Hello, Doctor. How are you? Hello, everybody. This is so great. And, uh, before we begin, however, I want to just pay my respects to the people. Unfortunately, two are no longer with us. Brown University, nine injured. And, uh, two are looking down on us right now from heaven. And, uh, likewise in Australia, as you know, that was a terrible attack. 11 dead, 29, badly wounded.
And that was an anti-Semitic attack, obviously. And it, uh, I just want to pay my respects to everybody. I must say in, uh, Syria also. We had, uh, an attack in Syria and we had, uh, three great patriots terminated by bad people and not the Syrian government. It was ISIS. Syrian government fought by our side.
The new president fought by our side. But, uh, I just want to pay my respects to the families. We also had three, uh, injured, but, uh, two of them are already out of the hospital and one's, uh, going to be okay. But we lost three. So it was a rough, it was a rough day. But to Australia and, uh, the Prime Minister, to everybody that we know so well, we get along with so well.
We have a great relationship. That's a terrible situation going on over there. Think of that. And, uh, Brown University, great school. Great s- -- great, really one of the greatest schools anywhere in the world. Things can happen. So, uh, to the nine injured, get well fast. And to the families of those two that are no longer with us. I pay my deepest regards and respects from the United States of America.
Thank you very much. It's a very important thing to say. And, uh, we mean it. I can tell you in Syria, there will be a lot of damage done to the people that did it. They got the person, the individual person, but there'll be big damage done. And, uh, the other supposedly, they call them a person of interest, so I'll keep it along those lines so we don't get ourselves in any trouble, but they have a person of interest at Brown.
And in Australia, you probably read, they've, uh, it's been, it's been a very, very brave person, actually, who, uh, went and attacked frontally, uh, uh, one of the shooters and saved a lot of lives. So very brave person who's right now in the hospital, pretty seriously wounded. So I, great respect to that man that did that.
Uh, but we're here for a different reason. We're here to celebrate, uh, Christmas and to celebrate, and I think today we can first say loudly we celebrate Hanukkah, because that was such a horrible attack. That was a purely anti-Semitic attack. And, uh, to really celebrate the new year, we have an amazing, uh, couple of achievements.
We've taken in more investment money than any country has ever taken in by four times. There's never been anything like it. And I like to say that was because of the November 5th election, but, uh, and it was to an extent because without the November 5th election, you would've had a president that didn't have the courage to use tariffs the way they should be used.
And because of the tariffs, we've taken in more than 18, think of this, $18 trillion. There's never been anything like it. As an example, the previous administration, Sleepy Joe Biden, took in less than 1 trillion in four years. We took in more than 18 trillion in 10 months. I'd say that's pretty good, right?
I'd say that's pretty good. And if you go back, if you go back into history, there's never been a country that's taken in more than $3 trillion, and we have over 18. That's again, because they don't want to pay tariffs. So in order not to pay tariffs, they come in and they build their plant in the United States.
It's pretty simple. And, uh, it's been pretty amazing, actually. Uh, we have some very special people here, and because I believe in families so strongly, I think I should introduce. Uh, we have, uh, Don, we have his children. We have Vanessa, her children, Kai, Tristan, Spencer, Chloe. Uh, where's, you know, Kai's a great golfer.
Has anyone ever, oh, there she is. Hi, Kai. Put your hand up, Kai. Can you beat, can you beat your grandpa in golf? [Laughs] Can Kai beat her grandpa on golf? [Laughs] I don't know. But she's great. Uh, Chloe is going to be amazing, and all of them, they're great athletes. They're really great. So I just want to welcome Don and I want to welcome, uh, Vanessa.
I want to welcome the kids. And Bettina, who's, uh, with Don is so, such a fantastic person. Where's Bettina? She's a great athlete, too. She's like, where are you? You, you, I hear you're a really good athlete. [Laughs] So that's very nice. But so I just had to do that, but then I'm going to tell you about some other people that are here 'cause it's amazing.
We have a man who just won the US Open in Golf. He hits a long ball, slightly longer than me. [Laughs] I used to think I hit a long ball until I played with him. [Laughs] But everybody feels that way, even the touring pros. He's the longest hitter in golf. He's the longest hitter. Much more importantly, he putts great, he chips great.
