Jerry. He's been a friend
01:24of mine for a long time. I refuse to say how long, because you're going to say we're old
01:27people. I don't want to do that, Jerry. We want to be young, Jerry. And I want to thank
01:32Jean. She's a phenomenal woman, respected all over the planet, frankly. Thank you very much,
01:38Jean. It's a great honor to be with you and your family and the board of directors. Thank you.
01:46And thanks as well to Speaker Mike Johnson. Is he around here someplace? Where is ours? Oh,
01:52I love my speaker. He gets more approved with a majority of two than any man. And it's really a
02:00majority of one, because one always votes. There's something wrong with him. He's cuckoo.
02:04He always votes against us. It doesn't matter. It could be voter ID. He'll vote against. So we have
02:10really a majority of one, maybe two. But he's a fantastic guy, Mike. And he's a friend of mine,
02:15Mike Johnson. And Senator Jim Justice. He's been my friend long before he ran for office.
02:21Where's big Jim? He's the biggest senator in the history of the Senate.
02:26He could play for the Cowboys right now. Offensive line only. I think offensive line. But he's been my
02:33friend for a long time. And another friend of mine, a guy who I was really friendly with. And then
02:39we
02:39got into a scuffle because we were running against each other. We got along so long. I mean, the press
02:45was asking, will you two guys ever fight? I said, don't worry. It'll happen. But right now we get
02:51along. And we remember that, Ted? We got along so well. Long into the campaign. He was tough.
02:56And then we started fighting. We fought like hell. Took about two years to recuperate. And he's been
03:03my very dear friend. And he's been with me on everything. And I'm with him on everything. And
03:08we ran together. And we had the greatest victories, right? The greatest victories. And we have to do that
03:15again for Ken. We said last night, I said, Ken, I don't want to embarrass you, but I don't agree
03:22with a
03:22lot of things. But you're the greatest attorney general we've ever had. And that alone should
03:29carry him. I said, I'm not sure if I like your look. I'm not sure if I like the way
03:33you dress.
03:34I don't like the way you talk. But you're the greatest attorney general. So therefore,
03:39that's the only thing that matters, Jerry, right? He's the best attorney general in the country.
03:44And we have the wall because of him. We have so much because of him. We have the best
03:49numbers in terms of what happened and illegal immigrants pouring into your country and your
03:55state. And he's done such a great job. So I think it's going to work out very well. We had
04:00a great night
04:02last night. After we're finished here, we're going back over to the arena. And the interim,
04:08they've never done it. We had the midterm convention. You've never had it. Nobody knew what the hell I was
04:14talking about. I said, you know, everyone talks about the midterms, but we never have a convention.
04:19Why don't we try having a convention? We immediately picked this. I would have used the stadium.
04:23But I was a little bit concerned about filling that one up. The one last night, we packed it.
04:28That was packed. And we'll be back a lot. It's a special place. Dallas is special. Texas is special.
04:35So I want to thank Ted Cruz. And I want to thank representatives Blake Moore,
04:39John McGuire, Mike Kennedy, Warren Davidson, all great people. Bruce Westerman and Roger Williams.
04:47Very, very brave guy. Roger is. They came at him pretty strong, right, Roger? And you,
04:53you looked him in the eye, but pretty tough cookie and a good guy. Been my friend for a long
04:59time. We're
04:59also pleased to be joined by the mayor of Arlington, Texas, Jim Ross. Thank you, Jim.
05:08You're doing a good job. And Texas State Senator Phil King and the Council General of a place called
05:18Qatar. It's a little under siege right now, but you're going to be just fine. Don't worry about it.
05:22You're going to be perfect. And of course, we're privileged to have with us 15 of the 65 living
05:29recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor. You know, I've never said this. I told Jerry a long
05:35time ago. The thing I really want is I want for myself a Congressional Medal of Honor. And I've
05:39studied it. And I will give it to myself. I have no problem. But I'm not allowed to. Can you
05:44believe
05:44it? The one thing I'm not allowed to do, I would give myself, so it would make it instead of
05:4815,
05:49we'd have 16. But I'm not allowed to do that. Now, you know, the sad part about saying that to
05:55all of
05:56that, look at all that fake news back there. But the sad part is that they'll now go and they'll
06:01say,
06:02Donald Trump wanted the Congressional Medal of Honor. They don't say that I kid. One thing in
06:10the world of politics, you can't be sarcastic. You can't have any fun. You can't do anything that
06:15you think is cute. Because it is. So tonight, the story will be that Donald Trump wants the
06:21Congressional Medal of Honor for himself. I'm only kidding. Actually, I'm not kidding. I would like to.
