TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Addresses an Easter Lunch at the White House, 4.1.26
[Video]
President Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Please sit down, please. It's great to have you here. It's great to have people I like for a change. A lot of people I don't like at all. I do my best in front of people I don't like, but it's much harder. This is easy. Uh, we're doing really well as a country we're teaching people how to live in safety.
We're over in Iran we're sort of pretty much winding that up, have to take a few more hits. We want to make sure we don't ever have them -- allow them to have a nuclear weapon. Because they won't be responsible. Because they'll use it and you see how serious they were with the conventional ballistic missiles.
They have thousands of them. We've blown most of them up. Do you notice every every week it gets a little less, a little less at us, and at our allies? We've had some very good allies over there. We've had some very bad allies in NATO. I hope you're all watching that, Scott, because we had some, uh, asks and, you know, we spent trillions of dollars on NATO and when we need them, which we never do, we didn't need them here either.
To be honest I was really asking, um, because I wanted to see what they do. We didn't need them. We were blasting the hell out of them, out of Iran and the last thing I needed was NATO stepping in our way because they're not -- they're a paper tiger but so we didn't need them but I asked anyway, and they probably think I'm the worst salesman ever.
I was the worst. They would have much preferred Franklin Graham or somebody that's a good salesman than Trump, because I'd say we'd love to have some help oh, president, I'm not sure that we could. Oh, that's OK. If you don't want to do it well, if we -- oh that's OK, you don't have to do it. So he gets off.
Probably says, man, that was easier than I thought. Then I call up France, Macron, whose wife treats him extremely badly. [Laughter] And he's still recovering from the right to the jaw and I say, Emmanuel, we'd love to have some help in the Gulf, even though we're setting records and knocking out bad people and knocking out ballistic missiles.
We'd love to have some help. If you could, could you please send ships immediately? No, no, no, I cannot do that, Donald. We can -- we can do that after the war is won. I said no, no, I don't need after the war is won, Emmanuel. Many of them said, we'll be there after the war is completed and so I learned about NATO. NATO won't be there if we ever have the big one.
You know what I mean by the big one? We ever have the big one. Hopefully we won't. Relationships very good with the big one. Better than with NATO. But, uh, but they won't be there and we spend billions. You know, we didn't have to go into Ukraine. Ukraine's thousands of miles away across the ocean we helped them.
We had a president who's a stupid individual, gave him $350 billion, got nothing for it, gave him so much money, used so much ammunition. We're making ammunition all over the place because we need it because he gave so much away to Ukraine, got nothing for it and I sell them ammunition. You know, the European Union pays for it what the hell?
They have to do something right so they're good for paying for it but everything we sold, we did -- but I just want to tell you, NATO treated us very badly and you have to remember it because they'll be treating us badly again if we ever need them and hopefully we're never going to need them I don't think we will need them.
I don't think they can do very much. I actually asked UK who should be our best. In fact, the King is coming over here in two weeks. He's a nice guy King Charles. But should be our best, right, Brooke? But they weren't our best. I said, you have two old broken down aircraft carriers you think you could send them over?
Oh, I'll have to ask my team. I said, you're the prime Minister, you know. No, no, no I have to ask my team, president. My team has to meet we're meeting next week. Oh, next week? But the war already started. Next week, it's not good the war is going to be over in three days. My prediction, it turns out -- by the way, do we have the greatest military ever?
Right. We have -- so anyway, so we've knocked them for a loop. I don't know if you saw the explosion the other day. We got the mother lode. We hit the mother lode like nobody's ever -- did you see that? They thought it was a nuclear weapon actually, I said, no, we don't use them. We don't want to use them.
We have more than anybody else, but we don't want to use them. But this afternoon, I'm delighted to join the countless Christians across the country and around the world as we prepare to celebrate a thing called Happy Easter. Do we have that? Everyone happy? Anybody that doesn't want -- hello, darling. Wow, this is a good table.
I like that table. Um, you're doing well, right? OK. I think you should sue him but, you know, I told her you ought to sue somebody. They're so jealous of Erica. I said to sue -- you -- I can say you're not allowed to say this because you have to be nicer. Sue their ass off. But I want to thank all of those who are helping us honor Holy Week here.
[Laughter] Let me tell you, I hate to say this. There have been more wars over religion than trade and everything else put together. So he's smiling because, you know, one nice little statement that a nice and you're right, it was sort of ironic, wasn't it? But -- but it is true. Religion's an amazing subject of passion.
So subject of passion, that's why. But I do want to thank all of those who are helping to honor us and honor Holy Week here at the White House, something so incredible happening, and I'm seeing it all over. I used to tell some of you, I've had such great friends. Ralph knocked on 10 million doors, 10 million.
Ten million. And knowing Ralph, I thought maybe he was exaggerating a little bit and had it checked out. I think it might have been more. You did a hell of a job and with Charlie White what a team that was an army. You, Charlie, the whole group unbelievable. Now we got to do it for the midterms hate to tell you otherwise they're going to take it all away they're going to take the Johnson Act, they'll put it right back on your shoulders so we got to do it again.
But the White House including Vice President JD Vance. I think JD is -- JD here. Where is JD? JD, he's lost weight. He got a little thinner and I'm looking for -- I'm looking -- [Laughter] -- for a heavyset gentleman and now I find a perfect -- a perfect looking specimen and he's doing a great job and he's working on the -- the deal, right? How's that moving is it OK? The big deal.