He hits the ball dead straight. It's tough. When you're the longest, straightest hitter that putts the best and chips the best, typically you're gonna do quite well, and he does quite well. He just signed a contract for like 200 million for, uh, for playing golf, you're paying a guy hundreds of millions of dollars.
And he's, he's a fantastic person. You know what he's got though better than all of his game? The head. He's got the head is better than anything. He knows how to win. Where's Bryson DeChambeau? Is he here? Bryson. Come, come up here, Bryson. Come on. Come on, Bryson. I wanna ask, why is he longer? Look at him.
Now, if you rip off the jacket, you'll see the muscles are serious, but, but we don't have to rip off jackets. Come on up here. Say hello. Hi, Bryse.
Great to see you, Mr. President.
The current US Open Champion. Please.
My goodness. Well, I, [Laughs] I did not know I was gonna be coming up here toni- -- today, but, uh, I gotta say thank you. And what the President done in his term has been incredible, right? It's the greatest economy that we've ever had. And just, just to be serving on the President's Council, Sports Fitness and Nutrition has been such an honor.
And the First Lady, you look so beautiful, by the way. And, uh, I'll say cheers to the greatest economy that we've had in a long, long time. And Merry Christmas to everybody. Um, you kids look awesome down there. I think that, uh, when I was a kid, I never imagined that I'd even be up here. How is this even possible?
So, it's, it's been a beautiful moment. I'm gonna cry, actually, because I don't even know why I'm up here [Laughs] speaking.
He hasn't cried in a long time.
No, no, not, not since the, not since --
He's not, he's not a big crier.
Not since the US Open, but, uh --
He makes, he makes other people cry. [Laughs]
I gotta tell you, [Laughs] what, what everybody's doing here is incredible for the country, and I gotta thank the President of the United States. He is, uh, such an, an amazing human being, more importantly, as I've gotten to know him over the past decade now, almost. What he's done, not just for our country, but just for every single person that he goes and interacts with is absolutely incredible.
I can't tell you how many times I've been around him, and him just look up to, or look over to a kid and be like, "How are you doing? You l- -- you're doing so great. Love you. Keep going forward. Keep growing in life." It's unbelievable what he does for families and for kids. And for that, I say thank you and merry Chri- -- Christmas to you guys.
It's so amazing.
How, how is my, how is my golf game?
His golf game, look, his iron play is actually probably better than mine right now. [Laughs] I'll tell you that right now. [Laughs] Uh, I can hit it a little farther, but --
His is slightly longer.
Just a little bit. But his putting has gotten really good lately. I played with, uh, Gary Player and Masasan --
Yeah. That's right. That's right.
-- of which he made so many putts, uh, when we played together, together for Gary his 90th. Um, but anyway, he's a great golfer, better human being, and you definitely, uh, we, we're all so lucky to have him as the President of the United States, so thank you guys.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
So Bryson, coming up the 18th fairway needed a par to win the US Open. He pulled his drive, which is a little bit unlike him, and he had a horrible lie. He was in a bush. This is not good, because it looked like it was gonna be a routine, but it's hard to finish. You know, winning is not easy. And especially with golf.
So he pulled his drive a little bit, hit it about 360, but he pulled it, and he was in a bush. He chopped it out. It was actually an amazing shot. Uh, he, many of the golfers , who have, who saw this whole thing? Did , yes, right? Actually, all my friends are saying I saw it. [Laughs] He chopped it out of the bush, moved it forward 100 yards into a sand trap.
So now he's 60 yards away. If you know anything about golf, that's the worst shot you can have. In fact, the pros don't even practice it because there's no way to figure it out. So he has 60 yards. What was it? 54 yards to be exact, I think. 54, or like about that. 54 yards. That's the worst thing that can happen.
Behind the green is the clubhouse. If you go there, you have a two-stroke penalty, you lose the US Open. In front of the green is the worst bushes you've ever seen. So he has to either putt it on the green or he's dead. So his caddy who was a great caddy wanted him to play way left and take two long putts and get into a playoff.