06:30I can think of no other thing. We have the civilian version, which is the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
06:36And that's, I don't know, it's a very, very powerful thing. But when I see the recipients of
06:45the Congressional Medal, those that are living, many are dead, they died. And they died in battle.
06:52Some of the battles I read, inscriptions of what took place. The level of bravery is incredible.
07:01The nice part about the Presidential Medal of Honor is that people are in good health.
07:06In other words, they get it because they wanted sports or they wanted something.
07:11But they don't have to get shot. And they don't have to go through the trauma that you people
07:16have gone through. Because what you've gone through is incredible. The bravery inspires us all.
07:21This year, we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding. And it's only because
07:28of courageous patriots, like those honored at this museum. It's incredible. I have to say,
07:34you know, Charlotte is too modest. This was rated. I read it in a magazine two weeks ago when I
07:41heard I
07:42was coming. They say it's the best, I think, the best new, most beautiful new museum built in this
07:47country in many, many years. It's a big, it's a big statement. But, and that's a tribute to you and
07:55your group and your directors. And your architect, who's excellent, by the way. I know him very well
08:02from New York. He did some of the great, he did some great buildings. But America has endured the
08:07two and a half centuries that we've done it well. And I will just say, speaking, bringing it right up
08:13to the present, our country is right now very strong. We have over $2.1 trillion being invested
08:21in our country. Nobody, no country ever, ever, no matter where, no matter what country, has ever even
08:28come close to that. We have $21 trillion, close to $21 trillion, actually. And it's coming in
08:37at levels that nobody's ever seen before. That number will be changing next month. And we could
08:43even hit $24, $25 trillion. That's even a lot of money for Jerry, right, Jerry? That's a lot of money.
08:49That's a lot of football players. But, and that's what's happening is, you know, we went years without
08:56building a car plant in the United States. Now we're building many, many car plants. Toyota
09:01just announced they're leaving Mexico. Uh, we have, uh, many of the others. General Motors
09:09just announced a massive plant. Ford, the same thing. Uh, it's actually amazing what's, what's
09:16happening. Honda's coming in. They're all coming in. And I say they're coming in because of what used
09:23to, I used to say it's my favorite word, but I don't say that anyway. You've heard that story
09:28because the press just kills me. I said, my favorite word is tariff. And they said, what
09:33about your wife? What about your family? What about God? What about religion? He's a terrible
09:39human being when tariff is his favorite. So I made it my fifth favorite word and now I'm
09:43okay.
09:45But the numbers that we're taking in are incredible because when you come in and you build your
09:51plant in the United States, including in Arlington and Texas and anywhere you want in the United
09:58States, there is no tariff. So rather than paying 25, 50, a hundred, sometimes I go crazy,
10:04you go to 50 rather than doing that, or rather than saying, we don't want to trade with you
10:09because your country's taking advantage of us. Like we have a country a little bit to
10:14the north, which has been taking advantage of us for many years. But rather than doing
10:19that, we, we just, we do something and it just worked out so well. The numbers are, nobody's
10:28ever seen it like it. Now, just so you understand, other countries have done this to us for years
10:32and that's why they were successful. But we've never had a period of time where we have this
10:37kind of investment, this kind of building and the building projects. Hundreds and hundreds
10:42of factories and plants are being built and other things are being built all over the
10:45country. And very shortly, though, exciting for me, I'll sign into law the Herschel Woody
10:52Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act. It's a long name, but that's a very long
10:59name.
11:01But it's an important name. Authorizing the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation to
11:06establish a brand new monument in Washington, D.C., which is now one of the safest cities.
