Live: Melania, Donald Trump attend Military Mother's Day event at the White House

20:58 Ladies, the President of the United States, Donald J.

21:02 Trump, and First Lady Melania Trump.

21:36 Good Afternoon and welcome to the White House.

21:41 I would like to extend warm welcome

21:43 to our vice president Jade Dance and his wife Usha.

21:48 Welcome.

21:49 It is our pleasure to join today by secretary McMahon, Mrs.

21:55 Haxet.

21:56 And I'm also honored to welcome Mrs.

21:59 Melody Wolf and Lorraine Hawk.

22:03 and to my chief of staff, Haley Harrison,

22:06 who is preparing to welcome her second child onto the world.

22:11 Haley, you're a wonderful mother,

22:13 and I wish you and your growing family all great things.

22:20 I often think about the brave people

22:23 who make the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

22:27 When I went to honor the fallen fallen service members

22:31 from the 103rd sustainment command at do air force base last March,

22:38 I realized that words cannot comfort the allconsuming

22:43 grief that family members and mothers in particular experience.

22:50 The loss is overwhelming.

22:53 Although I understand the deep pride these families feel

22:57 in their loved ones service to our great republic,

23:02 I cannot fathom the depth of their sorrow.

23:07 A mother is aruck when the welcome her child into the world.

23:14 After nine months, the miracle of life

23:17 creates a fascinating bond between mother and child.

23:22 With each breath, day by day,

23:25 this bond deepens, bringing forth emotions never felt before.

23:31 Quite frankly, these are emotions understood only by women.

23:37 Only a mother can carry this type of powerful connection with her child,

23:43 which is also too profound for words.

23:48 This is a time of military conflict for America

23:53 and whereby we honor our selfless and valiant service members regularly.

23:59 Today is the day we hold their mothers in the highest regard.

24:05 It is this military mothers who find themselves alone awake awake

24:10 their in their thoughts in the darkest hours of the night.

24:15 Of course, we must also remember the mothers with a spouse overseas,

24:21 praying for a safe return so their family can become whole once again.

24:29 At the very heart of America's strength lies

24:32 the boundless love and quiet power of mothers.

24:37 We are the most devoted teachers, gently nurturing empathy,

24:42 inspiring dreams, and guiding our children towards goodness.

24:48 We help them rise with courage when life grows difficult.

24:53 In every hug, every story read at bedtime,

24:56 and every sacrifice made without complaint,

25:00 mothers build the moral foundation of our families.

25:06 In doing so, America's mothers help build the soul of our nation.

25:13 I pray you find enduring strength as your loved

25:16 one serves in defense of our freedom.

25:22 Most know my husband as the strong commanderin-chief,

25:28 but his empathy transcends the role and shape a caring leader

25:37 who constantly remembers each and every American soldier is someone's child.

25:44 Distinguished guest,

25:45 please join me with a warm welcome for our president, Donald J.

25:52 [applause and cheering] That's good.

26:01 Thank you.

26:02 Great job.

26:04 So, I want to thank everybody for being here.

26:06 We've have so many things to talk about.

26:10 But there's nothing more important than military moms

26:14 that I can tell you because without without you,

26:18 I don't think it would be in this house.

26:20 I don't think this house probably ever would have been built a long time ago.

26:24 So important.

26:25 I want to start off by saying we we're in our great vice presidents right here.

26:30 And we're in a I call it a skirmish because that's what it is.

26:35 It's a skirmish and uh we're doing unbelievably well as we

26:40 did in Venezuela where it was rapid over in one

26:45 day and uh we're doing pretty much equally as well I

26:49 would say larger uh but we're doing very well in Iran.

26:54 It's going very smoothly and we'll see what happens.

26:57 They want to make a deal.

26:58 They want to negotiate and I think

27:00 that military mothers would want to hear that.

27:04 Do you agree?

27:05 I think it's appropriate.

27:06 Somebody would say, "Oh,

27:07 that's not appropriate." I think military mothers want to hear about this stuff.

27:10 And we have the greatest [applause] And we have

27:14 the greatest We have the greatest military that we've ever had.

27:20 We have the greatest military in the world by far.