Bryson said, "No, we gotta go for the win." He takes like an open face nine iron or wedge, which normally you wouldn't use. It's a very hard shot. And he hits it four feet from the hole. Now, for a golfer, they would say, "That's not so good because they have to sink a four footer because they can't sink four footers." That guy can sink four footers.
So he still had a four-foot putt that broke a few inches to the right, which is considered harder when, than breaking to the left. He stood over the ball, hit it, went into the hole, he wins the US Open. So that's called a champion's heart. So it's great to have you. You're a great champion. Won a lot of, you won a lot of golf.
US amateur, a lot of, lot of tournaments. And you know, you're just at the beginning of your great, you know, your age is where they really become great. 31, 32 years old, that's when, uh, if you look statistically, they do the best from 31, 32 to 40, except for Vijay. Vijay won all of his tournaments from 40 to 50. Vijay's the one unique player, right?
Yes.
He became great at 40, but, uh, you're at the exact perfect age, so great. You're a great champion. Thank you. It's great that you're here. Maybe I'll take a chipping lesson from him. He's a good -- [Laughs] So I also wanna thank, uh, Casey, I wanna thank you for being here. James Blair, I wanna thank you.
Where's James? What a job he's done. You have your beautiful family, James?
Yes, sir.
This guy is so good. You know, I wasn't sure. He was very quiet and I kept hearing he's very quiet, but I'd hear from other people he's a total political genius, but I didn't see it because he was always, I don't know what it was. Maybe he was intimidated by the Office of the President. But I heard he was like this brilliant guy, I'm telling you, sir.
And then they gave him a very high position. I said, "He's so quiet." They said, "He's not quiet, sir. Maybe he's quiet around you. He's not quiet." And that was two years ago. And you know what? He's not quiet. [Laughs] He's incredible. The job you've done. Thank you, James.
Thank you, sir.
Great. Is the other James there? Because you have two James'. They're both great. So I used to call him Big James and Little James. But the problem is he's not little at all. And I don't think people like being called Little James, but I meant it very affectionately. But Big James is like 6'7" and he weighs like 320. So he's big compared to almost anybody.
So then I said, "Okay, I'll change it. I'll call him Big James and I'll call him Brilliant James." But that's a real slight on Big James now. So I just keep calling him James [Laughs] and whoever comes. But you've done a great job and I appreciate it. I know you're working on that situation for appointments and that's, that'll be great.
Pull that off. Uh, Naomi, thank you very much from Bedminster. Naomi is here. She does a fantastic job. And I want to thank you. I want to thank, uh, Erin Elmore. Is Erin here?
Yes.
Erin, come here, Erin. She's marrying the most powerful man in the administration. She's getting married to the Great Dan Scavino. Is Dan here, or is he working?
He's working.
He's too big. Come on up here, Erin. You think Dan has bad taste? You won't believe this. Mickie Gallagher, another great golfer is here. He's the head pro at Bedminster and he's , yeah, come on up here, Erin.
Yeah, [Inaudible]
You know the First Lady?
How are you? Nice to see you. How are you? Thank you [Inaudible]
Wanna say a couple of words?
Sure.
'Cause she's a great hostess. She does , she hosts professionally everything and she's the best. But now she's probably gonna , let's see.
Uh-oh.
Is she gonna choke?
No, I don't.
Is she gonna be the opposite of Bryson? [Laughs] Say a couple. Great. You look great.
Thank you, Mr. President, First Lady, and to everyone, Merry Christmas. Uh, thank you so much for having me. It's an absolute honor. I got to fly here today with Vanessa and all of the kids, and you just have such a wonderful family. Everyone is amazing, and polite, and smart, and athletic, and talented.
So you guys have done a truly amazing job and it's a testament to your family. And I think this party is really special because my son is here, my sister is here, and the holidays and Christmas are truly about family. And thank God that we have a president and a first lady who puts our families first, who puts America first.
And that's why we get to have this special, amazing, beautiful Christmas season the way that it is. And I thank God every day that President Trump won November 5th of last year, and I think we keep making America great again. For all of these people here today, our children, our families. So thank you so much for having me. And thank you, President and First Lady.
Thank you, Erin. Thank you. Great.
I need to go.
Now you know what I'm talking about. You did a good job. I don't know. Scavino is great, but without that big power, do you think that she would have been interested in , james, I don't know. I think the power is the thing that did it, right?
