National Prayer Breakfast

Paula (00:00):

... and my friend were with me. As the conversation was happening, the president turned, not to the famous voice in the room, but to my friend and simply asked her what she did. She said, "Sir, I serve on the streets, the broken, the homeless, those struggling with addiction and women trapped in prostitution." Without any hesitation, he called for his executive assistant to bring his checkbook and he said, "Now that is real ministry." And he gave not for recognition or for credit. No one outside of that room ever knew. But he continued to support that work quietly, faithfully, and privately for a very long time.

(00:46)
Scripture commands us to care for the widow and the orphan, to defend the poor, and to love mercy. I've seen this president live that out quietly time and time again through actions, not just words. And as senior advisor to the president of the White House Faith Office and my White House director, Jenny Korn is up here, I can say without hesitation that no president in modern history or perhaps all of history has done more structurally, substantially, and sincerely to elevate and protect religious liberty. For the first time in our nation's history, faith has been institutionally elevated through the creation of the historic White House Faith Office, our one-year anniversary. Not a symbolism, but a substance. Housed in the West wing, it ensures that people of faith are essential partners in serving the vulnerable, strengthening families, defending life, and shaping the soul of nation here and abroad. The president understands something very profound, that faith is not a threat to freedom. It is its foundation. That prayer is not weakness. It is wisdom. And that leadership at its best is accountable not only to the people, but to God.

(02:28)
At a time when faith is under pressure globally, this president has stood unashamed, championing religious freedom at home and abroad, defending persecuted believers, and affirming that America will always be a nation where people are free to worship, free to speak, and free to live their conscious. He is bringing peace through great strength. In fact, President Trump has brought religion back to this nation and beyond.

(03:10)
It is my great honor to introduce, and I think I can say this not as senior advisor, but as his friend, the GOAT, the greatest of all time, the greatest champion of faith that we have ever had in the executive branch, the 45th and 47th president. Stand to your feet and give him the biggest welcome of the United States. A man I am honored to call friend President Donald J. Trump.

Donald Trump (04:50):

Hello everybody.

(04:50)
Thank you very much. Well, thank you very much and thank you to Pastor Paula. Paul is an incredible woman. She's been with me a long time, right from the beginning. This is a beautiful American tradition and it's a true honor to be back with so many incredible leaders and people of faith at the National Prayer Breakfast. I think I've been here just about every time. It's hard to turn it down. I don't have the courage to turn it down, sometimes I want to. Come back from a horrendous trip fighting people that can't stand us, keeping us out of wars and seeing things that nobody would believe that anybody would see.

(05:32)
And last time I came, I got in at 4:00 in the morning. They said, "Sir, you're going to be speaking at 7:00." I said, "Really? Oh, that's wonderful." I said, "Where?" "National Prayer Breakfast?" I said, "I'll be there. I'm afraid not to be. I need all the help I can get."

(05:49)
And I never get a fair break from the fake news, which is back there. That's a lot of fake news. Because last time I was having a lot of fun, we had a big ... We had 60,000 people and I'm talking about the fact that I will never make it to heaven. I will never, ever ... And I was being funny, I was trying to be ... You can't be sarcastic with them because they write your words and the people are reading the words are much different, but I say, "I'm never going to make it to heaven. I just don't think I qualify. I don't think there's a thing I can do." But all of these good things I'm doing, including for religion, religion's back now hotter than ever before, I have to tell you.

(06:35)
But I said, "Even though I did that and so many other things," I named things, I said, "I won't qualify. I'm not going to make it to heaven." The New York Times did a front page story that, "Donald Trump is questioning his life and the meaning of his life." No, I was just having fun. I really think I probably should make it. I'm not a perfect candidate, but I did a hell of a lot of good for perfect people, that's for sure. Right? This is tricky.

(07:03)
But I want to thank the dozens of members of Congress here this morning, including a man of immense faith and immense talent. He's a very talented man, is a small minority, because we go back and forth between minority and majority and half the time we're minority and we still win. How do we win with a minority? We have a couple of people that I consider to be negative. But we're one up, two up. Sometimes we're three up. In fact, we'll have two more victories very soon. We'll be three up and we consider that having a massive majority. Okay? Right, Mike? That's considered, we're not spoiled. Can you imagine if we ever picked up like 20 or 30 seats? That'd be too easy. I think it would be too easy. It wouldn't be fun.

(07:56)
I get these calls from Mike, "Sir, could you speak to so and- so?" Three o'clock in the morning. We have two types. We have the type that goes along with us and believes in us and they're with us all the way. And that I would say is 95%, right? And then we have the type that needs a little love all the time, no matter what it is. For the easiest thing on religion or Republicanism, the easiest thing to pass, they always make it difficult, but they always get there. But I have to call them always at 3:00 in the morning, I'll always get that call. "Sir, Speaker Johnson's going." So I get a, "Hi, Mike, what's up? What time is it?" "It's 3:00 in the morning. So we have nine names that are giving us difficulty. They want to have a phone call." I said, "All right, let's go. Here we go." Same nine all the time, right?

(08:57)
So I call up, I say, "Chip, how you doing, Chip?" "Hello, sir. Sir, I can't quite get there. I just don't know. Could I come over for breakfast?" We have a nine o'clock vote, right? I said, "Really? Is it [inaudible 00:09:16]?" "Sir, you got to get me there, sir." "Let's have breakfast, Chip, great."

(09:23)
Then I get others pretty much the same night. I don't want to name too many, but I would. And they always get there. We have one that doesn't get there. We have one guy. He's an automatic no, no matter what. If we did welfare reform, if we did the greatest thing in history for religion, no matter what we did, no matter how good it is, greatest tax cuts in it, we just did the greatest tax cuts in history he voted against. He voted.

(09:56)
Now, no matter what we do, this moron, no matter what it is, we could put them all together. I think, Mike, what would you say the top five things? Name them. We'll put them in one bill and we'll put them before, we get 100% vote except for this guy named Thomas Massie. There's something wrong with him. We call him Rand Paul Jr. It's like they just vote no. They love voting no. They think it's good politically. The guy's polling at about 9%. It's not good.

(10:28)
But we have great support and we have great support for religion. I've done more for religion than any other president. When Paula was saying that, it was so nice. I was proud of it. And I said, "That's true." I told the people backstage. "What she said is true." Who else would say that, right? But it is true.

(10:46)
But then I said, "But that's not saying much," because not too many presidents have done too much for religion. I want to tell you that. Certainly modern day, certainly modern day presidents. They bailed out on you. They bailed out. They want to be neutral. They want to be neutral or against. The Democrats are against. I don't know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat, I really don't.

(11:11)
And I know we have some here today and I don't know why they're here because they certainly don't give us their vote. I certainly know that we're not going to be convincing them to vote for a little thing called voter ID. It polls at 97%. And even the Democrat, the people, the voters are at 82% for voter ID, but the leaders don't want to approve it. They said they will strike. They will not allow it to happen. It's polling at over 90%.

(11:39)
It's called voter identification. When you go to the polls, you show up, "Yes, my name is so-and-so, and I live in the country. I'm here, I can vote." They say, "That's not allowed." And everyone's trying to figure it out. And they do something to win. You know what it is? They cheat, but let's get onto another subject.

(11:59)
No, at that, they're the finest, probably anywhere in the world, I would say. But we're trying to pass voter ID and other things, and other things having to do with your religion and getting the Democrats to vote is very, very tough.

(12:13)
But we're grateful to the co-chairs of the breakfast, Representatives Ben Cline and Jonathan Jackson and Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

(12:27)
And I want to thank a man who's been with me for a long time, we've been friends. And I used to be interviewed by him and all he wanted to talk about was war. I said, "This guy." He's very smart. Went to the top, top schools, was a top student. He's like me, I was a very good student too, but nobody would think so. And nobody thinks Pete was a good student. I don't know, they think him as a tough cookie, flame-thrower, which I like actually in the position of Secretary of War. But he has done some job, Pete Hegseth.

(13:08)
He was very popular. He turned down a very large five-year extension contract for millions of dollars a year. Oops, I don't want to say that, your wife is here. She's saying, "Are you crazy?" He's got the greatest wife. But it's true that Pete has just been incredible.

(13:23)
And I used to go and be interviewed at Fox and Friends. Remember those beautiful days? And I'd say, "What do you want to talk about?" So I want to talk about releasing about 25 prisoners. They have arrested American soldiers because they taught them how to fight and they fought really well and they won every battle. And now they put them in jail because they said they were too tough. I said, "So how many are there?" 22. And some of these guys were on the ... They were fairly tough, wouldn't you say, Pete? But it's true. We teach people how to fight and then you put them in jail because they fought a little bit too hard.

(14:01)
And we took care of a lot of business, but that's all. We didn't talk about the things, the normal things that a interviewer would be talking about, right? But I saw that and I saw his love for the military. I was obvious. He was always looking to protect soldiers. And I said, "You know, this is a really smart guy. If I ever get this thing, I got to get it. It wasn't easy." They rigged the second election. I had to win it, had to win it. I needed it for my own ego. I would've had a bad ego for the rest of my ... Now I really have a big ego. Beating these lunatics was incredible, right? What a great feeling. Winning every swing state, winning the popular vote.