JD Vance: [Inaudible]
Trump: You see it happening?
Vance: [Inaudible]
Trump: So if it doesn't happen, I'm blaming JD Vance. [Laughter] If it if it does happen, I'm taking full credit. [Laughter] No, I think it'll be, uh, I think it has to happen. I think they're desperate. Attorney General Pam -- my friend Pam Bondi. Say hi, Pam. And we just left the Supreme Court. I didn't realize it's the first time in history that a president went to the Supreme Court.
I was really surprised to hear that and the Supreme Court has not been acting very well actually, it was today on birthright citizenship. How did it finish up? Who knows? Right? That's the problem you never know. You know -- you know, with the Democrats because the Democrat appointment always votes no matter what.
You can have the greatest case in history. You can have a case where the person you're suing admits they're guilty and if you're in front of a Democrat judge, he'll overturn that admittance. [Laughter] Now, it's very unfair and Republicans, judges and justices, they always want to show that they're independent.
I can -- I don't care if Trump appointed me I don't care if he doesn't make any difference to me, I'm voting against him because they want to show their independence. You know, stupid people. But the Democrats, you can have the greatest case in history, and they'll be voting against you every single time and then they get upset with you when you complain about it I get admonished a little bit.
Uh, there is no Republican judge and there is no Democrat judge certain person says, and I say, you've lost all credibility when you say that. It's really pretty tough. So Pam and I were over there with some people we watched, and actually nobody knew what the hell was going on. Simple subject -- simple subject.
It's -- look, at the time it was passed right at the end of the Civil War. It was for the babies of slaves. That's it. It wasn't for billionaire Chinese people who have 57 children that become American citizens. They didn't have that in mind but, you know, it's hard to explain that to some people. Secretary of Agriculture, who's doing a great job, Brooke Rollins.
Thank you very much. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin just came onto the thing. So is he -- job easier than you thought? So I make him -- I give him the job. He's so honored. You know, he's very successful, made a lot of money. Then he decided to run, and he ran, won in Oklahoma.
I love Oklahoma. I went 77 out of 77 counties, the only one to ever do all three times. I don't know why they like me so much in Oklahoma, but they do and I was with him all the way and I offered him this job and he said such a great honor. I didn't tell him what was going on, though I didn't tell him that not only did you have a strike -- you have a strike and at the same time you have the Democrats refusing to pay anybody, right?
I said, welcome aboard. [Laughter] Oh, and here's your first assignment. So he said, would you like to have had that decision to make? No, think of it. Somebody leaves a senatorship where he could be there for many, many years, a great position, and he leaves it to take a three-year job of turmoil because it's good for the country, right?
And you're going to do great and so far you've done great. He's gone in there and he's really I think we're we're pretty well worked out on that situation that we're working on, which will be -- if we could do that, it'll be great. But we're fighting people that vote against us 100 percent. Like you never get -- every once in a while you get Fetterman.
They vote against us 100 percent. And you know, when I see Franklin Graham over here, I would -- I was going to say something really I was going to use a filthy, dirty, horrible word, but he wrote me a letter. [Laughter] Became quite a famous letter and he said, president -- he watched me make a speech and it was great, 40, 50,000 people.
He said it's like Billy Graham. I'm not as good as Billy Graham. Nobody's Billy Graham. But I made a good speech but he wrote me a letter and I thought it would be a letter that oh, what a job you did. That was unbelievable because president, please I love your speaking, I love your stories but you'll use foul language.
[Laughter] And if you didn't use bad words, very bad words, your speeches would be even better and I sort of said, oh, that's not what I expected, Jenny but I never forgot it and I purposely watch my language, especially when he's in the room. [Laughter] When he's in the room, I watched him. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner.
Thank you, Scott, very much. Good job. And Darth Vader. Where's Darth Vader, Russ Vought? Where is Darth? Hi. Darth Vader he's looking he's finding more fraud. You know, if they figured out the fraud because JD's working on it. JD's either going to be the greatest guy or we're going to hit him hard if he does it because he's in charge -- I put him in charge of fraud.
Now, the last time this happened, Sleepy Joe, he put his great vice president in charge of the border. Hopefully JD will be slightly more active. She never called the Border Patrol she never made one call in four years to the Border Patrol and she never visited the border. She had no idea where the border was.
Other than that, I thought she did a very good job. [Laughter] We had 25 -- we had 25 million people pour through our border and they said, I need legislation to stop it I said, no, you need a new president and that's what happened now we have nobody coming in we have nine months of zero. And we're getting the bad ones out but Russ Vought.
Thank you, Russ. You got it. We would have a balanced budget. If you could get, JD -- if you'd get -- how about in Minnesota? They come from Somalia, but they come from all over. They're all crooked in Minnesota the governor is crooked. The attorney general's a crook. He's a thief. Terrible guy. All stupid, crooked people and they came in from in this case, Somalia is just terrible.
A lot of people say it's the worst country anywhere in the world. They have no money, no nothing they have no government they have no police they just shoot each other all day long it's just a -- it's just pure bedlam. Probably the worst, most dangerous country we have some beauties. They go to Minnesota and they stole $19 billion, $19 billion and the low IQ. Generally, I mean, I can generalize low IQ people.
