TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Hosts a Dinner for Republican Senators, 7.18.25
[VIDEO]
President Trump: Fantastic. But, uh, a few people could have done what he did and what Mike Johnson did, the Speaker. And, uh, I think we've done more in three nights. I've been calling people at 2:00 in the morning, "Sir, we have three hard no's." They said, "It's 2:30 in the morning." I said, "Okay." That was an early one and, uh, we did this for three or four nights in a row. Right, John? Between the House and the Senate, there were a few hard no's. But almost always they came through and we got things done that few people could have gotten done. And this is like a, uh, easy night because we're here and I just said, "Let's celebrate. So who's ever in town, come on over," and a lot of you came over and we appreciate it. But we're just here to really, uh, take a little bit of a successful bow and productive, uh -- The production that we had, uh, over the last six months was spectacular. I don't think anybody has done more as all of you did then. And there's never been anything like it in terms of Republican Senate majorities in all of American history. You know that. We went back very carefully and we checked and, uh, nobody's done, uh, so much so fast. And probably, you could say with so few votes. [Laughter] I mean, we had 53 which is not bad. But that's not easy, is it? So let me begin by congratulating all of you. It's a truly amazing group of my friends and, uh, we have a few of our friends that were in their districts and states and I said, "Don't come back. Just relax." But we wanted to do this. The Senate GOP confirmed our cabinet with record speed. It was actually record speed. And now, we'll go a little bit faster ‘cause maybe one of these weeks, you'll just hold them all back. We'll get everybody in. Right, John? But -- but we're -- But we really, we really did. We had -- We have a lot of great people, a lot of really fantastic people, and they're doing a tremendous job. You stayed in session for a marathon, 10 consecutive weeks, and that's the longest of any Senate in 15 years and you held over 400 votes, more than any Senate in 35 years, and they were successful votes. And just a few weeks ago, we had the biggest victory of them all when you passed the One Big Beautiful Bill and I just signed it into law. And I call it the Great Big Beautiful Bill but I got overridden by a couple of my people. [Laughter] They said, "Let's call it The One Big," but it is really The Great Big. And we deliver the largest tax cut in American history, the largest spending cut in American history, the most deregulation in American history, and the largest border security investment in American history and the biggest success on the border in American history. As you know, last -- last month, we had -- And we went from millions of people coming in, we had zero illegals coming in to our country. And we're trying to get our country straightened out and you can't do that if they're gonna come in by the tens of thousands. We had zero. Now, I'm not even sure I can believe zero. But it was a very liberal group, as you know, that keeps that tabulation and they gave us a zero so I think we'll take it. But it certainly wasn't very many. And, uh, the One Big Beautiful Bill delivered on more Republican promises than any single piece of legislation that's ever been voted on before. And I want to thank Senate Majority Leader, John Thune. Again, John, it's, uh -- What you did is amazing, record-setting, and you're a good man too. You're a very good man. He really is. Majority Whip John Barrasso. John, thank you. What a man. What a guy. We got along from Day 1, right? He knew more about the medical stuff and I said, "What do you think about this, that?" You, uh -- You did a fantastic job and for a long time. Republican Policy Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito. Shelley, thank you. Thank you, hunny. Thank you, Shelley. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, good job. You know your stuff. I was calling -- I was asking him some very tough questions on taxes. You always had the answer. Some of which I didn't like but that was okay. [Laughter] But you always had it, you know that -- You know your business. Thank you, Mike. Great job. Senate Budget Committee Chairman, a gentleman named Lindsey Graham, just took about a big lead in the polls. You're leading big. That's pretty good. Lindsey Graham. And all of you, I mean, uh, just everyone in this room is special. We've had -- You're all friends and, uh, you've just been incredible people. Because again, getting all of these votes with -- You know, when you can't get -- You can't lose two and we had a couple -- You can't lose two. And, uh, we actually had it where we were down much closer than this and we said, "We're a heart attack away from losing the Senate. We were just helping. Everybody is gonna stay good and healthy." [Acknowledges "That's right."] But we were -- We had some pretty close moments but, uh, I don't think anybody's ever come close to doing this with a pretty tight majority to put it nicely. So now, we have three and I think we have a chance in the midterms. I don't understand why they say that, uh, when you win the presidency, you always almost automatically lose the midterms because nobody's had a more successful period of time than we have. So based on that, we should do great and we'll