Uh, he's a charming herself. I don't know.
He's a, he's a great guy. You got a great guy. I think the best.
And he looks great these days.
He's a handsome guy, right? Look at her. She's, now she's defending him. [Laughs] Thank you. Erin, thank you very much. Thank you, darling. Great job. I appreciate it. Uh, so Mickie Gallagher, where's Mickie? Mickie, from one of the , now, he's a great player too. Probably Mickie would agree that he's not quite as good as Bryson.
He's the head pro at Bedminster, one of the most respected professionals, the most like in New Jersey. Forget, he's like a king. And he's a really good golfer. But we've given up with the tour stuff, right, Mickie?
We've given up.
[Laughs] We gave up. When --
[Inaudible]
When, when you see somebody who's 100 yards longer, you say, "Let's go, let's go back to hiring golf pros all over the place." Right? Thank you, Mickie, for being here. And he is a great golfer. Uh, really terrific lawyer. He's been with me for a long time. I think he's got his family with him and his family's great.
Alan Garten. Where's Alan? Alan, nice to see you, Alan. Boy, are we winning cases or losing? I think we're winning.
[Inaudible]
I guess we're winning because here we are, right?
It's a good work. [Inaudible]
That's good. Well, you've done a great job and look at that beautiful baby, huh? That boy, he's not a baby anymore, right? Good. Good. Thank you, Alan. Is your wife here who he happened to meet on the job? He met on the job. You know, we're not supposed to do that stuff, but they got along very well. I said, "the hell with it." [Laughs] We have very flexible rules in the Trump organization.
I said, "You know, those two seem to be too --" She's a great lawyer. I don't know, she may be a better lawyer than you, Alan, I hate to tell , but I noticed they came into my office and they were extraordinarily friendly, you know? Like they'd walk in two separate lawyers and we, it's strange when they walk into my office and they're holding hands, you know?
It's like, I said, "What the hell's [Laughs] going on over here?" Right? So, uh, Alan, I just wanna thank you for doing a great job, both of you for doing a great job, and congratulations on the family and everything. A man who's really, uh, fantastic. He started off as a speech, a speech writer. And my problem is I didn't stick to his speech that much, but whenever I stuck to his speech, I would never get myself into trouble.
But he's one of the greatest speech writers in the world. And together with his partner, Ross, they form a team that, you know, they've been with me right from the beginning. Vince, are you here, Vince? Oh, there you are, Vince. It's, it's amazing the way you blended in. He wants to blend in. And now, he's doing something I think that's gonna be the most exciting job of all.
And, uh, Ross is doing really well. They split up probably the first time. You know, they've always been a team. They, they wrote, they love each other. They got along so well for so many years. And I said, "You know, uh, we have a couple of jobs." Rich, Vince is unbelievable on policy. And we have a policy thing that's gonna be unbelievable happening.
Should I announce it or should I keep it quiet? I put Vince in charge of the triumphal arch. We're building an arc like the Arc de Triomphe. And we're building it, uh, by the Arlington Bridge, the Arlington Cemetery, uh, opposite the Lincoln Memorial. You could say Jefferson, Washington, everything because they're all right there.
And it's something that is so special. Uh, it will be like the one in, in Paris, but to be honest with you, it blows it away. Blows it away in every way. And Vince came in one day and his eyes were teaming. I mean, he couldn't believe how beautiful. It was ki- -- he saw it and he wanted to do that. That's your primary thing.
There is nothing that can compete with that. It's the only city in the world that's of great importance that doesn't have a triumphal arch. You know what that is. And, uh, this one is gonna blow them all away. The one that people know mostly is the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. And, uh, we're gonna top it by, I think, a lot.
The only thing they have is history. You know, 1860 is something I always say the one thing you can't compete with, but eventually we'll have that history too. But we're gonna have something that, uh, li- -- the likes of which has, has never been done before. And it's been waiting for 200 years, literally.
Uh, I think the Civil War got in the way of it. You know, the, uh, opening, they actually have the four, they have four columns, four small columns with the eagles on top. And they have the circle, you know, before on the other side from the Lincoln. And it's, uh, it's so unbelievable. It's so unbelievable.