11:12By the way, our capital two years ago is one of the most unsafe cities in the country. Now
11:17it's one of the safest cities in the country. It's the way it should be. Our National Guard
11:21was unbelievable. We don't play games anymore. And we've cleaned it. It's spotless. We got
11:29rid of all the graffiti over monuments that have been touched in 40, 50, 60 years. Monuments,
11:37fountains, everything. We have, it's amazing. We did 82 of them, Jerry. We took care of 82
11:44of them. I showed you the bridge, the Arlington Memorial Bridge. Your daughter wanted to have that
11:49bridge for herself so she could do something. I said, I'm sorry, I think this one's taken.
11:54Right? That's why I'm glad we had the little, but we're going to find you an even better location.
11:59Okay? But we had 82 monuments and statues and fountains that we've made. I mean, taking
12:09them from horrible looking, in all cases, horrible red graffiti, red and green. They like red
12:18and green. And some of it seeps into this beautiful limestone and marble. And you think that was easy
12:25getting it out. It wasn't. But we, those, some of those things are looking so beautiful, more beautiful
12:30than when they were built many years ago. And in terms of crime, the crime rate's way down.
12:37It's down to a level that's one of the safer cities. But we, we removed over 5,000 criminals.
12:45Many of them came through the open border policy of sleepy Joe Biden at open border for the world
12:52to come in. Let everybody come into our country. They emptied their jails. They emptied all of their
12:58mental institutions into our country. And, you know, Texas was right at the forefront of this
13:05disaster. But they had a person interviewed the other day on a television, one of the network news
13:12programs. And the person said, we lived in hell two years ago. They were on the border.
13:20And this person, a beautiful man and wife, sort of like 40 years old, and they were living in hell.
13:29And he said, when President Trump got elected, it all changed. It's like we live in a different
13:33place now. We were being accosted. We were being run over by people pouring, pouring across dangerous
13:41people, too, in many cases, pouring across the border. And now we haven't seen anybody in
13:47a year and a half. It's been pretty amazing, Ted, what we've done on the border. And it's my honor.
13:53And it brought you, your state back. But all that can disappear very quickly. You put a Tala Frico
13:59in or you put any one of these people in, these people that don't know what the hell they're
14:04doing. And even if they do, you know, some are very smart. They're radical left. They have crazy
14:09policies. Some are not smart at all. But he would be a disaster for this country. So we are dedicating
14:18all of the receipts of our, all of the money that we're taking is a lot of additional money
14:26and money. Even today, I got so many calls of people that heard I was going to be here. They
14:30say, we want to make a contribution. So you're going to have a lot of money pouring in. I don't
14:34know, Charlie, you probably don't need it. But do you need it? Okay. Then I'm going to have
14:39them send it. Okay. They've got plenty.
14:42But this monument, this is a monument now, I think, will be entirely funded by private
14:48donations and located in the heart of our nation's capital near the Lincoln Memorial. We will
14:55find you an even better location. I know the location you're talking about. It just happens
14:58to be taken. But we're going to find you an even better location. I think I have an idea
15:03that you'll like even better. I got very familiar with the land. I like real estate. I got very
15:08familiar with D.C. land. But the bill created this beautiful new monument is named for one
15:14of the most beloved Medal of Honor recipients, the late, great Woody Williams. When he died,
15:20Woody was the last surviving recipient from World War II. One of the most dangerous jobs
15:27of war and that's operating a flamethrower. They say it's one of the most dangerous jobs.
15:33Very dangerous for the people on the other end, too, I can tell you.
15:37But I'm going to have to ask somebody why. But they say it's like an unbelievable, unbelievably
15:45important, unbelievably dangerous. In the battle of Iwo Jima, he carved a path to American victory,
15:53literally carved a path so soldiers could get in and win through a deadly gauntlet of enemy strongholds.
16:01Back and forth he went. He just kept going back and forth. They said, Woody, take it easy.
16:06No, no, no, I can't. I have to clear the path. And one machine gun nest after another. He knocked
16:13out. And he did it for hours and hours. People said they've never seen anything quite like it.
16:19And out of the 300 flamethrower operators, you had 300 flamethrower operators on Iwo Jima,
16:28they had a casualty rate of substantially over 90 percent. So, like I said, it's dangerous.
16:36And Woody was one of the few who survived, but he survived with a lot of trauma.
