TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Discusses the Economy in Rome, Georgia, 2.19.26
[Video]
President Trump: [Audience chants "USA"] Thank you, everyone. Thank you very much. It's great to see a vibrant place like this. As you know, about a year and a half ago, it wasn't so vibrant. I'm looking at all this brand-new steel and equipment that just went up because of our tariffs, because of our president, but because of our tariffs. And I'm thrilled to be back in the great state of Georgia, with the men and women of an incredible American company, the Coosa Steel Corporation. For more than 50 years, the hardworking Americans at Coosa Steel have poured out their sweat and blood and tears to turn into what -- look, you wanted to take raw material and you wanted to take beautiful metal and you wanted to turn it into the highest quality steel racks and plates in the business, all stamped with those really beautiful words -- you don't see it too much, but now you do again, made in the USA, right?
And this company prospered and grew from humble beginnings in a Georgia manufacturing. What happened is you became, in a very short while, a Georgia manufacturing giant. But then you watched your core business start to fade. I just spoke to your great owner and he is, uh, he's great, but he got hit by stupid politicians, basically, making specialized steel tire racks dwindle from two bustling shifts to six days a week down to one shift and one hour, one hour a week.
Then you went back up to two days, then you went back to three days, then you went back to one day, then you went down to one hour, because all the business was going to China and other countries from outside. And it wasn't only here. It was other plants also. I assume your friends, likewise, were having the same problem.
Your jobs were being stolen as foreign nations dumped their subsidized products. Don't forget, China and these other countries, they pay for it. It's all subsidized. You don't get too much subsidy, but they dropped the subsidized products on our market to try and put Americans out of business, and that's what they were doing. You're lucky you have a man that is so proud of this place. He kept it going, barely kept it going. It wasn't easy. You're a lucky guy. But now, thanks to the fact that we got elected on November 5th -- -- and thanks to what I call the Trump tariffs, business at Coosa Steel is booming again. We just spoke, it's booming. And in October, you received your first large order for tire racks since 2014. It was a big massive order. In fact, this great man right here thought that they made a mistake. He said, it can't be possible. No, it's called tariffs. I said, my favorite word in the whole dictionary is tariff and I got in trouble.
Look at all the fake news back there. Look at them. [Audience boos] I got in trouble. No, I got in trouble with them because I said, tariff is my favorite word in the dictionary. They said, what about family, what about God, what about wife, children? I said, all right, it's my fifth favorite word. Now I'm OK. They've treated me OK since I did that. They didn't like it when -- but it's -- it's my fifth favorite word in the dictionary. You're back to producing at full speed, two shifts a day and he's going to three shifts a day, six days a week. And you've got a backlog now that's seven months long. What a difference, from a couple of hours a week to seven months long.
And it's all because you finally have a president who put America first. That's what it is. But it's also -- It's also because I impose powerful 50 percent tariffs on foreign steel where they were coming in and dumping crap all over our country. I ended every one of the Biden-era exemptions and on August 18th, I added new tariffs to cover 400 derivative products, including steel racks, which is what you make.
So I say, congratulations, and what a great comeback. This is a comeback that two years ago, right, you were almost -- I don't want to say out of business, but you're almost out of business. I guess I can -- he said, you can say it. You were close. He was -- he was borderline. He started telling his wife, let's have tuna fish tonight, darling, forget about the steak.
But stories like this company are right now playing out in cities all around the country, towns, villages all over the country. And to think I have to be in the United States Supreme Court for many, many months waiting for a decision on tariffs. Without tariffs, this country would be in such trouble right now. Without tariffs, this country would be like your company was two years ago. What a difference it made. And you know who brought the cases against us, people that are China-oriented, people that have business in China that want to rip us off and keep ripping us off, and the tariffs had stopped us. [Audience Boos]
And not only China, other countries too. People from other countries like Canada and others, they sue us. Canada has ripped us off for years, not anymore they're not. And I'm waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court. Can you imagine? We have to wait. I mean, I just heard the story today and I've told it a thousand times. I don't think I've ever heard it any better. I even took him back to the fake news where he related the story that he was in serious trouble. There was no business, there was no business anywhere. How is this place -- two or three years ago was not just here the whole area, it was a disaster and now it's vibrant. And we have to justify this because people come from other countries because they've ripped us off for 50 years and now we're doing the same thing to them. And we're being very modest about it, right, Howard? We're being very modest about it. We could go a lot further if I want to, because what they've done to us, other countries, what -- they've done, they almost put us out of business.
And I'll tell you, if I didn't win this election and if you had a moron like Kamala or a moron like Sleepy Joe Biden, if you had these people back, our country would have been finished. We wouldn't have had a country. So just yesterday I was visited by the CEO of the drug company, Novartis, and his name is Vas, first name, great guy. And he came into the White House to see our great chief of staff who happens to be with us with. Where's Susie? Susie is with us someplace. She is great, first female chief of staff and the best chief of staff and she wanted to bring him in. It's a big -- very big company, all based outside of this country and she wanted to bring him in. So I said come on. So I said hello. How are you doing? How's it going? Sir, I'm building 11 plants in the United States. I said that's a lot. How many do you have? None. But we're moving almost all our business into the United States and I said why are you doing that? Tariffs. Tariffs! Can you believe it, said tariffs? And I got to be before a court?
Can you believe it? This is like men playing in women's sports. Transgender for everybody. I have a new one to add, voter ID. The Democrats don't want to give us voter ID because they want to cheat. The only way they can cheat is if they -- look, we can stop them so easy, you know what they say, we don't want voter ID because it's racist. Ok, that's a good one. It's racist. Oh, I'll tell you what. When they look at the polls, 95 percent of the people want voter ID. Then you have proof of citizenship. So we want voter ID. We want proof of citizenship. For you to vote, let's prove that you're an American. So please proof of citizenship. They're fighting that.
