Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it. Thank you. So now the work begins. We won, we won, but now the work begins. We have to bring them home. And you know, tonight, I'm going to be signing on the J-6 hostages' pardons to get them out. And as soon as I leave, I'm going to the Oval Office and we'll be signing pardons for a lot of people, a lot of people.
And thank you to Steve Witkoff. He's a great guy. He's a friend of mine. He's been a very successful man. He's a great negotiator. He's a wonderful guy. People love him and he's got a tremendous power of persuasion and that's what we need. We don't need stiffs. We don't need stiffs. We've got a lot of stiffs.
You just had a whole load of them. And to the former hostages with us today, welcome. Welcome home. Some of the folks are former hostages, not a good situation. The three young ladies that came home yesterday, you saw that. More coming home every day now. They're coming home, but they were hurt. They were hurt.
They were hurt. One had her hand blown off, fingers on her hand and her hand indeed was blown off. She was trying to defend herself from a bullet being fired. Do you believe this? A bullet knocked off her hand. I don't know. You look at it, it's a disgrace. We never stopped praying for you and we're so glad that you're reunited with your friends and families and God bless you all and some of them are just saying, no, my son is gone, but please just bring home his body.
Right, Steve? Many of you have told me that, that your son is gone, but bring home his body. It should have never happened. Three years is ridiculous, should have never happened, wouldn't have happened. I also want to express my tremendous gratitude to the hundreds of thousands of proud American patriots who came from all across the country to join us in this celebration.
It's a celebration of a big win. And you're witnessing the dawn of the golden age of America. That's what it's going to be. We're bringing it back. We're going to bring it back fast. We're going to bring it back faster. Let us also thank the incredible service members, National Guardsmen, police, Secret Service and law enforcement personnel who are keeping us all safe, even though, and they are great people.
New York's finest. I grew up with New York's Finest and we got to give them their authority back. You won't have any crime. There will be no crime, you give them a little authority back. The whole way they run things in this country now, it's disgraceful, but it's going to change rapidly. We're going to make our cities safe again too.
Even though we're indoors, we've had a magnificent inaugural parade. And let's give a big round of applause, they were great, to all of the incredible performers and hard-working men and women who made it possible. Those people, really talented, amazing people. I also want to thank my wonderful family for being here, especially my beautiful wife, our First Lady, Melania.
They love our First Lady. And also, JD. How good has JD been? And his beautiful wife, Usha. How good is JD? JD has been great. He's another good negotiator, Steve. He's a great negotiator too. We need negotiators in this country. But so many of the people on the stage behind not only family members as an example, Lara Trump, the wife of Eric, she was the head of the republican party, along with my friend, Michael.
Stand up, the two of you. What a job, what a job they did. They worked so hard. They knew they'd be rigging, but they said, we're going to make it too big to rig and we did. We made it too big to rig. We won every swing state by a lot. We won the popular vote by millions and millions of votes. We won the whole ball of wax.
And now -- We're going to go and drill baby drill and do all the things that we've wanted to do and bring your costs down, your prices down and make our country safe. So, thank you very much, Michael. Thank you very much. What a job you've done, Michael. I'm never moving you -- you know, he was thinking about getting a nice job in the administration.
I said no, I'm leaving you right where you are. You've done a very good job. We're not moving you, Michael. I'm sorry. Anyway, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Appreciate it very much. Right here with us also in the arena, I'm about to sign some very important executive orders of our new administration.
And, Don, will you stand up, please? Don is another one. How about Don? This guy. He's a popular one. He goes out and speaks. He gets a big crowd. He's a little on the rough side sometimes, but that's what you want. He's done a fantastic job, and he loves our country. Thanks, Don, great job. You've done a great job.
And Ivanka and, you know, Jared negotiated the Abraham Accords, which are the biggest -- it's the biggest deal made in the Middle East in many, many years. And it's really something, Jared. Stand up, Jared -- the Abraham Accords. And Tiffany is going to have a little baby , and Michael. And then I have a very tall son named Barron.