It's been waiting for hundreds of years, and they were going to build on it a couple of times. It never happened. But it's a circle that's been waiting to have the arc built on it. And I think we're very far along. I think you might wanna show it to the National Trust, if you'd like. You might wanna show it to a couple of people, take a look at it, because I've always gotten really along well with the National Trust.
So take a look and show it to them, and start, and maybe they give you some good ideas too, okay? But I'm proud of you, and I'm really especially proud of the job you've done. From day one, he and his partner, Ross, have been, uh, writing really great speeches. And I just wish I stuck with them a little bit more often.
But we, uh, we go on and off those speeches, right? And I think ultimately that's the best combination, right? So one of the greatest in the world, the two of those guys, the greatest. Then we have a man who, to me, this is the most interesting story. Boy, do you look like Ivanka? Has anyone ever told you that?
I'm looking, [Laughs] I'm saying, "Is that Ivan- --" Could you just turn around for the camera? Does she look, does she look like Ivanka? It's the most unbelievable thing. Uh, so I wouldn't, I didn't wanna take a chance. I say, "Is that Ivanka?" You look just like Ivanka, which is a great compliment, actually.
So we have a doctor in the White House named Dr. James Jones. Can I tell the story?
Please, sir.
And he's a great doctor, highly respected by so many people. He's helped so many people. I've had people come to the White House and they were so sick. I've had people come to the White House along with your partner. You gotta , well, you have a lot of partners. You have Walter Reed Medical Center, which I think is the best in the world.
They've seen things that nobody wants to see, right?
Yes, sir.
They have, uh, doctors have told me, "If you can get out of here, you've seen it all." And that's why they produce some of the best doctors in the world. Well, Dr. James Jones is a great doctor. He was the White House doctor during the Obama administration and during the Trump administration. Uh, and I guess during a little bit of, uh, maybe, no, those two? 'Cause we had, we had somebody else named Doc Ronnie who actually got a glimpse of Obama in there too.
Is that Doc Ronnie back there? No. Doc Ronnie, uh, did all three. And he said Trump is in the best health of all. He had, he had Bush, he had Obama, he had Trump. He, he didn't have Biden. He didn't have Biden. But Dr. James went on a trip to Peru with the two Obama girls. They wanted to go hiking in, in, uh, Peru.
Uh, was it Peru? In, uh, Peru. And it's known for being a rather rough place in terms of physical creatures crawling around. 28,000 people die a year from a snake bite, a certain snake. It's a viper, right? It's said to be the most poisonous snake in the world. And he made a comment and somebody else told him that's very dangerous in that area to go hiking.
And the guide said, "Oh, don't worry, we never see that snake. It's over-exaggerated." Even though 27, 28,000 people a year die. That's not over-exaggerated. Because when they lift the rice and the this and the that out of the water, they get hit. And if you get hit, it's automatic death. So he goes out and he's, in your last day, right, you're getting ready to come back.
For two weeks, they're traipsing around in Peru. And he's gotta follow them because he's the White House doctor. And he's with the two young ladies who I'll bet are nice. You actually said they were very nice young ladies too. I'll bet they are. And final day, final two hours, he gets hit by a viper, right?
This is a terrible Christmas story, but it's a hell of a story because I'll tell you what happened. He gets hit with a viper and he was, the viper missed him. It hit his jacket, a very thick jacket and spread all of the venom all over the place. It went all over. But that wasn't good enough for the viper.
The viper hit him a second time, and this time it got him on the arm. And so I think probably the only reason you made it, even though making it took him two years to make it. But, uh, they read him the last rites. He was gone on three different occasions. They thought he was dead. And, uh, you know, it takes only a minute.
And because of Doc Ronnie Jackson, he knew. They called in and he was at the White House and he knew from the description and the location what kind of a snake it was. And they had the venom just in case. But the venom rarely works. It's so powerful this snake. It's said to be the most poisonous. That, the black mamba, the brown mamba and the viper from Peru.
You do not want to play games, okay? And I'm telling this story because my son, Don, this is a hell of a , you heard, did you hear this story, Don? And so he's, uh, he's being read his rights and his, this is, they, they thought he was dead three times, three different times. They carried him out, feeding him the anti-venom.