They're fighting that and then we don't want to have mail-in ballots where they're mailed in from all parts of the place. Mail-in ballots are crooked as hell. We're the only country in the world that used this type of mail-in ballot, the only country in the world. I'll tell you what Republicans have to win this one.
We'll never lose a race. For 50 years, we won't lose a race. We want voter ID. We want proof of citizenship. And we don't want mail-in ballots except for the military far away, except for people that are ill, disabled or people that are away even for a vacation we'll be generous, Ok? Other than that we don't want mail in ballots because mail-in ballots they cheat.
Without tariffs, what would you do? You know what? Everybody would be bankrupt, everybody, the whole country would be bankrupt and I have to wait for this decision. I've been waiting forever -- forever and the language is clear that I have the right to do it as president. I have the right to put tariffs on for national security purposes, countries that have been ripping us off for years.
You know, what they're doing? Using tariffs. What a country. So sad. So just one year ago under Crooked Joe Biden, and he was crooked as hell, our country was dead. Now we have the hottest country. In one year, we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Right, Kelly? Remember when I used to say -- Fuller sort of reminded me -- I listened to your speech.
Very good. I'm endorsing that man, by the way, very strongly. I actually listened to your speech back there and you said, do you remember when the president used to tell the story about getting tired of winning? You reminded me, I haven't told that story in a long time. You're going to be so tired of winning.
You're going to be exhausted, you're going to be -- you're going to get tired of winning. Remember I say your governor or Kelly Loeffler, somebody's going to come up and say, President, President, please. We're winning too much. We're not used to it. Georgia's not used. We can't take it anymore. People are working too hard. They're making too much money. Please, please. We don't want to win anymore, sir. It's too much. I said, nope. We're going to keep on winning the people of Georgia want to win. I'm sorry, Kelly. The people of Georgia -- the people of Georgia want to win last week. It was announced that the United States added 172,000 jobs in the private sector.
We reduced in the -- you know, if I wanted to have really great job numbers, don't do any cutting in the public sector. You know, I cut off 3 or 400,000 jobs in the public sector and then I add many more than that in the private sector. And, you know, those public sector people that got cut, they hated me and now they love me because they've all gone out and gotten much better paying jobs in the private sector working right here for you. But we've created more than 5,000 manufacturing jobs in Georgia alone, and we've had a very good relationship with Georgia. And as factory construction gets underway, we've created 70,000 new construction jobs right here, 70,000. And you know what they're building? Factories like this. I said that that brilliant person right there, I see the yellow steel.
You know what that is? That's a crane brand new. I said how long has that been here? He said about two months. He said tariffs brought it here, sir. Your policy brought it here. So today, more Americans in the prime of their life are part of a labor force than at any time since 2001 and then you could go back another 25 years from that. And more Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country. Think of that statement. Any time in the history of our country, there are more Americans working today. In four years, Sleepy Joe Biden got less than $1 trillion of new investment into the United States. So in four years he got a lot less than $1 trillion.
But with our pro-American economic growth and the use of tariffs, we've already secured commitments for over $18 trillion. So think of this? In 11 months because we haven't even gotten the last month in 11 months, we have $18 trillion worth of investment coming into this country. And here's an example of a -- nice family by the way, that's better looking than your crane.
I like the family better than the crane. Very good but a good family. The stock market has set 53 all time record highs since the election, 53. Think of that, 53 days. It was at an all time record adding $9 trillion in value. But you got to go back for a second, so we do over 18 trillion in 11 months and Sleepy Joe for four years did much less than $1 trillion.
Think of that. This country would have been dead adding $9 trillion in value to your savings. I added $9 trillion and your retirement accounts and 401 s are at the highest level they've ever been. And then I have to listen to the fake news, talking about affordability, affordability. Do you notice what word have you not heard over the last two weeks?
Affordability, because I've won -- I've won affordability, I had to go out and talk about it, but we inherited a mess. We inherited the worst inflation in history, but I'd like to correct it because it's actually the fake news corrected me, he ordered -- he exaggerated. He said it was the worst inflation in history and it's only 48 years. So I apologize for that, Kelly. I apologize. So it's the worst inflation in 48 -- actually I think they're wrong. I think it is actually in history. We had the worst inflation in history under Sleepy Joe Biden. He was sleeping while you were working. Now he was sleeping while you were trying to get a job. You weren't working, and now we have the most people working in history. And just recently, we crossed two milestones, the most -- they thought it was totally impossible when the S&P hit 7,000 points and Dow Jones surged past 50,000. Again, I was supposed to do that within four years.
They said, he's got a small possibility. I don't know how many of you people watch the stock market, but if the stock market is good, that's good for everybody. That's good for you, good for everybody. But the stock market hit over 50,000 for the first time in history. They said, maybe, he might be -- this is right after my election in November. They said, you know, Trump's a great businessman, he might be able to get 50,000 by the time his term finishes. No, we did it, Howard, in one year, one year. Under the last administration, every economic policy punished American workers and businesses like this one, while rewarding those who outsourced to foreign nations. Under the Trump administration, our policy is the exact opposite, making it harder to outsource, while rewarding those who invest, hire, grow and build right here in the USA. We don't have countries coming in and stealing our businesses anymore. They were coming in for many years. I had it stopped in my first term.
We had a great first term. We had the greatest economic numbers we've ever had until now, but this term, I will say, it's blowing my first term away. We've slashed a record number of job-killing regulations, cutting 129 old regulations for every one new regulation approved. Think of that. So we approve one and we cut 129. And what that means is jobs. That's all it means. We ended the radical left war on American energy. Now oil production is up by more than 600,000 barrels a day and natural gas production is at an all-time high. Plus, we have a great relationship with a country named Venezuela. You've heard about Venezuela. And we're helping them very much with their oil. They got a lot of oil, we do too, but we're helping them a lot. We took 50 million barrels of oil, is right now floating very nicely in extremely large ships to Houston, where it's processed. And it's going to be great for Venezuela. The president is doing an excellent job, getting along great, but that was a very strong attack, would you say?