Has anyone ever heard of him? Thank you. He knew the youth vote. You know, we won the youth vote by 36 points , and he was saying, dad, you got to go out and do this one or that one and we did a lot of them. And he respects them all, he understood them very well and he said, dad, you got to go out, do Joe Rogan, do all these guys, and we did -- we did and Joe Rogan was great, they were all great, right, Barron, they were all good?
He understood the market. Another famous one. How about Kai? Stand up, Kai. Is that Byron Donalds back there? Stand up, Byron. Stand up. What a future this one has, what a future. That's great, Byron. Thank you very much. And how about Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce? He's going to take in more money than any country has ever even thought about.
He's going to take in some money. And we have many others. Look, I'm not going to go through it, but we're going to sign some orders right now and that's really what I want to do. So, we're going to sign executive orders. First, I'll revoke nearly 80 destructive and radical executive actions of the previous administration, one of the worst administrations in history, maybe -- not one of them, the worst.
Anybody that would allow millions of people to pour through our borders from jails, prisons, mental institutions, insane asylums, gang members to be taken off the streets of Venezuela and deposited in our country and many -- not just Venezuela. You know, crime in Venezuela is down 74 percent, because they took their criminals and gave them to us through an open border policy of the previous administration. [Audience boos] All over the world they're emptying their prisons into our country.
They're emptying their mental institutions into our country. It stops as of 1:00 this afternoon, OK, it's done. So, I'm revoking nearly 80 destructive radical executive actions of the previous administration. They'll all be null and void within about, what, five minutes? Is that them over there, five minutes ? And next, to gain immediate control of the vast federal out of control bureaucracy.
I will implement an immediate regulation freeze which will stop Biden bureaucrats from continuing to regulate. Most of those bureaucrats are being fired, they're gone. Should be all of them, but some sneak through, but we have to live with a couple I guess. I'll also issue a temporary hiring freeze to ensure that we're only hiring competent people who are faithful to the American public, and we will pause the hiring of any new IRS agents.
We will also require that federal workers must return to the office in person. And we're going to take the 88,000 people that they hired to go after you with guns; by the way, they're allowed to use guns and harass you like they were so many other people. Remember this, OK. Remember we're going to -- do you remember a little statement about tips?
Does anybody remember that little statement? [Audience cheers] I think we won Nevada because of that statement, but they went out and harassed you over the tips. In other words, we are restoring control of our government to the people. We're going to take those 88,000, let's see if they'd like to work on the border because that's where we want them really.
So, we're going to have no tax on tips, right? No tax on tips. And we may have -- we like the speaker of the House, is he here? He's done such a good job. Is Mike here? He's around here someplace. I saw him just a little while ago. Hello, fellas. Look at you guys. Yeah, he's -- I know it, he's great. He's doing great.
They're all doing good. The republican party has never been unified like it is right now. They want to save our country. We're going to more than save it; we're going to make it greater than it's ever been before by a lot. Next, I'm going to sign a presidential memorandum directing every member of my cabinet to marshal every power at their disposal to defeat inflation and rapidly bring down the cost of daily life, because your costs have gone through the roof in the last four years.
Perhaps you didn't notice. Does anyone notice their costs are like double, triple, quadruple? You can't buy bacon; apples have doubled in price. You want an apple, anybody? Pay twice what you did two years ago. We'll put more money in your pocket, and we'll bring back the American dream. And to reduce energy costs and liberate our economy; so, we have more oil and gas than any country in the world and we're going to use it. We're not going to do the wind thing.
Wind -- blew -- big, ugly windmills, they ruin your neighborhood, they ruin your -- If you have a house that's near a windmill, guess what? Your house is worth less than half. And did you see up in New England with the whales? You see what's happening? So, they had two whales killed in about 14 years. Last year and the year before total, they had 28. So, if you're into whales, you don't want windmills either.
And they're the most expensive form of energy that you can have by far. And they're all made in China, by the way, practically all of them. [Audience boos] And they kill your birds, and they ruin your beautiful landscapes. But other than that, I think they're quite good, right? No, remember when we used to joke and kid when we were kidding, but we don't kid anymore.
