TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Speaks with Servicemembers Via Video on Thanksgiving, 11.27.25
[Video]
Trump: Everybody ready?
Unidentified: :Victor, are you ready?
Trump: Okay, we're all set. So –
Unidentified: Mike, are we ready?
Unidentified: Bring 'em up.
Unidentified: Chris, we're ready?
Unidentified: Yep, we're good.
Unidentified: Go ahead.
Unidentified: Is he –
Unidentified: You're good, sir.
Trump: I assume we're on and everybody sees us, I see you. A lot of great looking faces. Am I correct? Everybody's on, right? If you are, wave, if you're not, just, you can leave and go have turkey. [Laughs] Good. I think everyone's waving. Thank you very much. And I'm honored to speak with so many incredible members of the US military and to wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving. Before we begin, I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation at the terrorist attack yesterday in our nation's capital in which a savage monster gunned down two service members in the West Virginia National Guard who were deployed as part of the DC Task Force, which has done such an incredible job. I mean, until yesterday, we literally had no incidents for many months. It was the safest place imaginable, and this is a different kind of crime. This is a really bad crime. Millions of Americans are praying for those heroes and their families. And I must unfortunately tell you that just seconds before I went on, right now, I heard that Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we're talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person, uh, started service in June of 2023, outstanding in every way. She's just passed away. She's no longer with us. She's looking down at us right now. Her parents are with her. It's just happened. She was savagely attacked. She's dead. Not with us. Incredible person. S- -- outstanding in every single way in every department. That's horrible. As you know, the other young man is fighting for his life. He's in very bad shape. He's fighting for his life and hopefully we'll get better news with respect to him. And the monster that did this is also in serious condition, but we won't even talk about him. As you may know, DHS has confirmed that the suspect is an Afghan national, flown here by the previous administration who was such a bad administration. And I have a picture of a plane. This is what it looked like when they came in. It was total bedlam.
Do you remember that period of time? Total bedlam. People crammed onto the plane. And the toughest, meanest, most capable physically got on the plane, not the people that we were looking for or that they wanted to bring in. Here's a picture for you. S- -- just take a look at that plane. Standing on top of each other and sitting on top of each other. This is what we had under the Biden administration. That whole thing should have never, ever happened. They should have left from a different base. They should have left from Bagram. As you know, and, it would have been a much different story. But they didn't do that. And, uh, this was a, uh, this was just a route, just a terrible situation. This heinous atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country.
For the most part, we don't want them. They come in illegally. They have a lot of problems. Their countries force them in because their countries are smart. They don't want them. Let's give them to the Americans to take care of. They come out of jails in many cases, mental institutions, they're gang members, they're drug dealers. We don't want them. Many of the service members on this call today are engaged in crucial aspects of that mission. And to each and every one of you, I just want to thank you so much, incredible people. You make this sacrifice like few others understand. A lot of 'em don't even understand it. And you're keeping America safe and free. Our military is strong. My first term, I rebuilt our military, all aspects of our military. And in Afghanistan, we actually gave up a big chunk, but relatively, as much as it seemed like it's small compared to what we bought and to what we have and to what we're buying. We're spending over a trillion dollars this year on our military. We have our military, the best in the world. We make the best equipment in the world, and, uh, we have the best people in the world. So joining us this evening are six units deployed across our hemisphere representing every branch of the United States Armed Forces.
First, I want to thank the members of Army's legendary 101st Airborne Division. You know, I've heard about that for, since I was a little boy. The screaming eagles calling in from Fort, "Watch your car, Arizona." And you're led by Major General David Gardner, a real tough cookie and great general. I appreciate it, General Gardner. The 101st has done an outstanding job leading the task force, joint task force at our southern border. I mean, we have nobody coming in. They're not coming in. Under Biden, they were coming in by the millions. Now we have nobody coming in. We have a strong border. Nobody talks about it anymore. I'm not given credit for anything, just like you guys are not given credit for anything. We do the greatest job. But that's all right. They don't talk about the border anymore because, you know why? Nobody comes in. We had nine months now where we had nobody coming in. Zero. And this is being fed, this is, the people that do this are, they tend to be on the left. They'd love to say, "Millions of people came in through Trump," and they actually said, "Nobody ca-" Even I find that hard to believe, but they literally are saying, "Nobody came in." And I hope people appreciate the job that you've done and the job that we've all done, but we're stopping the invasion of our country. We stopped it cold. And if you remember, Biden said, "I need new legislation. I need new --" You didn't need legislation. I didn't get legislation. What you needed was a new president. So with your help, we now have the most secure border in American history. It's the single most secure border in American history. So I just want to thank you. And the 101st, I wanna thank you very much. The job you've done is amazing, working with all of our great people. We also have the men and women of the US Navy serving as part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group under Captain Christopher Farricker, and they're on board the USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean Sea. Working right by their side are members of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit led by Colonel Tom Trimble.
Thank you very much. I think you wave to me because I can see you then. Let's see. Hey, you are handsome people. They're beautiful looking people. Thank you. Like central ca- -- I could put you in a movie right this second and, the three of you and I think we'd have a top, a top grossing movie. You don't have people like you in Hollywood. Part of the 22nd MEU is also serving in Puerto Rico, the third battalion, six Marines, Devil Dogs, led by Major Ross Gilcrest. Where is Major? Where are you? Hello, Major. Another central ca- -- is everybody central casting? It's like they're all handsome, tough guys. I don't know what's going on here. But the Navy Marine Corps team is currently helping to defend our country, protect our interests, and decimate, literally decimate terrorists. The job you've done is incredible. I also want to thank you for your amazing work to quickly deliver life-saving aid to Jamaica in the aftermath of the recent hurricane, which was devastating. Thank you very much. Appreciate it, Major, and everybody. Appreciate it.