27:22 There's nobody even close.

27:24 And I think we've displayed that.

27:26 I built the military in my first term.

27:28 Much of it.

27:29 It was when I inherited the military.

27:31 It was like when I inherited the border.

27:33 The border was a mess and the military was a mess.

27:36 A lot of you know that because you were you were there to witness it.

27:40 And now we have the strongest military that we've ever had.

27:45 We're just getting a uh approval of $1.5

27:49 trillion dollars to upgrade our military still further.

27:54 But when I was spending all that money in my first term,

27:56 it was a great term, a very unbelievable term.

28:00 We had the best we had the best uh economic numbers that the country's ever had.

28:05 Now we we're going to blow them away.

28:07 We're blowing them away right now.

28:09 But uh I built the military in my first

28:13 term with the help of a lot of great admirals, generals, and everybody else.

28:18 And uh I didn't know we'd be using it quite so much.

28:21 But that's okay.

28:23 Whatever it is, because in the case of Iran,

28:25 we're not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

28:28 and we're not going to let that happen.

28:30 And uh we won't let that happen.

28:32 And so we're uh we're dealing with people that want to make a deal very

28:37 much and we'll see whether or not they

28:38 can make a deal that's satisfactory to us.

28:41 We have it very much under control.

28:44 The blockade is unbelievable.

28:45 The Navy has been incredible.

28:47 The job they did, it's like a it's like a wall of steel.

28:50 Nobody goes through.

28:51 In particular, the Iranians,

28:53 they're not getting anything through one way or the other.

28:56 So they're out of business.

28:57 and we'll see whether or not uh they are agreeing

29:01 and if they don't agree they'll end up agreeing shortly thereafter.

29:05 So that's the way it is.

29:07 And I thought you might want to have a little rundown now.

29:10 The fake news is all happy because they can hear what we had to say.

29:15 And I have to say JD is doing a fantastic job.

29:18 He's working with us with him and [applause] him and all of the team.

29:25 Marco and we have Steve Whitkoff, Jared.

29:29 We have a whole group, the generals and General Kane has been fantastic.

29:33 Pete Hexathan, incredible.

29:34 We have just a great group of people.

29:38 CIA, John Redcliffe, he's great.

29:40 I think Mrs.

29:41 Redcliff's even here someplace.

29:43 Um, and are you here, Mrs.

29:45 Redcliffe?

29:46 I think somebody said yes.

29:48 Uh, but we have amazing people.

29:51 We have an amazing military.

29:53 And I think it's on display.

29:55 Sometimes you'd rather not have it be on display,

29:58 but uh they're there for a purpose.

30:01 And uh the greatest military anywhere in the world.

30:05 And the world is watching us as we do our thing.

30:07 And uh we have uh the respect of the world, which we didn't have.

30:12 Two years ago.

30:13 We were a laughingstock all over the world.

30:14 Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world in every way.

30:17 So I just want to congratulate you all because you're a big part of it.

30:21 [applause] And I want to thank you Melania.

30:27 Amazing the job you've done.

30:28 She did a little movie and became the number one movie.

30:31 Now you know [applause] and I can't exaggerate

30:36 because if I did they would be all over.

30:39 It wasn't number one.

30:40 It was number two.

30:41 It was number five.

30:43 So I can't I have to be very very careful with it.

30:45 And then it went streaming.

30:46 This is a word different world.

30:47 I didn't even know what they were talking about.

30:49 They said, "Oh, and it became number one streaming too." So congratulations.

30:54 That's an amazing achievement.

30:56 [applause] And most importantly and uh most importantly

31:01 to her, she's done an incredible job as first lady.

31:05 And uh she's an incredible mom.

31:08 She has a little boy who's quite tall.

31:12 He's a little boy to us, but he's quite tall, right?

31:15 And he's great, Baron.

31:16 And she takes great care of him.

31:19 And thank you.

31:20 Great mom.

31:21 Today, we're honored to welcome the to the White House a group

31:25 of strong and resilient women who represent the best of our country,

31:30 the amazing military mothers.

31:33 So important.

31:34 And we want to thank you all for being here.

31:37 So many of you, I know, are recognized.