And over a period of months, he was unconscious for a long time, many weeks, and he made it. I asked him, "How you doing today?" He said, "Is it perfect?" Look how quiet everybody is. [Laughter] You know? You know, it's funny, when you talk about snakes and things like that, that, uh, people find it interesting.
Would anybody like to go and, go to Peru and walk around the forest with, he says, "No, no, thank you. No thank you." I'll say, "No, thank you." But, uh, this was a real, did they ever find the snake, by the way?
They did find it.
Oh, they did find it? What did they do?
They took care of it. [Laughter]
You know, normally, normally the environmentalists and the animal rights people would say, "Oh, leave it alone. It's such a wonderful --" [Laughter] Okay. Usually they say, "Leave it alone. Such a wonderful, leave the sharks alone. Don't touch the sharks. They're wonderful. I love the sharks." Right? Uh, I don't feel that way, but that's okay.
Just lost about one vote, that's all. [Laughter] But, so he, he got better. And here's the story, the purpose of this story is that he wrote a book nine years ago, would you say? This was nine years ago?
Three years ago.
Three years. The book is three years old. And it was okay. It sold about two copies. [Laughter] But it had a hell of a cover, and it has a cover of the White House and this vicious snake, and it is vicious. Teeth like this, this, those fangs. These are not fangs you want, you know, sucking on your arm, right?
As you had. By the way, what did you do? When that snake was on your arm, you tried to get it off your arm, I guess, naturally. What was happening?
I rolled off, sir, so I don't remember it.
You mean it, it hit you that hard that it knocked you out immediately?
Yes sir.
I, it's unbelievable. So he wrote a book three years ago, and the book was fine, you know, it's like every other book. It didn't sell too much, but it was interesting. But I heard the story and I'm fascinated by stories of wildlife, because I have a theory. Wildlife always wins. That's what my theory is. We can play games, you know?
I'm saying this for my son, by the way, because I have a son who would rather be in the jungle than any place on earth. When I kick the bucket someday, he'll be, I, I figure, Bettina, I think he'll be here for about, uh, two days. He'll go and pay his respects and we'll say, "Where's Don?" He'd rather be in some jungle or some, and he's a really good hunter.
But remember this, wildlife always wins, unfortunately, as in this case. So what happened, Dr. Jones wrote a book, and the book was amazing. I said, "I wanna get that book." And I got it. And the cover is unbelievable. You'll see it on Truth Social. It's on Truth Social. I put out a statement that this book is great.
The story is incredible. Took him like two years to recover. And I think he's, he, he said he's, he's lost something, but not up here. I don't care if you've lost something physically, but as long as the head is good. Did you lose anything from the brain?
No, sir.
Good. Okay. Then that's all I care about. I don't give a damn about the use of your arm.
My wife might tell a different story.
Your wife is, your wife, just, oh, where is his wife? Oh, look at that. Wow.
She's back here somewhere.
Where is, where is the wife of Dr. Jones? I just wanna know, did he lose anything mentally? Because if he did, I want, I don't, I no longer want him as my doctor. [Laughter] Then, no, he's an unbelievable doctor. No, here's the bottom line. So you had this book. He gets a call two days ago. I put out a Truth Social yesterday.
I've sold a lot of bestsellers when I like people. I put it out, great book, bop, bop, bop, picture of this viper coming like boom from the White House. And his publisher calls him. Said, "Doctor, what happened? What's going on?" He said, "We're being in the --" Did they sell 100,000? What's the number?
100,000, sir.
They sold 100,000 books. It's the number one bestseller. Can you believe it? Did you know? It's the number one bestselling book. Can you believe that? [Audience replies "No"] So now you're a bestselling author. Now he can quit the White House and -- [Laughs] But anyway, he's a great doctor with a terrible, that was a terrible experience.
I mean, you went through hell for years, right? And, and, uh, the power is incredible, of animals, you know? Power is incredible. You got hit. And, uh, we tell you, a lot of respect. Uh, the chances of living from that snake are substantially less than 1%. And that's only if you have the venom. Even if you have the venom, you don't live.