(14:43)
The first time, they said I didn't win the popular vote, I did, but they said ... So they'd always say ... We always thought they'd introduce me. "While Donald Trump did not win the popular vote." I'm sitting up being introduced by a Democrat or somebody. And he said, "While Donald Trump did not win the popular vote, he won the presidency, here he is." I said, "That was terrible." I said, "We won the popular vote by a lot." We didn't want to play any games. This has been a much different ...

(15:13)
We had a great first term. We had the greatest economy in history, but this one's going to blow it away already. It's blown everything away. We have $18 trillion coming into our country, blowing everything away. But we had a great first term. We rebuilt the military. Biden gave a little chunk of it to Afghanistan brilliantly. He left tanks and planes and little things. I said, "Why didn't you fly the planes out?" He said, "Well, nobody thought of it." He could have flown. He said, "It's very hard to remove the equipment." Really, you couldn't fly an airplane? Buy $150 million brand new airplane. "Sir, I think it's better to leave it." "Why?" "It's more cost-effective." So we leave him a brand new jet. I said, "These people are crazy."

(16:02)
But we have it under control now like you've never seen, and our military has never been stronger. And you saw that with the B2 bombers in Iran and you saw it recently with Venezuela where we're getting along fantastically with leadership, but really [inaudible 00:16:20] become a great relationship. I don't think there's been anything quite like it ever. In fact, we have 50 million barrels of oil floating right now over to Houston and we're working with them really well.

(16:34)
I don't think I've ever seen anything, the cooperation that we have is ... And it's great for them because they were in big trouble economically and yet they have more oil than any other country in the world, I think except us, but they have more oil just about than ...

(16:51)
And by the way, us and them, we have 68% of the world's oil. Now, I know that doesn't mean too much to people of great religion. I know you want to hear about that, but we got to keep our country strong and we're doing really good, but that's been an amazing operation.

(17:10)
I would say when people saw that, I was just talking to a great leader from El Salvador and he said, "Man, that was some attack. I've never seen anything like that one." That was good. Even by your high standard, right? That was a hell of an attack.

(17:26)
But we have a great country. We have tremendous leaders. We have a fantastic cabinet. We have unbelievable bench. And one of them is Attorney General Pam Bondi, who may be here. Where's Pam? Is she here? Where? Where are you, Pam?

Speaker 1 (17:45):

[inaudible 00:17:47].

Donald Trump (17:47):

Where? See, she wants to keep it nice and low-key. You're really catching fire, by the way, Pam. They were saying about Kristi Noem yesterday, I did the Super Bowl interview. "Sir, are you going to relieve Kristi Noem of her duties?" "No." "Oh." I said, "Why would I do that?" We have the strongest border in the history of our country. We have the best crime numbers we've ever had. Going back to the year 1900, that's 125 years, we have the lowest crime numbers, despite the fact that this horrible, world's worst ... This is the worst president we've ever had, Biden. He had no idea he was president, so he doesn't take it personally. I don't want him to take it personally. Fortunately, he has no idea what the hell I'm saying. And he's watching right now, he's happy with what I just said. This is what we had running our country.

(18:52)
But no, he was our worst president. We had some bad ones. We had Obama was very bad, terrible divider of our country. He was a divider. And believe it or not, we're bringing the country together. You know what's bringing it together? Tremendous success, we're having tremendous success. We have more investment being made in our country now than any country has ever had by many times. You go back 10 years, a certain country, not us, three trillion. We have in 11 months, because the 12th month is coming out next week, we have $18 trillion of investment coming in. The biggest ever was three many years ago.

(19:35)
And one of the reasons for it is Secretaries Doug Burgum and Doug Collins, they are drilling like ... My whole thing was drill, baby drill. Where are they sitting? I love those two guys. Sit. Come on, stand up. And is Catherine there? That's Catherine. Yes. Hi, Catherine. Chris? They are drilling like nobody.

(20:02)
I spoke with Chris yesterday, Doug. I said, "How are we doing?" "Sir, we're drilling more oil than anybody's ever drilled by double," right? By double. We're doing it. That's why I was in Iowa last week with the farmers who were doing very well. We just handed them $12 billion out of tariff money because they were taken advantage of by foreign countries, various foreign countries. And I said, "How much was it that they got hurt for?" "12 billion." I said, "Good, let's write them a check." I gave the farmers $12 billion. And they don't even want it, they just want to be treated fairly.

(20:33)
But we're getting it from that, but we're getting it with nobody's ever in history, and we've never done it either, like anywhere close, we're taking out more energy out of our beautiful land, oil and gas, clean oil and gas. And I always say clean, beautiful coal. The only thing I told these two guys they have to do, because they're the greatest energy people in the world, the best, I said, "When you mention the word cold, anytime you mention coal, C-O-A-L, anytime you mention it has to be preceded by two words, clean and beautiful."

(21:13)
So Doug was making a speech the other day and I sort of tried to pass a note because he mentioned coal about 40 times and he kept saying, "Clean, beautiful coal." It really only works a few times, right? I said, "No, no. When you say coal, clean, beautiful." We buy all that wind from ... We don't anymore. So we haven't approved anything in wind, right, Doug? Nothing because it's a quick way to losing money, losing beauty, losing your fields, killing your birds. And other than that, it doesn't work.

(21:45)
And Europe is getting ... Europe is so bad with the windmills, they're destroying their country with wind. And I was over there, it's not even recognizable what they've done. They've got a big problem on their hands. Between immigration and energy, Europe is destroying itself and they better get smart. And I love them all, I'm friends with everyone of every country over there. I've helped them a lot. Got the GDP up from 2% to 5%, which is for spending, for military spending. Nobody thought that was possible. Nobody thought 2% was possible, got them to 5%. But it's not recognizable, Europe. If you go through the different cities, it's a very sad thing. And I tell it.

(22:29)
I went over to Davos. They invited me. And when I left, they said, "That may have been the stupidest invitation we ever gave to somebody," Switzerland, but they have to ... I just say it like it is. They're destroying their country. Their energy is ridiculous, what they've done. And the immigration, I'm telling you, it's a place where many of these countries are not recognizable and I'd like to see them straighten it out. Very soon it's going to be impossible for them to straighten it out.

(23:03)
We have our director of national and international intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who's doing a great job. Where's Tulsi? She took a lot of heat two days ago because she went in, at Pam's insistence, she went in and she looked at votes that want to be checked out from Georgia. They see, "Why is she doing it?" Right, Pam? "Why is she doing it?" Because Pam wanted her to do it and you know why? Because she's smart. And they said, "Well, this has to do, her position has to do," it's really not so, but, "her position has to do with international." I say, "Well, the same people that said that, they've been saying Russia, Russia, Russia has been screwing our elections. Okay.

(23:52)
So let's assume Russia had something to do with it. They said, "No, no, Russia didn't have." So now they're saying Russia had nothing to do with it because if I say Russia, it's perfectly fine. But you could add China and about five other countries to it. But she's done a great job and Pam has done a fantastic job and we appreciate it both. I haven't seen you in a couple of days.

(24:12)
And I have one of the greatest negotiators. I'm so proud of him. He's a great negotiator. He's smart and respected by everybody. Jamieson Greer, US Trade. Where is Jamieson? He's around here someplace. Thank you, Jamieson. Boy, he's good.

(24:33)
We have a great team. We have a great economic team, a great military team. We have Raisin Caine helps Pete, Raisin Caine. General Caine, he wiped out ISIS in three weeks. I was told by General Mattis and General Milley, "Sir, it will take five years." I said, "What?" "Sir, it'll take five years." I said, "You mean we have the best equipment in the world and we're finding guys that use bad rifles, knives preferably. They're very good with a knife, but a knife shouldn't do it." And I said, "Why?"

(25:04)
And I flew over to Iraq and I met a guy named Caine. I came out of the plane and his handsome general standing there, three generals. I went there to find out why the hell we couldn't win the war. Why aren't we winning the war against ISIS? They've been playing games with us. So I wanted to see, and I met, that's where I met Raisin Caine. I said, "What's your first name?" "Raisin, sir. The call me Raisin." I said, "What the hell kind of a name is that?" Right? We've learned a lot about him. Now we get it. In this very quiet manner, he's brutal. Just ask Venezuela, ask Iran. They're negotiating now. They don't want us to hit them. We have a big fleet going over to Iran.

(25:59)
But so Raisin was there at the bottom of the plane. "What's your name?" "Raisin." "What's your last name?" Caine?" I said, "See, your name is ... Let's get this straight. Your name is Raisin Caine, right?" "Yes, sir. That's what they call me." "You're the guy I'm looking for." And then he said, "Sir, if you'd like, you can go and sleep." It's a 20-hour trip. "If you'd like, you can go and sleep. We have quarters prepared for you." I said, "No, no. I don't have to sleep. I've been on a plane sleeping for 20 ... I'm sleep on the plane." I don't sleep on planes, I don't like sleeping on planes. I like looking out the window, watching for missiles and enemies, actually.

(26:41)
But he said, "Sir, we have a place to prepared for you and we can meet after you've rested." I said, "No, no, no. Let's go right now." So we did that. And I said to him, I said, "They tell me it's going to take five years to defeat." I says, "No, sir." I said, " Well, how long would it be, General Caine?" "Sir, we can do it in four weeks." I said, "What?" "We can do it in four weeks, sir. And I should have maybe a couple of weeks left over." You mean you could do it in less than four weeks?" "Yes, sir." I said, "Well, how come they tell me," our television generals, as I call them, two very poor generals, I mean these guys, they looked nice. They were nice guys. They didn't have what it took, believe me.

