trump_corpus.txt

Wow. Whoa.

So nice, thank you very much. That’s really nice. Thank you. It’s great to be at Trump Tower. It’s great to be in a wonderful city, New York. And it’s an honor to have everybody here. This is beyond anybody’s expectations. There’s been no crowd like this.

And, I can tell, some of the candidates, they went in. They didn’t know the air-conditioner didn’t work. They sweated like dogs.

They didn’t know the room was too big, because they didn’t have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS? I don’t think it’s gonna happen.

Our country is in serious trouble. We don’t have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don’t have them. When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let’s say, China in a trade deal? They kill us. I beat China all the time. All the time.

We want Trump. We want Trump.

When did we beat Japan at anything? They send their cars over by the millions, and what do we do? When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn’t exist, folks. They beat us all the time.

When do we beat Mexico at the border? They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. But they’re killing us economically.

The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems.



Thank you. It’s true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people.

It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably — probably — from the Middle East. But we don’t know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s happening. And it’s got to stop and it’s got to stop fast.
Islamic terrorism is eating up large portions of the Middle East. They’ve become rich. I’m in competition with them.

They just built a hotel in Syria. Can you believe this? They built a hotel. When I have to build a hotel, I pay interest. They don’t have to pay interest, because they took the oil that, when we left Iraq, I said we should’ve taken.

So now ISIS has the oil, and what they don’t have, Iran has. And in 19 — and I will tell you this, and I said it very strongly, years ago, I said — and I love the military, and I want to have the strongest military that we’ve ever had, and we need it more now than ever. But I said, “Don’t hit Iraq,” because you’re going to totally destabilize the Middle East. Iran is going to take over the Middle East, Iran and somebody else will get the oil, and it turned out that Iran is now taking over Iraq. Think of it. Iran is taking over Iraq, and they’re taking it over big league.

We spent $2 trillion in Iraq, $2 trillion. We lost thousands of lives, thousands in Iraq. We have wounded soldiers, who I love, I love — they’re great — all over the place, thousands and thousands of wounded soldiers.

And we have nothing. We can’t even go there. We have nothing. And every time we give Iraq equipment, the first time a bullet goes off in the air, they leave it.

Last week, I read 2,300 Humvees — these are big vehicles — were left behind for the enemy. 2,000? You would say maybe two, maybe four? 2,300 sophisticated vehicles, they ran, and the enemy took them.

We need Trump now. You’re right.



We need Trump now.

Last quarter, it was just announced our gross domestic product — a sign of strength, right? But not for us. It was below zero. Whoever heard of this? It’s never below zero.

Our labor participation rate was the worst since 1978. But think of it, GDP below zero, horrible labor participation rate.

And our real unemployment is anywhere from 18 to 20 percent. Don’t believe the 5.6. Don’t believe it.

That’s right. A lot of people up there can’t get jobs. They can’t get jobs, because there are no jobs, because China has our jobs and Mexico has our jobs. They all have jobs.

But the real number, the real number is anywhere from 18 to 19 and maybe even 21 percent, and nobody talks about it, because it’s a statistic that’s full of nonsense.

We want Trump now.

Our enemies are getting stronger and stronger by the way, and we as a country are getting weaker. Even our nuclear arsenal doesn’t work.

It came out recently they have equipment that is 30 years old. They don’t know if it worked. And I thought it was horrible when it was broadcast on television, because boy, does that send signals to Putin and all of the other people that look at us and they say, “That is a group of people, and that is a nation that truly has no clue. They don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

We need Trump now.



We have a disaster called the big lie: Obamacare. Obamacare.

Yesterday, it came out that costs are going for people up 29, 39, 49, and even 55 percent, and deductibles are through the roof. You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high, it’s virtually useless. It’s virtually useless. It is a disaster. And remember the $5 billion Web site? $5 billion we spent on a Web site, and to this day it doesn’t work. A $5 billion Web site.

I have so many Web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a Web site. It costs me $3. $5 billion Web site.



We want Trump. We want Trump. We want Trump. We want Trump.

Well, you need somebody, because politicians are all talk, no action. Nothing’s gonna get done. They will not bring us — believe me — to the promised land. They will not.

As an example, I’ve been on the circuit making speeches, and I hear my fellow Republicans. And they’re wonderful people. I like them. They all want me to support them. They don’t know how to bring it about. They come up to my office. I’m meeting with three of them in the next week. And they don’t know — “Are you running? Are you not running? Could we have your support? What do we do? How do we do it?”

I like them. And I hear their speeches. And they don’t talk jobs and they don’t talk China. When was the last time you heard China is killing us? They’re devaluing their currency to a level that you wouldn’t believe. It makes it impossible for our companies to compete, impossible. They’re killing us.

But you don’t hear that from anybody else. You don’t hear it from anybody else. And I watch the speeches.

No more free (inaudible).

Thank you.

I watch the speeches of these people, and they say the sun will rise, the moon will set, all sorts of wonderful things will happen. And people are saying, “What’s going on? I just want a job. Just get me a job. I don’t need the rhetoric. I want a job.”

And that’s what’s happening. And it’s going to get worse, because remember, Obamacare really kicks in in ’16, 2016. Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him, I actually would say. I have the best courses in the world, so I’d say, you what, if he wants to — I have one right next to the White House, right on the Potomac. If he’d like to play, that’s fine.



In fact, I’d love him to leave early and play, that would be a very good thing.


But Obamacare kicks in in 2016. Really big league. It is going to be amazingly destructive. Doctors are quitting. I have a friend who’s a doctor, and he said to me the other day, “Donald, I never saw anything like it. I have more accountants than I have nurses. It’s a disaster. My patients are beside themselves. They had a plan that was good. They have no plan now.”

We have to repeal Obamacare, and it can be — and — and it can be replaced with something much better for everybody. Let it be for everybody. But much better and much less expensive for people and for the government. And we can do it.



Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump.

So I’ve watched the politicians. I’ve dealt with them all my life. If you can’t make a good deal with a politician, then there’s something wrong with you. You’re certainly not very good. And that’s what we have= representing us. They willnever make America great again. They don’t even have a chance. They’re controlled fully — they’re controlled fully by the lobbyists, by the donors, and by the special interests, fully.

Yes, they control them. Hey, I have lobbyists. I have to tell you. I have lobbyists that can produce anything for me. They’re great. But you know what? it won’t happen. It won’t happen. Because we have to stop doing things for some people, but for this country, it’s destroying our country. We have to stop, and it has to stop now.

 It needs Trump.

 Now, our country needs — our country needs a truly great leader, and we need a truly great leader now. We need a leader that wrote “The Art of the Deal.”

 Yes.

 We need a leader that can bring back our jobs, can bring back our manufacturing, can bring back our military, can take care of our vets. Our vets have been abandoned.



And we also need a cheerleader.

You know, when President Obama was elected, I said, “Well, the one thing, I think he’ll do well. I think he’ll be a great cheerleader for the country. I think he’d be a great spirit.”

He was vibrant. He was young. I really thought that he would be a great cheerleader.

 But not a leader.

 He’s not a leader. That’s true. You’re right about that.

But he wasn’t a cheerleader. He’s actually a negative force. He’s been a negative force. He wasn’t a cheerleader; he was the opposite.

We need somebody that can take the brand of the United States and make it great again. It’s not great again.



We need — we need somebody — we need somebody that literally will take this country and make it great again. We can do that.



And, I will tell you, I love my life. I have a wonderful family. They’re saying, “Dad, you’re going to do something that’s going to be so tough.”

You know, all of my life, I’ve heard that a truly successful person, a really, really successful person and even modestly successful cannot run for public office. Just can’t happen. And yet that’s the kind of mindset that you need to make this country great again.

So ladies and gentlemen…



I am officially running…



… for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again.



It can happen. Our country has tremendous potential. We have tremendous people.

We have people that aren’t working. We have people that have no incentive to work. But they’re going to have incentive to work, because the greatest social program is a job. And they’ll be proud, and they’ll love it, and they’ll make much more than they would’ve ever made, and they’ll be — they’ll be doing so well, and we’re going to be thriving as a country, thriving. It can happen.



I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. I tell you that.



I’ll bring back our jobs from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places. I’ll bring back our jobs, and I’ll bring back our money.

Right now, think of this: We owe China $1.3 trillion. We owe Japan more than that. So they come in, they take our jobs, they take our money, and then they loan us back the money, and we pay them in interest, and then the dollar goes up so their deal’s even better.

How stupid are our leaders? How stupid are these politicians to allow this to happen? How stupid are they?



I’m going to tell you — thank you. I’m going to tell you a couple of stories about trade, because I’m totally against the trade bill for a number of reasons.

Number one, the people negotiating don’t have a clue. Our president doesn’t have a clue. He’s a bad negotiator.

He’s the one that did Bergdahl. We get Bergdahl, they get five killer terrorists that everybody wanted over there.

We get Bergdahl. We get a traitor. We get a no-good traitor, and they get the five people that they wanted for years, and those people are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us. That’s the negotiator we have.

Take a look at the deal he’s making with Iran. He makes that deal, Israel maybe won’t exist very long. It’s a disaster, and we have to protect Israel. But…

 Yes, we do. Yes, we do.

 So we need people — I’m a free trader. But the problem with free trade is you need really talented people to negotiate for you. If you don’t have talented people, if you don’t have great leadership, if you don’t have people that know business, not just a political hack that got the job because he made a contribution to a campaign, which is the way all jobs, just about, are gotten, free trade terrible.

Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people, but we have people that are stupid. We have people that aren’t smart. And we have people that are controlled by special interests. And it’s just not going to work.

So, here’s a couple of stories happened recently. A friend of mine is a great manufacturer. And, you know, China comes over and they dump all their stuff, and I buy it. I buy it, because, frankly, I have an obligation to buy it, because they devalue their currency so brilliantly, they just did it recently, and nobody thought they could do it again.

But with all our problems with Russia, with all our problems with everything — everything, they got away with it again. And it’s impossible for our people here to compete.

So I want to tell you this story. A friend of mine who’s a great manufacturer, calls me up a few weeks ago. He’s very upset. I said, “What’s your problem?”

He said, “You know, I make great product.”

And I said, “I know. I know that because I buy the product.”

He said, “I can’t get it into China. They won’t accept it. I sent a boat over and they actually sent it back. They talked about environmental, they talked about all sorts of crap that had nothing to do with it.”

I said, “Oh, wait a minute, that’s terrible. Does anyone know this?”

He said, “Yeah, they do it all the time with other people.”

I said, “They send it back?”

“Yeah. So I finally got it over there and they charged me a big tariff. They’re not supposed to be doing that. I told them.”

Now, they do charge you tariff on trucks, when we send trucks and other things over there.

Ask Boeing BA -0.03%. They wanted Boeing’s secrets. They wanted their patents and all their secrets before they agreed to buy planes from Boeing.

Hey, I’m not saying they’re stupid. I like China. I sell apartments for — I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them? I own a big chunk of the Bank of America BAC -1.46% Building at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, that I got from China in a war. Very valuable.

I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower. I love China. People say, “Oh, you don’t like China?”

No, I love them. But their leaders are much smarter than our leaders, and we can’t sustain ourself with that. There’s too much — it’s like — it’s like take the New England Patriots and Tom Brady and have them play your high school football team. That’s the difference between China’s leaders and our leaders.

They are ripping us. We are rebuilding China. We’re rebuilding many countries. China, you go there now, roads, bridges, schools, you never saw anything like it. They have bridges that make the George Washington Bridge look like small potatoes. And they’re all over the place.

We have all the cards, but we don’t know how to use them. We don’t even know that we have the cards, because our leaders don’t understand the game. We could turn off that spigot by charging them tax until they behave properly.

Now they’re going militarily. They’re building a military island in the middle of the South China sea. A military island. Now, our country could never do that because we’d have to get environmental clearance, and the environmentalist wouldn’t let our country — we would never build in an ocean. They built it in about one year, this massive military port.

They’re building up their military to a point that is very scary. You have a problem with ISIS. You have a bigger problem with China.

And, in my opinion, the new China, believe it or not, in terms of trade, is Mexico.

So this man tells me about the manufacturing. I say, “That’s a terrible story. I hate to hear it.”

But I have another one, Ford.

So Mexico takes a company, a car company that was going to build in Tennessee, rips it out. Everybody thought the deal was dead. Reported it in the Wall Street Journal recently. Everybody thought it was a done deal. It’s going in and that’s going to be it, going into Tennessee. Great state, great people. All of a sudden, at the last moment, this big car manufacturer, foreign, announces they’re not going to Tennessee. They’re gonna spend their $1 billion in Mexico instead. Not good.

Now, Ford announces a few weeks ago that Ford is going to build a $2.5 billion car and truck and parts manufacturing plant in Mexico. $2.5 billion, it’s going to be one of the largest in the world. Ford. Good company.

So I announced that I’m running for president. I would…



… one of the early things I would do, probably before I even got in — and I wouldn’t even use — you know, I have — I know the smartest negotiators in the world. I know the good ones. I know the bad ones. I know the overrated ones.

You get a lot of them that are overrated. They’re not good. They think they are. They get good stories, because the newspapers get buffaloed (ph). But they’re not good.

But I know the negotiators in the world, and I put them one for each country. Believe me, folks. We will do very, very well, very, very well.

But I wouldn’t even waste my time with this one. I would call up the head of Ford, who I know. If I was president, I’d say, “Congratulations. I understand that you’re building a nice $2.5 billion car factory in Mexico and that you’re going to take your cars and sell them to the United States zero tax, just flow them across the border.”

And you say to yourself, “How does that help us,” right? “How does that help us? Where is that good”? It’s not.

So I would say, “Congratulations. That’s the good news. Let me give you the bad news. Every car and every truck and every part manufactured in this plant that comes across the border, we’re going to charge you a 35-percent tax, and that tax is going to be paid simultaneously with the transaction, and that’s it.