And this guy's living. But I have a feeling that first blow missing, that was, I assume there was a lot less going in, right? So, but it just --
I think the good Lord [Inaudible]
I, he said the, the good Lord saved him. Uh, I can maybe say that too. [Laughter] Every once in a while, I get that throbbing feeling. I say, "Thank you very much." You know? So we're in maybe a similar position. But, uh, you're a great doctor and I appreciate it. I just think it's an incredible story. Go buy his book, but it's an incredible story. 100,000 books sold in a day and a half.
That's incredible, right? It's an amazing story. I wanna just explain a couple of things and then I'm gonna just leave by saying have a great Christmas, but, uh, our country is doing really well. We inherited a mess from Biden and the Biden administration. We had the worst inflation in the history of our country.
The worst inflation in the history of our country, prices were the highest they ever were. And what we're doing is bringing them down. We now have, inflation is totally neutralized. We may get it a little bit lower. You don't wanna get it too, you don't want deflation. Deflation is in many ways worse than inflation, but we have a record-setting, we have more people, on Friday.
We had more people working on Friday than at any time in the history of our country. Think of that. Wages have gone up by more than inflation. First time that's happened in many years. We are doing great. And prices are coming down. And the Democrats use this word called affordability. They look at the camera, and they say, "What are you gonna do for that?" "Affordability." They keep saying, "Affordability" Well, they're the ones that caused the problem, okay?
They're the ones that caused the problem. That's all they're de, they're good at cheating in elections, very good at cheating. They're professionals at cheating, because we won in 2016 by a lot. The election was rigged in 2020. We have all the ammunition, all the stuff, and you'll see it come out. It's coming out in, in truckloads.
But then we won again in 2024 with an election that we call too big to rig. And we were eating big in the polls, but I said, "Go out and vote. You gotta go out and vote. Make it too big to rig." And that's exactly , they tried to rig it, but they couldn't do it. It was too big to rig. Too many votes. And we won every single swing state.
We won by millions of votes. We won the popular vote. We won, uh, the, uh, college, electoral college. We won something else by a lot. We won something else that was amazing, and that's called districts. So the country is divided up into thousands of districts. We won 2,750 to 525. That's why when you look at a map of the election, the entire map is red other than two little blue stripes along the outer edge.
What one is California, one's New York. And California's election, New York also, but California more than any other place is so rigged. It's such a rigged election. You know, we won the Hispanic vote. So a lot of people say Republican wouldn't win California, but I won the Hispanic vote. I won in Miami.
The, think of that. In Miami, I won the Hispanic vote. Along the Texas border, I won every single city or town touching the Texas border, and they're 85 to 90% Hispanic. We won the Hispanic vote. If the vote in California was legitimate, which is not, they have 38 million ballots, everything is mail-in voting.
They mail out 38 million ballots, and they come in. Where the hell do they go and where do they come from? It's a rigged election in California, because we would win California by a lot. And again, they feel, feel they have the advantage with Hispanic. They don't, because I won Hispanic vote. So we are, we did something that was amazing.
We made a comeback and we got the most Republican votes in the history of elections. We won Texas by more votes than anybody's ever gotten to this. Well, I did number one, number two, and three, all three I did in Texas and Alabama and many other states. We won. In many states, we have the all-time record for votes.
And it was just a great election. This was a great election. Uh, and you had long since recovered from the viper bites, so you acknowledge that this was a great, because I said, "I want that guy that's my doctor." And it's true. And your partner is so great. He's such a great guy. So I just want to, uh, say this was an amazing period of time.
Our country has been turned around much faster than I thought. If you would have told me that 10 months in, we would have over 18 trillion with a T, not billion, but $18 trillion coming in. And they're coming in. It's all, they're building car plants, they're building AI plants, they're building everything at a level that we've never seen, that no country has ever seen before.
Now I assume that's gonna start. It's already showing up, but I assume that it's going to start showing up. I'll be picking a new head of the Fed soon. Our Fed person is absolutely, despite him, we have numbers that really nobody's ever seen, Vince, right? Despite him, we have numbers that nobody's ever seen before.
Uh, we're, we're fighting through him, uh, and we'll soon have a good head of the Fed who's gonna wanna see interest rates go down, but we're fighting through higher interest rates, but the interest rates are coming down despite him. He's a, an incompetent, he's an incompetent person who suffers from Trump derangement syndrome, okay?