Next up are the airmen serving with one of the most feared bomber forces in the world, the US Air Force's 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas under the, under the auspices and, uh, leadership of Colonel Seth Spanier. Colonel? Where are you, Colonel? Let's see here. You're right there. Thank you, Colonel. All of you are backbone of America and you really are the backbone of America's air power. And in recent weeks you've been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many. Of course, there aren't too many coming in by sea anymore, if you probably noticed that. From sending their poisons into the United States where they kill hundreds of thousands of people a year. But we're gonna take care of that situation. We're already doing a lot. We, we've almost stopped, it's about 85% stopped by sea. You probably noticed that. Uh, people aren't wanting to be delivering by sea and we'll be starting to stop 'em by land also.
The land is easier, but that's gonna start very soon. We'd warn them, stop sending poison to our country. We also have the 18th Space Defense Squadron at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, headed by Captain Ryan Weber. Captain? Where are you, Captain? Thank you very much, Captain. Great job. Every day you maintain American dominance on the high frontier. You're the guardians of one of the most important domains we have to protect and you make us very, very proud of the job you do, Captain. Thank you. Finally, we have the great men of the Coast Guard, and I have to tell you, there are a lot of women in the Coast Guard now too, and we're happy about that. United States Coast Guard, aboard the Coast Guard Cutter, Forest Rednour, with Lieutenant Commander Alexis Wilde. Alexis, where are you? Hi, Alexis. Alexis Wilde at the helm. And I'm told that just last month the Forrest Rednour intercepted a boat with lots and lots of illegal aliens off the coast of California. It was loaded. And then turned them over to the Customs and Border Patrol. And they did it so professionally. The people were very, very impressed with the job you did, Commander. So, thank you very much. It was a great job. And thank you for defending our maritime borders with skill and with pride and the job you do. Amazing.
So, I wanna thank all of you again for your amazing service to our country. God bless our warriors. God bless our heroes from West Virginia National. God, what a group. I love West Virginia. And, uh, I wanna wish everybody a very happy Thanksgiving. We have a country that we, we can be very proud of. I was with the king of Saudi Arabia and he said, "You know, sir, last year you had a country that was a dead country. We thought it was dead. And now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world." And it's true. And we're gonna be having close to $20 trillion invested. That's record-setting by 10 times. Nobody's ever had anything like it. We're building plants. We're building, we're building factories, auto factories, AI plants. The whole thing with artificial intelligence. I don't know the word, I've never liked the word artificial. I don't know what artificial are. I think they ought to change the name. I've always said that's a lousy name to have artificial anything, but it's a big business. And, uh, we're building more. We're leading China by a lot.
We're leading everybody by a lot. We make the best military equipment in the world, and they're ordering it at numbers that nobody's ever seen before. But we're doing better than we've ever done before. We have the stock markets just hit for the 48th time an all-time high during the nine months that I've been here, a little more than nine months now. And, uh, so we have the hottest stock market ever. That's a big thing for 401(k)s and all of the millions of people with jobs and 401(k)s, everybody participates in that. But it's 48 times in a little bit less than 10 months, 48 times we hit an all-time high. And I think we're gonna continue because when these factories that we're building from all over the world, they're coming because of tariffs. I think because of November 5th, the election result, but because of tariffs and we're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars like we've never done before. And some of that's gonna go back in the form of a sort of dividend to our people. But much of it's gonna go toward reducing debt. And what it really goes for, and even better than the money we're taking in, is the fact that nobody's attacking our companies and taking 'em out, stealing 'em like they've been for many years. Because if they do that, they have to pay a tariff as they make products and sell them into our country. So we made deals with Japan, we made deals with South Korea, we made deals with the European Union where they pay us hundreds of billions of dollars and, uh, they participate.
They're now building plants. Honda is building plants, and they're all, every, every car company from all over the world virtually is building plants now in the United States because they don't want to pay the tariffs. So there's never been anything quite like it. It's been amazing. So we're taking in, think of it, hundreds of billions, next year it'll be a trillion dollars or more, but we're taking in all this money. At the same time, protecting our country. And we're respected again, they actually respect us and they made the deals. I mean, they respect us, but they pay us as an example, Japan, $650 billion. South Korea, $350 billion. European Union, $950 billion. And they are building plants now in the United States because they don't want to pay tariffs. So this is one of the biggest things economically that's never happened, nobody's ever seen anything like it. And over the next couple of years, I think we'll substantially be cutting and maybe cutting out completely. Uh, but we'll be cutting in income tax could be almost completely cutting it because the money we're taking and is going to be so large. And yet, other countries who have been ripping us off for many, many years and many years they've just been ripping us to shreds. Uh, China would take in 600, $700 billion a year, rebuild their military. And now we have a fair deal with China. We just met with Presidents Xi, we have a great relationship. We have a fair deal. We take it a lot of money in the form of tariffs. But, uh, so many, even our friends, I mean European Union, they're our friends, Japan, they're our friends. South Korea is our friends.
They're now paying us hundreds of billions of dollars. And they're also paying tariffs to come in. We're not paying tariffs to go in there. By the way, they're paying tariffs, but we're not. So that's a total reversal. But we are, uh, benefiting like, like they used to benefit against us, but we're benefiting even more. So I just want to thank everybody for making all of this possible without you, well, you know, we don't have any defense. And boy, do we have defense. We have the strongest military anywhere in the world. We make, as I said, the best equipment, but we have, more importantly, we have the strongest military anywhere in the world. And you saw that with Iran, with those beautiful B-2 bombers. They totally obliterated the nuclear, potential nuclear supply of Iran. And they did it in the dark of night with no moon, no light, no nothing. Early in the morning they attacked. You couldn't see a thing. And every single bomb hit its mark. Every single bomb.