(27:31)
Some people have that. They don't have what it takes no matter what. I said, "How come they tell me it's four to five years?" He said, "Well, I don't want to speak badly about anybody, so I'd rather not comment on that." I found that to be nice, okay? But I said, "All right, tell me how you're going to do it." "Well, sir, we use this one base here and we're hundreds of miles away. And by the time the planes get to the target, they have to come back and refuel and we're too far."

(27:57)
I said, "Why do we do that?" "Because we don't want to offend any of the other countries." I said, "We have a lot of portable airports." Right, Pete? We have portable airports all over the Middle East, runways that are portable. If you put them down, you take them up. We have equipment, nobody has the stuff we have. We have airports that look better than Kennedy Airport. And they're built in sand and it took us about two minutes to build them. No, the equipment is incredible. You can land any plane on them, right? Portable.

(28:27)
"And we've got many of them, sir. We have to use them." I said, "Why don't we?" "Because we didn't want to offend another country." I said, "Let me ask you a question. You're in the middle of the desert. Would another country know if we're taking off from some strip in the desert?" "They would have no idea, sir. They don't have radar. They don't have anything."

(28:49)
So he explained it. "So we want to hit them, sir, from 17 different locations and we want to hit them left, then we hit them [inaudible 00:28:59]. And we want to hit them right, sir, and we want to hit them from the top and we want to hit them from the bottom, east, west, north, south. Sir, they won't know what the hell hit ... And we'll knock them out."

(29:13)
We did it politically correct five years. We'd call up the country head and we'd tell them, "We'd like to attack ISIS today." As soon as the call was made, they'd call ISIS and tell them, "You're going to be attacked. Get the hell out of... " This is what we were doing for years, but not with Raisin Caine and not with Pete Hegseth, right, Pete? We don't do that. And we have a little different method.

(29:42)
So I went back to Washington and I said, "You know, this guy, he said ..." And then I checked up on him and he was so respected. I said, "He's really respected." And I called him back, I said, "General, go at it. Good luck. God bless

Donald Trump (30:00):

[inaudible 00:30:00] you. And he said, "I say that to the people going out every time and they say it when we give the okay for the attack on Venezuela or the attack on Iran." He says, I say, we all say, we're all in a room together. We watch it. We watch these attacks. We always say, "God bless you. Have a safe journey." It's a dangerous journey. These are dangerous journey. He's flying through the middle of Iran. They know you're coming and you're in a B-2 bomber, the most incredible thing. And they weren't able to see it because it's stealth. So good, we ordered 20 more of them brand new, updated version. I actually said, "Don't get the updated. Just take the one you have." They said, "No, sir. The new one's even better."

(30:43)
We have a military. Nobody has a military like we do. I rebuilt it, by the way, during my first term. I mean, I think it's one of the best things I did. I rebuilt the military during the first term, and now we're really rebuilding the military, right? But the bottom line, I called them. I said, "So you think you can do it, Jenna?" "Yes, sir, I can do it." And it was over in three weeks. It was incredible. And I mean over. And then the election's rigged and I wasn't there. And for four years, ISIS rebuilt, rebuilt, rebuilt. And they have a little bit of ISIS now again. And we knocked the hell out of them the other day in Nigeria because they were killing Christians. You know about that? They were killing Christians. You can't do that. When Christians come under attack, they know they're going to be attacked violently and viciously by President Trump. I know it's not a nice thing to say, but that's the way it is.

(31:42)
So we're also delighted to welcome visiting leaders and dignitaries from more than 110 countries. They're here, including one of my favorite people, President Bukele of El Salvador. He has been so incredible. He has been such a great ally of this country. Thank you very much. Such a great ally. Some of you've seen, he operates rather large prisons, like prisons at [inaudible 00:32:14]. You can't see from one side to the other unless you have perfect 20/20 eyesight with binoculars. That's how long and big. And they do a job. They do a very humane job, but they're very strong prisons. And we present a lot of the people that we capture, the murderers, the drug dealers, the people that came into our country illegally and have already committed massive crimes.

(32:37)
We had 11,888 murderers, and many of them are in your prisons right now, right? And he does a fantastic job. I mean, he really sounds like a different kind of, you know this is a religious breakfast. You're going to walk away and say, "He's the meanest son of a gun I've ever seen," but I'm not. I just want to keep our country safe. It's very simple. We have to keep our country safe. "So I want to thank you, Mr. President, for a great, amazing job you do with our people too. They work together so well. Appreciate it. Not easy.

(33:10)
This prayer breakfast comes at a special time for our country, as we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American Independence. And we're also very shortly going to have the Olympics and the World Cup. And I got them, I was the one that got the Olympics and I was the one that got, and I was so upset because I got them. I tried to move them up, but I couldn't. And my first term, I was getting them. And Barack Hussein Obama, who would refuse to call the Olympics because, in all fairness, they took advantage of him. Remember, he went there. He flew all the way to whatever country, some beautiful country in Europe. And he sat, he made his presentation and he ended up coming in last.

(34:01)
And that shouldn't happen to a president. If you're a president, you have to get a wink. I'll go there, but are you going to give us the Olympics? Otherwise, I'm not going there. I don't want to ... So he sat there, made a very nice presentation. He came in last, came in fourth place. So he hated those people. He won't say that, I don't think, but I'll say it for him. And so he refused to be involved with the Olympics. I got a call from Democrats. The Democrat mayor of Los Angeles called me. Said, "We have a problem. We have a president that refuses to call the Olympic Committee." And I had just won the presidency. I was president-elect and so I wasn't even in office. Then I called this gentleman from, I think Denmark, can you believe? They own a large piece of ice that we're negotiating for. Extremely, it's the biggest piece of ice in the world. World's largest piece of ice. They'll never run out of water. But I called the president, I called the various people, but the head of the Olympic Committee, very nice guy, and I couldn't get him off the phone. He was starving for love because nobody called him. They just wanted to know, from the president, does the United States want the Olympics? They didn't want to choose the United States and then have somebody say like, "We don't care." I said, "I desperately want it. We're going to get it, blah, blah, blah." And I spoke to him, I spoke to other people and I got it. I called up the Democrat from Los Angeles, happened to be the mayor of Los Angeles. He was devastated. He couldn't get the, all they wanted to do is have an acknowledgement from the head of the country. Wouldn't do it, but I did it.

(35:46)
We got the Olympics and we got the World Cup. But then I was, I don't know if Johnny's here from the World Cup, but that guy's great. He's great, my friend. But I got them both and I was really upset because I got him. And then I said, "Think of it, I won't be president because they're in the following term." Because when you get the Olympics, usually it's 10 years in advance. And I said, "So I did all that good work. It wasn't that easy." I got it. Then I got the World Cup. They both were happening now in a year, another year and a half, a year right after the 250. I didn't get 250. I tried to claim it a couple of times. I said, "And I produced 250 year anniversary. It was my deal. I got 250 years," and the press hit me hard on that one, so I gave that up immediately. But I happened to be president during that.

(36:40)
So think of it, so I'm the president and I got these two things and I said, "You know what? I got the Olympics to come to the United States and I got the World Cup to come to the United States and I probably won't even be invited to be there." And I was really angry. And then they rigged the election and then I said, "I'm coming back." And I got the Olympics and I got the World Cup. And at some point, I'm going to get right back onto the teleprompter and you're going to say, "That was a wonderful speech." On that momentous day in 1776, this is so much easier. It takes real talent to do the other. The other's much more talent, but that's why we're president, I think. But we have very important words to say, and this is such an important group and we have plenty of time to say it because, when it comes to religion, I have all the time.

(37:58)
I'm one of the few that say we have all the time in the world, but in that momentous day in 1776, history changed forever when our founders proclaimed the immortal truths that echoed around the world and down, all the way through time. They declared that all of us are made free and equal by the hand of our creator. A lot of presidents refuse to say that. They refuse to say that. Some refuse. Some major politicians refuse to say the word God. They don't want to say it. I say it. That we are endowed with our sacred rights to life, liberty, and not by government, but by God Almighty himself.

(38:51)
And those words rang out from Philadelphia and launched a revolution, not just in America, but in the hearts of all humanity. The principles of the Declaration of Independence, which is one of three, sitting right beautifully in the Oval Office. I took it out of the vaults and it's beautiful. It's beautifully protected and it's a magnificent document. I stare at it all the time and I read it as often as I can. A true, brilliant work of art. They've stirred the spirit of patriots in every nation, liberated millions from tyranny and lifted billions from poverty. And it's doing now more than ever before. We're doing better than this country's ever done. In one year, think of what we could do. We just have to keep it going, Mr. Speaker, if you don't mind. Okay? Got to keep it going.

