That was incredible. Secretary Hegseth will go down in history as one of the most inspirational Military Leaders of all time.
President Trump: If you want to applaud, you applaud. And if you want to do; anything you want, you can do anything you want. If you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room. 'Course there goes your rank, there goes your future.
President Trump: Together we are reawakening the Warrior Spirit, and this is a spirit that won and built this nation, and from the cavalry that tamed the great plains, to the ferocious, unyielding power of Patton, Bradley, and the great General Douglas MacArthur; these were all great men. In this effort we're a team, and so my message to you is very simple. I am with you. I support you, and as president, I have your backs one hundred percent. You'll never see me even waver a little bit. That's the way it is.
President Trump: Together, over the next few years, we're going to make our military stronger, tougher, faster, fiercer, and more powerful than it has ever been before.
President Trump: As leaders, our commitment to every patriot who put on the uniform, is to ensure that American Military remains the most lethal and dominant on the planet. Not merely for a few years, but for the decades and generations to come; for centuries. We must be so strong that no nation will dare challenge us, so powerful that no enemy will dare threaten us, and so capable that no adversary can even think about beating us.
President Trump: We're bringing back a focus on fitness, ability, character, and strength, and that's because the purposes of American Military is not to protect anyone's feelings, it's to protect our Republic, and it's the Republic that we dearly love. It's to protect our country. We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American Freedom, and we will be a fighting and winning machine. We want to fight, we want to win, and we want to fight as little as possible. You have to count on people like me to keep you out of wars, because we don't want to go into wars.
President Trump: Under my budget, we will be expanding the U.S. Navy by at least nineteen ships next year, including submarines, destroyers, assault ships, and more. And it's going to be much more than that as we go along, because we basically don't build ships anymore. We do build submarines, but we don't build ships.
President Trump: Together, with many of you in the room, we've brought back the fundamental principal that defending the homeland is the military's first and most important priority. Only in recent decades did politicians somehow come to believe that our job is to police the far reaches of Kenya and Somalia, while America in under invasion from within. We're under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways, because they don't wear uniforms. At least when they're wearing a uniform, you can take 'em out. These people don't have uniforms. But we are under invasion from within. We're stopping it very quickly. After spending trillions of dollars defending the borders of foreign countries, with your help, we're defending the borders of our country from now on.
President Trump: Last month I signed an executive order to provide training for Quick Reaction Force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it's the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control. It won't get out of control
President Trump: These servicemembers are following and storied military tradition. From protecting frontier communities, to chasing outlaws and bandits in the wild west, our history is filled with military heroes who took on all enemies, foreign and domestic. You know that phrase very well. That's what the oath says, foreign and domestic. Well we also have domestic. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, George Bush, and others, all used the armed forces to keep domestic order and peace. Many of our leaders used the military to keep peace. Now they like to say, ' oh you're not allowed to use the military'.
President Trump: We got many of them out of here too. I'll be honest with you. Didn't like doing it, but we got many of you outta here, because we weren't satisfied. We know everything about everybody.