The Atomic Energy Commission said it was total obliteration. Remember when some of the fake news tried to say, well, maybe it wasn't as bad. Well, it was much worse than anybody thought. And I wanna thank those pilots and all of the mechanics and all of the people that serviced and worked on the B-2 bombers, we just ordered a lot more of them. And, uh, the reason we did is they were totally incredible, totally invisible. They were stealth, nobody saw them. They knew they were coming, but they couldn't see 'em. And they dropped the bomb and then one of the pilots commander said, skedaddle, let's get the hell outta here. But they dropped those bombs and they loved doing it. They were so honored. They said to me when they came to the, I invited them all to the Oval Office, including the people that take care of the machines because, you know, they flew 37 hours both ways, 37 hours and there wasn't a sputter from an engine. There wasn't a broken screw. There wasn't a, a problem. There wasn't a chipped piece of paint. It was a flawless mission. I want to thank General Raizin Caine for that and Pete Hegseth for that. But it was an unbelievable event.
We have a country that's so respected again, but when the pilots came to see me and I gave them a medal, all of 'em, there were a lot of handsome people. They looked like Tom Cruise actually. It was very good casting. But, uh, I liked Tom Cruise. The last of our movie stars probably. But, uh, although we're honoring Sylvester Stallone a little while at the Kennedy Center, so I'm gonna put him in that same category. We have, uh, Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise. But I will tell you that they said, "For 22 years, sir, our predecessors and us wanted to make this attack. 22 years, they wanted to make this attack and they practiced it three times a year for 22 years. And no president gave them the approval to do it until you came along. Sir, we want to thank you." And I said, "Did you really enjoy it?" They said, "Sir, we loved it. We loved it." And these are brave men. These are from a different place than some of the people I know who aren't courageous. We have a lot of people that aren't courageous.
These people were amazing at the job they did. So with that, I'm gonna ask, uh, Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Rockwood, who's a highly respected young man, uh, to speak to you. And if you have any Question: s, I'll answer 'em. Unlike Biden, he didn't take questions but I take all the questions you want, you can ask me any damn Question: you want. And, uh, then we go and have a great Thanksgiving. 'Cause I don't know about you, you probably had your dinner already, but I didn't, and I know exactly what I'm gonna have, turkey. Okay? [Laughs] I believe it's Turkey. So, uh, Lieutenant Colonel, if you would, you take over. Go ahead.
Charlie Rockwood: Yes sir. We're gonna pass it over to Major General David Gardner from the United States Army.
Dave Gardner: Happy Thanksgiving. President Trump, this is Major General Dave Gardner, the commander of the 101st Airborne Division and your Joint Task Force - Southern Border.
Trump: That's right.
Gardner: I appreciate you saying I was tough. Everyone cheered. I assume that means they agreed with you. Um, we are headquartered in Arizona. The service members with me today represent over 10,000, deployed along the 2,000 miles of our border from San Diego to the Gulf of America. We support customs and border protection, US Border Patrol. And as you said, Mr. President, illegal aliens entering our country is at a historic low thanks to our collective efforts.
Trump: That's right.
Gardner: On this behind me, you may be able to see some of the images of us patrolling, reinforcing the border wall. And we're doing that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including today, Thanksgiving. Our, our soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen were able to have fantastic Thanksgiving meals and engage in traditional football games against each other. We're doing well. We all appreciate you taking some time from your family to speak with us today and thank you for your support, Mr. President and happy Thanksgiving.
Trump: Well, David, thank you very much. And one thing you said in the Question: or statement, probably I like a statement even better than a Question: , but I like that because you appreciate what we're all doing together. We're partners. But you said the Gulf of America.
Gardner: [Laughs].
Trump: And there's a thing that for actually 350 years, 100 years older than us, Mexico, it was called Gulf of Mexico. And I would say to myself, why are we calling it Gulf of Mexico when we have 92% of the frontage and they have -- I'm a real estate person at heart and they have 8%. And I made that change and it was amazing. It took literally a matter of hours and it was done. And nobody even, very rarely did they complain. We beat AP, Associated Press, very badly in a lawsuit. You know, they tried to get it stopped because they're not good Americans. I mean, who would want that stopped? But, uh, we beat them. As you saw, we beat 'em very badly in a lawsuit. But other than that, I mean, we had no complaints and everybody's happy with it, except Mexico. I wouldn't say they're thrilled, but they'll get, they'll get over it. But we now have the Gulf of America, David, the Gulf of , ain't that great? And I'm very proud of it every time I see it. And now, it's spoken of routinely. I saw it before, there was some event taking place down by Louisiana and they said, "Uh, we're here at the Gulf of America." And they're just talking about it like routinely now. They're not saying like Gulf of America and smiling, it's just, just routine. It's called now the Gulf of America. So I'm actually very glad you brought it up. That's another one of our many achievements. So thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Gardner: Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: Great job. Please.
Charlie Rockwood Sir, before we go on, do you have any Question: s for the President? That's in.
Unidentified: Uh, yes, Mr. President, this is, uh, Sergeant Major Anderson. I do have one
Question: Sir.
Trump: Yes, sir.
Unidentified: If you were to place a wager between the Army and Navy football game --
Trump: Oh.
Unidentified: -- Who would you bet your money on, sir?