31:39 And I want to thank you very much

31:40 cuz there's nothing like the White House, right?

31:42 Is it?

31:42 They call us.

31:43 And by the way, right behind me, see that?

31:46 You call it a window or a drape.

31:48 I call it a knockout battle because behind that, in fact,

31:53 if you want to see it, I think we could work it out.

31:55 But behind that window is a uh end drape.

31:59 In fact, the drapes are so nice, I think I'm going to leave them.

32:02 How am I going to get a nicer something than that?

32:05 But that's the entrance to the new ballroom that's being built, which [applause]

32:10 which everybody which everybody likes, especially since last Saturday evening,

32:15 they like [laughter] it even more because it'll have a thing called security.

32:18 It'll be nice.

32:19 But right back there is where we're building.

32:21 So if you hear any pounding noises, the pile drivers are out.

32:25 It's already up to the first floor,

32:27 but we're we're a little bit ahead of schedule,

32:30 right on budget, but it's going to be something great.

32:33 It'll be one of the most beautiful buildings of its kind anywhere in the world.

32:37 And you know for 150 years presidents have wanted a room.

32:42 This is the ballroom right here.

32:43 This is and it's too small.

32:44 We had the king and queen of a lovely country United Kingdom.

32:50 And I had we would have had at least a thousand.

32:55 Everybody wanted to be here.

32:56 And we had 112 people because this is a lovely room but it's not big enough.

33:02 It's got one and it's been that way for many many years.

33:06 So, every president's been calling, but I was in a position being a builder

33:10 and having built many ballrooms and many other things.

33:13 I'm I'm good at ballrooms, and we're giving you the I believe it's the best.

33:17 It will be the best ever built.

33:19 And it will have windows that are thicker than any ballroom I've ever built.

33:23 I used to I usually have glass that's about a quarter of an inch thick.

33:29 This is about six inches thick.

33:31 This can repel a lot of different a lot of different uh weapons,

33:36 but it's going to be incredible.

33:37 It's going to be aside from being secure, it's going to be the I think it's

33:40 going to be the most beautiful ballroom ever built,

33:43 and it's something that the White House has needed, the presidents have needed,

33:48 and uh it's an honor to be involved, and it's it really has become very popular.

33:52 Once when people see the design,

33:54 they really they really like it, and it's been great.

33:57 Gotten some great reviews.

33:59 Also with us is Secretary of Education Linda McMahon,

34:02 my friend, who's done such a fantastic job.

34:05 Wherever you are, Linda.

34:06 [applause] Hi, Linda.

34:09 She's great.

34:10 What a job.

34:12 Along with Jennifer Hex.

34:15 Jennifer.

34:15 Hi, Jennifer.

34:17 He's doing some job, I'll tell you.

34:19 He's doing a job.

34:20 You know, he stood up.

34:21 He was the only one.

34:22 He he was standing up in the ballroom the other day in the event

34:27 the uh White House we call they call it the White House dinner.

34:31 Uh you know they were saying can you use well

34:34 when you use that term I guess you probably can use

34:37 it but we had a little dinner the other night

34:39 and your husband was standing on the top of a table.

34:42 Everyone else was under the table.

34:44 So that's what we want of our Secretary of War, right?

34:48 We want somebody but he was standing on top of the table.

34:51 everyone else was under the damn table.

34:54 Anyway, he's he's doing a fantastic job.

34:56 He and the general, those are great news conferences.

34:59 We like them.

35:00 They [snorts] work very well together, I can tell you.

35:02 The wife of Pete Hagath.

35:05 And say hello to Pete.

35:07 Uh Michelle Ratcliffe.

35:09 Michelle, where is Michelle?

35:11 I think she's here someplace.

35:13 Michelle and the wife of CIA director John Ratcliffe and [snorts] Jackie Emmer.

35:19 Jackie, you are so great.

35:22 Jackie, I know Jackie well because her husband and I, we didn't know each other.

35:26 We were we fought.

35:27 You know, in politics, you can fight.

35:30 And then when we got to know each other, we love each other, right?

35:33 But she always liked Trump.

35:34 And she convinced her husband, who's a big power in the House.

35:39 She convinced her husband that Trump was much better than he thought.