It's one of those little problems. We have many of them, but we're fighting through that stuff. And we have a country that potentially is geared to have the most incredible golden years ever. We're gonna have, it's the golden age. I say it's the golden age of America. When these factories and plants open up by the thousands, uh, Toyota just announced they're gonna spend $10 billion building plants to make Toyotas.
Uh, so they're coming from Germany, they're coming from Japan, they're coming from Canada. Many factories are coming in because there's, they don't have, they don't wanna pay tariffs. Very simple. They're coming in and they're spending a tremendous, they're spending hundreds of billions of dollars. Our car industry lost 58% of their capacity over the years.
They went to Europe, they went to Mexico, Japan, they went all over. They went to South, uh, South Korea. And now it's just the opposite. They're all coming back. We're gonna, we have an age that's coming up, the likes of which I don't think this country has, this country has never seen. And I just look so forward to the results.
You're gonna see results in six months to a year. I think you'll see results, uh, we've never had anything like it. Again, there's never been any country. China, wonderful. I have a great relationship with President Xi. China's never seen it. Nobody's ever seen it. And by the way, we're leading in AI by a lot.
AI is a big deal. And we're leading in AI by a lot. And the big problem was electricity. But I allow our plants, in other words, all of these geniuses that are building a 60 billion dollar, billion, 60 billion dollar plant, I allow them to build their own electric capacity as part of the plant, and that solved the problem with the old grid.
So they're able to do things that nobody thought they'd be able to do. We're getting them very fast approvals, and many of those plants are right now being built. So we have things happening, uh, like nobody's ever seen before. We have a great country. It's a great time to have Christmas. And I just wanna introduce a person who's very outstanding.
She is a great person, a highly respected woman. Every time I make a speech, I see signs, "We love our first lady. We love our first lady." They love our first lady. What can I do? I don't like it because I think they like her more than they like me and I am not happy about it. I am not happy, but we're gonna have to have a discussion about this.
But they love our first lady. And you know, uh, Melania did all of these decorations and she's gotten great reviews. The first year she did the trees, they were, that's right. The first year, year one, she did the trees that were white and they were so, you know, snow, beautiful. And the fake news hit her hard.
The next year, they were red, gorgeous red. They hit her hard. The next year, there were another color, they hit her. I said, "Baby, do me a favor. Do me a favor. Make the trees green. Let them just be green. They're so beautiful. Let them be green." Anyway, she has gotten the greatest reviews I've ever seen.
And nobody's ever gotten reviews like this for the White House. I actually like the white ones better, but [Inaudible] I gonna -- [Laughs] She has done a great job, and maybe I'll ask her to say a few words. She loves you all. Thank you very much.
Uh, good afternoon. Welcome to the White House. Uh, it's nice to see familiar faces. First of all, uh, my thoughts and prayers go to the families of, uh, people who lost the loved ones around the world in this, uh, difficult time. Uh, we are celebrating here Christmas and I'm thinking about them, uh, what they're going through.
So my heart is, uh, with them. I would like that you enjoy today, the White House. It's a special place. And, uh, we have a Santa visiting today. I hope you saw him. And if not, go to visit him in the green room, the family's room, a game room. Uh, he's waiting for you. You could take a pictures and maybe whisper to him what you would like to have, uh, as a present for Christmas.
So enjoy the time. Wishing you Merry Christmas and a very happy new year and, uh, all the best to your families. Thank you.
Thank you, Melania. And I just wanna say, go, you're here for a reason. It's to celebrate Christmas and all of the holidays and the success of America. But we have the best chefs here. You are going to love that food, so go and get the food. Everybody wants to come to the Christmas party. I have made so many enemies because you can only have so many.
And I've made so many enemies because I'm saying, "I'm sorry, we're just not able to accommodate you." I don't necessarily say it myself, but our people do. [Laughter] And I think it's 10 to one, Vince, 10 to one. Uh, the one gets in and the 10 don't. Though this is not a good, politically, this is not a good thing, but you're here.
The food is phenomenal. Go eat. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah, and really have a fantastic year. We're gonna have a great year. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.