Trump: You know, David, I think you should dock him. That's a horri- -- he'll get me in so much trouble. But I'll tell you what I will do. I'll be going, you know, you have one of those teams is having a, a spectacular year, and one of them, they're both doing well, but I'll be at the game, and I'm gonna let you know right after the game who's gonna win. [Laughs] It's gonna be a good game and you're gonna be watching it. I, I love it. I -- That's a place where we get a lot of cheers where we go in. You know, we got, we won the military vote in the largest number ever gotten by a president by far, despite the lies that they said about me. You know, they make up stories of lies, they're disgusting people. But we won the military by the biggest vote in the history of our election. So I like the military, but I like the Navy and I like the Army a lot. And I'm gonna be at the game. And, um, I don't know if you're gonna be there, you're pretty far away, but, uh, we'll be thinking about you and I'll be thinking about that wise – But we won the military by the biggest vote in the history of our election. So I like the military, but I like the Navy and I like the Army a lot. And I'm gonna be at the game. And, um, I don't know if you're gonna be there. You're pretty far away, but, uh, we'll be thinking about you, and I'll be thinking about that wise guy
Question: you just asked me. Thank [Laughs] you very much. Thank you.
Unidentified: All right, sir, with that, we're gonna go over to Major Ross Gilchrist from United States Marine Corps.
Ross Gilchrist: Good evening, Mr. President. The Marines and Sailors in this room from Battalion Landing Team 3/6 are ready, capable, and lethal to support readiness and lethality in support of Operation Southern Spear. We're here in Camp Santiago, Puerto Rico, conducting sustainment training, and recently, we conducted a mobile training team, employing first-person-view attack drones, conducting two-day strikes, and the first ever three-night strikes in the history of the Department of War. This represents a milestone in our combat lethality, increasing the capability of the Marine Corps and the joint service. Soon we're gonna prepare to support counter-narcotics operations in the ground, maritime, and air domains, and respond to crisis and contingency operations to provide you options, Mr. President, in support of national security objectives to protect the homeland. Marines and Sailors of BLT 3/6, the Hellhounds, are ready. We're the first to fight and at the tip of the spear, as an expeditionary force in readiness. Thank you for your support, Mr. President. Semper fidelis. Happy Thanksgiving.
Trump: Well, thank you, Ross. And you people are just amazing. You do a fantas- -- I knew every move and every single thing you said. I know exactly what you did and who did it, and I want to just thank you. You were amazing. And, uh, Border Patrol and all of the people here, eh, Border Patrol, every single one of them, these are great people. ICE, you know, ICE gets not the credit they deserve. They are unbelievable, tough, smart, and they're unbelievable Patriots. So, Ross, thank you very much. You really have done a-
Gilchrist: Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: -- great job. We appreciate. We love working with you. Thank you.
Gilchrist: Thank you, Mr. President.
Unidentified: Before we go over to the Navy, do you have any questions for the resident?
Gilchrist: Anybody have any questions?
Chris Farricker: Good af- -- good afternoon, sir. The only proper response to the colonel from [Inaudible] is go Navy beat Army. [Laughing].
Trump: Yeah. [Laughs] Okay, I gotta remember that. [Laughs] Thank you very much. They're gonna have a great-
Farricker: Yes, sir.
Trump: -- Game. Thank you very much.
Unidentified: All right, sir, with that-
Farricker: Yes, sir.
Trump: Hey.
Unidentified: -- We're gonna move over to Captain Chris Farrickey -- Farricker from the United States Navy.
Trump: Okay.
Farricker: Yes, sir. Uh, sir, on board here, Iwo Jima, uh, proud commander of the USC, uh, Iwo Jima Amphibious Readiness Group along with the 22nd new expeditionary. You already met my one brother from Central Casting, Colonel Tom Tremble-
Trump: [Laughs]
Farricker: -- And my other brother is, uh, Colonel Rick "Shooter" Haley: . Uh, behind me is so, uh, a few of the men and women who comprise the 10,000 Sailors and Marines of our Iwo ARG team, who are currently conducting maritime patrols against narcos in the Caribbean, in defense of the homeland.
Haley: Yes, sir, as you know that, uh, we have also, besides the missions that, uh, you know about, sir, we also reinforce the embassy in Haiti. We're getting engaged on a routine basis, both receiving fire from some of those gang members and returning fire, defending that embassy. Uh, we've also opened up operations down here in, uh, in the south, conducting e- -- Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations, uh, at Roosevelt Roads where, uh, Major Ross Gilchrist and the team are currently training. Uh, we've also done, as you mentioned, uh, Mr. President, humanitan- -- humanitarian support, uh, to Jamaica. We're proud to be part of this Navy Marine Corps team and, uh, be part of the defense of the homeland, sir.
Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much and really great job. Would anybody in the-
Haley: Sir, I'd like to thank you for-
Trump: Yes, go ahead please.
Haley: -- for North, uh, the First Lady came down to North Carolina-
Trump: Right.
Haley: -- last week and visited the, uh, the Marines and Sailors, uh, at Camp Lejeune, and my wife, and my daughter, and my two sons were able to meet the First Lady-
Trump: That's right.
Haley: -- And get a pic with her. She was really gracious, and we really appreciate the time that she spent with the, the Marines and Sailors. That meant a whole lot to a whole lot of people down in North Carolina, sir.
Trump: Well, thank you very much. And she had enjoyed it. And she mentioned that, meeting your family, and she said, "Those people are in good shape. They're in very good shape." I don't know if she's referring to me when she says that because I don't know.
Haley: [Laughs].
Trump: That could be a little slight, but she was very impressed with everything she saw. Thank you very much.
Unidentified: Sir, before we go to the Navy, uh, Captain Farricker, do you guys have any questions for the president?
