by
Published on 03-05-2019 10:48 AM
Remarks by President Trump at the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference
Issued on: March 3, 2019
Washington, DC - - Today, the U.S. White House published the following Remarks by President Trump at the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference:
Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center
National Harbor, Maryland
March 2, 2019
12:17 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, thank you very much. Thank you very much. And thank you very much also to a man named Matt Schlapp. What a job he’s done. (Applause.) And to CPAC — I actually started quite a while ago at CPAC, and came here — probably made my first real political speech. And I enjoyed it so much that I came back for a second one, then a third. Then I said, what the hell, let’s run for President. Right? (Applause.)
But it’s wonderful to be back with so many great patriots, old friends, and brave young conservatives. What a future you have. (Applause.)
Our movement and our future in our country is unlimited. What we’ve done together has never been done in the history maybe of beyond of country, maybe in the history of the world. They came from the mountains and the valleys and the cities. They came from all over. And what we did in 2016 — the Election, we call it, with a capital “E” — it’s never been done before. And we’re going to do it, I think, again in 2020, and the numbers are going to be even bigger. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
THE PRESIDENT: And we all had to endure, as I was running. So you had 17 Republicans, plus me. (Laughter.) And I was probably more of a conservative than a Republican. People just didn’t quite understand that. They didn’t understand it.
I think now, with what we’ve done with the judiciary and so many other things, I think they get it very well. And it’s driving the other side crazy. (Applause.) But we all had to endure, remember? How many times did you hear, for months and months, “There is no way to 270”? You know what that means, right? “There is no way to 270.” They couldn’t get me there. We might as well have just given up. But there wasn’t any way to 270.
In fact, I actually went up to Maine to get one, and I did win the one. But we didn’t need the one. (Applause.) We didn’t need it. We won Maine. We won our half of Maine, remember? You have Nebraska. We won both in Nebraska. We won the half we had to win in Maine. So we got the one, but we didn’t need the one, because we didn’t get 270; we got 306 to 223. (Applause.) 223-306.
A state called Wisconsin, a state called — (applause) — Michigan, where — by the way, where Fiat Chrysler just announced a $4.5 billion incredible — (applause) — expansion and new plant, doubling their workforce. Many, many car companies have moved back to Michigan and are continuing to do so. (Applause.) Big numbers. Nobody every thought they’d see that happen.
So I think we’re going to do even better in 2020. I think we’re going to do numbers that people haven’t seen for a long time. (Applause.)
The men and women here today are on the frontlines of protecting America’s interests, defending America’s value, and reclaiming our nation’s priceless heritage. It’s true. (Applause.)
With your help, we are reversing decades of blunders and betrayals. These are serious, serious betrayals to our nation and to everything we stand for. It’s been done by the failed ruling class that enriched foreign countries at our expense. It wasn’t “America first.” In many cases, it was “America last.” Those days are over. Long over. (Applause.)
America is winning again. (Applause.) America is respected again. (Applause.) And the world knows it. When
...