35:43 And I remember you.

35:44 I like you now.

35:45 I really like him.

35:46 He's an incredible.

35:47 But I like you more.

35:48 And I'm always because you were there long before him, right?

35:51 But Jackie, you're great.

35:52 I appreciate it.

35:53 Thank you very much.

35:55 And uh as you know, Tom Emmer is the House

35:58 majority whip and he's a fantastic person, real leader.

36:03 Comes from an interesting place,

36:05 a place that's under investigation by our great vice president.

36:08 They're finding a lot.

36:09 And Tom Emmer was one of the biggest complainers about

36:12 what was going on in Minnesota and lots of other places.

36:16 I also want to say a special thank you to the many moms among

36:19 our fantastic military aids and social aids

36:23 who support us here at the White House.

36:25 They've been incredible.

36:26 All of you have been so incredible.

36:28 And I want to thank you very much for being with us today.

36:31 It's beautiful.

36:32 The women in this room have sacrificed for our country in countless ways.

36:37 Among you are veterans and active duty service members,

36:40 proud spouses, and the parents of those who serve in uniform.

36:45 amazing people.

36:46 The most amazing people.

36:48 Many of you have missed cherished moments.

36:51 And you really have.

36:52 You've spent so much time taking care of the ones you love.

36:56 You've missed holidays, birthday parties, graduations,

36:59 or even a child's first words.

37:02 Others have moved more times than anybody can even count.

37:07 And I don't know if you love doing it or not, but you get very good at it.

37:11 You have the way.

37:12 You know the way.

37:13 you know the way to do it, but you do it all because you love America.

37:18 You love our country.

37:19 And this week, as we prepare to celebrate Mother's Day,

37:23 we take this opportunity on behalf of all of us

37:26 to say thank you very much for the incredible job.

37:29 You do it with love.

37:30 So, it's not I don't think there's no such thing as a job if you love it,

37:34 but we'll call it a job nevertheless.

37:37 The job you do is incredible.

37:39 And uh everybody respects you so much.

37:42 You have no idea.

37:43 So, I just want to thank you all and thank you all for being here.

37:46 Joining us is someone who knows the incredible sacrifice of service,

37:51 Brittany Stevenson from Camp Leune.

37:54 That's a hell of a camp.

37:57 That's beyond a camp.

37:58 It's a word.

37:58 The word camp, I don't know.

38:00 Doesn't look like a camp to me.

38:03 Her parents were both Marines and in 1983,

38:07 her dad survived the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut.

38:11 We talk about that even to this day.

38:12 That was something Britney loved the Marine so much that she

38:16 married a Marine herself and the love of her life.

38:20 Taylor over 15 years, her family has moved 10 homes,

38:25 10 different homes and been assigned to six

38:29 duty stations from all over the world.

38:32 And now her daughter Ava is part of the Marine Corps

38:35 junior ROC program and wants to become a Marine as well.

38:39 So Britney, your family is a definition of seprify

38:44 and always faithful and I want to thank you.

38:46 Where are you?

38:47 Where are you?

38:48 Please stand up.

38:49 Would you like to come up and say come here?

38:51 [applause] Come here.

38:58 [applause] Um, thank you.

39:02 Uh, I'm not really sure what to say,

39:03 but this is such an honor and a privilege to be here.

39:06 Um I'm truly touched to represent um my family, the Marine Corps,

39:11 Camp Llejun, and military moms and spouses like you all.

39:15 So, thank you.

39:16 [applause] Thank you.

39:22 Good job.

39:23 [applause] She had no idea she was going

39:25 to be doing that, but I I looked at her.

39:28 I said, "She looks so great.

39:29 I'm going to get her up here." Right.

39:32 That was beautiful.

39:33 Thank you very much.

39:34 As Melania mentioned, we're also honored to be joined by a military

39:38 mother who sacrificed far more than most.

39:42 That's Melody Wolf.

39:45 And uh you know, I love the name Melody because for a long time, you know,

39:50 they have spell correct and word correct on these crazy machines that we

39:54 use to put out truths or they used to be called tweets.

39:58 And every time I wrote Melania, it would correct to Melody.