Now, here’s what is going to happen. If it’s not me in the position, it’s one of these politicians that we’re running against, you know, the 400 people that we’re (inaudible). And here’s what’s going to happen. They’re not so stupid. They know it’s not a good thing, and they may even be upset by it. But then they’re going to get a call from the donors or probably from the lobbyist for Ford and say, “You can’t do that to Ford, because Ford takes care of me and I take care of you, and you can’t do that to Ford.”

And guess what? No problem. They’re going to build in Mexico. They’re going to take away thousands of jobs. It’s very bad for us.

So under President Trump, here’s what would happen:



The head of Ford will call me back, I would say within an hour after I told them the bad news. But it could be he’d want to be cool, and he’ll wait until the next day. You know, they want to be a little cool.

And he’ll say, “Please, please, please.” He’ll beg for a little while, and I’ll say, “No interest.” Then he’ll call all sorts of political people, and I’ll say, “Sorry, fellas. No interest,” because I don’t need anybody’s money. It’s nice. I don’t need anybody’s money.

I’m using my own money. I’m not using the lobbyists. I’m not using donors. I don’t care. I’m really rich. I (inaudible).



And by the way, I’m not even saying that in a — that’s the kind of mindset, that’s the kind of thinking you need for this country.

 Absolutely.

 So — because we got to make the country rich.

It sounds crass. Somebody said, “Oh, that’s crass.” It’s not crass.

We got $18 trillion in debt. We got nothing but problems.

We got a military that needs equipment all over the place. We got nuclear weapons that are obsolete.

We’ve got nothing. We’ve got Social Security that’s going to be destroyed if somebody like me doesn’t bring money into the country. All these other people want to cut the hell out of it. I’m not going to cut it at all; I’m going to bring money in, and we’re going to save it.



But here’s what’s going to happen:

After I’m called by 30 friends of mine who contributed to different campaigns, after I’m called by all of the special interests and by the — the donors and by the lobbyists — and they have zero chance at convincing me, zero — I’ll get a call the next day from the head of Ford. He’ll say. “Please reconsider,” I’ll say no.

He’ll say, “Mr. President, we’ve decided to move the plant back to the United States, and we’re not going to build it in Mexico.” That’s it. They have no choice. They have no choice.

There are hundreds of things like that. I’ll give you another example. Saudi Arabia, they make $1 billion a day. $1 billion a day. I love the Saudis. Many are in this building. They make a billion dollars a day. Whenever they have problems, we send over the ships. We say “we’re gonna protect.” What are we doing? They’ve got nothing but money.

If the right person asked them, they’d pay a fortune. They wouldn’t be there except for us.

And believe me, you look at the border with Yemen. You remember Obama a year ago, Yemen was a great victory. Two weeks later, the place was blown up. Everybody got out — and they kept our equipment.

They always keep our equipment. We ought to send used equipment, right? They always keep our equipment. We ought to send some real junk, because, frankly, it would be — we ought to send our surplus. We’re always losing this gorgeous brand-new stuff.

But look at that border with Saudi Arabia. Do you really think that these people are interested in Yemen? Saudi Arabia without us is gone. They;re gone.

And I’m the one that made all of the right predictions about Iraq. You know, all of these politicians that I’m running against now — it’s so nice to say I’m running as opposed to if I run, if I run. I’m running.



But all of these politicians that I’m running against now, they’re trying to disassociate. I mean, you looked at Bush, it took him five days to answer the question on Iraq. He couldn’t answer the question. He didn’t know. I said, “Is he intelligent?”

Then I looked at Rubio. He was unable to answer the question, is Iraq a good thing or bad thing? He didn’t know. He couldn’t answer the question.

How are these people gonna lead us? How are we gonna — how are we gonna go back and make it great again? We can’t. They don’t have a clue. They can’t lead us. They can’t. They can’t even answer simple questions. It was terrible.

But Saudi Arabia is in big, big trouble. Now, thanks to fracking and other things, the oil is all over the place. And I used to say it, there are ships at sea, and this was during the worst crisis, that were loaded up with oil, and the cartel kept the price up, because, again, they were smarter than our leaders. They were smarter than our leaders.

There is so much wealth out there that can make our country so rich again, and therefore make it great again. Because we need money. We’re dying. We’re dying. We need money. We have to do it. And we need the right people.

So Ford will come back. They’ll all come back. And I will say this, this is going to be an election, in my opinion, that’s based on competence.

 Yes.

 Somebody said — thank you, darlin’.



Somebody said to me the other day, a reporter, a very nice reporter, “But, Mr. Trump, you’re not a nice person.”

 We don’t need nice.

 That’s true. But actually I am. I think I am a nice person. People that know me, like me. Does my family like me? I think so, right. Look at my family. I’m proud of my family.



By the way, speaking of my family, Melania, Barron, Kai, Donnie, Don, Vanessa, Tiffany, Evanka did a great job. Did she do a great job?



Great. Jared (ph), Laura and Eric, I’m very proud of my family. They’re a great family.



So the reporter said to me the other day, “But, Mr. Trump, you’re not a nice person. How can you get people to vote for you?”

I said, “I don’t know.” I said, “I think that number one, I am a nice person. I give a lot of money away to charities and other things. I think I’m actually a very nice person.”

But, I said, “This is going to be an election that’s based on competence, because people are tired of these nice people. And they’re tired of being ripped off by everybody in the world. And they’re tired of spending more money on education than any nation in the world per capita, than any nation in the world, and we are 26th in the world, 25 countries are better than us in education. And some of them are like third world countries. But we’re becoming a third word country, because of our infrastructure, our airports, our roads, everything. So one of the things I did, and I said, you know what I’ll do. I’ll do it. Because a lot of people said, “He’ll never run. Number one, he won’t want to give up his lifestyle.”

 They’re right about that, but I’m doing it.

Number two, I’m a private company, so nobody knows what I’m worth. And the one thing is that when you run, you have to announce and certify to all sorts of governmental authorities your net worth.

So I said, “That’s OK.” I’m proud of my net worth. I’ve done an amazing job.

I started off — thank you — I started off in a small office with my father in Brooklyn and Queens, and my father said — and I love my father. I learned so much. He was a great negotiator. I learned so much just sitting at his feet playing with blocks listening to him negotiate with subcontractors. But I learned a lot.

But he used to say, “Donald, don’t go into Manhattan. That’s the big leagues. We don’t know anything about that. Don’t do it.”

I said, “I gotta go into Manhattan. I gotta build those big buildings. I gotta do it, Dad. I’ve gotta do it.”

And after four or five years in Brooklyn, I ventured into Manhattan and did a lot of great deals — the Grand Hyatt Hotel. I was responsible for the convention center on the west side. I did a lot of great deals, and I did them early and young. And now I’m building all over the world, and I love what I’m doing.

But they all said, a lot of the pundits on television, “Well, Donald will never run, and one of the main reasons is he’s private and he’s probably not as successful as everybody thinks.”

So I said to myself, you know, nobody’s ever going to know unless I run, because I’m really proud of my success. I really am.



I’ve employed — I’ve employed tens of thousands of people over my lifetime. That means medical. That means education. That means everything.

So a large accounting firm and my accountants have been working for months, because it’s big and complex, and they’ve put together a statement, a financial statement, just a summary. But everything will be filed eventually with the government, and we don’t extensions or anything. We’ll be filing it right on time. We don’t need anything.



And it was even reported incorrectly yesterday, because they said, “He had assets of $9 billion.” So I said (ph), “No, that’s the wrong number. That’s the wrong number. Not assets.”

So they put together this. And before I say it, I have to say this. I made it the old-fashioned way. It’s real estate. You know, it’s real estate.

It’s labor, and it’s unions good and some bad and lots of people that aren’t in unions, and it’s all over the place and building all over the world.

And I have assets — big accounting firm, one of the most highly respected — 9 billion 240 million dollars.

 Yeah.

 And I have liabilities of about $500 million (ph). That’s long-term debt, very low interest rates.

In fact, one of the big banks came to me and said, “Donald, you don’t have enough borrowings. Could we loan you $4 billion”? I said, “I don’t need it. I don’t want it. And I’ve been there. I don’t want it.”

But in two seconds, they give me whatever I wanted. So I have a total net worth, and now with the increase, it’ll be well-over $10 billion. But here, a total net worth of — net worth, not assets, not — a net worth, after all debt, after all expenses, the greatest assets — Trump Tower, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, Bank of America building in San Francisco, 40 Wall Street, sometimes referred to as the Trump building right opposite the New York — many other places all over the world.

So the total is $8,737,540,00.

Now I’m not doing that…



I’m not doing that to brag, because you know what? I don’t have to brag. I don’t have to, believe it or not.

I’m doing that to say that that’s the kind of thinking our country needs. We need that thinking. We have the opposite thinking.

We have losers. We have losers. We have people that don’t have it. We have people that are morally corrupt. We have people that are selling this country down the drain.

So I put together this statement, and the only reason I’m telling you about it today is because we really do have to get going, because if we have another three or four years — you know, we’re at $8 trillion now. We’re soon going to be at $20 trillion. According to the economists — who I’m not big believers in, but, nevertheless, this is what they’re saying — that $24 trillion — we’re very close — that’s the point of no return. $24 trillion. We will be there soon. That’s when we become Greece. That’s when we become a country that’s unsalvageable. And we’re gonna be there very soon. We’re gonna be there very soon.

 Make America strong.

 So, just to sum up, I would do various things very quickly. I would repeal and replace the big lie, Obamacare.

 Yeah.



I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.

 Yes.

 Mark my words.



Nobody would be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump. Nobody.



I will find — within our military, I will find the General Patton or I will find General MacArthur, I will find the right guy. I will find the guy that’s going to take that military and make it really work. Nobody, nobody will be pushing us around.

 Yes.



 I will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. And we won’t be using a man like Secretary Kerry that has absolutely no concept of negotiation, who’s making a horrible and laughable deal, who’s just being tapped along as they make weapons right now, and then goes into a bicycle race at 72 years old, and falls and breaks his leg. I won’t be doing that. And I promise I will never be in a bicycle race. That I can tell you.



I will immediately terminate President Obama’s illegal executive order on immigration, immediately.



Fully support and back up the Second Amendment.



Now, it’s very interesting. Today I heard it. Through stupidity, in a very, very hard core prison, interestingly named Clinton, two vicious murderers, two vicious people escaped, and nobody knows where they are. And a woman was on television this morning, and she said, “You know, Mr. Trump,” and she was telling other people, and I actually called her, and she said, “You know, Mr. Trump, I always was against guns. I didn’t want guns. And now since this happened” — it’s up in the prison area — “my husband and I are finally in agreement, because he wanted the guns. We now have a gun on every table. We’re ready to start shooting.”

I said, “Very interesting.”

So protect the Second Amendment.



End — end Common Core. Common Core should — it is a disaster. Bush is totally in favor of Common Core. I don’t see how he can possibly get the nomination. He’s weak on immigration. He’s in favor of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can’t do it. We have to end — education has to be local.

Rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

 Yeah.

 Nobody can do that like me. Believe me. It will be done on time, on budget, way below cost, way below what anyone ever thought.

I look at the roads being built all over the country, and I say I can build those things for one-third. What they do is unbelievable, how bad.

You know, we’re building on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Old Post Office, we’re converting it into one of the world’s great hotels. It’s gonna be the best hotel in Washington, D.C. We got it from the General Services Administration in Washington. The Obama administration. We got it. It was the most highly sought after — or one of them, but I think the most highly sought after project in the history of General Services. We got it. People were shocked, Trump got it.

Well, I got it for two reasons. Number one, we’re really good. Number two, we had a really good plan. And I’ll add in the third, we had a great financial statement. Because the General Services, who are terrific people, by the way, and talented people, they wanted to do a great job. And they wanted to make sure it got built.

 So we have to rebuild our infrastructure, our bridges, our roadways, our airports. You come into La Guardia Airport, it’s like we’re in a third world country. You look at the patches and the 40-year-old floor. They throw down asphalt, and they throw.

You look at these airports, we are like a third world country. And I come in from China and I come in from Qatar and I come in from different places, and they have the most incredible airports in the world. You come to back to this country and you have LAX, disaster. You have all of these disastrous airports. We have to rebuild our infrastructure.

Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it.



Get rid of the fraud. Get rid of the waste and abuse, but save it. People have been paying it for years. And now many of these candidates want to cut it. You save it by making the United States, by making us rich again, by taking back all of the money that’s being lost.

Renegotiate our foreign trade deals.

 Yes.



 Reduce our $18 trillion in debt, because, believe me, we’re in a bubble. We have artificially low interest rates. We have a stock market that, frankly, has been good to me, but I still hate to see what’s happening. We have a stock market that is so bloated.

Be careful of a bubble because what you’ve seen in the past might be small potatoes compared to what happens. So be very, very careful.

And strengthen our military and take care of our vets. So, so important.

 Yes.



 Sadly, the American dream is dead.

 Bring it back.