They're bad people they're -- they have 94 percent unemployment in other words, they don't want to work, you know, a lot of jobs available, right, with the economy. They don't want to work. Why would they work? And they sold more Mercedes Benzes than any state in the union because they come here with no money and they go out, they love our Mercedes Benz, and they go out and buy Mercedes Benz and I think you're going to get to the bottom of it real easy and every one of them should be -- and Ilhan Omar, who married her husband -- who married her brother, her brother became her husband.
[Laughter] When she has to check a book, she says any brothers? One. Any husband, one. She checks two people. So on top of everything else, she gets a double income tax cut. She's -- she's a stone cold crook and everybody knows it. And the papers, they have one paper out in particular the guy made a living writing about her and I spoke to him, he said but nobody does anything about it, sir.
All you have to do is get his writings from the Indianapolis Star or whatever paper he works for. You don't even have to do anything this guy spent his -- spent ten years investigating that crook, and, uh, you got to do something about it or -- are people going to get their already upset. Takes too long.
So, JD, you go do it, and, Russell, you better do it and, uh, you know, I said to Russell, I said daycare centers, right? So in Minnesota, in Los Angeles, they have thousands of them. You'd say, how could you have there more daycare centers than they have children? They literally so they have thousands. So we go and we send inspectors out of the 700 that they looked at, approximately in Minnesota, there were not one there was a daycare center it's homes where they send checks for thousands of dollars it's bad and if they ever and this has been going on for years, if they ever found out if they ever got and especially it really -- look, in four years on autism.
OK, children with autism in Minnesota four years ago, Biden's first term, it was less than $1 million was sent out for autism. This last year, it was over $400 million. So what happened? I said, was there an attack of autism? They went from $1 million to 400-plus and it's pure -- it's pure theft and I hope we get to -- and if we don't get to it with stupid people, because we can balance the budget -- we can balance the budget, we can have a surplus if you can.
And that doesn't include Medicare, Medicaid, that's even bigger and it's many states, probably Republican states too, because they're going to see it and they're not as -- we're not as thievery, but you know, they don't believe in thievery but when they see the Democrats doing it and then they have to compete with it so I can't imagine they're not doing it. I just can't imagine.
But maybe they aren't, I don't know but those Los Angeles is out of control. California, all over California. Maine. Who would have thought Maine? Maine's one of the worst. Maine, I think of beautiful Maine, it's one of the worst and the purpose of me saying that is because people in the room that could do something about it, and if they do something, we have a great country, we have a balanced budget because these are the kind of numbers.
And I actually said to them -- I said to Russell, don't send any money for daycare because the United States can't take care of daycare, that has to be up to a state. We can't take care of daycare we're a big country we've got 50 states. We have all these other people we're fighting wars we can't take care of daycare.
You got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it, too. They should pay they have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it and we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up for it but it's not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.
They can do it on a state basis you can't do it on a federal -- we have to take care of one thing, military protection, we have to guard the country. But all these little things, all these little scams that have taken place, all you have to -- you have to let states take care of them, Russell and you have to do it. Linda McMahon, she's done such a great job.
She's moved education back to the states. And you know what? You need Congressional approval. I said don't worry about it, just do it she did it. [Laughter] They're largely back in the states we have all these buildings, empty education buildings. Where is Linda? She's not here, right? But I'll tell you let her know I said it. She's done it. She's -- she's a sleeper.
She was such a great person when she was at small business, Kelly. She did a great job before Kelly was doing a fantastic job but Linda was great and then I said, don't worry about it just move it back and she's moving it back to the states where it belongs. Education belongs in the state where the parents can help and they love their children, as opposed to some bureaucrat sitting in Washington that doesn't know where Iowa is. When you go back, let Iowa run and let all of these states, Indiana, let them run their education 100 percent.
The only thing we have to do is make sure they're teaching English, OK? Make sure they're teaching little English. You have a little bit -- I mean, literally, you could do one office with one person, one desk and a secretary. I don't mean a secretary of Transportation. I mean a secretary like, you know, an old fashioned secretary that takes dictation, but that's all you need.
So education has been largely sent back to states. It's a -- it's an incredible thing. You have to do the same thing, Russell. You know, you have to do the same thing. Pastor Paula White and Jenny Korn are two incredible people incredible people and they're from the White House Faith Office, which we never had.
We never had a faith office. A lot of people wanted the office they're in, you know, it's very valuable real estate. We're building a valuable piece of real estate right back here. The -- we had a -- a judge, a judge, not a good, a judge -- we had a Trump-hating judge give us things saying I have to get approval from Congress.
Do you believe it? I'm giving $400 million to build a -- I'm giving with donors $400 million to build a ballroom and there's the knockout panel right here. If you look back there, if you want to look back there, you'll see the deepest hole you've ever seen. [Laughter] But we are under construction, we're under budget, we're ahead of schedule, and we're building a ballroom anywhere, depending on final details of -- of the marbles we pick and everything else anywhere from $300 to $400 million, depending on finishes.
You know, we can get real expensive, beautiful finishes or -- or we can use Home Depot tile. [Laughter] Makes about $100 million. It's going to be amazing. But we had a judge that ruled that we had to go back to Congress. In the history of this building, nobody's ever gone back when they build something here you don't go back to Congress.