40:06 So I'd do thing and I work very fast,

40:08 very fast and I'd talk about and I say

40:12 and Melania is fantastic and happy Mother's Day Melania,

40:17 our great first lady Melania.

40:18 But it would spell correct and and word correct to Melody.

40:24 And sometimes I wouldn't proofread it and I'd

40:26 say h and I would get just absolute decimated.

40:30 These people would decimate.

40:32 They said he didn't know the name of his wife.

40:34 He keeps calling her.

40:36 And I said, "What the hell is wrong

40:38 with this machine?" I didn't know about that little feature.

40:41 But I got that corrected eventually.

40:42 You know who corrected?

40:43 The military.

40:44 I said, "Come here.

40:45 You got to correct this.

40:46 You're killing me." I took more abuse.

40:48 She's been called Melody a lot.

40:51 Anyway, I had to explain it to you this way.

40:54 I stood up here to explain it to you.

40:56 I apologize.

40:58 Last year, Melody's 24year-old son, Andrew Wolf of West Virginia National Guard,

41:05 was on patrol in Washington DC,

41:08 helping to restore law and order to our Capitol City.

41:12 And I spoke to her.

41:14 This woman is amazing.

41:16 Along with her comrade,

41:18 Specialist Sarah Backrom who is uh just was a fantastic person.

41:26 He was ambushed by a terrorist and shot in the head.

41:30 A violent horrible person did this.

41:33 Nobody thought Andrew was going to make it,

41:36 but Melody told me and I called her that evening in the hospital.

41:41 Sir, I have no doubt the the doctor said he won't be making it.

41:46 And as you know, Sarah passed away also from a shot to the head by these people,

41:52 these horrible, horrible people.

41:55 But Melody was the one person, in fact, Melody's husband, who's great.

42:01 He didn't feel the same way.

42:03 But she said, "I have no doubt, sir.

42:05 I'm telling you, he's going to be fine.

42:07 Don't worry about it.

42:08 He's going to be fine." I never saw anything.

42:10 It was really pretty amazing.

42:13 And she was right.

42:15 A week went by, another week went by, I'd call and say,

42:18 "How's he doing?" So, he's doing really well, and the doctors would say,

42:23 "I think he maybe will make it." And she turned out to be right.

42:26 It was sort of a miracle, actually.

42:30 And I'd never seen, you know, they talk about the power of positive thinking.

42:33 I've never seen anything like this one.

42:34 JD, you wouldn't believe it.

42:36 He had no chance, I'm telling you.

42:39 And she willed it.

42:42 And now uh it's really something very special

42:47 that I think I hear he's just doing fantastic.

42:49 It was a Bible verse from the book of Isaiah.

42:53 Do not fear for I am with you.

42:56 With God's help, Andrew has made a really incredible recovery.

43:01 It's hard to believe.

43:02 And during my State of the Union address,

43:04 we were privileged to award him the Purple Heart.

43:07 This was a real Purple Heart.

43:08 This was a a terrible thing that happened.

43:12 And Melody, uh, where are you, Melody?

43:14 There you are.

43:15 Hi.

43:16 Haven't seen you in a little while.

43:17 But it's true the story, right?

43:19 You were the only one.

43:20 You know that you were the only one.

43:21 She was so positive.

43:22 I don't think she hurt anybody else.

43:24 Uh, and your husband's doing okay.

43:26 And he feels much better about it.

43:29 He was he was not feeling too good.

43:32 I think you should.

43:32 Do you want to say something about your boy and how?

43:34 Come on up here, Melody.

43:36 No, it's an amazing it's such an amazing story.

43:40 [applause] Such an amazing story.

43:43 Come.

43:45 We went through a couple of bad nights together, right?

43:48 Yes.

43:48 Um I first want to say that we had the nation behind

43:53 us at a time when nobody thought our boy would make it.

43:58 He was 24 years old.

43:59 He was a young man on the streets of DC.

44:03 um a shot to the left part of his brain.

44:06 Um we have a strong faith in God and God is what brought our son through this.

44:13 He gave us an amazing um backing.

44:17 He gave us amazing doctors.