It was a very strong attack. That wasn't like Jimmy Carter. That wasn't like Sleepy Joe Biden in Afghanistan, where he had no idea, had no clue what he was doing, take the equipment. You know, I was getting out of Afghanistan. We were going to get out with dignity, strength. They feared us. But we were -- we shouldn't have been there, frankly. But we were getting out with dignity and strength, taking all the equipment. He left the equipment. They said, leave everything, let's go. I said, what do you mean you're leaving $150 million airplane? And one of the generals told me, that's when I knew he was a stupid General Milley, sir, it's better to leave the plane, I think it's cost efficient. You're going to leave $150 million plane because you don't want to fill it up with a tank of gas? These people were so stupid.
But now we have General Raizin Caine. He's a little different, a little different. He's a little different. I was told by my first -- I had these generals, you know, what the hell? I never did it before, so I picked a couple of losers. But the first ones they told me, sir, it will take four years to defeat ISIS. And I said, how could it take four years? We have the best equipment in the world, why? And I rebuilt the military my first term. I said, why would it take four years? They said, well, it would.
So I decided to go to Iraq and I flew to Iraq. I was extremely brave, in fact, so brave I wanted to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor. I said to -- I said to my people, am I allowed to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor? And you know, I've given out so many to guys that are seriously brave. I mean, they come in with their arms are missing, their legs are missing. Their stories are so unbelievable. And I said, no, it's a little stretch if I gave myself one of them. But it's one of those things. Someday I'm going to try. I'm going to test the law. I'm going to -- Brandon, I'm going to say, let's give it a shot. Maybe I'll win in court after everyone sues me, after radical left lunatics sue me. Now watch, the fake news -- you know I'm having fun. The fake news will say Donald Trump wants to give himself the Congressional Medal of Honor, but he was rebuffed by the audience who stood up and booed the hell out of him.
No, they say that kind of stuff. It's amazing. They say, if I'm sarcastic even a little bit, they make it sound -- you know, I said one thing the other day, a little while ago, a month ago, two months ago. I said, I don't think I'm going to make it to heaven in front of a massive group of people, 56,000 people. And they were all saying, oh, what does he mean? I don't think I'm going to make it to heaven. I'm doing a great job for a lot of people, but I don't think so. I'm just not worthy of heaven. I'm not going to make it. And I was having a good time going, you know, I was having fun. I hope to make it, but I doubt I will, to be honest with you. A lot of you will. I'm not so sure. But I was having fun. The New York Times has a front-page story, Donald Trump is now questioning his mortality. They made it like I was totally -- so you can't joke. It doesn't work.
Kelly Loeffler here, small business, small business, meaning big business. She's in charge of -- she's a Georgia peach. She's a great one, but she's in charge of, uh, all of the small business loans. It's called the Small Business Administration. When you add it up, it's the biggest, it's the biggest bank in the world or something, right? But she's done a fantastic job. Thanks, Kelly. To help businesses like this one expand production in the United States, we provided 100 percent expensing and bonus depreciation for all new equipment and capital investments, like that crane that you see back there.
And it's all part of the Great Big, Beautiful Bill. The Great Big, Beautiful Bill is basically a tax cut bill. And you know, when you hear the fake Democrats talking about it, like, oh, the Great Big, Beautiful Bill, you know, they try and mock it. We put four years' worth of goodies into that bill and everybody said it couldn't be done, you'd have to go into 17 different bills. It's all in that one and that's -- that is cut after cut. It's basically tax cut and business expansion. It's one of the greatest bills ever passed. Remember that when you hear these phony guys like Hakeem, our low IQ, I guess -- I mean, he's a pretty low IQ individual. But I hear him talking about no tax on tips, doesn't matter. No tax on overtime matters. No tax on Social Security for our 1.8 million Georgia seniors matter. Who's a senior in this room?
Unidentified: Yes, sir.
Trump: I refuse to raise my hand. I can't do it. I can't do it. I'm a senior. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. But think of it, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime for the people working here. How incredible. And for our seniors like me, no tax on Social Security. And watch what happens. They will now say, because I just gave them an idea, that Donald Trump passed the no tax on Social Security so that he could save a thousand bucks. Are they going to find me at conflict? They're going to say Donald Trump has a conflict. I'll make you a deal, I'll pay it, OK. You know what, I don't even talk about this much. I get no credit for it. So as president, I make $2 million over four years, $2.5 million. I waved it. I'm the only president that ever waved it, and they never ever talk about it. But every week some of the scum from the New York Times will call, did he waive it? And if -- my secretary would say, yes, he did.
If I ever said, no, he didn't, it would be a headline scandal. But you know that in the history of our country and this surprised me because we've had wealthy presidents before, in the history of our country, there's never been a president that waived his salary. I'm the only schmuck. I get no credit for it. You know what, I get no credit for it. Nobody ever writes about it. It's the first time -- we have a couple of front row Joes here. They've been to like 400 rallies. Thank you very much. Have you ever heard me even talking about it? I never talk about it. They've heard me talking about everything, but I don't talk about it. But I just did today because somebody said, you know, nobody's ever written a story about you waiving your salary.
You know, it's still a couple of million bucks. It's like not peanuts. It's estimated that these policies will help raise income in this state by $7,000 in the coming year. Every year -- boost household take home pay by over $10,000 and protect more than 200,000 Georgia jobs. It's amazing. No one knows the importance of tax cuts and fair trade more than businesses like this one. So now I'd like to ask the President of Coosa Steel, Andrew Saville, very nice name to come up and say a few words. I'd like to say -- because I'm telling you I met this guy and I he said something that his wife is going to be extremely upset. I said how are you doing? He said, president, if I didn't have all these cameras running, I would grab you and start kissing you violently. And I said why is that? He said, because what you've done for us economically in this state, in this town with the tariffs in particular. So I want to just introduce Andrew.