see. But nobody's done more than we have as a group. It's not me. It's all of us together. And I'd like to, uh, thank Vice President J.D Vance, who's here someplace. Thank you. Thank you. And he's been, he's been so terrific, J.D, and we appreciate it. And you helped us a lot during those late evenings over the last three nights. And, uh, you really have been tremendous. And Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. This man is traveling all over the place. He's always traveling. He's going to different country. He loves it. He's a natural. He's a natural. There's never gonna be anybody better than the job you're doing right now. We appreciate it. We have some big things coming up too. And Marco, we have some big things coming up, right? Some big things and some very positive things. And thank you very much. Doing a fantastic job. Who would've thought? We fought like a -- He was so tough, Ted. He was tough on that debate stand, right? And, uh, you were very tough on the debate stand too. You guys were brutal. Who would think their my friends? [Laughter] And now they're my friends. Well, they said, they said it about Lincoln. He brought in all his enemies. Well, I don't know. They were sort of enemies, but they were very talented people, I want to tell you that. Director Russ Vought is here. And thank you very much. Yes, where are you? Thank you. Great, great job. And all of the wonderful spouses, the most important people here are the spouses. 'Cause without the spouses, without the spouses, it wouldn't, it wouldn't work. And we want to thank you and also for the time because, uh, your wives and husbands, I mean, they were, they were very busy, uh, getting home at four o'clock. I can vouch for every single one of them. Getting home at four o'clock. [Laughter] Getting home at four o'clock, five o'clock, six o'clock in the morning. And you're saying, darling, were you really in Congress? Were you really? Were you really sitting in your nice Senate seat? I don't know. So, but no, they, they worked long and hard and they, and you know what? They, they'd laugh. They, they never complained. They never complained once. And very few of them went back. They just, uh, sit late into the night while we got those final votes. Pretty amazing. In 2024, together we won a mandate from the American people. We won every single swing state and the electoral college, 312 to 226. And, uh, it was, that was a big, that was a big, remember they said there is a path to 70. You have to have 70 and, uh, 270. And there's a path to 270. And yeah, the path was 312. I mean, it was, uh, I remember I went to Nebraska to get a half, to get a vote, a single vote. And I went there and it turned out we didn't need it. There was a certain circumstance under which that would've been a very important vote. And they were great in Nebraska, but we didn't need it. So we got two -- 312. We won the popular vote by millions of votes. So we won counties throughout America, 2,750 to 525. Think of that. 2,750 to 525. That's called a landslide. And the One Big Beautiful Bill delivered on that mandate. And we've, uh, fulfilled so many of our promises. Uh, in fact, somebody said today, a person that's not particularly good for us said that we actually fulfilled more promises than we promised. Which is a pretty nice statement. You don't hear that very often, but it's true, by a lot actually. And that's just the beginning. In January, we passed Senator Katie Britt's Laken Riley Act. Where's Katie? Katie? And a few months ago we passed Senator Ted Cruz's. And this was done with a very, uh, fantastic woman named Melania, right? You worked together. First Lady. And, uh, you passed the Take it Down Act. Something that was very important, that actually had very good bipartisan support, almost unanimous support. [Inaudible] couple of people, I -- I won't tell you their names, but a couple of people. [Laughter] But, uh, that was, that was incredible. So that was with Ted Cruz and Melania. We appreciated it, Ted. That was a great job. And just this week we passed the Rescisions Act of 2025, slashing nearly $10 billion of waste. And, uh, I guess I could say some fraud and some abuse, but at least we can say waste. Almost $10 billion. And we have, uh, numerous other rescissions coming up, adding more, many more, 10, $10 billion to it. So we're saving a lot of money. And on Wednesday I signed the Halt Fentanyl Act. And earlier today I signed Senator Bill Haggerty's Genius Act and he named it after me. And I was really -- Happy. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. That's why I liked it very -- I pushed very hard because of that, but, uh, to make America the crypto capital of the world, and that's what it's become. China wanted it. A lot of countries want it, but we are so far ahead. I think nobody's gonna be able to come close anymore. So I want to thank you very much. Great job. Uh, we also did something that, uh, public broadcasting, they've been looking to get it out of there for billions and billions of dollars, and very, very unfair. Very, very unfair reporting. They would, uh, I would say they make CNN look honest. And, uh, we got rid of it, finally. We got rid of it. We got rid of billions of dollars that was wasted on that. And Ronald Reagan tried. Everybody tried, you know, everybody tried since Ronald Reagan and before, and John, we got it out. And I know it doesn't sound so nice when they hear, that's