Farricker: Uh, I do have one selfish one, sir. My daughter's ninth birthday is, uh, here in a few days. I was wondering if I could get a happy birthday, Caitherine -- uh, Catherine from you, sir?
Unidentified: [Laughs].
Trump: And her, her first name is?
Farricker: Catherine, sir.
Trump: Well, Catherine, you have a father who's a great hero and a great man and highly respected. Happy birthday and take good care of him.
Haley: [Inaudible].
Trump: [Laughs] Thank you very much.
Farricker: Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.
Haley: Thank you.
Trump: Say hello to her.
Haley: All right, sir.
Trump: Anybody, anybody back there have a Question: ? [Inaudible]
Farricker: I think that's it from us here, sir. Again, appreciate your time and happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
Haley: Happy Thanksgiving, sir.
Trump: Thank you all very much. Great. Have a great Thanksgiving. Thank you.
Haley: Sir. With that, we're gonna go over to Colonel Seth Spanier from the United States Air Force.
Seth Spanier: Happy Thanksgiving, Mr. President. I'm Colonel Seth Spanier, 7th Bomb Wing commander. And here with me, I have Lieutenant Colonel Brian Guyette, our 28th Bomb Squadron commander, and Major Joseph Spada, our 28th Bomber Generation Squadron commander. And we're here representing the 4,000 men and women stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, employing the Mighty B-1.
Unidentified: Good evening, sir. Uh, the Bomb Wing hosts multiple B-1 squadrons, uh, that are responsible for everything from training the world's best combat aviators to operational tests in addition to, uh, projecting strength and lethality across the pl- -- uh, across the globe. Recently the Bomb Wing's Combat Squadron was forward deployed to the Indo-Pacific, and the men and women that you see behind me were, uh, were part of the 20th Bomb Squadron and fellow squadrons, um, that, uh, executed operations in the Caribbean, and, uh, were responsible for demonstrating the latent combat capability of the training squadron in addition to, uh, projecting, uh, credibility, um, into the Caribbean on behalf of the long range strike platform, the B-1B. -- combat squadron was forward deployed to the Indo-Pacific. And the men and women that you see behind me were, uh, were part of the 20th Bomb Squadron and fellow squadrons, um, that, uh, executed operations in the Caribbean, and, uh, were responsible for demonstrating the latent combat capability of the training squadron in addition to, uh, projecting, uh, credibility, um, into the Caribbean on behalf of the long range strike platform, the B-1B.
Trump: Well, thank you.
Unidentified: It's currently off station, um, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
Trump: Thank you very much. And I don't know if, you know, we have more planes on order in terms of dollars and planes itself, and they have a new one, the, the, uh, F-47. And I didn't name that. That was named F-47. They think I named it. [Laughs] I didn't, they surprised me. But I hear it's, uh, stage six and it's at a level that nobody's ever seen before. But, uh, we have more planes on order right now and things in the works than we've ever had. So from the Air Force's standpoint, uh, I know you know exactly what's in order 'cause we dealt with you and what you like. But, uh, we've never had so much, so many planes being built at one time and we're reinvigorating everything. I know the F-35s been very good and we're working on some maintense- -- maintenance issues to get some of 'em back sooner, as you know. 'Cause some of them are out, and rather than having 'em sit there, we're getting 'em fixed. Shoulda happened a long time ago. But, uh, we've never been in the position where we've ordered so many, and I think the Air Force has to be very happy about that.
Unidentified: Yes, sir. Absolutely.
Trump: Good, thank you. And if you have any Question: s, please go ahead, from your group.
Unidentified: I think you should.
Unidentified: Good, good evening, Mr. President, and happy Thanksgiving.
Trump: Thank you.
Unidentified: I'm Senior Airman Laura, I'm an Intel Analyst at the 20th Bomb Squadron. Uh, my Question: for you today is what is the most memorable obstacle or hardship that you've encountered in your life and how did this shape you to be the leader you are today?
Trump: Well, that's an interesting question [Laughs] But, uh –
Unidentified: [Laughs].
Unidentified: [Laughs].
Trump: I'll tell you, you know, in terms of obstacles would be the weaponization of government by the previous administration. That was probably the biggest obstacle. I ran, I won by a lot. I ran a second time, I won by a lot. And I ran a third time and it ra- -- it was too big to rig. But the biggest was that, uh, they went after a lot of great Americans. I was one of 'em. And, uh, I would say weaponization by my opponent was a disgrace to our nation. And I would say it was the most difficult time. And we won. And now I'm, you know, today I'm in Florida, but generally I'm in the White House, I'm in the Oval Office. So I look around and I say, "Oh, well. Couldn't have been that bad." But it was, it was a disgrace to our nation and it should never be allowed to happen again. And it's being looked at very strongly. But it's a very interesting Question: . I don't know that anybody's ever asked me the Question: that way, but if you did --
Unidentified: Hm.
Trump: --- I would say it's the , it was the weaponization and illegal weaponization that they used where our government attacked, uh, the President and the former President of the United States of America. And I was fighting for you, not just for myself. I was fighting for you. I was fighting for everyone that I'm looking, all of those incredible patriots that I'm looking at, but the millions of people that are listening right now and the hundreds of millions of people in our country.And we fought and we won. But they're bad people. So, thank you. That's a great question Thank you very much.
Unidentified: Thank you, sir.
Unidentified: Sir, with that one –
Unidentified: Sir, one last one. If you could, uh, throw up –
Trump: Yes.
Unidentified: -- um, chop, it's our –
Unidentified: [Laughs].
Unidentified: -- um, to the Mohawks, that's our squadron motto, "Chop."
Trump: Oh, good. I love it. Chop.
Unidentified: [Laughs].