They want to watch the debates on television. They want to watch your favorite president on television. But the wind isn't blowing, so we can't watch television that night, Gladys, remember. Gladys, I'm sorry, the wind is just not blowing. We're not watching Trump tonight. But I'm immediately withdrawing from the unfair one-sided Paris Climate Accord rip off.
The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes -- with impunity. China, I mean, look, they used a lot of dirty energy, but they produce a lot of energy and when that stuff goes up in the air, you know, it doesn't stay there. It's not like you got a wall. We love walls, don't we? Not like you have a wall around and it floats into the United States of America after three and a half to five and a half days.
It floats across the oceans and it comes right over your neighborhood and it falls into your neighborhood. So they all say we have to fight for cleaner air, but the other dirty air is dropping all over us, so what the hell are they talking about. Unless everybody does it, it just doesn't work. We had the cleanest air and the cleanest water that this country has ever had under the Trump administration, and we didn't do anything to stop jobs and stop production.
Believe me, you're going to see a lot of companies come pouring back because tariffs. I always say tariffs is the most beautiful word to me in the dictionary. Then I was reprimanded by the fake news. They said what about love, religion and God. I said I agree. Let's put God number one. Let's put religion number two.
Love, I don't know, we got to put that number three, I guess, right? And then it's tariff because tariffs are going to make us rich as hell. It's going to bring our countries businesses back that left us. And I also signed an executive order to immediately end federal government censorship of the American people.
In America, we believe in free speech and we're bringing it back starting today to stop the weaponization. Oh, do I know about that, these creeps. Deranged Jack Smith. Did you ever hear of him? Deranged, he's a deranged prosecutor, sick. They suck him on me. He's now been reduced to getting on an airplane, going back to The Hague or wherever the hell he came from.
We got to get rid of that guy. Hey, was he one of the many people that got a pardon today? Did they pardon Jack Smith? You know, did you know that Biden, while I was making my speech, pardoned his whole family? [Audience boos] The brother, the whole deal was pardoned. Can you imagine that? While I was making my speech.
Did everybody hear my speech? Did you like my speech?. Thank you. I mean, the only thing wrong with it is I had a lot of tough things to say and I have some great people that work for me. Sir, this is such a great speech. It's so unifying. Don't talk about Biden with his pardons of his family. We want a unified country.
They said, don't talk about the J-6 hostages that you're going to be releasing today. Sir, don't put that in your speech, please. I said, but really, I want to put it in my speech. They said, sir, it won't be unified like it is. It's so beautiful the way it is and it is getting great reviews. You know, if I put things like that in, I'll get terrible reviews.
One little paragraph that's a little bit wrong, the fake news goes crazy, right? So I said, all right, I won't put it in my speech, but you know what, I'm speaking in front of a hell of a lot of people at a place called Capital One Arena and I'll talk about it there. So we're going be going over the beautiful Oval Office, one of the great offices in history.
Even if it wasn't beautiful, it's the Oval Office, but it is beautiful and we love the Oval Office. It all starts with the Oval -- the wars start and end there. Everything starts and ends at the Oval Office. We love it, but we're going to go to the Oval Office. We're going to sign. We're going to release our great hostages that didn't do, for the most part, they didn't do stuff wrong.
You take a look at what went on and look what happens in other parts of the country, in Portland, where they kill people. They destroy the city, nothing happens to them. In Seattle, where they took over a big chunk of the city, nothing happened. Minneapolis, where they burned down the city, nothing happened.
Essentially, nothing happened. All they want to do is go after the J-6 hostages. A 76-year-old grandmother was arrested the other day because she was looking, I think because she was looking at the Capitol or something like that. Nah, we're not going to put up with that crap anymore. And to stop the weaponization of law enforcement.
I've been investigated more than any human being in the world. I believe I have the all-time record every day, a subpoena, subpoena. Every single day we get subpoenas. I was more than any person, Alphonse Capone. Remember, I used to talk about it? Now, Alphonse Capone Scarface, he was a pretty rough guy. He was investigated about 1/100 what Trump was -- -my father's looking down at me, my mother, how the hell did this happen?