 But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and we will make America great again.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

..Thank you so much.  That's so nice.  Isn't he a great guy.  He doesn't get a fair press; he doesn't get it.  It's just not fair.  And I have to tell you I'm here, and very strongly here, because I have great respect for Steve King and have great respect likewise for Citizens United, David and everybody, and tremendous resect for the Tea Party.  Also, also the people of Iowa.  They have something in common.  Hard-working people.  They want to work, they want to make the country great.  I love the people of Iowa.  So that's the way it is.  Very simple.  
With that said, our country is really headed in the wrong direction with a president who is doing an absolutely terrible job.  The world is collapsing around us, and many of the problems we've caused.  Our president is either grossly incompetent, a word that more and more people are using, and I think I was the first to use it, or he has a completely different agenda than you want to know about, which could be possible.  In any event, Washington is broken, and our country is in serious trouble and total disarray.  Very simple.  Politicians are all talk, no action.  They are all talk and no action.  And it's constant; it never ends.  
And I'm a conservative, actually very conservative, and I'm a Republican.  And I'm very disappointed by our Republican politicians.  Because they let the president get away with absolute murder.  You see always, oh we're going to do this, we're going to--.  Nothing ever happens; nothing ever happens.  
You look at Obamacare.  A total catastrophe and by the way it really kicks in in '16 and it is going to be a disaster.  People are closing up shops.  Doctors are quitting the business.  I have a friend of mine who's a doctor, a very good doctor, a very successful guy.  He said, I have more accountants than I have patients.  And he needs because it is so complicated and so terrible and he's never had that before and he's going to close up his business.  And he was very successful guy.  But it's happening more and more.
Look at Obamacare with a $5 billion website.  I have many websites, many, many websites.  They're all over the place.  But for $10, okay?
Now everything about Obamacare was a lie.  It was a filthy lie.  And when you think about it, lies, I mean are they prosecuted?  Does anyone do anything?  And what are the Republican politicians doing about it?  He lied about the doctor, he lied about every aspect.  You can keep your plan.  And you've all heard that hundreds of times.  That's like the real estate location, location.  I don't even say it anymore because everybody goes location, location.  But you have heard this about Obamacare.  
And it's disgraceful.  It's a big, fat, horrible lie.  Your deductibles are going through the roof.  You're not going to get--unless you're hit by an army tank, you're not going to get coverage.  And people that had plans that they loved, that they really loved, don't have those plans anymore.  So it's a real, real disaster.  And somebody has to repeal and replace Obamacare.  And they have to do it fast and not just talk about it.
Now, we have to build a fence.  And it's got to be a beauty.  Who can build better than Trump?  I build; it's what I do.  I build; I build nice fences, but I build great buildings.  Fences are easy, believe me.  I saw the other day on television people just walking across the border.  They're walking.  The military is standing there holding guns and people are just walking right in front, coming into our country.  It is so terrible.  It is so unfair.  It is so incompetent.  And we don't have the best coming in.  We have people that are criminals, we have people that are crooks.  You can certainly have terrorists.  You can certainly have Islamic terrorists.  You can have anything coming across the border.  We don't do anything about it.  So I would say that if I run and if I win, I would certainly start by building a very, very powerful border.

Again, the politicians talk about it and they do nothing about it.  Benghazi.  Oh, Benghazi, Benghazi.  Everything is Benghazi.  What happens?  Nothing.  
IRS, e-mails.  I get sued all the time, okay.  I run a big business.  You know I've always said it's very, very hard for a person who is very successful.  I have done so many deals.  Almost all of them have been tremendously successful.  You'll see that when I file my statements.  I mean you will see; you will be very proud of me, okay.  But I've always said, and I said it strongly, it's very hard for somebody that does tremendous numbers of deals to run for politics, run for political office, any office, let alone president.  Because you've done so much; you've beaten so many people; you've created so many--  Look, Obama, what did he do?  No deal.  He never did a deal.  He did one deal.  A house.  And if you did that house you'd be in jail right now, okay.  He got away with murder.  But I can tell you, e-mails.  IRS, the e-mails, thousands of them, they were lost; they were lost.  If you were in my world you would know that e-mails can't be lost; they can't be lost.  So why aren't our politicians finding out where those e-mails are?  
They talk about executive orders and they talk about immigration and they talk about oh well we have to stop the border; that's the end of it.  Believe me if I did something you would have a border that would be great.  But they talk about it.  And then you have a president that does an executive order.  Nobody even heard of an executive order.  He does it to let people come in and nobody does anything about executive orders.  Why didn't they go to court and ask for declaratory judgment--which is something that when you know somebody is going to go after you and when it's in writing, and he's been saying it for a long time; he said, I'm going to approve this and that--why didn't our Republicans go in and get a declaratory judgment from the courts because you could have started the process six months earlier.  Instead they have a weak lawsuit, that probably the time it's finished, I know so much about this, six, seven, eight years from now everyone's going to forget about it.  We'll be into a different mode, and our country will be further destroyed.  So we have to do something. 
Jobs.  China.  I mean I've made so much money fighting against the Chinese.  One of the best deals I ever did was against the Chinese, and they respect me for it.  And I know them.  And they say, we can't believe what we're getting away with.  We can't believe how stupid your leaders are.  They tell me that.  Now they don't know I'm going to go and make a speech about it, but why not.  But they tell me that.  
And by the way, especially for the folks here that sell so much--goods, I mean the goods you sell are incredible; I don't know if you've been watching what's happening with the devaluations of so many countries.  The Euro, China is going crazy with the devaluation.  I never thought that they'd have the guts to do what they're doing.  They are devaluing down to nothing.  And what it's going to do is make it impossible for you to sell your product; it's going make it impossible for you to compete.  And they're getting away with it.  And they wouldn't have even done it two years ago, but now they feel we're so weak and we have so many different problems all over the world that they can do it.  But you watch this devaluation of all of it.  I mean the Euro, China, Mexico; everybody is devaluing.  And when you hear the dollar is getting stronger, it sounds good.  You know it's one of those things, sounds good.  Be very careful.  Be very careful.  Because we're just going to lose more and more business to these foreign countries that really know what they are doing.  They have it set.  Don't forget another thing.  China became the number one economic power a year ago.  That was unthinkable; to think that that was going to happen.  It was absolutely unthinkable.  So it happened and it's very, very sad.  
Now we spent $2 trillion in Iraq.  We got nothing.  They don't even respect us; they don't even care about us.  Until they started getting their ass kicked, and call, oh please come back and help us.  We want you out; then all of the sudden a new group forms, ISIS.  By the way, you know how they formed.  They took the oil.  And for those of you that know and love Donald Trump--there are some of you--have I been saying for four years, keep the oil.  So now ISIS has the oil.  And the stuff that ISIS doesn't have, Iran is going to take.  So we get nothing.  We have $2 trillion and we have thousands of lives lost, thousands, and we have, what do we have.  I mean I walk down the streets of New York and I see so many wounded warriors, incredible people.  And we have to help those people, we have to help our vets, we have to help our military, we have to build our military.  But, and we have to do it fast; we have to do it fast.  We have incompetent people.  They put people in charge that have no clue what they're doing.  It needs money.  
We have to make our country rich again so we do that, so we can save Social Security.  'Cause I'm not a cutter; I'll probably be the only Republican that does not want to cut Social Security.  I'm not a cutter of Social Security; I want to make the country rich so that Social Security can be afforded, and Medicare and Medicaid.  Get rid of the waste, get rid of the fraud, but you deserve your Social Security; you've been paying your Security.  And like, I like Congressman Ryan, I like a lot of the people that are talking about you know cutting Social Security, and by the way the Democrats are eating your lunch on this issue.  It's an issue that you're not going to win; you've got to make the country rich again and strong again so that you can afford it, and so you can afford military, and all of the other things.  
Now, we have a game changer now, and the game changer is nuclear weapons.  We really do have to get strong, and we have to get strong fast.  We can't let Iran get a nuclear weapon.  We can't do it.  Can't do it.  We cannot let that happen.  You know in the old days, I would have said 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 30 years ago, pull out and let them fight each other.  
Here we are in Syria.  We're fighting people that want to overturn Syria.  Think of this.  We're fighting ISIS, but ISIS wants to overturn the government.  Maybe you let them fight for a little while and then you take out the one that remains, okay.  But think of it; think of it.  ISIS is fighting them and we are bombing the hell out of them, but we want Syria to fall.  There are so many things; there are so many things.  
But the one game changer that we have to be careful with, that we never really had to think about  too much before, other than a cetain number of years ago, is the nuclear.  Nuclear today, it's not like soldiers in uniforms shooting rifles.  You can take out the East Coast of this country, you can take out large sections of the Midwest, you can take out things that were unthinkable.  The power.  And we have to be in a position where that never, ever, ever, every happens.  We've never had this before.  
We have a situation in Afghanistan; we're spending tremendous amounts of money there.  We're trying to do the right thing.  We have leadership, again--no leadership respects us.  You know, leadership of other places never respect stupid people, okay, that's one thing you're going to find.  The same thing is happening there.  And I never knew that Afghanistan until a year ago or so, Afghanistan has tremendous wealth in minerals, different, not the oil, but minerals.  And we're fighting here, and on the other side of the mountain China is taking out all the minerals.  They're taking it out.  Trillion of dollars and millions of dollars of minerals.  So we're fighting here and they are taking it out, looking at us and saying thank you very much sucker.  It's really, really crazy.

So we have to rebuild quickly our infrastructure of this country.  If we don't--  The other day in Ohio a bridge collapsed.  Bridges are collapsing all over the country.  The reports on bridges and the like are unbelievable, what's happening with our infrastructure.
I go to Saudi Arabia, I go to Dubai; I am doing big jobs in Dubai.  I go to various different places.  I go to China.  They are building a bridge on every corner.  They have bridges that make the George Washington Bridge like small time stuff.  They're building the most incredible things you have ever seen.  They are building airports in Qatar--which they like to say "cutter" but I've always said "qatar" so I'll keep it "qatar" what the hell.  But they're building, they're building an airport and have just completed an airport the likes of which you have never seen, in Dubai an airport the likes of which you have never seen.  And then I come back to LaGuardia where the runways have potholes.  The place is falling apart.  You go into the main terminal and they have a terraza floor that's so old it's falling apart.  And they have a hole in it, and they replace it with asphalt.  So you have a white terraza floor and they put asphalt all over the place.  This is inside, not outside.  And I just left Dubai where they have the most incredible thing you've ever seen.  In fact my pilot said oh Mr. Trump this is such an honor.  I said it's not an honor; they're just smart.  But you look at LAX, and you look at Kennedy Airport, and you look at our airports generally, you look at our roadways where they're crumbling.  
You look at all of the things that are bad--  I'll give you an example. And this isn't part of what I was going to say, but I ride down the highways and somebody makes those guard rails.  You know the guard rails.  The ones that sort of go like this [demonstrates with hand] that are always  bent, rusted and horrible.  Did you ever see more than like 20 feet which isn't corroded, or bent or the heat, if it gets too hot, it just crushes.  Now they've been selling this thing for 25 years.  Why doesn't someone stop them and get something that works.  Because they don't know; they don't know what's happening.  Somebody made a lot of money on that.  They don't know what is happening. 
So we have to make our country great again.  We have to rebuild our country.  And we have a long way to go.  We are just in such serious trouble because we owe so much money.  Now we owe it to the Chinese, a lot of it.  We owe it to other countries.  They're the ones that hold the debt.  And then we give them money.  We have countries that we owe money to and yet we're giving them subsidies.  I just ordered thousands of television sets and between LG and Samsung and I mean you know--  No American company comes to see and comes to bid.  It's South Korea, and whenever they have a problem we send the battleships, we send the destroyers, we send our airplanes, we're going to protect them.  What are we doing; why aren't they paying us?  Why aren't they paying us; what are we doing?  I order thousands and thousands of sets all the time, for some reason it's South Korea.  You know whether it's China, South Korea, but in this case televisions, South Korea.  Why aren't they doing something to justify what is going on?  
Now, we have a very important election coming up.  We have a presidential election coming up. And we have some good people.  Nobody like Trump of course, but these are minor details.  We have some good people.
It' can't be Mitt because Mitt ran and failed.  He failed.  I mean I liked him.  Look--like him, dislike him--the 47% statement that he made, that's not going away.  The Romneycare from Massachusetts, that's not going away.  What do you think they're going to say oh we won't bring that up this time.  It's not fair because it was a long t--  That doesn't work.  But more importantly, he choked.  Something happened to him in the last month.  He had that election won.  And let me tell you something.  That election, sort of like a dealmaker that can't close the deal.  I know many of those guys; they get it up to the one-yard line, they go ah, ah I can't close it.  Or a golfer that can't sink the three-footer to win the tournament.  And there are many of them.  Most people are like that; I mean most people are like that.  You can't give somebody another chance, 'cause actually I think this election is tougher to win than beating a failed president.  I really do.  I think beating Obama would have been a much easier one than the one that's coming up, which is sad to say but true.  So you can't have Romney.  He choked.
You can't have Bush.  The last thing we need is another Bush.  Now I made that statement very strongly, and now every one says the last thing--  You know they copied it.  I'll be accused of copying the statement; that's the bad thing.  But I said it.  I was the one that said it first, and I mean it.  The last thing we need is another Bush.  Now, he's totally in favor of Common Core; that's a disaster, that's bad, it should be local and all of that.  But he's totally in favor of Common Core.  He's very, very weak on immigration.  Don't forget--remember his statement--they come for love.  I say, what?  Come for love?  You've got these people coming, half of them are criminals.  They're coming for love?  They're coming for a lot of other reasons, and it's not love.  And when he runs, you got to remember his brother really gave us Obama.  I was never a big fan, but his brother gave us Obama.  'Cause Abraham Lincoln coming home back from the dead could not have won the election because it was going so badly and the economy was just absolutely in shambles that last couple of months.  And then he appointed Justice Roberts.  And Jeb wanted Justice Roberts.  And Justice Roberts basically approved Obamacare in a shocking decision that nobody believes.  So you can't have Jeb Bush.  And he's going to lose aside from that; he's not going to win.  So Mitt and--you just can't have those two.  That's it.  That's it.  It's so simple.
So just in summing up and I just wrote a few of these little points down because it's very important.  And I watch these teleprompters, and by the way I think any president candidate that runs should not be allowed to use a teleprompter, because we got one that uses teleprompters.  And people say, oh he is so quick on his feet.  He is reading it.  I mean give me a break.  Everything is read.  You don't really test the mettle of a man or a woman unless they can get up on stage and talk.  And that's what we ended up getting--the king of teleprompters.  But, so when I look at these things here I say you know what, it's so much easier, it would be so nice, just bah, pa, bah, pa, bah, bing, bing, bing.  No problems, get off stage, everybody falls asleep and that's the end of that.  But we have to do something about these teleprompters.  
But in looking at these situations--  I built an incredible company.  And you'll see that.  An incredible company; a wonderful company.  I employ thousands of people and I love doing what I'm doing.  And in a certain way, I wish I weren't doing this, but our country is in such trouble and would be so easy to fix.  We have such great potential.
So if I run for president and if I win, I would totally succeed in: 
creating jobs; 
defeating ISIS and stopping the Islamic terrorists--and you have to do that;
reducing the budget deficit--so important, have to do it;
securing our Southern border--and I mean seriously securing it;
stopping nuclear weapons in Iran and elsewhere; 
saving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, without cutting it down to the bone because it's not fair to people that have been paying for their whole lives and other people and it's not fair to future people coming up, and we can do it;
repealing Obamacare and replacing it with something far better for the people, and far less expensive, both for the people and for the country.  And believe me there are plans that are so much better for everybody.  And everybody can be covered.  I'm not saying leave 50-percent of the people out.  Everybody can be c-- This plan is just a basic disaster.  Nobody knows.  As bad as the website was, this is how bad the plan itself is;
fixing our country's infrastructure, our bridges, our schools, our highways, our airports.  And that, I can tell you, nobody is close to Trump.  I just got the best hotel in North America.  I'm building, which is sort of interesting, think of this one.  I'm building one of the great hotels of the world on Pennsylvania Avenue, right opposite the White House, between the White House and Congress.  Right on Penn.--  The  Old Post Office site, and I got it from Obama.  Do you believe that?  And everybody wanted it.  So, I can't believe it myself.  But it's going to be fantastic;  
and so many other things. 
I know what needs to be done to make America great again.  We can make this country great again.  The potential is enormous.  And I am serious thinking of running for president because I can do the job.  