Andrew Saville: Thank you very much. Welcome to Coosa Steel. My name is Andrew Saville. As he said, uh, I joined here in 2001 with my dad. After I graduated from the University of Alabama. I've got to say, I've got to say, roll tide. I've got to. My dad bought this company in 1985. We began to diversify, add all American-made equipment, everything you see here, American made. We all -- we have all American-made steel, that's all we keep in all of those warehouses, all of it American made. So we saw the tire rack industry really dropping off around 2010 and it was -- it was tough on our racks department. It was tough on these guys you see down front these people that are used to this heat.
I'm sorry if some of y'all aren't, but this is nothing to them. But the tire rack industry was going to China. There were no tariffs, they were bringing them in and they were decimating the tire rack business in America. Your first term, we saw some things come back just a little bit here and there. The second term about July, the quotes, the orders. I couldn't keep up. They were coming nonstop. In October of 2025, we landed our first huge tire rack deal that we'd had in ten years. This is going to keep our racks department busy for two shifts a day, six days a week and we're pumping them out as fast as we can go and they're all going to Shippensburg Pennsylvania right in America.
Mr. President, what you've done for these guys down front, what you've done for our entire economy, what you've done for all of America couldn't be done without your favorite word, tariffs. You did it. You're making America great again. You're making all these guys more in their wages and we couldn't be more than happy to call you, Mr. President.
Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Wow, good man and, you know, I say the car industry is coming back the plants from Canada, they took a lot of our car business. That was a good job. You know, what he just said. You know, I had a speech to write, but I wanted to go from the heart. That's what you did and much better. That's much better than reading a speech. But our car industry is coming back like nobody's ever seen. It's all coming. They stole it. 52 percent of our car industry over the last 30 years went back to -- went to Germany, Japan, Mexico, Canada, all coming back. We're building plants all over the -- all over the country.
Nobody's ever seen anything like that. All because of -- look, it's because of, I guess November 5th, the election and all, but it's because -- because of the election, I did the tariffs, nobody else would have done it because nobody else had the guts to do it. And a great man, a great economist came in yesterday and said, sir, you did something that nobody has ever done. Nobody. 22 Nobel Prize laureates on economics oppose you on your theories on manufacturing and other things on the economy and you were on one side and they were all on the other side. They said we'd be in a recession and you were right, this is the boom like you've never seen before and even crime is way down. Crime is at the lowest level in 125 years before my father was born. But he said what you've done is amazing. You had 22 Nobel Prize winners in economics and you and you were the exact opposite of every one of them and they admitted now every one of them admitted -- but I had Howard, on my side, a great secretary of Commerce and I had Kelly on my side.
And I have Fuller on my side. I know that I got my Fuller. You better win that election and I had the lieutenant governor of this state on my side, Burt Jones -- Burt Jones. You know, all these guys are coming in now loaded up with some money. Who the hell knows how much money he's got? But Burt Jones has been here and been with you and been with me right from the beginning. He's been with me for so long right from literally the first day. And, Brandon, you've been so incredible secretary of the Treasury that's pretty good. You've come a long way. He's a very successful state senator with me all the way. These guys are with me all the way. I'm going to introduce him in a second.
Another Georgian whose workers will benefit from our tax cuts is Kirk Cowan. Kirk owns the GMC Value Mart, a family business and a fixture of this community since 1971 with 100 percent expensing. A lot of people don't know what that means, but basically you'd be able to deduct over a 40-year period, we're letting you deduct your expenditure over one year. That crane is deducted probably knowing him. I think the crane is deducted before you even took shipment. But, no, you're allowed to do it one year expensing. It's a big, big thing. It's why we had so many -- it's why we were so successful in the first term and now we even expanded it and we made it ten years.
In other words, it's good for ten years. With 100 percent expensing bonus depreciation and no tax on the overtime. And Kirk says that the tax cuts are helping him keep the store up and running and it's doing better than it's ever done before. So, Kirk, could you come on up for a second please, Kirk. Come on up, Kirk. Good looking guy. Come on.
Kirk Cowan: Good afternoon, Rome, Georgia. My name is Kirk Cowan and my family and I are proud to call this community home. I'm the owner of GMC Value Mart, a family-owned pharmacy and grocery combo my parents started back in 1971. If you've ever shopped at GMC. You know we're not a big chain supermarket, we have fresh meats cut in house. We know our customers by name and we work hard every day to keep prices fair for families. But running a small business isn't easy. Between fluctuating food cost regulations and pharmacy reimbursement rates that don't always reflect what we pay, it can fill out. The deck is stacked against you. That's why policies that support small businesses really matter.
Under President Trump's leadership, Section 179 limits have increased and permanent 100 percent bonus depreciation incentives make a huge difference. They allow us -- Thank you. Allow us to reinvest in equipment, which doesn't just help owners. It helps keep prices down, keep people employed and keep serving our neighbors. For us that means upgrading our pharmacy to stay competitive and continuing to support local schools and community events. It means GMC Valley can stay right where it belongs right here in Rome, Georgia. I'm grateful to have a president who understands small businesses are the backbone of town. Like ours.
Thank you, Mr. President for standing with local businesses. It truly keeps places like ours alive. Thank you. Thank you.
Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Kirk. Good job. Really good job. You think it's easy for these guys to get up and do that? It ain't easy, it's not easy and that was really a couple of great jobs. Another key part of our tax bill is Trump accounts. That's a big thing. These are the tax free investment accounts for every American child starting with $1,000 for every newborn baby -- every newborn baby. I also want to thank Michael and Susan Dell. Dell, go out and buy a Dell computer because they don't care about that. They care about this. They make a great product. They're not looking for any publicity.