44:19 He gave us amazing nurses and and our community, our nation,

44:23 our community are just all of the support

44:25 and the support of um the White House medical staff.

44:29 Go ahead.

44:30 Um, anything that our son needed was met.

44:34 Um, we are just truly thankful and he we're a little over five months.

44:39 He came home from the hospital April 2nd and he is now enjoying um being home.

44:45 He's getting back into playing golf.

44:48 He loves cornhole as you know.

44:51 Yes.

44:52 um he loves doing so many activities and so we're truly blessed

44:56 that we're able to get him into some outpatient care closer to home.

45:00 Um we do have another surgery coming up in September and just

45:05 recovery in my is my understanding that will happen for quite some time

45:09 but um I have no doubt that he will be 100% back

45:13 to Andrew within a few years independent

45:16 driving being being a young bachelor again.

45:19 So, thank you so much.

45:22 [applause] [applause] That's incredible.

45:39 That's incredible.

45:41 Um, nobody really can understand it,

45:44 but uh I was with the general who was fantastic, right?

45:49 And uh he said uh not much of a chance.

45:55 Maybe no chance.

45:56 I mean, I hate to say it even, but no chance.

45:59 They all said the same thing.

46:00 And she said, "No, God is with him.

46:04 I'm telling you, President, God is with him.

46:06 He's going to be okay." and I I get reports that he's amazing.

46:11 Right.

46:11 So, congratulations.

46:12 Thank you very much.

46:13 It's you taught us all something.

46:16 [applause] Appreciate it.

46:21 Also joining us is an outstanding active duty Air Force mom,

46:25 Lieutenant Colonel Amanda Collazo.

46:29 She's an MQ9 Reaper drone pilot.

46:33 Whoa, that's pretty good.

46:38 uh an evaluator, a weapons officer and desk

46:42 officer at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

46:46 She has traveled to 20 countries,

46:48 flown over 7,000 hours, and eliminated many high value targets.

46:53 She's a great great talent, they say.

46:56 Our military is strong again.

46:58 And as Amanda says to herself,

47:01 and we are as a nation, we are really respected again.

47:04 And she said that and it's true.

47:06 So Amanda, thank you very much.

47:08 Where are you, Amanda?

47:09 Where are you?

47:10 Where's Come on up here, Amanda.

47:12 I got to do this.

47:13 You know, they they're not they're not expected to, but they're doing very well.

47:18 Come on up.

47:19 That's great.

47:20 [applause] Thank you very much.

47:25 Thank you, Mr.

47:25 President.

47:26 Thank you, Melania, for hosting this event.

47:28 Thank you, Cindy, for inviting me out here.

47:30 Uh, I just want to say I'm proud to be an American.

47:32 I am proud to serve our nation and the world's greatest air force.

47:35 Uh thank you for all of the moms out here and for your spouses,

47:39 your kids, uh yourselves.

47:41 So, thank you all and happy Mother's Day.

47:44 [applause] She's very sharp, isn't she?

47:54 She'll be running for office someday.

47:57 Great.

47:57 Thank you very much.

47:58 Appreciate it.

47:59 As commander-in-chief,

48:00 I will always support our great service members and their families.

48:04 We've invested a record setting trillion and now it's up

48:08 to $1.5 trillion and all built in the USA, by the way.

48:12 All right.

48:12 So, it's a lot of jobs, too.

48:14 You know, some people said I did it for that.

48:16 Actually, I didn't.

48:18 I did it for the military.

48:19 But it's a byproduct.

48:21 We have tremendous numbers of uh very talented people building all of the things

48:25 that we do and we make the best equipment anywhere in the world by far.

48:29 They're all ordering it for us.

48:31 In fact, the I've given a special edict

48:35 that the defense companies who have the best equipment,

48:39 they're not making it fast enough and now

48:41 they're all building plants all over the place.

48:43 I said, "You're not allowed to buy back stock anymore." I told

48:47 some of these people that are making millions and millions of dollars,

48:50 you got to reduce your salary.

48:51 I'm going to reduce your salary.

48:52 You're going to put it into weapons.

48:55 And uh it's been incredible the spirit we have.

48:58 And they're building, some of them are building six,

49:01 seven plants right now to make the Patriots and the Tomahawks.