I would use the debt limit. I don't want to say -- I want to be unpredictable, because, you know, we need unpredictability. Everything is so predictable with our country.

But I would be very, very strong on the debt limit. And I would be asking for a very big pound of flesh if I were the Republicans. And the problem with the Republicans, they have two sides. The smaller side is very strong and the other side is always agreeing and, you know, you can't do that.

You look at your gov -- you look at Baltimore, you look at Ferguson, you look at lot of these places, a lot of these gangs -- and the most vicious -- are illegals. They're out of here. First day, I will send them people -- we. Those guys are out of here.I don't think so. I think they're the same. I think that Hillary may be very damaged, however, George because of the email thing. You look at General Petraeus, what's happened to him, how he's been destroyed and what he did was a fraction of what she's done.

But I don't know. Assuming she could get over that, which I just don't know how she possibly can, but assuming she could I would say it would be pretty equal.
Well, first of all they're wrong. And, you know, Jeb is a very low energy person. He'd never be able to do it. He's the one that said they come out of an act of love, OK. This is an act of love. These are people coming and many of them -- you look at what's happening with the crime. Many of them are really causing tremendous problems. And they would be out really fast, immediately. First day we start that movement.

We need a wall. We have to get a wall. We need great security. And we're going to have a wall that will be not let people in, George.

And, by the way, legally, if you're legal you can come in. And we'll cherish you for coming in.
Wow.  Thank you very much.  And he did very well on The Apprentice, I have to tell you.  Very talented guy.

Our country is in very, very serious trouble.  We owe $17 trillion and we have more than a $1 trillion yearly deficit.  That means we're losing numbers that nobody's every heard of before.  Anywhere.  Any country.  Nobody's ever heard of numbers like this.

Likewise, the Republican party is in serious trouble.

The good news is that the country has tremendous untapped potential.  Absolutely tremendous.

The Republican party I could almost say is going to be a little bit tougher, and especially as you get more and more conservative.  They get nasty.  They don't like to hear what we have to say.  And it's not easy.  We have to get the momentum back.  And, we have to get it back quickly, before it's too late, before we waste that incredible potential that we still have.  We have to get it back.

Now, the president is given sadly unprecedented media protection.  It's incredible when you see what's going on, it's absolutely incredible.

With the Republicans, especially as you get more and more conservative in your thinking and your thought, it's really just the opposite.  As Republicans, if you think you're going to change very substantially for the worse Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in any substantial way, and at the same time you think you're going to win elections, it just really is not going to happen.

The way we solve our problem--  Because polls have come out, even the Tea Party, which I love so dearly, 78-percent of the people said leave my Medicare, my Medicaid, my Social Social alone.  That's the Tea Party. 

So what we have to do, and the way we solve our problems is to build a great economy.  We don't have a great economy right now.  China has.  Other people have, other countries have.  We don't have a great--  We don't make things any more.  We were great, great manufacturers.  We don't make anything any more.  We buy from other countries.  Not only China.  All over the world.  We buy.  We have to rebuild our economy and we have to do it again.  We have to make America strong again and make America great again. 

Now this is a hard one, because when it comes to immigration, you know that the 11 million illegals, even if given the right to vote.  You know you're going to have to do what's right.  But the fact is 11 million people will be voting Democratic.  You can be out front, you can be the spearhead, you can do whatever you want to do, but every one of those 11 million people will be voting Democratic.  It's just the way it works, and you have to be very, very careful, because you could say, that to a certain extent, the odds aren't looking so great right now for Republicans, that you're on a suicide mission.  You're just not going to get those votes.

Now, I say to myself, why aren't we letting people in from Europe?  I have many friends, many, many friends--and nobody wants to talk this, nobody wants to say it--but I have many friends from Europe.  They want to come in.  People I know.  Tremendous people.  Hard-working people.  They can't come in.  I know people whose sons went to Harvard; top in their class, went to the Wharton School of Finance, great, great students.  They happen to be a citizen of a foreign country.  They learn, they take all of our knowledge, and they can't work in this country.  We throw them out.  We educate them, we make them really good, they go home; they can't stay here so they work from their country, and they work very effectively against us.  Now how stupid is that?  Top in your class at Harvard and you get thrown out of the country.  So something has to happen.

You've been reading about the White House tour.  Now I suggested that--  Actually Newt Gingrich suggested it for me.  I thought it was very nice of him to do.  I didn't know anything about it, but he volunteered for me that I would pay for it for the entire year.  I said that's okay.  Somebody told me--  Well it was very nice of Newt.  He's a friend of mine, and he's a member of a great club right down the road that I happen to own so I love Newt.  Anybody who's a member of my club, I love.  Maybe President Obama should join one of my clubs.  I would love him.  But that's a sad thing.  Now I understand it's going to be reinstituted, but I would certainly be willing to do it.  

And I'll give you something it's small, but it's emblematic.  A couple of years ago I saw a major, major state dinner, and it was in a tent on the White House lawn.  A bad tent.  Probably a tent that the guy who owns the tent made a fortune; probably rented it for one night for more than it cost him.  And I said to myself, you know here's China in a tent.  And I offered.  I called up the White House, somebody I know very well, very high position, and I said look, I will offer free of charge to build the most beautiful ballroom there is in the country anywhere.  I will do it.  It will cost anywhere from $50 to $100 million.  I will do it.  You can get the greatest architects, you'll make it perfectly sympathetic with the White House and the architecture.  It'll be fabulous.  They said thank you very much.  Wow, what an offer.  We never heard from them.  That's the problem with the country.  That's a small thing, but that's the problem with the country.  And that's what happens.  You don't hear from people.

Now, when you get right down to it from the standpoint of conservatives and Republicans, you've got to win elections.  When you have people that are well meaning, but governors saying "it's the stupid party."  And I heard that statement, I said what a horrible statement to make.  What a horrible statement.  Because that's a statement that's going to come back and haunt you when the Democrats start using it.  And you have to change that; you have to change that thinking.

Or when I have somebody and I watch somebody who spends $400 million on campaigns with perhaps the worst ads I've ever seen.  I mean they did ads on Obama that I thought it was being paid for by the Obama campaign.  They were so incredible.  You remember the famous superhero ad?  Well people want a superhero.  They made Obama--  It was great. I said what a great ad Obama did, and then I said, oh, wow, that was done by the Republicans.  So when you spend $400 million and it's a failure, and you don't have one victory, you know there's something seriously, seriously wrong.  [ed. Trump is alluding to Karl Rove]

Now, I've made over $8 billion.  In fact when I was thinking of running, I actually filed my financial statement.  A lot of people were actually surprised.  But more than that, I've employed tens of thousands of people, and yet I'm continually criticized by total lightweights all over the place.  It's unbelievable.  No, it really is unbelievable.  I mean you see these guys, you see these guys on television, they can't buy a clean shirt, and they're saying Donald Trump, he's nothing.  And I'm saying thousands and thousands of people.  So I'm very proud of what I've done.  

And I think if Mitt made one mistake--and I like Mitt Romney a lot--but if he made one mistake it's that he didn't talk enough about his success.  Because honestly, people really want success.  They want a leader who's successful.  And Mitt has done a great job.  And I just feel that the Republicans and Mitt, and I told him this, didn't speak enough about the things he did, the great things.  They were on the defensive instead of taking that offensive. 

Just recently I bought Doral Country Club, 800 acres in the middle of Miami, an amazing place.  But it was improperly run for years and years.  Tiger Woods just won the tournement this weekend.  Got record television ratings; it did fantastic.  It's an amazing place.  I'm going to fix it.  I'm going to make it incredible.  I'm going to make that place incredible.  That's what we have to do with this country.  We've got to fix it.  We've got to make it incredible.  

Right now we're a laughingstock.  

You see what's going on in Afghanistan with Kharzai.  I mean he has no respect for us.  You know in all fairness we're leaving.  He probably said, wow, I'm going to be stuck here alone.  But still, this guy, when I watch his moves, I just say how can leadership allow that to happen.  

With Iraq, we spend $1.5 trillion.  $1.5 trillion.  We lose lives; great, great, young, wonderful people.  We lose so much.  Why do we have nothing?  We have nothing.  When I heard that we were first going into Iraq, some very smart people told me, well we're actually going for the oil.  I said, alright, I get that.  I get that.  There's nothing else.  I get it.  We didn't take the oil.  And then when I said we spent $1.5 trillion, we should take 1.5 --  You know I don't know if you know, they have the second largest oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia.  So 1.5 trillion is nothing.  1.5 trillion.  We should take it and pay ourselves back.  What are we doing?  What are we doing?  What are we thinking?  And this is whether it's Obama or Bush or whoever.  What the hell are we thinking?  And for those soldiers, and the families; for the soldiers that were killed, I said we should pay those families money.  We should give them money.  They lost their sons and their daughters, and a million dollars to a family is nothing compared to the kind of wealth that you're talking about over there.  So right now you have somebody running Iraq that we don't even know who the hell it is, and I guarantee you he's building his palaces and everything else and we have nothing out of it.  So it's just a very sad thing. 

You look at what happens with Syria, you look at what's currently happening with South Korea.  Now I buy all my televisions from South Korea.  I'm sorry to say.  I just ordered 3,000 units, 3,000 televisions.  South Korea.  LGs, etcetera.  We don't make them in our country any more.  I get criticized.  "Oh, why didn't you buy them here?"  You can't buy them here.  We don't make televisions in this country.  Alright.  So North Korea as it always does gets frisky and then we pay them off and they get less frisky, right?  North Korea gets frisky.  What do we get out of it?  We send our beautiful aircraft carriers, we send our destroyers--  You know every time you turn on the engine it's $5 million, right.  And we send them down and we stop whatever's going to happen to South Korea.  What do we get out of it?  We get nothing.

The fact is we're run by either very foolish or very stupid people.  What's going on in this country is unbelievable.  Our country is a total mess, a total and complete mess, and what we need is leadership.

Now, by fixing the economy, we're able to solve the problems that we really do need to solve, and immediately, as a nation.  Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.  They all become affordable when we become a wealthy country again.  You know part of the reason that the Republican and even the Democrats, they're all talking, we've got to cut, we've got to cut.  Because our country isn't doing it.  We're not cutting the mustard.  We're not doing it.  

New technology has shown that we have tremendous wealth right under our feet in the form of energy.  Right under our feet.  North Dakota is a great example.  We're not allowed to go and get it, so we go to the OPEC nations that think we happen to be--because I hate to tell you, they're all friends of mine; I know them all--they think we're the stupidest people on Earth.  They can't believe what they're getting away with.  And we could become so easily the energy capital of the world.  

So what I say is this.  We have to start building things.  We have to start manufacturing, not just taking care of people, not just taking care in terms of health care.  That's not manufacturing.  That's money going out.  We have to bring money in.  This country has to start building things again.  We have to take back our jobs from China.  We have to take back our jobs from other places.   When Apple talks about Apple building all of this stuff, and we're all so proud of Apple, they build virtually 100-percent of their product in China.  So China should be more proud of Apple than we are to be totally honest with you.  We have to start manufacturing and building again and we have to make America great again.  Our problems will be solved.

Thank you very much.  It's a great honor.
I don’t see how there is any room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the statement I made on June 16th during my Presidential announcement speech. Here is what I said, and yet this statement is deliberately distorted by the media:

“When Mexico (meaning the Mexican Government) sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you (pointing to the audience). They’re not sending you (pointing again). They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems to us. They’re bringing drugs.They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people! But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people. It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably from the Middle East. But we don’t know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s happening. And it’s got to stop and it’s got to stop fast.”

What can be simpler or more accurately stated? The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc. This was evident just this week when, as an example, a young woman in San Francisco was viciously killed by a 5 time deported Mexican with a long criminal record, who was forced back into the United States because they didn’t want him in Mexico. This is merely one of thousands of similar incidents throughout the United States. In other words, the worst elements in Mexico are being pushed into the United States by the Mexican
government. The largest suppliers of heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs are Mexican cartels that arrange to have Mexican immigrants trying to cross the borders and smuggle in the drugs. The Border Patrol knows this. Likewise, tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border. The United States has become a dumping ground for Mexico and, in fact, for many other parts of the world. On the other hand, many fabulous people come in from Mexico and our country is better for it. But these people are here legally, and are severely hurt by those coming in illegally. I am proud to say that I know many hard working Mexicans—many of them are working for and with me…and, just like our country, my organization is better for it.

The Mexican Government wants an open border as long as it’s a ONE WAY open border into the United States. Not only are they killing us at the border, but they are killing us on trade … and the country of Mexico is making billions of dollars in doing so.