I give them publicity they say, well, thank you very much but it's OK. He put up, they put up $6.25 billion. He started making computers on his bed. All of a sudden, he's got Dell. But he's a phenomenal person. She's a phenomenal woman. And they fund the accounts and they're going to have -- we're going to have funded 25 million children. So when they get to be 18 or 21, like these young, beautiful kids up front, they'll end up with a potentially really good nest egg depending on, you know, where the economy goes a little bit, but they could be quite rich. And it's -- they start with $1,000. And a lot of people now are putting tremendous amounts, because you're allowed to come in and put your money into those accounts.
And a lot of people doing it. Actually, way, way over -- over what we thought would be. It's been tremendous. I want to thank Michael and Susan. Joining us today is Bree Thomas, a local woman's clothing boutique owner, along with her husband, Austin, their newborn son, AJ. Brea and Austin are very excited to launch AJs Trump account with millions of dollars.
Think of this, millions and millions of dollars being put into these various accounts. But on July 4th, of this year, think of it, all you have to do is go to the Trumpaccounts.gov, go to Trumpaccounts.gov. People are putting in money and the people themselves are putting -- millions of Americans will benefit from these pro-job, pro-worker, pro-child policies. But Georgia's Senator Jon Ossoff and every Democrat in Congress voted against them. He voted -- Jon Ossoff, you know I competed with him numerous times. He ran against a woman, I think her name was Karen Handel. And he was leading her and they called for help. I came down and helped and she won. That was his first experience with me. And then I never heard from her again.
I think she said thank you, but she ran another race a couple of years later, she didn't win. She never asked me for help. That was a mistake. But she won and then, uh, Ossoff somehow got involved in the Senate race. I said, no, he's easy to beat. He's a real stiff, real stiff. You know what a stiff is? He's a real stiff. We don't want people like that representing Georgia. Who would think that Georgia has a stiff? Anyway, and with us today are some of the amazing warriors who, unlike Ossoff, have stood up for the people of Georgia, including Congressman Brian Jack, Mike Collins and Barry Loudermilk. You guys out? Come up, fellas. Come up. I got to get you. I got to get these guys up. These are great people. Come on up. Proud of -- they're warriors. But Loudermilk is going to take it easy now. I can't believe it. He's leaving. I can't believe it. We want him to stay. Say hello, fellas. Come on, Barry.
Barry Loudermilk: Mr. President, as I was sitting out there and I was looking back here to crane, you remember first term we were all on the Trump train. I think we ought to have a Trump crane right here, right? See Trump cranes all over -- all over manufacturing plants in the United States. Look, the greatest honor that I've ever had serving the people of Georgia is to work with this fine gentleman right here.
Yeah, he called me back in, uh -- uh, Memorial Day weekend, I got a call from the White House and said the president would like to come meet with you in the Oval Office on June the 1st. So I headed up to DC and I got over to the office early and when I walked in, we got a picture made and we were talking about something pretty important, about the investigation of January 6th. But after we talked about that, the conversation changed and he started telling me about this golden era of America. And when I got back to the office, the staff asked, how did the meeting go? And I couldn't stop talking about the golden era of America. I said, we're going to return to that time in America that we all heard about but our children have never experienced. And we are seeing that come to fruition right now because of your leadership. Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: Beautiful. Thank you.
Brian Jack: Well, it is good to be back in Rome, Georgia. Do we have anybody here from Georgia's third Congressional District? So that's my district, Mr. President. And the last time you and I shared a stage was in Rome, Georgia, two years ago when you endorsed me for Congress. It is special to welcome you back here. We're celebrating today, passage of the working families tax cut and as the president brought folks on stage, it is abundantly clear those tax cuts are working here in Georgia. They're working across the country and they're going to help us win in 2026. I -- I have the privilege of representing a district whose father represented behind me, uh, Mike Collins father, Matt Collins represented my district for 12 years and he is running to replace Jon Ossoff. So with that, I introduce Mike Collins.
Mike Collins: Thank you, Mr. President. That tie looks sharp on you. You look good. Thank you. What's up, Rome, Georgia? I want y'all to know something. It is a true honor and privilege to serve you in Congress and represent Georgia's 10th district, but I want to say one more thing. It is probably the greatest time in the history of this country to be a member of Congress because we've got true leadership and the guidance of President Donald J. Trump.
And I want you to know a couple of things. Now, we -- we need to grow our majority in the House so that we can continue with an America First agenda. But folks, we got to make sure that we put the right Republicans in to help us to get this job done. And Clay Fuller, you're going to help us do that. I'm going to leave you with one last thing, go vote. You have got to get out and vote. You get out and vote, you help us grow this majority, you help us out in November. I'm going to kick Ossoff out of the state's US Senate. We're going to restore Georgia values in that Senate and y'all, we are going to continue to take our country back. Thank you. [Inaudible]
Trump: I'll tell you, Loudermilk, I said, you were the one that they caught giving a tour of Congress to a couple of kids and a mother and a father, and they said that they were communists. They were actually constituents from Georgia. And it angered him so much that he became a wild man and he was very effective. And I appreciate -- I always say -- I said, he -- they picked on the wrong guy. Here's the guy, shows up with a couple of really nice country, beautiful people with their two kids. He's showing them the Capitol and they said, he's showing them classified information. He's showing them -- the people didn't even know what that -- nobody knew what they were talking about.
These people are sick. But I want to tell you, Loudermilk, that was very cool. You -- you didn't take it easily. A problem, a lot of Republicans are nice. Republicans are too nice. And they just sort of would listen and they won't comment. Uh, Barry decided to comment, to put it mildly. You made them go through hell. I want to just tell you, you've had a hell of a career and I hear you're not running and we're going to have somebody very good, you know that? But you are fantastic and did a great job. Thank you very much, Barry. Thank you. Great, very proud of you. I also want to thank Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who's got more good ideas.