49:05 Tomahawks.

49:06 Unbelievable.

49:07 Patriots.

49:07 Unbelievable.

49:08 We had uh recently we had 111 missiles shot at one of our very valuable objects,

49:16 something called an aircraft carrier.

49:18 Think of this 111 missiles, high range, high quality speed missiles,

49:24 very high, very fast, very top of the line.

49:28 111 out of 111 missiles shot at a, you know, well,

49:33 it used to be you'd like to say a billion dollar boat.

49:36 Now they're about $18 billion, ever expensive.

49:40 But 111 coming at them at 3,500 miles an hour.

49:46 All 111 were shot down and didn't even get close to the ship

49:51 and they're all laying at the bottom of the ocean along with the Iranian Navy.

49:56 They're all laying very nicely under under the water.

49:59 But think of that.

50:01 Five years ago, a thing like that would have been impossible.

50:04 10 years ago, it's not even thinkable.

50:06 Ronald Reagan actually thought of the concept.

50:09 They called it Star Wars,

50:10 but it wasn't a concept that anybody thought would ever work.

50:15 But, you know, you have these things coming at you.

50:18 And we have the Patriots.

50:19 The Patriots are the best of them.

50:23 And we have other things also.

50:24 But it's when you think you hit a 100% of the missiles coming out.

50:30 It's not like, oh, let's let a couple get through.

50:32 It's not that bad.

50:33 one gets through its problems.

50:35 So we can do things today and no other country has anything like that.

50:39 They don't have anything with the with the power,

50:41 with the strength and with the you know it's accuracy really.

50:44 It's accuracy got to hit.

50:45 It's like it's like hitting a needle in a haststack they were saying.

50:49 And yet they do it every time.

50:50 It's pretty amazing.

50:51 And we have the most talented people operating that equipment.

50:55 For that you have to be high IQ and you have to have no choke because you have

51:01 about 12 seconds to make a decision and take

51:05 the aim and you have to be very good mathematically.

51:08 You have to know what you're doing.

51:09 You have to be very smart.

51:10 You have to see the education.

51:12 The schools they go to the best schools in the world.

51:14 Some of them come out of I know I [snorts] called up a couple.

51:17 I said where did you go to school?

51:19 I went to MIT.

51:20 Oh good.

51:20 That's good.

51:21 So it's uh you know we have a it's a very different frankly

51:24 it's a very different military in many ways but we have invested a record

51:29 setting amount of dollars and the US armed forces is now stronger than

51:33 it's ever been and we're getting stronger

51:35 and getting stronger and it's so important.

51:38 every branch is setting records in recruitment and I'm very proud of the space

51:42 force because that was a branch that uh a new one that came up

51:47 and we were losing to Russia and to China in space and we had it

51:52 as part of the air force but it wasn't really thought of you know once

51:55 it's part of something and we put a great general in charge and uh

52:00 the space force is now leading the other countries China Russia and there is no

52:06 fourth really and uh leading them by we saw numbers the other day leading

52:11 we're leading in space by so much it's uh we're never going to be caught.

52:16 So I'm very proud of Space Force first time that that's taken place a new force.

52:21 The last one was the Air Force and this is that was 78 years ago.

52:25 So this is brand new and we're very proud of it.

52:27 It's turned out to be I think it's going

52:29 to be one of our most important as time goes by.

52:32 A lot of the things that you see, a lot of the uh accuracy of the weapons

52:37 is caused because of what we created with space force.

52:39 So we're very proud of that.

52:40 But every branch is setting records in recruitment.

52:44 When uh last year, if you remember before

52:47 I came into office actually after the election,

52:49 it started picking up rapidly to be honest with you.

52:52 November 5th, we had a little election.

52:54 We did quite well.

52:55 We won every swing state.

52:56 We won the popular vote.

52:57 We won everything.

52:58 We won 87% of the counties.

53:01 We won it all.

53:03 Uh but uh I will tell you right after that election it started.

53:08 But before that we had the worst recruiting in the history of our country.

53:12 People didn't want to be in the armed services.

53:14 They also they didn't want to be police.

53:15 They didn't want to be firemen.