Trump: So we're not allowed to do that anymore. You know, we're not allowed. You're not allowed to use the word Indian anymore. The only one that wants you to are the Indians. All right? [Laughs].
Unidentified: [Laughs].
Trump: I don't think you should ever change. I will never tell you to change. All right? [Laughs] It's great.
Unidentified: Okay.
Unidentified: Okay.
Trump: And, and they're very proud of it, too, by the way. Thank you all very much. Thank you.
Unidentified: Sir, we're gonna turn over to Captain Ryan Weber from the Space Force.
Trump: Okay.
Ryan Weber: Good evening, Mr. President. My name is Captain Ryan Weber and I'm the commander of the 18th Space Defense Combat Squadron. Uh, today with me, I have Delta Crew. Uh, they're working the holiday swing shift right now, uh, which is led by Lieutenant Cunningham and Sergeant Jackson. We also have five orbital analysts with us today. Uh, our mission here at the 18th is space domain awareness, uh, tracking everything to, in, and from space, whether that's a launch satellite reentry or maintaining, uh, the cataloged 48,000 objects in space. It's been a historical year for 2025. Uh, we've had over 273 space launches, uh, to this year, 174 of those being from the US. Uh, and we're just grateful for our newly operationally accepted system, uh, to lead the way for the world in space domain awareness.
Trump: Well, I know all about it because that was my baby, Space Force.
Weber: Yes sir.
Trump: So I can't say I have any favorites 'cause I don't wanna [Laughs] do that. But I'll tell you, I have a, a real love for Space Force. And as you know, uh, I did that. We, we put some very good people in because we were losing to China and Russia substantially. And now we're leading China and Russia substantially. And as you know, Biden came in, he wanted to terminate Space Force. He thought it was funny. He thought it was so funny. Uh, the military didn't think it was funny, and he was met with a great force. [Laughs] And the force said, "You're not doing any , you're not doing this." But, uh, I think it's gonna go down as one of our most important, uh, you know, as, as technology goes, the things we're doing now in space are unbelievable, and I think it'll be one of the truly great things that this administration did. I did it in my last term. But we really had great people there and we've, we're dominating space now. We're dominating it. We were losing it to both China and Russia at the time. We had no space source. And, uh, so we created this incredible group of people. They came together and they created something very special. And, uh, I'm very proud of all of you for being involved. It's gonna be one of the most important things I think that I've ever done. Thank you.
Unidentified: Ryan, before we move on –
Question: Thank you sir.
Unidentified: -- to the Coast Guard, does, uh, anybody from your team have a question for the president?
Question: The one question I would have, sir, is what do you see for the future for the Space Force? Um, how do you expect it to grow as we build out as a branch?
Trump: Yeah. I, I just think it's unlimited. I think it's, you know, in terms of technology, in terms of , you know, the others have been here for a long time. And Air Force has been, and I could have left it in the Air Force, but I really thought it had, it should have its own identity, and it works closely with the Air Force. But, uh, you wouldn't have had your own identity and I don't think it was working doing it that way. So we created , because of the importance, we created Space Force. And I, I think it's got unlimited growth potential and maybe at a faster level than others, because they have been here. You know, they've seeded and they're doing great. But you're, uh, you're seedling. You're, you know, you're just at the beginning of your powers. Uh, it's going to be, uh, unlimited future. Really, I feel that , and I think you agree with that, but it's going to be unlimited future, and thank you all for being involved. Very proud of you. Thank you.
Question: Thank you, sir. On behalf of the 18th, thank you for your support and happy Thanksgiving.
Trump: Well, you have my support totally and you too. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you very much.
Unidentified: Sir, to round it out –
Question: Thank you.
Unidentified: -- we're gonna go over to Lieutenant Commander Alex Wild, the United States Coast Guard.
Alex Wild: Good evening, Mr. President. Lieutenant Commander Alex Wild, commanding officer of Coast Guard Cutter Forrest Rednour. We're currently patrolling the Southwest border off of the coast of California in support of Operation Border Trident to protect the maritime boundary. With the crew of 25, our fast response cutter has contributed to mission success and securing the border, as you mentioned. Last month alone, we had three at-sea interdictions and apprehended 45 illegal aliens. I'd like to recognize, to my right, the boarding team and pursuit team from our most recent interdiction. To my right, Lieutenant Junior Grade Fuller. Boatswain's Mate First Class Garcia Cosby. Electrician's Mate First Class Riza. Boatswain's Mate Third Class Gerhards, Machinery Technician Second Class Amano. We've had a real nice day, as you said. It's been pretty quiet on the water, to be honest. Uh, our two culinary specialists gave us a real treat today for Thanksgiving by smoking two turkeys. And this evening, we'll be trying to have some trivia here on the Mustang.
Trump: Well --
Wild: We're truly grateful for this opportunity to speak with you today.
Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. You know, I, I've loved the Coast Guard for a long time, and more than anything else, all the lives you saved in Texas and various places, all of these places that get hit by the, uh, hurricanes and all of the different , you know, the storms, the big storms, the big water storms, as they call them, but mostly hurricanes. The jobs you do, the way you go into those seas, I wouldn't wanna do it. You wanna do it, but I wouldn't wanna do it. And, uh, I just wanna thank you for that. Uh, as you know, we've ordered a lot of Coast Guard cutters, brand new, beautiful, the best machines in the world, the fastest, the best, the best maneuverability. They tell me, I said, "How's the speed and the maneuverability?" Uh, I'm a looks person. I, I wanted the hull to be perfect. I, you know, I sort of redesigned the hull a little bit, the hulls, but we ordered a lot and we're, uh, we're ordering icebreakers too that you're gonna be in charge of. We have 11 of them being built right now. We had none. You know, we only have one in the whole country. Russia has 48, and we have one, and that's just ridiculous. So, uh, we're doing them in conjunction with Finland and some other people, and they make the big , you know, they're, they're, they're known as, uh , the people that do, I guess, 90% of the icebreakers, so they have a great expertise. But we're doing them also as a joint venture where they're gonna be built in this country, and they've already started. So we've ordered 11. Uh, you were gonna build one, and the one was gonna cost almost, almost as much as the 11, and every one of the 11 is much better than the one. So that didn't sound like a good deal, so you know exactly what you're getting. You're getting the best icebreakers in the world, the top of the line, and they're gonna be, uh, delivered very soon, actually. They're moving along very quickly. They're already , they're building them. And you'll end up with 11, but before we even start that, we're gonna end up, uh, doing another 11 pretty soon. So you're gonna have a lot of icebreakers pretty soon, which is very important, I assume , is that important for the Coast Guard? 'Cause if it's not, I'll cancel the order immediately. [Laughs]
Wild: Very important. Yes.
Trump: Okay, good. Good. Then I won't cancel the order. That's good. You're gonna have the best icebreakers there are, so it's really great. Very important to us. Thank you. Any other questions?
Unidentified: Yes, Mr. President.
Trump: Yes.
Unidentified: I'm Petty Officer Riza. First Question: is, what is your true golf handicap?
Trump: Oh.
Unidentified: Not according to fake news. And are you and President Biden gonna play that golf match?
Trump: I'd love to. I mean, I've invited him, but he doesn't wanna show up. Uh –
Wild: [Laughs].
Trump: -- look, I know a lot about golf. I've won 38 club championships and I don't get to practice much. I won one last year. I won a club championship at a big club beating a 27-year-old kid. I said, "You know, I'm decades older than you," but I said, "The fairway doesn't know how old you are as you walk up the middle," and he's in the rough. And, uh, I've been a good golfer over the years. I won. When you win, you know, club championships are our majors, you know that? Most people can't play in 'em, they won't. We're talking about no strokes or anything else. So I'm a very low handicap and I've won, uh, 38 of 'em legitimately. Everyone, legitimately. It has to be legitimate 'cause you have a lot of people following you during club championships, as you know. So I guess I'm very, uh, I gotta be right around scratch or better. I beat a, uh, plus three. That's three better, three below par. You know, if you look at it for those that don't know in the finals of the club championship last year, with all I was going through and with no practice, so, uh, I'm, I'm a good golfer. Yeah, I would have to say that. I want to be honest, I have to be honest. I played with Bryson DeChambeau, and he's, you know, the breaking 50 and we had a good time. But a lot of people thought, uh, that was, that was a great ratings hit and we had a lot of fun. But golf is great. Sort of, it's sort of a microcosm of life and you have a lot of people talk, but they can't play like Biden. Biden can't hit a ball 30 yards, I'm telling you. I looked at his swing. He cannot hit a ball 30 yards. He said he was a six handicapped. He said that was the only thing that made me angry during the debate with him. He said he was a six. I said, "You're not a six." And he said, "Well, I'm an eight." I said, "That was quick." I picked up two. But he's not a hundred. He's not a hundred. So, uh, but it's a great game and I hope you guys get to play a little bit of it. But frankly, I'm more excited about the icebreakers if you wanna know the truth. So anyway, I wanna thank you all. Great job. Coast Guard, great job. We're proud of you. You're gonna have the best equipment in the world, and it's coming rapidly. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Unidentified: Thank you Mr. President.
Unidentified: So that concludes the presentations. If you have any closing remarks, uh, that'll be it.
Trump: Well, I do have closing remarks. I just wanna say how proud I am. You look at the people that we just dealt with. These are the top people in our country. These are just beautiful people inside and out. They're brave, they're smart, they're brilliant. And I just wanna say, it's an honor to be with you. It's an honor to be working with you. We have the strongest country we've ever had. We make the best equipment in the world. We have the best military in the world. Nobody can even come close and everybody knows it. And they respect us now again. A year ago, two years ago, four years ago, three years ago, they didn't respect us at all. They laughed at us. Nobody's laughing anymore. So I just want to thank you all very much. I'm very proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay.
Question: Mr. President –
Trump: We can, we can cut that then? We can cut that. Hello.
Question: [Inaudible] Good to see you. Thank you so much. Happy Thanksgiving.
Trump: Thank you. You too.
Question: Uh, a Question: about this, uh, tragic shooting.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: In Washington, D.C. U.S. officials say that the suspect worked very closely with the CIA in Afghanistan for years, and he was vetted and the vetting came up clean.
Trump: He went, he went cuckoo. I mean, he went nuts. And that happens too. It happens too often with these people. You see 'em, but, uh, look, this is how they come in. This is how they're, they're standing on top of each other and uh, that's an airplane. There was no vetting or anything. They came in un-vetted. And we have a lot of others in this country. We're gonna get 'em out. But they go cuckoo. Something happens to 'em.
Question: Your DOJ IG just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the U.S. So why do you blame the Biden administration - –
Trump: Because they let 'em in.
Question: [Inaudible].
Trump: Are you stupid?
Question: [Inaudible].
Trump: Are you a stupid person? Because they came into, on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn't be here. And you're just asking Question: s 'cause you're a stupid person. And we, there's a law passed that it's almost impossible not to, to get 'em out. You can't get 'em out once they come in. And they came in and they were un-vetted, they were unchecked.