But we have a lot -- I have a lot of unfriendly judges. Somehow we seem to get by, but they're not good people. We're also grateful to be joined by Reverend Franklin Graham, who's been a friend of mine for a long time. Thank you, Franklin, very much, appreciate it. Pastor Marilyn Rivera. Pastor.
Hi, Marilyn. Thank you very much. Bishop Robert Barron, who's a fantastic man. Thank you very much. And then we have all of our stalwarts here. I mean, I don't have to name them because I've been naming them now for almost ten years, right? Long time but I appreciate you guys have been here from the beginning and we appreciate it very much.
It's been amazing. During each day of Holy Week, Christians remember the events of 2,000 years ago that forever changed the world. On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem as crowds welcomed him with praise, honoring him as king. They call me king now, do you believe it? [Laughter] No, king. I'm such a king I can't get a ballroom approved.
[Laughter] It's pretty amazing, right? I'm a king. If I was a king, we'd be doing a lot more. I'm doing a lot, but I could be doing a lot more if I was a king. Yet he had not come to take a throne but to carry a cross. Not only to reign, but to save. And Thursday, the disciples gathered with Jesus as their teacher and stood in fear as he was arrested and betrayed.
He was really betrayed. We know the feeling. Many of the people in this room know that feeling. Many of the people in this room went through hell. On Good Friday, the son of God was nailed to the cross, crucified, and he died for all of us. It was a day of darkness, but it wasn't the end. By any means, it was not the end.
On Easter Sunday, the stone was rolled away and the grave was empty. Christians everywhere rejoiced and we continue to rejoice. Easter is one of the incredible days. It was the miracle. In all of history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was one of the great -- it was the great miracle, I guess, right?
He told his followers, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Because of the events of Holy Week 20 centuries ago, people from every nation, language and background can take on any difficulty pressed through any trial and endure any hardship. With Christ not one thing can separate humanity from the powers of God's everlasting love.
Across the generations what happened on Easter has inspired his followers to love one another, to forgive, to do works of charity and build the beautiful churches. And we have some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, to me, are churches. I love -- I love great architecture and we have some of the most beautiful churches.
Christians have opened schools, ministries and hospitals on every continent to teach, care and heal those in need and they do it with love and they do it with great affection. It was Christian devotion that inspired 102 pilgrims to sail on the Mayflower, settle the New World, and lay the foundations for America's motto In God We Trust and we won't be changing that motto.
You know, there -- -- there are groups of people that that motto is unacceptable. We don't deal with them. We cast them aside. [Laughter] There's no talking to these people. They're crazy. It'll never change ever. If anybody ever let that change, I think it wouldn't -- they wouldn't be long for the world.
I've often said that to be a great nation, you have to have religion. I believe that's so strongly. You have to have religion and you have to have God. That's why this Easter we are bringing back religion to America. We have when I started, you know, if you think about it so we went through four years of purgatory.
[Laughter] We went I learned a lot, but I learned a lot so you had four years and you had four years. Now you have one so it's you know, it's a long, long time. It's nine years, ten years but I learned a lot and I've seen it and if you say what's been the most growing -- you know, we see Nvidia, we see all of these companies that are doing records because of what we've done, because we've but I think maybe the biggest up is religion, Christianity.
It's been amazing. You know, we had -- when I first came, one of the first things we will save Christmas because I was told -- I wasn't told, I saw it all over but they were department stores weren't used they'd have the red wall, but it would never say Merry Christmas. They wouldn't say anything or say Happy New Year.
But they never talked about Christmas and I said, we're going to bring back the word Christmas and we did. We brought it back that was the beginning but do you remember that? It was they wouldn't. They refused to say Christmas. Now woke is gone. You know, it's -- Better keep it going. We had woke we had transgender for everybody.
We had men and women's sports. I worked with the Olympic Committee to end that. We're not going to have it this Olympics so. And you would think that's easy. I'd say I would like to talk to you about men and women -- sir, there's nothing much we can do about that. That's -- there's a lot you can do about it. [Laughter] Anyway, we met and they agreed to take it out.
Men and women sports. So now a young lady in boxing doesn't have to have her face smashed in like in the last Olympics, remember that? The young, beautiful Italian champion boxer, female she got up and she was so excited and she met a young woman who transitioned from manhood. I'm getting better and better at my description of this because it's a little tough.
[Laughter] It doesn't come easily. Things come very easily to me. That one's that one's always a little tough but he transitioned from manhood to womanhood and he was a boxer and he hit her with a left. Do you remember that? Just a left. That's a defensive punch. Boom. Then another one, boom. And she's like -- she was ready to go she walked back to the corner.
She said, I've never been hit like that and her corner said, go out. You can beat her -- her. Go out and they pushed her out then she got hit with another just a jab and she said, I quit and that young woman that defeated her went on to win the Olympic gold rather easily, rather easily JD and then you had two people in the ring that were transitioned.
I don't know why it was only two. I mean, if I were a coach, I'd have a whole team of them. [Laughter] In fact, I actually said that under that system, I would be one of the greatest coaches in any sport anywhere in the world, in particular, basketball. I'd love to have I'd say to remember Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain, 7'3", could lift 500 pounds.