I have great respect for Mexico and love their people and their peoples’ great spirit. The problem is, however, that their leaders are far smarter, more cunning, and better negotiators than ours. To the citizens of the United States, who I will represent far better than anyone else as President, the Mexican government is not our friend…and why should they be when the relationship is totally one sided in their favor on both illegal immigration and trade. I have pointed this out during my speeches and it is something Mexico doesn’t want me to say. In actuality, it was only after my significant rise in the polls that Univision, previously my friend, went ballistic. I believe that my examples of bad trade deals for the United States was of even more concern to the Mexican government than my talk of border security.

I have lost a lot during this Presidential run defending the people of the United States. I have always heard that it is very hard for a successful person to run for President. Macy’s, NBC, Serta and NASCAR have all taken the weak and very sad position of being politically correct even though they are wrong in terms of what is good for our country. Univision, because 70% of their business comes from Mexico, in my opinion, is being dictated to by the Mexican Government. The last thing Mexico wants is Donald Trump as President in that I will make great trade deals for the United States and will have an impenetrable border--only legally approved people will come through easily.

Interestingly, Univision has just announced they are attempting to go public despite very poor and even negative earnings, which is not a good situation for a successful IPO or high stock price—not to mention that I am currently suing them for breach of contract. Remember, Univision is the one who began this charade in the first place, and they are owned by one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest backers. After the speech was made, there were numerous compliments and indeed, many rave “reviews”—there was very little criticism. It wasn’t until a week after my announcement that people started to totally distort these very easy to understand words. If there was something stated incorrectly, it would have been brought up immediately and with great enthusiasm.

The issues I have addressed, and continue to address, are vital steps to Make America Great Again! Additionally, I would be the best jobs President that God ever created. Let’s get to work!

Thank you, President Falwell and David. Thank you very much for inviting my wife, Jane, and me to be with you even this morning. We appreciate the invitation very much.

And let me start off by acknowledging what I think all of you already know. And that is the views that many here at Liberty University have and I, on a number of important issues, are very, very different. I believe in a woman's rights....

And the right of a woman to control her own body.

I believe gay rights and gay marriage.

Those are my views, and it is no secret. But I came here today, because I believe from the bottom of my heart that it is vitally important for those of us who hold different views to be able to engage in a civil discourse.

Too often in our country -- and I think both sides bear responsibility for us -- there is too much shouting at each other. There is too much making fun of each other.

Now, in my view, and I say this as somebody whose voice is hoarse, because I have given dozens of speeches in the last few months, it is easy to go out and talk to people who agree with you. I was in Greensboro, North Carolina, just last night. All right. We had 9,000 people out. Mostly they agreed with me. Tonight, we're going to be in Manassas, and have thousands out and they agree with me. That's not hard to do. That's what politicians by and large do.

We go out and we talk to people who agree with us.

But it is harder, but not less important, for us to try and communicate with those who do not agree with us on every issue.

And it is important to see where if possible, and I do believe it is possible, we can find common ground.

Now, Liberty University is a religious school, obviously.

And all of you are proud of that.

You are a school which, as all of us in our own way, tries to understand the meaning of morality. What does is mean to live a moral life? And you try to understand, in this very complicated modern world that we live in, what the words of the Bible mean in today's society.

You are a school which tries to teach its students how to behave with decency and with honesty and how you can best relate to your fellow human beings, and I applaud you for trying to achieve those goals.

Let me take a moment, or a few moments, to tell you what motivates me in the work that I do as a public servant, as a senator from the state of Vermont. And let me tell you that it goes without saying, I am far, far from being a perfect human being, but I am motivated by a vision, which exists in all of the great religions, in Christianity, in Judaism, in Islam and Buddhism, and other religions.

And that vision is so beautifully and clearly stated in Matthew 7:12, and it states, "So in everything, do to others what you would have them to do to you, for this sums up the war and the prophets." That is the golden rule. Do unto others, what you would have them do to you. That is the golden rule, and it is not very complicated.

Let me be frank, as I said a moment ago. I understand that the issues of abortion and gay marriage are issues that you feel very strongly about. We disagree on those issues. I get that, but let me respectfully suggest that there are other issues out there that are of enormous consequence to our country and in fact to the entire world, that maybe, just maybe, we do not disagree on and maybe, just maybe, we can try to work together to resolve them.

Amos 5:24, "But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream." Justice treating others the way we want to be treated, treating all people, no matter their race, their color, their stature in life, with respect and with dignity.

Now here is my point. Some of you may agree with me, and some of you may not, but in my view, it would be hard for anyone in this room today to make the case that the United States of America, our great country, a country which all of us love, it would be hard to make the case that we are a just society, or anything resembling a just society today.

In the United States of America today, there is massive injustice in terms of income and wealth inequality. Injustice is rampant. We live, and I hope all of you know this, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

But most Americans don't know that. Because almost all of that wealth and income is going to the top 1 percent.

You know, that is the truth. We are living in a time -- and I warn all of you if you would, put this in the context of the Bible, not me, in the context of the Bible -- we are living in a time where a handful of people have wealth beyond comprehension. And I'm talking about tens of billions of dollars, enough to support their families for thousands of years. With huge yachts, and jet planes and tens of billions. More money than they would ever know what to do with.

But at that very same moment, there are millions of people in our country, let alone the rest of the world, who are struggling to feed their families. They are struggling to put a roof over their heads, and some of them are sleeping out on the streets. They are struggling to find money in order to go to a doctor when they are sick.

Now, when we talk about morality, and when we talk about justice, we have to, in my view, understand that there is no justice when so few have so much and so many have so little.

There is no justice, and I want you to hear this clearly, when the top one-tenth of 1 percent -- not 1 percent, the top one-tenth of 1 percent -- today in America owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. And in your hearts, you will have to determine the morality of that, and the justice of that.

In my view, there is no justice, when here, in Virginia and Vermont and all over this country, millions of people are working long hours for abysmally low wages of $7.25 an hour, of $8 an hour, of $9 an hour, working hard, but unable to bring in enough money to adequately feed their kids.

And yet, at that same time, 58 percent of all new income generated is going to the top 1 percent. You have got to think about the morality of that, the justice of that, and whether or not that is what we want to see in our country.

In my view, there is no justice when, in recent years, we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires, while at the same time the United States of America has the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth. How can we? I want you to go into your hearts, how can we talk about morality, about justice, when we turn our backs on the children of our country?

Now you have got to think about it. You have to think about it and you have to feel it in your guts. Are you content? Do you think it's moral when 20 percent of the children in this country, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, are living in poverty? Do you think it is acceptable that 40 percent of African American children are living in poverty?

In my view, there is no justice, and morality suffers when in our wealthy country, millions of children go to bed hungry. That is not morality and that is not in my view ... what America should be about.

In my view, there is no justice when the 15 wealthiest people in this country in the last two years -- two years -- saw their wealth increase by $170 billion. Two years. The wealthiest 15 people in this country saw their wealth increase by $170 billion.

My friends, that is more wealth acquired in a two-year period than is owned by the bottom 130 million Americans. And while the very, very rich become much richer, millions of families have no savings at all. Nothing in the bank. And they worry every single day that if their car breaks down, they cannot get to work, and if they cannot get to work, they lose their jobs.

And if they lose their jobs, they do not feed their family. In the last two years, 15 people saw $170 billion increase in their wealth, 45 million Americans live in poverty. That in my view is not justice. That is a rigged economy, designed by the wealthiest people in this country to benefit the wealthiest people in this country at the expense of everybody else.

In my view, there is no justice when thousands of Americans die every single year because they do not have any health insurance and do not go to a doctor when they should. I have talked personally to doctors throughout Vermont and physicians around the country. And without exception, they tell me there are times when patients walk into their office very, very sick and they say, why didn't you come in here when you're sick? And the answer is, I do not have any health insurance or I have a high deductible or I thought the problem would get better. And sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes they die because they lack health insurance.

That is not justice. That is not morality. People should not be dying in the United States of America when they are sick.

What that is, is an indication that we are the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to all people as a right, and I think we should change that.

And I think -- I think that when we talk about morality, what we are talking about is all of God's children. The poor, the wretched, they have a right to go to a doctor when they are sick.

You know, there is a lot of talk in this country from politicians about family values. You have all heard that. Well, let me tell you about a family value.

In my view, there is no justice when low income and working class mothers are forced to separate from their babies one or two weeks after birth and go back to work because they need the money that their jobs provide. Now I know everybody here -- we all are, maybe in different ways, but all of us believe in family values.

Jane and I have four kids. We have seven beautiful grandchildren. We believe in family values. But it is not a family value when all of you know that the most important moments and time of a human being's life is the first weeks and months after that baby is born. That is the moment when mothers bonds with the baby; gets to love and know her baby -- dad is there as well. That is what a family is about. And those of you -- at least those of you who are parents -- more parents back here than there I suspect. You know what an unforgettable moment that is. What an important moment that is. And I want you to think, whether you believe it is a family value, that the United States of America is the only -- only -- major country on earth that does not provide paid family and medical leave.

Now in English, what that means is that all over the world when a woman has her baby she is guaranteed the right because society understands how important that moment is. She is guaranteed the right to stay home and get income in order to nurture her baby. And that is why I believe when we talk about family values that the United States government must provide at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave.

In my view there is no justice in our country when youth unemployment exists at tragically high levels. I requested a study last month from a group of economists. And what they told me is that 51 percent of African American high school graduates between the ages of 17 and 20 are unemployed or underemployed -- 51 percent.

We have in this country sufficient amounts of money to put more people in jail than any other country on earth. The United States has more people in jail than China; a communist authoritarian country.

But apparently we do not have enough money to provide jobs and education to our young people. I believe that's wrong.
I am not a theologian, I am not an expert on the Bible, nor am I a Catholic. I am just a United States senator from the small state of Vermont. But I agree with Pope Francis, who will soon be coming to visit us in the United States.

I agree with Pope Francis when he says, and I quote, "The current financial crisis originated in a profound human crisis, the denial of the primacy of the human person," and this is what he writes: "We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose," end of quote.

And the pope also writes, quote, "There is a need for financial reform along ethical lines that would produce in its turn an economic reform to benefit everyone. Money has to serve, not to rule," end of quote.

Now those are pretty profound words, which I hope we will all think about. In the pope's view, and I agree with him, we are living in a nation and in a world, and the Bible speaks to this issue, in a nation and in a world which worships not love of brothers and sisters, not love of the poor and the sick, but worships the acquisition of money and great wealth. I do not believe that is the country we should be living in.

Money and wealth should serve the people. The people should not have to serve money and wealth. (APPLAUSE)

Throughout human history, there has been endless discussion. It is part of who we are as human beings, people who think and ask questions, endless discussion and debate about the meaning of justice and about the meaning of morality. And I know that here at Liberty University, those are the kinds of discussions you have every day, and those are the kinds of discussions you should be having and the kinds of discussions we should be having all over America.

I would hope, and I conclude with this thought, I would hope very much that as part of that discussion and part of that learning process, some of you will conclude that if we are honest in striving to be a moral and just society, it is imperative that we have the courage to stand with the poor, to stand with working people and when necessary, take on very powerful and wealthy people whose greed, in my view, is doing this country enormous harm.

Thank you all very much.
n his inaugural remarks in January 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt looked out at the nation and this is what he saw.

He saw tens of millions of its citizens denied the basic necessities of life.

He saw millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hung over them day by day.

He saw millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children.

He saw millions lacking the means to buy the products they needed and by their poverty and lack of disposable income denying employment to many other millions.

He saw one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

And he acted. Against the ferocious opposition of the ruling class of his day, people he called economic royalists, Roosevelt implemented a series of programs that put millions of people back to work, took them out of poverty and restored their faith in government. He redefined the relationship of the federal government to the people of our country. He combatted cynicism, fear and despair. He reinvigorated democracy. He transformed the country.

And that is what we have to do today.

And, by the way, almost everything he proposed was called “socialist.” Social Security, which transformed life for the elderly in this country was “socialist.” The concept of the “minimum wage” was seen as a radical intrusion into the marketplace and was described as “socialist.” Unemployment insurance, abolishing child labor, the 40-hour work week, collective bargaining, strong banking regulations, deposit insurance, and job programs that put millions of people to work were all described, in one way or another, as “socialist.” Yet, these programs have become the fabric of our nation and the foundation of the middle class.

Thirty years later, in the 1960s, President Johnson passed Medicare and Medicaid to provide health care to millions of senior citizens and families with children, persons with disabilities and some of the most vulnerable people in this county. Once again these vitally important programs were derided by the right wing as socialist programs that were a threat to our American way of life.

That was then. Now is now.

Today, in 2015, despite the Wall Street crash of 2008, which drove this country into the worst economic downturn since the Depression, the American people are clearly better off economically than we were in 1937.

But, here is a very hard truth that we must acknowledge and address. Despite a huge increase in technology and productivity, despite major growth in the U.S. and global economy, tens of millions of American families continue to lack the basic necessities of life, while millions more struggle every day to provide a minimal standard of living for their families. The reality is that for the last 40 years the great middle class of this country has been in decline and faith in our political system is now extremely low.

The rich get much richer. Almost everyone else gets poorer. Super PACs funded by billionaires buy elections. Ordinary people don’t vote. We have an economic and political crisis in this country and the same old, same old establishment politics and economics will not effectively address it.

If we are serious about transforming our country, if we are serious about rebuilding the middle class, if we are serious about reinvigorating our democracy, we need to develop a political movement which, once again, is prepared to take on and defeat a ruling class whose greed is destroying our nation. The billionaire class cannot have it all. Our government belongs to all of us, and not just the one percent.

We need to create a culture which, as Pope Francis reminds us, cannot just be based on the worship of money. We must not accept a nation in which billionaires compete as to the size of their super-yachts, while children in America go hungry and veterans sleep out on the streets.

Today, in America, we are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, but few Americans know that because so much of the new income and wealth goes to the people on top. In fact, over the last 30 years, there has been a massive transfer of wealth – trillions of wealth – going from the middle class to the top one-tenth of 1 percent – a handful of people who have seen a doubling of the percentage of the wealth they own over that period.

Unbelievably, and grotesquely, the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns nearly as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.