(39:48)
I mean, the Democrats admit this. No president, in his first year, has ever done the things we've done. When you think, we've gotten the largest tax cut in history, larger than even in the first term, but we've done something else. And I think we've brought back spirit to our country. Two years ago ... Two years ago, you couldn't get anybody to go into the military. They laughed at you and they said they didn't respect our country. They didn't respect our president. They thought he was a joke. They thought our country was a joke. Other countries laughed at us and took advantage of us with tariffs and we weren't allowed to charge and they were allowed to charge, but we are allowed to charge. And I hope we get that Supreme Court decision because we have taken in hundreds of billions of dollars of money. We're a rich nation again, doing what other nations have done to us for many, many years.

(40:46)
But the biggest thing is what's happened to me is the spirit of our country. And that goes for religion, but it also goes for the military. We couldn't recruit anybody to go into our great military. We were the worst, I think, it's ever been, two and a half years ago under the sleepy Joe Biden administration. I call him crooked Joe and sleepy Joe. I find them to be equal, actually. I do polls. Which is better, crooked Joe or sleepy Joe? And they poll about even. So I use both. But we have now the greatest recruiting that we've ever had. Everybody wants to be in the military. We're hot as a pistol. We couldn't get anybody to go into the, not me, they. The last administration. Nobody wanted to be in the Army, Navy, Air Force Marines, the Coast Guard, Space Force, which is turning out to be good. I'm so proud of it because I'm the father of Space Force. I'm the one that wanted it.

(41:54)
But we couldn't get people. We couldn't get people. They couldn't get people to go into any of them, including our police departments and our fire departments. They weren't proud of our nation. They had no spirit. And now we have had the single greatest recruitment in the history of our country. There's never been anything like it. We have waiting lists of people wanting to get in. In fact, if we want to expand the military, Mr. Speaker, this would be a very good time to do it. We have so many people want to get into the military that we just, but we also won in the Supreme Court, as you know, based on merit. It was a merit and we take people based on merit. We prefer a strong person in the military as opposed to a weak person. We prefer somebody that's a strong, powerful person with extremely good vision that can shoot a rifle very well to a person that's extremely weak, non-muscular, can't shoot a rifle, has no idea where the hell he is.

(42:55)
We have a military where they all look like Tom Cruise, only bigger. Now we hire on merit now, and that goes for colleges. People get into colleges now, if you have great boards and great marks and you worked and worked and worked and then somebody else gets in that's not nearly as qualified now. It's a merit system. It's tough in one way, but our country was built on a system of merit, and then we went away from it a number of years ago. We got it back. That was a brave decision by the Supreme Court, I'll say. And it's tough on some people. Actually, it makes people work harder, I think. But we have to base our country on merit or we won't have a country. We were going in such a bad direction [inaudible 00:43:45].

(43:48)
And I give a lot of credit on that one to the Supreme Court, and they've given me some bad ones too, but I give a lot of credit. That took a lot of courage to do it, but they understood it was the right thing to do. To be a great nation, however, I think, and I may be wrong, but I don't think so because I've watched a lot and I study a lot. You have to have religion. You have to have it. You have to have faith. You have to have God. And thankfully, as we gather today, there are many signs that religion is coming back and now it's no longer signs. It's just coming back. It's coming back so strong. You know your churches are filling up. You didn't have that two years ago. It was hurt by COVID, but it really, and they treated you terribly. The Democrats treated you terribly. Sorry, Mr. Congressman, but the truth is, I mean, they had pastors holding services outside. The people were standing 15 feet away from each other and everybody was arrested.

(44:51)
They ran it. They always liked to say, "Trump is a dictator." They love that. I'm not a dictator. But they were like dictators. They were like the Gestapo. They were arresting people for going to church and they were arresting people and treating people like horribly. And I made a lot of amends to those people. Those people were treated very badly for wanting to go to church. It had a huge impact, negative impact on churches, but the churches are now coming back stronger than ever. Nobody's ever seen anything like it, actually. You're all hot, okay? It's like the king of Saudi Arabia, he said, and you probably heard me say it. I love it. I was with him, and he said, a year and a half ago, he said, "You know, a year and a half ago," he said, "We thought your country was dead and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world."

(45:49)
We're the hottest country anywhere in the world right now. Nobody even close. I think you could say that, Mr. ... I mean, El Salvador is very hot, but I think we can say that, right? We have the Congo here. I don't know. The Congo is hot. We just ended a war. One of our eight wars that we ended, right? He's a great guy too. He's a great guy. You talk about people that suffered, those people suffered. In 2025, more copies of the Holy Bible were sold in the United States than at any time in the last 100 years. Now, how about that? How about that? Did you know that, Mr. Speaker? Mike Johnson's a very religious person, and he does not hide it. He'll say to me sometimes at lunch, "Sir, may we pray?" Say, "Excuse me?" We're having lunch in the Oval. It's okay with me, but he's a very religious person and he is popular and he's doing an unbelievable job. So I think God is watching over you. God is watching over him. I don't know about me.

(47:03)
So I hang around with him because I feel I'm protected a little bit. In the last 12 months, young Americans attended church at nearly twice the rate as they did four years ago. And many churches, you see the stats. I mean, people are talking about it. The radical left is not happy about it. Many Democrats are not happy about it. This, by the way, will be the last year that Democrats show up to this event, I tell you. I got to say, how the hell do you vote for these people? But some churches are seeing a 30%, 50% or even 70% increase in the number of converts and also the number of people going to church every week. To support this exciting renewal this morning, I'm pleased to announce that on May 17th, 2026, that we're inviting Americans from all across the country to come together on our National Mall to pray, to give thanks. And we are going to do something that everyone said like, "That's tough." We're going to rededicate America as one nation under God.

(48:22)
A lot of people ... Yeah. Thank you very much. That's what I mean by the spirit. It's so incredible to see it. I see it so much. I've never seen anything like it in one year. I thought it would take two years, three years, four years to be where we are. We've done it in, I mean, really 10 months. We're at 12, but now it's just getting to a level that we've never reached before as a country. But that includes religion. I mean, and maybe that's part of the reason that we're doing so well. There's such great spirit. It's all spirit and it includes religion. I've always said, you just can't have a great country if you don't have religion. You have to believe in something. You have to believe that what we're doing, there's a reason for it. There has to be a reason for it. We're all working and we're doing, we're behaving. I mean, I behave because I'm afraid not to. Okay? Because I don't want to get in trouble.

(49:44)
No, it's such a positive thing and people are starting to see it and they're going to church and they're meeting people and families are developing. It's really the things are happening in our country right now and we have to get the bad ones out. We have to do it. We can't let that happen. And we're being very tough in law and order and crime. And I hate to say it because it doesn't seem to go hand in hand, but you can't have people going to churches and coming out and have criminals taking advantage and doing things that nobody wants to even describe. And that's not happening anymore. Washington, DC is a very safe city now. When I took over, Washington, DC was a death trap. Many people were being killed. Two, three a week, they were being killed. Come in from Iowa to look at the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson, the George Washington, the monument.

(50:42)
And they called the parents, "I'm sorry, sir. Your son has been killed." "What?" "Your son has been killed." That doesn't happen. We took out 2,000 monsters out of Washington DC. It's not just that we have the troops and they are [inaudible 00:51:02]. I love them. I think, to me, it looks much more beautiful. You walk down the street, you have three guys that are six foot six and angry looking people, but they actually are very nice. They're angry when they see criminals, that's all. They get angry. They took Tren de Aragua. And honestly, I don't want to say this, but they beat the crap out of them. They beat the crap out of him. They found that they were doing bad things and Tren de Aragua didn't want anything to do with these guys. Then we put them in the paddy wagon. We took them back to where they came from. You know that.

(51:36)
But we took out over 2,000 hardcore criminals. 2% of the population produces 90% of the violent crime. Think of that. Think of that. And Washington now is a very safe place. I get it all the time. I go into the White House and people that work in the White House come up. "Sir, I want to thank you so much," young woman, man. They say, "I walked to work. I couldn't have walked to work. I wouldn't have even thought to work before." They walk to work. The place is booming, restaurants are opening up. The restaurants were almost going to be all closed. They would have been all closed. You couldn't even go, even if you got there, the restaurant would be robbed with people sitting there. "Hold up your hands, everybody. Give us your money." And then they'd whack people with a butt of a gun.

(52:29)
Washington is a very safe city. We have almost no crime, and it's a miracle, but it took place very quickly. And it's the same thing for every other place we've gone. In Louisiana, New Orleans, I got a call from the governor, Jeff Landry, great guy, great governor. He said, "Could you send the troops? Because I'll tell you what, this place is out of control." I did. And in a period of two weeks, we got crime down by 25%. Now it's been about seven or eight weeks. We have it down 77% and within another month, they're not going to have any crime without wonderful city of joy that people go up and down. They're not going to have any crime there. It's amazing.

(53:20)
Memphis, Tennessee is another one. The mayor works with us, and it's nice when they work with us. It's just so much easier. Sometimes we can't work with them. Like in Minnesota, they won't work with us, but we've still driven crime down 25%. If we didn't have to fight this horrible governor and this horrible fake mayor, Frey, "This was the constitution of the United States." People don't want to be mugged. They don't want to have a murderer living next door that killed three people in a certain country and is now living beautifully here. Because generally speaking, if they've killed in another country, they're not going to be the best of citizens. And they're rough people. Remember in the campaign, I used to say that their criminals make our criminals look like babies. It's true. These are some of the meanest, most vicious people. They only gave us the worst.