There were many of 'em. And they came in on big planes and it was disgraceful. And if you look, you'll see there was a law passed. It makes it almost impossible not to let 'em in, not to certify them, so to speak, uh, once they come in. And they came in and they shouldn't have come in. And frankly, the whole thing was a mess. The whole Afghanistan situation was a mess. We shouldn't, it should have never taken place. If we're going to go out and we would've gone out because I had everybody ready to go, we were gonna go out with strength and dignity and precision, and we would've left for Bagram. And we would've kept Bagram, by the way, because of its very close relationship to China and where they make their missiles. But when you let the people come in by the thousands and thousands and thousands, uh, they made a terrible mistake, but they were incompetent. Yeah?
Question: Mr. President, thank you for having us here tonight. Have you spoken with Sarah and Andrew's family and –
Trump: We have a call-in in a little while, actually, right after this.
Question: Do you plan to –
Trump: Well, the family is devastated, as you can imagine. But we have, uh, we have spoken. I mean, my people have spoken with the family. We'll be speaking tonight or tomorrow. You have to give 'em a little, they just found out about their daughter, you know? You can't just call two seconds later.
Question: Yeah, of course –
Trump: It's a very, very tough situation.
Question: Obviously.
Trump: She was so outstanding. I mean, I just heard outstanding in every single way.
Question: It's in the early stages, obviously, but do you plan to attend Sarah's funeral?
Trump: Uh, I haven't thought about it yet, but it's certainly is something I could conceive of. I love West Virginia. You know, I won West Virginia by one of the biggest margins of any president anywhere. And it's, you know, these are great people. I love the people of West Virginia. I love the people of our country. But, uh, I haven't given it any thought, but it sounds like something I could do, you know? It's very, it's very raw.
Question: Yeah, of course. Uh, the suspect does have a wife and five children who live in Washington. Do you plan to deport them?
Trump: The suspect has?
Question: The suspect.
Trump: Well, we're looking at that right now. We're looking at the whole situation with family. Uh, the tragic situation. Yeah, Jeff?
Question: Uh, Mr. President, are there any changes you want to make to improve safety for National Guardsmen who are being sent into these cities?
Trump: No, just I want to have more. We, we, as you know, we're sending 500 more. Uh, we had very little crime in Washington now for, you know, many months, record-setting low crime, and, uh, this happened, and I don't know how you put this on the scale of that. This is sort of different. This is a terrorism threat and this was done because they're so effective. If they weren't effective, you probably wouldn't have had this done. But this was done because, uh, the National Guard has been so effective. You know, you went from having a, a tremendous amount of crime and death, killing, everything else to having none. And, uh, this happened, uh, I assume, because it was so effective, and maybe this man was upset because he couldn't, he couldn't practice crime. Who knows what his motivation was? But, uh, what he did was, uh, horrible.
Question: And you've cha- -- you've made changes for Afghanis' ability to apply for asylum. Do you blame all Afghans for this one man's mis- -- not mistake –
Trump: No, but we've had a lot of problems with Afghans because they had a lot of them coming in on these planes. Again, I show you this picture. We had a lot of them coming in on this, these planes that are, look at it. They, there was no checking. They just poured into the plane. And many of these people are criminals, many of these people are people that shouldn't be here. And many of them have been gotten out. I mean, we've gotten out some, a lot of the people that, you know, we've taken a lot of 'em out of here.
Question: But many of them are here legally, right?
Trump: But they came in, yeah, I know, this deal. Sorry. Many are wonderful, yeah, I'm sure.
Question: I said, I said many are here legally though. What should they think, uh, in terms of their process?
Trump: Well, they can't be happy, okay? They can't be happy because what's taking place between that, if you look at Somalia, they're taking over Minnesota and they are, we got a lot of problems with the gangs, with all of the things taking place in Minnesota. We have an incompetent governor, a dope. We have a dope governor. Um, they can't be happy about what's going on. And, uh, if you talk about the Afghans, you know, there's a problem because so many bad ones came in with, on the planes. They just walked in. Whoever the strongest people were physically in a way, but whoever the strongest they got on the planes. There was no check-in. They just swamped the planes, they took off.
Trump: We had no idea who the, who they were. Yeah, do you want to ask a question - behind?
Question: Me?
Trump: Yeah.
Question: Uh, hi, sir. Javier with –
Trump: Sure. Hi.
Question: What do the Somalians have to do with this Afghan guy who shot the National --
Trump: Uh, nothing, but Somalians have caused a lot of trouble. They're ripping us off for a lot of money. There's a tremendous amount of, uh, money going back to Somalia. What the hell are we paying money to Somalia for? But they're, uh, ripping off our country at a level that few people have been able to see before. That's about the only thing I, you talk about competence, we have Ilhan Omar who does nothing but complain about our country and our constitution, and she comes from a country with practically, it's practically no country. It's devastated, it's crime-ridden, it's a mess, it's a disgrace, and we took their people at tremendous, we're not taking their people anymore. We're not taking their people. And we're getting a lot of their people out because they're nothing but trouble. Okay. Thank you very much, everybody. Go ahead.
Question: [Inaudible].
Question: About this asylum claim that is being floated. Of course, you just detailed that this suspect was flown in under the Biden administration.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: But was he granted asylum under your administration?
Trump: Uh, when it comes to asylum, when they're flown in, it's very hard to get 'em out. No matter how you want to do it, it's very hard to get 'em out. But we're gonna be getting them all out now. Thank you very much.
Unidentified: Thank you, Pres. Thank you, guys, everyone, everybody.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President.
Unidentified: Thank you, sir.
Trump: Here, take that picture if you want it, press.
Question: Mr. President, what are you most thankful for this Thanksgiving?
Trump: The fact that America's great again. We made America great again. America was a dead country. We've made America great again. Here you go.
Unidentified: Thank you.
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Happy Thanksgiving.