You know what it is, they investigated their political opponent, the opponent of Biden, and then ultimately, Kamala. Has anyone ever heard of Kamala? [Audience boos] We had to beat two opponents. We had to beat Biden, then we beat him. Now he goes on -- guy was like 39 points down, I think I could have beaten Trump.
They should have left me in. I would have beat him. Now, his debate performance wasn't the best, right? That's what killed him. And then they had to change and they -- that's like you get into a fight. The great Dana White spoke last night. We love Dana White, right, UFC. That's like he puts in two fighters, one of them's getting creamed, getting really beaten and they say, all right, take him out.
Let's put somebody else in to finish up the fight. That's what they did to us. They gave us somebody new, but we took care of both of them. So we beat actually two. We beat actually two opponents. But to stop the weaponization of law enforcement and our government. I will also sign an order directing every federal agency to preserve all records pertaining to political persecutions under the last administration, of which there were many, and beginning the process of exposing any and all abuses of power, even though he's pardoned many of these people.
Can you believe it? He's pardoned them. You know why he did it while I was speaking, because that way I couldn't speak about it. I was speaking. I didn't know he did it. I finished my speech and they said, sir, he pardoned his whole family. I said, oh, can I go back out there and talk about it? Somehow, that wouldn't be very elegant.
Our First Lady would say, please don't do that, but we have plenty of time to talk about it and we will. We're doing all of this on our very first day in office. You know, don't forget, we've been in this position really, where we won the primaries in record time, the fastest win of a primary ever in political history, which is a very nice thing.
It's nice to know. Well, the second election was rigged, so we knew we were doing well. And if it wasn't, you know what, if it wasn't, I would have never run. But the third one was just a monster. Boy, was that a big one, huh? That was a big one. When the second one, we got like 10 million or 12 million votes more than the first one.
How about that? We did great in the first one. We did much better on the second one, but, man, did we do well on the third one. So we're going to have some fun. It's very simple. We're going to make our country great. We're going to make our country great again. We're going to make America great again. How good a name is MAGA though, right?
You know? I was going to say, keep America great, but unfortunately it wasn't great, can't say keep it great. It will be great again. But KAG, keep America great, KAG, I don't think it's ever going to replace MAGA. Does anybody like KAG? I don't think so. It's never replacing MAGA. Nothing will ever replace MAGA.
MAGA was the most successful political operation, political movement in the history of our country, maybe in the history of the world. Let's see what happens because we're not finished yet. We're not finished yet. We got a long way to go. But we're doing this in the very first day in office and in just a few moments, I'm not only signing the release of the J-6 hostages, I'm signing other things that you're going to love.
Oh, you're going to be happy reading newspapers tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day. So I just want to thank -- I mean, look at this place, it's full to the rafters. You don't have any -- look at those people up there. You don't have any empty seats. And by the way, the Capital One owners, they are so good.
We've got to root for their teams because they have been so great to MAGA, to us. And I just want to thank Ted and everybody. You guys have been fantastic and they're -- the ice hockey team is doing great. Ovechkin -- Ovechkin is pretty good, right? They're doing great. So, I want to thank them, Capital One Arena owners, they have been absolutely fantastic.
And thank you once again to everyone, and I can only tell you you're going to be very happy. You're going to watch a lot of good things happen. We've got to stop some wars that are happening and going on, some stupid things are happening. The war with Ukraine would have never happened and it has. As you know, Israel would have never been hit on October 7th and you would -- none of you would be up here.
None of you would even know anything about this tragedy that you're going through right now. But Iran was broke, anybody that bought oil from Iran, they couldn't do any business with us. You're not going to do business with America. China passed, everybody passed, they were broke. They didn't have money for Hamas.
They didn't have money for Hezbollah. And your sons would be alive and they certainly wouldn't be incarcerated like they are. It's a shame. But we're getting a lot of people out in a short period of time. So, I'm going to go right over to here and I'm going to sign in front of you, is that okay? Good.