(54:20)
They don't send, they're very smart. Guys like the president over here, El Salvador. He's sent us a few. I don't want to talk to him about it. But he sends us some real bad ones. Look, you just say it, we'll do it more positive. Isn't it true that you will not send your good people to the United States, wouldn't you say? Look at him. He doesn't know. He said, "What's going on here?" But no, he sends bad people to the United States and I'm going to talk to him after this, but I love him. He's done a great job, right?

(54:56)
They're smart people and they're very streetwise. When you're running some of these countries in South America, Latin America, you got to be streetwise. You got to be smart. He's very smart, very streetwise. But these leaders of those countries, they're not sending, they cherish. They cherish they're good people. They only send us their bad people. But we have done some job and we have, in Minnesota crime's down. Just despite that we have to fight these lunatics over there that are stealing money, by the way, also. I believe it's actually a coverup of the $19 billion, at least, that they've stolen. I actually think they do this as a coverup. Under the Trump administration, we're standing strongly behind Americans of faith, stopping the attacks on our values, our traditions, defending religious liberty like no president. I believe like no president has ever done before. I do believe that.

(55:54)
We got rid of the sinister Johnson Amendment, so that pastors can speak the truth and they can speak it without having their tax-exempt sadness revoked. I was with a large group of ministers, pastors, priests, rabbis. We had a group of people that were ... Great group. And I asked them for help. Paula White was there. Remember Trump Tower at the top of the building, beautiful building. And they were so enthusiastic. For the first election, they were so enthusiastic. And I didn't want to be pushy because I'm not a pushy individual, but I didn't want to be overly aggressive. So I figured I'll ask them in the second meeting. So the second meeting came, the similar group of ministers. We had Muslim leaders there. We had everybody there, but there were about 55 of them, beautiful boardroom on the top floor, tall building, beautiful building in New York. And I said, "I'd like to ask ..." And they were so good. They, " Sir, we love you. You're great, blah, blah, blah." I figured this was going to be the easiest endorsement I ever got.

(57:05)
And I said, "I'd love to have your endorsement." And it was like ice. It was like death. I said, "What the hell? What happened?" I said, "Could I ask what's going on? You were really nice and now you've just clammed up and you're like scared." And one of them stood up that Paula knows very well. He said, "Sir, we're very concerned because if we speak about religion, if we ever endorsed you as an example, we would lose our tax-exempt status immediately and our church would go out of business." I said, "What's that all about?" And it was the Johnson Amendment. Lyndon Johnson had a fight with somebody in Dallas or Houston, with a minister and he didn't like them and they didn't like each other. And the minister thought he was terrible and I guess he didn't like the minister. And he was a powerful president.

(58:03)
He knew how to do things. And he got something passed called the Johnson Amendment, which basically takes away your right of speech. And people like me, and people like a lot of people, they want to hear from ministers. They want to hear from priests. They want to hear from them. And you were restricted from talking about very important things, like who to elect. If you said that, you were gone, you couldn't do it. Even if you said it in a very nice way, because they were going to be better for the church. And we worked hard and we're going to make that permanent pretty soon, I think, Mike, but we worked hard at getting rid of the Johnson Amendment. It's gone as far as you can say anything you want. Now, if you do say something bad about Trump, I will change my mind and I will have your tax-exempt status immediately revoked.

(58:55)
If I go into one of these churches, "We will stop Trump." You ever hear some of these guys, they say, not too many, I can tell you, because we won like 94% of the vote. People got it. People got it. We had an unbelievable, we had a lot of people pretending. They pretended to be very religious, but I don't believe they were. But the people ultimately, they ultimately got it. You have a Robert Jeffress. I don't know if he's here. Is he here, Robert? Is he here? Robert Jeffress was on television in 2016, when I just sort of announced I was running. And he said, "I know every candidate very well." There was 17, 18 candidates, me and 17 others. He said, "I know every candidate very well, and I know Trump a little bit, but he may not be as good with the Bible as some of them. He may not have read the Bible as much as some of them. In fact, he may not have ever read the Bible,

Donald Trump (01:00:00):

But he will be a much stronger messenger for us and he will get things done that no other man has the ability to get done. And I endorse him fully. And I said, "You know, that guy ..." I didn't want to admit anything. But that was very interesting. And I think we've gotten more done, Paula, than anybody could have ever gotten done. What we've done, nobody else would have been able to do it. We reinstated also service members who were thrown out of our military over religious objections. That was a big deal. They were thrown out over religious objections to vaccine mandates and all of the other things. They used any excuse they could. We restored those patriots to their former ranks with full pay. We've given them full pay. They were taken advantage of. And I really think it was over religion. I actually think that they used the vaccines as a way of really punishing people over religion. I don't know how you can vote for these people. I really don't. I don't know how you can.

(01:01:01)
We passed the largest ever expansion of school choice so that every parent has a chance to send their child to a school that shares their value. And today I'm also pleased to announce that the Department of Education is officially issuing its new guidance to protect the right to prayer in our public schools. That's a big deal. Now, the Democrats will sue us, but we'll win it. We'll win it. They'll sue us. They sue us for everything. I'm the most sued human being in history. They've sued me for everything. I got impeached twice over nothing, but the Republicans were great. Just wiped them right out. But I got impeached. I got indicted. Wiped them out. There's never been, to the best of our knowledge, any politician that's ever been indicted who won an election. Very popular politicians got indicted, they lost. I got indicted so much, I got tired of calling my wife. I'd say, "Darling, I was just indicted again." She said, "Oh, darling. Oh, what does that mean?" She's very elegant. You saw that from the movie. She's not into the world of indictments. It's not Melania. Now, she doesn't know what an indictment ... It's not her deal. Her movie, by the way, big success, that movie a big ... Yeah, I called up so many times. I'd say, "Honey, I just got indicted again. Don't worry about it." But think of it, many times.

(01:02:57)
And then they say, "Donald Trump is using the justice department to get even." And I don't, but wouldn't I have a right to? Think of it. There's never been, in history, a president treated like I got treated. But they say I use it. And it's amazing I did that interview yesterday and they said that, they said the questioned. "Are you using the justice department for your own personal gain?" They said, "They indicted me 87 times." It's the most incredible thing. But we don't do that, Pam, do we? We do what's right. We do what's right and Pam does it. We have great people. We have great people working there, but we do what's right.

(01:03:47)
We expanded the Mexico City policy to stop taxpayer dollars from being used to promote radical gender ideology all around the world. No other president would do that. No other president would do it. And my administration also rejoined the Geneva Consensus Declaration to affirm the right to sovereign nations, to protect life, defend the family, and to be faithful to God. Nobody ever did that.

(01:04:17)
I signed an executive order to slash federal funding for any public school that pushes transgender insanity, this is crazy, on our youth. Who would think about that? Who would think, if you go back 15 years, you're talking about, and I stopped the mutilation of children. The mutilation, the word is mutilation. They mutilize, the mutilation of children. I stopped it. Who would think, if you said that 15 years ago, they'd say, "What the hell is he talking? Is he crazy?" Levels you've never seen. We're still fighting it, but transgender for everybody. They want transgender for everybody. We stopped it. And we also, very importantly, we got men out of women's sports. Enough of that nonsense.

(01:05:13)
We created the White House Faith Office, first time ever, which is its one year anniversary this month and headed up with Paul and Jenny and some incredible people. And we created the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty. We do a lot. That's a great commission, by the way. That's a phenomenal commission. I signed it. Everybody wanted to be on that commission. That was really something. That was a good sign too. And we have incredible people on it. I signed an executive order to combat the vile scourge of antisemitism, which is really raging, rising. Surprising. Nobody thought they'd see that happen very rapidly during the four years of Biden. And I set up an official Department of Justice task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias because you do have a lot of that. They don't talk about that. They're always talking about other religions and other different, but a lot of anti-Christian bias. And you see it going in foreign countries. I mentioned Nigeria. There are others. We're hitting them very hard.

(01:06:24)
My administration is confronting, head on, the militant and really intolerant campaign that tried to drive religious believers out of public life and out of society. I mean religious leader. And now religious leaders are respected as much or more as any leader of any type anywhere in the world. Religious leaders are respected again, and that's the way we have to have it. They really are respected again. They were having a hard time. They were having a very hard time. The last four years previous to the one that we served, the last four years were brutal on religious leaders. They were brave. Some were very brave. Some couldn't take it, and a lot of people understand it. Some were brave, really brave.

(01:07:13)
The Department of Justice recently charged nine individuals for storming a church in Minnesota during a worship service and trampling on Americans' First Amendment rights. I watched that tape, and that was violent. I saw the people sitting there, Pam, and they were scared. They were ... Well, some were scared and some were holding up their hands like, "I believe in God." But they were violent people screaming, "Your parents are Nazis. Your parents are Nazis. The people are sitting ..." And I thought the minister was great. He was so calm and good. They're screaming at him, terrible. Right in the middle of a church service. It's got to be illegal. I mean, Pam is doing it. I'm not doing it, but Pam is doing it. And I'll tell you, people are happy with the job that's taking place because they're bad people. They're bad people.