Today, in America, millions of our people are working two or three jobs just to survive. In fact, Americans work longer hours than do the people of any industrialized country. Despite the incredibly hard work and long hours of the American middle class, 58 percent of all new income generated today is going to the top one percent.

Today, in America, as the middle class continues to disappear, median family income, is $4,100 less than it was in 1999. The median male worker made over $700 less than he did 42 years ago, after adjusting for inflation. Last year, the median female worker earned more than $1,000 less than she did in 2007.

Today, in America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, more than half of older workers have no retirement savings – zero – while millions of elderly and people with disabilities are trying to survive on $12,000 or $13,000 a year. From Vermont to California, older workers are scared to death. “How will I retire with dignity?,” they ask?

Today, in America, nearly 47 million Americans are living in poverty and over 20 percent of our children, including 36 percent of African American children, are living in poverty — the highest rate of childhood poverty of nearly any major country on earth.

Today, in America, 29 million Americans have no health insurance and even more are underinsured with outrageously high co-payments and deductibles. Further, with the United States paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, 1 out of 5 patients cannot afford to fill the prescriptions their doctors write.

Today, in America, youth unemployment and underemployment is over 35 percent. Meanwhile, we have more people in jail than any other country and countless lives are being destroyed as we spend $80 billion a year locking up fellow Americans.

The bottom line is that today in America we not only have massive wealth and income inequality, but a power structure which protects that inequality. A handful of super-wealthy campaign contributors have enormous influence over the political process, while their lobbyists determine much of what goes on in Congress.

In 1944, in his State of the Union speech, President Roosevelt outlined what he called a second Bill of Rights. This is one of the most important speeches ever made by a president but, unfortunately, it has not gotten the attention that it deserves.

In that remarkable speech this is what Roosevelt stated, and I quote: “We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men.” End of quote. In other words, real freedom must include economic security. That was Roosevelt’s vision 70 years ago. It is my vision today. It is a vision that we have not yet achieved. It is time that we did.

In that speech, Roosevelt described the economic rights that he believed every American was entitled to: The right to a decent job at decent pay, the right to adequate food, clothing, and time off from work, the right for every business, large and small, to function in an atmosphere free from unfair competition and domination by monopolies. The right of all Americans to have a decent home and decent health care.

What Roosevelt was stating in 1944, what Martin Luther King, Jr. stated in similar terms 20 years later and what I believe today, is that true freedom does not occur without economic security.

People are not truly free when they are unable to feed their family. People are not truly free when they are unable to retire with dignity. People are not truly free when they are unemployed or underpaid or when they are exhausted by working long hours. People are not truly free when they have no health care.

So let me define for you, simply and straightforwardly, what democratic socialism means to me. It builds on what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said when he fought for guaranteed economic rights for all Americans. And it builds on what Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1968 when he stated that; “This country has socialism for the rich, and rugged individualism for the poor.” It builds on the success of many other countries around the world that have done a far better job than we have in protecting the needs of their working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.

Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy.

Democratic socialism means that we must reform a political system in America today which is not only grossly unfair but, in many respects, corrupt.

It is a system, for example, which during the 1990s allowed Wall Street to spend $5 billion in lobbying and campaign contributions to get deregulated. Then, ten years later, after the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior of Wall Street led to their collapse, it is a system which provided trillions in government aid to bail them out. Wall Street used their wealth and power to get Congress to do their bidding for deregulation and then, when their greed caused their collapse, they used their wealth and power to get Congress to bail them out. Quite a system!

And, then, to add insult to injury, we were told that not only were the banks too big to fail, the bankers were too big to jail. Kids who get caught possessing marijuana get police records. Wall Street CEOs who help destroy the economy get raises in their salaries. This is what Martin Luther King, Jr. meant by socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for everyone else.

In my view, it’s time we had democratic socialism for working families, not just Wall Street, billionaires and large corporations. It means that we should not be providing welfare for corporations, huge tax breaks for the very rich, or trade policies which boost corporate profits as workers lose their jobs. It means that we create a government that works for works for all of us, not just powerful special interests. It means that economic rights must be an essential part of what America stands for.

It means that health care should be a right of all people, not a privilege. This is not a radical idea. It exists in every other major country on earth. Not just Denmark, Sweden or Finland. It exists in Canada, France, Germany and Taiwan. That is why I believe in a Medicare-for-all single payer health care system. Yes. The Affordable Care Act, which I helped write and voted for, is a step forward for this country. But we must build on it and go further.

Medicare for all would not only guarantee health care for all people, not only save middle class families and our entire nation significant sums of money, it would radically improve the lives of all Americans and bring about significant improvements in our economy.

People who get sick will not have to worry about paying a deductible or making a co-payment. They could go to the doctor when they should, and not end up in the emergency room. Business owners will not have to spend enormous amounts of time worrying about how they are going to provide health care for their employees. Workers will not have to be trapped in jobs they do not like simply because their employers are offering them decent health insurance plans. Instead, they will be able to pursue the jobs and work they love, which could be an enormous boon for the economy. And by the way, moving to a Medicare for all program will end the disgrace of Americans paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.

Democratic socialism means that, in the year 2015, a college degree is equivalent to what a high school degree was 50 years ago – and that public education must allow every person in this country, who has the ability, the qualifications and the desire, the right to go to a public colleges or university tuition free. This is also not a radical idea. It exists today in many countries around the world. In fact, it used to exist in the United States.

Democratic socialism means that our government does everything it can to create a full employment economy. It makes far more sense to put millions of people back to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, than to have a real unemployment rate of almost 10%. It is far smarter to invest in jobs and educational opportunities for unemployed young people, than to lock them up and spend $80 billion a year through mass incarceration.

Democratic socialism means that if someone works forty hours a week, that person should not be living in poverty: that we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage – $15 an hour over the next few years. It means that we join the rest of the world and pass the very strong Paid Family and Medical Leave legislation now in Congress. How can it possibly be that the United States, today, is virtually the only nation on earth, large or small, which does not guarantee that a working class woman can stay home for a reasonable period of time with her new-born baby? How absurd is that?

Democratic socialism means that we have government policy which does not allow the greed and profiteering of the fossil fuel industry to destroy our environment and our planet, and that we have a moral responsibility to combat climate change and leave this planet healthy and habitable for our kids and grandchildren.

Democratic socialism means, that in a democratic, civilized society the wealthiest people and the largest corporations must pay their fair share of taxes. Yes. Innovation, entrepreneurship and business success should be rewarded. But greed for the sake of greed is not something that public policy should support. It is not acceptable that in a rigged economy in the last two years the wealthiest 15 Americans saw their wealth increase by $170 billion, more wealth than is owned by the bottom 130 million Americans. Let us not forget what Pope Francis has so elegantly stated; “We have created new idols. The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.”

It is not acceptable that major corporations stash their profits in the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens to avoid paying $100 billion in taxes each and every year. It is not acceptable that hedge fund managers pay a lower effective tax rate than nurses or truck drivers. It is not acceptable that billionaire families are able to leave virtually all of their wealth to their families without paying a reasonable estate tax. It is not acceptable that Wall Street speculators are able to gamble trillions of dollars in the derivatives market without paying a nickel in taxes on those transactions.

Democratic socialism, to me, does not just mean that we must create a nation of economic and social justice. It also means that we must create a vibrant democracy based on the principle of one person one vote. It is extremely sad that the United States, one of the oldest democracies on earth, has one of the lowest voter turnouts of any major country, and that millions of young and working class people have given up on our political system entirely. Every American should be embarrassed that in our last national election 63% of the American people, and 80% of young people, did not vote. Clearly, despite the efforts of many Republican governors to suppress the vote, we must make it easier for people to participate in the political process, not harder. It is not too much to demand that everyone 18 years of age is registered to vote – end of discussion.

Further, it is unacceptable that we have a corrupt campaign finance system which allows millionaires, billionaires and large corporations to contribute as much as they want to Super Pacs to elect candidates who will represent their special interests. We must overturn Citizens United and move to public funding of elections.

So the next time you hear me attacked as a socialist, remember this:

I don’t believe government should own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a fair deal.

I believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America instead of shipping jobs and profits overseas.

I believe that most Americans can pay lower taxes – if hedge fund managers who make billions manipulating the marketplace finally pay the taxes they should.

I don’t believe in special treatment for the top 1%, but I do believe in equal treatment for African-Americans who are right to proclaim the moral principle that Black Lives Matter.

I despise appeals to nativism and prejudice, and I do believe in immigration reform that gives Hispanics and others a pathway to citizenship and a better life.

I don’t believe in some foreign “ism”, but I believe deeply in American idealism.

I’m not running for president because it’s my turn, but because it’s the turn of all of us to live in a nation of hope and opportunity not for some, not for the few, but for all.

No one understood better than FDR the connection between American strength at home and our ability to defend America at home and across the world. That is why he proposed a second Bill of Rights in 1944, and said in that State of the Union:

“America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.”

I’m not running to pursue reckless adventures abroad, but to rebuild America’s strength at home. I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will never send our sons and daughters to war under false pretense or pretenses or into dubious battles with no end in sight.

And when we discuss foreign policy, let me join the people of Paris in mourning their loss, and pray that those who have been wounded will enjoy a full recovery. Our hearts also go out to the families of the hundreds of Russians apparently killed by an ISIS bomb on their flight, and those who lost their lives to terrorist attacks in Lebanon and elsewhere.

To my mind, it is clear that the United States must pursue policies to destroy the brutal and barbaric ISIS regime, and to create conditions that prevent fanatical extremist ideologies from flourishing. But we cannot – and should not – do it alone.

Our response must begin with an understanding of past mistakes and missteps in our previous approaches to foreign policy. It begins with the acknowledgment that unilateral military action should be a last resort, not a first resort, and that ill-conceived military decisions, such as the invasion of Iraq, can wreak far-reaching devastation and destabilize entire regions for decades. It begins with the reflection that the failed policy decisions of the past – rushing to war, regime change in Iraq, or toppling Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, or Guatemalan President Árbenz in 1954, Brazilian President Goulart in 1964, Chilean President Allende in 1973. These are the sorts of policies do not work, do not make us safer, and must not be repeated.

After World War II, in response to the fear of Soviet aggression, European nations and the United States established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – an organization based on shared interests and goals and the notion of a collective defense against a common enemy. It is my belief that we must expand on these ideals and solidify our commitments to work together to combat the global threat of terror.

We must create an organization like NATO to confront the security threats of the 21st century – an organization that emphasizes cooperation and collaboration to defeat the rise of violent extremism and importantly to address the root causes underlying these brutal acts. We must work with our NATO partners, and expand our coalition to include Russia and members of the Arab League.

But let’s be very clear. While the U.S. and other western nations have the strength of our militaries and political systems, the fight against ISIS is a struggle for the soul of Islam, and countering violent extremism and destroying ISIS must be done primarily by Muslim nations – with the strong support of their global partners.

These same sentiments have been echoed by those in the region. Jordan’s King Abdallah II said in a speech on Sunday that terrorism is the “greatest threat to our region” and that Muslims must lead the fight against it. He noted that confronting extremism is both a regional and international responsibility, and that it is incumbent on Muslim nations and communities to confront those who seek to hijack their societies and generations with intolerance and violent ideology.

And let me congratulate King Abdallah not only for his wise remarks, but also for the role that his small country is playing in attempting to address the horrific refugee crisis in the region.

A new and strong coalition of Western powers, Muslim nations, and countries like Russia must come together in a strongly coordinated way to combat ISIS, to seal the borders that fighters are currently flowing across, to share counter-terrorism intelligence, to turn off the spigot of terrorist financing, and to end support for exporting radical ideologies.

What does all of this mean? Well, it means that, in many cases, we must ask more from those in the region. While Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, and Lebanon have accepted their responsibilities for taking in Syrian refugees, other countries in the region have done nothing or very little.

Equally important, and this is a point that must be made – countries in the region like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE – countries of enormous wealth and resources – have contributed far too little in the fight against ISIS. That must change. King Abdallah is absolutely right when he says that that the Muslim nations must lead the fight against ISIS, and that includes some of the most wealthy and powerful nations in the region, who, up to this point have done far too little.

Saudi Arabia has the 3rd largest defense budget in the world, yet instead of fighting ISIS they have focused more on a campaign to oust Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Kuwait, a country whose ruling family was restored to power by U.S. troops after the first Gulf War, has been a well-known source of financing for ISIS and other violent extremists. It has been reported that Qatar will spend $200 billion on the 2022 World Cup, including the construction of an enormous number of facilities to host that event – $200 billion on hosting a soccer event, yet very little to fight against ISIS. Worse still, it has been widely reported that the government has not been vigilant in stemming the flow of terrorist financing, and that Qatari individuals and organizations funnel money to some of the most extreme terrorist groups, including al Nusra and ISIS.

All of this has got to change. Wealthy and powerful Muslim nations in the region can no longer sit on the sidelines and expect the United States to do their work for them. As we develop a strongly coordinated effort, we need a commitment from these countries that the fight against ISIS takes precedence over the religious and ideological differences that hamper the kind of cooperation that we desperately need.

Further, we all understand that Bashar al-Assad is a brutal dictator who has slaughtered many of his own people. I am pleased that we saw last weekend diplomats from all over world, known as the International Syria Support Group, set a timetable for a Syrian-led political transition with open and fair elections. These are the promising beginnings of a collective effort to end the bloodshed and to move to political transition.

The diplomatic plan for Assad’s transition from power is a good step in a united front. But our priority must be to defeat ISIS. Nations all over the world, who share a common interest in protecting themselves against international terrorist, must make the destruction of ISIS the highest priority. Nations in the region must commit – that instead of turning a blind eye — they will commit their resources to preventing the free flow of terrorist finances and fighters to Syria and Iraq. We need a commitment that they will counter the violent rhetoric that fuels terrorism – rhetoric that often occurs within their very borders.

This is the model in which we must pursue solutions to the sorts of global threats we face.

While individual nations indeed have historic disputes – the U.S. and Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia – the time is now to put aside those differences to work towards a common purpose of destroying ISIS. Sadly, as we have seen recently, no country is immune from attacks by the violent organization or those whom they have radicalized.

