Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, speaks at a farewell ceremony on the morning of Jan. 20 at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, D.C., on the eve of his departure from office.
The following is a full translation from a transcript of President Trump’s remarks at the farewell ceremony released by the White House Office of the Press Secretary prior to the swearing-in of the 46th president, Joe Biden.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thank you all very much. Thank you guys.
AUDIENCE: We love you! We love you! We love you!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you guys so much. We love you guys, and I can tell you this comes from the bottom of my heart. It’s been an incredible four years. We’ve accomplished so much together.
I want to thank my whole Family, my friends and my staff, and so many of you for being here. I want to thank you for all your efforts, all your hard work. People can’t imagine how hard this family worked. They worked, they worked for you. (Applause.) They could have had an easier Life, but they just — they did an outstanding job. I just want to thank all of you, every single one of you.
I want to thank Mark Meadows, who’s in here somewhere. Right there. I want to thank Mark. (Applause)
But it’s been something very special. We’ve accomplished a lot. Our First Lady has been a very elegant, beautiful and dignified woman – (applause) – so popular. So popular. By the way, dear, would you like to say a few words? Yes, please. (Applause)
FIRST LADY: It has been a great honor to serve as your first lady. Thank you for your love and your support. You will remain in my heart and in my prayers. God bless all of you. God bless your families. God bless this beautiful country. Thank you. (Applause)
THE PRESIDENT: What else is there to say? Right? But what we’ve done –
AUDIENCE: Thank you, Melania!
THE PRESIDENT: It’s true, honey, great job.
By any standard, what we’ve done is amazing. We’ve rebuilt the American military. (Applause.) We created a new branch of the military called the Pacific Air Force. That in itself is a major accomplishment for an extraordinary administration; we’re not an extraordinary administration.
We took care of the veterans – 91 percent approval rating. They’ve never had that before. (Applause.) Veterans have given us an approval rating that’s unprecedented.
We took care of our veterans. Our wonderful veterans, they were treated very badly before we came. You know, we got them great service, we paid the bills, they could go to a doctor outside the system if they had to wait a long Time to see a doctor. We did that so we could — sadly, fire people who didn’t treat our veterans properly. We didn’t have any of those rights before I came. So our veterans are happy, our people are happy, our military is excited.
We’ve also done tax cuts, the most substantial tax cuts and reforms in our nation’s history, far beyond any time period. (Applause.) I hope they don’t raise your taxes, but if they do, don’t say I didn’t tell you. (Laughter) And if you look at the regulatory requirements – I think it’s probably more important to reduce the regulatory requirements. That’s why we’ve had such good employment numbers. The employment numbers have been absolutely incredible.
When we started, if we hadn’t been hit by a pandemic, we would have had unprecedented numbers, we’ve had the best numbers ever. If you look at where we were before February, a year ago, we had numbers that no one had ever seen before. Even now, we’re actually building twice. We’ve been attacked. No one blames us for that. The whole world was attacked and then we rebuilt.
The stock market is actually much higher now than it was at its highs before the pandemic. You could say that we built it twice. You’re going to see – (applause) – you’re going to see incredible numbers start pouring in, if everything is not altered. Be careful. It’s very complicated. Be careful. But you’re going to see some incredible things happen. And when you see those things happen, remember us, if you will. Remember us, because I’m seeing our economic element supposedly a rocket ship that lifts off. It’s a rocket ship that lifts off.
We have the greatest country in the world. We have the greatest economy in the world, and as bad as the pandemic is, we’ve been hit so hard, just like the whole world has been hit so hard – the places that thought they were free of the Epidemic are not free of it; they’re suffering right now.
We did something that was considered a medical miracle. They call it a “miracle,” and that miracle is the vaccine. We developed a vaccine in nine months, not nine years, or five years or ten years, or longer. Vaccine development would have taken a long time, many, many years. We developed two vaccines. We’re going to have another vaccine almost immediately, and that’s really a great achievement. So, you should see very good numbers in the next few months. I think you’re going to see these numbers drop dramatically.
That’s all I can say: we’re working very hard. As athletes would say, ‘We gave it our best on the field.’ We’re not going to – (applause) – we’re not going to say – we’re never going to say, a month from now, when we’re sitting in Florida, we’re not going to look at each other and say. “Ugh, how nice it would have been if we had worked a little harder in the first place.” You can’t make more effort than that, and we hit a lot of obstacles that we overcame. We just got 75 million votes, which is an all-time record – (applause) – in the history of sitting presidents. It’s an all-time record, by many, many millions beyond that.
It’s really an honor. One of the things we’re very, very proud of is the selection of nearly 300 federal judges and three terrific Supreme Court justices. (Applause.) That’s a very large number. It’s a record number.
We’ve done a lot, and there’s a lot more to do. The first thing we’re going to do is show our respect and love to the wonderful people and their families who have been hit so hard by the Chinese virus. It is a terrible thing that has been imposed on the world. We all know where it came from. But it is a very, very scary thing. So be very careful. Be very, very careful. But we want to express our deep love to all those who have suffered, including the families who have suffered so much.
So, with that said, I just want to say: you’re amazing people. This is a very, very great country. It’s been my greatest honor to serve as your president. (Applause).
AUDIENCE: America! America! America!
Thank you, Trump! Thank you, Trump! Thank you, Trump!
THE PRESIDENT: I will always fight for you. I will watch. I will listen. And I will tell you that the future of this country has never been brighter than it is right now.
I wish the new administration great luck and great success. I think they’re going to be a great success. They’ve got the foundation to do some really outstanding things. Again, we’ve put it in a position that we’ve never been in before, despite suffering I guess you could say the worst plague since 1917, which is over 100 years ago. Nonetheless, despite that, what we’ve done is simply unbelievable. I couldn’t have done any of this without you guys.
So, just a goodbye. We love you all. We’ll be back in some form or another. (Applause).
As I leave, I want to thank again our vice president, Mike Pence, and Karen.
I want to thank Congress, because we do work well with Congress, at least with parts of Congress. (Laughter) But we really did. We did so many things that nobody thought were possible. But I do want to thank Congress.
I want to thank all those amazing people in Washington, all those people who worked with us to make this happen.
So, good luck to all of you. We’ll see you all soon. Thank you all. Thank you guys so much. Thank you guys so much. (Applause)
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