(01:08:06)
You have one Trump hater in particular that's just, I watched his performance. It was terrible. They tried and use freedom of press and all this to get out of a criminal event, but that was a horrible thing to witness. And if we allowed that to go on, you wouldn't be able to have a church. No, everybody would be afraid to go to church. And that, we are not going to allow, are we, huh? And in the audience today is an incredible woman who reminds us what a precious gift of religious liberty we have here in America, a tradition that sadly is not shared in so many places in the world, and even in our country. And our media is so bad. If we had a good media, it would be so much easier. But think of it. We're doing this all with a really corrupt and bad media. Mariam Ibrahim is a Christian from Sudan, and I'm working hard to end that war. We're very close to getting it done. That'll be number nine. If we don't get Russia-Ukraine first, but we're working hard to end that whole war. We're very close to doing it. We've almost done it.

(01:09:21)
In 2014, a Sharia Court in that country sentenced her to 100 lashes and death for marrying a Christian man. At the time, she was eight months pregnant with a daughter. Mariam was ordered to renounce her faith in Christ, but she refused to do so and gave birth to that daughter, Maya, while she was in shackles, being beaten and living in a condition that nobody in this room would even be able to imagine. Believers all over the planet rallied to Mariam's cause, prayed for her protection and successfully pressured for her release. I did that. I did that. I did that with one phone call actually, and she had such support. It was so easy. And when I explained it to the powers that be, "Yes, sir, we will do it right away." I just wish I knew earlier, but it's a big world with a lot of people.

(01:10:23)
Mariam and Maya are here this morning and now live safely in America where we protect Christians. We don't kill them, we protect them, and you're getting protected better now than you've ever been protected before. So Mariam and Maya, thank you. Where are you? Are they here? They're here someplace. Where are you? Please stand up. Stand up. Thank you. That's great. A lot of bravery.

(01:11:09)
No administration in modern history has done more to confront the plight of persecuted Christians around the world than we have. With us, it's a mission. It's actually a mission. On Christmas day and close coordination with the government of Nigeria, we worked with them, but they got to get tougher. I ordered powerful airstrikes to decimate the ISIS terrorists who have been slaughtering Christians in that country by the thousands. It's not even believable. We hit them so hard, they still don't know what the hell happened. And we were going to do it on a different day. I said, "No, do it on Christmas so they understand it."

(01:11:49)
Remember Christmas was ... When I ran in 2015, when I announced, I said, "We're going to bring back Christmas," because the word Christmas was almost gone. And we did, people use Christmas anymore. We brought back the word Christmas, they didn't want to use it, and we're using it again. But I specifically told Pete, I said, "Hit 'em on Christmas Day. Not earlier and not later," right, Pete? And man did he hit them. So then we hit 'em again recently. We hit 'em again pretty hard.

(01:12:26)
But we're honored to be joined today by the First Lady of Nigeria, who also happens to serve as a Christian pastor at the largest church in Nigeria, very respected woman. First Lady, please, where are you? Thank you very much. It's a great honor. Thank you very much. Very respected person too. Thank you.

(01:12:55)
I'm also working tirelessly to end dangerous conflicts and help move past ancient hatreds. In October, I ended the war in Gaza, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. It's amazing. We have peace in the Middle East, by the way. First time in 3000 years, we have peace. There are little embers, but it's nothing much. We got back the last hostage, dead hostage. We got back all the hostages now. All of them, we got the 20. But we got many, we got hundreds back before that. But we got back the last hostage, a dead hostage, and Hamas helped us get it back. It was a big, big statement. Now they have to disarm. Some people say they won't, but they will. And if they don't, they're going to not be around any longer. But they agreed to disarm.

(01:13:47)
As the Bible tells us, "Blessed are the peacemakers." That's true. The peacemakers are very important. But you can only have peace, I find, through strength. If you don't have strength, peace is very hard, and we have strength. In one year, I've ended eight raging wars such as Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan. These are all wars that were ... President Putin called me up on Azerbaijan and Armenia. He said, "I've been working 10 years to get that war. How did you do it?" And I got it done. I got it done. Two really good leaders. All they knew was fighting each other. They were fighting each other for many years. That's all they knew. And we got it worked out pretty quickly.

(01:14:42)
A few months ago, right here in Washington, we signed a historic peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, which provides the first ever pathway to peace to end a 30 year unbelievably violent conflict. And we're joined today by a very, very brave and wonderful man, the President of the Congo, President ... President, would you stand up, please? You are so ... President, thank you. And you really are. You're brave. You're a brave man. I know what you've been through. I know that one very well. That was a hard one. That was many, many years. And it's working out okay. Nothing's easy. Every once in a while, I have to call them both back, but it's working out okay. It's going to work out good. But you are brave and we appreciate you being here. Great honor. Great honor. Good guy.

(01:15:50)
Together, he and I have also signed the largest minerals deal in US-Africa history. And Congo has magnificent land, it's incredible land and he's doing very well with it, so we appreciate it. But we've signed the largest deal with some of our big companies and they're going in. So thank you very much, Mr. President. And you call me for anything, right? Thank you.

(01:16:19)
And just in closing, scriptures always tell us that blessed are the pure in heart. I don't know if that applies to me necessarily. I'm not so sure. I don't know. Paula, does that apply to me? I'm not sure. I try.

(01:16:37)
But we're joined this morning by two incredible young American patriots and believers who show that that's so true. Last summer, Emma Foltz and London Smith were both camp counselors at Camp Mystic, the Christian Girls Camp in Central Texas. One of the worst things I've ever seen. On that fateful night, 20 inches of rain fell in a matter of minutes. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. And the river rose 20 feet in literally 30 minutes, leaving utter devastation and destruction. Emma bravely helped lead 14 precious little girls to safety. And London, seeing the water rise, gathered with other girls at the top of their building and prayed. They just prayed and prayed. And as they prayed, the water miraculously stopped rising. Just a few inches from their feet, it was going to overwhelm them. Anybody in the cabins were gone. Anybody in the cabins were gone. Who would have known? They thought the cabins were the safe place to be. It wasn't. Then the water began to retreat and many hours later they were finally rescued. As you know, many young people died that night.

(01:18:01)
When asked what she hopes others to take away from her story, London said, "This life is not promised. Our breath every minute is not guaranteed. Because of that, we shouldn't take life for granted and we should just live it well." I mean, it was an amazing statement. I saw her make the statement, young girl making that statement. Incredible, actually. Very complex statement. Smart, but true. London, I know exactly what you mean, and I want to thank you both for being here and your remarkable, incredible courage. It's been really amazing. And if you could at least stand. I said, "Would you like to speak?" And they said, "Well, we're a little shy." But you know what? You may be shy, but you're very brave. Would you please stand? I went to the camp a few days after the flood with First Lady, and it was devastating. I met parents. It could be nothing worse than that. It was a horrible, horrible moment. Almost 250 years after our founding fathers took one of the greatest leaps of faith in human history, the story of Emma and London shows us that faith of the American people remains unbroken, actually became stronger than ever. And it reminds us that prayers strengthen, prayers heal, prayer empowers, and prayer saves. Quite simply, prayer is America's superpower. It really is a superpower, and it always has been, and it always will be. And I have no doubt that with the love, devotion, and patriotism of the people in this room and our friends from all over the world, some great ones right here, we can make our country and the world a safer, stronger, more peaceful, and more faithful place than ever before. And it's all happening right before your very eyes.

(01:20:38)
And I want to, again, thank you. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you, everybody, very much. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:21:07):

Thank you very much. [inaudible 01:21:08]. Okay, good. Let's do that now. Yep.

(01:21:08)
Thank you, Mr. President. Would you all please join me in a prayer for the president? Heavenly Father, we come before you with humble and grateful hearts, mindful that every authority on earth is ultimately under your sovereign care. Today, we lift up President Donald J. Trump, and we ask for your wisdom and your guidance as he carries the mantle of leadership for this nation and around the world. We know that you have placed him in this position for this season in our nation's glorious 250 year history. And so we ask that whatever storm comes his way, he would weather with grace, favor, and clarity. Lord, strengthen him in moments of great responsibility and give him peace in moments of great weight. Surround him with advisors who speak honestly, serve faithfully, and place the good of the nation first.

(01:21:56)
When decisions are difficult and the path forward is uncertain, may he be guided by your spirit of wisdom and understanding. Grant him discernment, rooted not in human understanding, but in your eternal wisdom. Remind him where the root of his joy lies and of the plans you have in store for him, for his family, and for this nation. Remind him how very deeply he is loved by you and that you hold him in the palm of your hand. May he not doubt the things you have spoken to him in the quiet place. Instead, Lord, guide his steps and guard his heart. May his ear always be turned to you when he is faced with difficult decisions, and may he seek your will to be done through him. Continue to surround him with counselors who love truth, speak boldly, and walk humbly before you. Where there is weariness, bring renewal, where there is pride, bring humility, where there is uncertainty, bring clarity through your spirit.

(01:22:49)
Father, we ask for your divine protection over the president and his family. Draw him closer to you and may his leadership reflect the fruits of your spirit. We bring these things to you in your precious and holy name. Amen.

Audience (01:23:02):

Amen.