terrible public broadcast, it sounds so innocent. It's not innocent. It was brutal. It was brutal. Very unfair. We achieved more in six months than almost any administration could accomplish in eight years. And we're gonna have a lot of good six months left. We're gonna have a six and another six and another six. So we'll keep going and, uh, we're gonna really do something. Something I'm very proud of. We stopped a lot of wars, a lot of wars, and these were serious, serious wars that would've been going on right now. You had India, Pakistan that was going, and in fact, planes were being shot out of the air. 5, 5, 4 or five. But I think five jets were shot down actually. And Lindsay, that was getting worse and worse, wasn't it? Huh? That was looking like it was gonna go. These are two serious nuclear countries and they were hitting each other. You know, it seems like a new form of warfare. You saw it recently when you looked at what we did in, uh, Iran, where we knocked out the nuclear capability. Totally knocked out that, it's gonna be gone for a long time. But there, there seems, there seems to be a hit. And then another hit a hit and another hit, it's a different thing, but Indian and Pakistan were going at it. And they were back and forth and it was getting bigger and bigger. And we got it. We got it solved through trade. We said, "You guys wanna make a trade deal? We're not making a trade deal. If you're gonna be throwing around weapons," and maybe nuclear weapons, both very powerful nuclear states. Uh, we did the Congo, this was going on for over 30 years, the Congo and Rwanda and, uh, close to 7 million people were really violently killed. This was a rough, a rough one, but going on over 30 years. And we had the, uh, various representatives here last week. The presidents will coming to sign final documents, but we got that one solved. Armenia and Azerbaijan, we worked magic there. And, uh, it's pretty close. If not, it's already done. And, and Gaza, uh, we, we, we got most of the hostages back. We're gonna have another, uh, 10 coming very shortly. And, uh, we hope to have that finished pretty quickly. And Steve Witkoff has been fantastic. He's done a great job in that. He's a, a very good man. Good dealmaker. I said I need a good dealmaker with a good personality. And there aren't too many of them, but Steve is, and he's done a great job. Serbia, Kosovo, they were going at it. They've gone at it for years, I guess for centuries, but they've gone at it for years. And we got that one taken care of. And Egypt and Ethiopia, as you know, they've been fighting over the dam. Ethiopia built a dam with United States money, largely. It's one of the largest dams in the world, and it has one little problem. It doesn't allow much water going into the Nile River. So you can imagine Egypt's not thrilled 'cause they, they, they live off the Nile River, the Nile River, it's, it's blood, it's heart, it's everything. And, uh, we think we have that one pretty well taken care of. But, uh, that was, that was a pretty bad thing. I, I was watching this as it was going up. I get pictures and satellites and everything, and I'm looking at this massive dam and I'm saying, "Is that gonna be blocking the water to the Nile?" And anyway, that should have never sort of happened the way it happened, but financed by the United States of America, the whole thing is a little crazy. But we got that solved. I think that's gonna be pretty long term. Over the next year and a half, we'll have an incredible record to share with the American people. As long as we continue to keep our promises to the voters, Americans will continue to stand by our side. And in 2026, the Republican majority, I think, is gonna be stronger in both the House and the Senate. And I really think it's gonna be potentially much stronger. Look, nobody has done what you people have done, I think ever, I can say, just about ever in the Senate. And we did it all in six months. It's, uh, I think Sunday night is actually six months. So, uh, I really congratulate the people in this room. It's incredible. And, you know, I did a good job, but I couldn't have done it without you. I couldn't have done it without great leadership. And, uh, it's really, it's really terrific and I appreciate it very much. And I guess we have a very, very simple phrase that we've gone by. Make America great again. You know, it's as simple as it can be. And I remember our opponent, Biden, uh, saying, "We will stop America great again." I said, "No, no, you want to make America great again, Joe." He said, "We will stop MAGA, we will stop MAGA." I said, "Without No, no. MAGA's a good thing. It's make America great again." But, uh, the election we had was unbelievable. The result was, uh, you know, pretty, they say the, one of the great, one of the great elections in 129 years, they're talking about. I said, "Well, I don't know where the 129 years goes, but we'll take it." Uh, but I just want to thank you because without your help, we could not have done what we've done, or even come close. So great job to John and everybody, we appreciate it very much. And we're gonna have a good, we're gonna have a good meal tonight. I said, "Give us the A meal, not the B or the C." And uh, it's really a celebration of great political people, great political minds, and wonderful men and women. Thank you all very much, it's a great honor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.