53:16 They didn't want to be anything with a uniform representing our country.

53:21 And it was the lowest number we've ever had.

53:23 And I can say very confidently

53:26 that at this moment we have the highest recruitment,

53:29 the most successful recruitment for the military, army, n the navy,

53:34 air force, marines, coast guard, uh space force, all of it.

53:38 Uh we have the highest recruitment, the best recruitment that we've ever had.

53:42 We have lines of people wanting to get in.

53:45 We're taking people based on their fitness and their quality.

53:49 We're taking, you wouldn't believe what the difference it is.

53:53 uh and Washington DC as an example and uh the that's why

53:58 it's so sad when Melody comes up and talks about that one

54:02 event because you know the numbers in Washington DC uh are so

54:07 incredible the numbers have gone down from from we we had a place

54:12 that was so so unsafe our great capital and now it's considered

54:16 one of the safest cities anywhere in the United States and we went

54:20 to Memphis and Memphis office was was a killing field practically and now

54:25 it's down the numbers are down crime 80% in New Orleans, Louisiana.

54:30 The governor called up Jeff Landry.

54:32 He said, "Sir, we have the Marty GR coming up

54:34 and we have a lot of crime in the city.

54:36 Can you do something?" And we put our people there,

54:39 mostly National Guard, but whatever is necessary.

54:42 And we have uh crime was down 79% after two and a half, three months.

54:48 And by the way, if they had the brains in Chicago, they'd ask us to go there.

54:52 We'll solve the problem for them very quickly.

54:54 We'd go to San Francisco very quickly.

54:57 San Francisco would be so easy for us.

54:59 would go to New York and help them out.

55:01 Would love to help them out and we'd get crime

55:04 numbers down 70% 80% 90% in a matter of months.

55:08 We took it in uh in uh DC was really bad.

55:12 I don't want to go into the numbers in terms of using the word murder,

55:16 but it was really bad.

55:17 And it's gone from that to being uh we're down 92%.

55:22 And actually, I'm trying to figure out,

55:24 you know, [snorts] the the 8% who they are.

55:26 One of the things we done we did and some people

55:30 like it but the numbers are the the numbers speak for themselves.

55:33 If you really get down,

55:35 you see uh drug traffic coming into our country is way down and by sea by sea,

55:41 by ocean, by the water.

55:44 You know, a lot of people say, "What do you mean by sea?

55:46 Is it sea like vision?" No, it's the sea.

55:50 But, uh, it's down 97%.

55:53 Think of it, 97%.

55:55 For years they'd grab a boat and they'd bring

55:58 him in and they'd see a judge and they'd let him out and the next day he's back

56:02 in his country bring in more drugs and it nothing worked.

56:05 We're down nothing.

56:06 Get worse worse worse.

56:08 Down 97% and we're trying to figure who the 3% are because

56:13 we consider them to be maybe the bravest people anywhere in the world.

56:18 You look at those boats pume pum and you feel terribly except for one thing.

56:24 uh those boats uh 25,000 people die from just a couple of those boats.

56:31 Think of it from drugs ruin families ruin every

56:34 and when you see that you say thank you very much but drugs coming in by sea are

56:38 down 97% and now we've started the land force which

56:42 is much easier and you'll hear some complaints from some

56:46 people in like representatives from Mexico and other places

56:50 but if they're not going to do the job

56:52 we're going to do the job and they understand that.

56:54 So that's sort of the easy one by comparison to the sea.

56:58 We had to do the sea first.

56:59 You had no idea how much came in by water

57:02 and uh very little almost nothing is coming in right now.

57:05 They don't want to do that anymore.

57:07 But no one should ever doubt

57:09 the resolve of America's military moms are incredible.

57:12 From the start of our republic down to today,

57:15 our nation's been strengthened by the love

57:17 and devotion and the commitment of incredible women.

57:21 These are really incredible women who've served our country,

57:26 supported our troops,

57:27 and poured out their care and compassion for this nation that we all love.

57:32 So, I just want to thank everybody and happy Mother's Day and God bless you all.

57:36 Thank you very much.

57:37 Thank you.

57:39 [applause] [applause] [applause] [music]