Thus, we must work with our partners in Europe, the Gulf states, Africa, and Southeast Asia – all along the way asking the hard questions whether their actions are serving our unified purpose.

The bottom line is that ISIS must be destroyed, but it cannot be defeated by the United States alone. A new and effective coalition must be formed with the Muslim nations leading the effort on the ground, while the United States and other major forces provide the support they need.
Thank you all very much for being here and for all the support that you have given me over the years: as the mayor of this great city, as Vermont's only congressman and now as a U.S. senator. Thanks also to my longtime friends and fellow Vermonters Bill McKibben, Brenda Torpey, Donna Bailey, Mike O'Day and Ben and Jerry for all that you do -- and for your very generous remarks. Thanks also to Jenny Nelson for moderating this event and for your leadership in Vermont agriculture.

I also want to thank my family: My wife Jane, my brother Larry, my children Levi, Heather, Carina and Dave for their love and support, and my seven beautiful grandchildren -- Sonny, Cole, Ryleigh, Grayson, Ella, Tess and Dylan who provide so much joy in my life.

Today, here in our small state -- a state that has led the nation in so many ways -- I am proud to announce my candidacy for president of the United States of America.

Today, with your support and the support of millions of people throughout this country, we begin a political revolution to transform our country economically, politically, socially and environmentally.

Today, we stand here and say loudly and clearly that: "Enough is enough. This great nation and its government belong to all of the people, and not to a handful of billionaires, their Super-PACs and their lobbyists."

Brothers and sisters: Now is not the time for thinking small. Now is not the time for the same-old/same-old establishment politics and stale inside-the-Beltway ideas.

Now is the time for millions of working families to come together, to revitalize American democracy, to end the collapse of the American middle class and to make certain that our children and grandchildren are able to enjoy a quality of life that brings them health, prosperity, security and joy -- and that once again makes the United States the leader in the world in the fight for economic and social justice, for environmental sanity and for a world of peace.

My fellow Americans: This country faces more serious problems today than at any time since the Great Depression and, if you include the planetary crisis of climate change, it may well be that the challenges we face now are direr than any time in our modern history.

Here is my promise to you for this campaign. Not only will I fight to protect the working families of this country, but we're going to build a movement of millions of Americans who are prepared to stand up and fight back. We're going to take this campaign directly to the people -- in town meetings, door to door conversations, on street corners and in social media -- and that's BernieSanders.com by the way. This week we will be in New Hampshire, Iowa and Minnesota -- and that's just the start of a vigorous grassroots campaign.

Let's be clear. This campaign is not about Bernie Sanders. It is not about Hillary Clinton. It is not about Jeb Bush or anyone else. This campaign is about the needs of the American people, and the ideas and proposals that effectively address those needs. As someone who has never run a negative political ad in his life, my campaign will be driven by issues and serious debate; not political gossip, not reckless personal attacks or character assassination. This is what I believe the American people want and deserve. I hope other candidates agree, and I hope the media allows that to happen. Politics in a democratic society should not be treated like a baseball game, a game show or a soap opera. The times are too serious for that.

Let me take a minute to touch on some of the issues that I will be focusing on in the coming months, and then give you an outline of an Agenda for America which will, in fact, deal with these problems and lead us to a better future.

Income and Wealth Inequality: Today, we live in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world but that reality means very little for most of us because almost all of that wealth is owned and controlled by a tiny handful of individuals. In America we now have more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on Earth, and the gap between the very rich and everyone is wider than at any time since the 1920s. The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time, and it is the great political issue of our time. And we will address it.

Let me be very clear. There is something profoundly wrong when the top one-tenth of one percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, and when 99 percent of all new income goes to the top one percent. There is something profoundly wrong when, in recent years, we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires at the same time as millions of Americans work longer hours for lower wages and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth. There is something profoundly wrong when one family owns more wealth than the bottom 130 million Americans. This grotesque level of inequality is immoral. It is bad economics. It is unsustainable. This type of rigged economy is not what America is supposed to be about. This has got to change and, as your president, together we will change it.

Economics: But it is not just income and wealth inequality. It is the tragic reality that for the last 40 years the great middle class of our country -- once the envy of the world -- has been disappearing. Despite exploding technology and increased worker productivity, median family income is almost $5,000 less than it was in 1999. In Vermont and throughout this country it is not uncommon for people to be working two or three jobs just to cobble together enough income to survive on and some health care benefits.

The truth is that real unemployment is not the 5.4 percent you read in newspapers. It is close to 11 percent if you include those workers who have given up looking for jobs or who are working part time when they want to work full time. Youth unemployment is over 17 percent and African-American youth unemployment is much higher than that. Today, shamefully, we have 45 million people living in poverty, many of whom are working at low-wage jobs. These are the people who struggle every day to find the money to feed their kids, to pay their electric bills and to put gas in the car to get to work. This campaign is about those people and our struggling middle class. It is about creating an economy that works for all, and not just the one percent.

Citizens United: My fellow Americans: Let me be as blunt as I can and tell you what you already know. As a result of the disastrous Supreme Court decision on Citizens United, the American political system has been totally corrupted, and the foundations of American democracy are being undermined. What the Supreme Court essentially said was that it was not good enough for the billionaire class to own much of our economy. They could now own the U.S. government as well. And that is precisely what they are trying to do.

American democracy is not about billionaires being able to buy candidates and elections. It is not about the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and other incredibly wealthy individuals spending billions of dollars to elect candidates who will make the rich richer and everyone else poorer. According to media reports the Koch brothers alone -- one family -- will spend more money in this election cycle than either the Democratic or Republican parties. This is not democracy. This is oligarchy. In Vermont and at our town meetings we know what American democracy is supposed to be about. It is one person, one vote -- with every citizen having an equal say, and no voter suppression. And that's the kind of American political system we have to fight for and will fight for in this campaign.

Climate Change: When we talk about our responsibilities as human beings and as parents, there is nothing more important than leaving this country and the entire planet in a way that is habitable for our kids and grandchildren. The debate is over. The scientific community has spoken in a virtually unanimous voice. Climate change is real. It is caused by human activity and it is already causing devastating problems in the United States and around the world.

The scientists are telling us that if we do not boldly transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energies, this planet could be five to ten degrees Fahrenheit warmer by the end of this century. This is catastrophic. It will mean more drought, more famine, more rising sea level, more floods, more ocean acidification, more extreme weather disturbances, more disease and more human suffering. We must not, we cannot, and we will not allow that to happen.

It is no secret that there is massive discontent with politics in America today. In the mid-term election in November, 63 percent of Americans did not vote, including 80 percent of young people. Poll after poll tells us that our citizens no longer have confidence in our political institutions and, given the power of Big Money in the political process, they have serious doubts about how much their vote actually matters and whether politicians have any clue as to what is going on in their lives.

Combatting this political alienation, this cynicism and this legitimate anger will not be easy. That's for sure. But that is exactly what, together, we have to do if we are going to turn this country around -- and that is what this campaign is all about.

And to bring people together we need a simple and straightforward progressive agenda which speaks to the needs of our people, and which provides us with a vision of a very different America. And what is that agenda?

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: It begins with jobs. If we are truly serious about reversing the decline of the middle class we need a major federal jobs program which puts millions of Americans back to work at decent paying jobs. At a time when our roads, bridges, water systems, rail and airports are decaying, the most effective way to rapidly create meaningful jobs is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. That's why I've introduced legislation which would invest $1 trillion over five years to modernize our country's physical infrastructure. This legislation would create and maintain at least 13 million good-paying jobs, while making our country more productive, efficient and safe. And I promise you as president I will lead that legislation into law.

I will also continue to oppose our current trade policies. For decades, presidents from both parties have supported trade agreements which have cost us millions of decent paying jobs as corporate America shuts down plants here and moves to low-wage countries. As president, my trade policies will break that cycle of agreements which enrich at the expense of the working people of this country.

Raising Wages: Let us be honest and acknowledge that millions of Americans are now working for totally inadequate wages. The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage and must be raised. The minimum wage must become a living wage -- which means raising it to $15 an hour over the next few years -- which is exactly what Los Angeles recently did, and I applaud them for doing that. Our goal as a nation must be to ensure that no full-time worker lives in poverty. Further, we must establish pay equity for women workers. It's unconscionable that women earn 78 cents on the dollar compared to men who perform the same work. We must also end the scandal in which millions of American employees, often earning less than $30,000 a year, work 50 or 60 hours a week -- and earn no overtime. And we need paid sick leave and guaranteed vacation time for all.

Addressing Wealth and Income Inequality: This campaign is going to send a message to the billionaire class. And that is: you can't have it all. You can't get huge tax breaks while children in this country go hungry. You can't continue sending our jobs to China while millions are looking for work. You can't hide your profits in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens, while there are massive unmet needs on every corner of this nation. Your greed has got to end. You cannot take advantage of all the benefits of America, if you refuse to accept your responsibilities.

That is why we need a tax system which is fair and progressive, which makes wealthy individuals and profitable corporations begin to pay their fair share of taxes.

Reforming Wall Street: It is time to break up the largest financial institutions in the country. Wall Street cannot continue to be an island unto itself, gambling trillions in risky financial instruments while expecting the public to bail it out. If a bank is too big to fail it is too big to exist. We need a banking system which is part of the job creating productive economy, not a handful of huge banks on Wall Street which engage in reckless and illegal activities.

Campaign Finance Reform: If we are serious about creating jobs, about climate change and the needs of our children and the elderly, we must be deadly serious about campaign finance reform and the need for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. I have said it before and I'll say it again. I will not nominate any justice to the Supreme Court who has not made it clear that he or she will move to overturn that disastrous decision which is undermining our democracy. Long term, we need to go further and establish public funding of elections.

Reversing Climate Change: The United States must lead the world in reversing climate change. We can do that if we transform our energy system away from fossil fuels, toward energy efficiency and such sustainable energies such as wind, solar, geo-thermal and bio-mass. Millions of homes and buildings need to be weatherized, our transportation system needs to be energy efficient, and we need a tax on carbon to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuel.

Health Care for All: The United States remains the only major country on Earth that does not guarantee health care for all as a right. Despite the modest gains of the Affordable Care Act, 35 million Americans continue to lack health insurance and many more are under-insured. Yet, we continue paying far more per capita for health care than any other nation. The United States must join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all as a right by moving toward a Medicare-for-All single-payer system.

Protecting Our Most Vulnerable: At a time when millions of Americans are struggling to keep their heads above water economically, at a time when senior poverty is increasing, at a time when millions of kids are living in dire poverty, my Republican colleagues, as part of their recently-passed budget, are trying to make a terrible situation even worse. If you can believe it, the Republican budget throws 27 million Americans off health insurance, makes drastic cuts in Medicare, throws millions of low-income Americans, including pregnant women, off of nutrition programs, and makes it harder for working-class families to afford college or put their kids in the Head Start program. And then, to add insult to injury, they provide huge tax breaks for the very wealthiest families in this country while they raise taxes on working families.

Well, let me tell my Republican colleagues that I respectfully disagree with their approach. Instead of cutting Social Security, we're going to expand Social Security benefits. Instead of cutting Head Start and child care, we are going to move to a universal pre-K system for all the children of this country. As Franklin Delano Roosevelt reminded us, a nation's greatness is judged not by what it provides to the most well-off, but how it treats the people most in need. And that's the kind of nation we must become.

College for All: And when we talk about education, let me be very clear. In a highly competitive global economy, we need the best educated workforce we can create. It is insane and counter-productive to the best interests of our country, that hundreds of thousands of bright young people cannot afford to go to college, and that millions of others leave school with a mountain of debt that burdens them for decades. That must end. That is why, as president, I will fight to make tuition in public colleges and universities free, as well as substantially lower interest rates on student loans.

War and Peace: As everybody knows, we live in a difficult and dangerous world, and there are people out there who want to do us harm. As president, I will defend this nation -- but I will do it responsibly. As a member of Congress I voted against the war in Iraq, and that was the right vote. I am vigorously opposed to an endless war in the Middle East -- a war which is unwise and unnecessary. We must be vigorous in combatting terrorism and defeating ISIS, but we should not have to bear that burden alone. We must be part of an international coalition, led by Muslim nations, that can not only defeat ISIS but begin the process of creating conditions for a lasting peace.

As some of you know, I was born in a far-away land called Brooklyn, New York. My father came to this country from Poland without a penny in his pocket and without much of an education. My mother graduated high school in New York City. My father worked for almost his entire life as a paint salesman and we were solidly lower-middle class. My parents, brother and I lived in a small rent-controlled apartment. My mother's dream was to move out of that small apartment into a home of our own. She died young and her dream was never fulfilled. As a kid I learned, in many, many ways, what lack of money means to a family. That's a lesson I have never forgotten.

I have seen the promise of America in my own life. My parents would have never dreamed that their son would be a U.S. Senator, let alone run for president. But for too many of our fellow Americans, the dream of progress and opportunity is being denied by the grind of an economy that funnels all the wealth to the top.

And to those who say we cannot restore the dream, I say just look where we are standing. This beautiful place was once an unsightly rail yard that served no public purpose and was an eyesore. As mayor, I worked with the people of Burlington to help turn this waterfront into the beautiful people-oriented public space it is today. We took the fight to the courts, to the legislature and to the people. And we won.

The lesson to be learned is that when people stand together, and are prepared to fight back, there is nothing that can't be accomplished.

We can live in a country:

Where every person has health care as a right, not a privilege;

Where every parent can have quality and affordable childcare and where all of our qualified young people, regardless of income, can go to college;

Where every senior can live in dignity and security, and not be forced to choose between their medicine or their food;

Where every veteran who defends this nation gets the quality health care and benefits they have earned and receives the respect they deserve;

Where every person, no matter their race, their religion, their disability or their sexual orientation realizes the full promise of equality that is our birthright as Americans.
That is the nation we can build together, and I ask you to join me in this campaign to build a future that works for all of us, and not just the few on top.
Thank you for allowing me to be with you today, and thank you for your willingness to represent your constituents.