No, I would -- I would have the greatest team. I would -- hello, Robert. I would have the greatest team in history I would be undefeated for years, for years> But I wouldn't have one I'd play two or three, four, five this would be crazy. The greatest are the weightlifting them because you can could see it, right?
A record that stood for 19 years, 212 pounds. That's a lot. Any woman in here can lift 212? I don't think so. Nineteen years and then it happened. A person, young woman, who transitioned to womanhood broke the record by 111 pounds. So for years, they'd have it at about 212, and they'd put an eighth of an ounce here and an eighth of a -- and they couldn't do it they could not do it and this guy came in who was a failed man weightlifter previous -- in his previous life, he was a one of the worst of the men.
He was a weightlifter, but he was not a good one and he became a woman. Lovely event took place and he was in a competition and he broke the record and I'll never forget it because I'm watching us. Huh? He's looking like that's not a lot, OK. [Laughter] The winner is and the record still stands. I have a feeling maybe with evolution in a million years, a woman will -- you need a lot of evolution you're going to go up by an eighth of an ounce every -- every century but when you see that, or you see the swimming records where a great women, all-American swimmers, are swimming and they've swum against themselves, you know, it's the pyramid, right?
They've swum from the beginning because they were the best from the time they're six and seven and eight, you know, and now all of a sudden people that transitioned are allowed to swim. And we had a case with the young woman she was very badly, badly damaged, badly hurt. She was really horribly hurt. She looked down and it was a tryout for the Olympics and she looked down one side and she saw all her friends that she's been swimming against for ten years, women, and then she looked down here and she saw some more friends, and next to her was a man that was a woman that was massive.
He had a wingspan that was slightly larger than Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain, which was serious and they got into the pool and they started swimming and she was badly injured from windburn because he went by her so fast that she got tremendous burns from the wind as he went by and then he came in largely, largely ahead.
In fact, I think he rested for about 20 minutes while they were swimming and I said, isn't this ridiculous? Well, one of the greatest ever had all of the greatest track and field not that long ago, last year and it sees all day marathons, right? You know, you have to really be in shape and if you can, you know, take 10 seconds, five seconds off and a man who transitioned came in and he won by five hours and 14 minutes, all top five hours and 14 minutes.
And then they say, oh, let's do it. This is Democrats and they're still fighting for it and I tell people, don't talk about it don't fight it just start about two weeks before the election talk because if they ever change their policy, they stick together, they may be hard to beat, but let them have open borders, let them have transgender mutilization of our children.
They can keep doing that transgender mutilization of our children, that's what it is. Let them have all of the things like the men playing in women's sport let them have -- or how about open borders? Open borders where they allow the world. So you're Christians, but you're very smart and you have great common sense.
And, uh, our country has come a long way in a short while. You know, I knew we were going to bring it back and remember, we hit 50,000 on the Dow and they said, I wouldn't be able to do that in my first year and I did it in my first few months. I mean, we did it early they actually said it would take probably four years, but most likely it would be five or six.
And I did it at the end of the first year, actually. And then we had 7,000 on the Standard and Poor's, the S&P. So it was 7,000. And we did that in the first year too so we did 50,000 Dow -- 50,000. And the Dow was impossible but tougher was 7,000 on the S&P. Numbers, Robert, that they said were not attainable.
For years did them in the first year. I said all right. You know, we've done so well, now it's time to go out and take out these lunatics in Iran that are trying to get a nuclear weapon. We sent in the B-2 bombers. We stopped them with that but then we really put the clamps on and we've been doing it. You've been watching that.
It's been amazing. Our military is so amazing. I rebuilt the military in my first term. I didn't know I'd use it so much because then you also have Venezuela, which they say was one of the most lethal, incredible attacks in the history of military, period, not just our military. It was a strong country, strong military if you've ever been to Venezuela they have soldiers all over everybody has a soldier's uniform on. They have tough soldiers.
But, uh, it was all done in 45 minutes. The entire war was won in 45 minutes. We set a record. That's like a fighter gets knocked out in the first three seconds and now we're working with Venezuela and we're -- we've taken in many times the cost of the attack many, many times and we're working with them.
It's like a joint venture and we have tremendous amounts of oil and we could do that with Iran very easily we could just take their oil but, you know, I'm not sure that the people in our country have the patience to do that, which is unfortunate. You know, they want to see it end. If we stayed there, I you know, I'd prefer just to take the oil.
We could do it so easily. I would prefer that but people in the country sort of say, just when you're winning so big, just win, come home and I'm OK with that too, because we have a lot of oil between Venezuela and our oil. We're controlling now 59 percent of the oil in the world and the problem -- the problem -- [Laughter] -- the problem that we have is we really don't need any more.
It'd be nice to take it, but we don't need it and we say to Europe and all these countries that do -- you know, China gets 90 percent of its oil from the Strait of Hormuz and they should be policing their own strait. We shouldn't be policing it for them. We have been for years. And we're, you know, we're getting ready to get out of there but they should, you know, all the damages we have done such a job that they're -- they're really a very weak country they've gone from the bully of the Middle East to essentially a weak country and I say, you guys, why should we -- you -- the problem with the thing, the strait is they can have one terrorist there with a machine gun someplace and they'll say, oh, it's not totally clean, you know.