Speaker 3 (01:23:02):

In the Latin imago dei, that we always be reminded we are made in the image of God. In the Latin verbum dei, that we also be reminded that we ask for the word of God. Our good and gracious God, we pray for the health and deliberations of the President of the United States. And we pray that you would be the final arbiter of whatever decisions he endeavors to make, that you would increase the stature of his wisdom, because without you, none of us can adjudicate the overwhelming details of leadership and life. Today, we pray for America and we pray for all parliamentarians around the world. The Book of Timothy teaches us that you have been entrusted with leadership. Today, we pray for the future of this nation and that you would lead this president into greater levels of compassion for your name's sake. We pray that you would protect him from the iniquities of evil and that you would give him greater clarity, greater courage, and greater capacity to do what is right in the forever challenges.

(01:24:20)
Today, we remind him that the lives of millions of people are in his hands and that he has the power to turn mourning into dancing or to reduce the country into cosmic elegy of chaos and suffering. And it is because of this that we pray that the best of this president would rise among us. For the sake of this nation, for the sake of this world, we pray that goodness and mercy would announce themselves in his life in new and powerful ways. We pray that he would be mindful of the poor and that he would be invested in the elevation, the alleviation of suffering happening on farms in the Midwest, in the families preparing to bury their loved ones in Minneapolis. Remind him that we are all Americans, all made in the image of God, and that none of us are free unless all of us have our freedoms protected.

(01:25:11)
Many people are not lazy, many people are simply tired. Many people simply are not okay. Matthew 25 teaches us that faith, that our gifts are given from God and that we should show them with compassion towards others. But most of all, we pray that you would work out your will in his life. May we all do more for the greater glory of God, because when it's all said and done, we pray as Jesus taught us to pray. We ask that we surrender our all to Jesus, to all hope I give him freely. I will ever love and trust him, and in his life, in presence, live daily. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

(01:25:58)
Amen.

Audience (01:25:58):

Amen.

Speaker 3 (01:25:58):

[inaudible 01:26:04].

MUSIC (01:25:58):

You may ask me how I know my Lord is real.

(01:25:58)
My Lord is real.

(01:25:58)
You may know the things I say and love the way I feel.

(01:25:58)
The way I feel.

(01:25:58)
But I know he's real today, he'll always be.

(01:25:58)
He'll always be.

(01:25:58)
I can feel his hand in mine and I see love for me.

(01:25:58)
[inaudible 01:27:15] he holds my hand.

(01:25:58)
He holds my hand.

(01:25:58)
[inaudible 01:27:26].

Speaker 4 (01:27:30):

Continue with the program. Now, the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Pete Hegseth.

MUSIC (01:27:32):

Til the day he comes-

Paula (01:27:45):

Well, Congressman, thank you very much. Appreciate it. And Mr. President, thank you for that incredible message. I'll just say on behalf of our cabinet, on behalf of Pam, I saw Pam, I saw Doug, I saw Doug as well, Jameson, we pray every day for President Trump. It's a simple prayer. I actually heard John Ashcroft pray it decades ago. Lord, grant him the wisdom to see what is right and the courage to do it. And may we do the same each and every day.

(01:28:22)
I was given the opportunity to read a passage from scripture today, and today we gather to recognize that our rights here in this great country come from a loving and benevolent God, not government.

Audience (01:28:41):

Yeah.

Paula (01:28:41):

America was founded as a Christian nation, it remains a Christian nation in our DNA if we can keep it. And as public officials, we have a sacred duty 250 years on to glorify Him. And it's precisely why we instituted a monthly prayer service at the Pentagon, an act of what we see it as, spiritual readiness. A nation that forgets its God will soon forget its greatness.

(01:29:11)
As you heard President Trump talk about, we talk a lot about peace through strength. At the War Department, we see ourselves as the strength department. But we also need to remember that we derive our strength through faith and through truth and through the word of God. So to that end, here is a reading from the holy gospel according to Mark 8:28-38, the word of the Lord. "And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that I am?' And they told him John the Baptist and others say Elijah, and others one of the prophets.

Paula (01:30:00):

... prophets. And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter answered him, "You are the Christ." And he strictly charged them to tell no one about Him. And He began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. And He said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind Me, Satan. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

(01:30:43)
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, He said to them, "If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life, will lose it. But whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospels, will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of Him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels." This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word of the Lord.

Audience (01:31:34):

Amen.

Paula (01:31:35):

So, in this gospel reading, we hear Christ say, "Take up your cross and follow Me." Clearly, Christ was not simply sent to be a diplomat. He was a disruptor. His mission was to divide truth from lies. The things of the world from the things of God, light from darkness, good from evil. And like Christ, in earthly ways, our brave warriors are not called to appease the world, they must confront it. We know we fight a physical battle, but ultimately grounded, as the president said, in a spiritual battlefield.

(01:32:15)
Not only are we warriors armed with the arsenal of freedom, we ultimately are armed with the arsenal of faith and have been from the beginning. Just as George Washington knelt in the snow at Valley Forge, appealing to heaven for guidance and protection, so too our warriors do today. You see, we talk about 1776 and 250 years, and that is rightfully fitting to do, but at the War Department, we're a bit of a 1775 department. We know that you can't have the freedoms of 1776 without the willingness to fight and defend it. And so, in that cause, we live the motto of our great nation, "In God we trust."

(01:33:11)
The willingness to make sacrifices on behalf of one's country is born in one thing, a deep and abiding belief in God's love for us and His promise of eternal life. The passage says, "For whoever would save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospels will save it." The warrior is willing to lay down his life for his unit, his country and his creator. That warrior finds eternal life. His legacy will not be one of loss, but of glory for a cause greater than himself. And to preserve the soul of America, we must continue to wield not just the physical sword, but the sword of truth, unafraid and unabashed.

(01:33:55)
In this fight, we must remember every single day, especially, especially in this town, that all power, all honor, and all glory belongs to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Christ is king. And may God bless our warriors. May God bless our great republic in these United States of America. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:34:51):

Thank you. I promise you, this breakfast will not turn into a luncheon. No one could ever say that the speaker of the House is not a man of deep religious conviction and evangelical faith because to know Mike Johnson is to know what he believes. In the words of the Apostle Paul, he is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.

(01:35:14)
All of us know not every politician goes into politics for the right reasons. Some do it for fame, some do it for power, some do it to appease the size of their Churchillian egos, but none of that is true of Speaker Mike Johnson. The speaker has not only allowed his faith to be in public in his conversation, but he's also carried that forward in his message. But more importantly, it is his convictions that have brought him into public life.

(01:35:40)
And that is why his colleagues and constituents love him, so much in the great state of Louisiana, and that's why they've reluctant him over and over and over, and the caucus agreed unanimously on his leadership. The speaker is as earnest as he is dedicated. He is as faithful as he is honest and straightforward.

(01:35:57)
Ladies and gentlemen, join me in bringing on the speaker of the House, Speaker Mike Johnson.

Speaker 5 (01:36:02):

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. My remarks will be shorter than the intro, I promise. I'm just grateful to so many of my colleagues from the House and Senate in both parties for carrying on this important tradition for more than seven decades. What a remarkable thing that is. And so, many of them are here today. Thank you, guys. All of you, thank you.

(01:36:34)
After he served as our sixth president, John Quincy Adams ran for Congress. No one had done it before and haven't since, but he ran for Congress with a mission. He wanted to eradicate slavery. He brought the resolution to accomplish that mission over and over, but the nation sadly was not yet ready for it. And on about the 13th try, as the story goes, a young member of Congress went up to him on the House floor and they said, "Mr. President, why are you doing it again?" And he said, "Young man, listen. Duty is ours. Results are God's." And it's a great and liberating way for us to live. We believe that as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the greatest nation in the history of the world. We're so blessed to be here. We understand that it is a spiritual battle to keep it and to keep freedom, and we don't take that lightly.

(01:37:21)
Let's pray together, shall we? Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm charged with praying this morning for the nation's leaders. And we just heard from the most powerful man on the planet, the president of the United States. God, we are reminded in scripture that You are the one that raises up those in authority. And also the truth of Proverbs 21, says, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and as the rivers of the water, He turns it wherever He wills." Father, turn his heart, lead him and guide him and protect him. What an important influence he is on the entire planet. Be with him, walk with him and let us be an influence upon him.

(01:38:01)
We pray that same prayer over our vice president, J.D. Vance. Over all of our cabinet secretaries, many of whom are here with us today, and the heads of leaders of all of our agencies. We pray for the leaders in the House and the Senate, all the members who faithfully and sacrificially serve to try to help and preserve this great republic. Give us the wisdom and discernment and the stamina to accomplish that mission. Father, we pray for all those who serve on the Supreme Court, our lower courts, the federal courts around the country. We pray for our staffs and for the patriots who serve in all of our agencies and departments.

(01:38:38)
And Lord, I just conclude by the simple request that You protect them all, that You give us the wisdom to do the things you called us to do and that You remind us daily that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and a nation that serves You is the one that is blessed. May we always be that. And I ask and pray and believe it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Audience (01:38:58):

Amen.

Speaker 6 (01:38:58):

Okay. All right, y'all, thank you for staying with us. Thanks for being patient. My name's Zach Wamp. I've been doing this a long time and I'm going to introduce briefly our final speaker, who actually is our keynote speaker, even though it's almost lunchtime. As Representative Jackson said, the president went over an hour past his allotted time. They say he is superhuman, that he doesn't sleep. Well, I'm here to tell you he must not use the restroom either. But I was encouraged to hear that when he's on Air Force One, he's looking out the window for missiles. That encouraged me, but it was great.