Today, I want to talk about two major issues facing our country. The need for comprehensive immigration reform, and the need for an economy which works for all of our people, and not just a handful of people on the top.

It is no great secret that across the United States undocumented workers perform a critical role in our economy. They harvest and process our food and it is no exaggeration to say that, with out them, food production in the United States would significantly decline. Undocumented workers build many of our homes, cook our meals, maintain our landscapes. We even entrust undocumented workers with that which we hold most dear – our children.

​Despite the central role they play in our economy and in our daily lives, undocumented workers are reviled by many for political gain and shunted into the shadows. Let me be clear about where I stand. It is time for this disgraceful situation to end. This country faces enormous problems and they will not be solved unless we are united. It is time to end the politics of division on this country, of politicians playing one group of people against another: white against black, male against female, straight against gay, native born against immigrant.

​That is why I supported the 2013 comprehensive immigration reform legislation in the United States Senate. While a complicated piece of comprehensive legislation like this can always be improved I believed then and now that it is time to end the discussion of mass deportation or self-deportation. We cannot and we should not even be talking about sweeping up millions of men, women, and children – many of whom have been here for years – and throwing them out of the country. That’s wrong and that type of discussion has got to end.

Until we can pass comprehensive reform, we must be aggressive in pursuing policies that are humane and sensible and that keep families together. This includes taking measures that are currently available, including reforms through executive action.

I strongly support the Administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA a good first step, but should be expanded. Deferred action should include the parents of citizens, parents of legal permanent residents, and the parents of DREAMERs. We should be pursuing policies that unite families – not tear them apart.

I continue to be a strong supporter of the DREAM Act, which would offer the opportunity of permanent residency and eventual citizenship to young people who were brought to the United States as children. It is my belief that we should recognize the young men and women who comprise the DREAMers for what they are – American kids who deserve the right to legally be in the country they know as home.

As is often said, we are a nation of immigrants. For generations, families braved treacherous paths, often fleeing unspeakable poverty and violence, in search of better futures, for better lives for their children.

I, myself, am the son of an immigrant. My father came to this country from Poland at the age of 17 without a nickel in his pocket and without much of an education. Like immigrants before and since, he worked hard to give his family a better life here in the United States. He was a paint salesman and we were solidly lower-middle class. My parents, my brother and I lived together in a small rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn, New York. My mother’s wish – which she never realized – was that we would be able to buy a house of our own and move out of that small apartment. Through my parents hard work both my brother and I went to college.

Their story, my story, our story is a story of America. Hard working families coming to the United States to create a brighter future for their children. It is a story rooted in family and fueled by hope. It is a story that continues to this day in families all across the United States.

Let me tell you that I have seen first-hand the impact of our broken immigration system. In 2008, my U.S. Senate office learned about a crisis occurring with migrant laborers in the tomato fields of Immokalee, Florida. The Immokalee workers were fighting to increase the paltry wages they were receiving for back-breaking work.

Although far from Vermont, in January of 2008, I decided to go there myself and investigate. Armed with a letter of support signed by three of my colleagues – Senators Durbin, Brown, and Kennedy, what I found was a human tragedy. Workers were being paid starvation wages, living in severely substandard housing, and subjected to abusive labor practices. The injustice in the lives of the workers was overwhelming.

In fact, the situation was so bad that on the day I visited two men were indicted for human slavery. Slavery in the 21st century in the United States of America.

My visit to the tomato fields was followed by a hearing in the Senator Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, on which I sat and which my friend, the late Senator Kennedy chaired. At that hearing, we heard the voices of the workers of Immokalee – workers in America at the lowest rungs of the economic ladders. We heard from people who were ruthlessly exploited, denied decent wages, decent working conditions and decent housing. And that hearing enabled the workers of Immokalee to confront the interests that cheated them and abused them.

I am happy to tell you that this story has a positive ending. The campaign by the Immokalee workers resulted in substantial reforms in the tomato fields of Florida. In the aggregate, workers there have seen their wages increase by millions of dollars and improvement in their working conditions.

But how many more Immokalees are out there? How many fields or factories are there where people – often without legal status – are used up and thrown away? We cannot continue to run an economy where millions are made so vulnerable because of their undocumented status. We have to ask ourselves. Whose interest is it in to keep undocumented workers in the shadows without the protection of the law?

Many in the business community have argued for guest worker programs as the answer to the immigration issue. This concerns me very much.

As the Southern Poverty Law Center has documented, guest workers have been routinely cheated out of wages; held virtually captive by employers who have seized their documents; forced to live in unspeakably inhumane conditions; and denied medical benefits for on-the-job injuries. That is unacceptable.

In the U.S. Senate, I have introduced legislation in 2007 that would authorize the Legal Services Corporation to provide legal representation to guest workers who have been abused by their employers. Further, employers under my bill would be required to reimburse guest workers for transportation expenses and provide workers’ compensation insurance, among other things.

I also opposed tying immigration reform to the building of a border fence. Let me say what most people already know. Undocumented workers come to the United States to escape economic hardship and political persecution.

Undocumented workers looking for economic opportunity come to the United States because there are no jobs where they are coming from, and there are jobs for them here. Plain and simple.

Unfortunately, American policy in Latin America has too often made difficult economic and political problems even worse. Take for example, NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Supporters of NAFTA told us it would increase the standard of living in Mexico and significantly reduce the flow of undocumented immigrants into this country as a result. The opposite was true.

Since the implementation of NAFTA, the number of Mexicans living below the poverty line has increased by over 14 million people. Almost 2 million small famers have been displaced. And in the twenty years since NAFTA growth in per capita GDP has been only half of that experienced by other Latin American nations. Not surprisingly we have seen a 185 percent increase in the number of undocumented immigrants from Mexico from 1992 to 2011.

We as a nation have got to realize the importance of dealing not just with the issue of immigration but with the very real refugee crisis we face. It was appalling to me that last year when the papers were full of discussion of the large numbers of unaccompanied children at the borders there were so many voices insisting they be turned away or simply shipped back to their country of origin like a package marked return to sender. America has always been a haven for the oppressed. Is there any group more vulnerable than children? We cannot and must not shirk the historic role of the United States as a protector of vulnerable people fleeing persecution.

The bottom line of all of this is that It is time to bring our neighbors out of the shadows. It is time to give them legal status. It is time to create a reasonable and responsible path to citizenship.

In addition to immigration reform, we must also pursue policies that empower minority communities. This must start with energizing Latinos all across the country to engage in the democratic process and by thwarting efforts to disenfranchise minority voters. Restricting access through draconian voter ID laws and shortening early voting periods are thinly-veiled efforts to marginalize communities of color, low income people and seniors. These policies must be combatted at both the state and federal levels.

But to truly empower our communities, we must address the crippling poverty that affects tens of millions of people in this country. Today, shamefully, we have more than 12 million Latinos living in poverty. That’s nearly one out of every four Latinos in this country. If you are a Latino child, there is nearly a one in three chance (32 percent) that you are growing up in poverty.

Many of those in poverty are working at low-wage jobs. These are the people who struggle every day to find the money to feed their kids, to pay their electric bills and to put gas in the car to get to work.

I believe we need a major federal jobs program to put millions of American back to work. One in four construction workers are Latino, and the fastest way to increase jobs is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure: roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, airports, railroads and schools. It has been estimated that the cost of the Iraq War, a war we should never have waged, will total between $4-6 trillion by the time the last veteran receives needed care. A $1 trillion investment in infrastructure would create 13 million decent paying jobs and make this country more efficient, productive and safer.

We also need to address the crisis of youth unemployment. The real unemployment rate for young Hispanic college graduates is 11%, nearly double the rate of white Americans. For young Hispanics with only a high school degree, the real unemployment rate is 36%.

More than 50,000 Latinos turn 18 every month, and the time is long overdue for us to start investing in our young people, to help them get the jobs and training they need, the education they deserve, so that they can be part of the middle class. It’s time to bring opportunity to communities across the country. I recently introduced legislation to provide $5.5 billion in immediate funding to States and localities to employ 1 million young Americans between the ages of 16 and 24, and provide job training to hundreds of thousands of other young Americans.

We must also finally address the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior of Wall Street. Financial institutions cannot be an island unto themselves, standing as huge profit centers outside of the real economy. Their speculation and illegal behavior plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, and Latinos were the hardest hit. Latinos were disproportionately steered into subprime loans and around a quarter of Latino borrowers have lost their homes to foreclosure or are seriously delinquent. In my view, Wall Street is too large and powerful to be reformed. The huge financial institutions must be broken up.

In today’s highly competitive global economy, millions of Americans are unable to afford the higher education they need in order to get good-paying jobs. Some of our young people have given up the dream of going to college, while others are leaving school deeply in debt. Many of the countries we compete with understand that free public education should not end at high school. In many European countries, students leave college debt free. That should be the case here in our country. I’ve introduced legislation to make all public colleges in this country tuition free.

What we need to do is invest in the Latino community so that America can reach its full potential. I’m proud to stand with the Latino community and receive a 100% voting score from the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda last Congress.

In short, I believe we can live in a country:

Where hard working immigrants can have a path to citizenship;

Where health care is a right, not a privilege;

Where every parent can have quality and affordable childcare and where all of our qualified young people, regardless of income, can go to college;

Where every senior can live in dignity and security, and not be forced to choose between their medicine or their food;

Where every person, no matter their race, their religion, their disability or their sexual orientation realizes the full promise of equality that is our birthright as Americans.
When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. And they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people. You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.
“We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with winning.”

“Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don't think so! ...If someone made a nasty or controversial statement about me to the president, do you really think he would come to my rescue? No chance!”

“When someone crosses you, my advice is ‘Get Even!’ That is not typical advice, but it is real life advice. If you do not get even, you are just a schmuck! When people wrong you, go after those people because it is a good feeling and because other people will see you doing it. I love getting even. I get screwed all the time. I go after people, and you know what? People do not play around with me as much as they do with others. They know that if they do, they are in for a big fight.”

“What can be simpler or more accurately stated? The Mexican government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc. ...Many fabulous people come in from Mexico and our country is better for it. But these people are here legally, and are severely hurt by those coming in illegally.”

“Protect the downside and the upside will take care of itself.....I happen to be very conservative in business. I always go into a deal anticipating the worst. If you plan for the worst -- if you can live with the worst -- the good will always take care of itself.”

“People who think achieving success is a linear A-to-Z process, a straight shot to the top, simply aren’t in touch with reality. There are very few bona fide overnight success stories. It just doesn’t work that way. Success appears to happen overnight because we all see stories in newspapers and on TV about previously unknown people who have suddenly become famous. But consider a sequoia tree that has been growing for several hundred years. Just because a television crew one day decides to do a story about that tree doesn’t mean it didn’t exist before.”

"I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I've been challenged by so many people, and I don't frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn't have time either."

“Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you’re generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.”

“I really am convinced we're in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the bombing of the Trade Center look like kids playing with firecrackers. No sensible analyst rejects this possibility, and plenty of them, like me, are not wondering if but when it will happen. ...One day we're told that a shadowy figure with no fixed address named Osama bin Laden is public enemy number one, and U.S. jet fighters lay waste to his camp in Afghanistan. He escapes back under some rock, and a few news cycles later it’s on to a new enemy and new crisis.” -- Donald Trump in 2000

“In the make-believe world you will automatically get paid what you are worth. The real world doesn’t work that way. You get paid what you are worth only when the person you are dealing with has no other choice.”

“The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people's fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That's why a little hyperbole never hurts.”

“Criticism is easier to take when you realize that the only people who aren’t criticized are those who don’t take risks.”

“I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me —and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”

“The more government takes in taxes, the less incentive people have to work. What coal miner or assembly-line worker jumps at the offer of overtime when he knows Uncle Sam is going to take sixty percent or more of his extra pay? . . . Any system that penalizes success and accomplishment is wrong. Any system that discourages work, discourages productivity, discourages economic progress, is wrong. If, on the other hand, you reduce tax rates and allow people to spend or save more of what they earn, they’ll be more industrious; they’ll have more incentive to work hard, and money they earn will add fuel to the great economic machine that energizes our national progress. The result: more prosperity for all—and more revenue for government.”

“The world is a horrible place. Lions kill for food, but people kill for sport. People try to kill you mentally, especially if you are on top. We all have friends that want everything we have. They want our money, our business, house, car, wife and dog. Those are our friends. Our enemies are even worse! You have to protect yourself in life.”

“Think how boring it would be to just sail into things and have everything be perfect. You can’t prove your merit on quiet waters, whether you’re a businessman or a mariner.”

“Your brother’s administration gave us Barack Obama because it was such a disaster those last 3 months that Abraham Lincoln couldn’t get elected.” – To Jeb Bush

“Rich people are rich because they solve difficult problems. You must learn to thrive on problems.”

“If you’re interested in ‘balancing’ work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable.”

“A nation WITHOUT BORDERS is not a nation at all. We must have a wall. The rule of law matters.”

“Luck does not come around often. So when it does, be sure to take full advantage of it, even if it means working very hard. When luck is on your side it is not the time to be modest or timid. It is the time to go for the biggest success you can possibly achieve. That is the true meaning of thinking big.”

“Well, I think that when you get right down to it, we're a nation that speaks English. I think that, while we're in this nation, we should be speaking English. Whether people like it or not, that's how we assimilate.”

“Back in 1991 the markets were terrible, and everyone was going out of business. I was in deep, deep trouble. I owed billions of dollars. Sure, I could tell you all I want about how to handle pressure well, but I owed many banks billions of dollars. It was not exactly fun. Believe me, it is not cool to be Donald Trump when you owe billions of dollars.”

“One of the problems when you become successful is that jealousy and envy inevitably follow. There are people -- I categorize them as life’s losers -- who get their sense of accomplishment and achievement from trying to stop others. As far as I’m concerned, if they had any real ability, they wouldn’t be fighting me, they’d be doing something constructive themselves.”

“If Obama resigns from office NOW, thereby doing a great service to the country — I will give him free lifetime golf at any one of my courses!”