So let them do it. Let France do it they get a lot of oil from the strait. Let the European countries do it. Let South Korea, who was not helpful to us, by the way. Let South Korea, you know, we only have 45,000 soldiers in harm's way over there right next to a nuclear force. Let South Korea do it. Let Japan do it. They get 90 percent of their oil from the strait.
Let -- let China do it. Let them all do it what the hell are we doing it for? All I want to do is make sure they don't ever have a nuclear weapon and the other thing, this was not part of what I wanted to do, but we've done it I guess through sheer force of personality, we -- we have a regime change like nobody thought was possible.
They said, what do you mean you have regime change? My friend, great show. I love this guy. He's so nice to me every time I watch and I -- you know, we're not supposed to be seduced that way, right? But I am. When somebody is nice to me, I love that person. [Laughter] Even if they're bad people I couldn't care less.
I'll fight to the end for them so I appreciate it. But, you know, I mean, I want to see no nuclear weapon, but we also want regime change, they said. I spoke with the -- I spoke with The -- The Washington Post, another beauty that's going down the tubes but The Washington Post said, what do you mean you have regime change?
You don't have regime change. I said, no, no, we took out the first regime, 100 percent. That was Khomeini and then I said, then we they all met 88 people and they were going to pick a new regime and as they were voting, they -- we took them out so that was number two and now we're dealing with the third group of people.
And they're much different, actually they're much less radical and it's a new regime and they said we never thought of it that way. We have regime change we got it by accident.We actually got it by accident because I never liked the idea of, you know, the regime change thing is too -- is too complex to put it down on a wish list.
Because if you don't make it with me, if I don't make it, I end up ahead. He didn't get the -- so I never say I wanted it. So I never talked about regime change, but we got it. But we we've done an amazing thing over there, and tonight I'm making a little speech at 9:00 and basically I'm going to I'm going to tell everybody how great I am, what a great job I've done.
[Laughter] What a phenomenal job -- what a phenomenal job I've done. But seriously, if you -- if you didn't have me, if you had some different type of a president, you wouldn't have Israel. I know your big Israel fans. Frankly, evangelicals like and Christians -- just Christians I think they like Israel more than Jewish people like Israel, if you want to know the truth.
[Laughter] It's really true. I get so many coming up and I don't know when that started. It did start, uh, not thousands of years ago, I can tell you it started but the love for Israel is great. You wouldn't have Israel and you wouldn't have the Middle East either. You would not have you would have had a nuclear weapon.
It started by taking out Soleimani. Then I terminated the Iran nuclear deal that was given to us by Barack Hussein Obama. And then the B-2 bomber so that stopped it and then the B-2 bombers when I came back, I had a four-year sabbatical, and then I came back and we had, uh, we had this unbelievable attack, but we had the B-2 bombers.
They really stopped it. They -- if we didn't hit them with those B-2s. And that was a total obliteration. If we didn't hit them with the B-2s, you would have had a nuclear weapon and the only question whether or not they would have used it in the first hour or the first day. But they would have used it, and the Middle East would have been -- the Middle East would have been gone.
So Bible sales are now at the highest number in many decades. Did you know that? I just have -- it just came out. And church attendance, you know, this among young people nearly doubled compared to five years ago -- just five years ago. And this Easter, many churches are seeing their largest number of conversions in a generation, largest they've seen in many, many years.
And much of it has to do with a very good friend of mine who a person that he loves so much is sitting right here. Charlie Kirk loved that woman right there and he was so great, you know? He was so good. You know, I have people turn on me a lot. You do too. We all have people at the turn, I think a really big turn would be Erika.
If Erika said I'm not with Trump anymore, that would be a big turn but I don't expect a turning point but I don't expect it. And see? I love that whole group. And the kids are good, right? Are they? Yeah. But she's -- she's doing a good job. Gets treated unfairly but we're all treated, you know, we're all treated unfairly.
They closed up your churches. You had people that had -- had their services outside during COVID, spread 15 and 20ft apart, and they were arrested by lunatics, you know, so it's one of those things. But we are very thankful for Charlie and Erika. We're very thankful for -- uh, I think to me, I'm just looking I see, I know almost most of you, and we're very thankful to the people in this room.
And May 17th, I'm inviting every American to the National Mall for a day of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. And as we approach America's 250th anniversary, it's going to be something really special. We have the Olympics. Think of it. We have the Olympics and we have the World Cup and we have 250. I tried to take credit for all three of them and it worked with the Olympics and the World Cup, but they didn't give me credit for 250. They said you had nothing to do with 250. So I said -- but we'll, uh, we're going to gather and rededicate ourselves as one nation under God. It's going to be I think it's going to be great.
And in that final spirit of prayer, I'd now like to ask Pastor Paula White, Reverend Franklin Graham, Pastor Marilyn Rivera, and Bishop Robert Barron to lead us in prayer during this Easter season. Thank you very much and, Robert, I think you can come up too, if you don't mind. Come on up. Come on up. Come on up, you two. Come on up. Come, come. We have some great people in this room and we're leaving a few out but it's only because we don't see you. OK.
Paula White: Stand here, sir.
Trump: Sure.