16:41We're joined today by Woody's family. Great family. Thank you for all being here as we signed this bill,
16:47honoring Woody and more than 3,500 other true American patriots. Would you stand up, please?
16:53Woody's family. Thank you.
16:57Thank you very much. Great. That's also good genetics, you know. I was saying to Charlotte,
17:11you have good genetics, too. History is made of the biographies of brave and
17:16and America trusts every warrior to answer with courage. And when duty calls, they're there.
17:24These people are there. They're there faster than probably any of us in this room would
17:29want to be there, except for the Medal of Honor winners, of which we have some of the best. But
17:35those honored in this museum did more than answer the call. They stormed into hellfire and crushed
17:42America's enemies. They had bravery like few people could even think of having. They carried the
17:49wounded out of battle and their own backs. They carried them back and forth. I have stories that
17:57as I, you know, I had the honor of giving out a lot of Medal of Honors and some of
18:01the stories. I'm
18:03I'm reading them. I'm reading. I like to be a little prepared. So I'd study it a little bit before
18:07I went up
18:08there and discussed it. And I said, boy, these people are brave. But they gave their bodies
18:14their shields for their brothers in arms. They stood in the way of bullets purposely just standing
18:20just like this and taking bullets. And it's amazing. These are amazing. I see why Charlotte's
18:29so committed to it, you know, because it's just you just don't meet people like this. They stood tall
18:34when their country needed heroes. And we will remember them all for what they do. That's all
18:40the people in this room and all of those great Medal of Honor winners that are no longer with us.
18:46With this museum and a new monument in Washington, D.C., America will never, ever forget what they did
18:55and what they risked and how much they risked, what they've meant to their families and what they've
19:01meant to our country. And I want to thank you all once again. And I really want to
19:07congratulate Charlotte Jones and the entire Jones family for their incredible dedication to the
19:12museum. And also, I know it was very important to Charlotte. She's got a board of directors,
19:17and I know some of them from a different life. And you have a very fine board of directors,
19:23I must say. A very good one. And I'm just very proud of, you know,
19:28Jerry Jones has been somebody that I've known so long. I just have such great respect for him.
19:33And Jean is an incredible woman, respected by everybody. That's a family. This is a family
19:40that's very, very special. So it's an honor for me to be here with you. And
19:47great. I wasn't supposed to be doing this today, Jerry, because I am busy as hell.
19:52But when they called, I said, I got to just forget about this, okay? And I'm going to do this.
19:59So Charlotte's going to come up. She's going to say a few more words. And I'm going to then
20:05receive, I think you're getting, somebody said, Trump is receiving an honor. I'll take it.
20:15And I just want to let you know that we'll go back to Washington. We're going to get you all
20:19set up.
20:20We're going to get you the best side in all of Washington. I think our speaker may be very
20:23instrumental in that too. Right, Mike? And when the speaker talks, everybody listens. So,
21:02we'll take it. Come on, Jim.
21:06Don't move too fast. He's got the good size for the team, Jerry. I don't know. I'm not sure about
21:11the movement. He's a great guy. You ready, Charlotte? Yes, sir.
21:49And Mr. President, thank you again for being at the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas today
21:55to sign this very special piece of legislation.
21:58But before you depart, I would like to make a special presentation.
22:02So I'm excited to share with everyone here the incredible news that you have graciously agreed to become one of
22:09our honorary directors.
22:11We are thrilled to add you to the amazing bipartisan group of Commanders-in-Chief.
22:16Thank you so much, Mr. President.
22:20Yes.
22:23And finally, I am happy to now present you our Foundation's Champion of Honor Award.
22:31This is with sincere appreciation and gratitude, the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation recognizes President Donald J. Trump as
22:40a Champion of Honor.
22:41For his unwavering commitment to preserving and sharing the legacies of the Medal of Honor recipients, his tireless effort to
22:49ensure the Medal of Honor and those who received it are celebrated nationally,
22:53and for his unconditional support of the Herschel Woody Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act, ensuring recipients of
23:02our nation's highest decoration for valor in combat are permanently recognized on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
23:10Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to all of us joining today.
23:14We ask that you please remain in your seats until the President has departed the building.
23:18Thank you, Mr. President.
23:19We appreciate you being here.
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