He's a very, very successful guy. Thank you, Howard. Howard Lutnick. We have some big things happening. And I introduce you already to SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, who's an unbelievable woman, doing an unbelievable job, never let you down. Treasurer of the United States of America, Brandon Beach. He is a winner, a winner and a friend.
And he's another one, I didn't know him, but I kept hearing these wonderful things about a guy named Brandon Beach and he was fighting for us. By the way, did you see, they raided the Fulton County place, storage house. And now the Democrats have hired a massive team of lawyers. They have the ballots. That should be no problem, right? They have the ballots. FBI came in and raided, they found plenty of stuff and now they have the ballots. And the Democrats are fighting like hell, and I think it goes before a judge tomorrow, to not let anybody see the ballots. Why don't they want them to see the ballots after all these years? You know why they don't want, because they cheated.
That's why. They sent top lawyers down from New York to fight it. And I think it goes before a judge tomorrow sometime. They don't want him to see the ballot -- they've taken the ballots. They have them now. After years, they got an order from the court, signed order from a very respected judge and now they're trying to stop anybody from looking, you know why? Because they cheated like dogs. Agriculture commissioner from Georgia, Tyler harper. Tyler. Thank you. Nice hat. Nice hat. State Senator-elect Steven McNeel, a great guy. Thank you, Steven . Thank you. Great guy. State Representative Katie Dempsey. Thank you, Katie. Great job. Katie, thank you. Georgia legend ambassador -- well, let me tell you, he may be because you know Burt Jones was a really good football player and we have Gunner Stockton here today and he's really good.
He's really good, but even Gunner would admit that it's going to be tough to beat the legend of Herschel Walker. Do you agree, Gunner? Come on because, you know, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones was a great football too -- player too. But he said, I heard you were great Burt, but you were not -- you were not Herschel. Hey, Herschel, come on up with Gunner. Bring Gunner up here. Come on. Gunner has been a fan. I heard about this great quarterback for Georgia, young guy, handsome guy. We don't like handsome guys. I don't like being around him. I don't want anything to do with handsome people, but Gunner is a big star and a really talented quarterback. But I heard much more importantly, he's a Trump fan. So he was standing at the plane and anybody that likes me, I like them, but I hear he's got a fantastic future. Gunner and Herschel say a few words, please.
Gunner Stockton: Oh, this is a great opportunity. Um, just to meet a president and Donald Trump, this is -- it's an awesome experience and I'm just glad to be here.
Trump: Thank you. Look at this guy.
Herschel Walker: God is good. Promises made, promises kept. This is the president right here that's going to go down in history as one of the greatest presidents the United States has ever had is standing before you right now is President Donald J. Trump, because what he's done -- what he's done, he's given his blood, sweat and tears for the United States of America. So, we got to get out and vote and do the same thing because if we do not do that, we will lose this country because men shouldn't be in women's sports. I can know what a woman is. I know that guys should not ever be in women's sports. I know that we should, but we -- we should always respect the law because it's written in the Bible and we got to get back to what things are and make it simple. Make it simple and make it easy, this is the president to do it, get out and vote, vote, vote, vote the correct way because we want to save America.
Thank you, President Trump. I love you. I told him I will always fight for him. I've known him since 1983 and I tell you what he's the same man in '83 that he is right now and I love him to death. Thank you, President.
Trump: I'm looking at these two guys, they're like steel. I'm hitting them in the shoulders and it's like my hand isn't the same -- they like steel. Any women would like to tackle these two guys please? I don't know this whole thing with men in women sports is not working out too well. What a joke, but we added the new one. I'm telling you we have a couple of new ones coming up. It's you know, it's all about -- it's all about common sense. I also want to call up an incredible leader and a friend of mine for a long time. And I just want to let you know, a lot of people running, this man has my complete and total endorsement. It's not like, oh, gee, let me think about it. Burt Jones has been an incredible leader. He's been an incredible politician. He was a really great football player, but he has just been solid as a rock and he loves this state so much and I really want to see him when people are coming in with lots of money and lots of everything else.
But Burt has number one, he has my endorsement number two, he has the greatest career. He has been really, really good at what he does. I think Brandon would agree with that. Everybody would agree with that. Burt's been very special. So -- And I know Burt's father Bill is around someplace. Where's Burt's father? Bill is so great. You know, Bill was a big shot in this, but Burt's going to take it to another level, right? That's what we want. That's what his father wants to. Burt, come up for a second, please.
Burt Jones: Thank you. I appreciate it. Appreciate it very much. Well, needless to say, is he not the finest president that we've ever had in our lifetime? And I appreciate the compliment, Mr. President, but I can promise you I don't even sit in the same room with a Gunner Stockton and Herschel Walker in my playing days. In fact, I asked Gunner Stockton, how many SEC championship rings do you have? He said uh, maybe three, four, something like that. I was like we didn't get -- we -- we only got one when I played, you know, and, uh, that shows you how he is a -- he's a great football player, but he's an even better young man.
So I just really appreciate being with him today. But I want to tell you this real quick. The reason why I've supported Donald J. Trump since 2016, uh, through 2020 to 2024 is because he has done exactly what he said he's going to do and this -- for this country. When he said he's going to put America first, he did just that. He shut down the border. He's bringing jobs back to this country. He's -- he's making us the top world leader on the world stage. People now fear the United States and respect us all at the same time, which is very good. But when we were traveling down the roads here in Rome, Georgia, he was asking me all these questions and I was sitting there well. You know, I'm not really from here, Mr. President, but I can tell you as much as I want to tell you. I was like Rome, Georgia is -- is -- is blue collar America. Rome, Georgia is a place where they got great law enforcement because they got a good sheriff here. They got great healthcare services right here.