(01:39:38)
And so, our final speaker today is in his eighth year as the governor of Tennessee. He had never served in any political position when he ran for governor. He's a very successful businessman, but he actually was a plumber who went into business and grew his business into mechanical and electrical, and it did a business of hundreds of millions of dollars. But he entered the race for governor as a complete outsider from ground zero with two really prominent political figures running for governor. And a lot of people loved him, but they didn't think he had a chance.

(01:40:15)
My family got excited about him because we thought in our heart, is there any way in American politics where people are full of themselves and it's all fluff? Is there any way that a really good and decent man, like the nice guy, could finish first again? And he just ran up the middle, didn't say a word about his opponents except respectful, "Glad you're doing what you're doing." And he ended up winning and he's been the governor of our state at an unbelievable time.

(01:40:44)
We're, in many ways, the envy of the other states, but we're not here to talk about that. He's going to share his journey. And I would just say that he, more than any elected official that I've known in my 45 years of being in politics, is a man who has the character of Christ. And it's born from this incredible deep experience of great tragedy and pain and the heights of the topics mountain and the depth of understanding and compassion. And he is so humble. He's filled with the fruits of the spirit, yet he's been very successful in American politics.

(01:41:25)
It's incredibly rare. You're going to hear a little bit of his story, but please welcome, as our final speaker this morning, the 50th governor of the great state of Tennessee, Bill Lee.

Donald Trump (01:41:39):

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, all. Make your clapping fast. I spoke to Zach a few minutes ago and said, "We should just not do this last speech. Everyone's been here too long." I assured him I would go quickly, but it is a real honor for me to be here. I'll tell you, I came to this first National Prayer Breakfast 25 years ago or so. Never imagined that I would be on stage, much less speaking. And look, I realized that I am actually the fill-in speaker for who was proposed to be the keynote speaker. And if you think you're surprised that I'm the keynote speaker, I just found out yesterday that I was the keynote speaker. So, I won't be keynote. I'll leave us with a thought.

(01:42:43)
But I will say, as I stand here, it's strange how life works, isn't it? Where we find ourselves in places that we might never have imagined that we would be. We all have days in our lives that we've always remembered. Maybe the day you were married or the day your parents divorced or the day your first child was born or the day your dad died, those days that make up the story of our life. I heard it said that there are days in our lives that can be described by a simple sentence, then there's other days that chapters are written about. And I had one of those days, you have two, probably. Mine was in late July years ago, and on that day, chapters were written in the story of my life.

(01:43:51)
I lived a life most men dreamed of living, beautiful wife, beautiful kids, beautiful home, sprawling farm, prosperous business, loved God with all my heart. But on that July afternoon that I drove home from work and I saw my son fishing and my other son playing and my daughter was on a mission trip. And my four-year-old was on a horse with my wife. And I drove up the drive of my home and thought about the fact that I must be the most blessed man ever. A few minutes later, I heard far away cries of a four-year-old and I knew that something was terribly wrong and I jumped in my truck and I drove as fast as I could and I found my wife lifeless on the ground next to a horse and that day in my life, my life took a very dark turn.

(01:45:10)
The staggering grief of children, the questions from a four-year-old and nine-years-old and 14-year-old and a stunned father who doesn't have any answers for them. My oldest daughter actually in the days and weeks and months that followed, her confusing grief was so bad she actually got a gun and shot herself in an attempted suicide, which she survived miraculously. But on that day, the trauma of that for my family was overwhelming.

(01:45:47)
My business was beginning to fail and on the brink of failure. The days of my life had become chapters of grief and brokenness and sorrow. And I remember a few months after my wife had died, we had this old farm cemetery. It was beautiful. Iron fence and ancient tombstones out there or 100 years old tombstones, but a family cemetery shaded by big trees, a beautiful spot. And I had ordered a marker for my wife's grave. And it was the day that these guys were supposed to deliver that marker.

(01:46:36)
And I sat there on a bench and these two guys showed up in a truck and erected the marker, put it up and drove away, leaving me bereft. And I walked up to the cemetery marker and this beautiful marble carved Celtic cross with Proverbs 31 on it, the Proverbs 31 woman, and then four names of my children on the circle and my wife's name on the bottom with the day she was born and the day she died. And I stood there looking at this and it was very surreal. It is funny, isn't it, how life will take you places and you will find yourself in a place you thought you might never be.

(01:47:43)
I knew that I would have a tombstone right there beside her, might be 40 days, might be 40 years. And as I stood there contemplating that, I had this thought that went through my brain, "I wonder what she would say to me standing right here. I wonder what she's doing. I know she's still alive, more alive than ever." And the thought came to me, what she would say is what God would say and is saying, "There are very few things in life that matter and we should be about them." And as I walked out of that cemetery, I didn't know what the days held for me ahead, but I knew that I would ask God for the steps to move forward.

(01:48:51)
Sometimes following God doesn't always mean that it's going to work out the way that we want it to. After all, Jesus did say that, "In this world, you'll have many troubles," but He also said, "I will overcome the world." And in my life, that truth then became real and He became real to me like He had never been. Oh, I had known Him, but now I began to know Him in a way that I'd never known Him before. He became a healer and a redeemer and a dispenser of hope.

(01:49:35)
The most tragic days of my life were strangely becoming the most transformational days of my life. What happened to me, I would never want, but what was happening to me, I would never trade. I started to realize that, or at least for me, to the degree that a man is broken, he can experience wholeness or the degree a man understands pain, he can feel real joy. For the first time, I really believe I understood the brevity of life.

(01:50:19)
My children and I, in a healing process, tried to get out of ourselves. I took my kids to Haiti and worked in an orphanage. I went to Mexico and built homes for the impoverished. I went to Uganda and South Sudan and worked in a refugee camp and built a home for trafficked girls. I worked in the inner city at at-risk youth program for kids. And ultimately, got involved in education, reform and public policy around education, working with those underserved kids. I worked in a prison reentry program and a prison ministry, mentoring men coming out of prison. Got involved in criminal justice reform.

(01:51:09)
This path of actually getting involved in public policy is what made me run for governor of Tennessee in the first place. My life began to flourish. My business was strong again. My family was restored. I met and married the most remarkable woman in the world, and the story of my life was, again, filled with pages of certainty and a belief in God's goodness that was forged not only in prosperity, but through adversity and prosperity.

(01:51:53)
As governor, I've had the opportunity to experience things as a more purposeful and meaningful person than I ever was before. I've had the opportunity to experience things that I might never have otherwise. The miracle of an adoption ceremony for a foster child through our Department of Children's Services, or in a tragic flood that we had in Tennessee, but being on the side, praying with a family who just lost their home, everything, including their father. The moments that I have had that and many other have been an incredible privilege and honor for me.

(01:52:48)
As governor, I've had the opportunity to grant pardons to deserving individuals. I've done that many times in the last seven years. Just a few weeks ago, I met with a man, and I'll close with this, I met with a man who I was about to grant a pardon. To my knowledge, I'd never met him before, although I knew about him because the application for pardon process requires a lot of information about him. I knew him, but I'd never met him, to my knowledge. I asked him to come to the governor's residence on the day that he was going to receive a pardon, and he did.

(01:53:34)
We sat down in my office, just the two of us, and he began by saying, "You don't remember me, but we met in 2008." And he said, "I was in prison and I was invited to a gathering from a prison ministry called Men of Valor." And he said, "And you were the guest speaker that night and you shared your life story to those men in prison and I cried all the way through it and I've never forgotten it." And then, he said to me, "And in 2008, you were not the governor and I was not Jelly Roll and here we are 17 years later."

(01:54:29)
Now you may not know who Jelly Roll is, but the fact that this man in his redeemed life and his national global renown was someone that I met in prison 17 years ago as a young boy really who had gone the wrong direction. It struck me as a reminder that there are very few things in life that matter and we should be about them.

Audience (01:55:43):

Amen.

Donald Trump (01:55:49):

The pardons that I give as governor are earthly pardons. I have a belief that within every human being, there's this innate sense that we all need a pardon.

Audience (01:56:08):

Amen.

Donald Trump (01:56:10):

And there is only one who can grant that pardon, and He has to be asked, and His name is Jesus. And I, for one, am glad that he summons me and I asked Him, and He pardoned me forever. Thank you for allowing me to share my story tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:57:04):

Thank you, Governor. God has a plan, and His plan was for Governor Lee to deliver that story today. Amen?

Audience (01:57:15):

Amen.

Speaker 2 (01:57:17):

Amen. Y'all, we have Michael W. Smith who is going to play a song for us, and then we're going to have closing prayer from Senator Mike Lee and Congressman Lou Correa, a bipartisan duo who is going to knock your socks off to close us out. So, without further ado, Michael W. Smith.

MUSIC (01:57:35):

Holy, are you lord God Almighty?

(01:57:35)
Sing along.

(01:57:35)
Worthy is the lamb.

(01:57:35)
Worthy is the lamb.

(01:57:35)
You are holy.

(01:57:35)
Holy, holy, are you lord God Almighty?

(01:57:35)
He deserves all the praise.

(01:57:35)
Worthy is the lamb.

(01:57:35)
Worthy is the lamb.

(01:57:35)
You are-

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