White: We'll take that. First off, thank you so much, President, and for all the great faith leaders that are here, Happy Easter. This is a very holy week for us, and we're just honored you took your valuable time for all of our cabinet members and secretaries, we thank you. And most of all, I really feel like the Lord gave me something this morning and this is family. So I want to thank you very much.
Trump: You should've gotten dressed up a little bit more. [Laughter]
White: I know. We -- we were initially having a dinner, so.
Trump: It's actually nice.
White: Thank you, sir. And so I decided to wear it anyway. But the Bible says to give thanks for all things and as I was praying this morning, the word gratitude just kept coming to me and so there are so many things I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for salvation and the finished work of Jesus Christ and my family.
And the list would go on and on but as I prayed, it was like the Holy Spirit just zoned me in and said, tell President Trump how thankful you are for him, and I think I'm -- [Laughter; Inaudible] -- and I felt like I was conveying the heart of God for all of us, that we are thankful for the greatest champion of faith that we've ever seen in a president and we honor you because of your bold, unwavering conviction and stand for religious liberty here in America and around the world and you recognize the power and the name of Jesus Christ.
I remember when we told our first briefing, you can now pray again and worship again. They begin to shout and praise and say, thank you, Lord, and sing in their highest ways. For your unwavering recognition that the strength of a nation is through Almighty God, and you have not backed away from any of this.
Thank you for allowing me to serve you, to serve people of faith and to serve the American people. I've heard many people take credit for you being here, or for some of your victories, and for being in the sacred office of the president but the truth of it is, is you're here because of God and because of you.
And I just wanted to share this thought and pray over President Trump. Jesus taught us so many lessons through his death, burial, and resurrection. He showed us great leadership. Great transformation requires great sacrifice and, Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price.
It almost cost you your life. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It's a familiar pattern that our lord and savior showed us, but it didn't end there for him and it didn't end there for you. God always had a plan. On the third day, he rose he defeated evil, he conquered death, hell, and the grave and because he rose, we all know that we can rise.
And, sir, because of his resurrection, you rose up because he was victorious, you were victorious and I believe that the Lord said to tell you this because of his victory, you will be victorious in all you put your hand to. Amen because God is with you and God is using you to defeat evil, to restore families, to awaken the church, to harvest the nations, and to bring a worldwide revival.
So I'm going to ask something would you all stand, and just if you're comfortable, stretch your hand towards our President and even if -- Reverend Graham, you'd like to lay hands on him and Pastor Robert and just come in agreement with me for second Chronicles 7:14 declares, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.
Trump: So today we humble ourselves and we seek you, Lord Jesus. You declared in Proverbs 14:34 that it said, the righteousness exalts a nation so we declare righteousness over America, and that every decision that is upon President Trump's shoulders, he will make them in your righteousness. We declare Psalm 32:12 that blessed is the nation whose God is lord.
So today we declare that America is blessed. As President Trump has decided to rededicate this nation on May 17th to you, oh, Lord. So we invoke your name, your power, your mercy, your grace. We pray James 1:5 over him, that you will always have the wisdom of God all the days of your life. I declare Psalm 91 over you that you will be satisfied with long life.
I declared that everything you touch, you will have the favor of God according to Luke 2:52, even as Jesus was favored with both God and man, so let it be with President Trump and I pray over his household and his family not only do we secure his life and his calling and his purpose, but that he will have generational blessing over his family, for generation after generation will call upon the name of the lord and be blessed. We thank you for the gift that you gave us in our president, and everybody said amen.
White: Thank you.
Franklin Graham: Thank you. Let us pray. Father, you tell us in the book of Esther that the Persians, the Iranians were wanting to kill every Jew woman, child and do it all in one day but you raised up Esther to save the Jewish people. Father, we thank you. Today the Iranians, the wicked regime of the -- of this government wants to kill every Jew and destroy them with an atomic fire.
But you have raised up President Trump. You've raised him up for such a time as this and, Father, we pray that you'll give him victory. Father, we pray for our military that you'd watch over and protect them. Father, we pray for the -- the people of Iran who want freedom to be set free from these Islamic lunatics.
Father, we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, who came to this earth to take our sins, that he died and shed his blood on a cross for our sins, that he was buried he took our sins to the grave, but you raised him to life and, Father, we thank you and we praise you and we give you the glory. Father, protect President Trump. We pray this in Jesus's name, amen.
Marilyn Rivera: Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful day, and we thank you for everybody that's here. We thank you for the joy of Easter that reminds us the hope -- that hope is alive, that love is true, and that you are still working in our hearts. Lord, we thank you and we right now pause and think of Jesus sacrifice.
And we thank you for his resurrection power that gives us a new beginning, fresh mercy, and an unshakable faith. Lord, I thank you for our president. Thank you that he acknowledges that we need faith, faith in our homes, faith in schools, at work, and our nation. Bless and protect them, God, and may all of us work and walk together in unity. May we show your way in everything that we do. May we reflect your goodness, your light, and your love, and we give you honor and praise. Amen.
Robert Barron: And let us pray. Heavenly Father, almighty and eternal God, provident lord of history, we come before you today in an attitude of humble gratitude. We're thankful, Lord, for this opportunity to be together in fellowship, for the faith that unites us and for the blessings of liberty that we enjoy as Americans.