They got great leaderships like Katie Dempsey right here and it is a microcosm of what this country looks like. And so if we want to keep Georgia red, which we do, we need to elect America first, Trump-endorsed candidates across the board and I'm so proud to have his endorsement right here because us taking that Senate seat back and keeping the governor's seat in the Republican -- Republican column starts right here in the 14th district right here. So, we got to have your support and we appreciate you. And we appreciate everything you do, Mr. President, because you are -- you are the best. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Trump: Thank you, Burt. Great job. You got to get out and vote for Burt. That whole group, that whole group. You may have heard that last year the murder rate saw its single largest decline in recorded history to the lowest level in 125 years. With us today is a tough on crime district attorney here in northwest Georgia who helped achieve that feat, putting violent criminals behind bars where they belong. And I just want to introduce you because I know we spoke before for a couple of minutes and I heard what he said and I loved what he said. It just made me even feel stronger about him. He's an incredible young guy. He's going to be, uh, I think he's going to be just a total winner and it's what we want. Clay Fuller. And Clay, you have my total and complete come on up if you want, Clay. Come on up. We want to vote for Clay. He's, uh, he's going to take it home. Total winner. Everybody loves him. Thank you.
Clay Fuller: Thank you. I don't mean to disagree with Ambassador Herschel Walker and the lieutenant governor, but I want to see if the crowd agrees with me. Beside me is the greatest president in our country's history. Mr. President, I know you like a winner and that's what we're going to do on March 10th. We're going to win this. We're going to go to Capitol Hill and we are going to be a warrior for Northwest Georgia and we're going to be a warrior for this man and we will never stop fighting for the MAGA movement and President Donald Trump. And, sir, the endorsement was the honor of my lifetime, but I was wondering if you could do me one more favor. My beautiful daughter is here, Tallulah. She got detention to come and see you speak today. Could you pardon her please?
Trump: Yes.
Fuller: Thank you, sir. Thank.
Trump: OK. Thank you, Clay. And, Tallulah? Where's Tallulah? Stand up, Tallulah. Tallulah, you are fully pardon. Don't worry, just tell the teacher, I said it's fine. And you have a great father. We got to get out and vote for him, Tallulah. Thank you. Thank you, honey. Our tax cuts, regulation cuts, energy price cuts and job-creating trade policies are rapidly pulling America out of the economic disaster that Biden and the horrible people that he surrounded himself with -- He wasn't calling the shots. He wasn't calling the shots. The autopen people were calling the shots, whoever the hell worked the autopen. I don't know how he did it. You know, I have people, sir, would you sign this, we're making a four star general? Sir, would you sign this, we're doing a big plant? Would you -- They're all important.
You don't give that to an autopen. It's so demeaning. You're a general, you're an admiral, you don't give that to an autopen to sign. After gasoline skyrocketed to over $5 a gallon and in some places, $7, $8 and even $9 a gallon under Biden, our policies have brought gas prices way down. And now, at $2.37 a gallon. But I was in -- I was in a beautiful place called Iowa two weeks ago, $1.85 a gallon for gasoline, way down. All of it's come down. We inherited a mess with high prices and high inflation and we've turned it around and we've made it great. And they don't mention, like I said before, they don't mention the word affordability. Kelly, they don't mention -- I haven't heard the word in two weeks because they can't get away with the gig. It's all a con job with them. Airfares, hotels, car payments, rent, sports events, groceries, everything's down, everything's down, dairy, eggs, potatoes and chicken.
Core inflation is now the lowest of any time in more than seven years. The last three months, we've had the lowest inflation we have had in over a decade, the last three months, it's 1.4 percent. We had record inflation. You don't have it anymore. I'm going to make a State of the Union address on Tuesday. I hope you're going to watch, and we're going to be talking about it. But you don't hear the word affordability.
You know, they just say the word. They look at the camera, say, affordability. And I'd be watching, I'd say, oh, I can't believe it. Do people believe it? They would say affordability, everybody would say, oh, Trump's caused -- no, they caused -- they caused the affordability problem and we've solved it. And we're going still lower, but we've solved it. But more importantly, we've created the -- we've brought back the American dream. And we have a country, I think, that within the next 12 months, maybe sooner, but within the next 12 months, it's going to be the greatest it's ever been. I don't think we've ever seen anything -- when Steve Moore told me yesterday, he said, we've never seen numbers -- we're going to have an explosion of success, and that's exactly -- And the more successful our country, the more successful everybody in this room is. And under Biden, real wages plummeted by $3,000 a year and there's still much to do, frankly.
But our numbers came up; we outpaced inflation for the first time in decades. We increased wage gains for a typical worker, outpaced -- outpaced inflation by over $1,400. For miners, it was $2,200. And for the typical worker at factories like this one, it was almost $4,000 a year that we outpaced inflation. And that hasn't happened in many, many years. Every day, we're fighting to reduce costs and bring down prices for hardworking citizens, including crushing costs on healthcare. And in fact, I read a nice story a few months ago. I love to read things about healthcare. Can you believe it? I didn't used to read it, now I read it.
And what happened is I see that healthcare was spending, insurance companies are getting from our country for healthcare, trillions and trillions of dollars. And their stock prices have gone up by as much as 1,700 percent. How would you like to invest in those stocks, 1,700 percent? And I said right then and there, I said, and it went viral -- and knowing nothing about it, it went viral. I said, we shouldn't pay the insurance companies anymore, we should pay the trillions of dollars directly to the people and let the people buy their own healthcare. Put it in a healthcare account. And people loved it. And we're looking at it. We're looking at it. The problem is the Democrats are totally bought off and taken care of by the insurance companies, so they don't want to do it. They don't want to do it because they're captive to the insurance companies. Under our Most Favored Nation agreements -- and this is the thing that I think every Republican should win on, even if you hate them in every other way.