We are grateful, above all, on this holiest week of the year for the gift of your son, Jesus Christ, who is the yes to all the promises made to Israel, who is the lamb standing as though slain, who is the Alpha and the omega, who is the lion of Judah, who is the desire of the everlasting hills, and who is the word made flesh and splendor of the father.
Father, you so loved the world that you sent your only son, that all who believe in him might not perish but might have eternal life. On Good Friday you sent him indeed to the very limits of God, forsakenness that he might gather back to you even those who had wandered furthest away. On the cross he took upon himself the sins of the world, injustice, cruelty, hatred, violence, betrayal, denial, that he might swallow them up in the ever greater divine mercy.
On Easter Sunday, Father, you raised him from death showing your victory over all the powers of darkness. Having met the risen Jesus, Saint Paul could therefore say I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature, can ever separate us from the love of God. We bless you, Father, for you've given us the privilege of declaring the kingship of Christ to the world and calling all people to be subject to him.
And so, Lord, conform us to Christ, your son. Clothe us, we pray, with his compassion, his meekness, his love for the poor. And, Father, we ask you to bless our country make us prosperous and safe, but above all, make us morally upright and order our freedom toward your truth. Bless our troops, especially those who are most directly in harm's way, protect them.
Make them righteous warriors. And finally, Father, bless our President give him the grace, the courage, the wisdom, and the prudence he needs to perform his duties according to your will. We say with gratitude that we are a nation under God. We acknowledge that in you we live and move and have our being.
We know that our freedom and our rights come from you. Continue therefore, Lord, to shed your grace on us and to hold us all in the palm of your hand. We pray through Christ our lord. Amen.
Unidentified: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Mr. President, I just came from Venezuela yesterday, and the fire of God's holy spirit is being poured out over that country. I bear witness to you. I preached over 10,000 pastors in an arena, and the fire of God fell on that place I think in large part because the force of evil was displaced in that nation.
Unidentified: Your leadership extends beyond what I think you know, because January 3rd was a pivotal moment for that nation and there is a fervor and an excitement and a zeal for God there because of the freedom that has been loosed in the country.
White: Awesome.
Unidentified: So that same fire that's there, I'm going to ask that God would pour out that fire over us here in this nation. So join me as I pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for resurrection power. We thank you for the anointing of your holy spirit with authority that's over this place and over this house and over this leader. We pray for an increase of the ministry of your holy spirit here in all of us, that the fire of your spirit would rest over us this season in a new way. In Jesus holy name, amen.
Ralph Reed: Let's pray. Father, what a great privilege and honor it is, what a blessing it is to be Americans, to be chosen to live in this place, in this time and what a special blessing, Lord, it is to be here in the White House, the home of our president, and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and savior, the king of kings, Jesus Christ.
What a blessing. What a blessing it is to have this man as the leader not only of our nation, but of the world. God thank you -- thank you for causing him to turn his head at just the right moment. [Audience replies "Yes"]
In July of 2024, in a field in Butler, Pennsylvania and spare his life by your hand. Thank you that just weeks later, you caused an agent to see the barrel of a rifle at his own golf club, Lord, and you spared his life again. Thank you, father, that you had mercy on our nation and gave him the victory in November of 2024. We don't even want to think about where we'd be and I pray, God, that you would make him aware and cognizant in the deepest core of his being, that you spared his life, that you put him in this office and that you will give him victory and triumph in these battles that he is fighting.
We pray particularly, Lord, that you would give him wisdom, knowledge, understanding and discernment of a heavenly origin in this battle with Iran. I pray that peace would come to the Middle East. I pray that the Jews and Israel would be safe I pray that this evil regime would be taken down, and they'd never be able to obtain the most dangerous weapons the world has ever known.
And finally, Lord, we pray for the president and for this nation that the truth of the resurrection power of what Jesus did at Calvary would be a reality in their lives and in the life of our nation and it's in his name and for his glory that we ask it amen amen.
Robert Jeffress: I remember so well January of 2016, before one vote had been cast anywhere. I was flying around with then-businessman Donald Trump at different primaries, and we had just finished a Wendy's cheeseburger he served on that plane and I said, Mr. President, I believe you're going to be Mr. President. I said, Mr. Trump, I believe God has appointed you to be the next president of the United States.
And if that happens, it's because he has a plan for you and for our country. He said, do you really believe that, Robert and I said, yes, sir, I do believe it and God brought this to happen. I mean, who would have ever thought -- who would have ever thought that a billionaire real estate tycoon from New York City would usher in a spiritual revival in the United States of America?
So I want us to pray for him. Father, we thank you that you are a sovereign God. Your word says you are the one who selects kings and removes kings and in your plan, you have given us a great president not just once, but twice. Father, we -- every one of us in this room, first of all, want to pray for President Trump.
We want to pray for his physical safety, for the safety of our First Lady, of Barron and all of the family, for Vice President Vance. Father, we pray that you would protect them from those who would do evil against them. We realize this is not just a political battle we're in, it's a spiritual battle, a battle between light and darkness, a battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.
And we know you're going to prevail. And I just pray you would help us be an encouragement to this great president, that you would continue to use him in a mighty way and we focus on you, especially at this Easter time. Thank you for sending the one who came and died and rose again that we might have eternal life, Jesus our Lord. It's in his saving name that we pray. Amen.
Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody, very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.