Agreements for drug prices, that we're slashing drug prices by 400, 500, even 600 percent. Nobody's ever seen anything like it, because we were paying the highest drug prices in the world and now we're paying whatever the lowest price is in the world. That's the price we're paying. And to do that was also tariffs. I went, I called countries. When I finally got the healthcare companies, the people that make the drugs to do it. And remember, that's going to lower your healthcare because medicine is a big part of the drugs and it's coming down at numbers like that. But I got the drug companies to do it and then they said, doesn't matter.
You'll never get the countries to do it, because the countries had to agree. So a pill that's selling for $10 in New York, is selling -- let's say in London, in New York is selling for $130, 13 times more. Think of that, 13 times more. So they said there's no way they'll ever do it. I said, yes, there is 100 percent. I started calling the heads of countries like France, Emmanuel Macron. He's a good guy. I said, Emmanuel, you're going to have to double the price of your -- you know, see, the world is bigger so you don't have to bring it up like to the middle. They would have to double or triple the price, but that's a lot for a politician.
I said, Emmanuel, you're going to have to lift your price by double or triple. No way, I will not do that, Donald. Why would I do that? I would be out of business. I said, no, you're going to do it 100 percent. No, no, no, I will not do that. I will not do that. Yes, you will. You're going to do it. And he said, no, no. I said, here's the story. If you don't do it, I'm going to put a 100 percent tariff on all of the wine and champagne that you sell into the United States. And you know what he said, I will do it, I will gladly do it. And that's going to cost you many, many times more. Right, Howard? Howard heard me with many people. I called Germany. I called many, many countries, Spain. Oh, Spain was, we won't do that. He laughed at me, thought I was a fool. We won't do that, sir, ha-ha. Why would I do a thing like that? Because I'm going to charge you tariffs if you don't, and the tariffs are going to cost you much more than what we're talking about.
And they all said, like I said, we'd love to do it. We'd be honored to do it. So the Republicans should win on that alone. Your drug prices are coming down by 70, 80, 90 percent, or depending on the way you figure it, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 percent. Think of it, depending on the way you want to calculate. There's two ways of calculating that number. We're also expanding the dream of home ownership and we are really right now in American dream territory. One of the biggest factors driving up housing costs was the Biden border invasion, which brought in millions and millions of people flooding into your communities, getting government subsidies on homes. Foreign-born workers now make up over one third of all demand for Georgia housing, driving up rent and housing costs. Now that we've secured our border, we stopped the invasion. Think of this, millions of people came through our border every single year, millions and millions of people. In the last eight months.
I don't even believe this could be possible, but it's close, zero. And that's done by radical left Democrats. Now, not one person in the last eight months has come through our border, except if they come through legally. So rent prices have hit four year lows based on what we've done by bringing down mortgage rates. We've also slashed the yearly cost of new mortgages by $4,000 a year and new mortgage applications are up 30 percent. And Kelly Loeffler is doing a fantastic job. In the last 12 months, Fannie and Freddie Mac helped 22,000 first-time home buyers purchase a home right here in the great state of Georgia. I love Georgia. We won Georgia big, didn't we? Too big to rig. It was too big to rig.
Vote for Burt Jones, vote for Fuller. To continue this trend, I'm ending the scam of Wall Street firms and large institutional investors buying up all of the single-family homes all over. They go in, they buy 10,000 houses, then people come out and they say, we can't buy a house. I ended it. Now you go out and buy a house. They can't do it anymore. Georgia was affected by this issue more than almost any state in the Union. But America will not become a nation of renters. We're not going to have a nation of renters. That's why I recently signed an executive order to ban Wall Street and large institutional investors from buying those single-family homes. Can't do it, not allowed to do it -- not allowed to do it. They were buying tens of thousands of houses, just buying them and putting them on the market for rent. And to stop surges in food prices. We take care of our amazing farmers. Nobody's taken care of farmers like I have. Nobody's ever received the votes of farmers like I have either.
I also recently issued $12 billion out of all the tariff money. We're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. We're going to be taking in next year $900 billion in tariffs unless the Supreme Court said you can't do it. Can you believe it? That I have to be up here trying to justify that with people like you. I have to put you on a stage in front of your family, but you did very well. So you could have been very embarrassing. You did very well. But it's a shame that I have to justify this because it's just common sense. We took in hundreds of billions of dollars. Out of that, I gave $12 billion to our farmers because they were taken advantage of by many, many foreign nations. And just over one year ago, we inherited a mess the results of ruinous inflation, economic surrender, a border invasion. They invaded our country. Rampant crime and chaos all over the world. But today we have ended that disaster America is back, our economy is roaring and our country is respected again, respected like never ever before.
We've achieved more in one year than most administrations achieve in eight years and we're just getting started. We're just getting started. We've got things that are happening that are as good as what you've heard. I don't know if they can get better to be honest, but they're -- they're good. With the help of Georgians we are here today. We'll be keeping -- we're going to have you do something we're going to have you keep on working, keep on fighting. Together, we're going to Make America Great Again. You know, I came up with that phrase a long time ago, Make America Great Again. Who would have thought It turns out to be rated, not by me, by anybody by stupid people, frankly, anybody would rate it the number one phrase in the history of politics in America, right?
It's called Make America Great Again. That's what we've done. And when the past administration and guys like Barack Hussein Obama -- have you heard of him? When they get up and they say we will stop MAGA, we are going to fight MAGA. We must stop MAGA. I'd say no, no. MAGA means Make America Great Again. You don't want to stop that and we're doing that and we're doing it at a much more rapid pace than we ever thought possible. Even the enemies are saying what's happened in this country in one year is a miracle. It's not a miracle, it's common sense. It's smart people working with incredible people like you, the people of Georgia. I want to thank you very much. And to the steel mill, I'm going to come back here in two years. I'm going to look it up, you'll be three times bigger and I appreciate it. Great words.
Thank you very much everybody. Thank you.